BIOHACK
BIOHACK
LIVING A FULL LIFE
Psychologist, angel investor, consultant and biohacker are just some of the ways to describe Dr. Chris Stout. Davison catches up with the multi-hyphenate on what it means to live life to the fullest.
I
t’s hard to introduce Dr. Chris Stout, for the simple reason that he does so many things. So, perhaps, one way is to address the title that comes with his name; he is a licensed clinical psychologist. But he is also an angel investor, a consultant for individuals, startups and large companies, and a board member of organisations and a faculty member at the College of Medicine at the University of Illinois. He is also the founder of the Center for Global Initiatives, a non-profit, and a kindergarten for orphaned children in Tanzania. He has also written 37 books, which have been published in nine languages. There’s more, though. You could call him a biohacker – and, perhaps, that was his first title before everything else came along. “Well, it pretty much started when I was 13 years old. Obese, I had a Body Mass Index of 36 at age 12. I had orthopaedic issues needing special shoes, so I was pretty much inactive. It was particularly problematic being my size and named Stout. I was the focus of much teasing. I had just lost my grandmother to a protracted illness, which resulted in my moving from urban Dallas where I’d grown up with my mom and grandmother (my parents divorced before my first birthday), to living with my dad on a farm in Indiana,” the 59-year-old says. A bookish child, he began reading up about weight loss, diet and exercise. In three months, over the summer, he lost 64 pounds and became vegetarian. He went back to school different, hardly recognisable by his classmates.
WORDS & PHOTOS RED BULL EDITED BY JONATHAN TAN
WORDS ROSSARA JAMIL PHOTOS CHRIS STOUT
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