The Quarterback DadCast

From South Africa to Seattle: A Dad’s Playbook for Health, Humility, and Co‑Parenting - Dr. Jarret Stopforth, PHD

• Casey Jacox • Season 6 • Episode 321

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What if the bravest promise a father can make isn’t “I’d die for my kids,” but “I’ll live for them”? That line sits at the center of our conversation with Dr. Jarett Stopforth—a scientist, founder, and devoted dad whose journey runs from Zimbabwe and South Africa to Seattle, with stops in academia, startups, and a few blistering hikes that reset his bond with his kids.

We dig into the values that shaped him—humility from a preacher father, grit from a mother who crossed class lines—and how those roots guide the way he co‑parents with intention and generosity. Jared opens up about reframing divorce as an opportunity to go all‑in on fatherhood, trading convenience for presence, and using travel to teach empathy and gratitude. He also breaks down a practical health blueprint for modern dads: high‑protein nutrition, daily steps, strength training, more sleep and sunlight, and less alcohol. Then we get into men’s health at a deeper level—why testosterone matters, how today’s lifestyle suppresses it, and what it looks like to support your body’s natural systems before considering hormones.

From the origin story of 21 Again to the choice to protect weekends and summers at all costs, this is a story about building a life strong enough to carry the people you love. If you’ve felt drained, distant, or stuck on autopilot, you’ll leave with a clear, doable plan to reclaim energy, show up with patience, and create the kind of memories your kids will remember. 

Hit play, share with a friend who needs a nudge, and if this conversation helps, subscribe and leave a review so more dads can find it.

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SPEAKER_02:

Hi, I'm Riley, and I'm Renner, and this is my dad's show. Hey everybody, it's Casey Jaccox with the Quarterback Dadcast. Welcome to season six, and I cannot be more excited to have you join me for another year of fantastic episodes of conversations with unscripted and raw and authentic conversations with dads. If you're new to this podcast, it's really it is simple. It's a podcast where we interview dads, we learn about how they were raised, we learn about the life lessons that were important to them, we learn about the values that are important to them, and really we learn about how we can work hard to become a better quarterback or leader of our home. So let's sit back, relax, and listen to today's episode of the Quarterback Deadcast. Thank you for your continued support. We've talked to over 315 dads, everybody, on our quest towards a thousand, um, which I know it's gonna happen and it's it's exciting and secrets to not everybody every time I interview a guest, I get free therapy. So I hope that you come with that mindset as well that I'm here to learn, uh, not only as a host, but as a dad. I want to learn from my guest um just to ways to become better, better husband, better father, better, better friend, better person, um, really embracing values that are important to me, which are humility, vulnerability, and curiosity. So, with that, I'm excited to introduce our next guest, Mr. Dr. Jared Stopforth, who ironically is from Seattle. We're both on like a Zoom type feature right now. Shout out to Zencaster, but we're doing this virtually. And uh we're gonna learn today, not only is Jared the the founder of many startups, specifically one he's he's working on right now called 21 and again, which we'll learn more in the end, but he's he's also a dad. And we're gonna learn how how Jared's working hard to become an ultimate quarterback or leader of his household. So further ado, Jarrett, welcome to the quarterback dad cast. Thank you, Casey. Nice to meet you. Yeah, you bet, man. Do you ever seen uh Spies Like Us randomly? No. Oh, it's a great movie. There's a Chevy Chase, Dan Aykroyd back in like the 80s. Uh-uh. But now I will. Well, yeah, and there's a great, but if specifically the reason I'm saying this is you're gonna learn this about me. I'm very random and goofy. Whenever there's uh a doctor, there's a spot where they pretend they're doctors, and so they have this phrase that's like doctor, doctor, doctor and doctor. It is it's like if once you see it, you'd be like, ah, that's what that guy was talking about. But it's great. Anyway, I digress. Uh, we always start out each episode gratitude. Uh Jared, so tell me what are you most grateful for as a dad today?

SPEAKER_01:

Well, as a dad, Casey, uh, the health of my kids. I mean, I think uh any dad would say that is uh the health of your kids, number one. Um that usually uh is followed by their happiness, whether it is the sports that they're playing or uh the friends that they have or the activities that they're doing, right? Uh I think one of the things that uh as any dad would know is when you go to bed at night, you you say to yourself, like, was this a good day? Right? Was this a good day? Was it a good day for them? Uh, and what can I do better tomorrow? Right. And that's always my mindset when I go to bed at night is what can I do better for my kids um tomorrow? And in fact, I I spent this whole week. Um I turned 48 this week. Uh I spent this whole week working through a living will durable power of attorney, setting up a trust, and and just trying to get all that stuff together, thinking to myself, like, hey, there should be no questions um when the time comes, because it will, right? Uh, and so, you know, I think uh their health is first and foremost, and then of course their happiness every night I go to bed.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, no, that's that's good, man. It's I think it's those are you know, someone could say, oh, those are cliches, but they're not. I think you have to really slow down and and be in the moment and believe those things because time is all we got and in it, and um um being present. Um we've done a lot of episodes on being present and what what that truly means. I'd say for me, what I'm most grateful for is a couple things. One, um, I never thought I'd say this, but I'm grateful my daughter gets to see her boyfriend today, yeah, which feels weird to say, but I'm happy for her because she's like it's like her first big boyfriend. He's off to college, he's he's coming home for the weekend, and so they're gonna see each other tonight. So she's really super excited. And I'm also grateful my my son is a sophomore in college, and he's like had this like I think just next breakthrough in terms of like mindset. And um, he plays golf in college, and it's been just super fun. Some of the conversations he and I've had have been like really deep. And um like he lost I don't know if you're a golfer at all, but he he lost, he lost uh in a match play event yesterday, but it was a so most you know 18 holes is around. He he we went to push this guy to extra holes. He lost in the 25th hole. Whoa, that's a long day. Oh dude, he was out there for like seven hours, and but his mindset was so good. Yeah. And um, before he left for college, I reminded him that there's I said, just promise me these three things. Promise me you're gonna believe what you do matters no matter what, believe in yourself. Promise me you're gonna commit to everything you do to your fullest. And then once you commit, you have no control over after that because you you've done your best. And then three, when you play golf, remember that your best club is not in your bag, it's in your mind. Your mind's strongest the most. 100%. And it is like he said it, and it's like it clicked, and I it just was like from the heart one day, and then like it clicked with him, it clicked with me, and now I'm like, wait a minute, I I can follow my own vice. And so I'm really grateful for we had that kind of like that really cool father-son moment. So man, that's great.

SPEAKER_01:

I you know, I actually uh I have a saying uh with my kids, you you kind of said a few of the words there, but it's uh dream it, believe it, achieve it. I'm like, that's how you that's how you go after things. Dream it, believe it, achieve it. And uh I I tell them that at least like once a week, right? I mean, I think the the things that a dad says, I always used to uh I always used to like criticize what my dad he would always say, like, you know, just adjust your sails to the winds. And I'd be like, Come on, dad, can you just let me be like unhappy for a minute? Or you know, let me be down for a minute. Um, and then you become a dad, and you're like dropping these sayings all the time, and you think to yourself, like, okay, there was some wisdom there.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah. Where do you think you learned those three things that that saying, where'd that come from?

SPEAKER_01:

You know, uh, when I honestly, uh, so I was born in Zimbabwe um and then grew up in South Africa. That's where I started my schooling. And I always had this vision of just like this open opportunity and the ability to just tackle something and go get it. And it wasn't until I actually moved to the US that I, you know, that was a dream. I was moved to the US, land of opportunity, freedom. Uh, there's such a massive platform here for people who work hard, right? If you work hard, you can you can get anything done here. And I think it was moving here because I'd spoken to my dad about it quite a lot. And uh I'd said, look, I want to, you know, I want to get to the US and I I just want to build things. That's what I want to do. And uh it was almost a manifestation of my own thinking. And uh I just told the kids like, look, I had a dream to come here and I worked hard, I believed I could do it, and I I did. And uh, and so I just you know, I just kind of put that together. Like I had a dream, I believed in it, I went and got it, you know, and uh and so that's something I tell them all the time right now. Um, with their sports, uh what they want to do in life. And uh I I firmly believe in that saying. Love it.

SPEAKER_02:

No, it's good, simple but powerful. Um, okay, so before we learn about life in South Africa and growing up, uh bring me inside the the stop fourth huddle and tell me who's on the team and what everybody's up to.

SPEAKER_01:

Uh yeah, so I have a 11-year-old daughter, her name is Tatum, um, and a nine-year-old son whose name is Loick. And they have very different personalities and very different passions. Uh, my daughter is a social butterfly, and she has a lot of social skills and friendship. She's vibrant, she's constantly smiling, and she is all about her friends and her network, and um very athletic and loves her sports. And then there's my son who's more quiet and reserved, and he uh he he loves sport. Uh, you know, social comes second, uh, he loves sport, and he is just a really gentle soul, like a really nice guy. But he um yeah, together they are my tribe, and you know, they uh they are so different, but when they're together, they are a team, right? They can fight. Oh my gosh, can they fight? But uh like there's so many opportunities where I've or so many instances where I've seen the little brother standing up for his uh bigger sister, and and I can just attribute that to the love that they have for one another. So that's cool. And uh yeah, we live in Seattle. My son's passionate about baseball, like lives and breathes baseball. I can't help him with baseball, I have to like learn everything on YouTube, right? I grew up playing cricket and rugby, so uh I have to like teach myself in order to help him. Uh, but he's passionate about baseball, and then my daughter's passionate about volleyball. So yeah, but yeah, is your son a Mariners fan? Uh you know, he's he's an individual players fan, like he follows players, uh but he loves the mariners. Uh we go we go to uh probably four or five games this summer. Um he loves it, he loves the game, he loves players, but yeah, he loves the mariners. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_02:

Me and my son are diehard Mariners fans. Um probably one of the coolest moments of his podcast journey, I think like in season two, two or three, I can't remember which one, but I interviewed uh Rick Riz and Aaron Goldsmith. So you're play by play announcers for the Mariners, and it was pinch me moment. Like just interviewed a guy in Willie Bloomquist who used to play for the Mariners. Um that was a fun episode, too. So if you're if your son's a Rick Riz fan and wants to learn about how he got into broadcasting, it's kind of a cool story. Um that's great. Um are we now we married? Are we single? Single. Single? Okay, cool. Um you have the kids full-time, or are they 50-50.

SPEAKER_01:

Uh, their mom uh lives about four blocks away from from me, and uh we're just great co-parents. Like we love it. We tag team it together. You know, we didn't work out as a couple. Um life got hard and lots of travel and kids, but um we we game hard when it comes to parenting them and we support each other. Actually, she she right now has uh one of my vehicles because hers is in the shop. We're just we're really good friends and we support each other wholly. Um, but we're not an intact family, but we are a very supportive family of one another.

SPEAKER_02:

That's awesome. That's cool to hear. We I've actually done quite a few episodes on co-parenting, on helping dads who have gone through divorce. Um, and there's been a couple episodes that really like you know, knock on knock on wood. I have not hope I don't ever have to go through that. I've been married maybe 27 years in uh in February. Um but uh but it happens. And um, we've even done episodes with um actually a former major league baseball player, uh Kenny Lofton, who talked about the court system and how it's challenges for for fathers who've gone through that. And it was just really it was kind of eye-opening for me, and I'm glad we were able to, you know, again, I came curious, but it was a lot of dads thanked me for thanked us for doing that because it was kind of a cool to be able to just talk about something different than absolutely, yeah. So um, okay, well, bring me um let's go back. I want to go back in time and learn about um Jared the the kid and what was life like growing up and and talk about the impact mom and dad had on you from a values perspective.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. Um so born in Zimbabwe, as I said, uh you know, um kind of wild ride. Uh there was a lot of uh violence in in that country during my time of birth with the whole um independence and the shift from Rhodesia to Zimbabwe. Um my parents eventually ended up leaving. The family stayed on the ranches and the farms uh over there, but the rest of them, the uncles and aunts and my cousins, but my folks kind of saw the writing on the wall, and they took us down to South Africa at a very young age, um, down to uh Cape Town area, and uh that's where I started my schooling and uh you know grew up there. We we had a real transition coming out of that life, right? Um, into starting over again in South Africa. And I you know, I only remember the good parts, but I'm sure it was real tough for my folks. Uh but that is an incredible couple. They um are still together, they're alive, they live in Australia, where my sister and her family live. Um, so my sister uh she her name is Jade. She uh ended up marrying um an Australian guy who was a doctor and they moved there and started their family. And soon after that, my folks uh once they had kids, my folks left South Africa and joined them there. Uh, I was on the opposite side of the world in the US at that time. So um, but yeah, the my folks are real incredible. They're I I've it's been seldom that I've seen a couple fall more in love later in the years. I've seen a lot of people stick with each other, I've seen people just tolerate each other, I've seen people be consistently in love, but I've never seen this. I've seen the transition away from my dad who was running the businesses, traveling, and my mom still working. Uh, they were both working their whole entire lives. Um, but being home and taking care of the tribe to my mom still being active because she is like me and we are tireless and she will never stop working. My dad is retired, and uh to him taking the shift to doing the groceries and doing doing the garden and cooking the meals and stuff while my mom still works. In fact, she works for my brother-in-law's uh practice, she runs the books and stuff, and um you know, they have just got better with age, stronger. Uh they they're the kind of friends that you love to see in a partner. So I've only good things to say about them, but from a value system, I mean, my dad is the kind of guy who'd give you the shirt off his back, uh, like very literally, actually. Um, I got that trait from him. My son has that same trait, uh, you know, generosity, humility. The number one thing my dad taught me is humility. He said, Look, son, like that you will have successes in life and things will be good. But he's like, Look, I will tell you the one thing is all of that gets taken away in the blink of an eye. So don't be up there uh high and proud, you know, preaching about all your wins and successes because humility is the number one value I want you to take away. So uh quite frankly, like that was the biggest thing he instilled in me is humility and the ability to just always be thankful. I was a preacher for over 40 years, so I have uh I have a lot of uh he's lessons, but also just uh the power of humility and thankfulness for blessings. So um while I don't actively go to church, I'm still very um religious, and uh you know I got that from him. So uh my number one takeaway from him was work hard, put your head down, stay humble, be a good person, be somebody that when you lay your head to bed at night, you're okay going to sleep because you didn't screw somebody or you weren't uh a tyrant, right? Um my mom, a hardworking person, came from the other side of the tracks in Zimbabwe, my dad on the better side, my mom from the other side, and she's one of the only people I've actually seen successfully cross a class barrier um and uh that I know, right? And and say, look, I'm never going there again. And so she is a very frugal, but also um very deliberate in everything that she does, hardworking, uh, and uh just a family person all around, right? She's been the anchor in our family honesty, uh, through the troubled times, the terrorist activities in Zimbabwe, the moving to new countries. Um she's always her there's a saying in Africaans, right? We speak Africa, which says uh Hodi Blinkanpua, which means always show the shiny side. Like always put so it's basically it derives from when you have guests come over and you have silverware and making sure that like the tray, the silver tray is the shiny. So she's like you always, always, always keep it shiny, always show the shiny side. So um some real good values from them. Real good lessons, they're good people, they're real down-to-earth people, they're not flashy, they've worked hard, saved hard their whole lives. They don't believe in flashy, they don't believe in big, they they believe in comfort and seeing the world and seeing their family.

SPEAKER_02:

So, how how um that's awesome. That was a really good job of describing my kids. Like I've met mom and dad already now. Um how talk about your transition from South Africa to the United States.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, it's very curious. I uh when I was doing my bachelor's up in Pretoria, um, we actually had a set of um exchange students come over from uh Madison, uh UW Madison, and uh they I was um in the biological and agricultural sciences, uh I was the treasurer for that department, and uh one of my jobs was to entertain and find housing for and show them the ropes um in my last uh year. And I ended up meeting uh these twins that came from there, and we I took them all over the place and took them back to Zimbabwe, showed them the farms. Um and one of them was you know very open to say, why don't you do instead of graduating this year, why don't you do an exchange program and come over and see the US? Um, which I did. And while I was there, I just fell in love with it. I fell in love with the system. I fell, you know, we'd watched all the movies about the front houses and the colleges and people having fun and all this stuff, and you know, it it's just such a different system than at home. And I I fell in love immediately with it. I fell in love with just as I told you, the ability to do what it is you can by just putting your mind to it. And uh I decided then that I wanted to do my grad work there. Um so I graduated with a bachelor's in microbiology, and I made my applications to the U.S. And while I was doing that, I decided to go abroad to London and live in London for a while and um traveled all of Europe while I was doing that. Uh just working, I had some savings and then working uh menial jobs. I I was actually a gift packer for Herods. I don't know if you're familiar with Herod's the department store, very uh flashy, one of the world's like best department stores. Um and uh then I ended up driving trucks for them because they needed somebody who could drive uh trucks through London. That was crazy. And then I I got my acceptance into uh Colorado State and uh made the move and uh started working on my uh master's and then my PhD in microbiology and food science. Um and so I was there for uh six years um getting through my program and publishing papers and book chapters, and uh, you know, it was real academic at the time. I mean, I have almost 50 peer-reviewed publications out there in uh science and book chapters, textbooks for for kids in uh in college, and uh I was real academic at the time, but nothing had sparked my interest more than the entrepreneurial side of life. And so, you know, I was asked to be a professor a number of times, and uh you know, by by my professors and others saying, look, we'd we'd love to have you in the world of academia, but you know, for me it just didn't move fast enough, right? It was um it was just not the life for me. So yeah, but that that was my transition over. I uh you know being in Colorado is incredible. Again, it was uh kind of the Wild West, right? That you you see when you're in South Africa and you look around and and truly in the rural areas, it's just like that. And um, I had a lot of friends, I made a lot of friends over there and uh got introduced to the culture a lot, and it became for me home at that point. Once I had graduated, I said, look, this is this is home. Like that South Africa or Zimbabwe will always be home. That's where I was born, that's where I was raised, but this became home for me.

SPEAKER_02:

And what um then what brought you to Seattle?

SPEAKER_01:

Uh actually, I I my first my first job out of call uh out of graduating with my doctorate was uh to come up here to Seattle and help a uh a man uh Dr. Mansur Samadhpuri owns the largest um collection of analytical labs in the US right now. Um but it was to build out help him build out a series of analytical labs, uh doing food and drug testing, and uh and he really needed somebody who could be a right-hand man at the time and just jump in and not get a lot of direction, but show a lot of initiative. And uh, and so I ended up staying here and working for him for a number of years and learning just a ton through that process. You know, we were involved in helping, uh, I don't know if you recall the big uh spinach outbreak in the Salinas Valley that killed a bunch of people and some kids and stuff. And we uh it was his like brainchild to go down there, get involved. It was Earth Earth on Farms at the time, and uh to keep Earth on farms up uh and running even through that catastrophe and put in place uh this food lot testing. So as it comes off raw material testing it before it goes into becoming produce such that we could uh protect essentially a raw agricultural commodity that doesn't really face any lethality step. Um so anyway, I I ended up coming here for uh uh a job, I ended up staying, and then uh you know, actually while I was living here, I was recruited to a place just outside of Amsterdam to go and uh do some work for them. And I and so I moved to the Netherlands for three years. Wow. And uh while I was there, uh I was back in Seattle on business, um uh actually also for some produce work, and I ended up meeting the mother of my children at a bar on like the last night um before heading back home. And so we uh ended up just communicating for like three or four months, just just emails and texts and for like three or four months, and uh then eventually we came together and eventually we moved to Seattle when we had kids. But in between, there was Chicago, Philadelphia, uh you know, where we we had come together. I had moved back from the Netherlands and we moved into Chicago together, and then we had a stint into Philadelphia, and then after that we ended up uh coming to Seattle because uh we have children, and and her family is here. Wow actually in uh uh Auburn area, so yeah, you'd you'd know that.

SPEAKER_02:

Okay, wow. So with all the travels, um tell me what would be like your your the biggest takeaways seeing all these different cultures, all these different experiences. How is that how is that how have those experiences impacted you as a dad? And then maybe what's how have you shared some of those experiences with with both of your kids?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, you know, I I'll tell you travel and exposure to cultures is probably my number one asset that I have in life. Not the house, not the vehicles, not the savings count, no, none of that. It's it's literally being the ability to see how other people thrive in their environments, right? And uh just learning about people's values in different places, learning about how they conduct themselves as a family, as business people, uh socially. Uh, and you know, I've I've said time and time again to my kids, uh, one of the best gifts that I could give you is uh not physical things, it's it's travel, it's taking you places. We uh have a holiday place down in Baja, um and it's uh pretty rural, uh, and we go there about four times a year, and it's rural, we're not in the Kabo type environment, and we we get to face the hardships of some of the rural areas there, and I we we we talk through it a lot, and we talk through um the ability to be generous, to be helpful, to be sympathetic and empathetic, and and to just know that like there's values to be found in people regardless of their status or where they are financially. Um, and they've made some of the best friends down there not being able to communicate, them not speaking Spanish, and you know, their friends down there not speaking English, and it doesn't matter. I see them on the beach, they're playing, and it's it's just fantastic, right? So um I would say the exposure to other cultures who are not necessarily as uh fortunate as we are has probably been one of the things I've learned the most. Seeing the amount of love and the amount of joy and just the amount of thankfulness that uh folks who have less than us have, because what they have is really wonderful, and that's community and family and tightness and bond, right? I've met some of the wealthiest people in the world whose families are just messed up. They have uh and and uh firsthand um have met uh an incredibly wealthy family whose family just don't like each other, and and for me, I I I always say like that's the poorest rich family, you know. And when I look at folks who are in different areas and I see just how tight they are as a community, I'm like, they are the richest poor families, right? So uh I think that's one of the lessons I want my kids to know is that uh you see people for who they are and not for what they have. And that's one of the things that that travel taught me.

SPEAKER_00:

Intention, integrity, IT recruitment. We are McCann Partners, and I am Megan McCann, the CEO and founder. McCann Partners is a Chicago-based IT recruitment firm. We support a growing portfolio of innovative organizations, from Chicago-based startups to companies with a global footprint. We are dedicated to creating a more equitable and diverse workforce and are proud that more than 70% of our talent placements since 2020 have been diverse hires. We take pride in our work and invest time to hone our skills. Case in point, our work with Casey. Casey helped me and my team learn new habits of success and unlock the skills we already have been using. The superpowers of humility, vulnerability, and curiosity. If you, the listener, are curious about our experience with Casey and his impact on the team and our business, please reach out to me via LinkedIn.

SPEAKER_02:

How hard was that to teach? I mean, you got a nine and eleven year old, and obviously it's different levels of maturity, but like uh three that story you said speaks to me because that's um in my corporate journey, I think I I was fortunate the the maybe the the highs I had were probably higher than I thought would I would have.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

And um, you know, like when we when I grew up, my vacations were camping or and riding my bike. And um, I didn't ride in my first airplane like legit to like eighth grade, ninth grade. I mean, and my kids have been on a ton um through like some of the corporate things we did. And so I was always worried about like making sure my kids realize that's not this is not normal. And don't feel I don't want you to feel guilty, but I don't want you to think like you're entitled to this because it's we're not taking into your point it can like your dad taught you it can be taken away tomorrow.

SPEAKER_01:

In a heartbeat, right? In a heartbeat. So I I that resonates with me too, uh, Casey, because uh, you know, my kids I I have to tell them, like, you know, we belong to a uh country club over here where they go swimming and playing tennis and stuff, and they go to a private Catholic school, and I sit them down often and I explain to them that like this isn't everybody, this isn't everybody, and I know that you may ask for X, Y, and Z and not get it, and then think that like you've been done in for, and I'm like, you I promise you, you are not done in for. It's a measure of not having everything you want in the world because it's not that's just like not how life works. And and I think them understanding that is being helpful because it's tough when they do have so much around them uh to actually teach them that like this isn't normal, man. It's not it's it's not everybody, and it's very very little of the population, in fact. Um, and so the lesson of well, we've got all this, why can't we have more is is one that I still work on, right? I still work on because sometimes I just feel I'm doing the wrong the wrong thing as a dad by surrounding them with things rather than. Then experiences and so I do try to get we hike like crazy, we're a hiking family, we get out there. I think that's the best times I've ever had with my kids, not flying down to Baja or flying to Australia, which we just did this uh Christmas to go and see their grandparents and cousins. But it's it's really getting out and hiking and sweating and working hard and seeing the beauties out there and talking about it. And uh yeah, that's that's the best because then it's we're not we're not focused on anything but our health and being together, right? Yep.

SPEAKER_02:

No, it's awesome. Yeah, there's so there's so many um amazing hikes around the Seattle area, which I've not done, many of them. Um my daughter and her boyfriend did one recently, like I think it's called Snow Lake up in the Snow Palm Area. Yeah, yeah. Beautiful up there. I'm like, how do I and it actually kind of made me feel guilty. I'm like, how have I I'm almost 50? Jared. I'm like, how the hell have I not done this? Because I mean I've been just doing my own thing and busy with other activities, but like it should slow down one of these days, and like I'm going hiking today, you know.

SPEAKER_01:

But I I I do it often where I just say, you know, that's it. I'm hiking this weekend. And my the crazy thing is, I uh just after I got divorced, um I suddenly like had to like take care of kids more than I had before, right? I'd been traveling and working so much. Uh that first year after I'm like, oh my gosh, like I have to do everything right now. Like I have to prepare food, I have to prepare for classes, the classes or the preschool or whatever, and I have to entertain these guys, like right. Um, and it was such a lesson. I mean, it's it it it's actually one of the best things that's ever happened to me. It uh it took me from being sort of in their lives to dramatically in their lives, right? Um and uh it made me a better dad and it made me a better um friend to them. Uh so I know while a lot of people may say like divorce crushed their souls and their lives and stuff, it actually like it actually gave me an opportunity at being the dad I would never have been in that marriage because I was so focused on work, traveling, being away, popping in, hey, cool, you've got a birthday party, then I can take you to good, great, moving on, right? Uh, to hey, this is my week, and I've got to get everything done in this week, but most importantly, like we've got to form a bond and a relationship. And we hiked almost every weekend. He was four, she was six. And I'm not talking about a mile hike, I'm talking four or five mile 2000 elevation. Uh and when I look back at it, I'm like, Are you nuts? Like, what were you doing? And and quite frankly, I think I was slightly nuts at the time, but uh we we took on hikes where we would I would look back and be like, I'm not sure today, like if I look back, I'm not really sure how they did it. I I I had to motivate them. There's a lot of whining and crying. Uh we had these like energy gummies, like which were just gummies, like gummy worms. And I would every every few hundred yards, I'd it'd be I'd call it a power-up gummy, and they'd get a power-up gummy, and we'd get through it. But looking back, I'm like, there's no way a four-year-old should be doing those hikes, but he crushed him. I mean, there was some whining. But I mean, those that that's where we formed that relationship the year after um having just got divorced, and I just was thinking to myself the other day, I was like, man, that was the best thing that ever happened for myself and my relationship with my kids.

SPEAKER_02:

Um, I don't know if I've ever asked anybody this, but you're for some reason it hit me in the heart to ask you. Um, I love your attitude and your your mindset towards fatherhood. Um going through a divorce, which I don't think anybody raises their hand saying, I can't wait to go through that. I mean, no one wants that, but it is what it is. Um what tell me what would be your, what tell our audience, what would be one piece of advice you can give maybe a dad going through a divorce that maybe thinks, oh God, life's the I'm done. Like that maybe a lesson you've learned out of it, uh you kind of just share one, but what would be a piece of advice you might give a dad going through this that, hey, you can get through this?

SPEAKER_01:

I you know, I did just give you an example, but I'll I'll elaborate on it. Um divorce nobody wants, you just said it, right? Like it's a tough process and it's a it's an end to something that was, you know, uh set together by two humans who want to spend the rest of their lives together. That's why you get married, right? That's why you have those relationships. Um but it happens, and it happens more often than what we actually know, right? It's it's pretty frequent these days, which is sad and unfortunate. But what I would tell somebody is this is an opportunity, this is not the end of your life. And I've had to like help a few people through it along the way. Uh, and for me, it's an opportunity, it's an opportunity to take the focus away from the whole process of you know, dealing with the heartache, dealing with loss, dealing with anger, and take that energy and put it into your kids. Because had I not done that, I would have spiraled probably like a lot do because it was it's all about them. You make it all about yourself. Woe is me. Uh, this sucks. Like, will I ever be happy again? Like, well, and and you take all that energy, right? And you you see it as an opportunity to pour into your kids. Um, I mean, they've they've become probably the only thing that I truly care about, right? Because I love working. Like, work for me isn't an effort, it's a joy and a blessing. Um, but everything I do right now is done with them in mind because I can't think of a better purpose, to be honest, than you know, uh, here's something I'll share with you. Um, you know, I've I've we'll get into 21 again, but 21 again was started for my own health and for my own vitality and energy and drive. But um one of the things I learned along the way, and um an influencer and founder, and and it stuck with me, and I share it now with people every time I I speak to a dad um and somebody who's looking to improve their health, somebody who's just like not in the best of health, but they are doing great at work, they're working hard, is something that stuck with me. You said, I know that you say you'd die for your kids, but would you live for them? And and that has stuck with me, and it it is like add years to your life because they go so fast, and everybody warns you it's gonna go fast, right? Fatherhood like is is one of those things where parenthood, uh, people tell you it's gonna go fast, and you say, Yeah, cool, but I how can I slow it down? You can't, right? And you know it, and then you start telling people, hey, it's gonna disappear fast, make the most out of it. And sometimes people don't make the most out of it, but people don't make the most out of it. Forget that next level job. Forget that like if if it means it's going to take time from your kids, forget it, it's not worth it. You you you just change your means of living, do something, but put the time into your kids. And quite frankly, right? Like, I do startups now. Um, I haven't paid myself a salary in three years, right? I'm living on savings. Um, that's a startup world, it's how founding companies go until you're profitable. Um, and there I've had a number of people um my network come back and uh ask me to join the corporate world again, be a VP over here or SVP over there, and offers of big money. And quite frankly, like it'll never happen. It'll never happen. I'll find a way to make, but it'll never happen because I I lost so much time with my kids doing that that I can't ever step back into that because that I am the most present. I'm out there two hours a day throwing, catching, bumps at spiking, like and you know, it's honestly one of the things I love the most. So I would tell a father going through divorce, I would say, Look, man, you've just got the biggest opportunity of your life to pour more energy into your kids than you've ever had. Because for that week, depending on your arrangement week or three, two, two, or however it falls out, for those days, it's just you. It's just you. You don't you're not sharing that time with anybody but them. So put all your energy into it because, and I would say to them, find ways to add years to your life. You know, I I saw something the other day which was so startling, but it was like you have a 70%, 75% of your kids' attention up to the age of 10, and then you get or 75% of their time, then it goes down to like 60 when they turn 12, then it goes down to like 40 something when they turn 16, and then and and I was like, oh my gosh, like my daughter's 11, my son's nine. I said, these percentages are starting to actually like go down, and and that's when I realized like you can't lose a summer, you can't lose a weekend. You can't. You have to you have to make the most of it. You you just cannot lose it by saying, uh, let's just sit around today, or let's you guys go do your thing. You've you've got to get involved. Right. So I love that.

SPEAKER_02:

No, it's okay. No, I love it, man. That's that's I want my guests talking more than me. That means we're doing a good job here. If I so if if there's a dad listening at home is okay, I and add years to my life, I want to do that. Well, how do we do it? Like, give us some examples of how dads can add years to their life.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, you know, I'll tell you how I did it right. Um I there's there's a few ways, but I I noticed I turned 42, my energy was low, my drive was low, um, my libido was low, and I realized like I had low testosterone, and this will come into 21 again, and we'll we'll talk about that in a minute. But let's just and I realized that I was doing less. I was less active, I was just not motivated to do much. And I also then started to learn that you know the the the more sessile you are, the more you sit around, the the more your cortisol and levels go up, and the more your cortisol levels go up, the more you start actually um deteriorating your body's production of testosterone. And and testosterone is the main it's the main machine that makes a man a man, right? It's it's not bravado, it's not alpha. It is the engine, the main hormone that drives everything in your body. And aging happens fastest with low testosterone, right? Which is why we're going to get into 21 again. I mean, the name says it all, like be young again, be vital. But how I've added years to my life and how I plan to add more years to my life is focusing on that engine and making sure that it is the best that it can be, right? My hormone levels are great so that the rest of my body can respond. Uh I have I follow this like general rule, which I think most men over 35 should follow, 30, 35 should follow, and that is one gram of protein per pound of body weight every day. 50 ounces of water. You gotta drink that water. 8 to 10,000 steps a day, no debate. Every day. Every day. I don't care if it's Sunday and you just got back from church, eight to ten thousand steps a day, and working out anywhere from three to four times a week, those should be non-negotiable to any dad. Um a good diet, but I I focus on a high protein diet and a low carb diet. The one step I haven't taken yet, Casey, which I absolutely need to take, and I know it, and I keep telling myself, and I'm smart enough to know that I should be doing it, not just talking about it, is decreasing the amount of alcohol I consume, right? Because that's another absolute ager. Um and I'm gonna get there. Um, I've I've done good so far, but that's the one I've got to improve on. Um more active, I work out three to four times a week, eight to ten thousand steps, absolutely. One gram of protein per pound of body weight, um, and again, lowering the amount of alcohol that you take in because alcohol is a toxin, right? Like it's the biggest toxin. I know like there's this like great movement towards uh low to no, right? Low alcohol, no alcohol. Um, and in fact, uh one of the founders of Soylent and I um actually started a company back in the day. It's now I I'm not in anymore, he's not, but his wife is running it called Kin K-I-N Euphorics or Kin Tonics, and it's imbibing without alcohol, right? So it's botanicals, nootropics like used to help. Um, but there's things like that that are out there, and uh that's just one of the many things, but definitely like decreasing or stopping drinking, being more active, high protein diet, lots of water, getting your steps in. Oh, I love it. That's that's how you live longer. And then supplementation too, right? Which was clearly a passion of mine and how we started 21 again.

SPEAKER_02:

Good advice, uh, Jared. So before we dive into 21 uh again, I want to find out like where did the passion get into food science for you? I mean, you obviously studied it.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, yeah, good question. Um, actually, I was studying to be a vet, um, go and work on family farms and you know, all that shifted, right? Uh, when I was at school and the whole uh Zimbabwe thing fell apart. Um, and what I found is that one of the classes that really, really intrigued me the most, and it was this professor uh Klute, was his last name, Eugene Klute, um absolute brainiac uh industrial microbiologist. So he was an expert um consultant and advisor to SAB South African Breweries, which became uh SAB Miller. Um, but so he was an expert um advisor to South African breweries and uh in wild strain selection and optimization. And you know, I remember sitting through some of these classes, and some of the things that are occurring today, I remember him saying, Hey, look, nobody's looked into this, but the rhizosphere or the area around roots are filled with microorganisms and they're challenging channeling and messaging, and that's the health of the plant, and all these things I've seen some science delve into today, but we're talking, she's we're talking 30 years ago, right? Um and this guy's brain and how he thought through things and how he thought through being a professor, but you know, I told you like I was encouraged to go the academic route, but I wanted rubber meets road more, right? I wanted application, I wanted speed, I wanted that. He was that guy, he was a professor, but he was doing so much consulting in the industry because he got to use his knowledge and put his knowledge into application that gave him satisfaction. And it was him. Like he started it. And so I started taking some industrial micro courses. Um and uh in fact, in fact, my white paper, you know, it's a little bit different uh in South Africa. You you graduate with your bachelor's, but then you do an honors, and it's a year in which you actually have to do a practical application and write a white paper on it, right? And mine was actually in some of the work that he inspired in uh wild strain yeast selection. So basically sampling out of the environment, finding one that could then be optimized for uh efficiencies of uh brew methods, so basically could make the yield of brewing a lot higher than just the typical strains that they were using. So uh it was really cool. I was very inspired by it. You know, I was in the lab doing ailes and loggers and and just trying to see like how the strain functioned, the strains that I'd selected functioned in yield, and it was really fun. And I just I was hooked. I was like, look, man, I'm gonna use this knowledge to to build things, right? And uh and the rest was history. I came to the US and did my PhD and I was off to the races.

SPEAKER_02:

Wow. So cool. All right, so we've teased this enough. 21 again. Talk about let's talk about how it was how it was built, how it was formed, and and how this how dads at home can learn more about um what you're doing. Yeah, thanks, Casey.

SPEAKER_01:

Um 21 again, absolute passion project. It's a it's a personal journey. Uh I turned 42, been an active guy my whole life playing rugby and cricket and swimming and water polo. And um I I was active all all the way through, and you know, I turned 42, I remember it to this day. And I during that period of time, I noticed a complete lack of just energy and drive and motivation. Um, my sex drive was low, I just didn't really care about it all. And it took me a while to realize, like, hey man, I'm out of it. I'm really out of it. And like when I sat down and analyzed it, I said, you know, I think like my hormone levels are low. Like, I think my testosterone is low. And I went and got my testosterone tested, and uh it was 270. Now, if you go and look at what testosterone levels are for normal, they say, you know, uh 250 to 1,000. But it's total bogus. All these tests, and it's total bogus. Like a man needs to be operating at 500 plus for everything in your body to be working, to not be like fat depositions, to have drive and motivation, to be your mood, right? People have confused this often, Casey, where they say, Well, if if you're boosting your testosterone, is uh isn't it gonna make you angry or mad? Or aren't you gonna get aggressive? And I'm like, well, hold on. I I think you I think you've got to differentiate taking anabolic steroids, which are hormones, but anabolic steroids and plugging them into your body versus taking the main hormone that makes you work. And actually, having low testosterone will likely make you more moody and more grumpy because your body's not happy. You're not happy, and you can't be happy. And so I knew I had low tea. After seeing that, I tested, I confirmed it, and I was like, look, I'm on a journey to get this up. I need to get this up. But I like many men and a lot of people men won't know that their low drive is from the fact that they like have low tea. And that's part of part of our jobs is not just to sell a product, it's to educate. We're gonna have a journey. We're building a community. We sport somebody on to build a community so that there's interactivity, there's sharing of experiences. Hey, what workout works for you, what diet works for you? We're gonna build a community because what we want to do is improve men's health. The whole ethos about it is healthier, longer, right? That's that is the whole ethos of 21 again. Healthier, longer. I started down the route of increasing my testosterone, but I didn't want the injections. I didn't want the gel or the pellet or the patch. The thing with that is, I'm a scientist, I'm smart enough to know that you take testosterone, you're taking it for life because you once you start taking the actual hormone that you're injecting into your body or the pellet you're putting into it, you are stopping your body's natural production. You stop that system, you shut it down. Sometimes it never comes back, but it will take years when you stop for it to come back. So the next alternative is to boost your body's natural system. It's to give your body the signals to go and make it, to give it the cofactors to build it, and and to help it not get converted to estrogen because a lot of times, you know, um the the body when it starts aging, uh here's here's a cool stat for you. Once you turn 30, some magical 30 number, but there's stats out there that have done it in studies, your T your testosterone production drops by one to two percent every year for the rest of your life. I'm 48. That's that's 18 years. That's at a max of 36% less. Where I am today is 36% less than when I was when I was so I'm I'm two-thirds of the production it was, right? They looked at the T levels of people my age, say 40-year-olds in the 80s, 40-year-olds today. Half. We are at half the T levels that a 40-year-old was in the 80s. And you say, why? Cessal nature. We're in front of these laptops, we're on our screens, social addiction, we are eating worse, we have bioplastics in our food, the nutrition has gone by the wayside, uh, activity levels have gone by the wayside, our stress level has gone up. We're all doing more than one thing. Cortisol levels are up, cortisol levels are enemies of testosterone. Everything that our lifestyle was was not in the 80s. And right, the 80s you were outdoor, you were active, you know, dad's were macho guys, mullets and mustaches, right? This is not this is this is not uh by default. We're uh kind of modeling some pics and stuff about it. But um these were hardcore guys, right? And uh, and it's just very clear like our T levels are the lowest they've ever been. They continue to be lower, they will be lower. It is the very most important thing for a man, and it should be the very biggest trend right now is men taking over their hormonal balances and ensuring that they get their engine right. So I started taking supplements because I'm like, look, I'm not gonna put my uh the hormone in my body and shut my engine down. I got many, many years left. Hopefully, that's the point. Um, and I started supplementing. I started tested a dozen supplements, tested them for 60 to 90 days each, and I just wasn't happy. Started looking into it more, doing research as I do, and what I found is just terrible combinations of ingredients by these companies making bucku bucks, very ineffective doses, maybe one-tenth of what they should be, so that they can make great margins, right? They tell you it's this, they tell you it's that, oh, it's gonna change your life, and then they give you these ingredients and they give them to you at one-tenth of their effective uh dose. And I said, Look, there's a better way for this, I'm gonna build it myself. So I built it myself, started taking it. After 90 days, I could absolutely tell after 30 days. I could tell my energy and stuff, but after 90 days, I was like, man, this is great. And I've been taking it ever since. That's a few years back. Um, and I started sharing it with my friends, and they came to me and they said, Look, this is incredible, guy. You've actually got to make this available to men. And that's when uh I actually ended up partnering with uh my partner Jay, um, a wonderful guy, brilliant man, uh, a number of successful brands that he's launched and run. Um, and he was like, Jay, I have the same symptoms that you have. Uh went and tested his and his was low too. Um, so I lifted mine from 270 up to 530 by just supplementing. It's it's kind of plateaued, which I would expect, right? It's it's not an ever-increasing riser. Again, you're not injecting a hormone into your body, but it's these beautiful combination of ingredients at clinical level doses. So, what we're giving you is something that's effective. We have no interest in making money if we're not changing people's lives. The journey is about healthier longer for men. Um, and and and so 21 again was born, right? And the name says it all. It's we want to feel like we did when we were 21, when our libido was up, when our energy was up, when our power was up, when we had a anywhere from a two to a six pack, depending on how much you worked out, right? Um, and uh we just we just want that back. And you know, I've I'm I'm there. I'm there. I I've never been more excited about my health than now.

SPEAKER_02:

Love it. That's so cool. How can we make sure people learn about it, find about it? Where can we send them?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, I mean send them to our site, send them to uh our Instagram, but it's 21again.com, right? Um send them to uh our Instagram, but you know, you go there, you subscribe, you get product, but look, we're we're just launching now. It's been available, you can order it. Um, but we're gonna have a couple launch events uh to boost its exposure. Uh we're building a community um on circle. It's gonna be where people can come and interact and say, look, I I do want to boost my tea. I'm worried about injections, I'd like to take supplements, I'm not sure if they work, I'm a little skeptical. So people can talk. So people can interact. So it's not just us telling them, it's other people telling, it's men telling other men, look, it's helping me, it's helped me like this, it helped me, but then it tapered off, but I'm changing this and I'm increasing that. And and so people can talk, right? Because our whole idea here is to increase men's health. And the end of story. And I know you have a dead podcast. It's again, will you live for them? We know you'll die for them. Will you live for them? And and that's what we want. We want you to live for them and with them, right? So have energy, have energy, go and play with. I am more active outside with my kids than I've ever been in in the last two years. I've never spent more time. I I don't make the excuse right now of like, look, dad's busy. I'm like, look, I have to finish what I'm doing right now. I'll see you out there in 30 minutes. And I make it a point. I'm out there more with them than I've ever been in my entire life, right now. And and I'm probably also the busiest I've been. But um that that's one of the benefits, Casey. And I think I think any dad you speak to will say, Look, man, time with my children is highly valuable. And if this gives me that motivation, that spark and that energy to get in the gym, to go and do my 10,000 steps, to play with my kids, to spend more time, to be a more present partner to my, you know, to my partner, like then it's for you. And I encourage, I encourage men who are like even question where their energy is, go and test your T levels and then delve into supplementation before you ever start injecting or taking pills. Because once you go that route, you've gone that route. You educate yourself. And we're here to help educate. That's part of our responsibility with having a product is helping bring people along.

SPEAKER_02:

Love it. Um, so good, man. I'm grateful our paths are crossed. I'm grateful to more about you. Um uh love the the story of how you're raised, love the impact your parents had on you. Um, I love the mindset of of co-parenting. I think that's gonna speak to to dads at home. So shout out to you and your your your mother, your children, your ex-wife, for for how you guys are doing that. Um, it's now time, Jared, to go into what I call the lightning round. This is where I um show you the negative hits of taking too many uh hits in college, not bong hits, but football hits. And uh your job is to answer these questions as quickly as you can. My job is to try to get a giggle out of you. Okay. Are you ready? Uh let's go, man. Okay. True or false. Uh, Guinness Book of World Records said you have the best mustache and mullet in America. This one's true. I just laughed at my dumb first joke I lose. Okay. Um favorite 80s movie of all time is you're not gonna know this one, but it's called Love Lines.

SPEAKER_01:

Love Lines? Love Lines, and it's a US production, and it's what brought me to the US. It's about this college life and these dueling bands, and they have got like this Love Lines that connects people, it's called Love Lines. Nobody knows it. And apparently, I don't know how it made its way to Africa, but it made its way there. I saw it and I was like, I'm going to America. And I got here, you know, the guy from uh police academy who like does all the funny noises, like he's on it. Like nobody else, you don't know anybody else on that thing, but it brought me to the US. I was like, I want to go there, this looks incredible. Oh my god, so good.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, um, favorite um favorite song you love listening to?

SPEAKER_01:

Uh that's that's a good man. I have so many, but I would say or genre music. How about that? Oh, genre is definitely the 80s, man. I grew up in the 80s, but it's it's tough for me to pick one of those. But if I had to say it would be um gosh, what's the name of the song? It's like nothing ain't nothing gonna break my stride.

SPEAKER_02:

Oh, slow me down. Oh no. Yeah, there we go. Love that song. Um, if I was coming to your house for dinner tonight, tell me what we'd have me, you and the kids. What would we have? This one's real easy, man.

SPEAKER_01:

I make the best steak ever. I make the best steak ever. I'll cook you the best steak ever. I make an incredible Caesar salad that accompanies it, and you would have wonderful steak meal with a wonderful salad, some asparagus, it'd be incredible. Like I will cook that six out of seven days. I just the seventh day I gotta do something else.

SPEAKER_02:

Love it. Love it. Um, if you were if there was to be a book written about your life, tell me the title. Oh, jeez. The Wanderer? The Wonderer? Wanderer or Wanderer? Wanderer. Wanderer, okay, cool. I like that. So now hey, it would be W O. W O, okay The Wanderer. So that book is now sold out everywhere. Africa can't take get enough copies of Zimbabwe. It's out, airports are out, Seattle, it's going left and right. So now we need to make a movie out of it. You're the casting director. Jared, who's gonna star you in this critically acclaimed hit new movie Wonder? Wonder, I mean. Gosh.

SPEAKER_01:

It's gotta be James Dean, man. If he was a liar, it's gotta be James Dean.

SPEAKER_02:

Love it. And then last question tell me two words that describe what it means to be a dad. Beyond blessed. Beyond blessed. Love it. Lightning round's complete. I laughed at my own joke. It means I lose, which I always do. Uh man, it's been grateful to learn about you. And 21 again. I'll make sure that I'm gonna do more research. I'm gonna make sure our guests learn more about it. Dad, if you're if you're our age, getting close to 50, and you have not checked your testosterone, which is it's me, I have not. I'm I have action out of this call, which is I'm grateful to learn more about that. But appreciate your time, man. It's been grateful spending with you and um wish you the best, uh, you and your your business in the future, and also just you and your kids, man. Thanks again for spending time with me. And you, Casey, and thank you for what you do for dads. Really appreciate that, man. You bet. Bye bye. Well, thank you again, everybody, for listening today, and appreciate you uh you hanging hanging with us as we continue to uh finish up season six. Uh, if you have not taken Time to leave us a review, please go to the app, uh, the Apple app, the Spotify app, wherever you consume these podcasts, and please leave us a review, uh, leave us a rating, and even share this episode with a friend or family member. And lastly, if you know anybody who's looking to be a sponsor, we're looking to increase sponsorship and uh as we head into 2026. So if there's a company you know of that would be interested in getting behind the quarterback dad cast, please have them reach out to me at casey at casejcox.com. Thanks everybody again for listening.

unknown:

Bye.