The Nik Hawks Show

Barry Murray is a sports nutritionist and coach for elite endurance athletes. His main focus is on adapting athletes to burn fat instead of carbs, and his work with Tour de France cyclists along with his own performances (several wins in ultra marathons) lend credence to his ideas. In this podcast we discuss how long it takes to fat adapt, how fat adaptation is not the only part of athletic perfor...

Phil Maffetone is back on the Paleo Treats Podcast, though this time we swing well away from athletic performance and into the realm of Purpose and Music. Phil has had 2 major epiphanies in his life, the first took him down the path of becoming a world class coach and doctor. The second drew him into the world of music and songwriting. In this episode, our conversation ranges widely from discussin...

Our guest on this podcast is Dr. Phil Maffetone, coach of legendary athletes Mark Allen, Stu Mittelman, and Mario Andretti. Phil has worked with more than just sporting greats, he's been an adviser to the military on how to make B2 bomber pilots more effective, has worked with NASA and has even helped race horses improve their performance via heart rate training. He's most well known for The Maffe...

Matt Kuzdub from PUSH comes on the show to talk about strength training, running, and how the PUSH device can help you get better with both. PUSH is an armband that measures speed over shorter distances; you mainly use it to track bar speed while lifting, although you can also track pull ups, push ups, and medicine ball throws with it. Training based around bar speed is called "velocity based trai...

Brooks Kubik is one of the most prolific writers in the Iron Game and he brings an absolute wealth of experience to the table. In this episode we talk about the mind game, when to train with (and without) partners, the importance of working out in a dingy facility, and he adds one more aspect to the Big Four of performance to make it the Big Five: Deep, focused concentration. Listen in if you love...

Originally introduced to Brooks Kubik through his book, "Dinosaur Training", his work has had a huge impact on how I train. Brooks is a fan of pure strength along with what you might (if you were a CrossFitter) call "ultra heavy metcon." Heavy sandbags, barrels, car pushing, farmer's walks, and as many odd lifts as you can imagine make up Brooks' routines. He's a 5 time National Champion in sub-ma...

Have you wondered what happens to all the Navy SEALs who don't get out and write books? Of course, there are a whole slew of Special Operators who are consummate quiet professionals, but it turns out that keeping it all in has its own set of problems. Luckily, there are a few groups out there dedicated to doing the actual work (not just raising the money) to help out the Few. In this podcast we sp...

Sarah Red-Laird from beegirl.org joins us in an attempt to drill some very basic bee information into our heads. We talk about everything from the slowly receding threat of colony collapse disorder to beekeeping in the UK to a brief dive into the intricacies of the US subsidy system. It's brief, calm down. Enjoy!

Pete Scobell, a Navy SEAL, talks about Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) and how it affects him along with the latest treatments.

Steve Underwood is the Fire Management Officer out at Mesa Verde National Park and a 26 year veteran of fighting forest fires. He is also one of the most well read folks you’ll ever meet. In this podcast we talk about many different famous wildfires, from Mann Gulch in ’49 to Yellowstone in ’88 to the 2006 Tripod fire and the 1994 Storm King fire. Steve covers everything from how fires operated be...

When Robert Young Pelton suggests you look somebody up for an interview, we think it’s a pretty good idea to follow up on that, which is how this episode with Billy Waugh came to be. Having not heard much about Waugh before RYP mentioned him, I was stoked upon reading his book Hunting the Jackal to have him agree to be on the podcast; damn, this is a good gig! Billy is now in his mid-eighties but...

I signed up a while ago for the RYP newsletter, so when it dropped into my box on Monday I wasn't surprised. It was a quick note from the man himself about a recent piece he'd done for VICE on South Sudan. I asked if he wanted to come pimp the piece on the PTPC and I got slightly more than I asked for. This is without a doubt the most fact filled and deep podcast we've done. You probably have a pe...

Phil Zimmerman is one of the world's experts on cryptography, which is the study and application of ensuring that no one but you and the person you're talking to can understand what you're saying. In 1991 Phil invented the way that we secure email communications (PGP, or Pretty Good Privacy) and has been awarded damn near everything you can be noticed for in the digital encryption world, including...

Victor Davis Hanson, author of a number of books on military and more specifically ancient Greek military history as well as farming from the agrarian hoplite perspective, joins us for this episode of the Paleo Treats podcast. Having been inspired to grow grapes from The Land Was Everything: Letters from an American Farmer to learn Attic Greek after reading Who Killed Homer: The Demise of Classica...

This time around we turn from mountains and physical adventure to speak with one of San Diego's finest minds, Lambert Ninteman III. Lambert isn't just another pretty face, this guy can speak fluent Chinese and French, can reel off the dates of damn near every important event in human history prior to 1980, is a tea master, and in his spare time is getting his MBA and acting as the captain of the S...

This time around we turn back to the mountain men and talk with Doug Chabot, an avalanche specialist, mountain guide, climber, and co-founder of the non-profit Iqra Fund. Doug talks about how he went from being a New Jersey boy with no wilderness skills to a respected climber with several first ascents and notable climbs in the Karakorum, Hindu Kush, and Pamir mountains. He also tells the story of...

Perhaps best known for her work with ESPN on the X-Games and in NASCAR, Jamie Little tells the classic American story of starting out as a wild child, working hard and getting a few breaks to become one of the most well known names in motorsports reporting.

A damnably interesting fellow, Gregory Crouch is a climber & author who has traveled from Patagonia to Persia in search of first ascents, hard ascents, easy ascents, and everything else that goes with climbing in heavy weather. Crouch has written excellent books, in this podcast we talk about Enduring Patagonia, China's Wings, Right Mate Let's Get On With It and others. Greg is a superb storytelle...

So you probably eat Paleo, but does your dog? It should! Listen in as Mike Ritland talks about how he trains dogs for everybody from the Navy SEALs to high net worth individuals, and how feeding affects everything from daily performance to how many healthy puppies will be produced in a litter. Mike is an absolute wealth of knowledge on dogs and if you have *any* kind of interest at all in (wo)man'...

Robert Young Pelton, author of "The World's Most Dangerous Places", shares his thoughts on the benefits of getting fired, running Route Irish in Iraq, being kidnapped by Columbians, and offers up a great perspective on livin' the dream. "Basically I'm famous for still being alive". Journalist, photographer, and all around adventurer, Robert offers that rare perspective of a man who has followed hi...

Ever wanted to know the way a professional problem solver thinks? Tune in this week and listen to my good friend Chris talk about the genesis and development of a world class problem solver. Chris has worked as everything from a Paramedic to a Park Ranger to a soldier and has worked everywhere from combat diving underwater to high mountain adventuring. A member of the ever shrinking group of Ameri...

This week we talk with Ryan Williams, former SEAL turned entrepreneur. Ryan is a 6'2" 210 lb asskicker with a mind to match. He was the co-founder for Forged Clothing and after selling his stake in that moved on to Demonbells, the first custom cast art kettlebells on the planet. Listen in as we talk about growing up in the Teams, the hazards of owning a kettlebell business, and the finer points of...

Kick it with Hollywood epic writer Kurt Johnstad (300, Act of Valor, 300: Rise of an Empire) as we talk about the crucible of physical exertion, the reason for pursuing excellence, and just how important a good cup of coffee is. Kurt is one of the few true Muses of the military and his inside take on the importance of following your passion is well worth listening to. Rock on Kurt!

Navy SEAL motivational speaker and author Dave Rutherford fires up the show with his own special brand of energy, get ready! Drawing on experiences from Azerbaijan to Afghanistan, Dave talks about how to embrace fear, build self confidence, and develop team life. If you've ever wondered what it's like to experience pure human energy than get ready for an amazing interview with a guy who can litera...

This week we talk with cyclist Jeff Pierce, the first American to win a stage in the Tour de France and his wife Jo Kiesanowski, 3 time Olympian cyclist. Yes, this is a cycling-heavy episode. :) Jeff & Jo talk about his epic finish in 1987, old school training (running up hill with big iron pipes in each hand), mentally preparing for huge races, and the best way they've found to use the Paleo diet...