The One You Feed - Russell Simmons

Episode Date: June 1, 2016

This week we talk to Russell Simmons about being a giver   Russell Simmons is an American entrepreneur and author. He began his entrepreneurial career in his youth, but on the wrong side of the law, selling marijuana to make money while an active member of a local gang. He then partnered with Rick Rubin to create Def Jam Records, and signed artists like the Beastie Boys, LL Cool J, Public Enemy and Run-D.M.C. He is also The Chairman and CEO of Rush Communications, he cofounded the hip-hop music label Def Jam Recordings and created the clothing fashion lines Phat Farm, Argyleculture, and Tantris. He is also a vocal proponent of meditation and veganism. His latest book is called The Happy Vegan: A Guide to Living a Long, Healthy, and Successful Life In This Interview, Russell Simmons and I Discuss: The One You Feed parable How good givers are great getters Giving before you get Dissociating ourselves from the results of our labors How success and fame don't necessarily make us happy Improving our health through veganism Improving the health of the planet through veganism Corporate greed The horrors of factory farming His experience with Occupy Wall Street The corruption in politics His daily yoga practice Combining yoga, meditation, and veganism Remaining useful and active as we age For more show notes visit our websiteSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

I believe that we are servants and that we benefit by giving. Good givers are great getters and that you give before you get. And this idea of getting without giving is a shortcut, but ultimately doesn't promote happiness. Welcome to The One You Feed. Throughout time, great thinkers have recognized the importance of the thoughts we have. Quotes like garbage in, garbage out, or you are what you think ring true. And yet, for many of us, our thoughts don't strengthen or empower us. We tend toward negativity, self-pity, jealousy, or fear. We see what we don't have instead of what we do. We think things that hold us back and dampen our spirit. But it's not just about thinking.

Our actions matter. It takes conscious, consistent, and creative effort to make a life worth living. This podcast is about how other people keep themselves moving in the right direction. How they feed their good wolf. Hey y'all, I'm Dr. Joy Harden Bradford, host of Therapy for Black Girls. This January, join me for our third annual January Jumpstart series. Starting January 1st, we'll have inspiring conversations to give you a hand in kickstarting your personal growth. If you've been holding back or playing small, this is your all-access pass to step fully into the possibilities of the new year. Listen to Therapy for Black Girls

starting on January 1st on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Thanks for joining us. Our guest on this episode is Russell Simmons, an American entrepreneur and author. Russell began his entrepreneurial career in his youth, but on the wrong side of the law, selling marijuana to make money while being an active member of a local gang.

He then partnered with Rick Rubin to create Def Jam Records and signed artists like the Beastie Boys, LL Cool J, Public Enemy, and Run DMC. He is also the chairman and CEO of Rush Communications and created the clothing fashion lines Fat Farm, Argyle Culture, and Tantris. What many people may not realize is he is also a vocal proponent of meditation and veganism. His latest book is called The Happy Vegan, a guide to living a Long, Healthy, and Successful Life. Here's the interview. Hi, Russell. Welcome to the show. Thank you for having me. So our podcast is called The One You Feed, and it's based on the parable of two wolves

that you may have heard before. In the parable, there's a grandfather who's talking with his grandson, and he says, in life, there are two wolves inside of us that are always at battle. One is a good wolf, represents things like kindness and bravery and love. And the other is a bad wolf, which represents things like greed and hatred and fear. And the grandson stops and he thinks about it for a second. He looks up at his grandfather and he says, grandfather, which one wins? And the grandfather says, the one you feed. So I'd like to start this interview off by asking you what that parable means to you in your life and in the work that you do. Well, I believe that we are servants and that we benefit by giving. Good givers are great getters before you get.

And this idea of getting without giving is a shortcut, but ultimately doesn't promote happiness. without giving is a shortcut, but ultimately doesn't promote happiness. So I feed the one that is kind and compassionate and the rest because I want return to me kindness and compassion as much as I can. I'm not enlightened. I struggle, but I try to do the right thing because I feel like that's not only as a trade with the world, but as a gift to the world, because I believe the freedom from even being attached to the result of it is a good thing. I also believe that good givers that are not concerned or attached to result are greater givers, and then in the end, ultimately become greater getters. So that's just, even the more you disassociate yourself with the results of your labor, the fruits of your labor, the more that they come in.

You know, you've seen the Indian deity Lakshmi, this idea of just, she's giving all the time, but there's all these jewels at her feet. Because good givers are great getters, and those who focus only on their work without regard for the fruit of their work are better at their work. Just practically, you know, from a practical level, you know, you go to work, put your head down, you focus on your work, you'll have good result. Focusing on what you get is, you know, you have no control over it. So we'll go into your latest book is called The Happy Vegan, and we'll go into that in just a minute. But there was something you were saying, as you were introducing that book that I wanted to bring up, you were talking about, you know, why do we see so many successful and famous people sort of adopting the vegan lifestyle? And you said that, you know, there's a dirty little secret about

success and fame, they don't necessarily make you happy. And that people are searching for a deeper meaning in their life. And that's why you see a lot of people you think headed towards a vegan diet. Well, I think the same thing happens with people who don't have a lot of stuff. They have to evolve. They have to accept the condition that they're in. And a lot of people just accept it. And that acceptance is a bit of freedom some people have to have extreme to realize that those things don't cause happiness anyway well people have in the middle mostly the happiest and don't have to make transition so much they just kind of learn to be happy with what they have mostly in amer America what they have is enough to create their own happiness and even the poor they don't need stuff either but they're told they're poor they're told they're struggling

you know even with the light bulb even with the you know all the cable except HBO even with whatever they do have you know it's like they don't have enough and so're told that, so that kind of weighs on them if they let it. Just like the rich are told they have everything, and then that weighs the fuck out of them because they're like, what is this? Like I have everything and I have nothing. You know, I'm not happy. So those two struggle the most, the people who think that the rich,

the new toy will make them happy, continuously suffer, and those people who have nothing and complain that they need more stuff, continuously suffer. But it's all about, you know, it's all inside. It's nothing. On the outside, it can create happiness. It's an inside job. We'll talk a little bit about your book before this was about meditation. So we'll get into that. That's a topic we cover a lot on the show. But I wanted to tell you a story about the happy vegan before we got started. So about, I don't know, we've been doing the show for about two years, about a year and a half ago, we had a guy on named Rich Roll. I don't know if you're familiar with him. He's a vegan ultra

endurance athlete. Yes, I heard about him. Yeah. And so I took his I took he challenged me to do 30 days vegan. And so I did 30 days vegan. And I stayed doing it for, I don about him, yeah. Yeah, and so I took his – he challenged me to do 30 Days Vegan. And so I did 30 Days Vegan, and I stayed doing it for, I don't know, probably about a year. But about the last six months, I've kind of fallen off. I've been – haven't been eating animals, but I've been dairy, eggs, et cetera. I read your book on the plane out and immediately decided, like, I'm back on. Like, I need to get back to where I was. It was very – I found it to be, given that I was close anyway,

I found it really compelling and made me sort of recommit to that practice. Oh, good. I'm glad for that. Listen, no one's absolute. There's an egg in your noodle, you know, or whatever. It could be a piece of fish off your friend's plate. You took a bite. People, some people need to be absolute, you know, to practice something. But I believe that a vegan diet is healthier for the planet and the people of the planet, right? That's not a belief system. That's just fact. And I want to share it with people. And the more

people that become vegan, you know, the more likely you want to share it with people. And the more people that become vegan, the more likely we are to survive as a species. And the more likely that the planet will survive that a lot of other species cannot survive on it, right? But we're certainly killing off so many species. And what we are doing with cows alone, so abusive. It has everything to do, in my mind, with corporate greed and our lack of control of the corporations and their control of our government. The freedom to exploit our resources, to poison our people, is what corporations have. They have so much corporate welfare. $300 billion to make the cost of meat cheap. And this is a PETA study, $17 million for vegetables. So this warped system where we pay

tax dollars and those tax dollars are given to corporations that poison us, poison the planet, and commit the worst atrocities, are part of the worst comic disaster in the history of the world. And that's our government. So people think that our government is protecting us, when in fact, they are poisoning us. In the the book you talk about the 65 billion animals is it yearly i mean depending on how you look at it it's a hundred it's a big number the big number 65 billion is the number i mean it's 100 billion it's certainly 10 billion the factory farmed animals in america is the number that people go for yeah um and and you callions of animals birth into the worst suffering or the best practices factories can come up with to manufacture their flesh or their actions, whether they lay eggs, whatever they can

do to a dairy cow to get milk out of it, electrocute it, let it live its own feces. As long as the tube around it doesn't really pollute the milk. It's disgusting what they do. It's horrific. It's illegal to film it. It's not illegal to go in my workplace and film. It's not illegal to go in a nuclear facility and film. It's not illegal to go anywhere in the workplace and film except a factory farm. Right. It's horrible. I mean, it's like they're poisoning the people and pulling the wool over their eyes and they just keep it moving like it's nothing. It's why I occupied. The reason you occupy Wall Street is because the people no longer control this government, it's the money. And that is the reason that they're able to make manufacture lives in the fashion in which they do, short lives in the fashion in which they do, short lives in the fashion in which they do,

because they're paying for play. And the congressmen and senators, they can't do nothing but take the money. Shut up. You know, even the presidents. One good thing Trump said, he said one good thing. Money corrupts good people. He looked around. He's the only one not controlled, right?

He said that. It was like one good thing he said, because he gets free press. I mean, he couldn't afford He's the only one not controlled, right? He said that. It was like one good thing he said because he gets free press. I mean, he couldn't afford to buy the press. So he gets free press, so he's able to say, I'm free. And that freedom may make him say stuff that's shocking to America, maybe even progressive ideas. It's scary, but that's a different discussion. But the real truth is Hillary Clinton can't say that.

Right. Yeah. So we're talking about an ongoing process where our government is controlled by money. Hey, y'all. I'm Dr. Joy Harden Bradford, host of Therapy for Black Girls. And I'm thrilled to invite you to our January Jumpstart series for the third year running. All January, I'll be joined by inspiring guests who will help you kickstart your personal growth with actionable ideas and real conversations.

We're talking about topics like building community and creating an inner and outer glow. I always tell people that when you buy a handbag, it doesn't cover a childhood scar. You know, when you buy a jacket, it doesn't reaffirm what you love about the hair you were told not to love. So when I think about beauty, it's so emotional because it starts to go back into the archives of who we were, how we want to see ourselves and who we know ourselves to be and who we can be. So a little bit of past, present and future all in one idea, soothing something from the past. And it doesn't have to be always an insecurity. It can be something that you love.

All to help you start 2025 feeling empowered and ready. Listen to Therapy for Black Girls starting on January 1st on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Jason Alexander. And I'm Peter Tilden and together on the Really No Really podcast our mission is to get the true answers to life's baffling questions like

why they refuse to make the bathroom door go all the way to the floor we got the answer will space junk block your cell signal the astronaut who almost drowned during a spacewalk

gives us the answer we talk with the scientist who figured out if your dog truly loves you and the one bringing back the woolly mammoth. Plus, does Tom Cruise really do his own stunts? His stuntman reveals the answer. And you never know who's going to drop by. Mr. Bryan Cranston is with us today. How are you, too? Hello, my friend. Wayne Knight about Jurassic Park. Wayne Knight, welcome to Really, No Really, sir. Bless you all. Hello, Newman.

And you never know when Howie Mandel might just stop by to talk about judging. Really? That's the opening? Really No Really. Yeah, really. No really. Go to reallynoreally.com. And register to win $500, a guest spot on our podcast, or a limited edition signed Jason

Bobblehead. It's called Really No Really, and you can find it on the iHeartRadio app, on Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. and you can find it on the iHeartRadio app, on Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. You're a big proponent of meditation. Your previous book was about meditation, and you said in The Happy Vegan that meditation by itself is great, yoga by itself is great, veganism by itself is great, but when you combine the three of those, it's sort of like a turbo charge.

I think so. I mean, I look, I meditate daily. I go to yoga every single day, God sends. Even when I'm traveling or whatever, I find the yoga practice, heated yoga for me these days, last four or five years. But you put them all together, it's part of a process to reduce the speed at which you age. New science evidence says you not only reduce it,

but that you turn it back some. This is like Deepak Chopra sent me all this research about how the cells that close up start to open up again and grow again through practices like meditation and then even yoga. So those are the things that reverse the aging process. So it's a pretty phenomenal find to put these things together. For me, it's been, you know, life-saving. If you look at the picture of me 30 years ago, I don't look so good.

37 years ago, I don't look so good. 30-something years ago, I looked twisted. So I can honestly say that lifestyle matters and genetics are not the key. They told Bill Clinton that genetics, your heart's fucked up. That's just who you are. He said no, and he went on a vegan diet and he reversed the process and he feels great now. And that's an amazing shift for him. The doctors were wrong. And that's a big deal. The best doctors were wrong. And it turned out that the obvious, which all nutritionists, modern nutritionists and the China study and all these other research information is right. You know, doctors don't know nothing anyway. They don't study any nutrition at all. Right. Yeah. The point you made in the book about President Clinton is if there was a better way,

if there was a better pill or better procedure, you know he'd get it because he's President Clinton. The fact that he chose a vegan diet shows kind of it's the best approach. Well, it's the best that I'm aware of. And I'm very happy to share it. I mean, the money goes to charity. I don't do this for self-gain. I love the idea. So it's self-gain. It is something. I mean, I like the idea.

People are walking up and saying, your book made me happier, made me happier. That's the thing. Changed my life, made me happier. Everybody says that about my previous book. The last book, as you point out, was a good book. I mean, Oprah said it was the best book on the subject. And it was 17 weeks on the bestseller list. So it was a significant kind of distribution, accomplishment, whatever, right? So I wrote that book and everybody says that about that. Super rich, same thing. Do you,

same thing. Those books made you happier. This book will save your life. So it's even more important. If we could start, imagine if we got hot. I mean, I'm sure I'd catch hell. I'm sure that factory farming industry ain't going to just let me talk about them. So I'm going to try to live a clean life. I've already tried my best for the last 58 years, trying to be a pretty decent human being. Probably extra clean now. I got traffic lights, all that shit, because they want me. They're not going to be happy. It's like the NRA doesn't like me very much. I was, at one point, on their list. I was very proud to know that.

They're a little different. I mean, they don't know. But you're talking, you know, you're talking 300. Do American taxpayers know that it equals about $300 billion? This is Peter's report. I got to get reports from everybody because, you know, everything I say should be documented or they'll sue me for it, or we can prove it later. But it's expensive to do that. But anyway, I don't want to be in a lawsuit with, you know, but it's true. Factory farming is poisoning America. The factory

farming industry is poisoning America and the American government is subsidizing that process. They're giving money to them and not to the vegetable industry. And, you know, that's good for the pharmaceutical companies, I guess. It just all feeds, it's all money. It's all bullshit. It's all money. And I want people to open up, make choices on their own, and build something different. What motivates you now?

You've been incredibly successful, right? You don't have to be working, and yet here you are, talking earlier about you keep long days every day, lots of stuff going on. Not every single day, no. I'm going to make yoga and meditation. I'm really basically, look, my girlfriend took a day off. She's supposed to be shooting today. She's not.

She's just hanging the fuck out. So we're hanging, right? She's heard all this shit like a lot, took a day off. She's supposed to be shooting today. She's not. She's just hanging the fuck out. So we're hanging, right? Mm-hmm. She's heard all this shit like a lot, like a hundred times. Say again, my sister's heard this shit her whole life. She's like sick of hearing it. I could do the interviews alone. That's right.

You did good. You did part of the interviews today. That's right. They were asking her on Hot 97 or the Breakfast Club, the hip-hop radio show. Like, well, what do you think? But anyway, and they filmed that too, by the way, so your mother will see that. Anyway, in Australia, your mother will see that. So, I mean, it's just an important gift, you know.

I mean, I said a good gift is a great gift. You don't give until you go. So that, to me, is very important. You know, give until you go. Lion said, who's that minister? I was going to quote Farrakhan. The lion doesn't stop fighting until he stops eating, stops hunting, whatever. Talking about old people. He has a speech to old people about keep doing it until you check out. You got to keep giving until you're gone. You want, you want to stay useful. Right?

I'm building all kinds of new fun shit to do. Building a yoga studio. Getting Oprah to meditate was a big deal because she got other people to meditate. That's the thing about celebrity. You know, it's kind of funny. I still have so much of it at this age. And I speak to young people. My daughter, she's always embarrassed by me. But her friends, and she's only 15,

but her friends in Switzerland are like, oh, Russell's the godfather of hip-hop. She's like, I can't stand this shit. Like she can't take that I know her friends. You know, I'm like, I'm not dead yet. So I can talk to young people. I talk to people, you know, almost as old as I am I can talk to, right? So I get to use my voice to make a difference. Celebrity is a very valuable tool in politics, in social and political issues that matter to underserved communities. So I keep doing it. and energy maintaining all parts of our lives, our finances, our health, our homes, all that stuff, that we spend no time maintaining what would arguably be our greatest asset, our mind,

and that meditation is a way to do that. Absolutely. Well, to reboot your mind is important. 20 minutes, fine. Let the mind settle. The nervous system calm. Thoughts come and they go. Some of the thoughts that come, you're surprised to know that they're not so troublesome when you see them from a distance. So you get to do inventory. And then you have real quiet moments. And then the brain, the left and the right side of the brain connect. They stop disconnecting at eight years old. They start reconnecting when we meditate.

The gray matter in the brain grows. You can see it on a scanner. In eight weeks of regular meditation, more gray matter in the brain. That's amazing. Your memory, your immune system, there's so many benefits to meditation. They've known for thousands of years, but now we have scientific proof of all the things I'm saying. So there's no reason not to.

There's no reason not to. It's for well-being, it's for health, you want to be happy, you know, happiness is the number one thing you get for meditation, because you're only happy when the mind is settled, the seconds a joke hits you, right, even if you're troubled, the joke hits you, all the future and the past disappears, you giggle, right, because you forgot all that bullshit. Single-pointed focus, why you have a mantra and it's the only focus. You know, you get hundreds of thoughts out of your mind and get one.

You know, the idea of none is, you know, seldom happens, but you get one thought. Anything, a corpse, a sunset, anything is beautiful when you're free from the noisy mind and the fear and anxiety that goes along with all the noise. Hey, y'all. I'm Dr. Joy Harden Bradford, host of Therapy for Black Girls. And I'm thrilled to invite you to our January Jumpstart series for the third year running. All January, I'll be joined by inspiring guests who will help you kickstart your personal growth with actionable ideas and real conversations. We're talking about topics like building community and creating an inner and

outer glow. I always tell people that when you buy a handbag, it doesn't cover a childhood scar. You know, when you buy a jacket, it doesn't reaffirm what you love about the hair you were told not to love. So when I think about beauty, it's so emotional because it starts to go back into the archives of who we were, how we want to see ourselves and who we know ourselves to be and who we can be. So a little bit of past, present and future, all in one idea, soothing something from the past. And it doesn't have to be always an insecurity. It can be something that you love. All to help you start 2025 feeling empowered and ready. Listen to Therapy for Black Girls starting on January 1st on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

You've mentioned in the inventory process, or in the meditation process, I'd not heard this before, about there being two phases. And the first you call the taking inventory phase before you go into more of the deeper mind phase. Can you describe what that is? If you close your mind, if you close your eyes at first, you try to think of everything at once. You have no thoughts. But if you quiet your mind a little bit and thoughts come and you get to examine them, they're not like one in a hundred thoughts that are racing through your mind. It just comes through to see the thought.

It's not, that ain't shit. I won't be here long. Things that kill you, like, that ain't shit. What do you think? And the answer is not going to be here long because Because you see how quickly it passes on to a new thought. So this idea that this will pass, or this idea that without emotion you can make a decision maybe, that may be a better decision, or innovation comes from stillness. So maybe you have a creative idea.

It's important. Do that work. Let the brain settle and decide on how it feels about all the crap that's running through it. And then let the brain settle and not worry about the crap at all. Let the brain settle. And, you know, wake up. When you open your eyes, you know you can start over begin again you know you can only start from an empty mind if not samskara yogis refer to the cycle of the same

negative behavior but in order to be brand new to begin again to begin again you have to be present. What led you to meditation and yoga in the first place? Like, I was the only dude. Like, it was like 20-something years ago. Like, me and Bobby Srava and like 58 girls, two gay guys. And it was like, after the first class, I was addicted. I was teaching with Steve Ross in L.A. And I played Fuck the Police and all these cool songs. And it was fun.

Loud yoga class. He had been a monk. He's a raw foodist for 40 years now. And he's a very dedicated yogi. But he has this fun class. Still teaches it. Fun, loud class. And I don't go to it as much, but he's a great teacher.

He was my first teacher. And I went, Emma Watts, who's now, he was my intern. Now she's the head of Fox Pictures. I'm begging her to green light my movies. But that's just typical of a lot of stuff that's happened to me. I'm trying to get Brett Ratner to finance my movies while I'm at it. Asking Leo O'Connor,

can I borrow his artists? It's nice. I've seen a lot of shit. A lot of people become successful around me. But anyway, Emma Watts took us. Took Bobby Shriver and myself. Bobby's best friend at his wedding. He didn't marry Emma. She was his girlfriend.

And I went to class, and I fell in love with it after that one class. And that led then to meditation, which then led to veganism. No, yes, meditation and then vegan diet, yeah. But when I moved to New York, I started practicing Jivamukti yoga. They were all vegan. They're hardcore. And that's what I'm building at Tantris, a yoga studio in LA at Soho House with people with big mouths. Teaching Oprah to meditate, teaching Ellen DeGeneres to meditate, getting teachers for people like that. Katy Perry, I saw her last night. She, Bob Roth. I don't know if I sent to Bob Roth or I said Russell Brand.

You know, I mean, I sent a lot of people, these teachers, and these teachers transformed these people. These people got big mouths. And then they tell everybody. Right. You know, and then the world shifted. So now I'm building a yoga studio, but not a regular yoga studio, a center for, because a regular yoga studio would be very little

physical practice, but there's no such thing in America. But the asana studio I'm going to build is going to have a lot of, it's going to be a center for yogic science so that we'll have themes, we'll have a slightly more spiritual, since we are spiritual beings with physical bodies, we'll remind people of that more often than not. We'll play Krishna Das and Kanye West. It's going to be fun, but I'm excited to build a studio that I think teaches more yogic science than just an asana practice. Yeah, the pose is a small part of yoga, as you must know. What do you think that the meditation and yoga give you on a daily

basis? You are very busy, but yet you're incredibly committed to those two things every day. Well, I think that, like right now, my schedule is what it is. I still have time for meditation, yoga, and sleep. I need six hours or six and a half hours or seven hours now. I'm old. I really need six hours, which I used to not need it. I need it. I need my six hours, my meditation, my yoga, and something to eat. I mean, that's it. I don't need, I mean, and I don't mind talking to you. I mean, it's not hard. I'm not swinging a sledgehammer.

No. We ain't doing shit here. We sitting in chairs. So I got yoga at seven now. I like to have it early, but I have it when I get it. And you think that just to. You're not going to go to yoga. I'm going to run. That's my yoga. That's my meditation. Well, that I have it when I get it. And you think that just to— You're not going to go to yoga. I'm going to run.

That's my yoga. That's my meditation. Well, that's good. You'll do both. Because she booked it for you. I was like, well, I'm going to go. One last question and then we'll wrap up. What do you think the lesson that has taken you the longest to learn in your life is?

I'm still learning so many lessons. I learned—I think the best thing i learned was i like morning meditation better than late night drinking and drugs so i took a lot of fucking drugs oh my god there's no drugs they made i didn't take they had new shit i didn't get a chance to take because i've been sober for so long yeah like i never really tried crystal meth i'm i missed that boat but i tried smoked a lot of angel dust which is close yeah so I learned that sobriety is more fun when seeking yoga. Because when you think about yoga, seeking yoga, it's seeking a quiet mind. It comes from a lot of different places, right?

Yeah. Some is real yoga. Some is really running and meditating and really doing healthy things that quiet the mind. And some things just fuck up the mind. Just cloudy or clarity. I learned that clarity is greater. Because you're looking for happiness, it's only when the mind is quiet or numb. There's a second of, oh shit, I feel great.

Because your brain's not fucking moving. But the noise of the mind, the fluctuation of the mind, the cause of all the suffering. And we want to stop the fluctuations. And so these are the practices that are healthy, that slow the fluctuations of the mind. And when the mind is still, everything unravels. The universe unravels when the mind is still.

Not my quote, that's Maharishi, but it's true. Excellent. Well, thank you so much for taking the time to come on the show, and thank you for helping me get recommitted to something that had been important and kind of slipped away. Well, I'm glad. Thank you. Okay. Bye. you can learn more about russell simmons and this podcast at one you feed.net slash russell