Transcription
Transcript of “282 with Neil Strauss”Bulletproof Radio podcast #282 The Bulletproof Executive 2013
Bulletproof RadioPodcast #282, Neil StraussWarning and DisclaimerThe statements in this report have not been evaluated by the FDA (U.S. Food & DrugAdministration).Information provided here and products sold on bulletproofexec.com and/orupgradedself.com and/or betterbabybook.com are not intended to diagnose, treat,cure, or prevent any disease.The information provided by these sites and/or by this report is not a substitutefor a face-to-face consultation with your physician, and should not be construed asmedical advice of any sort. It is a list of resources for further self-research andwork with your physician.We certify that at least one statement on the above-mentioned web sites and/or inthis report is wrong. By using any of this information, or reading it, you areaccepting responsibility for your own health and health decisions and expresslyrelease The Bulletproof Executive and its employees, partners, and vendors fromfrom any and all liability whatsoever, including that arising from negligence.Do not run with scissors. Hot drinks may be hot and burn you.If you do not agree to the above conditions, pleasedo not read further and delete this document.2
Bulletproof RadioPodcast #282, Neil StraussDave Asprey:Hey it's Dave Asprey Before we get to today's episode, let's talk a little bit about onlinedating. It's a little known fact that in 1991 I might have been one of the first people tohave an online date because I hacked a cute girl's terminal when I worked at thecomputer labs at UC Santa Barbara so I could figure out who she was. We did end updating for a few months. That was an online date, but that was back when it wasn't cool.With Valentine's Day coming up there isn't a better time to take advantage of theinternet to find your perfect match now that we have big data and algorithms andthings like that. It's way more efficient than going to a bar and there's no alcohol so youdon't have to worry about a hang over wrecking your performance the next day.I recommend eHarmony because you actually have pretty good odds of finding a match.They deliver over 10 million matches daily, and 600,000 couples who met on eHarmonyhave actually tied the knot. That's about four percent of all US marriages, which is prettyamazing for one website. The founder of eHarmony was actually a clinical psychologist,so you're getting the benefit of over 30 years of research into what makes successfulrelationships work all in an app that you can use online or even on your phone. That'spretty cool.You don't have to worry about all your friends seeing that you're looking either becauseyou have to be a member on the site and see a match to have each other's photos, sonone of this swipe right, swipe left kind of thing.Head on over to eHarmony.com and enter the promo code JANUARYLOVE to save 50percent off the regular price for a six month membership. That's eHarmony.com,JANUARYLOVE.Announcer:Bulletproof radio. A state of high performance.Dave Asprey:Hey it's Dave Asprey with Bulletproof Radio. Today's cool fact of the day is that theancient Egyptians used dried crocodile dung as a contraceptive. They made somethingcalled a pessary. A pessary is the earliest contraceptive device for women ever known,at least that we know about. Pessaries are objects or mixtures of stuff that you put inthe vagina to keep sperm from swimming up where it shouldn't go. The Egyptians didthis starting as early as 1850 BC. It was crocodile dung, honey, and sodium carbonate,which is actually kind of gross.Neil Strauss:How many infections did that lead to?Dave Asprey:They don't really know from the fossil or archaeological records, but I suspect not thatmany because there's that whole gut biome thing. Another fact that's totally unknown isthat in the Middle East when people would get dysentery, British soldiers asked thelocals what do you do. They said you follow a camel around and you eat fresh camel3
Bulletproof RadioPodcast #282, Neil Strausspoop and it'll fix the dysentery. To this day that still works, but I haven't tried it, I justhear it's good.Neil Strauss:Incredible.Dave Asprey:Now. We've grossed everyone out and we've already started talking, but I haven'tintroduced you. Let me introduce you. This is none other than seven time New YorkTimes Bestseller, Neil Strauss. Neil is very well known for Emergency, for The Game, andfor his new book, which is really good called The Truth: An Uncomfortable Book AboutRelationships. Neil welcome to the show. It's an honor to have you.Neil Strauss:Thanks for having me on. I've listened to it so much so I'm happy to be here.Dave Asprey:Wow. As a listener that's even cooler. Your other book, Rules of the Game, I didn'tmention but I mean seven books. I don't think I've read all seven, but the first time Ibecame familiar with your work was actually Emergency.Neil Strauss:Great.Dave Asprey:Which goes way back, which was . By the way if you're going to get a book from NeilStrauss, you should buy The Truth because it's a profound book and it's maybe theantithesis of Emergency. Was that your first New York Times Bestseller?Neil Strauss:No. First one was way back. I did a book with Marilyn Manson called The Long HardRoad Out of Hell that was just a crazy intense rock bio.Dave Asprey:You inspired me. I don't think in the times we've met I've ever mentioned this.Neil Strauss:No.Dave Asprey:I went and I did the urban escape and evasion course. This one where they kidnap youand teach you break out of handcuffs and all this stuff.Neil Strauss:Pick locks and hotwire cars.Dave Asprey:Yeah. In fact in the class with me was a girl you were dating at the time.Neil Strauss:Who was that?Dave Asprey:I don't remember. It was six years ago or something.Neil Strauss:No way.Dave Asprey:She was really hot.4
Bulletproof RadioPodcast #282, Neil StraussNeil Strauss:Uh huh.Dave Asprey:There was a Playboy Bunny in the class too. I was like I've been locked in the same trunkas the Playboy Bunny. My life's complete. This was the coolest thing though. Your wholeexperience there was this set of experiments where I want to know what it's like to killand eat and animal. I want to know what it's like to push my limits. You did all thesecrazy things. It's still one of my favorite books.Neil Strauss:He's actually coming to my house this weekend because I'm teaching a bunch of friendshow to do all this stuff.Dave Asprey:The lock pick kind of stuff?Neil Strauss:Yeah.Dave Asprey:Kevin-Neil Strauss:Kevin Reeve is coming to my home this weekend. It's actually, if you hadn't taken it, Iwas going to invite you to come Friday and Saturday to do it.Dave Asprey:Oh wow.Neil Strauss:It'll be some interesting people too.Dave Asprey:I might be able to drop in, if we can Neil Strauss:Yeah. Drop in. Maybe if you want to be on the second day what they do is they, onceyou've learned all the skills, I'm really into practical applications so as he does in theclass, what they they is they handcuff you, tase you, waterboard you, give you somestress, drop you off somewhere and you have to complete these missions while beinghunted by bounty hunters. If you want to maybe be a bounty hunter on Sunday, you cansearch for the other students.Dave Asprey:If I'm- oh wait, I'm going to be in Las Vegas. Darn.Neil Strauss:Darn.Dave Asprey:If you're listening to this, we maybe just only got a little bit off track.Neil Strauss:Right?Dave Asprey:Here's the deal if you wanted to really push your limits, when I did this, whenever it wasfive, six years ago, I thought I was reasonably calm. It pushed all my buttons. I wasflipping out. Having bounty hunters chasing you, even though you know on one levelthey're not going to really kill you, but if they catch you they handcuff you and they drop5
Bulletproof RadioPodcast #282, Neil Straussyou off in some part of town where you have no phone, no resources unless you hidsomething in a dumpster somewhere. It's really raw and primal and visceral.When I was done I'm like, okay I need to get better control of my nervous systembecause my fight or flight was heavily actively.Neil Strauss:Yeah. Performing under stress is a whole new experience. They put you under stress allof a sudden a lot of your skills go away.Dave Asprey:Yeah. This is one of those things where it's kind of a bucket list thing. If you're sittingthere in your cubicle going oh my God that's so cool or you're driving right now, youmight actually consider checking that out as one of those things like for a birthday gift orsomething. It takes three days and when you're done you'll be able to open doors you'renot supposed to be able to open with lock picks, it’s incredibleNeil Strauss:It's come in incredibly handy, the lock picking and the set of Jigglers to break into cars,break into your own car of course.Dave Asprey:Yeah. Of course. Right.Neil Strauss:Of course.Dave Asprey:I will admit that one time when I really had to pee in San Francisco I picked a lock. Just inan office building because I didn't want to go to the front desk and get the key becauseit was two floors away. You're like, okay, you sort of like have that people are looking atyou funny but still I got it.Neil Strauss:Yeah. Lost a file cabinet lock and replace- the funny thing is once you own these skillsyou never know when they're going to happen. I took an EMT course, which I'll say Ihighly recommend with some caveats. It's a great way to get a really quick emergencymedical education. The caveat caveat. Anyway the caveat is that they teach you how todo medicine emergency medicine doesn't get you sued whereas a corpsman or a medicor someone who's on the battle field, does stuff that's better than EMT isn't allowed toused, but it's a great quick emergency education.Dave Asprey:You inspired me to look into that and the number of hours of EMT training was morethan I could stomach, and still to this day, but I'm married to a doctor so I outsourcethat.Neil Strauss:You're good. Yeah exactly. Exactly.Dave Asprey:I did buy some trauma kits at home.6
Bulletproof RadioPodcast #282, Neil StraussNeil Strauss:Yeah. It's great. Then you're on a highway and someone wipes out on their motorcycle,you can stop, you can call the paramedics and then deal with them while they'rewaiting. Happens surprisingly often in LA.Dave Asprey:One of the things that I find inspiring about the way you look at the world is exactlywhat you just said there. You're talking about being prepared and having situationalawareness and presence. You have situational awareness when you walk into a bar. Youwrote about that pretty heavily in The Game, even though you've changed substantiallysince you wrote that book. The same thing that they teach in Urban Escape and Evasionor any of the explorations that you've written about are about what's going on out thereand how do I have control over this.Let's talk about how having that maybe extra level of preparedness and awareness andsaying okay if something happens I know I've got it. Talk me through how you took thatinto basically your life as a pick up artist in The Game and how you transformed fromthere into where you are now with your new book. I want to, just from that perspectiveof watching what's happening, that's what bio hackers do.Neil Strauss:Right. Right. I want to get back to the word control you mentioned. I think it'sinteresting that you chose that word.Dave Asprey:It was conscious.Neil Strauss:Yeah. I guess the way I've done my whole career and everything is that I hit problems inlife and then I start to solve them and as the solution becomes really interesting orunique, I get to a level of maybe knowledge that I feel other people don't have or wouldfind useful. I'll just say, you know what? Maybe I should actually write a book about thisand I get to dedicate my whole entire life to doing it the same way that you havewhereas you're doing the stuff for yourself and become more healthy, and thought, ohif I just build a business around this I would’ve guessed I can actually . They cometogether. Now you get to do what you love and it is your business.You get to talk to interesting people and learn more and it's still what you're doing forwork.Dave Asprey:It is a pretty amazing change from working in computer security.Neil Strauss:Right. Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly.Dave Asprey:Yeah. To have a conversation like this even, I would have this conversation with norecording just because I want to know what you're thinking.Neil Strauss:Yeah. Exactly. I think that's one of the goals of life, at least for me, is how can youorganize your life around the stuff you love that you still do it even if you didn't get paid.7
Bulletproof RadioPodcast #282, Neil StraussDave Asprey:Right. You went on this . an odyssey really.Neil Strauss:Right.Dave Asprey:Just for Emergency. That was multiple things, but at the same time I think you were alsohoning your game, so to speak, since your book is called The Game. Doing that, youobviously did these things simultaneously, but you were picking toppings of interest.What made you decide to start this really incredible arc of, I want to be really good atthe game of picking up women, and at the same time, it ended at this arc where you'relike okay now I'm going to talk about the truth. Walk me through how having-Neil Strauss:Sure.Dave Asprey:This is what, about a 15 year arc would you say? 20 years?Neil Strauss:It might be less. It might just be maybe 10 years or 10 years for this stuff and I waswriting for the New York times and new journalism for probably 10 years before that.Dave Asprey:Okay. You're writing for 10 years and then about 10 years ago you're like okay I'm goingto try these things that are going to push my limits on, pretty much all the limits youcould find it looks like you push.Neil Strauss:I was always doing them at the same time. That was the great thing about being ajournalist is
for his new book, which is really good called The Truth: An Uncomfortable Book About Relationships. Neil welcome to the show. It's an honor to have you. Neil Strauss: Thanks for having me on. I've listened to it so much so I'm happy to be here. Dave Asprey: Wow. As a listener that's even cooler. Your other book, Rules of the Game, I didn't mention but I mean seven books. I don't think I've .
