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Most of us, by default, become members of the biggest cult there is, the cult of commodity and consumerism, the cult of bad food and Big pharma. You're not offered the opportunity unless you're born into a family of people who know what a score is. Unless you're lucky enough to be born in that the system will turn you into a little commodity.
B
The most powerful and most influential institutions now control that segment of the population. We're a lot more sick and diseased and pathological than we really deserve to be.
A
If something is geared towards the continual maximization of profit, it will always be corrupting.
B
I know you've been very open about your history with addiction, how you solved that path. How has that journey transformed you?
A
What the culture is telling me is if you are not famous, if you do not have money, you are not valuable. Well, now I might have other pathological reasons for not feeling valuable. And one of the ways I best understand it is through the sort of rubric and lens of addiction. Thankfully, I've been educated, and now, so I'm on a different path to communicate a message of value to the maximum number of people.
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If Russell Brand were to look back on his life, humanity, public policy, what does that look like sometimes?
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A fractured society so full of falsehoods and damnation, and yet I have the sense that we're on the precipice of.
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Ultimate human. Hey, guys, welcome back to the Ultimate Human podcast. I'm your host, Gary Breca, human biologist, where we go down the road of everything, anti aging, longevity, biohacking, and everything in between. And today's guest is a sure treat. We've had an amazing morning here at the house with his kids and his wife and his family. We see eye to eye on so many things. He is an incredible comedian, actor, and a wellness inspirational individual that's just been on a tremendous journey of his own. So welcome to the podcast, Russell Brand.
A
Thanks, Gary. I've actually been here eight hours. You've accommodated me and as you say, my family so beautifully. I've had hydro buffs. I've fallen asleep under some sort of red light sunbed thing. I'm still wearing a weighted vest, even though I'm saying it's branded.
B
Yeah.
A
Got your name on it.
B
Yeah, he, he, he took. So, so he walks into my house. I've known him for, you know, three full minutes. He goes, what are you wearing? I said, it's a weighted vest. I take it off, he puts it on, and I don't think you've taken it off.
A
Since I'm very happy and I took it off in the bath.
B
Of course you did take it off in the bath. So he took a bath with his son and his, and one of his friends. So we, we've had, we've had a whole day of biohacking. He's staying right across the street. So this is how we survived the, the hurricane. Turns out we see eye to eye on so many things, and we've had some really inspirational discussions. But, you know, a lot of my podcast guests, I think, are very analogous to you and your journey in that they had a problem in their life and they solved this problem. And through the solution to that problem, they become these massively impactful figures. And I know you've been very open about your history with addiction and how you solved that path and it turned into Christianity. It turned into a massive voice for mindfulness, for meditation, for spirituality. I wonder for, you know, my guests that maybe only know you as an actor, comedian, in your, I'll say, former life, it's still your current life. You know, how has that journey transform you and how has it put you on this path to be such an advocate for mindfulness and spirituality? And you, you almost even become this anti corruption, you know, purveyor of the truth. And I'm, I'm very attracted to people like that because you are so purpose and mission driven. And the media hasn't been particularly kind to you. Sometimes they're not kind to me. And so talk a little bit about this journey from actor, comedian and addict into the impactful journey that you're on now.
A
Gary, I hear you over the course of the day, talk a lot about stimuli and response and the response that we, the conducive response between an external stimulant and whatever inner mechanism is impacted or responds to that stimuli. I heard once that in chemistry, if two components are introduced, if they react at all, then both are changed forever. I feel like a lot of truthful statement, yeah, it's cool, isn't it?
B
Yeah.
A
But I feel like the most of us, but maybe many of your audience, and I know a lot of the various types of audiences that I have had and hopefully have grown and have grown with me over the years, will recognize, recognize that we interact with the apparently raw material of the culture and wonder how we might fit in with it. In fact, there's a beautiful quote by George Bernard Shaw, the playwright, who says, the reasonable man looks at the world and asks how he might fit in with it. The unreasonable man looks at the world and Asks how it might fit in with him. I think many of us look at culture and think, what am I supposed to be doing in this culture? Now, me, I have a lacquer, as you obviously do, and now I understand a little bit about your history and how you've been able to apply your core competency to a variety of different fields. My inherited ability appears to be the spontaneous response to new stimuli and communicating new information. Now, I come from a pretty normal background back in England. I come from a place called Essex. If you don't know what Essex is because you're American, it's.
B
I've heard of Essex.
A
It's New Jersey is what it is.
B
Okay?
A
So if you come from a place like that and you're aware of urbanity and cosmopolitanism, and then you're aware of fame and celebrity and excitement and all of those things the culture is telling you, I don't know, maybe you're getting a different message. But I feel that what the culture is telling me is if you are not famous, if you do not have money, you are not valuable. And actually, at that point, I wasn't famous and I didn't have money, so I didn't feel particularly valuable. Now, I might have other pathological reasons for not feeling valuable, and certainly I've explored them at some depth over a variety of conversations with a number of people over the years. And one of the ways I best understand it is through the sort of rubric and lens of addiction. Nevertheless, getting famous and becoming a celebrity is pretty exciting. People have done it, sort of know it. Going from scarcity to abundance is a pretty exciting journey for most people. But we all dealing with the palette and spectrum that we are shown. You know, I reflect frequently about how if I had known when I was younger, there was a different pathway, I may have taken it. But being a comedian, that seemed like a pretty easy fit for me. Being in movies, that seemed like a pretty exciting opportunity for me. And the fruits that the culture promises you worldliness are by their nature, exciting and stimulating. Who doesn't want to be surrounded by nice, material things? Who doesn't want to know what erotica is like when it's abundantly available? I know that I found those things pretty exciting, but luckily, God made me a terrible, terrible dream. A drug addict. So, like, because when I was pretty young, I was addicted to crack and heroin in my 20s, say, I learned that the only way to. I was shown. I was shown. I did not work this out. I remembered someone taught me earlier. Today, in English, we say I speak English. That's how we say that statement in Hindi. The equivalent is Hindi comes to me. And I have started to recognize that most of the things that I have in my life, one way or another, have come to me, whether they are hard, painful, agonizing lessons or great and abundant gifts. Even the pleasure of today, I ran into Asim Malhotra, the brilliant British cardiologist, doctor, and activist whose film first do no Farm is a excellent.
B
I had a podcast with him yesterday. I recommend everybody look, Everybody watch that.
A
What a great guy he is.
B
Do no Farm.
A
So because I trust the Lord, I run into him in the hotel lobby. He's like, oh, Russell, are you here to see Gary Brecker? And I'm. I am now. And like, you know, because he was generous of spirit, this is good. He didn't sort of like, try to keep you behind a little paywall? Like, he was like, oh, yeah, yeah, Gary, you know, do you want me to connect you? I was like, yeah, I do. And then, like, I message you. You messaged me back. In fact, I mean, Max, I don't know. I do your job. You're obviously brilliant, but you could drop in some of the videos, show the.
B
Videos that we exchanged because they were absolutely hilarious.
A
Pretty funny exchange. And then within a few hours, because I trust the Lord when you say to me, come here. I come here and bring the kids. Come here. They're playing with your family members. I'm having a great time with my wife. My buddy's here with me, and I feel like I'm happy and in the flow of things, somehow before I was corrupted by some malign flow towards the culture. I'm not saying there aren't marvelous people in the culture. I worked with amazing people in Hollywood. Brilliant, intelligent, creative, wonderful people. But those institutions, those corporatized, centralized institutions as you described earlier in the day, and I won't be specific in case it's not something you want to be publicly known, but if something is geared towards the continual maximization of profit, it will always be corrupting. What industry at the top co level isn't geared towards the maximization of profit? Hospitality. Big pharma, big food. Look at all of them. They're all geared towards the maximization of profit throughout. Therefore, like at an institutional level, money is being saved, products are being made addictive. I'm talking about food now. And the brilliant work of Bobby Kennedy and Cali and Casey means. So now me, I don't want to just do work like, you know, where a peer in films Unless them films that have a really, really amazing message. And I can't imagine that they would have. Although I would like to sort of. There's a lot of things I'm learning about at the moment around Christianity and stuff. And I'd love to make some movies around those things and I'm talking to people about those things. But now what I've realized, funny enough, going around the block with the gift of addiction, with the gift of trauma, with the great gift of my disadvantages, the gift of coming from where I come from, having the afflictions that I have now, I'm on a pathway where I'm much happy. I wish I happier. I wish I'd been set off in this pathway in the first place. You know, like G of Dalai Lamas and that, you know, I know that Dalai Lamas is not a massive category. You only have one at a time. But all different types.
B
You only have one at a time. This is true.
A
You don't want llama rap battles, but with like, like llama hierarchies, you know, like they in Tibet, they go around and they have a little poke around, see kids that are looking a bit off key, like, that kid's probably a llama. Show him a walking stick, show him a bowl of hat from yesteryear, do a little ceremony. If it turns out he's a reincarnated llama, you're coming to the monastery, son. Now, in our culture where we don't believe in reincarnation, I believe in eternal life as a follower of Jesus Christ. Like most of us by default become members of the biggest cult there is the cult of commodity and consumerism, the cult of bad food and big pharma. That's the cult. You're the glistening and shimmering cult of mammon. We're all indoctrinated into that cult. You're not offered the opportunity unless you're born into a religious community or have the privilege of being born into a family of people who know what a score is. And we're not giving you our kids that food. We're not giving our kids those medications. We're not letting our kids watch those kinds of of shows. We're not letting our kids go to those type of schools unless you're lucky enough to be born in that the system will turn you into a little commodity.
B
So now, so true.
A
Thankfully, Lord, I've been educated. And now so I'm on a sort of a different path where I hopefully can learn the skill set gifted to me by a variety of experiences to communicate A message of value to the maximum number of people. And thankfully, I don't even have to take care of it anymore because you'll be in charge of that bit. I'm gonna relax.
B
But, you know, and, you know, we talked about messaging to the masses, and we talked, you know, sort of this, just the state of the world and society and how we got here and got so divided and, and, and how we got so upside down with, you know, the corruption in our, you know, our political systems and our. And our food systems and our, Our, you know, industry of, of. Of pharmaceuticals and disease. But turning this somehow into a message of hope is, I think, the greatest gift. And, and we talked about that a lot today in the eight hours that we spent together. And you had really some, Some incredible kernels of wisdom. And I wonder if you might talk about what your message is to the masses now. I mean, you do talk a lot about mindfulness, a lot about spirituality. You talk about the impact that Christianity's had on you. You know, you've. You, you found Jesus or he found you, and you now subscribe to that lifestyle. And, and so how has that changed your message? And what is your message to humanity now? I mean, if. If, if Russell Brand were to look back on his life 25, 30, 40 years from today and say, I accomplished my mission. I have this vision in my mind of where I would like to see humanity, public policy, you know, and what. What does that look like? What does your utopian world look like?
A
Isn't it strange, Gary, that it seems so bleak at the moment sometimes a fract, so full of falsehoods, persecution, condemnation, war, toxicity and damnation, and yet I have the sense that we are on the precipice of something quite incredible, just because I get to speak to amazing individuals quite frequently now. Say, if people have a vision of changing just one area. Let's take the area of food. If someone is an expert in nutrition and has a vision for how to alter food, in particular, ensure that people have access to good nutrition. Say if that person who knows how to spread a message around nutrition, well, were to work with people that have political influence. A few examples like Kali Means or Bobby Kennedy, who's interested in this subject, I'm beginning to see that there's sort of an emergent corpus, a car. And the cartilage between the parts of this emergent new anatomy can be animated by a certain type of spirit. Now, you asked this, you asked me this question, particularly in relationship to having become Christian, having been baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. And I love it because, you know, we. Everything I do too. Thanks man. I praise Jesus. Everything you do these days is like criticized and condemned. Of course people see me as a famous person getting baptized and I love to watch like the kind of propaganda done by, I suppose they're establishment supporting podcasts, but they think somehow that they're doing something vanguard and important. But no, they are supporting the interests of the powerful. They're the same kind of people that would get Pfizer tattooed on them during the pandemic period, forgetting for a moment the big pharma. We've always known those with the baddies. We've always known that during the opioid crisis we've always known when there are peculiar out of court settlements with Johnson and Johnson over their baby powder, or 300 billions of dollars are spent on out of court settlements by the pharmaceutical industry. That's an indicator and that we all know how the FDA is run and how the CDC is run and how the NIH is run. We know and have known for some time these people are not the good guys. And if you find yourself advocating for their perspective, you are on the wrong side. Now, I mentioned this in relationship to Christianity for this simple reason, having become a Christian, when I'm on point, I'm only talking to audience of one at all times. I'm talking to Jesus Christ. I'm talking only to Jesus Christ. And at best it's Jesus Christ talking to Jesus Christ. I'm not making any claim, of course, that would be ludicrous and absurd that I am Jesus Christ. I'm saying like in Galatians, do kind.
B
Of look like him.
A
Thank you. Listen, since becoming Christian, I've been willing to make this change. I've gone from wanting to be Jesus to wanting to be St. Paul. I'm not going any lower than that. That's it.
B
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A
Oh, yeah.
B
And I was raised Roman Catholic, but got very far away from the church. And I hope that I don't politicize this or, you know, offend my audience, because it's just my own personal journey. But my, you know, my parents were very religious. My dad was Navy captain. My mother worked for the airlines. Growing up, we had a little church in our town in Lothian, but half the church was in Latin. And, you know, if you know anything about Roman Catholics, like, they're very, very traditional, very ritualistic. Stand up, sit down. Stand up, sit down. Kneel. Peace be with you. Ring the bell. Incense. Go get communion. Sit back down. I had no identity with the church. I didn't feel like I identified with the church. And so when I got into college, I got pretty much as far away from the church as I could. But this Christian men's rally, this just brought me back into a religious perspective. I actually accepted Jesus that day. I went down to the stage, and I think there's, you know, it's. To this day, I don't know. I. I was holding hands with all of these men in this. In Soldier Field, and everybody started to recite the Lord's Prayer. And I started bawling. I just started crying. And they didn't know why I was crying. And I looked around and there were all these other men crying. And in my mind, I said to myself, 70,000 men cannot be wrong. There's 70,000 people in this stadium, and they have no agenda. And the pastor was calling people down to the stage. And I just felt so compelled. I didn't know why I was doing it. I went down there and gave my life to Christ. And I think that very often. And I, you know, I don't push that on people. I don't judge people for having, you know, a different religious motif. And I didn't intend for this podcast to become, you know, about religion, but I think so often I had looked at religion as being very confining and all of the parameters that would be put on you once you became a quote, unquote, religious person or you became a Christian or you chose whatever religious past you have, it's actually very liberating. Yeah, for me, Christianity, especially, because you just lay your problems at the foot of the cross. You can have a direct relationship with Jesus. You know, you don't need an institutional framework in which I think a lot of people go, look at me, I go to church every Sunday, and, you know, I've given in the offering or, you know, I've donated to this philanthropy. And I don't believe that you need that to have a godly relationship, you know, with. With Christ. And that's been very fulfilling for me. And I'm a very imperfect person. I mean, I've been divorced, I've been bankrupt, you know, I've been in litigation. I'm an imperf. Imperfect person. But I think that what Christianity has allowed me to do is be that imperfect person, recognize it, ask for forgiveness, ask, you know, ask God to keep me on his path. And yes, Gary, I find it as an enormous sense of strength. And I think people that do not have faith or religion, which is fine for them, look at people that are religious and think that they are condemning them or they're constantly judging them, and it's. It's actually the polar opposite. It. Right. I don't think less of you because you don't have the same religious path that I do. But if you have something that's missing in your life, very often it's a. It's a spiritual relationship. You know, we are spiritual beings. We frequency matters in the human body. Faith is all about delayed gratification, you know. You know, we know that we're headed to a better place. And when you don't even fear dying, you don't fear much else.
A
Yeah, I think that's why Christianity is getting a real hard time, because you don't very hard. Same way as you talk quite a lot, mate, about it's beneficial to powerful institutions to have a population that's sort of high, maybe on illicit substances, dumbed down probably on Sris, ill and sick from bad food and bad pharma, hardly in a position to start standing up and opposing systems of corruption. Similarly, on the spiritual plane, if people begin to believe that all of us are fallen, all of us are sinners, all of us are forgiven, and not by through some act of merit that we have undertaken ourselves by becoming good or powerful or something, but because of the sacrifice that he made for us. And we enjoy eternal life not for something that. Because of something that we have done, but because of something that he has done for us, that he was sacrificed, that we may be born again. Now this idea, when undertaken rationally with my, my panickity fiddly little chopsticks of rationalism poking around on the level of rationalism, some molecular scrutiny carried out there on the petri dish of reality like it don't make no sense to me, but I can know the peace that passive all understanding by surrendering my ability to understand. And I can know and feel his wisdom. And that thing that you described among them 70,000 men taking the oath there among a brotherhood. I've had experiences like that in, in fact I can feel it. I can feel him with me when I yield. And we don't choose whether or not we worship. We choose who we worship. Either we choose to worship at the highest principle, which in my case is Jesus Christ, my Lord and Savior, or we worship carnality, the flesh, or we worship civilization and culture, worldliness, or we worship the diseases of the mind, the devil, mental infection, distraction, self obsession, secure to circular endless fractal dances, inwardly following the false Luciferian light that's blasted at you continuously day and night in this neon world by satanic forces. And you ain't got strong enough. I ain't strong enough to overcome those things on my own. But through him there is a new power. No wonder the culture wants you to think that stuff is dumb and boring or sexist or homophobic or something. But I've spoken to a lot of Christians now, none of those. And they say we're all sinners. I've got no judgment on anybody. It's the first decree. No business judging anybody else. Sometimes I do judge other people. Not as a Christian though, because I'm a fallen man myself. And the proclamation is this, that it is kingdom for sinners. It's a kingdom for those of us that are fallen. And the reason they don't want you Christians, not because they care about sexism or they care about homophobia or any of that Stuff they don't want you Christian because they don't want you waking up and opposing them and knowing that you're part of an eternal kingdom and their material and passing world is of no value. And when people start realizing that, when people start becoming willing to sacrifice themselves for a higher principle, they're have a real struggle on their hands. Rather than choosing which of the two parties runs the country for the next four years, you'll be dealing with an empowered nation of people that are surrendered, but somehow empowered through surrender. They don't need that. They don't want it from a nutritional perspective and they don't want it from a spiritual perspective. And it's our job, in answer to your question, to deliver the possibility of that. And for me, I'll just try and do it as an individual as best I can and hope that that somehow acts as a contagion among all of us because on my own, I can't do it. I need continual support. I'm vulnerable and I'm weak, but in my weakness is his strength.
B
You know, and we talked about not how do we turn, turn the world into Christians, but how do we, how do we actually fundamentally make a change? Because I, I think no matter what side of the aisle people are on or, or where their beliefs fall, I think everybody would agree that we're a lot more polarized than we need to be. And I, and I don't think anybody can pinpoint exactly what it is. And I think secondly, you know, we're, we're a lot more sick and diseased and pathological than we really deserve to be. And we have, have pandemic of chronic disease, and we have pandemic of mental illness, we have a pandemic of childhood obesity, of childhood cancer, of childhood sickness. And when you see that there's an industry that is there profiting from disease and pathology and sickness and chronic illness so that people suffer over a prolonged period of time. They don't die early, they suffer over a prolonged period of time. There seems to be a way that we can bring society together under the common theme that nobody wants more sick choices, children, nobody wants a poor quality food supply, nobody wants, you know, an increased amount of highly processed and engineered foods that are not even foods in our diet. But we've, we've, we've, we've developed a society where the wealthiest and most powerful and most influential institutions now control that segment of the population. Like, I worry about our soil health and I worry about the quality of our water, and I worry about the fact that the majority of Americans don't even eat Whole Foods. 65, 70% of their diets is highly processed foods, engineered foods that are, and, and, and people refer to it as fear mongering. But I'm tr, I'm not trying to fear monger. I'm actually trying to help you get around the system so you can get back to just, you know, basic nutritional foods. Like you know, when we, when we were eating here, you know, all day we've had, had raw dairy and grass fed meats and, and by the way, he's eating meat now thanks to Paul Saladino. Shout out to Paul Saladino. I'm Bear Grylls and Bear Grylls. So Bear Grylls, you get, you, you get deserved. Shout out too. So you know, one of the things we talked about is how do we, how do we shift back to make popular the, you know, the whole food diets and, and exercise and prayer to whatever God you pray to or mindfulness and awareness and breath work. How do we make that kind of shift to society, especially in the masses?
A
Oh well, this is what I think now. You know, a minute ago you said like that you want people to suffer from chronic illness because chronic means time and time means money. And if people are sick their whole lives, then you've got a customer. That's a win. Yeah, well, you know, that reminds me of something that the very brilliant hero Julian Assange said. The aim is not to win the Afghanistan war. He says the aim is to perpetuate the Afghanistan war. The Afghanistan war cost America $2 trillion. That $2 trillion is your $2 trillion. If you're a taxpayer in America, that's your money. It's not the government's money. The government money doesn't make money. They haven't got an ice cream stand out the back. It's your money. And as you know, the $14 trillion that they've spent since the Iraq, between 55 and 70 of that went to military industrial complex companies.
B
Right, Military industrial complex companies. I don't think most people understand what you mean. I think most people's interpretation of, and certainly my myopic view because I don't profess to know much about our, you know, where, how spending goes in foreign wars is that, you know, we're sending this money to a foreign country to fight their own battle. But you're saying that, that we're actually sending this back to ourselves to fund our bottle. Hey guys, let's talk about meat for a minute. Did you know that 96% of the beef sold in stores is not grass fed. That's right. Most beef comes from cows fed a grain based diet in feedlots which isn't even healthy for you or the cow. And even if a label says grass fed, that doesn't always mean what you think it means. A cow spent at least 50% of its life on grass. So now if you're ready to eat real nutrient dense meat that was raised on a pasture, then let me introduce you to Parker Pastures. I love this place. The story of Parker Pastures is as inspiring as it is heartwarming. Chloe Parker, just 19 years old, took over the family business when her mom was diagnosed with cancer. Instead of backing away, Chloe stepped up to lead and turned an overwhelming challenge into a calling. Chloe says it best. In honor of my mom and for the health of all, I guarantee Parker Pastures meat will always be flavorful, nutrient dense and healing for both you and the land. You can order grass fed and grass finished beef, lamb, bison as well as pasture raised pork and chicken to be delivered straight to your door. Next week. She delivers to all 50 states. So why settle for mystery meat from the store when you can eat meat that nourishes your body and restores the earth? Visit parkerpastures.com today and you'll get 25 bucks off your order. That's parkerpastures.com and get 25 off your first order. Now let's get back to the ultimate human podcast.
A
Well, as I understand and the information I have comes from men that know a lot more than me. For example, men like Jeffrey Sachs or John Mearsheimer or Cali means people that understand how the deep state and military industrial complex work. Most of the most of the Pentagon's money over 50% between 55 and 70 when of the defense budget goes to companies like Raytheon, Lockheed Martin, Northwest, Northrop, Grumman and Boeing. Those are others, but those are some of the biggest. So when money's going say to Ukraine, meaning there's not enough money for hurricane relief in Florida or fire relief in Hawaii, that money isn't going to sort of like buy blankets like nutritional food. It's going to buy missiles and weapons. And increasingly these agitating armaments are being used in ways that are likely more debilitating to the fragile world peace that hangs upon those conflicts. Now, whichever particular conflict you're talking about or we're discussing, my view is that America and NATO, if you're going to have a NATO, America should use its power on the global stage, which is obviously still significant and supreme. Yet in order to bring about diplomatic solutions in any conflict that they are peripherally or emotionally or ideologically involved, not to permit perpetuate the crisis because the on the perpetuation of the crisis leads to loss of life on all sides of the conflict. And as well seemingly as a tangent or byproduct does increase the profit margins of Lockheed Martin and Norfolk Grumman etc, who spend a lot of money lobbying, spend a lot of money donating and a significant number of people in your institutions of legislation and government owned stocks and shares in those organizations which in itself should be banned. So what I believe in is institutional change. And when you sort of talk about as you just did mate, like making nutritional change, it ain't no small thing to tell people to start eating, eating well and to start eating healthy because there's a lot of things that have got got to get bypassed. Bobby Kennedy taught me about how food stamps in this country can be significantly spent on dumb sugary drinks that aren't very good for people. And you don't have to talk about like, you know, I've been listening to you all day when I've not been talking myself. But you've done the most of the talking. It's your house, it's your expertise.
B
You've done heavy in your face today.
A
I definitely have been a lot of language, but there's been, I mean it's been amazing and it's been, there's been some strong downloads. But what, what I learned, even probably the first 20 minutes that we were chatting, is that things that I've learned. Please remember these names and please consider having them on your podcast if you can. People that I have learned from like Helena Norbauer Codge, who since the 1970s has been campaigning for what she would call localism, that we should be in food grown, huge fan of that where in the environment that is grown and reared. Or Vandana Shiva, who speaks continually about the impact of Bill Gates interference, which she says is worse than Monsanto's on Indian farming and farming across Africa and how we that seeds are sacred, that life is sacred. And by patenting a seed you turn it into information. And they want to turn everything into information because then you can patent and own information, then you can centralize it, you can control it. And we human beings, we don't matter to them. So you can't sort of even like talking about poor people being able to afford good steak or good vegetables or good fish or whatever they want to eat because it's their business after all, for Poor people to afford that stuff. The entire economic system and big food system is going to have to be radically ordered. That cannot be ordered because government is owned by those interest lobbyists and donor class. So you have to change government. And you don't really get many opportunities to change government in ways that would meaningfully impact that cause those companies, guess what? They worked out. If they fund both parties, whichever party wins, they're still in charge. Except anomalously and peculiarly, anachronistically and peculiarly. Once every generation or so, some weird cadre of characters will turn up like Bobby Kennedy, Trump, Tulsi Gabbard and you might get a shot. And whether or not you believe in all those people or none of those people, what you have to recognize is they represent berserker havoc in institutional systems that operate at the global level macro wise and at the deep state level nationally to create a kind of polarized magnetism that prevents electoral democracy or true representative Republican ever taking place. And the only way to disrupt it at the moment, I would say is by thinking very carefully what you do with your vote in the forthcoming election in this country and in other countries as well. You have to, we have to learn to recognize worldliness as globalism, the devotion to the world, the replacing of divine, holy, sacred power with material rational power. Once you annihilate the God principle, once you take Jesus Christ out of the picture, then you can say, well, we're God now, we're God with all of our information and with all of our data. And what do they do with that information and data? Data of course can be used brilliantly and magnificently to create excellence and wellness and health. But they can also be used to create control. And that's what these big tech companies have become very adept at doing. And the outlier big tech companies that refuse to play that game, whether that's Rumble, the platform that I'm on, or X that is owned by Elon Musk or TikTok because it's, you know, for a foreign national company, if those, if they don't play ball, they get penalized and controlled. There is no virtue or principle under censorship. We want to protect people from hate speech. What is hate speech? Keep it vague. Then it's what speech we want to control is hate speech. So this is a point, I suppose, where we first have to recognize that the threat is not one political party versus another political party. It's globalism versus nationalism. Now is there a type of nationalism that might be exclusive, might include all people, might include Various cultures with respect for the, let's call it, dominant culture of whatever that country is, say France or America or England or Senegal or wherever. It doesn't actually matter. The principle is localizing power to the lowest level, localizing food to the lowest level, localizing forms of communication to the lowest level. Not what's happening and what we saw in the pandemic. Centralizing power to the highest level. Wf, who, imf, World bank, NATO, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Although Melinda dropped out for some reason. Too many plane trips, baby. So what we have to watch for is that level of corruption. We have to watch out for global corruption and we have to oppose it first with individual sovereignty. That means the power to surrender to the highest principle, not the power to, to dominate. And we have to collectively communicate so we can create new alliances. I'm sure you work with people that you don't agree with on everything. So do I, because we've got something serious to oppose.
B
Yeah. And it's, it's not that I'm trying to oppose anything mine. My, my message hopefully is one, one of hope, you know, that, you know, people don't need to be dogmatic about dieting. They need to be eating whole foods. People don't need to have fancy equipment and gyms. They need to just be moving their bodies more. They need to actually take their health and wellness into their own hands, start filtering their water, start actually reading lab so trying to circumvent the system themselves. Because I think if, you know, not telling people particularly how to vote or how to think, but if we actually give them the skills so that they can enter an average supermarket, you know, the, the average family doesn't even know how to spin a box of crackers around and tell whether or not it's nutritious or not. And, and mothers and fathers are doing the right thing in their mind by feeding their children ultra processed foods. Because the truth is there's a lot of research that, that is imparted by our public policy institutions that would say that there's no harm for, you know, these, these foods, things that are fortified, things that are rich, things that are colored, things that are artificially sweetened, artificially flavored. You know, the, there's, there are these big announcements, I see them in mainstream periodicals that there really no evidence to say that highly processed foods have a negative impact on health. So we're, you know, we're still investigating. But you know, right now Lucky Charms is more nutritious than grass fed steak. And I just think that it's Such nonsense. You know, the, the, the real research that I see in the, in the longevity, the anti aging, the biohacking space that I think is really profound for humanity is getting us back to the basics. It's like sunlight, breath, work, grounding, cold showers, exercise, mobility, sense of community, sense of purpose, Whole Foods, you know, it's, and, and people think that when you're trying to back them up to how we did things 50, 60, 80 years ago, that you're also trying to back up how we thought during that time. Like, well, we, you know, that was a time where society was a lot more divided. So we don't want to go back to that time. But you actually do want to go back to how our ancestors ate and how they expose themselves to the sun and how in touch with nature they were and how they had actually deep, meaningful relationships that weren't like turned over to social media to be, you know, very fake and superficial. And, and you know, Bobby Kennedy talks about how when he graduated from high school, and this actually hit me too, because I graduated high school in 1988. So there you go. I've just dated myself. And when I graduated high school, I didn't know a single person that was autistic. Right. I, I, I still can't think. I didn't even know somebody who knew somebody that was autistic. Yeah, my 16 year old stepdaughter, Sage's, Sage's daughter, knows 10, 10 friends that, that, that had, have autism and knows 15 other families that have autistic children. And so you, you've seen autism go from 1 in 5,000 to 1 in 32. And that was the last time we had statistics. Probably much worse now. And you got to ask yourself what is causing this? Right? Where, how in the, in the most civilized nation in the world with the access to health care we have, with four and a half trillion dollars a year being spent on health care, how are we becoming so sick, so diseased, so pathological? And why are our children having to deal with mental illness at such a young age? And, and so you bring in a, an angle of mindfulness meditation. You know, I hear you talk about this all the time. And what are some of the practices that you engage in on a daily basis to keep you grounded and centered, you know, while the media is assailing you? And how do you stay focused on the mission? And how do you, what practices do you engage in that everybody else could engage in to be more mindful?
A
I've been trying to learn about what you said there about the anthropology, about how the breath work and the exposure to light and the reverence for our indigenous condition is a significant portion of our wellness dispensed with connection to nature.
B
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A
Why do you think that is, Gary? Why do you think that if we approximate the conditions for which, which we lived in for millions or hundreds of thousands, or depends what version you believe, certainly for a long time we lived more harmoniously with nature. Why do you think that has such obvious health benefits when it comes to nutrition? And because nutrition is so measurable, I wonder if there are correlations, relatives, beyond nutrition. You've already indicated light, and I suppose that's a form of nutrition. And breath, I suppose that's the ultimate form of nutrition. But if we are rewarded, I mean, if you take sort of an evolutionary and biological perspective, this, the idea would be that we evolved harmoniously with these sources and stimuli. So we are in a symbiotic relationship with nature. We are no doubt part of nature.
B
No doubt that we are. I mean, in a teaspoon of soil, there are more organisms than there are people on the surface of the earth. I mean, so what you have is you have these. And I feel like we just switched from me interviewing you to you interviewing me. But I want to answer your question, but the you Know, you take a teaspoon of soil, you realize how many microorganisms are in that soil. There's an entire ecosystem in that soil and it's there for a reason. It was designed, it's a, it's an unbelievably beautiful design. This e ecosystem and this ecosystem gives rise to soil nutrition, which gives rise to, you know, grasses and, and plants. And, and in many cases we eat those plants, in many cases animals eat those plants and they eat this diverse ecosystem of bacteria and bugs and fungi and, and, and cellulose and, and all of these different compounds that gets into their bodies and then those move up the food chain and we consume those. And, and so this ecosystem from the soil to the human being is a very important lineage. And as you destroy the soil, you just, you essentially destroy the human being. You know, it's like an assembly line, right? You put a part on it at one end and it's getting assembled while it's working its way to the other end. Well, if you destroy it at the beginning of the assembly line, then the parts never fully assemble. So this is the same with the ecosystem of, of, of soil and plants and animals. And you know, there is a way for us to make farming regenerative. There's a way for us to restore the, yes, you know, the health of our soil. And, and so I guess the point that I'm trying to make is that in an industrialized society where the idea is volume and profit and not nutrition, what we've done is we've either intentionally or non, intentionally ended up poisoning the masses and creating a pandemic of chronic disease that is now so catastrophic that it could actually collapse the most economically powerful nation in the world. So we're coming, becoming victims of our own. You know, the, you reap what you sow. And you know, I, I think, I think that it, you know, when I get back in touch with nature personally and I post about this all the time, I throw my own self under the bus all the time. Like geez guys, I put on 20 pound ruck vest and went for a four mile walk in the woods. I feel better than I do getting out of a hydrogen bath, out of $120,000 red light bed, or using my fancy PMF mat or sleeping in my EMF tent. I feel amazing, just that connection to nature. And if you go back and look at physiologically what we get from nature, we get magnetism from the earth, we get oxygen from the air, we get light from the sun. The further that we get from those basics, magnetism, oxygen and light, the sicker we become. And I feel like aging is the aggressive pursuit of comfort. You know, people are pursuing comfort so aggressively that we actually accelerate our aging. Right. Most people don't like to lift heavy weight. Most people don't like to expose themselves to cold water. Most people don't go outside because it's too hot. They don't go outside because it's too cold. They eat at the first pang of hunger. They want everything to. To be immediately, instantly satisfied. We control our lighting, we control our temperature, and. And we're just not exposing ourselves to the hormetic stresses that strengthen us.
A
The only things I would query is whether or not that's taking place at the level of the individual or the level of an entire culture, given that we've just sort of spent much.
B
There's nobody at the top just pulling the strings, you know, designing this because it's a really pretty sickening design.
A
Bad food to make people take bad drugs to make people live sedentary lifestyles, or that's me that's telling me that I have to get back to my children. So.
B
Okay, so we can, we can. We can hurry this up.
A
Yeah, but what, what I want to say is that of course it's being centrally organized. What is monopolization? What. Why do we put the prefix big in front of farmer and in front of food and in front of agriculture? Because it is centrally controlled. So whilst at the individual level we might have become, as I once heard the phrase, prisoners of comfort, that's been indoctrinated and institute institutionalized. At a cultural level, most people would prefer to e healthy, delicious food if it was affordable. By breaking down these massive Goliath tyrannical systems that are dominating and controlling our culture, using our political parties as the marionettes, when they pull a string, those things twitch. That's what can only be opposed if people are galvanized and purpose driven. They asked me a minute ago about my daily routine. I believe in the things I think, but with a sort of a much level, lower, lower level of understanding these you believe in. I do my. Like, I wake up and if I'm at home and I have access to it, I do a cold plunge. Then I spend some time in the sauna where I do the holy rosary. Then I read scripture every day and some other readings. I pray on my knees for a while and I pray for anyone that I can think of that is suffering and needs help. And I worship and I praise God and I do a gratitude list every day for the many, many things I grateful for for the previous day. Because I like to try and get into that grateful mindset.
B
Yes.
A
Right at the beginning of the day. Then I try watch myself and whether or not I'm doing things for other people or whether I've drifted back into just seeing the whole world about being what I want the whole time, I drift back into that pretty easily. It's quite easy to slide back into that kind of mad solipsism. It's easily done. So I try and have routines that do that now. Like I've been sort of traveling at the moment I'm in your country in this hurricane world in this hurricane election. But like I, I like to do Brazilian jiu jitsu. I like to do yoga, though I've not done yoga for a while. I'd love to do some more. At the moment I'm eating meat, which I've not done for a long, long time. And I can feel it's constitutionally changing me. Some friends of mine, you know, I was like vegetarian for when I was 13. I've been vegan for about five years. Some of my friends said, it's them or you, Russell. It's them or you. The animals that I, I was in a time of rebuilding. So I've undergone a lot of radical change. Most of all though, becoming Christian has given me a focus that it isn't me at the center of the. And I'm relieved with that. Even if you hate yourself, you can put yourself at the center of the universe. I think even people that are full of self pity, full of self loathing, despair and suicidal, they might be the people that are most at the center of their universe that would most benefit from the presence of an all loving, real creator, risen now as he was risen then. I think it is the sort of the greatest advance in. It's greater than the advance of the iPhone, it's greater than the advance of the Internet. An omniscient, omnipresent holy spirit ever present in relationship with you right now. What could be better than that? So like having all of these things bought together, it's. Nothing has made me more myself than surrendering to those things. And since I've been in your country on this trip, I feel purpose driven and I feel directed and I can.
B
I can feel it.
A
Yeah, it's unfolding. I know I don't have to do anything. The only thing I've, I've recognized now, the only power I've ever had is the power to make Things worse.
B
Well, Russell, I know you got to go and get with your kids, so. So I end every podcast by asking all my guests the same question. And that is, what does it mean to you to be an ultimate human?
A
All right. To be an ultimate. The ultimate human is the ultimate human. Is Jesus Christ the ultimate human? To be the ultimate human myself? What it means is get out of the way, Russell. Now to get Russell out of the way, like you, I do have to undertake a lot of rituals that could easily be misinterpreted as a kind of selfishness. But the simple fact is I'm lucky that I blessed, that I do not function unless I get up and expose myself to cold water, expose myself to scripture, expose myself to breath and meditation, expose myself to the company of other people just like me, that one day at a time, do not drink or take drugs. I need regular contact with the vulnerable and the fallen to remind myself of my purpose. So the ultimate human being is Jesus Christ. Fully human, Fully God. The ultimate human. The ultimate version of Russell is the Russell that fully accepts that there's no point in a Russell that is his own God. There's no point in any of us being our own gods when your purpose is the myopic pursuit of self fulfillment. You're a closed off little loop. I'm sure all of us know powerful billionaires, incredible politicians that are caught up in that circuitous little loop. They're locked off, they're lifed off, they may as well be in a prison cell. But if you are connected to the whole, to the sort of mycelium network of the ulter of reality with him at the center, then you are a force of great power. So the ultimate human is whatever rituals you undertake, whatever ceremonies, whatever nutrition you imbibe is the human being that is willing to accept the highest call of all.
B
That was a good one. So Russell, I, I, I hope that we can have you back again. He's. You're only 150 yards away.
A
I liked it. What about the going Gary, like that.
B
He was literally shouting from downstairs screaming up to my balcony, Gary.
A
I wanted to get up here. I knew there was stuff up here that I wanted.
B
Yeah, it's a very, it's a very special place. Yeah.
A
Because I don't normally imagine like that you would get a special place that would be so fly. Like normally special places like would be sort of like it'll be some rickety little place. But what this is, I would say is it's the biohacking Willy Wonka's Chocolate factory, where you are taken on a world of pure imagination. And every wall. This will. This microbe will add 10 years. Years to your life. Why don't you lick that wallpaper? It'll advance your consciousness by 5%. Drink this water. It's got special magic bubbles in it. Never been anywhere like this.
B
It does. It's a hydrogen one. And today I was installing UV filtration, and when he got here, I had the guys here, you know, ripping all my AC units out. But. But this has been amazing. I want to. I want to ask you a couple of questions offline for my. For my rule bracket VIPs, because they. They submitted five questions. I want to get to. And then I want to, like you, get back to your family. But thank you for taking the time.
A
Love it.
B
I appreciate you being so raw and so visceral. I know that people are going to be. Some people are going to get the message. Some people are going to be polarized by this. But feel free to leave your comments. Guys, I want to hear from all of you if you think it was a terrible idea, if you think it was a great idea, I'll welcome all of those. The idea is to get the message out. And as always, that's just science.
Podcast Summary: The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka – Episode 131: Russell Brand: EXPOSING the Profit System & Why We're All Getting Sicker
In Episode 131 of The Ultimate Human podcast, host Gary Brecka engages in a profound and candid conversation with comedian, actor, and wellness advocate Russell Brand. This episode delves deep into the intersections of consumerism, systemic corruption, personal transformation, spirituality, and societal health crises. Below is a comprehensive summary capturing the essence of their discussion, enriched with notable quotes and timestamps.
[01:20]
Gary Brecka welcomes Russell Brand, highlighting his transformation from a celebrated comedian and actor to a passionate advocate for mindfulness, spirituality, and anti-corruption. He emphasizes Russell's personal evolution from battling addiction to embracing a mission-driven life focused on promoting holistic wellness and truth.
Russell Brand opens the dialogue by critiquing modern society's entrenched consumerism and profit maximization, which he believes leads to widespread sickness and societal decay.
"[00:00] A: Most of us, by default, become members of the biggest cult there is, the cult of commodity and consumerism, the cult of bad food and Big pharma..."
[00:16] B: The most powerful and most influential institutions now control that segment of the population. We're a lot more sick and diseased and pathological than we really deserve to be.
Russell asserts that industries focused solely on profit corrupt both their practices and the well-being of society.
"[00:27] A: If something is geared towards the continual maximization of profit, it will always be corrupting."
Gary probes into Russell's personal history with addiction and how overcoming it led to his advocacy for mindfulness and spirituality.
[00:33] B:
Gary discusses Russell's past struggles and transformation journey, noting how overcoming addiction reshaped his perspective on value and self-worth.
"[02:40] A: What the culture is telling me is if you are not famous, if you do not have money, you are not valuable..."
Russell reflects on how the cultural emphasis on fame and wealth contributed to his feelings of inadequacy, which he overcame by finding value through spirituality and mindfulness.
The conversation delves into how major institutions like Big Pharma and Big Food perpetuate societal ailments for profit.
"[04:08] A:
Russell draws parallels between chemical reactions and human interactions with culture, emphasizing the irreversible impact of corrupt systems.
"[10:27] A: ...all geared towards the maximization of profit throughout... Therefore, like at an institutional level, money is being saved, products are being made addictive."
He underscores that such systems prioritize profit over genuine human well-being, leading to widespread health issues.
Russell shares his transformative experience with Christianity, which provided him a framework for healing and purpose beyond material success.
"[13:10] A:
Russell describes Christianity as a liberating force, allowing him to surrender his struggles and find strength through faith.
"[15:37] A: ...I'm only talking to Jesus Christ. I'm talking only to Jesus Christ... I've been willing to make this change."
He emphasizes the personal relationship with Jesus Christ as a cornerstone of his newfound purpose and resilience.
The discussion shifts to the alarming rise in chronic diseases, mental illnesses, and conditions like autism, despite advanced healthcare spending.
"[27:01] B:
Gary highlights the paradox of increased healthcare expenditure juxtaposed with rising health issues, questioning the efficacy of current systems.
"[40:25] A:
Russell connects the degradation of soil and food quality to the epidemic of chronic diseases, advocating for regenerative farming and natural nutrition.
Russell critiques the allocation of vast military budgets to perpetuate conflicts, arguing that it benefits defense corporations at the expense of societal welfare.
"[27:52] B:
Gary elucidates how military spending diverts funds from essential services like hurricane and fire relief, exacerbating societal vulnerabilities.
"[36:28] B:
He further critiques the dominance of the military-industrial complex, emphasizing the need for systemic change to prioritize public health over perpetual conflicts.
Both Gary and Russell advocate for a return to fundamental wellness practices and systemic reforms to counteract the pervasive influence of profit-driven industries.
Individual Practices:
Institutional Changes:
"[42:44] B:
Gary discusses the intricate ecosystem of soil and nature, highlighting the importance of regenerative practices for human health.
"[46:02] A:
Russell elaborates on the need to disrupt monopolistic systems by empowering individuals and fostering purpose-driven communities.
Towards the episode's conclusion, Russell articulates his vision of the "ultimate human" as someone deeply connected to a higher purpose and community rather than self-centered pursuits.
"[49:51] A:
Russell defines the ultimate human as a being who embodies connection to a higher principle, relinquishing self-centeredness to contribute meaningfully to the greater good.
"[51:27] B:
Gary reflects on Russell's profound insights, underscoring the transformative potential of embracing holistic wellness and spiritual fulfillment.
Systemic Corruption: Profit-driven industries like Big Pharma and Big Food perpetuate societal ailments by prioritizing profit over public health.
Personal Transformation: Overcoming personal struggles, such as addiction, can lead to meaningful advocacy and a mission-driven life focused on holistic wellness.
Spirituality's Role: Embracing spirituality, particularly Christianity in Russell's case, provides a foundation for purpose, resilience, and community connection.
Health Crisis: Despite significant healthcare spending, chronic diseases and mental illnesses are on the rise, pointing to flaws in current healthcare and food systems.
Call for Change: Both individual lifestyle changes and systemic reforms are essential to counteract the pervasive influence of profit-driven systems and to promote genuine well-being.
Ultimate Human Vision: The ultimate human is envisioned as someone connected to a higher purpose, practicing mindfulness, and contributing positively to society, rather than being driven by self-centered pursuits.
Russell Brand on Profit-Driven Corruption:
"[00:27] A: If something is geared towards the continual maximization of profit, it will always be corrupting."
On Cultural Indoctrination:
"[10:29] A: ...we have to watch out for global corruption and we have to oppose it first with individual sovereignty."
Defining the Ultimate Human:
"[49:51] A: ...the ultimate human being is Jesus Christ. Fully human, Fully God."
On Regenerative Practices:
"[40:25] A: ...if you destroy it at the beginning of the assembly line, then the parts never fully assemble."
Spiritual Fulfillment Over Materialism:
"[47:46] A: ...surrendering to those things bought together, it's nothing has made me more myself than surrendering to those things."
Episode 131 of The Ultimate Human offers listeners a deep dive into the pervasive issues of consumerism, institutional corruption, and societal health crises through the lens of Russell Brand’s personal journey and advocacy. The conversation underscores the necessity of both personal transformation and systemic reforms to foster a healthier, more purposeful society. Russell's insights on spirituality, mindfulness, and reconnecting with nature provide a roadmap for listeners aspiring to achieve their own version of the "ultimate human."