The BASIC Show

CORY RICHARDS: From Everest to Enlightenment | EPISODE 19

• Viktorija Pashuta • Season 4 • Episode 19

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Cory Richards: From Everest to Enlightenment | The BASIC Show w/ Viktorija Pashuta

In this episode of The BASIC Show, host Viktorija Pashuta sits down with National Geographic photographer/filmmaker Cory Richards for a profound, no-BS conversation about purpose, polarity, and what it really takes to feel whole in a noisy world.

Cory opens up about:

🌋 Trading external validation for inner wholeness—and why fame never fills the void

🧭 “No accidents, only timing”: reframing setbacks and living from curiosity over certainty

🧠 Escaping the doom-scroll: nervous system hygiene, dopamine traps, and simple daily practices

đź“š From Bipolar to The Color of Everything: organizing life by emotional polarities (hope/fear, pride/shame)

🌿 Nature as teacher: why we can’t be “outside” of nature and how to find silence anywhere

đź’— Love > labels: purpose in one word, compassion in action, and myths about self-love & relationships

This episode blends expedition grit, philosophy, and grounded mental health wisdom. If you’re seeking calm under pressure—or a compass for a more intentional life—Cory’s insights will land deep.

🎧 Listen now and share: What one daily habit will you change to protect your peace?

đź“ş Subscribe for more powerful interviews every Wednesday!
🛒 Subscribe to the Print Edition of BASIC Magazine – A Collectible Work of Art Delivered Quarterly: https://buybasicmagazine.myshopify.com

🎙️ The BASIC Show is hosted by Viktorija Pashuta — Editor-in-Chief of BASIC Magazine.

đź“Ť Recorded at: 405 Motoring, Los Angeles @405motoring
đź”— Follow Cory: @coryrichards

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SPEAKER_03:

There's a place inside you that is always at peace, always at rest. But ultimately, that external validation will never, ever, ever sustain you. It will never give you what you're actually looking for. So the system that we've created is upsetting to me because it's making us more sick. You have to love yourself fully before you can love somebody else truly. What a bunch of fucking bullshit. There is no hope without fear. Um, there is no pride without shame, and they rely on each other in these ways. We cannot fundamentally be outside of nature. So when we look around, we can default to that. This is all fucking stardust and a collection of atoms cascading over each other.

SPEAKER_00:

We are at season four, shooting today at the 405 motoring. Very cool location. You might hear some planes, you might hear some cars driving. So you guys will feel part of the set and having this immersive experience. And today I have a very special guest that I was very, very looking forward to interviews, Corey Richards over here. Corey, welcome to the basic show.

SPEAKER_02:

Thanks for having me.

SPEAKER_00:

So Corey is an award-winning, world-known National Geographic photographer, filmmaker, writer. Um, I probably would call you um a restless spirit.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, a restless spirit. I'll take that. We'll take that.

SPEAKER_00:

I feel like your spirit never rests, and you always test yourself and chase um chaos, I don't know, chase adventure, which we're gonna talk about today on this episode. Welcome.

SPEAKER_03:

Thanks. Thanks. This is great. This is uh a totally unique, different environment than I've ever done a podcast. Wow, it's a it's really cool, right?

SPEAKER_00:

It's an honor. And it was actually accidentally how things came along, but you know, I believe accidents do not happen. Accidents happen for a reason.

SPEAKER_03:

Do you do you actually believe in accidents?

SPEAKER_00:

I do believe in accidents. Some d some accidents could be divine, some accidents could be just accidents. Yeah. I don't like to overthink that. What do you what do you what do you believe?

SPEAKER_03:

I don't I I used to believe in accidents, but now well, A, I don't want to overcomplicate it either, but I I kind of don't believe in accidents anymore. In the same way I don't believe in timing. We always say, like, oh, the timing was no, the timing was exactly what it was, and that's it. Instead of like the timing didn't agree with what we wanted, that's a different thing. But timing is always on time.

SPEAKER_00:

So I just don't believe like But see, accidents wouldn't happen if you don't do anything. You have to do something for the accidents to happen.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

If you just sit around in the house, I don't believe accidents, I mean, your house may lick.

SPEAKER_05:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Or your house, you know, something might happen to your house, but life-wise, nothing's gonna happen. So you have to put yourself intentionally, uh unintentionally in certain situations for the accidents to happen.

SPEAKER_02:

For sure.

SPEAKER_00:

So you have to be active. I mean, in my mind, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03:

I just wonder if it's more they're just uh it is literally just life happening, and accidents are are because I guess accident implies something, maybe there's a negative connotation in my head. I don't know.

SPEAKER_00:

Well, look how we met, right?

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

I know Xenia. Yeah, we known each other for nine years. She heard about my podcast and she said, you know what? I just yesterday literally made this incredible guy, Corey Richards, and I'm sorry, I didn't know much about you because I'm from a degree. Why would you? Yeah. I mean, you you're famous, right?

SPEAKER_03:

I don't know about that.

SPEAKER_00:

Well, for our for our viewers and listeners, Corey is the first American who summits the Everest without supplement of oxygen, right?

SPEAKER_03:

So I I I've summited Everest without supplemental oxygen. About 200 people have done that. I'm the first and only American to climb one of the high the world's highest peaks in winter called Gashabram II.

SPEAKER_00:

Gotcha. Okay.

SPEAKER_03:

So that's in Pakistan. But yes, both are true. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

So hey, uh these are the facts I have, but thank you for clarifying. So what was the mountain in Pakistan?

SPEAKER_03:

It's called Gashabram II. Okay.

SPEAKER_00:

Okay.

SPEAKER_03:

So so in the world, there are 14 peaks that are above 8,000 meters. So above 26,240 feet. And uh nine of them are in Nepal, eight of them in Nepal, uh Tibet, one in India, and then five of them are in Pakistan. And all of those in the southern area had been climbed in winter, but the five in Pakistan never had, and we went uh in 2010-11, the winter, and and managed to do the first winter ascent, which is basically just stupid.

SPEAKER_00:

So when you say we, who was with you?

SPEAKER_03:

I was with an Italian climber named Simone Moro.

SPEAKER_00:

Okay.

SPEAKER_03:

Uh, and a uh Russian-born Khazet climber named Denis Rutko. Uh, and it was just the three of us.

SPEAKER_00:

Okay. When you said we, I thought maybe you and your other personalities.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

I'm like, me, myself, and I. You know, like who are we? That's amazing. That's in the room right now.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah, me and my other schizophrenic personalities. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

So speaking of that, you know, you have I mean, I'm jumping from topic to topic, but I guess that's how I speak. So you wrote two books, right? One of them is called Bipolar. Yeah. So can you share about how that book came across and how it is connected with uh your uh your life?

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah, so uh I I grew up in Salt Lake City, Utah, and um I in my adolescence my life sort of derailed in a really fantastic, fucked up way. And I ended up being institutionalized and being put in long-term care facilities, and then I ended up most like homeless, but usually not on the street, but there were times where I was on the street. Um and in that that period I was diagnosed with bipolar, uh bipolar two. And so that that narrative and that diagnosis has really informed and colored a lot of my life. Um and for a long time I I leaned into it as sort of a narrative of brokenness and something was fundamentally flawed with my mind. Um and I think that's one of the things that we do with mental health is we we uh we sort of buy into a story of fundamental deficit or or that something is inherently wrong with us, and I actually don't I don't believe that anymore. But the book title, Bipolar, um is is the title of my photo book, and I realized as I was putting it together that uh I had photographed from the Arctic to Antarctica.

SPEAKER_01:

Right, right.

SPEAKER_03:

So I had photographed both poles, and then rather than organizing the photo book with uh in terms of geographic location, I organized it in terms of emotional polarities.

SPEAKER_00:

Wow.

SPEAKER_03:

To explore, like, look, there is no hope without fear. Um, there is no pride without shame, and they rely on each other in these ways. Uh and and then I put the stories from my work in into those categories.

SPEAKER_00:

Right. You kind of also played on the semantics, so you had by uh hyphen polar.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

And the I mean I haven't seen the book, but I've seen some of the pictures. One of them was the polar bear.

SPEAKER_05:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

It was incredible, and I and I saw bipolar, I'm like, okay, it's actually very smart. Yeah, you came up with the name, it's you know, double meaning, the double entendre.

SPEAKER_03:

It's funny too, because the other book, they're really I talk about them, they're they're basically the same book.

SPEAKER_05:

Okay.

SPEAKER_03:

And the other one is ironically called the color of everything.

SPEAKER_05:

Okay.

SPEAKER_03:

So it's not black and white.

SPEAKER_05:

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_03:

In fact, it explores the fact that the world doesn't exist. There are no black and whites in the world, it's all shades of gray. And and yet, and and also like the cover of bipolar is black. The cover of the color of everything is white, and one is the external expression of the the art that that the mind created and the heart created, and then the other is the internal exploration that was driving it. So they're actually they're the same fucking book.

SPEAKER_00:

Well, because it's you, right? I mean, it's you. I mean, you cannot come out something outside of your own mind.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Wow, that's incredible. So these two books, uh, but correct me if I'm wrong, the second book, the bipolar, are you sharing your own thoughts, uh accompanying by the photographs?

SPEAKER_03:

There are yeah, a little bit.

SPEAKER_00:

A little bit, yeah.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah, it's more introductions to each story that kind of place you in the world.

SPEAKER_05:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03:

Um, but really the the the thoughts and the depth of the sort of the fucked up path and the beautiful path is really in the color of everything.

SPEAKER_00:

So, how did you even come up with that? I mean, like you said, having such background and previous experience, right, and facing so many challenges, you know, physical, emotional, health-wise, how did you even get to the point that, you know, you're not just an adventurer, you actually want and you philosophize so well, you know, you put in words such beautifully your emotions and your thoughts. Not everybody can do that. So anything that helped you to form, you know, your idea of life and be able to express yourself through art and through words, how did you come along?

SPEAKER_03:

I think, you know, I dropped out of high school partly because I think I was bored. I don't think our education system works for everybody, especially very active minds. And so what I would say is that it's not an inherent, and and you didn't even say this, but I I people it's not a gift. It's it's just that I'm curious. And I think the more curious we are, the more informed we become, and the more varied our ideas about the world become. And it's actually challenging because when we're not curious, we're very certain about things. And when we get curious, we're challenged to let go of that certainty, which is very uncomfortable. Um, and so I think the articulation of these things has just it's come through practice more than anything else, where I'm where I'm literally just trying to sort through my own fucking crazy thoughts and figure out how do I express this? Because it needs to come out of me, even if nobody's listening, and it has to be expressed, right?

SPEAKER_00:

So, um So what are you expecting in return, right? When you express yourself? Are you expecting, you know, recognition, you know, you want to establish yourself and be heard? Like what are you expecting when you put your art out there? Why are you doing this?

SPEAKER_03:

What a beautiful fucking oh, I love that question. For a long time, I think it was validation because I carried a story of flaw. I thought, you know, this this the story that I had learned about myself was something was wrong with me and wrong with my mind, um, and that my mind was dangerous, you know.

SPEAKER_00:

You know, I feel like, sorry to interrupt you, but I feel people who actually there's something wrong with them, they never would admit it. By you acknowledging it.

SPEAKER_03:

There's a lot wrong with me.

SPEAKER_00:

I feel like I don't know, not many people will admit it. They will never admit ignorance, they will never admit there's something wrong with them.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

But you have that next level of wisdom, right? You I don't know if you're overthinking.

SPEAKER_03:

I probably I overthink everything. Um I think I, you know, I early on it really was deeply about validation, and and I wanted to be recognized because I wanted specifically coming from the place of I don't feel valuable, you know, especially when you're you're put in institutions and you're it you're treated in a very specific way. It's from the best intentions, usually. People want to help, but that's not what gets translated to you, especially as you're forming your thoughts about yourself and you're forming your identity. So for a long time it was about validation, but but the way I've shifted that is to make it an act of service. So it really, I try not to make it ever about me, but rather offering my experience so that others might feel less alone in theirs. And I think that is the power of storytelling. That's why we tell stories, is to invite other people into a more comprehensive and hopefully more compassionate understanding of themselves and all of our messiness and all of our contradictions and all of our hypocrisies and all of the cataclysmic mistakes we make and the ways we hurt other people. Because if we can be honest about that, then when those things happen to us or we see other people doing it, we can have more compassion for them. So that's it's an act of service. That's all art is. I think art is first of all, I don't believe that people are necessarily artists. I think we are all antennas into the same sort of universal consciousness, and we're all tuned slightly differently. And all art is is the expression of whether you want to call it source energy, love, universal consciousness. It is just being expressed individually through that person. And so I don't necessarily believe it comes from pain. I think it's all one thing being expressed differently.

SPEAKER_00:

I have like millions of questions from what you just said. I'm like, wow, first of all, so okay, let's go back bit by bit to dissect your mind a little bit.

SPEAKER_03:

So please help me understand myself.

SPEAKER_00:

Right. Okay, so you were looking initially for that validation, saying, you know what? I'm gonna do the craziest thing in the world that maybe like 1% of men are capable of.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Once you achieve that validation, right? The global recognition, you've been recognized, you know, you have so many interviews and podcasts and magazine covers. How do you feel? Did it make you happy after you achieved that validation that was initially your goal?

SPEAKER_03:

Well, yeah, I mean, definitely it makes you happy. Because look, the basic, the basic, one of the the most basic.

SPEAKER_00:

Yes.

SPEAKER_03:

Can I say basic three times in a row?

SPEAKER_00:

Okay, more basic about the basics. Basic, basic, basic.

SPEAKER_03:

The basic element of survival is social acceptance. Because we're a social animal, right? So there's something very natural about wanting to be validated by by your peers and culture and and everybody around you, right? That's totally okay. And seeking that to some degree ensures survival. And that's that's a beautiful piece of us, right? So when it gets extended, well, my experience was when it gets extended further and further and further into fame, and I don't think I was ever famous, but in small circles I was well known.

SPEAKER_00:

You're very humble.

SPEAKER_03:

Um so when it gets extended that way, what's interesting is there's an inverse value add because you're so you're already recognized, so you have to be more and more and more recognized to get the same charge. But ultimately, that external validation will never, ever, ever sustain you. And and and it's and it's uh it will never give you what you're actually looking for.

SPEAKER_00:

I love that.

SPEAKER_03:

Which is internal wholeness. Likewise, I don't believe that we're ever entirely uh we've never t entirely arrived.

SPEAKER_00:

What do you mean?

SPEAKER_03:

Meaning we are always all whole, no matter where we are.

SPEAKER_00:

Okay.

SPEAKER_03:

It's a it's a self-perception that something is missing. But nothing ever is missing. If we default far enough into ourselves, if we can fold inside out, there's a and I'm gonna quote uh a woman named Elena Brower, who's amazing. Look her up. She she starts this meditation by saying there's a place inside you that is always at peace, always at rest. And she goes on to explain that when we when we operate from that place, we become peace. We're not expressing peace, we are peace. And my my understanding is that that place is always there. It w we're not cracked. There's there is something in us that is unbreakable. And all is all that we're being asked to do through this whole experience is find it and get closer and closer. And the irony is you don't even have to find it. Once you touch it, you realize it was never lost to begin with.

SPEAKER_00:

Oh my god, I have goosebumps. I don't want to start another huge topic, but I'm really into it. I'm sweating and so hot in here. It is, but you know, that's why our brain works a little bit more intense. Listen, I'm all about the secrets of the universe. And I don't know if I'm gonna say it correctly, if I'm gonna put it nicely in words, but what you just said resonated with me because I do believe that we're always looking for that source, for that power, but we don't realize it's always within us. We are that inductor, right? We are that energy, and sometimes we're looking, like you said, for the external validation for external power, you know, either it's religion or either it's an idol, right? Or we worship somebody, but at the same time, we forget that all the power we need is within, right? And I'm not sure if I said it beautifully as I had it in my mind, but what you just told me, I feel it takes time and personal obstacles to get to that point. So, what was that point in your experience in your life that you came to that realization?

SPEAKER_03:

Well, look, it's a realization that I I feel like I have to rediscover all the time. Especially, I mean, look, the culture we live in in LA, it it is so easy to get lost in what we're supposed to be like. You know, we're we're surrounded by a culture of opulence and and we think that we're being very unique when in fact most of us are just trying to fit into a box that's been prescribed. That's why we idolize fame, right? We're really what we're looking at is something we want for ourselves.

SPEAKER_00:

That's well, fame is like what you said, isn't it? The part of being recognized and being accepted.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

You know?

SPEAKER_03:

So it so I mean I guess to answer your question, yeah. Like, I don't know that it's a point that I've arrived at. It's a point that I keep arriving at, and I have to remind it's like going to the gym. And the more you touch that space, the the shorter the distance or the shorter the time between those experiences, and the more you can shorten those gaps, the more you're living from that elemental core, fundamental piece that exists. But that doesn't mean I don't get ridiculously triggered and angry and pissed off.

SPEAKER_00:

So what makes you angry?

SPEAKER_03:

Oh fuck.

SPEAKER_00:

Besides being hot right now. Um what sets you off? Is it certain, yeah.

SPEAKER_03:

I'm not gonna give you hints, but well, there's the there's the little things. There's, you know, people who this is one thing that actually pisses me off. People people in airports or in public looking at their phones that have no spatial awareness of anything that's going on around them. I I'm I'm just like, look up. Um in and in I I can go further back and I just feel like it's a little sad.

SPEAKER_00:

No, can I comment on that? Speaking of that, I think it's I think it's an annoying issue for most of the people who are self-aware. I remember one time I interviewed um an actress, she was a Lat I'm originally from Latvia, so Latvian actress, and she told me in acting school, they teach them to act, even to see with the back of their head. Yeah. So when you are in a public or social space, you're not only aware of your environment, but you also kind of see what's happening in the world. Your periphery. Right. So I mean, I totally get you, right? Especially I'm sure you've been to hundreds of airports all over the world, and you can see the humanity at its finest.

SPEAKER_03:

Well, and it also, you know, it's kind of there's a I I forget who said it. It might have been the Dalai Lama. Or maybe it's like once you think you're enlightened, go spend a week with your family. And it's kind of the same thing. Once you think, once you think you're enlightened, go spend an hour in traffic in LA. You know, like so there's the little things that piss me off. I think more globally, the things that upset me are uh the insistence, the cultural insistence that everything is fucked. Meaning everything is broken and everything is bad. And look, we live in a very, very tumultuous period in history. And at the same time, it's different but the same. Meaning we've we've always lived at the fastest moment in history.

SPEAKER_00:

That's the I mean if you look back in history, do you think our time is I think our time is the best.

SPEAKER_03:

Well, in by many metrics it is.

SPEAKER_00:

Not many lived past 30 years old. Yeah, I mean executions, public executions, like burning witches. Right, we're burning witches. I mean, come on. I feel like nowadays could be the best time. Depends how you see it, right? You could probably see the worst, which I guess we are living in a messed up time. But at the same time, what do we compare it to? I mean, if we compare it to Atlantis, you know, I'm thinking, wow, okay, we are the lowest, you know, uh version of civilization. I believe we could be or were way more civilized and advanced, you know, hundreds of thousands of millions of years before now. So I I give you a point.

SPEAKER_03:

Well, I mean, here's the thing language is only a hundred thousand years old. We've been around for 300,000 years. Modern language, I'm best guessed, right, debatable. We've been around for in for the infinite, you know, right totality of time and space. But um, but we as modern humans, uh, to the best of our knowledge, have been around for about 300,000 years, and language has only been sort of evolving for about 100 to 115,000. So over the course of that, look at what we've created, and most of it is actually really phenomenal. And it's taken terrible things to get there, unquestionably. And I'm not I'm not saying that you know, racism and xenophobia and slavery are like are like sh should be ignored. I'm just saying, in general, the time we live in now is really marvelous. It's the most peaceful, right? We have the most comfort, we have the most access. It's it's really, really special. But but what back to the original question, what upsets me is the cultural narrative that we're fed on Instagram, that we're fed through a 24-hour news cycle, that everything is falling apart. Those those modalities of delivering information feed on our fear and they feed on drama and they feed on dopamine. And when we start doom scrolling, we become convinced, because all we're getting is negative information and the occasional cat video. We we're convinced that everything's bad. And what that does is it forces us into our sympathetic nervous system, and we all start to live in fight or flight, and so we're reactionary. We when we're when we're in survival, we have no values, we're just trying to survive. And so the system that we've created is upsetting to me because it's making us more sick. When we live in our sympathetic nervous system, it becomes an unsustainable way of living. We get angry, we have chronic inflammation, which causes chronic disease, and and and it's and that that upsets me because we don't need to live in.

SPEAKER_00:

Right? The way you put it. No, it is. And the thing is, like, you're absolutely right, you're getting that quick dopamine, right? It feels for this five minutes. I mean, for some people, some people scroll for four, seven hours total a day, which is scary, right? You get that quick dopamine, but at the end of the day, you haven't achieved anything for your life. You haven't lived those experiences.

SPEAKER_02:

And you're scared and upset.

SPEAKER_00:

You're scared and upset. And there's nothing, I mean, I can't I hate saying like nothing we can do about it, right? But imagine tomorrow, let's say hypothetical, the internet goes down.

SPEAKER_03:

Right.

SPEAKER_00:

What would be your day?

SPEAKER_03:

The same day I live today.

SPEAKER_00:

Okay, you're different. You know, like you spend like most of your time amongst the beautiful, you know, I mean, I I I don't, but I I two two things that I want to say to that.

SPEAKER_03:

That first of all, it's feeding itself, right? Because what happens is we're we're then we're tr we're always triggered. We're living, so we want to zone out. So we look for a pacifier. And guess what the pacifier is? More scrolling. Right? So we're actually it's kind of like the thing that's making us sick is the thing that we think that at least momentarily takes us out of that panic. And and to the second point, like, what did I do this morning? And this is not every day, right? Like, I do go down the rabbit hole at times, and I realize how upset it makes me. But I get up at six, I meditate for 20 minutes, I walk to get my coffee, I come home, I journal, I read, and then I go to the gym, and then I do my emails, and then like it's very basic shit. It's just for you, but it's creating the space to not be on the phone.

SPEAKER_00:

I guess you have to have a certain level of personal disciplines and personal responsibility.

SPEAKER_01:

Right.

SPEAKER_00:

Because to me, I need to learn from you. The first thing I wake up is scroll on my phone, I check text and emails. Right. And I remember my close friend, she put in a perspective for me that I didn't even think about. She said, Victoria, imagine when you open up your phone in your bedroom, you're inviting all of these people in your bedroom right now. In this second, they're there with you. You don't have the time for your personal space. Like you said, you meditate, you know, you maybe take an easy morning, right? Or do something, you know, with your kids, with your family, with your pets. Um, what would be your advice for those who realize they're stuck in that matrix, right? What would be the advice for you to maybe first step for the people to take to get out of it and take that personal discipl personal responsibility to make a change and not be on the phone?

SPEAKER_03:

Well, I think it's thank you for asking that question. The first step is this realize how it makes you feel. Like check in with yourself. Do you actually feel good scrolling on your phone? Yes, the dopamine feels, but does it actually make you feel good? Or are you in that sort of fighting? You're you're you're you're watching content that either reinforces the ideas you already have or it pisses you off. Or it's just mindless. Pay attention to how your nervous system feels when you finally go, ugh, and you throw down your phone because you're so sick of it. That's where everybody gets. So just key into your nervous system. How do you feel? And my guess is that most of us don't feel very good. Then memorize that feeling. Memorize the feeling of disgust that you have. Memorize that, and so that every time you reach for it, you can recall what it feels like. And then slowly expand the time that it takes. Every time you reach for your phone, even if you just pause for a second, give yourself that pause and ask the question do I want to feel that way again?

SPEAKER_00:

I would maybe add to it and from my perspective, and say, remember what makes you feel good, right? And people don't I feel they don't even know what it means for them to feel good.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

And I feel personally, I've been so busy working on different projects, and I realized, you know what, what is the thing that actually made me happy?

unknown:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Like truly, truly happy. Not excited, like, hey, I went out or Disney. And I remember the first feeling and emotion that came into my head that I was driving a um riding a bicycle in um in the park, and there was one piece of a shaded area um surrounded by two mountains, and then I felt the fresh air in that very specific um uh part on the road. I don't know how it's perfect to say, right? And it was just five seconds, and I felt so free, and I felt so amazing. The freedom me driving a bicycle, because I also have the beautiful memories I spent with my grandmother, yeah, right, when I was a kid, and that's what we did. We drove a bicycle near the lake, and we were so free, we didn't care about anything. And I remembered, oh my god, when was the last time I had this feeling? And that feeling was so far away, and made me think, and you making me think that we are distracted so much on a daily basis with bad things, negative things that are happening all over the world, that we sometimes forget what does it even feel to feel? What does it even make you feel and experience and have and creating those memories? So, what I would add to what you just said, if you remembering that bad feeling, yeah, try to realize and remember that good feeling how you can recreate it again. Absolutely, or how can you find another way to make you feel that way again?

SPEAKER_03:

100%, and I'm s that is such a beautiful addition. Truly it is, because it's like memorize the good feeling as well.

SPEAKER_00:

Right.

SPEAKER_03:

And memorize how you got there.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. Um because the thing is sometimes we're stuck, right? And we're stuck in the routine. Right. You have your routine, you have your schedule, you have your work, you have responsibilities, you have built bills to pay, right?

SPEAKER_03:

You have life to live.

SPEAKER_00:

Life to live, right? And then we forget those little moments, and then we're looking back, oh my God, this year is almost over. I talk to my friends, like, oh my god, it's almost Christmas. And they realize, okay, what have they done this past year that's almost over? And life goes by so fast, and then we forget to create this beautiful moment. So if we live with intention and if we live with purpose, we realize, okay, what can I do or what can I do to start planning my life the way I want to live it, and not just flow go with the flow and just be stuck in this never-ending, you know, news, um, I don't know, dump that is being thrown on us every day.

SPEAKER_03:

It's it's the news, it's dating apps, it's social media, it's like it's it's candy. And and we just, especially in LA, uh we live in a cultural narrative that suggests that happiness is in acquisition, that happiness is in opulence, wealth, sex, power, and fame.

SPEAKER_00:

And fashion.

SPEAKER_03:

And fashion. Let's leave fake. I love fashion, right? Love me some fashion. Um but it but you're right, there's there's a piece of there's a component to that. Uh, and even I mean, I'm not calling it out, but even sitting in front of this bike, right? This symbolizes something. And that's okay. It's not what it symbolizes that's that's bad. It's it's our unquenchable thirst to be a part of something that that we've idolized without questioning its its core, it's the driver within us that wants it.

SPEAKER_00:

It's actually amazing what you just said, because we never invest truly in spirituality, in our mental health. I mean, for some, mental health is like, okay, I'm gonna take a bath and read a book, I'm gonna go to a spa, right?

SPEAKER_01:

Right.

SPEAKER_00:

But what you said is to me is finding and investing in your spiritual self outside of chasing material things, right?

SPEAKER_01:

Right.

SPEAKER_00:

The things don't define you. And if you put away the quote that things don't define you, so what does define you as a human, right? What defines you as a human, Corey?

SPEAKER_03:

Well, I would I would rephrase this. I'm gonna throw it back at you. Yeah, can you boil your purpose down to a single word?

SPEAKER_00:

It's very interesting you asked me that because I had an episode that hasn't released yet with my sister, and our whole episode was based on your purpose of life.

SPEAKER_05:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

My sister advocates a lot for finding your purpose in life because that A defines your circle of friends, defines your relationship, defines your hobbies, defines your career. And I keep asking myself this question for many years: what is my purpose? And I've been researching and searching it, and if I have to define it, if I have to put it in one word.

SPEAKER_02:

One word.

SPEAKER_00:

I don't know if it's correct. Difference, make it it's not one word. I do want to make a difference in people's lives. Oh, you know what? No, let me scratch that. One word, inspiration.

SPEAKER_03:

Inspiration, great. Okay, that is I found my life purpose. Yeah, I mean, truly, I think one of the things, the reason I asked that is because we're we're constantly sold uh a narrative of find your passion and the money will follow. And that is true to some degree, right? But really, I think what it what it boils down to is finding, if we can define our purpose in one word, um, then we can always orient ourselves on whether or not what we're doing and our what our behavior is that in alignment with our purpose, right? So for me, I would say my purpose is compassion. For a long time, I would say, oh, it's storytelling. And and I have a dear friend, Kenny Kane, who said, Corey, that's an extension of purpose. What you do is not your purpose, it's an extension of your purpose. So I use storytelling to amplify and invite and hopefully generate more compassion globally, right? Or like, I mean, not I don't mean globally like in the world, I mean globally in the sense of around the totality of my life, right? And so inspiration is a beautiful thing. That is your purpose. So you do different things to inspire people to then act differently. That's beautiful.

SPEAKER_00:

Oh, I found my purpose today. Isn't that cool? It is freaking amazing, and being able to just baseline. I've been thinking about it for a long time. I've been asked AI, and it gave me a bunch of bullshit.

unknown:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

It's so weird, right? You know, talking to a real human, I found my purpose. This is amazing. So, guys, ask yourself what Corey suggests. In one word, try to find what is your purpose.

SPEAKER_03:

And it won't find it, won't be a verb. You know, like your purpose could be love, right? But not loving. That is an extension of your purpose. It won't be a verb. It'll be a it'll be so much simpler than that, but it's so much more complicated, but beautiful because then it informs and guides every single thing you do. Is this in service of my purpose? When you're scrolling on Instagram watching conspiracy theories, you can just say, Is this in service of my purpose? I almost guarantee it's not.

SPEAKER_00:

You know, don't get me started on that. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03:

About the aliens. We're all aliens. We're lizard people. Didn't you know that?

SPEAKER_00:

Oh my god, there's so many. Pick one.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah, yeah, I know. Jesus, there's a fly too.

SPEAKER_00:

I know. This fly, you know, is she's been here since yesterday, and she's very attracted to interesting people.

SPEAKER_03:

Well, you know what? I it's a good I don't need to waver away. She can just be on me. I love it, I love it. It's great.

SPEAKER_00:

She she feels who is uh who's the most interesting person. By the way, she probably is attracted to your jacket.

SPEAKER_03:

Or the way I smell because of the heat.

SPEAKER_00:

Hey, we're hey, don't get me don't mention that because I'm all covered here, you know, put to put to head in leather. But you know, everything everything is for fashion. Yeah, everything for fashion. And you look great. You look fabulous. You look amazing too. Uh backstage, you mentioned and um a few interesting things about your jacket. Yeah. Can you tell me what is this jacket?

SPEAKER_03:

Is it a is it a true well it's so it's modeled after a vintage sort of motor racing jacket. Um and I did I was at an event in Aspen.

SPEAKER_05:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03:

Uh it was an ice racing event where they where they bring these incredible vintage cars, cars that like uh I mean it was unbelievable. And then they race around this icy racetrack.

SPEAKER_05:

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_03:

And it was the this historical event happened in Austria in Salemse. And so um Fur uh Ferdi, I think is his name, Porsche, uh puts on this event. And so um it's actually from a moto event. Um, yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Sorry, what does it say?

SPEAKER_03:

Uh F-A-T turbo. F A T turbo fat well, fat turbo, and I forget what that stands for.

SPEAKER_00:

I mean, it suits you really well, plus it looks like it belongs in the set. Yeah, it does, actually. The red and red, like as if you knew.

SPEAKER_03:

Right?

SPEAKER_00:

The red and the red and it's like, it's all working. I love it. So listen, Corey, I have another question in the back of my mind. You spend, I mean, for my understanding, most of your time in nature.

SPEAKER_05:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

When you come back to the society, to the people, where do you feel most at home?

SPEAKER_03:

With the people I love. It isn't an environment necessarily. Certainly there are places where I feel at peace. There are there are geographic locations where I feel most at peace. And uh two come to mind, there's uh Mustang on the border of Nepal and Tibet. For whatever reason, I feel so deeply connected to that place.

SPEAKER_00:

Mustang?

SPEAKER_03:

Mustang. It's spelled Mustang, but it's pronounced Mustang.

SPEAKER_00:

Do you have to be the chosen one to visit the place?

SPEAKER_03:

No, but but it is you you do have to uh it there's it was a it was a forbidden kingdom until 1994. Wow. And then it opened up to tourists in the 90s, and and it's since been you know developed in some pretty tragic ways. But there's actually dirt from Mustang on these moto boots.

SPEAKER_00:

Wow.

SPEAKER_03:

Because the last time I was there, I wore these, so all of this stuff is Can I touch them? Of course. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Again, magic touch of the Lost Kingdom.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah. Um I did a really beautiful motorcycle journey there.

SPEAKER_00:

Well, these boots, by the way, guys, tell a story. These boots, seeing some stories, yeah, I can tell. You can probably write a whole book just about these boots. Yeah. Maybe maybe an idea for your third book. Yeah. Where these boots have been. I mean, you can probably put it in a more poetic way, you know, places, maybe the the you know, the imprint from the boots in different places in the world.

SPEAKER_03:

I I've I've I've had it, that's a really great idea. I've had a very similar thought about writing a stu like a book about You should. Uh I wear this bead, it's called a Z, and it's probably well, anywhere from two to four thousand years old. And telling a story, writing a book about a single bead, but like interweaving the story so you don't really know that the connective tissue.

SPEAKER_00:

Absolutely think you should do it.

SPEAKER_03:

So and then the other place that I absolutely love is is Salzburg, Austria, um, where I really discovered photography. But but to the point of where do I feel at home when I come home from these trips, it's just being surrounded by the people that I love. That gives me the greatest sense of peace.

SPEAKER_00:

Are they here in LA?

SPEAKER_03:

Most of them now are, yeah. Yeah. Um and they're not people that are it's our friendships aren't based on a shared activity. They're they're based in common values, they're based in sort of mutual love and support. And some of them are directors and some of them are writers and some of them are not in the industry at all, some of them are fitness training, you know, like but what holds us together is is uh a mutuality that is not based in going out and drinking. Um nothing there's nothing wrong with that.

SPEAKER_00:

So how do you spend your time with you with the people you love? What do you do?

SPEAKER_03:

I go on walks, you know, I go over to their house and hang out. I mean it's very basic, you know.

SPEAKER_00:

Like just going on walks?

SPEAKER_03:

Going on walks, having dinners, having dinners, like um, going to see some art, going to a movie. Like it's such going camping, uh, you know, having an experience together.

SPEAKER_00:

That's you know, I've never done camping before.

SPEAKER_03:

Really?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, never ever.

SPEAKER_03:

Oh, it's so great.

SPEAKER_00:

If I ever do a camping, it has to be glamping.

SPEAKER_03:

Glamping's great.

SPEAKER_00:

I mean, I guess if you're prepared, right? You could enjoy it the most. But if you know if I go unprepared, I'm gonna be eaten by a bear next year. I'm gonna Victoria went camping, she didn't come back. There's a happy bear.

SPEAKER_03:

It's a happy bear out there. It's I mean, I think one of the most fulfilling things you can do with anybody is go out to the desert and and roll out a sleeping bag and sleep under the stars.

SPEAKER_00:

I love that. You know, once what I did, I went to a dry lake and did a picnic in a dry lake.

SPEAKER_03:

Beautiful.

SPEAKER_00:

And I loved it for the fact that I've never experienced such silence.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Even though the highway wasn't far away, I guess, in my opinion, connection with nature is experiencing the silence. In my opinion.

SPEAKER_03:

I I agree, and I and I'd also add that you know, all of this, if we can get if we can get deep enough into our understanding of the all of this is nature. We refer, and it's certainly there's a different resonance when we go out and there's no buildings and there's no traffic and there's no concrete. But a hundred percent our nervous system does different things. And I think when we practice enough, we can see, we can look around us, I can look around the garage here. And all of this is nature. It can't not be. It all evolved from the planet, and it all all of this came through our hands, but it's all derivative of us, a biological organism that has a very, very uh unique mind and creative mind and has created it. None of this is unnatural. We cannot fundamentally be outside of nature. So when we look around, we can default to that. This is all fucking stardust and a collection of atoms cascading over each other. There's nothing unnatural about this.

SPEAKER_00:

You have a crazy cool mind. Do you think you're using the full capacity of your mind?

SPEAKER_03:

Fuck no.

SPEAKER_00:

I I I mean Do you believe that we use only what 1 or 10% of our brain? Well, that it's a people less.

SPEAKER_03:

You know, I looked that up actually recently. Because I was like, do we re you know, I I I know and it's we it's not as simple as that. We use most of our mind, but it's in smaller segmentation doses, basically. So it's not to say that we only use 10% of our brains, but our processing power is more, and I don't wanna I don't want to speak out of turn because I'm not a scientist, I'm not a neurobiologist. Like my understanding is it's not as simple as that. We use a lot of our brains, but in different doses at different times.

SPEAKER_00:

But I guess if where where you direct your energy to, right? Yeah, if you spend more time, you know, meditating, you might experience something that a regular person who's always on the phone not experience, right? Yeah. I mean, I I don't know if it's I don't want to get in line on the facts, but one of the my conspiracy theories is that back in the day, humans experienced uh I'm not sure if it was 32 senses. So right now we have six senses. There were more senses that we could experience than the modern human, like telepathy, you know, things like that, maybe predicting the future, or maybe more sensible understanding of and healing powers, you know, things like that. I do believe that we lost some of our capabilities through time, and we're not as advanced as we could be if we spent or divert our energy to very specific, you know, um parts of you know, our I don't know if it's a skill or gifts, it's a practice. Practice or whatever you call it, right?

SPEAKER_03:

I I really to think it. It's so annoying because my brain can always go to both sides of things.

SPEAKER_00:

So we want to see both of you bipolar.

SPEAKER_03:

Um there's first of all, I believe that. Um I believe that we have because we live in a more of a uh manufactured world, not unnatural, but more manufactured, that has us separate from what we would call more organic material. I think again, it's all organic, but um we've lost sort of a certain resonance with with what people call nature.

SPEAKER_05:

I believe that. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03:

And I think there's a lot of information um and um an intelligence in nature and in us when we're in contact with what we call nature. Um the other thing I would say is right now there seems to be a push towards this sort of pseudoscience kind of what is a pseudoscience? Pseudoscience is like where we're using uh uh basically observable fact and then adapting it to fit our our narrative, right? So a lot of people use sort of um quantum theory to justify um ideas like manifestation, right? And certainly there's an element of manifestation that's very true, but but a lot of these things are being appropriated and sort of thrust forward as truth. Right, right. And it's a radical oversimplification of what's happening, right? We're like, I'm gonna manifest abundance, and really I look at that and I go, Welcome to LA. Welcome to LA, and I'm like, so what you mean by abundance is money. That's 90%, 98% of what people are talking about. And I'm not saying that focusing your attention on that won't create wealth, but that is sort of we're we're we're using pseudoscience to create this world, right, right, to create results. But it but it also works. So there's the other side of that. Yeah. What I would also say is that um just because it's not observable or measurable doesn't mean it's not true. There are many things in in the world that have not been measurable or observable that people had a sense of for a lot. Think of radio waves. All of this, everything is operating on radio waves, right? But we couldn't see that for a long time. We couldn't observe it, we couldn't measure it. It was just theoretical. And when it was pure theory, people are like, waves going through that, you're fucking crazy. That doesn't exist. Well, then, turns out it does exist. And so I think when it comes to spirituality, when it comes to things like telepathy, when it comes, just because it's not observable or measurable right now doesn't mean it's not true. So I make space for it, and I and of course there's experiences where I'm like, huh, that's fucking weird.

SPEAKER_00:

That makes me excited thinking about how much of the unknown out there that we're not even aware of.

SPEAKER_03:

That we're not aware of, and maybe eventually we'll find a way to measure it. And that's that's science evolving, right? And that's really cool. Science is not exclusive of spirituality. In fact, many times I see them uh support science keeps supporting what people have known for a very long time to be true, right?

SPEAKER_00:

Um and again, if you cannot prove it, it doesn't mean it doesn't exist.

SPEAKER_03:

Exactly. But that gets dangerous too, right? Because people can take that and apply it to anything.

SPEAKER_00:

But I think it's important to be able to trust your instinct. Sometimes we feel certain things. By the way, do you believe in energy? Like human energy?

SPEAKER_03:

Of course. I mean, we're all literally energetic beings.

SPEAKER_00:

If you had to describe your energy in a color or give it a color, what color would that be?

SPEAKER_03:

I pink or uh which is such a funny color for a guy to choose, but like I pink or sort of a um uh purpley like violet, you know, something like that.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, you know, I think I think I know your color. What is it? If you believe, so there's a book, it's called Love Colors, and written by Pamela Osley, uh-huh, and she um defines that every person has a color that we are born with, and the second color that we acquire, I think you are a color orange.

SPEAKER_01:

Orange.

SPEAKER_00:

Orange defines a person who loves extreme sports, likes to put themselves in danger, loves to, you know, be in those environments that not a regular person would be, you know, uh comfortable to be in, take risks. I feel like I mean, just based on that color, so I think you are orange. I mean, I I know there's more to it. This is just a few descriptive words not to go into it.

SPEAKER_03:

Would you consider I would consider it? I don't feel orange.

SPEAKER_00:

You don't feel orange. Okay, you feel pink, I feel a little bit of a violence.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Okay, good thing.

SPEAKER_03:

So I I mean, I'm hey, maybe I am orange, but I don't I don't, you know. If I go get a spray tan, I'll be more orange. Um, but like, no, I don't necessarily feel orange. And um fair enough. But again, like all of these things, here's the other thing. I think it's fun to think about them. I think it's really cool whether or not they're true is is is actually less important to me so long as I don't it's fun to think about. It's fun to explore, it's fun to be curious, and maybe you know, we'll find a way to measure everybody's color signature, and we'll that that'll be it'll become scientific fact. I don't fucking know.

SPEAKER_00:

You know, I like colour black because black has all the colors in the world in it.

SPEAKER_03:

Does it?

SPEAKER_00:

I think so. I think if you mix all the colors, you will get black.

SPEAKER_03:

Well, I think if you that's interesting. I I I I think you'll get a gray.

SPEAKER_00:

We need to do a test now.

SPEAKER_03:

I think but uh but also if we look at light spectrum, okay, right white is the color that holds all colors.

SPEAKER_00:

Right, right. This well, not all the the rainbow colors, right?

SPEAKER_03:

Well, think about a prism.

SPEAKER_00:

Prism, right, right.

SPEAKER_03:

A white uh like uh the totality of light goes through a prism and that creates the spectrum.

SPEAKER_00:

Right. But we need to do a test. What if you take all the colors in the world and mix them? You might get either dark or bronze.

SPEAKER_03:

Should we ask chat?

SPEAKER_00:

Who has the phone? Can we check?

SPEAKER_03:

I mean, we'll ask we'll ask. Because this is again, this is actually an interesting topic.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03:

I'm gonna extend it someplace else, if that's okay.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, yeah, go ahead.

SPEAKER_03:

Um one thing that I've been very aware of is as I talk on these podcasts, sometimes I'll say things that I think are true, and then I'll come to find out they were completely fucking not true. And it was really bad science.

SPEAKER_00:

We want our listeners and viewers to go and check themselves. Right. Exactly.

SPEAKER_03:

Well, I want people to be curious because right now, especially again in LA, but but globally, we live in a podcast soundbite culture.

SPEAKER_05:

Right.

SPEAKER_03:

And everybody's an expert, and everybody speaks as though they know the truth.

SPEAKER_05:

And a guru.

SPEAKER_03:

And a guru. And there was a recent study done, it wasn't really a study, but it was it was an interesting exercise where they took um TikTok mental health influencers and they took a hundred videos, right?

SPEAKER_00:

Can I imagine that, okay?

SPEAKER_03:

And they and then they gave them to train mental health professionals from all different strata.

SPEAKER_05:

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_03:

And over 50 of them, 52 of them, were either wrong or uh misleading.

SPEAKER_00:

Delusional.

SPEAKER_03:

Or some of them were just outright dangerous. So this is where we're getting our information. Right. Somebody says something interesting on a podcast, whether it's about love, relationships, masculinity, dating, and it feels good to us, and then we start saying it as truth. It might be just really fucking bad information.

SPEAKER_00:

Disclaimer.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

Like we're gonna do that.

SPEAKER_03:

We're gonna pull sound bites from this. And it's gonna be something catchy, yeah. And people are gonna like it, and then they're gonna share it, and then people are gonna take it on as truth. It's just my fucking opinion.

SPEAKER_00:

Well, that's what's great about see, we're not preaching, we're actually having a conversation. Right. We're actually just conversing about different topics. We're not saying, we're not teaching, we're not, you know, profiting. I think we're just sharing our personal experience, disclaimer.

SPEAKER_03:

Well, yeah, and it I see it all the time in the relationship uh, you know, uh because there is sort of an an issue with men and boys these days, unquestionably. All of the people that are committing these shootings and they're all young boys or or or older, angry men, right? So what's happening? There's something to look at. Men kill themselves uh four to one. Or yeah, I think four to one. That's right. Um again, I want that fact to be checked, right? Right. But it's astronomically high.

SPEAKER_00:

Right. Men's suicides is on the high.

SPEAKER_03:

Like 70 to I think it's 80% in America are white, 80% of suicides are white men in America. Um but so we we've come to this thing in in real in the relational space where now people are saying things about what masculinity should be, what a woman should do, uh, what we deserve, all of these very declarative, reductive statements. And then we we take them on as truth and we try to live by these stories that these people have probably inherited. Here's a one of my favorites.

SPEAKER_05:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03:

You have to love yourself fully before you can love somebody else truly. What a bunch of fucking bullshit.

SPEAKER_00:

Egocentric. It's so flawed. Right, right.

SPEAKER_03:

Because look.

SPEAKER_00:

You're focusing on yourself, right?

SPEAKER_03:

Well, and it's good to focus on yourself, and it's good to try to love yourself. But the idea that my mom, who I love her dearly, and she would agree with this, by the way, has never fully loved herself, did not love my father for 53 years of beautiful marriage, is an absolute fucking offensive idea that you have to love yourself to step into the totality of love. Absolutely not. And if your relationship with it's you with yourself is like any other relationship, you're not always gonna be in love with yourself. You're gonna fall in love with out of love with yourself all the time.

SPEAKER_00:

Right? Can you fall in love with yourself after falling in love with somebody else?

SPEAKER_01:

Of course. Right? There's no there's no rules, right? One way. Right, right.

SPEAKER_03:

Or or what's another great one that people just always say? Like, um uh they're they're always relational, you know. They're always like, you know, the best relationships start slow. Not always. I know plenty of people who went out on a first date, fucked that night, and have been married for 30 years happily and have great kids.

SPEAKER_00:

We just mentioned in the other episode that it takes seven seconds for a woman to know if this is the guy that she wants to be with the first time she sees him.

SPEAKER_03:

And and I and again, that's I've heard that, but I wonder if it's true. That we should check it.

SPEAKER_00:

You gotta test it, right? Right. Um and volunteers.

unknown:

Right.

SPEAKER_00:

But it's true. No, I get it. I feel like we live by the stamps, right? By this stereotypes, and we forget a how to feel, how to think for ourselves, right? We need to just freaking be human, yeah. Socialize again, you know, put your In situations you've never experienced, don't be scared, yeah, you know, to fail. Don't be scared to be rejected because it's okay. That's how you develop as a human. You cannot always come out as a winner. Maybe it's not your data. I mean, but that's the thing. I think is American mentality is like everybody's a winner. I'm like, no, somebody's better, somebody's not. But even if if you look how kids are raised here, right? You're a winner, you're a winner. In my school, I always had to fight to be a winner. I had to deserve that place, you know, the first place or second place, right? And here I feel the bar is so low. You're good, you'll be fine. Believe in yourself, you know, manifest. Yeah. All those, you know, catchphrases that don't really have meaning.

SPEAKER_03:

They don't have meaning. They here's a great one. Uh, if it's not a fuck yes, it's a fuck no.

SPEAKER_00:

Hmm. Give me an example.

SPEAKER_03:

Okay. Certainly we come into contact with people. Again, I'll put it in the relationship space, and we're like, fuck yes, right? Oh, I see. But it also gets to a point, and I'm sort of paraphrasing Ryan Holiday here, who I love. He's like, I mean, essentially the idea is any major decision I've made in my life is like 49.51. It's not always a total fuck yes. It and it doesn't have to be. In fact, it shouldn't be if you're making a big life decision. You should absolutely have some discernment and fear around it. Because if you don't, you're not looking at it in its totality. You're not looking at it with honesty.

SPEAKER_00:

But wait, hold on. I think you're 100% right in that because you actually made me think. If you're doubting, let's say if you speak about a relationship.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

If you're in a relationship and you're doubting, it's already not a fuck yes. Right. Right? If you have doubts or you try to find excuses uh for somebody's bad behavior or somebody's not treating you right, you try to find excuses, oh, maybe the person starred, oh, he had a hard childhood. Right. Right, it's not a fuck yes.

SPEAKER_03:

But it doesn't mean that it's a doomed relationship or that you shouldn't be in it, or that like it just because you have having doubts in relationships is absolutely normal. And when we get told that we shouldn't have any doubts, then then when we do, naturally, we immediately think it's the wrong relationship.

SPEAKER_00:

Right. But that's not the case. So I okay, let me for let me expand that. So if you do have doubts, yeah, you usually step back, right? You kind of take a break, or you know, you create little space. And if you really feel and if it's right for you, we're gonna come back, right? So doubts in a way is a you know checking and assuring that you made the right choice, right?

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah, and it's and certainly we have instincts.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03:

We have gut instincts, right? Those are really healthy. Right. But our guts are also sometimes wrong.

SPEAKER_00:

Not if you actually trust them truly. I think our guts are mostly right.

SPEAKER_03:

I think they're mostly right, but I've had gut instincts that were absolutely wrong. You know, like that have led me. Or maybe wrong is not the right word.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. They've led to Well, let's say for from a women's perspective, right? If I feel something is a little bit off, but then I still proceed. Either relationship or a project, most of the times, 80% it will end up being wrong. And I go back like, damn it, I should have listened to my first initial response that something didn't feel right.

SPEAKER_03:

Right. That's a practice, and I would argue that doing it, making that decision was absolutely the right thing to do because it led you to that learning. Okay, okay, I see that's I'm not this is not toxic positivity. I'm not trying to bypass things. Right, right. I'm just saying that look, right and wrong are arbitrary to begin with. They're value applications. We make decisions, yes, and there are outcomes. And depending on how much pleasure or pain that outcome provides us, we apply a value judgment that it's good or bad, right or wrong. But all there are are decisions and outcomes.

SPEAKER_00:

It makes sense, right, when you when you explain it.

SPEAKER_03:

It's just decisions. And you really can't make wrong decisions. You make decisions that end up in in painful circumstance.

SPEAKER_00:

Well, I would say it if you make a bad decision, it teaches you a lesson. Every every bad experience or every failure teaches you a lesson. I see that way, right? Kind of always transforming and becoming better as a human.

SPEAKER_03:

And certainly, like, there's things we get to, like, okay, murder, rape, yeah, of course. Those are fucking horrible decisions, right? I'm not gonna try and and as is evidenced by history, the outcomes of making decisions like that often lead to people having wild transformations that then bec they become advocates for, um, you know, and and proponents of a healthier, broader culture and society. And it's all interrelated. I'm not saying that it's okay to do any of that. I'm not suggesting that at all. I'm just saying that there is a there is a polarity that's operating in the strata of humanity that balances itself out naturally, and that is so important to realize in our own lives where, yeah, you might make a decision and it hurts, the outcome hurts, but that doesn't mean you were wrong to make it. Because that idea that it's wrong imparts shame on you, and it's not shameful, it was just a decision that had a painful outcome.

SPEAKER_00:

Ma, I never thought about this that way. I feel like on this wise words, we should wrap up this episode. But before we wrap it up, because I keep seeing Dustin keep waving red flags, because I feel like we could talk for another four hour four hours, but to make a logical, beautiful ending to this interesting conversation, if tomorrow, Corey, you wake up and there's no mountains, there's no adventures, it's just you as a human in one word to describe what that word would be to define you.

SPEAKER_01:

Love it.

SPEAKER_00:

I love it. Wow.

SPEAKER_02:

That's all all of us are at our core, at our essence. That's it.

SPEAKER_00:

That's what we're sending spiritually, telepathically, yeah, to all of our listeners and viewers. Thank you. Thank you for having me for being on the basic show. Today we had Corey Richards, this very insightful, deep dive into the human life. Thank you for being a guest on the show today.

SPEAKER_03:

Love, it's so basic.

SPEAKER_00:

So basic, but everything but basic.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah. Thank you.

SPEAKER_01:

Thanks for having me. Bye.