moonshots ep21 lou reese vaxxinity transcript

I think that uh if you don’t have to face hardship you’ll never know what you’ll do when it’s hard so this is how you test your medal in a certain sense right um so I don’t wish hardship upon anyone but I think that hardship spares no one and a massive transformative purpose is what you’re telling the world it’s like this is who I am this is what I’m going to do this is the dent I’m going to make in the universe everybody uh welcome to moonshots and mindsets I am here with officially my best friend on the planet one of the most brilliant thinkers that I know uh the deputy dad to my two boys and I the deputy dad his three kids uh Lou reee Lou’s also the the co-founder

[00:01:00] and executive chairman of vaccin which we’ll talk about a company that’s transforming the treatment of chronic disease by like eliminating it and huge moonshots there Lou how you doing brother you know I can’t complain everything is amazing I’m not sure I can deliver on Brilliance today but I’m going to do my best I have every confidence that you will every confidence that you will it’s good to see how are you how are you hanging in I’m I’m doing all right I’m you know going you know 28 hours a day as as normal I just I just realized on my worst uh enemy on this stuff it’s like who the hell starts meetings at 6:00 a.m. and goes till 10: p.m. it’s like who who allows this stuff I blame Esther all the time but you know it’s you know it turns it turns out that when it’s selfmotivated uh there’s no one no one to blame but I always that’s why I took down all the mirrors in my house I got tired of yelling at that guy you

[00:02:00] know that’s why I tell Tony Robbins when Tony’s like I’m exhausted it’s been 5 days on stage that who said that scheduled Tony it’s part of the deal you know I mean the the uh I was having a a discussion this morning actually with uh with some of the people that work for us down here and and I was explaining in my broken Spanish uh that uh that it’s not about like life work balance it’s actually about life work integration um and it it led me to this this thing I’ve been telling the kids every day now which is um and and maybe to my wife as well but sometimes I’m I try to be softer with the messaging but uh but you know if you don’t enjoy walking to the place that you’re going to the if you don’t enjoy getting to the there and if you don’t enjoy you know the meals that you eat suddenly you realize that more than 70 or 80% of your time um that you’re awake is is is

[00:03:00] wasted um and so there’s there’s a there’s almost an obligation to enjoy the journey as much as the end destination which uh is not easy for me but it’s very easy for me to say yeah you know I had that moment in time uh that realization uh and I remember it vividly when uh it was the winning of the xprize was October 4th it was probably around 8:00 a.m. in the morning spaceship uh spaceship 1 had just made crested over 100 kilometers and was on the way down to win and I was like holy it’s over it’s done you know the prize is about to be awarded and I remember having the instumental image that I had crested the mountain peak I had been at top of the mountain I achieved that journey and then when I looked around me all I other saw I saw was more mountain peaks yeah right and really and it really is the um enjoy enjoy the journey um um uh because that

[00:04:02] is that’s that’s life and it comes back to are you living your massive transformative purpose right so even if you fail even if you don’t pull off what your crazy moonshot is like for me when I you know I want to I failed at the asteroid mining company but I will take another shot at that eventually um The Journey was still amazing in that regard now you’ve you’ve never failed you’ve never failed so you don’t have to worry about that oh no I mean I think uh I think life is a series of little successes or big successes and little failures or big failures um you know I think uh it’s it’s something that I think uh I’m obviously still working on um not just seeing the the future kind of goals and the future aspirations and the future impact and the the ideas that swarm right part of it is uh being able to and

[00:05:00] it sounds a little corny but it’s it’s an exercise in being in the present and enjoying it uh really at at at all moments and you know I remember being sick with uh with covid in October of 2020 and I was uh and I was you know not horribly ill but definitely not well and I was laughing hysterically in bed and I thought to myself it’s like you know if I can’t enjoy the aches and pains and and kind of the uh the the symbols of life that this that this exist reminders that you’re alive right yeah exactly it it was H it’s one of those kind of the ultimate make lemonade moment you know it’s like but I was laughing hysterically so much so that you know mayay and the kids would come in and be like are you okay and I’m like no I’m fantastic everything is amazing I have laughing disease so of everybody I know you have the most extraordinary mindset about life and you are the most present

[00:06:03] person I know uh throughout the Journey of life and I mean that with all the love uh that that comes along with it how how do you how do you do it so listen you’re executive chairman of a company a public company vaccin will talk about what it does in a little bit you’ve got three kids uh you’re married to your partner mayay who’s the CEO of the company which cannot be easy right I mean and and then um how you live in Montana tell youde Costa Rica and on an airplane uh there’s probably in Dallas you have a home in Dallas as well um where are you right now by the way I am in Santa Teresa Costa Rica at the moment yeah which is why interet so good yeah exactly we had to you know it’s uh I know this is our second attempt at doing this podcast and and the the the United States did not have the bandwidth internet wise for it to work so I had to

[00:07:01] wait until I was in Costa Rica um yeah one of the uh one of the benefits actually and it actually this is a mindset LeapFrog example right uh same with you know Kenya and other parts of Africa um you notice that they’ve they’ve leapfrogged entire sections of Technology um and and here they basically went from the coconut Wireless which is people making things up and telling other people in the town to uh to high speed fiber uh internet and it happened overnight so um I’m it it helps to have a few billionaires as neighbors who demand you know fiber optic cable at every corner yeah I mean I think uh the the the the word on the street here is that that was Jack dorsey’s uh favor to the community because in order for him to be down here uh as frequently as he is he uh he basically dug up the road and threw in fiber immediately um so yeah that’s uh that’s a it’s good to have great Neighbors uh I want to come

[00:08:00] back to Costa Rica in a minute but let’s talk about being present um how do you handle uh that work life integration as you said and and being being present with uh with my Deputy children you know it’s not uh I would say that you know no one including me is is perfect at present um and the people that say they are lying uh it’s kind of like it’s it’s like work right um it’s practice and and practice is uh is a discipline a great friend of mine and yours actually uh once said that self-love begins with self-discipline um and I add not self- flatulation so the answer is that I’m constantly uh readjusting and making mistakes and and looking at them you know as neutrally as I can can uh not to

[00:09:00] punish myself for for falling short but to to continue to kind of train to be better at that um and I think that fundamentally presence and and being present is is the best gift we can give to those that we love and those around us and ultimately our impact our journey and the world right um and so so it’s uh it’s a constant struggle right and there’s there’s constant realignment there um but I my guiding principle is that I don’t think there’s anything that I can think of that’s more important and is that go roll back into you being a dad um I mean one of the things I I see you as an incredible dad um and uh and and with Incredible kids what what do you think is the most important thing if you’re as an entrepreneur um as as an executive as someone who’s really making a dent in the University

[00:10:00] and also being a father of uh 11-year-old uh and 8-year-old and a now two-year-old right uh oneyear old Oney old one Oney old uh and uh and Ryan actually just turn nine it’s amazingly fast um I mean if we asked Bear my eldest he’s 11 he would tell you that I get Dumber every day um and and so so I think part of it is my mind me I was born in in the tri Triassic period so so I do think that you know um all of these things go through uh normal life fluctuation right um but really you know I try to carve out individual time for them um where there’s nothing else that’s in the way and it doesn’t have to be very much time but I do try to carve it out where it’s just them right so um

[00:11:01] so as you know as my best friend I I very rarely uh have my phone tethered um in the way that is is is uh the standard of day the rest the rest of everybody so for those who who uh want to appreciate Lou Lou is doesn’t use email um and he occasionally uses text message and I use smoke signals most of the time to reach out to you well you you know the thing is that it’s it’s almost impossible I mean think of all of the forces that are conspiring against all of us to be present with our family with our loved ones with the people that we’re working with like all of it is actually a giant game trying to pull your attention away right if you think of the purpose of popup ads if you think of the purpose of of cell tone rings that that gets your attention or alarms or all of these things are are really just glorified

[00:12:01] distractions and if you focus I I I tell the kids all the time that if I get two or three big thing done big things done a day um you can look back in a decade and and you do an unprecedented amount of work um if you do 50 things um you’ll look back and realize that you checked a lot of boxes to Nowhere um so I I do my best to avoid checking the boxes um that that I don’t really believe are important um and it’s funny when I stopped doing email almost a decade ago uh everybody was kind of thought it was a little extreme and people tried to push me into doing it and there’s a lot of feedback around it um and and now there’s this growing movement because we have you know we have our text messages our whatsapps our we chats our signals our phone calls our scheduled calls our Zoom meetings our inperson meetings our

[00:13:01] slack channel for company stuff and emails and it’s like you know it seems a little excessive and and I only have one mouth and two eyes and two ears right so so um so I feel like a lot of times we end up uh a teacher of mine once told me that we’re deluged with data but we have very little information I like that that’s that is true and it really is an INT intention or a tension deficit economy out there it’s just a battle you I can’t wait for my AI to like just uh triage everything coming my way and either handle it or like bring to my attention like the number one thing I mean that’s what a good executive assistant does in in some sense if you let him or her uh you know sort of uh be uh traffic cop for what’s coming at you yeah it’s a good it’s a good blocker ultimately right and and I think that uh it’s hard because sometimes you miss

[00:14:01] stuff sometimes you miss things and you say man I really wish that I had uh I really wish I had done that also but the truth is you know with the amount of things you know my my grandfather used to say don’t worry about missing a deal because deals are like street cars they come along every 15 minutes and now we don’t have street cars but but uh the TR the same is true for Commerce and maybe even more so so um so I think that you know the the critical moments the things that are are the most important to me are you know when we wake up in the morning and I’ve got the kids and we we go to get breakfast all together um and I schedule around that so that they know that it’s quiet and it’s just us and they can kind of you know explain their dreams and their fears and what they’re going to do for the day and I think that those those moments are are uh are truly Priceless and and I think they also have an impact you know I think that they they show that your intention is is to

[00:15:02] prioritize the kids and and I think that the other thing that that we don’t do as a culture really anywhere in the world that I’ve been is Express that right and express that in the form of of both sacrifice and gratitude right so um I think that uh one of the greatest blessings of my life is that when people that have never met my family or my kids say what does your dad do for work work and they say he helps people um and and they don’t say you know he’s out there trying to make a buck or he runs around and screams at his computer or any of the other things that that other kids that I’ve asked the same question might answer um and so I think it’s uh it’s about clear communication of your intention and your purpose this episode is brought to you by levels one of the most important things that I do to try and maintain my Peak vitality and Longevity is to monitor my my blood glucose more importantly the foods that

[00:16:01] I eat and how they Peak the glucose levels in my blood now glucose is the fuel that powers your brain it’s really important High prolonged levels of glucose what’s called hypoglycemia leads to everything from heart disease to alzheimer’s to sexual dysfunction to diabetes and it’s not good the challenge is all of us are different uh all of us respond to different foods in different ways like for me if I eat bananas it spikes my blood glucose if I eat grapes it doesn’t if I eat bread by itself I get this prolonged spike in my blood glucose levels but if I dip that bread in olive oil it blunts it and these are things that I’ve learned from wearing a continuous glucose monitor and using the levels app so levels is a company that helps you in analyzing what’s going on in your body it’s continuous monitoring 24/7 I wear it all the time really helps me to stay on top of the food I I eat remain conscious of the food that I eat

[00:17:01] and to understand which foods affect me based upon my physiology and my genetics you know on this podcast I only recommend products and services that I use that I use not only for myself but my friends and my family that I think are high quality and safe and really impact a person’s life so check it out levels. l/ Peter give you two additional months of membership and it’s something that I think every one should be doing eventually this stuff is going to be in your body on your body part of our future of medicine today it’s a product that I think uh I’m going to be using for the years ahead and hope you’ll consider as well let’s let’s switch uh to some fun uh uh current topics that I always love taking getting your your take on uh you know Sam bankman freed got arrested uh yesterday um and you know I you and I

[00:18:00] were talking about the fact that I had dinner with him in September and I I you know just Insanity about if I looked across the table to him and said listen in a couple of months you’re going to be uh in federal custody I wonder if he would have what he would have thought I mean what what’s your reflection on on that Insanity you know uh okay so I think it’s funny that he’s not a billionaire and that he was arrested I think that was probably the right thing to do is it funny or is it strange well no the part that’s funny is that as soon as he got arrested and was no longer a billionaire everybody took away his three-letter acronym that’s the only part that’s funny and no longer no longer became SBA yeah exactly now everybody everybody calls him Sam bankman was freed um and and uh and I think that you know when you have an unprecedented creation of wealth uh without without commensurate

[00:19:00] value um it’s it’s always risky right um I think that anybody who thinks that he Mastermind this entire thing is out to lunch right uh I think that when you grow from zero to 100 uh you miss a lot of stop signs so ultimately uh I think that you know it’s a it’s a very challenging situation because um the the reality there is that I don’t think he would have seen it coming um if you had told him that at dinner and I don’t think he would have been lying to you when he said you know whatever his response would have been right I think he I don’t I don’t feel like there was a there was an outright goal and desire to Swindle billions of dollars from from his investors and from the public um but I do think that that when you have you

[00:20:03] know 140 plus companies were filed in that bankruptcy uh to pretend like any person even with what we do in a very small level keeping track of everything is hard right um and it takes a lot of work and a lot of systems and a lot of a lot of other people on the team that are you know more competent than me at many things including checking email um and the testimony yesterday one of the one of the funniest statements I think that came out of it uh was that the entire company all of their accounting was on QuickBooks and slack right um and running a 45 billion Empire on QuickBooks and slack alone uh is is highly unrec like not recommended right it’s it’s not not part of the deal um QuickBooks is for is for a different level of operation in terms of uh the

[00:21:01] scope and scale and so just that just that oversight alone that and I agree with you I don’t think I I don’t think it was he I think he was naive and I think he was just running as fast as he could and wasn’t looking at how to make you know know the experience for the checks and balances I mean I think uh in my experience of him uh I didn’t see uh anything that made me feel he was anything other than you know to some degree full of himself and super confident and therefore running as fast as he could based on that confidence um interesting right if you see something go from zero to tens of billion dollars you know overnight um I guess that’s a warning sign that maybe that just doesn’t happen very R I’m not sure I can’t necessarily point at anything else that’s done it that fast yeah I mean it’s like you always say right it’s a great success that took over a decade um

[00:22:00] overnight success that took over a decade and I think that uh work yeah it’s like I think that’s true and and in this instance you know um it’s a warning sign because a when you’re that overconfident I think my dad would call it hubris um and the other thing is that b when you’re in an unregulated uh business right or a or a newly regulated business and this and was unregulated in the way that he was performing most of his tasks um it doesn’t mean that it won’t be regulated right so one of the biggest uh one of the biggest problem right exactly and one of the biggest problems that entrepreneurs face I think is actually getting stuck in the moment and thinking that that moment will last forever you know look at the the blowup of venture capital funding in the last 18 months um where it went from the largest amounts ever to you know a trickle and most of

[00:23:01] that is growth or followon funding that was pre-committed before the trickle started um so the macroeconomic uh situation in reality is is something that it will change right and the one thing uh as my as bear would say the one thing that we know is constant is change yep for sure and it’s you know it’s too easy to be uh looking back and uh criticize uh uh Sam bankman freed now in retrospect and a lot of people are jealous a lot of people are are throwing uh are are throwing rocks his way um you know if he had been more careful uh maybe he would have made that same amount of capital over time I don’t know his business model I think one of the the smartest things that people who did not invest in him um said where I could not understand what he was doing and therefore I didn’t invest and then what you had is just this lemming

[00:24:01] mindset of people throwing money at him and uh and FTX because everybody else was throwing money at him and FTX right and that’s a fascinating mindset where uh large Venture funds uh shall we say very famous quarterbacks and uh and other and you know and Wealthy individuals start throwing money at something because everybody else does maybe it’s a made off moment who knows but what do you think about that cuz I mean it’s also been true in so many other Financial uh scandals and and uh in areas where people blindly put money in just because everybody else is you know I think that um in in Psychology very early on they they teach you that chickens will eat until they’re dead um if you put them in a room by themselves and you feed them they’ll eat until they’re they saturated and they’re full satiated and full but if you then

[00:25:02] immediately take those full chickens and put them in another room and 90% of the chickens in that room are starving and eating rapidly they’ll start eating rapidly so I think that um ultimately it’s a it’s an elaborate uh it’s an elaborate example but uh I think humans function much the same way right and there’s this fear of missing out this fomo um that that drives a lot of uh a lot of those decisions I also think that it’s uh a little bit hubristic right it goes back to this concept of huis but on the quarterback side right and so I think that at some stage uh a lot of these funds they think that they’re so damn smart they think that they’re the smartest guys in the room and that they could never make a mistake and then when their friends make those make those bets they say well they couldn’t be wrong these are the smartest guys in the room um and it’s it’s a it’s it’s a

[00:26:00] combination of laziness and apathy and hubris that I think drives those smartest guys in the room to choose to do no diligence and to follow the other lemings off the cliff um so so I mean it’s it’s it’s weird but it’s it’s uh it’s and it’s the same thing you know I try to teach the kids I I never pretend like I don’t make mistakes right I can get swept up in a moment and get excited about something and and you know and and lose a game of poker with the kids because I’m excited about something you know all of those things uh are are natural human Tendencies and and the discipline um at least in the investment side the the discipline is really slowing down and doing doing the work internally every time uh you want to talk about about Twitter at all I mean I’m not sure if you’ve had any run-ins with uh with dorsy on this or watching uh you know Elon is so incredibly

[00:27:00] amazing in everything he does and the question becomes how many things can he be amazing at doing um any thoughts you know what’s the buz I think it’s a complicated reality I think it’s easy to throw stones at at at dorsy and and a jack now that he’s out and now that this transition has happened um I agree with you I think Elon is is an amazing entrepreneur and and uh and has really had uh an ability to go after a lot of things more things than anybody else would think he could um so so as a betting person based on track record and management I would say you know you can’t bet against them um I agree with that by the way I don’t I I do think that uh you know it’s

[00:28:02] he’s he’s going to be facing a lot of headwinds that have nothing to do with what he’s doing and uh and he had um there were a couple of tweets over the last few days that point to that where you know you you have you know Tesla’s market cap down by 50 or 60% um and and the reality is and he responded he’s like well I can’t control all macroeconomic Trends right um our tribe yeah no matter how much we want to we can’t and so I don’t I I think that a lot of the people throwing uh throwing stones are are doing it from a position of of ignorance and jealousy um and it’s it comes to the verse like shoden Freud versus freuden Freud which is you know shoden fer is taking enjoyment at the failures of other and fren fer is taking uh taking enjoyment from the success of others right and and it’s uh I think this is

[00:29:03] you know this is from my lips the God’s ears right because who who’s going to be able to to do that um because it’s it’s such a natural tendency of of humanity to have shod and Freud but I think that being able to celebrate the the tremendous successes um of others including Elon are are where I think our focus is better spent you know um the one thing I would love your opinion on that I I have no idea how it’s going to work out but it seems to me that that Elon is getting a lot of uh he’s being targeted very heavily Biden came out today and said that his connections with South Africa China Russia are things that are warranting additional exploration um the you know the FDA is jumping on him for the animal studies for neuralink um to me there is something uh I don’t believe in

[00:30:01] conspiracy theory but I also don’t believe in in uh and multiple coincidences occurring simultaneously um so so I worry about uh the future of of those other businesses and the impact that that might have on them not again not because of something that Elon does but because of macro factors that are difficult for one person to control no I mean I’ve seen seen the same uh currents if you would headwind currents I mean the the challenge is Elon has won on so many counts right he reinvented the space industry the entire us Space Program arguably is dependent upon SpaceX and you know we just saw the uh Orion Mission To The Moon which was nice but Starship is going to blow that out of the water figuratively literally when it starts flying right the next Orion Mission isn’t going to be for another two years cuz take that long to get the parts for the second mission and even

[00:31:02] that once the vehicle goes there it’s not a lunar lander it’s you know it’s basically propulsion to get to the moon Starship is going to get to the moon land on the moon carry you know dozens of people come on back be able to go to Mars it’s an extraordinary vehicle and again like you said earlier I wouldn’t I wouldn’t bet against Elon being able to pull it off in fact I have every faith that he will make it happen um period uh and then Tesla won as well right Tesla tipped the point and has has won the race domestically I think globally on EVs and he they driven everybody else to have to invest heavily and catch up so even if he never if Tesla goes out of business it has done what elon’s originally intention was and I remember back in 2001 meeting with him it was like I have two purposes one I want to get Humanity off the planet and I want to move us to an all electric economy and he that those mtps and those

[00:32:00] moonshots have played out beautifully and and he’s succeeded and will be forever in history as the fuse that Lit those two uh transition points so neuralink um you know I think I I was just with the CEO one of the top uh uh top BCI companies called Black Rock I don’t like the name of the company uh but it’s called Black Rock and it’s got the longest standing uh deep and surface electrodes in in human patients and it’s the most advanced out there and uh you know they see neuralink as having elevated the field but still uh more Showmanship than than uh than reality so we’ll see who plays it out but FDA they’re going to play in the FDA World there uh and and obviously you know everything Elon is doing is a glob Global game so um I have no comments on

[00:33:01] China or South Africa I don’t think I mean starlink is a global ecosystem of of comms anyway like you said I wouldn’t I wouldn’t bet I wouldn’t bet against him what else you seeing out there in the global economic Trends or anything else that’s capturing your attention what’s going on right now that you’re highly opinionate about want to educate me on uh well I mean you know you know uh I think that if if FBF SPF is going to be uh be put in prison or be kind of hung out to dry I think that somebody really needs to go after short hedge funds um because I think that that’s a criminal destruction of value on a on a macroeconomic basis yeah it’s like it’s like a thug on the on the uh on the on the Wall Street you know sidewalks yeah I’m going to hold you I’m going to hold you up and yeah it’s crazy so I find that entertaining um but but uh but yeah

[00:34:00] I mean in general I feel like you know we’re seeing um I think inflation is probably going to cool off I I just like everybody I’m afraid of uh not afraid I’m aware and and paying attention to uh the macroeconomic trends that we’re we’re being faced with um as a country but but M mainly as a planet um you know are I can tell you that it’s uh China’s reopened and I think that that’s going to be uh a really interesting touch Point as more data comes out um both in terms of uh in terms of uh illness and and you know continued spread of covid but but more importantly than that in terms of adding another economic engine to the to the global economy um and kind of seeing where that goes and how that impacts the rest of the world um so so so I think that’s going to be something that that I that I’m eagerly

[00:35:01] following um but yeah besides that just keep my head down doing the family stuff and uh and we’re working a lot so it’s uh you know let let’s talk to the let’s let’s jump into the working a lot because you’ve got a moonshot that I want the world to learn about and uh full disclosure I’m a co-founder and vice chairman of uh of vacinity um along with Lou who’s EX of chairman mayay who is the CEO uh I want to uh understand uh uh what you see the moonshot and the MTP of uh of vaccin educate for folks what you’re doing and why you’re doing it yeah so right now the uh the most expensive drugs on the planet by volume are biologics also called monoclonal antibodies and last year they accounted for over $220 billion worth the sales globally so what is a monoclonal

[00:36:00] antibody basically you know we all know about antibodies after covid and the idea that your body generates responses to uh specific external targets uh usually infectious disease so think of the flu shot or your covid vaccine or uh or a vaccine against um uh Pettis or Ms Right what we do and what monoclonal antibodies are are they’re targets against internal targets that your body makes that are toxic in one way or another so examples of those would be rxin and humra and seven of the top 10 selling drugs in the United States would qualify as monoclonal antibodies and basically what we’re doing there is we’re making the antibodies that your body can’t make and we’re making those in these giant bioa actors to make a million doses a year the factories cost

[00:37:00] over a billion dollars to build um and the the the problem with them is that they’re they’re extremely effective um against certain chronic illnesses um but they’re difficult to make difficult to take they involve either a weekly or a bi-weekly self- injection or as much as uh twice a month infusions which take about three hours and require an infusion clinic or Hospital um and they’re extremely expensive so the average cost of a new monoclinal antibody is over $100,000 per patient year so uh these are things that are bankrupting the oecd health care system and the the the thing that I see here as the biggest goal is that they they currently are available to less than 1% of the world what what’s a typical monoclonal cost people so so so the average price is over $100,000

[00:38:00] a year per patient okay so this is for the wealthiest people so I take a monoclonal antibody uh just to use an example it’s called ratha and it’s a antibod uh that’s made in a vat I’m not sure where they where they produce it let’s call it New York for the moment and uh these B cells are producing this one exact antibod um which is a protein but that goes attaches to uh a Target in the liver called pcsk9 and pcsk9 in the liver generates low density lipoproteins ldls which are the bad cholesterol in your bloodstream and I take so this company produces this monoclonal antibody in these Vats in New York they put them into 5 ml injectors and they ship them out and I inject it into my thigh every 2 weeks and um and it lowers my LDL 50% % now mine is cheaper and mine’s just $110,000 a year um so I’m lucky but

[00:39:03] there’s and it works amazingly well right knocks my you know puts my little numbers in the green zone makes it really good I feel good about that I’m I can get you know heart disease or heart attack uh but it’s expensive and it’s a pain in the ass to inject it every two weeks it’s like the first and the second Monday or the first and the third Monday of the month yeah and when you’re traveling it’s hard when you’re to be refrigerated yeah exactly they have to be refrigerated if you’re traveling it’s challenging if you’re you know have a an extremely busy schedule like you do it’s it’s something else to remember um you know there’s there’s a lot of a lot of problems with it and the other thing is that it’s not um widely reimbursed by Insurance because of that cost so in the example of ratha um you know that’s $10,000 or $122,000 or $155,000 depending on who you are and and and that’s uh that’s something that you’re not reimbursed for for most people um so

[00:40:02] there’s a there’s a huge opportunity there um to to basically not create something for the 1% so what are we doing what we’re doing is we have uh the ability to lower the cost of these by approximately a thousandfold um by having your body generate that exact same antibody that you’re injecting and instead of injecting it every 2 weeks this is something that you could be injecting every 6 months or once a year so these are things that could be a part of a regular chronic disease maintenance system with existing infrastructure that exists all the way from subsaharan Africa to Geneva to Santa Monica to New York um and has an opportunity to really transform both access and cost um with the ultimate goal of of eliminating unnecessary suffering right um and you

[00:41:00] know the way I explain it to to people when they once they know what a biologic is once they’re aware that it’s the largest category of drug in the world and it’s available to less than 1% of the world I say let’s look back in history and see where this happened before and the best example is if we were having the same conversation in person 700 years ago the most expensive thing on the planet by weight wouldn’t be salt or gold or any of the things you would expect it would be books and they were available but to less than the 1% because us same guys had to write them by hand so you never I didn’t you couldn’t call me and say hey Luke could you loan me the book you wrote by hand like of course not it’s not part of the deal it’s the most expensive thing in the world and so so ultimately a very simple elegant invention a piece of technology solved that and overnight the prin press lowered the cost of books by 5,000 fold and within a generation it

[00:42:01] put books on everybody’s bookshelf and so in effect that democratized and demonetized books we have with our technology platform the printing press of biologic drugs so we have the opportunity to take something available to less than the 1% most expensive largest volume of sales of any drug category available to less than the 1% and give it to every everybody because of a techn like a technology that I believe is a revolution and I I tell people it’s an expansive disruption model so we don’t just want to take the monoclonal market or take the biologic Market we actually want to expand it to everybody that’s suffering from these chronic diseases unnecessarily and eliminate that suffering right um and if you look at it you know now in this in the world for for the first time in history in the last you know three to four years we crossed a line where the things that are external are no longer

[00:43:02] killing us the most it’s not bacterial infections and and infectious diseases viral in and and you know crazy Wars and all of these things it’s actually the vast majority of people right now are killed by chronic diseases they die because of chronic diseases and the number one killer on the planet um as you mentioned with heart disease and stroke um it’s heart disease and stroke BR and it has been the number one killer on the planet since human beings started keeping track and and I don’t think people realize that right cancer has got such a bigger name and CO’s had such a bigger name and wars in your face but uh you’re right cardiac disease um in women for example kills 40% more women than breast cancer does and I don’t think people realize that and the thing that’s scary and I I I learned this during my longevity Platinum trip um this past summer is 70% of all heart attack uh

[00:44:04] heart attacks or I guess heart related deaths have no antecedants meaning it comes out of the blue it’s like didn’t have pain didn’t have shortness of breath didn’t have anything on their you know physical it’s like didn’t wake up yeah that’s insane it’s the great calendar clearer um worry about any of your email anymore um but yeah I mean it’s it’s extremely scary and and it’s it is no doubt the epidemic of of our time right we have uh we have Statin which are great we’ve got monoclonal antibodies which are great monoclonal antibodies are too expensive for the world and the production for the amount of people that are in need I mean do you realize 2.2 billion people right right now are at risk of high cholesterol around the world 2.2 billion people right um the

[00:45:02] total amount of people on statins are about 450 million the number on pcsk9 less than a million the uh the slow on a second it’s 450 million are on Statin yeah under under a million are on are on a pcsk9 inhibitor which is the yeah and and the reality is that if let’s say you have a heart attack and you’re one of those lucky people that survive the heart attack and afterward you’re prescribed statins if you follow those patients for one year over 50% it’s actually just over 60% of those patients are not taking the satin effectively after one year and these are people that already had a heart attack right the reality is that taking a pill a day is extremely difficult which is why we didn’t have population like collapse when we had pill a day birth control right it turns out that you know people still get pregnant people still have

[00:46:00] heart attacks um and and so ultimately that’s that’s an unbelievable reality and if you look at people that have not had a heart attack that just have high cholesterol and that are prescribed statens about 50% of them refuse the prescription because they feel fine like you said and of that 50% that get the prescription if you follow those people for one year just one year 75% of them are not taking the stattin in an effective manner satin is s they’re sticking their ear up their nose meaning that they’re not taking it every day and it’s it’s one of those medicines where in order for it to be ultimately effective you’ve got to stick to the to the one pill a day approximately the same time etc etc etc for it to work and and the compliance rates that’s what that’s called how well patients do what they’re supposed to do are extremely low like abysmally low like failing an any school system in the world L um and so we need to make the right thing easy and

[00:47:02] the wrong thing hard and what we often do is make the right thing hard and the wrong thing easy so that’s one of the reasons why we’re so excited about about the vaccine platform and and our moonshot here of really democratizing Health by allowing the benefit of of biologic drugs for Everyone by fundamentally disrupting the the convenience factor and the compliance factor and the cost Factor so to to frame it um for folks again we talked about that giant vat in New York producing uh massives amount of these uh uh these antibodies against this protein pcsk9 and the company creates these self injectors with 5 MLS and they strip it to you and you inject every 2 weeks and those antibodies enter your bloodstream and go go to the liver and block the pcsk9 enzyme the and that’s the $10,000

[00:48:01] a year the alternative is instead of doing that you vaccinate yourself and the vaccine as we all have learned from covid gets your immune system to create antibodies and the right designed vaccine can get your internal immune system Factory to generate antibodies against the pcsk9 for free yep so instead of having that large relatively large amount of drug that you have to take every two weeks over the course of a year 26 injections um you with one or two injections a year with a very small amount of of of the of the vaccine and very infrequently your body can then generate that same amount or more antibodies itself so what’s the cost compared to a $10,000 $15,000 a year pcsk9 ratha how what what do you expect the vaccine uh equivalent to cost a

[00:49:01] patient I mean our cost of goods typically we we publicly list our between uh around a thousandth of the cost of goods of of monoclonals um what they’ll cost in the marketplace I I actually don’t know but we’re talking about something that’s accessible around the world so tens of dollars hopefully yeah exactly I think at scale you’re you’re you’re talking about something that’s you know tens of dollarss um and and uh and can I mean I tell people that my goal is very simple I’d like to vaccinate from subsaharan Africa to Geneva to Santa Monica to New York at the same time um and that’s never been done with the best-in-class drug um you know there the the typical thing that happens and is happening now and happened during Co actually is you know the the Richer and the more guns your country had the sooner and the better your drugs were um and and quite

[00:50:00] frankly that happened within the United States and on a global scale uh and one of the things that I that I feel strongly about is that you know suffering and disease uh don’t care how much money you make and they don’t care who your dad was and they don’t care you know what political party you contribute to um suffering is suffering for the individuals and for their families and I think that uh everyone has has a a right and we have an obligation to to serve as much of that population as is humanly possible so I you know I got to be careful because you and I are on the board of this public company so I don’t know everything that can and cannot be said but where is uh where is vaccin in the in the uh testing process for this vaccine uh so that’s going to be going into humans early next year where we’re actually doing that the first trial in uh in Australia um something that’s

[00:51:00] that’s really interesting to note is that pcsk9 is highly conserved across species so so far there have never been uh you know what you see in animals is what you see in humans by and large with this with this uh Target so it’s a it’s a heavily drisk Target um and something that you know the the non-human primate models which we had very positive data in non non-human primate just to Translate is like monkeys yeah like monkeys and uh and fanc fancy word for monkeys my wife would say orl um but uh but but yeah it’s it’s uh it’s it’s it’s what one would consider a highly drisk understood validated Target with um millions of years of patient uh safety data now from the people that are on it on monoclonal antibodies so it’s a safe Target and it’s uh it’s well understood so one of the things I’ve

[00:52:02] heard you say that I find fascinating I mean is first of all uh people we think about that we’re developing heart disease and and the precursors of stroke when you’re in your 50s 60s and 70s but that’s not true is it it happens a lot younger and and one of the things that a platform like this can do is actually to uh not be reactive after but preventative can you speak to that Vision yeah absolutely I mean the the let me give you a different example than heart disease um our Alzheimer’s vaccine which is going into its uh its registrational trial so it’s gone through uh four separate human trials um and we generate very similar antibodies to uh to a drug that’s uh that’s been in the press a lot recently Lucan um and the idea there is by the way which is a much better name than a canab I mean these names are like ridiculous I I it’s like what what the

[00:53:02] hell can you remember M you know it’s like yeah it’s it’s it’s unbelievable um the naming process for drugs is something that probably needs a different set of regulations as well um but uh but yeah so so it’s interesting because if you if you think about those products everyone always talks about treatment of people with Alzheimer’s maybe it’s Alzheimer’s maybe it’s early Alzheimer’s whatever the current phraseology happens to be but ultimately wouldn’t you like to be treated and not have Alzheimer’s wouldn’t you rather prevent getting Alzheimer’s and and a lowcost highly convenient and effective vaccine um is is in our opinion the path to achieving that so imagine if instead of waiting until you were 65 or 70 and got diagnosed with with mild Alzheimer’s um you could actually at 40 or at 30 uh

[00:54:01] be be taking this annual vaccine to uh to prevent the onset or delay the onset of Alzheimer’s in the first place so it’s it’s the idea of extending Health span um and not just not just lifespan right it’s healthy productive years uh and and that’s really the promise of these Technologies now if you go back to heart disease and you think about it um you know it’s the idea of instead of waiting until you have extremely high cholesterol and partial uh partial partially clogged arteries it’s the idea of that at whatever age is necessary for your physiology at at 30 at 40 um you could be vaccinated against ldlc cholesterol and you could eliminate the the growth curve of that cholesterol right so these are things that can prevent prevent um in in the in the

[00:55:02] optimal use cases they can prevent the onset of these chronic illnesses whether it’s Alzheimer’s or Parkinson’s whether it’s migraine or hyp cholesterolemia high cholesterol uh the this gives you a path to to treat that as something that you don’t treat as as an illness that you have you treat to prevent the illness in the first place yep agreed and just to iterate off the off the cuff cuz it’s fascinating uh the targets and you said this earlier any place that there is a potential that there’s an approved FDA approved monoclonal antibody um the science team at vaccin is looking at creating a vaccine to generate those same antibodies but just a thousand times cheaper so what are the some of the programs uh currently uh you know that you’re that we’ve created you’re targeting so you’ve mentioned uh heart disease and

[00:56:00] stroke with hyperemia basically you’ve mentioned Alzheimer’s what else is going on uh we have a Parkinson’s trial we just finished our second human trial in Parkinson’s and the the that’ll be read out in 2023 as well uh and then we have a suite of uh well we have a universal Co booster or a panco booster as well uh that we’ve announced some data on in our phase three recently yeah just I will just I’ll mention that because I’m very proud of it that the uh the covid booster which is the only infectious disease everything else is is vaccin Suite is targeted towards human disease but back in 2020 we sort of had an emergency uh jacuzzi meeting no I’m just kidding emergency uh meeting and and decided to stand up a covid uh uh booster and uh the results were of that vaccine against covid uh were significantly better than a number of other vaccines out there could you would

[00:57:02] you want to mention what that was are you able to yeah so we were the first company that tested um and completed a phase three trial against uh boosting against um the three main kind of forms right the three main platforms um mRNA uh we we boosted against fiser uh and adino virus we boosted against Astro and live attenuated we boosted against um covac and cof far um and uh and we we beat uh we have statistically significant results showing that we were better than cof farm and a by multiples um and you know numerically we’re higher than fizer but the uh the technical term is that we showed comparability so we’re as good as as fizer um and our safety profile so far we haven’t released the uh the entire results of

[00:58:00] that but in terms of um Adverse Events our safety profile is better than than all of them yeah I like I like to say it’s the it’s the covid booster you’d give your kids yeah absolutely and I mean I think that there’s a huge need for something safe effective and uh and that doesn’t require you know negative 80° Celsius cold TR storage to get it around so something that is actually accessible around the world so that’s uh that’s the goal anything that anything that can can refrigerate beer or Coca-Cola is good for this yeah so it’s a it’s a huge milestone it’s our it’s our it it’ll be our first phase three as a company uh and we did that in the UK and in uh in Australia um and we’re you know we’re excited about it and most importantly you know I’m really proud of the team right uh it’s it’s it takes a as as my wife mayay would say it takes a village to raise a l um and uh and and uh and what I tell everybody is that you know

[00:59:00] me alone uh on the street corner I’m just another you know crazy homeless guy in San Francisco screaming about Big Ideas but when you have a team behind you it’s it’s amazing what can be done so I really couldn’t be prouder of the team and um all of the the sleepless nights and countless hours that were put into to making all of this happen I have to tell a story um the company I I first joined L and May uh when their company was called United neuroscience and um and while they were working on Parkinson’s and Alzheimers it was like the real most interesting stuff was preventing against hyperemia and uh bone loss and muscle loss and and other areas and I was saying yeah we need to get away from like just the only focus on nuro and um and you and mayay and Chris and I were in a jacuzzi in Hawaii and we’re like playing with like what’s a better name what’s a better name and it was like well we had Singularity and cellularity and uh I think uh we came up

[01:00:02] with vacinity after a margarita or two and then we added uh We spelled it with two x’s vaxx I init uh in homage to uh mayay as a woman being the CEO in sort of the the decade of of women coming but that was a fun a fun memory yeah it was amazing I’m going to give you credit for for coming up with the name ultimately and us being uh you know and us agreeing with you uh and uh but but yeah I mean I think um and you mentioned you mentioned uh something that’s actually really interesting that that is often overlooked so a monoclonal by definition is is one antibody at a time and one of the benefits of vaccines is that you can actually have multiple Targets in the same vaccine so you can make your body generate multiple antibodies at the same time against a variety of targets so in the case of muscle loss or bone loss

[01:01:02] right um really and and and I’m thinking of this from a uh going back to the Elon conversation uh this is a get us to Mars get us to the moon and have us uh retain um our muscle density and our bone density as best as possible um and as well as another you know a variety of other applications but but that’s something I’m I’m very excited about and those are uh those are vaccines that are in earlier stages of development right now with us but that are moving rapidly towards the clinic and both of those targets it so happens will necessitate multiple Targets in the vaccine or will be optimal with multiple targets and the vaccine so it’s something that you know you can’t so it’s it’s it’s boldly go where monoclonal antibodies have gone before and other places that they can’t

[01:02:00] go yeah it’s funny you call these space vaccines right it’s uh and and as we as you go into space you don’t stress the muscles and the bones you have osteopenia which is a weak you know breaking down of the of the bone tissue and sarcopenia which is your muscle wasting uh which you have to prevent and you can block them with these it also happens to be the one of the major issues with growing older so while you know uh while Lou you’ve built out part of vacinity at the Kennedy Space Center which is so cool and we can talk about that uh the big opportunity for for this is going to be vaccinating all you know 70 80 and 90 year olds to maintain their their muscle loss mass and bone loss cuz that’s another major killer people fall they break their hip or their pelvis and then they end up in the hospital they fall cuz they don’t have the muscle tissue to prevent when they trip and then their bones are weak and then

[01:03:00] you’re in a hospital laid up in bed and you develop pneumonia and it’s a spiral and it’s like a very slippery slope down to uh last exhalation yeah so uh the way that I conceptualize um scopena and osteoporosis ultimately is is I think of it as um these are the number one leading causes of lack of Health span they’re not the number one Killers themselves but they take you from living independently and being a productive person to putting you into the hospital and this downward spiral that so many of us have seen um you know my grandfather on my father’s side uh he he had scarpia he fell he broke his hip and he never recovered right it was it was a it was a very slow very expensive very um uh very uh like high rate of suffering way to go but um but that was

[01:04:03] the the beginning of the end of of a healthy lifespan so when we think about you know solving heart disease and solving Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s and and all of these things that will increase our function and our and ultimately our lifespan uh part of it is we want to make sure that that that’s those are healthy and productive years um and that we that the other kind of ailments that come along with that including the loss of muscle loss of bone um or decrease in bone density that those actually uh those are addressed at the same time you know so so absolutely uh that’s that’s something on my mind and and uh and one of the one of the goals and targets here so let’s talk about um uh Costa Rica why when did you go down and why are you in Costa Rica you’re a huge Costa Rica fan I mean why not you know Mexico or uh you know

[01:05:01] Panama or other parts of South and Central uh America I mean um you love Costa Rica pal and a lot of other individuals to too yeah I you know I love surfing um and there’s great surf but there’s a lot of places with great surf um I the climate’s amazing but there’s a lot of places with a great climate um ultimately this is a this is a decision driven heavily by what I think are important values for the family um and that really means the kids so um you know Costa Rica has the highest amount of biodiversity per foot of any place on the planet and some some of which is poisonous a lot of which is poisonous uh right um but but ultimately it it it provides the best example for uh preser a and regeneration um and actually cataloging of almost any place on the planet you

[01:06:01] know are our kids um went out and tagged with uh with satellite tags the first giant Mana Rays ever tagged with satellite tags in the history of Costa Rica um and we followed those and we found out where their migratory paths were because they’re only in one place for about six months a year and no one knew where they were the rest of the time these are Global unknowns that we had no data no information on and really uh no ability to direct uh um the appropriate resources to protect those corridors right because we didn’t even know they existed so people didn’t know if they went and slept on the bottom of the ocean in a deep trench people didn’t know if they resurfaced in the interim you know there were literally no knowledge of of of what happened um and and I like to tell people that they’ve probably done more than uh than a person

[01:07:02] getting a a PhD from Stanford marine biology school um in terms of actually solving a problem and understanding it to its to its conclusion and having you know real uh real information from from a collection of the data so there’ll be a paper published um likely this year um around some of the findings of those satellite tags um and uh and so we’re excited to be able to do that um but really it’s about showing showing and and gaining an appreciation for uh for the world around you and and for all that that uh that exists right and I think that there are very few places that I could imagine that offer that the other thing that I like about it is that a friend of mine once said that uh the greatest gift you could provide to your children were obstacles that they themselves could

[01:08:00] overcome and I’ve I’ve added or failed to overcome um to that but the idea is that you know uh give them give them things that they want to go and try to do and let them try to do it like don’t don’t help them don’t provide guidance don’t give them an Insight just let them go and try to do it and the experience that they gain from that is is really of the utmost value in their in their future and in their lives um so so an example of that would be you know uh something as simple as we have a gate to the property when we drive off of the main road which is dirt and sometimes it’s raining a lot and there’s a lot of mud and there’s a lot of there’s like a little river that’s running down the middle of the the the kind of the facto

[01:09:00] driveway and we could easily make that gate automated right there’s there’s solar panels that we can put on the gate that would make it easy to open that would open itself all of these things there goats you could attach to it yeah there are goats that we could attach to a poisonous steak story um but uh but but the idea is that that they get to get out every day every time and open and close the gate and the reason is that there are certain values that you can’t teach without letting them do them themselves and uh and that’s a very small example of of a very minor obstacle but the amount of appreciation that that generates for for them every day when we go on our way to breakfast every day when we come back um is tremendous right um and I think that Costa Rica is full of those opportunities um you know when you and

[01:10:01] and Kristen and the boys were down my Deputy boys were down here we uh we got everyone certified to scuba diive at the earliest age that was amazing I it’s like that was such a such an extraordinary success for the for the three boys to be certified at age 11 yeah I mean it’s it’s these are things that are and and again we couldn’t interfere because we weren’t the instructors we couldn’t invited yeah we weren’t we weren’t invited yeah and we were doing other things um but ultimately that was an obstacle they were provided where the vast majority of 11y olds in that same setting fail and are removed from those classes because they Panic or they can’t handle it or whatever they they confronting a lot of fears there’s Mass clearing underwater all these different things um but ultimately they all they all succeeded and they did that because of who they were not because of assistance from anyone else and and those are values

[01:11:02] that uh they exist everywhere but they’re much harder to find in certain places and locations so it’s a long- winded way of saying why I like Costa Rica but it’s an amazing place and the people are amazing um and uh and you know they they have a saying here that’s Po aita and that means Pure Life right and uh that concept is is ties back into what we talked about at the beginning about being present right a brief note from our sponsors let’s talk about sleep sleep has become one of my number one longevity priorities in life you know getting eight deep uninterrupted hours of sleep is one of the most important things you can do to increase your vitality and energy and increase the health span that you have here on Earth you know when I was in medical school years ago I used to pride myself on how little sleep I could get you know be 5 5 and 1/2 hours today I pride myself on how much sleep I can get and I shoot for 8 hours every single

[01:12:00] night now usually I’m great at going to sleep if I’m exhausted you know I’ve worked a hard day I’m right out but if I’m having difficulty and it occurs I’m having insomnia or my mind’s overactive and I need help to get that 8 hours I turned to a supplement product by life force called Peak rest now Peak rest has been formulated with an extraordinary scientific depth and background includes everything from long lasting melatonin to magnesium to L glycine to Rosemary extract just to name a few this product is about creating a sense of rest and really giving you the depth and length of sleep that you need for Recovery it’s a product I hope you’ll try it works for me and I’m sure it will work for you if you’re interested go to myli force.com back/ Peter uh to get a discount from life force on this product but you’ll also see a whole set of other longevity and vitality related supplements that I use we’ll talk about them some other time but in terms of sleep Peak rest is

[01:13:02] my go-to supplement hope you’ll enjoy it go to myli horse.com Peter for your discount L do you want to are you willing to share some of the formative moments of your life and I mean you’re one of the most extraordinary thinkers and um uh I I remember being at the top of the mountain with you and both families uh one time having a you know a beautiful bottle of uh of of wine um probably an amaron and just having this experience of you saying to myself listen if I should ever perish and I’m not planning to for some hundreds of years or so but if I ever did uh I would want the family in your hands that you know I would trust you over anybody to deal with any emergency any situation and I think that was the birth of our our Deputy family situation and saying you this is more than a Godfather more

[01:14:01] than Uncle this is your Deputy dad and and he’ll be there um what shaped you to be who you are man you know um there’s so much I know um well first of all I really appreciate that and you know the feeling is mutual and I I respect you and I love you and I just couldn’t have a better time with you and I love that we get to think about the big problems facing the world together and and tackle some of them which is which is really such a blessing and and uh and Kristen and the boys you know obviously I love them like like they’re my own and uh and the you know I can’t nobody can ever be capable of of responding correctly in every situation but I’ll promise I’ll do my best um and there are many situations in which you have so so I think that uh things that are hard ultimately uh have have significantly

[01:15:01] influenced uh me right so I think of two two big obstacles that I had to overcome the first is when I was um 10 my dad went to prison for almost 5 years um and you know that’s a formidable time in a in a in a young man’s life and any he tried ‘s life um I had my two sisters and my mom uh and uh I had a lot of responsibilities and and Clarity around those responsibilities thrusted upon me I remember waking up at at 1:00 in the morning so that I could clean the kitchen before my mom would wake up um so that she would have you know one less thing to worry about when she was awake I remember um my dad was stationed in yanked them South Dakota for a lot of this it’s a very cold inclement location um one would this was this was

[01:16:03] this was around uh real estate real estate collapse back then yeah it was part of the Savings and Loans debacle um that occurred in the late 80s and uh was prosecuted in the in the early 9s uh and 6,000 people in Texas went to prison for it um including every Savings and Loan owner uh in the state um so it was a it was a wide net and my dad was an amazing man and I I look up to him um and when he’s he’s unfortunately passed away but but I I you know love him and respect him and I think that uh that he got caught up in a big net you know um but it was it was remarkable because you know we visited in Yankton South Dakota and I remember being at a truck stop and having an ice cream scooper of mashed

[01:17:00] potatoes with uh with turkey that was indiscriminate like indiscriminately tied to dog food um and uh in in one of those trays like you were in in in school and uh and I remember the next day having to go through the church and smuggle in warmer hats and gloves and things that the the prison wouldn’t let them have but that were desperately needed for for him and his friends you know B vitamins because they had no sun exposure uh during the the cold long Winters in South Dakota um you know and and the consequences for failure would have been you know getting caught under those circumstances as a 10 and 11-year-old would have meant that my dad would be in prison for another 20 years so the consequences were High um and uh and it was it was hard right um and then

[01:18:01] when he when he got out of prison we had uh just just over a decade with him before he passed and I was uh I was actually attending Columbia business school at the time I did not graduate I dropped out full disclosure um and uh and I was with him in Montana and we were fishing and we were Side by side In this River this big raging river called the Madison river outside of uh Yellowstone National Park and he looked at me and he said you know I’m going to take a seat I’m feeling a little tired and he just fell over in the water and started floating Downstream and I I remember throwing my my rod down and jumping in and I’m in these big waiters and they’re getting filled with water and I’m swimming down the river and I ultimately dragged him out he was a big guy and uh and I propped him up on a rock and tore down a fence and got the car there and drove him to the closest

[01:19:00] emergency center which was an hour away in inis Montana um where he was incorrectly dosed as having had hard or diagnosed as having had a heart attack um and you know he uh he ultimately after ambulances and driving and ripping down fences and swimming in rivers and Care flights and doctors and surgeries he ultimately died of an ascending aortic dissection um and uh there was there was a lot of moments that day but but ultimately uh you know you realize that um there’s not very much time um and you realize that every moment that can be spent and invested and in impact and in my personal mission you know I tell people a lot of people wake up 95% of the world wakes up every day they brush their teeth and they put on their shoes they feed their kids or

[01:20:00] they do what they’re supposed to do um but they’re they’re lacking uh a fundamental sense of purpose which is why you know if you’ve got friends that work at a at a big white shoe Law Firm they tell you that they’re waiting to retire until they’re 65 um and they count the minutes right and um not all of them but most of them and and the real it is that that’s that’s living a life that I that I feel bad about because it’s devoid of purpose um and For Better or For Worse every day I wake up at 4:00 4:30 in the morning um and I never have that moment uh I know that I’m here and I’m here for one reason and that’s to eliminate unnecessary suffering and uh and all of my all of my good fortune and all of my skills and all of my energy is dedicated ated ultimately to that that purpose um and as a consequence it doesn’t mean that there aren’t hard days and easy days and

[01:21:00] better days and medium days and whatever else you want to say there’s all sorts of days but as long as you can look to that as a as a guiding principle and as a North star and as a mission um you know I feel like uh I feel like you can really accomplish anything um and that’s the goal um you know another people say you know by the way let let me just let me just pause there and say that is that is beautiful thank you for sharing that and it’s and it’s the real you know I I think brother that um you know it’s those moments that shape the human being right and we all strive to have our kids have the most comfortable easy life they have but sometimes it’s those levels of stressors and um Soul shaping moments that that uh really uh really shape you and Elevate you uh to be at the who you can be you

[01:22:03] know I I am curious and and your dad would be so extraordinarily proud of you and I hope you know that in your heart and soul um how what do you think about the the need for kids I mean you you said you know when bear and Ryan hop out of the car and go through the rain and open the gate and you know you don’t I I love that the gift that you give them is giving them a challenge and allowing them to face the challenge themselves but hardship in a child’s life uh to shape them cuz human nature for most people uh is to you know to meet your kids’ needs to not let them suffer to give them the best life that that they can have thoughts about that I think that uh if you don’t have to face hardship you’ll never know what you’ll do when it’s

[01:23:01] hard so this is how you test your metal in a certain sense right um so I don’t wish hardship upon anyone but I think that hardship spares no one so uh a a brilliant person once told me that we have to walk walk softly because everyone is facing their own tremendous battles um which we don’t actually know yeah and they’re invisible right um they’re they’re often invisible and often more often unspoken um and so so be kind right be kind but but know that your time is coming or you’re in it right and um and that’s that’s important uh and it’s

[01:24:00] important because it provides a sense of empathy provides gratitude for for the moments when you don’t feel that you’re you’re facing a tremendous battle um but yeah I think that ultimately kids need uh they they benefit from hardship and I don’t think that everyone benefits in the same way so uh so you know people say uh some some people say entrepreneurs are born not made I think um I think there’s a Comon a part of that that’s true you know um but I also think that uh that the the people who really change and shape the world and do the biggest things things are uh are accustomed to the biggest obstacles

[01:25:01] setbacks humiliations challenges fears all of those things that everyone faces they’re not immune to them they it’s just the reaction to those that’s so different is what yields uh different levels of impact and outcome so uh I have a lot of friends that when they got Co were crying and saying poor me I was laughing and thinking hysterically that it was uh that this was an example of of life and and the forces and our immune systems and all of these components that make it amazing um I’m not a model for for anybody but uh but that’s that’s the way that I try to confront my my individual challenges now I’ll tell you a story about about entrepreneurship I’ve got two or origin stories around that that people always find hilarious but now that’s setting a high bar so they’ll be boring I’m sure but

[01:26:01] anyway I’ll just make fun of them so I’ll make them so I remember I got a phone call at my house I was eight years old and a friend of mine Philip dunnett who everyone jokingly called his mom Sergeant dunnett she was very strict called and asked me to come over cuz he had a he had a lawn mower and we were going to mow his neighbor lawn and they had agreed to pay us so I said okay we went over and it was 110° in Texas during the summer and we’re pushing this manual lawn mower and it took both of us to push it because it there was no motor on it so it’s like you know you’re really just cranking through it and we did the head the edges and the hedges and the lawn and all this stuff and in the middle of the day she came out and this blue-haired old lady gave us a glass of lemonade and then when we got done she gave us each quarter [Laughter] and I’m old but I’m not that old and I was I was distu right I was I was absolutely distraught and I and I went

[01:27:03] back to the house and I and I called my mom and I said mom come pick and they had one of those old phones with a long cord with the rotary dials on it stuck to the kitchen wall and I remember walking and calling her and I said mom come pick me up and she said what happened I said I don’t want to talk about it just pick me up I’m distraught so she picks me up and I go home and I’m sitting there and I’m awake all night in my bed tossing and turning thinking about this stuff and I walk downstairs the next morning and my my older sister was uh doing some arts and crafts with leather with a group of friends and a thing that very not politically correct used to be called Indian princess um and uh and she was cutting up pieces of leather and they were gluing them to make vests and things for this for this pow out and and uh and I remember picking up all the trash all the leather that was trash that was discarded and I and I grabbed it and I remember walking around

[01:28:01] outside and I found this dead turtle and I put it into bleach and I took a screwdriver and I dug out all the guts and all the stuff and all the gore and I broke the turtle shell up and I tied it around these pieces of leather and I made little bolo ties and necklaces and all sorts of crap and uh my parents were having dinner in a in an entertainment area called Bellum and while they had dinner I went outside and I roam the streets and I knew most the people on the streets there and I roam so not a safe environment that you would recommend other people to do but my parents were cool with it and I came back in about an hour hour and a half later and my dad said oh my God what happens you get robbed and I said no I sold all the necklaces and he said okay well how much money did you make selling the necklaces I said you know I think about $800 and I and I and I pulled out all this money from my pockets and he said did you rob somebody and I said no no no I just sold all the necklaces well how much you sell them for and I said well entirely dependent on what the person

[01:29:01] was wearing and if they had a date and I’d walk up and I’d pick the right people and it ranged between a dollar and $30 for the same product um and uh and I ended up you know realizing that I could make a jewelry business at the age of eight and I started pedaling jewelry on the streets after that you know on the weekends as a as a side business right um so that was the first one when my dad said we’re not going to have to worry about you can I tell you my can I tell you my equivalent of your uh of your uh uh first uh lmow uh story yeah so I’m about 11 about our boy’s age and my best friend Billy Greenberg and I were I’m living in uh in Great Neck New York and um uh we lived about a mile apart and we decided we were going to do a snow removal service now we had I had lived through one winter there and it snowed a

[01:30:01] few times and average you know like an inch or 3 in or 4 in something like that and so we went we walked between my house and his house and we sold snow removal service for the winter for 20 bucks that and we signed up uh uh I remember about 20 houses and we got 400 bucks and we used 200 of it to buy a gas uh one of those Pusher ones that you you know has a little blades and so forth and it could clear up to 12 in well the next week we have a 3ft record snowfall and everyone on our route is like calling up saying where are you we paid for you to be able to remove our snow whenever it snowed and I was like just I was decimated my dad God bless him uh calls up uh his friend who cleared our our things with had a snowplow and he paid him to go and and

[01:31:03] clear all of them and then I just canceled all the services after that but it was uh it was definitely bad luck oh man what was your next one that’s amazing I love that uh you know my next one was I was 10 and my dad was just about to go to jail um so it was tough times at the house and I had uh I had gotten into this great School in Dallas called St Mark’s School of Texas which is uh all boys school um which I also didn’t graduate from uh but but I’m break a record yeah exactly you know it’s like and so I’m sitting there and and I remember I get called into the principal Warren foxworth’s office Warren Foxworth and he he’s sitting there and he’s telling me that he’s got to call my mom and my dad

[01:32:01] and I’m thinking this is the worst timing ever you know my mom is distraught my dad is about to go to prison like this is this sucks and interestingly Warren had been a neighbor of my dad when they were kids little kids and so my dad comes in and I mean he just lays into me in this office he’s screaming he’s telling me I’m too stupid to breathe all this stuff is going on it’s just unbelievable and and my mom is sitting there and she’s equally upset and and uh and less vocal and and Warren is sitting there and he goes my dad’s name was was Lou also and he’s like Lou calm down calm down Susan what do you my mom’s name is Susan he says calm down Susan Lou what are you doing what what I don’t understand and and my dad goes what do you mean you don’t understand my kid went and spent $44,000 $3,800 at the school bookstore on what

[01:33:00] on a bunch of pens and pencils and jackets like what are you talking about and Warren said Lou I don’t think you understand and my dad said what do you mean I don’t understand Warren you idiot and Warren goes well maybe I’m the idiot but I thought you’d be really happy about it my dad just loses why would I be happy about it he goes he didn’t spend $3,800 Lou he made $3,800 we’ve never had this problem before and my dad said how did he make $3,800 in bookstore credits and I was trading pens I was trading pens that didn’t exist at the bookstore with these other kids who were getting them for free by charging them to their parents at the bookstore and I would trade these penss that I was buying for a doar or 50 cents a piece for a $15 pin from the book store and then return it to the bookstore so I had this amazing credit I was going to pay for all of my tuition in like a few months you know and I and I told my dad he said why were you doing this I said well I figured that they’d credit it to my tuition I wouldn’t have a tuition to

[01:34:00] pay and and I remember the look on his face and he was really so confused right by the entire thing and and I remember feeling this sense of uh you know shame and pride at the same time um and and it was it was shame at the beginning cuz thought I had done something wrong even though I thought I was doing something right but by the end of it you know it was uh it was Pride because you know ultimately if if other kids had figured out what I was doing at the school and done the same thing it would have bankrupted the the bookstore so so so Warren warrren said that I wasn’t allowed to engage in any oncampus Commerce from then on um because of because of the consequences to the bookstore um but yeah it was amazing it was it was just simple Arbitrage but I had something that everybody wanted and their cost of goods was free in their minds and my cost of goods was very low and the Arbitrage was you know 1 to 10 1

[01:35:01] to 15 so 90% return have I ever told you my fetal pig Story how I was almost thrown out of school and would not be having this conversation with you or anybody had the turn of events gone slightly different yeah tell me shoot uh so my freshman year as at a place called Hamilton College before I transferred to MIT for my undergrad and Hamilton College has a very strict honor code right can’t do you know he’s like really you sign this honor code and it’s like you know it’s the gospel and expulsion is the result of anything that’s verboden and uh my freshman year I’m in freshman biology on Premed make my parents happy and in fresh and biology half of your grade for the year is your fetal pig lab dissection never forget this and about 2 months into the

[01:36:00] semester um about two weeks before the fetal pig lab half of my grade uh I come down with chickenpox and so I’m in Hamilton’s infirmary uh with chickenpox uh you know my parents come up from uh from Great Neck and they they they visit me and I’m like just out of it and I’m as I’m starting to recover and I’m getting better I’m like freaking out about this fetal pig and so I go into the last few days of uh uh you know the lab work and we were not allowed to take the fetal pig out of the lab very strict rules posted on the walls the fetal pig must stay in there your time with the fetal pig is limited etc etc and so I’m freaking out and I hatched the plan with my labmate Philip to steal the fetal pig and I’m going to steal the fetal pig and bring it back to my dorm room and study it at night over the weekend before the exam and so this is a Thursday uh I open my book bag or Philip

[01:37:01] does I push the fetal pig in you know this is a formaldahyde stinky fetal pig in my book bag bring it back to the dorm room stick it in the refrigerator um and the next day I’ll never forget Professor Frank price stands up in front of the classroom and goes uh ladies and gentlemen I have something very serious to talk to you about one of the fetal pigs has been stolen and I want whoever is responsible to turn themselves in that same day no there’s an article in the school newspaper about a fetal pig being stolen and I’m like Philip and I are like looking at each other across the room squirming and like what do we do oh my God so the fetal pig is in the refrigerator and this is a this is a refrigerator shared by a few different dorm rooms and one of the seniors sees it in there and says I’m going to turn you in if you don’t turn yourself in now at this point I’m a freshman Premed my entire life is crumbling before my eyes

[01:38:00] um Philip and I have the crazy idea that we have to get rid of the evidence so we take the fetal pig and we go into the forest and we bury the body kid you not we bury the body in the forest and we’re coming back and I’m like what are we going to do this is insane I’m it’s like everything’s over so it’s about 5:00 on uh on this Friday um and the exams on Monday and I’m breaking down I call my dad and I’m like in tears and I fess up to him I said Dad this is what happened I sorry I don’t know what to do and it’s one of those moments in time where I’m so thankful I had I trusted my dad well enough to have that conversation with him and he said Son you need to turn yourself in um um you just need to go and talk to your professor and tell him what you did and why you did it and he said uh uh I you know so I went and saw

[01:39:02] Phillip I said I’m going to turn myself in and he’s like no no you can’t do that I said listen you had nothing to do with it I so I went I exume the body from the forest I went and uh went to go see Professor price so it turns out my dad had called The Physician at the uh Infirmary at Hamilton and had him talk to Professor price and so forth and say you know he was out anyway I get and as I’m walking to go to class one of my other uh roommates who found out about the fetal pig debacle says um uh uh you know I’m going to turn you in I and I was like enough enough I’m turning myself in and so I went and uh I saw Professor price he was tutoring students and he said please wait there and so finally like you know tearful mournful with the dead body in my hands I walk over to him and I say it was me I I had I stole the feetal pig and I’ll never forget he

[01:40:00] looked at me and paused and he goes Peter have you learned your lesson and I was like yes yes yes I’m sorry I’m and he said good luck on the exam on Monday and and that was it and it just this forgiveness uh my life would have been complet I if i’ had been thrown out of my freshman year college it’d be maybe I’d be a tech billionaire as a result of that I don’t know but but it was uh I’ll never forget uh this moment of kindness from uh Professor Frank price that allowed me to continue on and go on to what I’ve done the Great Pig Heist yeah The Great Pig yeah the fetal pig story The I was just telling it to I was just telling that to Dax and Jet over over sores the other night and remind me of it yeah isn’t it amazing to think through all of the and I I try to do this uh I don’t do it enough to be

[01:41:01] honest but I do try to do it all the time um but think of all of the I call them the butt for people right um and and uh it’s it’s but for this person this would not have happened or that would not have happened or I wouldn’t be here or whatever whatever that is um and and you know one of the one of the things that I’m real proud about with uh with Baron Ryan is I you know I try my best and jeton Dax as well actually but I try my best to show them that every interaction that we have is an opportunity to make the other person’s day better now you don’t do that for you and you don’t just just do it for them right they’re going to interact with other people that day and those people are going to interact with other

[01:42:00] people that day so just a little bit of positivity can fundamentally change massive outcomes from other people yes and going back to that idea of you know you don’t know what the tremendous burden the other person is carrying you know how many times have you witnessed kindness that was given at exactly the right moment either for you in the case of Dr Price or for uh for you know anyone that you’re interacting with in in that moment right and the truth is that um we don’t even we we have no idea but you know it when you see it and uh and it’s it’s really an amazing gift right and the reason that I I’m so positive that my transformative my real purpose is to eliminate a necessary suffering is

[01:43:00] that for every one person that you you help or heal or touch or save um or or eliminate that little bit of suffering in their day uh you know that you’re doing good that is beyond anything that has to do with you right and so so it it really takes you out of the equation and becomes all about the other right and and I’ve been saying and you’ve heard me say for for several years now that you know my one of one of the mantras I practice is that I am we and we are and ultimately it means that you know you transform from the ego from the individual to being a part of we and then ultimately you realize that we are and you’re a part of everything simultaneously and that means that that

[01:44:00] you look at every object in every moment with a different level of clarity because you’re you you are uh you know most religions say it in in one way or another but but you are uh you are a piece of everything and everything is a piece of you and and there’s some that really ties us all together when you think about it that way and uh it’s a goal to be able to live by it there’s a an idea I want to close this out on that you shared and I was just grabbing it here from a text we had a while ago the idea of uh Truth Versus politeness and vulnerability versus small talk and I found those really uh important distinct itions uh and I think they’re a good a good close out for us uh vulnerability versus the value of small talk thoughts I think being

[01:45:03] authentic is a superpower um I think that when you’re authentic to yourself and authentic with others you you can touch each other in ways that are just much deeper and and more significant um than you know Argentina beating Croatia in the semifinals of the World Cup right um not that that doesn’t matter it matters but that that there’s there’s a fundamental authenticity to depth and vulnerability and being being open and honest with what you’re accomplishing not accomplishing failures successes um fears and and joys right and being able to go to that as quickly as possible

[01:46:02] eliminates uh tremendous amounts of wasted time and it doesn’t mean that Everyone likes authenticity it doesn’t mean that it’s uh um a crowd pleaser because a lot of times it’s not right um but it’s it’s an opportunity to uh to transcend the Blas and and get into what what really matters right and what really drives us and what our true feelings and Ambitions are and to me that’s something that that’s worthwhile yeah I I always know when I I have a challenge or an issue or need advice there’s no from you it’s it’s double barrel truth whether I like it or not you you do it beautifully uh but um and that’s what you want from your best friend you know uh you you want your best friend to to to give you

[01:47:02] a real a real mirror um you know if I tell you I need I need a hug or you know I need some support you’re there for that too but uh yeah uh you know it’s it’s another interesting point before I get to the to the last point which is you know I asked this on my closest friends you know you and Keith farazi and Eric puler and and others um does is there somebody who knows you knows everything about you I mean where you’re not you’re not hiding anything you know do you have someone in your life that uh knows you so authentically so deeply that they’re no secrets and it’s a it’s a it’s a beautiful thing to have right you ideally want that that in your spouse in in your in your partner where um you can be truthfully you uh without feeling criticized and so forth and and I

[01:48:01] measure success in my life and there are a few people um where they there’s no there’s nothing hiding there’s nothing I I can feel ashamed of or guilty of or what they know they know it thoughts about that I mean I I I I mean I I would I would uh be hesitant to say that I an open book in general but I I don’t shy away from my shortcomings right I I think that I I embrace them um as opportunities for growth so so I would say that that um I do my best to provide that authenticity to you and I would say that I have you know um a few friends that can can understand that and yeah there could be criticisms too right like because it doesn’t mean that you agree with all of the choices right like you know you’ve done dumb things I’ve done dumb things I

[01:49:00] plan on continuing to do some dumb things right I mean like it’s it’s part of part of life um and and in terms of uh yeah I mean my partner is amazing mayay is amazing um and and I definitely think that she knows me uh extremely well um and I don’t think I hide purposefully really anything from her uh and I don’t think I could if I wanted to um which is a big part of it I think that you know once you have a certain authentic approach to a friendship or to relationship it’s it’s very easy for those people to tell when you’re not in authenticity and so so they might not be able to tell you exactly what you’re thinking or why you’re thinking that or where the shame or the fear comes from and being authentic in that moment um

[01:50:01] but they know it and to me those are all of that is is really the highest value in a relationship it’s it’s the ability to uh to trust someone that you love or people that you love more than you trust yourself it’s you know it’s it’s when you’re not when you’re looking outward in that moment um what’s what’s better than being taught a lesson About You by someone that loves you right well you know you and you and I are such easy people to live with yeah Kristen and may may have have an easy time of it oh my God I can’t imagine anyone more difficult to live with than me um except for maybe you yeah EXA and politeness politeness versus truth you know I can’t you those conversations that are all about

[01:51:00] politeness that are like okay can I extract myself from this conversation but you don’t tolerate those very very well you love dropping bombs in the middle of them I think yeah I mean I think sometimes one of the things like as an example something that I could definitely work on is sometimes in those types of settings I just want to disrupt it you know it’s like it’s like have you ever seen the monks pouring the sand that you know they’re going to scrape away right after they’re done making this beautiful mandala sometimes I feel like just jumping in the middle of that while it’s being done you know because it’s just like well it’s gonna happen anyway like why are we why are we going through this exercise and and I feel like sometimes overly polite conversations are like that too you know where where you have this you have this dance that’s being played out in slow motion and for no it’s so painful for no reason you know ultimately I wish I had a button that could rewind the conversation 3 seconds so you know so it’s like in the

[01:52:01] middle of conversation now are you wearing that dress because you want to go to bed with someone tonight I mean it’s like what what is it you know or you know is that the stupidest thing you could possibly say right now I mean honestly um it would make life more interesting I mean I’ll give you a great example so we were sitting here and we’re watching an amazing documentary about the bachos and the bachos are the Nicaraguan migrant workers that come over and build things in Costa Rica in search of a better life and and you know leaving persecution in Nicaragua Etc um and these are basically all men and the IT told the untold story of the bachos right and my a good friend of mine Roberto um uh he he made it and produced it and directed it and it’s it’s a remarkable film okay and afterward this is the screening and and this this beautiful beach woman um at the time when we’re

[01:53:01] supposed to ask questions says it’s a 32-minute documentary okay um and her question is well I think you should make one about the women when are you going to make the documentary about the women now I love the idea of of making a documentary about the women but the bados aren’t women they’re men and in the documentary their families and wives and children men women and otherwise were included and touched upon but ultimately the people that are enduring the the labor conditions that are the Unseen population of of the other country that are crossing the borders and getting caught and returned and all of this all of that is happening to the men right and so it wasn’t that there was a sexism moment none of that it was that she had to ask that question because it felt like the polite appropriate

[01:54:02] question to ask and it showed that she had not watched or understood the film in any capacity so so that’s an example of sometimes where I see these things where it’s like I understand that it feels like that’s the right question to ask but But ultimately it’s being polite and it’s being politically correct and it’s going in no direction at all and instead what would have been fascinating is to say has anyone done a documentary on the wives and children they left at home and you know if there are any uh you know dramatic affairs with siblings of the men that went to work that happened while they were gone right is there is there a drama there that was different than every everyday life before and that might be interesting you know that’s a great point but to me you know the authenticity of that moment was shedding

[01:55:02] a light on people that never see the light and it was very powerful and a question that tried to dim that light in any way um was a damn question ah I’m going to end on a on a on a joke so um Professor Heisenberg is in his car traveling down the highway uh the autoban since he’s German and the cop pulls him over and says Professor Heisenberg I clocked you at 75 miles hour and he goes oh my God now I have no idea where I am for those of you wondering it’s a Heisenberg uncertainty principal you can’t actually know the velocity and your location at the same time it’s a geek joke I know I love it yeah well I mean look you got to do what you’re good at I’m obviously not good at delivering

[01:56:02] jokes uh brother I love you I love you my life thank you thank you for all thanks for a fun conversation thank you Peter it’s great to see you and I hope we get to give you a big oh yeah happy birthday coming up a very shortly Despite All Odds I vited past 40 it’s amazing amazing well you know I’m working on another Century for you so yeah well we’ll make sure we use it well yeah give my Deputy kids a big hug and kiss for me all right you kiss the kids love you love you talk you soon bye everyone this is Peter again before you take off I want to take a moment to just invite you to subscribe to my weekly Tech blog today over 200,000 people receive this email twice per week in the tech blog I share with you my insights on converging exponential Technologies what’s going on in AI how longevity is transforming adding decades to our life in the tech blog I often look at the 20 metat trends that are

[01:57:01] going to transform the decade ahead and share the conversations I’ve had with Incredible Tech thought leaders on how they’re transforming Industries if that sounds cool to you and you want to try it join me go to dms.com back/ blog enter your email and let’s start this weekly conversation let me share with you the incredible progress we’re seeing in the world of technology and the positive impact it’s having on our lives again that’s DM andis.com blog looking forward to sharing my insights and incredible breakthroughs I’m seeing with you every single [Music] week