The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz - PTFO - The Keys to Happiness with Amin Elhassan, Dan Le Batard, and Pablo

Episode Date: February 8, 2024

We're all desperately seeking self-improvement, so Pablo puts aside the spiritual mumbo-jumbo, puts his friends to the test, and emerges with something like service journalism: how to breathe correctly, exercise better, appreciate your career choices, accept failure, thank your feet, and learn to love your own superpower. (Even if that superpower is using a Jedi mind trick to singe your own thumb down to ash.) Further reading: The World's Happiest People All Share These 15 Things in Common (CNBC) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome to Pablo Torre finds out I am Pablo Torre and today we're gonna find out what this sound is. I possessed the ability To stare or even think about one body part and make it hurt right after this ad You're listening to giraffe Kings Network Dan needs to get out of here. It's not the best way to start a special share and tell episode of Pablo Torre finds out in Miami. I am late. I promised my wife that work will not keep getting in the way of my health and I am late after making many promises for two years to an acupuncture appointment.

I have to get out of here. Well, the good news is this has nothing to do with health, because acupuncture does not work. Oh, no. It doesn't work. Have you done it? I tried it twice. I have never done it.

I want to know more about this. I've been doing it for years. I've been doing it for years at the insistence of my wife, who wants me to holistically heal so I don't have to have organs removed or gallbladders removed because we're choosing a holistic medicine. And I understand why you wouldn't believe in it. I wouldn't either. I did it a couple of times and thought it was ridiculous. How would this work? But I have felt the healing properties and the energies of it in a way that like

I'm surprised by, like physically felt it and said energies and it was like I understand why people would be agnostic or atheist about that this is this ties in because I've recently started doing yoga now now when I say start doing yoga I I've been stretching you know for the last month and some change using yoga positions that's not what I'm talking about I'm talking about an actual yoga class. A practice? Do you call it a practice? A practice.

There it is. Went into the studio. It starts at a certain time. You take your shoes off. You've got your mat. Do you do yoga from an emotional space? Breathing? Try to be meditative?

Do you do breath work? Okay. So this is exactly where I'm going with this because every time Dan says, oh, I mean, you're doing yoga, I'm doing the mechanical stretches. I'm stretching. If it's a yoga pose or not, I really don't know. Walked into the yoga class and was not prepared for the deluge of what I like to call spiritual mumbo jumbo. I was told to thank my feet at one point. And I just had to be kidding.

I have gratitude for your feet. I'm trying to look around as anyone else really. And I realized everyone's brought in. But aren't you sort of a spiritual atheist here though? Like aren't you the most cynical of hardened like, okay. Well, even more than that, I think of Amin as the person who is already just thinking about how to make fun of this later. The whole time I swear to God, I want to reach over, grab my phone and write a couple more notes. This will come in handy on Monday.

I swear to God, the whole time. Every time something that was just not... Well, but would you, would you agree with, I don't know how flexible you physically feel, but do you agree that there's a physical state where you could be so centered with balance and breathing and present in a meditative moment because your body is flexed out and you're grateful for it in a super present moment? Would you believe in the spirituality of that or would you just say that's a that's mumbo jumbo? No, for me it comes down to doing the pose, trying to get a better form on it through stretching.

And breathing and breathing and breathing or just stretching. But breathing as a function of, I don't know why, I still don't know what the science is, but I know because even when I go to like a Like professional stretcher they they're always like alright inhale exhale whatever like there's something there that helps with the bridge with the Stretching that's not like inhale the pure energy exhale all the negative. It's not that it's just literally the physics of or the science of breathing It is so I should say that like I am no expert at any of this, but I just do appreciate more than I ever have How essential breathing is which is a funny thing to feel revelatory about because it's the most obvious thing that we need to stay alive Pablo imagine learning Deep into your life that oh, I don't know how to breathe, which is what I learned

in the yoga class because the instructor will say, inhale through your nose and then walk around and start talking about other things. I have just started over the last year doing breathing exercises every morning just because of in search of some sort of serenity. It's not serenity, I'm just talking about, in search to say, breathing through your nose, and then starts talking about something else, and then, all right, now, exhale, out your mouth, and I was like, you guys were holding your breath that whole time? I want to thank Valerie here, actually, because I'm somebody who's read and heard people talk

about breathing and of course I'm struck by how obvious it is in retrospect, but also, also I did not know, and this is embarrassing, because Valerie put on Instagram stories, a graphic about box breathing, which is a thing that like Navy SEALs do apparently, and many yogis have mastered, where it's just four steps of a certain number of seconds, four seconds maybe even. I clearly didn't get the details all written down.

But the point is I started doing it and I count to four. Do it, do it right now. But cynically doing it cynically or doing it like I'm gonna try this? I tried it and just the very basic attempt revealed to me that it was helping me because I too didn't really know how to breathe. Yeah, I think that's the thing.

Like to me, Dan, if you say to me, hey, do it like this, you're going to find that you get calmer because you're actually putting more oxygen into, oxygenated blood into your brain as a result. Yeah, but all of that can be so as well. When you say like the energies and like crystals and things like, I just, I'm...

Okay, but it's, and so it would be the difference between me saying to you, do you think that my brother can reach me from there or not? Because I would go into whatever the last year and a half of my life had been, I'm gonna say that my brother dies and he's just dead and that's it and don't talk to me about energies. That's just death, that's just over.

Like, and it's gone and it's never coming back. But if I were to tell you from in the same place where I'm doing the breathing exercises and the acupuncture and I feel something on me that feels healing to me physically, energetically. If I tell you my brother can reach me from there, I too would have looked at this a year and a half ago and said, that idiot, that fool, he just wants to believe in something. He just wants to believe in magical energies that heal him.

But I would have been the biggest cynic. And somewhere in here I feel something physically on me, physically, an energy with needles poked into me where I'm like, my brother's here somewhere. Like, he's, there's healing in here somewhere. Like, why am I here? I don't believe in any of this. I think needles in my body, why am I here for three years?

I think then that there is healing for sure, but I think what is healing is the acknowledgement and the appreciation of the legacy of your brother. That's what's, it's you coming to terms with- And that's, with that's fond and romantic. I can, I can do that logically with you, but I'm talking about a physical feeling here. I'm not inventing a physical feeling. I'm saying to you that you are affiliating that the needles feel like something. I mean, they didn't feel like something before. They feel like something that's healing. In a room where I'm also doing therapy over here and I'm being led into the uncomfortable by a therapist, who is at my brother's death bed, who's's saying just scream into these pillows and ask your ancestors your descendants for

relief from your patterns. Like scream, scream it out. You my repressed friend, who I hug and moves away from me because you're not comfortable with these feelings. My ancestors, my ancestors don't have anything to do with how I feel. They don't. That's the reality. Man, I didn't even, I met, like, for all intents and purposes,

I knew one of my four grandparents. Forget about ancestors. One of my four grandparents. And she was senile for the majority of the time that I knew her. This is where I think there's like far more overlap in this Venn diagram than either of you guys are giving it, which is there is something physical and real that happens when, for instance, box breathing, right? In for four, hold for four, out for four, hold for four. That's it? Yeah.

Just count. That's the longest four seconds there. Yeah. okay, so. But to count in fours like that, ultimately allows your body to respond in a way that should give some sort of relief to you. And what I think Dan is describing is a process, and again, I am not qualified to give the scientific evaluation of this, but I just know from feeling it, then when you buy into the idea that, oh my God, my body works in ways

that I did not appreciate, and so therefore, if I try this thing- I don't know what I don't know. I don't know, I don't have any idea of how little I know about, ah, energies, f*** off, energies. But I'm just saying, is it not possible that you are affiliating something-

Yeah, I suppose it is. It could just be hopeful. With a physical feeling over here. It could be hopeful, but I would say to you that what do I do with, you think my mind is producing the physical feeling of healing because anybody who's been watching this for the last six months has seen me physically disinflate because the stress of my brother and that death bed thing put 50 pounds on me of stress, and this, and somewhere in here, there's been physical healing that would be obvious to the eye to anybody looking

at me, because I'm not all cortisol bloated on stresses, and something in here feels physically healing. My body feels better, and I can't dispute it. I'm doing the same thing I've been doing for ten years with my body. Might I ask the table a question? Are you guys, there are things that happen to me that I don't know whether this is everyone or it was just me. Since I was a child, I possessed the ability to stare or even think about one body part and make it hurt. Like right now my thumb feels fine. If I can think about my left thumb

until it starts to hurt. I do not have that superpower. All right, so given that I can do that. On the negative, on the dark. On the negative, yes. That seems like the worst superpower. It's a terrible superpower. You just, you just, you just sing off your own thumbs

with your will. With your political will, you will sing on your, sing your thumbs into dust, into ash. Isn't it not possible that also similarly, someone can, through the power of just belief, find healing and find pain relief. That isn't actually something supernatural come up from another dimension.

Isn't that the entire religious conversation though? If I were to say to you, you're telling me, I'm choosing to believe in something that's hopeful, that there are energies from the beyond that would touch me. And you're saying better to live a life where you're singeing your thumbs to ash. Well, I'm not saying, I'm just saying. With the lack of belief, with being right instead of,

like, and I'm not even arguing on behalf of anything, I mean, other than what I physically felt. No. So one of the things about the human body that has always been enthralling to me is the placebo effect, right? So what does this mean? It means that the human brain,

when convinced that something is happening medically, can actually will it to happen in lieu of the actual medicine or science being applied. But if you can imagine yourself to healing and then you then get healed, is it faith or did you heal yourself? Well, that's why what I am thinking about all of this, especially the tension that you guys have around what's really happening, is just a vocabulary concern. Because when I hear Dan say energy, what I'm really hearing is Dan allowing him to feel things

that the clenching of his body would not permit unless it was stimulated by a needle, by the power of his brain, by whatever, an SSRI, anything, into just feeling something that he has wanted to feel but could not before. And that superpower by any name feels like healing. And so what does it take to get there? Does it take acupuncture? Does it take ayahuasca? I'm hoping to any of these things as long as it works. Right. And the comedy, I think, is in the marketing. What are you being sold,

as opposed to what are you actually feeling? Well, and also, who's buying, right? When I entered that yoga classroom and this lady's telling me to thank my feet. And I'm like, guys, you get a little, oh snap, you guys are all actually doing it. Because they come in preconditioned to want to believe. They wanna believe that through this,

they are going to find whatever that is. But if they feel better, does it matter at the end of it? Whether you're right or wrong about their motives on getting to feeling better? Like if they just imagine themselves into feeling better, then isn't, it matters in that that's the consumer. I'm a different consumer. I walk in and I want you to tell me the things

that will, in my mind, logically lead to that. Like, don't tell me, thank your feet, tell me, roll my mind, logically lead to that. Like, I don't, don't tell me, thank your feet. Tell me, roll your foot in a circle this way. Roll it that way. What if I were through the br... What if I were through the death of my brother? I can't advocate for this now because it forces me

to continue on a path that has been hard and rigorous because I've done these things with breathing, with needles, with diet, with sleep help, with exercise, with all of the all of the sciences trying to heal myself up. And what I needed was to feel more joyful, right? I'm when I'm talking to you about praying to descendants, I'm sitting there at 50 years old, not understanding what love is supposed to feel like beating on pillows and everything else and pleading With my dead grandparents to give me a different relationship with life and a woman than the ones They all had because I hand me down to bunch of male

Latino Lonely people didn't know how to turn themselves over to a woman culturally man is boss how to turn themselves over to a woman, culturally, man is boss, man runs household. And I needed all of that to just like totally dissolve in the face of love, which I have now found deepest of all, which has pushed me toward the light of try the needles, try the breath work, try the yoga, try the things that might heal you up,

whether it's God or not. I think in that, right, what I sense is the attempt for you to be able to wrap your brain around why you've inherited certain practices, norms, expectations, psychological burdens, and there is something about creating a ritual that allows you to throw those off, right? This is something that has been common

throughout just like human ritual throughout history. What I mean is asking is for yoga for skeptics. Yoga for guy who wants to make a joke about this and doesn't want to be tempted. And has permission, and has permission. Yes and doesn't want to be tempted. And has permission. Yes, doesn't want to be tempted into the exit ramp of like, well, now I'm just going to get lost on the tabulated.

I have to buy the spiritual mumbo jumbo too. I can't just come here and stretch. Right, exactly. I can't just come in there and do a figure four or whatever. But do something that is legitimately healing to your body, which is an hour of stretching. Yes. And leave me alone.

I'd like to leave with my mat now. Because the extra stuff may work for the consumer who's looking to buy, but for me, it is incredibly distracting and incredibly annoying. At the best part, it's what Pablo said. I mean, Sid and I, we're just thinking of jokes the whole time. So not tools for yoga, yoga for tools. That's what you want to, you want to inverse the way yoga is marketed. I just like that so far in a mean story about going to yoga. We're like one minute into the class.

Well, well, do you have 50 minutes of jokes here on yoga? You could do a whole stand-up routine. What's the deal with these names, right? Like downward dog. No, it's like upward dog and cobra. What the hell is the difference? And then they tell me the difference to your hips is on fun. Hey, you know what?

Let's keep it out of the dog family. It's funny that at some point the hippiness comes all the way back around to science because we're all just kind of, you know, we're all stardust as they say, right? Like me and this table are mostly made of fundamentally the same thing, just like some stuff. And so what are we? We're kind of all the same in a literal way, but also like a very woo woo amine is like gaffawing in the corner writing this down to his phone sort of a way.

And so all of which is to lead us to this thing about blue zones. So there has been this research that's tried to put some actual science and demographic study to what it means to be happier, right? We're all searching for happiness and for relief from pain. And so there is this researcher, this guy, Dan Butner, B-U-E-T-T-N-E-R, who's become famous for this blue zone concept. And I don't want to buy his stuff as if this is religious authority,

but what they've done, he has done, is spent the last 20 years studying what turns out to be five areas of the planet where people are making it to 90 years old, 100 years old, at the highest rates without the diseases that are killing Americans. And accompanying that, Dan, is this greater happiness. They seem to really enjoy their lives more. And so they set out to study, well, what is it that these zones are doing right? And I don't know if you guys are familiar

with any of these places, but here are the five. Well, my favorite one is just have tons of money. Like have financial, total financial security. No, hold on. I wanna give the list and we'll get to the criteria. We're gonna take a test together, which is something that I love to do on this show, is figure out what kind of f***ed up are we

by taking a test. But the blue zones are Okinawa, Japan. Okay. Sardinia, Italy. Lovely. Nicoya, Costa Rica. Lovely. Acariah, Greece. Uh-huh. And Lomainia, Italy. Lovely. Nicoya, Costa Rica. Lovely. Acari, Greece.

Uh-huh. And Loma, Linda, California. Oh, so not Cleveland. Telling people just wake up happy. I'm just doing the joke, Kim, Noah. People wake up happy. They're in Cleveland. He's going to go after Cleveland again.

That's what you're going to do with this spiritual time. You're just going to go, you're going to develop a war against Cleveland again. I just write in my notes. So Dan, they have come up with a list of 15 cowbell metrics that signal happiness. I'm not I would imagine when I was reading this I was imagining a mean scoffing and how simplistic the questions were right? Well let's not take the jury pool. But I imagine I mean getting this and really the secret to happiness in 15 questions here.

Oh, you haven't seen the questions. I did not see the questions. I read the first part about the blue zones, but I didn't read the questions. Okay, so this is the heading, right? If you agree with these statements, you are happier than most people. Okay.

We're gonna read them out, we're gonna discuss as we go. Number one, you manage your finances well and live within your means. You have enough money to do everything you want to do. No. I mean, yeah, that money would buy happiness there, right? That's what they're saying. Number one is like, yeah, and I imagine most people listening to this say would say there aren't any greater problems

than not having money. And I would say, well, not having health. Well, hold on. Hold on. I want to give you a little bit of vocabulary lesson here, because what they're saying is actually more complicated than that. What they're saying is that, look, look at the sentence, you have enough money to do everything you want to do. That's my no. I don't have enough money to do everything I want to do. That's my no. I don't have enough money to do everything I want to do. So part of this implication here is a you problem.

No. Right. What do you want to do, I mean? You miserable, yes. All people are climbing hills and eating fruits off a tree and they are loving their lives. What do you want to do? I don't want to take it into a deeply emotional space.

Saving my country would be on that list of things I want to do. So the trump card. Yeah. Small goals. Yeah. I mean, look, you're failing. You talk about me being happy. Like, yeah, like I'm unhappy that I'm helpless. And this permeates all of Amin's being, right? He, I think that it's hard to be happy. Is one of the questions there about survivor's guilt? Like, because yeah, if Amin thinks he could be doing more for people who he loves

and that I'm not speaking for you when I say- Sudan is not a blue zone. Yeah, far from it now, far from it. I don't, but I don't speak for you when I say. Sudan is not a blue zone. Yeah, it's far from it now, far from it. I don't, but I don't speak for you when I, I mean, when I say youth. I mean, carries himself with something as if, as if he's, he's soaked in cowardice every day just because he's not doing more for his people every minute.

I feel it every, every single day, every moment. Like every moment is either thinking of it or actively trying to forget about it and then feeling guilty that I have that feeling. So, but even if I were to leave Sudan aside. I was trying to bait you into saying speedboat. Ah! Ha ha ha!

You went the other way. Sorry. I'm sorry. Dan, you feel like you're reasonably checking that box? I mean, I'm pretty close. I would say that if there were more time to do, to see the world with my wife, that would be a grand thing to do. So, but...

Okay, but financially, by the way, I am with you. Yes, I largely feel like I have the financial freedom to do what I wish to do, but not the time freedom. I bought an Apple Vision Pro this week, so I can only say yes to this question. You felt for it. That's sorry to Violet and her future education. I made choices about what I want to do.

And it's amazing, right? And it's amazing? It's amazing. That's a separate future episode, but it's actually amazing. And also I've never felt more pathetic when I look at myself in the mirror. Number two, you set and reach goals on an ongoing basis.

Yes. Yeah. Yes. I feel like that one we can all feel reasonably good about. Number three, you always make time for trips or vacations with family and friends. And there Dan, you have reached the no. That was the part of your answer to number one. Right.

That, yeah, I mean, I would like, I mean, we're going, we're going to Vegas this week, right? So it's work and pleasure, but it's not exactly seeing the world. That's, I mean, that's my life. Is any 99% of the trips I take, whether it's I have fun on that trip or not is in some way work related. Same. And so I took, I told the story, I took my parents and my whole family,

my brother, his wife, his kid, my kids, my sister to Hawaii for my parents' 50th anniversary. And I think that was the first honest to God vacation that I had been on with my family since before the pandemic. Pablo, do people understand what a hustler this guy is? Like he made a bold career choice, man. Like he, and you've seen it. Like he's, he busts his ass. I mean, it is unusual to be, he's flying, he is flying across the country all the time

to be a part of what we're doing every day. Like nobody else is doing that. Nobody I know is more plausibly, theoretically, on vacation more than Amin, without ever actually being on it. You're going LA, Miami, all of the time. And that's not what we're talking about with number three. Well, I mean, like the secret in my life that I found was that I would rather work every

single day of my life, maybe an hour a day on some of those days, than get a month off of work and then come back and just go back to, I can't do it. It's the hardest thing for me. Oh, but I don't know how much, look man, I mean, I don't know how much you hide from the despair of your homeland in your work. Like it's a nice place to hide, to work so hard on creative things

that you're not thinking about the things that make you go dark. Like the things that make you feel helpless in this country at this time because we've got so many problems over here that nobody can even care about what your pain is every day. Number four! You use your strengths to do what you do best every day.

Yeah, it's all feel our immigrant fathers on this one for a second. I would say no. Oh, wow. I'm going to say yes. I'm going to say yes. And I attribute that yes to this show that I'm doing in which I feel like I get fulfillment from a thing that feels like me. I feel very privileged in a real way to get to say yes to number four because of this program. I would say our company fails if it doesn't get you to the same place because like that's

I insist upon it being that I think it's bigger than your job right like well but not if you tie up not if you tie up so much of your identity in your job right I can't be... But here's the thing, Dan. Here's... Let's read it again. Your strengths to do what you do best. I have fought for a long time this other alternate life. You should have been a doctor. You should have been a doctor, a senator. Use your smarts to do something that...

You mean something. What if you're best at something more serious? Yeah. And I mean is... That's exactly... Maybe what if you're best at something more serious? Yeah. And Amin is- That's exactly, that's exactly like I spent a life dicking around, talking about people putting a ball in a basket.

Oh wow. That's midlife crisis self worth. Oh, that's early. That's my whole life. Amin, so Amin and I spent time in the same part of Manhattan where I grew up. I mean I mean you hustled your way to a career in this nonsense in this nonsense you hustled your way nonsense to a media career. No, but the degree of difficulty choosing the other path choosing the choosing the hardest path to follow laughs or your passions? I told Pablo this story when I told my parents,

I didn't want to be an engineer. I want to work at basketball. I think I might have gotten a better reaction had I said, I'm quitting. But you followed your heart. I'm joining the circus. But you also, by the way, I identify as a woman.

But you followed your heart and now you say, oh, what's the worth of it? I just followed my heart. No, but I could have been a heart surgeon. I'm a cardiothoracic surgeon. I'm answering that question though. Making jokes on the side. I'm answering, yeah, pretty much.

Foul ass off. Yeah, like during some sort of, yeah, okay fine. I'm answering the question. The question is, am I using my strengths to the best of my ability? And no, I'm using it to goof off with my friends. Can you imagine the alternate world? I mentioned our shared background

in like Murray Hill and Manhattan. But hold on a minute. To hustle your way to a career that saves and protects your entire family now. But the point I'm trying to make is that Amin, where I grew up, Amin knew some of those Sudanese people because they were diplomats. And so this notion of like, ah,

I could be using my strengths to do something. By building a bridge. My dad is a diplomat. That's why I say it. By building a bridge between Nick's fans and Heath fans is making a career out of it because you can bring together worlds goofing around because you enjoy it more than perhaps saving your country on a daily basis. I'm gonna blow by number five. You feel safe and secure in your community.

I feel like we're all thankfully pretty good on that. Number six, you learned something new or interesting every day. Not every day, but no, I didn't. I wanted to be that person. I want to feel like that person. You should host the show called Dan LeBartart Finds Out. He's got you there. Or listen to it. How dare you? Number seven, you have someone in your life

who encourages you to be healthy. My mom? Does that count? Moms don't count, right? What does encourage mean? Well, that's a funny word, right? Because I don't think this one, now this one's interesting.

I mean, this one relationship-wise is interesting. Like the thing, the things that I learn about where my blind spots are and stuff, they almost always have to reveal themselves to me. Like I can't be talked into. So my wife has to be very gentle around some delicate feelings there that I wish she didn't have to be so gentle with

because I have to see my blind spots for myself in order to sort of make the changes that have to be made so that I can be actually healthy. My wife tells me to eat more fiber. So I'm gonna say yes to this one. I think we're all coming for the same place here. Yep, yep. Number eight, relatedly, you eat healthy every day.

Number nine, you eat five servings of fruits and vegetables at least four days every week. That seems like, yeah, that seems like more. That was aggressive, but I do eat healthy. Most people, yeah, would probably be surprised, but I am, yes. You know, you're, we can talk about that too. My daily diet is very boring. It is annoyingly boring for people who want to go out to dinner with you in a city like, say, New York. Yeah, like in the cities like, say, city.

Yeah. Any city. Yeah. Really annoying. A lot of limitations. Garlic to gluten. It's annoying. We're, I would hate us if I were a server. And they do, by and large, I think. They should. Number 10, you get to the dentist at least once per year. Oh yeah, I'm killing that one.

I am too. Three times a year at least. Yeah, every three months. Three months? Wow. Yeah, well just, yeah. Good for you. Well, I think a lot of disease starts in the mouth, right?

I think a lot of, like, I heard David Samson one time in one of the worst and best like emotional speech to be made at a bar mitzvah just yell floss everybody. Sorry. I kind of blew that, but floss. Yeah. Floss. Your mouth is the, is a place for a lot of disease. You're saying we should thank our mouth.

I hate that I'm now a life coach here. I feel, but I feel like I've also learned some of these things over the last four years in a way that I was really, really ignorant around before. So for the podcast audience, Dan has largely been doing this show with his eyes closed, which I think is suggestive of how- It's how I do therapy a lot of the time.

Real all of this is to him? My therapist calls me on this. Yeah, cause I often do it with my eyes closed. It makes me listen better and interrupt less. If Dan was a life coach, he'd be like, what's my man's name before McVeigh? Fisher? Jeff Fisher. A really shitty life coach.

No, just an 8 and 8. An 8 and 8 life coach. 8, 8 to E and 8. Yeah, I've been, no man, but I've been eating my, God almighty, I've been eating my feelings since my mom, yeah, fed me from a kid and that's what love looked like. Yeah, yeah. That's how you become a fat kid. Well, no.

What's next? Number 11, I mean qualifies if this in fact qualifies as the city or area where you live because number 11 is in the last 12 months You've received recognition for helping to improve the city or area where you live for sure Miami. Yes, like dude TSA agents love me. I That's why I don't know.'t know. It's because of him. They love him, and so I get the leftover glow, but yeah. I would say most people in Miami seem to like me

in a way that I don't feel that in Phoenix, which is weird, and it's not just a function of me being here a lot lately, even before. I've never felt- Oh, wow, that is so cool. I didn't realize that that, no, but they associate you with being a representative for the things that Miami and the Heat are about

to the country. Yeah, I feel embraced by the city in a way that, I almost feel like, well, guys, you guys know I'm not from here. I don't wanna be a fraud on this. Guys, this is the city or area where I live. Yeah, I don't even live here, but I've always felt really, really embraced by Miami.

And obviously it's because of you, Dan. Well, no, you say it's because of me, but you do understand, right? Like it's a cool thing that we built in Miami and Miami means a great deal to me, but Miami knows what you did. I mean, like the reason our audience is so uniquely loyal, the most, like the craziest of them, four hours a day,

don't touch this fucking thing, it's pure, don't fuck it all up. Like they saw what you did, dude, you threw your career in the air and said, no, I'm gonna ride with these fuckers. Like, come on, they, and those people will ride with you for fucking ever, dude, for fucking ever. Cause they saw what you did, man.

Like- I get no recognition for helping improve New York City for the record. None of that applies today. How cool is that, though, that they see you in the streets and they know that that's what you represent? What? How cool is it specifically that TSA?

Oh, yeah, that's the best. Aminal Hassan, little Aminal Hassan. I don't think the airport was the place where you would feel most safe. On Levitar Show, we talked about like, what's the level of fame? That's the appropriate level of fame where you get stuff done, but you're not hampered by it.

And I would say when the TSA agents know who you are and like are cool with you, that for me particularly. But do you know where that comes from? Because I think that is where when people think that we're a cult or an addiction or stuff, this is the coolest part of what we do, man. When you say you don't, that what you do doesn't have real value

or doesn't, isn't fixing your homeland. People who are unhappy in their work for eight hours a day have four hours where they feel like they know these group of clowns here, this group of clowns who are taking them through half a work day that would have been more miserable if they didn't have us with them there. Those people ride with us hundreds, thousands strong from there. It's why they're the most loyal audience,

man. And they know you from there. They feel like they know you. I mean, sure. You sound like Johnny Depp on Life's Too Short when he's talking about it. I bring joy to people. Pirates of the Caribbean brought a lot of joy to people. And you think you're funny with your little jokes Ricky Gervais? Like that's what it feels like. I get it.

We provide a service, but it feels like a service that... Empty calories? Yeah. Okay, that making people half less miserable at work is empty calories? I just like the progress that America has shown in Amin L. Hassan. TSA hit.

Being welcomed by the security at an airport. Also, I don't think they know about my career like that part. Like, because many of them are still saying, I haven't seen you guys on ESPN for a while. I'm like, oh no, but I think that's true. I think, yes, that's true. That is ESPN's reach and fame. And that is, but that's the, that's the risk you took with your career.

Sure. They don't know that though. Well, they may not. I think I'm not, but I'm saying they should. It's meaningful. Like, I think, I think what you said first is that, like, if I'm able to make their work day a little less arduous, why do you make it sound like that doesn't have any worth? It's not cute. People are really deeply unhappy at work. That's got to be one of the 15. Why do you make it sound like that doesn't have any worth? People are really deeply unhappy at work. That's got to be one of the 15. No, like do you do something? Let's polish these off. Number 12, you don't smoke. I don't, but I do smoke hookah, but not enough to call myself a smoker.

Where are you on the hookah now these days? I mean, I still do it, but not frequently. Yeah, little. Cars on occasion. But it, but not frequently. Yeah. Tickars on occasion. Yeah. But yeah, not very often. We'd stuffed into a one hitter that I carry around with me. Whatever.

Number 13. That's just the one we all fell. It's just you are of a normal, healthy weight. And I don't want to dwell on this. I think I am. I'm overweight. Very good. Still.

I could lose 30 pounds. Number 14, you exercise at least 30 minutes, at least three days per week. So, and number 15, you are active and productive every day. The big realizations of the Blue Zone people are that they're not like pumping iron. They're not going to the gym. What they are doing is living in places where they walk and garden and they're not using like mechanical conveniences. They've just kept their metabolism's high because they're moving around a lot.

And for me, like if we can call rebrand exercise or rebrand walking around New York City as exercise, then absolutely I'm doing this rebrand walking around New York City as exercise. Then absolutely I'm doing this. And walking around New York City is my favorite thing to do in the world by myself. It's New York makes it very easy to walk. Every time I'm in New York, I'm astounded by what my Apple Watch tells me I've done by way of what it classifies as exercise, which is walking at a brisk pace for a sustained amount of time. So the length of the amount of miles that I walk,

the heart rate that I get doing it, the calories that I burn. But connection to city you would say was energy there, right? Or no? Well, no, it's just because I think that it's a city designed to be walked. But I'm saying you don't feel energetically connected to New York more than you would the average city. I do. Like just walking around, wanting to walk around because there's a vibrance to it. I do because I'm from there though. Well, okay, I mean, here's my thing about New York.

As I visit Miami from New York and I am a New York elitist, it is a city, even for those who grew up in it, and I've spent their entire lives there. It's a city that is perpetually there to be rediscovered. There's always new stuff happening. For sure. I went to a jazz club for the first time in my life, last week on the Village Vanguard, had never gone. It's one of the great sites of jazz music in American history.

That is an incredible New York dynamic of like best in class thing that it took me 39 years to get to and I stumbled ass backwards into it. That's the beauty of New York. The beauty of New York is I do this a lot where someone says you wanna go with somebody, I say yes and they take out their phone and try to look up someone and I say no.

We're gonna walk down this block. We're gonna look at the menu. One million percent. You're gonna wander around. We'll eat it. It's like we're going to walk down this block. We're going to look at the menu. 1 million percent. Yep. You're going to wander around. Yep. We'll eat it. It's like we're in New Orleans. God.

Look, me and Pablo all started working in New Orleans just years ago. Dane was there. This is the first part of this. Yes. But at a certain time, we were like, hey, let's go get something to eat. Or was it?

It was me and you, right? We'll go get something to eat. Or was it, it was me and, yeah, it was me and you, right? We were gonna get something to eat. And then we were walking and looking and searching and looking, and hours later we ran into Justin Tinsley, who we had seen at the beginning of our day. And he said, so where'd you guys end up going? And I'm like, I mean, we still haven't found a place. We just kept walking and exploring.

So I would say that New Orleans is actually great for that. Not I think about it, but New York absolutely is number one of the idea that I'm not going to use all of these conventions that everyone uses in every other city where you have to. I want to find something good to eat. I don't need a plan. I don't need to figure out who's going to be the designated driver. Where am I going to park? It's simply a matter of like a childlike perpetual curiosity of like what's around

the corner? Didn't we just talk about this with Mina, the freedom to get lost? I think Balmani did a TED Talk one time on the freedom of structure, right? And I was sort of saying the opposite, the freedom to get lost. I think sometimes you grow up with so many responsibilities and so many ways that you see how to get ahead that I don't often get lost enough in the spaces where creativity should reside, which is you're freest because you're lost, you're stumbling around as opposed to not enjoying the making of it because you're not free enough, you're not actually free enough, you just feel the burdens of it.

Does that make sense, creatively to you? Yeah, if you're re-wearing the tread on the same path. And I think this is just like a physical thing often. Like LA is such a city built around cars. Miami relatively too. I think that for me, as I host a show premised on my curiosity, like having that presented to me without me trying, new stuff all of the time is a gift.

And sometimes it ends up being, well, this is the thing about it, right? You just gotta not be disappointed when it's not the greatest thing you've ever tried. You have to accept that failure or whatever you wanna call it is part of this experience. Exactly. Sometimes you'll meet Justin Tinsley again as opposed to finding a mute.

But you guys, this is the curse. You say, okay, so failure should just be treated as learning if you're totally forgiving with yourself. If you can be that gentle with yourself. But failure is just failure if you're failing. Like you always have to get ahead. If you always be that gentle with yourself. But failure is just failure. If you're failing, like you always have to get ahead. If you always have to be better. If you always have to be, like I don't, I marvel at the strength of mental strength of athletes because there's so much failure involved in what it is that they're doing. Most of what they do is failure. And so there's so much tougher than, in the face of that, I feel super weak there.

Like, I feel that I am so blistering in my self-assessment on failure, so unforgiving, so unloving to myself, that it can't be learning. It's punishing. It's disappointment. It's punishing. It's punishing.

Well, I think the stakes also matter, right? If I messed up where we went to lunch, is not as bad as if I messed up my career by making this wrong decision. Yes, there's learning in all of it, but I think it's easier to accept when you know the stakes aren't high. And I think-

What if the stakes are your career and your life and your children? Like, the stakes are that high. I did, a lot of your career in your life and your children, like the stakes are that high. I mean, and, and, but I think I've steeled myself for I knew I was making a big decision as opposed to finding a burning plane, though, like you said, I was, I knew I was making a big decision. We weren't even a company yet onto a burning bus. But we weren't even a company like we weren't anything other than

something to the left ESPN and you buddy, you came to this We weren't even a company yet. On to a burning bus. But we weren't even a company. Like we weren't anything other than something to the left ESPN. And you, buddy, you came to this country with your- But Dan, you see it as I jumped out of, jumped into like the abyss. I saw, see it as I made an incredibly calculated decision. And I think that's the part where I don't, you keep, I admire that you think

that I was just like, sight unseen, I just know it's gonna work out, catch me then. A calculated decision on Dan here? Dan, it was incredibly calculated. I tend to not play up this. Almost everything I do is a calculated decision. Where I would do a million different scenarios,

what happens if I do it like this? And this is the decision I come up with sometimes. I like that we that's awfully brave though. Pablo, wait, I just like that we finally got into a point in the show where a mean is essentially complimenting Dan and now Dan is uncomfortable. Okay, but Pablo, let's think about what, okay, he's being flippant about how calculated he was with his career decision. Pablo, but so Pablo had a kid to worry about. Okay, he's being flippant about how calculated he was with his career decision. I'm not flippant.

Pablo, but so Pablo had a kid to worry about. Pablo's had to make a similar career decision. This is like, it's hard to leave there. But also calculated. So for me, I think that's a funny thing for Danda realized. I mean, okay, so you're not selfless human beings. No, no, no, no, no, no. But it's even more than that, though, if I hear what I mean

is saying, it's that it's not driven by this like animalistic desperation of like, I need something else. I hear people say, oh, I quit my job and I'm moving to California. I'm like, oh, did you get a job there? Nope. You got some family you're living? Nope, I'm just gonna figure out when I get there.

It blows my mind. It blows my mind that people do this because for me, every part of this is like doing the math. I told the story about the first time, or pretty much the only time I took Adderall because I wanted to be more focused in writing this thing. And while I was waiting for it to kick in, I only tell them I took Adderall because I wanted to be more focused in writing this thing and While I was waiting for it to kick in I wanted to order something to eat from Uber Eats I looked up Chick-fil-A and I was like oh Chick-fil-A is not too far. Okay 15 to 30 minutes delivery cool

All right, I'm really hungry though I want a chicken sandwich meal and I also want the nuggets wait Is it cheaper to get the nuggets meal and the sandwich on the side or the sandwich meal and the nuggets on the side? And also by the way 15 to 30 minutes to thing, this thing is like down the block. It's probably quicker for me to go. And I realized the Adderall was fueling what my brain already does, which is calculate

every last part of why did Amin get up instead of doing his job? Why didn't he get up, get in his car and go to Chick-fil-A? Because I did every single permutation of what's the most efficient way to do this. I do this all the time, Dan. But I make it look like, ah, let's do this, go to Chick-fil-A!

So at the end of the show, we say what we found out today. And I want to speak on behalf of Amin here. I never do this. Because what I found out is that Dan is now finding out that we believe in him. Ha ha ha ha ha ha it right. It seems stupid. Like it seems careless. It seems really careless. We cared a lot. Yeah, so what, yeah, what did I learn?

I learned, see this is the sappy part, right? I mean, am I inventing it? Is this, these energies is something that feels like love real? I feel like I could be myself around two human beings who I know more than believe in me, love me. Like, like, and I feel that. Like, so am I imagining it or is it so? Well, no, I don't think that part is. But I feel it physically is what I'm telling you. Like, I feel it has an energy on me that feels

like am I imagining the healing in that receiving, right? Receiving love, like receiving, actually receiving love. Am I imagining that? Is that logical or am I physically feeling it right now? I would imagine that your brain from being stimulated and the receptors getting the things that it needed, then sends out physical manifestations. So maybe that's healing too though,

why are we back on this? I mean, just say that it's love. Okay, all right. Thank you, let's all thank our love. You can't do it. Let's all say thank you to our love. Let's look down and's love. Okay. All right. Thank you. Let's all thank our love. Let's all say thank you to our love. Let's look down repressed and thank love. Thank you to thank you for your feet. I mean, thank you for your feet. Thank you for your feet. This has been Pablo Torre finds out a Metal Arc media production and I'll talk to you next time.