Most contemplate running as exercise. A physical practice we reluctantly endure. An uncomfortable discipline we tolerate for the sake of fitness. For weight loss. Or to competitively measure ourselves against ourselves and others.Running is about metrics. Pace maintained. Distance covered. Calories burned. Energy expended. And results quantified.But ask Sanjay Rawal and he'll tell you that definition isn't just limited — it misses the point altogether.Running is so much more than podiums and aesthetics. At its core, it's a most primal activity that unites us all. It's about growth. It's about self-understanding. And for many cultures dating back millennia, it's about spiritual growth. Survival. Healing. And even transcendence.Running as devotion.Today Sanjay and I explore this theme in a riveting conversation focused on the inherent and indelible power of this shared human experience to better understand ourselves, our environment and the unseen world.A graduate of U.C. Berkeley with a B.A. in Molecular & Cell Biology and Neurobiology, Sanjay was on the fast track to a career in medicine when he began to question his path, seeking answers and solace in meditation. This quest led to becoming a devoted student of Sri Chinmoy, an Indian spiritual teacher based in New York. What followed is life committed to spiritual expansion. And a calling to improve the collective human condition.Sanjay spent a decade in human rights philanthropy before realizing he could deepen his impact by turning a lens on cultures and communities worthy of notice. Hence was born a career in documentary filmmaking. Sanjay's oeuvre includes Ocean Monk*, Challenging Impossibility, and Food Chains*, which takes a hard look at migrant farm labor exploitation.Sanjay's latest offering, and the focus of today's conversation, is 3100: Run and Become. A behind-the-scenes immersion into the Sri Chinmoy Self-Transcendence 3100 Mile Race — the world's most elusive and elite, multi-day running race. Held annually around one utterly unremarkable half-mile urban sidewalk block in Queens, New York, it demands competitors to complete at least 59 miles daily for 52 straight days.The goal? Not glory, but rather the promise of personal expansion and a deeper sense of self.The film also explores the historic and current relationship between running and spirituality through intimate visits with the Marathon Monks of Japan's Mt. Hiei; the persistence hunters of Africa's Kalahari tribe; and Arizona's Navajo Nation.The act of running to transform oneself is as old as time. Ancient man and woman ran not just for survival, but to connect with Nature and the Divine.This is a conversation that explores this essential truth.Because to run is to be human.I sincerely hope you enjoy this very special exchange with a truly remarkable man. And make a point of seeing the movie.Peace + Plants,Rich

Back by popular demand, my main man and provocateur-at-large John Joseph returns for his 6th appearance on the show to share more of his extraordinary story. A story that lays bare the indelible power of the human spirit to face and transcend unimaginable obstacles and ultimately transform one’s life wholesale.If you’re a longtime listener, Johnny Bloodclot needs no introduction. For the uninitiated, John is a sui generis American original. The very definition of hardcore. A survivor. A spiritual warrior spouting straight talk directly from the streets of the Lower East Side with one singular, driving purpose:getting people to wake the f&*k up.Conceived and raised in abuse, deprived of opportunity and left to his own devices, John turned to violence and drugs on the rough and tumble streets of downtown Manhattan in the 1970's — during New York's most violent decade. It’s a path that predictably led to crime, addiction and incarceration. Spending his teens as a drug mule led to a series of unsavory foster care homes, culminating in unimaginably horrific stints in juvenile detention.Then things went downhill.To avoid long-term incarceration, John enlisted in the Navy, only to go AWOL after a fight. Fleeing the law and rudderless, he found redemption in the hardcore punk rock scene flourishing on Manhattan’s Lower East Side in the early 1980’s. Taken in by the Bad Brains’ frontman H.R., John began to explore not just his musicianship, but his spirituality. It’s a journey that birthed the Cro-Mags – one of the era’s most iconic and influential hardcore punk bands. Later, he found his spiritual salvation living in a Hare Krishna monastery, birthing a life-long love of meditation, yoga, the vegan lifestyle, racing Ironman triathlons, and most importantly, his profound devotion to service.Renown for his straight talk, no BS approach to living, John is the author of Evolution of a Cro-Magnon*;Meat Is For Pussies*; and the upcoming The PMA Effect* — the latter two books each featuring a foreword by your truly — hitting bookstores October 2, 2018 and available for pre-order now here.Today we pick things up where we last left off – a conversation that covers a multitude of subjects.Enjoy!Rich

Today's podcast is the latest installment in my ongoing series of ponderous mind melds with the wise and profound Julie Piatt — aka SriMati — my wife and in-house spiritual guru.For those new to the show, Julie is the bestselling author of three vegan cookbooks as well as an accomplished yogi, healer, musician, mom to four and host of the Divine Throughline podcast, where she muses metaphysical on living a life divine.This is an open exchange that explores a number a themes:* Recalibration in the aftermath of an extended period of creative output;* Self-care and the growth that occurs when we hit pause;* Navigating financial hardship;* Practices to amplify creativity and authenticity* The importance of owning your path* Julie's unique morning routine* Healthy relationships and the broken prince-princess paradigm* The lost art & power of ceremony and ritual; and* how my sleeping in a tent impacts our marriage and intimacyI sincerely hope you enjoy the offering.Peace + Plants,Rich

Tony Hawk was age 9 when his older brother gave him a blue fiberglass skateboard, chipped and scratched from years of use. The first time Tony stepped on it and rolled down an alley behind the family’s house in San Diego, there was no epiphany, no revelation, no foreshadowing whatsoever that he would go on to become the most famous skateboarder of all time. He reached the end driveway, looked back at his brother and shouted, “How do I turn?”The yarn is both sweet and innocent. But it's also deeply illustrative of the mindset — a unique melding of childlike wonder and unrelenting workmanship — that still drives the single most recognized and influential skateboarder of all time:Keep moving forward. Always be learning. Do what you love. And the rest will follow.The tale of The Birdman is legend. Icon status. A billion dollar video game franchise. A litany of successful brands. A family man and philanthropist. But the story behind Tony Hawk is hardly linear. And it's a legacy that — at 50 — he continues to build with the unabating persistence that drove his early success.There's no magic formula behind this man's triumphs. To be sure, he possesses talent — perhaps an unworldly one at that. But countless gifted athletes come and go. Rare and unique is the individual that can maintain a prominence measured not in years, but decades.Tony's long-term success in sport, business and life — through times both thick and thin — can be credited not to any shortcuts or life hacks, but rather to his unyielding devotion to a handful of tried-and-true, back-to-basics principles.Humility. Service. An indefatigable devotion to incremental progress. The courage to constantly take risks. The daring to continually live outside his comfort zone. The willingness to shoulder an unbelievable amount of hard work. And above all, a resolve to always, always do what he loves — because for Tony, life has always been about process over results and rewards.Let's face it. The Birdman has been interviewed a million times. He didn’t need to do my show. He doesn't have a new book out or any specific project he needs my help promote. Nonetheless, he drove several hours from San Diego for no reason other than to openly share his wisdom and experience — a simple act that speaks loudly to this man's humble character and dogged work ethic.In other words, Tony isn't slowing down. Just like that 9-year old trying to master his first turn, this is a man still looking forward to his next move. Expressing himself. Innovating. And curious about the world.It's an honor to share his story.Of course, we cover his career. And I did my best, as a fellow athlete of his age, to explore how he thinks about being 50; how he balances life as an athlete, businessman and parent; and how he continues to iterate and grow in sport, business and life.But below the surface, this is a conversation about the importance of uncovering and ultimately expressing who you really are. And it's about the joy and freedom brought about manifesting your most authentic self.Note: the full episode (plus a few short clips publishing later this week) is available in vivid technicolor on YouTube here: bit.ly/richandtony If you are digging the podcast (and my other short movies) on YouTube, it would mean a lot if you subscribed to my channel here: youtube.com/richrollEnjoy the episode!Peace + Plants,Rich

But where do you get your protein?I get this question a lot. Today's guest probably gets it more than anyone on Earth.A sweetheart of a guy rocking one of the world's most impressive physiques, this week's guest is an IFBB Professional Men’s Physique bodybuilder with a most unexpected twist:Nimai Delgado has never eaten meat in his entire life. Not one bite.Raised vegetarian since birth, Nimai switched to a 100% plant based unprocessed diet in 2015, motivated by a desire to live the healthiest lifestyle possible. Not long after, his bodybuilding career skyrocketed. Proving animal products unnecessary for peak fitness, Nimai is indisputable living testimony that you can indeed build tremendous strength and muscle mass without the meat and dairy products most of us have been told our whole lives are critical for health and absolutely mandatory athletic performance.Nimai's evolution into bodybuilding began as a personal mission to make friends, get fit and stay healthy. Success came swiftly. Within a year, he had won several contests, including the NPC USA Championships, earning him a spot among the IFBB professional ranks.A fresh new face making serious waves on the vegan athlete scene, Nimai has recently shifted focus from self to service — leveraging his rapidly growing profile into a global movement to teach people young and old how to gain muscle, get fit, be competitive and thrive long-term on a plant-based diet.Nimai's impressive vegan gains have graced the cover of Muscle & Fitness magazine and feature prominently in the hotly anticipated Gamechangers documentary. When he isn't killing it in the gym, he's hosting the recently launched Generation V podcast and sharing daily diet and fitness tips with his 265K Instagram followers.Perhaps you follow him on social media. Maybe you've seen him flexing in magazines. But there's so much more to Nimai than bulging biceps.Today we unpack the untold story.This is a conversation about what it was like being raised by Hare Krisha devotee parents who immigrated from Argentina. It's an open account of his experience growing up on a commune in rural south Mississippi. It's an exchange about how the bodybuilding subculture captured his interest. And it's about why he made the choice to go and stay vegan.Of course, we cover his training routines. We discuss his daily nutritional regimen. Yes, we talk protein — where he gets it and the misconceptions behind the hotly debated macro-nutrient. And because suspicion is unavoidable, I do ask him about steroids.But most of all, this is an exploration of the lesser known Nimai — the spiritual and ethical foundation beneath what he does, how he does it, and most importantly why.It was an honor to have this awesome human in the studio. It's my pleasure to share his wisdom with you today. And my hope is that our exchange will leave you not only inspired, but questioning more than a few long-held assumptions about the role of nutrition in athletic performance.To get a gander of this physical specimen, watch our entire conversation on YouTube at bit.ly/richandnimaiPeace + Plants,Rich

Welcome to another special mid-week conversation lifted from our recent retreat in Italy featuring Colin Hudon and Jennifer Ayres.Wise beyond his years, Colin is a physician of Traditional Chinese Medicine as well as a talented herbalist, acupuncturist, tea master, and founder of Living Tea, which sources and imports the finest and rarest old-growth teas and teaware in the world.A gift to humanity, Jennifer is an Ayurvedic Health Practitioner and teacher certified by perhaps the world’s most lauded Ayurvedic doctor, writer, and teacher Dr. Vasant Lad.Longtime listeners will recall both of these friends and incredible humans have previously graced the show. If you're new to the podcast and enjoy today's exchange I urge you to check out Colin & Jennifer together in an episode entitled Heal Thyself (RRP #261) and Colin alone from (RRP #319).Today they reunite to share a wide variety of insights on the benefits of supplementing our Western approach to medicine with ancient Chinese and Ayurvedic approaches to holistic health, disease prevention and healing. We discuss the similarities and differences between these respective approaches and enetertain audience Q&A on many other finer points of mindfully optimizing functional well-being.LivingTea Discount: To honor his appearance on the show, Colin is kindly offering a 15% discount on his Seasonal Tea Club subscription service, which sends out 3 to 5 old-growth, hand-curated rare teas and reading material that details what’s special about the teas, how to brew them, as well as ideal foods, herbs and lifestyle recommendations from a Chinese Medicine perspective. To avail yourself of this deal, visit livingtea.net and enter RICHROLL (all caps) at checkout. Also, subscribe to the Living Tea newsletter for discounts in September when Colin returns from Asia with new teas. Disclaimer: This is not an ad or paid endorsement. I get absolutely nothing out of this other than the satisfaction that you will enjoy incredible tea.It was an honor to have Colin and Jennifer join us on retreat and it is my pleasure to share their copious wisdom with you today.Peace + Plants,Rich

One minute you're a heart surgeon. Blink once and you're hosting the most watched television program in Middle East history. Blink again and you're exiled from the homeland that made you famous.The story of Bassem Youssef is legend. But there's far more to this tale than meets the eye.Dubbed the Jon Stewart of the Arab World, today's guest is an Egyptian cardiothoracic surgeon and member of the Royal College of Surgeons who caught lightning in a bottle making catchy 5-minute YouTube videos in his Cairo laundry room. A flash moment later, he’s a media mega-star, the man behind a controversial, first-of-it’s-kind political satire program entitled Al-Bernameg that garnered a massive and unprecedented 30 million viewers every week.Insightful as it was incisive, Al-Bernameg received global acclaim and coverage in some of the world's biggest media outlets, culminating in Bassem appearing on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart – twice. But Bassem's bold criticism of the ruling powers led to accusations that he was disrupting public order, insulting Islam and its Armed Forces. Over 120 complaints were lodged with the General Prosecutor's office. Tens of lawsuits were filed. He was publicly smeared. Opponents put his theatre under seige, even jamming his satellite signal during airing.Then came the arrest — a detainment that brought Bassem to the realization that his media career in Eqypt had come to a swift and decisive end, culminating in Bassem fleeing his homeland for the United States.Nonetheless, Bassem’s work made an indelible imprint on Middle East culture. He landed on TIME magazine’s annual 100 Most Influential People list. He was awarded the International Press Freedom Award by the CPJ and chosen by Foreign Policy magazine as one of the global thinkers.The focus of the acclaimed documentary Tickling Giants, Bassem is the author of Revolution for Dummies: Laughing Through the Arab Spring*. And when he isn’t developing television projects or performing stand up comedy, he hosts a recently launched podcast entitled Remade In America.But Bassem's latest act could be his most impactful to date: the quest to revolutionize nutrition and health across the Middle East.As passionate about the plant-based lifestyle as he is about political satire, Bassem is on an unlikely yet zealous quest to leverage his medical background and massive influence across the Middle East (10+ million twitter followers!) to better educate the region on the inextricable connection between nutrition, illness and optimal health.This is a powerful conversation about how one doctor became a lightning rod media figure in the cross hairs of political power and social unrest.It’s about fake news, free speech and the cultural imperative of political satire in responsible citizenship.And it's a discourse on how this man's personal evolution and relationship with food motivated a desire to redress the chronic lifestyle illness epidemic America has exported across the Middle East.Enjoy!Rich

What's it like to explore the planet's hidden corners treasure hunting for the world's greatest edible food sources?Meet the Superman of Superfoods.One of my most popular guests, Darin Olien (@superlifeliving) returns for his third appearance on the podcast to delve deep on next level nutrition insights gleaned from his extraordinary adventures as a renown exotic superfoods hunter, wellness advocate, supplement formulator & ardent environmental activist.Over the last twenty plus years, Darin has reconnoitered secluded pockets across the Americas, South Pacific and Asia questing for better, more natural pathways to ultimate wellness. After communing with thousands of rural farmers across the developing world, Darin has arrived upon his latest superfood obsession: the baru nut — an exotic incredibly nutrient rich superfood known to the indigenous tribes of the Brazilian Cerrado for millennia, yet virtually unheard of anywhere else.Crazy delicious bordering on addictive, the Barùkas (derived from the Baruzieta tree and commonly referred to as “baru”) tastes like a mashup of almond, cashew and peanut, but better. Not only does it boast an insane nutritional profile packed with micronutrients (loaded with magnesium), fiber (more than any other nut) and protein (6g with all essential amino acids), it's also lower in calories (25% fewer fat calories than other nuts) and requires far less water and input resources to produce.Darin's discovery led to an epiphany that he could help preserve the Cerrado (a tropical savanna ecoregion three times the size of Texas) against the current and very real threat of cattle industry deforestation by employing its indigenous communities to harvest the native baru and importing them to North America — a win win to preserve precious environmental resources and simultaneously introduce the developed world to the healthiest nut on the planet.Thus was born Barùkas.Today he tells the story.This conversation is a literal superfood show and tell (don't miss it on YouTube). It's a tutorial on the underappreciated Brazilian Cerrado. It's a look at the hows and whys behind his new company, Barùkas. And it's an advanced placement course on the importance of breath, brain states and finding life purpose.An inspiration to me personally, Darin is a guy who walks his talk. From the foods he consumes to the lifestyle habits he practices, he is the thriving embodiment of what it means to truly own and take responsibility for your health, your life and the planet we collectively enjoy.For the visually inclined, you can watch the full conversation on YouTube at bit.ly/darinandrichEnjoy!Rich

Conducted live during our recent Plantpower Italia retreat, this special mid-week edition of the podcast features my third conversation with Stephen & David Flynn.Longtime listeners are well-acquainted with these Irish laddies. Stephen and David first appeared on the show back in June 2016 (#RRP 233) and again in November 2017 (RRP #331), a conversation captured before a live audience at Smock Alley Theatre in Dublin.For those newer to the show, David and Stephen are the joined-at-the-hip identical twin brothers behind The Happy Pear, a family run chain of natural food stores and cafés in Ireland as well as a robust line of organic, locally harvested plant-based food products available across the UK.The face and voice of Ireland's quickly growing healthy food revolution, the twins are omnipresent on social media and the bestselling authors behind a series of runaway smash-hit plant-based cookbooks, including The Happy Pear* (of course), World of the Happy Pear*, and their most recent release, The Happy Pear: Recipes for Happiness*.The Happy Pear isn't just two energetic twin brothers. It isn't just a series of cafés, cookbooks and food products. It's a movement. A movement rooted in family and community with one singular goal — to make healthy food and lifestyle mainstream. When the super fit dads aren’t making pre-school breakfast picnics on the beach, engaging in impromptu handstand competitions, conducting community-oriented health education courses or traveling extensively for public speaking, they enthusiastically guide a vast and devoted global audience of wellness warriors across every social media platform from YouTube to Instagram with an endless stream of highly entertaining, quality nutrition and fitness tips, recipes and daily slice-of-life vlogs with inspiration for miles.Picking up where our last conversation left off, please enjoy my exchange with two of the most charismatic and emphatic advocates for healthy living I have ever met.Final Note: During my recent visit to Dublin a few weeks ago, I co-hosted another live event at Smock Alley Theatre with the boys. So if you enjoy their company, you can look forward to that conversation & audience Q&A, which I will be sharing here in the coming months.Peace + Plants,Rich

I can say without equivocation John McAvoy's story of metamorphosis is one of the most compelling, improbable, inspirational, and cinematic tales I have ever heard.Born into a notorious London crime family — think The Sopranos meets The Krays — John is a former high profile armed robber who bought his first gun at 16 and quickly became one of Britain's most successful career criminals and most-wanted men. But it took two spells in prison and a close friend's death amidst a heist gone awry to birth a desire to change — redemption he ultimately discovered through the transformative power of sport.Pulling one of the most improbable 180-degree life transformations of all time, John's greatest heist isn't a bank — it's his life.While serving a double life sentence on the Belmarsh high security wing — space he shared with extremist cleric Abu Hamza and the 7/7 bombers — John decided to take a spin on the prison gym's indoor rowing machine. That experience revealed a unmistakable fact — John's freakish natural aptitude for endurance matched only by an inhuman ability to suffer.The epiphany was miraculous. And it would change his life forever.In short shrift, John broke a cluster of British and World indoor rowing records while in prison. Upon parole, he began forging a new life as a professional endurance athlete. Today, John is the world's only Nike sponsored Ironman athlete, a stalwart mouthpiece for prison reform and a staunch advocate for the inherent power we all possess to course correct the trajectory of one's life, no matter how dire the circumstances.If John's story doesn't inspire you to be better, then you might want to check yourself for a heartbeat. In all honesty, I cant remember being so excited about sharing a podcast conversation. I sincerely hope the exchange inspires you to rethink your potential and the physical, mental and emotional limits you impose upon your inherent ability to live the life you desire.Peace + Plants,Rich