The self-titled Liver King, a muscular and often shirtless social media star named Brian Johnson, has millions of followers by promoting an “ancestral” diet of beef brains, bull testicles and raw animal livers. Lately, however, an email was leaked revealing that among other things, Johnson is using steriods, which he not only has never disclosed, but has actively lied about in the past – claiming to have never used them. Since this betrayal was made public, the Liver King has released a video titled “I Lied”, where he makes an apology and explains this deception.

In this video, I react to the I Lied confession, analyzing and critiquing just how honest he’s being, and whether this is just another act of manipulation to his audience. You be the judge!

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• The Naked Truth, his latest release, shows you how radical honesty builds self-confidence and relationships
• Nothing to Lose explores how to build confidence from the inside by correcting the programming in your brain
• The Legendary Life is a very practical, action-focused guide on how to plan and execute a life plan that brings you your ideal lifestyle

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• Nice Guy Recovery: how to transform from a people pleaser into a confident beast.
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• Overcoming Your Fear of Rejection… Permanently!: covers the psychology of “rejection” and what actions to take to make yourself immune to the fear of it

Full transcript

Dan Munro Welcome back to Brojo online. And I’ve had a few requests now to do one of my kind of deconstructive reactive videos to somebody else who is trying at least to appear to be honest, and I will analyze how honest they’re really being and give my opinion on that. I did one with Sam Harris and Ben Affleck and then went down pretty well. So this time, I’m going to do one on a guy called the Liver King. Now, the Liver King, I don’t know that much about him, I’m coming into this very fresh and very kind of open minded, but I know a little bit about him, and so I’ll disclose what I know so far one is that he’s in the fitness industry, and he’s a big ripped as bear like dude two is, I believe he’s the guy who’s kind of infamous for eating raw meat. And I think he might actually promote eating nothing but raw meat as a diet. He’s sort of infamous for eating like raw testicles and livers I’m guessing as well. So I think he’s known for that in the fitness industry, this kind of alternative diet. And mostly what I know about him is very recently, an email was leaked. And I have seen that email, but I didn’t understand all the chemical compounds I was looking at and so on. But the email basically revealed that he has not just been eating raw meat, he has in fact been using all kinds of chemicals, including anabolic steroids, I believe. So that’s what I know or think I know about him. And so he’s put up a video simply titled “I lied”. And so I guess in this is some sort of mea culpa confession. And so I’m gonna see how legit this is, is this just more manipulation from a liar? Or is this a guy coming clean and being radically honest or vulnerably honest or even powerfully honest? Before I even look at the video, I’ve really literally not seen this at all, I noticed that there were ads on the video as there is mostly with YouTube, not my channel, of course, because I care about the fans. So the fact that this guy has monetized his apology or his whatever this is, this confession, speaks volumes. So before I even go into this, whenever you’re trying to figure out is someone lying or whatever, it’s actually really difficult to do without knowing context, without knowing like what’s the big picture that this person is acting within. This guy has a YouTube channel with hundreds of 1000s of subscribers. The video that I’m about to watch has had millions of views. And it’s monetized. So if nothing else, right out of the gate, I’m suspicious, because this guy is making money from his confession, which undermines the confession. Now, it could be just a coincidence, he didn’t think about it like that, or whatever. I’ll keep my mind open. But that’s a red flag for me. So let’s have a look at this video together. And I’ll jump in at key points and give my piece and try not to say too much and just let you watch it and judge for yourselves as well. Liver King I’m making this video to apologize. Because I fucked up because I’m embarrassed and ashamed. Because I lied. And I misled a lot of people. I stated that this is a complicated as fuck topic, at least to me it is because before social media, I was rich and anonymous. And after social media, I’m still rich, but no longer anonymous. And I never expected this kind of exposure in the public eye. It’s been tricky as fuck to navigate. Dan Munro Okay, right out of the gate. I haven’t seen this guy talk before and don’t know his speaking style. But this is definitely scripted. You can actually literally see his eyes moving and reading notes of some kind. And just the pauses and the meaningful downward looks and everything his body language is… This isn’t to say this isn’t real. This isn’t to say that he doesn’t mean it could be that he doesn’t trust himself to just speak from the top of his mind and has written down what he really feels and is now repeating that It’s possible. But my instincts say this is carefully crafted. And that’s always a warning sign when someone’s being “honest” and it’s carefully crafted, It’s more likely to be manipulation than not. I’m not saying that that’s definitely happening but so far, a lot of red flags. I’m not being like moved into thinking I might be wrong about this guy so far. Well see Liver King clearly, I did it wrong. And I’m here now to set the record straight. Yes, I’ve done steroids. And yes, I am on steroids. monitored and managed by trained hormone clinician, Liver King, the public figure was an experiment to spread the message to bring awareness to the 4000 people a day who killed themselves that 80,000 people a day that try Dan Munro I can’t believe he’s going straight into “poor me”, I would have left it a bit longer, you know, I would have put a bit more of the “I fucked up and I’m wrong” before I started going, “and it’s not my fault and I’m really the victim here”. I mean, this guy is saying, he ‘s trying to give you the impression he didn’t want to be famous. Didn’t stop him doing a video with a shirt off though, did it? And it’s not like he’s been forced to use social media, and if he was rich before social media, and being rich is all he cares about, he doesn’t care about being famous and accepting all that comes with it, then why is he doing this? Why does he have a YouTube channel at all? so on so forth. What you got to ask yourself is what does it look like when someone really apologizes from the heart and they’re just devastated with what they’ve done? And so on. There’s another key point to keep in mind. This apology, this admission, this confession is coming after he got caught against his will. He is not coming forward and saying “By the way, I have to reveal something and disclose something that you don’t know about”. He’s reacting to being caught. So straightaway, it’s like somebody weeping in the courtroom after they’ve been found guilty, as opposed to confessing to the police before the trial even starts. So I don’t know if I’m saying anything that isn’t that obvious here. But so far, nothing but red flags, no green lights, in my opinion, Liver King to kill themselves. Our people are hurting at record rates with depression, auto immune, anxiety, infertility, low ambition in life. Our young men are hurting them both feeling lost weak and submissive. So I made it my job to model teach and preach a simple, elegant solution called ancestral living the nine ancestral tenants. So our people no longer have to suffer. So we can collectively express our highest and most dominant form, this is my fight. This is why I exist Dan Munro What a crock of shit. What a load of bullshit. Now he’s trying to make you feel bad for doubting him. Now he’s trying to point out that, Oh, God. So first off, he makes it out like the anabolic steroids monitored by professionals, like he has some health need that’s being met here. And he’s giving this subliminal, like, I couldn’t tell you about it, because you wouldn’t understand, but it’s actually totally legit and doesn’t undermine my messaging at all. So he’s doing that. And then he pulls out the violin and saying, Hey, if I don’t do what I do, all these men kill themselves. Like that’s his real motive. I’m now firmly in the category of assuming that this guy has a narcissistic personality. Alright, what you’re seeing here is clinical manipulation. At this point, he has spent about 16 nanoseconds apologizing for what he did, which is only because he got caught. And now he’s spending the rest of the time not only justifying his actions, but trying to make anyone who doubts him, anyone who’s upset with his betrayal, feel bad about themselves for doubting him. Like he’s the victim, and he’s being kicked and he’s been forced into this situation, just because he had this higher desire to help the world and make it a better place, not just fill his bank account with easy money from people who are very vulnerable. Now, that’s not what he’s doing. Right? Notice his target market, by his own admission, is very vulnerable, psychologically sensitive people that are easy to manipulate. What a coincidence that he’s also a liar. So at this point, I’m not sure how much more I really need to watch to be absolutely convinced that this reminds me of working in the Department of Corrections and sitting across the table from the leader of a vicious motorcycle gang, and having him try to convince me that he’s the good guy in the story, and that everybody else has pegged him wrong, and he’s not really a mob boss who wears a leather jacket. I that’s what I feel like I’m watching right now. And I’ve been in the situation so many times that I trust my instincts here, but let’s give them a chance. What else has he got to say? Liver King While spreading the message I’ve been on several podcasts. And when asked if I’ve ever taken steroids. I’ve always said no, I don’t touch the stuff. Not going to touch the stuff. Never touched the stuff. That was a lie. I’ve convinced myself that this had nothing to do with the ancestral message, I convinced myself that I’m not a competitive athlete of any kind so who the fuck am i cheating? I convinced myself that this topic was a placeholder for a far more important conversation. I convinced myself that this would overshadow that 36 years of working out usually twice a day without Dan Munro The only reason I’m stopping here, I’m not going to keep rabbiting on, is if you rewatch what we just that little clip we just saw watch his eyes and watch him read what he’s saying. Okay, so if there’s any doubt that this is scripted, you can see it in the eyes. And so I think that’s a valid point, if this really is because he does these big like, like, he’s just genuinely in the moment, speaking from the heart, and then you see his eyes like reading the fucking script. Right? So this is absolutely a performance you’re watching. Not a great one. But now he’s trying to do this thing where he’s like I’m going to try and cover all the lies I’ve told. And again, the victim story, I convinced myself I’m as much a victim to this lie as you were because I just wanted to help people. Poor me. Poor rich as fuck me. Right? Yeah, I’m not buying it. I’m watching psychopathy in action right now, Liver King the PEDS. I’ve convinced myself that this was the bulk of minority, usually in the fitness category, driving to an unproductive conversation. And I had convinced myself that this would be the wrong message to send to the 15 year old boys. So I continually dismissed it. And I dug myself into a bigger and deeper hole. I have only myself to blame. I did that. And it was all wrong. I will be better, I will talk about it openly. Because I believe that there’s a time and a place for pharmacological intervention monitored and managed by a trained hormone physician. Dan Munro Ah, when he’s saying “I convinced myself” what he’s really saying is “I want to convince you” of all those points he’s making. What he’s trying to say is like “look how convincing my narrative for this lie is” right he’s trying to get you to believe the lie that he supposedly told himself which he actually knew was a lie all along. There’s no doubt about it. He’s justifying it he’s just justifying, minimizing, avoiding blame. These are all classic tactics to remove yourself from real guilt. This man is doing everything he can to justify the fact that he feels absolutely no fucking guilt whatsoever about betraying a massive vulnerable audience to take their money with an unsubstantiated as far as I can tell, dietary lifestyle recommendation. This is whatever his nine tenets of ancestral bullshit that he’s made up. Yeah, if it really works then why you gotta take steroids, bro? Okay, is this really the best thing for 15 year old suicidal boys? because the science doesn’t say that at all. Actually, encompassing them with a supportive community of peers is the best thing for them, not eating testicles and secretly doing fucking steroids. Liver King In 2021, when I was 43 years old, I didn’t feel 100% Physically or cognitively. So I went to get monitored and managed by a trained hormone clinician see what the fuck was going on with my life? And so yes, it’s true. I have tried several peptide combinations in an effort to increase my growth hormone and it didn’t work, meaning that my levels still remained below the normal level. So yes, it’s also true that I’ve tried pharmaceutical grade growth hormone, and I finally found success in managing therapeutic levels in the normal range. Yes, this is true. I’ve continued on with point six cc’s of testosterone per week, roughly 120 milligrams of testosterone a week. And no, I don’t take any other steroids like nandrolone or winstrol. But I have tried them in the past without success. Yes, it’s also true that my blood chemistry got all fucked up, while taking nandrolone and winstrol my lipids got all deranged, my liver enzymes went sky high, which is why clinical oversight is an absolute must. Dan Munro Okay, I’m gonna stop stopping the video because I know how annoying it is to watch a reaction when the dude’s in and out the whole fucking time But this guy’s really just, he’s too much to fucking swallow. So now he’s coming around to justify the use of steroids to really kind of do a kind of future trip where he was never in the wrong and that the betrayal was necessary because you’re too stupid to understand and you’re too unevolved to understand that you need to use steroids, and that he’s actually now going to try and dovetail the use of anabolic steroids into his ancestral bullshit living plan. So that he was always right. You know, if this was a true confession, apology type thing, he’d be like, you know, “I couldn’t make this lifestyle work without steroids, which means the lifestyle thing is bullshit”. That’s what he should be saying if he’s genuine. But what he’s saying is actually, I was right all along, that you’re too thick to understand. And now I’m going to make you feel guilty for doubting me when I had this all sorted all along. I’m actually I’m future baby. If I can know what’s supposed to be happening next. That you you’re too unevolved. Honestly, I couldn’t bring it to you earlier. You know, poor me again. It’s fucking bullshit. Liver King Nope, the Liver King brand has had nothing, or at least very little to do with my business success. My companies were already kicking ass already successful before teh Liver King public figure, growing at 50% year over year and still growing at the same pace after the Liver King public figure. Dan Munro Just to point out here, this isn’t so much evidence of dishonesty, but what you’re seeing here is bragging. And that is a classic warning sign of narcissism. So what he’s also doing, I mean, part of the manipulation is like you should trust me because I’m so successful and awesome all the time. But he just can’t help it. Once he starts talking about his success he just he’s a runaway train, isn’t he? In a video where he’s supposed to be apologizing and confessing to a lie, He can’t help but go on and on about how fucking awesome he is. Right. And this is a kind of blind spot that narcissistic and psychopathic personalities have, in my experience working with them. They don’t really realize how obvious this is. And they just can’t help themselves. Like even the best manipulators. They just can’t help but brag This is often how they get caught as criminals, they’ll confess by telling people because they’re so proud of how they duped everybody. You know, most criminals get caught because they brag at the pub about the big score and somebody narks on you know, so we’re just seeing, like I said, there’s so many red flags in this video and zero green lights. He’s trying to get you to feel sorry for him because his experiments with steroids fucked him up. I’m assuming actually all that stuff was true because that lines up actually with the email. And I suspect the email is accurate, because I think he would be truthful with whoever he’s doing the medical stuff with because he wants it to work. So generally psychopathic personalities will be honest if it’s in their best interest. So I think when he talks about all the medical stuff that’s happening, he might be exaggerating how much damage it did to him and how poorly he’s doing because of it. And maybe why he got into it. Like I was feeling badly. It’s like na you probably just wanted to be even more of a beast. But let’s put that aside, he’s probably telling the truth about the factual nature of the steroid use and everything like that. But it’s because he’s proud of it. He’s proud that he solved the problem. He’s proud that he’s doing so well. He’s proud that he’s a rich guy. He’s proud that he’s just better than you. And that’s the vibe I’m getting. And it’s interesting that he doesn’t even notice in a video where he’s supposed to be saying like, “I fucked up, my bad” He’s just like ‘Look at how fucking awesome I am”. It’s a real Trump like move. Where what starts as like a act of contrition just ends up being a big like roadshow about their success. So if I wasn’t already convinced this guy is high on the psychopathy spectrum, I am now fully on board. Liver King Nope, I’ve never had ab implants, ab etching or any other plastic surgery, and I sure as fuck never actually had gene editing done in Singapore I made all of that up, it was all intended to be a joke. And that’s an expression of ancestral tenets have little god damn fun. Ultimately, why did I or why do I do them? When I talk about the 85% of the population that suffers from self esteem issues, that’s me on part of that statistic, Dan Munro now this might actually be true. There are different types of narcissists and the technical name escapes me right now but there’s a kind of fragile type, which is the narcissistic but they also have low self esteem. Cillian Murphy, whatever his name is that character in Peaky Blinders, he’s got a quote where he thinks, he says, “I have this weird self esteem issue where I hate myself, but I still think I’m better than everyone”. And this is a case of what this is what this looks like when it’s confessed. So I actually believe what he’s saying. Now I do believe he’s in the 85% of whatever group he’s made up and identified with, but he’s got this kind of contradictory state where he’ll probably have moments where he absolutely loathes himself maybe even moments where he’s suicidal. And he clearly has body dysmorphia. And you know, he’ll do anything including using very dangerous hormone and steroid experiments just to look as good as possible and be as strong as possible. You know, that’s clearly the sign of somebody who has fragile confidence at the very least. And yet, his braggadocio his absolutely unbreakable certainty in this video that he’s done nothing wrong, and that he’s actually the man and that he doesn’t need to worry about the damage that this leaked email is going to do because he’s just the center of the universe and better than everyone, you know, that vibe is coming through quite strong. I know I’m being really judgmental on a small piece of evidence. But you gotta remember, I’ve got like, nearly a decade’s worth of working directly face to face with some of the most narcissistic and psychopathic people in the world. I’m not just making up shit here. I’m seeing my experience playing out. And plus, like I said, you take into account the context, he has a lot of followers he like, makes a lot of money from doing this thing, he needs his business to keep going, no matter what he says, if nothing else, just for his ego, he likes being the Liver King, notice the word King there. And he put advertising on this video, right? Like, I’ve got a pretty good circumstantial case for what I’m saying. And what I don’t see, and what I was looking for, and hoping for, frankly, was counter-evidence. I’m not seeing anything genuine in this fucking video, I’m just seeing scripted performance of a very careful and you know, pretty successful manipulator. Right? I’ve seen this before, many hundreds of times, it’s been confirmed in the past, you know, by psychiatric assessments, and so on. So I don’t doubt what I’m seeing. But like I said, I do agree that he has self esteem issues, and I’ve no reason to disbelieve what he’s saying here. But what I’ll also do to extend a little olive branch and maybe a bit of hope: there might be some genuine motivation for him to work with disaffected men that he, you know, feel some form of connection to. Because as he’s mentioned himself, he’s getting older, he’s into his 40s now, least he was recently. And there is research that shows that as psychopathic personalities get older, they start to get frustrated with their lack of connection with other people. You know, the idea that a psychopath doesn’t care about other people and doesn’t want anyone in their life, it’s not quite exactly true. They do get dissatisfied with constantly, you know, having fallouts with people and relationships that don’t work out and not being trusted, and feeling alone all the time. And so when they get into their 40s, or 50s and onwards, they start to ask, you know, is there some way I can connect, is there some way I can not feel so fucking alone at the top of the mountain here, in their own sort of way. And so that might be genuinely happening for him. But he also can’t help but turn that into a profit machine. He can’t help but see these people as bank accounts as well as people, you know, you can’t turn it off that easily. So I’ll extend… maybe there’s some genuineness coming through here. But that’s just me playing the whole field of possibility. I’m not actually seeing evidence of that as such. Liver King This is why fucking work myself to death in the gym. This is why I do 12 to 15 Blood burning workouts a week just to feel like I’m okay. Still, I have to absolutely crush myself to do so. And I’m wrecked physically and cognitively and hormone replacement has helped in a profound and significant way. And still, I believe that the path to Paradise is paved in fucking hell. I previously have said in a weird way, I’m grateful for the recent events that have shed light on this complicated as fuck topic. I knew I needed to take this opportunity to openly discuss everything for me to be a better human. If there are any questions that remain unanswered send them my way. I fully own that I fucked up. I am as sorry as a man can be an all I can do is take Extreme Ownership right now be better and lead myself to a better life as a better human. Again, thank you to everyone for the support the criticism, the love, the hate, and above all else, the loyalty Dan Munro “above all else, the loyalty”… dismissing everything said previously. Okay, so this was an opinionated judgment from a distance with very small piece of information and that must be taken into account. I could be totally wrong. I don’t think I am but of course I’m not going to think that because my ego. I’ll leave you to judge for yourselves: was that what it looks like when someone takes total ownership of betraying their audience in order to make a profit? It didn’t seem that way to me even using the term Extreme Ownership like he’s stealing from Jocko Willinck or something kind of like get a little name drop in there discreetly what’s going on there? That was not Extreme Ownership. That was extreme guilt tripping the audience into thinking he’s the victim. That’s what that was. So I don’t buy it. Like I said, the context matters. He’s extremely rich with this brand and so on so forth. I don’t care what he says about his other companies. If he was really satisfied with them, then why did he start this other thing? “Oh, to help all the disaffected youths” Yeah then why did you betray them? Why do you take their money? Why not do it for free, volunteer if you’re already rich? so on, there’s a lot of questions that undermine the altruism that he proclaims to have here. So I think I’m looking at a fragile narcissist, trying to spin being caught. And that had that email not leaked, he would never have admitted to breaking the rules of his own little system that he’s selling. I guaran-fucking-tee it. So that’s my thoughts. I’d love to hear your thoughts on my thoughts. Am I wrong? Am I too judgmental? Is it unfair of me to make these assessments on such a small piece of information? Or have I fucking nailed it because he just like other psychopaths that I’ve worked with? I’m open to being wrong myself, and I will take ownership of being wrong. I won’t apologize though because, to me, that’s just manipulation. Thank you for watching. If you want more stuff like this, let me know dan@brojo.org. And of course, if you want to know what it’s like to be powerfully honest, get in touch and I’ll help you out.