The Thinker's Apprentice

In this episode I bid farewell for a while for some much needed rest and recovery.

• I talk about what led me to this decision
• I then recap the entirety of the podcast to paint the big picture I was aiming for.
• Then I share some final wisdom.
• And then I bid farewell.
• Thanks for listening and thanks for all the support. Resist, Persist, and Persevere.

In this episode we talk about the goals we all tend to set for the new year, goals we often fail to achieve. We talk about what it takes to actually accomplish those goals. Topics include:

• I talk about New Year's resolutions in general terms and why they always fail.
• I talk about procrastination and how putting things off until tomorrow only leads to putting them off for an infinite amount of tomorrows. 
• I talk about planning and how it is the foundation of achieving any goal. 
• I also talk about knowing if a goal is truly important to you or not.
• Then we talk about understanding your WHY and understanding what barriers are standing in the way. I use a diet as an easy example to illustrate some common roadblocks.
• And for us to really go deep we do a journal entry and explore these 2 things.
• Then I introduce SMART goals, which most people are familiar with. 
• Then I go over some extraneous details.
• Finally we talk about how to deal with setbacks and mistakes, which are guaranteed to happen. 
• And in our Call-to-Action we put all this to work this year while we make our resolutions so that this year can be different than all the other years.
• Thanks for listening. Be sure to subscribe and leave a review and share it with someone who could benefit from this information. And be sure to follow me on Instagram @ThinkersApprentice

In this episode we talk about taking extreme ownership over all aspects of your life. It's a quick one and we discuss:

• The attitudes people take towards the realities of life. I illustrate the 2 main ways people usually approach this.
• Where those attitudes ultimately take us.
• I introduce the book Extreme Ownership, by Jocko Willink and Leif Babin, 2 retired Navy SEALs that talk about how the SEALs train to WIN.
• I talk about the 2 primary conclusions this book arrived at, which are: there are no bad teams, only bad leaders, and good leaders are people that take 100% ownership over everything in their lives.
• And I talk about how we can integrate that concept into our own lives to become habitual winners.
• I talk about the part of this we all struggle with the most, which is that there are many things that happen that truly aren't our faults. But that doesn't matter. Extreme ownership is a mindset and one that breeds success.
• I then take a quick detour and talk about blaming and victim mentality and why they will never ever get you anywhere in life. 
• And in this week's Call-to-Action I want you think about how you react to the things that happen to you. Do you blame and complain and make excuses? Or do you own it 100%, learn from your mistakes, and constantly get better? Because one way will keep you winning throughout your whole life and the other will get you absolutely nowhere.
• Thanks for listening. Be sure to subscribe and leave a review and share it with someone who could benefit from this information. And be sure to follow me on Instagram @ThinkersApprentice
   

In this episode we discuss the tools of intelligence and how you can hone them to increase your own intelligence. Topics include:

• I open by defining intelligence and discussing how there are no more smarter people today than there ever were. 
• I talk about how things were different before the internet and how these days everybody thinks they're the smartest person in the room.
• I talk about how information does not equal knowledge and how education does not equal intelligence. 
• And then I introduce the tools of intelligence. These are tools you can develop within yourself to increase your own intelligence. And they are: logic, reason, rhetoric, critical thinking, skepticism, questioning, curiosity, and open-mindedness. 
• Then I dive deep into each of these and explain why it is so important.
• The secret to all of this is the ability to remove yourself from the equation. It's our emotions and egos that always stand in the way of our objectivity. 
• In this week's Call-to-Action we run one of our long standing beliefs through our filter of intelligence and apply all these tools to see if it still stands afterwards. 

In this episode we talk about Game Changers, the latest installment in the vegan propaganda film series. We discuss all sorts of issues with the film, from bad science, conjecture, and cherry-picked facts, to clever narrative tools meant to deceive and a completely one sided look at a subject. Topics include:

• We talk about all the conflicts of interest in the film. From a producer that's a vegan activist and owner of a vegan protein company, to the doctors, most of whom have built their careers around this ideology.
• We talk about the film's narrator and how all the footage of him "researching and recovering" are reenactments. He would also have you believe that ALL the research leads to veganism being the optimum diet for health and performance. This is beyond demonstrably false. 
• Then we talk about the problem with modern documentaries. We have this idea that documentaries are this objective look at a subject where all facts, science, and evidence are considered and a conclusion is drawn or left to the viewer to conclude. That's not what documentaries are today. This film was a one-sided, agenda driven propaganda film that presented only what fit into its narrative and omitted the rest. When only one side has a voice it becomes easy to make it seem like all the evidence supports that side. It doesn't.
• Much of the science I debunked came from Chris Kresser's website and I'll put two links at the bottom of this page if you want to check it out.
• I move through the claims of the film one at a time and give you a bigger picture. This includes the gladiator diet, ultra-runner Scott Jurek, and Patrick Baboumian. Then I talk about Arnold's role in the film, which is to say that you don't need animal protein to be big and strong... and yet all of his athletic accomplishments happened while he was consuming epic amounts of animal protein every day. But the film is trying to get you to associate being big and strong with veganism. It's a narrative tool. The same goes for the William's sisters, who sometimes kinda maybe vegan when its convenient... which means they're not vegan.
• Speaking of narrative tools, the film then introduces Damien Mander, an anti-poaching crusader in Africa. What does he have to do with veganism? Nothing. But his story will get you to associate saving elephants and rhinos with veganism. 
• This leads me to talk about how the vegan agenda has unfolded over the years. It started with ending the killing of animals. But we now know that the vegan diet is responsible for millions of animals deaths. So then the vegans went with the environmental argument. They said that meat is killing the planet and we need to stop eating meat to save ourselves. Well we know that livestock only accounts for 2% of the greenhouse gas emission and the real drivers are electricity and transportation. But the vegans aren't pushing to eliminate electricity or cars are they? And so now we are on our third iteration of why we all must go vegan: because it is "the optimum diet for health and performance." 
• At this point I really start dismantling the claims of the film. I talk about what they say, but I also talk about what they fail to say, which is a LOT. I talk about the omission, the cherry-picked data, the correlations, and the outright lies. 
• I talk about the claims of inflammation and cancer, the cloudy blood, the comparison of a peanut butter sandwich and 3oz of beef, the B12 claim, the hysterical claim that meat lobbies are the problem, and the even more hysterical claim that the brain can only run on glucose.
• Then I talk about the fact that our soil only has an estimated 60 years of harvests left.
• And then I close with some little tidbits you may find interesting. The main tidbit is that 84% of people ho go vegan quit within a year, many due to serious health complications. I also tell the story of Tim Scheiff, who was supposed to be in the film, but got edited out because he had to leave veganism after developing severe health complications. He tried very hard to stay vegan, but ultimately reintroduced animal products and his health recovered almost immediately. The vegan community viciously attacked him for putting his own health first. This is proof to me that veganism is not a diet, but an ideology. Within this framework of belief it is not acceptable to put your own health before the cause. 
• And finally I talk about the things you're missing in a vegan diet. This includes B12, collagen, zinc, iron, and omega 3's, not to mention bioavailable protein. 
• Ultimately I support anybodies right to eat how they want. I would even recommend the vegan diet over the standard American diet. But the propaganda has to end. Be a vegan if you want to, but stop trying to tell me that I'm a bad person because I'm not vegan. Stop telling people that meat is the cause of all our problems. Stop telling people that veganism is optimum diet for health and performance. Veganism is an ideology first and foremost. It is not concerned with the truth. It will try and convert you by any means necessary. Game Changers is simply one more example of this model. 
• Thanks for listening. Be sure to subscribe and leave a review and share it with someone who could benefit from this information. And be sure to follow me on Instagram @ThinkersApprentice
• Chris Kresser Link 1
• Chris Kresser Link 2

In this episode we talk about how to use the placebo effect to change the parts of ourselves that we don't like or that don't serve us. Topics include:

• An overview of the placebo effect and how it manifests belief into reality.
• We discuss how you can, indeed, use the placebo effect to change yourself.
• We talk about the default mode network (DMN) of you brain and how it creates your personality and your reality. And then we talk about just how it is possible to change this. And I reference 2 books to illustrate this and they are: You Are The Placebo, by Dr. Joe Dispenza and How To Change Your Mind, by Michael Pollan. Both books are excellent and I highly recommend them. *Just a quick note: I incorrectly called this book A Whole New Mind in the episode. My apologies.
• Then I introduce the concepts of neurorigidity and neuroplasticity, which are critical in understanding how to use the placebo effect to change your life. 
• We talk about our self-talk and how to change our story that we tell ourselves about who we are. And then we talk about mental rehearsal and visualization. 
• That leads us into our final two tactics to effect lasting change and they are gratitude and binaural beats.
• We attach gratitude with our new story because gratitude is a powerful emotion and it can convince your sub-conscious that what you want has already been achieved.
• And then we use binaural beats to put us into a theta brainwave state, which can bypass the analytical part of our brain and send the new story right into the sub-conscious.
• And in this week's Call-to-Action we follow all these steps to change something about ourselves that we don't like or that doesn't serve us. 
• Thanks for listening. Be sure to subscribe and leave a review and share it with someone who could benefit from this information. And be sure to follow me on Instagram @ThinkersApprentice

In this episode I introduce you to Stoicism and explain why it has endured for thousands of years and how it can serve as a valuable tool throughout your life. Topics include:

• I dispel some misconceptions about stoicism and philosophy.
• I explain how I found stoicism and how it improved my life.
• Then I define what it is before moving into the 3 primary disciplines of stoicism: the discipline of perception, the discipline of action, and the discipline of will.
• I dive deeper into each of these and explain why they're so important and how they interplay with each other in your life. 
• Throughout this we discuss some of the main ideas within stoicism, namely understanding what is and is not under our control and learning to accept what is not and how it is us that choose how to react and respond to anything that happens to us in life. 
• Then we talk a bit about ego as the stoics perceived it.
• That moves into a final thought on anxiety.
• Then I explain all the instances in my life where I lean on stoicism to assist me.
• Then in this week's Call-to-Action we make a list of all the things disturbing our peace of mind. And we go over that list one item at a time and figure out how much of it is actually under our control. And if we don't control it then we can either accept it or allow it to make us suffer. And how does that suffering make the situation any better or improve our lives in any way? It doesn't, so why choose to suffer? 
• You get better at seeing this and accepting things as they are the more you practice the 3 disciplines of stoicism. 
• Thanks for listening. Be sure to subscribe and leave a review and share it with someone who could benefit from this information. And be sure to follow me on Instagram @ThinkersApprentice

In this episode we talk about patience and how it's a superpower in this day and age. Topics include:

• We define patience and why it has no real value in today's day and age.
• We talk about the age of instant gratification and how it makes us unable to pursue difficult things. 
• And I give an example to show how this usually unfolds. 
• We talk about how patience can be a superpower when employed properly.
• I tell a story of how a lack of patience taught me a valuable lesson.
• As a mater of fact I tell two stories.
• Then I talk about cultivating patience with other people, perhaps one of the hardest things for any of us to cultivate. And I explain why it's more important than ever in this day and age. 
• I tell you the two ways that have helped me cultivate patience with other people the most.
• And in this week's Call-to-Action we take advantage of the multiple times per day this life allows you to apply patience. All it takes is practice.
• Thanks for listening. Be sure to subscribe and leave a review and share it with someone who could benefit from this information. And be sure to follow me on Instagram @ThinkersApprentice

In this episode we discuss our relationships with ourselves and why it's the most important relationship in your life. Topics discussed include:

• We talk about the burdens that growth and self-development can place upon us if we're not careful. If we don't do things the right way then pursuing our own betterment could actually leave us worse off.
• The way forward is self-love, self-acceptance, and forgiveness.
• We talk about how our inner dialogue and self-talk can turn quite cruel and demeaning when we fail to live up to our standards or we make a mistake. 
• We talk about the right way to approach growth and self-development. And that starts with understanding that you're OK right now the way you are. 
• And we talk about why self-love is so important. And that's because the opposite is self-rejection, which is a horrible way to live. With self-rejection you are not only rejecting yourself, but you're rejecting reality, rejecting the truth of your existence. The mind can't reconcile this and so you suffer endlessly. 
• And we talk about how self-love, self-acceptance, and forgiveness are choices that we get to make multiple times every day. We talk about how to override those automatic negative thoughts until they eventually integrate into your sub-concours and then the positive thoughts become automatic. 
• And in this week's Call-to-Action we work on overriding our negative self-talk with positive thoughts, and we forgive ourselves for all of our past transgressions against ourselves. 
• And I talk a bit about why this is the only real choice we have, even if it takes many people a lifetime to realize. 
• Thanks for listening. Be sure to subscribe and leave a review and share it with someone who could benefit from this information. And be sure to follow me on Instagram @ThinkersApprentice

In this podcast we talk all about what it takes to achieve the blissful state of stillness within the mind, body, and soul. The episode draws heavily from the book, Stillness is the Key, by Ryan Holiday. I highly recommend it as I do with all his other books. Topics include:

• We start with a little experiment to test your ability to achieve stillness. Most of us will fail this experiment in short order.
• And I use that experiment to introduce the topic of stillness. I define stillness as it relates to your life.
• Then I talk about why it's so hard to come by in our modern world of receiving data and reacting to data nonstop. There's just too much input and noise to ever find stillness.
• This is also the reason that most of us don't really even know ourselves. How could we? We spend almost no time truly alone in solitude with our own thoughts. And when we do, we panic and look for any distraction.
• I also highlight that our modern way of living is completely external and outward facing. There's no real value placed on reflection and independent thought. This is a shame because it steals from us what we have to offer the world that is unique to us.
• In our external world we value and chase things that aren't of real importance and won't fill the hole inside of us like we think they will. Things like money, fame, prestige, things, and objects. We also like to take no responsibility for our lives and blame everything on some external factor and compete to see who's the biggest victim. 
• All of this creates chaos internally, chaos that we never address because we never take the time to just sit quietly with our own thoughts and address whatever rises to the surface. 
• And to achieve stillness we need to address this. We need to know ourselves. So I give us a way to do that effectively. 
• Then I give us a way to create a little more headspace. Our complete freedom is actually a curse if we don't apply discipline to it. Otherwise every single decision in your day is some massive deliberation that takes away from your mental resources.
• And lastly we need to disconnect. Disconnect from the external world, but also disconnect from our normal thought patterns. I'm not talking about going on a vacation or to a bar where our same thought patterns persist. I'm talking about pursuing hobbies for the sake of your enjoyment alone. Pursue something that fully engages your mind in a different way, that you enjoy doing, and that you have no attachment to the outcome. This is where the mind finds peace, rest, and solace. This is where you create stillness. You're not resting just because you're lying down, and you're not relaxing just because you're doing mindless activities like watching TV and scrolling social media. You need to put your mind at rest and hobbies are a great way to do that. 
• In this week's Call-to-Action I give you a path to experience stillness. The way to getting it under your command is long and arduous, but that doesn't mean you can't experience it. And my prescription for that is to get out in nature, by yourself, with no electronics, and just walk. Walk for as long as it takes for all those nagging thoughts to quiet or disappear. Walk until you can maintain one continuous thought effortlessly. Walk until you start noticing things you never noticed, hearing sounds you've never heard, but were always there. At this point you've found yourself a piece of stillness, a peace of mind that permeates your whole being. Find this feeling, experience it, and after you see what it has to offer, then go through the process of having stillness at your beck and call. 
• Thanks for listening. Be sure to subscribe and leave a review and share it with someone who could benefit from this information. And be sure to follow me on Instagram @ThinkersApprentice