Year Of The Opposite - Travis Stoliker's Substack Podcast

Today I am going to complain and I feel gross about it because my life is amazing and no one wants to hear someone complain. But I want to share this story because I think it shows a side of humanity that people don’t talk about. TLDR: Here’s the short version… * I believe in active citizenship, so I joined the School Board. * I had a silly idea to donate $3,000 to any staff or teacher at the school district. * To make it a democratic process, I allowed anyone to nominate a staff member and vote for a winner online. Then I’d select the winner from the top ten. * A few people got pissed! Calls to other board members, calls to the admin staff, outrage online… the whole nine yards. * Now I need to decide if I should just cancel the whole thing, I want your input! * And now I’m also considering resigning from the schoolboard. It just doesn’t seem worth it. * And THIS is why people don’t serve. As many of you know, I strongly believe that the duty of a citizen means more than simply voting. It means actually serving and participating in our democracy. As a part of that philosophy, I decided to join the Haslett school board in October 2023. I was appointed so I didn’t have to go through the whole election process. It has been an incredibly rewarding and educational process, but it also has been an incredibly high time commitment. I’ve missed putting Lane to bed and reading him a book, which is one of my favorite activities, several nights. I’m missing an event with my wife tonight and a whole trip next week. But I am still honored to be able to serve. A few months back, I received an email from the school staff asking me for my clothing sizes because they needed to order me a gown for Haslett Graduation. I don’t know why I never thought of it, but I didn’t know that I would be on the stage with the graduates celebrating them. At my own graduation I remember looking up at the podium in admiration of those people all dressed up on the stage. It is very surprising to think that I am going to be one of those people on the stage. This got me thinking about graduation a lot. A couple of Sundays ago, I was on a 10-mile run around Haslett and had the idea to give away some money to graduates of Haslett Schools. I thought about maybe giving some kind of scholarship to reward students considering a path toward entrepreneurship. But after a lot of consideration and talking with my wife, we decided that there are lots of scholarships for students, which is awesome! But there aren’t a lot of scholarships or direct monetary awards for the dedicated staff members of the school district. So I got home from that run and, after talking with my wife, I wrote a post on May 5, 2024, that basically said I was going to give $3,000 away to any staff member of Haslett Public Schools. I thought a way to make it more democratic and get more people involved would be to let anyone in the community or the staff member themselves nominate any staff member and share a story about how that staff member impacted their life in a positive way and why they should receive the award. Then I had the idea of making it as fair as possible by allowing anyone in the Haslett community to vote for the award by commenting or liking the comment that nominated a particular person. I felt like this was the way to get the community involved and make it as democratic as possible. My wife would select the top 10 nominees that got the most votes, and then I would select a winner. Then I would give the individual staff member $3000 directly from myself. I felt this was the most fair because I wasn’t the only one just picking the person that would receive the gift. I clearly stated in the post that this had nothing to do with my position on the school board and this wasn’t a part of the school district. I have taken all of the board trainings, and I am a certified board member. From my reading of the rules and my understanding, this wasn’t a violation of any laws...

My friend posted a short video from the amazing Jon Stewart. I love Stewart and I think he’s a national treasure. But on this particular issue, I think he has it exactly backwards. Here is the video: Thanks for reading Year Of The Opposite - Travis Stoliker's Substack! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work. I would suggest, this isn’t a problem of corporations. Definitely not ALL corporations. Let me explain, last week I closed a business that I founded called Open Install Alliance. I tried it, I lost some money, and it failed. I had to pay $890 to the government last week just for the privilege of closing the company (Dissolution). This cost no one else anything. So point 1 is just clearly wrong. When a corporation closes, we don’t get to socialize the losses. It’s not corporations that do this. Not, ALL, corporations socialize their losses. What Mr Stewart is referring to is NOT a problem of capitalism or corporations. It is a problem of too much regulatory control by government. He says that it is “big corporations” that privatize their losses, yes, that’s right in some cases and it’s gross. But how do corporations do this? By lobbying the massive government to do things that enrich the politicians themselves, the individual corporation, and in most cases at the expense of the common taxpayer. It’s wrong. It should be stopped. But I would suggest that the data is clear, it’s not the Corporation’s that are the problem. It is the bigness of government that is the problem. It is the fact that government has its tentacles into every single area of our lives. To test this is rather easy, if you were to remove the government from the equation and let’s say GM (a company I so love) was faced with another 2008 financial crisis, what would happen? GM would have been forced out of business, or sold to another competitor at a discount. It was only the fact that they were able to influence Government that they were able to socialize their losses. Without government, GM does not have the power of coercion to force all Americans to pay for their mistakes or socialize their losses as Stewart points out. What Stewart advocates for is expanding government more. This is precisely the wrong direction. If instead we reduced government, became more capitalistic, we would have a more dynamic and vibrant economy. But it would be messier! It inherently means that companies would go out of business more frequently, it would mean that people and corporations alike would be forced to confront the difficult circumstances that their own choices produced. BUT ultimately, it would be better for everyone and it would make us all richer. You can see this if you look at America at its founding vs America today. How long did it take the build the Empire State Building? How long does it take to fix a road today? It took about 7 years to build the first transcontinental railroad in the United States. How long would it take today? We have made well intentioned tradeoffs over the years that we didn’t know would create these outcomes. But now we must be forced to reckon with the reality in which we now live. Now let me say it more clearly: Government is important. But it must be limited to the things it does well and are necessities. Examples: * Government Necessity: Providing Justice. * Not a necessity: Limiting what lightbulb you’re allowed to buy. * Government Necessity: Resolving Bankruptcy. * Not Necessity: Giving money to a company to prevent its bankruptcy. Side note: I think it’s funny how Stewart says “wealthy people” without acknowledging that he is one… God bless America. God bless Jon Stewart. I just think he has this one a little bit wrong. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.yearoftheopposite.com

First a confession… I’ve been predicting Full Self-Driving cars would be a reality “this year” for about a decade, so you might want to take my predictions with a grain of salt. 😂😂 However, I recently got my hands on Tesla’s Full Self Driving version 12, marking the first iteration that leverages machine learning and neural networks, akin to AI systems like ChatGPT. This new approach eschews traditional programming for a model where the system learns by observing the world’s best drivers (with consent) and emulates their driving styles. This is a huge advancement for many reasons. Thanks for reading Year Of The Opposite - Travis Stoliker's Substack! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work. * By using end to end neural networks (Think AI), instead of software developers needing to code millions of lines of descriptive computer code, (A stop sign looks like this… This is what you do when you see a stop sign… ETC) with the new system, Tesla was able to throw away more than 300,000 lines of explicit C++ code. Now, quite literally, the computer is writing it’s own code! * Because the system is now learning by watching and mimicking the best drivers, it drives much more smoothly. The drive feels more natural. More like a human is driving. * Development is much faster now. Instead of software developers needing to explicitly program every line of code, the computer system is learning and coding by itself! * The computer learns by observing, not being told what to do. For instance, in the past when the programming was all done by humans, a human would have to program into the system how to avoid potholes. But now since the system is just observing what great drivers do and mimicking their behavior, the system has taught itself how to identify potholes and what to do to avoid them. It’s not perfect yet. But it’s getting pretty good. When we returned from our trip to North Carolina it was our first long car ride using Full Self Driving Version 12. With the old software, the system would drive us about 90% of the drive. But this drive was MUCH better! The system handled everything from highways to parking lots seamlessly. The only manual tasks I had to perform were deciding on parking specifics, like whether we were stopping for a drive-thru or parking to go inside the restaurant. Laken, who has been skeptical of the jerky nature of the Full Self Driving (Beta) we’ve had for four years, was impressed with the new system. The latest version drives smoothly, mirroring human-like driving precision. It’s quite the game-changer. With 3 million Teslas already equipped with the necessary hardware out of the 6 million produced, the implications are enormous. As these cars and the 2 million new Teslas produced annually start performing autonomous Uber rides, a lot of cool things are going to happen: * A significant number of lives will be saved. * It will compel other car manufacturers to license Tesla’s software, especially after the recent adoption of the Tesla charging standard by most car manufacturers. * Most cars, which currently sit idle and parked 95% of the time, represent a huge waste of resources. Now, those same cars could be out driving autonomously, performing Uber rides and generating income. For many Americans, a car is the second largest expense they have; this shift has the potential to turn it into a profit-making asset. To say I’m excited is an understatement. With the flip of a switch, 3 million cars on the road today are going to turn into Robots on 4 wheels. It’s going to save a lot of lives since car accidents are the number one cause of death for young Americans. And it’s going to make transportation cleaner, safer, and cheaper. Mark my words, I predict that we will look back and say that April 2024 was the date that Humans Invented Self Driving Transportation. 1 Month Free for Paid Subscribers A quick housekeeping update. You probably noticed that I missed 2 weeks of posting. I’m...

I bet my friends $500 that I could make them happier in 7 days and 100% either got happier or stayed very happy. It was a huge success! In my opinion… However, one of my readers significantly disagreed with me. I shared the readers previous comment in my last post titled “Challenge Results: All Participants Got Happy In 7 Days!” That reader replied to the last post so I wanted to share it to see what you all think. I want to get outside opinions to see if maybe I’m off the mark on this one. I always like to check my thinking to make sure I’m not missing something. So I look forward to your feedback and input. Below is their response to my last post. Please share your own feedback in the comments, email me, or in reply to this poll: “Travis, I’ve purposely waited a few days to comment after reading your most recent blog, just so I could rethink my prior comments, and your reaction to them. I think it is wonderful that you have been successful overcoming your grief and depression. I also think it is very kind of you to try to help total strangers do the same. So, I am sorry if my words seemed harsh. In retrospect, they were. Please know, that I didn’t take issue with your attempt to help others. I merely thought that your offer to pay someone to try out your system of increasing happiness was misguided. My issue was, and continues to be with your comments about the world being such a better place than when you grew up, because it clearly is not. Yes, advances in technology including space adventures have improved the world in many ways, but those same advances have made people crueler, and the world more dangerous. The timing of your comments amidst horrific school shootings and increasingly dangerous world conflicts was what bothered me. I immediately wondered if the Michigan school shooting had happened in the Haslett school district where you are a member of the school board instead of Oxford, would you still have blogged about how much greater our world is today? How would you have responded to the parents whose children’s lives were brutally taken from them? Would you still have issued your be happy challenge to members of a community devastated by another horrific act of school gun violence, which incidentally, never happened when I was growing up? That’s what I meant by being tone deaf. I still think you mean well. Take care” Here is the readers original response to my offer: “There’s a reason for that Travis, and it’s not the money. Are you really that tone deaf? I read your comments a while ago about how much greater the world is today than in the past because of Elon Musk and his space ship right around the time that I read the horrific stories of the numerous women, young and old in Israel who were gang raped, passed from soldier to soldier, had their breasts cut off and tossed around like footballs, and only after all of that were brutally murdered. Seriously? Just yesterday, I watched the sentencing of the stupid kid from Oxford whose stupid and neglectful parents bought him a hand gun which he then used to execute four of his classmates, and traumatize an entire community. This is the world we are leaving our children and grandchildren. It is NOT better. It is not better than the era when I went to school with my parents or myself not fearing if I would could home at the end of the day. Your privilege is blinding you.” I look forward to hearing from you. Am I off base? Year Of The Opposite - Travis Stoliker's Substack is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.yearoftheopposite.com

I wanted to give a short personal update: I've joined Scribe Media as VP of Marketing. I've been a fan of Scribe for a long time because they have published some of my favorite books including those from David Goggins & my good buddy Eric Jorgenson. If you read business books, I've probably given you a copy of The Almanack Of Naval Ravikant. Scribe has been around for almost a decade and has produced 2,000 plus books. Hundreds of them have been Amazon best sellers and 23+ were New York Times & WSJ best sellers. They have published books from authors like: David Goggins, Tiffany Haddish, Dan Sullivan, Kevin Harrington, and Tucker Max (Founder). After the founders of Scribe sold the company to a new owner a few years ago, sadly, the new owners mismanaged it and it went bankrupt. But Scribe provides an important service to the world and has some of the most loyal & amazing employees I've ever met. So we are rescuing it and our goal is to make it the largest book publisher in the world. Eric is now the CEO. Sieva & Xavier from Enduring Ventures are backing. So how is Scribe different? With a traditional book publisher, they only publish books that they know are going to succeed, they give you a pretty small up front payment, you lose control of your book, and you only get paid a very small fraction of what the book sells for. Scribe is totally different. Our authors retain all the rights and control to their book. We help them write it, publish it, print it, distribute it, market it - everything. And the author keeps full control. It's a completely different model. What's really cool about Scribe is, if you already have a book written - awesome. We can edit, publish, and market it for you. But if you need us to help you write it, we can do that too. We pair you with a award winning author, you commit to doing a 2 hour interview with us every week, and at the end you have a fully published book! Literally anyone with a story to tell and an expertise can be a published author. (Let me know if you want to publish a book!) So why am I doing this? I was a little bored and was struggling to figure out what big task I wanted to take on next and I was venting to my best buddy Ryan James: He said "Just be patient, let it come to you, it always has." 3 days later my good buddy Eric Jorgenson let me know about what was going on at Scribe... Timing is everything! I like to think of my life in Seasons... The season I'm in now is all about becoming a better writer, hence my Year Of The Opposite newsletter... Also, I've always gotten excited about learning new industries and businesses. I call myself "Industry Agnostic". I've done Media, Manufacturing, Sales, Software, Hospitality, and Data Centers. Business is my sport. So now being able to learn the ins and outs of the publishing industry and helping to revive one of the most important publishing brands in the world. It was perfect timing. FYI: I'll continue writing Year Of The Opposite every week, none of my other businesses are going away - I'm adding on, not replacing. I'll even have a cool announcement next week. Stay tuned. Thanks to YOU for caring enough to read this. I'm truly blessed. Thank you for reading Year Of The Opposite - Travis Stoliker's Substack. This post is public so feel free to share it. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.yearoftheopposite.com

Welcome to Year Of The Opposite: Travis Stoliker's Newsletter for People That Don't Subscribe to Newsletters. Ex: Saddleback, Liquid Web, & Techsmith. Read Time: 6 minutes. 3 months ago I proposed a crazy challenge: “You'll be happier in 7 days or I'll pay you $500!” I proposed this challenge because I was worried about how many of my friends were telling me that they were depressed. I had an idea that perhaps the strategies that worked to resolve my own depression from grief might help others. I was a little surprised that this offer upset one of my loyal readers and someone I respect. After I mentioned that no one had accepted my challenge, I announced that I was raising the reward from $50 to $500, prompting this response: “There’s a reason for that Travis, and it’s not the money. Are you really that tone deaf? I read your comments a while ago about how much greater the world is today than in the past because of Elon Musk and his space ship right around the time that I read the horrific stories of the numerous women, young and old in Israel who were gang raped, passed from soldier to soldier, had their breasts cut off and tossed around like footballs, and only after all of that were brutally murdered. Seriously? Just yesterday, I watched the sentencing of the stupid kid from Oxford whose stupid and neglectful parents bought him a hand gun which he then used to execute four of his classmates, and traumatize an entire community. This is the world we are leaving our children and grandchildren. It is NOT better. It is not better than the era when I went to school with my parents or myself not fearing if I would could home at the end of the day. Your privilege is blinding you.” Year Of The Opposite - Travis Stoliker's Substack is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Ouch. The comment stung me a little bit but I tried to make sure to listen for the truth in it. One of my favorite quotes from Naval is: “If it hurts to hear it, look for the truth in it. If it comforts to hear it, look for the lie in it.” Maybe she was right. Maybe I was delusional that these simple steps might help make people a little happier. Maybe the world is just terrible and getting worse and this explains everyone’s sadness. Maybe she was right. Luckily, 6 readers took me up on my challenge, so we were able to see if she was right! Let’s take a look… As a reminder, here are the rules for the challenge to make you happier. * Work out for 30 minutes everyday. * Ignore your phone, email, & social media for the first 1 hour of the day and the last 1 hour before you go to bed - every single day. * Keep a private journal everyday. * No alcohol or drugs that aren’t prescribed by a doctor for all 7 days. Results: Lets see how those 6 participants did! * Average Happiness Before the Challenge: Participants rated their happiness an average of 5.67 out of 10 before starting the challenge. * Average Happiness After the Challenge: After completing the challenge, the average happiness rating increased to 7.67 out of 10. * Average Tasks Completed: On average, participants completed about 25 out of the 28 tasks, indicating a high level of engagement with the challenge activities. * Average Happiness Increase: The challenge resulted in an average happiness increase of 2 points on the happiness scale. * Maximum Happiness Increase: The largest reported increase in happiness from a participant was 4 points on the scale. * Minimum Happiness Increase: The smallest change recorded was no change in happiness level. But it is worth noting that this individual already had a very high happiness level at 9 out of 10. It stayed constant at 9 out of 10. * Number of Participants Who Reported an Increase or the Same Happiness Level: 6 out of 6 participants! This was A HUGE success! Thank you to all 6 participants. Here is the feedback from each participant: * "It definitely...

I’m very sorry for my absence. My son and I fell very sick with a stomach bug and we are finally back rejoining the world. That was rough. Thanks for your patience. Whenever I’m sick I am reminded of the quote: “A healthy person wants a million things. A sick person wants just one.” This made me want to tell the story of the medical therapy ATA188. A month ago I shared the story of an incredible invention that will cure the terrible pain from Sickle Cell Disease. Miraculously, there are now two drugs approved by the FDA that completely cure this disease. It is truly incredible. But we also discussed that the drugs Casgevy and Lyfgenia are priced at $2 million to $3 million per treatment! A shocking price tag to say the least. It’s understandable why someone might look at that price tag and get angry with the company that is selling the products. How dare they charge millions of dollars for something that is supposed to help cure people? This brings up a big hairy question: How much should medical treatments cost? How should they be priced? In the case of these two drugs, the alternative treatment for the patients costs $4 million over a lifetime and doesn’t provide relief from pain. So even at $2-$3million, the new treatment is less expensive, better for the patient, and saves the patient from a lot of ongoing pain. But even so, I can totally understand why someone would still look at the $3 Million price tag and think that the pharmaceutical company that is selling the drug is a money hungry monster. I get it. But not all drugs that are tested are successful like Casgevy and Lyfgenia. Take for instance, ATA188 from Atara Biotherapeutics. ATA188 is an immune therapy designed to treat multiple sclerosis (MS). This therapy is working on the newly developed theory that MS might be caused by the Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) in someway. This really cool study of over 10,000,000 military personnel showed a strong correlation between EBV and MS. ATA188 hoped to use healthy t-cells to target EBV cells to reduce or halt the progression of MS, offering a new approach to treating this chronic disease. I have two close family members that suffer with MS so I have been following this treatment fairly closely in hopes that it could offer some answers and potentially a solution for my loved one. Year Of The Opposite - Travis Stoliker's Substack is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. A little history on drug/therapy development: Medical treatments like drugs and immunotherapies like ATA188 usually involve many partners and organizations that work together to test and develop these medical inventions. For ATA188, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute were involved. Atara Biotherapeutics was the company that was commercializing the technology. What does this mean? Well basically the universities are often the ones that invent the new therapy or drug but they aren’t that great at testing, getting FDA approval, and bringing the drug/therapy to market so that patients can buy the product to help them. So usually the Universities partner with a company or a bunch of investors to help get the innovation from the lab into the real world. That’s where a company like Atara Biotherapeutics comes in. Atara enters into a licensing deal with the University and the people that invented ATA188 where, in most cases, the University/Inventor give the company a license to commercialize the invention, and in exchange they get fees and royalties if the product is sold to customers and patients. But, the catch for Atara Biotherapeutics is that now they must pay for the testing and trials that go into getting the drug/therapy approved. This can take a very long time and cost a hell of a lot of money. For instance, the phase 1 trial for ATA188 was way back in 2017. As you may recall, in most cases there are 3 phases of...

Joe, I apologize for posting this letter publicly. I know you’re a private guy. But I don’t have your new address. Today marks two years since you left us and I have a lot of updates to share. But dude, I gotta confess, I was pretty angry at you for leaving the way you did. It kinda fucked me up. Losing you sent me into a depression that was difficult to overcome. Hell, I still can’t listen to Jimmy Eat World songs without getting overwhelmed with emotion. You’ve kinda ruined that band for me. And now, whenever I visit Detroit or Chicago, the experience feels somewhat lackluster. It's as if I'm perpetually on the outside, missing the rich, hidden layers of the city—those secret gems you once unveiled with your vast, encyclopedic knowledge of American urban greatness and history. Two months ago I sold my stake in our chain of restaurants and that meant I had to dig through and archive decades of emails. I must have read 400+ emails between us going back 20+ years. I was reminded of how your wit and charm always shined through even when writing emails. You were one of the best storytellers I’ve ever known. Sometimes I wish you were here to give me feedback on this silly newsletter I write. I often wonder: “What would Shores think of this? How would he tell this story?” Remember when we tried for 2 years to open a bar in Detroit? You kept telling me: “Detroit is gonna come back. It is. We are getting in early.” I was skeptical. But, Boy o boy, were you right. Detroit is booming. It’s hard to get a hotel room or a reservation on some weekends. You nailed that! But I’m not writing to complain about how you left us or reminisce about the amazing memories we had together. I’m writing you to say Thank You, Joe. No. That’s not right. Thanks Shores! Or maybe even better, “Thank you, Shorsey Pop Pop!” I’m not sure why I started calling you “Joe” only after you died. Grief does strange things to people. But seriously, Thank You Shores. Your passing marked a turning point in my life, a moment when the fragility of human existence became painfully clear. Yet, in the wake of sorrow, I discovered an unexpected gift: the capacity for change within myself. To shake my grief I embarked on my “Year Of The Opposite.” - Kinda like Costanza. I know you’ll get the reference. Basically, all the things that I did before, I tried to do the opposite. Remember how you used to urge me to travel more with you? Well, you were right. I’ve visited 50+ cities in the past 2 years. Remember my “SPORTS!” t-shirt that I wore mockingly. Now I Golf, Run, Pickleball, workout, and am willing to play any sport I’m invited to. You were right about sports too. Along the way, I even lost 60+ LBS! It was about time! I had really let myself go. I made a bunch of crazy changes: ran 7 miles backwards, a marathon, swam across a lake, beat the BW3’s blazin wing challenge, flew a plane briefly, did a ride along with the police, school board member, cold plunge addict, and a bunch of other crazy things. You should subscribe to my newsletter so I can keep you updated. (Hey, you know I’m a marketing guy! Always Be Closing!) But the biggest change you inspired in me was giving up alcohol. I always wondered why the booze didn’t get it’s hooks into me like it did you, I think I was just lucky. I’ve only had 35 occasions for celebratory drinks in the past 2 years. And honestly, the 35 times weren’t worth it. I may give it up for good. When I look back, I’m embarrassed to admit how many of our amazing nights together revolved around alcohol. I felt really guilty that the substance that brought us together was the same substance that extinguished your bright flame. I’m sorry buddy. Shores, you've shown me the interconnectedness of loss, growth, and gratitude in ways I never imagined. Your impact stretches far beyond the life you lived, shaping my path in both big and small ways. With each change I've embraced, each new habit I've formed, and each moment of...

Sickle Cell Disease impacts about 100,000 people in the US every year. It’s an incredibly painful disease where the cells become misshapen like a crescent moon or a sickle. This shape causes the cells to get trapped and restrict the blood flood which causes chronic pain, organ damage, strokes, and shortened life expectancy. Bone marrow transplant has been the best treatment for patients, but it was very challenging to find a potential donor. Only 15% of siblings are a suitable match to be a donor and the chances of finding a match in the general population is about 10%. This means that only about 25% of patients suffering with Sickle Cell Disease had an option for treatment. Year Of The Opposite - Travis Stoliker's Substack is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. The FDA has now approved two new treatments, Casgevy and Lyfgenia. “Both products are made from the patients’ own blood stem cells, which are modified, and are given back as a one-time, single-dose infusion as part of a hematopoietic (blood) stem cell transplant. Prior to treatment, a patients’ own stem cells are collected, and then the patient must undergo myeloablative conditioning (high-dose chemotherapy), a process that removes cells from the bone marrow so they can be replaced with the modified cells in Casgevy and Lyfgenia. Patients who received Casgevy or Lyfgenia will be followed in a long-term study to evaluate each product’s safety and effectiveness.” (Link to FDA release) “bone marrow transplant was the first potential cure for sickle cell disease, but trying to find a good match for a transplant is a big barrier. This new technology uses gene therapy to allow patients to be their own match.” - Cece Calhoun, MD, MBA, a Yale Medicine hematologist-oncologist. This is a huge advancement and this same type of gene therapy could be offering hope for other diseases in the near future. But what about the cost? Casgevy, the first CRISPR therapy approved by the FDA, will cost $2.2 million. Lyfgenia the competing genetic medicine is priced at $3.1 million. Those price points are hard to imagine. But let’s put some context around them.. Lets compare the cost of the new treatments versus the current standard of care. Insurance companies and the industry estimates the cost of managing sickle cell over a lifetime for someone with recurrent pain is between $4 - $6 million. So $4-6 million for the current treatment vs $2-$3million for the new treatment. How much did it cost to develop Casgevy? That has been a bit hard for me to track down exactly. Vertex (the maker of Casgevy) and CRISPR Therapeutics have an interesting development agreement where they split the cost and profits 60:40. Vertex made a $200,000,000 payment to CRISPR Therapeutics to cover some of the R&D expense as they crossed the milestone of getting FDA approval. However, this doesn’t really represent the entire cost of creating Casgevy, because it relies upon the technology created with CRISPR itself. CRISPR alone has had more than $1billion in R&D expense in the past 3-4 years. So how much did it cost to develop Casgevy? It’s hard to know exactly, but well into the billions of dollars for sure. So should Casgevy cost $2.2million per treatment? I don’t know. But it’s something we are going to have to think about as a society. On one hand, we want to be able to fund research and development that invents new technologies that could help hundreds of thousands of people every year. But we also don’t want a health care system that is so large that the budget eats into the entire US economy. It’s going to be interesting to see how this plays out over the coming years. This isn’t the last drug that is going to cost millions of dollars to get. Thank you for reading Year Of The Opposite - Travis Stoliker's Substack. This post is public so feel free to share it. This is a public episode. If you would like to...

I’m currently reading ‘The Adventures of Tom Sawyer’ and ‘Letters from J.D. Rockefeller to his son’. Both books have me thinking a lot about childhood and parenting. I will be 56 years old when Lane turns 18 and as an older father, my mortality is always on my mind. I know that despite my best efforts to improve my health, any of us could be taken at any time. I don’t want Lane to be fatherless. Year Of The Opposite - Travis Stoliker's Substack is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. I recognize that this is a rather morbid topic to think about but death and change are life’s only certainties. Memento Mori. It got me thinking about how I could support my child best if I were to pass prematurely. Of course that led to estate planning and establishing a financial trust to secure his economic future in my absence. But what about the emotional hole and trauma left by the absence of his father? Not that I am particularly special as an individual, but the role that I play as a father is a rather significant responsibility. I tried to think of ways that I could help fill that hole if god forbid I was not able to be present physically. That was one of the reasons I wanted to write this newsletter. I am documenting my thoughts, feelings, and perspectives so that they will be available to my son in the future if he is ever curious. But when the artificial intelligence Chat GPT was released - it represented a huge opportunity. What if I leveraged artificial intelligence to craft a digital version of myself, enabling Lane to converse with his dad in the future, even in my absence? By documenting my thinking with writing and recordings - I could build a database that could be used in the future to train an artificial intelligence to create a Virtual Travis Stoliker. No, it wouldn’t be perfect. Yes, many people would think it’s creepy and scary. But why not try? Let me show you an example of how this might work… Go to Chat GPT and ask it to tell you a story in the style of your favorite author or musician. Give it instructions on what you would like the story to be about and watch the magic. For instance, here is a story that I generated with Chat GPT that is about Lane in the style of Mark Twain: In the quaint town of Haslett, Michigan, there lived a sprightly young lad named Lane Stoliker, whose mischief was only matched by his charm. With hair as golden as the midsummer cornfields and a grin that could outshine the Fourth of July fireworks, Lane was the embodiment of youthful exuberance. He had a knack for turning the mundane into the marvelous, finding adventure in every nook and cranny of his small town. The local folk often remarked that Lane had a certain twinkle in his eye, a spark that foretold tales of mischief and merriment. One fine morning, Lane found himself on the banks of Lake Lansing, his pockets bulging with treasures of all sorts – smooth pebbles, colorful marbles, and the occasional lucky penny. As he skimmed stones across the glassy surface, he concocted grand plans of exploration and escapade. It wasn't long before a band of eager comrades gathered around him, drawn by the allure of adventure that seemed to dance around him like fireflies at dusk. With Lane at the helm, they set forth on a day filled with the sort of adventures that would make even Tom Sawyer tip his hat in respect. They were not merely children playing by the lake; they were valiant explorers, noble pirates, and intrepid treasure hunters, masters of their small but boundless world. That’s pretty darn impressive to me! Give it a shot! If you do any of your own, please share them with me in the comments or in a reply to this email because I would love to read them. So how does Chat GPT do that? Here is how Chat GPT explains how it works simply. “Imagine if you had a super smart robot friend that has read almost every book, article, and website out...

I was honored that one of my readers asked for my assistance in evaluating the health claims made by products referred to as “Hormonal Teas”. The specific advertisement she referenced was from a company called “Avery Apothecary” and the product is “Goddess Tea Blend.” The product makes several claims on their website: “Ladies, enjoy a cup of this tea every day and the synergy of the plants help to restore and keep balance in your cycle. Regular health and hormone upkeep can help prevent issues in the future, can help to ease symptoms of PMS and any pain associated with your period. When you experience symptoms related to your cycle is not the time to fix the issues, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure! Enjoy this blend daily to support your hormones all cycle long.” (link) The website does have a pretty large disclaimer on the page. Which on one hand, is reassuring that they are being transparent and honest about the limitations of the data supporting the claims. But on the other hand, doesn’t demonstrate a high level of confidence that the claims are supported by research. Here is the disclaimer: “Disclaimer: These products have not been evaluated by the FDA. The information we provide is intended for educational purposes only and is not meant to represent or replace the advice of a medical professional or to diagnose, treat or cure any disease. It is the responsibility of the customer to test products for allergies before use of products. The ingredients are listed on each product and we do our best to eliminate cross contamination between products. Some people will have allergies to certain plants or botanicals so please test before use to ensure you do not have an allergy. Stop using immediately if an allergic reaction, redness or irritation occurs. We are not responsible for the misuse or reactions to our products. Usage is always at the buyer’s own risk. Please reach out to a professional for any possible contraindications and/or interactions with medications and be sure to inform your doctor about all herbal remedies or supplements you are taking.” Let’s take a look at each of the claims independently and evaluate the research. The claims are pretty impressive: * Helps to restore and maintain balance in the menstrual cycle. * Supports regular health and hormone upkeep to prevent future issues. * Aids in easing symptoms of PMS. Provides relief from any pain associated with menstruation. * Continuous hormonal support throughout the menstrual cycle. Let’s look at each claim independently. * Helps to restore and maintain balance in the menstrual cycle: * Marjoram tea showed beneficial effects on the hormonal profile of women with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) by improving insulin sensitivity and reducing levels of adrenal androgens (Haj-Husein, Tukan, & Alkazaleh, 2016). * However, this study was very small (25 individuals), it was only looking at patients with PCOS, and it was only a Pilot Study which requires further research. * Chinese herbal medicine was found to improve menstrual rates in women with PCOS, suggesting potential benefits in menstrual cycle regulation (Lai et al., 2017). * However, this is a small study (40) and once again it was only looking at patients with an existing medical condition. This was also a pilot study which requires further research. * Supports regular health and hormone upkeep to prevent future issues.: * This claim is too vague to be evaluated accurately with randomized controlled trials. * Aids in easing symptoms of PMS. Provides relief from any pain associated with menstruation: * Chamomile tea was effective in relieving pain related to primary dysmenorrhea (cramps or painful period) and its consequent psycho-social problems (Jenabi & Ebrahimzadeh, 2010). * However, this was a very small (80) experimental study, that only asked participants to drink 2 cups of chamomile tea and report their PMS symptoms after 1 month. * Ginger tea significantly...

One of my first challenges in the Year Of The Opposite was the 40 degree cold plunge. Now, I'm addicted to it, not solely for the muscle recovery and numerous health benefits (which I'll cover in another post), but because of what it does for my brain, mood, and attitude. Over the past year I have been increasing my tolerance up to a current maximum of 14 minutes in 40-42 degree water. But my regular routine is 5-7 minutes at the Michigan Athletic Club. I love it! Here are some of the tips that I learned along the way that helped me get to 14 minutes. Tips for lasting longer in the cold plunge: * It’s a battle with your mind. Think of it as meditation. Your mind will be telling you to get out. That’s natural. You need to remind yourself that you are capable of staying in a lot longer than you think. Your body will try to trick you into thinking that you are in physical danger. You’re not. You need to control your mind, not the other way around. So how do we do that? * Slow down your breathing to decrease your heart rate. Slowing down your breathing is a good way to calm your mind which in turn slows down your heart rate. If you focus on taking long and very deep breaths, you will slow your heart rate. Think of this as your meditation. Try to clear your mind and exclusively focus on your breathing. To do this, I would count my breaths. When I was able to slow my breaths to about 10 breaths per minute, my performance got better. * Embrace the Roger Bannister Effect: Be confident & know you can achieve it. Running a mile in under 4 minutes was thought to be impossible for humans until Roger Bannister did it in 1954. After Bannister accomplished this previously unthinkable task, a bunch of runners were able to do it almost immediately. This is now called the Roger Bannister Effect. We humans put psychological barriers in our way. If our mind convinces us that something is impossible, our body won’t allow us to do it. But once we know it’s possible, we can do it and others can too. To last longer in the cold plunge, you need to be convinced that you can do it, because you can! If your brain is sabotaging you by telling you “I can’t do this” “I’ll be lucky if I last 10 seconds!” - You’ll be right! But, if your brain is telling you, “Travis did this for 14 minutes so I’m sure I can do it for 15!” - You will surprise yourself! And since you’re doing this safely with a spotter, why not try to see just how long you can go? * Go a Little Deeper When you’re feeling like you want to get out or can’t take it any longer, go under the water another inch or two. This will expose new skin to the cold and it will immediately focus your mind on that new area. It will momentarily make you forget about the other areas of your body. This trick is very powerful for me. It works like magic. * Protect Your Sensitive Bits One or two areas on your body might be overly sensitive. For some people it’s their fingers, others toes, for some it’s their private parts. You’ll figure it out after your first few sessions. For me it’s my toes and privates. To protect my toes I keep my feet close together and curl my toes. I also keep my legs close together to protect my privates. This small act prevents my toes from going numb and allows me to double my total time. * 1 Minute 30 Seconds Is Magic I’m not sure why, but the 1 minute and 30 second mark seems to be magic for me. My brain gets clearer, my mood improves, I have no evidence to support this, but I even think my eyesight improves. (I will test this later) For me, if I can stay in for 1:30 seconds, I can usually make it to 5 minutes or more. Hitting the 1:30 mark makes a huge difference for me. I am confident that by using these tips, you can dramatically increase your time in the cold plunge. I’ve tested these same strategies with over a dozen people and they have all increased their times past the 3 minute mark. Be careful, start slow, have a spotter - but remember - you are in control,...

First: Thank You to all the new subscribers to my Newsletter. I appreciate you. Because we have so many new subscribers, today’s newsletter is going to be a bit different. I thought it would be appropriate to provide a bit of background on myself, explain what The Year Of The Opposite is, and let you know what kind of writing you should expect to receive from this newsletter. Reminder: As a reminder, my name is Travis Stoliker and I was one of the Co-Owners of Saddleback BBQ & Slice by Saddleback. I just recently exited and handed off the restaurants to their founder, Matt Gillett. I’m now focused on writing this newsletter. Read this Business Insider article to learn more about the Year Of The Opposite. Who is Travis Stoliker? I'm Travis Stoliker, my journey started at Holt Public Schools, continued through LCC, and culminated at Northwood University. Today, I call Haslett home, enjoying life on Lake Lansing with my wife, Laken, who works for the Edward Lowe Foundation, and our lively 5-year-old son, Lane. I believe deeply in the responsibility of community service. Currently, I serve as a trustee on the Haslett Board of Education and on the board of Ele's Place. My past contributions include the East Lansing Zoning Board of Appeals, East Lansing Info (A citizen journalism non-profit), and the board of the only angel investing organization in the area called the Capital Community Angels. My hobbies include running, pickleball, golf, water skiing, boating, and hockey. My skill in each of these endeavours ranges from decent to downright terrible. Reading and writing are two of my most treasured pastimes. My true passion, however, lies in the business world. Where my friends follow sporting teams, I follow business. “Business is my sport” is a phrase I’m guilty of saying far too often. Business started early for me. When I was about 12 years old, I ran a tiny hockey league and shared a paper route with my best friend, Matt Hill. During Highschool and College I learned a variety of skills by working at D&M Silk Screening, L&L Shoprite, Schneider Sheet Metal, and Big George’s Home Appliance Mart. I graduated from LCC with an Associates degree in Applied Sciences, Media Technology (Audio & Video Recording). I worked at WILX as a production assistant where I helped broadcast the 5pm, 6pm and 11pm news. I worked in Master Control and ended up being elected as the UAW Union Steward for my department at WILX. I was told at the time that I was the youngest UAW Union Steward, but I can’t confirm if this is true or not. We actually had to strike and successfully got our pay increased to $6.96 per hour. It was at that time that I knew I had to either move to a big city to make more money in this industry, or try a different trade. I decided to try a different trade: Sales. As an aside, I still firmly believe, everyone should have at least one sales job. Sales is a skill that you can use your entire life. I sold refrigerators, dishwashers, and $70,000 42-inch flat screen TV’s (Not kidding!) at Big George’s Home Appliance Mart and then I learned to sell Television Advertisements at Millenium Digital Media. I won’t go into the long details, but I got fired from both positions because one closed and the other got sold. This left me very disillusioned about working for companies. I ended up securing an amazing job at one of the best employers in town, TechSmith. They taught me about everything from marketing to software development. I went from Salesman to Product Manager in a short while. TechSmith provided me a lot of great experiences and memories. My first airplane ride was a flight for TechSmith. The first book that I loved reading, The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell, was for Techsmith. The reason I got a bachelor’s degree was because of TechSmith tuition reimbursement. But the biggest thing that TechSmith taught me was the love for learning and growth. When I left the sales team and joined the Camtasia product team,...

You may have already seen the news that I have sold all of my shares in Saddleback BBQ, Slice By Saddleback, all of our properties, and the LLC’s to Co-Owner, Matt Gillett. It’s been a long process and I have a lot of mixed feelings about the sale that I’m still trying to process. On one hand, I’m super proud of what we have achieved and that the businesses are in a place where they can be fully handed off to Matt. On the other hand, I will miss regularly interacting with all of our customers and colleagues. Even though this process has been a long time in the making and it’s a very amicable separation, I still feel a bit of stress and anxiety about the transition. A lot of my identity was wrapped up in being the owner of a local small business that people cared about. I feel a bit like I did after the sale of Liquid Web. The business just keeps moving forward without me. Never missing a beat. I suppose that makes me feel a bit of joy and a bit of sadness. But the only thing constant in life is change and change is what stimulates growth. Change is a necessary part of improving and getting better. In the next few weeks, I’ll have a lot more to share about my experience owning profitable restaurants for 8+ years. But for now, here is my full letter announcing the sale to customers. Year Of The Opposite - Travis Stoliker's Substack is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. My Letter: Matt Gillett is now the sole owner of Saddleback & Slice! Hi from Travis, The only thing crazier than starting a restaurant may be investing in one. And my investment in Saddleback only happened because of incredible timing. Saddleback was my first investment after selling LiquidWeb. Because of that sale, I had a non-compete that somewhat limited my ability to work for a year. So with that time, I wanted to see if I could provide a little help to the local economy by investing in small businesses that traditionally had trouble getting financed. At this time I was also engaged to be married and my fiance Laken suggested that we hire our long time friend, Matt Gillett’s, new catering company for our wedding. It made perfect sense. As a part of that discussion with Matt, he mentioned that his dream was bigger than the catering company and that he wished to open a restaurant. Since I was looking for investments, the timing was incredible… But I told him a few things: * This is a bad idea. Restaurants are too hard and don’t make money. * I know nothing about food or restaurants and I never want to be in the food business. * I have 3 rules of investing: No restaurants, no bars, & nothing you don’t understand. So of course, we decided to break all the rules and make the investment. I explained my rationale for breaking all my investment rules to Matt. We are making this investment in YOU. We want to give you a little push of support to help you chase your dream. I made it clear: we have no interest in owning a restaurant longterm. Success for the Stoliker family was defined as: Matt Gillett being a successful entrepreneur with a growing and thriving business that provides for his family, provides for the growth of his employees, and positively serves the community. Matt Gillett has achieved all of those goals beyond my wildest dreams and that is why it is time for Matt to fully take the reins. Saddleback’s success wasn’t due to luck, or hope, or even my investment and help. No, Matt Gillett made his own luck. He willed the success to happen. Simply put, he worked harder than anyone. I got to see Matt work 12 hour days 14 days in a row. I saw him cover an overnight smoker shift when employees called in sick after he had already worked a 12 hour shift! I saw him drive across town in the middle of the night to bail employees out of jail. Seen him leave his own family on holidays to personally make and deliver holiday meals for other families in the community. I...

This has been one of the most impactful processes that I have used to improve my mental heath, build deeper relationships, and accomplish my personal and professional goals. This is a free step by step guide on how to complete a 360 degree review of your strengths and weaknesses and use the power of artificial intelligence to synthesize the data to produce an actionable list of 10 New Year’s resolutions. These resolutions are then turned into 5 simple tasks/habits to improve your life. When implemented, these simple daily habits will dramatically improve your life, happiness, and success. These habits compound on each other and within a few months you will see a dramatic improvement on every measurement that you set out to improve. I guarantee it. Year Of The Opposite - Travis Stoliker's Substack is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Here are the steps that I take and the templates that you can use to improve your life. * Identify the 10-50 people in your life that you trust to give you feedback about your performance over the past year. These can be friends, family, co-workers, investors, partners - anyone that you have a relationship with that can help you improve. Make sure to include a few people that may be critical of you. * Call, email, or send a text message to each of them asking if they would be willing to participate in an anonymous 360 review of your performance by completing a short 8 question form. Only select people that take it seriously and are willing to help. Some people will think it’s silly. That’s okay, ignore them. * Note: Some people may not want to do an online form, that’s fine, ask them the questions over the phone or in person and document their responses in the spreadsheet yourself. * Access this spreadsheet and “Make a copy” for yourself by selecting the 3 dots in the corner and choose “Make a copy”. (https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfhqnWAHDY7BaSTGQRulAD_o61tP1Cs_PwVgVoeCz2CaIh-Tg/viewform?usp=sharing) * Send each of the people that agreed to review you a copy of the form that you just created. (Steps below) * Follow these 4 steps to copy a link to the form and send it: * The simple questions on the form are: * What is your relationship to me? * In your opinion, have I improved in 2023 from 2022? How so?* * What am I doing well?* * What could I be doing better?* * What do you need from me? * What should I stop doing? * What should I start doing or do more of? * Any other feedback you have for me? * Tip: Don’t look at the responses as they come in. Wait until everyone has responded. This keeps it more anonymous. * Follow up with everyone 2 days later: Ask them if they have completed the form? Remind them how important it is to you and that you appreciate their help. * Optional: follow up again in a couple days. (People forget!) First, Why Are We Doing This? What is the Goal? What is NOT the goal? The goal of this process is to find areas where we can improve ourselves so that we can be happier, healthier, more productive, have better relationships with our friends, and build better relationships with our family. I’m going to tell you right now, you’re going to hear a LOT of great things about yourself and that feels amazing. But this is NOT the goal and we must make sure to not get high on our own supply. Remember, these are mostly our friends and family that are giving us feedback. They will be biased towards saying nice and positive things about us - sometimes - even when they don’t believe them. You must constantly guard against inflating your ego and self importance. Move past the praise and look for the areas that you can improve. And if you selected the right people for this, you’re also going to hear some really critical and negative things about your behavior. This is the goal. But when you read the criticism, the goal is not to shatter your self esteem, get you down...

This has been one of the most impactful processes that I have used to improve my mental heath, build deeper relationships, and accomplish my personal and professional goals. This is a free step by step guide on how to complete a 360 degree review of your strengths and weaknesses and use the power of artificial intelligence to synthesize the data to produce an actionable list of 10 New Year’s resolutions. These resolutions are then turned into 5 simple tasks/habits to improve your life. When implemented, these simple daily habits will dramatically improve your life, happiness, and success. These habits compound on each other and within a few months you will see a dramatic improvement on every measurement that you set out to improve. I guarantee it. Year Of The Opposite - Travis Stoliker's Substack is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Here are the steps that I take and the templates that you can use to improve your life. * Identify the 10-50 people in your life that you trust to give you feedback about your performance over the past year. These can be friends, family, co-workers, investors, partners - anyone that you have a relationship with that can help you improve. Make sure to include a few people that may be critical of you. * Call, email, or send a text message to each of them asking if they would be willing to participate in an anonymous 360 review of your performance by completing a short 8 question form. Only select people that take it seriously and are willing to help. Some people will think it’s silly. That’s okay, ignore them. * Note: Some people may not want to do an online form, that’s fine, ask them the questions over the phone or in person and document their responses in the spreadsheet yourself. * Access this spreadsheet and “Make a copy” by going to “File” > “Make a Copy”. * To access the form, just go to: Tools > Manage Form > Edit Form. * Next, send each of the people that agreed to review you a copy of the form that you just created. (Steps below) * Follow these 4 steps to copy a link to the form and send it: * The simple questions on the form are: * What is your relationship to me? * In your opinion, have I improved in 2023 from 2022? How so?* * What am I doing well?* * What could I be doing better?* * What do you need from me? * What should I stop doing? * What should I start doing or do more of? * Any other feedback you have for me? * Tip: Don’t look at the responses as they come in. Wait until everyone has responded. This keeps it more anonymous. * Follow up with everyone 2 days later: Ask them if they have completed the form? Remind them how important it is to you and that you appreciate their help. * Optional: follow up again in a couple days. (People forget!) First, Why Are We Doing This? What is the Goal? What is NOT the goal? The goal of this process is to find areas where we can improve ourselves so that we can be happier, healthier, more productive, have better relationships with our friends, and build better relationships with our family. I’m going to tell you right now, you’re going to hear a LOT of great things about yourself and that feels amazing. But this is NOT the goal and we must make sure to not get high on our own supply. Remember, these are mostly our friends and family that are giving us feedback. They will be biased towards saying nice and positive things about us - sometimes - even when they don’t believe them. You must constantly guard against inflating your ego and self importance. Move past the praise and look for the areas that you can improve. And if you selected the right people for this, you’re also going to hear some really critical and negative things about your behavior. This is the goal. But when you read the criticism, the goal is not to shatter your self esteem, get you down in the dumps, or make you think you’re worthless. Far from it! The simple fact...

Summary (The TLDR) * Alarming data is coming in: Some patients on Wegovy & Ozempic are seeing 50% to 60% of their weight loss come from lean tissue. (muscle). Patients may be getting lighter on the scale but increasing their body fat percentage. This is concerning. (One study here) * As a comparison, when losing weight naturally, it is typical that about 25% of your weight loss will come from lean tissue and muscle mass. * But, there is a SOLUTION! To combat this, patients taking these drugs need to strength train and eat a high protein diet. This will help retain and build lean tissues, muscle mass, connective tissue, & retain bone density. * Wegovy & Ozempic are miracle drugs for fast weight loss. Some patients are losing up to 60lbs in 6 months. But there are real risks to be aware of. * If you take these drugs and don’t change your diet & lifestyle, you will be forced to keep injecting & paying for them forever. * If you ever stop them in the future without lifestyle changes, you’ll gain all the weight back & possibly a lot more. I explain why below. * It is worth noting: The drugmaker behind Ozempic & Wegovy disclosed paying health care providers in the US over $25,000,000 over the past decade to promote these drugs. It paid $1,400,000 to one doctor alone*. * Disclosure: I am an investor in the maker of these drugs, Novo Nordisk. I’m very excited by the results of these drugs but I’m growing increasingly concerned about what I’m observing in my friends that are using them and the mounting evidence about their side effects. Year Of The Opposite - Travis Stoliker's Substack is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Full Article: I’m Concerned about Wegovy & Ozempic. Here is How Patients Can Protect Themselves Ozempic is everywhere. Not since Viagra & Botox has a drug become so popular so quickly. You’ve probably heard of a friend taking it, seen a commercial, or heard of a celebrity talking about “Ozempic Face”. ("Ozempic face" refers to a condition where facial skin may sag and appear aged following the use of these drugs. This effect is likely attributed to the loss of lean tissue, a topic we will explore in detail.) The technical name for these drugs are “GLP-1 receptor agonists” and they go by the names like Semaglutide, Wegovy, Ozempic, and a few others. It’s understandable why they have grown so quickly. They work incredibly well, and globally approximately 1-3 billion people are overweight or obese (depending upon which statistic you trust). This is a tragedy and it leads to many long term negative health consequences. What troubles me most about that statistic is that obesity rates in children have skyrocketed. Approximately 300-600 million kids are overweight or obese (depending upon which statistic you trust). This is quite concerning. Safety of these drugs becomes even more important due to these two factors. * The fast and widespread adoption of them and * the fact that they were recently approved as a treatment for children. Before we begin, the first two questions that people ask me when we talk about this topic are: * Did you use these drugs to lose the 62lbs? * No. I did not use any medications to lose the weight. But I’m not against these drugs. I just personally didn’t want to be on any medications anymore. * Are you an investor? * Yes. I invested in Novo Nordisk before the popularity of these drugs exploded. So it’s fair to judge my writing with a skeptical eye. These drugs have exploded in the past few months. It’s likely that one of your friends or family members are taking them and I hope you will share this article with them without any judgement or condescension. “Ozempic and Wegovy brought in $4.8 billion of sales during just the third quarter of 2023, and the drugs account for 52% of Novo Nordisk's $23.6 billion of total revenue through the first nine months.” It’s understandable why these drug...

No one took me up on my offer last week. Lets try again. As you may recall, last week I made the offer that “I will improve your winter blues in 7 days, or I'll pay you $50.” I was nervous because I was risking $23,000 of my own money and trying to have some “skin in the game” as they say. It started off strong with four people saying that they wanted to do it, but unfortunately, no one made it after just the first day. I’m so confident that this will make anyone happier and I’m so concerned about how many of my friends are saying that they are depressed - I’m making it easier and increasing the offer to $500. I’m even making it easier to qualify: You don’t have to be addressing Seasonal Affective Disorder (Winter blues), you don’t have to post anything publicly, and you don’t have to give up deserts of change your diet at all. Here is my new offer: Following these simple steps will make you happier in 7 days or I will pay you $500. It’s that simple. Here are the simple rules. * Get your blood flowing for at least 30 minutes every single day. Work out, Lift, Run, Move, be physically active, or simply go for a purposeful Walk - You choose the work out. You just have to do it every day and it has to be purposeful and deliberate. You need to get your heart rate up. Deep breathing is highly effective for improving mental health and is consistently proven by research. * Ignore your phone, email, & social media for the first 1 hour of the day and the last 1 hour before you go to bed - every single day. Be present. Don’t be nose down to your phone or device at the start and end of the day. * Keep a private journal at the end of the day to document how you’re feeling, what you’re grateful for, and what you accomplished in the day. Never miss a day. The journal will be private to you. * No alcohol or drugs that aren’t prescribed by a doctor for all 7 days. That’s it. 4 simple steps that require no equipment, no gym membership, nothing for you to buy - all you need is a desire to improve your mood. I’ve made the rules much simpler. You don’t need to post anything publicly, you don’t need to share how you feel with anyone, this is all completely private between me and you. Here are the very simple rules: * You must be a real human living in the USA. I don’t know how the rules in other countries work with stuff like this. * You must start the challenge on or before 12/11/2023 and complete it before 12/18/2023. * You must have a desire to be happier than you currently are today. This method isn’t intended to be able to cure your grief or clinically diagnosed depression within 7 days. (But I am confident that this process will probably help.) * These tasks need to be new to you. If you already do all 4 of the steps above, congratulations! But this challenge doesn’t apply to you. * You must email me to let me know that you are starting this challenge! Consider this your registration for the challenge. Just email me on the day you start so that we can start the clock running and so that I can send you words of encouragement along the way. This challenge will be private between me and you. * Each day that you complete all 4 steps, you must document them by sending me an email and letting me know what you did for each of the steps. This entire bet is basically on the honor system, so I need to be able to follow along with your progress each day. You can’t just wait until the end and say “I did it and it didn’t work.” That’s not fair. * After you complete the 7 days, you must have a friend, a significant other, or a family member that is willing to vouch for you. I want to be able to verify that you did what you said you did. This person doesn’t need to be present for every workout or anything like that. But they do need to be willing to vouch for you and your honesty. * You must respond to my emails so that we can keep a dialog going. Part of this process is having a partner helping you along the way. I can’t help if you...

I will improve your Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) or winter blues within 7 days or I will pay you $50. It’s that simple. If you’re like me, the short days, lack of sunlight, and cold weather can make me a little sad or throw my mood off in general. I’ve developed a system that helps me overcome the winter blues. I am risking $23,000 of my own money because I’m that confident that my system will improve your winter blues or seasonal affective disorder (SAD). Here is my offer! I will improve your Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) or winter blues within 7 days or I will pay you $50. It’s that simple. Here are the rules. All you need to do is be a subscriber (free or paid) to my newsletter as of 11/28/2023. If you follow my process below and honestly report on your progress - if after 7 days, your mood hasn’t improved, I will Venmo you $50. It’s that simple. Here is my process to cure your winter blues. How to overcome the winter blues, Seasonal affective disorder, or SAD within 7 days. * Get your blood flowing for at least 30 minutes every single day. Work out, Lift, Run, Move, be physically active, or simply go for a purposeful Walk - You choose the work out. You just have to do it every day and it has to be purposeful and deliberate. You need to get your heart rate up. Breathing deeply is the number one activity that has been proven to improve mental health. * Ignore your phone, email, & social media for the first 1 hour of the day and the last 1 hour before you go to bed - every single day. Be present. Don’t be nose down to your phone or device. * Keep a private journal at the end of the day to document how you’re feeling, what you’re grateful for, and what you accomplished in the day. Never miss a day. The journal will be private to you. * Avoid cheap dopamine. Prioritize long term pleasures over short term pleasures. This means no desserts, no TikTok, ignore the news, no alcohol, and no drugs that aren’t prescribed to you by a doctor. You don’t need to go sober forever, but for 7 days, it’s time to focus on your mental health. That’s it. 4 simple steps that require no equipment, no gym membership, nothing for you to buy - all you need is a desire to improve your mood. As of writing this post I have 464 subscribers. So that means I am risking $23,200 of my own money. This is very risky for me but that’s how confident I am that it will work for you. Rules: * You must be a free or paid subscriber to my newsletter before 11/28/2023. * You must be a real human living in the USA. I don’t know how the rules in other countries work with stuff like this. * You must start the challenge on or before 11/29/2023 and complete it before 12/7/2023. * You must be currently experiencing Seasonal affective disorder, or SAD, or have the winter blues… basically you have to be feeling sad because of the weather change. I’m not claiming to be able to cure your grief or clinically diagnosed depression within 7 days. But I will suggest that this process will probably help.. * You must email me to let me know that you are starting this challenge! Consider this your registration for the challenge. Just email me on the day you start so that we can start the clock running and so that I can send you words of encouragement along the way. * Each day that you complete all 4 steps, you must document them with a comment on this post on Substack and let me know what you did for each of the steps. This entire bet is basically on the honor system, so I need to be able to follow along with your progress each day. You can’t just wait until the end and say “I did it and it didn’t work.” That’s not fair. * You must have a friend, a significant other, or a family member that is willing to vouch for you. I want to be able to verify that you did what you said you did. This person doesn’t need to do anything, they don’t need to be present for every workout or anything like that. But they do need to be willing to vouch for you and your honesty. *...

As most of you know, I am the Co-Owner of two BBQ restaurants and two Pizza places in the Lansing, Michigan area. We also offer two BBQ sauces and two spice rubs in our restaurants and retailers around Michigan and online. But this isn’t a sales pitch for them… I’m mentioning this because I want to give you a FREE bottle of Sauce as a Thank You for being a subscriber to this newsletter! All you need to do is reply to this email and I will send you a coupon code so that you can get a free bottle. That’s it. No strings attached. I just can’t thank you enough for supporting me on this journey of creating content and improving my health. Your support helped lift me out of a very dark place and I want to pay it back in a small way. Thank you again. Please reply to this email so that I can send you your own bottle. This week I had the pleasure of being a guest on the Rising Above Podcast with David Hess. David is a local guy that overcame a childhood of abuse and neglect suffered at the hands of his foster parents. He started this podcast as a way to share the stories of others that have overcame adversity to rise above. It was a great conversation. We talk about my background at Liquid Web, the Year Of The Opposite, his history of abuse, how my ownership of Liquid Web was structured, the joys of running, and much more. I hope that you enjoy this podcast as much as I did. Weight Achievement This week I am happy to report that I achieved my target body weight goal and the lowest weight of my adult life, 173lbs! It was pretty cool because it was also at the end of a 10 mile run that I topped off with a 3 minute cold plunge. Check out this video. Bonus Tip & Life Hack - The Best iPhone Feature Ever - Silence Unknown Callers Are you sick of spam calls? I (used to) get at least 10 a day. Not anymore! You can Silence Unknown Callers. If the phone number isn’t in your address book the call doesn’t ring and it gets sent to voicemail. The call will still show up in your recent calls list. The caller doesn’t know any different. It’s amazing. It puts you in control of your phone again. To turn it on, go to Settings > Phone, then > Silence Unknown Callers, and turn on the feature. Or go to Settings, pull down to access Search, type “Silence Unknown Callers” and turn it on that way. Calls from unknown numbers are silenced and sent to your voicemail, and appear in your recent calls list. Today’s newsletter is a short one because I really want to hear from you. I’m hoping that this will be a two way conversation. So please, even if you don’t want the bottle of sauce, reply to this email and let me know you’re out there. You can let me know what you like about the newsletter, your suggestions for improvement, what is going on in your life, or anything else that comes to mind. I look forward to hearing from you! * Trav Year Of The Opposite - Travis Stoliker's Substack is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.yearoftheopposite.com