The Rich Roll Podcast

You cannot underestimate the value of an incredible night's sleep.

On the rare occasion I awake from 8 hours of dead to the world slumber, everything is better. I am more present, alert and productive. The quality of my interactions with family and friends is significantly enhanced. Colors are brighter. My mood is sunnier. And physically, I feel amazing. So I can't help but wonder:

what would my life be like if I could sleep that well every night?

Intellectually, we all know sleep is super important. But most — including myself — fail to acknowledge just how crucial sleep is to every aspect of our daily lives. Traditionally, sleep is the first thing I compromise when I get busy.

Sleep is for whimps!

But I've completely changed my tune on this issue. As I age, achieving optimal sleep quality has become increasingly elusive. And I have become more attuned to the extent to which my day is negatively impacted by sub-optimal sleep. So I have recently committed to experimenting with a number of techniques and strategies (some obvious, some not) to improve what I now understand and appreciate is absolutely essential to living a balanced, healthy and optimally productive life.

I'm happy to say it's working.

This is a long way of saying that I have been thinking alot about sleep lately. So I'm excited to share this conversation on the subject with sleep expert Shawn Stevenson. A wellness evangelist and host of the Model Health Show podcast, Shawn also recently authored Sleep Smarter: 21 Essential Strategies to Sleep Your Way to A Better Body, Better Health, and Bigger Success*.

I had a great time on Shawn's podcast about a year ago (click here to listen), so it was fun to explore his compelling personal journey with wellness and dive deep into the subject of sleep. Specific topics include:

* Shawn's struggles with health & depression

* hitting rock bottom as a catalyst for change

* environmental epigenetics

* strategies to combat preventable illnesses

* the effects of sleep on your daily life

* sleep as a force multiplier

* the relationship between cortisol & melatonin

* the benefits of early morning activities on cortisol levels

* sleep & temperature regulation

* optimizing cortisol rhythm through light therapy

* sex & sleep

* the health impact of sleep deprivation

* magnesium & melatonin supplements

* addressing chronic insomnia

Shawn is a great guy with a velvety voice custom made for podcasting. But more importantly, this conversation is packed with practical advice, powerful tools and helpful information that will enhance your appreciation for sleep and just might impact your daily life experience profoundly. So pay attention. Take notes. And enjoy.

Peace + Plants,

Rich

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Imagine plunging headfirst hundreds of feet below the ocean surface — undulating ever further downward to a place where light cannot penetrate; and life hangs in the balance of a quickly diminishing singular breath.

Competitive freediving—a sport built on diving as deep as possible on a single breath—tests the limits of human ability in the most hostile environment on earth. The unique and eclectic breed of individuals who freedive at the highest level regularly reach such depths that their organs compress; and one mistake could kill them.

To freedive is to flirt with death, driven by an almost inexplicable spiritual quest to go further, deeper and beyond the imagined limits of human capability.

But freediving is also an opportunity to be free. It's a search for the authentic. An opportunity to commune with the infinite.

Today on the podcast I sit down with author and adventure journalist Adam Skolnick, who immersed himself in this extreme yet poetic subculture to tell the story of Nicholas Mevoli, America's greatest freediver and the protagonist of Adam's masterfully crafted new book, One Breath: Freediving, Death, and the Quest to Shatter Human Limits*.

Even among freedivers, few have ever gone as deep as Mevoli. A handsome young American with an unmatched talent for the sport, Nick was among freediving’s brightest stars. He was also an extraordinary individual, one who rebelled against the vapid and commoditized society around him by relentlessly questing for something more meaningful and authentic, whatever the risks. So when Nick Mevoli arrived at Vertical Blue in 2013, the world’s premier freediving competition, he was widely expected to challenge records and continue his meteoric rise to stardom.

Instead, before the end of that fateful competition Nick Mevoli had died, a victim of the sport that had made him a star.

Traveling the world writing for The New York Times, Playboy, Outside, ESPN.com, BBC.com, Salon.com, Men’s Health, Wired, and Travel + Leisure, Adam was on site to cover Vertical Blue when he became a direct witness to Nick's passing. His first-hand account landed on the front page of The New York Times, quickly went viral and set the stage for One Breath — a remarkably engaging exploration of Nick's unforgettable story and the sport which shaped and ultimately destroyed him.

In the vein of Into The Wild and Born To Run, One Breath is one of the best books I have read in a long time. And I read a lot of books.

Today we unpack this mysterious subculture and the remarkable athleticism of its inhabitants. But at it's core, this is a quite compelling conversation about passion. An examination of obsession, escapism, and the spiritual yearning for authenticity.

I really love this one. So sit back, inhale one deep breath, and submerge yourself in the world of Adam Skolnick.

Peace + Plants,

Rich

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Nobody works harder — and smarter — than Gary Vaynerchuk.

That's because the maniac known online as Gary Vee operates on one mode and one mode only: full blast. Gregarious, confident and incomparably charismatic, Gary is never at a loss for opinions on everything from the future of social media and the preeminent importance of authenticity to his almost antiquated but refreshing take on the importance, power and relevance of a committed work ethic – a welcome breath of fresh air that stands in stark contradiction to our pervasive, myopic lifehack culture — a regrettable, technocrat popular trend that woefully overvalues false promise short cuts to success over passion, service and fidelity to the journey.

Internet omnipotent with over 1.2 million followers on Twitter, 500K+ Facebook friends and a vast and loyal YouTube subscriber base, I suspect many of you are already daily consumers of Gary's persistent, relentless feed of videos, blog posts, social media updates, Snapchat stories and live casts.

For those unfamiliar, Gary is a Belarus-born entrepreneur, venture capitalist and CEO of NYC-based VaynerMedia, one of the fastest growing digital ad & marketing agencies in the world.

A mainstay on YouTube, Gary hosts the hugely popular #AskGaryVee Show and dons protagonist duties on #TheDailyVee, a surprisingly hypnotic, behind the scenes gander into Gary’s everyday business life.

You've seen him profiled in the New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, GQ, Time and Fortune's annual list of 40 under 40. You've watched him on Late Night With Conan O’Brien and Ellen. And maybe you've even read one his three New York Times bestselling books, Crush It*,Jab, Jab, Jab*, Right Hook*,The Thank You Economy* and now #AskGaryVee* – his newest offering which hits bookstores everywhere March 8. A compelling and entertaining distillation of practical, timeless workplace advice on entrepreneurship and management for anyone launching their own company, working in digital media, starting their first job or simply seeking inspiration, Gary's fourth book is certain to be a massive, ubiquitous success.

A legitimate marketing & business genius, Gary is a kick in the pants – loud, irreverent and unconventional. But he’s also incredibly warm, personable and quite giving when it comes to freely sharing a seemingly endless stream of good ideas, tools and strategies he credits as part and parcel of his personal success equation.

Conversing with Gary is a bit like trying to wrangle a wild horse, so this one is a bit all over the place.

Enjoy!

Rich

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Intellectually, we all know that true happiness is not a function of material status. Nonetheless, we all catch ourselves repeating the mantra, if I only had X, then I would be happy.

Nonsense. Not only can you be happy now, it's your birthright. Because the good life isn't about your bank account, it's about your lifestyle. And lifestyle is a choice.

This is the subject of my wellness entrepreneur friend Jason Wachob's new book, Wellth: How I Learned To Build A Life, Not A Resumé*, which hits bookstores everywhere March 1. In addition to being a beautiful personal memoir, its about how to cultivate a lifestyle where happiness is attainable, health is paramount, work is purposeful, friendships are deep and plentiful, and daily living is about abundance and joy.

But how? By redefining what it means to live successfully based upon the non-financial currency of wellbeing.

As co-founder and CEO of MindBodyGreen.com, the internet's biggest online destination for all things wellness, Jason is one of the movement's most prominent, leading voices. But Jason himself was not always well. After a successful basketball career at Columbia University, he took his competitive spirit to Wall Street. Workaholism, stress and poor lifestyle habits rewarded his bank account and lionized his caricature on the walls of the famous Palm steakhouse. But happiness, personal satisfaction and well-being eluded him.

Jason's faced-paced, sedentary lifestyle led to chronic back pain every surgeon said could not be resolved short of surgery. Against medical advice, Jason instead began to explore yoga, which miraculously resolved his persistent, painful condition. Amazed by the body's ability to heal itself when treated properly led to an interest in exploring other aspects of wellness, including diet, mindfulness and sustainability. The lights went on, sparking his innate entrepreneurial flair.

MindBodyGreen was born, and the rest is history.

I have been great friends with Jason and his wife Colleen for over six years. We have collaborated beautifully on a number of projects. And I have a sense of personal pride that we have both grown so much since our initial meeting back in 2008. He was one of my very first guests on the podcast, and today's conversation picks up where RRP 32 leaves off.

Specific topics covered include:

* Jason's personal journey with wellness

* healing through food and lifestyle

* the genesis of MBG and other content providers

* how he turned MBG into a premier lifestyle media brand with 10-15 million uniques per month

* how he balances start up CEO duties with personal wellness

* Jason's morning routine

* Jason's business & wellness mentors

* current trends in wellness

* the importance of practicing mindfulness

* misconceptions about soul mates

* why he decided to write a book

* how Wellth is accessible to all

* advice for entrepreneurs

* and why you should always think three moves ahead

I love this guy and have tremendous respect for his mission, what he has built and how he lives his life on a daily basis.

Enjoy the conversation.

Peace + Plants,

Rich

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We're back with another long-awaited installment of Ask Me Anything — a twist on my normal format where we answer questions submitted by you, the listener.

Today we update you on everything happening at our emerging commune before turning to listener questions. Topics include the internal journey required to translate passion into profession, plus the emotional awakening to be expected when you begin the practice of yoga and meditation.

BIG ANNOUNCEMENT!

www.ourplantpowerworld.com

Julie and I are thrilled to announce that we will be hosting our first retreat —Plantpower Tuscany May 21-28, 2016.

Imagine an immersive 7-day wellness experience with myself, Julie and a select group of just 40 people communing in a beautiful villa in the hills between Florence and Sienna. This is not a luxury vacation — it's a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to transform your life, reset your path, dial up your plate, unlock your creativity, connect with your authentic voice and cultivate your best relationship with yourself, your partner and the world. Together we will dine on incredible plant-based cuisine, practice daily meditation & yoga, and roll up our sleeves and get to work on ourselves through a series of intensive workshops we have specifically designed to optimize your wellness and unlock your best, most authentic self.

This is the retreat Julie and I have been dreaming about for years. We are beyond excited to finally offer this unique experience to you.

For everything you need to know about the program, itinerary, pricing and accommodations please visit: ourplantpowerworld.com

Space is limited to just 40 attendees, so if this opportunity sounds like the fit you've been looking for, please get in touch with us as soon as possible by sending an e-mail via the e-mail portal on ourplantpowerworld.com (not the e-mail portal on this site please).

Enjoy the conversation and hope to meet you in Italy!

Peace + Plants,

Rich

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Devoted listeners are well-acquainted with the gravelly voiced, predictably disheveled, typically homeless, chronically self-deprecating, sometimes tortured, but always charming, self-avowed nomadic povertarian commonly known as Mishka Shubaly – back on the podcast for a record-breaking 7th appearance.

A writer oozing talent from his already overactive sebaceous glands, Mishka pens true stories about drink, drugs, disasters, desire, deception, and their aftermath. He began drinking at 13 and college at 15. At 22, he received the Dean's Fellowship from the Master's Writing Program at Columbia University. Upon receipt of his expensive MFA, he promptly moved into a Toyota minivan to tour the country nonstop as a singer-songwriter, often sharing the stage with comedians like Doug Stanhope and musical acts like The Strokes and The Yeah Yeah Yeahs.

But mostly he drank.

It sounds glamorous. It wasn't. At 32, Mishka hit bottom, got sober and laced up a pair of running shoes. In between ultra marathons, he began publishing a string of #1 bestselling Kindle Singles – short non-fiction novellas — through Amazon. The Long Run*, his mini-memoir detailing his transformation from alcoholic drug abuser to sober ultrarunner, to this day remains one of the best-selling Kindle Singles in Amazon history.

Today, Mishka's on the cusp of releasing his very first book book. I Swear I’ll Make It Up To You – A Life On The Low Road* hits bookstores everywhere March 8, 2016.

Brutally honest, fiercely emotional and muscular in its prose, it's the booze-fueled, opiated account of a precocious young underachiever trying to be good (and failing and failing) until one day he succeeds. It's about serial abandonment, school shootings, alcoholism, loneliness, artistic frustration, faith, guilt, sobriety, running, relationships, resentment, revenge, music, art, and creativity. It’s about one man’s attempt to reckon with the wreckage of his past and his journey to reconcile his relationship with his family, and most importantly, to forgive the father that jettisoned him.

I love Mishka like a brother. I love this book. And I love this conversation.

Peace + Plants,

Rich

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Addiction is a common theme on this podcast.

But this week we sail into previously unchartered waters to tackle a dark and difficult subject:

Sex addiction.

Few taboos remain in our hyper-extroverted, selfie-fueled modern culture. But I think it's safe to say this remains one of them.

And yet 18 million – 24 million people in the U.S. alone suffer from this incredibly destructive affliction — that's 6-8% of the population. But because this particular topic is so taboo, most locked in the grip of this prurient form of addiction are too terrified to reach out for help and thus suffer in isolation, silence and profound shame.

Joseph Naus was one of them.

Raised in hardscrabble poverty by a young, single mom — a heroin addict turned shut-in depressive — Joseph was desperate to find a way out. On sheer determination he succeeds, graduating Pepperdine Law School to become a respected lawyer.

However, at age 32, his American Dream became a nightmare when his secret life as a sex addict collided with his not so secret alcoholism to destroy every aspect of his life with the explosive force of an atomic bomb.

Convicted of a felony and disbarred, Joseph has spent the last twelve years learning humility the hard way: making a living doing everything from picking up the trash on film sets to selling outdoor kitchens at home shows for a former client, all while cleaning up the wreckage of his past and building a new life.

Joseph's tale is one of darkness, desperation and demons. It's horrifying and it's cautionary. But it's also about redemption. Forgiveness. And the journey to find wholeness. A story laudably chronicled with distressing honesty and harrowing detail in Straight Pepper Diet: A Memoir*.

I understand that some may cringe at the prospect of tuning in for this one. I get that. But on a personal level I feel a responsibility to tackle the subject. My aspiration is that this conversation provides a glimmer of hope for those imprisoned by this lonely, soul-eroding compulsion.

It took courage for Joseph to sit down with me to openly share his story. I applaud that. So set aside your preconceptions and lend him your ear.

Peace + Plants,

Rich

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If you enjoyed my conversation with Dr. Rhonda Patrick, you're going to love today's conversation with my new friend Ray Cronise.

A passionate innovator, disrupter and scientist, Ray began his career as a Materials Scientist at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center, where he worked for 15 years in Physical and Analytical Chemistry and Biophysics as Assistant Mission Scientist on four Spacelab missions and projects like the impact of microgravity on biophysics; and space station environmental life support systems.

I have no idea what any of that means, but it sounds impressive.

Ray went on to co-found ZERO-G– the world’s first private parabolic flight operation – with XPRIZE creator Peter Diamandis. Otherwise known as vomit comets, ZERO-G flights produce weightlessness and approximate space flight conditions for purposes of scientific research, cinema and entertainment.

But it wasn't until Tim Ferriss' The 4-Hour Body* featured Ray's pioneering work with cold stress therapy as as a tool for fat loss that Ray began popping up everywhere as the man behind the Metabolic Winter Hypothesis.

Results motivated this prodigious scientific mind next to peer keenly into the chemistry, physiology, mechanics and research methodology behind human nutrition — specifically, what is wrong with current nutrition research and how to fix it. After copious investigation, analysis and self-experimentation, he has arrived upon a well supported but perhaps contrarian conclusion: a whole food plant-based diet is optimal for long-term health and wellness.

Despite decades spent struggling to manage his own weight and stay fit, for the past six years Ray has kept the weight off using a combination of cold stress, healthful sleep cycles, and a plant-based nutritional regimen.

Mainstream culture would deem Ray's ways extreme. But ask Ray and he will tell you that the way most people live and eat today is actually a radical departure from our natural state and is likely the root cause of our epidemic of chronic lifestyle illness.

After listening to this guy you will realize one thing – he did not arrive at his conclusions lightly. Conclusions soon to be explored in his upcoming book, Our Broken Plate, which aims to change the way people look at all diets so they can make lasting lifestyle changes that improve what Ray calls healthspan.

Over the course of an amazing 3 hours, we cover an absurd amount of territory, including:

* Ray's upcoming book ‘Our Broken Plate'

* the insanity of our protein obsession

* the “over nourishment” of America

* the impact of caloric & protein restriction on longevity & cancer

* the impact of thermogenesis on diet and exercise

* the importance of separating diet and exercise

* telomeres and aging

* nutrient deficiencies, supplements, instinctive eating; and

* exactly how Penn Jillette lost 100 pounds

Enjoy!

Rich

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It's rare to find a pop culture icon as devoted to raising consciousness as the man they call Rush.

Hip hop impresario, entrepreneur extraordinaire, devoted yogi and long-time meditation practitioner, Russell Simmons is truly one-of-a-kind — incredibly warm, always quick with a captivating story you won't soon forget and authentically committed to spreading awareness concerning important issues of our time — the horrors of animal agriculture, the declining state of human health (particularly in African American and lower socio-economic demographics) and the disastrous state of our planet’s dwindling environmental health.

Most are familiar with Russell's background, but in case his name is new to you, let’s break it open.

Alongside Rick Rubin, in 1984 Russell co-founded Def Jam Recordings and quickly established himself as a prominent, guiding force in the quickly growing cultural revolution that became hip hop. Championing its breakout stars, Def Jam became the label by signing the movement's ground-breaking forerunners – acts like the LL Cool J, Public Enemy, and The Beastie Boys.

But Def Jam was just the first step in Russell's empire building quest. Before selling the label to Universal Music Group in 1999 for $100 million, he formed RUSH Communications and quickly expanded his reach into artist management, apparel, and film & television projects like The Nutty Professor, Krush Groove, Gridlock'd and Def Comedy Jam.

Russell's current holdings include a vast array of entrepreneurial interests and philanthropic efforts, including All Def Digital, Argyleculture, RushCard, Global Grind, The Foundation For Ethnic Understanding and Tantris, a yoga & lifestyle destination currently in development.

All of this is fascinating. But what interests me most about Russell is his personal journey. How discovering yoga and meditation led to his embrace of a vegan lifestyle. And the tremendous extent to which his commitment to cultivating an inner life based on the spiritual principles of ahimsa — a Sanskrit term for no harm — has impacted both his private and public life, his approach to business and his commitment to service and advocacy.

Today we unpack all of it.

This episode is definitely my most unique to date. Generally, I endeavor to architect the basic trajectory of my conversations; I know where I want to start and I know where I want to go. Suffice it to say this did not happen with Russell. Within the first 5 seconds of our conversation one thing was clear — I was not in control. Russell's show, Russell's flow.

When the dust settled, all I could think was, what just happened?

That's charisma. This one's different. But I loved every minute of it.

Topics explored include:

* yoga, meditation & consciousness

* the karmic debt of animal agriculture

* the ecological havoc caused by food systems

* the health implications of the American diet

* Russell as agent for change

* happy vs. angry vegans

* using cryotherapy to revitalize

* animal cruelty in factory farming

* raising awareness from the top down

* the benefits of meditation

* the primacy of service

* parenting & privilege

* the effect of branding on consumer choice

* empathy and compassion for others

Note: This episode is chock-a-block with expletives. I typically run a clean, family-friendly show, but it's more important to me to allow my guests to be who they are.

Enjoy!

Rich

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At odds with the world seemingly since birth, the future wasn't looking so bright for Hunter McIntyre.

A misfit kid with uncontrollable attention deficit disorder, Hunter realized early and often he functioned on one mode no sedative or bipolar medication could possibly curb: full blast.

Discovering drugs and alcohol at 14 give his ill-at-ease nature comfort, but trouble soon follows. A downward spiral that invites increased school suspensions; escalating run-ins with Johnny Law; and even a short-lived, unsuccessful stint at military school in West Virginia.

Facing jail time or rehab for a drug-fueled senior year prank gone terribly awry, Hunter's despairing parents ultimately ship him off to outpatient care in Montana, hoping clean air and big skies will bring grounding and perspective to young Hunter's errant ways. But dirty drug tests follow, leading to incarceration-type rehab stays in Nevada and New Mexico.

Ultimately Hunter's sobriety officer intervenes, hooking him up with a logging job back in Montana.

Hunter bulks up. Sober up? Not so much.

The next chapter finds Hunter in Los Angeles, failing upward with lucrative modeling gigs for companies like J. Crew and Abercrombie and Fitch while setting his sights on becoming a celebrity personal trainer. But life goals are eclipsed by an ever-escalation in partying. Living the sun-drenched frat boy lifestyle in a Malibu bro-house, days and nights revolve around girls, ecstasy, mushrooms, acid, more girls and even more alcohol.

A spontaneous booze-fueled, chest-pumping whim leads to Hunter and his Malibros challenging each other to sign up for a local Spartan Race — unchartered terrain for all involved. But come race day, only Hunter is able to drag his hung over body out of bed. Despite several beers enjoyed that morning, he nonetheless finishes ninth overall, just eight minutes behind world champion and 2:16 marathoner Hobie Call.

And just like that, the lights turn on. It's the wake up call Hunter needed. The rest is history.

Immediately parting ways with his partying ways, purpose and focus take center stage. Almost overnight, Hunter morphs into the man they call The Sheriff, transforming himself into one of the world's best obstacle course racers. A rare talent with the body and size of a cross fitter who not only excels at strength, speed and agility but also boasts the endurance of a Kenyan.

Sponsorship offers soon follow. Magazine cover stories abound. And notoriety ensues, outpaced only by The Sheriff's now famous, quickly growing ego.

Full blast finally found a life.

If you know anything about Hunter, you know he has a huge, at times controversial personality. But there is a thoughtful, far more contemplative side to this brash, outspoken athlete than meets the eye. I think you will be surprised by our conversation. I know I was.

Specific topics explored include:

* Hunter's colorful past

* what is OCR?

* replacing superficiality with performance

* Hunter's typical training day

* ego rightsizing

* the importance of meditation

* exploring the vegan lifestyle 

* Hunter's Achilles heel

* Hunter's daily routine

* the SEAL dream

* advice to the younger self

* Joe DeSena & the Death Race

* the importance of surrounding yourself with selfless people 

I sincerely hope you enjoy our exchange. I really enjoyed my time with Hunter and I think you will too.

Peace + Plants,

Rich

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This episode is a geeky deep dive into the hardcore science behind everything from telomeres and the mechanisms behind aging and longevity to the primacy of maintaining microbiome health; oxidative stress and the relationship between inflammation and chronic disease; epigenetics and genetic disposition versus expression; and of course nutrition – divining truth from myth, the impact of micronutrient inadequacies, focused supplementation and the difference between eating for optimal wellness versus performance.

Today's guide through this byzantine labyrinth of crucial biological processes is my brilliant friend Rhonda Patrick, Ph.D.

A Ph.D in biomedical sciences, Dr. Patrick is an expert in nutrition, metabolism and aging. She has done considerable research in all of these fields, including research on cancer and the effects of mineral and vitamin supplementation on metabolism, inflammation and aging. She did her graduate research at St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital, where she focused on cancer, mitochondrial metabolism and apoptosis. In addition, she conducts clinical trials and has performed extensive aging research at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies.

Beyond the fact that Rhonda is whip smart (and totally amazing), through her Found My Fitness blog,podcast and YouTube channel, she expertly translates the complexities of clinical research and physiological processes in understandable terms, adeptly communicates their implications and provides actionable real life practices and applications aimed at maximizing overall health and longevity.

It's time to put on the propellor hat and get out your pen and paper, because you're going to want to take notes for this one.

We cover a ton of material in this conversation. Specific topics include:

* identifying the biomarkers of aging

* the biological impact of oxidative stressors

* acute inflammation vs. chronic inflammation

* why we should forget about protein and focus on fiber

* the importance of cultivating a healthy microbiome

* the leading causes of chronic inflammation

* the benefits of exercise-induced inflammation

* the benefits of curcumin

* stress adaptation and immune system response

* why Omega-3 is important & how to get it

* circadian rhythm and bright light exposure

* stress reduction techniques

* the benefits of meditation

* DNA damage and telomerase

* the importance of Vitamin D

* Rhonda's recommended supplements

* gene polymorphisms

* nutrition/lifestyle & athletic performance vs. long-term wellness/longevity

Rhonda fascinates me and this conversation is an absolute mind-blower. I sincerely hope you enjoy our exchange.

Peace + Plants,

Rich

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Technically this is another episode of Ask Me Anything. But this week we don't actually answer listener questions. This week we riff.

This is a conversation about embracing the journey of becoming more of who you truly are. It's about the commitment to evolve into your most authentic expression. It's about the beauty and power of living an uncompromising, expansive, creative existence.

There was a man who exemplified this ethos like no other. A man who never compromised. A man who expressed his creative truth with every fiber of his being, all the way down to his final breath.

That man is the singular David Bowie. May you rest in peace, Ziggy Stardust.

Today we reflect back on a remarkable life. From his example we mine the path to unlocking your own personal truth. And we weave our way back to one immutable truth — all roads to personal growth lead back to your commitment to you.

As a related aside, and in case you missed it, enjoy this short movie about my recent visit to Beirut, Lebanon to run the marathon. I didn't run for time. I ran for peace. An experience that uplifted me, then broke my heart. That's what travel does — it breeds empathy.

2016 is all about video for me. So if you enjoyed this little movie, subscribe to my YouTube Channel. I'll be uploading a new video every week, so lots of cool stuff soon to come. For fun daily videos on my morning routines, nutrition, training, podcast behind the scenes and random musings, add me (iamrichroll) on Snapchat!

In any event, enjoy the conversation.

Peace + Plants,

Rich

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As I write this entry, it's Sunday evening, January 10 around 8pm. Less than one hour ago, after days spent slogging across Antarctic desert in -30 celsius temperatures, 30-year old pro triathlete turned mountaineering adventure athlete Colin O'Brady reached the South Pole — the first stop on his world record quest to become the youngest and fastest human to ever complete the Explorers Grand Slam — an adventurers challenge to summit the highest mountain on each of the seven continents as well as trek to both the North and South Poles.

Only 44 people in documented history have successfully completed the challenge. Of these, only 2 have done it under a year.

Colin's goal? Get it done in five months.

If that's not amazing enough, consider that just eight years ago, Colin faced the very real possibility he would never walk again.

After graduating from Yale in 2006, Colin left to explore the world on a backpacking trip. While in Thailand, he suffered a tragic accident and was severely burned in a fire. His injuries covered nearly 25% of his body, causing potentially irrevocable damage to his legs and feet.

Determined to beat the odds, he set a seemingly outlandish goal to not just walk again, but to complete a triathlon following his recovery. Colin didn't just finish a triathlon. In his first attempt he won — stunning the multisport community with an overall amateur title at the prestigious 2009 Chicago Triathlon less than two years post-accident and after only a few months of training.

On the day immediately following his victory, Colin turned pro, quit his job as a commodities trader, hopped a flight to Australia and spent the next five years representing the United States in triathlon competitions all over the world with a keen eye on landing an Olympic berth.

Insane. And yet despite his amazing success, Colin sensed something missing from his life. He wanted more. A compulsion to more deeply explore uncertainty and precariousness that fatefully gave birth to the expedition he calls BEYOND 7/2.

His inspiration isn't fame, but pure adventure, buttressed by a conviction to land a blow to childhood obesity by raising $1 million on behalf of the Alliance For A Healthier Generation, a non-profit founded by the American Heart Association and the Clinton Foundation dedicated to helping kids to develop healthy habits.

From his hippie upbringing to life at Yale, organic farming on Kauai, and the physical, mental, emotional and spiritual fortitude required to succeed in his world record attempt, this is an incredibly inspiring conversation with a young man courageously embracing fear to meet his absolute limits in search of meaning, place and giving back.

We cover a lot of ground in today's confab, including:

* Explorers Grand Slam history

* the logistics behind Beyond 7/2

* how to manage fear, risk & unknowns

* the difference between poles vs. peaks

* climate change impact on the North Pole

* the desire to combat childhood obesity

* Colin's tragedy in Thailand

* Colin's remarkable recovery

* Colin's Olympic dream

* the discipline of swimming as a springboard

* lessons learned from world champions

* physical/mental preparation

* Colin's daily meditation routine

Enjoy!

Rich

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Today my good friend Khalil Rafati returns to the podcast.

Most would call Khalil a successful wellness entrepreneur. SunLife Organics, his growing chain of organic juice bar cafés, can be seen popping up all over Southern California with more on the horizon.

But it wasn't that long ago that the only thing Khalil was successful at was getting high in the dark underbelly of the City of Angels.

Addicted to shooting heroin and smoking crack, Khalil was soon overtaken by paranoia and psychosis and written off by friends and family. When he finally hit bottom, Khalil was 33 years old and 109 pounds, a convicted felon, high school dropout, and homeless junkie living in a cardboard box on the infamous Skid Row in downtown L.A.

At the time, Khalil was hell bent on dying. But God, the Universe or whatever you want to call it had different plans. He didn't just live — he repaired his life wholesale. A miracle of sobriety. Miracle.

So how does someone with nothing, who feels like they deserve nothing, and who just wants to end it all turn their life around?

Khalil’s story is nothing short of astounding, trumped only by his ability to tell it. So if you missed his first appearance on the show, listen up here.

Today he drops by the podcast studio to pick up where we left off — a tale recently canonized in his recently released memoir I Forgot To Die* — an incredible true story of pain, suffering, addiction and redemption and how one man ultimately conquered his demons and wrote himself a new life story.

So let's hear all about it. I sincerely hope you enjoy this conversation with one of my favorite people.

Peace + Plants,

Rich

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Welcome to Part II of our third annual Best of the RRP Anthology series. If you haven’t already, I suggest listening to The Best of 2015 — Part I first.

This is a compendium of some of my favorite conversations of 2015. It's our way of saying thanks, giving back, expressing gratitude and catapulting you into the new year with the information and inspiration required to make 2016 your best year yet.

I appreciate you. Here’s to an absolutely extraordinary 2016. Enjoy the listen.

Peace + Plants,

Rich

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This is the time of year to pause. It's the time of year for reflection. For gratitude. And for giving back.

So let's do all those things. Welcome to the third annual Best of the RRP Anthology — our way of taking a moment to reflect on the year, express gratitude and give thanks for taking this journey with us.

I pride myself on bringing a wide variety of personalities, opinions and attitudes to the show. When I look back over 2015, it's amazing how many incredibly dynamic conversations and perspectives I was honored to share. Second listens brought new insights. Another reminder that this show is a gift that just keeps giving.

For long-time listeners, this and the following episode will bring certain insights back into the forefront of your consciousness as you contemplate your new year's trajectory. If you're new to the show, then these episodes will definitely inspire you to peruse the catalog and listen in full to some of the guests and or episodes you may have missed. Links to the full episodes excerpted in this anthology are enumerated below.

What a stunning year. Thank you. I appreciate you. Here's to an extraordinary 2016 — the year we manifest our greatest dreams into reality. Join me, and let's do this thing together.

Peace + Plants,

Rich

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Perhaps you know today’s guest from one of her 25+ roles on the silver screen appearing in movies like Titanic, Fandango and The Usual Suspects. Or maybe you know her as the better half of the world’s most successful film director, James Cameron – the incomparable mind behind the biggest cinematic blockbusters of all time: Aliens, Terminator, Titanic and of course Avatar – the highest grossing movie ever.

But Suzy Amis Cameron is so much more than all that. In addition to raising five kids, she is a pioneering environmental activist. A passionate philanthropist. An education innovator. And the maverick co-founder (along with her sister Rebecca) of MUSE. Grabbing international headlines last year when it became the first U.S. school to implement a 100% plant-based school lunch program, MUSE is an incredibly progressive, paradigm breaking K-12 institution devoted to sustainability; creative & critical thinking; and preparing young people to live consciously within themselves, one another and the planet. A pretty great vision if you ask me.

A living example of selfless advocacy in action, for the last 25 years Suzy has tirelessly dedicated herself to an array of environmental causes, working non-stop to reform education; combat global climate change; raze our execrable system of animal agriculture; overhaul our fatal addiction to the standard American diet; defeat chronic lifestyle disease; and engineer a better, healthier food system for all.

Towards this end, in 2014 James and Suzy founded Food Choice Taskforce, a non-profit organization targeting the impact of animal agriculture on climate change to mobilize a global shift in food choice. She is also a founder of Food Forest Organics, a New Zealand-based plant-based cafe and marketplace, and Red Carpet Green Dress, showcasing socially and environmentally responsible fashions.

This is a great conversation about her extraordinary life. It’s a conversation about the intricate, intertwined relationship between our actions and the biosphere. It’s about championing sustainable values – from what we do, to what we wear, to how we teach our children, to the food we eat. It's about how our consumer choices impact our personal health and the current and future health of this spinning blue globe we call home. And of course, it’s about what it’s like to be married to Hollywood’s most successful director.

Specific topics covered include:

* the impact of ‘Forks Over Knives’

* environmental concerns and advocacy

* animal agriculture as the center of all health issues

* health sector and environmentalist summit

* Chatham House research on agriculture & environment

* communicating with the average person the powers of a plant-based diet

* bringing about hope by changing what’s on our plate

* the importance of support systems

* MUSE School & MUSE Global

* educating the community on the plant-based lifestyle

* sustainability pledge & One Meal A Day

* our youth, the global champions of tomorrow

* typical day in the life of the Cameron’s

* sustainable fashion

* future projects to catalyze change

Suzy stirs me to do and be better. Listen in, and be equally inspired.

Peace + Plants,

Rich

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Today's guest isn’t famous. He hasn’t written a book. He's not an in demand speaker.

But I can almost promise that you have seen Trampas Thompson — you just didn’t know it.

Working behind the scenes, Trampas is a Hollywood stuntmen extraordinaire, collecting blockbuster credits performing a dizzying array of delicious, death-defying acts in some of the world's most popular movies and television shows.

Trampas has run the streets on fire, sword battled with Johnny Depp in the Pirates of the Caribbean movies and most recently doubled Michael Keaton in Birdman. Yes, that was Trampas, not Michael, who lept off a New York Theatre District rooftop in the most memorable scene from last year's Oscar winning best picture.

His credits are impressive: The Dark Knight Rises, National Treasure, 21 Jump Street, Indiana Jones And The Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull, The Wolf of Wall Street, and on and on.

But what drew me to Trampas as a great fit for the podcast actually has very little to do with his work. Far more fascinating? Who he is.

What kind of person becomes a stuntman?

God broke the mold with this guy. Larger than life, Trampas is one-of-a-kind. A renaissance man living life full throttle 24/7. The kind of guy who survived a skydiving accident when his parachute didn’t open, then jumped again. A person unapologetically himself, incapable of doing anything half-assed and utterly fearless.

This is another epic, thoroughly entertaining 3-hour conversation with a truly singular human about living life on one’s own terms. It's about dragonfly tattoos, synchronicity, Burning Man and the never ending spiritual quest to grow and expand consciousness.

It's about what it means to hand-wring the adventure out of life.

I sincerely hope you enjoy this conversation with one of my favorite people.

Peace + Plants,

Rich

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Strength isn't just about physical prowess. Strength is about character.

By this definition, vegan strongman Patrik Baboumian is perhaps the strongest man on Earth.

Born in 1979 to Armenian parents in Abadan, Iran, Patrik and his family fled the Iranian revolution when he was seven and emigrated to central Germany. By the age of nine, he fell in love with wrestling on TV and soon developed an interest in weight training. As a young teen, he got into power lifting and bodybuilding, rising quickly through the ranks to become Germany’s national junior bodybuilding champion.

For ethical reasons, in 2005 Patrik went vegetarian, accepting that this would likely undermine his performance goals. Instead, his improvement steadily escalated. So in 2011, he went completely vegan. And that's when things really blew up for the guy they call the Armenian Viking.

100% Plantpowered, over the last 4 years Patrik has been awarded the title of Germany's Strongest Man, racked up multiple victories at the European Powerlifting Championships and set four Guinness World Records in various strength disciplines.

We're talking about a guy who can Bench 463 lbs. Squat 794 lbs. And Deadlift 794 lbs.

This is a long way of saying that Patrik Baboumian is stronger than you are. And believe it or not, he has accomplished all of these extraordinary, superhuman feats without the one thing long-held conventional wisdom dictates is absolutely necessary to optimally perform as an elite strength athlete: animal protein.

I first met Patrik at the 2013 at the Toronto VegFest, where I stood on the WestJet Stage at Harbourfront Centre before a crowd 1,000 deep to cheer him towards a Guinness World Record setting yoke walk — a feat that entailed carrying 1,216 pounds (550kilos) a distance of 10 meters in less than 60 seconds (which he recently bettered to a current 560kg world record, completed in just 28 seconds). Spontaneously grabbing for my GoPro, I shot this little video documenting the astounding accomplishment:

But Patrik's greatest strength is not his physical prowess. His greatest strength is his compassion.

Breaking strongman world records is what Patrik does. But beyond the accomplishments and beneath the beast-like exterior lives a sensitive, gentle soul. An exemplary human of steadfast ethics whose conscience refuses to allow animals to suffer for the sake of his superhuman athletic goals. In stark contradiction to culturally entrenched notions of masculinity, Patrick performs his feats in the name of compassion — a threatening word too often misinterpreted as weakness that challenges predominant male gender role stereotypes and obliges us to rethink social priorities.

My hope is that Patrik's example will open your mind. Compel you to question long-held, conventional notions concerning the relationship between nutrition and athletic performance. Reform stereotypical definitions of masculinity to embrace the responsibility mankind shoulders as protector of the voiceless. Reframe your interpretation of compassion not as weakness, but as our greatest strength. Stir you to think more deeply about your consumer choices. And ultimately inspire you to challenge your own personal limitations.

Enjoy!

Rich

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Last episode we learned how How Not To Die.

Today we contemplate the flip side: How To Die.

Everybody dies. Everybody. Of course we know this to be true. But when was the last time you had a direct experience with someone in the grips of the undeniable reality that afflicts us all without exception? Most people have never even seen a dead person, let alone held the hand of someone expiring their last breath.

Why is the one thing we all share in common seemingly deleted from our daily human experience?

Because  our culture is carefully crafted to obscure, whitewash, sanitize and obviate every unpalatable aspect of the frightening reality that scares the shit out of us more than anything else.

As a result, we sleepwalk through life pretending it doesn't exist. Subconsciously, we might even harbor the completely insane thought that somehow, some way, we will be the exception to the rule and find a way to escape such distasteful finality.

Then, when death rears it's unfamiliar head (it always does), we recoil. We get uncomfortable. Paralyzed by fear and morbidity, we stumble with our words. Lacking the capacity to even have an open and honest conversation about it, we retreat into a shame spiral.

Death breeds fear. Fear breeds resistance. Resistance breeds denial. And denial never helped anyone.

This is not a healthy relationship with death.

So let go of the fear. Free yourself of the resistance. And let's form a new relationship with death. One that not only acknowledges it, but embraces it as our most potent communal experience. One that guilds our lives with meaning. One that allows us to be more present in our lives. One that unites rather than divides. One that provides fertile soil for gratitude.

For me, these concepts are not academic. As I type, Julie's 92-year old father is on his deathbed. It is unlikely he will live to see the weekend. And so for the last several days, our lives have been on hold as our children and extended family have gathered around Larry Mathis to celebrate his remarkable life. We've told stories. Sung songs. Held his hand. Kissed his forehead. Said our goodbyes as he slips out of conscious awareness.

This week we've talked a lot about death. This podcast is an extension of that ongoing conversation.

Peace + Plants,

Rich

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A graduate of Cornell and Tufts University School of Medicine, Dr. Greger has published in a litany of scientific journals, testified before Congress and lectured at countless symposiums and institutions, including the Conference on World Affairs and the National Institutes of Health. He was even an expert witness in the infamous Oprah Winfrey meat defamation lawsuit and has appeared all over television on shows like Dr. Oz and The Colbert Report.

By day, Michael Greger, MD, FACLM can be found crafting high level policy initiatives as Director of Public Health and Animal Agriculture for the Humane Society of the U.S. But more often than not he's traipsing the globe, hopping from podium to podium to deliver one of the hundreds of lectures he serves up annually.

By night, Dr. Greger scours thousands of medical journals in search of the world's best, most objective nutrition research to bring you free videos and articles every single day as chief wizard behind NutritionFacts.org– the world's most authoritative, non-profit online destination for all things nutrition, health and disease prevention.

If you've never before visited this site, I highly suggest you check it out immediately. A comprehensive clearinghouse that inspects every imaginable facet of nutrition and health, NutritionFacts.org features hundreds of impeccably researched, easily understandable and straight to the point videos — always my first stop when I want to get to the bottom of any question I have about food, diet and disease.

Apparently Dr. Greger doesn't sleep. Because amidst all of this, he still found time to write a new book that hits booksellers everywhere this week. But How Not To Die* isn't just any book — it's a straight up game changing must read. Clocking in at over 600 pages, it's an exhaustive, heavily researched, encyclopedic examination of how nutritional and lifestyle interventions can help prevent and even reverse the 15 top causes of premature death in America.

Not only has Dr. Greger delivered a ground-breaking tome for the ages, 100% of fees and proceeds he receives from speaking and book sales are donated to charity.

Quite a powerful testament to this man's level of selfless service to humanity.

If you are a long-time listener, you know Dr. G and I go way back. He was one of my very first guests on the RRP. Now he’s back to talk more about his life, his research, and How Not To Die – a subject I think we can all get behind.

Specifics covered include:

* the core idea behind How Not To Die

* the daily dozen foods to focus on

* the fifteen leading causes of death

* confirmation bias in nutritional research

* conflicts of interest in scientific studies

* independent studies & objective criticism

* reconciling reductionism with holistic analysis

* auto-immune disorders

* organic vs. non-organic foods

Enjoy!

Rich

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We tend to assume the successful are simply gifted. Or perhaps just lucky — at the right place at the right time.

Olaniyi Sobomehin is not one of those people.

But he does have one thing most lack: vision and self-belief.

A middle child with a life long dream to play in the NFL, Niyi lacked the natural gifts required to even earn a college football scholarship. Friends and family repeated the refrain: be realistic. Niyi ignored the advice, invested in himself and walked on the Oregon State program with little to no chance of seeing game time.

But sheer determination, exceptional mental toughness, and an unparalleled ability to out work everyone on the field turned this no name walk on into a running back for The New Orleans Saints, where he finally realized his childhood dream playing alongside NFL greats like Drew Brees.

A voracious reader able to translate wisdom into actionable practices, Niyi understood that the tools he relied upon for athletic success would apply equally to life after football. So upon retirement he turned his professional focus to I'm Not You– a platform to help young athletes develop the habits, strategies, systems and techniques required to maximize potential in sport and life.

Niyi's approach has little to do with physical training. It's about overcoming mental limitations. It's about mindset. Because the relationship one has with one's self is what ultimately dictates outcomes.

In other words, it's an inside job.

Today we talk about the strategies Niyi distilled from playing at the highest level of sport and how these tools can be applied to unlock your own inner potential.

Specifics include:

* how to overcome a talent deficit

* developing confidence through facing fear

* techniques for developing a mental edge

* what holds most athletes (and people) back

* the common habits of the most successful athletes

* the benefits of affirmation & visualization techniques

* morning routines to optimize your day

* why he surveys his family weekly; and

* why getting uncomfortable is the key to success

I love this guy's passion. Niyi's enthusiasm for life and devotion to service is infectious, buttressed by a perspective germane well beyond the boundaries of sport. So even if you’re not an athlete, this conversation delivers. Chocked with copious gems applicable to every facet of personal and professional development, it's a natural bookend to echo and complement my preceding conversation with Jesse Itzler and the principles he learned living with Navy SEAL David Goggins.

Question: What Belief About Yourself Is Holding You Back?

I'd love to hear all about it in the comments section below.

I sincerely hope you enjoy this walk in Niyi's cleats as much as I did.

Peace + Plants,

Rich

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Jesse Itzler fast-talked his way right out of college into a recording contract, ultimately taking his music all the way to MTV, the Billboard 100 and even an Emmy.

Jesse Itzler then took an entrepreneurial left-turn, creating and selling big companies — companies like Marquis Jet, the world’s largest prepaid private jet card company, and Zico Coconut Water — before wooing Spanx founder Sarah Blakely (worth over $1 billion) all the way to the altar.

Jesse Itzler eats only fruit before noon. And when he's not raising three kids, he runs 100 mile races, raises millions for charity and can be found court side supporting the Atlanta Hawks — the NBA team he recently purchased with some friends.

What I'm trying to say is that Jesse Itzler is a quite the character. An amazing life highlighted by one predominant theme:

never be afraid to fail.

But there is one thing that scares Jesse Itzler: stagnation.

Despite all his success, in 2010 Jesse felt his life had settled into a too-comfortable routine. So he did what any rational human would do: he invited a Navy SEAL to move in with him.

But this was no ordinary SEAL (as if any such thing exists). This was David Goggins — perhaps the most intense, taciturn individual walking planet Earth. A one man metaphor for adversity destruction, Goggins' example and words formed the original inspiration behind my own journey:

When you think you are done, you've only accomplished about 40% of what you are truly capable of.

Goggins military record is astonishing. As a Navy SEAL, he was one of an elite group of men regularly sent on some of the toughest missions in the world. He is the only member in the U.S. Armed Forces to complete SEAL training, Army Ranger School (where he graduated as Honor Man), and Air Force tactical air controller training. Not only has he faced combat in Iraq, he served as the body guard for Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari.

To honor his brother soldiers felled by battle and to raise money for charity, David lost 100 pounds in 60 days and went on to tackle the 10 most rigorous ultra-endurance challenges on the planet, compelling his 260-pound frame to top finishes at races like Badwater– a 135 mile jaunt across Death Valley in 130 degree heat (finishing 5th as a novice) — and Ultraman– 1 320-mile 3 day triathlon circumnavigation of the Big Island of Hawaii he completed with his tennis shoes duct taped to the pedals of an ill-fitting loaner bike to a 2nd place finish overall. He even completed 203.5 miles in the 48-Hour National Championship endurance foot race, earning a spot among the top 20 ultra-marathoners of the world.

Just another training day for Goggins, topped off with a recent Guinness World record for most pull ups in a single day: 4,025.

Goggins accepted Jesse's invitation with just one rule: for 31-days, Jesse had to do every thing David asked him to do. No exceptions.

What happened next would change Jesse's life forever. An adventure chronicled in his new book, Living With A Seal: 31 Days Training With The Toughest Man On The Planet*. I found the book super fun and highly entertaining. So when my travels took me to Atlanta, I jumped at the chance to meet up with him.

Enjoy!

Rich

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The holidays are a time of year for gratitude. So why do so many find it so hard to celebrate?

There's a brisk chill outside. By late afternoon it's already dark. Our circadian rhythm dictates we slow down, hunker down and hibernate. But for the next month, we ignore the call of nature, mindlessly hurling ourselves into a frenzied state of overcommitted overextension.

Too many obligations. Overspending on things nobody really needs. Keeping up with the Joneses yet never quite matching up.

Stress. Anxiety. Conflict. Dread. Debt. But perhaps the biggest trigger of all? Family drama.

The treachery of extended family holiday get-togethers can accelerate a perilous emotional state to the breaking point. The patterns are age-old and hard wired, yet each year we make the promise: this time will be different. But then like clockwork, the buttons get pushed. Patience? Mindfulness? Forget it. Reason and composure vanishes, replaced with primal reaction. The spark is lit, and once again you're once riding that emotional rollercoaster you vowed to finally avoid.

Depression ensues, only to wake up in January with an emotional hangover no narcotic can salve.

What if you could break the pattern?

This week Julie and I delve deep into strategies for a new and better holiday experience. Tips and tools to reframe the dynamic, gracefully navigate the emotional minefields, sidestep the consumerist insanity and embrace the fundamental spirit that is meant to define this time of year — gratitude.

Specific topics include:

* creative vs. commercialized giving

* prioritizing self-care

* acknowledging family dynamic realities

* exercising discretion with respect to social obligations

* sealing your energy field

* visualization and mindfulness practices

* understanding conflict as growth opportunity

The show concludes with Humming– a brief humming meditation track written and performed by Julie from her album Jai Home.

I sincerely hope you enjoy the exchange. Happy Thanksgiving!

Peace + Plants,

Rich

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Maybe you know Marco Borges because he trains people like Pharrell. Perhaps you know him as the guy who inspired Jay-Z and Beyoncé (who he also trains) to adopt a plant-based lifestyle, then partnered up with them to launch 22-Days Nutrition – a plant-based nutrition products and meal delivery service that shuttles organic, plant-based gluten-free, soy-free and dairy-free meals anywhere in the U.S., right to your doorstep.

I had never met Marco. In fact, until this past Spring, I had never even heard of him. But all that changed in April when this Miami-based celebrity fitness trainer, exercise physiologist and plant-based evangelist was suddenly everywhere: the TODAY show, Good Morning America, TIME magazine and even places like Vogue, Entertainment Tonight, Ryan Secrest and Perez Hilton. A Jay & Bey infused media blitz that launched this guy from below the radar to massive mainstream popularity, fomented a plant-based zeitgeist frenzy and skyrocketed his new book, The 22-Day Revolution: The Plant-Based Program That Will Transform Your Body*, to the top of the New York Times Bestseller list.

When the most culturally significant and influential entertainment couple on the planet embraces the plant-based perspective (even if imperfectly or temporarily), it's a big deal. The seismic impact can't be underestimated. People don't just notice — the tectonic plates of popular culture shift. Conventional attitudes and habits around food change. Our social paradigm forever altered.

So who is the man behind all this?

In full disclosure, my biggest fear was that Marco would be just another trainer leveraging celebrity relationships for personal notoriety and fortune.

But contempt prior to investigation is a recipe for ignorance. I was delighted to discover a remarkable man. A man that completely defies the stereotype and put to rest any questions I may have harbored about the motivations behind his mission.

Marco Borges is true blue. The real deal. A husband and father of three young boys who — at his very core — is about service. Truly passionate about educating and informing mainstream culture about the benefits of plant-based nutrition; doing his very best to spread a message of conscious, compassionate and sustainable living; and working his butt off to provide innovative exercise and nutrition programs, tools and resources to help people – every day people – get fit, healthy and happy and transform their lives for the better.

This is a super fun and informative conversation about Marco’s uncommon, extraordinary life and his most worthy mission. Specific topics covered include:

* self realization and the impact on consciousness

* Marco's background in Miami spin/club culture

* Marco's catalyst to plant-based nutrition

* becoming the best version of yourself

* lifestyle choices, empowerment & education

* effective plant-based training

* breaking bad habits

* the importance of incremental & consistent improvement

* entertainer influence in plant-based movement

* developing a friendship with Jay Z & Beyoncé

Enjoy!

Rich

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If you follow competitive swimming, Aaron Peirsol needs no introduction.

The commonly spun narrative goes something like this: the greatest backstroker in swimming history, Aaron Peirsol is a giant among men. The very definition of a high performing elite athlete with a slew of world-records and Olympic gold medals to prove it.

But Aaron is not his career. Aaron Peirsol is different.

Let's set the stage. Aaron burst onto the international swimming scene at the age of 17, walking away from the 2000 Sydney Olympics with a silver medal in the 200m backstroke. At the 2004 Olympics in Athens, Aaron won gold in both the 100m and 200m backstroke (that one by an incredible 2.5 secs) and a third gold leading off the 4×100 medley relay. At the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, Aaron took gold in the 100m backstroke and the 4×100 medley relay, taking silver in the 200m back behind teammate Ryan Lochte.

The following year, Aaron raised the bar one last time with a stunning 1:51.93 world record setting performance in the 200m backstroke at the World Championships in Rome — a world record that to this day still stands – an astonishing 6 years later.

7 Olympic medals. 5 gold, 2 silver. 10 long-course World Championships.

Aaron is of course incredibly proud of his accomplishments. But victories, defeats, podiums and bling fail to tell the story of Aaron Peirsol. They are not who he is.

Over the course of his career, I vividly recall watching Aaron on television — one triumph after another. But far more interesting than his performances was how he acquitted himself outside the pool. There is just something completely unique about this guy. He is unlike any other high performing athlete I know.

More contemplative. Consistently thoughtful. A bit soft spoken. And always laid back.

More soul surfer than Type-A competitor.

How does a guy so chill thrive in such a pressure cooker universe? Not just through 1 Olympiad but 3?

Today I get answers. Today we enter the world of elite competitive swimming. A consideration of his career and the elements required to not just win, but keep winning. But most of the conversation centers around character — what makes Aaron tick.

His perspective might surprise you. Because for Aaron, it’s not about competition – it never was.

For him, it’s about a lifelong love affair with water.

For him, it’s always been a spiritual journey.

Specifics covered today include:

* the world of elite competitive swimming

* the importance of coaching & mentorship

* Aaron's preparation for the 2004 Olympics

* acceptance & surrender in the wake of his Olympic DQ

* Aaron's love affair with water

* Aaron's spiritual vs. competitive nature

* career sustainability & passion

* the fallacy of ‘use it or lose it'

* the perils of overtraining

* characteristics of fellow Olympians

* retirement motivations

* environmental interests

* what it means to own your journey

What is the core motivation behind your passion?

I'd love to hear all about it in the comments section below.

Aaron is a special guy. It was an honor to spend time with him. I think you will feel the same. I sincerely hope you enjoy the exchange.

Peace + Plants,

Rich

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We’re back with yet another installment of Ask Me Anything — a twist on my normal format where we answer questions submitted by you, the listener.

In this week's installment, Julie and I discuss my recent visit to Beirut to run the marathon and then take two listener questions. First we discuss blogger Jordan Younger's battle with orthorexia and her decision to let go of her vegan identity. Then, in honor of Veteran's Day, we discuss a soldier's struggle with PTSD and the journey to self-forgiveness.

Specific topics include:

* why go all the way to Beirut to run a marathon?

* running for peace in the Middle East

* what is orthorexia?

* the nexus between eating disorders & trauma

* when wellness becomes illness

* the prison of identity labels

* a veteran's struggle with PTSD

* the journey to self-forgiveness

* making peace with the self in the wake of violence

Thank you to all the veterans out there for your selfless service. This episode is dedicated to those that suffer daily the trauma of that experience. A related podcast on the subject of veteran's issues and PTSD that you might enjoy is my conversation with Jason Hall, the screenwriter of American Sniper – RRP 130: Finding Purpose in Tragedy.

The show concludes with Cry, written and performed by Julie — aka SriMati – accompanied by our sons Tyler & Trapper Piatt.

Thanks to everyone who submitted inquiries — keep ‘em coming!

I sincerely hope you enjoy the conversation.

Peace + Plants,

Rich

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Our bodies are comprised of about ten trillion cells. But our microbiome — all the bacteria, viruses, and fungi that live in or on our bodies – outnumber human cells by a factor of 10. Therefore, it can be said that we are far more microorganism than human.

We choose to believe that we are sentient beings, responsible for our health, moods and decisions. But the crazy truth is that to a large extent, our emotional state, propensity for disease and even our specific food cravings can all be traced back to the nature of our gut ecology.

Most of these microorganisms are symbiotic. Maintaining a healthy culture of the right microorganisms is fundamental to good health. But should the quality of your microbiome go awry, health havoc ensues.

This week on the show we delve deep into the nuts and bolts of this fascinating and quickly evolving field of medicine with respected gastroenterologist, microbiome expert and avid marathoner Robynne Chutkan, MD ( @DrChutkan ).

A graduate of Yale, Dr. Chutkan received her medical degree from Columbia College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York, where she also did her internship and residency and served as Chief Resident. She completed her fellowship in gastroenterology at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York and has been on the faculty at Georgetown University Hospital since 1997.

In 2004, Dr, Chutkan founded the Digestive Center for Women, an integrative gastroenterology practice that incorporates nutritional optimization, exercise physiology, biofeedback, and stress reduction as part of the therapeutic approach to digestive disorders.

Lecturing throughout the United States and Europe, Dr. Chutkan has authored dozens of journal articles; serves as medical consultant and on air talent for the Discover Health Channel; is a member of the medical advisory board for the Dr. Oz Show (where she has appeared as a regular guest); and has also made national appearances on The Today Show, The Morning Show, and The Doctors.

Consistently named one of the area's best doctors by Washingtonian magazine, Dr. Chutkan is also the author of two bestselling books, Gutbliss* and most recently, The Microbiome Solution*.

Specific topics covered today include:

* what is the microbiome?

* The regulatory functions of the microbiome

* the perils of over-sanitization

* why you should avoid a c-section birth

* the problem with prophylactic antibiotic prescription

* the hygiene hypothesis & modern plagues

* the affluence effect & overmedication

* the nexus between antibiotics & autoimmune disorders

* behavior/cravings influenced by the microbiome

* eating disorder impact on microbial makeup

* why you should rethink the flu shot

* rewilding your microbiome

* the efficacy of probiotics & fermented foods

* products and environments that disrupt our body’s ecosystems

* fecal bacteriotherapy

Enjoy!

Rich

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Most people don’t know that 80% of all processed foods currently contain genetically modified organisms.

In fact, 54% Americans know virtually nothing whatsoever about the subject of GMOs.

Filmmakers Daryl Wein and Zoe Lister Jones hope to change all that.

Enter Consumed– the very first narrative feature film to tackle the quite controversial and incendiary subject of genetically engineered food.

In the vein of Silkwood, Erin Brockovich and Traffic, Consumed is a taught political thriller of intersecting storylines that pivot around a mother’s investigation into her son’s illness and a series of archetypal characters that ultimately collide in the tangled world of genetically modified foods.

Based on a co-written script directed by Daryl that stars Zoe as the mother, I first met the hyper-kinetic Daryl and his glowing and dynamic wife Zoe at a dinner party just before they commenced production on the film. I was impressed by how informed and passionate they were about the subject of GMO. Even more impressive was their ambition and courage to tackle such a hot button issue on film. That night I made them promise to come on the podcast when the film was complete to tell us all about it. That day is today.

Zoe and Daryl launched their relationship at NYU in 2002. Then they launched their careers, combining talents on two low budget relationship comedies, Breaking Upwards (SXSW, 2009) and Lola Versus (Fox Searchlight, 2012).

The films were so well received, the New York Times dubbed them, “Brooklyn’s answer to the Hollywood power couple,” establishing the pair as fresh new talents on New York’s independent film landscape alongside generational peers like Girls’ Lena Dunham.

The prudent career move for Daryl and Zoe would have been to stay in Brooklyn. Further cultivate their very New York sensibility. Continue making relationship comedies. And carve out fine careers in the vein of Woody Allen or Noah Baumbach.

Instead, they moved to Los Angeles and quickly set up a variety of film projects currently in development. Zoe started consistently showing up in movies and on television (she currently stars in Life In Pieces on CBS with Colin Hanks and Diane Weist). But most of all, they rolled up their sleeves and got to work crafting a complex, intricate independently financed drama about the world of GMOs. Ballsy!

Last Spring, Consumed premiered to positive acclaim at the Los Angeles Film Festival. Starring Zoe alongside a stellar cast that includes Danny Glover, Victor Garber, Griffin Dunne, Anthony Edwards and Taylor Kinney, it's just a really well done movie — I've watched it twice – topical, socially impactful and entertaining.

But let's be clear — it’s not a documentary. It doesn’t presuppose to answer questions, only ask them.

Today I sit down with today’s guests to ask a few questions of my own.

This is a very fun but at times heavy conversation that confronts the complex issues raised by GMOs and addresses the multi-faceted debate that swirls around it. Topics include:

* what interested Daryl and Zoe in the subject matter

* what they learned about GMO researching and making the movie

* the health & the environmental implications of GMO

* issue obfuscation in the GMO debate

* the socio-economic impact of GMO on farmers and consumers

* legislative & regulatory landscape & oversight of GMO

Enjoy!

Rich

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Who has time for ‘wellness'? I'm just trying to pay the bills.

I would love to eat healthy, but I simply can't afford it.

When it comes to great food – plant-based or otherwise — the common refrain is that its either too expensive, inconvenient or simply unavailable. Often it's all of the above. Although I often rebut several myths that swirl around these arguments, it’s undeniable that there is much truth in these assertions. Whole Foods has earned the moniker Whole Paycheck for a reason. If we want to truly redress our health care problems, we need to lay ruin to the elitism that so unfortunately undermines populist accessibility to optimal nutrition.

In order to achieve this end, we must disrupt traditional supply chain methods. Combat special interests that entrench the status quo. Eliminate overpaid middle men. And leverage forward-thinking innovation to improve access, convenience and affordability to healthy food beyond the well healed for those who need it most — everyone.

Gunnar Lovelace to the rescue.

Yes, that is his real name. A life-long wellness advocate reared on a true-to-life commune by a single mom, Gunnar inherited his passion for health, yoga, mindfulness and expanded consciousness at birth — long before it became a zeitgeist thing. 

Gunnar and I go way back. Years before my personal transformation. I still vividly recall our initial meeting when he walked into my law office in 2000 to discuss representation of his venture of the moment, GoodLife – an early internet socially conscious Yelp. On his feet were sandals. In his hand? A large mason jar filled with a mysterious and murky green sludge. What is that? Who brings something like that to a meeting with a lawyer? My very first glimpse of what I did not know at the time would later become a staple of my life.

Well ahead of its time, GoodLife fell victim to the dot-com bubble of the early aughts. But a long-lasting friendship survived.

A serial entrepreneur, now Gunnar is back and on to something big — very big — as the founder and co-CEO of a new business that represents a seismic shift in affordable access to healthy food — Thrive Market.

The digital love child of Costco and Whole Foods, Thrive is a direct to consumer, online shopping club platform that offers over 4,000 of best, healthiest, most popular natural and organic food brands in the world, but at a staggering 25-50% off typical retail prices, shipped anywhere in the United States for free.

How do they do it? By eliminating all the aforementioned middle men — the brokers, slotting fees and pay-to-play that is endemic in the food industry — and passing that savings along to members. In addition, for every paid membership to Thrive ($60 / year), they give a free membership to a low income family, a teacher, or a military vet.

Although founded less than two years ago, Thrive is growing incredibly fast. Beyond notable seed investors like Tony Robbins and Deepak Chopra, this past summer they closed a $30M Series A round of venture funding led by Greycroft with participants like John Legend, Toby Maguire & Demi Moore. These funds are already hard at work fulfilling Thrive's mission statement, which is to make healthy living easy and affordable for every American family. Good news for everyone.

Not your typical startup founder, Gunnar's keen business acumen inhabits the ethos of a yoga teacher. He's got a huge heart. He's one of the good guys. And I am super proud of what he is building.

Enjoy!

Rich

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This week I celebrate my friend and fellow podcaster Lewis Howes, host of The School of Greatness.

I met Lewis a couple years ago when we were both newbie podcasters. He did my show. I did his show. Friendship ensued.

A former professional football player and team handball Olympic hopeful who bottomed out before blossoming into a successful online entrepreneur, Lewis defies the stereotype that typically accompanies most successful alpha males. With a glint in his eye, Lewis is warm, incredibly giving, and a stellar example of what life can be like when your heart is open — gratitude in motion.

After an injury prematurely ended his football career, Lewis was depressed, aimless and broke. Yearning for inspiration as he convalesced on his sister's couch, he arrived at a question:

What kind of life do I want to lead?

Then he got to work. He sought out mentors — people thriving on their own terms. Applying the wisdom of those he respected, he began to create a vision for himself. He learned how to turn adversity into advantage. He cultivated a champion's mind-set. He hustled. He mastered his body. He practiced positive habits like appreciation, gratitude and mindfulness. He built a winning team. And perhaps most importantly, he learned how to be of service to others.

It worked. Living exactly the life he envisioned for himself daydreaming on his sister's couch in Ohio, today Lewis is a successful business coach, online entrepreneur, public speaker, podcast host, and now author.

Leveraging his personal experience and the wisdom of his mentors and inspiring podcast guests — Lewis has culled the best of what he has learned in a new book that came out just yesterday appropriately titled The School of Greatness: A Real World Guide To Living Bigger, Loving Deeper, And Leaving A Legacy*.

A primer on how to manifest your own internal greatness, it’s a fun, easy and informative read that not only inspires but provides actionable lessons and practical exercises aimed at helping you create vision and reach your ultimate potential.

On a personal note, I am deeply honored that Lewis includes my story in his book. I’m essentially the primary subject of chapter 5 entitled Master Your Body.

I love this guy. His positivity and integrity is infectious. It is my privilege to support him and his new book by sharing his message with you today.

Enjoy!

Rich

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What if everything you presuppose about addiction is wrong?

Enter Gabor Maté.

World renowned lecturer, physician and bestselling author, today's guest is a highly distinguished, in demand and at times controversial authority with a wealth of expertise on a range of topics that span addiction, stress and childhood development.

With over twelve years of first hand experience working up close and personal on Vancouver's skid row with patients severely challenged by hard core drug addictions, mental illness and HIV, Dr. Maté has cultivated a powerful yet eminently commonsensical perspective on this devastating affliction that contravenes conventional medical dogma. A perspective that begins with a single edict:

Addiction is not a choice.

Moreover, addiction has little to do with illicit substances. It's just not about drugs. Or gambling, or shopping, or porn or whatever behavior happens to, in the words of Dr. Maté, incinerate the lives of millions.

Instead, addiction is about the emotional pain behind the behavior. And healing is about confronting the past and untangling the circumstances that drive the individual to self-medicate in maddening defiance of all reason and logic.

Based on cutting edge science, case studies and a wealth of personal experience, Dr. Maté concludes that addiction is a predisposition programmed in early years — an infestation that lurks miles beyond choice. A disease rooted neither in genetics nor free will but rather in environmental factors that hard wire brain neurochemistry during formative childhood development. Accordingly, those that suffer should not be shamed or criminalized, but instead treated in the same way we approach anyone suffering from cancer or an autoimmune disease — not with blame but rather with compassion, sympathy and medical intervention.

As an author, Dr. Maté has written extensively on the subjects of addiction, early childhood development & trauma, attention deficit disorder, and the relationship between stress and disease. His most recent award-winning book, In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts: Close Encounters with Addiction* (a #1 bestseller in Canada) mixes personal stories with science to present a radical re-envisioning of addiction not as a discrete phenomenon confined to an unfortunate or weak-willed few, but as a continuum that runs throughout (and perhaps underpins) our society at large; not a medical “condition” distinct from the lives it affects, but rather the result of a complex interplay among personal history, emotional, and neurological development, brain chemistry, and the drugs (and behaviors) of addiction.

In other words, it's complicated. There is no miracle cure. There is no quick fix. But hope breathes in compassion and self-understanding — the first key to promoting healing and wellness,

Dr. Maté's work — and this book in particular — have been absolutely revelatory in helping me better understand myself, my personal history with addiction, and my ever evolving quest for greater well being. He changed my life. And I truly believe his message holds the power to improve the lives of anyone personally or tangentially impacted by addiction. And let's face it — in this day and age that includes almost everyone.

Enjoy!

Rich

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On a rainy night from a little boutique hotel in the Montmartre district of Paris after a whirlwind book tour in Germany last week, I'm filled with gratitude to bring you another installment of Ask Me Anything — a twist on my normal format where Julie and I discuss issues currently on the brain and answer listener submitted questions.

This week's topics include:

* tales from Das Plantpower Kochbuch German book tour

* the Berlin vegan scene

* shopping at the world's first all vegan supermarket

* hanging out with vegan strong man Patrik Baboumian

* plant-based in Paris

* vegan birthday at L'Arpège, the #12 best restaurant on Earth

* why you should stop “dieting”

* addressing the emotional drivers behind diet & behavior habits

* plant-based on the road — tips and tools

The show concludes with Aditya, an ancient Sanskrit mantra performed by Julie — aka SriMati – musically accompanied by our sons Tyler & Trapper Piatt. A mantra intended to imbue our lives with vibrant health, the lyrics (very) loosely translated from the root Sankskrit go something like this:

Om to the solar universal energy / Protect me from enemies within and without / I chant your name ceaselessly and victoriously / I bow to you

Special thanks to everyone who submitted inquiries — keep ‘em coming!

An extra special thanks to everyone who took a moment to send me a birthday message. I greatly appreciate it. Beginning my 50th year feeling awesome!

I sincerely hope you enjoy the conversation.

Peace + Plants,

Rich

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Author, global adventurer, social entrepreneur, human rights activist & lawyer, filmmaker and overall beautiful human.

All of these labels certainly befit today's guest, yet all somehow manage to fall short.

I can't quite recall how Jedidiah Jenkins first came across my radar. What I do remember is happening upon his rather stunning Instagram feed as he neared the end of a spectacular bicycle powered journey in Patagonia.

Each photograph more arresting than the one prior, every image conveyed it's own story that perfectly informed an engaging larger narrative. But it's Jedidiah's accompanying entries — beautifully composed, contemplative and quite poetic — that set his feed apart. Writings themed less by place than interior geography, it's Instagram as dynamic journal — an experiment in blogging that camps out hundreds of miles beyond any travelogue, blog or vlog you've ever before seen.

I was hypnotized. Who is this guy?

A graduate of the USC School of Cinematic Arts and Pepperdine University School of Law, Jedidiah began his professional career as one of the founding leaders of Invisible Children, the small non-profit that overnight became world renown courtesy of a little social justice campaign you might have heard of called #Kony2012– a campaign that redefined internet virality.

The progeny of adventurer journalist parents who quite famously graced the cover of National Geographic walking across America in the 1970’s, I think it’s fair to say that despite his deskbound legal career, Jedidiah and the outdoors had a little destiny to sort out. And so, to celebrate his 30th birthday, Jedidiah quit the job he loved to unconsciously follow in his parents' footsteps, scare himself, embrace the unknown and, like a character out of a Mark Twain novel, light out on the territory.

In August, 2013, on two wheels powered only by two legs, Oregon to Patagonia began in Florence, Oregon and culminated in Patagonia is January 2015. A sixteen-month, 10,000 mile journey elegantly and thoughtfully captured and shared on his incredibly popular Instagram feed and soon to be the subject of his first book

In so many ways, Jedidiah is exactly who I expected him to be. And yet his wit and warmth somehow managed to surprise me — a guy deeply connected to his personal truth and just so refreshingly present.

This is a phenomenal conversation about:

* the pursuit of wonder & adventure

* the transformative power of story

* the risk & reward of following your passion

* global wealth disparity

* dependence upon the kindness of strangers

* combatting our culture of skepticism

* behind the scenes of Kony 2012; and

* the beauty and peril of pursuing the creative life

Jedidiah is a very special guy. I am very excited to share this one with you. In all sincerity, I hope you enjoy the exchange.

Peace + Plants,

Rich

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Today I am pleased to offer a conversation with environmentalist, engineer and technologist Sailesh Rao, the founder and Executive Director of environmental non-profit Climate Healers.

With a focus on ahimsa — the Sanskrit word for non-violence — as an essential and perhaps the most powerful response to climate change, Climate Healers promotes technological and engineering advances aimed at clean air and reforestation. Partnering with NGOs, tribal villages, and school clubs, current projects include efforts to devise an affordable and high-functioning solar powered stove to replace the traditional — and quite environmentally detrimental — wood burning stoves that proliferate across low income areas of India.

An electrical engineer by training with a Ph.D. from Stanford University, Sailesh’s background in technology includes stints at both AT&T Bell Labs and Intel, where he was instrumental in developing early iterations of the internet itself.

Sailesh is also the author of Carbon Dharma: The Occupation of the Butterflies*– a call to undo the planetary damage done by the human species in its present “caterpillar stage” of existence.

As for palmares, Sailesh was selected as a Karmaveer Puraskaar Noble Laureate, an award presented by iCONGO (Indian Confederation of NGOs) whose primary mission is to encourage citizen action for social justice.

This is a conversation about environmental preservation, the inherent and incredible power of ahimsa, the imperative of service and a reminder that each and every one of can make a positive difference in the world.

Sailesh is a highly intelligent, contemplative and compassionate man devoted to making the world a better, cleaner place for us and future generations. I greatly enjoyed this conversation and applaud his advocacy and devotion to service.

I sincerely hope you enjoy the exchange.

Note: Apologies for publishing this episode a day late and for the brevity of this post. I am currently traveling internationally with little free time or internet access. I'm doing my best under the circumstances and appreciate the consideration. When I find the bandwidth, I may supplement this entry with additional thoughts and resources. Thanks for understanding!

Peace + Plants,

Rich

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Imagine a product that could eradicate muscle fatigue in just minutes. Allow you to train substantially harder and recover exponentially faster. Maximize your training efficiency while significantly boosting strength, endurance and overall athletic performance.

Sound too good to be true? Definitely. At least without failing a drug test.

Now what if I told you it's neither a drug nor illegal.

Impossible?

First let's backup. One of (if not the) biggest limiters in athletic performance is elevated core temperature. Exertion causes muscle cells to heat up. Via a process called arteriovenous anastomoses, the body does its best to dissipate this extra heat. But if you continue to push yourself, core temperature will continue to rise, compromising the effectiveness of a heat sensitive enzyme crucial for energy production called pyruvate kinase. The result? Weakness, fatigue and cramping.

If one could prevent the escalation of core temperature, it reasons that one could extend energy production and delay fatigue.

The study of thermoregulation in the performance and recovery context is hardly new. Athletes have been experimenting with cryotherapy, ice packs, ice baths and ice vests for decades. The problem with most of these techniques is that they just don't work all that well. It has to do with something called vasoconstriction. Overwhelming cold causes blood vessels to constrict, slowing cool blood flow to the core and thus undermining elevated core temperature reduction.

Enter The Glove — an apparent solution to core temperature thermoregulation without all that pesky vasoconstriction courtesy of a team of large brains led by today's guest — Stanford physiology and biology professor Craig Heller (and his colleague David Grahn).

Essentially a plastic hand enclosure attached to a pump that circulates cool water across the palm's special network of radiator-like heat-transfer veins that specialize in something called rapid thermal exchange (RTX), the glove overcomes the vasoconstriction dilemma by strictly regulating the temperature of the cool water (cool but not too cool) and by creating a slight vacuum around the hand that keeps the blood vessels open. Cool blood then gets distributed directly to the core organs most in need of relief, allowing the body to chill out and the muscles to keep producing energy.

Early studies show promise. Positive anecdotal stories are many. A seasoned gym rat and friend of Heller's lab increased his pull-up maximum from 180 to over 620 in less than six weeks by utilizing the glove in between sets. The result seems to neutralize muscle fatigue by cooling core temperature, allowing the subject to push himself or herself harder each workout, resulting in quantum improvement realized in a fraction of the time.

Heller deems the rate of improvement unprecedented, exceeding gains expected via steroid use.

Enjoy!

Rich

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We're back with yet another installment of Ask Me Anything — a twist on my normal format where we answer questions submitted by you, the listener.

In addition to recapping our recent visit to Washington, D.C. and our upcoming trip to Frankfurt, Germany, this week Julie and I traverse a variety of subjects, including:

* the release of “Proteinaholic” by Garth Davis, MD

* ‘happy traveler' – my experiments in gratitude

* the risk calculus of choosing security over passion

* the persistent illusion of the “do-over” life

* combating the “fundraising oxymoron”

* the nexus (or lack thereof) between diet and addiction

The show concludes with My Man, written and performed by Julie — aka SriMati – accompanied by our sons Tyler & Trapper Piatt.

Special thanks to Scott, Lisa & Dallas for today’s questions, as well as everyone who submitted inquiries — keep ‘em coming!

I sincerely hope you enjoy the conversation.

Peace + Plants,

Rich

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Jeff Castelaz is a big deal in the music biz. A self-made guy who scraped his way from nothing to launch and manage major musical acts, found and run a successful indie label and even serve up president duties at a major record label.

All of these things are very impressive and interesting.

None of these things are what draw me to Jeff.

Jeff is on the show because of his compelling, at times heart-wrenching but incredibly human life story. From his abusive childhood to his struggles with alcohol to the devastating loss of his six-year-old son Pablo to cancer, Jeff is a survivor. A guy who refused to let unbearable pain destroy him, instead leveraging it to access a deeper personal truth, inner strength and sense of purpose.

Finding life-saving comfort and solace in both music and cycling as far back as he can remember, Jeff successfully channelled his incredible passion for both into creating a life and legacy of meaning in selfless service to others as an entrepreneur, husband, father and philanthropist.

In his most recent post as president of Elektra Records, a division of Warner Music Group, Jeff worked alongside the likes of Ed Sheeran, Charlotte Gainsbourg and Kitten, bringing in acts like Fitz and the Tantrums, Saint Motel, The Moth & The Flame and Kaleo.

Prior to his post at Elektra, Jeff served as CEO of Dangerbird Records, which he co-founded in 2003. There, he played a key role in the careers of Silversun Pickups, Fitz and The Tantrums and Liam Gallagher's post-Oasis effort, Beady Eye.

In 2009 Jeff & his wife Joanne Thraikill tragically lost their son Pablo to cancer just six days after his sixth birthday. From the moment of Pablo's 2008 diagnosis with bilateral Wilms Tumor, a rare form of childhood cancer, Jeff took to the blogosphere to keep friends and family apprised of developments. Sharing his incomprehensible pain with a bold and raw vulnerability, PABLOG! went viral, resulting in a massive and unexpected outpouring of love and support for Pablo and the Castelaz / Thraikill family. Support Jeff and Joanne ultimately channelled into what would become the Pablove Foundation– a pediatric cancer charity which has raised $10 million to date in support of innovative pediatric cancer research and programs for kids and families living with childhood cancer.

Each year since its inception, Pablove hosts a charity ride called Pablove Across America. Today — Monday October 5, 2015 — marks the start of Pablove’s seventh annual week-long cycling event in which 40 cyclists will ride from Los Angeles to San Francisco to raise funds and awareness for childhood cancer. To find out more, get involved and donate, click here.

This is a conversation about music and life. Rage, pain, disease, addiction, loss and grief. It's about breaking old cycles. Learning how to heal. Growing up, self-care and sobriety. It's about hope, family, redemption and service. It's about salvation. And it's about the beauty, comfort and agony that comes with loving wide and loving deep.

Jeff is an incredibly charismatic guy with a infectious energy and a spirit the size of Montana. I'm proud to call him friend. And I'm proud to share this conversation with you today. May it move you as deeply as it moved me.

Peace + Plants,

Rich

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Admittedly, the tweet was inspired by a little low grade frustration at utterly failing to generate any mainstream national press interest whatsoever in our book The Plantpower Way, which had recently come out. A self-reminder that you can't push buttons and expect a pat on the back.

Fast forward three months to today's publication of Vegans Go Glam in The New York Times (The New York Times!) — a very large profile on our family and the growing vegan scene in Los Angeles and New York deftly penned by Jeff Gordinier. It's a big article (like, really big) in perhaps the most respected mainstream publication on the planet (do I even need to say that?). It's also an article that has kicked up some dust, generating lively discussion around the global water cooler. So much discussion in fact, Vegans Go Glam is the #1 most e-mailed story on the entire New York Times website today.

C'mon! Now, that is just insane.

So what does it all mean? That's for you to decide, not me. But today Julie and I do our best to talk it all through — including practices for cultivating gratitude — on this latest installment of Ask Me Anything. A conversation that explores:

* what it's like to have a huge story about you & your family in the New York Times

* cultivating tolerance beyond veganism

* restricting judgment of others & focusing on self; and

* how to get good at gratitude

The show concludes with Held So Sweetly, written and performed by Julie — aka SriMati – accompanied by our sons Tyler & Trapper Piatt.

Special thanks to “Jo” for today’s question, as well as everyone who submitted inquiries — keep ‘em coming!

I sincerely hope you enjoy the conversation.

Peace + Plants,

Rich

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It’s one thing when a skinny runner dude starts talking about the benefits of a plant-based diet.

It's another thing altogether when a 6′ 11″ 4-time NBA Champion tells you it's a good idea.

Enter John Salley.

Husband, father, athlete, actor, entrepreneur, talk show host, philanthropist, wellness advocate, NBA champion… and vegan.

John was the first basketball player in NBA history to win four championships with three different teams in three different decades — two with the Detroit Pistons ('89 & '90), one with the Chicago Bulls ('96) & one more with the Los Angeles Lakers ('00). After eleven seasons he retired as a Laker on the 2000 NBA Lakers Championship team. Since his retirement from the NBA, John has worked consistently in television, film, radio, print and new media. For seven years he co-hosted the Emmy-nominated series The Best Damn Sports Show Period (FOX). He then hosted BET's sports talk show Baller before creating his own show Game On for REELZ. In addition, John is an avid entrepreneur, channeling his enthusiasm for clean eating & advocacy for the vegan lifestyle into an array of ventures, including The Vegan Vine, his California wine brand (who knew some wine wasn't vegan?), and his Betta Life 21-Day Challenge.

John's mission is simple: to educate as many people as possible on the health and environmental benefits of a plant-based lifestyle.

This is a fairly free range conversation that takes us inside John's NBA career; what it was like to play ball at the highest level with guys like Michael Jordan, Isaiah Thomas and Shaq; and how being coached by Phil Jackson, perhaps the greatest coach in basketball history, helped forge his character and inform his post-NBA career success.

We get into the hows and whys of John's decision to go vegan; his opinion on how most professional athletes eat; why so many professional athletes die young; how he works with both athletes and average folks to change misplaced, normative ideas about the plant-based lifestyle; the importance of yoga and meditation in his routine; and what drives his mission to change the face of global health. A few more topics covered include:

* forging normative change by example

* the link between cancer & diet

* plant-based nutrition for athletes

* the importance of stepping stone goals

* warning the NBA about the nutrition risks

* millennial adaptation to technology

* making money while you sleep

* the benefits of meditation

* John’s stellar NBA career

* Coach Phil Jackson & team dynamics

* fragility of reputation & Big Brother

John is an easy guy to love. He is engaging, incredibly charismatic and always entertaining. But behind the playful attitude is a serious message worth heeding.

I sincerely hope you enjoy the exchange.

Peace + Plants,

Rich

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Imagine yourself a top executive at the very apex of the music industry food chain. Your job requires you to travel the world first class and wine and dine the biggest musical acts on the planet like Jay Z, Beyoncé, Coldplay and John Mayer. And you're making so much cash, you've twice been named to Fortune magazine's annual list of the top 20 highest paid executives under 40.

Now imagine walking away from it all. Why? 

Raised by a single mom in a series of unstable living situations, Jason Garner learned early and often how to look after himself. With street-wise hustle and natural salesmanship, he worked hard in school and later even harder in business.

Scrapping his way from a weekend job at a flea market to owning his own concert company, by the time he was 37 Jason had become CEO of Global Music at Live Nation Entertainment — the world’s largest concert promotion company and arguably the most important corporate entity in the entire music industry.

It can safely be said he made it.

Unfortunately, never once did Jason pause to take a breath. Operating on the misplaced belief that in order to be loved, he had to be the best, Jason would have happily pursued his career path all the way to the grave.

But then something happened. Something that would change everything.

In the wake of his second divorce, the single mom that was Jason's everything contracted stomach cancer. Her sudden death brought his life to a halt and his ego to its knees. Compelled to re-evaluate his life top to bottom, Jason finally asked himself a most important question:

what really matters?

To answer this, Jason did the unthinkable for someone in his exalted executive position: he quit his job.

And for the first time in his life, Jason actually breathed.

For the next several years, he immersed himself in the study and practice of health and spirituality. He got to know himself and the inner-workings of his mind. And he met the woman of his dreams.

Today he is both student and teacher of all things spiritual, mindful and meditative. A man who has spent literally thousands of hours sitting cross-legged with Masters of body, mind and spirit. A journey to wholeness that has left Jason far happier and more personally fulfilled than he ever was in his envious capacity as a prestigious CEO in perhaps the sexiest business in the world.

Jason shares his fantastic voyage to self-love and self-acceptance — from living for matter to living to matter — in his quite compelling memoir … And Then I Breathed: My Journey from a Life of Matter to a Life That Matters*. Plenty of further insights can be found on his thought provoking blog at jasongarner.com.

Jason is a beautiful, special soul. His courage, commitment and warmth (he signs all his e-mails with “Big Hugs”) inspires me to do and be better. It was an honor to sit in his vibration and I'm proud to share this conversation. A conversation that traverses the elegant arc of Jason's life with a focus on all things meditation & mindfulness.

Enjoy!

Rich

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Most of us want to do good.

We devote our precious time to causes we deem worthy. We donate our precious funds to charities that appear to make a difference. We pursue careers we consider meaningful, and patronize businesses and buy products we believe make the world a better place.

Unfortunately, we often base these decisions on assumptions and emotions rather than facts. As a result, even our best intentions often lead to ineffective—and sometimes downright harmful—outcomes.

So how can we do better?

In an effort to determine a career personally optimized for maximum positive impact, Professor William MacAskill began to ask himself this very question. While a young researcher at Oxford, he discovered that much of the potential for change was being squandered by lack of information, bad data, and our own prejudice. As an antidote, he and his colleagues developed a modality of thought that would later birth the movement known today as effective altruism: a practical, data-driven approach to “doing good” that proffers the best options to make a tremendous positive difference.

In other words, “doing good” (or a well-intentioned act aimed at doing good) is not enough.

We must do good better.

William is a 28-year old Scottish born scholar and author who is associate professor of Philosophy at Lincoln College Oxford. Previous to this chair, William was a research fellow in philosophy from Emanuel College at Cambridge and a Fullbright scholar at Princeton.

If all of this still fails to impress, while still in his twenties (because after all he is still in his twenties), William co-founded 2 successful non-profits, which combined have raised over $400 million in lifetime pledged donations to charity and helped to spark the effective altruism movement:

* 80000hours.org is an extremely cool and impressive ethical careers advisory service – sort of like an altruistic AI online career counselor — which provides research and advice on how you can best make a difference through your professional life.

* Giving What We Can encourages people to commit to give at least 10% of their income to the most effective charities.

Walking his talk, William has officially pledged to donate any and all earned income in excess of $35K USD to such effective charities. This makes for a very interesting line of questioning during today's conversation.

William shares his ideas — some of which are controversial and at times iconoclastic — as a contributor to The Atlantic and in several prominent international publications (see below show notes) and he and his organizations have been featured in The New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, NPR, and TED, among other media outlets.

Although William lives in Oxford, I was able to sit down with him in Silicon Valley a few weeks ago as his noon-profit 80000hours.org was one of the very first non-profits ever invited to participate in the highly prestigious accelerator program hosted by prominent seed venture fund Y Combinator. For context, this is the fund and program that launched companies like Dropbox, AirBnB, and Reddit among many others.

William recently released his first book, Doing Good Better:...

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Let's talk about depression.

Kevin Breel didn't fit the adolescent persona you would expect to fall prey to this debilitating affliction. One of the popular kids in high school, he was team captain of his standout basketball team. A class clown who would later pursue a career in stand up comedy. The guy who could hold court around the party keg and always keep everyone else laughing. Everyone except himself.

At the time, Kevin was leading a clandestine double life. A dark secret he kept well hidden behind his well attuned comedic timing. A confusing and dire mental state that would leave him bedridden and secluded in isolation for days on end. A fatal secret that culminated in a suicide attempt that nearly took his young life.

What prevented Kevin from sharing his pain and reaching out for help when he needed it most?

The stigma that still surrounds a mental disease that lurks in the shadows, feeds on isolation and goes unchecked due to profound misunderstanding and misplaced judgment.

You might be shocked to hear that according to Save.org, depression is the 2nd leading cause of death for young Americans between the ages of 15-24. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), depression impacts 121 million people across the globe and is the leading cause of disability worldwide, claiming 800,000 lives annually. That's one death by depression-induced suicide every 40 seconds.

Luckily, Kevin found a way out. A solution that began with the courage to directly confront his pain.

It was a move that not only saved his life, but gave him newfound purpose — a quest to shatter the profound yet unwarranted stigma that surrounds his disease by becoming an ambassador of hope to teens everywhere that they need not suffer in silence.

The message? That by embracing the darkness within and bringing it into the light, together we can heal.

At age 19, Kevin reared his gangly 6'3″ frame atop a stage in a small nondescript auditorium to share his story publicly for the first time. The circumstance? A local TEDx event in Ambleside, a quiet neighborhood in southwest Edmonton, Alberta. Hardly an illustrious venue, he looked out upon a small crowd of no more than 80 and thought, I'll be lucky if more than a couple hundred people ultimately watch this when it goes online.

What happened next was astonishing.

Lauded for its immediacy, raw honesty, unbridled emotion and authentic vulnerability, Confessions of a Depressed Comic struck a universal cultural nerve and became an instant viral hit. Collecting over half a million views in it's first 30 days, it now clocks well over 3 million views, making it one of the most watched TED Talks of all time. Featured on more than 200+ media outlets, Mashable called it “one of the moments that brought the world together.”

A 15-minute speech that forever altered the trajectory of Kevin's life.

Today Kevin is an internationally recognized mental health activist. A large personality exuding warmth and humor channeled around topics people tend not to talk about, Kevin has become an in demand guest speaker at over 100 colleges and universities across North America, frequently sharing the stage with Governors, professional athletes and celebrities. He has written opinion pieces for major media and his work has been featured by The Huffington Post, MTV, CNN, The TODAY Show on NBC, Mashable and The Wall Street Journal. Not enough?

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A little over a year ago, I shared an amazing conversation with Kip Andersen & Keegan Kuhn, the dynamic filmmaking duo behind Cowspiracy: The Sustainability Secret. If you missed that episode, I encourage you to check it out here– it's one of my most popular episodes to date.

An Inconvenient Truth meets Blackfish, Cowspiracy is an incredibly sobering and powerful (yet also funny and entertaining) documentary that takes a hard, unflinching look at the incredibly negative impact of animal agriculture on the health, well being and sustainability of our planet and it's precious, dwindling resources.

Whether we are talking about carbon emissions, climate change, the blindingly rapid destruction of our rain forests, over consumption of water, species extinction, the depletion and destruction of our soil, the pollution of our rivers, lakes and oceans or the obliteration of natural wildlife habitats, you might be surprised to discover the very inconvenient and uncomfortable truth that animal agriculture is the industry by far most responsible for the global environmental catastrophe we currently face.

If this is true, then why aren't we talking about it more?

Cowspiracy is the rather shocking tale of what Kip and Keegan discovered trying to answer this very question.

The little indie film that could, Cowspiracy is a true grassroots phenomenon. Crowd-source funded, rejected by the film festival circuit and lacking distribution, Kip and Keegan spent the last year traveling the country in a van attending independently organized, homespun screenings. Getting the word out one screen at a time, one audience at a time.

Then something truly amazing happened. The film fell into the hands of Leonardo DiCaprio. The biggest movie star in the world didn't just fall in love with the movie, he came on board as Executive Producer with a mission: that Cowspiracy become required viewing for everyone and anyone who gives a slightest damn about the health of our planet.

This week that mission moves towards reality. On Tuesday, September 15, Cowspiracy will premiere on Netflix worldwide. For those of you that have already seen the film, this is a new and improved cut — tighter with updated facts, it demands another view.

The impact of Leonardo's name and credibility on the film's reach is astronomical and cannot be overstated. I am extremely proud to be an early supporter and associate producer on this project. I'm excited for mainstream audiences to finally discover this important film. I'm over the moon that Kip and Keegan will now be recognized on a mass level for their incredible work.

But mostly I am excited for the dynamic environmental conversation that will inevitably ensue. And the positive changes to follow.

Picking up where our first conversation left off, today's podcast covers a lot of ground.

Enjoy!

Rich

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I love the everyman stories.

Adam Sud isn't famous. He's not a world-class performer. And he's not schilling a book.

He's just an average dude living a pretty normal life.

But look deeper and you'll find a rather extraordinary story. The story of a guy who completely lost himself in the bleak darkness of drug and food addiction. Hopelessly hooked since high school on the superman rush provided by Adderall, Adam spent most of his twenties isolating and high — up all night playing video games and binging on fast food.

The heavier he got, the more he isolated, until he stopped caring altogether. Life shrank to a cycle of getting high, finding more Adderall, and repressing his increased depression and anger with more and more fast food — a lifestyle that left him over 300lbs with Type-2 diabetes on a crash course with an early grave. Out of cash, unemployable and alienated from friends and family, Adam finally faced a choice:

live on the street or reach out for help.

After extended stays in rehab and sober living facilities Adam found sobriety, peace of mind and a new lease on life.

Oh yeah — he also lost over 100 pounds, reversed his diabetes and repaired his physical health wholesale. How?

By adopting an active, plant-based lifestyle.

Today, Adam lives a conscious, purpose-driven life devoted to helping others achieve and maintain a holistic, healthy lifestyle.

Not surprisingly, this is a conversation about drug addiction, sobriety and nutrition. But it's also a conversation about cross-addiction, low self-esteem and an important issue rarely discussed — body dysmorphia and eating disorders in men.

I'm inspired by Adam's tale of everyman redemption and I think you will be too.

I sincerely hope you enjoy the exchange.

Peace + Plants,

Rich

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Today marks my third conversation with the singular Casey Neistat.

Does a guy who has amassed over 100 million total views on his YouTube Channel — not to mention 1 million views daily — really need a formal introduction? Unlikely. But if for some reason this exciting filmmaker has eclipsed your radar, you can read my in depth thoughts on his extraordinary life and listen to our prior conversations HERE (RRP #73) and HERE (RRP #144).

If you're well on board the Casey train, you’ve witnessed quite an evolution in his recent trajectory. Since Casey began daily vlogging — posting a new movie on his YouTube Channel every single day since March 27, 2015 — his already incredibly popular YouTube Channel has exploded, growing from around 500,000 subscribers to well over 1.1 million in less than five months. On average, each vlog amasses around 500,000 views. This one tops out at 1.5 million (which incidentally has absolutely nothing to do with what occurs at the 4-minute mark):

A major network television show would kill for these numbers. But Casey has no interest in such matters. He's not making videos to capture the interest of the system he consciously placed in his rear view. For Casey, YouTube is the finish line — a juggernaut channel he built all by himself. DIY on the most democratic video platform in the world. And that is far more powerful and compelling than anything HBO, NBC, Disney or any other traditional mainstream outlet could ever offer him. Ever.

If you’re not yet hip to his channel, get on it. A unique voice delivered with expert filmmaking acuity, each and every movie hooks you emotionally and never fails to captivate. His movies are so popular in fact, crowds of people congregate daily outside his downtown New York City studio, pining for a mere glimpse of the populist artist.

And now thanks to the new social media video sharing platform he co-founded called Beme, Casey can add technology entrepreneur to his expanding resume.

Intended to change how we view and use social media, Beme allows users to post successive 4-second video snippets without the opportunity to preview, review or even view the clips before they publish. By altogether dispensing with the opportunity to edit and filter, the big idea is to promote honesty, authenticity and ultimately empathy through shared experience. Rather than sharing the well crafted and highly filtered version of ourselves we want the world to see, Beme is about sharing our point of view the way we actually experience it.

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I'm terrified.

I don't want to post this episode.

But hiding in the dark never helped me. Neither repression nor denial ever helped anyone.

In order to grow, we need to honestly confront our past. Understand it. Then own it.

Because you can't save your ass if you're trying to save face.

Today I shine a light on an episode of my past that still causes me shame.

Because shame can't survive the light.

I'm terrified.

I feel fragile. I feel vulnerable. And that's why I must post this episode.

Because I need to walk my talk. Because embracing vulnerability ultimately leads to strength.

Because shame can't survive the light.

I can't say I look forward to your thoughts on this one. But go ahead. Post your comments anyway.

Peace + Plants,

Rich

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I want to be happy. Everybody wants to be happy.

So why is it so hard to just be happy?

Many self-help gurus present happiness as a choice. The idea that happiness can be produced whenever we want, irrespective of circumstance. Simply learn to flick a certain mental switch and voila!

It's an intoxicating idea. But is this axiom actually true?

Meet Light Watkins.

Friend, teacher and expert on mindfulness and meditation, Light proffers some interesting and perhaps somewhat controversial counterpoint perspectives on a question that deeply concerns all of us: how to best cultivate happiness?

First, let's get the obvious out of the way. Beyond his beguiling good looks, Light Watkins is pretty much the coolest name ever. Right?

On a more earnest note, I would characterize Light as a generous, highly accessible and contemplative entrepreneur of mindfulness — always convivial, impressively composed, and quick with a laugh. He has been operating in the meditation space for over 15 years and has been teaching Vedic Meditation since 2003. He's personally taught nearly 2,000 people to meditate, including bankers, artists, politicians, CEOs, care takers, educators, comedians, rock stars, students, and seekers of all kinds. He is the author of The Inner Gym: A 30-day Workout for Strengthening Happiness*, a frequent blogger, TEDx speaker and founder of The Shine Movement. A mashup of TED, Hotel Café & The Self-Realization Fellowship, The Shine is an all volunteer organization that hosts periodic gatherings that use music, film, philanthropy and storytelling to inspire people to do more, give more, and be more.

We cover a lot of ground in this conversation, including:

* a primer on Vedic Meditation

* training consciousness like we train the body

* the importance of consistency in daily routines

* the distinction between knowledge & understanding

* Skepticism of new-age gurus & practices

* the image problem with meditation

* de-excitation of the mind through mantra

* the relationship between consciousness & restfulness

* the impact of meditation on insomnia

* the difference between biological and chronological time

* meditation impact on the fight or flight response; and

* strategies for strengthening happiness

Light inspires me. I love this guy. After listening, I think you will too. I sincerely hope you enjoy our exchange.

How do you cultivate happiness? I'd love to hear about it in the comments section below.

Peace + Plants,

Rich

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If you're a long-time listener of the podcast, then you’ve treated yourself to several of my conversations with today's guest. You know this guy well as my gravelly voiced, eminently talented, always charming yet generally disheveled, periodically homeless co-host — now back for a record 6th appearance on the RRP.

Mishka Shubaly doesn’t care much for formalities. But if you need a resumé, his goes something like this:

A self-professed povertarian, Mishka writes true stories about drink, drugs, disasters, desire, deception, and their aftermath. He began drinking at 13 and college at 15. At 22, he received the Dean's Fellowship from the Master's Writing Program at Columbia University. Upon receiving his expensive MFA, he promptly moved into a Toyota minivan to tour the country nonstop as a singer-songwriter, sharing the stage with artists like The Strokes, The Yeah Yeah Yeahs and The Decemberists.

At 32, Mishka got sober and shortly thereafter began publishing a string of bestselling Kindle Singles – short non-fiction novellas — through Amazon. His writing has been praised for its grit, humor, fearlessness, and heart. The Long Run*, his mini-memoir detailing his transformation from alcoholic drug abuser to sober ultra-runner is one of the best-selling Kindle Singles in Amazon history.

Mishka's third solo album, Coward’s Path — the finest set of miserable and sad songs you might ever hear– will be released on October 2, 2015. His new book, I Swear I'll Make It Up To You: A Life on the Low Road* hits bookstores March 8, 2016.

If you're new to this podcast, dig the Mishka vibe and want to hear more, check out RRP episodes 27,31,65,95 & 104. That's about 9 hours of Mishka to keep you busy.

Enjoy!

Rich

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Imagine bivouacking in a portaledge — you and two other guys crammed into a small mountaineering tent pitched vertically and dangling on the side of a sheer Himalayan cliff 19,000 feet above solid ground with nothing but nothing below you. Then imagine staying put for 12 days straight to weather a ferocious storm, torrential winds and temperatures that dip into twenty below territory.

That’s just one harrowing peek into the life of today’s guest, Conrad Anker – a man widely considered to be the most accomplished high altitude climber in the world and one of the most respected adventure athletes of all time.

The team leader of The North Face climbing team as well as the subject of not one but several Outside Magazine cover profiles, Conrad is renown for specializing in not just the highest mountains but the most technically challenging ascents — conquering the trickiest peaks spread across the high Himalaya, Antarctica, Alaska and the big walls of Patagonia.

Conrad has summited Everest 3 times, including a successful 2012 ascent without the aid of supplemental oxygen — a feat reserved for only the most elite mountaineers. In a 1999 Everest expedition, Conrad famously located the remains of George Mallory– the legendary British climber who disappeared in the midst of his historic 1924 attempt to be the first to summit the world's highest peak. Last seen about 800 vertical feet from the summit, speculation as to whether Mallory and his climbing partner Andrew Irvine had reached the summit before dying has been a subject of much dispute. But Conrad's discovery shed much light on the mystery of this and other pioneering climbs of early expeditions.

On a personal level, in 1999 Conrad survived an avalanche in Tibet — a massive wall of snow and ice that tossed his body 100 feet, beat him up badly and took the life of his best friend and climbing companion Alex Lowe. Conrad would later marry Alex's widow Jennifer and raise his three sons, Max, Sam and Isaac.

A few years ago I had the good fortune of meeting Conrad, including the privilege of hearing him share the story of his internationally celebrated 2011 attempt to summit a peak previously thought impossible – the Shark's Fin of Meru. Considered the most technically complicated and dangerous peak in the Himalayas, it's an astonishing tale.

Now this expedition is the subject of a new documentary aptly named Meru, feted with the prestigious Audience Award at last winter's Sundance Film Festival. I had an opportunity to see the film and I can say first hand that it is extraordinary. Visceral. Harrowing. And terrifying as much as it is inspiring. “A meditation on life, death and everything in between” according to Newsweek, the film works as a true character study, winning mainstream hearts previously unfamiliar with the world of climbing. A redemptive deep look into the lives and complicated pasts of Conrad and his talented climbing teammates Jimmy Chin and Renan Ozturk (both responsible for not only scaling the peak but also capturing the entire experience on film),

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