The Sevan Podcast - #37 - Sam Dancer

Episode Date: May 25, 2021

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Cool. Like back here, I'm an echoey geek. But up here, I'm like real. A better tone. I'm still learning. Me too. Me too. I'm still learning. Me too. Me too. I'm still learning.

Hashtag me too. Sam Dancer, another person that I only know from some of maybe his most intense moments in his life. My words, not his. Physically intense. we've only interacted when he's pushing his body to the absolute limits freakish physique at that my impression and my interpretation of sam and we don't talk before the show literally the first things you're hearing us say bam we're recording my interpretation of my impression of Sam dancer is that he is on a mission. and to share that love so that other people can also express that and feel free to be open to love and to express love and he shares that journey on his oh i got a little emotional for a second

shares that journey on his uh instagram and um it's pretty obvious because he showers love on his friends and his that he's used his platform he showers love on his friends and his, that he's, he's used his platform to shower love on people basically. And to share the journey of him exploring the ability to do that and receive it. Wow. That's the same heavy. According to,

according to the two hours that I spent going through your Instagram last night. Yeah, you did some research? Just a little bit. We did a podcast together a couple years ago. Remember that? Yeah, I do remember that. But Matt did most of the talking, right? I was way into his marijuana stuff, his marijuana farming.

He usually does all the talking. I'm that friend, too. If you and I were to go on to a podcast together, I wouldn't let you talk either. Well, I appreciate such a generous introduction. Still working on all that stuff that you so graciously eloquently put but i don't think i'm quite quite there yet but i appreciate it and i'm glad it at least seems like it's it's something i'm working on sam where were you born? I was born in Quincy, Illinois. Well, I wasn't born in Quincy, Illinois. I was born in Springfield.

But my entire life that I can recall has taken place in Quincy, Illinois. And then pretty much been there my whole life. Me and my wife got married. We moved to Cincinnati. Then we moved to San Francisco. Then we moved to San Diego. And now we're back in Quincy, Illinois as our home base. And one of the vehicles that Sam uses to get his message across is fitness and health. He shares a journey pretty intimately on there on his, on his Instagram. And I, I think it's a typical journey of a, of a young man, but it, it leaves the typical path as he gets older and he sort of chooses to work on himself in a way.

I think a lot of people are chasing, you know, Rich's success and security and Sam, you know, at the point where some of us like stopped the drinking and smoking and partying and playing. He started, that's when he started sort of his journey of spreading love. So tell me about your, so you're born in Quincy, Illinois. Is that, is that a small town? Is it a suburb?

Yeah, it's a really small town. We're looking at like 40,000 people and then all the, all the towns around Quincy are 400, 500, 600,000 population. So Quincy, Quincy to me is a, is a small place, but to the people who live outside of Quincy, Quincy is like the big city. Um, but it's, it's all farmland and planes. So typical, typical Illinois scenery.

And so you're raised there and you live and you still live there where do you live now yeah i'm in quincy illinois right now so you went back to your home yeah i honestly i feel called to be here um it's quincy feels like it's like 10 years behind on everything and maybe that's a good thing maybe that that's a really good thing. We, we tend to kind of look at it as a bad thing. Just, um, it, it takes a, it takes a while for you name it, whether it be fashion or just cultural norms or whatever it is, it takes a while for it to reach the, uh reach the Midwest. And like I said, maybe that's not such a bad thing. It's a good thing.

It's going to maybe make it a little bit easier of a job for us to do what we feel so passionate about doing here in our hometown. And that's just really changing the culture. We want Quincy, and I'm sure you visited places like this, Siobhan, where I remember the first time I visited, I don't know if it was like Boulder or it was somewhere in Colorado and I hadn't traveled much. And I saw all these people out riding their bikes, people out jogging, people were out. And people aren't really out here. But it also doesn't really have the infrastructure to support activities. So besides me and my wife, there's a couple people in our circle who are really working hard to change that here in our town and make it a place where people are active, people are healthy, people are well, people are communal. We really want to build that up.

communal. We really want to build that up. We want, and it already kind of being the nature of a small town people, we all tend to know each other fairly well, but it's just, it's not, it's not as active as say, like just a, a bigger city and, and, and, or just a, a place with better weather. And I don't want to make it seem like that's the reason why we don't have fun things to do here in Quincy, just because the weather shit, um, it gets really, really hot and it gets kind of nasty in the winters, but I've traveled to places that are really, really hot and they're still having a good time doing activities, going out, having fun. And I've been to places that are really, really cold. They're out and about. And I just, um, it's, it's kind of starting here with our gym. I own a, I owned a CrossFit gym for

seven, eight, seven years, and then decided to unaffiliate and, um, kind of, cause every time people thought about CrossFit here in my town, they thought of what I was doing, the CrossFit games, and they were terrified of it. And, uh, although I'm very, I'm one of those people that thought one of the best things that CrossFit had in terms of brand visibility were things such as the regional competitions and such like that. Although it was making the brand more visible, and sure, a lot of people that saw that thought it was really, really cool, but the people we need to really, truly reach are very intimidated to the sport with the word CrossFit was really getting in the way of me being able to reach the people that I feel called to reach and want to help. And so much of our business model, while we were affiliated with CrossFit, it seemed to be more focused around people who were already generally physically fit. And, um, and I didn't, I want the sick people. I want the hurt people. I want the people who, yeah, who need us most. And, um, so I've, I've, I've been working hard over the years to,

I worked hard before in the past, I worked really hard to make sure that this gym never became a competitive gym. So for years, my clients barely knew that I even competed. It wasn't until maybe they started... They'd see me on TV or something and be like, about. Like I don't really, I don't hang all my, my, my jerseys or my, my podium shirts or any of my name plaques out or anything. It's, it's, if you came into my gym, you wouldn't know that there, there'd been someone who's gone to the CrossFit Games four times here. Um, so I really worked hard to protect my gym from it ever becoming super competitive because that's where I started to see where the wheels would fall off for a lot of people when it would get... Sure, there's some great things about the intensity that is derived from competition, but I don't know that that's a sustainable practice. And just to be clear, I love CrossFit. I love the CrossFit culture. I'm not bashing CrossFit. There were some things that I personally thought that I could maybe do

a little bit differently that would allow me to have a greater reach in the town that I live in. have a greater reach in the, in the, in the town that I live in. And, um, and like I said earlier, I feel really called to, uh, to be here in Quincy, Illinois. This really, you know, I've traveled a lot. I've gotten to go visit some beautiful places, places that I'm revered. And, and I hate even saying it's a, it's a weird thing to think about. I'm treated much differently here in Quincy, Illinois, than I am in San Diego or a big city. In a big city, I can book seminars every single weekend. I can charge people $100, $200, $300 to consult with me. And in Quincy, use $300 to consult with me. And in Quincy, I can't do it. Nobody cares who I am here in Quincy, Illinois. And not that I'm trying to make it so that people do care who I am. I don't really care that people know who I am or anything. All I really care about is just getting people to care how I care about my wellness and my community.

And I understand that I could take a much easier route and move to San Diego completely full time or move somewhere where it's really, really nice all the time. And, and where I'm, where I actually have market value compared to compared to here. It's yeah. It's sometimes to contextualize this for some people, Sam is very, very well known in the crossfit community all around the world all hundred all seven continents for being extremely extremely strong he was a bit his physique

was a bit of an outlier for the for anyone who ever made it to the games he's freakishly strong he's stout he's super duper broad um with a with a relatively small waist, and he looks like an action figure. But if you go to his Instagram, you will not see endless posts of him doing super heavy snatches, super heavy deadlifts. You will actually see what he's talking about. You'll see him working with a guy in a wheelchair who's never been able to straighten his arm, and Sam's working on it with helping the guy straighten his arm for the first time because he has some sort of neurological issue, or you'll see him with, you know, working

with someone on an assault bike and they're in a wheelchair and they're using it in a reverse manner that you have to be innovative to use. So everything he's saying, you will see that. And, but he also doesn't hide his body, which I think, and this is a little bit of shift going back to what we started talking about. When I see the way you dress and I see the way you behave, I see this guy who is telling the world – in most cases you would say, oh, this is a guy who just loves his body and wants to show it off, which I think is totally appropriate. I think that's a great thing to do. But what you really see in Sam's pictures is a guy who's trying to show you that he's vulnerable. Hey, I'm super duper open and vulnerable, not vulnerable in the sense, maybe vulnerable is not the right word. It has too much connotation that he's open. Like, Hey, I'm open. Here I am. Here I lie naked for you to approach me. Here I am with a smile on my face. I know this may not look like your typical open. My physique doesn't look like a typical open person with the prejudices that people have of the grunting buff guy in the gym. a few posts you see oh he's presenting himself for the world to examine and come close to come

take a closer look i am open to you i'll hug you and and it's uh it's interesting because there's there's probably a lot of there's probably an equal amount of people who are like tripped out by that because they're not used to seeing a guy surfing in a speedo you know or a bikini a banana hammock but on the other hand once you dig in a little further you see oh this is this is the dude i want to hang out with this is where the fun's at are you conscious of that or is that is that just the way you know what i um i'm legally blind so oh so you don't know how funny you dress i i can't even see it i don't even know that explains the way you dress i uh i am by the way when one more thing when sam says we he's talking about jen dancer jennifer dancer that's his wife and um they are like they might as well be um

conjoined joined at the hips they are they're in pretty much are and you can see it um in his expression of his art too sorry go on so tell me so you're legally blind yeah so i can't do you know how hard that is to believe too like it is it's hard for me to told me that it's hard for me to believe too sometimes um every once in a while it, it, um, I'm reminded of it. Um, and it, we can maybe get to that in a little bit. There are some, some times where I do get a little, a little anxious when I can't see. Um, but for the most part, I manage it really, really well. And you would never know unless I told you, um, or you'd think I was mad at you. Cause I tend to do this a lot. I squint my eyes to see who someone is. And it looks like

I'm just ready to pounce on you and beat you up. But, um, I can't, I can't see. And because I can't see, I, I don't, I can obviously still see, like, there's still visible things coming into my, coming into my retina and I'm, I'm catching some things. It's very foggy, but I, to a degree, I've kind of checked out with that faculty and I, I don't, I don't work really hard to see things. I just kind of mosey through, flow through, and I tend to not try really hard to maybe see someone's face. So when I'm wearing maybe a Speedo or I'm dressing in something very flamboyant, I'm not seeing people's reactions, which would probably change, maybe change my decision-making on what I wear sometimes, or maybe make me feel

a little insecure. But that blindness has really kind of put a protective barrier over me from really giving a shit about what other people think in regards to how I look or how I dress. And, uh, I honestly, I just, I feel, and it's not to show off my body. Uh, if you, I mean, I appreciate the compliments on my physique, but, and you did mention it a little bit. My physique isn't, uh, isn't the CrossFit standard by when we're talking about the professional sport of it. when we're talking about the professional sport of it, I'm probably 20, 30 pounds heavier than the average CrossFit athlete.

Maybe the largest, heaviest athlete to probably even compete at the Games. But I don't look like they look. And there have been times in my life that I don't want to say I was ashamed of my body, but I knew it didn't look like the others. I weighed upwards of 275 pounds in college. And even still there, I could look around and see other athletes who had far greater physiques. And so same thing here in CrossFit, I'm able to look around and definitely tell there's a difference between my physique and, and, uh, the, the kind of the standard or a Travis Mayer. Yeah. Yeah. And those guys are, they look, they look incredible. Yes. And, uh, I, I, I, it doesn't, it's not constantly like in my head.

I'm not like always thinking about how, how I look, but I have through time over, I feel to degree overcome any of those insecurities with how I look. And, and, uh, I, I, I love, I love what I've built for myself. I'm honored. I love what I've built for myself. I'm grateful. That's the word. I'm grateful and I'm thankful that I get the opportunity to wear this sleeve. Space suit, yeah. And I've worked really hard over the years to adjust it so that I could do more with it. So I could do more with it. And that's really, I think, where the confidence has come from is not so much with the way that I look, but what I'm capable of doing with my physical body.

And that's where a lot of my confidence comes from. And it's something that I've implemented into the nature of my programming when I'm working with clients. And from my own experience, I've been able to reap the benefits of developing skills. And when you develop skills, you really reinforce your confidence. And so you've seen it. Take note, parents. Take notes notes he just gave some amazing parenting advice hundreds of times right you you see someone who can't do something and then you coach them and you and then they do it and they light up and you can't take that from them you can't it's just like they earn that and and they have it and they can and they can can use it. And it's, it's going to be some,

it just, for me, it's something that makes me feel good about myself. And, and I, and it's very obvious when you see it click for someone else too. And you're like, oh my gosh, they're that's like, that's what we're looking, The reaction that you get from someone getting their first double under or whatever, their pull up or whatever it is. It really doesn't matter. Anything. That reaction is how I want to feel. It's how I want to feel all the time. And it's what's made me's how I want to feel. It's how I want to feel all the time. And it's what's made me

such a performance whore in, in multiple categories, more, more than just what I'm doing with my physical body, but how I'm training myself mentally and spiritually, because I started to see that there were other aspects to other skills, if you will, that I could develop that would allow me to have that enriching feeling of joy and confidence from learning something new and getting better at it. and, um, and getting better at it. And that's, um, that's kind of really helped me with my self image. Um, and I, you know, I still understand that I, how I look or how I could look comparatively to how other people look. And I always tell my wife this, my wife will like put through the gym and like stick her stomach out. And she pretty much still has a six pack and she'll be like,

oh my God, I'm so fat. And like right next to her is a person who's maybe actually 200 pounds overweight. I'm just like, Jenny, can't say that. So I like, I understand that I... And again, I'm thankful and I love the physique that I do have. But the reason I love it isn't what most people would think. It's not because of the way that it looks, but it's because of what I'm able to do with it. And that's what's really, I think, able to do with it. And, and that's what's really, I think, helped, helped keep me from developing any, um, any neurotic or kind of image issues that, uh, end up paralyzing me because all I can think about is how ugly I am or how fat I am or, um, or whatever I am. But yeah, if that makes sense. Totally. In the, in the, I never, I haven't thought about this in 20 years, but you reminded me of something I didn't have. Um, I didn't have any developed confidence, uh, growing

up as a child by that. I mean, I didn't, I wasn't, I was the last kid I've always picked in soccer or whatever, you know, um, I was the worst at this. I was always the worst at the spelling being in the class. I was the first kid to sit down, but I can, but, but my parents love the shit out of me. So that, that actually got me to the 51 yard line that always kept me like, so I w I wasn't drowned in insecurity, but, um, in the seventh grade, I was in a sewing class, home ec class. I was the only boy in the class. And I had this theory even back then that they put me in there because my name was Sevan and they thought I was a girl.

But anyway, I took that class and I was taught how to make handbags and stuffed animals. And I was like, holy shit, I'm so good at this. I couldn't believe that I could make a stuffed animal from scratch and that I could cut a pattern, that I could make a bag and put a zipper on it. And I remember, you know, and so I'm instilling those things in my kid at a very, very, very early age. Basically, you know, my six-year-old got his gray belt, and the instructor said, and it made me tear up actually,

the instructor, Stephen, said, whispered to me, that will never be taken from him. He'll have that for the rest of his life. And I was like, holy shit, my son just put in two years worth of work and he earned a gray belt. And I cannot believe the profound impact that's going to have on him. Cause I didn't earn anything until I was 16 and it was a paycheck and I spent it, but he just earned something he's going to keep forever. And the second thing that you, you said that I'd like to give an example of is I am extremely not proud of my body. I have zero pride in my body. And I would always go to the beach and I would never take my shirt off until I had one or two beers.

But at 49 years old, I have an uncanny ability to play Frisbee. I live by the motto that every bad throw is a chance for me to look like a superstar. I can throw a Frisbee anywhere. I can throw it around buildings, trees, anything. And I remember that that would be another way. If I was out there playing Frisbee with you for 10 or 15 minutes, I'd be like, holy shit, what I can do with this body and a Frisbee is insane. And then I would feel comfortable taking my shirt off because I wouldn't care at that point what my body looked like, but I cared about what it was doing. It always takes a little while to get into that. But like I played recently with a couple other 49-year-olds, and if the Frisbee went 10 feet away from them, they couldn't catch it. Or if it went too low, they couldn't catch it.

And these are relatively fit guys. And I was like, oh, I'm not like that at all. if a throw has to be caught i am the human labrador and so i i appreciate that like it's a it's a um it's a cool work around the insecurity it's a uh hey this this i don't care what i don't care if my car if you think my car is ugly or you don't like the paint of my car it it's gonna it's gonna win all you don't like the paint of my car, it's going to win all the races. Or not even win the races. My car is willing to go as fast as it can. You know?

So, yeah. Yeah, all of that stuff is pretty interesting. And going back to what you said about – it's funny. There's – about what you were saying about your wife about saying I'm fat next to someone who's fat. What's funny is because then the fat person might interpret that as, oh, if they think you're their fat, they must think I'm really fat. But it really doesn't work that way because there's people I think have beautiful bodies who I know most people would think had a worse body than me, worse in quotes, but I actually don't think that I'm be like, Oh my God, that, that's a really, that, that dude has a cool body or that girl has a cool body. But I know most people wouldn't think that. And, and maybe I

wouldn't even be comfortable in that body, but I still find it sexy or attractive, or I want to go talk to the person. It's really interesting how it doesn't work. Um, always both ways. We're just over critical of ourselves. Yeah. Going back to, to the CrossFit thing, uh, about, um, the game scaring people away. And I've talked about this in other podcasts about the, that was a huge it during 2016 and 17, when I was running the media department for hq that was a huge debate you know back and forth are the games helping or are they hurting and in 2017 when we started the crossfit podcast around that time greg had actually said to me hey i know i said i would never basically do this but i want to start showing before and after photos of people and i want to just focus

we already have the tip of the spear. We have the base. We have first responders. Now I want to go to the complete other end and I want to start getting sick and obese people and, and the elderly. And I think they overcorrected when they got rid of the media team and they, and they switched the website, but there was from two,

basically the primary function of the CrossFit podcast I did was to explore that idea to lower that barrier of entry, mental barrier of entry. And we had the largest explosion of L1 sales. Basically, we changed the – I want to say the word marketing, but we were not allowed to use that word marketing because Greg believed that we should never put anything out unless it adds value to the brand. We should never try to sell the brand but we basically changed our message from the l1 is for for for trainers and people who want to open an affiliate to hey it is the operating manual for the human genome and that every single person who wants to have that operating manual, here it is, and you should get it. And actually, it's more apropos, not for trainers, but for unhealthy people. And quickly, we started getting stuff we had never seen before. We started getting people

in the L1s who are 100 pounds overweight. And it was really, really, really cool. And then, of course, we were nine months into it. Everything was skyrocketing at CrossFit Inc. The only metric that we were still struggling with was affiliate retention. But all other metrics were skyrocketing. And then they pulled the media team. And then we had two years of just – and they shut down Facebook and Instagram. And it just free-falled. And then the Floyd 19 comment came out and Greg pulled the chute and was like, all right, fuck you guys.

I'm out. and, and Greg pulled the shoot and was like, all right, fuck you guys. I'm out. And then, and then the response to the, the response, I P a lot of people think that we're in a COVID pandemic. I, I, I disagree with that. I think we're in a COVID response, fucking nightmare. I think the response to the, um, to the fire is what has destroyed the world. Destroyed is too strong has caused a hiccup in the world as opposed to the actual match that was lit and people are acting like it's fucking a flamethrower but um yeah did

did you see any changes in your affiliate in 17 and 18 when we changed our messaging did you did you did you feel any of that and you can feel free to be like fuck no you guys did a horrible job but i was so proud of it well i first of all i want to say let's go back to the comment uh is it helping or hurting and i think it's helping overall there's i think there's growth coming from it when you say helping you mean the game, propaganda, the games, the showmanship of the games. Yep. I do think it's helping. But the shift is what was needed, I think, to, again, don't say marketing, right?

We want to put content out there that's adding value, but, um, the, the content shift that. I want to roll the red carpet out further to people's front doors. Yeah, that's a, yeah, that's a great way of putting it. And I, I think it was, um, and cause I've, I've met Greg a couple of times and gotten to hang out with him. And it was always kind of confusing because he was so all he wanted to talk about was health and wellness. It was rarely did we ever talk about me as a competitor.

We talked about me and my wellness and my, maybe my member or my client's wellness. We never, ever, ever, I've never talked to him about the sport of fitness. And, um, so I, I'm actually really happy with the, the shift that's been made. with the the shift that's been made and i and who knows maybe i'll get in trouble for this but i i i liked greg um there's man if we wanted to dig deep enough on all of us we could find some ignorant shit that we've all done and said and we wouldn't even have to dig that far. Yeah, you wouldn't, you really wouldn't. Um, I think, and, and we all got shit we need to work on too. So for me to, you know, sit here and talk about ways that Greg needs to clean his life up and needs to act differently is just, that's so ignorant of me to do. I think Greg is a genius and one of the most brilliant minds I've ever had the pleasure

to meet with. And I loved his passion for wanting to heal our planet. And it seemed that's what I'll remember Greg for. I won't remember him for any sexist comments or racial comments. I will remember him for, and I'm talking about what he said, for him, like the genius he was and his mission to help heal our planet. And, and I liked the, I liked that he wasn't afraid to call people out. I kind of liked the whole, I liked that, that essence, that. You mean honesty?

Yeah. You know, people always thought like CrossFit was kind of like a little aggressive or, or, you know, they're not politically correct, but I, dude, I liked that. I liked that there was no, it was no bullshit and ensure in our, our social climate that not being politically correct tends to, you know, hurt someone's feelings or piss someone off but i i still i like that approach um politically correct means wrong by the way the definition of

politically correct is wrong yeah for sure yeah yeah what yeah. I'm trying to wake up to that over the past couple of years, but no, I liked it. Uh, Siobhan, I really, I, I liked the shift. Um, I, everything's really, I think kind of organically happening really, really well. Um, with maybe minus the, uh, dismissal of Greg. And I still think things are going to be all right. But I'm really liking how we've almost kind of divided up the wellness and the fitness. I feel like there is no wellness, by the way. I feel like CrossFit's wellness by the way i i i feel like crossfit's lost its way right now i feel like there is no i feel like there is no message coming out of what like we used to really know what crossfit stood for whether you liked it or not we were the cure

for the world's most vexing problem we were forging elite fitness greg had all of these just lines that just came out of his mouth right it's the ultimate it's the operating system for the human genome now what is it now it's it's like something about happiness and i just um i don't i don't know what the political correctness yeah it's political correctness right which is wrong before it was before all energies were were put on serving people and now um energies i feel like are being put on telling the world who they serve. And I just don't think that that's a strong message. Or it's a politically correct – I think it's a politically correct message.

Yeah, it's a shit show right now. But I think everything's going to be okay. I really do. I think everything's going to be okay. Me too, by the way. I think everything's going to be okay. Work out for the better. Um, I, I think, um, the good news is it still works. There's not like it still works, right? Like, like it's still really, really difficult and it's really still really super empowering for people

in all corners and aspects of their life. I think about that all the time. I'm like, I'm so, it took me years and years and years to really figure out what the truth was with like nutrition. And I'm so happy that I, I, I wish I would have found CrossFit even sooner, but I'm so happy that i have uh in in my knowledge and my understanding a curriculum that is effective fun and sustainable um and i i'm constantly like thankful for what crossfit has done to change my life.

I'm, I'm, I'm so, and it's probably what led to. And it's flexible enough to promote experimentation in all those places too, right? In your diet, in your movement. Yeah. There's tons of, that's what's kind of so cool about it. There's, once you get the basics you can experiment. Yeah. And it's, yeah, yeah, you're very right. And I'm, I'm so happy that I just, it, it found me or I found it or we found each other and, and it's, it's been a very, maybe, maybe the most enriching part of my, you know, my conscious life, all the childhood I can remember and my adult years, the involvement that I've had with CrossFit has been some of the most enriching and greatest experiences I've ever had, ever. And I'm so thankful for, for that. And, um, so I, I have, I don't have anything really bad to say about, about CrossFit or anything.

Well, great. Being that your, your sight is impaired, have other faculties, um, developed? have other faculties developed? Yeah, I get a, I get that question a lot. Like, do I have like hypersensitive like hearing or anything? And I actually got these really tiny ears. Oh, those are nice. Yeah. Those are nice. I'll get bigger as you get older. How old are you, Sam?

I'm 34. I'll be a double size by the time you'll have get bigger as you get older. How old are you, Sam? I'm 34. I'll be a master's athlete next year. You'll have normal years when you're 78. Perfect. I'll have radar. Yeah. You won't even need a cell phone anymore. It's a loaded question what I'm asking you because I'm taking you somewhere. But tell me.

Tell me about your – when you get that question a lot. All right, I do. Yeah, I get the question a lot. And I there's one thing that I've definitely noticed. That's that's changed significantly. This might not be the answer you're looking for in regards to this question in terms of maybe heightened sensitivity in other areas of my life. But what I've really noticed is because I cannot see, I have to get a lot closer to people. And in actual distance, I have to get closer to them to see them. And I actually have to get closer to them. And, and I mean that in a more relational way because, and it goes, you don't mean just physically,

you mean to read them. You have to, you, you, it, it instigates more intimacy because you're trying to understand, you want to understand them and you can't just pick up on the nuances. Yeah.

You know, I'm unable to judge a book by its cover. You know, I can't see it. And that tends to be for a lot of people. My wife, she can judge a book by its cover and she's really good at it. Like, very spot on um but because i i can't see you know and it's a lot of things it's it's how their eyes are moving it's the body language it's it's um yeah it's just how their facial expressions and stuff. And you can honestly... I've been taking these tactical training courses recently and it's amazing what I've learned

in regards to preventing... Just basically to avoid any conflict with any other human so that you're not... So that you don not, you just, so that you don't have to fight someone or you don't have to even protect your life. You can just basically avoid it altogether. So just reading certain body language and movements and stuff like that. And I have a,

I have a difficult time with that. So I tend to get a lot. Sounds racist. Yeah, I'm sure. I'm sure I'll say something racist and there'll be something that will make me a racist but it's just one of those things that people read into you know what i mean you see three guys walking down the street towards you and their pants are hanging down past their fucking butt crack and you cross the street now you're racist no yeah i'm not racist so i have to go i have you know jenny my wife

would be able to see that and she'd be like maybe hey we should walk this way me can't see there's some there's some guys over there let's go talk to them right let's put the love so i end up getting way way closer to people uh i i, as a result of that, which is pretty counter to my preferred kind of quiet and to myself and I don't like to be in large groups but because of that it's it's putting me through practice with it and it's become something that now even though years of my life I I did not enjoy that stuff. I actually quite enjoy it now. I enjoy getting closer to people, not just to see them, but to actually know them and hear them. And yeah, relationships, man, have become for me, like I said, I'm still working on this. I still get frustrated from time to time and say some dumb shit. But at this point in my life, the single most important thing that I have in my life

is relationships and the opportunity to make new ones and sustain old ones. And it's the things that I cherish the most is the opportunity to create that and build that with any type of person. It doesn't really matter. Um, I, I tend, I find myself more often than not kind of going out of my way to build relationships with people, um, that seem like they need it. Um, and yeah, so not that I like avoid an opportunity to, you know, go build a relationship with someone who looks like they don't get like they have a lot of friends and they have whatever, a lot of money, a lot of they look really happy. It's not like I just I try to go find an unhappy, miserable, homeless person every day to go build a relationship with. relationship with. But to give you more specificity in regards to that statement would be like my work with our non-for-profit. Like I'm right now and for the past couple of five, six years, I've been strategically and specifically going out of my way to build relationships with people who have disabilities and helping them become integrated into a fitness program. Not just physical, mental, the whole gambit. Yeah. Yeah. It doesn't matter.

Anything going on, physical, mental, emotional, It could just be any... I say this all the time. Literally any special need. If you can't afford fitness, and for good reason. For instance, I have this group of... They call it inner city kids. That really doesn't exist in Quincy.

It's just, it's not like Chicago, but maybe like 1% of what that's like there. So there's maybe like, you could kind of call it inner city, but it's just, it's not like that here. And there's these inner city kids that we work with. There's a non-for-profit called Teen Reach and our non-for-profit partners up with them. And these are just underprivileged kids. You know, if it was an adult that couldn't afford, if you're an adult that can't afford CrossFit, your problem isn't a financial issue. You have a time management issue. You have ethical and moral issues. You have bigger problems than your finances. Like your finances aren't the reason you're struggling.

You're struggling because you're making poor, you're not making adult decisions really. It's a prioritization issue. Yeah, that's perfectly put. It's a priority issue. It's a value issue. You're not valuing the right things and you're not prioritizing the right thing.

So very well put. So these kids, they have a special need. They're not, they don't have Down syndrome. They, they're not missing arms and legs, but they don't have parents that can support them. And so we will go out of our way to offer our, our services to them free of charge. So, yeah, it doesn't matter what your need is. If you have a special circumstance, and when I say special circumstance, it means to me it's going to require unique treatment in the way that you might not be able to fit into our integrate special needs individuals into our group classes. But for the most part, our group classes tend to be for people who are generally physically fit. I do have people who I got some older gentlemen who are in my class.

We used to have like special classes, um, like where I would have all the old people over here. And then I would have all the special needs people over in this corner. And then I would have my generally physically fit people over in the main section. I've completely stopped doing that. And my goal now is, and this is probably more CrossFit-esque too, this, you know, infinitely scalable, um, program. And I'm working to get every single person into class. And, um, we're, we're just kind of working with people one-on-one. Like I mentioned that teen reach group, um, some just underprivileged kids, they don't really have any. They definitely have some trauma that will probably inhibit the rate at which they develop, maybe comparatively, to someone who came from a loving, supportive household.

came from a loving, supportive household. But so they tend to need some one-on-one attention. Just like if I had, I'm sure you're familiar with James Foster. He's my original OG adaptive athlete that we had here. Oh, King James. I see him all over your Instagram. King James, man. He's a legend. Um, but that guy,

that guy takes classes. Now he could run a class. He could coach a class now. And, um, you know, before he needed, he had, he needed to have some one-on-one time, um, some special attention. And that's when I say special needs that you just made. And sometimes I get regular people who are special needs and they just, they need some special attention and we will appoint that to them and make sure that they have maybe an assistant coach with them or something like that. But yeah, man, I want to make our, I want fitness for everyone here at Qtown and we're working really hard at it. We're, we're doing everything that we can to try to

reach people who weren't having things like this made available to them, whether it be a financial reason with a child or it be you're missing a leg or you have Down syndrome or you're 300 pounds overweight. We want to make our gym available to anyone and everyone. And I believe that that is going to change the world. I want to get back to the scene thing, but to jump on what you're saying, it's one of the things that really, really frustrates me about, um, the, the trend of the world and some of the things that have happened since Greg left to talk about inclusivity as being an issue with CrossFit, because relative to the rest of the world, it's the most inclusive

phenomenon I've ever seen on the planet by that. I mean, you'll work out. Yeah. Yeah. You'll work out with someone with down syndrome next to you, someone with the turban next to you, someone who's 13 years old next to you, someone who's 80 years old next to you, someone who came from the inner city, someone who's worth $2 billion. It is, it is, it is, it's something we don't talk about because we take for granted in the community, but it is crazy. You can't talk about it. If you want a gay jewish

you'll get in trouble haitian midget you will and you want to work out next to him you will more likely see it in a crossfit gym than any other environment and why is that because the crossfit focus was on um bettering human beings all of them and my my the the it took my mom you know probably five or ten years to realize this. She's 77 now. She started CrossFit at 69. But she used to always think she was the weak link or she wouldn't go on partner day workouts.

And I think slowly she's realizing, no, no, shit, that's my contribution to show the 15-year-olds and the 30-year-olds that at 77 you can still do this. And at that age, and I don't blame her because we're all insecure in our own right, it's hard to imagine the contribution she's making subconsciously and consciously to see a little old lady who has no background in fitness working out right next to you and uh it's it's really one of the amazing byproducts of the of the kind of businesses that you own you will actually get to interact with people you would have never met and you will have a really deep shared common experience with

them. Yeah. I think honestly, it's like, it's people have been pretty severely brainwashed and I'm, I'm guilty of it. Like I've, there's been things that I've been ignorant of and, and also been trained to believe. And anyone who's, who's on their soapbox claiming that we need to be more inclusive in CrossFit, they're not opening, they're not in the affiliates and they're not opening their eyes to what's happening there because I 100% agree with you.

My gym is the, besides maybe a church, is the most inclusive place in our town, hands down. And I would bet that for any other CrossFit gym in any state, in any country, probably besides the churches tend to do a really, really good job with their diversity. But this is the most diverse place in our town. Trying to make CrossFit gyms more trying to make crossfit gyms more inclusive is like let's say your carpet's wet and you spend all day drying your carpet but really there's a pipe under your floors that's leaking water but you're too stupid

to go under there and fix the pipe and what i mean any lack of inclusivity is a societal problem and actually crossfit's the cure stop Stop focusing on the manifestation of society. There's a leak under that carpet, and you look like an idiot for trying to continuously dry the carpet. Get under there and fix the pipe. it's so sad to see something so benevolent and so good get shit on. But, but it's, it's, it's just a lack of depth perception. It's a lack of people having a range of possibilities that it's just not a carpet spontaneously becoming wet that,

that, Hey, there's actually a deeper underlying problem. And actually the carpet's fixing it. I want to ask you about when going back to the perception thing, there was something you hadn't experienced in Peru before you had a baby. And that's why I asked you, that's why I asked you about if you have any other developed,

you feel like there's any other developed perceptions and, and tell me about that. I don't even want to say anything about what I read about it, but will you tell me about why you were in Peru and what, were you married yet at that point? Yeah, we were married. You were married, but with no child. By the way, congratulations on Star.

Thank you. I never could imagine it being this cool and it's been quite an upgrade for me and Jenny, our relationship, our emotional intelligence. A lot of things have been upgraded. I find myself being much more productive with my time and managing it much better it kind of demands it you know to a degree well it it may demand it but you still have to respond to that and my response has been I've been really happy with it I'm I'm not a very organized guy um now I'm I'm booking things out in my calendars, like months ahead of time.

I'm, I started a podcast like that. That's. Yeah. Quit that. Quit that. You're taking listeners away from me. Quit that shit. I doubt it.

Um, that's funny though. But, uh, people, I asked, uh, who should I interview next? And I got like a ton of people saying you, so. And I got a ton. That's so, I don't know who I'm going to interview or why I'm going to interview them, but I'm like, okay, 10 people are telling me to get Sam Dancer on. All right, throw him on the list. Yeah, so I'm adding you to my list too. But yeah, so me and Jenny, we've been married for seven years.

It would have been like five years when we went to Peru. And this was like 50% bucket list, 50% we needed help. Jenny and I had just had the worst year of our marriage, the hardest year of our marriage. hardest year of our marriage. And we hadn't really had any trials before that. Everything had been going very smoothly for us. We'd been traveling the world with each other, just enjoying each other's company and being best friends. And then come 2018, we decide that we want to train a team for the games to go win the affiliate cup. And we move out to San Diego and we're training feverishly to go win first place in the team division. And the wheels started falling off before the season even really started. And, uh, the wheels started falling off before the season even really started. Um, I, I got a blood test and found out that I had Hashimoto's and like no testosterone. Jenny had some gut issues and, um, we, we went to work on, on that stuff.

I was in, I ended up able to treat my Hashimoto's. I got my testosterone back up and uh it took her a while to get her gut issues figured out but did you treat it with changing how did you treat it real quick and in that it was all well it was all i would say most of it was related to well it's definitely a combination of things. If I had to give you one answer, it was nutrition. Okay. But that's an incomplete answer as well.

There's an emotional side to it. Now, these days, I think there's a spiritual component to it. Like your beliefs, literally, in my opinion, control your reality and adjusting some beliefs, working on ourselves emotionally and not, and choosing to react in a way that would be more supportive of our well-being. And we would see on... We have a whoop strap usually. I don't wear it year round, but when I train, I put my whoop strap on. And we would see that the way that we were speaking to one another was affecting our recovery. So adjusting the way that we communicated a little bit with each other,

recovery. So kind of adjusting the way that we communicated a little bit with each other, understanding that our body was in distress, heading toward disease. Mine was diseased and something needed to give. So we need to remove some sort of stress so that we could allow our body the space and time to heal. So we dialed down the training a little bit, started improving our nutrition, making sure that we're eating enough food. To be honest, during that time, I kind of fell prey to the, I'm like so embarrassed about this, to the plant-based kind of culture. i'm i'm started moving a lot of my nutrition towards being plant-based which you shouldn't be embarrassed man that's what life's about experimenting right it is it is i was i've been vegan before it's a great experiment

you've never been in your life you should try it it was i honestly i I learned a lot. I felt there were some significant changes that I experienced that were positive early on. And the same thing with plant-based, keto, carnivore, whatever. I would get good results early on, but the sustainability of it ended up being, being a problem. You sound like me. And, um, and, and get it going through a health crisis that I went through is really, I think it's unfortunate that I had to go through that, but it's what really woke me up to finding out a sustainable solution for my nutrition. And that led me to the pro-metabolic community, which, you know, that's kind of a different story. So part of our... Let's not lose Peru. Let's not lose Peru. Yeah. Part of our reason

for going to Peru was to, we wanted to heal. And we also, I'm, I'm a, uh, I don't even know what you, how you call it. I like psychedelics. I think that they, they, they've been a tremendous amount of help for me. Um, expanding my consciousness has been a really eye-opening thing. And it opened my eyes to certain things that I was doing that were inhibiting me from living optimally. living optimally. And I enjoyed that. I enjoyed learning new things and figuring out what things were getting in the way of me being my best self, if you will. So this Peru trip was to go into the jungle and participate in an ayahuasca ceremony. And ayahuasca, the active compound in it is DMT. And that was the only, for the most part, like the only psychedelic that I hadn't tried and i wanted to try it and uh and so the combination of me wanting to try try something new um and we needed some restoration in our

relationship and we also needed to kind of yeah we just needed to figure some shit out. And I thought it would be a good opportunity to go check something off the list and figure our shit out. And honestly, the healing that took place in preparation for the ceremony was the greatest thing that we did experience. Because we were so terrified of what was to come. So we just started purging everything. And I'd be like, hey, Jenny, remember this time that I said this and I did this? And I was like, yo, I'm sorry for that.

Like, that was stupid. And I just want you to know that. You were doing a preemptive strike on the demons. They could come out. Yeah. Yep. It was great. I'm throwing some of these buckets overboard before. It was, it was that it was like, I want to get rid of all my shit. So I don't get embarrassed in front of everybody and dump all my shit out. So you got it. We all start and Bickle was with us.

Matt Bickle was with us as well. Um, and, uh, so we're all doing it. And it was funny because nobody, like whenever I would say, Hey Jen, remember this time that I did this and I was holding on, I was, I had guilt. She didn't even remember it. So we learned that guilt was probably the most damning thing that we were doing to our physical, emotional, and spiritual bodies. And it was all us. We were doing it to ourselves nobody else

was jenny wasn't making me feel guilty i was making myself feel that and it was harming us in some way mentally physically or spiritually all maybe all of them and um, so that, that was really prophetic to us to, to have that experience before the experience. And, and high and see how it all plays out. So fast forward to taking the actual ayahuasca, I had a like one-to-one experience. One-to-one being one part pure bliss, amazing, one part pure health. Wor worst experience of my entire life. And like so bad that it almost, it almost made, even though it was literally to the, to the dot, like it was literally 90 minutes of pure bliss in 90 minutes of pure health. The, the pure hell was really close to outweighing the pure bliss it was that horrible and that hellacious of an experience and um just that awful i basically felt like i was oh man i felt like i was stuck by myself in this it was this dark had kind of a reddish hue to it abandoned like

fairgrounds almost and I was by myself there and I could but I could kind of like hear people around me that were kind of like laughing at me and like calling me really bad things and threatening to do terrible things to me but i never really saw them so it almost sounded like just like you know this music was playing this horrible this horrible soundtrack was playing uh in the background while i was walking around this abandoned, like, evil fairgrounds. It's hard to explain. So that was so, and it felt like I was there for a thousand years.

And I was there for 90 minutes. Right. thousand years and i was there for 90 minutes right and what compounds these issues whether you're on psychedelics or not is you have this issue and you're supposed to go this way with it and just accept it but what the brain does is it goes oh shit is this ever going to end so will this ever be over and so now you got two problems you're being chomped on by godzilla and instead of trying to get away you're like when will this end this end? It's a, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's such a weird mechanism. The brain goes through anyway. Sorry. Go on. Yeah. It was terrifying. I thought it would never end. And my buddy Matt is right next to me. It's so weird because you're still, you're still in actual physical reality, but your mind's also in this holographic reality, which, let me

note, seems more real than physical reality, than this experience that I'm having right now on my hard desk with walls, things that I can actually even touch and say, oh, that's real. The visions were more real, more vivid, more everything than actual reality. So that was the shit show part. The bliss part. Luckily, the bliss part happened first. Or else I probably would have been scared to death and run off into the woods or something.

I probably would have been scared to death and run off into the woods or something. During the Blissful part, I met up with two people who looked pretty human for the most part. They looked a little bigger than kind of the standard human being a little bit. They were very well built, very tan, and they had lots of like jewels on um it looked like a scene out of like 300 and their eyes are a little bigger just like were their eyes a little bigger they were everything was a little bigger like they were just like kind of bigger humans um but very very very well built um very beautiful skin and really ornate jewelry the woman had a big staff a big like stick with a jewel on the top of it and the dude had this huge like saber with jewels in it and uh they introduced me to my child, Star. They said, we would like, first, we exchanged some words telepathically.

I'm not in my body when I'm visiting with them. I'm just like, basically, my consciousness was there. I didn't have like a physical body. But they did. And we never spoke with our mouths. But they gave me a big embrace. They told me how excited they were to, to have me here and to get to show me what they were going to show me. And that lasted like 10, 15 minutes, just like nonstop. Like basically if you hadn't seen a

relative for a really long time and we were just like energetically hugging each other and kind of like, like, yeah, telling each other how much we loved each other and how happy we are that we get to have this experience together. And then they show me in the corner. There's ball that's kind of like just spinning around and making a bunch of crazy shapes and uh but staying like a like this morphing ball of kind of blue and purple light and uh they said this is your child star and they actually even gave me the arrival date. They never quantified whether or not it was

a boy or a girl. They, they're just like, this is, you know, this is your child. Um, so I didn't really know how, I didn't know if it was a, in the moment I thought it was a boy. I think dudes just do that naturally. Like we want dudes want a boy and chicks want a chick but in the moment i uh yeah i got to meet my child star and same thing there i got to kind of we got to like swirl around each other and kind of like energetically hug each other and tell each other how happy we were to get to meet each other on this plane if you will, this level of multi-dimensional reality and existence. And then they gave me the date of her arrival. And yeah, and that worked. That was the date they gave me 1020. And she was born on the 10th month of the year 2020. And we named her Star. So not sure what the hell that really was. I have my speculations as to what I experienced. Um, most of it's based on,

uh, Christian theology, um, which I, I enjoy. Um, I've done a lot of, um, world religion study and, uh, I actually have my story of even becoming a Christian is a pretty radical. It's equally as crazy as meeting your future child in a vision. So I tend to lean against Christian theology the most whenever I'm trying to understand the nature of our reality. And I still will bounce around from... One of my members is a theology and philosophy professor. So we're constantly getting to talk about different theologies and different philosophies. And sometimes other theologies and philosophies help me maybe understand something a little bit better than just the Christian theology. But I tend to lean up most against the christian theology when i'm trying to get a better

understanding of what the what the hell's going on and um and planning on having kids were you and you and jen talked about having kids no you were not this is good the day the day before we found out this is two things that are really good. So a year to the date exactly that I met star is when we found out that we were pregnant. And then the day before that, we decided that we were going to wait five more years before we discussed having put this on the back. Let's put this on the back burner. before we discussed having children. Let's put this on the back burner for five years.

What, to have a kid? No, no, to talk about it. I love it. Talk about it. Dude, we were having so much fun. We were having the time of our lives together. Just traveling nonstop. But before you go into this, did trip to peru help the relationship did you guys when you got back was there i mean obviously there's still work there's still work to do but were you like did it help yeah by time you know by time the trip even came to, we had pretty well resolved a lot of our issues.

But if we wouldn't have gone to Peru, everything would have been fine. But I do think the trip to Peru kind of expedited some results for sure. Definitely kind of put our healing on steroids to a degree and allowed it to happen just a little bit quicker. But yeah, it would have happened with or without the peru trip because it was already it was already happening i think really well when i booked the trip which was probably like six months out from when it was actually going to take place was probably like the worst when when we were at our worst um which was probably like two months before the the crossfit

game and when you mean when you mean you were having problems just are you talking about just like bickering fighting tension not community we couldn't even look at each other okay i we could not even look at each other okay um and it just just butting heads on just stuff. That's like ridiculous to butt heads on when you look back at it. Yep. Okay. Yeah. Just like anything would just, yeah, it did. It was totally normal.

If you haven't been through that in a relationship or if you quit at that point and double think it, cause you're, if you, here's what I had that relationship, you're going to get, you're going to end up with the same thing somewhere else. Yeah. 100. Yeah, 100%. Yeah, like it's getting our blood tested was probably the best thing that we did for our relationship. Wow. And even now to this day, if we notice like we're bickering with each other or we're being kind of shitty with one another,

we're bickering with each other or we're being kind of shitty with one another, we laugh about it now because we know that it probably has something to do with being underfed, underhydrated, or under-recovered. Pretty much 99% of the time, you could boil her being a bitch and me being a dickhead down to those three things 99 of the time and so now i now i think of it like this if i'm being a dickhead and you can recognize you're like yeah you're being an asshole i'm like that tells me that my testosterone is low. That's how I've been able to navigate a lot of this stuff now, because when I got the blood results and I could translate the way that I felt to these biomarkers, I was able to now identify the way that I felt with these low numbers. that I felt with these low numbers. So if I ever start feeling the way that I felt, I'm like, shit, my testosterone is tanking and my endocrine system's not working well,

probably because I'm overstressed, I'm underfed, under hydrated and under recovered. So it's that probably been one of the greatest things that we've ever, ever, ever done for our relationship. And the thing that I recommend to everybody, even if you're not in a relationship, like if, if take a look under the hood, look at your blood, figure out where you can prove, can improve, and you will end up living a much happier and joyful life. And when you are happy and healthy, you don't get rattled as easy. You just don't. When I'm firing on all cylinders and my hormones are really good and I'm well fed and I'm well rested and I'm hydrated, good luck pissing me off. Good luck taking me out of that state that I'm in. It's really, really difficult to knock me down when I'm that resilient and healthy, but when I'm feeling like shit, it takes nothing

to piss me off. It takes nothing for me to, you know, to start an argument. It, it just, and, and it just, it all makes so much sense to me now. So I'm able to, I'm able to use my mood as a diagnostic tool for my, um, for my health and wellness. If that makes sense. Totally. You, you wrote something in one of your posts. So I heard that when I hear terms like anti-racism or, um, toxic masculinity, I immediately know because I, cause I know how words work and I know how the mechanism, the brain works. I know that that's just word fuckery that is just propaganda there's no fucking such thing as toxic masculinity there's masculinity and then there's not there's um uh there's assholes there's there's racist people there's people who believe in the idea of racism or practice racism and it and i'm not going to go down there i'm going to

stick to the toxic masculinity but one of the things that's a defining characteristic for me, and anyone can define what they want, but for masculinity, and you talk about this in your Instagram, is there's a week before your woman starts menstruating. And a very strong masculine attribute – you didn't call it – I don't think you called it a masculine attribute. I think you were just talking about being a good partner. But I think it's a very strong masculine attribute is to hold the space during that week that week that you're prior to your woman menstruating is is time for you to be stoic time for you to suck it up time to hold the space time to stay present for your wife that is there's a tremendous amount going on in the woman and that's like one of the um and i tie this into what you're saying about really important to take care of yourself in that week and not,

God, I hate this word, trigger your wife. Do not engage in her, in her process. You are there to stay present and channel the highest levels of energy and, and, and even support her is not the right word. Support yourself not to fuck up. be present. Do not get caught in anything that will make her experience worse. That is your, your, that is your week. Anything that will make you engage her in a way that's going to, um, not, not help her. Yeah. Yeah. And almost any engagement at all at that time. And in the most shallowest way, I want to say that women, there's a, and I don't know if this is true, but this is my sort of self-explanation for it. There's a strong emotional component that

comes up in them at that point, and they'll start to believe their emotion and intellectually try to defend it. It's your job not to try to unfuck them at that point they'll get to that on their own it's your job to stay present and listen like just really really be present like the kind of presence you feel after you do 100 burpees for time you can engage your wife in a fucking stupid emotional fight if you're starving for oxygen after 100 burpees you have to get into that and And, and, and yeah, and I'm not saying it's easy by the way, but it's a very strong masculine attribute and I do it. I don't think as masculine toxicity. I just think it's, you're just that you need to work on your masculinity.

Yeah. And what makes it easier is it kind of goes back to the blood test thing is just is the tracking and knowing. And, and I, the post that you're talking about, I was, I think it was probably the one we started keeping track of Jenny's just ovulation cycle and in relationship to the moon. And it just made me hyper aware of where she was at in that cycle. Now, granted, in my opinion, when you're, when you're healthy, when a woman is healthy, um,

she's not going to have these really wild, um, TMS symptoms. Um, and she's, but if you, if you are a little unease, then you tend to, you tend to have a little bit more, uh, heavier symptoms. Look at let's just, you know, we we've gone this far without talking about COVID. How, what are the symptoms like of a healthy person? Asymptomatic.

There are none. There are, there's zero, right? And the symptoms of an unhealthy person are, line them up. Sickness, death, prolonged after effects because the war that raged inside you with your T cells and SARS, it does damage and the more unhealthy you are everything's worse. The worst it is so we've been able to see that in Jenny's

period as well and we can use those really similar diagnostic tools that we were using or talking about before with the blood test if I'm acting like a dickhead I know my testosterone is probably a little tank. Same thing for her. If she's having crazy symptoms around her period,

emotional highs and lows, fatigue, pain, we've normalized these symptoms. We've called them, you know, that's, that's normal. That's common to have these, but for a healthy person, um, they, uh, they don't exist not nearly to the degree, um, that we are normalizing them. And, um, and she too is able to use that as feedback for, all right, I'm probably underfed under hydrated under recovered um and it's interesting when you say that i want to be defensive and that's but but you're right and that's the same way people want to be defensive when you tell them hey you're 30 years complicit in your demise and that's why fucking sars-cov-2 is jacking you up it's funny yeah you're you're and i'm sure some listeners are going to

be defensive when they hear that no no no it's it's a real phenomenon it's a real phenomenon he's not suggesting it's not a real phenomenon he's saying that um the phenomenon has symptoms that are that are worse that are that that manifest in a bad way when you're not healthy like i get it i see the direct parallel. Yeah. And it's really simple to understand when we, you know, again, when we look at like, when we look at, you know, this, this virus issue and like you just, like we just talked about, how does a healthy person, what are a healthy person's symptoms versus an unhealthy person symptoms. And it's very easy to understand when you look at it like that. And, um, we're, it's, it's, it's really, yeah, the, the worse off you are with your health, the worse your symptoms are going to be. It's just, you know,

some people don't want to hear that and it's hard to stomach it, but it's just, it's, it's just, you know, some people don't want to hear that and it's hard to stomach it, but it's just, it's, it's the reality of it. A healthy body that like, it, it just doesn't, it doesn't really get sick and, and be dis-eased. And when I say sick and dis-eased, I mean that on all sorts of levels. So if you feel uneasy emotionally, we can tie it back into your health. If you feel, you know, all these symptoms could be tied back into your health and wellness. health and wellness. And we, we treat them as some sort of like this phenomena that just like, like a virus, just like I'm, I'm sick with depression. I'm sick with anxiety. And, and, and, and it's so funny to me that we don't fucking think of our food and our water and our air and our relationship with nature as the primary culprit to us being well. It blows my mind that this is not... I was literally just a couple nights ago consulting with a friend. His wife has cancer. And he asked me what I would do if Jenny had cancer. And I could tell you, I said, this is exactly what I would do.

If my wife was in a hospital with, and she was getting treatment for cancer, my, my, my job would be to make sure that she had the best water and she had the best food that, that I would control what I could. And, and I would get her the, the best medicine possible. And that would be the best food and the best water that I could find. And I like, it starts, it's, it's, it's that like, where do people think like the, the chemicals that are the minerals that are controlling our body come from? Like, what the heck is so difficult to understand about our food and our water and our air being the thing that kind of controls our well-being? I said earlier, I do believe that there's some spiritual and emotional components to this, but generally speaking, when it comes to our

physical health are the food that we're eating and the water that we're drinking, the air that we're breathing are, are going to, are going to be what how how we how we feel how we feel and it it just blows my mind that this is not sam i'm reading this book range and we've all heard the phrase that a hammer only sees nails and it's really it's a fantastic book because people just hear that and they're like, yeah, that's a cute thing. Or Thief Only Sees Wallets and Purses. The smartest people in the world are the most myoptic people in the world, generally speaking. very very very difficult for these really smart people who are hammers doctors physicians scientists to see any other way but their way they're so and and it's it's mind-boggling to

us idiots because we're like uh excuse me like they're trying to figure out still how to drive a car across water and me and you are like nah dude let's ride the boat and drink a beer and and they just can't see it they cannot see it or they argue the limitations for the public instead of believing in the public oh we'll never get everyone in that boat well then let's build another boat like like what like what like they're so determined to drive this car across the lake and and it's just um yeah it's it's it is truly mind-boggling to see how many really, really intelligent people have fallen for what doesn't make any sense to me and you. Like – No sense.

Yeah, you don't even have to add anything. I'm not even asking you to take vitamin D. I'm just telling you to quit eating sugar and quit eating refined carbohydrates. That's it. That's it. You don't got to take vitamin D, no zinc. I mean I'm okay with taking those things. And I do take those things because I believe some of the hype, but, but. Um, and some things that have really, uh, shifted my perspective on really any supplementation, um, and give you this little kind of nugget that really helped me understand how and why even supplementing things that are natural could end up being problematic.

And, um, and, uh, there's, and this just was a no-brainer to me. Um, nowhere in nature, are you going to, Oh, can you hear me? Yeah, I can hear you. Did my video go out? That just happens. Just so you know, it says there was an issue with the recording. Please restart the studio should i hit restart or should i just leave that up there no keep talking it i because because everything looks good on my end we're going to wrap this up as soon as you say this anyway but god i hope i this was so good i hope we didn't lose it so tell me i'm really curious about the supplementation yeah so you got an example nowhere um you know nowhere in nature can we find these isolated supplements. They all work synergistically with other compounds. So when we start taking these high doses of vitamin C, these high doses of zinc, these high doses of whatever, vitamin C, we're taking them in ratios that aren't found in nature and without their partners,

if you will. And so really, if we want to prescribe the best medicine, we need to look at nature and we need to stop trying to isolate things from nature and call that medicine because the medicinal properties are coming from the relationship that nature has with itself and with us. Well, we are part of nature. And that's been one of the most profound things that I've really learned from the guests that I've had on my podcast is our health comes down to our relationship with nature. And are we getting sunlight? Are we getting clean air? Are we getting clean, mineralized water are we getting good food that that has wise cultivation practices around it uh and when i say that i'm talking about the quality of our soil and the um in the in well

depending on what route we want to take, like, are they a commercial industry? Just the chemicals and the fertilizers and the rodenticides and the fungicides and all these things that we're using and spraying on. It's really no different than what is happening with people right now. We have to come up with all these cocktails to basically keep people alive. And we are doing the same thing to plants and animals. We have to inject and spray all these different steroids and fertilizers and stuff to keep this shit alive because it's everything is so the environment is so trashed and and um we're doing the same thing to people too um but our our health comes down to our relationship with nature are we getting good sun are we getting plenty of sun are we getting quality air

are we getting good nutrition through our our food and and we have to look at what our food's food is. And like I was talking about with the vitamins and the supplements and stuff, if you're going to be taking vitamins and supplements, and there's companies out there that are doing this, we need to look at it in a holistic way, uh, rather than this isolated, um, in this isolated manner, we need to start looking things wholly and, um, and, and, and using these whole food supplements, whole foods really, um, to, to treat ourselves. And, uh, and like I said, nowhere in nature can you go find isolated hormone D and isolated zinc. It's not just like hanging out. It's always in conjunction with other things. And those other things are really important to the function of that thing that we're supplementing. So it's definitely changed my mind on, and I've since then been, you know, what are some of the negative effects of mega dosing a vitamin D or megadosing zinc. And sure, we say these things are impactful and important and necessary to our health. But I think how we're getting it, the delivery method is equally as important, if not more important than the substances that we're consuming.

And what I mean by that is, you know, um, yeah, I think things just work together, you know, things just work together and it's important that we are, we're being supportive of the way things were designed. And when we start manipulating things. Wow, that says it all right there. Being supportive of the way things are designed. Yeah. Don't drive your car on the roof, people. It's designed to run on the wheels.

Yeah, you know, so so imagine if your car ran out of gas imagine if your car ran out of gas and instead of putting gas in it you put another car behind it to push it around would that be fucking stupid or what and that's what we have as a society it's just selling you push it around yeah they just sell you another car push around what's wrong with the car in front it's out of gas oh yeah this is a good idea let's get a big truck and push it from the back yeah man it is absurd i'm really proud of that by the way sam i um i wanted to talk about your green jeep i want to talk about paintballs with josh bridges i want to talk about the swallowed lip ring i wanted to talk about what it means to be open to love. I wanted to talk about,

um, uh, more about your shorts. Um, I want to talk about the post that the only post you ever pulled down on your Instagram account. I wanted to talk about the opposite of courage is conformity. That is really good. Uh, being sexually assaulted, um, why you chose a home birth. Um, I want to talk about your child's name we didn't even talk about kids um get married why did you have a baby um have you ever bought a brand new car these i my notes go on and on as i dig through your instagram but i have to go and you have to go yeah so this honestly those were all the things that I was anticipating talking about, too. behind, um, you know, a lot of the, uh, the, the policies that have been put in place from COVID and, uh, and, and some of the, um, uh, prescriptions that have also been, uh, been dealt out and,

and how we're trying to, uh, incentivize people, uh, to people to do some of these treatments. And it's the opposite of health. And it's so obvious. Do you want to talk about that? Do you want to jump back on and do another one sometime? Yeah. Yeah. Okay, cool.

Anytime. I'm sorry. I'm always afraid to bring that stuff up with people because I'm not sure who's comfortable with it. Yeah. Well, you know what? It needs to be talked about. There just needs to be an adult conversation around it. And even if we, we can't perfectly and professionally articulate all the information, there's nothing wrong with us as adults having a conversation about something. And if, if we're not allowed to talk about it, then that's a serious problem.

And I think we can start addressing that just, just by talking, just by talking, we might not get it. All right. Yeah. I kind of hide behind my Instagram to talk about it, but you're right. I would love to talk. That's a dangerous place. It's way more dangerous to talk about it on Instagram than it is on a podcast on Instagram. You know,

I'm unemployed and I'm not selling anything. So I've been just letting it fly. Ripping it. You're crazy, bro. Sam. I love it. Thank you.

Yeah, man. Always a pleasure.