David Choi embodies the spirit of a true New Yorker: an immigrant-born tech entrepreneur with more side hustles than you can count. He’s an actor, filmmaker, technology risk manager and serial founder of health and wellness startups. And did I mention he’s planning to run for mayor?
Right now, David’s biggest mission is to make New Yorkers healthy through his Biohack the World series. Having studied both Economics and Food Science at NYU, David Choi shares his passion for nutrigenomics (aka “biohacking”) with New Yorkers at monthly panel events and online community portal. Ahead of his next Biohack the World panel event this coming Thursday night, I spoke with David about his passion projects, his vision for Biohack the World, and his advice for New Yorkers who want to lead a more active lifestyle.
You’re a very busy man. Tell me about your current passion projects…
I guess there’s no denying that I’m busy. With all that I’m trying to do, I try to stay on 7 days a week, making some kind of progress on all my passion projects. It’s really hard for me to take a day off so I do daily sprints with each of them on select days. They all kind of feed each other on a high level so I always feel like I’m moving the needle on all of them even if I’m not explicitly working on one or the other.
My two main passion projects are:
Biohack the World – a live, monthly biohacking show hosted at The Assemblage John Street (and soon at Sacred Space in Miami). The show has begun to serve as my NYC mayoral campaign, running on the platform to make NYC the Healthiest Big City In the World. I’m also proud to say that I have an incredible production team that is almost all-female! A big shout out to Karliin Brooks, Susan Jaques, Allie Holcombe, CJ, Samantha, Adam, and Avisha for their incredible contributions to the cause.
HIIT Show – a film production company I co-founded with a very talented videographer, Chaun Michael Medeiros. We specialize in producing health and fitness films. Our current project is a health and fitness travel show called Dropping In. We will be shooting the pilot with competitive CrossFit Games athletes, Dani Speegle and Alec Smith in Q4 2019.
I also have two side projects that I’m pushing along as best as I can with the limited time and resources that I have:
HIITcoin – a digital currency that was created to solve malnutrition and food insecurity across all social strata. HIITcoin enables exercise enthusiasts to earn tokens which can be used to purchase one thing: fresh, organic produce from local farms. Phase II of the HIITcoin project will allow students to pay off student loans through exercise. I recently graduated from Y-Combinator Startup School for the project and HIITcoin will be at the crux of my NYC mayoral campaign. When HIITcoin comes to fruition, no one will be able to say they can’t afford to eat healthily—they can if they’re willing to exercise for it. This is better than Universal Basic Income and Debt Forgiveness programs, in my humble opinion!
Biome Foods – a health food tech company that produces foods that optimize longevity and gut microbial composition and diversity. Our first product would be a healthy hot sauce called Ginger Jam, The Anti-Inflammatory Hot Sauce.
I’d also like to mention my predilection for CrossFit, writing, acting, public speaking, and photography, all staples in my repertoire that I consider exponential skills—skills that compound the efficiency and effectiveness of everything that I do.
What is the mission of Biohack the World?
Biohack the World’s mission is to help as many people in this world take control of their own health. We strive to create a cleaner, safer, more equitable, sustainable, and judicious place for all of us to not only live, grow, and prosper, but to help others do the same through the education of our biology, our microbiology, our psychology, and our environment. We gather monthly because we want to nerd out on this exquisite system that we’ve all been bestowed with—a system that works best when we’re working, learning, and living harmoniously in concert with each other.
Biohack the World seeks to nurture the gifted, humble, spiritual, studious, diligent, disciplined, kind, considerate, respectful, and altruistic biohackers among us. If you are determined to raise your consciousness and of others around you, we want you to join us in our fight to create a safer environment for all of humanity and generations to come.
You’ve been very open about some of your personal family history. What’s your biggest fear when opening yourself up to a room full of strangers?
I can’t really say that I have a fear in this regard. If anything, I’ve turned the fear of bearing all on stage into my superpower—my competitive edge, if you will. When I became an actor at 34 and began to cultivate the artist in me, I realized that the greatest art is based on truth and that truth can be dark and painful at times. I decided then that my gift to the world as an actor, as a citizen scientist and storyteller, would be to help others find comfort in their own plight, recovery, or journey through our often harried existence here on Earth. So while most people are afraid of revealing their innermost thoughts and secrets for fear of looking bad publicly, I wholeheartedly embrace it. I find being raw, real, and vulnerable intensely rewarding, healing even. I have absolutely no qualms about sharing every part of my history in the hopes that my trials can help someone either cope or overcome their own challenges. And if in the process I can make people laugh, even at my own expense, that’s A-okay!
As a Korean-American, where do you go in NYC to feel connected to “home”?
I like to say Home is where the heart is. I travel quite a bit but regardless of the locale, I’m home when I feel connected to my faith, my family, and my community. Often, that’s at my home in Queens where I live with my mom, at CrossFit Fifth Avenue with my fit fam, The Assemblage, and anywhere else where I find God, whether it be in nature, at church, acting class, Toastmasters, or even in the NYC streets and subways.
What’s the best advice you have for a busy New Yorker who’s looking to start their fitness journey?
My advice to anyone starting out in their fitness journey would be to first find your fit family. Go to where people grow, and surround yourself with people fitter than you. You are far more likely to be fit if your friends are fit, just as you’re more likely to be obese if your friends are obese. You want to get that positive peer pressure from people that you spend time with day in and day out.
With regards to which training modality to start with, I’m biased towards CrossFit because it’s a competitive and collaborative sport and no one is going to push you harder than yourself when you’re in competition mode. That said, I found that CrossFit is where the highest level of fitness can be attained not only because of its competitive nature but also due to its supportive and engaging community.
But start slow, check your ego at the door (or altogether for that matter), and remember, your #1 priority when you’re doing ANY kind of exercise, is to not get injured. If you pushed yourself so hard that you can’t train almost daily, you’ve done it wrong. Go light, learn the technique, how to recover properly, and make friends with those more experienced than you. There’s a safe and injurious way to do everything. And thankfully CrossFit is infinitely scalable to anyone’s ability.
A very close second priority is to have a fucking blast doing it, whatever it is. I particularly respond to measured fitness where I can clearly quantify my progress through a fitness journal and timed competitions, which is what CrossFit offers and that few other fitness modalities do.
So find the right sport, box, coach, and environment. Your fit fam is out there, you’ll just have to go find them. Seek, and ye shall find. 🙂
Meet David Choi this Thursday, November 21, as he hosts the next Biohack the World panel event at The Assemblage on John Street. Details here.