Real Men Eat Plants Podcast: Wisdom, Courage & The Vegan Journey

At Real Men Eat Plants, we’re flipping the script on what it means to be strong. In our latest podcast episode, host Bryan welcomes two inspiring new co-hosts — Justin Garfield and Bruce Da Silva — for a powerful conversation on compassion, courage, and living plant-powered.

Justin’s journey began in childhood with a simple but life-changing moment: holding a peaceful bunny and wondering, “People actually eat this?” Years later, a 45-minute slaughterhouse video and a week with his vegan uncle solidified his commitment. Today, Justin runs a Tanzanian safari company dedicated to animal conservation, shares healing through sound baths, and even roasts (or rather, doesn’t roast) his own antioxidant-rich green coffee.

Bruce’s path took him from Brazil to New Jersey, Morocco, and beyond. A screening of Bong Joon-ho’s Okja while eating dinner became the turning point — he dumped the food in his pot and never looked back. His coaching work now helps men transform their lives quickly, and he founded the Vegan Men’s Society to challenge stereotypes and build community.

Together, the trio explore everything from tofu hacks (freeze-thaw twice for a chicken-like texture) to the myth that “real men need meat.” They discuss Charlotte’s Web, Forks Over Knives, Eternal Treblinka, and why, as Bruce puts it, “We’re drowning in information but starving for wisdom.”

Whether you’re vegan, plant-curious, or just rethinking your plate, this episode offers heartfelt stories, practical tips, and thought-provoking philosophy. As Bryan says, “Real power isn’t about how much you can take — it’s about how much good you can really give.”

🎧 Listen now and join a movement proving that compassion is strength: Real Men Eat Plants Podcast: Wisdom, Courage & The Vegan Journey

Follow Bruce Da Silva here: https://www.instagram.com/bruce_dasilva/

Follow Justin Garfield here: https://www.instagram.com/justingarfield/

Subscribe to the Real Men Eat Plants podcast on YouTube or your favorite streaming platform today and stay connected with our ongoing exploration of the complex plant-based business world.

Episode’s Transcript

Please understand that a transcription service provided the transcript below. It undoubtedly contains errors that invariably take place in voice transcriptions.

Bryan (00:00)

Welcome back everybody to the Real Men Eat Plants podcast, where we're talking about how real strength comes from compassion, curiosity, and of course, a killer plant-based diet. Today is a special day because I'm not flying solo anymore. We're officially leveling up with not only one, but two new co-hosts who are going to bring some serious flavor, both on the mic and in life. First up, we've got Justin Garfield.

He is a podcaster, musician, comedian, and aspiring media personality. Justin has been vegan for I think a little over 12 years now. Give me a thumbs up on that, which means he's been plant powered longer than some of you have been buying oat milk, I think. So he loves cooking plant-based meals, making people laugh, and finding creative ways to help save the animals. Basically, he's proof that you can have a big heart and a quick wit.

Justin Garfield (00:40)

You got it, man, you got it.

Bryan (00:57)

And then we've got Bruce de Silva. He's a Brazilian American thinker, entrepreneur, and coach, beaming in from Los Angeles. Bruce is obsessed in the best possible way with psychology, philosophy, history, and the big question of how we become the best version of ourselves. He's served in the Peace Corps, lived in Tel Aviv, and spent time in DC, and blends a global perspective with laser-sharp insight.

Bruce Da Silva (00:57)

Mm-hmm.

Bryan (01:24)

think Tony Robbins meets Marcus Aurelius meets your brutally honest best friend. That's what I came up with. So together, the three of us are going to help bring you bold conversations, the laughs and the inspiration you expect from real man eat plants while proving that compassion isn't just part of being a man, it's part of being a better human. So welcome to the show guys. I'm so excited to have you here.

Justin Garfield (01:46)

It's quite the honor. Thank you for asking us, Brian, and getting to be on a podcast pretty regularly is gonna lighten up my life a whole lot, especially when it's something I'm passionate about.

Bruce Da Silva (01:46)

Thank you for having us.

Bryan (01:56)

Awesome. Bruce, welcome.

Bruce Da Silva (01:56)

Yeah, it definitely

helps. Thank you very much. Wow. Justin, I don't know about what you think, but powerful introductions. my goodness. I don't know. How did you come up with this?

Justin Garfield (02:04)

It's like reading the boxing now. Wow.

Bryan (02:04)

I'm excited to have you guys.

Well,

obviously me and my AI friend work our magic here, but it's all in the delivery, I think sometimes.

Bruce Da Silva (02:13)

It's not

just the words though, it was the delivery and there's an essence with it. At least that's what I saw and felt, but I could be wrong.

Bryan (02:19)

Good. Well, that's what we're trying to really push

out the door with RealManiPlants is that authenticity that more men should come to the plant-based life like the rest of us. So, but I'd love to spend a few minutes and just introduce you guys more formally to the audience and let them get to know you a little bit. So I'm not sure if you guys want to flip a coin or who wants to go first here.

Bruce Da Silva (02:40)

I think the

birthday boy should get right, so...

Bryan (02:43)

Yeah, Justin,

you're having a birthday this week. Happy birthday. Hit us with your plant-based story and give us a little bit of behind the curtains if you can.

Justin Garfield (02:47)

Thank you guys.

Thank you guys. I'll start with where did my plant-based journey come from? The earliest memory I could think of when it comes to having compassion for animals. Obviously I had a dog when I was a kid named Pumpkin, but I remember when I was probably in preschool, I grew up in Houston, Texas, and there was this place that people would always go for birthday parties called Carol's Country Farm. I don't know if it still exists or not, but I remember

holding a bunny in my hand and just seeing how peaceful it was and just wanted to live and exist and survive and I just found myself kissing the bunny and cuddling it in my hands and people actually eat this cute thing? How could anybody do that? And then growing up a little bit, I remember first grade we read Charlotte's Web and that was enough to convince me not to eat pigs despite the fact that I'm also Jewish. Now there were

probably times growing up where I did sneak a little bacon in, but I just thought pigs were so adorable and I couldn't do it. And then eventually I got to the eighth grade and you guys remember the days of MySpace, right? When all those sketchy ads would appear on the side of social media back in 2008. So there was a time where I was browsing one night and there was a whole video ad on choose veg.

Bryan (04:07)

Yep.

Justin Garfield (04:16)

I believe it was back then. I could be butchering that. And I was curious. I clicked it. It turned out to be a 45-minute video of what happens inside a slaughterhouse. And that really opened my eyes. My jaw dropped and I was never the same. I was 13 years old and immediately after that I wanted to go vegetarian. So I did for a week. But I wasn't fully there yet. I was still under my parents' control and everything, living in Houston.

And I was able to do it to a certain degree, I would say. So about a weekend, I did give in for some chicken. And that's how I stuck all throughout the end of high school and everything. But then I got to college and I went for my first spring break, came out here to LA actually to visit my uncle who'd been vegan for a long time. And I was more open-minded to hearing about it and trying it during that week.

So I did. And honestly, I felt so clean and pure and awake, alive, getting out into nature, doing hikes, jumping in the ocean. And coupled with the fact that I knew I wasn't hurting any animals, which is the most important part to me, that's what really stood out to me the most. And I thought, well, this is how I feel now. Why would I go back? And so ever since then, that was 2013, I was 18 years old. I've been...

Full on plant-based, full on vegan.

Bryan (05:45)

That's awesome. Kudos to your uncle for setting you on that path and reinforcing it. Like, well done.

Bruce Da Silva (05:47)

⁓

Justin Garfield (05:51)

Yes, indeed.

Bruce Da Silva (05:51)

And also

that bunny you said, I used to have two bunnies growing up and yeah, it was a really great introduction to another just animals that aren't the typical cat or dog. So it kind of helps bridge that gap a bit. So that's amazing that you had that.

Justin Garfield (06:07)

Yeah, thank you.

Bryan (06:07)

So

bring us full circle. So that's your journey. 18 years now on that front. What are you up to today and how are you plowing into some of your influencer angles and coach angles and tell us what you do day to day.

Justin Garfield (06:21)

Yeah, day to day I do so much really. They call this the LA thing out here, but when you have multiple jobs, I like to think of it as multiple streams of income, but yeah, working on to see how some of them can be a bit more active enough. This can be more passive. I am the operations director for a Tanzanian safari company, which focuses big time on animal conservation and we never sell any licenses to trophy hunters, anything. We don't welcome those people on our tours.

Bruce Da Silva (06:30)

you

Justin Garfield (06:50)

We donate some of our proceeds back to animal conservation out in Africa. So it's very rewarding to know that the organization that you're representing over here in the States is very actively involved in that conservation effort. On top of that, I also do sound baths. I do sound healing for my community, as well as some kids with mental health problems all around Southern California with another company that I work for.

And I started that back in February or March, one of the two, and it's been very rewarding. On top of that, I also have a green coffee business, something I discovered back in 2021 when I was in Costa Rica. It's called No-Roe Coffee. And green coffee is coffee that has not been roasted, meaning that it retains a lot of the chlorogenic acid that gets roasted away in a typical cup of coffee. And because of that, there's a much higher concentration of antioxidant.

It's among many other things. So that's just a little side passion project that I have, but growing it actively while I do everything else. And I am a musician, as you can see there, and a certified coach. Bruce and I have talked a whole lot over the last year and a half of knowing each other and just become very close about coaching, philosophy, and life. So I'm very excited for Bruce to get to share his story with you. So Bruce, why don't you get started now? I've talked enough.

Bruce Da Silva (08:11)

Justin, Justin Sukai, I think we can hear you talk for longer, but yeah, I'll take it, no problem. All good. So I think we'll tackle the first part of just the vegan journey itself and just kind of how that played out. Just background, family's Brazilian and we grew up in New Jersey, Brazilian culture, heavy on animal consumption and things like this. I think when I first...

was at least exploring the idea of vegetarianism, which was, I didn't know what vegan was until I was much older. I think I was seven. I saw something and then I thought, oh my gosh, this is terrible. I don't want to be eating animals. I tried vegetarian for a week and I got super sick and I said, ah, I can never do it again. And I didn't for years and years. And then I get to college and about my last semester of senior year, I was introduced to veganism by a friend in a logic class of all places. And then they had showed me a video. So then I watched it.

the hell? So I said, I got to try being vegan. So, you know, I went vegan that entire semester, was great, loved it. But then I moved to Morocco for work with Peace Square, and I really did try to be vegan there. It was just really difficult, the places I was living, not to access the foods, but

when people would ask, oh, why aren't you eating the food? Why aren't you eating the chicken and meat? I didn't necessarily have the skill set, and maybe even the courage, honestly, to say, oh, I think it's wrong ethically, blah, blah, because I'm also a guest. And if I'm a guest in someone's home and in their culture, and this is a very different country, very different layout, and then I'm kind of already potentially insulting them, even though I'm just telling the truth, I don't know how well that would go for my job, my safety, and many other things. Although, you know, I could have probably navigated around that.

But then fast forward, that's 2018 to 2019. And then I was abroad for a little bit longer, then I came back to the States. And then I think it was November of 2020. I was just learning more about veganism and things like this. And I said, wow, you know what? I think I'm gonna go vegan when the new year starts, because there's really no good.

evidence or reasoning as to why I shouldn't. So then, I remember I sat down and watched a film called Okja, which is this film with, I mean you guys probably know it, but if people don't, great film, a South Korean director created it. I think his name is Bo Jung Kim or something, Bo Jung Hoon. And essentially it's this...

This Asian family, get this super pig and then the pig gets taken from them and then the girl has to get the pig, all that stuff. So I'm watching this and I remember I'm watching this and I'm eating a pasta and my brother comes over who I was living with and he knew I was looking to go vegan. He goes, Bruce, this pasta or the sauce has milk in it. I said, what? There's milk in pasta sauce? Okay, you know what? Fine. I'm only gonna eat this and then that's what I'm. But I'm watching the film and then as it gets towards the end, it basically just looked like, it was kind of like a slug.

house but it for me it just reminded me of things parallel to like Holocaust stuff it just really did and I just couldn't unsee it and then literally when the movie finished I

I stopped the food I was eating, went to the kitchen, and I just dumped everything out. And also all the food I had in the pot, which was basically enough for probably two more people, which is barely enough for me because I eat a lot, I just dumped it all out. And at that point, I just totally just said, OK, you know, it's over, it's done. Yeah, because there was just so many realizations, the films and the books I was reading, documentaries, conspiracy, all these other things. A book called Eternal Treblinka, which was a really tough read, but it just shows you, mean, it just

Bryan (11:14)

Yeah.

Bruce Da Silva (11:32)

If I want to be a logical thinker and someone who wants to do minimal amounts of harm How could I not be as vegan as possible or at least entertain that space? So that was the vegan journey and it's been what that's December 2020 December 21st to be exact so almost five years and it's great So it's it's not bad. Yeah, and it's funny cuz my aunt I remember sharing this with my aunt she goes Bruce, you know Come back to me when you're vegan five years from now

Bryan (11:52)

That's awesome. Congrats.

Bruce Da Silva (12:00)

I said, And then the first year went by, the second year. And then recently, I didn't even bring it up. And she goes, my gosh, guys, Bruce has been vegan now for almost five years. I think I may have to try it. Like, yeah, I told you, I'm not going anywhere. I'm not going anywhere. I'm here. So that was that. I'll transition into some of the stuff I'm doing now. So as Brian was introducing.

Bryan (12:09)

That's awesome.

I just, want

to just make one note. We'll make sure that the couple of books and the movie that you mentioned are in the show notes. So everybody check out the show notes down below for that. Make sure you get that to me, Bruce, but please keep going. That's an amazing story.

Bruce Da Silva (12:26)

Yeah, I definitely will.

Yeah,

no, I definitely will. There's so many books as well, yeah, Turtle, Triplinka, tough read, it's serious. That should basically make you go vegan, honestly. It's just, how could you not? So then, yeah, with work I'm doing now and everything like this, first, the introduction by Brian was great. I never really thought about it like that, but having the thinker, entrepreneur, and coach, it kind of is sort of what I'm encompassing, right? I go down the lens of being a coach and a philosopher, which basically philosopher, we're all philosophers, not just me, Brian.

and Justin, everyone here who's listening, because a philosopher translates to someone who's a lover of wisdom, and I have yet to meet someone who hates wisdom. I haven't met anybody. You hate wisdom? How could you hate wisdom? So we're all philosophers, right? I just like to learn and go pretty deep into it. And then from the coaching element, my main area of coaching is personal development.

Bryan (13:07)

That's right.

Bruce Da Silva (13:19)

But I like the most to work with men in their 20s, 30s, and 40s, just because that's what I resonate the most with. And for myself, it's how do we get these guys or even these ladies I work with to get transformations within really one to two months max? Because my philosophy is that it doesn't take years to make change. know, changes happen in a moment. And if you have a right support system, integration and structure, it can happen pretty quick. And then the last thing I'm doing there too is running a vegan men's group, which we'll probably talk about at some point as we do this.

Bryan (13:48)

Mm-hmm.

Bruce Da Silva (13:48)

called Vegan Men's Society. Brian and Justin are part of it. And the idea is to have a space for men who are vegan, because the joke I made, and I hope this is all right, the joke I made is, why, you're vegan. ⁓ what's wrong with you? And then, you're a man. What's wrong with you?

It's just kind of this double whammy. So I thought, okay, we don't have a space for vegan guys. Or maybe there's little pockets of communities of friends, but very few that are really geared towards, let's improve our health, our relationships, let's make more money, and let's learn about overall fulfillment while fully embracing just that sort of healthy masculine essence and wanting to improve. And what that looks like now, we're evolving and adding additions to it, but it looks like monthly potlucks, it looks like we're doing talks in the group, giving certain seminars every probably four to six months.

just growing. And the idea is that the stronger we are as vegan men, the more we can show up for the people in our lives and the animals around the world who so desperately need us.

Bryan (14:43)

I it. Well said, Bruce. I have thoroughly enjoyed joining that group and getting to hang out with you and discuss all sorts of amazing things. We'll make sure that link is also in the show notes for everybody that wants to sign up and learn more about the Vegan Men's Society. I appreciate both of you giving this like beautiful overview of those backstories and what you're up to now. The one question like popped in my head as each of you were telling your stories is I think the common struggle that I know I even went with. mean like

The stories are so similar. Like I created the real many plants blog way back when just to hold myself accountable to the fact that I'm doing this and I want the whole world to know it. And I want people to see the struggles and the ups and the downs of going on this journey. And I, like you, I think, you know, went down this path of like, I watched forks over knives and then

you know, went vegan the next day. And I'm just like, cool. I mean, iceberg lettuce and tomatoes and like no clue what the heck I'm doing on that front. So I'd be curious if each of you could maybe tell an anecdote or two of some of the silly things you did on your journey into learning about seitan and and nutritional yeast and all these different things that we have no clue about. I know my family certainly didn't talk about these things growing up. I didn't even.

Yeah, I don't even think I ate tofu growing up. So like all these things that that we had to learn and restructure our food sources and stuff like I just give a couple examples of that because I know there's going to be some men listening that are like, well, I miss the bacon and bacon is manly and all those things like that. But my my tempeh bacon is probably better than your regular bacon, in my opinion. So I don't know. Hit us with a couple stories and anecdotes on some transition foods and what you guys.

Eat day to day and some of the journeys you've had along that. Bruce, you want to go first?

Bruce Da Silva (16:31)

Yeah, I'll talk about one because I don't think I have as much in that subject, but I have a couple. One that just comes to mind briefly is there was a video of someone on, think, Good Morning Britain or something, and it was this expert sausage guy. And basically they were saying, he goes, I'm an expert sausage person. I know that I know the difference of real and fake. And then they give him the two options. He eats one, he eats the other, goes, this one, definitely the one that's real. It's delicious. And they go, that's the vegan one. He goes,

Bryan (16:56)

I

love it.

Bruce Da Silva (16:58)

just like, come on, what are we doing? Right? So that was a funny one. And I'm sure you could also do it the other way, technically. But I think the idea is that it's really the perception, I think, that follows through it. With regards to how to navigate certain things that we may be missing or we may be needing, I think for myself, just, I like to jump into things at times without.

necessarily doing my due diligence. So I'll just say, okay, I'm going to be vegan. Boom. If it has milk, I'm not going to do it. That's it. Animal's not going to do it. But I was also missing some other stuff, Some B12, my protein, just I didn't really have knowledge of that as well. Growing up, never had tofu. We had one friend, my sister, that was a vegetarian, my sister's friend who was a vegetarian and she would eat tofu and truly we kind of thought she was weird. It's just very honest.

Bryan (17:38)

That's right, yeah.

Bruce Da Silva (17:39)

she's

weird but she's like eccentric and then now she's kind of the only normal one right we're the weird ones or the people who aren't exploring the vegan stuff so i think just having that

perception around the tofu kind of change and evolve over the years. Doing research, just trying to find stuff and realizing that a lot of food, the quality of the food many times is just how you cook it and how you season it. That's kind of it. If people say I've had really bad tofu, I go great. Did you ever have a burger that wasn't good? Yeah. Okay, so same thing. I mean, come on, it's how you cook it, how you season it. And the best part about the plants is that no one needed to die for you to do that. Can we agree that that's probably... ⁓

Bryan (18:01)

Mm-hmm. That's right. That's right.

I always like to point out

that your meat always tastes better when you season it with some of our plants. So even down that path, you know what I mean? You have to point that out to them. It doesn't taste that good without our plants helping you along the journey. yeah.

Bruce Da Silva (18:22)

yeah, well that's good. That's smart.

It totally does. But yeah, that's

probably the extent to what I had. then just now lot of like ChatGBT truly just helped me and other forms of accessing knowledge, just knowing what are things I need to be implementing in my diet that aren't major shifts, that are pretty simple, things that we already like, but just being a little more aware makes us a more informed participant in our health and can lead to us being healthier, more sustainable vegans in the long run.

Bryan (18:41)

Mm-hmm.

Absolutely, absolutely. Well said. Well said. Justin.

Justin Garfield (19:01)

Well done, Bruce, I got to say. I don't know how I can really add on to that other than I love to cook. And it really all spawned because I vegan. When I was in college, when I first did it, it was toward the end of my freshman year, I still had the meal plan. And so I was at mercy to whatever they were cooking in the marketplace. Then I got my own apartment later that fall. And it was time for me to say, okay, I got to learn how to cook.

which when I was a kid, would always try and make fruit platters look pretty and everything and cut it all and arrange it all into a nice way. But then it came to the point where I just really needed to learn how this whole thing worked. And luckily around 2013, that's when the plant-based alternatives started getting a lot better. So I would go to back in my Florida days, I went to Publix for those of you who know, if you know, know.

Bryan (19:50)

Mm-hmm.

Justin Garfield (19:50)

and I would find

the Gardein chicken strips and I would make those one of the staples of my protein. That's in the Amy's burgers were one of my go-tos. What I loved about them was their soy was hexane free, which apparently in our food system in America is a bit of an issue. So it's always important to look at where your food is coming from is another thing that I learned and how it's processed and how natural, how pure, how organic is it?

So I was always paying attention to organic labels, how it was sprayed with glyphosate or if it wasn't. I would always try and go to farmers markets for my produce at least because I knew that it was local, sustainable, and you're supporting someone who this was their business. That always felt great to me. And then when it came to flavoring up tofu and everything, I learned that there's so many ways to make tofu, but I think one of the biggest things people miss with tofu is

the texturizing of it. So how many of you guys out there, you don't have to raise your hand or anything, but you bite into a piece of tofu, it's very soggy, very wet. Well, it does come in these packages filled with a bunch of water. Now there's ways around it, and you guys have probably seen this too, where you press your tofu. They do sell things on Amazon everywhere called a tofu press, which presses out all the liquid.

And you can do that for a couple hours and it'll really firm up and change the texture in a way. But the ultimate hack I found when trying to make something replicating to chicken or something like that would be taking the tofu and then drying it up and then freezing it. And then taking it out of the freezer, defrosting it, and then putting it back in the freezer and then defrosting it again. The twice frozen tofu hack I've learned from

plenty of people, I'll call out one of them, Sauce Dash, online, back when he was very much into his vegan meat replications, that I think it was him. He's the one who taught me a whole lot about how to cook with tofu, seitan, among many other things. So with that, I started trying that out, and it really does work. It gets a lot more tender and very chicken-like. But it's not all about that, it's about how do you then marinate it? How do you then flavor it up? And I'll call out somebody else here.

Bryan (22:02)

Mm-hmm.

Justin Garfield (22:09)

If you guys have ever heard of a vegan coach, Ted Carr, he is now a fruitarian. But one of the things that he said a long time ago and still rang true with me is everything doesn't have much taste until you add salt. Think about it. How much can salt really affect the flavor of something? And it's true. was, or sugar, there you go. I was eating things without salt and

Bryan (22:29)

Or sugar. I'd say salt or sugar. Those are the two, right? Yeah. ⁓

Justin Garfield (22:36)

I mean, this is kind of basic, but then you put a little bit of salt on and unleashes the flavor to a whole new level. And so I thought too, yeah, that's very true. But then we also have to take into account how much sodium are we consuming? And as a guy who had a kidney stone about a year ago, it's something that I've now had to watch a bit closer is how much sodium, how much salt actually needs to be in this recipe. Because when you add a bunch of ingredients that already are very salty,

to add more salt on top of that. You can do that, but be mindful of how much, because you really don't need that much salt. Maybe just a little pinch can really bring out the flavor. And Brian, to your point of sugar, something else I learned is if you are baking a sweet recipe, say you're baking cookies or a cake, you notice you're always putting a little bit of salt in there. And do you know why that is? It's because the salt unleashes further sweetness. You don't need that much, but you just add a little bit.

Bryan (23:25)

That's right. I do not.

Mmm.

Justin Garfield (23:33)

and it bursts out all the sugary flavor to it.

Bryan (23:36)

Yep, makes sense. makes sense. Yeah, thanks for hitting that. I've tried the frozen tofu and I have to highly recommend it. I think I've not tried it twice like that, but it definitely textures it up. I find, honestly, I've been doing this so long now that I find I don't.

I don't like that stringier meatier texture anymore. when you go, like I go to Chipotle all the time and get my vegan burrito and stuff, you know, that little piece of chicken sneaks in somehow or something and you hit that and you're like, ⁓ what is this? ⁓ so I don't know. I'm not a fan of that, but I do think like the vital wheat gluten and some of those things do make some really amazing textures. If you're trying to find these transition, meat products, kind of a thing, but I like to joke around with my family and say,

Bruce Da Silva (24:07)

Yeah.

Bryan (24:22)

I don't like my plants pretending to be meat anymore. You know what I mean? So, but, but anyway, that's just me, but I really appreciate you guys ⁓ dumping a few tips and tricks on us. I'd like to go back to Bruce for a second if I get, cause there's one other thing you sort of said during your intro that I'd like to unpack a little further if we can be a little philosophical together and talk about it because AI is coming for all of us as fast as it possibly can. I highly recommend like,

Just pay the 20 bucks a month for whichever AI you love and take pictures of your food and log your exercise and take pictures of your dumps, anything like that, and throw it into GPT and ask these questions. And you will optimize your health just by having a GPT or an AI looking over your shoulder and helping you. Like Justin said, monitoring the sodium, monitoring the calories, all that kind of thing. I think the protein thing is a giant myth. So don't worry about counting protein. You'll get plenty no matter what you eat.

just eat the rainbow. But I want to bring it back to what you said, Bruce, around wisdom, because I think there's, there's a major difference between wisdom and intelligence and wisdom versus other things. So maybe could you give us your definition of wisdom? And then let's just talk about the other kinds of synonyms in that space and unlock it for people.

Bruce Da Silva (25:41)

Yeah, I think

there's many different angles to go about it. think three components that we could actually assess it's let's say knowledge or rather knowledge, I mean really for knowledge, information, intelligence and wisdom, right?

So I think we could probably instinctually just kind of differentiate between those. But I think the idea now just with AI and internet and all these things to tie it in is more so that we're drowning in information and we're starving for wisdom. And I think that's a nice little catchphrase to just realize that, you know, we have the entire library of Alexandria in our pocket. We have PhD level thinkers in our pocket. have everything.

Bryan (26:07)

Yes.

Bruce Da Silva (26:16)

but people are still clueless and we're so unwise, if that's even a word. Maybe that's not the wisest say, or most intelligent. But the point being is, how do we find a way to differentiate between knowledge and intelligence, right? And these things, it's discernment. I think wisdom really is discernment. It's you have an idea of what can be done, and then maybe what you should do, right? There's kind of that gap. So let's say if you have, there's people who even built, like let's just say the atomic bomb, for example, right? The idea, the question they never asked is, yeah, they knew they could,

Bryan (26:20)

Mm-hmm.

Bruce Da Silva (26:45)

⁓

but they never asked if they should. So there two different things, right? The capacity to do something versus the actual action of taking it, I think is quite different. And when it's with AI, you I had this discussion yesterday at a dinner of if it's gonna be helpful, if it's not gonna be helpful, people are experts and even experts have differing opinions. I think the idea though is how I look at wisdom is, know, true wisdom for me begins with really understanding yourself and understanding what your actual desires and what you respond to are.

Bryan (26:48)

Mm-hmm.

Bruce Da Silva (27:13)

Because a lot of times people end up 30, 40, 50, 60, 80 years old, whatever it is. And, you know, it's, it's a, think it's a quote by Benjamin Franklin or somebody, or maybe MLK, but said, most people are buried when they're 80, but die when they're 30. And it's because we just miss so much of the wisdom and stuff that we need. I don't think wisdom is the answer for everything, because we can't always live there, but how often have you made a poor decision out of,

Bryan (27:31)

Mmm.

Bruce Da Silva (27:41)

out of hubris, out of arrogance, out of fear, out of pain. These decisions are usually never good. But a wiser decision is, let me think about not the first consequence for the second, third, fourth. Let me see what's gonna happen in the long term. And is what I'm doing really gonna get me to where I wanna go? That's how I see wisdom.

Bryan (27:59)

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Bruce Da Silva (28:00)

I

love that. That's how see wisdom. That's why I'm reading these books and learning these quotes and these ideas, because just these overall ideas can help us map out our reality so much. And I'll finish it with a quote here that I heard the other day and truly just mind-bending my mind. It said, I was at a wellness sort of concert kind of in Venice or in Delray a couple of weekends ago. And one of the quotes that they had in one of the pamphlets was,

It was by Nietzsche and it said, receive a pollute, one must be a sea to receive a polluted stream without becoming impure.

Bryan (28:33)

Mmm.

Bruce Da Silva (28:34)

For me, that's one of the most mind blowing quotes I've ever heard. Because if you have a little cup of water and you put a little bit of juice, it changes the entire taste. But if you have a big bucket, you put that same amount of juice, maybe even more, and you drink it, you're not going to taste the juice. So that's how think we are with wisdom as well, becoming that sea, so that whatever tries to pollute our thinking or hijacks our brain or tries to live in fear or whatever it might be, if our sea is large enough, that comes in and yeah, it may affect certain pockets,

Bryan (28:48)

Mm-hmm.

Bruce Da Silva (29:03)

We have a majority of it being really that water that's pure enough where we can overcome the toxicity of that. And I think the opposite of wisdom is probably just arrogance. I think as long we're arrogant, can we sustainably succeed? It's tough.

Bryan (29:13)

Mmm.

Justin Garfield (29:17)

So true.

Bryan (29:19)

Yeah,

very well said. Justin, do you have some thoughts on that?

Justin Garfield (29:23)

You know, there's a quote that's been running around my head in the last week or so that it's really been so relevant and that's a quote by a great man, Oscar Wilde. To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist. That is all. And now there's different iterations of this quote going around the internet. And the one that I found the most resonant with me is too many people in the world just exist. Not enough people are out there living.

But how does this go back to the wisdom versus intelligence debate? Well, I would argue, like Bruce said about the atomic bomb, yeah, they know they could do it, but should they do it was the question. Intelligence is how do you show up to your job every day? What does your job need you to do? Why do they need you? Because you have that intelligence. And then you go home to your friends, your family, and why do they need you? Yeah, maybe a little bit for your intelligence, but your wisdom.

Why say if you have kids, if you have grandkids, why do they need you? It's because you've lived so much longer and you've gained so much more wisdom. And that wisdom even could be just one or two lines, could live with you for the rest of your life and dictate the way you live every day. And I was just telling Brian before we started, I went to go see Superman last night and I'm not gonna spoil it too much, but there's a message that his parents left with him before his planet

collapsed and the only part of it that he heard was the first part where they basically told him to do a lot of good and The second part that gets revealed later in the movie says something a little bit different but all he ever knew growing up was the first part of it and that's the way he decided to live was doing good and Then when the second part comes out people start to view him in a different way but they don't know that he never heard the second part because of the glitch in the

translation that came when I got transferred to earth. And so it's about what messages do you hear at an early age that can spawn a life of greatness or a life of infamy, a life of pity, whatever it is, it really is about your background and what you grew up believing, the core things that we learn as kids. And it goes back to all that.

Bryan (31:20)

Mmm. Mmm.

Justin Garfield (31:42)

How were you raised? What environment were you raised around? Some people grew up in entertainment and they could be dealing with a lot of childhood trauma of all the things that happened there. And they may not react to certain things very well. Or people could have grown up in a very loving household and they got nurtured all the way up. I was very lucky to say I was one of those. But then when it comes to being street smart, if you were a very family oriented person, you may not.

be out in the streets and be very savvy when it comes to making business deals, when it comes to knowing the right way to talk to people. That's just stuff you have to learn through experience throughout later in life. So wisdom versus intelligence. You could be raised on so much wisdom and live your life that way and that's great. You could be a bookworm and just gain all the intelligence that you can. But overall, I think these things really go hand in hand in saying,

Bryan (32:22)

That's right.

Justin Garfield (32:38)

You can't have one without the other because everything is in coexistence. Let's live our lives with a little bit of both.

Bryan (32:43)

Yeah.

Bruce Da Silva (32:45)

I want to add to that is just how many people do we know that are I mean myself included at times that are super smart but can't their way out of a paperback right and I've heard this question and I thought I'm gonna hurt it and I was gonna steal it because it's so good so true dude you're so smart but and adding on the intelligence thing intelligence a lot of the times is

Bryan (32:45)

Yeah.

That's right.

Bruce Da Silva (33:04)

really the ability to solve problems and also for me now it's evolved as well as Justin was kind of alluding to as to getting what you want out of life. Because if you did not get, if you are not getting and you end up not getting anything you want out of life, there was a gap. So that could be wisdom, that could be intelligence. But I think the idea is that, you know, we're social creatures and we're feeling creatures, but we're also thinking creatures to really deep extent. And you know, while thinking can be our greatest superpower, it can also be our greatest fall.

So we gotta just find a way to find a balance and live in the medium as much as we can because too much confidence is arrogance and a lack of confidence is more so cowardice and not taking that initiative.

Bryan (33:45)

I love it. Well said. Well said. I would say, yeah, gosh, you guys really unpacked it for me in a big way. The two things that popped in my head as you were both describing it was, if I look back, like I have got three kids now. And at this point, when you, when you go for a walk with the kids and they point out little things that you and I are just oblivious to, cause we're older.

Justin Garfield (33:47)

us.

Bryan (34:10)

You know what I mean? Like to me, that's almost a certain aspect of wisdom that they're pointing out the ants or the birds or the moon or that what's that buzzing sound dad, you know what I mean? That we all take for granted, you know I mean? And you almost get to dispense that wisdom to them. You know what I mean? Like that's what it is and this is why and all that kind of stuff. And then the second anecdote that pops in my head is really.

the elderly, mean, all the older people that we know we've gotten to spend time with. And, know, you can see all the quotes and the interviews all over the internet. You ask them, like, if you could go back and do some stuff over again, what would you do different? And I think the resounding answer is, take a few more risks, put yourself out there, like really truly live, you know, like that's what they want. And that's why I'm just so grateful you both have joined me on this podcast because,

This is us living right now. This is us trying to push forward the movement that we're trying to help save the planet with and people's lives and health and all that kind of stuff. And so I just really appreciate you guys taking this time out on a weekend to hang out with me and really push this story forward and help hopefully change a few more guys' lives on that front. ⁓

Bruce Da Silva (35:23)

Yeah,

absolutely. And it reminds me of a quote by Columbus, something along the lines of, you can never venture out to the sea unless you're willing to leave the shore. I mean, whatever it is, it's all scales. A podcast may be risk-taking or courage-taking for somebody in all different scales, but whatever it is relative to the person, the individual, just ask yourself,

Bryan (35:33)

That's right, that's right, that's right. ⁓

Bruce Da Silva (35:45)

And I think, especially as men, I think we all kind of know if we're really being honest with ourselves, if we wake up in the morning and we're thinking, if we're really being honest, we're probably thinking, okay, I'm probably a coward in this area. Yeah, I've probably avoided doing this. And the coward dies a thousand deaths and the brave person just won. So how many times do want to die? We're all going to go. I mean, with AI, who knows, right? I don't know. we're all going to go. So let's make it count.

Bryan (36:04)

That's right. That's That's right.

Justin Garfield (36:10)

Yeah, last thing on this, I just want to bring up a quick story that Brian, something you said just really struck a chord in me and I wanted to bring this up. So probably my favorite singer songwriter of all time, man by the name of Rob Thomas who heads up the band Matchbox 20. There was a movie back in 2007 called Meet the Robinsons by Disney that he was tasked to write the theme song for. And he wrote one of my favorite songs of all time. It always makes me feel inspired, Little Wonders. Go listen to it if you haven't heard it.

If you're feeling a little sentimental, it's the perfect soundtrack for that. But either way, I remember seeing an interview of how he came up with the song and it was the middle of the night. Rob, if you're watching this, if I'm misquoting anything, please feel free to give us some clout because I love that. So from what I remember in the interview, he was, it was the middle of the night and he had to take his dog out to pee and it's raining really hard. So he's got his umbrella and

Bryan (36:46)

Absolutely.

Justin Garfield (37:07)

He's out there, the dog's not going, and he's just frustrated. Come on, I want to go to bed, pee. And then the dog just starts smiling and then looking up and really just enjoying the moments of the rain and that was just hitting the ground little by little. And that moment really spoke to him. And he wrote, our lives are made in these little wonders, these small hours, these little wonders, these twists and turns of fate. And it really goes back to

How much in the moment are we really living? There are times where we feel so inconvenienced by things like our dog not going to pee and we just need to get back and do something. But in that moment, he took the moment to breathe and just really soak in how special that moment was with his dog. Getting to be in the rain with this dog and feel the rain on your skin, as Natasha Benningfield would say, no one else can feel it for you.

Bruce Da Silva (37:59)

It's a great song. I actually really low-key like that song. So good.

Bryan (38:00)

I love it.

I love it. Well, I know we're getting close to the end of this episode. I've got a couple of plant based news stories we could talk about, or I'd also love to maybe hear an anecdote about like one of the heroes in each of your lives that sort of helped impact your journey. So which way you want to go? A couple of news articles or?

Bruce Da Silva (38:10)

Good.

I like the hero stuff, I think that's cool. But you mean specifically with veganism or in general?

Bryan (38:26)

I just like, I mean, I'll go first and just throw out the example, right? So it's like my grandfather had a huge impact on my life growing up. Like he was already retired by the time I got to really know him and Sam was his name and he volunteered almost night and day when in his retirement, whether it was with the church or with the library or with the social clubs or whatever, but he was just out there.

as a pillar and an example to the community of like, I'm not doing this for money anymore. I'm trying to help change my local community for the good by trying to donate stuff at the book sale and organize the book sale and all these different things that he did with the lions club and bringing communion to the people at the elderly homes and stuff like that. Just example after example. you know, my parents would let me hang out with him on the weekends and stuff. And we would just be going from one thing to the next.

And it's just such an inspiration for me to try and say that's what I think all of us on this planet are really trying to do, help each other out and have that good life like we're talking about. Like obviously some of them are arrogant and chasing the money and stuff like that. But I think a good majority of us are out there just trying to live a good life and help others. And I know that's one of the reasons that I want to be pushing out with the RealMoneyPlants stuff and just trying to help inspire others to do that.

and showcase this, but you know he just had this huge impact on my life and set such a strong example. And I think he probably would have been vegan, you he ate a lot of plant-based soups, know that lentil soup was his favorite on that front, but you I just don't think it was part of the culture back then.

you know, as strong as it is today, right? You know, I went to someplace for dinner and they had a plant-based cheese board for me. I was just like so impressed that like they even had that on the menu and he could never get that in the restaurants when he was growing up. But anyway, so it doesn't have to be a vegan hero on that front, but I'm just curious who's inspired you along your journey. You've given a few hints of it if you want to expand on it.

Bruce Da Silva (40:30)

Yeah,

just on the thing that you were sharing there about like this situation, it's also this idea called presentism, right? Presentism, where we're basically...

Bryan (40:38)

Mm-hmm.

Bruce Da Silva (40:40)

putting judgment on people way in the past on the values of the present and say, my gosh, how could you not do it? It says, dude, the options were different. The knowledge was different. So just based on character, yeah, I mean, we're hoping that he would be vegan, but we can't really blame someone who didn't have knowledge or access necessarily to that kind of whole field. So I just want to make a note on that because I always see it come, and I don't think, especially sometimes as vegans, I think in general, there's a lot of judgment, which is fair, but just how do we make that constructive in a sense? And not that you were judged,

Bryan (41:01)

Yeah.

Justin Garfield (41:02)

Mm-hmm.

Bryan (41:07)

Mm-hmm.

Bruce Da Silva (41:10)

just kind of add little bit to it. ⁓

Bryan (41:11)

Yeah, yeah, Yeah, I mean, it's the challenge

we all face, right? That word alone connotates different feelings for different people and we have to try and help change the narrative on what that word even means. So yeah, I agree. Well said, Bruce. Did you guys wanna unpack one of your heroes, Bruce?

Bruce Da Silva (41:26)

I Yeah,

sure. I'll tackle it. think there's, I mean, really many that come up. There's also, it's funny because growing up, I played a lot of video games and.

was watching TV shows. So there's actually a lot of heroes on that because they just play the archetype and the role, whether it's like a Kingdom Hearts or Dragon Ball Z or things like this or some of these video games. But I think probably more sustainable throughout the course of my life long term, I would probably be, and I'll mention two because they played different roles at different times was mainly, first one was likely Kobe Bryant when I was a teenager getting into, basically when I was 11 or 12. And then also Tony Ross.

Bryan (41:44)

Yeah.

Bruce Da Silva (42:09)

Robbins,

just these two for me. Yeah, they just have, they played really the role of being someone that's larger than life, that was exceptional, that went through challenges and, you know, through their challenges, they became better and not bitter, gained wisdom, gained clarity. mean, Kobe just inspired me to be much more athletic, much more ruthless, in a competitive sense on the basketball court and things like that. But also just to work hard and to bounce back.

He was pretty wise as well. then Tony is for me just a legend because he's so smart. He's able to inspire so many people. And for me, the stuff that he does so well is, you know, it's very easy to alienate a certain group or to be very polarizing and divisive. And he doesn't take that route. And he still has such a substantial impact on improving the quality of people's lives, whether they're vegan or not or whatever it might be.

The only issue I have with both of them is that they're not vegan or Kobe wasn't, I don't believe. And Tony was, but now I don't think he is, which I'm pretty disappointed about. But aside from that, he's really inspired me to just become a coach myself, go through his coaching school and learning his styles and processes, and to just really understand that even though he made a lot of mistakes in his life,

that you can still kind of come back from it and that the story is only over when you give up, when you quit.

Bryan (43:29)

That's right. Well said. Well said. Justin, you got something that can outdo that one.

Justin Garfield (43:32)

Love it.

Bruce Da Silva (43:34)

So let's go, let's patch it, let's patch it.

Justin Garfield (43:34)

I don't know if I can outdo it. I'm going to take

a little different approach here and to the vegans watching this may be a little controversial, but I hope it doesn't because I really coming straight from the heart of my childhood. And that guy for me was Steve Irwin. And I say that because I grew up watching his show and it always got me so inspired to be kind to the animals. I know he was out there feeding crocodiles, chickens and birds and beef and whatever else.

Bruce Da Silva (43:37)

It's a complimented, yeah.

Bryan (43:49)

Mm-hmm.

Justin Garfield (44:02)

But what he really did was he loved the environment, he loved the animals. He just had such a heart for nature that so many big businesses don't. They just see it all as a commodity. In fact, there's a whole great documentary of after he unfortunately passed away in 2006 that his widow, Terry, had to go up against, I believe it was the Australian government because they were expecting some other government to come in and then

drove into all these lands for aluminum foil. And I believe they went tooth and nail back and forth. I'm probably paraphrasing this a whole lot. Please check out the documentary and look this up. But eventually, Terry won. The whole thing was Steve really wanted to buy a bunch of land and just leave it as conservation and leave it as the forest and everything. And that would have been against his wishes. And on, I believe it was the land that he did buy.

Overall, he would be out rehabilitating crocodiles, wrestling them for not the reasons of entertainment really, but it was just out of love to bring them into different places. He'd be out educating people on different animals. He'd be diving in the ocean, which unfortunately led to his death, but at the sacrifice of showing people what's really out there and bringing his message of nature out to the universe. And for me, I grew up loving whales and dolphins.

And I'll go... You'll always find me advocating to free the orcas from Sea World, free the dolphins from Disney and all these different things. Now, I didn't always view the world that way because, of course, everyone comes to their moment of, is wrong. And mine came around when I was 17 or 18. But in this sense, I just believe that every animal deserves a chance at some freedom.

wildlife. And Steve was that from me.

Bryan (46:00)

I love it. Very well said. I mean, we all know the animals in the wild. They got to eat what they're going to eat on that front. I think Steve was just helping that that piece of it. But I agree with you. He was he was a an amazing spokesperson for the animals on a lot of fronts. So thanks for sharing that, Justin. We are pretty much at the end of this first episode, and I would just say, you know, welcome to the stage formally, Bruce and Justin. You each have some

Amazing guests lining up over the next couple weeks that we're gonna record and get some episodes out So our intent is for each of us to get together like this the three of us and chit chat Maybe every couple months and just catch up with each other But also each of us are gonna be out there finding some amazing guests to bring in on philosophy music Influencing all sorts of different angles. So be on the lookout for more episodes soon from the real men eat plants podcast I'd say Bruce and

Justin, tell the audience how they can get in touch with you and how, obviously you can go to our website, realmanyplants.com if you'd like to be a guest on this podcast. But if you'd like to reach out to Bruce or Justin and follow them individually, how do they get in touch? Bruce?

Bruce Da Silva (47:13)

Yeah, the best way to do it either obviously through Instagram, everyone uses this ⁓ at Bruce vruce underscore the Silva da silva or you could send me an email at coach Bruce to Silva at gmail.com. Still working on some other forms of

structures with some of my stuff so that's probably the best way to contact me for the probably next couple months so reach out there and let's get to work I mean I think the idea is that people are hungry just you got to ask yourself are you living the life you want to live if not how long are you gonna wait right and I ask people they say maybe I'll do it at some point and then I would ask my okay what would now be a good time to do it and we're waiting till Sunday but the road to someday leads to a town called nowhere

Bryan (47:51)

That's right.

That's right.

Bruce Da Silva (47:56)

You've been doing what you've been

doing and you're in this spot. So what makes you think these are gonna change? Reach out to me, message me, let's figure it out, let's get you to where you wanna go ASAP. Because time is money and why waste time, why waste money?

Bryan (48:09)

I love it. Well said, Bruce. Justin, how do people get in touch with you?

Justin Garfield (48:13)

The same way, Instagram at Justin Garfield, my name. You could also reach out on LinkedIn. It's just my name as well. I would say those two right now are the best ways to reach me directly. I'm very good at responding and just go ahead and reach out if you have any questions about being vegan or you want any coaching as far as public speaking and ADHD go or if you just want to talk, I'm here.

Bryan (48:38)

I love it.

Thank you both and you guys are both amazingly available and stuff. So please reach out. We are not shy and we want to help you on whatever your journey is as part of our little group of men here on that front. So that is it for today's episode of the Real Men Eat Plants podcast. And I just want to say this is where the strength comes from compassion and the best fuel comes, in my opinion, straight from the earth. So every plant based choice that you can make is a victory.

for your health, it's for the animals and the planet. So remember, real power isn't about how much you can take, it's about how much good you can really give. So keep eating leading with kindness and wisdom as we talked about today, fueling your body with the right stuff and inspiring some others to do the same. Until next time everybody, stay strong, stay plant powered and keep it real. Thanks for being here.