He is most famous as the man who would eat up to half a kilo of raw liver every day. Brian Johnson, better known as the Liver King, promoted an ancestral lifestyle that rejected the modern world.
But did he really stay true to this lifestyle?
In part two of our mini-series on Great American Con Artists, we’ll tell the story of the Liver King, his philosophy, success, and eventual downfall.
[00:00:00] Hello, hello hello, and welcome to English Learning for Curious Minds, by Leonardo English.
[00:00:11] The show where you can listen to fascinating stories, and learn weird and wonderful things about the world at the same time as improving your English.
[00:00:20] I'm Alastair Budge, and today is part two of our mini-series on The Great American Con Artist.
[00:00:26] If you missed it, in part one we looked at Billy McFarland and Fyre Festival, and in the next episode we’ll talk about a fake German heiress called Anna Sorokin.
[00:00:38] And in today’s episode we are going to talk about a man called Brian Johnson, a man better known by the name “Liver King”.
[00:00:47] To his millions of social media followers, he was a health and wellness guru, teaching people how they too could live happier, healthier lives by returning to an ancestral lifestyle.
[00:01:00] Beneath the surface, behind the plates of bull testicles and raw meat, the reality was somewhat different.
[00:01:09] OK then, let’s get right into it and talk about Liver King.
[00:01:15] Now, the internet is full of people who will promise to help you become a different person.
[00:01:21] Get a better job, make more money, get fitter, be happier, be a better husband or wife, or even learn English.
[00:01:30] Self-improvement, this broad category, is worth hundreds of billions of dollars.
[00:01:36] And, as you will no doubt know, everyone has their own unique methods and strategies to help you do this.
[00:01:43] Learn English in 30 days by joining my unique programme.
[00:01:47] Get a beach body in 2 weeks with these 12 steps.
[00:01:51] Follow my 10-step program to get the job of your dreams.
[00:01:55] You get the picture.
[00:01:57] And, as you will know if you’ve taken any of these courses, most of the time the steps are not particularly unique, you will find the same stuff recycled and repackaged in a slightly different way.
[00:02:12] This is the case most of the time, but sometimes, just sometimes, someone will come along who has a different proposition altogether. A proposition so unique, so different to what everyone else is saying, that people sit up and take notice.
[00:02:31] One such person first appeared on social media in August of 2021.
[00:02:37] He was an American called Brian Johnson. He would never tell you his name was Brian Johnson, though, there would be no reference to Brian Johnson.
[00:02:47] Brian Johnson was dead.
[00:02:49] This man was Liver King.
[00:02:53] Now, just in case you need a reminder, “liver” is the large organ that regulates chemical levels, cleans the blood, and does all sorts of important things.
[00:03:04] And the reason he was called “Liver King” is because he would eat up to half a kilo of raw liver, uncooked liver, every single day.
[00:03:17] That wasn’t all.
[00:03:19] Liver King’s entire philosophy, his entire message to anyone who followed him on Instagram, TikTok, or any of his social media channels, was that the modern world, and modern food, was making people soft and weak.
[00:03:36] By returning to an ancestral lifestyle, Liver King claimed, you would be happier, healthier, and live a better life.
[00:03:46] An ancestral lifestyle essentially meant going back to how people lived thousands of years ago, without any modern comforts.
[00:03:55] And like any good seller of dreams, Liver King distilled this down to 9 different ideas, ideas that he called the 9 tenets.
[00:04:08] These are, in order, sleep, eat, move, shield, connect, cold, sun, fight and bond.
[00:04:19] And when put together, they all combine for a simple mission, and I’m quoting directly, “To put back in what the modern world left out”
[00:04:31] Now, what did this mean in practice?
[00:04:34] It meant rejecting much of the modern world, modern food, and modern comforts, and instead behaving more like a caveman than a 21st century American.
[00:04:45] And Liver King’s social media was full of videos of him doing exactly this.
[00:04:52] If you see a video of Liver King–and there are no shortage of them online–you’ll first be struck by how he looks.
[00:05:00] Firstly, he is incredibly muscly, he has a huge chest and huge biceps, which are always easy to see because he never wears a shirt. I mean, never, I’ve tried very hard to find a picture of him in a shirt, but whether it’s TV interviews or even walking around New York City in the winter, he always wears shorts and no shirt, he is topless. He also has a big beard and long hair, which makes him look like the stereotype of a caveman.
[00:05:33] But, you might be thinking, there are plenty of people who are muscly and look a bit like a caveman, what makes Liver King so special?
[00:05:42] Well, it’s about what you see him doing in these videos.
[00:05:46] The most notable thing, which makes up around half of the videos, is of Liver King eating.
[00:05:53] And, of course, he isn’t sitting down with a pizza and coke.
[00:05:58] He eats bull testicles, tongue, tail, heart, bone marrow, cow’s head, and, of course, plenty of raw liver.
[00:06:09] His philosophy is that humans should eat the whole animal, nose-to-tail, horns-to-hooves, and that is what he seems to eat.
[00:06:20] Now, you might think, good on him, if you are going to eat meat then you should eat every part of an animal. Or you might think, “eugh”, I don’t like the idea of eating raw, cold bull testicles.
[00:06:34] Liver King’s view is certainly the former. He believes, and says in practically every interview he does, that processed foods are one of the worst things about the modern world, and that by cutting these out entirely, by returning to an ancestral diet, our bodies will be healthier.
[00:06:55] You might say, sure, he does have a point.
[00:06:59] The health dangers of processed foods, especially super-processed foods, are well documented. And let’s remember that Liver King is American, his audience is mainly American, and the US is the capital of super processed, unhealthy food.
[00:07:17] So, it’s hardly surprising that this message resonated with his audience.
[00:07:23] And what else would you see Liver King doing?
[00:07:26] Well, following the other eight tenets.
[00:07:29] He seems to spend a lot of time lifting heavy weights, challenging people to arm wrestles, and showing off his very large muscles.
[00:07:38] He even invented a gruelling workout called The Barbarian, which involves walking one mile, about one and a half kilometres, pulling a 50 kg sledge, with a 30 kg backpack on his back, carrying a 30 kg weight in each hand, and–as if that wasn’t hard enough–he has 10 kg of weights added to each leg.
[00:08:03] So, he ate lots of organs, he lifted heavy weights, what else did this modern caveman get up to?
[00:08:10] He would have ice baths, he would walk around his ranch with his dogs, and throw axes at trees.
[00:08:17] He was on a global mission to advance this “ancestral lifestyle”, going from place to place to connect with tribes in everywhere from central Asia to the plains of Africa.
[00:08:30] Along the way, of course, he would stop off for interviews on TV shows and podcasts, still topless, of course, where he would talk about his diet, his mission, and how everyone would benefit from taking a leaf out of his book, from doing what he did.
[00:08:49] Oh, and one thing which I just must add is that if he ever needed a haircut, he would only need to ask his wife, his so-called “Liver Queen”, who could cut it with a machete, a large hunting knife.
[00:09:04] So, why did he do all of this, what turned Brian Johson into Liver King?
[00:09:10] If you listen to any of his interviews, he would talk about the fact that he developed this ancestral lifestyle as a way of surviving after his kids were ill, after one had allergic reactions to “the modern world”.
[00:09:25] He realised, so he said, that by feeding his children the traditional American diet he was, and I’m quoting directly, killing them. His kids couldn’t breathe, they turned blue, and the only way to save them was by returning to the diet of a caveman.
[00:09:45] Clearly, it’s a powerful message. Everyone wants to do the right thing for their kids, Liver King looked happy and healthy, and he soon gathered millions of followers.
[00:09:57] TikTok was his main channel, with almost 5 million followers at the time of recording, and Instagram came shortly after, with 2 million.
[00:10:07] He was getting very popular indeed.
[00:10:11] Clearly, for some people it was all a bit of fun, watching this slightly strange man eating unusual things and lifting large weights.
[00:10:20] But for plenty of people, it was a powerful message.
[00:10:25] What if they too could become happier and healthier by doing what Liver King did?
[00:10:31] Why not give this ancestral living thing a shot, why not give it a try?
[00:10:37] Liver King knew, of course, that simply switching to ancestral living isn’t a feasible option for most people. You can’t just decide, ok, I’m going to eat fresh bull testicles every day from a bull I’ve just killed, and my boss will probably be a bit cross if I turn up topless to work every day and stop shaving.
[00:10:58] But no problem, Liver King had a solution.
[00:11:03] If you go to liverking.com, you will find all manner of supplements and snack bars, vetted by Liver King himself, that allow you to get all of the nutrition you need.
[00:11:16] And, as you might imagine, it’s not cheap.
[00:11:20] A bag of protein supplements would set you back $64, and a case of 12 Liver King bars costs a mere $42.
[00:11:29] And both were, I quote, “guaranteed to help you dominate your environment”.
[00:11:36] Now, it’s not clear quite how much money Liver King made selling these, but he claimed more than $100 million per year.
[00:11:46] Whatever the number, it's certainly enough to fund a pretty lavish lifestyle, a private chef, trips around the world, and a seemingly constant camera crew to film his every move.
[00:11:59] The problem was, was he really practising what he preached?
[00:12:04] Yes, there were plenty of videos of him taking ice baths, wandering around with no shoes and shirts, and, lest I forget, gulping down uncooked bull testicles.
[00:12:15] But something seemed off, something seemed unlikely.
[00:12:21] His muscles were so big, so large, could this really all come down to his lifestyle choice? Could you too become like him just by following his lifestyle?
[00:12:34] Well, as you have probably guessed given this is part of a series on The Great American Con Artist, there was something off with Liver King.
[00:12:44] Many people had claimed that he was on steroids, most famously the podcaster Joe Rogan, who said, and I’m quoting directly, “that guy has an assfull of steroids”.
[00:12:57] As a result, as Liver King toured the world, going on podcasts and giving interviews, he was constantly asked about this, asked flat out, “do you take steroids?”
[00:13:09] And again and again, he denied this.
[00:13:13] In fact, he embraced it, he seemed to loved being asked about his steroid use, because it gave him an opportunity to, yet again, promote his ancestral lifestyle, and his extensive line of products that you could buy.
[00:13:28] Every denial was another opportunity to promote his alternative way, to get more customers, to make more money.
[00:13:37] The problem was, at the end of 2022, fewer than 18 months after his social media took off, some private emails leaked.
[00:13:47] And these emails were explosive.
[00:13:50] It turned out that Liver King was putting something non-ancestral into his body.
[00:13:57] Yes, he was on large quantities of steroids, spending around $11,000 every month on a wide variety of different drugs to build his muscles.
[00:14:09] This body he had, that he claimed was only possible because of the strict ancestral lifestyle that he followed, was in fact made possible by large amounts of drugs.
[00:14:21] He had lied, and it wasn’t just a small lie about accidentally eating a chocolate bar or a hot dog.
[00:14:28] His entire brand, his entire message, everything he stood for, was about being natural and ancestral. And there he was, pumping his body full of steroids every day.
[00:14:41] The emails were conclusive, they were between him and a private doctor, there was no way he could deny them, and he was forced to issue a public apology to his millions of followers.
[00:14:54] Some of whom vowed to never buy anything from him again, others were more forgiving.
[00:15:01] And of course, Liver King being Liver King, he also took the opportunity to go on a PR blitz, a tour of different shows and podcasts, where he talked about his steroid use but again, portrayed himself as a victim, someone who only wanted to promote this amazing ancestral lifestyle, and someone who got caught up in his own success.
[00:15:24] Since all of this, which came out in December of 2022, he has pledged to be Liver King 2.0, Liver King without steroids.
[00:15:37] And if you go to his social media channels, you can still find him doing exactly the same stuff: eating liver, heart and testicles, lifting heavy weights, throwing axes at trees, and of course promoting his supplement brands.
[00:15:52] To someone who didn’t know about the steroid revelations, nothing has changed, and no doubt he is still selling tens of millions of dollars of Liver King products every month.
[00:16:05] Now, why was Liver King’s message so appealing to so many people?
[00:16:10] Firstly, it was unique, it was strange. After all, if you are scrolling through social media and you see a video of someone holding a raw cow’s liver, you probably stop and watch.
[00:16:24] Secondly, it seemed obvious. We know that highly processed foods can be bad for us, and a raw bull’s testicle is the polar opposite of a highly processed hot dog.
[00:16:38] Thirdly, it was simple. Eat, sleep, connect with nature, do exercise. These are all easy things to do, we kind of already know that they’re good for us, and it’s an easy message to understand. In fact, even disregarding the steroid revelations, much of what Liver King was preaching was good, common sense.
[00:17:01] Fourth, Liver King had a powerful personal message. He said that he did this to save his kids, and anyone can connect with that. Now, given what we know about Liver King’s commitment to the truth, who knows whether this was a fabrication to sell more supplements, but to many it was a genuine message.
[00:17:23] And finally, Liver King was living proof of the results. You just needed to look at him to see what you could look like too if you followed his advice and bought his supplements.
[00:17:36] Except, of course…he wasn’t.
[00:17:39] There might have been some positive elements to Liver King’s message, but his entire brand of health and happiness was underpinned by something very un-ancestral.
[00:17:51] To quote Joe Rogan, he had an “assfull of steroids”, it was, after all, one big lie.
[00:18:02] OK then, that is it for today's episode on Liver King, the pioneer of ancestral living, but occasional steroid junkie.
[00:18:11] As always, I would love to know what you thought of this episode.
[00:18:14] Had you heard about the story of Liver King before?
[00:18:18] Why do you think Liver King’s message was so appealing?
[00:18:21] What do you think about the idea of eating bull testicles and raw liver?
[00:18:26] I would love to know, so let’s get this discussion started.
[00:18:30] You can head right into our community forum, which is at community.leonardoenglish.com and get chatting away to other curious minds.
[00:18:37] You've been listening to English Learning for Curious Minds, by Leonardo English.
[00:18:42] I'm Alastair Budge, you stay safe, and I'll catch you in the next episode.
[END OF EPISODE]
[00:00:00] Hello, hello hello, and welcome to English Learning for Curious Minds, by Leonardo English.
[00:00:11] The show where you can listen to fascinating stories, and learn weird and wonderful things about the world at the same time as improving your English.
[00:00:20] I'm Alastair Budge, and today is part two of our mini-series on The Great American Con Artist.
[00:00:26] If you missed it, in part one we looked at Billy McFarland and Fyre Festival, and in the next episode we’ll talk about a fake German heiress called Anna Sorokin.
[00:00:38] And in today’s episode we are going to talk about a man called Brian Johnson, a man better known by the name “Liver King”.
[00:00:47] To his millions of social media followers, he was a health and wellness guru, teaching people how they too could live happier, healthier lives by returning to an ancestral lifestyle.
[00:01:00] Beneath the surface, behind the plates of bull testicles and raw meat, the reality was somewhat different.
[00:01:09] OK then, let’s get right into it and talk about Liver King.
[00:01:15] Now, the internet is full of people who will promise to help you become a different person.
[00:01:21] Get a better job, make more money, get fitter, be happier, be a better husband or wife, or even learn English.
[00:01:30] Self-improvement, this broad category, is worth hundreds of billions of dollars.
[00:01:36] And, as you will no doubt know, everyone has their own unique methods and strategies to help you do this.
[00:01:43] Learn English in 30 days by joining my unique programme.
[00:01:47] Get a beach body in 2 weeks with these 12 steps.
[00:01:51] Follow my 10-step program to get the job of your dreams.
[00:01:55] You get the picture.
[00:01:57] And, as you will know if you’ve taken any of these courses, most of the time the steps are not particularly unique, you will find the same stuff recycled and repackaged in a slightly different way.
[00:02:12] This is the case most of the time, but sometimes, just sometimes, someone will come along who has a different proposition altogether. A proposition so unique, so different to what everyone else is saying, that people sit up and take notice.
[00:02:31] One such person first appeared on social media in August of 2021.
[00:02:37] He was an American called Brian Johnson. He would never tell you his name was Brian Johnson, though, there would be no reference to Brian Johnson.
[00:02:47] Brian Johnson was dead.
[00:02:49] This man was Liver King.
[00:02:53] Now, just in case you need a reminder, “liver” is the large organ that regulates chemical levels, cleans the blood, and does all sorts of important things.
[00:03:04] And the reason he was called “Liver King” is because he would eat up to half a kilo of raw liver, uncooked liver, every single day.
[00:03:17] That wasn’t all.
[00:03:19] Liver King’s entire philosophy, his entire message to anyone who followed him on Instagram, TikTok, or any of his social media channels, was that the modern world, and modern food, was making people soft and weak.
[00:03:36] By returning to an ancestral lifestyle, Liver King claimed, you would be happier, healthier, and live a better life.
[00:03:46] An ancestral lifestyle essentially meant going back to how people lived thousands of years ago, without any modern comforts.
[00:03:55] And like any good seller of dreams, Liver King distilled this down to 9 different ideas, ideas that he called the 9 tenets.
[00:04:08] These are, in order, sleep, eat, move, shield, connect, cold, sun, fight and bond.
[00:04:19] And when put together, they all combine for a simple mission, and I’m quoting directly, “To put back in what the modern world left out”
[00:04:31] Now, what did this mean in practice?
[00:04:34] It meant rejecting much of the modern world, modern food, and modern comforts, and instead behaving more like a caveman than a 21st century American.
[00:04:45] And Liver King’s social media was full of videos of him doing exactly this.
[00:04:52] If you see a video of Liver King–and there are no shortage of them online–you’ll first be struck by how he looks.
[00:05:00] Firstly, he is incredibly muscly, he has a huge chest and huge biceps, which are always easy to see because he never wears a shirt. I mean, never, I’ve tried very hard to find a picture of him in a shirt, but whether it’s TV interviews or even walking around New York City in the winter, he always wears shorts and no shirt, he is topless. He also has a big beard and long hair, which makes him look like the stereotype of a caveman.
[00:05:33] But, you might be thinking, there are plenty of people who are muscly and look a bit like a caveman, what makes Liver King so special?
[00:05:42] Well, it’s about what you see him doing in these videos.
[00:05:46] The most notable thing, which makes up around half of the videos, is of Liver King eating.
[00:05:53] And, of course, he isn’t sitting down with a pizza and coke.
[00:05:58] He eats bull testicles, tongue, tail, heart, bone marrow, cow’s head, and, of course, plenty of raw liver.
[00:06:09] His philosophy is that humans should eat the whole animal, nose-to-tail, horns-to-hooves, and that is what he seems to eat.
[00:06:20] Now, you might think, good on him, if you are going to eat meat then you should eat every part of an animal. Or you might think, “eugh”, I don’t like the idea of eating raw, cold bull testicles.
[00:06:34] Liver King’s view is certainly the former. He believes, and says in practically every interview he does, that processed foods are one of the worst things about the modern world, and that by cutting these out entirely, by returning to an ancestral diet, our bodies will be healthier.
[00:06:55] You might say, sure, he does have a point.
[00:06:59] The health dangers of processed foods, especially super-processed foods, are well documented. And let’s remember that Liver King is American, his audience is mainly American, and the US is the capital of super processed, unhealthy food.
[00:07:17] So, it’s hardly surprising that this message resonated with his audience.
[00:07:23] And what else would you see Liver King doing?
[00:07:26] Well, following the other eight tenets.
[00:07:29] He seems to spend a lot of time lifting heavy weights, challenging people to arm wrestles, and showing off his very large muscles.
[00:07:38] He even invented a gruelling workout called The Barbarian, which involves walking one mile, about one and a half kilometres, pulling a 50 kg sledge, with a 30 kg backpack on his back, carrying a 30 kg weight in each hand, and–as if that wasn’t hard enough–he has 10 kg of weights added to each leg.
[00:08:03] So, he ate lots of organs, he lifted heavy weights, what else did this modern caveman get up to?
[00:08:10] He would have ice baths, he would walk around his ranch with his dogs, and throw axes at trees.
[00:08:17] He was on a global mission to advance this “ancestral lifestyle”, going from place to place to connect with tribes in everywhere from central Asia to the plains of Africa.
[00:08:30] Along the way, of course, he would stop off for interviews on TV shows and podcasts, still topless, of course, where he would talk about his diet, his mission, and how everyone would benefit from taking a leaf out of his book, from doing what he did.
[00:08:49] Oh, and one thing which I just must add is that if he ever needed a haircut, he would only need to ask his wife, his so-called “Liver Queen”, who could cut it with a machete, a large hunting knife.
[00:09:04] So, why did he do all of this, what turned Brian Johson into Liver King?
[00:09:10] If you listen to any of his interviews, he would talk about the fact that he developed this ancestral lifestyle as a way of surviving after his kids were ill, after one had allergic reactions to “the modern world”.
[00:09:25] He realised, so he said, that by feeding his children the traditional American diet he was, and I’m quoting directly, killing them. His kids couldn’t breathe, they turned blue, and the only way to save them was by returning to the diet of a caveman.
[00:09:45] Clearly, it’s a powerful message. Everyone wants to do the right thing for their kids, Liver King looked happy and healthy, and he soon gathered millions of followers.
[00:09:57] TikTok was his main channel, with almost 5 million followers at the time of recording, and Instagram came shortly after, with 2 million.
[00:10:07] He was getting very popular indeed.
[00:10:11] Clearly, for some people it was all a bit of fun, watching this slightly strange man eating unusual things and lifting large weights.
[00:10:20] But for plenty of people, it was a powerful message.
[00:10:25] What if they too could become happier and healthier by doing what Liver King did?
[00:10:31] Why not give this ancestral living thing a shot, why not give it a try?
[00:10:37] Liver King knew, of course, that simply switching to ancestral living isn’t a feasible option for most people. You can’t just decide, ok, I’m going to eat fresh bull testicles every day from a bull I’ve just killed, and my boss will probably be a bit cross if I turn up topless to work every day and stop shaving.
[00:10:58] But no problem, Liver King had a solution.
[00:11:03] If you go to liverking.com, you will find all manner of supplements and snack bars, vetted by Liver King himself, that allow you to get all of the nutrition you need.
[00:11:16] And, as you might imagine, it’s not cheap.
[00:11:20] A bag of protein supplements would set you back $64, and a case of 12 Liver King bars costs a mere $42.
[00:11:29] And both were, I quote, “guaranteed to help you dominate your environment”.
[00:11:36] Now, it’s not clear quite how much money Liver King made selling these, but he claimed more than $100 million per year.
[00:11:46] Whatever the number, it's certainly enough to fund a pretty lavish lifestyle, a private chef, trips around the world, and a seemingly constant camera crew to film his every move.
[00:11:59] The problem was, was he really practising what he preached?
[00:12:04] Yes, there were plenty of videos of him taking ice baths, wandering around with no shoes and shirts, and, lest I forget, gulping down uncooked bull testicles.
[00:12:15] But something seemed off, something seemed unlikely.
[00:12:21] His muscles were so big, so large, could this really all come down to his lifestyle choice? Could you too become like him just by following his lifestyle?
[00:12:34] Well, as you have probably guessed given this is part of a series on The Great American Con Artist, there was something off with Liver King.
[00:12:44] Many people had claimed that he was on steroids, most famously the podcaster Joe Rogan, who said, and I’m quoting directly, “that guy has an assfull of steroids”.
[00:12:57] As a result, as Liver King toured the world, going on podcasts and giving interviews, he was constantly asked about this, asked flat out, “do you take steroids?”
[00:13:09] And again and again, he denied this.
[00:13:13] In fact, he embraced it, he seemed to loved being asked about his steroid use, because it gave him an opportunity to, yet again, promote his ancestral lifestyle, and his extensive line of products that you could buy.
[00:13:28] Every denial was another opportunity to promote his alternative way, to get more customers, to make more money.
[00:13:37] The problem was, at the end of 2022, fewer than 18 months after his social media took off, some private emails leaked.
[00:13:47] And these emails were explosive.
[00:13:50] It turned out that Liver King was putting something non-ancestral into his body.
[00:13:57] Yes, he was on large quantities of steroids, spending around $11,000 every month on a wide variety of different drugs to build his muscles.
[00:14:09] This body he had, that he claimed was only possible because of the strict ancestral lifestyle that he followed, was in fact made possible by large amounts of drugs.
[00:14:21] He had lied, and it wasn’t just a small lie about accidentally eating a chocolate bar or a hot dog.
[00:14:28] His entire brand, his entire message, everything he stood for, was about being natural and ancestral. And there he was, pumping his body full of steroids every day.
[00:14:41] The emails were conclusive, they were between him and a private doctor, there was no way he could deny them, and he was forced to issue a public apology to his millions of followers.
[00:14:54] Some of whom vowed to never buy anything from him again, others were more forgiving.
[00:15:01] And of course, Liver King being Liver King, he also took the opportunity to go on a PR blitz, a tour of different shows and podcasts, where he talked about his steroid use but again, portrayed himself as a victim, someone who only wanted to promote this amazing ancestral lifestyle, and someone who got caught up in his own success.
[00:15:24] Since all of this, which came out in December of 2022, he has pledged to be Liver King 2.0, Liver King without steroids.
[00:15:37] And if you go to his social media channels, you can still find him doing exactly the same stuff: eating liver, heart and testicles, lifting heavy weights, throwing axes at trees, and of course promoting his supplement brands.
[00:15:52] To someone who didn’t know about the steroid revelations, nothing has changed, and no doubt he is still selling tens of millions of dollars of Liver King products every month.
[00:16:05] Now, why was Liver King’s message so appealing to so many people?
[00:16:10] Firstly, it was unique, it was strange. After all, if you are scrolling through social media and you see a video of someone holding a raw cow’s liver, you probably stop and watch.
[00:16:24] Secondly, it seemed obvious. We know that highly processed foods can be bad for us, and a raw bull’s testicle is the polar opposite of a highly processed hot dog.
[00:16:38] Thirdly, it was simple. Eat, sleep, connect with nature, do exercise. These are all easy things to do, we kind of already know that they’re good for us, and it’s an easy message to understand. In fact, even disregarding the steroid revelations, much of what Liver King was preaching was good, common sense.
[00:17:01] Fourth, Liver King had a powerful personal message. He said that he did this to save his kids, and anyone can connect with that. Now, given what we know about Liver King’s commitment to the truth, who knows whether this was a fabrication to sell more supplements, but to many it was a genuine message.
[00:17:23] And finally, Liver King was living proof of the results. You just needed to look at him to see what you could look like too if you followed his advice and bought his supplements.
[00:17:36] Except, of course…he wasn’t.
[00:17:39] There might have been some positive elements to Liver King’s message, but his entire brand of health and happiness was underpinned by something very un-ancestral.
[00:17:51] To quote Joe Rogan, he had an “assfull of steroids”, it was, after all, one big lie.
[00:18:02] OK then, that is it for today's episode on Liver King, the pioneer of ancestral living, but occasional steroid junkie.
[00:18:11] As always, I would love to know what you thought of this episode.
[00:18:14] Had you heard about the story of Liver King before?
[00:18:18] Why do you think Liver King’s message was so appealing?
[00:18:21] What do you think about the idea of eating bull testicles and raw liver?
[00:18:26] I would love to know, so let’s get this discussion started.
[00:18:30] You can head right into our community forum, which is at community.leonardoenglish.com and get chatting away to other curious minds.
[00:18:37] You've been listening to English Learning for Curious Minds, by Leonardo English.
[00:18:42] I'm Alastair Budge, you stay safe, and I'll catch you in the next episode.
[END OF EPISODE]
[00:00:00] Hello, hello hello, and welcome to English Learning for Curious Minds, by Leonardo English.
[00:00:11] The show where you can listen to fascinating stories, and learn weird and wonderful things about the world at the same time as improving your English.
[00:00:20] I'm Alastair Budge, and today is part two of our mini-series on The Great American Con Artist.
[00:00:26] If you missed it, in part one we looked at Billy McFarland and Fyre Festival, and in the next episode we’ll talk about a fake German heiress called Anna Sorokin.
[00:00:38] And in today’s episode we are going to talk about a man called Brian Johnson, a man better known by the name “Liver King”.
[00:00:47] To his millions of social media followers, he was a health and wellness guru, teaching people how they too could live happier, healthier lives by returning to an ancestral lifestyle.
[00:01:00] Beneath the surface, behind the plates of bull testicles and raw meat, the reality was somewhat different.
[00:01:09] OK then, let’s get right into it and talk about Liver King.
[00:01:15] Now, the internet is full of people who will promise to help you become a different person.
[00:01:21] Get a better job, make more money, get fitter, be happier, be a better husband or wife, or even learn English.
[00:01:30] Self-improvement, this broad category, is worth hundreds of billions of dollars.
[00:01:36] And, as you will no doubt know, everyone has their own unique methods and strategies to help you do this.
[00:01:43] Learn English in 30 days by joining my unique programme.
[00:01:47] Get a beach body in 2 weeks with these 12 steps.
[00:01:51] Follow my 10-step program to get the job of your dreams.
[00:01:55] You get the picture.
[00:01:57] And, as you will know if you’ve taken any of these courses, most of the time the steps are not particularly unique, you will find the same stuff recycled and repackaged in a slightly different way.
[00:02:12] This is the case most of the time, but sometimes, just sometimes, someone will come along who has a different proposition altogether. A proposition so unique, so different to what everyone else is saying, that people sit up and take notice.
[00:02:31] One such person first appeared on social media in August of 2021.
[00:02:37] He was an American called Brian Johnson. He would never tell you his name was Brian Johnson, though, there would be no reference to Brian Johnson.
[00:02:47] Brian Johnson was dead.
[00:02:49] This man was Liver King.
[00:02:53] Now, just in case you need a reminder, “liver” is the large organ that regulates chemical levels, cleans the blood, and does all sorts of important things.
[00:03:04] And the reason he was called “Liver King” is because he would eat up to half a kilo of raw liver, uncooked liver, every single day.
[00:03:17] That wasn’t all.
[00:03:19] Liver King’s entire philosophy, his entire message to anyone who followed him on Instagram, TikTok, or any of his social media channels, was that the modern world, and modern food, was making people soft and weak.
[00:03:36] By returning to an ancestral lifestyle, Liver King claimed, you would be happier, healthier, and live a better life.
[00:03:46] An ancestral lifestyle essentially meant going back to how people lived thousands of years ago, without any modern comforts.
[00:03:55] And like any good seller of dreams, Liver King distilled this down to 9 different ideas, ideas that he called the 9 tenets.
[00:04:08] These are, in order, sleep, eat, move, shield, connect, cold, sun, fight and bond.
[00:04:19] And when put together, they all combine for a simple mission, and I’m quoting directly, “To put back in what the modern world left out”
[00:04:31] Now, what did this mean in practice?
[00:04:34] It meant rejecting much of the modern world, modern food, and modern comforts, and instead behaving more like a caveman than a 21st century American.
[00:04:45] And Liver King’s social media was full of videos of him doing exactly this.
[00:04:52] If you see a video of Liver King–and there are no shortage of them online–you’ll first be struck by how he looks.
[00:05:00] Firstly, he is incredibly muscly, he has a huge chest and huge biceps, which are always easy to see because he never wears a shirt. I mean, never, I’ve tried very hard to find a picture of him in a shirt, but whether it’s TV interviews or even walking around New York City in the winter, he always wears shorts and no shirt, he is topless. He also has a big beard and long hair, which makes him look like the stereotype of a caveman.
[00:05:33] But, you might be thinking, there are plenty of people who are muscly and look a bit like a caveman, what makes Liver King so special?
[00:05:42] Well, it’s about what you see him doing in these videos.
[00:05:46] The most notable thing, which makes up around half of the videos, is of Liver King eating.
[00:05:53] And, of course, he isn’t sitting down with a pizza and coke.
[00:05:58] He eats bull testicles, tongue, tail, heart, bone marrow, cow’s head, and, of course, plenty of raw liver.
[00:06:09] His philosophy is that humans should eat the whole animal, nose-to-tail, horns-to-hooves, and that is what he seems to eat.
[00:06:20] Now, you might think, good on him, if you are going to eat meat then you should eat every part of an animal. Or you might think, “eugh”, I don’t like the idea of eating raw, cold bull testicles.
[00:06:34] Liver King’s view is certainly the former. He believes, and says in practically every interview he does, that processed foods are one of the worst things about the modern world, and that by cutting these out entirely, by returning to an ancestral diet, our bodies will be healthier.
[00:06:55] You might say, sure, he does have a point.
[00:06:59] The health dangers of processed foods, especially super-processed foods, are well documented. And let’s remember that Liver King is American, his audience is mainly American, and the US is the capital of super processed, unhealthy food.
[00:07:17] So, it’s hardly surprising that this message resonated with his audience.
[00:07:23] And what else would you see Liver King doing?
[00:07:26] Well, following the other eight tenets.
[00:07:29] He seems to spend a lot of time lifting heavy weights, challenging people to arm wrestles, and showing off his very large muscles.
[00:07:38] He even invented a gruelling workout called The Barbarian, which involves walking one mile, about one and a half kilometres, pulling a 50 kg sledge, with a 30 kg backpack on his back, carrying a 30 kg weight in each hand, and–as if that wasn’t hard enough–he has 10 kg of weights added to each leg.
[00:08:03] So, he ate lots of organs, he lifted heavy weights, what else did this modern caveman get up to?
[00:08:10] He would have ice baths, he would walk around his ranch with his dogs, and throw axes at trees.
[00:08:17] He was on a global mission to advance this “ancestral lifestyle”, going from place to place to connect with tribes in everywhere from central Asia to the plains of Africa.
[00:08:30] Along the way, of course, he would stop off for interviews on TV shows and podcasts, still topless, of course, where he would talk about his diet, his mission, and how everyone would benefit from taking a leaf out of his book, from doing what he did.
[00:08:49] Oh, and one thing which I just must add is that if he ever needed a haircut, he would only need to ask his wife, his so-called “Liver Queen”, who could cut it with a machete, a large hunting knife.
[00:09:04] So, why did he do all of this, what turned Brian Johson into Liver King?
[00:09:10] If you listen to any of his interviews, he would talk about the fact that he developed this ancestral lifestyle as a way of surviving after his kids were ill, after one had allergic reactions to “the modern world”.
[00:09:25] He realised, so he said, that by feeding his children the traditional American diet he was, and I’m quoting directly, killing them. His kids couldn’t breathe, they turned blue, and the only way to save them was by returning to the diet of a caveman.
[00:09:45] Clearly, it’s a powerful message. Everyone wants to do the right thing for their kids, Liver King looked happy and healthy, and he soon gathered millions of followers.
[00:09:57] TikTok was his main channel, with almost 5 million followers at the time of recording, and Instagram came shortly after, with 2 million.
[00:10:07] He was getting very popular indeed.
[00:10:11] Clearly, for some people it was all a bit of fun, watching this slightly strange man eating unusual things and lifting large weights.
[00:10:20] But for plenty of people, it was a powerful message.
[00:10:25] What if they too could become happier and healthier by doing what Liver King did?
[00:10:31] Why not give this ancestral living thing a shot, why not give it a try?
[00:10:37] Liver King knew, of course, that simply switching to ancestral living isn’t a feasible option for most people. You can’t just decide, ok, I’m going to eat fresh bull testicles every day from a bull I’ve just killed, and my boss will probably be a bit cross if I turn up topless to work every day and stop shaving.
[00:10:58] But no problem, Liver King had a solution.
[00:11:03] If you go to liverking.com, you will find all manner of supplements and snack bars, vetted by Liver King himself, that allow you to get all of the nutrition you need.
[00:11:16] And, as you might imagine, it’s not cheap.
[00:11:20] A bag of protein supplements would set you back $64, and a case of 12 Liver King bars costs a mere $42.
[00:11:29] And both were, I quote, “guaranteed to help you dominate your environment”.
[00:11:36] Now, it’s not clear quite how much money Liver King made selling these, but he claimed more than $100 million per year.
[00:11:46] Whatever the number, it's certainly enough to fund a pretty lavish lifestyle, a private chef, trips around the world, and a seemingly constant camera crew to film his every move.
[00:11:59] The problem was, was he really practising what he preached?
[00:12:04] Yes, there were plenty of videos of him taking ice baths, wandering around with no shoes and shirts, and, lest I forget, gulping down uncooked bull testicles.
[00:12:15] But something seemed off, something seemed unlikely.
[00:12:21] His muscles were so big, so large, could this really all come down to his lifestyle choice? Could you too become like him just by following his lifestyle?
[00:12:34] Well, as you have probably guessed given this is part of a series on The Great American Con Artist, there was something off with Liver King.
[00:12:44] Many people had claimed that he was on steroids, most famously the podcaster Joe Rogan, who said, and I’m quoting directly, “that guy has an assfull of steroids”.
[00:12:57] As a result, as Liver King toured the world, going on podcasts and giving interviews, he was constantly asked about this, asked flat out, “do you take steroids?”
[00:13:09] And again and again, he denied this.
[00:13:13] In fact, he embraced it, he seemed to loved being asked about his steroid use, because it gave him an opportunity to, yet again, promote his ancestral lifestyle, and his extensive line of products that you could buy.
[00:13:28] Every denial was another opportunity to promote his alternative way, to get more customers, to make more money.
[00:13:37] The problem was, at the end of 2022, fewer than 18 months after his social media took off, some private emails leaked.
[00:13:47] And these emails were explosive.
[00:13:50] It turned out that Liver King was putting something non-ancestral into his body.
[00:13:57] Yes, he was on large quantities of steroids, spending around $11,000 every month on a wide variety of different drugs to build his muscles.
[00:14:09] This body he had, that he claimed was only possible because of the strict ancestral lifestyle that he followed, was in fact made possible by large amounts of drugs.
[00:14:21] He had lied, and it wasn’t just a small lie about accidentally eating a chocolate bar or a hot dog.
[00:14:28] His entire brand, his entire message, everything he stood for, was about being natural and ancestral. And there he was, pumping his body full of steroids every day.
[00:14:41] The emails were conclusive, they were between him and a private doctor, there was no way he could deny them, and he was forced to issue a public apology to his millions of followers.
[00:14:54] Some of whom vowed to never buy anything from him again, others were more forgiving.
[00:15:01] And of course, Liver King being Liver King, he also took the opportunity to go on a PR blitz, a tour of different shows and podcasts, where he talked about his steroid use but again, portrayed himself as a victim, someone who only wanted to promote this amazing ancestral lifestyle, and someone who got caught up in his own success.
[00:15:24] Since all of this, which came out in December of 2022, he has pledged to be Liver King 2.0, Liver King without steroids.
[00:15:37] And if you go to his social media channels, you can still find him doing exactly the same stuff: eating liver, heart and testicles, lifting heavy weights, throwing axes at trees, and of course promoting his supplement brands.
[00:15:52] To someone who didn’t know about the steroid revelations, nothing has changed, and no doubt he is still selling tens of millions of dollars of Liver King products every month.
[00:16:05] Now, why was Liver King’s message so appealing to so many people?
[00:16:10] Firstly, it was unique, it was strange. After all, if you are scrolling through social media and you see a video of someone holding a raw cow’s liver, you probably stop and watch.
[00:16:24] Secondly, it seemed obvious. We know that highly processed foods can be bad for us, and a raw bull’s testicle is the polar opposite of a highly processed hot dog.
[00:16:38] Thirdly, it was simple. Eat, sleep, connect with nature, do exercise. These are all easy things to do, we kind of already know that they’re good for us, and it’s an easy message to understand. In fact, even disregarding the steroid revelations, much of what Liver King was preaching was good, common sense.
[00:17:01] Fourth, Liver King had a powerful personal message. He said that he did this to save his kids, and anyone can connect with that. Now, given what we know about Liver King’s commitment to the truth, who knows whether this was a fabrication to sell more supplements, but to many it was a genuine message.
[00:17:23] And finally, Liver King was living proof of the results. You just needed to look at him to see what you could look like too if you followed his advice and bought his supplements.
[00:17:36] Except, of course…he wasn’t.
[00:17:39] There might have been some positive elements to Liver King’s message, but his entire brand of health and happiness was underpinned by something very un-ancestral.
[00:17:51] To quote Joe Rogan, he had an “assfull of steroids”, it was, after all, one big lie.
[00:18:02] OK then, that is it for today's episode on Liver King, the pioneer of ancestral living, but occasional steroid junkie.
[00:18:11] As always, I would love to know what you thought of this episode.
[00:18:14] Had you heard about the story of Liver King before?
[00:18:18] Why do you think Liver King’s message was so appealing?
[00:18:21] What do you think about the idea of eating bull testicles and raw liver?
[00:18:26] I would love to know, so let’s get this discussion started.
[00:18:30] You can head right into our community forum, which is at community.leonardoenglish.com and get chatting away to other curious minds.
[00:18:37] You've been listening to English Learning for Curious Minds, by Leonardo English.
[00:18:42] I'm Alastair Budge, you stay safe, and I'll catch you in the next episode.
[END OF EPISODE]
