Morgan Spurlock: Inside the Mind of a Human Guinea Pig (#150)

Oh man…hope you guys talked about the making of the Comic Con doc in this one. Can’t wait to listen.

Tim,

I love your blog and have been recommending the Four Hour Work Week for years. I would love to discuss a question with you.

Your four hour philosophy of leveraging your time and working smart is fantastic, but how far can you take that? If you look at Elon Musk as the other end of the spectrum. He works enormous amounts of hours and is almost entirely focused on work, but has reached the high water mark of success. What is the relationship between time and success? Can you have 1/3rd of Elon Musk’s success on a 40 hour work week or even 30 ( recognizing that he is also really talented and supremely focused)?

Thanks

Dave

Great episode Tim! For anyone interested here’s a direct link to the medical tourism episode of Inside Man featuring Bumrungrad Hospital (a little hard to find because it’s titled Club Med): https://www.netflix.com/watch/80045191

First the meh: It was a little disconcerting to hear you guys bring up Alex Gibney’s “Going Clear.” I’m a long-time Scientologist (and listener/reader) and have even worked for two upper Scientology management organizations in New York and Clearwater, FL. I cannot tell you how incorrectly the media misconstrues information about Scientology – just like everything else mind you. It’s actually unbelievable. In fact, if something is highly criticized in the media, I like to see what they’re doing right. See: Theranos getting bashed by The Wall Street Journal for example.

I absolutely love the documentary format but have realized it’s incredibly open to abuse, like many art forms. I believe that the same principles from “Bad Science” should be considered with the documentary world. There are tons of inconsistencies with “Going Clear” which can be explored here: http://www.freedommag.org/going-clear/ – Believe me… I’ve heard it all in my eight years as a staff member on the public lines. Please check something out for yourself before throwing it under the bus. Just a look at the group’s humanitarian work is eye opening. Although you probably wouldn’t know that because that’s not what we’re fed by Bullshit, Inc. (Took that one from Steven Pressfield’s “The War of Art”) 😉

Now the praise: Long time listener/reader. THANKS Tim for the incredible content. Morgan was great and his Supersize Me is one of the best docs I’ve ever seen – considering I’ve never touched Fast Food since seeing it. I think he does incredible work as storyteller and hope he continues!

Long time T.F. fan, the 4HWW got my attention back in 2008 and I’ve been plugged in to what you’ve been up to ever since. As a extreme sports and adventure/exploration junkie, I’d like to suggest a podcast interview. This guy is a Red Bull sponsored athlete, has some very specific and well thought out ideas on endurance sport nutrition, and is one extreme yet humble dude.

Will Gadd.

Thanks Tim!

Why does print — in regard to book publishing — persist in a digital age, you asked Morgan rhetorically, somewhat perplexed. Simple. Print is digital disconnect. Read a magazine or book and it’s total immersion. Email doesn’t ding. Alerts don’t slide in, annoyingly. You can’t click over to Facebook. Reading print is like meditation. Great interview with Morgan. Enjoying the series very much.

Hi Tim ! I really like your blog, actually I found it a half year ago. Found it very useful, and working on mine to be very good too.

Sorry that it may sound a little off topic.

The little problem I questioning myself over and over again is – I’m actually russian, but of course it’s good to make it worldwide – you know how many more people sit over there. I can’t finally decide – should I write all my posts in “rus// eng” mode like eng text after rus text on one page. Or should it be completely different versions.

I’m even laughing when I imagine your article in english and right after in spanish. But mine are not that long.

What would work better?

thnx Tim, and bloggers for your attention, if someone wants to ask me something you can do it.

Hi Tim,

This is just a quick thank you message.

Over the last few months (possibly even longer…), I’ve been getting my podcast ready for launch. And you know what? Today is the day- it is finally launched, and doing well so far.

One thing I always try to maintain is a good level of gratitude.

And I like to show that gratitude.

So I’d like to say thank you to you, because I know that without the countless hours listening to the The Tim Ferriss Show, writing down all of the golden nuggets you’ve taken your time to literally give to me for free, I wouldn’t have gotten this far.

So, thanks again. You are my yoda. Or Obi Wan. I haven’t decided whether I’ll live as a Jedi or Sith yet.

Hayden Lee

Travel Stories Podcast

[Moderator: links removed]

Timmy,

I’ve been listening to your podcast with great interest for several months now. I’m about to sprinkle in some criticism so don’t be offended, please. Most of the episodes are way too lengthy but I do get a lot out of many of them and appreciate your efforts. The commercials are brutal as well, to be candid. I fast forward through all of them. My recommendation would definitely be to condense or edit most of your interviews if you really wanna improve on your format. I’d say Rick Rubin might have been my favorite so far, with Chris Sacca right up there.

Notwithstanding, this time you really sh$t the bed Timbo. This guest was sooooo dull and just not funny despite his best efforts at humor. Supersize was interesting I guess but really nothing good since from this guy. Honestly, you seemed rather disinterested in him yourself.

In sum, keep bringing in the successful entrepreneurs and finance gurus, comedians, etc. but this episode really felt like than an extended promo piece for Sherlock’s boring documentary or whatever the fuck he’s working on.

what was Morgan’s suggested book, I tried listening over but really couldn’t make out and it’s not in the notes? the one you said came up frequently but never sat down to read similar with 道德經. cheers. luv the work.

Wow! The story about being a quarter million in debt was the most inspiring thing I have heard this month! I have often put my cash and my whole business on the line for what I believe in and it has felt like everyone thought I was crazy. Stories like this help the crazy ones! 🙂

I had hoped to get the interpretation of the Bhagavad Gita that Morgan read!

I, too, have had this book come up in my life many times, and many times put it off. Every time I heard it, I knew it was something I had to read. ALAS- it is time!

Very funny ” about the gym as laugh load ‘ beef cake Ironman ‘ also looks strange when I thank you currently listening !! !!

To all the strange people saying Super Size Me and thus, Mr Spurlock, are a fraud. Lets address this shall we

1. ‘Studies’ have been done to disprove it, have they? Well, Mr Spurlocks exercise was a study as well, and as a real life self experiment has way more validity than some clinical fabricated study. So, unless you can replicate all of the conditions of Mr Spurlocks study – in other words clone him and re do it exactly the same – then you cant say ‘my study beats your study’

2. I don’t believe it was a fraud. But I don’t care if it was. Even if it was a complete fraud, I would welcome it. Why? People are so crazy, they forget who we are talking about here. MCDONALDS. They have NO redeeming features whatsoever. No justification to exist. They are a destructive cancer that…umm..cause cancer. They are drug dealers, pawning out toxic addictive crap all over the world, that destroy lives. deforestation and developing world exploitation and…you can look up all the ways. And no one is doing anything to counter act them. Now, when people try and educate others, like handing out flyers outside a McDonalds to try and help people, McDonalds have a tantrum and take those two people to court for the longest running court case in Englands history (McLibel is the name of the case) 10 years of their life gone.

So, SuperSize Me – bring it on! Mr Spurlock is a hero for what he has done. The countless number of people he has saved, he deserves a medal. Getting it out to a wide audience like that – amazing. (The only thing I regret is that he admitted that he still enjoyed the occasional mcdonalds hamburger. I thought that detracted from his objective and cred a little bit. Don’t say you keep eating it!!!!)

as an aside, did it ever occur to you that any ‘debunking’ studies were funded by McDonalds as their PR department went into damage control the only way they knew how? As they had no options left?

3. The person in the comments here that said you can’t gain 11 kilos without anabolics. Well one – maybe mcdonalds has anabolics.I’m only half joking. Secondly if the liver totally shuts down it can’t metabolise. Given all the highly toxic High Fructose Corn Syrup in that ‘food’ it is no surprise. So, that 11 kilos could be purely unexcreted matter, water retention, metabolic byproducts etc. Plus – as we know from Four Hour Body – weighing body weight is generally highly ineffective, it is hard to get reliable body weight data. We don’t know what criteria Mr Spurlock was really using. Stool samples would have been more illustrative of the physical degeneration but not necessary as the film spoke loudly enough

4 . Another aside. I know people that eat mcdonalds and say they felt psychotic afterward. I am not surprised. Again I blame High Fructose Corn Syrup for this. Aside from that the fact that it can’t be uptaked by the cells, it has to pass through the liver – Really seriously toxic chemicals are used to manufacture it – look it up – you’ll be amazed – easy to find information about it

I would put big money on the bet that most police shootings of innocent civilians in north america ( where that happens all that time) had happened after the cop had eaten mcdonalds promoting unwarranted and irrational acts of aggression and unreasonable or unwarranted force

all the crazy spikes in blood sugar, the liver totally freaking out etc – not conducive to the qualities for calm, healthy, community supportive policing thats for sure!! (the reason its the only country in the world i never want to go to – i”m not worried about crime it’s the police , making it the most dangerous country yes. This is a popular belief worldwide by the way – every time theres another police shooting tourism falls even further. I reckon you can partially blame McDonalds for this )

Tim, would you mind sharing the translation of the Bhagavad Gita that Morgan recommended? thx