Laughing Through The Pain: Navigating Wellness

"Wellness or Wellmess? Navigating the Quirky World of Health Hacks"

• Richard & Andy • Season 1 • Episode 1

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Are you ready to chuckle your way through the maze of wellness fads and biohacks? That's a promise we're making as Richard L. Blake, Andrew Esam, your friendly neighborhood psychologist and wellness wanderer take you on a quest for truth in our 1st podcast episode of "Laughing Throuhg the Pain Away." We're not just about laughs; we're here to offer you credible advice, debunk myths, and save you time in a world brimming with wellness chaos.

This week, Richard, spills the beans on a certain dubious life coach nomination, showcasing why a healthy dose of skepticism is as necessary as your daily vitamins. Alongside Richard, Andy casts his curious mind over the wellness sphere as they navigate the murky waters of EMF mitigation, all while engaging with your burning questions and comments. It's a blend of humor and hard facts as they tackle the balance between technology and well-being, ensuring that you won't need to unplug your sense of humor to connect with sound wellness wisdom.

Buckle up for a journey as the inform you of their exciting roster of future guests who are geared up to share their expertise. From James Dowler's breathwork strategies for COVID-19 anxiety to Alex Manos' lowdown on biomarkers, each conversation is packed with insights. And let's not forget geopolitics and meditation with Mike Richards or the corporate wellness musings of Georgia Ems – it's an eclectic mix sure to satisfy your curiosity and enhance your understanding of the complex wellness landscape. So, tune in, have a giggle, and maybe learn a thing or two about living your best life with a pinch of skepticism and a whole lot of science.

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Richard :

Hi, hello, welcome to the podcast, the very first one, laughing the pain, laughing through the pain, advocating the more lives. That was painful.

Andy:

We'd like to cover off who we are and why we're doing this, because we've been asked much in private. I'll kick off. I'm Andrew Esam. I work in London. Some of you may have heard of it. I enjoy creative writing, pina Colada's, getting Caught in the Rain and, of course, I have an interest in wellness, which brings me here. In terms of credentials, mine are extremely limited. I do have a degree in psychology and I have a curiosity which I think is enough Rich, who are you?

Richard :

Richard L Blake coming at you. No, that's cringe, but there's going to be a fair few cringe things that we're going to say. And, yeah, I'm okay with that. Aka the breath geek I am PhD candidate in psychology. I teach breath work. I'm currently just well just writing up the results of the world's largest ever randomized control trial on conscious connected breath work. I'm a biohacker, I'm an amateur crossfit athlete and I have a very obsessive passion for biohacking and wellness and psychology and things like that. And basically, yeah, last 10 to 15 years I've been diving deep into all things wellness and people have just kept on nagging me to be like when are you going to do your podcast? You know it's about time, richard. Why are you wasting all your time hoarding all this information? It's now time to start spreading some of the stuff you know, to share it Exactly.

Andy:

I'm carrying Richard with all his credentials. So we went on a trip in September 2022, which ended in an untimely and horrendous fashion which we will go into later.

Andy:

But I did feel a little bit like and I don't know if I can use this because he's such a God but I did feel a little bit like Louis Theroux in terms of thinking what are these practices you keep? Who are these people? What are these alternatives? Why bother investing so much time and money into this stuff? What are the alternatives to established wisdom? And I sort of feel like I dip in and out of it. So I think that I'm just going to follow my curiosity. As I said earlier, I think that's fair enough, yeah yeah, I think that's gonna be good.

Richard :

You and he is gonna be there to be the listener in some regards. You know asking the questions that some of our experts might not think. Because of the curse of knowledge, they assume people know things when, when, not everyone does, and and he has got that very useful perspective. He's also very funny, I don't know if you've noticed that he will show that at some point he will get to that. I like that.

Andy:

I've been put forward to the antidote to knowledge, but, to be fair, it is an overwhelming subject and I think that, like I'm probably more representative of the mainstream than you are in terms of I dip and out, I dip in and out I'm not as committed to this stuff. I don't have the information by fingertips, but I also. In terms of that, I think it is also important to keep things light. I think I've seen a lot of people who take this very, very seriously and almost dogmatic about it and evangelical, and I think it's supposed to keep wellness, is supposed to keep you well, so I think it's important to keep sight of that.

Richard :

So we're not experts? Is that fair to say? I mean you might rise at that, but in many ways. I'm an expert. You're not an expert at all of wellness.

Andy:

You can't be.

Richard :

Oh no, I'd say I'm an expert in some things. So I think I think so. That's why I think that's why people keep asking me questions as if I'm an expert. At least all the people that ask me questions have made me think I'm an expert. But yeah, certainly there are people who are 100 times more expert than me in many, many topics.

Richard :

Yeah, and what you're saying about the wellness industry and its issues, yeah, some of the reason we're doing this podcast is to kind of curtail some of the growth of the wellness industry Not curtail it but shape it, because, as people know, snake oil salesmen have been around for hundreds of years and that whole snake oil thing was maybe that was the birth of the wellness industry People selling things that don't really work, overhyping them and tricking vulnerable people into parting with their money. And that's what we are going to be trying to help people with is avoid some of the rubbish, the nonsense, the overhype, the unscrupulous stuff. And, yeah, certainly I think with biohackers, like you said, some people can get quite like cultish about this and it becomes their religion. You know, was that GK Chesterton quote saying you know, when you take away religion, someone will believe in anything, and I think a lot of people have started believing, like you know, their EMF protection is is gonna, you know, take them to heaven.

Andy:

What does the EMF stand for again, rich Electromagnetic fields frequencies.

Richard :

Frequencies yeah, we'll get into more of that frequencies. We'll get into that in the future at some point.

Andy:

Of course, we won't be alone for this journey, will we Rich? I don't think that would be fair on our audience. So from next week or next episode, we'll be joined by some learned, exceptional guests to help us on the way. We'll talk a little bit about that later. But who is it for, rich?

Richard :

Yeah, who is it for? It's for people who want to learn about wellness, people who want to know about breathwork. I think it's also a lot for breathwork practitioners and wellness practitioners and nutritionists people who are actually practicing, who want to have that sort of you know. They already know that this stuff works. You know we're not going to be trying to convince people that, like eating a healthy diet or doing exercise is good. Hopefully the people who are listening to this already know that. But these people are. They want to know, okay, what you know, what's the longest lever, what things really make a difference and what things are a bit of a waste of money or a marginal. And often you know for who is an intervention right and at what time is an intervention right. So, going into more of the nuances there, so yeah, general people who are interested in helping wellness Go ahead.

Andy:

Yeah, I mean, I think, actually right, I think I see it as a sort of anyone who has even a passing interest in wanting to improve emotional state, physical state, spiritual awareness, social connections. I mean, obviously we're not going to be able to touch all of those things in one episode, but I think that has got to be the game and I think it'll encompass all of those in the form of time and, as I said, it's supposed to be like hearted, it's supposed to, you know, not be intimidated. I think it's fair to say ritual probably judge you, but I definitely won't. I'm happy to join you all in the beginner circle and learn with you.

Richard :

Yeah, that is. One of the functions of the podcast is so I can judge people on mass, because judging you is not enough for me.

Andy:

Yeah, I remember a couple of instances on the road trip where I would sort of walk in and I'd be smelling of, let's just say, mainstream deodorant and I'd just get this glare from you and I knew that I was in trouble. So it'd be nice to spread that about and actually sort of you know, add some school and to other people and people all right, and you can just dismiss them as in the sales. That'd be quite fun.

Richard :

So, yeah, I feel like I've come for everyone.

Andy:

Yeah, so we want beginners, experts, skeptics, realists, professionals will take the lock. Basically, is what we're saying.

Richard :

Yeah, we're niching right down, so what's?

Andy:

what's what to expect? That's a good question.

Richard :

Yeah, what's it so? I mean most, yeah, fairly, fairly broad, but I would say mainly encompassing our interests. I guess you know some of the reason we're doing this podcast or some of the reason I'm doing this podcast is to is to learn from people I'm actually interested in learning from and you know I have a few passions, not just, you know, not just wellness. So hopefully we will keep things broad and keep the guests entertained Sorry, the listeners entertained, yeah, and yeah, I think also we should expect a little bit of, like, a little bit of critique.

Richard :

You know, as I say, you know some people may come on and just expect to just give you an advertisement for whatever it is they're selling, and I feel like some that's basically what a lot of podcasts are is just long adverts where people get to just sell and not necessarily make up but maybe exaggerate some of their claims. And I think I'm going to try and be holding people accountable, to stay stay truthful and maybe challenge some of the people on some of their assertions. And you know, being a PhD candidate, I am an evidence based person. I do like to do my research and of course, there are limitations to the scientific method. But yeah, I'm not going to. I'm going to try not to let people off when maybe.

Andy:

I was going to say don't make it all, and I don't want to be set there as some sort of mediator, just sort of watching your bicker.

Richard :

I'll try and keep, I'll try and keep sweet.

Andy:

You can just go in hard on them. That's what we'll go for.

Richard :

Good cop, bad cop Good cop, yeah, yeah.

Andy:

But let's remember also, I think, like this this came out when I was in a few conversations that like it's quite a privilege to be able to just discuss these things, and it's supposed to be like a kind of you know, an ad. It's supposed to be something that kind of gives something back, I suppose, in terms of, ultimately, you're trying to improve people's existence, which I think is a noble aim.

Richard :

Yes, and I also think that vulnerable people need to be protected from some experts who are maybe looking out for themselves and their own pockets rather than the best interests of the consumers. Okay, so I'm going to be championing the consumer, if you like, the people's champ.

Andy:

Wow, the people's champ. Okay, that's bold, I like it.

Richard :

Yeah, I think I might take it back actually.

Andy:

Yeah, I'm getting like Batman and Robin vibes where I'm just, or maybe like Sherlock Holmes and Watson, where I just sort of follow it.

Richard :

No, Batman is great. Batman and Robin is great With the Batman and Robin of the wellness industry. That's it. That's what they'll call us.

Andy:

Okay, excellent. So weekly I think there'll be some weekly features. I'm thinking I mean a lot of them will be revealed, partly because they haven't been determined yet. But I do want to do Andy's wellness tip for the week. You probably expect that to come from Rich, but, as you've probably gathered, he's pretty close minded about these things, and I'm. He would say that I'm gullible, but actually I've just got a really, really open mind.

Andy:

So I'm going to be presenting a wellness tip for the week and we can discuss that, and I will have done my research, so watch out.

Richard :

Okay, good. Other one we're going to do is BS of the week, and I'm going to regale you with a story of some BS and grade A life coaching industry BS. So you've heard this one before, andy, but the listeners obviously won't have. Yeah, go on. What, what?

Andy:

um, no, I was going to say what happens if my wellness tip for the week is also BS? Then we've effectively got two BSes of the week, but I suppose that's okay, isn't it?

Richard :

Two for one bargain yeah, great value for the listeners. Then Save your time.

Andy:

You've obviously got loads of examples in mind. Give us an example of BS of the week If you don't mind.

Richard :

Yes, and I'll actually.

Andy:

I'm going to decide if this is BS or not, because you're putting the case forward. I'm going to be the judge. That off you go.

Richard :

Alright. So a little while ago I got a little email in my email inbox that said congratulations, richard L Blake, you have been nominated as one of our top 10 life coaches of the year. And I was like, hmm, this is, this is big, especially as I'm not a life coach.

Richard :

But okay, no, I'm not like. I am certified as a life coach and I was a life coach for a very short amount of time before I saw the error of my ways there. So I went back to them. I was like, wow, I can't believe you nominated me. I'm so thankful. What was it that made you want me to to be on your top 10 lists? And they were just like we just really like what you're putting out there. I was like, yeah, me too. It's good stuff what I'm putting out there. Thanks, anything in particular that you like that I'm putting out there. And they're just like, yeah, those articles. I was like, oh, yeah, my articles some of them are really good. Actually was, it was only one in particular and I just kept going back and forwards, being like anything in the article that you liked, until eventually they just like look, it's $500. Do you want to be on this list on that?

Andy:

Okay, I was gonna say what's the kicker, because you know this seems like quite a client thing to do. Maybe you could have put that at the bottom of your email signature rich Blake top 10 life coaches, would you be in the world?

Richard :

I would think I'm one of the top 10 life coaches in the world.

Richard :

Yeah, that's not a very high standard, so yeah, but the reason I share this story is is oh yeah, exactly.

Richard :

The reason I share this is because the life coaching industry is completely unregulated.

Richard :

It is the Wild West and there are a lot of people who have done weekend courses and they are giving people advice on their mental health when they have absolutely no business giving people advice on their mental health without the proper qualifications, licensure and oversight.

Richard :

So I mean, this is, this is what is gonna, what will probably happen. They probably will get 10 life coaches who are like, oh, brilliant, yeah, I'm gonna be on the top 10 list and they're gonna put that on their website and their email signature, and someone who knows nothing about the life coaching industry is going to go in to their email and be like, oh wow, this person is one of the top 10 best life coaches in the world. I'm definitely giving up giving them my money and signing up for their 20 package incubator course to improve my life, my orgasmic awakening program or whatever it is, and that's that's BS, because that's clearly not the top 10, but it's the life coach in the world and there's no way for the consumer to know until now, until laughing through the pain comes along and rescues them.

Andy:

As you know, I'm the judge of that and I think that does sound like BS, to be fair. But, they did, they wouldn't send that email to me. They wouldn't send that to someone who wasn't a life coach at a period in time, but I suppose that is. That is a bit disingenuous and not particularly okay. So yeah, okay, I'll put that in the BS box of the week. Whatever it used to be room 101 and that was a good show Okay, the. Bs box, whatever company that was top 10 life coaches yeah.

Richard :

I'm not. I'm not going to name them, but if you ever see someone with a you know nominated as a top 10 list, you might want to delve a little bit deeper into that.

Andy:

Swallowed. Okay, Okay, mate, why? Why do we need this million dollar question here? I think you said it best.

Richard :

Well, I'll tell you why I need to do this is because I get a lot of messages from my friends and and followers on Instagram being like what do you think about this product? Should I do this? I've discovered this thing. They're claiming this thing and instead of me just sending a message just to one person, I can send a podcast and it'll go out to many people and I can say hey, thanks for that question. Go listen to the podcast. I've researched your question and spoken about it in this podcast, so that's why I need it, to save myself some time from from answering these questions for free, so maybe it's more just this.

Andy:

You and I need this. No one actually needs this.

Richard :

We need this, you feel that there's a real dearth in the market for white middle class privileged individuals behind a microphone creating a plan. Yeah, exactly, I mean really we need more straight, white cisgendered middle class men in their 30s doing podcasts, because what are we going to do without them? We need to get those numbers up. I actually went to dinner with my old boss the other night.

Andy:

He'll be listening to my podcast. My old boss the other night, he'll be listening. It was delicious, thank you. I didn't know his 20 year old daughter would be back. I guess she was on a break from uni and I didn't actually tell her anything about about this, but she volunteered during the evening that she thought that white men should be banned from buying microphones. So I mean, luckily we weren't banned, we have bought microphones. So suck it up. Buttercup, here's another one. But it was just so. It was so curious.

Andy:

I was like I don't know enough about the, I guess, the statistics about who's doing podcasts. But she was completely adamant that there should be no more of what we're creating. So there we go. Yeah, one fan.

Richard :

Well, hopefully she doesn't get into any sort of you know position of government and we go back into some kind of 1984 totalitarian dictatorship where we're being banned from podcasting. Sounds a little bit prejudiced, if I might say.

Andy:

That was one of the few comments that made me feel wildly uncomfortable to be there, but I was invited so I thought I'd stick around and see what you had to say.

Richard :

But actually going back to your, I wonder, I wonder, I wonder what she would say if, if that was directed at a different group, like I you know. Let's say it was a person of a different color or a different gender and it was someone else saying that.

Andy:

Yeah, I just thought it was very strange that she didn't actually know what that was doing and she just volunteered that out of the blue. But, to your point, I think the other thing I'm really looking forward to in my kind of exploration journey, if I can call it that, is that I do find the whole thing, the whole sector, quite overwhelming. I think, because people are trying to sell things, it makes that it very cloudy. It's hard to kind of see what are the good things to pick out of your Instagram targeted adverts and what's the complete nonsense. And I also think you know I ultimately want to build better habits to improve my wellness. I mean, isn't that what we're all trying to do with meditation and sleeping? It's, it's trying to, it's got a genuine purpose. So even if we can kind of improve understanding, just a little bit.

Andy:

I'm here for it, as they say these days, and I'm curious to ask you as well about the obviously same misinformation and malintent in the wellness industry. I think also, as well as highlighting that I think, hopefully well, a lot of our guests are some sort of genuine, genuine people, companies, practices that actually do good work for humanity. So, as well as kind of calling out the nonsense and maybe have poking a bit of fun with it, it's also about kind of pushing some genuinely good lights for us as well.

Richard :

Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, we're gonna have some good guests and things. And yeah, I know we said earlier that we'd have people we're gonna challenge. We're not going to have anyone on there, we're gonna, you know, try and humiliate or anything like that. All our guests are going to be people that we feel very well aligned with and we can have good conversations with and learn things from, absolutely.

Andy:

Yeah, and I quite like the fact that the wellness in I mean you said it to me in a text message about the wellness industry is just so vast that it kind of makes me feel a little bit more empowered to go into it, because I know that no one could possibly cover every blade of grass. So it makes me feel that you know if I've got, if, if I'm researching something, a topic from scratch, maybe you're also researching that topic from scratch and there's new research coming out all the time. So I think I'm kind of feel a little bit more empowered by the fact that it's impossible to be an expert on all of it, although I know you profess to be.

Richard :

Yeah, I mean I am an expert in a very small field, I mean in breathwork, I think. I think it's fair to say I'm an expert in conscious connected.

Andy:

No, you are, you are. Let me just state that.

Richard :

Okay good, I have read every single academic paper ever published on conscious connected breathwork. It took me three years, but that is what a PhD is. It's about becoming an expert and, yeah, I think you know one of the ways I think I I can help people. You know, one of the reasons why people ask me questions on Instagram and things is because I don't just get my information from Netflix documentaries or Instagram or TikTok. It's because I actually enjoy reading academic papers. I have a subscription to things like examinecom, where they do research reviews, and yeah, I'm a little bit more evidence based than your average Instagram influencer.

Andy:

And I think that leads on to in terms of the format. I think we're going to produce links to articles, or key articles that are sourced in the podcast and basically references that are brought up by our guests, so that you don't have to kind of spend as long as we will researching stuff. We will just signpost you to the good bits.

Richard :

Yeah, exactly, we're here to save you time.

Andy:

Yeah, and so when to expect it? I think is it first day expect the unexpected, or weekly?

Richard :

Yeah, exactly, keep them guessing. That's what the audience like they like to be.

Andy:

We have discussed it?

Richard :

Yeah, we have discussed it. I think the goal is one episode a week, seasons at a time, so we'll do several at a time and then probably take some breaks or a break to to record and then come back stronger with feedback from our guests and our listeners and continuing to grow. We definitely have an ambition to avoid pod fade. Pod fade is supposedly where you get bored of doing a podcast after a while, like most people do. Apparently, if you make it past 21 episodes this is a rough statistic around 20 episodes you're in like the top 99% of 1% of all podcasters in history, because most people don't get past that 20 mark.

Andy:

So we're going to do 21, and then we'll do yeah, absolutely 21, in fact, for our 21st. I think I should. So it should be said by the way, rich, you are in Walnut Creek, california, that's right, yeah, I am in. London, central London. So for our 21st episode, I reckon we try and do it together. I'm coming over to the States, so let's try and be together for that one and we'll drink loads of champagne. Let's do the top 0.1% of podcasters, did you say perfect?

Richard :

yeah, we're being the 1%.

Andy:

Yeah, I think so, all right all right, so okay, that's when to expect it. How do we find it? How do?

Richard :

we find it well they'll find it on podcasts all good podcast hosting platforms and some rubbish ones, as they used to say in Sokriya. That's an old reference for you there, one for the kids. Yeah, it's.

Richard :

Apple music Spotify. We're gonna upload it to YouTube as well video stuff and we'll be putting out reels on our social media as well, and I really want it to be quite interactive. Like I said, I get a lot of messages on Instagram and things like that. I like them, I'm pretending I'm cool and I don't want them. No, keep sending me messages.

Andy:

Send me more messages actually, and I'll lead me on to my next, my next point, which is social media. You're a bit more of a social media presence than I am, the breath geek, but I think it's fair to say we'll try and engage on all the normal channels and if the audience is half as nice as they were on Rich's podcast last podcast appearance, we will be only too happy to engage. So let's give a bit of flavour about how that went, rich. What give us some context?

Richard :

yeah, right. So here I am. I'm on a podcast talking about my stuff that I'm an expert in, like at EMS electromagnetic frequencies.

Richard :

Yes, that's right. So I'm talking about them, I'm telling about how to mitigate them, and this is a kind of a colleague, a guy maybe we'll have him on. He's called the conscious founder and he clipped this 90 second portion of me talking about EMF and put it up on TikTok. I don't have a TikTok account, I've never been on there. But then after a few weeks when they published it, I got an email from them saying hey, your video is really blowing up on TikTok. You might want to go check it out.

Andy:

What does that mean? Is that number of views?

Richard :

Is that shares, I think for violin yeah, it just means getting a lot of attention. So I think it probably got like 40,000 views and then a few hundred comments. So I don't know what there are like criteria for what's like viral. I don't think this is cast as viral, but let's say they said it was blowing up. It got a lot of attention, a lot more attention than some of their other stuff. Basically, and yeah, the comments were not really that much about the EMF.

Andy:

As luck would have it, I have gone on to the comments and I wonder if you could just sort of respond to my favorite four comments from a variety of people. I don't know what you were talking about here, but Zane said Zane, just Zane, life is too short to do all of this. Does that mean anything to do with wellness, or what were you talking about? Can you give us a bit Zane's obviously a bit fell up about that your advice, what were you talking about?

Richard :

Yeah, so I was saying things like wired headphones instead of earbuds because of the radiation that goes in through your brain there. I was also saying I was using an EMF shielded fanny pack or bum bag if you like and turning my Wi-Fi off at night. Nothing drastic, things that take maybe one to two seconds to put on headphones and to turn the Wi-Fi off. I don't know how much time this guy's got left.

Andy:

It doesn't sound like he's got many, many years left on him if he hasn't got a few seconds to turn his.

Richard :

Wi-Fi off.

Andy:

Yeah, it sounds like, if we're thinking, someone's getting way too, what they're describing looks like it's going to take forever. Too many life adjustments, too much of an imposition. We can just go back to Zane and just say that life is too short to do all of this.

Richard :

Second comment.

Andy:

Don't worry about it, mate. Josh Oscar, josh Oscar, yeah, josh Oscar, he that's you. He also has a receding hairline and a ponytail, so basically, he's an apprentice groomer, that is. That is that is Rich is my best looking friend. I'm way less good looking than Rich. I'm going to get absolutely mullered here. This is that is fucking sandwichman it was.

Richard :

It was harsh. I don't know how the link between receding hairline ponytail gets conflated with with pedophilia or grooming, but yeah, certainly I do have. It's not even a ponytail, it's a man bun. It's different, it's a tail, is long like a horse's tail, like a pony's tail. And yeah, the receding hairline. Sorry, I've got a receding hairline. Do I apologize for that?

Andy:

I'm not even sure you did. Look, Josh Oscar, if you're listening, please be kind and have a beer and go and do something you want to do, because you obviously don't want to engage in anything that we're interested in. So that's Josh Oscar dealt with. We've got a 40 nuggets 40 nuggets, not one for 40 nuggets. I don't know what you were talking about here. I line the inside of my woolly hat with tin foil Works. A treat, what? Yeah, you've got to help me here for what's happening here.

Richard :

That I think it's from a fictional book about a guy who thought the government were listening to his thoughts and aliens were listening to his thoughts. So he created a tin foil hat to stop, to block the radio signals that were going into his brain. And so now anyone who wants to poo poo or ignore the scientifically proven consequences of too much radiation just say yeah, that is, that's a tin foil hat thing. And with this stuff it's like I feel like one of the biggest problems of people's you know, the average, the average midwits ability is they can't see anything but black and white is either EMS are completely useful and have no consequences whatsoever, or they're completely harmful and we should never use Bluetooth, we should never use Wi-Fi.

Richard :

When the truth is somewhere in the middle and the truth is also very subjective, some people are much more sensitive to EMF. Some people have much bigger pools of antioxidants that can deal with the reactive oxygen species that EMF have been shown to create in people. And it's about balancing yeah, you know, balancing your circumstances with your lifestyle as well as balancing your the convenience. So for me, sometimes I do wear Bruce Tooth headsets Some biohackers are going to be really offended by that. When I'm in the gym. I think the damage from me getting so annoyed at having wireless headphones when I'm working out sorry wired headphones.

Andy:

Why has it got yeah?

Richard :

Yeah, wired headphones as I drop it for the 15th time trying to do I don't know whatever. A snatch or a clean and jerk that is this quarter's all is probably worse than the Bluetooth going into my brain for a few minutes. And with EMF, just like everything else, the devil is in the dose. It's about distance to the EMF, it's about duration and it's about potency. So don't just be black and white. Who was it? Oscar, something, josh, oscar.

Andy:

It was actually about 40 nuggets, 40 nuggets, 40 bloody Nuggets. Well, I think the other thing is, if you were it's not as you say, it's, it's, it's it. Do do what you make you feel comfortable, and each their own as they say well, we've got one more, and this this is from Bob.

Andy:

So, just Bob, the tick tock, you don't have to have a long longer username. I mean, bob, I think you were saying actually watch this. It was quite an interesting point, basically saying that you limit your exposure to the ms. An easy way to do that is if you're at home or something and you've got your phone on loudspeaker, just be a little bit away from my head. Fairly nonconvertible, controversial Bob. People that have conversations on loudspeaker are some of the worst creatures available, not available available. Yeah, bob is not having that at all.

Richard :

Listen to this, listen to this, bob, so something called the inverse square law, bob, if that is your real name inverse square law, where radiation drops off proportionally to the distance away from the source of radiation. If you have your phone up to your head, you are getting a lot more radiation, where, as if you take it about four foot away from your head, you're getting rid of about 90% of that radiation. So by speaking on loudspeaker when the phone is pumping out the most radiation, which is when you're on a call, you are reducing your harm from this type of thing. So, bob, you don't have to do loudspeaker when you're, you know, in a class or you're at work and people can hear you. You can do it at home if you like. You don't have to do it where it's going to annoy people.

Andy:

I think you put Bob in his place there, hitting with a big old chunk of science, by wager that he'll probably write similar stuff, when I hope they do all listen, because it'd be nice to engage with them if they are half as if they're sympathetic and kind, like these lot, we can have a lot of fun getting to know the audience better, aren't we?

Richard :

Yes, that's right, and it does remind me of that Ricky Gervais joke, you know, the one about guitar lessons that supposedly what's his name? Stole.

Andy:

James Cordill did steal the joke.

Richard :

It applies to people on the internet, it applies to people listening to podcasts and applies to wellness industry information. So the joke was sometimes, let's say, you walk into the village square and you see a piece of paper, you know, advertising guitar lessons. And they have those little bits of you know paper you cut off to get the phone number and then you can call up if you want guitar lessons.

Richard :

Ricky Gervais does this impression where he says this person take and James Cordill yeah, not the same time, it's a separate times. Call up the person advertising guitar lessons, say, hello, yeah, you selling guitar lessons. Yeah, yes, I am, I don't want any. Slams the phone down. It's like why are you getting? Why are you getting angry about someone's advertising guitar lessons just because you don't want any? If I give someone advice, like Andy and it's about Andy for you in particular, your particular circumstances, are you need to do more iceparts because it's really going to help with the inflammation that you've been creating from playing your five side football. Maybe someone else doesn't need to do iceparts. Maybe that information is good information for 90% of people, but you're in the 10% and that is not necessarily for you. Don't get angry at me because their advice isn't relevant to you.

Andy:

I, like you've been on a couple of rants this episode. It bodes well for future ones. I want you to get, I want to get worked out under the collar fire in the belly.

Richard :

Yeah, which leads us on to.

Andy:

I was going to say as well which is that? A lot of this stuff? I mean, if you actually did every practice to improve your well being in a given day, I fear you would run out of time, even if you worked or rested for 24 hours. So I think the disclaimer for all of this is that we're going to promote things that might be good for you probably good for you but we're not necessarily going to ram it down your throat and you have to do it, and you have to wake up at five and do a Four hours of working out ice bath, meditation, journaling, it's. It's kind of, you know, pick what you like, leave what you don't, as you said yeah, take it.

Richard :

Take as you as you like, and bear in mind that this is my obsession. I do it because it's my career as well. Like people you know, pay me to do things and advise on these types of things. You, if you are, you know, an accountant or a police officer things you probably don't need to do as many things as I do, and I don't want you to feel guilty about that. I don't want you to feel bad because you don't have the time or the finances or whatever to not do those things. What I will request though this is my biggest bug there whenever I tell people about what I do, there are always they, they, they roll their eyes and go like oh yeah, you, how do you, how do you tell me that you don't have kids without telling me don't have kids, it's your. You tell me about your morning routine, or tell you, how do you tell me, you, you, you don't have a nine to five job without 40.

Andy:

Nuggets sounds like something 40 nuggets would say.

Richard :

No, it's not someone that something is said directly to me. But fine, if you don't have time, fine. Also, a lot of people do have. A lot of people do have the time. It's just they rather, you know, watch Netflix, spend time on Instagram and tick tock compulsively shop, go drinking, go to restaurants. I don't watch a lot of TV, I don't go out to restaurants, I don't go to bars, I don't go shopping, like. I prefer to use my time for my hobby, which is wellness industry. Don't you say to me I don't have time, when I could just say, well, I can see your, I can see your Netflix account. You spent four hours binge watching that documentary or whatever it was. You do have the time, it's just you would rather do other things.

Andy:

Well, for those of you who are worried that rich sounds a little bit like too professional, let me assure you I will be going to bars, I will be going to restaurants, I will be hungover on occasion and I'll tell you what that's like as well. We'll have a little bit of a balance in that regard. Rich I want to get people excited about the coming upcoming episodes. So what can we say about who is joining us? When are they joining us? What sort of topics are we going to cover? Let's give them a little bit of a flavor for that.

Richard :

Okay, I'm trying to do a drum roll. It's not gonna work. Come on, we're in a studio, we'll let it drum roll in, or I could just go.

Andy:

I do it Is. That Is that one.

Richard :

Oh, it's loading. It's loading rubbish. Alright, oh yeah, we've got these amazing guests. Oh, my goodness, these guys and girls, and they're gonna be the best, yeah, so who have we got? We've got James Dowler off of Breathe. With James the man, the evening standard put on their front page with the question can this man save us from our COVID-19 anxiety? And we will be asking him whether he did save us. We'll ask him when he comes on Did you save everyone, like the evening?

Andy:

standard. I'm actually exceptionally excited to meet James, because I went for coffee with someone who and I told them a little bit about what we're doing, and I said who are you getting on? And I said James Dowler. And she said he's the nicest guy I've ever met. I thought, wow, that's a pretty good start. So even if we don't agree, he's gonna be nice and we like nice people. So I'm looking forward to meeting him immensely. Yeah, he's, I wouldn't say he's, yeah, he's great.

Richard :

I don't know.

Richard :

Oh, you don't like it, I'll tell you, I'll tell you, no, I definitely like him. But one of the reasons he's gonna be coming on is to be talking a little bit about the problems in the wellness industry and the breathwork industry. And he is. He, like me, thinks that there needs to be more to done done to regulate the breathwork industry. And, yeah, we're gonna get his opinion on some of the unscrupulous practices dodgy breath workers, dodgy breathwork teacher trainings. So some of the people he's gonna be talking about probably don't think he's that nice.

Andy:

Well, I will say for that episode I probably will feel a little bit intimidated and like I'm just sort of dead wood because you've got two of the breathwork gurus meeting of minds. What the hell am I gonna be doing? Am I just gonna be breathing, listening, breathing, taking it all in?

Richard :

Well, you're gonna be giving the perspective of the client.

Andy:

Oh, I get it Layman's terms. Don't you just call me Layman's terms? We'll put it all in Layman's terms.

Richard :

Because your name's Andy. Put it in Andy's terms. I'll call you Layman, if you like.

Andy:

Yeah, I might as well be, I'm just gonna, I'm not gonna read all the studies. I'm not gonna read all of the breathwork studies, but I'm gonna do my research and I'm gonna come in hot with some fizzing facts and insight and James Dowell is gonna be like wow, I thought I was talking about which one of you is the breath geek? That's what he's gonna say.

Richard :

Yeah, that's what he'll say.

Andy:

Anyway, who else have we got?

Richard :

Anyway, we've got Mike Richards, aka the Travelling Ape, just written released his book. He's a geopolitical consultant and meditation teacher to the Houses of Parliament. So yeah, he's gonna be talking about meditation, travelling, a bit of psychology, that kind of thing. He's travelled to nearly every country in the world 155 out of 195, to be precise.

Andy:

I'm currently reading his book and it is very entertaining, as well. He's obviously a funny guy, so looking forward to him as well.

Richard :

He is. Yeah, it's great, yeah. Then we have Alex Manos, who's the founder of Health Path, so he's a kind of nutritionist. He has this company where they do a lot of testing for you know, things like biomarkers, testosterone, stool tests and things like that. So we're moving into the world of nutrition slightly with Alex. I've been on his podcast a couple of times, so, yeah, returning the favour there.

Richard :

And then we have Dr Warren Bradley from Hydro. So Hydro is this new company that's created easy to do blood flow restriction bands. So blood flow restriction is this type of bodybuilding technique where normally you would like wrap a hosepipe or a rubber band around a muscle and you restrict the blood flow and that enables you to tear the muscle more quickly and rebuild it more effectively with using lesser weights or lighter weights. And they are working with people like Hull City Football Club, the England Rugby Sevens team, so, yeah, they've got a lot of access to some of the world's top athletes. So it'll be really interesting to hear about this new technology that they have sort of like perfected and made it easy for you know, your average person to do occlusion training Fantastic, well, I'm excited.

Andy:

I'm excited to learn more, that's for sure.

Richard :

Yeah, we're also going to be having. We're going to be having your mate as well, georgia Ems as well. What can you say about Georgia?

Andy:

Georgia. She's very, very cool. She's a yoga instructor and she's also bringing wellness into businesses and trying to sort of formulate bespoke packages to improve employee wellbeing, which I think is actually very important. I think I can't speak for America, but in this country you hear a lot about, you know we care about our employees' wellbeing and we're really on top of our employees' wellbeing and you actually find out they don't. I don't know what that actually means. They don't put any substance to that.

Andy:

So, I think it's really interesting that she's working with companies to actually put some meaning behind those words. And I don't know if well-being washing is a term, but I think there's a little bit of that going on, a little bit of like virtue signalling with companies. I think it's great that Georgia's actually trying to kind of put these yeah, put some really cool programs in place to actually improve employee wellbeing. I think that's great.

Richard :

Kudos yeah, absolutely, totally agree. Looking forward to having her on Cool. All right then. Yeah, should we tell people where to find us? How do they find you, andy?

Andy:

Oh, how to find me. I was going to say we have to talk about how to find us. They can find me at Andy Esam on Instagram. Where can they find you, Rich Blake?

Richard :

Also on Instagram, thankfully. Very much, yes, at the breath geek on Instagram. And yeah, we've already said, the podcasts are going to be going up on YouTube. We'll be doing video grams for Instagram. We're going to be on Apple and all the top podcast hosting sites, aren't we so like? Subscribe, follow.

Andy:

Like, subscribe, follow. Yeah, and thank you very much for listening. I'm going to find myself a really cool handle, because if you're at the breath geek, I feel like I should be like the wellness wanderer.

Richard :

Wonder woman. I'll work on it. Wonder well done. Wonder lust, wellness lust.

Andy:

I will. No, I think it's something cool, and Andy Esam is that's my full name. It's not. It's not very exciting, but anyway, yeah, thank you so much for listening and we'll see you in a while.

Richard :

We'll see you very soon, hopefully, right, right, bye, bye.