The Worst Consequence Of The Modern Food System | Chef Aran Goldstein

0:00You said, we can eat our way into a more human experience. What does that mean? We got this last hundred years that have created this distortion in the field, this distortion in the way that we sustain ourselves, the way we're living isn't very human. For me, it's hard to reconcile a magical life in a bag of Doritos. Even grocery store, you could argue, is kind of a foreign, strange experiment for humans, where everything's done for us. No longer are we used to going even the butcher shop, everything's packaged. There's this level of disconnect. If we're passing on the stress of making real food, we haven't really done our job. Our energy matters as much as the food itself. If not more, beautiful brother. Thank you for taking a second to ground us before we get into this conversation. I want to come out with a gates with something I heard you say on a podcast. I was listening in prep for this episode, which I thought was so interesting. It resonated with me deeply immediately, but I would love for you to unpack what this means. You said, we can eat our way into a more human experience. What does that mean? Sometimes I have this daydream of my soul floating above the earth.

1:05Pre-life is existence, looking down, and that soul is imagining what it would be like down on earth. It's thinking about what's going on in that blue stuff. The ocean, maybe dreams of what that might be like, or mountains, and then thinking about the food. And thinking about that soul and what kind of food it would choose, looking down on this beautiful earth, like what would it choose? And then here we are on this earth. And I think so many of us forget that we have this choice. And we've got this last hundred years that have kind of created this distortion in the field. This distortion in the way that we sustain ourselves. We've inherited habits. We've inherited traditions. We've inherited an idea of normal that is really broken. I think that most of us can agree. And in that, it's hard to remember that we get to choose.

2:06And so I think you could also argue that the way we're living isn't very human. Yeah. I know you agree with me here. Like it's not really aligned with our physiology, our spirituality, this magical existence. And for me, it's hard to reconcile a magical life in a bag of Doritos. Yeah. You know? Yeah, it's mismatched. Even though there's obvious nuance there. And we'll get into that. And I'm sure in this conversation, I think remembering that we have a choice. And that the path forward is actually way easier and more graceful than we could possibly imagine. If we can just kind of zoom out and find the space to even look at our situation with some clarity. Because I think a lot of people just live their whole lives and don't even assess where they're at. Just kind of repeating the conditioning, repeating the pattern. You get old, you die, and you pass that on to the next generation. There are many of us, like this podcast I feel like is born.

3:07Your work is born out of this awakening that you've had, right? And I think that that food for me is just the ultimate playground to explore that awakening. That feeling of there's got to be something else here. There's got to be a different way. And I think, yeah, we can play in the kitchen and choose a more human way. Food is the ultimate playground. That's really cool. Yeah, a lot of what you said definitely jives with me there. I think just that overarching theme that people aren't choosing that much. Not consciously at least. You know, they're they're living life by default, not by design, you could say. All that stuff that you said is kind of passed down. And it becomes normal in the sense that it's common, but abnormal in the sense that it's not remotely fucking useful or optimizing or helping us thrive. In fact, much of the common choices that are made for us now and the convenient ones are pulling us away from being more human. An aspect of that being health, this choice, like not even stopping to think, just being kind of in the road, go about it and pursue mouth pleasure that's temporary,

4:10but then cost you, you know, crashed energy or illness in the future or something like that. So yeah, that food thing is so interesting because it patent interrupts so many times throughout our day. If you start seeing it as more of a choice, right? Because we do it a lot. We eat a lot. You know, if the average person eats breakfast lunch and dinner seven days a week, that's a lot of meals over the course of a month, over the course of a year, and how many are people like really tuning into in terms of all of the process of it, right? The shopping, the sourcing, the prepping, the adding, the cooking, the flavors, the slowing down to actually the tasting, the crunching versus just like, oh, I'm hungry. It's six o'clock. Oh, McDonald's or whatever it may be. So that's really cool. When, how long have you thought like this? You know, did you, did you always have like this food thread or this awareness thread even? Yeah, well, the food thread for sure. I've always loved food. Yeah. You know, being a little kid, my mom used to tell people, yeah, he wants to be a chef someday. You know, glued to like PPS as a kid. Okay. And I watch, you know, Martin Yan, Yan Ginkgo, and Julia Child. I remember watching them black and white Julia Child. Wow. Okay. And what's the guy's name?

5:11Paul Smith, the frugal gourmet, like all of them. But speaking of distortion, there was full distortion in my world because I really overweight kid. Yeah. And I struggled with that balance, especially growing up and going through middle school in those really awkward years. It's a beadal time. Super overweight and having like manboos, hating the idea of getting picked for certain skins and skins and basketball, just like feeling so uncomfortable in my body. And I love food. Like I knew I love food. I love the experience, but it was full of McDonald's and like eating two bacon, I can cheese on Saturday, you know? And that was also the culture that I was born into. You know, my dad loved to feed us. My dad loved to feed in general and come, my, my lineage is Jewish and there's like Jewish culture loves to just celebrate with bagels and just having like a big spread, you know, and and relishing and being in company and celebrating food. Yeah. So the culture is beautiful, but the distortion is here in this broken food system. And I would argue like in this broken kind of environment that we've created that just isn't

6:13isn't aligned, you know, even our houses like, you know, protected from the sun, you know, these walls and the ceilings and the artificial light and the screens and the hustle driving so far on highways and it's hard to kind of like slow, I find this really hard to kind of slow down. And you would just chew my food. Yeah, it's very difficult. Looking back for my child, like I ate really fast and this is still something I'm still working through. It's almost harder now because I've got kids in the hustle and the pressure, you know, of providing for them. My mom would always be like, nobody's stealing your food. Yeah, like calm down. And still to this day, it has to. Unless I'm like, you said just call up in the rushing, you know, that's why I talk about it a lot online, like slow down. It's a reminder to me, dude, what are you rushing? Yeah, like it barely even tasted that was just like, like, you know, totally. And I'm eating healthy food now. So it's different than when I was crushing 12 bags of chips one after another. But the different, the same mechanics are still though, which is like the absent-mindedness, the rushing, you know, to slow down. Like nobody's stealing your food, like put your fork and knife down between every bite, chew it.

7:14Like, I even sometimes cue myself like, what would it be like to experience this food for the first time? Like try to like control all, delete any perception. Like, what are you chewing now? Imagine seeing that or tasting that through fresh eyes and mouths and just like, oh yeah, you get an appreciation for it. But it has to be a practice because for me, if it's not, yeah, I'll just run around like I had less chicken stuff in anything in my gob. Totally, totally. You know, and I think maybe I'm caught up in the grass being greener and having experience honeymooning in Japan, for example, where there was this invitation to slow down in different ways. Not always because there's definitely a culture of like housing ramen. No, no, no. Being in the house, but I remember being in this like onsen town with my wife and being presented this beautiful platter of food that literally was this invitation to just slow down and taste everything. Like a ceremony almost. And granted, it was my, you know, it wasn't working. I was on vacation. It was my honeymoon. And there was a time that, you know, made it more easy to drop into that. But I don't know, man, like there's something, there's like a changing, of course,

8:15that I see us needing to kind of go down and pivot towards. Alphan think of, you know, the two roads, poem. And just thinking we're at in human history, it's like, we got to slow down. Yeah. I got to slow down, you know? And so, yeah, let food be this place where we can try to. Yeah. But it takes like a lot of energy to kind of still and ground. I went hiking or excuse me camping with my son last spring. He does this really cool nature program here in Austin. And it was yearly camp out. It's called Sky Earth. It's super rad. So we went, brought all the food, like sausages and steaks to cook. I had two, you know, Coleman camping burners. Yeah. Got there. We, uh, I think with our first night, we cooked steaks, you know, washed up, went to sleep, woke up in the morning. And just immediately my whole nervous system was different. Different. Like I remember just everything I did was slower. Yeah. Every single thing, just waking up and immediately seeing the sun,

9:15feeling the air around me, not, you know, peeing outside, all of it, all of it was this natural, like, drop in. It wasn't even conscious. So there was no effort to slow down. Correct. I was living slower. And so here I am, here we are. It's like, how do we fit that with this world that we've constructed? Yeah. You know, these highways and these buildings and these strips of new developments that are always this, like it's another Starbucks or it's another fast food or it's another even grocery store. You could argue is kind of a foreign, strange experiment for humans. Absolutely. Where everything's done for us. Absolutely. You know, and so no longer are we used to go into the, even the butcher shop, which was a way of outsourcing, the local butcher in the village, right? Where we were used to seeing the feet and the head on the chicken, you know, which we will get to and the organs laid out. Everything's packaged. So it's like there's this level of disconnect. Yeah. But at the very least, we can take those liver's home or take that animal home and still cook it. And I fear that sometimes we're like, we're in danger of losing this, like faster and faster.

10:19In the way like, I know so many of us are intuiting, like I should be cooking. And I want to cook. But almost it's like this, like almost fetishizing of like where we're at, where everything is just like this indulgent, like sexy real that they're trying to capture and this like indulgent experience as opposed to this like, I'm here. And this is like my right as a human to, you know, honor this body, honor this life and have a sacred meal. You know, I feel like that is our north star right now. Yeah, because it's the, it's the most important invitation again, which is this theme of like slowing down. I had a similar experience. You were describing with the camp in it was a couple of summers ago. I did a vision quest. We went out to Yosemite National Park. And we were, I was out in the wilderness for six, six full days. No cell phone service. Very difficult in the sense that I was so happy to be disconnected from the world. But it was challenged to be disconnected from my people, you know, like not being able to talk to my wife and kids for a full six days of no service.

11:19That was like, oh, you know, like, but at the same time, as much as it was challenged, there was immense beauty in it because like you said, and it did take, it took me a minute. What I noticed is like, when I got there, I was kind of like, you know, sit down. I'm a, I pay a lot of attention to myself. So like meditate. I was like, okay, as my nervous system settled, yeah. And it was, there was like a hangover that took me a minute. It was like the, the RPM on your car was like oscillating at five thousand here. And it just takes a minute once you're in that environment to go like, oh, we can relax. Yeah. And then when it did, it was that switch. And it had probably happened within 24 hours of being back in nature. You know, like, oh, there it is. And everything just changed. And there was no effort to go slower because there was no choice to go faster. There was no reason to. So yeah, I'm just paddling around in these lakes and pooping and peeing outside and eating slow meals. And we had a lot of fasting. Yeah, that was good as well. Did you fast for a long period of days? Three days. And wild camping, sleeping. So no, no creature comforts on this, you know, very stripped back human experience. And the purpose of that, by the way, is, is to quest for a vision as it's called in many indigenous practices, basically to get clear, to get clarity.

12:21Like, what is it that you're here to do? Right? Not, not, not what you think is possible or not. That's not your business. That's the business of life. What are you here to find that you care about mostly? And then pursue it as fully as you can. Because if we don't slow down, we don't find that thing. We get caught up in everything that you're describing here. And we live our whole lives, somewhere in like a sleepwalking state. We, when we can do crazy shit while sleepwalking, look at culture, we've built this crazy thing, almost in a daydream. And some people are born and get married and have kids in the state of sleep all the way until, you know, they realize it might be too late. And that's the greatest regret, you know. So this waking up happens, I think, only by, well, maybe it happens to some people spontaneously, or through like near death experiences or health crises, like health crisis was my door in. But eventually I had to come to like, oh, yeah, I have to start paying attention more. And that is a natural consequence of starting with food for me. That's where it started for me. A lot of residents would be in the Chubby Kid self-conscious, super indulgent. And my parents allowed me to eat whatever I wanted all the time out of love because they weren't

13:25allowed to. You know, they came from immense scarcity and a pull-up bringing stuff. And they found a modicum of success where they were like, yeah, like my kids are not going to stop. You can have whatever you want, kids. And that was like such an awesome, abundant thing for them to show. But you can't restrict yourself on this food. You know, you can't moderate with it, right? Like I still to this day. If I'm going to open a pint of ice cream, it's gone. Forget it. I'm not having three bites and perring it away. So for me, a lot of it is designing my environment. If it's in the house, it'll be in my mouth. So I don't bring it in the house. And then I stay slow. And this is a big part of the reason for getting into the home setting and stuff. I wanted to really actually understand the full cycle from seed to harvest, to consumption, or in the sense of the animal lives that we now also take is from, you know, egg to chick, see it all the way through, and then actually take that life, and then clean that life, and then pull out the guts, and then do the quote-unquote nasty work. The reason it's, I quote it, is because it's only nasty in modern context, because of the disconnection you're talking about, because we don't have to do it anymore. And my wife and I, a almost two years from buying any grocery store, pork or chicken.

14:32And that feels really good to me. You know, it's just a journey, and we're learning a lot. But it was, it was, it came out of the awareness that I don't really want to support those systems as much as possible, you know, in the steps to get there. You know, at farmer's market that are on your, they're the best. I think we need more of that. But I think overarchingly, this is what it's all about, is like, what are you choosing? Why are you choosing it? And can you slow down a little bit as life seems to be racing exceedingly to some kind of omega point? It's like, just, just calm down, get in nature, do these things, and eat your way back into this human experience. And that's such a wonderful frame. You know, it's funny listening to you, and I've had this realization, I hear you describing that home's dead in life, and I have this mix of, I want that. I want that from my family. I want that for myself. And this massive fear that comes up, like, would I be okay with that? Like, would I be okay with that stillness? Which I think is maybe a collective experience. Like, how could I, how could I have that much still? Absolutely. You know, how could I dedicate my life to just taking care of the food?

15:35Basically, basically, that's it. Oh, it's a whole time job. You're just taking care of the food. The nonstop is just, we've got almost a hundred souls on our little patchal land. And the whole, the vast majority of energy is basically keeping things alive, including my children. So it's like, it's just a lot of energy. But it's like, the best way to describe it is a labor of love. It's a labor. There's a lot to do, but it's a labor of love. And love is a very sustainable fuel. So you can just, you can endure anything. You can just keep going. And because you know it's coming full circle back into your family and back into this life, it's cool. It's less exhausting, quote, unquote, than, you know, spending 10 hours doing a project for work or looking at a screen. Yeah. I mean, it's a primal sense of purpose. Yeah. No doubt. Like, how do you not have purpose in that act, you know? True. So true. It's funny. I've been thinking about that. I'm working, I'm consulting for this restaurant picnic. And we're, you know, putting together details of reopening. And I'm calling this soap guy, you know, for the soap dispensers.

16:36And I'm like, do you have anything non-taxic? And he's like, no, no, we don't have anything. And he's like, and then he sends me another voice message. He's like, but I hear you. He's like, I don't, I don't use anything in my house. That's, that's toxic. I'm all clean. And I'm like, this guy is peddling something. He doesn't even believe it. Yeah. Like he lives a certain way. And he's selling the stuff. He doesn't even believe it. He doesn't even use. And I, I would comment. I'm like, this is the world in so many ways. Little prison. Yeah, just people doing stuff that I'm not passionate about. It's just like the job. Yeah, I think so many of us are just afraid. We don't know how, from the act of cooking, from the act of farming, or all these blocks that we may have. And maybe some of it is inherited. Like, I'm not going back to the farm. Just want my parents to play a game. Parents come on. We don't have nice things. Yeah, yeah, we were sold that. Like, World War II, like, you know, what was it, more than half of American farm? Yes. Had little farms. Yes. Victory gardens were responsible for like the UK's success. Yeah. It was a government thing, you know, like almost 100 years ago. Now, like, everybody should be growing. Like, get out there, buy out a trade, all of that stuff.

17:38Yeah. So then when you come out of that, and it's such a stressful time, yeah. And then now it's prosperity in this boom, this economic boom, of course. Like, oh, fuck it. These farmers will do it for us. It's awesome. Yeah. And God bless the farmers. But now they're even struggling. Yeah. And what we've done in the name of mass farming is completely destroying our top soils and the earth and the food that we do get. Not only is it. Completely outsourced to this mysterious middleman. We have no idea where it's coming from. But what's coming back as a consequence of that is certainly less nutritious food. Totally. Totally. I mean, it's perverse now of his systems. And we've, you know, commoditized the big major grains and incentivize the big, it's just great. It's broken. It's broken. We shouldn't be like trading stocks for like, you know, wheat, corn, and so on. No, no, that's absurd. That's absurd. It's absurd. Yeah. Yeah. Like, if the government's going to get involved, like, yeah, if you're going to subsidize something or support. Something let it be the small farm. Like, let's return to that world. Yeah. You know, and what you were saying about like that, that like juxtaposition of like, oh, I kind of want that. And also like fearful of the amount of stillness that it requires.

18:41It's just like the invitation there is, remember how good you felt camping with your son. And remember that it's not just that camping lifestyle, but it's more on that side of the spectrum than on this like go, go, go, do, do, do, hustle, hustle. Wow, look at all the convenience we have. Yeah. So it definitely slows the pace down. And somebody asked me on Instagram, like last week in a Q&A, do you think somebody can be truly healthy whilst living in a city? And my answer was kind of like, in my experience, I don't think they can be truly healthy. Now, because this is how I define health. And you might have a, if your definition of health is just a certain look, feel, biomarkers, and a life that you enjoy in that sense. And I say, then, yeah, by your definition, you can be, but I think there's something more human about this question of quote-unquote optimal health, which I don't think optimal health is biohacking and blood work. And trying to live until you never die. You know, I think optimal health is not just like looking, feeling, and expressing a certain way, but it's like the condition of the human too. Like the soul, the spirit, the connection, and my answer was basically,

19:41that's why I don't think it can be achieved within a city. Because I think there's something fundamentally human in us that needs to have our hands in the dirt, that needs to participate in the life cycle of if you're going to consume that, you need to take it. And take it seems like such a, you know, a short-sighted word, because it is really cyclical. You know, this extractive nature is what's got as a trouble in modern society, I think. We just take, take, take, take. And imagine that there's endless resources. And I think that's very dangerous. So like the homestead in life is one of taking life, for example, but putting back into the soil, rehabilitating the land, nurturing, seeing over seasons, what changes, and what changes need to be made, and planting more wildflowers, and regenerating soils that were otherwise burrowed dead. Like, I think life supports that, which supports life. And something like just participating in that process is very helpful. Even if that means if you're in a city, that might just mean growing cilantro on your windowsill, or having a little balcony garden or something. It doesn't mean you have to homestead by any means, but it means that you have to participate with life

20:43and by supporting it. And that means where you can, more conscious decisions. Like instead of Costco, Sam's Club, or wherever you're getting your meat, if you can, if you have the means, please go to the farmer's market. Please shake the hand that feeds you. Please try to spend that extra money, if you can, on the organic versus the conventional. And ideally, get out of that conundrum altogether by knowing exactly where it comes from, in season, from the guy that is doing it the right way. But like you said, the modern world has unfortunately just made that path a lot harder, even though it's more natural to the way that we're supposed to be. You might as well ask your question. Don't play it. Don't play it. Don't play it. Have you found yourself, because when you're describing the homesteading life, I'm just imagining this ease into presence. Yeah. Have you found that you've kind of expanded your capacity to just be present in the day? Or I get stuck very much with all the stuff I gotta do as a dad. You know how I need to be for my wife, how I need to be for my kids, I need to earn more money. I need, I should be working out versus like, maybe I should work a sub-soc article,

21:44but like all that noise, right? Yeah. Does your, does the world that you've created yourself kind of invite more presence naturally? Unbelievably so. It is, it is literally the most, perhaps the most important thing that I've done recently in terms of an environmental upgrade. Because I still deal with all of those things that you are talking about. They are not as all-encompassing as where I've been in previous environments. Like, we've been here in Tennessee now for four years building this. By the way, we knew nothing about this. Everything has been trial and error failure. Death, broken fences, poop, blood, you name it. It's not been utopia. It's not been my pretty wife in a sundress milking the cows. No, it's been like disaster pants a lot of the time. But beautiful and very grounding. And like, so before that, I came from Florida for a couple of years and before that I was in Pennsylvania in a more gnarly environment for once-of-a-better word. And those things had a great hold of over me in those environments. That might be coming with age and wisdom, but I think by nature of just being in the energy of the dirt

22:49and the trees, it is inherently more reflecting back to you a natural way of stillness. Nature is a very interesting mirror to observe because nature never rushes. Yet, everything is accomplished perfectly on time, all the time. And it never skips a season. It's always going to be consistent and it just is constantly unfolding and coming to life and then coming to death and dying and regenerating. And I think if you're in that superver-awareness versus in the collective energy of like, when I step into a city, for example, I feel the energy of a city. We're in dripping, so we're a bit out of it now. If I go into Austin, you feel that energy. And it's actually really invigorating and it's lively and like, oh, it's fun and adventure here. But if you live in that, that's what your nervous system expands to, right? So that's where it gets probably, I think. And I think I'm very sensitive in that way that there's nothing you could offer me right now. And I genuinely mean this, hand on heart. You could offer me $10 million a year, but you got to live in New York City. I'm going to say, sounds wonderful.

23:50No, thank you. I can't do it because I know I would not thrive in that environment. I can't. I need to be in the woods. I need to be in the dirt. I need to be with my animals and the trees. I need it now because I've felt it. It's very hard to give that up, you know? That's amazing. You didn't know before. No, I had no idea. I was good, like you was. Because I liked all the creature comforts. I liked to be in 10 minutes away from my jujitsu gym and having a whole foods and having Uber Eats. Like if I order something on Amazon to my home now, it takes like four or five days to get there. I come here and I'm like, oh, you guys can get same day delivery. That's neat. And that's, you know, so again, everything pros and cons. There are trade-offs to the kind of life that we live. And for the person that really loves convenience and stuff, yeah, that's not going to be for you. But maybe what you actually really want under the convenience is the presence and the stillness afforded by that way of life. And you won't know until you try it, you know? So I was very trepidacious of what this looked like. But I've also had this perspective for a long time that if something's not working, you can just change. So it didn't feel like when we would moving to Tennessee,

24:53blindly, by the way, we move there blind. We saw this house on a FaceTime. It was a complete surrender experiment. I was like, okay, this could be cool. I've got to go as the kids say, fuck around and find out. I've got to do it. And if we don't like it, we'll just pivot and we'll keep going. My wife and I, entire relationship has been like that since we met 13 years ago. It's been one massive surrender experiment which started because of the complex problem of, I'm English, you're American. How do we stay together? We can't in each other's respective countries. Visa issues were broke, kids were young. So we backpacked, we traveled. And we'd go to a new country. And if we didn't like where we were, we'd move to the next town. And if we liked it, we'd stay. And if we didn't like the country altogether, we'd just buck out and leave, you know? Like this adventure has led us now paradoxically to the most on the outside, boring, simple, slow pace of life ever. And I'm very grateful for it. Yeah, it's beautiful, man. Yeah. And I wanted to, this is something I really wanted to talk to you about because part of my, a big part of my journey has been traveling. And a big part of traveling is food. You were saying like, I love food.

25:54I love food. I think every person loves food. It's such an amazing experience. I think the, the misnomer unfortunately, when we talk about all healthy food is that it's, it's boring. And it's just so not boring. It couldn't be further from the truth. But what I experienced, one of the, my favorite things about all the travel that I did is getting to experience new foods and new cultures. And what I experienced was food has a way of dissolving any kind of boundaries. Oh, yeah. Like you think you're, you know, I see the world this way or I am this religion and you're going to sit with a one of them, you know, they see it very differently. They don't like us. No. When somebody is sharing food, like all of that is just, it's off the table because what's on the table is connection. And I've been in all different kinds of countries with all different kinds of belief systems. And by none, like been met with humans that are sharing experiences. And as a chef to create that for people, must be really special. So Ted talked to me about how you think food connects people in all of them. Oh, 100%. We were just in Munich on a one day layover. And we were in the Uber.

26:54And I just got talking with the Uber driver. And it came out that he's from Afghanistan. And I'm like, oh man, I love Afghan food. And it was just after probably, I don't know, five, 10 minutes of like not much warmth, you know, in the drive. And I could just, his whole body, like, warmed. It was like, it was like him dropping into his heart. And I, and his energy, like shifted towards me. And he had this smile and he's like, you like Afghan food. Yeah. And then the next half hour, we're just talking about different dishes. And it actually just happened that my wife and I had our, like our wedding the night before dinner at an Afghan restaurant. And I'm like, yeah, I mean, I like the flavors, the aroma, the stew. And he's like, yeah. And then he's talking about his wife's recipes. And I'm like, do you cook? And he's like, I don't really cook, but I do do this one dish really well. And like, immediately, no guard. Like there's no, like, we could have opposite belief systems, you know, about the world. But in this moment, we are, we are just like brothers in this world, you know. And it's so true if we could just, I know that this is,

27:56it's probably oversimplified, you know, you know, you know, in Bourdain, you used to talk about this all the time. And people just really resonate with that, with his belief that we could, we could just find each other, you know, around a table and heal so much in this complex world. You know, the problem is like we leave the table and then we kind of get back to our old, like, habits, you know, in our old childish, our childish habits. And the way we interact, which is a total pivot of the conversation, we come in naturally, I think, into this world with that, peace, you know, in that light that we shouldn't even need to have like that table to like reconcile our differences, you know. But here we are, I think that are beyond like food and you know, finding health, I think what we, and part of this is wrapped up into the food piece that you have your own story with food, right? Is reconciling what we inherit from our, from our lineages, like from our parents, from our grandparents, what would it be like the traumas or, and I say the word traumas, like it sounds so bad, but it might just be the way like, you know,

28:59our grandparents like interacted with their parents, like at the dinner table that created this stress that literally passed on to you. It could be subtle in some ways where you don't, you know, we define ourselves as ourselves, right? It's like, I'm this way, this is who I am without this awareness that perhaps like this is just something inherited, you know, and something to learn about about myself. I don't know why I just wanted to go there with that part of the conversation, but I think this is just what's alive with me. And yeah, I'm exploring food endlessly, but so much of this is like looking at where I came from in my own lived experience, because part of me feeling like aspects of life are off, I know is like aspects of what I've inherited from my parents more even further, you know? Or even further. And I play in the realm of food a lot, because it's an opportunity, like Liches say, if like there seems to be tension at night at the dinner table, because it's the end of the day, and who doesn't have an experience as a kid where like tension was kind of like building at the day

30:00when parents were stressed out or fights might have happened, and I find myself repeating some of these patterns, right? My mom used to call it the bewitching hour, when kids would lose their minds at night, you know? But really it was the adults, like coming home kind of stressed from like, probably living a lot of life that wasn't aligned. Like my mom would have done way better, like going to a yoga class instead of being a mom, you know, a school principal, and then coming home and feeding us and all that, right? And so I think this is interesting, like place to check ourselves, and like my were making dinner and being like, my wife even last night told me, like you were really frantic, like when you got home last night, you're just like, she's like, can you just take a moment, and I do this, like I do this, and she's a great like teammate, you know, and my oracle kind of, she's like, can you just like set it yourself before you come in the house, like decide who you want to be, and she's so right. She's so right. Like that moment in the car before, especially like us dads, and us moms, you know, coming in, and owning our energy and having a plan before we just go in that door and like drops and goes, re-stound, or whatever, you know. And that is this like, this test of like,

31:02all right, like who could I be? Correct. Who do I want to be, and then choosing that path, you know, I talked about food earlier, but it's also like, who do I want to be as a dad? Who do I want to be as a friend? Like who do I want to be in this conversation with my new buddy, you know, in the hopes that we arrive back home to our true nature, you know, which is what you're creating in your life of just being present, you know, a present human. So I don't know where we even started on that conversation, but I think this is a really beautiful place for us to explore. Yeah, absolutely. And it's the whole, you know, just be here now as it becomes such a cliche, because it's true. Like firstly, you actually can't be anywhere else. You're always here and now, it's just your head that's somewhere else, you know, it's your head that got frantic, it's your head that's anxious about tomorrow or regretful about the way you didn't show up. But you are always here and now and you need those reminders. And sometimes it's difficult, you know, when your wife lovingly checks you in that way, because you know they're right. They say the truth hurts sometimes. And that's probably why, because it's like, yeah, you're really pointing out something

32:03that I don't like about myself that I was frantic. You're right. And I'm not going to hold that against you and lash out. I'm going to be like, yeah, you know what, babe? You're right. So what becomes of that, this little mantra that when I'm crossing the threshold, let's say, I'm the only person responsible for the energy I bring into this room. And I'm not perfect at that. But when I catch myself like, you know, the laptop closes and I put my hand on that door and I catch myself and I go, ah, take a breath. I'm the only person responsible for the energy I bring into this room. The diversion of me in that scenario is so different than the one that just rushed in like a bowl in a china shop. Like it's, it's a world apart. And it was just one moment of awareness, one moment of presence that otherwise can easily slip by. So I think we have to punctuate our days with this more and more, I think. I think it was probably more our natural state. This is what you said we come in pure. You know, I watch my kids all the time. I'm in this existential crisis right now that I'm like, I'm not here to teach my kids. They're here to teach me. Like I feel like they're raising me. I'm not even raising them. Sure, I'm aware also that I'm a mirror.

33:05Therefore, I've got to do my best to clean up my side of the street, but I am getting so many things reflected back to me. Oh yeah. You know what I mean? And it's wonderful in that way. The reason they're so pure is because they haven't been distracted and pulled away from that pureness yet. I'm going to be able to do that by all of the stresses. The paying the bills. What should I do for work? I'm worrying about my growth, my spiritual pursuits, my relationship getting enough love. My fitness now is slipping. And you know, all of a sudden you're trying to juggle 12 chainsaws and it's on fire. And then your kids sick and they've got diarrhea and then the pigs are dying and yeah. I mean, well, my son wakes up this morning and I tell him that night before I'm like, man, we gotta go a little bit early. Cause I gotta get back and do his podcast tonight. Any wakes up and he just literally just pees and goes outside and starts like working on his bow. Yeah, success with just like anything would. He's just sitting there working on his bow for like an hour. Yeah, you know, until I go and like, would see some breakfast, you know, I got like eggs and and it's like, could we get taught anything better than just watching, like watching my son this morning

34:06just work on his bow. And ironically, he couldn't be taught anything better. I thought there's not another environment that you could put him in at that moment that's more beneficial to his evolution than letting him be fully present with that bow. Yeah, yeah. And then for me, which I've done this in my life, like rushing him out the door cause I gotta do this thing so mindlessly in the past. So mindlessly like, where are we rushing to go to? What is it? The fear that we're 10 minutes late and we look bad in front of another fellow human, you know, or whatever it is. And maybe some of it's trapped in my body from being a cook and this like, I call it a lie almost. It's but it's so real because I, it's the same thing that drives me nuts about certain cooks that I'm like training the sense of urgency. It's like I struggle with it because it's so real in this industry, right? Right. The people, the sense of urgency and being on your toes. But the way that it's taught, it's so fucking stressful. Yes. Like we got, and I'm stuck in that mode. This is what it last night. I'm like, I'm prepping for, I'm thinking about lunch,

35:09or packing the lunch in the morning and like so I'm like, my son loves sushi and like avocado rolls. Yeah. So I packed for his lunch some lineage dried beef, shout out to another company lineage. We actually started with the heart and soil smoothie, some prosciutto, a bunch of watermelon, some olives, and I mean, these sushi rolls with avocado. But like it's night before process. Like I got like a measuring out a cup of the rice. I wake up in the morning, I soak it. Like that's all these systems are in my head. So I'm just like, you know, I'm getting to run, I'm cleaning because I want to get up early and I also want to have my own practice, you know. All too often I get up, like come on, we got to go, man, we got to go, man, like what a disrupt. And that's the moment. Like that's the moment that he is either going to grow up as himself or have to heal from the trauma. That's the trauma. That's it. Like the trauma of growing up in a household where there was so much anxiety around rushing and like going places, you know, those little moments. Micro-moving. Matter so much. They matter so much, yeah.

36:09Yeah. And as I'm like, visioning that lunchbox that you're preparing, it's another, it's another barrier to entry to this life that we're talking about, that the cost of attention and energy that has to go into preparing something nutritious and healthy and diverse versus like, you get a lunch bowl today, kid. You know, that cost of convenience. And that this is why it's, it's a lot sometimes, you know, the curse of self-awareness in many ways is to be aware of like how many things need to be taken currently. Like you said, looking after yourself and having that time and not being reactive and not rushing, but still trying to honor, you know, agreements and get places on time. So, you know, the question there for me, as you kind of mentioned it, like, there is an urgency that is alive in life sometimes, especially if you've got to do certain things if you're a chef, you've got to get the food out and the food's got to be hot, right? But there's, it seems like you've got a perspective on how that can either be like a very toxic urgency or more a word urgency. Like what's that? Well, so the balance there is that it's not that there needs to be this stressful

37:12frantic urgency. There needs to be presence and a purpose and a practice like where you're efficient with your time. And that can be so graceful. Yeah. It can be almost like a meditation. And if anyone's ever experienced like, you know, even a workflow where like you're just kind of like in line with people that you're working with on a project or on a sports team, where there's this grace, where things are just falling into place, there's beauty in that and doesn't feel afraid. It does, even though it might be a stressful thing, like 20 tickets on the board and making sure you're tempering everything right. Just a flow. It's a good flow. Or the same exact version of that, when you're just making dinner on a Tuesday night and you just want it to flow, you know? So interestingly, we're talking about this packing up the lunch box. Like this is something to get right because we're not just doing it right if the food is quality and it's good. Because if we're passing on the stress of making real food, we haven't really done our job, you know, which is why I talk very often about like our energy matters as much as the food itself, if not more. Right.

38:12Could you put in healthy food on a plate and killing yourself in the process? Yeah, with stress and everything. It was too much stress to get there. And sometimes I, you know, in weaker moments, I'm envious of the people that are just, you know, picking up chick-flag. Yeah, I know. And maybe laughing and having a ball, you know? Like it's like, do they have it right? Sometimes, you know, in the week in weak moments, but then I'm like, no. Because then you like, you go back into the world, you're like, you know what? People are fucking suffering. I know. I'm young. I was in this, you know, interestingly, I had that same camping trip, this woman, this yoga instructor, set up this really rad tent, this beautiful space. And she, one night she hosted a grieving circle. And I'm just like, I'm going to go to this. And just kind of, what's this all about, you know? Because part of me feels like I'm grieving aspects of my childhood, like grieving. I'm still reconciling, like losing my grandparents. I'm not sure if I fully, you know, or like, you know, family members and things. And I go to it. Every single person had this traumatizing experience of cancer or suicide, something tragic

39:15that you cannot argue that food doesn't have a role in or like our lifestyle or the stresses, you know, like I believe that none of it was necessary, you know, that there was something that needed to have been healed or reconciled before or even after, you know, that diagnosis is the way I see it. But either way, like we're, it sounds sad, but we're not okay. Yeah, no. We're not, this isn't okay. Like that Chick-fil-A existence, you know? And so I see it at a deeper level. And that's why I've just like kind of drawn my line in the sand and we all have our own lines in the sand about different things in life. But this is one of them that like my version of it is like, if you ever see me pulling into Chick-fil-A, like it's not me. Yeah. Like it's like I'm, it's someone wearing a mask. That's me because there's never going to be a time where I go in there. Now, there's there like a time in my life, just even like within the last year that I bought like Seattle chips, like an avocado oil that someone else is lining the sand, and it's like I'm never fucking buying those chips.

40:16And actually now, year later, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, wait a minute, why am I buying these chips? So it's an evolution and it's like fluid. And everyone's experienced with some of the details, but man, I think it's important that we draw those lines. Yeah, you know? And when you talk about the creating the environment for yourself, but I'm assuming you do this for your family, like I think it's everything. It's like we have to actively create the environment for our families and create these healthy boundaries so that there's not this stress. So like, look, my belief is like I'm only going to bring in food from to the home that I am proud to serve you. Yeah. Right? Yeah. There's some hiccups there with like, if I bring in chocolate that has coconut sugar, like that can be troublesome. Yeah. So maybe I need to stop bringing that chocolate, but it mostly, food that they can just have as much as they want to, you know? Yeah. And also, I'm just like you knowing myself, like if there's a six pack of craft beer, like I'm having a beer the next six nights, probably. Yeah. Like I find it really hard, you know? Because I love it. You know, like easily. And then I'm like, a week's gone by and I'm like, I'm a little off, you know?

41:16It's a good, yeah, I had a beer every night. So it's like always this game with our own monkey brains and also like having a healthy environment for our kids monkey brains that are just so easily just like, you know, can drop into what's around them. Yeah. It's constant. Friends, I have a really quick favor to ask. We are honored that you are listening to this show and I hope you're enjoying it, but we can make it even better with your help. If you like, subscribe and share radical health radio. We promise to make it even more radical. Your support means the world. Let's get back to it. And it's always evident and flowing. And it's about meeting yourself where you're at at the moment, I think. And another side of this is not like allowing yourself enough grace as a human to not get stuck in a purity spiral also work. Because that just, it can be so suffocating because once you start drawing lines in the sun and you have these values and you really believe in them and you then have to reconcile that everything that you're choosing usually is harder now because this modern world isn't aligned with those fundamental human lines in the sun. That now it's just, it again is like so stressful

42:17and exhausting. That's why you wrestle with the, maybe the family that are just getting the trick for lay, have it figured out because they're not carrying that stress. But then you have to also future cast and play a long term consequences and stuff. And it's very difficult, man. It's a balance in acting many ways. Yeah. And you know, just one more point though, you said something funny about like, if you ever see me at the Chick-fil-A, it's not me, like it's a guy wearing a mask and that is the lowest self acting at all actually. And I'll say that meaning like, because when we slip into unconsciousness, it isn't ourselves doing that. There is a lower version of me choosing the easy path right now. And I'm wearing a mask, a mask comes from persona, the Greek word for personality. Like I've adopted a false personality that believes that it's okay to not think about food. And I do that, but it's usually when I'm again disconnected from self and I'm not paying attention. I've gone into that. The monkey mind's taken over. I've got a little bit robotic and I'm justifying this choice right now. But if you draw headlines in the sand,

43:17then you're constantly gonna hold yourself to those standards. Yeah. And Paul check used to say something all the time that just sticks with me. Your yes has no value until you learn to say no. Hmm. So what are you willing to say no to? That's really what I think a lot of people are struggling with. Our culture has become a culture of yes. Yes, to convenience, yes to fast food, yes to people pleasing, yes to social events that don't actually give us anything. They drain us, yes to taking on too many people's baggage. Yes, yes, yes. And then no becomes a very powerful thing to exercise your won't power. Actually no. I'm not going to eat that thing. Under no circumstances actually. Oh no, I'm not going to keep allowing other people to steal my time when it's not leaving me energized. So like the whole thing is really important. And again, food is always kind of oscillating at the forefront of this because we've got to feed ourselves all the time. And this is where again, it becomes a really cool invitation to think about it in that way. Because this is a chance not only to obviously support your physiology, your aging, your health

44:20with optimal food. Another layer is to support the systems that you want to incentivize. To think about the future of soil and things like that. And then another layer deeper. And you just keep peeling the onion. But ultimately it's like as I'm eating this and as I'm getting slower and as I'm getting more present, like what's here right now? What am I avoiding that I know is causing me this dysfunction? What's the hard conversation I'm not having with my boss on my loved one, on my coworker, on my sister or this, that and the other? What's the thing that I'm doing? What's the cycle I'm repeating and putting it onto my kids that if I don't clean up now, they're gonna have to carry the weight of that forever. So it's all, it's tricky sometimes because it can feel like so much. Then that's what we're talking about also in this conversation. It's so important to think about this stuff. And it's heavy because it's a lot on top of the human doing side. It's like to take care of the human being and do the human doing and the pay in the bills and the raising a good family and being a good man and all of that on top of it. It's just a lot, man.

45:20Totally. You know, it's interesting because like that know and the yes. Like it doesn't have to come from a charged place or doesn't have to come with such friction. And there's gray area. Yeah. Like the last thing I wanted to do, and I've been, I've danced with this a bit with food where even my wife has said to me like, because she was gonna go buy these like beef sticks, right? And I'm like, I don't want to get those beef sticks. I don't want to normalize getting these for my kid. At least get this other one, you know? And she's like, I feel restrictive. And then when we sat and talked through it and I kind of described like, look, like this isn't the world I want to create for my kids. Like I don't see Ann and I'm like, I don't know this company. Like I don't know if this is like really like a from a cow on pasture, you know, you can grass. I might just be from like one of those factories and there's maybe okay and they're getting hay but like I don't even know. Like and I'm just not okay with that. And there's alternatives. And what if we can just make food, you know? And just like coming back to like my wife with her and like just talking through it, we found the grace.

46:21But am I gonna be the parent that like if Mike's is on this out and there's at a birthday party or like he has a play date and they, this has happened. And the parents go through like, there's this local place, Pteries, right? And they're been in it. I don't even know. Like do they have good beef? Is there canola oil in the, I don't know. I'm assuming, right? And I got a text from the dad and he's like, we're gonna grab burger as this is before I even knew. And I'm like, okay. Like at that moment I was like, okay. Cause I can imagine my son being in that experience and like also having this, from my standpoint, where there's like blobs of matter but we're mostly just like energetic existence, you know? And our beliefs I think dictate our physical experience and this experience in this world. So if I'm gonna create an environment of stress with my son when he gets back and I'm like, there's this balance of the healthy boundaries. Maybe I'll let him have this experience and see how he lives with this experience. And I grew up with like non-stop McDonald's and Coke

47:23and seed oils and all of it. I'm here, right? And I'm glad I did because he came back and he's like, that I got the burger and it was gross. It goes gross. And he has no desire to go back. Yeah. But it's like the forbidden fruit. And you're like, no, you can never have that. They just want it more. Yeah, because we can be on our heads, be like, you know, that oil is gonna be in a system for seven years and it's gonna be, you know, it's like, all right, well, it can be so fucking in our head about the dangers and we can be so neurotic. So it is a dance of like here in this physical world with like being also honoring and creating an environment for our kids where like you can heal from anything. Yeah, absolutely. And you trust in your body that you were always 100% your body is working to find homeostasis. Always, yeah. And you get to co-create that homeostasis, you know, with the power of your mind and your spirit, that is what I want to cultivate. That's it. And it's like, all right, like you had a burger, you had it even some day, he's never had McDonald's. Like there's like certain things where I'm like, I'm not gonna go in there.

48:24Like some days probably gonna try it. Yeah, of course. And if he comes from a place of trusting his own sovereignty, his own intuition, like that is way more powerful and powerful than denying. And that the denying is not like because I've also gone to parties where I'm like, look, we're having no cupcakes. Like that's that shit's garbage. Yeah. Like, you know, it's okay. Like we can go make a pie at home. Yes. Like, you know, and that he's like any, and that's never been charged with me. I've always tried to become like, this is what we, and I think about this. And I'm like, if I were, you know, my ancestors a thousand years ago and we're out in a hunt, I thought my kid eat a poisonous berry because he's curious. Yeah, no. I'm not denying him any experience, like dying from potentially eating the putt or like getting sick or throwing up, you know, like it's absurd. We think like we're denying our kids this like experience of being kids in this world. And that means eating a shitty cupcake or like some goop out of plastic or some shitty, like really? I know, man. But that's where we get to return. Be like, okay, you want a donut?

49:24We're gonna make a donut. We're gonna fry and tallow. We're gonna go to Barton's Bringers and we're gonna get awesome heirloom wheat. And we're gonna like make the best donut that this world is ever known. Yeah. Beautiful ingredients. And then we'll kind of get out of our system and maybe someday we'll come around to like, and maybe that'll be part of our family ritual. When we do the donuts or we do the pie or, you know, or whatever our version is that is rich, like it's still rich. And I think more delicious because you don't have a hangover. You don't feel like for days after. You know, you're recovering from the holidays. We're not feel great in the holidays and you know, we're a Friday night or whatever it is. So I know there's a lot there, but I mean, the mind body thing. Yeah, that's huge, man. And I think just like inviting people to listen to that and teaching that to your kids like, we live in a highly toxic world, you know, and you can get really doomer about that. You know, there's mold everywhere. There's heavy metals falling from the sky or soil that depleten a lot of them whole truth.

50:26But you are still more powerful than all of that. You know, you are still like, okay, you ate, I ate like crap for the first 25 years of my life. And okay, your body is incredibly resilient. I didn't always have the awareness that like, oh, you as an energetic being can kind of like transcend a lot of these influences as long as you hold a positive state of mind and you trust in the body's constant striving towards betterment, improvement and health. And I didn't even have that, but when it later came online of that dense one, it all clicked, you know, because until that moment, you're kind of living in fear of all of these poisons, you know, and I think a lot of that can be, you know, there's times in the past where I know I've ate gluten and seed oils together and convinced myself that it was going to make me feel bad because it's so bad and probably created that psychologically more than the actual physiological implications. Because the stress of trying to be perfect sometimes can be more harmful than the imperfections are. Or is now I've got this more balanced relationship with food, I would say, which is interesting because in having a more balanced relationship with food, not like labeling it as good and bad as such,

51:28it allows me the freedom to always just basically true as well as the healthiest for me because there is no friction, there is no denial. And if I ever do eat something that's kind of like off the reservation, let's say, and full of all the crap, it doesn't really affect me because it's so infrequent and I'm so much more healthy and resilient than this food is in the grand scheme of things that it's just gone, like, we're all right, cool, whatever. Yeah, and living that way opens yourself up to be like, man, I'm going to go to this epic pizzeria that's doing sourdough. That's right. There was a space we used to go to Vermont where I went to culinary school. They would do these sourdough pizzas and this old barn wood fired oven. It's like your outdoors having a glass of wine. It's like, better believe I'm going to relish that because it's experience, you know? No, not being in my head about fucking gluten. And at that moment, that's the healthiest thing you can do regardless of the what's on the plate kind of thing. And I can know, like, in my day to day life, I just kind of feel better with less of it. Exactly. And that's okay, you just can't do that every night. Yeah, and that's about it. Yeah. Yeah, because there's so much beauty.

52:28And, you know, I bring up that place that you are with food and certain ingredients. I think speaks to this like misconception that people have about like, there's a story like, when I went to Italy, you know, because they don't use all these poisons, like I thought I ate bread and pasta and pizza all day long. And I tell people, you're on vacation. You're on vacation, dude. You're on vacation, you're chill. You're not in the best time of your life. And imagine if we could take that home with us. I know, I know. And find that piece and like the happiness and be happy with our rhythms and create an environment in rituals like as Americans or whatever, like, or wherever we are in the world where like, there's balance and there's sense of balance. I bring up that point because I've lived nearly multiple times in my life. And every time I drop in and I overdo it with pasta and bread, I put on weight. I mean, I put on a lot of weight the first time I lived there for a year working in restaurants. And like lunch every day was like pasta.

53:28And I'm like, I can't do this. And like every morning, I'm eating the croissants, you know, which are like so tempting. That's cool. Look, I live there. It's the same. And it's so different, you know, on a long weekend vacation versus when it starts until it's a month, you know. That's such a good call out though. On the, you know, they have different wheat and they don't spray as much, which I'll probably again have to. Just, yeah, yeah. But like there's, I forget whether I called them the three S's, the four S's or whatever. I'm like, but yes, in that sense, you're on vacation. So you've got sunshine, you've got lower stress, your steps are through the roof. And you probably have a more sex. Yeah. So those four S's and you're like, oh, yeah, the food is way different. Oh, it's just the combination of all those are the things that you're doing for a week or two that had you feeling amazing. Food is irrelevant when you stack it up against all of those things. But again, when it creeps into becoming weeks and months is when we start to see the consequences. And that's what we're all dealing with wherever at right now, whether you're 36 years old like me or a 55 year old person listening or a 23 year old person listening, you add the accumulation right now

54:29of all of your choices. That's not to anything to do with judgment. It's just, it is what it is. I mean, your body is built from what you fed it. Your body is borrowed from the earth. And it will go back to the earth. And your body is built from all of the inputs that it's taken on through its life. The psyche is built through all of the thoughts, the patterns, the traumas, the inherited beliefs, the ones that you've rejigged, all of that. So the cool thing about that is just because you're here now doesn't mean that's where you have to be forever. A lot of this stuff you were talking about before about healing through inherited patterns, for example, the first step is just realizing that just because you have something doesn't mean you've got it forever. Like there's a path out. Just because you've ate this way, doesn't mean you eat this way forever. There's a path out. You can radically change at any moment. I love the Alan Watts quote where he says, you're under no obligation to be who you were five minutes ago. Oh, that's so good. It's so good. And it's just like that moment of like, there it is. Yeah, we can change. I'm not saying that change is easy. Change might be the baddest thing we ever do. So like change who we are, that is really hard. That's why we're doing what we're doing now. Trying to like plant a little subiteth of seed in someone. But please don't ever think that it's not possible.

55:31Just because you're a certain age or whatever. No, I've told me just the other day you'll never change. And like a fight that we had. Yeah, I'm like, fuck. Like is she right? Sometimes men like a challenge though. Maybe you said, I'll show you. Oh yeah, no, I've been like on fire the last couple of days and I'm like, I'm gonna prove her wrong. You know, but this or whatever. You know, interestingly, I bring my wife up. She was born in Poland in 81. And so it was still communist. And she has stuff so powerfully ingrained around food of scarcity and like being in lines waiting for like rationed stuff. Of course. Like figuring out relationships and like bartering with people like in her bot. And of course she's Polish like the war. When she came to the world, the world was like a few decades before, you know. And of course family members that had died and like trauma from that, you know, and that, but the awareness and the work that she's doing is the work, like just like the practice of becoming aware of the stories and how they impact how we show up is everything. And that can be a lifelong thing of like it's not you're not,

56:33it's not if it's gonna disappear. It's like an imprint, you know, but it doesn't make us. Correct. Exactly what you're describing. I love that opening up the light of like maybe I don't have to erase this. Maybe that's not the goal. It's like living with it in a certain way where it doesn't own me anymore. Yeah. You know, the relationship with this thing, you know, the scarcity or the food and whatever it be. And then maybe coming to a place of like love and honoring like the grandparents or the whatever or even the fucking war itself, like finding peace. Like it, all right. It happened. And on a higher level, on a macro level, imagine if governments could reconcile that way. But I think of like Israel Palestine. It's like, it's like fucking just as an example. Like it's like siblings that just can't let you're it was you. It's your fault in this idea. And this is also, you know, this is we could explore this. This idea of like fucking punishment rewards in this world that we've created. It's so toxic because someone's always got to be blamed and punished, you know, and how are we ever going to move through in our hearts if someone has to be,

57:35it's not going to work. Yeah. At some point, we need to move on, you know, at some point. And I don't think it has to be the, oh, you've always been this way. Humans have always fought. Like, I don't think it has to be this way. Yeah. Like nothing has to be it. We can actually like transcend, you know. I think that's the problem. People, people assume what is possible purely from the projections of what they've seen. Yeah. That's the only map that they've got. So this like, well, this is just the way humans are. Well, yes, because that's all we've seen. But we also don't know what we haven't seen. That's also only what we've seen through documented history. And documented history is a whole different rabbit hole. Who writes history? And who tells the stories? We're going to win us. I guess on that. You know, so firstly, there's probably a time and space in our evolution where we were every not this. And we haven't always been this. And we haven't maybe always been at war and hating other people and needing this blame cycle that you spoke about because there's a quote that I love. Power follows the blame finger. Power follows the blame finger. So whatever you're blaming is actually what you're giving more power to. You're saying we can't be this way because of you.

58:37And that might be an international fight over crude oil or rights or land. That could be in the homes over, you know, well, I can't, I can't be happy because you make me miserable. No, don't do that to somebody because whilst they might be doing things that are over stepping boundaries and whatnot, they might be doing morally inappropriate behaviors or such. Like when if you say I can only be this way, if you are this way, then you've lost all agency. Yeah. If I can only be healthy in this world, if the government fixes things, then yeah, what about self-governance? Yes. What about governance over your own choices, your own locus of authority. So it's a very, it's a very healthy callout. If we are going to, and this is why we're having conversations like this, this is why I'm trying to do what I'm trying to do. This is why I think there is a groundswell or a movement. I don't even know what to call it, but it's just awakening might be too big of a word, but like this realization, I think, like a smack across the chops that if we do not change the way we are doing, not just food, food is a big part of it, but basically everything

59:39at this point, we are fucked. We're fucked. Yeah. I would put parenting at second, parenting is massive. And I would put schooling in quotes or the way in which we are inducing to raise our kids or create or create the lived experience of a child. I think those are probably the top three because it just perpetuates. Yeah. Just kicks the camera. Yeah. And when we have war, then we have leaders that are parented in a certain way. So how are we going to heal that? We parent our kids. This is why the most powerful thing we can do is just own our home life. Correct. The revolution will start around the denotival. And that's the most selfless act because it's going to improve. It's going to be for the greater good. Yeah. Yeah. And that crux and like so much of it is just immaturity. And I get wrapped up. This is the hardest thing for me because that punishment comes from a you made me uncomfortable. This like unintegrated father or mother that is so uncomfortable with like the rage from their kid that is just having a human expression.

1:00:40Yeah. And this is also in dynamic with, you know, husbands and wives or whatever that whatever the combination in your home is. It's like this, this passing off of ownership over oneself. Exactly what you described. How did you say it when you talk? How it follows the blame finger. Yeah, I love it. But you also had to like, you talked about the responsibility of your energy. You said, I mean, oh, I'm the only one. Only person responsible for the energy I bring into this room. That's the energy. Yeah. It's because it's the same in any room. Let's call it a room is a conversation. A room is an interaction. A room could be a literal room. But I am only ever the person responsible for that. Nobody else. Yeah. And when are you ever not in your heart when you're consciously deciding that you're not just hiding them and going with rage and be like, no, you know, we can never do that from a place of view. Yeah. And all of that reaction stuff is like up in the head. Yeah. You know, it's like, it's like a wounded animal. Does that cliche that hurt people hurt people? Right. I get hurt. There's a little dagger. You know, Aaron throws something at me. It tickles me in a certain way. And my heavy reaction is to attack back.

1:01:40And I'll know something about you that's really sensitive. So I'll say, you see, you'll never change. And then you're like, oh, and then you come back. And now we're in a sparring match. Yeah. As opposed to the, there's echo, I totally I think, called it like the echo. Pain is an echo. So if what is happening in culture is people are just echoing this pain. And at certain, at a certain point, if it meets an awareness of individual, they can be like, oh, this isn't mine. This echo is not for me to get triggered and echo it now and give it to Carson and like bounce it around this. It's to just put it down like to close off the cave. Like this ends with me and respond. So the different in the energy between like reaction responsiveness is a world apart. Again, responsiveness is when you're saying things to yourself, like, who do I want to be right now? If I'm the person that's responsible for my energy, how do I want to do it? I want to respond because the question of how do I want to react isn't even really there. It's automatic. It's snappy. You know, it's unconscious. So it's another, it's the same theme that comes up through this conversation from start

1:02:41to finish. It's the awareness of presence because I only react and get childish or immature or fight back with my wife when I'm not present. I'm not aware. Yeah. If I can just have that tiny little moment, that tiny little breath to not continue the echo of pain and like give it back to her and say, how long it takes to come back to me? And then it's going to come back and just bounce around these four walls, make us all fucking insane. So just like, oh, there it is. Now I've got it. I'm going to take it out and say, off you go, let's continue. And I'm all hellful mana. But it can't happen, you know, unless people are aware, you know? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. In all of our decisions, like, inform, you know, others and inform our capacity to do those things. And, you know, one of the most elusive things that I find in my life is like, I know that if I dialed in my morning routine a little bit more, did better workouts, push myself harder, was more strong or grounded, you know, a better meditation practice, right? But that's also an energy that I hold where I think that I'm a perfectionist. So I'm like, I have a negative relationship with like who I'm not, you know, you'll enjoy

1:03:43this. I've got to interrupt this thought because I said this to somebody once, a mentor of mine, I'm a perfectionist and she was like, no, no, no, we've got to stop you because if you were a real perfectionist, you know, what would happen? You would see the perfection and everything. Oh, beautiful. She said, you're not a perfectionist. You're a control freak. Yeah. And you never had control. You just had anxiety. Yeah. And I was like, stop. Like, my whole thing was melting. And it's just a bit, there's so much resonance with what you're saying. It is, is that like how I've got to do everything so well? I'm a perfectionist. It's like, no, you're, you're just having incredibly high standards and you're probably operating from some perceived sense of lack. And you think then that if I'm going to do anything, I have to do it. So the best. And if I've got to do it to the best, then I'm not going to do it because it's too much to take on right now. And now I feel bad about not starting it. And now, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And just wrapped up in like, just rego. Yeah, yeah. And I know, I know how I inherited that just looking back at my like, you know, my lived experience as a kid and witnessing certain behaviors. My parents, thank you for that call out. Yeah. That it becomes crippling. That the noise, like that monkey brain, you know, my friend Paul talks about the monkey

1:04:48brain. He was first that brought this idea to me and just recognize and remembering and like calling it out. And when that's like spinning, it's like, fuck, you know, and you're so often, so often, or always really the answer is like, just go sweat it out. Yeah, yeah. Go into your garage. I have these like pull up R's. It's like, just spin it like linger a little bit longer. Correct. Yeah. You know, like it's all going to get done. Yeah. Yeah. I heard somebody say recently, and this is like a purely esoteric thought. This guy was even saying nice. Like, there's absolutely no theory about this or validation I have, but it feels true to me. I think we have to move our water every day. And if we don't sweat it out, we'll cry it out. And because most men can't cry it out, like we internalize it and we become angry or reactive because we have all this baggage with crying as well. It's emotion. So he's like, if you just see it that way, the water needs to move. And it's either going to come out through exertion and sweating it out or crying it out. And if you can do that healthily, like do that too. Yeah. But if you don't do either of those things, it's just going to fester, you know, and then

1:05:49you can never feel peace if you're festering. Yeah. Well, you know what's interesting too, because I'm thinking about the force in which the average man or anyone has to choose that time in the gym or we could all homestead. And you could just labor during the day, which is what we all used to have. That's all we all used to do. Chopin will see those pictures all the time, right? Like 100 years ago. And you kind of like the rough call out is like find the fat person. Yeah. And you're like, there is no, there are many. Just before we left for, we went for Europe the summer, we moved. Here from Portugal. And just before I'm like getting along ready, because we had our friends staying in our place. And it was like 100 degrees. And I'm like, tearing out weeds and mowing along. And I felt more alive in that hour, dripping sweat, weeding. Yeah. You know, it makes me think of my former days when I spent a year farming. It's amazing organic farm. I felt so fricking alive and I felt so human. I felt so present. I felt so happy.

1:06:50Yeah. You know, it's like, is that all we have to do? It seems so simple, but I think it's a big power of it. I do, man. I really do. And I just think I've become, I don't even know what the right word is. It's like borderline evangelical about this, this lifestyle now. Not because I think that everybody needs to live this way. I think they've got to feel what it offers them. Yeah. And then they can bring it back into their other lives and maybe like, you know, microdose it once and a while or something. And then every now and then they go volunteer for a month and macrodose it. You don't get the big dose, but you have to feel it. And I think there's something very, very powerful about literally getting your hands in the dirt. It's very grounding. That could be a side hustle for you. Right. Get your hands in the dirt, man. Well, you like, what about what about having like, what about agriterees mose in the States? Yeah. So true. Now we're going, we're going off to Italy to do it or whatever, you know, like, let's create that. You could create that with your homestead. I know. I would love to come and like, let's, yeah, like that would be, I mean, that's a retreat. Right. It is. It's like, that's a challenging. It is like I'm going to go milk the cows for a few days and like shovel poop or whatever

1:07:54it is. I've thought about it, you know, like, because there's always, there's projects on the land all the time that I'm like, if I had some help, you know, I'd do this. So we build this and I'm like, why don't I just offer somebody to come and stay for a period of time and they just help. They become a farmhand and we do the chores. And now there's two people, all three people doing it. So the chores take half the time. And now, oh, you know, that thing that you were thinking about building, let's go build that together. And it's so healthy, I think, because it's just so the issue is for people, of course, is like, well, that sounds wonderful, but how do you pay the bills doing it? Yeah. Yeah. That's the big, that's the big block, unfortunately, that so many of us are running up against our lives. How do we integrate this desire for a simpler life without what hands in the soil? And maybe, you know, having a bit more space. And then, yeah, it sounds wonderful. But like, I'm over here and my job is here and I got to pay the bills and it's tough, man. I totally understand that. It's an interesting thing to explore. It's like, because I'm with you where I want to, I want to have a version of that, you know, produce or have the land and be able to be slow and make awesome food

1:08:59in this gorgeous kitchen and build a, I actually just wrote down this vision of like, these like, this list of 20 things that I want to create for our family. And I'm 44. I'm ahead of you and I haven't created this for my family. Although I'm catching myself with that, that's like all that I'm in saying what I'm not, you know, we've had all these adventures and we've got beautiful kids. And we have such a beautiful relationship, my wife and I. But I want more. Yeah. I want different, I'm ready for a next phase and these things, I'm going to build my, my wife is an artist and want to build her an art studio. Yeah. I want to buy that deep abundance. And I think about that home's that life. And I think of like the slow down and I think of like, but I also want to like go on trips whenever I want. For sure. And have a big, you know, bank account with that, I don't feel any constriction. For sure. Like I often think I'm like, am I wrong for wanting all of that? Is that okay? What's the right? And but then I also look at this world and be like, it could be so easy if I let it be. Yeah. You know, it doesn't have to be so forceful. And so like, but I think it takes courage. And like you took so much courage to go to Tennessee and do that.

1:10:02Like so much, you know, in the average person, I mean, it's just not doing it. Yeah. It's not, it's not leaving the nine to five. And that's not to say that it's for everyone. I know we've talked about that. And it's not to say that I don't find myself just like the Chick-fil-A people jealous of the people that are doing the 95 coming home and watching the Celtic game, you know, and reading to their kids and like that's life. And maybe that's beautiful, a beautiful life for them. But that's it. That's what makes the world interesting. It is. It is. It's, it's so true because it's got nothing to do with judgment in terms of a hierarchy of how anybody should live their life and what is good. But it is just this awareness and reconciliation that if you want a different life and it resonates with you, anything that is not that different life is punishment actively. Oh, yeah. So it's just like, this is why it's tricky sometimes to talk about it because I don't want to preach or come across as I'm saying like this is how humans should live.

1:11:03Yeah. But I also know because I see it every single day in my DMs like, I feel trapped. I am in what you are describing and I want out and I don't know how to get out. Yeah. You know, so like there is, there is a large subset of people that are feeling what we've talked about today, which is this like we've taken the human being. We've turned it into her human doing and we've made everything almost like a, we've fascinated about what's going on with aliens. Humans have become aliens on their own land. Like most people's feet don't even touch the dirt these days. They're foreigners on their own land, you know, and they are disconnected from the food, which further alienates them. Then they're disconnected from the self, like the real self, not who I am and what I should do in this world. But like, who are you dude? Yeah. All, all lady dude. Like who are you? What do you want? What do you care about? What kind of world do you want to live in? What kind of role do you want to play? Not limited by what you think is possible or not possible. But just for a moment, below the lid off, remove the limits, go to an unlimited thing

1:12:06and ask what you want. And if there is a clear answer there, then now you've discovered your task and you have to do it. You have to pursue it because anything that is not that is not yours. And that and what is it? What is the key ingredient to stumbling forward towards that over time? Courage you already said it. Nature rewards courage, life rewards courage. You can call it God if you want God rewards courage. But life absolutely rewards courage. Yeah. And it punishes cowardice. I think it actively punishes it. You see it in nature. My philosophy is life. Right. Life supports that which supports life. Life rewards courage, but it punishes cowardice. So if a person has a realization that they are doing things that are not in alignment with their higher self, it's not just bad that they have to sit with that. They will be punished for it, not just by themselves, but I think like by life, almost in a way, in a strange way. Yeah. Yeah. Or yeah, I struggle with the word punishment again. They'll suffer for it. Yeah, they suffer for it. They suffer. And that suffering, which is the greatest punishment. Yeah. Yeah. Totally, totally.

1:13:07You know, and sometimes I think the decision, decisions have changed. Let's just maybe come back to like the Chick-fil-A idea of like the happy people have in the Chick-fil-A and having a great life. I think it's harder to make change and think about the more existential questions about the world because we live in bubbles. Yeah. If you're here like where we live, like you just kind of see people like you, you don't necessarily see suffering around you. Yeah. Right. I have a friend that's a nurse practitioner, a kid I grew up in, grew up with back home in Massachusetts. And he was leaving messages. He's like, I got to get out of here. Like I can't do this anymore. He, it's like a factory of just people coming in that he sees and he's like, he's like, you can't imagine how sick these people are. Yeah. Kids massively obese kids. And this is the soft part in my heart, soft spot in my heart. You know, like honestly, like what I do now is to hold space for kids in a way that no one did for me. There was no leader saying, let me show you the way. Like let me show you how to eat so you can feel better. And you can feel great playing basketball, which is so important to me or tennis or,

1:14:10or just in your body, you know, and you go on a date or whatever it is. And he, he's suffering witness. It's he's on. He can't take it anymore. But the average person realized like, look, the more you go to Chick-fil-A, the more you are perpetuating a world that leads to other people suffering as well. And I think if we were more visceral for people, yeah, yeah. Maybe or for more like if we, but we, we kind of like are living in these bubbles, you know, we're very separate. Yeah, we're instantly. So maybe that's some inspiration for anyone that maybe is going to pull into the drive through. It's like, look, kids are really struggling out there. Like let's take one for the team and make some dinner. Yeah, dude. And to extend that a little bit like to not just our homes, if we can hold a capacity that again, this is supporting systems that I don't think are in alignment with supporting life. Just because you can put calories in people doesn't mean that you necessarily should. If you see the inside of a factory where these chickens come from to support Chick-fil-A agriculture, or the beef industry to support a McDonald's agriculture, it would break your heart.

1:15:16And that's why so many people won't look at that. You know, there's a lot of vegan propaganda films and what they do very well is they expose the ugly side of the meat industry. And most meat is will, they'll turn away from that because they'll have a conflict, which is, well, I still want to eat meat. And maybe even it's grounded in like health, you know, like at no height. It's a great source of vitamins and stuff like that. But they don't want to look at where it's coming from because we've created this convenience system again. Yeah. You know, so it goes further also that it's not just about like calories and how it's going to make you feel. It's about cooking. It's about prioritizing that. It's about giving your children that gift. But it's about giving the suffering word again. It's about minimizing the impact of your choices on the global weight of suffering. It isn't just inside of your home. It's like on this economic stream. It's on these farming systems. It's on this innocent life. Yeah. It's hard. And the flip side, the vegan doesn't want to see the video of like the, you know, the tillers, the massive tillers going through and killing the field mice and rabbits and all the animals that die. And so much of that is wrapped up into identity.

1:16:16Yeah. It's uncomfortable to, you know, challenge our own identities because we live through these like, like I'm a carnivore. I'm a vegan or I'm and that's who I am. And then like coming back to Eckhart Tollay. Like it's not really who I really, you know, like that's not your true. I am. Yeah. But if you think it is anybody that is not that is there's a, there's a one and two game going on. There's another now and another, you know. And anytime you think there's another, what if it's just, what if there's a wonder, you know, they're just seeing it through a different lens because they have different upbringing, different perspective, different view on all of this stuff. And that makes life again, interesting and wonderful and challenging in many ways because there are going to be people that see it so different to you. There's going to be people that would disagree with so many things we say today. And that's cool, you know, like I don't take offense to that. There's, it's kind of the buffet of life. It comes in all different shapes and sizes and colors and flavors. And I think something that you mentioned earlier, which is, you know, this like not seeing the suffering be an insulated from it.

1:17:19Like that's another reason why traveling was transformative for me because it wasn't just all chasing waterfalls and rainbows and delicious food. It was having the dynamic flipped where I've gone from an environment where everybody looks like me to being the token white guy in a village with the gingerbread and tattoos and feeling what it's like to have all eyes on you and people be like, what is this creature? And being like, oh, that's what that feels like. And actually, but nothing fearful about that, just that awareness because again, it was almost always positively interactive, you know, and like curious and stuff, but seeing the levels of poverty and, you know, being on the outsides of like Manila in the Philippines for something. For example, when you're a few streets outside of the city and it is so poor and so heartbreaking what you see and you drive five minutes further and you've got Starbucks and every corner and high rise buildings and the bougie nature of quality. And you're like, how is this here? And it's really, it's really eye opening and I'm curious, you know, because we don't have too much too much left, but we kind of skipped over the chapter of your travel and especially what you did when you were traveling around food and you know cooking for these kids and cooking.

1:18:31I would love to know just how formative the travel aspect of this has been like you lived in Italy, you've cooked for people all over the world. I mean, I've lifelong, it's been my obsession. My grandfather was an airline pilot and my mom would tell me stories of his flights and his flight routes. I also have actually an aunt and an uncle, another uncle is a pilot and aunt that was a flight attendant. Just a lot of like, you see in the world. And I think no, it's funny. So my mom flew for free anywhere. She's got amazing stories. But it was always the food I was interested in. Like my grandfather would fly to London and he like loved curry. He loved the way Indian foods. Yeah, yeah, English people have a strong affinity for English. Yeah, Indian food. I'm blanking on the street in London. The famous street by blanking on something like a brick lane is out. Yeah, yeah, brick lane used to go to brick lane. Yeah, like back in the day, it was probably better than it is now. Maybe although actually nearby brick lane relatively is one of my favorite restaurants, St. John. Okay, cool. You know, you know, no, no, you'd love knows the tale is cookbook is amazing. Awesome. Okay. It's like a poem of, but anyways, it's always been my obsession and food.

1:19:36So like I knew even though I, you know, in high school, I went to college. I didn't like no, I didn't make the call to like go to culinary school until after when college. But I traveled along the way like a backpacked in Europe, you know, the first year in college went to Spain and Italy and France and just eight eight our way. And I was the friend that was like more obsessed than any in like what we're eating, you know, and then yeah, fast forward my first internship or second internship in culinary school was in Portugal, ironically, where we ended up living years later as an adult. Yeah, I went to Italy for almost a year. I went to this little school in Tuscany that was mostly Japanese students studying in in Luca in Tuscany. The master chef, John Lucas legend of a chef spoke Japanese and it was kind of like an ambassador to a tiny cuisine and so I have a lot of Japanese friends that I've went to Japan, like visited their restaurants in Tokyo. I opened a restaurant in China through that elite connection, it was a wild, like wild experience. Wow. And not what I expected from a culinary standpoint.

1:20:38Like I just had to get it up and running and the kitchen was just in rough shape like the monsoon season. And I'm like getting electrocuted by the fridge and killing rats literally like just like, all right, I'm here to get this up and running, you know, I was like wild experience. Yeah, but I studied about in Spain, we lived in Portugal. I moved to Italy, kind of jumping around in 2020, the summer of COVID, because a friend of mine was starting a like a Waldorf school on a biodynamic winery in the Montferratdo region in Pimonde. Wow, that's cool. And we had a call and I'm like, oh my god, this would be amazing someday, you know, and then like I, we got off the phone after this long call and I'm like, someday, what are we doing? Like what are we doing? The rest of our house moved to Italy. That's so cool. A few months in we realized we actually don't want to live here, like in the middle of nowhere, Italy, but we got this program up and running and tell you about it was wild. And then moved to Portugal. And then I had this opportunity to cook for kids here. Yeah, a couple years later. And I just, it's part of me that just wants to be a part of the fight on the ground.

1:21:43Yes. And I was building online, I'm about an online course to just kind of help parents feed their kids well, but it was just, just like I need to be with people with my hands. Yeah. And, you know, feeding kids, honestly, like has been just the most beautiful experience. Yeah. And doing it like in math, like a group of 100 kids is just like a beautiful offering, you know, and to do it with love and to kind of. Kind of be like a fire keeper for these kids. And imagine like school could work if there was more of this energy, like imagine like a hearth of a kitchen in every school. Yeah. Yeah. And then I had something from scratch from local farms, grass fed beef, wild fish, pasture and animals, so cool. You know, and so that's what I've been doing. Is it a private school or some kind of school, but in all private schools so far that I've served some. And I'm interested in serving more. I've had conversations with with moms that always always moms. It's interesting. Yeah, it is. The fighters. Mom's here. I'm out of dude. Yeah. But I haven't cracked that right now. I'm consulting for a restaurant here in Austin picnic.

1:22:49I've got ideas about maybe weaving in, you know, being able to feed kids through that initiative. Do you know, do you know Mike from Jasper? Oh, yeah, yeah, he's just open to school. Yeah, I worked with him on that project. Yeah, they've scaled back the full for now, the full on like lunch program. I think that as the school grows, they might want to talk about. Yeah. Yeah. But that's him and that that that view. I mean, this food piece is such a critical part of it because I think when you're feeding kids in that way, you're teaching them so much. Obviously, you're just supporting them. You're supporting their ability to learn and grow and be neutrified and pay attention and get the right kind of the right goal from what school should be, which is this all inclusive learning environment. Not just wrote memorization, then fed slop under artificial lights and get less time outdoors than the average prisoner does. That's the school system we're trying to challenge, right? But this new version of what school could be with good food and good people and maybe an updated learning style of what's actually important and what's actually going to be necessary to this new world that we're entering into right now and stuff.

1:23:53That's really exciting. It must be cool to, you know, I've used the reference today a lot like hands in the dirt, your hands in the food. It's so important. It's such it's literally building these kids. It's the best to see them like run full sprint to watch that's flankstick and you're serving that that's what's cool. You know, you're not cooking chicken nuggets and. No, no, it's a full on you were telling me, you know, like knows to tell or derves and stuff for these kids. This is the coolest thing ever, man. It's really awesome. You should have seen the school in Italy, like there was this raw dairy cheese maker at the foot of the hill. So I pick up raw cheeses. They would bring their cows seasonally like up north a little bit picture like outpined pastures, you know, and they would make amazing cheeses. They would make sausages and salamis and I would serve that a snack with local fruit like they made sangu and atcha one time these blood sausages. Yeah, I remember roasting the blood sausages over potatoes and like serving into the kids might this one the best things ever.

1:24:55I like the blood and the fat just like dripping into the potatoes. I would go to the local butcher. Edo and he would grind in liver kidneys lung spleen into the grind for bull and a's we get head on feet on chicken for broth. I would just serve them chicken soup. Try on Fridays you make this try to read basically boiled and then like the cooking liquid reduce the super gelatinous and I said it into a terrain and cut it. Put toothpicks in it little olive oil and salt and they would just eat this like try on Fridays I caught myself sometimes I'm serving this try like like lightning lightning in a bottle here right I'm like. I feel like the world knew what was possible what was possible you know like just like this is this is how it could be and then this is like probably a village experience you know this is probably like a village and I don't know like Kazakhstan like in similar food you know and the world is operating with all this like I don't know sterile plasticy stuff yeah you know if we could just full circle like coming back to like more texture yeah more smells that are right you know they every

1:26:00human I think when they know that like cafeteria smell yeah that's kind of plasticy versus like that chicken soup smell yes like it's just that's it that's the decision those are the two roads you know you know what it is you're reminded me of somebody sat there in that chair a long time ago and we were talking about food and he said the way he sees it and feels about it is it's just like it's beauty versus ugliness like that plasticky off sterile black yeah slop that's ugly yeah what you describe in like it literally made my heart happy as you were describing I was getting images of these kids like running up and eating that that's it's beauty there's a real beauty here in the real thing the the image of the mountains and the hills and the raw cheese and the local and it's possible I think we project that sometimes oh well that's you know that world is sailed now it is not it is right here it just needs claim and it just needs claiming and yeah it's going to take some work because all the incentives right now we're not set up for that but there is an urge for it there's a reason these moms are messaging you there's a reason these schools exist there's a reason more more of them are popping up all the time like it is happening yeah and I just hope that you know the work that you do

1:27:04and conversations like this it just you know you said a and a wise elder for like the fire keeper I always get this image of like you know when the fire is going out and the embers are there and you just and it comes back and like that's that's all we're doing with conversations like this was stoking the embers they're they never went out they just they got a little low on oxygen right now they're a little low on airflow but it's it's time time to rebuild I think I'm with you I'm with you I can't help but think of that when you're talking about the beauty like that that's a meditation in the morning that we could all do it's like just that simple question as a prompt like how can I live today to create more beauty yeah for my kids for myself for this home that I'm cultivating from there I'd be like I could make something really nice for dinner smells really good yeah where I could like really love my kids a lot yeah you know when they wake up I'm going to just love them yeah you know there's so much beauty around man there's so much beauty and there's so much beauty we can create but we got to have that presence to choose it because it's so easy to focus on what's ugly it's so easy to focus and miss it you know so we start we finish almost where we started which is

1:28:10this huge throughline of a conversation that I thought was going to be about food and turned into one about presence with food as a core ingredient to that wonderful soup it's been awesome and this this has been really fun and I and I can see a part two budding in the future as well for you know what that looks like and to continue it so tell people where they can go to keep up with everything that you're getting up to and what you're excited about yeah thanks man it's a pleasure really pleasure sitting with you uh so you can follow my Instagram chef Aaron Goldstein I got a sub stack it's super rad yeah it's cool I used to call it what feeds us I've transitioned it to unprocessed which is also the name of my podcast yeah unprocessed you can find unprocessed on all the places you fight podcasts but Instagram is kind of like the main channel that I'm kind of going through and I've got an amazing team online that will help respond to messages if I miss them and yeah that's a good place to start and then yeah you can come see me a picnic now I'm there helping the kitchen and building beautiful food we're doing a menu of the day that's super rad we're just like cooking with awesome ingredients always press bed and finish proteins and there's no seed oils it's all super clean it's just food with love every day and yeah

1:29:14it's beautiful food yeah that's a great way to land it have a beautiful week everybody thanks for tuning in Aaron this is a pleasure mate we'll do it again like Wes thanks D thank you see y'all thanks for joining us for another episode of Radical Health Radio if you liked that episode good news is we've got hundreds of others just like it and YouTube things you would love this one in particular so I think you should check it out we'll see you next week