Jay Shetty | Club Random with Bill Maher

Speaker 2 If you're a smoker or vapor, ready to make a change, you really only need one good reason. But with Zin nicotine pouches, you'll discover many good reasons.

Speaker 2 Zin is America's number one nicotine pouch brand. Plus, Zin offers a robust rewards program.
There are lots of options when it comes to nicotine satisfaction, but there's only one Zin.

Speaker 2 Check out zinn.com/slash find to find Zinn at a store near you.

Speaker 2 Warning: this product contains nicotine. Nicotine is an addictive chemical.

Speaker 3 Starting a business can seem like a daunting task, unless you have a partner like Shopify. They have the tools you need to start and grow your business.

Speaker 3 From designing a website to marketing to selling and beyond, Shopify can help with everything you need.

Speaker 3 There's a reason millions of companies like Mattel, Heinz, and AllBirds continue to trust and use them.

Speaker 4 With Shopify on your side, turn your big business idea into.

Speaker 3 Sign up for your $1 per month trial at shopify.com/slash special offer.

Speaker 1 This episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Fiscally responsible, financial geniuses, monetary magicians.

Speaker 1 These are things people say about drivers who switch their car insurance to Progressive and save hundreds. Visit progressive.com to see if you could save.

Speaker 1 Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and affiliates. Potential savings will vary, not available in all states or situations.

Speaker 1 Hey, check out the new podcast in our network, The Magnificent Others with Billy Corgan. Billy, I remember he was here.
He was awesome. He's an incredibly insightful interviewer.
So this is great.

Speaker 1 Catch him talking about one of my favorite topics, greatness in music, with the legends themselves. And he must know all of them.
He was one of themself.

Speaker 1 First episode is my pal Gene Simmons. Get it on YouTube at Billy Corgan, T-M-O, and anywhere you get your podcasts.

Speaker 5 Those places where people have meditated for tens of years, hundreds of years, thousands of years.

Speaker 1 And where is this one? Because I want to avoid going there.

Speaker 1 I mean, humans, not good people. Am I wrong?

Speaker 1 We're doing all right. We're doing all right.
You think we're doing all right? No, we're not.

Speaker 1 How are you doing? How are you doing? I'm good.

Speaker 5 I'm well.

Speaker 1 Thank you for having me.

Speaker 5 Oh, please. This is such a cool spot.
I really appreciate it.

Speaker 1 Really? Yeah. Even for you? Yeah, it's nice.

Speaker 1 Spiritual enough?

Speaker 5 Anywhere can be spiritual enough.

Speaker 1 Really?

Speaker 1 When would you like to go to the Spearmint Rhino?

Speaker 5 I've not tried that.

Speaker 1 That would be an excellent thing. Have you never been to a strip club?

Speaker 5 I have never been to a strip club.

Speaker 1 You think you're spiritual? Brother, I'm going to rock your world. No, really? When was the last time you went? What day is it? No.

Speaker 1 It's been a minute, but, you know.

Speaker 1 There's nothing, why?

Speaker 1 There's nothing wrong with it, right?

Speaker 5 I don't think there's anything wrong with it. I think it's about the state of consciousness you want to live in.

Speaker 1 Really? Already? We're on that.

Speaker 1 But why can't you? You just said you could be a spiritual energy. You can.

Speaker 5 Absolutely. Absolutely.

Speaker 1 Did you see Anora?

Speaker 5 I did not yet. I've heard about it.
I've not seen it yet.

Speaker 1 She was a stripper.

Speaker 5 Okay. I'll have to check it out.
I don't know enough about it. I did hear about it.
The movie? I need to see it. Yes.

Speaker 1 Yes. I think you'd enjoy it.
Okay. It's just enjoyable.
Yeah. Check it out.
It's a great performance. I love that director.
He did another one called The Florida Project. Did you ever see that?

Speaker 5 No, I didn't see that either.

Speaker 1 You like that too. It's an interesting movie.
It's about this poor woman who's a

Speaker 1 complete train wreck. I mean, she's

Speaker 1 poor. You know, she's like living in

Speaker 1 a motel,

Speaker 1 you know, right near the shadow of Disneyland.

Speaker 1 And she's got a little six-year-old girl with her. And she's just a terrible mother in a lot of ways, but she's kind of a big kid herself.
And she loves the kid. And the kid loves her.

Speaker 1 But she does things which in today's world we would never allow, like just lets the kids roam free, you know, run across the highway.

Speaker 1 You know, they're begging for free food at McDonald's. I mean, she just, and then she literally like turns a trick while the kid is in the bathroom when she needs money.
She's not really a hooker, but

Speaker 1 she's terrible. So, of course, social services come.
But the kid's loving her life. It's one of those really interesting

Speaker 1 questions because the kid does not want to go. I mean, then the kid just runs.

Speaker 5 And what's the resolution? Well,

Speaker 1 the kid runs. I mean, it's great that it's just right in the shadow of Disneyland where life is perfect because life is not perfect, I think, is one of the great themes there.

Speaker 1 I just think the resolution is the kid runs away, and they're going to have to either catch her. But she's like, no, I love mommy.
I don't want to live. Mommy's fun.
I love it.

Speaker 1 We've got my homework, so I did a Florida project. Yeah, I just did a big plug for this director.
Nice.

Speaker 1 I love it. I've got my movie night sorted.

Speaker 5 That would help, actually. Me and my wife are always struggling to find what to watch on movie nights.

Speaker 1 So that's going to help us out. Have you been married?

Speaker 5 I've been married now for eight years. It'll be nine this year.

Speaker 1 And how did you know she was the one?

Speaker 5 I don't know if you do ever know. I think you...
you figure out more and more every year.

Speaker 1 So I don't think I ever...

Speaker 1 Don't put that on the Valentine's Day card.

Speaker 5 I don't think you ever do really know if someone's the one.

Speaker 5 I think you think you know when you meet someone that someone's the one. but it takes many, many more years to actually get confident about that idea.

Speaker 5 I think we're overconfident in the beginning and we might overestimate what we know. And then you get to know someone deeply and you think, well, I'm lucky you turned out the way you are.

Speaker 1 I agree with every word you said. That is a very realistic, I think, very wise answer.
It's not a romantic answer.

Speaker 1 I don't feel like it's the answer women want to hear.

Speaker 5 Right, but sometimes the answer we want to hear is definitely not the right answer.

Speaker 1 And your wife's okay with that.

Speaker 5 My wife's actually far more less the romantic than I am. So she loves that answer.
She'll actually appreciate that answer. Well, maybe.
Yeah, she'll actually agree with it.

Speaker 1 Maybe that's why she's the one. Yeah, maybe that's right.
There we go. But you were celibate for a while, right?

Speaker 5 I was for three years.

Speaker 1 I was too, not by choice.

Speaker 1 That's the difference.

Speaker 1 When was that? When was that? I was at Cornell.

Speaker 5 When were those years?

Speaker 1 Colleges?

Speaker 1 Yes. I went to a college, Cornell, in the 70s.
It had only recently. Great college.

Speaker 1 Great education, yes.

Speaker 1 Not a fun, pleasant experience.

Speaker 1 Most people who went there would say the same thing, I think. It's kind of a cold place in many ways,

Speaker 1 which is why I never gave them a dime.

Speaker 1 Yeah, it had just recently, the Ivy League had just recently, when I got there, just

Speaker 1 made, you know, integrated with women at all.

Speaker 1 I think a couple of the colleges, when I went like Dartmouth, I still think was all male. Wow.
Yeah, this is the mid-70s. Wow.

Speaker 5 That's remarkable to even think that. It is.
So wait, you were one of the first years where...

Speaker 1 Well, I think I feel like the ratio I recall being something like four or five to one, which would be bad under any circumstances, but especially when you're a shy nerd with no game,

Speaker 1 no money, no anything. Yeah.
You know, you're just.

Speaker 5 And the women had more choice.

Speaker 1 Of course. Well, they're always at that age going to go for older men because people, when you're at that age as a male, you're just

Speaker 1 to be very,

Speaker 1 a very rare person. Yeah.

Speaker 1 I saw this other great movie. Look at all the movies.
I know. You've been watching a lot of movies.
I know I always do. This one I'd never heard of.
It's like 10 years old. It's called Five to Seven.

Speaker 5 I've not seen this either.

Speaker 1 I'd never heard of it. It's really interesting.
It's about, you know, the French have this

Speaker 1 tradition where they don't ask

Speaker 1 what the spouse is doing from five to seven in the day

Speaker 1 because they're very realistic about how

Speaker 1 passion wanes and people need a mistress or a lover. Wow.

Speaker 1 So

Speaker 1 this 25-year-old kid in New York, he meets this 33-year-old French woman and he's totally besotted. And one day they're walking along, and what else don't I know about you? She's like, Well, I'm 33.

Speaker 1 I have a husband, a two-choke. It's what? Do you have a husband? She's like, Yeah, why do you think we meet from five to seven?

Speaker 5 Oh, my gosh.

Speaker 1 And

Speaker 1 it's a really interesting movie, except that they put in the mouth of this 25-year-old words that would never come out of a 25-year-old. Oh, really? It's obviously a writer twice his age.

Speaker 1 Right, right. Nobody 25 is that cool, that confident, that wise, that good with women.
Yeah. But other than that, it's fun if you if you suspect, but that's much less easy to swallow than avatar.

Speaker 5 Now the sad thing is that so much of that is, I mean, you know, that's five to seven in that era with some culture, but I'm hearing some horror stories right now of people dating.

Speaker 5 I was talking to someone I know and they were saying that they were seeing this guy. It was kind of going in the right direction.
It was a bit of long distance across the States.

Speaker 5 And she was hoping that it was going in a more serious direction. They're in their 30s.

Speaker 5 And so she'd reached out to him and messaged him and said, hey, I'm coming to see you this weekend, obviously, as we planned.

Speaker 5 Just wanted to make sure that we're on the same path, that this is serious. It's going somewhere.
Very, very,

Speaker 5 you know, acceptable way of messaging someone. And she didn't get a response for a day.
And she thought, okay, well, maybe something's up. It's okay.
Didn't get a response for three days.

Speaker 5 Texted again, just checked in. Didn't get a response for seven days.
She goes online and she finds this online space where she starts talking about her experience, posts it.

Speaker 5 Next thing she knows, she gets a message from another woman who says, hey, can I chat to you? I read what you wrote. Realizes that this man's actually in another relationship.

Speaker 5 He's getting divorced at the same time from another relationship and he's dating this woman.

Speaker 5 And it's mind-blowing that someone has the audacity and the ability to navigate that many people at the same time. I don't even know how you keep up with that.

Speaker 1 It's actually something that I'm sure always went on. What's amazing to me about the story is that someone thinks they could get away with it today.
Yes.

Speaker 1 Before the internet, you know, before that era and social media and tracking people in every possible way.

Speaker 1 Same thing with criminals. I feel really bad for criminals.
It's hard to be a criminal now because they got cameras everywhere. It's the same thing.

Speaker 1 I mean, if you're a husband cheating and your wife knows where your car is at all times because it's on her phone,

Speaker 1 you know.

Speaker 5 You've thought through this, Bill.

Speaker 1 No,

Speaker 1 you're speaking from experience. I don't have to because I'm not married.

Speaker 1 And one reason is I never want to cheat. I never want to have to, you know,

Speaker 1 lie in a relationship.

Speaker 1 And that's very hard because, you know, I think a lot of people, and you'd be a great one to ask this, but I think the common idea in people's minds is the longer you're in a relationship, the more honest you get and maybe in a great one.

Speaker 1 But actually, it's the reverse.

Speaker 1 The longer you're in, the more you start lying, muchly to protect your

Speaker 1 partner who

Speaker 1 areas get sensitive. Do you still want to fuck me as much as always? Absolutely.
Okay, well, it's a lie. Yeah.
But you got to tell it.

Speaker 5 Yeah.

Speaker 5 I think it's hard because we all say we want the truth. I think if you ask the average person, they'd say, I want people to be honest with me.
I wish people told me the truth.

Speaker 5 But then when someone says it, the old cliche, you can't handle the truth. Like we don't, we can't actually handle it.

Speaker 5 And I think it takes a lot of maturity, a lot of openness, a lot of self-work to be able to say, hey, you know what? Actually, I'm happy to hear what you actually have to say. And,

Speaker 5 you know, it, it takes a lot of courage to hear the honesty and it takes a lot of courage to say it.

Speaker 5 But I think a lot of people are scared to say it because they're scared of how it's going to be received.

Speaker 1 Did you ever see Tootsie? No. I got to get you a stream.

Speaker 1 You need to get me.

Speaker 1 I need to get you a.

Speaker 5 I don't watch a lot of stuff. I watch a bit of stuff, but I obviously don't watch enough.
I thought I watched enough.

Speaker 1 enough well i mean you're probably on to other bigger deeper spiritual things but for us normal people yeah you've heard of the movie right i've not i've not heard this scene what year is that i've not seen

Speaker 1 is a super classic i mean it's it's 1982 it's dust and hopes you wasn't born so what i wasn't born for the french revolution but i know about it

Speaker 1 really doc that that excuse is really your generation should lose that it's a stupid thing to say. It really is.
You weren't bored for it. Yeah, I saw it.

Speaker 1 I wasn't aware. I know, but I wasn't born for a citizen Kane, but I've seen it.
That's fair. That's fair.
Okay, so Tootsie is, you know, who Dustin Hoffman is. Yes.
And Bill Murray. Yes.
Okay.

Speaker 1 So the movie is, I don't know if you can make it today because it has to do with gender, but he's an actor in New York and he can't get work.

Speaker 1 And there's an ad for in the, like, you know, the

Speaker 1 open auditions for a soap opera, but it's for a woman. And he dresses in drag and he gets the part as a woman.
Wow. Michael becomes Dorothy and an older woman.
You know, it's very funny. And

Speaker 1 speak, and the

Speaker 1 audience loves him, and he becomes a big soap opera star. So he's at a party one night as the woman, because he's invited as the, and he's very hot for this other girl who's on the soap opera.

Speaker 1 And he says, and they're talking, and she says to him,

Speaker 1 thinking it's a woman,

Speaker 1 you know, guys are so full of shit. I wish one of them would just be honest and come up to me and say, I think you're the most beautiful woman in the world, and I'd like to go to bed with you.

Speaker 1 And he hears it. Later on, he's at a party as himself, as Michael, and he goes up and he tries it and she throws a drink right in his face.

Speaker 1 It's a great movie moment. That's awesome.

Speaker 5 I need your movie list. This sounds like

Speaker 5 going to make my life a lot easier.

Speaker 5 I feel like nowadays all my generation does is spend hours and hours and hours trying to find something to watch and then give up eventually.

Speaker 1 So and these movies don't make the lists.

Speaker 5 Like you look at IMTV and you start looking at all these lists.

Speaker 1 Well, I mean, you know, that movie is 40 years old, but it is, I mean, certain classic movies. You don't have,

Speaker 1 I guess maybe you don't even have like the old DirecTV where you I still have the 50 movie channels. Because if you flip through that, they're playing all sorts of movies from all sorts of years.

Speaker 5 Yeah, I'm a big Nolan fan. So Christopher Nolan? Yeah, so I've spent my time probably diving most deeply into Nolan's movies, starting with Memento.

Speaker 5 The Prestige is probably one of my favorite, favorite movies.

Speaker 5 Have you seen either of those?

Speaker 1 I don't remember those.

Speaker 5 So Memento is the story about the man who forgets every morning when he wakes up. And so he tattoos his memories onto himself and he's on the search for who killed his wife.

Speaker 5 It's a brilliant, brilliant story.

Speaker 1 Yeah, I have heard of that. I don't think I did catch up to that.
I highly recommend it.

Speaker 5 I

Speaker 1 watch that one.

Speaker 5 Yeah, one of the best. And the prestige is Hugh Jackman, Christian Bale, Scholar Johansson.
It's beautiful.

Speaker 5 It's such a great movie.

Speaker 5 It's based on Two Magicians.

Speaker 1 Oh, yes, I did some.

Speaker 1 Yes. Yeah.
That's his most, that's early on.

Speaker 5 2006, I think that is it.

Speaker 1 Right. And that's more of his

Speaker 1 mainstream phase. Just the way Stanley Kubrick.
you know Stanley Kubrick did.

Speaker 1 I mean he did so many innovative movies, but he also did Spartacus to start his career, a very mainstream movie.

Speaker 1 And there's two that Christopher Nolan did that I don't know what they're going, what's going on. Which ones? Tenet.
Yeah, that's terrible. Yeah.

Speaker 1 And then what's the other one with Leonardo DiCaprio and

Speaker 1 Smart Isa?

Speaker 5 Oh, Inception.

Speaker 5 That's an amazing movie.

Speaker 1 I'm sure it is.

Speaker 1 That's a beautiful movie. I'm sure it is TV.

Speaker 5 I love the concept of the idea of we're living in a dream within a dream within a dream.

Speaker 1 Yeah, but it's kind of hard to follow.

Speaker 1 I think it takes a bit bit of reading but i'm that kind of person who wants to watch a movie and then no no i i am not um movie bright i'm like i'm not stupid but like uh some people are much more movie bright very often like a young girl yeah i need to watch a movie with got it because she can explain to me got it like what's going on like okay um yeah i i i and an inception i was just completely lost well anytime call me up i'll i'll explain the plot and uh we'll walk through right but uh but no you're reminding me of i remember i was at a wedding

Speaker 5 maybe like four years ago and it was you know people in entertainment and everyone were everyone there was a writer uh comedian uh you know every speech was a netflix comedy special and perfectly delivered it was amazing super entertaining but i remember i was sitting with a group of people who were all asking me what my favorite movie that year was And of course, with my naive and unrefined movie knowledge, I said Marvel Endgame.

Speaker 5 And everyone at the table had all these, you know, indie movies that they were in love with and everything. So

Speaker 5 I've had that experience before as well.

Speaker 1 I'm worse than you with that.

Speaker 1 I mean, all those kind of popular movies, any Spandex movie,

Speaker 1 I've seen hardly any of them. The ones I have seen, I didn't

Speaker 1 see any difference between. I don't know why Cat Woman is the worst and Spider-Man's the greatest.
To me, it's all the same movie.

Speaker 5 Oh, no, there's some good movies.

Speaker 1 I'm a Marvel fan. Oh, you are.

Speaker 5 Yeah, I'm a Marvel fan. So there's some good ones in there.

Speaker 1 I just tried to watch, well, I did not try. I watched, well, sort of Dune, the second Dune.
Now, I have to admit,

Speaker 1 I did not see the original Dune.

Speaker 5 Got it.

Speaker 1 I haven't seen the original Dune. I didn't see the first Dune.

Speaker 5 I've seen that one.

Speaker 1 And I missed the first 10 minutes of this one. Okay.
And I was watching it in the kitchen while I was making food. So I'm not really sure what's going on in Dune.
Got it.

Speaker 1 It's something about they're on another planet.

Speaker 1 I think it's the year 10,000. And yet everything is just eerily the same.
Like, they still have helicopters, and they're still fighting and running really fast.

Speaker 1 And, you know, there's one tribe that has this thing on their nose. Have you seen that? Do you know what that is?

Speaker 5 I think I suppose it helps them breathe. I don't know.

Speaker 1 I guess so. It's very dry.
Yeah. And yet, Zendaya's skin is perfect.

Speaker 1 I mean, really, I've been to Vegas for a weekend

Speaker 1 and my skin got worse than what's going on here on

Speaker 1 the planet. What is it?

Speaker 5 I don't know the name.

Speaker 1 I don't know how that is. Anyway, I could tell there are some very bad people because it kind of goes to black and white when they show them.
It gets very Lenny rough and stall.

Speaker 1 And of course, the bad, big, real bad guy is a huge fat fuck. And you can always tell, you know, the worst thing you do in this world is fat shaming unless you want to show he's a bad guy.

Speaker 1 That is completely okay.

Speaker 6 The second half of the basketball season is here, and the race to the playoffs continues on Prize Picks, the Best Daily Fantasy Sports app to cash in on your favorite sports. The app is simple.

Speaker 6 Pick more or less on at least two players for a shot to win up to a thousand times your cash. Download the PrizePicks app today and use code FIELD and get $50 instantly when you play $5.

Speaker 6 That's code FIELD on PrizePicks. They get $50 instantly when you play $5.
Win or lose, you'll get $50 for just playing. Guaranteed.
PrizePicks. Run your game.

Speaker 1 Must be present in certain states. Visit PrizePicks.com for restrictions and details.

Speaker 7 This holiday, deck their countertops with peppermint white chocolate mochas, gingerbread lattes, and pumpkin cream cold brews. Ninja Lux Cafe is the ultimate gift.

Speaker 7 It's the number one best-selling espresso machine in the U.S. Perfect for the coffee lovers in your life.
If they can dream it, they can brew it. No skills needed.
Espresso balanced.

Speaker 7 Drip coffee, rich.

Speaker 1 Cold brew in a flash.

Speaker 7 Hands-free, silky microphone, dairy or plant-based milks. Bring joy into their holiday and every day after with Ninja Lux Cafe.
Shop now.

Speaker 1 And I didn't get to the end that the real bad guy is Austin Butler, but they shaved his head and I was like, oh, that's awesome.

Speaker 5 He gets killed in a great fight scene.

Speaker 1 Oh, so you have seen it? I've seen it.

Speaker 5 I've seen that one. Yeah, I've seen the movie.
I don't remember the name of the planet, but I know the movie. Yeah, I've seen both of them.

Speaker 1 So you don't watch movies. Like, what do you do?

Speaker 5 Oh, I watch movies. I watch movies.
I think we just watch different movies.

Speaker 1 Well, what else do you do for fun?

Speaker 5 I definitely love, I'm a huge soccer fan. So I grew up as I'm born and raised in London.

Speaker 1 Watching or playing?

Speaker 5 Both. I don't play as much anymore, but I used to love playing and watching soccer.
It's still one of my favorite things to do.

Speaker 1 Where did you grow up in England?

Speaker 5 I grew up in North London.

Speaker 5 So it was, yeah, soccer's my first love. Football is my first love.
And it's something that I've never seen.

Speaker 1 I don't know London well enough to know what does that mean, that neighborhood, North London? What kind of neighborhood?

Speaker 5 It's a bit in between. It's a bit rough.
It's a bit,

Speaker 5 it's definitely a little rough. I definitely grew up in a neighborhood where there weren't so many Indian and South Asian people.
And so...

Speaker 5 There weren't? There weren't. There weren't that many when I was growing up.
There are now.

Speaker 5 There are a lot of South Asian people in England and in London.

Speaker 1 Well, London, London.

Speaker 1 I read this in Andrew Sullivan's column. He said, like 50 years ago

Speaker 1 was something like, I don't know, I forget the stat, but it went up by 50%,

Speaker 1 the number of non-white people.

Speaker 5 Okay, that makes sense.

Speaker 1 That's amazing when you think. Yeah, I mean, growing up in the world.
I'm not dementing it. I'm just saying

Speaker 1 it's just, you know, acknowledge change.

Speaker 5 Oh, it was amazing. I mean, I remember in our primary school, elementary school, part of our studies was visiting every religion's religion's place of worship.

Speaker 5 That was really common because there was someone from every religion in our class. There was such a great exposure to other cultures.
We celebrated every religious holiday.

Speaker 5 It was pretty incredible to have such a diverse upbringing. And I know a lot of my friends here didn't have that.
So

Speaker 5 that was a real positive. It's powerful.

Speaker 1 I did that.

Speaker 1 I made a movie called Religilist. It's about a documentary.
It's a comedy.

Speaker 1 And we went to all the different religious sites

Speaker 5 for the documentary.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 1 And I made fun of them all.

Speaker 1 But

Speaker 1 we never got to.

Speaker 1 Now, you're not officially a Buddhist, or are you? No, no, no, no. But you did, you were a monk, right?

Speaker 5 I lived as a monk, but in the Vedic tradition, which is more aligned with Hinduism, if you had to put it into a category.

Speaker 1 And what's that like? I mean, the life of a monk, I'm sure we all have an image in our head. It's very Spartan.

Speaker 5 It's hard. It's definitely hard and challenging.
You wake up at 10.

Speaker 1 Are these the celibate years?

Speaker 5 Yes, correct. So you're waking up at 4 a.m.

Speaker 5 You're having cold showers. You're meditating for around four to eight hours a day.
You sleep on the floor. You get two sets of robes.
You wear one. You wash one.

Speaker 5 And it's a really challenging lifestyle. But at the same time, talking about what we're speaking about, what was really profound to me when I think about it is that it was three years of my life.

Speaker 5 where I didn't have to pursue anything. I didn't have to pursue a woman.
I didn't have to pursue a job. I didn't have to pursue a promotion.

Speaker 5 And I feel like there's something really powerful about a period of our life where you're not pursuing anything external that allows you to actually go inward to

Speaker 5 have a go at mastering your mind, not that you ever will and pursue that perspective.

Speaker 5 And so when I looked at the science of it, because I've always been fascinated by the parallels between spirituality and science.

Speaker 5 I was looking at a study that was saying that most of our life, we live it in pursuit. So we live it in anticipation, reward, and then crash.

Speaker 5 So you anticipate something, you get the reward, or you don't, and then you crash after it, whether you're happy and then crash or sad and then crash.

Speaker 5 And that keeps us in that cycle of anticipation, reward, crash.

Speaker 5 But when you actually don't pursue something, there's almost a sense where your dopamine stabilizes and you actually get the ability to focus on being present for small things and getting to appreciate the things that you would usually miss or things you wouldn't see.

Speaker 5 And so now when I look back at it, I look at that as one of the biggest things I learned there because I don't know any time in my life before or after where I haven't been pursuing something.

Speaker 5 And so that was the most magical thing when I look back to think, wow, what a period of life where you're not pursuing something.

Speaker 1 It must give you, with your vast audience, a lot of cred.

Speaker 1 Kind of like the revolutionary who has spent time in prison.

Speaker 1 You know, a lot of the people who wound up presidents of countries, Menachem Begin was, you know, some people would call him a terrorist.

Speaker 1 He went to jail, you know, fighting the British for Israel's independence. But, you know, Mandela, you know, Martin Luther King, you go to jail,

Speaker 1 Castro, I think, before you,

Speaker 1 you have a kind of a credibility with the crowd that like, yeah, I walked the walk for this.

Speaker 1 I didn't just talk about it.

Speaker 1 I,

Speaker 1 you know, in your case, got up at four in the morning and took the cold shower. And, and

Speaker 1 are you allowed to masturbate when you're

Speaker 1 not even

Speaker 1 from yourself?

Speaker 5 Yeah, fully celibate. Yeah.

Speaker 1 Wow. What do you do about that?

Speaker 5 Well, it's a great question. There's a,

Speaker 5 so there's, I think what was really fascinating is before I did the life, I always thought it would be suppression or repression, but actually.

Speaker 5 I found that that engagement that we had there with the meditation, with the clean plant-based diet, with the focus, I'm I'm not kidding, at least at that time, it was a thought that evaporated.

Speaker 5 It was a thought that disappeared. And that didn't happen immediately.
It probably took months to even feel that way. It was months of dedicated practice that allowed you to get to that point.

Speaker 5 But I found that that environment was almost protected by like some incredible shield, which I've never experienced anywhere else. And I was actually just back there.

Speaker 5 I go back to the monastery every year. I was back there this January and I travel there with my wife now.
She comes with me as well. And we were there for a week.

Speaker 5 And I was spending time with my teachers again and the monks again. And again, I felt this force-filled energy while I was there.

Speaker 5 And the moment I left, I felt all the other allurements and all the other attractions come right back. And I was thinking, wow,

Speaker 5 there is something special about locations in which, kind of like this room that we're in right now, right? Like this has a certain vibe. It has a certain energy.

Speaker 1 Absolutely. It really does.

Speaker 5 It does, right? This location has an energy. I walked in and it.

Speaker 1 Not for what you're going for.

Speaker 5 But locations do have energy. They really do.

Speaker 1 They really do.

Speaker 5 And I think that those places where people have meditated for tens of years, hundreds of years, thousands of years

Speaker 1 carry energy. And where is this one? Because I want to avoid going there.

Speaker 1 You don't want that much. You want a world.
Yeah, you don't want that much. No, I'm not as strong as you.

Speaker 1 I'm not strong.

Speaker 5 I'm not strong.

Speaker 5 I'm actually very,

Speaker 5 I wouldn't consider myself strong enough to be able to do it.

Speaker 1 Okay, well, you're stronger than me because I couldn't last. I mean,

Speaker 1 let me ask you, I'm just so curious about this. Let me break it.
So you're there for three years, 36 months. I'm guessing that that the first month must have been the worst, the hardest.

Speaker 1 Because you're obviously, because you're transitioning. It is the worst.
And

Speaker 1 I can't believe I'm doing this.

Speaker 1 What am I? Crazy? What the fuck am I doing? I only lived so many years on this earth. Why am I not enjoying it?

Speaker 1 There's things going on. I could go see Tootsie.
Yeah, exactly. I mean, there's movies.
There's lots of fun things. Okay.
But where are we like after six months?

Speaker 5 Six months in, it's changed because first month you're thinking while you're sitting on the floor, God, why am I sitting on the floor? It hurts my back. It hurts my leg.
I can't even meditate.

Speaker 5 I can't focus.

Speaker 5 That's day one, week one, month one.

Speaker 1 So you don't even get a chair?

Speaker 5 You don't get a chair there. No, there's no meditating on chairs.

Speaker 1 You don't get a chair?

Speaker 5 Not for meditating.

Speaker 1 What about a bed?

Speaker 5 You sleep on the floor. You have a thin little yoga mat and a little bed sheet.
And when you're in India, you have the mosquito nets.

Speaker 5 So you're sleeping in this really tight tent because the mosquitoes will eat you at night. I remember one of my...

Speaker 1 Shouldn't you welcome that?

Speaker 5 I remember one of my friends went to sleep with his head, you know, because you had shaved. He had his head shaved at the net.

Speaker 5 And we woke up and his head looked like the moon because it had craters all over it from the mosquitoes eating it alive.

Speaker 1 So do you have a roommate?

Speaker 5 You have communal living, so there's 20, 30, sometimes 100 people in a room, depending on the size of it when you're traveling as well.

Speaker 1 Okay, so sleep on the floor, no amenities,

Speaker 1 100 people in the room. Sounds like Club Med.
Sounds like Club Med. Have you been to a Club?

Speaker 5 I know what Club Med is, but I've never been.

Speaker 1 I did a movie called Club Med, believe it or not. Okay.
and we stayed there for a month right it's I shouldn't this was a dock or a this isn't no no this was a movie it was a movie of the week

Speaker 1 and you know the idea behind club med is for people on a budget who who are it's actually a brilliant idea because it's for people who are going to enjoy the outdoors anyway they just want to swim and fuck they don't need so you go to this place and it's very spartan it's it's it you know it's like a monk's thing you get a bed and a

Speaker 1 i mean it's no locks i seem seem to remember. You get beads.
You don't even get a bad drink. No way.
Why do you give it a bead?

Speaker 1 Because to like buy drinks.

Speaker 1 But there's no money because we want to, you know, it's kind of smart, you know?

Speaker 1 So it's just, let's get up. We're going to be at the beach all day.
We don't need an $800 a night room. Yeah.

Speaker 1 So I feel like that would be a good half.

Speaker 5 That's your experience.

Speaker 1 That's your monastic. I'm going to get it.

Speaker 5 That's your monastic experience.

Speaker 1 But you are stronger. I mean, that is an amazing amount of strength.
I mean, let's not kid ourselves.

Speaker 5 I think it's strength that we built up over time.

Speaker 1 Of course.

Speaker 5 Yeah, I don't think it was something I went in there with.

Speaker 1 Okay, so where are you after a year? Is there a point where you're like, you're digging it?

Speaker 5 After it, yeah, yeah. I mean, six months in, I was having the best time of my life.
I was like, I'm going to do this for the rest of my life. You really?

Speaker 1 And so what brought you out of it?

Speaker 5 What brought me out of it was my body breaking down.

Speaker 1 I

Speaker 5 literally couldn't hack it.

Speaker 1 You mean from sleeping on the floor?

Speaker 5 From sleeping on the floor, from waking up at 4 a.m., from eating what you're given, because you don't get to choose. There's no menu.
Everyone eats the same thing.

Speaker 5 I'd have friends of mine, monks, who were waking up at 2 a.m. and I'm being woken up and I'm a light sleeper.
And if someone's sick, I'm getting sick and my immune system's getting rocked.

Speaker 5 And so I realized very quickly that I didn't have the physical ability to stay there. And then at the same time, there was this,

Speaker 5 if I'm honest with you and honest with myself, there was this. rebellious spirit of wanting to share what I'd learned in a way that resonated with all my friends back in London.

Speaker 1 You sure did.

Speaker 5 And in a way that I felt would help people that I grew up around.

Speaker 5 And not that that was discouraged, but it wasn't encouraged. That wasn't the goal of being.

Speaker 5 And there was far more of this

Speaker 5 regimented fall in line, which is really important for that sacred life. And I respect it.
I think it's needed. I just didn't fit in.

Speaker 5 It's a strange thing to say, but almost after three years of trying to become a monk or being a monk, I realized I wasn't one. And that's almost like the hardest thing.

Speaker 5 So the first month was the hardest, but the last month was even harder because you've kind of used all this self-awareness training to come to the conclusion that I don't think I belong here, but there are things I've learned here that I think are so profound and powerful.

Speaker 1 This may be a stupid question, but why do you need the

Speaker 1 torturous physical part? If really what's going on in the mind, you know, why do you have, has it be, has to hurt, I mean, if you don't hurt your back, you wouldn't get to the mind. No, I'm asking.

Speaker 1 It's a great question. No, it's a great question.
Because, I mean, couldn't you do it at the rattish?

Speaker 1 So

Speaker 5 you could now. Definitely.
I do now. I would say that there's a beauty in it because that helps you go beyond the body.

Speaker 5 Because your body is such an uncomfortable place to live at that point that you have to go inward into the mind and further deeper.

Speaker 5 Whereas if you're in the full comforts, you don't actually ever have to go that deep. You don't have to, you're not forced to go and challenge to see what lies beyond the body.

Speaker 5 And so there was a beauty to it. And while I was there back in,

Speaker 5 when I was there in January this year, I go back to trying to live as close to that as I can. I'm waking up at 4 a.m.

Speaker 5 Yes, when I go there now, I'll have a bed because I'm staying in quarters that are a bit more for visitors as opposed to monks. But I'm waking up at 4 a.m.

Speaker 5 I'm doing the practices and there's a beauty in it. I'll tell you, Bill, it's so powerful because it just takes you back to realizing

Speaker 5 how little you can live with, how little you need for that period of time. And it does give you special access to go deeper and go beyond the body.
There is a power to it.

Speaker 1 Are there people who start the program like you did and

Speaker 1 flunk out? Just like in the Marines, you know, I mean, they're the people who think they can do the Marines. And then it's like, you know.

Speaker 1 I feel like that guy. Yeah, I feel like that guy.

Speaker 5 That's why when you say I'm strong or whatever, I feel like it's the other way around. Like we're talking about credibility.

Speaker 5 There were more people who stayed than left.

Speaker 1 But some did leave.

Speaker 5 Of course, absolutely. Yeah, absolutely.
For different different reasons. And it's not discouraged.

Speaker 1 I think I know the reason.

Speaker 5 And you're not discouraged to leave. It just, it feels like a personal failure.
I think that's how I felt when I left.

Speaker 5 There was a, there was definitely a depression hanging over me because it felt like I'd aspired to do something in my 20s. I'd built it up and then I'd failed.

Speaker 5 And that's how I felt at least internally.

Speaker 1 So I was this close some nights freshman year at Cornell, like wanting to just pack it up and go home.

Speaker 5 Because it was so hard?

Speaker 1 Because

Speaker 1 it was so shitty.

Speaker 5 Not part of it.

Speaker 1 Not the academic part. That was what saved me.
I did have academic epiphanies at Harvard, Harvard,

Speaker 1 Cornell. And

Speaker 1 that was worth, that's what you're going there for. But I did not have the fun college experience.
It just wasn't a fun place.

Speaker 1 And of course, I got myself sort of ostracized in the dorm first year because the kids were like really immature.

Speaker 1 And I was telling them, you know, enough with the shaving cream fights. Oh, it's not amusing me anymore.
And then, of course, I just made myself a pariah. So, like, there was lots of reasons.

Speaker 5 What made you stay?

Speaker 1 It's what made me think of this. Pride.
You know, just you don't want to be the guy who something in me was like, you know what?

Speaker 1 If you put your tail between your legs and you go home now and you can't even hack college, your life's not going to turn out well.

Speaker 1 You, you, this is something in me knew that this was a trial by fire. My version.
Look, people went to Vietnam not that long before this happened.

Speaker 1 So there are way worse trials by fire and what you did. I mean, I mean, I just can't imagine the fact that it got to the point where you had to quit because physically,

Speaker 1 that's,

Speaker 1 I just don't, but again, connect me to why that makes your mind better.

Speaker 5 Which part?

Speaker 5 Oh, the physical challenge because there's well first of all the simplicity of it removes all feelings of i me and mine so when you don't have your bed you now are rolling out a mat anywhere in the room there's a detachment to that you don't get a mat Yeah, the little yoga mat, like a little thin yoga mat with a bed sheet.

Speaker 5 But like you don't have a place that's yours. It removes that feeling of ego, that idea of this is my space.
This belongs to me.

Speaker 5 It gives you you a sense that, hey, this is ours. We belong

Speaker 5 to this space. This is something we all have to maintain because you don't know where you're going to sleep.
When you have two sets of clothes, you wear one, you wash one.

Speaker 5 It again creates that simplicity of independence, of taking care of yourself. So all of those physical limitations or simplifications

Speaker 5 allow you to access these modalities that you wouldn't. Like you'd never think of detachment.

Speaker 5 If you didn't have anything at all, if you're constantly surrounded by things, it's harder to understand that principle.

Speaker 5 So I think the extremes help us learn the lesson so that when you're not in the extreme, you can actually find the balance.

Speaker 5 And so to me, even the, for example, when I'm sitting on the floor and my legs hurting, my back's hurting, I'm now having to go beyond the body.

Speaker 5 to see if there's something inward to go toward to find peace within. I'm having to find peace in my breath.
And by the way, that's true for anyone who bodybuilds today.

Speaker 5 If someone's working out, it's not fun lifting that weight. You've got to go to your breath to get through that last rep, to push through.
That's how it works.

Speaker 5 So, that resistance is a healthy resistance. It's just that I pushed it way too far.

Speaker 5 I was a bit too excited to see how far meditation could go and how much I could push my body. I was a young man, I was 22 years old, and you know, not being as mindful as I probably should have.

Speaker 5 So, it wasn't that it had to hurt as bad as it hurt me.

Speaker 1 But, see, this fascinates me now because you see, now

Speaker 1 you have so many things in your life that beyond what the normal person

Speaker 1 has, which we would consider things that really feed an ego. I mean, you talk to some of the most important, celebrated people in the world, right? Oprah and Obama and

Speaker 1 well, you've had every, you know, okay, and you're very successful. Money is coming in.
I'm sure you're not burning it in a pile, are you? No, not yet. All right.

Speaker 1 So, like, it's just, you must have gotten the bends from coming up from

Speaker 1 the no chair to Obama. You know, so these things that are ego gratifiers, shall we call them, that most of the world is like with their phone, please like me and see me and give me this shit.

Speaker 5 Yeah.

Speaker 1 And you've got it. Yeah.

Speaker 1 Does it not affect you? Does it, are you, what do you, what, what's going on in the two parts of your mind?

Speaker 1 Some part of you is going to be like, this is cool.

Speaker 5 Yeah.

Speaker 5 I'm very fortunate and grateful that I've got to live two very opposite lives. And it's been extremely, extremely difficult for me to wrap my own head around it.
And I mean that.

Speaker 1 So I'm sorry at night. I can't.

Speaker 5 Yeah. And

Speaker 5 it's a battle every day. is the real answer.

Speaker 5 It's a battle every day. Ego is something that

Speaker 5 working with every day. It's if you...

Speaker 1 Why are we saying it's a bad thing?

Speaker 5 I'm not saying it's a bad thing.

Speaker 5 No, no, no. I'm saying that there's...

Speaker 1 Some ego is good, right? Don't you need some ego? I mean, that's what Freud says, you know.

Speaker 5 Yeah, there's, well, in the Vedic literatures, it's described as real ego and false ego. So the difference is that false ego is when you identify your worth with the thing.

Speaker 5 False ego is, I am worthy because I have. Right.
Whereas real ego is, I am worthy because I live and breathe and I'm here.

Speaker 1 Or maybe getting something good as opposed to that.

Speaker 5 That would be even the second. The first would just be that I've been given an opportunity to do that.
There's worth even in that. There's worth in just living and being and breathing.

Speaker 1 You're helping a lot of people now.

Speaker 5 I'm trying to. I'm trying to.

Speaker 1 Yeah, I think people would say they you have helped them. Definitely.

Speaker 1 So doesn't that like make you feel good? It just makes me feel good and there's nothing wrong with that. There's nothing wrong with that.

Speaker 5 No, no, nothing wrong with that.

Speaker 5 I think I think what it is is it's almost like when you buy into your own hype I think it's if you walk into a room I remember watching an interview with Robert Downey Jr.

Speaker 5 that I loved he was being interviewed at the Cambridge Union and he said when I walk into my house it's not like my family goes oh my god it's Iron Man like let's you know it's he's like it's not like that it's like my wife will be like can you take the trash out And I think if you're walking into every room and you're like, oh yeah, I interviewed this person.

Speaker 5 Look what I did and look at who I am.

Speaker 5 I think that is an unhealthy sense of ego it's an unhealthy sense of self-worth it it actually will make you extremely lonely and it will actually depress you eventually so I think that's the kind I'm being cautious of but now you

Speaker 1 waded into my area Jay go ahead because now you're talking about celebrities they're all full of shit Robert Downes Jr. does not his wife does not tell him take the trash out

Speaker 1 somebody else takes the trash out in that house he's a fucking movie star he's got a lot of money. Is all his life rose petals? No, of course not.
And he's married.

Speaker 1 So he's going to have to, you know, you got to serve somebody, as Bob Dylan said, you know. Okay.
But his life is cushy and lots of people everywhere he goes. And deserved.
He's a brilliant actor.

Speaker 1 Done some amazing work. We could go through his movies.
Yeah, I love his movies. But, you know, when he goes out to dinner, you know, he doesn't wait.
He gets the best table.

Speaker 1 What I'm saying is his ego is fed constantly. He's always at award show.

Speaker 5 And that's where you got to battle it.

Speaker 1 That's the point. That's my point.
It's hard. If occasionally, you know, at home, he's got to eat some shit with the, you know,

Speaker 1 it's not as simple as my wife tells me to take the truth.

Speaker 1 Celebrities really like to play that up. That I'm just like you.

Speaker 5 But no, I don't disagree. And I think that's why for me, that's why I'm saying it's a battle because if life has become easier and more comfortable, you have to be more cautious.

Speaker 5 You have to be more aware because it's so easy to get lost in that journey. And so I relish the battle.
I enjoy it every day.

Speaker 5 I prefer being in a place now where I'm challenged, where I'm questioned, where I have to think about these things. If anything, it forces me to take more shelter.
It forces me to surrender more.

Speaker 5 It forces me to take my practices more seriously. Because it's almost like if you're training every day,

Speaker 5 if you're a warrior and you're training every day, but you never go into battle, you don't know how strong you are.

Speaker 5 So when you're on the battlefield every day and your ego is being pushed up and you're being given all this praise and you're given all these accolades and then you have to stay grounded, then you're really figuring out how strong you are.

Speaker 5 So I think I'm realized or reminded of how weak I am every day. And that's a beautiful reason why I focus on taking so much shelter of my practice.

Speaker 1 What would you say is the most indulgent, materialistic thing you have in your life?

Speaker 5 Oh, gosh, right now. So many now.

Speaker 1 Really? So many?

Speaker 1 Well, anything. I mean, it can be anything.
It can be, you know,

Speaker 1 I don't know what your tastes are. Maybe, you know, it's a vintage record player.
I don't know what you. Oh, that's how did you know? That's a good show.
I have a vintage record player.

Speaker 1 That's a great. That was amazing.
Would it give you pleasure? That's impressive.

Speaker 5 I do have a vintage record player.

Speaker 1 That's what I'm laughing.

Speaker 5 That's what I'm laughing.

Speaker 5 I have a love for design. I have a love, love, love for design.
And

Speaker 5 I love how design can transform spaces.

Speaker 1 If I find out you have a shark tank, I'm going to

Speaker 1 have a shark tank. I have a vintage record player that I love.

Speaker 5 It's a 1960s brawn that a lot of Apple's initials products were designed based on that. And I love it.
It's such a beautiful piece that inspires me daily. I was a huge fan of Steve Jobs.

Speaker 5 Really? Yeah, big fan of Steve Jobs. Steve Jobs spent a lot of time in India.
and spent a lot of time, or at least what he did spend, time with monks.

Speaker 5 And so he has quite a spiritual explorative side

Speaker 1 run this one through the spiritual grinder for me like he seemed like the last type

Speaker 1 type of guy to die from what he died from yeah like that's pancreatic usually somebody who strikes obese you know diabetes he was skinny yeah you know he seemed skinny doesn't mean healthy though no no not absolutely not it's much more complicated than that i mean this just shows we don't know what the fuck.

Speaker 5 Well, at that time, too, I think we had very little insight or conversation around gut health, very little conversation about the microbiome, very little conversation about the impacts of sugar.

Speaker 5 You know, we weren't talking about all these things.

Speaker 1 We were in my life. You were? Yeah.

Speaker 5 Oh, that's amazing. I just didn't know a lot of people growing up.

Speaker 1 But

Speaker 1 I mean, I met... Oh, a guy you probably would like a lot because he's a guru.

Speaker 1 I mean, a literal guru. What's his name? Whatever, Dr.
Neil.

Speaker 1 I'm going to give you his shampoo here. He makes the only clean shampoo in the world.
Very cool. Neil Naturopathics.
And

Speaker 1 I've been my holistic doctor for 20 years. Before I went to him, I really wasn't that aware.
I was always kind of interested in health. When I was in my 20s, I was too poor to do anything about it.

Speaker 1 Really?

Speaker 1 You got to eat fucking three cheese subs when that's all the, you only got $1.90 for lunch. Totally.

Speaker 5 I used to eat a bar's bar and drink a sprite every day.

Speaker 1 You did?

Speaker 5 Yeah, I grew up eating four chocolate products every day.

Speaker 1 These I met in England. Yeah, in England.

Speaker 5 I used to eat a chocolate bar, a chocolate yogurt, a chocolate ice cream, and a chocolate biscuit every day. My mom was like, I got addicted to chocolate.
It took me years to curb my addiction. Years.

Speaker 5 I was like, that was something that was hard.

Speaker 1 What did you eat? What was the meal plan in the three-year-old? So you're eating calf-based,

Speaker 5 and it's all generally Indian dishes. So in the morning, you're eating sometimes a dosa, which is like a thin, savory crepe, is the closest I can compare it to.

Speaker 5 If you ever had a dosa, it's like South Indian food.

Speaker 1 It's very likely I love Indian food.

Speaker 5 Yeah, so it's like a thin savory crepe.

Speaker 1 Is it good or is it great? It's great. No, even in the mud.

Speaker 5 Yeah, it's not indulgent in the sense that you're not, you know, but it's, it's healthy, it's, it's great, it tastes wonderful. Then there's

Speaker 5 there's Upama, which is another Indian delicacy, which is simple. Khichri, which is like mixed vegetables and rice.
So you're eating very simply, but you're eating healthy. And it's good.

Speaker 5 But we'd be traveling, so you'd be eating things on the road sometimes. And it wasn't so great.
Some of you didn't know when your next meal was going to come if you were traveling for quite a while.

Speaker 5 So there would, you know, you'd always try and eat what you had.

Speaker 1 So you don't ascribe Steve Jobs' demise to something woo-woo?

Speaker 5 I wish I knew. I wish I knew.

Speaker 5 I don't know enough about how he ended up with his health challenges.

Speaker 1 Do you think there's some sort of plan? Or, you know, like, was it always destined that he was going to only live that long? Or, you know, is there a bigger picture to that?

Speaker 1 Or is it like atheists like me believe everything is fairly random? Like club random. I mean, I would literally name the club after it.

Speaker 5 Yeah, I've always found the middle to be where I find my home in that I think life is both free will and fate. And what I mean by that is that free will creates.

Speaker 1 You're right.

Speaker 5 Free will creates fate. And so our actions do have an impact.
But then there are certain things where we have limited amount of actions to choose from.

Speaker 5 And so you've got an interplay between fate and free will at any point. I.e., I didn't get to choose where I was born.
So there was a limited set of choices.

Speaker 5 So when I grew up, you could either be a doctor, a lawyer, or a failure based on my parents.

Speaker 1 Those are my three options.

Speaker 5 And

Speaker 5 I would never have imagined having a career in media or entertainment or obviously podcasts didn't exist, but I couldn't ever imagine being a host. That wasn't even in my vocabulary growing up.

Speaker 5 And so you start seeing how these intersections of our life kind of limit us and then allow us to flow. So I've always seen this interplay between free will and fate.

Speaker 5 So I live as if my actions matter. I think that's that's a good way to live.

Speaker 5 But then I also accept that my actions matter, but that I can't be deciding of the result. I can't choose where they go.

Speaker 1 I think you should host Saturday night Live.

Speaker 1 I do. I think it'd be really funny.
Wow. You know, because, you know, the Swami sketch,

Speaker 1 you know,

Speaker 1 just to have a whack at spirituality

Speaker 1 and stuff like that. You know.
If you encourage it, maybe, maybe from your

Speaker 5 lips to SNLZ.

Speaker 1 Would you do it? I would do it. Definitely, I'd say.
Definitely, I'd do it. Exactly.
I think it's great in the mind.

Speaker 1 I think it's great to see.

Speaker 1 I think it's great to laugh at ourselves.

Speaker 1 We're going Volfarana.

Speaker 5 I think if we can't laugh at all the idiosyncrasies of every establishment,

Speaker 5 it's a bad idea.

Speaker 1 Go for it.

Speaker 1 I want to see you in a Cardi B video. I want the whole thing for you.
It's funny you said that.

Speaker 5 I always said that Cardi B would be one of my ideal guests on the show because my joy is in not speaking to people that are like me or that look like me or act like me.

Speaker 5 And my joy is in finding mindfulness within each person I meet.

Speaker 1 Well, I'm so glad you mentioned mindfulness because she just had

Speaker 1 a stud put in her ass crack.

Speaker 5 Okay, I didn't know this.

Speaker 1 No, I where did you learn that?

Speaker 1 How do you come across that on your TikTok algorithm or your, I don't know, your news feed or the New York Times newsletter? I don't know. No, one of my writers tried to make a joke out of it.

Speaker 1 And it didn't work. What's funny about Nikki Minot? I mean,

Speaker 1 Cardi B

Speaker 1 having her ass crack pierced. That sounds obvious.
Yeah, bring me something that's naturally funny. No, I was like, it's almost too obvious.
And, you know, also, it's in bad taste.

Speaker 1 And I'm just, well, wait a minute. I am all about bad taste.
Anyway,

Speaker 1 but yeah,

Speaker 1 Cardi B,

Speaker 1 you, I could see it. Yeah.

Speaker 5 I could see it. Maybe on my tour, I'm about to go on tour with the podcast.

Speaker 1 I know. Oh, I'm sorry.

Speaker 5 So I'm excited for that.

Speaker 1 so uh i blame the pod i forget the plug oh no you don't need to

Speaker 1 plug it in that was so that was

Speaker 1 but really that was that was so good the way you did that i'm excited about it i'm really looking forward i don't blame you and you should be and tell me all about it i hear you're going on tour with the podcast thank you for the plug i really appreciate it that's so kind of you i never forget

Speaker 5 no i'm really excited we're taking the podcast on tour for the first time ever so the podcast is over six years old now it's been an incredible journey and this is the year I thought it would be.

Speaker 1 It's an incredible success.

Speaker 5 Yeah, it would be nice to go and meet the community. We've had millions of fans that have been so loyal.

Speaker 1 So what will be different about it live or nothing?

Speaker 5 I think what will be different about it is I'm going to get to interact with the audience. The audience is going to get to interact with the guests, ask questions.
I want to open it up.

Speaker 1 I want to interact with the audience. So they'll like the thing where they pass the mic around.

Speaker 5 I'm going to love to go out there and see people and give people hugs, meet people, hold hands. I'm like excited to get out there and look people in the eyes and thank them.

Speaker 1 I don't think that's a good idea. I love it.
I enjoy it. I like being live.
I mean, there's there's going to be a lot of people. I know, but it'll be fun.

Speaker 1 It's going to take a long time to get through the whole crowd. No, no, not through the whole crowd.
I'm not going to get to the whole thing. Well, then, who gets selected for that? I don't know.

Speaker 1 We'll find out. I know.
But then, see,

Speaker 1 now we're breaking down into, you know, the VIPs and the people who don't get the hug. You see the problem? Well, no, but it's random choice.

Speaker 5 It's club random.

Speaker 1 Well,

Speaker 1 there's no rhyme or reason.

Speaker 1 Anybody who buys a ticket to your show is going to want to give you a hug. Okay.
And either you're you're going to give 6,000 hugs. I can't do that.
Exactly.

Speaker 1 I'd love to. And now what we're down to is some people get it and some people don't.
And now you're in the worst kind of areas of ego and division and all the stuff that you think so.

Speaker 1 If you do something where there's a VIP experience.

Speaker 5 No, no, that's not what I'm saying. I'm saying, as in, I would just go out into the audience.
I'm not saying in a section.

Speaker 1 But you just said you're not going to do all 6,000.

Speaker 5 No, of course not.

Speaker 1 But here's the thing. Then who gets it? Here's the thing.

Speaker 5 The community I have, and I know this because I went on a one-man tour on my own show two years ago when my book came out in 2023. I went on a tour, but it was just me.
It wasn't a podcast.

Speaker 5 I'm not kidding you, Bill. And I really hope that you'll get to come.

Speaker 5 I would love for you to be there. One thing that everyone said.

Speaker 5 Part of my event was me bringing people up on stage, asking people to do uncomfortable things that I believed were powerful for growth.

Speaker 5 So we had everything from setting a couple up randomly on a date on stage to me putting a person inside a solitude cave to meditate for 15 minutes during the show with a question.

Speaker 1 And then sawing them in half? No, no, no.

Speaker 5 I wanted to do that bit, but they said it was legally difficult. So

Speaker 1 we missed that one. Yeah, that would have been amazing.

Speaker 5 Yeah, that would have been amazing.

Speaker 5 And then we, you know, to the point at the end of the show where I asked people to call someone in their life that they hadn't told they loved for a long time. And they did that live on stage.

Speaker 5 It was really beautiful. But here's the reason I'm telling you all that is my community rallied behind each of those people in a way you've never seen before.

Speaker 5 And I saw the audience, you saw 5,000, 6,000 people rally behind this one person who was having this experience, whether they were in that solitude cube, whether they made the call, whether they told the whole audience about a breakup that they just went through or a tough divorce.

Speaker 5 You saw the whole audience run and hug that person.

Speaker 5 So I believe that even if I can't hug 6,000 people, 6,000 people will walk away with a hug from someone else in the audience.

Speaker 5 And it'll be that much more powerful because my audience and my community is all about building that rather than it being around me. It's not about me making something incredible happen.

Speaker 5 It's about them feeling that from each other.

Speaker 1 Are we sure not? We're not becoming a megachurch.

Speaker 5 That's a great question.

Speaker 1 Are we sure?

Speaker 1 I think you're doing great. I'm just trying to

Speaker 1 watch you the guardrails because I'm in this business. Yes, yes.
And I know I've seen, you know, you don't want to end up like Britney Spears.

Speaker 1 You You don't want to be shaving the head, hitting people with the other hair. I already shaved the head.
That's good. Yeah, I got the hair back.

Speaker 5 So no more shaving my head now. I like my hair.

Speaker 1 Frank, you're not even allowed to have hair there.

Speaker 5 You're not allowed to have hair because just like the Marines.

Speaker 1 The first thing they do. Yeah.

Speaker 5 It's great detachment.

Speaker 1 And you have such a nice head of hair. Thank you.
I appreciate it. Oh, you're going to love this shampoo.
Really?

Speaker 1 Right flag.

Speaker 5 That was good. No, but it's true.

Speaker 1 It's the only truly natural shampoo there is in the world. Yeah, yeah.
I love a new shampoo. Yeah.
I'll try you.

Speaker 1 This guy's been to India a million times. Wow.
He

Speaker 1 loves India. I love it.
George Harrison loved India. Oh, really?

Speaker 1 George Harrison loved India.

Speaker 5 I know that.

Speaker 1 Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah.
I love that. Oh, yeah.
I mean, he got the whole Beatles to go. Yeah.
I mean, Ringo left after two weeks.

Speaker 1 Ringo was like, I'm not staying on the floor. And he missed his English food.
And, you know. Yeah, of course.

Speaker 5 It's different. It's hard.

Speaker 1 I mean, I don't know if you believe this.

Speaker 1 Certainly people from that, shall we say, realm of religious thinking believe this, that we're all at different stages because we've been reincarnated different times.

Speaker 1 And you can't hate people like me and Ringo. We just haven't been reincarnated that many times.

Speaker 1 I mean, like, it's very doubtful that at the almost of the age of 70, that I'm going to suddenly have this.

Speaker 1 Who knows? Who knows?

Speaker 1 Who knows? Never say, never. But I don't think I'm going to go and do the three-year on the floor at the end of the day.
No, not three years, not three years. Maybe three days.

Speaker 1 Maybe three days. I mean, but

Speaker 1 maybe after I've been reincarnated, this is what they would say. Maybe after I've been reincarnated four or five more times, I will be at...

Speaker 1 Is that the way you see it? Like, you think you probably have just been reincarnated more times? So

Speaker 1 you're closer to where we're getting, where we are a being beyond our

Speaker 1 burdensome physical body.

Speaker 5 I don't claim to have any of that evolution. I think that there's a

Speaker 5 we're living at a beautiful time where the greatest gift of spirituality is available to anyone and everyone because it's so talked about.

Speaker 1 How do you define spirituality?

Speaker 5 The ability to learn about the self. That's as simply as that.
The self. The self.
Yeah, the ability to learn about the real true self. I think that conversation is so widespread today.

Speaker 5 It's so accessible today. There's podcasts.
There's books. There's social media pages.
It's everywhere.

Speaker 1 so the ability for anyone and anyone see i think i know myself as most people my age do if you haven't known yeah haven't caught on by now yeah but i think you're talking about a different kind of knowledge maybe i don't know myself at all that that's i i am absolutely uh open to entertaining that

Speaker 5 possibility right i think it starts there it starts with i mean the one thing you do know is which movies you love and and and i often it's funny you said and and i'm not i'm being serious i think sometimes i ask people i'm like hey what kind of movies do you like and we don't know what we like to eat.

Speaker 5 We don't know what we like to watch. We don't know what we, you know, we don't really know that much about ourselves, even starting there.

Speaker 1 No, those are things we do know. I would hope so, but I would tell you.
We do know what we want to eat.

Speaker 5 Most couples argue every night about what they should eat.

Speaker 1 No, they argue about what the other one wants to eat.

Speaker 1 They don't know. They know what they want to eat.
What they argue about is they ask their wife, and they don't agree. Where do you want to go? And she says, I don't care, you pick.

Speaker 1 And then the first six ones, she vetoes. Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 5 But I think that self-awareness has many levels. And I think what I'm saying is that I think mental is important.
I think physical is important. I think emotional is important.

Speaker 5 And then I'm saying spiritual on a soul consciousness level. It's important.

Speaker 5 That's not easy. But it's available is what I'm saying.
So I don't believe that I'm more evolved or I've lived more lives. Therefore, I know more.
I believe that it's accessible today.

Speaker 5 I got very lucky. I met some remarkably compassionate and kind people.
And they opened up the doors for me. And I believe that that's all I'm trying to do for anyone else.

Speaker 1 So, Swami, can I ask you this one?

Speaker 1 All right.

Speaker 1 I'm with you on all this, but psychiatry, kind of bullshit, right? And this is why I say, like, on the level that I'm talking about, knowing myself. Yeah.
Not on your level.

Speaker 5 Have you been to a psychiatrist or therapist?

Speaker 1 Briefly.

Speaker 1 under duress.

Speaker 5 Talk to me about this situation.

Speaker 1 I want to. You can help me.

Speaker 1 Okay, so, but in general, my view was always like, because my, well, I shouldn't say that, they're too personal, but somebody I know

Speaker 1 went and I know fooled them

Speaker 1 because

Speaker 1 I know myself.

Speaker 1 And when somebody who just met me is like telling me about my life, it's all I can do to stifle a laugh.

Speaker 1 Like, you think you could possibly know me better than me? I have all my memories. Now, I may be wrong about some things,

Speaker 1 but basically, I think I'm going to trust my judgment about me more than you.

Speaker 1 That may not be true for all people. To me, that's

Speaker 1 my problem with psychiatry.

Speaker 5 Yeah, I don't think a guru, a therapist, a coach, a teacher should be telling you about you.

Speaker 1 I think those are different things that you're lumping together.

Speaker 5 I'm lumping them together because I think they're all positions of authority in someone's life and can become.

Speaker 5 That's why I'm lumping them together, that there isn't the ability, like a guru, a teacher, a person.

Speaker 1 But a coach doesn't do what a psychiatrist psychiatrist does.

Speaker 5 No, they don't, but they, but I don't think anyone should be telling you about you. I think everyone should be inquiring and asking you questions that help you learn about yourself.

Speaker 1 Well, that's exactly what a shrink would say they do.

Speaker 5 Which is not a bad thing.

Speaker 1 I think that's not a bad thing, but it's also kind of a bullshit thing. You really believe that? I do.
Well, I did have an experience.

Speaker 5 You've never been asked a great question by someone that you felt helped you learn more about yourself.

Speaker 1 I'm telling you, bro, it was everything I could do to not laugh out loud.

Speaker 1 Maybe, but it's like dating, right?

Speaker 5 That's like a bad day.

Speaker 1 That's like a bad day. You're right.
Yeah, that's a good thing. There's a bad dad in every person.

Speaker 5 Yeah, exactly. That's a bad date.

Speaker 1 And maybe this person is good, but for me, it was just a joke.

Speaker 5 Yeah, that's like a bad date. And if you didn't pick the person to go on a date with and you were forced to go on a date with them, that's it.

Speaker 1 But I mean, it just got to also just asking,

Speaker 1 I felt like no matter what I said, no matter how arbitrary what I said to this psychiatrist.

Speaker 5 They would find something profound in that. Correct.

Speaker 1 Right, right, right. I mean, I literally listen to this.

Speaker 1 I don't remember the details, so forgive me, but we we went into

Speaker 1 my family history as they always do. My mother and father were both in World War II.
My mother, an army nurse,

Speaker 1 was in London during the Blitz.

Speaker 1 Wow. Yeah.

Speaker 1 And some nervousness or anxiety that had carried from my mother being in that situation into me,

Speaker 1 even though it was 12 years later that I was born, and again,

Speaker 1 just could almost not stop from laughing out loud. Like, it just made me think

Speaker 1 some of this is valuable. There are people who really, you know, their minds are messed up and they do need therapy and it can help and it does.

Speaker 1 But for all those people on the Upper West Side who are just having normal fucking upper west side problems.

Speaker 1 It's just an indulgence that you could never entertain if you were poor. It's a rich man's indulgence.
Talk about white people's privilege.

Speaker 1 Hiring a friend to listen to you rattle on about your fake problems.

Speaker 5 But isn't that the challenge that we need friends?

Speaker 5 Isn't that the real call to action here?

Speaker 1 Yes, but the answer is not to hire one who calls themselves a shrink.

Speaker 5 But sometimes that's where people start, right? Like they, as in that's sadly, where they're at.

Speaker 1 I feel like anytime you're hiring someone,

Speaker 1 whether it's a prostitute

Speaker 1 in a personal position,

Speaker 1 you're going down the wrong road.

Speaker 5 I look at it this way. I mean, it's simple.

Speaker 1 it's it's not it's a simple assessment but i think it makes sense that there are there are some parts that are really useful and important and skills that will help people and like you have a holistic doctor like you said yeah some people will be like oh holistic doctors are bs like that's what they would think and but you've seen great value for there are things he said there are things he's talked about which i do think are bs and he knows that that's okay i also have western doctors i think you need both yeah you do and i really do and and you know i mean we're very good friends so it's i'm not insulting him, but yes, parts of what he believes and he has enveloped in his practice, because he's very serious about that part of his life, I think are too inflected with

Speaker 1 things that are based in religion, based in Buddhism. And, you know, I mean, some of it, could it chakras and, you know, emotions in your organs.

Speaker 1 I don't discount anything because I don't think people know shit.

Speaker 5 Totally.

Speaker 1 I mean, that's my main

Speaker 1 above the credits title for everything I think about medicine is we don't know that much.

Speaker 1 We know so much more than we used to. And people conflate that with, we know pretty much everything now.

Speaker 1 And it's like, no, in not just 100 years, maybe with AI two a year, we'll be going, whoa, that's what we thought in 2025? Yeah.

Speaker 5 Well, that's why I want to encourage a more nuanced conversation with what we're saying, because I think we're so good these days of labeling something as useless or relevant or useful or, you know, irrelevant.

Speaker 5 And I think it's so much more nuanced than that. It's like therapy can be incredible and it can be challenging or it can be condescending.
It can be whatever it is, just like anything else.

Speaker 5 And so it's like having a nuanced conversation and going, yeah, actually, well, you know, my whole, like, I agree with you. I like having Western medicine and Eastern medicine in my life.

Speaker 5 I value both. And I think both have value.
And I think the challenge becomes when we go, well, oh, that's just an, you know, whatever.

Speaker 5 I think when you throw something to the side like that, it's kind of the easy way out, actually,

Speaker 5 because it is easier to just discount something without actually.

Speaker 1 I mean, to me, the main contribution, although there are many, I could break down specifics in the hundreds of Eastern medicine, is the idea that there is a mind-body connection. Yeah, absolutely.

Speaker 1 And that when you just diagnose by the numbers on the blood work you just did,

Speaker 1 you're getting a part of the picture. Totally.
But it's so not all of the picture. And until Western medicine recognizes that, don't ask me for my blind obedience.

Speaker 5 And the second brain, the gut. The gut is such a core part of Easy.
Human health. My wife's.

Speaker 1 I mean, do we even know where the immune system is?

Speaker 5 I'm not sure. Yeah, but the gut is not really.

Speaker 1 But probably the gut. Yeah.
Because

Speaker 1 humans will fuck anything and put anything in their mouth.

Speaker 1 So the place where you need like the most awesome kind of defense is the gut. It's the gut.
Because they will put anything down their going.

Speaker 5 Yeah, absolutely.

Speaker 1 I mean, humans, not good people. Am I wrong?

Speaker 1 We're doing all right. We're doing all right.
You think we're doing all right? No, we're not.

Speaker 1 We're not doing all right. Gee, that didn't work.
I was trying to be encouraging.

Speaker 5 No, I mean, the challenge is we keep repeating the same mistakes.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 1 Actually, it's amazing.

Speaker 5 It's amazing we've survived.

Speaker 1 Considering how nuts people are,

Speaker 1 that the lid stays on, and it could fall off tomorrow. Absolutely.
But in America?

Speaker 1 I mean,

Speaker 1 don't get me started on the people who just don't understand because they have no perspective of what the rest of the world is like, what their life could be like, what their life would have been like 100 years ago.

Speaker 1 They have this dumb idea, a lot of the kids, that

Speaker 1 we're living at the worst time in the worst country. No, assholes.
You're living at actually the best time.

Speaker 1 And even with our flaws,

Speaker 1 go ahead, try it. Live in Mauritania, which I believe is a steamship.

Speaker 5 But that's a psychological challenge, isn't it? It's like we can only see as far back as we can see. And that rearview mirror is just smaller and smaller as we...

Speaker 1 So you grew up in what town? North North London? North London, yeah, North London. And your parents were together? Yes.
And what do they do?

Speaker 5 My mother was a financial advisor and my dad was an accountant.

Speaker 1 And did they bring you up with a religion?

Speaker 5 Yeah, I grew up in a Hindu household. Hindu? Yeah, in what I would call a ritualistic household.
And what I mean by that is you follow the rituals, you don't know why.

Speaker 5 You do the practices, you don't know why. There isn't a depth to that practice.
There's a ritual traditional aspect to it.

Speaker 1 You must have seen Slum Dog Millionaire.

Speaker 5 I have seen Slum Dog Millionaire.

Speaker 1 I was always

Speaker 1 going to.

Speaker 5 That's a great movie.

Speaker 1 Yeah, that's a great movie. I'm sorry, I was being precision.
but

Speaker 1 so okay so you were brought up and when you say

Speaker 1 yeah because it's it's a hard religion to define what's that hindu is it not because uh it's like all gods and one god you know like there's one

Speaker 1 as opposed to like the christians in the muslim which are like we have the god and if you disagree we're gonna kill you yeah hindu is more like let's let's let's we'll incorporate you well you'll become one of our gods yeah the philosophical well no the philosophical understanding is that there is one God, but there are many gods that take care of different departments.

Speaker 5 So you could think of it like the president and the cabinet.

Speaker 1 Or like saints. Yeah.
People predator and saints.

Speaker 5 Yeah. There are different gods for different parts of management of the universe is how it seems.

Speaker 1 I mean, I was told as a little Catholic boy, there is one God, the nuns, were very, very prideful about that. Like, I think they thought that made us superior in the West.

Speaker 1 You know, like, we have one God as opposed to those heathens and pagans and people people in the shithole countries who have many gods, uh-huh, primitives. We have one God and his name is God.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 And he has a son who's also God. Yeah.
And there's a ghost who's also God.

Speaker 1 Fuck.

Speaker 1 We're becoming Hindu. You know, but not really.
I mean, three gods, you know, already we're in a polytheistic religion and you can pray to the saints. Yeah.
I remember that. Saint Christopher.

Speaker 1 You know what that is? It's a big thing, like in Christian countries.

Speaker 5 Well, you've got someone on your team who I met earlier. His name's Vayu.
Yes. Which is such a cool name.
And

Speaker 5 I asked him straight away, where did he get that name? It's a very rare name. You wouldn't hear it.
Right. And Vayu is the God of air.

Speaker 1 God of air? Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 5 And so

Speaker 5 it's a beautiful name. But it's like

Speaker 5 there's a God for every aspect. Everything has a personal aspect.
Nothing's impersonal.

Speaker 1 What have you incorporated from that in your teachings today?

Speaker 5 In my teachings or in my personal life?

Speaker 1 Your teachings.

Speaker 5 Yeah, so I don't, my teachings are definitely the practices, the habits, the mindsets I learned, not the religious aspects. I feel that faith and belief in God is

Speaker 5 individual journey.

Speaker 1 Philosophical from it made its way into it.

Speaker 5 Philosophical, for sure, not theological, I would say, because I believe that theological belief is a... is a personal choice, is a personal exploration.

Speaker 5 I think your relationship with God is individual and I encourage it.

Speaker 1 It's beautiful. Because there is something called God.

Speaker 5 In the Vedic tradition, yes, for sure. Yeah, for sure.
But in my, no, no, no.

Speaker 5 So in my teachings, I'm very focused on how people can build the qualities, the characteristics, the mindsets, the beliefs, the values of living a mindful life.

Speaker 5 I'm not trying to get people to follow a certain God or believe in God.

Speaker 1 When you get feedback from people, what do you think,

Speaker 1 or I'm sure you know, what is the area that most of them say they help that you help them with? Purpose. Meaning.
Purpose. That's so vague.
Purpose.

Speaker 5 Well, like, well, I mean, it could be anything. It could be I was on the verge of committing suicide and now I believe my life is of worth and value and has meaning.

Speaker 5 It could be I went through a divorce and I lost all sense of self-worth. And now I know that I have value and purpose and meaning to my life.
It could be,

Speaker 5 hey, I, um, you know, I just came out of college and I've just been stuck and confused and don't know what I'm meant to do. And now I feel I found my path.

Speaker 5 So those are the different types of things people could say.

Speaker 1 Yeah. I mean you do have to have a purpose in life.

Speaker 5 Yeah. And I think it's the hardest thing to find because we've had, we've made our value and purpose as humans defined by what we do.

Speaker 5 The question what you do is not only the number one question you are asked, it's become the primary way.

Speaker 5 If you think about it, even just A few years ago, all of our names started being defined by what we do, Baker, blacksmith.

Speaker 5 Like when you look at the names and how they evolved, it became about occupation. So our whole identity has revolved around occupation, not purpose.

Speaker 5 And then if you look at how society has changed, towns and cities in the past would be built around a church. You could see the cross from anywhere or a temple.

Speaker 5 You could see the chakra from anywhere in India. Then as time went on, you had the state building.
You could see the flag from anywhere. So we went from God to country.

Speaker 5 And then if you look at it today, you'll see the skyscraper from anywhere. So we went from God to country to money.
So you could see the change of purpose and

Speaker 5 in the simple building of buildings because humans are basic. We define what's valuable by what's the tallest thing in the town.

Speaker 5 And so, when you look at that, you look at how no wonder people have made their job feel like the entirety of their identity and purpose. And so, I think

Speaker 5 while some people, like me and you, it seems like you've loved what you've done your whole life, you're still doing it, it's purposeful to you and meaningful to you. Well,

Speaker 1 maybe not. No, I'm gonna, you

Speaker 1 maybe I can

Speaker 1 just, you're such a smart person, but maybe I can shed light on something that you would not know because of the age I'm at. I'm almost 70.
Every decade of your life,

Speaker 1 I feel like when I look back, you have a different, there's a theme to every decade. Like in my 10 to 20, before 10, I don't, you know, just, I don't know, get baseball cards or something.

Speaker 1 But 10 to 20, it was like survive.

Speaker 1 High school,

Speaker 1 hazing, college, more of the same, the breakup with the girl. It was just like, survive.

Speaker 1 Just

Speaker 1 like, like, I might not make it. And by the way, throughout history, like children mostly didn't, or at least half of them didn't.

Speaker 1 It wasn't until, again, to the point about you're living in the best age. Like, we assume most kids are going to make it.
Most kids didn't. At least half didn't for most of history.
Okay.

Speaker 1 20s was like, be a success.

Speaker 1 Like, I know what I want to do. I knew I wanted wanted to be a comedian when I was eight or something.
Like, now you're doing it.

Speaker 1 Don't be a fucking failure

Speaker 1 because this is the kind of business, it's great if you succeed, and it's nothing if you don't.

Speaker 1 So just don't fucking fail.

Speaker 1 30s, when I was actually starting to succeed, then it was like,

Speaker 1 get girls.

Speaker 1 This didn't happen enough in my teenage years and my 20s. Let's get girls.
40s,

Speaker 1 more girls.

Speaker 1 50s.

Speaker 1 All right, girls, but there's a last time. No, no, no.
50s, it starts to be you going back to survive, live.

Speaker 1 Stop doing the things that your body cannot take you doing anymore because they will kill you.

Speaker 1 You can't drink. like that.
You know, you just can't. You can't have unprotected sex.
Whatever the fuck you were doing.

Speaker 1 Stop doing it. And where I'm at now,

Speaker 1 it's funny because, you know, survive,

Speaker 1 don't retire

Speaker 1 because purpose.

Speaker 1 You kind of know

Speaker 1 if you lose the purpose in life,

Speaker 1 you're going to die.

Speaker 1 People have done it.

Speaker 1 Like within weeks, Andy Rooney. was on 60 Minutes.
He quit or we fired or whatever. He was like dead in a week.

Speaker 1 you know what's funny when you get fired from a show and then you're in a coffin I mean it was crazy yeah but that's what's because you know it's an ageist country so like you never know yeah when they're just gonna and

Speaker 5 then what do you do all day yeah and you have to have a reason to get up you have to want to live but that's what i'm saying that you were you were fortunate and i've been fortunate to find it in our work but i think the challenge has become that if work is your only place of value, that's not a healthy way to live.

Speaker 1 And this is going to get only worse because AI

Speaker 1 is already and will in the future take ever more jobs. There's ever more things that people used to at least feel valuable and useful.
Maybe I'm just

Speaker 1 a cog in the big machine here at gigantic enterprises, but I'm doing, and AI is going to take that job. Zuckerberg was bragging about it the other day, and so is the guy from Nvidia.

Speaker 1 You know, oh, I think in the future, AI is going to do a lot of these mid-level coding jobs. Great.
They can all work in a coal mine.

Speaker 1 What's going to happen then?

Speaker 5 Yeah. And that's why the work's needed even more right now, because people are going to have to use that

Speaker 5 time space.

Speaker 1 These tech folks don't care.

Speaker 1 Yeah, I mean, I don't. I really don't.

Speaker 1 You know what it is? I understand when you, something you're good at, we love to do things we're good at. Yeah.
I don't play tennis. I tried it.
I wasn't good at it. I'm good at basketball.

Speaker 1 I play that. You know,

Speaker 1 you're good at soccer. I'm okay.
I'm not good. I think you're probably pretty good.
So, you know, they're good at creating new

Speaker 1 instruments of technology. They don't really care what the repercussions are.
The phone fucked up people's minds. They don't really care.

Speaker 5 Well, I always say this.

Speaker 1 AI is going to do it worse. They just don't care because it's fun.
It's fun to do your hobby. Yeah.

Speaker 5 I think if an inventor creates something that they don't want their children to use, it tells you everything. I always think about it that way.
Great point. Yeah.
If you invent something

Speaker 5 and you keep it away from your children, that says a lot.

Speaker 1 It says a lot about your hypocrisy.

Speaker 5 Yeah, but I think it all comes back to the root challenge that there is nowhere in our education system

Speaker 5 where someone learns that they should build things to help people. That just doesn't come up.
It doesn't exist.

Speaker 5 I studied at Cass Business School and, you know, got a decent education and a first-class honors degree.

Speaker 5 And service or helping people or being of service to others was something I would never even have come across if I didn't meet the monks because that was their way of living.

Speaker 5 And I remember giving a talk about this a few years back at a big corporation. It was one of their big annual events.
And I was on stage. I was talking about the value of service.

Speaker 5 And this one man came up to me and he was in his 30s and he said to me, you know what? I never thought about anyone else apart from myself until I had a child.

Speaker 5 And that was the first time he said, and he was being really vulnerable. And he said, I've never thought about anyone beyond my child.

Speaker 5 And so I'm thinking when anyone's creating anything in the world, we're rarely thinking about how this affects someone's child, someone's son, someone's daughter, someone's parents, someone's whoever it is, because that was never the goal of society.

Speaker 5 The goal of you creating something was to win and success in your 20s to 30s and get girls.

Speaker 1 And so

Speaker 1 if the goal was to be successful and get girls, then where did helping people come into any path? Right.

Speaker 5 And so I think that's where the challenge is that we've got to figure out that. It's like, how do you

Speaker 1 write? I had to get past, not that I was a bad person, but I had to get past. I don't think anyone's a bad person.

Speaker 1 Yeah, but I had to get past that phase in my life where I thought I had been gypped out of a fun adolescent, which I was kind of. Like I had one girlfriend and she broke my heart.

Speaker 1 And then, you know, it was just

Speaker 1 for years, it was just terrible.

Speaker 1 And, and, and then, and then I got nicer again because, because I could afford to, because, you know, it's actually the people, I'm sure young people think, oh my God, 50s and 60s, they're actually the...

Speaker 1 the best times as far as like you've established yourself, you're comfortable in your own skin, you're doing better.

Speaker 1 Yeah, there are issues with it that are not ideal, but on balance, yeah, I'm much happier. Yeah.

Speaker 1 Partly, mostly because you are just comfortable with who you are. You know who you are.
You know what works for you. You know what doesn't.
I mean, I'm not going to go to the madrasa.

Speaker 1 Not that it's a madrasa.

Speaker 1 By the way, did they ever have, so that three years, there was no like break where like you get a week off.

Speaker 5 I would travel to different monasteries. So I wasn't just there.
We would go to Europe. And for example, we were teaching meditation on

Speaker 1 Europe like

Speaker 1 Hong Kong like Martin Sheen in Apocalypse Now where you're in a hotel room and you're like I got to get back

Speaker 5 monasteries across Europe So I was going to London I was living in monasteries there I was going off to give classes at colleges I was living in monasteries in Europe I would then go back to India so you're moving around you're not in one place because it's encouraged for you to be with different communities I remember you know, being in Scandinavia teaching meditation on the streets.

Speaker 5 It was the most unique experience I've ever had. People were so open and excited to learn.
It was pretty remarkable.

Speaker 1 So where do you, you, so your decades, you've only had basically...

Speaker 5 I mean, I'm 37.

Speaker 1 Right. So you've had basically three decades to assess.

Speaker 1 And they are, like I said, even though they're very different, very different for you. Yes, very different.

Speaker 5 Very different.

Speaker 1 Right. Okay.
So what do you think the 40s decade is going to be? What's going to be your assessment of that when you come to the end of that one?

Speaker 5 I would, so I definitely know from a health point of view, when you were saying in the 50s you learned what you could and couldn't do.

Speaker 5 At least now I know that the

Speaker 5 magical decade to solve it is 35 to 45. That's like the time when you can really reverse aging and start that process.
So I'm definitely focused on that from a health point of view.

Speaker 5 I hope that I can do that.

Speaker 1 That's a big priority.

Speaker 1 I miss that. Yeah, that's a big priority for me.

Speaker 1 I missed that completely.

Speaker 1 Yeah, no, I'm grateful.

Speaker 5 That's what I'm saying. I think these conversations are being talked about more.

Speaker 5 I'm getting the fortune on my podcast to sit down with the greatest minds in health and wellness every single day. I mean,

Speaker 1 I know what you're you're referring to there. They recently discovered, or at least it was in the news recently, that aging doesn't happen

Speaker 1 completely

Speaker 1 incrementally year by year. It happens sort of in jumps.

Speaker 1 And there are times,

Speaker 1 maybe this is the time you're talking about, where it really jumps a lot. Correct.

Speaker 5 Yeah. 35 to 49.
Right.

Speaker 1 So you want to kind of like arrest that one. Yeah.

Speaker 5 Yeah. At that point, you can still make changes after 45-50 becomes harder.

Speaker 1 Well, hopefully it's harder to build. Hopefully AI will help you with that.

Speaker 5 Hopefully, I mean, I don't think it's impossible. I'm not saying it's not possible.

Speaker 1 I know plenty of people who've fixed their health after 50.

Speaker 5 There's amazing stuff.

Speaker 1 There's so many variables that go into it. Again, like I know people who live terribly unhealthy lives, but

Speaker 5 they're just so happy.

Speaker 1 Yeah, and are just fine.

Speaker 5 I know people who've lived their lives perfectly healthily and died early, and people who have abused their bodies.

Speaker 1 Oh, I'm so glad I did remember this. Please.
Because I, you know, memory, I'm not even sure it's a good thing.

Speaker 1 But

Speaker 1 our connection is Ariana Huffington, really. Oh, okay.
You know, one of my oldest, dearest friends.

Speaker 5 I didn't realize that. I didn't realize that.

Speaker 1 Oh, I'm so glad I remember that. Yeah, I didn't know that.
Well, I mean, and she would be the first to agree. I was the first person to, like, put her on TV.
Wow.

Speaker 1 I'm not saying I'm responsible for her success. I'm not.
She was always going to be a whirlwind. But we became very good friends in 1994

Speaker 1 when I had my first show, Politically Incorrect, and she was married to Michael Huffington. And he was running for the Senate out here.
And she was a conservative.

Speaker 1 She was a conservative helping a Republican candidate win election and did not. But her first issue that she came on our show with was about Prozac,

Speaker 1 giving giving Prozac to children.

Speaker 1 Still an issue, I think.

Speaker 1 And it was very natural that after she went through Huffington Post, which was a great success, that she would then get into the wellness because she was always into it. She was always

Speaker 1 this earthy Greek European woman who treated me like, you know, somebody, family, you know, and guarded over me like that and, you know, cared for me like that. Absolutely.

Speaker 1 So when I knew, you know, when I first heard about you, I was like, oh, okay.

Speaker 5 Yeah. That's.
She gave me my fair show.

Speaker 1 Exactly. I mean,

Speaker 1 it's very full-circly.

Speaker 5 That's really beautiful. I had no idea.

Speaker 1 That makes me so happy knowing that. Oh, yeah.
We should all have dinner one day. Yeah, I would love that.
I would love that. Yeah, no, I would be somebody.

Speaker 5 I wouldn't be where I am without Ariana Huffington. So I feel extremely happy.

Speaker 1 Yeah, in some ways, I wouldn't either. I mean, you know, I mean, we go back a long way, and there's nobody I trust and their counsel more.

Speaker 1 You know, she lives in New York now, so we don't see each other as much as

Speaker 1 we used to, but we always a few times a year. Yeah.
You know, and you know, I can always tell her anything. And, you know, again, there's nobody like her.

Speaker 5 Yeah, she's been an incredible support since day one and just, you know, allowed me to have wings. It's been really beautiful.

Speaker 1 And God bless her also loves money and is great at making it.

Speaker 5 Yeah, absolutely.

Speaker 1 I mean, she uses it right now. Hey, everybody,

Speaker 1 get good sleep.

Speaker 1 That'll be 750 million dollars

Speaker 1 i mean

Speaker 1 you gotta give it to her

Speaker 5 everyone's gotta sleep but um i appreciate you coming here i know you don't need to no it was just a a mitzvah as the jews say and uh and i appreciate it i appreciate it too the joy the joy and pleasure is all mine i think okay you know getting to meet someone as uh iconic as yourself is is a true honor so i'm grateful for that and i feel uh i feel smarter just sitting next to you and i feel like uh, well, I know I'm gonna have like my next seven movie nights all sort of.

Speaker 1 I never really remember a lot from these episodes, you know, but what I always remember is the picture of the person laughing. Yeah,

Speaker 1 you know, I will see your head going back because you're a good laugher, thank you, Actually, and you have a

Speaker 1 just you know, it's why I do this.

Speaker 1 I'm a single

Speaker 1 okay, well, that's a lot of fun. If you ever need an uncomfortable floor, there we go.
I can just

Speaker 1 look like this is what it looks like. This is really uncomfortable.
I've passed out on it a couple of times myself.