Sense of Soul - Take Control of Your Health

Episode Date: August 27, 2024

Uncover the hidden politics of your gut today on Sense of Soul podcast with food expert Brett Casper author of The Political Gut. Brett is recognized internationally as a “pioneer” in the kombucha industry. Founding NYC’s “first kombucha café", Thailand's first kombucha brewery and award-winning wellness brand Pure Luck®. His career spans 3 continents, working with luxury brands and celebrities. Pure Luck Bangkok has been featured in ELLE Decor with notable collaborations including Michelin-starred restaurants, 5 star resorts, and brands like FENDI, Fresh® Cosmetics, Brooklyn Brewery and Porsche. As an artist he has worked with major luxury brands and photographed celebrities like Jay-z, Nick Jonas and Warren Buffet. Brett joined Shanna to share his book The Political Gut: Quantum Nutrients, Two Brains, Upside-Down Diets. The Political Gut, which explores the intersection of food, politics, and personal well-being, offering readers a guide to reclaiming control over their health and ultimately how they perceive reality. https://thepoliticalgut.com https://www.brettcasper.com As Mentioned in episode: https://youtu.be/5QnZR_8hgTo Learn more about Sense of Soul at: www.senseofsoulpodcast.com

Hello, my soul-seeking friends. It's Shanna. Thank you so much for listening to Sense of Soul podcast, enlightening conversations with like-minded souls from around the world, sharing their journey of finding their light within, turning pain into purpose, and awakening to their true sense of soul. If you like what you hear, show me some love and rate, like, and subscribe. And consider becoming a Sense of Soul Patreon member, where you will get ad-free episodes, monthly circles, and much more. Now go grab your coffee, open your mind, heart, and soul. It's time to awaken.

Today on Sense of Soul, I have artist and food expert Brett Kasper. He is recognized internationally as a pioneer in the kombucha industry, founding New York City's first kombucha cafe. He is also the founder of the award-winning wellness brand Pure Luck. Brett is joining us today to share his book called Political Gut, which explores the intersection of food, politics, and personal well-being, offering the readers a guide to reclaiming control over their health and ultimately how they perceive reality. This is something I'm very concerned about as well as you should be concerned about. So it's my honor to have Brett on with us to educate us more on how we can reclaim our power to control our own health and the many

uphill battles that we have to do so. So please welcome Brett Kasper. Hi, Shanna. Hi. Brett, nice to meet you. Where are you at? Are you in Thailand? I'm in France, actually. Oh, you're in France. I live in France now. Are you originally from the States? Yeah, I'm American, originally. I'm an old school New Yorker by way of California.

Okay. So I'm in Colorado. Where in Colorado are you living? I'm in a suburb of Denver. I'm in Aurora. Okay. I actually used to live in Aurora. Oh no, I lived in Arvada. Arvada. Okay. And Denver, Mountain View, Keystone. I lived up in Breck for a little while. So a little bit of Eagle. So I've been around Colorado. Do you like France? I love it. I've been living here a little over two years now. Is that a long time for you? I mean, in France, it's a long time.

I lived in Bangkok for eight years on and off. I lived in Tokyo for six years, five years on and off. I lived in LA and San Francisco and New York. I bounced around quite a bit. That's amazing. So is this for work or is this because you're an explorer? I guess it's mostly because I'm an explorer. And, you know, I write about the food systems and food systems in the U.S.

And like when it comes to food, France is the place, you know, if you want to be healthy and have a good quality of life when it comes to the food culture here, they really care about those things. So, yeah, it's really good. You know, you get two hours for lunch and, you know, everybody drinks wine and hangs out and it's like it's nice well i'm drinking tea i've switched so you know actually even in my intro it says grab your coffee but but really i've always drank tea but a lot of times i'll get like espresso shots in my tea if I get it espresso yeah oh it's so good with like a chai okay no yeah I'll get like a dirty chai so yeah but that's two shots I mean if it's a big one I'll get three wow yeah it tastes actually rather good I believe but I've switched to black tea. Okay. Yeah, I'm a big tea drinker myself. I understand.

I owned a kombucha brand for a while. So I worked in tea. Whenever I don't feel good, you know, if someone doesn't feel good in the house, I'm like, let me make you some tea. It's a natural thing. I don't know if it's in my genetics, but this was from my mom. I remember my grandma making me tea, just one of those feel good things, almost like soup. Right. You know, it was, my family was like that too. So I don't know if it's,

my mom was always like, oh, you don't feel good. Let me make you tea. Oh, your stomach is bothering you. Drink chamomile tea. Oh, you know, or like, you know, whatever. Yeah. So they, you know, it's like some, I think some of those things that are in our DNA, we should actually listen to more than, you know, follow the trends or whatever's happening. I mean, there's, there's always new trends. That's for sure. Yeah. Well, let's hope that new trends are in your favor and in the favor of other people who I admire people like Kippy Anderson, his documentaries, Cowspiracy, C-acy's he's oh oh that's

right yeah yeah yeah his new one christspiracy blew my mind what's it called christspiracy yes so he you know they were only on netflix but netflix wanted to change a bunch of stuff in christspiracy so he bought it back and released it twice in the movie theater, only two days. I had to seriously try to find it. And it was just right down the street, but it wasn't being advertised. There's a lot of things that have been kept from us intentionally. And so as people are starting to find their voice, it's awakening people and it's a good thing, but it's a fight, isn't it? It really is. I was telling my friend yesterday, I'm like, I didn't write like a thriller or some fun romance novel, you know, like it's already a hard sell because it's a book that

tells you things that you really don't want to know. And I mean, you should know and you should talk about and you should be aware of, but like, you know, the human instinct is to seek out favorable things that favor what your bias is, you know, the human instinct is to, to seek out favorable things that favor, which your bias is, you know? And so, yeah, I was like, ah, it's an uphill battle to sell a book like this, you know? Right. Well, and you put political on the front of anything you're kind of asking for it. I know. Some of my friends are like, wow, you know, you're going to turn off a lot of people just because it says political on it. I'm like, yeah, I know. But like, it's inherently political. Or you'll catch people's eye because I feel like for myself, taking down these systems is the only

thing that's going to save humanity and save the earth. These systems don't serve us. I mean, it's terrible. And like subsidies, for one, which I talk about in the book, I mean, it's terrible. And subsidies, for one, which I talk about in the book, I mean, it's just, we're subsidizing our demise. It's like, we're paying taxes to the government who's then giving them to the oil companies and other companies too. It's just, it's crazy. Yeah. I mean, the oil companies get $11 million a minute in subsidies global what yeah we're financing the systems that are polluting us that are destroying us and we're subsidizing oil to keep the oil prices down for poor countries but really the the profits just go to the people at the top we better to just give the money directly to the poor people than to give it to the oil companies at 11 million dollars a minute it's like six trillion a year globally, the subsidies for oil. It's insane. That's a battle. That's a really big battle.

I mean, it's like what you were saying is like, how can you fight that system? How can you beat a system that is so financially entrenched? And as the US, America is a petroleum economy, you know, I mean, mean like we're the richest country on earth and how do we get that way because of how we structure our economy and because of the financially entrenched interests and so if we can't move beyond this what we have for value now you know what we place value on it's never going to change. You know, and that's the way I see it. The only thing I can hope is that the younger generation who doesn't even, I believe, speak the same language as, say, the older generation, these older generations, they really can't understand the younger and vice versa.

They see the world differently, completely. It's true. As you get older, you become more conservative too. And you also become concerned. I'm becoming concerned. I just went to the doctor the other day. He said, well, we can give you hormones because my hormones are jacked up. He said, but also know every thousand women that I give hormone replacement to,

I'm giving a handful of them breast cancer. Oh no. Yeah. So if you're feeling good, then you're good. You know, I don't care about the numbers. Like if you're good, then I trust you. And I was like, oh, thank you for that. You know, thank you for, you know, telling me I can trust my body and not these numbers. Wow. Yeah. My, my, my wife is also, she's on the beginning and the end of the spectrum and she's not happy. I hate to laugh about it. Yeah. It was very, you know, I didn't sleep well, you know, I was hot all the time, but I got, I got through it. And I think that I was

embracing the wisdom and the crone. And I was thinking about that before we got on because i thought to myself how much of it is is mental to this stuff is sometimes brainwashed in us to believe things i'll tell you one thing when you look up foods that are toxic one of the things that comes up is bitter apricot seeds okay which it gives you a source of B17. And it shows up as like number four or something. You're not supposed to eat a bunch of them a day. But all the things that showed up that were toxic were all like mushrooms, seeds, yummy,

like mangoes, like fruits, star fruit. I mean, things that are natural, no pesticides, herbicides, no GMOs. Why do we have all that in our food? Why? You know, most countries ban this. And that's why I think it's interesting you've seen from a front seat perspective from around the world. Yeah. I mean, it's similar in places where the american influence is stronger and and where there's more of a food culture it changes you know it's different as well so it just kind of depends on where you are you know and and even like here in france i mean you can still buy junk food obviously you know there's still all the junk food and they have the processed

foods and all that stuff i think the big thing in the united states is is like corn syrup there's a lot of corn syrup and everything and the high frose corn syrup. And it's not just, you know, corn syrup, it's glucose and fructose, maltol. And there's like 53 names for sugar. There's like, I think there's like 15 or something for sugar itself. And then there's like another 40, whatever, or 38 that are sugar derivatives, you know, fake sugars, essentially. Yeah, which reminds me of my journey with my ancestry. Much of this country was built on sugarcane. Right? Yeah, I dedicated the whole chapter in the book to sugar just to give people a little bit of perspective. In my point of view, like sugar is is and i say it in the book most energetically corrupt crop in the history of mankind perhaps you know maybe not in the history of mankind but

there's just so much negativity associated with from like you know 11 million slaves taken from africa and then you know the byproduct of sugar cane production is molasses and then so they have this this waste product and what do they want to do with it? So they got to make something into it. So they turn it into rum and then there's more slaves and more alcoholism. And the stories are crazy. I mean, if you read the history of sugar production and rum production and the slavery and the way things go back in history, I mean, you know, sugar interests controlled British Parliament. They funded wars. Like, it's crazy.

Yeah, it is. Talk about chocolate, though. I'm like, I like chocolate a whole lot. Chocolate is good, I guess. I mean, you can get it without sugar. You know, it's delicious without sugar if you get the good ones. Yeah. Yeah.

I like the kind with the peanut butter in the middle. Orange, you know. The orange. The plastic around it. Yeah. Yeah. I like the kind with the peanut butter in the middle. Orange, you know. The orange. The plastic around it. Yeah. Oh, no, no. I know. You can't eat that.

That's full of garlic. I know. It's terrible. I feel like as you get older, when you're younger, you can eat anything. You can drink anything. You know, you could party all night long and get up and go to work and like totally be fine. I know. I used to do it.

Me too. And now, I mean, I've I used to do it. Me too. And now, I mean, I've been drinking over 12 years, 13 years. So I can tell like my body is changing and my cells are shrinking. And so as they do, you know,

things, certain things, my body's just like, no, we don't need that more. That's not serving us. I don't eat sugar at all's not serving us i don't eat sugar at all i completely cut it out from my diet except i eat croissants

do they have beignets there or is it only in louisiana a beignet what sounds familiar but what is it again it's like those little french donuts and you put the powdered sugar all over it no i haven't seen those no we haven't i haven't seen those maybe it's just you know louisiana thing probably they made their own culture their own language yeah it's it's totally a special thing that area right there you know a lot of different like ethnicities and it's beautiful yeah actually when i think about you know someone i think in my in my journey as i was studying my ancestors, I found out, you know, it was the Native Americans that actually brought the fillet to the people that were taking over their land. But for those first few years, they wouldn't have survived without the Natives because these people were not used to the environment in Louisiana.

It was like harsh, I'm sure, which they're relentless people. They continue to live in an area that gets destroyed every so often. But yeah, they were a huge influence on how we're going to grow things and how, I think it was sassafras, right? Well, actually, you know, that's the filet that helps some of that Cajun food taste the way that it does. I think that when we look at how we're eating today and how they ate back then, you look at the different diseases that they didn't deal with and the different viruses and environmental issues. Right. I mean, the most obvious one is obesity in America. Like, and for, for me, like when you leave America, like

suddenly people are not giant, like, and I were, I mean, big, like big people in America and you go everywhere and everybody talks about how the portions are big and the cars are big and the people are big in America, but you know, it's sugar, you know, that, that, that it's from, it causes obesity in people. If you start as a child, it has all of these negative detriments as you grow into adulthood, like obesity and heart disease and diabetes and a lot of the other stuff that we don't get. But also because of the Otto Warburg effect is how cancer metabolizes inside of your cells. Basically, cancer ferments sugar to feed itself inside your cells. And so that's why if you have cancer, you're getting these diseases because we have so

much sugar in our diets that we're just feeding the cancer. It's like supercharging it, you know? Like throwing fuel on a fire. Exactly. It's exactly what it is. And it's exactly that. The cancer ferments sugar to feed itself in your cells. And that's a Nobel Prize winning doctor discovered it in the 40s, I think. I don't know exactly the date. Right. But the more we're sick, the more we have to go to the doctor and the more money they

make. And I did go to the doctor. Look at this. Yuck, yuck, yuck. They took blood. I go to the doctor. Look at this. Yuck, yuck, yuck. They took blood. I mean,

like bad, horrible. Wow. Lord. You know how many times they asked me, she went this vaccine. Do you want that vaccine? And I'm like,

no, I don't need any of vaccines. I'm good. Like, because you're, you're probably healthy. You know? I mean, if you're like, you're probably healthy you know i mean if you're like if people were healthy then they would be less prone to illness have higher immunity and be less afraid of being

sick you know you know how much does these foods also like sugar affect us mentally i mean do you know here in america one in 22 children are on the spectrum right now. And I do have a child who's on the spectrum and I have two children who are diagnosed ADHD and I do as well. Right. Well, you know, it's, it's interesting for me because since I quit eating sugar, I just cut it all out completely. Like everything, alcohol, I went from a hundred to zero in, in in like it took some time but i cut out everything like i cut out all processed foods all sugar all preservatives anything anything on the lit and the label that was a preservative or a sugar or anything that was

not natural i pretty much stopped buying processed foods stop shopping or stop eating out mostly and i cut everything out of my diet. I stopped using shampoo. I stopped using conditioner. I stopped using any creams, anything because they all have BHT and propylparaben and they have all these preservatives in them, which are endocrine disruptors. I wanted to find what was my natural state of being and like my decision-making and how I would, would feel and make decisions and act as a person without all of these other influences in my life, because you can feel it.

And, and I worked in advertising and, you know, when I was in university and I was studying all these psychological things about advertising, I'm like, what, you know, you, you know, you're mind blown. You're like, wait, these, this is, and people are really easily manipulated and you know, like you don't really know it, but so, so back to the sugar. So I'd cut everything out of my diet because I wanted to, to feel what it was like to be able to just be normal in my brain, you know, because we've got so much like voices in our head and all of these other things. And what I found was with sugar now, like I eat croissants and once in a while I'll have a sweet, you know, I live in France. It's hard, you know, it's the land of pastries and patisseries.

But like someone had macaroons the other day and they're really sweet and i can only eat half of a macaroon because i started suddenly i felt the sugar so strongly and as soon as i have sugar i'm antsy and i can't focus and i was in i'm studying french so i'm in french class and and we're like passing around macaroons i eat suddenly i can't focus on class i can't pay attention to what the teacher's talking about. I'm like, you know, and where does ADHD come from? You know? For sure.

I, you know, I'm not a doctor, so I can't, can't say like, you know. They've always said that, like, don't give, you know, kids sugar, you know, cause they'll be hyper, you know? And I think that affects some people and it's not for everyone, you know, isn't always the case. In Louisiana just recently, they made it a law that children in any restaurant that sells food are not allowed to have a soft drink with their meal. Really? So even at McDonald's, and they forced it. In Louisiana?

Yes. Wow. I know. I mean, I do agree with it, but I don't agree with taking away people's rights either. Right. So that's, you know, for me. It's a balance, right? I also force the 10 commandments in every. I saw that recently.

You know, 93% of your serotonin is produced in your gut and, you know, serotonin regulates mood function and regulate. I mean, there's so many things that serotonin is produced in your gut and you know serotonin regulates mood function and regulate i mean there's so many things that serotonin regulates and so as a company you use sugar as a preservative of course and it's a flavor enhancer too it is those things you know i work in food but it also controls your serotonin you know so when the corporations control your serotonin production you know does it also control your melatonin then too? Because since they're both the same. I don't know. I hadn't researched into the melatonin component, but I just know that the serotonin is really

important. And because I study a lot about gut health, you know, I know about the serotonin being produced in your gut and it's your second brain. And then where's the sugar goes right into your gut, you know. So I have a story about that. So I had laryngitis. Oh, it was probably about a year ago. It was a year ago.

And, you know, I do interview a lot, like three, four times a week. So I couldn't talk and I, and I had some really big interviews and I was like taking ibuprofen every day, every day taking ibuprofen and, and, and all day. But as I took it, taking ibuprofen every day. Every day taking ibuprofen. And all day. But as I took it, I could talk. So one day I was eating these wasabi almonds, which I love. Wasabi almonds? Wasabi almonds.

And I ended up in the hospital with acute ulcer colitis. Really? Yeah. My stomach was bleeding from all of the ibuprofen I was taking. And those almonds were just kind of like the the cherry on top of all of it because they have some sort of like they have like the citric acid and whatever on there they put in there to make it sort of yeah it must have just been too much for my stomach that was already bleeding from you know the ibuprofen you know i was taking ibuprofen every day for weeks. And so I have talked to doctors before

where they've said even one ibuprofen makes your stomach bleed a little bit. So taking it every day like that is very, very dangerous. So I'm in the hospital and I have to do a cleanse because I have to then have a colonoscopy. I'm like, this is so fun, right? You know, great. And I'm not sleeping either because I'm in a hospital, right? And it just was a horrible experience. However, it ended up being a very telling experience and huge for my awareness. When I got out the hospital, four days, no food, no sleep. I felt better than I had in so long. And everyone was

like, sit down, you know, you've been in the hospital. I'm like, no, I have like so much energy and I could see better. My eyes, I was like, I couldn't believe it. I was like, you guys, my eyesight is so good. I mean, it was insane. But I had cleansed. I had to have nothing in me before I had that colonoscopy. And so I realized how poisoned I was. Right. And so I was very scared and very conscious to what I was going to put back in my body. I mean, it was terrifying because I

hadn't felt that good and I didn't even know how bad I felt. I was so used to feeling bad. Right. That's exactly, that's exactly what the situation is, is that until you just eliminate everything from your body and, and sometimes it takes a long time to detox too. I mean, you're, you're fortunate that it was quick, but you know, like. It wasn't, it wasn't that easy. Wow. Right. I mean, I did the master cleanse. If you're familiar with the master cleanse, it's 10 days of fasting. Yeah. Well, you, you make like the, is it like a drink and you put like all kinds of different ingredients and right. It's, it's a lemon juice and water and maple syrup with cayenne pepper. Yes. And it's delicious. You know, if you can fast for 10 days, you've got the willpower to do anything. But, but, but not only that, like, you know, after just a few days, your whole system resets, your sense of smell comes back. My libido was like skyrocketed. Like it was just surprising, like how much it changes your personality, you know, your actual physical existence, how you reflect outwardly to other people, not just inwardly to yourself. Yeah, it was amazing.

You know, stuff like this is like we have to be conscious of these things. You know, I stopped dyeing my hair and I'm just letting it go gray and stuff. And because, you know, it dawned on me that, you know, you're putting all these chemicals on your brain. So like all of these things that we're doing, all these things that we're doing to wonder where we get cancer from. So what can we do? It is a big fight.

I mean, I'm not political. I have a house. We have three different religions, politics. We have everything different in this house, but yet we're all peaceful. And I became an independent a while ago because I was like being Switzerland basically. And I really like RFK Jr. and what he stands for. He is willing to be brave enough to fight systems you know being conscious and learning about the people who are running our country is right a lot of people just pick him because

you know he's red and he's blue and you know this is a woman this is a man it's tribal it's just break broke breaking down to our most basic you know human instinct we just tribal go with the group think you know follow group think and do what everyone else is doing. But what you're saying about politicians, it's like a job. And my point of view is if you're a ship captain or a pilot, you're in charge of a few hundred lives. And you have to be sober. You have to worry about what drugs you're taking. You know, you have to be very strict about your, you're like careful for your brain power, for lack of a better way to say it. That way as a mother. Yes. Right. And, and, and the same thing should be true for politicians.

Like, I mean, they can just lie on their resume all day long and they have no repercussion. And, you know, it goes back to this, this free speech debate, you know, which they call a political speech, you know, so as the politician can say whatever they want, because it's political speech, you know, and it doesn't have to be the truth. It's for the citizen to decide what's true and what's not true. But there has to be some accountability for the things that they say, I believe, because I think that a lot of people aren't sophisticated enough to really be able to parse the way the information works

or to understand the world as a function of how the world functions like a level of government, you know. They really truly believe that these people are saying things that are true and they just don't, because of bias, they don't want to accept any other information that that could be contrary to what their beliefs are belief system is and then you know and we we feed into

that you know we we as as humans search out information that feeds into our bias so it doesn't our our our system doesn't exactly make it easy for us to fight against it. I'm going to tell you something else. This is the honest to God truth. If for some reason from now until I go to vote and someone comes forth, I really believe it. I mean, I would have no problem changing my mind. You know, that's another thing. Just because you were born into that family and they've been depressed their whole, you know, existence, or you've been really believing in this candidate for years. And, you know, how do you know that, you know, someone might come through that you might, you know, like and agree with?

I mean, does it matter? A label. I feel like that's really scary. That's really what divides us here is like, you know, it's, it's exactly what it is. It's the systems and the systems are meant to keep us that way. You know, it's meant to keep it that way. So it's good for the people in power, you know, never talk about food. They never talk about, they rarely talk about environmental issues, but that actually

sometimes gets up there. It's kind of what you were saying earlier, the younger generation, they, you know, they really care about the environmental issues, you know, and I don't, I don't see as much of the younger generation speaking to food specifically as an environmental issue, but climate change or the many different, I mean, there are many things that people are just so ignorant to. And you tell me how it is not important. You have countries where you have been and where you are that literally ban many of these long words we were talking about, you know, 25 letter words. You can't even say the word, but we're eating it, consuming it every day.

They don't even allow this in their country. Right. Well, the chemical lobby, unfortunately, in the United States is in many ways an arm of the petroleum industry, because that's where a lot of these chemicals are derived from. They're derived from oil. And it's the again, it's the entrenched financial interests you know and like america it's a big country and you know it's like 80 of cereals are controlled by four corporations and you know like stuff like that 93 of sodas are like three corporations like it's so so these these companies have this financially entrenched interest which they need to make more money by creating systems that preserve longevity of their products. And that's how you have the processed food system that we have in the States. And in France, it's not like that because they're super proud of the local produce and they have this food culture.

And you go to the supermarket and it's local stuff. It's locally grown. It's within, you know, you still see Spain, Italy or kind of the scale of Europe to America is like, you know, something from California coming to Colorado, you know, kind of. We're getting avocados from Spain or whatever, you know. In America, everything comes out of a box.

It's pre-made for you to just pour it into a bowl and add water or stir in some ingredients or whatever. It's all seasoned and ready to go. And, you know, I think that that's part of the consumerism, the work culture that we have in America, too, where majority of people spend 70% of their weeks or more just working for a place to live and food. It's like indentured servitude practically, you know, and under this guise of freedom. It's not freedom. And so, you know, what, what the corporations do, they sell us convenience and they sell us easy and quick and fast because it's good for them because then they can sell it everywhere in the country, in the world. And it also keeps us focused on what we're doing is our jobs and running around with the kids and to the doctor and to the, you know, the myriad of life related tasks that we are stuck with on the daily. Keeps us from having any kind of focus or direction into connection back to our food. You know,

we're not having that connection. We're like in France, we have that connection. Like I really feel it strongly. Like I take lunch, I work from home and I go and sit, I sit downstairs in my kitchen and I just sit there for an hour and a half and I don't work. I drink tea and it's like, I couldn't work. I could just go back upstairs to my office and work, you know, but I don't. But in the States, I would never do that. I would eat at my desk. Even I'm working from home, I would still eat at my desk. And like, so we don't have that culture in the States. And so we have a culture of ease and convenience and that's why fast food and packaged foods and just dump it in the pot and add water systems or right that's why they're prevalent

oh my god that's so true so when someone throws the word organic on something and you can still very clearly see they have gmos even so a lot of times if you keep continue to read beyond the word organic right there's i mean the usd organic label allows up to five percent or something three three to five percent of non-organic ingredients or something like that you know actually it was my youngest daughter she's 12 was telling me something about well of course all of the food colorings well we know red's always been bad right the bad one yeah yeah i mean but she's 12 so this is a good thing that's amazing you know that's amazing right and she doesn't you know use straws and she's conscious you know she's

like natural things and so this is a good thing you know these younger generation are more awake and i think largely to social media so there's that double-edged sword because a lot of this right it's trending on tiktok to not have straws than it is and also there's many people like yourself who are being brave enough to talk about this and write books on it and like kip anderson right you know doing his documentaries on it right and even if it's not popular with all or you may have to change your name and move your old identity because they might come out. But, you know, it's so true. But there is some attention from the younger generation. I mean, I've heard Kinsley talk about certain projects, the Willow project, maybe, and she was crying. You know, she was deeply feeling this. I think the younger generation is super special.

I was the generation that ate chicken nuggets in a styrofoam box. I mean, it was super amazing. First TV dinners. I mean, my mom was from Louisiana, so she did cook pretty good. She still does. But things have changed very quickly for the bad, very quickly. I mean, just in my lifetime, things have gotten really sour when it comes to environment and what we consume. This is my theory. This is my theory on education anyways and on other things is that it starts with you. It starts with your household. You've made a choice to not eat that way. If everyone decided to be conscious in what they put into their bodies, then they wouldn't thrive as much.

Right. I mean, ultimately the consumers are the ones that have the power to make the change. You know, you, you make the change in yourself, you know, you're the first step towards doing it, you know, and it starts with you and one person. And, you know, I've seen it with my friends, like I be healthy and they make fun of me and then, then they kind of get curious and then, and then they kind of ask questions and then they kind of try it out for themselves. And some of them stick to it and some of them have not. And, you know, so it's like, you can just lead by example is the best you can do, I guess. And but as far as changing the systems, yeah, you have to you know, you have to demand like something different. And, you know, I think Buck, Mr. Fuller says it best.

You can't change the existing system. You have to build a new one that makes the existing system obsolete. Oh, I read something on your website that really got me. Did you know what it was? It was a quote at the bottom of your first page. Oh, Henry Kissinger's famous, famous quote. He says, control food and you control people. Is that what you mean? Yes. Yeah. Yeah. It's almost like, you know, you know, you can, I mean, many women have been taught to cook good, you know, cause you earn the love through the man, you know know by feeding him that's

crazy that kind of stuff well yeah i mean you know i love when i love when the woman can cook i mean yeah and i don't mean it like in a yeah misogynistic male women female way but it's just like wow it's a skill you know i mean yeah i don't personally enjoy thinking but i mean women have been bred to do this i mean i still know women today who think that you know by learning how or cooking for you know their boyfriends that i actually had my best friend one time cook something for my partner who i'm still with and i lied and said that i made it well that's good. It's a good friend to let you get away with that. Yeah, she used to be my co-host.

We've actually, of course, I told him. But yeah, I was like, I don't have time to cook. And she's like, I'll come help. And she pretty much made it. I was like, awesome. I mean, you know, and that's the thing right there is, you know, I don't have time to cook. Cooking, it has to become like a priority in your lifestyle. It has to become a priority in how you live.

And just like I also talk about meditation, these things that are just important to find the time and incorporate them into your habits and your lifestyle, because it's going to change how you view the world and how you behave. And's going to change your personality you're going to see a lot of good changes and you know is i i really i gotta make a shirt because you know i say take the c out of medication and put a t and it becomes meditation you do need to make a t-shirt that's that's like i was like oh that's a brilliant yes mindful eating mindful eating is one of the reasons why i think my daughter doesn't like to eat my youngest she doesn't like to eat meat you know when she said a little chicken nugget was an actual chicken she had a problem

with that right i mean the production system for farm animals is is really terrible you know i mean so beyond beyond just to feel bad for the farm animals animals, is really terrible. You know, I mean, so beyond, beyond just to feel bad for the farm animals, animals approach, it's also very detrimental to the environment. Yes. And you're consuming that energy too. Exactly. It's, it's really true, you know, and not only the energy, but the antibiotics and the hormones and the chemicals and all the other things that they, they feed into animals. And it's, I think it's like 80% of beef and 70% of pork is processed by four companies in the United States.

So everything is just really focused into just certain companies and you can't break free from it, you know? Oh my gosh. But you can, you can, cause you can choose not to do it well you can choose to buy local yeah yeah right or or grow yourself yeah i mean that would be amazing

i think it needs to go because if something happens around the world and you don't know you know you don't know our whole entire grid system could go down. It's very fragile. And guess what? You know, you don't have nothing to eat. You're going to go and probably take a weapon to try to go get something at the grocery store because that's what's going to happen. I mean, for myself, my goal right now, this is how I foresee that I need to be more self-sufficient, period. Not just on myself, but also on my resources. I think as humans, we all do because we've become too reliant on government and the corporations.

And that's how they have power over us. That's right. That's where their power comes from because we rely on them for food. And the system in the United States is like, the corporations just tell us what food is. You don't even get a choice anymore. Of course, you can still buy vegetables and those sort of products. But even those things have become Frankenstein products in my mind. When you have a grape that's like... They're so big.

And you just know. You're like, that's not right're so big yeah and you're you just know you're like that's not right what about those those mealy kind of not really red tomatoes i can't that's just so crazy it's really very interesting when they look like so perfect or recently my kids have actually showed me on tiktok that some like i don't, I think it was grapes, actually. There was like a rubber grape in there. That was so weird. I don't know how it happened. And then they were showing a banana. You could barely even break it. It was like bending like it was plastic. I swear, you'll have to look this up. Like trending all over. I don't know what's happening, but it makes me extremely nervous.

Frankenfruits. Yeah. That's really weird. Yeah. It's really, really disturbing. But I think what you're doing is brave and I think it's needed. And I was thinking about I wish that there was some sort of program, like a ton of resources for us who would like to do this.

I know that they're making all these new little eco villages and stuff, you know, that you can go live in and all of us don't have, you know, the option. I definitely don't want to send my kids to public school, but that's, you know, that's what I have to do at this moment, you know, and I still make it very clear to the teachers that I don't like homework, you know, I don't like homework either. This is my house. This is my child, right? I mean, I don't like the fact that she has to go to school and watch the news the first 10 minutes of her day. They do that? Really? Yeah. And she's been doing that since kindergarten. CNN Kids News.

Wow. That's serious programming. It's serious programming. I watched it with her for a week when she was sick one time and I literally was very disturbed. I mean, I mean, it was talking about the wars and Zelensky and money and just all of these things. And I'm like, I don't watch the news. You know, no one asked me permission. And also it's just the BS, what they teach them as well. The more I do historical work, the more I realize, oh my God, Yankee Doodle came to town riding on a pony is bullshit. And so, yeah, my kids are always like, oh my God, my mom. But you know- Kids are always like that. I think it does. It starts with you and it starts with your personal sovereignty.

I like how you said that. Are you really free when you have basically all of these things around us everything consumerism all of it really controlling you in every way starting at the education system and just all the way up yeah i mean we're you know humans are commodity the federal government calculates a vsl which is the value of a statistical life for each human is they each human in america is valued in between eight and ten million dollars you know and so like we're just a commodity to the government you know and it's like you said like it's true we really need to become more self-sufficient and you know make a point to focus more on caring for our health because the cost of healthcare, like if you just spend more

time being healthy, then you're going to save money in the longterm and also heartache and headache and problems for yourself and your life as well. I mean, but I hear, I hear the argument all the time, even just recently, you know, people tell me, Oh, you're, you're eating organic. How can you, you know, it's expensive. I'm like, it depends on what you calculate the value what is the expense you know the expense right here and now sure you're gonna pay maybe a dollar more or two dollars more for your your bunch of stuff but like in the long run like look at the environment look at the systems the corruption and the toxicity you know, all the other. The lifespan. I mean, diseases, you know. I mean, let me tell you, a Big Mac meal or something like that is like over $11, $12 now.

I mean, that's so crazy. It's so exciting. I would never eat that in my life. That's disgusting. But, I mean, I might eat a chicken nugget. Have you seen them when they're made? It's so gross. Oh, have you seen them when they're made? Oh my God. I have seen that.

The first time I saw them made on television, I think it was when my kids, I didn't eat chicken nuggets for years and years and years. And I, I agree, you know, you need to take control over your household, your life. You know, I would, and I think also to be educated and to be curious. Yeah. You know, like I think like a lot of the things I write about in the political gut, like people who've read the book and were like, I didn't, what? I didn't know about this. You know, it's like, you have to educate yourself and you really have to be curious to find it. Cause you can just live in the veil of ignorance and it's great. know like sure i'm just in my little bubble and happy-go-lucky and that's great but like we all have

to participate in this world and the society and you know some people are working towards better and some people are working towards worse and then there's a lot of people in the middle who are just kind of like you know yeah i wrote the book all the information is in the book and you know just buy the book and then read the book. And then, then there's the systems there for you pretty much, you know, I go a little bit into the political elements and the political details of the system, how I think it could be changed and for the better and how we could live. Do you think that it is possible? It starts in your home, in your own home. It starts with you.

It starts with you. I mean, you know, if we're, if we're constantly eating and consuming and breathing toxic foods, chemicals, and air, we're becoming toxic people. We are what we eat, right? So if you want to detoxify yourself, detoxify your diet first. It's the most basic, obvious answer. I woke up this morning and I got a message from our local news or whatever popped down about the air quality or it was i think i got i get warnings for air quality and i clicked on it and it went to a news article it was talking about the microplastics oh god

yeah and our air quality has been horrible mainly because canada has a a fire in their rocky mountains and so it just traveled down to ours i haven't seen the mountains in days really days i have a i have a view of the entire mountain range i haven't seen them not one in days yeah that's crazy yeah because color Colorado is known for good quality air normally. Not anymore. It's really sad. The air quality, when I lived in Bangkok, it was air quality

was not good. It was like 200 every day, the PPM. Which is why they were wearing masks prior. Yeah, you got to wear a mask. I mean, it's too much. It's just so sad. What have we done?

What have we done? So quick. You know, Brett, I really appreciate you putting yourself out there and talking about this. I appreciate your book. And can you tell everybody where they could find your book? Sure. It's called The Political Gut, Quantum Nutrients, Two Brains, Upside Down Diets. It's a lot easier to read than the title is to pronounce, but it's available on Amazon.

You can also go to my website, thepoliticalgut.com. My other website is my artist website, brettcasper.com. And yeah, that's it. I don't do social media. Everybody tells me I should do social media, but I just feel like social media is like making rich people richer by working for them for free because

they're just stealing my data so yeah so i don't have any social media or anything like that just my website i'm glad that you found me because i definitely will put you out there as much as i can but i don't have a big social media presence either because we're the anti-social media crew right I'm like I don't know how my podcast got to you know as a top one percent in the world but you know I'm amazing top one percent of podcasts in the world when I don't have much of a social media presence right so it's very and you're doing something right I think I'm just being honest. Right. You know, I think I was so shocked in my journey to find all the things that I thought I believed in that I really had an experience to be true. So I was like, whoa, wait a minute and start living more by my own experiences. And so hopefully your experiences will take you into a good place instead of a hospital you know after some wasabi almonds right i mean

i had the i had the experience with sushi in japan so i know oh i love sushi too oh yeah yeah i know be careful yes i mean you have to be careful check these out too bitter apricot seeds bitter they have to be bitter and you can't take a lot because it is a cyanide that actually... Because I'm buying fresh apricots regularly here in France all the time because they're delicious. And so it's literally just the seed from the apricot? That's all it is? It's bitter. What makes it bitter?

That's what I'm curious. That's a good question. They're not ripe or something. Maybe they're picked. There you go. Probably. Or something like that. Maybe that's why they're bitter maybe you're probably right because it's usually you know i think i even read on the toxic list like green stuff it was one of the i don't know if it wasn't green bananas but something like that you know when it's not

fully ripe was toxic too but if this guy if you look up Richardson Nutritional Center, he actually did an entire episode with Carrie Cassidy, Carrie with a K, Cassidy. You can find it on YouTube. I mean, this guy gets censored, kicked off of everything, websites. Look him up. You don't have to go too far. There's huge warnings from the fda but if you do the research it there's so many things that it's good for right they just don't want you to know and that's that's crazy that's that's the government thinking i mean that was the the illegalization of cannabis just happened to coincide with the comeuppance of the pharmaceutical industry. Yeah. Go figure. Isn't that crazy and terrible in the same too?

Unless they can find some way to be able to control it and make money from it. They have made millions upon millions and millions in Colorado. Well, I'm sure you know. But I think anything that is coming out of the ground and natural should be free. It's like just like mushrooms here. Should not be illegal for sure. I mean, if it's growing naturally. Yeah. Mushrooms. You know, funny thing about the mushroom in Colorado, you know, I, I, I was one of the

5,000 people on the legalization measure. I signed the petition to get it on the ballot. Thank you. Wow. You know, micro-dosing is, I think, a very good thing. It has been for me, you know, whenever I really need to focus and stuff. Yeah. I mean, the long-term effects, you know. I was just reading just recently about there were some neuroscientists were eating psilocybin

and then sticking themselves in the MRI machine. And, and they were, they were just going on these crazy trips and then they were mapping the brain to see what it does. And they say it just breaks the brain. Essentially it breaks down all of your, your systems that are, cause they, they, they tested it before and then they tested it after and they they could see how then the systems map you know but then when you were on psilocybin it just breaks everything down and all the barriers and it helps you rewire your brain i mean i say it in the book mycelial networks live underground and then they like connect everything right and so it's interesting how mushrooms have the same effect on your brain you know they they create the networks in your brain, just like they create the networks underground. No way. I did not know that. Thank you for sharing. No, but yeah, I, I tell you the first time I did it, you know, and not

like I've done the trippy kind when, you know, but I'm talking about microdosing. I have never been more present with my family. Yeah. So present. It helps to bring in the now. Yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure. And no one could tell that I was on it. I was taking just very low doses. I'd say that I suck at multitasking. I'm a half-ass multitasker.

So I'm good at one thing, but if I had to do several things at the same time, they're all going to suck. But I felt like I was able to multitask very intentionally. And it was just very weird because I was experiencing everything. I think it helps your state of focus a little bit. Yes. Big time. A little bit.

A lot for me. Yeah. When I lived in Colorado, I was microdosing mushrooms for months, too. Yes. I'm telling you. Yeah. You know, Colorado, you know, I think we're kind of our own kind. We get a little made fun of by the rest. It's the only other state in the United States that I really love. Well, then that means a lot from someone who's traveled around the world. So I guess Colorado is one of the best like just trump whoever you know biden and i said none of us care we all get along too you know we're kind of like do your own thing you know we all still get along and respect each

other well that's good i feel i feel it coexist i mean we definitely need more of that in america as a whole more more coexisting with the red and the blue and the green and the brown and like all the different colors. Just, yes. Let's just kind of, we have to coexist. You know, there's just, that's the way life is. Well, nice to meet you. I appreciate what you're doing. It's beautiful. And I'm honored to have you on. Thank you. It was a pleasure to talk to you. I really enjoyed the conversation. It's an important subject. So I'm always down to expose anybody. You know, anytime you want to have me back or you want to discuss something else,

I've got lots of things to talk about and you have the same color as my book. Your website is the same color as my book. So I was like, wow, it's meant to be. Thanks. I'm very happy that you found me and you asked me to be on. as my book. So I was like, wow. You're not just meant to be. I'm very happy that you found me and you asked me to be on. I'm honored. But thanks a lot. And I as well. So I appreciate it very much.

Thanks for listening to Sense of Soul Podcast. And thanks to our special guests for joining me. If you want more of Sense of Soul, check out my website at www.mysenseofsoul.com where you can work with me one-on-one or help support Sense of Soul Podcast by donating to my coffee fund. Thanks for listening.