EP #79- A Conversation on Men's Mental Health, Fashion, and Creativity with Kyle Hodge, Associate Commerce Director at GQ Magazine

(gentle music) The best thing I could do for myself mentally is waking up early. Like having a slow start to the day is so beneficial for me. So I try to get up, even if I'm not even doing anything. I mean, I try to work out in the morning, so I try to get up at like 536. Even if I'm not working out, I like to put some light music on, make some coffee, and kind of just relax. Sometimes just, even just laying there is fine. Welcome back to another episode of Every Day in Dwarfens. This week I had the pleasure of speaking with Kyle Hodge, who's an associate commerce director at GQ, which is a menswear magazine that focuses on fashion, style, and culture. I really wanted to focus this episode on how lifestyle magazines, specifically in the men's space, portray men's mental health, because personally, I see the wellness industry being really female dominated. And I think there's something to be said around how we discuss mens mental health, and how men engage in conversations around their own mental health and well-being. It was such an honor to get to have Kyle come and speak to how GQ provides a perspective on mens mental health, what he does to stay healthy, how he takes care of himself, and also talk a little bit about Kyle's story, how he got into the world of journalism, culture, fashion, arts, and the relationship between happiness and creative self-expression. Before we dive into the interview, make sure to like, rate, and review this podcast on whichever listening platform you prefer, and tune into a brief message from my sponsor, Anchor. - Hi, Kyle. Thank you so much for coming onto the podcast. - Yeah, thank you for having me. I'm excited for this. - There's like a million things I want to talk about today, but I think we should start with your journey into the creative world and specifically working in journalism, fashion, design at GQ, you're the associate commerce director at GQ, which is such a cool role to have. I'd love for you to chat a little bit about like how you landed first into the world of like, journalism, and then at GQ. - It was kind of an unexpected surprise, but not like too far away from what I wanted to do. So I went to Philadelphia University, which is a like fashion design school. I studied marketing and communications, but I always love design and I kind of always see myself into fashion, but kind of more on like the creative side of things, but in my sophomore year, I got the opportunity to intern at Complex Magazine here in New York City. Obviously I took it, it was like the coolest magazine at the time, still was one of the best, and it was for their style team on their editorial side of things. I remember coming up here, I remember the first day being super nervous because I wasn't really a writer, I didn't like writing class and like in college and like high school was just like not my favorite thing to do. - Which is ironic, 'cause then you ended up going into writing essentially. - Yeah, it's crazy. And I remember starting and being a like super nervous, 'cause like now I have to like write about these articles, so many people are gonna see it, and my name's gonna be there. But like over time, it's something, it's like just flexing that creative muscle, but it's in a different way, but it was so great being able to like give my opinion on all of these cool like breaking news, trendy things that are happening in the culture, which I was already like rooted in. I really got into fashion through like kind of like the blog era of like back in high school. It's like high-piece, GQ obviously, complex. I remember Kanye had his like Kanye University blog, which was like super huge. - I don't even know what that is. What's the Kanye University blog? - Kanye University blog was like the holy grail of blogs back in the day. It kind of, if anything, it really like spearheaded all of like the cool fashion blogs that street were blogs that like that came after it high snub, high-beast, all of them. I mean, they were all around and they were all good, but like Kanye, like just like took it to a different level, especially more into like high-end fashion and like art and like home decor and stuff like that. He just like brought a whole different level and scene into like the streetwear blog world. And it, yeah, it was like a holy grail for like all of us. And being from South Jersey, like in the suburbs, for me, it wasn't easy to like be around like in that world, like physically, like I would go into Philly and there were some cool places in Philly to kind of delve into like the street world skateboard life, especially like at UBIC, which is on Wall Street, which is fantastic. But I didn't come up to New York a lot up until like end of end of high school early college. I remember like my mom used to work in New York City, so I would like come up with her and she would go to work and I would just like roam around Soho like by myself and just like take it all in, take the whole scene in, hit up a bunch of stores that like I would see on blogs and just be like the happiest kid ever. - When I think about Soho, like maybe in that time period, maybe a little bit later, I remember like Supreme being huge. And there, I think there still is to this day, like lines around the block to get into the Supreme Store. I think it's on like, is it on, it's like near prints, like prints in Broadway, right? - Yep, definitely, yep. They have their store there, which is like, yeah, they're more popular one, which is like, yeah, there's always a line outside to get inside, it's crazy. And then they have one in Brooklyn, which is a little more chill and a little more easy to get in and shop and I deal with the madness in chaos of like all the, the tours trying to come, grab their Supreme Box tee. - Yeah, exactly. And you know, when you would come to New York in like your teenage years, you know, high school, college, and either like when your mom come to work in the city or like when you were interning, I feel like that's such a great place to be because New York is a place full of creatives and people who are really immersed in like the arts and fashion and especially being in an area like Soho where you would just kind of roam around. I'm sure you were really exposed to a lot of interesting people, even just like people watching, people are so fashionable and these like eclectic outfits. And I feel like probably around that time was the catalyst maybe of street wear. Like that era was like kind of like the beginning of street wear kind of brewing and getting into like the city scene. - Yeah, definitely. Like it was way more niche back then. Yeah, I remember being in high school, wearing Supreme and wearing all these other different cool street wear brands at the time and literally knowing in high school, like knowing what any of this meant or like how cool this was besides like a very like small group of us. So it's yeah, it's wild to see like how far it's come and like now you have Supreme, like everyone knows what Supreme is and looking going to the store in Soho and they're just being wrapped or fans wrapped around the block just to get it. So like yeah, going from those early days in high school was like walking around by myself, going to these stores and these shops, getting cool stuff, bringing it back to South Jersey, rocking it in high school and everyone like, everyone loved it. They thought it was cool, but like they had no idea what it was. - So how would you say like street wear has evolved since then? I know this is a tangent from my initial question which we'll get back to, but I'm curious to hear your take on this. - I think for one thing, it's way more accessible now and I think trends are, they come to go so quickly now. And I think it's all because of the internet and like social media. It's so easy to see what people are rocking to see what these trends are. To buy these clothes without having to go wait in line for an entire day or night, which I've done before and it was not fun at all, but at once and it was heartbreaking. And yeah, everything's way more accessible now. There's secondhand markets like StockX and Go and eBay where you can also find vintage pieces or more exclusive pieces. So I think like just all of that like wrapped into one just made it way more easier for people to jump into the world of fashion without having to like really have to like yeah, like be in Soho or like be like in the scene like on a physical presence level. You can just go online on Instagram and you can get your way in easy. - It's crazy how platforms like Instagram and TikTok really shape like cultural trends, what people are watching, what they're wearing, what they're listening to. I even think that the rise of like the Athleteja style and Athleteja look kind of parallels with some streetwear influences I guess 'cause you can kind of mix and match, you know, like an alo sweatsuit, like jumpsuit or whatever can be considered streetwear-ish, but also like Athleteja depending on how you style it. And it's comfortable, but it's also like chic. So I think it's definitely becoming maybe like more accessible and cool to kind of see these styles be dressed up in a way too. Like it doesn't have to be super casual anymore. - Yeah, definitely. I think the barriers between like streetwear and like high end like the definitions of both of them are like, I've been like completely shattered really because they both kind of like merged into the two like high in fashion like with When Virgil was at like Louis Vuitton and what he was doing there and with like off-white and seeing even like like Kith, you know, they do such a great job of marrying both of those worlds and combining both of those worlds together that you really can't define like what streetwear is now these days because it's not just graphic teas and like cool sneakers. Like those same people who are wearing that are also wearing more fitted tailored high-end material t-shirts and stuff like that. It's cool. A former guest of mine, Jack Carlson, the founder of Rowing Blazers, who you know and that's actually how we met at such a fun party. As we both know, his brand is kind of like this eclectic mix of tastes and styles and blends like Ivy style and vintage streetwear. And it's this really cool intersection of the both and to your point, it makes streetwear more accessible and also a bit more high-end as well. So it's kind of cool to see how it's evolved over time and where it may continue to trend towards. Shout out to that episode and shout out to Rowing Blazers. Yeah, shout out Jack. Love Rowing Blazers. You are very fashionable into the fashion world and fashion industry. Fashion is a form of self-expression which is really related to our sense of happiness and joy. So how do you see the two at play together and how do you express yourself through fashion, through design as someone who is in a really creative space? Yeah, I guess it's all about finding that comfortability of where it lies for you no matter what you want to wear. And I think we continue to get to an even better place in fashion that we can and it's acceptable to wear whatever you want. We talk about the intersection between streetwear and high-end but there's also just an intersection between like just like gender clothing and just unisex clothing. Seeing a lot more men wearing dresses and skirts I think is super awesome. Like what Jane Smith is wearing and what he does. Young Thug wearing a dress like on his album cover is so sick. Kid Cudi has done the same. He's like born. He wore like a dress like SNL. Is SNL performers something like that? Yeah, it's so sick. It's amazing seeing all of these borders, just these social borders just being broken down in fashion. And to your point, yeah, it just frees us even more to like get to that comfortable place within ourselves and to express ourselves. And anyway, you choose where whatever you want. Yeah, totally. I really love that messaging. Even for myself, I think about like certain pieces of clothing that I wear and how it makes me feel like when I put it on, there's like a mental like a mindset shift. For example, like if I'm wearing more professional clothing, if I'm going to the office one day, it kind of puts me in this mindset where I'm like on, like I'm on it. And I feel kind of like I have like a different, not a different personality, but I kind of step into this different persona. And it's simply because of, you know, the pants I chose to wear that day or like the shirt that I'm wearing. But then if I'm like wearing a really nice, I'll yoga is one of my favorite brands, like alo and biann yoga. I'm I love. And so when I'm wearing like I think they call it like their butter leggings because they're really soft. Like I love like I love the material. It's really comfortable. And I think also there's like a trick for motivating yourself to work out is like buying yourself new workout clothes. So I'll definitely I definitely use that trick quite quite often. Honestly, I do this. I need that boots sometimes. Like let me just go buy a pair of shorts just so I know that I go to the gym this week. You know, why not? And so you're kind of killing two birds with one stone. You're wearing something that makes you feel good. But then you're also getting in your movement. You're getting in those endorphins and many different ways. So I think there's definitely lots of applications. You know where we see fashion and wellness intersect. It reminds me of like being a kid and like going shopping for like your your school your new school clothes and like the first day of school. Like you're just so giddy to like get up and like put your outfit on and like go to school and like flex on everybody. Just like it's like that. But like as an adult now it's just like. It's really like pretty often that you can be out and you know get some new clothes for yourself and to make yourself happy. But yeah, there's no other feeling like that but something that I have noticed actually and I think it's a psychological principle like novelty dying off and you know when things are novel and new it's like really exciting and then it gets pretty boring real quickly. And then like with clothing, for example, when I tend to buy new clothes, I like wear it for like a week straight and I'm so excited by it. Like I'm actually having this experience. Now I bought these new pants from Aritzia and I'm like obsessed with them and I've worn them like every single day for the past four days. And I feel like in a week I'm just going to get tired of them and that's such a shame because it's like not sustainable for the planet or for my wallet to keep buying new clothes. So how can you kind of maintain that same sense of excitement around new purchases? Like I don't know if you've had things from your own personal experience. Yeah, I mean, I'm exactly the same. Like I like get a new piece of clothing and I have to wear it like yeah literally like a week shape like no shame in my game. If you saw me on one day wearing something and on Wednesday, I'm so or Thursday and wearing the same thing. Just know that I love this piece and just be happy for me. I guess I get why I'm buying new new pieces of clothing in the back of my mind. I guess I have like my wardrobe. I'm thinking about my wardrobe and thinking of like how can this piece like compliment other pieces that already have. So that can just mix and match clothing and without having to like go out and yeah, like every week and buy a new pair of pants because I'm now getting tired of this one. But Mac, you know, just matching it with something different in my closet that just creates maybe it just completely different look and something that's fresh and new. And sometimes like those pieces that you do forget about that are just like collecting dust in the back your closet may look completely different now with like this new pair of pants that you have. And that's even exciting too of like finding an old gen that you'd completely forgot about in your closet and now it looks amazing. I think like the piece I'm wearing now for the people who can't see. It's this 18 East sort of like a kimono style thing. And when I first got it again, I would wear it all the time and then I like yeah, put it away. And recently I was just like digging through stuff and I found it again and I got a new pair of jeans from APC and I think it looks so good with these this pair of jeans and now like I'm wearing it all the time again. I love that you should be behind the camera at GQ you should be in the photoshoots modeling all your cool pieces. I totally feel that I think for me it's like my mom and I like sometimes can be similar sizing and so sometimes when I steal her clothes, it feels like a new piece or like a hidden gem. Yeah shout out to my mom. She's a she's definitely a fashionista. That's where I I go to her for all of my advice. I would go to GQ, but I don't really dress in traditional men's clothing. However, I do enjoy flipping through GQ and browsing that brings me kind of to I guess my first question. We had a nice little tangent there. You were interning at complex and that's kind of what got you into the journalism world. So what happened after what led you to GQ. So yeah started interning at complex. Basically like I did a summer summer internship there. Then I just kept like freelancing for them throughout the rest of college and then once I got out, I got an opportunity at VH1 to join their editorial team as a staff writer. And so I did and was writing still about fashion but more pop culture focused and helping to like do some marketing digital marketing for like all of their their shows. It was fun. It was great. It was way a little more of a pivot for me from complex, which was more rooted in street culture world where VH1 was a little bit more. It was a little bit more mainstream and was also more like female focused. So it was a little bit different for me. It was a little bit of a pivot. I definitely enjoyed I enjoyed like the learning curve and like being part of like the TV industry and seeing how all that worked out. And I was there for a couple years and I knew I wanted to get back into fashion back into like more of the men's men's where more of the men's lifestyle. And that's when I went to high-smability, which was very similar to when I started at complex because back then complex was had still a bit of a like startup vibe. It wasn't a like huge group of people wasn't a like very big office wasn't a corporate office at all. So when I got to high snob, they just started opening up like their New York office like the New York branch. They're from Berlin, Germany. That's where their headquarters are. So when I got to high snob, there was only about like maybe 20 people in the entire New York office coming from VH1 and Viacom where there's like hundreds and hundreds of people. So it was definitely a definitely not like a culture shift going from going from Viacom to to high snob, but I absolutely loved it. I love the startup vibes of that. It was super family oriented with just being such a small group of people. And I love being back in the men's world. It's fantastic covering just covering the whole spectrum of it all with our small group. group, traveling, working with brands, working with influencers and designers, doing more thought-out pieces, helping with cover stories and print stories. We did a collaboration with Gestaltin, the book publisher on a book, on two of them, but I helped with one called the new luxury, which is what we talked about earlier about that intersection between high and fashion industry. I just had a lot more freedom to do a lot of cool things within the space of menswear. I had my own video series on YouTube for a little bit called "Balboys" with my colleague Ian Sarvantes. We mainly discussed the intersection between sports and fashion. We would cover trending news, but then we would dive in and give our opinion on what athletes were wearing, pre- and post-game, and on the core, and kind of just sometimes giving credit, but sometimes like, "Yo, why'd you wear that fit, bro?" It was amazing. It was super goofy. It wasn't anything like a deep dive or series, anything like that. It was just like the two of us hanging out, just talking about sports. It was so much fun. That sounds like such a blast. A cool topic to discuss the intersection between sports and fashion. You mentioned that High Snob was headquartered or is based in Berlin. Did you ever have the opportunity to go out to Germany? Every year, actually, we have an annual summit during the holidays, so we were able to go over there and meet other people from our team and discuss goals and stuff. It was beautiful. That's awesome. I spent a summer in Berlin a few years ago, and the vibe there is just great. I feel like I could live in Berlin. It's awesome and definitely a very fashionable city and kind of grunge underground vibe, so I could definitely see the connection. It reminds me of Bushwick in a little bit. It has that grungey or artsy scene, and yeah, there's so many personalities, so much flavor when it comes to fashion out there. Yeah, it's beautiful. Totally. I think when you're in a city like that, you want to kind of dress the part in a way. You want to be a part of that. I found myself kind of pushing myself outside the box in terms of different styles. I was trying. I bought a pair of really cool. I thrifted a pair of red jeans. They're like these like hard denim, high-waisted red jeans. They're so cool. It's funny because my dad has a pair of red jeans, and I used to make fun of him for wearing them, because I thought they were ridiculous, but they're actually pretty fashionable. I think he rocks the look, but now we can twin because I have my cool red jeans from Berlin that I thrifted. That are a miracle that they still fit. I love these jeans. It seems like your family is super cool and fashionable. My mom styles my dad. She's the one that. But he has an eye. He has his own, his own eclectic taste, I would say. He's also a big fan of rowing blazers, so he looks good in a little rowing blazer. Who does it exactly? When you transitioned into being back in a more menswear focused place, how did you see the shift look between more female focused editorial content, specifically in the wellness space versus what's published on GQ? Because I think wellness is this big umbrella term. And of course, content can be targeted depending if it's more of a female focused magazine or a men's focused magazine. I'm curious to hear your perspective on where you see there to be similarities between the two and how wellness is portrayed versus where there may be differences across different genders and gender expressions when it comes to when we talk about wellness. With GQ, I think we do a great job of breaking down that border. I don't see a difference that much anymore. One is because I think the culture when it comes to men and wellness and like beauty and taking care of yourself, that conversation is becoming more and more. It's more talked about now these days than it used to be. I think more men are addressing issues when it comes to dealing with like depression and finding ways to be happy and finding ways to take care of your body as well as taking care of your skin and having a great daily facial routine and stuff like that. As well as like home decor, I feel like years ago that wasn't really a topic too much discussed in men's wear or just with men in general. But now I talk to my guy friends about what candles they got and what kind of face masks they have. And I think that's so cool. That it's become such a mainstay and that men are more comfortable about discussing those things. And with GQ, yeah, we have a full wellness like vertical that dives into all those things. I come from more of the product side. And yeah, we cover everything from fitness products to grooming products to beauty products. Yeah, with face masks, you should be buying what's sunscreen, you should be wearing, what candles are the best, what plants you should have in your home, great bedding options, everything. Yeah, we just we discuss it all. But we also dive into deeper conversations. Obviously, like they're all heartbroken about role V-weight being unturned. And yet we put up a thing piece about that and how that this is such a heartbreaking issue that affects all of us. Obviously, our heart goes out to all the women affected by this. It's so sad. But it affects us men too. You know, unplanned pregnancies can really change the course of your life on either side. So on the product side, yeah, I think there is no change there. When it comes to what's happening in the world, we need to just continue to be helpful and make sure that we're doing everything that we can, as a man to help fight the good fight and do what I can. Yeah, no, I'm so happy that you tied it into current events because it's really timely. Everything that's been going on recently and it is heartbreaking. It's the state of our world right now is not good. It's not good. Happy to see that GQ has kind of made a stance on that. I think it's great that GQ is really cognizant about kind of breaking those barriers around discussing mental health and like mental health too. And also breaking maybe the gender barriers around like what's considered wellness, like lighting a candle or doing a face mask or finding like bedding that's like really comfortable and like falls under like that wellness umbrella. Because I think traditionally, we see these topics more focused towards women. Like you're the best skin care routine or, you know, I used to read like I used to like flip through cosmopolitan at like the nail salon and I was little like the paper magazine and it would always be articles about like sex obviously and then like a queer horoscope or therapy and stuff like that. And I feel like there was no there's never content about therapy in particular in like men's magazines like GQ or men's health or whatever. And now it's it's great to kind of see that there's a shift because not only are we living through this mental health epidemic, but we're also starting to see the mental health stigma begin to be destigmatized and be more spoken about. Especially I think also for men like being open about going to therapy and also addressing the fact that like men in particular need to like I feel like make that extra effort to process their emotions. And I think there's don't quote me on this, but like there's some sort of statistic out there like scientific like fact that states that it takes men's brains to actually develop longer than women's brains, which is really oh definitely does yeah we're we're little slow. And so it's like you would think that men would be interested in doing something to take care of their their mental health. And I feel like often it's like when there's a scary thought be tempted to just kind of push it away. And men even more so of course I'm generalizing. So this is not you know applicable to everyone, but my my point being is that it's great to see that there is this shift towards like opening up the conversation particularly within like the male or like man identifying community. Yeah exactly it's it's very beautiful to see and I'm glad it's it's really happening. You know as a as a black man I feel like the black community the therapy isn't really discussed or talked about. Not that it's like in like in a shameful way if you're going to therapy, but it was just never I feel like for most black men it was just never presented as an option and that we always have to put on this like strong front. Obviously we you know we have to deal with a lot being as a person. you know, being a black man in America. But it's great to see that conversation becoming more open, I mean seeing a lot of celebrities discussing. I know I think over the pandemic, Charlemagne the God, TV host for Breakfast Club, he like wrote a book about it and like dove deeper into therapy and like being a black man and dealing with that. It's beautiful. It's beautiful to see this conversation finally really being spearheaded in our community. And yeah, you know, we're all going through things, especially these these past couple years have been not great and it doesn't seem like it's slowing down at any point. So yeah, if you're struggling with something, please let go talk to somebody. It's totally okay and it's fine. We're all going through all going through stuff. We are and we all know this, but of course social media is not an accurate depiction of our day-to-day lives, not in the slightest and going back to your point about like celebrities that are really open about mental health. Like Kid Cuddy is a great example. He's so open about his mental health struggles and even if you just listen to his lyrics, it's like this guy is struggling and where he has struggled, he's suffered in some, you know, some way and I think he's also a really good role model in that sense because I mean I love his music, but it's a bit more meaningful when you listen to it through that lens. Yeah, definitely. Yeah, I love it. I love seeing like how he's always put it like forefront and he's always been like transparent about it. Yeah, I've watched his documentary when it came out. I think it was on, oh, or Amazon. I think it was like a year ago, two years ago. And it was, yeah, it was beautiful to see. Like I'm a shedded tear because it was like how open this guy was being about his struggles and how open he's always been about his struggles throughout his career, no matter like how big or famous he's gotten. It's beautiful, you know. And then in your own experience, you know, how would how would you describe certain like practices or stuff that you take to take care of your let's say like your physical well-being, your emotional well-being, and if you consider yourself maybe like a spiritual person, your spiritual wellness. Yeah, definitely. Being a media, it's can be sometimes hard to turn off because it's always going, slippery, doing this, artists are putting on music or a designer put out some clothes, whatever. And sometimes it can be on the weekend, it can be late at night, you never know. So sometimes it can be really hard to find that work life balance. And I think for me was just really putting a stop to that of like I need to find time to work on myself, turn off work, turn off the email, turn off Slack and go workout or do yoga, go to the go to the grocery store, get some food, make some food, eat healthy, maybe put some music on, clean my place. Like all those these little things add up to just like we have really taking care of yourself. And for me, yeah, that work life balance of finding that early on, obviously I was like very excited to be here in the city and like working in fashion and doing all these cool things. But yeah, after a while, like, yeah, it's you look back and just like, oh wow, I've all week, I think I've gone to like a brand event on Monday and then on Tuesday and Wednesday maybe when I was friends I grabbed drinks and Thursday to another brand event or something like that or some fashion thing. And I'm like, wow, I've been out all this week and I didn't work out, I barely cooked, you know, I barely slept and all this things and like, oh, this is not good. So it's easy to be like wrapped up in that world and it's an amazing fun, exciting world to be in, but you do sometimes have to like take yourself out of it and find time for yourself and just slow down a little bit. Yeah, I think it's something I've experienced too, like, wanting to do everything and overbooking myself and you know, working during the day and then having plans at night or doing this networking event or that thing and it's it's really easy to overexend yourself, especially in a city like New York, especially being in a creative industry and like to your point, I didn't realize how much I would look forward to like the feeling of having a fully stocked fridge after you grocery shop and knowing you just like did something for yourself and then you and you're incentivized to not eat out as much because you're like, okay, I don't want this food to go to waste, so I have to cook it and I have to eat it. So like something I've been trying to do is really only have like dinners on the on the weekends because it's like I'd rather save my money and just like cook at home and eat at home and whatever and then like it makes it more special when you get to go out, you know, I love that point around it's like the little things that add up. Exactly, exactly. And for me, I'm like becoming more of a morning person. I think the the best thing I could do for myself mentally is like waking up early. Like having a slow start to the day is like so beneficial for me. So I try to get up even if I'm like not even like doing anything. I mean, I try to work out in the morning. So I try to get up at like 536. Even if I'm not working out, I like to put some like light music on, make some coffee and kind of just like relax. Sometimes just even just laying there is like fine. But like before I used to be more of a night person going out a lot and then waking up like right before work and then like cracking up my laptop and then trying to figure it all out and it's just chaos. Yeah, that's not it. I feel horrible when I start my day and I immediately like open my laptop because I feel like I didn't have a day. I'm with you on that like waking up early. Funny story, this morning I woke up at 530 because I had a 6am yoga class scheduled. And I have been kind of on this like 630 AM yoga kick recently because I mark, you know, I'm hitting the year anniversary of when I went and got my teacher training in Bali. In that program, I was up at 630 every morning doing yoga from like 7 to 9 and it was just so nice to start your day with movement and like some form of meditation or breath work or a combination of the three. And now like living so close by to a yoga studio that I also teach at X, I teach at Core Power Yoga. It's been a game changer. So I've been waking up really early and going to yoga and it feels amazing that you get out of class and it's like 7am 730 and you're like, I already did something. I'm going to shower. I'm going to like make my breakfast and now I'm ready to sit down and it's it does something to your mind. I don't know what it is, but it's powerful. Yeah, I can't describe the feeling of it, but yeah, it's like much needed every day. Yeah, so it's yeah, it's a key part of my for me for my mental health, waking up early is key. Aside from your morning routine, which it seems like is very sacred to you. Are there any other ways that you try to incorporate like wellness in your day to day, whether it be through certain like practices that you love or just like trying to have more conversations around wellness with your friends, your family, your peers, like how do you kind of bring that into your life? Yeah, definitely being more open for sure. Yeah, with friends and family, going through just day to day struggles with whatever could be work or just social life, whatever it is. And finding time to just like really just like move around. Obviously, you know, in front of a laptop most of most of my work day, but if I'm working at home, I fortunate enough to live by a park for a green park. So I'd love to go go grab some air and go like sit in the park or walk around, grab some coffee. I've been on a huge workout kick lately, so I go work out at lots. I've been trying to get into yoga. So you might have to give me some tips there. And really really kind of like transforming my place into like more just like a sanctuary. Like I've been buying a lot more plants, been buying a lot more candles and like air purifiers and stuff like that. So like when I come home, I just went like beautiful aroma, beautiful greenery all the time, putting music on and stuff like that. It's yeah, it's gorgeous. Having a serene environment at home, I feel like it's so important because it's your place of rest, you know, like it's the place you want to just like unwind and just dial it down. I truly believe that wellness is not a one-size-fits all. And I think that as we grow older and have different life experiences, our own perspectives on health and wellness and what it means to be healthy, what it means to take care of yourself can really transform. And I think that's super powerful and it should be something that empowers everyone to get excited about taking care of their own health. Like it doesn't have to be a chore. And so it seems like you've kind of hit this point in your life where you've started to really love, you know, you've started to find the joy in the little things and maybe it's a matter of priority shifting or interest evolving, but I think it's like a testament to the fact that like our own experience with health can change over time. And that's okay and that should be something that we're kind of constantly exploring. Yeah, exactly, exactly. And for me, I think it was it was really like COVID that like brought that, brought all that out for me. I've really like sitting back and like what needs to be changed, what truly makes me happy, what truly makes me healthy and slowly implementing that into my life, you know, not completely like flipping my entire life around and changing everything all at once, but like slowly finding little things that make me happy throughout the day, throughout the week. and yeah just keep finding like competitive consistency in it. Yeah. This brings me to my last question, which is something that I ask every guest. And you've already talked a lot about things that bring you joy and things in your routine that you consider to be part of your wellness practices. But what is something that brings you a bit of endorphins every day? Honestly, it's, I mean, this is a weird bad answer, but I recently got a record player bringing it back to music. And I've been on this like oldies kick and I have this album. There's two of them that I probably just do every day, at least a few times. One is Aretha Franklin, live in Paris from like things from like the 1970s something. It is such a beautiful like soulful album that every time I play it's just like immediate, just happiness. I don't know how to explain it, but like music brings me a lot of joy and I play music all the time and like that album is just pure bliss. There's another one, Frank Sinatra in the small, it's I think it's called In the Small Hours. Once I started getting on like my morning routine, that's the like the album I play like every morning, like as soon as I get up, like at the crack of dawn. And yeah, it's another like pure bliss album. It's so just relaxing and heartfelt and soulful. And I can't think of a better way to start today. That's a great answer. There's no bad answer for what brings you endorphins because there's so many things in this world that can make people happy and it's also like such a personal response to and it's cool to have a record player. New music definitely brings me endorphins too. Clearly I'm a big kid cutie fan and you know amongst others, but I think that's great. And especially when you're like incorporating it into your morning, like there's nothing that gets me like more pumped up for the day when like I have music playing in the background or a good podcast depending on like the mood that I'm in. And I feel where can my listeners find you on Instagram? Like where can they go to connect with you? Oh yeah, my Instagram handle is HDG, KYL. It's just like my first and last name abbreviated. It's like all my handles. So on Twitter, Instagram, those are only like the usual ones I'm on. I do some video content for GQ. So you can find me on gq.com. You can find me on GQ's YouTube or their GQ Instagram and GQ Recommend's handle. Thank you so much. It's been such a pleasure having you on the podcast. Yeah, thank you for inviting me. I love this. Thank you for listening and remember to like, rate and review this podcast on whichever listening platform you prefer. Don't forget to keep spreading in Dorfins and find things that bring you in Dorfins every day. See you next time.