Wisdom in a World of Rapid Change: Insights from Ben Lytle

Welcome to the Living to 100 Club Podcast. Here's our host, Dr. Joseph Casciani.

Well, hello to all of our listeners joining us today on our podcast. You're listening to one of our Successful Aging episodes this month on the Living to 100 Club program, and I'm your host, Joe Casciani. On each program, our conversations educate and inspire, helping you get the best out of all the years we're given, regardless of what obstacles come our way. You can learn more about my club at my website, and be sure to take a look at my new training and activities manual, Better, Longer, and Happier: A Guide to Aging with Purpose and Positivity. It's a series of 12 modules in a card deck format developed for activities directors at senior living communities. Visit my website livingto100.club blh. Now on to our podcast. In this episode, we sit down with Ben Lytle, author of the Pursuit of Wisdom book series and former CEO of Anthem Healthcare, to discuss the profound societal changes shaping our modern world. With the democratization of information and rapid industrial revolutions. Ben shares practical wisdom for adapting to these shifts and leveraging the abundance of knowledge at our fingertips. We dive into the concepts of psychological muscle memory, recognizing untapped potential in ourselves and others, and understanding predatory behavior in society. First, a little background. Ben Lytle is a visionary leader, author, and former CEO of Anthem Healthcare, where he helped transform the company into one of the largest health insurance providers in the US. With decades of experience in the healthcare and business sectors, Ben is now focused on guiding others in their pursuit of wisdom and potential. His Pursuit of Wisdom book series including Potentialist One and Potentialist Two, provides practical advice for thriving in the fast-changing world. Ben is passionate about the democratization of information and innovation, helping individuals and organizations unlock their potential in an increasingly connected and rapidly evolving society. Through his writing, mentorship, and leadership, Ben aims to inspire a new generation of leaders and thinkers. Ben, thanks so much for being on our program today.

You bet. Thank you, Joe. I'm happy to be here.

Great, great. I'm looking forward to our conversation. I always like to open by asking our guests to tell us, um, maybe the journey that brought you to where you are today. You know, you've covered a lot of ground, but maybe the highlights that caused you to move in one direction or another.

Yeah. Thank you, Joe. Well, I grew up on a ranch in Texas. Great parents who were not flush with money, but they were flush with love and encouragement. And that certainly gave me a good launch in life and also a really strong work ethic. So anyway, I got into information technology when I was 16 years old, when it was very new, very young industry. And basically the first part of my career was as a technologist and in technology management. But the seminal event for me along that time of life, I'd always been interested in the future, science fiction books, and then later as I matured a little bit, saw the role of futurists who are more based in fact and academic approaches to the future. And so I was always interested in the future, which really to me was all about human potential. What was the human race going to be? And when I was 20, I took an elective course that just absolutely changed my life. That was the Introduction to Psychology and I'm— and I'm sorry, the Introduction to Personality. And had a charismatic young professor who said to our class one day, really at the outset of the class, you don't have to be what anyone else expects you to be. In fact, you shouldn't be. You should discover who you are, your potential, and live to that. And you're going to live a very happy life. And even though my parents had said, you know, similar kind of things, to hear this, you know, bright young academic say it was just really turned me upside down. And, and because I, I believed it was practical and possible. And then he opened— he took an interest in me, and he opened up a whole world of literature that, you know, I've spent, spent a lot of my life trying to, to devour and understand. And then it became an avocation. It became an avocation to really understand my own potential, learn how to see the potential in others, look how to see the potential in situations and companies. That's how I became an entrepreneur. And so it really became the lens through which I saw the world, Joe. And I am so happy I did it. And so this book is— this book series is how we adapt to this changing world. But it's basically saying for the first time in history, the democratization of human potential and wisdom is possible because of First of all, we know so much more about it today, but also because the technology is going to help us do it. It's going to, it's going to create the need. This, these changes are going to demand greater wisdom of us. You know, we're not going to be able to look to the government or our education system or anybody else to tell us how closely we should integrate with automation. It's not going to tell us if I've got 30 or 40, 50 years of life in me. How do I make sure I maximize the value? That's what your program's trying to do. And so, so this new reality we're going into creates the need for wisdom and gives us the means by which we can all achieve it.

And I—

by all, I mean worldwide. If we, if we, if we really set our mind— it's almost like information and knowledge brought us this far, Now what's got to take us the rest of the way is the— is our potential and wisdom.

Yeah, so that's what you mean by democratization of information, that everybody has access to it now. It's available globally.

Yeah, exactly. Democratization is actually an ancient force. It's probably an evolutionary force of some type, because what it does is it motivates us to take things we as a society and and especially entrepreneurs and innovators, to take something that's available only to a few, the elite, make it available to many people, and then ultimately it becomes a commodity. So that's what we've seen happen with information. Yeah. Now, because it's now a commodity, what's our next step as humanity and as individuals? Well, our next step should be to learn how to use that information and all the power that comes with it and all that knowledge for our own good and for the good of others. And that's wisdom. And so, so that's, that's where, that's how I got to this, to this whole theme of, of we can and should democratize wisdom, make it available to everyone, and hope many people jump on the track. And I think they will. Programs like yours, uh, I'm not, certainly not the only voice out there speaking to this. The whole mindfulness movement, everything is around helping people start to really achieve their wisdom and become their best.

So that's the new reality that you're talking about. This information is now available at our fingertips, and we can learn and grow from it.

Yeah, the new reality is really— I, I think it will become the age of expanding human potential. I think when you measure it all down, they'll look back and go, this is where the, the dam broke and human potential exploded. And I think we can see that already in— if you look at what's happened with creative arts, you know, before it was very controlled by studios and talent agents and, and suddenly now the creative arts are exploding there. It's democratizing. People are writing books like crazy and speaking and trying to share what they know. And that's that creative output like that is, is, is to me a picture, a blink into what we're going to see now for every—

yeah, yeah. And, um, the millions of podcasts that are out there too.

Yeah, yeah.

So I can see this, um, new reality is really a double-edged sword because we can, we can have access to all this information, but there's a risk of being manipulated by it too. How do you, how do you come down?

Well, that, that's why you need to be wise. Yeah, you know, that's why wisdom is the next step, is because now you have to be wise. It's almost, Joe, it sounds silly, but it's almost like nature is saying, hey, it's time to grow up, people. You know, you've looked to your institutions of government and education and religion and healthcare to tell you, do this, do that, do this. Well, now you're going to have to figure it out because you're going to have so many choices available to you. And you're going to have to grow up and figure it out. And that growing up, I think, is, is, is the, uh, the democratization of wisdom.

Okay, so instead of being told how to use information, what information to access, we have to make our own decisions, informed decisions, so we're not so manipulated by others, whether they're well-intended or not well-intended.

Exactly, exactly.

So where does the concept of muscle memory, psychological muscle memory, come into—

yeah, the principles. And you being a psychologist, uh, hopefully you share my view that, uh, uh, I had the good fortune in my 20s and 30s to gain access to programs that taught, and individuals who taught me how you develop the capacity for wisdom and how to pursue potential. And, and what I found— I'm a regular guy. I, I'm not, uh, you know, I'm, I'm not, uh, a, uh, a, a— or as I like to say, I am a potentialist, not the potentialist. So, so, so what I learned along the way was that a lot of what we need to achieve our potential and become wise, we already do. We already know how to do it. We just don't do it for the same reasons. And for example, a quick example, you being consciously conscious intention, knowing what my intention is when I engage with somebody and disclosing it upfront can solve so many problems in business and relationships where we think people understand what we're trying to do and we don't. Very simple thing. We all know how to do it. We just have to do it on purpose. And that is, is one of the qualities of a wise person. But they're often— people usually speak of them as saying, as being an open book, being someone that is, that is very calm and trusting. So that's that. One of the others is muscle memory. And, and, and so trying to— you being a psychologist and an educator, you certainly can appreciate if you're trying to explain our psychology to people who've really not ever paid any attention or had no training, you need a good metaphor. You need something that they can relate to. So what I used was the human body. And so Chapter 4 of this book, The Pursuit of Wisdom, is called The Psychological Body. And I create examples all through that around how our body, our physical bodies and our, and our psychological bodies both have functions, both have specific things that they execute.. And as we learn to understand ourselves, we can understand how to work with those functions instead of against them. And, and one of the powerful ones is muscle memory. So, for example, one of the things that goes, I guess, all the way back to Saint Ignatius, and then Carl Jung called it active imagination, is where we visualize something we want to do. We visualize something we want to learn. We visualize something, how we would like to be more like someone else or to adopt a new behavior that we never had. And, and, and a more modern term is visualize to realize. Well, it turns out you're a scientist, so you appreciate it. It turns out that our, our, our minds don't know the difference between us visualizing it and actually doing it. And so if we want to change behavior, if we visualize that new behavior, if we visualize what we're aspiring to and we do that over and over, our mind gets— it builds like muscle memory. Like when you work a muscle, it goes, okay, he wants to go over here. I got it. And it helps you get there. So it's a very— and it's a very powerful tool. Visualize to realize. It's how we really learn everything almost. You know, every sport we ever learn, loading the dishwasher, whatever it is, we visualize how it is, right? And then, son of a gun, if we're not doing it automatically, a lot of times we didn't even practice it. So that's, that's a, that's, that's an example of muscle memory. And I think it's one of the most powerful things people can use to change and to learn faster, quite frankly.

Yeah. Yeah. I've heard stories about the downhill skiers who would do that and visualize the whole run all the way down the hill mentally enough times that when they do it, they've actually been there before.

Exactly. Yeah, that's, that's exactly it. And it's been proven over and over in many industries. And so it was— that became a, one of the principles in the book that I said, here's a good example of something you already know how to do it, but you don't do it for personal growth. Now apply it to your personal growth.

Yeah, sure. So just as an offside comment, I've been taking drum lessons, trying to teach myself, and I have a drum teacher. She's very good, and she says, well, it's going to get into your muscle memory. So if you do it enough times, and it doesn't quite happen yet, so maybe, maybe down the road it'll happen sometimes. So hearing from you, I know it's possible then, right? Yeah. Great. How do you— how do we tap into our innate wisdom and potential? Give us examples.

Yeah, let's walk through, Joe, a simple definition of wisdom, because I think that's what's a lot of what I also tried to bring to the public in this book were some very simple definitions. And because often we think it's, you know, 42 pages of a, of a dense book. I mean, it's like reading Jung or something. Well, it's not. Not. So, so, so the classical definition of wisdom, which I love, is the art of living well. Isn't that beautiful? It's the art of living well. So then you say, well, okay, what's living well? Well, living well is throughout your life making wiser decisions, because our decisions define us define our, the quality of our life and define our effect on others. So, so then you say, well, okay, well, how do you make wise decisions? And that's where wisdom comes down. It has two parts. The first is developing the capacity for wisdom. It's like all the preparation I do for being wise when I need to be. And of course, most really, that's every day. But, but it's, it's, it's things like developing perspective, which can be taught. What is perspective? How do you use it? Like discernment, like seeing reality. Again, you being a psychologist, you know this, that most of— most people are walking around thinking, I see reality. Well, there's these things called the cognitive distortions of the ego, and there's about 20 or 25 of them. And it— and what it— you realize is your ego creates like a funhouse movie effect, and you're pursuing things that aren't real at all.

It's going to color our reality, sure.

Yeah, so, so, so perfection is one. There is no perfection in nature. If you study grains of sand and, and you study, uh, you study snowflakes, uh, you know, as an example of something there's just gazillions of, they're all unique and they're all slightly imperfect. They are imperfect. So, so nature— the reality is we are perfect in our imperfections. And think about how many people you run across in life who have made themselves and others miserable chasing perfection, which is an illusion. So that's one of these illusions. So that's the other one. And then finally is discernment. You know, that's another key thing you can teach. As a matter of fact, a charter school that my— some of my grandkids went to. And it's an outstanding charter school. I mean, it's got like 27,000 students in several states. Every kid graduates. Almost all of them get into the college they want. And they grade every grade, every class from the 8th grade on. Every student is judged and it can cost them a whole letter grade on scope of wonder or scope of awe and depth of inquiry. Now, what does that mean in practical terms? It means that I'm really curious, I'm interested in the subject, and I'm willing to dive deep to understand it. That's part of wisdom. That is absolutely— and all of that is teachable. So that develops your capacity for wisdom, and that goes on throughout your life. But you can accelerate it. Much effort as you put in, the faster you'll develop it. And then it comes down to, okay, now I have to apply it. I actually have to apply it. I got a, I got a decision in front of me. And how do I frame a decision so that I make sure I make the wisest possible decision?

Yeah.

And the real trick there is being free of those things that will cause you to be unwise. Your ego, your, your biases. Your instincts and emotions, which are good things, but you don't want to make any decisions for it. So a good way I teach people to visualize it, visualize a great judge. If you were standing in front of him, you'd been accused of something and you're innocent and you're counting on this judge. This judge would be, first of all, making sure that they, they understand both cases, both sides of the case. They would understand they would be neutral. They wouldn't have any biases going on, and they certainly wouldn't let their emotions and instincts make that call. So we become that wise judge. But now we're working for us. The judge is working for us. So that's what you do. So you— and the great thing about the way our growth system works is every time we make a wise decision and it can be something little, it can be something small. Our I in me, or the real us, grows every single time and it gets stronger. And the stronger it gets, the more it puts the ego in the backseat. And it still uses the good ego because you need the good ego, but it doesn't drive anymore. And now the I in me is taking over driving of basically our life. That's our potential. That's the guy we're after. You see how that all fits together?

That's great, great description. So it's really gathering the information, leaving out the emotions, leaving out the biases, leaving out other external influences, prejudices, and discerning what we need to do. But every time we make these decisions, as you say, we get better at it. Absolutely.

And that's where wisdom and, and, and, and, and your— and the development of your potential become an organic process. One, each one makes the other stronger. And so I describe my own experience and the experience of others who went through some of the programs I went through. You feel this ecstasy, because you suddenly feel yourself growing almost by the day. And that's what you're after. And it can happen at any age, any age.

And uncovered by all this baggage we may have been carrying. So we become our own our own wise judge. Exactly. Yeah, exactly. We have the same potential, and it's there. And I, you know, when I talk to senior groups about resilience, I say that is always there. We might feel it's blocked, but we always have that fire and determination, energy, grit, whatever you want to call it. It's always there inside us. And I think you're saying the same thing about wisdom.

Exactly.

It's there. We don't— sometimes it's locked away, or it's, right, you know, whatever. We think we can't access it, but we can with certain approaches, certain tools that you're describing.

Yeah. And there's again a metaphor that I like. Yeah. Is, uh, is— and I ask, uh, I ask this question in— when I give speeches, I'll say to people What do we share with every living creature on Earth? What do we share? We have inside of us a mechanism driving us to be our— to our full potential. And I love to walk out in nature on my walks. I walk— I bet you do. I walk my neighborhood and I'll look at flowers and trees and, and a little, little animal, little dog, you know, whatever. Every one of them is striving to be their best in life. Only we humans have a choice.

Hmm.

And so what we want to do is make that choice. I'm going to be— and, you know, with me, it's in an oath to myself in the book, and I invite others to use that oath. It's not a club. It's not a cult. It's just a commitment to yourself. And that's that. I look and I do it every day. I do it every day and I do it every night. I check in to see how I did. Very simple. I will do my best to be my best and leave the world and the people I meet along the way a little better than I found them. And that— and you understand why I say little, because just as Mother Teresa said and many other wise people said, Start at home. You know, when you see young people and they want to save the world, we say, save yourself first, learn yourself first. So that's where that comes from. So that's, that's my daily commitment to them.

Yeah, that's good. Yeah, as Mother Teresa said, I can't feed the whole world, but I can feed one person.

Exactly. Yeah, exactly. If you want to save the world— what, another one of hers? If you want to save the world, uh, go home, take care of your family.

Yeah, sure. So we are, uh, we get in our own way, I think you're saying. We need to get out of our way and let ourselves just kind of keep moving forward without all of that. Yeah, yeah, extra stuff. Yeah.

And when you're, you know, when you're struggling, everybody can have a down day, or everybody can feel like you said blocked or whatever, take that little walk in nature and say, look over at that tree and say, uh, Yeah, I'm with you, buddy. I'm doing the same. I'm doing, I'm doing my best too. And it's really, it's really quite— I find it quite inspiring that we share that with every living thing.

Yeah, that's good. That's good. Yeah, this is, um, this is very uplifting conversation, Ben. I, I really appreciate it. And I know you've written about, on the other side of the continuum here, uh, predatory behavior, right? Um, how do we recognize it? How do we— yeah. What do we do with it when we see it in others?

Yep. Yeah, it's, it's, it's the— that's my third book. That's the book that'll be coming in 2 years. And, and it really came out of when I, you know, as I said, I started this work for my grandchildren and my family, following that principle, started at home. Uh, and, and I had wishes for them, you know. One was, what would I wish the world that they're going into to look like. And so that's the first book, and how would I try to make sure I'm ready for it. The second one was, what would I— what if I could give each of my grandchildren a gift right now? What would I give them? I'd give them the gift of wisdom, because there's nothing more powerful. It's the pinnacle of human achievement. And in the third book, I said, well, okay, what else though? But there's still all this mass of things that we had, these challenges we have to face. What's the worst challenge? And I said, okay, the one other thing I would love to give my family is a safer world. How do you make a safer world if you're individuals like us? You know, we're, we're not, maybe not, you know, we're not in law enforcement, we're not in politics. How do we make a safer world? Well, it turns out that if you say what makes us unsafe, it's when human beings or collections of human beings decide to become predatory. Predatory defined as I'm willing to hurt you emotionally, physically, whatever I have to do. I'm willing to hurt you to get what I want. And so that became— and then that and experiences I had throughout my life I saw— I said, okay, that's what as human beings we really need to understand a lot better, is predatory behavior. How does it develop? Why does it happen? We tend to think, well, they're just bad people. Well, no. The first principle of learning about predatory behavior is to learn it in ourself. So, so imagine you're— and this is one most people can relate to— you're driving down the road. Some guy cuts you off, almost runs you down, you know, and puts a rude gesture out his car window. And in that moment, we all— we felt it right there. Yeah, that was the predator. I'm willing to hurt you. Now, what happens for— thank God for 98, 99% of us is we self-soothe. We go, okay, let it go. It's just life, you know. Hope he has a better day tomorrow. You know, however we deal, we self-soothe. Well, something happens in people who are predatory. Their emotions overwhelm them and they don't self-soothe. What happens there? We— that deserves study and it deserves understanding. So, and then the flip side of it, it's not just about the predator. Without prey, there are no predators.

Sure.

And we know people who are lovely people who get involved with the absolute wrong kind of people. It's almost like they're drawn to them. Some of the most— the loveliest people around us are drawn to the very people who are predatory and will ultimately destroy them. And destroy their quality of life. So that's, that's, that's the area I'm focusing on with one other hope. One is that we can learn more about it scientifically and that individually we can learn if we have a person in our family who we can just see has many of the characteristics of a natural prey, we need to help them understand they can never get involved with a person like that. They— it will destroy them. Whereas somebody who's not as inclined to be— to have prey-like behavior. They'll go, hey, stop it, or they'll get— they'll get away from them. So we can influence it there. The other is even more interesting with, you know, you being a scientist, you appreciate it. You know, we've learned so much in the last 2 or 3 decades about things that we thought were just people. There was something wrong with them. But we didn't know. We judged it. People that were dyslexic were thought for so long to be stupid. They weren't stupid at all. They were wired differently. So what if we could come to understand, understand the wiring behind predatory behavior? Why did some people become predatory? Why does their self-soothing system not work? And we could intervene younger, perhaps, You know, that's also true of some forms of autism. We're learning that if you can intervene young enough, you can influence it. Well, what if we could influence predatory behavior? You know, could, could, could we prevent the, the, the Vladimir Putins of the world? I don't know. I don't know. But it's worthy to— it's worthy with the new technology we've got going on to help doing this kind of research. Uh, it's worthy looking into it. So that's the third book.

Yeah. Well, that's good. That's on its way, huh?

Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Couple of years.

Yeah.

No, as I think about that, I've been, I've been researching it for, gosh, 20 years, 30 years.

So it's really, you know, I think that maybe the answer is in helping that predatory individual find reward, find reinforcement for using their talents constructively. Because they've gotten rewarded for using it, you know, in ways that are unkind or unproductive. How can they shift into, um, kind of sublimating that talent into something more productive and beneficial for themselves and there for, for others too?

Yeah, at least my experience and my research so, so far shows that, that a vast majority of these people didn't ask to be the way they are. They don't want to be the way they are.

Sure.

They just, they don't, they don't know how to stop. And, and, and, and they're afraid of therapy. So, so we have to, we have to, we have to first of all make it harder for them to have prey by making prey be aware that will ruin you and then try to help them find a way out of it.

Yeah. Help the prey develop a thicker skin and not be too vulnerable. Sure.

Yes, exactly.

I know when you and I spoke on the phone earlier, we talked about that Nobel Prize winners and, you know, what they came up with about successful societies versus unsuccessful societies and inclusive versus extractive societies. Can you share your thoughts on that as fast?

Yeah, I read the article as well and a couple of them on it, and I was really impressed. You know, sometimes, you know, the Nobel Prize winners may be in something that's so arcane I don't understand it, but this one I could understand. And I said, yeah, this is a really keen observation of how we often forget that societies and governments have a choice too, more than we would think, and how if you choose these qualities of inclusiveness, a lot of people benefit. I mean, it just makes for for a healthier society, healthier economy. And so I thought it was really, really well said. It's almost like, speaking metaphors again, it's almost like the metaphor of we have that choice as individuals. You know, we have that choice to be our best self or not. Yeah. This was a case in the macrocosm that countries have those and societies have those same choices.

Yeah. Yeah. And the successful societies are the ones that had the higher tolerance and could allow for inclusiveness and sharing and production. And the societies that were less successful tended to be more extractive, where they would take the talents and not replenish them in their, in their people and society. Yeah, fascinating research.

Yeah. And you know, Joe, I, I thought the other thing there, um, that, you know, reinforces something that I believe, uh, strongly, even though of course I can't prove this, But I do believe we're in the days of the sunset of totalitarianism. I don't know whether it'll take, you know, 3 decades or 100 years. I don't know. But if you take democratization as a force and then you take the technologies that are now these incredible democratizing technologies like the internet, and like artificial intelligence, which lets us build a bespoke world, they— those are— that runs against what they need to do. They need to keep people ignorant of outside forces, ignorant that such things are possible. And, and it was one thing under the Soviet Union, but it's much different now. There's satellites flying above and they're going to, they're going to beam this stuff down. And all these folks have smartphones. They're, they're willing. So I think this is another example of totalitarian societies by definition cannot be inclusive.

Sure.

They by— and they by definition cannot be unwise, cannot be wise, because to be wise, you have to appreciate the other fellow's point of view.

Yeah.

Well, if the only people that have a point of view are the, the party mechanism, the inside of the party, it can't be a wise society. And so sooner or later, that's going to come back and bite you. It always has.

Yeah, yeah, that's a good point. That's a good point, Ben, because you're saying that, um, we cannot keep the people uneducated anymore, right?

Right. And, and no country today could reestablish the Iron Curtain, I don't think, you know, but where you had physical borders and held people in. I don't think it's going to work.

So So what do you, what do you foresee, um, as people become wiser and aware of their potential? How is that going to affect our future health-wise, um, society-wise, um, innovatives?

Yeah, the, the biggest thing, uh, I think we're going to see, uh, in this age of expanding human potential is first of all because the nature of work is going to change. We're going to offload the basically subhuman work, the industrial age stuff, repetition, danger, physically dangerous, physically demanding. And people will be doing work of a higher order. Well, what is that? That's work that's creative, problem solving, and requires a knowledge of human beings, complex human relationships. None of that automation can do. None of it. Automation can't be creative. Automation can't make intuitive leaps. Jesus, everybody thinks that ocean is the end of the world and it's flat and you'll sail off of it. I don't believe that. I'm going to try to sail across it. Those are intuitive leaps. That's uniquely human. So what I get excited about— and again, going back to those, that example of we're seeing an explosion of creative content. That's a hint of what's to come. Now take that, create those people who are creative and problem solving. So think of the workforce. How many— what a huge percentage of the workforce today does subhuman work. Now free them to do this kind of work. Now back it up with tools like artificial intelligence, like thought-to-computer, brain-to-computer interfaces, the ability to collaborate as one mind. The greatest scientists collaborate and function as one mind when they're solving a problem. Incredible thought. Quantum computers that, you know, the thing about quantum computers, the easiest way for your audience to wrap their head around it, it was for me, is probably they've heard the story that the, the entire computing power used in all of World War II by all countries is exceeded in our smartphone. One smartphone. The same thing is true of quantum computers. A gentleman I heard speak, an expert in quantum, said by 2040, 2045, one quantum computer will have more computing power than all the computing power on Earth today. Now imagine what we could do with that. And with suddenly we have everybody's working on creative things. Imagine if we could suddenly simulate the environment. And not guess whether we're making it better or worse. But no, because the simulation— advancing medical science. What if we could simulate the entire body? We can't even simulate an organ today. But imagine being able to simulate an entire body and then we could be testing how does this behavior change influence that, or how would this pharmaceutical without having to run, you know, clinical trials that take 7 or 10 years, suddenly we could simulate. So that's the world that I look forward to. Will we have new problems? Absolutely. Because that's what makes us creative, right? We have to, we have to have something to challenge us. But, but, but, but it will still be an amazing world to live in. And I think we'll see a hyperacceleration of the kinds of work of remaking the world we live in and our understanding of space as well.

Well, great information. Thank you for sharing that. You know, I, I welcome your being the thought leader on this stuff. I mean, you are on the right track, and you're, you're paving the way for others to follow and listen and learn and grow. And I'm really glad that you've been able to come on my program.

Well, thank you, Joe. And I was very drawn to you as well because I love your work. I love what you're doing. And it's because we're basically doing the same work, just in two different ways.

Same channel. Well, maybe related channels. Yeah, good. That's right. Tell us about your books quickly. Uh, Potentialist 1 and 2, and 3 is—

yeah, yeah. So the first book, it's a 3-book series. Uh, the first book has been out since 2022, and it's the— they're all named The Potentialist. The first is The Potentialist: Your Future in the New Reality of the Next 30 Years. And this is a really good book for young people because— and any of any age, but it's really good for young people to develop these practices sooner. So the first 88 pages says, here is what this new reality is going to look like and why it's forming. The next 7 chapters are, if you'll do these 7 things, you're going to come through much better than others who don't. And so that's the first book. This, the second book we've been talking about is how do we develop, how do we reach our potential? Become wise and make better decisions throughout our life, therefore living well. Uh, the third book is called, uh, and I'm sorry, the second book is The Potentialist: The Pursuit of Wisdom. The third book is The Potentialist: Predator and Prey. And it's this, it's what we talked about earlier. It's what if we could impact the number of people who develop into being predators by, first of all, making prey rare. And secondly, then, by trying to find out scientifically what can we influence at what age that could perhaps change that behavior. Maybe not 100%. Even if we did 10%, it would be a remarkable achievement.

Yeah. So when can we expect that?

Um, that'll be, uh, I'm targeting October, uh, 2026. Okay, about every 2 years.

Yeah, good. All right, so, uh, you have a website, or how can people buy the book?

Yeah, yeah, I do, and it's an e-learning site. I think you'll like it because, uh, if you go out and try it, because, uh, it's an e-learning site, meaning there's a lot of video out there that I put out on each one of these subjects, uh, and there are some, some goodies that you can get, like Parenting a Potentialist. That, that for people who've got children or grandchildren, it's how to parent a potentialist, how to encourage these kind of behaviors and this thought pattern of looking at the world through the lens of potential from the time they're young. And there's a— this book, The Pursuit of Wisdom, has a very detailed practices manual. So it's 140 pages that we extracted from the book and added some just to practices so that I can just I can decide I'm, I want to, I want to work on this visualize to realize thing. How would I do that? Uh, so, so I want to work on being more conscious, having more conscious intention. How would I do that? So this is a how-to, and is, is as much as I can make it. And of course, if you sign up on the website, you can get my newsletter as well.

Great. What's the address? Uh, it's—

oh, thank you.

Yeah, yeah, there's a lot there. How do we get there?

Yeah, it's potentialistfuture.com. One word, potentialistfuture.com.

Great. A lot of resources there, valuable resources. Yeah, good. Well, Ben, it looks like we're out of time for today, but before I wrap up, I just want to remind my listeners to visit my website, livingto100.club. Sign up for my email list and download a free copy of my 9 tips to make living longer enjoyable. And if you're affiliated with a senior living setting, be sure to look for my new training and activity manual, Better, Longer, and Happier. Ben Lytle, thanks so much for being a guest on our show today. Your website is potentialistfuture.com.

Thank you. I appreciate it. And thanks to all your listeners.

You're welcome. And thanks to my listeners too for tuning in. Hope to see you next time.