Passion Struck with John R. Miles - Louie Schwartzberg on the Incredible Journey of Gratitude EP 338

Episode Date: August 29, 2023

Louie Schwartzberg, a renowned filmmaker and storyteller, joins host John R. Miles on the Passion Struck podcast to discuss the transformative power of gratitude. They delve into Schwartzberg's latest film, "Gratitude Revealed," and the importance of finding awe and wonder in everyday life and how cultivating gratitude can lead to a more fulfilling and purposeful existence. Want to learn the 12 philosophies that the most successful people use to create a limitless life? Pre-order John R. Miles’s new book, Passion Struck, releasing on February 6, 2024. Full show notes and resources can be found here:  https://passionstruck.com/louie-schwartzberg-on-the-journey-of-gratitude/  Finding Awe in the Simplest Things: A Conversation with Louie Schwartzberg on the Journey of Gratitude Discover the transformative power of gratitude and the joy it can bring to everyday life in this inspiring conversation with acclaimed filmmaker and photographer, Louie Schwartzberg. Brought to you by Netsuite by Oracle. Download NetSuite’s popular KPI Checklist, designed to give you consistently excellent performance at https://www.netsuite.com/passionstruck. Brought to you by Indeed: Claim your SEVENTY-FIVE DOLLAR CREDIT now at Indeed dot com slash PASSIONSTRUCK. Brought to you by Lifeforce: Join me and thousands of others who have transformed their lives through Lifeforce's proactive and personalized approach to healthcare. Visit MyLifeforce.com today to start your membership and receive an exclusive $200 off. Brought to you by Hello Fresh. Use code passion 50 to get 50% off plus free shipping!  --► For information about advertisers and promo codes, go to: https://passionstruck.com/deals/  Like this show? Please leave us a review here -- even one sentence helps! Consider including your Twitter or Instagram handle so we can thank you personally! --► Prefer to watch this interview: https://youtu.be/tfVmd2JhjlU  --► Subscribe to Our YouTube Channel Here: https://youtu.be/QYehiUuX7zs  Want to find your purpose in life? I provide my six simple steps to achieving it - passionstruck.com/5-simple-steps-to-find-your-passion-in-life/ Catch my interview with Dr. Caroline Leaf on Parenting or a Healthy and Confident Mind. Watch the solo episode I did on the topic of Chronic Loneliness: https://youtu.be/aFDRk0kcM40  Want to hear my best interviews from 2023? Check out my interview with Seth Godin on the Song of Significance and my interview with Gretchen Rubin on Life in Five Senses. ===== FOLLOW ON THE SOCIALS ===== * Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/passion_struck_podcast * Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/johnrmiles.c0m  Learn more about John: https://johnrmiles.com/  Passion Struck is now on the Brushwood Media Network every Monday and Friday from 5–6 PM. Step 1: Go to TuneIn, Apple Music (or any other app, mobile or computer) Step 2: Search for "Brushwood Media” Network

Coming up next on Passion Struck. Gratitude is not the answer. It's not the antidote. It's mental health crisis that you're describing. It is a baby step in the right direction because we tend to ruminate over and over about the negative things that are happening in our lives. The brain is sort of geared for survival,

the fight or flight response that like takes over. So anything that's about fear, that touches the buttons about conflict, anxieties, it all creates stress and that's unfortunately the bulk of entertainment that is occurring on screens or on social media. It's all to grab your attention. Welcome to PassionStruck.

Hi, I'm your host, John Armiles. And on the show, we decipher the secrets, tips, and guidance of the world's most inspiring people and turn their wisdom into practical advice for you and those around you. Our mission is to help you unlock the power of intentionality so that you can become the best version of yourself. If you're new to the show, I offer advice and answer listener questions on Fridays. We have long-form interviews the rest of the week

with guest-ranging from astronauts to authors, CEOs, creators, innovators, scientists, military leaders, visionaries, and athletes. Now, let's go out there and become PassionStruck. Hello, everyone, and welcome back to episode 338 of Passion Struck, consistently ranked by Apple as one of the top 10 most popular health podcasts and the number one alternative health podcast. And thank you to all of you come back weekly to listen and learn, how to live better, be better, and impact the world. Passion Struck is now in syndicated radio on the Brushwood Media Network,

Catch us Monday and Friday on your evening commute from 5-6pm Eastern Time. Links will be in the show notes. If you're new to the show, thank you so much for being here. Or you simply want to introduce this to a friend or a family member, we now have episode starder packs, which are collections of our fans' favorite episodes that we organize into convenient topics. They give any new listener a great way to get acclimated to everything we do here on the show.

Either go to Spotify or PassionStrike.com slash starder packs to get acclimated to everything we do here on the show. Either go to Spotify or PassionStrike.com slash starter packs to get started. In case you missed it, last week I had on two great guests. The first was Jennifer Brunny Wallace, an award-winning journalist and social commentator who joined me to discuss her insightful book Never Enough when achievement culture becomes toxic. And what we can do about it. I also had on Dr. Jill Bolt Taylor and we discussed her transformative book, Whole Brain Living, where Dr. Taylor guides us on an exploration of the groundbreaking understanding that led her to introduce the concept of four distinct characters within us. Left-thinking, left-emotion, right-emotion, and right-thinking. Empowering us to recognize

the presence in our daily lives. Please check them all out and I also wanted to say thank you so much for your ratings and reviews. We now have over 10,000 5 star ratings and reviews, just an Apple podcast in the US alone. I am so honored to have that reception for this show. It means so much to me. And if you love today's episode or any of the others that I just mentioned, we would appreciate you giving it a 5 star review and sharing it with your friends and families. I know we and our guests love to see comments for our listeners. Our amazing guest today is the visionary nature filmmaker and cinematographer, Louis Swartzward. Louis breath-taking films from Fantastic Fungi, who is latest masterpiece,

Gratitude Revealed, have enchanted audiences worldwide, opening their eyes to the awe-inspiring beauty of the natural world. In Gratitude Revealed, Louis takes us on a transformational cinematic journey, exploring how gratitude can lead to a more meaningful life. There were intimate conversations with everyday people, thought leaders, and personalities. He reveals gratitude as a powerful pathway back from the disconnection we often feel on our lives, but that's not all. Louis' passion for gratitude extends beyond the screen. With his global initiative,

the catch-the-wave gratitude revealed T Tour, he invites viewers to immerse themselves in unforgettable gratitude gatherings. These gatherings starting in DC, New York City, and LA feature immersive experience as blending art, poetry, light music, and local culinary delights. And in addition, Louis recently launched the Louis Channel, a streaming platform dedicated to inspiring mindfulness.

It will feature all of Louis' incredible work, providing an audience engagement platform for live events and conversations. In this episode, we delve into the profound impact of gratitude on physical and mental health, the importance of protecting what we love and how Louis' films celebrate the gift of life. Through breathtaking cinematography and remarkable human stories, prepare to be captivated as we embark on a journey with Louis Swartzberg exploring the transformative power of gratitude and the incredible beauty that surrounds us. Thank you for choosing Passion Struck and choosing me to be your host and guide

on your journey to creating an intentional life. Now, let that journey begin. So honored today to welcome Louis Swzenegger and passion struck. Welcome, Louis. Good to be your job. Well, I'd like to start out my episodes by giving the audience an opportunity to get to know the guest. And I know in researching you, your family is from Poland and our survivors of the Holocaust. And I wanted to start out by asking, can you share how that shaped your journey and how you became interested in filmmaking and semi-atography?

Sure. Well, living under their roof, definitely learned a lot about gratitude because they appreciate it all the little things in life, things like food on the table, a roof over your head, study job, miracle of having children, given what they went through. So appreciating what you have, and being able to also have a lot of joy and love in

your life, given what you've gone through are the stories I'll love to tell. And so with that background, when I headed off to UCLA, I was going to be a polypsi history major and I wanted to come a lawyer to fight for social justice, but the anti-war protests were happening outside my door, and it was weird to study the French revolution when the anti-war demonstration against the Vietnam War was happening right outside. So I started to do it by parents data. I started to document the police brutality against the demonstrators, the young students on campus that were obviously protesting a war that wasn't just. And I fell in love with photography. It was easier for me to submit a photo essay to my polyside class to write a paper. And it opened me up in so many ways

because then I got turned on to filming nature. And then I met my greatest teacher, mother nature, teaching me everything about color, composition, lighting, movement. And that's how it all started. Well, I'm going to dive into that a little bit more because your work does often showcase the beauty and intricacies of nature. How do you strive to capture its essence in your films? I try to unveil the mystery.

I love to show audiences things that they make if I can't see, making indeed visible visible. And so that means a lot of times I alter time. I do a lot of time lapse. I do a lot of slow mo, I do a lot of micro, I do a lot of macro. Because human vision is only one narrow point of view, obviously,

or at least obvious to some people that a mosquito, a hummingbird, a redwood tree, we all have different life spans and we all have different metabolic rates and we all see the world differently. So it's a beautiful metaphor for that. Plus, when you can look at the detail and the movement, like a flower opening, it's dancing to the light, it's saying, I need to reproduce, I need to get fertilized, come get me. And it's joyous to be able to understand the mechanisms that make life go round. That is the foundation of life on our planet. Not only is it beautiful, it's critical for our survival.

Well, it's interesting. I recently did an interview with Seth Godin. He has a new book out called the Song of Significance, but he tells the story through the metaphor of a B and he gives out three songs that are in it. One is the song of increase and that is when a new female B is born, the more mature one and her colony need to go to a new place and so they do this song of increase where over a three day period, thousands of them go to find a new home. But then they go into a protective circle amongst themselves, which becomes the song of safety. And he relates that to the life that so much of us have been living right now, which is we are living in safety and we're not living in significance, which is really a great parallel to what I thought was in your new movie, Gratitude Revealed, which I think is really all about the significance of life.

I know you explore various themes in your films such as ecosystems, the inner connectivity of life, etc. Are there any particular subjects or stories that have had a profound impact on you personally? And if so, could you share an example and explain why it resonated with you? Well, I explored a lot of different, what I would call values, so I think add up to gratitude, creativity, courage, generosity, wonder, inaction. I think that all of those values are in all of our hearts.

So I didn't discover any one of those, but I would say wonder and on, something that I'm really intrigued with, because I feel like it's the intersection between art and science. I think that it's what most spiritual or meditative practices try to achieve is being present, being in a moment, and when that's how you achieve really one- your na when you're no longer on that treadmill, where you take the time to quote unquote, spell the roses, you take time to be able to observe without preconceived ideas or judgment to be present and to be in wonder and awe of it all.

And that is something I think that is a practice we could all do. And one that I'm really, I try to do any chance I get without my camera. I can be walking down the street, just looking at a crack in the sidewalk and there's a blade grass growing or something and go, wow, look at that. Look at that determination. I don't have to be in an exotic location to feel wonder and awe. So that is something that I feel inspires me. And most of the people in the stories

and the vignettes and gratitude revealed are people that are living their lives with passion as you've got on your shirt. And not doing it for the money, but doing it because it has meaning and purpose. And those are the stories I'll have to tell. Yeah, I'm a true believer that if you follow your heart if you're doing things that bring you meaning Then those other things will come but if you're out there chasing success and money and everything

It's just gonna lead to You feeling emotionally bankrupt and having a lack of significance and gratitude in your life. Yeah. Well, gratitude revealed starts out with Norman Lear saying, we are on two different journeys or horizontal and a vertical one. What's the difference between the two? Yeah, well, the horizontal is like you go to school, grow up, go to college, have a career and get married, all of that. I think the vertical journey is into yourself and learning who you are and what's your mission in this life.

I think that's the most important journey you can be on. Passion struck is all about that vertical journey. It's about our very being and the journey to becoming the most self-actualized self we can become. Can you tell us how gratitude revealed explores the concept of living a more meaningful life through gratitude? There's a lot of luminaries of my movie, Dormant Lear and Deepak Chopra, Michael Beckwith, but I think the most powerful aspect of the film are the remarkable, but ordinary people that I should film all across our country.

What they all share in common is that they're passionate about what they do. They share their wisdom from their experiences and it's up to the viewer in the movie to lean in and derive what they can get out of that experience. There's nothing in the film that tells you how to live your life. There's nothing in the film that even tells you how to practice gratitude, which actually is really simple. All you have to do is be grateful for something that's in the last hour or minute or day. Just be grateful for something in your practicing gratitude. But in the movie, we get to hang out with Terry Farmer and Vermont, to get the

hang out with the Appalachian Rugweaver, get the hang out with people in New Orleans, jazz players in their backyard, and seeing how their lives are filled with joy and happiness because of the fact that they are connected, the fact that they're sharing it with friends and family. Another example we took for granted until COVID hit, the idea of going out to dinner with friends and family. We never thought that was something we had to be,

that was precious until it's gone, just like your health is precious until it's gone, right? So, yeah, I just love filming these extraordinary people all across our country that are different for each other. And I think that different only in terms of region, of music, of way of life, but we're all the same. We all want the same thing, which is a sustainable environment. I hope the best for our children, passing on whatever traditions and cultures we have. I think the film can be really important bridge in getting over the polarization that is occurring currently in our politics, where we look at people as the other. We're all just another version of each other.

I'm so glad you brought that up, because a guiding philosophy that I've had when I started this journey was I think we can learn from some of the luminaries that you mentioned and I've had several among the show. But to me from some of the luminaries that you mentioned, and I've had several among the show. But to me, one of the things that I have really tried to do is to highlight what I call

everyday heroes, because I think each one of us has the innate power inside of us to do something more, to serve humanity in our own unique ways. And I think it's difficult sometimes for people to relate to, let's just use Tony Robbins as an example, because of where he is in his life. It's much easier for us to see someone who's maybe a step away from us that it's easier for us to relate to the journey that they're on and how they were able to turn it around.

So I found that to be a really nice parallel between the movie and what we tried to do here on the show. Yeah, if you're a literally coach, if you're helping people as a volunteer and in a hospital, a food bank, whatever it might be, that is significant as anything Tony Robbins is doing in terms of making a world a better place. That's really what we all want to do. I think is heal the world. It is. And all it does is takes touching one other person and making a change and then that can ignite a fire, as you will know. Yeah. In fantastic fungi, you delved into the wonders beneath our feet. How does gratitude reveal,

build upon that exploration and take the wisdom above ground to celebrate the human spirit? That's a great question. Until people ask that question, I was never thought about it until the film was finished. So first of all, gratitude revealed I was able to edit the movie during COVID because I couldn't go out and travel. It was difficult, obviously. I've been curating and saving all these stories of remarkable ordinary people for several decades

and I thought that was the perfect time to put it together. Before gratitude revealed, I did fantastic fungi, which is a great story about this giant thing called fungi kingdom, more species than plants, plants or more species, than animals and people. Yet we know so little about it. So when we did that exploration of looking at the Mycelial Network, which is the root structure of budding mushrooms, you realize

that it's a shared economy under the ground where nutrients and information was shared without greed for ecosystems to flourish. That's what a forest is about. That's what this whole planet Earth is about. And it's a beautiful blueprint and a model, I think, of how we could live in our society and in our communities. So how do you take that wisdom from below the ground above the ground? Well, gratitude revealed, I think, is that journey into the soul? Because if you learn something about dangerous intelligence, you want to be able to use it. You want to be able to integrate

it. You can't just have an aha moment and go, oh, that's far out. So how do you take that wisdom and implement it in your relationship with your partner, your lover, your community, your workplace, the world? That's really the challenge. When you have insight, when you have an aha moment, when you have some kind of revelation, like you did perhaps in your life, you got to then do something about it. You got to do the work. You can't just say, oh, it blew my mind. It's hard.

There's a responsibility once you have that type of insight that you got to do something about it. I think you're so right about that. And one of the huge things that I feel we're moving more and more away from is the importance of curiosity in who we are and what that curiosity leads to. And this curiosity is something that you cover in death in gratitude revealed. Why do you think curiosity and I think a tangent to that is creativity so important for us to

unlock our most meaningful life? I think a lot of reasons. I'm curiosity is like what we come into this life with curiosity, children, babies, and three year olds, four year olds, I got a couple of grandkids now in that age, and they're curious about everything. That sense of wonder and awe makes them feel alive, makes them feel engaged, makes them feel like they're exploring the world. That energizes you. And as I said earlier, it makes you present, makes you mindful, and it inspires you to explore as well.

Whether you're a scientist or an artist, what they both share is curiosity. They're trying to explain like, how does the world work? What makes the world go round? And if the scientist has more of the scientific method, where you have to have proof and trial and error and all that stuff, that's a great way to explain what we call reality. And the artist has the ability to also use narrative and storytelling in

order to get people to maybe feel what this world is all about. Maybe it appeals obviously more to the emotions, which is what I try to do in my films. And so curiosity inspires scientific research, which is critical and important, obviously, for our culture, our civilization and evolution. But so is what artists do with tapping into emotions, because if you tap into the emotion, which I try to do with beauty, and inspiring people to fall in love with nature in order to protect it, that's my way of communicating on saying this environmental message as opposed to telling people what to do. Like, you should recycle, you should be energy efficient. So you automatically will make the right choices if you followed love and feel the

emotion of protecting something which is critical for life to go forward. Well, I love that answer and you touched on a few times now. The movie really does probe the profound question of who are we? And I recently did an interview with UC Berkeley professor, Dacker Keltner, and he has a new book out called, You're Not, and so I'm sure you know who Dacker is. Yeah. But what was really profound from that interview

was that, and all the research he's done, he came to a surprising conclusion. We think that we experience all when we see the Grand Canyon or are exposed to seeing that we've never seen before. But he found that we can observe awe in everyday moments of life by observing the moral beauty in others. And I love that word, moral beauty. Because as you said all along, we live in the moment. Yeah. that word, moral beauty, because as you said all along, we live in the moment. Yeah.

And my question for you is, how does wonder or awe inspire us to open our hearts and mind to experience gratitude? I think that if you let go of your preconceived ideas and knowledge, for example, stirring in a flower, instead of saying, oh, I know that's a tulip, a rose, a daisy, but I've given it a name and that therefore means I'm knowledgeable. I know what that flower is.

You just have to erase all of that and just say, why does that right yellow intrigue me? How does that deep red rose color open my heart? What am I feeling? And what that does is that sense of wonder and appreciation puts you into the moment. And when you're into that moment of wonder, you also can create the context that, yeah, that flower is beautiful.

I'm feeling this emotional connection. It's also critical for life on our planet because without flowers and your buddies, the pollinators, there's no fruit, nuts, vegetables, seeds, berries. This is the intersection between the animal world and the plant world that creates life on our planet and it's driven by beauty and wonder the stance of life. And that makes you feel grateful that it's happening, that you've Asian witness it, that we are the beneficiaries of it. We just have to back off and don't screw it up and don't mess up that relationship, which has been going on for 50 million years that enables plants to reproduce.

It gives us the healthy food we need to eat. How can you not be grateful for that? And yet in our microscopic worlds, I often think we fail to think about that significance. We fail to realize the consequences, the actions that we're taking on the environment and how it is messing with some of this very nature that you're describing and the ecosystem that sustains all of us on this planet. Because oftentimes we're getting into such a world where social media and other things are driving us to be individualized instead of looking at the collective good. And I think that this is one of the things that is leading to this chronic state of loneliness

that so many people are feeling today. As I bring on more, more mental health experts, it's increasingly becoming an alarming state of how mental disorders as well are just increasing in magnitude. With that as a background, how does gratitude serve as a catalyst for positive physical and mental health, especially considering the state of the world that we're faced with today? There's a great question.

Gratitude, I think, is not the answer. It's not the antidote. It's mental health crisis that you're describing. It is a baby step in the right direction because we tend to ruminate over and over about the negative things that are happening in our lives where the brain is geared for survival the fight or flight response that takes over so anything that's about fear that touches the buttons about conflict, anxieties, it all creates stress and that's unfortunately the bulk of entertainment that is

occurring on screens or on social media. It's all to grab your attention and fear. The politics is the perfect example of that is the perfect way to grab your attention. So how do we shift out of that world? Well, what can you be grateful for? Can I be grateful at right now that I'm talking to you, John, that you are an enlightened person who's trying to share your gift of awareness and having people feel better about this world?

I'm totally grateful for you for doing that. I'm grateful that I can have five fingers that move. I'm grateful that I'm breathing. There are simple things and you can't have a negative thought and a positive thought in your head at the same time. So by just shifting for a moment into something positive, you stop that rumination that's going on in your head. And this isn't just me saying, is your scientific studies that prove that if you practice gratitude, which is a journal, you write down two or three things every day in the morning and evening, whenever that you're grateful for, saying thank you to people. People that have helped you along the way. Yeah, it improves your health.

People who live longer definitely creates more happiness and joy in your life. They did a study at UCSD in the cardiology unit, helped people heal faster from cardiovascular disease. So it's good for you. Why wouldn't it be good for you? Look, the other stuff that fear creates cortisol in your body. And cortisol creates inflammation. That creates disease and it will shorten your life. And I've got one foot in the Hollywood and I can tell you that

their idea of storytelling has to have some element of conflict and that conflict is revenge, killing, some form of fear or exploitation. And then there's this drama and then the hero has to overcome that and whether he succeeds or not, it's the old fashioned three-act play. And that story is an old story that we got to get rid of. It's a macho story. It's about survival of the fittest, kill or be killed, doggy dog world, all this macho kind of competition. By the way, that's a lot of nature docs as well. Shark Week is still like the number one highest rated week on Discovery and on that geo. So the stories I tell Wings of Life, which is about pollinators, fantastic fungi, about mushrooms and the fungal network and mycelium, it really looks more towards the feminine side of nature. And what that is about connection, obviously Obviously rebirth, regeneration, relationships, nurturing, symbiotic relationships, that's what makes the world go round.

And I love telling those stories. And those stories are not based on greed, and they're not based on taking advantage of somebody. It's not based on hoarding wealth. It's based on, we all do well when everybody does well. And that's actually true in you in the economy. Look at polysci and everyone's working. The economy does really well. Wall Street does well.

It's good for everybody. And we just kind of, I think, be a little more observant and take advantage of the intelligence of nature and realize that nature's operating instructions for how life works. It's been going on for hundreds of millions of years. Why would you take advantage of this R&D that's under our feet literally? But instead, we're breaking those systems, right, environmental degradation, and realizing that we're a part of that.

We are that. It isn't there's nature and then there's us. We are nature, obviously, whatever we do to nature, we do to ourselves. You don't poison the water you drink, you don't poison the air that you breathe. It's hard to imagine. We've gone off that trajectory, but we can come back. I'm an optimist. I'm not a doomsday guy about this. I really do believe how the earth has the power to heal very quickly. If we allow it to, there's so many trees, so many leaves on this planet that can filter the air. If we just let it do its thing and stop pumping more carbon into the atmosphere, it's amazing how fast the earth can do that. And that's really part of gratitude revealed. One of the key things about gratitude is resilience. That's a really important word.

People that practice gratitude bounce back faster from the mishaps that happened in your life. We all have shit that goes wrong. Somebody could scratch your car. Well, okay, is that going to bum you out for three days or you're going to shake it off in an hour. People who practice gratitude, don't let things like that, bring them down for a long period of time, which is really important. And resilience in nature, I observe it all the time, is critical for survival, critical to flourish. It's a trait that we need to develop, I think, as well to overcome the mental health crisis. Are you going to let little things or bigger things put you into a victim mindset? Because if you allow that to happen, you're hurting yourself. No matter how justified you think it might be, you're only hurting yourself to be feeling like a victim. Like I know that with my parents being Holocaust survivors, I saw how it ruined my sister's life. She took on that whole idea of victimhood,

and obviously the Holocaust is something you could say, yeah, you're justifying it, insane to do those people were victims, clearly, right? But I can easily fall into that trap too. If I feel something unjust occurred to me, I can feel that emotion building up inside of me. And I've become more aware that I need to not allow that to overtake me because I'm only hurting myself by feeling that way. For me, that was a giant revelation. Well, I have to say, Louis, you and I are so aligned on so many fronts. When I started Hashin's Rock, it was birthed out of a book. I was writing that finally is gonna see the light of day

here in the next eight or nine months, but really at the heart of what I am trying to do, and it sounds like you're trying to do, is I am trying to, if you would look at Disney and say they're trying to create the most enchanting place on Earth. My long-term goal is how do we create the most intentional place on Earth? And we're, I've not really ever talked about this on the podcast, but where I had wanted to take this all along is the podcast was just a starting point to see whether these ideas would resonate

more and more. I want to figure out how do you start touching people's lives. And so I did a ton of studying as I was getting embarked on this on the art of storytelling. And I found the same exact patterns and all the books that I was reading that you brought up that there's this whole micro-culture now of being addicted to drama and having to have this conflict. I wonder what if we started having comic books that told a completely different story that highlighted

instead of superheroes, the virtues of everyday heroes, and how they, through doing works of good, are intentionally impacting the world in a better way. Or how you can showcase that more in movies, where instead of being addicted to drama, we're addicted to awe and wonder, and the moral beauty that backer brought up. And I think you are on the leading edge of this with what you're trying to do, but it's difficult because it's not what the system currently rewards. Yeah, I think that one of the reviewers had a great quote. I think I have it here. I really love this.

He described it as a documentary acting within the concept it's exploring. I'll say that again, pretty deep. It's a documentary acting within the concept, it's exploring. So in other words, it takes you on a journey, you feel all these emotions based on bumping into these ordinary remarkable people that aren't super heroes. that aren't superheroes. And it has a lot of beauty because that is something that I put a lot of effort into. It's capturing, I'm just an interview or a place. I'm trying to capture it in beautiful light

in order for you to trigger those emotions. I can turn you on with beauty, which is an adrenaline rush. It releases hormones in your body, serotonin, et cetera, whatever. But the same thing happens when they use that fear button and the anxiety and the conflict, we get accustomed to watching films and wanting to have

some kind of a hormonal experience. And that is addictive. It's almost like eating fast food. And go to McDonald's and you get that rush of eating that burger, but it's not really nourishing for you. You can actually get the same pleasure out of eating healthy food that is actually good for you. And it's not until you experience the healthy food that you realize that there's no option than eating the junk food that we are fed in mass culture and mass media everywhere and mass advertising and mass marketing. It's not easy to turn your head away from that if that's where we grow up.

So I'm trying to offer that alternative, I think gratitude revealed it does it in a beautiful way because it pulls you into's just a way of looking at reality and scanning it for beauty in order to realize this could be heaven on earth if we just change our point of view. Or it's hell, depending on your point of view. It really is true. And then the other thing you mentioned earlier about your whole podcast and this idea of intention. It's funny because we keep on bouncing back and forth between a biological view of the world. And let's say the anthropological sociological view of the world.

Those patterns, if you compare them are not only similar, but it should be one and the same. Because again, we are nature. As I said earlier, but this idea of intention is so cool because they're discovering now that there's intention in every cell of your body. It's telling the trillion of cells in your body to work in harmony with each other to make you, John. It's a miracle. There are billions of decisions being made within this hour of conversation in your body. Who's driving all that? Is there intention? Yeah, there's clearly intention. We don't necessarily have to have the answer because maybe we don't understand it.

Maybe we don't even have the ability to understand it. Because then you get into the single, is it God or is it the universe? And there's no point in arguing about that because those are just words that don't really describe what it is either, right? There are attempts of trying to describe the mystery. I talking about it in that way. And so does I think Dacker, it's the mystery.

And I can live with the idea that it's a mystery that I'm trying to unveil the mystery, but do I have to have concrete evidence of what the mystery is? That's what wonder and curiosity is all about. It keeps on driving me further and further down that path of trying to unveil the mystery. And that is also life, right? I don't have to have the answer. I just want to be on the journey. It's like the metaphor in sports, right? It's not about making the touchdown. It's marching down the field. It's not spiking the ball.

It's what is it that creates perseverance, dedication, what makes you a really honorable human being to be able to take that journey, to climb climb that mountain to make the world a better place. And that's work. That isn't just, oh, I'm some genius. No, it's like doing the others as you would do unto yourself. It's the golden rule. And that golden rule also lives in nature. The mother treat takes care of its baby. The flowers provide food for the pollinators, and the pollinators are a transport system for reproduction. They enable each other, and they don't even ask for anything in return. It's not a quit-for-a-quo.

They're just doing what's important for life to go forward. So if he asks me, John, what is your spiritual belief? I'd say it's life. I just want life to go forward and I will do everything I can to protect life, to go forward. Yeah, I love that because what you're really just describing are the deaths and textures that you bring up in the film that make us.

And it's really interesting because I had two interviews that I never thought I was ever going to do recently. One of them came out today actually, and it was with Hall of Fame, Sports writer Sally Jenkins. And she has a new book out based on her years of observing athletes and coaches and what they can teach us about life.

And it was a pretty profound reveal, which is why I wanted to bring her on the show, which is that when she has studied the Steph Curry's and Michael Jordan's and Chris Everett's and whoever you want to say, it really becomes a study that what made these people great wasn't the gifts that they were born with. It was that they pursued their own agency to become the best versions of themselves they could be. And I think that's something that you really explore in the movie as well. And the other one was with one of my favorite philosophers, Peter Singer, and I never, in a million years,

thought I'd get a chance to interview him. But we really talked in our interview about this cycle of life that you're talking about and the impact that we're having on non-human beings and what our actions are doing to those ecosystems. And it's not just impacting the animals, it's impacting nature as well. So I think they're both such profound different ways

to look at the way that you just pointed out how we make ourselves us. Yeah, well, and that's been the biggest problem with the environmental movement or the problem of environmental degradation. It's this idea of separation between us and nature. It's something either we have to take care of or that we're harming. It's not separate from us in either respect.

It is us. Once you understand that maybe intuitively, you wouldn't do anything to harm it. Yes. Well, I'm going to switch gears here, Louis, because one of the things I wanted to ask you is, how have you found a way to balance the need for captivating storytelling with the responsibility to educate your viewers? I think it's one of the same stories I want to tell are the wisdom I discover in a process of making a movie.

I'm on that journey of discovery. I'm an adventurer. I'm trying to look at the universal truth, universal rhythms, universal patterns, and I think that's why the films are potentially engaging because I don't have all the answers. I'm an expert in subject matter. I'm going to go make this movie or write this book in a process of making a movie. I wanted to be the wide eyed little kid

that's learning as I go. And so for me, unveiling the mystery are the films I wanna make, whether it's fungi or pollinators or the 3D IMAX film I did in mysteries of the unseen world. I'm just looking to uncover and discover things we don't normally see, think about or feel, because normal reality is boring, it's some degree, and if I want to engage you, entertain you

quote unquote, inspire you. I've got to show you stuff you've never seen before. Remain stuff you've never thought about before. And that makes it interesting. It inspires curiosity. It takes audiences on the journey through time and scale. And hopefully, when you finish that journey, as a lot of people have said to me, it changed our lives.

Speaking of upcoming things that you've got in the works for changing people's lives, I understand that you have an upcoming streaming channel, the Louis channel that's gonna be dedicated to inspiring mindfulness, what can viewers or listeners expect from this platform? Yeah, so I want to create a platform where you can just go and know that for sure you're not going to experience any toxic imagery. Everything is a positive experience to celebrate life. So we have, instead of the carousel, it's being horror and sci-fi, it's like there's gratitude. There's fantastic fun guy.

There's wonder and all podcasts we have. Moving art is a series. We have a Louis land for children. And I'm gonna make that available for children's hospitals, friends of Louis, our films from other filmmakers that are inspirational, like Howard Hall is a friend of mine like the world's best underwater cinematographer and We want to make that available is basically free and

We've launched it on 420 not too long ago. We've already got over 20,000 subscribers and It's OTT. Yes, it's available on your phone, but it's also available like on your Apple TV device or Roku on a smart TV So you can experience this on a bigger screen in 4k, which is really important because Those intricate patterns and rhythms of nature is nature's I think hidden language To turn you on to engage engage you, to inspire you, to realize you're looking into a mirror of who you are because it's like looking into every cell of your body. It's the same rhythms and patterns in there that you find in a tree that you find on Mars. It's all the same rhythm and pattern, which gives me a lot of comfort, to be honest.

And so the Louis channel is just that place where you will find inspirational content, a lot of short subjects. And it'll be, for me, I think, an alternative to the platforms that you're going to find that cortisol-inducing content. And also, I've always been like inventive in terms of creating new platforms for distribution for the kind of films I want to make and not have to be siphoned by gatekeepers who say that's entertaining or not entertaining, because to people who run programming at networks, cable channels and platforms

are, for the most part, still working at formula of creating fear, creating that adrenaline rush that they consider to be engaging entertainment. Well, I'm glad you showcase that because because I'm going to have to go check it out myself and subscribe. I was not aware that it had already gone live. So I'll go do that later today. Yeah, it's LouisChanel.tv.

If you're looking at it online or again, in the settings on those Apple TV devices, Roku devices, you have to go into the App Store, just Louis Kale, you'll find it. I'm just great to see it side by side with HBO, Netflix and lots of other big players. Louis, with your extensive experience as a filmmaker and cinematographer, how have you personally witnessed the lasting impact of gratitude on individuals and communities that you've profiled? I think in the movie, a good example of that are the women who came out of prison in that

halfway house who went through a program of learning sand of comedy in order to be able to build self-esteem. And what a wonderful thing it was to observe how it changed their lives. And it made the laugh about the difficulties they've been through, which are really severe for going to jail, that's hard enough, but whatever it was in their life experience that created incarceration.

So after that, they're just grateful for who they are that they have this whole new way of looking at life that they fall in love with themselves. I think that's a good example of gratitude. I'm so glad you brought that aspect up because the same thing came up in my interview with Dacker. He volunteers at San Quentin. He was telling me that the last place in the world he ever thought that he was going to see awe or wonder play out was in a prison environment. Yet he said he found more concentrated aspects of it there because so many of the prisoners are doing such deep personal analysis of their lives that they have grown to take appreciation for even the smallest things that bring them off.

And the importance of things that you highlight in the film, such as a Sunrise or a Sunset or changing weather patterns or the gift of seeing a loved one, things that we often take for granted, that they in their confined state don't get the same access to that we do, so they become even more important. And beg the question,

would have more of us had to live our lives like that, would we appreciate all the wonders around us, even more than we do. And I have to say the answer is probably yes. I agree with that. You find in areas of scarcity there is more gratitude and even perhaps for joy than people that have a ton of abundance and riches. They don't seem to be as happy. Louis, I have two questions left for you. And one of them is a fun question.

It'll lead to the next one. I'd love to ask this question. If you were picked by the powers of B an astronaut on the mission to Mars and the powers of B told you that for this new colony, the world was putting into place, you could set one principle or edict or law or movement to it. What would that be from your perspective?

We ran off the best celebrate life. Maybe on that mission, I brought some fun guy with me so that it could make soil. And after we had soil, we planned to seed and how we can live on Mars without food. So do whatever you could do to protect and celebrate life. Yeah, it's interesting that you brought that aspect up because I have several friends who are astronauts. And when I ask them about the complexities of going to Mars, that's one of the things that they bring up is how once you get there, are you going to be self-sustaining

in that environment? That is so harsh. And the last question I wanted to ask is, or a person who gets to view this movie, what are the key messages that you hope people take away from it? I think you don't take anything for granted. Appreciate the little things in life. And do everything you can to find purpose and intention to make the world a better place. Louis, thank you so much for spending your time with us. It was really an honor to have you on.

And I can't wait for this project so that all the listeners for on the show today get an opportunity to watch it like I did. Yeah, you can see it now on the Louis channel or gratitude reveal.com. We're making it available for schools, communities, we've got like an educational curriculum for teachers, parents. So for those people, as I said earlier, that I'm not telling people how to live their life, working with a great, a good science center, which is that's where Dacker is. We created a curriculum and guidelines and exercises and practices for those people that want to do that. So we offer both. Okay, well, great. Well, thank you again for coming on the show. Yeah. Okay. Take care. Well, thank you again for coming on the show.

Yeah, okay. Take care. I thoroughly enjoyed that interview with Louis Swartzberg, and I wanted to thank Louis so much for being a guest on today's show. Links to all things Louis will be in the show notes at passionstruck.com. Please use our website links if you purchase any of the books from the guests that we feature here on the show. All proceeds go to supporting the show.

Avertise your deals on discount codes, or all in one community place at passionstruck.com slash deals. Videos are on YouTube, both at John Armeyles and PassionStruck Clips. You can also catch the show on syndicated radio on the Brushwood Media Network, every Monday and Friday, from 5 to 6 p.m. Eastern time on your evening commute. I have some exciting news that my new book, PassionStruck, which explores the science of intentionality,

is now ready for preorder. Links will be in the show notes. You can find me on LinkedIn where I have a weekly newsletter, or you can subscribe to our overall newsletter at either JohnRMiles or PassionStruck.com, and I'm also at JohnRMiles on all the social platforms where I post daily bits of inspiration. You're about to hear a preview of the Passion Strike podcast interview I did with Dr. Judd Brewer, who's an author and thought leader in the field of habit change and the science of self-mastery. We discuss his New York Times bestseller,

unwinding anxiety, the new science that shows how to break through the cycles of worry and fear to heal your mind. About fear and planning are helpful, but there may be this evolutionary bottleneck where we bring the present and the future together. So, present being fear, future being planning, where we get fear of the future. And the fear of the future is basically anxiety, right? That's been shown over and over and over to actually make it harder to think and plan. The far end of the anxiety spectrum is panic, which includes in its definition wildly unthinking behavior.

The fee for this show is that you share it with family or friends when you find something useful and interesting. If you know someone who would love to hear more about gratitude revealed, then definitely share Louis Swartzward's episode with those that you love and care about. In the meantime, do your best to apply what you hear on the show so that you can live what you listen. Until next time, go out there and become Ash and Struck. you