How to Make Yourself Unbreakable | DJ Shipley

DJ Shipley joins Andrew Huberman to explain the highly structured morning and evening routines he uses to control his mental state and show up for his family and work. He recounts his path from a San Diego SEAL family through BUD/S, combat deployments in Iraq, the deaths of close friends, and a near-fatal electrocution that shattered both shoulders. The conversation turns to his collapse into addiction on roughly 60 pills a day after medical retirement, and how ibogaine and 5-MeO-DMT treatment in Mexico erased his addictions and repaired his marriage. He and Huberman discuss the GBRS fitness fit-test and standards philosophy, the value of body awareness, and the bipartisan push to bring psychedelic-assisted treatment to veterans. Throughout, the through-line is taking yourself seriously, controlling what you can control, and stacking micro-wins.

• His best friend Nic Cheque was killed in 2012; DJ says a piece of him died that he never got back.
  01:13:37
• Recounts the closest-call fire mission of the Iraq War (inside 15 meters) when his idol Matty Roberts was shot up and DJ felt completely helpless.
  01:31:43
• After medical retirement he was put on 60+ pills a day across 25-30 prescriptions and didn't realize he was never sober for 15 years.
  01:44:53
• On Father's Day 2019 he was electrocuted by his skateboard fracture-burning rig, launched 20 feet, shattering his collarbone and scapula.
  01:52:42
• Doctors warned rhabdomyolysis could force them to cut muscle off him; his enzyme markers mysteriously dropped to zero and he walked out the next day.
  01:58:55
• Admits past infidelity and that he went to Mexico mainly to save his marriage, never believing the medicine would work.
  02:27:18
• Describes the 5-MeO-DMT ego death that flipped him from suicidal to blissful and led him to confess everything to his wife.
  02:35:09
• Ibogaine killed a 17-year Copenhagen addiction overnight; he never dipped again.
  02:47:18

• DJ wakes at 5:00 AM regardless of bedtime and runs a tight evening + 12-minute morning routine to stack 25 'micro wins' before his first cup of coffee.
  00:05:54
• He and his wife take a 20-minute walk every night (10 minutes each to talk), which he credits with saving his marriage.
  00:12:12
• Huberman notes a consistent wake-up time maximizes growth hormone release for recovery.
  00:20:04
• A BUD/S class starts with 200+ people and graduates fewer than 20.
  00:54:10
• DJ did almost 4,000 skydives in seven years and adopted fake identities (like 'Red Bull Air Force') to compartmentalize his real job.
  02:09:56
• Ibogaine treatment is framed as a medical treatment with a 25-person staff including paramedics and RNs, not a recreational psychedelic.
  02:55:48
• GBRS fit test standards: broad jump (elite ~8-10 ft), bodyweight bench (elite 20+ reps), pull-ups (elite 20+), farmer's carry, trap-bar deadlift (elite 2.5x bodyweight), plank, and 800m run.
  03:08:50
• DJ's bench and pull-up numbers at 50 are better than in his 20s, and his VO2 max sits in the top 0.0001% despite not training for it.
  03:18:49
• The GBRS American flag hat has nearly 24,000 stitches and takes 60 minutes just to embroider the flag; any pulled thread means it's tossed.
  03:35:39
• Huberman cites that Hitler ranked among the top five public speakers in history, and a Robert Heath brain-stimulation experiment where subjects most wanted to re-trigger an area evoking mild anger.
  02:56:51

Books, products and media the guest or host genuinely endorsed here — with the buy link.

Affiliate link — we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you.