Ten Highlights From 2024
Finally ... at long last ... finishing some undone business from 2024.
Hi everyone,
I’ve been quite scattered this first half of the year — first in DC at RFK Jr. and Jay Bhattacharya’s hearings, then working on my podcast re-launch, and devoting a lot of time to changing both my inner psychological narratives and social life — but now am finding time to re-calibrate and work on this personal Substack project which I’ve been aiming to do since January of this year.
Before I get to the mission of this Substack — reflective essays on personal growth — I have a couple of pieces drafted in January which I failed to find the time to finish and publish (up until now!).
Here is the first one, a reflection on 2024. Better late than ever I suppose, but interesting to re-read and finish this piece as I look at the trajectory of 2025 and focus on this year’s goals.
Table of Contents (In Chronological Order):
MDMA Trip (Jan)
Visiting UATX and The Comedy Mecca: Mothership @ Austin, Texas (Feb)
Successfully Launching Season 2 Of The Illusion of Consensus (May)
Travelling In Europe (June)
Returning To a Healthy Body Weight (July)
Discovering The Weeknd’s Trilogy Series: The House of Balloons (Aug)
Mentioned on Joe Rogan (Aug)
Rescue The Republic in Washington, D.C (Sept)
Trump Winning The Election — And Appointing A Superhero Cast of Transformers (Nov)
Psychedelic Policy Reform For President Trump (Nov/Dec)
1. MDMA Trip (Jan):
I started off the year with intentions of doing my first psychedelic therapy session since 2022 — when I ended up having an unpredictably harrowing LSD trip which unfortunately exacerbated a lot of deep-rooted, psychosomatic issues revolving anxiety and fear. It took much longer to recover than I suspected as it took a massive toll on my nervous system.
After reaching a discernable level of psychosomatic stability and safety in 2023, I decided to take the voyage inwards to gain a new perspective and fresh insights. I went into the trip asking the question of what it’s like to be “free from fear.” The trip didn’t quite address that question but man, oh man, it ended up being a blast of consciousness into a set of issues I did not expect to go into.
It highlighted the presence-destroying impact of my excessively goal-oriented approach to life, the often obscured feeling and exercise of agency, and the beauty and primacy of the present moment.
I’ve chosen to keep this highlight brief as I am currently finishing an essay on this topic.
2. Visiting UATX and The Comedy Mecca: Mothership @ Austin, Texas (Feb)
In February, I decided to visit the University of Austin (UATX) — Bari Weiss, Michael Shellenberger, and other anti-woke luminaries’ bold new project for young thinkers. Looking back, I’m realizing just how much my goals and ambitions have shifted over the past year.
The experience was incredible. UATX is alive and thriving in Austin, filled with bright, curious students dedicated to free speech and the exploration of new ideas — a refreshing contrast to the climate on most college campuses these days. The talks by Bari Weiss were deeply inspiring. I also had the chance to meet Joe Lonsdale at his stunning Austin residence.
Meeting like-minded young people, including the brilliant MAHA advocate Grace Price, was a breath of fresh air. It reminded me of the best parts of high school — group activities, collaboration, and exchanging ideas with sharp contemporaries. It gave me hope that there’s still a coalition of young people out there who value open inquiry and intellectual honesty.
I wrapped up my Austin trip with a couple of visits to Joe Rogan’s legendary Comedy Mothership. The hype is real, folks. I have a pretty high bar for comedy — if I’m not laughing within five minutes, I’m out — but the small-room show I attended was absolutely hysterical. The comedians were so transgressive it made me almost uncomfortable — jokes about disabilities, murder, police brutality, and more. One female comedian even joked about “playing catch with God” over her multiple abortions. “I don’t want ’em, but God keeps giving me them and I keep sending them back!” The room was in absolute stitches.
On the last night, I saw “Joe Rogan and Friends,” and it was brilliant. Rogan killed, performing most of his Netflix special material about becoming a public dissident during Covid. Hats off to him for creating a space where nothing is off-limits — a rare and refreshing experience these days.
3. Successfully Launching Season 2 Of The Illusion of Consensus (May)
Since March I had been plotting a re-launch of The Illusion of Consensus after securing my first-ever creative grant.
and I had been running The Illusion of Consensus since May of 2023 on our own and the production/editing quality was clearly suboptimal. We hired the This is 42 podcast production team and they took over, creating a wonderful season launch trailer:
It was an important learning curve in collaboration and delegation where I learned a lot and was relieved to not have to worry about technical and logistical matters and focus mostly on content development. We kicked off the new season with a dazzling conversation with the great Russell Brand:
We had back on Alex Berenson, Robert Malone, and other Covid dissidents who helped us launch this new project in 2023. Over the course of 2024, we released a number of insightful episodes on the Murthy v. Missouri decision, the FDA’s rejection of MDMA therapy (I hosted a 4 hour debate!), persecution of Canadian medical dissidents, novel stem cell therapies as groundbreaking treatment of mRNA vaccines, and more.
Running The Illusion of Consensus podcast over the past year in collaboration with a top production company was an interesting, educational experience. My ambitions to turn it into a top health/science podcast didn’t pan out, but we did generally, slowly grow in all Substack metrics compared to the previous year (+44% total subscribers, +10% paid members, +12% GAR, also 70% paid subscriber retention). On the business side, I am proud of retaining precisely the exact amount of revenue in May 2024 compared to May 2023 which was our most prolific month in terms of subscriptions. My goal was to equal or beat that amount (which I did by just $5!) before heading to Europe and I was able to achieve that through some tactful promotion campaigns on Substack. After the summer months, our revenue slightly grew by 3.7%. In the fall, Jay left The Illusion of Consensus ahead of the election and NIH director nomination.
4. Travelling In Europe (June)
In June, me and my friend Parker went to Europe — a trip we had both been fantasizing about for a long time. I remember in the summer of 2017 spending hours everyday watching videos about Europe and reading beautifully written travelogues which sparked my Europhilia. I had a deep longing to explore the continent, but of course didn’t have the financial capability (10th grade only!) to travel.
Well, I finally did in June of last year. We started in Switzerland, staying at Parker’s kind friend Thierry’s house in St. Gallen. My favourite part about the trip was going up the Rigi mountain (after serendipitously meeting my friend Taryn Southern in Lucern!). We first took a tram up and then hiked 45 minutes to the top of the mountain — as we kept walking up I was continually stunned by the site of more and more houses, no matter how high we went. I kept thinking “okay, we are so high up, there must be no more houses after this, but no! There’s more!”
I have a particular affinity for heights and altitude and I was fascinated with how there are fully built houses which people live in at the top of the mountain. The panoramic views were breathtaking. The other two highlights from this hike was a fully loaded grocery store and this beautiful, little church we found snuggled in one pocket of the mountain (we went inside and it was gorgeous). Again, being as extremely high as we were, it was fascinating to me how the full amenities of modern living were at our disposal.
Then we headed to Rome, after making a quick stop in Milan, for the start of our 16-day EF Ultimate Break tour (designed for young people under 30). We hit Florence (the central medieval walking area is stunning), Pisa (had to see the tower!), and Genoa (best pesto ever!) — stuffing ourselves with more pizza, pasta, and gelato than we could imagine — before heading to Monaco briefly and then settling in Antibes and Montpellier for a few days in the South of France. Antibes is such a cute, little town in Southern France with refreshing oceanic views and a lively outdoor area filled with restaurants and cafes.
Following our French excursion we headed to Barcelona — a mix of the old and traditional and the modern and commercialized. Old cathedrals and Nike and Lulu Lemon shops co-exist in some sort of juxtapositional harmony. In terms of partying, Barcelona is the most nightlife-centric out of all the cities we visited. After an aesthetically stupefying trip to the Sagrada Familia, we went to the Razzmatazz nightclub which was nothing short of insane. Multiple dance-floors packed with people — a dance-floor for EDM, pop, reggae, and more. We continually cycled through various dance-floors all throughout the night and had great fun. The EF tour ended in Barcelona but we continued our travels in the less touristy Bilbao (basque dishes such as bacalao al pil pil and Iberian pork shoulder were memorable bites!) and the gorgeous Southern Spanish city of Sevilla. Sevilla was a major highlight of the trip because of the blending of Eastern and Western artistic styles. It is a distinctly European city — not a Middle Eastern one — but the Islamic architectural dimensions are an incredible addition in the city (unsurprisingly as we are not far from Morocco!)
Aside from some delicious Middle Eastern cuisine we had, the most authentic and interesting Islamic experience we had was at the Royal Alcázar of Seville - a “historic royal palace in Seville, Spain…formerly the site of the Islamic-era citadel of the city, begun in the 10th century and then developed into a larger palace complex by the Abbadid dynasty and the Almohads.” The artistic beauty in the seemingly never-ending depths of the palace was jaw-dropping. Here is an image I saved on my photo of the Islamic geometrical patterns in one of the rooms (if you stare long enough, your nervous system may endogenously release a hit of DMT!):
We ended our trip bar-hopping in Lisbon and driving up the dizzying hills baked into the city in a tourist bus and watching some Euro football matches (which started in our trip in France).
Specifics aside, the inner journey of Europe (perhaps an oxymoron on the surface) was an interesting one. A lot of social challenges and conflicts emerged as my friend and I unexpectedly found ourselves embroiled in high-school-level drama on the trip thanks to some ludicrously immature people on our EF tour. A lot of relational competition and comparison also emerged as one particular fella on the trip (and his two bro companions) became the centre of attention to the chagrin of my friend and I. It was hilarious in retrospect — but fairly frustrating at the time — to see just how mature and removed we may think we are of trivial high school conflicts, but in actuality slip right back into all the bullshit when you have a few jocks and a pretty girl everyone is after. What a time!
The bad high school musical aside, I really got to savour a few deeper insights into well-being and balance in life. A few times while taking tourist buses in Rome, Sevilla, and Lisbon I recall taking a breath and asking myself, “Do I wanna do a major podcast right now?” “Do I wanna be going viral right now over some big article or interview I did?” All things that I have pursued when I started out in 2020. This ties back to my MDMA trip earlier in the year where I really powerfully got to examine the inner egoic drive for fame, status, and influence.
The answer to all those questions while soaking in picturesque medieval cityscapes was a resounding “No.” “No, fame, influence, wealth, success, and status are not the only things that matter in life.” I’ve been ashamed at times in the past for having strived for those things (and to a significant degree, still) but then I realized that’s virtually everyone — including those with several decades on me who still cave to audience capture and continually chase more viral clicks. I’m proud that I’ve never “sold out” to any political camp or ideological group for clicks, money, or fame. Ego is hard to kill (though I know some have killed it or effectively contained it), but what a beautiful, natural experience to have in Europe where the most important, interesting thing to do is find which fun dance-club to visit or pizza place to try or spectacular church to check out instead of “how do I make more money?” “who do I network with next?” “how do I level up in my career?”
I hope next time in Europe my nervous system is in a better place — as I’ve found myself in the “sensitive sleeper” phase over the past couple years, which means travel takes a heavy toll, and many experiences I just couldn’t fully enjoy because of declines in mood and physical readiness due to a lack of rest (the tour schedule was quite dense). This probably had a greater impact on the enjoyment of the experience than I realized at the time.
Thank you universe for finally giving me a taste of Europe which I had been longing for years — it came in a form I could have never predicted in 2017 during the dreamer phase of my youth, but it was quite the learning experience.
5. Returning To a Healthy Body Weight This Summer (June)
This one I had to really think about to recognize and appreciate.
In 2022, I found myself in the throes of debilitating left-side chest pain and digestive issues. I spent many months riddled with chronic anxiety, depression, and an agency-robbing inability to overcome it on my own. Later that year a friend introduced me to Alan Gordon’s book The Way Out and Dr. Howard Schubiner and Dr. John Sarno’s related work on psychosomatic disorders. Long-story-short (I should write a long-form essay on this!), I finally realized my pain was not driven by any cardiac or gastrointestinal pathology, but by fear and anxiety.
2023 was my major recovery year where I transitioned from a place of debilitating fear to safety and stability in my body (using pain re-processing therapy practices and principles articulated in Alan’s book). This meant finally starting to lose all the excess fat I had gained in 2022 due to a lack of exercise stemming from a fear of any excess physical discomfort outside the daily chronic chest and digestion-related issues. By the start of 2024 and a few months in, I lost about 20-25 pounds total since the height of my weight gain in 2023.
One unforeseen effect of this was the change in my social life! Those two years of difficult mental health challenges and the onset of chronic pain in particular meant that my social life was fairly poor and unexplored. In 2023 I did make a lot of efforts to get out with my two best-friends Sam and Parker, but I did not have the confidence and stability in my health to put myself out there romantically or in outside-the-box ways.
This changed last year which I’m incredibly grateful for. After losing most of the excess weight, I finally felt like going out and meeting new people more often. This started in Europe, but after coming back home in July, it kicked in much more. One outcome of this for my close friend and I was getting on the dating apps, which are amazing and depressing at times (another piece to write on this alone). Dating was never quite a thought in the previous two years because of shame, low self-esteem over my overweight physical state and general feeling of shittiness due to the chronic pain. When you’re in 6/10 chronic pain all the time (and often 8/10 at some points in the week), finding a romantic partner is the last of your priorities. When you don’t have your health, pretty much all else falls under a dark cloud.
I’m proud I worked through the chronic pain in 2023, got my ass to the gym (thanks in part to my trainer for the accountability!), ate very carefully and rigorously calorie-counted, and finally felt physically ready to put myself back out there in the world and take new risks.
But as I realized towards the end of the year, I did overcome a lot of the anxiety and fear patterns contributing to my poor physical health but the low self-esteem and self-loathing dimensions of my inner world remain a major obstacle in attaining what I want in my outer world. I asked my good friend Kelsie Sheran about this yesterday (an intuitive empath) and she confirmed yet again (as others have) that those deeply ingrained parts of my psyche may be the largest causes of my frustrations and misery in the external world.
So good I started getting out last year and feeling fit again! Now this year the big theme appears to be learning and experiencing self-love instead of dejected victimhood, low self-esteem, and feeling like a perpetual loser…
6. Discovering The Weeknd’s Trilogy Series: The House of Balloons, Thursday
Every now and then, you encounter a piece of art that is so rich and indescribably enchanting that you can’t help but return to it over and over again. Musically, I had this with Chance the Rapper’s Colouring Book in 2016, Kendrick Lamar’s To Pimp a Butterfly in 2017, Kanye West’s My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy in 2018, Tame Impala’s Currents in 2020, and Beach House’s Once, Twice Melody in 2022, and Miley Cyrus’ Endless Summer Vacation in 2023 (and others which I’ve not mentioned for the sake of brevity).
Well, last year the universe gifted me with an absolute gold-mine of musical mastery: The Weeknd’s original Trilogy series and even his follow-up Kissland. The three-part Trilogy series begins with House of Balloons — which I discovered to be, by far, Abel’s best album, even having listened to his latest (which is pretty good, actually). Why: the atmospheric, cinematic expression of sensual R&B which has no analogue. Almost every track on this nine-track mixtape hits hard and deep.
The opening track perfectly transports you into this house of balloons — a perfect metaphor of transient, empty pleasure — which is the home of the symbolic devil: drugs, hyper-sexuality, and nihilistic escapism. The Beachhouse sample interwoven in “The Party and The Afterparty” is just a work of transcendent art; “Wicked Games” is the best articulation of romantic longing and desperation I’ve seen in any filmic, musical, or literary format; “House of Balloons / Glass Table Girls” is my favourite on the entire record and might take the cake for the best two-part track of all-time. The “Happy House” sampling is ingenious (listen here) and elevates the track to an immaculate conception of sensual R&B. The second half “Glass Table Girls” — nocturnal, grimy, subterranean and raunchy — hits hard when listened to after the first part, particularly past 11pm while driving. It gives you this masculine feeling of driving in a bat-mobile after spontaneously picking up a girl at a dance-club and vibing with great intensity. Overall, the soundscapes on here are stellar and the thematic, lyrical content perfectly delineates the painfully imperfect feelings of inadequacy, sadness, loneliness, desperation, and yes, even youthful libido characteristic of young men in their late teens and early 20s. It’s somewhat similar to Kendrick’s good kid, m.A.A.d city debut studio album — except Abel’s youth was not corrupted by gang culture and violent, criminal behaviour as Kendrick elaborately story-tells throughout the record.
This is an album about a young guy who is thirsting for hot sex and euphoric drugs — but it goes so much deeper, beyond the surface, into the lack of aplomb and deep-seated insecurity driving his searches for hedonistic escapism. It’s not profoundly self-psychoanalytical by any stretch (like Kendrick’s Mr. Morale or even DAMN.) but it’s a near-damn-perfect expression of a young man searching for love, connection, and acceptance. It celebrates those sinful searches as much as it powerfully reveals its perils. The rich, layered sonic landscape is a gateway drug into the disturbed, broken, lecherous reality of The Weeknd’s youth.
His follow-up Thursday is a close-second for Weeknd albums, particularly the opening track “Lonely Star” which is immaculate in its expression of romantic desperation, telling this female character in the song (“Thursday girl”) “baby you could have it all: the cars, the clothes, the jewels, the sex, the house.” “Heaven or Las Vegas” is another spectacular song featuring incredible, pulsating vocals by Abel.
Kissland further expands the Trilogy universe — before The Weeknd begins his much more accessible, radio-friendly pop chapter Beauty Behind the Madness — with the title-track being another incredible two-part composition (the second part is stellar) surrounding similar themes from House of Balloons.
At a time of life last summer when I had just started going out and getting on the dating apps, The Weeknd’s first few albums — HoB in particular — capture the emotional themes underlying romantic pursuit better than any other album I’ve heard. I relate to the guy singing in those albums and in some ways feel lucky I never went down the hedonistic roads he did to numb his pain and find acceptance.
Easily in my top 10 albums of all time.
7. Mentioned on Joe Rogan
Anyone who knows me, knows I’m a big fan of Joe Rogan. He’s made intellectual exploration a fun, cool thing to do for many young guys and gals like me. So many podcasts on his channel have transformed my life, from explorations of ancient use of psychedelics to the deadly outcomes of socialism to evolutionary biology in the modern dating market (that great episode with Bret and Heather!). It’s incredible how much of a robust, diverse education I’ve received from watching his show. Not to mention his incredible interviews with groundbreaking artists like Miley Cyrus, Jewel, and Kanye West (before he became anti-semitic).
Anyway, I appreciated the shoutout in the Jimmy Dore pod (the third time he’s mentioned me, last time with PBD here) for my debate with Mark Cuban which is apparently what I’m known for in a lot of circles. Perhaps I should debate Mark on my podcast instead of just a private email exchange (update: it happened - watch here!).
A cool sign your making progress is when your heroes see you and you look back at them in reverence and appreciation for what they’ve taught you.
Cheers to the great JRE kingdom.
8. Rescue The Republic in Washington, D.C
Sometime in 2023 my friend Matt Tune first told me about his vision for Rescue The Republic — a politically diverse, unifying political event for those opposed to the excesses of the military industrial complex, Big Pharma, gender-bending woke radicalism, the censorship industrial complex, and more.
That vision came to life in September 2024 when the event kickstarted in Washington, DC. People across the spectrum from Bret Weinstein, Jordan Peterson, Matt Taibbi, Jimmy Dore, Russell Brand, and others spoke on stage. Even RFK Jr. — the current HHS secretary — graced us with his presence.
Watching Peterson and Brand rap battle on stage was a fun highlight, while many presentations on food safety and healthy took stage, such as the Food Babe’s notorious fruit loops comparison.
This event is so much more meaningful and historic in hindsight as Trump actually got elected and joined forces with the likes of RFK Jr. This may have been the most significant political rally of the past several decades.
It’s amazing to have been a part of this incredible effort (credit to Matt and Bret for organizing) and we are living and breathing the new administration now.
9. Trump Winning The Election — And Electing A Superhero Cast of Transformers (Including My Former Podcast Co-host)
On U.S. election night last year, I got together with my friends Sam, Cooper, and Parker and huddled around the TV with beers and pizza in hand. We flipped between the Daily Wire, CNN, NBC, Breaking Points, and Russell Brand’s livestream, watching in disbelief as the seemingly impossible unfolded before our eyes: Donald Trump winning the 2024 election — after surviving two assassination attempts. One of them he miraculously dodged in real time. It was cinematic. It was insane. And it was exhilarating.
We were ecstatic — not just because of the win itself, but because of what it represented. COVID dissidents — those of us who spoke up when it wasn’t easy — were now stepping into the halls of power. People I had written Substacks with, podcasted with, exchanged long Twitter DMs examining Covid data in the trenches — were now being appointed to lead the most powerful health institutions in the world. Marty Makary was tapped to run the FDA. And most surreal of all: my former podcast co-host, Jay Bhattacharya, was nominated as Director of the NIH. Jay, a top-tier scientist with an unwavering moral compass, now at the helm of the world’s largest scientific funding agency. That hit different.
This wasn’t just a political moment — it was a cultural shift. As many have noted, this was the first podcast election. The Joe Rogan–Trump interview was arguably more influential than any CNN town hall. Independent media didn’t just challenge the mainstream — it overtook it.
And to top it all off: RFK Jr. was appointed to lead HHS. If you told me in 2021 that the trio of Trump, RFK, and Jay Bhattacharya would be steering American health policy by 2025, I would’ve laughed. And then cried with hope.
10. Psychedelic Policy Reform For President Trump
Lastly, days before the election I called up my friend Dr. Matt Johnson — one of the most prolific psychedelic researchers on the planet — with the idea to draft a psychedelic policy reform agenda for President Trump and we did it:
From the piece:
We believe that current psychedelic policy restricts medical development and increases harm to individuals who use psychedelics. Far from being a "magic bullet" or precursor for societal utopia, psychedelics offer ancient and enduring benefits which ought to be conserved and institutionalized. It is time to proactively address both the potential benefits and risks of psychedelics by implementing these long-overdue regulatory changes. This is not a right or left issue, but a human rights and America-first issue. We hope the next President will take steps to improve the health and safety of Americans and restore our birthright to explore our own consciousness for healing, without harming others.
Much like psychedelics are known to disrupt entrenched mental patterns at the heart of conditions like depression and PTSD, the Trump administration has vowed to restructure the political establishment in D.C. With millions suffering from chronic mental illness, judicious reform of psychedelic regulation could offer transformative tools for addressing mental health conditions and the meaning crisis that conventional treatments often struggle to resolve.
Joe Rogan later retweeted it on X which greatly helped amplify our message and Matt even had a positive exchange with Ivanka Trump where she stated her support for our work.
If there’s one area I could pick to focus on in the political arena, it would be the advancement of psychedelic medicine. It transcends partisan divisions and unites us across superficial barriers. I’m hoping to work with the new Trump admin at some point on this front alongside Matt to make psychedelic therapy more accessible. Fingers crossed!
Note: As I finish editing this in June of 2025 prior to publishing, I realize the importance of exercising real agency and focusing in on my goals and aims for the year. It seems like half the year has evaporated with much less progress in my life than I would’ve hoped…at the same time I am undergoing some pretty radical internal shifts of my mindset and self-perceptions (more on that soon).
I look forward to having the first “real” (lol) fun summer of my life filled with outdoor activities and new social interactions. With the particular set of issues I’ve battled in the last few years, this has been surprisingly difficult to do — though it is a common summer experience for many of course. Not everyone has the same experience in life. We have very different struggles on some level.
Look forward to the next year-end piece by end of December…(hopefully on time this year!).
"I’ve chosen to keep this highlight brief as I am currently finishing an essay on this topic."
I'm looking forward to this. Such an important topic!
Grounding to Mother Earth, living in harmony, doing the right things that are not harmful. Continue on the Beauty Way Path of love, joy, and happiness, ever expanding into the infinite universe. Wishing you many more beautiful journeys. Thank you for sharing today.