London Real

I still remember the day in August 2012 when Futurist Jacque Fresco and his partner Roxanne Meadows of the Venus Project came to our studios for London Real episode #47.  After accepting my offer to pick them up I headed off to Waterloo station with camera crew in tow to record the arrival of one of our century's great thinkers.

Geoff Thompson is a former bouncer, self-defence instructor, BAFTA winning writer, playwright, author and teacher.  His first appearance on London Real causes people stop me on the street weekly to talk about the effect he has had on their lives.

Dan Peña is by far one of the most eccentric American businessmen I have ever met, and I've seen my fair share over the years.

Rou Reynolds is the lead singer of Enter Shikari, a British post-hardcore band known for their mix of music genres and bold political messages.  I hooked up with him the day he was giving the closing talk at Z-Day, the Zeitgeist Movement's global celebration of unity, activism, and education.

Biologist & Writer Rupert Sheldrake explains how each species of animal has a collective memory, his definition of the Science Delusion, how living in India helped develop his theories, why he particularly enjoys 3-way conversations, and how he's never met anyone as lively and fun to be with as Terence McKenna.

Jacob "Stitch" Duran is the most famous UFC and Boxing Cutman in the business.  Since 2002 he has been wrapping hands and closing cuts in the UFC Octagon and I personally can't remember an event without him.  In boxing the Klitschko Brothers always fly him to Europe to work their corners and Sylvester Stallone puts him in movies.  He's more likely to be recognised on the street than most fighters.

Every now and then I find myself in the middle of an interview on London Real and I think to myself, "Is this really happening?  Is this guy really sitting here in our studio?" That happened with Christo Brand, the man who at 18 years of age was charged with guarding "the biggest criminal terrorist in the history of South Africa" on Robben Island Prison.  That man was Nelson Mandela.

Jesselyn Radack  & Thomas Drake are a force to be reckoned with.  She is the legal adviser to former NSA contractor Edward Snowden and the Director of National Security & Human Rights at the Government Accountability Project.  He is a former senior executive of the United States National Security Agency (NSA) and a whistleblower.  In 2006, Thomas leaked information about the NSA's data-gathering Trailblazer Project and was prosecuted under the Espionage Act, but in 2010, but the case collapsed.

Stand Up Comedian Tom Rhodes has been there, done that, and sold the T-shirt.  He was the very first Spokesperson for Comedy Central when it debuted back in the 1990s and has been doing his podcast "Tom Rhodes Radio" way before the mainstream got into that broadcasting medium (check out his episode with Kim Dotcom from a year ago, classic!).

Neil deGrasse Tyson is...well, a dude!  Dressed in cowboy boots and an embroidered shirt he represents the essence of ultracool nerdiness.

I have been following the rise and rise of Mike Dolce for years.  Since first seeing him as a contestant on the UFC reality show "The Ultimate Fighter" to his subsequent rebirth as MMA's premiere diet and fitness expert, I have always admired his dedication, attitude, and work ethic.

Brad Burton is 100% Real.  Years ago two bullet holes through his window encouraged him to change his life completely and he set up 4Networking, the UK’s largest joined-up business network.

Mr. Alex Kjerulf is the Chief Happiness Officer and Founder of Woohoo inc.  He speaks and consults worldwide for businesses like IBM, Microsoft, Hilton, LEGO, IKEA, and HP.

Vinay Gupta is a Global Resilience Guru, the inventor of the Hexayurt (the potential solution to the housing crisis), an expert on the macro impact of Bitcoin, a historian and political scholar, and much, much more.

From the first meeting I could tell that Suli was unique:  an intelligent man with a message and the humility to make me listen.  In my business, I meet plenty of the former and very few of the latter.

Richard Villar is, quite simply, a Badass.  A former SAS Surgeon with his own hip & knee surgery centre, Richard uses his spare time to volunteer as a Disaster Medic and has assisted after three major earthquakes (Kashmir, Java, and Haiti), the Libyan Civil War, and most recently in the Philippines after Typhoon Haiyan.

Arjen Kamphuis arrives at London Real studios bespectacled, dressed in black, sporting long-flowing Metallica hair and a Dutch accent.  He reminds me of a friend of mine from 7th Grade in San Diego who played Dungeons and Dragons by day, coded Fortran by night, and played chess blindfolded for kicks.  I'm pretty certain this will be a fun show.

Mr. Rick Falkvinge is a Swedish IT Entrepreneur and Founder of the very first Pirate Party in Sweden in 2005.  He is a worldwide speaker on Internet liberty and the right to privacy, a proponent of Bitcoin and the author of "Swarmwise: The Tactical Manual to Changing the World."

Professional Bodybuilder and 6 time Mr. Olympia winner Dorian Yates sat down with London Real in January 2013 to discuss how his "High Intensity Training" techniques changed the sport, the specifics of his steroid use and its effects, how he psychologically reinvented himself after his abrupt retirement in 1997, and his thoughts on conspiracy theories, psychedelics, and cannabis.

Chris Kistan is an Autism Educator at Baston House School which provides a centre of excellence in education and development for children aged between 5 and 16 years who have been diagnosed with an Autistic Spectrum Condition (ASC).