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Enemy of the State...And the Butcher Shop: Dr. Bassem Youssef on the Power of Political Satire and the Potency of Plants
Surgeon. Freedom fighter. Comedian. Plant-based diet activist.
Does this sound like four different people's lives?
It's not. It's all part of one man's story, which is legendary.
My guest today is considered an icon of freedom of speech and press. He himself would likely revoke any praise given to him, but this humility merely affirms my words.
I'll let Dr. Bassem Youssef's story speak for itself.
Flashback to Cairo, Egypt, January, 2011. It's the beginning of the Egyptian revolution. And in the middle of it, the surgeon Bassem Youssef takes to the streets to stitch up injured protestors. What he witnesses disturbs him so much, he starts to take five minute videos of satirical political commentary on his iPhone, in his laundry room, to expose the hypocrisy of the corrupt Egyptian regime and state-run media.
These videos of one man speaking truth to power go viral, garnering millions of viewers. He was one man standing against the regime with no weapons but his jokes, and it soon made him an enemy of the state.
Fast forward a few weeks and Bassem ends up with his own national television show, which is also the first political satire show in the Middle East, period. It gains a massive audience with 40 million viewers per episode. Bassem Youssef was nicknamed the "Jon Stewart of Egypt". And, in fact, appeared on the daily show with Jon Stewart four times.
While Bassem was popular with the people and made a nation laugh during a revolution, his poking fun at those in power came at a very high personal price. As lawsuits and death threats poured in, his show was canceled in 2014, and he fled the country to the United States.
Bassem wrote the best-selling book Revolution for Dummies, and is the subject of the critically acclaimed documentary Tickling Giants. He was named one of Time Magazine's 100 Most Influential People and was also listed as one of Foreign Policy Magazine's Leading Global Thinkers.
He now lives in Los Angeles and is reinventing his career as a satirist, comedian and storyteller.
In my conversation with Dr. Bassem Youssef, you'll hear:
-How the Egyptian Revolution changed Bassem's life forever: from heart surgeon to hugely successful satirist and freedom fighter with his own TV show, with 40 million viewers per episode
-How to keep functioning under massive pressure
-Speaking Truth to Power: why humor is so dangerous to dictators
-"Revolution for Dummies: Laughing through the Arab Spring": Bassem on his bestselling book and why humor is so dangerous to dictators...10:30
-The healing power of humor...11:22
-How to keep democracies alive and speak truth to power...12:30
-The current situation in Egypt and why military dictatorships don't work out in the end...15:07
-Bassem's current projects: Plant B the wildly successful docu series about plant based lifestyle ...16:27
-Let's talk about sex: erectile disfunction, and why it is the canary in the coal mine of your cardiovascular health...20:10
-How Bassem went vegan and why...22:50
-Why it is important to be empathetic towards people who are at the beginning of their plant-based journey and why it is OK to "cheat" once in a while...26:00
-The immediate health benefits Bassem noticed after going vegan...28:00
-How religion and culture inform the perception of food and nutrition...30:00
-Bad habits vs. genetics: the true culprit of disease...33:30
-Fads and fad diets: everything that’s wrong with the keto diet...38:00
-The best way to get into ketosis is fasting / intermittent fasting...42:00
-Busting the myth of "blood type O’s need to eat meat"...45:32
-Bassem’s fitness and nutrition routine...47:58
-The high cost of disease to individuals, societies and their governments and how this can be mitigated...54:46
