May 30, 2024 • 53 mins
Ever wondered if tracking only your "bad" food choices could actually improve your overall nutrition? In this episode of the Mind Muscle Podcast, we kick things off with a bold new approach to food logging that's both effective and unexpectedly amusing. By focusing solely on junk food, clients found themselves more aware of their eating habits, setting the stage for more comprehensive tracking down the road. We share some entertaining anecdotes from this unorthodox strategy and discuss its benefits in easing into detailed nutrition goals.
Next, we go behind the headlines of the lawsuit against Onnit’s AlphaBrain supplement, promoted by Joe Rogan and Aubrey Marcus. We dissect the self-funded 2016 study that claimed to back AlphaBrain, pointing out its methodological flaws and conflicts of interest. Moreover, we touch on the broader issue of health and fitness headlines misrepresenting scientific studies, which often leads the public astray. We also discuss Gary Brecka's recent media spotlight for his so-called "Superhuman Protocol" that allegedly transformed Dana White's health, weighing the true impact of these methods against the undeniable benefits of a solid training regimen.
To wrap up, we revisit the ongoing debate of weightlifting versus cardio, sparked by a thought-provoking article in Barron's. Emphasizing the importance of a balanced approach to fitness, we critique the article's engagement tactics and discuss why combining strength and endurance training is essential, especially as we age. Our discussion advocates for seeing the bigger picture rather than falling into binary thinking. As always, we encourage our listeners to keep the mind and muscle intertwined, ensuring that there are no gains without brains. Keep lifting and learning!
Producer: Thor Benander
Editor: Luke Morey
Intro Theme: Ajax Benander
Intro: Timothy Durant
For more, visit Simon at The Antagonist
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
Welcome to the Mind Muscle Podcast.
Here's your host, simon DeVere,and welcome back to Mind Muscle
, the place we study the history, science and philosophy behind
everything in health and fitness.
Today I am Simon Devere andthere's nothing new except all
(00:35):
that has been forgotten, allright.
So recently I told you guysabout a nutrition logging hack
tip whatever, logging all yourbad stuff.
I wanted to give you guys anupdate on how that's going for
me.
Kind of funny little happeningthere.
Um, there's a lawsuit currentlybeing filed against on it.
Um, for false advertising.
(00:57):
It's actually a supplement thatwe have discussed on the show
in the past.
This is for um, alpha brain,and we did discuss this on
previous episode, I think, whenwe were running down Joe Rogan's
supplement stack.
So I want to bust into thatlawsuit.
And then one other thing thatcaught my eye this week Gary
(01:21):
Bureka is getting headlines forsaving dana white's life.
Um, they posted their, theirtraining and protocol online, so
we have that to review.
Um, and then, yeah, we're goingto finish up actually on sort
of an age-old debate in fitness,but, um, yeah, let's take one
more look at, uh, weightliftingversus cardio article I came
(01:45):
across across, actually inBarron's of all places.
I actually like the angle Itook, so we'll hit that one last
, though.
Yeah, recently, you'll remember,I was talking about a nutrition
logging strategy.
To me, one of the biggestdownsides of logging is that
it's tedious, takes time, it'skind of boring.
Logging is that it's tedious,takes time, it's kind of boring.
(02:10):
So I've actually come up withsomething that I've been using
with myself and a couple of myclients to get into the habit of
logging, but that was onlylogging your bad food.
So one part that I didn't evenforesee in doing this.
I've just now started loggingAgain.
I got about a week under mybelt and I employed this
strategy on myself, so I've onlybeen writing down the bad stuff
(02:33):
.
Unintended consequence that Iwasn't thinking about is all of
my clients actually get to seemy nutrition logs, or at least
anybody that I'm coaching theirnutrition logs on um.
We do this through an appcalled my fitness pal, um.
You can link up with yourfriends like you can with any
(02:53):
app, um, but so, anyway, anybodythat I'm coaching with
nutrition, we are linked upthere and uh, yeah, so, anyway,
some some people got a shockwhen they were logging their
food and they saw, you know,like, let's see.
Well, yesterday, as an example,there was some French toast on
there.
I think there was like four KitKat miniatures.
(03:16):
That might have been all that Idid yesterday, but anyway, just
you know, there's been about aweek of logs looking like that,
where Simon's eating nothing butjunk food, probably ranging
between roughly 200 to 500calories.
So, yeah, it looks like to someof the people I've been
coaching with nutrition that Iam starving myself and eating
(03:40):
junk food simultaneously.
So anyway, I did have toexplain this strategy to a
couple of clients as to why theywere seeing only junk food on
my logs, but simultaneously I'mactually doing this with
somebody who has never loggedbefore.
So I still think that it'sactually a nice strategy just to
(04:02):
get your muscles warmed up forfull nutrition logging.
So, yeah, anyway, I'm actuallydoing this with a client right
now.
First week, we're doing justwhere we log our junk.
Week two, we're actually goingto log everything.
I always consider that actuallyjust standardizing your
(04:24):
nutrition in the process.
So then, after you know, a weekof logging junk, a week of
logging everything, then we'reactually going to have some
targeted changes like caloricgoals, macros that we will be
striving for, and then, in weekthree of all of this.
That's when we'll finally kindof get rolling of all of this.
(04:46):
That's when we'll finally kindof get rolling with, I think,
what a lot of people think of asstep one.
But admittedly, it takes usabout two weeks to get into step
one, even when we're movingrelatively quickly, believe it
or not.
But no, mostly I just thoughtthat this was funny.
Getting called out by myclients for all of the horrible
food I was eating.
(05:07):
I already feel like I haveimposter syndrome anyway.
So I did.
I had a lot of junk food that Ihad to rationalize to some fat
loss clients as to.
Why are you seeing all thisjunk on Simon's logs?
Why are you seeing all thisjunk on Simon's logs?
(05:32):
Anyway, speaking of falseadvertising, that's exactly what
Onnit, the supplement companythat was co-founded by Joe Rogan
and Aubrey Marcus less famousthan Joe, but at least in my
world, aubrey is also a prettybig name.
Aubrey was really popular inayahuasca circles back in like
2014.
He's kind of known as, like,the psychedelic CEO.
(05:55):
Many others now are kind ofplaying that same Burning man
character, particularly inSilicon Valley companies.
But in fairness to AubreyMarcus, I think he started the
trend of tech bros, likecosplaying with psychedelics and
transcendental language and,yeah, like weekend retreats and
(06:18):
Burning Mans and all that.
Aubrey was on the front end ofall of that and Aubrey was on
the front end of all of that.
But yeah, anyway, obviouslyI've got some priors with Joe.
We've talked about hissupplements, probably showing my
hand a little bit there on myfeelings about Mr Aubrey Marcus,
but no, I think we can leaveaside my perception of how they
(06:45):
came to fame.
The case is pretty cut and dry.
It's talking about a supplement, alphabrain that we did discuss
on that episode reviewing JoeRogan's supplements.
I would say in a way that thiscase is actually bigger than
AlphaBrain.
You can kind of almost takethis case, or at least the
findings of the effectiveness ofthe substance, to broadly be
(07:08):
representative of the field ofsupplements that we call
nootropics.
So anyway, the lawsuit beingfiled is that they were
advertising with false,misleading and deceptive claims.
Go to the website right now andyou will see claims for
AlphaBrain that it supportsmemory, promotes memory,
(07:32):
promotes mental processing andhelps with flow state.
Every single one of thosestatements on their website has
an asterisk beside it and then,if you scroll down to the bottom
of the page, the asteriskrefers to the statement that
these statements have not beenevaluated by the Food and Drug
Administration.
(07:53):
This product is not intended todiagnose, treat, cure or
prevent any disease.
Um, I also did look at the thework cited on on its page, and
so it's.
It's actually three papers, umthat that are supposed to be
evidence for the claims they'remaking there, one from 88, one
(08:17):
from 1991, from 2004.
Um, all of them are by onescientist with a very difficult
to pronounce last name, but I'mnot going to butcher that.
It's on their website if youwant to go check it out, and
what you'll see is that allthree studies are again actually
(08:37):
just referring to the flowstate, not a discussion on
specific ingredients ormechanisms that induce it.
So those studies being citedand put even on the page.
There it's like oftentimes itappears to be an appeal to
authority that most people arejust going to see the papers and
(08:57):
then not check the content ofthe papers.
And just because we'rediscussing a legal thing and
I've already name dropped twopeople, let's be clear that
actually Joe Rogan and AubreyMarcus are not named in this
lawsuit at all.
They are the co-founders ofOnnit, which was sold to
Unilever.
So yeah, just so we don't getany slander games or anything
(09:22):
like that, this lawsuit hasnothing to do with Joe Rogan and
Aubrey Marcus, but if we wantto talk about the history of the
substance in question, we dohave to talk about those two
people that have nothing to dowith this lawsuit.
So, anyway, they are free andclear to do what they have
already done.
There's not going to be anyramifications for them or any
(09:43):
businesses associated with thembecause they already sold on it.
But yeah, so anyway, a whileback, why I think we can't avoid
talking Joe Rogan in this.
He has been the biggest promoterof it.
It's on his current list ofsupplements he takes.
This is a cool quote from Joeon his show about it.
I always take AlphaBrain.
This is a cool quote from Joeon his show about it.
I always take AlphaBrain.
(10:04):
Take it every time I have totalk to a scientist.
I take this shit.
It's not horse shit or snakeoil or placebos, it's real.
This stuff is the shit.
Shoot McGavin famously atepieces of shit for breakfast,
(10:26):
but remember him gettingdefeated by Happy Gilmore at the
AT&T Invitational.
So yeah, anyway, not sure aboutthe endorsement from Joe, but,
no jokes aside, joe has done alot to promote it over the years
.
He Nor Aubrey is listed as adefendant.
Listed as a defendant, butagain, it is relevant because
(10:50):
AlphaBrain was one of the coreproducts that they used to
launch the brand, and many ofthe things that are being
alleged actually occurred whileUnilever was not the owner.
Unilever is going to pay thebill for it, but these things
actually happened before thepurchase.
So one of the things thatactually does come into question
(11:15):
in this lawsuit is aself-funded 2016 study that
Onnit did to back up the claimsof brain function.
When you actually read thestudy even the one that they
paid to, have done not the threepapers that had nothing to do
with it that I cited earlier,even their own paper didn't
(11:35):
reach the conclusions that theywound up promoting and even
doing science in that fashion ofwell backwards.
But anyway, let's actually getinto the substance of the study
that Onnit paid for and I think,even though this is a legal
(11:55):
hearing and it'll play out incourts and obviously whoever has
the best lawyers wins we're notreally concerned with that.
We're just health and fitnessfocused people trying to decide
what supplements to take.
I think you'll have a prettygood idea of whether alpha brain
or nootropics are somethingthat you want to invest money in
.
Um, I think that will be prettyclear by the time we get done
(12:17):
with this um.
So any study title is arandomizedized, double-blind,
placebo-controlled ParallelGroup Ethics Study of AlphaBrain
, registered TrademarkAdministered Orally and actually
just sidebar.
I always talk about this but Ido a little bit of investing and
I've had folks ask like what'syour edge?
(12:38):
Yeah, in markets, and one ofthe only things that I can
actually respond as an edge thatI have is I actually read the
things that people pretend tohave read, or take summaries or
other people's word for.
So in finance that would belike earnings reports, fed notes
, things like that.
I will actually read myself andI make decisions based on what
(13:01):
I read in the report, not theheadlines about the report.
Unless you do this, you'renever going to see what a huge
gap there is between those twothings.
The other field that I see thishappening a lot in and I think
it's why it trained me for itwith finance but it is health
and fitness the headlines versusthe studies.
(13:23):
Actually reading them.
I've just seen in the yearsthere is a huge gap which has
just basically taught me toalways go look at those things.
I'm not kidding when I tell youit is far more common that
people stretch that truth thanthey actually report it
accurately.
If there was a group that Icould tell you consistently
(13:46):
reports this stuff accurately, Iwould.
Nobody that I'm aware of has agood track record reporting on
science.
And yeah, obviously I thinkhealth and fitness may be the
worst segment, but certainly notthe only one.
But anyway, I actually went inand looked at the study.
(14:08):
They did 26 different cognitivetests and their own results did
show that there was nostatistically significant
difference between the alphabrain and placebo groups.
That's from their own data.
And then actually justsometimes you have to do a
little more than read the study.
So one of the first personsnamed in the study was someone
(14:29):
named Todd Solomon.
When I Googled his name, I didfind that he did receive funds
for consulting with on it.
Second name named on the studywas someone named Jarrett Leach.
Also Googled, that person'sname also received funds for
consulting with Onnit.
That groundbreakinginvestigative journalism did
(14:49):
take me roughly 30 seconds, butit's pretty clear that this
study was sponsored by Onnit.
The company paid the two leadscientists Onnit.
That's a big problem.
Obviously that's a conflict ofinterest, um, and also just not
(15:10):
how science is done.
Um, they worked backwards fromsomething that they wanted to be
true and then, as we saw, withthe?
Um, the test they actually ranversus the?
Um, what was reported in itsfindings?
Um, it absolutely was stretchedum to try to prove the the
(15:30):
point that that alpha brainneeded in order to to market
their, their product.
The whole study was an attemptto provide a rationale for
marketing a product.
That's pretty clear.
Alphabrain was formulated,according to Aubrey Marcus, by
his stepmother, who is ahomeopath and acupuncturist.
(15:52):
He had stated of the launchingof AlphaBrain on a different
podcast a while back that thelast piece was really gritting a
strong medical advisory teamand scientific team that's been
running our trials.
That's a quote.
So no, disagree, that's not thelast piece.
(16:13):
You should actually build aproduct that works.
You shouldn't go find anadvisory team to say that the
product works.
Why not just build somethingthat works?
But that's kind of.
The issue, though, is thatAubrey Marcus's training was as
a marketer, and he reallydesigned and engineered this
product, just like his firstcompany, which was a marketing
company.
(16:34):
They had the drug formulationand then they got the science
and then they did the ads.
So anyway, this lawsuit againis actually just seeking
monetary and statutory damagesnot specified, and again it is
at the company's current owners.
(16:55):
Onnit's owners now are Unilever.
But again I kind of did want totalk about the founders, um, but
again I I kind of did want totalk about the founders, and and
Joe, he's a lot more famousthan than Aubrey is, but
actually in some ways I thinkAubrey's had a pretty outsized
influence on culture without hisname being.
You know, he's very successfuland certainly some people know
(17:17):
him, but I don't think he's,he's um household name the way
he would want to be.
No kidding, but um, no.
So again, and I kind of showedmy hand a little bit here.
But Aubrey Marcus really extolsthis perception that he is a
very conscious and transcendentperson, speaks of himself how I
often hear others speak about,like Buddha or Jesus, depending
(17:40):
on their own religiousupbringing, literally.
Even him selling on it toUnilever he framed as an act of
grace of sorts.
Out of all the potential buyers,unilever stood out.
Well, no one is perfect.
They really understand leadingwith purpose and I couldn't
(18:02):
possibly have greater resonancewith the leaders on the team
that we'll be working with.
Oh, and this was funny to me,the principal was even at
Burning man the year I met mywife.
Of course, because that is howincestuous Silicon Valley deals
get done out there at Burningman in the circle of trust.
At Burning man in the circle oftrust, but anyway, probably
(18:25):
spilling too many secrets.
But no, it's with no irony.
He touts a company that hasactually a pretty clouded
history with social andenvironmental issues and he kind
of extends them histranscendental fake hippie clout
, them his transcendental fakehippie clout.
(18:50):
Unilever uses palm oil, thatthey participate in slave and
child labor.
So again, I'm literally not theethics or moral authority here.
I'm just kind of calling outthat neither is this guy, and I
think of the two of us he seemsto be pretending to be one,
certainly a lot more than I ever.
I literally never pretend to beone.
(19:13):
No, and actually you know Iwant to say sidebar quickly.
I was having this discussionwith some parents about I have
done ayahuasca and it was apersonal and profound experience
for me, but I actually havehesitation recommending it to
people and one of the reasons isit's not the substance itself.
(19:36):
It's actually your fellowhumans, and I think that people
do need to exercise caution ifthey ever choose to do something
like that where they choose todo it.
If you start investigating,you're going to hear a lot about
set and setting.
That's really, really important, but that, to me, would even
extend to the other peopleattending the ceremony.
(19:56):
I've been to more than oneayahuasca journey and I didn't
see this my first time, um,because I couldn't, because it
was my first time but multiplejourneys actually showed me a
group of people that like to usethese ceremonies.
Um, people are in a veryvulnerable psychological state
when they are on the other endof it and, sadly, there are a
(20:20):
lot of people who, admittedly,are in the health and wellness
space.
A lot of these people are goingto have yoga retreats or health
and wellness products andservices.
This is literally when Ilearned about Onnit and Aubrey
Marcus.
He was being taught as one ofthe success stories and cult
hero of these ayahuasca circlesand a lot of the people that
(20:41):
were promoting this I wound upfor a time getting close with
and then seeing that actuallythey had business models that
preyed upon certain aspects ofpeople's psychology that I
certainly wasn't comfortablewith.
They see themselves as beingvery enlightened, free thinking
(21:01):
people.
I see them as selling to peoplewho are on drugs and in a
compromise state, um, so anyway,this is a sidebar, this has
nothing to do.
I've never done ayahuasca withaubrey and joe um, but I've done
it with a lot of people in thehealth and wellness space and I
do say be careful.
If you go on a psychedelicretreat it's not the substance
(21:24):
so much I'm worried about, asthe people that you go with For
best results, do it with someonethat you are actually close
with, who doesn't really wantanything from you, and then I
think you will have the bestexperience possible.
There are sharks swimmingaround in those waters and and
(21:45):
they don't look like sharks.
When you first see them, um,they'll probably be wearing
birkenstocks and saying reallynice things.
But anyway, I I did get alittle bit off course, um I I
just kind of want to summarizeagain on nootropics, alpha brain
and this lawsuit against On it.
(22:09):
I actually didn't.
I should have.
Maybe I could add some goodquotes.
But if we run back the tape onmy review of Joe's supplements,
I'm pretty sure that I co-signedfour Protein, creatine, fish
oil and athletic greens.
Obviously, I just did my pieceon athletic greens.
As long as we know it's amultivitamin, I'm still fine
(22:30):
cosigning those four.
Alphabrain and nootropics wereon his list.
I didn't cosign it then and Istill don't now.
The science on nootropicsdoesn't really show any positive
results except for people thathave serious health issues.
If you are a generally healthyperson, which most people
(22:51):
listening to health and fitnesspodcasts fit the bin of how I'm
using that term you're probablynot doing bad enough that you
would actually get a benefitfrom anything like this.
No-transcript naps or someextra sleep would be way more
(23:33):
effective than anything beingmarketed on that three-hour
podcast.
Yeah, so no, I that.
Um, nothing new to report onalpha brain and nootropics.
I don't think that these arevery efficacious supplements.
Um, these are big problemspeople have.
(23:53):
So this is a supplement thatappeals to a very, very common
problem being, um, tired,overworked, you name it.
Those are problems that usuallyhave nothing to do with the
health and fitness regimen.
They really typically aredownstream from the challenges
that you're facing in your life.
So I really can't solve thoseproblems.
(24:13):
All I know is, broadly, thatwhen you're sleeping, when
you're actually getting sleep,you handle the stresses that
come up better, you doeverything better.
So, yeah, no, yeah, skipnootropics.
Actually prioritize sleep, andI actually get called out for
that one because people accuseme of having status and
(24:35):
privilege with that.
And I've been waking up at 4amto go deal with other people's
stuff for years now, so I'm notsure where that comes from.
But, yeah, working six days aweek and getting up at four, I
guess now makes even me becauseI get good sleep.
That's well.
(24:55):
No, I guess what people aregetting at and I understand this
is that, like, work obviouslyputs demands on your life and so
some people are not in theposition where they can just,
you know, control what happenswith their day.
I get that.
I'm a personal trainer who hasa child out of the 24 hours in a
day.
The vast majority of them arenot mine.
So I really, really get thatthe part that I feel like people
(25:18):
aren't hearing in me, because Ido screen time review, I look
at stuff and and also I listenin conversations and people are
just frankly citing way too manytelevision shows and movies for
me to think that people aren'tstaying up and watching
television past the time wherethey actually could have gone to
bed, or again just gettingdialed into content, and I'm not
(25:40):
above this myself, guys.
This is again why I'm prettysure that you have time.
Sometimes I stay up a littlelater than I should, watching
movies, playing video games,doing things that aren't helping
my goals, and then I pay for iton the other end.
So, anyway, if I am critiquingyour sleeping habits, please
don't be you know, don't accuseme of some of the stuff I've
(26:01):
been accused of Sometimes, likeI said, we often project.
So I know good and well if I'mnot getting good sleep, it's
choices I'm making and I need toget on it because no one else
is going to come and help me.
That's it.
It's the only place I'm comingfrom in the sleep thing.
Oh yeah, that.
And nootropics up.
Stop wasting your money on it.
Unless you have money and youreally like pissing it into the
(26:22):
toilet, then in that regard, itworks great.
Anyway, next piece I hope youguys never buy AlphaBrain, by
the way.
And there we go.
There goes the Unileversponsorship.
So we'll have to work on somebetter monetization techniques
for your boy here.
But yeah, so there is a guy,Gary Brekka.
(26:43):
He's getting credit for savingDana White's life.
Lots of articles popping on it,so I actually watched a video
of them breaking down.
Well, you know, show my handagain.
I'm gonna say a lot of badthings about this guy, Gary.
So let's say some nice stuff uptop.
Dana White did make a greattransformation.
It is visually impressive andit actually does seem to me like
(27:07):
he did a number of thingscorrect.
We'll get into all of that, but36 pounds of weight loss is the
headline.
Even in the pictures, though,his body composition has just
improved a lot.
It's clearly added significantmuscle mass while reducing his
body fat.
(27:28):
And then, when I was hearinghim describe the whole
transformation, he said it tookabout 18 months, which even that
that was cool.
I like to hear like a realistictimeframe for once.
But then he does credit this guy, guy gary brekka, human
biologist, um, as opposed toother ones, I guess.
(27:49):
But uh, yeah, his uh superhuman protocol.
That's at least what uh, danawhite was crediting with his
transformation.
So gary's superhuman protocol,what it looks like.
He has this pulseelectromagnetic field pad that
you sleep on this magnetism.
(28:13):
I really try to represent thisas well as they said it.
But okay, this magnetism mimicsthe earth and that's why you
should sleep on it.
They don't explain how, ifyou're not sleeping on that, how
, sleeping anywhere else on theearth, your magnetism would
somehow be thrown off from theearth's magnetism that the PF
(28:34):
pad is simulating.
Don't worry about any of thatstuff, just make sure you get
the pad and sleep on it.
That's prong one of thesuperhuman protocol.
Um, number two, cold plunging.
It's uh.
So dana white was doing 50degrees for three minutes.
Um, my version coffee, he says,which, admittedly, I'm hearing
(28:57):
that one more and more.
Um, that's just.
It is funny how people, likeparrots, just start chirping and
saying the same things and sothat that's like one of those
cool flexes right now.
Um, just like, tell people youdon't actually have to do it,
Just tell people that you, youcold plunge and that you don't
do coffee.
Um, that's the people that arelooking for clout and
(29:18):
conversations.
That's what they're sayingright now.
Make sure you're on trend withthat.
But yeah, anyway, we've talkedabout cold plunging.
It's cool, but that's prong two.
Oxygen therapy that is prongthree.
So with this, they actually areputting an oxygen mask on and
(29:40):
doing basically kind of likewhat looks like a light warmup
on a treadmill.
Um, they.
They say that this prepares thebody to work out and delivers
oxygen.
Um, I hear that again.
I hear them say it.
Um, I'm not sure that's been aproblem for any humans on Earth
(30:02):
prior.
But there you go.
There's a thing they say andthey convince people too.
Fourth prong is red lighttherapy.
So 20 minutes in infrared light, that's at least justified
through reducing inflammationand promoting recovery.
(30:22):
So that, right there, thatsuperhuman protocol, sleeping on
the PF pad the night beforedoing your cold plunge, your
oxygen therapy, and then the redlight therapy, now you're ready
to work out, all of that leadsup to your workout.
But again, I want to say thatDana White credited the
(30:43):
superhuman protocol, not hisworkout.
So this is kind of like theissue that I'm going to have,
obviously, is that when?
Actually, because now we canactually talk about some good
things before I just crap on therest of it.
But so, yeah, so then DanaWhite gets done with that
superhuman protocol and then hegoes into the gym, but they're
(31:03):
still running the camera and Iactually recognize the guy he's
training with.
He's literally a former MrUniverse is Dana White's trainer
and I got to see them workingout.
He was actually just choosingvery smart exercises.
So yeah, anyway, you probablysee where I'm going with this,
(31:25):
but it's just interesting methat Dana White gives all the
credit to Gary Brekka.
That pad he sleeps on, thejacuzzi he takes the little mask
, treadmill sesh and then thelights that they sit under.
That that was key in his, youknow, transformation, and not
(31:46):
the training that he did with aformer Mr Olympia.
That wasn't key.
Huh, I know that I have almostnothing but unpopular opinions,
but I just I don't understandhow people would ever think
those four nebulous silly thingshe did before training with
somebody who's kind of,objectively, one of the best at
(32:07):
it in the world, why peoplewould think that the all the
fucking dancing around he doesbefore he gets in the gym has
anything to do.
But anyway, that that was just.
Uh, that's funny to me.
And then one other piece,because then when, um, so, gary
brekka, now they're sitting downat a table and they're running
down his supplements and stuff,and then literally quote so yeah
(32:31):
, dana's testosterone was low,so we put him on TRT.
Not a huge deal there.
Direct quote.
So I just want to highlightdisagree majorly, so again by
this point in the video I hadnow seen Dana White training in
the gym with a former MrUniverse and then his wellness
(32:53):
guru admitting that he put himon TRT.
So I could literally stop thesegment right here.
I'm going to keep going becauseI want to shit on this guy a
bit more.
But apologies for language, Oneday I'll get that.
I owe my daughter money if sheever listens.
But no, that's it.
That's like the two effectivethings that well, I'll give them
(33:14):
three.
You don't need the PF pad, butit seems that Dana White started
to prioritize sleep train withweights and he got on
testosterone.
You know order of magnitude.
Obviously getting ontestosterone is number one.
The little sleep pad, thelights, all the other stuff that
(33:35):
is complete bullshit.
This guy's secret sauce is nosecret, it's the testosterone
own.
But yeah, and then again, thisis just funny to me because,
like any good internetinfluencer, not a huge deal
there the secret that the onlyvalue that you're adding
actually leaked out.
So you better minimize that.
(33:57):
Otherwise, why the hell wouldanybody buy the superhuman
protocol?
And nobody should.
If you want the results thatDana White got, you should just
get on the TRT and get a goodtrainer.
That's how you get Dana White'sresults.
It has nothing to do with allthe other crap that they were
doing.
Oh and then one other note,because this one's popular and
(34:20):
so he's pushing this and thisprobably makes him get clicks
and his name out there.
But he's also got Dana Whitebuying into the idea that sugar
is toxic, so he basically turnedhim into like a West Side woman
, even though I think Dana hatesthe idea of trans.
But no, he eats like a womanwho's been focused on fat loss
(34:41):
for the last 10 years in SantaMonica Oddly specific, because
you know where I Um.
But yeah, it's just funny to mewhen, like a UFC fighting guy,
I know that no one gets out ofthere.
You know little narrow echochambers.
Um, they think what they'redoing sounds like hardcore and
tough.
Um, anyway, when Gary gets donewith UFC guys, he can come out
(35:06):
to the West side.
There's a whole bunch ofhousewives who will eat the same
thing up once he's done withDana.
But anyway, oh man, I'm a meanguy.
So, yeah, some nice stuff in hisprogram.
The hormone therapy, first off.
That really does work First,second and third place in his
(35:27):
program Easily prioritizingsleep great idea.
Training consistently good idea, even though I don't agree with
the dietary approach.
Just being mindful andintentional, even with bad ideas
, is actually going to produceresults.
So, anyway, those are thethings that I think were
effective in the program thatGary recommended to him.
(35:50):
The vast majority of it, though,is exactly what I slam here on
this show all the time asmajoring in the minors,
expensive, piss, waste of time.
Everything in the superhumanprotocol minus the TRT is a
complete waste of time.
Protocol minus the TRT is acomplete waste of time.
(36:11):
Well, I don't want to say thatbecause there was saunas and
cold plunges.
If you like those things andthey add value to you, then
great, but when you look at thebefore and after of Dana White
and then you look at thosethings, those have nothing to do
with the picture that you'relooking at.
They're nice things, but, again, the price point that he sells
them at is absolutely ridiculous, and the the promises he makes
(36:33):
for for what they can provide toyour health and fitness are
completely insane.
Um, so, yeah, uh.
In short, what works versus whatdoesn't?
Good diet works.
Fruits, veggies, whole grains,lean protein, healthy fats, all
that stuff Uh, it's all thatstuff.
It's got to be in moderation.
(36:54):
If you're doing weight loss,there has to be a caloric
deficit.
But knock it off with.
This thing is toxic or thatthing is toxic.
Well, in a way, I can liberateyou from the stress if you
accept it, if you love thatstress and you love stressing
about those things for nobenefits in terms of your result
.
Keep it up, don't let me stopyou from that.
Active lifestyle is also a greatidea, unless subsidizing.
(37:17):
Gary Brekka's lifestyle isimportant.
Don't do that.
Drugs work.
Weird thing to say, but no,that's really why drugs are
prescribed is.
They work really quick andreally fast.
And since I am one of these likeevidence-based, you know,
workout, fitness, wellness guys,I actually want to throw a bone
to the doctors out there, justin case we haven't listened to
(37:37):
the show.
But like, drugs have a purposeand doctors aren't bad for
prescribing them.
There's like this narrativethat like big pharma and the
doctors are out there to screwyou and I just honestly don't
think that.
Like there's tons of doctorsout there that like don't think
exercise and nutrition isimportant, but they're just
dealing with Americans that arecoming into their office and
(37:58):
need an answer right now and solike if, instead of giving you a
pill to directly do somethingthey told you to, like go work
out and eat.
Well, what would happen?
Most people would just die afew weeks later.
So, no, this is where, like, Iactually feel like, even though
I am one of these health andfitness guys, I want to defend
the docs here a little bit,because it's people from my
(38:19):
space that are, you know, kindof trying to get into their lane
and step on their toes and tellthem how to do their job, and I
really don't think we should dothat tell them how to do their
job and I really don't think weshould do that.
Drugs work.
You probably shouldn't use toomany, but yeah, this idea that
doctors are out here prescribingdrugs to purposely fuck people
(38:39):
up, I actually don't buy intothat at all.
I think they're actually juststicking within their training,
within the incentives in theplaces that they work in and all
that.
It's, frankly, a lot lessinteresting than a lot of the
really fun conspiracy theoriesI've heard about why doctors do
it.
But yeah, anyway, drugs work.
Trt is the most effective thingin Brekka's program and, yeah, I
(39:02):
actually do kind of want tospend a little more time on
Brekka because he's getting alittle bit of fame going right
now.
And so Brekka he actually hasthis test and this is what is
giving him his big claim and theheadlines is that he saved Dana
White's life, right.
So he runs a test on Dana Whiteand then he tells him you have
10.4 years to live.
(39:23):
And then they go on theirfitness journey and then he
changes all this stuff and thennow you're hearing oh, you know,
he saved my life, but what wasBrekka's training Like?
How does he even know how to dothis skill of telling people
how long they're going to live?
So experts do say that the testis based on dodgy science.
But prior to selling health andwellness, he did work for a life
(39:45):
insurance company.
His job was to purchaseexisting policies in order to
collect a death benefit.
So again I have to go back tomy market experience here.
But there is no science ondeath prediction.
But the equities trader in meknows that you actually can
apply probabilistic thinking tomarkets to win consistently
(40:08):
without actually knowinganything.
So I know some people are goingto have a hard time getting
this.
But he doesn't have to actuallyknow when somebody is going to
die to successfully trade thesecontracts.
There's a set of conditionsthat one could run that would
probabilistically show him thatin 100 trades you're going to
win X number of times.
(40:29):
Obviously, if you're in Vegas,you just need 51 out of 100,
right, that's an edge you win.
I'm not going to turn this intoan options show, but I have
strategies I've been trading forover four years now that have
over a 90% win rate.
Don't even want to convincepeople to trade options.
I'm just trying to convince thepoint that you can actually use
(40:51):
a set of parameters and anunderstanding of probabilistic
thinking to make what look toappear to be predictions.
I know how to do this inmarkets.
Gary Brekka knows how to do thiswith life insurance policies.
But then one day he got smartand he was like I should send
these death predictions tocelebrities and bilk them for a
(41:13):
whole bunch of money.
So, anyway, he has a deathprediction thing and then on his
site he has services that rangefrom $600 blood work all the
way up to his $134,000 blueprint.
Dana White is not the onlycelebrity using his services.
That's how you know he's good.
He also does P Diddy, davidBeckham and Kendall Jenner, and,
(41:38):
like two months ago, that wouldhave been a really cool list of
names, because P Diddy's househadn't even been raided yet, so
you could still use that one.
But yeah, tons of famous peopleuse him, so he's got to be good
, right?
No, actually Brekka has nomedical license.
Again, he sold or he purchasedinsurance contracts and made
(41:58):
some money there, but besidesthe celebrity endorsements,
there are no credentials.
There are no experts supportinghis test.
So now also, let's be fairEither Gary Brekka is right and
everybody else is wrong, oreverybody else is wrong, and
yeah, it could be.
(42:19):
He could be the only one whoknows.
But yeah, his company is called10X Health.
His co-founder is this guy,grant Cardone.
He markets himself as a realestate investor.
He also is now getting drummedup in some litigation and talk
(42:40):
about fraud.
We have a lot of thoseTikTok-style real estate people
here in Los Angeles.
There's a couple that actuallycome to my neighborhood and they
pull up in a rented Lambo andshoot their content.
So anyway, I don't know whereI'm going with this, other than
just to know that when you guyssee these people online that are
even pushing whether it'shealth, fitness, real estate
(43:01):
finance most of these peoplereally are D-list actors.
I guarantee you they probablytried to audition for a network
national commercial for my wife,never booked.
They kind of figured out thatthey either weren't attractive
or talented enough to make it inHollywood, and so then they
switch over to marketing realestate on TikTok, which, sorry
(43:24):
to slander this guy, grantCardone, without knowing him
there's a guy that sounds a lotlike him, that does the same
thing in my neighborhood, but no, anyway, just birds of a
feather flock together.
All you kind of see when youlook at Gary Brekka's business
is just a really, really sketchybusiness.
Well, let's not even saysketchy, because he's finding
(43:47):
people who are happy to pay forit.
So, no, not sketchy biz.
Well, let's not even saysketchy because he's finding
people who are happy to pay forit.
Um, so no, not sketchy um, butwe're talking about people that
that don't have tons of money tolose on nothing, and that is
again the part that I care about.
Um, I don't care if davidbeckham and p diddy spend
another 134000 a piece onanother Superman blueprint.
(44:11):
Literally, who cares?
Not me.
I'm being really clear in that.
What I don't want is people wholook up to those celebrities
even spending $600 on blood workwith this clown.
That would be annoying, and sothere just really isn't much
value in anything the guy isselling, except for the hormone
(44:33):
therapy.
And if you're going to go downthat route I haven't, but it's
totally fine in certain contextsbut why not just do it with,
like, honest and transparentpeople?
There's way better people youcould go to for TRT, in my
estimation, than this guy and,frankly, anybody promoting
businesses the way he does.
(44:54):
His clients all have the money.
So I want to be honest.
I really don't care about hisair quote victims.
They're fine.
They've just kind of allowedthis guy to become a little
bigger than he should be.
But let's be honest.
Celebrities really don't have agood track record with finding
(45:16):
investments, ideas or products.
It can sound like I'm thisunfamous person just trying to
cope with my non-fame by sayingbut FTX, nfts, bernie Madoff, do
you really want me to keepgoing?
Celebrities actually havereally, really bad track records
(45:37):
with finding good investments,good ideas and fitness programs.
I actually don't think thatit's because they're not dumb.
They're not bad.
The biggest problem with being acelebrity and getting onto that
level is that you're actuallysurrounded by sycophants and
opportunists and little bylittle, the people that were
(46:02):
with you on the way up theirvoices get heard less and less.
And that famous, successfulperson as their fame and success
rises, they get surrounded bymore and more people who want to
siphon that from them.
And then again there's so manyactors that will never make it
on the screen.
(46:22):
These are the people that floataround, these people, these are
their trainers, their moneymanagers, etc.
But they have no way to getwhat they need other than their
golden goose.
So, no, I do think thatactually celebrities are
actually victims in this.
In a sense, I only don't carebecause they can afford that
(46:42):
victimhood.
But no, actually I probablyshould be more compassionate to
them, because what these peoplelike Gary Brekka, um, bernie
Madoff, uh, sam, whatever thesepeople are exploiting other
people's insecurities for theirown agendas.
Obviously, I went over a bunchof different.
We got a finance guy, we got ahealth guy, um.
(47:04):
But to me, these, these reallyare the same animal that they
like to play on other people'sinsecurities to push their own
agenda.
And so, yeah, I should probablyhave a little bit of sympathy
for celebrities, because theyreally are constantly surrounded
by charlatans and sycophants.
Stay grounded when your socialcontext kind of starts to narrow
(47:28):
and everything that's gettingthrown at you is almost all
people who who want something toeither siphon some cash or some
clout out of you.
I don't actually know how howone deals with that, but anyway,
guys.
Last one, this was actually kindof tease the opposite.
This article I actually reallyliked the framing on kind of
tease the opposite.
(47:48):
There's an article I actuallyreally liked the framing on.
So, of all places, barron'sfinally got it.
I've been reading articles foryears about weightlifting versus
cardio what's the best?
And I just loved this headline.
It was weightlifting andaerobic exercise are good for
you.
Doing both is far better.
(48:08):
So anyway, you guys have heardme complain about this in the
past.
So what I love, what thisheadline did, is they bucked the
dominant style of Americanheadline writing.
You don't see a lot of this inAmerican headlines.
They failed to create aself-referential binary
dichotomy, so usually it wouldbe like fuck, marry or kill one
(48:34):
of these, or pit two of thesethings against each other.
What's better, weights orcardio, et cetera.
That's how that headline almostalways gets written.
Reminds me of a talk by one ofmy favorite trainers, one of my
mentors I've never met.
Dan John on YouTube has a talkthat I'm not going to summarize
(48:55):
because you go watch it yourself.
Intended audience is reallytrainers like myself, but it's
called Don't Be Binary.
He introduces a few topics inthere.
You've got the Eisenhower box,which is important, not
important, urgent or not urgent.
We could also go to the eitheror both, and neither.
(49:17):
You got four options there.
But again, I said I wasn'tgoing to do the whole talk.
Check that out.
It's a fun way and I actuallythink too, particularly if you
are a coach or a trainer, I'mreally not doing a political
thing in this binary thing.
Binaries are just going to makeyou worse at your job.
You're not going to ask theright questions.
You're going to consistentlyproduce worse results.
(49:38):
Thinking in that way.
That's what I actually thinkDan Johns talk about.
Don't be binary.
You'll get some real concretetakeaways about how you can
think through the problems thatyou're going to come through
training real people a littlebit cleaner and avoid those
binary dichotomies which, for asa trainer, you're going to find
that that's a dead end.
You'll get stuck if you go downthose holes.
(50:02):
But yeah, so I loved again theframing of this Barron's article
.
Yeah, weightlifting and aerobicexercise are good for you.
Doing both is better.
That's true.
Best headline as I've ever seenon it.
They also went on later to citethat, particularly as you get
older, you should blend strengthand endurance training for the
biggest gains in longevity andfunctional health.
(50:24):
Also, true Boy, they justnailed it.
Love this one too.
It doesn't particularly matterwhich aerobic exercise you pick,
as long as you do it regularly.
So obviously one Barron's ispaid, so they're not going to
get a bunch of clicks on thatanyway.
But an article like that isnever going to perform well on
(50:45):
the algorithm.
They should have created an usversus them.
You need to create an in-group,you need to have a call to
action and I'm sure youmarketing and writing people.
You know this better than I doand, as you can tell listening
to my podcast, I'm literally oneof the worst people at this in
America.
So, yeah, if I was good at allthat stuff, no-transcript, but
(51:44):
no, just in general what I think, and I hate that I have to
finish this on a binary myself.
But I do kind of feel like youcan either have the big picture
or you can have your binarydichotomies, and I wish I could
express that in a non-binarydichotomy some way.
I'm not even trying to make apun, but that really is the way
I see it.
You can either see the bigpicture, see what's in the gaps,
(52:06):
see the complexity, see thenuance and subtlety that is
every individual's situation, oryou can be binary, constantly
not get things, be outraged whenyou're learning about stuff.
I know the latter is morepopular, but I do think that by
(52:27):
not being binary, seeing the bigpicture, that not in any
highfalutin far out their way,like in a real pragmatic sense,
like you can just solve theproblems that come your way more
effectively, be less confusedand just not get caught in loops
so often.
But anyway, that's at leastbeen my experience.
So that's why you guys hear metalking about this so much.
(52:48):
But anyway, guys, that's itleast been my experience, so
that's why you guys hear metalking about this so much.
But anyway, guys, that's it.
That's all I got for you thisweek.
I'm still having a great timeputting all this stuff together.
So if you can make sure toshare this with some people and
then don't be shy, get at me,tell me what I should be looking
at, if there's anything thatI'm missing.
I literally sit in my officeand talk to myself for almost an
(53:09):
hour.
It's not lost on me.
I don't want to be up heremonologuing to you guys.
So yeah, if there's anythingthat you guys want me to put my
eye on, be sure to let me know.
I want to make sure that I amanswering the questions that are
also important to you guys too.
But anyway, guys with that,remember, mind and muscle are
inseparably intertwined.
(53:29):
There are no gains withoutbrains.
Keep lifting and learning andI'll do the same.
Welcome to the Mind Muscle Podcast.
Here's your host, simon DeVere,and welcome back to Mind Muscle
, the place we study the history, science and philosophy behind
everything in health and fitness.
Today I am Simon Devere andthere's nothing new except all
(00:35):
that has been forgotten, allright.
So recently I told you guysabout a nutrition logging hack
tip whatever, logging all yourbad stuff.
I wanted to give you guys anupdate on how that's going for
me.
Kind of funny little happeningthere.
Um, there's a lawsuit currentlybeing filed against on it.
Um, for false advertising.
(00:57):
It's actually a supplement thatwe have discussed on the show
in the past.
This is for um, alpha brain,and we did discuss this on
previous episode, I think, whenwe were running down Joe Rogan's
supplement stack.
So I want to bust into thatlawsuit.
And then one other thing thatcaught my eye this week Gary
(01:21):
Bureka is getting headlines forsaving dana white's life.
Um, they posted their, theirtraining and protocol online, so
we have that to review.
Um, and then, yeah, we're goingto finish up actually on sort
of an age-old debate in fitness,but, um, yeah, let's take one
more look at, uh, weightliftingversus cardio article I came
(01:45):
across across, actually inBarron's of all places.
I actually like the angle Itook, so we'll hit that one last
, though.
Yeah, recently, you'll remember,I was talking about a nutrition
logging strategy.
To me, one of the biggestdownsides of logging is that
it's tedious, takes time, it'skind of boring.
Logging is that it's tedious,takes time, it's kind of boring.
(02:10):
So I've actually come up withsomething that I've been using
with myself and a couple of myclients to get into the habit of
logging, but that was onlylogging your bad food.
So one part that I didn't evenforesee in doing this.
I've just now started loggingAgain.
I got about a week under mybelt and I employed this
strategy on myself, so I've onlybeen writing down the bad stuff
(02:33):
.
Unintended consequence that Iwasn't thinking about is all of
my clients actually get to seemy nutrition logs, or at least
anybody that I'm coaching theirnutrition logs on um.
We do this through an appcalled my fitness pal, um.
You can link up with yourfriends like you can with any
(02:53):
app, um, but so, anyway, anybodythat I'm coaching with
nutrition, we are linked upthere and uh, yeah, so, anyway,
some some people got a shockwhen they were logging their
food and they saw, you know,like, let's see.
Well, yesterday, as an example,there was some French toast on
there.
I think there was like four KitKat miniatures.
(03:16):
That might have been all that Idid yesterday, but anyway, just
you know, there's been about aweek of logs looking like that,
where Simon's eating nothing butjunk food, probably ranging
between roughly 200 to 500calories.
So, yeah, it looks like to someof the people I've been
coaching with nutrition that Iam starving myself and eating
(03:40):
junk food simultaneously.
So anyway, I did have toexplain this strategy to a
couple of clients as to why theywere seeing only junk food on
my logs, but simultaneously I'mactually doing this with
somebody who has never loggedbefore.
So I still think that it'sactually a nice strategy just to
(04:02):
get your muscles warmed up forfull nutrition logging.
So, yeah, anyway, I'm actuallydoing this with a client right
now.
First week, we're doing justwhere we log our junk.
Week two, we're actually goingto log everything.
I always consider that actuallyjust standardizing your
(04:24):
nutrition in the process.
So then, after you know, a weekof logging junk, a week of
logging everything, then we'reactually going to have some
targeted changes like caloricgoals, macros that we will be
striving for, and then, in weekthree of all of this.
That's when we'll finally kindof get rolling of all of this.
(04:46):
That's when we'll finally kindof get rolling with, I think,
what a lot of people think of asstep one.
But admittedly, it takes usabout two weeks to get into step
one, even when we're movingrelatively quickly, believe it
or not.
But no, mostly I just thoughtthat this was funny.
Getting called out by myclients for all of the horrible
food I was eating.
(05:07):
I already feel like I haveimposter syndrome anyway.
So I did.
I had a lot of junk food that Ihad to rationalize to some fat
loss clients as to.
Why are you seeing all thisjunk on Simon's logs?
Why are you seeing all thisjunk on Simon's logs?
(05:32):
Anyway, speaking of falseadvertising, that's exactly what
Onnit, the supplement companythat was co-founded by Joe Rogan
and Aubrey Marcus less famousthan Joe, but at least in my
world, aubrey is also a prettybig name.
Aubrey was really popular inayahuasca circles back in like
2014.
He's kind of known as, like,the psychedelic CEO.
(05:55):
Many others now are kind ofplaying that same Burning man
character, particularly inSilicon Valley companies.
But in fairness to AubreyMarcus, I think he started the
trend of tech bros, likecosplaying with psychedelics and
transcendental language and,yeah, like weekend retreats and
(06:18):
Burning Mans and all that.
Aubrey was on the front end ofall of that and Aubrey was on
the front end of all of that.
But yeah, anyway, obviouslyI've got some priors with Joe.
We've talked about hissupplements, probably showing my
hand a little bit there on myfeelings about Mr Aubrey Marcus,
but no, I think we can leaveaside my perception of how they
(06:45):
came to fame.
The case is pretty cut and dry.
It's talking about a supplement, alphabrain that we did discuss
on that episode reviewing JoeRogan's supplements.
I would say in a way that thiscase is actually bigger than
AlphaBrain.
You can kind of almost takethis case, or at least the
findings of the effectiveness ofthe substance, to broadly be
(07:08):
representative of the field ofsupplements that we call
nootropics.
So anyway, the lawsuit beingfiled is that they were
advertising with false,misleading and deceptive claims.
Go to the website right now andyou will see claims for
AlphaBrain that it supportsmemory, promotes memory,
(07:32):
promotes mental processing andhelps with flow state.
Every single one of thosestatements on their website has
an asterisk beside it and then,if you scroll down to the bottom
of the page, the asteriskrefers to the statement that
these statements have not beenevaluated by the Food and Drug
Administration.
(07:53):
This product is not intended todiagnose, treat, cure or
prevent any disease.
Um, I also did look at the thework cited on on its page, and
so it's.
It's actually three papers, umthat that are supposed to be
evidence for the claims they'remaking there, one from 88, one
(08:17):
from 1991, from 2004.
Um, all of them are by onescientist with a very difficult
to pronounce last name, but I'mnot going to butcher that.
It's on their website if youwant to go check it out, and
what you'll see is that allthree studies are again actually
(08:37):
just referring to the flowstate, not a discussion on
specific ingredients ormechanisms that induce it.
So those studies being citedand put even on the page.
There it's like oftentimes itappears to be an appeal to
authority that most people arejust going to see the papers and
(08:57):
then not check the content ofthe papers.
And just because we'rediscussing a legal thing and
I've already name dropped twopeople, let's be clear that
actually Joe Rogan and AubreyMarcus are not named in this
lawsuit at all.
They are the co-founders ofOnnit, which was sold to
Unilever.
So yeah, just so we don't getany slander games or anything
(09:22):
like that, this lawsuit hasnothing to do with Joe Rogan and
Aubrey Marcus, but if we wantto talk about the history of the
substance in question, we dohave to talk about those two
people that have nothing to dowith this lawsuit.
So, anyway, they are free andclear to do what they have
already done.
There's not going to be anyramifications for them or any
(09:43):
businesses associated with thembecause they already sold on it.
But yeah, so anyway, a whileback, why I think we can't avoid
talking Joe Rogan in this.
He has been the biggest promoterof it.
It's on his current list ofsupplements he takes.
This is a cool quote from Joeon his show about it.
I always take AlphaBrain.
This is a cool quote from Joeon his show about it.
I always take AlphaBrain.
(10:04):
Take it every time I have totalk to a scientist.
I take this shit.
It's not horse shit or snakeoil or placebos, it's real.
This stuff is the shit.
Shoot McGavin famously atepieces of shit for breakfast,
(10:26):
but remember him gettingdefeated by Happy Gilmore at the
AT&T Invitational.
So yeah, anyway, not sure aboutthe endorsement from Joe, but,
no jokes aside, joe has done alot to promote it over the years
.
He Nor Aubrey is listed as adefendant.
Listed as a defendant, butagain, it is relevant because
(10:50):
AlphaBrain was one of the coreproducts that they used to
launch the brand, and many ofthe things that are being
alleged actually occurred whileUnilever was not the owner.
Unilever is going to pay thebill for it, but these things
actually happened before thepurchase.
So one of the things thatactually does come into question
(11:15):
in this lawsuit is aself-funded 2016 study that
Onnit did to back up the claimsof brain function.
When you actually read thestudy even the one that they
paid to, have done not the threepapers that had nothing to do
with it that I cited earlier,even their own paper didn't
(11:35):
reach the conclusions that theywound up promoting and even
doing science in that fashion ofwell backwards.
But anyway, let's actually getinto the substance of the study
that Onnit paid for and I think,even though this is a legal
(11:55):
hearing and it'll play out incourts and obviously whoever has
the best lawyers wins we're notreally concerned with that.
We're just health and fitnessfocused people trying to decide
what supplements to take.
I think you'll have a prettygood idea of whether alpha brain
or nootropics are somethingthat you want to invest money in
.
Um, I think that will be prettyclear by the time we get done
(12:17):
with this um.
So any study title is arandomizedized, double-blind,
placebo-controlled ParallelGroup Ethics Study of AlphaBrain
, registered TrademarkAdministered Orally and actually
just sidebar.
I always talk about this but Ido a little bit of investing and
I've had folks ask like what'syour edge?
(12:38):
Yeah, in markets, and one ofthe only things that I can
actually respond as an edge thatI have is I actually read the
things that people pretend tohave read, or take summaries or
other people's word for.
So in finance that would belike earnings reports, fed notes
, things like that.
I will actually read myself andI make decisions based on what
(13:01):
I read in the report, not theheadlines about the report.
Unless you do this, you'renever going to see what a huge
gap there is between those twothings.
The other field that I see thishappening a lot in and I think
it's why it trained me for itwith finance but it is health
and fitness the headlines versusthe studies.
(13:23):
Actually reading them.
I've just seen in the yearsthere is a huge gap which has
just basically taught me toalways go look at those things.
I'm not kidding when I tell youit is far more common that
people stretch that truth thanthey actually report it
accurately.
If there was a group that Icould tell you consistently
(13:46):
reports this stuff accurately, Iwould.
Nobody that I'm aware of has agood track record reporting on
science.
And yeah, obviously I thinkhealth and fitness may be the
worst segment, but certainly notthe only one.
But anyway, I actually went inand looked at the study.
(14:08):
They did 26 different cognitivetests and their own results did
show that there was nostatistically significant
difference between the alphabrain and placebo groups.
That's from their own data.
And then actually justsometimes you have to do a
little more than read the study.
So one of the first personsnamed in the study was someone
(14:29):
named Todd Solomon.
When I Googled his name, I didfind that he did receive funds
for consulting with on it.
Second name named on the studywas someone named Jarrett Leach.
Also Googled, that person'sname also received funds for
consulting with Onnit.
That groundbreakinginvestigative journalism did
(14:49):
take me roughly 30 seconds, butit's pretty clear that this
study was sponsored by Onnit.
The company paid the two leadscientists Onnit.
That's a big problem.
Obviously that's a conflict ofinterest, um, and also just not
(15:10):
how science is done.
Um, they worked backwards fromsomething that they wanted to be
true and then, as we saw, withthe?
Um, the test they actually ranversus the?
Um, what was reported in itsfindings?
Um, it absolutely was stretchedum to try to prove the the
(15:30):
point that that alpha brainneeded in order to to market
their, their product.
The whole study was an attemptto provide a rationale for
marketing a product.
That's pretty clear.
Alphabrain was formulated,according to Aubrey Marcus, by
his stepmother, who is ahomeopath and acupuncturist.
(15:52):
He had stated of the launchingof AlphaBrain on a different
podcast a while back that thelast piece was really gritting a
strong medical advisory teamand scientific team that's been
running our trials.
That's a quote.
So no, disagree, that's not thelast piece.
(16:13):
You should actually build aproduct that works.
You shouldn't go find anadvisory team to say that the
product works.
Why not just build somethingthat works?
But that's kind of.
The issue, though, is thatAubrey Marcus's training was as
a marketer, and he reallydesigned and engineered this
product, just like his firstcompany, which was a marketing
company.
(16:34):
They had the drug formulationand then they got the science
and then they did the ads.
So anyway, this lawsuit againis actually just seeking
monetary and statutory damagesnot specified, and again it is
at the company's current owners.
(16:55):
Onnit's owners now are Unilever.
But again I kind of did want totalk about the founders, um, but
again I I kind of did want totalk about the founders, and and
Joe, he's a lot more famousthan than Aubrey is, but
actually in some ways I thinkAubrey's had a pretty outsized
influence on culture without hisname being.
You know, he's very successfuland certainly some people know
(17:17):
him, but I don't think he's,he's um household name the way
he would want to be.
No kidding, but um, no.
So again, and I kind of showedmy hand a little bit here.
But Aubrey Marcus really extolsthis perception that he is a
very conscious and transcendentperson, speaks of himself how I
often hear others speak about,like Buddha or Jesus, depending
(17:40):
on their own religiousupbringing, literally.
Even him selling on it toUnilever he framed as an act of
grace of sorts.
Out of all the potential buyers,unilever stood out.
Well, no one is perfect.
They really understand leadingwith purpose and I couldn't
(18:02):
possibly have greater resonancewith the leaders on the team
that we'll be working with.
Oh, and this was funny to me,the principal was even at
Burning man the year I met mywife.
Of course, because that is howincestuous Silicon Valley deals
get done out there at Burningman in the circle of trust.
At Burning man in the circle oftrust, but anyway, probably
(18:25):
spilling too many secrets.
But no, it's with no irony.
He touts a company that hasactually a pretty clouded
history with social andenvironmental issues and he kind
of extends them histranscendental fake hippie clout
, them his transcendental fakehippie clout.
(18:50):
Unilever uses palm oil, thatthey participate in slave and
child labor.
So again, I'm literally not theethics or moral authority here.
I'm just kind of calling outthat neither is this guy, and I
think of the two of us he seemsto be pretending to be one,
certainly a lot more than I ever.
I literally never pretend to beone.
(19:13):
No, and actually you know Iwant to say sidebar quickly.
I was having this discussionwith some parents about I have
done ayahuasca and it was apersonal and profound experience
for me, but I actually havehesitation recommending it to
people and one of the reasons isit's not the substance itself.
(19:36):
It's actually your fellowhumans, and I think that people
do need to exercise caution ifthey ever choose to do something
like that where they choose todo it.
If you start investigating,you're going to hear a lot about
set and setting.
That's really, really important, but that, to me, would even
extend to the other peopleattending the ceremony.
(19:56):
I've been to more than oneayahuasca journey and I didn't
see this my first time, um,because I couldn't, because it
was my first time but multiplejourneys actually showed me a
group of people that like to usethese ceremonies.
Um, people are in a veryvulnerable psychological state
when they are on the other endof it and, sadly, there are a
(20:20):
lot of people who, admittedly,are in the health and wellness
space.
A lot of these people are goingto have yoga retreats or health
and wellness products andservices.
This is literally when Ilearned about Onnit and Aubrey
Marcus.
He was being taught as one ofthe success stories and cult
hero of these ayahuasca circlesand a lot of the people that
(20:41):
were promoting this I wound upfor a time getting close with
and then seeing that actuallythey had business models that
preyed upon certain aspects ofpeople's psychology that I
certainly wasn't comfortablewith.
They see themselves as beingvery enlightened, free thinking
(21:01):
people.
I see them as selling to peoplewho are on drugs and in a
compromise state, um, so anyway,this is a sidebar, this has
nothing to do.
I've never done ayahuasca withaubrey and joe um, but I've done
it with a lot of people in thehealth and wellness space and I
do say be careful.
If you go on a psychedelicretreat it's not the substance
(21:24):
so much I'm worried about, asthe people that you go with For
best results, do it with someonethat you are actually close
with, who doesn't really wantanything from you, and then I
think you will have the bestexperience possible.
There are sharks swimmingaround in those waters and and
(21:45):
they don't look like sharks.
When you first see them, um,they'll probably be wearing
birkenstocks and saying reallynice things.
But anyway, I I did get alittle bit off course, um I I
just kind of want to summarizeagain on nootropics, alpha brain
and this lawsuit against On it.
(22:09):
I actually didn't.
I should have.
Maybe I could add some goodquotes.
But if we run back the tape onmy review of Joe's supplements,
I'm pretty sure that I co-signedfour Protein, creatine, fish
oil and athletic greens.
Obviously, I just did my pieceon athletic greens.
As long as we know it's amultivitamin, I'm still fine
(22:30):
cosigning those four.
Alphabrain and nootropics wereon his list.
I didn't cosign it then and Istill don't now.
The science on nootropicsdoesn't really show any positive
results except for people thathave serious health issues.
If you are a generally healthyperson, which most people
(22:51):
listening to health and fitnesspodcasts fit the bin of how I'm
using that term you're probablynot doing bad enough that you
would actually get a benefitfrom anything like this.
No-transcript naps or someextra sleep would be way more
(23:33):
effective than anything beingmarketed on that three-hour
podcast.
Yeah, so no, I that.
Um, nothing new to report onalpha brain and nootropics.
I don't think that these arevery efficacious supplements.
Um, these are big problemspeople have.
(23:53):
So this is a supplement thatappeals to a very, very common
problem being, um, tired,overworked, you name it.
Those are problems that usuallyhave nothing to do with the
health and fitness regimen.
They really typically aredownstream from the challenges
that you're facing in your life.
So I really can't solve thoseproblems.
(24:13):
All I know is, broadly, thatwhen you're sleeping, when
you're actually getting sleep,you handle the stresses that
come up better, you doeverything better.
So, yeah, no, yeah, skipnootropics.
Actually prioritize sleep, andI actually get called out for
that one because people accuseme of having status and
(24:35):
privilege with that.
And I've been waking up at 4amto go deal with other people's
stuff for years now, so I'm notsure where that comes from.
But, yeah, working six days aweek and getting up at four, I
guess now makes even me becauseI get good sleep.
That's well.
(24:55):
No, I guess what people aregetting at and I understand this
is that, like, work obviouslyputs demands on your life and so
some people are not in theposition where they can just,
you know, control what happenswith their day.
I get that.
I'm a personal trainer who hasa child out of the 24 hours in a
day.
The vast majority of them arenot mine.
So I really, really get thatthe part that I feel like people
(25:18):
aren't hearing in me, because Ido screen time review, I look
at stuff and and also I listenin conversations and people are
just frankly citing way too manytelevision shows and movies for
me to think that people aren'tstaying up and watching
television past the time wherethey actually could have gone to
bed, or again just gettingdialed into content, and I'm not
(25:40):
above this myself, guys.
This is again why I'm prettysure that you have time.
Sometimes I stay up a littlelater than I should, watching
movies, playing video games,doing things that aren't helping
my goals, and then I pay for iton the other end.
So, anyway, if I am critiquingyour sleeping habits, please
don't be you know, don't accuseme of some of the stuff I've
(26:01):
been accused of Sometimes, likeI said, we often project.
So I know good and well if I'mnot getting good sleep, it's
choices I'm making and I need toget on it because no one else
is going to come and help me.
That's it.
It's the only place I'm comingfrom in the sleep thing.
Oh yeah, that.
And nootropics up.
Stop wasting your money on it.
Unless you have money and youreally like pissing it into the
(26:22):
toilet, then in that regard, itworks great.
Anyway, next piece I hope youguys never buy AlphaBrain, by
the way.
And there we go.
There goes the Unileversponsorship.
So we'll have to work on somebetter monetization techniques
for your boy here.
But yeah, so there is a guy,Gary Brekka.
(26:43):
He's getting credit for savingDana White's life.
Lots of articles popping on it,so I actually watched a video
of them breaking down.
Well, you know, show my handagain.
I'm gonna say a lot of badthings about this guy, Gary.
So let's say some nice stuff uptop.
Dana White did make a greattransformation.
It is visually impressive andit actually does seem to me like
(27:07):
he did a number of thingscorrect.
We'll get into all of that, but36 pounds of weight loss is the
headline.
Even in the pictures, though,his body composition has just
improved a lot.
It's clearly added significantmuscle mass while reducing his
body fat.
(27:28):
And then, when I was hearinghim describe the whole
transformation, he said it tookabout 18 months, which even that
that was cool.
I like to hear like a realistictimeframe for once.
But then he does credit this guy, guy gary brekka, human
biologist, um, as opposed toother ones, I guess.
(27:49):
But uh, yeah, his uh superhuman protocol.
That's at least what uh, danawhite was crediting with his
transformation.
So gary's superhuman protocol,what it looks like.
He has this pulseelectromagnetic field pad that
you sleep on this magnetism.
(28:13):
I really try to represent thisas well as they said it.
But okay, this magnetism mimicsthe earth and that's why you
should sleep on it.
They don't explain how, ifyou're not sleeping on that, how
, sleeping anywhere else on theearth, your magnetism would
somehow be thrown off from theearth's magnetism that the PF
(28:34):
pad is simulating.
Don't worry about any of thatstuff, just make sure you get
the pad and sleep on it.
That's prong one of thesuperhuman protocol.
Um, number two, cold plunging.
It's uh.
So dana white was doing 50degrees for three minutes.
Um, my version coffee, he says,which, admittedly, I'm hearing
(28:57):
that one more and more.
Um, that's just.
It is funny how people, likeparrots, just start chirping and
saying the same things and sothat that's like one of those
cool flexes right now.
Um, just like, tell people youdon't actually have to do it,
Just tell people that you, youcold plunge and that you don't
do coffee.
Um, that's the people that arelooking for clout and
(29:18):
conversations.
That's what they're sayingright now.
Make sure you're on trend withthat.
But yeah, anyway, we've talkedabout cold plunging.
It's cool, but that's prong two.
Oxygen therapy that is prongthree.
So with this, they actually areputting an oxygen mask on and
(29:40):
doing basically kind of likewhat looks like a light warmup
on a treadmill.
Um, they.
They say that this prepares thebody to work out and delivers
oxygen.
Um, I hear that again.
I hear them say it.
Um, I'm not sure that's been aproblem for any humans on Earth
(30:02):
prior.
But there you go.
There's a thing they say andthey convince people too.
Fourth prong is red lighttherapy.
So 20 minutes in infrared light, that's at least justified
through reducing inflammationand promoting recovery.
(30:22):
So that, right there, thatsuperhuman protocol, sleeping on
the PF pad the night beforedoing your cold plunge, your
oxygen therapy, and then the redlight therapy, now you're ready
to work out, all of that leadsup to your workout.
But again, I want to say thatDana White credited the
(30:43):
superhuman protocol, not hisworkout.
So this is kind of like theissue that I'm going to have,
obviously, is that when?
Actually, because now we canactually talk about some good
things before I just crap on therest of it.
But so, yeah, so then DanaWhite gets done with that
superhuman protocol and then hegoes into the gym, but they're
(31:03):
still running the camera and Iactually recognize the guy he's
training with.
He's literally a former MrUniverse is Dana White's trainer
and I got to see them workingout.
He was actually just choosingvery smart exercises.
So yeah, anyway, you probablysee where I'm going with this,
(31:25):
but it's just interesting methat Dana White gives all the
credit to Gary Brekka.
That pad he sleeps on, thejacuzzi he takes the little mask
, treadmill sesh and then thelights that they sit under.
That that was key in his, youknow, transformation, and not
(31:46):
the training that he did with aformer Mr Olympia.
That wasn't key.
Huh, I know that I have almostnothing but unpopular opinions,
but I just I don't understandhow people would ever think
those four nebulous silly thingshe did before training with
somebody who's kind of,objectively, one of the best at
(32:07):
it in the world, why peoplewould think that the all the
fucking dancing around he doesbefore he gets in the gym has
anything to do.
But anyway, that that was just.
Uh, that's funny to me.
And then one other piece,because then when, um, so, gary
brekka, now they're sitting downat a table and they're running
down his supplements and stuff,and then literally quote so yeah
(32:31):
, dana's testosterone was low,so we put him on TRT.
Not a huge deal there.
Direct quote.
So I just want to highlightdisagree majorly, so again by
this point in the video I hadnow seen Dana White training in
the gym with a former MrUniverse and then his wellness
(32:53):
guru admitting that he put himon TRT.
So I could literally stop thesegment right here.
I'm going to keep going becauseI want to shit on this guy a
bit more.
But apologies for language, Oneday I'll get that.
I owe my daughter money if sheever listens.
But no, that's it.
That's like the two effectivethings that well, I'll give them
(33:14):
three.
You don't need the PF pad, butit seems that Dana White started
to prioritize sleep train withweights and he got on
testosterone.
You know order of magnitude.
Obviously getting ontestosterone is number one.
The little sleep pad, thelights, all the other stuff that
(33:35):
is complete bullshit.
This guy's secret sauce is nosecret, it's the testosterone
own.
But yeah, and then again, thisis just funny to me because,
like any good internetinfluencer, not a huge deal
there the secret that the onlyvalue that you're adding
actually leaked out.
So you better minimize that.
(33:57):
Otherwise, why the hell wouldanybody buy the superhuman
protocol?
And nobody should.
If you want the results thatDana White got, you should just
get on the TRT and get a goodtrainer.
That's how you get Dana White'sresults.
It has nothing to do with allthe other crap that they were
doing.
Oh and then one other note,because this one's popular and
(34:20):
so he's pushing this and thisprobably makes him get clicks
and his name out there.
But he's also got Dana Whitebuying into the idea that sugar
is toxic, so he basically turnedhim into like a West Side woman
, even though I think Dana hatesthe idea of trans.
But no, he eats like a womanwho's been focused on fat loss
(34:41):
for the last 10 years in SantaMonica Oddly specific, because
you know where I Um.
But yeah, it's just funny to mewhen, like a UFC fighting guy,
I know that no one gets out ofthere.
You know little narrow echochambers.
Um, they think what they'redoing sounds like hardcore and
tough.
Um, anyway, when Gary gets donewith UFC guys, he can come out
(35:06):
to the West side.
There's a whole bunch ofhousewives who will eat the same
thing up once he's done withDana.
But anyway, oh man, I'm a meanguy.
So, yeah, some nice stuff in hisprogram.
The hormone therapy, first off.
That really does work First,second and third place in his
(35:27):
program Easily prioritizingsleep great idea.
Training consistently good idea, even though I don't agree with
the dietary approach.
Just being mindful andintentional, even with bad ideas
, is actually going to produceresults.
So, anyway, those are thethings that I think were
effective in the program thatGary recommended to him.
(35:50):
The vast majority of it, though,is exactly what I slam here on
this show all the time asmajoring in the minors,
expensive, piss, waste of time.
Everything in the superhumanprotocol minus the TRT is a
complete waste of time.
Protocol minus the TRT is acomplete waste of time.
(36:11):
Well, I don't want to say thatbecause there was saunas and
cold plunges.
If you like those things andthey add value to you, then
great, but when you look at thebefore and after of Dana White
and then you look at thosethings, those have nothing to do
with the picture that you'relooking at.
They're nice things, but, again, the price point that he sells
them at is absolutely ridiculous, and the the promises he makes
(36:33):
for for what they can provide toyour health and fitness are
completely insane.
Um, so, yeah, uh.
In short, what works versus whatdoesn't?
Good diet works.
Fruits, veggies, whole grains,lean protein, healthy fats, all
that stuff Uh, it's all thatstuff.
It's got to be in moderation.
(36:54):
If you're doing weight loss,there has to be a caloric
deficit.
But knock it off with.
This thing is toxic or thatthing is toxic.
Well, in a way, I can liberateyou from the stress if you
accept it, if you love thatstress and you love stressing
about those things for nobenefits in terms of your result
.
Keep it up, don't let me stopyou from that.
Active lifestyle is also a greatidea, unless subsidizing.
(37:17):
Gary Brekka's lifestyle isimportant.
Don't do that.
Drugs work.
Weird thing to say, but no,that's really why drugs are
prescribed is.
They work really quick andreally fast.
And since I am one of these likeevidence-based, you know,
workout, fitness, wellness guys,I actually want to throw a bone
to the doctors out there, justin case we haven't listened to
(37:37):
the show.
But like, drugs have a purposeand doctors aren't bad for
prescribing them.
There's like this narrativethat like big pharma and the
doctors are out there to screwyou and I just honestly don't
think that.
Like there's tons of doctorsout there that like don't think
exercise and nutrition isimportant, but they're just
dealing with Americans that arecoming into their office and
(37:58):
need an answer right now and solike if, instead of giving you a
pill to directly do somethingthey told you to, like go work
out and eat.
Well, what would happen?
Most people would just die afew weeks later.
So, no, this is where, like, Iactually feel like, even though
I am one of these health andfitness guys, I want to defend
the docs here a little bit,because it's people from my
(38:19):
space that are, you know, kindof trying to get into their lane
and step on their toes and tellthem how to do their job, and I
really don't think we should dothat tell them how to do their
job and I really don't think weshould do that.
Drugs work.
You probably shouldn't use toomany, but yeah, this idea that
doctors are out here prescribingdrugs to purposely fuck people
(38:39):
up, I actually don't buy intothat at all.
I think they're actually juststicking within their training,
within the incentives in theplaces that they work in and all
that.
It's, frankly, a lot lessinteresting than a lot of the
really fun conspiracy theoriesI've heard about why doctors do
it.
But yeah, anyway, drugs work.
Trt is the most effective thingin Brekka's program and, yeah, I
(39:02):
actually do kind of want tospend a little more time on
Brekka because he's getting alittle bit of fame going right
now.
And so Brekka he actually hasthis test and this is what is
giving him his big claim and theheadlines is that he saved Dana
White's life, right.
So he runs a test on Dana Whiteand then he tells him you have
10.4 years to live.
(39:23):
And then they go on theirfitness journey and then he
changes all this stuff and thennow you're hearing oh, you know,
he saved my life, but what wasBrekka's training Like?
How does he even know how to dothis skill of telling people
how long they're going to live?
So experts do say that the testis based on dodgy science.
But prior to selling health andwellness, he did work for a life
(39:45):
insurance company.
His job was to purchaseexisting policies in order to
collect a death benefit.
So again I have to go back tomy market experience here.
But there is no science ondeath prediction.
But the equities trader in meknows that you actually can
apply probabilistic thinking tomarkets to win consistently
(40:08):
without actually knowinganything.
So I know some people are goingto have a hard time getting
this.
But he doesn't have to actuallyknow when somebody is going to
die to successfully trade thesecontracts.
There's a set of conditionsthat one could run that would
probabilistically show him thatin 100 trades you're going to
win X number of times.
(40:29):
Obviously, if you're in Vegas,you just need 51 out of 100,
right, that's an edge you win.
I'm not going to turn this intoan options show, but I have
strategies I've been trading forover four years now that have
over a 90% win rate.
Don't even want to convincepeople to trade options.
I'm just trying to convince thepoint that you can actually use
(40:51):
a set of parameters and anunderstanding of probabilistic
thinking to make what look toappear to be predictions.
I know how to do this inmarkets.
Gary Brekka knows how to do thiswith life insurance policies.
But then one day he got smartand he was like I should send
these death predictions tocelebrities and bilk them for a
(41:13):
whole bunch of money.
So, anyway, he has a deathprediction thing and then on his
site he has services that rangefrom $600 blood work all the
way up to his $134,000 blueprint.
Dana White is not the onlycelebrity using his services.
That's how you know he's good.
He also does P Diddy, davidBeckham and Kendall Jenner, and,
(41:38):
like two months ago, that wouldhave been a really cool list of
names, because P Diddy's househadn't even been raided yet, so
you could still use that one.
But yeah, tons of famous peopleuse him, so he's got to be good
, right?
No, actually Brekka has nomedical license.
Again, he sold or he purchasedinsurance contracts and made
(41:58):
some money there, but besidesthe celebrity endorsements,
there are no credentials.
There are no experts supportinghis test.
So now also, let's be fairEither Gary Brekka is right and
everybody else is wrong, oreverybody else is wrong, and
yeah, it could be.
(42:19):
He could be the only one whoknows.
But yeah, his company is called10X Health.
His co-founder is this guy,grant Cardone.
He markets himself as a realestate investor.
He also is now getting drummedup in some litigation and talk
(42:40):
about fraud.
We have a lot of thoseTikTok-style real estate people
here in Los Angeles.
There's a couple that actuallycome to my neighborhood and they
pull up in a rented Lambo andshoot their content.
So anyway, I don't know whereI'm going with this, other than
just to know that when you guyssee these people online that are
even pushing whether it'shealth, fitness, real estate
(43:01):
finance most of these peoplereally are D-list actors.
I guarantee you they probablytried to audition for a network
national commercial for my wife,never booked.
They kind of figured out thatthey either weren't attractive
or talented enough to make it inHollywood, and so then they
switch over to marketing realestate on TikTok, which, sorry
(43:24):
to slander this guy, grantCardone, without knowing him
there's a guy that sounds a lotlike him, that does the same
thing in my neighborhood, but no, anyway, just birds of a
feather flock together.
All you kind of see when youlook at Gary Brekka's business
is just a really, really sketchybusiness.
Well, let's not even saysketchy, because he's finding
(43:47):
people who are happy to pay forit.
So, no, not sketchy biz.
Well, let's not even saysketchy because he's finding
people who are happy to pay forit.
Um, so no, not sketchy um, butwe're talking about people that
that don't have tons of money tolose on nothing, and that is
again the part that I care about.
Um, I don't care if davidbeckham and p diddy spend
another 134000 a piece onanother Superman blueprint.
(44:11):
Literally, who cares?
Not me.
I'm being really clear in that.
What I don't want is people wholook up to those celebrities
even spending $600 on blood workwith this clown.
That would be annoying, and sothere just really isn't much
value in anything the guy isselling, except for the hormone
(44:33):
therapy.
And if you're going to go downthat route I haven't, but it's
totally fine in certain contextsbut why not just do it with,
like, honest and transparentpeople?
There's way better people youcould go to for TRT, in my
estimation, than this guy and,frankly, anybody promoting
businesses the way he does.
(44:54):
His clients all have the money.
So I want to be honest.
I really don't care about hisair quote victims.
They're fine.
They've just kind of allowedthis guy to become a little
bigger than he should be.
But let's be honest.
Celebrities really don't have agood track record with finding
(45:16):
investments, ideas or products.
It can sound like I'm thisunfamous person just trying to
cope with my non-fame by sayingbut FTX, nfts, bernie Madoff, do
you really want me to keepgoing?
Celebrities actually havereally, really bad track records
(45:37):
with finding good investments,good ideas and fitness programs.
I actually don't think thatit's because they're not dumb.
They're not bad.
The biggest problem with being acelebrity and getting onto that
level is that you're actuallysurrounded by sycophants and
opportunists and little bylittle, the people that were
(46:02):
with you on the way up theirvoices get heard less and less.
And that famous, successfulperson as their fame and success
rises, they get surrounded bymore and more people who want to
siphon that from them.
And then again there's so manyactors that will never make it
on the screen.
(46:22):
These are the people that floataround, these people, these are
their trainers, their moneymanagers, etc.
But they have no way to getwhat they need other than their
golden goose.
So, no, I do think thatactually celebrities are
actually victims in this.
In a sense, I only don't carebecause they can afford that
(46:42):
victimhood.
But no, actually I probablyshould be more compassionate to
them, because what these peoplelike Gary Brekka, um, bernie
Madoff, uh, sam, whatever thesepeople are exploiting other
people's insecurities for theirown agendas.
Obviously, I went over a bunchof different.
We got a finance guy, we got ahealth guy, um.
(47:04):
But to me, these, these reallyare the same animal that they
like to play on other people'sinsecurities to push their own
agenda.
And so, yeah, I should probablyhave a little bit of sympathy
for celebrities, because theyreally are constantly surrounded
by charlatans and sycophants.
Stay grounded when your socialcontext kind of starts to narrow
(47:28):
and everything that's gettingthrown at you is almost all
people who who want something toeither siphon some cash or some
clout out of you.
I don't actually know how howone deals with that, but anyway,
guys.
Last one, this was actually kindof tease the opposite.
This article I actually reallyliked the framing on kind of
tease the opposite.
(47:48):
There's an article I actuallyreally liked the framing on.
So, of all places, barron'sfinally got it.
I've been reading articles foryears about weightlifting versus
cardio what's the best?
And I just loved this headline.
It was weightlifting andaerobic exercise are good for
you.
Doing both is far better.
(48:08):
So anyway, you guys have heardme complain about this in the
past.
So what I love, what thisheadline did, is they bucked the
dominant style of Americanheadline writing.
You don't see a lot of this inAmerican headlines.
They failed to create aself-referential binary
dichotomy, so usually it wouldbe like fuck, marry or kill one
(48:34):
of these, or pit two of thesethings against each other.
What's better, weights orcardio, et cetera.
That's how that headline almostalways gets written.
Reminds me of a talk by one ofmy favorite trainers, one of my
mentors I've never met.
Dan John on YouTube has a talkthat I'm not going to summarize
(48:55):
because you go watch it yourself.
Intended audience is reallytrainers like myself, but it's
called Don't Be Binary.
He introduces a few topics inthere.
You've got the Eisenhower box,which is important, not
important, urgent or not urgent.
We could also go to the eitheror both, and neither.
(49:17):
You got four options there.
But again, I said I wasn'tgoing to do the whole talk.
Check that out.
It's a fun way and I actuallythink too, particularly if you
are a coach or a trainer, I'mreally not doing a political
thing in this binary thing.
Binaries are just going to makeyou worse at your job.
You're not going to ask theright questions.
You're going to consistentlyproduce worse results.
(49:38):
Thinking in that way.
That's what I actually thinkDan Johns talk about.
Don't be binary.
You'll get some real concretetakeaways about how you can
think through the problems thatyou're going to come through
training real people a littlebit cleaner and avoid those
binary dichotomies which, for asa trainer, you're going to find
that that's a dead end.
You'll get stuck if you go downthose holes.
(50:02):
But yeah, so I loved again theframing of this Barron's article
.
Yeah, weightlifting and aerobicexercise are good for you.
Doing both is better.
That's true.
Best headline as I've ever seenon it.
They also went on later to citethat, particularly as you get
older, you should blend strengthand endurance training for the
biggest gains in longevity andfunctional health.
(50:24):
Also, true Boy, they justnailed it.
Love this one too.
It doesn't particularly matterwhich aerobic exercise you pick,
as long as you do it regularly.
So obviously one Barron's ispaid, so they're not going to
get a bunch of clicks on thatanyway.
But an article like that isnever going to perform well on
(50:45):
the algorithm.
They should have created an usversus them.
You need to create an in-group,you need to have a call to
action and I'm sure youmarketing and writing people.
You know this better than I doand, as you can tell listening
to my podcast, I'm literally oneof the worst people at this in
America.
So, yeah, if I was good at allthat stuff, no-transcript, but
(51:44):
no, just in general what I think, and I hate that I have to
finish this on a binary myself.
But I do kind of feel like youcan either have the big picture
or you can have your binarydichotomies, and I wish I could
express that in a non-binarydichotomy some way.
I'm not even trying to make apun, but that really is the way
I see it.
You can either see the bigpicture, see what's in the gaps,
(52:06):
see the complexity, see thenuance and subtlety that is
every individual's situation, oryou can be binary, constantly
not get things, be outraged whenyou're learning about stuff.
I know the latter is morepopular, but I do think that by
(52:27):
not being binary, seeing the bigpicture, that not in any
highfalutin far out their way,like in a real pragmatic sense,
like you can just solve theproblems that come your way more
effectively, be less confusedand just not get caught in loops
so often.
But anyway, that's at leastbeen my experience.
So that's why you guys hear metalking about this so much.
(52:48):
But anyway, guys, that's itleast been my experience, so
that's why you guys hear metalking about this so much.
But anyway, guys, that's it.
That's all I got for you thisweek.
I'm still having a great timeputting all this stuff together.
So if you can make sure toshare this with some people and
then don't be shy, get at me,tell me what I should be looking
at, if there's anything thatI'm missing.
I literally sit in my officeand talk to myself for almost an
(53:09):
hour.
It's not lost on me.
I don't want to be up heremonologuing to you guys.
So yeah, if there's anythingthat you guys want me to put my
eye on, be sure to let me know.
I want to make sure that I amanswering the questions that are
also important to you guys too.
But anyway, guys with that,remember, mind and muscle are
inseparably intertwined.
(53:29):
There are no gains withoutbrains.
Keep lifting and learning andI'll do the same.
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