YouSaid · the spoken record

Ken Rideout

lines on the record: 27
first: 2026-04-04
most recent: 2026-04-04
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“Be comfortable with discomfort and you'll know you will never know freedom like a disciplined person because it all starts and ends with discipline”
2026-04-04 · Intelligence Squared · Can Discomfort Be the Key to a Better Life? With Ken Rideout · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I hope that people take away from this discipline the answer to everything. Discipline is what really sets you free. Live in a life of discipline, taking extreme responsibility for your own mental and physical health. Your mental and physical health is your number one responsibility. No one is going to come tell you what to eat, whether you should exercise, you know what to do. Stop making excuses and just do the work because there's no shortcuts in life. The easy road never pays well. The difficult road is we're all the magic happens. And while the stairway to heaven can feel like hell in the stairway to hell can feel like heaven until you reach your destination. So it's everything you want is the things that you are worth working for are very hard, but you should be condition your mind to be comfortably uncomfortable and be comfortable with challenges.”
2026-04-04 · Intelligence Squared · Can Discomfort Be the Key to a Better Life? With Ken Rideout · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Start a podcast like anyone can do it, and there's a million of them. How do you break through all the noise? Like, it's going to be hard. But it sounds cliche, but everything that you want is going to be hard. If it wasn't hard, you probably wouldn't waste your time wanting or desiring it”
2026-04-04 · Intelligence Squared · Can Discomfort Be the Key to a Better Life? With Ken Rideout · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Um. Yeah, it's when I reflect back on my life. I'm like. A lot of this stuff is just so surreal. Like, I just can't believe that I've created the life that I've dreamed of. And it hasn't always been easy. But in a lot of ways, it's a survival story, right? I'm like moving from one chapter to the other. And I'm just trying to figure it out as I go. And I know that when I look at things as a whole, it looks impressive as an entire journey. But it's like when I started running, I didn't think I was going to win marathons. I thought if I can just run every day this week, that will be, I can't get high and run. So let me focus all my energy on running. And it was like the universe rewarded me by making me a good runner. And it was like the hotter I worked, the luckier I got with the running. And, you know, that's what I hope that people, when they read the book, recognize that all the good things that you want in your life are going to come with a struggle. Like, it's not easy to be a doctor. It's not easy to.”
2026-04-04 · Intelligence Squared · Can Discomfort Be the Key to a Better Life? With Ken Rideout · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I think it's important, especially if you've had some success in your life and you've overcome some obstacles to acknowledge those things. It's important to celebrate your wins, show yourself some grace, and be kind to yourself because, you know, a lot of times we talk to ourselves in ways we would never talk to our friends or enemies. We are very harsh on ourselves. And I still am, but I also try to make time to recognize like, wow, I did this like with the book. I've been working on it so long that when I see it, I'm like, that's my book. But the truth is, I need to look at it like, holy shit, I did this. Wow, look at it's like this is real. And, but that I do that with a lot of things. If I win a marathon or I win a big race, my first instinct that I hate that this is it, but I always think like, oh, it wasn't very competitive. The best runners weren't here. And that's just, look, nice.”
2026-04-04 · Intelligence Squared · Can Discomfort Be the Key to a Better Life? With Ken Rideout · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Okay, because when you have children, you always think like, oh, my kids are going to be like this, like that. You think you're going to get what you get and you don't get upset. They're like, it is a mystery. My kids were so different. They're all kinds and nice little kids, but they are so wildly different academically, socially. It's crazy.”
2026-04-04 · Intelligence Squared · Can Discomfort Be the Key to a Better Life? With Ken Rideout · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“They had lots of questions about drugs, but it was good because I said, look, this hopefully this paints a picture of how ugly drugs really are and scares you from doing them. Love it though, like that's the greatest gift in the world watching my children feel proud of me amongst their friends, you know, like for a long time, my daughter especially would be like, you guys can drop me right here. I said, you don't want your friends to see us dropping you off. Are you crazy where the coolest parents in town? And she's like, dad, stop. You know, it's just, it's funny because do you have children?”
2026-04-04 · Intelligence Squared · Can Discomfort Be the Key to a Better Life? With Ken Rideout · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Trying to be a good husband and a good dad. It isn't easy at times. Life's happening. The kids are leaving stuff all over the house. And they're 10, 12, 14, or 15. And I'm like, who left this milk out? Get over here and pick this up. You know, my wife will be like, you know, when I'm yelling at the kids, like, hey, you know he's five, right? So that's something that I'm definitely working on being a better dad and a better husband.”
2026-04-04 · Intelligence Squared · Can Discomfort Be the Key to a Better Life? With Ken Rideout · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, I would say being a good husband and a good dad is not something that I think easy. I wish it was, but it definitely takes a lot of work because, you know, one thing I tell my wife all the time is like, we each have our own life. We didn't sign up to like give our existence away to our children, to each other. So it's important that we have our own individual things in life running happens to be mine, but that she has her own things. But at the end of the day, that we're all working towards a common goal and lifting each other up.”
2026-04-04 · Intelligence Squared · Can Discomfort Be the Key to a Better Life? With Ken Rideout · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, well, I've always suffered in silence and darkness, so I didn't really confide in many people about my addiction until it was like behind me. But I, yeah, I mean, like in life, the only person you can absolutely count on is yourself. But if you...”
2026-04-04 · Intelligence Squared · Can Discomfort Be the Key to a Better Life? With Ken Rideout · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Listen, again, I wish that I could tell you everything you want to hear, but like if you're suffering with a physical addiction like opioid, you should know a week or two weeks of very difficult days, in dark days. But there's only one way out of the flames, and that's through them. Like I said, I wish that I could tell you things were going to be easy and there won't be a challenge, but that would be naive.”
2026-04-04 · Intelligence Squared · Can Discomfort Be the Key to a Better Life? With Ken Rideout · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, listen. Most people go through relapses when you're that deep in addiction, it's hard to just like very few people have a perfect story where they're like, I quit using drugs on this date and now I've been sober for, you know, 18 months. Like it's great when they do and I love it and I wish I could do it, but it just isn't that easy of what I would caution anyone is like in hearing these stories, the overriding theme should be like, don't get started in the first place. This is the loser's journey. Like, this is not fun. And I wouldn't wish this on anyone, but you also have to show yourself some grace, but you also have to be disciplined and honest with yourself. Like, there's no real excuses. You either doing it or you're not doing it.”
2026-04-04 · Intelligence Squared · Can Discomfort Be the Key to a Better Life? With Ken Rideout · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, I mean, the first time I qualified for the Iron Man in Hawaii, I got there and I had spent so much time trying to qualify to get into the race that I forgot that I actually had to show up in good shape and finish the race. And I got out on the run and I quit for no reason other than it was uncomfortable. And I walked back to get my bike feeling like a complete failure and a loser. And I swore to myself that I would never give up on myself again and I would never feel like this again because I would almost rather be dead than feel the way I did. And that definitely fueled a lot of the wins that I've had since then. And, but, you know, without going through in those failures and having losses and setbacks, it's hard to learn very much about yourself.”
2026-04-04 · Intelligence Squared · Can Discomfort Be the Key to a Better Life? With Ken Rideout · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, I wish I had a spiritual leader or advisor or guru. I didn't really have any role models growing up. I just knew I needed to be different. And, you know, now with wife and children, especially my children are 10, 12, 14, and 15, like they watch everything that I do. I always tell people, your kids will hear some of what you tell them, but they'll see everything you show them. And I demonstrate to them daily discipline and being a leader to me the same thing I say about the children I say about everything is like just demonstrate through your own behavior how things should be done and you'll be shocked at how many people will follow you and believe in you but until you like start winning no one wants to come and celebrate with you it's like chicken and the egg so yeah we all want to be celebrated and recognized but you have to go out and like toil and darkness and anonymity on your own for a long time”
2026-04-04 · Intelligence Squared · Can Discomfort Be the Key to a Better Life? With Ken Rideout · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I came in like fourth. And then the second day I came in second, but I fell down towards the end of the stage and broke my elbow open, ripped the backpack strap off. It was a catastrophe. And after the third day, a woman who dropped out gave me her pack. So at least I had a bag to finish the race.”
2026-04-04 · Intelligence Squared · Can Discomfort Be the Key to a Better Life? With Ken Rideout · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, well, a friend of mine told me he was doing the race about four or five weeks before it started, which isn't a lot of time to prepare. I mean, I had been running, obviously, every day. But it was incredibly challenging because I had never run with a backpack. I had never slept in a tent. Like I genuinely knew nothing about this sport. But, you know, it was an interesting challenge. And I don't know why it spoke to me and challenged me, but it did. And I started I got all the gear that I needed. There was a ton of equipment to learn about. And, but like anything else, I just jumped in with Paul's feet, ordered the equipment that I thought I needed, started experimenting with different packs, running in Nashville, sweltering heat. And showed up there completely unprepared. I arrived in Ulan Batar less than 24 hours before the race started, which was a huge mistake. And I got smashed the first day.”
2026-04-04 · Intelligence Squared · Can Discomfort Be the Key to a Better Life? With Ken Rideout · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, definitely. I mean, the running is. People ask me about a runner's eyes, and I never feel so happy during the run as when I'm finished, if anything, just getting that first win in the day, if nothing else happens today, I know that I've run 10 miles and I've been doing that for five years every single day. I've run about 4,000 miles a year, which average 10.6 miles a day every day for five years with zero days missed. I mean, occasionally I would miss a day. I had a shoulder surgery. I missed a few days. They said enough to move it for four weeks, but after four days, I was back to running 10 miles a day. Yeah, like I said earlier, the discipline will set you free. Like, that's one less thing I think about is because I know I'm running no matter what. Like I'm getting up and running and, you know, my wife, my children, there's a lot of people watching me, especially now with the book and social media. So it's almost like a response.”
2026-04-04 · Intelligence Squared · Can Discomfort Be the Key to a Better Life? With Ken Rideout · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, well, I think that that's a perfect segue into the title of the book. Everything you want on the other side of Hard, like you shouldn't expect discipline and all the things that I demonstrate in the book to be easy, none of it's easy, but if it was easy, every idiot would be doing it. This is hard for a reason. The fact that it's hard is what makes discipline so appealing. But again, it's readily available to anyone. So you can either make excuses or you can find a way to win. But again, if I did this, anyone can do this. I spent 10 years as a daily drug user and I decided that I've had enough and I just, like I said, I wish there was an easy answer, but there's not. And again, that's what makes these accomplishments appealing to others is they're hard, but they're available to anyone.”
2026-04-04 · Intelligence Squared · Can Discomfort Be the Key to a Better Life? With Ken Rideout · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“That's the thing about like the way you talk to yourself is critically important. You know, I always tell people whatever you think about yourself, it's true. So if you have a high opinion of yourself, that can be true by default. But at the same time, if you speak poorly to yourself with a lot of negative self-talk and have a negative self-view, that can be true too. The nice thing is you can control that. So I always tell people, focus on the positives, you know, speak nicely to yourself, but give yourself a reason to talk nice, like show to be a disciplined person. That's free. Everything that I've accomplished in my life is free to anyone. You see, like from reading the book, there's no secret formula. There's nothing like I did something so extraordinary that, you know, it's earth-shattering. But what it did demonstrate was what discipline and hard work and determination can do for a very average person.”
2026-04-04 · Intelligence Squared · Can Discomfort Be the Key to a Better Life? With Ken Rideout · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Intense, but it works for me. I'm just trying to figure out a lot of times people will say to me, maybe you traded one addiction for the other. And I say, yeah, maybe that's true. But one addiction had me suicidal and one has me feeling proud of myself and being on a podcast with people like yourself.”
2026-04-04 · Intelligence Squared · Can Discomfort Be the Key to a Better Life? With Ken Rideout · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Started running 10 miles every day running and running. And I wasn't a very good runner. I would just, but I had incredible determination and willpower and discipline more than anything, the discipline of all the things that have been displayed in the course of my life is by far the most important element. Because, you know, if you have a life without discipline makes you slave to your emotions, like you wake up and you decide you don't feel like working out or you feel like eating terrible today or having a cheat day, that becomes a cheat week. And at least for me, one bad lapse in judgment can lead to like a few days of lapse and then it becomes an addiction and I just know that I have a very addictive personality. So I try to stay dialed in all the time. And this, my method and my lifestyle isn't for everyone.”
2026-04-04 · Intelligence Squared · Can Discomfort Be the Key to a Better Life? With Ken Rideout · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I went to an outpatient detox facility in New York. They were giving me different medications to assist with the withdrawal symptoms. So they would give me ritalin to stay awake during the day, Xanax to go to sleep at night. I was just in a drug cocktail trying to survive the week of withdrawals. And then once I got through a week of sobriety or off opioids, I could then get a shot of a drug called Vivitrol that was an opioid blocker. And that was basically like an insurance policy. You can't get high from those kind of drugs with Vivitrol in your system. So once I had that and it was like I said, an insurance policy, I then just started treating my mental and physical health as the top priority in my life, which it should be for everyone. Because without your mental and physical health, you're really useless to everyone. So I literally just.”
2026-04-04 · Intelligence Squared · Can Discomfort Be the Key to a Better Life? With Ken Rideout · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, when I was, I met my wife and I was still struggling with addiction. And she was kind of aware, but not aware of the depths. And we decided that we were going to adopt a child. We would try and have our own kids for three years. She went through seven rounds of in vitro fertilization, unsuccessful. She had three miscarriages. And the adoption just ended up becoming coming before biological kids. When we were matched with my daughter, I just said to myself, like, I cannot live like this with children in the house. Like I have got to either fix this or I just can't go on living like this. And that was really the catalyst to get sober. I couldn't really do it for myself. I was having a hard time doing it for my wife, but as soon as the children came into the picture, I decided, okay, that's it. I've got to fix this right now. And essentially I do.”
2026-04-04 · Intelligence Squared · Can Discomfort Be the Key to a Better Life? With Ken Rideout · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I wish that I had an easy answer and that I had some mentors and role models that were demonstrating to me the life that I wanted, but I didn't. I just knew that I didn't want the life that I had. And to then be struggling with addiction, I was like, you know, I always tell people when you find yourself in a hole, stop digging. And the addiction was basically digging the whole of trauma that I had that I was in from my childhood. It dug the hole deeper. But initially, that's the thing about addiction is initially you think it's your salvation and it's helping you cope with the trauma that you have unresolved. But really all it does is push the trauma down deeper and mask it with this addiction. And now you also have an addiction issue to deal with on top of dealing with your unhealed trauma.”
2026-04-04 · Intelligence Squared · Can Discomfort Be the Key to a Better Life? With Ken Rideout · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I grew up in a very hostile environment around drug addicts, crime. And I don't know. For my youngest, from my earliest memory, I just didn't feel like I belonged where I was living. All I could focus on was. Creating a life of organization and control where things weren't so quite hectic and out of control and chaotic, which is interesting to then find myself wallowing an addiction years later, which again, what led to the journey to writing this book because I figured I would either Suicide or find a way to win. And that's how desperate I was at the time in my addiction that I figured suicide might be a viable option just to give you an idea of how like Deep in the depths of this depression and addiction I was.”
2026-04-04 · Intelligence Squared · Can Discomfort Be the Key to a Better Life? With Ken Rideout · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Definitely a lot of fear and insecurity. I had spent so much time, I had wasted so much time wallowing in my addiction that when I finally got sober, I decided I wasn't going to do anything with half effort. I was going to go all in on everything that I did. And when I started behaving accordingly, everything in my life improved and it started with just running, showing up. And it carried over into every area of my life.”
2026-04-04 · Intelligence Squared · Can Discomfort Be the Key to a Better Life? With Ken Rideout · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“That's a great question. You know, there's a part of me that feels a bit narcissistic talking about myself in this story, but I do think that there's a lot of valuable lessons. And if nothing else, I think people should take inspiration in the fact that I think if I can do these things, then anyone can do them because for 10 years I was basically a mediocre drug addict like slipping through the cracks of life. And when I started taking extreme responsibility for myself and holding myself accountable, my life improved exponentially to the point where I'm here talking to you now.”
2026-04-04 · Intelligence Squared · Can Discomfort Be the Key to a Better Life? With Ken Rideout · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT