"I have come to believe that, whoever we believe we are, our concepts about ourself, the assumptions that we make about ourselves and our life, create our lives. Anything's possible. It depends what do you believe. Perceive yourself beyond limitations"

Aaron Lazar

This episode is brought to you by Caldera Lab, Timeline Nutrition, and LMNT.

What if living beyond your limitations was more than just a mindset—it was your reality? Join me for an emotional conversation with Aaron Lazar, the accomplished actor and Broadway singer who is defying the odds in his battle with ALS. Aaron’s story is not just about resilience; it's about a profound transformation from fear and unhappiness to empowerment and self-healing. Discover how shifting self-perceptions and embracing a life beyond limitations can lead to a mindset of being healed, whole, strong, and powerful.

Aaron reflects deeply on the philosophy of living life "ever forward," a mantra inspired by my late father that has guided his journey of rediscovering his true self despite a terminal diagnosis. Drawing inspiration from characters he as portrayed on stage and on camera, Aaron speaks about the power of unwavering idealism and how a vision for the future can outweigh the pull of the past. He has channeled this newfound purpose into becoming a keynote speaker, advocating fiercely for a life that defies perceived limitations.

Throughout this episode, we touch on the highs and lows of Aaron’s distinguished career and his personal commitment to mental, emotional, and spiritual evolution. We discuss overcoming fear, the transformative power of positivity, and the significance of personal connections. Aaron’s narrative isn't just about facing a disease; it's about living life to the fullest, regardless of the obstacles. Tune in for a powerful exploration of self-awareness, holistic healing, and the awe-inspiring journey of turning life’s most daunting challenges into opportunities for growth and connection.

Follow Aaron @aaronscottlazar

Follow Chase @chase_chewning

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In this episode we discuss...

(05:41) Aaron's ALS Story

(17:11) Aaron's Powerful Conscious Awakening

(26:59) Finding Peace in the Midst of a Terminal Illness

(34:24) Navigating Life's Uncertainties

(39:31) Neuroscience and ALS Research

(42:59) Heart Opening and Energy Connection

(47:47) Cultivating Daily Self-Love and Gratitude Practices

(52:18) Power of Personal Storytelling

(01:15:07) Aaron's Career Future

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Episode resources:

EFR 809: The Impossible Dream - The Mindset and Daily Habits to Beat the Terminal Illness ALS with Aaron Lazar

This episode is brought to you by Caldera Lab, Timeline Nutrition, and LMNT.

What if living beyond your limitations was more than just a mindset—it was your reality? Join me for an emotional conversation with Aaron Lazar, the accomplished actor and Broadway singer who is defying the odds in his battle with ALS. Aaron’s story is not just about resilience; it's about a profound transformation from fear and unhappiness to empowerment and self-healing. Discover how shifting self-perceptions and embracing a life beyond limitations can lead to a mindset of being healed, whole, strong, and powerful.

Aaron reflects deeply on the philosophy of living life "ever forward," a mantra inspired by my late father that has guided his journey of rediscovering his true self despite a terminal diagnosis. Drawing inspiration from characters he as portrayed on stage and on camera, Aaron speaks about the power of unwavering idealism and how a vision for the future can outweigh the pull of the past. He has channeled this newfound purpose into becoming a keynote speaker, advocating fiercely for a life that defies perceived limitations.

Throughout this episode, we touch on the highs and lows of Aaron’s distinguished career and his personal commitment to mental, emotional, and spiritual evolution. We discuss overcoming fear, the transformative power of positivity, and the significance of personal connections. Aaron’s narrative isn't just about facing a disease; it's about living life to the fullest, regardless of the obstacles. Tune in for a powerful exploration of self-awareness, holistic healing, and the awe-inspiring journey of turning life’s most daunting challenges into opportunities for growth and connection.

Follow Aaron @aaronscottlazar

Follow Chase @chase_chewning

-----

In this episode we discuss...

(05:41) Aaron's ALS Story

(17:11) Aaron's Powerful Conscious Awakening

(26:59) Finding Peace in the Midst of a Terminal Illness

(34:24) Navigating Life's Uncertainties

(39:31) Neuroscience and ALS Research

(42:59) Heart Opening and Energy Connection

(47:47) Cultivating Daily Self-Love and Gratitude Practices

(52:18) Power of Personal Storytelling

(01:15:07) Aaron's Career Future

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Episode resources:

Transcript

00:00 - Chase (Host) The following is an Operation Podcast production.

00:03 - Aaron (Guest) Two years ago it was like well then, I have to change. So what do I change? And I just started to ask those questions how did I get ALS? What does that mean? And it's taken me on this quest. Anything's possible. It depends what do you believe. Change your conceptions of yourself and your life, you know, perceive yourself beyond limitations. An amazing career as an actor, my face on buses and billboards in Times Square and whatever. And on the inside, just I was an unhappy person. I was very unhappy for a very long time. That first moment of no more fear, no more Like. I refuse to spend whatever moments of my life that I have left any of them in fear, if possible. And as soon as I did that, I became aware of myself. I am healed, I'm whole, I'm strong, I'm powerful. It's done. Hey guys, I'm Aaron Lazar, I'm an actor, I'm a singer, I'm a keynote speaker and an advocate, and you're on Ever Forward Radio.

01:01 - Chase (Host) Skincare perfected, compliments guaranteed. Guys, listen up. There is no shame in having a skincare game. I have been rotating in products from Caldera lab for pushing the last five years and one. They work too.

01:16 I know that they're trusted, effective, backed by science and nature. I'm not saying you need to jump in and do all the things, like, maybe, your wife or your partner, but having any kind of skincare routine is going to help you put your best face forward, not to mention nourishing, hydrating, protecting your body's largest organ, your skin. If nothing else, please make sure you're washing your face using the Clean Slate. The Clean Slate's unique pH balance formula uses breakthrough, gentle, plant-based ingredients instead of harsh surfactants and will refresh your skin without drying it out like a lot of other conventional face washes out there. You got to use it daily, morning and night. This removes any oil and buildup from your day and is necessary to prevent clogged pores. Not to mention, washing your face in the morning is going to remove dead skin cells, as your skin undergoes a lot of changes while you sleep. So if you'd like to learn more about the entire lineup of face wash, bath bar, shaving cream, sunscreen under eye cream, you name it they got it. Head to caldera labcom. Make sure to use code ever forward to save 20, linked for you, as always, in the show notes today under episode resources. But again, that's c-a-l-d-e-r-a-l-a-bcom. Check out code ever forward to save 20%.

02:46 Hey everybody, welcome back to Ever Forward Radio. I'm your host, chase Tuning, certified health coach, army veteran. If you're new to the show then you might not know that the name Ever Forward Radio actually comes from my late father. It was his mantra, his way of thinking of living. As long as I can remember, from a young age, as a kid, four or five years old, some of my first memories are from my dad saying ever forward, ever forward. But more than that, I got to witness this man choose to act through adversity, to let the impediment to action become action.

03:29 And unfortunately, when he was diagnosed with a terminal illness ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig's disease towards the end of 2003, it completely rocked my world, to say the least.

03:41 And then, unfortunately, when he passed, january 22, 2005, I spent the next decade plus navigating grief, trying to process that trauma, trying to mend a broken heart, a broken soul.

03:56 To be honest, and, you know, be there for my family as we all navigated life without this incredible man that was just the center of our universe and the glue of our family and community.

04:09 And so I know firsthand what it is like to be side by side with someone navigating such a horrible, cruel disease as ALS. And so when I say today's guest Aaron Lazar, to sit down with him while this man is beating, beating ALS, that is the belief we have, that is the mindset we have, because it damn sure is where Aaron is and I'm going to honor his intentions and honor his work and commitment to this healing process, to this healing process. So to sit down next to him and know how much of a commitment and struggle it is for someone to pack up, get in the car, navigate themselves over to a studio and to give his energy and his time to me and to you truly, truly one of the biggest honors I've had in a long time here on the show Aaron is going to be taking us through his incredibly inspiring journey of shifting from fear and unhappiness to empowerment and self-healing.

05:14 Throughout this conversation, aaron emphasizes the importance of changing self-perceptions and embracing a life beyond limitations, recounting even his own transformative experiences in meditation and his commitment to evolving mentally, emotionally and spiritually. So please tune in with an open mind and an open heart as we explore the concept of living ever forward in one of the most remarkable ways. I would encourage you all to check out the video for this episode. I have it linked for you, as always in the show notes under episode resources. You can like the video, subscribe it would mean the world to me if you did that over on YouTube, or you can always check it out at everfordradiocom.

05:55 Please do what you can to dive into Aaron's story. He is on a mission now to share what this disease is doing for him and the benefits that he is now reaping because of ALS. Truly a mission that I can get behind and truly an incredible example of the power of mindset, even when facing something like a terminal disease. Thank you all so much for tuning in. Aaron, sending you nothing but love and healing energy. Cannot wait to see where you go with this. Welcome to Everford Radio. Everybody here is Aaron Lazar.

06:33 - Aaron (Guest) I like to say I am healed, I'm whole, I'm strong, I'm powerful. It's done and that's been the work of since day one of diagnosis right, which is over two years ago, and I've been living with it for almost three years. It'll be three years in a couple of weeks. So my journey with it was not to talk about it with other than you know, other than like the inner circle. I didn't tell my kids I have two boys, 12 and 14 now. I just was like something clicked for me at diagnosis that I needed to change in order to change my life, and if I had any hope of beating it which is what I, that was my awareness of how I was thinking about it two years ago. It was, and I'm a very different guy now. It's been a transformational couple of years but it was like well then, I have to change. So what do I change? And I just started to ask those questions how did I get ALS? What does that mean? And it's taken me on this, on this quest, um, and I'm a I'm a very different person, but what I've learned is like I like stopped myself because you were like my guest is in very much in that battle right now and I went, I am. And then I was like, oh, hold on, like I don't want to, I I'm.

07:53 I'm always reminding myself of who I am and, if I conceive, I really have come to believe that, whoever we believe we are, our concepts about ourself, the assumptions, whoever we believe we are, our concepts about ourselves, the assumptions that we make about ourselves and our life, create our lives.

08:10 So if I want to sit here and identify today with you as a guy who's in a battle for his life with ALS, that's a way to create my life.

08:21 If I want to identify as a guy who's spent the last two years evolving and expanding my consciousness and healing myself mentally and emotionally and spiritually, to the point where I've had such mystical experiences that, even just a week ago, I was in such a lucid dream meditation I was walking around my apartment barefoot better than I in in a year and a half, two years and it was so real that when I woke up from the meditation, I didn't realize I had been meditating or dreaming or not. Whatever it was like. I've had experiences like that, where it's done, um, thanks to a lot of work, which we can talk about. So, anyway, instead of being like yeah, I am that guy I prefer to you know, talk about it a little bit differently and and choose the words that that I speak more consciously new to the show or never makes it to the end of the show, which you should always tune into the end.

09:27 - Chase (Host) I asked this question, which we will get to, to bring it back home to the theme of the show, which is really a way that I honor my father and the way that he lived his life and the way that he kind of instilled life in me and my family.

09:40 And I asked my guests ever forward, what does that mean to you? How do you live a life ever forward? And I think it's so pertinent today to kind of bring that up on the front end because, like I've shared with you and we've gotten to know each other for quite a bit now and you have, ever since the moment I met you, really embodied that same mindset that my dad had before even his diagnosis, and that was this is not me, I know who I am, or I'm in pursuit of becoming the highest version of myself, and anything that doesn't sit well with me not in like a delusional sense, it's just I, just I choose to not honor in my life and don't keep it in, even after he had that diagnosis, even after being told you are terminal, it was just ever forward. Have you always had that mindset or did something just switch when you had that conversation with your doctor and you were told this information? Was it just nope, or have you always kind of been that way?

10:46 - Aaron (Guest) I think that's who I really am. Through this experience, I've remembered that I think I'd lost that for for a period of my life. Um, uh, this connection to who I really am, to know that I'm not the disease, to have rediscovered who I really am. There's a lot of that, that. Yeah, a lot of that was there when I was a kid, but I lost it. I lost some of that along the way. So, getting that back, um, you know, I think when you're, when you're pulled by a vision of the future stronger than you are pulled by the past, um, dispensa says that right back with, says that, um, that's, that's part of ever forward to me, right, um, and it's, it's it. You know, use the word delusional or something you just said. You know, I had that thought as a you know about how do you protect your, your own journey with whatever it is you're going through, um, when other people are going to look at it how they want to look at it and through their lens and their experience and collective consciousness around ALS or any other rare terminal disease, or everybody wants to tell you what's possible. And it's led me to now travel the country and, as a keynote speaker, and talk and sing about the impossible dream, which you know was a song that I sang 24 years ago in grad school in the musical the man of La Mancha, playing this character, don Quixote, who's you know, a legendary knight on a quest to better the world through unwavering idealism. And a year ago I'm in New York and I need a song for a concert and that one pops into mind and so I sing it for the first time at that point it had been since grad school, in 23 years, and I go whoa, this is my life. And so I spent a couple months writing and rewriting and taking this thing into people's living rooms and now it's, you know, this speaking platform where I really talk about what's possible, anything's possible, like it depends. What do you believe? Change your conceptions of yourself and your life, you know, perceive yourself beyond limitations, and I think that's what I mean. When I lost it is I had really just started to whenever doubt and fear become the dominant energy of your life, no matter how positive you are on the outside, no matter how great your life looks on the outside. You know, I've had a an amazing career as an actor my face on buses and billboards in Times Square and whatever, and and and on the inside, just that, I was an unhappy person. I was very unhappy for a very long time, and I think that's a lot of people I mean. I was just.

13:55 I was just on my way here listening to Anita Morjani's book Dying to Be Me, which I don't know if you've, I'm not familiar enough. Yeah, I mean, check it out. It's she. She uh had a near death experience. She, she had she, she died from cancer. I mean she, she went into a coma, she was 85 pounds, she had tumors all over her body.

14:15 Um, and in that in, in, on the other side, she saw her dad who, uh, you know, I know we've talked about you've had experiences like that. She saw her dad and she had spent her whole life feeling like she was not worthy of his love because she didn't, you know, uh, assume a betrothed marriage, the way her culture uh had expected her to, and all these other things she lived in her life with so much fear. Um, and on the other side, she saw her. There was no judgment from her dad, judgment from her dad. It was pure love and pure joy. She felt that for him, he felt that for her, this is obviously just a slice of her story. You can watch her TED talk, you know whatever. But when she came out of the coma, she basically knew at that moment what it's all about pure love and pure joy. And she knew, even though the pull to stay on the other side was strong because she her body was, of course, yeah, so riddled with cancer. She knew if she came back she'd be okay and within five days of waking up from the coma her tumors were 70% gone and within five weeks she walked out of the hospital cancer free.

15:21 Um, so, when you want to talk about what's possible, you know, I think a lot of the journey of this for me has been staying in a place or correcting, overcoming myself, overcoming myself. Right, this is what we do. Uh, what do you do in meditation when those thoughts come? And you, you go to the, your mantra, or you go to the, the nothing. Whatever it is that you do. However, you meditate, you're overcoming yourself. When you wake up in the morning and you feel like shit, or you feel negative, or you feel scared, and you know you, you refuse to get up from your meditation until you've cultivated for yourself a better emotion, you know, a better feeling, a better imagining of your life and how it can go.

16:07 I didn't have those tools two years ago, you know, and in fact I had cultivated the opposite behaviorally for 10 or 12 years of living in fear, living in doubt. You know an actor, in many ways desperate for that huge job that series regular, or on a hit TV show, lead in a Broadway show that pays the big, big bucks, so that you know the money's there for the kids, for college, and I then have some way to compare myself as a man to my father and my grandfather who, by the way, turns 100 this summer. He fought, he fought in the South Pacific. Yeah, amazing. But you know these guys who like work their asses off. You know, seven days a week, my dad's still. He's just now 71 years old, threatening to retire, but he's still working. You know, basically seven days a week, and I didn't know who I was unless I was, you know, working and provide. You know all that stuff.

17:10 - Chase (Host) For me. I keep coming back to, I keep thinking about what you said about this is my life. Where you go, this is my life. And in that realization, anybody that has that moment, that is fortunate enough to have that realization, it's more than just then and there. That, that present moment, that absolute clarity of I am alive, I am living, this is me, cogito ergo sum, right Like I think. Therefore, I am so. It's like the first kind of conscious awakening of I am here and you're observing that. But with that at least in my experience, I'm curious to get your take comes the flood of the past, of how much I wasn't living up until this moment, and then you begin to question why. And then you go into the future. It's well, what does life look like now that I have this conscious awakening, this awareness to what I want for my life and how I can even live? What does that look like? What does that feel like? What is it about that moment that holds all the power but most people, I think, won't fully recognize?

18:17 - Aaron (Guest) I had a moment of awareness of I have diagnosis, okay, I have diagnosis okay.

18:32 - Chase (Host) Uh, fear is no longer going to help me and and then and with like, it's not going to help me heal. Were you aware of like I? I'm aware that I am living in fear. I mean, you didn't know that diagnosis up until that point. So are you more aware of? All the ways you were living out of fear.

18:42 - Aaron (Guest) Yeah, I mean, yeah, I mean, I mean I had experienced some traumatic stuff personally in my life, with a divorce, and some traumatic stuff professionally in my career and, um, I had experienced, you know, uh, you know, months at a time in my life full of anxiety and insomnia and depression and and paranoia and things like that, where, you know, I thought I picked myself up off the ground from those things and then everything's fine. But I actually had never, really I had never, I had not changed. So I'd like you know you're sitting at the ALS doctor and you know I went through a half day of tests. You know, the one of the tests is an emg electromyography. They stick needles in your muscles and needles in your tongue and the whole thing, and they do a spinal tap to check for a rare cancer. And I, you know, never thought I'd be wishing for cancer.

19:35 But, frankly, had I gotten cancer, I think I would have approached it as a broken bone kind of thing and, okay, let's get the chemo, let's do whatever it is. And I can't. You know, this is my heart out to anybody dealing with cancer. I have dear friends dealing with cancer, it's. I can't imagine that, because of the pain, ALS is not a particularly painful disease. Anyway, I just I had this realization of oh, I think I would have thought that I just would beat the cancer and be the same guy, and this, I knew something about it. The moment I did have was like. The moment I did have was like that first moment of no more fear, no more Like I refuse to spend whatever moments of my life that I have left None of us know how many we've got left, by the way Refuse to spend any of them in fear if possible. And as soon as I did that, I became aware of myself in a much deeper way, that like oh, who's that?

20:51 No, I don't think. I don't think I'd had that before. I think I was. I think, therefore, I am, for probably 25 years, and I was a really cerebral still am, you know philosophical guy, and the thoughts were, you know, constant, constant of let me figure out my life, let me control my life, let me will myself into certain things, that, regardless of the feedback I'm getting, I got to keep going. You know that that was ever forward. For a time, you know, it was bull in a china shop. My fiance still makes fun of me for being a bull in a china shop, but I'm much better than I was.

21:30 I mean, there was no room for openness to receive and allow whatever in the moment to be like this moment, sadhguru, is like the only thing that's inevitable besides death and taxes is this moment. In this moment, anything's possible. The next one's not guaranteed. This one's, the only thing that's inevitable is this moment. And so if you're constantly just ever forward, there's no space. And this thing has given me a real opportunity to just do it differently. And so the ever forward for me, real opportunity to just do it differently. And so the ever forward for me is very different than what it used to be, but that was a spark that I've then cultivated and developed into a deeper connection to myself, and now it's not for me.

22:23 I think, therefore, I am, it's just, I am for me. I think, therefore, I am, it's just, I am, and I've actually I can say that honestly that I have sat with, um, uh, there's an energy, um, an energy, uh wizard of a guy, uh, donnie Epstein, and I've sat with him, uh, and, and had a full on experience of zero thought. You know, I've had that in meditation once or twice. You know where you have those moments of like, I'm not thinking anything, I'm being, and then I've been thinking that I'm realizing that or whatever. This was literally like a, I felt it all just go, yeah, and there was just no thought and I just was in the bliss of existence and I, literally I couldn't think a thought, even if I tried. So, like I really do believe. You know that's the when I feel my best.

23:23 It's with less, particularly with ALS. You try and figure this thing out, man. It is exhausting and I spend a lot of time because you're fighting for your life. I got kids, I got a life, I got a huge purpose that I'm now living and you think, how can I just sit here and let this thing? You know, it's this balance between how do I accept and stay open and receive and not just let this thing do what it's doing, or do I need to let it do what it's doing? What responsibility is mine to figure out the, the, the research and the drug trials and the medicines and the supplements, and it's exhausting man, and so sometimes it's just there's the piece of just like, just be right in this moment.

24:15 - Chase (Host) Hey, friends, quick break from my conversation with Aaron to bring your attention to something that has added immense value and noticeable baseline energy improvements to my daily wellness for over two years now. Of course, I'm talking about Timeline Nutrition's MitoPure. This is the first postbiotic nutrient shown to trigger a crucial recycling process within our cells called mitophagy, which targets age-related cellular decline. You all probably heard this before if you paid attention in high school science class, but our mitochondria are really the source of all of our energy and energy potential the powerhouse of the cell right. In fact, 90% of our cellular energy is produced by mitochondria. The trillions of cells that comprise our body tissues run on the energy created by them. Why is that important, Chase? Here's why, and here's exactly how MitoPure can support mitochondrial health, which gives you more energy, decreases recovery time and even, based on their 10 years of clinical human trials, increased muscle strength and endurance.

25:19 Healthy cells rely on healthy mitochondria. Their optimal function leads to incredible health benefits and is particularly essential to heart, kidney, eye, brain, skin and muscle function. The clinical science to date has focused on muscle health, as muscle cells have a very large number of mitochondria, and on skin health, as skin is our largest organ in our body. If you pay attention to the beginning, remember I was highlighting that when I'm talking about Caldera Lab. But as we age, mitochondrial function declines. Our mitochondria are constantly renewed to produce energy and fulfill the vast energy demands of muscle, skin and other tissues. But as we get older, this renewal declines and dysfunctional mitochondria accumulate in the cells, resulting in significant issues like insufficient energy supply, production of harmful molecules like free radicals, even reduced cellular health.

26:14 So what can you do about it? Well, you can do a lot of things Focus on hydration, consistent quality sleep, daily movement, exercise and, if you choose to supplement, I would really encourage you to check out Mito Pure from Timeline Nutrition. I have been taking it daily for over two years. I love it. I even went off of it earlier this year for about 30 days just to make sure it wasn't all in my head, and I noticed a significant drop in my daily energy. So I'm back on it because I love the way it makes me feel.

26:46 So if you wanna learn more and even try it out for yourself and save 10% off of that first purchase, check the show notes today under episode resources or simply head to timeline nutritioncom. Slash ever forward and at checkout. Throw down code ever forward. You're going to save 10% the piece. That's what, again, that's what I hear a lot in your kind of expression of this experience, and what I heard a lot with my dad was just this like how can you be so at peace with this? And I'm not. Well, up until now, I never heard it described as. I never thought about the opposite of that, Because if you're not in pursuit of trying to be at peace with it, then it's exhausting and you're already stacked as it is. So, yeah, why would you try to do anything? But?

27:40 - Aaron (Guest) Yeah, I think there's an expression you know be in this world, but not of it, and that sort of captures what we're talking about here. You know there's there's a lot in this world. That's a lot. It's a lot of doing and a lot of thinking, and then to be, to be not of it. There's more being of it, there's more being, and so it's just bringing more of a of the energy and peace of being and knowing. That's connecting to who I really am, like there's just an infinite energy and a peace there and it's like, okay, the body is doing something and it's.

28:25 You know, where I struggle is with trying to get those to line up. You know, like I really came at it from, from that almost day one of diagnosis is like all right, well, while while the tens of thousands of incredibly, tirelessly hard-working doctors and researchers and scientists and biotech companies and investors, and while they well, you know, caregiver, well, they all do their thing to figure out this disease scientifically, what can I do? I can try and look at health differently. Health as not just physical, it's mental, emotional and spiritual. There's a great quote by Sadhguru. He says when the mind is organized, the emotions get organized. When the emotions get organized mind emotions. When emotions get organized, the energy gets organized. And when the energy gets organized, the energy gets organized. And when the energy gets organized, the body gets organized.

29:27 And when you have all four organized on the same, with the same goal and the same, then your ability to manifest becomes you know infinite and so I thought, well, if the body's, let me heal these other things, whatever that means and I just started on that journey if the body's, let me heal these other things, whatever that means, and I just started on that journey. But where does that journey end? Because if you keep conceiving yourself as somebody who has something that they need to heal, when does it end? When is it just enough to just you know? So I'm now in a place where I'm like I don't want to keep attracting experiences from up to heal more things. I want to enjoy my life whole and healed, and I want to. The body.

30:17 - Chase (Host) I, you know, I want to identify energetically with that, and so that's been like another phase if that makes sense, and I want to dive definitely more into how you personally are choosing to tackle this and what you've been doing to supplement, in terms of your nutrition, your exercise, therapy, mental spiritual work, therapy, mental spiritual work but I, I want to ask, um, you waited two years, if memory serves, to tell your, your family, your, your children, right that?

30:50 - Aaron (Guest) about a year and a half Okay.

30:52 - Chase (Host) Why.

30:54 - Aaron (Guest) Yeah Well, I, I, I didn't want my kids to be scared. I knew what it was like to live my life in fear. I didn't want my children to be afraid, uh, and I thought this is, this is not their burden right now. Uh, this is for me to go on a journey and heal. And, uh, as it developed physically, I just would tell them.

31:21 I got a problem with my nerves and then there was a lot of angst about not telling them, but I just kept being patient and trying to listen to my soul. You know and know that the right time would come. And then it became all right. I got something to share with people and I'm not going to do that. I'm not going to speak about this publicly until I talked to my kids about it. So then I shared with my kids and they were great, and for the most part they are great because we again use the word cultivate. We really cultivate an energy of belief and courage and faith and love. What do we have that no other animal in the animal kingdom has Power of imagination. So imagine the life that you want and live it now as much as possible, and that life does not include ALS. So why would we live a life full of ALS, and that doesn't mean it's not hard and not challenging. But if I can, you know, limit those challenges for my kids in whatever way feels truthful for us. That's what we're doing.

32:48 - Chase (Host) And how are you now daily living? What are some things that you have kept or new practices that you've implemented in terms of? You know, I'm really diving into this nutrient, this supplementation, this practice. What have you gravitated towards and why?

33:06 - Aaron (Guest) It's an evolving process. You know, losing your physical freedoms is terrible and you want to stop it from happening and you want there to be something you can take or something you can do to get it to stop from happening. And that's the challenge of the disease Confronting on a daily basis or moment to moment. You know, how do I get from my car to sitting here in this chair? Or, you know, am I going to have enough energy in my legs to to hit the men's room and take a leak? Um, you know every part of your life it's, it's, it's, you're questioning it yeah.

34:02 Except right now, like unless I lose myself in something, so I'd lose myself in this conversation with you. You know, maybe I noticed shit. I got a little more saliva in my mouth today. Is that the disease? And then, what good does that do? You know, it's the, it's these, these human, emotional, you know, reactive things.

34:24 But, frankly, like I used to live my entire life like that, it was like, oh, I gotta, I gotta, you know, go to this event and figure it. But what about this audition to get that job? Because, you know, paying those bills or we wouldn't buy this house, or I'm not. You know, like it was a constant, like game of chess in my, and so I'm just like it was a constant like game of chess in my, and so I'm just like, overcome, overcome, I can't get into this body anymore than I have spent time over the last two and a half years, you know, in a moment of fear to it's. It's okay, man, that's what's happening right, this second, and that's not forever. It's just, it's okay, man, that's what's happening right, this second, and that's not forever, it's just a chapter. You know, this is a chapter in my life. Where it goes, isn't it great? None of us know. But isn't it great that we can imagine where we want it to go and then, instead of approaching that, from where I used to, which was like here's where I am, here's where I want, to, which was like here's where I am, here's where I wanted to go, oh man, what if I never get there? What's going to happen?

35:29 Doubt, fear, doubt, fear, lack of self-worth, you know, because you start younger and for me anyway, it was like golden boy man. It was like here's where I am, here's what I want, got it. What's the next thing? Got it, what's the next thing? Got it, what's the next thing? Got it. And even all the way up to like Broadway star, you know, uh. But then it was like I stopped dreaming, like that was the dream.

35:58 And now I'm in my early thirties and I got, you know, a wife and uh, and, and we own an apartment in Manhattan and two little kids. And reality hits of like now what More you need, more to pay, the more bills with, the more you know. But I'm an actor man, you know. That's a this ride, that's not a this ride, and I needed it to be a rocket ride or I wasn't good enough and I just started to again my energy became and as it went down, my life went down and down and down. And you know this is again. It's just what I believe and whatever works for me might not work for other people, but I really do believe in the wisdom of the 60 plus books I've read over the last two years on healing and the nervous system and the mind-body connection and the quantum. You know it's not my personal philosophy. It's coming from some of the greatest minds. You know it's not. It's not my personal philosophy. It's coming from some of the greatest minds. You know doctors and yogis. And we create our lives.

37:10 - Chase (Host) Take us there, Take us to some of the teachers, healers, gurus, philosophers, writers, some of the people that you have really been pouring into their life's work. What calls you the most? What are you extracting, what are you applying? And in this conversation and all the ones we've had before, that is what I hear most from you and where you are putting your energy I don't want to say the word hope. You're putting your focus, your attention, your energy and um your healing and in your state of being, into this expansion of consciousness. Why and how?

37:53 - Aaron (Guest) Yeah, well, I've mentioned a couple, a couple folks, right, I mean Joe Dispenza will say you want to change your life, you got to change yourself. But Gandhi said that you know, I think, why? Because what choice did I have If I, if there's no pill that you can give me and there's no medicine that I can take and there's no bone that you can you know, fix that. You can you know. Fix you know what. What am I supposed to do? Well, oh, I can change myself. I can look at my life with like a real magnifying glass and go how can I heal in any way that I can? And it's taken me on a spiritual journey of awakening and transformation and it's been mystical and it's been so expansive. And Dispenza would say you become another person.

38:52 To the point, there's no room for the disease. The disease happened to Aaron three years ago, man, because of what Aaron did up to that point. Now I'm'm not blaming myself for getting it. I got so much heat from people, even close friends. You're going to blame yourself for getting ALS. You're going to blame your divorce? No, no, I lived my life the best I could. I didn't know any better. Shit happens, man, life happens, but I didn't know how to navigate life's adversity in a way that was healing. I took it so personally. I mean, neuroscience says thoughts are the electricity that run through our bodies. Well, what do they run through? They run through the nerves. Man and the nerves are the wiring that connect the brain to the body. I have a disease of the nervous system. You're going to tell me there's no connection there. It doesn't make sense. Stress is stress, we know. So like what causes ALS? I have no idea. They don't know.

39:50 - Chase (Host) We don't know.

39:51 - Aaron (Guest) So I go, what do? I think it was For me. That's different for your dad, it's different for everybody else I know that has ALS. There's only one guy I know who has ALS, who's even approaching it this way. We talk at least once a week. He's up in Canada, my buddy Craig, and he's got a table full of 60 books. He's turned his dining room table. His wife drives him crazy because he's turned their dining room into a library. But that's what I did and I'm like, okay, so we're kind of doing it that way. But it became a fascinating journey.

40:28 I'd been a spiritual seeker for 10 years before. It was a lot of philosophy that never became experience, and so the last two years have been pure experience. I mean it's been. What are some of these experiences you've been having? I mean you meditate with Sadhguru and you trip balls Like you do. Man, a friend of mine went to Well. First of all, I met this friend.

40:55 I was doing a musical at the Amundsen called the Secret Garden, which is a musical about a boy who can't walk due to a mysterious illness and learns to love himself and stay open to miracles.

41:08 And in this secret garden he he finds himself again and miracles happen and it's like, don't I mean that's, that's an experience. Right to be in that at the moment when I'm starting to need to use a cane and have to start using leg braces and I get to sit backstage when my character wasn't on stage in the show and watch. You know, some of the most talented humans sing to this little boy every night to help him walk. And I just put myself right there, man, and I was driving home one night from uh, from that, and my chest started to hurt and I pulled over to the side of the road. I thought I was having a heart attack. I mean, I'm a really healthy guy other than the ALS. I'm like let's go, I'm the healthiest dude with ALS we've ever met. But you know, I thought I might be having a heart attack and then I just start crying and I had this heart opening. It lasted like a half an hour.

42:04 - Chase (Host) I mean I went, I had to.

42:06 - Aaron (Guest) I drove home and it was the complete opposite of a panic attack panic attack. It was one of the most beautiful heart opening experiences I've ever had. I was, I was sobbing, I was letting go of so much and I had been reading a Louise Hay book at the time called you can heal your life or you can heal your body one of those and I was reading a book by David Elliott at the time an amazing healer and energy worker, and he wrote a book called Healing, I believe, where there's an entire chapter on self-love. And I remember when I got in the car, having read those books and come out the high of the show, I asked my body. I was like what am I missing? What is in the way of me healing? And the next thing, I know my heart hurts and I'm pulling over the side of the road and I'm crying. For so long I'm drive home crying. I walk in the door crying and Noel's upset. She's like what's going on? And then I'm crying and laughing. I'm like my heart.

42:59 I think my heart's opening and and and dude I, it was literally, and that was about a year ago. It was like I realized I had turned it off. Chase, like I, I like these things are possible, like from the divorce and the and I didn't know how to protect my life, my energy and myself from getting hurt again by by you know somebody else, or my career, or whatever it was. So I just it's like I got it, I'm good, turn it off. Well, what happens when you do that?

43:31 There's, there's literally an image in David's book, um, where there's a silhouette of a human being and it shows a spiral coming out of the heart and it's connection to what he calls UEF, uh, universal energy flow, right it's, it's this connection right Between you and me and Joel over there, uh, anybody, everything. And then there's a line coming out of your I guess it's your second chakra ish and it goes straight down and it goes from you know whatever like fear down to like disease, and when you turn this off, you're connected to that one and it's like that made sense to me. You know.

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45:58 - Aaron (Guest) Oh, by the way, dude, forgetting a huge point. You know, two weeks before the first symptoms three years ago, right, my quads started twitching. That was first symptom. I looked down my quads are twitching. Two weeks before that I stood in my kitchen having broken up with my girlfriend at the time, who's now my fiance, so it all worked out. But we had broken up and I remember standing in my kitchen going like, hey God, I don't know what's going on. But I feel like I am stuck in a pattern that never changes that, no matter how great the job is and how great the relationship is, when there's no work and I'm unemployed and the girl goes away.

46:46 I don't love myself. And Noel, we had been together a year up to that point and I remember thinking to myself throughout that year this woman loves me more than anybody. It's like pressure, it's like ridiculous. Like, how many times a day are you going to tell me you love me? Okay, I get it, but, like you know, there was something about me. I couldn't receive it. And when this heartopening thing happened you know however many years later it was I got it, I went. Oh, I didn't love myself enough to receive all the love in my life from her or anybody else. And since that day a year ago, dude, the love in my life has been beyond I mean beyond, and there's no limit to that. You know, whether it's meeting you or the support of the Broadway community. To my children, you know. To strangers, you know, and what can I do to heal from ALS? I can cultivate. More of that I can cultivate.

47:57 I can say that this body, hey selves, you were living in a world where you were afraid and you were. You know, you didn't believe in yourself and you didn't love yourself and you didn't have faith in life or anything. You were just bullying your way through. What if the universe has your back? What if everybody's got your back? What if you love yourself enough now to receive that all?

48:16 And dude, what has my life become In every way other than physically? My life has become my dream in so many ways like a dream life. Not because I'm living in some 50,000 square you know, we live in an apartment Not because I'm driving some amazing car it's not. It doesn't have anything to do with the things that I thought were going to be the answers Looking for the happiness outside of myself and going I get that, then I'll be happy. It's like no, no. I spent two years cultivating that within myself so that, even in the face of this fucking disease, I can enjoy my life as much as possible and be grateful, and be grateful to the disease for being a divine opportunity, disguised as an impossible circumstance, to change.

49:10 - Chase (Host) You know I haven't brought it up yet, but you are an accomplished actor on screen, on stage. I've seen on your walls at your home all the posters of all the work that you've done. It's an some incredible, incredible work and I have to wonder if there was another battle with you and ALS and this work kind of going, this thing that I've built, this career that I've built of acting and being on stage and quite literally mobile. Was there another different kind of my words here, grieving process or journey, to kind of navigate that, because you already have enough that you're focusing on and it's all amazing and powerful, but how have you been navigating kind of that career loss as well? I haven't lost it.

50:05 - Aaron (Guest) I mean I've lost the ability to to go play the lead in a musical, um, but I shot television a couple months ago when I was on stage at carnegie hall, dude fuck, yeah, hell yeah, I'm going out to aspen to do a concert of Fiddler on the Roof this summer. I'm doing, you know, my whatever we're going to put together for Broadway and Vine up in Napa at the end of the summer.

50:33 Well, so that's as a performer. And then the pivot, the big pivot and very conscious pivot that has been completely rewarded by. You know, the universe was to talk about this. You know I was. I was afraid that I would lose my career and that people either wouldn't be able to perform at all, sing and act, or, you know. And so I was like, what can I do? Yeah, what am I going to do with all this information that I've absorbed and embody on a daily basis? Like, how do I help other people? Oh well, maybe I can help other people. Like, how do I do that? And so it became, like, what is it? Is it TED Talk? Do I become a life coach? I had no idea what it was and I just started writing and I'm like is this a memoir? Like what is this? And 70 pages got cut down to seven pages of like this speaking platform where I sing and I speak about. It's called the impossible dream.

51:34 - Chase (Host) This is the one you shared with me from Duke, right yeah.

51:37 - Aaron (Guest) Um, so yeah, the first time I did it this this past fall was that was that my alma mater? The first time I did it this past fall was at my alma mater. So anyway, the pivot was to maybe there's something that I can share to help other people. And now I travel the country as a keynote speaker and I do that. I mean, I'm speaking at BIO, the biggest biotech conference in the world for 20,000 people in two weeks or three weeks or whatever it is Like how did that?

52:07 happen, you know. So, yeah, the pivot, but my purpose is so expanded. Man, I used to only be able. I was, as an actor. You tell other people's stories, right, stories right, and my ability to have an impact limited to or contingent upon the power of those stories and those characters and the music, whatever.

52:32 - Chase (Host) Now I'm telling my story. Yeah, you've been telling the stories that were written for you.

52:35 - Aaron (Guest) Now you're telling the one that you're writing yeah, and that to love yourself enough to go. I. I might have something to say, and I'm so grateful for an opportunity to get to share it with anybody, because if it can help you, anita Morjani says in the beginning of her book you know, this is not about me. This is about me doing anything I can to help other people, not suffer through something in order to learn and grow or whatever you know, and that's that's. I'm beyond honored and grateful to have a chance to share my story with people and and make an impact.

53:21 - Chase (Host) That is just so fucking incredible that someone can receive a diagnosis such as ALS and choose to take it and use it for their life and for the benefit of their own consciousness and to help others. So many people, too many people, go through something seemingly mundane. Look, your stressors are your stressors. Your life is your life. Of course, your trauma is your trauma.

53:53 But, comparatively, we get so bogged down in things that truly are meaningless In that moment. And things that truly are meaningless In that moment they're our world, yes, but we are unable to detach even for a moment and to get perspective or to realize that we do have a choice. Even if it does suck a lot, we always have a choice. And, man, it just like it hits so, so hard with me and just like how happy I am just to see that there are people like this that recognize that and choose to use it for your life and for the benefit of others. I mean again, I don't need to keep being a dead horse here, but like it's so personal to me and my family and to my audience that has come along the ride for this show, man, so it just makes me so happy to see this.

55:01 - Aaron (Guest) Yeah, thanks, man. I mean you, you, you, you did it, you're doing it. That's why I'm here, cause you've created a space for it to make some sense. You know, out of it, from your soul, right, and on your journey, to help you heal, so that your audience can heal. Give me a chance to come here and tell my story, so that I can heal while we help each other.

55:26 I mean that exchange, really, you know it can sound Pollyanna-ish, but it's just true, that's just an exchange of love, man. I mean, it really just is. And if you keep that exchange open and that's, I find. I mean, look, I've had, you know, I've had a couple of weeks of like surfing waves that you're like oh man, I did it, it's done, this thing is gone. I'm walking around my apartment right in those lucid dreams or whatever, or I'm in my house that I don't even own yet, that I don't even own yet, and I'm so there and so grateful to be there and I've so done it, that I'm sobbing while I'm napping, having that vision because it's so real and it's gone. And then I'm having days like today, which are just it's not the worst day I've ever had, are just it's not the worst day I've ever had. It's not the best. It's been tough to just stay out of my head about it when you know my body does not work the way I want it to yeah and that's, that's.

56:43 that's just getting in the water every day with the, with the, with the waves man, and just going like I don't control the ocean and I'm going to do my best to surf today. And, um, this is an amazing uh healer, energy healer, rob Worgen, um, who I recently got to meet and that's, that's his, uh, that's his kind of phrase. He's like, you know, some days you catch, you catch a great wave, and some days you get thrashed around, but you got to keep getting back up on the board.

57:11 - Chase (Host) I guess how do you not when, in your personal life or confronted with strangers? Maybe an angry person in line getting a cup of coffee. How do you um, how do you restrain yourself to not kind of interject when someone's complaining about something they're going through? How do you kind of navigate that um, or do you even find yourself in those situations?

57:38 - Aaron (Guest) you know kind of like sure I'm human.

57:39 - Chase (Host) I mean, everybody's got it worse than somebody else, right?

57:41 - Aaron (Guest) yeah, but it's also like, if it is I've never really put it this way, so let's see how this comes out but the levels of consciousness this is actually an Anita Morjani exercise she does in her TED Talk I'm going to have to get this.

57:58 - Chase (Host) Just watch her TED Talk. It's great yeah.

58:00 - Aaron (Guest) But she says, okay, look around the room and notice everything that's red. Right, so, we can do it right now. So look around the room and notice everything that's red right, so we can do it right now. So look around the room and notice everything that's red, right, All, right, now close your eyes. Now where's everything that's blue? And you know, her point is like we only see what we're looking at. Wow, yeah, and that level of consciousness you know. Her point is like we only see what we're looking at. Wow, yeah, and that level of consciousness. You know, I respect and honor everybody as much as I can that their life is theirs. Their level of awareness and consciousness about it is at whatever level of the onion that they're at peeling it back, peeling it back, and it's infinite, dude, so it just keeps going.

58:53 There are, there are. There's no limit to the layers of this thing and you know, I'm I'm grateful that I've learned how to expand, you know, and peel back more and more layers. And I also understand that you know and peel back more and more layers. And I also understand that you know the people that I love in my life. They're where they're at and they love and respect me where I'm at. So I'm going to love and respect them where they're at, you know, and it then gets. It gets a little bit trippy for me when I look at, like global politics and what's going on in the world and and and the riots on campuses and all these things. You just go, man, there's so much, there's so much anger and I, I, I really do believe that, like a hundred years from now, if we teach our kids what we know about just loving yourself, loving other people and peace or whatever, maybe this is what the hippies were doing back when our parents were doing it.

59:56 But I think a hundred years from now or whatever, like however long, it's going to take a while, but don't you think that would that energy of all that would just get smaller and smaller and smaller and smaller. I would think so I'm just like on that mission of like how can I help other people heal? Because when you heal yourself, you can't heal anybody else for them. You can. Just that's what I'm. I'm just sharing my story and whatever resonates with you, God bless you know, you know.

01:00:33 - Chase (Host) How do you think someone can walk away from this conversation and keep something in their life, keep something in their mind? Because I feel like many times we hear, you know, stories, we watch content, videos, tedx talks, listen to podcasts and there are very meaningful, impactful things that happen in that moment. Not everything sticks or stays long term. Look, we go back to our lives, of course, but what are you most hopeful for someone in the audience right now? To really hear and to hope that it stays with them forever, To not just hear this story and to be moved today and maybe apply something today, but to really like, let your soul connect to something that matters for the rest of your life.

01:01:19 - Aaron (Guest) It's an awesome question, man. I think it taps into your ever forward. I mean, I think the questions that you ask yourself. You know it started for me with how did I get ALS, you know? Or at some point down the road I asked my doctor has anybody ever beat ALS? And he's like, yeah, there's 60 people who have reversed being studied at Duke University. What that doesn't happen if I don't ask the question. So the questions we ask ourselves, right? So I think it's just to say to people maybe just be more aware, whenever I get stuck I mean I did it today in the car because you know I'm like, oh, I'm going to call this.

01:02:09 Because you know I'm like I'm going to call this friend. Oh, they're not there. I'm going to call this friend Well, they're working Right. Because you know they got to. They got to, they got the job, the nine to five, the real job, whatever. What am I going to do? I don't want to listen to another book and I don't want to get mired in the philosophy of what am I going to do.

01:02:27 And I was like, oh, I could ask myself a question which is like hey, what do you, what do you need right now on this ride. You know, like what? Do we need to just live in the fact that it's uncomfortable and we're a little scared today? Do we need to like is there, you know, like what is ever forward for me? So it's like Is there, you know, like what is ever forward for me? So it's like that's what I would want to maybe inspire people with is the questions.

01:02:55 What questions are you asking yourself? You know, how can you ask better questions? Because that question for me of how did I get ALS was like a door that opened. And on the other side, for two years since there have been breadcrumbs and I just follow them, man. And it's tough on the days when you're years since there have been breadcrumbs and I just follow them, man. And it's tough on the days when you're like where's the next one? I don't see it. Patience, ask, it'll show up. You know, and that's, I think sometimes that's the best I can do in this life, you know. So I hope we can all ask I don't know more interesting questions of ourselves.

01:03:41 - Chase (Host) Of ourselves absolutely. But I've been there and I assume you have been as well in these situations with illness, disease, terminal or even acute. When that becomes public information. We kind of get in that awkward situation sometimes of, oh, my dad's dealing with this, my aunt's dealing with that, I have this, and the mood kind of shifts, the tempo shifts and I feel like a lot of people are uncomfortable, fearful, unsure how to next best navigate that situation. What do you do in those situations and what would you want to share with somebody to help both sides stay as comfortable and to navigate that as appropriately as possible?

01:04:31 - Aaron (Guest) What do you want? What do you want your experience to be? I mean, I did not want pity, I did not want my kids worrying about me, I didn't want help. I've learned how to receive help now, you know but I wanted I I it's why I didn't discuss this publicly for almost two years, like I just started talking about this publicly um, as far as making a, you know, a public announcement of the diagnosis, like three, four months ago. So, um, at that point I was ready to receive, you know, essentially, what for me became more love than I ever knew was there.

01:05:19 But it was really hard, especially as an actor, like you said. I mean, is this an admission that I can now no longer? It's not anything, it's what you make it, it's what you make it, it's what you want it to be, and it doesn't have to be what collective consciousness says. It has to be about anything. And so for me, it was like, oh, I would leave people all the time and make sure that I and I'll say it now, because I would say it publicly, whether it's the, you know, in interviews, whatever please imagine me a hundred percent and then fill that vision with your love and your magic, right Then?

01:06:04 - Chase (Host) you're not, Then you're not.

01:06:07 - Aaron (Guest) Oh, he's got ALS. So it's this whole box of stuff. Why, maybe, but maybe it's just. And the amount of people that have been like, oh, you know, and yeah, sure man, you know it's. That doesn't mean it's without its challenges.

01:06:26 You know people near and dear to me. You know one friend called me up and was like so listen, you're going to die, but you can live a good life between now and then, thanks. And it was like if I heard that two years ago, dude, I might have had a nervous breakdown. But when I heard it from you know this person, I just said, listen, that's your experience with the disease. And she had lost somebody very close to her, a mentor. And I said, respectfully, that's not my experience with this and that's not how I am choosing to live my life. And within five, 10 minutes she apologized, said you know what I'm? Wow, I had no and didn't know that there was anybody who'd ever actually recovered from this and the way you're going to be 61.

01:07:24 And it's like yes, and it's like yes, and if that energy is out there in the world helping me, thank you, because there's power in that and I, in my small way, coming on your show. Or you know, I get choked up, like it's not easy for me to get out there on the road with the leg braces and the fucking walker and you know the energy of travel and whatever to show up. And I'm showing up because it's my, it's a gift for me to get, to give that back, you know, to other people, like we're exchanging, we're just exchanging now and that's changed me forever and it will change me. And when I'm back on stage as the lead in a musical and you know, playing a character, understanding what my relationship to the audience now is, you know that it's not the guy who needed their applause to validate my worth. Now it's. Isn't it awesome we get to share this connection through this story with each other.

01:08:43 - Chase (Host) Yeah, well, when, when you are healed and when you are walking across the next stage and when you are doing all the things that you are seeing now. Um, I can't wait to have you back and I can't wait to revisit this conversation that's what I'm talking about.

01:09:10 - Aaron (Guest) Man. See, you just gave me another thing for my meditations and my imaginations it's like, oh yeah, man, so now I'll be meditating and it'll be like there's Chase and I having our next conversation and I've done it and it's done, and how fucking cool yeah is that gonna be, and we'll tell another story.

01:09:35 - Chase (Host) You know what I mean well, aaron, like I said, um, all throughout, it's been an honor and a privilege to to get to know you and you know, shout out um topaz adiza, as a former guest, you know. That's another thing that continues to blow my mind of just how I get to sit here Usually I'm over there how I get to sit in the presence.

01:09:58 - Aaron (Guest) I made him switch sides because I was like this is my good side, I want to sit over here and the man knows the screen more than me. He was cool enough to do it.

01:10:05 - Chase (Host) I am in constant awe when these things happen, where I get I mean Topaz was incredible. I mean him and I connected and just I mean I've never had a guest do that much research on me and come so prepared with questions for his own interview as Topaz, and so that was just Topaz Adizaz, everyone Special guy, special at the end.

01:10:25 - Aaron (Guest) He's got a book. He's got Emmy award winning, he's got a podcast, I think.

01:10:29 - Chase (Host) Yeah, yeah, I'll link that down in the show notes and video notes for everybody. But I mean that alone was a gift for me and my audience. But then to have that connection and it's really for him to trust me enough to open up his personal life and go, hey, you need to know my guy, aaron, and then for him to share me with you and then for you to even say, yes, it's just a level of yeses and openness and connection, and you know all the things that have landed us here now today. Again, none of this I we would not be having this conversation if I didn't, you know, if my father didn't go through ALS 19 years ago. Wow, dude, every single fucking thing, every, every, every choice I've made, every guest that's been on the show, everything that I thought was the end of the world, every career move, every relation, everything has led up to us here now today, and that does not fall lightly on me and that's beautiful and that's definitely.

01:11:23 - Aaron (Guest) You know, you want to leave something. You leave your audience with something, the the letting of that happen. I mean, that's bigger than you, it's bigger than me, it's bigger than topaz, it's just life. It's like the, the river of it, and that's what I'm learning to trust more and more. Um, shameless plug because I forgot to plug something.

01:11:50 - Chase (Host) Yeah, what are you working on? Where can they go connect with you more? Yeah, so I'm making an album.

01:11:55 - Aaron (Guest) Um, I started telling my story, and an old buddy of mine that I used to do concerts with in the symphony world now, uh is, uh, is one of the founders of a, of a record label called Amita studios. Um, and he like, hey man, you want to make an album. And I was like, yeah, so we're making, we're making a record.

01:12:15 - Chase (Host) I have to imagine, so I have to imagine you just saying yes to a lot of things now. Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

01:12:19 - Aaron (Guest) Well, also do it, yeah, but and that's not that should not be treaded lightly over, in the sense that I used to say no a lot if it wasn't the exact thing and the way I wanted it, and I was worried or concerned that, like I have to take my career in this exact come on, man, I'm tired. I can't even finish the sentence, it's so exhausting. It's like what kind of bullshit was I stuck in up here, like in my defense, nobody in my family is an artist.

01:12:52 I had no mentorship really in this business.

01:12:55 You know like I don't know what I was doing. I'm figuring it out, so I made a lot of mistakes, okay, but I'm not going to keep making them. That's the whole point. So, yeah, man, just yes, yes, and we're making this record. It's called the Impossible Dream, although I might end up calling it I'm. Possible Dreams, meaning people. I mean Neil Patrick Harris, no way. Leslie Odom Jr, kelly O'Hara, kate Baldwin, norm Lewis oh man, just found out recently, josh Groban and I are going to do a track. I don't even know if we can say that yet to your first person.

01:13:42 - Chase (Host) We might have to table this, might have to bleep out Josh Groban's name.

01:13:47 - Aaron (Guest) Who else? Because I've said so many people oh, my gosh, uh, rebecca luker. These are all tony winning grammy nominee, tony nominee. I mean, these are some of the.

01:13:56 - Chase (Host) I'm like blown away.

01:13:57 - Aaron (Guest) That's incredible thank you, man. Yeah, it's all songs of, of, uh, of hope and and inspiration, and, uh, there was a a beautiful soul and beautiful talent, broadway star Rebecca Luker, who passed away from ALS a couple of years ago, and the great Seth Rudetsky, who's a Broadway names. They were going down the Broadway rabbit hole right now for a second but I said, seth, hey, will you help me sort of think about songs that could be on this album? And he said, oh, it'd be amazing if you sang with rebecca. And I was like, wait, can we do that? And we can. So her label from an album she made in the 90s, is pulling some of her stuff. I'm going to duet with her.

01:14:40 - Chase (Host) Um, oh, wow which is such an honor I was waiting for like yeah, we're dropping an ai track, or no, although now we could lauren all reds on this album, um not familiar with her.

01:14:50 - Aaron (Guest) Oh my god, I mean one of the greatest voices on the planet.

01:14:53 - Chase (Host) You know her from, uh, never, never, be enough from greatest showman she's like oh that's her, that's her oh my god, don't even get me started on the greatest show. My wife and I were obsessed over picking up the trash can again, anyway.

01:15:07 - Aaron (Guest) So we're making this album and, um, if anybody out there is interested in supporting us, if you go to my website, there's just a link to pre-order the album Aaron Lazarcom, Aaron Lazarcom. Uh, also, you can pre-order the album where you can donate, um you know, a more significant amount of money, if you want to, to help fund the album.

01:15:29 - Chase (Host) Well, please, please, let me know when it's becoming more alive, like I. I want to support whatever we can do.

01:15:40 - Aaron (Guest) It's a lot. I was in the studio. Oh no, it's not out. Okay, it'll be out, hopefully this summer, in time for a Grammy deadlines.

01:15:43 - Chase (Host) We're still in production, but like it's happening right now, you have my full support, whatever I can do.

01:15:53 - Aaron (Guest) Thanks, man. Yeah, If we could. Just, you know, even just getting to to plug it.

01:15:55 - Chase (Host) Um, there's only one other thing I was gonna say about it. Uh, I'll have all that linked to the show notes for everybody.

01:15:57 - Aaron (Guest) Thank you, man. Yeah, just if you go to my website, also, under the healing section is a bibliography of all the books that, some of which we talked about. So people sometimes ask me like, hey, is there a book that you'd recommend? And I'm like, yes, but also when I like sort of and Tope has actually taught me this, he was like man sometimes I just go into like a bookstore and I just go to the book that calls to me. So if you go to the website, just check out the list. One of those books may call.

01:16:24 - Chase (Host) I got to check that out. I need some new reads on my shelf as well. Yeah, we should trade. We'll trade some recommendations. I got quite a few, quite a few. Well, aaron, this has been incredible, and I do want to ask you now kind of my final question. We hinted at at the beginning ever forward, those two words. What do they mean to you? How do you, aaron Lazar, live a life ever forward?

01:16:46 - Aaron (Guest) How do I live a life ever forward? Um, how do I live a life ever forward? Choose faith, choose belief in myself and and the world around me, that that life's got my back, and choose to stay open to receiving the unknown the infinite of possible and choose to overcome.

01:17:22 - Chase (Host) The power of choice never ceases to amaze me yeah, yeah that was you man. So thanks for that. Everybody. Check out AaronLazarcom, check, check out his work, his music, his shows, um, and if you're looking for the only person on yellowstone that can hold his weight in the room next to beth it's this guy.

01:17:41 - Aaron (Guest) I'll take that. What a scene.

01:17:44 - Chase (Host) what a scene, man. Uh well, this again has been my honor and just thank you so much for coming in. Like I, I know what it means for you to add another thing onto your plate for the day, so thank you no thank you, chase, I appreciate it, man. For more information on everything you just heard, make sure to check this episode show notes or head to EverForwardRadio.com