Diego Perez (Yung Pueblo): Meditator and number-one New York Times bestselling author of Inward and Lighter; co-founder of Wisdom Ventures; writes on healing, self-love, and personal transformation.
What this episode covers
Diego Perez, who writes under the pen name Yung Pueblo, tells Steven Bartlett how a near-fatal drug overdose in 2011 pushed him to confront his anxiety, scarcity mindset, and addictive coping mechanisms. He describes learning Vipassana meditation in the S.N. Goenka tradition through silent 10-day courses and his daily practice of two hours, which he calls the biggest investment of his life. The conversation explores craving versus wanting as the root of suffering, how identity formed in childhood for survival must later be examined, and how impermanence loosens attachment. Both men candidly discuss why they keep striving despite success, the role of self-love in healing, and how distraction and technology disconnect people. Diego argues that personal healing scales up to heal society, which is why he funds compassion-driven startups.
The guest's own work
Inward
Yung Pueblo
“It's almost like a phoenix. I remember writing a poem called Phoenix in my first book, Inward.”— Diego Perez
Lighter: Let Go of the Past, Connect with the Present, and Expand the Future
Yung Pueblo
“The first chapter in your book is about self-love, your new book, your newest book, Lighter, is about self-love.”— Steven Bartlett
Big reveals from this episode
- Diego reveals he almost died in summer 2011 from a drug overdose a doctor later described as a mild heart attack, the turning point that began his healing.
- His first healing step before meditation was 'radical honesty with yourself', sitting with the emotions he used to run from.
- He meditates two hours a day, one hour morning and one hour evening, and has done so for about eight years.
- He identifies craving, the combination of wanting plus tension, not desire itself, as the core cause of suffering.
- Bartlett admits on-air he is 'still trying to prove to myself that I'm enough,' now through bigger professional status games rather than material ones.
- Diego shares that he and his wife met as teens, spent months as friends, and their relationship was 'chaos' until meditation transformed it.
- He recounts changing his stale relationship with his father by giving him a hug and saying 'I love you,' which deeply opened his father up emotionally.
Worth remembering
- Steve Jobs, Sam Altman, and the Nike founder depicted in the film Air are all cited as serious meditators.
- Diego was born in Guayaquil, Ecuador and immigrated to the United States around age four into what he calls the classic American poverty trap.
- Vipassana originated from Buddhist teaching roughly 2,600 years ago and aims to see reality as it really is.
- Diego meditates in the S.N. Goenka tradition, the same one Yuval Noah Harari practices, learned via silent 10-day courses.
- The first three days of a course teach Anapana, observing the natural breath, before deeper body-scanning work.
- Diego has sold over a million books and is a number-one New York Times bestselling author.
- More than 50% of people now meet their partners online, framing a generation 'trapped' between dating cultures.
- During a stag-do screen-time comparison, one of Bartlett's friends logged 14 hours a day of phone screen time.
- 'Yung Pueblo' means 'young people'; Pueblo from his background refers to the masses of impoverished people.