Ep. 30 | Justin Wren | Defeat Hate With Love

The Thought Room

Justin Wren is a heavy-weight mixed martial arts fighter, humanitarian, and all around incredible person.

Over a decade ago, the world got to know Justin through his successful career in the UFC – from starring in the Spike reality show “The Ultimate Fighter,” to becoming a dominating force in the heavyweight division, to his MMA record of 15-2. Today, the world knows Justin for the size of his heart and the amazing work he is doing in the world.

Following a six-year struggle with addiction and depression in his early career, Justin stepped away from MMA to seek out purpose and passion for his life. What he found was a forgotten tribe of Mbuti Pygmies deep in the jungles of the Congo, beaten down by economic enslavement, disease, and hopelessness.

Through his Fight For The Forgotten initiative, 1,500 members of this formerly enslaved people group are now free and flourishing on 3,000 acres of their own land with access to clean water and their own farms.

Today Fight For The Forgotten is working with a community of Batwa Pygmies in Uganda, supporting them with clean water, latrines, housing and agricultural tools and seed for farming, with the dream of them one day, in the not-too-far future, becoming self-sufficient, going from extinction to thriving.

Justin is an incredible story-teller, and has become a close friend of mine. His voice and his stories are exactly the kind that I want to be raising up on this podcast, and I am so excited to share this one with all of you.

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Topics Explored:

12:00 How Hallie and Justin met

16:00 The beginning of Justin’s incredible life story

21:00 Justin’s experience on the Ultimate Fighter and challenge with addiction at a young age

32:30 A traumatic story from Justin’s childhood

45:30 How helping others helped Justin begin to heal

58:00 A slap on the head from God and a path to recovery

67:00 Justin’s suicide attempt

87:00 The pressure of the pedestal

90:30 Justin’s visions and transformative journey in Sedona

131:00 The genesis of Fight for the Forgotten, Justin’s non-profit organization

151:00 Defeating hate with love - Stories from the Congo

173:00 How showing up with love can shift energy

Resources:

fightfortheforgotten.org

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Website | fightfortheforgotten.org

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Special thanks to Emmy-Award winning composer Kodomo (Chris Child) for allowing us to use his brilliant track Concept 1 as our theme song.

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The Thought Room is a combination of edge-of-your-seat storytelling and groundbreaking interviews with celebrated thought-leaders like Erick Godsey and many more from around the world.

Recorded everywhere from hotel rooms in New York City, to a camper van in Maine; from the coastal forests of Costa Rica, to a picnic blanket amongst grapes in a vineyard in Sedona—host Hallie Rose captures rich, face-to-face interviews and intimate storytelling in a variety of eccentric locations.

From musicians to mathematicians, life coaches to psychonauts, PhDs to professional athletes—we’ll invite them all to step into the Thought Room to spill their stories and share their most distilled wisdom. The show covers a breadth of topics including psychology, spirituality, sex & relationships, psychedelics, ayahuasca, non-violent communication, law of attraction, bio-hacking, fitness, nutrition, alternative health, personal development, business & entrepreneurship, mindfulness, yoga, and meditation.

Quotes from my guests on Psychedelics:

“Psychedelics are like a direct portal to the Psyche” - Erick Godsey

“What my experience with psychedelics has taught me is that all the magic is here!” - Kyle Buller

“The medicines have a way of changing one's perspective powerfully and profoundly.” - Luke Storey

“Psychedelics are not suppressed because they are dangerous to users; they’re suppressed because they provoke unconventional thought, which threatens any number of elites and institutions that would rather do our thinking for us.” - Dr. Dennis McKenna

Quotes from my guests on Consciousness:

“I’m a true believer that our lives are a product of our imagination.” - Ollie Ollerton

“Never let those who lack belief in themselves rob you of yours.” - Dorian Yates

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Quotes from my guests on Ayahuasca:

“And I am leaving, knowing — I don’t want my dharma revealed to me...I want to create it, I want to walk it, I want to dance it, moment by moment. Thank you, Ayahuasca.” - Erick Godsey

“Ayahuasca is a symbiotic ally of the human species.” - Dennis McKenna

Celebrated guests include Dr. Dennis McKenna, Justin Wren, Erick Godsey, Ollie Ollerton & Dorian Yates.

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