The Karol Markowicz Show: The Science of Sex and Gender: Colin Wright on Biology, Ideology, and Truth in Modern Politics

Summary

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Podcast Summary: The Karol Markowicz Show – The Science of Sex and Gender: Colin Wright on Biology, Ideology, and Truth in Modern Politics

Podcast: The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show
Bonus Episode Host: Karol Markowicz
Guest: Colin Wright (Evolutionary Biologist, Manhattan Institute Fellow)
Release Date: October 31, 2025

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Episode Overview

This episode features Karol Markowicz in conversation with evolutionary biologist Colin Wright, discussing the intersection of science and ideology in the ongoing debates about sex and gender. Wright shares his personal journey from academia to policy influence, critiques the politicization of biological science, and reflects on the personal costs and rewards of speaking out on controversial issues. The discussion combines rigorous scientific insight with candid commentary on cultural and political currents shaping the public conversation.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

The Role of Evolutionary Biologists in Think Tanks

• Colin Wright's Unusual Path

  • Wright notes the rarity of evolutionary biologists joining think tanks like the Manhattan Institute, explaining that this is a recent development driven by public debates over sex and gender.
  • Quote: “I might be one of, if not the first ones that I know of... There was no use for our services outside of a university setting.” (03:39)

• Motivation for Involvement

  • Wright was recruited for his public scholarship challenging misconceptions about biological sex, particularly in the context of pediatric gender care and ideological distortions.
  • He emphasizes the importance of providing clear, scientifically-grounded information for both policymakers and the public.

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The Science of Sex and Gender

• Academic Consensus & Social Pressures

  • Despite the scientific consensus about the biological binary of sex, Wright says many biologists feel pressured to stay silent or "go along with the activist line."
  • Quote: “If I say I think there’s only two sexes because of the things about gametes, ... immediate condemnation. You’re a horrible person.” (07:04)

• Distorting the Science

  • Political and social taboos have led to misinformation—even in prestigious outlets like Nature—about the complexity and mutability of sex.
  • Wright recounts first encountering this shift around 2015–2016, triggering his activism.

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Academic Journey and Personal Motivation

• Early Aspirations and ‘Religious Awakening’

  • Wright describes his lifelong passion for science, inspired by Carl Sagan and evolutionary thinkers like Dawkins and Gould.
  • Quote: “Getting into evolutionary biology, to me... was almost like a religious awakening of some sort.” (09:08)

• Career Detour

  • Originally planning to be a university professor, Wright’s outspoken advocacy led him to public policy and media work after losing most of his academic prospects.

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Personal Costs and Integrity

• Speaking Out Versus Social Ostracism

  • The decision to publish criticisms of gender ideology was fraught with risk, including warnings from mentors and eventual loss of friends and professional opportunities.
  • Quote: “I seriously asked myself, what would Christopher Hitchens do?... If I didn’t come forward... all my heroes... would just think I'm this pathetic thing.” (24:05, 24:23)

• Resilience and Reward

  • Despite “career suicide,” Wright says publishing under his own name changed his life, eventually paving a path to influential policy advisory work.
  • Quote: “Sticking to my principles on this issue, you should be very proud of that.” (24:54, 25:27)

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Shifts in Public Opinion & Policy

• Progress in the Sex and Gender Debate

  • Markowicz and Wright agree that while “gender insanity” persists, there has been a marked shift in public awareness and skepticism.
  • Wright: “There have been a lot of wins for sure. I hesitate to celebrate too early.” (12:06)
  • The pair discuss the impact of executive orders and the fragility of progress due to polarized party politics.

• Cultural versus Legal Change

  • Wright warns that although some legal victories have come via executive order, durable progress depends on deeper cultural understanding.
  • Quote: "There needs to be a cultural change behind it so people actually value it... so it doesn't just get torn out immediately as soon as a different president comes in." (15:34)

• Media Narratives

  • Americans are less susceptible to misleading headlines about transgender issues than they were a decade ago, as public skepticism rises.
  • “I think all the converts are definitely going in one direction. …Once they do [their research], like, they can’t look away.” (16:51)

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Looking Ahead: Predictions and Social Trends

• Personal and Societal Forecasts (27:32)

  • Wright plans to start a family soon, and expects AI to radically reshape the nature of content creation and knowledge work.
  • He anticipates more wins against gender ideology in sports and pediatric medicine but expects the movement to persist in some form.
  • Quote: “It's always going to be there... But I think hopefully it can be just quarantined enough where we can actually have adult conversations and make policies without having to ask them what they think about.” (28:34)

• Religion in Politics

  • Wright predicts a forthcoming revival of Christianity in politics, with the murder of Charlie Kirk cited as a recent catalyst.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Some Biologists' Silence:
  “Through political reasons and social reasons, ... they just go along with the activist line. It’s really bizarre. I don’t understand it.” (05:52)

• On Truth and Friendship:
  “You need to really just use truth as your lodestar... Most people go through life just thinking they know who their friends are. But... if you're keeping opinions to yourself ... probably over half of your friends ... are not actually your friends.” (36:28)

• On Personal Losses for Speaking Out:
  “I almost lost almost every one of my close friends at the time... It was this major—felt incredibly isolated. I had, like, no friends. I was getting ostracized from my career...” (25:27)

• On Hope and Optimism: “I do. I feel really optimistic about it... we're making good legal changes. It just needs to stick. There needs to be a cultural change behind it... so it doesn't just get torn out immediately as soon as a different president comes in.” (14:35, 15:34)

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Timestamps for Important Segments

• [03:33-04:23] – Why evolutionary biologists are entering think tanks; motivation for engagement on sex and gender
• [06:39-07:04] – Academic and social pressures; how scientific discussions turn divisive
• [08:06-09:29] – Wright’s journey into science and personal motivations
• [12:06-16:51] – Progress, setbacks, and changes in public opinion about gender
• [23:18-25:27] – The personal cost of speaking out; Wright’s reflection on integrity and principle
• [27:32-29:31] – Predictions for the next five years on family, AI, gender debates, and religion
• [35:03-37:43] – Wright’s life advice: prioritize physical and mental health, and the centrality of truthfulness

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Tips & Takeaways for Listeners

• Colin’s Life Advice:
  1. Physical Health Matters: Wright credits losing 65 pounds for improving his mental clarity and overall wellbeing.
     • Quote: “That dramatically changed...my mental health...improved my life.”
  2. Tell the Truth, Even When Costly: Being open about your beliefs clarifies your real friendships and attracts likeminded supporters.
     • Quote: “The silver lining...telling the truth...you find out who your friends truly are.” (36:27)

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Closing Thoughts

Colin Wright’s appearance provides a rare blend of scientific clarity, personal vulnerability, and social critique. His firsthand experiences highlight the stakes of scientific and cultural honesty in today’s climate, while offering hope that truth and evidence can steer public discourse—even when the cost is high. Listeners are left with a strong call to prioritize truth and personal health, and a reminder of the transformative power of integrity.

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Connect with Colin Wright:
Follow him on X (Twitter): @SwipeWright

Transcript

[Podcast Host]

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[Listener/Interviewer]

Hi.

[Carol Markowitz]

And welcome back to the Carol Markowitz show on iheartradio. My guest today is Colin Wright. Colin is an evolutionary biologist and a fellow at Manhattan Institute. So nice to have you on, Colin.

[Colin Wright]

Thanks for having me on. I appreciate it.

[Carol Markowitz]

So are there many evolutionary biologists at think tanks or are you the whole ball game?

[Colin Wright]

That's a good question. I might be one of, if not the first ones that I know of. So I started working at the Manhattan Institute three years ago. Two and a half, actually. I do know that my friend Carol Hooven, who's also an evolutionary biologist, she just got a job at the American Enterprise Institute.

[Carol Markowitz]

Okay, so there's two of you.

[Colin Wright]

Yeah, yeah. So there's at least two of us, but yeah, that's actually interesting. I don't think, I don't think we really played a role in think tanks until recently. There was no use for our services outside of a university setting. Yeah, that's actually. That's interesting. Yeah. So what, only two of us?

[Carol Markowitz]

What's the crossover there? What brought you to Manhattan Institute? How does an evolutionary biologist end up at a think tank?

[Colin Wright]

That's a good question. So we're both employed by our respective think tanks because of our outspokenness, writing and clarifying the nature of, I guess the sex and gender debate is how I might express that more broadly. So I became, I guess, known for articles about why there's only two sexes in humans and mammals and why you can't change sex. And these might seem like esoteric topics and why do we care about that, but it's, it's really relevant for things like pediatric gender care. Right. Ideology surrounding that of, you know, telling kids you can be maybe born in the wrong body and we can change your sex with hormones and surgeries and those things because it's literally what they believe in. It's like the justification for these procedures is that sex is just like this array of different characteristics and they can all be sort of modified and moved. So we just try to provide Clarifying, I guess, a way to think about this issue in the biology and just to make sure people can actually have informed ideas behind their decisions they're trying to make for their lives. Ultimately, I support people willing to transition if they're adults, but it's. I just don't want people to be lied to about biology. And so it's making sure that people just have all the information that's there because there's a lot of distortions.

[Carol Markowitz]

It's funny because you would think all evolutionary biologists would be on that side, but that's not the case, right?

[Colin Wright]

It is not the case. Which is really puzzling because, I mean, I know a lot of the biologists. I know what they're studying. I know that they study, at least in my field, when I studied animal behavior. And so many of them study sex differences in behavior because it's like the most, most pronounced difference in behavior you'll usually see within a species is between males and females. And that's how I had such a fundamental understanding of what the universal and fundamental distinction between males and females were. And I know all my colleagues understand that as well. But through political reasons and social reasons, you know, they just sort of either just don't say anything about it or they just kind of ignore it, or they just go along with sort of the activist line. It's. It's really bizarre. I don't understand it.

[Carol Markowitz]

Did you have pressure to go along with that activist line as well?

[Colin Wright]

Oh, it was immense pressure, for sure. I think I first started hearing about people making weird claims about the biology of sex. I think I was on Facebook probably in like 2015 or 16, when people were sending, like there was a Nature article called Sex Redefined and there's a subtitles, like how the biology of male and female or the sex binary is overly simplistic. You know, before I heard about little bits in like, the New York Times and just on activist blogs. But that was really put into, you know, a nature magazine. This is like the biggest, most prestigious scientific journal. And so that's, you know, that's kind of when I first started seeing it and decided to push back against that stuff. And there was. I noticed that when I was speaking about that issue, unlike any other topic in the sciences. You know, if we're talking about. I studied social spiders and insects. If I were to make a claim about insects that my colleagues thought were wrong, it would just be like, oh, no, have you read this paper? Did you see this? How about these ideas? You know, there would be no Social shaming involved. But when I say I think there's only two sexes because of the things about gametes, and it was just immediate, like, condemnation. You're a horrible person. So that, to me, that was a signal. Like, there's something under the hood here that, like, is way different than any other issue.

[Carol Markowitz]

Yeah, absolutely. Did you always want to be a biologist?

[Colin Wright]

I knew I wanted to be a scientist from a young age. I was really. I thought I might go the, like, the astronomy route. I was, like, a huge Carl Sagan fan. All the Cosmos series. I was just, like, obsessed with it.

[Carol Markowitz]

Yeah.

[Colin Wright]

But he had. I loved his episodes that he did on the biology and evolution as well. But then I started reading a lot of biologists and evolutionary biologists, like Richard Dawkins and Stephen Gould. It just totally captivated me. It was more like philosophical in nature. I mean, astronomy can be philosophical, too, with, like, place in the universe and the stars and. But, like, the evolutionary biology, it does that, I think, even more. Like, where do we come from? Why do we behave the way we do? Social interactions. That's why. I mean, I studied social behavior as well, and it just you know, doesn't give you definite answers to questions about human nature. But it paints, like, a picture, and you can. You can actually get an idea of what these things came from, why we behave with the way they do. Why are we irrational? They have to be explained. Explained, at least in part, if not in a whole, through an evolutionary lens. If you want to just get anywhere in the ballpark of accurate.

[Carol Markowitz]

What would have been a plan B if you weren't a scientist?

[Colin Wright]

Well, I guess what I'm doing now is kind of plan B, because my initial goal was to just be a university professor as a researcher.

[Carol Markowitz]

Right.

[Colin Wright]

If I didn't get into the sciences at all, you know, that's. I don't know what I'd be doing, because I was doing real estate. I had a real estate license before. I was kind of somewhat aimless in what I wanted to do. You know, I was kind of scared of the sciences because I didn't think I was good at math. And so that's kind of what kept me from initially going into the sciences. I just did really poorly on it in high school, but it wasn't until I really liked biology that I just. I took math classes. I was motivated. And it's like, actually, I was pretty good at math, and so that's kind of what opened those doors. So, I don't know. I mean, getting into evolutionary biology, to me, it Was almost like a religious awakening of some sort. I just had this revitalized passion for life and studying and. I don't know, it's funny.

[Carol Markowitz]

A religious awakening to push you into sciences.

[Colin Wright]

Yeah, almost.

[Carol Markowitz]

I mean, there's some irony there.

[Colin Wright]

Yeah. I felt so motivated and it lasted, I mean, all through undergrad, all through five years of graduate school and in my postdoc. And I'm still fascinated by the topic. I'm not as interested in studying wasps and spiders and all that stuff anymore. But the biology is just. It fascinates me to no end. It's infinitely interesting.

[Carol Markowitz]

Do you think you'll ever go back to university professorship?

[Colin Wright]

You know, I've thought a lot about that. Maybe not. Probably not a full time professor. I could see me doing like teaching a course at like a local university, maybe online courses. I actually would really prefer in. In class teaching that type of thing if I could do an adjunct for just a course or something. But that's like. I think what I lost the most of leaving academia was interacting with students. I really wanted to have graduate students and like mentor them and yeah. Guide their research and have the multiple projects going. And I, I loved interacting with my field assistants when I was in academia. And you know, sometimes we'd be like months in the field and in South Africa and stuff and it just, it was, it was really such a rewarding experience. Yeah. So I missed that. So I think I'd like to. Maybe I'll reach out to some of the local community colleges or even Vanderbilt in here in Nashville, see if that might be possible for sure.

[Listener/Interviewer]

Yeah.

[Carol Markowitz]

Do you feel optimistic about like that you've won this debate? Basically. There, there is still gender insanity and there's a lot of people still saying a lot of, you know, dumb things. But overall America has sort of pushed back on this idea that you can have 20 genders or that you can change your gender. Is it a win for you personally? Do you feel like that?

[Colin Wright]

There have been a lot of, A lot of wins for sure. That I'm really happy about and proud to have contributed to as well. I hesitate to like celebrate too early.

[Carol Markowitz]

Sure, yes. Hear you on that.

[Colin Wright]

Because I do see a lot of the same people toeing the same line that they have been. It really depends on, you know, future elections and how toxic we can make this issue for one side of the political aisle. I don't consider myself very partisan, but I do want like we need to salt the earth on this topic just so people realize it's such a toxic thing. It's so untrue, and it is so harmful to both individuals and society that you need to pay, like, a social price with some, you know, people need to be shamed and laughed out of the room by uttering these types of nonsense.

[Listener/Interviewer]

Yeah.

[Carol Markowitz]

And then you have, like, the Gavin Newsoms who are saying the right thing on it but not doing anything about it. You know, as governor of, you know, the biggest state, he's not fixing that issue in his state at all. Let's say, where gender and sports collide. He'll say, oh, boys shouldn't. Biological. Boys shouldn't play in girls sports, but then not actually do anything. Do you see movement on that? Like, are. Are we heading in the right direction?

[Colin Wright]

We're. We're heading in the right direction, but I think you highlighted correctly that there's still this. At least we're getting lip service to. From some people, but it hasn't really translated into a lot of actions on the other side. Like, it just depends on. Yeah. Are the Gavin Newsoms of the world who've been on podcasts saying that it's unfair, Right. Males to compete in female sports? Is he actually gonna push for that in his actions and policies? And are they just saying that now because they don't want to sound crazy, but once they get power, they'll, you know, their. Their left wing is just gonna have full control and they're just going to capitulate to everything. So, yeah, I worry about that a lot.

[Carol Markowitz]

Even before they get power, just in the next election, they're gonna have to raise their hands and say that what they believe. So we'll see, I guess, on that. But I don't know. I am optimistic, I guess that's what I wanted to get to with you is it feels like the win is here or very, very close. But I'm always worried about declaring victory too early, just like you said. So I wanted to kind of gauge if you're feeling good about the moment.

[Colin Wright]

I do. I feel really optimistic about it. So, you know, we had. Trump had an executive order about the biology of sex, and then he. The White House actually reached out to me because they needed a larger, more like, comprehensive definition of what sex was, what males and females were. And so then I. I reached out because I don't want to be the only person who's doing it, because I just want to make sure I'm getting, you know, multiple perspectives. And so I reached out to some other biologists. Carol Hooven's like, one of these people. And there are about five or six of us. And we crafted, like, the most concrete definition of sex and we could possibly have. And that's. That's currently, you know, the law of the land. And so that would have been incomprehensible under, you know, previous administrations, and I just hope it remains.

[Carol Markowitz]

Yeah, it's crazy how that couldn't be possible just a few years ago. And yet that's a big, big change and a big move for the country.

[Colin Wright]

Yeah, yeah, we're making good legal changes. It just needs to stick. There needs to be a cultural change behind it so people actually value it and understand why it's important so it doesn't just get torn out immediately as soon as a different president comes in. Right. And issues 100 executive orders, it's overturning all the other ones that Trump did. It's just. And it could. So it's. You might think we have all this momentum and going. But, you know, a lot of it has been executive orders. And so what can be, you know, signed into law can be signed out of it in. In a pen stroke, and we could just be set back a long time.

[Carol Markowitz]

But the opinion of the country, I feel like, of regular Americans has changed. They know more about the issue than they've ever known before. You know, Kamala Harris wanting to give sex changes to prisoners. I would say that ad won the election for Trump. I think Americans get it now in a way that they didn't before. I mean, even I could think about myself, you know, I don't know, 10, 15 years ago. I was definitely already on Twitter at the time, but I remember seeing a headline like, first man has a baby. And I was like, wait, what? And then you read the article, and it's like, that's not a man. You know, but even somebody who was super into the online universe, I was fooled by the headline, and I think Americans are no longer getting fooled like that.

[Colin Wright]

Yeah, I think all the converts are definitely going in one direction. So I think that's. That's something, because once you. I mean, there's a lot of people who just haven't looked into the sex and gender issue, but once they do, like, they can't look away. And they all go in the direction of, this is insane, and we need to stop immediately. So, yeah, it's just a matter of time of just awakening more of those people who are, like, on the fence, who haven't been introduced to the issue. So that's just a slowly ratcheting of support that the other side, they're not growing on their Numbers at least I'm pretty positive they're not.

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[Carol Markowitz]

Of in your life?

[Colin Wright]

It's related to this issue, and I would say it's actually just speaking up about it. I. I had, like, such. I remember it was like, 2016. This is when I was in graduate school. I knew I wanted to be a professor, and I just. I was seeing the social taboo, like, around this topic.

[Carol Markowitz]

Yeah.

[Colin Wright]

And I. I wrote, like, an essay, but I didn't publish it anywhere. I had it, like, for two years. I just sat on this thing and, you know, I thought I was going crazy because, like, what I was seeing around me as a biologist, I had, you know, these principles of, like, speaking the truth. But I felt like I couldn't say anything. I. Fortunately, my advisors and my closest mentors were all, like, supportive of me and, like, they agreed with me and they're like, yeah, this is all crazy.

[Carol Markowitz]

Yeah.

[Colin Wright]

And when I told them I wanted to publish, like, an article about it, it was. They just told me I shouldn't. I shouldn't do it, you know, far if I did, I shouldn't put my name on it. And I seriously asked myself, what would Christopher Hitchens do? That's literally what I asked myself.

[Listener/Interviewer]

Yeah.

[Colin Wright]

And it's just. I know that, like, all my heroes and my intellectual heroes, like, they would just think I'm this pathetic thing if I just didn't come forward with it. And so I ended up publishing it with my name on it. And, you know, it's been really great ever since then. I mean, I did lose my academic career.

[Carol Markowitz]

Other than that, you know.

[Colin Wright]

Yeah. There was the career suicide in that. But just sticking to my principles on.

[Carol Markowitz]

This issue, you should be very proud of that. I think so few people take that chance, and so many people do just cover their asses and not speak out on what they think, you know, is truth. I mean, you know, we saw. During the pandemic, I saw people not speak out on opening schools, even though their own kids were affected. It just. It's very hard to tell the truth when the tide is against you. And so I. I'm glad you're proud of that, because that is something to really be proud of.

[Colin Wright]

Yeah, I mean, it was. It was a major. I mean, the biggest shift in my life ever. I almost lost almost every one of my close friends at the time. Just maybe maybe 20% of them. I kept. Yeah, it was just this major. I felt incredibly isolated. I had, like, no friends. I was getting Ostracized from my career I had just spent 12 years building. I had no idea what the future was gonna hold. I thought about becoming. I was gonna be maybe a fitness and online. Online fitness and nutrition coach. I just needed something that I couldn't get canceled from was like my goal. I'm willing to like not even be a biologist or you know, use my PhD as long as I just have like that, that type of freedom. Unfortunately it worked out. I mean Claire at Quillet, the magazine I published my article that you know, sort of made me on the map in this space. I ended up working for them and then I could still maintain, you know, my voice and then that just, it kept snowballing and so now I'm working at the Manhattan Institute and informing the White House on the definitions. Amazing emails. So it's crazy.

[Carol Markowitz]

Did any of the friends come back?

[Propane Energy Advertiser]

No.

[Colin Wright]

Yeah. They still haven't. No, they're in, they're in pretty deep. Yeah, it's, it's really interesting. I tell people sometimes, you know, I studied social behavior for my PhD and like I learned more about social behavior in the last five years.

[Carol Markowitz]

Yeah.

[Colin Wright]

By speaking the truth and like looking at how people are trying to cancel me and collective movements. And I, I learned more way about social behavior than I did in the thousands of papers I read on, on you know, the evolutionary psychology and evolutionary ecology of, of behavior. For sure. Like I feel it deeply now.

[Carol Markowitz]

I'm sorry you had to experience that but you know it's, they're on the wrong side of history. I know that that's, that that's a trait phrase but it's true here. Give us a five year out prediction and it could be about anything, anything at all. Country, world, anything.

[Colin Wright]

So I mean, I guess for me personally I'm planning on starting a family soon. So I'm hoping that I'll have toddlers or something five years from now.

[Annabe Sofa Advertiser]

Amazing.

[Colin Wright]

That would be very good. So I hope, I hope that is true.

[Carol Markowitz]

I hope that for you.

[Colin Wright]

Yeah, for the world. It's, it's tough. I mean I'm not much of a futurist I don't think but I, I do think this is going to be one of those answers a lot of people give probably. I do think like people aren't really giving AI the, the attention it deserves, especially for like the laptop class. Like people like me. I just, just how much it's grown in the last, how long has it been around? 3 years or something like that. It's just gonna be, it's just Gonna dominate everything. It's gonna write everything. Every. All content's gonna be produced by, by AI. It's gonna just change all, every type of like text publishing op eds. I don't know how people are going to get. Become well known in the next generation as being writers and things like that. Maybe some of us who maybe will be grandfathered in, who have sort of.

[Carol Markowitz]

Made, I'm ready to retire. Don't worry about me.

[Colin Wright]

Yeah, yeah. So I just, it's just gonna be, it's gonna totally change everything. Like, I think there's a lot of the laptop class is going to be out of work if they're not trying to find ways to have AI for their benefit to stay ahead of it. We kind of touched on this other thing, but for gender ideology, like, I think it's, I think it's, you know, in abeyance right now. It's, it's. I think we're going to get more wins on the, the sports thing and maybe the pediatric gender affirming care thing. But it's, it's always going to be there. I mean, it's, there's this kind of like this cult, like adherence to it and it's not going to go away. So it'll still be a relevant issue in politics, but I think hopefully it can be just like quarantined enough where we can actually like have adult conversations and, and make policies without having to like, ask them what they think about.

[Carol Markowitz]

That would be nice. Yeah.

[Colin Wright]

Yeah. You know, in the wake of Charlie Kirk's assassination, I do think there's going to be a bolder Christianity in politics in the next five years, sort of a revival type movement. So I think we'll see how that plays out. You know, it could go in positive directions, it could go in bad directions depending on who, and there's people at the top vying to pull it in two different directions.

[Lear Capital Advertiser]

Right.

[Colin Wright]

See how that has to play out. Yeah, there's, there's a lot going on and all that's going to mix together and in the next five years. And so it's hard to know how any of it's going to shake out in the end, but.

[Carol Markowitz]

All right, you'll come on in like five years and let us know. We're going to take a quick break and be right back on the Carol Markowitz Show.

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[Podcast Host]

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[Carol Markowitz]

Thank you so much. I've really, really enjoyed this conversation. Colin is an amazing follow on X. His AT is swipe right with a W. He's really fantastic and I highly recommend you go follow him. End here with your best tip for my listeners on how they can improve their lives.

[Colin Wright]

I mean, two main things at least I can say worked for me. The first is physical health to some degree because I used to be considerably overweight and then I lost around 65 pounds probably in the course of like a year and a half. And that dramatically changed just how I my mental health. It changed my ability to like to think clearly and think about the future and all these things. It dramatically improved my life. Not just because I was, you know, thought myself was more attractive or you know, was able to do physical things. Yeah, yeah, it definitely it helps your mental health so much. And then something else like kind of related to everything we've been saying is I just, I think the guiding principle I've had in my life is to tell the truth and or at least try to understand what the truth is and tell it to the best of your ability you can ever know what you're saying is true for sure. But at least be open to other people challenging your views. And you know, you need to really just use truth as your, your lodestar in life. I think because one thing that has improved my life. And it made it worse at first as I mentioned how I lost like 80% of all my friends. Yeah. But one, I think the silver lining in all of this and telling the truth and speaking up and being sort of bold in the spaces, one, you find out who your friends truly are.

[Carol Markowitz]

Which is always important.

[Colin Wright]

Which is like I can't tell people how important that is because most people go through life just thinking they know who their friends are. But I'm telling you right now, if you haven't said anything, if you're keeping opinions to yourself that you think might be socially toxic or volatile, probably over half of your friends, if not the majority, are not actually your friends. And that's just like a crazy revelation to have. And so you not only know who your friends are and who will actually stick by you through anything and you also attract more of those types of people in your life who will like you for you. Not just because they like your opinions. Yeah. Have you as a social accessory for their opinions. That is probably the most profound difference in my life is just my old friends, the ones who did survive through that filter, you know, of me speaking up.

[Carol Markowitz]

Probably the best ones. Right.

[Colin Wright]

I'm so close to them it's insane. My family of course has always been so supportive. So like they've, they're, they're amazing. And then the new friends I've made are all just like the most top notch people I can ever imagine. And it's, it's so rewarding to my life and my social interactions. I can't even start.

[Listener/Interviewer]

I love it.

[Carol Markowitz]

Be honest with who you are and you'll have the best people around you. Thank you so much. He is Colin Wright. Check him out at swipewright on X. Thank you so much, Colin.

[Colin Wright]

Thanks. This was a lot of fun.

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[FedEx/Wasabi Advertiser]

Hey, what's up?

[Mario Lopez]

It's Mario Lopez. Back to school is an exciting time, but it can also be overwhelming and kids may feel isolated vulnerability that human traffickers can exploit. Human trafficking doesn't always look like what you expect. Everyday moments can become opportunities for someone with bad intentions. Whether you're a parent, teacher, coach or neighbor. Check in, ask questions, stay connected. Blue Campaign is a national awareness initiative that provides resources to help recognize suspected instances of human trafficking. Learn the signs and how to [e-mail].

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