Jake Muise: Humanely harvesting axis deer while alleviating its impact on Hawaii's vulnerable ecosystems

**Peter Attia** (0:11)
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Now, without further delay, here's today's episode.
I guess this week is Jake Muise. Jake is a close friend and we've gotten to know each other very well over the past couple of years. And I wanted to sit down with him for quite some time because as I've gotten to know Jake, I've gotten to really understand what it means to harvest true wild game. Something that, truthfully, I'd never really been exposed to until I was introduced to hunting in Hawaii.
Jake has an unbelievable backstory, which we start with growing up in the Arctic and moving to the easternmost coast of Canada before getting a scholarship to come to the University of Hawaii to play volleyball. But ultimately, what rings true here is Jake's unbelievable passion for Hawaii and for the conservation and preservation of its resources.
In this episode, we get into a lot of details and truthfully, some of them might be difficult for people to understand. I do point that out when we get to them. We talk about the harvesting of access deer and what that technically means. And I guess I would encourage you to sort of work through your discomfort. If you are a meat eater, which I am, I think it is important to have some understanding of what is involved in that process. I think most people conceptually understand that when you go to the grocery store and you buy a steak, it didn't just miraculously show up there. There was a process. But it was only when I became deeply involved in this that I understood the impact that growing and harvesting food could have on our health. So I do point that out as a point of caution. Once we get into this episode, if folks want to skip ahead when we get into some of those details. The other thing I want to say is I have to disclose something, which is that I am an investor in Maui Nui Venison. That is the company that Jake is the founder and CEO of.
As you can probably tell when you listen to this episode, I'm incredibly passionate about the work Jake is doing.
And once we met and I got to understand the impact that they were having on the community, I wanted Jake to scale this thing up and have a broader impact and basically share this with as many people as possible. And so that's why I've become an investor in his company. And I think it's very important that you understand that I have a financial interest in the success of Jake's company. Finally, along with this podcast, we're going to also announce a subscriber only benefit. So if you're a subscriber and you would like to try Maui Nui Venison after listening to our conversation, you can head on over to our website and learn more. And of course, if you're not a subscriber and you want to understand those benefits, you can learn more of those as well.
So without further delay, please enjoy my conversation with Jake Muise. All right, Jake, looking forward to talking about a lot of things today here. Thanks for taking time out of work today. I know it's a busy time of year for you guys.

**Jake Muise** (3:46)
No, my pleasure, man. I'm definitely looking forward to it.

**Peter Attia** (3:50)
So I don't even know where to begin, man. I almost feel like the easiest way to begin this is to sort of have people kind of get to know your story a little bit, sort of the way I've gotten to know it.
We're both Canadians. I guess we have that going for us, for better or worse.
I was reading my son a book yesterday about Canada that one of his Canadian cousins got him, and I was kind of trying to explain to him Canada is like the United States. It has provinces instead of states, and he wanted to know which one I was from, and I'm like pointing to Toronto and that and all this stuff. And then he's looking at the Northern part, and he's like, well, what's up there? And I was like, yeah, that's the Arctic. Like most people don't live up there, but of course most people isn't Jake. So you're growing up in the Arctic, right? Which is kind of not normal.