The Rich Roll Podcast

Humans love duality. But there is great beauty in the grey that lives between the lines.Black and white. Good and bad. Evolution and regression. We are hard wired to categorize. To pick a team and stick with it. It’s our way of making sense of the world. But too often this inclination to self-identify only serves to isolate and divide — working at cross-purposes with our competing desire to more deeply connect with our fellow humans.So what happens when we resist the urge to judge another? This week on the podcast Julie and I peer beyond dogma, belief systems and categories to embrace the grey.Consider it a thought experiment in forsaking judgment for empathy as a path to better understand others and the environments we co-inhabit.Specific topics include:* creating and cultivating community* the difference between discernment and judgment* enhancing sustainability in consumer choice* finding your authentic voiceWe end the episode with a rendition of the Hedy West song 500 Miles by Julie (aka SriMati) and our boys' band Ana Leimma.I sincerely hope you enjoy the conversation.Peace + Plants,Rich

Today finds us mired in an unprecedented health and environmental crisis of cataclysmic proportions. Heart disease, America's #1 killer, currently claims one out of every three lives. 70% of Americans are obese or overweight. By 2030, experts indicate that 30% of Americans will be diabetic or pre-diabetic.The heartbreaking culprit? SAD.But the Standard American Diet isn't just killing people, it's annihilating the planet. In fact, our system of industrialized animal agriculture is the #1 culprit when it comes to almost every single man made environmental ill on the planet. From mass species extinction to disappearing rainforests to giant algal ocean blooms, it's an indefensible and unsustainable modality wrecking unrivaled havoc on our oceans, rivers, streams, soil and animals.Meet Alexis Fox and Micah Risk — two entrepreneurs leveraging cutting edge technology to turn our epidemic of SAD into an outbreak of happy, healthy and sustainable for people and the planet alike.Their solution has a name. It's called Lighter.A powerful new online platform fueled by the latest in modern machine learning, Lighter aims to help the world eat better by leveraging the collective wisdom and experience of leading health gurus, athletes, super parents, and awe-inspiring world changers to provide everyday consumers across the globe with customized, convenient and insanely useful grocery lists, flexible weekly menus and soon even grocery delivery.It's an ambitious goal. But not only are Alexis and Micah are up to the task, they just might be badass enough to pull it off.An accomplished athlete and mom rocking some pretty awesome tattoos, Micah is a graduate of the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts with a background working with the World Health Organization. When she isn't training with The November Project in Boston, kicking ass in marathons and ultras, or gracing the cover of Runners World magazine (she actually appeared on the RW cover an unprecedented two times in one year), she's helping everyday people adopt sustainable healthy lifestyle solutions.Alexis is the yin to Micah’s yang. A former debate champion, improv comedian, attorney and college professor, Alexis is the former Massachusetts state director for the Humane Society. After losing 45 pounds incident to adopting a plant-based diet, she was inspired to start Lighter by her life partner Josh Balk, the co-founder of Hampton Creek — the company behind Just Mayo that is taking healthy plant-based foods to the masses.The history between this dynamic duo is fascinating. Although both of them have dedicated their entire lives to helping fix our broken food system, neither of them ever imagined that they would be running a tech company.And yet here they are — two powerful women leaders kicking ass and taking names.This is an enlightening and informative conversation about food policy and politics.It's a comprehensive redress of our broken food system and a positive, solution-based discourse on how we can fix it.It’s a conversation about what commonly holds people back. And the vital importance of building consensus with a focus on fostering community-based support systems in the interest of helping people eat and live better.It's conversation about female empowerment.And it’s a master class on how to ignite a social movement.Enjoy!Rich

One of the most respected and revered figures in sport, George Raveling is basketball — and so much more than basketball.The current Director of International Basketball for Nike, he was the first African American basketball coach at Villanova, University of Maryland, Washington State and University of Iowa before closing out a storied career at USC.He is an inductee into several halls of fame, including the College Basketball Hall of Fame and the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.He is a civil rights activist, outspoken on a wide array of social issues at the intersection of race, education and athletics.A world-class educator, he is a moulder of boys into men, and men into better men.Bottom line? George Raveling is the mentor you wish you had.But you can just call him Coach.This week I sit down with a truly remarkable man. A 79-year old with the vibrancy and energy of a college student, I was immediately struck by George's insatiable thirst for learning. His passion for ideas. And his devotion to people, human potential & personal development.Coach has lived life. And he's got stories to prove it. Inspirational stories about breaking racial barriers during the era of segregation. Instructive accounts of owning your destiny. And of course there's the legendary saga of how a young George came to stand alongside Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial during the March on Washington as Dr. King delivered his historic I Have A Dream speech.There's so much more to this incredible story — and to George — but I'm not going to spoil it here. I'll let Coach tell it in his own words.This is a phenomenal conversation about breaking barriers. It's about self-governance, self-belief and self-responsibility. It’s about literacy, civil rights and humanity.And it's about the importance of being a positive difference maker in the world.An absolute gem of a human being, George is a national treasure. I loved every second of my time with him and something tells me you will too.So take a knee and huddle up, because Coach has a message for you.Peace + Plants,Rich

There's nothing I can do — it's genetic.Without a doubt, many of us have predispositions to developing certain diseases.But predisposition is a far cry from predetermination.In fact, you might be surprised to learn the vast extent to which we can control the expression of genetic inclinations when it comes to so many of the chronic illnesses that are unnecessarily killing millions of people annually — including modern-day plagues like heart disease, diabetes and Alzheimer's.This week I'm thrilled to sit down for a long overdue conversation with my friend Neal Barnard, MD to discuss the innate, incredible power we all possess to prevent and even reverse the onset of these illnesses through implementation of fairly simple simple diet and lifestyle alternations.A pre-eminent authority on the impact of diet & nutrition on atherosclerosis, diabetes, cancer and Alzheimer’s, Dr. Barnard is an adjunct associate professor of medicine at the George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences as well as the founder and president of the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, where he leads programs advocating for preventive medicine, good nutrition, and higher ethical standards in medical and scientific research.Over the course of his career, Dr. Barnard has led numerous research studies investigating the effects of diet on diabetes, body weight, and chronic pain. He’s authored over 70 scientific publications as well as 17 books, including the New York Times best-sellers Power Foods for the Brain ,21-Day Weight Loss Kickstart*, and the USA Today best-seller Dr. Barnard’s Program for Reversing Diabetes*.If that's not enough, Dr. Barnard recently christened the Barnard Medical Center, a brand new, ground-breaking non-profit primary care medical practice where board-certified physicians, nurse practitioners, and registered dietitians help patients prevent and reverse serious health problems, leveraging a holistic approach that involves tackling the actual causes of illness, with extra attention on nutrition.Chock-a-block with life-altering information, this is a profound conversation about food as medicine.It's about the impact and importance of self-sovereignty — prioritizing personal responsibility for what we put in our mouths, how we move our bodies and advocate for change.And it's about the incredible power of nutrition to heal ourselves.One of the most intelligent, articulate, tireless and well-respected voices on the subject of optimal wellness and disease prevention, it's an honor and privilege to share my friend's abundant wisdom and practical experience with you today.So break out the notepad and enjoy this powerful exchange.Enjoy!Rich

It's hard to imagine, but in 1985 — the year this week's guest co-founded America Online — only 3% of Americans were connected to the internet, online for an average of a measly one hour per week.It took a decade, many near-death experiences and back to the wall pivots, but under the leadership of Steve Case, AOL would go on to become the world’s largest and most valuable internet company, driving worldwide adoption of the medium that has literally transformed every aspect of modern day life.The story is legend. After AOL became the first internet company to go public, Bill Gates gave Steve a choice — sell his upstart to behemoth Microsoft or get crushed. Believing in himself, his team and the renegade idea of community over content, Steve decided to take his chances. David against Goliath, the odds were not in his favor. But not only did AOL survive, it went on to become the top performing stock of the 1990s. At its peak, nearly half the users in the United States used AOL to access the internet. When AOL's valuation escalated to $163 billion in 2000, Steve negotiated a $350 billion merger of AOL and Time Warner, the largest merger in business history, and served as chairman of the media and communication colossus until 2003.It all looked great on paper. But paper isn't reality. Cultures clashed. The stock price plummeted. With his own take on why the historic merger faltered, Steve lives to fight another day.Today Steve is chairman and CEO of Revolution, DC-based investment firm, and the Case Foundation, a philanthropic effort that invests in hundreds of organizations with an entrepreneurial approach to strengthening the social sector.The epitome of the American Entrepreneur and a true maverick of the digital age, this week I sit down with Steve to discuss his incredible story, the current state of entrepreneurship in America, and his new book highlighting an emerging new phase of the internet. Part memoir, part business playbook, and part manifesto, The Third Wave, An Entrepreneur's Vision of The Future* bears witness to the fascinating machinations behind crafting the early stages of the internet we currently enjoy and provides an astute forecast for successfully stewarding pioneering tech entrepreneurship in the coming decades.I only had a very strict 45 minute window with Steve, so this is a pretty tightly focused discussion. It's a conversation about the internet's incipient Third Wave and the focus on partnerships, policy and persistence that will be required to tackle and transform hulking, real world sectors like health, transportation, education, energy, and food.It's about something Steve calls impact investing — fostering the nascent emergence of entrepreneurship in outlier locales beyond the typical tech hotbeds of Silicon Valley, Silicon Alley and Silicon Beach.It's a conversation about why the most valuable currency of the future is ideas.And it's about why the killer app is, and will always be, people.Steve Case has impacted our world more than anyone I have ever met. It was an honor to converse with him, and I sincerely hope you enjoy the exchange.Peace + Plants,Rich

Why do we love dogs, but eat cows?Cooking up your golden retriever would be an unthinkable abomination. But barbecued beef? That's about as normal as it gets.It's just the way things are. But why? The logic and social mechanisms behind why we eat some animals and not others is a behavioral inconsistency unexamined to the point of absurdity — both psychologically complex and strange — very strange indeed.Many guests on this podcast have elaborated on why we shouldn't eat meat. This week I sit down with Melanie Joy, Ph.D, Ed.M to explain why we do eat meat.An idea she coined carnism, Dr. Joy's work centers around the psychology of eating meat, what is known as the “meat paradox” – our irrational, inconsistent and species specific attitudes toward various animals – why we express affection towards certain animals while eating others – and the cognitive dissonance this entails.A Harvard-educated social psychologist, Dr. Joy is a celebrated speaker, organizational consultant, author of the award-winning book, Why We Love Dogs, Eat Pigs, and Wear Cows*, and eighth recipient of the Institute of Jainology's Ahimsa Award, which was previously awarded to Nelson Mandela and the Dalai Lama. Her work has been featured by numerous national and international media outlets, including the BBC, NPR, and the New York Times. And she is the founder of the non-profit Beyond Carnism, which challenges dominant ideologies around food choice and systems and promotes a more mindful approach to our consumer choices.I came across Dr. Joy’s work via her popular TEDx Talk, Toward Rational, Authentic Food Choices — a very intelligent and cogent exploration of our normative cultural behaviors and attitudes around the food we eat and why — and have wanted to get her on the podcast ever since.I only had a tight hour with Dr. Joy, so this is a very focused discourse on speciesism and the psychological defense mechanisms we employ to rationalize our food choices. It's a conversation about the psychology of social change, and it's about how to employ psychologically optimal strategies in the advocacy of positive cultural change.Specific topics explored include:* the concept of carnism* psychological defense mechanisms to eating animals* speciesism* carnistic justifications and “humane meat”* the rise of meat & dairy alternatives* the psychology of social change* the impact of the locavore movement* masculinity of meat & gender stereotypes* how to effectively advocate for veganismWhip smart, Dr. Joy peels back the fallacious facade of logic and exposes the denial that surrounds these cultural mores with keen intellect and grace. Irrespective of your dietary proclivities, my hope is that this provocative conversation will challenge assumptions and inspire you to make more informed consumer choices that more adeptly align with your core values as an empathetic and compassionate citizen.It was a pleasure to talk with Dr. Joy and I sincerely hope you enjoy the exchange.Peace + Plants,Rich

Ask today's guest and he'll tell you our culture is currently mired in an unprecedented epidemic of ego — a societal blight of apocalyptic proportions precipitated by the advent of selfie-crazed social media, self-esteem parenting and spurious self-help gurus fomenting an illusory sense of entitlement.The result is a woefully misplaced celebration of ubiquity over meaningfulness: Of endless distractions over devotion to work ethic. Of self-congratulatory passion over fidelity to process. Of unbridled hubris over humility. And of rampant self-seeking over service.We often equate ego with confidence, self-assuredness and ultimately success. The domain of the great visionary. But what if this notion is utterly false? A personality trait that, at every turn, thoroughly undermines that which we seek?And what if modesty, humility and self-honesty are not actual weaknesses but in fact our greatest asset?This week Ryan Holiday graces the podcast to explain.An autodidact of astute intellect that belies his 29 years, Ryan is many things — a voracious reader, prolific writer, shrewd observer of culture, media strategist and the author of four acclaimed bestselling books.Dropping out of college at 19, Ryan began his multi-faceted career as an apprentice under Robert Greene, the acclaimed author of The 48 Laws of Power*. He went on to amplify the work of several New York Times bestselling authors before serving as the director of marketing for American Apparel – a job he held at the ripe age of 22.When he’s not penning books or thought pieces for The Observer or Thought Catalog, Ryan oversees Brass Check– a consultancy firm he founded that advises New York Times bestselling authors like James Altucher, Arianna Huffington and even Tony Robbins, as well as corporate clients that include Google, Casey Neistat’s video sharing app Beme, Creative Live, Complex and Refinery 29.About a year ago, Ryan and I went deep on his life and his heralded book, The Obstacle Is The Way*– a primer on the functional applicability of stoic philosophy for turning modern-day obstacles into opportunities and adversity to advantage. Now translated into 17 languages, it's a read that achieved cult status among some of the world’s most successful CEOs, political leaders, world class athletes and NFL coaches. One of my most popular episodes, I highly suggest you check out RRP 168 if you missed it the first time around.Today, Ryan drops in to talk about his new book, Ego Is The Enemy*.Enjoy!Rich

What do you get when you combine Underdog with the spinach-chomping Popeye The Sailor Man?Griff Whalen.Currently serving up wide receiver and punt return duties for the Miami Dolphins, today’s guest is the only (to my knowledge) 100% plant-based athlete currently active in the National Football League.But Griff's unique nutritional protocol is only a part of a larger, more compelling narrative. An inspirational tale of determination, tenacity and self-belief.The story begins with a scrappy kid from Ohio with an insane dream — to one day play professional football.But at 5’11” and 190 pounds, Griff doesn’t strike the typical NFL pose. He's quiet, studious and understated in a culture of brash egos. Undersized on a field of gargantuan colossuses. Merely fast on a field of lightning-footed Greek gods.Griff, be serious. It's just not going to happen.Although a standout high school player, the phone wasn't exactly ringing off the hook with scholarship offers to the big NCAA Division I programs. Undeterred, Griff enrolls at Stanford and joins the squad as a non-scholarship walk-on.Expectations were low.Nonetheless, Griff persists. Flouting his God-given limitations, he out-trains his teammates and competitors. He studies the game like his life depends upon it. And, most interestingly, he plies his erudite, scholarly nature to the white space — overlooked aspects of mental, emotional and physical self-development to gain that extra edge to enhance his performance both on and off the field.It works. Defying the odds (a consistent theme with Griff), he makes the Stanford roster as one of only 8 true freshman to see action in 2008. Improving year by year, Griff closed out a very successful collegiate career as a starting wide receiver alongside storied quarterback Andrew Luck — his roommate and best friend to this day.The 2012 NFL Draft comes and goes. Griff's phone doesn't ring.But because luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity, he nonetheless gets picked up as an undrafted free agent by the Indianapolis Colts.The dream becomes reality.But before he can even celebrate his most implausible life-long goal finally realized — just four months after being signed, Griff breaks his foot and gets placed on injured reserve. A crushing setback that would end the career of most, Griff doubles down, using the off-time to his advantage.Understanding that his career depended upon him identifying every conceivable means to overcome his injury and talent deficit, he turns his attention to nutrition and begins to keenly study optimal methods to enhance his body's ability to recover from exercise-induced stress. It's an inquest that ultimately lead him to adopt a plant-based diet — a radical vegan experiment he now credits as central to bouncing back in 2013 — shredded, stronger and faster — to make the Colts' starting lineup alongside long-time pal Andrew Luck, the NFL's $140 million man.Currently in his 4th year with the NFL, today Griff finds himself heading into the 2016-17 season in a brand new city playing with a brand new team – the Miami Dolphins.Exploring the hows and whys of Griff’s plant-based protocol, a big part of today's discussion centers on dispelling nutritional myths related to athletic performance. But at its core, this is a conversation about conviction and resilience. It's about the importance of coaches and mentors. It's about managing time and setting goals. It's about refusing to give up. It's about going the extra mile to find that that performance edge.

Imagine winning an Olympic gold medal in swimming at age 19 at the 2000 Sydney Olympics. A feat never-before achieved by a swimmer of African-American descent, the frenzied media swarms. The only problem? You’re only half-black. You definitely don’t look black. And you know nothing about what it’s like to be part of the black experience.The unrelenting crush of public expectation to fulfill a role at odds with your private sense of self becomes so intense, you retreat from your Olympic experience not with any lasting sense of happiness, satisfaction and pride, but rather a numb confusion.This isn’t anything like I thought it would be…Over time, the confusion metastasizes into disillusionment. And it’s not long before depression sets in.Lost and lacking the tools to cope, life begins to pivot away from the dreaded black line at the bottom of the pool and towards a dreadlocked blur of rock ‘n roll, boozy, drug-fueled binges, rampant womanizing, cigarette haze, and death-defying motorcycle crashes.Nonetheless, over the next three years you continue to do the one thing you know how to do: swim. Not only do you continue to win, in 2001 you’re crowned the world champion in two events. But these results only magnify what is quickly becoming a profound crisis of identity.Who am I? Why am I doing this? What does it all mean?The answers continue to elude you until you find yourself so despondent, so desperate for relief, that you down a handful of tranquilizers. But the suicide attempt fails, fueling a sense of invincibility that only hastens the onset of an even more profound darkness.So, at the young age of 22, at the peak of his abilities, Anthony Ervin does what he has to — he walks away from the thing he used to love. The thing that gave him everything. The thing that made him a star. The thing that betrayed it’s promise of making him whole.In a Hail Mary attempt to discover and re-create his life, Anthony travels the world. He meditates at a Buddhist temple. He studies philosophy with a Sufi mystic. He reclaims his body with tattoos. He enrolls in graduate school but spends summers in Brooklyn, where he immerses himself in books, writes poetry, and even occasionally cross-dresses at parties.The denouement? Hawking his Olympic gold medal on eBay and donating the proceeds to the UNICEF tsunami relief fund.The only thing Anthony Ervin didn’t do during this time? Swim.Not one stroke.The next eight years marked a complete divorce from anything and everything swimming. In fact, not one of Anthony’s new friends during this time had any idea he was even an athlete, let alone an Olympic champion. He was just another tattooed, guitar-playing Brooklynite seeking answers to the Universe in music, meditation, books and partying.But with funds dwindling, Anthony offhandedly takes a gig teaching New York kids how to swim. The experience of service begins to erode his jaded shell and ignites an unexpected spark of appreciation for his former life. A new sense of self worth begins to emerge, informing the why in Anthony’s quest for spiritual self-actualization. Suddenly, love for the sport he so thoroughly placed in his rearview begins to rekindle.In 2011, Anthony returns to the water. And almost overnight, the impossible occurs.Twelve years after Sydney, Anthony qualifies for the 2012 London Olympics — his second U.S. Olympic team. Despite his 31 years of age (ancient in the world of swi...

When I was a kid, shopping for new clothes was a treat. A special, infrequent occasion. Why? because even inexpensive garments challenged our middle-class family budget. By comparison, the mega-conglomerate retailers of today — Target, H&M, Gap, fill in the blank — allow the average, penny-pinching consumer to fill a closet for a $100 or less.How and when did clothing become an essentially disposable product? What exactly is going on?The answers to these questions will shock you.Andrew Morgan is the young, talented filmmaker behind the beautiful and heartbreaking documentary The True Cost. Premiering at last year's Cannes Film Festival, it's a movie about the untold story of fashion. It's about the clothes we wear, the people who make them, and the impact the garment industry is having on the world we share.The film centers around the human rights and environmental implications of fast fashion — a term used to describe the increasingly rapid pace at which fashion houses push new trends at deflated prices made possible by global market ascendency and the comprehensive export of almost all manufacturing to the developing world. As a result, designer lines and trends once seasonal now move from factory to store shelves in a matter of mere weeks at a fraction of historical prices.It goes like this: prime the latent pump of consumer desire with hypnotic marketing campaigns featuring lithe models draped in the latest and greatist. Throw kerosene on the addictive must-have impulse with impossibly low prices. Obscure production transparency by shipping manufacturing to a far corner of the world. Then, before anyone discovers the product's troubling genesis and poor quality, light a match, sit back and watch the shopping frenzy ensue. Repeat to the tune of $3 trillion annually.There's only one problem — cheap is actually expensive. Because we're ignoring the true cost.Any accurate accounting of fast fashion must include the priceless expense of systemic and severe worker exploitation rife across the developing world. It must take into consideration the incalculable environmental damage caused by its very processes of manufacturing. And it must contemplate the mistreatment and slaughter of billions of animals.Without a doubt, fast fashion is an extremely expensive, unmitigated free market failure. But Andrew isn't interested in the good-guy-bad-guy narrative. He sees no purpose in shaming anyone nor pointing fingers.Andrew's wish for us is simple: Ask better questions. Demand better solutions.Do I really need this? Who made this and how? What exactly went into this getting from wherever to here?In other words, what is the true cost of our daily and often subconsciously or unconsciously motivated consumer choices?I was quite impacted by Andrew's stirring film; moved by this wise and thoughtful young man's commitment to positively impacting the world. As such, it is my honor to share his important message with you today.This is a conversation about the inextricable connectivity that unites us all. It's about our collective responsibility to be informed and to act. It's about conscious capitalism over mindless consumption. And it's about how every single day, every single one of us can make a tangible, positive difference in the world.Because in the words of Andrew, the greatest lie of all is that you can't contribute.I sincerely hope you enjoy the exchange.Peace + Plants,Rich