Meeting Bryan Johnson at Din Tai Fung and his don't die health cult

Finally got to meet @bryan_johnson

I invited him for me and my girlfriend's favorite food in Asia, which are 🥟 Xiaolongbao dumplings at Din Tai Fung

Of course I fully expected him to say NO because Xiaolongbaos are definitely not Blueprint-approved, but he replied "let's go!"

I expected him to arrive alone, but he arrived with a full entourage, his co-founder and CMO @_katetolo and his team member Nana

Of course I was starstruck but he's so chill that you can't really stay starstruck very long. And instead of talking a lot about himself, he didn't, he was really curious about us, how we met, where we came from, really sweet.

When the food arrived, he even tried xiaolongbao, although a vegetarian version of it, and eating only a bit, dissecting it first to inspect what was in it, and then trying it. Then with a giant smile he said "Look it's the same thing as you're eating!", as we were eating pork xiaolongbaos. I couldn't admit it was not completely the same taste so I said "Yes exactly! It's the same thing!" because he was so sweet 😂

His laugh is so funny, he laughs at everything you say, and you start laughing cause his laugh is so contagious and pure.

What's cool about Bryan is that unlike other gurus in health and food, he's not at all judgemental. We're pretty healthy, we eat clean and go to gym 4 times per week. But we told him our favorite thing in America was Cinnabon, the cinnamon rolls that are warm melt in your mouth and smell so good. He laughed hysterically about us. He doesn't tell other people what to do. But he's open to helping you if you ask about health, like I did about my current regimen of supplements which is about 20x less than his. But he's not dogmatic.

And maybe that's for a reason. Just like me 10 years ago, he also reset his life when he wasn't happy with it. I became a digital nomad and went across the world and it changed my life for good. He went from depressed, anxious and lethargic to healthy and extremely fit.

So he understands on a personal level very well that everybody is at a different stage in their journey towards health and happiness. Being dogmatic about health and gym then doesn't help, it just closes people off in my experience. But leading by example, inspiring people and being ready to help when people ask for it does help, which is what he does.

His story also shows to me that it's never to late to change your life. He did a hard fork towards health in his early to mid 40s I think. From my experience, if you're radically unhappily with your life, it's usually better to do a hard fork like this. Change your environment, identity, and become who you really want to be. Because you have decades of baggage that made you what you don't want to be today.

Then he told us about his plans with Blueprint, the moment I crossed eyes with my girlfriend, I could read her eyes and she was thinking the same thing as me. "That sounds like a cult to me, and you're the cult leader"

Of course, I would never say such a thing, and just keep it in my mind.

But the problem is, when something lies on my tongue, I have to just say it and see what happens (but what if he'd be offended?)

So when silence felt, I was like, fuck it

I frighteningly told him "So it sounds a bit like a cult right?"

With the biggest smile I've ever seen anyone have, he exclamated

"Yes EXACTLY, Pieter, we're building a worldwide cult! Hahhaha!!!"

It's impossible to not like him 😂😂😂

He told us his secret plan with DON'T DIE. He wants to make it a worldwide health cult, with bases in cities around the world, that give acces to billions of people to eat clean pure food, get supplements that are not contaminated (he says most sold are) and gyms to work out from. Real phyiscal spaces centered on healthy lifestyles.

Starting a health cult sounds batshit crazy to me, but it's no so crazy if you consider that our global society now is one of a majority of overweight and obese people eating processed food every day, who don't want to work out, and are just getting fatter and unhealthier every year.

In a world like that, maybe a health cult can be a good thing?

Bryan is probably the nicest, chillest, and most fun person of any famous people I've met, which I think proves that eating clean and lifting weights and exercising helps not just keeping your body fit, but more so it creates a healthy mind which just makes you a nice and warm person.

His Netflix documentary is out now and like his cult is called DON'T DIE

Originally posted on X