Transcript

Andrew Huberman | SmartLess

From SmartLess · Episode page · Watch on YouTube

· 1 h 10 min · 14,713 words · 266 timestamped sections

This is the full, timestamped transcript of "Andrew Huberman | SmartLess", an episode of SmartLess published February 9, 2026 (1 h 10 min, about 14,713 words). It mentions 112 people, works and ideas, including Stanford, Alzheimer's, REM Sleep, Stanford University School of Medicine, Nicotine.

What this episode is about

The conversation revolves around the hosts discussing their plans and current experiences, including traveling to New York and the impacts of the holiday season on their routines and mental states. They also engage in light-hearted banter about music and share personal anecdotes, reflecting on how time off can lead to a feeling of detachment from everyday social interactions.

Key takeaways

  • The holiday break: a cozy trap that turns our brains into cultural marshmallows.
  • Everyone’s inbox is a reflection of their mental state—zero means zen, thousands mean chaos!
  • The joys of family time come with the price of post-holiday culture shock—great for comedy, tough for reality.
  • Navigating adulthood means balancing the desire to hibernate with the need to adult; it’s a tough gig.
  • Kissing in the time of COVID: rebranding affection as 'turducket' and leaving germs as party favors.

Who speaks in this episode?

What is discussed, and when

  1. – 10:00: Hot Bath, Stanford, Stanford University School of Medicine, Circadian Rhythm
  2. – 20:00: Nicotine, Nicotine, Sauna, Acetylcysteine
  3. – 30:00: Nicotine, Cannabis, Nicotine, REM Sleep
  4. – 40:00: Metformin, Sunlight, NMN, Nicotine
  5. – 50:00: Stanford, Stanford University School of Medicine, Circadian Rhythm, mRNA technologies
  6. – 1:00:00: Alzheimer's, GLP-1, Alzheimer's, Parkinson's
  7. – 1:09:45: Stanford, Exercise, Alzheimer's, Neurodegeneration

Notable quotes from "Andrew Huberman | SmartLess"

  • He's got a PhD in neuroscience. He's a tenure professor at Stanford School of Medicine in neurobiology and opthalmology and by courtesy psychiatry and behavioral sciences.
    about Stanford · at
  • York, you've got work to do, you need to recover more quickly, the data on avoiding getting sick by taking 600 to 900 milligrams of an acetylcysteine two or three times a day…
    about Acetylcysteine · at
  • Hear what you guys have to say about this. The biggie is that it is highly nicotine delivered in any form is highly habit forming. What do we call it? Addicting. Addicting is, continued use despite harm to self or others. I call addiction a.
    about Nicotine · at
  • You don't have a way to adjust the temperature of your bed. But either way, increase the temperature in your sleeping environment in the last hours of sleep. So every you want…
    about REM Sleep · at
  • Light, cold water, exercise, and caffeine will spike your cortisol in the morning. And guess what? You want your cortisol high early in the day, and dim light, lack of…
    about Circadian Rhythm · at
  • All year long? Turns out they have very high levels of GLP-1 circulating, isolated the peptide. We now have GLP1s as perhaps the first really effective treatment for obesity…
    about GLP-1 · at
  • And I can talk about that in a moment, are significant toward offsetting age related dementia. People with these gene repeats are at higher risk. great to hear that you don't…
    about Alzheimer's · at
  • Smartless is 100% organic and artisally handcrafted by Michael Grant, Terry, Rob Armjarve, and Bennett Barbco.
    about Smartless · at

Who and what is mentioned in this episode?

People

  • Mike Eisenberg — Person · 2 mentions · first at
    The vasoc constriction and blood pressure increase of your nicotine. But I had a guy on my podcast who's a colleague of mine at Stanford, Mike Eisenberg. He's our he's our head…
  • Tony Hawk — Person · 1 mention · first at
    Start skateboard companies and I got we could talk stories about that at some time, but I was actually Tony Hawk's dad took me to his house when I was a kid. So, I got to sleep in Tony's room.
  • Neil deGrasse Tyson — Person · 1 mention · first at
    Okay that's the way you look and look back into time effectively he went we had Neil deGrasse Tyson and Jason had a very robust conversation with about time travel about time travel using has to do with the speed of light and.
  • Macaulay Culkin — Person · 1 mention

Books & papers

  • Scientific American — Book · 1 mention · first at
    His work's been featured in Time BBC, Scientific American. Basically, every publication that makes me feel dumb. His podcast is one of the most downloaded in the world. It's the cold plunging,.
  • Time — Book · 1 mention · first at
    His work's been featured in Time BBC, Scientific American. Basically, every publication that makes me feel dumb. His podcast is one of the most downloaded in the world. It's the cold plunging,.

Companies & orgs

  • Stanford — Company · 6 mentions · first at
  • Stanford University School of Medicine — Company · 3 mentions · first at
    He's got a PhD in neuroscience. He's a tenure professor at Stanford School of Medicine in neurobiology and opthalmology and by courtesy psychiatry and behavioral sciences.
  • NIH — Company · 1 mention · first at
    I'll just put in a plug. funded by US taxpayers. I might, I have to say my lab was funded by NIH for many years. This is the this is the this is the thrust of discovery not just in the United States but all over the world.
  • Google LLC — Company · 1 mention · first at
    Starting to get this flu, I looked it up. I consulted I did my own research as they say, meaning I have Google. A lot of people like to talk about research, and what they mean is that they use the internet, right?
  • PubMed — Company · 1 mention · first at
    Put a full disclaimer. I have no financial relationship to what I'm about to describe in any way. There's a beautiful study published and it's on PubMed. I can send you guys…
  • OpenAI — Company · 1 mention
  • McDonald — Company · 1 mention · first at
    We're going to go get a Big Mac and smoke a sig. And we're going to post it online just to [ __ ] with people's brains. All right. Just to cause a Let's just do it. Fair enough. Out.
  • Meta — Company · 1 mention · first at
    Of break it down a little bit more for you. But these podcasts or even like Tik Tok or Instagram, you get these little bite-sized pieces of information.
  • ByteDance — Company · 1 mention
  • Internet Brands — Company · 1 mention

Products & tech

  • Nicotine — Product · Key discussed substance/product category · 14 mentions · first at
    Central discussion item: Huberman distinguishes nicotine from carcinogenic delivery methods, notes blood pressure/vasoconstriction and habit formation, and mentions occasional Nicorette use.
  • Acetylcysteine — Product · Supplement recommendation for flu prevention/recovery · 4 mentions · first at
    Huberman cites peer-reviewed evidence for N-acetylcysteine (NAC) reducing flu contraction rates when exposed; provides dosing guidance and notes mucolytic effects.
  • Cannabis — Product · Substance discussed re: sleep and psychosis risk · 6 mentions · first at
    Discussed for irritability when unavailable, high-THC psychosis risk (especially edibles), and REM suppression with rebound vivid dreams after cessation.
    That's the reason I avoided cannabis. I don't have anything, I think cannabis has for some people it can activate psychosis, high THC. For some people, they seem to be able to take it.
  • Hot Bath — Product · Illness recovery practice · 5 mentions · first at
    Huberman recommends tolerably hot baths (especially early in illness, before bed) to support immune response; contrasted with cold exposure during sickness.
    Three things. It turns out that the old practice of hot baths is actually quite good. You don't want to make it scalding obviously, but you get into a just tolerably hot bath.
  • Sauna — Product · Recovery / wellness tool · 5 mentions · first at
    Discussed as a heat-based intervention during illness (preferred over cold plunge when sick) and as a stressor when too hot; includes fertility caution and sauna hat/towel tip.
    Yeah. The thing about heat is if it's too hot, it can also be a stressor. when you're healthy, using the sauna as a way to get your heart rate up and kind of push it in there a…
  • Sunlight — Product · Circadian/immune support tool · 4 mentions · first at
    Recommended for long-wavelength light exposure to support circadian timing and immune/mitochondrial function; part of Huberman’s standard morning routine advice.
    High fever, is really useful. That and I know I'm always talking about the morning sunlight thing.
  • Caffeine — Product · Common stimulant used as comparison point · 6 mentions · first at
    Used to illustrate tolerance/baseline dependence and sleep timing; Sean avoids it, others note widespread daily use and withdrawal confounds in research.
    Caffeine, nicotine, any stimulant of any kind regularly, pretty soon you need it just to get to baseline. most of us drink 90% of the adult population of the world drinks caffeine every single day just to feel at their normal levels of.
  • Cold Plunge — Product · Contrasted wellness practice · 4 mentions · first at
    Discussed as a potent stressor; Huberman advises avoiding deliberate cold exposure when sick or coming down with illness.
    Already working hard enough historically they were saying they were saying don't do the cold plunge or don't do the hot don't do either because they were saying because I'd have to fight hard enough so this was the first time that when.
  • NMN — Product · NAD precursor supplement discussed · 2 mentions · first at
    Huberman says he takes sublingual NMN in the morning for energy; notes anecdotal hair/nail growth and that human lifespan extension evidence is not direct yet.
    However, it does seem to increase energy and NR in particular, what you're taking, seems to there's some good human studies that it can reduce inflammation in the body. Oh, nice.
  • Tadalafil — Product · Prescription drug discussed for vascular health (male-focused) · 1 mention · first at
    Huberman relays colleague Mike Eisenberg’s view that low-dose tadalafil nightly may support capillary dilation/blood pressure and prostate/brain health in men 40+.
    Every male he his words, every male 40 years or older should be taking low dose meaning 2.5 to 5 milligrams of tadalapil each evening to lower their blood pressure, dilate their capillaries at.
  • NR — Product · NAD precursor supplement discussed · 1 mention · first at
    Discussed as an NAD-boosting supplement with some human evidence for reducing inflammation; contrasted with NMN; no direct lifespan extension evidence yet.
    However, it does seem to increase energy and NR in particular, what you're taking, seems to there's some good human studies that it can reduce inflammation in the body. Oh, nice.
  • Lock Box — Product · Behavior-change tool (phone restriction) · 1 mention · first at
    Huberman describes using a lock box to physically restrict phone access, supporting his broader point about attention, boredom tolerance, and social connection.
    Engaging with people socially or even with your thoughts, getting back to that a bit. I have a lock box for my phone that it's a it's a it's locked in there for portions of the…
  • Metformin — Product · Prescription drug mentioned in longevity/blood sugar context · 3 mentions · first at
    Sean mentions taking metformin; Huberman explains it lowers blood glucose and ties blood sugar management to dementia risk discussions.
    Bring this up to you because this is what I take and it has the word nicotine in it I take well I take metformin and then And it's like nicotinomide. Is that missing? And resveratrol.
  • N-acetylcysteine — Product · 2 mentions
  • Nicorette — Product · 2 mentions
    Definitions, it's hard to call nicotine addicting. And yet, I know many people that start with one pack of Zin a day, one gum, one four milligram gum. Pretty soon it's two, pretty soon it's four.
  • Resveratrol — Product · 1 mention · first at
    Bring this up to you because this is what I take and it has the word nicotine in it I take well I take metformin and then And it's like nicotinomide. Is that missing? And resveratrol.
  • Nicotinamide — Product · NAD-pathway supplement/vitamin discussed · 1 mention · first at
    Mentioned as part of NAD pathway; Huberman discusses NAD decline with age and notes limited lifespan evidence but possible energy/inflammation effects depending on form.
    A lot of attention a few years back as a potential longevity thing. We all make NAD and levels of it drop off with age.
  • Eye Mask — Product · Sleep aid recommendation · 1 mention · first at
    Recommended as an inexpensive comfort investment to improve sleep environment, especially for those who prefer curtains open/light in morning.
    It's great. I think everyone should invest because it's very inexpensive in a very in a comfortable eye mask. one of these soft eye masks that velcro in the back so you can.
  • Earplugs — Product · Sleep aid recommendation · 1 mention · first at
    Suggested (wax-style) to reduce unnoticed environmental noise that may be fragmenting sleep; offered as an experiment for Sean’s awakenings.
    You may be waking up because there's noises in your environment that you're not aware of. And just see if no you're noises are coming from. I'm thinking this is you. I'm think I'm.
  • Ozempic — Product · 1 mention · first at
  • Instagram — Product · 1 mention · first at
    Stuff. And now like chat GPT will kind of break it down a little bit more for you. But these podcasts or even like Tik Tok or Instagram, you get these little bite-sized pieces of information.
  • TikTok — Product · 1 mention · first at
    Stuff. And now like chat GPT will kind of break it down a little bit more for you. But these podcasts or even like Tik Tok or Instagram, you get these little bite-sized pieces of information.
  • ChatGPT — Product · 1 mention
    A bunch of questions. You didn't need to like make a doctor's appointment and stuff. And now like chat GPT will kind of break it down a little bit more for you. But these…
  • WebMD — Product · 1 mention
    Well, I mean what like WebMD and stuff like that started to like you could just go there and start asking a bunch of questions. You didn't need to like make a doctor's appointment and.
  • Zinc — Product · Common supplement referenced as comparison · 1 mention · first at
    Mentioned as part of typical cold/flu supplement talk; Huberman contrasts it with NAC as having more robust evidence in the cited context.
    Impressive. And obviously check with your doctor this kind of thing, but that's the one thing, we hear about zinc, echgonatia, all this stuff.
  • Fan — Product · 1 mention · first at
    [ __ ] No, I sleep with a fan on cuz it's so to block out all noise.
  • Big Mac — Product · 1 mention · first at
    We're going to go get a Big Mac and smoke a sig. And we're going to post it online just to [ __ ] with people's brains. All right. Just to cause a Let's just do it. Fair enough. Out.
  • Cheeseburger — Product · 1 mention · first at
    You know what I mean? Just [ __ ] it. Just to mess with so I'll eat a cheeseburger.
  • Cinnamon Roll — Product · 1 mention · first at
    I haven't had anything except What's coming up? What's coming up? I'll probably have a cinnamon roll.
  • Chocolate Chip Cookie — Product · 1 mention · first at
    There's also a chocolate chip cookie.
  • Carrots — Product · 1 mention · first at
    I did really good. I had carrots and cucumbers dipped in ranch.
  • Cucumbers — Product · 1 mention · first at
    I did really good. I had carrots and cucumbers dipped in ranch.
  • Ranch — Product · 1 mention · first at
    I did really good. I had carrots and cucumbers dipped in ranch.
  • Hendrick's Gin — Product · 1 mention
  • Pappy Van Winkle — Product · 1 mention
  • Traveler Whiskey — Product · 1 mention
  • Portillos — Product · Food/restaurant mention (incidental) · 1 mention · first at
    Referenced as a place Sean went for food (sugar/comfort eating thread); not promoted, used as a comedic detail about diet choices.
    No, yesterday when you drove Oh, I went to Portillos. Yeah.

Concepts & topics

  • REM Sleep — Concept · 5 mentions · first at
  • Circadian Rhythm — Concept · 3 mentions · first at
  • Neurodegeneration — Concept · 2 mentions · first at
    Can be protective against Parkinson's and Alzheimer's because it offset seems to protect neurons against degeneration which is the hallmark feature of Parkinson's and Alzheimer's. That said, I'm going to, I.
  • GLP-1 — Concept · 2 mentions · first at
  • Nicotine — Concept · 14 mentions · first at
    Great. nicotine is a very interesting stimulant. It is a stimulant.
  • Alzheimer's — Concept · 4 mentions · first at
    Now safely say what I'm about to say, which is there is evidence, well, let me do this backwards. People with Parkinson's and Alzheimer's if they take nicotine don't seem to get better.
  • Parkinson's — Concept · 4 mentions · first at
    Now safely say what I'm about to say, which is there is evidence, well, let me do this backwards. People with Parkinson's and Alzheimer's if they take nicotine don't seem to get better.
  • Cold Exposure — Concept · 3 mentions · first at
    Harsher and I now that I'm hearing you I'm like I wish I had cuz historically I've always just gone in and I sauna early days when I start to feel that thing in my throat or whatever and usually I'm able to save it off. So you're saying.
  • Deep Sleep — Concept · 3 mentions · first at
    Increase the temperature in your sleeping environment in the last hours of sleep. So every you want the room cold to fall asleep and stay deeply asleep. But toward morning…
  • Sleep Architecture — Concept · 2 mentions · first at
    That's REM. You're dropping back.
  • mRNA Technology — Concept · 2 mentions
  • Vasoconstriction — Concept · 1 mention · first at
    Vasoc constriction is just a clamping off of the little capillaries and vessels in particular in the periphery you know in the fingers in other extremities and in the brain and you.
  • mRNA technologies — Concept · 1 mention · first at
    Reasons. Like I mean whether or not you are like pro or anti or skeptical about vaccines during the pandemic. These mRNA technologies are incredible for cancer. Let's just…
  • Sleep — Concept · 1 mention · first at
    To op I hate the word optimize, trying to optimize on a daily basis, I should say, in real life context. Get the best sleep they can. It's so clear that resistance training…
  • Caffeine — Concept · 6 mentions · first at
    Think that if you understand that bright light, cold water, exercise, and caffeine will spike your cortisol in the morning. And guess what? You want your cortisol high early in…
  • Exercise — Concept · 3 mentions · first at
    Explain mechanism, okay, is because I do think that if you understand that bright light, cold water, exercise, and caffeine will spike your cortisol in the morning. And guess…
  • Peer-Reviewed Literature — Concept · 2 mentions · first at
    That's been going around is rough, but a couple of I'll just say there are a couple of things that are supported by the peer-reviewed literature that can really help accelerate…
  • mRNA — Concept · 2 mentions
    A hard stance here and I'm not I'm not doing this for any political reasons. Like I mean whether or not you are like pro or anti or skeptical about vaccines during the…
  • Mitochondrial Function — Concept · 1 mention · first at
    Sunlight. This is very well supported by the literature because again, it's helpful for your mitochondrial function, for your immune system. In Arctic countries, not so much…
  • NAD — Concept · 1 mention · first at
    There's no direct evidence yet in humans that increasing NAD either by taking what's called NR, which is what you're taking, or NMN can extend lifespan.
  • Blue Zones — Concept · 1 mention · first at
    Limiting our stress a bit or a lot more, doing things that really bring us meaning, this is huge. We know this from all the Blue Zone stuff, but from everything else. Social…
  • Deep Work — Concept · 1 mention
    No. For if I'm doing a particularly long session of writing or a particularly long podcast. But here's the thing. If you take a stimulant of any kind, caffeine, nicotine, any stimulant of any.
  • Intermittent Fasting — Concept · 1 mention
  • Zone 2 Training — Concept · 1 mention
    Cardio resistance training. I've been doing that stuff since I was in my teens. And I've been I'm really committed to the behaviors come first.

Places & events

  • Alzheimer's — Event · 6 mentions · first at
  • Parkinson's — Event · 4 mentions · first at
    Off because we all know that don't do the environmental toxin thing is interesting. There was data that living next to a golf course might put people more at risk for…
  • New York, New York — Place · 3 mentions · first at
    I got to go take care of some stuff. And I just don't I'm not trying to be vague about it, but I No, I just got to do some stuff. I got I got to go to New York. I got to go I got TO.
  • COVID-19 — Event · 2 mentions
    A hard stance here and I'm not I'm not doing this for any political reasons. Like I mean whether or not you are like pro or anti or skeptical about vaccines during the…
  • Los Angeles — Place · 3 mentions · first at
    And I think Los Angeles, to be fair, I've lived it west of Interstate 5 my entire life. Northern Southern California, middle of the state. Los Angeles is the place where this stuff got blended together. Okay. And as a.
  • COVID-19 pandemic — Event · 3 mentions
    A hard stance here and I'm not I'm not doing this for any political reasons. Like I mean whether or not you are like pro or anti or skeptical about vaccines during the…
  • South Bay — Place · 1 mention · first at
    Academic. He came here from Argentina, first generation immigrant, and to study physics. And I grew up in the South Bay area at a time before the personal computer, etc. But I…
  • Nobel Prize — Event · 1 mention · first at
    Nicotini, hopefully you're using it on, I know a lot of nerds. I'll tell you, I know a Nobel Prize winning neuroscientist. Everyone in my community knows who he is. And the…
  • Super Bowl — Event · 1 mention · first at
    Eli, sweet Eli. And he was saying the holidays are over. Like tonight's the last night. Like it was the last football game of the regular season.
  • Scandinavia — Place · 1 mention · first at
    Because again, it's helpful for your mitochondrial function, for your immune system. In Arctic countries, not so much Arctic, but in Scandinavia, in Russia, they actually put babies bundled up out in the cold in the morning. Sure.
  • Russia — Place · 1 mention · first at
    System. In Arctic countries, not so much Arctic, but in Scandinavia, in Russia, they actually put babies bundled up out in the cold in the morning. Sure.
  • Canada — Place · 1 mention · first at
    No, but up in Canada, we're we'll toss her out. We'll toss her outside for sure.
  • Argentina — Place · 1 mention · first at
    What's happening now with kind of like calling all fact into question. So, here's the deal. My dad is an academic. He came here from Argentina, first generation immigrant, and…
  • California — Place · 1 mention · first at
    I've lived it west of Interstate 5 my entire life. Northern Southern California, middle of the state. Los Angeles is the place where this stuff got blended together. Okay. And as a because people here are experimental.
  • Buena Park — Place · 1 mention · first at
    I drove to Portillos in Buena Park.
  • Chicago — Place · 1 mention · first at
    Oh, I was going to say you're in Chicago.
  • 911 — Event · 1 mention
  • AWS re:Invent — Event · 1 mention
  • Burning Man — Event · 1 mention
  • CES — Event · 1 mention
  • Coachella — Event · 1 mention
  • Moon Landing — Event · 1 mention
  • Oscars — Event · 1 mention
  • SXSW — Event · 1 mention
  • Ted Talks — Event · 1 mention
  • World Cup — Event · 1 mention
  • Y Combinator Demo Day — Event · 1 mention

Media & podcasts

  • Smartless — Media · 2 mentions · first at
  • BBC — Media · 1 mention · first at
    His work's been featured in Time BBC, Scientific American. Basically, every publication that makes me feel dumb. His podcast is one of the most downloaded in the world. It's the cold plunging,.
  • Time — Media · 1 mention · first at
    His work's been featured in Time BBC, Scientific American. Basically, every publication that makes me feel dumb. His podcast is one of the most downloaded in the world. It's the cold plunging,.
  • Scientific American — Media · 1 mention · first at
    His work's been featured in Time BBC, Scientific American. Basically, every publication that makes me feel dumb. His podcast is one of the most downloaded in the world. It's the cold plunging, dopamine optimizing, sun staring science.
  • Joe Rogan Experience — Media · 1 mention
    Well, thanks guys. I want to say and I know I speak for many people. I'm a huge fan of what you guys and I know everyone's always jocking you guys, but here's the deal. what from a very young age in many of your cases and.
  • Home Alone — Media · 1 mention · first at
    That came up cuz you were talking about child actors or something. I think I still frame him in Home Alone. So supplements, to be very clear, I know I often get kind of put into that supplement cold plunge category. Look,.
  • The Godfather Part II — Media · 1 mention · first at
    Or looking and looking at your phone like last night we started watching the Godfather part two. I had to put that subtitle on cuz I couldn't hear. Anyway, yeah. so movie. okay. I'm going to give a general theme.
  • Bill Maher — Media · 1 mention · first at
    But no, no, but these, I went on Bill Maher and talked about this and I take a lot of heat for this because I'm sort of at the interface between the standard academic medical community and the kind of wellness I.

Full transcript with timestamps

Hey. Hey, Sean. I do want to I want to get into this. I know we got to do a cold open for the show, but I got I'm flying to New York today, so I got to Why you going? Why you coming here? Why you coming?

I got to go take care of some stuff. And I I just don't I mean, I'm not trying to be vague about it, but I No, I just got to do some stuff. I I got I got to go to New York. I got to go I got I GOT TO COME EVICT YOU FROM YOUR APARTMENT.

OKAY. Are you happy? Welcome to Smartless. Smartless. Smart. Smart. Less. Jason, you're still coughing.

I'm still coughing. I'm still clearing. Uh, you guys both got it, right? Yeah, I'm doing a little better. But you're still you've got it in the in the in the lungs in the

I know I don't Everybody's working for the weekend. See, I have enough energy to do that.

I knew I could get Sean. I knew I could live. Everybody's working for the weekend.

Hey, uh band right now. JB, who sang that? Um, you want a piece of my heart? Yeah. Uh, you had a headband.

Tiger bomb. Um, [ __ ] close. White tiger. Tiger bomb. Sort of. Tiger. Tiger's milk.

No. Tiger's milk. No. Wasn't it lover boy? Yes. Lover boy. That's what I said. That's weird.

By the way, boy, I honestly and I don't want to get too philosophical because it's the new year and stuff like that, but

it is there is something to it. Everybody is working for the week. God, you know,

I'll tell you what, we just went through uh the holidays here, listener. Um, and every day seemed like a Saturday, and I I I was really excited about that. I loved it,

but I feel like my brain got real flabby. Like I like I don't Now I'm like afraid to go outside. I feel like I'll have culture shock if I like run into somebody that's like a serious person. some somebody last night I was talking to JB. You and I were texting a little bit during the the the last weekend of football. We're we're dating this uh when we're recording this, but we're talking about football and stuff and I was talking to our old buddy Eli. Is that right?

Oh, I do miss Eli. Eli, sweet Eli. And um he was saying the holidays are over. Like tonight's the last night. Like it was the last football game of the regular season. Like it was the last weekend after the thing

and the year starts. And honestly, I got to say I'm I'm really happy about that. I had we were sick. We were all sick over the holiday uh from starting Christmas Day.

Yeah. Had the thing JB that you that you've had Sean which you've now I think Jason gave it to me. Yeah.

Yeah. That big Thanksgiving try try kiss that we we labeled it right just as we were leaning in. We said let's call this a try kiss and then you guys got it.

A turd ducket. It was a turducket kiss. Uh so I'm just I'm like at this point after we spent which was nice again we felt very fortunate we got to be at home with the family with with all my kids and we had sort of 10 days kind of sequestered

on the east coast but I'm I'm looking forward to emerging from this yeah a little bit from this I

yeah I know here we are we're starting right back we're we're at work now 9:30 Monday morning I we're a little out of practice right I'm really nervous about today's episode you guys.

I knowbody has done and we haven't covered the weather or the traffic yet. I think there's a sig alert on the 210.

How do you stretch out for a podcast? I know. Jason, you're going to arrive in about 10 more minutes. I can tell

Jason's got his Jason's got his his he's wearing a hoodie and he's got the hoodie up and he's got this his headphones on the outside.

Yeah. Still trying to stay cozy like I'm making fires still. But tell me what do you mean Jay when you said that? Because I think the same thing when I I was thinking about you about like you you were like I love being cozy and watching movies and not going anywhere. I'm kind of the same way and then I know what you mean like oh shoot this has to end and like the world starts again.

Sean you're really on the fence between the Well, I got a couple things. A is there's that cuz you say you like to cozy and do nothing but the truth is you also like to just rifle things off a checklist. You never stop 3 in the morning. I don't want to think about it

because if I don't I know we talked about this a million times. If I don't check it off or respond or something then it lingers in my head. I'm like I got to do that and I just don't want to think about it.

I know. So there's How's your What's your What's your email inbox look like? Is it clean or is it

always zero? If it's not zero I panic. Yeah. Me too. Empty. Except for the only things that are in there means

all the emails are in there but there just no new messages. Yeah. I need if it's still in my inbox I need to respond to it.

That's right. That's how I feel. But you don't delete all the emails you got. No, but I I I they're they've they've been read.

But that's when I'm I'm amazed when I see people somebody I'm amazed when somebody I see somebody's phone and the messages of the emails are like 2,300.

That's a sign of that's a sign of I don't know how to sync my accounts yet. No, no, no. No, no. You need to go and get an assessment if that's happening. And you need to a deep a deep not an assistant. that that that sort of betrays a deeper like you need a lot of assistance at this point and we're going to send somebody over to the house. The other thing is uh JB I want to know.

Yeah. Over the holiday, how much wood did you go through? Wood Chuck Chuck. Um and Sean, that that question is going to go for you, but it's going to be on a different subject. Go ahead,

JB. How much wood did you get through? Uh consistent with Sean's answer, uh I think I went through two loads. WOW. VERY NICE WAY TO land that.

See, what did I say? I said you'd show up in about 10 minutes, Ed. It only took like four.

He's back. He is back, you guys. 2026. Look out. All right. Well, speaking of of brain mushiness, this is perfect.

Yeah. My guest today is a fellow podcaster, but that's about where the overlap ends. Uh he's got a Even you can't even make your own writing sound natural.

Terrible. You wrote it and and make it sound like it's red. It's insane. Oh, I'll read the whole thing right in front of you.

He's got a PhD in neuroscience. He's a tenure professor at Stanford School of Medicine in neurobiology and opthalmology and by courtesy psychiatry and behavioral sciences.

His work's been featured in Time BBC, Scientific American. Basically, every publication that makes me feel dumb. His podcast is one of the most downloaded in the world. It's the cold plunging, dopamine optimizing, sun staring science genius Andrew.

Great. Finally. Good morning and happy new year. Good morning. Happy New Year. How are you

doing? Great. How's your How's your brain fog uh today? Are you are you flabby from from the from the holiday?

Yeah, I spent this holiday like I've spent so many holidays uh working. In the past, it used to be grants and now it was doing book edits. But I'm very familiar with this uh what you called flabby brain

thing that happens after about four days away from I don't know if it's the grind or the work, but it it's a normal thing and it you snap right back.

Yeah, being sick doesn't help. I I I took some notes here as uh I was sitting there in the backdrop. Um, this thing that's been going around is rough, but a couple of I I'll just say there are a couple of things that are supported by the peer-reviewed literature that can really help accelerate moving through something like what you all. I had it too a couple of months ago.

Three things. It turns out that the old practice of hot baths is actually quite good. You don't want to make it scalding obviously, but you get into a just tolerably hot bath.

I'm writing this down. And um it turns out it it mobilizes some features of the immune system in ways that um can help you get over your sickness.

Like just cuz you sweat it out. Is that what I mean? Well, no dummy. Just let him finish.

You're activating some of the um mobilization of some of the cells that go and scavenge for for whatever it is that you're you're dealing with. This is particularly useful at the beginning.

Your immune system has two different phases. There's there's a kind of an innate phase where it's like any foreign invader gets kind of the same inflammation response. That's good. That's the kind of like, oh, you know, I'm feeling a little like under I'm a little extra tired. Yeah. That's the time ideally in the hour or two before bed, you take a a nice hot bath or hot shower and then just get into bed.

And you know, if you do that for a couple days in a row, you may be able to fend it off. If not, once you have it, keeping that practice up, provided you don't have a really high fever, is

is really useful. That and you know, I know I know I'm always talking about the morning sunlight thing.

Please say smoking cigarettes. set your circadian row. No, but no, but we can talk about nicotine if you want. Um, a lot to say about nicotine, but getting some what we call long wavelength light. So, some sunlight or I'm not here to to say red light therapy, but getting some sunlight. This is

very well supported by the literature because again, it it's helpful for your mitochondrial function, for your immune system. In in Arctic countries, not so much Arctic, but in Scandinavia, in Russia, they actually put babies bundled up out in the cold in the morning. Sure. To mobilize these.

Yeah. We throw them outside. Yeah. Here, we don't do that. Here, that'll get you child protection services.

No, but up in up in Canada, we're we'll toss her out. We'll toss her outside for sure.

And there are a couple other things we can talk about, but in any case, wait a second. Now, listen, Andrew and Nice to meet you first of all.

Yeah. So, tonight you're here. Can I have you on for so long? Okay, shut up. Can I call you Huberman?

You can call me whatever you want. Okay, cuz I refer to you as Huberman as if I know you all the time because I've seen clips of yours online for for years and stuff and so and I like I like a lot of the stuff you talk about.

Um, first of all, you lost Jason when you said bath because he just think he's thinking about his own juices. He hates marinating in juices.

I don't understand the concept of it. A lot of men don't like baths. I saw a lot of men like baths. A lot of men don't.

It's just the math is wrong. Sauna would be fine. Sauna would be fine. Okay. So, sauna. So, interestingly, interestingly enough, and by the way, not that interesting. Um, when I was starting to get this flu, I looked it up. I consulted uh I I did my own research as they say, meaning I have Google. A lot of people like to talk about research, and what they mean is that they use the internet, right?

Um, like a bunch of [ __ ] dummies. And it it told me because I I've been a I've been a proponent of of sauna and cold always

for for more than 10 years. I I early early days and they said to me uh the internet they said don't expose myself if I have the flu that they were worried about because they said that your body's already working hard enough historically

they were saying they were saying don't do the cold plunge or don't do the hot don't do either because they were saying because I'd have to fight hard enough so so this was the first time that when when I was sick that I did not

use the heat and or the cold to try to combat it and it it end up end up being harsher and I now that I'm hearing you I'm like I wish I had cuz historically I've always just gone in and I sauna early days when I start to feel that thing in my throat or whatever and and usually I'm able to save it off. So you're saying

yeah, you know that the cold deliberate cold exposure, right? Cold showers, cold plunges, this kind of thing, it is a stressor um counter to what you hear out there. It does not raise cortisol, but it is a stressor. your adrenaline spikes when you get in the the cold, which is part of the reason you do it. And then when you get out, you get that long tail of dopamine and epinephr adrenaline that makes you feel much better and more alert, etc. That's fine under healthy conditions. I would say if you're battling something or you feel like you're coming down with something, use heat, um, sauna, hot shower, hot bath, whatever it is that works for you. But

how about that? I would drop the cold as you're getting in into something that because it's a very potent stressor.

Yeah. The thing about heat is if it's too hot, it can also be a stressor. I mean, when you're healthy, using the sauna as a way to get your heart rate up and kind of push it in there a little bit is good. By the way, um useful tip, um if you put a towel over your head or, you know, you'll notice that Russian banyas, they wear those uh little

I have a I have a sauna hat. Yeah. It insulates your brain from the heat so you can stay in longer. The impulse to get out is a brain thing, not unless it's very very hot, a burn thing. Um, and then of course if men men want to conceive children in the next 90 days because of the 90 days spermatogenesis cycle, if you're going into the sauna, you need to put a cold pack at your groin outside your shorts, guys. Um, if you don't want children, also don't use this as um as as a surefire way to avoid having children. It's a, you know, many accidents.

You got to stick your nuts in ice, eh? Like you're Wait, you're saying that the sauna will will will cut your sperm count?

Absolutely. heat, heat and sperm not a good um combo which is why uh we're getting to um anatomy here which is why the scrotum can can extend and contract closer to the body. It's to maintain the optimal temperature for spermatogenesis. How about that?

Um yeah. And so um if you go in a sauna or a hot bath quite a bit in the 90 days prior to trying to conceive, you're going to limit the number of of highly mobile sperm. That said, I'm sure many children have been conceived in saunas and hot baths and in hot conditions, but this is on average, right?

No comment. No comment. God, I would have had tons of kids by now. Um, now let's let's get back to what you were saying uh doctor about, uh, please expand on nicotine as one of our co-hosts here choose his nicarette gum. Is that

gum? It's not what what are you looking for? I'm I do a Zin combo. Okay. I have a lot to say about this. Before I do that, just very quickly,

there's there first of all, I want to put a full disclaimer. I have no financial relationship to what I'm about to describe in any way. There's a beautiful study published and it's on PubMed. I can send you guys the link if you want. And I learned about this from an ER doc out here in Los Angeles who needed to keep himself healthy during the winter season. An acetylcysteine, also called Knack, is a glutathione precursor. There's a beautiful study showing that when they people signed up for a study where they would where they were deliberately exposed to people who had flu. Okay. And they they either got knack two or three times a day at about 600 to 900 milligrams per day or not.

But can but sorry just just describe what knack is because you said that long word. I don't know what that is.

An acetylcysteine. It's a precursor to something called glutathione which is used in a bunch of different cellular processes. Normally I think you don't need this right. You don't need elevate glutathione. I know it's all the rage now to get glutathione drips and that sort of thing. I I have a I have a more conventional opinion about all that. Um but if you feel like you're coming down with something or you're going to be exposed to things or Jason, you mentioned that you're heading off to New York, you've got work to do, you need to recover more quickly, the data on avoiding getting sick by taking 600 to 900 milligrams of an acetylcysteine two or three times a day when you're sick getting sick or trying to avoid getting sick is quite robust. In fact, there's a huge difference in the number of people all exposed to the same virus that flu virus in this case that um did not contract the virus. Some still did. It's

in the high 20s, but um had they not taken it, the the control group was somewhere close to 80%. It's pretty impressive. And um and obviously check with your doctor this kind of thing, but that's the one thing, you know, we hear about zinc, echgonatia, all this stuff. It's the one thing that the peer-reviewed research actually shows can help stave off uh fluid. Is there any downsides for taking it uh constantly?

Some people will take a little bit each day. It is a little bit of what's called a mucalytic. So, it will make your nose run just a little bit more. It's actually used to treat cystic fibrosis at very high doses, which is a buildup of fluid in the lungs. So, it's a well-known mucalytic. So, it's going to help you drain out more as well. But, no, there's really no downside.

He wants to drain out. He all heard was drain out. And he's so excited. If I'm losing water weight, I'm happy. I have a feeling that's related to a previous discussion.

Wait a second. Wait a second. I We're not going to An hour is not going to be enough time with you and Sean. I We have so many You open so many boxes.

A dream for I want to know if our friend is I want to know if our friend Yeah. If our friend is safe. Uh

because there's been so much and I want to set it up by saying there's been so much about nicotine is good for you. People are now saying it's great but all all this sort of stuff. And so I want to hear once and for all what your take is on nicotine and the various delivery systems.

Great. Uh nicotine is a very interesting stimulant. It is a stimulant. Sure. But it's a perhaps the only stimulant that also relaxes you at the same time.

Thank you Andrew for coming on the podcast. So okay. So so that that you that's a very unique property, right? It gives you that alert but focused kind of puts you in the groove that is so alluring to humans. So much so, and I'm going to avoid going into a history about nicotine, but let's just say for hundreds of years, but in particular in the last hundred years, humans have figured out ways to get nicotine into their brain. And we know that smoking, vaping, dipping, and snuffing all cause cancer. And I did put vaping in there. Vaping is perhaps safer than smoking, but still causes lung damage, the contaminants, etc. Vaping is bad. I mean, the science the the science isn't back yet on on what the burning of the metal and all that kind of stuff. And and I will say anecdotally when I tried to use one of the vaping products, I'm not going to say which one. I it increased my blood pressure. It increased my anxiety uh

tenfold and I went back off it. Yeah, I'll take a hard stance. Obviously, smoking we we now know. Um yeah, no one dips or snuffs really or people dip but they don't.

My grandfather used to snuff. He used to put a little bit on his Yeah, mine too. is literally putting tobacco up the nostrils. I can't even imagine. Okay.

Well, okay. So, here's the deal. Um, we went from smoking, dipping, vaping, and snuffing. Then we moved to what they used to call electronic cigarettes, vaping, and then now oral nicotine is the main mode of delivery. Nicotine itself is not carcinogenic. This is very important. Doesn't cause cancer, right? It's a stimulant that relaxes you, as I mentioned. It does raise blood pressure and it increases vasoc constriction. Vasoc constriction is just a clamping off of the little capillaries and vessels in particular in the periphery you know in the fingers in other extremities and in the brain and you know strokes and other things like that are cutting off of blood supply to small regions of the brain. So if your blood pressure is already high not a good idea. If your blood pressure is naturally low and you're doing other things, for instance, sauna, um to vasoddilate

a once a day or several maybe a few times a week at minimum or a hot bath if you're traveling or a hot shower, taking some effort especially before bed to make sure that your capillaries are dilated, not taking nicotine too late in the day.

There is a space where I can say I can now safely say what I'm about to say, which is there is evidence, well, let me do this backwards. People with Parkinson's and Alzheimer's if they take nicotine don't seem to get better. However, there is decent evidence in animals and humans that nicotine not delivered by vaping, dipping, smoking, or snuffing, right?

Can be protective against Parkinson's and Alzheimer's because because it offset seems to protect neurons against degeneration which is the hallmark feature of of Parkinson's and Alzheimer's. That said, I'm going to, you know, I

I'm going to feel very comfortable saying what I just said on the but some people are going to say, "Wait a second. I don't want people starting to take nicotine to avoid getting Parkinson's and Alzheimer's."

The blood pressure effect, the mild anxiety effect for certain people is significant. And here's the biggie, and then I'll just kind of peel back and and hear what you guys have to say about this. The biggie is that it is highly nicotine delivered in any form is highly highly habit forming. What

do we call it? Addicting. Addicting is, you know, continued use despite harm to self or others. I call addiction a progressive narrowing of the things that bring you pleasure. By those two definitions,

it's hard to call nicotine addicting. And yet, I know many people that start with one pack of Zin a day, one gum, one four milligram gum. Pretty soon it's two, pretty soon it's four. Pretty soon it's a canister every 3, four days. So if it's not addicting, it's highly habit forming. So that's, you know, th those are the I'll occasionally take a piece of nicarette.

Yeah. Yeah. Sure. But I don't do it very often. I won't do it more than once every couple of weeks because I love the potent effect. The problem is

just to get through the day or something. You mean? No. For if I'm doing a particularly long session of writing or a particularly long podcast. But here's the thing. If

if you take a stimulant of any kind, caffeine, nicotine, any stimulant of any kind regularly, pretty soon you need it just to get to baseline. I mean, most of us drink 90% of the of the adult population of the world drinks caffeine every single day

just to feel at their normal levels of alertness. And the reason there's so few studies on caffeine that are really solid is because no one wants to go through the you'd have to do go into caffeine withdrawal for two weeks to be

That's why I don't drink that's why I don't drink caffeine. You seem to have a lot of energy. I don't think you need caffeine. Whereas I need caffeine.

Like you seem very alert like you're w like you have an alertness to you. Well, and

you first of all, I just want to say again, you it's not like you started you were like early on you're like, I'm not going to drink coffee because I don't want to be my baseline to have to be

No, no, not not that. No, that's not why. But I didn't want to drink coffee, you know, in high school and stuff when people were drinking because I I saw what people went through when they're like, "Uh, don't bother me. I haven't in my coffee." like I don't want to be that person that I can't talk to you until I've had caffeine, you know, or I'm I'm I'm angry until I I'm not woken up until I have caffeine. So, I recognized that and I didn't I never wanted to be that person. So, then I never drank coffee. I've had soda, but I don't really drink soda anymore. And so, um yeah, that's it.

I mean, that's the reason I avoided cannabis. I don't have anything, you know, I I think cannabis has for some people it can activate psychosis, high THC. For some people, they seem to be able to take it and not really have too much trouble with it. The people I knew growing up growing up, excuse me, who used a lot of cannabis.

Yeah. When they didn't have access to their cannabis, they were pretty difficult to be with in to be with, they had this kind of they were irritable.

Yeah. And we will be right back. And now back to the show. I've always said that that that there's nobody grumpier than a stoner who's who's not stoned. They're always the grumpiest people and and there's a there's a real you can really draw a pretty firm line there. And there's we're saying JB that people who who like to um peak I think

cannabis. Um and when they're not when they're not using can be prone to being grumpy. Uh thoughts

when Oh, wait. So take it easy, man. I wanted He just went to go grab some nicotine and some cannabis.

You're saying when people who use cannabis, they get grumpy when they're not using it.

Yeah. When they don't have access to it, like cuz I was saying, Jay, I was saying I don't drink caffeine cuz I don't want to be like a grumpy person till I reach my base. You know, I I might be a tough person to uh to to gauge on that because I think my uh my my set sort of default idol is I wouldn't say grumpy, but is uh is,

you know, I'm the guy I'm the guy that sits at the back of the room and and doesn't do a lot of talking, but I'll throw a bomb every once in a while.

That's right. And then leaves, you know. But but does that make me I don't know. I got to work on my personal you don't fit the bill of what I was thinking of. I was thinking about about chronic weed smokers.

Yeah, chronic weed smokers. You know, cannabis is definitely here to stay. It's kind of amazing how much the the legality has changed. I mean, is people sold everywhere. There there are some real issues. I think the big one that's very overlooked is that everyone talks about, oh, the you know, the the uh weed is so much stronger now than it used to be. It's true. THC levels are much higher. But here's the thing. I had a researcher on my show who specializes in cannabis research and he said when people take edibles that's when they tend to go through the like the quot overdose like a lethal overdose but they take to it's very hard to gauge the kind of plane of high when people are take edibles if they don't take them regularly. That's what lands people in in the ER with a psychotic episode.

Yeah, me too. And people who are prone to psychosis definitely need to avoid high THC. A lot of the madness you see out there

when you're eating, it's hard to know how much is too much cuz like sometimes cuz like I might be hungry and the cookies look good.

That's the problem, dude. Big brownies. Yeah. I've I've ODed on THC a couple not ODed, but I've taken too much uh THC a couple times and it was just like I was lying on the bed one time. I I took so much and I was like rocking and I'm like, "Scotty, Scotty." He's like, "It's okay. It's going to be okay." And I go, "God, it's been like 3 or 4 hours." He goes, "It's literally been 2 minutes. I was like freaking out. I I slept with my eyes open the whole night. It was awful.

It's not sleep, by the way. No, it's not sleep. Yeah. Well, people who who take cannabis to sleep of of any kind in any amount, they're getting no REM sleep, no rapid eye movements. Very little. Everyone that comes off cannabis gets a they talk about how incredible their dreams are, how vivid their dreams are. You get a REM rebound. REM is when you uh consolidate memories. REM is when you learn the most information. You consolidate what you learned. REM is essential. Um, just a little tip outside of cannabis for anyone that wants to increase the amount of REM sleep they get, there's a wonderful trick which is you'll have to adjust the thermostat if you don't have a way to adjust the temperature of your bed. But either way, increase the temperature in your sleeping environment in the last hours of sleep. So every you you want the room cold to fall asleep and stay deeply asleep. But toward morning,

even if uh you have to heat up the room as you get toward morning and your REM sleep will increase fairly if I won't do it. You won't do it. You won't do it. And would you say that your REM sleep is really good?

I mean, it's okay. So, maybe you should do it. No, but I mean like what wakes me up is when it's too hot.

Are you saying, doctor, that that that if a good uh if I'm if I'm dreaming a lot and I'm kind of remembering a bit of my dreams, does that mean I'm getting REM?

Yes. Especially if the dreams are vivid dreams. We we tend to get more REM toward the end of the night and more deep sleep at the beginning of the night. The way to get the the brief description of this is that at the beginning of the night, you go into a deep slow wave sleep that's more about bodily repair. The dreams are kind of unusual. They don't really have a lot of emotional content. The way to maximize the amount of deep sleep in addition to not drinking caffeine too close to bed, etc. All that is to try and get to bed at more or less the regular a regular time plus or minus 45 minutes. We're all human, right? Because you're going to capture that deep sleep and then the wave passes. The way to maximize your REM sleep is to basically make sure you sleep long enough. Okay. So, some people need six, some people need eight hours, whatever it is for you to feel refreshed. Yeah. But that last part of

the night, if you can increase the temperature. Now, Sean, it sounds like you have a high core body temperature, that's great. That reflects a high metabolism. These are all wonderful things. So, you might just need to keep the the room a little bit cooler than most. This is all relative.

Listen, can I just say you're just making me think? last night this dream and this is not a joke. I was just thinking about it just came to me. I had a sick dream last night and I was in the back of a truck. This is totally true with a bunch of dudes and I was we were all wearing we were This is not I'm not making this up. We're all wearing ghillie suits, right? Like like like those um

like onesies, you know, like snipers wear when they go when they're like, you know, trying to camouflage themselves. And the rest of our crew went off and then this one guy goes, "You and me." We we we jumped off and we went in and then we we we we uh um we put up a bunch of branches so nobody knew which way we went. We went off from the our regular crew and then and we went off on this path and we saw this I'm not kidding. I'm just we saw this hill and we saw this shadow of and he's like those are the Russians and they were up on this hill and we were going to go and try to outflank these these uh this like this this sort of like spetnuts group over on the other on this other hill.

I'm just I'm just It was so vivid. End of story. [ __ ] Hang on. Let Let him speak.

Well, there's actually what we say in science, a mechanistic weave here that that's So, get this. One of the things that happens during REM sleep is your acetyloline levels are high. Nicotine, believe it or not, is called nicotine because it binds to the nicotinic acetyloline receptors. People who take nicotine, and I'm not suggesting people take go out and start taking nicotine. Um, and I have no financial relationship to any company that makes nicotine. whatsoever

that when you boost your acetyloline levels by taking nicot activation of that system with nicotine it actually will turn into a sniper. Now you'll get well in your case. Yes. But you you will increase the amount of REM that you get a little bit that night when you sleep. But will there's one thing I really have to give you

because because and I actually for all all the men out there and on this podcast, but it it will offset some of the vasoc constriction and blood pressure increase of your nicotine. But I had a guy on my podcast who's a colleague of mine at Stanford, Mike Eisenberg. He's our he's our head of male sexual health and hormone clinic at Stanford. He's an MD PhD. is the the top-notch doctor in urology and this area. Okay? He's a serious scientist and clinician. Every male he his words, every male 40 years or older should be taking low dose meaning 2.5 to 5 milligrams of tadalapil each evening to lower their blood pressure, dilate their capillaries at higher doses. This is known as seialis, right? Used for erectile dysfunction.

However, this drug ted toalapil was initially developed to treat blood pressure and for v uh for excuse me to dilate the small capillaries of the brain and body in order to encourage prostate health and to encourage brain health. And there's a a lot of evidence as to why this is a good thing. It's very inexpensive. It costs pennies now because it's generic for people out there. You do need a prescription. But my colleague Mike Eisenberg uh you know uh he didn't tell me to say this but when we're talking about vasoc constrictors high blood pressure stress stroke you know some of the leading causes of death you know every male in particular because of the prostate um women should talk to their doctors whether or not this is applicable to women but it will help offset some of that blood pressure and vas constriction increase wealth that's amazing you know now listen I every single day I know you

talk about supplements too I wanted to bring this up to you because this is what I take and it has the word nicotine in it I take well I take metformin and then And it's like nicotinomide. Is that missing? And resveratrol.

Okay. So you're taking nicotenomide. I take it every day for like 3 years. Yeah. Which is in the NAD pathway. Okay. So let's break these into metformin is to lower blood sugar.

How much how long does he have to live? Just saying. I mean you you guys look great. I I I can do like an age guess thing, but everyone here looks like they're in their late 30s, early 40s. Looking great. Likewise.

Yeah. Thanks. Yeah. I just turned 50. I feel I feel really good. We're all mid-50s. We're all over 55.

Wow. But can play I don't know what kind of script you got. He can play mid30s, late 30s.

I don't know what kind can even go boyish. Like, you know what I mean? Like he's

by the way, I loved your McCaulay Kulkin episode. I I listened to that. I was like, this guy is so grounded. I can't even imagine being famous from that young of an age, you know? And I mean, and he's like

and he's like, you know, he's hyper. He just seems so so grounded. I'm sure he's gone through the wickets to get there, but I was very impressed at at the person he is and he's talking about and how ground he's about everything from Legos to parenting to acting and just it was awesome. It was great. Yeah. Great. Um that came up cuz you were talking about child actors or something. I think I still frame him in Home Alone. So supplements, to be very clear, I know I often get kind of

put into that supplement cold plunge category. Look, get great sleep, sunlight. I'm all about sleep, sunlight. If you drink alcohol, limit it. Offset it with good behaviors. Cardio resistance training. I mean, I've been doing that stuff since I was in my teens. And I've been I'm really committed to the behaviors come first. There is a place for some people for supplements. Metformin is lowers blood glucose, blood sugar. Um,

so I have more cheesecake. Yeah. I mean, it seems to work for some people, especially tend to run high blood uh blood sugar levels. Very high. Um, some people will know the kind of a poor man's version of this is a actually a tree bark extract called bourberine which is which accomplishes the same thing. I'm writing it down. I mentioned that because um but then you would want to stop taking metformin. You'd obviously want to talk to your doctor. The other thing you're taking nicotenomide um nicotenomide rabbiticide is is in the NAD pathway. Okay. NAD got a lot of attention a few years back as a potential longevity uh thing. We all make NAD and levels of it drop off with age.

There's no direct evidence yet in humans that increasing NAD either by taking what's called NR, which is what you're taking, or NMN can extend lifespan. However, it does seem to increase energy and NR in particular, what you're taking, seems to there's some good human studies that it can reduce inflammation in the body. Oh, nice.

And I'll say also again, no financial relationship to any NAD, NR, etc. Likewise,

I take I take sublingual NMN in the morning to increase energy and I do take NN you could either take NR or NMN. Here's the interesting thing about increasing NAD.

I notice this is just anecdotally, but so do other family members, etc. When I take NMN or NR, my hair grows very, very fast. My nails grow very thick.

Yeah, me too. Um, it definitely is doing something for growth of those cells for me. for me. There's there's been no clinical trials on this. Um, I would just continue with what you're doing. If you feel good and you have a good doctor that you're working with,

um, and how do you feel? Do you wake up feeling pretty good? Finally. Thank you for asking. I feel great. I feel terrific. No, I feel I'm I could we need to do like a side com, you know, Zoom or whatever.

Sean, can we get into Can I It will cost you. Can we get into a little bit because we we touched on it and you do feel good and you and you're there's very good observations. Sean does have tend to have a lot of energy and it really is but and I give you a lot of [ __ ] about it because I do love you and and it and it's funny but it's also I I do worry about your sleep

and Sean also sugar well sugar and and there might be a correlation and and I'm sure there is but Sean and and correct me if I'm wrong. You'll go to sleep at a relatively decent hour and you'll often wake up and this has been for years in the middle of the night. That's right.

And then you're up and you send emails and you text and you do stuff, you make phone calls and you're up and then that might be 3:00 4 in the morning. Correct. And you'll be up till like 7.

Correct. And then you'll go back to sleep for like 2 hours. And this is an hour. Two hours. Yeah. Hour. And I'll sleep really hard.

And you'll sleep you'll sleep what you think is really hard because you're exhausted. But but there's and this isn't just sort of once a week. This is that is the the rule more than the exception that you correct that that is how you get your rest.

Yeah. Is that bad? Because I read one like you know I read a long time ago a doctor said you know we should all sleep like babies. Like if you're tired lay down if you're not get up

I many nights do exactly the same thing. Sean um and uh I would Okay. Yeah. We can work side by side. Um,

you know, a couple of things. I mean, some people, there's a theory that some people have this sleep architecture just naturally. That theory has been kicked around back and forth. It Here's the thing

cuz I sleep I sleep worse if I fight it. Don't fight it. One of the worst things you can do, this is very important for everybody listening. One of the worst things you can do is stay in bed trying to sleep for more than half an hour. Your brain is a prediction and um sort of parrot association machine which is nerd speak for you will start to associate your bed with a battle with sleep.

You do not want that. Get up and get out of bed. If you if it takes you more than 30 minutes to try and get back to sleep, get up and get out of bed. Go do something.

It is a good idea, however, to have a more or less normal to bedtime that's right for you.

Like sleep hygiene. Yeah. Well, and we know that some people do great going to bed late and some people go to bed earlier. Often times, people who wake up at 3:00 or 4 in the morning or 2:00 or 3:00 or 4 in the morning and can't get back to sleep, but are still tired and the need to go back to sleep, I'm raising my hand here. Um, as one of these people, sometimes getting to bed a little bit earlier than you happen to be getting to sleep can help. meaning getting into bed around 9, 9:30, falling asleep at 10, and then it just may be that you're not getting enough of that early deep sleep that you your body craves because it's very easy to push through tiredness.

It's hard. We can't make ourselves sleep. But I have some great tools to help you fall back asleep if you want them.

But my first question is, what time do you go to sleep? About 11:00. Between 11 and 12. I'm always almost at like sleeping by 12:15.

Okay. So, you're falling asleep quickly. So we could go through a lot of diagnostic aspects

and and you're watching and you're watching television generally up to that point.

No, right up to Yeah. or looking and looking at your phone like last night we started watching the Godfather part two. I had to put that subtitle on cuz I couldn't hear. Anyway,

yeah. Um so movie. Um okay. I'm going to give a general theme for everybody because some people are early risers and late night owls. Well, but before you before you get in cuz because this might be a part of it and and and and maybe you can answer this too cuz I actually said it to my 17-year-old last night. I again I had heard read whatever cuz we're all experts these days uh that going to bed earlier getting those early th those first hours before midnight and the importance of those hours versus uh post midnight etc. Can you factor that into it too?

Yeah, and it changes across the lifespan. So teens often need more sleep. Um for social reasons, they're going to push later sometimes and we just have to live with that. And like no no no healthy kid wants to go to bed at 9:00, you know? It's just, you know, so

I think it's important to eventually by the time you hit your 30s to figure out kind of what when would you go to sleep if the rest of the world didn't exist? When would you wake up and what's your natural rhythm? And it may be that this is just your natural rhythm, Sean. It could be. Um, it is true that you can create lighting environments that are best for sleep and wakefulness. And it's very simple. I'll just make this very, very simple. You want very bright mornings and you want dim dark nights. In fact, there's a beautiful study out of the UK that showed with more than 80,000 human subjects that just making your days brighter, working near a window. Obviously, I'm big on getting sunlight in your eyes first thing in the morning, but if you can't do that, bright bright lights inside,

getting outside as much as you can during the morning, especially before 10:00 a.m., whatever you can get, even if you're taking the kids to school, etc. And then dimming the lights in the evening. I'm not saying everyone has to go to a red light environment, look like a biohacker. Dimming the lights, bringing the lights down, dimming your screens. That

in combination that in combination greatly offsets depression, anxiety, symptoms of OCD, even mania. So much so that even if people are in dark environments during the day, if they make their nighttime environment truly dark, they benefit. And there's a whole story about cortisol behind this, but for for time's sake, I won't get into it. But this is a very real thing. And a modern life has completely inverted this. Our days are too dim and our nights are too bright. So just try and adjust things a little bit in each direction.

I don't understand what how people can sleep with like blacked out curtains like comp. I if I wake up and it's you know and it's bright outside

trapped underground. Yeah. Exactly. Or like in a drug you know you know day drug excursion but like so I have to sleep with Right. That's good to sleep with the curtains open so light comes in in the morning. Right.

It's great. I I think everyone should invest because it's very inexpensive in a very in a comfortable eye mask. you know, one of these soft eye masks that that velcro in the back so you can adjust it, you know, not one that's just like

your eyes and that lets your eyes Yeah. lets them breathe a bit. And then, you know, you may try this for me. Uh, one night, Sean, get get a hold of some earplugs that are those um they're like wax. It's like a firm wax that you put on the outside of your ears. You don't jam those.

You may be waking up because there's noises in your environment that you're not aware of. And just see if um no you're noises are coming from. I'm thinking this is you. I'm think I'm think

I'm think Scotty. [ __ ] No, I sleep with a fan on cuz it's so to block out all noise.

And I I think you're doing great. You my biggest fan. And if you can afford to get back to sleep a little bit, that that sleep that you said you sleep really hard late in the morning.

Yeah. That that's REM. You're dropping back. John, have you thought about propall?

By the way, I get it. Steady drip. I get it. Uh, hey. Hey, doc. What got you into medicine? Why why you have a parent that that was in it or or did you have a fascination with uh health when you were a kid or both?

Okay. Well, I'm a researcher, not a clinician. Um, so I I profess a lot of things. I'm not going to uh I want to be clear about that, but um my dad's a theoretical physicist. Um, so I was exposed to a lot of science.

So none of it's been proven. Good. Yes. For what it's worth. I like that. Um, the internet would say we don't know anything. I mean, it's kind of scary what's happening now with kind of like calling all all fact into question. So, here's the deal. My my dad is an academic. He he came here from Argentina, first generation immigrant, and to study physics. And I grew up in the South Bay area at a time before the personal computer, etc. But I was surrounded by science and technology as a kid and always loved biology, always loved fish. I've got my fish tanks. I've always been fascinated by animal behavior, human behavior. So,

and then in high school, I went to a a quite good public high school. Um, I, you know, I, for reasons related to, you know, teenage rebellion and and home environment, I rebelled against all of that and got really into the skateboard and punk rock scene in the Bay Area and have a lot of friends who went on to start skateboard companies and um, I got we could talk stories about that at some time, but I was actually um, Tony Hawk's dad took me to his house when I was a kid. So, I got to sleep in Tony's room. No, Tony wasn't there. People always ask Tony was there. Um, and um, I I got exposed to a lot of action sports and music culture and really loved that. But it wasn't until college that I circled back to science and biology. I realized I need to get good at something. I wasn't very good at skateboarding. I I wasn't going to be a um, an athlete or a musician or anything like that. I

You look like you you look like you could be an athlete, though. You Well, I've always worked out. I've always done skateboarding, soccer, swimming, running, lifting. I I enjoy sports, but I wasn't very good. I wasn't bad, but I wasn't very good. And so I had the the the good sense fortunately um and some input to go you know what do I really love and what could I get good at and I love learning and I love teaching I love learning I love that's just kind of like who I am I can't help myself and so I got really into psychology and biology

uh at that time they called it biocsychology there was no field of neuroscience and I started working in a laboratory and I got super serious about school so did my undergraduate my masters my PhD did a posttock at Stanford and eventually actually was hired back to Stanford as a as a tenured faculty member. Running a lab and doing experiments with my hands is pure joy for me. I don't do it these days because of the podcast, but I still teach at Stanford. I still have my position there.

And nothing makes me happier than learning information that I think people can make use of and telling them and and not telling them what to do, but just going, "Hey, you might want to check this out or you know, you're not sleeping well or hey, maybe your sleep is just fine." And I feel I feel like there's been very little opportunity

um out there in in formal education to teach scientists and and physicians, clinicians, how to communicate with the general world and it's usually like they have to like market their book or they're talking about their thing. I love actually talking about other people's science. I never I hardly ever talk about the science from my lab, but we've published lots of papers and have fun doing that. We could talk about that. But I just love learning and teaching and so I'm like I said I'm 50 and I'm just like in bliss. The podcast lets me teach very broadly. Stanford's been super supportive. I still teach to students there. And I guess it was faded through my dad. My mom's a writer. My my dad's obviously a scientist, but I just I I feel like the only downside of getting old for me is or is that I'm excited about what science and medicine are going to discover and I just want to learn about it. It's not even so much

that I can use it. I'm not thinking about eternal life or anything. It's like think about how much we've learned in the last 10 years about gene editing, imunotherapies for cancer. Um, I'll make a hard stance here and and I'm not I'm not doing this for any political reasons. Like I mean whether or not you are like pro or anti or skeptical about vaccines during the pandemic. These mRNA technologies are incredible

for cancer. Let's just leave let's just you can edit this out if you need to, but let's leave co aside.

Let's get into chemtrails after this. But no, no, but but these these, you know, I I went on Bill Maher and talked about this and I take a lot of heat for this because I'm sort of at the interface between the standard academic medical community and the kind of wellness I hate the word, but biohacker community and they're really like at loggerheads. But the truth is they're they're pearls of wisdom all over the place. But science and medicine are the bedrock of everything I described. It's, you know, the only reason we even know what glutathione is or that light and temperature impacts sleep cycles. And I mean, it's so important and and I'm I'm like I'm on a mission to teach what I think is the best of science and medicine as I can see it so that people can make it useful to themselves and understand that one of the reasons one of that we are where we are these days

is because of science. And I just love it. Right. We'll be right back. And back to the show.

There's so much noise out there and there's so many people out there now professing like a lot of people learned about that they should sleep with their room at 68 degrees because they heard Tom Brady say that in an interview, right? So like we're all everybody's getting their like these little bits and pieces and they're going I heard that you should I just did it myself. I heard you should get the sleep the before midnight. I heard that you should get this the vaccines. I heard this. And there are so many people out there who are speaking about in this space whether it's wellness or med or whatever they're calling themselves and and and you even I forget the term you use the sort of the what' you say the sort of the coal plunge.

Oh the biohacking the biohacking coal plunge crew. Everybody's a [ __ ] expert. There's all these [ __ ] people and it and there's a little bit of fatigue cuz I part of me is like god it feels like I I want to put everybody in the same basket. They're all antivax, [ __ ] chemtrail, [ __ ] nobody, don't trust the government, don't trust anything. And there's just so much of that out there that it's like, what the [ __ ] do what is what is real anymore,

dude? So, I what I like to do is take a step back and and think, okay, you know, why do people end up in these bins, right? Like, how not how did we get here, but kind of like where where are people showing up to the table? And I think that um I said a lot in favor of science and medicine. I'm now going to say as an insider what I also know which is that the field of science and medicine has done a mediocre job of explaining why the why behind things. They tell people what to do but people like to understand the why. They people are deeply rational at some level until they're not right. And so I think that something I really believe in is that how people come to learn information

strongly impacts whether and how they use that information. One of the reasons I do longer form podcasts where I explain mechanism, okay, is because I do think that if you understand that bright light, cold water, exercise, and caffeine will spike your cortisol in the morning. And guess what? You want your cortisol high early in the day, and dim light, lack of caffeine, cooler temperatures will lower your cortisol in the evening and help you sleep. Once you understand that you want that seessaw tilted high in the morning, high cortisol, you want this. I don't care if you're male, female, pregnant, young, old, whatever, and low cortisol in the evening. Lower your heart rate, do some long exhale breathing, etc. Once you understand there's a mechanism behind it, then when somebody says cold plunge is great, and you say, "Yeah, but early day makes more sense than later day."

Or, "How about um, you know, bright light early in the day, makes sense. You need your cortisol, high cortisol sets a wavefront of energy for the day. You want it low later in the day." Once people start to understand a little bit of mechanism about dopamine, about cortisol, about sleep, then all the stuff coming at them, they can filter it through a rational filter. Wait, does this make sense based on the bulk of what we know? Now, when it comes to things like vaccines and prescription medication, let's take a slightly less um barbedwire version of this, but that's very um timely, which is all this stuff about the GLP1s, right? People are saying, "Oh, you know, so many people are on GLP1." It's very interesting.

the weight loss thing. Oh, like ozampic and whatever. Very, very interesting peptide that we knew about from Hila Monsters, you know, was discovered in Hila Monsters, these reptiles that only need to eat once every year or so. A smart biologist said, "How come they don't get hungry all year long?" Turns out they have very high levels of GLP-1 circulating, isolated the peptide. We now have GLP1s as perhaps the first

really effective treatment for obesity and diabetes. Amazing. And it's also turning out to be very effective that we need more data, but for people who have what they now call al alcohol use disorder, it can really reduce cravings for alcohol and sugar.

So what happened was the medical community came out and I know that's what they call alcoholism now. Um yeah, everything's Yeah, it's a pseudonym. Um that

Hi, my name is Will and I'm an alcohol use disorder. It's interesting. The only people the people who have no trouble with the word alcoholic I I have a lot of friends I go to meetings like they are like alcoholics right former alcohol they go they're part of right but everyone you know anyway um that here here's what's really I I think so vital for us to understand is that you know if you look at the GLP1s they're very effective at lowering body weight they are high cost because there's still not generic versions of them out there the the wellness biohacking community was very disparaging of this like, oh, this is just a shortcut. This is bad for you.

Um, there were some side effects and indeed you have to be careful with these things. I'm not taking them, but I know people that do and they can be taken safely. But the moment that the GLP1s hit the compounding pharmacy market and it was inexpensive, it was suddenly like the the wellness biohacking community was like, "Oh, okay. This is great. This is just like a supplement, no problem." So, people are just too entrenched in the camp they're in. I like to think, will I don't know, you tell me. I like to think that there is a league of reasonable people out there that represents the majority of people that are not so polarized. They're not talking about chemtrails. And now I'm going to get hate from the chemtrail people. Um I I don't believe in chemtrails. I believe

chemtrail. I have no idea what that these are the there are people that think that the the government is using uh chemicals uh from airplanes across the sky to uh to reflect sunlight and

block the sun to reduce the effects of global warming etc. Or or it depends on the day. Oh yeah. Yeah. There were plans to put a mirror in space uh not that long ago to reflect sunlight in

and they and they try to conflate it they try to conflate it with cloud seating which is a totally different which has been done since the 50s mirrors in space is something I've been a proponent of for the way it is true

okay that's the way you look and look back into time effectively he he went we had Neil deGrasse Tyson and Jason had a very robust conversation with about time travel

about time travel using has to do with the speed of light and stuff like that doc you wouldn't down.

No, but my father would. So, no way in theory. So, so in theory, so the the important thing I I

Here's what I'm hoping. We're 2026. Here's what I'm hoping that the there are What are you most excited about 2026?

There are mo because there's so many useful tools that don't involve taking anything, supplement or drug, that are very useful. There are also very useful prescription drugs out there that have helped save lives. And I, you know, and I think I think people are coming to that clarity now. And there are also some over-the-counter supplement things that can help that are not as extreme as either. But I think that we are finally seeing a blending between the silos of these extremes of conspiracy theory versus unless there's a double blind placebo controlled study, there's no way I'm going to do it type people.

And and I think Los Angeles, to be fair, I I've lived it west of Interstate 5 my entire life. Northern Southern California, middle of the state. Los Angeles is the place where this stuff got blended together. Okay. And as a because people here are experimental. Okay. They're experimental. They like to try things and see what works and things get marketed and get put out there.

There are no bad there are no bad suggestions, you know, especially after right. Um, back to Jason's original question. So, your dad was uh I'm kidding. So, uh,

I do want to I was thinking we talk about my dad. He's still active as an 82year-old scientist and he's physically well and yeah, he's still super strong.

He doesn't look like he doesn't look like that dude who's trying to biohack his age, right? The

Oh, not at all. No, no. He's quite veral and robust. Would you agree that our generation like us us four ding-dongs have a good shot of living to be 100? That this generation uh Yeah.

Easy. Really? 100? Yes. So, I think 120 is probably the genetic limit, natural genetic limit on age. I think um

at this point at this point I look I I posted something um yesterday uh that I just found online of a confirmed 90 yearear-old guy not on any hormone augmentation I just saw that

20 20 push-ups and real push-ups. And the best part is in front of his kids and grandkids. He's got his family there. Takes his glasses off, gets down on the floor and he does 10 full like chest to the floor full rep full range push-up. stops midway, teases his son about doing partial reps, and then goes back and does the remaining 10, and then stands up and basically guy's 90 years old. It's so clear that

because to answer your question, Jason, by drinking a little bit less, focusing on sleep a little bit more, working on limiting our stress a bit or a lot more,

doing things that really bring us meaning, this is huge. We know this from all the Blue Zone stuff, but from everything else. Social connection, like really trying to put the phone away and drop in with people and really, it's such a critical

Sean, it's wonderful. It's also biological, right? Is biocsychological how it benefits us. Plus,

you know, nutrition's gotten better. I think that it's harder. The problem is it's expensive to access good food, right? But nutrition's gotten better than it was in the '90s. We're no longer messing around with trans fats. Not everyone's smoking. Um, if you're using nicotini, hopefully you're using it on, you know, I know a lot of nerds. I'll tell you, I know a Nobel Prize winning neuroscientist. Everyone in my community knows who he is. And the first time I met him about 15 years ago, he chewed no fewer than five pieces of nicarette during our meeting. And I said, "Why do you do it?" He said, "It's protective against Parkinson's and Alzheimer's."

And he said, "But you don't want to smoke because it'll give you cancer." That So that that's an anecdote, but you know so

I I want to take a photo that you and me, we're going to go out. We're going to go to We're going to get a cheese. We're going to go get a Big Mac and smoke a sig. And we're going to post it online just to [ __ ] with people's brains. All right. Just to cause a Let's just do it. Fair enough. Out.

You know what I mean? Just [ __ ] it. Just Just to mess with so I'll eat a cheeseburger.

I eat meat, cheese, fish, eggs. I mean, I eat fruits and vegetables. You know, I eat like a human. I eat like an adult. The thing to do is eat like an adult.

Don't slurp your food. Don't drink your food. Sean, what'd you have for breakfast today? Be honest. Go.

I haven't had anything except What's coming up? What's coming up? I'll probably have a cinnamon roll.

Uh there's a cinnamon roll in there. There's also a chocolate chip cookie. And also there's

Oh my. Um Yeah, but I'll probably have You take the M for Foreman. What did you have yesterday? What' you have yesterday morning when I called you and you were on the way? You were in the car with Sean.

I did really good. I had carrots and cucumbers dipped in ranch. No, yesterday when you drove

Oh, I went to Portillos. Yeah. Yeah. I drove to Portillos in Buena Park. There's one in Buena Park.

Oh, I was going to say you're in Chicago. So sugar is your thing, huh? going. Yeah, it's too bad. Anyway, listen, Andrew, we only have a couple minutes left because we're taking way too long. Um, and I just want to know just your as fast as you can cuz I don't want to keep you as is my my mom died of Alzheimer's and I I I I like talking about it just to learn more about like what causes it and how to prevent it. And I took the is it APO1, APO4 gene or whatever you I don't have the gene. And it doesn't mean I can't get it, but I I'm less likely to get it because I'm not right predetermined through um genes. But what you know I anytime um a report comes out that we're 3 to 5 years away from a cure or we're 3 to 5 years away from something positive about conquering this horrible horrible disease. I don't know if you've been around it, but it's just awful to see somebody go through it.

Is that the pharmaceutical companies like making sure we don't come up with a cure? Like what are the realistic, you know, feelings about

Yeah. the future of of of of cure for it. Yeah. Well, first of all, I'm I'm really sorry. It's it's devastating. I don't think people can understand until they see someone who's alive but deteriorating and it um it's awful. Um

the pharmaceutical companies are absolutely working very very hard to try and solve this problem as are many labs. I'll just put in a plug. funded by US taxpayers. I might, you know, I have to say my lab was funded by NIH for many years. This is the this is the this is the thrust of discovery not just in the United States but all over the world. Like this h I'm working hard behind the scenes to try and make sure that funding is maintained.

Those discoveries get turned over to companies which pharma companies which test drugs on animals and then humans. So it is happening. Yes, they're not trying to keep us sick. Those theories need to go. Um, also think about the fin if it was just pur purely financial incentive. The person that comes up with a treatment for Alzheimer is there a cure like I like

right what can we do? Obviously blood sugar management seems to be one important piece. It used to be people were starting to talk about quote unquote type three diabetes not a thing.

Some people do seem to benefit from a ketogenic diet for offsetting some age- related dementia but not everybody. But it has to be truly ketogenic and it's hard to stay on a ketogenic diet. Okay, some people rare, not everybody, but managing your blood sugar. It does seem that the effects of exercise and quality sleep and avoiding environmental toxins, and I can talk about that in a moment, are significant toward offsetting age related dementia. People with these gene repeats are at higher risk. Um, great great to hear that you don't have these repeats, but everyone should be trying to op I hate the word optimize, trying to optimize on a daily basis, I should say, in real life context. Get the best sleep they can. It's so clear that resistance training, doing some form for women and men, this is like a whole new world now, right? He used to tell women they need resistance training. They'd be

like, I don't want to be too big. This kind of thing, resistance training for strength in particular. So if you can get strong without getting bigger by training with very you know safely with you know these are the things

low weights tons of reps. Yeah. Um or okay I would go the other direction but um but in any case the to maintain strength it's not sufficient to just walk and garden and do yoga. I'm sorry I know there's some yogis it's not sufficient and

yeah you need weight. You need weight and so maintaining maintaining healthy blood sugar

which goes back to do you lift bro? I mean, honestly, that's just Well, now it's Q lift girl because I'll tell you, I have I I have a female training partner and she's a beast, but she's not big. She's just super strong. She there women and you know, I have a mom in her 80s. I'm trying to tell her like, "Listen, you need to lift heavy for you objects. You need to do this." people when they stop moving, I know it sounds like the usual advice, but when they stop moving, sedentary feedback to the well, there's feedback to the to the brain that that may help kickstart some of that neuro degeneration. It's that said, there are some genetic predispositions. Yeah.

Um that nowadays we're all much better off because we all know that don't do the environmental toxin thing is interesting. There was data that living next to a golf course might put people more at risk for Parkinson's. These are correlative things we are now discovering. Okay, this goes in the opposite direction will where people were you know all this like Roundup stuff and you know cancer causing agent that turns out that was a real thing. I mean you know so

we have a friend who's limiting exposure to environmental toxins to the extent that you can is going to be good but you don't need to be hyper paranoid about um these things. So um

I believe there will be a solution. I just think like your t your time is your time. Like you're you eat right, exercise. Yeah. Eat right, exercise, do good things.

Save an hour and stay and stay and stay socially engaged. You know the my big push for 2026. I know we're out of time, but and and forgive me. I I like to fire hose this people useful things. I know they come here to hear you guys, not the guests.

Are you kidding? This is fascinating. Well, is we like any technology humans build, it takes about 10, 15 years before we go, "Oh my goodness, we really screwed up." And we're now realizing that with Here's the thing, people will listen to things for a long time. But they like to view things now in rapid succession. And when you put your phone away, it's going to feel a little boring for a bit.

Mhm. Good. Your brain, it's like a pallet cleanser between life events. putting your phone away, it'll feel like you'll feel restless, you'll feel bored. Engaging with people socially or even with your thoughts, getting back to that a bit. I have a lock box for my phone that that it's a it's a it's locked in there for portions of the day and it's rough, right? You're like online, all these movies, all this stimulation is very exciting. Listening to podcast is great. Audio long form stuff is great, but this is my push. People put your phone away for a short while and drop in with people. And yes, it's going to feel boring for a bit, but then that's where from the healthpromoting and kind of lifeenriching stuff. Yeah. That's where the good stuff is.

I I completely agree. And again, I see it, you know, because we we you know, Jason and I both have teenagers. We see with the kids on the phones, etc. And I see it with my own kids. It's my my I've mentioned this many times. My big regret was giving my kids phones too early. But then I see it in myself. And if you guys if if you can and this again, this is just an observation. I started noticing in public places where I I' I'd just sort of try to clock people on their phone, not just randomly, but especially people going in like let's say going into an elevator or going to a restaurant, they order a coffee. I was in New York last week and I watched people when they had they make an order and then they have a minute where they got to wait and everybody just out of habit pulled out of their phone and sometimes they do it out of insecurity because they don't want to look like they got nothing to do. So they want to

look like they're doing something otherwise they feel exposed and they feel too vulnerable in that moment to just stand there and be present.

Check it out. It's really it's fascinating if you start watching people in stores in restaurants or whatever.

I do it on an elevator will like if I elevator and I'm with somebody and I'm just I'll pull out my phone cuz I'm what am I going to say?

But by the way and the other guy does it too. Don't know how to engage. You know what's fun is to not is to not pull it out on an elevator and just stare at someone

and just Yeah. the whole time when everybody's looking out towards the door, you just you just stand looking inward

and then wait till they look at you and then then just raise your eyeball. I was like, "What? I'm not on my phone." It's weird, isn't it?

And and also bring back the art of winking, you know, start winking at people. Slow wink will really offset someone.

Real nice. Andrew, we're winking at you. Thank you for coming today. Hon, this is so great. Like I could listen to you for hours and and a half and uh and so I just um I'm a huge fan and I love

for starting our year off just right, sir. Well, thanks guys. I want to say and I know I speak for many many people. I'm a huge fan of what you guys and I know I know everyone's always jocking you guys, but here's the deal. what from a very young age in many of your cases and and but still now you you've really enriched the world with really entertaining and really like stimulating thought-provoking stuff and and I think you know long form podcast movies that that stuff I actually think can enrich us in a in a real way and so that's not what I'm referring to when I talk about the phone stuff and I think we all know so I just want to say thank you it's it's a it's an honor and pleasure to be here and I'm a big admirer of the work you do right there thank you buddy Thank you pal.

Keep fighting the good fight. Thank you so much. I'd love Yeah. You have to come back and I have so many more questions.

Anytime. Please. Thanks, Andrew. All right. Thanks, Andrew. See you. Cheers guys.

He's one of those guys that he kind of said it that he breaks down all that information so you can digest it in a way, you know, that that we can understand it. And like how does a person know all that?

Yeah, it is great. That's something that didn't Yeah. that didn't exist a while. Well, I mean what like WebMD and stuff like that started to like you could

you could just go there and start asking a bunch of questions. You didn't need to like make a doctor's appointment and stuff. And now like chat GPT will kind of break it down a little bit more for you. But these these podcasts or even like Tik Tok or Instagram, you get these little bite-sized pieces of information. But as he said, you do have to kind of like thin out what is just the entertainment crap and and what's science based stuff. Yeah.

Yeah. And like what's conspiracy [ __ ] and what that's what I was saying like there's so many people out there at least he's a guy who's you know a professor at Stanford. Uh so you have to try to like I'm I'm going to try to lean towards the people who have a little bit more sort of academic credentials.

Yeah. I mean, science is still science and the other stuff is sort of I guess has always been there, but it never had as as we've talked before, it never had the the um the platform, the the the amplification, the microphone that it does today. And so it does seem like, well, what do you know? Like now, like, you know, you never know what's real. No, it's just that the noise just got noisier. The science is still there and still valid. You just have to self um edit. this this this new level of volume for nonsense and put it back down to its right size.

Yeah. I mean like and all the stuff that he does at Stanford and like he's he's into you couldn't even you couldn't even Sean, you know what I was going to Okay, you know what I was basic just because you had No, hang on. I think that Sean,

this is what I wanted to get to cuz you you've had a few and I can feel you building up cuz you couldn't even get through your own setup. No, that's

but I want to say as I heard you as I heard him talking to you and you were talking about your sleep and I was thinking like the different things the light the sound the thing the bedtime and maybe maybe all you really need for a good night's sleep is just a good oldfashioned

la I was going to do um I was going to do neurobio science Smart last. Smart glass. Smartless is 100% organic and artisally handcrafted by Michael Grant, Terry, Rob Armjarve, and Bennett Barbco. Smart less.

Questions about this episode

Who speaks in "Andrew Huberman | SmartLess"?

Sean Hayes (Host), Jason Bateman (Host), Andrew Huberman (Host), Will Arnett (Host).

What is "Andrew Huberman | SmartLess" about?

The conversation revolves around the hosts discussing their plans and current experiences, including traveling to New York and the impacts of the holiday season on their routines and mental states. They also engage in light-hearted banter about music and share personal anecdotes, reflecting on how time off can lead to a feeling of detachment from everyday social interactions.

What is mentioned in this SmartLess episode?

112 people, works and ideas are mentioned, including Stanford, Alzheimer's, REM Sleep, Stanford University School of Medicine, Nicotine, Acetylcysteine. Each one on this page links to its own page with every episode that mentions it.

How long is "Andrew Huberman | SmartLess"?

The episode runs 1 h 10 min; the transcript is about 14,713 words in 266 timestamped sections.

More from SmartLess

About this transcript: the episode's spoken words as captioned on YouTube, split into timestamped sections. Reclip.Me locates every person, work and idea in the text, keeps the time it is first named, and quotes the words around it verbatim. Last updated February 9, 2026.