Huberman Lab - Male Roles, Obligations and Options for Building a Fulfilling Life | Scott Galloway

Starting point is 00:00:00 And this is the goal. The goal is no, because you're going to get nos. And then I'm going to call you, after you've made the approach, you're going to text me. I did an approach. Did you get a no? Yeah, I got a no. That's exactly the point. That's the goal. Because everyone you would admire, everyone you think has killed it, the only thing I can guarantee you is there were a ton of nose. And getting to one of the top 10 podcasts in the world, getting to a person as a partner who's higher character and hotter than you, getting to make more money than you would have ever guessed that person would have made. The only thing that got them there was the willingness in the endurance to anticipate no. Welcome to the Huberman Lab podcast, where we discuss science and science-based tools for everyday life.

Starting point is 00:00:42 I'm Andrew Huberman, and I'm a professor of neurobiology and ophthalmology at Stanford School of Medicine. My guest today is Scott Galloway. Scott Galloway is a professor at New York University's Stern School of Business, and one of the world's leading public educators on intelligent life design, including finances, relationships, and as today's conversation also covers on the sociopolitical landscape. Today we mainly talk about masculinity and what men, young and old and everything in between, are facing today in terms of their roles to take in work, in relationships, and their health. And today, we don't just review the data.

Starting point is 00:01:20 You'll hear statistics, so Scott is very grounded in quantitative data, which is important. But he also shares several clear, actionable steps that you're not. you can take daily to ensure that you're making progress in work and relationships and finances. We also get into a bit of debate, or more, about things like alcohol, the benevolence or lack thereof of big tech and social media. And we talk a lot about the male female dynamics in terms of the consequences of single bomb homes and divorce, but just generally male female dynamics. So while today's episode does include a lot of exploration of different topics that frankly I didn't anticipate, it's also very proactive. Scott delineates the things that you can do and

Starting point is 00:01:58 and frankly should do each day. These aren't just lists or hacks, but effective tools that come from knowledge, data, his deep thinking, and that reflect the landscape we are in now. I'm very grateful that Scott took the time for this conversation. You'll see that we agree on many things. We disagree on several.

Starting point is 00:02:15 He's a very deep thinker, extremely smart, obviously. He also cares about people that comes through over and over again. And he's extremely generous today on your behalf with indeed tough love knowledge. Before we begin, I'd like to emphasize that this podcast is separate from my teaching and research roles at Stanford. It is, however, part of my desire and effort to bring zero cost to consumer information about science and science-related tools to the general public. In keeping with that theme, today's episode does include sponsors. And now for my discussion with Scott Galloway.

Starting point is 00:02:47 Scott Galloway, welcome. Thanks, man. It's good to see you. Actually, I was nervous driving over here. I like you and respect to him. I was trying to figure out why I was nervous. so I really want to do well today. And the last time I had this feeling was when I was going to do Rich Rolls podcast.

Starting point is 00:03:04 I really like you. I really like and respect Rich. And I remember thinking I had that same feeling I wanted to do well. Anyways, good to be here. Oh, man. Great to have you here. It's funny you say that because, you know,

Starting point is 00:03:14 I was coming here and I was thinking, yeah, look up to Scott. Like I respect him. And we've had one conversation prior to this that ended up being quite extended conversation. And I told Rob right before coming in here, our producer, fired up to learn from you and just sit down and chat with you. So I actually am going to do something

Starting point is 00:03:33 differently this podcast than any other podcast, which is the question I'm about to ask or the kind of thing I'm about to pose, I normally would do off camera. Okay. I'm going to do it on camera, which is coming in here today, it occurred to me that we as a, how old are you? I'm going to be 62 in November. 62. You look great, man. I can share what you're doing if we get at the time. Fitness wise. I'm 50. And. And the risk we run into, I realize, is that when I was 16, 20, 30, et cetera, yes, I wanted knowledge, maybe even wisdom, from elders. But I also knew with certainty that they didn't understand a thing about what it was like

Starting point is 00:04:13 to be that age at that time. So I realized that as much as we might think we know, we don't know what it's like to be 16, 25, 30, 40-year-old men. And we'll also talk about women today, but probably most of them. mostly men in 2026. And so how do we reconcile that in a discussion like this? I just wanted to ask you, how do you think about that? Because so much of your content and what you're teaching out there is about timeless truths. But there's also a lot of things that are happening now, not just pain points, but maybe opportunities that, I don't know, how do you think about do we really know? Like how should we pass along information in a way that's truly useful to people? Because that's what obviously

Starting point is 00:04:56 we both want this to be about? Well, just what you said. You can't fully relate to a 16 if you're not 16 years old and know what they're going through. And you guys are skateboarders. And when I was 16, I got home. And it was either watched cartoons until my mom got home or it was take risks and go out and find friends and do things.

Starting point is 00:05:17 And now there's so much temptation at home between big tech and having a casino in your pocket and Netflix in your pocket and porn in your pocket. It's just hard to relate. to what they go through. I think the first thing is just acknowledging, you know, you don't know what you don't know, and then turning to data

Starting point is 00:05:34 because there are people who look at the data. And I try to counter my biases or my, you know, my uninformed thesis with data. And so I try to find good people, good research, and inform it. Also, it helps. I have 15 and 18-year-old sons. I ask them a lot. I observe them a lot.

Starting point is 00:05:54 I hang out with them a lot. and you start to pick up on stuff. But I think the first is just being open to people pushing back and recognizing, unfortunately, every once in a while in the comment, when someone points something out and going, if it really hurts and it's upsetting, it's usually because they're right. And they found some soft tissue and they've pressed on it. And I try to be open to learning and, you know, just acknowledging when I got it wrong.

Starting point is 00:06:18 What do you think are the, could be three, could be five, could be ten things that all males should say. strive to check the boxes on in order to have a good life, not just to, you know, be great in some particular role, but like what are the macro nutrients, in your opinion, of becoming a healthy, happy, fulfilled male? I think every person, not just every man, needs a code. And that is you're going to be faced with hundreds of decisions each day and you want to make, generally speaking, a higher proportion of good decisions than the peer group, right?

Starting point is 00:06:52 So what helps is a code. Some people get that code from religion, the military. They're really strong family connections. I actually got my first kind of code from my first job. I worked at Morgan Stanley. There was just a certain level of professionalism. I got code from sports at UCLA. But I wonder, there's so many lost men right now,

Starting point is 00:07:11 I wonder if masculinity can be a code or some sort of aspirational form of masculinity where people born as males might have an easier time leaning in. And I should also say that I don't think masculinity or femininity are sequestered to people born as males or females. I'm drawn to men who are more feminine as friends. My close friends kind of take care of me and are more nurturing. But I think for young men,

Starting point is 00:07:33 if they feel like they can lean into some positive masculine attributes that it could serve as a code. So I loosely break it down into three very reductive qualities, and that is the first is to be a provider. I'm not talking about the way the world is, but the way the world should be. I think every young man should have a plan and have an assumption that at some point he will have to be the economic leader provider for his family. Sometimes that means getting out of the way of your partner who's better at that whole money thing. Sometimes it means providing more domestic or emotional support and labor if your partner is accelerating economically. When my partner had a kid, she was working at Goldman Sachs.

Starting point is 00:08:10 She was making more money than me. I was a new academic at NYU. I was making $160,000 living in New York, which may sound like a lot of money, but it wasn't. And she was making substantially more. So I tried to pick up slack and provide more labor at home and take charge of our finances. But I think at the outset, trying to find a plan to be economically relevant in a capitalist society is really important. Because whether we like to admit it or not, a male from a self-esteem standpoint, from a sexual currency standpoint, from the esteem of the tribe of society, is going to be disproportionately evaluated based on your economic viability. So from an early age, try and have a plan.

Starting point is 00:08:48 You may not have to stick that plan. I'm not saying you've got to go to Harvard and go to work at Goldman Sachs, but maybe you're going to go to trade school, learn how to install energy efficient HVAC, but you just need a plan, maybe moving towards something. The second is protector. If you think about the most masculine jobs, firemen, cop, military,

Starting point is 00:09:06 the notion is you develop skills and strengths such as you can protect others. And the most, if you will, manly, masculine, satisfied I ever feel is a night when I feel as if my family feels protected. The kids are asleep. My partner feels loved and supported. And I've been able to, hopefully through partnership through economic viability, been able to provide a warm, comfortable life for them so they can focus on the things that are important to them. And I think, unfortunately, a lot of men that we should look up to, whether it's the president, I apologize for getting political, or the wealthiest man in the world who are naturally going to be seen as male role models,

Starting point is 00:09:43 they seem to have skipped the protection part. that the whole shooting match, the whole reason you make money, that's the means, but the ends is such that you can protect others. I find that's the most rewarding thing in the world. And then finally, procreator. And that is, I think we need to stop demonizing young men's desire for relationships and sexual desires. I think a young man wanting to have sex can be a tremendous motivator to be a better man. It's like fire. It can be incredibly destructive, but if you put it in a steel casing with spark plugs,

Starting point is 00:10:15 it can create tremendous progress. And the story I use is that I was at the Raleigh Hotel in Miami, and I saw a very attractive woman. And it was the middle of the day, and without the benefit of alcohol, I didn't have the confidence to approach her. But I promised myself I was going to approach her. And then I went out to get my car from the valet and was sitting there with a car, and I'm like, God, you're such a fucking wimp.

Starting point is 00:10:35 So I ran back in, went up to her and said, hi, I'm Scott. Where are you from? Anyways, long story short, 18 months later, our son's middle name is born was Raleigh. And I didn't look at her, Andrew, and think I'd really like lower rates on auto insurance. I looked at her and thought I'd really like to have sex with her. And I think young men's desire for relationships and sex, if channeled correctly, makes you want to be a better man. Have a kindness practice.

Starting point is 00:11:02 Demonstrate excellence. Shower, for God's sakes, work out, have a plan, have resilience, have perseverance, demonstrate excellence. So in some, provider, protector, procreator, where I think I'm missed it in the book, and I'd love your response because I'm open to criticism here, is one, that's what worked for me. And I think a lot of younger people, there's different forms of masculinity that don't necessarily involve being economically secure, finding a mate. And also, the component I've really missed is service. And I think a great, great kind of one question or proxy for masculinity in terms of what you do every day is, are you optimizing for attention?

Starting point is 00:11:45 or service, right? And then the litmus test that Richard Reeves kind of gave me, who's sort of my Yoda on this stuff, is this notion of surplus value. That some men are born males, but never, they die, never having become men. It's not about a religious ceremony and age or, you know, some sort of experience or ritual. It's about at some point, can you honestly look in the mirror and say, I had surplus value. I create more tax revenue and jobs than I absorb. Everyone absorbs tax revenue if you're in America. I listen to more people complain than I complain, right? I love more people than love me. And I didn't get that. I don't think I really became a man well into my 40s because I was always, I took a capitalist approach to relationships. I was wanted

Starting point is 00:12:32 more. I wanted a girlfriend that was better to me than I was to her. I wanted a job where I was getting paid more maybe than I was contributing. And then what you realize is you get older is the whole shooting match is to create surplus value, provide, be a better friend, be a better partner. There's no way my kids will ever be able to return as much as I've invested in them. I mean, we have these, you know, the Hallmark Channel and insurance commercials will tell me that I'll have these moments, and I get those, but my kids are never up at 2 a.m. worried about me. They just aren't, right?

Starting point is 00:13:06 I'm spending a time. I would say to them, you're adding negative value. Just be clear. You go to these amazing schools, all these talented people, negative value. me and your mom, we are constantly investing in you. It's be impossible for you to pass back. What I figured out is that's the whole shooting match. I'm finally, Andrew, finally at a place of surplus value.

Starting point is 00:13:25 I apologize for the word salary. Provider, protector, procreator. Are you optimizing for service, not attention? And can you really say that you add surplus value? I'd like to take a quick break to acknowledge one of our sponsors, David. David makes protein bars unlike any other. Their newest bar, the bronze bar, has 20 grams of protein, only 150 calories, and zero grams of sugar. I have to say, these are the best tasting protein bars I've ever had, and I've tried a lot of protein bars over the years.

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Starting point is 00:16:26 API is as of January 30th, 2026 and subject to change. For more information, please see the episode description. I love all that. I don't have anything to add. I do have two questions and one reflection. The reflection is that what you started with, that every day you're making decisions all day long, and you want more of those to be good decisions than bad decisions relative to your peers. I think that's a terrific way to think about striving, and I've never heard it posed that way,

Starting point is 00:16:58 so I really just want to bold, underline, and highlight that for everyone. For the eighth grader, for the 12th grader, for the college junior, the 40-year-old man make better decisions than the average around you. The problem I have, I guess I do have one caveat here is that most people won't remember this, but that show Jerry Springer, I think, was so popular because people like to focus on all the people doing worse than them because it makes it easy to stay right where you're at. So who are the comparison points that one can keep in mind as they strive to make these

Starting point is 00:17:31 better decisions each J? Because I think that first statement you made is touching into some serious ways. wisdom. So who is the comparison point and how do you keep that framed? Because you study markets, you understand markets. What's the market comparison point in this make more better decisions than worse ones relative to the average as you progress through your day? I think it's really important. I mean, you're talking a little bit about role models and references. And so first off, one myth I think we need to dispel is that success equals exploitation. There's a very unhealthy the zeitgeist, especially from the far left, that anyone who's very successful is exploiting

Starting point is 00:18:11 others. And I think we need to puncture that narrative and say, you should strive to be successful. And success might mean certain things for other people. I didn't grow up with money, so for me, success for most of my life was trying to get economic security. I was anxiety plagued my mom and I economic anxiety, and it was like a ghost following us around telling us we weren't worthy. So my role models were always people who'd figured out economic success. And people have to pick their own role models. I always thought masculinity was getting back in someone's face who didn't give me the respect I thought I deserved. I was that asshole that when someone cut me off in traffic felt like I needed to speed up and cut them off.

Starting point is 00:18:49 That if the Delta ticket counter representative wasn't kind to me or was busy, I would get back in their face. It's like, well, do you realize I'm a 1K member? And then, you know, a decent reference point is just men you admire and they're everywhere that perhaps can take blows. They realize someone might be having a bad day. But you said something that inspired a thought in that what I just outlined is pretty meta. You know, kind of themes that sometimes aren't that actionable. So I just want to bring it down one level. As we were talking about off mic, I try and mentor two or three young men at any given time.

Starting point is 00:19:24 And these are young men that, quite frankly, need mentoring. They're struggling. Most of them might be still living at home. You know, they're not, these aren't people who went to Brown and are working at Goldman Sachs. And so just some more tactical things that I think serve as a reference point for how you succeed or how you make progress. The first thing I do, the first hack is I say unlock your phone and I'm going to look at it. And there's a little bit of nervousness. So what I do to loosen them up or lubricate it is I say, okay, let me tell you two things.

Starting point is 00:19:54 First is I gamble. I don't gamble on Fandual. I gamble with options. I know it's stupid. I know I'm going to lose money over the long term. I'm a smart guy. I love markets. but that dope a hit I get is too seductive.

Starting point is 00:20:06 So I sell calls and inputs. I consume porn. That's sort of not, that's an embarrassing thing to say at 61, but yeah, I still consume porn. But I tell them that and it lubricates or it makes them more comfortable. I open their phone. Everyone has an advantage. Most young men who are not excelling, if you will, by traditional Western capitalist standards, their advantage is capital, specifically their human capital.

Starting point is 00:20:35 They have time. And within about five to seven minutes, I can find eight hours of time from TikTok, from X, from porn, from gambling sites, from YouTube. I'm like, we're going to find eight hours. You tell me we're going to reduce this eight hours. And next week, I'm going to check. And we're going to reallocate that capital into three things. The first is we're going to get really fucking strong.

Starting point is 00:20:58 I just think the best antidepressant is moving weights, building some bulk, or running far. I've jokingly said, every man under the age of 30 should aspire to be able to walk in any room and know if shit got real, they could kill and eat everybody or outrun them. There's different forms of fitness. You can be fast, you can be flexible, you can be strong. But there's no excuse. The male form is blessed with, you know, more bone density, double twitch muscle, all the things you talk about, this incredible substance that pours over it called testosterone, you're going to look back when

Starting point is 00:21:30 you're my age and think, why wasn't I just fast, sleek, a monster, just strong? So we're going to work out at least three times a week. The second thing is we've got to make some money. And I want you to make money outside your house. You know, I don't care if you're a lift driver, TaskRabitter, Panera's hiring people at 18 bucks an hour and only one out of 10 that accepted job actually show up the first day. So if you make, if you really make the effort, you can make decent money. And the great thing about getting a taste for the flesh of money

Starting point is 00:22:00 is you start learning how to make more money. If you want to make a lot of money, unless you're smart enough to be born to rich parents, start off by making a little bit of money and you'll start to figure out capitalism, right? And the final thing is, at least three times a month, we're going to put ourselves in a group sitting where we are trying to achieve something great

Starting point is 00:22:18 in the agency of others, a nonprofit, a church group, a sports league, a riding club. And then the second phase of that is we're going to do something what I call is the approach. Hey, man, do you want to go watch the Jets game, right? An expression of friendship. And then if you're really comfortable, an expression of romantic interest while making them feel safe. Would you like to grab a coffee sometime? And this is the goal.

Starting point is 00:22:42 The goal is no. Because you're going to get noes. And then I'm going to call you after you've made the approach. You're going to text me. I did an approach. Did you get a no? Yeah, I got a no. That's exactly the point.

Starting point is 00:22:53 That's the goal. because everyone you admire, everyone you think has killed it. The only thing I can guarantee you is there were a shit ton of nose and getting to one of the top 10 podcasts in the world, getting to a person as a partner who's higher character and hotter than you, getting to make more money than you would have ever guessed that person would have made. The only thing that got them there was the willingness and the endurance to anticipate no. And unfortunately, Big Tech is setting up an algorithm that convinces you

Starting point is 00:23:21 that a frictionless life is a good life and that you know, never need to endure, no. And what you end up with is a lack of skills to persevere, to realize you're okay. And that's what I asked the kids the next day, are you okay? Yeah, I'm bummed out, but you're okay. If a man under the age of 30 works out three times a week, works 30 hours a week outside of the house, right, and is volunteering, that immediately puts him in the top 8% of all young men. And I apologize for the word salad here, but something I hate is the in-cell movement, involuntarily celibate, right? Throughout history, 99% of men have been involuntarily celibate for most of their lives.

Starting point is 00:24:01 There's a few things young men would rather be doing than having sex. Only 40% of men have reproduced throughout history, 80% of women. So no man has a birthright to reproduce. In the West, it's actually now 75%. So young men have more agency than they ever have. Now, if you do those things, right, just those three things. Work outside of the house, work out, have a kind of. practice, volunteer in the service of others, you're immediately going to put yourself in the top

Starting point is 00:24:28 desal of young men. And if you're in the top desal of young men, I can guarantee you, over time, you will become voluntarily insolibate, which is awesome, because you'll establish a relationship and young men under the age of 30, a lot of the research shows benefit more from a relationship than women. Yet only one and three men under the age of 30 is in a relationship, whereas two and three women are in a relationship. And you think, well, Scott, that's mathematically impossible. It's not because women are dating older because they want more economically and emotionally viable men. So I'll circle back to the more tactical recommendations, get fit, start making some money, have a plan, and start doing things in the agency of others. I think the ultimate hack for depression,

Starting point is 00:25:13 or if you're feeling bad about yourself, is to start helping others and to always keep in mind. And this is the hard part, that the antichrist of your progress is a young man, the devil, the fucking enemy, the villain here, the bond villain with trillions of dollars is big tech. They are trying to figure out with AI a million times a second how to convince you to spend one more second a day on your phone sequestered from your relationships because they're a shareholder value. 40% of the SMP is 10 companies whose sole mission is to monetize your time. And unfortunately, they're not bad people, but what they're doing has resulted in a small group, a cohort of men, it's not small, millions of men who are evolving into a new

Starting point is 00:26:02 species of asocial, asexual males, who wake up at the age of 30 thinking they've had a frictionless life, living at home, obese, anxious, and depressed, having never developed the skills that they need to do well professionally, personally. So big tech is not your friend. If you do not figure out how to modulate big tech products, whether it's Instagram or YouTube, you are falling into a trap of eventually being sequestered and not developing with the skills to establish the most important thing in life, and that is relationships. Two questions about big tech, and I'll just push back a little bit on the big tech thing, not because I'm afraid of big tech. I did grow up in Silicon Valley, so I. Well, and you're at Stanford. Yeah, invariably have a different relationship to it.

Starting point is 00:26:47 And I'm not name drop. I happen to be close with some of the people that run these companies or in number two or number four slots or, you know, in some cases who run the companies. One who I've never met, who I'll just raise first, is who you referred to earlier. The richest man in the world is Elon Musk. And I was frankly a little bit surprised that you called him out when discussing the importance of being a protector. I understand the political side. Well, let's just for the moment, I will just. set Trump aside, a very polarizing figure.

Starting point is 00:27:20 Happy to go there if you want, but I know your stance on him. But the mention of Elon as a non-protector surprised me because I think of Elon as somebody who seems to love his children very much. He's organized family differently than most, but he certainly has the capacity to take care of them, who is committed to big projects. I mean, a superhuman level of output in terms of just neural link, the field that I'm closest to, right? phenomenal progress, and that's just one of the SpaceX, Neurolink, Tesla, X, et cetera.

Starting point is 00:27:52 So I'm just curious what motivated that. Sure. That makes you, because I don't see him as a non-protector. I don't know that I see him as a protector of a particular kind in his personal life, but I don't have access to that. But in terms of his motivation to protect our species, I personally believe his desire to get to Mars is a genuine one, to have an option for humanity.

Starting point is 00:28:20 So I see him as a protector. And I'll probably piss off a lot of people by saying this. But that doesn't mean I universally adopt everything he says and does. But I see him as kind of an awesome figure in our history who's like, let's get to Mars in case this Earth thing doesn't work out. And also, let's get to Mars because it's awesome. I think that's an entirely fair viewpoint and you're adding nuance to it. So let's talk about Elon Musk.

Starting point is 00:28:39 If I had a red button that I could push and get rid of all of big tech or Elon Musk, somehow he could float away like a Gabriel Garcia-Marquez character and not die, but just not have happened. I wouldn't press the button. I think Big Tech and Elon Musk are net goods for the world. We're going to get to EVs. We're going to get to Mars faster because of Elon Musk. He inspired the EV race, which is good for the world.

Starting point is 00:29:09 The problem is with the word net. And as it relates to masculinity and as a role model for young men, he's probably one of of the best role models in terms of being super aggressive, taking risks, ignoring the noise, and just being laser-like focus, telling an amazing story, garnering capital. I mean, there's just no getting around it. The guy is just an inspiration. I think the whole shooting match is if you become the richest man in the world, I think he moved to protection. I would argue that he's not a great role model and that he has not done a great job of convincing

Starting point is 00:29:41 younger men, their protection and taking care of others. I think the way he acquits himself online by punching down, when he says something mean about somebody, and I know this and I'm fine because I have money and I'm not dependent upon any one person's opinion of me, but if he says something negative about you and calls your names, his 120 million followers come for you. And I think as a general rule, and this is true for everybody, but especially for men, you never punch down. You just don't. Anyone, I'm openly, I make personal attacks on people. This is technically a personal attack on Elon Musk. To call someone not a good role model, that's a personal

Starting point is 00:30:24 attack. But I never make personal attacks of anyone who isn't markedly more powerful than me. And I find that a lot of these people, Donald Trump and Elon Musk, have no problem punching down. So again, it goes back to this. Is he a net good for the world? I acknowledge the point. And I would even argue, yeah, he is. But that doesn't, he should also be held accountable for his blessings. I can't stand the fact that he should post America and the government. If you look at the most successful companies in the world, they're littered up and down the coast we're on right now, whether it's Qualcomm and San Diego, SpaceX and Snap here,

Starting point is 00:30:59 head north to Salesforce and Meta and Google. Keep going. You hit Amazon and Microsoft, and then it stops once you get to the Canadian border. And then you have to go all the way up to Lulu Lemon, to find a multi-billion dollar company. Come back down to where you teach at UC San Diego and those great companies, and it stops. And you've got to go to another 7,000 kilometers

Starting point is 00:31:19 to get the Mercado Libre in Buenos Aires. There's something about America that creates unbelievable opportunity that creates the wealthiest men in the world. And I find that these tech brothers have a total lack of appreciation for the sacrifices in the system built in America and are the first to shipposts the government

Starting point is 00:31:36 and complain about regulation and things getting the way. I find that especially obnoxious. But let me acknowledge the point. I think on the whole, Elon Musk and Big Tech are a net good for the world, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't hold them accountable and ask, why would you do these things when you're so blessed? So this gets to the heart of something that I think is extremely important,

Starting point is 00:31:59 which is we're living in the age of everything pretty much being public about public figures. Not everything, but many more facets of. of their lives than ever before in history, in part because they share many more facets of their lives. It's not just that stuff gets unearthed. It's like they're talking about their company. They're also in the role of arguing with their ex on sometimes online.

Starting point is 00:32:24 You know, you see that. Their kids sometimes will be a parent who they are. You know, is interesting. My dad, his first generation immigrant who came here became a scientist and he's from Argentina. And along these lines, he always said, it was funny to him that when you would go to somebody office in the United States, a professor or a businessman or something, the picture of his family

Starting point is 00:32:44 was facing out. He said, that was so weird. He said, in Argentina, your picture of your wife and your kids and your dog, and it was facing in. That's yours. You don't share that with a person coming to your office. Like, who would do that? This oversharing thing, when you look back, is a kind of a longstanding theme in American

Starting point is 00:33:01 business. And it shows up even more so, of course, online. So to me, this idea of, okay, Elon. for instance, but very different role model figure, someone that I consider a close friend, Jock Willink, incredibly impressive, true warrior, great dad, great husband, I know his family, amazing human being in so many ways. And he's kind of like the tough football coach that a lot of guys didn't have, that young guys. I think that's one of the reasons people gravitate towards him. You don't wonder whether or not he really can do what he says you ought to do because he

Starting point is 00:33:34 does it every day and he posts it on his watch. So Jocko's a really good example of somebody that people admire. And I consider Jocka one example. So why not look at public figures? You and perhaps even me, for instance, and just look at these people as a buffet of options to adopt certain traits, but not others, be doing great things and assuming that the other things they're doing aren't truly atrocious, right? I mean, criminal, atrocious, you know, I don't know that we're asking the people who are role models, leaders, business leaders, well, I don't think we're placing a reasonable expectation on them. I don't say this for any personal reasons. I've known I'm replete with flaws for a very long time, so I don't claim to not have them, never have. But then young guys might be

Starting point is 00:34:18 thinking, well, I have to be perfect too. And if I'm not perfect and I don't have 150 million followers, I better have a fraternity of people to protect me. This is the kind of the underlying current that I think has driven the toxic end of the, hate the word, the manosphere. I hate it because it's become too mishmashy. It's not even a continuum. It's just a mess. So what do you have to say and think about the expectation that the leaders of the world, the role model, not have these flaws?

Starting point is 00:34:54 At the same time telling guys, hey, like ask and get told no. I mean, you and I both know, I don't know if it's real world data or if it's statistical data, but I have many women friends in my life and I have a sister. If an attractive guy rolls up on a woman and says, hey, you want to get coffee sometimes? It's romantic. It's romantic. If a guy that's not attractive does that, it's creepy. It's creepy.

Starting point is 00:35:16 So how do you tell a guy that isn't good looking to do that and then not be called a creep? And not just be called a creep, but be called a creep on an app, which isn't just designed to prevent sexual assault, but is also designed to share information about who to date and not to date. And guys get black, I'm told by young guys, I'm not on dating apps, but that. guys get blacklisted, basically. Not because of sexual assault, but because, you know, they get called out as like a bad kisser. He didn't smell so good or something.

Starting point is 00:35:45 This is the stuff that used to be in private discussions among women. I know this because I have a sister, right? Women talk. I listen through the wall, right? What are they talk about? And now it's public. There's parallel construction here. I'm sure you're tracking it.

Starting point is 00:35:58 But for everyone listening, it's like, this is a serious problem. I mean, can't we acknowledge that somebody like Elon, let's just stay on that example, is a phenom that probably has never existed in at least 100 years, has huge vision. Sure, he might have some like issues in his life that are none of my business. And yet he has a lot of good example to set for young men. I believe that. And it also gives permission to not be perfect without harming people. So I acknowledge the point. There's a lot there. But I still

Starting point is 00:36:35 think if someone is constantly optimizing for attention to draw cheap capital to his firms and is very open and very critical of others and is probably the most dominant force in electing the next president that we should pay very close attention to his activities, whether it's reported addiction to ketamine and sleeping with a loaded gun next to his bed and not living with any of his children, whether it's... You think that should be public fair game? I think if he wants to put certain aspects of his life out there constantly for affirmation, that that type of scrutiny is probably fair game.

Starting point is 00:37:17 I also acknowledge the point that people are human, and you need to have some grace and say, well, unless you're perfect, try and learn from people, try and understand them and try and demonstrate some grace. The other thing going back to Big Tech, is that we have connected economic value to tearing down people. So you've had bestsellers. I've had bestsellers.

Starting point is 00:37:43 I said my book hasn't come out yet. I hope for it to be a bestseller. You haven't? No, it comes out in September. It's been delayed for a while. But I appreciate the... I feel like I've already read it. No, well, God willing it does well.

Starting point is 00:37:53 If it doesn't, it doesn't. Let me prepare it because I think you're actually... I don't know you well, but I do know you. I get the sense that, like me, a lot of the criticism doesn't just bounce right off you, that you take this stuff to heart and sometimes it upsets you. I know what it's, okay, I'll say it upsets me.

Starting point is 00:38:09 Some of it does, but it's not the criticism that people think upsets me that upsets me, but that's a different story. Your book will be a bestseller. You could put out, you could put out, I don't know, the script of the sound of music, and it's going to be a bestseller. It'll be better than if I had done that,

Starting point is 00:38:27 but not better than the sound of music. There you go. And this is what TikTok and YouTube, the algorithms, someone will immediately say, this is why Andrew Huberman's book is bullshit. Because if they put a well-known figure's name in front of a best-selling book and says bullshit and creates antagonism and comments, the algorithms pick up on that, optimize it. It'll get millions of views, which is more Nissan ads and more shareholder value. So there is not only a healthy check on people's power, more scrutiny, the president should get a lot of scrutiny. The president deserves to have his business and personal life, to a certain extent, at least where it demonstrates character, looked into and examined. And I think a certain amount of power and healthy check on power is probably a healthy thing.

Starting point is 00:39:14 Unfortunately now, there's economic incentive around tearing people down. Like, I don't know about you. I do have a real fear. I am highly imperfect, professionally and personally. I've engaged in a lot of professional and personal behavior that I am not proud of. I've been divorced. I haven't been as kind of people that have worked for me as I should have been. And I'm worried it's all going to come crashing down.

Starting point is 00:39:36 And a lot of times I feel like the stuff I'm saying on podcasts like this, I'm trying to portray myself as being better than I actually am. I have huge imposter syndrome. And big tech has an economic incentive in trying to find as many guardians of gotcha pins as possible. because if you get to a certain point of fame or credibility, there's just too much money in trying to find the soft issue on you. So there's a very unhealthy attribute in our society where we're all just waiting for bad news and there's economic incentive to say, well, this person isn't perfect.

Starting point is 00:40:08 Look what this person did. So I agree with you. We need to demonstrate a little bit more grace. Something I really hate about my party, I consider myself a proud progressive, is these purity tests, right? that, oh, you know, I put out a picture of me in a bunch of buddies that I went to UCLA with. One's an aircraft carrier pilot. One's an ophthalmologist.

Starting point is 00:40:32 Like, it was a picture of all of us, and I've said, you know, find impressive men and befriend them. I think I saw that post. You were the one towering over the rest of them. Yeah, I think I shrunk. Huh? You're a tall guy. No, I don't think you should. I really know you now.

Starting point is 00:40:44 I was 6'3 in college. I'm 6.1.5 now. That's nice. I'm out of age where I'm shrinking. Anyways. And I knew I was just waiting. for it. Why privilege? What a douchebag. What, you know, just all the comments and all the sort of, you know, people coming after you, right? Or people who can't just say, oh, good for you, well done.

Starting point is 00:41:03 And that's just part of it. And that's a small price to pay for a certain level of success. But the algorithms immediately grab that and elevate it because there's money and antagonism. A thoughtful nuance conversation online and a positive reinforcing comment, that that doesn't tick the sensors, if you can create a fight online, if you say MRNA vaccines alter your DNA, you're going to get a lot of comments and the algorithms love that. And it'll elevate it. So unfortunately, we have attached 40% of the market value of the S&P to incendiary content that tears us apart. And the result is people now don't believe that Russian troops pouring over the border in Ukraine is their enemy. They believe that their neighbor with a Trump sign is their real enemy.

Starting point is 00:41:45 or someone who doesn't believe your ideology around gender politics is your enemy. And unfortunately, it's being, I believe, and I know this sounds paranoid, but doesn't mean I'm wrong, these poorest platforms that have an economic incentive and antagonistic content are being fueled by bad actors, whether it's the GRU or the CCP, who look at Americans say, we can't beat them economically, we can't beat them kinetically, so let's get them to hate each other. and that as Americans now perceive other Americans as the biggest threat. So one, it is healthy to look at powerful people

Starting point is 00:42:21 that have huge influence such as you and to a lesser extent, me, and question their beliefs and write critical articles of them. It crushed me when the, I can't remember it was the Atlantic or the New York or New Yorker came out with sort of a critical review of my book.

Starting point is 00:42:35 It was really upsetting to me. And I think part of the thing that was so upsetting was when we were talking about this off mic, it meant some of it was true. that's healthy. It's healthy when there's thoughtful criticism around your book. But when I have hundreds of comments accusing me of shit that never happened, and then you look at it, and it's dog mom, Wisconsin 331 with three followers, that's a bot. And the fact that these platforms choose not to screen out those bots, because they know more incendiary comments that create more

Starting point is 00:43:05 comments and more Nissan ads, I think that is tearing at the fabric of America. But I just want to acknowledge the point. I think maturity is realizing people aren't perfect, learn from them what you can. But I do think the wealthiest man in the world and the president should be held to a higher standard. I think they have extraordinary blessings. I think their decisions matter. And I think the scrutiny they come under is warranted. And I will say this. I think the president, to a certain extent, Elon Musk, have created a lot of cloud cover for our imperfections. As many of you know, I've been taking AG1 for nearly 15 years now. I discovered it way back in 2012,

Starting point is 00:43:41 long before I ever had a podcast, and I've been taking it every day since. The reason I started taking it, and the reason I still take it, is because AG1 is, to my knowledge, the highest quality and most comprehensive of the foundational nutritional supplements on the market. It combines vitamins, minerals,

Starting point is 00:43:57 prebiotics, probiotics, and adaptogens into a single scoop that's easy to drink, and it tastes great. It's designed to support things like gut health, immune health, and overall energy. And it does so by helping to fill any gaps you might have in your daily nutrition. Now, of course, everyone should strive to eat nutritious whole foods. I certainly do that every day.

Starting point is 00:44:16 But I'm often asked if you could take just one supplement, what would that supplement be? And my answer is always AG1, because it has just been oh so critical to supporting all aspects of my physical health, mental health, and performance. I know this from my own experience with AG1, and I continually hear this from other people who use AG1 daily. If you would like to try AG1, you can go to drinkag1.com slash Huberman to get a special offer. For a limited time, AG1 is giving away six free travel packs of AG1 and a bottle of vitamin D3K2 with your subscription. Again, that's drink AG1 with the numeral 1.com slash Huberman to get six free travel packs and a bottle of vitamin D3K2 with your subscription.

Starting point is 00:44:58 I disagree vehemently with one point, which is that I'm more influential than you are. You're incredibly influential. In fact, an ex-girlfriend's sister who went to NYU asked me if I knew who you were. I said, of course. And she said, her words, for our generation, Scott is like a father to us. And she happens to be in venture capital. So maybe there's a finance link there too. But I pressed on that a little bit and just asked.

Starting point is 00:45:25 And she said, yeah, you know, we look up to him. We listen to him. He's very paternal to us. So I thought you might appreciate that. I do appreciate that. You come from a woman as well. I'd appreciate it more if she'd said older brother. I'm very conscious of my age now.

Starting point is 00:45:40 Are you? Really? Really? Oh, 100%. You're in your 60s. You're super fit. You've got two healthy boys. You're in a happy relationship.

Starting point is 00:45:47 You got huge reach. I imagine your bank accounts are fine and you're trying to, and you're actively engaged in service. In my eyes, you're doing great. I appreciate that. But I'd rather be doing, I'd rather be in this spot at 40, at 41, not 61. I'm very, I'm very self-conscious about. my age, but I just want to go back to something I think that gets in the way of success

Starting point is 00:46:08 and has been a huge unlock for me is, I mean, it's not, but your fear, your fear of criticism. If you're going to be successful, you're going to face criticism. Starting a business is subjecting yourself to public failure. I want to go back to something you said about approaching women and guys being afraid to be that guy. I think some of that is a little bit exaggerated and that most women, if you are respectful, the vast majority of women, if you're respectful and approach a woman at a bar,

Starting point is 00:46:38 hi, how are you, and she's not interested, you're going to be fine and you're both going to be fine. And just as I think there's two myths that are damaging to the mating market, which is really upsetting to me, one that men think that all women are looking to, or a lot of women are looking to embarrass them and they might get canceled professionally, if you're respectful to a woman and approach her

Starting point is 00:46:57 and make her feel safe, and then if she's not interested, politely exit, you're going to be fine and so is she. and I don't buy that your career, you're taking your career in your hands. I think that's just bullshit. And an excuse to be an in-sell. I just don't buy it. And two, what really has been an enormous unlock for me

Starting point is 00:47:13 is I believe in my atheism. I believe at some point I'm going to look into my kids' eyes and know our relationship is coming to an end. I was fucking their age. You got a bunch of young dudes in here who look like former Abercrombian Fitch models. I remember they look like they're 25, they're probably 35.

Starting point is 00:47:29 It was yesterday I was their age, which means just in an instant, I'm going to be, again, at that moment where I know I don't have much time left. And in 100 years, no one's going to give a shit what I said or thought or did or the mistakes I made. And embracing that and accepting that has given me so much courage, right, to start businesses, to make dumb investments that might be crazy, to tell men in my life finally that I love them or I'm impressed with them. When I was their age, I had this weird sense of masculinity that if I said, oh, dude, look how handsome this. this dude is that it took away from my prestige somehow, that I couldn't tell people they were impressive. I couldn't tell a woman, God, I'm just crazy about you. And I would give anything to spend more time with you because I was worried that she wouldn't return my affection and I would

Starting point is 00:48:17 be just too hurt and I had to be cool and like not need her or not all this bullshit that got in the way of me really having a good life. And what I realize is every failure I've had, people go, oh, his business went bankrupt. Okay. And then they go, back to thinking about themselves. So everyone you're worried about really doesn't give a shit about you. And by the way, the dude that's not very good looking and is with a ridiculously like high character hot woman is one of two things, as rich parents or two, or two, is willing to endure rejection. So I just don't buy, you know, that myth of the man risking his personal and professional reputation, I don't think that's true. On the other side, the myth I hate. I don't know if you've

Starting point is 00:49:03 seen this. On TikTok, a lot of women are saying, I don't date because the risks of being unaligned, which I guess is the woke version of saying murdered. I think it's because on social media platforms, if you say murder or suicide. Oh, it goes ranked down? They, I don't know if it actually does, but it's this idea that, yeah, that it's going to be ranked down. Here's the data. Okay, if 2,500 women a year are murdered by men. That's way too many. It's a huge problem. Sexual assault is a bigger problem. The majority of women who are murdered are murdered by someone they know. So the reality is a small number of women are murdered on dates with strangers. It just doesn't happen that often. And 40,000 men a year kill themselves. So if you go on a date with a man, the man is 16 times more likely to go home and hurt himself than hurt you. So what I would say to men is make the approach take the risk. And as long as you're respectful, you're going to be fine. is so is she, and you are not taking your professional or personal reputation into your hands. And what I would say to women is if you go on a date with a guy that you met on an app,

Starting point is 00:50:06 there's all sorts of digital breadcrumbs. And it's a lot, you are, and I can statistically prove this, the ride over an Uber, the Uber was a lot more dangerous than the date itself, and you are more likely to die of choking during dinner than to be hurt by that man. So what I hate is that there's all this inflammatory content being boosted on online media that's getting in the way of the most rewarding thing in life. And that is to find someone who you are physically attracted to, you sync up with spiritually and you decide to build a life together. And not enough of that is happening. We're in a sex recession, right?

Starting point is 00:50:45 And online is making it worse. The dating apps have an incentive in you finding a bigger, better deal. and the genders have done an amazing job of convincing each other it's the other's fault. And I think one of the big foci that need to be really pay more attention to is what I call renewal of alliances. I'd love to see a renewal of alliances between us and our great allies in Europe. Renewal of allies who are moderates. I know nothing of value. I just can't believe you're an extremist on the left or the right.

Starting point is 00:51:14 I just don't bull's eye. There needs to be a renewal of alliances between what I'll call moderate lefties like me and moderate conservatives that are everywhere. We're all Americans, but the most important alliance that needs renewal is the greatest alliance in history, hands down, and it's the alliance between men and women. The integration of female and male energy, the ability to find someone you want to procreate with, to build something together, that is the most rewarding thing in life, and I can prove it's key to the species, progress, and existence. And men and women have been taught not to trust each other and to blame each other. I hate the fucking manosphere,

Starting point is 00:51:52 and I hate the, quite frankly, some of the reactionary notion on the left where it's misandry cosplaying is social commentary. There's a lot of bullshit misandry online where you're assuming every young man is a predator and quite frankly that every billionaire is evil or that every white person is racist, but the alliance between men and women needs to be reformed. It's the greatest alliance in history. And online, it's teaching men to blame women for their problems. No, women's assent saved our ass. Women in the factory in World War II is the reason we won the war in four years, not in seven. Women going into the workforce in the 70s and 80s and protections of their rights for fair pay is the reason we're not a second tier power to China right now.

Starting point is 00:52:38 If women hadn't ascended, we'd be really squarely and duly fucked, right? And their assent is in no way inversely correlated or correlated to men's descent. Men have to stop that bullshit. An immigrant didn't take your job. He made it such that you could have lower rent, a meal for a reasonable price, and have someone take care of your mother when she's older. And at the same time, if you're having romantic problems, it's not her fault. Women are ascending, and naturally, they have higher standards because they're no longer

Starting point is 00:53:07 economically dependent upon men, which should be a motivator for men to level up, not to start blaming women. And all this shit is being totally inflamed and taken totally out of proportion by online because it creates more attention. It's interesting. It's novel. And it creates more Nissan ads. But I'm trying to figure out what is the economic incentive to try and figure out a way to get more men and women appreciating the other gender beyond just the basics, right? How do we renew that alliance?

Starting point is 00:53:39 I love that statement. I saw somewhere, of all places, on X. You know, every once in a while you encounter something that really sticks with you. Every once in a while there's a gem that just falls through. It really makes you think. And I don't know who this person was. It might have been an account with one follower. And it landed in front of me and it said,

Starting point is 00:53:58 the way you destroy a society is to get the men and women to hate each other. And as a biologist, first and foremost, I thought, well, that makes perfect sense. Right. If you want to eradicate a population of any species, you get a lot. the males and the females to start hitting each other, not just because they don't mate, but because you throw off the mating dynamics in a way that then can create infighting among the males. We see that too, infighting among the women. Although, I don't know, I think that there's a lot to explore around this sort of what the standard is that we're holding the opposite

Starting point is 00:54:31 sex to. It's an interesting question. I can't say I've really evolved my thinking around this enough to maybe dive into it, but I know you thought about this. I think a lot of males hide behind this notion that they have to be everything. They have to be tall. They have to be rich. They have to be jacked. They have to be kind. Hopefully everyone's kind. But you know what I mean? That they can't say the wrong thing even once. So they're hiding behind that. And if they go out and look, they'll get plenty of evidence for that. Right. No men, no protectors, no this. Actually, I brought, I did something I rarely do, which is I brought my phone into this, because right before I came in here, a woman that I've known for 20 years, wrote and asked me if I would ask you a question. Wow.

Starting point is 00:55:14 And it's directly related to this. So I'm going to do this. Of course, I'm not going to say who this person is. And she said, because I mentioned that I'm speaking to you today, and she said, please tell Scott that I'd personally like to thank him for his efforts, encouraging men to embrace their duties as protectors, providers, and generally just being accountable. because we have a serious shortage among heteros, she lives in San Francisco, particularly in the Bay Area. And I said, we'll do, but can you tell me what you mean by accountable? Serious question, I want to make sure I'm specific.

Starting point is 00:55:44 She said, when I say accountability, I'm referring to the fact that many times in romantic relationships, men seem to want to avoid feelings of shame and guilt to such a degree that they often respond to their partner's feelings towards them without empathy or accountability. I find that here in, okay, San Francisco, there are many women in San Francisco. I don't think I out at her here. Or perhaps all major U.S. metros, chivalry is dead.

Starting point is 00:56:08 Men are afraid to assert their desires because they don't want the obligation that it might entail. Interesting. They give up when something requires internal growth or leveling up. They shy away from acting protective of their partners in favor of egalitarian dynamics, which is flawed since men clearly have more physical strength. Oh my God, this goes on and on. This is almost overwhelming me. but I think I can grapple with it.

Starting point is 00:56:31 Oh, thank you. I swear I didn't plant this. She said, none of this has ever applied to you in case you're serious. Thank you for that one, by the way. She says, they're wimpy. They avoid relationships that require work and responsibility because they don't want to feel inadequate. They avoid difficult conversations and repair

Starting point is 00:56:46 because they don't want to feel shame or guilt. They avoid asking for anything explicitly because they don't want to feel obligated or complimenting a woman or giving her flowers or romance. They're all scared to do it. It's so odd. Anyway, that's it. That's all, huh?

Starting point is 00:57:02 Okay. So I'm hearing that second part for the first time, the long part. And I have to say, if I were a 25-year-old guy now, they'd be like, whoa. Right. That's a lot. Okay. There's something there. They want me to bring flowers, be romantic, be affectionate.

Starting point is 00:57:19 Clearly, there's a reference towards being sexually proactive there. And yet assume responsibility, level up, be empathic. you know, I'm not trying to defend or attack this person who's I'm close to in my life, but that's a lot. That's a tall building right there to scale for a guy who's trying to figure out how to work out three times a week, get off. Anyway, I thought I'd share that and just get your reflections. I think that, first off, I think that we all have a set of insecurities around not living up, mostly because, again, I really do think big tech has had. is while it's a net good, incredible economic growth, job growth, I connect with my buddies

Starting point is 00:58:07 from college, I get to build a business and market it less expensively. I can break through voices that can bubble up just based on their talent. Teen suicide is skyrocketed since social one on mobile. It's not the only reason, but it's either number one or number two, according to my colleague Jonathan Haidt and Gene Twangy at San Diego State. I don't believe there's any reason that anyone under the age of 16 should be on social media where they are encouraged young girls are encouraged to sexualize themselves but if they start having suicidal ideation they are sent an email that says verbatim here are some images on suicide we might we thought you might find interesting but also it's created unreasonable expectations for a lot of young men and young women

Starting point is 00:58:49 about what they need to look like if they haven't made millions of dollars if they aren't on a private jet going to Coachella if they don't have a boyfriend with a six pack if they are if they don't look just amazing all the time. I think it creates tremendous anxiety and unreasonable expectations. But I do, you know, so I would argue that who's, okay, so who's at fault? We're at fault. And that as we keep hoping or waiting for the better angels of tech CEOs to show up, that's not going to happen.

Starting point is 00:59:17 I've been working my whole life with CEOs. They're going to make incremental decisions to do whatever moves the stock price up. That's their job. That's capitalism. Their job is to take a set of resources, figure out an offering where they get a get more than they pay to garner those resources and create shareholder value. They will do anything to do that. That's their job.

Starting point is 00:59:36 And then we're supposed to tax them, such that we can build our roads, take care of our veterans, and have a set of laws so they don't get out of control so that they don't lie and say, no, smoking's not addictive. And then our mothers, our sisters, and our dad start dying, right? We have regulation. We are net beneficiaries from fossil fuels and pesticides, but we still have an EPA and an FDA. There's absolutely no regulation on big tech. There's more regulation in this mic than there is on big tech

Starting point is 01:00:02 because they have weaponized Washington and money and Citizens United. There are more full-time lobbyists living in Washington, D.C., working for Amazon, one company, than there are sitting U.S. senators. So they have very effectively avoided all regulation to the point where they basically run unfettered, whether it's bots, whether it's harm to children, whether it's letting bad actors try and influence elections. And they, in my opinion, if your content can be reverse engineer

Starting point is 01:00:32 to self-harm among teens, if your podcast, if we could prove statistically that your podcast was resulting in self-harm among teenage girls, this podcast would be shut down. You would be sued and you would eventually decide to go out of business. Yeah, well, if we were harming people, appropriately so.

Starting point is 01:00:49 I would argue Big Tech does that and more every day. In these cases that just came down, actually, one in L.A. that found Google liable. Do you realize that the New Mexico attorney general, do you know what he did in his case? He created an account posing as a 12-year-old girl, and within minutes he was getting messages

Starting point is 01:01:06 and solicitations from known sexual abusers. That was their first piece of evidence, that if you create an account and you say you're a 12-year-old girl, within hours they were getting overtures from known sexual predators. So the fact that this company can target you and know that I'm wearing Warby Parker's and start serving me ads by looking at the screen

Starting point is 01:01:27 or know that I'm at Coachella listening to David Byrne and start serving me albums of David Burns' greatest hits, then they can figure out that a 12-year-old girl shouldn't be getting overtures from 55-year-old men. I'll bracket that sentence, right? That very fair and very important statement, that if there were some balance of optimization towards real protections, that that is important.

Starting point is 01:01:50 But they made, I think, $11 billion last year from people under the age of 18, but you ask who's to blame, we're to blame. Because we haven't elected people who are willing to hold these companies accountable. And their sole mission is to get reelected. And in 97% of elections, whoever raises the most money gets reelected.

Starting point is 01:02:08 And these companies are now, the fastest growing expense line amongst big tech, isn't AI as a percentage basis. It isn't R&D, isn't CAPEX. It's lobbying. Because the greatest ROI in history is spending money on politicians. I give money to politicians because I'm getting more politically active.

Starting point is 01:02:28 And it doesn't surprise me that they're whores. The most disappointing thing is what cheap whores they are. If I get $50,000 with Senator, he'll have dinner with me when he's in New York or she. Because they have to. Because the system is set up such that whoever raises the most money gets elected, and Big Tech has figured that out. So until we have the judgment to elect people who are willing to stand up to Big Tech and actually implement safe and common sense regulation.

Starting point is 01:02:55 I don't want them to go out of business. Let our thoroughbreds run. I actually believe the American model of less regulation versus more is one of the reasons we're much more successful than Europe, which hasn't grown in 20 years. But this has gotten to a point where we seem to have a total lack of regard for our children's well-being and the fact that Americans hate each other

Starting point is 01:03:13 and that we're kind of eating ourselves from the inside out. So again, we need an EPA and an FDA or some sort of equivalent for big tech, especially with AI. But I want to acknowledge the point, none of this could have happened without fossil fuels. There is a tradeoff here, right?

Starting point is 01:03:29 Pesticides are important for our food safety, but there is an FDA. We have decided to just let big tech run unfettered. And I think it's been gotten to the point where it's pretty damaging for society. I think we've robbed kids. My kids are in the kill zone, 15 and 18.

Starting point is 01:03:45 I think they've been robbed of a lot of their youth. I understand this shit. And I have a son who has device addiction who will lie, take his phone, say he doesn't feel well, take his phone into the bathroom for 45 minutes, and I have to bang on the door and jokingly scream, start masturbating because this kid is addicted to TikTok. What the British did to the Chinese in terms of getting them addicted to opium,

Starting point is 01:04:07 I think that the Chinese via poorest platforms that are shareholder driven in the GRU are addicting our youth, and we're going to raise a generation of civic, nonprofit, and military leaders who fucking hate America. We are teaching kids to hate each other, hate America, hate every special interest group, hate every ideology that doesn't fit their own. And there's no grace around what it means now fortunate are we to be American. And I think at the center of it is a total lack of regulation amongst these incredibly brilliant companies.

Starting point is 01:04:39 The most technologically sophisticated, deepest pocketed companies in the world are trying to sequester our youth from us. And they're stealing youth. the number of kids who see their friends every day has been cut in half the last 20 years. Men between the ages of 20 and 30 are spending less time outdoors, Andrew, than prison inmates. We are robbing youth because we refuse to regulate these companies. So do I want these companies to go away? Do I think they're bad people? No, but we have a system that values wealth and shareholder value above all.

Starting point is 01:05:12 And so tech CEOs and their boards will make a series of incremental decisions, regardless of the damage to the public. And we have a set of elected leaders that don't do their job, and that is they're there to prevent a tragedy of the commons. And it's Democrats and Republicans. So it comes down to very boring shit. Unless we reform Citizens United,

Starting point is 01:05:32 unless we de-jerrymandar the United States Congress, money is going to win. And these companies have more money. But no, I would push back. I think these companies are starting to do a lot of damage to our youth. I'm worried my kids are going to grow up so used to getting dopa so easily and squeezing it so fast, and this is your field, that we're flushing into society a series of young people who are so ready for addiction because they're so used to getting an automatic dopa by just

Starting point is 01:06:01 flipping out their phone really fast. One thing that I don't think I've emphasized enough on this podcast, this and certainly not this, but other episodes as well is a kind of reframe around the dopamine and the dopamine and phones. I'm not trying to correct you here, but I think it might be helpful for this discussion and for people listening to. We need to move our minds away from the idea that the phone is providing these dopamine hits because it's not. The behavior with social media, but phones generally, is a lot more akin to true clinical grade obsessive compulsive disorder. Colleagues of mine that work on obsessive compulsive disorder, I just want to give a shout out to the pioneer of this field

Starting point is 01:06:44 was a woman I just adored Judith Rappaport. She passed away recently. People can look up her O bit. There's a really nice one in the Times. Identified the brain structures associated with this thing that we call OCD, right? Hand washing, scratching, hair pulling, you know, all the variations of it. What defines obsessive compulsive disorder is that the engagement in the behavior, the compulsion doesn't relieve the obsession.

Starting point is 01:07:09 So to call someone OCD because they need everything perfect, but then when it's perfect, They're like, okay, I can relax. That's not OCD. OCD is when you engage in a compulsive behavior over and over again, and all it does is serve to reinforce the obsession. That, to me, more closely mimics what I see in terms of phone use than the idea that it's like, no way, this amazing thing on the phone. That comes every once in a while.

Starting point is 01:07:32 But after you spent a day or so on social media or on YouTube, we are all engaging in a much more passive, slow degradation kind of way. that I'm sure impacts the dopamine pathway. In fact, OCD is directly tied to the dopamine pathway. So I'm not divorcing it from dopamine. But I think if we started to look at our relationship to the phone as more of an induced, obsessive, compulsive disorder than an addiction,

Starting point is 01:07:58 I actually think that's one of the potential ways out, not just because words matter and concepts matter, but because I think in order to get out of that loop, you have to see yourself from the outside. And you have to realize that you're being hijacked. I think right now there's just so much incentive for being on it, for being in the bathroom, you're looking at the phone. Look, I'm not addicted to my phone, but I will tell you, there are days when I feel like

Starting point is 01:08:23 I pick up that thing even though I don't want to. Yeah. And that's different than addiction. I know what addiction feels like. That's not addiction. That's happening just reflexively. People aren't even thinking about it. The lack of awareness is just not there.

Starting point is 01:08:38 So, you know, forgive me for going on this tangent. But as you're saying everything today, I'm trying to think. think solutions. And I know Mark. I actually am friendly with Mark. So I think they care. I do think they care. I think they've created something so big that it's very hard to navigate and keep up with shareholders and all this stuff. But I would love to see the world's relationship to their phones and social media change so that it is more in our individual control, more benevolent. But that's against our economic interest and they'll fight that tooth and nail. But I wonder, I wonder if there is a way to incentivize that.

Starting point is 01:09:12 Well, let's talk about that. So I'm trying to think of solutions. So let's move to solutions. One, antitrust. I don't think meta should have ever been allowed to buy Instagram. I think their ability, their scale of data, suppresses any formidable competitor. Two-thirds of all social media now goes to one company. And with a lack of competition, there's really no oxygen for a company that might say,

Starting point is 01:09:33 we're not going to allow 18-year-olds on here. Any content that's incendiary, anything that looks like it's been weaponized by bots, or it might be from a bad foreign actor, we're not going to allow it. I think there's a lot of parents and a lot of people who would like to be on that platform. The game's over. They've won. I don't think Google should have been allowed to buy YouTube. And people say, well, they're great companies.

Starting point is 01:09:52 If YouTube was divested from Google, the next day, YouTube would decide to start a basic search algorithm, and Google would start another video platform, and we'd have two competitors, and there'd be lower rents on labor and on advertisers. Competition is an amazing thing. These companies are a set of distinct monopolies that extract rents from labor. from the consumer and from the well-being of America. So antitrust, Senator Klobuchar has done great work here. Basically, she says, I'm overrun. She's like, I got a staff of 60 people.

Starting point is 01:10:22 There are 200 lawyers hired by META and Facebook who are doing nothing but getting in the way of anything to do with antitrust and giving money to people who will delay and obfuscate anything around antitrust. Two, removal of Section 230 for algorithmically elevated content. Their basic premise is we're not in the, we're not a media company. We're just a platform. We're just putting stuff on a board. Well, okay, but if you decide this content gets more views, they elevate it.

Starting point is 01:10:52 They make the decision to elevate it. And sometimes the content they elevate is not good for the mental health of America. It tears of the fabric of America. I think if you algorithmically elevate content, you should be subject to the same liability as, say, NewsCorps. When News Corr and Fox told its on-air anchors to repeat a lie that they knew was a lie, that Smartmatic voting machines had been weaponized by Hugo Chavez, and they knew it was a lie, and then Smartmatic sues them and says, you cause this economic harm, they had to pay $750 million fine.

Starting point is 01:11:26 What happened on Fox was a dumpster fire compared to the nuclear mushroom cloud of what happened on Facebook that day. But these nascent platforms, which in 1997, we were trying to give them running room, those protections are in place for tech platforms that are not in place for media companies. So if you algorithmically elevate content, you are now a media company. You should be subject to the same liability as every other media company. And then finally, three, age gate this shit. The downside of Instagram and YouTube for 15-year-olds is way greater than the upside. And people who say to me, Scott, this is about parenting.

Starting point is 01:12:02 That's a tell for they don't have kids. This is where they get their homework. And my colleague at NYU, Adam Alter, who also has an appointment at the psychology department, said, when you take kids off of screens totally, it actually is more damaging to their mental health because they're ostracized from all social activity. So, and what's happened? The greatest uptick in school scores in recent history is when they do what my buddy Jonathan Hyde suggests these schools do, and they ban their phones. So I think there are common sense solutions. they keep a lot of the good stuff these companies do

Starting point is 01:12:35 while recognizing, well, maybe a 14-year-old shouldn't be spending seven hours a day on TikTok or Instagram while his or her single mother is at work and can't police it. So I think there are common-sense solutions in a meeting of the minds here, but everything I propose, they will spend tens if not hundreds of millions of dollars to get in the way of and make sure it never happens again. I really appreciate your answer.

Starting point is 01:12:57 I like to think that they are listening, especially in the wake of these recent lawsuits, where they had to pay out, granted, a drop in the ocean compared to their total revenue. But those were very public cases, and maybe I'm overly optimistic. I like to think that they care enough to pay attention. I mean, look, many of those guys,

Starting point is 01:13:17 it's mostly guys running those companies now. YouTube used to be a woman, but now most all of them are run by guys. They have kids. I can guarantee their kids don't spend a ton of time on their phones. They send them to schools. They're not allowed to be on screens. Right. They're doing their job.

Starting point is 01:13:30 We're not doing ours. I don't even kind of resent them. I think Mark Zuckerberg has been especially damaging, but they're doing their job. Capitalist society has to have for-profit companies that within the bounds of law make a lot of money. Look, you can't have a Navy, you can't have innovation, you can't have, you know, parks unless you have the tax revenue

Starting point is 01:13:51 to support this shit. So we need our thoroughbreds to run. They're great companies. But there's basic common sense regulation that should be applied that they've managed to delay obfuscate and in short it never happens to them. I'd like to take a quick break and acknowledge our sponsor, Function. Function provides over 160 advanced lab tests to give you a clear snapshot of your

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Starting point is 01:15:08 To learn more, visit functionhealth.com slash Huberman and use the code Huberman for a $50 credit towards your membership. Glad you mentioned the Navy. Recently, I was invited out to the Naval Academy in Annapolis and it was, had the privilege of giving a talk to 4,000 midshipmen, which includes both young men and women. It was an amazing experience, I'll tell you this. A guy who's been a guest on this podcast was the one that organized as Coleman Ruiz has an amazing life story. He's not particularly public facing, but amazing story of his own life.

Starting point is 01:15:41 And, okay, so you go there. And all these young men and women are, of course, in their, you know, cadet fatigues and going about. They live two to a dorm room. They do PT physical activity every morning at 5 a.m. Lunch was the most incredible experience. You walk into a dining hall without. Thousands of men and women. Tons of noise.

Starting point is 01:16:04 A bell goes off. Everyone's quiet. Everyone sits down. A bell goes off. Everyone starts eating 15 minutes later. Bell goes off. Everyone stands up and walks out. Everyone has to play a sport competitively.

Starting point is 01:16:18 Everyone there is forbidden from using their phone. Most all of the day and night. One member of this dormer might be studying while their roommate is sleeping. Every single question was about how to be a better human being physically, mentally, emotionally. And this visit was right in the, like, early days of the recent war with Iran. So they have a lot to worry about. And they're very close to all these things. The young woman came up to me and told me that she's part of the space program,

Starting point is 01:16:51 military space program. Amazing. Like, just a complete contrast to everything that we're talking about. I thought to myself like, goodness, like these people, young people like this still exist. Yeah. All firm handshakes, all eye contact. And by the way, every color you could possibly imagine. Every color you could possibly imagine, you know, every stature.

Starting point is 01:17:15 Every income class. Every income class. I would ask me, where are you from? You know, part of the meet and greet. The problem was they were like, you know, my problem is I actually want to know about where people are from, what their name is, what they're interested in. They can just take days, right? But it was incredible. And I thought to myself, okay, there's hope.

Starting point is 01:17:31 Like we came out of there. Our team was like, yeah. Like, there's hope. Okay, it's associated with the military. I'm sure people will scratch at that point. But, like, thank God that these kids and this thing that we call the Navy exists. Because it was so inspiring. It made me level up as a 50-year-old man who thinks these guys shit mostly together, emphasis on mostly.

Starting point is 01:17:54 I was like, whoa, I like, step it up. Now, probably their only, quote, unquote, flaw was I did a poll. There were a lot of questions about nicotine. And I asked approximately what percentage of the room takes nicotine every day. And I would say about 20 to 30 percent of the hands in the room went up. Nicotine is in major use in young people. Are they using the oral nicotine? Yeah.

Starting point is 01:18:14 Which, by the way, don't cause cancer. But yes, it's very addictive, raise blood pressure. And, you know, I'm not encouraging people to do it. But this brings me around to a separate point. I just wanted to kind of paint that picture. But to a separate point, you and I have never had a public art. argument, nor are we going to now about alcohol or about cannabis. But you and I share somewhat different views on alcohol. I've been very vocal and perhaps our most popular episode ever

Starting point is 01:18:39 was the episode on alcohol. I didn't foresee that. And the deal is zero is better than any if we're strictly looking at health. Two per week is probably fine. If you're going to drink more, you should probably do a bunch of other things to reduce inflammation and offset it and get good sleep and et cetera, et cetera. I'm not telling people what to do. They should just know what they're doing. You've made the argument quite aptly that alcohol can be an important, so show lubricant for young and older people so that they can socialize and have a life. I worry that if young people now drink more, they're going to end up drinking alone. They're going to end up masturbating to porn more alone. They're going to end up with more hangovers after all their alone behavior.

Starting point is 01:19:25 I think what you've argued for is the notion of healthy fraternity, healthy dating and socializing. You've mentioned bars a couple times. Alcohol as something that can bring people together in a positive way. If you don't mind, if you could elaborate on that, and maybe I'll just toss out cannabis as another one because cannabis has problems and I'll acknowledge benefits of its own. So I want to go to the first thing. First is I want to just touch on Navy. I went to Annapolis when I was 17. It was because my dad was looking to get out of paying for college

Starting point is 01:19:58 and decided I should go to Annapolis. And he took me and we did a tour. And, you know, we were very sophisticated. And it became so clear, so fast that I was totally unqualified for Annapolis. Like the kids, the average SAT, these are the finest young men and women in the world. And also, you have to get a recommendation from a senator. And it was just so ridiculous that we were even there.

Starting point is 01:20:23 I was just not of that quality and that standard. But my dad was in the Royal Navy and decided, go to Annapolis because we don't have to pay for it. Anyways, but that was the last time I was at Annapolis. But if I could have one policy, so I'm advising a lot of Democrats running for president, which is like 40 of them right now. You all claim they're not running.

Starting point is 01:20:41 They're all running. If you call me and say you're really interested in my viewpoint, it means you want my money and you're running for president. And I just say, look, that's fine. Come on the podcast and I'll rent you a check. if I could have one policy, one blanket, if I had a magic one, one policy, it'd be mandatory national service. If you look at the lowest levels of young adult depression in the West, it's two countries. It's Israel and Singapore. And despite all the existential threats facing Israel,

Starting point is 01:21:09 what does mandatory national service do? It gives you the sense that you're serving the agency of something bigger than yourself, gives you purpose, you're handling dangerous equipment. in. It's the great equalizer. You don't care that this gay kid is totally different than you. You respond to his or her character and competence. Because if you're getting fired on, you don't give a shit how rich their father is. All you want to know is, is this person good at what they do? And you put people's lives in your hands, and they put their life in your hands, and you're serving in the agency of something big in yourself. I spent time with an IDF battalion in Israel and I had the same kind of experience, it sounds like you had at Annapolis.

Starting point is 01:21:48 These are young, beautiful, fit people outside all day, meeting friends, mentors, and mates. In Singapore, the president there is arguably one of the greatest leaders of the last century, said this is the most religiously diverse society in the world. We're going to have ethnic violence. There'll be a strong man who will weaponize this diversity and get people to turn against each other. So we need a different religion, and it's going to be the flag. and we need to get people praying to the flag again. And if you look at the great legislation in America in the 60s and 70s,

Starting point is 01:22:17 which was probably the most productive, unified time in America, it's because many of our elected leaders had all served in the same uniform. And they saw themselves as Americans before they saw themselves as Republicans or Democrats. And I'm not just saying military service, senior care, donating time at a no-kill animal shelter, being a smoke jumper. There's a lot of ways to serve. But I think young Americans would benefit so enormous. from getting outside of their own circle and seeing just how wonderful America and Americans are.

Starting point is 01:22:48 And having a chance. And not only that, people say, well, it's easy for you to say you've aged out. I can tell you, as a father of boys, if we set it up well and invested in it, I think they would really enjoy a rotation through different parts of America and different opportunities to serve. So the one thing I would do going back to Annapolis and the IDF and what they do in Singapore is mandatory national service on drinking. First, my acknowledgement, as relates to the intake of any substance, if it's Andrew Huberman or Scott Galloway, defer to Andrew Huberman's advice. I just want to say that up front. You just have the qualifications in the domain expertise here. I think, personally, the risk to a 25-year-old liver are dwarfed by the risks of social isolation.

Starting point is 01:23:32 And I worry that with 40% fewer pubs now post-COVID in Britain and a lack of mating and a lot of connection, that the data I've seen, me if I'm wrong, that 95% of people are able to integrate alcohol and drugs into their life without serious consequences. If you have a history of addiction, if you, for whatever reason, don't enjoy it, then by all means avoid it. If people are telling you that you're having an issue or a problem, or it's getting the way of your work life, or you're one of those people that gets violent or mean under the influence, then for God's sake, tone it down. But what I ask people is to look back on their younger days and say, what is the most important thing in your life?

Starting point is 01:24:13 Relationships, friendships, finding someone to mate with. And I asked them, did alcohol play a role? You know, it's not easy to come in and lean in for a kiss without a glass of wine. Or let me put it this way, it is easier with a glass of wine. It's a lot of fun. I smoked a lot of pot and I drank a lot of alcohol

Starting point is 01:24:28 in my 20s and in college, and it created a lot of wonderful bonding moments. And so what I'm saying, there's a balance in a trade-off. And what I would suggest is that everyone needs to make their own decision. But what scares me is the anti-alcohol movement in remote work has led to a level of isolation and fewer moments where people can bond, where people are willing to take a risk and go up to a strange person and say, hey, what's going on? So I worry that the anti-alcohol movement,

Starting point is 01:24:55 when I see among young people is that while they've demonized alcohol, it's not that they're not getting high. They're just doing a shit ton of drugs. And the thing I don't like about many of these drugs is that they're more solo activity or small group activity. I think alcohol is a group of people I like to think meeting new strangers. Whereas when I was in college, all the dudes who were doing cocaine, where it was because they had no sexual currency and they would sequester a woman who like cocaine and going to a bathroom. That's creepy as fuck. Totally creepy as fuck. And eventually everyone's like, if a dude's into cocaine, it means he has no game. I find with people when they do drugs, it's a small group of people and they sequester and it's isolating. Whereas with

Starting point is 01:25:35 alcohol. And to a certain extent with marijuana I found, it's more social and more bonding. So absolutely be cognizant of your addiction history. Absolutely be mindful of that or any other substance you're addicted to. But I believe, and I've said this, and I've said this on Bill Mara bunch, and I've got some shit, but I think there's some truth here. I think young people need to drink more, go out, and make a series of bad decisions that might pay off. I don't think there's anything wrong with some alcohol. I worry that the risks of love. I worry that the risks of loneliness far outweighed the risks of alcohol and that alcohol has been demonized is something that if you take one trip of alcohol, drink of alcohol, you're going to get cancer or you're

Starting point is 01:26:15 going to become an addict. And I don't think the data is there to support that. I really appreciate the candid expression of where you stand. I agree that isolation is worse than alcohol and it's compounded by alcohol. So to make that point clear, I went to UC Santa Barbara. We majored. Speaking of It was like, it was part of the general education. I remember they had sand in the dorms. I'm like, why didn't I go to school here? Well, you know, it did select for alcoholism if people had that predisposition and you had to be disciplined to get your work done.

Starting point is 01:26:45 You know, my messaging around alcohol was, it was intended to land in three places. One, people who don't like drinking but felt that they had to got a great reason to not drink. Many, many people wrote to me and said, thank you. I always feel like garbage after drinking. I don't want to drink. Now I understand why I feel like garbage. It's not that I was casting it toward a particular age group, but there are many people who hit their 40s or 50s,

Starting point is 01:27:13 and they're like, God, I'm aging fast, and I look like shit, and I sleep like shit, and in my workouts, they're no good, and you might be drinking too much, right? And then there are the optimizers. There are people that are really just going for maximum vitality, not just longevity, but maximum vitality, which is, to me, one of the most important things.

Starting point is 01:27:31 In any case, people should do it. as they wish, but know what they're doing, provided they're not harming anyone else. There's one thing that I want to, you know, lump in with this discussion about alcohol and your statement, which on the top contour, I totally agree with, go out, drink and make a few bad decisions and probably some good ones. Bad ish. Bad ishish. Right.

Starting point is 01:27:50 So this is the thing, phones. Yeah. Somebody says the wrong thing. They loosen up too much. Now it's not a problem three years ago. You might be sitting in front of HR. your classmates might isolate you, right? You were in a fraternity.

Starting point is 01:28:06 I was in a fraternity. I grew up in the fraternity of skateboarding, punk rock music, and just the fraternity of Y chromosomes. Guys drink, they start saying stupid shit. With phones around, stupid shit is recorded. When stupid shit is recorded, it can be very harmful. And when you're drinking, you make less filtered decisions about what to say

Starting point is 01:28:26 than when you're not drinking. So I'm not pushing back in that sense, but I could understand why a guy in his 24 20s or 30s would be afraid, a guy that would never, ever, ever push himself on a woman, let alone something far worse, would never, ever drug somebody or anything. So I'm not talking about the Bill Cosby examples of this. I'm talking about the fear that exists in a lot of young guys and probably should exist in a lot of young women too nowadays based on what we've observed in cancel culture.

Starting point is 01:28:54 In particular, I'm just going to say a lot of white women are afraid of the Karen movement, that if they say anything, I think even beloved Billy Elish, whose music I love, was called out for something she did a sort of impersonation of an Asian person at some point. Right? Okay, always going to happen, right?

Starting point is 01:29:11 Yeah. But people see famous people get into these situations. They go, oh my gosh. So do I think Billy Eilish is a right? No, and I love her music. And she was mortified and she apologized. But it's enough to make people go. 100%.

Starting point is 01:29:27 And, like, maybe I just stay in my room and, like, scroll on Instagram. So you can kind of get why the fear of drinking might also compound some of this, you know, social media stuff that we're talking about. Yeah. So I want to acknowledge the point. I would like to say our hope that at some point, I'm really glad a camera wasn't following me around 24 by 7 when I was 18. I can't imagine. You that one time you said that one dumb thing, right? I just can't imagine.

Starting point is 01:29:53 What I do think we are headed to, though, I'd like to think, is it in an era of social media and phone? that slowly but surely were heading to a point of more grace where we forgive people, especially young people. So, and there's been a bunch of movements for a lot of young people did things I really disagreed with on campus after October the 7th. I was less angry at them than some of the faculty because I'm like, I cut an 18-year-old a lot of grace, right? Or I try to.

Starting point is 01:30:18 The thing I would push back on is that I think there's certain looking glasses in a people's soul and how they treat their pets and how they behave when they're drunk. And what I find is for people who, for every person who would say something stupid, there's more people when they get drunk who say, you know, I just think you're wonderful. I'm so impressed by you. Or walk up to a woman and say, I just love your dress. Or God, you have such a beautiful smile. Or just walk up to her to begin with and say, and express interest. Expressing interest to someone is a wonderful thing. Or do you want to dance? Yeah. It says, it says, I saw you. And by the way you move and the way you smile, I want. you, I'm interested in you. That's a wonderful fucking thing. And so my sense is that for every negative thing, it may, of course, increase someone's bad judgment is revealed in an

Starting point is 01:31:14 awful way. They've got bigger problems in alcohol. What it also does is lower inhibitions. And I generally think the majority of people are good people. And I have found that the majority of my friends and the majority of people I'm with, when they, have a little bit of alcohol, it lowers their inhibitions, and they're more likely to hug you, and they're more likely to say how much they appreciate the friendship. When I was younger, I don't know if you ever did this, when I had a few drinks, I used to call my mom, you know,

Starting point is 01:31:42 and tell how much you meant to me. Tell them my mom hear that, please. But I think that alcohol, to a certain extent, without getting into issues of abuse, which are much bigger, lowers your inhibitions, but you get to see, to a certain extent, that real person, And I know a lot of people will say, well, that's pathetic that you have to be the real you under the influence. But I think a lot of people reveal some wonderful things about themselves and also have the courage to reveal those things to other people.

Starting point is 01:32:09 And I worry that there's so many barriers now that people, young people just aren't connecting. So I just want to acknowledge the point. I think you have to be really cognizant. It's not a great idea unless you know you can handle alcohol to drink at work at a professional function. It can fuck up your whole career. Oh, I mean, one thing that I observe. are coming up through the academic ranks and that just I could not believe it that at every gathering where you have graduate students and faculty members and postdocs, it was like the

Starting point is 01:32:37 happy hour was like sort of the highlight of the meeting for many people and it became the place where in theory everyone meets at the bar to talk about the data from the day, right? Like at these meetings. In reality, 90% of the problems that existed between faculty and students and postdocs and faculty and faculty that were independently married and all that stuff, alcohol facilitated that. I really believe that. I saw it over and over and over again. Caused an immense number of problems,

Starting point is 01:33:06 and it was funded by grants. I mean, I'm a big proponent of trying to, and I have worked very, very hard on the phone to try and keep NIH funding at least to not getting cut, and it looks like it hasn't, to not get the indirects cut. This is the kind of academic inside ball stuff, but it looks like, you know, could be far better, but, you know, at least the cuts that were going to,

Starting point is 01:33:25 to happen didn't happen. So I, the NIH funded my career. I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for the NIH. I had grants, reviewed grants, et cetera. But the idea that you could spend money on alcohol, right, way back when, and then people were gathering around alcohol, it created a lot of problems. Now, students drinking with other students, less of an issue. Well, let me, let me propose something to get your reaction. I think they should study and thoughtfully consider lowering the drinking age back to 18. I live in the UK and see by your first. face where this is going. I live in the U.K. Military drinking age 18. I mean, I like some of the things.

Starting point is 01:33:59 Well, if you're in the military, you can drink under the age of 21. Because the idea is that if you're going to die for your country, you should be able, you're adult enough to order a drink. At least the logic is there. That makes sense, right? But in the U.K., if you're with an adult, at a meal, you can order a beer at 17. And even without an adult, at the age of 18 in a pub, you can order a beer. And when my son comes home, he doesn't do it as often as I would like,

Starting point is 01:34:20 but when my son comes home on the weekends from boarding school, I like to take him to a local pub and we have a beer. And I found out that after one beer, he's more inclined to tell me a little bit about what's going on with him. And as a father, all you really want, you just really want conversation with your kids. You want to know what's going on with him. And so he doesn't get drunk. He's not into alcohol. He listens to you. He listens to other people. He's very wary of it. But I find that easing young men and young women into alcohol as opposed to 21 and then they kind of go, I don't know. I wonder if we should be learning their drinking age. And the reason we raised it was mothers against drunk driving. We're very effective and very on point because of all

Starting point is 01:35:00 the young people who are dying in automobile accidents. I remember that era. I think it's gone way down because of Uber and because of airbags. So I'm proposing would it make sense to do a study on whether you'd have more social connection and perhaps less alcoholism later in life if you let kids ease into it at the age of 18. And if they can be drafted, we're now trying to get, you know, the administration is proposing they'd be drafted. So if a kid can be drafted, shouldn't he or she have the judgment to know when they can order a beer or not? All great arguments. I didn't know we were going to end up.

Starting point is 01:35:31 Well, I mean, you're talking about cannabis. Yeah. I want to get your view. Yeah. I smoked a shit ton of pot in college. I could make a bong out of any household item. I learned every line from Planet Apes. You know how to make a pipe out of an apple.

Starting point is 01:35:42 That's a very, that's like a 90s trick. See, that's sophomore. I can go much better than that. Anyways, but then 22 got a job of Morgan Stanley got very focused on getting my shit together, and I basically didn't smoke for 20 or 25 years. Now I have trouble sleeping. I have trouble winding my brain down, and I take edibles. I do edibles probably twice a week.

Starting point is 01:36:03 If I'm amped or think I'm going to have a tough time sleeping, I'll take a five milligram edible, the stuff that takes you down, I forget which one that is. And it's been an enhancement to my life, but I'm reading a lot of stuff about potential psychosis or whatever. Not for you. You're like the psychosis predisposition doesn't apply. You would already know. You'd be psychotic by now.

Starting point is 01:36:22 There you. Yeah. Or I just haven't acknowledged it. But it's been accretive to my life. I really enjoy THC. And I do it packaged so I know where it's come from. I like edibles because I like the dosing of it. But I would argue that THC is something.

Starting point is 01:36:39 When my mom had stomach cancer, I was living with her. And the only thing that worked for her nausea was marijuana. And I found myself literally, Andrew, on the streets of downtown Las Vegas trying to score marijuana because I was too scared to travel with it. And this was 20 July of 2004. And I thought, Jesus Christ, here I am on a street corner in this weird place in Vegas trying to score marijuana for my mom who has stomach cancer. So, you know, I think there's some benefits to, well, I'll stop there.

Starting point is 01:37:13 But THC usage, I enjoy. I think it's been added into my life. I'd like to take a quick break and acknowledge one of our sponsors, Element. Element is an electrolyte drink that has everything you need and nothing you don't. That means the electrolytes, sodium, magnesium, and potassium, all in the correct ratios, but no sugar. Proper hydration is critical for brain and body function. Even a slight degree of dehydration can diminish your cognitive and physical performance. It's also important that you get adequate electrolytes.

Starting point is 01:37:42 The electrolytes, sodium, magnesium, and potassium are vital for the functioning of all cells in your body, especially your neurons or your nerve cells. Drinking element makes it very easy to ensure that you're getting adequate hydration and adequate electrolytes. My days tend to start really fast, meaning I have to jump right into work or right into exercise. So to make sure that I'm hydrated and I have sufficient electrolytes, when I first wake up in the morning,

Starting point is 01:38:06 I drink 16 to 32 ounces of water with an element packet dissolved in it. I also drink element dissolved in water during any kind of physical exercise that I'm doing, especially on hot days when I'm sweating a lot and losing water, and electrolytes. Element has a bunch of great tasting flavors. In fact, I love them all. I love the watermelon, the raspberry, the citrus, and I really love the lemonade flavor.

Starting point is 01:38:26 So if you'd like to try Element, you can go to drinkelement.com slash Huberman to claim a free element sample pack with any purchase. Again, that's drinkelement.com slash Huberman to claim a free sample pack. Yeah, I think with THC, it's highly individual. Young males in particular who have a predisposition,

Starting point is 01:38:44 genetic predisposition to psychosis or bipolar. disorder need to be really careful, especially with high concentration THC, not just the edibles, but they do need to be careful. I think that young, again, mostly young men who are challenged with apathy, obesity, self-loathing, porn masturbation addiction shouldn't be using THC. I think high agency, that seems to be the term nowadays, right? The guys that you mentor, you know, a year in who are working out three times a week and they're they have a goal and they're hopefully seeking or in a relationship. They have a different self view of themselves. And yeah, I don't see why that could be a part of their week. It'll nuke their REM sleep, you know, to be specific, if they come off,

Starting point is 01:39:33 their dreams are going to be wild because they'll get more REM sleep. But creatives, there are a number of creatives who can use it appropriately to increase focus, get them out of anxiety or get them to cope with anxiety. And then there's just as many people that take it and it makes them incredibly anxious. So I think it's sort of on what backdrop. And I think the alcohol thing also is on what backdrop. If somebody's overweight, not working out, you know, a guy in their 20s or 30s that's dealing with, let's just paint a picture here. He's like playing video games. He's not like morbidly obese or anything, but he's like kind of overweight and he feels like shit. He shouldn't be drinking and smoking weed. He should be going to the gym and get himself in shape and then maybe have a

Starting point is 01:40:12 couple beers a week with his buddy. So that context really matters. Well, I would argue never do alone and and during the week tried not to do substances if you got to be on point the next day that it's something to be you know it's a recreation the thing i'm curious to get your take on is one of the things i'm working with some young men on is um i think the most under-researched addiction is porn and my fear is that i mean if you look at what again i go back to big tech big tech's trying to convince young men why go through the pecking order and the effort of trying to develop a group when you have Reddit and Discord. Why go through the bullshit of putting on a tie and trying to go into the office and make a good living and navigate the corporate world when you think you can

Starting point is 01:40:57 make money trading stocks or crypto on Robin Hood or Coinbase? And why would you go through the effort, the expense, the potential rejection of trying to have a kindness practice, look good, work out, endure rejection, all the expenditures of going out and trying to get a date when you have life-like porn. And I'll use myself as an example. When I was a UCLA, I graduated from UCLA with a 2.27 GPA, which isn't easy because it means you almost, I failed nine classes, right? And I still graduated. And by the way, talk about a different age. We were both children at the University of California, UC San Diego. Talk about how blessed we are. Talk about how just what winds, hurricane like wins we had in our sales of prosperity. When I applied UCLA, admissions rate was 74 percent, now it's nine,

Starting point is 01:41:44 graduate with a 2.27. You know what happened? Berkeley let me into graduate school with a 2.27 GPA. But anyways, back to UCLA. One of my motivators for going on campus was that there was a non-zero probability

Starting point is 01:41:58 that I might meet a woman, establish contact with her, see my buddies, maybe get her to a fraternity party or get her to go on a date with me and maybe at some point be physical with her. That was an enormous motivator for me. If I had life-like porn

Starting point is 01:42:12 on my phone, on my computer screen, 24 by 7, I don't know if I would have been as motivated to go on campus as much. And there was a little margin for error in terms of going on campus a few less times. And I worry that that mojo, that desire to, quite frankly, go out and make your own bad porn is being reduced so much with life-like porn that men aren't evolving into risk-taking, aggressive in a positive way men who are motivated to dress well, to work out, to approach strange women to go through. I mean, it is hard. It is hard to find a partner. And what I say to these men is, welcome to the fucking work week. It's been hard forever. That's the whole point.

Starting point is 01:42:53 Women are choosier than men, and there's a reason, right? We're trying to spread our seat to the four corners of the earth. They put up a much finer screen to pick the smartest, fastest, and strongest seed, and that's the reason why our kids are going to be smarter and taller than us. That's the way of the world. But when you reduce that desire, it's going to get in the way of not only you finding a mate, but developing the skills to be successful in all other parts. your life. So back to the basic premise, I wonder and worry if porn is the most under-researched addiction in the damage it's having on young men. Because what I see amongst my colleagues, and I'd be curious if I actually spoke to a really thoughtful woman about this who's an addiction

Starting point is 01:43:30 professor at Stanford. I'm sure you know her. I forget her name. Honolimki. Anolemke. Yeah, she runs our dual diagnosis of this. Fantastic. Amazing woman, amazing human being. Immediately when we got off the podcast said to me, if your marijuana ever becomes, comes a problem, just call me. And she was sincere. That's totally. That's totally Anna. Do you sense it? I mean, I'm like, she's the real deal. I'm like, do you sense it's a problem?

Starting point is 01:43:52 I'm like, hold me, Anna. Anyways, but I don't think there's enough really good research out there on porn because I don't think people want to be known as the porn professor. And so I worry that we really don't know the impact. And what I see anecdotally is that I see a lot of young men who don't have that healthy fire because they think that they can just, they think, It's like in the in the last 20 years, the guys who didn't have their own game or didn't want to be that successful, they would go to some low-income country and basically become sex-pats. This has become, I think, a much broader version of that that rather than level up, you'd rather just sit home and get a reasonable facsimile of a relationship or sex with porn.

Starting point is 01:44:33 I wonder if that is more damaging than people, than people estimate right now. Yeah, it's a really important topic. And it's one that people contact me about all the time. Your analogy of what's happening with porn to sexpats, we should probably explain what's. Expatts are people that leave the United States. I'm not sure everyone's going to follow that one. And sexpats are the, it's a community of people that, I think they go to Southeast Asia or something. And where they can, or South America where they can essentially buy whatever experience they want.

Starting point is 01:45:04 In general, I have to assume, truly never done this, nor do I have any interest. But I have to assume that these are men who just basically, figure, well, that's low effort once they have the money. And real dating, real, real sex, if I may, you know, is it takes some work. It takes some learning. And, you know, especially if you want to be told genuinely good job and, and know that it's true. It's going to take, you're going to, you have to get some reps in there. So put your ego on the line. Um, learn to communicate, learn to listen, all that stuff. The idea that porn is, is the much broader and more destructive, um, analogous thing, I think is bullseye at the moment you said, I'm like, I think people need to hear

Starting point is 01:45:47 that. Do you want to be that guy? I think with any behavioral change, you know, the neuroscientist in me says, okay, we have circuits for kind of like things that are aversive to us. Like, you have to engage the aversion and you have to engage the appetitive aspect, right? Like, so that there's a win and then there's something to avoid. I really think in order to get any real behavioral change, you need to push away from something and towards something else. Okay. So I think that porn I mean, it's our most fundamental wiring. The two circuits in the brain that really crank out dopamine. Mm-hmm.

Starting point is 01:46:19 Okay? Circuits for reproduction, sex, and anger. There's this incredible study by a very controversial guy named Robert Heath in the 1960s. He was a neurosurgeon who would stimulate different areas of the brain. And unfortunately, he was into conversion therapy. So, you know, he appropriately got run out of science for trying to make gay people straight by stimulating certain areas of the brain. Yeah. He was kind of a piece of shit person.

Starting point is 01:46:43 But again, let's look at what he did separate from that. Immediately people are like, I don't care about his data. But he gave people with electrodes in their brain in certain studies the option to stimulate anywhere they wanted. They could stimulate and get sexual arousal. They could get laughter. They could feel drunk. All the things we're talking about, really. They could feel soothing of the sort that their mother was holding them.

Starting point is 01:47:04 The area that they chose to stimulate the most is in the central midline nucleus of the thalamus, an area that my lab has been a lot of time on in other situations. And they would just lever press and lever press and lever press for the feeling of mild frustration and anger. Because the arousal associated with it is its own reinforcement. As a student of mine who's now, hopefully soon to be a faculty member, I won't name the university, but she has an offer from a phenomenal university. Her name is Lindsay Saleh. And she's worked on this in a very, very mechanistic way.

Starting point is 01:47:34 When we're angry, when we're frustrated, the link to the dopamine circuitry is just pounded out. We just all day long. And what's amazing is it doesn't attenuate. There's no threshold for anger. The more angry you get, the more frustrated you get, the more arousal you feel from that, you never satiate. There's no post-coital bliss. There's no, my belly is so full I feel like I'm going to go into explode. And so this gets to the social media thing, too.

Starting point is 01:48:02 That's the circuit that I worry about. And I think that's the circuit that, yes, I think big tech has tapped into whether they want to or not. And I think that that's the one we really have to be careful of. And I've experienced it myself. I think I actually in this moment, I'm experiencing a little bit of it, like that kind of arousal of like, yes, the forward center of mass that we feel. But when it's fuck them, like, fuck the Republicans and, you know, or fuck the left or the extreme. I mean, that's, people are just high all day long on their own anger and frustration. And I think we just see it everywhere.

Starting point is 01:48:33 And I raise my hand. I'm sure I'm guilty of this at times too. Yeah, that's illuminating because I correlate my anger to a path. way to feeling depressed. I struggle with anger and depression. And it usually starts as something triggers me. I get really angry. And then I feel like my blood turns to some sort of corrosive acid and it just wears me down. That's adrenaline. And I'm just depleted. I'm just depleted for two or three days. So I was, I have a practice around trying to calm my anger, but just hearing you say that, occasionally on one of my podcasts, when I see something that's inherently wrong and I point it out or

Starting point is 01:49:09 and just, I do feel like a rush like I'm being a leader or a baller or pointing something out. You are. I mean, I will say, you know, testosterone, conversation we've had a little bit before offline, at the level of the brain, it makes effort feel good. Anyway, I don't want to go off on too much of a tangent, but I'd like your thoughts about how testosterone can be leveraged for good versus bad and maybe even, I don't know that we put everyone on testosterone. I'm not suggesting that it can nuke your fertility if you don't do other things to

Starting point is 01:49:39 offset it. So kids, be careful. But what are your thoughts on testosterone and just sort of proactive male behavior, testosterone in adults, older generations taking testosterone? Well, I'm one of them. I'm on tea therapy. And I do it because I quite frankly want to feel younger. It makes me stronger in the gym, better erections, even weird things like my skin. The way I would describe tea therapy is it just kind of took me back three or five years in the gym. So, I'm an advocate for it. You should do it under the guidance of a doctor, which I'm doing, but I'm a fan of it.

Starting point is 01:50:14 And I think you've done really interesting work about hormone replacement theory. I've listened to a lot of your work on it. The argument around testosterone and masculinity, I think is a really important one in the political spectrum, because to the far rights credit, they recognize the problem with young men before anybody else. The problem is they conflate masculinity with coarseness and cruelty, and their solution was to take non-whites and women back to the 50s.

Starting point is 01:50:37 Some of them. I'm not trying to protect them, but I would say, you know, I don't know his political leanings, but my friend Jaka Willink has daughters. He's not that guy you just described. No, I'm talking about the far right. I'm talking about whether it's Donald Trump or, you know, quote unquote, the traditional manosphere. It's about the subordination of women. And it's about demonstrating a certain harshness and coarseness and I would argue cruelty and conflating that with masculinity. Whereas the far left, and this isn't helpful either, their advice to young men, is to act more like a woman and that they conflate masculinity with toxicity. And there has to be something in the middle. There has to be an aspirational form of masculinity. And I would argue that we need to celebrate that initiation, aggressiveness. You know, Jimmy Carr, who's one of my idols now, says, all right, you can demonstrate cruelty or you can demonstrate valor.

Starting point is 01:51:30 You can be a lover or you can be an addict. And Richard Reeves has this great saying. He's like, you want a man to be invaluable in a shipwreck. but acceptable at a dance. So there is a certain needle to be threaded here, but the Carnegie Award, which is given out to people who put their own physical safety in danger

Starting point is 01:51:48 to save someone else's physical safety. It's literally the running into a burning house award. You see a car on fire, you put your own safety in harm's way to try and protect someone else's physical well-being. They gave it 83 awards last year. 75 of them are men. men are more prone to take those types of not only bad risk but good risks and we need to celebrate that now you need both you need both on the by the way on the combat field because men are more likely to rush out and try and save their comrade but women are more likely to say let's not be stupid let's think this through you need both of those I mean this is the great thing is that both energy when they come together make a better world but we seem to be very suspicious of that masculine energy right now and I think it needs to be celebrated there needs to be someone

Starting point is 01:52:35 who sees movement in the tribe and immediately grabs the spear and goes and tries and kill it for the benefit of the community, who wants to put people on Mars and makes these crazy, ridiculous investments that make no sense and is super aggressive around these things. I think that's a wonderful energy. And when I went to the Democratic National Convention, I saw a parade of special interest groups talking about the very real issues they all face, but I didn't see one mention of the group that has fallen further faster than any group in recent. in history, and that is young men.

Starting point is 01:53:06 I think that's because based on the feedback I've received, for instance, when we had Terry Real on the podcast, who talks about, you know, some balance of masculine and feminine phenotypes in therapy and partner-partner communication and these kinds of things. The pushback that I always get for, or I got there, not because of Terry specifically, was as long as we can't talk about toxic femininity, these were clearly men writing to me, then this whole discussion feels imbalanced. That's how they feel. They feel like there's this idea that they're good men and they're bad men and they're really bad men.

Starting point is 01:53:42 Totally agree. I've got the optics of a, you know, macaque monkey biling folded on LSD when it comes to certain members of our species. But when it comes to men, I grew up in a big group of boys, et cetera, big group of men. I get it. That statement is true. They're great ones. They're ones. And then they're like really bad dudes.

Starting point is 01:54:02 So when you talk about Manosphere, you know. You know, I would say if I had my way, Manosphere would apply to just the really bad ones because that name has become synonymous with really bad men. Okay, we can come back to that perhaps. But there is this issue that no one is allowed to say there's wonderful femininity, there's women with issues, right?

Starting point is 01:54:25 And then there's bad women. You're not allowed to say it. The only women that I can have that conversation with are lesbians. They were the ones who explained to me, there are truly bad women. And I said, well, how come no one talks about that except lesbians? Because they said, ah, because we are living in a time now where men talking about women or having things they wish for women to do differently, itself is seen as toxic.

Starting point is 01:54:50 That women feel, this is what I was told, so I'm regurgitating, that they've suffered so much at the hands of men that we need like a good 20 or 30 years before we're ready to get to that conversation. Which, of course, for young men growing up, just makes them feel like, okay, it's all, it's all on us. And that's good. Like agency, advocacy for one's own life is important. Stay out of the really bad men category and ideally the not so good men category too.

Starting point is 01:55:14 But the polarization, I think, is set by the fact that, sure, we can talk about toxic masculinity. We can talk about the male crisis. But why aren't we talking about the suicide rate? Well, because women's issues, I think, in a good way, we're still thinking that we need to protect and provide for the women and the children in our society. We're holding that in the highest regard. Like those, they get the life rafts on the titan, when the Titanic goes down. So, you know, it's complicated.

Starting point is 01:55:42 And there's a lot of off-limits terms. And I'm glad that they're coming up today, just organically. Because those off-limits terms, I think, are the potential bridges between the, where we sit now, where we look at men and we go, oh, shit, they're a mess. There's a hum of them are just like downright awful. We go, we go, we're here and we go, man, they're really dissatisfied. The assumption is if a woman is dissatisfied or somehow not doing well that a man failed. That's a presumption that a lot of people make.

Starting point is 01:56:10 I don't make that presumption. And I can look back to times in my youth where 90s narrative probably fed that a bit. But now I think we need to really pull back the veil and go like, who are like take a real hard look at ourselves and try and, you know, do this mesh that we're talking about. Yeah, the only way you get there is with data. So from 1945 to 2000, America registered a third of the world's, economic growth, a third of its prosperity with only 5% of the population. So we had 6x the growth of the rest of the world, right? And within that 6x, the majority of that prosperity was sequestered to the one-third of the population that were white, male, and heterosexual.

Starting point is 01:56:47 It was just a lot harder to participate in that uplift if you weren't in that group. So men of my generation, born with my sexual orientation, skin color, and gender, arguably had 15 to 18x the wins in their sales. The question is, should a young man now pay the price for my privilege? And I understand the gag reflex when I start talking or advocating for men because they look at me and they said, you had unfair advantage.

Starting point is 01:57:13 100% guilty as charge. But now a young man who is four times as likely to kill himself, three times as likely to be addicted, 12 times as likely to be incarcerated, and men of my generation aren't stepping up and providing the mentorship or voting for the programs

Starting point is 01:57:27 that might take a little bit of money away from my generation to support all young people and bring them up. And most of the programs and policies I advocate for would advocate for all young people. The average 7-year-old is 72% wealthier than the 7-year-old 40 years ago.

Starting point is 01:57:42 The 25-year-old is 24% less wealthy. And then every day, it's speedballed with 110 notifications telling them that they're failing. And what do you know? They're the most obese, depressed, and anxious generation we've had in a long time. And there really isn't an honest conversation. And I've said this on stage,

Starting point is 01:57:59 and it gets some pushback. I'll say, I think women make better managers. I think that they're more emotionally in touch with other people. They have higher EQ. I think they'll probably make better doctors and lawyers. I think their attention to detail genetically or anthropologically, whatever you want to call it. They're bedside manner. And there's more women in both law school and medical school now, especially medical school.

Starting point is 01:58:22 If I say that, women are better managers, we'll make better doctors, nodding. Everyone, everyone, the women agree and the guys will look around and go nod, right? If I say men on average make better entrepreneurs, and that's not to say that women shouldn't be offered the same opportunities than they haven't been, right? 95% of the capital has been not only allocated to men, but the majority of it has been allocated by men who went to one or two schools, Harvard and Stanford. I don't feel safe around you. Who doesn't feel safe around you? It's fine to say women are make better X, Y, and Z. To say men are better at anything.

Starting point is 01:58:56 Better combat soldiers. I mean, let's be honest, if you said it on X, everyone would be like, cool. males make better entrepreneurs. If you said it in a room, I mean, again, I don't want to make this political, but we can't, you know, we can't avoid this. You know, if you said it among a more right-centered to right-leaning crowd, I think you'd probably get less pushback also from women. I think that's fair.

Starting point is 01:59:18 I'm not saying it's who you're hanging out with, you know. Yeah. That's a, that's a, that's a fair point. So I've got in a very small world. Well, but to your point, if you go to the Democratic national website, dnc.org, and they change this. but I talked about this a lot on CNN, left-leaning website. They said, they have a page saying, who we serve, and they outline 16 special interest

Starting point is 01:59:40 groups, veterans, the disabled, black Americans, Native Americans, seniors. And I added it up, and it was 74% of the population. And when you say you're advocating for 74% of the population, you're not advocating for 74% you're discriminating against 26%. And basically, the only people they didn't mention were young men. So I understand the notion that men have had so much disproportionate advantage that there needs to be a catch-up period, but I would argue it's gone a little bit overboard. Our school system, K-12, I would argue, is biased against boys. A boy is twice as likely to be suspended on a behavior-adjusted basis as a girl. A black boy five times as likely. 70 to 80 percent of K-12 teachers are women. Who do people naturally advocate for? The people to remind them of themselves at that age.

Starting point is 02:00:26 seven and ten high school valetorians are girls. It's now 60, 40 female male in college. And so the bottom eyes, we leveled the playing field, and there's a little bit of bias, and women have totally blown by men. Fine, more power to them. But what do we do now that young men, just quite frankly, don't have obvious past to prosperity,

Starting point is 02:00:45 and young people aren't as economically prosperous relative as they used to be, and young men are disproportionately evaluated in society, especially in the mating market, on their economic viability. and I get a ton of pushback saying, no, I'm just looking for emotionally and touch male. I think that is such bullshit.

Starting point is 02:01:01 It's total bullshit. There's still economic hypergamy. Educational hypergamy has leveled out. There's a lot of people who women who will marry a guy who didn't go to college. Educational hypergamy has vastly reduced. But in cities where women make as much as men, so there's an equality, if you find a couple, twice as many couples, the male earns more money than the woman.

Starting point is 02:01:25 economic hypergamy is still an absolutely full, full force. So if we don't figure out a way to level up all young people economically such that was more past for economic viability for young men, I think it's just going to tear at our society. We're going to have lower birth rates, fewer people to support the very expensive programs, which make up 40% of our government spending now on people over the age of 65. And we're going to have real issues. And people say, well, that's repackaged violence, that men are more violent. I'm like, no, it's just the reality.

Starting point is 02:01:55 If you look at every unstable violence society in history, it always has one thing at the core of it. And that is a group of young men with a lack of economic or romantic opportunities. I don't care if it's Weimar, Germany, or some of the most unstable places in the Middle East or Africa. When you have the most dangerous person in the world is a young man who is lonely and broke. And we are producing way too many of them. And by the way, I don't think the remedy here is affirmative action for men. I just think that's too politicized. But we have to stop transferring wealth from people their age to people my age.

Starting point is 02:02:25 Why the hell are we transferring every year $1.3 trillion from a generation that is the most anxious, depressed, and obese in American history to the wealthiest generation in the history of the planet called Social Security? That's a third realm in politics. I'm not suggesting anyone should die in poverty. Should you and I get Social Security? No. No, I don't need it. I mean, probably a third of seniors really don't need Social Security. But you get near that, you can't get elected, right?

Starting point is 02:02:53 40% of all government spending is going to people over the age of 65. It's going to be 50% within 10 years. We spend more money on ice than we spend on children. I mean, it's just there's my generation. I don't even think of us, I'm on the edge of Gen X Baby boomer. The best way to describe my generation would be the vampire generation. We were never drafted into war. We never really had to serve.

Starting point is 02:03:18 And what has my economic complexion been in America? Unpresident prosperity, but the lowest tax? is in modern history. So a lot of these solutions, I just think, are common sense. We need to do away Social Security tax, right? 6% up to 160,000. So a kid working for me making 150 or 160K, good living. They pay $9,000.

Starting point is 02:03:38 I make a lot more than that. I pay $9,000 because it tops out at 160 grand. Why does that make any sense? Two biggest tax deductions, mortgage interest rate and capital gains. Who owns homes and stocks? People are age. Who rents and makes their money from current income? All the dudes in this office, the young kids, right?

Starting point is 02:03:56 We are literally transferring trillions of dollars from young people to old people, and we wonder why young men feel anxious when they are disparate. But 75% of women say economic viability is key to a mate. It's only 25% of men. Women still look at men as economic providers. And so you have this entire generation of young men who feel like they have no purpose, no on-ramps to the middle class and are being evaluated on a set of criteria.

Starting point is 02:04:20 They get harder and harder for them each year. and then there's like unbelievable set of expectations that they're taught they should have because it seems like everyone else is making a million dollars selling ETH or is an amazing shape or has a ridiculously hot boyfriend or girlfriend and has artist passes to Coachella. So it'd be shocking if they weren't depressed and obese. Wow. The analogy that comes to mind is academic science. You know, there's, I used to joke, you know, the advantage of,

Starting point is 02:04:54 of having a dad who was a scientist who was also a little bit irreverent, was that I grew up around an understanding of how academics works. And early on, I thought, as much as I love my colleagues, like a lot of them need to retire. They just need to go. 100%. And the reason they need to go is because they were having three, four, two to four NIH grants, like a million-dollar-year grants.

Starting point is 02:05:15 And that itself isn't a problem, except that there was enough money for young investigators. And so fields die and science dies. They don't retire. And so it was very interesting right before the Trump administration came in. I started logging into these NIH hearings. And I think our previous NIH director, and I will go on record and saying, and our current NIH director, Jay Badacharya, both very good directors in different ways trying to do important different things. And you'll notice the budget was not cut under Jay and IDC for the academics out there was not cut. But an interesting problem was outed at the kind of end of Carolyn's role at NIH, the former director.

Starting point is 02:05:50 and it was the following. Someone said, what is the deal? Why are people living longer and young people are killing themselves? And we have all these mental health issues, mostly among men but also among young women. And she said, it is true that we've been very successful in medicine

Starting point is 02:06:08 at getting people 65 and older to live much, much longer, to treat late-stage diabetes, to treat cancer, to treat, we don't have cures for these things, but we've extended life for the older generation and to a large degree the quality of life, especially if they're willing to get sunlight, exercise, probably not drink alcohol at that age or drink a lot less, not smoke. People are living longer and longer and longer

Starting point is 02:06:32 and tons of research money is being poured into this. There's this enormous gap where many of the problems that are most important to young people to thrive in every way, not just health, but mental health, et cetera. They're just not even being studied. So there's this top weighting of age and of seniority, clearly in what you're describing, but also in the science. And that we're

Starting point is 02:06:54 funding, and that clearly, clearly harms young people because no one's studying porn addiction in a serious way at scale. Nobody's studying social media addiction in a serious way at scale. I think what Jonathan's done is fantastic, and others are now getting involved in this. But, you know, it's a problem if you look at the numbers as serious as cancer for people who are, you know, in their 50s and older. And actually cancers and diabetes and deaths of despair, as our previous, you know, Surgeon General pointed out,

Starting point is 02:07:26 are among the greatest killers of young people. So we've totally lost perspective in many ways. I don't know what to do about Social Security. That's your domain, not mine. But I vote very strongly for what they do in Japan. Force scientists to retire. I'm going to earn some hate from my colleagues. But anyway, force them to retire at 65.

Starting point is 02:07:45 They still collect a salary and in many cases a pension, if they're state-funded schools. They still have health care. Their kids still probably went to college partially for free, the inside ball of these schools that you and I work at, right, this whole network. And they got in. And they got in. And so let them retire. Let them keep their office.

Starting point is 02:08:06 I do believe there's a lot of wisdom in the older generations. But I was quite happy to. There was your land acknowledgement. Let me go on several. Well, I just want to say there were. senior faculty members like Loubert Stryer. I'll just call these people out who wrote the book Biochemistry, anyone they were starting.

Starting point is 02:08:20 Lubert retired, closed his lab. He made a bunch of money at Affimatrix, the gene ship company. And he used to come around to the lab and go, hey, what are you guys working on? He would talk to the students and give them amazing ideas. I think that generational wisdom passed down is great. Guess what he wasn't doing? Consuming grant dollars, consuming square footage on campus. He was shedding knowledge for free because the system is taking care. He's a Yoda, but he's an alliter. Yeah. So you work at Stanford, one of the finest faculties ever

Starting point is 02:08:45 assembled. NYU has an outstanding at the business school. We have an outstanding faculty. I would argue one of the best in the world, not because it's our fault, but because every great faculty member loves the idea of coming and spending four, eight, 10 years in New York and living in Soho. That's pretty good. That's our advantage. Hey, come here. We'll give you free housing. You and your wife, your kids are out of the house, come teach accounting here. We get amazing faculty. A third should be out put on a fucking ice flow. They get to a point where they darn adding as much value. They were the bomb on Gap 1 accounting in 1988. They get tenure and they won't leave. And they leave feet first. And the result is young people who could bring a certain creativity, a new way of

Starting point is 02:09:23 looking at things. There's no room for them to come up. And I want to go back to the notion of vampire generation. We talk about sunlight, being social, eating well, sleeping well, all the keys, right? I would argue the number one predictor of longevity is one thing, money. China's gone from an average life expectancy of 47 to 77 and 60 years as their wealth has gone up. You're in the bottom desal, I believe, of income. You live 12 years less long than someone in the upper decile, right? It's about money. And all we have done is not only suck money from young to old, we have sucked life because we are so selfish and so unwilling to pay it forward. Old people elect even older people to vote themselves more money and what they are doing, maybe unwittingly, but they are doing it,

Starting point is 02:10:05 is they are robbing life and happiness from young people and transferring it to old people. There not only needs to be term limits, Washington, D.C., the people allocating capital, has become a cross between the Golden Girls and the Land of the Walking Dead. Enough already. We have totally robbed, and not only money,

Starting point is 02:10:24 we have robbed life and health from young people because money in our society is health. How do we create financial incentives inside of uniqueness? I think that's what makes the United States great. Because I saw social media that way, but I will say that's because it worked out that way for me. I love learning. I love teaching.

Starting point is 02:10:44 I flipped on a camera and I started the podcast with that guy sitting over there, and it worked out great. The way I would describe the transition that's been bad for America is that the way I would describe it is that back when I was growing up, America had a commitment to and even loved the unremarkable. I was remarkably unremarkable. And I'm not, that's not a humble brag. I got 1130 on the SAT at a 3.1 GPA. We didn't have any money. But this is what I got. I got assisted lunch, right?

Starting point is 02:11:12 And the great state of California used to send coupons to my house. They were the same colors the kids would buy in school, so I wouldn't be embarrassed, right? I got Pell Grants. I got accepted to UCLA on appeal, 74% emissions rate. I got, I was one of the 26% that didn't get in. And I was in Sullivan came home, really upset one day and said, does this my life. I was always told I was funny. I wanted to be a doctor. And my mom said, well, is there an appeal process? And I remember the day the admissions director called me and said, you're not

Starting point is 02:11:43 qualified, but you're a son of California. We're going to give you a shot. A son of California. What a great statement. I get emotional. Just thinking about it. And then I got, as I said, I got into Berkeley. And this is a brag and a flex, but I'm going to make it. I've given 20 million bucks back to the University of California in the last five years. Awesome. So it's worked out for all of us. America isn't about identifying a super class of rich kids and the freakishly remarkable. It's about betting on unremarkable kids. So this is what we need to do. We need, if you're a university and you have more than a billion dollar endowment and you're not growing your freshman class faster than population, you're a hedge fund with classes and you should lose your tax-free status.

Starting point is 02:12:22 If a 20% of your degrees aren't for non-traditional things such as nursing or specialty construction or vocational programming, you don't get access to tax-free money. in my opinion, mandatory national service. I think there's a ton of things we need to do. I think we should tax the shit out of private schools and reinvest that in public schools. We need to disassociate house property taxes from the quality of the schools. Think about the disadvantage. Kids, the average public school spends $15,000 a year on a kid.

Starting point is 02:12:51 The kid schools in poor areas, 9,000. The average private school spends $72,000 a year per student. So if you're fortunate enough to go to a private school, like my kids, we're spending $850 grand on them. and some kids were spending 120 grand. And you want that kid to compete against another kid to get into an elite university. And we all tell ourselves this myth now that, oh, with AI, college doesn't matter, it's never been more important. And if you had a drug that can make it twice as likely that you get married, half as likely that you kill yourself, three times as likely that you become a millionaire, 10 times as likely that you run for office, four times as likely they become an officer in the military, three times less likely that you become obese. Would you hoard that drug?

Starting point is 02:13:34 And then when someone gets into the working environment or the economy, would you create a tax policy that just transfers money from you to the wealthiest generation in the world? There's just so many basic common sense solution around higher ed and K through 12 that we come up with all these reasons we use terms like network effects or globalization or tech. And it's nothing but thinly veiled bullshit to transfer more money. the bottom 99% and young people are just nutrition for older people. And to me it's fairly obvious. They're just common sense solutions. And higher ed has become, unfortunately, an emblematic of the rejection, LVMHing of America, where you either at the age of 18 have to be freakishly remarkable.

Starting point is 02:14:19 Are you captain of your lacrosse team and building wells in Africa? Then fine, come in in and we'll put you on a glide path to potentially being a billionaire president. But say you're unremarkable, sorry. your shit out of luck. Maybe you can build a data center somewhere and maybe get into the middle class. And by the way, we don't even have an apprentice culture in this environment. So many parents feel so shamed when their kid doesn't get into elite university. 11% of LinkedIn profiles in Germany and the UK say apprentice. It's 3% here because parents feel shamed if their kid doesn't get into an elite university. We need to dramatically expand vocational programming,

Starting point is 02:14:54 freshman classes, and stop this insane transfer of wealth and health from young people to old people. And higher ed, unfortunately, our industry is at the tip of the spear of fomenting this rejectionist bullshit culture, where we've identified we're the arbiters of success. You know who gets into Stanford and NYU? Two cohorts. The children are rich people. You're 77 times more likely to get into elite university if you're top 1% household or the freakishly remarkable. And here's the thing.

Starting point is 02:15:21 I can prove to us all mathematically that 99% of our children are not in the top 1%. America loved the Unremarkable when I was a kid. It's fallen out of love with the Unremarkable. Is America about identifying a superclass to become billionaires? Or it's about planning as many seeds as possible because no one can be the arbiter of greatness at 18. No one was going to see me at 18 and go, someday you might have an impact and you'll be wealthy. No one would have known that. And we've decided, no, we're about the children of rich people and we're about the frequent.

Starting point is 02:15:51 remarkable. And everybody else, in my opinion, hopefully, hopefully gets to the middle class. But if you don't, there's big tech waiting there or addict you. There's a tax policy that might impoverish you. I think that young people, people say about young people, they're entitled. I think they're entitled to be enraged. I can't imagine the rage they must feel right now. They look up, they look sideways, and they see all this prosperity. And they look at my generation and see the benefits we've accrued. And we want to spend $2 billion. $2 trillion a year on their credit card, we spend $7 trillion a year, we take in $5 trillion, and that $2 trillion is all going, that incremental $2 trillion is all going to seniors.

Starting point is 02:16:32 I'm in the club doing rails of ketamine and champagne, and the closest a young person gets is they get to throw their credit card in and I'll keep swiping it. I mean, it is literally morally corrupt what we are doing in terms of deficit spending and how we are prioritizing our budget. Our budget reflects our values, and our values are all fucked up. and have said, let's party, right? The baby boomers, let's party like there's no tomorrow. And the young people, they're going to have to clean up the house.

Starting point is 02:16:58 And the garage is on fire and the dogs are going to be pregnant. But that's their problem because I'll be dead by then. This generation, my generation, for some reason, does not feel the same obligation to pay it forward or back and create infrastructure and investments for young people. And to me it feels fairly obvious. And the solutions are fairly common sense, but we'll have thoughtful conversations. and Social Security will be a third rail, and we'll have thoughtful reasons for why,

Starting point is 02:17:24 when I sell my business, the first $10 million should be tax-free. The last business I sold first $10 million is tax-free. What the actual fuck? They say, well, Scott, entrepreneurs are more productive. We want to unleash our productivity, our most productive. I had no idea with tax. People don't start businesses because of tax policy. Did you know about 1202?

Starting point is 02:17:43 If you sell this business, the first $10 million is tax-free, if it's a C-Corps. That's not why people start businesses. No. But every day there are new tax policies that do one thing, transfer money from those dudes to us, more me than you because you're 10 years younger than me. It needs to stop. There's basic tax policy, basic health and human services policy, right?

Starting point is 02:18:06 Why on earth you're a doctor? For God's sakes, we spend $13,000 per individual for more obesity, more anxiety, more depression than every other G6 nation. We should absolutely have nationalized, socialized health care. The bottom 99% again are just a fucking body bag and nutrition for the top 1% monetizing health care. I'll put that to you. I absolutely think we need single-payer socialized medicine right now. I think it is indefensible to health care in this country.

Starting point is 02:18:33 40% I apologize, I'm going off script here, 40% of households, medical or dental debt. You don't have kids. Do you realize what kind of shame you would feel as a father if your 16-year-old girl gets a screaming toothache and you have to go into debt to get her a root canal? and that hangs over you for the next two or three years? Well, I'm all for robbing it from Social Security because I like that idea. The moment you say, you know, nationalized health care, I think, oh, boy, here we go again. But I like the idea of robbing it from Social Security.

Starting point is 02:19:00 I'm not talking about taking old people and turning them out to pasture and laying them under the streets, you know, mumbling to themselves. I do think that taking care of the older generation is important. But I do think we are a very top-heavy culture. And maybe because I want to, I consider you Gen X as opposed to boomer. I appreciate that. I really do. And actually, it raised a question for me. Feel free to say pass. You don't want to answer but earlier you said you're somewhat, I don't know, bashful or you have this issue around your age. Like I, my friend Kelly Starrett, who's a, you know, PhD and physiology, amazing trainer and stuff,

Starting point is 02:19:31 he said the best thing about turning 50 when I was turning 50. He's like, you're going to be among the best in shape for your decade. And I think, I mean, look, you look great for a 40-year-old. Like you're killing it, you know, you're fit, all this stuff. So, but I wonder, is this kind of shame around it? your peer group kind of sucks in the way that you're describing? Or is this actually about age? Because to me, one of the best things is to feel like your friends, your people, the people you associate with are awesome. And your generation, I loved, I think Gen X is an incredible generation. As this conversation continues, I'm thinking more and more about the responsibility and both the failures and the opportunities to remedy things for the next generation. That's how

Starting point is 02:20:14 we started this conversation. So two questions there. First of all, is that what that's about? Like your peers kind of suck and you don't want to be a part of it? Because I consider you Gen X and I'm not just trying to, what do the kids say, glaze you here. You're winning on every dimension and you got two health, what sounds like healthy, productive boys. Like you got it all, man. I think a lot of it comes down to very just base things and that is a fear of death. I mean, I'm not, I'm afraid of getting old and being unhealthy. I don't mind the death part. also just a fear or just wanting to feel young and vigorous and masculine and feel like that's slipping away from me. Biology is undefeated.

Starting point is 02:20:51 So I think I'm a little bit youth obsessed and a little bit agist. So I think I have just a fear of aging. But just the call out about paying it forward and the call out to your, to your, I know a lot of young men and a lot of successful men listen to this podcast. I think my generation on a lot of levels, we're talking about tax policy. but men aren't stepping up with respect to young men. If you look at the single point of failure, if you were to reverse engineer, when a boy comes off the tracks,

Starting point is 02:21:22 it's when he loses a male role model through either death, divorce, or abandonment. When a boy loses a male role model, and 90% of the time, a single parent is headed by a woman, as mine was, at that moment, he becomes more likely to be incarcerated than graduate from college. And men aren't stepping up.

Starting point is 02:21:42 There are three times as many women applying to be big sisters in New York as are men applying to be big brothers. And some of it is a taboo that men are concerned or self-conscious about expressing an interest to get involved in a boy's life because of sexual abuse from the Catholic Church and Michael Jackson and the rest. But there are a ton of men out there in their 30s. I think you have a bunch of working with you. The mayor may or may not have kids of their own. You don't have to be CEO of Goldman Sachs. You don't have to have a degree in adolescent psychiatry. You just have to be a good man trying to live a virtuous life.

Starting point is 02:22:12 and as someone who mentors young men, I can tell you it is so easy to add value. Just showing an interest, answering basic questions. This is a question I literally got now six weeks ago from a young man I'm entering. I'm on this new diet. I'm just drinking pineapple juice and creatine.

Starting point is 02:22:33 Okay. I don't have a medical degree and I can tell you that's wrong. Another question I got eight weeks ago. I saw this amazing thing. I'm moving to Alaska, Scott. What do you, you're moving to? I saw this amazing thing on National Grav.

Starting point is 02:22:45 I decided I want to move to Alaska. You have a good job when your mom is sick, right? Yeah. Why are you moving to Alaska? You're going to quit your job and move to. If you just ask basic questions, you add value to these young men's lives. Just real basic stuff. Why I'm feeling depressed?

Starting point is 02:22:59 Did you get outside? Are you working out? There needs to be a societal zeitgeist that a moment a young man doesn't have men in his life, that the tribe moves in and injects young men into their life. And I would, the call out to men is, you know, there's this, there's this great quote in one of the Paul West Anderson movies, Magnolia, where the guy says, I have loved to give. I just don't know where to give it. I just don't know where to put it. It's such a wonderful statement. I think there's so many men out there that have real, like, I think some of the most rewarding types of love is to give fraternal and

Starting point is 02:23:34 paternal love. My purpose, my thing in life is to try and prepare my men for others, prepare my boys for others. That's my job. It gives me purpose. I think there's so many men out there that could offer so much fraternal and fraternal love to a young man or a boy, and they don't do it, either because they're too lazy or they're not stepping up or they're worried that people will suspect them of something. And there's so much need. And this is what you do. You find a single mother in your workplace and say, going to a game, does your son want to join me or join me and my boys? Does your son want to hang out, washing your car, going to a game, whatever it is?

Starting point is 02:24:10 that is the, in my opinion, that is the easiest solve that doesn't involve the government right now. But the bottom line is, men of our age aren't stepping up. And I couch it in masculinity. You take care of yourself. That's the first circle. You affix your own oxygen mask. You can't take care of other people unless you're economically and emotionally somewhat viable. You take care of your family, take your extended family, take care of your community. But the ultimate expression of masculinity is to get involved in the life of a child that isn't yours. And not enough men are doing it. even really successful men. They're not stepping up. They're not helping young men. And the easiest thing to do that most, and it's so rewarding, I can't tell you, it makes me feel, and I don't do

Starting point is 02:24:52 enough of it, but I do mentor young men. It's just so easy to add value. They make such stupid fucking decisions. My job with my sons is to be their prefrontal cortex. No, you have to wear shoes to school. I know this is right. Wear shoes to school. So anyways, the call out. If we want better men, we have to be better men. I don't think you can really hit the pinnacle of what it means to be successful in masculinity unless you're involved in the life of a child that isn't yours. We have the most single parent homes of any nation in the world. We used to be number two to Sweden. We'd pass them two years ago. But that's what I would call. I constantly talk about government fixes because I'm a lefty. The easiest societal fix is quite frankly, is just male

Starting point is 02:25:33 mentorship. Yes, yes, and yes. Totally agree. I was very proactive in going out and see them. One feature of that that I just wonder if we can kind of superimpose a bolt or, you know, or superimpose some solutions on top of would be a better way to put it is, for instance, that I had no interest in playing football, but kept getting hurt skateboarding. So I learned how to weightlift and make my body stronger from the football coach, who was this amazing guy who wrote the original script for Mr. Mom that he wrote a play, wait till your mother gets home, that became Mr. Mom. He's like, big, a guy's wife. Michael Keaton, Terry Gar. That's right. So people will say he didn't write that, but this guy Bob Peters was like a physical specimen. He also played the piano and he raised these kids and his wife dared him. She said in the early 70s, she said, you couldn't do what I do. And so that was how the whole thing came to. He realized you're right. It's really, really tough. So I went to him for working out advice, but not for other sources of advice. I went to different men for different sources of mentorship. It'll become clear what I'm saying here in a moment. My academic advice,

Starting point is 02:26:39 my PhD advisor was an incredible woman. So I was mentored by women, too, but that's characteristic of acting. Was your father very involved in your life? He was. I mean, we had my parents split up in adolescence. And so we had our challenges over the years over time. You know, my dad, been a scientist, first generation immigrant. How old were you and your parents split out?

Starting point is 02:26:59 14. And did other men kind of move in? Or was your father still very involved? I sought out other mentors at that point. I resented science. I resented what he was a part of. We eventually made a mess. He's actually been a guest on the podcast.

Starting point is 02:27:10 He's a physicist. Really helped me understand his trajectory and, you know, and we've worked out our stuff. But at that time, it was, you know, it was skateboarding. It was lifting weights. It was, I want to become a firefighter. Actually, took fire science courses and did that. And then eventually tripped and fell into science and mentied myself to a wonderful professor at Santa Barbara.

Starting point is 02:27:32 And then the story unfolds. Yeah. And you're going to gag on this, but you're exceptional. Most 14-year-olds aren't exceptional and go out and find. mentors. Mentors have to find them because they don't even know. Most 14-year-olds don't even know they need mentors. They don't even know the concept. And my mom was smart enough to get men involved in my life really quickly. And it was everything for me. Everything. I got a, my mom's boyfriend gave me $200 and said, I started asking about stocks. And he said, if you haven't spent

Starting point is 02:27:59 this or bought stocks by the time I'm here next weekend, I'm taking it back. So I went to Westwood and Wilshire Boulevard and walked into Dean Witter and this guy with a big Jew fro came walking outside Saro and said, hi, I'm Cy Serro and said, hi, I'm Cy Serro. And every day, I would call, I didn't have a lot of friends of 13,

Starting point is 02:28:19 him from the Emerson Junior High pay phone, 20 cents, and he'd give me a lessons on the market. I bought 12 shares of Columbia pictures and be like, close encounters the third kind is a hit. That's why the stock is up. Casey's Shadow is a bomb. When there's more buyers for the stock and fewer sellers, the stock goes up.

Starting point is 02:28:36 taught me about markets. I've been investing in stocks since I was 13. I've made a lot of money selling my companies. I've made a shit ton of money investing in stocks. And just this guy, and by the way, he came to one of my live podcasts about two years ago. He's now 82. Just this guy's interest in me. Like, just meant the world. And also, and this is a weird story, but he recently just passed away. You know how in media there's that second family people talk about? The dude who has a family and you find out he has a second family, my mom and I were the second family. My mom's boyfriend and my kind of male role model

Starting point is 02:29:09 had a family. Unbeknownst to her. No, benones to her. But we didn't have any money, and I'm not going to judge my mom, but I'm not going to judge him. And he was actually a really good man to me. He was really a good mentor,

Starting point is 02:29:22 but he was only around every other weekend. But I had some great, my athletic coaches took a really nice active role in my life. And when I think about what it would have been like, Because the reality is you have this healthy instinct as a boy to start rejecting your parents at a certain age. And not only that, I see it with my boys. Their mom's voice literally becomes white noise to them. They like stop hearing it.

Starting point is 02:29:45 And they take her seriously or literally but not seriously. And but even just saying that boys needed men five years ago, this dialogue has come so far was triggering to some people. What women can't raise good men? No, my mom raised me light of my life. but if I had not had a bunch of men who just naturally stepped in, there was a guy across the hall who noticed that it was just me and my mom, he would come over with his girlfriend to me every other week and say, do you want to come horseback riding with us?

Starting point is 02:30:14 Right? Because he knew I was being raised by my mom. It was a natural instinct for him to come over and take me out. And I worry that we've lost that, that we don't have enough male mentors. Wow, we're going to have to do 10 podcasts. You know, I've got so many more questions. I didn't get to a lot of things that, Scott,

Starting point is 02:30:30 I have to say it's been amazing to get to just sit with you and learn from you. I'm delighted that we had this conversation. I appreciate that. The fact that we had it, I don't know how polarized people view us as, but that alone was important to me. But I'm going to think a lot about many of the things you've said. You've talked about having a code, this notion of really being a provider and a protector, building a financial foundation for oneself, you know, putting service over attention to self. and just so many things of value.

Starting point is 02:31:02 This is one that I know many people are going to come back to over and over again. And I'm just grateful for you doing what you do. You defy all the stereotypes of the groups that people assign you to, which is my favorite kind of people. I appreciate that. And again, you're killing it on the health front. Whatever you're doing, man. It's probably your boys.

Starting point is 02:31:20 They're probably like, this is what it's like to have vigor. Well, tonight I'll go through everything. I do and I want you to edit it. But just in the mutual fan club here, one of the things I don't like about podcasting is it's emblematic of American politics, and that is the more outrageous you are, the more ratings you get. So the podcasting algorithms encourage people to say outrageous things, and sometimes they're not very informed.

Starting point is 02:31:43 And I'm guilty of this sometimes. I've fallen to this Dunning Kruger where I think I know something about something because I know a decent amount about marketing or business. And I think in our leaders, we need to make intelligence and honesty and science cool again, and you're doing that. And I worry sometimes a lot of our most senior elected officials on the health side are not making intelligence or science cool again. I have friends there and I'll just tell it. Like they're not biologists.

Starting point is 02:32:08 Well, that's my point. You have real domain expertise. I think you are making science and intelligence cool again. And I think the nation is in desperate need of that. That certification, domain expertise being measured about your comments, siding data, putting out disclosures, telling me, no, Scott, you don't understand dope, but this is what it actually is going on. I think that's important. And so I think you're a really positive influence for young people who are getting seduced by the algorithms.

Starting point is 02:32:33 And there's got to be people like you out there that young men aspire to be more like that say, no, training, domain expertise, being measured, and science matter. You're making that cool again. Thank you. Well, it's a labor of love and a bit of a compulsion, so I plan to continue. But I'm excited for what ever comes next, and especially in these very tense political years, your brave one. Go on.

Starting point is 02:32:55 You got balls and brains, man. That's how I'll wrap this one. You got balls and brains. Everything the whole time, like, and you're willing to take risks and make mistakes. And clearly, you're making more better decisions than less good ones on average compared to your peer group and then some. So come back again.

Starting point is 02:33:14 Thanks again, Andrew. Thank you for joining me for today's discussion with Scott Galloway. To find links to his new book and to find links to his various podcasts and other resources, please see the show note captions. If you're learning from and or enjoying this, podcast, please subscribe to our YouTube channel. That's a terrific zero-cost way to support us. In addition, please follow the podcast by clicking the follow button on both Spotify and Apple. And on both Spotify and Apple, you can leave us up to a five-star review. And you can now

Starting point is 02:33:40 leave us comments at both Spotify and Apple. Please also check out the sponsors mentioned at the beginning and throughout today's episode. That's the best way to support this podcast. If you have questions for me or comments about the podcasts or guests or topics that you'd like me to consider for the Huberman Lab podcast, please put those in the comments section on YouTube. I do read all the comments. For those of you that haven't heard, I have a new book coming out. It's my very first book. It's entitled Protocols, an Operating Manual for the Human Body.

Starting point is 02:34:06 This is a book that I've been working on for more than five years, and that's based on more than 30 years of research and experience. And it covers protocols for everything from sleep to exercise to stress control protocols related to focus and motivation. And of course, I provide the scientific substantiation for the protocols that are included. The book is now available by presale at protocolsbook.com. There you can find links to various vendors.

Starting point is 02:34:32 You can pick the one that you like best. Again, the book is called Protocols, an operating manual for the human body. And if you're not already following me on social media, I am Huberman Lab on all social media platforms. So that's Instagram, X, threads, Facebook, and LinkedIn. And on all those platforms, I discuss science and science related tools, some of which overlaps with the content of the Huberman Lab podcast, but much of which is distinct from the information on the Huberman Lab podcast. Again, it's Huberman Lab on all social media platforms.

Starting point is 02:35:01 And if you haven't already subscribed to our neural network newsletter, the neural network newsletter is a zero-cost monthly newsletter that includes podcast summaries as well as what we call protocols in the form of one to three-page PDFs that cover everything from how to optimize your sleep, how to optimize dopamine, deliberate cold exposed. We have a foundational fitness protocol that covers cardiovascular training and resistance training. All of that is available completely zero cost. You simply go to Hubermanlap.com, go to the menu tab in the top right corner, scroll down to newsletter, and enter your email. And I should emphasize that we do not share your email with anybody. Thank you once again for joining me for today's discussion with Scott Galloway. And last, but certainly not least, thank you for your interest in science.

Huberman Lab - Male Roles, Obligations and Options for Building a Fulfilling Life | Scott Galloway

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