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Andy Puddicombe

Co-founder, Headspace · 3 appearances on the record.

computed by AI from the episodes · how this works → · full disclaimer →

founderauthorother@andypuddicombe ↗LinkedIn ↗headspace.com ↗Wikipedia ↗

Andy Puddicombe is best known as the co-founder and signature guided-meditation voice of Headspace, which he established in 2010 with Richard Pierson. A former Tibetan Buddhist monk, he has authored books such as Get Some Headspace and created mindfulness series for Netflix and TED.

15statements → 6claims → 1claims resolved → 3.87/5average certainty → 1.2/5average debate potential → ≈4.5/5argument clarity, estimated → 10said about them ↓

0 supported 1 partly supported 0 contradicted 5 not checkable as stated how the 6 claims stand · each chip opens the sources

6 assertions · 1 opinion · 6 insights · 1 disclosure · 1 what if · every statement was checked. The predictions and assertions are the 6 claims: statements the public record can support or contradict. 1 is resolved, and 5 name no date, number or outcome precise enough to check. Everything else (opinions, insights, what ifs, disclosures) can never be settled by the record, so it carries no assessment.

The record, in short

What the tape says about how Andy argues and how the claims held up. Everything they said, and everything said about them, is in the tabs below.

How they sound: not measured why? →

We measure speaking style by listening to the audio itself, and a fair number needs at least 2,000 words from one person on tape we have measured. There is too little of Andy Puddicombe on measured tape to publish a rate. This says nothing about how they speak.

Everything Andy Puddicombe said on How I Built This that made the record, most notable first. Filter by type, assessment or year in the ledger →

Insight
Puddicombe: People Rarely Continue Meditating For The Same Reasons They Started
“The reality is, as I've seen over kind of a lifetime, is that very often the reason people start meditating isn't the reason they necessarily continue meditating, and that they might begin it because they want to be better on the football pitch, but over time …”
Andy Puddicombe Jan 3, 2022 ▶ 59:47 Headspace: Andy Puddicombe and Rich Pierson (2019)
Insight
Puddicombe: Meditation does not alter external reality, only our relationship to it
“It's not going to fix anything. It's not going to change everything around us. But it will change our relationship with those things. So whether we're in work, or whether we've recently kind of lost, lost our job, whether we are in good health, whether we kind…”
Andy Puddicombe May 30, 2020 ▶ 15:05 How I Built Resilience: Live with Alli Webb and Andy Puddicombe & Rich Pierson
Insight
Puddicombe: You can have peace of mind even with a busy mind
“You can actually have peace of mind with a very busy mind.”
Andy Puddicombe May 30, 2020 ▶ 18:33 How I Built Resilience: Live with Alli Webb and Andy Puddicombe & Rich Pierson
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Puddicombe's Monastic Training Entailed 16 Hours Of Daily Meditation
“So in Burma it was just meditation. So we were doing an So it's eight hours of sitting and eight hours of walking meditation, all in the same room. Plus in the two hours for eating at five in the morning and 11 you'd have lunch and then no eating after midday.…”
Andy Puddicombe Jan 3, 2022 ▶ 12:28 Headspace: Andy Puddicombe and Rich Pierson (2019)
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Puddicombe: Headspace anxiety and stress content engagement jumped roughly 1,000%
“I think that some of the media stars across anxiety and stress content were up sort of a thousand percent.”
Andy Puddicombe May 30, 2020 ▶ 14:38 How I Built Resilience: Live with Alli Webb and Andy Puddicombe & Rich Pierson
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Puddicombe: Headspace B2B inbound inquiries surged over 400% during lockdown
“The inbound from businesses, from organizations was up over 400%.”
Andy Puddicombe May 30, 2020 ▶ 14:44 How I Built Resilience: Live with Alli Webb and Andy Puddicombe & Rich Pierson
Assertion Partly supported
Puddicombe Survived A Drunk Driving Crash That Killed Two, Injured 12
“And a drunk driver came down the road and crashed into, to the group of us, and I was just very lucky to be standing on the edge of the group, but it killed two people, and injured, sort of put in, sort of critical, like intensive care, like 12, 12 of the grou…”
Andy Puddicombe Jan 3, 2022 ▶ 6:17 Headspace: Andy Puddicombe and Rich Pierson (2019)
Disclosure
Puddicombe Chose An Integrative London Clinic To Make Meditation Feel Mainstream
“I deliberately chose that clinic or that kind of approach because I didn't want it to be in a, an alternative kind of health clinic or something like, you know, I wanted it to feel really kind of mainstream.”
Andy Puddicombe Jan 3, 2022 ▶ 22:36 Headspace: Andy Puddicombe and Rich Pierson (2019)
Opinion
Puddicombe: An Ancient Sanskrit Brand Name Failed To Demystify Meditation
“Asunya means kind of bringing the making something real out of emptiness, and so, like, the sentiment of it was kind of right, in the sense that, kind of, I wanted to bring something into the world that kind of, you know, people hadn't necessarily experienced,…”
Andy Puddicombe Jan 3, 2022 ▶ 29:21 Headspace: Andy Puddicombe and Rich Pierson (2019)
Insight
Puddicombe: Short-term problem solving fails as sustainable motivation for meditation
“If your motivation is to quickly solve a problem in your life, then once that problem is solved or sort of resolves itself in some way, you're unlikely to continue. So kind of set up a more of a kind of a, I'm going to do this for a long period of time.”
Andy Puddicombe May 30, 2020 ▶ 24:31 How I Built Resilience: Live with Alli Webb and Andy Puddicombe & Rich Pierson
Insight
Puddicombe: Anchoring meditation to daily habits increases consistency
“Second one is tied to something that you already do. So most people just either forget about it or something else takes priority. So tie it to something like if you have a shower every morning, tie it to that. So it's shower and meditation or it's coffee and m…”
Andy Puddicombe May 30, 2020 ▶ 24:44 How I Built Resilience: Live with Alli Webb and Andy Puddicombe & Rich Pierson
Insight
Puddicombe: People cannot mentally outrun trauma by physically getting away
“The idea, the sense of getting away in a physical way, kind of, we think that we're going to be able to outrun it mentally as well, and of course we never can.”
Andy Puddicombe Sep 23, 2019 ▶ 6:49 Headspace: Andy Puddicombe and Rich Pierson
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Puddicombe's Gig Teaching Russian Oil Execs Sparked Idea to Demystify Meditation
“And then one of the expats had invited me to go in and teach his execs at an oil company in, in Russia. And he said, look, you know, kind of, you can't come in dressed as a Buddhist monk, you know, it's an oil company, we're in Moscow. And that had got me thin…”
Andy Puddicombe Sep 23, 2019 ▶ 18:34 Headspace: Andy Puddicombe and Rich Pierson
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Puddicombe Saw 6-10 Daily Clients in London Clinics Before Headspace
“I was working full-time in the clinics, Seeing anything from six to 10 people a day. And I started at weekends. I started, I did a few workshops, but it only really changed to sort of much larger, larger groups after I met my now very good, good friend, Rich w…”
Andy Puddicombe Sep 23, 2019 ▶ 23:26 Headspace: Andy Puddicombe and Rich Pierson
What-if
Puddicombe: Headspace would have failed without seed money from Pierson's father
“I mean, honestly, if it hadn't have been for Ian, like we wouldn't have made it.”
Andy Puddicombe Sep 23, 2019 ▶ 36:53 Headspace: Andy Puddicombe and Rich Pierson

The other half of the tape: Andy Puddicombe's own voice is left out of every number here. Other people bring the name up 6 times in 4 episodes on How I Built This. 4 statements on the record name them. every mention, with the transcript →

Who brings them up most Guy Raz 4Alex Tew 2

Statements about Andy Puddicombe, by other people (4)

Opinion
Pierson: Headspace Can Scale Content Using Instructors Beyond Andy Puddicombe
“As long as we always stay true to the way that we build products, I think there's a huge room to bring in other voices, other experts that aren't Andy, so.”
Rich Pierson Sep 23, 2019 ▶ 1:02:17 Headspace: Andy Puddicombe and Rich Pierson
Assertion Supported
Puddicombe's Hodder & Stoughton Book Advance Funded Early Headspace Operations
“We managed to get a book deal, a three book deal with Hodder and Staunton, and the advance from that, which I think, you know, still, at that time it was like one of the highest advances paid for a debut non-fiction author, really funded the rest of the busine…”
Rich Pierson Sep 23, 2019 ▶ 41:59 Headspace: Andy Puddicombe and Rich Pierson
Assertion Supported
A Three-Book Publishing Advance Funded Early Headspace Operations
“Secondly, it started a process where we managed to get a book deal, a three book deal with Hodder and Staunton, and the advance from that, which I think, you know, still, at that time, it was like one of the highest advances paid for a debut non-fiction author…”
Rich Pierson Jan 3, 2022 ▶ 42:08 Headspace: Andy Puddicombe and Rich Pierson (2019)
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Puddicombe Made Pierson A Co-Founder Because He Couldn't Afford To Pay Him
“Andy actually said to me, would you come and, would you like to work with me? And I thought he was saying, it's my business. Would you like to come and work for me? And I was like, yeah, sure. He said, well, I can't afford to kind of pay you. But would you do …”
Rich Pierson Jan 3, 2022 ▶ 32:52 Headspace: Andy Puddicombe and Rich Pierson (2019)

Every mention by year

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012202020212022202320242025episodes it came up in
001122202020212022202320242025episodesmentions per episode
2025 4 mentions in 2 episodes 2 per episode
2021 1 mention in 1 episode
2020 1 mention in 1 episode

Appearances (3)

EpisodeDateSpeaking time
Headspace: Andy Puddicombe and Rich Pierson (2019) Jan 3, 2022 29m
How I Built Resilience: Live with Alli Webb and Andy Puddicombe & Rich Pierson May 30, 2020 9m
Headspace: Andy Puddicombe and Rich Pierson Sep 23, 2019 29m
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