Ten Percent Happier with Dan Harris - Want To Live Longer? Here's the Truth About Supplements, Peptides, VO2 Max, GLP-1's, and the Only Real Miracle Drug | Kara Swisher

Episode Date: June 19, 2026

Plus: Hyperbaric chambers, red-light therapy, mRNA, cancer research, and the surprising importance of boredom and friction. Kara Swisher is a veteran tech journalist, host of the Pivot podcast with Sc...ott Galloway, and one of the most influential voices covering the intersection of technology and power. Her new CNN documentary series, Kara Swisher Wants to Live Forever, takes on the longevity industry — separating genuine medical breakthroughs from the pseudoscience being sold to anyone with a credit card and a fear of aging. Kara Swisher has been covering Silicon Valley longer than most of its billionaires have been rich — and she's watched them turn a simple fear of death into a multi-billion dollar industry of expensive, largely unproven interventions. After her own stroke at 49, she decided to investigate: what actually works, what's a grift, and what does the science really say about living longer? The result is a new CNN documentary series that's part BS-detector, part genuinely hopeful look at the medical breakthroughs that could change everything. This conversation covers both. We talked about: Why biohacking culture is basically a men's eating disorder dressed up as science Bryan Johnson, Peter Attia, and what Silicon Valley gets catastrophically wrong about longevity The supplements, therapies, and interventions that are mostly hype (peptides, hyperbaric chambers, red light therapy, full-body scans) What VO2 max actually measures — and why it's one of the few metrics worth tracking GLP-1 drugs: the real promise behind the Ozempic headlines The mRNA breakthroughs that could produce a pancreatic cancer vaccine Why your relationships are a more powerful longevity drug than anything you can buy The case for boredom, friction, and putting your phone down How thinking about death every day can make you happier and less afraid Get the 10% with Dan Harris app here Sign up for Dan's free newsletter here Follow Dan on social: Instagram, TikTok Subscribe to our YouTube Channel This episode is sponsored by: Eight Sleep: Use code DanHarris at eightsleep.com/danharris for up to $350 off the Pod 5, with a 30-day trial if it's not for you. Rosetta Stone – Get 20% off your Rosetta Stone Sapphire subscription when you sign up today. Visit rosettastone.com/happier ButcherBox: New listeners can get free ribeyes or top sirloins for a year — or ground beef and bacon for a year — plus $20 off their first box at butcherbox.com/happier BetterHelp — Online therapy, matched to your needs. Get 10% off your first month at https://www.betterhelp.com/happier  To advertise on the show, contact sales@advertisecast.com or visit https://advertising.libsyn.com/10HappierwithDanHarris

Transcript
Discussion (0)
Starting point is 00:00:00 Hey everybody, welcome to the 10% Happier Podcast. I'm your host, Dan Harris. Today we're going to talk to the legendary tech journalist Kara Swisher about the misleading and often very expensive, longevity, bullshit that we all encounter online and elsewhere. Kara Swisher is not only going to debunk some of this stuff, but she's also going to talk about what she has found in her research actually works to live a longer and healthier life. Some of the things she'll talk about that actually work, you will have heard of, but she will also reveal some really interesting technological innovations that are coming down the pike at us that could have far-reaching and really awesome effects on the species. Many of you will know, Kara Swisher. She is, as I said, a legendary tech journalist. She's been around for a minute. She is the co-host of the Pivot podcast. She co-hosts that alongside Scott Galloway, who's been on the show a couple times.
Starting point is 00:00:56 She has a solo podcast that's called On with Caras Swisher, but most relevant for this podcast, she is the star and host of a new docu series on HBO Max that just dropped that's called Caras Swisher wants to live forever. So we'll talk to Caras Swisher right after this quick break. A few things before we hear from our sponsors. We've got this awesome new series launching soon on my new-ish meditation app, 10% with Dan Harris. Many people ask me, how do I get started in Buddhism? How do I learn more about it? How do I go deeper?
Starting point is 00:01:32 So we are now going to provide a solution. Every week this summer for eight weeks, every Sunday, the great Buddhist teacher, Sharon Salzberg, is going to host a live session every Sunday at 4th, starting on July 12th at 4 p.m. Eastern and running for eight weeks. And every week, she's going to break down one aspect of the foundational Buddhist list. the eightfold path, the noble eightfold path. This is the Buddha's cookbook for human happiness. It talks about how to get better at seeing the world clearly, how to get better at meditation, how to get better at dealing with other people, how to get better at work. It really is quite comprehensive. And like I said, it is a great way to dip your toe into Buddhism or if you've already learned quite a bit about the Dharma. This is a great way to go deeper. Sharon during these
Starting point is 00:02:22 eight live sessions will guide a meditation, talk a little bit about one aspect of the eightfold path and then take your questions. Of course, if you miss any of the live sessions, you can always watch them on demand. You can get all of this on the aforementioned 10% with Dan Harris Meditation app. If you want to get the app, it's at danharris.com. Again, that's danharris.com. There's a free 14-day trial if you want to try before you buy. I hope to come check it out. We'll be right back after this. Quick word from 8-Sleep. As you know, Kara Swisher just made a documentary about longevity,
Starting point is 00:02:57 which means she spent an extraordinary amount of time talking to people who study what it takes to extend a healthy life. And what you find pretty consistently is one of the most important levers to pull is sleep. It's not the flashest intervention, but it's so important. And so my question to you is, are you sleeping well or not? Eight Sleep, one of our sponsors today makes a product called the Pod, which my might be family and I use. It's a cover that goes on top of your existing mattress. It heats and cools each side of the bed independently and automatically, anywhere from 55 to 110 degrees. Here is the actual science behind it. Your core body temperature has to drop to enter deep sleep. That's not a claim
Starting point is 00:03:40 from 8-Sleep. That's the basic physiology. The pod helps that happen. It also tracks your heart rate, your HRV, breathing in sleep stages, all without having to wear something like a ring or a watch. Eight Sleep says the pod is built on over a billion hours of sleep data. Their own clinical studies suggest users can get up to 34% more deep sleep and fall asleep up to 44% faster. Individual results vary. A quick legal note here, the pod is not a medical device and should not be used as a substitute for professional medical advice. As I mentioned, my family and I really enjoy the pod. It's super comfortable.
Starting point is 00:04:17 And it's got this really elegant readout on an app that goes on your phone that, tells you how you slept the night before. It's really nice to have the bed cool you down and then you can set it so that it will warm you back up in the morning. Also, if like me you snore, the pod can automatically raise up your head, which changes how you breathe and therefore whether you snore. So lots of amazing features on this product. You can use the code, Dan Harris at 8Sleep.com slash Dan Harris for up to $350 off the pod five. There's a 30-day try. if you don't love it. Karis Wisher, welcome to the show.
Starting point is 00:05:02 Thank you. Thank you. Come to my home here at Vox Media. I'm happy to, for you. Thank you so much for doing that. I appreciate it. Total pleasure. Congratulations on the new show.
Starting point is 00:05:11 Thank you. When I first heard about it, I was like, huh, I didn't think of you as a wellness person. I'm not. Well, but then I learned about your backstory. That's right. Are you comfortable talking about your dad? Absolutely.
Starting point is 00:05:23 That whole show begins in my dad's grave, so I have to be, I guess. And it ends with my brother talking about my dad. What's the story there for those who don't know? So my dad died when I was five of a cerebral hemorrhage. He was 34 years old. And he had just gotten out of the Navy. And he had not a hard scrabble life, but he went in the Navy because he couldn't pay for college or medical school. And so he had just gotten out, had three kids.
Starting point is 00:05:46 He got his first big job. And then he died just like that. And there's a great book called The Loss That Is Forever that I always loved. And it was, it's about how if you have a parent that dies at a young age, age. The trauma alone is hard, right? As if half your friends died because it's your parent and he was a very active parent. It changed my life in both, I wouldn't say good ways, but helpful ways in terms of coping with anything because my brothers and I are very highly functional. And so I was always sort of aware of death in the background because when you have someone who dies with someone close that
Starting point is 00:06:17 dies when you're a young age, you are aware of death from the very beginning. And it really helps inform your life, meaning it makes you happier in a weird way because you aren't scared of anything. You know that trauma could happen in any second or disaster. And you've gotten through it. And so I was very functional. And my brothers are really functional. And which is a weird term, but it's true. We're very, like, we go right through.
Starting point is 00:06:39 We're really, nothing ever drags us down. And I, and so it always stuck with me about thinking about death all the time, but not an obsessive Wednesday Adam kind of way. Like, not that kind of thing. But it was more like, okay, I'm going to die someday. And therefore I'm going to do this. And therefore I'm going to do that. and therefore I'm not going to wallow in this.
Starting point is 00:06:59 And so I was really interested in it. And then when I got to Silicon Valley, I was just covering tech just the way I covered tech. I was a really good tech reporter. Did a lot of interviews. But one of the things that kept coming back with these guys was this longevity thing. But it wasn't just longevity. It wasn't just being healthier or, you know, collapsing lifespan and health span, which you're aware of that thing, which is a pretty good concept. But it was like, what can we do to hack the body as if it was a computer or a robot?
Starting point is 00:07:26 or something. And I found it narcissistic. I found it not interested in humanity. I thought they were doing enormous damage to the psyche of America, especially, but the world at large. But all they wanted to do was keep their meat sack going. And for what? And so I decided to combine my two interests in death and awareness of death. And then I want to look at at the same time, the Charltonism of social media around health and wellness. And then some of the really big breakthroughs that are actually happening that will help us all. So it's kind of a grab bag. I have a million questions about the grab bag and all of the things you'd learned, but just staying on a biographical tip for a second. I think your interest was spurred not just by losing your father so young, but also you had a
Starting point is 00:08:11 help scared. I did. I did. I left that one out. Oops. I had a stroke when I was in my 49, 48, 49. And I was doing an event in China with Walt Mossberg. You ran a big tech conference, very famous. It was our first international one, and we were doing it in Hong Kong. And I was flying there, and I got to Hong Kong, and I had a headache, and I had migraines. I was, you know, I had migraines. I just did. And I get to the hotel room, I go to sleep, I still have this headache, and I wake up, and I start typing a story about Yahoo. They did something else. They fucked up something. And I was like, oh, these fuck-ups. And I said out loud, another fuck-up from Yahoo, and it came out, and I was like, that's weird. You know, it was weird. And I go to eat a strawberry because I'd
Starting point is 00:08:54 ordered room service and it fell out of my mouth. And I was like, this is strange. What's happening? And I felt tingling, tingling in my hand. And I couldn't speak. And so I went into the bathroom. I never forget this. And I start doing the Oscar Meyer Bologna song. I don't know why. This is like, if I died right there, that would have been my last moment of singing me. But it's a good song. My Bologna has a first name. It's OSCEA. And it was like, it was complete ephasia, essentially. And so I was like, what do I do? And so I texted my brother because I couldn't talk. And I texted Walt Mossberg, who was also in Hong Kong at the time.
Starting point is 00:09:32 Her brother's a doctor. And then I got in the shower and went up to breakfast. Like, it was like, this is weird kind of thing. And by the time I got to breakfast, it was cleared up. I was able to talk. I felt like I was like when you get your teeth filled, when you have that. I had that. But it was mostly resolved, essentially.
Starting point is 00:09:51 And my brother. brother, the time difference was so that my brother was asleep or whatever. He just couldn't get back to me. And then he did. And he's like, you're having a stroke care. I get to the hospital. I was like, what are you talking about? I'm fine. Like, I totally insulted him as a doctor. He was, just do me the favor. Go and have an MRI, please, just as for me to make me feel better. And I said, fine. And I go to the hospital in Hong Kong, Chinese hospital. And they were like, you're having a stroke. So, but I was fine. I was. They gave me medication. away and and it turned out I had a hole in my heart that the blood clot went through.
Starting point is 00:10:27 And it's been cured? It's cured. Well, it's cured. What is cured? I have a thing called thick blood, F5, F something or other, essentially Mediterranean blood. That's the way they refer to it sometimes. And I had a hole in my heart and many, just recently I had it, I had a plug put in. Because I didn't want, at the time, it was open heart surgery.
Starting point is 00:10:47 And I thought, I don't think so. Because that's, that has its own, like, why would I have a, open heart surgery until a doctor said, you know, little bits of blood are going through the hole into your brain. You're going to be demented, you know, at, I don't know, not 60s, but you could have dementia because of it. And I'm like, I feel like I'm going to fix that. And then now it was 20 minutes, 20 minutes surgery. So that's the psychological backdrop for this new show. Death, death, death, everywhere. Yes, death or near death? Mortality. Yes, mortality. So I was thinking we could kind of divide this into two buckets.
Starting point is 00:11:22 Sure. Sure. The first bucket is the bullshit. Like, I'd be curious. Like, yes. And then I want to get to what works. Well, maybe let's start the bullshit conversation by talking about Brian Johnson. Ah, yes.
Starting point is 00:11:33 Who is he? Not all bullshit, by the way. Yeah, well, that's what's interesting to me. Who is Brian Johnson for those who don't know? Well, it was interesting. He was a guy who had a tech company, and I actually wrote about it when he sold it. He sold it for $800 million or something like that. It was a payments company.
Starting point is 00:11:46 And he came to my conference, actually, one of my last conferences. I did these little people showed off new technology. So I gave them a spotlight. It was called Spotlight. And he showed off a lot of this brain research he had been doing after he sold his company because he had a lot of money and free time. And he had a depression problem. And so he was depressed for many years.
Starting point is 00:12:07 And he was talking about the uses of the human brain and different things and psychedelics. I found it a very interesting area for him to explore. And so I had him up on stage. And it was fascinating. I remember thinking this is really promising. And this is really interesting that he's talking about how to deal with trauma through a variety of new technologies and innovations.
Starting point is 00:12:27 And then he shows up a couple of years later looking like this. Like he looks, as he says, like a motherfucker Patrick Bateman killer, right? You know, he himself understands the problem. And he had gotten very much into making himself a one-man experiment for longevity. And a lot of it is interesting. I mean, olive oil, who can argue, kind of thing. But he measured everything. And to me was the absolute version of Silicon Valley.
Starting point is 00:12:55 I could not stand. This idea that you could, measuring yourself in such a narcissistic way, is going to help all of humanity. Like, I am here as the great thing. And it has Godlike tendencies. It has. And then he had this don't die thing, which he was being very cute about it. And I'm not talking about living forever. Just don't die.
Starting point is 00:13:13 And I'm like, okay. And a whole show on Netflix. He did. He did. And it's interesting. But he became kind of a joke when he did the blood trading with the plasma transfer between his son, his father, and himself. And again, I don't mind people stunting it on the longevity stuff. But he was almost cult-like the way he did it.
Starting point is 00:13:32 And of course he records his erections. He records his sleep. Now lately he's been tweeting about every time he has sex with his girlfriend who's now into this and now she's talking about her numbers. The whole thing is very strange. I find it very strange and vaguely sad. But I thought it was interesting because of, it's a mentality taken to the extreme of Silicon Valley, which is everything is hackable. And so I think your point, and we'll get to this later, is that it's fine to think about being as healthy as for as long as possible. And using innovations.
Starting point is 00:14:06 Right. Yeah. Necessary. But if it's fueled by narcissism. Right. It's an experiment of one. That's what I said to him. And I was quite clear with him.
Starting point is 00:14:15 And actually, very nicely, he wrote and I said, well, that was. tough, but you were fair. And I think that's what I was, I wanted to hear him because he had become such a circus act that everyone could easily make blood guy, you know? And I'm like, no, there's something very complex going on here. And some of his, again, some of his advice, creatine, absolutely. Interesting. Really interesting, promising science. And some of it, like stem cells that he inserts or he liked, what was the thing he was into, rapamycin? And then he stopped, because it didn't work. And like, but he had all these people using it. And, and if it very dangerous because he was sort of, he's not a doctor, he's not an expert, it's an experiment
Starting point is 00:14:52 of one, and he's giving all this advice and influencing people. And again, it was sort of writ large, all the social influencers that are full of nonsense that drove me crazy. And sometimes it's just costly. Sometimes it's bad information in making you not trust your doctors, which I think is very deleterious to our society. And some of it is just crazy. Just some of it is just nuts, some of this stuff. And I don't know what measuring his erections is going to do for the rest of us. And if it, you know, if it occurred cancer, I mean, I'm good at it. Sometimes I think he's trolling people in that regard, but whatever. I just, it's just weird that you spend your whole life measuring it.
Starting point is 00:15:31 You know, time slips away while you measure yourself constantly. And that, to me, was the sad part is his, you know, and he lives in this, he has a house that's pulled back from the sun because certain sun rays are bad. I was like, but the sun is so nice. or he eats in this way that's really joyless. You know, talk about lack of happiness. It's just, it's joyless. And it's, you know, I don't think it adds maybe an hour to his life, maybe, but there's no proof that it adds any time to his life. I'm going to invoke a name, a controversial name, because the story is good.
Starting point is 00:16:03 This is not in any way an endorsement of who I'm about to bring up. But Peter Attia, who got, justifiably, in quite a bit of trouble for his text. Idiotic Epstein quotes. Epstein. Speaking of pussy having no carbs. Exactly. Right. Right.
Starting point is 00:16:20 An asshole. Anyway, so Atia, Dr. Peter Atia, who's written a very successful book about longevity. At one point, he's in the middle of a kind of very similar move of just quantifying everything obsessed with living forever. The great Esther Perel, who is his therapist at this period of time, she says to him, why do you want to live forever if you're so miserable? Correct. That Esther puts her finger on it, and that was my thing. It was weird because one of the things when I was doing,
Starting point is 00:16:51 and I ran it to Zika Manuel, who I love, who's a cancer researcher and everything, and brother of Ari and Rom, and just this remarkable family, actually. And we were driving back from something we did in Philadelphia, and he goes, I want to write a book about longevity, because I was telling him about what I was working on, and he goes, I should write it.
Starting point is 00:17:10 And he did. He actually got it out. he wrote, eat your ice cream, I think it was. And I go, well, what's the book's title? And he said, Peter Atte as a schmuck. That was the name of the book. And I was like, that is a fantastic title. Because he was making that point.
Starting point is 00:17:26 And he also thought some of Peter's science was not on point, right? It's always selling something. It's a supplement. It's selling this, selling that. By the way, some supplements are okay. Like, that's the other thing. I'm not going to go full hog any other way. But a lot of it is just a grift by a lot.
Starting point is 00:17:41 the people. And in Peter Attea's case, I think that book is Outlive, right? Outlive. Some of it's okay information. It's just the obsession. And he sort of plays to a male, a vain male demographic. And then he does all the concierge medicine, which is how he got mobbed up with Jeffrey Epstein, right? Right, right. And the whole thing is so sad. I don't know what else to say. I find it sad. Now, apparently he is a schmuck, as it turns out, from those Epstein notes. They're not a good look at the very least. Schmock is the word, I would think is a character. Schmach's a fair word.
Starting point is 00:18:12 This dietician friend of mine, sorry, I have my own little mini stroke there. Her name is Evelyn Tribbley, and she talks about this biohacking mentality that men have. Yeah, women have it too, but I think it's disproportionate. May I make a point? When women talk about eating in a way that's somewhat troubling, it's a eating disorder when men have it. It's body hacking. That is exactly her point. This is a body dysmorphism dressed up as science.
Starting point is 00:18:35 That's right. And I think it's really true. And I have to say, there have been periods of my own life where I've followed. and into that. Of course. It's like dieting. Oh, if only this grapefruit diet would work. You're always hoping for a solution, right? And so to me, it takes advantage of people's natural inclination to want to better themselves or look better or feel younger or whatever, because the society is an onslaught of you're too old, fix your face, you know, and, you know, but men do it. And so, like, so I was at innumerable dinners in Silicon Valley. It started to happen. After they got
Starting point is 00:19:07 money and they had a little more time, they started to look at their very unattractive. bodies, I guess. And they're attracting people because they're rich. One guy was like, this one really hot woman came up to him after he went public. And he goes, well, you think she likes me? I go, I'm sure it's your face. And he's like, fuck you. It's like, that's your wallet, my friend. That's fine, which is fine. But one of the things, like the early, the Google guys used to do all manner of tests. Like Larry Page wore a pollution monitor and was telling me all about it. I was like, well, how's that going to actually help anybody or you? to know that it's there. Well, I'm aware of it. I'm like, and what's the next step? And so first,
Starting point is 00:19:46 they started doing these full body scans. That's where it began. And then everything about themselves, and most of which was pointless data. And some of it isn't, again, it's always a mixed bag with this stuff. And then they started the fasting stuff. That went on for quite a little time. Soylent, if you recall, that was another idea to cover those guys. And then it was intermittent fasting, and then it was psychedelics, and then it was all manner of peptides was there after that which is still here. It just goes on and on.
Starting point is 00:20:16 And then Elon was the one who kept calling the body meat sacks to me. Like that downloading your brain, putting it into the ether, living forever via another meat sack or something like that. And so it just was like, I was so sick of it.
Starting point is 00:20:32 I was like, I think I'll just do a documentary series about it. I'm also writing a book about it. Everybody learns a new language for different reasons. Maybe you want to watch K-dramas without subtitles or talk with family members in their native language. Your life is unique. Your language learning should be too. Rosetta Stone Sapphire is designed for personalized learning, helping you go beyond generic lessons and focus on the topics that matter to you. Rosetta Stone, the trusted leader in language learning for over 30 years, just launched. Rosetta Stone Sapphire, it's a new app that combines its proven
Starting point is 00:21:07 immersion method with the latest innovation in technology. to help you learn faster, personalize your lessons, and have more fun along the way. I love learning new languages when I was a journalist and I had to travel all over the world. One of the best parts of my job was picking up the language locally. I have spent a lot of time in the Arab world, in the early aughts, and got pretty good at speaking Arabic. Not for nothing, given that this is a happiness show. Learning a new language is a great way to keep your brain sharp. If you want to take your language skills to the next level, don't wait to try Rosetta Stone Sapphire.
Starting point is 00:21:40 10% happier listeners can get 20% off their Rosetta Stone Sapphire subscription. When they sign up today, you'll get unlimited access to all 25 Rosettastone languages, plus all the new Sapphire learning tools. Visit www. rosettastone.com slash happier to redeem your 20% off. That's www. rosettastone.com slash happier and start learning a language for real. This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. For some people, summer is their favorite season. Travel picks up. Kids are out of school, and adventure is the focus. For others, juggling it all can be tough and can lead to overwhelm and counting down the minutes until the kids are back in school. Many people worry they're wasting
Starting point is 00:22:25 the days of sunshine, not feeling at their best. I get it. Actually, historically, summer has been a time where my depression would come back, and then I would feel guilty about not enjoying all the goodness of summer, which can lead to a kind of downward spiral. Therapy can be a great way to help you better understand what your needs are, to feel more confident about setting boundaries, to create a version of summer that actually feels good for you. With over 30,000 therapists, BetterHelp is the world's largest online therapy platform, having served over 6 million people globally. Better Health therapists work according to a strict code of conduct and are fully licensed
Starting point is 00:23:04 in the U.S. You don't have to say yes to everything this summer. Find support in therapy, sign up and get 10% off at betterhelp.com slash happier. That's betterhelp.com slash happier. Grilling season is here. And let's be honest, the difference between a good cookout and a great one comes down to the quality of the stuff you're grilling. You can have the best grill set up in the world. But if what you're cooking isn't great, it shows. All of this brings me to one of our sponsors today, Butcher Box, a company that my family and my family and I use ourselves. They deliver premium, responsibly sourced meat right to your door. So you're starting with the good stuff every time. My family and I are not huge meat eaters. I spent many years as a vegetarian myself and my diet is heavily weighted in that direction. But when I do eat meat, I want it to be, as I said, high quality and responsibly sourced. Butcher box delivers over 100 premium protein options straight to your door from grass-fed beef to wild-caught seafood. It's all raised
Starting point is 00:24:09 and source the right way, no antibiotics, no added hormones, no fillers, just clean, reliable protein you can feel good about. Plus, it's super flexible. You can customize your box based on whatever you're cooking and it all ships free with recipes, grilling tips, and exclusive deals. As an exclusive offer, new listeners can get their choice between free rib-eye or top surlines for a year or ground beef and bacon for a year, plus $20 off when you go to butcherbox.com slash happier. That's right, your choice of ribby or top sirloins for a year or ground beef and bacon for a year, plus $20 off your first box. And free shipping always.
Starting point is 00:24:46 That's butcherbox.com slash happier. Don't forget to use our links so they know we sent you. Where do you come down on some of these things you've just listed, peptides, pan scans? Don't need the scan. They don't. A good annual physical is fine. It's fine if you want to do it for your own enjoyment. You happen to have the money, but it doesn't give you any, unless you find yourself,
Starting point is 00:25:14 to have a tumor, which, okay, that's a good thing to find. But for the most part, you know, you get these false positives and you do more tests that you don't need. So it doesn't really gives you an enormous amount of insight. It gives you, and it only gives you insight in the moment, in that moment of your body's time. So it's expensive and kind of pointless in a lot of ways. A good annual physical with a series of blood tests is plenty, and most people should have those, which they don't in this country. Well, we can get to that in a minute. But, and the other thing is, So that, I'm like, you don't need that unless you have so much money. And I still don't understand why you need to, you don't even understand that data or what it means.
Starting point is 00:25:51 And again, it's a snapshot in time. Peptides is really, that's the new trendy thing. You know, look, GLP-1s are peptides, right? So, you know, a lot of people are using them and they, of course, everything is like, I feel better. I'm like, and not scientific. None of the science is there yet. And I don't mean to say it's not going to be. It just isn't.
Starting point is 00:26:09 If you go, if you actually go find all the studies, very unproven. And that's my issue with it. It's like, you feel better, really? Thank you, Dr. Einstein. Like, I don't get it. Like, and that's, and also, you're using peptides that are been mixed, largely in China right now, which is where they're getting from them. And so whenever someone does this, they're like, peptides, I'm like, China, they may not be pure. Sepsis. Sepsis is real bad. And you could get sepsis. Like, I'm like, Why are you doing this for unproven science? Like, it's kind of silly, and people just shove it in there and their body. Scott Galloway, Scott Galloway, your co-host on Pivot, on Pivot, podcast.
Starting point is 00:26:47 And then NADS, that's the other one. I feel better. Some of it is useful for healing, wounds and things like that. Nads? Nads, it's another thing. They just, the rich people go through them really fast. And they, you know, in the Hamptons, they go through them. Oh, I'm taking this.
Starting point is 00:27:02 I'm taking that. Red light, people are mad at me, but most of the science is, is, somewhat promising, but not yet. This is red light therapy? It works on plants in space. It helps them grow. And if you're a plant in space, I highly recommend it. Some inflammation stuff, sure.
Starting point is 00:27:21 But my issue is the amount of money and the promises. It's not just possible small amounts of information is it is going to make you young. It is going to solve your cancer. I'm like, no, they don't usually do that with red light. But what they do is they ascribe if you look online. they give it an answer for everything. And the science just isn't there. And I'm just like, I'm sorry, I cannot find really good scientific gold standard proof that this is the case. And so, but then you have people who just swear, I feel better. I feel, but I'm like with a $600 face mask,
Starting point is 00:27:53 same thing with heavy supplements, right? Some of them, vitamin K, probably. It's hard to get it elsewhere. D12, yes, that's something you don't get as easily. But, you know, say fish oil. I get it, why people are taking it, eat a piece of fish. Like, I'm just, I don't know, just, or protein maxing. That's the other one. Men. You don't need this much protein. Every single study says you don't need this much. You need a certain amount. That's true. Same thing with fiber, something else. But what they do is they take one thing and then take it, if a little protein is good, then a lot of it has to be really good for you. And it's not. R ofK, it's not. Do not eat caribou, no matter what he says. It's not going to be good for you in the end. And you're going to die. And so a lot of these interventions are not going to be good later, right, when you're older.
Starting point is 00:28:39 And I worry about that. Hyperbaric chambers, I went in one. You do not need a hyperbaric chamber unless you are involved in the building of the Brooklyn Bridge in the 1890s, yes, or 70s. That's an important. Ben's. The bends is a terrible thing, and you should go in a hyperbaric chamber. There's some indication around wound healing and you have surgeries and stuff, but a lot of people are using it, like just go in it. And again, If a little oxygen is good, a lot more might be better. And they can also blow up. That's always an issue. And you can get a stroke in there, too. Like, I'm sort of like, for what is, I feel better? Oh, okay. Great.
Starting point is 00:29:14 Good for you. It costs $300 to sit in there and get more oxygen. I don't, again, it's people take advantage of it. I'm trying to think of some other things. There's so many. Recently, there was electric. Oh, sorry. Go ahead.
Starting point is 00:29:24 Electric vests when you exercise, it's shock you. I mean, you remember those, like, remember the thing where they like shook your butt that you back in the old days? Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. That didn't work. Like, but everyone was doing it. Like, that's the kind of thing. Electric vests that shock you while you're working? Someone sent it to me the other day.
Starting point is 00:29:40 Yeah, you wear a vat. Well, weighted vests. Fine. Okay. Those are okay. Those seem fine. You have to be careful about on your joints and everything else. But they're electric vests and they shock you.
Starting point is 00:29:52 I just couldn't even. I was like, no, we're not doing, we're not doing this. Something else you test on the show alongside India aforementioned Scott Galloway is sound therapy? Sound therapy, which is actually at some point, there is some. indications that sound can calm people, cortisol issues, things like that. But you already know this when you listen to a symphony. You know, you already know this as a human being. And so this was, but here it is taken to extreme. It's a giant, seven, I don't know, 15,000. I forget how much it was. It was some number that was large. It's a pod that you sit in and you listen in indigenous music,
Starting point is 00:30:24 and it vibrates. I don't know. I could sit on the subway and listen to Chikovsky and have the same experience. You know what I mean? Like kind of thing. And so they're trying to do the science around it. And I do, you, you know, I think through history, music has been really important to people and they're, and they're, um, took for calmness, for cortisol, for all kinds of, you know, I can see it, but it's also, again, unproven. And you don't need a pod to do it. Right. Uh, Spotify subscription might do the trick. Correct. Calm. Like, whatever. Just use calm. And, you know, I think at the same time, then people are like going into chatbots and using their phones, which are very bad for your health. Like, constant doom scrolling besides upsetting you
Starting point is 00:31:05 and creating all manner problems has all these deleterious effects on you. And it's going to be utterly proven the negative effects, especially chatbots on people. They start to get psychosis around it, especially with kids. A lot of kids have committed suicide after having chatbot relationships, which a lot of these tech companies are coming in. And so the things that really hurt you, no one's focused on because this is what we've accepted as our reality, which is constantly being staring at a device. I completely see how being sucked into your device all day long, specifically social media with the toxic comparison and anger and anxiety. Lack of movement. And lack of movement. But chatbots specifically, like I talk to Claude about my creative
Starting point is 00:31:51 stuff. Sure, that's fine. Okay, that's different. It'll be better to talk to a human. Like actually. I do both. Yes, exactly. I mean, I think I'm talking about the dependence on it. And you can see it moving that direction. I interviewed Cherry Turkle of MIT who's been studying this for years, and it is starting to become a real problem because it was usually a fringe thing that people had. But when you start to create relationships that are without friction, it's not good for your brain.
Starting point is 00:32:15 It's just not. One of the things that Silicon Valley people say all the time, the word seamless. Let's make it seamless. I'm like, let's not make it seamless. Because friction is actually very good for your cognitive development. friction, doing things different, interacting with people. You know, Zieg does all kinds of different things from his job. He makes honey.
Starting point is 00:32:32 He dances. He does very good for your health, actually, your cognitive health, especially, which is critically linked to your other health, right? It's all part of a system. And so, you know, it's fine, but it becomes addictive in that way. And especially, you know, with young men watching porn all the time, young women, self-esteem, this all has health effects on people. And then it removes people from other people.
Starting point is 00:32:57 So I did a sober rave, which I hated because I don't like dancing in the sauna with young people. But it's actually very good for you. It's like group activities. I play games. Games, game plan. I brought a neuroscientist to a game playing night in Brooklyn where all these young people put their phones down. They play games, mahjong, chess, poker. By the way, these young people cannot play poker.
Starting point is 00:33:20 I beat them all very badly. Like a drum. I beat them like a drum is what it was. But it was actually fun. You know what I mean? And I felt better after it. And I couldn't quantify it. But we spent a lot of time because of digital issues away from each other. If film was like, what's the number one thing you can do for longevity? I was like, well, don't be poor, really. That's, you know, be rich because that really helps you in terms of longevity. Two things. Universal health care for the whole population and community, friends and family. Scientific research on this is very clear. Human interaction is probably one of the healthiest things you can do and have connections with people. and lack of connections, loneliness. We talked about that. The separation and isolation is incredibly bad for humans.
Starting point is 00:34:02 Yes, you interviewed Bob Waldinger, who is, in my opinion, just kind of like world historic. Right. In terms of what his research has shown, which people listening to the show probably are familiar with, but this study of multi-generations in the Boston area for 90 years. Both poor and rich, too, they studied. Yeah. Yes. And the number one variable in your longevity is, not being in a hyperbaric chamber.
Starting point is 00:34:27 It's the quality of your relationship. The quality of your relationships. And it's scientifically, and they're, you know, they're adding things on to that to show that. And I think, oddly enough, people intuitively know this, right? Because the other night, I had a mahjong. I got a la Mahjong lesson. I hired this lady to do, I want it in a school auction.
Starting point is 00:34:42 And so she came and invited 16 people who did not know each other very well. They knew me, but weren't friends necessarily, because it's easier to fall into easy patterns with friends. And we had a fucking ball. And everyone was like, I feel better. And I was like, actually, if we looked at your brain right now, you would be better, right? And it was really interesting. And it was a feeling of happiness, like happiness of connection.
Starting point is 00:35:07 Even negative connections can be helpful, right? You know, fights and things like that, as long as you're doing them in a healthy and non-toxic way. Even one of the things that I found interesting among the studies was encounters with people you don't know, good encounters socially. like you say hi to a barista or something like that is good for everybody. And I would challenge everybody, I say this and a lot of things, when you go out for coffee,
Starting point is 00:35:33 look at the barista and say, hey, how's your day? This is what happens. Like you could see, like, look up, what? You're interested in me? And follow it with, with, watch my son do this. And it's really something
Starting point is 00:35:47 when you actually are paying attention to it. How's your day? Like, oh, good. Like, oh, what are you doing fun this weekend? Like, it's a good. game changer and you could see it and then you feel better and then but there are all kinds of scientific i mean bob is great this happiness study at harvard it's harvard the harvard happiness study and it's really quite remarkable now look miserable people live along too as we know but
Starting point is 00:36:07 but connections who could you be referring to my mother um but um i thought you were talking about but she's a lot of community oh he is well you know he has a lot of community oddly enough he surrounds himself with people all the time if you think about it he's very social yes he's very social. I don't think he's any friends, and he gives a lot of people he knows. And, but I do think, I mean, can you imagine, you know, hugging it out with a guy with him? No, you wouldn't, you wouldn't see that. But he has connections. He does make connections, whether they're lones and people, that's for sure, but he does make connections. He's very, he likes those outdoor activities. It's always in service to his ego so that they, come let us adore me kind of stuff.
Starting point is 00:36:50 Watch me cheat at golf. Watch me cheat. He had golf, stuff like that. But he, he has, actually is very social. No, that is a fair point. He wants a ballroom for fuck's sake. He's obsessed with it. Exactly. We've now moved into the what works section, but I'm just curious, like, has your social life changed as a result of doing this? Yeah, I'm doing more things I don't, one of the things that Zeke does, which I thought was good, is try something you couldn't try. Like, I learned to play mahjong. I'm not going to keep at it necessarily, but trying to do different, I'm looking at that ukulele over there. I'm like, I should learn to play that ukulele. You know, some people do crossroads, but it has to be beyond that kind of stuff. I definitely remove the phone
Starting point is 00:37:27 from my presence more because you have to. You're addicted to it. You can't help but look at it. It's an addiction to machine. And so I remove it. I spend a lot more time with my kids in, you don't have to like do constant like things, just sitting quietly. The other day I found myself, I went into a church and just sat. I haven't been in a church in a long time. It was lovely, actually. going to get Kara Swisher meditating? No, never. I'm such a monkey mind. No, I'm the worst meditator. I'm literally, I can't do it. I can't do it. I have a monkey mind. Can we talk about this? Sure. Because Zeke, Zeke's on my show as part of this same series we're doing about longevity. And he said the same thing to me. Can't too. And none of the Emanuels can meditate. I want to preface when I'm
Starting point is 00:38:12 about to say. Are we going to meditate? No, we're not. I want to preface it by saying, I'm not trying to convince you to do anything. I never do that. I just want to convince you that the story you're telling yourself that you can't do it is false. That's true. So meditation does not involve clearing your mind. It just means focusing your mind for a nanosecond or two on one thing, usually your breath. Every time you get distracted, you start again. And in the waking up from distraction, you learn to be less owned by the monkey mind.
Starting point is 00:38:40 Oh, interesting. So there is so much science on meditation being so good for your mind. I mean, absolutely. There's no question in my mind that of all the many things you could do, a meditation every day is probably one of the most healthy things you can do for yourself, both cognitively and personally, and from just a, just a sole point of view, right? But health, health, absolutely. I have no, every bit of science explains this very clearly. And it's one of the ways to do it. Here's how I do it. One of the things I started doing, I did V-O-2 Max, which I do think is actually a great indicator.
Starting point is 00:39:10 Can you describe what that is? V-O-2 Max is basically how your muscles and heart work together in a more efficient manner. That's the easiest way to put it. And you have a score, once you, when you, when you, you're When you take the test, you put one of those, you know, one of these masks, like Bain masks on your face. Tom Cruise has it and, you know, the full facial breathing thing. While you're running. You don't have to run that hard, but you have to run a certain amount. What you want to do is you want to get your heart rate up and then it's the ability to get it down again.
Starting point is 00:39:39 Like that's, you know, so intermittent running is actually one of the best things. A lot of men are like, I'm going to run until I drop. I'm like, don't do that. That's really bad for you. You could possibly have a heart attack. running up the scale, say zone one, zone two, zone three, go back to zone one. How quickly does your body, your heartbeat, go back down to whatever it happened? In my case, it's 110 to 120. How quickly does it go down from 130? And so VO2 Max measures this. That's all. It's a test. And I got my VOT2 max up quite a bit. Like I was in the low 30s. I got it up to 37 now. So I started running. That's what I, because I used to run. I stopped. And then I started. started again. It's on the treadmill. And on the treadmill, I don't, I don't listen to anything. I don't listen to music. I just do it. And that's my meditative. That is a meditative. That's what I do.
Starting point is 00:40:29 And I let my mind wander. And I get bored, if that makes sense. Like, and that's the hardest part is, I was with my kids the other day, and there was a story about boredom and, like, people's inability to be bored now. And my son goes, what'd you do when you waited in line? I'm like, we were bored. Like, you stood there. And you either talked to people. And you. And you'd talk to people. And, people, you didn't do anything. Like, you didn't. And there was nothing to look at. Maybe you had a newspaper, possibly, or a magazine, but mostly you were bored. And the ability to be bored is something I want to sort of have happened to me. Well, a lot of creativity can come out of. Absolutely. Absolutely. Where do you get your, I get it in the shower? I often get it in meditation.
Starting point is 00:41:12 Oh, interesting. Because what's happening is you're turning down the volume on habitual thought patterns and then new things arrive. 100%. I do it in the shower. I suddenly am like, oh, yes, that. Like that kind, because I'm just staring, essentially. And I do think that's, like, a lot of those quiet moments are really important. And I went to Korea, and that's a really interesting country.
Starting point is 00:41:33 They've got all manner of problems in Korea. Let me just say, but the longevity is going up, up, up, up, up, especially among women. And first thing is absolutely universal health care. Universal health care for everybody. The rich get better health, but everybody gets. It's a very quality level of health care every year. And they can go up to 16 times and get tests and stuff like that. They're focused on the face.
Starting point is 00:41:56 People are thinking is vain. I'm like, actually, it isn't. It's about you're keeping your body feeling good, right? And I think that's interesting. And when you say, how are you? In Korean, what they were telling me is the expression is, how is your body? So they're thinking about it. And then the last thing is their nutrition from a young age.
Starting point is 00:42:12 I went to a school and the stuff they're serving. It's like these kids, it's unrecognizable in this country. They learn from a very young age to eat healthy foods, whether it's fermented foods. RFK, you're right about ferments. You're absolutely right. Ferments are good for you. But they fermented foods, they have a protein, they have a whole food, a whole fruit, a whole vegetable. And these kids eat this as if they were eating Doritos and hot dogs.
Starting point is 00:42:38 It's really quite something to watch in terms of. But it's not like they don't eat snacks later. I mean, you've seen K-pop Demon Hunters. they absolutely do. But they have a base of healthy eating for the whole population that I think it's probably contributing to that. Okay, just to reset, we've talked about the bullshit. We've talked about the stuff that works.
Starting point is 00:43:01 And then there's a subsection of the stuff that works that is frustrating for you because it works, but it's so expensive. Most people can't access it. Right, which I find irritating. So what goes in that category? Just even the ability to belong to a health club and go there. Right? Many people have two jobs. You know, that was one exchange with Brian that I thought was my favorite in the whole series where he goes, you know, everyone can get a good night's sleep. I go, everybody can't, Brian. Like, that he thought that some people, you know, your single mother, two jobs, you got to do in a bad section of town, you can't sleep very well. You have housing insecurity. You have health care insecurity. You have childcare insecurity. One after the other, the health implications just, you can't sleep very well. You have housing insecurity. You have health insecurity. You have health implications just, And that to me is one of the things that was sort of like the amount of money we spend in not keeping people well at the beginning in preparation.
Starting point is 00:43:58 It's like it's like putting $20 in the bank and then when you get to $70, you have a million dollars. It's like this is the money we pay in that period, the statistic that got me is I think in this country, our health span is 65 apparently. that's what it's at now. Our lifespan is 79 now, which seems very young for most people, right? But that's what it is. That 14-year gap is all sick care. It's, you know, hypertension, inflammation, cancer, blah, blah, blah. First, you have to collapse that. That would be great to collapse the lifespan and health span. The other part is we spend 15K, a little bit more than 15K on health care per capita. And we are at the lowest of every wrong, every single indicator of health. We're. We're we're at the bottom of. Korea, every peer country, essentially, is $6,000, $7,000, and they have so much better health outcomes. So to me, it's an economic argument. What are we doing? Like, we're wasting money on people dying, like, in a ways that are totally preventable. And that's the other part. So, and let me put the last part, I would say, is some of the medical breakthroughs. That, to me, was really exciting. That's the part I really thought was important, was that all this noise,
Starting point is 00:45:16 everything else, there are medical breakthroughs happening around MRNA technology. What's that? Vaccines. Okay. It's the MRNA vaccines. It was used for COVID, but MRNA is messenger RNA, ribbonneuc acid. It's the COVID vaccine, except it was originally meant studied for a cancer vaccine. They can, they will be able to do a cancer vaccine.
Starting point is 00:45:37 They just announced a pancreatic vaccine, pancreatic cancer. vaccine. This is a very trouble. This is a cancer that is not easily treated. Yeah. They've made huge strides in breast cancer and lung cancer and lung cancer, excuse me, breast cancer and a variety of cancers, but lung cancer and pancreatic cancer are very difficult to treat with current methods. And so these MRNA technologies are amazing, but what is the Trump administration cutting? So I visited an MRNA lab. And essentially the head of it who won a Nobel Prize is like, they're murderers. We're killing people. So, MRNA technology, amazing.
Starting point is 00:46:13 GLP-1 technology is really interesting, speaking of peptides, but this idea of helping use this drug to get people slim, but then accompanying it with food education and exercise education, groundbreaking. But they're expensive. They are now. They shouldn't be. If I was running it, I give everyone who needed a GLP-1, you take it. And then there's right now all these studies about its help in cognitive health,
Starting point is 00:46:41 strokes and things like that. Do you take one? I do now because my cardiac doctor was like a very small amount, but it's like two. I forget what it is. I haven't started yet. But it's in order to prevent the stroke because there's all these indications that GLP1 drugs help with strokes. And I don't want a recurrence of my stroke. All manner of things, but we should be doing gold standard tests on all this for our citizens so that we get rid of obesity. We get rid of food, food noise. It has indications around addiction. I interviewed Ron Kessler, his former FDA commissioner. He himself, smart man, educated man, has enough money, was way overweight, and GL1s is the only thing that worked.
Starting point is 00:47:22 I just saw Whoopi Goldberg, who talks about it. She was 230 pounds. Now she's healthy. She said she's gotten rid of her hypertension, it's gotten rid of, like, there's all these great stories, but it's not just about weight. It's about other things, too, addictions. The other thing I thought, I think is amazing. I hate to say AI, but AI and drug discovery, AI and cancer research, gene folding, CRISPR, I interviewed Jennifer Dowdna. I went to one lab at Stanford, right? When I had my stroke, they used a catheter that went up my leg and put a plug in my heart, right? That was perfect. There's a new technology they're
Starting point is 00:47:59 working on at Stanford, which is astonishing that I show in the show where they have this, remember the fantastic voyage when they injected the little ship into the rich guy in order to solve the clot or whatever he had. It's an old, look it up. It's about these bunch of scientists that get injected into the body and they get attacked by white blood cells. Anyway, it's a great show. It's an old, and it's like all old, glitchy, you know, technology that looks stupid on the screen, but it's fantastic, you know, like the, you can see the string for the thing. And, and so this thing goes, this is a little nanobot. It's not that small. It's small. It's good. It's inject it into your neck. If you have a stroke, right when you're having a stroke, they inject in your
Starting point is 00:48:40 neck and through magnets and AI and a mapping of your particular brain, it goes to the stroke and it eats it, and then it comes out. Wow. Now they have to put catheters up there, which is better than before, right? Everything has gotten better. And if sometimes the blood clot would break off and go further, which is worse, right? So there's just this amazing technologies that people work on, all of which are being decimated by the Trump administration, the stuff we're doing here around vaccines alone is murderous
Starting point is 00:49:09 as far as I'm concerned, that we are demonizing a technology that has been so helpful to humanity and keeps us healthy. You know, the fact that measles is back, I mean, I call Robert Irf Kenny Jr. Best friend to measles. And yes, he's right about eating apples, Robert. Thank you. No shit. No shit in apples good for you. Just to double click on what you said before, we may have a vaccine for pancreatic cancer. Yes. Yes. I just interviewed the guy who's working on at Sloan Kettering. What they do is they eventually, this was really interesting, you'll get the vaccine before you get pancreatic cancer. And there's lots of different ways to do this. One is to prevent things that later lead to pancreatic cancer.
Starting point is 00:49:53 Another one is to solve the, give you a longer lifespan in the thing. People with pancreatic cancer usually get like six months to two years to live, essentially. The people that were on these vaccines, these specialized vaccines aimed at them, which is how MRNA technology works, they're living eight to nine, like eight to nine years, which is really like it changes the game. And then there's, think about all that expense in that time period of dying, like the amount of how, it's expensive to die in our country, right?
Starting point is 00:50:23 Because we hold people on that should go. And we also can't solve the real problems, which is mobility and stuff. And then the last thing I thought was amazing in Korea was these exoskeletons, that they're working on all these moat devices. that are powered by AI and mechanics. It used to be a lot of this stuff
Starting point is 00:50:42 was just mechanical, but AI is now involved that people that can't walk will walk with these exoskeletons. And think about the health care implications there, sitting in a chair, all that health care. You know, if you could walk and be mobile,
Starting point is 00:50:57 it changes your mental outlook, it changes your health outlook, and the government is funding them. Lots of experiments. Even AI that, you know, I think is quite the way we are putting, it out because the companies are in charge of guidelines for AI, and they're always going to try to take advantage of you. In Korea, they're funding a thing the government is where old people,
Starting point is 00:51:18 they put AI in dolls, like these dolls. And these women who are lonely, like older women are lonely, they give them these dolls and they learn to play with them, which is always good to play with a doll, like it makes you feel better. And the AI engages with them. The dolls talk to them and they can respond in real time kind of stuff like, how are you doing today? Oh, I'm bad. Oh, the weather's bad.
Starting point is 00:51:39 Like you're talking to a person. It solves a loneliness issue they have there. And at the same time, they then bring all the women with the dolls together. But the government is controlling it so it doesn't get out of hand. It doesn't say, hey, perhaps you should hang yourself today,
Starting point is 00:51:52 which some of this AI does say, to young people especially. One thing I'm hearing, and this was a few sentences ago, that the future of health care is going to be hyper-personalized. Yes, it will be. Yes.
Starting point is 00:52:05 They will understand your body and help you specifically. Although bodies have a lot of commonality, right? There's a lot of commonality and a lot of things. And that's one of the things that is, you know, we do treat it a little bit too artisanly in the wrong things and not, and not, we should do more of commonality. But yes, they will be able to, why not use technology for what's good at, which is pattern matching all manner of things it does well. But to me, they will be able to target your particular cancer cell. And one of the people I interviewed, as much as I give tech people a hard time, was Reed Jobs, the son of Steve Jobs. He's been investing in all manner of stuff, especially because his dad died of pancreatic cancer. But one of the things he was working on was liver cancer and getting rid of, as I believe I'm telling you correctly, is if you get Hep B, I think it's Hep B, leads to liver cancer almost all. Alcoholism in a Hep B, I think it's Hep B, not A. and if you can get rid of, you can block Hep B from ever happening, you don't get liver cancer.
Starting point is 00:53:09 Or a lot of people don't. If you drink too much, you're probably going to get it. And so that's kind of really promising. And I find that really interesting to try to use, you know, these technologies. Drug discovery is another one, how quickly. Like shingles, they didn't think it was for cognitive health, but AI figured that out, right? Like, wow, we would have gotten there. But think of all the people you can help in the interest. that you did it. And so that's how I look at technology. And so there's all manner of things that's going to be able to help us with, but it is not distributed among everybody because it's such a cost to keep people sick. It's such a cost to have the amount of money we spend on health care is such wasted money. And it's also, it's a happiness deficit, right? Like being sick sucks,
Starting point is 00:53:55 and it takes the joy out of your life. And, you know, it doesn't allow you to be with your kids. It doesn't, it gets in the way of a lot of things. It makes you miserable. It makes you dependent on drugs. And we did a little psychedelics. I took ketamine. Do you like it? No. Why not?
Starting point is 00:54:10 Because I felt alone and I don't like being alone. I wasn't lonely. I'm never lonely. I wish I was lonely sometimes. I mean, everyone has trauma. It's been shown to have some really great effects on people of PTSD and vets and stuff. I want them to do lots of experiments. I just talked to Michael Pollan about it just last week.
Starting point is 00:54:29 There's all manner of interesting experiments being done here. And anything to get us off of, opiates as aces in my book, essentially. Again, the problem is it's being used recreationally. It's being used as a party drug. It's being used not in the ways that could, you know, we need those standard tests to understand what works and what doesn't. I just didn't like it. I felt, I felt isolated in a way I didn't enjoy. It was also nauseating. I'm not a drug person. I don't do drugs. But a lot of people like them. They like ayahuasca. They like mushrooms. They like. And I'm all for studying like Michael talked about LSD in his last book, you know, because it was demonized by the Nixon administration because all the hippies were trying it out. But there were so many promising studies around LSD that just got, we don't know. So why not do, why don't we find out and try to get that? And I'm all for that. Let me end where we started. Sure. Because I think one of the things that makes your work in this space distinctive is the fact that you're talking about longevity in the light of death.
Starting point is 00:55:33 Yes, and in the light of technology. Yes, fair point. But let me stick with the death part for a second. You're essentially making the case in millennia of contemplative history would back you up on this, that contemplating death is actually additive. It is. It is. You know, it's funny.
Starting point is 00:55:49 I'm going to reach down for my phone here, but one of the things I have on my phone is a thing called We Croke. Oh, yeah, I've had the founder on my podcast. Oh, I love him. He's such a sweetheart. So, you know, with We Croke, it says one of the things, and well, this is an interesting one, It comes up with quotes, and it says, in Bhutan, they say contemplating death five times daily brings happiness. I absolutely agree with every time. And then this one is, I think it's always nice to know that you are not alone, even in death.
Starting point is 00:56:16 Joe Brainer. True. It is. I think knowing you're going to die, as I quote Steve Jobs, is a single greatest gift that, you know, because it spurs you to live your life. And I got a lot of inspiration from Steve, who died far too young. he gave that speech at Stanford that was so famous, his death speech essentially, saying any time I feel stuck, I think I'm going to be dead. And then I change and I get up kind of stuff. And he said it's a single greatest invention of life. He's so different than all these people,
Starting point is 00:56:49 these narcissistic perks. He was narcissistic in his own way, but not. He had a much broader thing. And I think in in dying young, the shame was that he was beginning to understand that, like that idea. I was trying to create a life where he was thinking about death. And it was a, if you will read any speech, read that speech you did at Stanford about death. And, and I really, that really was very profound to me because if you do that, like, I know it sounds dumb, but people are like, how are you so successful, like changing, like, I always change things in media. I try new things. You did, you've done it yourself, right? I was like, because I'm going to be dead in 50 years. And they're always like, what? I'm like, that's every time I don't want to do something. I'm like,
Starting point is 00:57:31 Oh, hey, guess what? In 50 years I'll be dead. And then I'm like, oh, okay, then I'll do it. And so I think it promotes risk. It promotes innovation. It promotes not getting dragged down by things as if you're going to be here forever. And I just, I think it gives you freedom. That's what it did for me, at least.
Starting point is 00:57:48 I don't know if it does that for you. You've changed, right? Yes. Yeah, absolutely. Why do you do what you do? There's the question of why do I do what I do generally, and I think it's kind of summed up in this tattoo I have on my wrist. F-T-B-O-A-B is just a Buddhist expression. for the benefit of all beings.
Starting point is 00:58:03 That's what I do. I'm very clear about. My job is to be of use to other human beings. Right. So my decisions are made in that light. In that light. So it's a service light. Mine more or more, another Buddhist saying,
Starting point is 00:58:14 which is everything is subject to decay. Those that know this are a piece, though, in a world of pain. That's a famous quote, right? And so on my tattoos, that's compared tattoos. You have one? I have lots of tattoos. I have lots. These are my four kids.
Starting point is 00:58:28 Louis, Clara, Alex, Saul. They're in little hearts. But underneath it is the symbols, and I have a ginkgo leaf on my leg that I hate is my first tattoo. I don't like it. It looks like a shamrock. And then people think I have a shamrock. And why would I have a fucking shamrock? Like it's a ginko leaf, the greatest, you know, the longest living planet on earth, plant on earth. So this is centropy. Entropy, excuse me. This is entropy, which is all things are subject to decay. All things will be destroyed. No matter, everything's on its way to something else. That's chaos, right? But the opposite. opposite, there's always an opposite chemical reaction to everything. This is entropy, which is everything's on its way to something else. And so this is about building. And if you're in, if you're in the Indian religion, it's Ganesh, destroyer and creator. There's so many themes about that. So these two belong together. Like, yes, it's being destroyed, but guess what? It's like, I'm going to
Starting point is 00:59:22 be something. I'm not going to be this table someday, but something else. Like, who knows? Like, And at the end of the show, we talk about it with my brothers, we're eating oysters. And I was like, well, they think everything is something else. And we had been talking about my grandmother. And we started to eat the oyster. I'm like, maybe this is grandma. And then we just go, delicious. And it was kind of wonderful.
Starting point is 00:59:43 And that's a famous quote. You know, the king eats the thing. And then he becomes the worm. And then the worm eats the king. And then the worm is eaten by the bird who then is eaten by the king. And you kind of like that. You kind of, it's a good policy. And yours is in service, which is really nice.
Starting point is 00:59:59 I'm not as service oranges as you are, which I appreciate. I'm in service at my best. I see. In moments where I'm being shitty, it's when I fall out of... Oh, out of service, others, yeah. I think of it more like... I know it sounds dumb, but I was at a job I didn't like, and I thought, I did the death thought.
Starting point is 01:00:16 I'm like, oh, I'm going to be done. I'm going to get out of here. I've got to get out of here. And the person who I quit, it was a big job, goes, nobody quits here. I'm like, well, they do. They actually just did. And they're like, why?
Starting point is 01:00:27 Why are you quitting? And I said, do you want to know the truth? And I said, yes, I said, I don't want to talk to you anymore. And they were like, what? And I go, ever, like the minutes of my life, TikTok away. And I say that to my kids all the time when they keep me weight. I'm like, TikTok, let's go. And they were like, what?
Starting point is 01:00:43 And I go, got to go. And I just, I couldn't. And like that was, I was so aware of time. And I think my favorite quote of all time is, I think it's Henry the 4th. I waste time and now death time waste me. I don't waste time. And we are all the beneficiaries. Oh, thank you.
Starting point is 01:00:59 You too. I think what you're doing is amazing. Thank you. I appreciate it. I'm grateful for your time. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
Starting point is 01:01:06 Thank you so much to everybody who works so hard to make this show. 10% Happier is produced by Tara Anderson and Eleanor Vassili. Our recording and engineering is handled by the great folks over at Pod People. Lauren Smith is our managing producer. Marissa Schneiderman is our senior producer, DJ Kashmir, is our executive producer. and Nick Thorburn of the great indie rock band Islands wrote our theme. One last thing I want to say before you go. If you enjoy this show, please do me slash us a solid.
Starting point is 01:01:35 Follow the show and leave a rating and a review on whatever platform you watch or listen to us on. It only takes a minute. It's free and it really helps new people find us and spread the good news that the mind is trainable. Thank you. Sincerely, I mean it. Thank you.

There aren't comments yet for this episode. Click on any sentence in the transcript to leave a comment.