Episode 52: America Gave Away Its Creatine Supply Chain. One Man Is Taking It Back. | AJAC (250k followers) on X

If you think this episode is about creatine, you're wrong.Alexander Cortes known as AJAC spent his entire adult life in the fitness industry. Ballet dancer turned personal trainer turned one of the most followed fitness writers on the internet. 250K followers on X. 41K Substack subscribers. A decade of building an audience from zero with no backing, no connections, and no plan.Then one day he looked at a tub of creatine and asked a simple question: why don't we make this in America?What he found changed everything.Creatine is only manufactured in two places on earth... China and Germany. China controls 90% of global supply. The United States has been 100% import dependent since the 1990s when American producers were wiped out by Chinese dumping at 120-150% below fair value. And the supply chain behind creatine a molecule called cyanamide feeds fertilizers, pharmaceuticals, semiconductors, airbags, flame retardants, and military explosives.This isn't a supplement story. It's a civilization story.In December 2025, AJAC posted a call to action on X. 40 people showed up in Austin. A company was formed Athanor Inc. He recruited some of the top nitrogen chemists in the world, all on sweat equity. They synthesized American Creatine Batch #1 themselves. What we cover:How China took over the global creatine market in under 2 years and why America never came backWhat cyanamide actually is and why it sits underneath food, medicine, defense, and electronicsHow AJAC recruited world-class scientists with zero capital and a tweetGoing from ballet dancer to personal trainer to hard tech founder at 37The Five Focuses of Life framework and why you can't be elite at everythingWhy X is the highest talent concentration platform on earthThe difference between chasing fame and building an honest audienceHow fitness and company building map to the same mental frameworksWhy knowledge is the foundation of money and why America is still the greatest engine for human creationConnect with AJAC:X: https://x.com/AJA_CortesSubstack: broscienceclub.comAthanor Inc: athanor.incLIKE & SUBSCRIBE!