Transcript of #310 Josh Duhamel - Transformers Star Reveals His 26-Acre Off-Grid Survival Compound

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Sheath, the underwear of legends. Thanks to Sheath for sponsoring this episode. So, so it really— and I know some people, oh, very good, very good, very good, very good. Probiere was aus.

Mega, aber das ist doch bestimmt kompliziert.

Nö, einfach Foto von der Lohnsteuerbescheinigung machen und fertig.

Klingt sehr gut.

Ist sehr gut. Hol dir dein Geld zurück mit Wieso Steuer. Josh Duhamel, welcome to the show, man.

Thank you for having me, Sean. This is a real pleasure to be out here and see what you built. This is Pretty impressive. Thank you.

Yeah, like, that means a hell of a lot coming from you, so appreciate it.

I got— I got to level up, man. This is, uh— I thought I had a cool place, but this is— this is by far and away better than that. That gun range, I'm definitely going to steal that idea.

Maybe if we have some extra time, we can go out there and break it in. So, but, uh, let me give you an introduction here real quick. Josh Duhamel, an acclaimed actor, director, and producer known for your roles in Transformers, Safe Haven, Las Vegas, and Netflix's Ransom Canyon. You got your start on All My Children, earning a Daytime Emmy early in your career. You're a North Dakota native who stayed closely tied to your roots, spending more time there as you've stepped away from the Hollywood lifestyle. You've stepped into business as the founder of Gatlin, focused on men's health and performance.

And I saw women's health, men's and women's.

Yeah. Most importantly, you're a Christian, a father, and a husband. Welcome to the show. So, uh, a couple things, uh, crank out here before we get going. One, everybody gets a gift— Vigilance Elite gummy bears. Oh nice. Probably don't go well with longevity and men's health, but are these like, are these like funny Gummy bears?

Oh man, it's just regular gummy bears.

Okay, good. Made in Michigan.

Nice to know. Thank you for that. I got you something too. Do you want me to give it to you now? Sure. I think you're gonna like this. So might as well just start with the gifts, right? So this is a knife made by my friend Cody Adolfson, Little Wolf Ironworks, out of Bismarck, North Dakota. Sure. Yeah, it's got this Damascus steel, North Dakota whitetail deer antler for the handle. If you look on the back, it's got a little reading from the Bible.

Iron sharpens iron, and one man sharpens another. Proverbs.

Thank you. Yes, sir.

Pretty cool, right? That's awesome.

He's super talented, this guy. Anyway, I know you like knives, so I thought I'd get you one.

Thank you.

I got myself one too, by the way. It's just an excuse to get myself a knife, really.

This is awesome. Thank you. Yeah, you're welcome.

Appreciate it.

And then one other thing, we got a Patreon account. It's a subscription account. They're the reason I get to sit with you here today. So they get the opportunity to ask every single guest a question.

Okay.

Josh, you've lived in two different Americas, Hollywood and North Dakota.

Yep.

What is one lie in each world believes about what it takes to make a man strong? And what did real life teach you instead?

Oh my gosh. What is one lie that each of those two worlds— Hollywood and North Dakota? Yeah. Hmm. Let me start with North Dakota. I think that one of the things that I think my wife and I just talked about this yesterday because we have a little baby girl on the way. And I saw that she wrote in her book to her, she said, stand tall, don't be afraid to, you know, stand tall and be exactly who you are. And I think that one thing that I had to overcome by coming from North Dakota, because it's a very humble state, the people there very sort of salt of the earth. Nobody wants to stand out. It's just kind of like a very blue-collar but commonsensical place that, you know, for me leaving there and trying to go off to Hollywood and do things, it was a scary thing for me because I didn't feel like I deserved it. And I think that's one of the lies that I learned from North Dakota was that you, you do belong. You do belong wherever you dream to go. And I think that's one of the things that I learned from that.

And one of the things that held me back for a long time, really. Wow. As far as one of the lies that I learned from Hollywood, I would say that you don't necessarily have to play the game by the rules. As long as you show up, do your job, and are, uh, dependable and reliable to the people who are making whatever project you're a part of, you can believe what you want. You don't have to believe what they tell you to believe.

Right on, man. Good stuff, good stuff. So I read that, uh, you are kind of putting your acting career, Hollywood career on the back burner to concentrate on family, get back to your roots and slow down.

I wouldn't say I'm putting it on the back burner. I'm, I'm doing, you know, I'm actually working more now than I ever have in my life, which is great. Right on. Honestly, it's like I'm very grateful for that because this is a hard business to get into and to stay relevant in. And, you know, I've been doing it for 26 years. So I would say that, you know, because I am busier now than ever, it's also made me realize that I don't want to work this much. I'd rather be home with my wife and my kids and out on my, you know, compound. Yeah, doing that stuff. So I'm just trying to be smarter, I think. I think I'm trying to not take as many jobs, uh, just trying to, you know, work a little bit smarter and really working on this company Gatlin is something that I'm as excited about as anything. I would rather honestly be working on that than anything else.

Really? I mean, I think this is an interesting conversation because I think about this all the time. We were kind of just talking outside. I got two toddlers now. Time is going—

6 and 4?

4 and 2.

4 and 2.

4 and 2.

Little.

And time is just going by so damn fast. You know, and, and look at old photos and you're like, holy shit, man. Yeah, it moves quick.

Yeah.

And you realize you're aging just as fast.

Oh yeah.

But you don't see that.

That's the truth. I got a 12-year-old, and to see how quickly he went from 2 to 12 is like, you know, it just, it just goes by like that. And so, you know, I've, you know, the, the idea that I get to do it again with my little 2-year-old and then this little girl that's on the way, I think you make— it makes you really appreciate it that much more. So you've got a 4 and a 2-year-old, you'll see, dude, it just, it flies by, you know. So one thing I think I've learned, especially from Axel, my 12-year-old, is that I got to stay as present and, uh, in there with them as much as I can, because you don't get those days back. Yeah.

So I mean, how are you going to do it? Because I think about— like I said, I think about this all the time, ever since my son was about 2. Because I had, uh, you know, the first 2 years I'm like, ah, they only want mom.

That's—

it's just diapers and boobs and milk, you know. So there's not much for dad. So I was— I was I always thought I will bury my head in my work until I realize that I'm needed or wanted, and, uh, or start showing interest. Maybe that's what I should say instead. And around 2 years old is when that started happening.

Oh yeah.

And so I've been— ever since 2, I've been kind of trying to structure my business so that I can step away and but continue, but, you know, spend a lot more time at home.

But it's hard. It is hard to remain present at home with all this shit going on because you're probably similar to me, or I'm similar to you in some ways, that we're— I mean, I was born to like put my head down and work. It's all I've ever known is just to like grind my way to whatever I'm trying to get to. Um, but Do you look— do you mostly live here? Do you travel a lot?

I travel. I mean, I travel a decent amount, but I don't— it's in and out. It's quick trips to DC, or if I'm interviewing somebody overseas or something like that. But I, I am, uh, also have decided to work smarter, so I turn a lot of shit down because it's just not worth my time to be away.

Consider that a blessing though, the fact that you get to stay— you're mostly here.

Yeah.

See, for me, it's like nothing shoots in LA anymore. So I have to go, you know, then go into BC, British Columbia, work for a month, and then I go to Malaysia for 6 weeks, and then I come back, and then I go to Winnipeg for another thing. So it's like, that to me is what I'd need to like, I'd need to like do much less of that because these kids, even if they come and visit, it's still, I'm on set all day and I come home at night and I try to get them up in the morning and put them to bed at night, but it's not enough. You know, they need me more than that. And so to be traveling so much is really what kills me, you know, because I'm gone for a week and I come back and I can see my 2-year-old is like grown up, you know, just in that week. Different, you know, and, you know, I'm missing a lot of that stuff and I don't want to do that. So I just got to be smarter about how I do it. So I got to make a living and still got to, you know, maintain a lifestyle that has become pretty expensive.

But, you know, I don't need to do that. I don't need to work as much as I have been, which is what I'm really focusing on doing. Just being smarter about it. Yeah.

You had read something else that said, I think you did. You live out of your car for a while?

No, no. My dad did.

Your dad did?

My dad did for a short while after, after they got divorced. He hates when I tell the story, but it's amazing because my dad is one of my favorite people in the world. He's an incredible dude. And had a really rough time coming out of, you know, the divorce. You know, we're like, why does Dad have all his clothes like on a rack in the back of his car? We found out that he was like living in there for a couple of months. So, yeah, but I never had to do that. Thank God. We did bounce around a lot as a kid. You know, we, we, after the divorce, it was a rough several, rough couple of years really after they got— I think it was in '85. Before they got divorced. I think that's right. And, you know, we'd bounce from house to friend's house to friend's house. And it was just, it was for us, we didn't really know much different. But there was a point I said, why do we keep moving around? What are we doing? And then we ended up getting this little box of a house in Northeast Minot, North Dakota.

And that was kind of when we started to settle in. But it was, it was a rough couple of, rough couple of years there.

So where I'm kind of going with this is, I mean, obviously your financial situation has drastically changed since those days. And, um, I'm kind of, you know, I've built a pretty decent business here and I didn't come from money. I'm not used to any of this. And, and, you know, and, and like leaving the SEAL teams, leaving contracting for the CIA, you know, I was broke. And I built a really awesome business here, and now I'm not broke. But looking back, times were a hell of a lot simpler back then. Yeah. So what I want to ask you is, did the money, did the new financial situation, I mean, did that make your life more simple?

Such a good question, Sean. Did it make it more simple? No, I don't think it makes it more simple. What I do think it does, it buys you a little freedom. Buys you the ability to— they say money doesn't bring happiness, but it sure does bring freedom to do some things that you want to. Uh, you know, you get to kind of shape the world around you a little bit more. You're not really at the mercy of anything if you're— if you— if you can— if you're lucky enough to afford it. But I don't think it necessarily makes you any happier. Um, you know, for me it probably makes things a little bit more complex, you know, because with money and power and all these things, you know, there's like Spider-Man, you know, comes great responsibility. And you can probably feel that just by what you've grown. A lot of people are dependent on you now to answer whatever questions they have throughout the day or how to— what's the next move? And, you know, all sort of falls on you. But I, you know, I pose this question to you is How do you, how do you impart what you learned?

And you've been through it, dude. You've gone, you know, all the way through the SEAL teams and the contracting and all the things that you built here because of something inside of you that had this drive to go build it, achieve it. How do you impart that on your kids? Because that's one thing that I am, you know, you can't, you can't manufacture, you know, hardship, you know.

Yeah, I don't know, man. I think about this all the time, and, um, my son and my daughter are wildly different. I mean, it's kind of interesting, you know, the second one comes out and you're like, I've been through this shit before, this will be fucking easy. Then they come and it's like, well, this isn't the same person at all. But, um, but my daughter is stubborn. She is gonna be a fucking badass. Uh, you— she just will not stop. She's the younger one.

She's like me.

My son is like very loving, so is caring. Yeah, always watching out for his sister. I don't know what his drive is yet, but, um, anyways, where I'm go— I think about like, man, I, I— same thing, like I have all this these things that I've learned, you know, throughout life, and how do I inject that into my kids, you know, this major life lessons. I don't know, man. I think one thing I do is, uh, I'll create— not create scenarios, but I always make them figure it out. So this kind of started, um about a year ago, and my wife is a little more pampering than— a lot more pampering than I am. So if he can't figure something out, he'll ask me, you know, to help him. And I, I will help him, but I will say, no, you need to figure another way out of this. There's always another way. Yeah. So what he was— he was trying to climb up this hill out of our creek.

Yeah.

He loves playing in the creek and couldn't get up the damn hill. And he's like, help me, Dad. He wants me to push him up. And I'm like, I'm not going to push you up. I'm like, you have to find another way. No matter what problem you're going to face in life, there's always an angle that you can take to accomplish what you want. Exactly. And so you need to start looking around, you know, and I'll point like, hey, look, this hill isn't as steep over there. Maybe you should walk over there, you know. And, and so that was the first time it kind of clicked in my head. And so that's with my son, that's what I do now.

Yeah.

Is I force him to find other avenues to get what's great.

What about you? Well, that's great. That's great that you have this place to do that. That's one of the reasons I love my place out in the woods so much is they got to figure things out, you know, like I had to figure— I didn't know how to do anything when I got out there, you know. I don't know how to fix anything. I would— I'd never owned a boat before, you know, all the things that go into owning land. I mean, you just constantly working. So I'm at the point now, my son is 12, and I'm still— that stuff doesn't stop now. It's like, okay, dude, you're gonna be looking after this place someday. You need to start start watching how you want to go, you want me to pull you on the, on the tube, go get it hooked up and ready to go. And then when you're done, you got to properly roll it up and put, you know, little things like that to start instilling some ownership and some responsibility and accountability for it. I think is— I do the same thing. I probably could have done a better job of it with my 12-year-old.

He's like your, your older one, super sweet kid, very thoughtful, very compassionate kid. But doesn't have that. My little 2-year-old is a little badass. That one I gotta watch out for. Um, very strong-willed, very much, very much, very physical, much more physical than the Axie. But they're just different kids, both amazing but just different. Uh, so, you know, that's a, you know, just to be able to start imparting whatever whatever I know, whatever I've learned, onto them and just start giving them responsibility. Let them start figuring shit out on their own because you can't— I'm not gonna always be here, you know?

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Um, My advice for being a father is, I think it's just try to— the number one thing that my— that I learned from my dad is something he didn't even know he was teaching me, is that he just— the way he treated people, the, the respect that he had for people, didn't matter what you know, where they were at socioeconomically, you know, the— I'll never forget this story. He used to own a used car dealership and it was right on Broadway in Minot, North Dakota. Next door to that was this old guy named Art, and Art wasn't very well off at all. He owned a little shack on this road. Now it's all been demolished and they built nicer, bigger buildings there. But he— this guy was one of the last holdouts. He didn't want to sell his little place. And I remember going over to his house next door to my dad's used car shop. And I said, he's poor, isn't he, Dad? He goes, he's not poor. He's rich because he's happy. What'd he say? He's rich. He's rich because something about that, that he's happy, that he lives, he lives a happy life, you know.

So it wasn't— he wasn't, you know, placing this guy's value or what I thought was value. On what, you know, whether or not he made money. And this is me as a little kid not knowing shit, um, teach me that these guys, it doesn't matter how much money you have as long as you're living a, you know, a full and happy life. And this guy did. And I think that, you know, for me, it's like, it— I guess my point in telling you this is that I know my kids are watching me very closely and how I treat people, how I handle my own business. So the only advice I could give, because I'm not— I'm the last person to tell people to raise a kid. I'm still figuring it out myself. But they're watching you closely, and the example you set is what is the way they'll go forward.

Damn, that's weird. You at— you— I was just gonna bring that up and I lost it. And, uh, so I asked this question. I was gonna say, when we were talking about the knowledge transfer to your kids, and at least really, I mean, I think the best— you just said, I think the best thing you can do is just be the example that you want your kids to turn into. Yeah, you know, and it sounds like Your old man did that to you. You're back in the Midwest. And I mean, I just— they are always watching. And, you know, I had an incident the other day that I'm not proud of. And we were at the airport and was taking— we were going on a little vacation and we were at the check-in counter. Oh, God. We got the bags and there was some mishap. It wasn't our fault. And I was like, you are gonna— you are gonna make us miss our vacation. And in a very heated way. Yeah. And then my son looked at me and said the exact same thing to the woman behind the counter. I did a face—

oh yeah.

I, I was like, uh, that wasn't— that wasn't good.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Well, I mean, listen, give yourself a little grace, but it's true. Um, I have a story similar to that. Last year I was taking my son to school and we take the shortcut because we, you know, we live in— he goes to school about 40 minutes. We have to drive in the heavy traffic to get there. And it's just, it's always just a slog. So I take the shortcut where you got to kind of jump in and there's just a lot, you know, it's a standstill basically. So I was trying to get in and this lady wouldn't let me in. And I was like, and she just like literally cut me off. I was like, what the fuck? I'm like, what are you doing? And all of a sudden I hear, Dad. I was like, oh shit, I forgot my kid was in the backseat. He couldn't believe it. You know, I'm— the poor kid is mortified. I'm like, yeah, there's a good example of, you know, your kids are watching. Do I want him to behave like that? No. So, you know, I guess it keeps me in check too. Yeah.

Yeah. So how did you— did you grow up in the woods?

So I grew up outside of town in Minot, North Dakota, in this little area called Robinwood. About 5 miles out of town. And yeah, we were out in the country and I'd spend all day, especially in the summer, just out in the woods catching frogs, catching turtles, salamanders, fishing, riding our bikes wherever we could go. And that was kind of— and then my parents got divorced. We had to move into town. And that's when, you know, that was, that was sort of like the next phase of my life. But my early days, from time I was probably a baby all the way up through 4th grade, I was out in the country. So I think part of the reason why I have this place now is me sort of reliving that, you know, the little Huck Finn story that I lived as a kid. You know, I just love being out there. Really brings me back to being a kid. And for me to now, you know, see my kids experience this and watch them sort of, uh, get to do the same things I did growing up was part of the reason I did it, honestly.

Really?

Is that why you asked?

I asked because I was just curious if you move— if you move back there for familiarity, you know, and that you wanted your family to experience what you had, or if you were strictly there for the zombie apocalypse.

No, it was— in the beginning it was This, I guess I bought this place 16, 17 years ago. And in the beginning, it was, uh, it was just because I just wanted to get away. I just wanted something really remote, really private. I was, you know, not trying to escape Hollywood. I just wanted something different that I could get away to if I needed to. And then it became something as, as the world got a little bit scarier. I was like, you know what, just really glad I bought this thing. In fact, I'm going to buy the property next door too. So then I had 55 acres out there and I was like, these two little cabins. And I really started thinking more about like, okay, how could I live out here so that if shit hits the fan, I can just live out here without, you know, completely unplugged. So then I started taking steps to do that, which was, you know, solar, which I never use. We ended up bringing electricity in, but everything runs off of propane, you know, and, you know, if we could fish, I could hunt, I could, I could literally— we got three wells out there, so I got plenty of water.

And enough food if I need it. And then, you know, all the other stuff you need.

I love prepping, so I want to hang out on this topic as long as possible.

I can talk about it all day.

All right. Where did— okay, where did you start? So you start, you got a small hunk cabin out in the middle of the woods, right?

So, so I bought— so, okay, so I bought 12 acres, half a parcel, nothing on it. From this old guy named, uh, um, Cody, Craig Cody, K-O-T-T-E. And, uh, then he passed away shortly after that. And he had a little hunting shack in the woods on the, on the parcel, the half parcel next to where I, where I just bought. No electricity, no water, outhouse. You know, he had these little copper wires running through there that he would learn to turn on, these, these little lanterns, these little oil lanterns. That's how lived out there. So then I had a little structure for the first time. So I had 26 acres and a little cabin that I never said because it was just so rat infested, mouse infested. I was like, it's too much. I'd leave there with a sore throat every time I'd spend the night. I was like, I'm going to clean this place up before I decide to like really start staying out here. So we'd go out, we'd camp a couple of days and then we'd just start fixing it up. And then the other property next door that went up for sale, another 26 acres.

With another little cabin that had electricity but no water. So we dug another well. So I had a well and I brought electricity up to the top one. Then I have this little one on the water with electricity, but built a well there. So now I have these two little cabins, but they're both little. Now they're— we've redone them now and they're nice little guest cabins, but I still didn't have— and so during COVID we spent all of our time out there. I mean, in We had to wash dishes in the lake, shower in the lake. It was like—

it was like shit. You were legitimately rough.

Homesteading for the first 10 years. I loved it. That's because I was constantly— it was pickaxes and it was shovels and it was clearing little spaces. I remember I found this little area down by the water that was all sand, but it had all these dead logs and all the kind of overgrown. I know. And I just knew that if I could clear this off, we'd have like this beautiful little beach. And sure enough, that became Axel Beach. My oldest son, I named it after him. And that's where the kids just run wild now. It's all cleared up and it's beautiful now. But it was, you know, a lot of just— and then I got a tractor and I got a skid steer and then it got to go, you know, we started moving because then you can pop stumps and rocks and clear things much quicker. But for the first 10 years, it was It was, it was literally like homesteading. And I loved it because I'd leave, I'd leave LA, I'd go out there and I'd spend 2 weeks and just work on whatever my little project was. And over the years now, it's become like a really cool little spot that we just, you know, my family loves it.

My parents, my sisters, my wife's family, they all come out. We just like make the most memories out there. It's amazing.

That's awesome, man. What— I mean, what are you worried about when it comes— what got you into the prepping? What was the— what was the last straw? I think it's—

I think it's, you know, my— I've always had this, I don't know, recurring— not nightmare. It's more of like a daymare about— I read this book by Wesley Rawls called Patriots The Guide to Surviving the Coming Collapse, and it was based on the 2008 market crash. And things almost got sideways in Los Angeles and all over the country. If you remember, the banks and everything was freezing and it was like a whole thing. But then the government bailed them out and they sort of eased everybody's stress. This book plays it out as if it just kept going. And there are these certain cells around the country that had a plan that if this— if, if, if things went sideways, we get on our walkies and we all sort of send a message and we all go to our spot. And it was in Idaho and it was like this camp where they would have— it was like a little mini militia almost where they, you know, everybody had a, had a certain skill sets. Some were medical, some were weaponry, some were construction, some were farming, communications. They all had— they all contributed. And if you didn't contribute, you were out.

So it was like this little mini sort of militia of people that came with a certain set of skills that helped sort of fend off anybody that came. So that was kind of the beginning of it for me. I was like, I'm going to— I need to build something that if things do go sideways, I got to have a plan to get to Los Angeles and I got to have a plan to get from Los Angeles to here. And once I'm here, we'll be able to figure it out because I'll have what I need. So that was kind of the beginning of it.

And now it's your plan to get out of LA?

I got a motorcycle now. I got kids. I don't know what I would do. I still got to— I gotta, I gotta, I gotta, I gotta read. I got a little dirt bike, but now I got a wife and I got 3 kids. So it's a— the, the plan is shifting. It's, it's, it's in development still. But, uh, you know, I had a whole thing where, okay, if I have to, I'll get a boat in the marina, I'll take that up the coast, and I'll have a truck in a parking garage. And I'll— I'm, dude, I go crazy with this stuff. Damn. Because, you know, when, when things lock down in Los Angeles and anything will set that off, I mean, you know, those freeways lock up and there's no getting out.

Yeah.

So I need a way to like to get out of there, like through the hills, down to the water, up, and then, then get out. See, if I was a little bit tougher, Sean, I could have been a Navy SEAL, but I just, I'm just not made of the same stuff you are. I have the same mindset, just not the same toughness. But that was kind of— I mean, I go, I really go deep with it. I really think about, okay, How do we do that? How do we get out of here? You know, and that was, that was the biggest, and it still is one of the biggest things. If we're there and we get stuck, how do we get out?

Have you looked at dual citizenship?

What do you mean?

Like, are you that far down the rabbit hole yet?

You mean like Canada?

Canada, a lot of— I mean, the top 5 places I think are Ireland. If you have Irish roots, you can get it immediately. Uh, Portugal, but you got to learn Portuguese. Uh, Italy was on there. Canada was on there. What else was on there? Paraguay was on there. Really?

Yeah.

Which was always— I've always said, if I got to get the hell out of Dodge, I'm going to Paraguay.

Why?

It's too far south for the cartels to be running drugs up. There's no ocean, which means nobody wants to vacation there. There's nothing there but farming and fucking cows.

Really?

Yeah. And nobody knows about it. Yeah. So that was always my spot.

So when I—

when I've taken any measures to do that or not yet, I'm like in process.

But do you think you'd have to leave the country to do— to do all this?

What are your fears about peace of mind? I'm not— I'm not like in a— I'm not gonna abandon the fucking country anyways. Yeah, I'm gonna fight for it.

But if—

yeah, you know, but other people have to fight for it too. And if nobody's fighting for it then, uh, one guy fighting for it isn't going to do a damn thing.

I think there are plenty of people that would fight for it though.

You think so?

God, yeah.

I don't know, man. Sometimes I think it's all talk.

I don't know.

Which is why I'm looking at dual citizenship.

I haven't gone that far down the rabbit hole, but you know, I— so what is— so what are your fears about? I mean, I know we're talking— we sound like crazy, you know, tinfoil hat wearing, but I mean, I mean, I think AI robots could be a real thing.

You think AI robots could be right?

I mean, this AI thing is moving so quickly that I don't know if we can ever— if we got to get our— we got to wrap our arms around this thing or it's gonna—

well, it's interesting that all the people building AI are also building bunkers, like Mark Zuckerberg that put a huge fucking bunker in Hawaii.

They know a lot more about it than we do.

I know that. It's like, so speaking of AI, are you familiar with Claude? Yes. Okay, so before you came on, we had Claude, Anthropic's AI, scrape the entire internet on you and come up with the most viral question that would land with the audience. Okay, here's the context. You spent a decade in Transformers films where the entire premise is robots coming to kill humans. Then last month you told Fox News you're now 72% ready for the apocalypse at your off-grid cabin, and you said, in quotes, "I'm less afraid of zombies and more afraid of AI robots now. I don't know if we're ever going to fully be able to protect ourselves from what's coming." Meanwhile, you spent 15 years quietly building a 26-acre compound 40 miles from the nearest store. So here's the question.

Okay.

Take us inside the compound. If somebody— if someone watching right now wanted to start building their own version of what you've got, what's the gear, gadgets, survival kit, and guns you'd let them buy— you'd tell them to buy first?

Well, first thing you need is water, electricity, and water. So you need a pump to pull the water out of the well. So you need some sort of electricity, whether it's solar or something, you know, whether gas-powered or whatever. You need something to pull. You need water. That was the first thing I did. Um, I have guns. Hopefully I never need them for anything other than hunting.

What kind of guns? What would you recommend somebody to get?

I got, uh, some 9s. I've got, uh, shotguns. I've got rifles, things that are all legal and registered. And, you know, anybody watching, please know that it's all on the up and up. But I do. But that's one thing, you know, protection. Learn how to fish, learn how to hunt, and have shelter. I mean, for me, I built the shelters that I needed, but it's not going to, you know, it's not like it's a fortified, you know, military type anything. I'm gonna— I'm actually really looking at— I have this old, uh, container, this old shipping container that we bought during COVID that right now just operates, just acts as a shed for all my supplies, where there's plumbing or extra wood or just tools, things that, that sort of overflow that go in there. Eventually I want to bury that, put put a, you know, and under, under a concrete, thick concrete sort of shed above that. So you walk inside the shed, you go down in this thing, then you have this whole, this whole bunker that I don't— I mean, listen, man, if they're coming, they're coming. I'm not sure if anything's going to stop it.

I just hope that we wrap our arms around this thing and have some sort of guardrails so that they don't just— because the way it's moving at a pace so fast right now that we can't even grasp it. I know. I mean, I was at this, this event in Cannes last year called Cannes Lions. It's a big branded, branded marketing convention. All the biggest brands go and they talk the latest and greatest. And all they talked about was this AI and how a year from the day it was, which is probably 6 months ago now, a year from that day, it's going to be 60 times more powerful than it was one year earlier. 60 times. So you can imagine you take that 60 times and then it just keeps growing exponentially. And I don't— I mean, I can't wrap my head around that. I don't know if anybody can. So I just, I just hope that we, you know, smart minds sort of come together and say, okay, hold on, let's just slow this thing down a little bit, if we even can at this point. I don't know. I don't think it's likely.

I did— I got you one other gift though. So before we get too far from the guns, I got a buddy at Sig Sauer.

Oh God.

And, uh, I told him you were coming on. He's a huge Transformers fan. This is clear and safe, by the way. But, uh, so that's the Sig Sauer 365 Macro with a Sig Sauer suppressor and Sig's new optic line. Holds 17 rounds plus 1 in the pipe.

Wait, you're giving me this?

Yeah. You probably have to take that, uh, to the cabin though. I don't think that's going to fly in LA.

This is the coolest gift ever. Thank you.

Yeah, we'll break it in here after this if we've got time.

That is amazing, dude. Thank you so much. What is it, a 9?

Yeah, it's a 9mm.

Wow, thank you.

You're welcome.

Truly, thank you so much.

My pleasure, man.

How do I get this back to Los Angeles?

Uh, we'll talk offline.

Okay. How do I get this back to Fargo?

Yeah, I'll register it in Fargo. Yeah.

So that's amazing.

Thanks. You're welcome. You're welcome. Look good out there in the cabin. Yeah, but I would love to go through this shit with you. One thing. You mind if I critique you a little bit? Yeah. All right. One thing. So you're learning, right? You're learning how to do all this. Yep. You need books, not fucking downloaded programs, not shit on computers. You need textbooks. On how to survive. Okay, there's a really good series. This isn't a plug, but whatever. It's called Back to the Basics.

Okay.

And, um, they have like a whole series hardback, and it teaches you everything from fucking gardening to how to build a cabin to how to, how to filter water, how to wash your clothes, how to make soap.

Wow.

How to do all of it. So that way, you know, you don't have to learn it all right now when the shit hits the fan.

Because you never know. I mean, what if everything goes down, everything's dark, we don't have of, you know, our phones or computers to just, you know, look everything up.

Yeah.

So that's the reason, just, just to have books.

Yeah. You know, and then, and then it also, it's just like a piece of— it's not a piece, I mean, you're gonna use it, but you don't have to stress about knowing it all today because you have textbooks. Back to the Basics. It teaches you, okay, teach you how to raise chickens, how to do everything.

Wow, that's cool.

Yeah, it's a great series. So that would be something I would invest in. Okay, you know, and because then you can learn as you go. Seeds. Okay, I have seeds.

I do. I just bought a bunch of seeds. I just bought a ton of seeds. Good. Uh, because we're building a food plot. That's one of our projects this year. We're doing a big pumpkin patch. Nice. The deer are probably gonna eat most of pumpkins, but we're hoping in the fall we can take the kids up and just do a big pumpkin patch thing. And then I'm building— and I cleaned up the whole perimeter of live on this peninsula and I'm cleaning up all the wood, all the old logs and stuff, and I'm going to plant a million wildflowers. Not that those seeds are going to do us any good, but you're talking about like what, corn and what, anything?

Corn, green beans, just lots of vegetables, lots of fruit. Yeah, you know, but, uh, and I just, I just store them in a bin and every time I go to Tractor Supply or wherever, I'm just buy a couple, throw them in there.

And where do you plant them all?

No, I just stockpile.

Oh, you stockpile it. Okay. And is there an expiration on those or no?

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Okay.

Books, seed, books, seeds, the water stuff. Do you have to have a lake? Well, you live on a— that's on a lake. Lake. So yeah, not too worried about that.

No, we've got— I mean, we've got 3 wells up there which are really, really good water. Um, so that I think is good enough. Nice. The lake itself is all spring-fed, so it's a really— it's one of the clearer lakes in Minnesota, which is awesome. I mean, I'm not going to drink it, but if I had to boil it, I guess we could, right?

Do you have a— do you know what a Berkey water filter is?

No.

Oh, so it's a gravity filter. So you just— and it's like putting a bucket on top of a bucket and it takes out like 99.9% of— okay, everything.

Super easy. You have that here?

Uh, I don't have it here, but I have one at— I have a couple at the house.

Okay.

And, um, yeah, so you could take literally just about any water, dump it in there, and when it— when it's done doing its thing, it's Really?

I'll do that this summer. And where do you buy that?

Oh, you can probably— you can get them on Amazon. Okay.

All over the place. Berkey water filter.

Okay. Yeah. Another thing for you in LA, uh, I think I'll just— I'll fucking text it to you. Another thing for your LA home when you're in LA is if you're worried about water, you can get a dehumidifier and a solar inverter which you can get on Amazon for like $500. And, you just plug in the dehumidifier and it will just pull water right out of the air.

Really?

And, it's filtered obviously.

And, how much water does that make? Enough to—

Yeah. Have you ever seen one?

I don't think so. Yeah.

You just run the dehumidifier, just pulls the humidity out of the air and then there's a little tank inside the dehumidifier. I mean, you can— these are like, I don't know, $100 maybe at Home Depot. And, uh, yeah, you just hook it up to your solar inverter if you don't have power, and it's, it's gonna— it's going to pull water fast.

Okay. So, and that's called the what again?

That's a dehumidifier.

Just a dehumidifier? No, there's no— it's not called anything else? Okay. All right.

A lot of people put them in their basements.

Okay. But good to know.

Yeah. What do you do for communications? What do you have for that? Are you planning on communicating?

Yes. Well, I bought the— I bought— I got— I saw them on Instagram, uh, and they work. They're amazing.

They're, um, they're walkies, the satellite push-to-talk. Yes, they do work.

They work great.

I was looking at it.

We just started using them. I just got them working this last time I was out there.

Nice.

They seem to work great. And apparently you can— where they work, they triangulate with different satellites and you can use them across the country. Is that even real? I've never tried that, but I know that they work really well on our property.

Right on, man.

How about you? What do you have? Do you use any kind of—

I'm not, uh, set up with comms yet.

Yeah, so I'll send you what I have. They seem pretty good.

What about ammo?

Um, I could use more.

We call—

we couldn't we all, but, uh I have, I have a fair amount, but you know, yeah, I think it's good to, you know, have enough.

What kind of guns do you have?

Uh, I got a .223.

Nice.

I got a, uh, 21S Glock, 21SF Glock 17. Uh, what else? Shotguns, mostly for hunting. Shotgun, bird guns, uh, rifles, you know, for deer hunting. I got a crossbow out there.

You got a .22?

I do have a .22.

Nice. Yeah, that's the best one, man. She can take thousands of rounds with you at a moment's notice because they're so light.

Yep. But, uh, what else do I got? I got this. What is this?

This is a Sig Sauer, the Sig 365.

I just got this one just recently.

Right on. Right on. Is there— is, uh, is the fam into the prepping?

Uh, she thinks I'm a little bit crazy, but she also appreciates it, you know, because at first— and this, you know, bless her heart, my wife is amazing because she grew up living that lake life. Her family is very close to where mine is, so she gets it. She loves being out there, and we've made it comfortable now. For the longest time— and she was with me during COVID and the whole thing, so it was like rough, Like, believe it or not, girls don't like having to go into an outhouse in the middle of winter in Minnesota, walk outside in their snow boots to go to the bathroom. It doesn't go over well. It's not— it's not like a— you're not going to attract a lot of women with an outhouse behind your thing. But she must really love me. But now it's much more comfortable. You know, we built— we built— everything's got a bathroom, we got plumbing. It's like— and it's beautiful. And we've got this beautiful little beach that we built. So it's, it's, it's, it's not super posh, but it's comfortable, you know. I don't ever want it to feel too luxurious.

Luxurious. I like that it still feels a little bit rugged. We still gotta, you know, work to make— and we're 40 minutes from anything, so we got to come prepared. Yeah. Um, and so that part of it I love. I mean, every time I'm out there, it becomes similar to what you're talking about with the books, Back to the Basics. It's like really just— I forget about all the stuff that I'm— when I'm in Los Angeles, it's all about work achieve, you know, create. But out there, it's about survival. It's about making sure that my family and everybody who's come to visit us has enough water, enough food, enough heat. That's really where my head goes. And it's, it's a really liberating thing to not worry about the things that you do, you know, in the real world and just sort of focus on what is actually important.

I feel like your mind rejuvenates.

Yeah.

Yeah, when you do stuff like that, get out of the, out of the loop. How do you, how do you stay present with your kids in LA when you're, when you're in the mix, when you're working?

Um, you know, I just show up for everything. If I, if I'm in town, I'm there. I take him to school, I take him to soccer practice, takes him basketball, go to all the games, uh, help them with their homework if they need it. Um, you know, teach him, you know, how to shoot a jump shot. He's all into basketball right now. So he always wants to play me and learn. And so I'm always out there, you know, just whatever I can, you know, because I, because I've learned seeing him, like we talked about as a 2-year-old and now a 12-year-old, like these moments matter. And if I'm gone for months at a time, I need to make sure that I am with them and they know that I'm with them 100% when I'm here. So they don't ever feel like— my biggest fear is looking back going, you know, I, you know, I screwed my kids up because I wasn't around enough. You know, it's one of my biggest fears. I do not want to do that. I want to make sure that they know that I am doing everything I can to, you know, be there for them as a dad.

Does your wife keep you on the level? Oh yeah, she does.

Oh yeah. Maybe too much so. No, she's great. She truly is the best thing that ever happened to me. She's like, um, she's a North Dakota girl, you know, very level-headed, great mom, loves my 12-year-old who isn't even her kid.

Um, how'd you meet her?

She organizes the place, she keeps everything sort of running at the house. I met her in Los Angeles, believe it or She was living there. We'd communicated through, you know, Instagram, believe it or not. And a friend of ours, like, actually got us in contact, actual contact, because he knew her and he knew that she was from North Dakota. She knew that he knew that I was from there. And he said, you guys should meet. And so, you know, we talked back and forth, never any, you know, real thoughts of a relationship because she's younger than me. I didn't want to be that guy. Well, it turns out I am that guy. Uh, because I met her, I brought her to my house, I invited her over for this barbecue, and I was like, damn, she's beautiful, she's such a beautiful girl. Um, and then we started dating after that, and you know, from there I kind of knew that this is the kind of girl that I want to be with. Um, because I dated quite a bit after the divorce, and I was like, oh, this is— I don't— Josh back out in the wild is not a good thing.

I'd forgotten how to, you know, you know, survive, you know, in the wild. You know, it's like, it's like, it's like a monkey that grows up in the zoo. You throw them out in the woods, out in the jungle, you know, feed himself.

Yeah.

How long have you been married?

6 years.

Okay, so yeah, 4 years.

Is she an end-of-the-worlder?

End-of-the-worlder?

Yeah, she is. She— does she think the apocalypse is not really around the corner?

Not really. You know, she does— she lets me— you know, she likes the fact that we're— I'm handling it, but she's not that concerned about it.

Yeah.

Yeah. How about yours? Your wife, is she—

I would say it comes in waves. I mean, uh, pretty tuned in with what's going on in the world just because of this. So when I come home and, uh, after a rough interview and come home and tell her all about what I've learned for the day, then she's like, I'm glad we have 3 years of food prepped in the basement, you know. But, um, but, uh, I'm gonna do that too. Yeah, we've, we've, uh, I mean, ever since COVID man, it's been— I've always been concerned, you know, just from my previous life. But, um, it's just how I think. I always think that the bottom's gonna fall out at a moment's notice.

Yeah.

And so I'm a big contingency guy. But, um, but, uh, yeah, she, she's in on it. It goes in waves, but sometimes she thinks I'm crazy, and then something will happen and she'll be like, oh, I think, yeah, well, that's the thing is you—

it's kind of our job is to, you know, have a plan. Protectors, you know.

So what— I mean, I want to go into a little more detail. It can't just be AI robots. What do you think is going to happen? What are your biggest concerns right now?

Just feels as if there's an instability. There's a lack of respect for law and order. And people are really divided. And I could see be some sort of event where this side— I don't want to call it a civil war, but I mean, that it feels more and more like, you know, I don't feel like we're coming together. I feel like we're getting further and further apart. So it could turn into something like that. I'm hoping to God it doesn't. The cooler heads prevail and we figure out a way to find some common ground, because right now it just feels too divided and people are too okay with hating the other end. Yeah, you know, and there's a real hate problem in this country. Yeah, and, and it's like, and I'm seeing, I'm seeing people, uh, behave in ways they never would have behaved. And I see it. I mean, I'm not going to give any examples, but well-known people, I'm like, what the hell happened to you, dude? You're so blinded by your hate that you're just behaving in a way that's just like not you. And I see that all over. I have I have a Cybertruck and I bought this thing well before any of this stuff was happening, well before any of the backlash against Elon was happening.

And driving down the street in Los Angeles, I can't tell you how many people like, fuck you, fuck you.

I was like, serious?

Like, that is just not okay behavior. Like, when is it okay to just do that? Like, that's just blind hate, you know? For something that has nothing to do with— I can drive whatever car I want to, you know, I can, you know, but, but to have to like that kind of behavior to me scares me because people are irrational right now. And I just want to make sure that, you know, I do what I can to keep the peace. Damn. And to protect my family if I need to. Wow. Because it gets— it's getting— it's just getting too, like, too okay with, like, behaving in ways that weren't okay even 10 years ago. Go. It feels like it's becoming more and more of that.

Do you see that in North Dakota? No, not anywhere.

Not even close.

Um, damn, we don't— I don't see that around here.

No. Wow. Yeah, it's just completely irrational behavior, and it's because there's such hatred, uh, for the other side that, uh, people are just losing their minds a little.

I used to see it.

Yeah, here.

The farther we get from COVID the ease, the, the, the, it's easing up. But I will say, like, with everything that's been going on, I did— the vibe that I'm getting is that maybe we are finding some common ground with shit like the Epstein files and a lot of the stuff that's going on in the world. It seems like a lot of people are like, yeah, this isn't going how we thought it was gonna go, and Um, I think, I think there is a growing base of the country that is just fucking hating our government, our politicians, and I think that's a good thing because it's at least it's something to, you know, well, hopefully it'll, it'll, it'll, you know, create some accountability.

Yeah, you know, because And without getting too much into it, because I don't like to— I'm never going to preach to people about, well, how to believe or what they should believe or shame them for what they do believe. But, you know, there's definitely got to be some accountability because there's been some heinous behavior that shouldn't— just shouldn't be okay. And it's like I said, I think it's just like things that weren't okay even 5 years ago are now seem to be somehow brushed under the rug. It's like, no, that's not okay. Yeah. You know, I just want to make sure that we, you know, people are maintaining some clarity around like what is like okay behavior and what's not.

You think this could all be biblical?

Oh, I don't know.

I don't know.

I haven't thought about it like that. You haven't? No.

You're a Christian, right?

I am, but I guess I haven't made that connection. What do you mean?

Well, I mean, a lot of the things in the Bible that say that— that a lot of things are happening that the Bible says would happen.

Oh gosh, right fucking now.

And, uh, that's a whole other conversation, but that's, uh, that's, that's kind of where I'm— I've landed.

Oh boy.

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I don't know, like, what do you mean? Like, expand on that.

Well, I mean, you want me to expand on this? Well, I mean, right now there are 3 religions all going at it.

Yeah.

In the world right now, and that's supposed to happen. Um, there are public figures in the world that mirror very closely to predictions. I don't know if they predict things that say that, that, that's going to happen in the world. And, um, it's It's a lot of political shit that has gone on in the country says that's going to happen, like gender ideology, shit like this. But it's— and it seems to be speeding up, huh? Getting faster.

Yeah, I don't see— I don't see any backing off from either side. As far as what this is, what this is, why I tend to not get overly involved in this stuff, because what I've— one thing that I've learned from all this is that I'm not changing anybody's mind. People are, people are dug in. Yeah. All you can do is just sort of, you know, behave in a way that you think is right, loving, not filled with hate. Part of the reason I went back to the church, honestly, I needed something to rise above the noise because I found myself starting to feel some of the same hatred against the people that I disagree with. And I was like, what am I doing? I was losing sleep over it. I was, I was, you know, really, really angry and started, you know, what am I doing? I need to, I need to to get back and reconnect spiritually. And so I found— I started to drop my son off. He goes to a Catholic church, Catholic school. I would just drop him off and go sit in church for 15 minutes, just pray or just meditate.

If I'm on location somewhere, I'll find a church, whether it's Catholic or Presbyterian or Lutheran. I don't care. As long as God lives there, I'll go. And I found that that's really sort of helped me sort of make sense of some of it and hopefully, uh, find some clarity in it all. Because I just needed something, because I didn't want to be that woman in the street flipping me off, you know, this— with this hatred in her eyes. I was just like, I'm not going to be that person. I need to like figure out a way to, you know, find God again.

When did you start looking at that?

I mean, I've never really— I mean, there's— I go through phases where I'll be really connected spiritually in times that I'm not. And, uh, I find that when I am connected spiritually, I'm a much better friend, father, husband, brother, uh, just a better person all around when I'm connected spiritually. When I'm not, you know, I can get a little squirrely, you know. I can, I can start to lose track of what's important, you know. And this business can really take you down some dark roads. And so I needed to stay And I think that's what the Catholic religion did for me. It was really, you know, even though I don't agree with a lot of this stuff, I still find that it really taught me right from wrong, gave me that backbone to be like, okay, this is it. Whenever I'd, whenever I'd, you know, go wayward one way or the other, it always kind of brought me back, you know, church, friends, family, you know, it's been— thank God I have a good group of friends, really good family, and was raised Catholic, was raised Christian. Now I'm not as— I don't— the dogma of it all doesn't mean as much to me.

I don't care so much about like what religion says I have to do, what— as long as it feels like it's, you know, about love, peace, harmony, things that keep my head clear of all the noise.

I grew up Catholic too. Yeah.

Yeah. Are you still Catholic?

Yes, I think so.

Yeah, me too.

I— but like you, I started kind of going around and I wanted— I mean, I fell out of it. I was raised Catholic and then kind of fell out of it in the SEAL teams. And recently, maybe with the last 2, 3 years, kind of, uh, refound Christ, you know. And, um, and so I started going to all these non-denominational churches.

Yeah, me too.

And I really like them. Yeah. And, and, you know, I think, I think I'll probably get blasted for saying this, but I think one thing that the Catholic religion lacks on is the teachings of Jesus. Because I don't— growing up, I don't know shit about the teachings of Jesus or really who he was. And I realized that when I was going to these non-denominational churches, I was I was like, these Southern boys and girls over here are like quoting scripture, like bam bam bam. I can't do any of that either. And so I really— I started paying a lot of attention because I wanted to learn more about Christ and the life of Jesus and what it all means instead of just the, you know, typical Catholic Mass.

Yeah.

And, uh, and then I started reading a lot about spiritual warfare warfare and diabolic influence and stuff like that. And that— I don't think anybody in Christianity matches the Catholic Church when it comes to spiritual warfare, what it all means, how it works.

And so what do you mean by that?

Spiritual warfare?

Yeah. And how the— no, nobody can match the Catholic religion. What does that mean? Is that a good thing or a bad thing? I, I don't think it's a good thing or a bad I think that like, why is the Catholic religion better at spiritual warfare than the rest of them? And what is spiritual warfare?

What is spiritual warfare? Spiritual war— man, how do you describe? I mean, basically spiritual warfare is, you know, the good and evil and the battle for your soul. Oh, your mind.

Okay, now I got for the world. I would agree with that then, because that's what's kept me from really going going off the deep end, really, like, taking that dark road down whatever path it was going to take. Spiritual warfare brought me back to, you know, whether you agree with the Catholic, you know, dogma and all the stuff around it, it does give you that sense of right and wrong.

It talks about— I had this guy Father Ripperger on, and, uh, he's like the, the exorcist in North America. And, um, he wrote this book called Diabolic Influence, which I've been picking up and digging into since I've interviewed him. And it talks about everything from— I mean, I don't know if you believe in possession and exorcisms and all that kind of stuff, but, um, he kind of talks about how evil demons, demonic influence, kind of seeps into your life. And how it gets in. And a lot of the ways it gets in is by, um, uh, like really just really bad, uh, shit that you're doing. Yeah. And, um, so it's, it's— if you get into it, it's pretty fascinating.

I'm gonna read that book.

I'll send you the episode. Oh, I don't know.

I'll go if I can find that.

You can't even buy the book.

Oh really?

That's the thing.

Yeah, really.

There's— he's got a couple, but he wrote it for, uh, he wrote it for— basically he wrote it for the Vatican as a guide, you know, to how this is— how it's happening. And it's— yeah, it's, it's, it's, it's fascinating, dude.

Okay.

The Table—

you have a copy of that?

I got a copy.

I would be very interested in that because yes, I do believe in that. I do believe that there are, you know, dark forces at play.

Me too.

And if you're not spiritually connected, you're really susceptible. And, uh, you know, it's easy to become susceptible.

Oh yeah.

You know, if you're not vigilant about, you know, staying Spiritually connected.

Yeah. So what got you into the longevity stuff?

Well, I was, I was taking testosterone replacement therapy for a few years before I ever started into this, and I was keeping it a secret. I was doing some of the peptides, but, you know, never told anybody about it, but I was seeing how much it was actually helping me. And my friend Fabian Calvo brought me this idea to be part of this company. I was like, no, no, I can't tell people what I'm— you know, that's my dark little secret. But then I started thinking about that and I was like, of course I should do this. This is something I could easily shine a light on that makes it okay because it's helped me so much. I mean, it's truly— testosterone replacement has been huge for me. It's brought my levels back. I was low. So, you know, I'm able to keep muscle on, able to, you know, do things that I could do in my 30s that I'm now 53 human being can do. And then we got into the peptides, started learning more and more about them and how much, uh, how much they can actually help. And I think that that was, that was the reason why, is because it gave me a chance to sort of share some of the stuff that I'd learned, uh, even though I was keeping it quiet for so many years.

What kind of peptides?

I do, uh, I do, uh, I'm sorry, um, Tesamorlin. I do the Wolverine stack, which is HG, uh, HKGCU, TB500, and KPV, which is great for joints and skin and hair recovery, cell regeneration. Um, what else do I do? I do NAD and MOTC.

What does that do?

Uh, NAD is, is like, uh, uh, yeah, NAD and MOTC to help the mitochondria. I'm not going to— probably, I'm probably going to butcher this a little bit. I'm learning. But it's really good about energy, skin, staying young looking, uh, the mitochondria and the energy and stuff like that is, is what it's, uh, supposed to be. Do you do any of this stuff?

Yeah, I do TRT. I don't do peptides, but I'm getting ready to.

Yeah.

And, uh, yeah, and then the NAD stuff.

It works, man. It really does work, you know. And then there's the HRT. We just started doing it for women too, which is, you know, we we started as just a men's company. And then I had so many females in my life saying, dude, you got to— like, we need help too. And I started doing research on that. And there's the HRT, which can literally prolong the youth of women. It can stem the effects of perimenopause and menopause and bring your levels of progesterone and estrogen back up to what they were. So women don't have to go through the same thing that they always have, you know, with, with menopause. So all this stuff is like—

wait, are you saying it like skips menopause?

Well, no, it just, it just delays the effects of it and reduces like the hot flashes and the, the— I don't know. I'm not— I have never gone through it because I'm not a female. But what I've— but what— from what I've heard, like, if you can, if you can regulate your hormones, that's part of the reason why this menopause is such such a bitch for women is because their, their hormones have fallen off. Like, in men it's testosterone, women it's estrogen and progesterone and testosterone as well. So you can really sort of regulate that stuff with this hormone therapy. And we have doc— we have a whole— what makes this company so great is that we have a whole team of doctors. So it's like a concierge service. So the FDA doesn't let you just go out and click, click, click and have the stuff sent to you. They want you to be guided by a professional medical expert, uh, somebody with, you know, the ability to actually walk you through this and create a plan. And so we have a whole team of doctors, um, so we feel like we're doing it the right way.

We're really able to help so many people, um, and this stuff works. I mean, it truly works. And so it's really fun. It's been really, really fun actually for me, learning more and more about it, because I have a real natural curiosity for wellness and longevity and trying to stay as healthy as I can for as long as I can. Not just for my work, but for my kids. You know, I'm 53 years old and I have a baby on the way. I need to be as strong as I can for her as long as I can.

Congratulations on that.

Thank you. You gonna have any more?

Probably not.

No. Yeah. How old are you?

43.

Oh, you're still a young man.

I would love to, but I don't know if it's gonna happen.

Yeah, you got two beautiful ones. That's all that matters. Yep. So yeah, that's, uh, that's, that's, you know, that's the main reason is just because I wanted to be able to build something and help. And for myself personally, selfishly, I was trying to, you know, learn as much as I could to, you know, stay in the game for as long as I could. You know, I'm not going out without a fight, man. I'm to stay as young and strong and virile for as long as I can.

Right on. You guys gonna— you guys have any, uh, you venturing into anything new? Are you going to stick with the peptides, NAD, and TRT?

Well, I mean, there— yes, right now, I mean, there's just so much there. There's stuff that coming up on the horizon that's just like unbelievable. Some of these things that are not approved yet, but they're about to be. Um, so So for now, yes, hormone therapy for men and women, testosterone for men, HRT for women, whether it's estrogen, progesterone, testosterone, and then all these amazing peptides. Eventually it may be stem cells. Nice. Which is another thing that's going to be coming, incredibly beneficial. I mean, the science behind that is incredible too. I mean, uh, I'm just like beginning to learn about like how amazing that stuff can be if done and, and, you know, administered properly. And, you know, thankfully with Dr. Lawrence and his team, we have just the best people in the world to help. Right on.

Have you, have you looked at— I'm just curious, have you looked at this, uh, plasma exchange stuff?

I've heard a little bit about it.

You know what I'm talking about?

You talking about when they, they spin the blood in the PRP?

No, no, they— it's almost like blood filtration. Have you seen any, uh, I don't know how much time you spend on social media or if you've seen it, but right now like this trend, there's all these people, they hold up these bags.

I saw Rogan did that, didn't he? Didn't Rogan have a big one?

Yeah, that's plasma exchange. So apparently it's like filtering all the spike proteins and all the shit out of your blood.

Really?

Um, like maybe heavy metals and stuff. And the darker the bags are, the, the more toxins that it's pulled out.

I would hate to see what mine looks like.

I know, me too, me too. No, but, uh, might it be like a greenish hue? We've never seen that color before. That's fucking red. But, uh, yeah, I don't know. That's something I've been looking into, uh, to do. So especially with all the exposure of all the fucked up places I've been throughout the world.

Parasites is another one I want to look into. Yeah, I've heard a lot about this stuff. I'm just, again, I, I don't— I'm no expert in any of this stuff. I'm as curious as anybody else, but I do have a natural sort of curiosity to learn more. And parasites are one of them that my mother was at. My mother's always kind of been on the forefront of this stuff. She was eating the egg whites in the early '80s. We were so embarrassed. Like, Mom, you're asking to take your egg yolk— like, she's this girl, she's been always sort of— and she just tell me about parasites and how you need to get checked for them and how you can get them sort of expelled from your body. I don't know. I don't know. Is it a— is it a fad? I don't know. Feels like it could be real.

Yeah.

All the stuff we eat.

Oh, I'm sure it's real. Yeah, I'm sure it's real. But well, where do people find the company? Who's it for? What's that? Is it for everyone or—

It's for everyone. I mean, it's—

it's—

I mean, we're finding in our data that people are doing it younger and younger as a preemptive sort sort of way to, to stay, to prevent, you know, some of these effects of aging that happen. So people in their 30s are starting to use this stuff, but we, you know, we're meant for people my age, 40s, 50s, even 60s or 70s. There's— these things are— can be really beneficial. Um, gatlin.com will, will set you up with one of our doctors who will put you through, uh, you know, a few of the steps that it takes to get involved. This is, you know, this a big deal for people to get into, and, uh, it can be scary for people. So we want them to be as comfortable as possible. Make sure they get their levels checked. Make sure you know where you're at. Just in general, you should know that anyway, I think. Just get your levels checked. You'll find that you're probably not, uh, optimizing as well as you could be. There's a lot of peptides you could be using. Your hormones can be leveled up to where they should be. So it's a pretty easy process.

It's telemedicine, but it's like telemedicine 2.0 because we make it real simple. Everything's delivered discreetly to your house, but you'll also have somebody there to help you so you don't have some dude from the gym who compounds out of the backseat of his car. You know, stay away, stay away, stay away from the research and development stuff from China. I'm telling you, China. All of our stuff is 100% compounded in the USA, compounded in the USA with, you know, through our own 503 pharmacies and API wholesalers. And we just, we know where this stuff is coming from and it's all like the best quality.

Right on. And check out gatlan.com.

Gatlan.com. Yeah, G-A-T-L-A-N.

Right on, right on.

We got a hat for you too, by the way.

Oh dude, thank you. Nice. Thank you. Yes, sir. Well, I think we're wrapping up the interview, but I just want to say that, uh, man, you look like a really grounded person.

Seems like so are you, Sean. Thank you. But I already knew that about you.

How so?

I just, you know, people who know you, how do you— watching the show.

How do you stay grounded?

How do I stay grounded? Yeah, honestly, I've got a really, really awesome group of friends. There's like 20 of us. That every day we're on a thread. And if, and if you didn't know we were best friends, you might think we're worst enemies because there is no, there is no pulling any punches. These guys are ruthless but also super loving. They don't let me get, you know, any higher than I need to be. Good. They love me and they, you know, they got my back, but they're not— they don't treat me any differently. And I think that's been a big part of it. Great family. Amazing wife. You know, North Dakota has been good.

Good for you, man. You got some good people around you.

Yeah, it's good to hear. Well, thanks for coming. Ah, man, thank you so much for having me.

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