Pamela, a former senior program manager for the Google Loon project, shares her journey from fashion design to balloon engineering, highlighting the unique challenges and innovations within the balloon manufacturing sector.

The conversation explores the operational efficiencies and potential of small-scale balloons in atmospheric data collection, juxtaposed with the more traditional, larger NASA balloons used for significant scientific missions.

We examine the evolution of materials and design, and discuss how advancements in technology are reshaping the future of ballooning. Ultimately, this episode provides a profound insight into the fusion of engineering and creativity in the realm of aerial exploration.

Takeaways:

1. In this episode, Pamela Bergmann shares her unique journey from fashion design to balloon engineering, highlighting the unexpected paths one can take in their career.
2. The discussion delves into the intricacies of balloon manufacturing, touching upon the challenges of materials selection and the evolution from traditional sewing to modern welding techniques.
3. We explore the fascinating world of pico balloons, noting their potential for atmospheric research and the increasing accessibility for amateur balloon enthusiasts.
4. Pamela emphasizes the importance of understanding buoyancy and pressure dynamics in balloon design, which directly influences operational success and data reliability.
5. The conversation reveals insights into NASA's large payload balloons, particularly their capacity to carry significant weights, showcasing the advancements in balloon technology over the years.
6. Finally, the episode underscores the collaborative efforts within the ballooning community, as professionals share knowledge and experiences to push the boundaries of what's possible in this field.

Links referenced in this episode:

1. dandelionballoons.com
2. Instagram - @dandelionballoons

Companies mentioned in this episode:

1. Loon
2. Aerostar
3. Scientific Balloon Systems

Dave can be found using his full (with the -id at the end) first name, then outdoorlabs.com. The pack we discussed in the show can be found here: https://kyk13.com/proto-pack-a-custom-paraglider-backpack/

Enjoy!

Professor of Psychiatry & Biobehavioral Sciences

Psychiatry is the study and treatment of mental illness, emotional disturbance, and abnormal behavior

Leads research on anxiety & depression

Trying to understand how neurotransmitters are used in chemical communication by coming up with new sensors to measure what's going on.

[Eavesdropping on Neurochemical Signaling in Vivo]

Focus on serotonin system & how serotonin transporters influence behavior.

In the podcast he talks about hunting giant red abalone on the Lost Coast, what he learned in 31 years of law enforcement (and some of the most important things he teaches) and his world famous (literally) cat rescuing stories from the burn zones of 3 major wildfires.

Shannon Jay is a gem of a human, enjoy the show!

Links:

The Ab King, Eric Stockwell: https://www.northcoastjournal.com/NewsBlog/archives/2018/11/12/just-fishing-with-great-whites-no-big-video

Blink, by Malcom Gladwell.

https://www.amazon.com/Blink-Power-Thinking-Without/dp/0316010669

The Carr Fire Tornado

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L1XkAsWGu60

The rescue of Mama Cat with Douglas Thron

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jIV1VYX1Rc8

Kimberly Freeman at lostcatfinder.com

He can also move that mass pretty quickly. In October of 2019 he's aiming for a world record for the 50 and over crowd.

We talked about running a bit in the show, but went more deeply into his beliefs, how he got into running, and why he started Elements meals.

A rad human with a story worth sharing. Enjoy!

Scott takes us through his career including why he turned down a military command opportunity 3 times: "I joined to be a Green Beret, not a Colonel".

He tells us about his journey out of the military, how despite all his planning and outside stability he still started to flame out.

Scott walks us through how Bo Eason, a former NFL player turned actor, helped guide him through to his next journey.

Scott is a powerful speaker and a good human; I would have been stoked to have had his leadership when I was in the military.

More on Scott at:

http://www.rooftopleadership.com/

http://www.theheroesjourney.org/

For more info go to nikhawks.com

-NFH

Jeff Shapiro is a well known climber, base jumper, wingsuit pilot, hang glider, and paraglider but for this show we focused on his passion for falconry.

Jeff is a Master falconer and has been working with raptors since becoming an Apprentice 2000.

We talk about how you get birds, how to train them, and about some of the peak experiences he's had hunting with falcons and one that he still hopes to have.

Enjoy the show!

Being the curious type, I clicked his name on the Pubmed link and found a whole list of papers he's worked on. As it turns out, he studies insomnia up at SRI and is deeply and narrowly focused on understanding mechanisms of insomnia.

We cover wearable sleep tech and how accurate it is, where it's accurate vs where it ain't, and then dove into his work, from adolescent insomnia to menopausal insomnia.

If you missed some of the big words, or the list of what behaviors have the biggest effect on sleep (hint: It's not the top secret cold water keto rainbow cure), or you just want to remember what Max's favorite strategies for sleep are without having to take notes every 7 seconds, sign up at the Deep Diver level on my Patreon feed.

Finally, before we hung up the phone I asked him if there is any technology he sees coming down the pipe. I'll put that bonus episode (just under 9 minutes long and covering 2 wild pieces of tech he's excited about) on Patreon for my Patrons only. Thank you for your support!

Head over to https://www.patreon.com/nikhawks and support the show, thank you!

Roy has the kind of resume you might build if you were writing a character for Hollywood that needed to be able to fight anybody, anywhere, with anything, but never needed to.

He's known for his Jiu Jitsu courses, so we jump way into how he came up with his teaching style, what he thinks is important with teachers and students, and (of course) we can't avoid his love for Filipino Martial Arts.

If you're looking to up your teaching game, or if you just want to hear about one more path to excellence, this show'll get you a little further down that road.

Enjoy!

NFH

I had a rad guest lined up who got themselves in a spot of trouble stealing deer stands in Utah. Suffice to say there's more to the story than has been generally reported, but since he's gotten death threats I figured adding information to the internet about him probably wasn't going to help him & his family. So that one's gone.

In the meantime I've gotten some good feedback from listeners, including to do a lot more of these Nik-i-sodes.

If you have any questions that you'd like to hear me answer, please post 'em up here or shoot me an email and I'll get them answered.

Cheers, NFH

It ended up (as of 26Sep2018) in this format.

Enjoy!

-NFH

B & D first attracted my interest when I went down the coffee rabbithole and discovered the importance of grinding coffee to A) the correct size and B) making sure ALL the grinds were the same size, and not having some large, some small.

Their Pharos has become a part of my morning coffee ritual, in large part because of the feel of the thing; it's like having a factory in your hand!

We talk about how they came into making hand grinders for coffee, what they did before that (I'll give you a hint: At one point they sold an Army dogsled on eBay, and on another job they were outbid for first crack at buying a theodolite), and the joyous peculiarities of their life, from not having anyone available to come out and fix their roof to why Doug was approached by many beautiful young women on their first trip to Taiwan.

Enjoy the show!

Randy is known as a climber, one of America's best. With just a little bit of Googling you'll see just how good he is, but this podcast ain't about climbing, it's about the pursuit of excellence.

When I first heard about Randy it was from Greg Crouch, another guest on the Paleo Treats podcast. I had told Greg I was looking for more pursuers of excellence and Greg recommended Randy. When I asked why, Greg simply said, "Four decades of world class performance." Well, that just piqued my interest.

In this show we skip past a bunch of Randy's climbing history (well covered on episode 18 of Chris Kalous' podcast, The Enormocast) and go deeper into the pursuit of excellence.

Randy talks about what made climbing his first love, how got into and out of BASE jumping (went off El Capitan in 1980!), when he found kite surfing and why he waited a couple of years before he actually started doing it.

Randy attributes a lot of his results to being a "delayed gratification-ist", something that most of us, including myself, need to work on developing.

We got into his passion for flying and some of the surprising things he had to learn as a pilot that he feels all climbers should know, along with why he stuck with motor planes and didn't get into sailplanes.

Of course I had to butt in and start yapping about paragliding, but I'd like to think I kept it to a minimum.

I took a couple of questions for this show from listeners, so you'll get to hear a bit about the Jumbo Love story, what goes through Randy's head when he's stepping into a true challenge, and of a clarification of his comparison between the best day climbing and the best day surfing.

Enjoy the show!

My good friend and author Greg Crouch comes back on the Paleo Treats podcast to discuss the story of John Mackay, one of the four Bonanza Kings who ran the massive profitable Con. Virginia mine on the Comstock Lode.

Greg talks about how the digital age has transformed writing about historical events, about how writing a book actually happens, and how he developed his writing style.

"I signed the contract for the book in summer of 2014, and it was published in 2018. With 3 months to go on the contract due date and after 3 years of work, I was thinking, I don't know if I can do this!"

Greg is a West Point grad, was a Ranger during the invasion of Panama, a climber putting up first ascents in Patagonia, and an incredibly well read and thoughtful human. He's one of my go to sources when I want to understand the world because he has an uncanny memory that is the result of years and years of reading and the big W word: Work.

Within the first page of reading The Bonanza King you'll see just how much of that work Greg puts in a book. The facts, the background, the perspective, and the connections across a wide swath of that history show the depth and breadth of sheer study he puts in to writing a book.

From Mark Twain's connection to John Mackay all the way to how the Civil War was affected by gold mining in Nevada, and from the development of San Francisco to the laying down of our modern lines of communications, Greg paints an incredible picture of an absolutely remarkable story.

Whether you like rags to riches, stories of hard work, engineering ingenuity, or just reading about a rippingly interesting slice of history, The Bonanza King is as good as you'll get, and with the background of this podcast, that much more enjoyable.

Sit back and dig in to the show!

Cheers, Nik @ PT

From the way she shapes her language to reflect the world she wants to build, to her demonstration by living her principles of what it means to commit fully, Carla is an inspiration for those of us who want to live a life seriously dedicated to our ideals.

If you feel, as I do, that Carla's cause is worth supporting, please head over to the Animal Synergy website and give what you can.

It's when you dive deep that a story gets interesting. TJ Ferrera and Sean Lake talk about the (way) back story of how they got into BUBS and what shaped them not just as entrepreneurs but as men.

These two guys define smooth operators, top performers, and the wild spirit/driven character blend that I tend to like the most.

Enjoy the listen!

NFH

Email from Mike in Flagstaff:

"I basically agree with everything you say, but want to push back just a little on your comments about experts. I don't take issue with what you say as far as it goes. But, I do feel the general theme of not needing experts and that a generally competent person can learn what they need to know about any general topic needs a little clarification just because of the current social and political milieu.

We do need experts, and experts do know a lot that one can't easily teach oneself. You don't want a self-taught person who spent a few hours researching things on the internet flying your plane, designing the steering and brakes on your car, or removing your appendix. We need experts managing technology, the economy, diplomacy, and government.

The so-called "death of expertise" brought about by wide social trends and leveraged strongly by the internet has led to the anti-vaccine movement, climate change denial, and a general push-back on the concept of truth.

This is not to say that experts can't be mistaken or do things wrong, and left to themselves they may take things in a non-desirable direction, witness Facebook and the dissemination of fake news. One could argue that an issue with Facebook is that experts in one thing, software engineering, were working in a field in which they were not expert, essentially social engineering, and got into trouble. But when the experts do fuck it up, the people who generally need to fix it are other experts.

Maybe you agree with most of this (or don't); it just wasn't said in the podcast and I feel has relevance on a broader scale and to some of the things I have been thinking about, so I'm putting it out there."

-Using affirmations, how I do it, not specific but general laying out of the state I want to be in the most during the day, setting the default

"I see every obstacle as a gift - as a challenge to be overcome, and in the overcoming to force growth and power that I can use forever again and again. I am willing to see the world in such a way as to always reap the most benefit from it - I choose to perceive my world as an institution dedicated to my excellence. Every challenge, every gift, every human, every animal, plant, physical, mental or emotional I object I encounter is a n opportunity for greatness!"

-What if each day was viewed as your opportunity to be great?

-"Are you light on that wing?" and working hard

-reading Terrence McKenna's True Hallucinations, what we teach in school: food, body, drugs, sex

-crashing my paraglider: Not doing what you know you need to do, how we learn, one from the luck jar

-crypto tanked, loss, understanding luck, risk, money stress

-joy is cheap: great food, warm showers, time in nature

-the pulse circle & connection with humans

We start the interview by talking about one of his major influencers, his Uncle Leonard. Leonard was "just good at things in a duct tape and baling wire kind of way. He didn't always do things right, but he always got things done."

That practical bent of making sure things got done "so that they worked" has certainly rubbed off on John. His writing (18 books in total and about 800 articles, all on fishing) has the unusual ability to drop you into a story without realizing you're not listening to him tell it around a campfire, or on a long road trip.

There's no better example of this (in my mind) than his short story, "Headwaters" from the book Trout Bum.

John talks about how writing in the second person gives the writing immediacy, even though it's an unusual perspective.

John wrote that first book, "Trout Bum", in 1985, coining the term and realizing that, "I wanted to do what I wanted to do." Like many great artists and most of my favorite people, he wasn't willing to let anything get in the way of that, least of all the judgement of others on a lifestyle that to him made complete sense.

We talked a little about fishing, what he calls a "pre-existing condition", but mostly we talked about the factors that shaped him and his drive to make things that worked well.

We explore how fishing and writing share characteristics that reinforce each other; the mystery of landing a fish and the unknown of beginning to write a story both hold that desire to explore and somehow master the unknown.

John is a master craftsman both as a fisherman and a writer, and we talk about what it takes to gain that status.

From his book "Fishing Bamboo", we discuss this quote.

"In fact, the best work is still usually done in the oldest tradition of craftsmanship: You learn to do the thing the way it is: as the end product of generations of collective genius. […] Those who strike out on their own without first mastering the craft can end up on some pretty thin ice."

Some of what John said in this interview spoke deeply to me as a writer and lover of excellence at its base:

"When you first start writing, there's this sense that you're going to be great right away."

"…it turns out that the higher the pitch of your emotion the less objective you are and…it tends to hurt you."

"If you can get fascinated with it, which I did, it's almost as much fun as fishing."

"People who are good at anything and who are happy about it," are people who have learned to do something they once saw as difficult, and it brings them great happiness.

Of course, we...]]>John Gierach has long been a fly fishing hero of mine. What I didn't know, but came through clearly in this Paleo Treats Podcast interview, is that he's also a writing hero.

We start the interview by talking about one of his major influencers, his Uncle Leonard. Leonard was "just good at things in a duct tape and baling wire kind of way. He didn't always do things right, but he always got things done."

That practical bent of making sure things got done "so that they worked" has certainly rubbed off on John. His writing (18 books in total and about 800 articles, all on fishing) has the unusual ability to drop you into a story without realizing you're not listening to him tell it around a campfire, or on a long road trip.

There's no better example of this (in my mind) than his short story, "Headwaters" from the book Trout Bum.

John talks about how writing in the second person gives the writing immediacy, even though it's an unusual perspective.

John wrote that first book, "Trout Bum", in 1985, coining the term and realizing that, "I wanted to do what I wanted to do." Like many great artists and most of my favorite people, he wasn't willing to let anything get in the way of that, least of all the judgement of others on a lifestyle that to him made complete sense.

We talked a little about fishing, what he calls a "pre-existing condition", but mostly we talked about the factors that shaped him and his drive to make things that worked well.

We explore how fishing and writing share characteristics that reinforce each other; the mystery of landing a fish and the unknown of beginning to write a story both hold that desire to explore and somehow master the unknown.

John is a master craftsman both as a fisherman and a writer, and we talk about what it takes to gain that status.

From his book "Fishing Bamboo", we discuss this quote.

"In fact, the best work is still usually done in the oldest tradition of craftsmanship: You learn to do the thing the way it is: as the end product of generations of collective genius. […] Those who strike out on their own without first mastering the craft can end up on some pretty thin ice."

Some of what John said in this interview spoke deeply to me as a writer and lover of excellence at its base:

"When you first start writing, there's this sense that you're going to be great right away."

"…it turns out that the higher the pitch of your emotion the less objective you are and…it tends to hurt you."

"If you can get fascinated with it, which I did, it's almost as much fun as fishing."

"People who are good at anything and who are happy about it," are people who have learned to do something they once saw as difficult, and it brings them great happiness.

Of course, we turn to some of my favorite subjects; loneliness, hardship, and danger. I was relieved to realize that I'm not the only one who wakes up every day thinking I haven't experienced enough of any of those.

John talked about an essential element of telling the truth about mistakes, and how powerful that is. I've seen a general push towards this lately in the wider world, this "sharing your vulnerability", and John does this (and has been doing this) for decades in a superb way.

His writing tips regarding when to write and the importance of telling it how it was, not how it could have been, well after the emotions of an experience have faded, were incredibly insightful for me. "The temptation to try and make yourself look good is tremendous, and you have to back off in the interest of being honest with your readers."

We talk about friendship and imperfections, how it's hard to find someone you can spend time with, a long time with, and that's the value of a great friend.

John's been lucky (and good) enough to fly into and fish some exceptionally remote and wild places, including some places where [probably] no one had ever fished. "That's just awfully exciting, and of course, everybody has a thing for wilderness, most people don't actually get into it, but there's a tension […] if you've flown a float plane into someplace and get in trouble, the response time can be days or weeks instead of hours."

"The other side of that, [my] home water, I've fished every year for 40 years, has something really comforting about the familiarity of it." John's perspective on enjoying whatever is in front of him, whether it's the wildly exotic or the well known familiar, is inspiring.

John took up fly fishing "not for the sport but as a possible path to enlightenment", and his determination to follow that path to enlightenment and to share it with the wider public comes through clearly in this interview.

We finished up with the advice that he wouldn't give to anyone, knowing that we each have to have the experience in order to learn and grow from it, and no amount of useful advice will save us from making mistakes which we need to make.

John's latest book is A Fly Rod Of Your Own.

Enjoy the show!

This is the first solo-cast I've done, let me know if you'd like to hear more or if you'd rather get back to the interviews with another person.

In this episode I'll talk about the following ideas:

-dare to be great

-power of reading books and leveraging experience/knowledge/time equation

-men need danger, excitement, community

-not everyone should be an entrepreneur

-better to be curious and listen when you want to accomplish a joint task

-why you should judge for yourself what's "worth listening to", and why a Navy SEAL (or anyone) may not be worth listening to, the effect of hazard on importance of message, see "men need danger" above

-brain intensity training, just like physical intensity training. Intensity in general.

Mr. Ramo started off as a journalist, working at Newsweek then for Time Inc back when, as he says, "it mattered who The Man of the Year was." He worked as both senior and as foreign editor at Time, and he wrote for them long enough ago (1997) that he wrote The Man Of the Year cover story on Andy Grove, one of the founders of Intel.

From Time Inc he moved to China to pursue adventure in the world of business. He became fluent in Chinese and fell in love with the culture.

In China he worked for the former president of Goldman Sachs and eventually began working at his current company, Kissinger Associates, where he's now co-CEO.

He lived in Beijing full time for a little over a decade and now splits his time between Beijing and New York. Yes, he's a busy, pipe hittin' dude and I was super stoked to connect for this conversation.

I found him through his first book, No Visible Horizon, a lovely story about his journey to aerobatic nationals as a pilot that reminded me of reading Ernest Gann's "Fate Is The Hunter", another excellent and relatively unsung pilot book.

Curious about what else he'd written, I found his third book, The Seventh Sense, which I read through with great enjoyment and then went on to read his second book, The Age of the Unthinkable.

Reading those two books gave me a look into the mind of a writer deeply immersed in international relations, intensely curious about connections in the modern age, and fascinated with networks in particular.

Both books deal with the unpredictable nature of an increasingly connected world, and as a business owner running a small enterprise in that world I found them entertaining and educational. In fact, they forced me to re-evaluate our strategy at Paleo Treats and the way we're using our networks.

In this interview we dive into the important points of a network, the difference between complex and complicated systems, what topology is and why it matters, and how emergent properties of networks are inevitable.

I asked him how he curates and uses his curiosity, and he talked about his main theme in I spoke with Joshua Cooper Ramo in this podcast interview, partly about his latest book, The Seventh Sense and partly about his overall life and pursuit of excellence.

Mr. Ramo started off as a journalist, working at Newsweek then for Time Inc back when, as he says, "it mattered who The Man of the Year was." He worked as both senior and as foreign editor at Time, and he wrote for them long enough ago (1997) that he wrote The Man Of the Year cover story on Andy Grove, one of the founders of Intel.

From Time Inc he moved to China to pursue adventure in the world of business. He became fluent in Chinese and fell in love with the culture.

In China he worked for the former president of Goldman Sachs and eventually began working at his current company, Kissinger Associates, where he's now co-CEO.

He lived in Beijing full time for a little over a decade and now splits his time between Beijing and New York. Yes, he's a busy, pipe hittin' dude and I was super stoked to connect for this conversation.

I found him through his first book, No Visible Horizon, a lovely story about his journey to aerobatic nationals as a pilot that reminded me of reading Ernest Gann's "Fate Is The Hunter", another excellent and relatively unsung pilot book.

Curious about what else he'd written, I found his third book, The Seventh Sense, which I read through with great enjoyment and then went on to read his second book, The Age of the Unthinkable.

Reading those two books gave me a look into the mind of a writer deeply immersed in international relations, intensely curious about connections in the modern age, and fascinated with networks in particular.

Both books deal with the unpredictable nature of an increasingly connected world, and as a business owner running a small enterprise in that world I found them entertaining and educational. In fact, they forced me to re-evaluate our strategy at Paleo Treats and the way we're using our networks.

In this interview we dive into the important points of a network, the difference between complex and complicated systems, what topology is and why it matters, and how emergent properties of networks are inevitable.

I asked him how he curates and uses his curiosity, and he talked about his main theme in The Seventh Sense that "connection changes the nature of an object."

We do dive briefly into some flying stuff and how flying may move from unnatural to natural as you become a better pilot, but the majority of this interview deals with networks and how to understand and explore them in this incredibly connected world.

Joshua talks about the importance of figuring out what tools you need in order to understand and investigate a problem. He places the conversation in the context of historical cycles, the enduring nature of art, and the best kind of adventure you can have.

Enjoy the show!

Books Mentioned

-No Visible Horizon

-The Age of the Unthinkable

-The Seventh Sense

-Fate is the Hunter

-China's Wings

-The Rational Optimist

For each podcast I do I end up writing a bunch of notes and questions. While I don't always ask the questions, it's helpful to have them written down and reviewed before the show.

Here are my notes for this interview:

-You're a searcher, a seeker, and a story teller. Tell me about that.

-in Age if the Unthinkable you talk about the importance of relationships. You seem very well connected to a number of different cohorts. How did your learning of Chinese culture influence that? Is there anything more important than building relationships when it comes to getting things done? (Planning to be Dan Kaminsky)

-connection changes the nature of an object. What does that mean?

-how are the fourth revolution & the seventh sense tied together?

-how do we cultivate the 7th sense?

-Clausewitz noted, "Many intelligence reports in war are contradictory; even more are false, and most are uncertain. . . . In short, most intelligence is false." How are you assessing a network accurately?

-in Age of the Unthinkable you talk about the spymaster Farkash asking questions no one else asked and being amazed that Israel's actions had forced the enemy to evolve. This evolution of both sides seems like a fundamental part of struggle. Is anyone asking "How do we force our enemy to *devolve*?" Examples of it working?

-how many languages do you speak or you speak or understand? Is it worth it to learn another language, or is there a universal language of networks?

The standard visualization of a network is as a fish net, however, that is not what it might look like. When you talk about topology there is a deceptive notion that these things can be understood in nearly 3 dimensions. How else can someone visualize what a network might physically look like? Or does this require a new skill of four dimensional visualization?

-can you talk a little about how blockchain ties together multiple networks (financial, legal, social?)

-do we need to change to a network system without fallible leaders? Our current leaders seem unable to solve problems for which there are fairly clear solutions.

-how would you befriend a network? Can you be friends with a network?

-how would you addict a network?

-assessing trust in a network?

-assessing quality of expertise in the network? use past predictions?

-let's talk about topology & networks. As I understand it, topology basically refers to the way networks can be thought of in terms of connection time between nodes, regardless of physical distance. If topology is 2 dimensional, is there a way to understand how a 3rd dimension would apply?

-how can we find the edge of a network so we can "shake the blanket" and cause change? Is it possible?

-a group of almost successful (or even unsuccessful) people is far more powerful than a single lucky person; do networks remove the filter of luck, or offset the capriciousness of chance?

-how does a small business use the seventh sense? practical example?

BACKGROUND

Dad is a cardiologist being outdated/outgunned by Google search

Mom is a high powered lawyer who wrote about the power of systems (specifically applied to law offices)

-aerobatic pilot, No Visible Horizon

-started as a journalist, a story teller in '93 at Newsweek

-Time magazine in '96, hired by Walter Isaacson, the guy who wrote biographies about Steve Jobs, Ben Franklin, Albert Einstein, and Henry Kissinger

-oversaw Time's digital operations while covering tech; has been pursuing this idea of tech & networks for a long time

-moved to Beijing in 2002 & worked with John Thornton, former president of Goldman Sachs

-from '03-until now he's worked at Kissinger Associates, where he's currently co-CEO

-fluent in Mandarin (and Spanish?)

NOTES FROM OTHER INTERVIEWS HE'S DONE -how do we expand the network?

-the sixth sense is a feeling for history

-the seventh sense is a feeling for being enmeshed in networks

-what happened in 1848? Massive backlashes? Industrial Revolution

IDEAS SPARKED

-if I wanted to build my own network, how would I use the concepts in the book?

-AI + social media posts? to what end? What is the goal? Maximum engaged followers. What is engaged? Contributing useful content. Can I define useful? Content that triggers conversations or additions to the convo like pictures or video

How can I let the Paleo Treats audience connect with each other and find their friends who are already in the network?

What is our network strategy?

And email centered around the idea of "Who can I introduce you to?"

PODCASTING EQUIPMENT USED FOR THIS EPISODE

Finally, I love the technical geekery of podcasting and am psyched on spreading the word. Here's the equipment I use to make mine:

Mackie Onyx 1220i mixer

ProAudioLA cables

ElectroVoice RE20

Fethead inline preamp

AKG K-240 headphones

U-Control UCA222 splitter for Skype

Avantone Mixcube

Reaper DAW

She currently works at the Platypus Institute, which is an "Applied Neuroscience" institute. That means they figure out how to use what we know about the brain to make humans better.

Dr. Kruse wasn't sure what she'd do once she finished her PhD in neuroscience, but quickly fell in to the defense contracting world. Yes, the government knows and wants to know a lot about how your brain works.

In this interview we talk about her environment growing up (pretty much the perfect childhood), how she thinks when it comes to "moonshots", "The moon is just a little too close for me", and what she's learned in over 15 years poking around and watching the human brain.

From watching how brains interact in a group to accelerating learning in individuals, Dr. Kruse has explored way out to the edge of the possible in neuro-land. We talk about neuro-marketing, neuro-protection, how people become radicalized, and how the next big thing is going to be upgrading our attention span.

For those of you paying attention to human performance, Dr. Amy Kruse is definitely someone to watch closely. Enjoy the conversation!

In this conversation with Prof. Dr. Chahan Yeretzian, a Syrian born Armenian physical chemist based out Switzerland, we dive deep into where the arenas of science, academia, industry, culture, and coffee meet.

From the advice he gives his students to why undergrads can't make good enough coffee, to the religion of freshness, this is a fascinating dive into a different world.

The elements of quality, the translation between measurements and sensory experience, the way that coffee is a cross cultural experience; all these and more are part of Chahan's world.

What will you hear if you listen in? I'm going to try something new, and just include the notes I typed down while editing. Please comment if these are useful, or email me if you'd rather I do your thinking for you.

Notes from a convo with Chahan:

Plenty of mysteries to solve in coffee.

"At the base, good coffee is a sensory experience."

Sensory profiling vs Q grading .

What he likes (intensity, strong body, aroma), very taken with smells.

"One element of quality is consistency."

A big field is predicting specific sensory attributes based on objective measurements.

"Fresh had become a religion, but not an understanding."

The problem is that a lot of people still serve horrible coffee in the industry.

Practical and hands on experience that comes from work in industry vs academia.

"You go into Origin countries and you're learning cultures [based] around your product, coffee.

"Coffee is a peace building product, a trust building event."

Soluble or instant coffee, Sudden Coffee.

Q grading coffee.

Q grader and co-worker Marco Wellinger.

Q grader Gloria Pedroza.

Coffee shows the connectivity of the world.

A very important quality of roasting is…consistency, that you're able to reproduce what you're doing.

"How does the mineral content of the water affect extraction or flavor profile? We're still scratching on the surface [of coffee]."

We're looking into how CO2 affects storage, freshness, formation of crema, flavor, acidity notes; it's like taking one small molecule and trying to get a more rational understanding [of it's impact.]

Creativity based in understanding. Knowledge is freedom and helps people explore new facets of coffee.

"Coffee is just as much art as science."

Mold & mycotoxins in coffee?

The three ways Chahan makes coffee:

-high dollar semi-automatic coffee machines via coffee experts

-filter (hand brewed, freshly ground)

-Single serve capsule

"At home I do filter coffee. I had a professional machine, but it takes too much space."

What I don't do is French press. Sometimes I do soluble coffee, sometimes I mix it with Nespresso.

The research that we do is quite high level, so to do good research on coffee, you can not just rely on undergrads.

Ready to listen to the embodiment of curiosity? Bob flew around the world two and a half times in a plane about the size of a Ford F-250. He's visited a few hundred countries and the "accomplished" side of his bucket list reads like a compilation of any 5 normal people.

"At a project up in Spirit Lake, Iowa, in a bar, a drunken popcorn seed salesman gave me a quote to live by: Seize upon the moment of exotic curiosity to acquire knowledge."

Adventurous, curious, and deeply connected to his spiritual side, this is a fascinating look into one man's journey around the world. Twice.

Don't say No until you know.

I had intended this to be mostly about curiosity, but we got into inspiration and personal development topics as well. If you like adventuring and learning what the world is like, you'll dig this episode.

Make your desire bigger than your fear.

A superb climber (redpointed 5.14), a real adventurer (kite skiing Baffin Island with Andrew McClean), a dog lover, and the kind of guy willing to build his life based on the "do the right thing always" mantra that marks so many of my mentors.

Brad worked his way up from the shipping floor at Black Diamond (the climbing company) to being a Sales Manage for North America, and split off to go his own way and continue selling outdoor gear under his own brand.

Brad is a very private guy, and I owe this podcast to two things.

First, Brad's willingness to grant a friend a favor. Second, the folks over at Enormocast, a climbing podcast.

Brad's been listening to them. and seeing just how useful podcasts can be, so when i came bumbling along with my request, he understood how much it can help to hear someone else's story.

Thanks Chris Kalous at Enormocast for doing a good enough job to inspire Brad and shining a light. Right on!

If you're into adventuring, whether it's kayaking, sailing, kite surfing, or paragliding, you'll probably dig Gavin's take on the world.

Whether he talks about his early "frequent bad decisions" or how he's not quite an adrenalin junkie, this is a great window into the mind of one of National Geographic's 2014 "Adventurer of the Year" recipients.

Enjoy!

After reading through it I realized that these guys were demonstrating more than just an interest in training, this is total "pursuit of excellence" material.

In this episode of the Paleo Treats podcast we talk about where they learned about hard work, why climbing satisfies so many human cravings, and what stops most climbers from becoming better.

This is definitely not a "sets and reps" episode; if you're looking for specific training advice, buy the book. :) However, if you're looking for practical examples of what works to improve anything, not just climbing, you'll find enough in here to inspire and encourage you to do the very best you can in whatever endeavor you engage in.

Enjoy!

This show brings an industry insider in the person of Chris Nicholson to talk about what's going on with AI right now, what it can do, and what it can't.

Chris is a co-founder of Skymind, a company built to help organizations who are not particularly "geeky" build their own AI for their tasks using the well known and very popular computer language Java. There are many flavors of AI, but Skymind is focused on what's called "deep learning", or the ability for a machine to teach itself to get better.

Sounds scary, but after hearing Chris walk you through the state of AI I think you'll be much more excited and hopeful than worried about our future.

In this conversation we talk about machine learning, hadoop, smal data, intrepretability, and dimensions of intelligence. All interesting stuff for those of us relatively unversed in the world of AI, enjoy the show!

This is closer to Paleo than many of our other podcasts in the sense that rammed earth building is a "locavore" (or loca-building) method. Typically you'll use what's on site (the earth) to pour into forms, tamp into rock, remove the forms and enjoy the heck out of one of the most beautiful walls you'll ever see.

I was introduced to David Easton through his book, The Rammed Earth House, many moons ago, even going so far as to build a rammed earth wall for a garden in our backyard back in '09. As a long time fan of rammed earth & Easton's work, I'm super stoked to have him on the show to talk about one of our mutually favorite subjects: Rammed earth.

Listen for this quote, it's one of my favorite from any of these podcasts:

"Every day in some form or another, I touch earth. I don't mean I walk on it, everybody does that. I mean the earth that you pick up and touch, it's all different, you know. Some of it's granular and coarse, and some of it's silky and soft. It comes in all these different colors, it can be gold, red, brown, grey. It has an aroma. You can build things with it, you can grow things in it. It's remarkable stuff, and it's everywhere. If I were blind, I would still feel the earth."

Easton talks about starting out as an earth builder, his progression from building for hippies to building for billionaires, and his latest venture, Watershed Materials.

Enjoy!

NFH

While you might not think a journalist has any connection to Paleo, these story tellers are vital to one of what we believe are the 7 Pillars of Paleo, and that's Community. Without someone to tell our stories we remain individuals only aware of those we know personally; people like Charlie allow us to know and come to understand other communities living in wildly different worlds.

He is one of very few Western journalists to have been kidnapped AND escaped from terrorist hands, and while he doesn't tell the story in this podcast (it's been extensively covered elsewhere), you understand while listening to him the immense power that his practical and analytical mind brings to bear on any problem, from escaping confinement to tracking down the essence of a story.

Charlie has that most basic requirement of journalism, "a curiosity to find things out", and as you listen to this podcast you begin to understand what it takes to delve deep into a story, suss out and untangle the various threads, and then package it in a form that most of the rest of us can understand.

His journalist odyssey began under the tutelage of Peter Jennings, and he covered the Arab-Israeli war while working out of Beirut throughout the 1970s. Charlie's experiences portray a man with a finger on the pulse of Arab unrest.

He interviewed the hostage crew of TWA 847 in Beirut Airport in 1986, exposed Saddam Hussein's secret biological weapons program in '88, covered the Kurdish rebellion in Iraq in '91, the '03 invasion of Iraq, and has worked for over 30 years to find and deliver the stories that follow all the tangled and connected threads of complex situations.

Charlie credits some of his fascination with journalism to his time working at The Observer (the world's oldest Sunday paper), where he says "to walk into that newsroom was to walk in to the University of Life."

If you'd like to know more about Charlie, check out his website here or follow him on Twitter.

Tune in and absorb the lessons of a well read, brave, and deeply thoughtful journalist. Enjoy the show!

Cheers,

Nik

From running technique to eating habits to mindset and the importance of raw strength, Brian goes through the various and winding paths that brought him to being one of the most well respected coaches in CrossFit and the endurance world.

Whether it's the way you breathe, pick up your foot when you run, or what you spear with your fork, Brian's mantra of personal responsibility for one's own actions comes through loud and clear in this podcast.

If you'd like to learn more about Brian and what he does please pop on over to CrossFit Endurance, or follow him on Twitter or fuel up with 3FU3L (primal, not paleo) for more on his approach and coaching strategy.

Enjoy the show!

Whether he's talking about who OFM is for (everybody) or "not being held hostage by food", Peter is a wealth of information on returning to our evolutionary roots in the nutrition game.

Listen in to learn why ruminants are actually fat burners, what animal humans are closest to when it comes to digestive tract similarities (nope, not pigs), and why it's likely you're eating too much muscle meat.

This is a long show, so settle in for some serious learning!

Cheers,

Nik @ PT

Starting off in the Irish Army as an infantryman, after five years he left the military and moved into personal training, eventually following his wife to Western Australia where he settled down and ended up working for the mining industry as a Human Performance and Health & Safety project manager. He has a Master's Degree in Mining Engineering, an MBA, and a Graduate Certificate in Adult Sleep Science from UWA.

A well traveled man, Ian has lots of experience and education about sleep on this podcast, from the basics of sleep hygiene to how much sleep you need as an athlete to the difference between chronotypes such as larks and owls, how to beat jetlag and the best way to adjust to sleeping at altitude.

Ian discusses the best times to schedule meetings and make decisions, the worst times to quit, and everything in between. A finisher of the Leadville Trail 100 (in 2013) and a BJJ blue belt, Ian backs up his academic knowledge with a lifetime of practical application with elite athletes, the military, and the corporate world.

If you'd like to connect with Ian he's @sleep4perform on Twitter or @sleep4perform on Facebook, or you can grab his email at the end of the show.

Enjoy!

He is the Senior Scientist at the Massachusetts Shark Research Program and works closely with both the Atlantic White Shark Conservancy and OCEARCH to study Great White Sharks. He literally wrote the book on sharks (The Shark Handbook) and is very enthusiastic about translating the science literature for the lay public to learn about and enjoy this fascinating family of animals.

Sharks have been around for over 400 million years, an awful long time to perfect the glorious evolution evident in every sweep of their tail and gnash of teeth, and in this podcast Greg shares his fascination with this most amazing of creatures along with stories of his experiences diving with sharks in the Arctic, the Caribbean, and Pacific.

Studying sharks has shaped Greg's world, and he talks about how the science has shifted dramatically from only being able to access dead sharks to now being able to track in real time the peregrinations and through that the individual personalities of one of the most well traveled species on the planet, the Great White Shark.

Greg talks about the importance of shark scientists and shark aficionados, what it takes to make a difference, and how you can help sharks tremendously from either path. Enjoy!

The NextDraft perspective comes from being very well read along with being both curious and horrified by humanity, as well as offering varying perspectives on any given story. If you're looking for a daily wrap up of the most day's most fascinating stories, NextDraft is a fantastic place to start.

The real power of NextDraft comes from Dave's personality; when you read it every day it feels like Dave wrote the email just for you and not for the 75,000 email subscribers on his list plus the 120,000 NextDraft app users. Among those users are counted some of the most powerful and plugged in journalists out there, making NextDraft not just a "repeater station" but much more of a high signal to noise operation than you'd normally find.

Having always wanted to be part of the news business and the media industry, Dave says NextDraft is a joy to write and that shows in every word he types in.

In this interview, Dave talks about the genesis of one of the most popular email newsletters on the net, how much feedback he gets, and what he's proudest of.

Not only is this podcast well worth a listen, this is an email newsletter worth signing up for.

Cheers,

Nik & the PT Crew

On many salvage jobs, the divers present the biggest challenge, and Nick's story on how he deals with these rock stars of the salvage world is both funny and indicative of real depth in understanding human motivation.

If you've ever wondered about building a team, working under stress, or what it takes to want to go out in heavy weather and stormy seas to perform a job not many people can even imagine, let alone do, then you'll really dig listening to this master of creating calm in chaos.

Cheers!

Nik@PT

This episode with Jean Donaldson draws on her experiences with training dogs, and training dog trainers for over 15 years and specializing in aggressive dog cases at The Academy for Dog Trainers. Jean's degree is in comparative psychology and she is one of the world leaders in understanding how dogs think and how we can attempt to understand them.

If you're still smacking your dog for pissing on the floor while you work in a cubicle for 8 hours, A) you're a savage, and B) Jean may have some advice for you that'll make both of you feel a lot better.

Our sponsor for today's show is Real Roar, a local shop here in San Diego that offers raw food for your dogs & cats. We're strong proponents of healthy food for all species, and when it comes to our dogs we make sure they eat what they were designed to; raw carcasses full of bones, meat, and chewy tendons. We get the food for our dogs (Birdie, Norton, and Marvel) at Real Roar and if you'd like to learn more about 'em or pick up a case of pork neck bones for your dog and make their day, head on over to www.realroar.com

Enjoy the show, and don't forget to leave us a review on iTunes!

Cheers,

Nik

Trained as an anthropologist, Mike focuses on bringing together many elements from the "fringes"; as a paper folder, weaver, and former competitive athlete (Junior National Champ and 1980 Olympic trials in the steeplechase.)

Mike shares what he's learned over the years, from observing Bill Bowerman's incredible attention to detail to the debate of health vs performance that is a part of every shoe to the state of prosthetics and how the fastest athletes in the world will soon be ones without legs.

Friton's world is fascinating, and I'm stoked to share this conversation with you!

Cheers,

Nik@PT

He's most well known for The Maffetone Method, which is a heart rate based method for increasing your aerobic (vs anaerobic) performance. A simple equation (train at a heart rate of 180 minus your age), it is one of the most effective training tools in any athletes repertoire.

An avid proponent of barefoot running and occasionally lifting heavy things, Dr. Maffetone's methods are most clearly distinguished by three things: His extraordinary individualization of coaching, his incredible patience, and his holistic approach that goes well beyond just one type of healing modality.

Dr. Maffetone made the transition from endurance performance coaching into music in the early 2000s, so we also talk about how music affects people, how the way we listen to music has changed, and how music can increase your athletic performance (hint: It's not with earbuds!)

Enjoy!

Training based around bar speed is called "velocity based training" or VBT. This is super exciting because bar speed is a dimension that the average athlete hasn't been able to track without going into a science lab. Tracking speed means you can train for power, not just weight, and be super accurate at getting better.

PUSH goes one step further and can advise you on how many sets and reps to do based on how quickly you can move the bar. As you slow down (or speed up) PUSH will recommend you decrease weight, increase weight, or just walk away. It's like SKYNET for weight training, but friendlier.

Tune in if you're ready to geek out on the science of velocity based training!

In this episode we talk about the mind game, when to train with (and without) partners, the importance of working out in a dingy facility, and he adds one more aspect to the Big Four of performance to make it the Big Five: Deep, focused concentration.

Listen in if you love lifting heavy and the mediation of exercise.

Enjoy!

Brooks is a fan of pure strength along with what you might (if you were a CrossFitter) call "ultra heavy metcon." Heavy sandbags, barrels, car pushing, farmer's walks, and as many odd lifts as you can imagine make up Brooks' routines.

He's a 5 time National Champion in sub-masters bench press, so he's definitely not some armchair writer; this guy lives it.

On top of all that, he's got a mind like a steel trap, and to sit back and listen to him talk about the history and connections found throughout the Iron Game is to enjoy a master at work.

From Alan Calvert to Harry Paschall and from Thomas Inch up to Peary Rader, Brooks has studied and can elaborate on all the connections found throughout the marvelous sport known as the Iron Game.

While most of this may be well outside your area of expertise, I think you'll enjoy the passion, enthusiasm, and commitment that comes through in every word.

Enjoy!

Of course, there are a whole slew of Special Operators who are consummate quiet professionals, but it turns out that keeping it all in has its own set of problems. Luckily, there are a few groups out there dedicated to doing the actual work (not just raising the money) to help out the Few.

In this podcast we speak with Kevin Stacy, former Army officer and 160th flier who has developed a program aimed specifically at helping the Spec Ops community post-combat.

Kevin talks about what he's doing with The Station Foundation, how it's different than other programs, and how you can help (if you're so inclined.)

Enjoy!

In this podcast we talk about many different famous wildfires, from Mann Gulch in ’49 to Yellowstone in ’88 to the 2006 Tripod fire and the 1994 Storm King fire.

Steve covers everything from how fires operated before Europeans arrived in America to how a fire crew is organized to how much a wild land firefighter will carry when heading into the fight.

He’s also got some interesting insight into what makes women such tough and effective firefighters, why fighting fires is so interesting, and the the difference between “natural” and “wild” fires.

This is a fascinating look into a subject that not many folks take the time to know about. Enjoy!

Billy is now in his mid-eighties but still going strong, with a tack-sharp memory going back over 50 years of unconventional soldiering. First as an Army Special Forces (Green Beret) in Vietnam, then working for the Agency around the world (although mostly in the “10/10 zone”, 10 degrees north or south of the equator) Billy has taken part in some incredible pieces of history, including hunting Carlos the Jackal (successfully) and going eye to eye with Osama Bin Laden during the early ’90s in Khartoum.

Listen in for Billy’s one word piece of advice on how to do great things in the world no matter where you go or who you work with.

Enjoy!

NFH & The PT Crew

I asked if he wanted to come pimp the piece on the PTPC and I got slightly more than I asked for.

This is without a doubt the most fact filled and deep podcast we've done.

You probably have a personal narrative of Africa in general that goes something like this: hot, shit hole, large animals, poor, dangerous, needs help.

If that's what you think, stand by to have your ideas turned on their head. It took about 90 minutes for Robert to walk Steve & I through what's going on there, and we still only scratched the surface.

For more on any of this stuff, you can find Robert here or on Facebook.

To read the article on VICE go here, and for Robert's super beefy rippingly effective knives, take a look here.

In 1991 Phil invented the way that we secure email communications (PGP, or Pretty Good Privacy) and has been awarded damn near everything you can be noticed for in the digital encryption world, including being inducted into the Internet Hall of Fame, named top 50 tech visionaries of the last 50 years, top 10 innovator in e-business, one of the 50 most influential people on the internet; the list goes on.

In this episode Phil talks about how he got into encryption (he was a peace activist), the weaknesses of email, and the current state of both cryptography and cryptanalytics, including commenting on the Snowden revelations.

He also talks about why we (I'm assuming you're like me and a pretty regular person) need encryption as normal citizens. I don't have anything to hide, do you? You might re-think the way you conduct communications after this.

Enjoy!

Having been inspired to grow grapes from The Land Was Everything: Letters from an American Farmer to learn Attic Greek after reading Who Killed Homer: The Demise of Classical Education and the Recovery of Greek Wisdom, and think just a bit more about military history when exposed to the ideas in The Savior Generals: How Five Great Commanders Saved Wars That Were Lost - From Ancient Greece to Iraq by this guy, it was an honor to have him on the show.

We cover everything from farming to soldiering to the Anabasis, public education, the delta smelt and whether or not the unemployed should be allowed to log downed timber. If you'd like to read more of his work or just learn what makes him tick, check out Victor Davis Hanson here.

Enjoy!

Lambert isn't just another pretty face, this guy can speak fluent Chinese and French, can reel off the dates of damn near every important event in human history prior to 1980, is a tea master, and in his spare time is getting his MBA and acting as the captain of the SDSU X Prize team going after Qualcomm's Tricorder X prize. This is a competition among the finest minds of our day to develop an iPhone sized device that will tell you anything you want to know about your physical systems from heart rate to cancerous growth detection just by waving it in front of your chest. Or something like that.

Lambert is much more than a brilliant mind, he speaks with feeling on the need for a common set of ethics outside of faith, on how he went from boy to man, and what it means to be a childhood cancer survivor.

Enjoy!

Doug talks about how he went from being a New Jersey boy with no wilderness skills to a respected climber with several first ascents and notable climbs in the Karakorum, Hindu Kush, and Pamir mountains. He also tells the story of Chris’ (the problem solver) daring leap off the side of a cliff in Yosemite after pulling off a base jumper’s body, and talks about why it’s so damn important (and easy) to help little girls in Pakistan gain access to education.

When he’s not being a boring old mountain climber, Doug works at the Gallatin National Forest Avalanche Center as the Director/Avalanche Specialist in Bozeman Montana.

Crouch has written excellent books, in this podcast we talk about Enduring Patagonia, China's Wings, Right Mate Let's Get On With It and others.

Greg is a superb storyteller, and from the story of how his birth precipitated a major change in English politics to the latest adventures climbing in Iran he offers the perspective of a live well lived.

"Basically I'm famous for still being alive". Journalist, photographer, and all around adventurer, Robert offers that rare perspective of a man who has followed his dreams no matter what (once he turned 40.)

Starting out as a poor kid and then being a lumberjack, blaster, advertiser and then launching into the corporate world, Pelton decided when he was 40 that making money and driving a Rolls Royce wasn't the be all end all of life, so he took off to some of the world's shit holes and decided to live.

Enjoy the show with a modern day truth seeker!

If you've ever wondered what it's like to experience pure human energy than get ready for an amazing interview with a guy who can literally persuade people who can't swim to jump in at the deep end.

Shawn is one of our favorite people, she doesn't pull any punches "If you're not eating Paleo Treats then you're f-ing stupid", and when she sees a problem she wades in and gets down to business. She doesn't let anything stop her and she has a way of describing the world that is at once completely foreign and yet totally matches with our own intuition.

While this is one of our longer podcasts we think it's worth every minute. Go ahead, have a listen!