A Physicist And A Boxer Walk Into A Bar - Ed Latimore - #045

**Chris Williamson** (0:00)
Hi, friends. This week, I'm sitting down with Ed Latimore. He's an ex-professional boxer who's also a physicist. It's not the most typical combination of characteristics that you're going to find. He's a very interesting guy. Ed and me spoke an awful lot about sobriety, alcohol's indoctrination into modern society and how it negatively affects a lot of people's lives without them really even noticing it. We also move on to his strategies for being incredibly successful on Twitter, which will be very useful to those of you that are looking to grow your social media followings as we move into the new year. Other than that, I just found him an incredibly charming and very likable guy. He's obviously got a big message that he wants to get across, and it's nice to hear someone who's also singing from the same hymn sheet of sobriety as myself. As always, please share the episode with a friend if you think that they would enjoy it. And I wanted to give a special thank you to everyone that helped share the episode for Relationships 103 So we landed in the top 40 worldwide on the Apple Podcast Chart, which is ridiculous. So thank you very much. I really do appreciate it. Here is Mr. Ed Latimore.
Ed Latimore, how are you today, sir?

**Ed Latimore** (1:33)
I'm fantastic, man, how are you?

**Chris Williamson** (1:35)
I'm very well, thank you. So, an ex-professional boxer who's also a physicist, that's not a combination that you hear every day.

**Ed Latimore** (1:44)
Yeah, you know, these things just kinda happen. I didn't plan, I wish I could look back and go, oh man, six years ago, this was the plan, but no, it really just kinda grew and developed as a result of me taking and putting just one foot in front of the other. I didn't really know exactly where I was going, but I knew where I was leaving, if that makes sense.

**Chris Williamson** (2:07)
Yeah, I totally understand. So, I mean, you've got a super interesting story, as you say, those two interests don't often mix. So, would you be able to give the listeners some background to yourself and tell us your story, how you went from wherever you came from to where you are now?

**Ed Latimore** (2:23)
Oh yeah, no problem. So, I'll give you the abridged version, and by abridged, I mean, the version that starts roughly around age 27, 26, 27 I was a pretty good amateur boxer, and as I started inching closer, I was like, okay, I need to make sure I got something else to fall back on, because I started to really see, you know, the higher you get and the closer you go to being professional, you get to see kind of what the professional ranks are like, business and athletics-wise. Plus, you know, plus I was fortunate in the position I was in, in that I was getting sponsored and paid pretty well, but by some pretty powerful people. So I got to see that, and I said, all right, I need a backup, and I kind of put that on the back burner for a little bit, and so I got cut from the program, and I moved back to where I lived. I lived in Los Angeles in the United States, and I moved back to Pittsburgh, and I was working for a while, and going out partying every night, and just really being a fool, and kind of ignoring the fact that I didn't have any real way to make money other than just showing up and pimping out my time to a customer service rep, or as a customer service rep. So I woke up, I said, you know what? I'm gonna join the Army, and they're gonna pay for school, and that's what happened, and along the way, I spent 22 weeks away from everyone. Because of basic training and AIT, I joined the National Guard version of the military, or the National Guard Division. And when I was there, I realized also that I had developed a problem with alcohol, because I wasn't around drinking for that long, and I got to really sit and think alone. There wasn't a lot going on in my mind, just what was around me. And so I said, you know, this is crazy. So I think I got out, I went out and celebrated one time, got totally shit faced, and I said, this is not how I want to go, and this is not how I want life to be. So I got sober then, I joined school.
When I enlisted, I was three and O as a professional, and then I got out and I just kept going, and kept going. I was originally gonna become an engineer, and I took my first physics class, and I said, I really want to study this, not engineering. And that's how it happened. You know, I was fighting and going to school, and in the military all at the same time, and looking back at it now, I have no idea how I got all the energy.