Paleo Treats Podcast

In this episode I interview Barb & Doug Garrott, owners of Orphan Espresso. B & D first attracted my interest when I went down the coffee rabbithole and discovered the importance of grinding coffee to A) the correct size and B) making sure ALL the grinds were the same size, and not having some large, some small. Their Pharos has become a part of my morning coffee ritual, in large part because of the feel of the thing; it's like having a factory in your hand! We talk about how they came into making hand grinders for coffee, what they did before that (I'll give you a hint: At one point they sold an Army dogsled on eBay, and on another job they were outbid for first crack at buying a theodolite), and the joyous peculiarities of their life, from not having anyone available to come out and fix their roof to why Doug was approached by many beautiful young women on their first trip to Taiwan. Enjoy the show!

There are some folks out there who are a little scary in their pursuit of excellence; they have an intensity about them that is damn near palpable. Randy Leavitt is one of those people. Randy is known as a climber, one of America's best. With just a little bit of Googling you'll see just how good he is, but this podcast ain't about climbing, it's about the pursuit of excellence. When I first heard about Randy it was from Greg Crouch, another guest on the Paleo Treats podcast. I had told Greg I was looking for more pursuers of excellence and Greg recommended Randy. When I asked why, Greg simply said, "Four decades of world class performance." Well, that just piqued my interest. In this show we skip past a bunch of Randy's climbing history (well covered on episode 18 of Chris Kalous' podcast, The Enormocast) and go deeper into the pursuit of excellence. Randy talks about what made climbing his first love, how got into and out of BASE jumping (went off El Capitan in 1980!), when he found kite surfing and why he

"If you insulted Mackay you could expect to get in a fistfight." My good friend and author Greg Crouch comes back on the Paleo Treats podcast to discuss the story of John Mackay, one of the four Bonanza Kings who ran the massive profitable Con. Virginia mine on the Comstock Lode. Greg talks about how the digital age has transformed writing about historical events, about how writing a book actually happens, and how he developed his writing style. "I signed the contract for the book in summer of 2014, and it was published in 2018. With 3 months to go on the contract due date and after 3 years of work, I was thinking, I don't know if I can do this!" Greg is a West Point grad, was a Ranger during the invasion of Panama, a climber putting up first ascents in Patagonia, and an incredibly well read and thoughtful human. He's one of my go to sources when I want to understand the world because he has an uncanny memory that is the result of years and years of reading and the big W word: Work. Within the first page of

Carla Naden talks about her world of edge cases in the larger world of animal rescue and how she's helping to build a community of people who work together to make animal lives better. From the way she shapes her language to reflect the world she wants to build, to her demonstration by living her principles of what it means to commit fully, Carla is an inspiration for those of us who want to live a life seriously dedicated to our ideals. If you feel, as I do, that Carla's cause is worth supporting, please head over to the Animal Synergy website and give what you can.

On the surface, the story is straightforward. 2 guys become friends, start a company, decide to donate a percentage to charity. It's when you dive deep that a story gets interesting. TJ Ferrera and Sean Lake talk about the (way) back story of how they got into BUBS and what shaped them not just as entrepreneurs but as men. These two guys define smooth operators, top performers, and the wild spirit/driven character blend that I tend to like the most. Enjoy the listen! NFH

-importance of experts, addressing the last show Email from Mike in Flagstaff: "I basically agree with everything you say, but want to push back just a little on your comments about experts. I don't take issue with what you say as far as it goes. But, I do feel the general theme of not needing experts and that a generally competent person can learn what they need to know about any general topic needs a little clarification just because of the current social and political milieu. We do need experts, and experts do know a lot that one can't easily teach oneself. You don't want a self-taught person who spent a few hours researching things on the internet flying your plane, designing the steering and brakes on your car, or removing your appendix. We need experts managing technology, the economy, diplomacy, and government. The so-called "death of expertise" brought about by wide social trends and leveraged strongly by the internet has led to the anti-vaccine movement, climate change denial, and a general pu

John Gierach has long been a fly fishing hero of mine. What I didn't know, but came through clearly in this Paleo Treats Podcast interview, is that he's also a writing hero. We start the interview by talking about one of his major influencers, his Uncle Leonard. Leonard was "just good at things in a duct tape and baling wire kind of way. He didn't always do things right, but he always got things done." That practical bent of making sure things got done "so that they worked" has certainly rubbed off on John. His writing (18 books in total and about 800 articles, all on fishing) has the unusual ability to drop you into a story without realizing you're not listening to him tell it around a campfire, or on a long road trip. There's no better example of this (in my mind) than his short story, "Headwaters" from the book Trout Bum. John talks about how writing in the second person gives the writing immediacy, even though it's an unusual perspective. John wrote that first book, "Trout Bum", in 1985, coining the term

I've been driving around lately listening to all my usual podcasts and going off on my quests down various seams of curiosity and thought I'd share some of my convos with myself, with you. This is the first solo-cast I've done, let me know if you'd like to hear more or if you'd rather get back to the interviews with another person. In this episode I'll talk about the following ideas: -dare to be great -power of reading books and leveraging experience/knowledge/time equation -men need danger, excitement, community -not everyone should be an entrepreneur -better to be curious and listen when you want to accomplish a joint task -why you should judge for yourself what's "worth listening to", and why a Navy SEAL (or anyone) may not be worth listening to, the effect of hazard on importance of message, see "men need danger" above -brain intensity training, just like physical intensity training. Intensity in general.

I spoke with Joshua Cooper Ramo in this podcast interview, partly about his latest book, The Seventh Sense and partly about his overall life and pursuit of excellence. Mr. Ramo started off as a journalist, working at Newsweek then for Time Inc back when, as he says, "it mattered who The Man of the Year was." He worked as both senior and as foreign editor at Time, and he wrote for them long enough ago (1997) that he wrote The Man Of the Year cover story on Andy Grove, one of the founders of Intel. From Time Inc he moved to China to pursue adventure in the world of business. He became fluent in Chinese and fell in love with the culture. In China he worked for the former president of Goldman Sachs and eventually began working at his current company, Kissinger Associates, where he's now co-CEO. He lived in Beijing full time for a little over a decade and now splits his time between Beijing and New York. Yes, he's a busy, pipe hittin' dude and I was super stoked to connect for this conversation. I found him throug

Dr. Amy Kruse began tearing things apart as a (very) young girl, ripping apart her first typewriter at 5 years old. Raised as an only child by high school English teachers, she ended up in neuroscience working in the defense industry helping soldiers learn to shoot faster, more accurately. Of course. She currently works at the Platypus Institute, which is an "Applied Neuroscience" institute. That means they figure out how to use what we know about the brain to make humans better. Dr. Kruse wasn't sure what she'd do once she finished her PhD in neuroscience, but quickly fell in to the defense contracting world. Yes, the government knows and wants to know a lot about how your brain works. In this interview we talk about her environment growing up (pretty much the perfect childhood), how she thinks when it comes to "moonshots", "The moon is just a little too close for me", and what she's learned in over 15 years poking around and watching the human brain. From watching how brains interact in a group to accelerat

"The more we understand, the more rational we are and the more courageous we can be." In this conversation with Prof. Dr. Chahan Yeretzian, a Syrian born Armenian physical chemist based out Switzerland, we dive deep into where the arenas of science, academia, industry, culture, and coffee meet. From the advice he gives his students to why undergrads can't make good enough coffee, to the religion of freshness, this is a fascinating dive into a different world. The elements of quality, the translation between measurements and sensory experience, the way that coffee is a cross cultural experience; all these and more are part of Chahan's world. What will you hear if you listen in? I'm going to try something new, and just include the notes I typed down while editing. Please comment if these are useful, or email me if you'd rather I do your thinking for you. Notes from a convo with Chahan: Plenty of mysteries to solve in coffee. "At the base, good coffee is a sensory experience." Sensory profiling vs Q grading . W

Ready to listen to the embodiment of curiosity? Bob flew around the world two and a half times in a plane about the size of a Ford F-250. He's visited a few hundred countries and the "accomplished" side of his bucket list reads like a compilation of any 5 normal people. "At a project up in Spirit Lake, Iowa, in a bar, a drunken popcorn seed salesman gave me a quote to live by: Seize upon the moment of exotic curiosity to acquire knowledge." Adventurous, curious, and deeply connected to his spiritual side, this is a fascinating look into one man's journey around the world. Twice. Don't say No until you know. I had intended this to be mostly about curiosity, but we got into inspiration and personal development topics as well. If you like adventuring and learning what the world is like, you'll dig this episode. Make your desire bigger than your fear.

Every so often you come across a dude who appears normal but turns out to be a real gem. Brad Barlage is one of those guys. At 5'9 and all of 150 lbs, he's a rangy, stringy dude with bright eyes and a stoked smile. How you do one thing is how you do everything. A superb climber (redpointed 5.14), a real adventurer (kite skiing Baffin Island with Andrew McClean), a dog lover, and the kind of guy willing to build his life based on the "do the right thing always" mantra that marks so many of my mentors. Brad worked his way up from the shipping floor at Black Diamond (the climbing company) to being a Sales Manage for North America, and split off to go his own way and continue selling outdoor gear under his own brand. Good attitude going out equals good back in. Brad is a very private guy, and I owe this podcast to two things. First, Brad's willingness to grant a friend a favor. Second, the folks over at Enormocast, a climbing podcast. Brad's been listening to them. and seeing just how useful podcasts can be, so

I first heard about Gavin when I watched The Rocky Mountains Traverse. The possibilities of paragliding immediately captured me, specifically the vol-biv work he and Will Gadd were doing. If you're into adventuring, whether it's kayaking, sailing, kite surfing, or paragliding, you'll probably dig Gavin's take on the world. Whether he talks about his early "frequent bad decisions" or how he's not quite an adrenalin junkie, this is a great window into the mind of one of National Geographic's 2014 "Adventurer of the Year" recipients. Enjoy!

Upon getting back into rock climbing after a 17 year hiatus, I quickly discovered Mark & Mike Anderson's contribution to training for the sport in the form of The Rock Climber's Training Manual. After reading through it I realized that these guys were demonstrating more than just an interest in training, this is total "pursuit of excellence" material. In this episode of the Paleo Treats podcast we talk about where they learned about hard work, why climbing satisfies so many human cravings, and what stops most climbers from becoming better. This is definitely not a "sets and reps" episode; if you're looking for specific training advice, buy the book. :) However, if you're looking for practical examples of what works to improve anything, not just climbing, you'll find enough in here to inspire and encourage you to do the very best you can in whatever endeavor you engage in. Enjoy!

I've been curious about AI, or Artificial Intelligence, for a few years now. I read with interest the opposing points of view in Pedro Domingos The Master Algorithm and Nick Bostrum's Superintelligence regarding how quickly machines are approaching human capacities for general intelligence vs what's called "narrow learning", or the ability to operate in one very small segment of a problem but to do it exceedingly quickly. This show brings an industry insider in the person of Chris Nicholson to talk about what's going on with AI right now, what it can do, and what it can't. Chris is a co-founder of Skymind, a company built to help organizations who are not particularly "geeky" build their own AI for their tasks using the well known and very popular computer language Java. There are many flavors of AI, but Skymind is focused on what's called "deep learning", or the ability for a machine to teach itself to get better. Sounds scary, but after hearing Chris walk you through the state of AI I think you'll be much

Peter Defty from Vespa Power rejoins us and shares the life that brought him to be on the leading edge of fat burning performance. From his early days hunting and butchering animals on the farm to flying a biplane all over Guatemala as a young man to his current day job working to bring Vespa & OFM to performance driven athletes, this is a deep dive into a fascinating life. Enjoy!

David Easton builds "museum quality, visual masterpiece walls that happen to support the roof." His medium is rammed earth, he's been doing this for 40 years, and if you've ever loved any kind of architecture or building you'll dig this show. This is closer to Paleo than many of our other podcasts in the sense that rammed earth building is a "locavore" (or loca-building) method. Typically you'll use what's on site (the earth) to pour into forms, tamp into rock, remove the forms and enjoy the heck out of one of the most beautiful walls you'll ever see. I was introduced to David Easton through his book, The Rammed Earth House, many moons ago, even going so far as to build a rammed earth wall for a garden in our backyard back in '09. As a long time fan of rammed earth & Easton's work, I'm super stoked to have him on the show to talk about one of our mutually favorite subjects: Rammed earth. Listen for this quote, it's one of my favorite from any of these podcasts: "Every day in some form or another, I touch

Charlie Glass is an American journalist who has covered some of the most fascinating and horrific stories of our time. While you might not think a journalist has any connection to Paleo, these story tellers are vital to one of what we believe are the 7 Pillars of Paleo, and that's Community. Without someone to tell our stories we remain individuals only aware of those we know personally; people like Charlie allow us to know and come to understand other communities living in wildly different worlds. He is one of very few Western journalists to have been kidnapped AND escaped from terrorist hands, and while he doesn't tell the story in this podcast (it's been extensively covered elsewhere), you understand while listening to him the immense power that his practical and analytical mind brings to bear on any problem, from escaping confinement to tracking down the essence of a story. Charlie has that most basic requirement of journalism, "a curiosity to find things out", and as you listen to this podcast you begin

Of all the paths to excellence, perhaps the most reliable is one based on the importance of personal responsibility. In this podcast, Brian Mackenzie from CrossFit Endurance shares with us what drove him from being a broken down ex-swimmer getting crushed on the run sections of the triathlon to one of the foremost minds in cross training for endurance. From running technique to eating habits to mindset and the importance of raw strength, Brian goes through the various and winding paths that brought him to being one of the most well respected coaches in CrossFit and the endurance world. Whether it's the way you breathe, pick up your foot when you run, or what you spear with your fork, Brian's mantra of personal responsibility for one's own actions comes through loud and clear in this podcast. If you'd like to learn more about Brian and what he does please pop on over to CrossFit Endurance, or follow him on Twitter or fuel up with 3FU3L (primal, not paleo) for more on his approach and coaching strategy. Enjoy t