ATEOTT 16 Transcript EPISODE 16 [INTRO]

ATEOTT 16 Transcript EPISODE 16 [INTRO] [00:00:02] ML: It was the first time in my life that I’d ever had had a panic attack. Just googling those drugs, knowing nothing about either condition, I just couldn’t believe what I was reading, just how bad these conditions get. That nobody has ever survived Alzheimer’s disease. It wasn’t even clear whether or not my mom had Alzheimer’s disease, but she was given drugs for the condition, and Parkinson’s disease as well. I was like, “Well, what’s the big deal about Parkinson’s disease?” Then I started reading about how people with Parkinson’s disease, they lose their ability to move. Many of them end up actually dying, because they choke when trying to eat, a major cause of mortality. People with Parkinson’s, late stage Parkinson’s disease. Just thinking about my mom going through that was just the most upsetting thing imaginable. It was just really, really dark. I remember my heart racing. [00:01:04] LW: Hi, friends. Welcome back to another episode of At The End Of The Tunnel. Today, I’m talking to somebody whose journalism career went in a slightly different direction after his mother was diagnosed with a degenerative brain disease. I got to meet Max Lugavere several years ago when he so graciously agreed to come to one of my Shine events and share the story of how he became one of the leading authorities on brain health. Since then, Max has become a dear friend and quite the expert particularly on the food that you should be eating to keep your brain healthy, and he put it all in his New York Times bestselling book on the subject called Genius Foods. In addition to writing, Max regularly appears on the Dr. Oz Show. You may have seen him on Rachael Ray and The Doctors. He's also a filmmaker, a podcaster and a speaker. Max wasn't always the go-to guy for brain health. As you'll hear in the interview, he actually started out making these quirky little videos in college with his best friend, Jason Silva. That landed them jobs as co-hosts for Al Gore's independent cable network called Current TV. I remember when that was out. Then Max hopped around the television world for a bit and it was in 2010, just when his star was shining so brightly, when everything ground to a halt after he got the news that his mother © 2020 At the End of the Tunnel 1 ATEOTT 16 Transcript had been diagnosed with early onset dementia. Max, who was a journalist at heart began collaborating with top scientists and clinicians to find answers to his mother's condition. His discoveries led him to a surprising realization. Brain disease often starts decades before the diagnosis. If only people knew that the foods they put in their body can either make or break a healthy brain, they would make different choices. Then max launched a kickstarter to create a documentary about these findings called Bread Head and he's now written those two books about Brain Health, Genius Foods and most recently, Genius Life. Max's podcast, which is also called The Genius Life is one of the top podcasts in the health and wellness category on iTunes. Guys, this was an awesome conversation. I really can't wait for you to hear the story of how Max had been on one track to becoming a television star, yet little did he know, he was being divinely groomed to challenge the traditional health care system, where they treat the symptoms more than the cure. After hearing his story, my hope for you is twofold; number one, I hope you feel more empowered to educate yourself and ask more questions in the event that somebody you know is diagnosed with a degenerative health condition. Number two, I hope you remember that everything in your life is steadily preparing you for your purpose. Without further ado, let's hear from Max Lugavere. [INTERVIEW] [00:03:55] LW: Max, welcome to the podcast. As always, I like to start these conversations by talking about childhood. When you think back to little Max and your earliest days, what toy or activity do you remember being really fond of? [00:04:14] ML: Well, probably my favorite toy from childhood was a toy – there were action figures called Exosquads. I just thought that they were really elaborate and just so cool. Basically, what it was was this exoskeleton machine, fighter robot. The front of it would open up and the toy would also come with this little man. You would put the little man inside this © 2020 At the End of the Tunnel 2 ATEOTT 16 Transcript much larger machine robot and then you would collect all the robots and have them fight one another. It was definitely my favorite toy. I think looking back, I probably really appreciated it, because as people, as humans, we're pretty frail. We're strong, but we're not that strong. I’ve always been really obsessed actually with superheroes and super powers and things like that. When this mech toy came out, this Exosquad toy, it was just so cool the concept that you could be this delicate little person, but then put yourself inside of this tough iron and steel exterior strapped with all these different weapons, I don't know, I just thought that that was the coolest thing. [00:05:23] LW: Is that something you would get for – I know, you're Jewish, so there was no Christmas. [00:05:27] ML: No Christmas. Yeah. [00:05:29] LW: Presents. How did you come across the Exosquad? Is that something that – did they have a commercial, or friends you play with? [00:05:38] ML: My best friend growing up, his name was Bennett. We were inseparable for many years. I was hanging out. His mom would watch over us and we'd have all these play dates. One day, we were in a Duane Reade in his neighborhood of Manhattan, which is where I grew up. They had them and they were very expensive toys. I remember them being – they were about $14 a toy back then. His mom bought me the first one. I was just obsessed with it. It might have even been more. It might have been around $16 or $18, because again, they were really intricate and they came with basically – it was two toys in one. I discovered it at the Duane Reade. It's one of those things where even in adulthood, I’ve actually probably even this year, gone on to eBay to see if I could buy the whole set, just because I have such fond memories of that toy and how cool it was in my little child Max brain. © 2020 At the End of the Tunnel 3 ATEOTT 16 Transcript [00:06:32] LW: Interesting. I’m surprised they haven't made a movie about the Exosquad. Have they made one yet? Was there a television show or cartoon? [00:06:40] ML: Well, I certainly wasn't aware of a movie or a cartoon, an Exosquad movie or cartoon at the time, because discovering the toy was the first time I’d heard of it. I think that it actually was a cartoon. I’m not entirely sure. I was just obsessed with those toys. They were so cool. Of course, I was really into superhero toys and X-men and all that stuff. Those were probably my favorite characters growing up. Then when I saw these robot toys, it was mind-blowing. It was just very elaborate and it had all these moving parts. I just thought it was so cool. [00:07:14] LW: Well, it also gives you, I think a bit of more context for anatomy and the human body, because as you grow up, you obviously go to a doctor's office at some point in your life and they have a little skeleton and you already have a point of reference for all of that. Did that come up at all in your life growing up as a child? Health, wellness, skeletons, anatomy, anything like that? [00:07:36] ML: Yeah. I mean, I’ve always been interested in health and anatomy. I’ve just always thought that it was really cool. I’ve always had a penchant for understanding interesting factoids about the body and remembering them and just being really – just always gravitating to new insights that I could glean about how the body works. At the same time, I recognized frailty and disease and aging. I’ve always been a really empathetic person just really sensitive and tapped into the suffering of others. For me, the suffering that was most visible was illness and disability and deformity and things like that. I’ve always just recognized on the one hand, how wondrous the human body is, but on the other hand, how frail and vulnerable it is. This idea that this mythology surrounding superheroes and Exosquad fighters and things like that that we could take our bodies and upgrade them in a way somehow, or conceive of them being upgraded, or invincible, or just stronger than they are, to me that was just always a very enticing promise. © 2020 At the End of the Tunnel 4 ATEOTT 16 Transcript I think that that is what ultimately was the on-ramp into my interest in fitness and supplementation and health and everything that I do today really is ultimately, about bolstering, buttressing the body, because the body is amazing, but the body is also – we're just soft tissue, or these breath-gasping meat bags.

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