#500! KevKev TimTim TalkTalk on Dragon Slaying, Lessons Learned, Viagra, and Assorted Nonsense

To mark the 500th episode, Kevin Rose flips the format and interviews Tim Ferriss sight-unseen using questions from Twitter followers and mutual friends like Chris Sakka. The conversation ranges across Tim's evolving relationship with self-improvement, how he protects himself from incoming free products and clutter, his shift toward investing in public equities during COVID, and his approach to cardiac health, supplements, and longevity. Interspersed are intimate and irreverent topics, including his girlfriend and plans for fatherhood, his disastrous parkour injuries, hair-transplant musings, and a graphic, comedic account of trying Viagra. Tim closes seriously, sharing that he most wants to be remembered as a provider of hope and explaining why he funded the first psychedelic-research centers, framing it as tipping a first domino during a rare window of opportunity.

• Kevin admits he originally tried to talk Tim out of starting a podcast, calling the idea stupid at the time, before it became a massive success.
  00:01:33
• Psychedelic guide Bill Richards told Tim there's a very thin line between doing the work and just picking on yourself, prompting Tim to stop dredging up past trauma in the name of self-improvement.
  00:09:48
• Tim reveals COVID was the forcing function that made him abandon long-held advice against publicly traded equities; he had been sitting in roughly 50 percent cash for years.
  00:22:38
• Tim discloses a genetically terrible cardiac and lipid profile (high ApoB) that diet and fasting can't fix, and is now considering long-term ezetimibe; his dad had a heart attack and uncles had strokes.
  00:27:21
• Tim shares plans for fatherhood, saying the most important thing is being present and engaged rather than tactical parenting methods.
  00:53:57
• Tim recounts a scary adverse reaction to a small dose of Viagra (an axe-pick pain in the brain) that left him contraindicated, then gives a graphic, comedic description of its effects, coining the episode's dragon-slaying theme.
  01:14:28
• Tim says he wants to be remembered as a purveyor and provider of hope, especially for those suffering depression and treatment-resistant conditions.
  01:29:35
• Tim explains he put in roughly a million dollars to create the first psychedelic-research centers, expecting it to generate 10 to 100 million dollars in impact by tipping the first domino.
  01:36:48

• As early as 2009 Tim was receiving 30 to 40 books a week from publishers, later several hundred a week, leading him to a blanket policy of not reading any newly published books.
  00:13:54
• Tim now uses mobile phlebotomy services for at-home blood draws, costing about 50 dollars in Oregon, which he found especially convenient during COVID.
  00:29:57
• The first edition of The 4-Hour Body contained a David Blaine breath-hold chapter that was pulled after one printing as too dangerous for readers.
  00:40:24
• Tim takes cissus quadrangularis and MSM for a wrist injury, the same cissus he and Kevin took during a trip to China while eating large amounts of rice.
  00:44:36
• Tim notes the males in his family consistently die around age 85 regardless of era, shaping his skepticism toward obsessing over extreme longevity.
  00:50:17
• Tim severely tore three of his four quadriceps doing parkour in episode one of The Tim Ferriss Experiment, then filmed 13 weeks straight while wearing medical-grade compression pants.
  00:54:58
• Tim cites BJ Miller, the hospice physician, and memoirist Mary Karr as surprising guests whose episodes had a huge impact on him.
  01:09:11
• Tim was introduced to Casa Dragones tequila by a former Navy SEAL friend whose group sipped it while cleaning guns; he learned it is filtered 12 times, which he credits for no hangover.
  01:26:58
• Tim's girlfriend argued that a podcast about his childhood abuse, coming years before any book, would reach people who might die or take their own lives before the book existed, shaping his decision to speak out sooner.
  01:34:46

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