May 19, 2025 • 56 mins
In this emotional and eye-opening episode of Broken Brains, host Bruce Parkman is joined by Brandt McCartney—founder of The 38 Challenge—for an in-depth conversation about the devastating effects of repetitive brain trauma, Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE), and the mental health crisis among athletes and veterans.
Brandt shares the deeply personal story of his brother, Navy football player and Marine Captain Matthew Brewer, whose tragic passing inspired The 38 Challenge. Together, Bruce and Brandt unpack the link between repeated head impacts, emotional volatility, and CTE, while challenging the silence around mental health struggles.
This episode highlights the critical need for alternative treatment solutions, early intervention, and cultural change in how we view invisible injuries. From actionable solutions to hope-filled recovery stories, this conversation is a call to action for those suffering in silence—and those who support them.
Follow, share, like, and subscribe to Broken Brains with Bruce Parkman on Spotify, YouTube, and Apple Podcasts to join the mission of saving lives and changing minds.
Support brain injury advocacy and join the conversation about changing the future of sports safety.
Broken Brains with Bruce Parkman is sponsored by The Mac Parkman Foundation
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Chapters
00:00 Introduction to Repetitive Brain Trauma
02:45 The 38 Challenge: Honoring a Legacy
06:07 Matt's Life and Impact
12:02 Cautionary Tales of Brain Trauma
16:06 The Genesis of the 38 Challenge
20:10 Conversations on Mental Health and CTE
29:13 The Struggles of Athletes with CTE
31:01 Transitioning from Awareness to Action
32:30 Providing Hope and Solutions
33:38 Exploring Alternative Treatments
37:19 The Importance of Patient Feedback
40:02 Cultural Shifts in Health Awareness
44:20 Investing in Brain Health for Future Success
48:55 Stories of Hope and Recovery
https://www.mpfact.com/headsmart-app/
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LinkedIn: Brandt McCartney
Instagram: brandtmccartney
Website: the38challenge.com
Produced by Security Halt Media
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:11):
Hey folks, welcome to another edition of Broken
Brains with your host, bruceParkman, sponsored by the
amazing Mack Parkman Foundation,where we look at the issue of
repetitive brain trauma fromrepetitive head impacts from
contact sports to repetitiveblast exposure in our veterans
community and what theseconditions are doing to the
(00:31):
brains of our kids, our athletesand our veterans and the, the
which is causing the largestpreventable cause of mental
illness in this country, and why?
Why is this important?
Because you don't know about it, it's not trained in our
nursing, medical andpsychological communities.
This is an emerging phenomenathat's affecting millions of
(00:51):
Americans and we reach out topatients and advocates and
researchers and players and allkinds of folks to give you that
360-degree perspective on thisissue so that you can make
informed decisions aboutyourselves, your children and
those that you love.
On our show today, anotheramazing guest, mr Brant McCarthy
(01:14):
.
Not to be confused with PaulMcCarthy, he's almost as famous.
He's one of the mostwell-connected young men I ever
met.
This amazing young man has beenthrough the entire ringer from
you know the loss of his brotherto suicide, related to both
repetitive head impacts andrepetitive blast exposure, his
own challenges and mental healthstruggling, and he's very, very
(01:36):
open about it.
Some of the modalities have,and he's turned this into a
mission to help others, and heworks with athletes, veterans,
parents.
He's got an amazing foundation,the 38 Challenge, which we're
going to talk about in depth,and he's also the founder of the
Brain Optimization Lab and theco-founder with Jordan Reed, an
(01:59):
NFL player.
This young man has done anamazing job.
He's young, but he's driven,he's energetic and he
understands what this issue isall about, and we couldn't be
happier to have him on the showtoday.
Brant, how you doing, man.
Speaker 2 (02:12):
Doing well.
Brother, it's a pleasure to behere and love the mission, love
the podcast and looking forwardto jumping into it.
Speaker 1 (02:20):
Yeah, man.
So tell our audience.
Tell us a little bit aboutyourself, man.
How did you get here, man?
So tell our audience, man, Tellus a little bit about yourself,
man.
How did you get here, man?
Speaker 2 (02:25):
For sure, yeah, so you summarized it a little bit,
but, yeah, four years agounfortunately lost my brother,
united States Marine CorpsCaptain Matthew Brewer and
former Navy linebacker number 38, to suicide.
That's why I've got 38everywhere.
Um, and so when we lost matt,you know just as you, with mac,
(02:50):
were rudely introduced to theworld of, of brain injuries,
mental illness, um, and whatthat can do to someone.
I started the, the, thenon-profit, the 38 challenge.
So matt and I love doing uhintense exercise together, right
, he would uh wake me up earlyin the morning.
I'd be like, dude, what thehell Like, let me go back to bed
.
And he'd say, no, get out, comeon, let's go out, let's go work
(03:10):
out.
So, to honor Matt, I created awarrior workout, right, kind of
similar to the Murph challenge38 challenge.
So what is the 38 challenge?
38 challenge is a 38 minuteAMRAP, as many rounds as
possible of a 400 meter run, 38sit-ups, 38 push-ups, 38 squats.
(03:30):
You do as many rounds as youcan in 38 minutes.
However, the beautiful thingabout suffering and what I
wanted the workout to mean isreally the purpose behind it,
and that is to voluntarily placeyourself in an uncomfortable
situation and to lean on otherswhile suffering, right, because
that's what we have to do tochallenge the mental health
stigma.
So you know, we've had at ourevents, our workout events our
(03:50):
next one's coming up May 6during soft week but we've had
toddlers crawling for 38 minutes, geriatric population, you know
, walking upstairs to.
You know, professional athletesknocking out 12 rounds.
Adaptive athletes customize theworkout for them.
So so long as you're using 38as a variable to suffer, then
you're doing the 38 challengecorrectly.
So originally, when I startedthe 38 challenge, we partnered
(04:16):
with the Concussion.
Legacy Foundation is doinggreat work and all the money
went towards supportingpost-mortem brains and
warfighters and athletes right,so we can understand what's
going on in the brain, thingslike CTE, astrogliosis, that
kind of stuff Again, amazing andvery, very necessary work.
I got the personal convictionthat I wanted to shift our focus
(04:39):
towards providing solutions tohelp people now rather than
research people's brains whenthey're gone, right, again, I
think, both equally as important, um, so then I created the
brain optimization lab uh, againin partnership with Jordan Reed
, and um really were a Trojanhorse as a human performance
company, um, and our valueproposition is that, as you know
(05:05):
very well, bruce, being a highperformer comes with its own
unique challenges, especiallywhen you deal with brain
injuries and trauma.
So, as a Green Beret yourself,you have both of those things,
both in service and out ofservice.
Obviously, both in service andout of service, obviously.
And so what really we're tryingto do is, let's say you have a
(05:32):
multimillion dollar operator, orif you're Jordan Reed and
you're a $30 million athlete,but you're dealing with
depression, anxiety, you're notsleeping, you have troubles
outside the house due to yourbrain injuries and due to the
stress of the occupation, thenhow can we expect that
multimillion dollar asset toperform at its highest potential
when you're dealing with thingslike depression, anxiety?
Right, you and I both know that.
You saw me when I was at myworst way, different than you
(05:54):
see now, right?
And so you cannot expecthigh-performing people to
achieve greatness if they'redealing with the consequences
that come with being a highperformer.
So that's, that's really what,what, what wrapped man?
Obviously, bruce, you've beenum with this mission since since
day one and um, yeah, it's beena, it's a um, it's a blessing
(06:15):
and a curse.
Speaker 1 (06:16):
Blessing and curse and so having you.
But hey, let's, let's honoryour brother a little bit.
Tell us about matt man.
Tell what was he like man?
Because he sounded like.
I mean every time you tellstories, man, I know he uh, he
sounded like, just you know hewas a beast man, I mean uh he
was a beast.
Speaker 2 (06:31):
So, yeah, I got matt's dog tags tattooed on my
back attached to a crown ofthorns next to a cross when he
was alive.
Um, so you know he, he prettymuch raised me.
Um, you know he, he, I rememberI was.
He was 10 years older than I,was Right, so he was the stud
middle linebacker running backon the football team.
So I'd see these girls out bythe pool with belly button rings
(06:54):
when I was like six years oldand, um, I grew up.
I grew up really fast.
Um, I'll tell you a funny storyabout Matt.
So, um, uh, a couple, a coupleof funny stories when I was
younger, right, like I was, um,I wanted to be cool, right, and
so, um, and Matt would alwayslet me hang around his friends
and um, which is, you know,obviously looking back at it,
(07:16):
like that was a cool thing forhim to do, cause I was probably
annoying, very annoying, but, um, he, uh, they would, uh, they
would always party in ourbasement.
Obviously he didn't want my momto find out.
I remember there was one timethere was a Jack Daniels that
was hanging out under my brother.
I was like six or seven.
There was a Jack Danielspeeking out under my brother's
(07:36):
bed.
My mom and I went downstairs togo clean up or whatever, or
just check out the basement.
I saw this Jack Daniels hangingout of the bed.
As a six-year-old I knew whatit was and I knew that my
brother shouldn't have beendoing that.
I was like mom, what's that?
What's that?
And so and I kicked the jackdaniels underneath the
underneath the bed so shewouldn't see it.
Um, and just like so manystories like that man of me
(07:58):
being a young just growing upfast around my brother trying to
save his ass, and then he wentinto the Naval Academy and then
again he grew up very fast,obviously as the Academy does,
and it matures you and turns youinto a leader.
But yeah, I mean Matt.
You know he was those who knewhim.
(08:19):
He was very soft-spoken, a manof few words, but when he spoke
it was with everyone would stopand listen.
You know there was a letterthat one of Matt's commanders
wrote to him when he was in theMarine Corps.
I wrote to my mom after Mattpassed and they just described
Matt.
They said the first time thatwe shook his hand he just had
(08:40):
this fit factor, right, I mean,he was a 230-pound guy, rips,
you know, eight-pack abs and,again, well-spoken, very humble.
And yeah, there's another storyI just heard a couple of weeks
ago where Matt was the captainof this platoon right in the
(09:01):
Marine Corps and they were doingan exercise during training and
, um, they were climbing up this, this mountain, right, a really
tall, um, a tall mountain.
They all, they all had a bunchof rucks on um, and there's this
guy who's at the the this iscoming from the perspective the
guy who told me this story.
But this guy was at the veryend of the pack with this rock
(09:22):
and was like barely making itand he was holding up the rest
of the group and he wasstruggling and was probably
going to tap out.
And Matt was at the top of thepack, obviously leading.
Everyone went to the back, tookthis guy's, as he already had
his own rock, took this guy'srock, carried it like a freaking
duffel bag up the rest of themountain so this guy could make
it up with the rest of thepeople.
(09:43):
Matt had his rock and thencarried this other guy's rock
like a duffel bag, um, and yeah,just stories, like just so many
stories like that man, of justhim being incredibly um tough,
resilient, and he led with hisactions more than his words,
every single time well, bro,you're making him proud and your
dedication to him and his lifeyou, you know is his stories.
Speaker 1 (10:07):
Keeping his legacy going is very admirable because
you know, in our space, wherewe've lost loved ones and it can
be any loved one, right, yourloss is no greater or less than
mine, right, and we owe it tothem.
But very, very few of us canget up the next day and keep
going, and that's what our smallcommunity needs is more people
(10:29):
like you that gets up and saysenough is enough.
I'm not going to cry, I'm notgoing to mourn anymore, I'm
going to do.
And action in our space islacking, whether it's
legislation, whether it's publicpolicy, whether it's informed
parents.
I mean, it's nobody's doinganything.
And that's why you know, whatyou're doing right now is
(10:53):
absolutely amazing.
And as a caution to all of ourparents and all of our listeners
out there, you know, tell usabout, you know Matt did, about
everything wrong you could dowhen it comes to some concussive
trauma, man, I mean, the guywas just like you know, mac
played back to back sports andsnowboarded.
(11:13):
Tell us a little bit as acautionary tale right Towards
our audience, so they understand.
You know, it wasn't just beingin the Marine Corps or playing
football.
That was, you know, the causeof Matt's problems.
Speaker 2 (11:29):
For sure.
Yeah, I mean it was.
Yeah, it was multifaceted.
I think his favorite thing todo is get hit in the head.
Speaker 1 (11:40):
Sounds like the hockey guy we interviewed
yesterday.
I just like to fight, you know,yeah.
Speaker 2 (11:48):
Another Matt story.
He first started playingbaseball.
So Joe Buck was this Joe Bucksorry, jack Buck the father of
Joe Buck, the Monday NightFootball guy.
He was a famous announcer in StLouis.
And Jack Buck after mybrother's a half sibling.
After his father passed away,my brother's father, jack Buck,
(12:09):
kind of took Matt under his wingand he was like a grandfather.
He was like a grandfather toMatt.
So Matt was around baseballgrowing up and so they put Matt
in baseball and he was so badFrom what I hear he was horrible
so he didn't have a hit allseason, not one hit all season.
And it was like the last gameof the season like every all the
(12:30):
parents were like like, justlike she, like hoping that Matt
would just at least like get afoul ball or something.
Like he was brutal.
Last game of the season hestruck out again, went hitless
the whole season and then likeparents were crying dude, like
it was like devastating.
Next year Matt found out aboutwrestling, got into wrestling
(12:53):
and just dominated wrestling.
He was probably I think youknow again like eight years old
and he found his thing Right.
And then after that he got intofootball and again just
dominated in football.
So Matt started playingfootball when he was around um
nine years old, 10 years old, um.
But and then fast forward to,you know, uh, high school.
Matt is a, uh, all statewrestler, he's all state
(13:16):
linebacker and all state runningback Um taking.
I mean, the game plan was giveMatt the ball and Matt stopped
the other team right, like hewas the whole.
That was pretty much.
That was pretty much the gameplan.
So, um, and you know we'vetalked to, there's a talk to,
you know, one of Matt's oldcoach who was also my coach at
um at the time, and he expressedto me he goes, man, I feel
(13:39):
guilty, like we gave the ballsome times, like dude, he didn't
know, but I mean it was thatlike he, he had, you know he was
, he was touching the ball everyplay and you know there's
stories of.
There was one story of um, alinebacker who's two years
younger than matt, and mattliterally like not figuratively
but literally snap broke hishelmet in half, um, because he
(14:00):
hit him so hard in the head thathe, matt, broke his helmet in
half.
Because he hit him so hard inthe head that he, matt, broke
his helmet in the top of thehelmet Cracked.
He broke the helmet and then hetook that same mentality.
He wasn't the biggest, hewasn't the fastest, but he was
the most aggressive footballplayer on the field and he was
fearless.
That was just how people knewMatt.
(14:22):
So then he takes that to theNaval Academy.
I remember one play specifically.
I think it was against NotreDame.
It was against Notre Dame, Mattwas the headhunter his freshman
year at the Academy and meaningon.
So what a headhunter is is thatit's on kickoff and your goal
is to run as fast as you can andto hit the lead blocker of the
(14:45):
guy who's receiving the ball, tohit him as hard as you can so
that other people can come andtackle the ball carrier.
That was the job of theheadhunter and that was Matt's
job.
Perfect guy for the job.
But I remember one, thisspecific play versus Notre Dame.
Matt was on kickoff, hit thisdude in the helmet and it
literally sounded like there wasa car accident in the stadium,
(15:05):
like people went silent becausethe hit was so loud and Matt got
up and then he walked over tothe Notre Dame sideline, not
Navy, wow, yeah, got up, walkedover to the Notre Dame sideline,
not diagnosed with a concussionor anything, because he would
never say that.
But then they were like yo,you're on the wrong sideline.
(15:25):
And then he went back to theNavy sideline.
But that's how.
I mean, that was Matt.
So I think the cautionary pieceof this is and we talk about it
all the time Bruce, but I don'tknow if Matt would have changed
anything about his life becausehe loved the game of football so
much.
However, it's our job as asociety, with legislation, with
(15:49):
rules to be put in place toprotect kids.
Right, kids are going to dowhat kids want to do, but it's
just like you can't have a kidshotgun and a beer at 10 years
old, even though he wants toright, that's irresponsible.
So we have to have those samesort of laws in place to protect
kids brains for guys like MattRight, and like Mac.
(16:10):
So I think that's the, that'sthe cautionary piece of all that
.
Speaker 1 (16:14):
And it did.
Didn't he fit in some boxing?
And all that too.
Speaker 2 (16:17):
Yeah, there's also that.
So, yeah, yeah, so he was alsoa boxing champion.
So, yeah, so he was also aheavyweight boxing champion.
And then he served in theMarine Corps for years after
that doing heavy artillery andspecial operations.
Speaker 1 (16:31):
And that was the other side that I want folks to
know.
Matt's case crosses both sidesof repetitive brainursive trauma
in certain military occupations, especially as artillery is
(16:54):
right there at the top of thehit.
And everybody saw DavePhillips' article on those
Marines, artillery guys fromSyria that were just chucking
rounds all day and I think halfthe platoon was dead from
suicide, just from the impact onthese brains.
So now we're talking about apoor young man who loves sports
and sports, you know, I meanloved him and then he joins the
(17:17):
military, does what else heloves, and all that trauma is
why, you know, we are losing ouryoung men and women, you know
that unknowingly, are doing this, and that's why you know,
that's why you and I and othersare focused on, you know,
creating awareness.
You know, because Matt shouldbe here, right, mac should be
(17:37):
here, and they're not and wehave, you know, now we
understand our mistakes and wecan, we can fix this right,
right, we can.
Nobody's talking about gettingrid of the Marine Corps,
nobody's talking about gettingrid of football.
It's how do we train better andbecome lethal?
And then how do we, you know,also make our sports safer
(17:57):
through lowering the amount ofour contact.
But yeah, the amazing story,amazing man.
I wish I could have met him.
Speaker 2 (18:08):
I was like kind kind of guy I want to.
You know another mad story withum, just on the I'm not sure
how deep you want to get intothis, but just with the black
sea sputum stuff.
Remember he told me a story onetime um, there's a lot of
things he couldn't tell me, um,but remember, you know, when he
was training um, he went and hetold me one time I think there
was like a there's a limit ofhow many rockets you could shoot
(18:30):
off, right, with heavyartillery and mapping matt.
I think the limit was like twoor three and he shot off like
eight, um, and then he blackedout.
Didn't remember how he got home, um, from shooting off those
rockets, right.
So that's, I mean throwing up,blacked out.
Didn't remember he got home,home from shooting off those
rockets, right.
So that's, I mean, throwing up,blacked out, didn't remember
how he got home, like clearsigns of concussions.
But he nor do people in themilitary in general draw that
(18:56):
link where it's like he had toshot off eight rockets when I
was supposed to shoot off twoand now I'm having concussive
like symptoms, severe concussivelike symptoms, but to them it's
just another day on the job,right, this is just something
that happens, but it's likethat's obviously a clear
indicator of severe traumaticbrain injury, something that he
(19:19):
didn't no one put together.
Speaker 1 (19:21):
And that brings up a good point, because you know the
, you know, and he's a leader,right.
And so, as a leader, you know,while a lot of people don't
think, oh well, he doesn't shootthe mortars or shoot the
artillery gun, he's usuallypresent when those things are
going off because he'smonitoring his men and women
right there.
He's got to be there, so, youknow, by virtue of his job, you
(19:44):
know.
Plus, nobody wants to bring thedang rounds home and turn them
in anyway.
So let's just say get rid ofthem and bring back the brass,
right.
So no, that's yeah, I'm notsurprised.
It happens in the military allthe time.
We have restrictions, but youknow, we got to train.
Um, you know, sometimes peopledon't show up.
You have extra rounds lyingaround.
(20:04):
There's so much fun to shoot,right, like, hey, man, give me
that dude.
And you just start uncorkingthem and and and dropping them
down.
Rage and and, uh, you know,switch to do right.
So, um, so what was the impetusfor you to start the 38
challenge?
I mean, you didn't curl up,right?
No, obviously we mourn right,we all mourn right.
(20:26):
But you get to a point in yourgrief where and I don't even
know if you were aware of whymatt wasn't around you.
Just I mean, did you?
I don't think, I don't know youtell us about how, what?
What was the Genesis of 38challenge?
How did you get to thatresolution point in your grief
where you said I got to dosomething?
Speaker 2 (20:48):
For sure.
I think, first and foremost, Iattribute it to both God having
this part of my path and beingobedient.
Um, cause there is another,another side of this where I'm
not doing this and I'm in a verydark spot, right, which
unfortunately happens to a lotof people.
(21:09):
Um, but so when Matt was so,matt got out of the Marine Corps
right, he operated a Mali, wasin charge of a team of special
operators from across the world,right, I think it was a unit of
like 12 people all operatingwith the United Nations in Mali.
(21:32):
Matt was their captain.
So a couple SF guys, a coupleMARSOC guys and then other
operators from other unitsaround the world, at least from
my understanding of what hasbeen told to me.
And when he got back from that,after that he retired because
he was at this kind of fork inthe road, which I don't think is
(21:52):
uncommon for military folks,where Matt was 31 years old.
If I stay in, it's going to behard for me to start a family.
I really want to start a family.
I don't know if I want to makethe Marine Corps my entire life
and my career.
Maybe I want to get out and trysomething else.
And then he, while getting out,obviously as all servicemen or
(22:13):
athletes do, is when thatuniform comes off.
Then you struggle with identity, right?
You struggle with identity, youstruggle with purpose, you
struggle with, uh, what to do.
Um, so when Matt wastransitioning out of the Marine
Corps, he, he moved back in hometo St Louis, which in and of
itself is, you know, as thequote unquote, captain of the
Marine, captain America of theMarine Corps.
(22:34):
Having to move home with yourparent, you know, with your
parents, at St Louis, like'sagain not uncommon as people try
to figure out the next step oftheir career.
And so I was very fortunate tospend a lot of time with Matt
the three months before he tookhis life, and we got very close
(22:56):
during that time.
Not close verbally, because hedid not speak a lot of words
there, but I could tell that mebeing around Matt was helping
him.
Um, or at least he feltcomfortable around me.
He always wanted to be, healways wanted to be around me,
which, as a younger brother, islike the greatest honor ever,
right?
Especially when you've put thisguy on a, on a pedestal, your
(23:16):
whole life.
Speaker 1 (23:17):
Who doesn't want to hang out with captain America,
right yeah exactly on a pedestalyour whole life.
Speaker 2 (23:20):
Who doesn't want to hang out with captain America,
right?
Yeah, exactly so, exactly so.
We um did a lot of thingstogether, uh, during that time.
But you know, I I looking backat it now, like in the moment,
obviously, especially whenyou're on uneducated, you don't
recognize the symptoms, right,but looking back at it, know,
matt's would have just like um,outbursts of anger, right.
I remember one time like Iseasoned a steak wrong and like
(23:41):
he got pissed off and I was likedude, what like, what's, what's
, what's your deal?
Like it's not, it's not a bigdeal.
But looking back, it's like inthis, in the conversations we
have with people, it's like this.
That again, not uncommon,erupting and having anger about
things that you shouldn't beangry about.
Right, that's a, that's acommon symptom of traumatic
brain injury, um, depression,anxiety, all those types of
things.
Um, so, long story short, um, Ifelt like, towards the end of
(24:07):
the time with him, I felt thislike weird anxiety that I felt
and like tension, that likesomething's not right.
Uh, again, I couldn't put afinger on it during the time.
So, fast forward a little bit.
Matt still is.
Uh, matt goes to Kansas city tobecome a firefighter, right?
I go back to school at TexasChristian university to finish
(24:29):
off the semester.
Uh, this was right after COVIDand it had been a couple of
weeks since Matt and I spoke,since he moved to Kansas city,
and we text each other like, hey, man, love you, how have you
been?
Want to hear about Kansas City?
Let's talk on Valentine's Day,right?
This was like four or five daysbefore Valentine's Day that we
(24:50):
were texting.
Valentine's Day comes aroundand I remember looking at my
phone with Matt's contact pulledup.
I remember looking at my phonewith Matt's contact pulled up
and I didn't call him because Ididn't want to feel that anxiety
and that tension that I felt inSt Louis between him and I,
(25:12):
because something was not rightwith him and I thought it was
because he didn't have hispassion, his purpose, and he was
going to find that in KansasCity.
So I didn't call him on thatValentine's Day in 2021.
And he did not call me and then,a couple of days later, I got
the phone call from my mom thatMatt had killed himself and I
(25:34):
never got to have that lastconversation with him.
So for me, the genesis of the38 Challenge is I'm never going
to not have that hardconversation ever again, right,
and I'm going to do anything inmy power to empower others to
have those hard conversationswith people with their lives,
whether you're going, whetheryou're someone in Matt's
(25:55):
position or someone in myposition.
So that was kind of the genesisof it and I thought what better
way to honor Matt than do abrutal workout right, something
that he would have foundchallenging, that I find
challenging, and that, again, wecan empower other people to do
hard shit.
And asking for help and beingvulnerable, in my opinion, is
(26:18):
the hardest thing that you cando, because you look at Captain
America, who was the highestachiever in anything that he
ever did.
He didn't have the strength,and it's not a dig at him or a
dig at anyone, but that's howhard it is.
Asking for help is thatdifficult.
(26:38):
The guy who did all thedifficult things didn't ask for
help, right?
So we're trying to change theculture around being vulnerable
and asking for help.
And then when we found outabout CTE through one of Matt's
old teammates who reached out tomy mom and said, hey, but Mrs
Brewer, I really think that Mattstruggled with traumatic brain
(27:01):
injuries.
You should look into this.
Then it all kind of clicked andthen we kind of went down this
journey and endless rabbit holeof brain injuries, blast
exposure, trauma and all theissues that come with being a
high-performing person,especially those who operate and
play sports.
Speaker 1 (27:21):
Yeah, man, I mean it's, it's getting people to
talk, right, and whether youknow my son, you know I go over
this a million times, man, youknow why didn't he tell me?
What didn't I notice?
And then, of course, then youget your own cycle where you
start blaming yourself for notnoticing things, or then you
notice something's like man, Ishould have dug into that or I
(27:41):
should have checked into him tosee if he was sleeping.
And you know, in the end youknow you were a good brother,
right, and you loved yourbrother, and there's nothing you
know from the guilt side thatyou know you could have done
other than pray that he couldhave said something.
And the problem that, what, what?
(28:03):
The big problem that we hadback then when your brother and
my son left us, is that we didnot know that this issue was
treatable.
Right, there was, and that'syou know.
That's the whole other side ofthis.
This movement is like when thehell are we going to stop
researching this shit and startdoing something about it?
And that men and women that aresuffering, whether they're
(28:26):
wrestlers and MMA fighters orEOD techs in the military, are
aware that, yeah, you might beanxious and depressed and even
suicidal.
Speaker 2 (28:35):
But if it's been caused, if it's been caused by
repetitive blast or repetitivebrain trauma, dude, we can help
you, right, we can, we can dosomething about it, you know
it's not a and so another thingversus the last thing that my
brother Googled before takinghis life we got access to his
computer was what happened toJunior Seau, what happened to
(28:58):
Junior Seau's family.
So my brother knew, and he hadGoogled and researched CTE.
So my brother knew thatsomething was wrong.
And then at the time, and stilleven a little bit to today,
which I think is what you and Iare trying to change is this
fear mongering of and this, allthese disaster stories of hey,
(29:18):
if I have CTE, I'm going to turninto this suicidal maniac and
I'm going to hurt myself and thepeople around me, which in the
past, yes, can be true, but toyour point, bruce, it's like
there's like any, like anythingout there.
That's an injury.
There are ways to overcome thechallenges associated with that
(29:40):
injury.
Speaker 1 (29:40):
And that's what I get pissed about.
I mean, even to this date.
Right, we deal with some NFLplayers that don't want to talk
about this because they thinkthey're done right.
They don't want to know,they're just waiting to become
junior Seau.
It's like, bro, we can do.
You got to talk about this Like.
The other day I met a singer anda lead singer in a band played
(30:01):
mass amounts of football.
His wife comes up to us.
They're talking about his past,his struggles.
I'm like, dude, we can help.
He won't return my calls, mytexts.
I'm like, and that's what Idon't know, what I'm more pissed
off about this whole subject atall.
But what I don't like is thatafter all these years of talking
(30:21):
about CTE, we're still talkingabout CTE and everything we hear
about CTE is like you're goingto die, right, or your brain is
damaged, and all this stuffNobody talks about.
Hey, we can help people withCTE, right?
I mean, you can fix this, youcan and can we cure it?
No, it's a brain, but we canmake the brain better, we can
(30:43):
make the system symptoms subsideand all that.
And, dude, you know this.
So let's talk about thattransition, because when I met
you a long time ago at theConcussion Legacy Foundation,
where all this soul, survivorsof these crazy tragedies kind of
link up and we find each otherright.
Um, let's talk about yourtransition from hey, I want to
(31:04):
do a workout for my brother toyour deeper dive into the
science of why he left, and thennow transitioning to a purpose
where you know you are, in asense, in essence.
You know you and jordan areleading a movement to say, right
, you can play sports, butafterwards we're going to do the
(31:26):
best we can while you'replaying and afterwards that's
what dude, you know you're goingto enjoy your blink, right?
Nobody's hearing that part, sotalk to us about what you got
going on, man for sure, for sure, um, yeah, and I think there's
one, one point to.
Speaker 2 (31:41):
We made bruce's, and the frustrating thing and the
thing that we all have to cometo terms with is that if someone
doesn't want help, we can'thelp them, you know, if they're
not, if they're not willing toput in the work, um, and ask for
help, then there's nothing thatwe can do, and that's.
I wish that that was not true,genuinely.
I do, um, but that's just,that's just the truth, man, but
but I think what we can't do iswe can change the messaging
(32:02):
around it, empower people andlet them know and show them that
this is hope, that there ishope, so that hopefully, they,
they do raise their hand and askfor help right.
Speaker 1 (32:10):
But who wants to ask for help when they think it's
hopeless, right?
It's like and I think that'swhat your brother and my son
both struggled, I you know, withmajor mood disorders and it's
like, dude, this is the rest ofmy life.
I don't want to tell my folksI'm checking out, man, but I
can't go on like this becausethere's no hope, right, it's not
like cancer.
I can go to get treatments orsomething, right, there's
(32:32):
something that can be done.
My son didn't even know why hewas struggling.
Your brother had a clue, but ofcourse, when you dig into it,
it's like you're going to die,so, or your rest of your life is
going to be a disaster.
I mean, so they have no hopeand you're providing hope, so
talk about that.
Speaker 2 (32:51):
Um, yeah, so I would all again.
I, when we went on the rabbitholes of, like um, ct, blast
exposure, trauma, those types ofthings, it was like it made a
lot of sense to me.
But my thought immediately wentto I'm a problem solver.
My thought immediately went tookay, so how do we solve this
problem?
Like, okay, here's a problem,we're aware of it.
(33:13):
How do we solve it?
So then I started looking at youknow what happens with brain
injuries, trauma, high stress,environments, like what's
happening in the body and in thebrain, and so when you start to
look at the root causes, right,of what these things are
causing, like inflammation inthe brain and you know the death
(33:34):
of certain parts of the brainand the death of neurons, like
you look at all these things,you look at traumatic brain
injuries and high stress causinglow testosterone, and you see
all these different moving parts.
I looked at the root causes andthen I tried to find
technologies that wereevidence-based, that would have
mechanisms that wouldpotentially go after those root
(33:57):
causes.
So that was what I beganresearching.
So I got into things likehyperbaric oxygen and
psychedelics andphotobiomodulation or red light
therapy, sauna, cold points,right, all of these, and notice
how none of these arepharmaceutical interventions,
but they all are things thatoccur naturally within the body
(34:17):
and get to the root cause ofwhat Mac experienced and my
brother experienced in the body.
And get to the root cause ofwhat Mac experienced, my brother
experienced in the body and inthe brain.
So I started just doing thatresearch and when I started to
mention these things to leadersin the scientific community I
got a lot of pushback oh, that'sjust that smoke and mirrors,
that snake oil.
We've been approached by allthese different things like none
(34:40):
of them work and I was like butthese 100 different research
articles say otherwise and I'vegot three operators telling me
that hyperbaric oxygen savedtheir life with the before and
after brain images.
So my ears to the ground,looking at other scientific data
that's been presented, whilethe current experts in and I
(35:02):
don't think they had Mount and10, but the current, the current
experts in brain health and andall these things are saying
that no, there's all that stuffsnake all.
And I was like I don't know.
Speaker 1 (35:11):
We need more research .
Speaker 2 (35:13):
Exactly.
So then it became too.
So then what I realized is thatone of the problems within the
brain health community,especially when it comes to
treatment, is that there's a lotof skepticism within the
industry.
So I thought, okay, um, we needto.
We need to research thesethings and prove whether they
work or they do not work.
Right, and that was really thegenesis of the Brain
Optimization Lab.
So I'll give you a great exampleof hyperaric oxygen.
(35:34):
We've been researchinghyperaric oxygen for 15 years
and we still don't know if itworks or not.
Right?
I'll talk to some doctors oh,it's the best.
Talk to other PhDs oh, it'spseudoscience, it's BS, it
doesn't work.
The reason that they think thatis because there's a hundred
different studies on hyperbaricoxygen, all with different
(35:56):
protocols, some being highatmospheric pressures with high
amounts of oxygen, some beinglow atmospheric pressure with
low amounts of oxygen,everything in between with a low
number of oxygen, some beinglow atmospheric pressure with
low amounts of oxygen,everything in between with a low
number of N, meaning low numberof participants.
So there's no conclusion of oneprotocol that's been proven to
(36:16):
be effective with a high enoughlevel of participants for it to
have any sort of scientificlegitimacy.
So that's one example ofhyperic oxygen.
The other problem that we sawwithin the industry is that no
one is researching.
And this is just science ingeneral.
Right, when you're Dr JoeDuterte says this all the time
but when you are trying to growa plant, you don't isolate
variables.
(36:37):
You don't put the plant, youdon't put a bunch of water in
the plant and don't give itsunlight and air and soil right,
you don't isolate variables.
You put all those threetogether in a perfect concoction
so that the plant can grow anoptimal amount of each of those
things.
It's like when you go to the gym.
What happens when you go andyou tear your muscles?
(36:57):
You go back, you recover, youtake a protein shake, you roll
out, you stretch right, theseare the types of multimodality
approaches is not something thatis being researched in the
scientific community.
So that was the other thingthat we really started to focus
on.
The Brain Optimization Lab iswhat happens when you start to
pair some of these modalitieswith each other, and then how
can we prove, through objectivedata collection, that these
(37:22):
protocols are working or are notworking?
And that's really been thegenesis of the Brain
Optimization Lab.
Speaker 1 (37:28):
And your focus on working and not working and all
these scientists, man, you knowit's like look, working or not
working is what does the patientsay.
It's not what your science says.
If you ask me, when it comes toholistic, you know health, you
know remedies or modalities,however you want to put it is,
(37:49):
if you feel better, it's working, something's working because
otherwise you wouldn't feelbetter.
Now, could it be this?
Oh, it's just, you know,because you did it the first
time.
But when tens and hundreds andthousands of people that have
participated in studies, eventhough it's a small amount, I'll
say, hey, this has helped me.
We need to pay attention tothat, all right, and it's not,
(38:12):
you know?
Speaker 2 (38:13):
I mean, I don't know, man, I just uh, I'm very you
know if, if, if, sniffing theSharpie makes you not suicidal
anymore, it's not the damnSharpie.
Like like what do you?
Yeah, exactly Like likewhatever in it.
And so the approach that wetake at the brain optimization
lab is we do brain imaging, wedo wearable devices, we do a
(38:35):
blood work, we do spiritualfitness assessments and we take
a look under the hood andunderstand what someone's
baseline.
Again, we are not diagnosing,we're just saying this is where
you are.
And then here's the recommendedprotocol to to overcome your
specific challenges.
Right, like you just said,bruce, it's a very, it's very.
Everyone is very unique in whatsociety wants to do and what the
(38:57):
medical community wants to do.
And what I believe the devilwants to do is to put people in
these boxes and diagnose themwith things right, and then that
becomes their identity and thenthey live in that mindset the
rest of their life, when inactuality, they're a unique,
individually crafted person byGod with very unique life
(39:18):
challenges and traumas.
Right, and they need a uniqueapproach for them rather than
this cookie cutter.
Hey, I met you for 20 minutes.
You have this, this and that.
Here's four pills that aregoing to overcome that.
Good luck, see you in sixmonths.
Don't kill yourself.
That's pretty much the method.
And then you can go talk tosomeone, which, again, I'm not
against talk therapy, butthere's a lot of talk therapists
(39:41):
who are I don't think shouldhave any sort of right to be
giving counsel on people'smental health, and you're just.
The thing that happens with thebrain is when you talk about
the same thing over and over andover again, it gets deeper and
deeper and deeper ingrained intoyour memory.
And that's the current modelTake pills, numb yourself and
(40:03):
then go talk about the sameissue.
We're not going to talk abouthow we can use this to empower
you, or we're not going to talkabout how to get out of this,
this thought loop.
Speaker 1 (40:11):
Yeah, because if you get out of it, I can't give you
pills and I can't talk to you.
And bill, right, I mean it's,it's.
When are we going to focus onthe patient right, or the
individual?
Now, your approach to uh, youknow we're, you know, obviously,
the, the brain optimization lab, your approach to athletes is,
uh, you know it's, I think it isit twofold like, hey, while
(40:34):
you're playing, because you'rehurting yourself, right, we know
you're hurting yourself, butyou got to pay the bills, right,
you got to, you know, feed thebaby mama to.
You know, get the car gas inthe car, right, and so what's
that?
Speaker 2 (40:48):
So more than one baby mama.
Speaker 1 (40:49):
Yeah, or more than one baby mama, right, I mean,
hey, you know, if you're famous,go for it, right.
So you know if you, but if youcan, you know you got to pay the
bills, right.
So is your focus, hey, whileyou're doing this crazy stuff
and this goes to veterans tooright that veterans that are out
there, you know that are, are,no, they're hurting, but you
know don't want to really talkabout it or just want to act on
(41:13):
what they know is probably, youknow, happening to them so they
could, they can, improve theirbrain health while doing this.
And then, um, I guess the focusis, after they're done, retired
from the military, or um, youknow, or or from the sports,
from sports, then you give themthe hope that they can improve
their brain health and enjoytheir life.
Speaker 2 (41:33):
So yes, so we just had a talk.
We're working with this hockeyguy right um, and he was telling
us this story about sydneycrosby about 15 years ago and
when sydney was, I think, like17 years old, they were climbing
up this mountain, training inthe mountains in the off season
and the rest of the guys werebringing up, you know, slugging
(41:55):
beers.
Going up the mountain they gota 12 pack.
Sydney crosby's talking aboutgut health and how 90 of the
serotonin and your body is madein your gut and these, these
other hockey players are likedude, what the fuck are you
talking about?
We're hockey players, dude, yeah, I'm just trying to enjoy my
beer.
Man.
Again, it's the same mentalitywith all offers.
(42:15):
But that's why Sidney Crosbywas the best to ever do it.
That's why Tom Brady was thebest to ever do it.
That's why Derrick Henry spends$250,000 on his body a year.
That, like LeBron James, right,like all of these guys, the
people who invest in their brainand in their body are the ones
who become the best of all time.
(42:36):
Right, that is what thatseparation is, right.
So our approach at the BrainOptimization Lab is to get
people to understand that right,to have a culture change where
you're taking care of these.
You're taking care of thingsthat no one else is taking care
of, right Through your brainhealth.
So what does that do?
Right?
What are our objectives?
(42:56):
One is we are in the businessof making elite killers right,
of better athletes, of moreproductive entrepreneurs, of
better human beings, right,that's what we're after.
So how do we do that?
Right?
All these modalities areimproved just on their own, are
proven to increase cognition,increase sleep, increase
recovery, increaseneuroplasticity all those things
(43:18):
right, which is going to helpyour performance.
But then what we're also afteris, as we talked about, bruce,
when you go and you play a gameor you go on, you go shoot off
eight rockets.
You have inflammation in thebrain, just like after you're
done with a workout.
You have inflammation in yourmuscles, right, and there has to
be protocols and things put inplace to reduce that
inflammation so that thelong-term degradation of your
(43:41):
brain is reduced right.
Degradation of your brain isreduced right, and those
long-term consequences so wehope and so we think is our
hypothesis is that the risk oflong-term degeneration goes down
right.
So it's really twofold.
To your point, bruce, it's howdo we make you a more elite
(44:01):
performer now?
And then, how do we make surethat you are able to protect
your money in the future?
Right, you'll be able to be abetter father to your children,
a better spouse, right, a betteroverall human being, so you can
actually enjoy the fruits ofyour labor down the road instead
of being Junior Seau, right?
Or some of these other, youknow, some of these other people
(44:22):
who, unfortunately, the diseaseand the injuries got to them.
That's kind of our thing.
And, jordan, I joke, it's like,hey, how much money did you
spend on that chain around yourneck?
50 grand, is that going to getyou to your next contract?
No, it's not.
Hey, how many $100 bills didyou throw at the club last night
(44:44):
?
$10,000?
.
Is that going to help you getto your next multimillion-dollar
contract?
No, right.
So let's start investing intoyour body and into your brain so
that you can make more moneydown the road, and then you have
the capacity and the tools toprotect it and live a life
that's worth living down theroad.
Speaker 1 (45:08):
I don't know what your bigger challenge is getting
guys to focus on their brainhealth or getting them to stop
drinking beer, listen, I love afew beers.
Oh my Lord, if I could get backthe hundreds of thousands of
beer cans I've chugged in mylife man as a soldier.
Speaker 2 (45:25):
For us.
It's like we're not telling youwhat not to do, it's just like
okay, let's do like like we gotto hang over protocol man, like
moderation man, everybody tellsme.
Speaker 1 (45:33):
I say, man, the Bible always talks about moderation.
I was like, where do you seethat in the Bible I go?
It's everywhere, man.
Speaker 2 (45:40):
You just got to look at it, man, you know and like
it's so, like, so what we'rereally, what really after the
brain optimization, that culturechange man.
So it's like like I, like wewere at air force weapon school
right elite, some of the most umelite fighter pilots in the
world, right, and their cultureis the same as every other high
performing culture, which islike scotch popcorn and like
(46:02):
zins zins girls and Celsiusright.
Like that's like stimulants,women and booze right, and then
killing people or just being anabsolute weapon Right, and that,
and that's the pride that comeswith it.
We do not want to change thatculture.
We just want to bring in alittle bit of balance to that
culture where it's like we getit, but like hey.
(46:22):
If culture where it's like weget it, but like hey, if you're
not sleeping and you're boozingevery night and your nervous
systems are wrecked and you'recrushing stimulants all day,
then you cannot be the best ofyour ability, according to
science and according to whatyour brain imaging says, like
dude, you need some freakingsleep, man, yeah, yeah, exactly.
And then and then they're goingto become better and more
(46:43):
satisfied and just betteroverall human beings, right,
that's, that's we're after thatbalance that you're talking
about.
Speaker 1 (46:50):
And I think that's changing culturally.
I mean, you do, I, as I look at, I compare myself, you know,
back in the eighties, where youknow we didn't love, we just,
you know, we were just animals,man.
I mean, we found our way intothe Army, we found our way into
Special Forces, and drinking,fighting and women was just
(47:12):
that's the life, man.
You don't have to grow upeither.
That's the beautiful thingabout the military and about
being a professional sportsplayer.
You really don't have to growup, man.
You got to do your job right.
The rest of the world, I'll getto maturity when I want to.
Right now, I'm going to theclub or I'm going to drink this
12-pack with my friends and I'mgoing to the bar to look at
(47:32):
girls, right, that's just thelife that we had.
Now you know these newergenerations I mean people say,
ah, they're lazy, whatever.
They're a lot moreconscientious of themselves,
whether it's their spiritualhealth, their brain health,
their body health, and they areway more open to these
discussions than my generationis right, I'm the last of the
(47:54):
baby boomers.
Speaker 2 (47:56):
So that it's to that balance point, bruce, I think
it's like, like my generation islike like, yes, we're more
conscious, yes, like weunderstand our gut and our brain
, a lot of stuff.
But I do also wish that we hadsome more of that tenacity that
you guys brought to the tableand that just like getting after
it.
Um, because, again, it's thatbalance, you like that.
That that you know, warrior inthe garden, to my opinion is
(48:20):
like that's the perfect you got.
You should have both.
You should have the ability toturn, to turn it on, and you
should have the ability to turnit on and you should have the
ability to turn it off.
And I think a lot of mygeneration does not have the
ability to turn it on and a lotof your generation does not have
the ability to turn it off.
Speaker 1 (48:34):
That's a good point, man.
That's a good point.
We'll have to work on that.
Switch man and get that going.
Yeah definitely yeahno-transcript.
Speaker 2 (49:09):
But so we, through the 38 Challenge Brand
Optimization, I'm working withthis veteran right now.
I won't disclose his name, buthe I got connected to him back
in March of last year.
He shot himself in the head,tried to take his own life and
survived.
So this is his story.
So he during, you know, duringthe war on terror, was enlisted
(49:32):
right, was a heavy artillery guy.
Boots on ground, had multiple,had, I think, two IEDs.
I think he rolled over two IEDtwo separate times so had two
massive uh brain injuries thereand then was around heavy
artillery.
Really his whole career.
(49:53):
Uh put his best, had to put hisbest friend in a body bag in
the middle of a, in the middleof a firefight, um in
afghanistan.
Um got out after and um, one ofhis other best friends took his
life there was that he servedwith and then this guy's wife
(50:14):
cheated on him with his businesspartner.
And then at that point this guy,you know, decided to put a gun
in his mouth and pull thetrigger.
And I'm like dude, like that'sa lot, man, and he didn't even
consider that it was his serviceor the or the TBIs that could
have led to that decision downthe road, didn't even consider
(50:35):
it.
But anyways, when we, when hecame to us, his he had lost like
80 pounds from all thesurgeries.
His testosterone was at 100.
He wasn't sleeping at night.
He was grateful to be alive nolonger suicidal, but grateful to
be alive.
But he was a mess.
(50:58):
Fast forward a couple months,his testosterone's at 950
because we got him the thingsthat he needed to be on.
He's sleeping eight to 10 hoursa night with an average sleep
score of 98%.
He's dating again.
We have him on a weight gainingplan.
I think he's put on like 20pounds and his life's completely
turned around.
(51:20):
And so it's like those storiesare what we're after, those
stories of hope, and it's verypossible, right, it's more.
Those stories are what we'reafter, Bruce, like those stories
of hope and like it's verypossible, right, it's more than
possible If you're willing toput in the work and you're
willing to be vulnerable and youhear the messages that we're
putting out like it's 100%possible.
So just want to end with thatstory of hope.
But where do you find us?
And what's coming up?
So, 38 Challenge we're shiftingtowards again, again, providing
(51:42):
these scholarships to, like theones I just mentioned.
To this, this gentleman, scott,um, well, so his name won't say
his last name, but to the, tothe war fighter, um.
And then our next event is may6th.
Uh, we have a 38 challengeevent, workout event, uh,
tuesday morning during a softweek special operations
conference in tampa, florida.
So if you're in the tampa area,make sure to register for that.
(52:04):
I know you guys will be a partof that, bruce.
Um, we'll, we'll be gettingafter it.
And then, um, on the brainoptimization lab side of the
front, we've got some reallyexciting projects that we're
working on, um, uh, which I'llcatch you up more on, uh, some
other time, bruce, but we're uh,uh, partnering with a group in
Miami to start working with someNFL players there.
And then we've got some lettersof support for some pilots with
(52:27):
, or some pilot studies with,different military groups who
are interested in this kind ofholistic approach.
Because, again, we're not doingthe.
Our goal is to not do the IRBrigorous healthcare model, which
I know a lot of operators aresick of because it just doesn't.
Nothing gets done that way.
So we're trying to again bethis Trojan horse of human
(52:50):
performance and doing the wholeprocess.
So, yeah, you can find us atthe38challengecom.
We're currently building a newwebsite for the Brain
Optimization Lab, but you cancheck out the kind of landing
page right now atthebrainoptimizationlabcom.
Check out the kind of landingpage right now at the
brainoptimizationlabcom.
Yeah, and anyone who's outthere that's listening, that
needs help.
Speaker 1 (53:07):
Reach out and we'll get you the help you need.
Well, brant man, it's anamazing journey, amazing story.
I'm always just astounded bywhat you're doing as a young man
, in honor of your brother andtrying to help those that are
suffering from these injuriesthat they didn, injuries that
you know, they didn't know theyhad and sometimes they don't
(53:27):
know that there's hope out there.
So God bless you and yourorganizations for what they're
doing, for you know athletes,veterans and children, and may
the Lord bless you on yourjourney.
I look forward to catching upwith you pretty soon.
Speaker 2 (53:42):
Sure, yeah, we got to .
We'll catch up soon, man, andI'm going to send that.
I forgot to get us in thatemail to Legion today, but be
able to announce that prettyquickly soon, I think, too, with
just what Mac and 38 will bedoing with the American Legion
to draw more awareness to this.
So I love you, man.
I always appreciate theplatform and just appreciate you
, and more than you know's here.
(54:03):
So you're, yeah, you're.
If there's, there's one guy Icould go to go to hell with a
water gun with, it'd be you.
Speaker 1 (54:12):
So we'd go down fighting bro.
That's about it, man Well thankyou so much for your time and
your dedication.
Man Folks, another greatjourney.
Make sure you find Brant andremember you can honor Captain
Matt Brewer by doing that 38challenge anytime you want, and
it doesn't have, it's 38,.
Whatever you want to do, 38 and38 minutes, just knock it out.
(54:34):
It's a great and, trust me, 38minutes it's good man.
You're hurting dude and I lovedoing them.
I hate doing them until I'mdone.
Then I'll do it again, you know, but that's what we need to do
to honor not just Matt but othermen and women that are not here
, their sacrifice and the issueof repetitive brain health.
So, as we turn, as we end thisepisode right here, remember the
(54:56):
, the second internationalsummit on repetitive brain
health, to be held September 2nd, 3rd here in Tampa.
Please get online, find it.
Tickets are going pretty fast.
We've got an astounding list ofspeakers coming in and our
keynotes are world-class.
Remember this is the onlysummit on this issue.
Right now, as we push forward,learn about the legislation that
we got forward.
(55:16):
That's going to be on ourwebsite.
Remember the book, free book.
Go to our website, wwwmpfactcom.
Get your book, give it away toall your friends, get smarter as
we continue on this journey ofknowledge and awareness and
consciousness about the issue ofrepetitive brain health.
So take care of those brains.
You only got one.
(55:36):
Take care of the ones you love.
God bless you all and we'll seeyou next time on another
episode of Broken Brain.
But hey, folks, one more thingRemember that we now have the
HeadSmart app on the Google andApple Store.
Go ahead and download it.
It's a concussion awareness app, but it's the only one that
contains information about theissue of repetitive brain trauma
and how to look at your kids tomake sure that they might have
(55:58):
just played too much of thewrong sport too long.
They can still play sports.
Sports are healthy.
Keep them out of contact Sportsall the time.
Man, Protect those brains.
All you got to do is downloadour app and guess what it has
the book in it.
So, anyways, see you soon.
Thanks so much you.
Hey folks, welcome to another edition of Broken
Brains with your host, bruceParkman, sponsored by the
amazing Mack Parkman Foundation,where we look at the issue of
repetitive brain trauma fromrepetitive head impacts from
contact sports to repetitiveblast exposure in our veterans
community and what theseconditions are doing to the
(00:31):
brains of our kids, our athletesand our veterans and the, the
which is causing the largestpreventable cause of mental
illness in this country, and why?
Why is this important?
Because you don't know about it, it's not trained in our
nursing, medical andpsychological communities.
This is an emerging phenomenathat's affecting millions of
(00:51):
Americans and we reach out topatients and advocates and
researchers and players and allkinds of folks to give you that
360-degree perspective on thisissue so that you can make
informed decisions aboutyourselves, your children and
those that you love.
On our show today, anotheramazing guest, mr Brant McCarthy
(01:14):
.
Not to be confused with PaulMcCarthy, he's almost as famous.
He's one of the mostwell-connected young men I ever
met.
This amazing young man has beenthrough the entire ringer from
you know the loss of his brotherto suicide, related to both
repetitive head impacts andrepetitive blast exposure, his
own challenges and mental healthstruggling, and he's very, very
(01:36):
open about it.
Some of the modalities have,and he's turned this into a
mission to help others, and heworks with athletes, veterans,
parents.
He's got an amazing foundation,the 38 Challenge, which we're
going to talk about in depth,and he's also the founder of the
Brain Optimization Lab and theco-founder with Jordan Reed, an
(01:59):
NFL player.
This young man has done anamazing job.
He's young, but he's driven,he's energetic and he
understands what this issue isall about, and we couldn't be
happier to have him on the showtoday.
Brant, how you doing, man.
Speaker 2 (02:12):
Doing well.
Brother, it's a pleasure to behere and love the mission, love
the podcast and looking forwardto jumping into it.
Speaker 1 (02:20):
Yeah, man.
So tell our audience.
Tell us a little bit aboutyourself, man.
How did you get here, man?
So tell our audience, man, Tellus a little bit about yourself,
man.
How did you get here, man?
Speaker 2 (02:25):
For sure, yeah, so you summarized it a little bit,
but, yeah, four years agounfortunately lost my brother,
united States Marine CorpsCaptain Matthew Brewer and
former Navy linebacker number 38, to suicide.
That's why I've got 38everywhere.
Um, and so when we lost matt,you know just as you, with mac,
(02:50):
were rudely introduced to theworld of, of brain injuries,
mental illness, um, and whatthat can do to someone.
I started the, the, thenon-profit, the 38 challenge.
So matt and I love doing uhintense exercise together, right
, he would uh wake me up earlyin the morning.
I'd be like, dude, what thehell Like, let me go back to bed
.
And he'd say, no, get out, comeon, let's go out, let's go work
(03:10):
out.
So, to honor Matt, I created awarrior workout, right, kind of
similar to the Murph challenge38 challenge.
So what is the 38 challenge?
38 challenge is a 38 minuteAMRAP, as many rounds as
possible of a 400 meter run, 38sit-ups, 38 push-ups, 38 squats.
(03:30):
You do as many rounds as youcan in 38 minutes.
However, the beautiful thingabout suffering and what I
wanted the workout to mean isreally the purpose behind it,
and that is to voluntarily placeyourself in an uncomfortable
situation and to lean on otherswhile suffering, right, because
that's what we have to do tochallenge the mental health
stigma.
So you know, we've had at ourevents, our workout events our
(03:50):
next one's coming up May 6during soft week but we've had
toddlers crawling for 38 minutes, geriatric population, you know
, walking upstairs to.
You know, professional athletesknocking out 12 rounds.
Adaptive athletes customize theworkout for them.
So so long as you're using 38as a variable to suffer, then
you're doing the 38 challengecorrectly.
So originally, when I startedthe 38 challenge, we partnered
(04:16):
with the Concussion.
Legacy Foundation is doinggreat work and all the money
went towards supportingpost-mortem brains and
warfighters and athletes right,so we can understand what's
going on in the brain, thingslike CTE, astrogliosis, that
kind of stuff Again, amazing andvery, very necessary work.
I got the personal convictionthat I wanted to shift our focus
(04:39):
towards providing solutions tohelp people now rather than
research people's brains whenthey're gone, right, again, I
think, both equally as important, um, so then I created the
brain optimization lab uh, againin partnership with Jordan Reed
, and um really were a Trojanhorse as a human performance
company, um, and our valueproposition is that, as you know
(05:05):
very well, bruce, being a highperformer comes with its own
unique challenges, especiallywhen you deal with brain
injuries and trauma.
So, as a Green Beret yourself,you have both of those things,
both in service and out ofservice.
Obviously, both in service andout of service, obviously.
And so what really we're tryingto do is, let's say you have a
(05:32):
multimillion dollar operator, orif you're Jordan Reed and
you're a $30 million athlete,but you're dealing with
depression, anxiety, you're notsleeping, you have troubles
outside the house due to yourbrain injuries and due to the
stress of the occupation, thenhow can we expect that
multimillion dollar asset toperform at its highest potential
when you're dealing with thingslike depression, anxiety?
Right, you and I both know that.
You saw me when I was at myworst way, different than you
(05:54):
see now, right?
And so you cannot expecthigh-performing people to
achieve greatness if they'redealing with the consequences
that come with being a highperformer.
So that's, that's really what,what, what wrapped man?
Obviously, bruce, you've beenum with this mission since since
day one and um, yeah, it's beena, it's a um, it's a blessing
(06:15):
and a curse.
Speaker 1 (06:16):
Blessing and curse and so having you.
But hey, let's, let's honoryour brother a little bit.
Tell us about matt man.
Tell what was he like man?
Because he sounded like.
I mean every time you tellstories, man, I know he uh, he
sounded like, just you know hewas a beast man, I mean uh he
was a beast.
Speaker 2 (06:31):
So, yeah, I got matt's dog tags tattooed on my
back attached to a crown ofthorns next to a cross when he
was alive.
Um, so you know he, he prettymuch raised me.
Um, you know he, he, I rememberI was.
He was 10 years older than I,was Right, so he was the stud
middle linebacker running backon the football team.
So I'd see these girls out bythe pool with belly button rings
(06:54):
when I was like six years oldand, um, I grew up.
I grew up really fast.
Um, I'll tell you a funny storyabout Matt.
So, um, uh, a couple, a coupleof funny stories when I was
younger, right, like I was, um,I wanted to be cool, right, and
so, um, and Matt would alwayslet me hang around his friends
and um, which is, you know,obviously looking back at it,
(07:16):
like that was a cool thing forhim to do, cause I was probably
annoying, very annoying, but, um, he, uh, they would, uh, they
would always party in ourbasement.
Obviously he didn't want my momto find out.
I remember there was one timethere was a Jack Daniels that
was hanging out under my brother.
I was like six or seven.
There was a Jack Danielspeeking out under my brother's
(07:36):
bed.
My mom and I went downstairs togo clean up or whatever, or
just check out the basement.
I saw this Jack Daniels hangingout of the bed.
As a six-year-old I knew whatit was and I knew that my
brother shouldn't have beendoing that.
I was like mom, what's that?
What's that?
And so and I kicked the jackdaniels underneath the
underneath the bed so shewouldn't see it.
Um, and just like so manystories like that man of me
(07:58):
being a young just growing upfast around my brother trying to
save his ass, and then he wentinto the Naval Academy and then
again he grew up very fast,obviously as the Academy does,
and it matures you and turns youinto a leader.
But yeah, I mean Matt.
You know he was those who knewhim.
(08:19):
He was very soft-spoken, a manof few words, but when he spoke
it was with everyone would stopand listen.
You know there was a letterthat one of Matt's commanders
wrote to him when he was in theMarine Corps.
I wrote to my mom after Mattpassed and they just described
Matt.
They said the first time thatwe shook his hand he just had
(08:40):
this fit factor, right, I mean,he was a 230-pound guy, rips,
you know, eight-pack abs and,again, well-spoken, very humble.
And yeah, there's another storyI just heard a couple of weeks
ago where Matt was the captainof this platoon right in the
(09:01):
Marine Corps and they were doingan exercise during training and
, um, they were climbing up this, this mountain, right, a really
tall, um, a tall mountain.
They all, they all had a bunchof rucks on um, and there's this
guy who's at the the this iscoming from the perspective the
guy who told me this story.
But this guy was at the veryend of the pack with this rock
(09:22):
and was like barely making itand he was holding up the rest
of the group and he wasstruggling and was probably
going to tap out.
And Matt was at the top of thepack, obviously leading.
Everyone went to the back, tookthis guy's, as he already had
his own rock, took this guy'srock, carried it like a freaking
duffel bag up the rest of themountain so this guy could make
it up with the rest of thepeople.
(09:43):
Matt had his rock and thencarried this other guy's rock
like a duffel bag, um, and yeah,just stories, like just so many
stories like that man, of justhim being incredibly um tough,
resilient, and he led with hisactions more than his words,
every single time well, bro,you're making him proud and your
dedication to him and his lifeyou, you know is his stories.
Speaker 1 (10:07):
Keeping his legacy going is very admirable because
you know, in our space, wherewe've lost loved ones and it can
be any loved one, right, yourloss is no greater or less than
mine, right, and we owe it tothem.
But very, very few of us canget up the next day and keep
going, and that's what our smallcommunity needs is more people
(10:29):
like you that gets up and saysenough is enough.
I'm not going to cry, I'm notgoing to mourn anymore, I'm
going to do.
And action in our space islacking, whether it's
legislation, whether it's publicpolicy, whether it's informed
parents.
I mean, it's nobody's doinganything.
And that's why you know, whatyou're doing right now is
(10:53):
absolutely amazing.
And as a caution to all of ourparents and all of our listeners
out there, you know, tell usabout, you know Matt did, about
everything wrong you could dowhen it comes to some concussive
trauma, man, I mean, the guywas just like you know, mac
played back to back sports andsnowboarded.
(11:13):
Tell us a little bit as acautionary tale right Towards
our audience, so they understand.
You know, it wasn't just beingin the Marine Corps or playing
football.
That was, you know, the causeof Matt's problems.
Speaker 2 (11:29):
For sure.
Yeah, I mean it was.
Yeah, it was multifaceted.
I think his favorite thing todo is get hit in the head.
Speaker 1 (11:40):
Sounds like the hockey guy we interviewed
yesterday.
I just like to fight, you know,yeah.
Speaker 2 (11:48):
Another Matt story.
He first started playingbaseball.
So Joe Buck was this Joe Bucksorry, jack Buck the father of
Joe Buck, the Monday NightFootball guy.
He was a famous announcer in StLouis.
And Jack Buck after mybrother's a half sibling.
After his father passed away,my brother's father, jack Buck,
(12:09):
kind of took Matt under his wingand he was like a grandfather.
He was like a grandfather toMatt.
So Matt was around baseballgrowing up and so they put Matt
in baseball and he was so badFrom what I hear he was horrible
so he didn't have a hit allseason, not one hit all season.
And it was like the last gameof the season like every all the
(12:30):
parents were like like, justlike she, like hoping that Matt
would just at least like get afoul ball or something.
Like he was brutal.
Last game of the season hestruck out again, went hitless
the whole season and then likeparents were crying dude, like
it was like devastating.
Next year Matt found out aboutwrestling, got into wrestling
(12:53):
and just dominated wrestling.
He was probably I think youknow again like eight years old
and he found his thing Right.
And then after that he got intofootball and again just
dominated in football.
So Matt started playingfootball when he was around um
nine years old, 10 years old, um.
But and then fast forward to,you know, uh, high school.
Matt is a, uh, all statewrestler, he's all state
(13:16):
linebacker and all state runningback Um taking.
I mean, the game plan was giveMatt the ball and Matt stopped
the other team right, like hewas the whole.
That was pretty much.
That was pretty much the gameplan.
So, um, and you know we'vetalked to, there's a talk to,
you know, one of Matt's oldcoach who was also my coach at
um at the time, and he expressedto me he goes, man, I feel
(13:39):
guilty, like we gave the ballsome times, like dude, he didn't
know, but I mean it was thatlike he, he had, you know he was
, he was touching the ball everyplay and you know there's
stories of.
There was one story of um, alinebacker who's two years
younger than matt, and mattliterally like not figuratively
but literally snap broke hishelmet in half, um, because he
(14:00):
hit him so hard in the head thathe, matt, broke his helmet in
half.
Because he hit him so hard inthe head that he, matt, broke
his helmet in the top of thehelmet Cracked.
He broke the helmet and then hetook that same mentality.
He wasn't the biggest, hewasn't the fastest, but he was
the most aggressive footballplayer on the field and he was
fearless.
That was just how people knewMatt.
(14:22):
So then he takes that to theNaval Academy.
I remember one play specifically.
I think it was against NotreDame.
It was against Notre Dame, Mattwas the headhunter his freshman
year at the Academy and meaningon.
So what a headhunter is is thatit's on kickoff and your goal
is to run as fast as you can andto hit the lead blocker of the
(14:45):
guy who's receiving the ball, tohit him as hard as you can so
that other people can come andtackle the ball carrier.
That was the job of theheadhunter and that was Matt's
job.
Perfect guy for the job.
But I remember one, thisspecific play versus Notre Dame.
Matt was on kickoff, hit thisdude in the helmet and it
literally sounded like there wasa car accident in the stadium,
(15:05):
like people went silent becausethe hit was so loud and Matt got
up and then he walked over tothe Notre Dame sideline, not
Navy, wow, yeah, got up, walkedover to the Notre Dame sideline,
not diagnosed with a concussionor anything, because he would
never say that.
But then they were like yo,you're on the wrong sideline.
(15:25):
And then he went back to theNavy sideline.
But that's how.
I mean, that was Matt.
So I think the cautionary pieceof this is and we talk about it
all the time Bruce, but I don'tknow if Matt would have changed
anything about his life becausehe loved the game of football so
much.
However, it's our job as asociety, with legislation, with
(15:49):
rules to be put in place toprotect kids.
Right, kids are going to dowhat kids want to do, but it's
just like you can't have a kidshotgun and a beer at 10 years
old, even though he wants toright, that's irresponsible.
So we have to have those samesort of laws in place to protect
kids brains for guys like MattRight, and like Mac.
(16:10):
So I think that's the, that'sthe cautionary piece of all that
.
Speaker 1 (16:14):
And it did.
Didn't he fit in some boxing?
And all that too.
Speaker 2 (16:17):
Yeah, there's also that.
So, yeah, yeah, so he was alsoa boxing champion.
So, yeah, so he was also aheavyweight boxing champion.
And then he served in theMarine Corps for years after
that doing heavy artillery andspecial operations.
Speaker 1 (16:31):
And that was the other side that I want folks to
know.
Matt's case crosses both sidesof repetitive brainursive trauma
in certain military occupations, especially as artillery is
(16:54):
right there at the top of thehit.
And everybody saw DavePhillips' article on those
Marines, artillery guys fromSyria that were just chucking
rounds all day and I think halfthe platoon was dead from
suicide, just from the impact onthese brains.
So now we're talking about apoor young man who loves sports
and sports, you know, I meanloved him and then he joins the
(17:17):
military, does what else heloves, and all that trauma is
why, you know, we are losing ouryoung men and women, you know
that unknowingly, are doing this, and that's why you know,
that's why you and I and othersare focused on, you know,
creating awareness.
You know, because Matt shouldbe here, right, mac should be
(17:37):
here, and they're not and wehave, you know, now we
understand our mistakes and wecan, we can fix this right,
right, we can.
Nobody's talking about gettingrid of the Marine Corps,
nobody's talking about gettingrid of football.
It's how do we train better andbecome lethal?
And then how do we, you know,also make our sports safer
(17:57):
through lowering the amount ofour contact.
But yeah, the amazing story,amazing man.
I wish I could have met him.
Speaker 2 (18:08):
I was like kind kind of guy I want to.
You know another mad story withum, just on the I'm not sure
how deep you want to get intothis, but just with the black
sea sputum stuff.
Remember he told me a story onetime um, there's a lot of
things he couldn't tell me, um,but remember, you know, when he
was training um, he went and hetold me one time I think there
was like a there's a limit ofhow many rockets you could shoot
(18:30):
off, right, with heavyartillery and mapping matt.
I think the limit was like twoor three and he shot off like
eight, um, and then he blackedout.
Didn't remember how he got home, um, from shooting off those
rockets, right.
So that's, I mean throwing up,blacked out.
Didn't remember he got home,home from shooting off those
rockets, right.
So that's, I mean, throwing up,blacked out, didn't remember
how he got home, like clearsigns of concussions.
But he nor do people in themilitary in general draw that
(18:56):
link where it's like he had toshot off eight rockets when I
was supposed to shoot off twoand now I'm having concussive
like symptoms, severe concussivelike symptoms, but to them it's
just another day on the job,right, this is just something
that happens, but it's likethat's obviously a clear
indicator of severe traumaticbrain injury, something that he
(19:19):
didn't no one put together.
Speaker 1 (19:21):
And that brings up a good point, because you know the
, you know, and he's a leader,right.
And so, as a leader, you know,while a lot of people don't
think, oh well, he doesn't shootthe mortars or shoot the
artillery gun, he's usuallypresent when those things are
going off because he'smonitoring his men and women
right there.
He's got to be there, so, youknow, by virtue of his job, you
(19:44):
know.
Plus, nobody wants to bring thedang rounds home and turn them
in anyway.
So let's just say get rid ofthem and bring back the brass,
right.
So no, that's yeah, I'm notsurprised.
It happens in the military allthe time.
We have restrictions, but youknow, we got to train.
Um, you know, sometimes peopledon't show up.
You have extra rounds lyingaround.
(20:04):
There's so much fun to shoot,right, like, hey, man, give me
that dude.
And you just start uncorkingthem and and and dropping them
down.
Rage and and, uh, you know,switch to do right.
So, um, so what was the impetusfor you to start the 38
challenge?
I mean, you didn't curl up,right?
No, obviously we mourn right,we all mourn right.
(20:26):
But you get to a point in yourgrief where and I don't even
know if you were aware of whymatt wasn't around you.
Just I mean, did you?
I don't think, I don't know youtell us about how, what?
What was the Genesis of 38challenge?
How did you get to thatresolution point in your grief
where you said I got to dosomething?
Speaker 2 (20:48):
For sure.
I think, first and foremost, Iattribute it to both God having
this part of my path and beingobedient.
Um, cause there is another,another side of this where I'm
not doing this and I'm in a verydark spot, right, which
unfortunately happens to a lotof people.
(21:09):
Um, but so when Matt was so,matt got out of the Marine Corps
right, he operated a Mali, wasin charge of a team of special
operators from across the world,right, I think it was a unit of
like 12 people all operatingwith the United Nations in Mali.
(21:32):
Matt was their captain.
So a couple SF guys, a coupleMARSOC guys and then other
operators from other unitsaround the world, at least from
my understanding of what hasbeen told to me.
And when he got back from that,after that he retired because
he was at this kind of fork inthe road, which I don't think is
(21:52):
uncommon for military folks,where Matt was 31 years old.
If I stay in, it's going to behard for me to start a family.
I really want to start a family.
I don't know if I want to makethe Marine Corps my entire life
and my career.
Maybe I want to get out and trysomething else.
And then he, while getting out,obviously as all servicemen or
(22:13):
athletes do, is when thatuniform comes off.
Then you struggle with identity, right?
You struggle with identity, youstruggle with purpose, you
struggle with, uh, what to do.
Um, so when Matt wastransitioning out of the Marine
Corps, he, he moved back in hometo St Louis, which in and of
itself is, you know, as thequote unquote, captain of the
Marine, captain America of theMarine Corps.
(22:34):
Having to move home with yourparent, you know, with your
parents, at St Louis, like'sagain not uncommon as people try
to figure out the next step oftheir career.
And so I was very fortunate tospend a lot of time with Matt
the three months before he tookhis life, and we got very close
(22:56):
during that time.
Not close verbally, because hedid not speak a lot of words
there, but I could tell that mebeing around Matt was helping
him.
Um, or at least he feltcomfortable around me.
He always wanted to be, healways wanted to be around me,
which, as a younger brother, islike the greatest honor ever,
right?
Especially when you've put thisguy on a, on a pedestal, your
(23:16):
whole life.
Speaker 1 (23:17):
Who doesn't want to hang out with captain America,
right yeah exactly on a pedestalyour whole life.
Speaker 2 (23:20):
Who doesn't want to hang out with captain America,
right?
Yeah, exactly so, exactly so.
We um did a lot of thingstogether, uh, during that time.
But you know, I I looking backat it now, like in the moment,
obviously, especially whenyou're on uneducated, you don't
recognize the symptoms, right,but looking back at it, know,
matt's would have just like um,outbursts of anger, right.
I remember one time like Iseasoned a steak wrong and like
(23:41):
he got pissed off and I was likedude, what like, what's, what's
, what's your deal?
Like it's not, it's not a bigdeal.
But looking back, it's like inthis, in the conversations we
have with people, it's like this.
That again, not uncommon,erupting and having anger about
things that you shouldn't beangry about.
Right, that's a, that's acommon symptom of traumatic
brain injury, um, depression,anxiety, all those types of
things.
Um, so, long story short, um, Ifelt like, towards the end of
(24:07):
the time with him, I felt thislike weird anxiety that I felt
and like tension, that likesomething's not right.
Uh, again, I couldn't put afinger on it during the time.
So, fast forward a little bit.
Matt still is.
Uh, matt goes to Kansas city tobecome a firefighter, right?
I go back to school at TexasChristian university to finish
(24:29):
off the semester.
Uh, this was right after COVIDand it had been a couple of
weeks since Matt and I spoke,since he moved to Kansas city,
and we text each other like, hey, man, love you, how have you
been?
Want to hear about Kansas City?
Let's talk on Valentine's Day,right?
This was like four or five daysbefore Valentine's Day that we
(24:50):
were texting.
Valentine's Day comes aroundand I remember looking at my
phone with Matt's contact pulledup.
I remember looking at my phonewith Matt's contact pulled up
and I didn't call him because Ididn't want to feel that anxiety
and that tension that I felt inSt Louis between him and I,
(25:12):
because something was not rightwith him and I thought it was
because he didn't have hispassion, his purpose, and he was
going to find that in KansasCity.
So I didn't call him on thatValentine's Day in 2021.
And he did not call me and then,a couple of days later, I got
the phone call from my mom thatMatt had killed himself and I
(25:34):
never got to have that lastconversation with him.
So for me, the genesis of the38 Challenge is I'm never going
to not have that hardconversation ever again, right,
and I'm going to do anything inmy power to empower others to
have those hard conversationswith people with their lives,
whether you're going, whetheryou're someone in Matt's
(25:55):
position or someone in myposition.
So that was kind of the genesisof it and I thought what better
way to honor Matt than do abrutal workout right, something
that he would have foundchallenging, that I find
challenging, and that, again, wecan empower other people to do
hard shit.
And asking for help and beingvulnerable, in my opinion, is
(26:18):
the hardest thing that you cando, because you look at Captain
America, who was the highestachiever in anything that he
ever did.
He didn't have the strength,and it's not a dig at him or a
dig at anyone, but that's howhard it is.
Asking for help is thatdifficult.
(26:38):
The guy who did all thedifficult things didn't ask for
help, right?
So we're trying to change theculture around being vulnerable
and asking for help.
And then when we found outabout CTE through one of Matt's
old teammates who reached out tomy mom and said, hey, but Mrs
Brewer, I really think that Mattstruggled with traumatic brain
(27:01):
injuries.
You should look into this.
Then it all kind of clicked andthen we kind of went down this
journey and endless rabbit holeof brain injuries, blast
exposure, trauma and all theissues that come with being a
high-performing person,especially those who operate and
play sports.
Speaker 1 (27:21):
Yeah, man, I mean it's, it's getting people to
talk, right, and whether youknow my son, you know I go over
this a million times, man, youknow why didn't he tell me?
What didn't I notice?
And then, of course, then youget your own cycle where you
start blaming yourself for notnoticing things, or then you
notice something's like man, Ishould have dug into that or I
(27:41):
should have checked into him tosee if he was sleeping.
And you know, in the end youknow you were a good brother,
right, and you loved yourbrother, and there's nothing you
know from the guilt side thatyou know you could have done
other than pray that he couldhave said something.
And the problem that, what, what?
(28:03):
The big problem that we hadback then when your brother and
my son left us, is that we didnot know that this issue was
treatable.
Right, there was, and that'syou know.
That's the whole other side ofthis.
This movement is like when thehell are we going to stop
researching this shit and startdoing something about it?
And that men and women that aresuffering, whether they're
(28:26):
wrestlers and MMA fighters orEOD techs in the military, are
aware that, yeah, you might beanxious and depressed and even
suicidal.
Speaker 2 (28:35):
But if it's been caused, if it's been caused by
repetitive blast or repetitivebrain trauma, dude, we can help
you, right, we can, we can dosomething about it, you know
it's not a and so another thingversus the last thing that my
brother Googled before takinghis life we got access to his
computer was what happened toJunior Seau, what happened to
(28:58):
Junior Seau's family.
So my brother knew, and he hadGoogled and researched CTE.
So my brother knew thatsomething was wrong.
And then at the time, and stilleven a little bit to today,
which I think is what you and Iare trying to change is this
fear mongering of and this, allthese disaster stories of hey,
(29:18):
if I have CTE, I'm going to turninto this suicidal maniac and
I'm going to hurt myself and thepeople around me, which in the
past, yes, can be true, but toyour point, bruce, it's like
there's like any, like anythingout there.
That's an injury.
There are ways to overcome thechallenges associated with that
(29:40):
injury.
Speaker 1 (29:40):
And that's what I get pissed about.
I mean, even to this date.
Right, we deal with some NFLplayers that don't want to talk
about this because they thinkthey're done right.
They don't want to know,they're just waiting to become
junior Seau.
It's like, bro, we can do.
You got to talk about this Like.
The other day I met a singer anda lead singer in a band played
(30:01):
mass amounts of football.
His wife comes up to us.
They're talking about his past,his struggles.
I'm like, dude, we can help.
He won't return my calls, mytexts.
I'm like, and that's what Idon't know, what I'm more pissed
off about this whole subject atall.
But what I don't like is thatafter all these years of talking
(30:21):
about CTE, we're still talkingabout CTE and everything we hear
about CTE is like you're goingto die, right, or your brain is
damaged, and all this stuffNobody talks about.
Hey, we can help people withCTE, right?
I mean, you can fix this, youcan and can we cure it?
No, it's a brain, but we canmake the brain better, we can
(30:43):
make the system symptoms subsideand all that.
And, dude, you know this.
So let's talk about thattransition, because when I met
you a long time ago at theConcussion Legacy Foundation,
where all this soul, survivorsof these crazy tragedies kind of
link up and we find each otherright.
Um, let's talk about yourtransition from hey, I want to
(31:04):
do a workout for my brother toyour deeper dive into the
science of why he left, and thennow transitioning to a purpose
where you know you are, in asense, in essence.
You know you and jordan areleading a movement to say, right
, you can play sports, butafterwards we're going to do the
(31:26):
best we can while you'replaying and afterwards that's
what dude, you know you're goingto enjoy your blink, right?
Nobody's hearing that part, sotalk to us about what you got
going on, man for sure, for sure, um, yeah, and I think there's
one, one point to.
Speaker 2 (31:41):
We made bruce's, and the frustrating thing and the
thing that we all have to cometo terms with is that if someone
doesn't want help, we can'thelp them, you know, if they're
not, if they're not willing toput in the work, um, and ask for
help, then there's nothing thatwe can do, and that's.
I wish that that was not true,genuinely.
I do, um, but that's just,that's just the truth, man, but
but I think what we can't do iswe can change the messaging
(32:02):
around it, empower people andlet them know and show them that
this is hope, that there ishope, so that hopefully, they,
they do raise their hand and askfor help right.
Speaker 1 (32:10):
But who wants to ask for help when they think it's
hopeless, right?
It's like and I think that'swhat your brother and my son
both struggled, I you know, withmajor mood disorders and it's
like, dude, this is the rest ofmy life.
I don't want to tell my folksI'm checking out, man, but I
can't go on like this becausethere's no hope, right, it's not
like cancer.
I can go to get treatments orsomething, right, there's
(32:32):
something that can be done.
My son didn't even know why hewas struggling.
Your brother had a clue, but ofcourse, when you dig into it,
it's like you're going to die,so, or your rest of your life is
going to be a disaster.
I mean, so they have no hopeand you're providing hope, so
talk about that.
Speaker 2 (32:51):
Um, yeah, so I would all again.
I, when we went on the rabbitholes of, like um, ct, blast
exposure, trauma, those types ofthings, it was like it made a
lot of sense to me.
But my thought immediately wentto I'm a problem solver.
My thought immediately went tookay, so how do we solve this
problem?
Like, okay, here's a problem,we're aware of it.
(33:13):
How do we solve it?
So then I started looking at youknow what happens with brain
injuries, trauma, high stress,environments, like what's
happening in the body and in thebrain, and so when you start to
look at the root causes, right,of what these things are
causing, like inflammation inthe brain and you know the death
(33:34):
of certain parts of the brainand the death of neurons, like
you look at all these things,you look at traumatic brain
injuries and high stress causinglow testosterone, and you see
all these different moving parts.
I looked at the root causes andthen I tried to find
technologies that wereevidence-based, that would have
mechanisms that wouldpotentially go after those root
(33:57):
causes.
So that was what I beganresearching.
So I got into things likehyperbaric oxygen and
psychedelics andphotobiomodulation or red light
therapy, sauna, cold points,right, all of these, and notice
how none of these arepharmaceutical interventions,
but they all are things thatoccur naturally within the body
(34:17):
and get to the root cause ofwhat Mac experienced and my
brother experienced in the body.
And get to the root cause ofwhat Mac experienced, my brother
experienced in the body and inthe brain.
So I started just doing thatresearch and when I started to
mention these things to leadersin the scientific community I
got a lot of pushback oh, that'sjust that smoke and mirrors,
that snake oil.
We've been approached by allthese different things like none
(34:40):
of them work and I was like butthese 100 different research
articles say otherwise and I'vegot three operators telling me
that hyperbaric oxygen savedtheir life with the before and
after brain images.
So my ears to the ground,looking at other scientific data
that's been presented, whilethe current experts in and I
(35:02):
don't think they had Mount and10, but the current, the current
experts in brain health and andall these things are saying
that no, there's all that stuffsnake all.
And I was like I don't know.
Speaker 1 (35:11):
We need more research .
Speaker 2 (35:13):
Exactly.
So then it became too.
So then what I realized is thatone of the problems within the
brain health community,especially when it comes to
treatment, is that there's a lotof skepticism within the
industry.
So I thought, okay, um, we needto.
We need to research thesethings and prove whether they
work or they do not work.
Right, and that was really thegenesis of the Brain
Optimization Lab.
So I'll give you a great exampleof hyperaric oxygen.
(35:34):
We've been researchinghyperaric oxygen for 15 years
and we still don't know if itworks or not.
Right?
I'll talk to some doctors oh,it's the best.
Talk to other PhDs oh, it'spseudoscience, it's BS, it
doesn't work.
The reason that they think thatis because there's a hundred
different studies on hyperbaricoxygen, all with different
(35:56):
protocols, some being highatmospheric pressures with high
amounts of oxygen, some beinglow atmospheric pressure with
low amounts of oxygen,everything in between with a low
number of oxygen, some beinglow atmospheric pressure with
low amounts of oxygen,everything in between with a low
number of N, meaning low numberof participants.
So there's no conclusion of oneprotocol that's been proven to
(36:16):
be effective with a high enoughlevel of participants for it to
have any sort of scientificlegitimacy.
So that's one example ofhyperic oxygen.
The other problem that we sawwithin the industry is that no
one is researching.
And this is just science ingeneral.
Right, when you're Dr JoeDuterte says this all the time
but when you are trying to growa plant, you don't isolate
variables.
(36:37):
You don't put the plant, youdon't put a bunch of water in
the plant and don't give itsunlight and air and soil right,
you don't isolate variables.
You put all those threetogether in a perfect concoction
so that the plant can grow anoptimal amount of each of those
things.
It's like when you go to the gym.
What happens when you go andyou tear your muscles?
(36:57):
You go back, you recover, youtake a protein shake, you roll
out, you stretch right, theseare the types of multimodality
approaches is not something thatis being researched in the
scientific community.
So that was the other thingthat we really started to focus
on.
The Brain Optimization Lab iswhat happens when you start to
pair some of these modalitieswith each other, and then how
can we prove, through objectivedata collection, that these
(37:22):
protocols are working or are notworking?
And that's really been thegenesis of the Brain
Optimization Lab.
Speaker 1 (37:28):
And your focus on working and not working and all
these scientists, man, you knowit's like look, working or not
working is what does the patientsay.
It's not what your science says.
If you ask me, when it comes toholistic, you know health, you
know remedies or modalities,however you want to put it is,
(37:49):
if you feel better, it's working, something's working because
otherwise you wouldn't feelbetter.
Now, could it be this?
Oh, it's just, you know,because you did it the first
time.
But when tens and hundreds andthousands of people that have
participated in studies, eventhough it's a small amount, I'll
say, hey, this has helped me.
We need to pay attention tothat, all right, and it's not,
(38:12):
you know?
Speaker 2 (38:13):
I mean, I don't know, man, I just uh, I'm very you
know if, if, if, sniffing theSharpie makes you not suicidal
anymore, it's not the damnSharpie.
Like like what do you?
Yeah, exactly Like likewhatever in it.
And so the approach that wetake at the brain optimization
lab is we do brain imaging, wedo wearable devices, we do a
(38:35):
blood work, we do spiritualfitness assessments and we take
a look under the hood andunderstand what someone's
baseline.
Again, we are not diagnosing,we're just saying this is where
you are.
And then here's the recommendedprotocol to to overcome your
specific challenges.
Right, like you just said,bruce, it's a very, it's very.
Everyone is very unique in whatsociety wants to do and what the
(38:57):
medical community wants to do.
And what I believe the devilwants to do is to put people in
these boxes and diagnose themwith things right, and then that
becomes their identity and thenthey live in that mindset the
rest of their life, when inactuality, they're a unique,
individually crafted person byGod with very unique life
(39:18):
challenges and traumas.
Right, and they need a uniqueapproach for them rather than
this cookie cutter.
Hey, I met you for 20 minutes.
You have this, this and that.
Here's four pills that aregoing to overcome that.
Good luck, see you in sixmonths.
Don't kill yourself.
That's pretty much the method.
And then you can go talk tosomeone, which, again, I'm not
against talk therapy, butthere's a lot of talk therapists
(39:41):
who are I don't think shouldhave any sort of right to be
giving counsel on people'smental health, and you're just.
The thing that happens with thebrain is when you talk about
the same thing over and over andover again, it gets deeper and
deeper and deeper ingrained intoyour memory.
And that's the current modelTake pills, numb yourself and
(40:03):
then go talk about the sameissue.
We're not going to talk abouthow we can use this to empower
you, or we're not going to talkabout how to get out of this,
this thought loop.
Speaker 1 (40:11):
Yeah, because if you get out of it, I can't give you
pills and I can't talk to you.
And bill, right, I mean it's,it's.
When are we going to focus onthe patient right, or the
individual?
Now, your approach to uh, youknow we're, you know, obviously,
the, the brain optimization lab, your approach to athletes is,
uh, you know it's, I think it isit twofold like, hey, while
(40:34):
you're playing, because you'rehurting yourself, right, we know
you're hurting yourself, butyou got to pay the bills, right,
you got to, you know, feed thebaby mama to.
You know, get the car gas inthe car, right, and so what's
that?
Speaker 2 (40:48):
So more than one baby mama.
Speaker 1 (40:49):
Yeah, or more than one baby mama, right, I mean,
hey, you know, if you're famous,go for it, right.
So you know if you, but if youcan, you know you got to pay the
bills, right.
So is your focus, hey, whileyou're doing this crazy stuff
and this goes to veterans tooright that veterans that are out
there, you know that are, are,no, they're hurting, but you
know don't want to really talkabout it or just want to act on
(41:13):
what they know is probably, youknow, happening to them so they
could, they can, improve theirbrain health while doing this.
And then, um, I guess the focusis, after they're done, retired
from the military, or um, youknow, or or from the sports,
from sports, then you give themthe hope that they can improve
their brain health and enjoytheir life.
Speaker 2 (41:33):
So yes, so we just had a talk.
We're working with this hockeyguy right um, and he was telling
us this story about sydneycrosby about 15 years ago and
when sydney was, I think, like17 years old, they were climbing
up this mountain, training inthe mountains in the off season
and the rest of the guys werebringing up, you know, slugging
(41:55):
beers.
Going up the mountain they gota 12 pack.
Sydney crosby's talking aboutgut health and how 90 of the
serotonin and your body is madein your gut and these, these
other hockey players are likedude, what the fuck are you
talking about?
We're hockey players, dude, yeah, I'm just trying to enjoy my
beer.
Man.
Again, it's the same mentalitywith all offers.
(42:15):
But that's why Sidney Crosbywas the best to ever do it.
That's why Tom Brady was thebest to ever do it.
That's why Derrick Henry spends$250,000 on his body a year.
That, like LeBron James, right,like all of these guys, the
people who invest in their brainand in their body are the ones
who become the best of all time.
(42:36):
Right, that is what thatseparation is, right.
So our approach at the BrainOptimization Lab is to get
people to understand that right,to have a culture change where
you're taking care of these.
You're taking care of thingsthat no one else is taking care
of, right Through your brainhealth.
So what does that do?
Right?
What are our objectives?
(42:56):
One is we are in the businessof making elite killers right,
of better athletes, of moreproductive entrepreneurs, of
better human beings, right,that's what we're after.
So how do we do that?
Right?
All these modalities areimproved just on their own, are
proven to increase cognition,increase sleep, increase
recovery, increaseneuroplasticity all those things
(43:18):
right, which is going to helpyour performance.
But then what we're also afteris, as we talked about, bruce,
when you go and you play a gameor you go on, you go shoot off
eight rockets.
You have inflammation in thebrain, just like after you're
done with a workout.
You have inflammation in yourmuscles, right, and there has to
be protocols and things put inplace to reduce that
inflammation so that thelong-term degradation of your
(43:41):
brain is reduced right.
Degradation of your brain isreduced right, and those
long-term consequences so wehope and so we think is our
hypothesis is that the risk oflong-term degeneration goes down
right.
So it's really twofold.
To your point, bruce, it's howdo we make you a more elite
(44:01):
performer now?
And then, how do we make surethat you are able to protect
your money in the future?
Right, you'll be able to be abetter father to your children,
a better spouse, right, a betteroverall human being, so you can
actually enjoy the fruits ofyour labor down the road instead
of being Junior Seau, right?
Or some of these other, youknow, some of these other people
(44:22):
who, unfortunately, the diseaseand the injuries got to them.
That's kind of our thing.
And, jordan, I joke, it's like,hey, how much money did you
spend on that chain around yourneck?
50 grand, is that going to getyou to your next contract?
No, it's not.
Hey, how many $100 bills didyou throw at the club last night
(44:44):
?
$10,000?
.
Is that going to help you getto your next multimillion-dollar
contract?
No, right.
So let's start investing intoyour body and into your brain so
that you can make more moneydown the road, and then you have
the capacity and the tools toprotect it and live a life
that's worth living down theroad.
Speaker 1 (45:08):
I don't know what your bigger challenge is getting
guys to focus on their brainhealth or getting them to stop
drinking beer, listen, I love afew beers.
Oh my Lord, if I could get backthe hundreds of thousands of
beer cans I've chugged in mylife man as a soldier.
Speaker 2 (45:25):
For us.
It's like we're not telling youwhat not to do, it's just like
okay, let's do like like we gotto hang over protocol man, like
moderation man, everybody tellsme.
Speaker 1 (45:33):
I say, man, the Bible always talks about moderation.
I was like, where do you seethat in the Bible I go?
It's everywhere, man.
Speaker 2 (45:40):
You just got to look at it, man, you know and like
it's so, like, so what we'rereally, what really after the
brain optimization, that culturechange man.
So it's like like I, like wewere at air force weapon school
right elite, some of the most umelite fighter pilots in the
world, right, and their cultureis the same as every other high
performing culture, which islike scotch popcorn and like
(46:02):
zins zins girls and Celsiusright.
Like that's like stimulants,women and booze right, and then
killing people or just being anabsolute weapon Right, and that,
and that's the pride that comeswith it.
We do not want to change thatculture.
We just want to bring in alittle bit of balance to that
culture where it's like we getit, but like hey.
(46:22):
If culture where it's like weget it, but like hey, if you're
not sleeping and you're boozingevery night and your nervous
systems are wrecked and you'recrushing stimulants all day,
then you cannot be the best ofyour ability, according to
science and according to whatyour brain imaging says, like
dude, you need some freakingsleep, man, yeah, yeah, exactly.
And then and then they're goingto become better and more
(46:43):
satisfied and just betteroverall human beings, right,
that's, that's we're after thatbalance that you're talking
about.
Speaker 1 (46:50):
And I think that's changing culturally.
I mean, you do, I, as I look at, I compare myself, you know,
back in the eighties, where youknow we didn't love, we just,
you know, we were just animals,man.
I mean, we found our way intothe Army, we found our way into
Special Forces, and drinking,fighting and women was just
(47:12):
that's the life, man.
You don't have to grow upeither.
That's the beautiful thingabout the military and about
being a professional sportsplayer.
You really don't have to growup, man.
You got to do your job right.
The rest of the world, I'll getto maturity when I want to.
Right now, I'm going to theclub or I'm going to drink this
12-pack with my friends and I'mgoing to the bar to look at
(47:32):
girls, right, that's just thelife that we had.
Now you know these newergenerations I mean people say,
ah, they're lazy, whatever.
They're a lot moreconscientious of themselves,
whether it's their spiritualhealth, their brain health,
their body health, and they areway more open to these
discussions than my generationis right, I'm the last of the
(47:54):
baby boomers.
Speaker 2 (47:56):
So that it's to that balance point, bruce, I think
it's like, like my generation islike like, yes, we're more
conscious, yes, like weunderstand our gut and our brain
, a lot of stuff.
But I do also wish that we hadsome more of that tenacity that
you guys brought to the tableand that just like getting after
it.
Um, because, again, it's thatbalance, you like that.
That that you know, warrior inthe garden, to my opinion is
(48:20):
like that's the perfect you got.
You should have both.
You should have the ability toturn, to turn it on, and you
should have the ability to turnit on and you should have the
ability to turn it off.
And I think a lot of mygeneration does not have the
ability to turn it on and a lotof your generation does not have
the ability to turn it off.
Speaker 1 (48:34):
That's a good point, man.
That's a good point.
We'll have to work on that.
Switch man and get that going.
Yeah definitely yeahno-transcript.
Speaker 2 (49:09):
But so we, through the 38 Challenge Brand
Optimization, I'm working withthis veteran right now.
I won't disclose his name, buthe I got connected to him back
in March of last year.
He shot himself in the head,tried to take his own life and
survived.
So this is his story.
So he during, you know, duringthe war on terror, was enlisted
(49:32):
right, was a heavy artillery guy.
Boots on ground, had multiple,had, I think, two IEDs.
I think he rolled over two IEDtwo separate times so had two
massive uh brain injuries thereand then was around heavy
artillery.
Really his whole career.
(49:53):
Uh put his best, had to put hisbest friend in a body bag in
the middle of a, in the middleof a firefight, um in
afghanistan.
Um got out after and um, one ofhis other best friends took his
life there was that he servedwith and then this guy's wife
(50:14):
cheated on him with his businesspartner.
And then at that point this guy,you know, decided to put a gun
in his mouth and pull thetrigger.
And I'm like dude, like that'sa lot, man, and he didn't even
consider that it was his serviceor the or the TBIs that could
have led to that decision downthe road, didn't even consider
(50:35):
it.
But anyways, when we, when hecame to us, his he had lost like
80 pounds from all thesurgeries.
His testosterone was at 100.
He wasn't sleeping at night.
He was grateful to be alive nolonger suicidal, but grateful to
be alive.
But he was a mess.
(50:58):
Fast forward a couple months,his testosterone's at 950
because we got him the thingsthat he needed to be on.
He's sleeping eight to 10 hoursa night with an average sleep
score of 98%.
He's dating again.
We have him on a weight gainingplan.
I think he's put on like 20pounds and his life's completely
turned around.
(51:20):
And so it's like those storiesare what we're after, those
stories of hope, and it's verypossible, right, it's more.
Those stories are what we'reafter, Bruce, like those stories
of hope and like it's verypossible, right, it's more than
possible If you're willing toput in the work and you're
willing to be vulnerable and youhear the messages that we're
putting out like it's 100%possible.
So just want to end with thatstory of hope.
But where do you find us?
And what's coming up?
So, 38 Challenge we're shiftingtowards again, again, providing
(51:42):
these scholarships to, like theones I just mentioned.
To this, this gentleman, scott,um, well, so his name won't say
his last name, but to the, tothe war fighter, um.
And then our next event is may6th.
Uh, we have a 38 challengeevent, workout event, uh,
tuesday morning during a softweek special operations
conference in tampa, florida.
So if you're in the tampa area,make sure to register for that.
(52:04):
I know you guys will be a partof that, bruce.
Um, we'll, we'll be gettingafter it.
And then, um, on the brainoptimization lab side of the
front, we've got some reallyexciting projects that we're
working on, um, uh, which I'llcatch you up more on, uh, some
other time, bruce, but we're uh,uh, partnering with a group in
Miami to start working with someNFL players there.
And then we've got some lettersof support for some pilots with
(52:27):
, or some pilot studies with,different military groups who
are interested in this kind ofholistic approach.
Because, again, we're not doingthe.
Our goal is to not do the IRBrigorous healthcare model, which
I know a lot of operators aresick of because it just doesn't.
Nothing gets done that way.
So we're trying to again bethis Trojan horse of human
(52:50):
performance and doing the wholeprocess.
So, yeah, you can find us atthe38challengecom.
We're currently building a newwebsite for the Brain
Optimization Lab, but you cancheck out the kind of landing
page right now atthebrainoptimizationlabcom.
Check out the kind of landingpage right now at the
brainoptimizationlabcom.
Yeah, and anyone who's outthere that's listening, that
needs help.
Speaker 1 (53:07):
Reach out and we'll get you the help you need.
Well, brant man, it's anamazing journey, amazing story.
I'm always just astounded bywhat you're doing as a young man
, in honor of your brother andtrying to help those that are
suffering from these injuriesthat they didn, injuries that
you know, they didn't know theyhad and sometimes they don't
(53:27):
know that there's hope out there.
So God bless you and yourorganizations for what they're
doing, for you know athletes,veterans and children, and may
the Lord bless you on yourjourney.
I look forward to catching upwith you pretty soon.
Speaker 2 (53:42):
Sure, yeah, we got to .
We'll catch up soon, man, andI'm going to send that.
I forgot to get us in thatemail to Legion today, but be
able to announce that prettyquickly soon, I think, too, with
just what Mac and 38 will bedoing with the American Legion
to draw more awareness to this.
So I love you, man.
I always appreciate theplatform and just appreciate you
, and more than you know's here.
(54:03):
So you're, yeah, you're.
If there's, there's one guy Icould go to go to hell with a
water gun with, it'd be you.
Speaker 1 (54:12):
So we'd go down fighting bro.
That's about it, man Well thankyou so much for your time and
your dedication.
Man Folks, another greatjourney.
Make sure you find Brant andremember you can honor Captain
Matt Brewer by doing that 38challenge anytime you want, and
it doesn't have, it's 38,.
Whatever you want to do, 38 and38 minutes, just knock it out.
(54:34):
It's a great and, trust me, 38minutes it's good man.
You're hurting dude and I lovedoing them.
I hate doing them until I'mdone.
Then I'll do it again, you know, but that's what we need to do
to honor not just Matt but othermen and women that are not here
, their sacrifice and the issueof repetitive brain health.
So, as we turn, as we end thisepisode right here, remember the
(54:56):
, the second internationalsummit on repetitive brain
health, to be held September 2nd, 3rd here in Tampa.
Please get online, find it.
Tickets are going pretty fast.
We've got an astounding list ofspeakers coming in and our
keynotes are world-class.
Remember this is the onlysummit on this issue.
Right now, as we push forward,learn about the legislation that
we got forward.
(55:16):
That's going to be on ourwebsite.
Remember the book, free book.
Go to our website, wwwmpfactcom.
Get your book, give it away toall your friends, get smarter as
we continue on this journey ofknowledge and awareness and
consciousness about the issue ofrepetitive brain health.
So take care of those brains.
You only got one.
(55:36):
Take care of the ones you love.
God bless you all and we'll seeyou next time on another
episode of Broken Brain.
But hey, folks, one more thingRemember that we now have the
HeadSmart app on the Google andApple Store.
Go ahead and download it.
It's a concussion awareness app, but it's the only one that
contains information about theissue of repetitive brain trauma
and how to look at your kids tomake sure that they might have
(55:58):
just played too much of thewrong sport too long.
They can still play sports.
Sports are healthy.
Keep them out of contact Sportsall the time.
Man, Protect those brains.
All you got to do is downloadour app and guess what it has
the book in it.
So, anyways, see you soon.
Thanks so much you.
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