The PricePlow Podcast

https://blog.priceplow.com/podcast/ben-hartman-2-morphogen-nutrition-063 Nearly two years after his introductory podcast in Episode #033 titled The Rise of Morphogen Nutrition, Ben Hartman re-joins the PricePlow Podcast to talk about his major re-launch and re-brand! We talk about the major changes since the last episode, dig further into the history of the brand, and show some of these interesting and semi-controversial labels below in our show notes. If you’re interested in trying ten grams of L-tyrosine in a pre-workout supplement, then we have a treat for you! Ben Hartman #2 on PricePlow https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=36IQteIo7Nk Morphogen has a tighter look! Ben is a big picture conceptualist who launched Morphogen on a desire to go all-in on formulas. He did that, but never went hard on label designs. With this next generation of formulas, that all changes, and it starts with the incredibly unique ALPHAGEN pre-workout supplement: With ten grams of L-tyrosine, this one is definitely going to hit harder. But how will it feel? Only one way to find out!! Ben also explains why he used citrulline malate when most are using L-citrulline. We also get into MORPHOCALM, which has a huge (and expensive) dose of phosphatidylserine combined with RhodioPrime 6X, a high-salidroside form of Rhodiola: Excellent conversation from a very like-minded individual who has an extreme amount of talent!! These show notes were posted at https://blog.priceplow.com/podcast/ben-hartman-2-morphogen-nutrition-063

https://blog.priceplow.com/podcast/dr-cameron-sepah-maximus-062 On February 2, 2022, we hosted Dr. Cameron Sepah of Maximus on the PricePlow Podcast to talk about male hormones and self improvement. This was an incredible episode covering a wide variety of health-based topics, and everyone is sure to come away with some new knowledge. Meet Dr. Cameron Sepah Cam, as we call him, competed as a track athlete. is a clinical psychologist, with a fellowship training in behavioral medicine, working at the intersection of psychology and medicine. He competed as a collegiate track athlete, racing in mid-distance to distance events. After his academic training (specializing in psychoneuroendocrinology amongst other fields) and publishing of several papers, he created Omada Health, an online weight loss program. All in all, he’s a clinician-scientist who’s treated people for over a decade. In addition, he’s an assistant clinical professor of psychiatry at the UCSF School of Medicine. Maximus: Mind, Body, and Masculinity Cam recently founded Maximus, a consumer telemedicine company for men’s health and hormone optimization. Using at-home blood testing and online coaching, Maximus has put together the King Protocol, which is a clinically-validated process to safely increase testosterone and vitality in men – even healthy and young men. This is not testosterone replacement therapy — it’s testosterone restoration. Prepare to learn about enclomiphene citrate Jumping right to hormone optimization, Maximus utilizes enclomiphene citrate — the isomer from clomid that’s safer and more useful in men — to meaningfully boost testosterone levels anywhere from 1.5x to 2.5x. Combined with group health coaching for nutrition, exercise, sleep, and focus, alongside some adjunct supplements, Maximus is changing men’s lives at an astonishing rate. The full show notes with timestamps are covered below – and we have a separate article detailing enclomiphene citrate. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M35bIYvPLwA Our Discussion with Dr. Cameron Sepah of Maximus (0:45) – Dr. Cam’s Introduction (2:50) – A couple of Dr. Cam’s legendary Twitter threads: (3:50) – Dr. Cam’s Background in medicine and psychiatry (4:45) – The problem: Human testosterone and sperm levels are tanking (5:45) – Body fat is one culprit… but not the only one (6:45) – Endocrine-disrupting chemicals (7:45) – It’s happening to dogs too! (9:20) – “We essentially have a hormonal handicap these days – and it’s the public health tragedy that no one’s talking about” (9:45) – Mike: polyester clothing and synthetic fabrics are a vastly underrated endocrine disruptor (10:15) – ACTION Plan – Where do we begin? (14:40) – The pareto principle – 20% of your efforts produce 80% of your results. (15:15) – DUMP THE PROCESSED SEED OILS / VEGETABLE OILS! (18:00) – Note that age-related testosterone decline is not necessarily inevitable. (20:00) – How do we “fight fire with fire”? Can supplements help? Not much… (22:00) – Going to need to go the pharmaceutical route (23:05) – Testosterone replacement therapy (TRT) and its major issues (24:00) – Primary hypogonadism vs. secondary hypogonadism (26:20) – SERMs – Selective Estrogen Receptor … Read more on the PricePlow Blog

https://blog.priceplow.com/podcast/2021-supplement-awards Better late than never, it’s time to publish our 2021 Supplement Awards. Mike and Ben sat down to review 2021 at large, and then doled out a smaller batch of awards — all brand-based — compared to what we did for 2020’s year-end awards. In general, 2021 was a continuation of 2020, but with some added wrinkles due to the ongoing supply chain issues. The brands that came ready to deal in 2020 were the same ones that kept momentum in 2021. In addition, given the supply chain situation, this was not a great time to start a new brand, and few new ones were started – but one is definitely on our radar as a brand to watch in 2022. Finally, we have a new award that we’ll continue to award in the future: MVP of the year! This will go to a person who contributed incredible talents to the industry, beyond what any single brand or product accomplished. This is posted as Episode #061 on the PricePlow Podcast. Video and audio versions are below, with the details after that: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3LTqArSYgnM There are five awards: Best Supplement Innovator of the 2021 This year’s innovation of the year goes to Glaxon, hands down. Going through our Glaxon News page, you can see the numerous product releases, but also consider the new ingredients they brought to market too: BioNMN (in NAD+ Synergy) PeptiStrong GG-Gold (both in Glaxon Anomaly) NeoShield (in Protos Whey) Care4You ioCollagen DracobelleNu (both in Wonder Collagen) Pep2dia (in Xerion) MyoSeq and MyoSeq Vegan (in Xeno Amino and Protos Vegan) aXivite Sichuan Peppercorn These products are all innovative due to these ingredients and beyond. We discuss specifics behind Wonder Collagen, Protos Whey, Goon Mode, Neuro 365 and more. Note that the above list is not all-inclusive – there are even more new ingredients in those formulas! Looking forward, Glaxon is partnering heavily with GNC, who’s making major moves to push innovation forward. Since seeing Beyond Raw, we’ve become quite bullish on GNC, and are bullish on this partnership as well. More coverage to come on that in 2022 – but for 2021, the innovator is hands down Glaxon. Further details can be learned in Podcast Episode #057: with Glaxon’s CEO Michael Bischoff and chief science officer / formulator Joey Savage. 2021 MVP of the Year During Podcast #057 linked above, Mike joked that his “brand of the year” was actually a person — a man whose products were all over Mike’s supplement stack, yet across several brands. Of course, a person can’t win brand of the year, but they can win MVP of the year. That man’s name … Read more on the PricePlow Blog

https://blog.priceplow.com/podcast/ryse-supps-tj-humphreys-nic-stella-060 Our first podcast of 2022 came with some excellent news: TJ Humphreys has joined Nic Stella at RYSE Supps. Many supplement industry veterans know TJ from his days as CEO and owner of ProSupps, but now he’s taken on a leadership role in Dallas, TX as President and Partner. From a distance, TJ has been watching RYSE Supps punch its way into the space and then become a best-selling brand at a top retailer in the country (Vitamin Shoppe). This follows previous power moves where creative superstar Greg Helton also joined RYSE as VP. In this episode, we first introduce TJ and then have him talk about his background. After that, we discuss the new stuff coming from RYSE (which includes an energy drink!), and then get into distribution and RYSE’s incredible social media strategy that’s taken them to the next level. Video and audio versions are below, and then more details after that: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xXW_qflS2No TJ Humphreys now at RYSE Supps TJ’s been in the industry for over 20 years, starting at Lone Star Distribution (which was subsequently merged with Europa Sports). He started ProSupps in early 2012, coming out with the famous Hyde pre workout. It was eventually time for a new, more aggressive endeavor: “I love to lead, I love to inspire, I love high-growth opportunities. Not afraid of challenges, not afraid of adversity. And thankfully, Nic has created a soft spot for me to land here, because he’s really done things well.” — TJ Humphreys, RYSE President and Partner Experience: “Dumb tax” is paid TJ explains how much “dumb tax” he’s paid in his 20 years of learning experience – he’s become an expert in dealing with retailers, international sales opportunities, shipping, manufacturing, distribution, and more. This is the expertise that he can pass down to Nic. At RYSE, Nic has created a rocket ship, and TJ is making sure he has the right people on the train, and a lot of it will be with his retail expertise. They already have meetings lined up with some major FDM (Food, Drug, and Mass Market) companies and are going in with a serious tailwind due to Nic’s incredible job on the web and in social media. The trifecta of Nic, TJ, and Greg Helton covers numerous parts of the market, ranging across social media, retail, international, design, compliance, manufacturing, and supply chain. New product development at RYSE RYSE is putting out an energy drink (named RYSE Fuel on their social media page), and while TJ recognizes that many energy drink consumers are brand-agnostic, they can make a better approach through specialty stores first. This will eventually lead to larger energy drink sales at FDM — but TJ’s sure to note that major chains are already very interested. RYSE’s collabs with SunnyD and Ring Pop (which are currently the top two selling pre workouts at Vitamin Shoppe) are definitely driving much of the international and big-business interest, but it’s important to note that these products are most often first popular at supplement-specific stores before major players get involved. RYSE Fuel Similarly, RYSE Fuel will first be driven by these flavor collabs – the SunnyD flavor will get its own unique can. It will have 200 milligrams of caffeine and 500 milligrams of CDP-choline, so it will definitely feel very good but not hit overly hard. The cans look incredible, just like RYSE’s supplements, so the retailers that have seen th… Read more on the PricePlow Blog

At the end of 2021, we had Gerhard Hoermann of NuLiv Science on the PricePlow Podcast to discuss the novel ingredient developer’s back-half of the year, recent international travels, and what’s coming in the future. Key takeaways from this discussion are that NuLiv Science has many more ingredients going above and beyond the ones we frequently cover here (such as the astragalosides and ginsenosides in AstraGin, Senactiv, InnoSlim, and Astrion), and NuLiv Science is doing a fantastic job building more content, as can be seen on their @NuLivScience page on Instagram. Gerhard (commonly known as ‘G’ in the industry) kicks it off by talking about their recent trip to Germany, as well as SupplySide West. He explains that the American market (as seen at SupplySide West) is currently stronger for novel ingredients, while European markets are behind on technology, presenting more opportunity for innovation. Watch the full video and podcast subscription links are below, with details following: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bZZUaZy_f4I Talking novel ingredients with NuLiv Science After covering Gerhard’s background in sports nutrition (he worked in retail and then in online media), he gets into the transition of working with NuLiv Science, who generally operates more behind the scenes. He now helps brands put the right ingredients into new supplements, providing them with an edge against their competition. ‘G’ tells us that NuLiv has a new ingredient coming in 2022, and it will get coverage here on PricePlow, so sign up for our NuLiv Science news alerts. Don’t miss the NuLiv Science social media content One of the things G has done incredibly well since beginning at NuLiv Science is to help drive and provide more content on NuLiv Science’s social media properties. They’re doing more behind-the-scenes content, new collaborative taste-testing and product breakdowns, and making it cooler to be talking about ingredient science. Since most companies are already aware of AstraGin (absorption-amplifier – find our blog’s AstraGin tag page to see how many product articles have included it), NuLiv already has great relationships that are bolstered at conventions such as SupplySide West. However, it’s their team’s job to educate brands and consumers about their other ingredients. More than just AstraGin: Other NuLiv Science Ingredients Senactiv and InnoSlim both made a great push in sports nutrition in 2021, while Astrion and Verbasnol are getting more heavily into skin care. Beyond that, a highly underrated ingredient is Zylaria, which is a relaxing ingredient based upon xylaria with a few recent tweaks made last year. As Mike mentions during the podcast, an easy way to test out the anxiety-relieving capabilities of Zylaria is in Avani Health Stress + Sleep Support, which has 1 gram of Zylaria with absorption boosted by both 50 milligrams of AstraGin and 10 milligrams of black pepper extract in two capsules. A major mushroom supplier Most users also don’t know that NuLiv has several mushroom based ingredients, such as CordycepsPrime, ABMPrime, ChagaPrime, ReishiPrime, ShiitakePrime, MaitakePrime, Cor… Read more on the PricePlow Blog

On December 7, 2021, Ben sat down with Darin Decker and Michael McClane of Kaged Muscle, who had a lot to say about the future of the brand. You may remember Darin from Episode #047, where we learned of the great things coming for the end of 2021. This episode takes things a lot further. Right off the bat, for those who watch the YouTube video, we get to see the new Elite Series that comes with all new branding. Kaged Muscle Becomes Kaged The major announcement is that the team is shifting the branding from Kaged Muscle to simply Kaged. While exercise is still the epicenter of health and wellness, helping customers live their best lives is more than just building muscle. Simply put, Kaged is more than muscle. The details are below on video and in our audio feeds (subscribe to the PricePlow Podcast with your favorite podcast app), and also be sure to sign up for our Kaged news alerts before checking out: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FygqwrAjFSY The Kaged Background Before getting into the rebrand, Michael takes us back through the inception of Kaged Muscle, where it was a “no-brainer” opportunity: they’d seen what brands were succeeding on Bodybuilding.com, some of which Kaged formulator Brian Rand had actually created (flashback to our 2016 article titled Meet the Man Who REALLY Formulated Pre-JYM). By partnering with Kris Gethin, there was perfect alignment in terms of their goals. They decided to develop better supplements, accept lower profit margins, and use forward-thinking marketing strategies to make it come to life. The push worked, and over time, they were still able to sell in major stores, changing the retail landscape away from a period where only ultra cheaply made formulas could maintain profitability. “We’re never going to launch a me-too product” Michael explains that Kaged is never going to launch a product that doesn’t innovate. Innovation isn’t just in supplements, either – Kaged also has some of the best training programs in the industry. Ben lists some of the recent supplements that, despite being in a “legacy” category, have been very innovative: Clean Meal (meal replacement protein) Kaged Omega-3 (extraordinarily high purity fish oil) Kaged Multivitamin (multi with whole foods sources) And of course, innovations like Pro-Biotic, the ioPea in Plantein, and CreaClear creatine monohydrate shouldn’t be forgotten either! So what about their legendary pre-workout supplement, Pre-Kaged? Meet Pre-Kaged ELITE Two years in the making, Darin introduces Pre-Kaged Elite to PricePlow Nation. “More pumps, more energy, more focus”. Put simply, this label is bombastic. It is the epitome of it all. For example, it has 10 grams of fermented citrulline, an insane dosage – especially given the recent supply chain crisis! There’s creatine, there’s nitrates, and far more with… Read more on the PricePlow Blog

November 11, 2021 marked Glaxon’s second birthday, a day now celebrated as Goon Day! The team at Glaxon invited us to their world headquarters in Houston, TX so that we could participate in the activities and put together some incredible content regarding their new products. After a day of filming videos, drinking unique supplements, and training, we came back to record a podcast with Glaxon CEO Michael Bischoff and Chief Science Officer / Formulator Joey Savage. A Goon Day to set the standard This was one of the most fun recordings we’ve ever done in PricePlow history. The session went three hours long, and we came away with some incredible laughs, new product explanations and teasers, ingredient insights, industry inside information, and a ton of supreme knowledge from Joey himself. The audio feeds are below, followed by two YouTube videos: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4L4Omvcw0S4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pFxVo8ZbYJk A podcast for the ages There’s too much to list here, but in this video, we: The sample the first run of both Protos Whey (a humanized whey protein) and Protos Vegan Discussion on GNC’s new Glaxon partnership and promotion The upcoming Specimen V3 pre workout What makes Specimen G.F.Y so special and what more can be done to it Dietary supplement testing Ongoing scams Mushrooms (both supplemental and “magical”) and CBD disappointments Beta alanine, our favorite source of argumentation Pumpkin Pie Wonder Collagen Joey’s training stack Sponsoring Bill Murray and putting him in the space suit Choline sources Ingredient of the year You can also see our video where Joey explains Glaxon’s upcoming products for the end of 2021. Overall, it was a wild, fun, and entertaining day capped off with an incredible conversation. Since this podcast, we’ve come out with so much more Glaxon content that you can find on our Glaxon News page – sign up for alerts there so that you don’t miss the latest happenings. As always, subscribe to the PricePlow Podcast feeds and leave a review on iTunes or your favorite app!

In Fall of 2021, we hosted Jamie Giovinazzo of Eat Clean Bro on the PricePlow Podcast. Eat Clean Bro is the fresh meal delivery company based in the Northeast that Jamie founded, and is going through monstrous growth. In this episode of the PricePlow Podcast, we talked about Jamie’s story from humble beginnings, food quality and craftsmanship, entrepreneurship, and fame. This was a strong and passionate discussion, and of all of the business owners we’ve talked to, none seem to love their business and their customers as much as Jamie – and that says a lot given the intense industry we deal with. You can watch on YouTube or listen to the discussion on our audio podcast feeds below, and as always, sign up for PricePlow’s Eat Clean Bro news alerts so that you get notified anytime new meals are developed, but you can also head right on over to EatCleanBro.com and see what’s new on their homepage as well! If you’re new to Eat Clean Bro, see our introductory article titled Eat Clean Bro: Fresh, Healthy Meals Delivered… Fresh! Talking Eat Clean Bro with Jamie Giovinazzo “New Jersey is the epicenter of bro”, but Jamie tells us that they also have a kitchen in Atlanta, GA and are looking at Boston and Washington DC expansion. Jamie discusses where he operates in a way where he puts other people first, and it breeds cooperation, loyalty, and appreciation. Jamie nearly has “celebrity status” because he knows so many people in the Northeast, but of everyone he deals with, he’s easily the most relatable person. He shares his rather strong opinions about social media, but tries to “bring people back to earth”. From humble beginnings Jamie discusses that he’s learned from mistakes, 5:27: “I’ve seen the rise and fall of many great entrepreneurs, and over the years, the most apparent trait is the ego. When you start feeling invincible, that’s usually when you fall the hardest. I’m very aware – I’m not invincible.” — Jamie Giovinazzo A company to support 6:30: “We make every single meal in-house… There’s a lot of national meal brands that do not cook the food, they outsource, they use copackers to make their food, they outsource their customer service wherever they can get it the cheapest, and they’re literally just a marketing company hammering coupons and they’re collecting customer information, and they’re taking that data, and that’s the data they’re using to sell to bigger companies who want that information… And really what I’m getting at man, is I’m trying to be relatable and trying to encourage people and trying to get people to understand the real entrepreneur grind and to support your local entrepreneur and support local.” — Jamie Giovinazzo Customer service: a real human on the phone and live chat 8:20: “I always tell people about the customer service. When you call, there’s no ringtone. There’s no ‘please press 1 for sales or press 2..’ dude.. You call, we pick up the phone. If you’re calling, chances are, you want to talk to somebody. I mean come on, any business that has that f’in ‘press this or press that’, and they’re not even that busy, I’m like come on man, somebody just answer the phone, why do I gotta press these buttons… …So when you call Eat Clean Bro with one or two rings, there’s a real person who answers the phone, and our live chat is the same way.” — Jamie Giovinazzo Food cooked from scratch 9:08: “I don’t know if I do a good enough job promoting the t… Read more on the PricePlow Blog

On October 29, 2021, Ben interviewed Sara Perez Ojalvo, the Director of Research & Development at Nutrition21, the ingredient development powerhouse that’s behind key sports nutrition, dietary, and performance ingredients like Nitrosigine, nooLVL, Chromax, and Velositol. Meet Sara Perez Ojalvo and the Nutrition21 Way of Doing Things Sara has been with Nutrition21 for seven years. When she first started, the brand’s focus was on Nitrosigine, a new patented nitric oxide booster in the form of inositol-stabilized arginine silicate, but it only had one study published at the time. Sara’s job is to design new research to demonstrate to the scientific and consumer communities that the ingredient is safe, efficacious, and beneficial for its purposes. Sara graduated from the prominent Wesleyan University in Connecticut with a degree in Biology. She decided against medical school and lab-work, wanting to be in science yet not in the lab on a day-to-day basis. When she began, Sara oversaw three simultaneous studies with funding the company had available. It’s her job to work with sales and marketing to see what consumers and brands are asking for, and to see if they can deliver an ingredient that works both in the lab and in the real world. The full story is below, but you can subscribe to the PricePlow Podcast or watch the embedded video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V1UFaA2i3l0 Nutrition21 the research company As we’ve said numerous times on PricePlow, Nutrition21 is more of a research company than just a novel ingredient developer. Much of this is covered in our article titled The Evolution of Nutrition21’s Sports Nutrition Ingredients. Ben also brings up the unique Arkansas study that pitted Nitrosigine against citrulline malate, and showed that Nitrosigine was comparable to citrulline malate at less than a fourth of the dose! Nitrosigine and cognitive function… leading to nooLVL When funding studies, Nutrition21 enjoys collecting as much data as possible, because you’re never sure what you’ll find. While Nitrosigine is a pre workout ingredient, they figured they would study some cognitive function parameters as well, not fully sure if they’d hit anything big. It turned out that Nitrosigine did improve cognitive function — within 15 minutes — and this eventually led to the creation of NooLVL, which was focused on gamers. NooLVL was then studied on gamers in their gaming studies, played with modern games, and much of that is covered in our article titled nooLVL: Next-Gen Focus Ingredient for Gaming Supplements. Mechanistically, the effect makes sense – the increased nitric oxide from both Nitrosigine and nooLVL don’t just increase blood flow and oxygenation for the muscles, they work for the brain as well! Future nooLVL research Sara discusses where nooLVL research may go next: in previous research, they allowed gamers to play their favorite games between their cognitive battery tests. However, because of this, there was too much variability, and they couldn’t collect consistent data regarding in-game performance data. In future studies, it’d be great to standardize on a single game altogether to look at performance as well. The latest nooLVL research is covered in our article titled… Read more on the PricePlow Blog

On October 18th, 2021, we interviewed Krik Angacian, co-founder and CEO of CandyCan, about his new “functional candy” gummy snacks. Before founding CandyCan, Krik also co-founded Protes, a company that was well-known for its delicious protein chips. We talked to Krik about how he transitioned from investment banking to the food industry, how the process of building companies differs from buying and selling them, and what he’s learned about the unique challenges of gummy production when it comes to both formulation and ingredient stability. What is “Functional Candy?” According to Krik, CandyCan is trying to fill a space somewhere between ordinary food and traditional supplements. In an industry whose marketing is skewed so heavily towards bodybuilders and high-performing athletes, Krik sees an opportunity to market beneficial supplements that can also capture the attention of more ordinary, non-athletic consumers: people who aren’t trying to push the limits of their bodies, but just want something a little healthier and more useful than ordinary snack food. Krik got this idea one day when he got caught by his co-founder eating multivitamin gummies like snack food, and realized that the deliciousness of the gummy form factor would always leave consumers wanting more than just one or two gummies. That’s why CandyCan is pairing up with one of North America’s top gummy manufacturers to launch a range of enriching gummy products, including Immunity, which is due to be released towards the end of 2021. Krik also talks us through the state of industry regulations and processing, and some of the challenges that came with formulating Immunity and other gummy products, including: I don’t want to sell snake oil… anything I put out, I wanna make sure it stays stable in a gummy. — Krik Angacian, CandyCan How do you get a gummy with turmeric and black pepper to taste sweet and sour? How do you keep more fragile ingredients from “cooking out” during production? How do you ensure that the bioavailability of ingredients is high? How do you find a good gummy production line? Launching efficacious products is Krik’s top priority. “I don’t want to sell snake oil… anything I put out, I wanna make sure it stays stable in a gummy.” Business Philosophy Krik tries to stay humble in his role as co-founder and CEO, freely admitting that he was caught off guard by the challenges of building a company from scratch, and that he doesn’t know everything. In his words, “I’ve been working out for about 17 years… but I’m still learning.” Ben talks to Krik about the central role of authenticity in branding, and how awesome it is that CandyCan’s brand aligns with who Krik really is as a person. In the middle of the show, Mike also provides his review (since Ben’s will be embedded below when it’s live), and is extremely bullish on both Krik and CandyCan.