Year Of The Opposite - Travis Stoliker's Substack Podcast

Yesterday I shared a statistic: 54% of American adults can’t read above a 6th-grade level . I thought it was pretty shocking so I wanted to note it so I could start investigating it. That’s why I shared it. But it’s the responses (some had to be hidden/deleted) that I want to talk about. The comment replies quickly turned into assigning blame to either teachers or parents . It had to be one of the...

I want to be very clear: I am NOT endorsing or opposing any politician or candidate. But this is an incredibly important topic and I am hoping that I can break it down fairly and dispassionately. I am also going to try my best to keep my personal views out of it. I look forward to hearing your thoughts, comments, corrections and questions. Here goes… Year Of The Opposite - Travis Stoliker's Substa...

This is a hard post to write. It’s uncomfortable talking about sadness. Many of us have been conditioned to think that it’s unproductive or even wrong to discuss. While I do think there is some truth to the idea that we shouldn’t overly focus on our negative emotions, I also think that ignoring these feelings can give others the incorrect impression that everyone else has their life figured out an...

Note: Sorry for the poor audio on the podcast. I’m on vacation and don’t have access to my usual studio setup. Lansing is a fine city. I love my family here, I love my in-laws here, and I love my friends here dearly. But it is unquestionable to say that I hindered my career and my intelligence by staying in Lansing, Michigan. One of the truest things ever said about relationships is that you becom...

The biggest misconception of my life was assuming that other people would want to know when something they said was incorrect. I always thought I was doing them a favor. But, in my experience, most people would rather go on being wrong than face the personal trauma of being confronted with new information that doesn’t align with their opinion—even when their opinion is incorrect. It was easy for m...

The National Association of Realtors agreed to pay $418 million to settle an antitrust suit that showed that they colluded to inflate commissions, block competition, inflate US housing prices, and harm consumers.  The $418 million might seem like a lot, but it’s less that a half percent (.5%) of the $100 billion of real estate commissions that consumers pay every single year!   So why did they set...

Today I am going to complain and I feel gross about it because my life is amazing and no one wants to hear someone complain. But I want to share this story because I think it shows a side of humanity that people don’t talk about. TLDR: Here’s the short version… * I believe in active citizenship, so I joined the School Board. * I had a silly idea to donate $3,000 to any staff or teacher at the scho...

My friend posted a short video from the amazing Jon Stewart. I love Stewart and I think he’s a national treasure. But on this particular issue, I think he has it exactly backwards. Here is the video: Thanks for reading Year Of The Opposite - Travis Stoliker's Substack! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work. I would suggest, this isn’t a problem of corporations. Definitely not...

First a confession… I’ve been predicting Full Self-Driving cars would be a reality “this year” for about a decade, so you might want to take my predictions with a grain of salt. 😂😂 However, I recently got my hands on Tesla’s Full Self Driving version 12, marking the first iteration that leverages machine learning and neural networks, akin to AI systems like ChatGPT. This new approach eschews tra...

I bet my friends $500 that I could make them happier in 7 days and 100% either got happier or stayed very happy. It was a huge success! In my opinion… However, one of my readers significantly disagreed with me. I shared the readers previous comment in my last post titled “ Challenge Results: All Participants Got Happy In 7 Days! ” That reader replied to the last post so I wanted to share it to see...

I wanted to give a short personal update: I've joined Scribe Media as VP of Marketing. I've been a fan of Scribe for a long time because they have published some of my favorite books including those from David Goggins & my good buddy Eric Jorgenson . If you read business books, I've probably given you a copy of The Almanack Of Naval Ravikant . Scribe has been around for almost a decade and has pro...

Welcome to Year Of The Opposite : Travis Stoliker's Newsletter for People That Don't Subscribe to Newsletters. Ex: Saddleback, Liquid Web, & Techsmith. Read Time: 6 minutes. 3 months ago I proposed a crazy challenge: “ You'll be happier in 7 days or I'll pay you $500! ” I proposed this challenge because I was worried about how many of my friends were telling me that they were depressed. I had an i...

I’m very sorry for my absence. My son and I fell very sick with a stomach bug and we are finally back rejoining the world. That was rough. Thanks for your patience. Whenever I’m sick I am reminded of the quote: “A healthy person wants a million things. A sick person wants just one.” This made me want to tell the story of the medical therapy ATA188. A month ago I shared the story of an incredible i...

Joe, I apologize for posting this letter publicly. I know you’re a private guy. But I don’t have your new address . Today marks two years since you left us and I have a lot of updates to share. But dude, I gotta confess, I was pretty angry at you for leaving the way you did. It kinda fucked me up. Losing you sent me into a depression that was difficult to overcome. Hell, I still can’t listen to Ji...

Sickle Cell Disease impacts about 100,000 people in the US every year. It’s an incredibly painful disease where the cells become misshapen like a crescent moon or a sickle. This shape causes the cells to get trapped and restrict the blood flood which causes chronic pain, organ damage, strokes, and shortened life expectancy. Bone marrow transplant has been the best treatment for patients, but it wa...

I’m currently reading ‘The Adventures of Tom Sawyer’ and ‘Letters from J.D. Rockefeller to his son’. Both books have me thinking a lot about childhood and parenting. I will be 56 years old when Lane turns 18 and as an older father, my mortality is always on my mind. I know that despite my best efforts to improve my health, any of us could be taken at any time. I don’t want Lane to be fatherless. Y...

I was honored that one of my readers asked for my assistance in evaluating the health claims made by products referred to as “Hormonal Teas”. The specific advertisement she referenced was from a company called “Avery Apothecary” and the product is “ Goddess Tea Blend .” The product makes several claims on their website: “Ladies, enjoy a cup of this tea every day and the synergy of the plants help...

One of my first challenges in the Year Of The Opposite was the 40 degree cold plunge. Now, I'm addicted to it, not solely for the muscle recovery and numerous health benefits (which I'll cover in another post), but because of what it does for my brain, mood, and attitude. Over the past year I have been increasing my tolerance up to a current maximum of 14 minutes in 40-42 degree water . But my reg...

First: Thank You to all the new subscribers to my Newsletter. I appreciate you. Because we have so many new subscribers, today’s newsletter is going to be a bit different. I thought it would be appropriate to provide a bit of background on myself, explain what The Year Of The Opposite is, and let you know what kind of writing you should expect to receive from this newsletter. Reminder: As a remind...

You may have already seen the news that I have sold all of my shares in Saddleback BBQ, Slice By Saddleback, all of our properties, and the LLC’s to Co-Owner, Matt Gillett. It’s been a long process and I have a lot of mixed feelings about the sale that I’m still trying to process. On one hand, I’m super proud of what we have achieved and that the businesses are in a place where they can be fully h...

This has been one of the most impactful processes that I have used to improve my mental heath, build deeper relationships, and accomplish my personal and professional goals. This is a free step by step guide on how to complete a 360 degree review of your strengths and weaknesses and use the power of artificial intelligence to synthesize the data to produce an actionable list of 10 New Year’s resol...

Summary (The TLDR) * Alarming data is coming in: Some patients on Wegovy & Ozempic are seeing 50% to 60% of their weight loss come from lean tissue. (muscle). Patients may be getting lighter on the scale but increasing their body fat percentage. This is concerning. (One study here ) * As a comparison, when losing weight naturally, it is typical that about 25% of your weight loss will come from lea...

No one took me up on my offer last week. Lets try again. As you may recall, last week I made the offer that “ I will improve your winter blues in 7 days, or I'll pay you $50. ” I was nervous because I was risking $23,000 of my own money and trying to have some “skin in the game” as they say. It started off strong with four people saying that they wanted to do it, but unfortunately, no one made it...

I will improve your Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) or winter blues within 7 days or I will pay you $50. It’s that simple. If you’re like me, the short days, lack of sunlight, and cold weather can make me a little sad or throw my mood off in general. I’ve developed a system that helps me overcome the winter blues. I am risking $23,000 of my own money because I’m that confident that my system wil...

As most of you know, I am the Co-Owner of two BBQ restaurants and two Pizza places in the Lansing, Michigan area. We also offer two BBQ sauces and two spice rubs in our restaurants and retailers around Michigan and online . But this isn’t a sales pitch for them… I’m mentioning this because I want to give you a FREE bottle of Sauce as a Thank You for being a subscriber to this newsletter! All you n...