Chase Jarvis: Creativity Is Our Birthright

This week marks the return of my friend Casey Neistat to the podcast. Where to even begin… As a filmmaker credentialed with co-creating an HBO series and laurels from prestigious outlets like Cannes, Sundance and the Independent Spirit Awards, one would expect an artist of his pedigree to be directing feature films, documentaries and television shows for mainstream media. And yet sometime around 2010, Casey opted for the road less travelled, putting the traditional filmmaker path in his rearview to blaze a different and quite surprising path more in alignment with his DIY sensibilities: YouTube. The great irony is that in embracing the most democratic of platforms as his primary artistic outlet, Casey has indeed become one of the most compelling and culturally relevant voices of his generation. From his sensational “Make It Count” (my fave) to his poignant “What Would You Do with $25,000?” to his gleeful “Snowboard NYC”, Casey has logged over 129 million YouTube views, compelling Wired Magazine to remark, “Casey Neistat’s bite-size Internet movies have so much viral potential they make influenza jealous.” Let's not even get into his continent-sized following on Snapchat (check out his ancillary Snap Stories YouTube Channel ), or the fact that he recently began posting a daily vlog so stellar, suddenly every other vlogger looks remedial.  Putting out a volume of content that would rival a major network, Casey Neistat is truly a do-it-yourself triumph — famed and fêted for unceasingly documenting his life, globe-trotting adventures and myriad curiosities with boundless perspicacity and bootstrapping panache. So what is it exactly that makes Casey's work so irresistible? Maybe it's simply because he knows how to tell insanely great personal stories. Perhaps it's his rapier-like knack for tapping the zeitgeist pulse. His fidelity to authenticity. Or his expertise when it comes to connecting emotionally with a signature style that always leaves you yearning for more. If you ask me what sets Casey apart, it's something else entirely: an absolute disregard for failure. That, and a profound work ethic. He makes it look easy, but make no mistake: Casey Neistat works way harder than you do. No, you can't have his life. But you can have your own. To echo Casey, if you are doing it like everyone else, you're doing it wrong. So stop following the heard. Define your own path. It was a treat to once again drop in on his singular Lower Manhattan studio — “one of the most compulsively organized, ridiculously customized, and mind-bogglingly gear-saturated spaces on Planet Awesome” — and I am pumped to share this conversation with one of the most interesting, creative, prolific — and in my opinion important — visual artists working today.

27 Apr 20151h 12min

I have some serious sustainability concerns about doing two podcasts a week. It's just an absurd amount of work. But I'm keeping my promise. Plus, I'm having fun. So here we go with another round of Ask Me Anything — a twist on my typical long-form interview format where we speak to the issues you want addressed. This is my way of deepening my connection with the global community of people who enjoy the show. And community is the very thing that carries the potential energy to truly shift cultural paradigms across the globe, one listener at a time. Today marks one week until our new book The Plantpower Way* hits stores all across North America. It's been quite a mind blowing journey to arrive at this quite privileged place, so Julie and I check in on where things currently stand in our Herculean attempt to launch a plant-based lifestyle primer into the mainstream. Long story short? Everything is going great. To be totally transparent, today we eclipsed 4,000 books pre-sold and over 1.5 million in social reach on our Thunderclap campaign. Unbelievable! This is because of you. The support you have given us is beyond what we could have ever imagined, so please know that our appreciation runs deep. Very deep. And yet much work remains to be done. If we want to hit the NY Times Bestseller List and catapult the book — and the plant-based movement — into the cultural zeitgeist, we need to sell at least 7,000 books before May 1. We simply cannot do this alone. So far the TODAY Show hasn't called. We're getting no love from Dr. Oz, Good Morning America, John Stewart or any other major national news outlet. So when I say we are relying on you — the community — to step up and help get the word out and make this happen, I f*$ing mean it. If you are a fan of the podcast and all the content I work tirelessly to provide free each week, this is your moment of reckoning. The fact that our amazing pre-order gift bundles expire on April 28 should be enough self-serving motivation to act. But if not, consider this: despite your assumed personal proclivity for all things wellness, right now millions of people across the world are sick; stuck in a downward spiral of negative eating and lifestyle habits that promote disease and are unnecessarily killing us. 70% of Americans are obese or overweight. 1 out of every 3 Americans will die of heart disease. By 2030, 50% of us will be diabetic or pre-diabetic. Meanwhile America is exporting this lifestyle overseas with reckless abandon. And yet 80-90% of chronic lifestyle illness is preventible or reversible via simple diet and lifestyle changes. The Plantpower Way is the solution to this insanity. This not hyperbole. If my story means anything, it's that sustainable health and well being is accessible and available to us all, irrespective of age or circumstance. And I promise that this book will get you there — the most powerful, life altering gift you can give to yourself; to your loved ones; to your children; to our animal friends; and to the planet.

23 Apr 201559min

I was first introduced to meditation and mindfulness principles 17 years ago during my 100-day voluntary incarceration in what is more amiably referred to as rehab. Initially, I balked at the concept. How can stillness possibly improve my life? Intellectually, I attributed every decent personal achievement not to innate talent, let alone some intangible force of the Universe. Instead I credited my prodigious work ethic — a huge capacity to grind harder and longer than my peers. Get up early. Stay late. Put in the extra mile. Repeat. Never stop. Do more. At best, stillness meant stasis. Mostly I wrote it off as regressive — wasted time lost. The purview of flaky, new-age hippies who couldn't begin to fathom my logic-based intellect, understand my terminally unique life problems, nor comprehend how I successfully navigated the world. Always good for a solid re-sizing, my rehab counselor — let's call him Hugh because that's his name — reminded me of one simple, powerful fact: My best thinking landed me in a mental institution. That blast of truth and humility fell on my head like a ton of bricks. In recovery, they call it self-will run riot. And that was me, in a nutshell — a desperate hope to die alcoholic. A broken young man who had squandered promise and destroyed his life, literally tightrope walking the divide that separates life and death. Hardly a vision for you, It was time to try something different. Surrender. At the time, I perceived this concept as synonymous with defeat. Anathema to my core idea of who I was. But Hugh was right. I was out of options, with only one saving grace — willingness. So I (quite reluctantly) released my resistance. I let go of logic. I opened myself to possibilities beyond the rational, to something perhaps entirely unknowable. And in so doing, my life didn't just change, it transformed wholesale — dramatically and irrevocably improving every aspect of my mental, emotional, physical and spiritual well being. I wish I could tell you that from that day forward I devoted myself to a daily meditation practice. That didn't happen. Newly sober, life quickly got better. Priorities rearranged, and that willingness to surrender — the one character trait that had saved me — started to wane until the very thing that had been so indisputably beneficial to my overall sense of self had been relegated to back seat status — a convenient tool relied upon only when life got complicated, but hardly a consistent mainstay. Despite great appreciation for the benefits of meditation, consistency and momentum eluded me. For many years, I would practice only in spurts as a last ditch salve to alleviate some form of emotional pain. Then about six months ago, I discovered Headspace– a mobile app and digital platform (boasting over 1 million users) pre-packaged with an endless rotation of very accessible, secular guided meditation programs all pleasantly voiced by the company's founder and today's guest, Andy Puddicombe.

20 Apr 20151h 32min

It's been a while, but Julie and I are finally back with another installment of Ask Me Anything — a twist on my typical format where we answer questions submitted by you, the listener. I absolutely love this format, primarily because it connects me more deeply and authentically with the global community of people who enjoy the show. Because community is truly what it's all about. This is an exciting time for us. We have been working super hard getting everything ready for the impending release of The Plantpower Way, so we thought it would be fun to share a little behind the scenes on why we wrote the book; the collaborative and often intense two-year process undertaken to create it; the insane amount of effort and diligence required to launch a book into the mainstream; and our ultimate aspirations for the work. Then the conversation turns to listener submitted inquiries. A conversation that explores: parenting tips for temperamental teenagers; the nutritional needs of athletic plant-based kids; the journey towards service & mentorship; tips for starting a podcast based on Rich's experience; gender challenges faced in the wellness lifestyle; pursuing a plant-based lifestyle on a budget; the impact of increasing nutrient density on appetite & cravings; and culminates with In the Sun- an original song by SriMati (aka Julie) It was really fun to once again sit down with Julie — my wife and co-collaborator — to engage with the audience first hand, hashing out free-form the subjects you care about most. Thank you everyone who submitted the 100's of questions we reviewed. If we didn't get to yours (obviously chances are we didn't), nonetheless please keep them coming. I plan on doing many more supplemental Q&A focused editions of the show (both with Julie and surprise guest hosts), so don't be shy. Fire your queries off to info@richroll.com and we'll do our best to answer! I sincerely hope you enjoy the offering. Peace + Plants, Rich

16 Apr 20151h 17min

Newsflash: heart disease is still America’s #1 killer. Despite groundswell interest in all things wellness, the incidence of atherosclerotic disease is at an all-time high. One out of every two people in the United States will suffer some form of cardiac ailment. And one out of every three people will actually die of heart disease. Meanwhile, we are exporting the standard American diet overseas like it's the next blockbuster installment of The Avengers. The result? The developing world is now facing rates of lifestyle-related illness unprecedented in the history of humankind. This is a disaster. The great irony of course is that 80-90% of chronic illnesses like atherosclerosis, type-2 diabetes and obesity are preventible and oftentimes even reversible via simple diet and lifestyle alterations. I can preach all day, but to truly capture the attention of the mainstream, catalyze seismic cultural change and put an end to avoidable disease, we desperately need more highly qualified medical professionals who understand the complicated mechanisms that lead to these diseases and are compelled to implement the preventive measures required to combat and avoid them. This is where cardiologist Robert Ostfeld, MD comes in. A summa cum laude graduate of the University of Pennsylvania with a medical degree from Yale and a Masters in Epidemiology from Harvard, Dr. Ostfeld did his internship and residency at prestigious Massachusetts General Hospital and his cardiology fellowship and research fellowship in Preventive Medicine at Brigham and Women's Hospital – both teaching hospitals of Harvard Medical School. An insanely smart dude with mad skills and a bulletproof resume, Robert had his pick of the litter when it came to choosing where to hang his professional hat. Most would have chosen the highest paying, most coveted cardiology department in the country. But this guy had different plans. Instead, Robert headed north of Manhattan to The Bronx to work with underprivileged populations at Montefiore Hospital, while also serving as Associate Professor of Clinical Medicine at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. That right there says a lot about what kind of guy Robert is. But there's more to the story. Despite training with the best at Yale and Harvard, Robert was nonetheless left with little understanding when it came to nutrition. For years thereafter, he applied evidence-based medicine, recommended a “healthier” lifestyle (which typically included a Mediterranean-style diet), and watched somewhat helplessly as his patients’ diseases all too often progressed. Frustrated and dissatisfied with his patients' consistent inability to achieve true health, he started to search for alternative means of combating chronic disease. This search led him to The China Study* by T. Colin Campbell;

13 Apr 20152h 4min

Somewhere along the way, you've likely heard of something called the Blue Zones — a term coined in reference to five hidden slivers of the world that boast the highest per capita populations of centenarians – people who thrive to 100 and beyond. Unlikely locales were people not only live inordinately long, but also seem resoundingly happier than their fellow western world equals. Places where people forgot to die. This is the work of my friend Dan Buettner. A renaissance man in the truest sense, Dan transcends categorization. Global adventurer. Three-time Guinness Book world record holding endurance cyclist. National Geographic Fellow. Multiple New York Times bestselling author. A wellness and longevity superhero, Dan has keynoted speeches for Bill Clinton’s Health Matters Initiative, Google Zeitgeist, and TEDMED. He's appeared on Oprah twice and his TED Talk “How to live to be 100+” has been viewed over 2 million times. Without mincing words, Dan is my hero. A man who exudes life. A man with huge vision. And a man whose life work has positively, permanently and quite unequivocally improved the well being of millions. You might have caught Dan on The TODAY Show (which is featuring segments on Dan and his work throughout the week), read about him in last Sunday's PARADE magazine, seen him on NBC News or caught him on CNN's The Wonder List a few weeks ago. The common theme of these stories? Grappling with the lifestyle tenets that govern Blue Zone cultures as a means to help the rest of us live longer and better. According to Dan, Blue Zone cultures extending wellness into Ponce De Leon territory all live in accordance with 9 identifiable, convergent lifestyle principles (listed in the show notes below). Principles that are replicable on both the individual and civic level, as demonstrated by Dan's Blue Zones Project– a community well-being improvement initiative that has wholly transformed 20 cities and municipalities to date by implementing permanent changes to environment, policy, and social networks that make healthy choices easier. The Blue Zones Solution*, Dan's new book out this week, is a highly detailed primer that extrapolates from these principles powerful eating and lifestyle tools to transform your health. Enjoy! Rich

8 Apr 20151h 32min

We are all born compassionate. And we carry this powerful, inherent trait through adulthood. But often this deeply ingrained impulse becomes repressed — quelled by childhood trauma; eroded by social constraints; overwhelmed by the harried gestalt of daily life and the denial that accompanies our compulsion for convenience and immediate gratification. Today's guest is a powerful reminder of who we really are. A call to action to better align this core value of compassion with the countless choices we make daily that dictate how we live our lives. To be more mindful about not only what we what eat, but what we do; the hows and whys behind our behavior; and the implications of personal choice on both ourselves and the world at large. How to describe my friend Gene Baur? Hailed as the “conscience of the food movement” by TIME magazine, this is a guy who has spent the last 25 years traveling extensively around the country, campaigning to raise awareness about the abuses of industrialized factory farming and our current food system. Humanitarian, environmentalist, activist, undercover investigator and best-selling author, Gene is most well known as the president & co-founder of Farm Sanctuary. The first animal rescue organization dedicated to farmed animals, Farm Sanctuary shelters in New York and California provide rescue, refuge, and adoption for hundreds of farm animals each year, enabling visitors to connect with farm animals as emotional, intelligent individuals. Gene believes these animals stand as ambassadors for the billions on factory farms who have no voice, and he has dedicated his career to advocating on their behalf. He's so handsome it makes me jealous, yet I can't help but love everything about this guy. He's a beautiful soul. And he's a darn good plant-based marathon runner & ironman athlete to boot. Now for some context. This show is no stranger to people with strong points of view. But Gene was the first true animal rights activist I interviewed (in case you missed it, you can listen to our premier conversation from June 2013 here. I’m the first to admit that my original reasons for going vegan were far more selfish than ethical. Understanding that animal rights isn't exactly everyone's cup of tea, I admit to having some trepidation about publishing that interview. But that was 2013. In truth, that conversation changed me. Gene really disarmed what I would consider willful blindness when it came to so many facets regarding how our world functions. Today I have a very different lens on the issues that spark Gene's passion. Today, I can't imagine not sharing Gene's perspective. For me this marks personal growth. The evolution-revolution that is the hallmark of this journey I undertook eight years ago. Because the more educated I become about how our food system actually functions to deliver meals to our plates, the more interested and outspoken I have become about advocating for change. And the more strident and diligent I have become about aligning my daily personal decisions and consumer choices with a more compassionate and communitarian set of core values.

6 Apr 20151h 41min

I'm really excited to have Robin Arzón back on the show this week. From corporate lawyer to ambassador of sweat and swagger, Robin brings the heat with unique personal style and an unwavering confidence that is matched only by her unlimited vivaciousness. In the event you missed it, I highly recommend going back and listening to our first conversation, RRP #99. You also might want to go back and read (or re-read) the blog post I wrote for that one, because it's kind of awesome. Longtime listeners know Robin is all about story. The power of story. How to properly own your story. How to properly tell your story. The capacity for story to catalyze positive change in others. And the capability we all inherently have to let go of whatever negative story we tell ourselves about ourselves — and instead form an entirely new one. To recap, only three years ago Robin was living a completely different life — toiling away as a corporate lawyer at one of the world’s most prestigious law firms. But a near-death experience being held hostage at gunpoint several years prior gave her the courage to not only begin a new chapter of her life, but to — you guessed it — tell an entirely new story about herself. Robin jumped out on her secure career without a parachute, soared on faith arms spread wide and glided down to a graceful landing on the downtown streets of lower Manhattan like a glorious bird of prey clad in blinding color and a pair of chartreuse running shoes. How do you describe someone who defies definition itself? Robin is so many things I struggle to find words to capture a spirit that can only be properly understood by experiencing her first hand. Nonetheless, I'll give it a shot. Today Robin is a NYC-based urban, bridge-running force of nature; an accomplished ultramarathoner (she once ran 5 marathons in 5 days across Utah); a running coach; a cycling instructor; and a consultant to some of the biggest brands in the world, like Nike, Adidas and Puma. Not enough? She's also a lifestyle entrepreneur as well the co-founder and publisher of a relatively new magazine called UNDO. Where sweat meets culture, it's a gorgeous, high quality production that can be found worldwide in places like Urban Outfitters. But Robin is not immune from obstacles. About a year ago, she faced a unforeseen new challenge: Type 1 Diabetes. Not one to let her illness limit, let alone define her, Robin navigates this setback with the poised demeanor she meets everything — simply another opportunity to empower and inspire others to get out of their comfort zone and, in Robin's words: do epic shit. As a father of two little girls, I am inspired by her shining example of positive female empowerment. It gives me hope. And she never fails to put a smile on my face while simultaneously challenging my own preconceptions about what is possible for both myself and others. This conversation picks up where RRP #99 left off, delving further into Robin's story.

27 Mar 20151h 50min