Russ Crandall

Biography

Russ Crandall was born February 24, 1980, in Washington state, United States. His first job was at a Burger King at the age of 16, and he worked at different restaurants for four years.

United States Navy

In 2000, Crandall joined the United States Navy as a cryptologic technician (interpretive), working as a Navy translator fluent in Russian and Indonesian. In 2015, he was promoted to Master Chief Petty Officer in that role. He retired in 2023.

The Domestic Man

In 2005, Crandall suffered a stroke and needed to go through physical therapy to relearn how to walk or write. The next year, he was diagnosed with Takayasu's arteritis, an autoimmune disease characterized by the inflammation and narrowing of the arteries. He underwent open heart surgery in an attempt to alleviate his symptoms, which was unsuccessful. In 2010, Crandall came across the book The Paleo Solution by Robb Wolf, which claims the paleo diet could help with autoimmune disease. Crandall began adhering to the diet; according to him, his symptoms improved within weeks. That same year, he created the blog The Domestic Man, focusing on the paleo and gluten-free diets and posting weekly recipes.

In 2013, The Domestic Man was nominated for Best Special Diets Blog at the Saveur Best Food Blog Awards, and Mashable listed it among the best food accounts to follow on Instagram. That same year, one of Crandall's recipes was featured on People magazine. In 2014, Crandall published his first cookbook, The Ancestral Table, containing over a hundred recipes from around the world. He also released the e-book The Safe Starch Cookbook, which he updated until 2017. In 2015, Crandall released another cookbook, Paleo Takeout, and toured in support of it. In August, it entered the New York Times Best Sellers list for the "Food and Fitness" category, and later appeared in Amazon's list of the best books of the year. Saveur listed Crandall among the best Instagram food accounts of 2016. He released his final cookbook, The Heritage Cookbook, in 2019. Crandall had also contributed to Kitchen Daily, Food & Wine, and Yahoo! Food, with recipes featured in The Huffington Post, BuzzFeed, and Mashable. He closed The Domestic Man in 2023.

Retro Game Corps

In 2020, Crandall created the YouTube channel Retro Game Corps focused on handheld game consoles, especially those for retro gaming and emulation, with content including hardware reviews and guides. Crandall began the channel as a hobby during the COVID-19 pandemic, a time when handheld consoles grew in popularity. In 2023, he retired from the Navy and closed The Domestic Man to pursue a full-time YouTube career. That year, he contributed to A Handheld History, a book by the Retro Dodo website about the history of gaming handhelds. In September 2024, Nintendo issued two copyright strikes against the channel; one for demonstrating the Mig Flash cartridge, and another for showing Wii U emulation on an Android device.

On February 28, 2026, Crandall began co-hosting Expedition: Handheld, a podcast by PC World's The Full Nerd Network about handheld consoles, alongside the magazine's Adam Patrick Murray.

Personal life

Crandall holds a master's degree in healthcare administration from Walden University, a Bachelor of Arts in social studies from Chaminade University of Honolulu, and an Associate of Arts in Russian from the Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center. He married in 2007. They had a son in 2009 and another in 2015. As of 2023, Crandall lives in Hawaii. He is a member of the band Oh the Possibilities.

Books

The Ancestral Table: Traditional Recipes for a Paleo Lifestyle (2014)

The Safe Starch Cookbook (ebook; first published in 2014, updated until 2017)

Paleo Takeout: Restaurant Favorites Without the Junk (2015)

The Heritage Cookbook: 300+ Recipes to Help You Connect with Your Ancestry (2019)