Darin Olien, MA: Harnessing ADD as a Superpower and the Revelations of 'Fatal Conveniences'

00:00 | Andres Preschel |
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03:54 | Darin Olien |
Oh, man, this is wonderful to hear part of your story as well. And it's inspiring. And the fact that you're diving in and learning and growing and expanding, it's a pleasure to interact with you here.

04:10 | Andres Preschel |
And let's see where we go, man. Well, you know, I typically begin these shows with one question. There's two questions that I mentioned on almost every single show. And the rest, I just kind of leave it for the moment for whatever feels right and whatever feels fun. And first question is, why do you do what you do? Second question is, what do you believe everybody needs to know about their physiology? So if you can start with why and maybe why or how this this how your health journey evolved and how it turned into this in a way, an obsession with helping others find a similar process for themselves. Why do you do what you do, man?

05:00 | Darin Olien |
Well, I think over the years, I've definitely looked at this several times. And it is far back is my start of my life. You know, I was premature and it was a struggle coming into this world. And it there was a 50-50 chance of me surviving. I obviously chose to survive. And, you know, through being a kid and having all kinds of weird issues and then the neurological stuff and getting pulled out of class. It wasn't easy. And I think we all have this map of our lives that lay before us. And there's definitely not easy that's laid alongside our lives. And there's a choice in that. We either say, I am I am faced with this problem. I have faced with this challenge. I don't know how to solve it, but I'm going to find a way. And my whole life has been that. And so I don't I mean, I can I can drill it down to very simple. Why do I do what I do? So people suffer less and that they have an opportunity to optimize themselves, their life. And ultimately, it comes down to people literally living the best life ever and whatever that is. Because if you and this kind of leads into the second question potentially, if you are suffering physiologically, guaranteed, you're suffering mentally, emotionally, chemically, biologically across the board. If you are in a suffering, if you are in a state of not being optimal. You barely get a chance to live and dream and and actualize a type of life that is awe inspiring. So ultimately, suffer less. So you have an attempt, a solid attempt at actualizing a life that is awe inspiring to you and hopefully potentially the people around you.

07:39 | Andres Preschel |
And what criteria would you say are necessary for us to meet in order to realize this optimal life? How do you know if you're living an optimal life?

07:50 | Darin Olien |
Good question. I think I think the undertow of even the drive of taking care of one's physiology, I believe. Is the core and the catalyst and the driver of that. Is what are you doing with your life? What do you want? What do you want to create? What is your dream life? How do you want to be in this world? When you start and listen, that changes, but but being in the act of questioning of that, who am I? What am I? Where do I want to go? What do I want to do? How do I want to contribute? Once you start to receive that message, you're going to be able to do that. Then you are driven by something so far beyond. I just want abs. I just want to lower that. I'm driven beyond. I just want to do 15 reps of 225 pounds on the bench. You know, all this stuff that is so shallow. That. That's all good. That could be within the goals, but then those goals are also pulled by something so far beyond it that is then driving you to live, to have a healthy body, to then sleep well, because if I don't sleep well, I, I, there's no way I can actualize what it is that I want. If I don't drink good water, if I don't eat whole food, if I don't have good the catalyst of friends around me. If I am not ingesting the best food ever with the highest nutrient density per bite, if I'm not minimizing the stressors of this modern world, then you just fall into this river of mediocrity that if you're not working towards betterment, you are being taken down a river that you will blink and, and you will be so far away from the dreams that you actually have that almost then if you contemplate will feel impossible to get. So then not going into overwhelm anyone listening right now, what literally do you want to construct your life into? And do not, cause what happens is just asking those questions. You have doubts, you have fears, you have the list, you have the pharmaceutical list of side effects that keep you from achieving what you want. And if you just observe it and then take the contrary action on just start today, start today with the idea that you are great, that are you are fucking beyond anything that you can possibly imagine because you're a fricking miracle. You're a miracle of chemistry and biology and physiology and spirituality. That that is just this potential, sorry, this potential of manifestation. So for me, we're not perfect and we're hit with challenges. What are you going to do? And if you realize that those challenges are, are unrecognized clay of opportunity to mold your next steps of manifestation, that they're actually tools that are here to guide you towards something greater, that the darkness, the challenge, the depression, the not feeling well when actually turned into it is actually a gift is actually for you, but you can easily get trapped in the mind and being pulled by the victim hood that is so pervasive, that is so easy to fall into. And then you're just further down this path further away from anything that you could possibly imagine you want your life to be. So, so when you realize you put on the, the big pants of your life and pull up your boots and just go, Hey man, what if life, all of it was for me and what if I took every challenge squarely on, it's not easy. It is challenging, but it is the most rewarding. So going back to that first thing, I have been developing that skill since the moment I was born and that skill, I was never the best, but no one, if I decided something, I'm going to go do it. If I truly wanted it, the things that I truly didn't want just fell away. So maybe I thought a dream that I wanted, but it actually wasn't a dream. Maybe it was caught up in an ego. Maybe it was caught up in something else, but everything that I set out to do was not easy, but I just worked my ass off. And so that's it. It's a decision that first you have to make anyone listening even now. I have to still make these decisions. You have to still make these decisions. We have to wake up every day and every moment and go, what am I going to choose? How am I going to choose that? And with that, you will have that decision. I am going to have the best life ever. And you may not even know what that is, but if you demand that, then all of this other stuff is great. Like I don't think about the amazing food I eat every day because it's so automatic. It's so the superfood, like, you know, like superfoods and herbs and botanicals I've consumed already today. Like at least 50, right? As a regiment of living the kind of life that fuels me to the kind of things that I want my life to be. So it's not about them. It's about the construction of your life so that you can actually manifest and be the strong, resilient person that you can be. And so anyway, I didn't expect all of that to come out, but that's behind everything I do is so that people can have that opportunity to maybe express their life powerfully beyond their current state. And when you accomplish those things, when you work towards something and you achieve something there, I don't know if there's anything greater than the. The grace, the confidence that that gives you not from someone else, not from a compliment, even though that's all great. It's the building of something that's beyond yourself and the contribution that that has in your life. That is, I think one of the greatest things that maybe also be under threat with our kind of cushy lives. So we need warriors. We need people that are just like, I am a sovereign, strong, miracle being. And I got things that I want to do. And you also just listening to your story, it also, I could feel your truth. I could feel like this is a guy that is clear. He's gobbling up information. He's learning and all of these different avenues and it's unfolding so that you can continue to contribute, you can continue to consume that insatiable curiosity so that you can regurgitate it and reorient yourself as well as in the world so that others may be able to step up on that step that is laid there because of you and maybe because of me and the things that I've created so that people can go, Oh, I didn't know that was possible. Thank you for sharing that with me and thank you for showing me that that is possible. But that death was created by the commitment and the work that that you said yes to, that I said yes to, and we've all created something in this world. So it's important to acknowledge those things and then go, what is your next step that you want to create? What else is that connected to and make sure it's big. So when it's hard and when it's challenging, how big it is and how connected it is to your heart will pull you through the hard thing. And so it's not about the money. It's not about the likes. It's not about all that stuff, all that stuff. You have to find what is creatively wants to be pulled out of you and go find that because naturally it will find itself in the world.

17:57 | Andres Preschel |
And in the way that you express it. Thank you for those beautiful words for that beautiful flood for the recognition. It really means a lot to me. And one of the themes that I noticed in what you just shared is this miracle that we have the gifts that we have. So in order to bring to life our miracle and our gifts, how do we get past this modern framework that reinforces shallow goals? How do we get past the I want a six pack, I want to lose some fat, I want more muscle, I want more of this, I want more. How do we get past that in this modern society that reinforces that through like social media and all these vanity metrics to find our truth, our curiosity, which then provides the foundation for us to share our gift and to express our miracle. How do we get past that?

18:54 | Darin Olien |
Yeah, I mean, first off, there's nothing wrong with having that as a goal, right? There's nothing wrong with wanting six pack as nothing one with it. But but kind of take it another step and it's go, OK, when I have that body that I want, when I have the six pack, when I am stronger, when I have lost that weight, now who am I now? What am I doing? So that's what I mean by when you're understanding what you want, who are you having had that now? So you could visualize it, you could own it, you could go, OK, I have lost the 10 pounds, I am shredded, whatever it is. Who are you now? Who are you moving in the world? Where are you going? What do you want to do? So that's what I mean. When you connect to that, again, you get all those other goals, those vanity goals. You can have all of that. That's great. But as that person, the questions you want to start asking is who am I now having had that? And I love journaling. I love going, OK, now I have I have received that that gift of the strength and the six pack abs. Now what do I want? And this is just getting the orientation of your dreams, the goals. You still have to do the work. Hi. You know, you still have to go like, OK, how am I going to do it? And then find the people that you know, you can find many mentors. You can find the people that are having and expressing the kind of life you want. Like, OK, everyone's like the old standard was like a house and a car and a blah, blah, blah. But it's like. Sir, point, we all know what happened. People are empty once they've gotten those things. So they stopped their goal. You've got to keep going. Who is the manifesto? Who who who do you want to be as manifesting your ideal light? Like, does that include happiness, joy, contentment of of you as a person? Do you need people to fill you up full of love? No, you are a miracle. So it's it's pressing in to that person because all of it is a lie. Because if you don't own that, all of the stories of you're not good enough, you're lacking, you're you're I mean, even the stories of like, oh, God, I look down on fat or whatever. All of that's a lie. It's just this story that keeps us down. Right. So so once you start to identify, you know, for example, in my world, everything I am doing is the best of my ability, benefiting people, the planet, throwing animals like everything. So I'm working on projects no one knows about. I haven't come out in the world yet with them and with scientists and other like water power, food technologies, all of this other stuff, because it supports a mission of like, hey, we need people with water and power, food and shelter. We need people to be strong. We need people to get nutrient density and we need them to eliminate the toxic exposure because it's an invisible suppressor. Right. It's suppressing you. It's affecting you. It's dampening you with pesticides, herbicides, larvicide, PFAS, endocrine disruptors, phthalates, all of that stuff. So the whole mission, my end goal is not to just create a book and just talk about this shit. I just want people to know about it so that they can. Almost unexposed themselves to this invisible world that it does not have your best interest. The only interest it has is to get you to spend more money on it. Right. Why would you want to give your energy? Because the energy of you receiving money, it was energy first. You did something and you received money. Now you're taking that energy and giving it and buying a product that is harming your health. That's insane. But that's the frickin model. And you and I were born into this shit. So it's like, whoa, that's that's crazy. But it isn't. It's crazy on one side, but you have to face it in order to change it. So even the book, The Fatal Conveniences, it's there to go, hey, man, there's all this stuff, there's all these products that are keeping you down, that are suppressing your physiology, that's suppressing your body, that's potentially harming you. We need to eliminate. We need to detox from that so that it can liberate you with more energy. The super life, the super food book, the 20 years of doing that. I was like obsessed with like, let's go find the greatest nutrient dense foods in the world so that people can ignite their body from within nutrient wise. Right. And so so that's why I had to kind of look at this other invisible world of fatal convenience, because this is like this is what's going on. Right. So all of these things are I'm just giving all of that also to create a context. All of this stuff for me and the clean energy technologies, the the water desiccant technologies we're working on, and material science for better homes and all of this stuff that we're doing. All of it leads towards what? The same thing that I care about, the same deep why that drives me. Health of the people, health of the planet and and health of the environment. Right. That is just deep within me because this little kid that was born into this world suffered and that suffering ultimately became the passion that I still have to this day.

25:33 | Andres Preschel |
So like me, you were selfish to become selfless. You invested in yourself and in that curiosity. And you were able to nurture yourself to the degree where now you can share that wisdom and not only can you share it, but there's an added layer of credibility. And it's the empathy that's there because you can put yourself in the shoes of those who have suffered and who currently suffer in a way that you did. So it's like that alone, the empathy factor, the trust factor is huge in relaying this message. And my follow up question for you here is why and how should we and can we trust our body to heal itself when we remove these fatal conveniences? What's there in our body that can help us heal and can actually protect us and bring us back to the life that we deserve to live? Like how and why does that work?

26:35 | Darin Olien |
Wow, that's a great question. And, you know, it's funny because along the way. I've always had this sense of even though. Seemingly, my body felt weak as I came into this world and I picked up my first dumbbell at 16 years old and realized, oh, and I did my first cleanse when I was 13. And I was like, oh, wait a minute, I'm getting a response. I'm getting a I have agency. I have agency over these things. And that fueled so much of like being in the middle of nowhere, getting sick, you know, being in Africa, being in India. And and the reason I say that is because innately, I have learned that the body is so good at getting rid of debris and dead debris. It's so good at. Angiogenesis, right, it's so good at at at all of these physiological responses. It's so good at. Anabolism, right, to anabolic like, wow, OK, if I put good stress, it's like, oh, my God, it's just it's so built to thrive. Under the right circumstances, it can is certainly in this modern world, it can take us down this other path. So innately, over time, I trust so much. In what the body's able to do. And I also go back just a little caveat on, you know, you brought up, you know, medical school, you brought up there. There's this industrial complex of medicine that is not health care, right. So so it's also this this cultural program of. Almost to what I needed to look at initially is like, oh, my body's weak. That was my initial programming when I came into the world, because it was and I almost died, right. And I was three and a half pounds. Right. So I had to overcome that. But then I created through choices of eating well and exercising that I was like, no, that's not true. The body's strong when given the right input. So this whole idea also of the American Medical Association is and the industrial complex of that is, hey, man, if you get exposed to a bacteria, you need something from outside, exogenous support of a medicine, which is not really a medicine in order to overcome that. But that's not true. Right. The great microbiologist and Antoine Bouchamp was infinitely more versed than other researchers, and he was like, no, it's terrain theory. It's what you do. It's it's the environment you create that creates the resiliency that your body then wants to thrive in, that we want to thrive in. So it's not I'm a big. So I think about that. The bacteria, the the the industrial complex is about I catch this and therefore I'm just a victim of it. When, in fact, when you eat well, sleep well, drink well, have a nice emotional balance with good people around you, with health, the hard 80 year Harvard study showing that happiness is physiologically more powerful than almost anything else. Right. For our longevity. So you're like, wow, our entire environment creates the physiological, chemical and biological effects that blow away anything else. So I don't know if that answers everything, but but that's how I look. The the the. I know that the power of the body wanting to to thrive and if given the right input and also divorcing yourself from the input that's also stressing you in a bad, chronic way, i.e. it can be emotional stress. It could be toxic exposures that you're not aware of. It could be all kinds of things that by eliminating that and increasing the healthy side of things from nutrition and exercise and sleeping and hydration and you name it, then the body kicks ass. And so anyway, that's you got me on the big philosophical. Great. The answer right now.

31:43 | Andres Preschel |
But yeah, that's so I'll put it this way. And hopefully this is maybe it serves as a good summary, not to say that. I mean, you did an incredible job of taking us through that. But a clear, concise summary, if I may, is, you know, we have we have evolved these mechanisms and in order to leverage these evolutionarily preserved mechanisms that give us the ability to thrive in the modern day, we have to make equal and opposite investments in our agency and in our physiological intuition. So we have to have the curiosity to continue ourselves, to get to know what our power is and and and how involved you really can be in our body's response to the environment and our ability to thrive in it. And we have to slowly but surely develop that intuitive response. This like feedback loop, like, all right, I am aware, I am powerful and I can give my body what it needs intuitively. And as you keep doing this and keep deriving these benefits and exposing what is embedded in our DNA, what our life over the past millions of years has rewarded us with revolution. It's like that just gets makes you better and better and better. And you become this outlier in the modern day. I mean, I think going with what you were describing with the medical system, it's like the way to treat people has become so standardized that it's almost like it makes people feel safe and it almost gives them the chance, whether it's conscious or subconscious, to like get away with this very mediocre lifestyle, because like, oh, like, you know, like it's normal to take all these meds, it's normal to get all these procedures. I when I was shadowing, I mean, look, I love and respect medical doctors. There's so many in my family. They do things that in a way we will always need and require. But what bothered me was I saw people coming in for their second, third of liver transplant. Like that to me was horrible, you know, and that's an extreme example. But if you really dissect this, like I think a lot of people get away with poor lifestyle habits because everyone else is doing it and because everyone else gets away with it. So maybe we could put that in a box for a second. Something that I want to discuss with you that I think a lot of young people tuning in suffer with right now is attention and attention deficit. You know, maybe you and I have a genetic predisposition, but I know that there's a lot of things in this modern day that exacerbate it. So like, you know, your screen time and getting poor sleep because you had your phone in your bed and you're, I don't know, working late. Like, what do you think are the best ways to keep ourselves from exacerbating something that is either genetically predisposed that we're genetically predisposed to or that maybe we don't have. But with this modern living, you know, we've now depleted ourselves with this natural attention. How can we regain our attention and focus in the modern day?

34:43 | Darin Olien |
Yeah, I mean, you could look at that in so many different ways, because on the one hand, you have you have chemicals that that can push you towards more of this, you know, even the I think it's red number 40 is shown to to increase ADD and ADHD. So you definitely have a chemical soup that is contributing to this hyper neurological activity, this lack of focus. So I don't want to minimize that because there's a lot you can do there. And again, just minimize chemical exposures, minimize plasticizers, minimize things that you're putting in your body, glyphosate, all of that stuff. That said, you can go down a rabbit hole with that. You can also look at and believe me, I've looked at this myself. You could also look at ADD and ADHD as a superpower. You could also reorient yourself.

35:47 | Andres Preschel |
What's that? I said, oh, my gosh, because I was about to ask you about exactly that, how it actually is a superpower.

35:54 | Darin Olien |
I want your take first. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. No, I think you probably have a lot to share in that category, too. So again, I think I look at so many things as systems, either working with us or not working for us. So systems are failing us. And let me just go off on a second. One system that is infinitely failing us as a environmental disaster is recycling. Doesn't work, never has worked. Five percent at best is recycled. We've failed miserably. Right. It's a system that has never been really put into place. So systems are hurting us. This system of chemical exposures that are allowed in product are failing us. Right. Until overwhelming burden gets pushed back. And then the company is like, why is there PFAS in orange juice, which just happened, 200 different chemicals of PFAS were in. And we don't even know if forever chemicals affect on our biology or chemistry and long term effects on our neurology. We have no fricking idea because no one's testing it enough. But we have enough to show the derailing that this is happening. So as it relates to the superpower. Think about our our education system. Think about what we're trying to do to children. We're trying to blow them down, put them in a chair and teach them what we think they should be taught. How the hell is that ever going to work? Of course, you're going to have kids in activity. Why did I get taken out of school all the time? What? What? Why was I taken out of class? Right. It's like, why was I making fun of the teacher? Never about other kids. Why was I always kind of, you know, if I respect it, interesting, I don't know about for you, but if I respected and the respect to the teacher because they respected me, I was a lot calmer. Right. Something about that, I don't know what that was. But if there was not a respect and I thought I was just being talked at, I'm a nightmare in your class. Right. So. This system of education is horrible, horrible in that sense, because you're trying to suppress someone's normal activity of how they think, how they perceive their ability to think outside of the box, when in fact, the whole education system is a box that was decided on, that's trying to push people in and then medicate on top of it and saying something's wrong with these children. It's ridiculous, like ridiculous. Probably the like I would say my success was because I was never going to be in a box ever, ever. I never worked in me the odd jobs in between college and all of that stuff, but I was never going to work for somebody ever. I was never going to be programmed to be an employee that these education systems actually are trying to put you in. Right. There's no way. Why are they not having entrepreneurial, expansive education within the system so you can throw yourself into this ability to. Use your brain the way your brain's actually working. Right. So anyway, there's a lot to say about that, but I think that ultimately this system is broken in how we are still to this day, which is mind blowing to me, how we're forcing children essentially into a way of thought. That's not how they're thinking. And then, of course, just to summarize, there is a there is a nutrient deprivation that is horrifying. There is 70 percent of the calories of virtually all children are consuming ultra processed, chemicalized, hyper palatable food that's programmed to have more consumption. And and that's going to lead to a cascade of other issues. So you're you're up against a bad education system. You're up against horrible food. You're you're calorie full, nutrients starved. So so and then, of course, the chemicals, the specific chemicals that are aiding and abetting more of this expression of of not being, you know, you know, the ADHD and the hyperactivity and all of this stuff. You know, I feel lucky in a sense that exercise was radically helpful for me. And back, you know, listen, I grew up in the 70s, man. So they just opened the door and just let us roll. Right. So, you know, we were constantly and I was out, no sunscreen in shorts, riding bicycles all day. So I was getting vitamin D. I was playing in the dirt. I was like and the only thing that I was medicating with was I was taking bottles of Coke, old bashing coke and just lambing them. So it was my own adderall that I was using to kind of help me me focus. But yeah, I'd love to hear your thoughts, actually, on the superpower and what you're hearing and feeling and perceiving around ADD and ADHD.

42:15 | Andres Preschel |
Thank you for taking me through that. You know, I I've described this a few times in the show, but with the things that you just shared, you've actually you brought back memories and themes that I haven't reflected on in a very long time, such as my relationships with my teachers and how that influence of performance their perception of me and how that influenced my confidence in the class and my interest in the class. They were very, very, very, very maybe. I don't know. I've had, I don't know, over 100 professors in my life. I have maybe three that actually saw something in me and man, you're making me emotional, man. That actually saw something in me and. Provoke that kind of curiosity. And without with without explicitly, they didn't say this, but I knew it deep down that there was more to life than that. My whole life, man, I was treated like I had a problem. And it was unbelievable because whenever it came to the things that I actually found joy and interest in, I mean, I mastered those at an unbelievable speed with unbelievable ability. And man, deep down, I don't know where this came from, but deep down, I always knew that there was something bigger and something better. I mean, I refused. So I was a rebel. Like I refused to do as I was told. And and and and even with the medication, the medication really just helped me like assimilate and get by in school, which I'm honestly glad that I had in a way because I think I would have gone to a special school and just my confidence and my ego would not have I don't think would have thrived in that environment. Anyway, I always felt like there was more and. Yeah, the medication helped me assimilate anyway, I had this epiphany, like I said, and. I decided to pursue the things that brought me real interest, real joy, and my life started to. Flourish, I removed the Adderall because the side effects built up to a point where my body was suffering tremendously. And I knew that I couldn't go to college living that way. I couldn't live. I wouldn't. I wasn't I wasn't going to survive, literally, if I kept taking meds to get by. And so, you know, you know what I what I just pulled up, actually, I pulled up a sort of poem that I wrote about this that I think is a helpful response to your question. And could maybe inspire someone tuning in to pay attention to their innate abilities and their interests and hopefully develop a lifestyle and a career from the things that genuinely brings them joy. It's a little abstract, but I want everyone to really. I spent a lot of time writing this and I never shared with anybody ever, ever, ever before. No one's ever seen this besides this podcast. So here it goes. So I spent 10 years digging a hole. Where society marked the spot. And with every strike I inflicted on the earth, my steel blade dulled under the pressure to acclimate. Eventually, I was left with a resembled a hammer, a tunnel deep enough to trap me and the type of strength that meant weakness, because it showed me how good I got at listening to every inner voice, but my own. It was dark and I felt helpless. All I had left would never receive me if I continued to be used, if it continued to be used as I was shown. Unable to unearth any more of what remained, I was left with nothing but to wonder why I start digging and where I got the spade. Now, for the very first time, my head began to tilt up towards a bright and unfamiliar sky. When I finally released what was left of the blistering steel, my daily dose of Adderall, the most remarkable accomplishments started flooding in like a natural disaster. As water seeped into this opportune crevice, I finally began to feel the buoyancy of my mind, body and spirit float me to the top. Once the rainwater started pouring in, the very depth of introspection was what allowed me to learn to swim and never stop. Finally, through the same motions I repeatedly practiced with the spade, I realized the strength within me to tread water. I surfaced, looked around and realized I was not the only Adderall. These holes are everywhere and although I survived by asking why, I know that to help all of the desperate souls surrounding me, I need to learn precisely what it takes to swim before we get to fly. I satisfied my earliest craving for neuroscience through a summer scholars program while I was still in high school. Here, I had the freedom to explore my brain in an environment suited for neuroplasticity, unlimited access to the gym, dining hall and I was more social than ever before. Since then, I've doubled down on the very science and mechanisms that I now consider lifestyle habits and I haven't felt the weight of steel since. I believe the journey that uplifted me is one that everyone deserves to enjoy and I'd like to help others emerge from their deaths and break free of a mind that holds them  prisoner through an approach based in science. And that's it.

47:40 | Darin Olien |
Wow, dude. That's beautiful. Never shared that with anybody ever. I never thought I would, honestly. That's beautiful. Thank you for that. Powerful. Powerful visuals comes with that. Yeah. And that's the, that's it, man. Like, you know. And I think that everyone has that, it's like, when are we going to listen to ourselves, right? When and let that guide us because there's so many fucking voices that are telling us other stuff, telling us who we are, telling us all these things. You're not good enough. You're broken. You're a blah, blah, blah. Oh, man. Well, I'm happy that you're on this side of it. And I'm, like I said before, I'm stoked for what you're going to continue to learn and grow and expand into and that contribution, because you also know what it's like. And you have that empathy and that is full of grace that can be gifted and accessed in a lot of different ways. And your path being your passion of the neuroscience, it's just, it's epic because at a certain point, science becomes religion in a good sense of religion. Let's say it this way, science becomes spirituality because at a certain point, you're like, how is this possible? It's an How is this possible? It's an orchestra of magic that is so beyond what we can possibly imagine, but exploring it to find that out is epic.

49:39 | Andres Preschel |
And I'll tell you that although the modern school system doesn't work for me, this is like the only science, the only thing I'm willing to study is the mechanisms that brought this ability and this miracle to life, because I want to really develop that expertise so I can help others derive and enable those mechanisms. I feel neuroscience is the key to that lever in a way, among other things, but I think it's a great introduction. Well, if we can maybe speak about something a little happier, more optimistic here, because we definitely went down a deep, dark road and hopefully it's inspiring. Hopefully it shows people that we aren't just, you know, these healthy, happy guys that are fulfilled and get to do all this cool stuff like that all comes from a place of suffering in a way, but life is suffering. And as long as we can be honest about it, then we can see the truth behind, well, this journey to improve. So if we can talk about what are some of the most, let's say, nutrient-dense foods that we can, that are in a way convenient to eat, I know most conveniences are fatal, but what are some of the conveniences that actually power us up? And I'll pair that with, I tried your burukanuts, I love them, Benny Greenfield gave them to me as a gift, and I ate an entire bag, a huge bag, within one hour. Okay. I don't know if I did my body more harm than good in that case, but I want to say I love your burukanuts.

51:09 | Darin Olien |
Oh, thank you. Well, that's a, you know, that is a shining example of nutrient density from the wild. It's a wild food from the savanna of Brazil that is under good stress and bad stress of losing its bio by deforestation, good stress of that little nut at the journey. So when you're consuming that nut, there's no farming, there's no irrigation, there's just collecting whenever that nut falls. The point is that it's delicious. It happens to be delicious and you're getting more micronutrients than any nut we've ever tested before. So that's how I look at food is every time I open my mouth, what is the opportunity here? And again, we get hijacked through ultra processed and overly processed food. So once you start to give yourself time of eating these nutrient dense foods, you crave it because that is you coming smack dab into nature, right? Some of my favorites, you know, spirulina raw, raw, there's some companies doing raw living. So I get some, you know, frozen spirulina because it's, there's very few, you know, algaes that have so much contribution. And of course the burukanuts, but again, you know, you have to say that if you can grow your own food, grow your own food, support your own soil, all of that stuff is extremely valuable. I have to mention, even though it's not necessarily food, it's botanical neurogenesis, you know, things like I discovered coffee fruit, which in actuality, it's not just the fruit, but the drying of the seed, it's technically a seed, the coffee bean and the fruit has been proving as a very high BDNS brain derives neurotropic factor support as well as tumeric and tumorones from the tumor. So those things bringing in tumeric in a culinary kind of extravaganza is easy and great. And obviously with pepper acts as a bio antagonist to support more absorption. So these kinds of things are great and they're great brain hacks that you're just so coffee fruit, it's not as much known in terms of, but it is starting to come out. I know some companies, Strong Coffee, I don't drink coffee, but Strong Coffee has coffee fruit in there and it's from a company I know that has done research on BDNF properties. So there's a lot of stuff. So I have to mention that because we're talking neurology and stuff like that. But you know, yeah, so I mean, I think it's important to be aware of that. Yeah. So I mean, for me, it's, you know, I consume a huge amount of fruit and I'm not afraid of that, that's for sure. But yeah, I mean, we could talk about a lot of different superfoods, but those are kind of my, you know, the standard is I look at normal foods as the best approach to eat them and where are they from? So farmers markets and all of that stuff. And again, the most important thing is to realize that normal food, even protein quality, and people don't talk much about this either, protein quality, because protein is in every food, every food, got amino acid in every fruit to veggies, you name it, got, there's protein, but protein has declined as well. Amino acids have declined as well as phosphorus and calcium and magnesium and other micronutrients and minerals. They have declined over because of how we're growing food. So there is a very pragmatic and also sovereign way to, if you have land, if you have any sort of land, if you have a chunk in the middle, you know, out your backyard, throw some seeds in the ground and start planting food and then eliminating ultra-processed food, be the best thing for your brain, because we know inflammation is turned on and those pathways of inflammation are something that again, kind of going back to what you said to, you know, pain and inflammation is a catalyst for change that we are medicating ourselves and missing the opportunity of that feedback and to those feedback mechanisms. So that's important to get and the anti-inflammatory response and catalyst of full fresh food, fruits, not seeds are extremely important. So anyway, that's just a little touch on some of that.

57:08 | Andres Preschel |
Yeah. And to add to that, I'll actually give you an anecdote. So I was recently in New York visiting a friend. He has roommates. One of his roommates is taking Adderall, wants to get off of it, but I noticed he was as a means of getting convenient nutrients, he was taking like one of those Hewl shakes. And I thought to myself, and actually looked in their fridge and forgive me for I know they're going to be tuning in. So sorry, guys, but I'm just going to put the truth out here. Like these, this guy, where I care about deeply, I'm not saying this is a negative thing again, but it's just I'm noticing it. Like, if he hadn't been taking Adderall, like without Adderall, he's not eating whole nutrient dense foods, he was eating crap. And now that he's taking it, he wants a convenient way to get something. So now he's taking a liquid version of nutrient dense foods. I don't even know what the quality of Hewl foods are. And it took me back to when I was on Adderall, I didn't have any appetite. All I was having was in a sure shakes, like artificial nutrient dense crap. Now my parents gave me with good intentions and I love my parents. But and we, you know, we ate really my mom's Italian and Lebanese, she makes the most amazing food. But look in the morning, hey, you're on the go, we were eating cereal, you know, we had access to sweet foods. We I didn't know at the time actually, look at my genetics. I have a genetic variant for a celiac. I'm not I don't have celiac disease, but I definitely have a gluten sensitivity, especially the low quality gluten that's, you know, polluted with crap here in the US. And when I eat gluten today, oh my god, the brain fog, the trouble focusing the lack of energy that I have, like, I know that if I didn't have that in my life, I would have been way better, more energized, more productive, more focused. So it's like, you know, before you reach for something that may be conveniently nutrient dense, can you opt for something that's whole and not so convenient, but still is a great way to give your body calories, because not just the nutrients and the and maybe lower calories, it's also getting that in a in in a delivering that in a way that is satiating and that has a thermic effect that fills you up so you don't overconsume it. Right. So I asked you a question there and there was a trick question, but I think absolutely more burukanuts, more spirulina, chlorella. I love those. But I think you you would agree here that it comes down to whole food as well. Right. And of course, the burukanuts are whole food.

59:32 | Darin Olien |
100% Yeah, I mean, that's the that's that's the that's the issue that we often reduce ourselves into. We all want to get Hey, what's the next biohack? What's the best thing? How can I optimize my brain and blah, blah, blah without understanding the foundation of all of those things? Hell, if you just look at water and not being cellularly hydrated, right, that is what what's the number one cause of fatigue is dehydration. And then and then you have nearly 10% of the Americans don't even drink it out of water a day. 70% and 75% are all dehydrated. So you can make the argument that approaching 75 to 80% of all of us in America are dehydrated. And then you're like, OK, I don't have the energy. I don't have the brain acuity. I don't have all of these cascade effects that is literally at next to breathing, one of the greatest things that we can do. So I always go back to foundational things. Work on your foundation before you start reaching for all this other shortcuts. Right. What is your foundation? What's your sleeping like? What's your preparation for sleeping? Meaning, what the hell time you going to bed? What are you doing before bed? When did you eat last? What did you eat last? Like all of these things. And what is that water quality? Are you are you drinking tap water? Because I guarantee you there's hundreds of chemicals that are also hijacking your immune system with endocrine disrupting, with all that other stuff. So again, we we have this lack of looking at our our own system. And so when you look at your systems of foundational approaches, man, you can get 90% there of having your whole life change just by going common sense routes of what are you eating, sleeping, drinking? How are you constructing even your circadian rhythms and how much screen time? So there's all this stuff that we bypass too much to to then what did Andrew Huberman just talk about? So now I can now I can now I can okay, I'm now I'm going to do this hack. And that's not that Andrew's talking about hacks all the time. But it's it's it's the point that we have so much agency, but we have gotten into our own habits. And we've lost the ability to kind of look back at going, Oh, yeah, I'm, I'm not sleeping well. I'm not eating well. I'm not doing all these things.

01:02:26 | Andres Preschel |
Yeah. And it's like all the things you just mentioned, like the sleep, the hydration, etc. These are way upstream of everything else. If you get the sleep right and hydration, right, you're gonna have more energy, more mental clarity, or drive motivation, libido, etc. It's like all the stuff that you're otherwise investing 1000s of dollars, 1000s of hours, struggling to navigate social media and getting consumed in that like, you know, void, it's like, all right, you have the basics, right. So that's a good question. There is what is currently your approach to hydration?

01:03:00 | Darin Olien |
Strip it, filter it, you got to filter it properly. And properly, what I mean is reverse osmosis or distillation. Now listen, if you have a well, if you have a stream, if you have a thing and it's tested, or you can use living water in that way, then do it consume it, but you got to test it. What's coming most of us coming out of the tap is dangerous. It's not dysentery or typhoid and gonna kill you acutely. But it's it's the our systems of water filtration on a big level are lacking the sophistication of pesticides, herbicide, BPA, BPH, PFAS, all of that stuff that in the record. That's, that's not me. These are this is throughout most of the United States, there's dangerous stuff. So by by reverse osmosis or distillation, you can, you can get that for a couple hundred bucks. Now all of a sudden you have clean water, but you stripped it, you also don't have the electrolytes, you need a certain amount of the right kind of electrolytes, cellular, receptive electrolytes. So you've got the great osmotic osmologic flow that you need between the potassium and sodium pump. So that you need to add those electrolytes back in there's a clean Himalayan crystal salt, Celtic sea salt, a pinch of it per glass. If you want to amp it up, there's a great company I just found I'm just nerding out over how they have sourced their plant minerals from SheLegit in the Himalayas as well as the Ormis minerals in the deep sea. It's a company called Mono Vitality. They have these little packets, you squeeze it in there and you get you know over 90, 95, 100 percent or 100 of those trace minerals and we need the trace minerals. That's a whole other rabbit hole. So you can clean your water, remineralize, and now at least you've got a chance to not, so you're doing two things with that. You're not being exposed to harmful chemicals and now you're also having a simulative biologically available water on a cellular level that is going to change the game, right? So that's an easy, easy, easy thing that you can do to optimize your health.

01:05:34 | Andres Preschel |
Yeah absolutely and it's almost like people aren't paying attention to this, the base layer of Maslow's hierarchy of needs. It's like what's there is the physiological needs and that's air, water, food, shelter, sleep, clothing, and reproduction. It's like if you get the air right, if you purify your air because the air is crap, purify your air, you drink cleaner water, you have access to high nutrient density whole foods that are organic. If most people that are tuning into this podcast have shelter and they can afford some sleep, so optimize your sleep and recognize what's taking away from your sleep and remove that, strip that out. Clothing, making sure you're wearing cotton, not anything laced with BPAs and then reproduction, right? It's like I think if you get those right, you're probably going to have pretty good odds at reproducing and you're probably going to look the part too. Just don't put your cell phone in your pocket because it is showing that there's some reproductive issues. Oh yeah, I'm going to have Dr. Shana Swan I believe on the podcast to dive into that. I interviewed her on my book and she's got that great book, what's it called? I also forget the name of the book, Countdown? Countdown, yeah. Oh wow, sweet. Yeah. So, all right, well I know that you're short on time. My last question for you here is, let me ask you two questions, two part questions. What's one thing that you're excited about in the realm of health, wellness, performance, longevity that maybe you haven't shared elsewhere that you think everyone should know? And the two part, the second part to this question is, if you could distill this into one word or one sentence that you could put on a billboard somewhere, what would it say and where would it be?

01:07:18 | Darin Olien |
Well, what I'm excited about is what people aren't talking about. I mean, I have shared this, but we have to, it's not just adding to our life. It's not just adding nutrients, it's eliminating the toxic exposures. So that's why I wrote Fatal Conveniences, that's why I wrote this book. We have to be aware because we are being thwarted and our hormone system is being hijacked. So that's not me, that's the modern world, so we need to be aware of it. So it's becoming aware of this invisible system so that we can have agency over it. What would I put on a billboard? And where? It's very important to put it in the right place too. Wow. You've never been asked this question? No. Oh, sweet. Let's see, if I can put, where would I put, maybe I should figure out where I would put it. I would put, even though I'm not political necessarily, I would put a billboard, if it was up to me, I would put it in the freaking capital of the United States, inside, in the Congress, I would put that fucking billboard right in there. And I would probably say, it's about the people, it's not about you. Wow. And that's what I believe at my core. I believe I have more faith in humanity than you and I and the people listening that have faith in anything else. Because I believe that people do have the agency. I believe people do have the human spirit. I believe people have the purity of soul. I believe people have this agency of their heart and wanting the best for themselves and their families and their pets and the world. I believe that at my core, I believe it more than gnarly, weird shit going on in the world. So I believe we always have the numbers, that we as humanity always will help one another. And I believe there's more people that will help than not help. So more than anything, we the people can make the changes. That's why I love to have these conversations so that a bunch of us can make the changes so that we have the energy and we have the energy, then we get to discover our dreams and go after those dreams. And once we do that, we break the bonds and the chains and the shackles of whatever is going on in the world that we are not a victim to, that we have the opportunity of change and we can do it and it comes by way of us making that choice.

01:10:42 | Andres Preschel |
What a way to wrap up, man. Dear the man, thank you so much. Thanks, brother. Appreciate it. It's been absolutely wonderful. I hope to have you back soon, man. Sounds good. So that's all for today's show. Thank you so much for tuning in today. For all the show notes, including clickable links to anything and everything that we discussed today, everything from discount codes to videos to research articles, books, tips, tricks, techniques. And of course, to learn more about the guest on today's episode, all you have to do is head to my website on dresspreshell.com. That's A N D R E S P R E S C H E L .com (andrespreschel.com) and go to podcasts. You can also leave your feedback, questions and suggestions for future episodes, future guests, so on and so forth. Thanks again for tuning in and I'll see you on the next one. Have a lovely rest of your day.