#310 Josh Duhamel - Transformers Star Reveals His 26-Acre Off-Grid Survival Compound

22:19That's ridge.com slash SRS for up to 40 % off. After you purchase, they'll ask you where you heard about them. Please support our show and tell them we sent you. What is one... What is a piece of advice you have for being a father for your kids?

22:47Josh Duhamel:My advice for being a father is, I think it's just...

22:56Josh Duhamel:Try to... The number one thing that I learned from my dad is something he didn't even know he was teaching me, is that he just, the way he treated people, the respect that he had for people, didn't matter what, you know, where they were at socioeconomically, you know. I'll never forget this story. He used to own a used car dealership, and it was right on Broadway in minor North Dakota. Next door to that was this old guy named Art, and Art wasn't very well off at all. He owned a little shack on this road. Now it's all been demolished, and they built nicer, bigger buildings there. but this guy was one of the last holdouts.

23:33Josh Duhamel:He didn't want to sell this little place. And I remember going over to his house next door to my dad's used car shop, and I said, he's poor, isn't he, Dad? He goes, he's not poor. He's rich because he's happy. What'd he say? He's rich.

23:48He's rich because something about that he's happy,

23:54Josh Duhamel:that he lives a happy life. So he wasn't placing this guy's value value or what I thought was value on whether or not he made money. And this is me as a little kid not knowing shit. Teaching me that these guys, it doesn't matter how much money you have as long as you're living a full and happy life. And this guy did. And I think that for me, it's like, I guess my point in telling you this is that I know my kids are watching me very closely and how I treat people, how I handle my own business. So the only advice I could give, because I'm I'm the last person to tell people to raise a kid. I'm still figuring it out myself.

24:34Josh Duhamel:But they're watching you closely, and the example you set is the way they'll go forward. Damn, that's weird. I was just going to bring that up, and I lost it. And so I asked this question. I was going to say, when we were talking about the knowledge transfer to your kids, at least really, I mean, I think the best, you just said, I think the best thing you can do is just be the example that you want your kids to turn into. Yeah. You know, and it sounds like your old man did that to you. You're back in the Midwest. And... I mean, I just... They are always watching. And, you know, I had an incident the other day that I'm not proud of, and we were at the airport, and it was taking...

25:16We were going on a little vacation, and... Yeah, we were at the check-in counter, and we got the bags, and there was some mishap. mishap it wasn't our fault and i was like you are gonna you are gonna make us miss our vacation and and a very heated way yeah and then my son looked at me and said the exact same thing to the woman behind the counter i did a facebook yeah i i was like that wasn't that wasn't good

25:46Josh Duhamel:yeah yeah well i mean listen give yourself a little grace but yeah it's true um i have a story Last year, I was taking my son to school. And we take the shortcut, because we live in, he goes to school about 40 minutes. We have to drive in the heavy traffic to get there. And it's just, it's always just a slog. So I take the shortcut where you got to kind of jump in. And there's just a lot, it's a standstill, basically. So I was trying to get in. And this lady wouldn't let me in. And I was like, and she just like literally cut me off. I was like, what the fuck? I'm like, what are you doing? And now all of a sudden I hear, Dad.

26:24Josh Duhamel:I was like, oh, shit. I forgot my kid was in the back seat. He couldn't believe it. You know, the poor kid is mortified. I'm like, yeah, there's a good example of, you know, your kids are watching. Do I want him to behave like that? No. So, you know, I guess it keeps me in check, too. Yeah, yeah. So how did you, did you grow up in the woods? So I grew up outside of town in Minot, North Dakota, in this little area called Robinwood. about five miles out of town. And yeah, we were out in the country. And I'd spent all day, especially in the summer, just out in the woods catching frogs, catching turtles, salamanders, fishing, riding our bikes wherever we could go.

27:12Josh Duhamel:And that was kind of, and then my parents got divorced. We had to move into town. And that's when, you know, that was sort of like the next phase of my life. But my early days from the time I was probably a baby all the way up through fourth grade, I was out in the country. So I think part of the reason why I have this place now is me sort of reliving that little Huck Finn story that I lived as a kid. I just love being out there. It really brings me back to being a kid. And for me to now see my kids experience this and watch them sort of get to do the same things I did growing up was part of the reason I did it, honestly.

27:56Josh Duhamel:Really? Is that why you asked? I asked because I was just curious if you moved back there for familiarity, you know, and did you want your family to experience what you had, or if you were strictly there for the zombie apocalypse? No, it was... In the beginning, it was... I guess I bought this place 16, 17 years ago. And in the beginning, it was just because I just wanted to get away. I just wanted something really remote, really private. I was not trying to escape Hollywood. I just wanted something different that I could get away to if I needed to. And then it became something as the world got a little bit scarier.

28:40Josh Duhamel:I was like, you know what? I'm really glad I bought this thing. In fact, I'm going to buy the property next door, too. So then I had 55 acres out there, and I was like these two little cabins. And I really started thinking more about like, okay, how could I live out here so that if shit hits the fan, I can just live out here without, you know, completely unplugged. So then I started taking steps to do that, which was, you know, solar, which I never use. We ended up bringing electricity in, but everything runs off of propane, you know. And if we could fish, I could hunt. I could literally, we've got three wells out there.

29:16So I've got plenty of water and enough food if I need it. And then all the other stuff you need. Dude, I love prepping. So I want to hang out on this topic as long as possible. I could talk about it all day. All right. OK. Where did you start? So you start, you got a small hunk cabin out in the middle of the woods, right?

29:36Josh Duhamel:So I bought 12 acres, half a parcel. nothing on it from this old guy named uh um cody uh craig cody k-o-t-t-e and uh then he passed away shortly after that and he had a little hunting shack in the woods on the on the parcel the half parcel next to where i just bought no electricity no water uh outhouse you know he had these little copper wires running through there he would learn turn on these these little lanterns these little oil lanterns. That's how we lived out there. So then I had a little structure for the first time. So I had 26 acres and a little cabin that I never said, because it was just so rat-infested, mouse-infested.

30:22I was like, it was too much.

30:24Josh Duhamel:I'd leave there with a sore throat every time. I'd spend the night. I was like, I'm going to clean this place up before I decide to really start staying out here. So we'd go out. We'd camp a couple days, and then we'd just start fixing it up. And then the other property next door, that went up for sale. another 26 acres with another little cabin that had electricity but no water. So we dug another well. So I had a well, and I brought electricity up to the top one, and then I have this little one on the water with electricity but built a well there. So now I have these two little cabins, but they're both little.

30:56Josh Duhamel:Now we've redone them now, and they're nice little guest cabins, but I still didn't have it. And so during COVID, we spent all of our time out there. I mean, we had to wash dishes in the lake, shower in the lake. It was like homesteading. Oh, shit, you were legitimately rough in it. It was like homesteading for the first 10 years. I loved it. That's awesome. Because I was constantly, and it was pickaxes, and it was shovels, and it was clearing little spaces. I remember I found this little area down by the water that was all sand, but it had all these dead logs and all the kind of overgrown. And I just knew that if I could clear this off, we'd have this beautiful little beach.

31:33Josh Duhamel:And sure enough, that became Axel Beach. My oldest son, I named it after him. And that's where the kids just run wild now. It's all cleared up and it's beautiful now, but it was, you know, a lot of just... And then I got a tractor and I got a skid steer, and then it got to go, you know, we started moving. Because then you could pop stumps and rocks and clear things much quicker. But for the first 10 years, it was literally like homesteading. And I loved it. Because I'd leave L.A., I'd go out there, and I'd spend two weeks and just work on whatever my little project was. And over the years now, it's become like a really cool little spot that we just, you know...

32:18Josh Duhamel:My family loves it. My parents, my sisters, my wife's family, they all come out, we just make the most memories out there, it's amazing. That's awesome, man. What are you worried about when it comes to... What got you into the prepping? What was the last straw? I think it's, you know, I've always had this, I don't know, recurring, not nightmare, it's more of like a daymare, about... I read this book by Wesley Rawls called Patriots, A Guide to Surviving the Coming Collapse. and it was based on the 2008 market crash. And things almost got sideways in Los Angeles and all over the country. If you remember, the banks and everything were freezing, and it was like a whole thing.

33:13Josh Duhamel:But then the government bailed them out, and it sort of eased everybody's stress. This book plays it out as if it just kept going. And there are these certain cells around the country that had a plan that if things went sideways, we'd get on our walkies and we all sort of send a message and we all go to our spot, and it was in Idaho. And it was like this camp where they would have, it was like a little mini militia almost, where everybody had a certain skill set. Some were medical, some were weaponry, some were construction, some were farming, communications. They all contributed. And if you didn't contribute, you were out.

33:55Josh Duhamel:So it was like this little mini sort of militia of people that came with a certain set of skills that helped sort of fend off anybody that came. So that was kind of the beginning of it for me. I was like, I need to build something that if things do go sideways, I got to have a plan to get to Los Angeles. And I got to have a plan to get from Los Angeles to here. And once I'm here, we'll be able to figure it out because I'll have what I need. So that was kind of the beginning of it. What was your plan to get out of LA? I got a motorcycle. Now I got kids. I don't know what I would do. I still got a, I got a, I got a, I got a little dirt bike, but now I got a wife and I got three kids.

34:34Josh Duhamel:So it's a, the, the plan is shifting. It's, it's, it's in development still, but, uh, you know, I had a whole thing where, okay, if I have to, I'll get a boat in the Marina, I'll take that up the coast and I'll have a truck in a parking garage and all that. I go crazy with this stuff. Damn, dude. Because when things lock down in Los Angeles, and anything will set that off. I mean, those freeways lock up, and there's no getting out. Yeah. So I needed a way to get out of there, through the hills, down to the water, up, and then get out.

35:06Josh Duhamel:See, if I was a little bit tougher, Sean, I could have been a Navy SEAL, but I just not made it the same stuff you are. I have the same mindset, just not the same toughness. But that was kind of, I mean, I go, I really go deep with it. I really think about, OK, how do we do that? How do we get out of here? And that was the biggest, and it still is one of the biggest things. If we're there and we get stuck, how do we get out? Have you looked at dual citizenship? What do you mean? Are you that far down the rabbit hole yet? What do you mean, like Canada? Canada. I mean, the top five places, I think, are Ireland.

35:41If you have Irish roots, you can get it immediately. Portugal, but you got to learn Portuguese. uh italy was on there canada was on there what else was on there paraguay was on there really yeah which was always i've always said if i gotta get the hell out of dodge i'm going to paraguay why it's too far south for the cartels to be running drugs up there's no ocean which means nobody wants to vacation there there's nothing there but farming and fucking cows really yeah and nobody knows about it yeah so that was always my spot so when i when i was taking any measures to do that or not yet i'm like in process but do you think you'd have to leave the country to do

36:27Josh Duhamel:to do all this i don't know it's just a peace of mind i'm not i'm not like in a i'm not gonna abandon the fucking country anyways i'm gonna fight for it but if yeah you know but other people have to fight for it too and if nobody's fighting for it then uh one guy fighting for it isn't going to do a damn thing. I think there are plenty of people that would fight for it, though. You think so? Oh, God, yeah. I don't know, man. Sometimes I think it's all talk. I don't know.

36:56Josh Duhamel:Which is why I'm looking at dual citizenship. Yeah. I haven't gone that far down the rabbit hole, but, you know, so what are your fears about it? I mean, I know we sound like crazy, you know, tinfoil hat wearing. What do I? But I mean. I mean... I think AI robots could be a real thing. You think AI robots could be a real thing? I think so. I mean, this AI thing is moving so quickly that I don't know if we can ever... We've got to wrap our arms around this thing, or it's going to... Well, it's interesting that all the people building AI are also building bunkers, like Mark Zuckerberg that put a huge fucking bunker in Hawaii.

37:34They know a lot more about it than we do. I know. It's like, oof. So speaking of AI, are you familiar with Claude? Yes. Okay. Okay, so before you came on, we had Claude, Anthropics AI, scrape the entire internet on you and come up with the most viral question that would land with the audience.

37:51Josh Duhamel:Okay, wow. Here's the context. You spent a decade in Transformers, films where the entire premise is robots coming to kill humans. Then last month, you told Fox News, you're now 72 % ready for the apocalypse at your off-grid cabin. And you said, in quotes, I'm less afraid of zombies and more afraid of AI robots now. I don't know if we're ever going to fully be able to protect ourselves from what's coming. Meanwhile, you spent 15 years quietly building a 26-acre compound 40 miles from the nearest store. So here's the question. Okay. Take us inside the compound. If somebody, if someone watching right now wanted to start building their own version of what you've got, what's the gear, gadgets, survival kit, and guns you'd let them buy, you'd tell them to buy first?

38:47Josh Duhamel:Well, first thing you need is water, electricity and water. So you need a pump to pull the water out of the well. So you need some sort of electricity, whether it's solar or something, you know, whether it's gas powered or whatever. You need something to pull, you need water. That was the first thing I did.

39:08Josh Duhamel:I have guns. Hopefully I never need them for anything other than hunting. What kind of guns? What would you recommend somebody to get? I got some nines. I've got shotguns. I've got rifles. Things that are all legal and registered. Anybody watching, please know that.

39:33Josh Duhamel:That's all in the up and up. But that's one thing, protection, learn how to fish, learn how to hunt.

39:42Josh Duhamel:And have shelter. I mean, for me, I built the shelters that I needed. But it's not like it's a fortified military type anything. I'm actually really looking at, I have this old container, this old shipping container that we bought during COVID. that right now just acts as a shed for all my supplies, whether it's plumbing or extra wood or just tools, things that sort of overflow the goat in there. Eventually, I want to bury that, put a, you know, under a concrete, a thick concrete sort of shed above that. So you walk inside the shed, you go down in this thing, then you have this whole bunker that I don't, I mean, listen, man, if they're coming, they're coming.

40:29Josh Duhamel:I'm not sure if anything's going to stop it. I just hope that we wrap our arms around this thing and have some sort of guardrails so that they don't just... Because it's moving at a pace so fast right now that we can't even grasp it. I know. I mean, I was at this event in Cannes last year called Cannes Line. It's a big branded marketing convention. All the biggest brands go, and they talk the latest and greatest. And all they talked about was this AI and how a year from the day it was, which was probably six months ago now, a year from that day, it's gonna be 60 times more powerful than it was one year earlier.

41:08Josh Duhamel:60 times. So you can imagine you take that 60 times, and then it just keeps growing exponentially. And I don't, I mean, I can't wrap my head around that. I don't know if anybody can. So I just hope that we, you know, smart minds sort of come together and say, okay, hold on, let's just slow this thing down a little bit, if we even can at this point. I don't know. It stresses me out. I got you one other gift, though. Okay. Before we get too far from the guns, I got a buddy at Sig Sauer. Oh, God. And I told him you were coming on. He's a huge Transformers fan. This is clear and safe, by the way. So that's the Sig Sauer 365 macro with a Sig Sauer suppressor and Sig's new optic line.

41:55Holds 17 rounds plus one in the pipe.

41:57Josh Duhamel:Wait, you're giving me this? Yeah. You probably have to take that to the cabin, though. I don't think that's going to fly in L.A. This is the coolest gift ever. Thank you. Yeah, we'll break it in here after this if we've got time. That is amazing, dude. Thank you so much. What is it, a nine? Yeah, it's a nine millimeter. Wow. Thank you. You're welcome. Truly, thank you so much. My pleasure, man. How do I get this back to Los Angeles? We'll talk offline about it. Okay. How do I get this back to Fargo? Yeah. I'll register it in Fargo. Yeah, so... That's amazing. Thanks. You're welcome. You're welcome.

42:39It'll look good out there in the cabin. Yeah. But I would love to go through this shit with you. One thing, you mind if I critique you a little bit? Yeah. All right, one thing. So you're learning, right? You're learning how to do all this. Yep. You need books, not fucking downloaded programs, not shit on computers. You need textbooks on how to survive. Okay. There's a really good series. This isn't a plug, but whatever. It's called Back to the Basics. Okay. And they have like a whole series hardback, and it teaches you everything from fucking gardening to how to build a cabin to how to filter water, how to wash your clothes, how to make soap, how to do all of it.

43:22So that way, you know, you don't have to learn it all right now when the shit hits the fan.

43:26Josh Duhamel:Because you never know. I mean, what if everything goes down, everything's dark? We don't have, you know, our phones or computers to just, you know, look everything up. Yeah. So that's the reason, just to have books. Yeah, you know, and then it's just like a piece. It's not a piece. I mean, you're going to use it, but you don't have to stress about knowing it all today because you have textbooks. Back to the basics. It teaches you how to raise chickens, how to do everything. Wow, that's cool. Yeah, it's a great series. So that would be something I would invest in, you know, because then you can learn as you go.

44:03Seeds. Okay. You have seeds? I do.

44:06Josh Duhamel:I just bought a bunch of seeds. I just bought a ton of seeds. Good. Because we're building a food plot. That's one of our projects this year. We're doing a big pumpkin patch. Nice. The deer are probably going to eat most of the pumpkins. But we're hoping in the fall we can take the kids up and just do a big pumpkin patch thing. That's awesome. And then I'm building, and I cleaned up the whole perimeter of this peninsula, and I'm cleaning up all the wood, all the old logs and stuff, and I'm going to plant a million wildflowers. Not that those seeds are going to do us any good, but you're talking about, like, what?

44:35Josh Duhamel:Corn and what else? Anything. Corn, green beans, just lots of vegetables, lots of fruit. Yep. And I just store them in a bin. And every time I go to a tractor supply or wherever, I'm just buy a couple, throw them in there. And where do you plant them all? No, I just stockpile. Oh, you stockpile it. OK. And is there an expiration on those or no? I don't believe so.

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48:53Okay, books, seed. Books, seeds, the water stuff, do you have to have a... Well, you live on a... That's on a lake, so... Yeah. Not too worried about that.

49:03Josh Duhamel:No, we've got... I mean, we've got three wells up there, which are really, really good water. So that, I think, is good enough. Nice. The lake itself is all spring-fed, so it's a really... It's one of the clearer lakes in Minnesota, which is awesome. I mean, I'm not going to drink it, but if I had to boil it, I guess we could, right? Do you know what a Berkeley water filter is? No. So it's a gravity filter. And it's like putting a bucket on top of a bucket. And it takes out like 99.9 % of everything. Do you have that here? I don't have it here, but I have a couple at the house. Okay. And yeah, so you could take literally just about any water, dump it in there.

49:48And when it's done doing its thing, it's... Really? And where do you buy that? Oh, you can get them on Amazon all over the place. Berkeley water filter, okay. Yeah. Another thing for you in LA... The arcade only way? I think... I'll find it. I can text it to you. Another thing for your LA home when you're in LA is, if you're worried about water, you can get a dehumidifier and a solar inverter, which you can get on Amazon for like 500 bucks. And you just plug in the dehumidifier and it will just pull water right out of the air. And it's filtered, obviously.

50:33Josh Duhamel:And how much water does that make? Enough to... Yeah, have you ever seen one? I don't think so. Yeah, you just run the dehumidifier, just pulls the humidity out of the air and then there's a little tank inside the dehumidifier i mean you can these are like i don't know 100 bucks maybe at home depot and uh yeah you just hook it up to your solar inverter if you don't have power and it's it's gonna it's going to pull water fast okay so and that's called the what again that's a dehumidifier just a dehumidifier no there's no it's not called anything else okay all right a lot of people put them in their basements okay but Good to know.

51:11Yeah. What do you do for communications? What do you have for that? Are you planning on communicating? Yes.

51:17Josh Duhamel:Well, I bought, I got some on Instagram, and they work. They're amazing. They're walkies. The satellite push-to-tops? Yes. Do you work? They work great. I was looking at getting some of those. We just started using them. I just got them working this last time I was out there. Nice. They seem to work great, and apparently they work, they triangulate with different satellites, and you can use them across the country? Is that even real? I've never tried that, but I know that they work really well on our property. Right on, man. How about you? What do you have? Do you use any kind of? I'm not set up with comms yet.

51:52Josh Duhamel:Yeah. So. I'll send you what I have. Right on. They seem pretty good. What about ammo? I could use more.

52:03We call it, couldn't we all?

52:05Josh Duhamel:But.

52:10Josh Duhamel:I have a fair amount, but, you know, I think it's good to, you know, have enough. What kind of guns do you have? I got a.223. Nice. I got a Glock 21SF, Glock 17. What else? Shotguns, mostly for hunting. Shotgun, bird guns. rifles you know for deer hunting I got a crossbow out there you got a.22? I do have a.22 nice that's the best one man you can take thousands of rounds with you at a moment's notice because they're so light yep what else do I have I got this what is this, this is a SIG Sauer SIG 365 I just got this one just recently right on right on is your is uh is the fam into the prepping uh she thinks i'm a little bit crazy but she also appreciates it you know because at first and this you know bless her heart my wife is amazing because she grew up living that lake life her family is very close to where mine is so she gets it she loves being out there and we've made it comfortable now for the longest time and She was with me during COVID and the whole thing, so it was rough.

53:34Josh Duhamel:Believe it or not, girls don't like having to go in an outhouse in the middle of winter in Minnesota, walk outside in their snow boots to go to the bathroom. It doesn't go over well. It's not like you're not going to attract a lot of women with an outhouse behind your thing. But she must really love me. But now it's much more comfortable. Everything's got a bathroom. We've got plumbing. And it's beautiful. And we've got this beautiful beach that we built. So it's not super posh, but it's comfortable. I don't ever want it to feel too luxurious. I like that it still feels a little bit rugged. We've still got to work.

54:13Josh Duhamel:And we're 40 minutes from anything, so we've got to come prepared. And so that part of it I love. I mean, every time I'm out there, it becomes similar to what you're talking about with the books, back to the basics. It's like really just... I forget about all the stuff that I'm... When I'm in Los Angeles, it's all about work, achieve, you know, create. But out there, it's about survival. It's about making sure that my family and everybody who's come to visit us has enough water, enough food, enough heat. That's really where my head goes. And it's a really liberating thing to not worry about the things that you do, you know, in the real world, and just sort of focus on what is actually important.

54:53I feel like your mind rejuvenates when you do stuff like that, get out of the loop. How do you stay present with your kids in L.A. when you're in the mix, when you're working? You know, I just show up for everything.

55:12Josh Duhamel:If I'm in town, I'm there. I take them to school. I take them to soccer practice, take them to basketball, go to all the games, help them with their homework if they need it.

55:23Josh Duhamel:teach him how to shoot a jump shot. He's all into basketball right now. So he always wants to play me and learn. So I'm always out there, just whatever I can. Because I've learned seeing him, like we talked about, as a 2-year-old and now a 12-year-old. These moments matter. And if I'm gone for months at a time, I need to make sure that I am with them and they know that I'm with them 100 % when I'm here. so they don't ever feel it. My biggest fear is looking back, going, you know, I screwed my kids up because I wasn't around enough. You know, it's one of my biggest fears. I do not want to do that.

56:00Josh Duhamel:I want to make sure that they know that I am doing everything I can to, you know, be there for them as a dad. Does your wife keep you on the level? Oh, yeah. She does? Oh, yeah. Maybe too much so. No, she's great. She truly is the best thing that ever happened to me. She's like... she's a North Dakota girl, you know? Very level-headed, great mom. Loves my 12-year-old, who isn't even her kid.

56:34Josh Duhamel:How'd you meet her? She organizes the place. She keeps everything sort of running at the house. I met her in Los Angeles, believe it or not. She was living there. We'd communicated through Instagram, believe it or not. And a friend of ours actually got us in contact, actual contact. Because he knew her and he knew that she was from North Dakota. He knew that I was from there. And he said, you guys should meet. And so we talked back and forth. Never any real thoughts of a relationship because she's younger than me. I didn't want to be that guy. Well, it turns out I am that guy. Because I met her.

57:09Josh Duhamel:I brought her to my house. I invited her over for this barbecue. And I was like, damn, she's beautiful. She's such a beautiful girl. And then we started dating after that. And from there, I kind of knew that this is the kind of girl that I want to be with. Because I dated quite a bit after the divorce. And I was like, oh, this is, I don't, Josh, back out in the wild is not a good thing.

57:38Josh Duhamel:I'd forgotten how to, you know, survive. You know, in the wild. You know, it's like a monkey that grows up in the zoo. You throw him out in the woods, out in the jungle. You know, feed himself. Yeah. How long have you been married? Six years. Okay, so, yeah, four years. Is she an end of the world-er? End of the world-er? Yeah, does she think the apocalypse is... Not really. Around the corner. Not really. You know. She lets me. You know, she likes the fact that I'm handling it, but she's not that concerned about it. Yeah. Yeah. How about yours? Your wife? Is she? I would say it comes in waves. I mean, pretty tuned in with what's going on in the world just because of this.

58:32So when I come home after a rough interview and come home and tell her all about what I've learned for the day, then she's like, Like, I'm glad we have three years of food prepped in the basement, you know. Yeah, I'm a kid. But. God, I'm going to do that, too. Yeah, we've, I mean, ever since COVID, man, it's been, I've always been concerned, you know, just from my previous life. But it's just how I think. I always think that the bottom's going to fall out at a moment's notice. And so I'm a big contingency guy. But, yeah, she's in on it. It goes in waves, but sometimes she thinks I'm crazy, and then something will happen, and she'll be like,

59:15Josh Duhamel:I'm so glad we have all this shit. Well, that's the thing. It's kind of our job is to have a plan. Protectors. You know? So what do you, I mean, I want to go into a little more detail. It can't just be AI robots. What do you think is going to happen?

59:35What are your biggest concerns right now?

59:52Josh Duhamel:Just feels as if there's an instability.

1:00:01Josh Duhamel:there's a lack of respect for law and order, and people are really divided. And I could see some sort of event where this side, I don't want to call it a civil war, but I mean, it feels more and more like, you know, I don't feel like we're coming together. I feel like we're getting further and further apart. So it could turn into something like that. I'm hoping to God it doesn't. and the cooler heads prevail, and we figure out a way to find some common ground, because right now it just feels too divided, and people are too okay with hating the other end. Yeah. And there's a real hate problem in this country.

1:00:41Josh Duhamel:Yeah. And it's like... And I'm seeing... I'm seeing people behave in ways they never would have behaved. And I see it. I mean, I'm not gonna give any examples, but well-known people, I'm like, what the hell happened to you, dude? And you're so blinded by your hate that you're just behaving in a way that's just like not you. And I see that all over. I have a cyber truck. And I bought this thing well before any of this stuff was happening, well before any of the backlash against Elon was happening. And driving down the street in Los Angeles, I can't tell you how many people are like, fuck you, fuck you.

1:01:20Josh Duhamel:Are you serious? That is just not okay behavior. When is it okay to just do that? Like, that's just blind hate, you know, for something that has nothing to do with it. I can drive whatever car I want to, you know. But that kind of behavior, to me, scares me, because people are irrational right now. And I just want to make sure that, you know, I do what I can to keep the peace. Damn. And to protect my family if I need to. Wow. Because it gets getting too, like, too OK with like behaving in ways that weren't okay even 10 years ago it feels like it's becoming more and more of that do you see that in north dakota no not anywhere not even close um damn we don't i don't see that around here no wow yeah it's just completely irrational behavior and it's because there's such hatred uh for the other side that uh people are just losing their minds a little i used to see it here the farther we get from covid the ease the the the it's easing up but i will say like with everything that's been going on i did the vibe that i'm getting is that maybe we are finding some common ground with shit like the epstein files and a lot of the stuff that's going on in the world it seems like a lot of people are like yeah this isn't going how we thought it was gonna to go and um i think i think there is a growing base of the country that is just fucking hating our government our politicians and i think that's a good thing because it's at least it's something to you know well hopefully it'll it'll it'll you know create some accountability yeah you know because

1:03:20Josh Duhamel:without getting too much into it, because I don't like to, I'm never going to preach to people about how to believe or what they should believe or shame them for what they do believe. But, you know, there's definitely got to be some accountability because there's been some heinous behavior that just shouldn't be okay. And like I said, it's just like things that weren't okay even five years ago are now seem to be somehow brushed under the rug. It's like, no, that's not okay. Yeah. You know, I just want to make sure that we, you know, people are maintaining some clarity around like what is like okay behavior and what's not.

1:04:00Josh Duhamel:You think this could all be biblical? Oh, I don't know. I don't know. I haven't thought about it like that. You haven't? No. You're a Christian, right? I am, but I guess I haven't made that connection. What do you mean? well i've been a lot of the things in the bible that say that that that a lot of things are happening that the bible says would happen oh gosh right fucking now and uh that's a whole other conversation but that's uh that's that's kind of where i'm i've landed oh boy summer cooking is here steaks burgers breakfast before a long day or those nights when one person stops by and suddenly you're cooking for everybody and everyone talks about the grill but your pans are still doing a lot of the work if they stick burn heat unevenly or make cleanup a pain they're making cooking harder than it needs to be that's why i use hex clad you get the performance of stainless steel, the convenience of non-stick in one pan.

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1:06:39i don't know like what do you mean like expand on that well i mean you want me to expand on this well i mean right now there are three religions all going at it yeah in the world right now and that's supposed to happen. There are public figures in the world that mirror very closely to predictions. I don't know if they predict things that say that's going to happen in the world. And it's a lot of political shit that has gone on in the country says that's going to happen. like gender ideology shit like this. But it's... And it seems to be speeding up. Huh. Getting faster.

1:07:37Josh Duhamel:Yeah, I don't see any backing off from either side as far as what... This is why I tend to not get overly involved in this stuff because one thing that I've learned from all this is that I'm not changing anybody's mind. People are dug in. Yep. All you can do is just sort of behave in a way that you think is right, loving, not filled with hate. Part of the reason I went back to the church, honestly, I needed something to rise above the noise because I found myself starting to feel some of this same hatred against the people that I disagree with. And I was like, what am I doing? I was losing sleep over it.

1:08:24Josh Duhamel:I was really, really angry and started, you know, what am I doing? I need to get back and reconnect spiritually. And so I found, I started, I dropped my son off. He goes to a Catholic school. I would just drop him off and go sit in church for 15 minutes, just pray or just meditate. Find my own location somewhere. I'll find a church, whether it's Catholic or Presbyterian or Lutheran. I don't care. As long as God lives there, I'll go.

1:09:01Josh Duhamel:And I found that that's really sort of helped me sort of make sense of some of it and hopefully find some clarity in it all. Because I just needed something. Because I didn't want to be that woman in the street flipping me off with this hatred in her eyes. I was just like, I'm not going to be that person. And I need to figure out a way to find God again. When did you start looking at that? I mean, I've never really... I mean, I go through phases where I'll be really connected spiritually in times that I'm not. And I find that when I am connected spiritually, I'm a much better friend, father, husband, brother, just a better person all around when I'm connected spiritually.

1:09:44Josh Duhamel:When I'm not, I can get a little squirrely. I can start to lose track of what's important. And this business can really take you down some dark roads. I'll bet. And so I needed to stay. And I think that's what the Catholic religion did for me. Even though I don't agree with a lot of this stuff, I still find that it really taught me right from wrong, gave me that backbone to be like, OK, this is it. Whenever I'd go wayward one way or the other, it always kind of brought me back. you know, church, friends, family, you know. It's been, thank God I have a good group of friends, really good family, and was raised Catholic.

1:10:26Josh Duhamel:I was raised Christian. Now, I'm not as, I don't, the dogma of it all doesn't mean as much to me. I don't care so much about like what religion says I have to do to what as long as it feels like it's, you know, about love, peace, harmony, things that, you know, But keeping my head clear of all the noise. I grew up Catholic, too. Yeah. Are you still Catholic? Yes. I think so. Me, too. But like you, I started kind of going around. I mean, I fell out of it. I was raised Catholic and then kind of fell out of it in the SEAL teams. And recently, maybe the last two, three years, kind of refound Christ.

1:11:12you know and um and so i started going to all these non-denominational churches yeah me too and uh i really like them yeah and and you know i think i think i'll probably get blasted for saying this but i think one thing that the catholic religion lacks on is uh the teachings of jesus because i don't growing up i don't know shit about the teachings of jesus or really who he was and i realized that when i was going to these non-denominational churches i was like these southern boys and girls over here are like quoting scripture like bam bam bam i can't do any of that either and so i really i started paying a lot of attention because i wanted to learn more about christ and the life of jesus and what it all means instead of just the you know typical catholic mass yeah and uh and then i started reading a lot about spiritual warfare and uh diabolic influence and stuff like that.

1:12:14And that... I don't think anybody in Christianity matches the Catholic Church when it comes to spiritual warfare, what it all means, how it works. And so...

1:12:26Josh Duhamel:What do you mean by that? Spiritual warfare? Yeah, and how nobody can match the Catholic religion. What does that mean? Is that a good thing or a bad thing? I don't think it's a good thing or a bad thing. I think that... Like, why is the Catholic religion better at spiritual warfare than the rest of them? And what is spiritual warfare? What is spiritual warfare? Spiritual war... Man, how do you describe... I mean, basically, spiritual warfare is, you know, the good and evil and the battle for your soul, for your mind, for the world. Oh, okay, now I got you. For the world. I would agree with that then, because that's what's kept me from really going off the deep end.

1:13:05Josh Duhamel:Really, like, taking that dark road down whatever path it was going to take. Spiritual warfare brought me back to, you know, whether you agree with the Catholic, you know, dogma and all the stuff around it, it does give you that sense of right and wrong. It talks about... I had this guy, Father Ripperger, on, and he's like the exorcist in North America. Okay. And he wrote this book called Diabolic Influence, which I've been picking up and digging into since I've interviewed him, and it talks about everything from... I mean, I don't know if you believe in possession and exorcisms and all that kind of stuff, but he kind of talks about how evil, demons, demonic influence kind of seeps into your life and how it gets in.

1:13:59And a lot of the ways it gets in is by just really bad shit that you're doing. And so if you get into it, it's pretty fascinating. I'm going to read that book. I'll send you the episode. Oh. I'll go if I can find that episode. You can't even buy the book. Oh, really? That's the thing, yeah. Really? He's got a couple, but he wrote it for the Vatican as a guide to how it's happening. And it's fascinating. Okay. Do you have a copy of that? I got a copy. Wow.

1:14:49Josh Duhamel:I would be very interested in that. Because, yes, I do believe in that. I do believe that there are, you know, dark forces at play. Me too. And if you're not spiritually connected, you're really susceptible. And, you know, it's easy to become susceptible. Oh, yeah. You know, if you're not vigilant about, you know, staying spiritually connected. Yeah. So what got you into the longevity stuff? Well, I was taking testosterone replacement therapy for a few years before I ever started any of this, and I was keeping it a secret. I was doing some of the peptides, but never told anybody about it. But I was seeing how much it was actually helping me.

1:15:39Josh Duhamel:And my friend Fabian Calvo brought me this idea to be part of this company. I was like, no, no, no, I can't tell people what I'm, you know, that's my dark little secret. it. But then I started thinking about that and I was like, of course I should do this. This is something I could easily shine a light on that makes it okay because it's helped me so much. I mean, it's truly testosterone replacement has been huge for me. It's brought my levels, but I was low. So, you know, I'm able to keep muscle on, able to, you know, do things that I could do in my thirties that I'm now 53 and can do. And then we got into the peptides, I started learning more and more about them and how much they can actually help.

1:16:20Josh Duhamel:And I think that that was the reason why, is because it gave me a chance to sort of share some of the stuff that I'd learned, even though I was keeping it quiet for so many years. What kind of peptides? I do Tessamorlin. I do the Wolverine stack, which is HKGCU, TB500, and KPV, which is great for joints and skin and hair, recovery, cell regeneration. What else do I do? I do NAD and MOTC. What does that do? NAD is like NAD and MOTC to help with the mitochondria. I'm not going to probably, I'm probably going to butcher this a little bit. I'm learning. But it's really good about energy, skin, staying young looking.

1:17:13Josh Duhamel:the mitochondria and the energy and stuff like that is what it's supposed to be. Do you do any of this stuff? Yeah, I do TRT. I don't do peptides, but I'm getting ready to. Yeah. And yeah, and then the NAD stuff. It works, man. It really does work. And then there's the HRT. We just started doing it for women too, which is, we started as just a men's company And then I had so many females in my life saying, dude, we need help too. And I started doing research on that. And there's the HRT, which can literally prolong the youth of women. It can stem the effects of perimenopause and menopause and bring your levels of progesterone and estrogen back up to what they were.

1:18:05Josh Duhamel:so women don't have to go through the same things that they always have with menopause. So all this stuff is like... Wait, are you saying it skips menopause? Well, no, it just delays the effects of it and reduces the hot flashes and the... I don't know. I have never gone through it because I'm not a female, but from what I've heard, if you can regulate your hormones, That's part of the reason why this menopause is such a bitch for women is because their hormones have fallen off. Like in men, it's testosterone. Women, it's estrogen and progesterone and testosterone as well. So you can really sort of regulate that stuff with this hormone therapy.

1:18:50Josh Duhamel:And we have a whole... What makes this company so great is that we have a whole team of doctors. So it's like a concierge service. So the FDA doesn't let you just go out and click, click, click and have the stuff sent to you. They want you to be guided by a professional medical expert, somebody with the ability to actually walk you through this and create a plan. And so we have a whole team of doctors. So I feel like we're doing it the right way. We're really able to help so many people. And this stuff works. I mean, it truly works. And so it's been really, really fun, actually. For me, learning more and more about it because I have a real natural curiosity for wellness and longevity and trying to stay as healthy as I can for as long as I can, not just for my work, but for my kids.

1:19:38Josh Duhamel:You know, I'm 53 years old and I have a baby on the way. I need to be as strong as I can for her as long as I can. Congratulations on that. Thank you. You gonna have any more? Probably not. No? Yeah. How old are you? 43. Oh, you're still a young man. i would love to but i don't know if it's gonna happen yeah you got two beautiful ones that's all that matters yeah so yeah that's uh that's that's you know that's the main reason is just because i wanted to be able to build something and help and for myself personally selfishly i was trying to you know learn as much as i could to you know stay in the game for as long as i could You know, I'm not going out without a fight, man.

1:20:24Josh Duhamel:I'm going to stay as young and strong and barrel for as long as I can. Right on. You guys have any, you venture into anything new? Are you going to stick with the peptides, NAD, and DRT? Well, I mean, yes. Right now, I mean, there's just so much. There's stuff that's coming up on the horizon that's just, like, unbelievable. Some of these things that are not approved yet, but they're about to be. So for now, yes, hormone therapy for men and women, testosterone for men, HRT for women, whether it's estrogen, progesterone, testosterone, and then all these amazing peptides. Eventually, it may be stem cells.

1:21:04Josh Duhamel:Nice. Which is another thing that's going to become incredibly beneficial. I mean, the science behind that is incredible too. I mean, I'm just beginning to learn about how amazing that stuff can be if done and, you know, administered properly. And, you know, thankfully with Dr. Lawrence and his team, we have just the best people in the world to help. Right on. Have you looked at, I'm just curious, have you looked at this plasma exchange stuff? I've heard a little bit about it. You know what I'm talking about? You're talking about when they spin the blood in the PRP? No, no. It's almost like blood filtration.

1:21:46have you seen any uh i don't know how much time you spend on social media or have you seen it but right now like this trend there's all these people they hold up these bags i saw rogan did that didn't he didn't rogan have a big one yeah that's plasma exchange so apparently it's like filtering all the spike proteins and all the shit out of your blood really um like maybe heavy metals and stuff and the darker the bags are the the more toxins that it's pulled i would hate to see what

1:22:13Josh Duhamel:mine looks like i know me too me too but uh might be like a greenish hue we've never seen that color before that's fucking red but uh yeah i don't know that's something i've been looking into uh to do so especially with all the exposure of all the fucked up places i've been throughout the world parasites is another one i want to look into yeah i've heard a lot about this stuff i'm Just, again, I'm no expert in any of this stuff. I'm as curious as anybody else, but I do have a natural sort of curiosity to learn more. And parasites are one of them that my mother was at. My mother's always kind of been on the forefront of this stuff.

1:22:51Josh Duhamel:She was eating egg whites in the early 80s. We were so embarrassed. Like, Mom, you're asking me to take your egg yolk. Like, this girl, she's been always sort of, and she just told me about parasites and how you need to get checked for them You can get them sort of expelled from your body. I don't know. Is it a fad? I don't know. It feels like it could be real. Yeah. All the stuff we eat. Oh, I'm sure it's real. Yeah. I'm sure it's real. Well, where do people find the company? Who's it for? What's that? Is it for everyone? It's for everyone. I mean, we're finding in our data that people are doing it younger and younger as a preemptive sort of way to stay, to prevent some of these effects of aging that happen.

1:23:43Josh Duhamel:So people in their 30s are starting to use this stuff. But we're meant for people my age, 40s, 50s, even 60s or 70s. These things can be really beneficial. Gatlin.com will set you up with one of our doctors who will put you through a few of the steps that it takes to get involved. this is a big deal for people to get into. And it can be scary for people. So we want them to be as comfortable as possible. Make sure they get their levels checked. Make sure you know where you're at. Just in general, you should know that anyway, I think. Just get your levels checked. You'll find that you're probably not optimizing as well as you could be.

1:24:24Josh Duhamel:There's a lot of peptides you could be using. Your hormones can be leveled up to where they should be. So it's a pretty easy process. It's telemedicine, but it's like telemedicine 2.0 because we make it real simple. Everything's delivered discreetly to your house, but you'll also have somebody there to help you. So you don't have some dude from the gym who compounds under the back seat of his car. You know, stay away from the research and development stuff from China, I'm telling you. All of our stuff is 100 % compound in the USA. compounded in the USA through our own 503B pharmacies and API wholesalers, and we know where this stuff is coming from, and it's all the best quality.

1:25:10Josh Duhamel:Right on. And she said gatlin.com? Gatlin.com, yeah. G-A-T-L-A-N. Right on. Right on. I got a hat for you, too, by the way. Oh, dude, thank you.

1:25:22Nice. Thank you. Yes, sir. Well, I think we're wrapping up the interview, but I just want to say that you're like a really grounded person, it seems like. So are you, Sean. Thank you. But I already knew that about you.

1:25:37Josh Duhamel:How so? I just, you know, people who know you, watching the show. How do you stay grounded? How do I stay grounded? Yeah. Honestly, I've got a really, really awesome group of friends. There's like 20 of us that every day we're on a thread. And if you didn't know we were best friends, you might think we're worst enemies, because there is no pulling any punches. These guys are ruthless, but also super loving. They don't let me get any higher than I need to be. They love me, and they got my back, but they don't treat me any differently. And I think that's been a big part of it. Great family, amazing wife.

1:26:20Josh Duhamel:You know, North Dakota's been good. Good for you, man. Get some good people around you. It's good to hear. Well, thanks for coming. Amen. Thank you so much for having me.

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