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The best of Two Percent with Michael Easter and how it works.

We’ve got a lot of new subscribers around here. If you’re new, welcome to our cult (I’m kidding. I think?).

To bring you up to speed, this post will cover:

• What Two Percent is

• Why I started Two Percent

• Top stories from Two Percent

• How Two Percent works and the benefits of Membership

• A bit about me

If you’re a long-time reader, thank you! This post will remind you why we’re here and re-introduce you to some of our best stories.

What’s Two Percent With Michael Easter?

In short

We publish the world’s best and most useful health and performance information three times each week. Our readers and listeners get results.

The details

I began publishing Two Percent three times each week in the Spring of 2023. Since then, readers of this newsletter have:

• Lost a collective thousands of extra pounds.

• Covered untold miles on foot—walking, rucking, running, and hiking.

• Vastly improved health markers and fitness metrics that are critical for living a longer (lifespan) and better (healthspan) life.

• Made big shifts in their mindset, allowing them to do things they once believed they couldn’t.

• Spent more time outside with friends and family doing epic activities that improve their “one wild and precious life.”

• Taken on epic outdoor challenges that irrevocably changed them for the better.

• Made business and life decisions that gave them a huge return.

• And much more …That’s the tense of living we’re after.

It’s easier for all of us to stay in that tense when we have constant reminders of what that tense is, where we find it, and how we stay in it and milk it for all it’s worth.

That’s what the Two Percent newsletter does. We publish three stories and accompanying audio versions of those stories each week. The goal is to:

• Remind us what that tense of living is by covering breaking and time-tested information on health, performance, and mindset.

• Show us the most efficient way to find that tense of living by making that information actionable no matter who you are.

• Stay in that tense of living through community and a regular publishing schedule.

Our community is powerful. We’ve built the top Substack publication in the Health and Wellness category.

Why I started Two Percent

In short

Around 2017, health and performance media began changing. It became less helpful and useful. So I started 2% as a solution.

The details

For years, I was a Senior Editor at the world’s largest health magazine. We had roughly 71 million readers worldwide, and my work went out to 50+ countries.

But sometime around 2017, health and performance coverage from major media outlets changed. It stopped being useful.

The focus shifted from quality stories to getting more clicks. Editors were asked to crank out multiple stories each day. And write stories they believed would drive traffic at any cost, even if those stories didn’t help people.

Writers were forced to spend less time reading actual research and gathering multiple viewpoints from experts. Stories began lacking nuance, context, and deep reporting.

So I bailed.

I left the magazine and took a job as a professor of journalism and media studies, focusing on health media. I wanted to deeply understand what was happening, how that impacted people, and how to correct it.

Traditional health media was failing. But in it’s place, a new form of health media was rising. And it wasn’t great either. In the place of major media, we got online health influencers.

And not just the wacky ones on social media telling us everything is toxic and to please buy their supplement.

Some of today’s biggest health voices are M.D.s and researchers at elite universities.

These people are well-meaning. But many have a narrow worldview and go so far down the rabbit hole they can’t see out of it. They don’t account for critical perspectives from other scientific disciplines and approaches to living that have existed for thousands of years.

We got a lot of 75-step morning routines that will help you “optimize” and “hack” this and that. We got advice to take some far-out, off-label drug or supplement to live longer. We got hyper-complicated, inconvenient diets and protocols drawn from results on lab rats (reminder: humans aren’t lab rats).

The problem is that life isn’t a laboratory. What looks good in a tightly controlled study rarely works as well as we think it will in the real world. And it often just sucks the soul out of living.

We needed objective health information that is as broad as it is deep. So I started Two Percent.

Two Percent offers the most practical, accurate, and useful health, performance, and mindset information online.

It’s a useful middle ground between dumbed down health clickbait from major media organizations and the impractical, soul-sucking protocols you hear on four-hour health podcasts.

We only offer the highest-impact information—tactics that works for real people in the real world. That is to say, you.

• Our information comes from groundbreaking new science, but it also views topics from multiple lenses and leverages wisdom from real conversations with experts and cultures across disciplines. We’ve traveled over 100,000 miles around to get the information we release.

• Our information is human. It accounts for tradeoffs and different perspectives and works for everyone—changing us all for the better.

Together we fight back against the downsides of our modern, comfortable world—and we get better for it.

The Best of Two Percent

We have a lot of great stories on Two Percent.

I created this list for you to find some of our group’s favorites:

Fitness

• Harvard’s Running and Rucking Prescription
  Exactly how many miles you should run or ruck each week for ideal health.

• Why Women Should Ruck
  Four reasons why rucking is the best exercise for women.

• Don’t Die. Do Pullups.
  This simple exercise might be the ultimate longevity test + a tactical plan to do more pullups—or nail your first one.

• How Accurate is Your Activity Tracker?
  Fitness tracker accuracy varies wildly. Find out how yours did and how to use it better.

• The New Science of Outdoor Exercise
  The case for moving more outdoors is clear. Learn the benefits and how to leverage the takeaways here.

• Six Fitness Lessons from a Fascinating Study on the Amish
  You’ll learn: How farming changed human fitness; the upsides of farm and manual labor; six ways to mimic farm and manual labor in your exercise to fill fitness gaps and build grit.

• Rucking: Backpacks Vs. Weight Vests
  A deep dive on which you should choose and why.

• 6 Pillars of Useful Fitness
  Training for the outdoors is likely the best path to overall health, longevity, and fitness you can use.

• How to Find the Right Exercise Shoe
  This one led to shoe industry insiders emailing me saying I’d condensed years of knowledge into a single, simple read.

• Lessons My Wife Learned Walking 31,576 Steps a Day
  On the incredible power of steps and how you can get more of them.

P.S. Interested in rucking? Type “rucking” into the search bar on our homesite, TWOPCT.com.

Health

• Six Sleep Myths
  Prepare to be surprised. Some of the most popular sleep advice doesn’t hold up to scientific scrutiny and common sense.

• Microplastics and Your Health
  A guide to an insidious and growing health problem.

• 8 Sleep Tips That Actually Work
  This advice is backed by research and common sense. You’ll find something that helps you sleep better. Better sleep = better life.

• Carrying Kids: The Incredible Science and Benefits
  Not just for parents. Understanding the evolution of child carrying can shape how you think about health, exercise, and development.

• How Many Steps a Day Is Best?
  Hint: It’s not 10,000. But the number that’s best for you depends on what your goal is.

• Nose Breathing: Science vs. Snake Oil
  Are you breathing wrong? Learn the good, bad, and ugly of this new wellness obsession.

• You Probably Don’t Get Enough Vitamins and Minerals
  Micronutrient deficiencies are overlooked, and they can hinder your health, sanity, and performance. They’re associated with everything from obesity and heart disease to fatigue, depression, and impaired intelligence and performance.

Nutrition

• Fasting: Facts, Myths, and Best Practices
  What fasting can and can’t do for you, and four ways to try it.

• A Nutrition Rule That Cuts Through Nonsense
  You’ll learn: why and how many online nutrition claims are wrong and a rule that will help you navigate the complicated world of food and health.

• The 2% Hydration Guide: Part I
  You’ll learn: the truth about hydration and performance, how to tell if you’re dehydrated, how dehydration does and doesn’t impact health, three guidelines for hydrating, and more.

• The 2% Vitamin and Mineral Guide
  Even healthy diets can lack some vitamins and minerals. But knowing your status is complicated, and getting more isn’t so straightforward.

• Wild Findings From an Analysis of 400 Diet Books
  A scholar read 400+ diet books going back to the 1860s. She discovered the real reason why diets become popular—and ultimately fail.

• Can You Out-Exercise a Bad Diet?
  You’ll learn how much exercise it takes to eat what you want within reason—and whether you’re even capable of that.

Mindset & Mental Strength

• Why We Get Hooked On (Insert Anything)
  A dive into a big revelation from my New York Times Bestselling book, Scarcity Brain.

• Three steps to Build Good Habits
  The S-R-O model works. Use it and get better.

• The Misogi Guide

  The greatest list of real Misogis ever published—a great guide to find your own epic challenge.

• Four Lessons from Misogi
  Why doing hard things can transform us, and how to navigate challenge better.

• Use Science to Reduce Screen Time
  Get your time and attention back. Years of behavior science back up this simple phone trick.

• Absolve Yourself of First-World Problems
  This might be the ultimate mindset shift.

• The True Science of Gratitude
  Gratitude is essential for wellbeing, but the science and advice around it is murky. We’ll explore what really makes people grateful.

• The Heavy Rucking Mile
  A challenge that will push you to your edge—and expand it.

Gear

• Gear Not Stuff: Travel Edition
  My favorite gear for travel.

• Don’t Die: Wilderness Edition
  These four simple guidelines will help you follow the 2% motto: Have fun, don’t die.

• Gear Not Stuff: June Edition
  Three outdoor necessities.

• Gear Not Stuff: July Edition
  13 items to stay healthy while road tripping.

• Gear Not Stuff: October Edition
  Great gear under $100, sourced from the 2% community.

• Gear Not Stuff: December Edition
  The best gifts for people who like to have fun and not die.

P.S. If you’re a gearhead, search “Gear Not Stuff” in the search bar on the homesite, TWOPCT.com. That’ll allow you to easily find past Gear Not Stuff columns.

Work and Productivity

• How to Talk to Anyone
  Asking better questions can improve your conversations, make you more likable, and increase your success in business, relationships, and life.

• The Truth About Morning Routines
  Many morning routines are often a distraction. Here’s how to make your morning routine work for you—and not the other way around.

• The Paradox of Making Your Bed
  Why a common piece of morning advice has downsides.

• Leverage the Power of Silence
  How escaping the noise can boost your productivity.

• The Problem with Goals
  A simple question that will help you accomplish more in 2024.

Two Percent Membership: How It Works

In short

We have three plans:

1. Free Subscriber, which is free but gets you limited access.

2. Member, which gets full access to every past and future Two Percent post and its audio version. Cost: $6.87/month or $68.70/year.

3. Founding Member, which is for those who are all in on living well and want free bonuses. Cost: $247/year

The details

Members of 2% have made massive, inspiring changes to their lives. For example, I recently picked at random a handful of messages I’ve received about this project.

• Cindy lost 37 pounds (and counting) combining the fitness and nutrition ideas published in 2%.

• Tyler beat anxiety and depression by deploying simple mindset shifts laid out in our Mindset and Mental Strength articles.

• Morgan quit drinking and took up rucking with his wife five days a week.

• Ada, 63, improved critical health markers that her doctors say vastly reduce her risk of all-cause mortality.

• Richard lost 120(!) pounds by combining the fitness and nutrition ideas in 2%.

• Sarah quit her soul-sucking job and took on an epic Misogi that took her around the globe after reading our Mindset stories.

• Catherine did her first pullup and is now training for an IronMan triathlon.

• David, 75, realized age is just a number and now has a practical rucking plan that has added more life to his years.

• Tammy began understanding the roots of her shopping and overhauled how much she buys, saving her thousands of dollars across the year.

• John overhauled a back injury that had been plaguing him and is now back to regularly hiking and golfing.

I’ll stop there because you get the point. We’ve got hundreds of case studies.

There are three versions of this publication:

1. Free Subscriber

2. Member

3. Founding Member.

Here’s what each gets you.

Non-Member/Unpaid Subscription to Two Percent

A great but limited place to start

• Full access to one of three Two Percent posts a week (Mondays)

• Previews to the two weekly Member’s-only posts (Wednesdays and Fridays)

• Access to the archive of free posts

Member Subscription to Two Percent

Life-enhancing information that saves you far more time and money than its cost

Note: I have an agreement to save you time and money. Members repeatedly tell me they’ve gained far more than the monthly Member cost in improved health and work performance, and reclaimed time.

Here’s what a Membership gets you:

• Every Two Percent post (Three posts each week—all the good info, all the time).

• Podcasts of every Two Percent post (great for people who like to consume information while driving, running, exercising, cooking, cleaning, etc).

• Entry into the Two Percent community through comments, chats, etc.

• Access to the full archive of Two Percent posts.

• Answers to your personal questions in chats and posts (killer Q&A posts … AMA).

• Exclusive access to our HAVE FUN, DON’T DIE series (the most essential information for living better and longer today).

• Free workouts (I use these to prepare for different adventures and live better).

• Free, easy, and effective nutrition approaches (the no-BS stuff that actually works).

• Full access to popular franchises like our Gear Not Stuff gear columns and Burn the Ships workouts (I use these to prepare for different adventures and live better).

Cost: $6.87/month or $68.70/year

(Again: You’ll save more time and money in the long run than the cost.)

Founding Member of The 2%

For those who are all-in on living well

• Everything in the “Paid” subscription above

• Free 2% Hat (the perfect workout hat)

• Free access to any e-books and paid training programs I release (Full SUPERMEDIUM extended training plan … $200 value)

Cost: $247/year

About Me:

I’m a New York Times Bestselling author, journalist, and professor who wrote the books The Comfort Crisis and Scarcity Brain.

My work explores how we can leverage modern science and evolutionary wisdom to perform better and live healthier and more meaningful lives.

I’ve been researching, writing about, and going to the ends of the earth to understand these topics for two decades. I’ve embedded myself in war zones, remote reaches of the Arctic, outposts in the Bolivian jungle, cutting edge labs around the world, and more. I’ve interviewed experts ranging from Nobelists to the world’s best athletes. I’ve pored over tens of thousands of studies and books.

My goal is and always has been to find the best practical ideas and advice you can leverage to improve your life today and for years to come.

My ideas have been adopted by NASA, NFL and MLB teams, US Special Forces units, Fortune-500 companies, top tier universities, multi-platinum-selling musicians, and millions of people worldwide.

I’ve talked about my ideas on places like the Good Morning America, CBS Saturday Morning News, The New York Times, NPR, Fox News Primetime, MSNBC, and some of the world’s biggest podcasts, like The Joe Rogan Experience.

One of my books is even, I was told by an inmate at Rikers Island, “the most popular book in prison.” Oddly enough, the same book is also a favorite of some of the largest church groups in the US.

This publication allows me to release the most fascinating, powerful, and actionable information and ideas I find. In real time.

I live on the edge of the desert with my wife and two dogs, Stockton and Conway. I love all dogs.

Welcome to the 2% Community. Now let’s do big things.

Have fun, don’t die.

-Michael