Andrew Huberman | This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von #585

Today's guest is a neuroscientist. He's. a professor. He's a podcaster. Uh he. hosts one of the biggest shows in the. world called Huberman Lab where he. focuses on uh helping us to become our. best selves and get the most out of our. bodies. Uh I believe that he's he's one. of the people who's responsible for. bringing um health and uh self-. evvaluation into the mainstream. I'm. grateful for the chance to finally link. up today with the one and only Andrew.

Huberman. [Music]. And I will find a song I've been. singing. [Applause]. [Music]. Whitney's been amazing to me since I. moved to LA. She kind of ushered me in. I didn't really understand LA. I moved. to Topanga during the pandemic. Set up.

there with my bulldog. Started doing the. podcast in a closet. And she she kind of. taught me about LA. And I never done. anything public facing. Let's start. You. want to start there? We can talk. Yeah, we can do it. But we could talk. I mean, I think we should mention how what a. cute baby Henry is. That kid is so cute. Oh, the baby is beautiful. I think Bring. up Henry. Bring up uh Henry Cumins. Or I. don't even know if it's has it stage. I. have no idea if the baby has a front. name or last name. I'm pretty sure it's. Henry Cummings. Oh my god, that's beautiful. Oh yeah,

look at him. No, he's got your haircut. Wow, he does, dude. And you can tell he. cuts it himself, too. Yeah, he's uh I've. you know, I've met him and he's just. such a good naturatured kid. He looks AI. right there. He looks like Derma Kennedy. a little as well there. He's uh he loves. animals, which is great because she's, you know, surrounded herself with. animals. Are you trying to attack a. resemblance there? I'm just saying the. child has a slight resemblance to the.

remarkable kuner, Derma. Kennedy. And look. Whoa. Hold on. Whoa. Whoa. Bro, I'm gonna have to call my. sponsor, dude. Oh, that's a great photo. That is super. cool. Yeah, I think that last shirt says I. think that that shirt says single mom. Yeah. It's like a rock and roll. Whitney's a punk rocker. We have a lot. of friends through the punk rock. community. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And she sometimes posts with uh Chris.

Cole, who's a guy grew up watching. skateboarding. He's a I think he's in. the Tony Hawk skateboarder game. Is he? Bring him up. Bring up a picture of. Chris Cole. I've heard of Nat King Cole. and I've heard of uh Cole. There he is. Um, yeah, he's a beast. Famous for Oh, doing uh Trey flip down Wallenburgg, which in the Bay Area, Wallenberg School. is famous for stair. Huge. So he, you. know, he's it's a staircase. It's a. school. And so they call it Wallenburgg. for skate. I grew up skateboarding. And.

there it is. Wallenberg's the third one. down there, right? Oh, yeah. Yeah. So, this is like um this is one of the. things that made Chris legendary that. and he always had those silly uh. wristbands on. Not wrist guards, wristbands. This is a long time ago. That's a lot bigger than it might look. No, it's and you actually have to now. they build rollins, but you back then. you would push in down the avenues.

This is so sick. It's just him trying it. over and it's so cool. Over and over and. over. Oh. Oh. And you can kind of start even just. watching this, you start to gain the a. There it is. And it's all bolts, as they. say. He's lands perfect. God, it just so crazy how many times. It's just such a little piece of. perfection. And it's like just such an. organized specific moment like the point.

of a pin when they uh when they land. those things. Super satisfying to watch. It's got to feel incredible. Yeah. Oh, that's amazing. He looks a little bit. like your assistant that came in today, too. Oh, yeah. He does look a little bit. like Greg. You're right. They have a. resemblance. He looks a little bit like. Greg, dude. And they're friends, so. that's interesting. But but yeah, that. baby god, I would have loved to have. been her son or been. um or just had a chance. Yeah, even I'm. glad that Yeah, I'm happy that she has a. baby. Well, she's got that managerie of.

animals like Mona, her pitbull ridgeback. mix. I love I also I have a close. relationship to her Great Dane Frank. Oh, let me see that. Like right now, I. don't have a dog. So, a little while ago. I was like, I need some dog time. So, I. went over there and he thinks he's a. puppy and he crawled up on me on the. couch and that's different one. Frank's. gray, but that one's mixed. There he is. That's probably Frank. and he uh and I. woke up at two in the morning. She had. covered us with a blanket on the sofa. and Frank was breathing into my face.

And it was uh it was a moment, but uh I. love Great Danes cuz they they think. they're little dogs, but they're giant. dogs. So anyway, never a dull moment at. Casa Cummings. No, she's always had. excitement and she definitely will free. an animal if there's even, you know, she'll uh she'll release a damn animal. from anything. Oh, if she hears that. there's a like a dog running around in. the street or I I think this is right. Check me on this. We'll have to ask her,

but a while back I think that she was. trying to rescue a giraffe. You know, you get these wealthy people that have. exotic animals. They want a giraffe or. an elephant or something. So, she she'll. drop everything and like go try and. rescue a giraffe. She's a real animal. lover. She's definitely. uh who's the guy William Werdsworth or. whatever. Who's No, who had the animal. movie? Dr. Dittle. She's like the female Dr. Dittle. I can. talk to the animals. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I. would love to see her do a show just for.

animals, even like a live performance. just for animals and and see how it. goes. But yeah, she'll she'll pet. anything. But I'm glad she's got that. beautiful baby over there. Um Andrew. Huberman, good to see you, dude. Great. to meet you in person finally. We've. corresponded a little bit, but you too, man. I'm a big fan. And I uh heard your. name mentioned at the inauguration of. the president of the United States and I. went this is wild. Worlds colliding, right? I think Dana White mentioned Joe. Rogan and you at the inauguration of the.

most powerful person in the in the world. and and and who else? I'm sorry. The. Note Boys. Well, he mentioned us and the. Note Boys and then he mentioned and the. most powerful person, Joe Rogan. We. definitely were like just some. satellites in the orbit, but it was. really sweet of him. I mean, I think you. catch Dana White at 2:00 a.m., you know, and he'll and he'll drop some different. names and stuff, but um yeah, that was. crazy when that happened. I remember my. ex-girlfriend's mom just texted me like. the they just mentioned you on the. inauguration address or something and I. was like, what is going on that that.

podcasting has become this thing? It's. just such a part of the universe, you. know. Um what do you think it is, you. know? Like what do you think it is? Because you may even have more of a. scientific look at it. Uh why is. podcasting just it's as it's as common. as like somebody saying the New York. Times 5 years ago? Yeah, I have a lot of. thoughts about this. Uh first of all, we. it's interesting that we looked at. skateboarding earlier. I've been lucky. enough to get in on some things in the. early phase, not the very earliest, but.

the early phase when things were kind of. small and there wasn't a lot of money at. first and then things kind of blow up. When I was younger, I got into. skateboarding. Every kid in my town. played soccer, swam. I got really. excited about skateboarding when it was. kind of at a low point in terms of like. there weren't a lot of kids. skateboarding. It had gone through a. phase of popularity. Then it had died in. the early 90s. What town was that you're. in? I grew up in the South Bay area. So. this is what now is known as South Palo. Alto before the internet. Oh yeah. Um so. you know we worked hard when we were in.

high school to get a skate park put in. There weren't many skateparks. It was. really small. We used to take the 7F bus. up to San Francisco. The famed. Embarcadero or EM crowd. is where people. like Rob Derick would show up. Back. then, he didn't have his show. Actually, the photographer for my podcast, M. Playback, was taking photos of all those. guys. A lot of those guys now went on to. have, well, Rob Derick's famous, has his. own show, Ridiculousness, and has done a. bunch of other things. Robin Big, uh. Tony Hawk, of course, has lasted through. all the peaks and valleys of. skateboarding. Pretty impressive, you.

know. So, back then it was really small. I was going to contest where I met Frank. Hawk. Tony's dad was kind of running it. a little bit like Frank Hawk, you know. Yeah. Frank and Nancy Hawk. I'll tell. you a funny story actually. Uh when I. was 14, I went to a uh a uh contest at. the Linda Vista Boys Club out in the. middle of nowhere. And when the contest. ended, I was 14. When when the contest. ended, Frank came around and asked me. and this kid Billy Waldman, who was. like, they called him the demon child. He's kind of a wild one. He was my. friend. Um if you put Billy Waldman,

demon child, he'll show up. You'll see. it in his face. Watch this. Ready? Look, that's what a demon child looks like. He. was a good kid. But in any case, um, what ended up happening was Frank was. like, "Hey, where are you guys going?". And we're like, "Well, we don't know." I. was going to take the bus to Lancaster, see my friend Joe Rickosh, and somehow. get home. And he was like, "No, no, you. you guys can't do that." He was like a. real protective dad. So he and Nancy. Hawk took me in. I got to stay in Tony. Hawk's bedroom. No. That night with all. the trophies everywhere and they took me. out to dinner. And I'll never forget,

and this is how I got back in touch with. Tony in recent years, they had black. coffee after dinner at like 8:00 p.m. And I'd never seen that. So, a few years. ago on Instagram, I wrote to Tony and. said, "Hey, you know, your parents took. me in when I was a little bit stranded. And if you don't believe me, they drink. coffee at 8:30 p.m. after dinner." He. wrote back and he goes, "No way. You're. the only the only way to know that is to. actually have uh have a meal with them.". So, anyway, you know, skateboarding back. then, I got out of it. I wasn't very. good, okay? I got put on a team out of. sympathy. I tried but I kept getting.

hurt. It's a team. What do you mean? And. also the Dutch drink coffee late at. night. Bring that up real quick. Who's. drinking coffee very late at night or or. see if uh Tony Hawk is Amsterdamian? If. he's an Amsterdamian guy, I believe he's. he looks Amsterdamian to me. Have you. Tony is like 6'5? I know the Dutch and. his son is is tall as well. You couldn't. pick a more perfect last name for a. professional skateboarder, right? Well, it's another reason I believe that he's. all in addition to his talent which has. helped him stand the test of time is. such a uh moniker. There's nothing like.

that. Tony Hawkets totally Tony is the. most relatable name in the world and. then it's just like who don't want to be. that Tony Hawk is a predominately. British descent. Oh, damn. I was hoping. we'd get him in Amsterdam. All right, that's all good. Um, but yeah, so what. were you saying, brother? Sorry. Yeah. No. Um, so got into that early and then. got hurt from a team, you said. Yeah. Yeah. So, I got sponsored by a little a. company called Thunder Truck, Spitfire. Wheels. They put me on out of sympathy. I'm I'm still friends with the team. manager from back then, and he'll tell. you it was out of sympathy. But I got to.

see a lot of friends turn pro, start. companies. Danny Way and Colin McKay. started DC. Oh, yeah. DC, which. eventually sold to Quicksilver. They did. that also with uh Ken Block, who was a. rally car driver, unfortunately, passed. away a few years ago. He was the guy. that do Jim Connor, all the driving. around cities, you know, jump. You. haven't seen Jim Kana in San Francisco? Oh, man. bringing back all the stuff. No, this is awesome. Pull this up on. So, if you look at um if you look at San. Francisco um and you say Ken Block, this. is I mean, so Ken unfortunately died in.

this snowmobile accident a few years. ago, but this on YouTube um is. unbelievable. I would go to the middle. of it to really get a sense of And so. they would drive around. They basically. just they shut down big segments of the. city. So that's down at the peers. And. then all this look 119 million views. All this aerial footage shutting down. jump. Why not just jump between two. streets in San Francisco? Well, hell. yeah. So that was this is Yeah. My Yeah. My friend Mike was the one photographing.

all this for DC. So DC was initially. skateboarding. Danny and Colin and. Danny's older brother Damon starred DC. It is actually stood for something. called Doris Clothing, but DC Danny. Colin and DC Shoes, right? DC shoes. And. then they went snowboarding, rally car, BMX, motocross. Oh, monster, you know, monster rockstar. All that was born out. of essentially skateboarding in BMX. early on. Then X Games took off. So it's. kind of like how, you know, in the '9s. skateboarding was really small. Then it.

blew up, then it dies a little bit and. it keeps coming back. Now it's in the. Olympics. Okay. So when I got into. neuroscience, because that's my official. job. I'm professor of neuroscience up at. Stanford. I I don't currently run my lab. anymore. I toled that down in 2023 so I. could focus more on the podcast. But I. still teach medical students, graduate. students, and undergraduates. Okay. So, you're still practicing? Yes. Yeah. And. I ran a lab for more than a decade and. really got into science when I was in. college. I decided, listen, I'm not. going to become a professional. skateboarder, not a musician. I got to. do something with my life. I got into.

biology and psychology. And I started. working in a lab. And so, even when I. got into neuroscience, it was early. There was no such thing called a. neuroscience degree or a neuroscientist. There was biology, there was genetics, but there wasn't something official. Then came the decade of the brain. And. now neuroscience is everywhere. Yeah. You hear about it a lot. Yeah. So, and. you didn't hear about it 10 years ago. For sure. You did not. I And it really. drew from people from different fields. And then now we have a better, not. complete, but we could talk about better. understanding of lots of different. things, memory, addiction, etc. When I. got into podcasting, I started my.

podcast in 2021. As we were talking. about before, it was just, you know, small closet. I was living in Tanga, kind of self-appointed sabbatical. It. was the pandemic. Everything shut down. And my bulldog bulldog Mastiff Costello. and he passed away at some point. 2021. I had to put him down. Um I had to do it. myself. No, I at home I had them come. He hated the vet. You know, I mean a. bulldog's an amazing animal. The. contract between a bulldog and owner is. very simple. They will die for you and. you can feel that. They will die for.

you. But if your life is not on the. line, they're not doing [ __ ] at all. Yeah. That's the contract. They will die. for you. They'll also take a nap. There. he is. They will also take a nap for. you. They will take a nap for you. So, he's he used to just snore. You can hear. him snoring in our early episodes. And. fart and you know that's what they do. But if there was a threat, they don't. hesitate, you know. He was skunked. something like 27 times cuz they don't. learn. He was stung by bees. No, skunked. Oh, by skunks. Yeah. They. always say there two kinds of dogs. Dogs. that get skunked once and then all the. other kinds of dogs. But in any case,

you know, we started the podcast and we. weren't thinking about, oh, we're going. to make money with this or it'll be a. big podcast. Sat down, put up a couple. cameras and me and, you know, my what I. now call my producer, but my friend Rob. Moore just did that. Mike Blback from. DC, cuz I knew people from. skateboarding, he took the photos. And. then what happened between 2021 and 2025. is you all, right, thanks in large part. to Joe, right? We could talk about I. have theories about why Joe is the king. of podcasting and the biggest media. channel on the planet, not just.

podcasting. What happened was people wanted to hear. conversation where it's not scripted and. where the ads and commercials are things. that people actually use, right? you. know, and and it went from this little. niche community of comedians and people. that like to talk about UFC to, you. know, Lex Freedman was the one who would. inspired me to start a podcast. So, he. was my kind of uh my brother in crime in. terms of podcast Eskimo or whatever.

Yeah. Because he was an academic, right? I mean, he he has a PhD. A lot of people. don't know this, but it's Dr. Lex. Freiedman. So, he's not a medical. doctor, but he has a PhD. And he was the. AI computer science guy. and I was the. neuroscience guy, but then I'm also very. interested in health and health and. fitness. But you guys didn't podcast. together. No, we've done a few, but a. few episodes together, but we were kind. of the science podcast, right? Oh, for. sure. And then it just, you know, the. comedians led the way, right? You, Joe, uh, you know, Mark Marin. Mark Marin.

And then it just kind of Pete Holmes, Pete Holmes was a big one early. Remember Pete Holmes was before. everybody? Pete Holmes was a very early podcast. But no, I it's definitely gotten where. um I think it it's nice not having. people like, you know, sometimes I I'll. see things people seem like, oh, this. this group now you're working with this. group or you're working with this group. or you've been like uh infiltrated by uh. this country or this idea. It's like no, I don't work for anybody. It just I try.

my best, you know, and and um No, you do. an amazing job because it's so it's. pure. So the the parallels I was setting. up with skateboarding and neuroscience. and then this I realized at some point. and I and you know I'll get accused of. name dropping but I'm very blessed to be. very close friends with Rick Rubin. I. spent a lot of time with Rick either. here when he's in the states or. fascinating Rick Rubin is a I know most. he's a music producer. Yep. Music. producer, you know, he's also produced. comedy. He did uh he worked with uh. Andrew Dice Clay and he has great.

stories about that. Oh, I bet he does. And you know, and so what's interesting. is I talked to Rick about this. I was. like, "Why is podcasting. experiencing this surge, the question. you asked, and he said, and this is kind. of how Rick talks. He he actually talks. like this." He's like, "Because it's. real." You know, people when they're. when something's early, they're not. thinking about how it's going to be. received. You're not thinking about. whether or not your corporate sponsors. are going to be happy. This is why Rick, you know, remember Rick produced Beasty. Boys. LL. CoolJ, Beasty Boys, Red Hot Chili.

Peppers, Adele, Kanye. Um, he's doing. classical music stuff now, country. And. he tends to work with people at the. beginning and then not necessarily. again, maybe on a song or two. And I. asked him why, and he's like, because at. the beginning, they're in what Josh. Weightskin, the great chess player, has. described as the preconsciousness phase. of creativity. You're not trying to. defend a title, you know? You're not. trying to defend a title. You're not. thinking about how it's going to be. received because you really have nothing.

to compare it to. You have nothing to. lose. Yeah. Listen, when Chris Cole 360. flipped down Wallenburgg, someone was. filming it, right? But after he did. that, I'm sure that he thought about. God, like how do I how do I like. supersede that the next time? How do But. when when it's the next big thing, you're just thinking about the next. thing. And there's something really. beautiful to that. And that's what. people tend to gravitate toward. Whether. or not it's media, podcasting, skateboarding, motocross, I don't care. what it is, we can feel when something's. real. In fact, Rick has this great.

saying, and I love it cuz one time I saw. this whole thing in the media related to. somebody I knew, and it turned out that. their whole company was just a complete. sham. At least that's what the media was. claiming. And he said to me, he goes, "It's all lies." And I said, "Yeah, apparently it's all lies." And he said, "No, no, no, no. Everything is made up.". He said, "There's only two things that. are true. nature like the laws of. chemistry, biology, physics, and. professional wrestling. He said,

"Because everyone knows professional. wrestling's made up." And Rick watches. 12 hours a week of professional. wrestling. Oh my god. And when I go and. see him and we watch professional. wrestling, I'm like, why do you why do. you watch so much professional. wrestling? And he said, you know, it. relaxes me and also you can see all the. theater of life there. And he also likes. that uh people don't actually get hurt. But you're also wondering, wait, was. that really part of the act? Yeah. And. when you look at politics or you look at. the world, you know, a lot of it's made. up. Like Bitcoin's on a run today.

Everyone's excited. It broke 109 or 110. I mean, great. But Bitcoin's made up, right? I mean, its value is dependent on. people's kind of perceived value of it, right? And so he's right. Everything. basically is made up. And and so when. you capture something that's real to a. person, like a song and the way they. sing it and they're not comparing it to. the way they sang it last time, um. they're not thinking about whether or. not their tour is bigger than the other. big tour that's out there. There's. something that I think really resonates.

with people and we just go, "Wow." Like. that's, you know, I I see it as like. that's the human spirit in action. It's. really beautiful. Yeah. It's like seeing. a duck, like a little duck try to take. it learn to fly or whatever, you know? That's the funnest part. Once you see a. duck flying, you're like, "Ah, it's. fine." you know, it can fly, that's. great, or whatever. Looks cool. Still. beautiful. But seeing that duck give. those give those tries and take that. shot out of the nest, whatever, that's. kind of like the funnest part, you know. Well, and and the I think that's the. beauty of childhood, right? You know, is. is everything's new. Oh, yeah. You know,

it's and you know, this is actually an. interesting segue to dopamine because, you know, dopamine u is triggered by a. bunch of things, but mostly by. anticipation of something. Okay? So, let. me think about that. So dopamine is when. people say dopamine because you hear it. all the time, right? Dopamine hits. dopamine hits dopamine, right? You hear. about dopamine, you're giving, you know, you're getting dopamine out of that. You're So what is it? It's a It's. something that's in your body naturally. Okay. So, and where is it hidden in your. body? Behind your ears. Yeah, basically.

Uh, so real quick lesson in dopamine. Dopamine's a neurochemical. Some people. call it a neurotransmitter, neuromodulator. Let's just say it's a. chemical because it is chemical. So it's. a liquid. It it's a yeah basically it's. released from neurons. Neurons are nerve. cells and it's going to bind to the next. it's going to park in a parking spot we. call a receptor on the next nerve cell. and trigger the activity of that nerve. cell. Nerve cells communicate through. electricity and chemicals. The chemicals. stimulate electricity. Okay? And neurons. can make the next neuron more active.

They can make the ne next neuron less. active. So this is important. In fact, a. a good kind of mechanical example is if. you flex your bicep, you are inhibiting, you are preventing the neurons that flex. your tricep. They are antagonistic. muscles. Got it? And as just kind of a. parallel where we can get to when you. for instance smell something you like, it's what's called an appetitive. response. It's kind of appetite that.

inhibits the repulsion response. when. you smell vomit or something really. putrid, you tend to retract and it tends. to shut down at the same time the. circuits that would bring you closer to. something. So it's it, you know, every. circuit in the brain is like that. There's a push and a pull, an. accelerator and a break. And if you do. one, it it limits the other. Yeah. Think. of it like a seesaw. One goes up, the. other goes down. Got it? You know, everything from if you step on a pin, you move your foot up and guess what? What happens? Your other leg. automatically extends. Okay. This is. called the monosynaptic stretch reflex.

If you touch a fish on the side, there's. a big old neuron, giant neuron called. the mouthner neuron. And what does the. fish do? It heads in the opposite. direction. This is just a a you know, these circuits have been selected for. because the dumb fish that went toward. the thing that touched it probably got. eaten. So all these responses are. hardwired responses. This chemical. dopamine exists in a couple different. places in your brain. It has several. roles. The most important ones to know. about are that it's involved in. generating movement. People with.

Parkinson's lose the neurons that create. dopamine. Okay. In an area called the. substantia [ __ ] If you were to cut. open a human brain, you'd see two dark. areas at the bottom of the brain. And in. Latin, niigra, dark, black is down at. the bottom of the brain. And those are. the neurons that degenerate. And there's. a picture of it, but maybe we can find. it's really impressive. You can see even. without a microscope if you just say um. I don't know if you said like actual. brain tissue or something. Um there you. go. Look. So see that first um that.

first one look at that that's probably. without any staining you're just looking. at the brain with no microscope in. Parkinson's those degenerate you can see. it on the right and what happens is when. there so dopamine is critical for. movement and it's important to keep that. in mind because the other thing that. dopamine does is it's involved in a a. set of brain circuits that are involved. in motivation. So if you think about any. animal, human, dog, rat, cat, monkey, bat, that animal has three choices for. movement. You can move towards.

something, you can stay still, or you. can move backward. Right? Dopamine is. involved in motivation, not reward. So. when you like what's something that you. really enjoy doing? Um making. quesadillas. Making quesadillas. When. you get the ingredients and you put them. out, Yeah. your dopamine is starting to. rise. Yeah, I'm feeling okay. If you're. if you're somebody who likes gambling, it's on the way to Vegas. You're walking. in, you're getting your chips. It's the. feel of the chips. The dopamine's going.

up. Okay. This is a hardwired set of. circuits that were designed to have us. do things that were adaptive. So, dopamine starts to rise in anticipation. of food when we're hungry, cold when. we're hot, heat when we're cold, sex. when we're horny. Right. Right. And it's. going to be involved in anything that we. think is going to bring a feeling or a. resource. So a lot of dopamine is based. on perception. Absolutely. You nailed. it. In fact, in fact, whether or not. we're talking about Bitcoin, US.

dollars, likes on Instagram or X, followers, views, or any of that. The. currency is dopamine. Got it? There's. one currency of motivation. So dopamine. is about wanting and craving, not about. having. Then something happens. You make. the case. Okay, hold on. Let me slow. down just real quick so that because. sometimes it's hard for me, so I know it. might be hard for some of our listeners. But so the dopamine is is based on the. motivation. So it's not about like the.

fact that when I'm sitting there and I'm. making my quesadilla, like that's the. that's the dopamine is like knowing that. I'm going to get the quesadilla soon. That's dopamine. But then when I. actually get the quesadilla, what? Okay. So, it depends on the quesadilla. Let's. let's go with three different scenarios. Okay. And we could change out quesadilla. here for jackpot at the table. Sex, winning a UFC fight or winning the bet. on the UFC fight, being nervous about. asking a girl out and then actually. doing it. Comedy when you move to crowd.

work and you're like, "This feels like. I'm out on a tight rope." Okay. Yeah. So, any of those things, anything where. there's a potential payoff, then. something happens. So, let's let's use. the quesadilla example cuz it's it's. straightforward. You have the quesadilla. Mhm. And it's. pretty good. Tastes like the quesadilla. you usually make. Okay. What happens? Your dopamine starts dropping a little. bit. Not a lot, but you're okay. Yeah. It It starts dropping. Let's say just by. way of example, you eat four.

quesadillas. Each time it's going to be. a little bit less dopamine from the. actual eating of the quesadilla. Yeah. The second quesadilla, you can barely. even taste it sometimes. Let's say you. bite into the quesadilla and it's like, uh, this tastes weird, like there's. something off here. Dopamine plummets. So, how much dopamine you get depends on. the anticipation minus what you actually. get. Something called reward prediction. error. But the language doesn't really. matter. That's a bunch of nerd speak for. when an experience is worse than you.

expected, your dopamine drops below. where it started. Wow. When an. experience is better than you expected, surprise. It's way above where you. started and it stays up there for a. while. So, the dopamine system loves. surprise. Now, all of this is related to. learning. This is an ancient system. designed for you to learn where are the. payoffs, where's the water, where's the. food, where are the mates, where's the. money, where's the resources. These are.

ancient circuits that we are doing non-. ancient things with. And so for. instance, if you do tour, you do comedy. tours, right? When you do your comedy. tours and like you really nail it one. night, like really nail it. It does two. things. It raises your baseline level of. dopamine. So the next time you go out, you have confidence, right? You're still. feeling that, but it also raises the. threshold for dopamine. Right now, it's. harder to get dopamine. You can't have. the same experiences that you had prior.

to that really killer night and get the. same amount of dopamine that you used. to. It's officially the best time of the. year for hoops fans, playoff drama, buzzer beaters, and the chaos we live. for. And if you're done just watching. and ready to actually win some cash, you. got to check out Pick Six from. DraftKings. Nobody's dropping better payouts than. pick six. Hit six picks and that's 25.

times your cash. And if you beat your. competition, you could be looking at a. 500x bag in your pocket. It's super. simple. Select your picks, track your. score, and go for those big time prizes. No gimmicks, just straight up fun. Pick. Six is live in most states like. Missouri, Cali, Texas, Georgia, and. plenty more. For a couple of my picks, I'm rocking with that SGAA and more than. uh 30 and a half points. I'm also going.

to roll with Nas Reed, that LSU dog, uh, and less than six rebounds. So, yeah, don't settle for weak payouts. Make your. picks with pick six from DraftKings and. let your basketball brain pay off. New. to DraftKings Pick Six. New customers, toss in just $5 on your first entry and. you'll get a. $50 in bonus picks instantly. The. playoffs are on, so why not take a shot.

at making a little money while you're. watching? Download the DraftKings Pick. Six app right now and use code Theo, that's code Theo to play $5 and get $50. in bonus picks. Better payouts, bigger. wins only on Pick Six from DraftKings. The crown is yours. What happens when. your health becomes the. punchline? That's a good question. With. the revelations of uh seed oils and. brain fog and toxins, pollutants, things.

that are that we're ingesting that we. didn't even know. The modern world is. screwing with our health at the cellular. level leading to digestive issues and. more stress, exhaust, everything. But. here's the thing. You don't have to. settle for feeling like garbage 247. Armra colostrum is nature's original. health hack. Packed with over 400. bioactive nutrients that fortify gut. integrity, strengthen immunity, revitalize hair growth, fuel stamina,

elevate focus, and help you function. like a human again. Armra colostrum. I. take it, I put it into my smoothie. I. like to make a nice smoothie. We've. worked out a special offer for our. audience. Receive 15% off your first. order. Go to. tryarma.com/theo. That's t r y a r mm r. a.com/to or enter theo to get 15% off. your first order. That's t r y a rm.

a.com/tho. Armra. colostrum. Nothing has ever made me feel. more American than rolling on over to. Sonic. And now Sonic is taking a stand. against mediocre cheeseburgers by. proclaiming the Sonic Smasher, the new. smal cheeseburger of America. And they. want people across the country to. experience a better burger. Hand smashed. and made to order. The Sonic Smasher.

features Angus beef patties, seasoned. and seared to perfection with crispy. edges and a juicy center layered with. melty American cheese. A creamy tangy. signature smasher sauce, crinkle cut. pickles, and diced onions. All served on. a soft potato bun. Head to Sonic to try. the Sonic Smasher. live free, eat.

sonic. And when you think about. dopamine, the most important thing to. think about is how quickly does it go. up, how quickly and how far does it go. down? Because every time it goes up, it. goes down. Why? Because remember earlier. we were saying everything is like a. seessaw. If you feel motivated, there. is, and this is so important for people. to understand, especially people with. compulsions, addictions, and this kind. of thing. The better it feels, the lower you're. going to feel afterwards. and the longer. it will take you to get back to.

baseline. So the the drug of all drugs. for this to really nail home dopamine as. a concept sex or what? Well, behavioral. behaviorally sex. You're you're right. So and people have behavior addictions. process addictions. Methamphetamine. If you were going to. look at what creates the biggest rise in. dopamine the fastest. So it's dopamine. over time. Okay? Because listen, when. you write jokes or, you know, when I'm, you know, reading papers, I love reading. science papers. I'm like mining for.

papers. Every once in a while I take a. little break and I'm super into. sephopods, octopuses. I'm building an. octopus tank at home right now. So. that's kind of my my indulgence is is. octop, you know, it's a little bit of. dopamine, right? Methamphetamine is a. huge rapid increase in dopamine. Then. what happens? How much do we get off. that? Bring it up real quick. I just. want to see what is So it's it's it's. how fast it occurs. It it occurs within. minutes. This is why crack cocaine was. so much more addictive than in than. snorted cocaine, right? It was the speed. with with which it hits the system. How.

much dopamine does an activity release? Baseline is 100%. Food is 150%. So an. 50% increase. Video games um 175%, sex. 200. I disagree with sex, by the way. I. think it depends on, you know, if it if. you're and people should know this. If. you live with somebody and you guys are. having sex a lot and you've known each. other a long time, there's a lot of the. reason why people are like looking for. novelty in their relationship, etc., I'm. not trying to be salacious here, but new. sexual partner is probably about 400.

500%. Yeah. Yeah. And and I think most. people would not dispute that. Cocaine. goes to 450%. Amphetamine. 1,000%. Methampetamine, 1300%. that meth that meth that methyl group. increases the speed that speed increases. dopamine. So it's almost the it could. could potentially almost be kind of the. same but the speed at which it happens. is so much greater that it intensifies. it so much right and remember that the. brain is thinking in terms of approach.

pause or retract. So when there's a ton. of dopamine listen anyone on cocaine or. methamphetamine everything's a good idea. to them. Oh yeah anything right. And. then you think about cannabis. Cannabis. has its own discussion, its own effects, but very different system and tends to. make people pretty happy with right. where they are. The opioids tends to. make people overly happy with right. where they are. They tend to be. amotivated, not motivated. So dopamine. in this context, what happens is then. dopamine drops below baseline after a.

drug or porn or even you know somebody's. you know let's say they make the huge. mistake of like going outside their. marriage to a prostitute or something. It's the anticipation, the fear, the. excitement. Boom. Then it drops below. baseline. And now here's the real rub. In order to get back to baseline, most. people when they're in that trough, what. do they do? They use more. But each time. they use, while they're in that trough, when dopamine is low, this is the key. thing. When dopamine is. low, no matter how much you do of that.

substance, no matter how much you engage. in that behavior, that dopamine is going. to have less and less of an effect, and. it's not even going to get you above. baseline. Wow. You have to wait. The. period of abstinence is when these. circuits return to normal. And with the. exception of alcohol where people can. die from rapid withdrawal, this is why. every addiction recovery program has a. period of abstinence. They don't tell. you to kind of taper off cocaine. They're like, "Listen, this has got to. stop." And then when people relapse, the. problem is they get, you know, no pun.

intended, they get a bump, but that. dopamine level is not where it used to. be. and they're constantly quote unquote. chasing the dragon or whatever you want. to call it. So, you know, these dopamine. circuits evolved for a good reason to. drive us toward adaptive behaviors. But. listen, I have friends in the tech. sector, in the finance sector. You see. this in the finance guys. It's often. finance guy, they're doing aderall, they're day trading, they're night. trading, you know, their friends are. making a ton of money. And we also have. the social comparison thing. So, I'm not.

going to say that social media hijacks. all of this, but let's just say, and I I. love social media. I'm on Instagram and. X. I teach there. I learn there. Love. your content. Love Sagura's content. Rogue, you know, I'm learning there. Tim. Dylan, right? Like I'm I love it. But. there are elements of this where if you. find yourself on social media, but. you're kind of like, what am I doing. here? Like this is like nothing's. happening here. You are in a dopamine. trough. You're in a trough. So you got. your high. You've gotten it. And we hear. dopamine hits. If it were really.

dopamine hits, you'd be going, "Whoa, yeah, amazing. Cool." No, that happens. now and again, but what's happening is. the threshold for what really draws you. in is getting higher and higher. Which. goes to show why when it comes sometimes. to like sex addiction and pornography. addiction that people's what the the. kink that they need or the thing they. need to see gets more out there because. they have to just to even get back to. the baseline. They have to uh they. they've got to find more. They need a.

higher arc. Definitely. Um I had a. couple questions. Sorry. No. and save. where you're at. Can you can you distill. dopamine? Like is there is it. manufacturable dopamine? There are. things Yes. So there are things that are. precursors to dopamine and things that. stimulate the release of dopamine. So uh. things that stimulate the release of. dopamine. The amino acid elyroine. Okay. It's found in hard cheeses like parmesan. cheese, believe it or not. Some people.

think they're a little bit addicted to. cheese in some ways. Oh, they do. Some. people think that. Yeah, it's a elyroine. is a supplement as well. Ely tyrosine. He sounds like he's from Rome, huh? There's a there's a very interesting um. hairy little bean. No joke. This is a. hairy little bean called Mucuna Purines. He's going to say Mucuna purines. Mucuna. purines. Mucuna purines. This is a. velvety bean. If you just put velvet. bean l-dopa, it is.

99% L-dopa, which is the precursor. It. gets converted to dopamine. I'll take L8. ball of it. Remember that movie. Awakenings where people were frozen? Yes. With Robert Dairo. That's right. And Robin Williams. Yes. Robin Williams. And they gave those patients, it was a. true story. It's based on a story by the. neurologist writer Oliver Saxs. And they. gave those people L-dopa. That velvety. little bean is L-dopa. So you say, can. you manufacture it? You can take the. thing that is the precursor. Now if you.

do that, you'll feel dope dopamineergic. as neuroscientists say. You'll be like. buzzed. You'll be energized. That's. Shakira. Uh absolutely. And then and then you'll. feel the drop. And then methamphetamine. stimulates the release as we saw. Cocaine stimulates release behaviors. Listen, I don't want to demonize. dopamine. No, not at all. Dopamine is, you know, I'm sure I had a surge of. dopamine walking in here today. I'm a. fan of your show. I had a surge of. dopamine when I saw you. I was excited, nervous about it, and then it happened.

So, and and hopefully I will uh the. reward prediction error won't be less. than you anticipated. That's my goal. So, it's already fascinating. So, I. think that, you know, can you. manufacture it? Well, there are things. that can stimulate its release. Now, what's beautiful, what's really. beautiful is when you know, I usually I. think usually it happens when you're a. teen. For me, it was 19 when I. discovered biology. You know, wasn't. good at skateboarding, wasn't bad, but. you know, I liked running and working. out, but I never thought about becoming. a professional athlete. And then I.

discovered learning and biology. And I. thought, wow, this is something that I'm. highly motivated to do. I didn't really. understand dopamine then. We didn't know. that much about it, but I'm motivated to. do it. So, there's dopamine from doing. it. It brings me resources at first. degrees and knowledge. Later, you know, the ability to buy a house, right? Um, so much of my life is built around the. work that I did like a maniac really. between the age of 19 and I'm 49 now. just working non-stop. And so there's. functional dopamine and pretty soon you. start weaving it in like oh I can also.

rest and have some recreation and that's. giving me dopamine. So our lives are. built around this molecule we call. dopamine and so the ways that you can. manage and almost orchestrate dopamine. to use it to your advantage. It's it's. very usable. I think the thing to. remember are the following. Dopamine is. not about the pursuit of pleasure. It's. about the pleasure of pursuit. It's. about motivation. The other thing to. remember about dopamine is it can if. it's increased very dramatically and.

very fast, it can drive addiction. And I. define addiction as a progressive. narrowing of the things that bring you. pleasure. A great life is where many. many things bring you pleasure. Yeah. And then the perhaps the most important. thing for people, especially if they're. concerned about porn, gambling, internet. use, or whatever, even if they're not a. full-blown addict, if they're just kind. of feeling like a slave to everything. going on that, you know, just. everything, highly processed foods, all. of that, is that any high amount of. dopamine that comes to you without.

effort before it will eventually destroy. you. Wow. Or bring you close to. destruction. So something that just. feels so good that you that all you had. to do was open a package. All you had to. do was take a pill or open a website or. open a website. That is the slippery. slope. And if we think more in terms of, you know, Yeah. Pandora's box doesn't. really have a key on it. Huh. Yeah. Like. I I listen, I'm not a huge UFC fan, but. I' i've been to a few fights and it's. fun and I see you guys down there in the. front row and this kind of thing. Look,

someday I imagine given my friend set. and given my interests, maybe I'll just. buy a ticket and it'd be a great thrill, right? But if I were a kid and I. suddenly were just planted there every. single night, guess what? You move one. row back, it's going to feel like bad. seating, you know, and it's this is why. the children of very wealthy people, unless your father is like a Warren. Buffett who insists that you actually. work and this kind of thing. Yeah. The. children of very wealthy people often. destroy their lives. You know, they. destroy their lives because they haven't.

had to work to have all this stuff and. there's this huge cushion below them. In. fact, my graduate adviser, they're. almost swimming in dope and they're. almost in the hot tub, but they never. been in the pool and then they're. Exactly. And then they're And then. they're down below baseline and then it. takes more and more and more that you. know that show. Is that genetic then? Sorry to interrupt you, but is that. genetic that your baseline level for uh. dopamine is that genetic? No, this is. all behaviorally driven. Behavior. And. you know, I'm not saying parent. So you. said it's all behaviorally driven. All. behaviorally driven. saying yeah if say.

if like you had a like you know your. father was an addict or somebody and. then it could the to the next generation. have that same like need to get back to. that baseline and it could be inherited. type of thing. Well, there. Okay. So, there are certain addictions that appear. to have some genetic component, but it's. confounded, as we say, it's mixed up. with the behavioral stuff around that. Like, for instance, the probability of. somebody becoming a severe alcoholic. They now call it alcohol use disorder. And I'm I'm not trying to be irreverent, but I just call it alcoholism. Yeah.

Okay. Yeah. I'm going to I'm going to. try and stay out of the the lanes of. political got it in here. Great. So the probability that somebody will. become an alcoholic greatly increases if. their first drink just their first sip. comes before age 13. Okay. Now some. parents think hey listen if my kid has a. beer when they're eight 10 then they. won't have this you know kind of. mysterious feeling around alcohol. That's one theory. But we know on good. statistics that drinking before the age. of 13 greatly increases the probability.

of becoming alcoholic. So now you can. imagine in which households will that. happen? Well, where they're trying to. normalize high alcohol intake. So it can. be both genetic and circumstantial. But. do some countries in suffer with the. higher alcoholism rates then? Yes, even. European ones. Northern European. countries, especially in the winter. I. have Northern European relatives. I'll. tell you in the winter uh they can drink. up there and it's dark and and you know. alcohol is a depressant. There's also. about 8% of people have a gene variant. that when they drink, they don't feel.

the same sedative type quality to. alcohol. When when you drink, the first. thing that happens for everybody is your. prefrontal cortex. This is like the part. of your brain right behind your. forehead. It's the part that sets. context like what's what's appropriate. in different places. It's it inhibits. you. Everybody gets a little more. talkative, right? Everyone's talking. talking. But then you drink more and. people are starting to pass out on the. couch and people are slurring their. words. About 8% of people get a dopamine. surge and an energy increase from. alcohol with increasing alcohol intake.

These are the people remember u you're. in your 20s and there's that guy and. he's still awake at like 3:00 in the. morning. He's in the kitchen bumping. around. He's in the cupboard and you see. him the next morning and he's like, "Hey." And you're like, "We were passed. out, blacked out, drunk." He's doing. laundry or whatever. He's just like, "Hey, let's go running." Yeah. He's. doing Yeah. making a lemonade or. whatever. So, that's a gen that's a. genetic predisposition. Wow. And so, but. is that a positive one? It sounds like. it is kind of. Well, it's probably. adaptive in some, you know, they've got.

you got the cursor on Russia. I mean, listen, I'm friends with Lex Freedman. I. mean, that kid can drink compared to me. Oh, it dude. Yeah, he does. I don't. drink. I I I had my last sip in 2019. Amen. Well, and Lex has the depression. to show it, man. He's got that emo side. that takes over him, you know? He's. definitely I think he just put something. out again on X. I mean, it's perfect. No, I I love Lex because he there's this. transparency about him to me that is um. remarkably human, you know, of like this. like ever hopeful, talented, but also.

very like honest. Uh he so he just said, "I'm an introvert who hides from the. world often way too much. One thing I. wish I did more is call and text my. friends. I think about them often and. feel lucky to know them, but experience. a strange anxiety that prevents me from. texting and calling. silly introvert. introvert brain wants to pull me into. isolation and darkness. Then again, once. I hang out with said friends, it's like. we've been talking every day, so maybe. there's no problem. And it's just how. dude friendships are. BS thoughts. brought to you by brain on sick shots of. this. It's perfect. And I think uh you.

know, with high octane, you know, I. won't claim that he posted that cuz. because of me, but I've been texting for. like three weeks now and it's just. crickets. And then I'll get something. back that just says here. Yeah. And you. just learn with him over time. That's. just, you know, that's just that. Well, that's Russian communication. I mean, it. can take five generations to get a hug. out of somebody, you know? It's like I. love the Russians. Oh, they're. unbelievable. And they, you know, a lot. of them had carried stone dolls as. children. Like, imagine if your doll, your baby doll is made of stone. It's. like that your whole concept of the. world is going to be so different. Bring.

up stone dolls. Bring back that chart up. again. I want to see what they were. doing over there. Alcoholism by country. Um, United States 13.9%. Um, Canada only. 8%, UK 8.7, and what's the darkest one. over there? It's Russia. What's it at? 20.9%. Hell yeah. Cold and bleak. Oh, yeah. You got to be [ __ ] brain dead. over there. Korea's lowest. But, but we. don't really know what's going on in. North. No, we don't know. This is just a. fun chart, but it's also exciting to.

just make That's one place I never want. to visit. Be reminded that the Russians. live like that. I want to ask you about. this about. um so one of the big things that I think. is a is a huge problem that's about to. happen in the world is. um uh pornography addiction, right? I. think it's I believe it's humongous. I. believe it's bigger than alcoholism. I. believe it's like the wave of it that. we're we're starting to see like people. really suffering from it. I think it's. one of the reasons why there's a lot of. divorce.

um what do you see like. neuroscientifically. uh about how we can how people can start. to manage that and then even just what. you just talked about about dopamine. it's like I think it's helping people. realize with that that it's like such a. hole that you're getting into no uh no. whatever that thing is called no pun. intended um how does that how can people. start to cut that off for themselves is. there anything they can do manage like. or do they have to get help if they.

believe that they're suffering from like. pornography or uh sexual uh addiction. Yeah. Uh super important questions. I'm. so glad you're raising this because you. know it's it's interesting if you look. at the research on pornography and. sexual behavior generally, right? What. you'll find mostly in the academic. studies of those areas is kind of an. attempt to to normalize a lot of. behavior. There are reasons for that. some pseudopolitical, some um just kind.

of the way those studies were done for a. long time. But it's really important to. emphasize that it takes a while for. science to catch up to culture. Okay. It. takes a while for science to catch up to. culture. Yeah, it takes and the reason. is not because scientists are lazy or. they're uninterested is that doing. science well takes a long time. Look, I've run studies in my lab on animals, on humans, clinical trials. takes a long. time like 3 four years. sometimes to get a really good study. done. Meanwhile, life is happening and. in the last in the last five years.

especially, there's been an exponential. growth of the amount of pornography. available online, the different formats, right? Only fans um you you know all the. different sites that people can go to. free paid AI and within each of those. there's also been a huge amplification. of the of what's called like. highintensity porn. What's. high-intensity porn? It's more than two. people. It's um BDSM. Now BDSM is its. own discussion that maybe we could talk. about at some point you know just.

separately about this merge of pain and. pleasure that the reason I'll just the. the punchline um is that dopamine is. also increased by what we call the. sessation of pain. When pain starts and. then stops you get an amplified dopamine. surge. So, a lot of people are watching. or engaging in what we would call. violent porn, right? And we're as. primate species, humans, we have an. empathy. So, when people are watching. pornography, they're not obviously not. experiencing the same things exactly.

those people are doing and experiencing, but they're tuning into it, right? They're getting to it. And we can only. speculate as to what they're doing to. themselves, right? Typically, when we're. talking about porn, let's just be. direct, we're also talking about. masturbation, right? Typically, when. we're talking about watching video porn, sometimes it's women. Most often, it's. men by a huge majority. Oh, yeah. The. men are the one watching it. Yeah. Although, you know, years ago, I had a. had a girlfriend, a woman I was dating. very seriously, and and she confessed to. me that prior to our relationship, she. had developed a porn compulsion. It.

wasn't an addiction. Um, you know, an. addiction again is a progressive. narrowing of the things that bring you. pleasure. hadn't taken her to the point. where it was destructive, but she would. had the wisdom to cut herself off from. it early on. Okay? So, it does happen. with women, but it's much more frequent. with men. So, here's the thing. We can. think of pornography now as like the. methamphetamine of pornography compared. to the pornography of, you know, we. always hear about, oh, you know, like. when I was growing up, drawing the. Playboy or or you know that the thing.

when I was a kid, like I'll confess this. for didn't know I was going to do a. confession, but they had those like um. sex education books where they were like. sketch drawings in pencil. Oh yeah, bring them on. And I, you know, when I. was, you know, probably, you know, 14, 13, I was like, "This is awesome." Yeah. You know, this was awesome. But it was. about, you know, teaching you basically. about sex. It was teaching you about. body parts. And that was, you know, for. sure pencil drawings. I can't believe. we're looking this up. No, it's. interesting because I think a lot of. people probably if you do uh pencil.

drawings, uh who knows what kind of. freaky stuff's going to jump up here. No, we have a blocker on, I'm pretty. sure. No, these are Yeah. There we go. There we go. So, yeah. Yeah. Had some. see human loving. This is very different. than today's porn. sex and I love how. they used to call it human loving. That's nice though. There's something at. least it makes more sense. It puts even. your head into something, you know, instead of like uh Britney's butt world. or whatever, you know, which takes it to. a whole different deal. And there was no.

discussion whatsoever of elements of. pain or BDSM or power play. There you. go. You know. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, you. know, God for a heterosexual young male, the fact that they put her naked facing. us as opposed to the guy on the other. side, you're like, "Okay, cool." But you. know the other thing about pornography. is that it in a young brain this this is. very important and it relates to. everything we're talking about today. from about age 0 to 25 your brain is. incredibly plastic. It's modified by. experience just by being in those.

experiences. When you say plastic you. mean it's more like it's not solid yet? That's right. You can literally wire. neurons plasticity. You can wire neurons. to other neurons very readily. I mean, this was um known for a long time, but. it was really formalized by my. scientific great-grandparents, David. Hubble and Torston Weasel, they won a. Nobel Prize for showing that if you take. a a cat, a monkey, or a kid, and you. close one eyelid for just a few hours. each day, the brain becomes blind to. visual input through that eye once you.

open the eye up, unless you do something. else like close the other eye in order. to reverse that plasticity. However, if. today I just said, "Yeah, that's how. fast and permanent it is." Unless you do. something to reverse it, but if I did. that same thing to you now or me now, there'd be no brain change. You close. your eye, obviously you can't see. through a closed eye, pop open the. eyelid later, you see just fine. So, we. know that from a until about age 25, the. brain just modifies itself based on. experience. So, if you're doing cocaine, amphetamine, or let's just stay with. this example, you're watching.

highintensity violent porn with more. than two people, right? You know, we. forget that every time you add another. person, you it's two women and one guy. or it's, you know, for what's this woman. on X. I mean, I have to say it makes it. gives me an aversive response, which I. think is the healthy response every. time. She announces I think she's like. sleeping with a hundred then a thousand. people. And listen, she's obviously in. control of her own Western Conference. right now. I think I just saw the other. day. I don't know what Barbara uh is it. Barbara Blue. Bonnie Blue. Bonnie Blue.

Yeah. Bonnie Blue. This is like. methamphetamine with heroin. And you. know what? You get the picture. It's. starting to layer in all these different. things. And so the young, you think. about the young male brain in. particular, young female brain watching. this stuff. And it's not just setting a. behavioral expectation because we always. hear about that, you know, they they. think sex is like that and it's not. It's setting this incredibly high. threshold for what they consider. stimulating. Not just stimulating.

sexually, but stimulating mentally. Yeah, I mean it's crazy. It's like, you. know, listen, I like playing cards every. once in a while. So, you go play card. game with your friends. Be like the. first time you play cards. You got a. million bucks. You know, you're or. you're back there in the high state. You're in like the Dana White room, right? Like I know like when I see. sometimes his gambling hands, right? He's, you know, but he can afford to. play, right? And he also knows where. that fits into the rest of his life. But. you think about a a kid, you know, you. have a chance to win a, you know, a.

million dollars. Actually, there's this. scene in that movie, uh, that show, remember, Succession? Yes. A show that. it's all about dopamine. This family of. rich brats who are completely corrupt. Everything's about more, more, more. Dopamine has been called in a in a book, I forget the author, the molecule of. more. It's all about wanting more. And. there's this dreadfully sad scene where. they go out to play. I think it was like. a baseball game or something and they. bring their uh their garden help and. they take the kid and they say, "Hey, if. you can hit a home run, these people's.

kids are clearly and they say, "If you. hit a home run, you have a million. dollars." And you see the anticipation. This would transform these kids and. their parents' life. And then he doesn't. get the million dollars. And they give. him like some watch that's probably. worth $25,000. This is dopamine reward prediction error. in a in a nutshell. Had they given him. the watch, the family probably would. have been pretty thrilled. They could. sell it. They could use it. Had they not. been involved in the game, their. dopamine is the same as when they go.

home at night. But they had a chance at. a million dollars. And when they didn't. get that, it drops them below baseline. And then you see the kid that evening. like sitting around his apartment just. completely despondent with the watch. sitting there as if it was worth. nothing. That's dopamine. And when you think. about pornography, that's what young. people are being exposed to. So. therefore, sexual experiences not only. are quite different. Remember, pornography is about obviously people. are getting aroused by watching other.

people have sex. And um you know, I. don't know what kind of sex people are. having out there, but in my experience, you know, the whole the whole business. of sex and learning how to have great. sex is about learning to be in the in. the experience with somebody. And it's a. communication. And it's an ongoing. communication and it's about being in. the experience, being present, not. watching someone else have sex. Oh yeah. I was thinking the other day, watching. some other dude like have sex with a. woman, it's kind of I don't even know if. it's homoerotic. I don't know what it.

is. It's definitely when you really when. you take a step back from it, it's a. little bizarre. It's definitely. intrusive, right? But for surely it. alters the way that you think about. things. I mean, I know in my own life, I. got exposed to pornography real early. I. would bike across town to get a little. look at some pornos. Perfectly normal. behavior for a young male. Pretty. normal. I was breaking into houses to. freaking, you know, get That's I had. friends like you growing up. Where did. you grow up? Uh Louisiana. Yeah. I had. friends growing up. I mean, in the in. South South Bay, Palo Alto was pretty. tame, but when we when I started getting.

into the skateboard thing. Oh, for sure. You know, we drew from kids from all. over. And listen, I'm very grateful for. that early exposure. Oh, yeah. It's easy. to jerk off to if you got some good. graffine. Oh, no. had early exposure to. kids that from all walks of life, but I. knew kids like you breaking into houses. Oh, dude. Yeah, I remember. Yeah, it. would be crazy with like, you know, Yeah, just like breaking in that just. like Yeah, we made some poor choices. But I think the fact that. um here's one thing I noticed for. myself, right? So, well, I had like a. lot of dis like I had kind of a. disorder, I guess, where like I had some.

intimacy issues where I couldn't um I. had like some issues like just like. probably with my mom from growing up of. not having a connection. And so, if a. woman if I got around a woman, I got. very nervous, right? It was like. very extremely nervous, right? So, I. think it made it like once I saw. pornography, I was like, "Okay, well, here's a way that I can be near a woman. or near as a female where I can uh have. some form of intimacy without having to.

have a real person there." So, that for. one for me was um it was okay. It made. sense that that that's how I adapted to. it as a kid or how I understood it as a. kid. It makes sense. Uh but as an adult, it didn't help me at a certain point. Um, and then the secondary part for me. was. uh, you know, you would just see you. would see sex like in images or scenes. or a way a camera set up. And so then. that's how you start to think of it of. intimacy. It's like, you know, it's.

like, okay, well, we have to do this. scene, you know, it's not like you would. stage things around your room or. anything. You didn't have any cameras or. anything, but you would just like you. thought of each thing as like ai scene. or a scenario. So, um, yeah, you're not. out there shooting baskets. you're. trying to like recreate the NBA final, you know, right? And that's a lot that's. a lot of pressure, you know? Oh, so it. was a ton of pressure. So, it was like. and you almost couldn't even Yeah. There. was no real connection. So that for me. was a real culde-sac of like trying to. figure out how to evolve like.

um intimately you know and and and and. it's it's some of that's taken a long. time to get through and different like. uh class like not classes but like IA. really helped me a lot different. medicines helped a lot with like just. unbinding all that anxiety that was just. like this young person who just uh. didn't know how to relate to females you. You know, so I've been speaking recently. about Moon Pay and what it is and what. it ain't, baby. Because, you know, I've.

I've had that I've been I've had one. foot in crypto and one foot out over the. years. I'm walking that line, you know, but I'm not going to stop telling you. about Moon Pay because it's where I'm at. now. It's what's brought me back into. the crypto game. Moonay powers the. entire world of crypto. Some people say. they are the PayPal of crypto. Seriously, nearly every crypto app. you're using or thinking about using. uses Moonay to let you buy crypto with. your favorite payment methods, including.

credit cards, debit cards, Venmo, and. even PayPal. Moon is partnered with. Backpack, a self-custodial wallet built. for Salana, and many blockchains. Backpack prioritizes user experience and. security, and partnered with Moonay, so. you can now buy and sell crypto using. most major payment methods. Remember, while Moonay makes buying crypto. straightforward, and while I enjoy using. it for my crypto choices, it's essential. to do your own research and understand.

the risks involved. Crypto trading can. be volatile, and you could lose your. investment. Moonay is a tool to. facilitate your transactions, not a. source of financial advice. Trade. responsibly. It's that time of year, baby. It's the season is ahead, that. sunlight season. And they say the sun is. going to be brighter than ever. They say. this will be one of the hottest summers. on record down in New. Orleans. So you want to make sure that. you're prepared with a pair of rays,

pair of eye coverings that have got you. covered. Our friends at Shady Rays have. you covered with premium polarized. shades that won't break the bank. Shady. Rays is an independent sunglasses. company offering a world-class product. rated five stars by over 300,000 people. Their shades have durable frames and. crystal clear optics making them the. perfect choice for all outdoor.

adventures and exclusively for our. listeners. Shady Rays is giving out. their best deal. Head to shady rays.com. and use code theo for 35% off polarized. sunglasses. Just try for yourself the. shades rated five stars by over. 300,000 people. Go to shady rays sh h a. d y r a. ys.com and use code theo to get 35% off. polarized sunglasses. You know, this is.

going to sound crazy because it's June. pretty much. Pretty much it's almost. June and I'm still recovering. from the Christmas holidays. That's just. who I am. I'm still recovering from the. previous I just I never I never put it. all together after that to be very. honest with you. And you know overall. life in general can be chaotic. But if. you're in charge of order fulfillment. for an ecommerce business, you know that.

that is its own special kind of chaos. Unless you're rocking with ShipStation. Ship Station helps you be able to count. on your daytoday remaining calm. Our. experience with ShipStation has been. monumental from using it to help us get. out of our um original uh relationship. with shipping and with organizing with. our uh website and with our um merch.

Calm the chaos of order fulfillment with. shipping software that delivers. Switch. to Shipstation today. Go to. shipstation.com/theo to sign up for your. free trial. That's shipstation.com. Yeah, I think it's a really important. conversation. If I may, you know, listen, like I said, I'm 49 now, but you.

know, I am forever grateful to my first. girlfriend. I was a virgin when she and. I started sleeping together. She had. slept with this other guy. All I knew. about him was he was like some buff. football player. I'm like this skinny. skateboard kid. Oh, dude. My first. girlfriend slept with a dude before me. who wore a cape. Dude, a [ __ ]. Well, that you wear a cape. He like. [ __ ] dude. What the heck? Yeah. Listen, I mean, I remember going into that like. any young male thinking like, my. goodness, you know, this is like is a.

lot of pressure. And one of the things. I'm so grateful to her for is, you know, we were able to talk a bit at first. No, you know, it was just like you you just. want it to go perfect, right? You just. want it to go perfect. And I will say. one of the huge mistakes people make, maybe we can save some some people, some. men and women, young young men and. women, some serious stress. One of the. huge mistakes people make is to try and. take that edge off with alcohol. First. of all, it starts to really muddy all.

the consent stuff. So you're already. like you're already playing with fire, right? Because you know when people are. inebriated there's all they're not in. their right mind. Yeah. Right. So the. other thing is that by chemically. removing that stress. you many people come to depend on those. chemicals to relax and they don't learn. the skills. Right? As I always joke you. know now not it's not a joke it's. serious. You know nowadays like every. young male who wants to like get a. little bit you know jacked is like. should I take TRT? And I'm like, "Dude,

you're 25. You're already filled with. testosterone." They're like, "Yeah, but. you know," and you're like, "Learn how. to train. Learn how to eat." And when. you're in your late 40s, talk to a. doctor, freeze some sperm cuz it's going. to shut down your sperm production. Maybe then, but like just chill. And in. the same way, it's like I think there's. immense pressure. There's also something. that's happening now that I hear about a. lot, which is from the beginning of. time, women have talked to one another. Okay. I had the Oh, yeah. Chatty Kathy. You heard of that term? No. Is that what.

it's called? Yeah, it's a famous term. Who brought it up? Let's get to the. bottom of that term really quick because. people have heard it a lot and it you. don't know where it really started. Do. we know that the phrase chatty Kathy. originally came from the name of popular. talking doll manufactured by Mattel in. the 1960s. The doll's pull string. mechanism played pre-recorded phrases. when the string was activated like you. don't make any money or you get your own. dinner. I made those up. But damn, Kathy's a vibe. Look at her. She said. buck tooth. A little buck tooth there.

Yeah. Back when you get a good British. gal. But go on. Was there anything left. on that information? Um over time the. term chatty Kathy became a common idiom. to describe someone who is especially. talkative. And I'm just joking ladies. But uh but that's interesting where that. came from. I never knew always heard. that. Never heard that term. Um you know. so I had the great benefit and the uh. disadvantage as well of having a sister, right? Okay. Having a sister is great. because you don't think women are weird. Like I grew up with a girl living next. door to me, my sister. We shared a. bathroom, all that. But I also heard the.

way her and her friends talk about boys. And so from a young age, I was like, man, I can't make a mistake on a first. date. I got to do everything perfect. because it's going to be the rundown. But back then, there was no social. media. Now, young guys tell me they are. terrified to go out on dates because. let's say they do something wrong. Let's. say they're less than perfect. They are. very concerned it's going to end up on. some site and they're going to be. shamed. And I'll tell you, I do think.

and of course I take the male. perspective because that's the only body. I've ever lived in. But I do think that. a lot of the complaints about, you know, young, you know, there are no men today, young males like in the 20s and 30s. You. know, a lot of these guys are are. terrified because they feel like. everything's potentially going to become. public. Yeah. Positive or negative. And. I hear a lot from young males about the. pornography question, about all this. And I I like there's one kid that I've. kind of mentored over time. I've known. him since he was a little kid and now.

he's in his 20s and he's doing great in. life, but he's had his um his. challenges. And he I'll tell you, it's. really. interesting. He said to me, he goes, "Look, you know, it's hard good-looking. kid. He's work right now. He's working. construction. He's he's doing great.". And he said, "Look, it's hard to find. someone who just kind of want to keeps. your relationship just the two of you.". But he did. He He had a girlfriend. She. wasn't the one. So he found one and they. have a closed container they call it. You know, there's like the new new. language or something. And he's like,

"Man, it's awesome." He's like, "You. know, if I'm nervous about something. related to intimacy, we talk about it.". Turns out she's nervous, too. And he. feels super safe. And but he had to. literally anti that up because where he. went to school, I won't say where he. went to school because he'll murder. he'll murder me, but you know it's it's. like the opposite Arizona State, right? There there's all this stuff about. people talking behind the scenes and. then posting it to the internet. And. that's and so that drives guys more into. the the loneliness and isolation of porn.

and substance abuse. And so I'm not. blaming women here. I'm not blaming men. here. I'm just saying that we when it. comes to intimacy, everybody's nervous. about that, right? When I was a kid, there was like Dr. Ruth and there were. those books and then you had this thing. called experience and you'd have to that. went well, that went less well or that. went really well. And then over time, you learn how to have the communication. and enjoy yourself in it. Yeah. Now, but. it's hard. It's difficult. Now, you can. have a thing where it's like, say you go. out on a date with a girl and then they.

they could make a video like, "Oh, this. guy tried to kiss me. What a lose." just. like but I guess guys could do that too. but just just the risk of that on either. side. It's like then that wins, you. know? It's like how many times are we. going to let technology defeat what just. means being human, right? And like and. at what point do we start to choose. like, hey, I'm going to make a moral ch. like a choice for myself and whoever I'm. going to date with, maybe have a talk. with them first or something like, you. know, but it's like every time it's like.

technology is the one that seems to like. take away like things that used to be so. real to us. Yeah. Because then you're. both in a cave. you're both just. masturbating or whatever and you're both. like brokenhearted in a in some. semblance it seems like. Is that crazy. to say that? No, I I I don't think so at. all. I mean, listen, text messages I I. hate telling people this, but like. everything you text is potentially. public. I don't care if you're a public. facing aka famous person or not. And. that terrifies people. At the same time, you know, there can be great intimacy.

through writing. You know, my first. girlfriend and I wrote each other. letters for years, for years. I still. have letters from girlfriends. You know, I cherish those. I don't break them out. too often. If you have a new girlfriend, you basically you got to hide those away. pretty carefully. But I assume anyone I. date's got those, you know, from their. former relationship. I'm not bothered by. that. I mean, that's part of the go get. them out. But I agree, man. I get. nervous cuz sometimes like for a date or. something, I would like to do well, let's um do a Zoom call or something. first because it's like, you know,

especially if we live a little bit away. from each other. Let's see if we even. talk well or something. But then you're. worried like, well, is somebody. recording this or what's going on? I'm just kidding. I mean, listen. Well, the old stereotype was. girls feared getting [ __ ] shamed, right? Guys feared getting dork shamed. Like. loser shamed. Yeah. Right. Big, you. know, it's been said by the evolutionary. biologist. A loser, dude. Well, and they. speculate a lot, but the evolutionary. biologists will say, you know, uh,

woman's greatest fear is, uh, violence. from a man. man's greatest fear is being. laughed at by a woman. Oh god. Right. And and Right. Exactly. And so there's. this battle nowadays. I'm glad we're. talking about this because there's this. kind of unspoken battle between the. masculine and feminine forces. Well, it's just funny because you say that. because I just realized that the. majority of my childhood was some woman. I don't even know who it was laughing in. the distance in my head. Oh man. Well, and like especially when I got into. perity and that kind of kind of time, but well, and there's nothing that feels.

better than, you know, feeling like you. can deeply satisfy your partner and. they're devoted to you and you're. devoted to them. It's a wonderful I. mean, that's the stuff that, you know, love and marriages and families and to. be direct, great sex are made of, right? But this is one of the most important. conversations to our audience because I. think this is the thing that's it's. kill, you know, relationships are. falling up. It's like if we don't if. this doesn't get fixed now, it's going. to be. I think it's, you know, societies can. change and end really fast, especially. with like um technology now. Um to me,

it's it's just like we're at a crucial. moment for relationships. I totally. agree. I mean, you know, young guys. approach me a lot about the porn thing, about concerned about like are they. going to be shamed on one of these sites. if they, you know, do something wrong or. or and I'm not talking about like wrong. like they were forceful. I'm talking. about wrong like they they made a. mistake or they said something dumb or. you know I think a lot one Nick didn't. have a site you're pulling up. This is. one right here. Are we dating the same. guy? Women turn to Facebook to uncover.

cheating and violence. Experts say use. of groups to warn others about dangerous. men is indictment on government's. failure to keep women safe. This is from. the Guardian. So it's obviously very pro. the groups but there's negative. consequences like people being reported. just for dating multiple women that. they're not exclusive with and stuff. like that. But it's also it's very pro. who you said the Guardian is very pro. the app as like an empowerment for women. the way they can stay safe. Yeah. Well, I think apps that protect people against. violence are great. I think that um you.

know if you look at the data on. infidelity in and out of marriage it's. equally distributed between men and. women. Mhm. Okay. It's equally. distributed. So So there's no there's no. men cheat more than women. It's it's. it's clearly equally distributed. So um. the data play that over and over again. you look at divorce data, but you just. look at self-report data. All different. forms of data collection that really. orient towards honesty because people. lie all the time and studies and. statistics. But um point to that. I. think that you know the most important.

thing really if we're talking about. forming intimacy whether or not sexual. intimacy, emotional intimacy or both is. that people feel that their. communications are vaulted between them. right vaulted means it's just between. them. what happen what what what's. exchanged between them stays stays. between them that's animy in its own. right is that it's something here it's. it's between us right that's right I. mean I you know I have a uh half joking. uh solution to this but I'm only half. joking oh yeah for sure and and I should.

say I've had. some great relationships and I've had. some not great relationships right um. I'm on great terms with most all of my. ex-girlfriends you know and I'm so. grateful. to especially one from about it was a. long relationship about seven years. where she really taught me how to like. have the uncomfortable conversation. Wow. And and I'm still learning, right? Um and we're still good friends. But I. I'll tell you one of the the solutions. to this.

Men, find a good lesbian friend. You. want to really understand where you're. strong, where you're weak, and you want. to learn to just kind of relax around. women. be around a woman that you have. no chance of sleeping with that buddy. oyster. You know, I have a couple of. lesbian friends and I'll tell you, I've. always had a couple of lesbian friends. I'm I'm convinced lesbians are going to. save us all. God, I got to get one. You. know, you know what I'm saying? Yeah. And and you got to get it out of your. head that you're going to sleep with. them. Yes. Cuz these are what we call. platinum star lesbians. They are.

interested in women and women only. Oh. yeah. I'm talking a Westbrook jersey. So, and they it's interesting because. they have an amazing perspective on men. That's from a women's perspective. And. they also have an amazing perspective on. women. Yeah. They can say things like, "She's crazy, Andrew. You date her, you're going to be in pain." And they. can also say things like, "She seems. pretty cool. I would date her, except. she's not into women." And you women can. see things in women that men can't see. Men can see things in men that obviously.

women can't see. I mean, I grew up in a. big pack of guys. Like, I only hit. bull's eyes when it comes to assessment. of friends and business partners, men. and women. But, you know, with men, I. can just tell he's a sociopath. He's. cool. He's not cool. I can just tell. it's like a six sense. The other thing, you know, across the the sexes, you. know, a macac monkey blindfolded on LSD, God. has better optics. And I don't think I'm. alone in that, right? Cuz we get. stirred. It's not all about the. anticipation of sex. It's that the the.

styles of communication are different. The way that stories and information is. turned into things by one sex and it's. like a whole different world. Lesbians normalize all of this and. they're extremely direct and some of my. best friends are lesbians. I I love them. to death. I I would We got to get some. damn lesbians over here. Lesbians are. going to save us all, man. Yeah, I love. that. That would be a great musical. Lesbians are going to save us all. And I. believe that I would love to see that. And I think that yeah, I think there is.

this, you. know, for a while there people were like. gays and gays and you know, don't be gay. and that kind of stuff. Probably like 50. years ago that was like a thing, you. know, and then but now I think one of. the one of the neat things about gay. folks is there are that they have like a. you special recipe, you know, built into. them worked out. Like I have a good. friend I've known since childhood. It. was it was wild because he basically. slept with like more women than any of. us in high school. He ended up being.

gay. Went off to college. He's as he's. as gay as could be. Yeah. And um you. know and the communication he's. explained like the communication in the. gay community, gay male community. I. don't know. So well it's just very. direct. People ask for sex if they want. They say no if they don't want to. Want. to come? Yeah. I mean that's it. It's a. it straight up. I mean the stereotype is. it matches. There are some married gay. couples obviously monogous etc. But it. it aligns with all the the male. stereotypes of promiscuous multiple.

partners. That's that's the kind of. stereotype, right? Um you know, grill. and [ __ ] That'd be that'd be my team, dude. If you had a gay flag football. team in college, dude, man, uh for the. uh for at the um rec center, grill and. [ __ ] You want to hear some some wild. data on homosexuality and hormones? Okay. Okay. So, years ago when I was a. graduate student at Berkeley, I was part. of a study. I wasn't the main author. that looked at fingerlength ratios and. homosexuality in men and women and how.

much testosterone was in uterero. Now, I. don't want anyone to freak out and just. start staring at their fingers, but. because it has to be measured correctly. All right? So, so if you hold if you. hold up your right hand, like I'm. holding up my right hand. My ring finger. here is a little bit longer than my. pointer finger. Let me see. Okay. Which. one's ring finger? Yeah. So, uh, turn. but turn it the other way around for me. Yeah. Okay. So, your ring finger is a. little bit longer than your pointer. finger. Yeah. Okay. That is the typical.

heterosexual male pattern. Okay. Now, people are going to be like, "This is. bullshit." Listen, this has been. replicated more than five times in. humans. Okay. So, on the right hand and. and you don't sometimes they look a. little more equal, but it's replicated. five generations. Five different studies. have repeated this and it holds up every. single time. So, and and if sometimes. you have to measure from that first. crease on the palm side, but if we were. to measure it. Yeah. So, so this this. pointer finger is smaller than the ring. finger. Okay. It's called the D2 to D4. ratio. Scientists are super nerdy. Okay.

Turns out that if you look at gay men, men that identify as gay, they're there. very few men that identify as bisexual. actually. But if you look at gay gay. men, that difference is much more. pronounced, much bigger. They have a. hyper male pattern. Now, it can't be due. to behavior, right? You could say, "Well, they're having sex with a lot. more people. Sexy increases. testosterone." No. It's directly related. to how much testosterone you were. exposed to in uterero when you were in. your mommy's belly. Now, can you get.

exposed to testosterone in your mom's. belly if someone ejaculates into the. mom? Uh, that hasn't been looked at, but. um I don't think so. There's a lot to. talk about. So, yeah, you can put that. hand down. So gay gay men have a hyper. male pattern that the index finger, excuse me, the pointer finger tends to. be uh relatively shorter than the ring. finger. So the pointer finger is shorter. than the ring finger. Yeah. On the right. hand. Good. On the right hand is where. it's There you go. See? So yep. Yeah.

Yeah. There you go. [ __ ] Okay. So. actually it's close. Well, no. No. There's It's a very small difference in. everyone, but in but in gay men it tends. to move much greater now. So in the game. in the the pointer finger is is is a. little bit more shorter than the ring. finger. Correct. Wow. Correct. And we're. not talking about absolute. We're. talking about the ratio. Okay. Now check. this out. Now check it out. Lesbians. tend to have the same pattern as heter. heterosexual men. Which is not to say. they are men, right? Believe me, I got.

lesbian friends. They are women. A lot. of people when they hear lesbian, they. think of like a a sort of cartoon. stereotype of a lesbian. There are a lot, trust me, there are a. lot of different lesbian actually my. lesbian friends recently have been. trying to school me on how you spot a. lesbian. Turns out there's all sorts of. interesting things that uh the lesbian. community is going to get not supposed. to give away these secrets. It's kind of. like magicians, you know, but let's just. say like number of rings and stuff is. our like interesting coralates. Okay. Um. love the lesbian community. Okay. Yeah, we got to find some good lesbians, man,

in the future. So, here's what's wild. Yeah. The more older brothers a guy has, the more testosterone he's exposed to in. uterero and the higher probability it is. that he'll be gay. Wow. Now, that's not. always the case. It doesn't mean you. have five older brothers, you'll be gay. But much higher probability of being gay. if you have more older brothers. With. each older brother, the probability of a. male baby growing up into a gay man. increases significantly. Gosh. Okay. Super interesting. Now all of this is.

interesting because it shows that. there's or what we call organizational. effects of hormones in uterero. None of. this can be because of behavior. In. fact, these differences are present at. birth. Okay. Okay. And then of course. the question I asked when I was on the. study is if I would chop off my index. finger, does my testosterone go up? The. answer is no. So, you know, when so when. we think about like partner selection, like, you know, heterosexual, homosexual, you know, I think years ago. it was thought that this was, you know, there were still people that thought. this was a behavioral choice. Listen, news flash, this is clearly a biological.

phenomenon. None of this clearly like, you know, and and I understand that, but. there's but there's of course also. flexibility. You could imagine that some. people because of experience decide that. they're going to, you know, bat for the. other team. Oh, for sure. You know, a. lot of my gay friends are like, "It's. not a choice, right? It's just like it's. who you are." And I'm like, "Well, why. after you've had a drink, are you trying. to get me to choose it?" That's a thing. for me. It's like reverse psychology. They're trying to trick you or. something. Wiener trick. That's.

interesting. Um, my lesbian friends have. never tried to convince me to be a. lesbian. Um, but the uh But I don't. blame gay dudes if they cuz I think the. ultim ultimate thing you can get as a. gay dude is a straight dude. You know, that's the hot chick. Well, okay. So in. the I can't speak for lesbians but my. close lesbian friends tell me that also. yeah like flipping somebody in that for. them is like considered a trophy right. Yeah yeah yeah but you know so last sort. of study in this uh catching a big foot. or whatever. There's a a neuroscientist.

by the name of Simon Ly um who years ago. looked in the brain for brain. differences between gay and straight men. and he found one. And there's a little. area of the hypothalamus called the. inter the interstitial nucleus of the. anterior hypothalamus area 4 that is. different in size between gay men and. straight men. Uh and you know it's hard. to argue that that comes from behavior. It could have the the the problem with. that study is they got the brains from. deceased uh AIDS patients and AIDS is a. known neurodeenerative condition. So you.

know there's no perfect study of any of. this. I don't know how we got into this, but I think basically we're talking. about um lesbians are going to save us. all. But you know, one one thing that I. think is so important about the work you. do and seriously, one of the reasons I. wanted to come here today is. because you're normalizing conversations. about addiction, porn, sex, intimacy. You know, you asked. why I think you answered your question. earlier. Why is podcasting so big and.

important now? Because you're not going. to get this kind of conversation on a. legacy news channel. They're going to. bring in somebody who's like the expert. and they're going to talk about things. from the perspective of never having. done them. They're not going to reveal. anything about themselves. And here we. are kind of, you know, like u like, you. know, brushing up against the barbed. wire of some of these topics in an. effort to really talk about them because. this is what a lot of people are. struggling with. Yeah. Some of that. enemy that intimacy disorder stuff was a. nightmare for me because when I was in. my 20s I was so nervous around women. that I like a lot of times I had.

erectile dysfunction you know. Could you. talk to your partner about it? Uh. probably back then it was probably. taboo, right? Oh yeah. No, I think I. just felt defeated, you know. It felt. very much like damn something's wrong. with me. I don't know what's wrong with. me, you know. And it was like. um I remember I had uh it's funny. because kind of with like my first. girlfriend I didn't really have it and. then it started to happen and then the.

same thing happened with my second. girlfriend and then after that once I. kind of got into like age 23 it was or. like 24 it was like a problem for a long. time. So I was it was like a bug in your. brain. Oh yes. So once it was like I. knew it was there then it was like. always this thing. So, oh [ __ ] I can't. even I I I forgot about all these. nightmare times where you'd be on a date. and you'd be like, "How's this date. going?" And then like, "Are we going to. get like inant and what's going to. happen?" And I would like, you know, I. remember like um I would eat like, you.

know, those gas station wiener pills. like uh you know, like Black Attack 40. or whatever. I've seen them on the work, dude. They were all just caffeine and. stimulants. Oh, bro. Can't be good. Can't be good. One of them I took. Yeah, just zoom in on some of those. No, that's Dayquil. I mean, that's not going. to help anybody. Uh, yeah. Triple green, Rhino 87, Macho Man, um, White Black. Guy, that's a crazy name for one. Wait, what? Yeah, I made that up. Okay, I.

didn't see that there. I thought I have. a visual defect or something. Oh, yeah. Uh, Body Beast or whatever. King Kong. But nowadays a lot of this is worked out. because you know the the drug tadalapil. um also known as seialis was developed. as a way to increase blood flow to the. prostate. By the way every male 35 or. older this was suggested by the director. of male sexual health at Stanford School. of Medicine Mike Eisenberg. So I'm not. just pulling this out of you know. nowhere. Every male 35 or older should. probably be on a low dose 2.5 to 5.

milligrams of tadalapil per in the. evening. It's very inexpensive. does. require a prescription. Why? Because the. prostate needs blood flow and it also. serves you know it has this pro erectile. function right and and of course one has. to do all the other things correctly. You got to be sleeping exercising etc. Also a lot of guys think they should be. doing keigull you know that thing where. you're like doing kind of tight that. actually will tighten your pelvic floor. and block blood flow to the penis and. make erection more difficult. Yeah. So. they did you know a lot of this stuff. wasn't taught. Yeah. I remember I would.

take some of them so much sometime. I. remember one time I was trying to like. perform like have sex with this gal or. something and my I taken so many of. those wiener pills my nose just started. bleeding all over this woman and I was. like did she freak out? Huh? I don't. know. It was in Miami. everybody. We had. like a belly full of crab or whatever. been like this nice crab place, but it. was like and my nose just it was just. like that was crazy. But it it just. became this crazy dance in my head where.

it was like wiener pills trying to be. normal like trying to calm down like. putting ice in my shirt just all these. things to like chill like just be able. to be normal for a sex. That [ __ ] was a. nightmare. Yeah. I mean um it was a. nightmare. And then you're stuck in this. universe where that is becomes like your. whole battle and then you get afraid to. even talk to girls sometimes or relate. to them because you're like well what. you know if I take a girl down this road. and it's not able to work out then who. am I then where am I at you know? Yeah.

And then the imagine that but layered on. top of that is the fear of being shamed. by Listen I I don't know that I you know. I'm just going to bring it up. I don't. know the specifics, but I remember. hearing a few years ago there was a. comedian who was like shamed for being. bad in bed or something. Was this like. uh and that was one of the first kind of. it was got he was kind of canceled for. being bad in bed, wasn't that? I don't. know. All right. Well, and listen, if. there was like coercive stuff or. whatever, I don't know. But I wasn't. there obviously. Obviously didn't read. the article either. But I think, you.

know, you layer on top the fear of being. ashamed, right? And all of a sudden, you. know, like you're talking about like. collapsing a a young male's existence. I. mean, you know, I think, yeah, I like I. said, for the fourth time, I'm forgive. me for repeating myself. 49. So, I You. look young, man. Thanks, man. I feel. good. Well, listen, I quit drinking. I. never drank that much. But also, I've. been doing things that I love. I was. going to say that one of the things. that'll keep you young is dopamine. Not. from pharmarmacology, but being in. pursuit of things that you love. Let's.

positive anticipation. But I think that. let's go into that in just a second. But. let's finish out this what you were. saying. Yeah. I think that, you know, I benefited tremendously. from being open with that first. girlfriend. Yes. That that first. girlfriend just saying, "Hey, like you. know, like she had this like buff. boyfriend in another school." But. actually it was wild because he ended up. himself. Mhm. And that was years later.

And I remember thinking this guy was. like the football hero, right? He ended. up becoming. And I remember thinking, "Wow, I thought in my mind he was like. couldn't be outdone, right?" And so. talking to her, I remember her just. saying like first she said something. like uh we were kids, right? We were. like 16, you know? She said, you know, you're you're wonderful. And I remember. thinking like, I don't want to be called. wonderful. Like I'm trying to get good. at this thing, right? And I think if. I've learned anything, like if I could. send like a like all points bulletin. out, it's like everything we know about.

the erectile response is that it's what. we call parasympathetic. It comes from. the relaxation response. Orgasm is. related to it's almost like a stress of. sorts. It's pleasure but high arousal. Yeah. The key to all of it is a lot of. exhales, lot of nasal breathing, and. just slow the whole thing down. Yeah. Slow the whole thing down. that you you. you know later once you're comfortable. with somebody if you got like five. minutes and you're going to like go for. the the quicky thing in the kitchen. before you leave to work. Okay, that's a.

that's a whole program, right? Okay, that's like that uh that guy lethal. shooter on Instagram, the guy can make a. basket from anywhere. Like he worked up. to that the uh what you're trying to do. is slow down the whole thing like and. get into sensation. You got to get out. of your head. Now, it's one thing to say. get out of your head. It's another to do. it. So the whole process there starts. with just only going so far as then you. you communicate with the person slow. down. These things have a real beauty to. them because when people start entering.

that dance and communicating well with. one another all of a sudden like the. magic of biology takes over and then. someone thinks oh well now it's going to. go back then you just kind of restart. and do the whole thing. And nowadays, I. think young males go quickly. They're. like, I'm gonna take 20 milligrams. It's. a dalop fill this that listen that. probably would help. But learning how to. do this, this thing that we call. intimacy, right? I mean, intimacy is a. lot of things, but knowing that what's. happening there is between the two of. you and that also means you guys cuz you.

know there's also been a long history of. men talking about all the women they. slept with and then that doesn't feel. good necessarily to other women, you. know. So the real the the art of. intimacy is something that we've lost. And listen, I'm not saying that all sex. is has this element. You know, sometimes. people just want to get together and get. raw. Like, but that's that's a you know, that's an advanced skill that you may or. may not want to engage in. And I think. that slowing the whole thing down. Like, hey, we're going to be together in bed. four times before we ever actually have.

intercourse. Like, that's weird to look. at you while I say that, but you know. what I'm talking about. Hell no. This is the kind of thing that can. transform not only avoids problems but. can transform your notion of like what's. possible in relationship. I had slow. slow and then once that intimacy is set. then there can be some you know more. adventurous exploration at speed but you. know it's all it's all about slowing.

that thing down slowing the whole. process down. Yeah, dude. I remember Oh, dude. I remember this. freaking my girlfriend at the time. I. was like I thought I couldn't get an. erection, right? So, I had her call me a. different name like we were making out. That was your That was your solution? Well, this dude Robert in our in our. grade was getting mad erections. everybody was saying and I'll be like, "Call and I This is so embarrassing.". But I like call me Robert. Call me. Robert. And it didn't [ __ ] help. And.

she's like, "It was just the most embar. [ __ ] was super embarrassing, dude. Cuz. even if I was Robert, I couldn't even. get an erection at the time. So that was. horrible. Trying to think of what else. happened. Dude, I've gone I mean, you. know, over the years I've gone, you. know, down the gamut of all of it. Like. hiring escorts or um you know, thinking. like, oh, we need more than one part. like all that. Like just thinking like. all these things would change it, you. know, drugs, alcohol, like all these. different things to like trying to. fine-tune how I would feel. Okay. I.

think even just to be in like a convers. like just to be like in an intimate. conversation like oh I wished I would. have from the beginning been like just. with a girl I've been hey like this is. what's going on and this is how I'm. feeling and this is what's popping you. know and like and even made it cool or. whatever and it would have brought us. closer together but instead I took this. huge bypass of like things that I. thought would like I thought that. intimacy was just a um one man show well. Yeah, it's so important what you're.

saying that it was all your. responsibility. Does that make any sense. or not? Yeah. Listen, news flash, men. and women, there are women who are great. in bed and there are women who are not. great in bed. Oh yeah. You know, there. are great lovers who are women there are. not great lovers. I'll tell you what. makes a great female lover. Somebody who. can relax and enjoy herself and part of. that is the communication. And also. somebody who's tuned in to what works. for you. You know, it took me a long. time cuz I listen, I think all young men. deal with this, right? You want to. perform well. And it's interesting you.

mentioned Robert and I mentioned this. other guy that sadly eventually killed. himself. But every young male knows the. experience of there's like this. satellite male. You're holding yourself. up against this image and an idea, right? This image and idea. That's very. dangerous thinking. You know what I. think? I think that every male should. understand that at some point you're the. satellite male. Oh, you're the satellite. male. So you got to get out of that kind. of thinking and understand that like. like dancing, like athletics, like it.

takes time to get good at. You need. reps. Yeah. And you need reps under. conditions where you can learn, you. know? I think, you know, it sounds like. you put the pressure on yourself to be. like a sexual athlete from go and like. you got to learn layups, no pun. intended. You got to learn the your free. throws. You got to learn lay downs. But. I look at all that pornography. That's. what it was. I've been looking at all. that porno, you know, and it got me all. bent out. Yeah. It's like if you want to. play basketball, you don't go look at. Lethal Shooters Instagram and go, I'm. going to do that tomorrow. Yeah. I mean, he built up to that, you know. So, I.

think we're using an analogy here and. metaphor, but I it's just so important. that this guy right there, lethal. shooter, this kid, this guy is like. he's just like that, huh? Yeah. And I'll. tell you, no, it's reps. It's reps, reps, reps. did a live one night that I. caught well really late at night when I. was in New York. He's he can visually. measure the angle the ball has to go in. He's not shoot he is shooting for the. basket, but he's trying to put the ball. in a cone of a particular angle. He's.

looking above the basket at the at the. angle he needs to sink that thing. He'll. put a gummy bear into a 16 bottle from. across a court. Damn. And then he yells. at you for for doubting him. Oh, I love. that. What's he doing here? Oh, he's. What do they call that game? game. Uh, cornhole or what a weird name for a. game. Yeah. You wonder how it started. Boom. Look at this guy. Bean bag. He. goes, I understand it now. So, yeah, he's really good. That man, lethal. shooter right there. Yeah, he reps. He. worked up to that. And he didn't work up.

to it by picking up a basketball, metaphorically speaking, and saying, "Okay, I got to make this or else my. life is destroyed and people are going. to be talking about it." No. So I think. there has to be a private world, an. intimate world where people can explore. in a healthy way, communicate in a. healthy way, and know it's between them. And then you get to this beautiful vista. with intimacy where you're like, I love. this or I love that. And you know, I. mean, uh, and it brings people together. Oh, I mean, listen, I mean, I I want to. be respectful to, you know, my former.

partners, but, you know, it's one of. these things where you go like, wow, like I really I really learned something. from that person. Now, of course, as a. man, you also have to have an ego intact. enough to know she learned a few things. from somebody else, too, right? Unless. you unless it's a first relationship, this notion that you're the only person. that's ever been there is quite rare. And part of being a grown male is. accepting that. And frankly, you know, different different strokes for. different folks, you know, but I think. you got to understand like we're all. we're all here because either in a dish.

or in a human sperm met egg, okay? This. drive that's dopamine driven to. reproduce and sex. The reason those. things are so closely woven is and that. drives so much of culture and behavior. and shame and addiction and pleasure and. all this stuff is because it's why we're. here. Like, right, this is I mean, this. is this is this is everything. And you. know now Elon and other people are. talking about how the you know the the. replacement rate for humans is way way. down because we have birth control and. people aren't having sex as much. I mean.

it is possible that humans fail to. replace themselves as a species, you. know, and then you got guys like him who. are trying to make up for that deficit. Oh yeah, he's popping off, dude. He's. got like what, like 14 kids or. something? He'll knock up a [ __ ]. parking meter. That dude, you don't give. a damn, boy. He's the only dude who put. Yeah, he put definitely he'll he'll get. it. I want to pivot a little bit. I saw. an there's we're starting to see stuff. like I've been I've been noticing. recently these articles about measles. Have you seen this stuff hitting the.

airwaves? Is that realistic? It just starts to. seem if you can see one of them can. bring it up. Person may have spread measles at. Shakira concert in Metife Stadium. Health officials say. Right. This just. seems like a person who attended a. Shakira concert at Medlife Stadium on. May 15th was infected with measles and. may have spread the highly contagious. virus at the event. Health officials say. this almost reads like the beginning of. a movie, right? Like highly contagious. infected spread um at a concert. So it.

makes it super scary, right? All these. bug like all the viruses tend to spread. more quickly indoors. Measles can live. in an airspace for up to two hours and. is highly transmissible especially. amongst the unvaccinated. So this is an. article. What's this in? This is northj. jersey.com which is owned by USA Today. Okay. Okay. Conventional media. So So. I'm just like what is going on here? Are. we are are they just trying to see. another thing that will stick to. society? What do you as a scientist what.

do you even think when you read. something like this? Okay. Uh super. important specific and general question. you're asking. First question as a. scientist I would ask is what was the. frequency of people with measles coming. into the hospital before there was a. focus on measles. Got it. Like two years. ago before the discussion about measles. and vaccines was as prominent at least. measles vaccines right back then it was. all about COVID vaccines. But so I'd say. how you know if we were to look in the. medical history because hospitals keep. records you know in the uh this was in.

East Rutherford. Okay. So in New Jersey. I have relatives in New Jersey. How many. measles cases were. identified in the last 10 years? Right? And what percentage of those reported. having been in a public place prior? That's what I'd want to know because. that will tell you whether or not this. is the media amplifying. Here we go. Um, Texas outbreak drives up early US. measles cases in early 2025. Number of. measles cases reported in the US per. year. Yeah. Well, we hear about these. things like bird flu. Remember a few.

years back it was monkey pox? Yeah, monkey pox. We don't hear about monkey. pox anymore. That was like monkey pox is. coming for us. Yeah. Every every every. couple month there's something that pops. off like this every few months. It's. like hoof mouth syndrome or scary baby. You know, there are cases of measles. that can be very detrimental. But. there's a an episode of the Brady Bunch. Do you remember this episode of the. Brady Bunch where they all get measles. and then at the end Alice walks in and. she's got the spots and she goes, "I've. got measles, too." You know, when I was. a kid, I had the chickenpox. Now, I'm.

not trying to make light of the measles, right? Like any infectious disease, there's inflammation of the body and. brain. There are cases where these. diseases cause serious long-term. effects. And then there are cases where. it has less of an effect. The most. important thing to understand for me. would be what are the real statistics of. like is measles becoming more frequent? Is that tied to the shift? Because let's. face it, regardless of where you stand. on the issue of vaccination, people are. now taking a look again at vaccination. The vaccine schedules have expanded,

right? You know, I'm part of the medical. community. I'm a employee of Stanford. School of Medicine and I I would say I. fall more just full disclosure into the. more conventional standpoint of of this. I want to be really clear because of I. do believe that there are certain. vaccinations that are highly beneficial. I also think there are a number of. vaccinations that for public health. reasons should be explored further if. for no other reason to discover that. yes, we were right or no, we were wrong. I it's just critically important. I.

mean, you know, I think any good any. self-respecting scientist would say. those are the data. Let's look again. Now, there's this real twist in the data. around the autism vaccine thing that's. very that's un really unfortunate and. this is one of the reasons why this is. such a hot button issue is that the guy. Andrew Wakefield who originally tried to. tie the vaccine to autism, he was found. guilty of fraud. Okay. Now, I wasn't. involved in the papers or the case, but. like that puts a a twist in everything. because he go to jail. Uh I believe he.

did or he at least lost his medical. license. Okay. There have been other. instances, you know, of scientific. fraud. But that one in particular caused. the entire field to assume he was. completely wrong about everything. And. now there are folks like Robert Kennedy. who is like him or not is our head of. HHS. Okay, I actually know Robert. Actually, I'm going to host Jay. Baracharia, who was my colleague at. Stanford on the he's the head of NIH. And so, I think right now there's a uh. there's here what were the consequences? Andrew Wakefield did not go to prison,

although he was found guilty of serious. professional misconduct by the UK. General Medical Council and was struck. off the medical register, effectively. ending his career as a physician. There's no record of evidence that he. was ever criminally prosecuted in prison. for his actions related to the. fraudulent 1998 Lancet study linking the. MMR vaccine to autism. The sanctions. against him were professional and civil, not criminal. Mhm. So, an important. thing that must be done. I I I know this. issue is, you know, I'm going to catch. hate either way. What's a hot issue. right now? It's a super hot issue. Listen, as a parent, can you imagine you.

have a kid and your kid seems for all. measures perfectly healthy, has some. treatment, vaccine or a pill or a trip. to, you know, the supermarket and that. kid fundamentally changes their behavior. afterwards. You you know the one thing. we know is you know this is also a deep. hypothalamic circuit as we say there is. a hardwired circuit for mothers. especially you know dads can be. protective but mothers to protect their. young. So you know when the moms are. pissed off and curious they are.

unreenting and no amount of discussion. about that was resolved because the. Wakefield thing was gone is going to. satisfy them. So my my personal take. is run the studies you need to run. Make. sure they're run properly from a with an. unbiased look at all of this. So. important because the the thing about. vaccines and autism is really a. microcosm for a much larger theme about. how much can we trust the medical. community. And listen, I know scientists. I was weaned in this. My dad's a. scientist. Like most scientists, like.

99.9% of scientists want to get things. right. We are in the business of trying. to unte the secrets of nature and do. good things with them. Okay? And yet. there are those that will manipulate the. system. No one goes into science to get. rich. They go into biotech to get rich. But you don't become a bench scientist. at a university to get rich. Trust me. But how can those scientists be. manipulated as a group? Like when you. look back at like how can that happen? Like is there is it journals that are. compromised? Is it the medical industry.

that gets compromised? How how do you. have like a whole you know Sure. So uh. I'll try and keep this relatively. succinct u this is a whole landscape and. it's something that is like really deep. and important to me as a science. communicator health communicator who has. friends on both sides you know of of. these. debates. The most important thing to. understand is scientists are trying to. figure out the truth. They are also. human and they are highly incentivized. to advance their careers. One of the. things that I've observed in science is.

not people making up data. That's. exceedingly rare. But scientists. sometimes when they don't get the answer. they want in an experiment, they'll come. up with reasons for why that experiment. probably wasn't run right and maybe we. should discard the data. Okay, let's say. that one more time. When they don't get. when they don't get the answer they. want, they will come up with reasons. why, oh, that antibbody wasn't as uh. fresh or you know, the conditions. weren't right. and they will start to. steer the data, steer the exper I have. observed that okay I've observed that a.

lot in my career sadly. far less common are people outright. making up data what we call fudging data. just like making up numbers there's a. famous case in nanotechnology of this. kid whose last name was shown he was. like a wonderkin in the sense that he. had like it's very hard to publish. papers in science or nature this is like. the super bowl rings of science I've had. a couple in nature a couple in science. and I feel immensely blessed for that. shown was publishing 12 papers a year in. nature and science. Wow. And at some.

point people start looking more closely. at their data. Okay. And what happened? They saw that the random noise plots. random should be random. Right? You. don't need to be a scientist or a genius. to understand that random should be. random. He was so lazy that he was. replotting the random noise in two. different experiments. You can't get the. same random noise in two different. experiments. So there are bad apples. like him. He's gone now. But most. scientists are trying to get it right. And yet there's this thing that we have.

to constantly check ourselves on. This. is why you have to what we call blind. the data. You look at it not knowing. what condition you're looking at. This. is why replication is so key. And the. big problem in science and I do think. this new administration cares about. this. It's hard to get a job as a. professor for replicating work. Everyone. wants to see the new thing. So a PhD. student comes into my lab, they want to. study something. We rarely say, "Oh, let's go do what someone else did. Make. sure they're right." No, you pick. something new. So, a lot of mistakes of. past get kind of baked into the field.

And this is what happened in the. Alzheimer's field. This is why, you. know, one mistake, which probably was. somebody outright fudging as well, making stuff up, kind of get woven into. the lineage. Then other papers get. published more easily. And then lo and. behold, 25 years later, we said, "We. don't have a single good treatment for. Alzheimer's. Best thing you can do is. get good sleep." There's a little study. out today about creatine maybe helping, but we're just nipping around the. corners of this extremely important. problem. I I I must say, and this is not. for political correctness. Listen, I'm a. tenure professor at Stanford, so I don't.

have to worry about quote unquote losing. my job. I mean, there are ways you can. lose your job even with tenure. Yeah, I. just want to say with all the bad things. about science, the Wakefield thing, the. Alzheimer's thing, the replication. crisis, the lack of incentive for people. to replicate work, I do have to say. something very. important. There are so many treatments. for diseases that exist nowadays that we. take for granted that were born out of. basic research. Scientists in a lab just. trying to figure things out without the. idea of a treatment someday. My.

scientific great-grandparents, I. mentioned them earlier, David Huble and. Torrance Weasel did that experiment of. closing one eye in a kitty cat and. monkey showed that the brain is. immensely plastic. That gave birth, excuse me, that gave birth to an entire. field of the molecules involved and the. hormones involved and why it shuts down. with age. How to open plasticity in. adulthood. In many ways, it's given rise. to this whole field of psychedelics for. the treatment of of of brain disorders. in order to reopen plasticity. They did not do those experiments. thinking there would be any medical.

application. But we now know as compared. to the 70s when a kid has a lazy eye or. a cataract or what we call strabismas or. any of that we now know to get in and. treat those eye diseases early while. while the brain is still plastic. Their. work has saved the vision. In other. words, has prevented blindness of. countless people around the world. And. there's this whole initiative in in. places overseas to remove cataracts, save vision. So I can give you a. milliona not a million I can give you. thousands of examples of that.

immunotherapies for cancer um. neuroplasticity the incredible work. being done on psilocybin for depression. uh MDMA which hopefully will be approved. by the FDA soon for the treatment of. PTSD incredible 70% 70 remission rates. the understanding of that drug methylene. dioxymethamphetamine it's. methamphetamine with a little twist okay. the understanding of that was born out. of serious scientists. slaving away in their labs for very. little pay because they love discovery.

And and I I'm not saying that to to to. just, you know, kind of say, "Oh, all. scientists are great." But I think we. have to be very careful. The replication. crisis is real. We need to take another. look at all issues related to public. health. You can tell I'm very passionate. about this. I listen, I text Bobby all. the time. I'm like, "Listen, man. We got. to look at this. We got to look at" And. you know what? We can't allow allow. ourselves to go too far in one direction. or the other. I say let's not waste any. time. Let's take a look at all these. vaccines again in great controlled. What.

do we lose by looking at them? Nothing. But I'll tell you to say what I'm saying. here. Like I'm I'm going to this will be. cut and clipped and. contorted. You know, I'm just going to. come out with it. Trad Media's, you. know, the moment I started showing up on. Rogan, listen, I think Joe Rogan has. done tremendous amount of good for. science communication. Matt Walker, me, David Sinclair, other people on there, physicists, you know, but then the. adjacency to anyone who's asking these. larger questions puts you in the. bullseye of, oh, you know, he, you know, Andrew is a science denier, flat.

earther, whatever. No, I believe that. any solid field should be subject to. self-crutiny and outside scrutiny. Yeah. And this is why, listen, I've published. a number of papers and we I always say, listen, I'm happy to be wrong for the. right reasons. like we were trying our. damnedest to get it right. You can't be. wrong for the wrong reasons, like making. [ __ ] up. You make make a mistake, you. correct yourself. It's called being an. adult. And you can tell that like my. this gets my my energy going because I. will tell you, I am very concerned about. the future of science in this country.

either way cuz we've got a split right. down the middle and there's all this. fingerpointing and somebody hopefully. Jay Bacharia, our new director of the. NIH, God willing, he's going to bridge. this gap. I'm trying to do what I can. behind the scenes to really get people. talking because there's so much [ __ ]. talking behind the, you know, I hate. them and I hate them and it but listen, we all got to live in this world. Forgive me for going on a monologue, but. but I'm telling you, we we need we need. to take a hard look at ourselves and and.

we really really need to whatever we. explore, we need to explore it properly. But scientists are good people, man. And. I don't make my living doing science. anymore, so I can say that with no bias. They're good people. 99.9% of them. And. then the and those bad apples, excuse my. language, but [ __ ] them. Oh, for sure. Because they ruin it all for everybody. Oh yeah. Well, and it also leads to. impairment. It leads to dise it leads to. um you know, atrocities that happen to. people and it's for usually for the sake. of profit. Do you believe that big.

pharma would lobby against um certain uh. tests being done or uh residual testing? um re-examination of of of past findings. etc in order to keep things a certain. way. Okay. So, does that make sense? Yeah, absolutely. So, two things about. big pharma. First of all, I don't have. any direct links to big pharma. You. know, people think cuz I'm at Stanford, I've been accused of being part of MK. Ultra. I don't even know what that is,

but sounds scary, you know. Oh, I don't. know, dude. MK Ultra [ __ ] law. I've. been told I've been told I'm a CIA plant. MK Ultra. I mean, that stuff is crazy. Oh, dude, somebody told me I went to the. Middle East or something. Somebody said. I was working for something Bangladesh. or something. I was like, "Dude, I don't. I've never had anybody ask me to do. anything." I wasn't even born. I wasn't. even born. I was born in 75. Yeah. Well, so so big pharma, look, they're a. business. Okay. So, there are drugs like. SSRIs where which we will say have been.

not so helpful for the treatment of. depression for most people. But guess. what? SSRIs are tremendously helpful for. people with OCD. Real OCD is a condition. where the compulsion, the behavior makes. the obsession worse. Imagine a mosquito. bite. Every time you scratch it, itches. worse and worse and worse. Destroys. lives. SSRIs have helped those people a. lot. The drug companies are highly. incentivized to keep drugs out of. generic so that the prices come down. They do a game. I know this because I. was involved in exploring drugs for eye.

disease years ago and I would learn from. these companies. If you can have a drug. that goes through all the research and. development, costs millions of dollars. and then is used say for the treatment. of a heart condition. If you can bypass. the need to do all the safety studies. because you discovered that that drug is. now also useful for say preserving. vision and macular degeneration or. glaucoma or diabetes whatever you save. yourself a lot of money same drug you. maintain the patent and you can't have. generic competitors. drug companies, I. don't think people talk about this. enough, are highly incentivized to not.

discover new drugs, but rather to. continue with the same drugs and find. new uses for the same drugs. Wow. That's. rarely talked about. That's a serious. problem. The other thing about drug. companies is because the negative side. effect of that is what that something. gets kind of shoehorned in and working. for something, but the very expensive. drugs for everybody because if you look. at the difference between a like they're. these new sleep medications called the. Doras, they shut down the wakefulness. system as opposed to making you sleepy. They have a lot less abuse potential. They're like $300 a month and as long as. they can maintain the patent on that,

there won't be the generic version. because it probably costs the profit. margins on these things are huge because. they're trying to cover the research and. development they did. They're, you know, so that's just one example, but the drug. companies are incentivized. Yeah, the. Doras. I've tried them. I felt I felt. lousy. And is that like. um uh ambient or whatever? No. So. ambient is a problem because it can give. you memory issues. This works through. something called the hypocritein system. It was discovered in narcoleptic dogs in. the basement of Stanford, believe it or. not. There's all sorts of damn cool.

stuff there. But but the drug companies. are are a concern in one sense, which is. that look, dopamine, as we learned, is. involved in movement. It's involved in. reward. Schizophrenics take drugs to. block dopamine. And if you see someone. on the street corner nowadays, it's. complicated with fentinyl, but you see. the person kind of writhing. It's called. cardive diskynesia. That's because it. those drugs the ant the neurolleptics as. we call them reduce the auditory. hallucinations. They relieve a lot of. those symptoms of schizophrenia but it. also hits dopamine in the spinal system.

the the motor system and then they have. these motor side effects. So there the. problem is most pharmaceuticals have. side effects because most. chemicals like dopamine, serotonin, acetyloline, they're in multiple places. in the brain, not just the area that. you're concerned about repairing. So, you know, I'm not super anti- big. pharma, but I will say I am very pro. self-directed healthcare. This is why. I'm, you know, a big part of my. initiative with the podcast is get. people getting sunlight in their eyes in.

the evening. Get some sunlight in your. eyes in the after in in the morning. Excuse me. Sunlight in your eyes in the. morning. You know, hydrate, exercise, get on a normal circadian rhythm. One of. the most important things for mental. health is bright mornings and days, dark. nights. And how do you get on that. circadian rhythm? And that's something. that I've struggled with. I think my. circadian rhythm is God, it's I'm going. to turn into a cicada. Well, we got to. get you some of the red lens glasses. I'm not doing a promotional here, but. getting the screens dim or wearing red. lens glasses in the evening to block the. the blue and green lights. But how do.

you even set up a circadian rhythm? Bright light in the morning. If you wake. up and the sun's out, get outside, take. that brimmed hat off, take the. sunglasses off, look in the direction of. the sun. You don't have to force. yourself to get 5 to 15 minutes of. sunlight. Drink your coffee. Get some. exercise. Maybe even do like a 100. jumping jacks. Get your system going. Very simple way to put this is early in. the day you want movement, caffeine, hydration, sunlight. If you can't get. sunlight, you get bright light from like. an artificial light. You can get a. 10,000 lux light on Amazon for like a. hundred bucks. I have no relationship to.

any of those companies. Get your morning. kind of going. You, you know, it's hard. to be Jaco Willing. It's hard. You But. you got to kind of force a little bit of. that on yourself. And then the. afternoon, taper off the caffeine, dim. the screens, lower your heart rate, do. some long exhale breathing, you know, just take it down a notch. And over. about 3 days of doing that, what you'll. find is I start to wake up in. anticipation of the day. You're you have. this circadian rhythm that learns, well, I'm going to be active in a few hours.

And you start waking up in the morning. at a particular time. That whole. phenomenon, you set your clock for 7. a.m. and you wake up at 6:59. Your brain. is clocking time. So, does that mean you. need to go to bed at like 8:00 p.m. for. a week to get your circadian rhythm set. or what's the truth? Everyone's slightly. different, different chronotypes. So, I. do best, for instance, I know if I had. total control going to bed sometime. between 10 and 11:00 p.m. and I wake up. around 6:00 a.m. Okay, yes, I can go to. bed at 9:00 and wake up at 4:00, but I. can't stick to that schedule very long.

My system just genetically is not wired. for it. Some people are real night owls. They do best going to sleep at 2:00 a.m. and waking up at 10:00. they just feel. better. Try a couple different schedules. for at least three days and then. wherever you feel kind of most yourself. kind of like, you know, for me going to. bed by 10:30 and waking up by 6 is kind. of a natural anti-depressant. When I. sleep in and go to bed late, I start. feeling off. Then I start abusing. caffeine cuz I love caffeine. Love, love, love caffeine. And I I'm a big fan. of caffeine. I like it. But but then I. start abusing it. I start taking too.

much and then, you know, and then it, you know, potentially can drift into. other stimulants, you know, and then. you're then you're a mess. So, but, you. know, some people do really well going. to bed at 8:30 and waking up at 4:00. a.m. But look, the world is not really. wired for that. If you're going to have. any kind of social life, like Mark. Wahberg or something, he's always has. the things like I wake up at 3. Well, him. and Ari Emanuel from WME like Yeah, those guys are like the 4 a.m. club. They're like texting each other and like. up you I get texts from Ari every once. in a while. He's like, "Man, up early.

He's hyperaric chamber." But he's he I. mean, he's got like 12 cylinders. That. guy is like go go go go go go. And. listen, some people need more sleep than. others. I do great on six or six and a. half. When I sleep eight, I actually. feel more groggy. Oo. So it if you get. your schedule right, you don't need. quite as much sleep. But before I came. out here today, I did a half hour what I. call it's used to be called yoga nidra. It's non-sleep deep rest, NSDR. You just. do long exhale breathing. You listen to. a script, you relax your body. The data. show you come out of that with your.

dopamine levels 60% higher than you went. into it. It replenishes your your vigor. Yoga nidra. Yeah. Well, yoga nidra or. NSDR, non-sleep deep rest. And these are. zerocost tools, right? Got it. So, how. many milligrams of caffeine are you. taking a day? Are you usually taking a. day? You ready for this? Yeah. All right. A normal cup of coffee would. be about 200 milligrams of strong. coffee. I consume about 800 milligrams. of caffeine a day. I drink uh I'm half. Argentine, so I drink I drink I drink. yerba mate. Oh yeah. Cold brew zero.

sugar yerba mate or I drink yerba mate. out the gourd. If you're gonna drink. yerba mate. Don't get the uh don't get. the sugary kind. Nope. Get the loose. leaf. No we I have a yerba mate brand. It's not that one. Ours is Matina which. is I'm not going to do a promotional. here. But the point here is that if you. like energy drinks, you like yerba mate, you like coffee, I'm like more power to. you. This is 200 in a cup of coffee. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. And what's in one of. these? So, there was actually a study. just published on torine that everyone's. worried about. But that study was in.

vitro. I need to see a lot of data. There's a lot of data actually that. torine is beneficial for the heart and. it has kind of an anti-aging thing. It's. in, you know, a lot of energy drinks, including that's like a lysine and a. torine. Um, I love caffeine. I mean, man, caffeine and nicotine. I right now. I'm kind of easing back on it. The. delivery mechanism matters. You don't. want to smoke, vape, dip, or snuff. You. get cancer. People go, "Oh, vaping is. not bad." Popcorn lung is real. People. hate me for saying this. Vaping is bad. Not as bad as smoking. Vaping ain't.

good. And what flavor is the worst. flavor? Any flavor. It's all bad for. you, man. But the gums and the. pouches, provided it's a low dose, it's. very habit forming, but you know, 3 to. six milligrams or something on occasion. This is the problem. People go pretty. soon they're doing a a whole canister a. day. Oh yeah. But buddy got a [ __ ]. mouthful of my buddy like damn cotton. eyed Joe over there. Nicotine is a very. interesting um drug because it's a. stimulant but it relaxes you too. But it. does call cause excuse me vasoc.

constriction and that's not good for all. the stuff we were talking about earlier. You want blood flow to the brain and to. your extremities you know and so some. nicotine early in the day little bit no. big deal with caffeine to get work done. Remember effort that precedes dopamine. in constructive areas of life, writing, comedy, podcasting, school, sports, socializing in healthy ways, like this is good. Can you get just as. much dopamine from doing those positive.

things as you can from doing things that. we would consider, you know, that of. sometimes add a level of uh. disappointment or. shame. And maybe shame is not the word I. want to use. Yes, you can. It just you. need to be. more determined and focused on it. You. know, remember it's how quickly the. dopamine comes in with porn and. methamphetamine, cocaine, and all of. that. It's how quickly gambling raises. dopamine. You know, the stuff we're. talking about, work, focus, learning,

all that. It's it's work. I mean, it's. it's hard work. But the effort that. precedes dopamine is a completely. different beast because you're in. control and it doesn't put you in the. trough. But I did see a, you know, I. guess we don't call them tweets now. What do we call them on X? Some guy made. a billion dollars. And a couple weeks. later, he said, I don't know what's. going on, but I feel like I'm societally. depressed. And I just said, that's. dopamine. He got the reward. And what he. misses is the hunt. You have to stay in. the hunt. This is like the will to live.

is the hunt for new things. Ah, the will. to live. 31y old guy who sells his. startup for 100 million shares. why he. is depressed and how to think about your. career and life. I sold my company MVMT. I know that company that made watches, right, a few years ago for a lot of. money and thought all my problems would. be solved. I made my life really cushy. and comfortable. I uh optimized for. being as stress free as possible. I play. video games when I want. I wake up when. I want and really have no reason to get.

get out of bed if I don't want to. I. always thought this was a dream that I'd. be happy forever. I realize I'm in an. incredibly unique situation and wanted. to share some things I've learned and. I'm still working through. I mean, for you, you know, and forgive. me, I've been monologuing a bit because. I just want to make sure I I blast. through some of this info that hopefully. people can make it again, but I but I, you know, for you, right, you've got the. podcast, you do your comedy tours, you. know, I'm not a comedian, but I love. going to see live comedy. Oh, yeah. It's. fun. And I just have to imagine that.

staying busy in pursuit has got to be. super important to your overall. well-being. Well, it's funny you say. that. I think it's. like yeah, I didn't know that I like to. work really, you know? I mean, I knew. that I was persistent maybe and I liked. comedy, but then like as other things. have started to arise and like learning. a podcast and then you're running a. business and then you know I I like to. work, you know, I really enjoy it. I. think I'm probably competitive in some.

ways. Um, do you have a a you don't I'm. not going to ask you to tell us, but do. you have a couple of comedians in your. mind that like you're like I can I can. best that or is it besting against. yourself? Oh, no. I think it's just Can. you still make yourself laugh? That's my. thing. Is that What's your writing? I'm. very curious about this. What's your. writing process? Oh, I'll talk to. somebody. Usually I'm tell I'm trying to. talk with a gal and entertain her or. talk with one of my buddies and. entertain them and there's something. that'll get said that's just kind of. like oh that's perfect man. Um so that's. kind of how I'll do it and then I'll put.

it on the stage from there you know and. I'll record my sets and um and I've. started to put some of them into like. chat GPT or AI so it can like show me. what was new during this one and the. last one and learn little intricacies. and things like that things that worked. and things that changed. Do you get. ideas in your dreams? Do you ever wake. up laughing? Iawaska. I've gotten ideas. I've gotten um I got like some good. bits. Uh how often are you doing a uh. maybe every 18 months? I'm kind of due. again to do something like that. I want. to talk to this guy Brian Hubard, I.

believe his name, who does the Ibagi. You talked about Iba. I've been very I'm. not uh I can't take any credit for that. project, but my colleague at Stanford, Nolan Williams, triple board certified. psychiatrist and neurologist. He's the. one running the brain imaging of the. veterans that Brian has been um bringing. down to Mexico to do the Ibagane DMT. work. Wow. And Nolan has discovered. there are these changes in brain areas. like the insula which are involved in. kind of self-reflection bottle self-body. relationship all sorts of things. The. data from those studies are incredible.

I mean, these tier one operators, you. know, which is code for have to be ready. in 24 hours to go overseas and kill a. high risk, high consequence work. The. number of those guys I've talked to that. were dependent on alcohol, drugs, and. other substances, they go down there and. do it once or twice and never even feel. the desire to use again. It's just. striking. Yeah, the ibagane sounds. amazing. I also hear it's terrifying. A. couple of those guys told me and they. and they have a high bar for this.

Couple of those guys have told me it is. the most terrifying experience of their. entire life, but also brought them the. most amount of peace. Well, it's 22-hour. psychedelic journey. Oh. Followed by. DMT. Are you asleep during it or you No, you're awake. And what I hear is that. you don't hallucinate when your eyes are. open, but when you close your eyes, you. get high definition recall of previous. experiences, but you have agency. You. can act differently in there and rewire. I've never done it. I'm very curious to. do. I've never done IASK. I have had um. some incredibly beneficial clinical.

experiences with MDMA and with. psilocybin uh and it's just complete I. would you know I don't encourage kids to. do it but you need a really good. practitioner you have to find a way to. do it legally and there are ways but. yeah man it is a game changer a lot of. bootleg stuff going out there but I do. think that yeah it's like getting back. to nature getting back to the roots and. literally you're getting back to the. roots of like what will uh what can. reorganize I think the nature inside of. us it gets so rattled by us maneuvering. it and existing in the world. I don't.

know how we managed to damage our own. nature so much over time. Well, maybe. it's uh instead of saying lesbians will. save us all, it's lesbians and. psychedelics will save us all. That's. kind of my new campaign. Dude, look at this guy right here. Yeah, that that's Rick Rubin. That's know what. I was saying earlier, you know, that's. me when it comes to uh being able to see. clearly along certain uh dimensions of. life, but that's when you come to rely. on good friends and uh and you do your. you do your work, your inner journey. work and figure it out, you know. Yeah.

I mean, I think it's fascinating and I. think just the fact that we can Can I. get a copy of that? This thing is. awesome, man. How'd y'all get that? Just. chat GBT. Oh, it's so great. Kaka monkey. blindfolded on LSD. Yeah. Sometimes I've. looked at decisions I've made in my life. and go, you know, I pretty much had the. clarity that that guy right there had. Yeah. And uh but in other areas of my. life, like the decision to go into. skateboarding and leave, the decision to. pursue science and then podcasting and. you know, my life's a dream, man. Yeah.

Like I I can't tell you like you know, people will think I'm just trying to. puff you up, but like to be sitting here. talking to you. I'm a fan. to be able to. explore ideas and to learn from such a a. diverse array of people. Like I I love. talking to scientists, but I love. talking to comedians and creatives and. like my childhood hero became one of my. best friends cuz he heard the podcast. and really Yeah. My I mean it's kind of. embarrassing to say, but Tim Armstrong, the singer for Rancid and the.

Transplants, he has that band with Rob. Aston and Travis Barker. I mean, Tim's. like my hero and we've become very good. friends. He's he's a he's a real life. poet. He's an incredible musician. He's. produced a ton of music for others. He's. a very, you know, soft-spoken. He's he's. a true music producer and performer. That's fascinating. And he we became. he's one of my best friends. That's like. me and David Spade. I just can't even. believe that we're buddies and I get to. like ask him about stuff or even listen.

to him tell jokes over dinner. It like. Yeah. sometimes things like that like. not to name drop but yeah it just blows. your mind some of the people you get to. come across you know well and for people. listening I I you know I have to say. like I used to watch and you know watch. things and read and listen to podcasts. and like I wanted to be part of it but. like being myself and that's really the. key Rick always says this he's like the. the way to succeed in any genre that. you're interested in is to be you. because no one's done that yet the. moment you try and be like the the other.

guy you know or the other gal is when it. falls flat, right? The reason Tony. Hawk's Tony Hawk is cuz he's a pioneer. and he just kept going. There's only one. of him. Yeah. You know, and there are. others in skateboarding and others in. podcasting, but like like it's like that. trust in in self. You just have to if. you just show up you and do your. personal work too. I do think you know. journaling, meditation, working out. Yeah. Like and you just show you just. show up you. So like you know I think we. got the answer to your initial question.

Why is podcasting what it is? Is because. like we just show up. We didn't have a. we didn't have a template. There's no. script, nothing. We just show up and a. couple guys in their closets, man. Yeah. And we're talking about fingerlengths. and lesbians and monkeys on LSD and. measles vaccine and some of the biggest. issues in public health. And and you. know, your name was mentioned in in in a. moment of praise at the inauguration of. the president of the United States. Yeah, that's crazy. We are living I. don't think we're living in a. simulation. I think what's so [ __ ]. awesome about this life is it's real.

Not that it's fake. It's all the it's. all the [ __ ] that's real that blows my. mind. And just I think what you what you. what you can be called upon to be a part. of, you know, and taking agency, having. some more agency. The biggest thing I. noticed in my life is how do I get to. know myself better and get to utilize. myself better and not just for me, but. for like uh and really to listen to God. better. How do I learn to have a. relationship with something that's. bigger than me so that I can get better. direction, you know, and better um and.

better peace at times? Because God's not. just there for direction. I believe I. believe that he's also there uh for. reflection and for rest, you know, and. just to be able to, you know, I don't. know. Do you pray every day? I pray. every day. Yeah, me too. I'm I'm a. scientist, but I'm a believer, you I've. always believed in God and I used to. hide praying because I grew up in a. complicated home religiously for. different we've got a real mixed family. but also like the the attitudes about. religion very mixed some very positive.

some not positive but a few years ago a. friend of mine who was a former tier one. operator and he's run some of my. security stuff like he encouraged me to. start reading the Bible and I was like. wow there is so much wisdom here and. then he encouraged me to start praying. and it's I know people are going to some. people roll their eyes some people will. be like get it immed When you start. praying Yeah. before sleeping in the. morning. Yeah. I prayed right before I. came in here. Went in the bathroom. I. literally get on my knees and pray. before anything important this morning. at night. And you know people how can. you be a scientist and believe in in.

God? And it's like well easy because as. a scientist you learn that like even as. a let's just say a vision scientist. there are animals that can see parts of. the visual spectrum that we can't see. UV light, infrared light, pit vipers can. see it, mosquitoes see things we don't. see. So the moment you start just. thinking, wait, our human brain can. understand and make sense of certain. things, but not others through logic and. reasoning and. emotion, you go, well, there's this not.

just possibility of an entire set of. energies out there that we're not aware. of. It's absolutely certain. And then. you go, well that's a big leap to the. idea that there's a a guy or you know. and his son is the you know is uh you. know is is Christ and Christ was resurre. but when you start reading the stories. and you start like looking at our real. world experience you go you know so much. of this makes sense and it doesn't make. nature and science any less interesting. It makes it more interesting. It it. makes it it and more important. It's. like we're we're here I believe that.

we're here to like. access that energy, allow it come. through us. Yeah. I don't I don't think. like we podcast. I think energy comes. through us and we podcast. Oh, I think. the funnest thing sometimes is like. getting an idea cuz I'm like this didn't. come from me, right? What the hell am I. doing? I'm just like something out here. that's trying to position myself to be. the best receptor. It's almost like when. you're trying to like put those dog ears. out for a television or whatever or like. an old black and white TV and you're. trying to pick up the signal. It's like.

I'm just trying to best get myself in. situation to to to receive a decent. signal. Do you believe Sorry to. Yesterday I was in a conversation with a. Stanford and Harvard trained. psychiatrist, one of the smartest people. I know. And he said to me, he said, you. know, these him talking he said, you. know, I believe in miracles. He's like, there are miracles. And I was like, really? And he explained a case of a. patient like there is no way this person. should still be alive, let alone. flourishing as they are. number of. things that had to organize for that to. work out and um you know so I'm kind of.

obsessed these days with like this. notion of miracles. Oh, I love that. Have you considered because we we will. sometimes interview people who have had. a miracle experience happen to them and. it's really fascinating sometimes just. to hear some of their stories. It's. something I would like to do more. Um. one of the things I want to do is just I. want to come over to your pod man next. time I'm in town and um and we can do. this again sometime. We I feel like we. only got to talk about a few things but. that's perfect. It'll give us more stuff. to talk about in the future. And um just. thank you Andrew for just being a good. voice. You have a lot to say and you you. share information well. And it's like I.

think we're at a time where people just. need to have information that isn't. compromised by like a bank or an. advertiser that's telling someone they. have to speak a certain way, you know, unless it's an advertisement where. you're reading for TOAS or for uh Liquid. IV or something, you know. But uh yeah, thank you for all your commitment to uh. sharing information with us, man. Thank. you. Yeah. And thanks for spending time. with us today. Yeah. Thanks for having. me on. And I want to say, you know, the. the uh universal love that I see out. there for you is not a coincidence. You. know, it's it's so interesting like. people can't put you in a box. And I and.

I love that because there's so much. pressure to like put people in a box and. and people really people really feel. your heart in everything you do. And it. in part it's the vulnerability. It's. also when you when you say like the hell. with that and really stretch your wings. the way you've developed this incredible. expertise at the various things you do, comedy and others. So, you know, I'm. very grateful to be here today. I'm a. fan and you just have the love of so. many people and it's not an accident, man. You're you're you're a real leader. and uh I appreciate you. Uh that's very.

nice of you to say, man. I appreciate. it. Thank you very much. That's a very. uh thoughtful thing to say and um yeah, thank you for being here today and I. I'll look forward to seeing you out in. Malibu. Yeah, let's do it again on the. HLP. Amen. Now, I'm just floating on the. breeze and I feel I'm falling like these. leaves. I must be corner. [Music]. stone. Oh, but when I reach that ground, I'll share this piece of mind I found. I.

can feel it in my. bones. But it's going to take.