Rob Lowe on Giant Pickup Trucks and Covid-Era Optimism

WHEN THE pandemic struck, actor Rob Lowe and his wife, two sons, and a family friend formed a pod in his Santa Barbara, Calif., home and dug in. “We’re really lucky that we’ve been healthy. We’re really quarantined here, taking it seriously,” says Mr. Lowe. While waiting for TV shoots to resume for his series “9-1-1: Lone Star,” the 56-year old actor has started a podcast, taken up meditation, and, like a lot of us, raided the board game closet. “I am always an optimist, and I’m always looking at terrible situations like COVID to provide an opportunity to things differently.” Here Lowe tells us about the tools and toys and enormous Chevys he’s using to get by, from a fishing boat that’s all business to the secret of his podcast’s stellar sound.

I’m a big pickup-truck guy and love my Chevy Silverado 2500. I can throw all the surfboards and fishing rods in back, and I can smoke the occasional cigar in it without my wife going berserk. Because it’s a diesel, it’ll probably run for a thousand years.

On my podcast “Literally! With Rob Lowe” most of my guests are people who are interviewed quite a bit: Gwyneth Paltrow, Demi Moore. So I try to go down rabbit holes and talk about stuff that no one else asks them. Really, all I need to do is to show up and be curious. I’m also proud of the quality of the show—I use a Zoom H1n mic, which is unbelievable. The show doesn’t sound like it’s recorded in my basement, even though it is.

We’ve been into puzzles and board games during quarantine—it turns out that my superpower is Trivial Pursuit. Let’s face it: I’m a boomer. I stopped trying to be cool in 1987.

I hit 30 years of sobriety, so my wife, Sheryl Berkoff, who’s a jewelry designer, created a big “30” medallion for me. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with having a record of an accomplishment. Everybody has days when they don’t want to get out of bed. A reminder of what you’ve done can make the difference.