The Fighter & The Kid - PEPTIDES ARE GETTING OUT OF CONTROL | TFATK Ep. 1219

Episode Date: September 8, 2026

Mike Stratton joins Brendan Schaub and Bryan Callen for a wild conversation about ibogaine and the 12+ hour psychedelic experience he says became one of the most uncomfortable experiences of his life. Mike explains why he became convinced something was seriously wrong during the trip, what happened when he finally came back to reality, and why the experience completely changed his perspective on control, addiction and how he was living his life.The guys also get into peptides, TRT, GLP-1s, myostatin inhibitors, PED testing and the Enhanced Games before the conversation gets personal. Brendan opens up about having 12 cars, constantly touring, drinking, using Adderall and eventually realizing none of it mattered compared with being there for his family. Bryan talks about identity, loss and character, plus the crew gets into youth sports, combat sports, psychedelics, Joe Rogan's conversation about tribal life and the wild floating jiu-jitsu scene in Austin. Mike Stratton is affiliated with Marek Health.Paka - To grab your PAKA hoodie, go to http://pakaapparel.com/. That’s http://pakaapparel.com/MOD - Visit http://mod.com/ - that’s http://mod.com/ - for a free consultation and get 10% off your first order PLUS free shipping with promo code FIGHTER that’s promo code FIGHTER at http://mod.com/O’Reilly Auto Parts - Stop by O’Reilly Auto Parts today or visit us at https://oreillyauto.com/FIGHTER that’s https://oreillyauto.com/FIGHTERProgressive - Visit https://www.progressive.com/ and give the Name Your Price® tool a try. Take the stress out of shopping and find coverage that fits your life on your terms.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This is really the fighter and the kid. Come on, baby. We're talking, we're talking, Detroit. We're talking peptides. Mike, how do you see your last time? Staten. Stratten. Stratton. Straton.

That's a man's name. Mike Stratton. You know Mike Stratton, he's strapped. He's the owner of Merrick. Health. He's a strap. Straton, it's better than strap on Straton. It's better than strap on.

You get that in school? I don't know, though. You're wearing a strap on. Yeah. Yeah, I can see kids doing that. Yep, yep. If you're on a football team, That's pretty good on me.

If you like getting pegged, if you like getting pegged, Strattens your guy. What? Wait, what? What? That's not a good advertisement. But, but, but, but, we're talking about peptides.

Yeah, before we want to hear, I was saying like the, the peptide, it's so hot right now, right? Like peptide's a big deal. Everyone's using them. Yeah. But there's no like Nike or there's no Ford of peptides. Sure. And like, you know, I deal with a lot of baseball dads, football dads. I'll get questions a lot of time in big ground breakdown as far as peptides go.

And my first question is like, you get, I got this guy at my local gym like, I don't know about that, man. You get blood work? No. I'm like, you're playing with fire. Now, it's safer than a lot of other stuff, but still, you're not really doing it the right way. And isn't it true that with peptides, if you don't have blood work, you don't have a professional telling you, you can activate different mechanisms that are cross-pollinating and screwing things up, right? Yeah, basically peptides, you're interacting with genes. And because you're injecting the drug, these are genes or different pathways that will naturally turn on through epigenetics or through your lifestyle or through different activities

or actions, right? By injecting them, we're just controlling when that light switch turns on, but there's a lot of downstream effects. So like the peptide drug, they have different half-lifes in the body, like some are active for very long periods of time, but some of them just initiate a chain of events, but the drug is out of your system. But that chain of events is still turning over sometimes long term. So yeah, they're complex. They cross-pollinate to your point. And now, hold up, when they, when they turn those on and you're saying like they'll have a basically a short half-life so they won't be detectable? Yeah. So could, could athletes use them? You know what I'm saying? Like, let's say you're you Sata tested or Vata tested. Yeah.

There's certain peptides you could use where even though if they list them illegal, it'd be tough to test for. Well, because it's becoming more prevalent, they are coming up with different testing procedures in order to catch that. Or things like growth hormone, they're still going to look for natural levels of like IGF1, right? And if you're taking peptides, that might be out of your system quick, but they're releasing growth hormone, it's going to convert. Yeah, because they tend to set up a mechanism where you start producing hormone naturally. Yes. Right. So epimoralin and somerlin. Yeah. So those are growth hormone.

creedagog. So basically what it does is it just binds to receptors and your pituitary and it tells it to produce growth hormone. But when it goes back to the testing, like you could argue like that's prove it. That's not my natural level. If you don't have an example before, how do you know this isn't my natural level? I just run high. Well, you've been through those procedures, right? And they've evolved over time. Yeah, they're getting good and good. Yeah. They're getting good and good. You don't want, you don't want them going, hey, nobody would just start producing that unless you're, you know. Oh, no, guys are being it. Of course. Oh, no, the athletes are way ahead.

I think the pets are. I had a very, won't say who it is, obviously. But he's like, it's not about who's the best fighter. It's about who has the best doctor. Sure. Well, you guys remember Icarus, right? That documentary. Yeah.

That was fascinating. Bring that closer here. Super fascinating. But here's the thing. So you were talking about like peptides are coming on the scene. Like, we were using this 15 years ago. Really? Yeah.

So what's crazy is this is like the word zeitgeist, but look what's happened to public perception. because of things like GLP-1s, for instance, people, they recognize the power of those drugs. Those are peptide drugs. Now peptides themselves are known about and they're associated and they're acceptable for every man-woman child, right? There's grandmas that have peptides in their fridge. Yep.

Right? Yeah. So, like, I think the biggest thing with Merrick is, like, this industry, again, has been going on for a very long time. It's only now getting this public. Mainstream. Acceptance, awareness. And I think a lot of that was.

during COVID, right, because of the Ryan Hate Act getting temporary released, treatment across borders from providers, mail order. I think that really put it on the scene. But like with my company at Merrick, like we're not peptide producers or manufacturers. These are just tools that we use. So the biggest thing with my clinic and company is first and foremost, like what I'm most proud of and what I think makes us stand out is our team members. So you guys, I believe, have interacted with some of our team members.

Doctors. The cool thing is from doctors to our health coaches to back office, everybody at my company has a personal experience with this medicine in this field that goes back in history when they were working in car sales or they were an engineer. They were passionate about this stuff. So I really have a team of experts that live this on a daily basis. That's what I knows about America. Everybody at Merrick is in shape.

Everybody in America is really knowledgeable. but everybody in there because they've used their own body. They do it with themselves. But peptides are here to stay. For sure. They're here to stay. Usually it's like a, he's really good at like, like, I remember when cryotherapy came along or things like that.

And he just goes, I don't think it's going to last. I was like, what do you mean? And he goes, because. There's fads. We've been around a long time. Like, athletes use anti-inflammatories and ice, right? And you can say whatever you want. But if LeBron James and all those guys are using that,

athletes have been using it. They use what works because they can't afford to be playing around, right? Sure. But it does seem that peptide. I think back to your point, too, it's like when you talk about you guys have this team and their experience and they use it so they can definitely recommend stuff. And they have so much knowledge as far as peptides go. The issue I have is like my father-in-law who's 64. I started getting him involved.

He got some issues, right? And they got him on TRT and some other stuff. And he's old school. He was a LAPD for 30 years. He's super old school, right? So he's a little like just me talking him into it was a big like Jose Canseco baseball Yeah, there's thing in that so then I go you got get your blood check his blood check it's a disaster

His testosterone's fucking in the tanks they start on TRT and then he's working with a peptide Uh company person working with him talk with him and he's like man I never felt better blah blah blah and then he goes back to LA meets with his regular doctor you know old school those fuck and he doesn't tell me this and they took him no blood work now to take him off tartee sure they take all of it away and he doesn't tell me this because he knows i would be fucking upset and like two weeks go by and uh my mother-in-law was like yeah steve's always tired he's lethargic he has no energy and i'm like that doesn't make sense and he's doing the protocol she's like i don't know what's going on so i got outside i'm like dude what's going on but he's like well i don't want to say

anything but a few weeks ago around back to LA, my, you know, my general doctor said TRT's dangerous and this and they took it away. And I go, hold on. Hold on. They literally just told you to stop taking it. And there's no follow up. There's no post cycle. There's nothing. There's no, this is the issue. There's this, there's people that know what the fuck they're doing. And then there's the old way of doing things. It's control. And how's it going? For those old fuck, how's it going? How's it going? And how's your doctor? look. A hundred percent. The old school doctors. It's bridging that gap. So my own, my own mom, like I've been doing this for a long time and I'm her son and I try to bring up, you know,

over the years, steer her in these directions and, you know, she loves the hell out of me. But I think in the back of her head, she's like, dude, I don't know if I'm going to listen to you. Yeah, he's a meat. Yeah. Yeah. Like, I'm going to listen to my doctor. You're a meat head. Yeah. Finally, though, like she went through breast cancer. She got put into early menopause and she's suffering. And she's suffering. finally she gave us a chance and it's transformed her life. Of course. So there is this acceptance happening.

I went through that too for a long time. Yeah. But our parents are always going to be the ones. Brian's based on our parents age. So Brian forever, I'm like, dude, you got to do this. You got to do this. And you'd always fight it. And then finally, I just, I stopped arguing with people.

Like, I'll have older people arguing about telling him. Don't do them. For me. I finally reach a point. I went, I don't give them. Like I had, I had a lot of, I had a lot of energy. He always. I always had a lot of energy and I could do everything.

And then you get to be, when you start pushing 60, I don't give a shit who you are. I found myself having to take naps, breaking down. Now, taking, and Merrick said, look, they look at my levels. They're like, just to add a little more. Never felt better. Where I work out for an hour and a half, I'm wrestling. I'm doing jiu-jitsu. I'm lifting weights.

And what happens is people start noticing, they go, you have a lot of energy. Like you look, you look, you look. like you have a lot of energy. Yeah, I do. And once you set that example, they want to know what's up. They want in. And everything's done so scientifically where they're looking at every one of your level. But you've always had energy. That wasn't why we started peptides. You start peptides because you're built like cream with the frog. No, no, I have a really nice body under the shirt. Well. You don't know yet. Hey, he's got a lot of vascularity. A lot of vasculating. He looked at me and he went like this. When he saw me, he went like this. He was, like, he went like that. My breath left.

He went, he goes like this. I go, tell Mike, he goes, holy fuck. Like that, that's what he did. I heard him go, how much DOT you in? No, no, no. That's double that. No, no, no.

It's not putting any mass on. He didn't, he goes, he goes, you're our poster. You're our poster bar. That's what he said. He goes, please be our poster bar. Should I break the news to him? Sales are down 30% since you join the team.

What? I don't want that. I don't want that. You're actually hurting the company. I lifted heavy yesterday. I'm a little sore. By heavy means 110 pounds. 145 in the bench, guys.

145 on the bench. Dude, wrestling itself, like how long have you, I know, how long of both you guys been training in grappling martial arts,

et cetera? I mean, that was his job. Right. For me, I've been really doing it a lot. Yeah. Like five days a week now,

four days a week, for a year. For a year. A little more than the year. What was that curve for you? Like, okay, when you first started,

could you do five days a week? No. No. And I was also doing an e-mom and lifting. So I was just so, sore and my buddy said Shane goes you're going to adapt but you got to do the you got to that's why the testosterone every other day it's huge for sure but honestly now I'm I'm in better shape than I've been in

I don't know how long well I think that's the biggest thing because we start talking about peptides because that is the high item here's the thing about these drugs like these are tools but these tools most of them some of them you don't really notice but you take them like a good faith insurance policy and you hope because of the research and the anecdotes and the influencers that it does something. But a lot of them are so powerful, the medicines that it doesn't really matter if it comes from a guy at the gym, if it comes from a homeless guy under a bridge, if it comes from this doctor or that doctor, the drug itself is so powerful that you buy in to the results. But what I think is super important is the container or the environment in how it's facilitated.

So like an improper course of treatment, you could still feel significant, benefits, be satisfied and buy into that. But with the proper arrangement of a protocol for your goals, for your needs, you might not realize what you're leaving on the table. What's softer than Casimir and warmer than wool? It's not a riddle. It's alpaca. You've seen those animals with that soft fur. We're talking about an alpaca hoodie here. And I had to check it out to hearing some of my favorite podcasters in the game talking about packa. I said, let me get in on the action. Dude, Paca makes outdoor and lifestyle apparel for Alpah-Pakah makes outdoor and lifestyle apparel from alpaca fiber.

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Grab your packa hoodie. Go to www.pacaapparel.com. That's packa p-a-a-a-a-a-pairal.com. Yeah. I think, too, people, they're expecting, like, GLP1 results from every peptide that they use. You know what I'm saying? Because, like, jelly roll, poster boy, right? As much as they say, it's not on, okay.

So, but clearly he took GOP once and he goes from whatever, you know, 600 pounds to 200, you know? So then that's like the poster boy. So people are like, oh, that's peptides. Yep. It's like, it is, but they're not all the same. It's not all the same. You know, we're super powerful, right? Let me ask you this.

Others are more subtle. So one of the things is like BPC-157, for example, TB 500. I know people, and this is not scientific, so you can't go antidote. But there are a lot of people that were cynical, that took it, and it worked. Now, there are a lot of factors that I understand.

But with that much anecdotal evidence of people taking it, and if you talk to doctors and you talk to, like, people that look at the history of it, for whatever reason, pharmaceutical companies gave those patents up because they couldn't replicate, they couldn't replicate results. They don't know why. But it did work with animals, with wound healing and things like that.

Clearly they work. I don't know to what extent. But why is it that these, why is it that we don't have a lot of evidence? Is it just that? So a lot of it comes down to the patentability of the drugs. So even look at the patented GLP1 drugs, the different brands, it's Lily's version versus Pfizer's version or whatever. and they are battling with compounding pharmacies because they are organic molecules that could be tweaked.

So the patentability can be an issue with a lot of these substances, just like with testosterone. Like those are some of the issues. The other weird thing is like anabolic steroids or testosterone historically based on research, the end conclusion is these do not have a performance enhancing benefit. That's the conclusion from the research, which is absurd. we know it has a performance. Is that right? They say that about testosterone?

That's the conclusion. It does not have a direct performance enhancing effect. Research is starting to change nowadays, but that was kind of the historical baseline. The unique thing with peptides is like they are powerful, but sometimes peptides, on paper, they look like magic. And in practice, they're kind of underwhelming. So it's kind of the opposite effect. Yeah.

Which is, it's interesting. So I think, I think like you can't discount anecdotes, but I think you also have to look at the research. You have to do some inferred studies. And you're right. When it's animals versus people, it's different. It can be challenging, right? But at the end of the day, if you have, if you have so many people that are having success with this and something like injuries or pain are a part of your life, you're going to do whatever it takes to get rid of that. Well, first thing that Merrick, the doctor said and your health professionals, they were looking at to make sure that your body is starting.

a healthy baseline. Sure. Right. So how are you sleeping? How are you eating? How are you working out? And then let's look at all the underlying factors. Your AP, whatever the fuck it is.

And your testosterone and your free testosterone. There's a thousand things they look at to see where your baseline is. What's your supplementation? And then we can start talking about testosterone. Then we can start talking about peptides. Do you have an injury? You know, so that's the way to do it. I think it really comes down to the end user.

Like if you think about like a final. financial wealth management team, right? If you find one worth their salt, they're going to meet with you at whatever age, whatever level of risk and assets you have. But if they're good, they plan to work with you through death in estate planning, right? So I think the most important aspect is like there are a lot of ways to just order the drug. I think I know what's wrong with me. I think I know what the solution is for me. It's this drug. Let me go acquire it. There's a lot of facilitators out there that will just approve you and let you have this drug. But like our approach comes down to goal setting and actually understanding like, yeah, maybe your testosterone is low.

But based on your goals and priorities, it doesn't seem to be a huge value proposition for you. So we're not going to shove it down your throat. Right. We're going to look at other areas. So for us, we like to think of ourselves like a health span management company. We just want to meet with you at your current state, your current risk tolerance, your goals and your values. And we want to curate protocols that are evolving long term. They should be dynamic.

Because once you attain a goal, you shouldn't just stop there. It's like working out. If my goal is to bench 315, I'm at 250, I do a very concise, periodized plan to get there. I achieve that. You know, stop. I don't stop. I don't just maintain the same program forever. I don't stop at 1.45.

You go to 150 now. I go to 150. I go to 185. Yeah. Do you know what I'm saying, bro? Hell yeah, dude. So that's what I mean. Like, again, I think there is craftsmanship to this.

and some artisan work and it is creative. That's why it's a practice of medicine. And this is just our approach. So we all use the same different tools and modalities, but I think the value prop for us anyways is when we look at the individual and we curate long-term programs based on goals, risk mitigation, tolerances, and whatever phase you're out. And I also heard we're kind of just getting started.

We're kind of in the leather helmets of peptides. Like some of the stuff Japan's doing like it's wild. Bonkers stem cells. Yeah. there's thousands and thousands and thousands of peptides out there yeah yeah yes well they're coming up with those myostatin inhibitors yeah about those some of those drugs are very interesting like they don't affect your endocrine system so you will have drugs that are they're in stage phase three now and they shut off your you know the myostatin it's like the Belgian blue blue guys so so now you're

going to be able to put on muscle without changing your endocrine system the thing about it though is walking around with that much muscle what does it change in your physiology well that's the problem your endurance yeah your heart's like weight of so even if it's not androgens that are doing it it still is this excess weight on your system yeah we're gonna have to you know have some lab rats try it out oh they are yeah yeah they are yeah yeah i'd be a lab rat i'll be awesome i'll try it out i'm gonna have some tits i'll finally get a chest because you're still waiting for the here one yeah just go to turkey that's what i told When he doesn't want to do it, man.

I'll go with you. You got a lot of hair. I don't like... Yeah, you're not giving me the credit, I don't like your... You're not giving me the credit eye. But no, you've been talking about those mild statins forever. I haven't. What intrigues you about it?

What interests you so much about it? Not as much... He'll let you tell you. It's, I'm fine, but it would be nice. The problem with me is that physiologically, my bone structure is I am a gazelle. I'm never going to be a lion. Sure. It's fine.

There are just certain ways that you're built. It comes with certain benefits. It does. It does. It does. If we're going to war, Ryan's on the front line. It's the guy going,

do, I don't like that. I don't like that, dude. You and I are in the front line. No, no, hold on. I'm the sniper in the background.

You're the one waving while we shoot the... No, no, no, no. You're waving on the flat. No, hold on. Hold on. I'm also the guy, because I'm smaller.

I need less food. And it's like... We got to get behind enemy lines. We got to go in there like a phantom. Can't have people see them. I see them. I see you. from a mile away or a giraffe, you need a fucking, you need a panther.

And then you go, and then I go like this, I go, if not me, then who? Did you guys see the Odyssey? Yeah. The new movie? Is it good? I didn't. I thought it was good. Yeah.

It was soft. I'm, I'm, I'm Elliot Page. I'm the Elliott Page. I'm the group. Is she in that movie? She's in that movie. That's why I didn't see. He is in the movie.

He's in the movie and he plays a warrior. Yes. It's a small part. It's a small part. I'm out. Is she in the movie? I'm out. Like the Buzz Lightier movie.

Oh, there's lesbians in it? I'm out. He. Yeah, that's right. He, sir. Please. Please. It was solid, though.

It was good. It was good. It was a long one, but it was good. Nolan's amazing. Yeah. How long is it? Probably too long for your attention spent. Yeah, three hours or so.

Yeah. It's a tough one to sit through for me. It's a hero's journey, though. It's a good, it's a good little. No, but if they had it, Miles sat and Hibbbers, it would be fun to not tell anybody and just come in and just look more and more jacked. Show up like a great. But there's nothing worse than a small guy, like a guy who's supposed to be thin, and now I've got this, now I'm walking, and it's like... You get the veins in your neck.

Yeah, it's a little much. Yeah, your neck's all red. It's a little much, you know? It's a little sad. You're supposed to age gracefully and just be able to move. They use those mild, like, have you ever seen those, like cows, the bulls that are the Czech, the Belgian blue cows. They have mild satin gene.

They are, they're born with the gene? They have the gene mutation, and there's also dogs, like, grassyton. Rayhound breeds that will have this myoset and gene mutation. There you go. So they just keep getting jacked. So the reason that we, you can't have too much muscle because then you have to feed it protein. And we evolved where protein was a scarce resource.

Now that we have a abundance of protein, you can feed those muscles. So it's just different. You can't be in the savannah hunting animals and then have, you know. So that cow is born like that. Yeah. It has a genetic mutation. And it's like through that lineage. I think they gave it the drug.

No. This has been around for a long time. It's a gene mutation. They have it in dogs too. Like greyhounds, some greyhounds are, maybe some pipples, but I know I've seen it in like the racing blades. Oh,

were they jacked? Yeah. I think they gave them the drug, though. This is where it comes from. If you look, they have a germ mutation. Like that's what gave insight to myostatin. There's even babies.

There's humans that have these myosatin gene. deficiencies. Look up, look up my... Natural mutation. Yeah, look up myostat mutation, human or baby. There are some children out there that are out jacked.

Yeah. A hundred percently, little Hercules. Yeah. I mean, he was getting Anavar from his dad, but... Was he?

No, he was. Oh, yeah. In his shape. Yeah. Are you joking? That guy's... So some of this might be AI, but some of these are legitimate.

But I don't think it's good, right? Like, they're not... There's tradeoffs because think about how many calories that kid needs. Because you're talking about protein, being available, but Brian, imagine having to eat because you have no choice in the muscle mass. So you have to eat. Yeah. That kid is, do they grow up to be like over six feet tall and shit?

I don't know about height, but generally. I don't think so, actually. I think the kid, they come out born for gymnastics. If you see baby Hercules doesn't look so great. Well, again, Hercules baby was Anavar dad. Yeah. That dad is a piece of shit. Yeah.

You should be arrested for that. That messes with your endocrine system. But there are like humans. and they have to eat tremendous amounts of calories. There has to be a downside, right? Or no? There has to be, absolutely. I don't know what it means for your-

Grand whose kids play football. He's like, hmm. Think about this, like steroid use, when your muscular outpaces your tendons and ligaments and you become more prone to tears and injuries. I don't know how the myelostatin affects the ligaments and tendons side of it. Yeah, because if they're born with that, I wonder if the ligaments and tendons are, yeah, I know.

Because they actually have time. So with football, they did a study on bigger and faster. And a lot of times bigger and faster gets injured. You're moving faster. Yeah, a lot more power, force. Wow. But it is crazy. I mean, at the end of the day, what do we want?

Sometimes we want a vanity, a look about us. Other times we just want to perform. So I think we just got to ask ourselves, like at the end of the day, what do we truly value? Yeah, it depends what you want. Because you'll see, like, the best UFC fighters aren't the most. ripped. The best NFL athletes, football players are not ripped.

Tom Brady was not ripped in any fast. Patrick Mahomes isn't ripped. But even guys who are really fast, like you'll see certain things like Marcus Peters, who is a safety. Fast is not the word. And he, like I worked out with him and he looks,

he's not cut at all. Marks Peters in the NFL? Yeah, he wasn't that cut. How long did you play? Because he was tight. In the middle of, in the middle of the season, he was playing. I was like really surprised.

You know what's interesting. So fast. I was at the Enhanced games. Did you guys watch any of that or see any of that? I saw a little bit of it. So the interesting thing about that was when it came to the runners, like the sprinters, the 100 meter sprint. Well, there wasn't many records broke.

Yeah, and that's what they wanted. That's what they wanted, which was a disappointment. But there were some contestants that were staunch advocates for not using anything, and they wanted to come and flex and prove that. Most of them were the sprinters. So again, I don't know if that's true or not, but... I mean, you're either really faster, you're not, and there's a lot of technique, and they train for a long time.

Yeah, but be, hold on. Everyone, there's fast, and then when you're on PDs, you're for 1,000%... Right, but I'm saying that the guys who are at the top of the game are there for a myriad of reasons. It's not, yes, of course they have, all of them have a higher rate of fast-stitch muscle, but sprinting, like how fast you come out of the blocks.

They train so long. There's a lot of technique, too. There's also a ton of, it's the number one dopeing sport, sir. There's number one what? Doping sport. Yeah. I mean, they're always doing.

They're all on it. They're all on something. I forget his name. Enhanced games, like, it's, that's why it didn't work. Right. It also, the Olympics was like, yeah, it doesn't have the prestige of the moment of training for four years to do the Olympics in a couple days versus the enhanced games. It's like, we're going to show up.

If you don't think the Olympic weightlifters are. have been doing it forever. Sure. You know, Andy Galpin did a study on one of the Olympic guys who had been, I guess, on some kind of scientific steroid forever, but also lifting on a high level. His muscle, his muscle fiber was very close to what a rhino's muscle. It was very different. Seriously.

It was of density of like a rhinos. And he'd been, but he'd been lifting weights and taking the right kinds of drugs under a government program. I think it was Soviet or Chinese. Yeah. You know. Well, that's the thing. Even the weightlifters there, they were allowed to dope and nobody broke records compared to what they did in the Olympics.

So what does it tell you? Does it just tell you everybody in the Olympics is doping anyways? Yeah. It almost hurt the Olympics. It was interesting nonetheless, though. Yeah. No, but if you had the swimmers looked yoke. Yeah, they did.

They did. Let me say, bring that up. There, there was a woman who was a non-doper. that I believe won, if I'm not mistaken. Yeah, but swimming, you know, all of that stuff, if you took the best sprinters in the Olympics and then said, hey, I know you're on stuff, but go hog wild. Ben Johnson.

Now they're going to crush their own records problem. Yeah, this guy. Yeah, James. Look at that guy. Looks like a bodybuilder. That's hilarious. It was interesting, nonetheless. But that is interesting because you put on so much muscle.

I don't know if that's going to be great for the swimming. Yeah, it's extra weight. I mean, we would have to look up the actual records, but there were so few that were broken. And a couple of them that were broke, I believe we're from non-enhanced athletes. And they kind of, so that enhanced games, I don't know if they're going to do it again. I don't know. They kind of lost their ass. It was a spectacle.

Yeah. It was interesting. Nobody was that interested. Yeah, but I don't know. The world of performance enhancement, like, it goes outside of sports, too, and non-traditional things, even for new tropics and smart drugs. And really, the name of the. the game is like what does optimization mean for you it can mean something different for a professional

combat sports athlete or a silicon valley CEO female right like it could be optimization is different it's just what do you want to optimize for for me it's about energy energy I think most people it's energy yeah like you never feel that when you're talking about you know coaches stuff it's energy's number one. You want to look good? And energy? Like, what does energy mean? Does it mean a certain cognition?

Sexual energy? Sexual energy? Okay. So, being awake during the day, no brain fog? Yeah. And finally, and also looking good. Like, you'd like to look, you don't want to look fat. You don't look sloppy.

Everybody would like to look a little better. Everybody would like to be a little bit. Our eye, even an infant's eye, goes to symmetry. Do you ever see those experiments? No. They'll take an infant. And male and female, it doesn't matter. and they'll show a really symmetrical face

of like a supermodel and then a regular person. The child, the infant, can't stop looking at the symmetry. So our eye goes to symmetry. So when you see somebody with like a perfect, you know, it's breeding stock. Yeah, hourglass. And here's the craziest shit.

They took really symmetrical men and then non-symetrical men. They had them run on a treadmill. Then they took their shirts and they had women do a blindstice when they smelled it. Yeah. they were drawn to the men with symmetry. They, they, they were like, this smells better than that guy.

Fucking crazy. I think now, too, the biggest flex is a dad who's in shape. Sure. Because when I, you know, my dad was never out. You know, my dad's a fit dude. But in general, most dads because of work, you have kids. There's no time for the gym. So they, as they quote unquote, dad bought.

Yep. So the biggest flex when you have kids and you're in shape. Yeah. 100%. That's what the majority of dads want. That's the goal. And a lot of dads, at least my generation in their 30s. Chest here, no chest hair?

Chest hair all day. Just here all day. All day. It can't be smooth like a ceiling. Yeah. But a lot of dads in my generation, when they were, by the time they were 35, they let themselves. They looked 60 though. If you go back and look at a dad, you're like, why?

Oh, bring up. Well, people look older in general. Right. Bring all in the family. Bring them all in the family. The cast. And Carol O'Connor. Bring up Carol O'Connor.

Well, even if you look his dad and leave it to Beaver, he's like 30 in that. Yeah. Right. Looks like he's 50. Yeah, bro. I thought he was so mature. That he's 47. He's 27 years old there. He's 27. I'm not kidding. He's 27 years. He's literally 46 years old. She's 47. Holy hell. There you go. Isn't that wild? Is it the cigarettes? Yes, it was the martini cigarettes. Sheen food, no exercise. They treated their bodies like old cars.

They just didn't know back then. They didn't know. It was whatever. You didn't, you're, you're, nobody talked about testosterone. They didn't know what the fuck that was. But what's interesting is kids were in better shape back then. ages. Sure. That's what's where the old people look like shit. They didn't overeat and they were always active. You have pictures at the beach just seeing masses of people. Everyone's pretty lean. See some abs. Red fox. Look at Red Fox. 5th, 48 years old. That's wild. Yeah, man. 43. Are you kidding? Are you that crazy? Isn't that fucking crazy? From the Brady Bunch? Yeah, dude.

Yep. Holy hell. Isn't that crazy? Look at her 30. But then you go back, like, have you seen those pictures of like kids in gym class? Yeah. In high school in like the 60s compared to now. Yeah. See, some biceps. Bro. The kids can do pull-ups and shit. Yeah.

Well, the presidential fitness test alone. Yes, dude. Could anybody do that now? Bro, why didn't it away from that? But now the kids, the athletes today? Yeah. It's a different thing. Next level.

Yeah. Especially in things like combat sports, what you're seeing, the evolution is of training. You know what's interesting? In combat sports, it hasn't had the boom like we thought it was going to happen. No? No. No, it hasn't.

You don't think there's a different superior level, like for people getting into the sport? It's a combination of things because now you have athletes who get involved in fighting. You see they're not as active enough. They're not as exciting. They fight a safer way. It's more technical.

It's more technical. So it's more of a sport. When you go back to like my class, when you go back to like, that's way before me. But if you go back to my class where it was like you had fighters, fighters, short notice fights, blood, like they want to make it exciting. Don Fry.

It's just a different. Now we're all broke and we have CT, but it was just a different time, you know? Like, and we're like, because I remember when I, like, Brock Leasner was probably the first, like, guy to cross over from, like, NFL. Then it was me, Matt Matrione, Marcus Jones. And they're like, man, it's just a matter of time. Because those NFL guys, they're going to stop going to the NFL and then come to the UFC and just never came. No. Well, even though, like, you have that experience to impose your will on other people, even through football and those contact sports, I imagine.

and it brings some level of confidence that somebody starting out in martial arts only or combat sports doesn't necessarily have. Huge advantage. Huge advantage. But then, yeah, maybe mixed martial arts hasn't evolved. I don't know if ever well because the pay, because you're not, you're not, you're not attracting those five-star athletes into mixed martial arts. Sure, because the money opportunities.

There's no guarantees. The money's not great to start for a very long time. Yeah. But so they're like, hold on, I can get a full ride to the University of Texas. or do Dana White Contender Series? Even in the university now, like the, what, name image, likeness, deals, the amount of money that they can make. It sounds more organized.

But then you look at the level of like, you know, my kiddos play of a six and ten year old. Like you look at the level they're at, like you're my six-year-old, you look at the level he's at or my 10-year-old, the level he's out of football compared to what I was doing, bro. It's like, you know, next level. Dude, it's on-

Got all pro coaches. It's on competitive. That's insane. Like my six-year-old's two coaches. One was his all-time lean tackler for Kansas City Chiefs, seven-time all-pro, Buckus Award winner. That's crazy.

The other dude, first round draft pick for Chicago Bears. My coach, when I was six, was like a plumber who enjoyed watching football on Sundays? So what does that do to the competitiveness for these children? But the issue is now... Did they rise to that level or is it selection?

No, they rise to the level, but then everyone's, everyone's levels higher, and you still have your outliers. Yeah. The issue is now kids specialize in one sport. So it's burnout?

They're really, really good at, like, you'll watch like a 10-year-old baseball game. Like, holy shit. But he's not playing basketball. He's not doing football. They're specializing. And then so you're seeing kids are getting burnt out or. Injury? No, not injury.

Some of them, but it's more burnt out. When they finally get to make their own choices, they're like, I'm done with this. They're over it. They're over it. It stops being fun, right? Yeah, exactly. They take the fun out of it. Like if you're going to make it at some point, you got to push that all in button.

So what are you going to do with your kids in that sense? They can do what they want. You know, my oldest is leaning towards football. My youngest is sick. So he likes both of them. He's just having fun right now. They're just not allowed to fight. Got it.

Yeah, that's my own thing. They can wrestle, but there's no fighting. Yeah. Jiu-Jitsu, nothing like that? Yeah, they do jiu-jitsu. They did wrestling at Lake Travis. They like that. But that's just, you know, they'll be like, oh, dad, I want to keep doing this.

You don't want him to get punched in the head? No, they're too bad. They're more. like than I am. So it's like the juice isn't worth the squeeze. Sure. And they're better athletes than me. I'm like, no, no, you don't, you don't need to do that bullshit. Traditional right. Yeah, yeah. Super cool. Yeah. But you fight because you have to or you don't have any options usually. Sure. Boxers and but even that's different than today. Even today's a little different. Like kids are getting into it because it's the cool thing to do. It's not like back when I started. It wasn't that popular. Right. You know,

and then before me, yeah, before me, it was the guys who had no options. Now there's a ton of options. man. The CT and the brain damage on the side of combat fighting. That's something I've recently got more exposed to and we've done some work like, you know, Ian McCall? So he has a nonprofit. Yeah, with the shrooms and the I'm joining them at the end of the month.

Oh, nice. For a cohort. We go to Peru? Is that where they go? Yeah, so it's, this one's going to be in Columbia with ayahuasca, but they've done it with Ibigan and Cancun at Beyond. They've done it with psilocybin. And it's really interesting to do the neural mapping. Merrick's done some diagnostics pre and post, just to see, what level of physiological changes can take place.

But there was a guy that did, in one of those cohorts, he was a former fighter, he was in his 30s with dementia symptoms, right? Shakes, memory lapses, mood control issues. Like, it was severe for him. He did Ibogaine and he was just back to normal. Yeah.

It's wild. Cylideon's neuroplasticity effects. That's wild. Yeah. The, I have a family member who licked the toad recently. Yeah, Bufo. Have you ever done Bufo?

I haven't, but I haven't. have had the opportunity. This episode of the 500 kid is brought to you by Mod. Mod prescribes a once or twice daily drink that keep you energized, focus, and alert throughout the day. Here's the mechanism. Energy drinks with caffeine temporary block adenosine, the chemical that makes you tired, it builds up.

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emergence with God. It feels like a near-death experience. Yeah. Yeah. It's what benefits did you get from that? So I've gotten a lot of benefits through psychedelic medicines over the years in personal growth and transformation. I'm a partner in I being clinic in Mexico as well. That's cool. It's a huge passion of mine. It's changed my life. Brian Young. I was going to have him on my podcast. Brian Young. Is that his name? Mike Young. Hubbard? Hubbard. Brian Howard. Brian Hubbard. Yeah. A hundred. Super close. It sounds like you guys are Young Hubbard, right? He's got the crudest voice.

Yeah, he does. He's got that southern. With that Ibogaine and all that stuff, it's good for special, especially for like, troops and stuff, right? Like veteran. PTSD and trauma, but also, so the unique thing about, for addiction issues. Like, here's the thing with, like, I've witnessed 60 people go through Ibegain treatment. And I'm going to dramatize it a little bit, but this is what it feels like.

You show up. There's 12 people. Three of them, it's 100 degrees outside. They're wearing hoodies with them. over their heads. They're not talking to anybody. They're going through detox or whatever. They're just like not there, right? They're just suffering. They disappear for a day. You see them the next day. They got a full suit on, fresh haircut. They're dancing. What? It's like. So what does Ibegain do? What happens when you do Ibegain? So Ibegain is the the most potent psychoactive

out of Iboga. So Iboga is a root bark and it's a traditional sacrament in Africa. right. It's their right of passage and an initiation process. So it's a very unique psychedelic. So it activates your 5HT 2A receptors, which is like psilocybin, D&T, ayahuasca. That's your traditional. So it's a hallucinogenic. It's a hallucinogenic, but it's different. It's more of a dreamlike state. So while it activates those receptors like traditional psychedelics, it activates dopamine transmitters. It activates NMDA receptors like ketamine. So you're in a euphoric state. I don't know if I would call it that. It was the most uncomfortable experience I've ever had in my life. How long does it last? So it like the trip itself will last about 12 hours. What? Too low.

Yeah, but the effects of the drug lasts for days. And the unique thing about it for TBI, the unique thing about it for Parkinson's, for Alzheimer's potentially, is that uniquely to IBEAN, it upregulates GDNF production, which is where dopaminergic restoration, can take place, which is pretty unique and novel for Ibogaine. And that's fixing like the pathways.

The pathways for dopamine. And that's why I can help with things like Parkinson's disease or Alzheimer's even. But yeah, it's a, it's a very unique experience. It was the most uncomfortable one of my life. Like it was actually terrifying. And so you were tripping for 12 hours. Yeah, for 12 plus hours. I've done it.

Where were you? So I was in Mexico at Beyond. This is the facility that I'm partners in. They're world class. They're the best in the business. You're basically at a luxury resort with other very interesting people, actors, entrepreneurs, people of all walks of life. But you're in like a cardiac unit of a hospital at this retreat.

Because why? Because in case. Because Ibigen is cardiotoxic at the dosages needed for a full flood dose. So you have to be with an EKG on you at all times in IV because it can kill you. Jesus. But it's not going to kill you. you if you have a safe team that's monitoring you, but you must have medical. This isn't something you do in your backyard.

Not something you do in your backyard. Wow. But did you have, did you play sports? Like, you just did it to get happy? So I did it like honestly, I did it for existential crisis, severe burnout in addiction issues, chemical dependency issues. That's why I did it. What was your drug of choice, big does?

So I permanently quit drinking alcohol. after using it. But I was using. Permanently quit. Permanently quit drinking alcohol. Same. Yep. Yeah, I had to drink in three years.

Yep. ADHD medication. Like I was doing everything I could. Adderall? Yeah, Adderall. Yeah. Crayedum. You name it.

Keep going. We're the same guy. Yeah. So it was, I was using all these things to push through to chase an outcome. Yep. Right? I got stuck on the bus and I couldn't get off,

but I was willing to sell my soul to get there. Yep. That's what happened. But, finally, I got to the point where I said, I would rather live in the woods and be healthy and have relationships and have friendships. That's what's important in life. And that was a distorted reality because none of that happened.

I am able to have it all, but I had to make that choice that I was willing to sacrifice all that stuff to actually live as a whole person. But like I came for I began because I've always been a biohacker. I'm always looking for shortcuts. I'm looking for hacks. I'm looking for things that can give me extra benefit, how I can sneak out advantages, right? So I came for performance and I left with peace

because it was a traumatic experience like during the actual treatment itself. But afterwards, I never felt better in my life. I felt like a little kid again. I had peace and it kicked me off on a spiritual journey. Does anybody have negative effects from it? Like where you come face, face something, and then you get off of the Ibegain

and it's just a shit, show. Yeah. So it's like all I hear is positive things, which I'm sure is great. And I'm my advocate for it. But there has to be a few people like, bro. So I turned to like Freddie Kruger after I advocate. Yeah. So I've, again, I've had the privilege to see so many people go through it. I've seen people have very challenging experiences. But the point is you need to be with facilitators and integration of that event in time is what is so important. You can't, because here's the thing that can happen is you could have an experience where you're hit with some truths. They call it truth medicine, right? You get hit with truth. You might not like that truth. Yeah. But now you can't deny it. It's not somebody else

telling you what's wrong with you. It's you or God confronting you with a truth. You could choose to ignore it if you want, but that's going to cause a lot of psychic tension. So what you generally need is you need some fucking time. You can't do something like that and go right back to your normal life. Buddhists and Carl Jung say if you don't look at your shadow, your dark side, if you don't really key into it. And you're going to be forced to do it eventually anyway, first of all, because you're living a life and you're going to face that eventually. It's going to lead to ruin.

And one of the most important things, even Phil Stutz said for actors, like he's like, you're going in. The tools? Yeah. It's a great book. And he goes, you're going in as this cheeky guy who's positive. Your shadow is going to go, go fuck yourself because you're lying. bring in that the side of yourself that you're ashamed of when you're an artist and you want to be vulnerable

you better show the side all of us are hiding because all of us have the side we don't want people to see we have a side we want people to see that's what we resent in other people because yeah because it's a spectrum yeah so have you seen some people have got it they did it and it didn't go so so yeah people have had very is it kind of you don't know not to interrupt you but is it kind of like hey it's going to show you this. It's your choice what to do after this. It is. It makes sense. It is your choice. So I would say even through those challenging experiences, generally it's, I did this. I fought it. And the reason I had, let me tell you about my story and how it can translate to other. You have like trauma and shit grown up? Yeah. I've, I've had trauma. I've had different things that have, you know,

what drives you. It's what, what shapes us. Trauma is different for everyone, right? Yeah, it means different things. Different levels of significance and all that stuff. But here's what happened to me. When I was physically, I had never felt more uncomfortable in my life. I was crawling in my fucking skin. I'm stuck in this bed. I'm obviously high as a kite, but I don't realize it. I'm grasping for control and I'm trying to fight this thing. Control freak. Versus surrender. I'm in Cancun. I think to my, in my head, I'm thinking this is all a scam. These guys are not even real doctors. Like I was psychotic and I was like they have my passport this is all a lie oh my god I'm gonna die here oh wow I need to get out of here and rather than sitting through the medicine for 12 fucking

hours with a blindfold music you exclaimed fighting it I'm just so uncomfortable do they have people that can contain you yes they you better be ready to go if I'm there they they they do here's what I realized from it I realized afterwards when I felt normal get the straps for brandon dude that's a big If I assume you're trying to kidnap me, we're going to have problems. Oh, man. You're also not going to be able to walk. Oh, really can't walk? You're like Frankenstein, dude.

Oh, wow. Yeah. You're, you're like, attacks. So it's me easy to like, I'll be there. I'll get up on, I'll get on your chest. I'll go, hey, hey, hey, take it. Take the pain and calm the fuck down. I got this.

You can't be there because I'd come to and they'd be like, you killed Brian. I'm like, what? Just, let it. Keep going those. Think about the podcast. You're good. Like, so I'm described. something that was truly like terrifying and I tried to fight it.

But is, is everyone terrified? No. No. So here's what I'm trying. Let me finish my story. Yeah. Let me tell you,

let me tell you really quick. When I came off of the drug and I, like, even the next day, I was like, I got to get out of here still. I was still under that guise. I thought I was sober. I was not sober. Oh, wow. It was later at lunch.

I went in the pool. All of a sudden I was sober and everything was magical. Like, I finally came back to reality and I was peaceful. it showed me a radical contrast of perspective. And I realized for myself that my quality of life is based on the perspective I choose to hold. It can either be terrifying and everyone's out to get me and scam me or I can have a perspective that everything is okay. I realize I'm the type of dude that can't sit for 12 hours in a room without stimulus. I'm going to look for something to have changed the way I feel or I'm going to try to physically escape.

it taught me that my perspective is one where I'm skeptical of people. People are going to take advantage of me. I have to watch my back. That's because you're in business. You should be. Right. Now, now,

one could argue that the reason you're at where you're at is that edge. So if you would have done, I began at 14 and let's say you're this, I'd probably work at Whole Foods. You're this earthy guy, like everyone's my best friend. You ain't starting to business, Bubba.

Yeah. You're always satisfied. There's very, like Deontre Water. I love him. He did ayahuasca. Now he's like, no, man, love is love. And he's just getting fucking smoked.

100%. He lost the dog. You have to have that dog. You need to be entrepreneur. Yeah. To be in business. Business is cutthroat as fuck. So I think you can do it because you're at the level you're at now.

I don't know if I'd recommend to like younger athletes, business entrepreneurs. A lot of people sell their companies. They quit business. Like I even had a lot of these thoughts. But what I realize is all that cutthroat nature and stuff. Yes, some people can act that way, but I don't have to act that way. and if that happens to me, I'm wise enough to identify it. And it doesn't need to scar my heart over from trying it again.

If somebody screws me over, it doesn't mean forever more, I'm never going to allow someone to screw me over again. No, that happened one time. I'm going to try it again. Were you watching yourself? What do you mean? Did you have sort of the idea that you were able to observe your avatar? Oh, dude.

Like, on the deepest level, I mean, it is, like, I had visions. where you're going back, it's like a life review. You're going back in 3D in witnessing memories and events that you don't even remember happened. Like when you're a kid and stuff? When you're a kid, time travel, ancestral shit, like being on a ship in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. Just whipping slaves?

Being in a, oh, shit. Oh my God. I was racist. Yeah. So whether it's ancestral. The slaves are white. So anyways, it gets. gets yeah that's just high that's that's not bad yeah that's okay just so so yeah it happens but

here's what i'm trying to say is generally the people that have challenging experience they try fighting it and while they're still high under the influence they say it's not working it didn't work i'm mad at everybody it was a scam when they finally settle the fuck down and they take some time and they just ride it out they're they're full of love compassion they look at themselves like why am I so fucking serious. I'm silly. Like my results in life come from how I care of myself, my perspective, the way I view other people. Like, am I going to have the skeptical lens? Like, what is my quality of life if I think everyone's out to get me at all time? And that lasts for how long? So the after effects of this medicine can last for months.

So they call it, it's an extremely neuroplastic drug that stores in your fat. So terminology that's used for iBegaine is a window of opportunity. So even if you're using opiates, You can be on opiates. They transition to you something fast acting like morphine. You do. Ibegain. It pushes you forward like 90 days in recovery on your physiology. So you don't go through withdrawals.

Or if you do, it's very mild. But neurochemically, it puts you three to six months ahead of where you would have to be, white knuckling it. That's huge. So it allows people to actually feel good and experience joy and install new habits. to me it felt like I downloaded a new operating system. I just find it so fascinating that there are compounds in nature and they're all over in every culture that cause you to to hallucinate and go into a different state and come out

of it with a different understanding. Like to me, that's not an accident. To me, like the fact that there are roots and funguses, mushrooms that can, and toads that you can lick that send you somewhere. else and you come out and go, I think there's a God. Like, I think there's something more than all this shit. Let's take a little break here. O'Reilly Auto Parts. You know if I need car parts. My booty is at O'Reilly's. They're in the business of keeping your car on the road. O'Reilly Auto Parts offers friendly, helpful service and parts knowledge you need for your maintenance and repairs. They've got

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It's one of the recent ones, but he went and lived with this tribe. I think it was like in Brazil or something. like that. Oh, the last scene starts with the R? I think so. And he was a guy that was Christian. He was going down to convert them into Christianity.

And he walks away being an atheist, being like, and he was like, but also these people have nothing. They have nothing, the happiest people I've ever seen. He goes, it gave me perspective like,

we're in this like rat race. Like they're not paying taxes. They don't have to deal with any society's law. They don't have to deal with any of that stuff. Are they jealous of each other? Does somebody have a cooler stick? Yeah, there's nothing. There's none of that.

Right. There's none of that. Right. There's none of that. And he said this one guy, uh, he did something. Oh, the, someone gave him like alcohol and they don't drink. They don't do any of that stuff. And he had some drinks and killed his brother's dog.

His brother loved his dog. So he goes up to him. He's like, man, and he's the guy's crying. He's like, we're going to do your brother. He's like, what do you mean? Yeah. He's like, well, your brother killed your dog. Don't you're like, fuck your brother?

Because why would I hurt my brother? I love him. And he's like, dude, we're in society. Like, we're so. It's about that's mine. Yeah, he's like, we're just, he's like, they don't even can, they're like, what? Why would I ever hurt anything? It doesn't even cross their brain.

No, he's like, because you can't, they probably feel like you can't own anything. You're just borrowing it and giving it back. Sure. Yeah, that's him, Daniel Everett. Oh, super cool. I didn't watch this one. But he talks about it. He's just like, yeah, and we're like in this rat race.

Yeah. Like we're in cities and this and it's all about this. And then these people who, you know, they, they fish for their food and they, they don't have anything reserved. he's like the happiest people you've ever seen. Zero cavities, zero health issues, shredded, lean. Nobody's obese. They play with their kids nonstop.

Bare foot. Yeah. The kids are happiest shit. The parents are constantly around the kids. Until we bring alcohol to them. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, exactly. Yeah.

Have you guys, either of you had, it doesn't have to be through like a medicine or event, but if you had stages in your life that really, I don't know, just like you internalize, internalized a lot and it sparked some significant change in your human being perspective yeah yeah what was it for you guys gain and loss yeah so you spend you spend a long time trying in life right and you you build something and you get something and it comes with a lot of great things attention status self-validation external element validation you start to win at the game that you got into and because of a thousand reasons or one reason, chaos will hit and you'll lose that.

Or you'll, it'll be very badly disrupted. Or, and then you, and then what usually happens instead of sitting with that, I'm noticing with people is that it's the, it's the reaction and compensation and the desperate need to hold on to what was there. Protecting. That causes the problem. Yeah. It's not, it's not the actual loss.

It's what you do to try to get back. to what this was without realizing that this is your lesson, that that, that you're more than what you had, that what you had probably didn't belong to you either. Interesting. Even the community you had wasn't a real community, you know, we, we do these things. You see this all the time with people. And if you don't know how to navigate that, that's when people put a gun in their mouth. This is why you see a lot of people who make a lot of money on Wall Street. There's a crash and they jump out of window because their entire identity is defined by a number. They're entire identity is defined by their standing at the country.

Their self-worth and self-value. And by the way, so is their relationship with their wife. So, you know, they are this rock. Then the wife finds out you took a bunch of shortcuts and you're ruined. You're going to jail. Boom. They'd rather kill himself. I think with mine, a little different experience than brides.

Mine was like, I always had a chip on my shoulder, right? I had this huge chip on my shoulder through sports. Where do you think that came from? I think it's a combination of things being the younger brother, have an older brother, growing up in a super hyper competitive environment with predominantly black neighborhoods. So the only way you could get attention is by being athletic.

Got it. So that was my love language or attention language. Like I had to get good at sports really bad. To be seen. And be super competitive. Also our culture. Which is a good thing. Our culture demands.

Yes and no. But then. So the chip came from that, I think, and then constantly being looked over, like my junior, or my senior year, right, I had hopes going D1, was talking to Texan, Cal, I get injured on the first play of the season, missed the whole season. Shit. So then I have to walk on. That pissed me off, right?

So that puts your chip on your shoulder. Humbling. Humbling. But then you realize, like, it's the hardest day I've ever done. And then you make a name for yourself doing that. And then getting to the. the splash in the NFL and realizing, you know, your lifelong dream, right? It's not what you thought it was going to be.

So that gets, the rug gets pulled out from underneath you. And I could have played there. I was good, man. And it just, I didn't have the same opportunities. So whatever, tough pill to swallow. Yeah. And then it was, and then also being a walk on, it was like, this can be an exact, super crazy example.

But it was almost like you were second class. Sure. So like the guy in the locker next to me would get these special cleats. I wouldn't get them. And he used to make me so upset. So upset. Yeah. But a walk-on is a pretty significant story in and of itself.

It turned me into a monster. Yeah. A fucking monster. So that work ethic from being a walk-on and then earning a scholarship, getting, you know, the accolades, eventually earning those cleats. it turned me into a monster. So then I go to the UFC and then all that. And then the sports is the chip on my shoulder.

I always had chip on my shoulder. And then when I get into comedy, I don't know, I don't know what the goal was. I don't know what the vision was. I'm making more money than ever. When I was a kid, there were certain signs that would indicate success. So cars, right?

Cars would have been a big thing for me. So this is probably, I don't know, three, four years ago, I realized I have 12 cars. A lot of trophies. Yeah, and it's like, who are you doing it for, Bubba? Like, I love cars. And I remember my dad came and I had a storage below where I keep my cars. My dad came and my dad's a big car guy. But my dad has, you know, two cars.

He's a big car guy. He has two cars, normal. And he's looking at, like, kind of bragging my dad. I'm like, look at this, dad. He's like, oh, that's cool. That's cool. I'm showing everything popping the hood and he goes how much that car I tell me I was I paid for tigers college tuition I go yeah I know and I was just like yeah right it's cool right yeah he's

he's like how much that car and he's like that would pay for billy's college tuition and I'm like oh shit man and then my baby girl has health issues I'm on the road I'm drinking all the time I'm addicted to adderall yeah and my oldest is he's getting old enough to know I was just like what the fuck notice is a difference in you uh not notice a different but just a different but just just notice like, um, like it's go time, dude. Yeah. Like, uh, when they're, when they're infants, like the dad's important, but the, the mom, you know, and then there comes a time when the, you know, you can't wake up

hungover because you were at the comedy store the night before. You can't miss his birthday because you're fucking touring in Australia. Yeah. Like, none of that stuff fucking matters, dude. And it's like, how much, how much do I need? How much, what's worth it, you know? How much is all this worth it? I'm drinking.

I'm doing an Adderall. Not being, not being a good person. man. And then I just went and then my baby girl was born with medical issues and I just went, I'm out. I'm out. I don't need whatever the 8,000 square foot house. I don't need 12 fucking cars. We've done it. Are you happy? No, man, miserable. You have a drinking problem. You're addicted Adderall. You mean a shitty human being. So that I just boom, cold turkey made the change. And it's been, yeah, three years, man. Three years. That really is the human's journey just as described. And it's interesting to find people stuck at certain stages for so long in the same loop. It's like they're

retaught the same lesson a million times until they choose to just break out of it. They just get stuck in the same level forever. Yeah, it's tough to get out of it. Yeah, because it seems like something happening to you versus something you could consciously change. Yeah. Yeah. And then the like the passion that I have for sports and in fighting, it's like you chant like you got to be careful. where that energy goes, man. Right. Now you get to see your kids do it. Correct.

Which is probably, like coach all their sports. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But then again, there's dads who played pro sports and then you'll see it all the time. They're so overwhelming with their kiddos.

I mean, where it's like, buddy, you're, well, it's part of their identity now. Yes. And no. Living through their sons.

Well, but they've done it, right? Yeah. So they've done it. So they want the same thing for their kid. Yeah. And they should know, but it's like,

buddy, you know, like, I know you mean. mean well, you're going about the wrong way. You know, like, in probably two years from now, he's even like, Dad, I don't want to play anymore. And you can be brokenhearted.

Yeah. It's not his fault. It's your fault. He's making plans for his vision alone. Yeah, exactly. In high school. You made this not fun for him, dude, at 10. Dude, there's actually a, I've been seeing commercials.

They've been using AI songs for therapy. And one of them is his dad in a car. And it's playing a song. Like, he's expressing what he learned in therapy. and it's like don't tell your son what your coach should have done that he needs to box people out it's just like take him for fucking food yeah and that's like the yeah you don't need to get so involved in it yeah it's yeah and yeah there's a because the dynamic uh that you got to figure out and i'm fortunate because i've had great coaches where it's like there's on the dad at home and then

on the field on the coach sure so when we're driving the car your dad dude like i'm not being like hey, make sure you're doing this. Make sure you do it. No, no, no. Because that's not fun for him, man. That's not fun for him. Yeah. Like, I usually don't talk about things like right till the next day.

Hey, what do you think of the game, dude? What's good? You've done better, dude. That's good. Smart. You wait a day. Yeah. That's where the experience comes in.

Yeah. And then I'll see dads who have never played and just tearing into their son. I'm like, oh, buddy. Yeah. God, you're doing it wrong, man. We have that unique perspective of going through all those stages yourself, too. So that's cool. Yeah, but then there's also, don't get me wrong, there's times like, especially in baseball, football, not too much when baseball, where you get so frustrated.

Yeah. Like, dude, he's, first of all, he's 10. Like, he still sleeps with a fucking teddy bear. Yeah. And you're yelling at this kid because he can't hit a curveball. Yeah. You know? So, dude, don't get around.

There's times where you're fucking frustrated. You get in the game. He's 10. Yeah. It's fucking 10, dude. Chill out. Yeah. That's awesome.

Yeah, that's weird, man. Yeah. It's a weird journey. Being human. Well, it's one continuous mistake. Yeah? Like, you will always keep making mistakes and you keep adjusting. And you'll look back on 10 years and go, damn, if I had only known this then.

But there are guideposts. And the reason guideposts have been there forever, let's just take one of the reasons people go to church, remind themselves of the guideposts that have been there for 2,500 years or whatever it might be, right? You check in with those ancient wisdoms. It's a framework. Well, also, that's what the classics in education are for. Young people are starving for answers. Part of the reason that a lot of these stories last forever is because they have messages that resonate with everyone's psychic structures and life experience, regardless of your culture

or where you come from. Okay? It's you're going to face challenges. Here's how you might want to navigate them. And this is definitely how you don't navigate them. And it's also a good thing. The more challenges, the more conflict, probably better. if you can be resilient enough to

hand it. Every great story that you ever seen. A tragedy is a main character who doesn't learn from the lessons. Yeah. A great drama, even a great comedy is the guy has his way of doing things, fuck everybody else.

And then in the end, he goes, ah, I got to do the right thing. Yeah, there's no good movie where he's just crushing the entire two hours

of the movie. You're like, all right. Yeah. Yeah. But when he's crushed it, but if he's crushing the entire, he's usually a selfish fuck.

He's got everything. And he has to learn to think about somebody else for the first time. Right. Those are the famous shallow hell. Yeah. Or Rain Man.

I don't know if you remember with Tom Cruise and Dustin, Dustin Hoff, and Dustin Hoffen plays an autistic guy. Oh, yeah. And Tom Cruise, the fucking dude is about cars and everything else. And he's stuck with this dude. And he's like,

what the fuck am I doing with this crazy? Then he sees his opportunity. Yeah, but then he realized. He learns a lesson. He learns a lesson from the guy. A hundred percent. It's so great. It's a cool journey.

Or you see. you see somebody who seems like they've got it all together in the movie and then there's a moment of truth and they and they you realize that they're weak that they're cowards that they're all about themselves and the wife for the first time is a famous famous play called the doll's house she sees him for the first time and he goes I'm saved he didn't say we're saved I'm saved my reputation saved Jesus and she just goes like this she goes because at first when he found out she forged something to make to raise money for him he goes you you've ruined us you you're a criminal and instead of she was looking for him to say you should have said i'll take the

fall we're in this together right you're my wife of eight years my mother of my three children and he doesn't he goes you've ruined this you're you're a stranger and then he finds out that the guy who is holding that against him burns the iow you he burns it so he goes we're saying i'm saved i'm saved and she looks at him the last line to play he goes but but we're married she goes i have to go i have to leave because but i can help you and she goes i don't take help from strangers oh cool dude but it's so powerful because you go and and he's just left like this and you go you put your own reputation and your social standing above the woman that you fuck the mother of your children yeah it's image i know i know i know this all the time my quality life has gotten so much better

when i because i've always been a high performer right and willing to do whatever it takes. And a lot of that is just significant self abuse to get the motivation. Right. So I just, my life got so much better when I took the approach of I'm going to do my very fucking best at whatever information or knowledge I have at this point in time. I'm going to try to acquit myself. But I'm not going to be so fixated on the end result. Like, it's not a judgment. Do you remember the movie? Do you remember a TV show West Wing, the West Wing? Yeah. So I did that show. I was on a, I did an episode, and it was supposed to be an actual arc, but I'm with Martin Sheen, Martin Sheen. Yeah.

And the cast, and we're eating lunch. And there was a movie called Guilty by Suspitation with Robert De Niro. It was about the McCarthy era. Okay. When they said, give up the names of the people you went to meetings with. And he would go to these comedies meetings and argue with him. It's based on a true story, David Merrill, who's a director, and he got blackballed in Hollywood, because he wouldn't rat.

Yeah. Right? And I said, and, but, you know, dude, in the movie, like, he loses his fucking career he's got a kid. He came by his kid a bicycle. Because he's just kidding and he never worked again. Because he can't rat. He said, I'm not going to do this. You because you should. There's a famous. You can see it. It's the actual thing in McCarthy area. He goes, shame on you. You know, I am an American. You don't have the right to make me speak. I'm not going to turn people in. I was kicked out of those meetings for arguing.

I'm not a communist. Yeah. But you're, you're compelling me to tell on people. That's not the American way. And I said to Martin Sheen, we were talking about the movie. And I go, you never know how you're going to behave in those situations. And Martin Sheem was eating and he's older than me. I never forget this. He goes, yeah, you do. Yeah, you do. And when you behave properly or you behave improperly, it just confirms who you've been all along. Sure. I fucking never forgot that. I go, no matter what, dude, when the shit, when the chips are against me, I am going to behave the way I, the way I admire. My biggest fear is I'm going to be a coward when the, when the chip. That's my biggest fear is that I'm a bitch. It's integrity. But it's also like I'm so terrified of being a

coward. I'm so terrified of that. It would have shown by and you're 60. It would have shown. But you know what I'm saying though? You never know. But then you get put into certain situations and you know, who are you, motherfucker? Let's see. That's that's the opportunity of anybody's going to anything. If you go through any cancer, well, I don't care what it is. It gives you an opportunity to show yourself and the people around you that you love who you were the whole time. Like you know what I it's a character test. What's that guy who said when you squeeze a lemon, when you squeeze an orange, right?

What comes out? Orange juice. And it's like when a human being, yeah, when a human being gets squeezed, what comes out is shit, is cowardice, your lower side, your petty side, that's who you were. But when you get squeezed under pressure

and what comes out is the hero, the motherfucker who says, I'll take the fall for you because you're my wife or whatever it might be. That's who you were. That's who you were. And you have to convince you. your soul, in my opinion, to be that person.

Sure. That's what I really believe. You got to get your values straight in an order, right? Be a fighter. Be a fighter. If I squeeze him right now and I've done it. What's coming out? Jitzo-wise.

You know what comes out? Testosterone. Test stuff? Yeah. This thing doesn't move. Otherwise, I'd show you, but it doesn't move. That's awesome, boys. What else you got planned out here, brother?

So we're out here for the Austin Fit Fest doing some other podcasts and the awesome Fitt Fest on Saturday and Sunday. Excited to have you out representing. Showing people. I'll be in a sleeveled shirt. You guys want this? I saw your poster, dude. You know what I'm saying?

You know this little thing. People are asking if that's natural. I know. They're asking if that's real. Yeah. Yeah, it's real. The myel statin inhibitors. Yeah, dude.

Yeah, we're going to be out there. Come say what's up to us at the booth. I'm going to have my team members out there. Great people. I'm excited. He's got a little jiu-jitsu. Have you seen this guy? Phil's going to be out there commentating on the MMA fights.

They've got a bunch of different events. Have you guys seen this guy in Austin on the lake? He's got a jiu-jitsu mat, a floating jiu-jitsu. Oh, no shit. They're doing that, though. He's a brown belt. Floating jiu-kidzu, car jiu-jitsu is bananas. And what's he just asked bystanders to grapple him on the mat?

Yeah, and he wrestles 40 times a day on the mat. What's he where? People come buying crazy shape. Yeah, he's a brown belt. He's a brown. He's a brown. Oh,

but he's, he beats everybody up. He just brings up there all day. Yeah, yeah, he's out. He just hangs out there. Waiting for motherfuckers. He's half homeless, you know. He's filming it?

What's that? He's filming it? Oh, yeah. He's half homeless, but he seems like a great guy. I don't know if he's like 48 years old. This reminds me of Facebook back in the day. I was doing strong man and we would get messages from men saying,

hey, come. I'll pay you a couple hundred bucks. Lift me over your head. Yeah. He might be getting something out of this. Chichita on it, just floating a floating mat. Lake Travis. In Austin.

Just put in Austin. Did you see this like on TikTok or something? Yeah. He went and wrestled him. Yeah, Brian's like, I got my ass well. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's great. This guy?

Yeah, that guy, I think. Oh, hilarious. It's awesome. He's cleaning the mats, you know. Barton Springs. That's all. I think we're going to. to be out there on Friday evening too.

There you go. Jeez. And he's fucking everybody up. Which is a floating mat in the middle of Barton Springs. Oh yeah, he's at the river. Scrapping. Come on, dude.

You got to love that. Well, I got good news for you. Girls are grabbing. This weekend, Saturday, Sunday, and Monday. That's... So I went to the river. Like, the first time I saw you guys, what, it was in June?

That was my first time in Austin. We went down the river to Barton Springs. I got to tell you. Austin is not what I expected. It is like Detroit people, hipster white guys, huff and nitrous, with their tops off.

Really? Dude. At the bar in springs. Oh, yeah, it was wild. Bro, that's,

that is like, everybody's like, everybody's doing something. Or go to the jitzyzs, or go to the Instagram. Aqua Jits. Yeah, go down to his Instagram.

Yeah. You got to show up, dude. I know, man. I might have to. This guy's great. This guy's great.

He's just a gypsy. I didn't mean he's homeless. He's just a gypsy. Yeah, watch this. Look at him. This is just someone that posted about it. This is Eric Buck, or I like to call him the Barnes Springs Brown Belt. He's out here every day all summer,

scrapping with random strangers out here in Austin, Texas. This is Aqua Jitz. I'm set up here every weekend, and I don't turn anybody away who has any kind of background and full contact, whether it be rugby, lacrosse, jitzy, football. As long as you're sober, well put together. What's the Aqua Jitz? rule set. Okay, so in awkward, there's

no kick here punching, like Zuckerberg's fucking, you try to copy my shit. So it's only tap out or splash out. There's no slapping on the platform. Tap out or splash out. Why did you start awkward jits? What was the inspiration behind me? I wanted to break up the

monotomy and traditional jihitsu. It's cool. It's great. Swatina on a sumo rule level of the playing field when it comes to experience levels. So the dominant winner is in the higher rank bell with the crazy leg locks and any problem. How do you keep this thing aflo? You're out here every single day.

What is the inspiration and the reason that keeps you out here scrapping with strangers every single day? Oh, man, it's my passion and what I've been the rest of my life doing. All it is is four talents, four eight-plettlets, and they're just kept afloat by those towbans. It's just the Boy Scout project that I refined. I'm doing this because someone had to. and I saw how to vision and yesterday that vision came to British and when I saw these

Houston nights eight of them. We had a eight, we had a ten man world rumble on that platform right now. All right, about how many people a day do you think you scrap with on this platform? Oh, yesterday shoot man, there must have been about 40 matches that went down.

Dude, his next level. Oh, yeah. Yeah, I bet's interesting. Good for him. I mean, yeah. And you better be. good i bet you he's throwing everybody off yeah legit yeah whatever his background is i think he's uh he's yeah clearly do you still train as well juditsu or not not a ton only when i grab him

do you do no gee or gee no gee no gee yeah yeah yeah i i got my bluebell from hensso and gie oh awesome time ago but i love uh i love so i've trained on and off and i've trained a lot more this year Gee, no ghee. No ghee is, because I don't, I don't really know jujitsu. I know how to, like, wrestle and grapple people. That's why I like no ghee more. But it's why I'm just a one-stripe white belt. I never wrestled.

No. I love it. I did strength sports, like strong man and stuff like that. Yeah. We have some really good guys here in Austin. Yeah. Sometimes the Tacket twins come in and they'll just teach you stuff. It's just fun.

That's why I moved down to Florida to be with Phil. So he's been coaching me. We'll roll, do some groups. That's cool. It's farm. Yeah, Daru. Daru is a strong kid.

Oh, he is. He's a mutant. Yeah. Doesn't sleep. He doesn't eat. Photosyntheses all of his nutrients. God. He's doing the damn thing.

Well, man, people can see at the Austin Fit Fest. Yeah. Yeah. Come see us. Merrick Health booth. We're going to have a lot of our team members out there,

health coaches, some special guests. Come meet us. Say what's up. Oh, just dancing too? They got everything. They have everything.

It's massive, dude. Massive. Yeah. It's a lot of. I'm not to get into the strong man stuff. Some of the jiu-jitsu stuff. I won't be doing any of that. The Kill Tony band's going to be closing it out.

Yeah. Yeah. Damn. It'd be fun. Well, sweet, brother. We appreciate you, man. Thanks to stopping by. Yeah.

Thanks so much for having me on. Being a part of the Merrick team, guys. Mike Stratten. Baby. Mike's strapped, Stratton. Hello, and welcome to Pluto foe. If you know the name of the movie you'd like to see, just stream it for free on Pluto TV.

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