[midwestreal]

NEW SITE!

Dear, friends. I’ve been hard at work on a new and improved version of Midwestreal.net. The new page has been launched and I’m aiming to make it more robust and active than ever with daily updates. I’d truly appreciate it if you’d go check it out, bookmark it and come back often. 

Many loves, 

Michael. 

[midwestreal]

049 & 050 Randall Carlson of Sacred Geometry International (UPDATE)

  Every night we go to bed taking it for granted that tomorrow will come. Worst case scenario, our heart will give out and we won't wake up. But, what if that wasn't the worst case scenario? 

As we speak, massive chunks of instant extinction are flying by the vessel we inhabit at preposterous speeds. If one of them crosses Earth's path, it could easily be game over for the human race.

As long as we've been aware of that inconvenient fact, it's been good for precisely one thing- apathy. That's because the ability to do anything about it was completely absent. Well, that's not the case anymore. We actually do have the technology and intelligence to do something about it. However, thus far, we've shown a complete and total lack of will to even discuss it seriously.

What will it take to pay attention? A 9/11 scale tragedy? A Hiroshima scale tragedy? Worse? Unfortunately when you're talking about asteroids, all are very possible.

If you know anything about my guest on this show, Randall Carlson, it's probably because he's become a living library of brain-melting knowledge. He's as an architect, master builder, Freemason, globe-trekking scholar, a geology and history enthusiast and many other things. Yet, of everything he's learned after four decades of toil, there's clearly one matter of paramount importance- The ancients left us clues about world-wrecking cataclysms and it's just a matter of time until history repeats itself. That is, unless we do something about it.

As sprawling and deep as this conversation with Randall is, it only scratches the surface of what's available over at Sacred Geometry International. There's literally hundreds of hours of mind blasting information at SGI, much of it free. Dive in if you dare. You'd also be silly not to go give them some Twitter and Facebook love as well! (Stay tuned for part 2 of this beast of a podcast and other updates).

Want to join the conversation? Follow us on Twitter and Facebook and don’t forget to subscribe and review on iTunes!

P.S.-You can also tip Midwest Real!

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Podcast 048. Liam Wilson of Dillinger Escape Plan. Set your Good Vibe Blasters to High!

   Yoga, meditation, music, float tanks, psychedelics, philosophy, writing, creativity, freedom nuggets and shit on the water slide of life. 

Liam Wilson is best known for playing bass in the spastic, technical, incredible progressive metal mainstay, Dillinger Escape Plan. If you're a fan of heavy music and you somehow haven't heard of them over the course of the last 15 or so years, I don't even know what to say.

Not so much into the metal? Fear not! This man is likely the opposite of what comes to mind when you imagine a guy with millions of head bangs under his belt. He's a voracious reader, a practitioner of Transcendental Meditation, a yogi, a psychonaut, a student of many philosophies, and a bunch of other things I can guarantee he'd never be comfortable calling himself.

We spent very little time hovering around the surface in this conversation. In fact, I think Liam might have been a little bit excited to jump right in on a show that welcomes fare beyond the discussion of his bass rig (which is quite lovely).

Go give my new friend (and I do mean that!) some love on Twitter, Facebook and on some of his articles over at Talkhouse. If you want to see what his band is up to, click this.

Stay tuned, friends.

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Marty Leeds and Michael Phillip in Math Magic Land.

What if there was a secret numerical language embedded within our culture?

I shan’t bullshit you my friends, I suck at math. If you forced me to do algebra with a gun to my head, the event could only end with my landlord having PTSD. I really wish that weren’t the case, because numbers truly do fascinate me. Somehow, we’re able manipulate these immutable, immortal concepts to extrude things into this world. Just take a look at all the amazing feats of engineering and architecture around you at this very moment that you’re taking for granted. It’s truly amazing stuff. And it’s all there, at least in part, because of what we do with numbers. 

(A visual representation of Pi to 10,000 digits.)

Now that we’ve established that my mind is a burrito of mathematical ineptness and ignorant awe, maybe that makes me extra susceptible to being manipulated into being mesmerized by witnessing simple patterns, or mathematical slight of hand. But, I’ll say it anyway- I think numbers might be more than hard fast units of measurement.

If these were your run-of-the-mill underpass-dwelling schizoids, that'd be one thing. But, these are men we’re taught to revere as pillars of intellectual and scientific prowess. Is it possible that they were on to something?   

Clearly this is a subject that’s very controversial, but if you open your mind, just to the possibility of numbers being a living breathing creative language, beyond just a rigid tool we use to express hard fast concepts the world, at the very least becomes a much more interesting place. 

My guest, Marty Leeds is an author and researcher who’s deeply entrenched into just this kind of thinking. He makes insane videos showing correlations between words, numbers and esoteric concepts in a way that’s pretty goddamn intriguing. So much so, that they’ve been the cause of at least one confirmed case of spontaneous head explosion.

You can learn more about Marty and is work at his website, his Facebook and, of course his Youtube page. 

Want to join the conversation? Follow us on Twitter and Facebook and don’t forget to subscribe and review on iTunes!

P.S.-You can also tip Midwest Real!

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046. The Nuggets that Lay Beyond. Featuring Christopher and Manny of Closure in Moscow (and humble host, Michael Phillip).

Christopher and Manny of Closure in Moscow on their allegorical, psychedelic opus soaked in a perfectly balanced brine of technology and satire.

There’s no group of creatives that has it harder than musicians. Their craft is exceedingly simple to steal, consume, judge, then cast aside like yesterday’s Hot n’ Ready crust (what this dork who looks like he went straight from a wedding to reviewing a 5 dollar pizza doesn't tell you is that it's the worst. The worst ever). To be fair, we have a right to be skeptical. The vast majority of today's music is formulaic, predictable, shallow, devoid of any deeper meaning and often crafted for the sole purpose of grabbing the attention of the nearest industry turd. Then there are bands like my guests, Closure in Moscow. 

Closure has always leaned toward the “all-in” approach with their music, but their latest release, Pink Lemonade, pushes the chips forward like nothing I’ve ever heard before. Within the first minute of the record, they make it pretty clear that zero fucks shall be given through the duration of its running time. You’re either going need to jump on the roller coaster car that’s flying by you at a thousand miles an hour and hang on for dear life, or go back to your happy little Michael Bay-filled life like nothing ever happened. If you’re brave enough to pluck the red (or in this case, pink) pill from the alchemist’s paw, you’ll be rewarded with a rip-roaring, priapism inducing dive down the rabbit hole that makes Alice in Wonderland look more mundane than a trip through a Taco Bell drive through.   

Pink Lemonade is a highly intelligent nuanced piece of existentially poignant psychedelic prog pop art. An archetypical narrative soaked in a perfectly balanced allegorical, technological brine.

Throughout the record, the Closure boys skip on and off the beaten path like Dorothy and Toto taking pulls off of a two liter bottle of ayahuasca. You seriously never know what they’ll do next (which, in this case, is a refreshingly good thing). Every song operates on multiple levels, evoking everything from biblical motifs to an epic battle between dinosaurs and bone-collecting inter-dimensional cyborgs (a theme Miley Cyrus' latest effort was sorely lacking).

I could go on and on about what I think is the best record I’ve heard in a very long time, but I’ll let my conversation (also, seriously one of my favorites ever) with Chris and Manny from the band take it from here. 

Oh, and did I mention they’re approachable, down to earth, funny, well-spoken guys that I could see hanging out with this weekend if not for the 10 thousand mile geographical disparity we share? 

Throw every bit of support their way you can via their Twitter and Facebook accounts and their website. 

BUY PINK LEMONADE. 

Want to join the conversation? Follow us on Twitter and Facebook and don’t forget to subscribe and review on iTunes!

P.S.-You can also tip Midwest Real!

[midwestreal]

045. The Glorious Third Coming of Daniele Bolelli.

   When a certain type of person achieves monetary success and notoriety, one of their first moves is to cultivate some sort of bullshit persona.  I’m talking a VIP, tinted window, sunglasses on indoors set of behaviors.  What exactly is that?  I’ll tell you, it’s fear. A fear of being seen for the sham they truly believe they are beneath the ever-fleeting glitz and “success” they’ve managed to brush up against.

Despite humanity’s seemingly insatiable appetite for anything with the word "Kardashian" in it, I think we’re actually living in a time that’s far less conducive to mindless ego worship. Our increasingly interconnected web of digital consciousness has demystified celebrities to the point where any moderately intelligent person can see that the famous are really no different than anyone else. Furthermore, it's become simple to actually shun the shit, and tailor our incoming information like never before. You can actually bring attention to the content you like AND stop looking at what you don't. It's a powerful thing.  

That's where today's guest Daniele Bolelli comes in. He's to polar opposite of a vacant, vapid, do-nothing celebrity.

If you didn’t catch our first, or second conversation with him, and you’re not familiar with his work, you should be. Not (just) because he’s the kick ass author of books like Create Your Own Religion and On the Warrior's Path, or because he's a professor of history and philosophy, but because he’s a humble, decent, kind and really goddamn interesting human being. 

I vigorously encourage you to keep up with Daniele on Twitter and to check out his website!      

 Join the thousands who already support Midwest Real. Follow us on Twitter and Facebook and don’t forget to subscribe and review on iTunes!

P.S.-You can now tip the show!

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044. Do Psychedelics Have a Place in the Future of Medicine? With Brad Burge of MAPS, Army Ranger Tim Amoroso and Michael Phillip.

  "There really has been an exponential increase of media interest in what's happening. I think that's the result of new research, (and) the result of some major international conferences that are really establishing the field of psychedelic science and medicine." Brad Burge of MAPS.

   It seems we’re finally at a turning point in The War on Drugs.  All it took was a few decades of indoctrination, mass-incarceration, astronomical price tags and straight-up horrific body counts. Yet, society’s transition into a deeper understanding of these substances has been far from smooth. Yes, the people have clearly spoken on the subject of marijuana, and nearly half of all U.S. states have taken notice, putting some sort of marijuana-friendly law on the books. However, when it comes to Mary Jane’s more potent psychedelic cousins, the conversation is quite a bit more nuanced and controversial. Thankfully, for the first time in decades, the dialogue surrounding psychedelics is evolving. For that, we have organizations like MAPS to thank.

While these developments are genuinely encouraging, the bleak fact of the matter is that psychedelic therapies are still a long way from legal, meaning very few of those in need are actually receiving these potentially highly potent treatments.

To dig further into this, I spoke with Brad Burge of MAPS along with three-tour Army Ranger veteran and psychedelic success story, Tim Amoroso.

Click these magical blue words to be transported to MAPS' exponentially growing Twitter and Facebook pages!

 Join the thousands who already support Midwest Real. Follow us on Twitter and Facebook and don’t forget to subscribe and review on iTunes!

P.S.-You can now tip the show!

[midwestreal]

043. Jeffrey Tucker, Will Pangman, Michael Phillip. A Digitally Fueled Utopia, Bitcoin and a Little Bit of Gin.

LISTEN

     People are evil, violent, greedy, hopeless bastards.  Even as a prepubescent flesh ball that would experience withdrawal symptoms if you took away his Super Nintendo controller for more than five seconds, I knew that.  How could I not?  Fear of the “bad guys” was embedded into roughly 99.9% of the mega-tons of media I consumed on a daily basis.  As a tyke I'd often lie in bed at night fearing a who’s who of boogie men with all manner of otherworldly weaponry that I could never hope to defeat.  But, thankfully, I somehow managed to survive the onslaught of demonic hordes that plagued my mind, the news, movies and the games I so eagerly devoured. I'd even argue that some of it made me a better person.   

Our guest on this episode, Jeffery Tucker has been labeled a lot of things- Economist, Libertarian, Anarchist, Entrepreneur, Publisher, Bitcoin expert, the list truly goes on.  However, I’ve found that rather than putting him in a ideological box, it's more accurate to call him a human that trusts other humans, despite all the fear-mongering and propaganda that reverberates throughout the mainstream discourse.  Though he and I may not agree on every philosophical point, we agree on the most important thing.  We’re all in this together and if we’re going to make this exponentially more interconnected world harmonious, we’re sure as hell going to need to trust one another. 

Cumbauya. 

For more on Jeffrey, you can follow him on Twitter, or visit his latest venture, liberty.me 

You can also say hi, to my well-read, Bitcoin-mongering co-host Will Pangman on Twitter!

Join the thousands who already support Midwest Real. Follow us on Twitter and Facebook and don’t forget to subscribe and review on iTunes!

P.S.-You can now tip the show!

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042. Unleashing your Primal Potential - Erwan Le Corre, Adam Von Rothfelder, Michael Phillip

LISTEN

Do me a favor- stand up. No problem, right?  Now walk around. That’s pretty easy, huh?  Next, smash the nearest wad of food into your mouth hole.  Isn’t this fun?  Ok, sit down, look at the screen, and you’re done! Sound familiar?  I know to me it does.  I practice that sequence of movements with the religious regularity of a devout Muslim.  I’m going to make a tremendously presumptuous leap and assume that you do the same.  Isn’t it sad that it’s that obvious?  If you’re reading this, you're probably lucky enough to be a normal-ish, healthy-ish human being, so you’ve got some serious untapped potential.

To get our sorry asses to this cushion, our ancestors had to do some pretty epic forest-dwelling.  For them, remaining physically sound was an absolute necessity.  If they couldn’t forage, hunt, fight off enemies and keep the blood line going through some good, old-fashioned humping, you wouldn’t even be here right now.  Yet, here we are, living and breathing.  For god’s sake, let’s not waste it.

Ok, so what does “not wasting it” look like?  Well that’s up for debate, so let’s defer to someone who has a very highly developed answer to that query.

Is it just me, or was that way more awesome than going to the gym and bench pressing a useless amount of weight while some roided-out dude comments on your poor technique?  Don’t get me wrong, the gym is great and most of us can’t go to the woods often enough to ever be able to do what just happened in that video.  But, believe it or not, everything you just saw has real technique that you can learn.  In fact, Lecorre has dedicated his life to understanding and mastering the technique of natural human movement and now he’s spreading what he’s learned like gospel.

If you want more information on Erwan and his system check out his website and make sure you go tell him how kick ass he is via his twitter account.

Speaking of kick ass individuals.  You can say hi to gym owner, model, personal trainer and co-host on this episode Adam Von Rothfelder at his Facebook or Twitter page.  

Join the thousands who already support Midwest Real. Follow us on Twitter and Facebook and don’t forget to subscribe and review on iTunes!

P.S.-You can now tip the show in Bitcoin!

[midwestreal]

Author, Mason and Brain-melter, Robert W. Sullivan IV, Michael Phillip

LISTEN.

   I remember it well- the first time I heard the phrase “Freemason”.  Sure, it came from an uneducated mouth at a college party, but it was enough to make me rush to Google for enlightenment.  My 20-year-old brain couldn’t believe what it had read.  Masons seemed to be a real-life shadowy cabal of powerful men linked to basically every major event that lead to the establishment of the United States.  It's well known that George Washington, Ben Franklin and and a slew of other founding fathers we worship were members of this secretive fraternal order shrouded in creepy symbols, weird phrases and secret handshakes.  How could I NOT have known this?  Then I came across the claims that masons were devil worshipers, prayed to idols and practiced black magic.                               

   (OMG THEY'RE TOTES WATCHING US RIGHT NOW)

Imagine yourself in the year 17-hundred-and-something.  You’re an English well-to-do sort and you’re about 310 years short of Linkedin being a thing.  Wouldn’t you want to belong to an exclusive, secretive club of like-minded men?

Of course, there’s more to it than just the fraternal aspect.  There’s real ancient knowledge linked to a wide variety of cultures from Europe to Asia and everything in between.  Today’s masons are some of the few that continue to communicate these transcendent truths through the powerful vessels of myth, drama, allegory and initiation.  Even Linkedin can't do that (yet).

   Robert Sullivan IV comes from a long line of masons, so the craft is in his blood.  He himself has received the 32nd degree (the highest you can earn).  The sum of his nearly 20 years of toil is his book, the Royal Arch of Enoch.  Within which, he thoroughly dissects how ancient mysteries, ceremonies, sages and even astral bodies have influenced the very foundation America was built upon.

In this cast, Robert sums up much of the knowledge from his book, his masonic studies and beyond.  He evokes dozens of historical figures, locales and philosophies and modern day depictions that will have you writing furiously as you struggle to keep your brain from melting.  

Strap in. 

Join the thousands who already support Midwest Real. Follow us on Twitter and Facebook and don’t forget to subscribe and review on iTunes!

P.S.-You can now tip the show in Bitcoin!

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The Bitcoin "Crisis" Explained and 5 Reasons it Can't be Killed (Sorry Haters).

Near the end of last year, Bitcoin was being gobbled up at an unbelievable $1100 per coin. With a cursory glance, at today's price ($500), you'd think that the Coca-Cola of cryptos is careening toward disaster. In order to understand why that's not the case, you might need a quick recap on how we got to this juncture. ____ For Bitcoin, early 2014 was a PR nightmare. The crypto was constantly being linked to drugs and money laundering, most infamously in the case of The Silk Road. But, the most damning sequence of events was due to a known security vulnerability and good-old-fashioned ineptness. Enter Hurricane Gox. By February, major (but known to be sketchy) Bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox had been having problems for quite awhile. Because of that aforementioned security issue, Mt. Gox halted some of their user's ability to withdraw Bitcoin while they fixed the hiccup. Other more legit companies came forward to show that this wasn't a problem with Bitcoin at large, but with the implementation method of certain exchanges. Unfortunately, Mt.Gox still wasn't able to get their act together. They went into full damage control mode, preventing their users from making withdrawals altogether. That's when people really started freaking out. A shit-storm of downright apocalyptic press ensued, contributing to a big dip in the price of Bitcoin.

  (^I hope you didn't ^)

5. The Spread

  For cryptos to really wield a lot of power, they need to be easy to use. That means merchants must accept it on a wider scale- and that they are. There are thousands of local restaurants, bars and businesses primed to take your sweet coin. On the web, significant players like Square, Stripe, Overstock, and Tiger Direct are a few of the latest to pick it up. No, it's not at Target or Amazon yet, but if it ever is expect another bump in interest, price and media hype. It's also worth mentioning that services like Bitcoin ATMs, sites like Gyft and Cheap Air are bringing Bitcoin's learning curve down to earth, allowing people to spend their coin more directly and conveniently.

4.The Progeny

Whenever a successful, novel piece of technology hits, pretenders are inevitable. Because of Bitcoin's coding is available to the public, there's been a rabbit-like reproduction rate of cryptocurrencies. Literally hundreds of Bitcoin spinoffs, or "forks" have sprouted up and dozens of them are quite successful, with market caps well into the millions of dollars. Some even argue that certain more nimble cryptos like Litecoin, Feathercoin, or (my favorite) Dogecoin, actually improve upon what Bitcoin started. Perhaps down the line, Bitcoin will take a backseat to another crypto. But as of now, it's not even close in terms of value, infrastructure or user-friendliness.

3.The Philosophy

"Price is the least interesting thing about Bitcoin... At first, almost everyone who got involved did so for philosophical reasons. We saw Bitcoin as a great idea, as a way to separate money from the state." -Roger Ver, The New York Times.

One of the most attractive things about Bitcoin is the philosophy behind it. It's designed to be completely decentralized, anonymous, egalitarian, and free from external or internal manipulation. It's neither liberal nor conservative. There's no Federal Reserve sending down mandates from on high. It is, 100 percent, a digital manifestation of the consensus of its users. There's also been a lot of talk lately regarding potentially huge implications for the developing world. According to the World Bank, migrant workers are paying $14 billion a year in remittance fees. That's money that isn't going to their families. Imagine what a profound impact that cash would have for struggling, or downright poor families. On the other hand, the fee for transferring Bitcoin is minuscule, so nearly all of that lost money would be going directly into the pockets of families, not banks. On top of the remittance issue, there are dozens of weak currencies around the world, yet struggling populations have no choice but to use them. Bitcoin offers an easily obtainable, far more valuable alternative that wasn't available just a couple of years ago.

2.The numbers Let's start with the cryptography and coding. Don't worry, I'm not going to get technical on you. But, consider this- of the hundreds of cryptocurriences out there, basically all of them use Bitcoin's backbone. Because the king of cryptos is open-source, everyone has worked together to create something highly-functional and thus far, unhackable. As Bitcoin continues to mature, so do the exchanges and wallets, making them safer. As we've seen from the Mt. Gox snafu, companies that aren't backed by a strong team of properly qualified people simply cease to exist, leaving the strong to take the reigns.

Every day, people are sinking insane amounts of money into Bitcoin and we're not just talking about investing and trading. (Speaking of which, there's been over $6.5 billion worth issued.) Bitcoin miners are pushing raw computing power to an unheard of level. We're talking eight times more than the world's top 500 supercomputers combined. This has created an arms race of processing prowess that has spawned a whole industry of mining gear. As a result, crazy computing power is shrinking into smaller spaces. Who knows what implications this may end up having for other industries.

1.The Community

Ultimately, the power of Bitcoin is, and always will be, in the hands of the people that use it. This community is more than just a bunch of nerds (I say that with love) getting together on message boards clickity-clacking away at their ergonomic keyboards. Thousands of people in over 60 countries are gathering in meat space to learn, discuss and philosophize about Bitcoin. While attendees definitely run the gamut in terms demographics, experience and degree of technical knowledge, many are deeply involved in shaping how the technology will be used and experienced going forward. Because of this passionate, highly engaged grassroots community, literally hundreds of startups with an average value of nearly $4 million have cropped up in just a couple of years.

Given the fact that this technology and its implementation is still so young, we don't know what these companies, coders, meet-up groups, miners and just flat-out curious people will eventually accomplish. But, when you diminish or scoff at Bitcoin at this point, you're essentially deriding hundreds of thousands of tech-savvy, hungry, young people- not a great group to bet against. ____ Despite all the misinformation, resistance and doomsday prognostication along the way, Bitcoin has and will continue to defiantly weather the storm. Though speculation and hyperbole will surely continue as the price inevitably waxes and wanes, the technology, infrastructure and tenacious group of humans pushing this thing forward aren't simply going to stop.

[midwestreal]

040. Comedian Lee Camp, Michael Phillip

LISTEN.

   All comedy is not created equal.  Don’t get me wrong, I’m always ready for (and often partaking in) some cheap chuckles facilitated by potty humor, but I have a deeper appreciation for the type of biting satire and commentary that actually opens your mind, forcing you to think whilst giggling.  

I’m no expert on the history of comedy, but there seems to be something more poignant stirring in the hearts of (some of) today’s comedians.  Maybe it was all made possible by trail-blazers like George Carlin and Bill Hicks.  Or, perhaps it’s a natural byproduct of the unbelievably troubled, yet amazing moment in history we dwell within.  Whatever the case, thank god for today’s satirists.  Their craft provides a truly valuable, yet digestible context for the crazy, revolution-ridden times we’re living in today. 

Lee Camp is a part of this silver-tongued coterie of counterculture comedians.  In his early days behind the mic, he was doing just fine for himself with more traditional material, but as he woke up to the injustice and hypocrisy running through society, he just couldn’t keep his mouth shut.  Lee now puts out a razor-sharp weekly rant dubbed “Moment of Clarity,” via his YouTube channel, which boasts tens of thousands of subscribers.  

Keep up with Lee through his website, Twitter, Facebook and over at disinfo.com.  

Join the thousands who already support Midwest Real. Follow us on Twitter and Facebook and don’t forget to subscribe and review on iTunes!

P.S.-You can now tip the show in Bitcoin!

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039. The Bulletproof Executive, Dave Asprey and co-host Adam Von Rothfelder.

LISTEN

   This bag of meat we drive around sure is complicated.  We’ve had millions of years to figure it out, yet we still don’t know all the ins and outs of caring for this body we’ve got.  To make matters worse, it seems like every week there’s some new piece of medical or nutritional research that contradicts a long-held truth about what it is means to be healthy- Fat has gone from bad to good.  Many grains have gone from the cornerstone of a healthy diet, to something you should probably NEVER eat.  It almost seems like we have no idea what we're doing. 

Of course, there’s a whole host of hugely important factors beyond nutrition like sleep, lifestyle, relationships, genetics, environment and roughly a million more things.  But, who has time to worry about all of that?  If there’s not a pill that fixes it, it’s probably too much trouble for the majority of us jiggly first-worlders.

Dave Asprey himself was among the pilled-up, overweight, misguided masses for many years.  But, all that changed when he began hacking his body, treating it as if it were a computer.  He spent over 300 thousand dollars trying everything he could get his hands on, and some of it really worked.  Dave began reporting his findings and recommendations in his now wildly successful blog.  He's since branched out further with his own line of human optimization products. 

The ever-dashing Former MMA fighter, fitness expert and all around scary (but nice) dude, Adam Von Rothfelder also joined me in hosting this show.  If you’re in the Milwaukee area, go check out his amazing gym, Drench Fitness. 

Dave really covers all the major bases in this talk- nutrition, sleep hacking, smart drugs, recent controversies and even his own personal experiences with smart drugs and learning disabilities.

Join the thousands who already support Midwest Real. Follow us on Twitter and Facebook and don’t forget to subscribe and review on Itunes!

P.S.-You can now tip the show in Bitcoin!

[midwestreal]

PODCAST 038. Gabriel D. Roberts, Michael Phillip

LISTEN.

“Don’t be satisfied with the stories of others. Unfold  your own myth.” - Rumi

   Life can be a bastard.  It has a way of sucker-punching you in the nethers just when you least expect it, leaving you confused and scrambling for answers.  Life gets nasty, period.  Death, disease and trauma don’t wait until you’ve fortified yourself with a daily meditation routine, or had some sort of life-affirming existential breakthrough.  Most of us learn this truth the hard way- in lieu of a personal, transcendent experience that no one can take away, philosophies and religious creeds often amount to squat when life gets dark. 

Enter Gabriel D. Roberts.  Raised a fundamentalist Christian, Gabriel’s religious identity was well-defined and static for decades.  But, intelligence and dogma have a way of repelling one another, and by his late twenties he rejected spirituality completely.  What followed, was an ugly period for Gabriel.  He devoted himself to more materialistic endeavors, all while self-medicating with harmful substances. Eventually, after finding his own transcendent experience, he was able to right his ship.  He has now devoted his life to spreading his story of awakening to others in hopes that they might make contact with their own, personal spiritual truth. 

Gabriel’s third book, The Quest for Gnosis will be released wherever digital books are sold on March 20.  For more information, check out his website and give him plenty of digital smooches via his Facebook and Twitter accounts.

Join the thousands who already support Midwest Real. Follow us on Twitter and Facebook and don’t forget to subscribe and review on Itunes!

P.S.-You can now tip the show in Bitcoin!

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PODCAST 037. Chris Ellis, Will Pangman, Michael Phillip.

Bitcoin is immortal, so you might as well embrace it.

LISTEN

  New technologies almost always follow a predictable pattern.  They start off exclusive, expensive and as something that grants power to a privileged few, all while some lucky nerd sits atop an ever-growing pile of money at the top of the pyramid.  But eventually, those very same pieces of innovation become cheap, ubiquitous and totally standard until they’re replaced by the next big thing.  It’s happened so many times in the last couple of decades that it almost seems like a requirement.  But every now and then, something so disruptive and novel comes along that it transcends all convention- The PC, the Internet, email, cellular phones Napster- the list goes on.  Will the next addition to that list be Bitcoin?

Spoiler: yes.

In just a few years, Bitcoin went from a thought-provoking paper, to some clever coding worth a fraction of a penny, to “nerd money,” to disruptive technology worth billions, to the number one consumer of raw computing power in the entire world; 256 times more than the world’s top 500 super computers combined.  Even more than porn.  Yes, seriously.  This has given rise to a guerrilla economy that circumvents the need for any traditional fiat currency. Sure, you can buy with it, invest in it, sell it, trade it and speculate about its future until your eyes bleed, but that’s far less exciting than the community that has sprung up around it.

Bitcoin is not just a defiant, decentralized currency.  It has spawned a tangible, global movement of the most potent sort- smart, tech savvy, passionate, highly engaged and young. Every day, people gather by the thousands to discuss, teach, create and philosophize around it and in just a couple of years, this community has accomplished a considerable amount.  They’ve given birth to new businesses, technologies and dozens of crypto-currencies.  But, that’s just the tip of the ice burg.

Join Chris Ellis, Will Pangman and myself as we dig oh so much deeper in this episode.

Chris Ellis is one of the driving forces behind the crypto-currency, Feathercoin.  He’s also a Bitcoin enthusiast and expert who has spoken extensively on the subject.

Will Pangman has gone from an entrepreneur with a Bitcoin hobby, to a local authority on the subject here in Milwaukee. He appears regularly on the The Bitcoin Group podcast.

Join the thousands who already support Midwest Real. Follow us on Twitter and Facebook and don’t forget to subscribe and review on Itunes!

P.S.-You can now tip the show in Bitcoin!

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036. The Higherside Chats' Greg Carlwood, Michael Phillip

Deceased Bankers Defiance and Day Jobs.

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A couple of years ago, with nothing more than an idea, an anxious middle finger and a desire to better his life, Greg started his own show called The Higherside Chats.  The show now boasts thousands of listeners from all over the world and it’s quickly becoming one of the most popular destinations on the net for alternative media and conspiracy chatter.  Oh, and it also enabled him to quit his unfulfilling, soul-sucking day job in retail. 

If you’d like to take the plunge into Greg’s deep and murky waters (you do), check out the following-

Higherside Chats

Conspiratees

Twitter

Facebook

Join the thousands who already support Midwest Real. Follow us on Twitter and Facebook and don’t forget to subscribe and review on Itunes!

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035. Flimmaker, Adam Scorgie

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Compared to the rest of the world, the west has reached a very cushy state, but things haven't always been all corn, beef and football.  Getting to this warm, chubby place required revolution, civil war and plenty of good old fashioned dissidence.  Indeed, many heads were bashed in the name of liberties we now take for granted. 

We all have our own opinions with respect to the ethical, ideological and political debates surrounding such subjects, yet there’s only one that regularly lands thousands of people in handcuffs each year.  Here's a hint- it's a little green plant.  Inexplicably, with very minimal digging, it becomes obvious that cannabis has cultivated a persona and a legal treatment based almost completely on falsehoods disinformation and nonsense.  Though more than half of our population (55-58% according to the latest polls) has woken up to this fact, the endless caricaturization, misunderstanding and demonizing never seems to end.  

Our guest, Adam Scorgie has probably done more to shed light on the truth behind cannabis than 99% of humanity.  (Which, I guess makes him a one-per-center of a different kind).  He’s is one of the main driving forces behind the critically acclaimed cult-classic documentary film, The Union, the Business Behind Getting High and its upcoming sequel, The Culture High.  Of course, there's so much more to this man, but you'll have to listen to learn more about that.

For more on Adam, check out the following-

The Culture High

The Union

Adam's Twitter

The Culture High Twitter

The Culture High Facebook

Please, support Midwest Real and join in the conversation! Follow us on Twitter and Facebook and don’t forget to subscribe and review on Itunes!