Whole Foods’ John Mackey: We Must Change How We Think About Capitalism

Reason Podcasts

Today's guest is John Mackey, the co-founder and former CEO of Whole Foods, who just released his memoir, The Whole Story: Adventures in Love, Life, and Capitalism. As befits the entrepreneur who revolutionized grocery shopping from a grim, pragmatic necessity into an exciting, multi-sensory adventure, Mackey's story is far from conventional and we talk frankly about the failures, successes, and psychedelics he encountered while reshaping how Americans think about food, fitness, and free enterprise. We also discuss Love.Life, the chain of holistic health and wellness clubs he's opening this summer. 00:00— Introduction 00:48— The Whole Story: Adventures in Love, Life, and Capitalism 03:45— Capitalism disrupts the status quo 07:57— Whole Foods' bumpy start 15:02— How to foster rich environments for capitalism & innovation 19:00— Why socialism ALWAYS fails 21:05— John Mackey's upbringing 26:38— Where is the next generation heading? 29:53— The Capitalism scapegoat 32:36— Ad: BankOnYourself.com 34:27— LSD and other psychedelics 38:15— Applying "Expand into love, don't contract into fear" to business 40:41— Conscious capitalism as a management philosophy 45:45— Unionization at Whole Foods 51:11— The pros & cons of selling Whole Foods to Amazon 59:48— Mackey's new venture: Love.Life 01:05:19— John Mackey's secrets to health 01:09:38— Capitalism: an infinite game Today's Sponsor: Bank On Yourself: Bank On Yourself is a proven retirement plan alternative that banks and Wall Street are desperately hoping you never hear about. It gives you guaranteed, predictable growth and retirement income; access to your money for any purpose with NO questions asked and NO government penalties or restrictions; and the peace of mind that comes from knowing the minimum guaranteed value of your retirement savings on the day you plan to tap into them. Go to Bank On Yourself.com/WORD and get a free report about the retirement plan alternative that lets you bypass banks and Wall Street, and take back control of your financial future. Subscribe at YouTube: http://youtube.com/reasontv Like us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Reason.Magazine Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/reason Visit the archive: https://reason.com/tags/reason-podcast