[FEAT] ROBERT CUSHMAN

Born in Africa, raised in Canada and living in Maine: Rob Cushman is an alumnus of Dartmouth College & the Kaizen school of self-reflection and continual improvement. After receiving a Masters Degree in Agriculture, Food & Environment from Tufts University, Rob now finds himself either working helping small farms process animals, working on an oyster farm, or back in education as a dorm parent/mentor to international high-school students

 

 

When do you wake up?

6AM roughly or first light with seasonal variation. Big fan of direct light on eyes early in the day. See Matt Maruca’s Light Diet

 

What’s your most consistent Motivation? 

Regenerative meat & seafood. Using cold to shock the system. Building community. Sport and exercise. Reading, new ideas & a good conversation

 

 

What’s your typical morning routine?

In roughly this order: I start by hydrating with foraged spring water with Redmond sea salt then seek out direct sunlight or red light (EMR-TEK). 

If I can, I then do some Wim Hof breath-work in a SaunaSpace followed by a cold shower. If it’s summer, then I take a cold plunge in my modified chest freezer. All this is followed by a somewhat experimental coffee recipe & meditation, journaling & reading

 

How do you caffeinate?

Apologies for the self-shine here but I was an early adopter of ASSpray’s Bulletproof recipe of butter and c-8 mct back in 2012. Since then I’ve used all kinds of odd variations on that fatty coffee theme — with different permutations of ingredients like: 

Goat ghee, lard, duck egg yolks, cream, beef gelatin, chaga, lion’s mane, psilocybin etc. 

Paul Chek was the OG of raw butter/espresso, Ben Greenfield shotguns tons of adaptogens with his & Mark Sisson promoted egg coffee. Credit is due all over the ancestral health space & to Tibetans, of course. 

Black coffee is in order when proper fasting now & then.

I always enjoy a clean caffeine/l-theanine hum via good Japanese Sencha or Matcha. I also love strong raw Puers on occasion with the Gaiwan & ritual.

I’m tinkering with the right application of Yaupon, North America’s only native caffeine plant. It’s like Yerba Mate but never gets bitter & can sit in the French press for a good stretch

 

Guilt pleasure you want to own?

Samina Bed for health & BMW 3 Series for speed.

Both products embody solid German engineering

 

Do you meditate?

Yes. I use the Sam Harris Waking Up App. 

I’m still looking for the mutherfucker who’s looking…with the concept of ”no head”

 

Ideal fitness routine?

Pavel Tsatsouline’s kettlebell programs: Simple and Sinister or Quick and the Dead for conditioning & power.

X3 Bar for convenient & safe compound heavy lifting.

Lately, Kettlebell Partner Passing (kppass.com)

 

Your spirit animal?

One third each, a combination of a Bear, a Goshawk (inset) & a Pelican

 

 

Project you're most devoted to right now?

Becoming a responsible man & not a 40-year old child. That mostly means better all around commitment & avoiding distraction

 

New skill you want to learn or class you want to take?

Hunting with dogs … & Latin

 

One snack and one drink you'd pick from a convenience store?

If I’m lucky, maybe some local grass-fed jerky — or biltong if it’s around — & a hard Kombucha.

Something with zero seed oils, zero sugar, zero glyphosate. Good luck, obviously, 99.9% of the items out there contain at least one of those life sucking ingredients.

If it a bougie place, maybe some local grass-fed jerky or a Gerolsteiner. If it’s a food desert, I use the bathroom and GTFO

 

If you had a "last supper" what would be on the menu?

Mongolian Khorkhog: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khorkhog

 

If you had to listen to one album for the rest of your life, what would it be?

Bach’s Brandenberg Concertos or some of ATB’s Movin’ Melodies

 

Books that you'd read a second time?

The Ascent of Humanity by Charles Eisenstein or Die Nadel by Ken Follet

 

Movie that you could watch once a week?

Heat

 

Most memorable concert you've been to?

Phosphorescent at The Middle East in Cambridge, MA (fall 2008) & Phish (even though I hated Phish) in Hartford, CT (summer 2000)

 

 

When and where was your all-time best vacation?

Africa with my family in 1996. We visited my parents friends in Zambia, Malawi, Zimbabwe & Botswana

 

Favorite superhero, and why?

I’d like to see a blend of my favorite as a kid, the incredible Hulk (Crita-ma-Hawk) with my favorite as an adult, Batman

 

Most stylish athlete of all time?

For women it’s Flo Jo. For men, it’s a toss-up between Lanny McDonald’s red mustache & Boris Becker’s Billy Bud vibe

 

 

Historic figures you'd invite to dinner & then go spring breaking with?

Shackleton, Catherine the Great, Ajax, Louis Riel, Seneca, MLK Jr., Albert Hoffmann, Nietzsche & Maurice Richard