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Joe Ison: And we're off.
Mark: And we're here.
Joe Ison: We're here, buddy.
Mark: How I rather you get.
Joe Ison: I am good, mate. I am good. We're a set of things up. We're good as gold. Yes, brother. Good to hear from you. It's it's been in a couple of weeks, mate. I think
Mark: You too, been longer than that, I think. It's been a while.
Joe Ison: it has, yeah. Yeah, we're we're just talking off air, guys, and we always do this, don't you mark? Where we sort of
Mark: Yep.
Joe Ison: ha started 20 minutes ago, like we should really re hit the record button. and actually start this this podcast. So there we go. We finally hit record. So yes,
Mark: Yeah, I agree.
Joe Ison: brother, I am all well. Keeping busy. And I'm sure we'll deep dive into all the all the cool things we've been doing. 'cause I think the last time we spoke actually was a little bit before the health optimization summit. I know you've had a few little talking gigs as well.
Mark: Hmm. Yeah, that was really good. Actually, that was was a load of fun. I really enjoyed it. I love those guys. It's in general, Tim Gray and his his I say that the Robin to his Batman lady called Isabel, they just they just Mate, she's incredible. She basically runs everything of that show. It's amazing. And just got to meet some really, really cool people. When you're sat in a green room with just Wim Hof and his daughter and just having a chat with Wim Hof, mean, it's just incredible. mean, he's a legend. His daughter's as much of a legend as him. And he had his music producer in there as well, because he's just released an album. So it's music with Wim's like... guttural tones underneath it and he kept doing it.
Joe Ison: Hey wow.
Mark: He was basically beatboxing while we were there and dude the bass that guy can get in his voice is just ridiculous. Just ridiculous, it's like a Viking, it's insane. Yeah, he's cool as hell man, he's so...
Joe Ison: What a legend. Yeah, yeah. I I it's so funny you say that. His app is incredible. I remember when that first came out a few years ago. A great book as well, great story.
Mark: Yeah. Yeah.
Joe Ison: But I think he did all the music for that, didn't he, as well? Sort of like the countdown timer.
Mark: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Joe Ison: Doing the meditation and the culture. So really big, big shout out to Hoff, the Hoffman. He anyone who's listening who'd done the Wim Wim Hof app. committed to to meditation and cold cold immersion training. I think it has a very valuable p place this time of year. In the summer it was a
Mark: yeah? 100 % 100 %
Joe Ison: it's a bit I don't know. I think it's it's a Yeah, I'm trying to find think of the word. In the summer it's a bit more challenging. You would have thought like i it's a given that you're gonna do cold showers and stuff, but you tend to stop them in the winter, and I think it's the most important thing to keep up with in the winter, particularly
Mark: I I agree.
Joe Ison: if you're a male, that we know like with women,
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th the dangers in the dosage, right? It's it's not as beneficial for women's health than it is for males' health. But yeah, never got sick, never got unwell during the winter months from doing my man Wim Hof Sap.
Mark: Yep. He's incredible dude. Honestly, he's such a legend. Absolute legend. Loved having a chat with him. And I met Bear Grylls. He's a nice guy. Quiet, but a nice guy. became good friends with a guy called Dr. John LaRonce. He's a really nice guy. and a guy, he, he has the Align podcast and his name is blanking right now, which I'm really, really
Joe Ison: Ha ha
Mark: embarrassed about, but he's dude, like. He's such a cool dude, man. He was easily the most jacked and tanned individual I announced onto a stage that weekend. Like he is a monster.
Joe Ison: cool.
Mark: It's always the same when you meet people, when you see, you, only see them sat down on a podcast,
Joe Ison: Yeah.
Mark: you don't realize how big they are. Like when I saw him, he's like six foot three, six foot four, and he
Joe Ison: Jesus.
Mark: is just bulked. I'm like, I was like,
Joe Ison: What was he doing there? What was his what was his background?
Mark: So he does breath work and alignment. So he does body alignment and stuff like that.
Joe Ison: All right.
Mark: His book's called The Align Method, as far
Joe Ison: Okay.
Mark: as I'm aware. I think that's name of his podcast as well. I cannot remember his name, which is annoying. That's
Joe Ison: Aaron Alexander?
Mark: the one Aaron Alexander. God, I practiced that introduction enough times I should have remembered his name. Yeah, he's an incredibly nice guy, incredibly nice guy, humble as hell. And he's interviewed some absolute legends as well. So
Joe Ison: cool.
Mark: he was really cool. Who else did I bump into? God, dude, there's so many people.
Joe Ison: Isn't it funny how times have changed, Mark? Because we we've been from that era of walking around bloody body power. Let's see like jacked up fucking bodybuilders and
Mark: Yeah, bumping into like Ronnie Coleman and people like that. Yeah.
Joe Ison: fitness athletes, and possibly the most unhealthiest part of the whole industry. And then you got this new new realm that you've entered into, and arguably
Mark: Yeah. Yeah.
Joe Ison: myself dipped my toe in a little bit, and it's all biohacking, it's different, it's Urin bloody testing and yeah. All sorts of weird and wonderful things, right? So
Mark: God, body power. I don't even know that still goes on, does it? I have no clue.
Joe Ison: I d no, does it? No.
Mark: mean, that was huge. Huge. I mean, it filled out the
Joe Ison: Yeah, it was. Yeah, back in the day.
Mark: whole NEC. It was massive. And all you kept doing
Joe Ison: Yeah, yeah, good times.
Mark: was walking around trying pre-workouts. Came back with a ton of
Joe Ison: That's all came home with, right? Was shit.
Mark: sachets of protein and pre-work. I just remember just walking around there. My gut would feel like... rock because I've been eating protein bar samples the whole way around. And I was kind buzzed off my tits because I was on pre-workouts the whole way through. But I met some legends
Joe Ison: Yeah. Free workout, yeah. And you'd have more of it.
Mark: there though, mate. I Dorian Yates. Who else did I meet there? Dorian Yates, Hathor Bjornsson, Eddie Hall. I mean,
Joe Ison: Eddie Hole, yeah, I remember being handy.
Mark: Hathor Bjornsson is just a beast. Like, and this was
Joe Ison: Yes.
Mark: years ago, years and years ago. It was probably like 20... 17. So it was
Joe Ison: Yeah.
Mark: 10 years ago and he was a beast then. Eddie the Hort
Joe Ison: Yeah.
Mark: was a beast then. Jay Cutler, Ronnie Coleman. Who's the other guy? Citi Fletcher. Yeah, he's a legend as
Joe Ison: god, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Mark: well. Citi Fletcher. Ben Pakolski.
Joe Ison: Blast in the past.
Mark: I even actually met Ben Pakolski at the Health Optimization Summit last year. He's a nice guy. Really nice guy. Yeah.
Joe Ison: he pivoted well. He's fa he's so knowledgeable on hypertrophy,
Mark: Yeah, he's not dude, his knowledge.
Joe Ison: yeah.
Mark: Unbelievable. his podcast is incredible. He gets some amazing
Joe Ison: Mm.
Mark: people on there and the way that he breaks everything down and how he's pivoted from bodybuilding to how he lives now. Great guy. Absolutely great. But yeah, body. My God. That's incredible.
Joe Ison: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, good times, mate. So yeah. So ho health optimization was a success.
Mark: Yeah, it was huge. And getting to speak there this year as well was a really... was it was just the icing on the cake for me. Cause I've always wanted to speak there. And obviously I've spoken in a lot of other events and stuff. So to be able to speak there,
Joe Ison: Mm.
Mark: as part of the one end team was lovely. you know, I don't specialize in nicotine in any way, shape or form, but I just know a lot about nicotine. And so when I met the founder, she was like, yeah, you've got to come on at the health optimization summit and do a talk with us. I was like, yeah, sure. Absolutely fine. Which was really cool. Really cool.
Joe Ison: That's cool. It's interesting, 'cause nicotine always gets to get a bad rap growing up as
Mark: Yeah.
Joe Ison: as kids. It's just for smokers, but it's sort of like completely pivoted in this different way. I remember
Mark: Of it has.
Joe Ison: you gave me a bit, I don't even think one was a thing, when I first met you, but
Mark: No, it wasn't.
Joe Ison: it's a r must be a relatively new company. But or is it Lucy Gum? I remember you giving me. I had it the wrong
Mark: Lucy come, Lucy come.
Joe Ison: time. We'd we' basically folks we'd just come out of a a two-day health intensive
Mark: Ha ha ha ha!
Joe Ison: it was a more it was about gut health and mark and i we mark has a drive bless him all the way from from London to manchester and I'm obviously from E.D. Cambridgeshire so it still takes me a good three and a half, four hours to to go back. But Mark
said if he a bit of this gum he said, well this will keep you alert Joe on the way back home that's for sure. And I basically was chewing this gum like all the way through this gut health center and I was So fucking wired. And and I asked on the phone to you when I was like, Mark, I'm gonna have to pull over. I feel like I'm so white, I feel like my heart is beating out my chest because I've never never had a nicotine gun before. And I generally had to pull over. Like I thought I was gonna be sick because I was just full of full of adrenaline.
Mark: Yeah.
Joe Ison: Ha ha
Mark: Well, it acts on the nicotinic receptors in the brain. it up regulates dopamine nor adrenaline. It's also vasoconstrictive to a degree and increases blood pressure at the same time. So you can get a bit of a weird effect from it. And if you've not had nicotine before and it goes straight into the gut, it can make you lose your bowels a little bit too, or just be nauseous either or, but that's why I like 1N because it's a dissolvable lozenge. It's not, it's not the pouches which you stick in the
Joe Ison: right. right.
Mark: corner of your mouth, which just bleeds nicotine into your gums. It's
Joe Ison: Yeah.
Mark: a really controlled microdose. and that's the reason why nicotine and I hate using the word biohacking but there's no other way of describing it at the moment but like in that industry I
Joe Ison: Yeah.
Mark: mean even Hormozy will use it but he it's about using it for specific things like you can't use it all the time otherwise you will get to the end of your week and you are going to feel absolutely annihilated because of how it
Joe Ison: Yeah,
Mark: it burns
Joe Ison: yeah.
Mark: through choline really quickly. So that's why
Joe Ison: All right.
Mark: you need to stack it with like choline CDP or Alpha
Joe Ison: Right.
Mark: GPC or something. You need some form of choline donor as well with it so that within it doesn't exhaust, but it
Joe Ison: Yeah.
Mark: has some tremendous focus benefits. If you can think of like... Caffeine is like an accelerator while your foot's on the brake is the probably the best way to describe it.
Joe Ison: Yeah. Okay.
Mark: People think caffeine is for focus and it's not. Caffeine doesn't make you more focused. Caffeine just gives you slight more, it gives you more alertness and
Joe Ison: Yeah.
Mark: wakes you up because of the way that it blocks adenosine in the brain. And adenosine, for anybody that doesn't know what adenosine does, you've got an adenosine receptor in the brain and adenosine builds up through the day in this receptor. And then by the time you get to the evening time, you get that sleep pressure where your eyes feel heavier and you feel like you're nodding. Caffeine is the same shape as adenosine, so it sits in that receptor site and stops adenosine. That's why
Joe Ison: Mm.
Mark: when you run out of that caffeine stimulus, which is about two to four hours, five hours, depending on the person, the actual stimulus part of it, caffeine can last for 12 hours, but that initial... boost, that's why you get that crash. Because now adenosine just goes into the brain. You get a big dump of it and you get massive headaches and stuff like that. So that's what caffeine does. It's that accelerator with the brake at the same time. Nicotine is literally like just an accelerator, but in the sense of focus. It will
Joe Ison: Mm.
Mark: just... myopically put you into that zone and that's where you stay. So wherever you put your attention that's where you are but I like I don't use nicotine on its own I always pair it with things yeah so it
Joe Ison: Stuck it, yeah. Yeah.
Mark: would be alpha GPC definitely. coffee, another one, and then L-theanine. I'll put those together with the nicotine because L-theanine gets rid of any jitters. The alpha GPC or CDP choline is going to pop some choline back into the brain to help with that cycling process of it burning through that. And then obviously then just sitting down with your coffee, which is going to give you that more awake feeling. You
Joe Ison: Hm.
Mark: literally feel like a limitless pill off that. It's incredible. But again, you can't do it all the time because otherwise
Joe Ison: No.
Mark: the receptor, the nicotinic receptor, It's the same reason why when you drink a lot of caffeine, you need more caffeine to get the same hit. You'll need that same hit of nicotine. So you'll need more nicotine to get the same hit. And unfortunately, the Zin pouches and stuff like that, the dosages are through the roof. Like after my talk, a young girl came to me to speak about her brother. Her brother's 15 and he's on 50, five zero milligrams of nicotine pouches a day.
Joe Ison: Jesus.
Mark: 50 milligrams. Do know how much I take if I want to focus?
Joe Ison: Five, two.
Mark: Two. balloons. Two, that's it, two. there's a huge difference between that. That's like having multiple espresso shots over a cup of coffee. The delivery mechanism is
Joe Ison: Yeah, no.
Mark: a lot quicker and that's why I like One N because it comes in, as I say, the dissolvable lozenges
Joe Ison: Yeah.
Mark: and you can cut them up. they're only two milligrams in one lozage. So you have it, you're only getting one. If you quarter that, halve that one again, you're only getting a quarter. So you can dose it better. it's not, because when you park the gums or the pouches, they can burn and it
Joe Ison: Mm.
Mark: gets sore. and your tongue starts to get sore because the nicotine in the mouth and stuff and you're constantly swallowing
Joe Ison: Yeah, yeah.
Mark: and because you're constantly swallowing one you're putting it's a little bit like when you know when you chew normal gum people don't realize this but as you're chewing you're swallowing and as you're swallowing you're swallowing air at the same time but you're also sending a lot of saliva into the stomach
Joe Ison: Yeah.
Mark: What happens when you feel nauseous? You get a lot of saliva and then you
swallow and then more
Joe Ison: Mm.
Mark: saliva and then you swallow. it starts to, the reason why it does that is because it wants the vomit to come up. Where when you've got these pouches and you're swallowing and swallowing and you're getting air and nicotine and air and strict nicotine straight into the gut.
Joe Ison: Mm.
Mark: erodes things and cause all kinds of problems. It's not a good thing.
Joe Ison: Yeah.
Mark: But then saying that, nicotine when done properly, it actually works on another receptor in the gut called the alpha 7 receptor, which actually helps with inflammation in the gut. So nicotine will dock into that receptor and reduce inflammation in the intestines and in the gut. That's very good if you've got any inflammatory thing going on in the gut of any kind, IBD or whatever. But again, you'd want to have something which is a low enough enough dose that you're getting it, but not so high that it's wiring you out. And it's not obviously not something you have to chew, but you're constantly getting this swallowing all the time, all the time, that's going
Joe Ison: Yeah, it makes sense.
Mark: to make you feel awful. you know, that stigma around nicotine is because they, the way that it's pushed is nicotine smoking, smoking cancer. Well, yes, people. smoke for the nicotine, but they die from the tar and the formaldehyde and the carbon monoxide and all the other chemicals in it. They
Joe Ison: Chemicals. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Mark: don't die from the nicotine. They die from the smoking. So anything which is carboxylating and it's creating that heat and then going into the body, you're dying from that. You're not dying
Joe Ison: Mm.
Mark: from the nicotine. So you have to separate the two out. And then remember, like ancestral tribes in the Amazon and Peru, basically like that, they either chew it or they
Joe Ison: To chew up, mate. Yeah. Yeah.
Mark: drink tobacco tea.
Joe Ison: Yeah.
Mark: So they use it as a health tonic to some degree. So the actual nicotine itself is fine. It's when it's again combusted and made into that man-made smokeable version. That's the problem. And so we have to separate nicotine from the tobacco, but that's not to say everybody needs to go out there and start taking nicotine in any way, shape or form, because not everybody needs it. It's just whether or not you need a little bit of focus and you find your mind's wandering a little bit and you can't really dial it in and you know, your brain's a little bit like your web browser, you've got like 50 tabs open. and you just need to focus in on one, well,
Joe Ison: Mm.
Mark: nicotine's great for that, but outside of that, there's probably no reason to use it.
Joe Ison: Hmm. Nice. What else exciting like new devices, pills, potions, lotions did you see this year compared to last as well?
Mark: god, so what did I see this year? So... Supplement wise there's nothing really much new. Yeah,
Joe Ison: Magic triangle.
Mark: there's not really much new supplement wise. You just got better
Joe Ison: No I
Mark: formulated supplements or you've got supplements with better kind of extractions and stuff like that. When it comes to devices, My friend Tom owns a company called Kinion. They do like a wraparound red light. That's a very good device. They had their new version there. That was really cool.
Joe Ison: Wrap around red.
Mark: Yeah. So it's on like a little. flexible strap basically
Joe Ison: sweet.
Mark: and there's tiny little dot lights I've got mine just sat there. You just clip them in three dots and it wraps around your shoulder or your elbow or your knee what
Joe Ison: sweet.
Mark: have you which is very cool and it comes with an adapter you can make it wider so you can go around your stomach or around your back or
Joe Ison: No shit.
Mark: anything which is very cool. What else?
Joe Ison: What's that company, Mart?
Mark: Kinion. K-I-O-N. Is it Kinion or Kion? Kinion, K-I-N-E-O-N, Kinion. That's very, very
Joe Ison: Can you?
Mark: cool. Lots of, I mean, you know these companies already because you've been doing your shopping, but those are new beds, like properly, like ergonomically built, but natural bedding and natural bed frames and stuff like that.
Joe Ison: yeah.
Mark: Water filters, which have now got built in. Hydrogen and stuff like that. devices
Joe Ison: Wow.
Mark: you can buy, will deliver hydrogen straight through the nose. These very cool new hyperbolic oxygen chambers, are basically just circular compartments, which you sit in and they've got these big LED screens on them and you program them for what you want them to do. So whether it's like
Joe Ison: wow.
Mark: inflammation or muscle recovery or neuro...
Joe Ison: Yeah, there's a chap who invited us actually and we we we didn't turn it we didn't turn we didn't accept his invite, which I'm a bit disheartened with. shame on us. but it's over my way. He runs this hyperbaric oxygen chamber facility, Newmarket. Been meaning to go down there actually. There's some very interesting research on it, isn't there? Yeah.
Mark: Yep, there's loads. I've done it a few times. I mean, I've only ever used the chambers where have to lay down.
Joe Ison: Yeah.
Mark: And that just gets a bit boring after a while from brilliant. It's been over like an hour. But if you're going in
Joe Ison: Yeah. Yeah.
Mark: for a treatment, it's not a problem. But that's why I like these smaller devices because it's a seat and you can have somebody sat in there with you. So it just makes it more of a kind of collaborative effort, I guess. It could be good. I don't know
Joe Ison: Do a podcast in one
Mark: what how about having electrical devices in there would work with hydrogen. I mean,
Joe Ison: Ooh, yeah.
Mark: sorry, hyperbolic oxygen, I say. I'd imagine it could be like the spark that blows everything up possibly. So had those and you had a lot of, there's a lot of skin peptide companies there now.
Joe Ison: really?
Mark: Yeah, a lot of longevity skin products. you've
obviously got the company which I use called Mythos, which is like a Talo cream, which has got GHK in there, but they had other ones in there now which have like either bacterial exosomes or the human exosomes, whichever ones you want to use. More functional food companies there now, like you could buy like a brownie mix, which is just all very clean ingredients, which all you've got to do is like pour into a bowl and add an egg and then you're done. They had all those cool little things there. What else was there? There was one company though, I spoke to the founder, actually the founder spoke to me before I went there and I've actually had a conversation with him since then I've actually got it here. So they are the first mitochondrial testing company and this
Joe Ison: Ooh.
Mark: test, I've to be careful how I open this box because I don't want it to break because I've got to send it back. But no, I haven't got to send the test back, I've got to send it back to them in this box. But it was actually a test designed for NASA. So this is the kit, it's an at home finger prick and that's the company, MeScreen.
Joe Ison: All right, me screen.
Mark: And it tests your mitochondria. And I was like, you know me and mitochondria, I was like, I am 100 % down for that. So that was
Joe Ison: Hey, cool.
Mark: very cool. And we were looking to work together somehow on that, which is amazing. I'm very grateful that
Joe Ison: So that
Mark: I get to work with these companies. Yeah.
Joe Ison: That's interesting, Mark. That we I've got a lady who she's having a bad time with her mite I f it's definitely a mitochondria issue. Yeah. So that's that's new testing.
Mark: Everything's mitochondrial issue, brother. Everything is mitochondrial. Absolutely everything. All disease leads to that. Yeah, me screen. Very, very good. And believe it or not, the guy that... works, the other guy that works for them actually lives 20 minutes down the road from me, which was great. So he was able to send me this kit. So that was very cool. And then GlycanAge, one of my favorite companies was there. They're the ones that do the biological age testing using your IgGs, your GlycanN products. They were there. They're amazing as well, obviously. So I think everybody should get that test done because it shows you basically saying to you like the age of your immune system, like is your immune system and your body functioning at an age, which is equivalent to what your actual chronological age is. So that was the first test that I ever did. it showed me that my lifestyle was fucked. Yeah, that was 20. I'll make 2020, right?
Joe Ison: Very humbling experience, isn't it? When when one's health is in the shitter.
Mark: 2020, I was fit as a butcher's dog because of cross fit. I think I've this told this story before. I ran a marathon without
Joe Ison: Yeah.
Mark: even training for it. All that stuff looked great. know, 5 % body fat, looked jacked and tanned and lean and I could do gymnastics and
other type of beautiful stuff, which was great. then won the competition to get my biological age tested and it came back as 25 years older than what I was. I was like, shit, that's not good. And
Joe Ison: yeah.
Mark: it was so bad, so bad that the owner, Nicolina, called me up and was like, what are you? doing to yourself, you need to get on a zoom call with me and my partners. I was like, okay. And I worked with them for a bit as a consultant. And then I've just stayed very good friends with them since then, because they're the ones that put me on this trajectory. If it wasn't for them,
Joe Ison: Yeah.
Mark: I wouldn't have joined the health, the Institute of health. I wouldn't have met you.
Joe Ison: Yeah.
Mark: I wouldn't be doing what I do now. Like they literally changed my life in every single step of the way, because if they hadn't, my, my biological age would probably be like a hundred by now. Cause that was like six
Joe Ison: Yeah.
Mark: years ago and it was going up very quickly.
Joe Ison: This is it, innit, Mark? this is what we keep banging on about with hopefully you listeners as well. You know, the fitness industry, the health industry is very, very cool. It's very exciting times to be alive. And s Sally's a lot of people were walking around, you know, just chasing the surface level. And
Mark: Yeah.
Joe Ison: like what you you, you were doing, your CrossFit, you sort of I suppose now things like your high rocks events and you just see like people smashing their the 5Ks, 10K runs on the weekend and they're smashing their Hyrux events, but their lifestyle and their nutrition is still shit because they're still in this sort of is this this world of calories in, calories out. And although it is important, there are underlying factors that have to play there as well with you know, what we just mentioned there, with like your gut and mitochondria, like the batteries of your cells. if you if you if you haven't got a g and a good solid immune function, and a good solid gut and arguably mitochondria that is is fucking hundred hundred Xing, shall we say, every day, it makes it harder and you'll age faster and you'll you'll develop and trigger certain genes as well. So genes to to be more inflamed and and and be riddled with more issues five, not necessarily a year from now, but five, ten years, twenty years down the road when you're getting on. So yeah, I think it's important to look on look at like and and I'm it's actually there's a big shift in there. A lot more people are waking up and are now like, you know, talking about the gut, a probiotic, you know? We've gone from just taking creatine and whey protein to like, actually I should possibly look after my gut a little bit and and start taking some peptides or start doing a bit of red light.
Mark: Yep. Yep.
Joe Ison: So yeah man. So it sounds like a wicked weekend. Sounds like a crazy weekend.
Mark: It was, it was very, very good. Very, good. You know, there was still all the same things
that you see there all the time, like, you know, companies that are selling like, as you said, like probiotics and things that, which I've got no interest in because, you know, at end of the day, you don't know what you need, you know, and, you know, as soon as you've got trillions of them.
Joe Ison: Yeah. Yeah.
Mark: taking a probiotic blend is of no consequence to most people because you don't know what you need of those are. you don't know which ones you need. Okay, everybody you might know like lactobacillus acidophilus or something like that because you've seen it on the packet. Okay, but do know what lactobacillus acidophilus actually does? Probably not. Do you know what El Plantarum does? Do know what El Ruterai does? They've all got different things that they do and it's
Joe Ison: Mm.
Mark: different. So you've got like species and strains, like there's different things you've got. Lactobacillus, we've got Lactobacillus brevus, you've got Lactobacillus ruteri, you've got Lactobacillus gaseri, plantarum, you've got all these different ones, but how do you know what you specifically need? You don't.
Joe Ison: Yeah.
Mark: Now that's not to say a gut test, and that's the only way you're going to get to find out is through a gut test, but a gut test again, unless you are going to allow somebody to do a intestinal biopsy, you're not going to know exactly what you need because you're measuring a stool, not the gut. There's no way of doing that accurately at 100%. It's not like a blood draw where you're getting
Joe Ison: Yeah.
Mark: the blood that's in the system. You can't do that from a microbiome perspective. All you're measuring is what bacteria is in your poo. Well, that's not going to tell you everything, but it tells you more than guessing does. So
Joe Ison: Yeah.
Mark: in that instance, if you do a gut test and it like for a lot of people that come to me and we do the gut tests and their health is on the floor, I know before I even look at that test, the acumancia immunosophilia is going to be low. This is a starting point. Okay. Well,
Joe Ison: Okay. Yeah, yeah.
Mark: we need this for a lot of health outcomes, but you also need to be able to produce it ourselves, we need to be to feed it ourselves. So yes, okay, you've got pendulum that sell different versions of acumancia because there are different versions and these different versions do different things. But unless you do that test, you're not gonna know which ones you need. You need... Bifidobacterium, you need lactobacillus? Do you need, do you need, do you need, do you need to know what you need rather than taking the blends? know, everybody now knows, I hope, you know, that, and again, I don't mean to be disrespectful to Tesco's or Holland and Barrett, but I would never go there and buy a multivitamin.
Joe Ison: No.
Mark: Because I may as well get that 10 pound note and just go, chh, chh, and set it on fire because I'm going to, it's a waste of money. It's a waste of money. They're chelated and they're rubbish. They don't do
Joe Ison: It's true. It's true. The formulas. Yeah. Yeah.
Mark: anything. And so when you look at a blended probiotic,
Joe Ison: Yeah.
Mark: ones that are at the top are the ones that are in abundance in the product and the ones nearer the bottom, which are normally the ones that you probably need, are the ones that have minimal amounts of. So personally, just from my own history through gut, health and testing, I would want specific strains. And in at the summit, I met one company that sells specific strains, just one. Everybody
Joe Ison: Mm.
Mark: else sold blends. And some of these blends don't get me wrong, Some of them are really well thought out because they had a specific target in mind. So one of them was for females going through menopause
Joe Ison: Okay.
Mark: and they had these particular strains which help. That's great. Yes, take those because that will help in that particular environment. But if you're doing it for that, that's different for doing it for actual gut health generally. So yes, there's times and places to do these things, but I think ultimately. testing is really gonna be the only way to really understand what's going on. And that doesn't mean everybody has to do it, but I just think just my own personal opinion, I think that kind of testing is better just because it's gonna allow you to make it a lot more specific to you because the last thing you wanna be doing is being treated as a general kind of approach.
Joe Ison: Mm.
Mark: You want it to be a lot more tailored and specified to you. know, that's like... I don't know, you just get in a generic bodybuilding program offline. Yeah, okay. It's going to be great. But what about your deficiencies? What happens like as an example, like some people struggle to grow their arms. Well, then if you're doing a training program, which is to grow your shoulders and your quads, you're a little bit screwed because you're not really going to get much of that. So it'd be better to go to a coach and get someone to look at you and be like, right, you're weak here. Your posture is like this. Your biomechanics is like that. You know, you've got these movement patterns going on. So let's focus on this, this, this, this, and this. And that's going to get you to here. And then we're going to grow the muscle on top of that. That's a much better approach. just going online, finding some random bodybuilding program and going, yeah, I'm gonna try that. And then go and do that and wonder why six weeks in you've made no progress really in the areas that you want. Like
Joe Ison: Ha.
Mark: it can work for some people, don't get me wrong, but for how health is going now, it's a lot about it being tailored to the individual personally. Sorry, I'm gonna get off my soap box, ranting as usual.
Joe Ison: No, no, no, it's good. It's good. That's what this podcast is about, man. So
Mark: It's called Mark's Ranting Podcast.
Joe Ison: No, we take we take
very many many s detours and
Mark: true, we do, we do, we do.
Joe Ison: Yeah, we we slip and slide and move all over the place with it. And
Mark: Yep. Yep.
Joe Ison: it's so true though. And that is why I haven't yet offered the whole stool and DNA testing, 'cause I think it is it needed? Mm it depends on the individual. But
Mark: Exactly.
Joe Ison: I feel like this is why we still work with so many people's bloods at the end of the day. Mine's mine's overdue soon because you can you can spot trends of it, can't you? And seasonal I I say this with clients that we work with, in our one to one aspect, it's a minimum of six months, but at least you've got a test in the beginning and then we retest again to see what's improved or what's moving the right or wrong way. some people get disheartened and and I always say that, like, look, you're not gonna get like a a solid optimal score all year round. It's gonna be so so many factors that can change this, but If things are moving in the right direction, you've got less body fat, you've got more lean mass, you're fitter, you're pushing harder in your your weight session, you're recovering, you know, more. Another conversation had with someone the other day who got a bit disheartened with their recent blood tests. It's like, well, yeah, because you're fighting something, like these bloods skewed because you were not very well. So re I recently got this client to retest some of her markers again, just the GP, just to sort of and and And also this this this individual doesn't eat meat, which is a bit more challenging because they're not getting the the full nutrients, the full biavailability. So it's very dependent, we're all unique and it has to be individual, which I did highlight and I said, Look, look how quickly it took you to recover and look how far you've come on your journey. You know, you've lost over two stone, you've you achieved such amazing progress already, and you're sort of just looking at what's come back on on paper. don't let that skew your your your your thought process here. Look at all the things you've achieved. it's just a little thing based upon what we're seeing in the minute. So we're gonna make it better. We're gonna put a plan together based on those results, plug the issues that need to be supported, and off we go. That's all all we can do. Like it you cannot be per like being per being perfect. I think this is this is another bit. Isn't it with our industry is trying to be perfect and biohack our way out of everything and and trying to be so meticular on every str little detail can cause someone more harm, I think, and cause I think mental health issues.
Mark: course, majoring in the minors.
Joe Ison: Yeah.
Mark: I'd much rather focus on the things that get me the 99 % than the 1%.
Joe Ison: Yeah.
Mark: Like the 1 % is irrelevant unless I'm competing or if I'm stepping on stage as a bodybuilder or if I'm doing a high rocks or a CrossFit event or a Spartan race or where, you know, add in whatever thing you're doing. Well, that's not the majority of people. So everything is always a continual progress. There's a great book called Chasing Excellence. forget who wrote it. I think it might be Ben Bergeron from the CrossFit days, but he borrowed that from Vincent Lombardi where he was saying like, on the route to perfection, you can catch excellence because perfection isn't something that you can do or have or be ever. the only thing that you could class as perfection would probably be like nature. Nature's managed to do all things in perfection where, know, you might catch a sunrise on the top of a mountain and be like, this is the most perfect thing I've ever seen. There we go.
Joe Ison: Yeah.
Mark: Affection for you. But I'm sure if you looked a little bit closer in, there'd probably be some defects somewhere. Like there might be like an animal that fell down the mountain that's down at the bottom there, there's neck broken or something. There will be some form of a defect, but ultimately
Joe Ison: Yeah.
Mark: there's the perfection. But we are not here to be perfect at all in any way, shape or
Joe Ison: No.
Mark: form. We are here to chase excellence. so that we can figure out why we are here, what is the meaning of why we are here and why are we doing what we do. But unfortunately our world, our Western world gets us caught in this perfection loop where we're
Joe Ison: Yeah.
Mark: trying to be the best of the best of the best of the best. It's an impossibility. It's never gonna happen. If you lower the expectation, you'll be more pleasantly surprised at what you can achieve. We overestimate what we can achieve in a short period of time and underestimate what we can achieve in a longer period of time. If you extrapolate that out and say to yourself, right, I'm going to give myself three years to get fit and healthy. The amount of progress that you can make in three years is mind blowing. Mind blowing.
Joe Ison: I agree, mate.
Mark: Like it's insane. If you just think about where me and you were three years ago, like 2023, what were we going through? What were we doing? Who were we? What did we think? What did we believe in compared to now? Very different, very, very different person.
Joe Ison: Yeah, well I'll show you. We had a I think that's w I had a parasite in twenty twenty three.
Mark: You did. You did, had a friendly neighbourhood parasite, didn't you?
Joe Ison: Your fen friendly neighborhood parasite, brilliant.
Mark: Yeah.
Joe Ison: I had very long hair as well. Yeah, you did. Let's see if we can
Mark: You did. I had longer hair back then as well, I think. Yeah.
Joe Ison: find it. 'Cause that's when we first launched the the podcast as well. But yeah.
Mark: You've got to think you weren't married, you hadn't moved, you hadn't had your teeth done.
Joe Ison: No there you are. There's Mark. In the garage and then Yeah.
Mark: dear, dear. So much has changed since then. So I just say to people like...
Joe Ison:
Yeah, you're getting a little bit leaner than that one. So I'm a lot I've got a lot more muscle than I have now. I've got more muscle on me now, but very
Mark: Yeah.
Joe Ison: very long hair. Down to my my shoulders. Yeah,
Mark: Yep.
Joe Ison: never again.
Mark: my days. I actually promised you I was going to show you a picture of me with long hair. Do remember that was on the last podcast I think. Let me see if I can find it. Let me see if I can
Joe Ison: Yes, get it up, man. Get it up.
Mark: find it. I don't even know if I want to find it. My god.
Joe Ison: Sure if I would if I did.
Mark: No, I don't. Absolutely awful.
Joe Ison: But yeah, no, I I realised that year I tried to be a per per like a perfectionist and then it was the Yeah.
Mark: Well, that was my CrossFit days
Joe Ison: yeah.
Mark: back in the day. I better turn that off green, because that looks green. There we go. That was my CrossFit days. And let's see about that. I
Joe Ison: yeah. Going into a snatch.
Mark: had long hair underneath that. You can't see it, thank God. So let me find the longest that it was. God.
Joe Ison: Jesus, mate. You look like the pre Prince of Persia, mate.
Mark: Literally. That's quite a compliment, I think. Yeah, I didn't
Joe Ison: Love it.
Mark: have that for very long, thank God. But that was my hairdresser. was like, yeah, you all look good like it. I was like, look like a twat. I'm like, no, this is not happening. Not happening. God, that was when I met Ross Edgeley. my days. That's
Joe Ison: cool.
Mark: Chris Williamson. I didn't know he was in my picture. So talking
Joe Ison: cool.
Mark: about body power.
Joe Ison: Yeah.
Mark: So this was when I first launched my Everyday Athlete t-shirt range and stuff. So there's me and Ross Edgeley.
Joe Ison: Yeah.
Mark: Look who's photobombing me.
Joe Ison: Chris Williamson.
Mark: Before Chris Williamson was Chris Williamson. How about that? And
Joe Ison: brilliant.
Mark: that was 2018. There you go.
Joe Ison: Wow.
Mark: 2018. My God.
Joe Ison: That's so funny. That's so funny.
Mark: Wow.
Joe Ison: Hold that fort. Hold that fort. I need to grab a charger. I'm gonna leave it running. We're back. I
Mark: No worries dude, no worries.
Joe Ison: should have should have brought my charger down. One step.
Mark: School by errors, mate. School by errors.
Joe Ison: D.
Mark: I've actually got another photo to share with you, Rorah. So many people on here maybe don't know this, but I used to be in the music industry back in the day. I
Joe Ison: yeah. Yeah.
Mark: had a record contract and all that stuff. So for a long period of my teenage years, was originally in a boy band, then went to another boy band, and then actually went to a proper band where we wrote our own songs, played instruments, sang, all the rest of it. And this was one of the photos from my boy band days. I would have been... 17 here. Christ.
Joe Ison: He
Mark: So that's almost 30 years ago. 28 years ago.
Joe Ison: Brud.
Mark: There you go.
Joe Ison: That's
so funny. Look at that short hair, mate.
Mark: Yeah, with the fucking cross around my neck. And look at me now.
Joe Ison: Brilliant, brilliant, brilliant. Maybe if you had to go away Don't think it enough.
Mark: Yes, pretty much. actually, so you know the the tall guy that was in E17? I can't
Joe Ison: Yes.
Mark: remember his name. I used to be in the studio with him. He used to write really, really good songs. And so when I was, who was I working with then? I think I was working with, who was it that I was working with then? Is it Universal or was it
Joe Ison: wow, mate.
Mark: Universal or Warner Brothers or? I forget the names of the record industries now, but I was in the studio with him, the E17 guy, recording songs.
Joe Ison: What was your band called then? W when you had a record label?
Mark: So when I had the record label, the band was called Fortis Green, which is the name of the street where the house was, where the band lived in East Finchley. We didn't ever
Joe Ison: Interesting.
Mark: release anything mainstream, so I don't know if anything will ever be found. And this was back in the day when it was CDs. So it wouldn't have been online, that's for sure. I've still actually
Joe Ison: Yeah. It if it
Mark: got all the photographs and all the music. And I worked with, God, I worked with so many people, mate. Like when I used to go into the studio, I'd bump into like Louisa Redknapp or Kelly LaRocque, or, you know, I remember sitting in the office with the man, with the owner of the record company while he was listening to a... not new anymore, but a new artist back then, Macy Gray. And I remember like hearing her first song and him telling me the story of that song. was a writer. She wasn't supposed to sing that song apparently, but they
Joe Ison: Right.
Mark: couldn't find somebody to sing the song. And so they just had her record it in the studio to hear it and they loved it. And her voice was obviously just husky and cool. So they just
Joe Ison: Yeah.
Mark: signed her up straight away and got her to do it. yeah, so that was my music industry in a very small space of time.
Joe Ison: Wow.
Mark: Yeah, and
Joe Ison: Very cool.
Mark: who else did I... the other thing was I was working with Epic Records. Might have been Epic or something like that.
Joe Ison: Big reference. All right.
Mark: they wanted me to hear a song. And so they said, we're going to get an artist to record it and then we'll play it back to you, come into the studio on Wednesday, whatever that was, and
Joe Ison: Yeah, yeah.
Mark: we'll come and play it. And they played me this song and I was like, I recognise this guy. I'm listening, I'm listening, I'm listening. And the guy who was in the room with us, he had nothing to do with anything. He was just in the room. He went, you recognise this voice, don't you? said, I do. So he stopped playing it and then put on the track that I would know. And the second it came on, was literally like, name this song in one. listeners won't know what that is unless they're my age. But there used to be a song, a game show, which was, I named that tune and you had to name it in as short a period of time as possible. And I was like, literally came on, went, I know who that is. And went, who? was like, Chesney Hawks. And he was like, yep. I was like,
Joe Ison: Cast the Orks.
Mark: Chesney Hawks, I am the one and only. So you
Joe Ison: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Mark: know how it starts, he just goes, bam, I am, I went, Chesney Hawks, straight away. And he was like, yep, that's who,
Joe Ison: cool.
Mark: that's who. So whenever they have got a song that they haven't recorded to sell, but they want a artist to hear it, they use something called a session singer. Chesney Hawks. was the session singer for this song. And I was like, holy shit. They've got Chesney Hawks singing a session song for me so I can hear it. was like, this is madness, absolute madness. yeah, Chesney
Joe Ison: Brilliant mate.
Mark: bloody Hawks. So anybody that doesn't know who Chesney Hawks is, I would love you all to
Joe Ison: You've lived Yeah, no, you've done Yeah.
Mark: go and listen to I Am The One And Only. It will
Joe Ison: He did a
Mark: be in your head all day long. Go and listen to I Am The One And Only.
Joe Ison: He did a very good show. they got him on Michael McIntyre's sh T
Mark: Good day.
Joe Ison: V show a year and a bit ago. Yeah. And he came on, did a did his I am the one and only. Yeah, good soon. Yeah, it's good soon. Good for the soul, mate. Good for the soul. And
Mark: Love it. I love that tune. Great song. Haven't heard that in years. Yeah, man. Definitely.
Joe Ison: that's that's so important I think music. Having having like
Mark: yeah.
Joe Ison: I I love everything, mate. Like I think it's so important to have not a favourite genre, have multiple favourites. But
Mark: Of course.
Joe Ison: yeah, then we obviously last we we celebrated our one year anniversary the other weekend. And we
Mark: Congratulations.
Joe Ison: thank you, thank you. I can't believe it's always it's it's been a year already.
Mark: I can't hear.
Joe Ison: But we've been sort of re listening well I have more than the cloak. reignited by George Michael albums again.
Mark: Yep. Yep.
Joe Ison: Yeah.
Mark: There's so many artists that don't get enough play George Michael is one of them He was a genius and he
Joe Ison: No. Yeah.
Mark: was so I listened to the other day I'm sure I do right I Blame Ted Lasso for this Have you never seen Ted Lasso?
Joe Ison: Ted Lasso. Right. Not yet. It's in the queue. Yeah, dude. I know. Look, there's come on. I'm sure you guys can back me up here, folks, because it's so overwhelming
Mark: Well, it took me for...
Joe Ison: with what's on at the moment in 2026. There's so many good shit. It's hard.
Mark: mate, there is nothing, there is nothing and listeners, viewers, if you agree with me, put a, be a goldfish in the comments below if you're a Ted Lasso fan. It is the best thing
I've ever seen in the sense of, you've got Avengers and all these other cool films. I'm not talking about that. From a TV show, it's funny. He's literally. therapist in the whole show, even though he's not a therapist, because he's a football coach, he has the most amazing one liners, which makes you go... Like it's incredible. Like it's just a mouth drop moment. You're like, my God, that's the best thing I've ever heard. The way he says things, the way he helps people, how kind he is, the jokes, the humor, the cast. I mean, the guy who plays Roy Kent is brilliant. I think he's amazing. His name, Brett Goldstein or something. Apparently he's now in a relationship with JLo. apparently, but it's great. Like even one of our friends, Nicole, I've got her hooked on Lasso. Like everybody that I've spoken to, I'm like, need to watch. And it took me four years to watch Ted Lasso. Don't get me wrong. I didn't watch it in lockdown when it first started. I watched it when season four came out and I went back to the beginning and watched the whole thing, obviously, but it's incredible. But because of that, they have the most amazing songs that they play on Ted Lasso. Like the guys who picked the music or the ladies who picked the music for Ted Lasso, spot on. And so they play songs and I've not heard this song in so long. Like, I just played
Joe Ison: Yeah, yeah.
Mark: them and they're really old school songs. It might be a George Michael. It might be, I don't know, like Chris Rhea or Rick Astley
Joe Ison: My skulls.
Mark: or yeah, it could be Spice Girls, could be Boyzone. It could be Backstreet Boys. It could be Boys to Men. could be, mean, Boys to Men are
Joe Ison: Yeah. Yeah.
Mark: my favorite of all time really, like it could Marvin Gaye. It could be, I don't know, Al Green. It could be anything. And the music
Joe Ison: Yeah, yeah. Yeah.
Mark: is just... unbelievably good in that show. I highly recommend everybody that's in. If you want to feel good and watch something that's good, watch Ted Lasso. It's incredible. Yeah, it's incredible. I love it. And I'm gutted.
Joe Ison: Watch watch it. Yeah. Yeah. Well mate, I think you sold it. We had to we're at to kick start another subscription.
Mark: I'm gutted that I finished it because I want to watch more. But it's incredible. Really, really good. Really, really good.
Joe Ison: cool. Yeah, we'll give it I'll give a go. I I plan on having some some time off over Christmas. So I was
Mark: it's perfect time to watch Ted lesson.
Joe Ison: sort of toying it with like, I wanna learn how to play electric guitar. What's what
Mark: have you got a guitar?
Joe Ison: no not yet. No, it's the goal that I set myself that I wanted to achieve. We we had other things that needed priority. there he is, mate. Man of many talents, look, there he fucking is. Get that quiet.
Mark: Mate, I've got five guitars.
Joe Ison: Well, here's what you can do. You can you can come up to mine and you can bring and you can you can give me a lesson. And I will I
Mark: All right. All right. Yeah, I'll give you a lesson.
Joe Ison: will 'cause I need a hobby. I'm gonna I I noticed like changing a sort of shift goals, achieve a lot of stuff that I set out the the year previous. So
Mark: Mm.
Joe Ison: I need a need a hobby really. So I'm gonna start at the end of this month getting this unboxing, which is cool. just cause why not? It's just I don't plan on having any white collar fights or anything. It's more for the fitness and just for the brain. It's incredible cardio. It's different as well. Everyone whilst everyone is still, juiced up on high rocks and CrossFit at our gym, I thought sod it. I'm gonna pivot. I'm gonna why why be vanilla when you
Mark: yep yep
Joe Ison: can be mint.
Mark: yep I agree with you yep yep or just rocky just be rocky
Joe Ison: Rocky Road, Mark. So all rocky. Just rocky. But it's about it's about how hard you can hit. Yeah, great quote. But no,
Mark: Great.
Joe Ison: and guitar is one of them and I'm planning on doing a little bit of yeah.
Mark: should do it. should do it. And unfortunately, I taught myself to play guitar, so I didn't learn the proper way. So I would suggest if you're going to learn, start with classical. That's the best way to learn. Everybody just wants to start riffing. You can't riff until you know classical, because that teaches you how to work the fretboard properly. It teaches you how all chord structures are made. That's hard for me now because I have to go back and I have to relearn everything that I've taught myself
Joe Ison: No.
Mark: because what I've taught myself is wrong. Because I can't read a piece of music. I learn by ear. So I hear something and then play it. So it's a great skill, but it means I don't play it properly. it's not the right chord structure. It just sounds right. So same with piano. I can't read a piece of music, but you play me a song, I'll figure it out on the piano. you know, yeah. So I'd say learn classical, learn classical.
Joe Ison: Yeah, I've always been like that. So it's good you saying that. Because yeah, yeah, I think
Mark: Classical is that one where, you've got a film where you get like a guy in a bar and he picks up the acoustic and he starts like riffing some Spanish classical beautiful music.
Joe Ison: Well, plan on getting an electric guitar.
Mark: that's gonna shred your fingers to start with. What I'd suggest is this,
Joe Ison: Yeah, I remember it. Yeah.
Mark: and I say this to everybody who wants to start a guitar, go to Argos and buy the cheapest. So this here, this is
Joe Ison: Yeah.
Mark: a Spanish acoustic. I'm gonna be careful because actually I was playing it the other day and I actually broke the strings. as you can see, cause one of the strings is
Joe Ison: no.
Mark: here, but this is actually an electric Spanish acoustic, but you'll see, I can't show you on here, but basically these are nylon strings. They're not steel. My other jumbo in there is steel. I mean, it's huge, but it's
all steel. If you start on an electric, they're probably going to be more like that. And they'll you basically get like calluses on your fingertips.
Joe Ison: Yeah, you do. Yeah.
Mark: Start with nylon and acoustic nylon. It's like 60 quid for a cheap. acoustic guitar, get that, have have nylon strings. And the reason why you start on one of these is because the frets are further apart, which means you can fit your fingers in while you're trying to learn, where on an electric they're closer together, which means if you don't have the dexterity, your fingers are all going to bunch up and you're not going to hear a note and it's going to be really annoying. Plus an electric guitar is more expensive to start with. And if you don't like it, now you're stuck with an electric guitar. So I would say pick just a cheap Electric acoustic guitar doesn't have to be electric nylon strings Spanish classic Spanish neck which is thicker so that we then you get to So that we then you'll get to learn how to wrap your hand around the neck and
Joe Ison: Yeah.
Mark: your thumb as the bass note right and then within you can then grip the guitar if it's a steel is going to hurt when you get down to these lower strings so I actually get an acoustic and get it nylon and then just once you're good at it then get an electric guitar because I had a fender that was my first electric guitar I've got it I still got it actually that my dad's but that's what I would recommend just get an acoustic it's cheap
Joe Ison: Okay.
Mark: that way then if it gets knocked about like that was a cheap electric Spanish acoustic and it's got and that was the one I used in the band to write all my music and it's got
Joe Ison: Okay.
Mark: battered to shit there's paint all up the sides of it and all kinds where I'd rub it against the studio walls and stuff. So that's what I'd recommend. Get a cheap
Joe Ison: Yeah, all right.
Mark: acoustic and just get into it, learn
Joe Ison: Yeah.
Mark: it and get that dexterity because you need to be able to spread your hands really wide along the fret board so that way then you can get that length. And while your fingers aren't used to that, yes it's easier on electric because it's closer together but it's harder to do. when you've got more space, can actually, because when you first start learning how to do shapes of chords, it feels like you've had an electric shock and your hands can't relax. Your hands feel a little bit like a claw, where once you get used to it, they get softer and more loose. And then you
Joe Ison: Floor.
Mark: can actually move your hand up and down the fretboard. So that's what I'd recommend,
Joe Ison: Okay.
Mark: just to go that way. And again, audience, if you've got a difference of opinion in the comments, let us know, that's why.
Joe Ison: Yeah, yeah. No, I think it's important to have a hobby, particularly as the winter draws in. Yeah, is either
Mark: Yep, I agree. Beach knitting.
Joe Ison: is he yeah, is is either that or Call
of Duty four that's come out.
Mark: Yeah, there is that I personally think a guitar would be much worth much much more work. Yeah
Joe Ison: Yeah, I think so. Good for the brain. Doesn't rot your brain. I got I was getting really frustrated last year 'cause we we were the the the other Call of Duty came out and it's just just just di just I did it, I got stuck with it, and it was great to have a little hour to myself, back in the day of how I used to be in the gaming world. But it's changed so much. It was just full of kids running around in new unicorns for heads. It's like this is not this
Mark: Yeah, tea bagging you.
Joe Ison: is not the call of duty that I remember. This is just Garbage. So
Mark: Yeah, yeah, yeah, I haven't played those games. don't even know what Xbox I've got down there. I put it in there when I moved in and it's been sat there since then. So for 11
Joe Ison: yeah. Yeah.
Mark: years, that Xbox has been sat there. I think it might be an Xbox One, maybe. The only time
Joe Ison: Wow.
Mark: it's been used since I stopped using it, which probably about a year or two after I moved in, was when our friend Nicole came over last Christmas with her son and he wanted to play like, what's it called? What's that? Fortnite. Was it Fortnite or Plants Vs.
Joe Ison: Fortnite. Yeah.
Mark: Zombies or something? I don't know what it was. Crash Bandicoot, that was it. So was like, yeah,
Joe Ison: Yeah. Yeah. All right.
Mark: cool. I was like, stick on, play what you need to play, download what you need to download. I didn't even know what's on that anymore because he downloaded it all, so have no idea. No clue. I've lost all interest in that stuff. I find life's more exciting in games, if I'm brutally honest.
Joe Ison: Yeah. This is a the w life is one big game really. So many things you can do.
Mark: it is. you treated life like your computer game you'd get on much better in life because you'd be like right
Joe Ison: yeah.
Mark: okay so I'm currently on this level and this is my current boss so I need not like in like the person you work for but like the thing that you have to kill to get to the next level or defeat to get to the next level you'd realize that every day that you're doing that you're leveling up and you're getting real world skills that's why I think playing the guitar will be a real world skill where you know you could get like guitar hero Do
Joe Ison: Yeah.
Mark: remember Guitar Hero? My god. Do you remember Guitar Hero, the game? Yeah,
Joe Ison: Yeah, yeah.
Mark: with the plastic guitar which has had big buttons on it. Yeah, okay, you could get really good at Guitar Hero, but it doesn't mean you can play at all.
Joe Ison: Yeah.
Mark: Right? Same way that playing Call of Duty does not mean that they're going to put you in the army and give you a rifle.
Joe Ison: Yeah.
Mark: And that you're going to hit anything.
Joe Ison: Exactly. Yeah. No, I agree. I agree.
Mark: So I'd rather have a real world skill, Showing the age difference here, I think.
Joe Ison: No, but I remember it. I can I can get on well with Guitar Hero. It's just not just different level. Different
Mark: Guitar Hero was only fun when you had people around to play it with you. Other than that,
Joe Ison: Mm.
Mark: it was just boring. I never got the fun of that at all. Anytime I'd be like, well, I've got a real guitar just there, I could just pick that up instead.
Joe Ison: Yeah, you can. But
Mark: Crazy.
Joe Ison: yeah. Mark, have you got any any juicy news for us for ten minute ten yeah, t like ten ten minute tinfall hat takeover.
Mark: Juicy News. Yes. yes. So this isn't actually Tim Fowl hat. This is actually happening right, what's just happened. It was on the 22nd of October. There's a, you probably know this already. There is a court in the Netherlands, which is taking Bill Gates, the CEO
Joe Ison: Ooh.
Mark: of Pfizer and one more to trial for the, for knowing that the vaccine was a bio weapon. and that it
Joe Ison: Mm.
Mark: was already known that it was going to cause a tremendous amount of harm to the people that it was being injected into. And this is all based off maybe four or five deaths that happened from the COVID vaccine,
Joe Ison: Mm.
Mark: directly from the vaccine. Like they injected it and then however long after the person died and then they were taken them to court. And their first court hearing was on the 22nd of October. The lawyer that's putting it all together is a fantastic human. and it's, crimes against humanity basically is what they're being trialed for and they're going to reach a decision between December and January next year. So, it could be a very good outcome in the sense of, mean, I, the fires, the CEO, we will do is look at their track record. They've been in business for like a hundred years and they've not cured anything. Well done. That's great. You're a good medical company. Well done. that'd be like having an airplane company and never taking off. Great. So for a hundred years you run an airplane company but you've never left the tarmac, fantastic. Or you've never delivered anybody safely, you've just crashed into a mountain every single time. But the Bill
Joe Ison: Yeah. Yeah. Not even go off the runway.
Mark: Gates one, I'm looking forward to this because I think he should be locked in, I think they should put him in a box, tie it up, stick him in a dark room for the rest of his life and never let him out. And that would be kind. I think that
Joe Ison: Mm.
Mark: man needs to be taken off the face of this earth in that regard. I'm not saying he should be killed in any way, shape or form, because I don't believe in any of that. But I do think he should be held accountable for the nonsensical bullshit and gibberish that he comes out of his mouth, considering the fact he's got no qualifications or anything he talks about. So yeah, I think the fact that he's on trial is fantastic. So that's one thing that's happening.
Joe Ison: But here's the sound
relative mart. I think these so if these guys are so wrapped in wealth and power. Will actually anything come of it? This is it.
Mark: Of course he's Well, considering the fact he's the biggest, he's the biggest financial contributor to the World Health Organization and the World Economic Forum. we'll
Joe Ison: Mm.
Mark: see when it's on trial like that and they have tried to stop it, don't get me wrong. That's why it's taken so long to get to this point. But he's only protected because of that and everybody
Joe Ison: Mm.
Mark: knows that. So, you know, there's, I think it could go either way, but I think if we can just focus on good positive result of he'll actually be found guilty than happy days but then what happens after that we don't know. Netherlands. Netherlands.
Joe Ison: Where is he being trial in? Is it Nevolent? Hm, okay.
Mark: But he didn't even turn up. Didn't even
Joe Ison: Mm.
Mark: turn up. Didn't even bother. Neither defies the CEO, nothing. that's going on. What else has been going on? there is...
Joe Ison: Well, this is it. If you g if you turn up then, then there's Yeah. Yeah, it makes you look more guilty, doesn't it?
Mark: Well, you defend yourself like a normal human being would if you've been taken to court. Right.
Joe Ison: Not turning up.
Mark: So there's that and what else is happening? So tomorrow there is a, it's not, I don't think it's on the media or anything like mainstream media. think it's all on social media. That's what I've been seeing the last couple of days. There are people who are trying to make the UK supermarkets understand that at this particular point in our year, they have got record history profits. But yet the cost of food is going up and up and up and up on the people can't afford it. And
Joe Ison: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Mark: so they can't even afford the basics. I Katie Hopkins came out with a reel about it today about how one of the chancellors is saying he's going to help the people by lowering the cost of what do they call it? Like everyday items. And so she said, that's great. So that means I'll say 40 P on a jar of marmalade and the gherkin. Great. So.
Joe Ison: But it's shocking, isn't it? It it is
Mark: Well, the cost of living is an issue and they're doing a boycott tomorrow. So they're asking everybody to not shop at any major supermarket tomorrow. So that's Morrison's,
Joe Ison: Yeah.
Mark: Waitrose, Asda's, Tesco's, Lidl's, Iceland's, all of them. Don't shop at them at all. And if you need anything, go to your local convenience store, local butchers, local greengrocers, shop
Joe Ison: Yeah, this is it.
Mark: there instead, because they need to hear, basically what they're trying to do is trying to get these supermarkets to realize that they can't keep increasing the prices of things. when it's going up to five pounds for a block of cheese are you mad? Are you mad it's cheese? it shouldn't be that expensive block of cheese? No exactly and that's
Joe Ison: But they won't pay the farmer fairly. This is the issue, isn't it? So
Mark: the other thing.
Joe Ison: this is why people need to be educated more on the importance of shopping more locally and and you can source everything. There's some very good farmers that I follow that, you know, highlight this that not quite have got things set up like your Riverford's, your sort of Vabel and Coals and Organic Food Company, where you can get like a vegetable book vegetable box and fruit box ordered. Because they are great until you need some lule, This is this is it,
Mark: True. True.
Joe Ison: We all d we've all become dependent, I think, too dependent on the supermarkets and I think that's half the cause of a lot of the health issues really is sort of food companies, pharmaceutical companies. Over the last ten, twenty years we've sort of, you know, let convenience take take effect and rather than, you know, going to, you know, the local Cheese mu fishmonger or getting your f I was gonna say
Mark: Cheesemonger.
Joe Ison: cheese mugger then I didn't I had to change my word in Cheesemugger. Christ
Mark: Don't even think that's ever been a thing, but it might have been. It might have been.
Joe Ison: alive. Fishmonger and going to get your dairy and your cheese and going to the butchers and going to a greengrocer's. They're just not about anymore, you know. My my grandparents used
Mark: or because they're being pushed out.
Joe Ison: yeah, my grandparents, they had quite a quite a big greengrocers and post office on Mill Ro on Mill Road when my dad was young. And they
Mark: Yeah. Dude, I remember there used to be a greengrocers. So I used live in Northwood, not too far down the road from me. And I remember when I was a kid, like four, going to the greengrocers with my mom and my nan to get your veg and your fruit. I remember that. I remember going to the butchers to get your meat. You didn't go to supermarkets to get stuff then. No,
Joe Ison: Yeah. Yeah, he didn't go to Waitrose or fucking Sainsbury's, no.
Mark: no, no. I think if you're lucky, you might have had a saver center. I don't even think there was a supermarket like that back then. Like, you don't need it. You don't
Joe Ison: Yeah. No.
Mark: need it. And the cost is insane.
Joe Ison: Yeah, it was. It was 'cause you're paying it's it's a fair price 'cause you're paying directly like farmer sells to the greengrocer, greengrocer sells the produce. There's no like a middleman, no dirty tactics. You know, I I I hear it from our our family friends that are potato farmers. and I had the pleasure of working on that farm f when I was eighteen. So I know I know, you know, why they don't choose to have contracts with supermarkets, because they're just you know their cost of production, they're already being hammered by the the cost of the the the commodities, like the potato or the onion,
Mark: Mm.
Joe Ison: and they lock them into these contracts and you know their cost of production it doesn't even cover what they're getting from the
contract from the supermarket. So they're at a loss. And you got
Mark: Yep, exactly.
Joe Ison: dairy farmers that, you know, that I don't know, get hooked in with the likes of Arla and all these sort of fucking bullshit dairy companies that for f and and also guys fucking boycott this company if you can fucking Arla Christ don't get started on the whole Bavaire thing you know
Mark: Mm-hmm.
Joe Ison: but but these bullshit protein yogurts and yogurts and all sorts they themselves have literally told Muller are very big culprits for this criminals really that tell the farmers to dump their milk. So when they have They don't want their milk because they're so the factory's full. They'll order these farmers to dump gallons of their own produce. And they can't do anything about it because they're locked in his contract. They can't go and sell to little old Sally down the road who just wants a pint of milk. No. So all of this produce is going to waste. And even there's a guy who I follow on social media who is like the the food inspector, sort of like
Mark: Okay.
Joe Ison: shames a lot of these companies for the amount of food waste they create on a daily basis. And some of them are not even out-of-date produce, they just didn't get sold because
Mark: It's huge.
Joe Ison: they they get paid out by their insurance companies to cover the costs, which is nuts. It's just all corrupt. Corruption at a great scale. So if we can vote with our dollars, they say in the US, vote vote with our our British pound. And boycott the s like these supermarkets for a day, I'm all up for it. Cause you
Mark: I agree. I agree.
Joe Ison: can get everything. Like it it's definitely a mindset shift, 'cause I have depended on supermarkets, in my lifetime. I'm sure you guys listen to this 'cause it's convenient, you've got family, I get it. Time's of the essence, you want live your life. But that convenience is wrecking our economy and it's
Mark: Husser.
Joe Ison: there won't be any there won't be any farmers left if we carry on at this rate. So
Mark: No, no, that's what they want. That's what they want. That's exactly what they want. But on a side note, just before we wrap up, because I've got two more things I want to drop here. So there was a post that was on Instagram. Are we going to boycott the companies who are investing into lab grown chocolate? So I sent this to quite a few people and they were absolutely mortified about this. So I'm just going to read you because it covered hot chocolate and chocolate. I'm not going to do the hot chocolate because it's the same thing. Lab grown chocolate companies.
Joe Ison: Yeah.
Mark: Toblerone. Galaxy, Lint, Cadbury's, Celebrations, Heroes, Green and Blacks, Maltesers, and then the Hot Chocolates, I may as well do it, all the same ones I just basically said. They use specifically lab-grown chocolate. So it's not real chocolate. No, hotel chocolate's
Joe Ison: Yeah, I'm sure Hotel Chocolate is not on there yet, is it?
Mark: not, no, it's just Toblerone, Galaxy, Lint, Cadbury's, Celebrations, Heroes, Green and Blacks, and Maltesers.
Joe Ison: Yeah.
Mark: So basically anything that's Nestle, Cadbury's, Lint, all those guys.
Joe Ison: Mondel Mond Mondalized, yeah.
Mark: So they're not real chocolate anymore. And then there was one other thing that I shared the other day with somebody, which I think is quite important. So there's a, there's a new warning label that's just appeared on all citrus fruits. All right. Did you read that? Did I send that to you? I think I did, didn't I? Yeah. So
Joe Ison: yeah, yeah, the peels. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Mark: on these pills now on these fruits now, it will say peel is unfit for consumption. And the reason why that is, is because they are. Adding to the peel. Let me find what it is. It's conserved
Joe Ison: Yeah, I didn't think that.
Mark: with am imazali 2-phenyl, I can't read that, phenylphenyl, phenylphenyl,
Joe Ison: Yeah.
Mark: and then thia bendazerol, and then there's fludox, fludoxicone, and wax
Joe Ison: Yeah.
Mark: E903. So basically they're saying you can't eat the peel. When everyone's like, why does that
Joe Ison: Yeah.
Mark: matter? Well, because the peel is the skin of the fruit, which means it's going to seep into the fruit. Plus, what happens if you want to use a little bit of lemon zest, a little bit of orange zest, what are you going to do? Right? Right. Because these are not
Joe Ison: Yeah, your gin and tonic. Yeah. Your lemon and your tea.
Mark: exactly, you know, so they're now saying that you can't. So there are particular reasons why you shouldn't. just seeing it as on this. So they're put on there post-harvest. to prolong the shelf life.
Joe Ison: Yeah.
Mark: But fluedioxanil is a forever chemical, which means once it's in your body, it's going nowhere. Thiobendazole and azoxystrobin may act as endocrine disruptors, so it will mess with your hormones. So these are now on all citrus fruits. I thought it was bullshit, so I went and checked the lemons that I had just bought that day from Waitrose and to my surprise, it was on the fucking label. And I was like, it could not
Joe Ison: Yeah. Shit.
Mark: be the smallest bloody print either. It is
Joe Ison: Yeah.
Mark: tiny. And when you read those labels where they printed it so finely that it looks like somebody's gone to try and rub it off. You're
Joe Ison: Yeah, that's why. Yeah.
Mark: just trying to like see what it says that so organic for
Joe Ison: Yeah, you gotta buy organic, mate. Yeah.
Mark: citrus fruits. So there we go. Ladies and gentlemen, there's a lot, a lot to digest there.
Joe Ison: wait till next one, mate. We've got we've got to talk about bread again. They're adding folic acid to the to the bread by law.
Mark: yeah, we haven't done that yet. Yeah.
Joe Ison: But we'll save that for next time 'cause that is a big big discussion.
Mark: It's huge.
Joe Ison: So we'll leave you on a cliffhanger, folks, for for next time. Cool.
Mark: There we go,
Joe Ison: Right, we shall end it there. Thanks for attending, guys. Lots of love.
Mark: We We appreciate you as always guys. Much love and stay blessed to all of you.
Joe Ison: There it is, the one liner. Love it. End with the one. See ya folks.
Mark: the one-liner. Yeah man. Stay blessed everybody.