An Interview With A Child Prodigy: Should You Skip Breakfast, Analyzing Your Poop, Cold Thermogenesis & Breathwork Strategies & More With Daniel Bissonnette.

On this episode of the Ben Greenfield.

Fitness podcast, only 1/4 or 1% of the population's genius. And there's nothing the 99.75% of us can do about it. That's pretty inspiring. It's really empowering. But at the same time, we've got to be careful what we're doing because you could be turning off your genius. And if you're not turning on genius, what are you turning on? AI is the best at analytical. You can't replace AI in analytical. Like it's faster at math, it's faster at algorithms, all that stuff. So we got to focus on the other types of geniuses.

Health, performance, nutrition, longevity, ancestral living, biohacking, and much more. My name is Ben Greenfield. Welcome to the show. Well, today is a fun interview. I actually got to interview a young man, a very smart young man, and I think you're going to love him. I, I had a wonderful, wonderful time interviewing this cat. So his name is Daniel Bisonette. If I'm pronouncing that correctly, I sound fancy when I say it, at least. Well, as promised on today's show, I have a prodigy. A prodigy, a 15 year old guy. His name is Daniel Bissonnette. I just love to say his last name because it makes me sound refined and all Frenchy. Anyway, so I first saw Daniel, I think he tagged me on an Instagram post. And, and here was this kid with long hair, sitting cross legged, meditating in his shorts, almost Wim Hof style on what appeared to be a giant frozen glacier. And I'll link to that post in the show notes. Actually, if you guys go to BenGreenfieldFitness.com Daniel, I'll link to that Instagram post and also to everything else that Daniel and I talk about today. So I started to look into Daniel because anytime I see a young man doing something that, that seems mildly interesting or at least out of the ordinary, I will always raise an eyebrow or at least turn my head. And it turns out that he was actually listed and I don't believe he is anymore a pure plant based eater, but he was listed as one of the world's top 100 most influential vegans, the most in demand health and nutrition youth keynoter in the world. He's an award winning activist, he's a best selling author, he wrote a book when he was, I believe, just like 11 or 12 years old called the Breakfast Burst. He's been all over TV in Canada, he lives in Toronto. He has one of the highest viewed YouTube channels for a Guy his age in health, and he's just doing amazing things. He's now building out this biology of greatness program where he's exploring the interaction between DNA and unlocking your genius. And we have so many things we can talk about. And Daniel, I think you might be, aside from my own boys, one of the youngest dudes I've ever had on this show. So no pressure, man.

Cool. Oh, yeah, definitely. I've been a huge fan for a while. Yeah, it's part of my morning routine is listening to the Ben Greenfield podcast. I got your book right here. Your book is crazy.

Which books are.

Boundless?

Oh, yeah.

It's like the size of like two and a half textbooks. It's crazy. I mean, you can't even read it like a normal book because it's so heavy.

Yeah, it took on a life of its own, man, but you wrote a book too. You wrote a book too. I know you wrote a book when you were young. And you know what, you know, I want to know is I want to know what your childhood was like. Like how you were raised and how you came to be where you're at right now. So were you like homeschooled or unschooled? Did you have some kind of a weird thing happen that pushed you in a direction that you're at right now where you're kind of defying the status quo and social norms in terms of what a 15 year old boy should be doing? Or how did it all start?

Yeah, actually, it started interestingly, I actually do go to school. And it's interesting because it started all when I was really young because my parents raised me on a plant based diet, right. And I thought every kid ate like that until I went to school. And I was quite shocked. And it was crazy. I was the only kid in my whole school who wasn't eating junk food. I thought it was art supplies because when I was little I'd make art with it. So, I mean, it looked like that. So artificial. Right? I got bullied because of my diet. And so for six years of my school life, I was bullied because I ate different.

People beat you up because of hemp crackers and nut cheese?

No, they didn't actually. They just made fun of me, picked on me. And basically my ideas, I kind of learned that they didn't really matter and I just get in more trouble if I told them. So it really wasn't a great experience. But then in grade three, my teacher asked me to give a presentation on my diet. Like the last thing I'd want to do is do that, right? But I figured, I thought about it and my mom brought this point up. What if I just help one more kid? And if I just help one kid, just one kid, it'll be worth it. So I gave the presentation and to my surprise, kids started listening. They started trashing their junk, asking me to read the labels. They were asking me if it was organic, looking for that organic symbol, the non GMO symbol. It was really cool. And. And I'm like, wow. And it was so powerful because I found my voice. Then gave a talk at a global rally and it went viral, becoming the most viewed video on YouTube for that event.

What's a global rally?

Oh, it's the March Against Monsanto global rally.

Okay.

I don't think it's still here.

March against Monsanto. I'll raise a glass to that.

It was cool, that talk, and I'm so little in it now, I look back, but it went viral, became the most viewed video on YouTube for that event. And that event was held in over 450 different cities around the globe with over 2 million attendees. Attendees. So I knew I was onto something and that kind of got me started with speaking. And after my talks, people didn't really know what to do. It wasn't very practical. So I decided, why don't I create a book that is carefully formulated to have the right foods combined correctly at the right time to boost people's brain power, Right. For breakfast. Because breakfast is so important. To nail that breakfast, I say the breakfast is even more important than lunch and dinner because your body's primed to absorb the most nutrients, because you've been fasting for eight hours. And even Dr. Mercola recommends if you're doing intermittent fasting, he now recommends to skip dinner instead of breakfast.

Yeah. Yeah. Well, that's part of Satchin Panda's research too, on circadian rhythmicity, that if you're gonna skip a meal, it appears that the one to skip from a metabolic and a circadian rhythm standpoint would be dinner. And obviously for some people, like hard charging athletes and exercise enthusiasts, they're gonna need a little top off on calories at the end of the day. But I agree. And I'm. I'm not a breakfast skipper. I'm like a late breakfast guy. I start to eat breakfast about 9, 30, 10 ish. That's when my appetite kicks in. Whereas my kids, they'll get up and go straight to making pancakes, eggs, bacon, whatever. But yeah, I agree, breakfast is based on most of the Research I've seen, if you were toto say, and there was actually a recent one that just came out. Early day feedings versus late day feedings for the highest calorie meal and early day feedings definitely win out again from both a metabolic health dentist, circ rhythmicity standpoint.

Yeah. And they did studies, actually that people who eat a really big breakfast are a lot less likely to overeat at dinnertime and they actually lose weight. They did this two studies where one person had a big breakfast, one group had a really small breakfast and a big dinner, and they found that the group that had a big breakfast actually lost weight, whereas the group that didn't gained weight. So it's really cool. And anyways, that book did pretty good then. Really interesting. I was filming a video on poop. Right. Because you can tell a lot about your health from your poop. And then my dad gets this email from our website that someone bought the book.

When you're filming a video about poop, you got to give details about that because. Are we talking about, like, you as a talking head talking about your poop, or were you like video camera in the toilet?

No, I was talking about the importance of your health and your poop and how you can learn a lot about it. But. So my dad gets this email saying someone bought the book. I'm like, oh, probably my friend's mom. She said maybe she'd get it. We look into it. The person who bought the book was actually Susan Cameron, James Cameron's wife.

Oh, wow.

And it was crazy. And then this book got endorsed by Eric the trainer, which is Hollywood's top fitness trainer. He trains a lot of the top Hollywood actors. And then this guy from this band, I don't remember the band because it's not my generation, but I saw his concert, one of the last concerts. They were performing with Def Leppard, but it was cool. No, sorry, no. It's the Def Leppard band. That really ripped guy. He trains that guy.

Okay.

I don't know his name.

Wow. Yeah, I don't know his name either. But I do know Def Leppard is actually a band, so there's something to be said for that. Did you just get lucky or did these people randomly find you, or was. Was this something you were doing from a social media standpoint?

It was actually at one of my talks. And then we went to the event, the last concert that they were doing a world tour, their last concert.

Def Leppard.

Yeah. And then so the guy was in town and he Went to the event, the fitness trainer. He's called Eric the trainer. And this guy saw me talk and then we went to the concert. It was really cool. But yeah, so that book got endorsed by him and then. And Dr. Udo too. Dr. Udo, Erasimus, the father of flaxseed oil.

Oh, yeah. I've had him on my podcast like 10 years ago. I actually really like his approach because a lot of people, you know, they'll eschew plant oils, but healthy, cold processed plant oils with a high number of the Omega 7s and the Omega 9s and some of the things he works into his. That's one of the few times that I will say, yeah, definitely drink vegetable oil, because this is the good kind of vegetable oil.

Yeah, the oils are very sensitive. That's one of the things I also like about Ian Clark's products, is his oils are in dark, dark glass containers so that they don't get damaged by the sunlight.

Yeah, usually. Usually miron. And I've actually interviewed Ian as well because he makes the black seed oil and the phytoplankton. He's got a really, really interesting suite of products. And he's up there right around you. He has a big farm right by Toronto, actually.

Interestingly enough, my parents met Ian because I was born in Toronto and my parents met Ian 15 years ago. So it was around the time when I was born. It's very, very cool. But yeah, we were hanging out with him recently before the coronavirus outbreak happened.

I can, I can tell you not to rabbit hole too much, but Ian's been texting me lately telling me to like, get barbed wire fences put up around my property. And he showed me like all the, all the pickup trucks I need to buy and the 50 gallon gasoline cans to bury in my, in my backyard. And like, he's gone full on prepper mode lately.

Oh, yeah, Yeah, I talked to him about that actually recently. It's crazy what's going on. And he's definitely preparing because he doesn't want to take any chances.

Yeah. And I should tell people real quick. Ian Clark, he's a super interesting cat in of itself and I interviewed him. I'll put the link to my interview with Ian if you guys want to hear about Ian because he's actually a fascinating dude. So go to BenGreenfieldFitness.com Daniel and go check out the show notes because I interviewed Ian. If you guys are wondering who this weird cat is.

Yeah, Ian has got some very interesting stuff he was taught. He was teaching Me some interesting stuff. He's got this new slapper thing, and it's interesting. It's this ancient Chinese medicine technique. Sorry. No, I think it's classic Chinese medicine, of course. But, yeah, it's cool. Ian's very cool. So this book, you know, I released, it was great. It was successful for many years. I wrote it when I was 11, and I found the recipe book was great because I'm a very passionate chef. I love cooking. And then when you combine that with nutrition, Nutrition, it's the ultimate combination that I wish all chefs had, because nutrition is so essential. And then you combine that with wonderful seasoning, and you look at Chinese medicine, the seasoning is your medicine. It's not the food, it's the seasoning. So you add wonderful spices, right? You know, cinnamon, cardamom is great. I want to talk about that with blueberries when I get into my morning routine. But, you know, you look at rosemary, all these great spices are antifungal, antiviral, and they're loaded with quality medicinal benefits. And. And they got quite strong flavors. I mean, you look at cloves, it's the number one highest source of antioxidants in the world. I mean, you're not going to eat a spoonful of that because you're going to be rolling on the floor. But it's definitely powerful.

So you get into all this stuff in the Breakfast Burst.

The Breakfast burst, it's called Daniel's Breakfast Burst, was just the recipes.

Okay, so those are the recipes. You wrote this. It turned into kind of a smash hit that thrust you into the limelight. You go around giving all these talks and signing books and appearing on all these different platforms that you've been on. But what kind of progress from there? Because, for example, I know that you're no longer plant based. You're up to other things. So where have you taken things since then?

Well, actually, what I didn't really realize is this was just the beginning. It all started really for me in grade six when my teacher called my mom for a meeting and he says, we've tested Daniel and he's not a gifted child. In fact, he's not gifted in anything. Some children are not entirely gifted, but they're gifted in certain areas. With Daniel, nothing shows up. Nothing. In fact, his writing is so horrendous, I'm thinking of giving him the writing disability test.

Your teacher is kind of an asshole, man.

Oh, he was. Everyone hated him. He made a kid cry on his birthday.

Not that we're about negativity and Unforgiveness on this show, but that's a pretty low blow.

It was actually against the rules because they discovered when the gifted test was first created and they no longer use it anymore because I'll explain why right after. But they discovered that the gifted test, you can't tell the kids the results if they fail because it can have lifelong consequences on their confidence. And he went against those rules many years after the rules were already set in stone. So I'm very grateful because I wouldn't be on this journey if it wasn't for him.

Wow. Way to see the silver lining.

The reason they don't use the gifted test anymore is because you can no longer tell. And they realize this just now because, you know, schools take a while to realize things. You cannot tell a child's intelligence when they're an adult if you test them as a kid, because information and, you know, like, for example, I wasn't tested genius, but that doesn't mean I wasn't a genius. I don't know, maybe I am. I'd like to think I am. Everyone likes to think they are.

So, so far, you don't seem that stupid during our interview. I mean, I'll it put. I'll pull you back if it turns out you're not a genius. I might not just even publish this, but for now, you're doing all right. You're doing all right. Okay. So genius or not, what actually happened?

So I felt crushed. And I was just sitting down in my chair, just feeling sorry for myself. And my mom comes up to me, and she places her hand on my shoulder, and she says, son, you were given this experience as a gift, so snap out of it, you little wimp. And then she, like, snapped at me. I was shocked. And I realized she was right. There was no reason to just get all mad about it. And I thought about it. I'm like, what if my teacher is wrong? And I look into it and I discover that Albert Einstein, Isaac Newton, Nikola Tesla, Leonardo da Vinci, all these people, much more, they were all conscious about their diet. Even Gandhi, he was conscious about his diet, too. So if you look at all these people and they're all conscious about their diet, that's no coincidence.

Yeah, I mean, Hippocrates, one of the fathers of medicine, he would use, well, kind of. Kind of a not diet to heal many diseases. He was a huge proponent of fasting and calorie mitigation and using that as almost a reboot for the body. And from there, of course, we know many scientists and Physicians and great thinkers all viewed food as something that could either bestow energy or when dosed in the improper amounts or with the improper types of food, could just steal energy from the body. And I think that's totally true. Now, some of the most productive people who I interview on this podcast, they're like, they're one meal a day people, or they are intermittent fasting people, or they're. They're highly cognizant of diet, almost to a fault of what the world might label as orthorexic. But I consider it to be just yet another kind of feather in the cap of productivity, because they know how much that can steal or bestow energy.

Well, they're taking advantage of your body's natural evolution process. Right. We've evolved and not know what our next meal would be. And so that' syou can really tell that in our DNA and consistently eating and wasting a bunch of energy digesting.

I don't know about you. I do my best work when I'm. When I'm mildly hungry. Like, I try to stay kind of, sort of somewhat hungry the entire day, all the way up until dinner. And then at dinner, I will finally say, okay, I'm gonna enjoy dinner with the family. I'm gonna eat until I'm satiated. But, yeah, I'm super productive. And if I stop for huge lunches or make my smoothie too big for breakfast, I absolutely get sluggish.

Oh, yeah. And there's definitely something about that, you know, eating dinner with the family. And a lot of people aren't doing that right now with devices, thinking they can just sit on their device and whatever, entertain themselves on Netflix while eating. And there's so much evidence that shows that when you eat dinner with your family, there's something that happens there. Your digestion's better, you're happier, and you want to have happy emotions when you're eating because that affects how you digest and. And all these different things. So conscious eating and mindfulness eating is the term. I feel like people are overusing it now, but it's actually really important, and I think that it's something that people need to be more aware of, but definitely. So back to the story. I got basically really in depth into this. I'm like, there's got to be a way to turn on genius. I discover more limiting beliefs on Google. Who knew only 1/4 or 1% of the population is genius, and there's nothing 99.75% of us can do about it. That's pretty inspiring. But I'M like, this doesn't make any sense. So I keep looking, I can't find anything. And I'm running to school one day because I just sprint to school. Kids don't understand. They're like, why you can just walk. But I'm sprinting and I run into a bee. It freaks out and stings me in the neck. Now the neck is a painful place to be stung. So it's on my mind all day. And then, you know, obviously I didn't tell my mom because you know what she would say?

You're lucky you're not allergic because the neck would be the worst place to get stung. I'm assuming you're not allergic to bees.

No, I'm not. Well, it got me thinking. What makes a worker bee a worker bee and what makes a queen a queen? It's something we really have to think about and I think it's really important.

You realize most young men would not think about that when they get stung by a bee. They would be more making a mad scramble for the nurses station.

Well, my mom has taught me well.

All right, so you instead began pondering the deep philosophical life of, of bees after you get stung.

Yes, and actually it's very interesting. I'm not going to get all into it because it doesn't really relate much to humans, except we have a lot more in common with the bees than we realize. What I discovered, and this is shocking, everything we know about the bees is completely backwards. Every single larva in the beehive is a queen. Every single larva is genetically a queen. Now I'm not saying they have the capability built in. And it's off. No, no, no, it's on. They're all queen bees, but they're fed bee bred, which is pollen and honey. And you know, it contains P chumaric acid, which is a plant flavonoid.

Have you ever eaten bee bread? Because I've heard it's. It tastes amazing. It's like a mix of the royal jelly and the propolis and the pollen and the honey and everything all together, right?

Yes. Royal jelly, honey and then pollen. And then they kind of mash it up in a little section on the beehive and then they let ferment. So that's the food. But it contains P chumaric acid, a plant flavonoid, which to the bees turns off their queen gene. To us it creates hormesis. That's great. It's beneficial because we're so large compared to the bees, but it turns off their queen gene. Now, royal jelly doesn't have anything that turns on the queen gene. It's just a nutrient dense food, but it's not much special in it. So you look at it, you realize, whoa, this is crazy. It's more important that the queen avoids bee bread than it is that she eats royal jelly. What she doesn't do is more important than what she does. And guess what? Then I started going deep down the rabbit hole and I discovered there's a science called epigenetics that proves to us that this is exactly like humans, except bees can only alter their genetic expression when they're larva. We can do it throughout our entire life. But this also means that every action we take, every single day is altering our genetic expression. So it's really empowering. But at the same time, we've got to be careful what we're doing, because you could be turning off your genius. And if you're not turning on genius, what are you turning on? Like cancer.

I want to get into in a little bit here kind of how you've tied this epigenetic factor into what your new program is called the biology of greatness. But I want to set that aside for a moment. I want to get back to the biology of greatness and how exactly that process of altering yourself epigenetically would actually work and how you're teaching that. But you've also already alluded to, like, some little habits, some little routines, some little hacks. And I want to make sure we have time to get into that because again, like, whatwhat turned me onto you was this photo of you doing what appeared to be some pretty intense cold thermogenesis. So I wanna hear a little bit more about your day. And then after that, let' slet's get into thethede DNA alteration what you're teaching now in your program.

Well, actually, yeah. So let's get in depth into it. This is. I begin my morning by waking up. It's the most important step of the day. And then what I do is, you know, it kind of depends on the day. You know, sometimes I sleep in a little bit. And then what I do is I get up in the morning and I go for my exercise. So I have this bike called the Schwent Air Diner. It's like a fan bike. You've probably heard of it.

I love those.

It's really great. And it's got a high intensity interval training session. So I do 10 second sprint, 10 second rest for five minutes straight, and then I'll do Some push ups, sit ups, I'll go for a sprint and I'll come home and I actually have these toe shoes that I wear. You know the, the five finger toe, the Vibram shoes?

Yep.

So those are really great shoes. And it's. Kids make fun of me at school for them a lot. Like, I get so many comments. People think they're water shoes, but I really couldn't care less, you know, how many comments I get about my long hair. It's crazy.

Yeah.

Honestly, it's so crazy, I can walk into any women's restroom and nobody would notice. I'm not saying I've done it at all.

Wait until you're 23, you got a little goatee, maybe a little scruff. You might start getting called out on that.

Yeah, yeah, I know. But for now, I can take advantage of it.

So you've got your interval training that you do on the bike when you wake up. Are you doing any type of gratitude meditation, anything like that, or you just getting straight to the bike when it.

Comes to the meditation that comes next. So after I do my fitness routine, I like to get my brother involved, my younger brother, he's 11 right now. And then what I do is I do my cold shower. Now I like to jump into a freezing cold lake or lie in the snow, but all year round it's not really that cold. Whereas I can take a cold shower and I'll get those benefits. So I take my cold shower, but I do a cold hot shower. Kind of like, you know, you mentioned your. One of your most popular videos on YouTube is how to take a cold shower. And I think that's ridiculous.

It is definitely because it's not exactly rocket science.

Get in the shower, you know, and. And one of the things I learned from you, box breathing, I definitely do that. But what's really interesting, and I want to dive deep into this, is cold immersion. You know, we hear about it from Wim Hof and all these great people, but there's an angle nobody talks about, and that's the angle of meditation and alpha brain waves. We know the Schumann resonance, you know, the pulse of the earth. The earth has a frequency. That's why ground grounding is so powerful. And that's why I don't know if we'll be able to live on Mars. Because actually this, this links back to the bees in a way. The bees have an internal compass and that's how they kind of guide throughout. That's how they go back to their hive every time they find it. Because they are very sensitive with the electromagnetic fields. So they actually did a study where they put a, like a landline phone that was plugged in on top of a beehive. The bees left, the beehive was empty.

Wow.

So quite fascinating. But we're also sensitive to this. Not to the same level as the bees, but we have the same proteins in us that are sensitive to these electromagnetic field. So what's interesting is alpha brainwaves. Brainwaves are when millions of neurons fire in synchronicity and each hemisphere of the brain produce different brainwaves at different times. But beta brainwaves, which is the state most of us are in when we're talking, we're in beta brainwaves. I love talking. So if alpha brainwaves were activated with talking, I'd have alpha brainwaves all the time. But it's not. It's beta brainwaves. So alpha brainwaves are very interesting because they're the exact same frequency as the Schumann resonance. I hope I'm saying that correctly. But it has the same resonance as the Earth. Same frequency.

Yeah. They're close to that 7.8Hz around in there. Although admittedly, you know, the, the earth does. It fluctuates a lot like it goes from zero all the way up to 100 hertz, which is nowhere near the mega million. And I believe I've even heard talk about close to billion hertz frequencies that you'll get from some of these non native forms of emf. But it's actually really interesting because tomorrow after I interview you, I'm actually interviewing Jane Goldberg from New York City, who has written an entire book about radiation, hormesis and how just by being outside barefoot, you're not only exposed to this pulsed electromagnetic field of the Earth and the Schumann resonance, but also mild amounts of radiation, even radiation emitted from like stones and geological formations. And that this low dose radiation. And she even gets a Chernobyl. And how some rodents are living longer around that area. And some of the actual. And this is going to be controversial, I know when I interview or some of the health effects of the atomic bomb. But it actually is very interesting how much of a hormetic and electrical effect we get from the planet, which is kind of scary when you consider that right now we're in the process of enveloping the entire planet in a whole host of signals that are at massively higher frequencies and higher amounts of pulsation than what we normally experience.

Yeah. Like Elon Musk's plan to send 42,000 drone satellites in the air to cover Every inch with 5G. That's pretty crazy. And that links back to alpha brainwaves because we work electrically, we're electric beings and our brain waves are electrical. So it's gonna have major psychological effects. These 5G towers and these 5G satellites, and to not even do any studies on that, that's ridiculous. And it's very crazy. But back to the benefits of alpha brainwaves. Alpha brainwaves are very powerful. We know alpha brainwaves are great because they did a study and they found that amateur archers mastered archery in one day to Olympic level. With one day of training in the alpha brim of state, they had an electricity.

There's a lot of archers listening into this show who might raise an eyebrow at that, though, because some of these cats are practicing for years and years to become target.

Yeah, I mean, I guess it's not the best Olympic level, but it was like you have intense learning abilities.

Like, oh, yeah, don't get me wrong. I've read the inner game of tennis and the inner game of golf. And Max, who is it? Max Mazewell, Psycho cybernetics, I think. I mean, you can get a great deal of learning, shocking amount of learning, even muscle growth. Like, they've done studies on muscle growth and visualizing a contraction of the left bicep versus the right bicep, not actually contracting it, and seeing a myofibrillar response in the muscle itself. So there is a definite mind over matter effect here and also an intense training effect that could take place in the absence of actual training apparatus.

And yeah, and it's not just that. It's also your learning ability. They did a study because they found that actually meditators, they're both hemispheres of the brain at the same time, create the same frequency. This is very rare, but when meditators meditate, they can achieve this. So they actually created this music track. These tracks that have two different frequencies that kind of converge into one. I think it's like with the different ears, you hear different music. And they did a study where they took two groups of students. You know, one group was listening to these. These tracks while studying, and the others weren't. And they found that the ones who were listening to these tunes were like, they learned way better. They did way better on the tests, and they were all using the same literature, the same teachers, same classroom. So it's just that music alone, when you get the same both hemispheres of the brain to produce the same brainwave, it's Crazy brainwaves are something that I feel aren't studied enough. And there's a lot of, like you look at your productivity when you're in Alpha rams version, all creativity happens, which is very essential because AI is advancing fast. And soon it's going to replace a lot of jobs and tasks. I mean, it already is. So we have to be prepared. And AI cannot replace creativity, at least not yet. It can, you know, it can create these algorithms, but it's really not the same analytical genius. And this is something I talk about, you know, in my book. There are three different types of genius. There's analytical genius, then there's the emotional genius, and then there's a creative genius. And we really have to find which one we are. And analytical genius is what's taught in schools. But that's, that's what AI is the best at. AI is the best at analytical. You can't replace AI in analytical. Like it's faster at math, it's faster at algorithms, all that stuff. So we got to focus on the other types of geniuses. And that's, that's stuff that AI can't replace. And Alpha Romans do help with that. Interestingly, they did a study, NASA scientists did a study and they found that school actually teaches your neurons and your brain to fight against each other because you're criticizing and creating at the same time. And that doesn't work. So they found that creativity dramatically decreases as people age because they go through school. So I'm not going against school, but I am saying that it's been proven with very credible scientists. So that's something very interesting. But what's interesting? So how do we activate alpha brimos? I mean, you know, there's plenty of ways you talk about in your book.

And we're, by the way, we're talking about your morning routine. This is something you're doing in the morning to activate your alpha brain waves.

Okay, Cold showers. Because our body has a mechanism, a defense mechanism. It's the opposite of your fight or flight response. It's an inner defense mechanism. And when it activates boosted oxygen and blood flow to the brain, you also get lower brainwave frequencies. So you get alpha brain waves. And you get a lot of great benefits from that. And that's what cold immersion activates. It activates that defense mechanism. So you get boosted blood flow throughout the brain. And when you combine that with cold and hot, you know, you get the maximum benefits. You also activate your alpha brainworms. And the best part about this is it doesn't Take that long to snap into it. Whereas meditation, you really have to master it. This, all you need to do is focus on your breathing and resist that first urge to get out of the cold. And you know, and I've got plenty of practice doing this. I was able to lie in the snow for 14 minutes and just swimming shorts. And that is really all you need to do is focus on your breathing and really relax.

What kind of breathing are you doing? Because in most cases you'll see people recommend the Wim hof, the inner fire or often called the Tumi breath work.

Oh no, you don't do that when doing cold immersion.

Well, you don't do that during cold immersion, but a lot of people do it prior to heat the body and then also to you activate a slight sympathetic drive. And you know, I have yet to really wrap my head around the very best way to do it because honestly, I get a great deal of benefit out of using WIM HOF or Inner fire or Tumi breathing before I'll go get in the ice tub or do a very cold, cold exposure. But once you're in there, obviously the WIM HOF breathwork is very sympathetically driven and very activating. And the problem is that you need to get yourself back into a parasympathetic state once you get into the ice or into the cold. The best way I've found to do it is you lead up to intense cold or workout in the cold or a cold water swim with the WIM hof. But then you have to progress from that into box breathing or nasal breathing or alternate nostril breathing or something that brings you back down into parasympathetic after you've activated that inner fire.

Oh yeah. Well, I actually learned the box breathing from you and that's something I do do. But I find that, yeah, I, When I was 11, I did 11 minutes in the snow in just swimming shorts and it was cool. But I was doing Wim Hof's breathing technique during the cold immersion. It wasn't as intense. Like I didn't feel the tingling in my fingers, but when I got up, I felt like I was gonna faint. So that wasn't good news. I mean, I survived. And I've actually got a lot of YouTube, you know, they suddenly change their guidelines a little bit every time. And you know, some of my videos, like, my videos got tens of thousands of views, just got removed because they, when I was little, I wasn't giving any warning in the video for kids to try cold immersion. Just be Careful, because I mean, I'm jumping into the lake when it's like, you know, when it's snowing and nobody's there and I'm in swimming shorts. But I do recommend it for kids and a cold shower is really safe. I bet your kids do cold immersion. It's got so many benefits and it's just impossible to ignore it because boosted immune system, boosted brain power, alpha brain waves, all these great stuff. Why would you stay away from it? And what I really talk about it, I read a lot of these studies and then I try it out and you get nothing from it. Like, I mean, a good example is, you know, moringa. I was actually chatting with Darren, you know, the baruca nuts guy, I call him Mr. Barucha. Right. A few, like last week, I think. And yeah, I found one of the things in his interview with you that was so interesting is the moringa. And I mean, it made sense to me. They test some fresh moringa and then they sell you the product. But it's dried, so there's no actual studies on the dried one that they're showing you. You think, wow, this is such a great food. You try it and they go, where's the benefits? I'm not feeling anything. That's what happened to me. I'm like, wow, moringa is a great food. So we buy a few bags of powdered moringa and I'm like, I'm not feeling anything. This is ridiculous. So we stopped buying it. But powdered is not what I recommend. But basically trying these methods out and experiencing it for yourself is so important. So when I try cold immersion, you feel a difference. And when I feel a difference that sells me, I'm like, this is good, I gotta do this.

I agree, I agree. And sometimes it does depend though, with some of these so called superfoods, delivery mechanisms I think are also important. Like in some cases, you know, a coffee or a tea based compound, when blended with fats, you get better bioavailability and all of a sudden you feel it more. Some nootropics or smart drugs or microdosing with psychedelics, for example. Sometimes when you combine that with something like infrared light or sunlight or something that kind of activates the mitochondria, all of a sudden something you didn't feel that much, you feel a lot. Or the same thing could be said for breathwork, right? Like a lot of times if you combine some type of a compound with a breathwork practice and you're tuned into your body, all of a sudden you begin to Feel it. I think one problem also is people will like dump their 18 different superfoods into a smoothie, but then they're off, like checking emails, scrambling into their car, heading to work and not in touch with their bodies. And I think one of the best things that you can do, I know this sounds kind of woo, but whenever you try a new compound, a new supplement, a new superfood, go and meditate afterwards, just total sensory depth. Tune into your body and see how your body feels. And I think that's the best way, aside from perhaps maybe like a heart rate variability measurement or attention to your sleep cycles or something like that, to assess whether or not something's having a beneficial acute effect.

Yeah. And what I do is whenever I try a new food, I'll just eat it and see how I feel the next day and I'll make sure my diet's exactly like it was the day before. And then you see, do you feel good or not? It's so simple. I call them little micro studies for yourself because we all have different biology. And you can get these biological tests and your DNA tests. I'm sure you, you're all into that, you know, I know because I've seen a lot of your videos, but it's, you know, it's not something you can do very often. Whereas this, you know, you can try food out and it's very simple, it's free, you know, I like it. Obviously it's not gonna be as accurate. This is also great, you know, if you look at your poop, it's free biofeedback every single day on your gut health. And you don't have to, you know, get a test. Of course you can get it tested, but it's really practical. Look at Cold Immersion Activate Alpha Bronze. You don't need to buy any fancy devices. Obviously these fancy devices are great. You can buy a grounding, grounding mat. But why would you do that? You can just step on the earth. Right. Obviously it's not as convenient, but. And there's also the earthing effect that you get.

Or maybe at the time that we're recording this podcast, you're sheltered in place or you live in some like, you know, fifth floor New York City loft or something like that. Like there are. So there are some use cases. But yeah, I agree, most of the stuff as far as entry level is pretty much free.

And then it's also that synergy, like nature's really smart with synergies. You got the fiber with the sugar, you have the sodium and the Salt with all these minerals and the iodine and so you just strip all that away and you go, oh, salt's bad. Can't do that. That's not how it works. But it's very powerful. Anyways, so my morning routine, I take my cold shower. Then once I'm done my cold shower, I'm going to have my breakfast and I make sure I have blueberries in the morning. Blueberries are great, you know, totipotent cells. They're also great because they boost blood flow to the brain. And for up to five hours, they actually increase productivity in the whole area. Like the whole brain, not just specific areas. So it's really cool. And I love blueberries. They're delicious. And they grow around here. And we buy, we go through hundreds of pounds every year, me and my family, like, we buy 100, 200 pounds at once. We love them.

It's ingredient in my little like anti aging smoothie recip that I make is I use organic blueberry powder. The main reason for that is I just don't eat a lot of carbohydrates till the end of the day. So I don't put a lot of berries in my morning smoothie, but I do use some of that concentrated powder extract.

Yeah. Blueberries are loaded with quality antioxidants and they're the second highest source of anthocyanins. So you're getting those blood boosting effects. Another thing that's really important is to have it with cardamom. Cardamom is important because it actually. So blueberries have been shown to boost natural killer cells. Now, natural killer cells are your body's defense mechanism against cancer. And what's really cool is, you know, athletes who train, you know, when they do long endurance running, usually their killer cell count drops to about half. But what's interesting is not if they've been having blueberries for six weeks, it actually doubles the amount of natural killer cells they have.

No kidding. They've actually done a study like that, huh. Where they've. Where they've taken runners and given them blueberries and then analyzed killer cell activity post difficult workout and found that the drop in killer cells was mitigated with blueberries.

Yeah, very interesting. And the study was done to see if it would reduce the oxidative stress. The blueberries would reduce it. Of course it would. Blueberries are really high in antioxidants. But then they also tested something else and they found that out. So the cardamom. Cardamom is really powerful because they put lymphoma cells in a petri dish. And they found that the petri dish, you know, they put cancer cells and then they put some natural killer cells. Natural killer cells. Took away a little of. Bit. Bit of the cancer. It was cool. It did some benefits. But then they added cardamom spice, and it did a little better. So they added more cardamom spice, and it did a little better. And the more they added, it got to this point where the same amount of killer cells were killing 10 times the amount of cancer than before. The cardamom. It's like steroids for your natural killer cells.

Interesting. So there's kind of like a synergistic effect. I wonder, and I actually don't know about this, where cardamoms would grow or the altitude or conditions under which cardamom would grow compared to that of blueberry. Because in many cases, you'll find these things grow in close conjunction with one another if they have those type of synergistic effects. But I'm actually not familiar enough with cardamom to know. Where are you getting your cardamom?

We just buy it from OM Foods. I don't know exactly where it's from.

So is the cardamom like a powder that you're using?

No. I see. It's very interesting. I mean, you look at cinnamon, you take the cinnamon powder, put it in your mouth. Nothing really. Take the cinnamon bark. It's actually spicy. It's got this potency. So I never really buy these powdered spices. I always like to buy it in its whole form. So all the oils there, it's all perfect. Break it up. You can grind it yourself. And it works great that way. I actually, when you make. When you make rice, put the whole cardamom pod in there because it will, you know, the rice will absorb all the delicious flavors. It's great. And then you just take out the pod because it floats to the top.

Got it.

So that's what I did.

And for people not familiar with cardamom at all, it's actually a spice that's made from the seed pods, though. So you're saying instead of getting the ground up seed pods, you're. You're getting the whole seed pods and then using those in your cooking.

Yeah. And you can grind them yourself. I mean, it's just. So the potency is very different when you have a whole food and a powdered food. So then I'm going to take my morning dump. Sounds interesting.

But I want to hear about how you video rotate it, though.

Yeah. So my dumps are my morning assessments and I like to get them out in the morning. And actually I'm a very big believer in coffee enemas. I did one last night and it's really important for detoxification, boost glutathione production. But what's really interesting is your poop. You know, because it's food, it goes through your gut. You can tell a lot about your gut health and the gut microbiome from poop and you can analyze it. You know, they're even doing, I don't know, they're doing this new type of treatment where they takethey take other people's poop and put it into people with.

Weak gut microbiome, fecal transplants. And they actually, they kind of put the halt on some of the studies and some of the legality of it in the US due to a variety of factors, some deaths, some FDA regulation, etc. People doing dumb things with DIY transplants. But they're right now. I was actually talking with a functional medicine doc two days ago and, and there's a few companies now developing and have studies behind these as well. Some pretty impressive, essentially like oral poop pills from healthy donors that would actually be like FDA approved for things like clostridium difficile and even bacterial dysbiosis, colitis and a lot of issues. So, yeah, not only is that something I'm really keeping my eyes on because it makes sense and it seems like it could be something helpful if safe and from a healthy donor. But then recently in a podcast, and I think it will have come out by the time this podcast comes out, I did a whole story about these new line of toilets that are analyzing your poop using urinalysis, using flow meters, using literally anal crease prints, finger scans, and doing like a full stool analysis, Bristol School analysis as well. All from your own little smart toilet. So Lord knows how much EMF it produces, but apparently it's gonna happen.

Oh, and it also has a built in 5G monitor.

Are you photographing your poop though? Are you just kind of like taking a glance at it?

I eyeball it and look at the bristles tool chart. I want to have that right consistency. If it's too hard, I take laxatives or you know, like my magnesium citrate. I'll also take, you know, some insoluble fiber. If my poo's, you know, too, too soft, I'll take some soluble fiber.

But I wish, honestly, I wish more young, young people were tuned into their pooh and actually under. Because it's, you can learn so much just by taking a glance at whether there's undigested particles in it. The texture, the composition, the regularity. I mean, it's, it's, it's got me. I should probably go have a chat with my, with my own boys about their poop because you're, you're making me realize that that isn't something we've talked about in detail yet is how to analyze your own poop. Do you talk about this in any of your books or programs?

The poop analysis, I do talk about in my programs. And yeah, my new book coming out and I think it might be in the, in the show notes.

Okay, yeah, I'll put it in the show notes. But you got, you gotta. So maybe after this we can chat. You gotta send my boys your book so they can read about how to analyze their poo.

I will, yeah, if. As soon as I can get it printed. Because all the print shops are closed right now.

Oh, yeah.

It's crazy. But you know what? People are worried about the coronavirus, but 70% of your immune system is in your gut. So when you release, you know, you can learn a lot about it. And when it comes to probiotics, a lot of people, you know, I mean, that poop injection, I don't know why people would do that when you can take really good quality probiotics. And one of the things that is so powerful is kefir. When you look at kefir compared to yogurt, yogurt has two strains of bacteria. Kefir has 50 strains. I'm not talking about the kefir you buy at the store. You have to make it yourself. We do that. And it's one of the reasons I'm no longer vegan anymore. Because there's just such essential nutrients in egg yolks and in kefir that you find, you can't find in plants. You can't find 50 strains of bacteria in like in plants. You're not going to find that good bacteria in kombucha.

I mean, arguably you're going to get some soil based probiotics and you can also ferment plants. Like you can concentrate. Like I do that. I do this when I make nettle, you know, I'll concentrate some of the lactobacilli in the nettle by fermenting it, you know, for four to eight weeks. But it is easier to do a 24 or even a 12 hour fermentation on dairy and fast track that.

And Then you look at the choline in eggs, you can't get that in the large enough amounts. And then actually, you know, you look at fish, fish have some nutrients, you know, they got the iodine. And you look at the blue zones, you look at what's it called? The Okinawa, Japan. There's a special island called Oogimi. And, or I don't know if I'm pronouncing correctly, but they have the most hundred year olds per capita. And what's their secret? Well, they have typhoons that happen a lot, so their soil is mineral rich, so they don't have mineral deficient food. That's Dr. Joel Wallach's research. 91 essential nutrients and 60 of them are minerals. You gotta get your minerals in your diet. And table salt ain't gonna cut it. You gotta get quality sea salt. And then, and actually I don't recommend Himalayan salt because of the heavy metals that are found in there.

Microplastics too, now.

Oh, yeah, well, that's the thing with sea salt. It does have microplastics. The brand I use. Ian Clark says this is his second favorite one. It's Premier Labs Pink sea salt.

Hmm. Okay. What about, what about Celtic salt? Robert Slovak, when I interviewed him, he was, he was pretty bullish on Celtic salt and had done some mass spec analysis. Pretty high in minerals and seems to be low in metals.

It is good, but some brands do have microplastics. You really have to find a good brand. That's the most important part.

Yeah, well, this, this was just the, just the Celtic brand. Like the blue bag with the slightly gray salt that hasn't been bleached. And what, what you said it was Premier because I'll put this link in the description.

Premier, Premier Labs pink salt.

Okay. Premier Labs pink salt. All right, cool. Got it.

Pink sea salt. Yeah, very cool. And it's the best, in my opinion. I like it. Look, and if Ian Clark likes it, then it's the best. My mom's really in tune too, with her body, like a lot more than like, she's really sensitive too, to foods. So like she'll eat something if she doesn't feel good after, she knows that's not good and she says it's because she's a woman and women have these special capability. But anyways, intuition, it's. Yes, the intuition and she likes the salt the most. We also tried real salt and it's just very, very dry and like aggressive. But this is. I like the salt the most and salt's so important. But back to the blue zones. Why do these people live the longest? They also eat a lot of seafood. They're probably not going to live the longest anymore because if you want to get your dose of iodine from seafood now you're going to get a lot of mercury to the point where you might die. Because mercury is very present in fish. If you're going to eat fish, I would recommend sardines. I wouldn't recommend other type of fish.

Yeah, a fish does have appreciable amounts of selenium in it which can reduce and mitigate some of the mercury toxicity. Although some of the fish higher up in the chain I'm still very careful with like tuna and sea bass, anything that's like dolphin or shark related, you know, anything like that. But yeah, some of these smash based fish, sardines, mackerel, herring, anchovies and, and wild caught salmon. Yeah, yeah. Tho thosethose all I think are less of an issue yet you still get some protective effects from selenium overall from fish. But yeah, you do need to be careful.

Well then, then you can also detox and detox is important. One of the things, you know, iodine. And Ian Clark's got a great product for iodine. You might put it in the show notes.

Dr. I have it. He said he sent me some last month. I've been using it.

Yeah, yeah, I got some from the, you know, you gotta get it in the US cause they don't ship to Canada. But it's really cool because it's got like this really cool process and they don't need any alcohol or any other solvents. And you know, what's really important is you have to know the creator of the product. And Ian's a great guy and he's got some very good stuff. He's very knowledgeable and he's not a guy who's gonna cut corners just because he wants to save a few pennies.

How much did Ian pay you before he came on the show? Dude.

Yeah.

By the way though, just a quick interruption, the iodine, is that an activation product? Product? Because I forget it's up in my pantry right now. It's a really, really good form of iodine. And by the way, just to let people know before you respond about the dosage because I had a doctor test me with this was when I was coming on my triathlon days. He tested me to have some pretty significant hypothyroidism and I think it was due to a pretty strict ketogenic diet combined with massive amounts of physical Activity. And so I was on low doses of Armour thyroid for a while, and I've replaced that with iodine and selenium supplementation. And then I use just a couple capsules of beef thyroid, beef thyroid extract every morning. And I feel like there's zero difference in terms of metabolism, body heat, body fat, anything like that compared to thethe Armor thyroid that I was using. So that iodine has served me well. But what's the brand?

I know he's got. It's activation products.

Okay, so it is an activation product.

Yeah, it is. But what's interesting about iodine, and you can do that test and it's much more accurate, but if you want to know right away, especially with the coronavirus, I don't think they're doing these tests now. I don't know. But all you need to do is you just put iodine on your arm, just put a little bit on your arm, rub it into your arm and then leave it alone. It should disappear within like a week. But if it disappears in a few hours, you're heavily deficient in iodine. So that's the test. See how fast it absorbs into your skin and that way you know if your body really is hungry for iodine. Another problem is iodine antagonists. You know, bromine, fluoride, chlorine. There's more, but these are the main ones that are in our diet. Whereas bromine bread. They used to put iodine in bread. So people who are getting their daily doses and people were really healthy and some ludicrous scientist was like, we should replace it with bromine, because iodine might not be safe in that amount. What's interesting is Ian's iodine is much safer than other iodines. And you can get other good brands of iodine. And I'm not saying you have to get Ian's. It's just the one I use, and I like it. But it's also a lot. You can't really like. I wouldn't recommend trying to overdose on it, but it's not something that is achievable. Like, it's not very easy to overdose on it. So it's a lot safer than other iodines. But iodine is very essential. It's an essential nutrient. And what happens is if you don't have enough of it, because chlorine, fluoride and bromine look almost identical on the atomic level. And it's a. Your cells have a very primitive kind of.

They're all halides.

Yeah. They're like, oh, my God. It's. So if you don't have enough iodine, it's going to take that. It's going to think it's a lesser quality iodine or whatever. So it takes it and then it kind of blocks the system and it causes a lot of issues. Women need more iodine than men, too. And breast cancer is caused. One of the causes is a deficiency in iodine. Now, there's something interesting. Your thyroid gland converts iodine into iodide. So that's one of its functions. A lot of iodines out there, what they'll do is they'll take electric. They'll basically put an electric current through the iodine, separating iodine and iodide. Then your thyroid gland doesn't have to do the work. So it's like, imagine not having to use your muscles at all. It's gonna grow really, really weak. You need your thyroid gland to stay healthy. And if it's not doing that, it's not good news.

Okay, so iodine, that's part of your morning routine.

And even I take it at nine every morning and nine in the evening. And I've been doing it for a little while. And what's special about the. What's really good about the iodine is once your body gets the iodine, it starts getting rid of the chlorine, the fluoride, and the bromine because it now has a better source. Plus, iodine also removes heavy metals from the tissue, like it detaches it so that the heavy metals can be detoxified. So that's really powerful. So it helps with detoxification. I've noticed my urine. I know we're talking about number one and number two on this podcast, but my urine has been a little bit smelly because I've been detoxifying. That's the only thing I'm changing in my diet is I'm consuming that little bit of iodine because you take a teaspoon, put it in water, you take it in the morning and in the evening, 12 hours apart.

So it's twice a day, morning and evening, for iodine supplementation. Is that based on research that shows that the body responds best to that?

Ian said to do that, so I think he knows that. But he says every 12 hours, do it.

Yeah, okay.

And that way it's basically just to replenish your body with iodine. So it's a protocol and it's really effective. And he says that you feel even better after. And I definitely feel like my body.

Is detoxifying, by the way. I should throw in there that. What I meant by that was that urinary iodine concentration does follow circadian rhythm. They have done a study on that and shown, and this was actually a study that they did on children, and they showed fluctuation of iodine levels on a circadian rhythmicity pattern that I would suspect, although I haven't dug much into the study, that that morning and evening dose, that's probably what influenced Ian's recommendations.

Probably. It's. Iodine is actually quite powerful. I mean, there's a lot of really key components and iodine is one of them that your body can't produce and it needs it. It's part of the 91 essential nutrients. Right. That Dr. Joel Wallach is talking about. So we need those minerals and we have to get the iodine in our system and it does a lot more. Obviously. I don't want to talk about it forever because it's gonna sound like I'm selling it. I'm just recommending.

Plus, I want to make sure we have time to dive into the overview of the rest of your routine. I know we're already getting kind of long in the tooth and I want to get a chance to talk about this epigenetic modification, your approach to that. So fill me in on a few of the other non negotiables that are part of your routine that you think my listeners should hear about and you being familiar with this podcast, like things that people might not know or that you want to touch on.

One of the things I do right after I take my iodine is, you know, I may get a little bit of work done. The work, you know, one of the things you mentioned on the podcast I find really important is thinking about productivity. When it comes to productivity, you know, you have the same. You have a diffuser and you put essential oils there and that's your productivity. Same thing for music. That's really important. That's something I'll do. I'll listen to the same music when I'm really productive. So that way I get back into it. And bar neural beats. I'm not a huge fan of them because I really haven't noticed much benefit from them with the alpha brainwave. So that's something I'll do. And then after I'm done doing my work, you know, I'll be. I usually sit down. I don't have the fancy standing desk and the treadmill that you have. I was looking to get it, but then I'm like, I'll just go for a sprint, you know, in the middle of my work. So I'll go for my sprint, and usually I'll, you know, reply to some messages. I'll, you know, work on my book. And I'm finally done that now, so I get to move on to filming some videos, doing more information, doing some research, and it's. It's really fun.

By. By the way, I'm just curious, what kind of music does a guy like you listen to when you talk about listening to music?

Yeah, actually, that's a really good point. My kids at my school think I'm weird. I don't listen to songs that are on the radio because there's so much negativity, and everything goes straight to your subconscious mind.

Negativity or stupidity?

Yeah. And all these songs have interesting programming. I'm like, is there an agenda behind this? I don't know. Maybe. But it's just really negative. I'm like, I'm not putting that in my subconscious mind. And remember, your subconscious mind records everything. If you can access. If you were able to access your subconscious mind, I don't know how to do it. I don't even know if it's been discovered. But if you could get into a brainwave state and activate everything in your subconscious mind and just. You'd have everything memorized because your subconscious mind records everything. Imagine accessing all that data you like. You'd know everything you've known over your entire life, and all those memories that you forgot would come back. Everything is all in there. It just. You can't access it.

Yeah. And by the way, did you know that they've actually studied popular music lyrics since the 60s and they came out with a study last year. I briefly reported on this in one of my podcast news flashes that they found that in the past 50 years, lyrics have increasingly grown A, sadder and B, angrier and literally the tone of the music. So if you go and you, like, look up like, some. Some Bob Dylan lyrics, for example, and then compare them to. Yeah, I suppose you could say maybe like a. Like the average Lady Gaga album or, you know, or any of these other folks who are a little bit more, like, often from a sentimental standpoint, kind of angry or negative. It's actually pretty profound. The difference in terms of the expression of joy in music, at least in US pop music over the past 50 years.

It's ridiculous. And it goes straight to your subconscious mind. Music is the delivery. It's insane. People are listening to this all day. And even the rap music, everyone's listening to that right now. What I listen to is. I listen to heroic movie soundtracks.

Oh, my gosh. That is what my kids have, an entire Spotify library of epic music soundtracks. I mean, we're talking the kind of stuff you'd hear from like, Braveheart, Last of the Mohicans, some of the Lindsey Sterling stuff where she's got the epic violin.

My brother actually plays the violin. Mozart's great. You know, they've done so many studies on Mozart. My favorite music right now is. Is Avatar the Last Airbender theme. That TV show is so great. And it actually talks about chakras in it too, so it's really cool.

I'll send the track over. My kids, I bet they dig it if that's kind of music you like.

Oh, it's. It's. I mean, it's also a really well crafted show, but it's cool. And there's. There's a lot of, like, they. They used ancient Chinese techniques in martial art techniques, Tai chi for, like, the bending when you control the elements. Anyways, whatever. That's. It's just my fun stuff. I really enjoy listening to that. But. But that's kind of like what I do. So you can imagine how heroic I feel when I'm taking a dump on the toilet. Another part of my routine is, you know, then I'll eat, I'll work till lunch, I'll eat, and then I'm gonna listen to your podcast. So sometimes I listen to it in the morning, but usually it's around that time when I listen to your podcast. So that's like one of my daily routines. That's essential. You can't avoid that. There's no avoiding that. Yeah, it's very important. And then, you know, I read your book. Usually I sit down and read a book in like a day or two because I just like finishing a book in one day or two. I don't like stretching it out over a few months. But your book, I couldn't do that. It's just too much information.

I purposefully, purposefully wrote it to be a book that you had to come back to over and over again. And not to make it a pain in the butt for folks, but just because I wanted it to be more of kind of a cookbook that people could return to over and over again. But I think I've pimped up my book enough on this show. Okay, so we probably are going to need to do another interview because I kind of have this hunch that we tapped into maybe a quarter of your daily routine and maybe a tenth of the actual knowledge inside your head. I had no clue that you were so well versed on a lot of these nutritional principles, so. And by the way, folks, we're going to talk about the DNA here in a second, but if you're listening in and you want me to have Daniel back on the show, just go to the comment section, pipe in, let me know what you think about this guy. And I'm guessing we're probably gonna have around two, so go to BenGreenfieldFitness.com Daniel. But, Daniel, I want to make sure we have time to talk a little bit about altering your genius, because we alluded to that at the beginning, and I'd love for you to dig into how you're doing that from an epigenetic standpoint.

Well, that kind of all relates back to what we've been talking about, because it's the environmental side of things, and it's also your food. Right? That's what's really important about epigenetics. And that's also one of the reasons why the yin and the yang diet is so powerful. It's one of the only diets that focuses on your environment and the seasons. A lot of people aren't focusing on the seasons anymore because it doesn't matter anymore. The seasons don't matter because you get to have whatever you want all year round. But it does matter because your environment affects your health, and a lot of people don't realize that. So cold immersion is great. I do infrared lights. My dad built this thing together where he took a bunch of this plywood sheet and then he drilled holes in it. And you can buy these heat lamps, these near infrared light heat lamps, because near infrared is way better than far infrared. And my dad designed it. So it just slides into our far infrared sauna, and we can just plug it in. So we have our homemade near infrared light sauna. So that's what I do. And then that way you still sweat because it's a heat lamp. This thing is crazy powerful.

Yeah, well, near infrared is. It's amazing for especially the topical effect and some of the effects on mitochondria. Far infrared does penetrate a little bit more deeply, so it can work a little bit better for heating internally. But clearlight, the company that I use, they just launched a near infrared hookup that you can put into any of the clearlight saunas. And it's almost like those joov lights, but it mounts to the interior of the sauna. So you kind of get to have both far and near infrared when you're in the sauna. But what does that have to do with the DNA component?

Well, first off, I want to say that those heat lamps are so powerful, you can't have the far and near infrared on at the same time.

Well, you can, but it. But it's super intense. Like, it's sympathetically stimulating.

I'm gonna be cooked. If I do that. I will be cooked. That doesn't really relate to the DNA. That's just something I do to really look youthful because I really want to be sexy forever. Like that chapter in your book. That's the first one I went to.

Yeah. So you can go into the women's restroom for the rest of all time.

Exactly. And, you know, one of the parts for keeping your body in check, and this relates to the DNA down to the DNA level, is you gotta detox. Detox is more important than nutrition. I'll take my activated charcoal once, you know, I don't do once a week because it's just too much. But what I will do is I will, every time I come home from traveling, if I occasionally get sick. Actually, this is interesting. I noticed that if I ever get sick, I just feel sick. But when I do a coffee enema, I don't feel sick anymore. So I'm like, am I really sick or do I just feel like that? And it's just because there's a buildup of toxic waste down there and I got to get rid of it. I don't know. But I found that whenever I'm sick, it's always stuff are still down in there and coffee enema will solve it. So it's interesting. And I mean, that's something that you can't really ignore when you realize, I feel horrible. Oh, my God, I feel great now. Right? It's like an instant effect. So that's something that's really important. And I know you talk about it a lot. I swear by coffee enemas.

Yeah. No, I do one to two a week. And I do agree, a lot of people do have. I don't think that the colon in people is broken for the most part, but you can get a little sluggish in terms of peristalsis, in terms of glutathione production, in terms of bile production. And the coffee enema just seems to reboot so many of those pathways, including phase one and phase two detox pathways in the liver, that it definitely does something like not only your colon, but your entire body and head feel clear as a bell afterwards. And some of it is the caffeine effect as well. But it is something that. It's not this newfangled thing biohackers who want attention on social media are doing. It's something that's been a staple practice of, for example, Eastern medicine and a lot of other ancestral cultures for a long time. Not just the use of coffee enemas, but sometimes the use of different bacterial or probiotic enemas, sometimes yogurt enemas, sometimes saltwater enemas. So, yeah, I think in the west, we still have almost like this Victorian prudishness about sticking tubes up our backside. But, yeah, enemas, rectal ozone, suppository delivery of things like melatonin or glutathione. Like, there's something to be said for using the butt for other things than just pooping.

And you know what? That's one of the reasons I really, really like you as a biohacker. And that's why I've been a fan for a really long time. A lot of biohackers are really excited about the new technology. There are actually some biohackers out there who think 5G is the coolest thing ever. And they already have the chip implanted in their hand. Right? And it just. What I love so much about you is that you. You combine ancestral living with biohacking. And it's so important because they. People back then, they knew a lot. In fact, it seems like they know more than we did now because we're rediscovering what they were doing. We're like, wow, this is so powerful. But they were already doing it many years ago, so it's really, really important. And that's what I love so much about you as a biohacker. And that's why I've been tuning into your content for a while, is because you understand that our body has a natural capability to heal itself. We've survived on this Earth for so long. Kind of relates back to sunscreen. It's like this ludicrous idea that really, sunscreen is essential because all of a sudden, we have a weakness to the sun. Like, we've evolved on this Earth. Earth. The sun is an unavoidable part of our existence on Earth.

I interviewed. I interviewed Matt Maruca about this, and actually, Matt's older than you. When I first met Matt, he was 18. But you remind me a lot of Matt, because Matt Maruca, who's the founder of Raw Optics and also just. Just a genius when it comes to light, he's one of Jack Cruz's understudies and talks very passionately and intelligently about a lot of these issues as you do about, you know, superfoods, for example, sample and the interaction of nutrients with the body. You remind me of Matt a little bit first, by the way. But I've interviewed him and I'll include a link to that show in the show notes. But yeah, this idea that the skin can build up a callus and the idea that people who sunbathe on the weekends, for example, have much higher rates of skin cancer than workers who are out in the sun all day long because they built up that tolerance to UVA and UVB exposure. And again, like I mentioned, tomorrow I'm.

Interviewing in the infrared, right?

Yeah, I'm interviewing a gal on the radiation hormesis benefits of not just sunlight radiation, but radiation from the earth, radiation from some geological formations. Yeah, it's quite curious how we have, we have created these evolutionary mismatches where we are concentrating non native radiation and non native EMF and non native light sources into our bodies while at the same time kind of ruthlessly mitigating by living in tubes and boxes a lot of the native emf, the native radiation, the native hormesis. So fill folks in on who could use this Genius mode program and what it involves as we're wrapping up here.

Okay, so the Genius mode, the biology greatness. My new book, the reason it's so powerful is because it gets into everything that I've studied over the past three years and that I've really tried out. That is super effective. I explain why get into some travel hacks that are also really important because you gotta stay performing when you're traveling. And what's really interesting, so it gets a little bit more in depth into the bees and how their genetic mechanism works. And it's really important to understand that because, you know, they are very complex, actually their whole system. And we can learn a lot from them. And then we also get into epigenetics. A little bit more depth into my story. And I also talk more about cold immersion and alpha brainwaves. And actually one more thing I want to mention actually. Did you know that theta brainwaves are the state of, what is it? Hypnosis. When you're hypnotized, you're in theta brainwave states. It's very interesting. You're very suggestive in that state and you got more access to that subconscious mind. So there's definitely a link going on in there.

That's something that I do with my boys, is we have this one meditation Program that you can download for free. You can Google it. It's called eco meditation. And what it does is it places you into a state of theta brainwave activation. And then you tap. In this case, you tap your heart. So you're creating an anchor when you're in that theta brainwave state, when you're highly suggestible, create that anchor and you recite a few incantations where you're saying, I am at peace. I can create this sensation anytime I would like, et cetera. And then the idea is then when my kids are in the ice tub or yesterday we had a naturopathic physician over and he was giving them balloon nasal adjustments, like literally adjusting their skulls from inside their nose, which is kind of uncomfortable for a kid. And they just started tapping on their hearts to bring them back into that state of inner peace and almost activate very quickly and acutely that theta wave activation. So, yeah, I agree. You're highly suggestive in that phase. And you can do some cool things to pull yourself back into that phase while you're in that state of suggestibility. So it's very cool stuff. And you get into. I know a lot more in the genius mode. You call it the genius mode program. So it's called.

Well, yeah, the genius mode program is where I go. It's a live coaching program with a group of people, and I do it over a month. I do do that, and I offer it at events and online if you really want to get a quick start. It's also cheaper. Just get the book if you want.

And what's the book called?

It's the Biology of Greatness. And actually, your listeners will get a 25% discount if they.

So I'll put a link in the show notes to that.

Yeah, there's. There's no special code. It's just a special link, actually, I think.

Let me. Let me check and see if I. Okay, so. BenGreenfieldFitness.com Biology of Greatness, I think, is the link. That's the one I have written down here.

Yeah. Or also they can go to. I would Recommend going to thebiologyofgreatness.com Ben.

Okay. Either one would work. Okay, cool.

Yeah, yeah, there you go. I would. I recommend. Yeah, so you definitely go there. Check it out. You can also get the program on that. I'm doing it for. For, like, a lot cheaper just because I want to get to know more of your listeners. And it's really cool.

You have to send the book down to my kids, though. Whichever book talks about poop Send that to actually send, send my kids both, both the books because I think you would, they would find you highly inspiring. And I think that a lot of parents who are listening in, you guys should have your, your, your boys or your girls listen to this because Daniel is obviously very passionate, very well informed. He's not a genius. We all know that because his teacher established that way back in the day. But he's actually, he's mildly smart, obviously. So I do recommend his program. I haven't, I'll and I'll admit like in usually when I get somebody on the show, I've already read their book, but I haven't even read your book yet. And so I got to get my hands on it. And I'll link to the book, book the Biology of Greatness, also your breakfast burst book. I'll put all that@BenGreenfieldFitness.com Daniel I'll link to Daniel's website and Instagram and then like my podcast with Ian Clark, the Bristol stool chart, the premier research labs, Pink salt. I'll just link to everything.

The iodine, all that great stuff.

I'll hunt down some of these studies too. On, on blueberry and cardamom congestion on, on blueberry and natural killer cells on the urinary iodine concentration. I always like to find them the research studies that we talk about and put them in the show notes. And of course the Avatar Airbender soundtrack. Of course that one on my kids.

How could you forget that? That's the most important Biohack.

Yeah. Well, I have another interview coming up in about five minutes. Otherwise we would just go and go. I could literally talk to you for the next hour.

But again, it's so nice to get to talk with you.

If you guys are listening in, go to bengreetlefitness.com Daniel. I'll link to everything there. And Daniel, dude, thanks so much for coming on the show. This has been an awesome discussion.

Thank you so much for having me.

All right, folks, I'm Ben Greenfield along with Daniel Bisselnet signing out from BenGreenfieldFitness.com have an amazing week. Well, thanks for listening to today's show. You can grab all the show notes, the resources, pretty much everything that I mentioned over@BenGreenfieldFitness.com along with plenty of other goodies from me, including the highly helpful Ben Recommends page, which is a list of pretty much everything that I've ever recommended for hormones, sleep digestion, fat loss, performance and plenty more. Please also know that all the links, all the promo codes that I mentioned during this and every episode help to make the this podcast happen and to generate income that enables me to keep bringing you this content every single week. So when you listen in, be sure to use the links in the show notes. Use the promo codes that I generate because that helps to float this thing and keep it coming to you each and every week.