Arian Foster on Friendship, Football, Musical Therapy, Money, Morality and Free Thinking EP 07

Summary: Arian Foster (@arianfoster) is maybe best known as the All-Pro running back for the Houston Texans, who after going undrafted, went on to become a 4x Pro Bowler and the teams all-time leading rusher. However, at this point Arian may be better identified as a modern day renaissance man. Following retirement, Arian has successfully taken on many hats including host of the very popular “Now What?” podcast, as well as hip-hop artist, with the release of his debut project “Flamingo and Koval” under the alias of Bobby Feeno, which received over 1 million streams in its first two weeks.  Justine and Arian met at the University of Tennessee where they both attended college and also shared a flag football field, where Arian coached The Goon Squad, Justine’s flag football team.  A very outspoken, well-educated and well-articulated person, Arian brings great perspective and insight to the show on a number of topics including his career as a football player, why and how he transitioned into retirement, his venture into music, why he doesn’t value money, how he’s established his current priorities and his take on current events and controversies like Trump, Kanye and college athletics. As always, thanks for listening! Please be sure to subscribe and download so you know when the next episode is coming and also rate and review Show Me Your Friends on Apple Podcasts here: http://bit.ly/showmeyourfriendspodcast You can find Arian Foster on IG and Twitter @arianfoster. You can follow Show Me Your Friends on IG at @showmeyourfriends and on Twitter @SMYFPodcast. You can find Justine on IG at @justineslife and on Twitter at @justine_brown. NOTES 3:17 How he transitioned to his post football career 5:22 On perspective and not taking things for granted 10:56 On his new album Flamingo and Koval 14:01 University of Tennessee memories 16:29 On how Arian and Justine met and coaching the Goon Squad 19:02 On his football career at the University of Tennessee 21:59 On receiving death threats in college 24:10 On the business of the NCAA and paying college athletes 29:07 On why his goal is not to make more money 34:30 On his decision to retire from the NFL when he did 35:33 On finding his contentment in life 36:31 Perception vs. Reality 38:12 Why he is an advocate for going to therapy 41:03 On building a small circle as your support system 45:01 On early philosophy and philosophers  46:59 On vetting what you see and read on the internet  49:29 On reality vs. morality in our current political climate 52:22 On Donald Trump and political correctness 54:15 Why he considers himself a pessimist 59:35 On rational vs. irrational human beings 1:01:42 On Kanye West and being a free thinker 1:10:45 On the absence of journalistic integrity in today’s media 1:15:42 On needing your own standard of truth 1:17:48 On Flaming and Koval’s tie to Tupac and his musical inspiration 1:21:10 On using samples in music 1:24:08 On investing in himself and his passions and dreams 1:25:50 On music being an investment in his own mental health and personal therapy 1:28:31 What he would tell a star athlete heading into college 1:30:09 On feeling like the “athlete” title is stain post career 1:33:21 The top quality he looks for in a friend