Video summary
In this episode, Liver King (Stephen Bartlett) addresses accusations regarding steroid use and defends his ancestral lifestyle against critics like Joe Rogan. He clarifies that while he owns multiple businesses generating over $100 million annually, his physique is the result of nine specific ancestral tenets rather than performance-enhancing drugs or shortcuts. Bartlett recounts a traumatic childhood where bullying between ages 10 and 14 led him to discover weightlifting as a survival mechanism; this period forged his resilience but also instilled an obsessive need for control over outcomes, which he acknowledges is the "dark side" of becoming extreme in any respect. He emphasizes that strength must be earned through daily effort rather than purchased or chemically induced, arguing that cheating does not scale and ultimately fails to provide true fulfillment. The conversation shifts deeply into Bartlett's most harrowing experience: his son Rad suffering from a pediatric autoimmune neurological disorder known as PANDAS (Pediatric Autoimmune Neuropsychiatric Disorders Associated with Streptococcus). Describing the situation as a "living hell," Bartlett details how Rad became consumed by obsessive thoughts and severe anxiety, eventually expressing a desire to damage his own brain rather than endure the torment. The family resolved this crisis by removing chocolate and honey from Rad's diet and transitioning him to a strict keto carnivore plan under the guidance of Paul Saladino, leading to significant recovery within days or weeks. Bartlett admits that while he felt helpless initially, guilt was secondary to an overwhelming drive to take massive action and protect his family at all costs, reinforcing his belief in shielding one's loved ones from environmental toxins like non-native EMFs. A surprising revelation comes when Liver King confesses a crippling fear of public speaking and social rejection, which contradicts his confident on-screen persona. He explains that the anxiety is so severe it physically prevents him from forming words or breathing during high-stakes moments, such as appearing on major podcasts with Logan Paul or live TV segments for ESPN. Drawing on research by Professor John Gottman regarding tribal survival instincts, Bartlett contextualizes this fear: historically, rejection meant death and exile from the tribe, a primal response that still triggers modern anxiety about social standing. Despite these intense fears and sleepless nights of doubt, he chose to push through because his mission is to take the ancestral message mainstream for children who deserve better lives than those suffering in silence or on prescription medication. The interview concludes with Bartlett sharing personal vulnerabilities regarding emotional expression and fatherhood, noting that while he never had a dad affirm him as a child, he now prioritizes hugging his sons nightly and telling them explicitly how much he loves them to counteract societal norms where men suppress emotions. He encourages his children to face their own fears of rejection when approaching girls or taking risks in life, teaching them that it is better to look foolish than to be afraid. The episode ends with Bartlett offering Stephen a raw piece of liver from the fridge as a final act of hospitality and proof of his dietary philosophy, solidifying their shared commitment to ancestral living despite the controversies surrounding their public personas.
Read the full video transcript
it was like a living [ __ ] hell and i
got the [ __ ] kicked out of me every
single day and all i wanted to do was
just be different
this is liver cake what up primals this
is what we evolved with cheap and
testicles lungs you are not replacing
these nutrients with [ __ ] vegetables
70 pound kettlebells in each hair 70
pounds in a backpack it's 120 pounds on
top of a sled and you go one mile i made
my son do it when he turned 15. that
sounds like toxic parenting
you know what there's nothing toxic
about this joe rogan criticized you
alluded that you're on steroids the
liver king thing drives me nuts because
that guy's on steroids all i ask is for
the opportunity to have the conversation
with him face to face most people are
suffering with something 50 on
prescription medication 20 can't have
babies 70 overweight the six tribes that
i've gone and visited with seems
non-existent
you're making over 100 million dollars a
year from your businesses true or false
true i own 10 or 12 companies right now
where every single company is based on
taking this ancestral message mainstream
the world's really hurting
what is the hardest moment of your adult
life been
the hardest moment was when my my son
rad
got sick
we thought we thought we were losing
them why oh god don't make me do this
again
[Applause]
part of the reason why i never wanted to
publicly come out as the liver king
is because
without further ado i'm stephen bartlett
and this is the diary of a ceo i hope
nobody's listening but if you are then
please keep this to yourself
[Music]
liver king
i am
i'm gonna start where i always start but
for you
i'm particularly interested in this
can you tell me
the context i would need to know about
your earliest years
that went into shaping the man that you
went on to become i'm talking before 10
years old what is that context
well before 10 years old
um
i grew up with a brother and with a mom
that was mom and dad i have no memory of
my dad when i was two or three years old
he died he was serving in the air force
and he he died and so my mom
was really tough on us
really tough on us what i mean by that
is it seemed like you know brothers
together are always raised in hell
getting in trouble
and uh she seemed to just beat the [ __ ]
out of us
it's just normal it's just normal and
then sometimes she would drop us off at
uh her parents house in california and
they would do the same thing and later
on i realized my mom got it from her dad
and they're just doing the best right
they're doing the best that they can and
uh and so i'll say my mom was really
really tough on me growing up
she had us enrolled in all the typical
sports all the traditional sports and
um my i just wanted to be just like my
brother he's a year and a half older
than me i just wanted to be exactly like
my brother and here's the thing we had
two friends up the street best friends
chris and erin and they were everything
you know going to play sports going to
hang out with these guys going
skateboarding it just seemed like every
day was full of activity and every and
you said just grab it up to 10. that was
about 10. it's interesting that you said
describe it up to 10 because i would say
just to about 10
life was incredible it was like perfect
everything i mean just like every day
was full of laughter no responsibility
you know falling off the skateboard
getting banged up you know and and back
then you know you could you could take
your skateboard anywhere you know my mom
would let us go to the movies you know
on the skateboard and so growing up um i
just remember these were just up to
about ten
it was just filled with so much joy
yeah
and then after ten yeah so
it's almost like it all switched
overnight so the friends that we had up
the street they moved to another town
and then i went from middle so i went
from elementary school to middle school
and um
i would say this is when my first rite
of passage really took place
it was like a living [ __ ] hill
i was the only one of my kind in middle
school i was undersized i was tiny i was
just a little guy i knew i looked funny
and i got the [ __ ] kicked out of me
every single day i remember i'd come
home and i'd look in the mirror i would
look at the clothes that i had i had
absolutely no concept of self-worth i
was totally embarrassed i was humiliated
of this kid that i had become
and and all i wanted to do was just be
different i was like why couldn't i have
been born different why couldn't i look
like these guys look
and so
i remember coming back from school the
first day
tears coming out of my eyes you know and
and i told my mom i'm never going back
and my mom she she looked at me
with such certainty that she wasn't
going to have any part of this
conversation and it was the first time
she really did this it was um i'll say
my mom uh prior to that like we could
talk about anything but the minute i
brought this up she was so stern about
it i knew that this was off limits and
so i never went back to her about any
issue i had in middle school um but
middle school
think about this my my friends are gone
from up the street i had no one to talk
to about this stuff i didn't have a dad
to mentor me my brother that's a year
and a half old is now hanging out with
his older friends and then he goes off
to high school so i'm not able to talk
to him about it and it's just um man i
just i couldn't wait for these years to
be over
and i remember keeping a list of people
that that like a hit list i would write
down the names if i could get revenge on
these people
these are the five or six guys you know
that every [ __ ] day
they would they would they would bully
me they would i mean i would be
blindsided out of nowhere you know
sometimes somebody would punch me
and and i would wake up
just with my book back the bell had
already rang
you know going to middle school was was
just a living hell i had to figure out a
way out of that hell hole i had started
lifting weights just prior to 10. for no
really good reason one of my mom's
boyfriend michael's michael gleidensler
he was a pharmacist he said hey i got
this old bench and in my garage you want
this bench and i was like sure i'll take
it and i was just drawn to it you know i
was just drawn to it and then something
happened where
i realized like this is the only place i
could really control the outcomes in my
life
and so i was drawn to it more and more
and more and eventually i got strong and
i looked strong and i figured out a way
out of this hell hole i figured out how
to kind of blend in i figured out how to
get some respect i'm about 14 at this
point
and um and at this point i got both my
ears pierced twice i got my hair sticked
back i'm wearing the baggy jeans i got
the bomber jacket on i'm like i'm kind
of fitted in a little bit i kind of
figured that out
and
my mom moved me
she moved us because the high school
that the middle school fed to was more
of the same actually even worse even
worse and so she moved me to a
predominantly caucasian place that was
more like me
but i i just figured out how to fit in
with a different demographic
and i'm thinking i go to i go to high
school and i'm like oh my god not not
all over again you know everyone's
wearing tight pants now nobody has their
hair stick back nobody has an earring
in their ear
but you know what like i i had known i
figured this out before you know and
i'll figure this out again
and this time i figured out a lot faster
and i had already learned some
self-worth i'd already learned some
respect
um
and so that's kind of how my life was
my earlier years
that that kid between 10 and 14 years
old that went through that
what would you say to him how do you
feel about him
what would you say to him if you could
speak to him now i do speak to him now
those are my boys now you know i mean
they're not going through what i went
through but
um
stand up for yourself
you got something to i don't i i tell my
boys all this all the time i'd rather
you look stupid i'd rather you look like
an [ __ ] than look like a [ __ ]
you know you've got to stand up for
yourself i never stood up for myself i i
mean every day something would happen
and i never stood up for myself i never
pushed back i never punched back
and um there was this one time in the
courtyard a new kid had come to school
chuck he looked like me um he's getting
in fights every day but he's punching
back so once a week he's living leaving
with a bloody face and i'm thinking oh
god i don't want to look like that i
don't want anything to do with that
eventually i start to make friends with
this guy chuck
but chuck now gets accepted because
chuck is pushing back and chuck is
fighting back and meanwhile in parallel
i'm kind of making friends with him and
then somebody tells him something about
me and then he approaches me in the
courtyard and he starts pushing me in
the courtyard now we've got a group of i
don't know 50 60 70 people circling
around us he's just pushing me back and
pushing me back and and i'm just going
back going back and eventually i trip
over a planter but right before that i
said hey man you don't want to fight me
you don't want to fight me i'm a [ __ ]
that's what i said to him you know and
for the longest time i wouldn't tell
that story to anybody i wouldn't tell it
to my own kids i was so embarrassed to
tell that story
um i'm proud to tell that story now you
know because
what what what forged me
are those days right and and so if i had
the opportunity what i would have said
um is uh push back
fight
you know you you need to stand up for
yourself right now for the rest of your
life this is what you need to do and
everything's gonna be okay
you know it's okay to get bloody it's
okay to fight you need to fight we
evolved fighting right uh somewhere
along the way you know i just uh i
didn't know that was okay
and i was just scared out of my mind
that the kind of fights that i saw every
day you know
there's so much blood and the teachers
would never break up these fights
because if a teacher broke up this fight
that teacher's getting it that day so so
the fights lasted so long
it would they would wait for the gym
coaches to come all the way over to the
fight to break up those fights i wanted
no part of that
so i wish i had somebody tell me you
know i don't give a [ __ ] about you
getting suspended i don't care what
happens to your face you got to stand up
for yourself and you got to push back
and you got to fight
if i could give you an eraser
and you could apply that eraser to those
four years in your life from 10 to 14
and you could make it different you
could make it rosy and idyllic and
picturesque
would you now
use the razor and raise those four years
of your life you know the answer is no
you know i mean i couldn't be more
grateful you know for those four years
uh this was my first rite of passage
this this forged me into the unrelenting
evolutionary hunter that i am today i
mean i figured that [ __ ] out on my own
you know this is probably a gift i
didn't have a dad you know this is
probably a gift i didn't have somebody
to put their arms because you figure
that [ __ ] out on your own you cross this
chasm right i always think about going
through these four years and i think i
would never allow my kids to do this
but my kids need this too right they
need the equivalent of this right of
passage so um no i would never take it
and i think everyone you know who who is
self-made
has has various rights of passage at
different stages and phases of their
life this is my first rite of passage so
um
i didn't tell you how grateful i am for
it i'm incredibly grave i figured that
[ __ ] out and then i figured out the next
one and the next one and then eventually
you're like you know what
when people tell you hey you really
can't do anything you start to realize
oh my god i really can do anything but
what about if i said your son who i just
met you've got two lovely lovely sons
that are upstairs um what if i said your
sons had to go through those four years
to figure it out would you and there's a
button here that you can press they get
bullied beat up every day for four years
and feel how you felt at 10 years old
would you press the button and put your
two sons through it
i would put them through it
i i hesitated because
a lot of people didn't make it out of
that [ __ ] you know a lot of people do
show up with a gun so would you risk it
um
am i their dad at the same time
today they're going to go through it for
100
especially with my guidance absolutely i
would you know a lot of the kids that i
went to middle school with did die you
know a lot of them you know are in jail
and and so
this is what i know a lot of people that
are in the similar situation they just
don't make it out you know something
happens to them um with with a little
bit of guidance and i wouldn't give them
even a lot of guidance you know um i i
think they would kick ass
uh so absolutely um i i would i want
them to go through something similar
those moments and the moments in my life
that were the most difficult are clearly
the moments that created my
best qualities and i say best qualities
because usually these are best qualities
in the eyes of the external world so my
success or you know all of these things
probably came from some kind of hardship
some insecurity some [ __ ] i went through
it's like you know i was poked in a
really aggressive way and then
at the other end you know determination
comes out right i realized that my
insecurity created my brilliance yeah
but with that
always comes a dark side when you become
an extreme person in any respect there
there's nearly always a dark side
there's always another cost to that
everyone claps and goes ah stand out
person outstanding different
but what's the dark side in your case i
became obsessive about this about
controlling outcomes in my life you know
i stopped really leaning on other people
um you know
things have changed you know now i i
would say that uh
i really have a truly interdependent and
synergistic culture you know i'm sure
that you know that culture and chemistry
is where it's at you can do anything
people say this all the time the cliche
but it's true you know you want to go
fast go alone if you want to go far go
as a team you know and it took a while
to put that stuff together i think that
a big part of the dark side is i'm so
obsessive
about controlling certain outcomes in my
life that's why i spend three or four
hours in the gym every day
every day you know and and peop a lot of
people like hey man you just don't you
have other things that you end up like
you know what no this is what i have to
do i have to do this why do you have to
do it because i do why you know it's i
start with the hardest thing i'm gonna
do all day so i put myself through that
i'm like if i can do this now
everything's gonna be a little bit
easier and i've tried taking some time
off you know a lot of usually i'm so
over trained that the brain isn't even
thinking right and so when i take a
little bit of time off i do a five-day
fast once a quarter um when i take and
so i don't work out when i do a five-day
fast and my brain
is like on another level is there not an
element of the fact that the gym is what
saved you from the bullies i'm sure it
is
so you it's a it's a survival survival
mechanism that plays i'm sure it is and
so much of my message today is
that that strength is an alpha virtue
across time and space
and
and so the fact that i can get in there
and i can control that and i can get
stronger and i can look stronger and and
that work you know that's not something
that you can just buy at the mall at a
credit card right on a credit card this
is something that you have to forge day
in day out you know it's not just the
gym but i'm sure that that has something
to do with like this is what saved me
this is where you know if i'm not in the
gym the pain of not being in the gym
far exceeds the pain
of three or four hours of working out
was there a catalyst moment in terms of
you transitioning from being brian a
name a person you don't even recognize
now i hear to being liver king was there
a catalyst i read there was illness and
allergies within your your kids right
was that the catalyst
it happened something sometime around
there um
because you used to wear t-shirts you
used to be called brian
and now you don't even
really resonate with that right you know
so so this is the message i think when i
really fully let this barbarian out so i
i believe everybody's born a primal
right wild and free undomesticated right
before we domesticated ourselves before
we were mindlessly compliant right
everyone is wild and free we're this
primal version and then through social
norms and being nice and you know then
we start to conform to something other
than our primal self um and and with
enough time i think because of my
upbringing in a fight situation a
life-and-death situation um this guy
comes out of the cage when you train
really really hard in the gym
and you're going for pr's and you're
doing a 500-pound back squat if you
screw that up there's real danger
involved and i believe if that guy comes
out enough every single time he comes
out he gets a taste for it he gets a
little bit stronger and i believe one
day
that guy broke out liver king and i
always say this he ate brian johnson he
ate his predator predator that guy's
gone because when that guy comes out
it's your truest most authentic form
right and that's why i think we're going
to be you know dynamic here today
because if this is about being real and
raw a true primal is the most authentic
truest you know to him and and when you
can be that
uninhibited it's freeing
it's completely freeing and i was like
when when you can be like that life's
like a party um why would you ever want
to go back i call i call brian johnson
the corporate you know brian like why
would you ever want to go back to that
you know to being nice and to saying
things that you don't actually mean
you know um when you say being nice
what's wrong with being nice
well because you're a very nice guy
thank you for saying so um i i asked my
kids on the way over here you know to
explain to me how you would describe me
and now and one of them said um badass
another said um like a king because you
dominate your environment and then he
said because sometimes you're also a
dick
and i said let's talk about that right
because um because public account
accountability is a big deal to me
and again what we do is far more
important than what we say and if
somebody's making excuses in front of my
kids i say hey man what you're doing is
making excuses what you need to do is
own what you did because i don't want to
hear excuses you need to have enough
insight somebody needs to tell you and
the thing is if i don't do it right now
number one it's not a good example for
my kids number two because of time i
might not ever see this person again and
so i take the time to do it and i'm sure
that person thinks i'm a dick
and everyone kind of thinks i'm a dick
you know i could have done it privately
but but if i think like that it probably
would never happen so um thank you for
saying that you believe i'm nice i
believe i'm a nice guy too but and i
believe in accountability you know um i
could give you some some examples um
on the way to the airport or our driver
was supposed to be here 15 minutes early
he's supposed to have my car picked up i
got an f-450 dually truck it's supposed
to be in the shade
15 minutes early um and uh and it's not
he showed up really just on time he
showed up just on time and we get in the
car it's hot as [ __ ] we're all sweating
you know and again all i'm good with all
that stuff i'm good with but you know
what i sweat for four or five hours a
day you know i'm like i'm ready to get
in the car i'm ready to be right now i'm
ready to be comfortable
and i said hey adam um what happened and
he said well i just got back from mexico
i was driving somebody you know in an rv
yada yada i gotta and i said adam all
those are excuses
what i want to hear you just say is i
showed up late this is my fault this
won't happen again and so he starts
going into all and i said oh man don't
make me do this not in front of my kids
right because i can't allow you to do
this i can't allow this to be any so i
let him have and i say man i just want
you to own it i want you to say that you
messed up here's how you're going to get
better here's how you're going to fix it
and he proceeds to still defend he felt
like he needed to defend himself a
little bit more
and and so he did apologize um you know
what i ended up saying is you know you
know primitive culture tribes don't
really have a word for i'm sorry
you know it's i'll get better you know
they first have to have the insight to
hey i [ __ ] up and i'm going to get
better and that's all i want to hear
yeah so you know in that time i'm sure
and it happens all the time you know hey
how was your food
you know and i'm gonna i'm gonna tell
you how in fact i'll probably tell you
how it was before you asked you know and
i'm very confident when the food is
great this is the best eating experience
i could have if the food's not great and
we missed here i'm going to let you know
how that happened so i think because of
that you know sometimes uh
you know
i can be perceived as not being a nice
guy why is that responsibility and
accountability so important
why is it so important what's the what's
the cost
to ourselves our lives our society if we
don't take responsibility and we aren't
accountable and we resort to blame and
excuses yeah you know so the name is
liver king for a couple of different
reasons but i believe everybody has the
same primal potential to become anything
and when you can become anything you
realize that you're a true king you're
self-made king
and that's all about what i what i
believe i model teach and preach is is
taken extreme ownership leadership
responsibility over the life that you
shape and create right this is the
opposite of the guy sitting on the couch
making reaction videos making excuses
for his life right you have to have that
insight you have to be held accountable
either by someone else and or to hold
yourself accountable to one day move
along the continuum from being dependent
to finally independent to interdependent
right somewhere along that maturity
continuum i believe it's unacceptable
for us to allow people to continue to do
that have we lost ourselves a little bit
there have we gone a bit soft have we
have we gone a little bit too far in the
direction of
uh lack of accountability blame
and uh yeah lack of personal
responsibility i believe so believe 100
we have you know i'm um
some things happen where
people really watch what they have to
say today you know we're nice to each
other um you know i i say there's
something that's happened where men have
become [ __ ] today you know and of
course there's exceptions to this right
but i believe hard times make strong men
and there's no requirement for hard
times in the modern world and if you
look at our ancestral past
the kind of things we had to do just for
food right for shelter in perpetuity if
you wanted sex the kind of things you
had to do
as the early ancestors required real
work hard work hard times to make strong
men and today there's no requirement for
any of that there's an app for it you
can outsource it and when you go and you
do you know these types of things
let's say you miss
nobody's really holding you accountable
to that mess
it's become acceptable today and then i
think what a result of this is
you have 80 percent of people the
world's really suffering right the
world's really hurting and there's these
modern day conditions that don't exist
in modern day primitive culture tribes
you know so um the six tribes that i've
gone and visited with i've tried to
assess and figure out is there
depression is there anxiety is there
infertility are there are autoimmune
conditions in these tribes and it seems
non-existent but today we're really
hurting with these things
and so i i think that we have missed
something
i think we have missed
and i think that we need to hold each
other accountable to a higher standard i
say one way or another you're gonna
suffer
you can actively suffer and put in the
work to grow and to get better or you
can passively suffer with these
conditions that you have to most people
are suffering with something passively
and their life could be so much better
so i do think that we've missed i think
we've become very soft
and and i think we need more people um i
think i think there's something to this
we can be nice and generous we can be
[ __ ] honest and candid with one
another what what this guy needs over
here is not for the next 20 people to
say oh i accept that excuse me what this
guy needs is people to say hey man
you're better than this
this is the reality of it you're in
control of these outcomes and for him to
realize oh my god i am in control i can
shape and create the life that i want to
live in so i do believe that that we've
gotten soft today and i believe there's
something we need to do about it that
suffering you talked about that passive
suffering and that mental suffering that
um society is quite clearly
going through
what is the
cause of that suffering let's just focus
on the mental suffering we're talking
about mental elements in your view so
anxiety depression these kinds of things
depending on who you ask and depending
which research you look at and factoring
that there's an increase in awareness so
there's an increase in labeling and
diagnosis what is your view on why
these mental health predicaments have
become so prevalent in society
i believe it's really multifactorial i
believe it's all nine ancestral tenants
every single one of them i'll say them
real quickly it's sleep eat move shield
connect cold sun fight and bond all nine
of these
have an impact on our hormones on our
neural chemistry every single one of
them right you go without sleep a couple
of days how much you want to bet you
show up in a horrific mood it's when
we're in this
i know you probably don't agree with the
technology but for me
it's uh i actually put it on yesterday
but it's to help my sleep so i woke up
this morning and it says you got eight
hours sleep you've got six hours of rem
sleep you did a good job i'll probably
take it off at some point and i just
need to get in somewhere you can use it
for a while to figure out those things
right i see people wearing those those
watches and i say subprimal right
because uh because the fourth ancestral
tenant is shield and these are
non-native signals that that we've never
been in contact with before and we have
enough of them right most people keep
their cell phone next to their dick and
balls
this is unacceptable right um you don't
have to have it there so it's so so if
you sleep like [ __ ] you're going to show
up
not the way that you want to show up um
if you eat horrifically this is the same
thing if you don't move if you don't
exercise it's it's all nine ancestral
tenants the last one is bond you know
the importance so all of them shape you
know how we look feel function what we
express epigenetically from a hormonal
standpoint from an endocrine standpoint
from a neurochemistry standpoint all of
them matter and and so it kind of
depends on where you're at what you're
doing but i'll tell you i i rarely meet
somebody who's doing all nine of these
right and has a shitty life right
because people are really hurting and
hating and suffering and struggling with
modern day conditions like depression
anxiety autoimmune low energy low libido
low ambition in life like there's a
better life to [ __ ] live you've got a
great taste of this so many people are
living this kind of lifestyle that's why
i believe it's my job to model teach and
preach this way so that our people no
longer have to suffer so that we can
express our highest most dominant form
because this is a simple elegant
solution right it's not like i came up
with this way of living right this is
this this is your message this is the
message of our ancestors when people
start to hate on this message you know
and maybe we'll get talking about some
of the critics i'm like can you really
hate on our species this much right can
you hate on your ancestors this is not a
message that i've invented this is what
our early ancestors have done this is
what modern day primitive cultures do
and they're happy as [ __ ] they're
kicking our ass at life
and they have nothing
you've been unseen tribes that live very
closely to all of these nine ancestral
tenants tell me about what you've
learned give me an example of tribes
that you visited where you
saw them doing these things and you saw
some kind of i guess subjective evidence
that you gained that it's working for
them
yeah you know
as soon as you start to meet with them
you feel it you feel how happy you feel
how fulfilled they are they're laughing
they're smiling um you know a lot of
these things it's just really clear they
don't have shoes right so one of the
ancestral tenants is connect they're
connected to the earth 24 7 365. right
because of modern day shoes elevated bed
buildings and stuff like that
we hardly ever come into contact with
the actual earth anymore i'd like to
point out yes
yes
you're probably not officially grounding
right now
but but let me ask you this when's the
last time you had your bare feet
connected to the earth when
my girlfriend's been living in bali so
she will often tell me to take my shoes
off so that i ground myself perfect and
um and a lot of people will say last
time i was on the beach yeah yeah it
doesn't happen of course it doesn't
happen
if you if i walk down the street with my
shoes off
people would probably call emergency
services and have me sectioned or
something so yeah
and and then so someone's like hey last
time i was at the beach i was like what
were you doing like oh yeah i was with
my wife we were holding hands we were
walking on the beach under the sun like
how to make you feel oh it's one of the
best memories and and you know the earth
has a slightly negative charge we're
electrophysical beings right every
single cell is electrical in nature
um and so
just by default you see all of the
primitive culture tribes connecting with
the earth almost 24 7 365. this is one
of them right and so it's sleepy move
shield connect called sun fight bomb
right they're under the sun you know
most of the day they're under the sun
they're hardly wearing any clothing
they're getting plenty of sun bonding is
required in this culture everybody knows
the purpose everybody knows what their
job is when we go on a hunt everybody
knows who the lead hunter is you know
they don't have to say anything
and and again the way that they organize
um there's this time i tell this story
every once in a while because uh
it's i just love telling the story we
were on a hunt uh looking for baboons
and and one of the chiefs uh took a shot
with an arrow almost straight up in the
air
and i'm thinking oh my god like you took
what if that comes down near us anyways
it came down right next to my son and me
ends up actually striking my cameraman
the broad side of the arrow and the
torso it doesn't pierce them but it hits
them like really close call
they think it's the most hilarious thing
they've ever seen they're laughing so
hard what are you gonna do
right no one's yelling at anybody you
know and he just said
we're not doing that again
you know
and these guys laugh so hard you know
and when they go on a hunt
it's this is a matter of life and death
if they're not successful in the hunt
they don't eat right and they don't
bring anything back to the rest of the
tribe um the way that they sleep this is
just so i always say some of the easy
things you can do to sleep better is
finish your last meal three to four
hours before bed get early morning sun
at the same time every day this helps to
set your bio circadian rhythm right so
your body knows when to be alert and
awake versus sleepy and sleeping so most
people don't realize this if you really
want to set up your sleep it starts
first thing in the morning get early
morning sun through the eyes on the face
on the skin first thing in the morning
so get early morning sun finish your
last meal three to four hours before bed
take in the sunset as a final
environmental environmental cue that the
day is winding down and then try and
block these artificial lights you know
with blue light blocking glasses or just
have fire light candlelight stuff like
that in the house um by default they do
all these things
they already do all these things right
the way that they eat there's no
processed food there's no vegetable seed
oils right there's no liquid calories
they eat the whole animal nose to tail
right um there's usually there can be
some foraging foods as well but but this
is what i see you know when i've gone
and visited with the matcha genga with
the maasai what they eat is blood milk
and meat
that's all they eat the messiah only eat
blood milk and meat and if you could see
their jawline and their teeth and their
smiles you're thinking how do i get what
they have again their disposition you
know is incredible the way that
everyone's required to move just to go
get water and then to carry the water
back you know the way that um every
primitive culture tribe has shielded or
protected themselves um you know we no
longer have to run away from lions but
now we're bombarded with all these
non-native signals with all these
non-native chemicals so i always tell
people get your cell phone out of your
pocket put in airplane mode if you're
not using at least when you're sleeping
you don't need your phone on when you're
sleeping right put that in airplane mode
turn your wi-fi router off when you're
sleeping there's some really basic
things we can do stop wearing
petrochemical clothing stop wearing
xenoestrogen-laden perfumes like all
these foreign substances wreak havoc on
our endocrine system so all nine
ancestral tendons this is sort of an
example you asked me for an example of
visiting with the tribes by default they
do all of these things they do all nine
ancestral tenants on these ancestral
tenants the first one is sleep right
and i read that you sleep on a wooden
board
and i've seen your house
i call it a house that's a lie
it's a
estate a mansion what would you call it
i call it my cave your cave okay well
cave is slightly underselling it but um
you sleep on a piece of wood
why
you know
first thing i'll say is a lot of people
think that i actually don't do i have a
video that shows my bed and any anyone
who comes over i'm like you wanna check
out my bed i sleep on one planks check
it out i got this tiny thin
wool mat it's it's about that thick it's
just made out of wool um before we just
just sleep on wood and my liver queen is
hardcore she's like we're just going to
sleep on wood i said fine let's just
sleep on wood after about a year of
having bone bruises on the hip and
shoulders like listen i don't think my
body's adapting
and we went to visit with primitive
culture tribes and they all have a
little bit of cushion
either some natural ground or some some
some leaves some little cushion and i
said you know what i'm gonna do that too
i'm gonna do that too and i slept much
better um the answers are
our bodies were never really meant to be
in this kind of cast to be in something
so think about it you go up to modern
day beds and it's a perfect height right
you just barely fall into it you know
and and so there's a few things one is
that like i got to get down to get into
my bed same way so you're more bit the
mobility requirements are greater you
meet with these 80 and 90 year olds of
these permanent culture tribes they have
no trouble sitting in a full squat
position for hours on end every single
day they're getting down here and
they're getting up and down how many
people just in their 40s and 50s can't
do that if you never stop doing it you
never lose that mobility so that's one
reason another reason is modern day
mattresses
most of them are off-gassing right so
you got your head you're taking in this
sort of toxic stuff like
off-gassing of non-native materials
while you're sleeping a lot of these
also have springs in them these metal
springs that conduct conduct ambient emf
electricity right so you need to be in
the deepest parasympathetic sleep
environment when you're sleeping to
restore and recover and reload from the
next day sleep is i think one of the
most complicated ones so i try and make
it simple here's a few things you can do
people aren't going to start sleeping on
the ground right what i said earlier is
get early morning sun finish your last
meal three to four hours before bed take
in the sunset and then after the sunset
you need to shield yourself from some of
the blue lights you can either wear the
uvex glasses or put some candle lights
up how much you want to bet that's going
to improve your sleep so much and then
if you want to go overboard and be
obsessive probably like you are and like
i am um there's there's about six or
seven other things you can do
um that will drastically improve your
sleep and in sleeping closer to the
ground sleeping with a much stiffer
environment is going to help you out you
know it's um the reason why i told you
this before we start recording but the
reason why um i was really really keen
to have this conversation with you is
because
i've seen in culture over the last 10
years having you know i'm a social media
native so i've seen
how conversation around mental health
and mental well-being has evolved over
the last 10 15 years and the the
emergence of the conversation the very
sort of prolific conversation around
mental health and the the cures for much
of these sort of mental um
ailments or our well-being crises
that that has emerged tend to be really
really complicated and they tend and i
think in part they're complicated so
that we can sell people stuff like if
it's simple if it's as simple as you're
kind of saying it is i can't actually
sell you that me telling you to sleep
is not something that i can necessarily
sell you but i could sell you
you know some 17-step course to better
sleep with some contraption that goes
right you know
so
that's what i love about my message is
you know uh
early all my companies it's the exact
same message it's all nine ancestral
tenants somebody who comes to us with a
neurocognitive condition we start
talking about getting cold getting
really [ __ ] cold have some egg yolks
connect with the earth and they start
asking where do i buy this we're not
selling that right or you could say
we're selling it but we're not there's
there's no financial exchange here and
this is it i i think that
humans took a wrong turn in our
development we as you've said and i
wrote about this in my book in the
chapter called the journey back to being
a human um
we live in four white walls we live
we're lonelier than ever before yeah we
order our food using glass screens we
connect using glass screens we
we um
if yeah like if i'm hungry like i don't
even have to move these days someone
will bring it to me in a in a tin can
and come to my door and knock it and
hand me my taco yeah or my coca-cola you
know what i mean yeah
so um it appears to me when you think
about the things that are really helping
us like and you look at the data around
being out in nature and exercise and
breathing properly and cold water
all things that our ancestors did that's
why i was so compelled by you because i
do think we've overcomplicated it and i
think the simple approach of just
figuring out how to be human again
turning back down that path and going
back towards our ancestors is is one to
be listened to so the second ancestral
tenant is about food
when you look at how we're eating these
days what do you think we're doing wrong
i think we've really abandoned the ways
of our ancestors really i mean all
primitive culture tribes
they put the animal at the center of the
diet and they eat nose to tail
we no longer do that right um instead we
eat some muscle meat that falls off the
bone but we're eating processed foods
and we're no longer eating the organs
right um
almost all primitive culture tribes go
for the liver and the bone marrow first
the messiah went for the kidney first
right but they're all going for the
organs and they leave the muscle meats
for the dogs and the birds right they
know that the value is in the organs so
i think where we've gone wrong is really
just for convenience and somebody has
sold us something and we're buying it
right we're buying processed food we're
buying convenience and we're buying it
to our detriment um because we don't
feel good and we're not doing good right
and we know that we're meant for more
and we know that we want to feel better
but there's a lack of information out
there and and you see like i said how
happy these people are or this is where
we started with my own kids my own kids
were sick you know my own kids were
taking ambulance rides to the hospital
they couldn't breathe they needed an
epipen they wouldn't be released from
the hospital because they couldn't
[ __ ] they didn't recover their
breathing and so you know um at some
point you say enough is enough
and so we took matters into our own
hands we started researching every
doctor just gave more epipen more
benadryl stuff like that and for me the
easiest thing to do was to implement a a
diet change we threw out all the
processed food the seed oils the liquid
calories we brought in no satellite wild
caught organic foods cheaply nose to
tail stuff like liver and bone marrow
and bone soups within about a week our
kids did a 180 and they're no longer
having i mean they just couldn't even
sit here and have a conversation without
wheezing they couldn't breathe right we
take this for granted breathing they
couldn't even breathe right with that
kind of freedom and so when we did this
it's like the light bulb came on the
personalities their true personalities
came through i don't i don't know what
would have happened if we sort of
subsisted like that for 15 20 years like
what kind of humans would they evolve to
become and within the space of almost a
week this is what happened so i think
what's what's gone wrong is you know out
of convenience because you can get cheap
food right you're still going to pay for
this right some other way because you
feel like [ __ ] your joints hurt you know
you're not able to do nearly a fraction
express your your potential so that's
what i think we went wrong is uh we're
eating stuff out of convenience and and
because the price point is so low today
you're the first guest i've ever had on
this show that's actually brought their
family with them
and your family got to meet them lovely
family before we started recording um
one of your tenants number i guess you
could say number nine but also i guess
number five is a little bit more about
the earth but number nine about bonding
when i when i was writing um and looking
at the topic of loneliness one of the
stats that was really alarming to me was
that the
medium answer to the question for
americans these days how many people
have you got that you could turn to in a
time of crisis has dropped over the last
decade from three people i could turn to
to to zero
and in the uk theresa may was the first
prime minister to appoint a loneliness
czar someone in charge of loneliness
because it's reached pandemic levels
why is it so important
and what have we done wrong in terms of
that ninth tenant which is bonding
because i thought it was really awesome
that your family are here and that you
travel with them
um but we are getting lonelier and
there's a cost to that thank you for
saying so i like i shared with you i
don't go anywhere without them you know
i take them everywhere i go um i need
them you know and i need them to to feel
fulfilled um you know my most important
job is as a dad and um
you know so what where i think we went
wrong is um
you know people are on this thing today
that we call a phone and they're on
there non-stop they're on their on some
kind of screen you know uh when i've
talked to enough people
most people that i talk to they hate
their jobs they come home to a life that
they don't love and they sedate
themselves enough with screen time with
netflix with a phone with medication to
feel better to get hard call it a day
called a week called their lives and
they're sedating themselves just enough
on this thing and we've allowed this to
happen right my kids get 40 minutes a
day on the screen time if they earn it
right and here's what happens when you
put down that damn phone and you have
these kind of conversations and you get
a little group you know of people doing
the same thing again you get this
electricity the chemistry the culture
that can only happen these intangible
things happen when you connect when you
look someone in the eye and you feel
them heart to heart right when you're
that authentic when you're true when
you're primal you know that this is uh
you see this with every primitive
culture they don't have phones they
don't have any screens you know they
want to have fun they're sitting around
a fire and they're just talking they're
laughing you know um and so
today it's just so pervasive and no
one's saying anything about it no one's
doing anything about it
right and so i i do think a lot more
awareness needs to come here um and
again it's all nine ancestral tenants
but but this one bonding you know we've
always needed each other
and we still do right there's nothing
more primal than purpose itself like we
used to know that our role was to
protect the perimeter right we used to
know that that building and shelter
making and wise traditions um this
concept of bonding we needed each other
to do these things to pass down the
information so that we could survive and
thrive and somewhere along the way we
started buying screen time these
distractions
and it's to our detriment you know once
again like you talk to people um
very few people love what they do for a
living and then come home to a life that
they love too and and i can't tell you
how many people that i talk to i'm out
there in the street and i'm talking with
people how much tv do you watch and
almost everyone is watching
hours of tv and we're on their phone
hours at a time so yeah there's
something going on there and and what we
really need to do is put down that
goddamn phone you know and have some
conversations when i was in new york
city i was in the subway every single
person every single one of them you know
when you go and you talk to someone and
they almost can't believe what are you
doing you know i have my kids approach
people you know i'm trying to show them
how to pick up girls and i'm also trying
to show them just to have how to have
and so many people are freaked out my
kids are going up to them saying hey
how's it going what's your name what are
you doing here they're like whoa what's
going on you know is there an alter your
motive we've lost that touch just to
have a conversation right we need to
bring that back so um so again i feel
like this is my job to model teach and
preach this right i'm gonna i'm gonna do
as much of this stuff as i can on social
media because i know when somebody puts
down the phone and they have this kind
of conversation
you end up it feels it fills you up are
you optimistic
i would say i'm optimistic you look at
the world you know that we're we're
we're heading in one direction if you
look at the last 10 years of our
trajectory towards living in the
metaverse and digitalization and social
media usage
where the world is flying in that
direction
so are you optimistic that we're going
to be able to go back to
a more ancestral way of living that's my
job
that's 100 my job you know it's to take
this message mainstream so that that
what i know is people know that they're
missing something and that they're meant
for more and they don't want to suffer
like this and so i i got to look you in
the until you not only am i optimistic
about this is my job right and i just
got on social media recently and if you
look at the followership that we have
like i've struck an accord i've struck a
nerve with people again because they
know that there's been a problem and
people that have started implementing
just some basic things the name is liver
king because i want everyone to start
with liver if you start eating liver
this is the easiest lever to a
trajectory to a better life and i could
get into some of the background why but
but i just say hey start doing this go
to a farmer's market go to your butcher
go get some liver start eating a little
bit of liver every single day and you
know how many people start feeling
profoundly better
right and so so am i optimistic about it
um oh yeah i'm optimistic about it and
we gotta make this happen
your success on social media you touched
on it there how many followers you got
some six million i saw just looking at
two channels i probably missed a couple
of them how many followers has he got
do you know
1.6
let's just call it five okay five
million followers if you if i had your
message
um
and i was a scientist looking guy with a
shirt on and a tie on and i had old gray
hair and i was kind of monotone you know
i'd have three followers with the exact
same message so you must understand the
role that your
presentation is playing in that message
right you understand there's a brand
there
what i know is i never had an intention
in going to doing social media
people would come over to my house and
say liver king you got to get on social
media the way that you guys live what
you don't even have to change anything
about your life
do what you do put that all you got to
do is record what you do every day
and and i was really reluctant to this
because prior to social media i was rich
and anonymous and now i'm still rich but
i'm no longer anonymous and there's a
lot of stuff that comes with not being
anonymous that are not favorable things
like oh like any time i'm out with my
kids and people want to talk to liver
king and now
there's a line of people that want to
talk and
and and take pictures and my kids are
right here right and i'm here to hang
out with my kids and liver queen right
and now and i want them to know hey
here's how we're going to interact we're
going to talk i want to try to get you
guys involved too um but a lot of i mean
where we got to the hotel the first
thing that the driver did is he wanted
to take a picture before we unloaded
before we did anything you know of
course we're gonna take a picture you
know um to me this is validation that
the message is getting out um but um
about social media and and doing this
thing
i didn't wear a shirt before social
media i didn't shave before social media
i don't brush my teeth
before social i still don't right and so
it wasn't like hey let's
develop this personal brand for social
media it's man you know what
i love my life so much i love the roles
and goals that i have i believe that i
figured out how to achieve i figured out
how to do this in harmony with the true
art of fulfillment
and it's almost effortless when you do
these nine ancestral tenets you know
like i said the hardest thing i do every
day is a workout right and then the the
tough conversations that you have with
people this is easy you know everything
else is easy i love the food that i get
to eat i love the relationships the
bonds that i have my most important
meaning of the day is my ceo meeting
with my family i call that the board
meeting i prepare for that the most you
know to have these conversations with
with my kids so prior to social media
this is how i lived after social media
this is how and i said [ __ ] it we'll do
it
we'll we'll put myself out there we'll
do this thing we'll see how the world
responds to it and i mean every day the
kind of messages that we get you know
blow me away you know messages from
kiddos um that say i wish you were my
dad
right because i've grown up to hate
myself
and i would rather hate my dad than i
hate myself because my dad made me do
hard [ __ ] you know because because i get
endless hours of video games the kind of
messages i get from kids you know the
kind of messages i get from moms it's
like well this is why we do this every
single day and so i'm going to try my
best you know it's like okay i didn't i
didn't sign up for this but any time
that you take on more responsibility in
life you know i feel like this leads to
progress and i feel like progress and
happiness are really one and the same so
this is this has been a challenge to get
out and and to connect and to do some of
these things but um i wouldn't this is
my fight this is what i exist for now
with that also comes criticism you
alluded to some of it earlier on you
said that there's a lot of critiques and
stuff like that and people that are you
know
resisting the message and everybody's
got their own agendas when they're
resisting messages and their own
skepticism and we can all understand
that i guess um
joe rogan criticized you
which you which i know you know about
because i've heard you talk about that
before joe rogan's a big person in terms
of his platform
how did that feel when he said he
alluded that you're on steroids or
something like that yeah how did how did
that feel oh cloud9 really i've entered
his ecosystem
joe rogan
is talking about liver king you know you
know
how obscure i was to most of his
audience before he's talking about me
you know and so i love it you know and
now i have the opportunity to engage
deeper with this idea i think it's
dangerous when somebody points the
finger and has a self-limiting belief
about themselves or somebody else
or any anything for that matter like it
was impossible to sell a podcast for 200
million dollars until you did it right
it's impossible to defend the world
champion title five times until you do
it you know and i guarantee you nobody
has done what i've done for this many
decades on and this kind of work this
kind of depth this kind of suffer you
know nobody lives the way that i live
and so
what i want is the opportunity to
correct that i want the opportunity to
go on a show talk to him face to face um
you know at the end of the day
there is a lot of hate and and there's a
lot of criticism but when i say a lot
it's probably about five percent of the
vocal minority and and i tell my kids
this all the time you know when we talk
to each other right these are just words
right and these words are vibrations
that go into our ears right and then our
brain assigns meaning to it so nobody
can really offend you right you're
assigning meaning to whatever they're
saying and so when joe rogan's talking
about me what i'm saying is
[ __ ] i mean i i i went and ran to my
wife and i told her oh my god can you
believe this joe rogan is talking about
me you know and he's done it more than
once and so all i ask is for the
opportunity to have the conversation
with him face to face because all nine
ancestral tenants allow us to express
something that was otherwise impossible
right we all have the same potential
it's not just this physical potential
right and and i always say at the end of
the day cheating doesn't scale it's not
sustainable and it doesn't scale right
and what i've achieved from a financial
standpoint from a family standpoint you
know from a true fulfillment standpoint
you know i say how you doing things how
you do everything right this is not just
you know my physical you know expression
um i i think that when you really get to
know me what i hope at the end of the
day you say your physique is the least
impressive thing about you you know
because at the end of the day that this
is not what i'm about i've never told
anybody start eating liver and you're
gonna look like liver king right what i
do is i say if you start doing these
things start every day by getting early
morning sun put your bare feet connected
anchored grounded into the earth right i
show what i'm eating for dinner every
day it's usually liver raw liver rob
bone marrow and i'm being nourished in
the most profound way because my family
is around me it's these simple things
that you do each of them shape how we
look feel and function and so when i
enter someone's ecosystem like joe rogan
i couldn't be more excited about it and
and i just want to have the opportunity
to have a face-to-face conversation with
him about it because i think at the end
of the day if you say
he's got an ass full of steroids
i think what you're invariably some
people want to look like liver king they
want to look like me and what you're
saying is you got to do that if you want
to look like him and number one i don't
do it and number two what i want you to
say is you know what i don't know i
don't know i mean that guy in fact he
did say he's in the point zero zero zero
zero zero one percent of genetics if he
doesn't naturally but i'm here to tell
you if you do all nine ancestral tenants
you're gonna look feel and function at
your best you're gonna express will you
ever look like me you know if you want
to look like me you've already lost
right what you need to do is look like
the best version of yourself and and
barely so many of us are really
scratching the potential of our being
and so that's what i want i want the
opportunity to talk about that
self-limiting belief mindset i want to
encourage people
get out there and do these things and
you're going to see how much more you
can become
hardship is part of
being a human it's almost unavoidable
it'll come out of anywhere it could be
disease or loss or grief whatever it
might be
you told me about the hardship you
underwent
between
10 and 14 years old what is the hardest
moment of your adult life been
the hardest moment was when my my son
rad
got sick
and uh
we thought we thought we were losing him
he lost his bind you know uh there's
something called pandas it stands for a
pediatric autoimmune neurological
disorder something like that and um it
basically is like the manifestation of
like these uh obsessive thoughts
and you can't stop thinking about these
obsessive thoughts it just takes over
you
and uh and one day he asked if um if
a bad guy spits on the ground and if you
see that spit does that make you a bad
person we just thought this was the
strangest question right
uh of course not but then immediately it
was like the same question but a slight
variation if you touch the spit you know
if you spit on the ground
and it was it consumed him
and and it was him asking those ques and
then one day he said oh god i already
asked that question didn't i and then he
realized and it was non-stop it was
non-stop and
i remember uh you know my wife and i
just uh
we uh
we were crying on each other
because we thought we lost them
and when you learn about more about what
pandas is and um
you know how kids are kind of relegated
to like a chemical straight jacket
they're sedated enough to where they're
not in such torment
because it's either him constantly
asking these questions
or he's screaming out of the top you
know out of
just top of his lungs he's screaming and
one day he said i wish i had a baseball
bat because i would rather hit my brain
and do damage to this brain than to live
with this brain
and uh and so i would say
you know we've that this is probably
the last rite of passage that i've been
through like to to go through this with
my family um and and to figure it out
you know with him and uh and we figured
it out and
you know we've already been living this
lifestyle the only thing that we really
needed to fix i don't know if you've
heard of paul saladino he's a carnivore
md he's an incredible friend and and i
said hey man what's going on what's
going on here and he said oh my god you
guys are still eating
100 cacao chocolate and raw honey every
day take that out of his diet take that
out and that's the only thing he really
wanted to eat
so we took it out
he didn't really want to eat
for a couple of days
and then he got better like three or
four days
so this is incredible to me um you know
when when you think that
you've lost your kid i mean th this is
when they've lost their mind like this
you know when you read about the
prognosis with with kiddos with with
pandas um it's not good you know and
again it's like the best you could do is
give them enough medication to sedate
them enough to take that edge off
um
and it took a while to figure this out
i bet it took i don't know six weeks or
so maybe eight weeks or so to do it but
we did it and again like by by default
he didn't want to eat anything because
this is like the only thing he wanted to
eat at the time he would eat a little of
the other stuff because we forced him to
but
um
you know he by default he pretty much
fasted for a couple of days
and then he would eat what because he
got hungry enough so he was eating the
food that we would give him you know his
nose to tail meats and stuff and he got
better
and i think this is an important thing
to share my wife and i talked about this
for a long time that we wouldn't share
this publicly i don't even know why
maybe to protect him you know but
i can just imagine how many kids out
there that have the same thing you know
and the parents have lost hope
and there are so many things that can be
done you know
you just need to continue to fight
and and i don't know if he was allergic
to something in the chocolate or the
honey but taking those things out
and doing a strict keto carnivore diet
you know maybe just doing a keto diet
you know it's so anti-inflammatory with
the brain you know maybe that i don't
know but all i know is he got better and
we got him back and what we realized is
he had been suffering with
lighter symptoms for the last couple of
years
and we looked back at some of the
pictures and it's it's almost like his
personality had been taken away slowly
and slow and then it led up to this
point
and then we got him better
and and so
this is for sure the hardest thing that
i that i've had to deal with over the
last couple of years one of your tenants
is is about shielding number four about
shielding your family protection
i can't i mean i can't imagine what it's
like to have a
the feeling of helplessness because i've
heard about that disease before
i think i've spoken to someone on this
podcast who has a son that's that was
going through that
what is that like in a moment where you
when you read that prognosis and you see
that happening to your son and
you're a man you want to shield and
protect your family
how how does that feel
yeah there's so many different feelings
of course you feel totally helpless
at the same time i always say that
your woman and you as a man you need to
know that that you can protect in a dark
alley and i mean it literally but really
figuratively right like you got the
strength and courage to do that if that
time comes she needs to know you're
going to do it you need to know that
you're capable of it
because the financial crisis is going to
come too she needs to know that you're
going to be able to protect um and and
fight in that financial crisis the
health crisis is going to come too and
so
i think that we've been through enough
together that i knew that i would never
stop fighting for this until we figured
this out so on one hand
there's a totally helpless feeling on
the other hand it's like you just keep
fighting you know you just keep fighting
and you keep having conversations and
you keep looking and you know there's
there's no limit there's no end you know
that that i would have gone to until we
sorted this out so
yeah it's it's like a helpless feeling
but of course you're never gonna stop
you're gonna figure it out
as a parent you do you
do you fall into the temptation of guilt
because that's your child and like i
remember one time when my dog got sick
my dog's upstairs i remember my dog
being sick and me running through all
the things i just i'd just done and
thinking maybe i didn't walk my dog
enough or maybe i shouldn't have given
him this or maybe i shouldn't have done
this and then i remember it was actually
a couple of weeks ago i'm laying there
on my back and my dog is like throwing
up
like repeatedly and feeling that feeling
of guilt which was consuming me because
you know i don't have children but i my
dog pablo is basically my child so
yeah
i don't know how much um i would
identify with the guilt sure i'm sure
there's but you know more than anything
it was like how the [ __ ] do we fix this
you know is there
um something toxic in the house you know
we have all the walls shielded with uh
with shielding paint to make sure
non-native emfs and signals don't come
in you know could there be something
toxic in that um
is he interacting with something in the
house that talk do we have we got
everything tested again and again and
again
we went to different environments to see
if he still you know for extended
periods of time did he still exhibit
those symptoms in different environments
the answer was yes you know so i i feel
like uh obviously
there's a sense of that but more than
anything i'm like i'm so
goddamn driven
that we're just gonna take massive
action and we're going to course correct
and course correct and course correct
we're going to try
whatever we need to try until we figure
out this thing so guilt was definitely a
part of it but more than anything it was
like
okay
you know we're done crying and now we
just got to get back to work and figure
this out i mean nothing in life means
anything you know it's like
my companies you know um didn't mean
anything to me when when this was
happened this is this is the only thing
that mattered and uh so it's it's yeah
this was everything and just got to
figure it out which we did have you as a
as a adult ever experienced your own had
your own experiences with these mental
health elements of anxiety and
depression and lows and things like that
well so i would identify that i i've
have these feelings that
resonate with me that tell me something
that say you better [ __ ] get to work
you better fix this [ __ ]
right and so
um i i so i'll say like if i have really
low energy
uh if my motivation you know is kind of
gone you know i'm like okay i gotta
fight life's too short i gotta fix this
i do a five day water only fast i'll
take some kind of massive action to be
like this is not okay i gotta fix this
um if i feel anxious about something
like okay i gotta take massive i i don't
sleep until i fix it or if i get up at
one o'clock and i'm thinking about this
thing i'm like i gotta do this right now
so um i've never experienced any of a
depression or anxiety long term like
that but what i would say is i i think
that i've had some of the symptoms and
and i've really kind of used that as a
signal like i better get to [ __ ] work
i better do something because i can't
exactly there's there's too many
important roles and goals that i have in
life to allow this to consume me what
about anxiety you know what it is i
thought i was immune to everything
growing up especially when i was like 18
19 20. i kind of abandoned what it is to
be a human and made myself really lonely
in the pursuit of money i got there i
made it but there was a sacrifice and
one of the sacrifices for me was your
number nine in your list of tenants
which was bonding i kind of made myself
so lonely that i think i'd i started to
exhibit some of the symptoms of like
lowness i wouldn't say it was depression
but then i also i've i also thought i
was immune from anxiety
and then when my business had real
crunch moments cash flow problems
whatever you've got thousands you know a
thousand employees around the world
then anxiety showed up for the first
time in my life
so
i'm wondering if if you've ever had a
moment of anxiety even a day where you
you just struggle to shake it
now that you say some of those examples
um i mean there's about a decade that my
wife and i struggled in business
and and that was another rite of passage
that we went through and this was really
never our fight
and and we fought you know for about a
decade and i'm sure you probably know as
a business owner you get paid last you
know everybody else gets paid and you're
lucky uh-huh yeah everyone's driving
nice cars and you're down to one
and um and so when you don't know how
you're gonna make payroll you know um
and you start to you know this app this
happens so many times and and i don't
think that it ever gets any easier
you're freaking out you know they need
to get paid you know so that they can
provide for their own family people are
really depending on this level of
success so um you know i've never
considered that anxiety before maybe
that is anxiety you know um but but i've
definitely has a lot have lost my [ __ ]
you know trying to figure that out and
then going and asking anyone and
everyone for help i remember one time i
asked ben our our lab technician if he
if he had any money he could loan me to
help make payroll for the whole company
for 23 people you know like you go and
you ask everybody you know at some point
um you know everybody says no and you
still got to figure it out
you know so
i would say that there's probably a lot
of mixed emotions um in that time frame
over that decade i'm sure there's a lot
of that in there a lot of worrying how
we're going to make payroll a lot of
losing my [ __ ] on that um and i would
say more than anything it just it drove
me it drove me to you gotta figure this
out all these people all their families
are counting on you are depending on you
and so you just sacrifice your sleep you
sacrifice everything you need to
sacrifice in order to make it happen
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business
people don't talk about
your business
portfolio your business success as much
as they talk about other things
you know you said that you were earlier
in the conversation you said i was rich
before
i became in the public perception joined
social media and became liver king what
was that business
so i own
i would say 10 or 12 companies right now
they're all ancestral related we do have
some real estate stuff from from back in
the day um but some of the companies are
dietary supplement companies like
ancestral supplements strong jaw there's
the fittest
so there's a whole bunch of them
including heart and soil
these are all companies i want to have
100 of these in every different category
right and just remember every single
company is based on taking this
ancestral message mainstream so if
somebody has um
a dental issue recurrent or chronic
decay they can't figure it out their
brush and they're flossing i always say
early ancestors didn't brush dent floss
didn't get cavities right but today we
say hey go brush go flosses this hygiene
hypothesis i haven't brushed in a decade
wow
and if i needed a dentist i wouldn't
have to go far because my wife is a
retired dentist uh every once in a while
i'm like hey just take a look i just
want to know i just want to know
if you'll take a look and she's like
yeah you got some plaque in there but
everything looks great everything looks
great um and and so if somebody has a
dental issue they're going to the
respective expert that they believe is a
dentist looking for help right and so so
what we try to do is create a company in
every category to still spread this
message right you still need sunlight
you still need a bond if you're not
sleeping you're not going to heal
anything right it's all nine ancestral
tenants it's this kind of nourishment
from the inside out that's going to get
us healthy and so i always say that that
an evolutionary hunter leaves the
comfort of the cave right to do
something different for the for the
betterment of humanity so all my
companies are based on getting out this
ancestral message so that it goes
mainstream a lot of the companies are
dietary supplement companies and then
i'm involved also with the supply chain
upstream and downstream a little birdie
told me these companies are doing very
well
you know once again
they are they're they're doing great and
i can't take credit because i'm not ceo
in any of these companies anymore i
moved over to to ceo the ancestral
lifestyle
and you know at the end of the day it's
like
do you have the right people in the
right positions doing the right things
for the right reasons you know and um
the other day i gave a talk about um
advice to entrepreneurs and i would say
number one you got to figure out how to
let that primal guy out because how the
[ __ ] you're gonna scale and lead a team
if you can't do that yourself
you know i see so many young guys
that are so incredibly immature and and
i don't see them really focusing on
themselves scaling and leading
themselves to do that with a team so i
say figure that out and if you need help
on figuring that out go learn the
barbarian this is a workout that i
created it's the hardest thing it's to
write a passage a modern day rite of
passage learn the barbarian train the
barbarian become the barbarian and then
renew that rite of passage often and
frequently you do this you're going to
figure out how to scale and lead
yourself you're going to know true
strength um and and you're going to
figure out how to scale and lead a
company the barbarian i think you should
just pause and explain what the
barbarian is yeah because i had your son
you made your son do the barbarian
against uh liver queen's wishes that's
right
once again
it's tough to say hey you're going to go
through four years of this living hell
so i know i need to create some rite of
passage for my kids
and when i figure this out with my kids
i also want to bring this mainstream so
adults and young people today will also
have a right every primitive culture
tribe has had a right of passage you
know the spartans at seven years old
leave for the next 13 years to become
warriors to become men
you have the aztec
at 13 they go they have to capture a
neighboring tribe and bring them back
for sacrifice that's the right of
passage right there's a lot of modern
day tribes you'll leave for three months
go on a vision quest you may or may not
come back right there's everyone's had
to write up we've lost this right of
passage when people turn 16 today you
know what we do for them
uh buy my car
you buy them a car you might have a
sweet 16 party yeah
there's no effort there's no right of
passage there's no leave across this
chasm and now you know what you're
capable of there's none of that anymore
so that's why i created the barbarian is
i wanted something like that and i
remember the first day i did it it's um
70 pound kettlebells in each hand it's
70 pounds in a backpack it's 120 pounds
on top of a sled 20 pound ankle weights
and you go one mile
you go one mile and i remember i left
the house like this and i remember it
scared the [ __ ] out of me because i
didn't know if i could complete it and i
i know
you and i can talk about this like hey
you could just put the weights down you
could come back not in my mind in my
mind i had to go through the whole
circle i had to complete the one mile
and it scared the [ __ ] out of me and it
took me several hours to complete and i
came back and i said oh that's it that's
the rite of passage i'm going to bring
this forward and i'm going to share this
with my friends and i've shared this
with my friends
some people can do it quickly some
people take six or eight hours a lot of
people won't be able to complete it
period
but that's what the barbarian is and
and so this is a rite of passage you
know that that anyone can do today you
made your son do it i made my son do it
uh when he turned 15 we had him do the
barbarian and then we took him i took
him on a sacred hunt um but i like how
you said against liver queen's wishes
because nobody thought he could do it i
mean he's uh he's grown up uh tall and
and he's not a real muscular guy yet
he's adding muscle i mean he's added a
lot of muscle recently but everyone just
thought oh first of all he can't do it
secondly if he attempts to do it he's
gonna get hurt his own crossfit coach
said he doesn't need to do this i
remember at dinner she she said the same
thing oh this you know this is dangerous
and i just i put the [ __ ] hammer down
i said there's no way anyone's talking
us out of he's doing it he's gonna train
for it and when he does it he's going to
show all you guys what you thought was
impossible as possible and he's going to
know what he's capable of this is his
rite of passage don't take that from him
what if he had failed there there's no i
i don't i don't so this is what i
believe he gets halfway he falls over he
says dad i don't want to do this i want
to go back he knows that's not an option
what i told him before starting is i
don't care how many days it takes you
if you need to fall down on the side of
the road if you sprained your ankle if
you've broken something
you're going to take a rest on the side
of the road i'll bring your [ __ ]
blanket if i need to bring you a blanket
you're going to sleep here until until
you go out you complete this you come
back you're changed forever
and it's the hardest thing people to do
there's a point in time
where it's like
your soul leaves your body it's the
hardest thing you've done physically you
have nothing physical left in you
and so now something else takes over and
has to move through the rest of that
rite of passage
and and when you complete that when you
do that you're changed it's the would
you say to people that say that sounds
like toxic parenting that's
that's too much that's you know
yeah
you know i've heard this toxic
masculinity right i'm like you know what
there's nothing toxic about masculinity
number one number two we live in a
society today that's a soft we have a
soft manicured man problem right we need
to do more hard [ __ ] like this
and and i i put this hard thing in front
of my boy right and and i was going to
make sure that he got it done liverpool
i remember when he took off uh liver
queen says i'm gonna go check on him i
said no [ __ ] way you're gonna check
on him because i know if she made eye
contact with him in that moment of
suffer you know she would let him know
hey i'm here to protect you i wanna i'll
bring you in and if he can feel that for
a second you know what that does you
know to the being and so i said there's
no way you can check his brother can
drive the ranger
way out you know front to make sure he's
not passed out or something but you're
not going to check on him so you know
you know what i would say today is we've
got a soft manicured man problem where a
lot of men today hate the person that
they've become
and we got to do something we got to
move men along this continuum so that
they know hard times so that they know
what they're capable of so that they can
believe in themselves so yeah every once
in a while somebody tells me something
like that i'm like you know we've lost
this kind of value you know our own
forefathers were offered more value in
perpetuity than we do today right had
more strength courage mastery and honor
than we do today we got to take that
back you know and and people like oh you
know what where's the scientific proof
sometimes i hear that i'm like you know
if you just look at these statistics
look at the statistics
and i don't i don't know if we talked
about this earlier but 80 of people are
struggling living paycheck to paycheck
we have 70 percent that are overweight
50 on prescription medication we have 20
percent that can't have babies right
that want to be healthy enough to be
fertile enough to propagate our species
and they can't have kids and one
uh forty percent have cancer will get
killed we we got some major major stuff
going on today and so this isn't the
silver bullet to it but this is part of
it you know is getting out there and and
knowing what this true strength feels
like again this isn't just about
physical strength you come back
and you'll know physical strength but
again the real strength is holy [ __ ]
i did this thing it took active
suffering and struggling and discipline
and i practiced this thing and look at
what i'm capable of and now i'm capable
of doing this in a business in a
relationship you're capable of doing
pointing this process at anything so
that you can take extreme ownership and
create the life that you want to live in
and those statistics that i talk talk
about start to fall away
i agree with all of that
um i think you know when i said your
businesses are doing really well i mean
really really well i read online little
birdie told me that you're making over
100 million dollars a year from your
businesses
true or false true true that's that's a
pretty staggering staggering
accomplishment um what role does money
play in your life now like when you
think about the relationship with money
obviously this is money isn't a thing
that is ancestorial
i mean you could you could make i guess
through lines to status in tribes i
guess because money in our society is is
often associated with status or status
that's what the american pronunciation
is but what role does money play in your
ancestral being if i've even said that
correctly
not much i mean i have liver king ranch
we have plenty of acreage we have all of
our food out there
um you know we're here in the uk we we
decided a couple days ago hey let's go
to the uk
so easy to get on the plane to go to the
uk to check out a badass fight to build
a podcast with you today um so i i would
say
that um
money just amplifies more of what you
are right and i don't know who coined
this who who first said it but if you're
an [ __ ] before you had money now you
get money you're more of an [ __ ]
right if if you're a generous
person you know and you get you it
amplifies your ability to be generous um
every once in a while we go wakeboarding
or i'll give you this example when i was
growing up i snowboarded a lot when i
was in college i'd take off snowboarding
after college i would take off
snowboarding and i went by myself all
the time
but immediately i would seek out
somebody to bond with to go snowboarding
with and so i was always you know
hanging out with people and uh
and that's what made it special right um
i talked to my friend paul saladin i'm
like hey imagine going wake surfing by
yourself you just got like a driver out
here you're wake surfing back here
nobody's back here chasing for you you
know it's not about our ability to get
it's about our ability to give and to
share and have these altruistic goals
personally and professionally you know
um the the role that it's played now in
in our personal lives um
you know people a lot of people say hey
you know you can do all these things
because you have money you know and it's
like
if you look at actually the amount of
money that we spend to to have liver
king ranch you know it's self-sufficient
you know in fact we make money from
selling meat from from leverkey
ranch um and so
you know i don't know if that answers
your question but i would say um it
hasn't really changed a whole lot other
than creating a vehicle to be able to go
and to deepen the experiences and say
hey let's go to the abu dhabi fight
let's go to the uk fight let's go do
those things as a family and let's go on
some adventures
one thing you say has changed things for
you is
liver queen
barbara
she goes by liver queen because she
introduced i met her elearn and she
introduced herself as liver queen so um
how did that change you meeting her
so i've said this before but i believe
because of the rights of passage we've
talked about i figured out how to be a
man right i figured out how to be strong
and courageous and and uh develop
mastery level skills and be honorable to
uh an honor system of other men and
accountability with other men
so i think i had figured that out i was
pretty good at that but i wasn't really
a good man
and so when i met her i met her
snowboarding
i met her snowboarding
she was already on the mountain she uh
was strapping into her snowboard getting
ready to take off i'm coming off a chair
lift i'm with at the time my best friend
jeff parchman and i said hey man this is
his first time snowboarding i said hey i
got to go i see a girl i'm going to go
and see if if i can talk with her i
ended up talking with her and and said
hey i caught her down at the next lift
line and i said hey i know this mount
pretty well can i show you around
and she said yeah and i tell my kids
this all the time like this is why we
have to get good at interacting with
people right this stuff doesn't happen
over an app or a text message right we
got to interact with people we got to
feel that chemistry and that electricity
and it may take you going up to 100 or a
thousand individuals to find your
soulmate but i found my soulmate and i
knew immediately and she knew
immediately and we moved a million miles
an hour and and i knew immediately that
if i didn't rise to the occasion
that she would see right through me and
i knew i could become anything i'd done
enough things in my life to where i know
i have the discipline and i immediately
knew from from a character ethics
standpoint i had to be better and she
would see right through me if i wasn't
and i made a decision i'm going to be
better now for the rest of my life i'm
going to be better so she really
challenged me to do that and uh and so
you know for that i would say
the there's a couple little examples
like some white lies you know that i
would tell here and there and she and i
remember she she and she caught me she's
like hey that that's a white lie i was
like yeah this is a white lie you know
how many like people do white lies right
i grew up with white lies you know and
uh she goes no
like not a single white lie
ever again
and this is not easy and maybe this is
why i come off as a dick sometimes
because i tried to not sugarcoat things
um and and so there's so many little
things like that you know uh
generosity you know what was a big thing
and i believe that that we became so
generous at one point that it was to our
detriment uh this was through that
ten-year stint of of us failing in
business and other people were doing
pretty well but we weren't doing very
well and i was like you know what we got
to take that back but i would say more
than anything um
you know she she's shown me
what it's like to be a family man and i
grew up having tv dinners you know uh
mom might put some food out and just you
help yourself to it you know as soon as
i met her it's like we sit down every
day oh my god we sit down every day and
then with the kids we sit down every
single day from from the beginning you
know and then we go and we have dinner
with her parents once a week and
everyone sits around the and this is the
staple every single day
yeah so she's really taught me how to be
a family man and there's a lot of
incredible qualities that i i would
attribute to her you referred to her as
your soul mate which is a beautiful
thing to say um
in my mind the question became and this
is something it came into my mind
because it's something that i've been
trying to understand from studying our
sort of prehistoric foundations is
is monogamy
part of
the ancestral way of living
so
you get various responses when i visit
with primitive culture tribes half or
monogamous half are not
and so i don't know how far back you'd
have to go how many different tribes
you'd have to study um this is my way
you know
i think that it confers parental
investment advantages
i think it confers
our ability to pass on wisdom you know
and and so i i do believe that there's
some truth to that but again like to me
it's like
um
what i talk a lot about this is crazy a
lot of i get a lot of young kids saying
how do i get a queen how do i get a
queen i'm like oh my god you're asking
me for advice
on how to get um and so i started
thinking about how do i serve these
people right
and so
what i share back is you attract your
complimentary opposite
and if you really want to be with a 10
you got to become a 10. right if you
want to be with a queen you got to
become a king you got to invest in
yourself you got to put yourself in the
gym you got to express your highest most
dominant form physically socially
emotionally mentally spiritually you can
do that holistically together
something happened in society today
where somebody said you can put your
best foot forward to meet somebody and
then you guys meet each other and then
you're comfortable then you gain 20
pounds you lose 20 pounds for the
wedding you take your pictures and then
you gain another five pounds a year in
perpetuity you wake up to somebody you
barely recognize
right you wake up to that person you
love that person sure but do you lost
for that person do you want to have sex
with that person do you have that kind
of fire that kind of intensity that kind
of passion for that person right i
believe if you do
you invest it i say you owe it to your
[ __ ] self yield to her too to keep
what you deem as attractive and sexy in
your marriage you got to express your
highest most dominant physical form
she'll do the same her highest most
dominant beautiful form right um
and then polygamy means nothing right
that's because imagine the ability to
wake up with your soulmate that you
connect with at the deepest level in all
aspects and you think there's nothing
more beautiful physically
then that physical attraction just grows
more over time so that's what i believe
about that um i i wouldn't have it any
other way
if i were to ask her liver queen if i
said
what does he need to work on
wow
well this this is the thing
you know when you are with your
complimentary opposite
it's and we've been together we just
celebrated our 18th anniversary
and um
i i do this thing here's what liver
king's having for dinner today every day
i record my dinners and by the way
someone should tune in to the stories
because uh if you're confused about how
to i show it every single day on my
stories um
one day i'm looking for this protein
that i have it's called the whole beast
it's gonna be called the whole feast
protein and it has all these organs in
it liver heart pancreas bleeding blood
anyways i'm looking for this bag the
whole feast
and we're getting ready to tape and and
i get i said where
the [ __ ] is the bag and there's a few
people around and and and she brings me
a bag and i kind of yelled a little bit
hey don't waste my time
and uh and she whispers in my ear it was
in your office
it was in your office you know and she
said it wrote so nice to me and uh and
so she so here's here's the thing um
10 years ago she would have let me have
it don't you [ __ ] talk to me that way
don't you do you know how embarrassing
that it and and now the way that she
handles herself
in fact i i look like a fool i make
myself look like a fool you know i make
myself look like an ass and the way that
she handles it was such class you know i
think what she might say is um
and actually the kids told me this today
i don't have a lot of patience
i don't have a lot of patience i feel
like at some point
one day we were
we were doing mushrooms we're on the top
of this hill and she said to me when
when when did you become a dick when you
think you became a dick and i was like
you know what when i ran out of time
when i started to run out of time you
know i used to write down some things in
my journal too you know and i stopped
when i ran out of time i stopped being
extra nice to people saying these extra
when i ran out of time like i feel like
i became more honest more primal more
authentic you know when when we have to
go out and achieve so i think she might
say
i should have more grace i should have
more patience
um
that would probably uh and do you agree
with her
i don't know
i i [ __ ] you're going to keep looking at
me okay
you know
here's the thing i think that if
anybody's the same person
you know in three months or a year we're
catastrophic failures right like we got
to continue to grow and progress in
everything that we do um my social my
relationship with her i spend 10 hours
with her every saturday it's part of our
system we do this together every
saturday and then the things that we
unpack the things that we do together
over that saturday we get to integrate
that over the next six days until we do
it again
so
yeah
i think if i really think about it
i i i could do better
i think i think i could do as well and
that's really why i was pressing on that
point because i was trying to learn
something because i think i've done the
same thing where i've just i've my lack
of time has allowed me to i think
self-justify sometimes cutting corners
on some of the the the things that i
know are the right thing to do so you're
right like i should never really i think
as a man let my manners
be
um sacrificed in the name of like time
efficiency
and if i were to write down the values
that i'd want my children to have i'd
write that for them so when we talked
about learning through vicariously
through observation and how we behave
being the best way to teach our kids of
course i need to do that myself
that's eye opening um just just
yesterday i saw striker lose his
patience like that
and i'm like hey man strike your son
yeah yeah i said hey man what you know
when you lose your patience like that
you know you're not thinking clearly
right you know that you're not going to
make the right like you know
i'm sure he got it from me i'm sure he
got it from me so i do need to do better
i need to i think that you really just
opened my eyes um
because what i want to show the kids
what i want to show them
i'm going to do better
what do you teach your kids about
emotion you know one of the
conversations that's really popular at
the moment because of some of those
statistics around male suicide is that
men aren't
speaking enough about how they're
feeling so you have these you know the
single biggest killer of men i believe
under the age of 40 in this country is
themselves killing themselves
and i've sat here with multiple people
that have talked about you know
their best friend killed themselves out
of the blue never said anything
um and a lot of the
the experts in this space point to the
fact that men haven't learned how to
express their emotions as being
some of not all but some of the reason
for that
yeah
you know i think that what i try and
teach them is through modeling um you
know i never had i didn't have a dad
growing up and i never had a dad tell me
i love you i never had a dad you know
affirm me the same kind of way
so part of me is like you know what i
wish i had that
i do
and so i tell my kids you know every
night before they go to bed we give each
other hugs i tell them how much i love
them
it's not just an exercise it's i need to
feel your [ __ ] heart man you're gonna
give me a big hug i'm gonna feel that
and and i'm gonna tell you i love you
i want you to feel i want you to really
know that i love you
um i don't know how much i've i've
really taught them
vocally you know conceptually about
emotions um they get to see me and liver
queen argue you know about things
we try not to hide any of that stuff
from them they get to see us make up you
know they get to see the affection that
we have for one another so i think you
know earlier when i said i think what we
do is far more important than what we
say i i hope that that's happening but
um
i know so many
friends
whose dad never told them that they love
them and they and they can't say it to
another guy
and you know and and i'll hug one of my
friends you know this happened just the
other day and i tell them hey man i love
you
and i do
and usually they'll say it back but it's
so hard you know or i'm like wow you
know i don't know if i believe you the
way that you said it was almost like you
had to say it back
um i want my kids you know like when
that primal authentic true version of
you comes out you know to be able to
share it back
if you do and if you don't hey man i
don't love you back let's talk about
that
so what about crying
what about it have they ever seen you
cry they see me cry oh god don't make me
do this again when i talk about rad you
know when i talk about him going through
pandas you know if
if this comes up um
this is the thing for me you know it's
uh that brings me to my [ __ ] knees
you know when uh when i do barbarian
that's uh when everything else leaves me
you know if i need the power that's what
i think about i think i would rather do
barbarian every single day of my life
than have rad live another day like that
so i get choked up you know when i talk
about that because it's uh it's just i
feel it
i feel how desperate you know i was i
feel how horrifically he was hurting uh
so uh they i think they see me get
choked up but i would say yeah probably
one other time
i can't remember what what it was about
um
but uh
i don't cry a lot but i forgot
it's really um it's really interesting
speaking to you for so many reasons i
mean you know so many of the things that
you say
are on one hand they're you know some
people might consider them to be
controversial but they're so
they're almost impossible to disagree
with and that's an interesting place to
find yourself and i think your message
is incredibly
you know the message about living more
human is incredibly important in society
right now we have a closing tradition on
this podcast where
the last guest leaves a question for the
next guest
and i'm going to i wouldn't [ __ ] you
because i know you'd correct me if i did
i never see the questions so i i enjoy
seeing the question with you so the
question is um
hmm i love this one
tell me something
you have never told anyone before
there's something that comes to mind but
i i have told my family this
that's okay
so
part of the reason why i never wanted to
publicly come out as the liver king
is because i've been completely
terrified of public speaking
just um in fact i don't know if i've
ever told my my family uh i've shared
liver queen knows that but
i mean to the point where it's
completely crippling like words don't
come out
and um
and everybody thinks oh there's no way
because you're so gregarious and you
know you can talk with and i've led
teams and i'll get but like you know it
starts with one person in my company and
then it's two and you know what i've
gotten to know you guys around the table
so well and then there's this assumption
like oh hey no problem like you got this
engagement go do this and
i've tried and
words don't come out you know there's
maybe this is the anxiety but the
anxiety is so extreme
it's so crippling that words actually
don't come out
and i don't know what it is that i'm you
know particularly scared of you know
when it comes to that um i i said i
would never do a podcast
i would never do a podcast
like i said i didn't want to go on
social media
now we have the opportunity to make a tv
show which is exciting um but again it's
like i know what my job is and my job is
to take this message mainstream because
kids like my kids deserve a better shot
at life
there's this kid saul that ran across
the brooklyn bridge when i was doing
barbarian he goes hey liver king liver
king it's so i'm the kid that dm's you i
lost 60 pounds because of you i stopped
drinking alcohol i got the confidence to
reconnect with life
there's so many stories why i do this
it's like this message has to get out
i don't even know how the [ __ ] i did it
you know it's like uh winston churchill
says you know i'm sure this is wrong but
if if you had the danger head-on you cut
the consequence in half
it's like holy [ __ ] you know what maybe
that's true maybe we should do it and um
and then
logan paul invited me on the pulse and i
was like oh my god
um nobody knew
that i didn't sleep for the longest time
leading up to that because i didn't want
to tell anybody how terrified i was of
this i knew i had to do it if i'm going
to be successful getting this message
out i knew that i had to do it um but i
didn't dare tell my kids i didn't tell
my wife i told nobody you know i i took
that [ __ ] those waking hours of the
night thinking about this again i i've
tried to contemplate what is it that i'm
so terrified of what and all i could
come back with is i've tried this and it
didn't work
words don't come out the words don't
actually come out of my mouth i mean
it's so crippling the heart's going a
million miles an hour i can't breathe
the words just don't come out
and so i kept thinking is that going to
happen again why didn't you tell liver
queen
leading up to that logan paul
podcast one of the biggest podcasts in
the world
you're having sleepless nights you've
got you know doubts and certainties
worries why don't you tell anybody i i
wanted all of that i i
i would say i wanted all of it um
i almost feel like maybe i would have
made it true i i almost feel like
i would have manifested it
i also feel like i would have cried
sharing it
and it would have been like
i would have seen back in her eyes hey
you don't have to do this
why are you doing this you don't have to
do this you know i knew that i did have
to do it uh i know that i have to do it
you know um
having this opportunity the truth is uh
i told you earlier hell yeah the first
thing was like
not not again
during this podcast yeah
yeah um it's never easy um just the
other it was a week ago and we had a pfl
fight and
the owner of the pfl said hey we're
going to put you on espn live
and i say yeah you know that's my
knee-jerk reaction i tell my kids regret
what you do not what you don't do you'd
rather regret what you do so take
massive action do it course correct
figure that [ __ ] out
and while i've been on a couple of
podcasts um it has gotten a little bit
easier i've never been on live tv before
and the guy next to me is trying to tell
me what to say
i can't [ __ ] process anything you
know i can't believe i'm about to do
this i don't know what to say i can't
get two words out you know and and once
again it's like you know what nobody
knows who i am that's what i tell myself
is nobody knows who i am nobody knows
this message i'm not competing with
anybody like what i'm trying to do is
get this message out and i might [ __ ] up
the whole thing
i'm already kind of thinking how did i
do today
i'll give myself an f
i give myself a solid f on how i did
today but you know how much better it is
to give myself an f than to not show up
at all you know again i tell my kids
this all the time you'd rather look like
an [ __ ] rather look like an idiot
rather look stupid then look like a
[ __ ] you got to show up to do your job
so you know i i think that if i told her
i think she would have looked me back in
the eye she would have seen how
crippling that fear was and that i
wasn't sleeping
and how it's tearing me up and how one
thing might lead to another and now i'm
going to be doing a podcast a week and i
can't sleep and i i can't move forward
in life
the truth is you know after we did it i
thought oh my god i did it
i can't believe i did it and then i did
share with the kids
um i did share with dennis you guys know
how hard this has been it wasn't right
afterwards it was after some time do you
know how hard how how i thought this
thing was impossible to do
but i signed up for it and i did it and
there's going to be so many
opportunities so many things like this
in your life that you're going to think
are impossible to do but i want you to
regret what you attempt to do
as opposed to not doing it at all
and and i see them now when when they go
to talk to girls
i see that same crippling
i don't know if it's genetic i don't
know if they i i think they got it from
me i don't know
but it's
it's so
i can see the heart they're getting
nervous the heart's going a million
miles in and it's almost so hard and and
but they're getting the reps in and i
think it's getting a little bit easier
um
what's your brain telling you what is
because you know fears fear is
the consequence of a story we're telling
ourselves about usually about the worst
possible outcome about what will happen
if
and then based on our
own
experiences our own childhood
the
consequence that we're
creating
can be
so unbelievably crippling or it can be
let's do this
and so you know when i think about
public speaking the the usual fear
people create in their head is like if
it all goes wrong
then i'll be rejected socially
from
the crowd
and i when i was i was trying to piece
together why that might be and i go back
to this idea of rejection i actually did
a lot of reading from this um professor
about the idea of rejection and where it
comes from and he said
i think i'm going to say his name's
professor john gottman but i think i've
got that wrong um
he said that
the reason why rejection hurts so much
is because if you go back 10 000 years
being rejected from the tribe actually
meant death it actually meant death
because you you wouldn't be able to
survive your brain
physiologically physiologically falls
into this state they call
self-preservation where you become
really selfish just your life expectancy
lowers if you were kicked out of the
tribe
and then you basically go into the
survival mode because rejection used to
mean death it doesn't these days like
going up to that girl you're you know if
your son goes up to that girl the reason
he feels all of that is because you know
deep within us we were programmed to
stay within the tribe yeah and that's
the moment where he's just fearing
rejection so yeah and i think i reflect
on your early years where you were
socially rejected i was socially
rejected oh absolutely i was and and i
remember
meeting a group of guys that took me in
and i was probably 15 16. i was the
first time anybody really took me in
and
we would practice you know hey you go
talk to those girls
and sometimes we'd go talk to them all
together which was easier but never went
well because i think it was intimidating
and and so it was less intimidating for
the girls if one guy approached and um
you know the first several times i did
it and i pretended to say something and
i came back and i was like yeah this is
what happened but nothing came out you
know and
then eventually something did come out
you know after maybe 20 30 times and
then it's 100 times and and then i met
my wife you know no problem
and running towards it um i knew that
the same thing would happen doing this
and um and and i'm sure it is the the
fear of rejection
um
i i was rejected for a long [ __ ] time
[Laughter]
am you know
i don't i don't need to go through
that's what i thought i'm like do i need
to go through this [ __ ] again like i got
a pretty good life i love my family you
know um i i feel like i live a grand
life in all aspects of my life i'm like
do i really need to do this
um but i knew that if we're going to
take this message mainstream right
because that this goal
we got to fight this fight so that we
can help other people and i'm like okay
i'm i'm going to put myself in front of
the camera we're gonna see what happens
and uh
i think i think we're doing it i know
i'm doing a decent job
i think that is an understatement um i
think you're doing a superb job and i
definitely would give you an a star on
on today as well and i generally mean
that i wouldn't [ __ ] you it's one of
my been one of my favorite conversations
for so many reasons but you are an
outstanding talker you're you know what
your ability to recite ideas is way
better than mine and i have a podcast
where that's literally what i do and i
mean that's way better than mine and
your delivery the emotion the passion
all of it is captivating and your story
the story that lies underneath all of
that presentation is a very very
important one so that is you know
hearing that you struggle with that is
quite frankly shocking it's it blows my
mind because
um
on the surface you're the antithesis of
that on the surface you are the some of
one of the best guests i've ever had in
terms of everything that matters to
deliver a good story so thank you for
that thank you for coming here you know
i didn't realize that there was a
resistance to psychological resistance
to even doing this so that that makes me
even more honored that you you push past
that to be here and thank you for what
has been a truly eye-opening
conversation
um
amazing
you're welcome thank you it was great to
meet you i always end the same way if
it's okay i want to go ahead and say it
right now you're going to make me eat
liver
i was like [ __ ] terrified
we did we did bring some liver
we did because ev anywhere i go it's
like it's my favorite thing you know is
liver and it's okay best thing i know to
give to share well we're actually out of
time
would you share a piece 100
go ahead oh they're they're actually
bringing out the liver okay
okay i don't have to kill the animal
that's fine this is great thank you
kimberly thank you kimberly so much
thank you so much kimberly for this i'm
going to take a piece and then i'm going
to throw that piece to you what is this
raw liver this is raw liver
we're going to hold it up for cheers
cheers down the hatch my man
this makes you a primal
it's actually good
i'm so glad you said that because a lot
of people are so apprehensive about it
this is fresh aftertaste there's a
little bit of an aftertaste
yeah you're right
oh aftertaste is strong
okay
but no it's good we shared some liver
you're officially a primal you know when
you do online things you know you're a
full sin primal how long have i got to
wait for the muscles
you know what you'll be amazed i've
heard you talk about this you know like
the things you're doing how you're
tracking 81 of the time you're working
out and this and that um when you start
adopting more of these nine incestual
tenants you'd be amazed at how
effortless it is to maintain the body
composition that you want i get it you
know like i said i know i work out a lot
but i always worked out a lot and when i
started doing these things the deeper
that i got into it
the the much more favorable my body
compensation my strength my recovery got
and so as you go further down you know
these nine ancestral tenants you know
the basis of them all right you do them
better and you're gonna be like you know
what i mean i maintain a six-pack with a
lot less effort and you're gonna become
such a true believer i believe that
you're gonna help me spread the message
as well i can't wait and i will thank
you so much you're welcome everything
out
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in the protein space there's lots of
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if you haven't tried the cured protein
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[Music]
bye