Modern Wisdom - #724 - 1.5m Q&A - Joe Dispenza, Daily Routine & Online Negativity

Episode Date: December 28, 2023

I hit 1.5 million Subscribers on YouTube!! To celebrate, I asked for questions from YouTube, Twitter, Locals and Instagram, so here’s another 90 minutes of me trying to answer as many as possible. As always there’s some great questions in here about whether I'll bring Dr Joe Dispenza on the show, if you can grow a podcast without going on Love Island and how I deal with negativity online. Expect to learn what my plans are for the show in 2024, what I'll change for my next live shows, why we didn't do anything for 1m subscribers, why we choose to title episodes the way we do, if success has changed my self image, why I party vape, how many subscribers are because of my jawline and much more... Sponsors: Join Gymshark66 at gym.sh/modernwisdom66 Get the Whoop 4.0 for free and get your first month for free at https://join.whoop.com/modernwisdom (discount automatically applied) Get 15% discount on the best Colostrum from ARMRA at https://tryarmra.com/modernwisdom (use code: MODERNWISDOM) Extra Stuff: Get my free Reading List of 100 books to read before you die → https://chriswillx.com/books/ Buy my productivity energy drink Neutonic: https://neutonic.com/modernwisdom - Get in touch. Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chriswillx Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/chriswillx YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/modernwisdompodcast Email: https://chriswillx.com/contact/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hello everybody, welcome back to the show. My guest today is me. I hit 1.5 million subscribers on YouTube and to celebrate I asked for some questions from YouTube community, Twitter and Instagram so here is another 90 minutes of me trying to answer as many as possible. As always there's some great questions in here about whether I'll bring Dr Joe to spend on the show if you can grow a podcast without going on love island and how I deal with negativity online. Expect to learn what my plans are for the show in 2024, what I'll change for my next live shows, why we didn't do anything for 1 million subscribers, why we choose to title

episodes the way we do, if success has changed my self image, why I party vape, how many subscribers are because of my jawline and much more. Research shows that it takes 66 days to form a habit and my friends over at Gymshark here to help you start the New Year off strong with Gymshark 66. Over 66 days Gymshark 66 challenges you to focus on small wins every day to help form life-changing habits. All you need to do is download the free Gymshark training app on Android or iOS and choose your three habits. Then, once it all kicks off on January 1st, you can

take them off every day and track your progress alongside thousands of others doing the same. To get involved, you can use my link gym.sh-modernwisdom66 or search Gymshark training in the App Store. That's gym.sh-modernwisdom66 or Gymshark training in the app store. That's gym.sh slash modern wisdom 6.6 or gym shark training in the app store. This episode is brought to you by Woop. Woop is a 24-7 health and fitness coach that tracks your sleep, strain, recovery, stress, and more to provide personalized insights that help you to reach your goals. Whether you're obsessed with putting in a little more effort in the gym or getting those extra hours of sleep, Woop helps you improve your everyday

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of any colostrum available on the market. They've got thousands upon thousands of five-star reviews offer a 30-day return policy and you can get 15% off your first checkout. That's try-a-r-m-r-a.com slash modern wisdom and modern wisdom at checkout. But now, ladies and gentlemen, please welcome me. What's happening people? Welcome back to the show. It is a 1.5 million subscriber Q&A episode. It's been a while since I did one of these. It's been a busy few months. So I apologize for the absence,

but we got thousands and thousands of questions. I've tried to compile them. There were a lot that were kind of similar. So I've tried to put a bunch together and I'm going to get through as many as I can. So let's get into it. Beyond the mic, how do you deal with negativity on the internet? This has been the year that I've tried to rail against cynicism.

I just, I hate it. I hate it so much. Reminds me of all of the sort of narrow-minded, very defeatist mentalities that I really didn't like. It's all the worst parts of the UK. And I don't like it. I deal with it on the internet by following as few people as possible. So on Twitter, I think I follow 100 people. I don't spend that much time scrolling Instagram and my YouTube feed is relatively

well curated. So I just try not to see it. That being said, when it comes to comment sections and stuff, it's difficult. Like, I wrote this thing the other day, which might be, I guess, interesting at least to listen to. Fame doesn't change you, it just changes everyone around you. Is this quote from Lewis Capaldi in the documentary, and I reflected on it a lot this year. Identity lags reality by one to two years. There's a lot of psychological fallout from a rapid change in status.

That's from Mark Manson. It's jarring when everyone else tells you how great you're doing because you don't feel any different. But the world now sees you differently. It's like identity when everyone else tells you how great you're doing because you don't feel any different. But the world now sees you differently. It's like identity dysmorphia. And because you forget compliments, but remember insults, any increase in exposure, mostly just feels like an increase in criticism. At no point on the journey to becoming heavily scrutinized, does anyone teach you how to deal with scrutiny that is no training course for fame or criticism.

You're just as vulnerable to it as you were when you started, but people presume that you accepted the deal of criticism when you decided to build a platform you didn't. And that's kind of how I feel at the moment. Criticism's rough and negativity on the internet doesn't feel very good, especially not when it's directed at you. So it is a learning process, I suppose. And that's like perfectly true. What I just said there, there's no training course. There's no point between having 150 subscribers and 1.5 million where someone came along and like bestowed on me the skills to be able to deal with

negative things. You just like, I know, hope for the best along the way. But I appreciate all the people that are positive because you really do help. Steepay.vrd. Hello Chris, congratulations on the 1.5 million. How is your book coming along and when can we expect it? So there are two books in the works at the moment. One will be something similar to a more broy version of 12 rules for life, modern wisdom style, Almanac book, still thinking about the value set for that, but I'm super excited.

Like all of my news that is stuff just gets me super excited about that. And then the mating crisis with David Bus, between those two, you will have one within the next. It'll be completed within six months and it'll be published within 12. So probably start of 25, they'll be something out. SMLLN, small, and do you use any time blocking methods to manage your time? I know I should, Ali Abdullak, it's telling me that I should, and I'm about to switch my productivity system from omnifocus to tick tick. If you listen to the cinema, the Christmas episode that I did with the boys in the living room, I'm about to switch my productivity system from omnifocus to tick tick. If you listen to the cinema,

the Christmas episode that I did with the boys in the living room, you will know, I'll, by the way, for the people that don't recognize where I am, like what, what's this place that I'm in? This is my bedroom in Newcastle, the house that I've still got in the northeast of England. This is where it all started.

Literally sat right here, different mic, different camera, different desk, different everything, like terrible lighting, there was candle stains on the ceiling which Douglas Murray famously pointed out and everyone thought was mold and the entire world was criticizing me about mold. But yeah, I'm back for Christmas, I'm back in the UK, I'm back in Newcastle. It feels very strange to be back here. It's really funny for so much to have changed, and for you to be in a place that's so familiar and for you to feel quite different. In some ways, and there also still be the same. So, yeah, it's wild, but this is where we are.

Look, we've even got the same lighting. You can kind of see that's the vertical bookcase. We tried to replicate all of this when I went to Austin. So it may seem like Austin was just something we did out of nowhere. And then the cinema episodes have tried to match this teal and copper color. We do that on the big episodes. So it's all stemmed from this. This was the Genesis right here.

I hope you like it. Time blocking methods. You said it's going to teach me how to use Tick-Tick. That should integrate it. I know that I should time block more. I use it's going to teach me how to use Tick-Tick. That should integrate it. I know that I should time block more. I use my calendar quite liberally, but I should time block stuff that doesn't appear on the calendar,

typically more like tasks. The answer's no, but I'm guilty and I think that I should. Tom Bainsey, what's the biggest change for your next live shows, brackets, thought they were great. Thank you for coming, Tom. Um, biggest change for the next live shows.

I'd love to do some more production. It was as raw as it gets. It's me in front of a screen that's got my name on it, talking for 90 minutes and then doing a Q&A. So on stage, on my own, which if you told me I'd done that a year ago, it would have terrified me. And still kind of did. But I would like to add a little bit more production in, some AV stuff, you know, montages, maybe even scenes from the stuff that I'm talking about, you know, if I bring up a quote or I bring up an idea or I bring up something, we could maybe illustrate that behind me or even like cut to the episode and the point in the episode where I learned about it, that could be kind of cool.

Love to integrate some music, some like touchy feely, ascending-y, kind of things. But right now, I just wanna like dial in my ability to feel comfortable on stage, especially to crack jokes and do bits and do comedy is a whole other ballgame. But yeah, that's, I'm just working on the craft for now, I think. We can add fluff and do all the rest of it

when we try and do the O2 in London or something big, but for now just dial in the craft. CISOR, CISOR. Why didn't you do anything for one million subscribers? Fair question there. Yeah, I kind of promised you guys a while ago that we would have this like really nice montage put together or that we would do something special.

And being honest, the last five months, I can't remember when we hit one million subs, maybe five months ago. The last five months have just been unrelenting. Internally, there's a lot of just, not abroad, just like work that needs doing. It's all really fun. And I love the guys that are working alongside me.

But it's just so much, man. I've paid quite a high personal price this year to get the show to where it needs to be. And that's largely been with very limited time off and a lot of travel and not much time to kind of chill and turn my executive function off. So largely it's just because I didn't have time and that sounds like a bit of a cop out but we didn't. And given that we're now closer, way closer to 2 million than we are to 1 million, I will endeavour to do something actually special for two million subs. I promise, I will try my best.

Ferry puff skin 6585. Do you think that you still have some of the party boy character in you? Yes. That degenerate lives deep down and it's very rare that he comes out. I think he came out once last year. Maybe once or twice last year. Yeah, twice last year. And no times, I think this year, but I've got stagdew, bachelor party for the Americans coming up in Ibiza. Next year, I'll have another trip for George's 30th in Miami on New York. So there's a couple of times where he just, he crests and sort of peeks his head over the surface and comes back down. But that was a huge part of me, man.

Like that was, you know, for a decade and a half, professional party boy is not just like a cool way that I put it like, I was a full on degenerate for a good chunk of my 20s. And it was very formative. I think so many guys are. Like, how many guys don't just send it for a good chunk of time. And that was my career.

My career was being a party boy. Like, literally, I ran the events. I was the guy in the front door with the massive afro that everybody knew. So, yeah, he's still a part of me. He just is, he's on extended hiatus at the moment, potentially full retirement. User TL40C5DO8L. I need a better username. First of all, congratulations. Thank you, massive love for what you're doing. Secondly, if you went back in time, let's say late teens early 20s, would you be able to

appreciate all the struggle and negatives you went through to reach the positives, or do you believe it is necessary to hate the negatives so that you have a motive to turn it into the positives? Not entirely sure what that means. Say, would you be able to appreciate all the struggle and negatives you're in through to reach the positives? If you went back into it, I don't understand why I need to go back in time. I'll answer it as if I am now. I think that having a chip on your shoulder and trying to prove something to people that doubted you

or you don't like or you feel like didn't like you or shouldn't you or unrequited care or love or whatever it is, I think that is important. I know, there it is again, he needs to drink. Those of us that see the solo episodes know that I need to drink, I think that the action threshold that you are required to do,

that you need to reach in order to do great things, in order to really do anything that's kind of difficult, you can have the pleasure and the positive drive to go forward and you can have sort of distaste and chips on your shoulder and hatred desire to push you from behind. And a blend of the two seems to be best. It's not a fuel that you want to use for too long, but it's very, very effective at getting you off the line.

And that's something that I've managed to do, and I'm now working on casting off the negatives and kind of that required to prove myself. Sid, triple zero, double seven. Are you planning on having legs on your pod? Also by any chance, since you've had a few comedians, will you have Nick Mullin or Adam Friedman on?

Nick Mullin, I messaged two days ago. We were DMing back and forth. I think someone on his team was DMing me. I don't know whether it was Nick. So yeah, I'd love to get Nick on. I think Nick's fantastic. Lex, we've been talking back and forth. I messaged him and congratulated him on the Bezos episode. I thought that was really good. If you haven't listened to that, you should go and check out Jeff Bezos on Lex's podcast. And yeah, I mean, Lex is a busy guy. And like, And yeah, I mean, it's a busy guy and like gets, he's got other things on his mind like for 18 months he was like really personally impacted by Ukraine and that's a bigger priority than me bringing him on.

We'll get him eventually. TMC candles seven. Chris, firstly, I greatly appreciate your work and the continual improvement in the guests and interviews. Thank you. Can I make a suggestion? The titles of your podcasts really failed to capture the essence of the interviews, and I've missed many a great discussion. For instance, your Patrick, but David interviewed titled, Why does no one trust the media anymore? Did not remotely capture fantastic discussion, my best Tim. Tim, that's a fucking awesome way to deliver criticism. Very well balanced, and I appreciate you for doing it. Yeah, so look, tightly and thumbnailing on YouTube.

I touch, I might be setting myself up for a problem in future here, I touch every single title and thumbnail that goes out, every single one of them, and I think we have 2,000 videos, two and a bit, 1000 videos on the channel. All of them I've touched. The reason for that is I think it's very important to frame the episodes and the channel is an important in an important way. Let me give you an example. Russell Brand. Russell Brand's team knows how to limbically hijack whatever's going on, but every single one of those titles make me cringe inside. They're horrible, it's horrible. Like, they are coming for your kids. What?

You don't know what they did? It's like, God, guys, come on. Like, it's the most antagonistic tribal. It's not good. I don't want to play that game. There's also different ways that you can do titling whereby you put, you kind of keyword plug different things. Lex kind of does this. It's almost like a list. It's a listicle.

And we've tried all of the different ones. Ultimately, if you're not happy with the titles that we're giving, stop clicking on them because we split test things on the back end. We split test tons and tons and tons of titles and we know which ones people click on. Now, obviously, there is a way that all of this could just end up toward like the Russell Brands limbic hijack thing which we don't want to do. So we have it within confines. We have parameters of where we're going to allow the titles and thumbnails to go to.

And beyond that, we don't take it there, but ultimately the titles and thumbnails are the things that people click on because we need to play within the game of the algorithm. You're right, maybe why does no one trust the media or any more doesn't capture a fantastic discussion? But what does that gets people to click? It's very difficult.

We tried, it's like, you know, Patrick Betteved, a conversation on the challenges of modern, like modern culture and media and whether or not he should run for president. It's like, no one clicks on that. We tried. So I would be interested in a solution that helps us to hold on to CTR whilst also sounding good. But for a very long time, I fought with titles and thumbs and improving them made a massive change to the growth of the channel. I don't think that we played a limbic hijack game that much. We very regularly, the boys, the copyrighters that work for me, Jodie and Chase,

will come to me with something and I will say, no, I'm not prepared to cross that particular line which is totally arbitrary and probably would get us more plays. In fact, it would almost certainly get us more plays. And I come in with my big like hammer and whack him down and say no, sorry, too much, can't have that, too antagonistic, too tribal, too whatever, too accusatory. Like we've done too many titles that seem like that even if they work. So we work really hard to remain, like as I would say, like ethical algo hacking, but yeah, we're working hard. I promise, I promise you, trust me,

we are working very hard to try and find that balance. And yeah, I guess just click on everything. Actually, that's a solution, just click on everything. If you click on everything, then it doesn't matter what the title is. You don't need to miss any of them. Click on them all. Timax Fitness. What does a full day in the life of what? What look like a full day in the life of a Chris? Detail from the time you wake up until time you go to bed, you exercise

in the morning, you practice fasting before during a podcast, you split your work up into blocks, a couple of times per day, you work during weekends. All right. Try and blast through this quickly. Wake up 7am in the gym by 740. I'll have had element and some probiotic-y stuff first thing before I leave. Train, get back, some sort of protein shake, also eggs, then sit down on my desk by 9am. We'll tend to catch up because the first video will go live at 10, so we'll check in on that,

make sure that everything in terms of copy and the Slack channels are all sorted for that. Episode will go out, I'll be working through admin, having conversations, maybe some calls, about 12 midday. I'll stop and then begin, like, complete redoing prep for the guests, then I'll record about 4 p.m. That'll go until about 6pm, finish up. During that time I'll have gone for walks, taken more calls, done more bits and pieces of reading,

all the rest of it. And then usually 6.30 go out for dinner with friends and then get back and bed by 10.30. That's most days. And then on a weekend, I never record on weekends, I train more on a morning, I'll tend to go out, do comedy, live shows, all that sort of stuff. And that's kind of it. So it's kind of heavily routinized when I'm at home, but way less routinized than it was when I used to live here, which again is crazy. That couch that I'm pointing at, which you totally can't see, and you may never see, probably thousands of hours I spent on that couch journaling, meditating, doing breathwork,

like writing, reading, just thinking about stuff for so long. So if that sounds like robotic, whatever I'm doing in Austin, given that that's pretty much every single day. That version of me from a little while ago was way worse. Mercedes Alvarez 8379. I'm nailing it with the names today, by the way. When you're going to have BMTH on the pod, all right, bring me the horizon. Just today, Jordan Fish, announced that he's leaving. Jordan is a good friend and I hope that the departure was amicable. I don't know anything about it But I'm a massive fan of the boys and I would love to bring any of them on. Oli, I've told a number of times that he needs to come on

Which is something in the same place. So I will get him eventually Logan Mack regarding your policy of deleting or stopping people's comments from being seen, do you reckon this in part stems from being an only child? By way of not having to kill the constant annoyances of others, reasons previously given are very valid just a thought. All right, so to recap, season one of why people get banned from the channel, this is my house, take your fucking shoes off, like behave in an appropriate way. This doesn't mean that I expect everyone to be a sicker fan

or even agree with me, but it means that I expect people to behave in a civil manner. And if I bring some guests on the show and the comments are just filled with unthoughtful, stupid, like name calling, that hasn't got anything to do with the episode, how many times do we go on and look at a two and a half hour, three hour long episode, and based on the title and thumbnail, someone has already spewed some half-baked opinion

using an ad hominem or like calling names or bringing up something which is unrelated, and just being a dick, it's like, hey, guess what? This isn't a nice environment for anybody to be in, and that's not the way that I want it to be. Got someone else's channel. Like, I don't mind if you only want to contribute to channels where you can brain fart out whatever you want uninterrupted at all times. That's not here. So that's what happened before. Do I think that this is my way of not having to deal with the constant annoyances of others, that's so interesting. And I've never thought of it before. And you actually might be right. I don't deal with frustrations very well. And when I want something to happen, if it's dependent on other people, I do find myself getting quite agitated pretty quickly. So yeah, actually, I think that that might contribute to it a little bit. But more so than that, I just want a really positive environment.

What was the first question about negativity on the internet? Like I don't want a cynical audience and there's a button on the back end of YouTube that's called Hi-J user from channel. I think it's called and it means that that person can still watch, they can still comment, they can still like, but only they can see that comment. And no one else can. And they're just spewing stuff into the ether. And it's one strike and you're done. Like, that's been the policy for over a year now. And if you go on and look at episodes, there is still tons and tons of criticism. So it's not like we're getting rid of criticism, we're just getting rid of the people that were spoiling the party for everybody. And like, you know what it's like,

you go onto a channel and you look at the top few comments. And if the top few comments are stupid, you're like, oh, this is like a really idiotic audience. I don't want that. Sat chit saini, 1-1-1. We need a video on your monk mode. We was just talking about that, how timely. So I got a bit of stick actually like three or four months ago, or maybe even it was at

the start of the year and then it got popped back up again by podcast courage a couple of months ago or a couple of weeks ago. I talked about an old morning routine that I used to do, which was pretty extensive. It was wake-up, go for a walk, element in water, come back, sit down, journal, breathwork, intermeditation, into reading, into food prep, and it would take, during COVID, I'd spun it up to like nine, oh, and a mobility work as well, so it's June Jimmy Gill's big three for my lower back. During COVID, I'd got that to 90 minutes, maybe more, maybe probably 90 minutes or so to get that done. And I don't disagree all of the people

that were saying in the comments when it first came out and then when it popped back up again, like this is ridiculous, how, like, out of touch, like tell me that you don't have a job, what if I'm telling me that you don't have a job. I don't disagree with all of those things. I wasn't suggesting that other people do it, or that it was even necessarily optimal. There are probably ways that you can enjoy more of your life and not take up the first two hours of your day, ways that you can enjoy more of your life and not take up the first two hours of your day, doing like mad, bro, self-development stuff. However, I found unbelievable success with doing that.

And I think it was maybe a counter to party boy Chris that had his head up his ass for so long that he needed this like very intense pharmaceutical grade dose of introspection and isolation and introversion and all of that stuff to drive it home. So for me, consider it a compensatory mechanism, but for a long time, dude, I'm looking down there and I can see the stack of journals that I completed, like 11, 6 month journals in a row that I completed daily, morning and evening. And these were big. There were formative parts of me and it was, I'm not going to lie about like what I did during that period was a lot of time on my own,

a lot of time without alcohol, a lot of time without partying, 500 days without caffeine, all that stuff. And it worked. And, you know, I don't disagree, like it's ridiculous. It's fucking, it's absolutely insane, and almost no one can do it. And many people might see it as hell, but it was really good for me, and it ended up making me into a better person. So I think, fucking, hooray for that version of Chris.

Joe Gaffney, modern wisdom primarily focuses on intellectuals' guests. Would you be open to start having people from other fields on, like Fred again, Theo von, or are you going to leave that to the kind of D-O-A-C and stick to the intellectual framework? So I mean, Mark Normand and Whitney Cummings are probably going to be very flattered by you

calling them intellectuals. But yeah, man, I love speaking to people from all different strokes. And I don't know, for next year, I'm thinking about a little bit more from the comedy side. I was blown away by Whitney Cummings. Like, look at the comments on that episode. Just outstanding.

Like people going, I can't believe, like, who is this person? I was so impressed by her. Like, she's great. I really, really impressed. I enjoyed that conversation. Yeah, for next year, Fred again would be great, but absolutely adorable to speak to him.

Theo Vaughn is on my hit list. And yeah, I think broadening out the fields, a little bit more, that being said, obviously, as you go up and up and up through those echelons, even for someone with a one and a half million YouTube channel, it's still tough. Like it's still this big like networking game and the timing has to be right and all the rest of it. So, no, yeah, we'll be broadening out as we have.

I think we've continued to broaden out quite nicely over the last six years, but I won't stop. Mangalos, how does your online success affect yourself image in real life? How do you view yourself today versus Chris from five years ago? Do these questions are so good? The insight that you guys have from watching the show and then being able to work out some whole that's going to be interesting, you should be very everybody that submitted a question

should be very flattered because you come up with good questions. How does online success affect yourself image in real life? How do you view yourself today versus Chris from five years ago? To be honest, man, it's like kind of jarring. It's that little sentence that I said at the top. Identity lags reality by one to two years.

So I'm still just catching up to me moving out to Texas and feeling, oh, like I'm a person who deserves to have an O1 visa and live in America or whatever. I'm less racked with self-doubt and uncertainty than I was before. I view myself as kind of worthy of my successes, which I don't think I could have said. Probably even a year ago, so that makes me feel good. I like the fact that I'm not just riddled with imposter syndrome and self-doubt. That's a big difference, a huge difference actually.

But online success is like it's niche fame. At the very, very best, I've got like micro niche fame. And if you put me in the right, broy sort of gym, like five guys will come up to me on a busy Saturday and say, hey man, I love the show. And that's great. That's the perfect optimal amount of fame. The difference from Chris five years ago was so much.

I mean, confidence, self belief, difference from Chris five years ago was so much. I mean, confidence, self-belief, the feeling that I deserve success, like an endless litany of things. And it'll be interesting to see where I'm at in a year's time, because it feels like there's been quite a big change internally over the last 12 months. Some UL Quinn, two, three, two, one.

Would you ever consider being more disagreeable with your guests? Fair question. I find it tough to really lean in to the disagreeability thing, you know, like the destiny, Douglas Murray style, like Michael Malice, like real finger pushing stuff. That's not my nature. And kind of in the same way as if you saw some guy that used to weigh 55 kilos, and now is deadlifting like 150 pounds,

and you'd be like, well, 150 pounds isn't that much. Like, yeah, but look, it already started. The times that I manage to really push the guests on something with a disagreeable tone takes them off a lot for me to get over and that's part of my nature and it's something that I'm aware of and it's something that I'm working on as well to stop being such a people pleaser even on the show. So yes, it's something I'm actively working on and for next year will be one of the key areas of rhetoric that I think I'd try and bring into the show more.

That being said, in my experience, if you give people enough rope, they will end up hanging themselves in any case. And being just sitting back and giving people room to speak often allows them to like, did all their own philosophy more effectively than you would be able to. But I also don't disagree, I don't disagree, sorry, I would say, yeah, that's something I'm working on. Chautler, you appear to have drifted slash B drifting toward the right politically with your choice of guests. Is this you are lining with your target audience in an attempt at bringing some

sort of balance or something else? I don't know, I mean, like Scott Galloway, Helen Lewis, David Pacman, Destiny, these people I wouldn't have said are from the right. I would say that I'm definitely more accepted by people who are like from the center and to the right of center. But I mean, I've asked, I've been trying to reach out to a ton of people from the left, one of which I can say is Hassan Abbi. Like I really wanna bring him on.

I'd love to have a conversation with him. I can't get a response. Here's a good story. So we were about to work with a merch company. We've never done Modern Wisdom merch. And I was like, God, six years, 1.5 million subs, pretty cool brand. I think Modern Wisdom's pretty cool brand. Why don't we make some merch out of it? So we found this company and everything was going to be great. And it was a West Coast merch company, but they distributed internationally. And they had a very female, very

Gen Z, very left-leaning design team. They did a kickoff call with them and said, really great to say that we brought Chris Williamson on board and we're going to be doing the merch from Modern Wisdom. And there was a mutiny and they literally said, if you make us do this, we're leaving. So the sensitivity around whatever positioning I'm supposed to have, I mean, like, if you think that I'm unspeakable and beyond the pale, you're fucked if you go on the internet. But yeah, that, it's tough for me to get those people on.

That being said, Scott Galloway, one of my favorite people definitely is like fucking very, very lefty left. Destiny, the same, Helen Lewis was great. She was that Helen Lewis was literally the lady from GQ that like held Jordan Peterson's feet to the fire for two and a half hours. So I try and find balance as best I can. Robert Watten, 2394, I asked this with no hate of Ibe, but why did you choose to make an unhealthy energy drink, your business venture? But I'd be interested to know what you mean by unhealthy, because it's got zero sugar, it's got natural colourings, it's got natural caffeine, it's got the methylated version of cobalamine, which is one of the B vitamins,

which is more easily absorbed by a body. It is completely evidence-backed, and I will go toe to toe with anyone in the evidence-based community on the formulation of it. What I presume that you're talking about is the fact that we used ACE-K as the sweetener. Now, if you look at any, any shelf of drinks, you will see ACE-K and Aspartame being used very liberally, including in prime, including in tons and tons of drinks that are much more famous than ours. I don't think that it's unhealthy by virtue of the fact that I literally designed it this way. Could we have put a lot of people have said, why couldn't we use stevia? Have you ever tried to use stevia with a evidence-based formulation like ours, because each one of the different compounds

that we put in has a different bitterness profile. So you've got cognizant, pretty bitter, rodeolar, rosary, and panics, gin, sang, taste fucking awful on their own. El-thienine can be kind of gritty. Then you've got the b vitamins that you need to load on top, plus the caffeine that needs to go in. Trying to get that to taste nice, we tried everything.

I really want to try and make it work with natural sweeteners, and it didn't. I mean, I've been having it just before I started. It's money, this stuff's fucking dynamite, and I'm so proud of it. I love the branding, I love the way it looks, I love what it does. Everyone that takes it is super, super impressed. So if it's not for you, if you are so dialed on your health and fitness regime that the type of sweetener that you have in your productivity drink is something that you have narrowed your health and fitness goals down to, more power to you, but it's not for me.

Mattas, why do you party, vape? I feel like you've seen me somewhere. So yeah, when I look, we were on tour and I was in Toronto or Vancouver, Vancouver, I think. When I drink, I've started vaping. I do it at comedy shows and I do it at one-on-one nights out, but thankfully I don't go out that much, which means I don't vape that much. I don't know, I'm gonna blame it on Zach.

Zach vapes and when he's got one around, I always grab it off him. That being said, I'm thinking about doing sobriety for all of 2024, which will also fix the vaping problem. But I don't know, largely because it's fun. And because whoever it was, degenerate Chris, party, party boy Chris is still in there somewhere. And I've got to get my fix, you know, if I stop doing fat lines and hard drugs, party vaping is like the PG equivalent. Isaac Mijangos, when is Tim Dylan getting on the show? Dude, I'd love to bring him on.

I love that guy. He's in and out of Austin. That guy's been in Austin. When I've not been there for the last three times, it's almost as if someone knows, someone in Tim Dylan's team knows when I'm leaving and then purposefully placed him in the city at that time. But yeah, I am a huge fan of his podcast and I would love to bring him on.

And hopefully we can make it happen next year. Ali, is there any amount of money which will make you consider making an only fans account? Everyone's got a price. Oh, ambitious one. Do you still get depressed? That's an interesting question.

I did for a lot of my 20s. I can't remember the last time that I was. There's little waves of that. Those thought patterns do sometimes burst above the surface a little bit, but it's been a long time. Proper, proper depression for me is, laden bed can't leave, make excuses, stop doing things, order shit food, don't open the curtains, stay on phone all day or watch screens, nap at least twice, three times, don't leave, go to bed that night,

run it back the next day. I actually think in retrospect that it was like acute burnout rather than depression, was what was happening to me, but largely no, and I think that good health and fitness regime better climate more friends and better sleep and wake pattern has made probably 70 to 90% of the difference. D1 and only what next? Good question, I guess, going into 2024.

So book is going to be a priority for the first six months of next year. I really need to just get my head down and get that written because once it's done, then I can get back into other things. Don't let the show drop, don't take my eye off the ball. There's so many different things that opportunities and why do you do this? do you do this? And we could get you as an advisor and he is an investment and he is a company that we could start and they, what do you do? Of course, a man that we could do this thing with some partnership with this company. All of those things are exciting, but they're not the main thing. And, you know, if you've downloaded

my reading list, you'll see that one of the top five books is Essentialism by Greg McEwan. I'm being an essentialist, i.e. focusing on the vital few, not the trivial many, doing less but better, is easy when you have fewer things available for you to do than time to do them in. Because you can say yes to everything and still feel like you've got spare time. Now, the barstool has been flipped upside down and there are more things that I could do with my time than time that I have to do them in and each potential thing for me to do is like the best thing that I've been offered ever over and over and over again. So it's hard and a skill set that, saying no to things, is a skill set that I'm still having to develop.

So what next is book for the first half of next year. Keep doing the show, continue to bring on interesting guests, continue to shoot in a beautiful manner. The cinema stuff I adore, I think we've really captured a part of the market and like a part of the internet from that kind of didn't exist. Like no one was shooting things in super high quality like us. So I'm going to continue to spin that up. That's kind of it. Like if I get to the end of next show having written a book and just not stopped my caliber for the show, that'll be great. From the outside, that doesn't look like much, but from the inside that's still an absolute shit to no work. And then actually, I would like to do

to start releasing a bunch, like a suite of different courses. So we've been talking about monk mode and like me sitting on this couch and stuff. There was a very particular sequence of things that I went through in a very particular way that I did it. I searched for a long time to find the best in the world, for breath work, the best in the world, for meditation, the best in the world, for breath work, the best in the world, for meditation, the best in the world, for journaling,

the best in the world, for reading practices and mobility practices and spinal rehab and training and all that stuff. And if there'd been a one-stop shop for me to find that in, it would have made my life a lot easier. And they say that you should make products for the person that you were a few years ago. And that would have been great for me. So maybe I'll start to do something, but I don't know, like even the like the idea of doing courses and things kind of gives me a bit of a anic. But then I also think that's just because of the way that other people talk about it online, the way that other people talk about it online, rather than the actual value offering that it brings. So I'll get over that, maybe that. Interesting things you should know about.

What are your new years resolutions? I haven't done them yet. This is December 22nd, I haven't done them. So I will sit down next week and do my annual review, which you can get. At chriswillx.com slash review for free. Peter Wall, how long have you been CIA plant? I think I've upgraded. CIA plant is way high. I'm probably controlled opposition. Michael Malice has this hierarchy of the different ways that... The different ways that glowing experts ascend or something, and it's like, I'm pretty

sure I'm controlled opposition. Or maybe I'm not. I'm probably not interesting enough or important enough to be controlled opposition, yet. Artur Goddelwski. You always talk about your single child past, social anxiety being bullied, how have you transitioned from that to running nightclubs, that always bugged me as weirdly unlikely. First off, always talk about that interestingly, I didn't talk about that before David Goggins

episode. That was the first time that I really opened up about being bullied and I think, and that kind of real social anxiety stuff that I had in the past. So it's interesting that that seems, at least to you, like it's been a, it's like a mainstay of who I am because to me, it still feels like a very recent revelation that I've decided to kind of open up about myself. Transitioning from that to running nightclubs. Yeah. There's a few people that have like, oh, this guy was obviously popular in school because of either the way he that he looks or the job that he pivoted into. I don't know, like skepticism around my origin

story. Maybe I should take it as a compliment that I seem so well-balanced now that there's no way that I could have been like a total like neurodivergent degenerate artist in in school, but I promise you, and if you ask any of the people that I went to school with, they would they would back me up. How did that transition from that into running nightclubs? I guess I saw the opportunity to be someone that people needed and if people need you, it's kind of the same as them wanting you and even if people didn't want me but needed me to get a VIP band that manifested as me being accepted by the world and being

being accepted by the world and being given validation and being given a place of belonging in some way. So that pivot and also don't forget, for almost all of my childhood years, I was on the outside of social networks looking in. So I was observing and working out how different things moved and why people did things the way they did and how they move between different. That's what a club promoter does. A club promoter looks at social networks

and works out how to manipulate them so that you can get people to go to a different event. Who's the key taste maker within that? The only difference between being popular and unpopular with that is can you play the social game, the social dynamics game of actually being able to communicate. As soon as you've got that down, you've got this massively increased level of attention and precision and focus that you have on why people are the way they are, which I think

is still largely why my obsession with human nature on the podcast, the evolution of your psychology, all of that stuff, is still here. Connor, how many of your subscribers are because of your jawline? Yeah, this has become a bit of a meme online. Someone, a bunch of people have had pops at me on Twitter about this. It's very interesting, it's a very interesting criticism, given that the show is bigger on Spotify than it is on YouTube.

And you can't see me on there. I mean, look, I've chosen to do a thing which is the least flash, least showy. Like I'm doing it with the top on. I'm cropping this above the arms. Like when people meet me in real life, they're like, wow, dude, like you're like less of a skinny bitch than I thought. Like you're a bit more jacked than I thought you were. Um, I think it is cope to say that the reason that this podcast is successful is because of my jawline, the same way as it's cope to say that it's successful because of love Island. I came

off love Island with an additional 3000 followers in 2015, 16, whenever I did it, it was tiny and it did nothing. And actually put me back, we've lost contracts with partners and airlines because the person that was the key tastemaker found out that I was on Love Island. So if you think that going on Love Island helps, and then the jawline thing, I don't know.

If you think that Jordan Peterson gets seduced by me doing a model face at him, you might be unfortunately surprised. John Luke Begard, is it okay to put Nike's in the washing machine? Thanks. Sure, let's say yes. I've managed to thread the needle of never doing my own washing pretty much. I can do it, but I choose not to. And I'm 35, so my advice is work out the way where you don't need to do your own washing. Jason Stone, didn't you only have one million

about three weeks ago? I think it's about four months ago, but yeah, it's been the last few months have just been crazy, which is also beautiful, but disquieting, and I'm holding on for dear life. AL, the dating advice for gurus online seems to boil down to just be successful, bro. Given that women rate 80% of men is physically unattractive and 50% of men

are below average intelligence, what's the advice for those 40% of men is physically unattractive and 50% of men are below average intelligence. What's the advice for those 40% of men? That's interesting. The bar is set unbelievably low. The average American man is obese, divorced and with less than one can in the bank. That is a very, very low bar. I think that the internet over indexes on objective metrics of success and doesn't account for what happens in person. You will see regularly people and guys that are charismatic, funny, sexy in person batting way outside of their league if you were to just look at them from an online perspective.

Basically, I would say don't overthink what the internet says because the reality of dating for almost everybody, if you talk to people that aren't terminally online and ask them about their dating experiences and then talk to the people who are terminally online, these two don't spend all that much time getting close. That being said, there are some genetic, like,

truths that are rough to get around. But again, dude, if you go to the gym three times a week, for a year, you're probably in the top percentile of all fitness people on the planet. If you spend 300 bucks on a relatively okay wardrobe with some black, some white, some navy's, and some grays, you're probably better dressed than most of the guys that you're going to walk past. Like, the bar is so fucking low. So the dating advice from Guru's online boils down to just be successful, bro. It's like, just try a bit and you will already be probably a six or a seven out of ten.

just try a bit and you will already be probably a six or seven out of ten. Sabin Dahal, who is the man with the most insane work ethic that you have known? Homosy, obvious answer, but that guy's ability to go and go and go and not stop is fucking ungodly. And it's impressive. It's very... It's admirable to see, and also largely unrealistic for most people to achieve. Ham cheese lettuce mayo sandwich. Ha ha ha. Question, why the F did you start selling a snake oil tonic drink? It's not a tonic, it's called new tonic.

I would be interested to know what the snake oil thing part of that is, given that it is completely evidence-based and the main movers from a new tropics perspective are probably the most researched and well-backed that there are. But the reason I started selling it is because I wanted it and it didn't exist. So I made it and I figured if I made it for myself, I might as well give it to other people too. Fran Copares 167. Why haven't you brought in an expert in metaphysics,

a spirituality like Jacques de Doe de Spenser or someone like that? Or you just don't believe in these things, please it's an honest question. Greetings from Venezuela. Greetings to you too, Franco Perez. I love how, I don't know whether it's Google Translate or just kind of an unnecessarily formal way of putting stuff across, but I love how, like, please, it's an honest question. It's like so unnecessarily nice in the way that it's done just in case he'd like offended me. Meanwhile, there's like armies and armies of people on

hide-user from channel just like spealing bullshit. I am a massive fan of Jacques de Dr. Joe Dispenser and I am trying quite hard to bring him on the show. So, if your metaphysics and spirituality is aligned appropriately, if our astral realms have worked in sync with the retrograde of Venus, you may get him sooner than you think. J. Row Dog One. More African Americans on the show, please. Sure. Suggest some. I would love to bring More African Americans on the show, please. Sure, suggest some. I would love to bring some African Americans on.

Speaking of that, not sure if you saw. People kicked off about Spotify's top 10 shows, not being sufficiently ethnically diverse, and there was a bunch of people putting ninja emojis. Ninja, I think, is referring to how many African Americans there were, or people of African descent we can put in a politically correct way. Where all of my ninjas at was a question, was I super top-comic, loads and loads and loads

of people. And it's like, if you actually look at it, Stephen is, like, I think, Ghanaian mother or something like that, J Jay Shetty isn't white. The chick that does the Ted thing is, I'm pretty sure she's Asian. So all of the people that were like, this isn't sufficiently representative. Like, it's full of white people.

Like, I wonder how Steven and Jay and the Ted lady feel about being like, ah, white people. Funny. Per-Ral-T-S-m-m-m-a. If you had a son, what would you name him? I like red rising and the lead protagonist in that it's called Darro. I think Darro is a fucking dope name for a kid. You're not having a loser if your son is called Darro. Like, it's impossible to grow up and be called Darro and not be an absolute stud. So Darro.

Our pit Tibala, no question, just a suggestion. Make a different channel for clips. It gets messy. I've seen many creators making different clips, channels and chips, channels, getting more views in the main one, clips channels, getting more views in the main one. Um, you have, but that is survivorship bias. And if you look at all of the other clips channels that are part of other, like moderately successful podcasts, you'll see that they get dog shit plays. My philosophy from the very beginning was when people bifurcate their channels off and have one main podcast feed and one clips feed, you get a underperforming main podcast channel and a total dog shit performing chips clips channel.

Look, I'm fucking doing it now, chips channel. You do that and that wasn't something that I thought structurally made that much sense. If you're a fledgling podcaster, I would advise not doing it. I would put everything that you have into one channel. It makes it way easier to do scheduling, it makes it way easier for accounting, it makes it way easier operationally. And it's worked for us. Maybe I could have had a 1.1 million sub main channel and a 500k clips channel, but like what the fuck am I doing with the clips channel? All right, I'm just all the one. Nate, 6795, are you the on-it guy? I swear, I recognize you from an ad from them with Rogan. That's Aubrey Marcus. That's someone, does he look like me?

I don't think he does. We were both living Austin. We both got short hair sometimes. He's covered in tattoos. He's three inches taller than me. Anyway, maybe I'm wrong. I'd love to see more content creators like streamers gamers and also comedians are always great to watch. Bill Burr. I'd love to get Bill Burr on. Trying to get Hassan Abayon. I don't know who else from streamers like Charlie would be great, Ludwig would

be great. I don't think I watched many of the streamers. And then all of the chick streamers like Charlie would be great, Ludwig would be great. I don't think I watch many of the streamers and then all of the chick streamers are getting themselves in bother at the moment so stick clear. George Mack, what have you changed your mind about most in the last 12 to 24 months? Oh, hormonal birth control was a huge one last year. That was a really big one. I, you know, coming from a nightlife background, you just presume that like, a lot of people have in casual sex. It's probably pretty good to ensure

that we don't have accidental pregnancies. And then I just learned about the impact that this stuff has on women's mental health, on their bodies. It can lock in a type of protein folding during formative years of brain development in the brain that causes women to be more predisposed to anxiety and all sorts of stuff. So skepticism around hormonal birth control was a big one last year. This year has probably been epigenetics. I thought that epigenetics was like the quantum healing

of the behavioral genetics world, or just the straight-up genetics world. I thought it was bullshit, and I was wrong. So epigenetics this year and hormonal birth control last year. Simon Evans, could you have achieved the success without leaving the UK? No. Now, I have often thought this, did I need to make the move to Austin in order to be able to do the things and could I have repurposed it or whatever, but it's like a million tiny changes in exposure and who you're hanging around with and the conversations you have and the people that you run into.

And then the change in my work rate and inspiration and enthusiasm because I'm around a different type of culture and then the change in weather and the, all of that stuff. So largely, no. The crypto journal, how would you recommend a podcast or a content creator builds their audience without going on the love island or a similar God forsaken reality TV show? Again, I would go as far as to say

that love island was a net negative for my podcasting journey. It gave me nothing. I started this podcast with nothing. There were days in March or April after we'd launched and we were one episode per week deep. There were days where we did zero total plays across audio and YouTube, zero, not, no plays, right?

So it wasn't like we had some huge launch and it gave us a catapult. So I would recommend that you do it the same way that I did. I think the way that I did it is the most reliable way to do it, which is, don't stop. If you don't stop, you will eventually get good, presuming that you have the raw materials to be good at it. Building an audience is tough, but consistency is the rarest thing in all of content creation, because everybody wants an audience now, and it's hard to get an audience now,

but it's actually pretty easy to get an audience in six years' time. Charles, do you have a book or books you've read more than three times, more, read more, three or more times in the past decade? If yes, this is the fucking thing. If someone puts a typo in their question, it makes me sound like an idiot when I try, like, there is this cret in that can't read the question. It's like, no, no, that's how the question is written. Do you have a book or books you've read more three or more times in the past decade? Nailed it. If yes, what keeps you bringing, what keeps bringing you back to that book, if no, is there one you think fits

the criteria for you? I'm also jet lagged, okay? I'm jet lagged. I didn't sleep on the plane over, so forgive me if the precision is a little bit off. Essentialism by Greg McEwan, I must have read at least twice or three times. The Almanac of Naval Ravacant, I must have read at least two or three times. Red Rising, my favorite fiction book, I must have read at least three times. Those are probably them.

If yes, what keeps me bringing me back to that book, there are lessons in essentialism and the Almanac of Naval Ravacant that I haven't yet learned or implemented, so I need to be reminded of it. And red rising is just fucking awesome. Ben, which episode did you feel the most uncomfortable about releasing to the world? Wow, that's a good question. That's the first time I've ever been asked that. Interquestion to ocean episode. It's hard, it's real hard when people ask about, you know, which episode across the entire

library because it's 720 or something now, like such a huge number and I can, like a lot of them have forgotten. But recently, I can give you one recently, the Patrick Bad David episode, I actually, I really wasn't happy with my performance on it. I wasn't happy with the way it flowed. I didn't think like I'd perform particularly well. I was imprecise with my speech. I hadn't pushed him where I'd wanted to. I hadn't opened up the way that I'd wanted to.

It was just messy. The some days, like you just, some days you just don't hit it right when you go out onto the field of play and you know, everything just feels a little bit off. It's like getting the yips, I suppose, is a sportsman. And I just didn't feel good.

And I remember we finished the episode and we'd done this like crazy period of, we were over in LA, we'd done all of the episodes in LA and then we flew over to Florida and then we were recorded with Patrick and we'd had all of this travel and we'd nailed it and everything had gone great. And I was like in a bit of a slump, I was driving home, I was in the Uber on the way to the airport, no, just feeling a bit disgruntled with myself and I had to take myself to one side and have a little word and I texted Dean and told him

and he was like, dude, I don't know what's up. I don't know what you mean, like everything seemed to go great as far as I could see. And I was like, yeah, I know, but it's not my best and it could have been better in all the rest of it. So not for any particular reason other than I wasn't happy with my performance on the episode, that PBD one.

Still, I'm sure it listened great, but if you go back and listen to it, see if you can pick up on me shitting the bed at ton of times cognitively. The Zen Master, my feeling of pure passion and my feeling of pure emotional pain seemed to be indistinguishable. This started after I really leveled up in my efforts, I can't tell if I should lean into it or be cautious with it. Do you know what this is? My feeling of pure passion and my feeling of pure emotional pain is seen to be indistinguishable.

Wow. That's very interesting. I am hesitant about giving this, sounds like it could be the beginning of schizophrenia or bipolar disorder or something so I'm like hesitant about giving bestowing any

Bro science to someone that might need a more educated eye My sense is always to Try and investigate without leaning into it a little bit more before you lean into it too much because if you lean into it too much There is no undoing that. So maybe do, I would focus on some journaling and I would ask yourself questions about like, what is it that's causing the emotional pain? What is it that's causing the passion? Where does the passion come from?

How can I bifurcate these two out and just ask yourself some questions? Sit with a bit of silence and see what comes up. Hopefully, what you should be able to do is use that passion to... If pain and passion feel the same way, you basically don't have pain anymore. If you can just... Alchemize any time that the pain arises,

that's just passion. It's like the... It's like the Whitney Cummings thing. She says, no, sorry. Fucking... Goddamn it. Who does dumps to fire? Who does dumps to fire the podcast? Fucking, who is it? Fuck, this, the sea, this is jet-like. This is jet-like for you. Anyway, I'm not nervous, I'm excited, is the tagline. The, that name's just not gonna come to me,

and I'm gonna bail out. I'm not nervous, I'm excited, is the same as, I'm not in pain, this is just passion, and you should be able to repurpose it. God, see, that's another one. Just, not enough sleep, shit the bed. Steve Cardas, Cardoso, what are some mantras you regularly return to?

This is what hard feels like from Alex is fucking brilliant. Like, did you expect that the thing that you're trying to do, this great achievement that you wanted to do, that you were going to be proud of, did you expect it to not be hard? No? All right, this not be hard? No. All right. This is what hard feels like.

And it just repurposes any time that you encounter, challenge your difficulty from this is a bug to this is a feature. It's the entry price that I decided to pay when I wanted to go and do this thing. So that's probably been one of my most common this year. Simon Duthwite, what gets you to three million? Honestly, bro, like, if I don't put my foot in my mouth, which again, like, I did this last year, I said, maybe the exact same episode or something similar, a question about like, what's your plan for 2023? And I said, I want to fist fuck the internet. I wouldn't bet against me.

Really, it's all mine to lose at the moment, I think. Like everything that we touch seems to go relatively well, and I can, I have the team, we need to develop the team a little bit more. I need to achieve a staff and like some other things so that I don't need to be involved day-to-day quite so much. But we have the team in terms of raw materials, we have the platform, we have the brand equity, I have the skillset to just grow this thing essentially infinitely, I think. And the only thing really that can take it down is me. So if I'm looking back on this in a couple of years time and thinking, you idiot, why

did you do X, Y, Z that caused you to be totally cancelled and stop? Then... So, yeah, but what gets me to three million is just me continuing to do the thing that I've always done. And that's what I intend to do. Marcus Phillipson, will Newtonic ever be available in Sweden? Dude, we are trying to roll this thing out globally as much as we can. We're out of stock again. Like this, I had to get this a good story. I had to get George to bring this puppy. He bought 10 cases, that's a good friend, by 10 cases of you, your buddy's new drink. He brought two up yesterday. So I got my friend to buy my product off his own back separately, then bring it to me, then leave it at my house so I could drink it. That's like the best, like arbitrage opportunity ever. But yeah, we're going to try and get it everywhere. Being able to create sufficient product is proving really hard because the demand is super high,

but it'll be there soon. Light brew truck. Light, light blue truck. Do the English accent when alone or is it just a bit? Ah, could you imagine if I got off this and just cracked out like some deep South accent? No, unfortunately, or fortunately I'm cursed with this all the time. Goarrav, what is it all for? That's open to interpretation from a question perspective and very existential, but increasingly, I think that it is all for fun. Like, if you're not having fun doing the things that you're doing, like, what's the fucking point? Honestly, like especially, you know, I'm speaking as someone who's

managed to achieve way more success than he ever thought he was going to and it's like still going I'm still in the throes of it, right? So I don't know where it's going to come into land if at all or crash land perhaps as well But you can you can sacrifice so much on root to achieving anything that you want to, that you look back and you go, what was the fucking point? Like there's honestly so much satisfaction in the fun of getting to wherever it is and almost none of it in the achievement of whatever it is. So right now, what is it all for? It's for, at the moment for me, setting up a life in which I can have more fun. That is one of my mantras for 2024. Jim Knight, how much have the cinema episodes played apart in securing the

high profile guests you've had in the past few months? I know several probably came through the gym shot connection, but did the appeal of a ridiculously beautiful recording help with Gettikin Jokko and Goggins, etc. So with Goggins, I know that it definitely did. Jokko, I don't think so. I think the channel is kind of able to run under its own momentum now, although Jokko was, wow, would it be in 400K, something like that, so significantly smaller and much less impressive of a roster. So yeah, maybe, maybe it has contributed a good bit. I think it's cool. Like, if I go to someone, you know,

that's a highly sought after guest, like Dr. Joe Dispenzer or Kyle from the NELK boys or someone and I say, hey, I want to do something with you that you typically wouldn't do. I need four hours of your time, but I'm going to drop 30 grand and make the most beautiful podcast that you've ever been a part of. Like better than you can make yourself because I have the team and we have the skill set to be able to bring this together. And you don't even need to leave your city.

It's hard to say no to. And that strategy makes me feel satisfied. I think the guests genuinely love it. I think they feel proud of what they're a part of. And it's cool. And it's genuinely novel. Like, I don't think anyone's doing it the way that we're doing it on YouTube at the moment. And I enjoy it. And it's gonna get better this year.

It's gonna get spun up even harder. So hopefully you will see even more crazy. Like go back and watch the Chris Bumstead episode. We made some errors on that from a production perspective, but largely it looks like a scene out of Cyberpunk 2077. It's so cool. Where are we here? Osama bin Bolin. Oh my fucking god, that is the Osama bin Bolin. Was your appearance on Joe Rogan's podcast A Pivotal Moment for your own brand?

And how does this experience relate to building friendships and situations where you might not be the most knowledgeable? Yeah, it was, it's like a seal of approval, right? You get stamped from the king or whatever. You are bestowed, you sort of taps the sword on either shoulder and says like this is one of the people that you should look at for presuming that you don't shit the bed on the episode. I think I managed to avoid doing that. It was an important moment, and I think that it genuinely kind of does open doors, but not in the immediate,

like you just get this ton of influx of things, just that people see you in a different way, and you become part of a relatively exclusive club. I mean, I don't know, shows done like 2,000 episodes, but including all of the repeat guests and stuff, I reckon he's only had maybe 1200 people on the show, so it is quite a small group. And that was useful. How does this experience relate to building friendships in situations where you might not be the most knowledgeable? Are you saying that I'm not the most knowledgeable?

I'm not sure, I'm not quite sure what that means. I don't know what that means. I'm going to have to bail out. James, do you ever resonate inwardly with a feeling like Imposta syndrome that although having a platform known for applicable knowledge and wisdom that somehow it's present in your guests, but they are still on a journey to attain wisdom yourself? So this gap for sure between the people that I speak to and their level of competence and insight and me,

is something that I am fully aware of. Like on a daily basis, I have made a career out of being the most stupid person in the room permanently. And I'm every single time that I sit down, I'm reminded of that fact. And yeah, interestingly, that's never actually given me in pasta syndrome. Like, oh, these people are whatever than me, more richer, famous or successful or erudite

or like knowledgeable or whatever than me. And I also think that it's not my job. I've never once, ever, ever, positive myself as having it all sorted out, or even having it slightly sorted out, having a part of any part of it sorted out, ever. I think that one of the reasons that, hopefully this resonates with you guys

is that I am on the journey, and I'm like leaving the breadcrumbs behind, including the ones that like crap, where I go, I tried to do this thing and I failed or this was a strategy that I attempted and it didn't work or whatever. Like all of those things, all of those failures and all of those insights are only able to be born out largely because of how difficult I find things and how useless I've been. So no, I actually think it's been pretty reassuring, but I can see how if I'd positive myself as some sort of guru or some, you know, like great insight around anything that you're

supposed to do beyond simply, this is my experience, this is what I've learned works and doesn't work for me and maybe you should try it. It would be very different. Andrew Waterhouse, besides the drink and tour, are there other products you'd like to sell in future, like JP does his box courses, SB has a book, TV shows, etc. I'm done with TV. What's the knock on wood, same as last words, but I'm done with TV. It's so unenjoyable. It is fucking awful to watch this slow clunky behemoth of a huge fucking production chunder along and then say, right guys, we're going to go for take one and then can we go back

and we're going to have to run that again and a block dude it sucks. Then you look at YouTube and it's so fast paced and agile and no tights, lean, there's no time wasted so TV can get fucked. Jordan books courses so book, yep like I say by the start of 25 you will have something that I'm very proud of and I'm really excited about courses. I mentioned earlier on, there is a bit of like IK and the distaste that people had when I decided to release a drink that I wanted and I needed and then said, hey, I've spent 12 months developing this. There's a lot of criticism, although it's been a lot more hollow because of how legit the product is. And maybe that's the lesson that my disquiet around the potential of releasing a course is because the world of courses has been

heavily consumed and filled by people who release courses that aren't really that worthwhile. And if I was to do it, if I do it the same way that we did in Utonic, which is the best in class, absolutely best in class, at a price point that's fair and all the rest of it, then what is there to be a shamed of? So, yeah, I would love to do some courses and, you know, a shamed of. So yeah, I would love to do some courses and, you know, there is, like, in order for us to continue to make this thing move, I need to sit down in the seat. And that means that I never get a break from sitting down in the seat. And I love sitting down in the seat. But that may come a time where I just want to take like a two week break and keep things ticking over. So like, what does that mean? I don't know. We'll wait and see. But courses and books would be great on the horizon. Campbell, what would an elite five episode start

to pack if modern wisdom look like for a new lesson? Oh, that's cool. All right. So we need something motivational. We need something epic. We need something underground that no one knows about. epic. We need something underground that no one knows about. Probably needs a story from left field. So I would say, it would be a disservice not put Goggins in. So I think Goggins is the first one. I think any Gwinderbogel episode is the second for human nature insight. I think maybe Homozi 2 from just like a straight up motivational human nature standpoint. Rory Sutherland 2, the one that I recorded when I was in Dubai, is just outstanding and one of the funniest episodes I've ever done. And I want like a story based one. I didn't episode with the guy that the Mauritanean was written about.

And it's basically just a 90 minute monologue of him explaining his situation. So that's your five episode starter pack. That's kind of difficult to work out. Bo Sanderson, how do you find that you were able to be more curious, specifically on a topic that you want to learn about, but isn't, particularly as exciting for you as another topic. How do you find that you are able to be more curious?

Not entirely sure what that means, but for me, it's just internal, like, I can't stop myself. I want to find out everything. I want to find out why the sky is that color and why the bird moves in that way and why that person uses their left hand, not their right hand to eat cake and all of the things. I want to know them all. And it's a blessing in a curse. to try to make yourself more curious to learn a topic which is less exciting than another one. My advice, unless it's for a degree or a course that you kind of don't get to choose, is bin off the other topic which isn't as exciting and just focusing on all the exciting ones. That's the simplest solution.

Boy wonder, do you work out your jaw muscles with one of them chewy things to look like that? No, and I'm pretty fat at the moment. I mean, the fastest, slowest, smallest that I've been in probably ever, like since I was maybe 24 or 25. So again, maybe if the internet's correct, if all that you need to do to build a podcast is just use one of them chewy things to work your jaw muscles. But no, that being said, I think it's jaws-assized. I'm pretty sure that they kind of illegally used a video of Andrew Huberman talking about either them or an analogous product and then maybe they had to do a cease and desist. I feel I feel like human and them got in bother for some reason or Andrew sued them on some shit

I don't know What Sven what is something that everybody in the productivity In the productivity slash business believes will get them success, but it's completely wrong Hmm So I think that there's an over alliancealiance on leverage, and I've seen this in the content creator world, and it's something that I'm also, as the revenue from the show allows me to finally not need to just do everything myself. It's something that I'm very cognizant of myself too.

When everyone read the Almanac and the Val Ravacant, they believed that leverage was just the most important thing, that you can force multiply your inputs to outputs through code, media, labor, capital, whatever the other one is. But what it caused lots of people to do is take that eye off the ball and take that eye off the main thing, which is the most important thing to them. So they started to outsource and try and get leverage on the main thing that they do, for instance, there are like three things that I need to get right. I need to choose the right guests so I can't outsource the guest booking process, at least

the guest selection process, I suppose. I need to have a great conversation so I can't outsource the research process and it needs to be framed right to get people to click on it on the internet. So I try to touch, as I said earlier on, I touch all of the titles and thumbnails that go out, at least almost all of them.

So those are areas in which leverage is really hard for me to apply, but that also the most time consuming, right? If I get someone else to do all my guest booking or someone else to do all my research or someone else to do all the titles and thumbs, I'd free up like 20 hours a week, 30 hours a week probably. So I understand why people are tempted to do that, but it's also the exact wrong place to do it.

So leverage used in the wrong way to get people to extract themselves from the most important thing that their business does. That's what it is. Francesco Errero must pay. How has the growth of your social media influence changes in your personality or thought processes? That's an interesting question. So I guess, depending on where you came in from, there's questions from Twitter here, from YouTube, from Instagram, depending on where you came in from, you have a different view

of me or what I do. There's some people, I found this out the other day, there's tons of people that subscribe to my newsletter that don't even know I did a podcast. Literally don't know I did a podcast, it's like the writing or hated the writing and just like to hate read it, I don't know. So it's nice, it's very flattering for people to come up and say nice things. nice, it's very flattering for people to come up and say nice things. It's made me a little bit more skeptical in a way that I wish I could stop about whether new people have my best interest at heart. And again, it's that thing from the very top, or as like no one teaches you about how to deal with scrutiny or fame or criticism or attention or any of that stuff, people just are more

interested in you and you don't know how to deal with it. And you become skeptical of whether or not they have, like, why? And you think back to a previous version of you and what you think is, well, this person wouldn't have been interested in the previous version of me. So the only reason they're interested in me now is because they want something and maybe if they want something, that means that they don't have my best interests at heart and that means I should be skeptical of them. And that is kind of a dangerous mindset to get in, I think, because you want to assume the best from people, especially if they're being nice to you.

So I understand why the song's talking about no new friends, especially for people who are obviously infinitely more famous than I am. Because it gets around this problem. If you don't have any new friends, you don't ever have to question whether or not new people have your best interests at heart. Now, it also means that you maybe don't question whether or not the old people have your best interests at heart. But that's one thing I want to stop. I don't want to be skeptical of people

just because they're being nice to me. And because I imagine this version of the past life where they wouldn't have been nice to another version of me that didn't have a big following or whatever. So that's one of them, I guess. Meta helix, how do you intuitively adapt your interviewing style and or questions on the fly based on your guests' responses? You have very well researched, prepared and methodical.

Thank you. But sometimes achieving the optimal conversation flow is challenging, like Peterson. Yes, Jordan is like boxing a South Pole a little bit. Although in the last one, he was very disciplined. The second episode of him, he was way more South Pory and we were talking over each other and it was messy and I wasn't as happy. But the most recent one flowed pretty much perfectly. Like, if you're ever having a conversation, you can see this when you're really, really attuned with someone, the

quantum healing people would say that like you're vibrating at the same level or whatever. If you're having a conversation and you're able to get single words into their sentence that were the word or in an algous word to the one that they were about to use and then they continue the sentence. Awesome. Like, me and Johnny from Propane have this quite a lot. He's one of the most, even though are quite different people, he's one of the most attuned in terms of cadence that mean of anybody that I speak to. A lot of the time we'll be talking back and forth and he'll be about to say something and I'll dip in with the word or whatever it is and it works brilliantly. That being said, adapting the interviewing style or whatever is just not having too much of a preconceived

idea about where it's going to go. So I'm sitting down with this person today. I have a game plan of where I think would be interesting to take it based on my research of what they do and the intersection of what they do and what I'm interested in and we'll see if that then diagram goes. And if within the first five minutes, like in a sports game, if that just gets thrown out of the window, say, well, guess what? Like, we're not talking about the thing that I thought we were talking about today. That's why you do research. You do research, not so you have a list of questions, but so you know the person's body of work. And after a while, to be honest, as well, like so you know the person's body of work. And after a while, to be honest, as well,

700 episodes deep. I've done so many, like literally thousands of hours of this now, I've always got a story from someone from the past or some idea or inside or study or whatever that I've already learned that I can use. So if someone wants to go down one rabbit hole, it's been very long time since someone's given me

an entirely new, like completely new fucking hell. This is total fresh snow. It's been a long time since that's happened. So I think it's a combination of preparation, not being too, like, contrived or pre-planning with the process and then just going where it goes. Moor deep. What is the question you regret not asking a guest?

Number two, what is your pre-show ritual? Pre-show ritual is pretty simple when I get to do it. It's a five minute vocal warm-up that miles my speech coach got me to do it, it's a five minute vocal warmup that my else, my speech coach, got me to do, which still to this day is great. Just getting my tongue moving and making sure that I'm nice and precise with my speech and getting my mind moving. Usually don't eat for about two hours before if I can. As it makes me a bit more sluggish, another one of the reasons that I'm not doing too well today.

I'm like looking through the cupboards in my kitchen in Newcastle for something that isn't my housemates that he needs or massively out of date and there's like wheatabix. So like fueled by poor sleep, newtonic and wheatabix today. Don't know whether you have wheatabix in America. Anyway, it's a pretty elite cereal, but probably not great if that's all you've had.

What is the question that you regret not asking a guest? Certainly one that comes to mind from recently was Peterson. He did something which is technically referred to as Jesus smuggling on our episode. And he has this idea of like, if you believe that one thing can be more good than another thing, then you believe that God exists because God is the most good thing that can exist.

And I didn't understand at the time, and what I wanted to say was, I might be being stupid here, but that just, that just sounds like a value hierarchy rather than God. And I didn't, because I didn't want to sound stupid. And then I spoke to Alex O'Connor, who's the most knowledgeable person on this kind of conversation that I know of. And he just said that's exactly the question that you should have asked. So I regret not asking that

because I didn't want to seem foolish. Chris Le Pauïdevin. Hi Chris, how rewarding does it feel given the problem you've described before about your friend conversion rate that a lot of people you interview have become good friends, interviewed, illustrated well in your recent conversation with Rob Henderson. So yeah, I met a million people across my nightlife career and I had a handful of friends

here in Newcastle, which means that my friendship exposure to conversion ratio wasn't exactly fantastic. And it's unbelievably rewarding, man. Like, it's the opportunity to turn your idols into rivals and then rivals into friends is awesome. And then sometimes you don't need to go to the rivals bit first. You can just go straight to the friends bit. But look, it feels great. You basically get to create your own social network.

You're like, who do I want to be friends with? Well, that's a person I respect. And that's a person that's interesting. So I'll just try and invite them on my podcast who do I want to be friends with? Well, that's a person I respect, and that's a person that's interesting. So I'll just try and invite them on my podcast, and maybe they'll be confronted with me. So yeah, it's awesome. Hi, Chris, which Joe Rogan episode features the layers of paint quote that you frequently refer to?

I think it was mine. I think it was the episode that he did with me, although I may be wrong, or I may have just made it up. Chris Miracle, very clever. My question is, which guests would you love to have on Modern Wisdom? Most love to have on Modern Wisdom, and why? Naval is still top of the list, man. That guy, elusive, elusive, elusive Naval. He's still on sabbatical post-Rogan, but, He's still on sabbatical post-Rogan, but yeah, I would love to speak to him. I think that it's the greatest podcast episode that's ever been made, his episode on

Rogan, and I would love to run that back. Go all out, full cinema setup for him, so we'll wait and see. Captain Reese, you talk about people growing themselves from $1 to 100K has a set of skills. It is has a set of skills, I've been fucking diddle by a bad questioning here again, but then going to 10 million type frame, what skillsets do you think you will have to learn to adopt, to get to, to be, to get to, I'm gonna have to bail out of it. I mean, that, to get to 1 million, so we're already at 1 million subs.

But I'm moving down, I'm moving down. Sean Spooner, Mark Manson says that identity-like reality by once to years. So in some ways, you're the Chris with 247,000 subscribers who hasn't yet interviewed Jordan Peterson or Jocker Willink or David Goggins. You haven't done a sold out tour or launched Newtonic or been on Rogan. With that said, how are you finding the blistering pace change in your life right now? Does this new reality feel like reality yet?

That's a great question. It feels kind of like it. It is pretty disquieting. It's like, you know, when you get to the top of a rollercoaster and you sort of, everything gets weightless and you do this, it feels a little bit like that. But I'm getting used to it. And the, thankfully, I've got people around me that kind of keep my feet on the ground. And also, it's so much easier to be like this type of like niche internet fame because you don't see it in person. And I can also see having done the live shows,

how as a rock star you become completely detached, or maybe a comedian you become completely detached from the world because, all right, well, all of these people just adoring thousands and thousands of people, whereas, you know, what's 3,000 comments on a YouTube video? Like, it's a lot of comments, but it doesn't hit you in the same way that three thousand people turning up in the theater and talking to you does. So, yeah, reality is unreal in many ways, but I'm getting used to it. Ben, Rogan Part 2 happening next week. It wasn't, but I'd love to go back on. I'm very, very hesitant about suggesting to Joe that I come back on. That is like a thing that people do.

Hey, man, I come back in town. Why don't we, like get an episode recorded? That makes me feel quite nervous to do that. But yeah, I think, hopefully next year, that would make me very happy. Des, do you get nervous before recording a podcast? I think, hopefully next year, that would make me very happy. Des, do you get nervous before recording a podcast? It's very rare. No, last time was probably Sam Harris, and that was a little bit,

and it arose, and then it went away. And that was mostly because he was late. I think, it was like 15 minutes late, and in the 15 minutes, I was waiting, it like, started to spin up a little bit. But yes, I've managed to largely get rid of that nervousness beforehand, which is just the undeniable stack of proof that you are who you say you are.

And it worked well. Matt Oldfield's tipping in the US. I'm actually in Bahamas, but I understand same protocol. You have tax and 15% service at its printed bill. And then below you were offered to leave an extra-gituity service, which you write in there with the pen that they leave.

Is it customary to leave an extra tip? Unfortunately, Matt, yes, it is. And it is any less than 15% is usually seen as a bit of a snub. 10% is basically like a, you've curled one out in the middle of the restaurant. And I typically try and go for between, like around about 20%, seems pretty, pretty, pretty right. All right, I'm going to round it out there.

Ladies and gentlemen, I appreciate you. Thank you for all of the subs and all of the support. This is the end of 2023. And it's been the craziest year and I have no idea where we're going to be in 12 months time but I know that I'm still going to be doing this. So thank you very much for tuning in. Peace!

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