Russell Simmons

don't strengthen or empower us. We tend toward negativity, self pity, jealousy, or fear. We see what we don't have instead of what we do. We think things that hold us back and dampen our spirit. But it's not just about thinking. Our actions matter. It takes conscious, consistent, and creative effort to make a life worth living. This podcast is about how other people keep themselves moving in the right direction, how they feed their good wolf. Thanks for joining us.

Our guest on this episode is Russell Simmons, an American entrepreneur and author. Russell began his entrepreneurial career in his youth, but on the wrong side of the law, selling marijuana to make money while being an active member of a local gang. He then partnered with Rick Rubin to create Deaf Jam Records and signed artists like The Beastie Boys,

LLL cool J, Public Enemy and run DMC. He is also the chairman and CEO of Rush Communications and created the clothing fashion lines Fat Farm, Argyle, Culture and Tantris. What many people may not realize is he is also a vocal proponent of meditation and veganism. His latest book is called The Happy Vegan, A Guide to living a long, healthy and successful life. Here's the interview. Hi Russell, welcome

to the show. Thank you for having me so. Our podcast is called The One You Feed and it's based on the parable of two wolves that you may have heard before. In the parable, there's a grandfather who's talking with his grandson and he says, in life, there are two wolves inside of us that are always at battle. One is a good wolf, represents things like kindness and bravery and love, and the other is a bad wolf,

which represents things like greed and hatred and fear. And the grandson stops and he thinks about it for a second. He looks up at his grandfather and he says, Grandfather, which one wins? And the grandfather says that the one you feed. So I'd like to start this interview off by asking you what that parable means to you in your life and in the work that you do. Well. I believe that we are servants and that we benefit

by giving good. Give us a great gettis before you get this idea of getting without giving the short cut, but ultimately doesn't promote happiness. So I feed the one that is in all kind and compassionate and the rest because I want return to me kindness and compassion as

much as I can. I'm not enlightened. I struggle, but I try to do the right thing because I feel like that's not only as a trade with the world, but as a gift to the world, because I believe the freedom from even being attached to the result of it is is a is a good thing. I also believe that good givers that that are not concerned or attached to result a greater givers and then in the end ultimately become greater getters. Uh So that's just even.

The more do you disassociate yourself with the results of your labor, the fruits of your labor, the more that they come in. You know, if you see the Indian deity lucksh me this idea of just she's giving all the time, but all these jewels at her feet. Because good givers are great getters, and those who focus only on their work without regard for the fruit of their work are better at their work just practically, you know,

for a practical level. You know, you go to work, put your head down, you focus on your work, you'll have good results. Focusing on what you get is you know you have no control over it. So we'll go into your latest book is called The Happy Vegan, and we'll go into that in just a minute. But there was something you were saying as you were introducing that

book that I wanted to bring up. You were talking about, you know, why do we see so many successful and famous people sort of adopting the vegan lifestyle, and and you said that, you know, there's a dirty little secret about success and fame. They don't necessarily make you happy, and that that people are searching for a deeper meaning in their life. And that's why you see a lot

of people you think, headed towards a vegan diet. Well, I think the same thing happens with people who don't have a lot of stuff, you know, they have to they have to evolve, they have to accept condition that they're in. And a lot of people just accept it and then and that acceptance is a bit of freedom. Um, some people have to have extreme to realize that those things don't cause happiness anyway. Well, people who have in the middle mostly the happiest. They don't have to make

transitions so much. They just kind of learned to be happy with what they have. Mostly in America, what they have is enough to create their own happiness. Uh. And even the poor they don't need stuff either, but they're told they're poor. They're told they're struggling, you know, even with the light bulb, even with the you know, all the cable ex at HBO, even with whatever they do have, you know, it's like they don't have enough. And so

they told that. So that kind of weighs on them if they let it, just like the rich and told they have everything, and that weighs the funk out of them because they're like, what is this, Like I have everything and I have nothing, you know, I'm not happy. So those two struggle the most. Uh. The people who think that the rich the new toy will make them happy continuously suffer, and those people who have nothing and complain that they need more stuff continuously suffer. Um. But

it's all about you know, it's all inside. It's nothing on the outside. It can create happiness. It's an inside job. We'll talk a little bit about your book. Before this was about meditation, so we'll get into that. That's a topic we cover a lot on the show. But I wanted to tell you a story about the Happy Vegan before we got started. So about I don't know. We've been doing the show for about two years. About a year and a half ago, we had a guy on

named rich Roll. I don't know if you're familiar with him. He's a vegan altar endurance athlete. Yes, I heard about him, Yeah, and so I took his I took he He challenged me to do thirty days vegan, and so I did thirty days vegan, and I stayed doing it for I don't know, probably about a year. But about the last six months I've kind of fallen off. I've been haven't been eating animals, but i've been um, dairy eggs, et cetera. I read your book on the plane out and immediately

decided like I'm back on like I need to. I need to get back to where I was. It was very I found it to be given that I you know, had was was close anyway, I found it really come pelling and made me sort of recommit to that that practice. Well good, I'm glad for that. Listen, it's um, no one's absolute egg in your noodle, you know, or whatever it could be. You know, it could be a piece of fish off your friend's plate. You took a bite. People, some people need to be absolute, you know, to to

practice something. Um. But I believe that a vegan diet it's healthier for the planet and the people of the planet. Right. Um. That's not a belief system. That's this fact, and I

want to share it with people. And the more people that become vegan, you know, the more likely you ought to survive as a species, and more likely that the planet will will survive that A lot of other species cannot you know, survive on it, right because we're certainly killing off species, so many species, and what we are doing with cows alone so abusive. It is all you know, it has everything to do, in my mind, with corporate greed and our lack of control of the corporations and

near control of our government. The freedom to exploit our resources to poison our people. Is what corporations have. They have so much corporate welfare three hundred billion dollars to make the cost of meat cheap. And this is a Pieta study, seventeen million dollars for vegetables. Ye. So this warped system where we pay tax dollars and those tax dollars are given the corporations that poison us, poison the planet, and commit the worst atrocities, part of the worst comic

disaster in the history of the world. And and that's our government. So people think that our government is protecting us, when in fact they are poisoning us. In the book, you talk about the six billion animals is it yearly? Depending on how you look at it, it's a big number. The big number sixty is the number. I mean, it's

a hundred billion. It's certainly ten billion. The factory farmed animals in Americas is the number of people go for um and you go into animals birth, into the worst suffering or the best practices factories can come up with to manufacture their flesh or their actions. Whether you know what I mean, lay eggs, you know, whatever they can do to a dairy cow to get milk out of it, electrocuted, let live its own FISHI as long as the tube around it doesn't really pollute the milk. It's disgusting what

they do. It's horrific. It's illegal to film it, you know. It's not illegal to go in my workplace and film. Not legal going nuclear silian film, not illegal to go anywhere in the workplace and film except the factory farm. Right. It's horrible. I mean, it's like they're poisoning to people and pulling the wool over their eyes, and and they just keep it moving like it's nothing. You know. It's

why I occupied. The reasoning occupy Wall Street is because the people no longer control this government is the money. And that is the reason that we're able to They're able to make manufacture lives in the fashion in which they do, short lives in the fashion in which they do because they pay it for play an Economressman and senators. They can do nothing but take the money. Shut up, you know, even the presence. You know, one good thing

Trump said, He said, one good thing. Money corrupts good people. He looked around like he's the only one not controlled. Right. He said that it was like one good thing, he said, because he gets free pressed. I mean, he couldn't afford to buy to press yet, so he he gets free pressed. So he's able to say I'm free, and that freedom may make him say stuff that shocking to America, maybe even progressive ideas. That's scary, you know, But that's a

different discussion. But I know, but the real truth is, uh, he couldn't can't say that. Yeah, so it's so, it's so we're talking about an ongoing process with our government is controlled by money. You're a big proponent of meditation. Your previous book was about meditation, and you said in The Happy Vegan that meditation by itself is great, Yoga by itself is great, Veganism by itself is great. But when you combine the three of those, it's sort of

like a turbo charge. I think. So, I mean, I look, I meditate daily, I go to yoga every single day God sends. And when I'm traveling or whatever, I find a yoga practice. Heated yoga for me these days last four or five years. But you put them all together, it's, you know, it's part of a process to you know, to reduce them to speed at which you age. New science evidence says you you not reduce it, but that

you turn it back some you know. This is like Depo sent me all this research about how the cells that close up um start to open up again and and grow again through practices like meditation and then even yoga. So that's those the things that reverse the aging process. So it's a pretty phenomenal find to put these things together. And for me it's been you know, life saving. You look a picture of me thirty years ago. I don't

look so good. Thirty seven years ago, I look twisted, you know, So I can honestly say that lifestyle matters and genetics are not the key. They told Bill Clinton, the genetics like your Twitter, your hearts fucked up, you know, it's just who you are. He said no, and he went on a vegan diet and he reversed the process and he feels great now, and it's so amazing shift for him. The doctors were wrong, and that's a big deal.

The best doctors were wrong. And it turned out that the obvious, which all the nutrition is uh modern nutritionists and the China study and all these other research information is is right? You know, doctors don't know nothing anyway else studying nutrition at all. Right, Yeah, the point you made in the book about President Clinton is if there was a better way, there was a better pill or better procedure, you know he'd get it because he's President Clinton.

The fact that he chose a vegan diet shows kind of it's the best approach. Well, it's the best that I'm aware of, and I'm very happy to share it. I mean, the money goes to charity. I don't do this for self gain. Um, I I love the idea, so it's self gain. It is something. I mean, I like the idea. People walking up and saying your book made me happier, made me happier, that the thing changed my life, made me happy. Everybody says that about my previous book. But the last book, your point out, was

a good book. I mean, Opra said it was the best book on the subject, and it's so. It was seventeen weeks and the best seller list, so it was a significant kind of a distribution accomplishment whatever. Right, So I wrote that book. Everybody says that about that super rich same thing, do you same thing. Those books made you happier. This book will save your life. So it's even more important that if we could start, imagine if we got hot. I mean, I'm sure I'll catch hell.

I'm sure that the the factory farming his three income just let me talk about them. So I'm trying to live a clean life. I already tried my best for the last eight years, trying to be a pretty decent human beings probably be extra clean now, like traffic lights, all that ship because they want they're not gonna be happy. It's like they already doesn't like me very much. I was at one point on their list. I was very proud to know that they're a little different. I mean,

they don't know, but you're talking. You know, we're talking three hundred Does American taxpayers know that it equals about three hundred billion dollars? Let's just peters report. I gotta give report from everybody, because you know, everything I say should be documented on it assuming for it. Uh, well, all we can prove it later, but it's expensive to do that. But anyway, I don't want to be in a lawsuit with you know, but it's true. Factory farming

is poisoning America. The factory farming industry is poisoning America, and the American government is subsidizing that process. They're giving money to them and not to the vegetable industry. And you know that's good for the pharmaceutical companies. I guess it's just all feeds. It's all money. It's all bullshit. It's all money. And I want people to to open up, make choices on their own and build something different. What

motivates you? Now, you've been incredibly successful, right you. You don't have to have to be working, and yet here you are. You know, talking earlier about you, you keep long days, every day, lots of every single day. You know, I'm gonna make yoga and meditation. I'm really basically, look, my girlfriend too took a day off. She supposed to be shooting today. She's not. She's just hanging the fun out.

So we're hanging right. She's heard all this ship like a lot a hundred times saying my assistance her Diship's whole life. She's like sick of hearing. That's right. You did good did part of the interviews today, and she they did by asking her hot ninety seven or or the breakfast club hip hop radio shows like well what do you think? And she is but anyway, when they filmed that too, by the way, saying mothers see that anyway in Australia and mothers see that. So I mean,

it's just it's an important gift, you know. I mean, I said, good, give us a great guts you're gonna give to get to go. So that to me is is very important. You know, give to you go. Lions said, who minister it was called? That was quote fer Con The lion doesn't stop fighting until you stop eating, stop hunting whatever. Some about old people. He's a speech to old people about keep doing it until you check out. You know, you gotta keep giving until you go on.

You know, you want to stay useful. All right, I'm building all kind of new fund ship to do, building a yoga studio, getting open to meditate with a big deal because she got other people to meditate. That's the thing about celebrity. You know, it's kind of funny. I still have so much of it at this age. And I speak to young people like my daughter. You know, she's always embarrassed by me, but but her friends, and she's only fifteen, but her friends in Switzerland like oh

Russell is the godfather the hip hop. She's like, I can't stand this ship, like she can't take that. I know her friends. You know I'm I'm not dead yet. I'm not. So I can talk to young people, and I talked to people you know, almost as old as I am. I can talk to right, So I get to to use my voice to make a difference. Celebrities are very valuable tool in politics, in social and political issues that matter to undeserved communities. So I keep doing it.

Let's talk about meditation for a second. You you make an interesting point that we spend a lot of time and enter g maintaining all parts of our lives, our finances, our health, our homes are all that stuff, that we spend no time maintaining what would arguably be our greatest tesset, our mind, and that meditation is a way to do that absolutely well. You know, to reboot your mind is important. Twenty minutes. Fine, Let the mind settle the nervous system,

calm thoughts common they go. Some of the thoughts said come. You're surprised to note that they're not so troublesome when you see them from a distance, so you get to do inventory and then you have real quiet moments and in the brain that left in the right side of the brain connect They stopped disconnecting at eight years old. They stopped reconnecting. When we meditate, the great matter in the brain grows. You can see it on a scanner in eight weeks of regular meditation, more great matter in

the brain. That's amazing. Your memory, your immune system. There's so many benefits to meditation and known for thousands of years, but now we have scientific proof of all the things I'm saying. So there's no reason not to. You know, there's no reason not to. It's for well being, it's for health. I'm gonna be happy, you know. Um. Happiness is the number one thing you get for meditation, because

you're only happy when the mind is settled. The seconds a joke hits you, right, even if you trouble, the joke hits you all the future in the past disappears. You giggle, right because you forgot all that bullshit. Single point in focus. Why you have a mantra and it's the only focus. You know, get the hundreds of thoughts

out of your mind and get one. You know, the idea of none is you know, seldom happens, but to get one thought, anything, a corpse, the sunset, anything is beautiful when you're free from the noisy mind and the fear and anxiety, it goes along with all the noise m H. You mentioned in the inventory process and or in the meditation process. I had not heard this before about there being two phases. In the first you call the taking inventory phase before you go into more of

the deeper mind phase. Can you describe what that is? If you close your mind, if you close your eye at first, you're trying to think of everything at once. You have no thoughts. But if you quiet your mind a little bit and thoughts come and you get to examine them, they're not like one of a hundred thoughts that are raising through your mind. It just comes through to see the thought it's out, I ain't ship. I won't be here long. Things that kill you like I

ain't ship. What do you think? And the answer it's not going to be here long? Because you see how quickly it passes onto a new thought. So this idea that this will pass, or this idea that um without emotion, you can make a decision. Maybe that may be a better decision or innovation comes from stillness. So maybe you have a creative ideas important do that work. Let the brain settle and decide on how how it feels about

all the crap that's running through it. And then let the brain settle and not worry about the crap at all. Or the brain settle, and you know, a wake up mean you open your eyes and you know you can start over and begin again. You know you can only start from an empty mind if not Sam Scara. Yogis refer to the cycle of the same negative behavior. But in order to be brand new, to beginning again, to begin again, you have to be present what led you to meditation and yoga in the first place. Like that

was the only dude. Like it was like twenty years ago, like me and Bobby surriving, like eight girls too, gay guys, And it was like I went out to the first class, I was addicted. Teacher was Steve Ross in l a and I played the Police and all these cool songs and it was fun, loud yoga class. He had been a monk. He's a royal foodist for what he is now and he's a very dedicated yogi. But he has this fun class. They'll teaches it fun loud class, and I don't. I don't go to it as much. But

he's a great teacher. He's my first teacher. And I went Emma Watts, who now he's my intern. Now she they had a Fox Pictures. I'm begging on to green light my movies. But that's just typical of a lot of stuff that's happened to me. I'm trying to get Brett Ratt into finance my movie. While I'm at it asking Lee. I'll call when again. I borrow his artists. It's nice. I've seen a lot of ship, a lot

of people become successful around me. But anyway, Emma Watts took us, took Bobby Surriver and myself Bobby's best friend of his wedding. He didn't marry Emma, she was his girlfriend. And I went to class and I fell in love with it that after that one class, and and that led then to meditation, which then led yes, the meditation and then vegan diet. Yeah, but you know, when I went to moved to New York, I started practicing at Jeeva,

moved to yoga. They're all vegan. They're hardcore and That's what I'm building it tantras a yoga studio in l a at Soho house with people with big mouths, like teaching Oprah to meditate, teaching Ellen de Generous to meditate, getting teachers for people like that, Katie Perry, I still hung it last night, you know, she Bob Roth. I don't know if I sent to Bob or I said, Russell Brand, you know, I mean I sent a lot of people these teachers, and these teachers transformed these people.

These people got big mouths, and then they tell everybody right, you know, and and then the world shifted. So so now I building a yoga studio, but not a regular yoga studio center for because I reactulally. Yoga studio would be very little physical practice. It's no such thing that America. But the Austina studio I'm gonna build is gonna have a lot of It's gonna be a center for yogic science,

so that we'll have themes. We'll have a slightly more spiritual, since we are spiritual beings with physical bias, will remind people of that more often than not. We'll play Kristnadas and Kanye West. It's gonna be fun, but I'm excited to build a studio that I think teaches more yogic science than just an astena. Right. Yeah, it opposed is a small part of yogas you must know. What do you think that the meditation and yoga give you on a daily basis? You are very busy, but yet you're

incredibly committed to those two things. Well, I think that. Like right now, my schedule is what it is. I start have time for meditation, yoga and sleep. I need six hours of six and a half hours and seven hours now, and I'm old. I really need six hours, which I used to not need it. I need it. I need my six hours and my meditation at yoga and something to eat, you know. I mean, that's it. I don't need. I mean, and I don't mind talking to you. I mean it's not hard. I'm not swinging

sledge hammer. We ain't doing ship here. This is we're sitting the chairs. So I got yoga seven. No, I like to have it early, but I have it when I get it. And you think that you're not gonna go to yoga, Well that's good because she booked it for you. One last question and then we'll wrap up. What do you think the lesson that is taking you the longest to learn in your life is I'm still learning so many lessons, um I learned. I think the best thing I learned was I like morning meditation better

than late night drinking and drugs. So I took a lot of drugs. Oh my god, I didn't know drugs they made. I didn't take the had new ship. I didn't get a chance to take because I've been sober for so long. I never really tried crystal math. I missed that boat. But I tried smoked a lot of angel dusts, which is close. Yeah. So I learned that sobriety is more fun when seeking yoga because when you think about yoga, seeking yoga it's seeking a quiet mind.

It comes from a lot of different places. Right. Uh, someone is real yoga, someone is really running and meditating and really doing healthy things that quiet the mind. And some things just just sunk up the mind, just cloudy or clarity. Right. I learned that clarity is greater um, and because you're looking the happiness, it's only when the mind is quiet so or or numb. Right is the

second of ship. I feel great right because your brain is not fucking moving, but the noise of the mind, the fluctuation of the mind, the cause of all the suffering. And we want to stop the fluctuations, and so easy to practices that are healthy, that slow the fluctuations of the mind. You know, when the mind is still, everything unravels, the universe unravels when the mind is still. Not my quote,

that's Maria, but it's true. Excellent. Well, thank you so much for taking the time to come on the show, and thank you for helping me get recommitted to something that had been important and kind of slipped away. I'm glad, thank you. Okay bye. You can learn more about Russell Simmons and this podcast at one you feed dot net slash Russell