Wall-E: Is There Hope for Humanity? | S01E07

I wondered if human kinds inevitable future would have us looking and living like the people on Wall-E. So I talked to Steve Kamb, the founder of Nerd Fitness for his perspective on the plausibility of this potential future.

Join me and Steve as we take a deep dive into the science of fiction.

At the end of the episode Steve will rank the plausibility of a Wall-E future on a 1-5 scale from pure fiction to science fact.
#NerdFitness #WallE # FutureOfHumanity

Please support my new podcast by subscribing, liking, sharing, and commenting if you want me to keep doing more episodes of your favorite sci-fi concepts with experts.
Find me on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/@realitycheckTSOF
Comment and let me know what you think of this episode. Do you agree with Steve’s score at the end? What would you have added to this conversation?

Chapters
[00:00:00] Intro
[00:01:31] Initial Thoughts
[00:08:45] Psychological factors
[00:14:25] The Role of Technology
[00:20:57] Underlying Motivation
[00:35:11] Hope For The Future
[00:44:05] Optimism
[00:54:50] Reality Check

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Connect
Reality Check is hosted by Heidi Campo @Mrs.Heidi.CampoProduced by Huw Drury @biteszhq
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Guest Info
Steve Kamb
Instagram @SteveKamb
https://stevekamb.com/
Nerd Fitness - Instagram @nerd_fitness
https://www.nerdfitness.com/

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
All right, everybody, welcome backto the podcast where we discuss the plausibility
of sci fi concepts with experts.I'm your house Tidy Compo, and today
we are exploring the science behind thepeople of Wally. Now, this episode
absolutely had to happen here on RealityCheck because the question we are answering today
is one that everybody has been asking, literally since the movie came out in

(00:22):
two thousand and eight. Are weturning into the people from Wally? And
I could not think of anybody betterfor this episode than Steve cam For those
of you who are unfamiliar, Steveis the rebel leader and father of nerd
Fitness, which has an online fitnesscommunity that has helped over ten thousand one

(00:43):
on one clients. I don't knowwhy I just did the Donald Trump thing
just there. Ten thousand. It'slike a big emphasis. That's a big
deal. Ten thousand and one onone clients. And if that wasn't enough,
he also has a million nerds thathe's helping monthly. That's amazing,
Like that is truly making a difference. He's helping them, you know,

(01:04):
respawn, level up, become betterpeople overall. Steve founded the company in
two thousand and nine, and I'vebeen a fan of his for a long
time and I'm really excited to havehim on the show. So not only
is Steve going to answer a burningquestion are we turning into the people from
Wally? But he's also going tobe diving into some practical solutions just for

(01:25):
you reality check geeks. So,without further ado, let's get ready for
another mind blowing episode of reality Check. Oh thanks, prepared for hybrid rives,
Activate tractivy sixty percent er seed elzellike sweet, like speed, it's
too slow, all right, realityChu his signs call food. Okay,

(01:49):
So we have all seen the moviewhich came out in two thousand and eight
for those of you who love thosemovie facts and trivia that I do.
But you may not have remembered thatthe ship that the humans were living on
was called Axiom But did you knowthat a real company called Axiom Space was
founded eight years prior to when themovie came out. And what's even crazier

(02:09):
is that Axiom Space is scheduled toopen up a real live space hotel in
the next five years or so.And that is a freaky, eerie correlation
because that just shows that sometimes sciencefiction really does predict the future, which
is my whole interest for the show, and in the case of this episode,

(02:30):
that would not be a good thing. So see you mentioned that you
rewatched Wally lately, So tell mesome of your initial thoughts on this cute
little Pixar film and how it justkind of relates to some of the realities
that it's exposing. Sure, firstof all, hiid, it's so good
to be here. I am afan of I'd started downloading the podcast and

(02:53):
have been listening to your past episodesalready, and I've just thoroughly enjoyed it.
The title of the conversation, thenerdiness, checks every box for me.
So thank you for putting this outin the world. I am honored
to be here. And uh,like everybody, i'd love I love Pixar.
I love what they do. Ilove their creative process. I think
their attention to detail is unlike anythingI'm may be seen in any movie,

(03:17):
and Wally is is no different.His mannerisms and the way that Wally feels
like a real life uh you know, almost like half dog half half human.
He's got a little lunch pale thathe brings with him to work every
day and his his friend who's acockroach. All of a sudden, I'm

(03:38):
like crying about a cockroach and tworobots and their there. Uh they're meat
cute and how that worked out.So I'd loved it. I love the
movie. I thought opening, uh, a kids movie with thirty minutes of
no dialogue is really bold and wasI'm guessing. Uh, you know,

(03:59):
I I've read multiple books about Pixar'screative process and knowing what the the hoops
they had to jump through to getthat through to the final production is amazing.
So you watched this movie, theseRobots, and you see the giant
trash piles on Earth, and thenyou see the Buy and Large, which
is like the one company left onEarth, and you're like, oh,

(04:20):
boy, okay, I think Isee where this is going. You think
it's about robots, and then youmeet the human population later on and you
find out what humans have been upto you for the last seven hundred years.
And I remember watching this with myjoh on the ground in two thousand
and eight, and I haven't seenit really since. I watched it again
this past weekend and my job remainedon the ground it's like, Oh my

(04:43):
gosh, I can't believe Pixar wasable and willing and had the risk and
the I guess the appetite to portrayhumans in this way really bold, really
challenging. I think initially my thoughtswere like, oh boy, you definitely
can't make this movie in twenty twentythree. But the more I thought about

(05:06):
it and the more I watched it, the more I realized it wasn't about
human moral failings, but instead itwas about just how important our environments are
to shaping who we are as people. So I'm really excited to talk about
that on this podcast. But justeverything about the movie Pixar, I think,
geez I want to say it wasAndrew Bird potentially did the directing.

(05:27):
I can't remember if I'm getting thatright, but just a masterclass in visual
storytelling and then combined with just likegreat artificial intelligence and human behavioral human stuff
and humor between two robots speaking twodifferent languages. I just I loved everything
about it. Yeah, it wassuper cute, and I loved what you

(05:49):
said about it was a bold movefor them, because I would probably tend
to agree with you that it's Idon't know if it's something that they could
do now, because our thoughts andopinions have really changed about what's okay and
what's not okay to portray in movies, and our culture has really made a
big shift with the way that weare treating larger size people. And some

(06:13):
of it's for the good, I'lladmit that, and some of it's not
as good. Like, I absolutelylove the fact that there is this whole
movement saying, you know, bigis beautiful, and I agree with that.
I think people can be drop deadattractive at any size. People are
one thousand percent valuable at any size. People are worthy at every size,
and I'm happy for those aspects.But people can't necessarily be healthy at every

(06:38):
size. And I think that wesee that dichotomy in our culture today.
Yeah, I agree. I meanI think, you know, and obviously
going to tread very lately here,Like you, I think everybody is everybody
is worthy. I also don't thinkthat somebody's size or their struggle with food

(07:00):
is a moral failing. I thinkit's really easy these days to portray people
as as lazy or simply tell themto put the fork down. The reality
is, like, we're not humansWe're not dramatically different than we have been
for the past for one hundred andfifty thousand years as a species. The

(07:21):
thing that has changed is our environmentand technology and society. So there are
there are many aspects to humans thatyou know, despite like we all know
eating broccoli and chicken is better thaneating French fries and pizza like this,

(07:42):
we all know that. But shamingpeople or telling them that they're they're somehow
a failure as a result of notbeing able to stick with certain things,
I think speaks more to the personmaking those claims and not to the people
that are potentially struggling with this stuff. So this is a place at NERD
Fitness, I'm really proud of thatwe've been able to help and show as

(08:05):
much compassion and empathy as possible forpeople, because this stuff is really hard.
Like, first of all, pizzais amazing, It's so good,
and I can't imagine a life withoutcarbs not interested. At the same time,
there's so many aspects that are playhere, Like yes, our weight
is a simple math equation of caloriesand versus calories out at the same time

(08:26):
it's really complex. We have hormones, people are living in food deserts,
the socioeconomic status they might have.They're working three jobs orree with three kids
and they're the only person at homeand their kid wants to go to McDonald's.
Like, I'm not going to faultthem for that. So it's really
easy to preach and to tell peoplethat they must give up certain foods,
that they should be afraid of otherthings, and that the evidence is in

(08:48):
just shaming people and yelling at themand trying to tell them more knowledge about
the things they already know isn't working. So we're going to need to try
some different stuff, and that's whatwe're trying to do with nerd fitness.
I love that. That's one thingI've always like, I was saying this
to you before we hit record,but it's like, that's something I've always
loved about nerd fitness as you havetaken something that's you know, it's like
if you take the lens of fitnessand you look at it, like in

(09:11):
the nineteen seventies and the nineteen eighties, you watch those old school films,
the jocks were the bullies, andit's like the jocks were the cool kids,
and it was like not accessible toanybody else, and the world has
really changed. Like now we seelike Martine's a World's Strongest Band competitor,
came out and like openly admitted likehe was like coming out of the closet

(09:31):
that he plays dungeons and Dragons,And I'm like, I love seeing people
with more diverse interests being represented infitness and that's something I appreciate about your
business. So tell me a littlebit about this. I am curious about
why. You know, why psychologicallydo we know that something's good or bad,

(09:52):
but we make those choices. Haveyou discovered some solutions or answers to
that working with this specific population,because we know we shouldn't have pizza,
We know we should eat more broccoli, but we just don't. Like I'll
admit it, I had two,not one, but two slices of Costco
pizza over the weekend at the sametime I know we shouldn't. Sure should
Yeah? I mean so again,speaking speaking of this as a fellow a

(10:18):
fellow nerd who also has tons ofinsecurities and struggles, It's just that my
struggles personally are not with food.I think the challenging aspect of it is
for people that struggle with over eating. You have to eat every day.
It's not like other addictions in whichyou could literally go cold turkey, you

(10:39):
can enter, you can go toreab and cut those things out, but
rather, this is something that istruly something you're going to do every single
day for the rest of your life. And that's combined with like I said,
environmental factors, socioeconomic factors, yourmental health. All of these things
have factored into you know, thewhat's perceived as you know, potentially,

(11:05):
like I said, a moral failing. But really it's like there's there's not
as much free will, I thinkin these areas as we might lead ourselves
to believe. Even like registered dietitians, there's studies that have done like I
want, we want you to trackyour calories as a registered dietitian, and
even registered dietitians who know these thingstracking all of their calories still tend to
underestimate how much they're eating. Peoplethat aren't registered dietitians that might be overweight

(11:26):
can underestimate by as much as fortyfifty percent, one hundred percent, two
hundred percent. It's wow, it'sreally, it's really shocking and challenging to
understand just how many calories are puttingin our body. So people come to
nerd Fitness they're like, man,I've tried every diet. I've tried Keto
because my coworker told me that Ishould go Keto and I hated it.

(11:50):
I've tried the Paleo diet, Idid the Military diet, which is comically
named because it has nothing to dowith the military. There's all these diets
out there. I've tried them alland none of them work. I am
a failure and that's heartbreaking to me. The reality is the majority of these
diets are designed to essentially create temporarychanges, and as we know, temporary

(12:16):
changes create temporary results. So peopledo like a whole like you know,
a whole thirty or they do likea thirty day challenge, like man,
that was great, but then theygo back to doing what they were doing
before, or they jump on Ketoand they're like, I'm out on carbs
and after five days they've lost allthat bloated water weight and they're like,
oh my god, I've lost fifteenpounds. This is so good, except
they're miserable and every day they're likewhite knuckling it through with their their protein

(12:41):
and their spinach, and they're justlike, just Okay, I hope this
gets better. Unsurprisingly, it doesit because they have eliminated like all sources
of joy from their life. Sothey end up in these situations where they're
making temporary changes without the companying likemental health updates or the behavioral changes or

(13:03):
environmental changes that can assist in thoseareas. So they come to nerd Fitness
and we're like, fantastic keto out. If you don't like keto, we're
not going to do it. Tellme how you eat currently, Talk to
me about your life at home,talk to me about and this is our
coaching program. We have coaches onstaff nerd Fitness and they literally one on
one with clients, you know,via an app. Tell me how you

(13:26):
eat, Tell you about your relationshipwith food growing up. This is the
one time in your life you canbe truly honest about what you're eating on
a day to day basis, whichI think is really freeing for a lot
of people. And once we identifysome of those things, it's okay,
we're gonna work on the mental aspectsof this. We're going to work on
the behavioral aspects and we're going tostart to see if we can shift whether

(13:48):
it's your environment, try to getyou know, a virtuous cycle going of
hey, like, we're going tostart to change your identity. We're going
to change that through proving to youthat some changes can stick. We're going
to do it sustainably, we're goingto do it enjoyably, and we're going
to do it in a way inwhich food is no longer good or bad.

(14:09):
You know, there's no food isnot moral, it's just it's just
food, Like it's just pizza.We're going to work on the mental hang
ups and the mental the relationship thatpeople have with food. So we really
prioritize a lot of that stuff fromlike a really well rounded perspective, just
because we know that telling people tolike, here, follow this meal play

(14:31):
out of chicken and broccoli or salmonand asparagus, like is not going to
work. So it's like, yeah, that might be great if everybody did
it, but people aren't doing it, So why don't we try some different
strategies. So we really come atit from a very different perspective. Yeah,
and I love that you said twothings that I want to re emphasize
because I think they're really valuable.Is one is it's not about the knowledge.

(14:52):
I have seen medical doctors get upon stage and talk about metabolic disorders
and you look at them and it'slike they're they are metapaolic disorder, they're
extremely obese, and it's like theyknow everything there could possibly be to know
about that topic and they're still failingat it. So it's not knowledge,
you're not. And then I alsoloved to I said it's not a moral

(15:13):
failing either. And then I lovedwhat you said about changing identity because it
does really come down to like justa massive mindset shift and having that behavioral
change. So I'm kind of curiousbecause you've been at this for a while
now, you started your business intwo thousand and nine. We have seen

(15:35):
the rise of a lot of newtechnology start taking over. It's like I've
got my aura ring on right now. It's like we have wearables, we
have a million different things. Doyou see a lot of new technology like
helping or hindering? Is technology exposingsome issues? Is it helping with some

(15:56):
issues? I want to hear yourthoughts on how some technologies have maybe change
the fitness landscape. Sure, Ithink. I mean, first and foremost,
obviously my business would not exist withouttechnology. So technology, big fan,
big fan of the internets and andcomputers. I think technology. There's
a there's a great blog called Stritectory, and Ben Thompson specifically talks about how

(16:21):
technology and you know, the Internetis like an accelerant and a friction reducer,
and I think that's both really reallygood and really really bad. I
think it's really really good because itcan reduce the friction between Like you said,
you know the movies back in theseventies and eighties, you know,
the jocks ran the gym and nerdslike that was they could. They didn't

(16:44):
feel at home in those places.They didn't have a place to go.
So, like I said, Istarted nerd Fitness in two thousand and nine
because I didn't it wasn't like,ooh, I think nerd nerd culture is
going to be popular. I wasjust a door playing video games and I
liked helping people not get started,and I didn't think there was a home
for that. So I just like, I'm just going to start writing.

(17:04):
So technology gave me the opportunity to, you know, instead of training people
one on one in a gym.I can now write an article and send
an email out to you know,hundreds of thousands of people, and it
could impact them in their own home. They can read it on their own
schedule. I think a lot ofpeople are really self conscious still of going
to a gym, So we helpthem overcome some of those fears and challenges

(17:29):
by saying like, hey, here'sa workout program you can do at home.
Also, here's some accountability and somenon judgmental empathy as well, so
like, hey, like we understandwhat you're struggling with, like almost like
mcgiver, like, tell me whatyour situation is, and we're going to
build a build an environment for youor with you so that those things can

(17:49):
fit. So I think technology hasempowered so many more people and allowed a
lot of people that might have feltalone in the past to now feel connected.
I the nerdsit community that we callourselves the Rebellion in paying homage to
Star Wars is the thing I'm mostproud of. I'm just proud to be
a small, small part of it. I'm just like one guy that happens

(18:11):
to be in this community that isreally really supportive and worldwide, which is
amazing. At the same time,I think it's really easy to just say
like bam, we're just going toslap AI on it, and or we're
just gonna, oh, we're goingto technology is going to run everything,
and I think without accompanying like likea really strong motivation, like a really

(18:36):
strong reason or really strong behavioral environmentalchange as a result, it's really easy
to kind of let the technology dothe work and forget you or why you're
doing it in the first place.I'll share an example. So I signed
up for a meditation app. SoI was like, I'm super stressed out,
I am running crazy. I hearmeditation is good. These apps seem

(18:56):
like a great way to do it. So I signed up for one of
the apps, and you know,there's a game of few of you do
it every day and you get alittle checkbox and then after certain days you
earn a medal, like ooh,this is great. I think I got
up to like fifty days in arow. I got a little icon or
a metal It's like, this isawesome. And then I got hooked on
just like Okay, I don't eventhink I was meditating. I was just
like, oh, I have toget it for this day so I can

(19:18):
keep my schedule going. And thenfor whatever reason it's traveling, I missed
one day and then I I don'tthink I meditated again for like four years
after that, so I was like, I missed one day, you know,
like the whole Jerry Seinfeldt like,oh, put an X on a
calendar, Like that's great, andit works really well until it doesn't.
So I think there can be somechallenges with this whole, like don't break

(19:41):
the streak or tracking streaks or trackingx's that like, you can get really
hooked on the streak and forget whyyou started doing it in the first place,
almost like the tail wagging the dog. So if you're not careful,
you can almost outsource everything to technology, forget the reason why you started to
do it in the first place,and then if that technology inevitably fails or

(20:03):
you miss a day or something,the underlying habit might not have been properly
built, and the motivation and thebehavior behind it might not have been properly
established. So it's really easy tofall all the way back to where you
were because well, you know,I did one hundred and fifty days in
a row, but I missed one, like, there's no way I'm going
to do one hundred and fifty twodays in a row to get back to
that streak. Well, like thereality is you just missed a day,

(20:25):
Like who cares, Just do itthe next day. But that app is
now like very specifically telling you,like your streak is zero and you have
to start all over again. Sotechnology can be great. It can help
spread more information from like wearables andtech. It can be a great way
to draw your attention to things thatyou might want to focus on a little
bit more personally of the opinion thatlike wearing like a glucose monitor and less

(20:51):
you're a diabetic is probably giving youmore information than you need and could be
confounding the results that you might needor getting you to focus on the wrong
thing. So I think there's sometech that can be good. I think
a lot of people might take thisbiohacking stuff a little too far, and
the people that are like the peoplethat really need the most help could probably
get overwhelmed by this stuff. Soit's like finding the technology that simplifies things

(21:17):
or gets out of the way tohelp them build like those really basic,
really basic fundamental you know, exercisehabits or nutritional teaches so that you focus
on that stuff, reality checks future. Yeah, and the motivation, the

(21:37):
underlying motivation, I think is absolutelyhuge. And I'm so glad you brought
up the thing of the app,Like this isn't even fitness related, but
I used to have dual lingo,so du alligo is famous for that.
You get, you know, it'slike little duo bird. He's sharing you
on. He's like, you cando it, you can do it,
and you're like, I don't wantto let this little bird down. So
you're really good about studying your language. And I was actually studying Russian for

(21:59):
quite a while. I can speakmaybe two words, so don't even ask.
But then like duo Lingo reached outto me and they were like,
you're doing so good with your streak, and I ended up like, I
don't even know how this happened.I ended up becoming like the state representative
ambassador for the Russian language, andI was like, uh, And it
was like it was totally detached fromwhat was actually happening because the original goal

(22:23):
was to learn Russian, and thenthe end goal came down to maintaining my
streak. So I would just likeI would get on the app and I
would just like hit, hit,gimme a hit, and I would just
be like punching it in just soI could get my streak, not actually
learning Russian, not becoming successful withthe end goal. But then it's like
this new goal, this more addictinggoal, got created where I was maintaining

(22:45):
my app or my streak on theapp. And I think that it's like
what you said is the same thing. So how do you help people identify
with their true motivator is, becauseI think that's really like if we were
to boil this all down, that'sthe main problem. It's not knowledge.
It's not sometimes it's accessibility. Sometimesit is knowledge, but truly it comes

(23:06):
down the motivation. And like Ilook at myself right now. I've been
a competitive athlete in the past.I was not as a kid, Like
as a kid, I was,you know, playing StarCraft, so that
was my thing as a kid.Not interested in fitness as a kid.
Became a very competitive athlete. Asan adult, I got really into strong
Man and then the last maybe yearI got married and I just really lost

(23:26):
interest and I don't I don't havethat motivation anymore. I'm like, was
I just doing this to find ahusband? It's like now it's I just
I couldn't care less, And Iam like, I know I should.
I've been doing this for a longtime. All my knowledge is there,
accessibilities, there, there are literallyno barriers for me, and I still
don't do the thing. So howdo you help people identify their true motivation

(23:48):
and make that sustainable? Sure,So nerd Fitness we call it your Big
Era, your Big Why. Essentiallyit's working with people and really it's like
you just keep asking why over andover and over until we get to the
root cause of maybe you know,most people come to us for generally weight
loss. I'm trying to lose weight. I got a wedding coming up,
or you know, I gotta iwant to run a five k next year,

(24:11):
or I'm about to have my firstmy first kid, or whatever it
may be, and I'm looking toget in shapes Like that's fantastic. Like
at the same time, let's talkabout where you're at in your life,
what your goals are. Maybe youknow, how do you view yourself?
And it's like, well, I'mjust trying to lose weight, and then

(24:33):
I'll feel better about myself. It'slike, okay, like that's certainly possible.
Like what do you think about,like when you look in the mirror,
what do you see? And why, Well, I want to feel
more confident, Okay, Like whydo you want to feel more confident?
Some mistisis it's because I'm trying todate for the first time, or I
got a scare from the doctor andI'm really worried about my my health.
It's like, okay, like that'sit. That's an interesting angle, or

(24:56):
you know. So I think Ithink there's like that deep psychological level of
like really getting down to the rootof why I think. Like you,
I was somebody that almost like nevernever missed a workout and like build my
life around it. I think eventuallyI came to realize that, like I
was optimizing out a lot of thethings that made like why I was doing

(25:19):
it in the first place. Right, So I love spending time with friends.
I love on Friday nights with mywife we eat pizza and drink prosecco
and watch a movie and with thedogs in the couch and like that's just
what we do so perfect and it'snot we don't it's It's definitely not a
cheat meal because I'm not cheating onanything because I'm an adult and I like
pizza, So I chose to eatpizza on Friday, and that's perfectly acceptable.

(25:42):
So like, at the same time, I still exercise now, but
I exercise because I'm like, Iwant to be able to stay fit and
active, you know, when I'mseventy, Or I want to stay fit
because I like how it makes mefeel after a workout. Or I like
to exercise because I want to findout what I'm capable of with strength.
It makes every other part of mylife better. So like I'm focused on

(26:06):
how it makes me feel and notthat like I, oh, I'm not
going to break a streak, orI don't have a particular lift goal.
I think what we've found with mostof our clients is they come to us
for weight loss and their goal isto reach a specific goal weight. But
as they start to lose weight andwe help them identify types of exercise that
they actually enjoy, their goals shiftfrom weight to performance. They're like,

(26:32):
hmm, I wonder what I'm capableof now, And it starts with I
wonder if I could run a fivek or like I've always wanted to do
a handstand, or I wanted todo a pull up, Like awesome,
let's get you there. And asthey get empowered in these areas, they
then might look to other parts oftheir lives. Oh I wonder, like
maybe I don't feel as stuck asI used to now that I'm in shape.

(26:53):
I wonder if I could go hikemachu peach you, or oh I
wonder if you know, taking thatnew job is actually some thing I'm willing
to try. So there's there's likedifferent levels of motivation and like sounds like
you're going through quite a bit.You got married, you're getting a master
as you're working on this podcast,Like, yeah, I totally get it
that you might not have the sameexcitement and zeal to train, Like that's

(27:18):
also okay, Like that might bethe season of life you're in right now.
That doesn't make you a bad person. That doesn't mean you suddenly have
this moral failing that you didn't have. It just means that, like right
now, it might not be asmuch of a priority. Like that's that's
totally okay. Well, thank youfor that. I needed to hear that.
And if not just me it's like, I know that that millions of

(27:38):
people have gone through similar things.I was just talking to another friend of
mine about this recently, who isa competitive athlete. I won't say,
I won't say what sport he wasin, but he was top tier,
top tier because people he's a goodfriend of mine, I don't want people
to know who he is. Buttop tier athlete got married and then just
started gaining weight, got chubby,and he's just like what happened. So

(28:00):
we've just kind of been talking aboutlike those motivation changes and the shifting,
and I think it is interesting.You know, big life changes, your
motivations change, and you know,who knows somebody who's maybe they're really good
at training for a while and thentheir life changes, their motivation change,
and then they start thinking it's like, oh, it's a moral failing,
like you said, They're like Imust be broken or whatever, but it's

(28:22):
not. And it's renegotiating your identity. Circling back to what we were talking
to earlier, it's renegotiating your identitywith yourself and discovering your new motivations.
So I'm kind of curious, doyou ever find with your population people who
don't have a strong enough motivator todo the thing absolutely all the time.

(28:45):
Like, first of all, we'reall disasters, right, Like, let's
let's be honest, you low watchingWally, Like we're all disasters on a
rock hurling through space. None ofthis makes sense, et cetera. So
like we are also broken helping peoplewho are broken. But and I don't
mean that in a bad way.It's like we that's just like that's human

(29:07):
nature, Like we're all trying tofigure this stuff out. Anybody that tells
you they have like the key tolife is lying to you or has something
to tell you. So I thinkreality is more like, hey, we
have people that come to us likeI'm going to try to lose weight,
and there is this thing called,i think the abstinence violation effect, and
it's the thing that we see overand over and over again with clients.

(29:27):
It's something we point out to thembefore they even start. But it's this
idea that oh, I'm going tojoin a running club or I'm going to
work out with the personal trainer.And they go for the first two sessions
or three sessions, things are great, but then they miss a session.
Their kid got sick, the workran late, whatever, and they miss
a session and they feel so badlyabout missing a session that they then miss

(29:51):
the next one because they're afraid togo back and admit that they missed the
previous one, And then with eachmissed session, they just stay further and
further and further away until they getto the point where like I can't you
know, like, oh, it'sbeen a year and I can't go back
to because who knows what they're goingto think about me because I missed all
these running sessions. Like when peoplejoin us as like welcome, what do

(30:11):
you what is your biggest fear joiningNERD Fitness? Like my fear is that
I'm going to give up after twoweeks. I'm like, congratulations, you
are definitely going to give up aftertwo weeks. And here's why. Because
life is going to happen. Likeit's not a bad thing, that's just
what happens. So everything inside ofyou is going to tell you to go
hide in a hole and just feelashamed and beat yourself up and not come

(30:33):
back. That's that's that's the oldyou talking. That's the pattern that you've
already told us. You find yourselfin so instead, let's preemptively put something
in place where even if you missthat workout and the next day, well,
our coaches will still message you throughthe app with a funny meme or
something, even if you send backan emoji, just to let us know

(30:53):
that you're still reading. We've hadpeople join our coaching program and our coaches
will still message them and send themfunny memes semi regularly, even if they're
not responding, and then six monthslater they'll be like, I saw every
one of these messages. I reallyappreciate you sticking with me. I'm in
a different place now and I'm readyto start again. It's like, no

(31:14):
problem. We've been here the wholetime, and we'll still be there for
you the next time things go poorly. You know, life is not normal,
and that's totally normal, Like that'sfine, and we're all struggling with
stuff. We're all dealing with this. So we identify those things ahead of
time. We tell people exactly howthings are going to go, and that
voice in their heads to try topreempt some of it, and then we're

(31:34):
still there to pick them up andsupport them when they are willing to come
back. If you know, theythey you know, guilt ghost dust for
you know, two weeks or threeweeks or whatever it may be. It's
like, no problem, Like we'restill here. We really pride ourselves on
non judgmental, you know, messagingof like we're not going to guilt you
for feeling to feel bad that youmiss something. It's like, all right,

(31:56):
did you miss it because you weredoing something fun? I hope,
Like that's cool. Was it likegreat? Did you eat cake? What
flavor was it? Was it reallygood? I hope so, because I
also had cake yesterday. Like we'rejust normal people trying to help people through
this stuff too. I truly lovethat because it's you know you, Like
this is one reason why I've alwaysbeen a fan of You're a fan of
your brand, because it's like,you know, you can you can sense

(32:17):
these things from a distance usually,and it's like that it's that wholesome leadership
that people need, Like people needthat like that friendship and camaraderie. And
you're talking about like earlier you weresaying about how you know, people level
up and then they're like, oh, well I wanted to lose weight now
I want to do this performance goalsand it's almost like you're helping them move
along Maslow's hierarchy of needs, andsometimes they're getting stuck at a certain level,

(32:39):
and you just still show up nonjudgmental because it's like one of our
basic human needs is loved acceptance,and people cannot reach self actualization without love
and acceptance. So how could theypossibly ever become the best client athlete friend
that they can if they're feeling likeyou're judging them. And that's something I
do, unfortunately see a lot thefitness industry still is. There's these coaches

(33:01):
that'll come out there and they'll belike, if you're not at least ninety
five percent, then you can't workwith me because we're the cool kids or
whatever. And it's just like that'snot helping. Like the only kind of
energy that that's attracting are other peoplewho are self deprecating and like there's almost
like there's this energy of wanting tofeel needed, and they're like, well,

(33:22):
if I hit one hundred percent andI'm on it with this coach and
this coach loves me, then I'llbe accepted. But it's never going to
work. It's never going to satisfythat need because it's never wholesome to begin
with. So I love that you'reable to take people from the bottom and
help them move up towards self actualizationthrough recognizing wherever they are at in their
journey. And I will give ashout out to Mark right now. He's

(33:44):
a friend of mine who because it'slike, again, it's like I'm admitting
I'm in this with you, guys. I've been a competitive athlete for years.
I was at national level strong mancompetitor, and I just have not
had it in me for a year. And I think every day for the
past two months, he's texted meevery morning and just said do fitness,
and every single day I have notdone it. And he keeps sex to
me. He's like, do fitnesstoday, and it's just like I love

(34:06):
it. He's just like he's stillthere. Some days I'll just like his
comment, some days I'll ignore it. It's like, but he knows,
and I asked him for the accountabilityand he's still there. And I appreciate
people like that. I mean,it's good to have people in your corner
that are will both support you andalso be understanding. Just to kind of

(34:27):
riff a little bit on what you'resaying that. I think there's plenty of
people that are former Navy seals orformer badass athletes that are like super hardcore
and want people to like, youknow, eat rocks and then like jump
in a cold plunge and then jumpin a cold plunge and then like you
know, punch a brick while andwrestle a bear. And I'm like,

(34:49):
that sounds terrible, Like I wantnothing to do with any of them.
I can't relate to it. Iwould much rather sit on my couch and
play video games. But like brushingmy teeth or wearing pants in public,
like I prefer to, you know, occasionally exercising is the thing I should
do because it makes me feel goodand it's the right thing to do for
me. At this point, I'mlike, you know what, I'm just
gonna I'm gonna do that. I'mgonna do my thirty minutes of working out.

(35:13):
I don't particularly have any goals rightnow. I think he even sent
an email out to the nerd Fitnessemail list, but it was just like,
I've been kind of half assed inmy workouts for six months. I'm
working on a big project on theside, and I have other life and
travel things and whatever. I've beenhalf asking my workout. I don't mind.
I don't care. I'm like,half asking a workout is so much
better than not doing anything. SoI'm like, I'm just gonna do what

(35:37):
I can today with the mental bandwidthI do have available, and uh,
that's it, and then I'm goingto get back to living the rest of
my life because I don't want mylife to revolve around this completely. It's
part of what I do, butit's not at the expensive you know who
I am. Yeah, well,you've built up I think you've probably built
up enough because it's like motivation onlygoes so far. Discipline is what sustains,

(35:57):
and you've built up enough discipline aroundyour habits that you're able to just
stick with it, just like brushingyour teeth and you know, putting on
close to go out in public.It's just it's a part of your lifestyle.
And that's the part that I thinkis once people can get over that
hurdle, they are more in thatlike active for life category. If you're
looking at it from a long termathletic development standpoint, it really does help

(36:21):
to have a lot of accountability inthe beginning. Once it becomes like a
habit and it's consistent, people canbe a little bit more like with where
you're at, where it's like theycan fall off just a little bit,
but it's never truly falling off.It's just scaling up or scaling down.
So that's cool. I love thatyou shared that example. Yeah, it's
like it's kind of like investing ina four oh one k right, Like
when is the best time to investis like probably when you were twenty three,

(36:44):
But if you didn't start then,then next best day would be now,
Like, yes, it would havebeen awesome if you were lucky enough
to be born with two loving parentsthat also loved fitness that you knowmate,
it normal and prioritize health eating likethe majority of us did. It come
from that environment. So we're pickingup the pieces in our thirties or in

(37:06):
our forties and we're like, Idon't know what the hell I'm doing.
I've never been in a gym before. The majority of my food is cooked
in a microwave or from a fastfood window, Like where do I even
get started? It's like no problem, Like, yes, it would have
been great if we had started awhile back, but we're going to start
here. We're going to put someof those habits in place. And also
as a result of that, likedown the road, this does get a

(37:28):
little tiny bit easier, or youcan take your foot off the gas pedal
a little bit because of all ofthe changes that you're starting to make in
the discipline that started to kick in. Absolutely no, and I really love
and I appreciate that for those ofyou watching on YouTube, my dog I
think I think you heard the Amazontruck. So it's one of his greatest

(37:49):
anxieties in life. One of thesedays, I if I go missing,
it might be the Amazon driver.My dog's convinced of it. So I'm
just suiting some of his anxiety.But you know, to kind of the
topic, do you do you seethe do you see things getting better or

(38:09):
words or staying the same for thespecific copulation of like nerds and geeks because
the people is Livia the show areyou know they're sci fi fants like we're
nerds for geeks like and I loveit. I love being who I am.
I wouldn't be any other way.Do you see this population improving their
fitness, staying the same or gettingworse? I mean, I think I

(38:30):
think improving just because I think there'sthere's fitness has been has been made more
egalitarian, right, There's there's somany more ways for people to get interested.
And back in the day, itwas you had to go to Gold's
gym and you're pump and iron oryou put on your neon spandex and go

(38:51):
to aerobics, and you're like,if you don't like either of those things,
like you're you're kind of out ofluck. Now it's like you can
do live action role playing. Youcan go to sweet like killer dance classes.
You can go to you know,like I swing class. You can
go rock climbing, you can gohiking. There's like an infinite number of
ways for people to get excited aboutexercise and find their tribe of people that

(39:13):
are like them. Can I justinterrupt you and say that I really appreciated
you including LARPing in exercise, becausethat's that's the thing that a lot of
people don't really exhausting. Well,I've never actually like I've never done it,
but it actually looks fun. I'mlike, I would go pretended like
sleigh dragons. That would be socool. I've just I haven't stepped into

(39:35):
that yet. Might be LARPing asan astronaut with NASA soon. Who knows,
well that'll be. That's a wholeseparate topic. But I appreciate you
saying that because exercise doesn't have tobe nineteen seventies Gold's gym. It can
be activities that you actually at joy. Yeah, your heart doesn't have eyes,
it doesn't know what you're doing,and it's like, oh, this

(39:57):
exercise up. You're only running andthat's not going to do it. Who
cares. Your muscles respond to stimuli, your heart response and needing to beat
faster, like literally anything that getsyou off the couch. It could be
beat saber in VR in a VRheadset like you could do I've seen people
like sweating bullets after doing VR workouts. That's awesome. Like, if that's

(40:19):
what works for you, that's amazing. I think the challenge or the thing
that I want people to understand islike exercise is actually like a pretty terrible
tool for weight loss. Exercise isgreat for heart health, lung health,
mental health, building muscle, changingyour physiology. It's your nutrition and calories
consume that it's going to adjust thenumber that you see on the scale.

(40:39):
So I think there's a lot offrustration with people who pick a workout routine
that they don't like with the goalof losing weight, and they go to
the boot camp class or with someguy yelling motivational platitudes at them, which
again you couldn't you couldn't pay meto go to one of those classes.
But they're like, this is miserable. And then they step on the scale
and they're like like, well,you know, I'm broken, my metabolism

(41:02):
must be broken. It's like no, no, no, no, like
we're just playing on the wrong scorecardhere, Like we need to get we
need to focus on the right thing. So for you, it's what actually
gets you up and moving. Andthen it's like we should probably maybe go
to some therapy and start working ona relationship with food and identifying where we
can maybe start to cut back onsome liquid calories or some other things.

(41:24):
So I'm bring this all back aroundto like where are we going. I
think nerds are gonna be I thinknerds are going to be fine. I
am an eternal optimist. I'm alsoa techno optimist. I think like society
as a whole, Yes, thetrends have continued to get worse. But
I'm a wary of trends. I'malso really wary of making elaborate predictions.

(41:47):
I was doing research for this podcast. I found this thing was like in
the eighteen nineties, it's like theTimes of London said that all like they
expected that the city he was goingto be buried under nine feet of horse
manure because of how many people wouldbe on horses and bye by like you
know, the following middle of bynineteen fifty and then they invented a car

(42:10):
and they're like, oh wait asecond, never mind, horses are out
the window. You know. WilverWright said something like I'm man will never
fly in five hundred years or athousand years, and then three years later
he flew an airplane. So wehave a tendency to take where we're going
now and just extrapolate it out.But there are these things called black Swan

(42:30):
events. They're often negative, butthey can also be positive. You know,
there are people cleaning up the GreatBig garbage patch. They have phound
worms that eat plastic, so like, holy crap, that's amazing. And
also, you know, we havetons of clients at NERD Fitness that are
also on GLP one. You know, weight loss drugs like sem auglutide or

(42:53):
let's see, I think it's calledlike taza zapah. There's so many,
there's yeah, yeah, yeah,any title, zembe, benjamine correct.
So like those things are simply atool in a toolbox that lots of people
can use. Now. So far, the studies are showing that people that
are on it are losing at leastfive percent of their weight, maybe up

(43:14):
to twenty. So again, I'mnot a doctor. If anybody wants to
follow a doctor who does talk aboutthis stuff, his name's doctor Spencer Nadalski.
He's a doctor of family medicine andobesity and he also posts killer memes
on Instagram. He's the man andjust our great dude. But you know,
there are we have clients at NERDFitness that have had weight loss surgery.
They are on these essentially it's likeappetite suppressant medications, initially for diabetes,

(43:38):
but it's resulting in them not thinkingabout food all day long, and
the results are in there losing fifteen, sometimes twenty percent of their body weight
when they stay on this medicine.I am not gonna say that you should
be on it or you shouldn't beon it. That's not for me to
say. I will say that itseems like for the people that are on
it, it has been or couldbe life changing. So I think this

(44:00):
potentially could be an inflection point.There's also just all these technological advances.
I think science tends to hopefully fixfuture problems. So, like I said,
I'm a techno optimist, and Ihope that things can turn a corner
and we can move in this directionof getting things better. So I think

(44:20):
nerds are going to be okay,the population as a whole. We both
know it's not education. We knowit's not shaming people. It's going to
be it's going to come from environmentalor societal larger, larger adjustments which we
could dive into more too. Yeah. No, it's I love you saying
that because we always end up goinginto it for whatever reason. On almost

(44:43):
every episode we mention Uncle Ben,with great power comes great responsibility. We
need to do reality check Uncle Ben'sshirts because I say that almost every episode
now, and it's like, youknow, when there's when these new technologies
come out, it's up to usto determine how it's going to be used.
Literally every technology on this podcast,we talk a lot about all sorts

(45:04):
of things. You know, it'slike AI the iRobot episode. We're talking
about the awesome things that AI cangive us, and that also some of
the potential negative effects. And it'sgoing to come down to the people.
It's AI is not the problem.It's going to come down to the people
drug developers. It's going to comedown to them making sure that there's policies,
medical professionals are educated, and thenmaking sure that these things are getting

(45:28):
distributed in a way that's actually goingto help people. So the technologies,
I think can always be helpful,but with the great power comes great responsibility.
And it's so exciting to see Likeyou mentioned, what was that point
called the with the black Swan effect. Oh yeah, black blacks ones were
like by definition, you can't seethem coming, right, It's like the

(45:49):
two thousand and eight financial crash orthe war in Russia, you know,
or like negative black swans. Butalso like just this is a random example,
but Nvidia had made all of thesegraphics cards to essentially flood the market
for cryptocurrency miners. So they makeall of these and then all of a
sudden, the price of crypto plummets. They're like they're they like literally right

(46:10):
off the value of these of thesegraphics cards. They're like, oh,
we're not we don't nobody's buying them. They're too expensive, they're not optimized
for the right thing. And thensomebody figured out, like, wait a
second, we can use these graphiccards for artificial intelligence. Like, oh,
that's interesting, okay, And sincethen I think video is up.
Like I don't know, kids,I have hundreds of percents so far this

(46:35):
year because of the thing that theywrote off, Like they didn't necessarily see
that coming. Somebody did, andyou know, so like there might be
people that have, but like youcan't predict what these things might be.
These weight loss drugs were designed fordiabetes and as a as a side effect,
it had an a weight loss suppressit effect. What's what's funny is

(46:58):
actually there was I think it wasI want to say JP Morgan or one
of the one of the big banksput out a report that said, like,
these are all of the industries thatwill be negatively impacted by all these
weight loss drugs, and it waslike, you know, the Freedom Lay
and Coca Cola, and like,these companies might be negatively impacted because people
are going to consume fewer calories fromthose sources. And like in the short

(47:19):
term, it might affect quote unquotecapitalism. At the same time, it
might save people's lives and allow themto live ten years longer or to live
healthier, happier, and they cantravel more and they can they'll have to
buy new clothes, so like becausethey're now going to fit into different size
things. So like, it's sothere's so many like knock on or second
order, third, fourth, fifthorder effects that we can't predict. And

(47:42):
again, not an expert, justa a fan of waxing philosophy, philosophical
about this stuff, but we can'tpredict what's going to happen. I'm just
of the mindset that we figured outquite a bit before as humans, and
I hope that we can continue todo so. And this is an area
specifically helping humans develop a healthier relationshipwith food moving forward. I hope that's

(48:06):
something that this technology and you know, government policy and stuff can like actually
impact change reality check. Sure,well not to your horn for you,
but you know, people like youmaking a difference too, making it accessible,
like truely, like making it aspace where everybody can feel like they

(48:30):
belong. I was the kid whoI truly this is a true story.
I would ask the teacher if Icould stay inside from a recess and organize
books instead of going out, AndI was really neat instead of going outside
because the other kids were more specificallyfit than me. Like I was almost
my full height by the time Iwas in sixth grade, but I had
like zero muscle tones, so Iwas a gangly child, and I was

(48:52):
so scared of going out to justplay in recess as an elementary school kid
that I just opted out completely.Uh you know, big shout out to
my middle school physical fitness teachers,Miss Posey and Miss Pays who changed it
for me and made it accessible.So yeah, it comes down to the
drug developers, the policy makers,but it's also the people on a smaller

(49:15):
scale, like like your business inlike middle school and high school teachers,
parents, friends, who can impactmonumental amounts of change to people. Because
if we can create a society wherewe are supporting each other's activity levels and
helping people of every size, everyand it's like it's not just people who
are overweight. It can also bepeople who are underweight, like I was

(49:37):
who felt awkward in a gym becauseI was like, I look silly.
I felt like goofy. I feltlike a gangly creature. So it's like
it's creating those places where everyone couldfeel like this is for them, And
I love that, Like I lovethat. I love that the culture is
changing, and I appreciate how you'retalking about the It's not all bad.

(49:58):
It's not just a trajectory straight intothe people of Wally. Sure. We
don't know where it could go,we don't. I think, like I
said, I have hope, andrebellions are built on hope, as we
learned from Rogue one, So Nerd, I just sneak that in there.

(50:21):
I just I don't know. I'veI've just been I've been wrong so many
times that like I'm just done tryingto be right and instead just like expecting
to be surprised or in awe orto have my mind exploded at what comes
out of something and just like preparingfor that. Yeah, I read reference

(50:43):
Black Swans. You know, it'sa concept from the scene to lab.
He also has a great book calledAnti fragile. And it's this idea that
we as humans or this this thisconcept instead of like the opposite of fragile
isn't robust. It's like the thingsthat gain from disorder. So you know,
I'll try to simplify this to reallyeasily, but like if you want

(51:07):
to exercise, when you break downyour muscle, your muscle then rebuilds itself
stronger. And that's like a slightlyoversimplification of it, but it's like introducing
disorder to your life. Vaccines anotherexample of like introducing a small version of
the virus so that your body overcompensatesand gets stronger as a result, and

(51:27):
that is vaccinated from that experience orwhatever it may be. So I love
this idea of like, hey,we can't predict what the next black swand
will be. All we can dois like try to develop ourselves as antifragile.
I know you talked about this onyour episode in the Dune podcast,
but like you know, diversity,genetic diversity, exercise, eating a diverse

(51:49):
eating a diverse nutritional palate, eatingor working out in diverse ways so that
your muscles are challenged in different ways, like prepare yourself for the chaos because
life is hey as so like,if we can just do that, then
when the chaos shows up, we'renot surprised. We're like, hey,
come on in front, doors open, have a seat on the couch,
chaos, and let's you know,we're just going to figure out where to

(52:09):
go from here. So optimistic,not that things are going to always get
better, but optimistic that humans asa species, due to our diverse the
way our brains work and our bodieswork, and different countries and communities and
companies doing all different things, likewhat we're going to be able to accomplish
and how we're going to be ableto solve some of these problems I think

(52:31):
will surprise us. It will comefrom somewhere that we're least expecting. It
absolutely that just I don't know.I actually literally have goosebones right now.
Because that's one of the things thatI've loved the most about this podcast is
discovering just the deep layers of optimismwith all the different professionals and experts that
I've been talking to and they're like, yeah, there's some really really cool

(52:52):
things happening for humanity in the future. And if you look at because it's
like you know, people like tomake the anecdotal reference. It's like,
oh, you know back in theday, you know, people didn't have
as much depression, or people didn'thave weight problems. It's like, yeah,
but they had a lifespan of livingto sixty and you know, way
back in the day. It's likeplenty of other problems too, right,

(53:13):
right, And it's like I seehumanity trending better in every way possible.
And just because our generation is facedwith certain problems, specifically with mental health,
physical health, and you know,other various things, it's like,
as a global population, we aretrending upwards. Like hunger worldwide is down.

(53:35):
That's amazing, Disease worldwide is down. That's amazing. Like even poor
people in America can have basic accessto things like cell phones, internets.
It's like, as a whole,humanity is always getting better. And that
just makes me so happy. Sobefore I ask you our reality check question,

(53:57):
I kind of want to just giveyou some space to talk about anything
else that you had maybe thought ofduring our discussion or you had wanted to
say. Honestly, I just Ijust really enjoyed, I really enjoyed havving
this conversation, and you know,I hope, I hope people take it
from the perspective of, you know, it's really easy to see things on
the Internet, or to interact withpeople on the Internet and just assume the

(54:21):
worst. So I appreciate that we'reable to have the conversation from the place
of like, we're both trying tohelp people and entertain and to take from
this what is most helpful to them. So I think it's really easy to
look at Wally, especially if you'vebeen unundated with or inundated with like toxic

(54:42):
diet culture on the internet, andthen see Wally and say like, this
is this is garbage. Pixar isshaming fat people, And I think I
hope that this can encourage people tolook at one level deeper and say,
like, that's not necessarily what Pixaris doing here. Instead is pointing out
just how important our environments are towho we are as people. Like I

(55:07):
said, it's not a moral failing. Of course, technology has accelerated or
reduced the friction for us from somebad habits. It's also made other things
unbelievably great. So I think Wallyjust perfectly shows, you know, we
are products of our environment. Weare creatures of habit There are so many

(55:29):
environmental factors that willpower alone is notgoing to be able to fix if people
are like just put down the fork, like that's so unhelpful and it doesn't
work. Again, you talked aboutdoctors who are doctors of metabolic disease,
who are suffering from that very condition, not because they are a moral failure,

(55:49):
but because there is some aspect ofmodern life and biology that is I
mean, seventy percent of America Ithink is overweight at this point. I
imagine it's sim in some other Westerncountries. So it's it is a it's
a disease that people are working on, and it seems like we're starting to
find some things that could maybe helpbring it all together or help help turn

(56:12):
that corner rather and it's it's kindof cute to think about it in a
motivation and environmental sense, because mymy favorite scene in the whole movie is
when the captain like goes to standup for the first time he gets out
of his chair. It's like thousandand one space audience. Some music comes
on, Yeah, and it's likeit's so cute because it's like and I
think one thing that it's highlighting becauseit's like they there's that point where it's

(56:34):
like they're showing all the different Captainsposters on the wall. It's like they
start off like looking like like modernday people, and they keep getting bigger
and bigger and bigger until we reachour modern day Captain and it's like it
I think what these people were experiencingwas a complete loss of motivation in an
environment totally conducive to that that lifestylethat was not helpful to them. And

(56:54):
as soon as these humans realize theylike, we can go back to Earth,
we could rebuild, Like it waslike that motivation it turned on.
It flipped their life around. AndI think for some people who are struggling,
like maybe a major life changes inorder. Maybe you need to move,
maybe you need to maybe you needa new job, like maybe you
need that major change that will inspireyou to become that best version of yourself

(57:17):
again. Yeah, and I thinkjust kindness goes such a long way.
It's really where we're we are ourworst critics, and it's really easy to
beat ourselves up and say I can'tbelieve I ate that entire pint of ice
cream. Like you're not alone.That doesn't make you a bad person.
These are things that we can workon. I will again say it,

(57:38):
I'm a huge fan of therapy andencouraging people to to go to therapy.
I hope that if, if ifyou have health insurance, if you're fortunate
enough to have health insurance, reachingout to them and finding out if you
can get go to therapy through we'rethrough your health insurance. I think something
I would you know, we talkedabout all this stuff and what I hope

(57:59):
changes can exists. I hope thatthe medical industry can continue to move towards
prevention rather than treatment, so allowingpeople to spend their insurance money on whether
it's gym memberships or working with aregistered dietitian, like really really going out

(58:21):
of their way as companies to dothat, because you know, studies are
in like when people are healthier andhappier, like they miss fewer days of
work, they are more positive membersand contribute to society more like all of
these things are like a net positivefor society and they're most creative too,
sure, and we just have thisto you know, the scorecard for that
industry is backwards, where it's letpeople, you know, get sick or

(58:45):
to a place where they can't takecare of themselves and then lead them dry
with taking the money to support ordeal with the symptoms. At that point,
I hope that we can continue tomove in this other direction of a
like this is actually going to bereally really good. You know. It's
easy to say, like, youknow, to be pie in the sky

(59:05):
and overly moral and say like,oh everybody should just you know, it's
I want to combine that with realityof like, no, this is actually
really good policymakers and companies and thingslike having healthier, happier people is like,
really, that's also really good business. It's not just treating the sick
or treating the people after they've hadto you know, they've developed heart disease
or whatever it may be. No, I love it. I love it.

(59:29):
This has actually been such a positiveconversation and that makes my day because
this is something that could easily havebeen like doom and gloom, and I
just like, I love your energyand the positive light that you brought to
this. So I think our answeris kind of obvious. If you guys
want to leave what you think ourscore is going to be in the comments
before Steve answers, We'll see ifyou're right. So I actually just had

(59:51):
to look this up because I'm changingour question slightly, So Steve, So
Wally took so it came out intwo thousand and eight, but it took
place in twenty eight oh five.So do you think by twenty eight oh
five we will all be living onthe Axiom Space Hotel, which actually the
Space Hotel is going to happen,and we will all be like the people

(01:00:14):
of Wally. Where would you givethat a score on our reality check scale
one to five? Yeah, Ithink, I mean this is going to
be like, oh what a whata what a middle of the road.
But I was gonna say like somethinglike a like between like a two and
a three, where like I justdon't see us duh, I'll say maybe
like a three. Okay, I'llnot saying no that like, hey,

(01:00:37):
it's very possible that like something happensand humans have to get on spaceships and
go populate, like you know,go live on spaceships like in the Expanse
or whatever it may be. AndI realized there are companies working on this
stuff, so it's not impossible.But I don't think like it's it's it's
either that or it's like things arejust going to be like this and be

(01:00:59):
like oh that was normal, Likewe'll just be on iPhone. We'll be
in our iPhone eight hundred and twentysevens. You know, probably still still
posting memes on Instagram being like ohit was silly. Yeah, So I'm
gonna say like three, like Ifinds to the movie, I was like,
I could see it. But Ialso think that technology and society and

(01:01:21):
there will be people that will impactthings positively so that things don't get to
a point of no return. Ilove it. Oh that makes me so
happy. And it does. Wesee positive changes all the time. The
silkworms, we're fixing, the ozone, we're rebuilding the ice caps. They
have machines that are rebuilding the icecaps. It's like humans are amazing.
So if you are somebody who's workingin STEM and you are part of these

(01:01:42):
changes, good on you. Youhave my biggest high five. Yeah.
So, Steve, are there anyfun projects that you're working on that you
want to share with us? Wherecan people find you and if they're interested
in signing up to work with youwhere where can they hear more about you?
Totally? So I am a writerby well, i'd say by trade,

(01:02:05):
but I love writing, and Isend out a weekly newsletter at nerd
Fitness. You just sign up forthe newsletter at the every Monday. It's
a weird thought from my brain directlyinto yours or into your inbox. Love
love to do that. And thenthe team at nerd Fitness sends out emails
on Wednesdays and Wednesdays and Fridays.So love that. I just love writing.

(01:02:27):
That's how I build nerd fitnesses.I put my head down and wrote
like a thousand articles over five yearsor eight years or just like just just
every day just writing. So Iam working on a super secret project that
may or may not be bookshaped thatI can't talk about quite yet. So
yeah, I just And then Ialso I write a really fun, just

(01:02:50):
nerdy newsletter at stevecam dot com too, which is just like I've nerd out
about random stuff that has nothing todo with help and fitness generally. So
generally you'll find me on the internet. You can me up on Instagram nerd
Fitness. If you're looking for acoach, we have a team of amazing
coaches that are nerdier than I couldever be, and also look really really
good at this stuff. So ifyou're looking for help from the comfort of

(01:03:13):
your home and want to have anerd Fitness coach in your pocket, check
it out. It's all available atnerd fitness dot com. Oh, I
love it so much, Steve.Thank you so much, so let me
know in the comments if you guysagree or disagree with his score, and
if you would have added anything tothis conversation, please let us know.
We are very interested to hear yourthoughts. Until next time, everybody,

(01:03:34):
thank you so much for listening toyour reality check. Reality Check