Andrew Huberman — Stanford neuroscientist and professor of neurobiology and ophthalmology, and host of the Huberman Lab podcast, which translates brain and body science into practical tools for everyday life.
The gist
Recorded after a live lecture at The Chicago Theater, this episode is the audience question-and-answer session. Huberman answers wide-ranging questions on keeping the aging brain healthy, optimizing sleep on shift work, how clinical hypnosis and NSDR (non-sleep deep rest) work, and the science and risks of psychedelics. He also gets personal, discussing how the podcast changed his life, what he does for fun, his introverted four-mode work rhythm, and advice for a 19-year-old on maximizing neuroplasticity. He closes with thoughts on daylight saving time, future health frontiers, and reforming education to teach kids about their own brains and bodies.
Big reveals
- Recounts a Nobel laureate (later named as Richard Axel) chewing five pieces of Nicorette in a meeting, citing nicotine's protection against Parkinson's and Alzheimer's, while stressing he does not recommend it.
- Admits he had a bad LSD trip as a teenager and was a 'wayward youth,' and that he feared being dosed with LSD for years afterward.
- Says microdosing psilocybin data is not particularly compelling and warns kids should absolutely not use psychedelics.
- Reveals he disagrees with friend Matt Walker on whether sleep can be partially replaced, and that Walker will debate this on his podcast.
- Confesses he is deeply introverted, spends a lot of time alone, and operates in basically four modes centered on foraging, organizing, and dispersing information.
- Announces an upcoming documentary about his late postdoc advisor Ben Barres, plus a planned release of audio interviews Huberman recorded in Barres's final year.
- Declares daylight saving time 'anti-health' and 'just dumb,' linking it to more car crashes, heart attacks, and depression.
- Reveals that during the 2020-2021 pandemic he was not allowed to talk about vaccines, so he didn't, and instead focused on circadian and stress tools.
Things worth remembering
- To fall and stay deeply asleep, body temperature must drop about 1 to 3 degrees, and to wake refreshed it must rise about 1 to 3 degrees.
- Huberman cites roughly 150-200 minutes of zone 2 cardio per week, borrowing from his friend Peter Attia.
- Grip strength and increasing asymmetry between hands is an indicator of brain-to-periphery control deficits correlated with cognitive decline.
- You can buy a 900 lux LED inexpensively on Amazon for morning light exposure rather than pricey daylight simulators.
- The Spiegel eye-roll test gauges hypnotizability by whether you can keep gazing upward while closing your eyelids.
- Huberman renamed yoga nidra as 'non-sleep deep rest' (NSDR) because the original name turned some people off.
- He notes the theory that SSRIs may work not by fixing a serotonin deficiency but by increasing neuroplasticity.
- Cites Wendy Suzuki's data that as little as 10-13 minutes of meditation can increase memory and focus.
- Huberman claims 'Chimp Empire' and 'Succession' have striking parallels and interleaves watching them.
- Says learning a musical instrument, even later in life, greatly increases your ability to learn all sorts of things.
Recommended in this episode
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A History of Rock Music in 500 Songs
Andrew Hickey
“one of the coolest podcasts out there if you like rock and roll, which I love, is A History of 500 Songs by Andrew Hickey's podcast on rock and roll.” — Andrew Huberman 00:31:08Find it on Amazon