Today, we feature an in depth interview with Ryan about some seldom shared ideas he has on Religion, Politics and Business.

 

Ever wonder what Ryan's most controversial thoughts are? Tune in for that, as well as some tips for better living and serious insight on what the point of religion is, what the outcome of the next election is going to be and the greatest metaphor for life: sports.

 

Key takeaways

 

Letting go [5:08] Ryan broke from his faith in what was probably the most painful event of his life so far.

 

However, when you are ok with breaking from everything you've known, you are also able to question every other normative aspect of society. And because people are usually dogmatic, this ability becomes a strategic advantage.

 

The origins of questioning [6:43] The Baptist church is very dogmatic in terms of scripture being the word of God, and Ryan began questioning the literal truth of scripture.

 

Is the Bible really the inspired word of God? He concluded that it was not, and this launched his pursuit of truth, which is the whole point of spirituality.

 

"Trust those who seek the truth but doubt those who say they have found it." — André Gide

 

2 Party system [13:00] We're already starting to see the cracks in the system and Ryan shares his predictions on its lifespan:

 

The last Republican election had 17 people on the debate, the Democrats are now running more than 20 candidates who qualify for the debate.

 

So by 2024, more than 50 people could be bidding without any clear front-runner. What this means is finally some room for independents and probably time for a more democratized election.

 

The Indians [18:00] Around June first the Indians were 28 and 29, Ryan thought "punt the season". Since then, they've gone 38 and 16.

 

What happened? The team started playing for Cookie, the starting pitcher who was diagnosed with Leukemia: now they had a reason why.

 

Isn't it a great metaphor for life: You can have all the raw ingredients, all the talent, but if you don't have a reason why, it all gets left on the sidelines.

 

Team culture helps, but so does the human tendency to believe projections rather than reality, so the expectation to win — or lose — has a role to play in the outcome.

 

Winning [26:00] Predicting the outcome of elections has been relatively easy for Ryan, especially when people are "voting against X". That is usually a great indicator that X will win: you are still focusing on them and it usually means the other candidates have no real substance for you to rally to.

 

The entire House Democratic caucus is focused solely on electing someone who can beat Donald Trump! Joe Biden even said his only goal was to beat Donald Trump.

 

The only people who may have shots if nominated would be Andrew Yang an Tulsi Gabbard: they're running on real issues — even if Ryan is not a fan of their solutions!

 

Free market [28:52] Should I have the right to consume anything that is destructive to me? Or alternatively: does someone have the right to prevent me from doing something to myself?

 

Ryan thinks that if you are going to have restrictions, you can only try to police the market, knowing that this will result in an underground industry.

 

Ryan still has an incomplete opinion on drug policy, but he does believe that punishing the individual is a lost cause.

 

Marketing the wall [33:07] The wall was always a false policy: it was a marketing tool and a negotiation tool.

 

It got a lot of attention and enabled Trump to say that 3 ½ years later "there's still not a wall, we still have work to do, don't let them take it away from us!"

 

What will happen is that some parts will be built — some already are and some were already built before Trump — and the rest will be a technological solution that he will call "a wall", and a win.

 

Consumerism [34:32] People consume out of fear. When you are happy and at peace, you do not have endless consumerism and the opposite is true as well. We consume to fill a void that cannot be filled by consumerism.

 

Mental health has to be the next conversation we have as a society — that and marriage — those are the great debates coming.

 

Quick hack [36:27] Meditation, therapy, personal and physical development inform better decisions, but Ryan has found that the one thing that keeps all of those practices running at their best is sleep. It's the one thing that makes everything else easier or unnecessary.

 

What he monitors is being up late at night working and if by 9 o'clock he feels like binge eating, it means he needs to go to sleep.

 

Controversy! [40:38] Prescription drugs are something Ryan has come full circle on after using Modafinil and Metformin — which is big in the biohacking community — his doctor recommended it as a net positive despite the side effects. He mainly sees those as preventative care and not as solutions to ongoing problems.

 

The one thing [45:01] If you do only one thing that will have a net positive impact on your well being, Ryan recommends that you spend the time to identify the most traumatic experiences of your life, and see what comes up.

 

Ryan's parents' divorce, it turns out, was a lot to unpack even to this day, and yielded interesting information about his personality.

 

The seed of change, if you are looking for change, is in analyzing those experiences. It can start with journaling.

 

Goals [48:10] Ryan aims to do less. And clean up the neurotic decisions he's made in the last couple of years.

 

Thanks for listening!