The Exchanges

Q fitness, um, and, and sort of regulating your body, that that actually will be applicable to more people. So take us through what is the, uh, what is the morning routine? I know you've talked about this on the, some other pods, but I, I bet the majority of our audience has not listened to all your stuff. So, you know, these are the greatest hits. Let's, let's do it.

A Sure. Yes. So, uh, I wake up. Uh, for me, that's usually somewhere around, somewhere between five 36 30, depending on how early I went to sleep. Uh, I wake up and I do an assessment of whether or not I feel rested or not. Most days, the answer is no. Um, just because of, uh, life. Um, staying up too late, uh, stress, et cetera. So I do a 10 to 30 minute Yoga Nidra session first thing in the morning. Uh, Yoga Nidra is a passive listening. You can find these Yoga Nidra links, uh, on YouTube. There's one which is 10 minute Yoga Nidra. Um, there's one that actually made for put out for free called, um, NSDR non sleep deep rest. That's a 30 minute one. It's a script where you just listen. It brings your brain into a state that's like, that's pseudo sleep. After that 10 or 30 minute, Yoga Nidra. I feel like I've slept as much as I need to sleep. It's a really remarkable reset, and it, it avoids your brain going into this state of planning and organization, what we call duration path and outcome in the neural circuitry world, and keeps it in that kind of liminal state of adjusting. And there are some interesting data published showing that these Yoga Nidra Meditations, if you will, are, uh, can upregulate some of the neurotransmitters in the brain, including dopamine that make you prepared for action. And so, uh, they're very restorative, especially in the absence of complete sleep. I…

AI assessment note: “I wake up... I do a 10 to 30 minute Yoga Nidra session”

Q ROI, the highest return, uh, for the investment of what it takes to do them? What do you think would make people happier, healthier? It doesn't matter. Anything that's anything to make you feel better, have a, yeah, whether it's improve your health or improve the way you feel throughout the day, uh, what would be the one or two that you would point to as like your kind of.

A Yeah. So, you know, uh, it's a great question. I think we need to think about foundational practices. Um, and the two things that set the foundation for optimal Mental and physical functioning are going to be really good sleep and really good mental frame, and mental frame is going to be the ability to toggle between different states of mind, and so let me give you the practices first so that I don't get accused of being an intellectual to the point of, um, you know, curing insomnia right during this podcast. The first one is That morning sunlight in your eyes should be a non-negotiable thing. 360 days out of the year. If it's raining, stand under an overhang. I'm very unsympathetic to the, well, I wake up, it's early, and then I gotta drive to work. Stand outside for five minutes. I, I don't, you know, I, I, I got plenty of rest last night, so I'm not ornery about this, but I, I've grown a little bit exhausted of the, well, you know, I can't do that because, uh, I've got kids, whatever. Take them outside with you. They need this too. That sets A cortisol increase in the morning, which is a healthy cortisol increase that provides wakefulness, triggers your metabolism in the proper direction. If that cortisol spike happens too late because you didn't view light, then you step out during noon too often. Remember one day is no big deal, but step out in the sunlight too late off to…

AI assessment note: “The first one is That morning sunlight in your eyes should be a non-negotiable thing.”

Q fitness, um, and, and sort of regulating your body, that that actually will be applicable to more people. So take us through what is the, uh, what is the morning routine? I know you've talked about this on the, some other pods, but I, I bet the majority of our audience has not listened to all your stuff. So, you know, these are the greatest hits. Let's, let's do it.

A Sure. Yes. So, uh, I wake up. Uh, for me, that's usually somewhere around, somewhere between five 36 30, depending on how early I went to sleep. Uh, I wake up and I do an assessment of whether or not I feel rested or not. Most days, the answer is no. Um, just because of, uh, life. Um, staying up too late, uh, stress, et cetera. So I do a 10 to 30 minute Yoga Nidra session first thing in the morning. Uh, Yoga Nidra is a passive listening. You can find these Yoga Nidra links, uh, on YouTube. There's one which is 10 minute Yoga Nidra. Um, there's one that actually made for put out for free called, um, NSDR non sleep deep rest. That's a 30 minute one. It's a script where you just listen. It brings your brain into a state that's like, that's pseudo sleep. After that 10 or 30 minute, Yoga Nidra. I feel like I've slept as much as I need to sleep. It's a really remarkable reset, and it, it avoids your brain going into this state of planning and organization, what we call duration path and outcome in the neural circuitry world, and keeps it in that kind of liminal state of adjusting. And there are some interesting data published showing that these Yoga Nidra Meditations, if you will, are, uh, can upregulate some of the neurotransmitters in the brain, including dopamine that make you prepared for action. And so, uh, they're very restorative, especially in the absence of complete sleep. I…

AI assessment note: “I wake up... somewhere between five 36 30... I do a 10 to 30 minute Yoga Nidra”

Q ROI, the highest return, uh, for the investment of what it takes to do them? What do you think would make people happier, healthier? It doesn't matter. Anything that's anything to make you feel better, have a, yeah, whether it's improve your health or improve the way you feel throughout the day, uh, what would be the one or two that you would point to as like your kind of.

A Yeah. So, you know, uh, it's a great question. I think we need to think about foundational practices. Um, and the two things that set the foundation for optimal Mental and physical functioning are going to be really good sleep and really good mental frame, and mental frame is going to be the ability to toggle between different states of mind, and so let me give you the practices first so that I don't get accused of being an intellectual to the point of, um, you know, curing insomnia right during this podcast. The first one is That morning sunlight in your eyes should be a non-negotiable thing. 360 days out of the year. If it's raining, stand under an overhang. I'm very unsympathetic to the, well, I wake up, it's early, and then I gotta drive to work. Stand outside for five minutes. I, I don't, you know, I, I, I got plenty of rest last night, so I'm not ornery about this, but I, I've grown a little bit exhausted of the, well, you know, I can't do that because, uh, I've got kids, whatever. Take them outside with you. They need this too. That sets A cortisol increase in the morning, which is a healthy cortisol increase that provides wakefulness, triggers your metabolism in the proper direction. If that cortisol spike happens too late because you didn't view light, then you step out during noon too often. Remember one day is no big deal, but step out in the sunlight too late off to…

AI assessment note: “The first one is That morning sunlight in your eyes should be a non-negotiable thing.”

Q On a, on a phone or a computer?

A Typically on a phone. I'd like to move more to the computer, but I'm in transit a lot these days. And, um, you, you have to, uh, be thoughtful, obviously. But I think maybe 10 minutes on social media, but I want social media to continue to be a pleasure and because of the dopamine system, and we can talk about that. I don't want to get, I don't want to go down the rabbit hole of someone else's, um, psychology or neurology. Um, I want to stay in my own frame. The, the orientation I have in the early part of the day with that notebook is I want to be in my own mental frame. I've just slept. During sleep is when we have neuroplasticity. The actual rewiring of neural connections occurs during sleep. I'm a big believer in the subconscious, and you're, when you wake up, you are now in a position to extract whatever it is that these new neural circuits have, have figured out about the previous day and day's events. And so if I immediately bombard myself with sensory experience or input or distractions, I'm not able to do that. So this morning, for instance, I'll just give an example. I'm preparing an episode of the podcast on time perception. I've been reading a lot about this. And I woke up this morning, went outside with the notebook and just sat there and then realized that there's a way to organize this episode that has to do with frame rates and sort of slow motion versus fast mo…

AI assessment note: “Typically on a phone. I'd like to move more to the computer”

Q But that's not what you're talking about, is it? I thought that you were talking.

A No. So yeah. Then there's another one, which is a world without email that he wrote recently that here's the key essence of the Cal Newport work. Okay. The, the key essence of it, as it relates to mental frame is that the brain is extremely good at end the body at context switching. Like, I could be doing this podcast right now, and if a fire alarm goes off, or someone comes knocking on the door, I can switch up my context and respond to that. But, 90% of the work that we are, that moves the needle, meaning that we are rewarded for, or that enriches professional life and relationships, it, we used to talk about this about mindfulness and presence, but it's really about getting the brain to start doing certain operations more Uh, in a more facile way. And this is why habits are important, but because going to the gym is different than reviewing a paper or writing a scientific paper is different than podcasting or being a guest on a podcast for that matter. So what happens is early in the day when you get the download from sleep, you identify a few things that are key. You've already, you're starting to funnel your neural networks toward what I'm calling frame setting. And what you're not doing is allowing something that came in from the external environment To adjust your frame. So you get a depth of connection with the work, a depth, like I knew I was doing this podcast today a…

AI assessment note: “No. So yeah. Then there's another one... here's the key essence”

Q hired an amazing PR person. I don't know if I'm just late to the party, but you went from, I never heard of you before, like three months ago, let's say, to I only hear about you. My YouTube feed is basically just giving me more and more of your content every day. So is that, is that a new thing or, or am I just like discovering you now?

A No, it's a, it's a very new thing. I mean, to just give you the quick arc, um, you know, leaving out all the pre-academia stuff, you know, I did my training in Neuroscience and in physiology, things like temperature regulation and things of that sort. And over the years, I worked on a number of different problems, um, formally, meaning in laboratories as a PhD student, postdoc, junior professor, tenured professor, things like stress and regeneration. And what happened was right around 2015, I started getting curious about how scientific information is making it out into the general public. Um, but there really wasn't a, a cause or a venue for doing that. There were these meetings, like big summit meetings and things like that, that weren't really my flavor, to be honest. They were perfectly fine, but, um, they would typically go something like, you know, yoga class, group meditation, one talk, buy my product, buy my book, and then people would go. And so what happened was in 2019, I have a good friend. His name is Pat Dossett. Um, he's a Wharton grad, a former Navy SEAL operator, um, did nine years in the SEAL teams. He's a good friend of mine. We swim together. Um, he much further ahead than I, of course, um, you know, those guys definitely have extra gears. Um, I've, you know, seen that. And, and Pat, uh, also has a company called Made For, which is a, um, behavioral health c…

AI assessment note: “No, it's a, it's a very new thing.”

Q Like what's your struggles? I mean, I imagine now that you're famous, your Instagram probably and your Twitter are like blown up. So maybe you're, it's hard to keep track of your email and stay on top of that. I mean, I don't know. I'm projecting.

A So, um, three things, um, that have been helpful for, uh, this, but okay. I'm dreadfully poor at communicate at, um, Follow up communications. I'm really bad. I, I really like comments. I try and respond, especially on Instagram. I, I like to give people, if you ask a professor a question, they're going to give you an attempt at an answer. Whether or not it's accurate or not, they're going to try. They're going to try and get it right. Um, so I have to control my impulse to respond to everything just for sake of time so I can do the, the big important things. Um, I'm a terrible cook. I'm an absolutely terrible cook. I mean, I, Um, I'm fortunate that I have someone in my life who's an exceptional cook, but I am an absolutely dreadful cook. I mean, I could, I could destroy toast. I just don't get it right. I don't have the patience. Do you eat sugar?

AI assessment note: “I'm dreadfully poor at communicate at, um, Follow up communications.”

Q Why don't you just bail as a professional? A million dollars a year.

A Uh, well, I, I'm, I'm, I guess, academically masochistic because, um, well, it's a, it's a train. I'm happy to announce this now. I actually took, um, I'm not, I, I love doing research. Uh, we have a big project on human stress. Um, we've been working on human fear. I love doing research and actually a, a fairly sizable portion of the Huberman lab podcast income is going to be donated to research and to scholarships for students. Um, I, I'm not, I'd be very honest. I'm not, I, I'm not extremely wealthy, nor do I suffer, you know, and I, I, it's money is important. I always say money, but can't buy happiness, but it absolutely can buffer stress. No question about that. Um, anyone who's ever had significant funds throughout their lifetime don't, won't truly understand that statement. People who haven't will understand exactly what I mean. And I, I think money is very important, but so is the ecosystem between academia, public health, and science communication, and the private sector. And for the time being, it just makes sense for me to continue to teach at Stanford. I teach medical students in the winter on neuroanatomy. I direct the neuroanatomy course, and I really enjoy academic conversations. Um, they're slow. They, it's like laden through steel. One thin layer at a time. But what you get to often is a kind of granularity where it's a process. It's, it's not so much you get …

AI assessment note: “I love doing research... it just makes sense for me to continue to teach at Stanford.”

Q One time I, okay, Sean doesn't know who Dolly Parton is. He didn't know who Jimmy Buffett was. Sean doesn't know like white people shit. Um, and so we're gonna put this in the category of white people shit. Henry Rollins, what was he, was it Black Flag that he was the lead singer of?

A Yeah, so, well, all right, I have to be careful not to go down this, um, path too. I mean, I'm a big Ian McKay fan, so minor threat, right? Then minor threat, and then there was Black Flag. So, and yes, but Rollins was part of Black Flag, um, and, uh, he was early in the punk rock scene to, I get into lifting weights. Ian and those guys were straight edge. Straight edge means different things in different eras, but at that time it meant no alcohol, no drugs. It's pretty firm stance in the eighties compared to the rest of the culture. Yeah. Um, I don't know Henry. Uh, I don't know Ian. Um, but I listened to minor threat all the time.

AI assessment note: “yes, but Rollins was part of Black Flag”

Q hired an amazing PR person. I don't know if I'm just late to the party, but you went from, I never heard of you before, like three months ago, let's say, to I only hear about you. My YouTube feed is basically just giving me more and more of your content every day. So is that, is that a new thing or, or am I just like discovering you now?

A No, it's a, it's a very new thing. I mean, to just give you the quick arc, um, you know, leaving out all the pre-academia stuff, you know, I did my training in Neuroscience and in physiology, things like temperature regulation and things of that sort. And over the years, I worked on a number of different problems, um, formally, meaning in laboratories as a PhD student, postdoc, junior professor, tenured professor, things like stress and regeneration. And what happened was right around 2015, I started getting curious about how scientific information is making it out into the general public. Um, but there really wasn't a, a cause or a venue for doing that. There were these meetings, like big summit meetings and things like that, that weren't really my flavor, to be honest. They were perfectly fine, but, um, they would typically go something like, you know, yoga class, group meditation, one talk, buy my product, buy my book, and then people would go. And so what happened was in 2019, I have a good friend. His name is Pat Dossett. Um, he's a Wharton grad, a former Navy SEAL operator, um, did nine years in the SEAL teams. He's a good friend of mine. We swim together. Um, he much further ahead than I, of course, um, you know, those guys definitely have extra gears. Um, I've, you know, seen that. And, and Pat, uh, also has a company called Made For, which is a, um, behavioral health c…

AI assessment note: “No, it's a, it's a very new thing. I mean, to just give you the quick arc”

Q On a, on a phone or a computer?

A Typically on a phone. I'd like to move more to the computer, but I'm in transit a lot these days. And, um, you, you have to, uh, be thoughtful, obviously. But I think maybe 10 minutes on social media, but I want social media to continue to be a pleasure and because of the dopamine system, and we can talk about that. I don't want to get, I don't want to go down the rabbit hole of someone else's, um, psychology or neurology. Um, I want to stay in my own frame. The, the orientation I have in the early part of the day with that notebook is I want to be in my own mental frame. I've just slept. During sleep is when we have neuroplasticity. The actual rewiring of neural connections occurs during sleep. I'm a big believer in the subconscious, and you're, when you wake up, you are now in a position to extract whatever it is that these new neural circuits have, have figured out about the previous day and day's events. And so if I immediately bombard myself with sensory experience or input or distractions, I'm not able to do that. So this morning, for instance, I'll just give an example. I'm preparing an episode of the podcast on time perception. I've been reading a lot about this. And I woke up this morning, went outside with the notebook and just sat there and then realized that there's a way to organize this episode that has to do with frame rates and sort of slow motion versus fast mo…

AI assessment note: “Typically on a phone. I'd like to move more to the computer”

Q Why don't you just bail as a professional? A million dollars a year.

A Uh, well, I, I'm, I'm, I guess, academically masochistic because, um, well, it's a, it's a train. I'm happy to announce this now. I actually took, um, I'm not, I, I love doing research. Uh, we have a big project on human stress. Um, we've been working on human fear. I love doing research and actually a, a fairly sizable portion of the Huberman lab podcast income is going to be donated to research and to scholarships for students. Um, I, I'm not, I'd be very honest. I'm not, I, I'm not extremely wealthy, nor do I suffer, you know, and I, I, it's money is important. I always say money, but can't buy happiness, but it absolutely can buffer stress. No question about that. Um, anyone who's ever had significant funds throughout their lifetime don't, won't truly understand that statement. People who haven't will understand exactly what I mean. And I, I think money is very important, but so is the ecosystem between academia, public health, and science communication, and the private sector. And for the time being, it just makes sense for me to continue to teach at Stanford. I teach medical students in the winter on neuroanatomy. I direct the neuroanatomy course, and I really enjoy academic conversations. Um, they're slow. They, it's like laden through steel. One thin layer at a time. But what you get to often is a kind of granularity where it's a process. It's, it's not so much you get …

AI assessment note: “I love doing research and... I don't think I'd be happy without doing that.”

Q But that's not what you're talking about, is it? I thought that you were talking.

A No. So yeah. Then there's another one, which is a world without email that he wrote recently that here's the key essence of the Cal Newport work. Okay. The, the key essence of it, as it relates to mental frame is that the brain is extremely good at end the body at context switching. Like, I could be doing this podcast right now, and if a fire alarm goes off, or someone comes knocking on the door, I can switch up my context and respond to that. But, 90% of the work that we are, that moves the needle, meaning that we are rewarded for, or that enriches professional life and relationships, it, we used to talk about this about mindfulness and presence, but it's really about getting the brain to start doing certain operations more Uh, in a more facile way. And this is why habits are important, but because going to the gym is different than reviewing a paper or writing a scientific paper is different than podcasting or being a guest on a podcast for that matter. So what happens is early in the day when you get the download from sleep, you identify a few things that are key. You've already, you're starting to funnel your neural networks toward what I'm calling frame setting. And what you're not doing is allowing something that came in from the external environment To adjust your frame. So you get a depth of connection with the work, a depth, like I knew I was doing this podcast today a…

AI assessment note: “No. So yeah. Then there's another one, which is a world without email”

Q Like what's your struggles? I mean, I imagine now that you're famous, your Instagram probably and your Twitter are like blown up. So maybe you're, it's hard to keep track of your email and stay on top of that. I mean, I don't know. I'm projecting.

A So, um, three things, um, that have been helpful for, uh, this, but okay. I'm dreadfully poor at communicate at, um, Follow up communications. I'm really bad. I, I really like comments. I try and respond, especially on Instagram. I, I like to give people, if you ask a professor a question, they're going to give you an attempt at an answer. Whether or not it's accurate or not, they're going to try. They're going to try and get it right. Um, so I have to control my impulse to respond to everything just for sake of time so I can do the, the big important things. Um, I'm a terrible cook. I'm an absolutely terrible cook. I mean, I, Um, I'm fortunate that I have someone in my life who's an exceptional cook, but I am an absolutely dreadful cook. I mean, I could, I could destroy toast. I just don't get it right. I don't have the patience. Do you eat sugar?

AI assessment note: “I'm dreadfully poor at communicate at, um, Follow up communications.”

Q Okay, you work, you work with that guy. Yeah, I mean, he's got, like, a thick Boston accent, right?

A Uh, that's Ken Rideout, who's a friend who I met through Rob. Rob, you're not gonna see, you're not gonna find. He sits behind an email wall, and he's a, uh, a close friend of mine, um, that Uh, you know, October, this time last year, October, November of 2020, we went for lunch, and I said, let's start a podcast. Lex thinks that we've got traction with a podcast, and I think he's right, and he said, great, let's do it. Let's buy the mics. Let's, you know, we built the studio with our own hands. Mike showed up, got the DC team in there, because they're friends with, of mine, um, DC Shoes, DC Skateboarding, and they helped me, you know, create an aesthetic that we thought would, would work for, make people feel like they were in a classroom. Um, and You know, Rob, uh, was the one who connected me to the person who connected me to Joe. Uh, there's a little bit of, since this is a public venue, there's a little bit of a, of a wall there just because they get flooded with requests. And I'll be honest, you know, I don't know what their process is. Um, I think that they have a process and, and if I, I'm not privy to it, I think that what's beautiful about the Rogan podcast, having been a guest on there and obviously a big fan is that They, I think what you see is the real deal. Uh, you know, Joe sits down with people that he'd like to have a meal with and, or conversation with and ha…

AI assessment note: “that's Ken Rideout, who's a friend who I met through Rob.”

Q One time I, okay, Sean doesn't know who Dolly Parton is. He didn't know who Jimmy Buffett was. Sean doesn't know like white people shit. Um, and so we're gonna put this in the category of white people shit. Henry Rollins, what was he, was it Black Flag that he was the lead singer of?

A Yeah, so, well, all right, I have to be careful not to go down this, um, path too. I mean, I'm a big Ian McKay fan, so minor threat, right? Then minor threat, and then there was Black Flag. So, and yes, but Rollins was part of Black Flag, um, and, uh, he was early in the punk rock scene to, I get into lifting weights. Ian and those guys were straight edge. Straight edge means different things in different eras, but at that time it meant no alcohol, no drugs. It's pretty firm stance in the eighties compared to the rest of the culture. Yeah. Um, I don't know Henry. Uh, I don't know Ian. Um, but I listened to minor threat all the time.

AI assessment note: “yes, but Rollins was part of Black Flag”

Q How'd you get on Rogan? Cause that was a big, obviously inflection point. And then that leads to Tim Ferriss. That leads to more and more. So how'd you get on Rogan?

A Yeah, and that was all this year. So then, um, well, two things about that. Um, I just want to make sure I close the hatch on. So I haven't written this book. Um, I haven't released it for two reasons. One is that in 2020, I didn't want to sell anything. I was coming to the table as an academic with a tenured position and a salary. Frankly, we don't make big salaries even at Stanford. Um, yes, if my dean is listening, the salaries at Stanford are not in keeping with the cost of living in the Bay Area, which is why most people sit on company boards and things of that sort. Um, you do science for the love of it. Um, but I didn't want to talk about my work, um, and be self-promotional. I really love learning and teaching, and I have one mission in my professional life, and that's to share the magic and the utility of biology. I, I mean, that's, for me, just fills me up. And talking about my work is fun. We can do that if you want, but there's so much terrific work out there. So what happened was the second Rogan appearance is, you know, Joe said, you know, Huberman's doing this podcast thing and people seem interested in it. Let's get him back on to share some of this information. And, but how did it happen in the first place? Well, I have a good friend and business partner at my podcast. Um, his name is Rob Moore and no, he's not taking new clients. Um, so, uh, because he no long…

AI assessment note: “how did it happen in the first place? Well, I have a good friend”

Q How'd you get on Rogan? Cause that was a big, obviously inflection point. And then that leads to Tim Ferriss. That leads to more and more. So how'd you get on Rogan?

A Yeah, and that was all this year. So then, um, well, two things about that. Um, I just want to make sure I close the hatch on. So I haven't written this book. Um, I haven't released it for two reasons. One is that in 2020, I didn't want to sell anything. I was coming to the table as an academic with a tenured position and a salary. Frankly, we don't make big salaries even at Stanford. Um, yes, if my dean is listening, the salaries at Stanford are not in keeping with the cost of living in the Bay Area, which is why most people sit on company boards and things of that sort. Um, you do science for the love of it. Um, but I didn't want to talk about my work, um, and be self-promotional. I really love learning and teaching, and I have one mission in my professional life, and that's to share the magic and the utility of biology. I, I mean, that's, for me, just fills me up. And talking about my work is fun. We can do that if you want, but there's so much terrific work out there. So what happened was the second Rogan appearance is, you know, Joe said, you know, Huberman's doing this podcast thing and people seem interested in it. Let's get him back on to share some of this information. And, but how did it happen in the first place? Well, I have a good friend and business partner at my podcast. Um, his name is Rob Moore and no, he's not taking new clients. Um, so, uh, because he no long…

AI assessment note: “how did it happen in the first place? Well, I have a good friend”

Q Okay, you work, you work with that guy. Yeah, I mean, he's got, like, a thick Boston accent, right?

A Uh, that's Ken Rideout, who's a friend who I met through Rob. Rob, you're not gonna see, you're not gonna find. He sits behind an email wall, and he's a, uh, a close friend of mine, um, that Uh, you know, October, this time last year, October, November of 2020, we went for lunch, and I said, let's start a podcast. Lex thinks that we've got traction with a podcast, and I think he's right, and he said, great, let's do it. Let's buy the mics. Let's, you know, we built the studio with our own hands. Mike showed up, got the DC team in there, because they're friends with, of mine, um, DC Shoes, DC Skateboarding, and they helped me, you know, create an aesthetic that we thought would, would work for, make people feel like they were in a classroom. Um, and You know, Rob, uh, was the one who connected me to the person who connected me to Joe. Uh, there's a little bit of, since this is a public venue, there's a little bit of a, of a wall there just because they get flooded with requests. And I'll be honest, you know, I don't know what their process is. Um, I think that they have a process and, and if I, I'm not privy to it, I think that what's beautiful about the Rogan podcast, having been a guest on there and obviously a big fan is that They, I think what you see is the real deal. Uh, you know, Joe sits down with people that he'd like to have a meal with and, or conversation with and ha…

AI assessment note: “that's Ken Rideout, who's a friend who I met through Rob. Rob, you're”

Q views. It's a slick looking thumbnail. Can you walk me through how much did you spend to build that Studio. And like, how did the first traction do you think come to this video? Your very first video, 650,000. The very next one looks like a month later, a million views. The next one, 630. I mean, you hit right away. You were hitting right away. How did that happen?

A Yeah, that's a good question. So a big part of that was, I don't think it was the thumbnails, because actually we were told by YouTube that our thumbnails weren't legible. I had these fancy anatomical drawings, um, you know, that, uh, now we've changed them a bit. Um, we've learned some things, you know, faces do better than images, et cetera. But if you, thumbnails that are really clickbaity are thumbnails where someone's going like, where they said the wider the eyes, the more people click and kind of crazy stuff. Um, We didn't do that because I want people to know that I'm here with a serious, you know, serious information because I'm serious about them. It's sort of like, why always the black shirt? These are actually the black. I literally own 26 of these that I like these particular shirts. Um, I'm not trying to get picked up by the, by the maker, so I won't mention it, but I've always worn them.

AI assessment note: “why always the black shirt? These are actually the black. I literally own 26”

Q Yeah, but that seems like a rounding error, no?

A It's not huge, but it's very different than if you were talking about, um, equivalent number of calories from, from starch. Um, so now there, but there are hormonal effects of, of biased, what I call biased diet. So I eat a macronutrient complete diet. It includes fats and proteins and, and carbohydrates. Carbohydrates are sort of on an as need basis. So if I'm training a little less, I might eat a few, a fewer of them, et cetera. But the, the nutrition space is a mess because everyone has to eat. And people have different preferences, and so a lot of the stuff that you see out there are really just geared toward, um, finding a match with an audience that prefers plants, or prefers meat, or, um, prefers to fast. Uh, you know, having explored the fasting science and literature, there's nothing wholly about fasting that provides autophagy, the cleaning up of dead cells. I mean, low calorie diets will do that also, even if you're not so-called fasting, but there are, it appears, some benefits to having periods of each 24 hour cycle where you're not ingesting calories. Um, independent of the total number of calories. So the biggest issue I have, the mess that I see out there that I hope will get resolved is that People are using social media and, ah, a certain type of, ah, he said, she said, they said, we said, to amplify controversies that don't really exist, right? I'm willing to…

AI assessment note: “It's not huge, but it's very different than if you were talking about”

Q views. It's a slick looking thumbnail. Can you walk me through how much did you spend to build that Studio. And like, how did the first traction do you think come to this video? Your very first video, 650,000. The very next one looks like a month later, a million views. The next one, 630. I mean, you hit right away. You were hitting right away. How did that happen?

A Yeah, that's a good question. So a big part of that was, I don't think it was the thumbnails, because actually we were told by YouTube that our thumbnails weren't legible. I had these fancy anatomical drawings, um, you know, that, uh, now we've changed them a bit. Um, we've learned some things, you know, faces do better than images, et cetera. But if you, thumbnails that are really clickbaity are thumbnails where someone's going like, where they said the wider the eyes, the more people click and kind of crazy stuff. Um, We didn't do that because I want people to know that I'm here with a serious, you know, serious information because I'm serious about them. It's sort of like, why always the black shirt? These are actually the black. I literally own 26 of these that I like these particular shirts. Um, I'm not trying to get picked up by the, by the maker, so I won't mention it, but I've always worn them.

AI assessment note: “I don't think it was the thumbnails, because actually we were told by YouTube”

Q Yeah, but that seems like a rounding error, no?

A It's not huge, but it's very different than if you were talking about, um, equivalent number of calories from, from starch. Um, so now there, but there are hormonal effects of, of biased, what I call biased diet. So I eat a macronutrient complete diet. It includes fats and proteins and, and carbohydrates. Carbohydrates are sort of on an as need basis. So if I'm training a little less, I might eat a few, a fewer of them, et cetera. But the, the nutrition space is a mess because everyone has to eat. And people have different preferences, and so a lot of the stuff that you see out there are really just geared toward, um, finding a match with an audience that prefers plants, or prefers meat, or, um, prefers to fast. Uh, you know, having explored the fasting science and literature, there's nothing wholly about fasting that provides autophagy, the cleaning up of dead cells. I mean, low calorie diets will do that also, even if you're not so-called fasting, but there are, it appears, some benefits to having periods of each 24 hour cycle where you're not ingesting calories. Um, independent of the total number of calories. So the biggest issue I have, the mess that I see out there that I hope will get resolved is that People are using social media and, ah, a certain type of, ah, he said, she said, they said, we said, to amplify controversies that don't really exist, right? I'm willing to…

AI assessment note: “It's not huge, but it's very different than if you were talking about”

Q you don't happen. Well, that's my point. That's exactly my point. You will say, well, I don't know. You know what I mean? It's, it's even the most honest people and good people. You are everyone. We're all incentivized something. And so maybe like he would be willing to defend them a little bit more because they're giving them money, which is a natural thing. You know what I mean?

A Yeah. Yeah, so that, that is an issue. I mean, I think that, um, and we do care about growth, um, but, and the reason we built out a philanthropic arm of this company is because I really, I empathize with the struggle that academic scientists live in day to day, which is that, uh, they don't have time to do their own research, let alone work for the world, which is what they're really hired to do. Their grants come mainly from public sources. So We're trying to think about ways that we can start to pump some money back into science through the podcast. So money coming into the podcast actually represents some of it, uh, money going back into the scientific community to do better work. We're starting to explore NFTs and some of, uh, how that might be incorporated. Um, Twitter's a great place to learn about that. I just want to say that the NFT landscape and crypto landscape, people are so kind. It's like, they're trying to come, it's kind of all in. It kind of reminds me of the early punk rock movement. It's like you, they know, I'm paying attention to their energy. I don't understand a darn thing about it.

AI assessment note: “Yeah, so that, that is an issue. I mean, I think that”

Q you don't happen. Well, that's my point. That's exactly my point. You will say, well, I don't know. You know what I mean? It's, it's even the most honest people and good people. You are everyone. We're all incentivized something. And so maybe like he would be willing to defend them a little bit more because they're giving them money, which is a natural thing. You know what I mean?

A Yeah. Yeah, so that, that is an issue. I mean, I think that, um, and we do care about growth, um, but, and the reason we built out a philanthropic arm of this company is because I really, I empathize with the struggle that academic scientists live in day to day, which is that, uh, they don't have time to do their own research, let alone work for the world, which is what they're really hired to do. Their grants come mainly from public sources. So We're trying to think about ways that we can start to pump some money back into science through the podcast. So money coming into the podcast actually represents some of it, uh, money going back into the scientific community to do better work. We're starting to explore NFTs and some of, uh, how that might be incorporated. Um, Twitter's a great place to learn about that. I just want to say that the NFT landscape and crypto landscape, people are so kind. It's like, they're trying to come, it's kind of all in. It kind of reminds me of the early punk rock movement. It's like you, they know, I'm paying attention to their energy. I don't understand a darn thing about it.

AI assessment note: “that is an issue... the reason we built out a philanthropic arm of this company”