Julie Piatt: Food As Medicine

Because she was such a sensation in our first episode, Julie Piatt is back for more. Today we talk about food — as energy, vibration and medicine. How Julie healed herself with nutrition and meditation. The perils of the word “vegan”. What it means to be Plantpowered. And getting back to food as a global uniter. Thanks to your overwhelming support, I woke up this morning to see that our little show hit #1 on iTunes in the Fitness / Nutrition category and #2 in Health. Amazing. We will do our best to live up to the early praise and continue to provide the best content we can. Thank you! Enjoy! Rich Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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

• 0:00Rich Roll?

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• 0:44Rich Roll?

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• 1:13Julie Piatt?

  The Rich Roll Podcast.

• 1:17Rich Roll?

  Yes, sir. Check, check. We're back. Episode three of the podcast. I'm back with Julie Pyatt.

• 1:26Julie Piatt?

  Hi, everyone.

• 1:27Rich Roll?

  The star of episode one.

• 1:29Julie Piatt?

  Oh, wow.

• 1:30Rich Roll?

  The shining gem. Who knew? Nobody knew. Everyone's like, who is this Julie person?

• 1:36Julie Piatt?

  I've been silent for years. That time is now over.

• 1:40Rich Roll?

  She needs to have her own podcast.

• 1:42Julie Piatt?

  I want my own podcast.

• 1:43Rich Roll?

  Yeah, she does. She's like, ooh, I like this.

• 1:45Julie Piatt?

  It was fun.

• 1:46Rich Roll?

  I want my own show.

• 1:47Julie Piatt?

  It was fun. Thanks.

• 1:48Rich Roll?

  You should, because then you can go, you could just go really off the rails.

• 1:51Julie Piatt?

  I could go.

• 1:51Rich Roll?

  Down the spiritual deep end.

• 1:53Julie Piatt?

  I could go to places you've never gone before.

• 1:58Rich Roll?

  Sometimes I'm scared when Julie talks because she'll just go so far into distant galaxies, the stuff she's talking about, and I get nervous.

• 2:10Julie Piatt?

  Yeah, but you're always nervous and then the one person at the event that completely is on my frequency will then come up and speak the same thing to me.

• 2:20Rich Roll?

  Yeah, the one.

• 2:22Julie Piatt?

  That's true.

• 2:23Rich Roll?

  The one. So, we had a great guest for this morning, Rodman Machado, who is an amazing chef. He's the executive chef here at Common Ground and this guy spins food out of the ground and creates these incredible delicacies that are divine.

• 2:45Julie Piatt?

  He's an amazing artist.

• 2:47Rich Roll?

  Yeah, he really knows how to apply art to food and he's been feeding us and the people here at the restaurant and he's a very, very interesting guy, Zanaya Native. And he was our guest, he was meant to be our guest this morning, but there's a big event here at Common Ground this morning and he's scrambling to prepare food and get ready for that. And he was gonna come in here, but he was gonna be rushed and everything like that. So we thought we'd reschedule him and since we're all set up here to do an episode and the feedback from Julie being on the initial version episode of the podcast was so overwhelmingly positive, we thought we would just go for it. But we're gonna have to wing it a little bit today.

• 3:30Rich Roll?

  We didn't prepare some big, you know, step-by-step thing to talk about.

• 3:35Julie Piatt?

  We're gonna dig deep into our history and see if there's something.

• 3:38Rich Roll?

  Exactly.

• 3:41Julie Piatt?

  That's interesting.

• 3:42Rich Roll?

  You, the audience, will be our therapist today. We need one. We recorded our second episode. Yesterday afternoon with Chris Jayb, it's up on iTunes, check it out, he's a fascinating guy, it was a really, really interesting interview with a guy who's lived a very unique life, and so if you haven't checked it out yet, check it out, it's up on iTunes, we're up on Stitcher now, I think we're all configured and we're figuring this stuff out as we go. And I woke up this morning to discover that our little podcast that we just started here and don't know what we're doing is number one on iTunes in fitness and nutrition and

• 4:27Rich Roll?

  number two in the overall health category, I think, it's really quite- It's incredible. Stunning, I'm shocked, and of course, very pleased, I mean, I would have never predicted that, just, you know, literally, like, we just started this thing a week ago, and I just figured out, like, how to get it up on iTunes, like, I honestly don't even know what I'm doing, so, the fact that, you know, we're already, like, the number, at least for today, or an hour ago, maybe it dropped down by now, but like, when I checked, when I woke up this morning and just made sure that the episode we recorded last night

• 5:05Rich Roll?

  was up on iTunes, I saw that and I was like, "Oh my god," and, you know, it's not like it's an uncrowded space, I mean, Jillian Michaels has a podcast, Rob Wolf, who's the Paleo Guy, has been doing a podcast for a long time, is a very successful podcast, he's a smart guy, and we were like, above that, I mean, it's crazy, so- It's crazy. You know, I just think that it means that, you know, people are looking for something new, you know, people are open to a new way and a different way of looking at things and are obviously, you know, responding in a positive way to the ideas that we're putting forth, and we really haven't even begun, you know, I mean, I think people who know

• 5:50Rich Roll?

  me are subscribing to the podcast or checking it out because they're interested in- You know, changing their diet, or getting more plant powered, or getting more fit. And we haven't even really talked about any of that stuff yet. We're just kind of, you know, going long form on these, on these interviews that, that, you know, these conversations that just take us in whatever direction we want to go in. So we haven't even gotten into the specific nitty gritty of, of, you know, all the stuff I talk about in the book and, and everything like that. And of course, we'll, you know, be pursuing that. Today, we're gonna just talk, I think. But what do you think?

• 6:25Julie Piatt?

  We could just stare into each other's eyes and see if it transmits.

• 6:29Rich Roll?

  That's good radio. That's great podcasting.

• 6:33Julie Piatt?

  No, but I, I think it's really cool and, and really, really exciting also. Um, it's really fun to do a podcast. I mean, we had such a good time.

• 6:50Julie Piatt?

  I want to be on every episode now.

• 6:52Rich Roll?

  You do. Well, maybe you should be.

• 6:54Julie Piatt?

  I don't know.

• 6:55Rich Roll?

  Everyone else seems to think so.

• 6:56Julie Piatt?

  I don't know. I would love it.

• 6:57Rich Roll?

  Rename the podcast.

• 6:58Julie Piatt?

  I would love it. And it's so liberating because so often when I'm trying to write a piece, or, or write about a complicated subject, or blog, you know, and you're trying to weigh between the length of the piece and how in-depth you go. It's just so much easier to communicate when you're speaking. You can really clarify a lot of points that could be otherwise, you know, just not fully communicated. So it's a very freeing medium.

• 7:22Rich Roll?

  It's very free.

• 7:24Julie Piatt?

  Very exciting.

• 7:24Rich Roll?

  It's very, it's like, it's kind of a Wild West medium. I mean, it is a brand new medium. And I think there's a lot of people that are sort of applying the rules of radio to podcasting. And I guess that's fine, but you know, I don't really see it that way.

• 7:38Julie Piatt?

  Are there rules?

• 7:39Rich Roll?

  Completely, well, you know, it's sort of like, hey, you know, here we are with a podcast and, you know, coming up and, you know, here's this segment and that segment. And, you know, I listen to podcasts like that and I get a lot out of that. But I think... You know, what is really freeing about this is that you can just have a really long, interesting conversation. It doesn't matter how long it takes. You just talk until it's played out. And that could be three hours, or that could be a half an hour. And you know, some of, when I, when we recorded the first episode, I kind of sent it out to some people that I trust, or, you know, I respect their opinion. And they were like, "Oh, it was great, but you know, maybe you should, I think you should keep it under an hour." You know, it really shouldn't be any longer than an hour. And I'm like, "Why?" You know?

• 8:23Julie Piatt?

  Right.

• 8:24Rich Roll?

  I mean, it's not like you're tuning in, and then you're gonna miss the end. If you get bored, you can just turn it off.

• 8:28Julie Piatt?

  Right, exactly.

• 8:29Rich Roll?

  Right? Or, you know, and it's like an audiobook. I mean, you just, you know, you're on the treadmill, you're driving in your car, you listen to it. And if you lose interest, you can, you can turn it off. But if you're engaged, then you can listen to the end. I mean, I don't, I don't really see a point in coming up with a specified endpoint or time period that we should do it.

• 8:46Julie Piatt?

  No, I totally agree. I mean, I think by leaving the space, allowing the space to hold whatever, whatever arises to express itself, it also makes it very relaxed. Because as somebody who's speaking and sharing, you're not thinking in the back of your mind that you have to get these points out, or you have to say it in an order, or you're gonna run out of time.

• 9:06Rich Roll?

  Right. It's like saying, you know, "Well, your dinner conversation should never last longer than 45 minutes."

• 9:11Julie Piatt?

  Exactly.

• 9:12Rich Roll?

  Yeah. They last as long as they last, right?

• 9:15Julie Piatt?

  All right. So let's see how long this lasts.

• 9:18Rich Roll?

  Yeah. Well, at this rate, it's not gonna last very long. What's that? Give the links. The links?

• 9:24Julie Piatt?

  We're getting advice from our producer.

• 9:25Rich Roll?

  Yeah, Tyler, our producer here, saying to give the links. What are the links?

• 9:29Julie Piatt?

  I don't know. Which links?

• 9:31Rich Roll?

  I don't know. Well, if you haven't checked out my book, Finding Ultra, you can find it on Amazon. And we are quickly using up our bandwidth from the initial subscription that, that I signed up for, for the podcast. So this is gonna start getting expensive quick, if we're, if we're doing, you know, four of these a week, or whatever. And in order to pay for the bandwidth, I decided to do something that I never thought I would do, which is put a banner ad up on my website, richroll.com. It's just an affiliate link. So if you're gonna buy something on Amazon, like Finding Ultra. Instead of just going to amazon.com, just go to richroll.com and click on the banner

• 10:14Rich Roll?

  ad on the right-hand corner. I don't think it shows up on the homepage. I think you have to actually go to the blog or the podcast section and you'll see it there. Click on that and then buy whatever it was you were going to buy anyway. And it doesn't cost you anymore. Whatever price you're paying for whatever you're buying will be exactly the same, but it throws a little bit into our pot. It's going to help us cover what are quickly escalating bandwidth costs. It should be greatly appreciated. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Very much. Couple shekels or whatever. Thank you. If you want to learn more about what Julie and I are doing together, you can check out Jai Lifestyle. We have a downloadable e-cookbook there called Jai Seed. We have

• 10:57Rich Roll?

  my Jai Repair Plant Power Nutrition Recovery Formula, which is my formulation. It's a tri-blend of three different plant-based proteins: hemp protein, sprouted brown rice protein, pea protein. It has powerful antioxidants in it like resveratrol and grape skin extracts. It has cordyceps mushroom extracts, which I've been using for years. Studies have shown that they enhance oxygen uptake and lung capacity. And I found that to be very beneficial in my endurance training and in my recovery, which is why I included them in this product.

• 11:38Rich Roll?

  So you can get that right now exclusively. That product's only available at jailifestyle.com. We're working on trying to find some distributors. Shipping costs are expensive with it, so for people that are overseas, we're working on it. And we also, this is very exciting, we have a vitamin B12 supplement. So for those of you that are plant-powered, eating a plant-based diet, vitamin B12 is really an important supplement. I believe in supplements. I don't believe in overdoing it on supplements. I think there's a lot of people that are too focused on supplements, but I think supplements are rather important.

• 12:19Rich Roll?

  When done properly and in moderation to really optimize your health. And on a plant-based diet, vitamin B12 is the one thing you really can't find in plant-based foods. Nutritional yeast, I think, is the only food that we use that just naturally, it's naturally occurring in it. And you can get vitamin B12, a lot of foods are fortified with vitamin B12, like the plant-based milks, like almond milk and coconut milk and breakfast cereals and things like that. But if you're not eating those, you're not eating a lot of those, you really do want to make sure that you're getting your vitamin B12. I think a lot of people are vitamin B12 deficient.

• 13:01Rich Roll?

  And when you're vitamin B12 deficient, you're just not functioning entirely properly. And it actually has a negative impact on your mental capacity, among other things.

• 13:11Julie Piatt?

  It's a really easy way to get it. It's just, it's a spray, so you just spray it in your mouth.

• 13:16Rich Roll?

  Yeah, so our product is actually going to go live on Jai Lifestyle and we're just configuring it. The product is done, it's manufactured, the labels are on, it's ready to ship. We just haven't got it up on the website yet for sale. So we're going to do that in the next couple of days. Again, it's not up yet, but check it out soon. And it's just a spray. Yeah, you spray it, just one spray in your mouth every day. It'll take you a nanosecond to do it. It's a very affordable product and cheap to ship because it's a tiny little spray vial.

• 13:47Julie Piatt?

  Cool.

• 13:48Rich Roll?

  So look out for that and I'll let you know when it's actually up on the site and available to buy.

• 13:52Julie Piatt?

  Great.

• 13:53Rich Roll?

  So that's it for links. This is like, I don't want to do like a big ad.

• 13:56Julie Piatt?

  You don't?

• 13:57Rich Roll?

  No, we're done with the ads.

• 13:59Julie Piatt?

  Let's do it.

• 14:00Rich Roll?

  Right? Tyler, did we miss any link?

• 14:02Julie Piatt?

  Yeah.

• 14:03Rich Roll?

  To talk about?

• 14:04Julie Piatt?

  Only my music.

• 14:05Rich Roll?

  Yeah. Julie's album, srimatimusic.com. Julie is a beautiful musician. She recorded her album, Mother of Mine. Tyler produced the album and Tyler and Trapper, my two boys, are the musicians performing on it. You can find it on iTunes, srimatimusic, S-R-I-M-A-T-I music.com. If you want to find out more about Julie and her music, go to srimatimusic.com.

• 14:30Julie Piatt?

  Yes, and if you're connecting with me on a spiritual level or you're feeling any resonance in that, in that way through my words, the music is really such a pure representation of my journey, finding myself. It's sort of, sort of my finding ultra.

• 14:47Rich Roll?

  That's right. What do you think that link is between music and spirituality?

• 14:53Julie Piatt?

  I think it's huge. I think, um, we're not going to talk about music, though. We're going to talk about food, but, okay.

• 15:00Rich Roll?

  Yeah, I know, well.

• 15:01Julie Piatt?

  No, well, music is, music is so pure, and I mean, part of me, and I, and I can rapidly see that I am going to be writing a book, and I am going to be sharing more with written word and also just spoken word, you know, communicating, like this podcast, but...

• 15:14Rich Roll?

  Be very afraid.

• 15:15Julie Piatt?

  Be very... But the, um, no, music is, uh, music is so beautiful because it's such a pure way to communicate, because it doesn't have to go through the brain. It doesn't have to go through an analysis of, of what the brain thinks about it, right? So it can literally be absorbed into your cells in a moment, in a frequency, and that's why I think music is such an incredibly powerful medium to express something. And especially the way that I came to sing and write this music was as a result of a meditation practice. I was not even trying to write a song, the song simply wrote me. And that's what makes it extremely powerful.

• 15:58Julie Piatt?

  As an artist, it is the most powerful thing that I've ever expressed.

• 16:03Rich Roll?

  Yeah, well, there's no, the thing about music is, there's, there's no thought involved. Like it just, like you said, it just goes right in and you have a visceral kind of full-body response to it. Positive, negative, whatever your emotional response is to it. It doesn't really involve the brain.

• 16:18Julie Piatt?

  No.

• 16:19Rich Roll?

  Right?

• 16:19Julie Piatt?

  Yeah.

• 16:21Rich Roll?

  Old is time.

• 16:22Julie Piatt?

  Old is time.

• 16:23Rich Roll?

  All right, food, you want to talk about food?

• 16:24Julie Piatt?

  Let's talk about food.

• 16:25Rich Roll?

  What do you want to talk about?

• 16:28Julie Piatt?

  Well, why don't we, um, I kind of wanted to share my experience with, uh, plant healing. Plants as medicine.

• 16:37Rich Roll?

  Right.

• 16:38Julie Piatt?

  Food is medicine.

• 16:39Rich Roll?

  Can I just, let me just set the stage for this a little bit?

• 16:41Julie Piatt?

  Absolutely, absolutely.

• 16:43Rich Roll?

  Julie has a very fascinating story in her own right, in her journey with food, that really kind of set the stage for my transformation and this journey. And I had written in an earlier draft of my book, this whole story and this thing that occurred to her. And I talk about it when I've been traveling around and speaking, but it actually got edited out of the book. And if everything got edited out, this is the one thing I actually wish that was in there, because it really kind of, it's a powerful, it's a powerful story. And I really think that if that had not happened, like, I don't know that I would have sort of latched on and done what I did.

• 17:26Julie Piatt?

  No, it's definitely, definitely a major catalyst in our, in our journey.

• 17:31Rich Roll?

  So what happened?

• 17:32Julie Piatt?

  So what happened is, I'm, I'm gonna estimate the timeframes, because I'm not that good with timelines. My meditation works really well, and I, in my own world...

• 17:43Rich Roll?

  She doesn't vitamin B12 deficiency?

• 17:45Julie Piatt?

  Probably. So, anyway, so I, I woke up one day and I noticed that my Adam's apple was rather large and growing.

• 17:56Rich Roll?

  It was 2004.

• 17:57Julie Piatt?

  Okay, 2004. Hmm, yeah. When was Jaya born?

• 18:01Rich Roll?

  I don't know.

• 18:03Julie Piatt?

  Uh, how old is she?

• 18:05Rich Roll?

  She's five.

• 18:06Julie Piatt?

  This is what happens when you have more than two children. It's like, which one, which one am I holding?

• 18:10Rich Roll?

  She's the youngest, right?

• 18:12Julie Piatt?

  Okay, yeah, so she's, come on. So, she's, she's born in 2007. So, uh, yeah, maybe 2004, 2005, whatever, so around there. So, anyway, so, I had this, this cyst develop in my neck, and it, and it was growing, and it actually became the size of a small golf ball, visible right in the front of my neck. And, uh, so immediately I thought, you know, something's with my thyroid, something's wrong. So, I went to see a doctor.

• 18:43Rich Roll?

  It looked like, I mean, just for those of you out there, I mean, it looked kind of like a goiter, you know, it was a big...

• 18:49Julie Piatt?

  I hate that word, you goiter.

• 18:51Rich Roll?

  I know, but that's the closest thing. Have you seen pictures of people with a goiter?

• 18:55Julie Piatt?

  No, I haven't.

• 18:55Rich Roll?

  I mean, yeah, it's similar to that. I mean, it was a large growth on her neck.

• 18:58Julie Piatt?

  It was large.

• 18:59Rich Roll?

  It really grew to the size of like a golf ball sized growth protruding like from the right hand side of your Adam's apple.

• 19:07Julie Piatt?

  Yeah, like right in front. It was very, very visible. So anyway, so I went to see doctors and, you know, UCLA and, and, and they did an MRI and, um, you know, the good news was it was not cancerous. They told me, they gave me these bits of information. You never really know why or how they, they say that. But they said, okay, it was infected, but it's not infected anymore. And this is something that usually happens in children between the ages of, I don't know, six and 10 or something. And I was in my 40s already. So it was just very strange and, and they said, okay, it's, um, you know, I had originally thought, well, maybe they can just pop it, you know, stick something in it and extract whatever was make, whatever the inside was.

• 19:52Julie Piatt?

  And then, then they, they gave me the news that, no, it, it wasn't an easy surgery. It was actually sort of a medium, medium level surgery. And they would have to take a cross section out of one of my vertebrae. Like, um, the cyst was actually growing between two fused bones. So there was no way that it could be healed naturally. And I, you know, I, I think I went for three opinions or something, at least two.

• 20:20Rich Roll?

  So it was, it was diagnosed as a thyroglossal duct cyst, which is a, it wasn't, it's not cancerous, but it was a, it's a tumorous growth. It was just, it was not a malignant tumorous growth.

• 20:33Julie Piatt?

  It was a, yeah, cyst, I guess.

• 20:34Rich Roll?

  A cyst, right.

• 20:35Julie Piatt?

  Yeah, a cyst. So, um, so they said, I said, listen, you know, I'm kind of into healing and I don't really, you know, I'd had a tonsillectomy as an adult when my oldest son was like one years old. I'd had a tonsillectomy on the advice of my doctor. And I tried to heal it, heal the inflammation myself for some time with some Chinese herbs and it didn't work. And then the surgeon just convinced me that it was very easy. It was no big deal. It was going to be a week and I kind of, you know, Bought the lie and went in for the surgery.

• 21:11Rich Roll?

  For the tonsillectomy.

• 21:12Julie Piatt?

  The tonsillectomy and they did something, something was wrong, something happened in the surgery, which I'll never know because I was under anesthesia, but when I came out, I was in such massive pain that morphine was not working and they would send the pain doc up with a cart. I remember this young boy and he would kind of try to mix me a cocktail that would relieve the excruciating pain that I was in and it was being referred from the back of my throat into my eardrums. So I was readmitted to the hospital two times and I was on an IV at home and I'm pretty thin anyway, but I had lost, I think

• 21:54Julie Piatt?

  I lost like 20 pounds after that surgery. I had.

• 21:59Rich Roll?

  Because you couldn't eat.

• 22:00Julie Piatt?

  I couldn't eat. I couldn't eat and I was, at the time I was living on, you know, like a Jamba Juice a day. That was the healthiest thing that I was aware of at that time. Not that healthy, but it's a step. So anyway.

• 22:13Rich Roll?

  Better than Diet Coke.

• 22:14Julie Piatt?

  It is. So anyway, so I lost a lot of weight. I was in a lot of pain and I remember one of my key references for realizing the power of pain and just what it takes you to, is at one point they prescribed for me this prescription drug called Dilaudid, something like Dilaudid.

• 22:34Rich Roll?

  I know what Dilaudid is.

• 22:35Julie Piatt?

  You had to. I don't, what is it? Let me tell you, it was so.

• 22:38Rich Roll?

  Dilaudid is awesome.

• 22:39Julie Piatt?

  It is awesome. Have you used, have you used it before?

• 22:42Rich Roll?

  I had one instance that we won't talk about, but actually when I was in rehab, there were like a lot of guys that loved.

• 22:50Julie Piatt?

  That were like Dilaudid?

• 22:51Rich Roll?

  Oh yeah, they would get pharmaceutical grade Dilaudid. Like when I was in rehab, the rehab that I went to. Was kind of the place where there were two professions where the sort of governing bodies of those professions would send their people when they got into trouble. And now, I know this is an aside, but I have to tell this story. Pilots and doctors.

• 23:16Julie Piatt?

  So scary.

• 23:17Rich Roll?

  The two people that you completely give your life over to, like if you're like sort of releasing complete control over your destiny to another human being, I mean, those are the two people, right?

• 23:29Julie Piatt?

  That is crazy.

• 23:30Rich Roll?

  Jet, jet, jet, commercial jetliner pilots and doctors, right? So, so I spent 100 days in the rehab, like hanging out with these guys, and they would tell the craziest stories you have ever heard.

• 23:43Julie Piatt?

  Oh my gosh.

• 23:44Rich Roll?

  And so I will never, like now, I never used to be scared when I flew, when I flew, and now I'm just, I'm terrified. Like, because, well, I don't want to divulge.

• 23:54Julie Piatt?

  Anyway.

• 23:55Rich Roll?

  But anyway, Dilaudid is a very, Dilaudid is a very popular.

• 23:58Julie Piatt?

  But the Dilaudid wasn't working for me, but obviously the surgeon that cut my neck was on, was using it.

• 24:03Rich Roll?

  Maybe he was using Dilaudid himself.

• 24:05Julie Piatt?

  So, but I remember you had to have like an original signature. You had, there had to be like some major ID, like you couldn't, you couldn't have someone else pick it up. It was a big thing to like get it. And I remember I took, I think the dose was, you know, take one, and I think I took two, and it did nothing. I had zero reaction, still in just incredible pain. And then some weeks later, after I had recovered more and started to, I'd been out of the hospital and started to come back, I had a flare up and I took one of those and I literally was laid out flat on the bed and I couldn't lift my limbs. I mean, I couldn't even lift one part of my body. That's how strong that stuff is.

• 24:45Rich Roll?

  It's a powerful controlled substance.

• 24:47Julie Piatt?

  But when you're, but when you're in pain, when you're in that much pain, it just doesn't even work. It's crazy. It's such a crazy thing. So anyway, so getting back, so this is why, one of the reasons why, and also the fact that I had started to really embrace natural healing and also realize that You know, the ancient peoples and indigenous peoples of our planet have healed themselves with herbs and plants since the beginning of time. So, you know, when did we start handing over our power to the doctor? Like, the doctor knows, do what the doctor says.

• 25:20Rich Roll?

  Well, yeah, and I mean, I, you know, coming from a traditional academic background, and I actually went, you know, I was pre-med for two years in college. Like, I thought that I wanted to be a doctor, and then I got a little wayward there and lost sight of that. But anyway, you know, I'd always been a very firm believer in Western medicine, and doctors know best, and, you know, look, they've gone to school forever, like, they know what they're doing. Like, you cannot, like, if they say, "You need to do this," like, that's what you need to do. Like, I'd never, it would have never occurred to me to question that.

• 25:57Julie Piatt?

  Right. Well, and then, and even as, I mean, when you look at it, that as women, we've given our power back over to doctors to tell us how to birth our children. I mean, it's crazy, when you really think of it, at a, at a natural core level. So, anyway, getting back to, to this cyst that I had, so I made the decision, I was very, very resolved, that I was going to heal it myself, and they-

• 26:24Rich Roll?

  I was not a fan of that decision.

• 26:26Julie Piatt?

  And you were not supportive at all. But it's okay. I still loved you. So, yeah, I went, I, you know, I kind of checked things out, I was like, "Okay, so, you know, explain to me what this is," and, and they said, you know, "It's not malignant now, but it was infected, and if it gets infected again, it could turn malignant," and, you know, that could have just been a scare tactic, or it could have been the truth, I don't know. But they said, "You will not heal it yourself, it's an impossibility, it is impossible for you to heal it yourself. But you can try, you have a little bit of time, and you can, you can try it out."

• 27:00Rich Roll?

  The knife's waiting.

• 27:01Julie Piatt?

  That's right.

• 27:02Rich Roll?

  The knife's always there.

• 27:03Julie Piatt?

  That's right. So, so I went home, and, and I called my dear friend Perry Reeves, actually, who is, actually, she plays-

• 27:14Julie Piatt?

  Ari's wife on Entourage.

• 27:16Rich Roll?

  Yeah, she's on Entourage for those.

• 27:18Julie Piatt?

  Gorgeous, gorgeous, beautiful yogi and actually was raised on a very completely pure diet since she was a child, which is one of the reasons she looks as amazing as she does.

• 27:30Rich Roll?

  Yeah, she's very well preserved.

• 27:32Julie Piatt?

  She's gorgeous. She's really gorgeous. So, anyway, she, we had been, we had done a program together, an advanced tantric yoga program at my house, at Jai House, with just a small group of people and she-

• 27:46Rich Roll?

  Wait a minute, hold on a second.

• 27:48Julie Piatt?

  Yeah, no.

• 27:49Rich Roll?

  You can't just say you did a tantra program and not clarify exactly what that was, because there's gonna be a lot of conclusions being drawn from that.

• 27:57Julie Piatt?

  That's right, okay, so this is, so tantra is a lineage and it's a tradition of yogi sacred knowledge.

• 28:07Rich Roll?

  Get to the sex part.

• 28:08Julie Piatt?

  There is no sex. There was no sex.

• 28:10Rich Roll?

  That's so disappointing.

• 28:12Julie Piatt?

  No, tantra does not mean sex. There is one kind of arm of tantra that could include that for exploration reason, but that was not the tantra that we were exploring. It's a very sacred, powerful, ancient lineage and it has many parts. It's a whole way of living, a whole, a whole body of being and one of those is sexuality because as humans we are, you know, that's part of who we are, but-

• 28:45Rich Roll?

  But people latch on to that.

• 28:46Julie Piatt?

  Yeah.

• 28:47Rich Roll?

  In other words, what you're saying is tantra is sort of a philosophy of life that touches on everything, but we kind of focus on the sex part.

• 28:56Julie Piatt?

  And it's very much about being very much in the body, which is really who we are. It's like, you know, my meditation is changing my child's diaper, you know. My prayer when I eat is to eat the food and be present. It's a very grounded way.

• 29:10Rich Roll?

  Right.

• 29:11Julie Piatt?

  It's beautiful. So, anyway, so Perry was, Perry was in that group and I had sort of asked her early on, I mean, I was eating vegetarian at the time, but I was still drinking a little wine socially. I'm not an addict. I have used drugs as a young person, which I can share later, but I'm not an addict. And I just, you know, I would drink wine when I wanted or lattes or, you know, it was just, it was sort of just living, but eating kind of vegetarian, kind of a very sort of mainstream vegetarian diet. And I had asked Perry to refer me to a doctor that she worked with, an Ayurvedic doctor. And she, she asked me if I was ready to change my entire diet and my entire way of eating.

• 29:54Julie Piatt?

  Because she said if I wasn't, she wasn't going to give me the number because it was, it was sort of like a waste. It would be a bad thing to waste the herbs because the herbs are sacred. So if you're going to embark on this, you need to commit to make the dietary change. And at that point, I wasn't ready. Well, then the sister arrived and I called Perry and I said, "I'm ready." So she gave me the name of the doctor, a beautiful, beautiful, simple, gorgeous man named Dr. Patel. I do not know his other name and Patel in, in India is like Smith, right? So I've actually tried to find him recently and have been unable to find him again.

• 30:35Julie Piatt?

  But anyway, I went to see him, went down into his condo that he lives in Chatsworth, very simple place, and went down into his basement where he has all these jars of herbs all over the room.

• 30:47Rich Roll?

  And before you get into that, can you, so he is an Ayurvedic doctor?

• 30:51Julie Piatt?

  Yeah, physician.

• 30:52Rich Roll?

  What is Ayurveda?

• 30:53Julie Piatt?

  Ayurveda is an Indian science of medicine where actually the core, the core philosophy, first of all, this is passed down from Guru to student and it was written on palm leaves. So it's a sacred science that has been shared through thousands of years. And it's from gathering herbs from nature and in the forest, you heal yourself. And the premise of Ayurveda isn't that the herbs heal you. This is such a beautiful, a beautiful truth. And that is that the herbs actually assist your body to arrive to a perfect balance so that the body may heal itself.

• 31:37Julie Piatt?

  So everything in Ayurveda is done with the awareness that the body is... Is God, is a perfect organism. It knows exactly how to rejuvenate itself or heal itself. So they don't cut, there's no cutting, there's no surgery, there's no this kind of stuff.

• 31:55Rich Roll?

  But it's about, it's about looking at where the imbalances are and addressing those balances to create a harmony.

• 32:01Julie Piatt?

  Yeah, a harmony.

• 32:02Rich Roll?

  Which will create an environment that will allow the body to heal itself.

• 32:05Julie Piatt?

  That's right. And the way these physicians can tell is they actually take a pulse. And they can tell from your pulse how different energies in your bodies are out of balance. And I mean, it's a very, very detailed, so we're, I'm not going to go all the way into it, but it's tri-dosha, so people have one of three sort of doshas, which is

• 32:25Rich Roll?

  What's a dosha?

• 32:27Julie Piatt?

  Vata, it's like an energy, let's call it like an energy. So it's vata pitta kapha. And everybody has some combination of those three. And then they can tell by your pulse, you know, how, what the mix is, what's out of balance.

• 32:44Rich Roll?

  What do those three mean?

• 32:46Julie Piatt?

  I mean, I can tell you generally, yeah, vata is very

• 32:48Rich Roll?

  We'll put some links in the show notes if you want to check out and learn more about Ayurveda.

• 32:53Julie Piatt?

  This is very, very, very detailed, so I don't want to, and I'm not an Ayurvedic physician. I just healed myself through using it. But vata is like a windy, tends to be like thin, sort of wiry people. It's a windy energy. Piatt is fire, you would, you're a very pitta, you're a very pitta person.

• 33:11Rich Roll?

  Because I'm very fiery.

• 33:12Julie Piatt?

  Yes, and, and, yes.

• 33:14Rich Roll?

  And what?

• 33:15Julie Piatt?

  Angry.

• 33:17Rich Roll?

  Angry?

• 33:17Julie Piatt?

  Angry, sometimes.

• 33:19Rich Roll?

  Sometimes.

• 33:20Julie Piatt?

  And then kapha is, you know, very sort of sluggish, like, like wet and, well, I'm using other terms now, but sort of like larger, with large eyes. Like, I would have kapha eyes. I have very large eyes, that's a kapha quality. So anyway, so enough of that. So getting back to this beautiful man, I went to his basement and We had a beautiful spiritual talk. He's a devoted yogi and we spoke about the Bhagavad Gita, which is an ancient Indian text, which is like the Bible, but one of the oldest scriptures that exists. And he sort of asked me, you know, what kind of stress do you have in your life?

• 34:03Julie Piatt?

  And I gave him a lot of excuses of why I had such a crazy life. And I couched it in that I was very creative. Well, you know, I'm very creative, so I have all these things going on. And I was very ambitious at the time. I had a lot of ambition to express a lot of different things in my life. And so he kind of just narrowed those down and got very real with me. And he gave me a schedule with the time that I would rise in the morning. You know, I would rise between 4:30 and 6:00 a.m. I would drink a water with lemon first thing. I would then wash my face, my hands, my teeth, you know, use the bathroom.

• 34:45Julie Piatt?

  Then I would sit and pray, mantra, chanting, sitting in meditation. And then my day would begin. And I ate off of, he made a list of foods. It was on one sheet of paper. And I ate off that same sheet of paper for two and a half years. It was one list. And it was primarily lentils, rice, dark leafy greens, sweet fruits, like sweet apples, sweet grapes. I could eat honey. And then he would have me drink a cup of warm milk at night. And of course, like in India, the cow is sacred.

• 35:29Julie Piatt?

  And so at that time, I was really more into goat milk, so I convinced him to let me drink goat milk. So I drank warm goat milk with a little ghee, which is a butter, an Indian butter clarified, and some spices. And then he, I had these herbs. You can tell him about the herbs.

• 35:49Rich Roll?

  Yeah, so all I know is that I was on the receiving end of this equation. And she, you know, she came home from this doctor and she's like, I'm gonna do this thing and, you know, I'm gonna, I'm gonna try to heal myself. And, you know, I'm trying to be the supportive husband. I mean, I was in a very different place at the time from where I am now. So, you know, I was not...

• 36:12Rich Roll?

  At the time, I was not, believe me, like, I did not think this was gonna work. You know, I was, I was wishing and hoping that you would just sort of do, you know, go through this for a couple of weeks and go to the doctor. But, you know, we were married and, you know, you gotta support your spouse.

• 36:27Julie Piatt?

  You were trying.

• 36:28Rich Roll?

  Yeah, I was trying. I was like, okay, I'm gonna, I have your back. Like, I will support you. And so she would prepare these meals. And, you know, I wouldn't eat those meals. She would make me something different. And then at night, she would take out this, well, first of all, you came home with all these sort of Ziploc bags.

• 36:47Julie Piatt?

  That's right.

• 36:48Rich Roll?

  That were like, didn't, that had like strange leaves in them and like weird, you know, powders and, and they weren't even labeled. Like, and I'm like, what are, like, where did these even come from? You don't even know, not only you not know what's in these, you don't know where they came from.

• 37:02Julie Piatt?

  Exactly.

• 37:03Rich Roll?

  Like, you don't know, this could make you extremely sick. Like, what is all this? I mean, and literally, it was like, filled, it filled the refrigerator in the cabinet, like, with all this stuff. That, and you're like, I don't know what it is. Like, you didn't even, you didn't care. You were, you were trusting this guy. I mean, talk about like, turning your power over. I mean, you really, you made a decision to embark on this path and really, and, and something about this guy spoke to you enough where you were willing to, to trust him and take this leap of faith and, and start eating these teas and these brews and, and, you know, these potions or whatever that he was, that he had advised you to take without even really questioning what was in it, really.

• 37:38Julie Piatt?

  That's right. Well, I remember every time I would come, I would come through the door, you would wanna see what was in the little brown paper bag in the sack. What did he give you? What is it? And I'd say, I don't know.

• 37:47Rich Roll?

  And then we would make a game of it with the boys. We would open it up and smell it. We'd be like, oh, that's terrible. And then at night, she had this paste. It was like this brown paste. It looked like a thick hummus or something like that. And she would take it out and she would rub it on her neck.

• 38:04Julie Piatt?

  Yes.

• 38:04Rich Roll?

  And so her neck would be all stained brown. Like, even after you washed your neck, it was still stained brown from this. And at night, you'd put this paste on and then you'd apply this giant bandage to your neck and go to bed. And I was like, all right, well, you know.

• 38:16Julie Piatt?

  He was like, she's a cra- she's crazy.

• 38:18Rich Roll?

  Knock yourself out. And it's the stuff smell, I cannot tell you how bad this stuff smelled. Our entire kitchen smelled like a sewage dump.

• 38:27Julie Piatt?

  It was the most vile stuff I've ever, I've ever taken in my body, in my, in my life. It was sort of like a combination of sewer, dirt, and sulfur.

• 38:38Rich Roll?

  This was, yes, this was an extreme protocol.

• 38:51Julie Piatt?

  So it was.

• 38:52Rich Roll?

  I guess, but you know what, it's sort of like, well, but is that, I mean, what's insane? Doing that or having somebody take a scalpel and like slice your body wide open? I mean, what is really extreme? You know, we accept surgery as sort of, you know, what you do or whatever, but like, that's what's crazy.

• 39:08Julie Piatt?

  That's what's crazy.

• 39:09Rich Roll?

  You have, you know, you have a heart attack and they crack your sternum and they take this thing and crank your rib cage open and then reach into your, you know, into your thoracic, I mean, it's, that's extreme. So anyway.

• 39:22Julie Piatt?

  Well, and so, and so the thing is, and you're talking about, you know, my trust with Dr. Patel, it's like, we, we share this inner knowing of the lineage of Ayurveda. And I just knew, and the beautiful thing about Dr. Patel is he never once said to me, okay, so we're going to try some things, we're going to try it and we're going to see if it works. Never.

• 39:47Rich Roll?

  What did he say?

• 39:48Julie Piatt?

  He said, you will heal yourself. These work, you know, it is, that is the truth. That is the truth. He never had any hesitation or any doubt that my body would heal itself. And that this would be an ongoing way of life that would enrich my life and, and change everything, really.

• 40:10Rich Roll?

  That's interesting. And so also just, you know, getting back to the Western, I mean, we're so, we live in such a litigious society now that no doctor could ever.

• 40:20Julie Piatt?

  Give you that assurance.

• 40:21Rich Roll?

  Make that statement. There's no way, because if you didn't, then he gets sued, you know?

• 40:25Julie Piatt?

  And that's incredibly negative, because the mind is so powerful that if, if, if a patient sees a hesitation within a doctor, they can attach on to that reality. And in fact, that can enter into their healing process.

• 40:42Rich Roll?

  Yeah, belief is powerful.

• 40:43Julie Piatt?

  It's very powerful.

• 40:44Rich Roll?

  Very, very powerful. And I mean, there are even studies that, that show. That the placebo, the placebo effect, even when the person knows it's a placebo.

• 40:53Julie Piatt?

  Right.

• 40:53Rich Roll?

  There were these studies that even when the person, like there's a, you do a double blind study and you know, somebody's testing something on somebody here, take this pill. You're taking a sugar pill and you're taking this new medication, we're going to study it. They've done these studies where they actually tell the test patient, okay, you're taking, you're going to be taking the placebo. And they, they tell them that. And the person still thinks that it's working. Like that's how powerful belief is.

• 41:19Julie Piatt?

  It's amazing.

• 41:20Rich Roll?

  Yeah. So anyway, to be able to, to plant that seed of conviction, I think, you know, is important in all things in life. I mean, when, it's like if you're, if you have a mentor in something and that mentor believes in you and says, you can do this.

• 41:34Julie Piatt?

  Absolutely.

• 41:35Rich Roll?

  And does it with conviction, there's nothing more powerful than that. Even if, even if you don't know what you're doing, or you know, even if the guy actually had some doubt or whatever, but he's able to convince you that you can.

• 41:46Julie Piatt?

  Well, that's one of the things that I give you a lot of credit for, is that I kind of feel through this whole thing that I've had an inner knowing of kind of a greater awareness that maybe you didn't have, but you knew that I believed with such conviction that you were able to go through all of this journey that we've gone through, believing, knowing that I believed and sort of trusting that. And I think that took a lot of courage, like a lot more courage than it took for me. And so maybe I was kind of that mentor to you in a way.

• 42:23Rich Roll?

  Yeah, I think that's, I think that's true in many respects.

• 42:25Julie Piatt?

  It's pretty cool. So, thank you.

• 42:28Rich Roll?

  All right.

• 42:28Julie Piatt?

  But anyway, so I want to share this one thing about Dr. Patel, because it was really, really impacted me, one, on one of my, my sessions, I would go back just once a month, it was extremely reasonable. I want to, I want to say, I think he charged me every time I saw him, for all of the herbs, this big bag of supplies that I would bring back and all the consultations, he charged me $269 every time I went to see him.

• 42:55Rich Roll?

  Uh huh. And how often did you go to see him?

• 42:57Julie Piatt?

  Once a month. Maybe once every six weeks, depending on my herb supply. But, you know, let's just say once a month. Let's just say once a month. And compare that to the cost of surgery or hospitalization, or, you know, cancer, or something else that, you know, we deal with. I mean, it's ridicu-- it was just ridiculous. But one time I went in to see Dr. Patel, and he was weeping. And he told me that someone had just brought him a young boy for healing, and that they had cut his colon out. And he was devastated, because he said, "What can I do now?" Like, "What can I do now?"

• 43:41Julie Piatt?

  They've taken out the body's mechanism. You know what I mean?

• 43:46Rich Roll?

  Right.

• 43:47Julie Piatt?

  The perfect anatomy of the body that is perfect, that knows exactly what to do. And it just really touched me.

• 43:54Rich Roll?

  What was wrong with the kid, do you remember?

• 43:56Julie Piatt?

  You know, I can't really remember. It was, you know, some-- maybe colon cancer, or something like that. I don't know. I really don't know. But I just know that at that point, he was devastated, because he was-- that was not a-- that was a limitation. If you've cut the body, and you've removed parts from it, then suddenly--

• 44:14Rich Roll?

  You've impaired that-- the body's ability for self-healing.

• 44:17Julie Piatt?

  Exactly, exactly. So the way this went down is, I did this process. And I had a lot of pressure from family members, from rich, from friends. I still remember going to meet a friend for lunch, and I'd sit down, and the first thing they'd say is-- they'd look me in the eyes, and they'd point at the cyst, and they'd say, "What are you doing about that?" Because, of course, they were very concerned. And, you know, I got all of the, you know, the cases, like, you know, "You're a mother," and, you know. And I just-- I don't know. I just knew. And the first three months that I was on the herbs, I had, like, a hundred whiteheads' pussy zits on my face every single morning.

• 45:01Julie Piatt?

  I think-- and they were full of fluid. Like, it was like runny fluid. And

• 45:07Rich Roll?

  True statement.

• 45:07Julie Piatt?

  It was true. And but and you you were so amazing. I mean, you we our relationship and our connection was so solid that I felt safe enough that I could do that because it was it was not really fun. But I even remember my facialist calling me and begging me to stop taking the herbs. Everybody was saying, stop taking the herbs. They're making your face break out.

• 45:29Rich Roll?

  Meanwhile, your sister and your mom are calling me and saying, you know, you need to talk to her. And your mom, your

• 45:36Julie Piatt?

  Yes.

• 45:37Rich Roll?

  Julia is half Chilean. Her mom is from Chile. And a beautiful woman. She called her, "Ri, this is Vilna. You need to talk to Julie. You need to tell her she needs to see the doctor. There's enough of this nonsense."

• 45:53Julie Piatt?

  Yeah, well, everybody was like that, you know, and and then slowly

• 45:57Rich Roll?

  And I don't and by the way, like, I don't, you know, I don't begrudge them for that. I mean, they're they they love you and they care about you and they were worried about you, you know, and it's like, I was too, you know. So when Vilna, you know, was calling me, I'm like, you know, you're right. I need to talk to her. I'm trying, you know, I was I was trying to balance this equation of supporting you and giving you the respect and the space to, you know, I could see the conviction on your face, like, you were committed, you know, and you believe that this was going to work. But, you know, we're not talking about two weeks after you first saw Dr. Patel. I mean, we're, you know, we're well in we're months and months and months into this thing.

• 46:37Julie Piatt?

  Yeah, it's true. But I don't know. I I mean, you know that I don't like being told what to do. So that's actually, that's not a good thing to do. I'll probably do the opposite. And

• 46:56Julie Piatt?

  I don't know, I just knew, I just knew. And you know what, I felt like I'd been given a gift. I felt like I'd been given an extraordinary gift of life because it was not cancerous. It was not like, okay, you're gonna die in a month, you know, or you're gonna die in three months, so what are you gonna do? That would have been a different, a different choice. And, but now where I'm sitting now, I know exactly what my protocol would be, for me personally, I just know this.

• 47:22Rich Roll?

  All right, so, but getting back to this.

• 47:24Julie Piatt?

  Let's just get back to how it.

• 47:25Rich Roll?

  So, we're talking about the zits and the concern and the...

• 47:29Julie Piatt?

  And what was happening was, everybody wanted me to stop taking it, but what was happening was, the imbalance was coming out of my body. The herbs were ejecting it out of my body. And so, all of those years of whatever had, whatever had caused the imbalance was coming out of my body. And I was adhering to the diet, which was a main part of it, and then I was taking these herbs. So, together, hand in hand, and internally, topically, I changed my lifestyle. So, my stress level was way down, I had, I had my lifestyle in order, my whole lifestyle in order. And, you know, I no longer was working with stressful clients, I was not allowing, I was not accepting business from people that were out of balance.

• 48:12Julie Piatt?

  I changed my way of how, what, Dr. Patel used to say, who do you invite into your home? You don't invite crazy people into your home. He said, sometimes they show up and you have to deal with them. But you don't, as a rule, invite that into your home. So, it was the first time that I realized, oh wait, I have a say here. Like, I don't have to have this 80s business mentality that just whoever says they wanna work with me, I've gotta take that work. Because that shows that I'm, you know, connected and I'm, and I'm gonna be successful, or whatever. So, it was a really beautiful shift from personal ambition into living from a lifestyle. And then it was those sessions of sitting and actually listening and meditating that

• 48:56Julie Piatt?

  started to bring the deeper messages of my soul. And, so, this was really my first experience with, with plants as medicine, or food as medicine. And, and also just honoring, you know, if you have any doubt, if there's a God, all you have to do is look inside the human body. The human body is this miraculous creation.

• 49:20Julie Piatt?

  That no one can really even explain how it rejuvenates, how it, you know, how you breathe all day long without even thinking about it. Just every single thing about the body is magnificent. So I think it was maybe two and a half years later or something like that. And then also, the other part of it is I started singing, right? So the songs came during the meditation, then I started singing. And you know, the cyst in the throat, you know, that's another energetic assistance. Right? So about two years later, I think I just woke up. It was getting smaller and I saw I was gaining ground. And you relaxed because it was going away. And then it was gone.

• 50:02Rich Roll?

  I don't remember it taking two years, though. I thought it was like 11 months or something like that.

• 50:06Julie Piatt?

  It could have been. You know, I'm not really good with time.

• 50:08Rich Roll?

  I don't think it was two years. I mean, it did, it did take a long.

• 50:10Julie Piatt?

  It wasn't fast.

• 50:11Rich Roll?

  It was not a fast thing.

• 50:12Julie Piatt?

  Yeah.

• 50:13Rich Roll?

  That's the point. Like, you walked around for a very long time with this thing sticking out of your neck.

• 50:17Julie Piatt?

  I did.

• 50:18Rich Roll?

  And like, zits on your face. And, and a lot of people, you know, criticizing you or sort of taking your inventory and saying, you know, she's turned into a crazy lady.

• 50:26Julie Piatt?

  That's right.

• 50:27Rich Roll?

  You know, and...

• 50:28Julie Piatt?

  Thank you for loving me through that. I appreciate it.

• 50:31Rich Roll?

  The point is, it went away. Like, you did heal yourself, right? It is gone. It went away. These doctors at Cedar Sinai, at UCLA, the specialists, you know, all of them universally said, it's never going to go away on its own. You will never heal yourself. You will have to get it cut out. There's no need to panic.

• 50:49Julie Piatt?

  Yes.

• 50:50Rich Roll?

  It's not, you know, it's not malignant, but you know, you are going to have to have it surgically removed.

• 50:54Julie Piatt?

  But they said it could turn malignant. That's what they said to me.

• 50:57Rich Roll?

  Right. They said it's not now. You have some time, right? Is what they said. So if you want to go do your little thing, you know, that's fine. We'll see you in, you know, a couple of months.

• 51:05Julie Piatt?

  Right. And you know, a lot of people asked me, they said, well, did you go back to the doctors and did you show them that it was gone? And I said, no. And they said, why? And I said, because they just make up some other reason why. You know, it's like they don't have the, the language. This was my sacred journey and I know what it is to me. And I don't need to...

• 51:22Rich Roll?

  Well, it doesn't matter.

• 51:23Julie Piatt?

  It wasn't going to change them.

• 51:24Rich Roll?

  What is that going to do?

• 51:25Julie Piatt?

  No, I don't know.

• 51:26Rich Roll?

  You know, they're not, they'll, yeah, exactly. Like, they're going to, they'll have their rea... You're not going to change their mind.

• 51:30Julie Piatt?

  No.

• 51:31Rich Roll?

  You know, it's the same thing when, you know, I'm talking to, you know... Somebody who's convinced that paleo is the healthiest way to go, or a nutritionist who's studied a certain program in school.

• 51:44Julie Piatt?

  Right, exactly.

• 51:45Rich Roll?

  And they're having none of me. Like, I can say whatever I want about my diet and my beliefs around it, and how I feel that it repaired my health, and how I feel that it allows me to perform as an athlete, et cetera, et cetera. But if your audience is not receptive, that's a fool's errand. I mean, what is the point of that conversation?

• 52:07Julie Piatt?

  Right, and it's just about, anyway, it's just about all of us returning deeper into our own journey. And everybody's different, but we're just sharing our experience.

• 52:15Rich Roll?

  Exactly. I think that, yeah, I mean, for me, it's always about just making sure that you're...

• 52:23Rich Roll?

  You know, there's a difference between proselytizing and sharing your experience.

• 52:28Julie Piatt?

  Yes.

• 52:28Rich Roll?

  Those are two different things. And I think that, you know, for me, it's always, you know, you just stick to your own personal experience.

• 52:36Julie Piatt?

  Keep your hands to yourself.

• 52:37Rich Roll?

  Exactly.

• 52:40Julie Piatt?

  It's pretty simple.

• 52:43Rich Roll?

  So, anyway, yeah, I had written about this story.

• 52:48Julie Piatt?

  And the editor didn't like it?

• 52:49Rich Roll?

  Yeah, I can't remember. I'm trying to remember. I mean, there were so many drafts of the book, and the book was getting long, and a lot of stuff had to get cut. And I think it's sort of a pivotal, crucial aspect of the story that, in retrospect, like I said, I wish was in the book, because it really sets the stage for kind of what followed with me. But, you know, that was the first time for me that I really saw upfront and had a personal intimate encounter with "food is medicine," you know? What Hippocrates said, you know, back in whenever B.C. That is, you know, the truth, for sure. And, you know, I would have, if it was up to me and I was calling the shots, you would have been at UCLA, you would have had it cut out,

• 53:33Rich Roll?

  and that would have been that, right?

• 53:35Julie Piatt?

  Good thing you weren't calling the shots.

• 53:39Rich Roll?

  It's usually better when I'm not. That's what I, that's my big lesson.

• 53:43Julie Piatt?

  But you know, and the other, the other point is that, you know, I was all, I was always fairly thin. I have, I have a thin frame, right? So I never had a weight problem. So I, I never really looked at food at a vibrational level or as a way of feeding my body temple. And that experience changed that whole thing for me. So now it's not, you know, it's just ingrained in me. It's about how do I want to feel? How do I want to perform? What kind of energy do I want to invite into my body? And that's the main reason that I don't eat animal meat is it's the frequency.

• 54:15Rich Roll?

  Right, I mean, let's talk about that. I mean, food is energy. I mean, everything is energy, you know? When you get into, like, if you really want to drill down and you start getting into, you know, physics at the subparticle level where, you know, they can't tell whether something, you know, the, the properties are both energy and matter at the same time. And you can't pinpoint in any given moment where a particular subatomic particle is in space. And, you know, it gets pretty trippy, right? And, and just sort of extrapolating on that idea that, you know, everything is energy, that matter at its, at its most finite level demonstrates properties of pure energy.

• 54:59Rich Roll?

  Then of course, energy, you know, is in everything, right? And everything carries with it a very specific vibration. And what is the vibration that you're inviting in? What is the frequency and the vibration of the food that you're putting into your body? And what is the impact of that on your system? On the way you perceive the world? On how you feel? How you sleep? How you interact? Everything.

• 55:21Julie Piatt?

  No, it's true. I mean, it's, it's huge. It's huge, it's huge. And when you see the way that, now, I was raised in Alaska. My dad is a, is a game hunter. He's a hunter, a bush pilot hunter. I grew up on caribou tacos and moose meat and salmon.

• 55:42Rich Roll?

  He's more than that, Julie's dad. Literally, this guy is like Indiana Jones. He's an amazing, amazing guy. And he has a passion for being outdoors. And, you know, he's a hunter and he's a fisher, and that's what he loves to do his whole life. And he moved his family up to Alaska, so he could do more of that. And he's done some amazing things in his life. And, you know, when he sits down and starts to tell you stories about when he was a young man, you know, mapping the jungles in South America, which is where he met Julie's mom, in Chile, and that's a whole other crazy story. But he'll tell stories of crashing his plane on a sandbar off the coast of Peru, or something like, was it Peru or Guatemala?

• 56:27Julie Piatt?

  I think Ecuador.

• 56:28Rich Roll?

  Yeah, circled by sharks and having to stand on top of his sinking plane. And he told a story one time where he was on this mountain peak, somewhere in South America,

• 56:40Julie Piatt?

  Panama.

• 56:41Rich Roll?

  In Panama. And he was mapping, you know, he was mapping this forest or this mountain region.

• 56:48Julie Piatt?

  An easy task.

• 56:50Rich Roll?

  Yeah, exactly. And he was, he was gonna be picked up by this helicopter who was, that was flying overhead, and was hovering low, and he was trying to get in the helicopter, but the helicopter was losing, it couldn't hold its altitude, because they were at such a high altitude, it kept dropping. And so, they dropped a rope out, and he grabbed the rope, and then the helicopter started to like, kind of go down the side of the mountain, because it couldn't hold its altitude, and he's hanging from the helicopter. And he's literally like, out of a movie. And he starts telling these stories, and then, it's like, "So, Rich, you have any stories you'd like to share? You know, I just feel like such a pussy."

• 57:25Julie Piatt?

  Now you have a good story to share.

• 57:28Rich Roll?

  Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, I think he always looked at me, I mean, this is a guy who, you know, wears an NRA hat, you know, and he has a certain belief system, and he's a lovely, lovely man. He's an amazing guy. But, you know, I'm like, the complete opposite of him. Like, "Hey, we went to a party at PETA last night."

• 57:44Julie Piatt?

  Right, exactly.

• 57:45Rich Roll?

  You know, it's like, so I think he always looked at me like, "Who is this guy with my daughter?" You know, it wasn't until I did Ultraman, or wrote the book, that I think he, like, had any respect for me whatsoever.

• 57:56Julie Piatt?

  Well, I mean, and talk about, you know, different vibrations. I mean, I'm the yogi daughter, and he's the, you know... Indiana Jones Hunter. So it's quite a, quite a different, but we've, you know, we've found a way. And the thing is, is, so I grew up on game meat. So I'm not, it's not like I'm not, I haven't been around it, or I don't have experience with it, or I don't understand, you know, what hunting is. And I would just say that, you know, if he, if he goes out, like in the bush for three weeks and, you know, sleeps on a glacier and like crashes his bush plane and has to like, you know, hit the propeller back straight to get it back on and fly out. And he kills a grizzly bear and he packs it out and skins it. He has every right to eat it, like eat away.

• 58:42Julie Piatt?

  Cause you know, that's an extraordinary amount of, you know, effort and experience or, you know, to, to bring to that.

• 58:51Julie Piatt?

  But I guess what I want to say is for my own journey, as I started to get into yoga and as I started to practice yoga, the frequencies just started to change. And like I was saying to somebody at, at our event the other night here at Common Ground, she was asking about, you know, how do you, how do you work this within the family? And how do you bring in vegan lifestyle like into eating? And I said, all you have to do is start eating, start drinking a couple of plant blends a day. And don't make any cuts from your diet. Just, just add those two things in and then your body will drop what is not right. You know, your body will eliminate naturally. So there's nothing to let go of.

• 59:32Rich Roll?

  Cause that frequency, that vibration is going to have a certain impact on you. It's going to change your perspective, your cravings, your whatever.

• 59:43Julie Piatt?

  Everything.

• 59:43Rich Roll?

  It will, it will begin, it will catalyze a, you know, a shift in your trajectory.

• 59:48Julie Piatt?

  Right. Like, like eat that way for two months and then go to McDonald's and eat a French fry. Take a bite of one and you will feel the lard on your teeth. You will feel the grease and fat. You know, last night at the restaurant here in Luhui, I ate a French fry that had been fried. I instantly had headache, a head, like residue in my brain from eating something that was cooked in some gnarly oil, you know? But the thing about the meat in our society is primarily it is not harvested in a hunting manner, right?

• 1:00:27Julie Piatt?

  It's these processing plants and the cruelty and the violence that is inflicted upon the animals, the violence of the person killing the animal, shocking the animal, slitting the animal's throat. This is all in energy, it's an experience, you know, it's an experiential event. And then that energy is going into the meat that then's being packaged, that then you're eating and putting in your body. For me, that is the key awareness that is necessary to wake up to. And even the frequency of who's preparing your food affects what you put in your body.

• 1:01:10Rich Roll?

  It's all energy, baby.

• 1:01:13Julie Piatt?

  It's all energy. And you remember that, do you remember the, you know, well, remember White Lotus where we met, where we fell in love, where we had our first kiss in the kiva?

• 1:01:21Rich Roll?

  How can I forget?

• 1:01:22Julie Piatt?

  That's in the book. Anyway, so at that retreat center, there was-

• 1:01:27Rich Roll?

  You should have taken that part out and put the part in about your neck.

• 1:01:30Julie Piatt?

  Yeah, why did they leave that in? I don't know. Anyway, so are you ever gonna be able to release like the unabridged version of the real story of finding Ultra? Because you also like dedicated, gave the whole book to me in the end and they cut that out too, because it wasn't good.

• 1:01:47Rich Roll?

  What do you mean?

• 1:01:48Julie Piatt?

  Well, you basically offered me the whole, you said that I was the Ultraman, I think is what you said. And they cut that out.

• 1:01:55Rich Roll?

  Oh, I think, yeah, I said something about how you were the real Ultraman.

• 1:01:58Julie Piatt?

  And they were like, no, that's not gonna sell well.

• 1:02:00Rich Roll?

  No, it can't be about her, it gotta be about you. And I'm like, well, now that we have the podcast and you can run your mouth all day long, then everyone will know.

• 1:02:11Julie Piatt?

  Everyone will know.

• 1:02:12Rich Roll?

  Yeah.

• 1:02:13Julie Piatt?

  So anyway, so, but let's getting back-

• 1:02:14Rich Roll?

  Actually, you should start your podcast and we'll have a little, like, we'll have a war in the rankings, we'll see who can-

• 1:02:20Julie Piatt?

  That would be great.

• 1:02:21Rich Roll?

  That would be a healthy relationship exercise.

• 1:02:26Julie Piatt?

  No, we already cleared all that competition ambition, I hope. We're now unified, we're working for the same purpose. It's beautiful. But anyway, the energy, okay, so who prepares your food? So remember at that retreat center, and I'm gonna use a different name, because I don't wanna, I don't wanna speak- Disparagingly, can you say that word?

• 1:02:47Rich Roll?

  Disparagingly?

• 1:02:48Julie Piatt?

  Yeah, about anybody.

• 1:02:49Rich Roll?

  You already said the name, though.

• 1:02:50Julie Piatt?

  No, I didn't. I didn't say the name of the person. There was a chef there. There was a beautiful chef there that actually made extremely tasty vegetarian food. Very tasty. And every time we would go there for retreat, everybody had the worst stomach aches and digestive problems. The entire retreat. And the yoga teacher that we would go with would take his own food. He wouldn't eat the food. Everybody else was eating the food. And it wasn't until years later that I realized, well, I knew she was very angry then. She was a very angry person. And she was putting that energy into the food, which was making everybody sick. So even if-

• 1:03:29Rich Roll?

  It was like she was resentful that we were there.

• 1:03:32Julie Piatt?

  Very much, yeah.

• 1:03:33Rich Roll?

  Preparing the food with this like huge resentment. And it's like, you know, with the way she was chopping.

• 1:03:38Julie Piatt?

  It was bad. I mean, but over months and months and probably years, people were sick. And again, it wasn't because she didn't have her technique down. It's the frequency. It's the energy. So when you're preparing your food, that's why mom's food or cooking, you know, from a loving mother, just, it just can heal you. It can be whatever. It can heal you because her love for you is so pure. And so she wants the very best for you, right? So that's why in the old times, the spiritual hub of the house is in the kitchen. It was by the fire in the kitchen. That's where the sacred energy came from. So I believe that there's a big power in getting back to that and actually cooking for your family.

• 1:04:20Julie Piatt?

  We had this discussion the other day. We were talking about, you know, an option of preparing like, you know, or using frozen foods or using, you know, quick things that just take five minutes to make because nobody can take the time to prepare a meal. And my, you know, sort of point that I raised to this was, why not? Why can't people take time to prepare a meal? I mean, it's a pivotal, core, important part of our lifestyle of bonding, connecting, sharing, and nourishing our body. What could be more important than that? That needs to be given the space.

• 1:04:54Rich Roll?

  Well, I mean, socially, we've just, as a society, we've just moved away from that.

• 1:04:58Julie Piatt?

  I know. And it's a problem.

• 1:04:59Rich Roll?

  It's not a priority anymore. And it's, you know, it's a distraction. And eating is something you do on your way to go doing something else.

• 1:05:07Julie Piatt?

  Yeah.

• 1:05:07Rich Roll?

  And we've lost that beautiful tradition that seems to exist only in, you know- Remote places of the planet now or

• 1:05:15Julie Piatt?

  That's right.

• 1:05:15Rich Roll?

  Underdeveloped nations.

• 1:05:16Julie Piatt?

  And it's killing us.

• 1:05:17Rich Roll?

  There was that article that was in the New York Times Sunday Magazine a couple of weeks ago.

• 1:05:23Julie Piatt?

  That one Chris Senna's?

• 1:05:25Rich Roll?

  Yeah, yeah, yeah. We read it and I picked it up about this Greek village on the Greek. It was a Greek island, right? Where these people would live to insane old ages. But and, you know, it talks about their diet and their lifestyle. And but essentially, you know, a core aspect of this was their pace of life and the importance they put on the communal sharing of the meals together and the time that they would take to, you know, prepare and commune together. And that's something that we've just, we've gotten away from, you know? And it's, I wrote about that in the blog post that I threw up when we first got here to Common Ground about, you know, why we came here and what we're doing here. And, you know, a big part of it is about trying to recapture that sense of community that comes with food.

• 1:06:09Rich Roll?

  I mean, food is the great uniter of people, right?

• 1:06:12Julie Piatt?

  Absolutely.

• 1:06:12Rich Roll?

  It is the thing that, that, you know, we all share and that brings us together and allows us to create community. And, you know, in from small villages that had to work together to, you know, grow the food and prepare the food and share it together. We don't have that anymore. And that's a great loss. And now food has become the great divider. It is a subject of debate, of, you know, passions running high and arguments. And it's very difficult to even raise an issue about food without it being fearful of, of, you know, some argument you're going to get into. It's like talking about religion or politics. It's like, oh, well, don't talk about that or whatever.

• 1:06:52Julie Piatt?

  Right, right.

• 1:06:52Rich Roll?

  And, and, you know, and the iPad and the TV and the TiVo and the computer and all that kind of stuff has supplanted the family meal. And we're just too busy, you know? We're too, we're too busy to do it. And so it's almost like it's become, oh, it's an obligation because it's good for the kids, you know? If the family sits down and has dinner, it's, we do it for the kids. But we don't do it because we want to or we enjoy it or it's what we're sort of supposed to do. And it's bred into our DNA. It's how we evolved as a, as a species, you know? And I think that It's incumbent upon us to retrieve that

• 1:07:30Julie Piatt?

  Right.

• 1:07:31Rich Roll?

  And bring that back and make that a priority in our life.

• 1:07:35Julie Piatt?

  Yeah, well, I know from our own experience, I mean, from, you know, when you were, you decided that you were gonna do Ultraman the first time and you were out training and, you know, I never, I never had an idea that I was going to be a chef or write a cookbook, you know, and I was in sort of a in-breath time of my life, kind of a quiet time, call it dismantling, benched at home, but you were starting to train a lot and so you would go out on these long training, you know, sessions and I would then go, okay, we gotta feed Rich when he comes back, so what are we gonna make? So then I would just create something, then the kids would test it and we sort of got into it. And then about a year and a half

• 1:08:19Julie Piatt?

  later, we had a cookbook. And part of that experience, I mean, that's been an extraordinary experience for me, cooking with Tyler and Trapper and Harrison and having them actually in the beginning tell me, you know, are we having lentils again, like lentils again? And then fast forward to three months later, Mom, please make your lentils. So, you know, every day they were going out the door with a kale drink, you know, they know how to make their own kale chips, they know how to make their own Rop pasta sauce, you know, they know how to make cashew cheese. Like suddenly, we're all cooking as a family, we're creating as a family, and it's been, it's really, really just added so much to

• 1:09:04Julie Piatt?

  our, to our own lives.

• 1:09:14Rich Roll?

  Yeah, it's the ultimate enricher, the family life, you know?

• 1:09:19Julie Piatt?

  It is, and I mean, the way we did that, you know, also just to share a little bit about You know, becoming vegan, or how did we, you know, how did it, how did it work out in our household? Because when we started, you know, like, one of our sons was still eating some meat. And then the girls were eating, you know, some organic dairy, like yogurt, or, you know, organic cheese, or something like that, or milk.

• 1:09:42Rich Roll?

  Go milk, go milk.

• 1:09:44Julie Piatt?

  Yeah. So, what we did in our household is we didn't make any rules. We just started showing by example. And I think that that's, that's the key thing, that maybe a lot of parents, as parents, we don't really understand. You can't be, you know, eating your Dove Bar, and then telling your child to eat their spinach or their broccoli. Like, that doesn't work. You have to be living what you're saying. It's not the words that you're saying, it's the action that you're living. And, over time, if you just continue to blend the healthy drinks and prepare the healthy meals, there will be a shift.

• 1:10:21Julie Piatt?

  And so now I can say that we have three vegan children in our household, and we have two that are all primarily vegan. They eat occasional, the little ones, you know, if we're out, they eat occasional yogurt or, or cheese. But even, I was still preparing eggs for them, and then they both told me, "Mom, I'm done, we're done with the eggs."

• 1:10:46Rich Roll?

  Right. So they have to arrive at it on their own.

• 1:10:49Julie Piatt?

  Yes.

• 1:10:50Rich Roll?

  Which is, really, I mean, that's true of, you know, any real sustainable shift or change has to come from within that person. They have to be responsible for that decision. They can't be doing it because somebody told them to do this, or this or that. And it's, you know, I see that in recovery all the time. It's like, recovery isn't for people who need it, it's for people who want it. So, there's plenty of people that suffer from addictions, or whatever, and they have interventions on, you know, their family intervenes, and they send them to rehab, or whatever. You know, clearly this person is in need of a solution, but if they're not ready, or they don't want it for themselves, maybe they'll be able to stay sober for a short period of time, but it's never, it's never gonna stick. It has to, it has to come from within.

• 1:11:34Rich Roll?

  You know, it has to be a decision that is made by that being. To move in that direction. So with respect to food and kind of how we've approached it as parents, it's never been, "You have to eat this," or "You have to eat that." It's like, we prepare the healthy meals, we include the children in the shopping and in the preparation, we allow them to have input, we help them learn the recipes and let them try out their own recipes, we serve them the food we make, and we let them say, "I want this," or "I don't want that." And yeah, we have to be responsible, we're not gonna fill the cupboard with diet coke, or, you know, whatever.

• 1:12:10Julie Piatt?

  No, absolutely not.

• 1:12:12Rich Roll?

  But we never said, you know, "You have to eat this," or "You can't have milk," or "You can't have cheese," or "You can't have ice cream." We just sort of slowly kind of stopped buying that stuff, or, you know, preparing healthier things, and then they kind of arrived at the choice or that place themselves.

• 1:12:31Julie Piatt?

  Yeah, yes, and everybody has their own path. And I've always said that, you know, if I wake up tomorrow and my body says, "You need meat," I'm gonna go find the healthiest, you know, consciously harvested meat there is, and I'm gonna say a blessing, I'm gonna eat it. Like, I'm not gonna get caught up in the fact that with this vegan label, you know, it's not about that. It's about having more plants in your diet. If you're somebody who, you know, who is eating meat, fine, you know, just try, I would say, just try to make sure that it's as pure as possible. But everybody can benefit by including more fruits and vegetables, vegetables, in your diet, and whole foods. And then let your body

• 1:13:16Julie Piatt?

  tell you, you know, what you need and which way you're going.

• 1:13:19Rich Roll?

  Yeah, it gets really tricky with the labels. And, you know, yes, I'm vegan, you're vegan, we eat a vegan diet. But, you know, that word is a very loaded word, and there's a lot of emotion that circles around that word, positive and negative. And there's a lot of attachments. And some of those attachments to that label, or that lifestyle, you know, could be characterized as out of balance, or unhealthy.

• 1:13:46Julie Piatt?

  Right, yes.

• 1:13:47Rich Roll?

  And I think that, you know, we always try to kind of, yeah, I mean, I say, "Yeah, I'm a vegan, I'm a vegan," or whatever, I'll use that label. But, but I actually prefer to not use the label, because somebody who hears that...

• 1:14:03Rich Roll?

  They will conjure up an image in their mind, or they have a preconceived idea of what that is, or they will project something onto me that's informed by some past experience with somebody else who's vegan, or what that means to them, or something they read, or imagery, or what have you. And, you know, it becomes problematic, really. I mean, because basically, I just want to eat really healthy plant foods, right? And so, but there's all this other stuff that comes along with it. There's a lot of politics, and there's a lot of activism and advocacy and differing points of view. And there are these camps, even within the sort of vegan or plant-based community, and even, you know, even where

• 1:14:45Rich Roll?

  they're arguing about, you know, low carb, high carb, you know, high protein, low protein, or whatever. And then, I mean, forget about the sort of paleo versus plant-based sort of dialogue, or, to put it mildly, thing that's going on right now, which is the subject of, you know, many future podcasts, I suppose. But, but the point is that we get really caught up in these labels, and it becomes more about the argument than anything else. And a perfect example is, I did the Joe Rogan podcast, Joe Rogan Experience podcast. Right, that was great. The reason that that happened is that Joe had Rob Wolf on. And Rob Wolf is a paleo

• 1:15:27Rich Roll?

  advocate. He's written a book called The Paleo Solution. He's all about paleo. And I tweeted Joe, and I listened to the podcast, and I like Rob. I think Rob is a really smart guy. He has a lot of great ideas about nutrition. I don't have a problem with Rob. I disagree on some things that he says about paleo and eating meat as it relates to my personal experience and what I've experienced. But that doesn't mean Rob is a bad guy. We have the same goals. Like, Rob wants people to be healthier, right? Like, Right. There's nothing wrong with that. And I can get into a dialogue with Rob about where we differ, etc. But I tweeted Joe, and I was like, maybe you should have some vegan athletes on for a different point of view, which is how I ended up on his podcast.

• 1:16:11Rich Roll?

  And there was a lot. And then I did his podcast. And then there was a lot of people who said, you know, you should have a, you should have, you know, hey, Joe, you should have Rich and Rob on and some other people and have this big debate, like some kind of like showdown or whatever, like as if that's gonna, as a result of that, we're gonna get to the bottom of this, you know, and somebody's gonna win and somebody's gonna lose and then one label will be better than another label or what have you. And, and I, you know, Rob and I have gone back and forth on email and we talked about it. I was like, I don't really see the point of that. Like, what is the point of us having like some big fight, you know, it's like it's salacious and I think it's counterproductive, you know, we both.

• 1:16:48Julie Piatt?

  It could be funny.

• 1:16:49Rich Roll?

  Yeah, it could be funny, but like, I don't know, you know what I mean? Like, I like to eat plants. I think it works for me. I've done really well and like, I just, I want people to eat more plants and I think they'll feel better if they do. And I have, I have some rationale and some reason to believe that it's, that it's, you know, that I, that it's made me a better athlete as a result of that. That's my story or whatever. But it's also important for me to remain open-minded and not to, you know, locked into this label, that label or whatever. And I think, was it Swamiji who always talks about, you know, we all have these stories that we tell about ourselves. We create story around our life

• 1:17:29Rich Roll?

  and those stories become reality because we continually tell them and they become reinforced and then, you know, and we think that they're real.

• 1:17:37Julie Piatt?

  That they're not.

• 1:17:38Rich Roll?

  But you have to step back and go, well, is that, is that really real? I mean, that's the story I've been telling about myself forever.

• 1:17:44Julie Piatt?

  Right.

• 1:17:45Rich Roll?

  But is that, you know, objectively true? You know, it's usually not.

• 1:17:48Julie Piatt?

  Right.

• 1:17:49Rich Roll?

  Right?

• 1:17:51Julie Piatt?

  Right. Well, I mean, each being has its own path, you know, it's about, it's about respecting everybody. So it's like, at the end of the day, you, you know, we all came here to just live our own heart, whatever that is. And so, you know, it takes all different kinds, there's all different colors in the, in, you know, there's all different types and, and versions and colors and frequencies of, of energy. And so, we're just sharing the energy that we are and the frequency that we are. And then people that vibrate to that will, will join and we're gonna have a party.

• 1:18:27Rich Roll?

  We're gonna have a party down, man.

• 1:18:30Julie Piatt?

  A plant-powered party.

• 1:18:31Rich Roll?

  Plant-powered party.

• 1:18:32Julie Piatt?

  But that doesn't, that doesn't mean that the paleo, the paleo people aren't gonna have a party too. They can have their party. We can both have a party and everything's fine.

• 1:18:41Julie Piatt?

  It's easy.

• 1:18:42Rich Roll?

  I know. I'd be getting back to the label thing. I think the one thing I wanted to mention though was that when you, when you use the vegan label, people get intimidated, you know? People want to be healthier. Like, look, you know, this podcast, like one, two episodes in and we're like number one in this category or whatever, like there, people want to be healthy. They're looking for answers. They're looking for information. They're looking for inspiration. They're looking for guidance. And, and I think that when, you know, you hear the vegan label, it's intimidating to people because it's a, it's a very, you know, it's an intense thing.

• 1:19:24Rich Roll?

  Like, oh, you know, if somebody's eating the standard American diet and you go, well, you can't have any meat and you can't have any dairy anymore. And they're like, well, I can't do that, you know? And so they, so they don't try or they don't begin because they think they can't do it perfect. They can't live up to this standard that's been set. And whereas in reality, it really, it's like you said, it's just like, just start eating more plants. See how you feel. Start this journey. You don't have to have it all figured out. You don't have to know where it's leading. You don't have to be perfect. You just have to start making a few simple choices. And we all, we all choose every day what we put in our mouth and we all have domain over that choice. Start changing a couple little things like that. Like, hey, you know, when you go to the grocery store next time, instead

• 1:20:07Rich Roll?

  of buying, buying milk, you know, why don't you buy almond milk? Or, you know, just do one thing and start like doing a couple little things and don't relieve yourself of that pressure.

• 1:20:17Julie Piatt?

  Just eat some kale. Just start eating kale every day. That's easy.

• 1:20:23Rich Roll?

  And see how you feel.

• 1:20:24Julie Piatt?

  See how you feel.

• 1:20:25Rich Roll?

  It's all about the kale.

• 1:20:26Julie Piatt?

  It is.

• 1:20:26Rich Roll?

  It's amazing how like a couple of years ago, nobody knew, nobody'd ever heard of kale. And now it's like, you know, that's all anybody talks about.

• 1:20:33Julie Piatt?

  No, it was hilarious. It was that crew from Dallas that came to shoot us for the HGTV Stream Homes episode. And so in between, when they were shooting us, I was making them blends and I was giving them healing foods and talking to them and doing pooja and doing all this stuff. And they were, they were amazing. But I remember they came up to the island and they said, is that kale? I've never seen it. Is that what that looks like? And I started laughing and I said, you guys, I said, to me, it sounds like you just said, is that a banana? I've never seen a banana. But anyway, they had never seen kale.

• 1:21:06Rich Roll?

  Well, then.

• 1:21:07Julie Piatt?

  All the way from Dallas. Who knew?

• 1:21:09Rich Roll?

  Our work is not done.

• 1:21:10Julie Piatt?

  It's not done. It is not done.

• 1:21:12Rich Roll?

  Yeah. It's not, it's not exactly like, you know, Dallas is the middle of nowhere.

• 1:21:17Julie Piatt?

  No, I was shocked. I mean, I was just, it was surprising.

• 1:21:20Rich Roll?

  Yeah.

• 1:21:21Julie Piatt?

  But anyway, they were very sweet and they loved the blends and we're going to be working more with them in the future.

• 1:21:27Rich Roll?

  You love to like secretly slip people your.

• 1:21:30Julie Piatt?

  I do.

• 1:21:30Rich Roll?

  Healing drinks.

• 1:21:31Julie Piatt?

  Here, drink this.

• 1:21:32Rich Roll?

  Drink this.

• 1:21:33Julie Piatt?

  Just have this drink. That's like, it's easy. It's easy with, easy, easy like the music. But I also think is like, why, why is everyone so emotionally completely freaked out about food? Like, like if you tell them you're a vegan or you go, oh yeah, I don't eat that. They take that as a personal assault on their character.

• 1:21:51Rich Roll?

  Well, but, but there's, I understand why because.

• 1:21:55Julie Piatt?

  Tell us.

• 1:21:55Rich Roll?

  Because there is a, because they're immediately attaching that label to some past experience they've had. Or somebody they know, or something they read about, you know, somebody who was vegan or whatever. And they, they link that. All right. And then there's a story there. And that story is when you say, if you say, I'm vegan, what they're hearing is, they're not here. What you're intending to say is like, we choose to eat plants. We like that or whatever. What they're hearing is, you think you're better than I am.

• 1:22:25Julie Piatt?

  Oh, right.

• 1:22:26Rich Roll?

  And there's a piousness that comes with that. And that is where, you know, that's, that's, that's a problem that I have with that label. Because that's not the message that I want to put out. I'm not saying I'm better than anybody. I'm a extremely flawed person.

• 1:22:41Julie Piatt?

  Believe me, I know. No, I'm kidding. You're lovely.

• 1:22:44Rich Roll?

  It's true. You know, I, I don't, I don't do, you know, I am far from perfect in every single category and most things I'm, I'm doing poorly.

• 1:22:53Julie Piatt?

  No.

• 1:22:53Rich Roll?

  You know, it's true. So that, that is the last sort of vibration that I want to put out to the world.

• 1:23:00Julie Piatt?

  Well, I mean, you know, you kind of.

• 1:23:01Rich Roll?

  I want to, I want to put out a, a healthy message of inclusion. I want to create a sense of welcomeness. I want to be inviting to people. I want them to feel safe and comfortable.

• 1:23:13Julie Piatt?

  Yes.

• 1:23:13Rich Roll?

  And having a dialogue with me about food, about their, you know, their health challenges, whatever it is. But when you say, hey, you know, and it's like, that's that joke. It's like, you know how you know somebody's a vegan? Like wait five seconds, they'll tell you about it. And it's like. You know, look, I love you babe, but you do that a lot. Like you go to a restaurant and you're like, well, we're vegan, you know? And it's like, we're vegan and we need to like, you know, like, what is there on the menu?

• 1:23:39Julie Piatt?

  Seriously?

• 1:23:39Rich Roll?

  You did it last night.

• 1:23:40Julie Piatt?

  I don't think so.

• 1:23:41Rich Roll?

  Yeah, you did.

• 1:23:42Julie Piatt?

  No, I didn't. They knew we were vegan and they had already prepared.

• 1:23:46Rich Roll?

  You're doing it with a pure heart.

• 1:23:47Julie Piatt?

  Right.

• 1:23:48Rich Roll?

  I'm not saying I don't do it either. You're doing it with a pure heart, but what I'm saying is you might be underestimating the way that that is received because a lot of people will be like, oh, you know, well, screw you, you know, like there's a, there is a, a sense of.

• 1:24:03Julie Piatt?

  Says the vegan endurance athlete who's like, like plastered all over the place.

• 1:24:09Rich Roll?

  I know. Yeah. Like, here's the problem, right? Here's the problem.

• 1:24:13Julie Piatt?

  Yes. So, so let's talk about plant power. That's why you.

• 1:24:18Rich Roll?

  I'm not done talking about this.

• 1:24:20Julie Piatt?

  Okay, go ahead. Let him finish.

• 1:24:22Rich Roll?

  I mean, do you not agree?

• 1:24:24Julie Piatt?

  Do I not agree? Why? With what?

• 1:24:26Rich Roll?

  That, that, um.

• 1:24:28Julie Piatt?

  That I say, that I arrive to restaurants and say, hi, we're vegan? Yeah, I don't agree at all. Actually, not at all. That's, that's a small fractal of your perception, but.

• 1:24:40Rich Roll?

  What I'm saying, what I'm saying is, do you agree that like, if you say, like, I'm vegan to somebody, that they will, that there is, that on occasion, somebody will take that?

• 1:24:52Julie Piatt?

  Oh, yeah.

• 1:24:52Rich Roll?

  And, and draw a conclusion that makes them defend, you're saying, you're, you're asking me, you're saying, why are people so defensive when I say that? And I'm saying, I think I understand why.

• 1:25:01Julie Piatt?

  Yeah, absolutely.

• 1:25:02Rich Roll?

  Okay.

• 1:25:02Julie Piatt?

  Yeah, no, I totally agree. No, and I mean, even if I say, you know, I'm not, I'm not drinking orange juice for like, on the Ayurvedic diet, I didn't, I couldn't drink orange juice when I was clearing my cysts. So I just said to someone, you know, I, I don't drink orange juice. And the immediate is, I love orange juice, you know? It's like, it's this, it becomes a commentary about the other person, but it's not about the other person. Or how about when you're vegan and you just go to your parents' house or you go wherever? Like, how many times has your mom tried, attempted to serve us chicken? And we're, we've been vegan for years and we go and sit down and she's made chicken, like every time.

• 1:25:40Julie Piatt?

  So it's, it's, I don't know, it's like, it's a disconnect.

• 1:25:44Rich Roll?

  I love my mom, by the way.

• 1:25:45Julie Piatt?

  And I love your mom, too.

• 1:25:49Rich Roll?

  It's a disconnect, yeah. So, anyway, are you mad at me now?

• 1:25:53Julie Piatt?

  No, I'm not.

• 1:25:57Rich Roll?

  Anyway, you want to talk about plant power? That's what we've been talking about, is it not?

• 1:26:02Julie Piatt?

  No, I was just, I was bringing up the term "plant power" because you've always said that you didn't want to be vegan and that you didn't like the term vegan. And so, you know, you've been using "plant power", and so we usually say "plant power". That's really the term that we're talking about more.

• 1:26:17Rich Roll?

  It's just neutral, you know what I mean?

• 1:26:18Julie Piatt?

  Yeah, exactly.

• 1:26:19Rich Roll?

  It's neutral. And that doesn't mean that I'm not compassionate towards the animals and that I think that, you know, our factory farming system is, you know, deplorable and all of those things, you know what I mean? But I think that, I don't know, man. I just want people to feel safe and okay about eating plants. And as men, you know, it's like there's this, there's this idea that you are emasculated if you're not eating meat, right? That like eating meat, grilling, barbecuing, or whatever, is like a manly thing to do. And if you're gonna say, "I'm not doing that", that you're some kind of wimp or whatever. And it's just, it's a complete fallacy. I mean, and if you think about it, it's like, it's not like the man is going out

• 1:27:04Rich Roll?

  and like hunting, you know, with a bow and arrow and like, you know, putting the animal on his shoulder and bringing it home and cutting it up and grilling it. He's going to Ralph's and he's buying a cellophane packaged, you know, couple, you know, ground beef patties and he's putting it on his grill in his backyard. So I don't know how that makes you more masculine than anyone else. Again, it's a story. It's a story that we tell and we reinforce ourselves. So what I'm saying is that there is an issue with men and masculinity and how that applies to, you know, making, you know, making a commitment or a decision to say, "I'm not gonna eat meat", and how that, how that is perceived societally? Like, how do other men perceive you? Because, you know, as a man, you want to be perceived as, as strong,

• 1:27:49Rich Roll?

  as respected, as, you know, whatever.

• 1:27:53Rich Roll?

  And unfortunately, it's sort of perceived as a chink, it's a chink in your armor. Like, you're less masculine if you're not, you know, eating in this way. Because those are, that's just the rule that we've created in our society.

• 1:28:04Julie Piatt?

  Yeah, and you're a great role model to, to the contrary. Absolutely.

• 1:28:10Rich Roll?

  Why, thank you.

• 1:28:11Julie Piatt?

  You're welcome.

• 1:28:13Rich Roll?

  All right. Is that what you wanted to talk about with plant power?

• 1:28:17Julie Piatt?

  Yeah, I think so. Yeah. I just wanted, you know, we, I just wanted you to talk about the term and the fact that we, you know, that's really how we choose to speak about our lifestyle of eating. So, and I think the thing is, is that, you know, it's not, I guess, the way that we are sharing our experiences from a very authentic place. And it's, by being authentic, it allows other people, like, the way you were so courageous with your book and you told about all of your struggles with addiction and, you know, all the sort of, you know, dark little stories of things that, you know, most people would never need to know about you, and the fact that you shared it.

• 1:29:00Julie Piatt?

  It allows this humanity to enter into the conversation. And so, that makes it very easy to sit next to you. Because we're all human beings, and we all have those dark places in ourselves. And if we haven't, we, if we're not in touch with that, then we're not really whole. We're not really connected. Because there are both experiences of the life. Not all, you know, roses and all sweet and everything's super duper, the super dupers, as I call them.

• 1:29:32Rich Roll?

  Could we just talk about that for a minute?

• 1:29:34Julie Piatt?

  Super, super. Yeah, absolutely.

• 1:29:36Rich Roll?

  The super duper. They're the guys who, like, when you, you run into them and you're like, "Hey, how you doing?" And they're like...

• 1:29:42Julie Piatt?

  Super.

• 1:29:43Rich Roll?

  Super. No matter what.

• 1:29:47Julie Piatt?

  No, but you know, it's just the humanity. I think that's it. And I think that's what everybody, what we're all trying to find. We're trying to find some humanity and some divinity and share it and sort of join forces and, and, and affect a change in many different areas on the planet. And food is the first portal into that. So food is the entry. And, you know, it's a very, very, very powerful, powerful tool, as I learned with my healing experience, as you have learned, becoming a plant-powered endurance athlete.

• 1:30:19Rich Roll?

  You can't even say that with a straight face.

• 1:30:21Julie Piatt?

  No, I was giving it to you with just love there. But the other thing is, um, uh, yeah, I mean, I just, I didn't even realize, I didn't realize how, just how much people are affected by, uh, by food. And, you know, it's known in, in ancient sacred lineages of all walks of life, that preparing meals and preparing food for people is one of the biggest blessings you can receive to actually be the preparer of the food. And that's, uh, it's a powerful thing. And I think that if we start to really shift our awareness into food as medicine, and we stop projecting outside of ourselves, you know, and comparing

• 1:31:06Julie Piatt?

  ourselves next to the person standing next to me as to what my food choices are, just make your own choices. Get in touch with yourself, meditate, connect, get clear on who you are, and eat to nourish your body temple. You know, eat to nourish yourselves. And understand that plants are also sentient beings that have an energy of healing over thousands of years. They have an information in them that is way beyond any recipe you're gonna get in my cookbook or anybody else's. So simply start to incorporate more plants into your diet. Show the example, be the example, and stay in neutral compassion for

• 1:31:49Julie Piatt?

  all people, no matter if they're, whatever they're choosing to express, because it's all part of the divine plan. And, uh, anyway, at the end of the day, you know, it's only about you and you. So, you know, find out who you are and, and express that. And, uh, eating plants can help you get to that. Quicker and in a more focused way. In my experience, in my humble experience.

• 1:32:19Rich Roll?

  I think everybody can now see why I married this beautiful woman.

• 1:32:25Rich Roll?

  So I can't, I can't top that. I could keep talking for another hour, but it's not going to get any better than that. So I think we should just wrap it up right there because that was such a beautiful articulation of where we're coming from. So thank you for that.

• 1:32:41Julie Piatt?

  Thank you.

• 1:32:43Rich Roll?

  So, listen, people. Use food to unite, not to divide. All right? There's a lot of energy that goes into arguing about food and dividing people. And it's time that we come together and let's just get healthy. All right? Peace, plants. That's it, we're out.