Elias Weiss Friedman (The Dogist) on How Dogs Help Us To Matter More | EP 688

0:00Coming up next on PassionStruck. The dog doesn't have to ask you a question of like, how are you doing? Just being in their presence and they have an ability to listen and sense the way you're feeling and whether it's eye contact, touch, warmth, letting you connect with them. There's just something that has a powerful way of making you feel better and deescalating and relieving stress. They're the best listeners. And even though they don't speak to you, they know exactly what to say. And there's also a stigma around mental health. Not everyone's going to raise their hand and say, I need help. So with a dog, you don't have to raise your hand.

0:39They just show up for you. Welcome to PassionStruck. I'm your host, John Miles. This is the show where we explore the art of human flourishing and what it truly means to live like it matters. Each week, I sit down with changemakers, creators, scientists, and everyday heroes to decode the human experience and uncover the tools that help us lead with meaning, heal what hurts, and pursue the fullest expression of who we're capable of becoming. Whether you're designing your future, developing as a leader, or seeking deeper alignment in your life, this show is your invitation to grow with purpose and act with intention.

1:16Because the secret to a life of deep purpose, connection, and impact is choosing to live like you matter.

1:30Welcome back, friends, to PassionStruck. I'm John Miles, your host, and this is episode 688 of our new series, The Irreplaceables, Rediscovering Human Worth in an Age of Acceleration. Whether you've been with us from the beginning or you're just joining our community of intentional changemakers, welcome. You're part of a movement to live with greater purpose and connection. If this show has ever helped you take a step toward that life, here's how you can help a crow. First, share this episode with someone who needs it, and then leave a five-star rating or review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. It's the best way to help others discover these conversations.

2:07Last week, in case you missed it, we explored two deeply human frontiers. First, with Dr. Zach Seidler, who unpacked the crisis of male loneliness and how belonging, not toughness, saves lives. Then, with Dr. Zalana Momeni, who revealed how to own your attention in a world that steals it. If you haven't heard those yet, they're the perfect foundation for today's conversation. Because today's episode explores one of the oldest and purest forms of connection we have. That's why I invited Elias Wise Friedman, better known as The Dogist, to join me. Elias is a world-renowned street photographer and storyteller with over 11 million followers.

2:49And his new book, This Dog Will Change Your Life, is a joyful and deeply human exploration of how dogs don't just make our lives better, they make us better people. In our conversation, we explore the origins of our ancient bond with dogs, why breeds are as much a human creation as a biological one, how dogs function as factories of empathy, and why they may hold the key to curing our modern loneliness epidemic. This conversation hit home for me. My dogs, Bentley and Luma, have been some of my greatest teachers, helping me process trauma, build daily rituals, and reawaken wonder. Before we dive in, a few quick notes.

3:32Our store, StartMattering.com, is live. It's part of the mattering revolution built on one truth. You matter. Live like it. Every hoodie, tee, and hat carries that reminder. And second, if you haven't yet joined the Ignited Life, our rapidly growing Substack community, visit theignitedlife.net. Every week, I share behind-the-scenes reflections, workbooks, science-backed frameworks, and practices to help you live more intentionally and connected. Now, let's dive into this heart-opening conversation with Elias Wise Friedman, the Doggest. Thank you for choosing PassionStruck and choosing me to be your host and guide on your journey to creating an intentional life.

4:12Now, let that journey begin.

4:18Hey friends, it's the beginning of 2026, and if you're like me, you didn't come into this year to coast. You came to live with purpose, to show up with energy, clarity, and intention. That's why how you start your day matters. And for me, that starts with Huel. Every morning, I reach for two things. First, Huel Daily Greens ready to drink. The peach and hibiscus flavor is crisp and refreshing. with 42 superfoods, vitamins, and minerals, all in just 25 calories and one gram of sugar. Then I turned to Huel Black Edition ready to drink. With 35 grams of protein, 27 essential nutrients, and no junk, it's a full meal that fuels focus, not fatigue.

4:56I start with Huel because I want to be present, intentional, and ready. Not just today, but every day. Start 2026 likey minute. Grab Huel today with my exclusive offer of 15 % off online with my code PASSION15 at Huel.com slash PASSION15. New customers only. Thank you to Huel for partnering and supporting our show.

5:22I am absolutely thrilled today to welcome Elias Friedman to PassionStruck. Welcome, Elias. How are you? I'm great. How are you doing? I am doing fantastic, and I've been so excited about this interview because I absolutely love dogs. And for those who are tuning in, you are the doggest. So I thought I would start there. You have grown this doggest brand on the internet to now over 11 million founders. How did this journey begin for you? My origin story, I think would have to date back to when I was a kid. There's a picture of me in 1988 being licked by my grandmother's dog, Oreo, like on the face.

6:05And you can see a big smile on my face. So probably that was the very beginning of me really loving dogs. And since then I developed a love for photography and, but didn't know exactly what to do with my creative spirit and coming from the family of two physicians. The first thought was, oh, maybe I'll be a doctor. But I moved to New York city, was working in brand strategy and agency was part of layoff and decided to dust off my camera and was inspired by humans of new york and the sartorialist those street photography blogs and said well no one's doing this for dogs and it seemed like a bit of a joke at the time because it's like well who's gonna take dog photography so seriously but i was like i will and so it's a long story short the rest is history 11 years later 50 000 dogs photographed.

7:01I'm not, I'm in retrospect, I'm not surprised people love the project, but at the time it was a little bit wild. I have to ask, do you remember the first dog you maybe photographed where you thought this is so much bigger than a hobby? It's really my life's calling. Well, I think before I started the Doggist, I was like, I don't know, like an unveiled artist. I knew that I love dogs, but I wasn't ready to create a whole project around it. But I was encouraged by other friends in the tech space in New York City. And these sort of like aha moments, like the name, The Doggist. It's like someone who dogs.

7:42And I remember photographing a Frenchie in Williamsburg. And he said, what's this for? I said, The Doggist. And so maybe that was one of the first moments. The first picture posted to the Dogist was a boxer I met in Vienna as the basis of the Dogist logo. But yeah, I think someone, this project is, like everyone's a dog photographer. This is something that the world needs, right? Especially in these times of divisiveness and stress and shocking things that happen. Dogs are the antidote to that. So I felt like we needed this project. I missed having a dog and dogs are one of the few things people want to talk about their dogs.

8:31If I'm stopping people on the street and they go, I don't want to talk about myself or I don't want to talk about my kids. Those are two, they're different. But when you ask about their dog, they just completely open up and they'll tell you like the most candid, sometimes embarrassing story right off the bat. And that's like a refreshing thing in today's world to just have someone like completely relax and just tell you an honest, authentic story. It does mean so much. And I'm wearing a shirt today that says I matter. And I think more and more of us just stay in our houses these days or our offices and we're not getting out and we're not connecting.

9:12So my whole message with this podcast is that you matter. And we just moved into a new neighborhood and we were walking the dog that we've had for a while, Bentley. We immediately encountered other people walking dogs and other neighbors. And so it really is a nice extension to your life because without Bentley, I wouldn't have met these 15 to 20 new neighbors throughout the neighborhood. might have met my next door neighbors, but certainly wouldn't have had more invested conversations with other neighbors who we pass along the way. They're like a force of socialization. The thing I've been saying recently is before you get a dog, you know your neighbor.

9:53And after you get a dog, you know your neighborhood. Dogs are amazing social butterflies, right? They want to meet everyone. They want to sniff butts and they have to pee three times a day or more. And if you will introduce you to everyone that you come across. And sometimes those connections are very meaningful. Well, dogs seem to be everywhere in our lives, like we were just talking about, but you seem to see them differently than most of us do. What do you look for when you raise the lens? That's a good question. I think I'm looking for something that stands out. I will always be a photographer.

10:36So I'm looking for something with visual interest, whether it's a rare breed of dog, a unique looking dog, someone's crazy outfit. Maybe the light is just right. Maybe it's like a scene, the dog's in a bag, dog's in a stroller, people are having brunch and the dog is by the table, something that represents something about life. And I'm, of course, I'm always interested in conveying it through the dog's perspective, because I'm always getting down to the dog's level, focusing on the dog, but always I'm interested in showing the context through which they're living their life. Yeah. People obviously who want to be, have their dog on the doggest.

11:26That's like one of their questions is like, how do you choose your subjects? And it is a bit random because I will shoot once or twice a week and we'll gather, I'll meet seven to 10 dogs on each outing. But it's a little bit of a fit, I don't know, fate or I say every dog has its day.

11:47Today, we're talking about your brand new book, This Dog Will Change Your Life. And you're already a New York Times bestselling author. So it shows you how much these stories resonate. On Passion Struck, the show, we tend to balance science and story, and your book opens up with both. Why did you go into Levi Strauss and Groucho? I think they're hilarious examples of how we represent dogs in our culture. What was the Groucho quote? It's inside of a dog you can't read. I forget exactly. But yeah, I just felt like they were good representative examples of how dogs are pervasive throughout our culture and part of the fabric of our society.

12:38They absolutely are. And I thought it was interesting that you could have jumped directly into street stories and about the things that you do when you're out there photographing these dogs. But instead you start with the question, what is a dog? Why define it first? I think a lot of people think of their dog as a family member, as a best friend, and those things are true. But they are animals just like we are. And so understanding where they come from, how they evolved, how they came to be. We created dogs. Unlike other types of pets, cats, turtles, they are less domesticated compared to dogs.

13:27We selectively bred dogs over hundreds, thousands of years to be what we want them to be. I like to think of this idea of a wild pug. There's no such thing as a wild pug. And so each of these dogs are a representation of us in all their forms, big, little lap dogs, Great Danes. And so understanding the origin of dogs, I think is important to fully understanding them. I had to jump away for a second because this little one is our new addition. Her name is Luma, for those who are watching. And she is five months old, but she's only 10 days new to us. And I have trained my lab over the years to when I'm filming, He goes into another room, sits in his bed, knows what I'm doing and doesn't say a Pete.

14:21She is very distractible right now. So she is making it harder to do these interviews until I train her more. But yeah, so this is Luma. This is Luma. And what's her backstory? She's like a Chihuahua mix or? She's a Chihuahua terrier mix. Cute. And what's her backstory? Is she from a certain part of the country or? Her backstory is my wife's dog Gibbs passed away in January and she lived long life, 16 years. And we were looking for a new addition to the family. Keep Bentley more alive and alert as he gets older along with us. So we were struggling to find a new dog. And my wife learned about this group that was having a big event because they found a person who was hoarding dogs and they had over 40 different dogs on their property.

15:20And she happened to be one of two or three litters that they discovered on the property. And when we went to the event, she came right up to all of us and we just couldn't get her out of her mind. Luckily, we were able to get her and the rest is history. Yeah. She crawled into your heart and wouldn't leave. Yeah. That's how it can happen. My man, it's been a long time since I've had a puppy. So it's a little bit getting used to training them again. Of course. It's a fun phase. I rescued my dog Elsa when she was basically an adult or about one years old. So I didn't get to do the puppy phase with Elsa and part of me wishes I could have, but also I know puppies are a lot of work.

16:04That is true. So we're still trying to potty trainer. horse. Well, one of the things you write about in the book is you say that dogs are almost all about light. And that really struck me. What does that mean to you? I think dogs have an innate positivity about them. I spoke with someone recently who takes care of a dog whose hind legs don't work and has wheels to get around and she said that dogs don't have this thought that we do of what if i fail dogs they just look towards the future they live in the present moment they don't dwell on the past and what their shortcomings are and they just say like how do i do this let's do this even if it's just getting a treat from across the room they're not thinking oh what was me if only i were xyz if only i were different they just focus on the now and so i think through that virtue and being around dogs they live as this light as you're saying this source of motivation, of encouragement.

17:28Dogs aren't judgmental of themselves. They're not judgmental of others. They don't care about what you look like, what kind of car you drive. They give, they lead with trust. They don't lead with doubt. And so as humans, people with, we have an ego we have to struggle with, and we are often at odds with one another. And And for whatever reason, those things exist. I think they don't always serve us. And by being around dogs, by seeing the way that they behave, even without spoken language, we become more like them. And I think that was a good thing. I completely agree with you. I know one of the things with Bentley, when he looks at me, sometimes I feel like he's peering into my soul.

18:18And it's crazy. how much you can just feel how much they love you, how much they care for you, which is something you often don't get from the human experience. Yeah. And when you say peering into your soul, it's like a lot of it comes down to direct eye contact. Like your average day, you can probably, even with the people closest to you, the amount of like direct eye contact you have gets less and less every day you have five seconds with a barista you have 30 seconds with your wife whereas dogs are incredibly generous with their eye contact you come home they stare into your soul like they're saying and i think as humans we crave that and we're missing that more and more the ability as we work remotely as we're on a podcast over a zoom channel and this counts for something but it's not quite the same as being in the same be right next to someone and some a dog The way a dog looks at you is just, we don't get that much anymore.

19:23And so it's important. They remind us that we matter, like your shirt says. And that feeling of love that we get through eye contact is priceless. It reminds me of something that you wrote about in the book. You suggest that there's no dogs without humans, but I think it's maybe no humanity without dogs. I do think they bring out the best in humans. And yeah, just like when you walk around the street with your dog, you're talking about meeting new people. You probably wouldn't have met them otherwise. Who knows if your ideologies align, like whether you would have struck up a conversation with this person otherwise.

20:07The dogs don't ask these questions. they just have a magnetism, a gravity about everything they do in attracting other people, in attracting love, connection. I think we take it for granted. It's something that we've gotten used to living with a dog. But my goal with this book and really the whole Dogist project, everything I'm doing is to deepen our appreciation for dogs and help them live better lives and hopefully save a number, as many as possible from living life in a shelter. I hope you're enjoying my conversation with Elias Friedman. We'll be right back after a short break.

20:53Thank you for supporting those who support the show. You're listening to PassionStruck on the PassionStruck Network. Now, back to my conversation with Elias Friedman. That's why we always tend to rescue our dogs. My other dog, Bentley, came from Alabama originally, and he had a sister. And that sister was really mean to him in many ways. But the parents, for whatever reason, before I had them, moved to a place, not sure why people do this, where they wouldn't allow them to have big dogs like a lab. And so they gave them to a shelter, which became a kill shelter. And so we were able to find Bentley from a lab rescue organization and a great foster mom.

21:42But it does really sometimes make me think as much love as dogs bring to you, how sometimes we treat them in the exact opposite way that they show the love to us that so many of us feel who love them. yeah it's a dark part of reality and being a human is abandoning things that we once cared about or i remember being in texas arriving at their municipal shelter the city shelter and i got there at 9 a.m and there's already a line of people waiting to relinquish their dogs to surrender them for whatever reason. And of course, your instinct is to judge them. And I guess you can, but people may be struggling financially, health-wise, it's just an unfortunate thing.

22:42And in places where there's overpopulation around the country, especially in the South, they unfortunately have to do space-based euthanasia, which is unfortunate. And a lot of it has to do with overbreeding and we don't have to get into all the details of that, but I just think it's a noble thing if you're interested in getting a dog to at least consider getting one from a shelter because dogs aren't meant to languish in small cages and be not social. They belong with their people and a family. Even going to a shelter and just seeing it for yourself, I think is a meaningful thing to do as someone who loves dogs.

23:23It is so sad to go to those facilities where they're trying to breed purebreds and you see the dogs in all the cages and they just look miserable. And this is something that you bring up in the book, 16 Basil Breeds, and you call breeds human inventions. Why is this important for the listeners to understand about this breeding and making sense of modern dogs and what comes about with the responsibilities we have of breeding these human inventions? I think to make a distinction, not the practice of breeding, responsibly breeding a dog that you care about, for example, like dog shows, for example.

24:11There is a best practice, and these people are not responsible for the overpopulation shelters. They're not making money out of this. They're barely breaking even. And they are breeding a breed. They love to keep it alive, a legacy, whether it's a hunting dog, a it's the very 100 to 200 purebred breeds out there are interesting. And I think worth preserving. It's a fascinating thing. The issue comes when you have someone who's trying to make money off of a trend of a breed's popularity, like a celebrity gets a dog and then everyone wants one of those. It's this impulsive, fashion-y phenomenon.

24:56The hallmarks of a puppy mill, if you will, is the ability to get a dog next weekend quickly with a credit card without any sort of the breeder looking into your background or interviewing you at all and without any accountability. The breeder is not keeping up with you. Those are the dogs that can end up in a shelter. And so I just want to make that distinction off the bat is that if you decide that you really want a specific breed, you need to make sure to do a lot of research and find a breeder that is doing it with love and a care for preserving their breed, not to make money. And it should take a year.

25:43It should take at least six months for you to get a dog if that's the path you want to go down. But yeah, in terms of the basal breeds, there's, I don't know how many, whether there are 16 or 11, 16, 16. Yeah. So there's basically the first dogs that were, that we created the first breeds. And it's like the Chow. Is it the Shiba Inu? A lot of them were Asian, started in Asia. The Canaan dog in, I guess, Africa. cow and that's just what all our dogs today have a bit of in them. If you do any of these DNA tests, you'll see there's always a sliver of chow in every dog. And so it's just interesting history lesson.

26:29If you look at the breed that they all started with their select few.

26:39well one of the things that you just mentioned was dog shows and you've been shooting westminster as i understand it for a decade what do you think dog shows reveal about us not just the dogs i think they're of the variety of types of dogs they are in the most These are called confirmation shows as meaning that the dogs, there's a very specific description of what each breed should be, quote, should be. And so the dogs that conform to that the most are, should be the ones that win. So you have bloodhounds, you have Irish setters, you have Newfoundlands, you have poodles, pugs, shizus, bijons, the list goes on and on.

27:30And so each of the, what they call them fanciers, dog fanciers have chosen a breed that they love and have dedicated their life to showing them in this elite level, Westminster dog show, Crufts in England and the national dog show in Pennsylvania to try and preserve their breed and to create the epitome of what these breeds are. standards are and a lot of them will also a lot of the corgis that show up are actually working dogs they're right off the farm chasing cattle one day and then walking around a show ring the next and so it's a very niche kind of the whole thing is a bit wild like for anyone who's seen the movie best in the show i remember i asked him one of the handlers and mentioning that to him and he was like, oh, the documentary.

28:31And I was like, no, that's like a mockumentary. So now that's a documentary. Like the, the sort of stereotypes that are portrayed in there have some truth to them. There's each breed has its own sort of like variety of people, poodle people, bug people, shizu people. It's, it's just like a interesting expression of our diversity and humanity. And the dogs there are a representation of that. Yeah. Well, speaking of people and their dogs, I want to talk about doppelgangers. There is so much truth that you walk around and it does seem oftentimes like people look like their dogs. What do you think that says about identity or belonging?