EP #21 The Vaccine That Will Cure Chronic Diseases w/ Lou Reese

In this episode, Lou and Peter discuss work-life integration, the issues with modern medicine, making life-changing drugs accessible to the world, and the mindset that has made Lou Reese successful. You will learn about: 26:50 | You can't bet against Elon Musk 33:12 | Making a life-changing drug accessible for everyone, not just the 1% 56:25 | Creating the best Covid Booster for the world. 01:13:09 | What are the biggest influences in Lou Reese's life? Lou Reese is the Co-Founder and Executive Chairman of Vaxxinity; a company focused on providing accessible cures to chronic diseases such as Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, Covid-19, and more. _____________ Resources Learn about Vaxxinity. Levels: Real-time feedback on how diet impacts your health. levels.link/peter Consider a journey to optimize your body with LifeForce. Learn more about Abundance360. Read the Tech Blog. Learn more about Moonshots & Mindsets. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:02Speaker 00

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• 0:30Speaker 01

  I think that if you don't have to face hardship, you'll never know what you'll do when it's hard. So this is how you test your mettle in a certain sense, right? So I don't wish hardship upon anyone, but I think that hardship spares no one.

• 0:59Peter Diamandis?

  And a massive transformative purpose is what you're telling the world. It's like, this is who I am, this is what I'm gonna do, this is the dent I'm gonna make in the universe.

• 1:11Peter Diamandis?

  Hey everybody, welcome to Moon Shots and Mindsets. I am here with officially my best friend on the planet, one of the most brilliant thinkers that I know, the deputy dad to my two boys, and I the deputy dad to his three kids, Lou Rees. Lou's also the co-founder and executive chairman of Vaccinity, which we'll talk about a company that's transforming the treatment of chronic disease by like eliminating it. And huge moonshots there. Lou, how you doing, brother?

• 1:45Speaker 01

  You know, I can't complain, everything is amazing. I'm not sure I can deliver on brilliance today, but I'm gonna do my best.

• 1:52Peter Diamandis?

  I have every confidence that you will.

• 1:56Peter Diamandis?

  Every confidence that you will.

• 1:57Speaker 01

  It's good to see you. How are you hanging in?

• 2:00Peter Diamandis?

  I'm doing alright. I'm, you know, going 28 hours a day is as normal. I just, I just realized I'm my worst enemy on this stuff. It's like, who the hell starts meetings at 6 a.m. and goes till 10 p.m.? It's like, who, who allows this stuff? I blame Esther all the time, but you know, it's.

• 2:19Speaker 01

  You know, it turns, it turns out that when it's self motivated, uh, there's no one, no one to blame, but I always, that's why I took out all the mirrors in my house. I got tired of yelling at that guy, you know?

• 2:32Peter Diamandis?

  That's what I tell Tony Robbins. When Tony's like, I'm exhausted. It's been five days on stage. Who set that schedule, Tony?

• 2:38Speaker 01

  It's part of the deal, you know? I mean, the, uh, I was having a, a discussion this morning, actually, with, uh, with some of the people that work for us down here. And I was explaining in my broken Spanish, uh, that, uh, that it's not about like life-work balance. It's actually about life-work integration. Um, and it, it led me to this, this thing I've been telling the kids every day now, which is, um, and, and maybe to my wife as well, but sometimes I'm, I try to be softer with the messaging. But, uh, but, you know, if you don't enjoy walking to the place that you're going to the, if you don't enjoy getting

• 3:18Speaker 01

  to the there, and if you don't enjoy, you know, the meals that you eat, suddenly you realize that more than 70 or 80% of your time, um, that you're awake is, is wasted. Um, and so there's, there's a, there's almost an obligation to enjoy the journey as much as the end destination, which, uh, is not easy for me, but it's very easy for me to say.

• 3:44Peter Diamandis?

  Yeah. You know, I had that moment in time, uh, that realization, uh, and I remember it vividly when, uh, it was the winning of the X Prize. It was October 4th. It was probably around 8 a.m. in the morning. Spaceship, uh, Spaceship One had just made, crested over 100 kilometers and was on the way down to win. And I was like, holy shit, it's over, it's done. You know, the prize is about to be awarded. And I remember having this mental image that I had crested the mountain peak. I'd been at the top of the mountain. I'd achieved that journey. And then when I looked around me, all I other saw, all I saw was more mountain peaks.

• 4:23Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 4:23Peter Diamandis?

  And it really, and it really is the enjoy, enjoy the journey.

• 4:31Peter Diamandis?

  Because that is, that's, that's life. And it comes back to, are you living your massive transformative purpose? Right? So even if you fail, even if you don't pull off what your crazy moonshot is. Like for me, when I, you know, I failed at the asteroid mining company, but I will take another shot at that eventually. The journey was still amazing in that regard. Now, you've, you've never failed, you've never failed, so you don't have to worry about that.

• 5:00Speaker 01

  Oh, no. I mean, I think, I think life is a series of little successes or big successes and little failures or big failures. You know, I think it's, it's something that I think I'm obviously still working on, not just seeing the, the future kind of goals and the future aspirations and the future impact and the, the ideas that swarm, right? Part of it is being able to, and it sounds a little corny, but it's, it's an exercise in being in the present and enjoying it, really at, at, at all moments.

• 5:39Speaker 01

  And, you know, I remember being sick with, with COVID in October of 2020. And I was, and I was, you know, not horribly ill, but definitely not well. And I was laughing hysterically in bed. And I thought to myself, it's like, you know, if I can't enjoy the aches and pains and, and kind of the, the, the symbols of life that this, that this exhibits.

• 6:07Peter Diamandis?

  Reminders that you're alive, right?

• 6:09Speaker 01

  Yeah, exactly. It was, it's one of those kind of the ultimate make lemonade moment, you know? It's like, I mean, I was laughing hysterically so much so that, you know, Mei Mei and the kids would come in and be like, are you okay? And I'm like, no, I'm fantastic. Everything is amazing.

• 6:23Peter Diamandis?

  I have laughing disease. So of everybody I know, you have the most extraordinary mindset about life. And you are the most present person I know throughout the journey of life. And I mean that with all the love. That that it comes along with it. How how do you how do you do it? So, listen, you're executive chairman of a company, a public company. Vaccinity will talk about what it does in a little bit. You've got three kids. You're married to your partner, Meme, who's the CEO of the company, which cannot be easy. Right?

• 6:58Peter Diamandis?

  I mean, and and then how you live in Montana, Telluride, Costa Rica and on an airplane. There's probably in Dallas, you have a home in Dallas as well. Where are you right now, by the way?

• 7:15Speaker 01

  I am in Santa Teresa, Costa Rica at the moment.

• 7:18Peter Diamandis?

  Yeah, which is why the Internet's so good.

• 7:20Speaker 01

  Yeah, exactly. We had to, you know, it's, I know this is our second attempt at doing this podcast and the the United States did not have the bandwidth Internet wise for it to work. So I had to wait until I was in Costa Rica. Yeah, one of the one of the benefits, actually, and actually, this is a mindset leapfrog example, right? Same with, you know, Kenya and other parts of Africa. You notice that they've they've leapfrogged entire sections of technology. And and here they basically went from the coconut wireless, which is people making things up and telling other people in the town to to high speed fiber Internet. And it happened overnight. So I'm.

• 8:05Peter Diamandis?

  It helps to have a few billionaires as neighbors who demand fiber optic cable at every corner.

• 8:10Speaker 01

  Yeah, I mean, I think the the the word on the street here is that that was Jack Dorsey's favor to the community because in order for him to be down here as frequently as he is, he basically dug up the road and threw in fiber immediately. So, yeah, that's that's it's good to have great neighbors.

• 8:29Peter Diamandis?

  I want to come back to Costa Rica in a minute, but let's talk about being present. How do you handle that work life integration, as you said, and and being being present with with my deputy children?

• 8:45Speaker 01

  So, you know, it's not. I would say that, you know, no one, including me, is is perfect at presence. And the people that say they are are lying. It's kind of like, it's it's like work, right? It's practice and and practice is is a discipline. A great friend of mine, and yours actually, once said that self-love begins with self-discipline. And I add not self-flagellation. So the answer is that I'm constantly readjusting and making mistakes and and looking at them,

• 9:27Speaker 01

  you know, as neutrally as I can, not to punish myself for for falling short, but to to continue to kind of train to be better at that. And I think that fundamentally, presence and and being present is is the best gift we can give to those that we love and those around us and ultimately our impact, our journey in the world, right? And so so it's a it's a constant struggle, right? And there's there's constant realignment there. But I my guiding principle is that I don't think there's anything that I can think of that's more important.

• 10:07Peter Diamandis?

  And is that go roll back into you being a dad? I mean, one of the things, I I see you as an incredible dad and and and with incredible kids. What do you think is the most important thing if you're as an entrepreneur, as as an executive, as someone who's really making a dent in the universe? And also being a father of 11-year-old and eight-year-old and a now two-year-old, right?

• 10:40Speaker 01

  One-year-old.

• 10:41Peter Diamandis?

  One-year-old.

• 10:42Speaker 01

  One-year-old. And and Ryan actually just turned nine. It's amazingly fast. I mean, if we asked Bear, my eldest, he's 11, he would tell you that I get dumber every day. And and so so I think part of it is.

• 10:58Peter Diamandis?

  My mind tells me I was born in the Triassic period.

• 11:02Speaker 01

  So so I do think that, you know, the all of these things go through a normal life fluctuation, right?

• 11:12Speaker 01

  But really, you know, I try to carve out individual time for them. Um, where there's nothing else that's in the way. And it doesn't have to be very much time. But I do try to carve it out where it's just them, right? So, um, so as you know, as my best friend, I, I very rarely, uh, have my phone tethered. Um, in the way that is, is, is, uh, the standard of the day.

• 11:43Peter Diamandis?

  The rest, the rest of everybody. So for those who, who, uh, want to appreciate Lou, Lou is, doesn't use email. Um, and he occasionally uses text message. And I use smoke signals most of the time to reach out to you.

• 11:58Speaker 01

  Well, you, you know, the thing is that it's, it's almost impossible. I mean, think of all of the forces that are conspiring against all of us to be present with our family, with our loved ones, with the people that we're working with. Like all of it is actually a giant game trying to pull your attention away. Right? If you think of the purpose of pop-up ads, if you think of the purpose of, of cell tone rings that, that gets your attention or alarms or all of these things are really just glorified distractions. And if you focus, I, I, I tell the kids all the time that if I get two or three big thing done,

• 12:37Speaker 01

  big things done a day, um, you can look back in a decade and, and you do an unprecedented amount of work. Um, if you do 50 things, um, you'll look back and realize that you checked a lot of boxes to nowhere. Um, so I, I do my best to avoid checking the boxes, um, that, that I don't really believe are important. And it's funny, when I stopped doing email almost a decade ago, everybody was kind of thought it was a little extreme and people tried to push me into doing it. And there's a lot of feedback around it.

• 13:18Speaker 01

  And and now there's this growing movement because we have, you know, we have our text messages, our WhatsApps, our We Chats, our Signals, our phone calls, our scheduled calls, our Zoom meetings, our in-person meetings, our Slack channel for company stuff and emails. And it's like, you know, it seems a little excessive and and I only have one mouth and two eyes and two ears. Right? So so so I feel like a lot of times we end up. A teacher of mine once told me that we're deluged with data, but we have very little information.

• 13:53Peter Diamandis?

  I like that. That's that is true. And it really is an intention or attention deficit economy out there. It's just a battle. You know, I can't wait for my AI to like just triage everything coming my way and either handle it or like bring to my attention like the number one thing. I mean, that's what a good executive assistant does in in some sense. If you let him or her, you know, sort of be a traffic cop for what's coming at you.

• 14:22Speaker 01

  Yeah, it's a good. It's a good blocker ultimately, right? And and I think that it's hard because sometimes you miss stuff.

• 14:32Speaker 01

  Sometimes you miss things and you say, man, I really wish that I had. I really wish I had done that also. But the truth is, you know, with the amount of things, you know, my my grandfather used to say, don't worry about missing a deal because deals are like streetcars. They come along every 15 minutes. And now we don't have streetcars, but but the truth, the same is true for commerce and maybe even more so. So so I think that, you know, the the critical moments, the things that are are the most important to me are, you know, when we wake up in the morning and I've got the kids and we we go to get breakfast all together. And I schedule around that so that they know that it's quiet and it's just us and

• 15:15Speaker 01

  they can kind of, you know, explain their dreams and their fears and what they're gonna do for the day. And I think that those moments are truly priceless and I think they also have an impact. You know, I think that they show that your intention is to prioritize the kids. And I think that the other thing that we don't do as a culture, really anywhere in the world that I've been, is express that, right? And express that in the form of both sacrifice and gratitude, right? So I think that one of the greatest blessings of my life is that when people that have never met my family or my kids say, "What does

• 15:57Speaker 01

  your dad do for work?" And they say, "He helps people." And they don't say, you know, "He's out there trying to make a buck," or "He runs around and screams at his computer," or any of the other things that other kids that I've asked the same question might answer. And so I think it's about clear communication of your intention and your purpose.

• 16:19Peter Diamandis?

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• 17:01Peter Diamandis?

  eat bread by itself, I get this prolonged spike in my blood glucose levels. But if I dip that bread in olive oil... It blunts it. And these are things that I've learned from wearing a continuous glucose monitor and using the Levels app. So Levels is a company that helps you in analyzing what's going on in your body. It's continuous monitoring 24/7. I wear it all the time. It really helps me to stay on top of the food I eat, remain conscious of the food that I eat, and to understand which foods affect me based upon my physiology and my genetics. You know, on this podcast, I only recommend products and services that I use, that I use not only for myself, but my

• 17:43Peter Diamandis?

  friends and my family, that I think are high quality and safe and really impact a person's life. So, check it out. Levels.link/peter. Give you two additional months of membership, and it's something that I think everyone should be doing. Eventually, this stuff is going to be in your body, on your body, part of our future of medicine. Today, it's a product that I think I'm going to be using for the years ahead, and hope you'll consider as well. Let's, let's switch to some fun, uh, current topics that I always love taking, getting your, your take on. Uh, you know, Sam Bankman-Fried got arrested, uh, yesterday.

• 18:26Peter Diamandis?

  And, you know, I, you and I were talking about the fact that I had dinner with him in September, and I, you know, just insanity about if I'd looked across the table to him and said, listen, in a couple of months, you're gonna be, uh, in, in federal custody. I, I wonder if he would've, what he would've thought. I mean, what, what's your reflection on, on that insanity?

• 18:51Speaker 01

  You know, uh, okay, so, I think it's funny that he's not a billionaire, and that he was arrested, and I think that was probably the right thing to do.

• 19:01Peter Diamandis?

  Is it funny, or is it strange?

• 19:03Speaker 01

  Well, no, the part that's funny is that as soon as he got arrested and was no longer a billionaire, everybody took away his three better acronym. That's the only part that's funny.

• 19:10Peter Diamandis?

  And no longer, it no longer became SB8.

• 19:12Speaker 01

  Yeah, exactly. Now, everybody, now, everybody calls him Sam Bankman-Wesfried.

• 19:19Speaker 01

  And, and, uh, and I think that, you know, when you have an unprecedented creation of wealth...

• 19:26Speaker 01

  Without commensurate value, it's always risky, right? I think that anybody who thinks that he masterminded this entire thing is out to lunch, right? I think that when you grow from zero to a hundred, you miss a lot of stop signs. So ultimately, I think that, you know, it's a very challenging situation because the reality there is that I don't think he would have seen it coming if you had told him that at dinner.

• 20:09Speaker 01

  And I don't think he would have been lying to you when he said, you know, whatever his response would have been, right? I think he, I don't feel like there was a, there was an outright goal and desire to swindle billions of dollars from his investors and from the public. But I do think that, that when you have, you know, 140-plus companies were filed in that bankruptcy, to pretend like any person, even with what we do in a very small level, keeping track of everything is hard, right? And it takes a lot of work and a lot of systems and a lot of, a lot of other people on the

• 20:51Speaker 01

  team that are, you know, more competent than me at many things, including checking email. And the testimony yesterday, one of the, one of the funniest statements I think that came out of it was that the entire company, all of their accounting was on QuickBooks and Slack, right? And running a $45 billion empire on QuickBooks and Slack alone is highly un-recomm, like not recommended, right? It's, it's not, not part of the deal. QuickBooks is for, is for a different level of operation in terms of the scope and scale. And so just that, just that oversight alone.

• 21:35Peter Diamandis?

  And I agree with you. I don't think, I don't think it was, he, I think he was naive and I think he was just running as fast as he could and wasn't looking at how to make, you know, he didn't have the experience for the checks and balances. I mean, I think in my experience of him, I didn't see...

• 21:55Peter Diamandis?

  Anything that made me feel he was anything other than, you know, to some degree full of himself and super confident and therefore running as fast as he could based on that confidence. Interesting, right? If you see something go from zero to tens of billion dollars, you know, overnight, I guess that's a warning sign that maybe that just doesn't happen very rarely. I'm not sure, I can't necessarily point at anything else that's done it that fast.

• 22:25Speaker 01

  Yeah, I mean, it's like you always say, right? It's a great success that took over a decade, overnight success that took over a decade. And I think that.

• 22:33Peter Diamandis?

  A decade of hard work, yeah.

• 22:35Speaker 01

  Yeah, it's like, I think that's true. And in this instance, you know, it's a warning sign because A, when you're that overconfident, I think my dad would call it hubris. And the other thing is that B, when you're in an unregulated business, right, or a newly regulated business, in this instance, was unregulated in the way that he was performing most of his tasks, it doesn't mean that it won't be regulated, right? So, one of the biggest, one of the biggest.

• 23:09Peter Diamandis?

  Sure will be now.

• 23:10Speaker 01

  Right, exactly. And one of the biggest problems that entrepreneurs face, I think, is actually getting stuck in the moment and thinking that that moment will last forever. You know, look at the blow up of venture capital funding in the last 18 months, where it went from the largest amounts ever to, you know, a trickle. And most of that is growth or follow-on funding that was pre-committed before the trickle started. So the macroeconomic situation and reality is something that, it will change, right? And the one thing, as Bear would say, the one thing that we know is constant is change.

• 23:50Peter Diamandis?

  Yep, for sure. And it's, you know, it's too easy to be looking back and criticize Sam Bankman-Fried now in retrospect. A lot of people are jealous, a lot of people are throwing, are throwing rocks his way. You know, if he had been more careful, maybe he would have made that same amount of capital over time. I don't know his business model. I think one of the smartest things that people who did not invest in him said was, "I could not understand what he was doing, and therefore I didn't invest." And then what you had is just this lemming mindset

• 24:32Peter Diamandis?

  of people throwing money at him and FTX because everybody else was throwing money at him and FTX, right? And that's a fascinating mindset where large venture funds, shall we say, very famous quarterbacks and other, and wealthy individuals start throwing money at something because everybody else does. Maybe it's a Madoff moment, who knows? But what do you think about that? Because, I mean, it's also been true in so many other financial scandals and in areas where people blindly put money in just because everybody else is.

• 25:13Speaker 01

  You know, I think that in psychology, very early on, they teach you that chickens will eat until they're dead. If you put them in a room by themselves and you feed them, they'll eat until they're saturated and they're full, satiated and full. But if you then immediately take those full chickens and put them in another room, and 90% of the chickens in that room are starving and eating rapidly, they'll start eating rapidly. So I think that ultimately, it's an elaborate example, but I think humans function much

• 25:52Speaker 01

  the same way, right? And there's this fear of missing out, this FOMO, that drives a lot of those decisions. I also think that it's a little bit hubristic, right? It goes back to this concept of hubris, but on the quarterback side, right? And so I think that at some stage, a lot of these funds, they think that they're so damn smart. They think that they're the smartest guys in the room, and that they could never make a mistake. And then when their friends make those bets, they say, "Well, they couldn't be wrong. These are the smartest guys in the room." Um, and it's, it's a, it's, it's a combination of laziness and apathy and hubris

• 26:34Speaker 01

  that I think drives those smartest guys in the room to choose to do no diligence and to follow the other lemmings off the cliff. Um, so, so I mean, it's, it's, it's weird, but it's, it's a, it's, and it's the same thing, you know, I try to teach the kids, I, I never pretend, like, I don't make mistakes, right? I can get swept up in a moment and get excited about something and, and, you know, and, and lose a game of poker with the kids because I'm excited about something. You know, all of those things are, are natural human tendencies and, and the discipline, at least in the investment side, the, the discipline is really slowing down and doing,

• 27:17Speaker 01

  doing the work internally every time.

• 27:20Peter Diamandis?

  Uh, you want to talk about, about Twitter at all? I mean, I'm not sure if you've had any run-ins with, with Dorsey on this or watching, uh, you know, Elon is so incredibly amazing in everything he does and the question becomes, how many things can he be amazing at doing? Any thoughts?

• 27:39Speaker 01

  You know,

• 27:40Peter Diamandis?

  What's the buzz?

• 27:41Speaker 01

  I think it's a complicated reality. I think it's easy to throw stones at, at, at Dorsey and, and at Jack now that he's out and now that this transition has happened. Um, I agree with you. I think Elon is, is an amazing entrepreneur and, and, uh, and has really had, uh, an ability to go after a lot of things, more things than anybody else would think he could. Um, so, so as a betting person, based on track record and management, I would say, you know, you can't bet against him.

• 28:23Peter Diamandis?

  I agree with that, by the way. And I don't.

• 28:27Speaker 01

  I do think that, you know, he's gonna be facing a lot of headwinds that have nothing to do with what he's doing. And he had, there were a couple of tweets over the last few days that point to that, where, you know, you have, you know, Tesla's market cap down by 50 or 60%, and the reality is, and he responded, he's like, "Well, I can't control all macroeconomic trends," right?

• 29:00Peter Diamandis?

  Ignore tribe.

• 29:01Speaker 01

  Yeah, no matter how much we want to, we can't. And so I don't, I think that a lot of the people throwing stones are doing it from a position of ignorance and jealousy.

• 29:15Speaker 01

  And it comes to the verse, like schadenfreude versus freudenfreude, which is, you know, schadenfreude is taking enjoyment at the failures of others, and freudenfreude is taking enjoyment from the success of others, right? And it's, I think this is, you know, this is from my lips to God's ears, right? Because who's going to be able to do that? Because it's such a natural tendency of humanity to have schadenfreude. But I think that being able to celebrate the tremendous successes of others, including Elon, are where I think our focus is better spent.

• 29:57Speaker 01

  You know, the one thing I would love your opinion on, that I have no idea how it's gonna work out, but it seems to me that Elon is getting a lot of, he's being targeted very heavily. Biden came out today and said that his connections with South Africa, China, Russia are things that are warranting additional exploration. The, you know, the FDA is jumping on him for the animal studies, for Neuralink. To me, there is something, I don't believe in conspiracy theory, but I also don't believe in multiple coincidences occurring simultaneously.

• 30:39Speaker 01

  So I worry about the future of those other businesses and the impact that that might have on them, not, again, not because of something that Elon does, but because of macro factors that are difficult for one person to control.

• 30:55Peter Diamandis?

  No, I mean, I've seen, I've seen the same currents, if you would, headwind currents. I mean, the, the challenge is Elon has won on so many counts, right? He reinvented the space industry. The entire US space program arguably is dependent upon SpaceX. And, you know, we just saw the Orion mission to the moon, which was nice, but Starship is going to blow that out of the water figuratively, literally, when it starts flying, right? The next Orion mission isn't going to be for another two years because it'd take that long to get the parts for the second mission. And even that, once the vehicle goes there, it's not a lunar lander, it's, you know, it's basically propulsion to get to the moon.

• 31:37Peter Diamandis?

  Starship is going to get to the moon, land on the moon, carry, you know, dozens of people, come on back, be able to go to Mars. It's an extraordinary vehicle. And again, like you said earlier, I wouldn't, I wouldn't bet against Elon being able to pull it off. In fact, I have every faith that he will make it happen, period. And then Tesla won as well, right? Tesla tipped the point and has, has won the race domestically, I think globally, on EVs. And he, they've driven everybody else to have to invest heavily and catch up. So even if he'd never, if Tesla goes out of business, it has done what Elon's originally intention was. And I remember back in 2001, meeting with him, it was like, I have two purposes.

• 32:22Peter Diamandis?

  One, I want to get humanity off the planet and I want to move us to an all-electric economy. And he, that, those MTPs and those moonshots have played out beautifully and he's succeeded and will be forever in history as the fuse that lit those two transition points. So Neuralink, you know, I think, I was just with the CEO of one of the top, top BCI companies called BlackRock. I don't like the name of the company, but it's called BlackRock and it's got the longest standing deep and surface electrodes in, in human patients and it's the most advanced out there.

• 33:06Peter Diamandis?

  You know, they see Neuralink as having elevated the field, but still more showmanship than than than reality. So we'll see who plays it out. But FDA, they're going to play in the FDA world there. And and obviously, you know, everything Elon is doing is a global game. So I have no comments on China or South Africa. I don't think, I mean, Starlink is a global ecosystem of comms. Anyway, like you said, I wouldn't I wouldn't bet I wouldn't bet against him. What else are you seeing out there in the global economic trends? Or anything else that's capturing your attention on what's going on right now?

• 33:48Peter Diamandis?

  That you're highly opinionated about and want to educate me on?

• 33:52Speaker 01

  Well, I mean, you know, you know, I think that if if SBF is going to be be put in prison or be kind of hung out to dry, I think that somebody really needs to go after short hedge funds. Because I think that that's a criminal destruction of value on a macroeconomic basis.

• 34:15Peter Diamandis?

  Yeah, it's like it's like a thug on the on the on the on the Wall Street, you know, sidewalks. Say, I'm gonna hold you, I'm gonna hold you up. And yeah, it's crazy.

• 34:26Speaker 01

  So I find that entertaining. But but but, yeah, I mean, in general, I feel like, you know, we're seeing, I think inflation is probably going to cool off. I I, just like everybody, I'm afraid of, not afraid, I'm aware and and paying attention to the macroeconomic trends that we're we're being faced with as a country, but but mainly as a planet. You know, I can tell you that it's China's reopened. And I think that that's going to be a really interesting touch point as more data comes out, both in terms of

• 35:08Speaker 01

  in terms of illness and, you know, continued spread of COVID. But but more importantly than that, in terms of adding another economic engine to the to the global economy and kind of seeing where that goes and how that impacts the rest of the world. So so I think that's going to be something that that I that I'm eagerly following. Um, but yeah, besides that, just keep my head down, doing the family stuff and, uh, and we're working a lot. So it's, uh, you know, it's the same old

• 35:41Peter Diamandis?

  Let's talk, let's talk to the, let's, let's jump into the working a lot because you've got a moonshot that I want the world to learn about. And, uh, full disclosure, I'm a co-founder and vice chairman of, uh, of Vaccinity, um, along with Lou, who's executive chairman, and May May, who is the CEO. Uh, I want to, uh, understand, uh, uh, what you see the moonshot and the MTP of, uh, of Vaccinity. Educate for folks what you're doing and why you're doing it.

• 36:12Speaker 01

  Yeah. So right now, the, uh, the most expensive drugs on the planet by volume are biologics, also called monoclonal antibodies. And last year they accounted for over $220 billion worth of sales globally.

• 36:28Peter Diamandis?

  So what is a monoclonal antibody?

• 36:31Speaker 01

  Basically, you know, we all know about antibodies after COVID and the idea that your body generates responses to, uh, specific external targets, uh, usually infectious disease. So think of the flu shot or your COVID vaccine or, uh, or a vaccine against, um, uh, tetanus or mumps, right? What we do and what monoclonal antibodies are, are they're targets against internal targets that your body makes that are toxic in one way or another. So examples of those would be Rituxan and Humira and seven of the top

• 37:13Speaker 01

  10 selling drugs in the United States would qualify as monoclonal antibodies. And basically what we're doing there is we're making the antibodies that your body can't make. And we're making those in these giant bioreactors to make a million doses a year. The factories cost over a billion dollars to build. And the problem with them is that they're extremely effective against certain chronic illnesses. But they're difficult to make, difficult to take. They involve either a weekly or a bi-weekly self-injection, or as much as twice a month infusions, which take about three hours and require an infusion clinic or a hospital.

• 37:57Speaker 01

  And they're extremely expensive. So the average cost of a new monoclonal antibody is over a hundred thousand dollars per patient per year. So, uh, these are things that are bankrupting the OECD healthcare system. And the thing that I see here as the biggest goal is that they currently are available to less than 1% of the world.

• 38:22Peter Diamandis?

  What's a typical monoclonal cost people?

• 38:26Speaker 01

  So, so the average price is over a hundred thousand dollars a year per patient.

• 38:32Peter Diamandis?

  Okay, so this is for the wealthiest people. So I take a monoclonal antibody, just to use an example, it's called Repatha. And it's an antibody that's made in a vat. I'm not sure where they produce it. Let's call it New York for the moment. And these B cells are producing this one exact antibody, which is a protein, but that goes attaches to a target in the liver called PCSK9. And PCSK9 in the liver generates low-density lipoproteins, LDLs, which are the bad cholesterol in your bloodstream. And I take, so this company produces this monoclonal antibody in these vats in New York.

• 39:15Peter Diamandis?

  They put them into five milliliter injectors and they ship them out. And I inject it into my thigh every two weeks. And, um, and it lowers my LDL 50%. Now, mine is cheaper and mine's just $10,000 a year. So I'm lucky. But there's, and it works amazingly well, right? Knocks my, you know, puts my little numbers in the green zone, makes it really good. I feel good about that and I can get, you know, heart disease or heart attack.

• 39:46Peter Diamandis?

  But it's expensive and it's a pain in the ass to inject it every two weeks. It's like the first and the second Monday, or the first and the third Monday of the month.

• 39:55Speaker 01

  Yeah, and when you're traveling, it's hard when you're

• 39:57Peter Diamandis?

  They have to be refrigerated, yeah.

• 39:59Speaker 01

  Yeah, exactly. They have to be refrigerated. If you're traveling, it's challenging. If you're, you know, have an extremely busy schedule like you do, it's something else to remember. Um, you know, there's, there's a lot of, a lot of problems with it. And the other thing is that it's not um widely reimbursed by insurance because of that cost. So in the example of Repatha, um, you know, that's $10,000 or $12,000 or $15,000, depending on who you are. And, and that's, uh, that's something that you're not reimbursed for, for most people. Um, so there's a, there's a huge opportunity there, um, to, to basically not create something for the 1%. So what are we doing?

• 40:41Speaker 01

  What we're doing is we have, uh, the ability to lower the cost of these by approximately a thousandfold. Um, by having your body generate that exact same antibody that you're injecting. And instead of injecting it every two weeks, this is something that you could be injecting every six months or once a year. So these are things that could be a part of a regular chronic disease maintenance system with existing infrastructure that exists all the way from Sub-Saharan Africa to Geneva to Santa Monica to New York. Um, and has an opportunity to really transform both access and cost,

• 41:24Speaker 01

  um, with the ultimate goal of eliminating unnecessary suffering, right? Um, and, you know, the way I explain it to, to people when they, once they know what a biologic is, once they're aware that it's the largest category of drug in the world, and it's available to less than 1% of the world, I say, let's look back in history and see where this happened before. And the best example is if we were having the same conversation in person 700 years ago, the most expensive thing on the planet by weight wouldn't be salt or gold or any of the things you would expect. It would be books. And they were available but to less than the 1% because us same guys had to write them by hand.

• 42:08Speaker 01

  So you never, I didn't, you couldn't call me and say, hey, Luke, could you loan me the book you wrote by hand? Like, of course not. It's not part of the deal. It's the most expensive thing in the world. And so, so ultimately, a very simple, elegant invention, a piece of technology, solved that. And overnight, the printing press lowered the cost of books by 5,000 fold. And within a generation, it put books on everybody's bookshelf. And so, in effect, that democratized and demonetized books. We have, with our technology platform, the printing press of biologic drugs. So we have the opportunity to take something available to less than the 1%,

• 42:48Speaker 01

  most expensive, largest volume of sales of any drug category, available to less than the 1%. And give it to everybody because of a techno, like a technology that I believe is a revolution. And I, I tell people, it's an expansive disruption model. So we don't just want to take the monoclonal market or take the biologic market. We actually want to expand it to everybody that's suffering from these chronic diseases unnecessarily and eliminate that suffering, right? Um, and if you look at it, you know, now in this, in the world, for, for the first time in history in the last, you know, three to four years, we crossed the line where the things that are external

• 43:31Speaker 01

  are no longer killing us the most. It's not bacterial infections and, and infectious diseases.

• 43:37Peter Diamandis?

  Viral infection.

• 43:38Speaker 01

  And, and, you know, crazy wars and all of these things. It's actually, the vast majority of people right now are killed by chronic diseases. They die because of chronic diseases. And the number one killer on the planet, um, as you mentioned, with heart disease and stroke. Um, it's heart disease and stroke. And it has been the number one killer on the planet since human beings started keeping track.

• 44:01Peter Diamandis?

  And I don't think people realize that, right? Cancer has got such a bigger name and COVID had such a bigger name and wars in your face. But, uh, you're right, cardiac disease, um, in women, for example, kills 40% more women than breast cancer does. And I don't think people realize that. And the thing that's scary, and I, I, I learned this during my longevity platinum trip, um, this past summer. Is seventy percent of all heart attack, uh, heart attacks, or I guess, heart related deaths have no antecedents, meaning it comes out of the blue.

• 44:43Peter Diamandis?

  It's like, didn't have pain, didn't have shortness of breath, didn't have anything on their, you know, physical, it's like, didn't wake up.

• 44:52Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 44:52Peter Diamandis?

  That's insane.

• 44:53Speaker 01

  It's the great calendar clearer.

• 44:56Peter Diamandis?

  Ah. Yeah, don't worry about any of your email anymore.

• 45:01Speaker 01

  Um, but yeah, I mean, it's, it's extremely scary and, and it's, it is no doubt the epidemic of, of our time, right? We have, uh, we have statins, which are great. We've got monoclonal antibodies, which are great. Monoclonal antibodies are too expensive for the world and the production for the amount of people that are in need. I mean, do you realize 2.2 billion people right now are at risk of high cholesterol around the world? 2.2 billion people, right? Um, the total amount of people on statins are about 450 million. The number on PCSK9, less than a million. The, uh, the.

• 45:41Peter Diamandis?

  Whoa, whoa, whoa, slow down a second. It's 450 million are on statins.

• 45:45Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 45:46Peter Diamandis?

  And you said under, under a million are on, are on a PCSK9 inhibitor, which is the, yeah.

• 45:53Speaker 01

  And, and the reality is that if, let's say you have a heart attack and you're one of those lucky people that survived the heart attack. And afterward, you're prescribed statins. If you follow those patients for one year, over 50%, it's actually just over 60% of those patients are not taking the statin effectively after one year. And these are people that already had a heart attack, right? The reality is that taking a pill a day is extremely difficult, which is why we didn't have population like collapse when we had pill a day birth control, right? It turns out that, you know, people still get pregnant, people still have heart attacks. Um, and, and so ultimately that's, that's an unbelievable

• 46:36Speaker 01

  reality. And if you look at people that have not had a heart attack, that just have high cholesterol and that are prescribed statins, about 50% of them refuse the prescription because they feel fine, like you said. And of that 50% that get the prescription, if you follow those people for one year, just one year, 75% of them are not taking the statin in an effective manner. Statine is a cumulative-

• 46:59Peter Diamandis?

  They're sticking it in their ear or up their nose.

• 47:01Speaker 01

  Meaning that they're not taking it every day. And it's one of those medicines where in order for it to be ultimately effective, you've got to stick to the one pill a day approximately at the same time, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera, for it to work. And the compliance rates, that's what that's called, how well patients do what they're supposed to do, are extremely low, like abysmally low, like failing in any school system in the world low. And so we need to make the right thing easy and the wrong thing hard. And what we often do is make the right thing hard and the wrong thing easy.

• 47:41Speaker 01

  So that's one of the reasons why we're so excited about the vaccine platform and our moonshot here of really democratizing health by allowing the benefit of biologic drugs for everyone, by fundamentally disrupting the convenience factor and the compliance factor and the cost factor.

• 48:01Peter Diamandis?

  So to frame it for folks, again, we talked about that giant vat in New York producing massive amount of these antibodies against this protein PCSK9. And the company creates these self-injectors with five mls and they ship it to you and you inject every two weeks and those antibodies enter your bloodstream and go to the liver and block the PCSK9 enzyme.

• 48:30Peter Diamandis?

  And that's the $10,000 a year. The alternative is instead of doing that, you vaccinate yourself. And the vaccine, as we all have learned from COVID, gets your immune system to create antibodies. And the right designed vaccine can get your internal immune system factory to generate antibodies against the PCSK9 for free.

• 48:55Speaker 01

  Yep. So instead of having that relatively large amount of drug that you have to take every two weeks over the course of a year, 26 injections, with one or two injections a year with a very small amount of the vaccine and very infrequently, your body can then generate that same amount or more antibodies itself.

• 49:20Peter Diamandis?

  So what's the cost compared to a $10,000, $15,000 a year PCSK9? Repatha, what do you expect the vaccine equivalent to cost of a patient?

• 49:32Speaker 01

  I mean, our cost of goods typically, we publicly list are between around a thousandth of the cost of goods of monocotals.

• 49:43Speaker 01

  What they'll cost in the marketplace, I actually don't know, but we're talking about something that's accessible around the world.

• 49:50Peter Diamandis?

  So tens of dollars, hopefully?

• 49:51Speaker 01

  Yeah, exactly. I think at scale, you're talking about something that's, you know, tens of dollars. And, and, and can, I mean, I tell people that my goal is very simple. I'd like to vaccinate from Sub-Saharan Africa to Geneva, to Santa Monica, to New York at the same time. And that's never been done with the best-in-class drug. You know, the typical thing that happens and is happening now and happened during COVID, actually, is, you know, the richer and the more guns your country had, the sooner and the better your drugs were.

• 50:29Speaker 01

  And, and quite frankly, that happened within the United States and on a global scale. And one of the things that I, that I feel strongly about is that, you know, suffering and disease don't care how much money you make, and they don't care who your dad was, and they don't care, you know, what political party you contribute to. Suffering is suffering for the individuals and for their families. And I think that everyone has, has a right, and we have an obligation to, to serve as much of that population as is humanly possible.

• 51:05Peter Diamandis?

  So, you know, I gotta be careful because you and I are on the board of this public company, so I don't know everything that can and cannot be said. But where is, where is vaccinity in the, in the testing process for this vaccine?

• 51:21Speaker 01

  So that's going to be going into humans early next year. We're, we're actually doing that, the first trial in, in Australia. Something that's, that's really interesting to note is that PCSK9 is highly conserved across species. So, so far, there have never been, you know, what you see in animals is what you see in humans by and large with this, with this target. So it's a it's a heavily de-risked target and something that, you know, the the non-human primate models, which we had very positive data in.

• 51:57Peter Diamandis?

  Non-human primate, just to translate, is like monkeys.

• 52:01Speaker 01

  Yeah, like monkeys. And.

• 52:04Peter Diamandis?

  Fancy fancy word for monkeys.

• 52:06Speaker 01

  My wife would say, or Lou. But but yeah, it's it's it's it's it's what one would consider a highly de-risked, understood, validated target with millions of years of patient safety data now from the people that are on it on monoclonal antibodies. So it's a safe target and it's it's well understood.

• 52:30Peter Diamandis?

  So one of the things I've heard you say that I find fascinating, I mean, is, first of all, people, we think about that we're developing heart disease and and the precursors are stroke when you're in your 50s, 60s and 70s, but that's not true, is it? It happens a lot younger. And and one of the things that a platform like this can do is actually to not be reactive after, but preventative. Can you speak to that vision?

• 52:58Speaker 01

  Yeah, absolutely. I mean, the the let me give you a different example than heart disease. Our Alzheimer's vaccine, which is going into its its registrational trials, so it's gone through four separate human trials, and we generate very similar antibodies to to a drug that's that's been in the press a lot recently, lecanumab. And the idea there is.

• 53:25Peter Diamandis?

  By the way, which is a much better name than aducanumab. I mean, these names are like ridiculous.

• 53:29Speaker 01

  It's it's a challenge.

• 53:32Peter Diamandis?

  Like what the hell can you remember, Mab?

• 53:34Speaker 01

  Yeah, it's it's it's unbelievable. The naming process for drugs is something that probably needs a different set of regulations as well. But but yeah, so so it's interesting because if you if you think about those products.

• 53:50Speaker 01

  Everyone always talks about treatment of people with Alzheimer's. Maybe it's mild Alzheimer's, maybe it's early Alzheimer's, whatever the current phraseology happens to be. But ultimately, wouldn't you like to be treated and not have Alzheimer's? Wouldn't you rather prevent getting Alzheimer's? And a low-cost, highly convenient and effective vaccine is, in our opinion, the path to achieving that. So imagine if instead of waiting until you were 65 or 70 and got diagnosed with mild

• 54:25Speaker 01

  Alzheimer's, you could actually, at 40 or at 30, be taking this annual vaccine to prevent the onset or delay the onset of Alzheimer's in the first place. So it's the idea of extending health span and not just lifespan, right? It's healthy, productive years, and that's really the promise of these technologies. Now, if you go back to heart disease and you think about it, you know, it's the idea of, instead of waiting until you have extremely high cholesterol and partially clogged arteries,

• 55:09Speaker 01

  it's the idea that at whatever age is necessary for your physiology, at 30, at 40, you could be vaccinated against LDL C cholesterol, and you could eliminate the growth curve of that cholesterol, right? So these are things that can prevent, in the optimal use cases, they can prevent the onset of these chronic illnesses, whether it's Alzheimer's or Parkinson's, whether it's migraine or hypercholesterolemia, high cholesterol. This gives you a path to treat that as something that you don't treat as an illness that you

• 55:51Speaker 01

  have, you treat to prevent the illness in the first place.

• 55:56Peter Diamandis?

  Yep, agreed. But just to iterate off the cuff, because it's fascinating, the targets, and you said this earlier, any place that there is a potential, that there's an approved FDA-approved monoclonal antibody.

• 56:12Peter Diamandis?

  The science team at Vaccinity is looking at creating a vaccine to generate those same antibodies, but just a thousand times cheaper. So what are some of the programs currently that we've created, you're targeting? So you've mentioned heart disease and stroke with hypercholesteremia, basically you've mentioned Alzheimer's. What else is going on?

• 56:35Speaker 01

  We have a Parkinson's trial. We just finished our second human trial at Parkinson's and that'll be read out in 2023 as well. And then we have a suite of, well, we have a universal COVID booster or a pan-COVID booster as well that we've announced some data on in our phase three recently.

• 56:55Peter Diamandis?

  Yeah, I'll just, I'll mention that because I'm very proud of it, that the COVID booster, which is the only infectious disease, everything else is, Vaccinity's suite is targeted towards human disease, but back in 2020, we sort of had an emergency jacuzzi meeting, no, just kidding, emergency meeting and decided to stand up a COVID booster. And the results were of that vaccine against COVID were significantly better than a number of other vaccines out there. Could you, would you want to mention what that was? Are you able to?

• 57:34Speaker 01

  Yeah, so we were the first company that tested and completed a phase three trial against boosting against the three main kind of forms, right? The three main platforms, mRNA, we boosted against Pfizer and adenovirus, we boosted against AstraZeneca and live attenuated, we boosted against Cenovac and Cenofarm. And we beat, we have statistically significant results showing that we were better than Cenofarm and AZ by multiples. And, you know, numerically, we're higher than Pfizer, but the, the technical term is

• 58:19Speaker 01

  that we showed comparability. So we're as good as Pfizer. And our safety profile so far, we haven't released the entire results of that, but in terms of adverse events, our safety profile is better than, than all of them.

• 58:36Peter Diamandis?

  Yeah, I like to, I like to say it's the, it's the COVID booster you'd give your kids.

• 58:40Speaker 01

  Yeah, absolutely. And I mean, I think that there's a huge need for something safe, effective, and that doesn't require, you know, negative 80-degree Celsius cold chain storage to get it around. So something that is actually accessible around the world. So that's the goal.

• 58:56Peter Diamandis?

  Anything that can refrigerate beer or Coca-Cola is good for this vaccine.

• 59:02Speaker 01

  Yeah, so it's a huge milestone. It'll be our first Phase 3 as a company, and we did that in the UK and in Australia. And we're excited about it, and most importantly, I'm really proud of the team, right? It takes, as my wife MayMay would say, it takes a village to raise a Lou. And what I tell everybody is that, you know, me alone on the street corner, I'm just another, you know, crazy homeless guy in San Francisco screaming about big ideas. But when you have a team behind you, it's amazing what can be done. So I really couldn't be prouder of the team and all of the sleepless nights and countless

• 59:47Speaker 01

  hours that were put into making all of this happen.

• 59:50Peter Diamandis?

  I have to tell a story. The company, I first joined Lou and MayMay when their company was called United Neuroscience. And while they were working on Parkinson's and Alzheimer's, it was like, the real most interesting stuff was preventing against hypercholesteremia and bone loss and muscle loss and other areas. And I was like, you know, we need to get away from like, just the only focus on neuro. And you and MayMay and Chris and I were in a jacuzzi in Hawaii, and we're like, playing with like, what's a better name? What's a better name? And it was like, well, we had Singularity and

• 1:00:28Peter Diamandis?

  Cellularity, and I think we came up with Vaccinity after a margarita or two. And then we added, we spelled it with two X's, V-A-X-X-I-N-I-T-Y, in homage to MayMay as a woman being the CEO and sort of the decade of women coming. But that was a fun, a fun memory.

• 1:00:50Speaker 01

  Yeah, it was amazing. I'm gonna give you credit for coming up with the name ultimately and us being, you know, and us agreeing with you. But, but yeah, I mean, I think, and you mentioned, you mentioned something that's actually really interesting that is often overlooked. So, a monoclonal, by definition, is one antibody at a time. And one of the benefits of vaccines is that you can actually have multiple targets in the same vaccine. So you can make your body generate multiple antibodies at the same time against a variety of targets. So in the case of muscle loss or bone loss, right?

• 1:01:34Speaker 01

  Really, and I'm thinking of this from a, going back to the Elon conversation, this is a get us to Mars, get us to the moon, and have us retain our muscle density and our bone density as best as possible. And as well as another, you know, variety of other applications, but, but that's something I'm very excited about. And those are, those are vaccines that are in earlier stages of development right now with us, but that are moving rapidly towards the clinic. And both of those targets, it so happens, will

• 1:02:13Speaker 01

  necessitate multiple targets in the vaccine. Or will be optimal with multiple targets in the vaccine. So it's something that, you know, you can't, so it's boldly go where monoclonal antibodies have gone before, and other places that they can't go.

• 1:02:30Peter Diamandis?

  Yeah, it's funny, you call these the space vaccines, right? It's, and, and as we, as you go into space, you don't stress the muscles and the bones, you have osteopenia, which is a weak, you know, breaking down of the, of the bone tissue, and sarcopenia, which is your muscle wasting. Which you have to prevent and you can block them with these. It also happens to be the one of the major issues with growing older. So while, you know, while Lou, you've built out part of vaccinity at the Kennedy Space Center, which is so cool, and we can talk about that. The big opportunity for for this is going to be vaccinating all, you know, 70, 80 and 90

• 1:03:14Peter Diamandis?

  year olds to maintain their their muscle loss and bone loss because that's another major killer. People fall, they break their hip or their pelvis and then they end up in the hospital. They fall because they don't have the muscle tissue to prevent when they trip and then their bones are weak and then you're in a hospital, laid up in bed and you develop pneumonia and it's a spiral and it's like a very slippery slope down to last exhalation.

• 1:03:40Speaker 01

  Yeah, so the way that I conceptualize scar capania and osteoporosis ultimately is is I think of it as these are the number one leading causes of lack of health span. They're not the number one killers themselves, but they take you from living independently and being a productive person to putting you into the hospital and this downward spiral that so many of us have seen. You know, my grandfather on my father's side, he he had scar capania, he fell, he broke his hip and he never recovered, right?

• 1:04:20Speaker 01

  It was it was a it was a very slow, very expensive, very, very like high rate of suffering way to go, but but that was the the beginning of the end of of a healthy lifespan. So when we think about, you know, solving heart disease and solving Alzheimer's and Parkinson's and and all of these things that will increase our function and our and ultimately our lifespan. Part of it is, we want to make sure that that's, those are healthy and productive years. And that we, that the other kind of ailments that come along with that, including the

• 1:05:01Speaker 01

  loss of muscle, loss of bone, or decrease in bone density, that those actually, those are addressed at the same time, you know? So, so absolutely, that's, that's something on my mind and, and, and one of the, one of the goals and targets here.

• 1:05:16Peter Diamandis?

  So, let's talk about Costa Rica. Why, when did you go down and why are you in Costa Rica? You're a huge Costa Rica fan. I mean, why not, you know, Mexico, or, you know, Panama, or other parts of South and Central America? I mean, you love Costa Rica, pal, and a lot of other individuals do, too.

• 1:05:41Speaker 01

  Yeah, I, you know, I love surfing, and there's great surf, but there's a lot of places with great surf. I, the climate's amazing, but there's a lot of places with a great climate. Ultimately, this is, this is a decision driven heavily by what I think are important values for the family. And that really means the kids. So, you know, Costa Rica has the highest amount of biodiversity per foot of any place on the planet.

• 1:06:12Peter Diamandis?

  And some of which is poisonous?

• 1:06:14Speaker 01

  A lot of which is poisonous. Right? But, but ultimately, it, it provides the best example for preservation and regeneration, and actually cataloguing of almost any place on the planet. You know, our, our kids went out and tagged with, with satellite tags. The first giant manorays ever tagged with satellite tags in the history of Costa Rica. And we followed those and we found out where their migratory paths were. Because they're only in one place for about six months a year, and no one knew where they were the rest of the time.

• 1:06:58Speaker 01

  These are global unknowns that we have no data, no information on, and really no ability to direct the appropriate resources to protect those corridors, right? Because we didn't even know they existed. So people didn't know if they went and slept on the bottom of the ocean in a deep trench. People didn't know if they resurfaced in the interim. You know, there were literally no knowledge of what happened. And I like to tell people that they've probably done more than a person getting a PhD from Stanford Marine Biology School in terms of actually solving a problem and understanding

• 1:07:40Speaker 01

  it to its conclusion and having, you know, real information from a collection of the data. So there'll be a paper published likely this year around some of the findings of those satellite tags. And so we're excited to be able to do that. But really, it's about showing and gaining an appreciation for the world around you and for all that exists, right? And I think that there are very few places that I could imagine that offer that. The other thing that I like about it is that a friend of mine once said that the greatest

• 1:08:23Speaker 01

  gift you could provide to your children were obstacles that they themselves could overcome. And I've added "or failed to overcome" to that. But the idea is that, you know, give them things that they want to go and try to do and let them try to do it. Like, don't help them, don't provide guidance, don't give them an insight, just let them go and try to do it. And the experience that they gain from that is really of the utmost value in their future and in their lives.

• 1:09:06Speaker 01

  So, so an example of that would be, you know, uh, something as simple as we have a gate to the property when we drive off of the main road, which is dirt. And sometimes it's raining a lot and there's a lot of mud and there's a lot of, uh, there's like a little river that's running down the middle of the, the, the kind of, uh, de facto driveway. And we could easily make that gate automated, right? There's, there's solar panels that we can put on the gate that would make it easy to open, that would open itself, all of these things.

• 1:09:41Peter Diamandis?

  There are goats you could attach to it.

• 1:09:43Speaker 01

  Yeah, there are goats that we could attach to it, poisonous snakes.

• 1:09:47Peter Diamandis?

  Long story.

• 1:09:48Speaker 01

  Um, but, uh, but, but the idea is that, that they get to get out every day, every time and open and close the gate. And the reason is that there are certain values that you can't teach without letting them do them themselves. And, uh, and that's a very small example of, of a very minor obstacle. But the amount of appreciation that that generates for, for them, every day when we go on our way to breakfast, every day when we come back, um, is tremendous, right? Um, and I think that Costa Rica is full of those opportunities.

• 1:10:29Speaker 01

  Um, you know, when you and, and Kristen and the boys were down, my deputy boys were down here, we, uh, we got everyone certified to scuba dive at the earliest age possible.

• 1:10:40Peter Diamandis?

  That was amazing. Yeah, I, it's like, that was such a, such an extraordinary success for the, for the three boys to be certified at age 11.

• 1:10:48Speaker 01

  Yeah, I mean, it's, it's, these are things that are, and, and again, we couldn't interfere because we weren't the instructors.

• 1:10:56Peter Diamandis?

  We weren't invited.

• 1:10:57Speaker 01

  Yeah, we weren't, we weren't invited, yeah, and we were doing other things. Um, but ultimately that was an obstacle they were provided. Where the vast majority of 11-year-olds in that same setting fail and are removed from those classes because they panic or they can't handle it or whatever. They're confronting a lot of fears, there's mask clearing underwater, all these different things. Um, but ultimately they all, they all succeeded. And they did that because of who they were, not because of assistance from anyone else. And, and those are values that, uh, they exist everywhere.

• 1:11:35Speaker 01

  But they're much harder to find in certain places and locations. So it's a long-winded way of saying why I like Costa Rica, but it's an amazing place and the people are amazing. Um, and, uh, and you know, they, they have a saying here that's pura vida and that means pure life, right? And, uh, that concept is, is ties back into what we talked about at the beginning about being present, right?

• 1:12:01Peter Diamandis?

  A brief note from our sponsors. Let's talk about sleep. Sleep has become one of my number one longevity priorities in life. You know, getting eight deep uninterrupted hours of sleep is one of the most important things you can do to increase your vitality and energy and increase the health span that you have here on earth. You know, when I was in medical school years ago, I used to pride myself on how little sleep I could get, you know, it used to be five, five and a half hours. Today I pride myself on how much sleep I can get and I shoot for eight hours every single night. Now, usually I'm great at going to sleep. If I'm exhausted, you know, I've worked a hard day, I'm right out. But if I'm having difficulty, and it occurs, I'm having insomnia or my mind's overactive

• 1:12:42Peter Diamandis?

  and I need help to get that eight hours, I turn to a supplement product by Life Force called Peak Rest. Now Peak Rest has been formulated with an extraordinary scientific depth and background, includes everything from long-lasting melatonin to magnesium to L-glycine to rosemary extract, just to name a few. This product is about creating a sense of rest and really giving you the depth and length of sleep that you need for recovery. It's a product I hope you'll try. It works for me and I'm sure it will work for you. If you're interested, go to mylifeforce.com backslash peter to get a discount from Life Force on this product. But you'll also see a whole set of other longevity and vitality related supplements

• 1:13:27Peter Diamandis?

  that I use. We'll talk about them some other time, but in terms of sleep, Peak Rest is my go-to supplement. Hope you'll enjoy it. Go to mylifeforce.com backslash peter for your discount. Lou, do you want to, are you willing to share some of the formative moments of your life? And I mean, you're one of the most extraordinary thinkers and. I remember being at the top of the mountain with you and both families.

• 1:13:57Peter Diamandis?

  One time, having a, you know, a beautiful bottle of, of wine, probably an Amaroni. And just having this experience of you saying to myself, listen, if I should ever perish, and I'm not planning to for some hundreds of years or so, but if I ever did, I would want the family in your hands, that, you know, I would trust you over anybody to deal with any emergency, any situation. And I think that was the birth of our, our deputy family situation and saying, you know, this is more than a godfather, more than uncle, this is your deputy dad, and he'll be there.

• 1:14:36Peter Diamandis?

  What shaped you to be who you are?

• 1:14:39Speaker 01

  Man, you know.

• 1:14:40Peter Diamandis?

  There's so much, I know.

• 1:14:43Speaker 01

  Well, first of all, I really appreciate that, and you know, the feeling is mutual, and I, I respect you and I love you, and I just couldn't have a better time with you. And I love that we get to think about the biggest problems facing the world together and tackle some of them, which is, which is really such a blessing. And, and Kristen and the boys, you know, obviously I love them like, like they're my own. And, and the, you know, I can't, nobody can ever be capable of, of responding correctly in every situation, but I'll promise I'll do my best.

• 1:15:17Peter Diamandis?

  And there are many situations in which you have.

• 1:15:21Speaker 01

  So, so I think that things that are hard ultimately have, have significantly influenced me, right? So I think of two, two big obstacles that I had to overcome. The first is when I was 10, my dad went to prison for almost five years.

• 1:15:47Speaker 01

  Um, and you know, that's a formidable time in a, in a, in a young man's life and in any child's life. Um, I had my two sisters and my mom. Uh, and, uh, I had a lot of responsibilities and, and clarity around those responsibilities thrust upon me. I remember waking up at, at one in the morning so that I could clean the kitchen before my mom would wake up, um, so that she would have, you know, one less thing to worry about when she was awake. I remember, um, my dad was stationed in Yankton, South Dakota for a lot of this. It's a very cold, inclement location. Um, one would say-

• 1:16:32Peter Diamandis?

  And this was, this was, this was around, uh, real estate, real estate collapse back then?

• 1:16:37Speaker 01

  Yeah. It was part of the savings and loans debacle, um, that occurred in the late eighties and, uh, was prosecuted in the, in the early nineties. Uh, and 6,000 people in Texas went to prison for it, um, including every savings and loan owner, uh, in the state. Um, so it was a, it was a wide net and my dad was an amazing man and I, I look up to him, um, and when he's, he's unfortunately passed away, but, but I, I, you know, love him and respect him and I think that, uh, that he got caught up in a big net, you know?

• 1:17:16Speaker 01

  Um, but it was, it was remarkable because, you know, we visited in Yankton, South Dakota, and I remember being at a truck stop and having an ice cream scooper of mashed potatoes with, uh, with turkey that was indiscriminate, like indiscriminately tied to dog food. Um, and, uh, in, in one of those trays like you were in, in, in school. And, uh, and I remember the next day having to go through the church and smuggle in warmer hats and gloves and things that the, the prison wouldn't let them have, but that were desperately needed

• 1:17:58Speaker 01

  for, for him and his friends, you know, B vitamins because they had no sun exposure, uh, during the, the cold, long winters in South Dakota. Um-

• 1:18:10Speaker 01

  You know, and, and the consequences for failure would have been, you know, getting caught under those circumstances as a ten and eleven year old would have meant that my dad would be in prison for another twenty years. So the consequences were high. And, uh, and it was, it was hard, right? Um, and then when he, when he got out of prison, we had, uh, just, just over a decade within, before he passed, and I was, uh, I was actually attending Columbia Business School at the time. I did not graduate. I dropped out, full disclosure. Um, and, uh, and I was with him in Montana, we were fishing, and we were side by side in this river, this

• 1:18:54Speaker 01

  big raging river called the Madison River, outside of, uh, Yellowstone National Park. And he looked at me and he said, you know, I'm gonna take a seat. I'm feeling a little tired. And he just fell over in the water and started floating downstream. And I, I remember throwing my, my rod down and jumping in, and I'm in these big waders and they're getting filled with water and I'm swimming down the river. And I ultimately dragged him out. He was a big guy. And, uh, and I propped him up on a rock and tore down a fence and got the car there and drove him to the closest emergency center, which was an hour away in Ennis, Montana, um, where he was incorrectly dosed as having had heart, or diagnosed as

• 1:19:38Speaker 01

  having had a heart attack. And you know, he, uh, he ultimately, after ambulances and driving and ripping down fences and swimming in rivers and care flights and doctors and surgeries, he ultimately died of an ascending aortic dissection. Um, and, uh, there was, there was a lot of moments that day, but, but ultimately, uh, you know, you realize that, um, there's not very much time.

• 1:20:13Speaker 01

  And you realize that every moment that can be spent and invested in impact and in my personal mission, you know, I tell people, a lot of people wake up, ninety-five percent of the world wakes up every day, they brush their teeth and they put on their shoes, they feed their kids, or they do what they're supposed to do. But they're lacking a fundamental sense of purpose, which is why, you know, if you've got friends that work at a big white shoe law firm, they tell you that they're waiting to retire until they're sixty-five, and they count the minutes, right? And not all of them, but most of them, and the reality is that that's living a life

• 1:20:55Speaker 01

  that I feel bad about because it's devoid of purpose. And for better or for worse, every day I wake up at four, four-thirty in the morning, and I never have that moment. I know that I'm here, and I'm here for one reason, and that's to eliminate unnecessary suffering. And all of my good fortune, and all of my skills, and all of my energy is dedicated ultimately to that purpose. And as a consequence, it doesn't mean that there aren't hard days, and easy days, and better days, and medium days, and whatever else you want to say, there's all sorts of days.

• 1:21:35Speaker 01

  But as long as you can look to that as a guiding principle, and as a north star, and as a mission, you know, I feel like you can really accomplish anything. And that's the goal. You know, another...

• 1:21:53Peter Diamandis?

  By the way, let me just pause there and say, that is beautiful. Thank you for sharing that. And it's the real, you know, I think, brother, that...

• 1:22:05Peter Diamandis?

  You know, it's those moments that shape the human being, right? And we all strive to have our kids have the most comfortable, easy life they have. But sometimes it's those levels of stressors and soul shaping moments that really, really shape you and elevate you to be who you can be. You know, I am curious, and your dad would be so extraordinarily proud of you, and I hope you know that in your heart and soul. What do you think about the need for kids?

• 1:22:47Peter Diamandis?

  I mean, you said, you know, when Bear and Ryan hop out of the car and go through the rain and open the gate and, you know, you don't... I love that. The gift that you give them is giving them a challenge and allowing them to face the challenge themselves. But hardship in a child's life to shape them, because human nature for most people is to, you know, to meet your kids' needs, to not let them suffer, to give them the best life that they can have. Thoughts about that?

• 1:23:20Speaker 01

  I think that if you don't have to face hardship, you'll never know what you'll do when it's hard. So this is how you test your mettle in a certain sense, right? So I don't wish hardship upon anyone, but I think that hardship spares no one.

• 1:23:50Speaker 01

  So a brilliant person once told me that we have to walk softly because everyone is facing their own tremendous battles.

• 1:24:03Peter Diamandis?

  Which we don't actually know.

• 1:24:06Speaker 01

  Yeah, and they're invisible, right?

• 1:24:10Speaker 01

  They're often invisible and often, more often, unspoken.

• 1:24:16Speaker 01

  And so, so be kind, right? Be kind, but, but know that your time is coming or you're in it, right? And, and that's, that's important. And it's important because it provides a sense of empathy, provides gratitude for, for the moments when you don't feel that you're, you're facing a tremendous battle. But yeah, I think that ultimately kids need, they, they benefit from hardship. And I don't think that everyone benefits in the same way.

• 1:24:57Speaker 01

  So, so you know, people say, some, some people say entrepreneurs are born, not made. I think, I think there's a comment, a part of that that's true, you know?

• 1:25:14Speaker 01

  But I also think that, that the, the people who really change and shape the world and do the biggest things are, are accustomed to the biggest obstacles, setbacks, humiliations, challenges, fears, all of those things that everyone faces. They're not immune to them, they, it's just their reaction to those that's so different is what yields different levels of impact and outcome. So, I have a lot of friends that when they got COVID were crying and saying, "Poor me."

• 1:25:54Speaker 01

  I was laughing and thinking hysterically that it was, that this was an example of, of life and, and the forces in our immune systems and all of these components that make it amazing. I'm not a model for, for anybody, but, but that's, that's the way that I try to confront my, my individual challenges. Now I'll tell you a story about, about entrepreneurship. I've got two origin stories around that that people always find hilarious.

• 1:26:27Speaker 01

  But now that's setting a high bar, so they'll be boring, I'm sure. But anyway.

• 1:26:32Peter Diamandis?

  I'll just make fun of them, so they go.

• 1:26:34Speaker 01

  So, I remember I got a phone call at my house, I was eight years old.

• 1:26:40Speaker 01

  And a friend of mine, Philip Dunnett, who everyone jokingly called his mom Sergeant Dunnett, she was very strict, called and asked me to come over because he had a, he had a lawnmower and we were gonna mow his neighbor's lawn and they had agreed to pay us.

• 1:26:56Speaker 01

  So I said, "Okay." We went over and it was 110 degrees in Texas during the summer and we're pushing this manual lawnmower and it took both of us to push it because there was no motor on it, so it's like, you know, you're really just cranking through it. And we did the head, the edges and the hedges and the lawn and all this stuff. And in the middle of the day, she came out and this blue-haired old lady gave us a glass of lemonade. And then when we got done, she gave us each quart.

• 1:27:24Speaker 01

  And I'm old, but I'm not that old, and I was, I was distraught. Right, I was, I was absolutely distraught. And I, and I went back to the house and I, and I called my mom and I said, "Mom, come pick," and they had one of those old phones with the long cord with the rotary dials on it, stuck to the kitchen wall. And I remember walking and calling her and I said, "Mom, come pick me up." And she said, "What happened?" I said, "I wanna talk about it, just pick me up, I'm distraught." So she picks me up and I go home and I'm sitting there and I'm awake all night in my bed tossing and turning, thinking about this stuff. And I walked downstairs the next morning and my, my older sister was doing some arts and crafts with leather with a group of friends.

• 1:28:06Speaker 01

  And a thing that very not politically correct, used to be called Indian Princess. Um, and, and she was cutting up pieces of leather and they were gluing them to make vests and things for this, for this powwow. And, and I remember picking up all the trash, all the leather that was trash, that was discarded and I, and I grabbed it. And I remember walking around outside and I found this dead turtle. And I put it into bleach and I took a screwdriver and I dug out all the guts and all the stuff and all the gore and I broke the turtle's shell up. And I tied it around these pieces of leather and I made little bolo ties and necklaces and all sorts of crap.

• 1:28:48Speaker 01

  And my parents were having dinner in an entertainment area called Deep Ellum. And while they had dinner, I went outside. And I roamed the streets and I knew most of the people on the streets there. And I roamed, so not a safe environment that you would recommend other people to do, but my parents were cool with it. I came back in about an hour, hour and a half later. And my dad said, "Oh, my God, what happened? Did you get robbed?" And I said, "No, I sold all the necklaces." And he said, "Okay, well, how much money did you make selling the necklaces?" I said, "You know, I think about $800." And I pulled out all this money from my pockets and he said, "Did you rob somebody?" And I said, "No, no, no, I just sold all the necklaces." "Well, how much you sell them for?" And I said, "Well, it entirely depended on what the person was wearing and if they had a date."

• 1:29:33Speaker 01

  And I'd walk up and I'd pick the right people and it ranged between $1 and $30 for the same product. And I ended up, you know, realizing that I could make a jewelry business at the age of eight. And I started peddling jewelry on the streets after that, you know, on the weekends as a side business, right?

• 1:29:56Speaker 01

  So that was the first one, when my dad said, "We're not gonna have to worry about you."

• 1:30:01Peter Diamandis?

  Can I tell you my equivalent of your first lawnmower story? So I'm about 11, about our boys' age. And my best friend Billy Greenberg and I were, I'm living in Great Neck, New York. And we lived about a mile apart. And we decided we were gonna do a snow removal service. Now, I had lived through one winter there and it snowed a few times and averaged, you know, like an inch or three inches or four inches, like that. And so we went, we walked between my house and his house. And we sold snow removal service for the winter for 20 bucks.

• 1:30:45Peter Diamandis?

  And we signed up, I remember about 20 houses. And we got 400 bucks and we used 200 of it to buy a gas, one of those pusher ones that, you know, has little blades and so forth. And it could clear up to 12 inches. Well, the next week, we have a three-foot record snowfall.

• 1:31:08Peter Diamandis?

  And everyone on our route is like calling up saying, where are you? You paid for you to be able to remove our snow whenever it snowed. And I was like, just, I was decimated. My dad, God bless him, calls up his friend who cleared our, our thing, who had a snowplow. And he paid him to go and, and clear all of them. And then I just canceled all the services after that. But it was, it was definitely

• 1:31:41Peter Diamandis?

  bad luck.

• 1:31:44Speaker 01

  Oh, man.

• 1:31:45Peter Diamandis?

  What was your next one?

• 1:31:47Speaker 01

  That's amazing. I love that. Uh, you know, my next one was, I was 10 and my dad was just about to go to jail. Um, so it was tough times at the house. And I had, I had gotten into this great school in Dallas called St. Mark's School of Texas, which is a all-boys school. Um, which I also didn't graduate from. Uh,

• 1:32:15Peter Diamandis?

  Why break a record?

• 1:32:17Speaker 01

  Yeah, exactly. You know, it's like, and so I'm sitting there and, and I remember I get called into the principal, Warren Foxworth's office, Warren Foxworth. And he, he's sitting there and he's telling me that he's got to call my mom and my dad. And I'm thinking this is the worst timing ever. You know, my mom is distraught, my dad is about to go to prison, like this is, this sucks. And interestingly, Warren had been a neighbor of my dad when they were kids, little kids. And so my dad comes in and, I mean, he just lays into me in this office. He's screaming, he's telling me I'm too stupid to breathe. All this stuff is going on. It's just unbelievable.

• 1:33:01Speaker 01

  And, and my mom is sitting there and she's equally upset and, and, uh, and less vocal. And, and Warren is sitting there and he goes, my dad's name was, was Lou also. And he's like, Lou, calm down, calm down, Susan, what are you? My mom's name's Susan. He says, calm down, Susan, Lou, what are you doing? What, what? I don't understand. And, and my dad goes, what do you mean you don't understand? My kid went and spent $4,000, $3,800 at the school bookstore. On what? On a bunch of pens and pencils and jackets? Like, what are you talking about? And Warren said, "Lou, I don't think you understand." And my dad said, "What do you mean, 'I don't understand, Warren, you idiot'?" Warren goes, "Well, maybe I'm the idiot, but I thought you'd be really happy about it."

• 1:33:45Speaker 01

  My dad just loses, "Why would I be happy about it?" He goes, "He didn't spend thirty-eight hundred dollars, Lou. He made thirty-eight hundred dollars. We've never had this problem before." And my dad said, "How did he make thirty-eight hundred dollars in bookstore credits?" And I was trading pens. I was trading pens that didn't exist at the bookstore with these other kids who were getting them for free by charging them to their parents at the bookstore. And I would trade these pens that I was buying for a dollar or fifty cents a piece for a fifteen-dollar pen from the bookstore and then return it to the bookstore. So I had this amazing credit. I was gonna pay for all of my tuition in like a few months. You know? And I, and I told my dad, he said, "Why were you doing this?" I said, "Well, I figured that they'd credited to my tuition. I wouldn't have a tuition to pay."

• 1:34:31Speaker 01

  And, and I remember the look on his face and he was really so confused, right? By the entire thing. And, and I remember feeling this sense of, uh, you know, shame and pride at the same time. Um, and, and it was, it was shame at the beginning because I thought I had done something wrong, even though I thought I was doing something right. But by the end of it, you know, it was, uh, it was pride because, you know, ultimately, if, if other kids had figured out what I was doing at the school and done the same thing, it would have bankrupted the, the bookstore. So, so, so Warren, Warren said that I wasn't allowed to engage in any on-campus commerce

• 1:35:12Speaker 01

  from then on, um, because of, because of the consequences to the bookstore. Um, but yeah, it was amazing. It was, it was just simple arbitrage. But I had something that everybody wanted and their cost of goods was free in their minds. And my cost of goods was very low and the arbitrage was, you know, one to ten, one to fifteen. So ninety percent return.

• 1:35:35Peter Diamandis?

  Have I ever told you my fetal pig story?

• 1:35:40Peter Diamandis?

  How I was almost thrown out of school and would not be having this conversation with you or anybody had the turn of events gone slightly different.

• 1:35:50Speaker 01

  Yeah, tell me, shoot.

• 1:35:52Peter Diamandis?

  Yeah, so my freshman year I was at a place called Hamilton College before I transferred to MIT for my undergrad. And Hamilton College has a very strict honor code, right? Can't do, you know, it was like really, you sign this honor code and it's like, you know, it's the gospel and expulsion is the result of anything that's forbidden. And my freshman year, I'm in freshman biology on pre-med, make my parents happy. And in freshman biology, half of your grade for the year is your fetal pig lab dissection. Never forget this. And about two months into the semester, about two weeks before the fetal pig lab, half

• 1:36:35Peter Diamandis?

  of my grade, I come down with chicken pox. And so I'm in Hamilton's infirmary with chicken pox. You know, my parents come up from, from Great Neck and they, they, they visit me and I'm like just out of it and I'm, as I'm starting to recover and I'm getting better, I'm like freaking out about this fetal pig. And so I go into the last few days of, you know, the lab work and we were not allowed to take the fetal pig out of the lab. Very strict rules posted on the walls, the fetal pig must stay in there, your time with the fetal pig is limited, et cetera, et cetera. And so I'm freaking out and I hatched the plan with my lab mate, Philip, to steal the fetal pig.

• 1:37:20Peter Diamandis?

  And I'm going to steal the fetal pig and bring it back to my dorm room and study it at night over the weekend before the exam. And so this is a Thursday, I open my book bag or Philip does, I push the fetal pig in, you know, this is formaldehyde, stinky fetal pig in my book bag, bring it back to the dorm room, stick it in the refrigerator. And the next day, I'll never forget, Professor Frank Price stands up in front of the classroom and goes, ladies and gentlemen, I have something very serious to talk to you about. One of the fetal pigs has been stolen. And I want whoever's responsible to turn themselves in. That same day, no shit, there's an article in the school newspaper about a fetal pig being stolen.

• 1:38:04Peter Diamandis?

  And I'm like, Philip and I are like looking at each other across the room squirming. And like, what do we do? Oh, my God. So the fetal pig is in the refrigerator, and this is a, this is a refrigerator shared by a few different dorm rooms. And one of the seniors sees it in there and says, I'm gonna turn you in if you don't turn yourself in. Now, at this point, I'm a freshman, pre-med, my entire life is crumbling before my eyes. Um, Philip and I have the crazy idea that we have to get rid of the evidence. So we take the fetal pig and we go into the forest and we bury the body. Kid you not, we bury the body in the forest.

• 1:38:44Peter Diamandis?

  And we're coming back and I'm like, what are we gonna do? This is insane. I'm, it's like, everything's over. So it's about five o'clock on, uh, on this Friday, um, and the exam's on Monday. And I'm breaking down, I call my dad. And I'm like in tears and I fess up to him, I said, Dad, this is what happened. I'm sorry, I don't know what to do. And it's one of those moments in time where I'm so thankful I had, I trusted my dad well enough to have that conversation with him. And he said, son, you need to turn yourself in. Um, you just need to go and talk to your professor and tell him what you did and why you did it.

• 1:39:27Peter Diamandis?

  And he said, uh, uh, I, you know, so I went and saw Philip. And I said, I'm gonna turn myself in. And he's like, no, no, you can't do that. I said, listen, you had nothing to do with it. I, so I went, I exhumed the body from the forest. I went and, uh, I went to go see Professor Price. So it turns out my dad had called the physician at the, uh, infirmary. At Hamilton and had him talk to Professor Price and so forth and say, you know, he was out. Anyway, I get, and as I'm walking to go to class, one of my other, uh, roommates who found out about the fetal pig debacle. Says, um, uh, uh, you know.

• 1:40:09Peter Diamandis?

  I'm gonna turn you in. And I was like, enough, enough. I'm turning myself in. And so I went and I saw Professor Price. He was tutoring students. And he said, please wait there. And so finally, like, you know, tearful, mournful, with the dead body in my hands, I walk over to him and I say, it was me. I had, I stole the fetal pig. And I'll never forget, he looked at me and paused and he goes, Peter, have you learned your lesson? And I was like, yes, yes, yes, I'm sorry. And he said, good luck on the exam on Monday. And, and that was it. And it's just this, this forgiveness. Uh, my life would have been completely, I wouldn't, if I'd been thrown out of my freshman year of college,

• 1:40:53Peter Diamandis?

  it'd be, maybe I'd be a tech billionaire as a result of that. I don't know. But, but it was, uh, I'll never forget, uh, this moment of kindness from, uh, Professor Frank Price that allowed me to continue on and go on to what I've done.

• 1:41:07Speaker 01

  The Great Pig Host.

• 1:41:09Peter Diamandis?

  Yeah, the great pig, yeah, the fetal pig story.

• 1:41:15Peter Diamandis?

  I was just telling it to, I was just telling that to Dax and Jet over, uh, over some wars the other night and reminded me of it, you know?

• 1:41:22Speaker 01

  Isn't it amazing to think through? All of the, and I, I try to do this, uh, I don't do it enough, to be honest, but I do try to do it all the time. Uh, but think of all of the, I call them the but for people, right? Um, and, and, uh, it's, it's but for this person, this would not have happened, or that would not have happened, or I wouldn't be here, or whatever, whatever that is. Um, and, and you know, one of the, one of the things that I'm real proud about with, uh, with Baron Ryan

• 1:42:02Speaker 01

  is, you know, I try my best, and Jet and Dax as well, actually, but I try my best to show them that every interaction that we have is an opportunity to make the other person's day better. Now, you don't do that for you, and you don't just do it for them. Right, they're going to interact with other people that day, and those people are going to interact with other people that day. So just a little bit of positivity can fundamentally change massive outcomes from other people.

• 1:42:40Peter Diamandis?

  Yes.

• 1:42:41Speaker 01

  And going back to that idea of, you know, you don't know what the tremendous burden the other person is carrying. You know, how many times have you witnessed kindness that was given at exactly the right moment? Either for you, in the case of Dr. Price, or for, uh, for, you know, anyone that you're interacting with in, in that moment, right? And the truth is that, um, we don't even, we, we have no idea, but you know it when you see it. And, uh, and it's, it's really an amazing gift, right? And the reason that I, I'm so positive

• 1:43:24Speaker 01

  that my transformative, my real purpose is to eliminate unnecessary suffering, is that for every one person that you, you help, or heal, or touch, or save, um, or, or eliminate that little bit of suffering in their day, uh, you know that you're doing good that is beyond anything that has to do with you, right? And so it, it really takes you out of the equation and becomes all about the other, right? And, and I've been saying, and you've heard me say for, for several years now, that, you know, my, one of, one of the mantras I practice is

• 1:44:07Speaker 01

  that I am we and we are. And ultimately it means that, you know, you transform from the ego, from the individual, to being a part of we. And then ultimately you realize that we are, and you're a part of everything simultaneously. And that means that, that you look at every object in every moment with a different level of clarity, because you're, you, you are, uh, you know, most religions say it in, in one way or another, but, but you are, uh, you are a piece of everything and everything is a piece of you. And, and there's something...

• 1:44:52Speaker 01

  That really ties us all together when you think about it that way. And it's a goal to be able to live by it.

• 1:44:59Peter Diamandis?

  There's an idea I want to close this out on that you shared. And I was just grabbing it here from a text we had a while ago. The idea of truth versus politeness and vulnerability versus small talk. And I found those really important distinctions. And I think they're a good, a good close out for us. Vulnerability versus the value of small talk. Thoughts?

• 1:45:31Speaker 01

  I think being authentic is a superpower. I think that when you're authentic to yourself and authentic with others, you, you can touch each other in ways that are just much deeper and, and more significant. Then, you know, Argentina beating Croatia in the semifinals of the World Cup. Right? Um, not that that doesn't matter, it matters. But that, that there's, there's a fundamental authenticity to depth and vulnerability.

• 1:46:14Speaker 01

  And being, being open and honest with what you're accomplishing, not accomplishing, failures, successes, fears and, and joys. Right? And being able to go to that as quickly as possible eliminates tremendous amounts of wasted time. And it doesn't mean that everyone likes authenticity. It doesn't mean that it's a, a crowd pleaser because a lot of times it's not. Right?

• 1:46:49Speaker 01

  But it's it's an opportunity to uh to transcend the blase and and get into what what really matters, right? And what really drives us and what our true feelings and ambitions are. And to me, that's something that that's worthwhile.

• 1:47:10Peter Diamandis?

  Yeah, I I always know when I I have a challenge or an issue or need advice. Uh, there's no bullshit from you. It's it's double barrel truth, whether I like it or not. You you do it beautifully. Uh, but um, and that's what you want from your best friend. You know, uh, you you want your best friend to to to give you a a real a real mirror. Um, you know, if I tell you I need I need a hug or, you know, I need some support, you're there for that too. But uh, yeah, uh, you know, it it is another interesting point. Uh, before I get to the to the last point, which is, you know,

• 1:47:51Peter Diamandis?

  I I ask this of my closest friends, you know, you and Keith Farazzi and Eric Poulier and and others. Um, does, is there somebody who knows you, knows everything about you? I mean, where you're not, you're not hiding anything. You know, do you have someone in your life that uh knows you so authentically, so deeply? That there are no secrets and it's a it's a it's a beautiful thing to have, right? You ideally want that in your spouse, in in your in your partner, where um you could be truthfully you uh without feeling criticized and so forth.

• 1:48:30Peter Diamandis?

  And and I measure success in my life and there are a few people um where they there's no, there's nothing hiding, there's nothing I I can feel ashamed of or guilty of or what they know, they know it. Thoughts about that?

• 1:48:47Speaker 01

  I mean, I I.

• 1:48:51Speaker 01

  I mean, I would, I would be hesitant to say that I am an open book in general. But I, I don't shy away from my shortcomings, right? I, I think that I, I embrace them as opportunities for growth. So, so I would say that, that I do my best to provide that authenticity to you. And I would say that I have, you know, a few friends that can, can understand that. And yeah, there could be criticisms too, right? Like, because it doesn't mean that you agree with all of the choices, right? Like, you know, you've done dumb things, I've done dumb things, I plan on continuing to do some dumb things, right? I mean, like, it's, it's part of, part of life.

• 1:49:35Peter Diamandis?

  Life, yeah.

• 1:49:36Speaker 01

  And, and in terms of, yeah, I mean, my partner is amazing, Mei Mei is amazing. And, and I definitely think that she knows me extremely well. And I don't think I hide purposely, really, anything from her. And I don't think I could if I wanted to. Which is a big part of it. I think that, you know, once you have a certain authentic approach to a friendship or to a relationship, it's, it's very easy for those people to tell when you're not in authenticity.

• 1:50:20Speaker 01

  And so, so they might not be able to tell you exactly what you're thinking, or why you're thinking that, or where the shame or the fear comes from in being authentic in that moment. But they know it. And to me, those are, all of that is, is really the highest value in a relationship. It's, it's the ability to, to trust someone that you love or people that you love more than you trust yourself. It's, you know, it's, it's when you're not, when you're looking outward in that moment. What's, what's better than being taught a lesson about you by someone that loves you, right?

• 1:51:03Peter Diamandis?

  Well, you and, you and I are such easy people to live with.

• 1:51:09Peter Diamandis?

  Yeah, Kristin and Meme have a easy time of it.

• 1:51:13Speaker 01

  Oh my God, I can't imagine anyone more difficult to live with than me.

• 1:51:18Speaker 01

  Except for maybe you.

• 1:51:24Peter Diamandis?

  And politeness, politeness versus truth, you know, I can't, you know, those conversations that are all about bullshit politeness that are like, okay, can I extract myself from this conversation? But you don't tolerate those very, very well. You love dropping bombs in the middle of them, I think.

• 1:51:41Speaker 01

  Yeah, I mean, I think sometimes one of the things like as an example, something that I could definitely work on is sometimes in those types of settings, I just want to disrupt it.

• 1:51:52Speaker 01

  You know, it's like, it's like, have you ever seen the monks pouring the sand that you know they're gonna scrape away right after they're done making this beautiful mandala? Sometimes I feel like just jumping in the middle of that shit while it's being done. You know, because it's just like, well, it's gonna happen anyway. Like, why are we, why are we going for this exercise? And I feel like sometimes overly polite conversations are like that, too. You know, where, where you have this, you have this dance that's being played out in slow motion.

• 1:52:18Peter Diamandis?

  I know, it's so painful.

• 1:52:20Speaker 01

  For no reason, you know, ultimately.

• 1:52:22Peter Diamandis?

  I wish I had a button that could rewind the conversation three seconds.

• 1:52:29Peter Diamandis?

  So, you know, so it's like in the middle of a conversation. Now, are you wearing that dress because you want to go to bed with someone tonight? I mean, it's like, what, what is it, you know, or, you know, is that the stupidest thing you could possibly say right now? I mean, honestly, it would make life more interesting.

• 1:52:46Speaker 01

  I mean, I'll give you a great example. So we were sitting here and we're watching an amazing documentary about the bacheros. And the bacheros are the Nicaraguan migrant workers that come over and build things in Costa Rica in search of a better life and, and, you know, leaving persecution in Nicaragua, et cetera. And these are basically all men. And it told the untold story of the bacheros, right? And my good friend of mine, Roberto,

• 1:53:15Speaker 01

  he, he made it and produced it and directed it. And it's, it's a remarkable film. Okay? And afterward, this is the screening. And, and this, this beautiful beach woman, at the time when we're supposed to ask questions, says, it's a 32-minute documentary.

• 1:53:37Speaker 01

  Okay, um, and her question is, "Well, I think you should make one about the women."

• 1:53:44Speaker 01

  "When are you gonna make the documentary about the women?" Now, I love the idea of, of making a documentary about the women, but the bacheros aren't women. They're men. And in the documentary, their families and wives and children, men, women and otherwise, were included and touched upon, but ultimately, the people that are enduring the, the labor conditions, that are the unseen population of, of the other country, that are crossing the borders and getting caught and returned and all of this, all of that is happening to the men. Right? And so, it wasn't that there was a sexism moment, none of that. It was that she had to ask that question,

• 1:54:29Speaker 01

  because it felt like the polite, appropriate question to ask, and it showed that she had not watched or understood the film in any capacity. So, so that's an example of sometimes where I see these things where it's like, I understand that it feels like that's the right question to ask, but, but ultimately, it's being polite and it's being politically correct and it's going in no direction at all. And instead, what would have been fascinating is to say, "Has anyone done a documentary on the wives and children they left at home? And, you know, if there are any, uh, you know,

• 1:55:11Speaker 01

  dramatic affairs with siblings of the men that went to work that happened while they were gone, right? Is there, is there a drama there that was different than everyday, everyday life before?" And that might be interesting, you know, that's a great point. But, to me, you know, the authenticity of that moment was shedding a light on people that never see the light. And it was very powerful. And a question that tried to dim that light in any way, um, was a dim question.

• 1:55:47Peter Diamandis?

  Ah, I'm gonna end on a, on a, on a joke. So, um,

• 1:55:54Peter Diamandis?

  Professor Heisenberg is in his car traveling down the highway.

• 1:56:00Peter Diamandis?

  The autobahn, since he's German. And a cop pulls him over and says, "Professor Heisenberg, I clocked you at 75 miles per hour." And he goes, "Oh, my God. Now I have no idea where I am."

• 1:56:17Peter Diamandis?

  For those of you wondering, it's the Heisenberg uncertainty principle. You can't actually know the velocity and your location at the same time. It's a geek joke. I know.

• 1:56:25Speaker 01

  I love it. Well, I mean, look, you gotta do what you're good at.

• 1:56:30Peter Diamandis?

  I'm obviously not good at delivering jokes. Uh, brother, I love you. I love you in my life. Thank you. Thank you for all. Thanks for a fun conversation.

• 1:56:41Speaker 01

  Thank you, Peter. It's great to see you. And I hope we get to give you a big hug down here soon.

• 1:56:46Peter Diamandis?

  Happy birthday. Coming up very shortly.

• 1:56:50Speaker 01

  Despite all odds, I made it past 40.

• 1:56:53Peter Diamandis?

  That's amazing. Amazing. Well, you know, I'm working on another century for you. So, yeah.

• 1:56:58Speaker 01

  Well, we'll make sure we use it well.

• 1:57:00Peter Diamandis?

  Yeah, give my deputy kids a big hug and kiss for me.

• 1:57:03Speaker 01

  All right. You kiss the kids. Love it. Talk to you soon.

• 1:57:07Peter Diamandis?

  Bye. Everyone, this is Peter again. Before you take off, I want to take a moment to just invite you to subscribe to my weekly tech blog. Today, over 200,000 people received this email twice per week. In the tech blog, I share with you my insights on converging exponential technologies, what's going on in AI, how longevity is transforming, adding decades to our life. In the tech blog, I often look at the 20 meta trends that are going to transform the decade ahead and share the conversations I've had with incredible tech thought leaders on how they're transforming industries. If that sounds cool to you and you want to try it, join me. Go to dmantis.com/blog, enter your email, and let's start this weekly conversation. Let me share with you the incredible

• 1:57:50Peter Diamandis?

  progress we're seeing in the world of technology and the positive impact it's having on our lives. Again, that's dmantis.com/blog. Looking forward to sharing my insights and incredible breakthroughs I'm seeing with you every single week.

• 1:58:18Speaker 00

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