Hello friends and welcome back to the Live Lightly podcast.
Today I'm joined by our guest, Kent Atherton.
He is the founder and CEO of Go Pure Pod.
Welcome Kent.
Hi, Jessica.
Thrilled to be with you today.
Thank you for being here I'm really excited to jump in and just hear all about
the story behind Go Pure Pod.
But first, tell us just a little bit about yourself and your background.
Yeah, sure.
I'd be happy to.
So we launched Go Pure Pod in 2017.
I discovered the technology in Ireland and was invited to Dublin Trinity College in
Dublin, which is where all the initial research on our technology was performed.
The Moyn Institute there led by a renowned microbiologist called Dr.
Ronald Russell.
And...
We had the opportunity to acquire this and commercialize it, which we did.
We branded it, go pure pod and packaged it and introduce it to the world here in the
U .S.
So, but it's quite a departure from what I did most of my career, which was in the
television advertising, sports marketing, event production, the fun business.
But I'm thrilled to be doing something different and helping improve people's
lives in the world.
it's actually really rewarding.
Yeah, really fulfilling work and definitely a departure from what you were
doing for your whole career, what brought you to that connection in Ireland, with
scientists who had this technology?
was a kind of a light bulb moment with the guy that, um, you know, I can't take
credit for inventing it.
Um, what we do take credit for is actually commercializing it and introducing it to
the world.
But there was a light bulb moment for a guy who had, um, you know, been drinking
single use plastic water bottles and, throwing them over his shoulder into the
backseat of his car.
And then one day, uh, he was up to cleaning out his car and there were just
dozens and dozens of dozens of plastic water bottles.
And he had this aha moment.
I mean, probably out of some disgust and remorse, but also there's gotta be a
better way.
so that, uh, was inspiring to me.
We, um, we tested the product here before my first trip to Dublin.
And, you know, I raised four children, uh, in Connecticut on well water.
Mmm.
we actually had a Britta, like, you know, a lot of families, um, they were the first
mover.
Um, you know, my kids are all millennials, so, you know, they're all grown up with
their own families now, but, uh, at the time that was our filter of choice.
And, uh, I was guilty, uh, like many people that don't, aren't aware you really
do have to change those filters every 40 gallons.
Otherwise, once the media becomes saturated,
with contaminants, then they have no place to go but back out into the water.
So you're actually worse off.
So we tested it against the tap, against the bretta.
The Go Pure water was the clear winner from a taste perspective.
And that really inspired me to launch this.
Wow, and what about from a contaminant perspective?
Is it as good as or possibly better?
Uh, it's actually much more powerful than activated charcoal, activated charcoal.
Uh, you know, it's been around for 50 years.
Um, you know, there really hasn't been a lot of innovation in the space and
activated charcoal filters.
Essentially they work once, right?
You pour the, you pour the water through.
It comes out better than when it went in, but then you're done.
Uh, our technology is continuous purification.
So you leave the Pod in the water.
Uh huh.
has an advanced ceramic core.
The water's constantly passing through that core.
So the water's continuously being purified and it preserves the freshness of the
water, freshness.
And it also keeps the containers clean.
Why?
Because it eliminates the bacteria.
And the bacteria is what causes that sort of stankiness.
And yeah.
Mm -hmm.
Yes.
That's one thing that I love about it.
There's so many things I love about it.
can you tell us how long that tiny little tab takes to purify that size bottle of
water?
Yeah, I mean, it's activation helps speed it up.
So typically when I'm filling a bottle, I'll turn it over a few times.
And I mean, literally within the first minute for a bottle this size, you're
ready to go.
All tap water is different.
Some's worse than others.
So we like to say, on average, two minutes and then you're good to go.
So yeah, no waiting for the trickle to go through a point of use filter before you
can use it.
I think that most of us have used a carbon filter, a gravity filter at home where the
water flows through it and you come out the other end with clean water, but I
didn't know that they did need to be replaced so often.
Would you be able to use this little pod to purify water for your entire family?
Yeah, well, we actually, we have multiple pods.
We, you know, I think everybody needs more than one.
We keep one in a pitcher in our fridge, which is our sort of go -to kitchen water
source used for cooking.
We keep one in the water reservoir of our coffee maker.
Coffee's 97 % water, so it's only going to be tastes as good as the quality of the
water you're using.
The other reason is that those water reservoirs are hard to clean.
People forget to clean them.
So.
Right?
Mm -hmm.
affect the taste of your coffee, not to mention the health of...
Yes.
Yeah.
think that's a great way to use it.
We do pour over, so wouldn't have use for it there.
But I definitely keep one in a container for all our coffee water.
So we're just using that water for coffee and tea.
And I also keep one just in my kitchen so that when I fill up a big pot to boil
something like pasta or rice, I just throw it in and swish it around a little bit.
I stir it with a spoon.
and give it a few minutes and then I know I'm cooking in clean water.
Yeah, so that's how I use mine in home as well.
But I just wanted everybody to know like, you know, it's so tiny, but you can use it
for everything that you do at home as well as on the go.
So I'll tell you a couple things to visualize, which I think are important for
your listeners.
Because the advanced ceramic core is actually highly porous.
It's one of the patents we have, because ceramic by nature is dense.
So up until we perfected this technology, it was hard for water to pass through
ceramic freely.
Mm -hmm.
it's one of the patents we have.
So it's actually millions and millions of microscopic pores.
If you looked under a microscope, that's what you would see.
So it gives you this incredible surface volume of purification.
If you could roll that core out, it's actually the surface volume of about six
football fields.
So it's very, very powerful.
And that's why it lasts so long.
The other thing is...
like 240 gallons or something crazy, 264 That is truly amazing.
That's a lot.
So yeah, compared to this carbon filter, it's a big difference.
So it's long lasting.
The other big difference against the carbon filters is, one of the things our
customers, we have a lot of customers that buy GoPure because they haven't found
anything that takes out fluoride.
And that's...
that intrigued me for sure.
Yeah.
Mm -hmm.
Fluoride is one of those sort of highly debated topics.
You could find all kinds of pros and cons on the internet, but we know fluoride as
kids for keeping our tooth enamel, keeping preventing cavities.
But I don't think the dentist ever expected us to be drinking fluoride.
And we're one of the few countries that actually adds, it's a toxic chemical
fluoride.
And we're one of the few countries that adds.
fluoride or drinking water supplies.
Yes, and you can't get a home carbon filter that filters out fluoride.
You have to buy separate filters for that, and those can be very expensive in
addition to encased in hard plastic oftentimes.
So then your water is sitting in that.
So that's what kind of turned me off from a.
just environmental standpoint also then at the end, when you have to throw that large
piece of hard plastic in the trash, it just doesn't seem, it's like maybe not.
as bad as all the plastic water bottles you would have been drinking out of, but
probably pretty comparable.
So I love that about the pod as well.
also what is it encased in?
Is that also ceramic?
No, so the casing is made from dental grade polypropylene.
So that's the same material that they use to make surgical instruments.
It's also the same material that all the other water filters are made from.
It is recyclable, category five.
It does not leach.
It's BPA free.
It's the best material we could find.
I'm still striving to...
in case our ceramic with something that's biodegradable or organic.
The problem is, at least today, the organic plastics that are on the market,
they only have a shelf life of 30 days.
And of course, our pod lasts six months or more.
So it's not a solution for us.
But I am confident that that will arrive someday soon
when you say dental grade, does that mean something that you would wear in your
mouth, like a retainer or something or a mouth guard?
Just so that people can understand what that means, how they can relate it to what
they're already maybe using that touches their mouth and understand kind of that
whole picture.
So you have all of the tests.
Third party I'm assuming that show exactly what contaminants it removes and also if
you could speak a little bit to that and a little bit about the other contaminants
that it does remove because I was very impressed with PFOA and Microplastics, but
I know that there are a lot more such as heavy metals.
So if you could speak to that as well.
Sure, yeah, so the most robust testing we did, well, the two main tests, and there
was a series of tests that were performed at the Moyn Institute at Trinity College
under the supervision of Dr.
Russell.
Then they took it to a third -party laboratory in Germany.
They're some of the best labs in the world for this type of work.
And this was the Gottingen Institute.
And they performed a series of tests.
And the best, you know,
I will say this to your listeners that a lot of people, you know, they want to test
their water at home.
It's actually really unreliable.
And why is that?
It's because you can't really get a measurable, really a measurable result
without shocking the water with a bunch of contaminants.
Like that's what they did at the laboratory in Germany.
They poured a ton of contaminants into the water and then they were able to use our
technology to run these
run the water through and then the results they extrapolated so that we have that,
you know, that's available in the public domain, anybody that wants to, the results
you see on our website actually are from the Gottingen study.
The ceramic itself, as I said, is highly porous, but it also, it filters down to,
I'm gonna get a little technical, but it's important.
it is important.
.22 microns, which is, you know, that's considered bacteriologically sterile in a
laboratory setting.
Most microplastics are 1 .0 or more.
Most of the heavy metals and the other hard contaminants and the PFOAs are over 0
.5.
So the PFOAs are actually, you know, when we did these tests,
They weren't really on the radar screen, but I went back to Dr.
Russell to talk to him about that.
And he said that because of how we filter down to such a microscopic level, they're
getting trapped and being eliminated by the core.
So we're confident in its ability to perform that way.
I will also say that, and I'm not a microbiologist, but everything in science
is related to something else, right?
There's no exact.
answer.
And the reason for that is because everything there's a there's a reaction
counter reaction.
So even when it comes to tap water, there's lots of toxins in the water,
depending on the levels of those toxins and how they collide, they create
byproducts.
So when the municipal water systems in our country, for the most part, they're but
they're putting chlorine in the water.
Um, as the water comes out of the, you know,
municipal treatment plants through the pipes to your home, that chlorine is
colliding with other chemicals in the pipes.
It could be lead, could be other things that are coming into the water table from
industry, could run off, a lot of things coming out of the rock, arsenic comes
naturally from rock.
And when chlorine collides with those other contaminants, it creates these
byproducts.
toxins, which are all carcinogens and there now you see th our tap water
supplies in
Yeah, definitely.
so filtering tap water is crucial, first off, but I would also have to add, and
maybe you can talk to this as well, that a lot of the bottled water that you're
finding out on the market that's not from a spring is just sent through some sort of
filter before it's then bottled in plastic, and that plastic is letting off.
Now, science is...
doing a lot of tests and studies, and I just spoke with the head of the End
Plastic Initiative for Earth Day Organization, and he was speaking about
250 ,000 microplastics in one bottle water that you're ingesting.
So if you could speak a little bit to all of that, how the brands that are just
filtering it and then putting it into a plastic water bottle.
I mean, it's so I would say that, you know, we started to understand this
marketplace.
And when I say marketplace, I'm really talking about the U .S.
and every country is different.
But in our country, you can almost divide it, our population in three.
So a third of the population is still doing nothing to filter their tap water.
They're just either in denial.
They're just, they're good with what they have.
And believe it, believe me, when I tell you this, we go to, we used to go to a lot
of consumer facing events before COVID.
And I used to ask that question of people, you know, we were, you know, we had our
hydration stair, we were giving out free water and introducing the Go Pure Pod.
And I'd always ask people, do you know what's in your drinking water at home?
And.
More often than not, people say, no, I don't know, and I don't want to know.
So that's about a third of the country.
There's another third of the country that's actually doing something active at
home, whether that's a Brita point of use type filter, whether it's a sink filter,
or if they've gone to the extreme and done a whole home filter system.
That's about a third of the country.
And then the final third of the country is...
buying massive quantities of single use plastic water bottles because they don't
trust their tap water.
They don't like the taste of their tap water.
What they don't know is exactly to your point.
They think they're buying purified, healthy drinking water and they've been
fooled because it's really, yeah, there's, there's a, it goes through a little bit of
filtration.
But it is now full of microplastics and the shelf life on those bottles, depending
on how they're stored, is not long.
So it can become unhealthy.
And they're spending a lot of money on it.
Can you speak to that point?
Like how much money?
you say, I believe it's 2000 water bottles for one pod.
Yeah, for a bottle this size, 17, 18 ounce, yeah, it's equivalent to about 2000
single use plastic water bottles that we could keep out of the environment.
That's actually, and I'm glad you asked that, Jess, because we started this
mission and it really is a two -pronged mission.
The first goal was to make it easy for everybody to access.
healthy, clean, good tasting drinking water no matter where they went.
Because it's so small and so light and so portable and so easy to use.
And you can use it in so many different ways.
So that was our initial objective.
We quickly realized by solving that problem, we can help solve another massive
problem.
It's plastic pollution.
So it's something that we care deeply about.
And it's a big part of our mission.
I love that so much.
And also, let's just talk a little bit about the cost effectiveness of it,
because 2 ,000 water bottles that size, have you done the math?
Do you know how much that would save someone?
Yeah, depending on, mm -hmm, totally.
you went to an airport and hopefully you didn't buy a plastic one.
I know you didn't, but I mean, it's, I think five or six, five or $6.
Yeah.
To buy a, you know, at the airport.
So it adds up.
I mean, it, it is a real significant savings for a lot of people.
yeah, so even if you're purchasing it in bulk and receiving some sort of discount
that way, I would imagine you're still saving tons of money.
the big thing is just the waste.
I mean, think of the time, the time it takes you to go to the store, fill the
cart, fill your truck, your car, get it home, and now you've got all this waste.
So.
agree with that 100%.
But realistically, we also have to know that we're saving financial resources as
well, because, these things are an investment upfront.
And I feel like that is sometimes a hesitation for people, And so I just want
to close the gap of understanding that it's...
actually way more affordable than they may think.
If you do the math, it works out to go pure pod it's pennies a day is what you're
spending to get just amazing tasting water that you know is good for you.
yeah, so it can add up to be a really huge expense if you're actually using bottled
water for everything in your whole household.
And when you're traveling, it's so convenient to not have to run out and go
buy bottles of water every other day to be able to have enough.
But can we also speak a little bit to foreign travel in countries that may have
water which would make you sick if you drank it?
Should we use those in those situations?
Okay.
we market go pure pod for everyday use.
I will tell you that our, our biggest customer base are people that are buying
it for traveling, especially out of the country.
We want to remind them when they get home, you can actually still use the pod, but to
your question, yes.
Potable water and tap water are interchangeable terms in this country.
Everything coming out of the tap is potable.
That's not true in other countries.
So in Mexico, for example, if you're traveling to Mexico and you're staying in
a nice hotel, it's highly likely you're getting potable water out of the tap,
because they'll have their own built -in filtration.
If they don't, they're going to provide you a bottle water.
Now the bottle water industry overseas is also not regulated like it is here.
So, you know, we try to remind people to be aware of that.
If you're getting, if your potable water source is from a bottle, the best thing to
do is pour that bottle into your reusable water bottle with a Go Pure POD.
And then your worries are over.
And I, we get anecdotal evidence of this a lot from people that, I mean, one just
came in not that long ago.
a woman that went on a yoga retreat was like 30 women to Costa Rica.
They were there for a week.
She took her reusable water bottle with her Go Pure Pod and she was the only one
that didn't get sick.
So, I mean, we hear stories like that a lot, but we also want to remind everybody
that, you know, because everybody always wants to go to sort of worst case scenario
and we want to remind them this.
Gopur Pod is not intended to be the first line of defense for toxic water.
So if you go into India, God knows what's coming out of the tap there.
You wouldn't want to rely on the Gopur Pod entirely.
So that's why we say, find a potable water source.
And it may be out of a bottle, but again, the bottle they're handing you may not be
safe.
So you want to have that Gopur Pod with you.
Yeah, so that's really great advice for our listeners and they can take it with
them on their travels.
And I have a funny little story about my go pure pods that we use in our stainless
steel water bottles.
I took my son to Knott's Berry Farms this past summer and we brought our water
bottles and just kept them in the locker because I didn't want to pay whatever they
were charging for bottled water at lunch.
And so we took them out at this time they were already empty.
And we went and refilled them at the little drinking fountain and the water was
straight up white.
So I look at my water bottle and the water's just white.
And I was like, I'm not quite sure that this is gonna do the trick.
But I would put the lid on and I turned it a few times and waited probably five
minutes.
Because I know two or three is good, but we waited solid five minutes.
And I opened the lid and looked in the bottle and everything was clear.
I drink first, of course, testing it out.
And it was good.
I will tell you that, um, just, you know, focus group of one.
I, I never used to drink much water cause I didn't like the taste.
And now I drink a ton of water, um, because I do like the taste and it's my,
it's actually my beverage of choice.
And, uh, you know, we have a dehydration problem in this country too.
I think, you know, 60 or 70 % of, uh,
Hydration is done out of the home.
You know, you go to go to school you go to work you go to the gym you go shopping
People aren't drinking enough water and dehydration is a problem.
It's not good for your health It stresses your tissues your organs, you know can
make you sick And especially with the elderly and you know, obviously as a mom
you got to work you got to always Worry about where your kids might be refilling
those bottles, right?
So I
Yeah, so that was what brought me to go pure pod initially was finding some sort
of a resource that I could send to school with my son and send to sporting events
and he could just refill at whatever refill station or drinking fountain and I
would know that he's got clean water.
And the main reason that I did that instead of sending him with extra plastic
bottles in his backpack was because at the time I was reducing my own household
plastic waste and.
That was just like number one thing, bottled water.
But it was really hard because yeah, you can leave your house with a bottle of
water, but at his age, at that time, he had a smaller bottle and I was worried
about when it's empty, what is he gonna do?
And so the Go Pure pod was my solution and it has been for a while now.
I've been regularly getting them on auto order for a couple years, but I know I've
been using them for more than that.
And let's just speak a little bit to my one question, which I have all these like
this little bag of my used pods.
and glass bottles.
They come in a great little glass bottle with a cork top and I have a bag full of
those and I don't know what to do with them.
What do we do?
Okay, great.
Yeah, so the ceramic core is made from diatomaceous earth and elemental silver.
They are important reasons why those work together so well.
But diatomaceous earth, we call nature's filters.
It's literally how our planet filters itself.
And so it literally is a biodegradable.
You can, you know,
post it, it's essentially, it's like returns to sand.
Um, so yeah, that's, uh, but I, I do want to, I do want to say congratulations to
you, Jessica, because, uh, it's very inspiring to hear your story.
Um, I, I can, I can understand because it's happened here in our household.
Cause once you start with one thing, and this is what I want to encourage everybody
to think about.
Because we all need to make a difference and everybody can.
So we started with just eliminating, if you just start eliminating the single use
plastic water bottle, it feels good.
And you're also drinking better water, you're also drinking healthier water.
But in my case, I started refusing plastic of any kind.
I literally have walked out of grocery stores holding groceries rather than take
a plastic bag.
you
If I had forgotten to bring my own bag in, I'll just carry a bundle in my arms.
But, you know, plastic straws, plastic cups, plastic, I mean, plastic of any
kind.
I will try to avoid eggs.
I won't buy eggs unless they're in a cardboard container.
It just things, things like that add up.
And I'm just one person.
So over the course of the year, that's a lot of plastic.
And if you think about the exponential impact,
we can all have if everybody started to do this.
Right, well the problem didn't get to the point that it is without the fact that
everybody is using it.
It's unintentional, but that's kind of what happened, right?
Like all of a sudden everything is just in plastic.
And so the problem grew because we're all.
basically unintentionally and unwillingly, I think at this point, if you know about
plastic, we're not really loving the fact that everything you get is in plastic.
So yeah, I feel like we can definitely reverse it with awareness and just sharing
that awareness with people that you know and friends, family, and just doing the
things that you can do to be the change really.
There's a movie that I want to mention because it was made some years ago.
It was a documentary.
It was called Tapped, T -A -P -P -E -D, which I always recommend because it's a
real eye opener into the single use plastic water bottle business and how
they're made and the impact from the petroleum industry because that's how
plastics made and the impact that has on our population.
You know, it was probably made 10 years ago, but it still has shelf life.
It's a powerful documentary.
I think you'd probably get it on YouTube or Apple.
But it's worth a look if you haven't seen it.
Yeah, I absolutely love things like that.
And again, that's just one of those resources you can share with people
because I think that we've kind of been very cleverly left in the dark as far as
plastic and all of the downsides.
Yes.
Yeah.
All right.
Well, I feel like we've covered so many things and everybody should now know
exactly what they can do to avoid using single use plastic bottles and also have
very healthy clean water in their home and on the go.
So thank you for your time and I appreciate all of the information that
you've shared with us today.
Tell us a little bit about how our listeners can connect with you and stay
connected and get information about how to purchase Go Pure Pod.
Yeah, sure.
So this is actually a great time to purchase because we're having our annual
Earth Day sale, which is one of our biggest sales of the year.
So everything is 25 % off.
If you send an email to contact at GoPurePod .com, I'll see it.
It will get to me.
So if you have any questions beyond what we talked about here today, I'd be happy
to...
to get back to you.
And we have a very active community, very inspired community, and we share all the
same mission.
It feels like a family, so we would welcome you to join our family.
All right, and I am just gonna say that when Kent says he's going to reply to the
email, years ago when I first found it, I know I was that person sending the
questions.
And I think that you had sent me, you had answered pretty quickly and you had sent
me the piece of research from Germany, I believe.
You had shared that document with me.
So he's definitely not just saying that.
And you also have an Instagram as well if people want to stay up to date with any
product information or also sale alerts.
the Instagram handle is the Go Pure pod.
We actually, if you follow us, you might be our 20 ,000, we're about to go to 20
,000 followers.
I don't think it's happening any day now.
So we'll put out some news on that, but we're excited.
Yeah, that's wonderful.
I really love that people are engaging and wanting to make the changes in their own
homes.
Yeah, we are as well.
again, I really applaud your efforts, Jessica.
You're doing it in abundance.
Well, thank you so much.
And now you and your wife can enjoy that guide at home.
And maybe there's a few little nuggets in there that can help you make a few little
changes you weren't aware of.
Who knows?
Yeah.
All right.
Well, thank you so much for being with us today.
I appreciate it.
And it was great to meet you.
Thank you, Kent.
you as well.
Happy Earth Day, everybody.
Yeah.