Before I left for an 850-mile hike last year, I emailed Dr. Andy Galpin for advice on training. He’s arguably the world’s foremost performance scientist.

Andy ignored my request entirely. Instead, he turned me into a lab rat. “I know exactly what happens to normal athletes before, during, and after competition,” he said. “But I have no idea what’s going to happen to you doing something that extreme. I want to find out.”

Twenty-four hours before I hit the trail, a lab tech showed up to my house and took many of my bodily fluids: copious amounts of blood, saliva, urine, etc.

Then, nearly two months later, she returned 24 hours after I’d finished the trail and took the same measurements. Then she came back 45 days later.

The results were, in Andy’s words, “mind-blowing.” Some of what happened surprised even him.

In the first 20-minutes of today’s episode, Andy and I covered what the data revealed about my hormones, red blood cells, micronutrients, metabolism, and recovery timeline—and what that can tell you about the toll of exercise.

In the rest of the episode, we covered what Andy has learned from working with MVPs, Cy Young winners, and UFC champions. He says the fundamentals that make elite performers elite are the same ones the rest of us should do.

He walked me through his complete exercise framework, explained why most sleep apnea goes undiagnosed, broke down his thoughts on where fitness/sleep trackers go wrong, and shared a strange, cheap fix for better sleep.

Whether you want to sleep better, train smarter, or just build a body that can handle whatever life throws at it, there’s something in this conversation for you.

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Show notes

• Andy’s website.

• Andy’s health program: www.biomolecularathlete.com

• Andy’s sleep challenge with : https://www.wakingup.com/andy

• Andy’s podcast: Perform with Dr. Andy Galpin

• Andy’s Instagram

• My live recap of my hike.

My Biggest Takeaways From the Episode

As a reminder, this new section is for Members only. Below are 5 to 10 of the highest-impact, most actionable takeaways from the episode.

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Adventure has been engineered out of modern life.

We pick the fastest route, the safest places, and the most efficient schedule. The problem is that what adventure brings—new situations, discomfort, uncertainty, the things going sideways—is exactly what makes us more resilient, and exactly what makes life interesting.

Our first guest is Jay Carson. For 25 years, Jay operated at the top of two of the most spin-heavy industries in America: politics and Hollywood. He was Bill Clinton’s communications director. He produced Netflix’s House of Cards and wrote Apple TV’s The Morning Show. Jay was even the inspiration for Ryan Gosling’s character in the 2011 political drama Ides of March.

Then COVID hit, the power went out, and Jay realized he had absolutely no idea what to do in an emergency. So he signed up for a 14-day wilderness survival course in the Utah desert with Boulder Outdoor Survival School (BOSS). It changed his life—so much that Jay is now an instructor with BOSS. And what he learned out there might inspire you to change yours.

Then we’ll hear from , a professional ski mountaineer turned photographer, filmmaker, and overlander. A few months ago, Sinhue sold his house, packed his truck, and started driving across the American West.

Adventure doesn’t have to be a long ordeal in the backcountry. It’s available almost anywhere. You just have to be willing to stop taking the most efficient route.

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Show notes

• Jay’s Instagram

• Boulder Outdoor Survival School (Check it out. I highly recommend it)

• Boulder Outdoor Survival School courses

• Boulder Outdoor Survival School history and philosophy

• Watch House of Cards

• Watch The Morning Show

• Watch Ides of March (Gosling’s character is based on Jay).

• Sinhue’s Instagram (an amazing feed)

• Sinhue’s Website

• ’s Substack:

Have fun, don’t die, get outside,

Michael

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Brian Koppelman is on the podcast today.

I’m a longtime fan of Brian’s work: He co-wrote the films Oceans 13 and Rounders (one of my all-time favorites), as well as the television show Billions, which ran for 7 seasons … and which I binged like a junkie.

Brian and I connected after he realized, at 57, that his health was going off the rails. So he did something about it: He got obsessive about lifting and got really, really fit.

When Brian started lifting, he couldn’t deadlift an empty 45-pound barbell. And, right around his 60th birthday, he deadlifted 300 pounds. Change is always available—if you work for it.

We talked about his late-50s health transformation, his approach to exercise, how he gets creative ideas, his writing practice, what taking money off Harvard guys in poker taught him about life, his partnership with his longtime co-writer David Levien, meditation, overcoming anxiety, managing ADHD, how he’s the guy who discovered Tracy Chapman (seriously), and why your life will change when you realize you can just do stuff.

This episode has a ton of wisdom for anyone who has a body, creative work, or both.

Brian is also a lifelong, diehard Knicks fan, so please send prayers his way.

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Show notes

• Brian’s Instagram (full of exercise and writing wisdom)

• Brian’s IMDB page

• Watch Billions (you’ll get hooked)

• Watch Ocean’s 13 (a movie Leah quotes often. Specifically, this line.)

• Watch Rounders (and remember “If you can’t spot the sucker in your first half hour at the table, then you are the sucker.”

• Transcendental Meditation

• Tracy Chapman’s Apple Music Page

• David Levien

• Turkish Getup exercise

Have fun, don’t die, start now,

Michael

Today’s episode is about food:

• A superfood basically no one gets enough of.

• How to afford healthy food when prices are skyrocketing.

We start with —PhD from Oxford, MD from Harvard—who writes the Substack and recently ate only sardines for a month.

That’s 1,000 sardines in 30 days. The results were wild: Nick’s omega-3 levels hit numbers usually seen only in dolphins, his body fat dropped below 7%, and he developed intense resistance to the cold. Nick explains how to use his findings without copying the diet, and a fascinating scientific case for eating more fish, based on a new study in the Cell.

Then we pivot to the financial expert George Kamel with the Ramsey Network to talk about how to actually afford eating healthy.

Food prices are up 20% since 2022. I feel it. You feel it. We all feel it.

George and I broke down how to save more than 20% on health food. That translates to $100 to $250 in savings for the average American family each month. The advice might be the single best thing you can do for both your health and budget.

I also asked George the best ways to get out of debt and avoid common money traps so you don’t sweat every grocery bill. He closed the episode with the best off-the-cuff answer I’ve heard on the podcast yet.

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Show notes

• Nick’s Substack:

• Nick’s posts on sardines:

  • I Ate 1000 Sardines for Science

  • Sardine Fasting. The Ultimate Health Hack

  • The Sardine Superpower (New Science)

• Nick’s YouTube channel.

• George’s YouTube channel (one of my favorites—George is hilarious and delivers advice that works).

• George’s book: Breaking Free from Broke: The Ultimate Guide to More Money and Less Stress. (You will get out of debt if you read it and follow its advice).

• George’s Instagram, where you can find many great personal finance tips.

• George’s jacket is from Bradley Mountain Outdoors. He wore it just for me.

Have fun, don’t die, eat fish you bought at Costco,

-Michael

Bad habits aren’t a problem. They’re a solution.

That might sound insane, but it’ll make sense by the end of today’s episode—and you’ll have a new way to look at change.

I recently saw the band Phish at the Las Vegas Sphere with my good friend, Ryan Soave. Picture two sober dudes inside a (literal) bubble filled with stoned hippies.

After the show, we headed into the studio for the first-ever in-person Two Percent podcast.

Ryan is one of the country’s leading therapists and addiction counselors. Over two decades and more than ten thousand clinical hours, he’s worked with people navigating trauma, addiction, and the bad habit patterns that quietly run their lives.

His approach weaves together modern neuroscience, body-based therapies, and ancient wisdom traditions—all built around one uncomfortable idea: most of us confuse discomfort with threat, and spend our lives reacting to things that aren’t actually dangerous.

Ryan started in addiction. He’s since broadened his work to high performers who’ve mastered success but can’t seem to master peace.

We covered a lot of ground: the counterintuitive science of addiction, paths to sobriety, why winning at life doesn’t automatically translate to enjoying it, how to identify what triggers a bad habit, breathwork, tactics for managing day-to-day stress, and how to have a genuinely good time without substances.

We also shared what we’ve learned on our paths to sobriety (me 11 years; Ryan 18 years).

See below for some of Ryan’s free online tools that kickstart habit change.

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Watch the episode here

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Show notes

• Ryan’s Website, which offers many free and highly useful tools.

• Free course: Sign up for “How to Feel Bad (and Love Your Life)” at ryansoave.com

• Book a one-on-one consultation: ryansoave.com

• Ryan’s Instagram

• Ryan’s YouTube page

• A few of my favorite videos from Ryan:

  • 20 Minute Guided Meditation That Releases Tension, Starves Stress

  • 10 Minute Deep Relaxation Through Yoga Nidra (Guided)

  • Addiction Is Not the Problem, It’s the Solution (Here’s Why)

  • Give Me 30 Minutes and I'll Tell You What Your Therapist Won’t

• Audio from Phish’s live shows at the Sphere can be found here.

Have fun, don’t die, find a better solution,

-Michael

I f*cking love dogs. My dogs don’t just make me happy—they’ve changed how I live and see the world for the better. At one point, a dog even saved my life.

This is an ancient story. Humans domesticated dogs before we domesticated wheat. We co-evolved with them in a way few other species have, and dogs can still teach us how to live a good life in an increasingly fast and kinetic world—and even measurably improve our healthspan and lifespan.

In today’s episode, I spoke with two people who can help us understand why.

First, . Sam is a former Navy SEAL who did multiple combat tours in pre-state areas of Afghanistan, then got his master’s at Columbia University.

He writes What Then?, one of my favorite Substacks. It blends battle-tested philosophy on hardship, mindset, anthropology—and dogs. Sam says that dogs are more than pets: They’re a bridge back to the primeval world we evolved in, symbols of an ancient wisdom we’ve mostly forgotten as our lives sped up, and reminders of our humanity in an age of mass meaninglessness.

Then I spoke with Dr. Nancy Gee, the world’s foremost expert in animal-human interactions and the head of VCU’s Center for Human-Animal Interaction. Dr. Gee has studied the topic for decades.

She explains how dogs impact our health, brain function, mental health—and why they’re particularly powerful for kids and aging adults. Her research can help you interact with your dog better, and understand why dogs help us live longer, healthier lives.

Also: Duke made an on-camera appearance, so the show has that going for it, which is nice.

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Show notes

• Sam’s Substack, What Then? Subscribe—you won’t be disappointed.

• Sam’s writings on dogs (some of my favorite work):

  • Why we should listen to the voice of a dog

  • How to live on dog time

  • What the grey hairs of a dog teach us

  • How dogs make us human

  • How dogs make us ancient again

  • How dogs remind us of what matters in life

• Science Magazine: World’s oldest dog identified at ancient hunter-gatherer site

• Dr. Nancy Gee’s full biography.

• A few of Dr. Gee’s studies:

  • Companion animals and child/adolescent development: A systematic review of the evidence

  • Animal-assisted interventions in the classroom—A systematic review

  • A systematic review of research on pet ownership and animal interactions among older adults

  • Dogs supporting human health and well-being: A biopsychosocial approach

• Virginia Commonwealth University Center for Human-Animal Interaction

Have fun, don’t die, love dogs,

Michael

We all want freedom. FFS, freedom is one of the founding ideas of democracy.

But too much freedom might be a bad thing. Constraints—limits, rules, boundaries—don’t block breakthroughs. They actually produce them.

We can use constraints to improve our work, health, relationships, and so much more—leading to better productivity, wellness, and creativity.

That’s what today’s guest argues—and he’s got receipts.

I’m speaking with . David is the bestselling author of Range and The Sports Gene, and his new book is Inside the Box: How Constraints Make Us Better.

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Topics include:

• Why the most innovative (and well funded) company you’ve never heard of, called General Magic, blew up under unlimited creative freedom, while Pixar took freedom away from its workers and dominated.

• A simple question to ask yourself before making a health change.

• How adding new constraints to health workouts killed years of breakthroughs—and why that’s actually a good thing.

• David’s research on managers—should we love them or hate them? (And what to do if you’re the manager).

• A Post-It note system for putting constraints on any project—from work goals to health goals—to get a better outcome.

• The downsides of getting too rich, and what to do if you have too many resources.

• A simple constraint that helped David exercise every morning for two years straight.

• The “think slow, work fast” rule for businesses.

• The framework David uses to make health decisions when the research isn’t settled.

• The Sports Gene and what it can tell us about performance.

• Why early sports specialization backfires for kids. (Hint: Don’t sign your kids up for travel baseball and soccer at the expense of other sports.)

Show notes

• ’s Substack

• David’s new book — Inside the Box: How Constraints Make us Better

• David’s second book — Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World

• David’s first book — The Sports Gene: Inside the Science of Extraordinary Athletic Performance

• Study: Vacation, Collective Restoration, and Mental Health in a Population (how vacation impacts SSRI use)

• Study: Is everything we eat associated with cancer? A systematic cookbook review.

• David’s 2009 Sports Illustrated piece that broke the A-Rod steroid scandal.

Have fun, don’t die, get inside the box.

-Michael

While writing my book Scarcity Brain, I came across the work of a researcher named Leidy Klotz. He’s a professor at UVA and one of the foremost engineers in the world—his work has been published in the top scientific journal Nature, and he has contracts with the World Bank, U.N., and Fortune-500 companies.

Yet one day, his three-year-old son beat him in an engineering problem while the two were playing with Legos. That moment kicked off a decade of research that exposed one of the strongest, most underrated biases in the human brain:

When we want to solve a problem or make an improvement, we almost never subtract. We default to adding—more, more, more—even when addition is not the best answer.

Leidy has thought a lot about the subtle quirks in our thinking and environments that impact us far more than we realize. He’s used that information to help people live longer, and companies make more money more efficiently (all while decreasing burnout).

And he has a new book out—In a Good Place: How the Spaces Where we Live, Work, and Play Can Help Us Thrive.

The book explores how the spaces where we live and work impact our health, lifespan, productivity, and focus.

This episode is for you if you live somewhere, work somewhere, or make decisions. Leidy and I talked about how to design our homes and offices to live better. And, of course, his work on the value of subtraction despite our brains screaming at us to add.

I loved this conversation because it covers two fundamental yet radically transformative things we totally overlook.

Watch the episode here

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Show notes

• Leidy’s new book: In a Good Place: How the Spaces Where we Live, Work, and Play Can Help Us Thrive

• Leidy’s first book: Subtract: The Untapped Science of Less

• Leidy’s Nature paper: People systematically overlook subtractive changes.

• Leidy’s Substack: Less, by Leidy.

• The “Langer-Rodin” Effect: Nursing home residents given the autonomy to make choices about their surroundings—such as caring for their own plants or arranging furniture—were significantly happier and healthier, with some studies showing higher survival rates.

• Read Chapter 4 of my book, Scarcity Brain, to learn more about Leidy’s work and why humans crave more (when, today, more often hurts us).

Have fun, don’t die, live in a good place,

-Michael

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More than 100,000 Americans die of drug overdose every year. The solution—or at least part of it—might be dorky as hell.

spent 12 years reporting on America’s drug crisis and how heroin, fentanyl, and meth have reshaped the country.

Then he burned out. It was way too many depressing interviews, reporting trips, and dark stories. He thought the American Dream was dead.

Then, for strange reasons, a bunch of tubas started getting stolen from Los Angeles high schools. The thefts sent him on an obsessive side quest: tracking down the stolen instruments and speaking to tuba players across the country.

In those conversations, he found something unexpected. The tuba—and marching band broadly—turned out to be a metaphor for how we escape modern addiction. Not just to drugs, but to money, stuff, and fame.

The tuba stands for hard, intentional practice. Doing something challenging you actually care about, even when it pays nothing and nobody’s watching. Being part of a weird, committed community. It gave him hope.

Even if you have zero interest in playing the tuba—and honestly, who does?—the lessons from marching band apply to anyone.

This episode is about the value of hard work without fanfare, the power of community, and finding hope in a broken world.

Sam is the author of Dreamland, The Least of Us, and his new book, The Perfect Tuba: Forging Fulfillment from the Bass Horn, Band, and Hard Work.

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Show notes

• ’ Substack (read it here).

• A note on Sam: I love this guy. He’s an old-school reporter who gets out and talks to hundreds of people for his work. His enthusiasm for his topics shows through in his writing and speaking.

• Sam’s tuba book. I didn’t expect to like a book about tubas—but I LOVED this book. The Perfect Tuba: Forging fulfillment from the Bass Horn, Band, and Hard Work.

• Sam’s book on the opioid epidemic, which is arguably the best book on the topic: Dreamland: True tales of America’s opiate epidemic.

• Sam’s book on fentanyl and meth and the scaling up of drugs from fields to labs: The Least of Us: True Tales of America and Hope in the Time of Fentanyl and Meth.

• Sam’s 2011 LA Times story on a rash of stolen tubas.

• For your listening pleasure … The greatest narcocorrido band of all time, Los Tigres Del Norte.

Have fun, don’t die, more tuba, less meth,

-Michael

Today’s episode is about work—and how to find joy in any job.

After all, the average person spends 2,184 hours working each year. This episode will help you make them better.

I spoke with a top doctor who found deep fulfillment inside the system, and a guy who walked away from it entirely.

First, Dr. Mim Ari—an internist and associate professor at the University of Chicago—talks about being a “deeply fulfilled workist.” She breaks down why we anchor on the negatives, the 10:1 positive ratio that can reframe our workday, how AI is quietly changing the job of doctors, and how to motivate yourself and find joy at work.

• Note: Dr. Ari recorded from the hospital, so please excuse any audio oddities. We try to speak with people who work in the trenches doing real things.

Then, Robin Greenfield, who once wanted to be a millionaire—then took the opposite approach, living with almost no possessions. He’s an extreme case, but there’s a lot to learn from him about how owning less can make you freer and less bound to work. Robin explains his 100-change checklist for breaking free of consumerism, and what he learned giving away all his possessions, foraging for food, and riding his bike around the US.

We close with an AMA. I’ll explain a phone hack that improved my work-life balance, the truth about exercise recovery, something I’d change in The Comfort Crisis, and the inaugural “Department of Dipshit Questions.” (P.S. Comment below and see if you can beat my answer to our Dipshit Question—or submit your own Dipshit Question for a future episode).

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Show notes

• Dr. Ari’s University of Chicago Medicine page.

• Dr. Ari’s research.

• Dr. Ari’s piece on : Notes on being a deeply fulfilled workist.

• Robin Greenfield’s YouTube Page.

• Robin’s Instagram page.

• Robin’s 100 changes to live happy, healthy, and sustainably. (Note: I definitely don’t endorse all of these, but they’re worth reading).

• The weird science of recovery.

• The case for diet soda: It gets a bad rap, but the research tells a different story.

Have fun, don’t die, thanks for listening.

-Michael

P.S. Shoutout to the Two Percent team

Today’s episode was produced by Joey Fischground, Robbie Hiser, Dana Brawer and Julia Nutter. From Kaleidoscope, our executive producers are Mangesh Hattikudur and Kate Osborn and Julia Nutter. From iHeart, our executive producers are Katrina Norvell and Nikki Ettore. Our Head of Video is Maria Paz Mendez Hodes. The episode was edited by Will Mayo, and our theme music is from Heater Manager.

Today’s episode is about vices. But not in the puritanical sense.

We’re taking an honest look at the tradeoffs of our “bad habits”—and reconsidering one habit we’ve been told is rotting our brains, making us nuts, and destroying society.

First, I talked to Dean Stattmann, a reporter for GQ. While the rest of the world was doing Dry January, his New Year’s resolution was to drink more. Dean was a social drinker, but he decided to stop after seeing advice online that any alcohol is poison. His reward: worse mental health, damaged relationships, and a creeping sense that the cure was worse than the disease.

Next, . In a world where social media is called the new smoking, she makes a provocative case. She thinks social media isn’t actually addictive, that the panic around it is overblown, and that the new laws restricting kids’ access may cause more harm than they prevent. I don’t agree with everything she said. But she changed my thinking on the topic, which is exactly what a great guest does. Weigh in with your own thoughts on the topic in the comments (just listen first).

Finally, I covered my own current vice. Wellness influencers say it’s killing me. Scientists disagree.

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Show notes

• Dean’s piece in GQ: Why my New Year’s resolution is to start drinking again.

• Why drinking bonds people: Costly Signaling Theory research (here and here).

• ’s Substack .

• Meta and YouTube found negligent in a landmark social media addiction case.

• Taylor’s take on the landmark social media rulings in California and New Mexico.

• Can You Really be Addicted to Social Media? A post by psychiatrist and Yale Medical School lecturer exploring why the dopamine argument fails.

• More on dopamine and addiction: Addiction Fiction: Dopamine is Not Why Kids Love TikTok.

• 256-page consensus report from the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine finds no support for the idea that social media is harming kid/teen mental health at a population level.

• The Anxious Generation book, which Taylor referenced.

• A review in Nature of The Anxious Generation, titled “The great rewiring: is social media really behind an epidemic of teenage mental illness?”

• Problems with the research on screens and mental health.

• To read my own thoughts on addiction (what it is, what causes it) read chapter 5 of my book Scarcity Brain. I define addiction as “continued use/behavior despite adverse consequences” and see addiction as a spectrum. But I agree with Taylor that a stricter definition matters enormously in legal and policy contexts.

• The case for diet soda.

Have fun, don’t die, thanks for listening,

-Michael

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Today I’m talking to , Founder of the Whole30 movement.

If you’ve been to a grocery store in the last decade, you’ve probably encountered Melissa’s work. The “Whole30 approved” label is on hundreds of different health foods (including the Waterloo seltzer I’m drinking as I write this).

The Whole30 is not a long-term diet, a detox, or a weight-loss program. It even asks people not to weigh themselves when they do it.

It’s a short-term elimination plan. Elimination diets have been used since the 1920s to help people with food sensitivities. In short: For 30 days, you eat foods that research shows tend to sit well with people, which can help identify food sensitivities and create new habits and techniques for successfully navigating stress, discomfort, and negative emotions.

Why we should listen to Mellisa: Millions of people have done Whole30, which has given her and her team of researchers millions of data points showing what actually helps people change their habits.

Melissa is incredible because she’s gone through some really challenging life events, but she’s used them to grow and build something that helps others. We covered:

• How traumatic experiences shaped Melissa’s life.

• Kicking heroin.

• How finding a strong group of women to exercise with helped Melissa stay sober.

• The link between eating and emotions, and how people often use food to deal with discomfort.

• The science of the Whole30 and food sensitivities.

• Foods that are most likely to cause issues for people.

• Foods that most people don’t have issues with (i.e. the friendliest foods).

• What we lose when we treat nutrition solely as a means to lose or gain weight.

• Melissa’s reaction to Whole30 getting last place on US News and World Reports’ ranking of the best diets. (And what happened when a reporter from the magazine eventually called her to talk about what Whole30 actually is).

• What Melissa has learned about habit change from millions of data points.

• Why healthy eating is harder for some people (psychology, systemic barriers, etc).

• Controversial changes to Whole30 and how Melissa developed them.

• Melissa’s take on some of the hottest topics in food (seed oils, etc).

• Why Melissa talks about her political views (and why I don’t).

• The best book Melissa read in the last two years.

Here’s the episode in video

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• This link opens the episode in your podcast player of choice.

Show notes:

• Whole30’s website.

• ’s substack

• New edition of the Whole30 with the controversial—but science-backed and helpful—updates Melissa mentioned.

• Resources for the Whole30. I especially like the “Non-Scale Victories Checklist.” We all need a reminder that nutrition isn’t just a number on a scale.

• Research on elimination diets (here, here, here, here, and here).

• Research on how food insecurity impacts healthy eating.

• Research on how systemic barriers (time, access, convenience) often hurt low-income families’ ability to eat healthy.

• Sociopath by Patric Gagne.

Have fun, don’t die, thanks for listening,

-Michael

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The 130th Boston Marathon happens this Monday.

And so, on today’s podcast, we’re talking about the race, endurance training, and fueling for endurance exercise.

First, I spoke with the great of the excellent Substack. Brady ran Boston last year. We walked through the marathon, why it’s so legendary, how Brady trained for it, what running Boston is actually like (surprisingly hellish, for reasons that have nothing to do with running!), and how the sport of running is changing (influencers, super shoes, etc).

Then I talked to , an old friend, about the downsides and upsides of ultraprocessed/junk foods. Mike is one of the world’s top nutritionists. He’s worked with professional athletes, Fortune-100 tech execs, and everyday people. He knows what works for real people in the real world, no matter their goals. He takes a nuanced view on ultraprocessed foods and can help us learn when they can be useful.

We end the episode in the Two Percent kitchen, where I gave the horrid details of a food I eat every night during long stints in the wilderness. It’s godawful in real life, but delicious endurance magic in the wilderness.

Video version

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• Listen through this link.

  • (It magically brings up the podcast on your player of choice)

Show notes

• ’s Substack, which you should subscribe to.

• Boston Marathon qualifying times.

• Nike Vaporly Supershoe.

• Mike Roussell’s 30-day Minimally Processed Food Challenge. It’s free and effective.

• ’s Substack, which sends research-backed and highly useful nutrition info weekly.

• Kevin Hall’s ultraprocessed food study.

• Ultraprocessed foods: A narrative review of the literature.

• More info about the Tsimane tribe, who don’t eat ultraprocessed food and have the healthiest hearts ever recorded.

• Nurri Protein Shakes, Mike’s go-to ultraprocessed food. Note: These are significantly cheaper if you buy them at an actual Costco warehouse. Costco inflates online prices to account for shipping, etc.

Have fun, don’t die, listen to Two Percent.

-Michael

P.S. If you want a transcript, check your podcast player of choice.

On Tuesday, we announced the launch of the new Two Percent podcast and dropped episode one. Here it is if you missed it.

From now on—until I’m banned by the FCC or perish in some outdoor-related catastrophe—you’ll be getting emails every Tuesday and Thursday with the new podcast.

• On Tuesdays, we’ll typically have a longer interview with one fascinating person.

• On Thursdays, we’ll talk about all sorts of timely and practical topics with multiple guests.

The guest for the first long interview is a big decision. Who would it be?

Truly, there was only one answer.

Today’s guest is Donnie Vincent, who I spent a month in the Arctic with while reporting The Comfort Crisis. He’s a massive part of that book, and he’s shaped my worldview and taught me so much.

Donnie and I haven’t spoken publicly, with mics on, since The Comfort Crisis. Until now.

Here’s the episode in video

And here’s the episode in audio

Apple Podcasts link

Spotify link

Show notes

• Donnie Vincent’s website.

• Donnie’s Instagram feed.

• Donnie’s YouTube feed (great videos here).

• A quick YouTube intro to Donnie’s thinking and work.

• Donnie’s new film, The Other Side.

• Donnie’s two other films, The River’s Divide and Terra Nova.

• Gear Donnie loves for Alaskan hunts:

  • Hanwag boots (I also wore these in the Arctic—none of my toes froze off).

  • Fjallraven apparel.

  • Tent Donnie used in The Other Side.

  • Donnie’s go-to beanie.

  • Frontier Gear of Alaska backpack.

  • Wiggies Sleeping Bag.

  • Montana Knife Company Blackfoot 2.0 knife.

  • Maven Optics (spotting scope, rifle scope, binoculars, range finder).

• The Comfort Crisis book.

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Have fun, don’t die, listen to Donnie Vincent,

-Michael

I’ve hinted about something happening today, 4/7, and quietly mentioned that I’ve been overhauling the podcast.

And so, an announcement: The new Two Percent podcast is here.

First things first:

• Here are links to subscribe to the audio feed on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

• Here’s a link to subscribe to the video versions on YouTube (we’ll be doing a lot of cool stuff on video).

And here’s our first episode:

Video version: episode one

Audio versions: episode one

• Apple Podcasts:

• Spotify1:

Episode one is about walking.

Specifically, why humans are built to walk extreme distances, how far we can actually walk—and why you might want to take a very long walk yourself.

The episode is separated into three parts:

• Part One breaks down how far humans can walk without stopping.
  I recently watched The Long Walk, a film adaptation of a Stephen King book. In it, 50 untrained boys are forced to walk at least 3mph without slowing—or they get brutally murdered. Spoiler alert: They all hit 100 miles, and the winner walks 350. My reaction: no f*cking way. I thought they’d only get 40, maybe 50 miles.
  So I chatted with Melissa Ilardo, a University of Utah researcher who studies populations pushing their bodies to extreme physical limits. She broke down the science of extreme walking. It turns out the truth is stranger than fiction—and very useful for anyone who walks on two feet.

• Part Two covers one of the greatest long walks of all time.
  My friend describes himself as “not athletic.” Then something big happened in his life. It led him to grab a 25-pound pack, step outside of his Brooklyn apartment, and start walking—and he didn’t stop for a very long time. What he learned shows us how a long walk can help us break new ground in the mind and body. (P.S. Read Foster’s excellent Substack, ).

• Part Three explains how many steps we really need each day.
  There are two ways to think about this. And, no, the number is not necessarily 10,000.

The podcast: Why

My 45-day desert hike last year gave me a lot of time to think. The type of thinking that only happens when you wander without cell service for weeks on end.

One realization I had: the personal audio reads of Two Percent posts were a nice feature, but they were also massively time-consuming to create and—most importantly—didn’t give us any new information.

I wondered, what if I used that time to give us something new?

And when I surveyed the health/mindset/wellness podcast landscape, I saw a pattern: they had tons of depth, but they weren’t always useful. I’d listen for three hours and go—wait, how do I actually use any of this? I often left more confused than when I started.

And most weren’t fun—more 300-level biology class with a professor who spent too long in school than the type of inspiring conversations I’d had with experts in my own work as a journalist for two decades.

The Two Percent Newsletter has always been opposite of that. It’s about delivering practical, high-impact information in a way we can use now. We mix lab science with real-world experience. We get out into the world, do hard things, and learn important information about ourselves. And we have a lot of fun along the way.

I wanted to bring that ethos to audio and video.

I started developing the idea with Robbie Hiser, an exceedingly wise thinker and audio engineer2. Then, by chance3, I got linked up with Kaleidoscope. They’re the audio and video podcast production equivalent of the 1992 Dream Team (killers, all).

And now here we are.

• Go deeper: Read what Complex said about the Two Percent podcast.

The podcast: How it works

The episode schedule

This first week, we’re running one episode4.

Starting next week, we’ll have two episodes a week. (Because the Two Percent podcast should obviously have two episodes a week).

• On Tuesdays, I’ll have a long (but not Rogan long) conversation with a fascinating person. Authors, athletes, adventurers, amazing everyday people, and scientists (but not boring scientists). The rule: The guest must be interesting, fun, and have solid information we can use after listening to live better.

• On Thursdays, I’ll cover a range of timely topics. Everything from new studies to news events to internet dramas to whatever I think is interesting and useful right now. Think of the Thursday episodes as similar to our Expedition posts, but in audio and video formats.

Three notes:

• If you enjoyed The Comfort Crisis, you’ll love next Tuesday’s episode. I dragged my guest out of the wilderness for this one.

• Check out the video versions. We’re putting a lot of valuable information on screen (not just my stupid face talking).

• Got a topic or guest idea? Send it. Your feedback and ideas will shape the podcast, just like they do the newsletter.

The delivery

I’ll send out each episode on Substack. Emails will include embedded video + audio feeds, as well as detailed show notes.

For example, if the episode mentions a study, Two Percent post, book, or (insert anything), I’ll put it in the show notes.

On Substack, I’ll also jot down a few thoughts after recording that won’t appear anywhere else.

Quick housekeeping

• The audio reads of the newsletters are not leaving. They’ll still live in the audio bar of each post. I.e., Nothing is changing in your Monday, Wednesday, and Friday newsletters.

• The podcasts will be free for all subscribers (not just Members).

  • We will likely begin developing bonus materials for Members only.

Can I ask a favor?

Please subscribe on YouTube and/or your podcast player of choice (Apple Podcasts and Spotify).

I know every damn host ever makes that request. But The Overlords tell me these subscriptions are really important! Subscribing makes it easier for us to get the guests you’d like to hear from.

Have fun, don’t die, listen to and watch the new Two Percent podcast.

-Michael