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The Tim Ferriss Show

#698: Dr. Mark Plotkin on Coffee, The World’s Favorite Stimulant — Chemistry, History, and More

The Tim Ferriss Show

Tim Ferriss: Bestselling Author, Human Guinea Pig

Lifestyle Design, Business, The 4-hour Workweek, Productivity, Timothy Ferriss Show, Startups, Tim Ferris, Entrepreneurship, Longform Interviews, Tools Of Titans, Timothy Ferriss, The Tim Ferriss Show, Tim Ferriss

4.617.4K Ratings

🗓️ 12 October 2023

⏱️ 76 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

This episode is brought to you by my very own COCKPUNCH Coffee!

Welcome to The Tim Ferriss Show, where it is usually my job to deconstruct world-class performers to tease out their routines, habits, et cetera that you can apply to your own life. 

This time around, we have a very special edition featuring Dr. Mark Plotkin

Mark takes over my duties as host and shares an episode of the Plants of the Gods podcast. You, my dear listeners, are hearing the audio before anyone else, even before his podcast subscribers, so this is a Tim Ferriss Show exclusive. 

So, who is Dr. Mark Plotkin? Mark (@DocMarkPlotkin) is an ethnobotanist who serves as president of the Amazon Conservation Team, which has partnered with ~80 tribes to map and improve management and protection of ~100 million acres of ancestral rainforests. He is best known to the general public as the author of the book Tales of a Shaman’s Apprentice, one of the most popular books ever written about the rainforest. His most recent book is The Amazon: What Everyone Needs to Know. You can find my interview with Mark at tim.blog/markplotkin

This tightly-packed episode explores all things coffee—the most widely consumed mind-altering plant product in the world.

Please enjoy! 

*

This episode is brought to you by my very own COCKPUNCH Coffee! This year, one way I’ve scratched my own itch is by creating COCKPUNCH Coffee—the first coffee I’ve ever produced myself, and which I now drink every morning. It’s a tie-in to a fictional world I created, but that’s another story for another time. I enlisted the help of world-class experts and tested dozens of variations over many months. As longtime listeners know, I have very high standards when it comes to coffee. After dialing in the sourcing, roasting, and more, this is the combo that finally made me say, “This is the one!”

100% of my COCKPUNCH-related proceeds to date—now $2.5M+—including those from COCKPUNCH Coffee, go to my non-profit foundation, the Saisei Foundation, which focuses on cutting-edge, scientific research and other uncrowded bets.

To learn more about the latest projects that I’m working on, check out SaiseiFoundation.org. And if you’d like some of the best coffee in the US, at least in my humble opinion, check out cockpunchcoffee.com. I think you’ll love it as much as I do. Grab a bag—or two or three—at cockpunchcoffee.com.

*

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Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

This episode is brought to you by my very own cockpunch coffee.

0:04.0

Goodness gracious, does it give me the giggles just to say that.

0:07.6

This year, one way I've scratched my own itch is by creating cockpunch coffee.

0:12.5

The first coffee I've ever produced myself in which I now drink every morning.

0:16.2

It is a tie into a fictional world that I created, but that is another bizarre story for another time.

0:22.2

Now there's some karmic upside to this whole project that I'll get to in a second.

0:26.4

Back to the coffee, I enlisted the help of world-class experts.

0:30.2

I have access to a lot of them and tested dozens of variations over many months.

0:34.4

As long time listeners know, I have very high standards when it comes to coffee

0:38.0

and I have been diagnosed also with moderate severe OCD,

0:40.8

so I pay attention to the details in this case.

0:44.0

And that is actually a true statement.

0:45.7

After dialing in the sourcing, roasting, and more,

0:48.2

this is the combo that finally made me say this is the one.

0:52.2

And it was very clear, it was immediate, it was practically instantaneous.

0:58.7

Nothing else had quite hit the mark, and then this one did after a lot of tweaking.

1:03.7

To learn all about it, check out cockpunchcoffee.com, spelled as it sounds,

1:07.9

which is a mighty strange website in and of itself.

1:11.3

Now here's the karmic side.

1:12.3

100% of my cockpunch-related proceeds date,

1:16.0

which are now around $2.5 million, including those from cockpunch coffee.

1:20.1

Go to my nonprofit foundation, the Sci-Safe Foundation,

...

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