Timothy Ferriss's Blog, page 13

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Every time I’ve done a past-year review (PYR), a pattern emerges: peak positive emotional experiences are correlated to awe at least 70% of the time.

For at least the past 3–5 years, this has been so consistent that I often determine what big blocks to schedule in the new year based on potential for awe. The payoffs include time dilation and, more broadly, traversing the miraculous canvas of full human experience.

Friends have asked me why I do silent retreats in nature, why I love ski touring, why I hunt once in a blue moon, or why I am deeply interested in psychedelic science and psychedelic-assisted therapies. If I had to sum it all up in one word, it would be:

Awe.

But what exactly is “awe,” and how can we embrace more of it?

I haven’t found a better article exploring these topics than Ashley Stimpson’s “Awestruck,” featured in Johns Hopkins Magazine, so I asked for permission to publish here, which was graciously granted.

I hope you find it as thought-provoking as I did.

ENTER ASHLEY…

I’m staring at a stunning, rainbow-sherbet sunset. In a nearby stand of evergreens, a choir of crickets chirps in unison. Fireflies flicker above the rocks I’m sitting on, a promontory in the middle of a gently flowing river. From my vantage point, I can’t see David Yaden, a Johns Hopkins professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences, but I can hear him. He has a few questions about how this tranquil scene is making me feel.

Would I say that time has slowed? (A little.) Did my sense of self seem diminished? (Kind of.) Could I feel a connection with all living things? (Not really.) Had my jaw dropped? (It sure had!)

Yaden finishes his questions, and the sunset disappears. Now, instead of the dusky landscape, I see a teal green backdrop and the words “connect to Wi-Fi.”

I remove the virtual reality headset and I’m back in a room at the Johns Hopkins Center for Psychedelic and Consciousness Research, on a couch where patients take part in studies that investigate the use of psilocybin—the compound found in so-called magic mushrooms—in the treatment of everything from Alzheimer’s disease to depression. Sitting across from me in a leather recliner, Yaden explains that for a few years now, he and Albert Garcia-Romeu, a fellow professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences who studies psilocybin as an aid in the treatment of addiction, have been asking patients at the tail end of their psychedelic experience to explore a handful of virtual reality settings and describe the feelings each one evokes. The survey Yaden gave me while I admired that technicolor sunset had been driving toward one central question: Was I experiencing awe?

That’s because awe—the hair-raising, goose-bumps-inducing sensation you get staring at the ocean or sitting center row at the orchestra, the one that knocks you momentarily loose from the ordinary and forces you to reconsider your understanding of the world and your place in it—is a big part of what makes a psychedelic experience so powerful. Previous research has suggested that, by provoking profound, mind-expanding awe, psychedelics can reduce symptoms of depression, anxiety, and addiction.

For now, Yaden and Garcia-Romeu are simply trying to suss out whether mixing psychedelics and VR is safe. But they also wonder if by doubling up on awe, or “by giving people a drug and then putting them in an awe-inducing environment,” says Garcia-Romeu, “we could potentially turn the gain up.”

The tricky thing about emotions is they’re difficult to measure; no one feels 87% happy or 15 kilograms of sadness. A decade ago, scientists measured awe by asking people, simply, if they felt it. The problem with that, according to Yaden, is that “different people have different definitions of the emotion.”

So, Yaden assembled a team of researchers to develop a robust way to measure awe.

First, the team scoured previous scientific studies to come up with six core characteristics of the emotion: self-diminishment, time alteration, physical sensations like chills, and a feeling of connectedness, as well as the perception of vastness and the struggle to comprehend it.

Then they recruited more than 1,100 people to write about a recent experience of “intense awe.” Some wrote about the outdoors, recalling the first time they saw the Rocky Mountains, or the sight of a lake in deep winter, glistening with ice. Others wrote about watching their children play a musical instrument, or public figures deliver inspirational speeches, like Elon Musk detailing plans to send humans to Mars.

Afterward, participants answered questions that the researchers had created based on the six facets of awe, indicating how much they agreed with statements like, “I felt my sense of time change” and “I felt I was in the presence of something grand.”

In the end, Yaden and his collaborators developed a 30-item questionnaire that doesn’t just statistically and reliably measure how much awe a person feels but also “captures the full depth and breadth of the awe experience,” they wrote in their 2018 paper, published in The Journal of Positive Psychology. As awe increasingly becomes a target for academic studies worldwide, the Awe Experience Scale could play a pivotal role. Researchers have already begun putting it to use, translating it into other languages and incorporating it into studies on awe in nature, meditation, museums, and, of course, VR. That research is revealing the physical and emotional benefits of awe, no psychedelics required.

Awe has gone by a number of names. Edmund Burke and Immanuel Kant both wrote about the sublime, while Charles Darwin expounded on wonder. Abraham Maslow introduced the idea of “peak experiences,” which he described as “exciting, oceanic, deeply moving, exhilarating, elevating,” which is to say: awesome.

Yet, in the early 1990s, when influential psychologist Paul Ekman identified the six basic human emotions (joy, sadness, fear, anger, disgust, and surprise), awe was not on the list. It was one of Ekman’s students, Dacher Keltner, who brought awe into the scientific conversation.

Keltner, a psychology professor at the University of California, Berkeley, and author of Awe: The New Science of Everyday Wonder and How It Can Transform Your Life (Penguin Press, January 2023), says he was immersed in awe from a young age, at art museums and on camping trips with his parents. “My dad is a visual artist. My mom taught Romanticism and poetry. I grew up at a really wild time, in Laurel Canyon in the 1960s. So I was always walking around just kind of awe-struck.”

During his postdoc years, which he spent at the University of California, San Francisco, studying under Ekman, Keltner had a realization: “Almost everything that humans care about—religion, art, music, big ideas, taking care of young children—awe is close to it. Awe is always close to really important stuff,” he says. “I thought, let’s study this emotion and figure it out.”

In a seminal 2003 paper, Keltner partnered with University of Virginia psychology Professor Jonathan Haidt to nail down a prototypical definition of awe. The pair studied depictions of awe as it was represented in literature and scholarly thought, from the Bible and Bhagavad-Gita to the writings of sociologists Émile Durkheim and Max Weber. In doing so, they identified the two key features of awe: a sense of vastness and a momentary inability to process it. Importantly, they noted that vastness could be physical, such as looking up at a cascading waterfall, or cognitive, like the vertigo you get when you think about something intricate or incomprehensibly large—photosynthesis, say, or the size of the solar system.

Keltner and Haidt also took a guess as to how awe evolved, theorizing that the reverence we feel in the presence of a powerful leader played a role in maintaining social hierarchy and cohesion in early human societies. Later, Yaden and Italian researcher Alice Chirico suggested that awe developed as a way for humans to identify safe refuges. High vantage points with large vistas, for example, would have allowed them to see predators approaching.

In the conclusion of their 2003 paper, Keltner and Haidt laid out a research agenda to guide future awe scientists. “There is a clear need to map the markers of awe,” they wrote. Fifteen years later, Keltner was on the research team that helped develop the Awe Experience Scale.

In the meantime, the science of awe has proliferated. Research has shown that people who feel awe more often report higher rates of satisfaction with life and greater feelings of well-being. Awe can help us be less stressed, less materialistic, and less isolated. There’s evidence that awe is good for our physical health, too; one study reported that people who experienced the emotion more often had lower levels of cytokines, the proteins that cause inflammation. Awe might also contribute to a more harmonious society. When researchers exposed one group of study participants to an awe-inspiring view of towering eucalyptus trees, and another group to a neutral scene of a building, those who admired the pretty view were more likely to help a stranger pick up something they had dropped afterward. Another study found that awe made people less aggressive.

While science has gotten good at identifying the external manifestations of awe, researchers are still working to untangle what’s happening inside the body.

“That’s the big holy grail, the big mystery,” Keltner says. “When people feel awe, it’s almost an oceanic sense of, ‘I’m a part of something really big.’ How does the brain represent that? We don’t know.”

We do have a few hints. There’s evidence that awe deactivates what’s called the default mode network—the part of the brain associated with self-perception—allowing us to step outside our insular thoughts and ruminations and be wholly present in the moment. Awe also activates the vagus nerves, a braid of nerves running from the brain to the large intestines that is associated with feelings of compassion and altruism. In short, the emotion turns our focus away from ourselves, “providing connectedness and perspective,” Yaden says. “Suddenly, our problems no longer feel as big and daunting.”

In order for scientists to develop a more nuanced understanding of the chemical and physiological changes that happen inside an awestruck person, Yaden hopes to see researchers step outside the laboratory. To date, many studies about awe have involved showing participants videos—nature documentaries or footage of tall trees swaying in a forest—a method Yaden fears may not be all that effective in inspiring pure, unadulterated awe.

“If we’re studying awe, I think we need to make sure that we are eliciting sufficiently intense experiences to have an effect,” Yaden says. In other words, watching a video montage of the Grand Canyon might provoke a sense of wonder, for example, but actually standing on the rim, looking down into the expanse, is more likely to trigger true chills-up-the-spine awe. However, when it comes to studying the interface of awe and psychedelics, as Yaden and Garcia-Romeu are interested in doing, getting patients out of a clinical setting can be a challenge. “The lawyers won’t let us take people outside when they’re under the influence,” Garcia-Romeu says, “so we kind of see VR as a backdoor to doing that.”

The scientists plan to spend another year or so slipping the VR headset on patients dosed with psilocybin to learn what settings might dial up the awe of a psychedelic experience. It’s just the first step toward using awe as a therapeutic intervention, but Yaden sees potential. “It’s an area really rich for research,” he says.

While they were working to produce the Awe Experience Scale, Yaden and the research team asked participants to identify the specific trigger of their awe experience. Natural beauty was far and away the top response; more than a third of participants said it was the source of their awe. Notably, the second most popular trigger was a write-in category, and a significant number of responses named childbirth as a source of profound awe.

Two months ago, Yaden watched his wife give birth, calling it the most awe-inspiring moment of his life. Lately, he’s enjoyed watching his newborn son experience amazement.

“Right now it’s the sky. We take him to the window and his eyes just pop.”

Yaden says he seeks out “little doses” of awe for himself every day—morning walks by the Inner Harbor, for example. “Part of what’s enjoyable about that is the vastness, just looking out across the water.”

In a study to determine what causes people to feel awe, Keltner and a research team gathered narratives about the emotion from 26 countries around the world. “Write about a time your mind was blown,” he and his collaborators instructed. Using these accounts, Keltner developed what he calls the eight wonders of life: moral beauty, nature, collective movement, music, art, spirituality, big ideas, and mortality. Incorporating these wonders into your life to experience awe is “strikingly easy,” Keltner says. In fact, you’re probably already doing it.

“Most people experience awe pretty regularly,” echoes Yaden. “Most vacations include awe excursions. People climb to the top of mountains, they go to museums, they visit monuments.”

Keltner says there’s a misconception that awe is rare, but research shows “it’s actually kind of common. Most people feel it two to three times a week.”

Another misconception about awe is that you can’t orchestrate it. “It’s like, dude, have you ever bought concert tickets?” Keltner says jokingly. “Did planning that event ruin your experience of awe? No. You can find it, and you can plan for it.”

Want more awe in your life? Listen to a piece of music that gives you the chills. Think of someone who inspires you. Drive, hike, or bike to the prettiest view in your neighborhood. Go sing with other people; go move in unison with other people. As you do, Keltner says, “Pause. Clear your mind. Be open.”

Encouragingly, research has also indicated that finding awe might not even require leaving your home. In a recent study, Yaden and Marianna Graziosi, a doctoral candidate at Hofstra University, asked participants to recall a time they were in awe of a loved one. One person wrote about his wife receiving a terminal diagnosis with startling grace; another recounted hearing their mother describe a painful childhood.

By using the Awe Experience Scale, Yaden and Graziosi were able to determine that the feelings evoked by those closest to us meet the widely accepted definition of awe.

They concluded: “Perhaps awe, while an ordinary response to the extraordinary, is also an extraordinary response to the ordinary.”

Ashley Stimpson is a freelance writer based in Maryland.

© 2024 Johns Hopkins Magazine. All rights reserved. Reprinted with permission.

The post Why You Should Seek More Awe in the New Year appeared first on The Blog of Author Tim Ferriss.

Illustration via 99designs

Noah Kagan (@noahkagan) was #30 at Facebook, #4 at Mint, and has since created seven million-dollar businesses (Kickflip/Gambit, AppSumo, KingSumo, SendFox, Sumo, TidyCal, and Monthly1k).

He is the CEO of AppSumo.com, the #1 software-deals site for entrepreneurs, and has a popular YouTube channel, Noah Kagan. 

His new book is Million Dollar Weekend: The Surprisingly Simple Way to Launch a 7-Figure Business in 48 Hours.

Please enjoy!

Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Castbox, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music, or on your favorite podcast platform . Watch the interview on YouTube here.

Brought to you by LinkedIn Jobs recruitment platform with 1B+ users; Eight Sleep’s Pod Cover sleeping solution for dynamic cooling and heating; and Shopify global commerce platform, providing tools to start, grow, market, and manage a retail business.

Listen onApple Podcasts[image error]Listen onSpotify[image error]Listen onOvercast#717: Noah Kagan — How to Launch a Million-Dollar Business This Weekend

This episode is brought to you by Shopify! Shopify is one of my favorite platforms and one of my favorite companies. Shopify is designed for anyone to sell anywhere, giving entrepreneurs the resources once reserved for big business. In no time flat, you can have a great-looking online store that brings your ideas to life, and you can have the tools to manage your day-to-day and drive sales. No coding or design experience required.

Go to  shopify.com/Tim  to sign up for a one-dollar-per-month trial period. It’s a great deal for a great service, so I encourage you to check it out. Take your business to the next level today by visiting  shopify.com/Tim .

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Conquer this winter season with the best in sleep tech and sleep at your perfect temperature. Many of my listeners in colder areas enjoy warming up their bed after a freezing day. Go to eightsleep.com/Tim and save $250 on the Pod Cover by Eight Sleep this winter. Eight Sleep currently ships within the USA, Canada, the UK, select countries in the EU, and Australia. 

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What was your favorite quote or lesson from this episode? Please let me know in the comments.

SELECTED LINKS FROM THE EPISODEConnect with Noah Kagan:

Official Website | Twitter | Instagram | YouTube | Facebook

Million Dollar Weekend: The Surprisingly Simple Way to Launch a 7-Figure Business in 48 Hours | Amazon
MillionDollarWeekend.com | Book’s official website
AppSumo.com | Browse software deals for your business.
How to Create a Million-Dollar Business This Weekend (Examples: AppSumo, Mint, Chihuahuas) | Tim Ferriss’s blog
How Facebook’s #30 Employee Quickly Built 4 Businesses and Gained 40 Pounds with Weight Training (#75) | The Tim Ferriss Show podcast
Stoicism 101: A Practical Guide for Entrepreneurs | Tim Ferriss’s blog
How to Say No When It Matters Most (or “Why I’m Taking a Long ‘Startup Vacation’”) | Tim Ferriss’s blog
The 4-Hour Workweek | Amazon
1,000 True Fans by Kevin Kelly
The 80/20 Principle: The Secret to Achieving More with Less by Richard Koch | Amazon
Blue Ocean Strategy: How to Create Uncontested Market Space and Make the Competition Irrelevant by W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne | Amazon

Note from the content editor: Additional links and timestamps will be added shortly.

The post Noah Kagan — How to Launch a Million-Dollar Business This Weekend (#717) appeared first on The Blog of Author Tim Ferriss.

The following guest post is an excerpt from Infectious Generosity: The Ultimate Idea Worth Spreading, the brand-new book from the curator of TED Chris Anderson.

You can find the book’s free companion AI assistant by clicking here. All author proceeds from the book are being donated to advance TED’s nonprofit mission of spreading ideas.

Chris Anderson (@TEDchris) has been the curator of TED since 2001. His TED mantra—“ideas worth spreading”—continues to blossom on an international scale, with some three billion TED Talks viewed annually. He lives in New York City and London.

Enter Chris . . .

The Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh taught that attention is the most precious gift we can give someone. Certainly, all generosity starts right there—a willingness to stop focusing on ourselves and pay attention to someone else and their needs. From that act of connection, anything can happen.

In 2015, Joshua Coombes was working as a hairdresser at a London salon. One day, while walking back from work, he noticed a familiar homeless person on the sidewalk. Most Londoners walk past the homeless every day, as though they were invisible. Not so Joshua. He approached the man and asked him how he was. Then he had an idea. He had his clippers and scissors with him, so he offered the careworn homeless man a free haircut right there on the street.

“In the hour that followed, he told me his story,” Joshua writes in his book Do Something for Nothing. “We connected and became close.” Touched by his experience, Joshua started heading into the streets of London whenever he could, offering haircuts to homeless people. Eventually he cut back to part-time work in order to spend more time on the streets.

Joshua found his new vocation incredibly rewarding. Having established an immediate sense of trust, he found that the people he was meeting began opening up about their lives. Hearing the remarkable and often harrowing stories of his homeless clients was in itself a reward. He was struck by their resilience and courage, and thankful for the time they spent together. Determined to broadcast their stories and shatter lazy assumptions about homeless people, Joshua took to Instagram. He posted “before-and-after-haircut” pictures of his homeless clients, told their stories (in their own words), and signed off with the hashtag #DoSomethingForNothing. He then started to couch-surf with friends and acquaintances all over the world, giving his time to homeless people across fourteen cities in the Americas, Europe, India, and Australia, and broadcasting their stories via social media. Before long, his Instagram fame resulted in collaborations with brands and NGOs.

Joshua has garnered over 150,000 Instagram followers, who have been moved by the stories he shares. When Joshua posted crowd-funding appeals to fix temporary accommodation for his friends, the cash flowed in. #DoSomethingForNothing became a social movement, with Joshua’s inbox full of messages from people pledging their help. Joshua writes that one of the most powerful choices we make each day is to be aware of how we interact with those around us. “Give the benefit of the doubt to other people until they prove us otherwise. . . . How difficult is it to say hello?”

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Joshua Coombes (@joshuacoombes)

The truth is it can be difficult. We spend much of our time lost in our own worlds. We’re often reluctant to focus on the issues that others are dealing with. They will only complicate our lives. So we put up shields. And that means that many of the people who could really use our attention never feel seen. The generosity of attention is therefore the generosity of being willing to be a little uncomfortable, to take down those shields, to give up a little time, to risk coming to care about someone else.

What about the critique that Joshua’s interventions aren’t tackling the underlying systemic problems that cause homelessness? Personally, I’m willing to grant hero status to those who are ready to do their bit to make things better for someone else, even if they’re operating in a flawed system.

No one is suggesting that individual acts of kindness should be a substitute for tackling systemic issues. On the contrary, they help prepare the way. If we don’t practice generosity with each other, system change has no chance. Every act of generous engagement, no matter how small, can start someone on a journey of immense consequence. Here’s another instance of that.

John Sweeney grew up in Ireland. He felt invisible. As a child he was bullied by other children. Even by his teachers. “I felt like the loneliest child in the world; like I had nothing and no one,” he told my research assistant Kate. Years later, as an adult, he had a pivotal experience that revealed the value of paying attention. He had seen a homeless young woman on the streets of Cork, so he bought her a hot meal and stopped for a chat. Through poverty and chronic disease, she had struggled to care for her three children. She felt completely invisible.

“I want you to know that I care about you, even though I don’t know you,” John told her. “You absolutely matter and I see you.” The experience brought both of them to tears. “The fact that you stopped means the world to me,” the woman told him.

John told the story to his children, who passed the word along. One of the kids’ friends—a young boy named Isaac—was soon Christmas shopping in the neighborhood and ran into the same woman. Isaac decided to give her fifty euros—his entire Christmas pocket money—to buy Christmas presents for her three children. The children and their mum had completely given up hope of celebrating Christmas. The story spread and ended up making national news.

Realizing that paying attention to a stranger, even for a moment, was a powerful way of spreading kindness, John found a way to make it easy for others to do just this. He had heard about the Italian tradition of caffè sospeso—“suspended coffee.” The idea is simple. Customers at a café buy an extra “suspended coffee” on top of their own—a pay-it-forward gift that may be claimed by anyone. This could be a poor or homeless person. Often, however, the claimants are people who are simply having a rough day. A kind gesture from a stranger can be all it takes to show them that they matter and make life bearable—and even beautiful. For the gift giver, all it takes is to remember that there are others out there who would love the luxury you’re about to indulge in. And that you can easily give them that gift.

John made it his mission to spread suspended coffee to the whole world. It was an idea whose time had come. Within two years, two thousand cafés in thirty-four countries were actively promoting suspended coffee, and the movement now has five hundred thousand followers on Facebook.

He receives daily messages of appreciation from both café owners and suspended coffee participants. One man wrote to him from Philadelphia: “John, you don’t know me, but the impact your message has had on my life has been profound.” The man had heard John speak and was inspired to make friends with a homeless drug addict, buying him a coffee every day for two months. During this time he came to care deeply about his new friend. So he paid for two months of accommodation for the man and a course of rehab—on condition that “you work hard and turn your life around.” The former drug addict did just that, and enrolled at Philadelphia University, the ripple effect of an act of kindness that started many years earlier and many miles away.

The Generous Coffee Shop in Denver, Colorado, takes this concept a step further. As customers enter the café, they are greeted with a large bulletin board arrayed with hundreds of handwritten credit notes:

• TO: A newly single mom. You got this. FROM: A single mom ($10)

• TO: Someone studying for the bar exam. FROM: Someone doing the same ($5)

• TO: Stranger with a broken heart. FROM: Soren and Ellie ($6) •

• TO: Someone struggling in the first year of starting their own business. FROM: Someone who has made it (it gets better!) ($6)

The free coffee and cake are made that much sweeter by being gifted from a stranger: a stranger who is not only generous, but one who empathizes with what you’re going through, cares about you, and wants to see you pull through.

You don’t have to set up a global organization to exercise this type of generosity. All you have to do is shift your attention to someone else and their story. Whether you stop and have a meaningful connection with a person in need or spend thirty minutes researching a cause you think might matter, you have already begun your generosity journey. You’ve become willing to give the gift of attention. And if you stay open to continuing the journey, it just may have consequences you could never imagine. 

Excerpted from Infectious Generosity: The Ultimate Idea Worth Spreading by Chris Anderson. Copyright 2024 by Chris Anderson. Published by Crown Publishing Group. Reprinted with permission. All author proceeds from the book are being donated to advance TED’s nonprofit mission of spreading ideas.

The post The Magic of Suspended Coffee and Free Haircuts appeared first on The Blog of Author Tim Ferriss.

Illustration via 99designs

Andy Galpin (@DrAndyGalpin) is a tenured, full professor at California State University, Fullerton, where he is also co-director of the Center for Sport Performance and founder/director of the Biochemistry and Molecular Exercise Physiology Laboratory. He is a human performance scientist with a PhD in human bioenergetics and more than 100 peer-reviewed publications and presentations.

This year, Andy is teaming up with Huberman Lab to launch a podcast of his own, called Perform with Dr. Andy Galpin.

Dr. Galpin has worked with elite athletes (including All-Stars, All-Pros, and MVPs; Cy Young and Major winners; Olympic Gold medalists; and World titlists and contenders) across the UFC, MLB, NBA, PGA, NFL, Olympics, boxing, military/special forces, and more.

He is also a co-founder of BioMolecular Athlete, Vitality Blueprint, Absolute Rest, and RAPID Health & Performance.

Please enjoy!

Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Castbox, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music, or on your favorite podcast platform .

Brought to you by  Momentous  high-quality supplements,  Nordic Naturals  Ultimate Omega fish oil, and  AG1  all-in-one nutritional supplement.

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This episode is brought to you by Nordic Naturals, the #1-selling fish-oil brand in the US! More than 80% of Americans don’t get enough omega-3 fats from their diet. That is a problem because the body can’t produce omega-3s, an important nutrient for cell structure and function. Nordic Naturals solves that problem with their doctor-recommended Ultimate Omega fish-oil formula for heart health, brain function, immune support, and more. Ultimate Omega is made exclusively from 100% wild-caught sardines and anchovies. It’s incredibly pure and fresh with no fishy aftertaste. All Nordic Naturals’ fish-oil products are offered in the triglyceride molecular form—the form naturally found in fish, and the form your body most easily absorbs.

Go to Nordic.com and discover why Nordic Naturals is the #1-selling omega-3 brand in the U.S. Use promo code TIM for 20% off your order of Ultimate Omega.

This episode is brought to you by AG1! I get asked all the time, “If you could use only one supplement, what would it be?” My answer is usually AG1, my all-in-one nutritional insurance. I recommended it in The 4-Hour Body in 2010 and did not get paid to do so. I do my best with nutrient-dense meals, of course, but AG1 further covers my bases with vitamins, minerals, and whole-food-sourced micronutrients that support gut health and the immune system. 

Right now, you’ll get a 1-year supply of Vitamin D free with your first subscription purchase—a vital nutrient for a strong immune system and strong bones. Visit DrinkAG1.com/Tim to claim this special offer today and receive your 1-year supply of Vitamin D (and 5 free AG1 travel packs) with your first subscription purchase! That’s up to a one-year supply of Vitamin D as added value when you try their delicious and comprehensive daily, foundational nutrition supplement that supports whole-body health.

This episode is also brought to you by Momentous high-quality supplements! Momentous offers high-quality supplements and products across a broad spectrum of categories, and I’ve been testing their products for months now. I’ve been using their magnesium threonate, apigenin, and L-theanine daily, all of which have helped me improve the onset, quality, and duration of my sleep. I’ve also been using Momentous creatine, and while it certainly helps physical performance, including poundage or wattage in sports, I use it primarily for mental performance (short-term memory, etc.).

Their products are third-party tested (Informed-Sport and/or NSF certified), so you can trust that what is on the label is in the bottle and nothing else. If you want to try Momentous for yourself, you can use code Tim for 20% off your one-time purchase at LiveMomentous.com/Tim. And not to worry, my non-US friends, Momentous ships internationally and has you covered. 

What was your favorite quote or lesson from this episode? Please let me know in the comments.

SELECTED LINKS FROM THE EPISODEConnect with Dr. Andy Galpin:

Podcast | Website | Twitter | Instagram | YouTube

NOTE FROM THE EDITOR: More extensive show notes are on their way!

Sample Program from Andy:Pick 4 exercisesLower Body Hinge or Pull (same thing): Romanian Deadlift, Good Morning Deadlift, Hamstrings CurlLower Body Squat or Press: Leg Press, Front Squat, Step-Up, or Split SquatUpper Pull: Bent Row, Pulldown, Pullup, PulloverUpper Press: Pushup, Incline Press, Overhead Press, Pec FlyDo low-volume, high-quality, heavy.e.g., 2–5 sets of 2–5 reps. Rotate these each day, but not from week to week.Keep that consistent for 6–10 weeks before changing. Pick another 1–3 exercises to add to this if you have a specific deficiency, weakness, or area you want to improve (size or strength). Do medium volume, focusing on having the right muscles contract in the right way and not using other muscles.E.g., 1–2 sets of 10–20 reps.Frequency: 2–3x a week. Optimal is 3x.Volume: LowIntensity: Moderate/HighLength: <40 min. Rest: Take the time needed to recover in between reps and sets, but don’t drag it out either. No need to be pushing a high heart rate, but don’t waste time either. Feel free to superset. 

Misc: ALWAYS invest 10 min into a very high-quality warm-up that includes specific movements that prepare you for the exercise of the day. Pick a combination of single-joint and multi-joint exercises. Pick exercises in multiple ‘planes’ (front, side, and don’t forget about rotation!)

Sample Program:Day 1:Big 4:Goblet Squat: 3 Sets of 5 RepsChest-Supported Dumbbell Row: 3 x 51-Leg RDL: 3 x 61 Leg on Box, 1-Arm Dumbbell Overhead Press: 3 x 5Bonus 2:Calf Raises: 2 x 15–20Pallof Press: 2 x 15–20Day 2:Big 4:Leg Press: 3 x 4Farmer’s Carry: 3 x 20 YardsKnees at 90 Degrees Dumbbell Press: 3 x 6DB Curtsy Step-Up to Curtsy Squat: 3 x 6Bonus 2:Bicep Curls: 2 x 12–15Banded Lateral Walks: 2 x Max StepsDay 3:Big 2:Kettlebell Lateral Lunges: 3 x 6Lat Pulldown: 3 x 6Bonus 3:Kettlebell Pullovers: 2 x 8–12Copenhagen (Lateral) Active Plank: 2 x MaxBarbell Hip Thrust: 2 x 10–15Supplements for Endurance Training:Amp Human PR Lotion (Sodium Bicarbonate) | MomentousRhodiola Rosea | Momentous Beta-Alanine | ThorneVitamin C | ThorneAcetyl-L-Carnitine | ThorneMicronutrient Tests:Vitality BlueprintNutrEval | Genova DiagnosticsSweat Tests:Nix BiosensorsGx Sweat Patch | Gatorade

The post Performance Coach Andy Galpin — Rebooting Tim’s Sleep, Nutrition, Supplements, and Training for 2024 (#716) appeared first on The Blog of Author Tim Ferriss.

Illustration via 99designs

“The best ideas are when you’re like, ‘We can never do this. We’re going to get in big trouble. This is so wrong.’ When you feel that, you’ve got to stay there. You absolutely have to. That’s where all the interesting stuff happens.”

— Chris Beresford-Hill

Chris Beresford-Hill is one of the most sought-after creative leaders in advertising and has led brands with a combined market cap of over $1 trillion. He was recently named Chief Creative Officer of the Americas at BBDO Worldwide.

Previously, Chris served as North America President and Chief Creative Officer at Ogilvy and Chief Creative Officer at TBWA\Chiat\Day. His work for clients like Guinness, Mtn Dew, Dove, Workday, Adidas, FedEx, McDonalds, HBO, and Foot Locker has driven sales while putting dent after dent into pop culture. 

Chris and his teams have won every award for creativity and effectiveness many times over, including five campaigns in the permanent collection at MoMA. He has been named to Adweek’s list of best creatives—Adweek’s Creative 100—Business Insider’s Most Creative People in Advertising, and the Ad Age 40 Under 40, back when he was under 40.

Please enjoy!

Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Castbox, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music, or on your favorite podcast platform. Watch the interview on YouTube here.

Brought to you by Wealthfront high-yield savings account, LMNT electrolyte supplement, and Nordic Naturals Ultimate Omega fish oil.

The transcript of this episode can be found here. Transcripts of all episodes can be found here.

Listen onApple Podcasts[image error]Listen onSpotify[image error]Listen onOvercast#715: Chris Beresford-Hill — A Master Ad Man on Superbowl Confessions, How to Come Up with Great Ideas, Cold Emailing Mark Cuban, Doing Naughty Things, Poetic Mind Control, Creative Process and Insider Tips, How to Negotiate with Bosses and Clients, and The Power of a Stolen Snickers

This episode is brought to you by LMNT! What is LMNT? It’s a delicious, sugar-free electrolyte drink mix. I’ve stocked up on boxes and boxes of this and usually use it 1–2 times per day. LMNT is formulated to help anyone with their electrolyte needs and perfectly suited to folks following a keto, low-carb, or Paleo diet. If you are on a low-carb diet or fasting, electrolytes play a key role in relieving hunger, cramps, headaches, tiredness, and dizziness.

LMNT came up with a very special offer for you, my dear listeners. For a limited time, you can get a free LMNT Sample Pack with any purchase. This special offer is available here: DrinkLMNT.com/Tim.

This episode is brought to you by Wealthfront! Wealthfront is an app that helps you save and invest your money. Right now, you can earn 5% APY—that’s the Annual Percentage Yield—with the Wealthfront Cash Account. That’s more than ten times more interest than if you left your money in a savings account at the average bank, according to FDIC.gov. 

It takes just a few minutes to sign up, and then you’ll immediately start earning 5% interest on your savings. And when you open an account today, you’ll get an extra fifty-dollar bonus with a deposit of five hundred dollars or more. Visit Wealthfront.com/Tim to get started.

This episode is brought to you by Nordic Naturals, the #1-selling fish-oil brand in the US! More than 80% of Americans don’t get enough omega-3 fats from their diet. That is a problem because the body can’t produce omega-3s, an important nutrient for cell structure and function. Nordic Naturals solves that problem with their doctor-recommended Ultimate Omega fish-oil formula for heart health, brain function, immune support, and more. Ultimate Omega is made exclusively from 100% wild-caught sardines and anchovies. It’s incredibly pure and fresh with no fishy aftertaste. All Nordic Naturals’ fish-oil products are offered in the triglyceride molecular form—the form naturally found in fish, and the form your body most easily absorbs.

Go to Nordic.com and discover why Nordic Naturals is the #1-selling omega-3 brand in the U.S. Use promo code TIM for 20% off your order of Ultimate Omega.

Want to hear another episode with someone who sells for profit and fun? Listen to my conversation with domain broker Andrew Rosener, in which we discussed securing brand identity, negotiating equity, a potential digital real estate boom, avoiding attraction to unnecessary pain, domain investors vs. domain squatters, the impact of AI on the domain industry and SEO business, and much more.

#711: Andrew Rosener — Becoming The Hokkaido Scallop King, Leasing Blue Chip URLs, Life Tenets from Charlie Tuna, Selling 8-Figure Domains, and More

What was your favorite quote or lesson from this episode? Please let me know in the comments.

SCROLL BELOW FOR LINKS AND SHOW NOTES…

SELECTED LINKS FROM THE EPISODEConnect with Chris Beresford-Hill:

LinkedIn

BBDO WorldwideModernista! | WikipediaTimeline: The Rise, Fall, and Return of the Hummer | Visual CapitalistThe Dallas MavericksTBWA\Chiat\DayA Safe Place For Brave Ideas | ArnoldHow to Increase Your Luck Surface Area | Codus OperandiThe Media Business: Advertising; Volkswagen Campaign Presents Driving as a Metaphor for Life | The New York TimesVolkswagen Da Da Da Commercial Spot | The Ad ClubTested Advertising Methods by John Caples | AmazonA Father Teaches His Son the Secret of Creativity | Muse by ClioUniversal Studios HollywoodPsycho | Prime VideoBack to the Future | Prime VideoThe Ultimate ‘Back to the Future’ Filming Locations Map | L.A. CurbedJaws | Prime VideoTimeshares, Vacation Clubs, and Related Scams | Consumer AdviceMy New York Knicks: Comparing the 1993 Knicks to the Knicks of Today | Bleacher ReportPurchase College | SUNYComics and Graphic Novels | Image ComicsYoungblood | Image Comics DatabaseNew York Comic ConDave Matthews BandIt’s the Simple Things: How to Aim in Golf | The Left RoughGoodby, Silverstein & PartnersGot Milk?Hummer Ads: A Trip Down Memory Lane at $4 a Gallon | Daily KOSThe Origin of Super Bowl Ads — And How They Conquered the Game | TimeThe Essential Robert Goulet | Amazon MusicFatboy Slim ft. Bootsy Collins: Weapon Of Choice [Official 4k Video] | YouTubeRocky | Prime VideoAn Oral History of Old Spice: The Man Your Man Could Smell Like | Creative ReviewHenry Ford, Innovation, and That “Faster Horse” Quote | Harvard Business ReviewKevin Kelly — Excellent Advice for Living | The Tim Ferriss Show #669Emerald Nuts: Boogeyman | Ad AgeGild the Lily Idiom | Grammarist“I Drink Your Milkshake!” Clip | There Will Be BloodThere Will Be Blood | Prime VideoRussell Crowe Accused of Assault With Hotel Phone | The New York TimesCast Away | Prime VideoThe Shining | Prime Video‘The Shining’: Bryan Cranston Stars in Mountain Dew Commercial | Rolling StoneThe Harvard LampoonIconic Ads: iPod “1,000 Songs in Your Pocket” | Point of View“Where’s the Beef?” The Story of the Most Famous Slogan Ever | Better MarketingThe Shoe SurgeonAdidas: Billie Jean King Your Shoes | CliosA Short History of Napster | LifewireHey Whipple, Squeeze This: The Classic Guide to Creating Great Advertising by Luke Sullivan | AmazonThe Making of South Park: 6 Days to Air | Prime VideoBoardomatics | Milowerx MediaMetallica: Some Kind of Monster | NetflixMetallica by Metallica | Amazon MusicConan O’Brien Can’t Stop | Prime VideoBird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life by Anne Lamott | AmazonAnne Lamott on Taming Your Inner Critic, Finding Grace, and Prayer | The Tim Ferriss Show #522Progress Over Perfection | Tone HouseDog Tips and Training with Tim Ferriss | YouTubeAllen Carr’s Easy Way to Quit Smoking Without Willpower by Allen Carr | AmazonThe Easy Way to Quit Caffeine: Live a Healthier, Happier Life by Allen Carr | AmazonThe Culture Code: The Secrets of Highly Successful Groups by Daniel Coyle | AmazonConan Learns Korean And Makes It Weird | TBSLevels of the Game by John McPhee | AmazonBalthazar Restaurant New York“Always Be Closing” Clip | Glengarry Glen RossGlengarry Glen Ross | Prime VideoMessage on a Bottle: The Story Behind Dr. Bronner’s Soaps | DielineDr. Bronner’s Pure-Castile Liquid Soap (Baby, Unscented) | AmazonDerren Brown: The Push | NetflixDerren Brown: Miracle | NetflixWords That Work: It’s Not What You Say, It’s What People Hear by Dr. Frank Luntz | AmazonRepublicans Say ‘Death Tax’ While Democrats Say ‘Estate Tax’ | Business InsiderModell’s Sporting GoodsDimeMag | UPROXXFoot Locker Commercial with Mike Tyson, Dennis Rodman, Brett Favre | TYT SportsGuinness Wheelchair Basketball Commercial Breaks the Beer Industry Stereotype | SlateSHOW NOTES

Editor’s Note: Timestamps will be added shortly.

How Chris landed his first job with the help of Mark Cuban.Lessons learned from first boss Lance Jensen.Writing cold emails that work.What Chris’s dad taught him about workarounds.A golf strategy that inspired Super Bowl aspirations.Good taste and the Modernista style.Portfolio building.How Chris landed his first Super Bowl ad.Editing and expectations.Critical acclaim.Working with BBDO’s David Lubars.Working fast and resisting the urge to “gild the lily.”Shining a light on the Super Bowl LIV Mountain Dew commercial.The value of the vaguely naughty mindset.Making less more with Tor Myhren.The Adidas/Billie Jean King gambit.A Napster campaign crashes.Creative industry-related reading and viewing.Overcoming creative roadblocks.What Chris does in lieu of meditation.Books and videos that save lives and inspire curiosity.Best investments of less than $100.Capturing and saving good ideas for later.What words are worth.If the idea is good enough, there’s always more money.Give Chris a Foot Locker and he’ll take a mile.An ego check.Chris’s billboard.Parting thoughts.MORE CHRIS BERESFORD-HILL QUOTES FROM THE INTERVIEW

“I’m not here to do what the plan is today. I’m here to see what’s possible.”
— Chris Beresford-Hill

“The best ideas are when you’re like, ‘We can never do this. We’re going to get in big trouble. This is so wrong.’ When you feel that, you’ve got to stay there. You absolutely have to. That’s where all the interesting stuff happens.”
— Chris Beresford-Hill

“Another lesson — certainly in advertising, but anywhere — is the more ground you can cover in a room, the better because you start further ahead than if you constantly come together and split off and come together and split off.”
— Chris Beresford-Hill

“The best gift you can ever get is a first boss that has great taste or high standards.”
— Chris Beresford-Hill

“It just felt like I was able to create the life of my dreams, even if the day-to-day reality didn’t totally match it. And that was fine by me.”
— Chris Beresford-Hill

“This is not the kind of idea that gets green-lit. I had a stolen Snickers in my pocket, and I wanted out of that store.”
— Chris Beresford-Hill

“I liked my climb. I liked working my way up slowly and learning my craft and not doing something that might’ve made me very sought after and might’ve gotten me a bigger, better job faster. So it was a heartache, but it put me right on the path that I needed to have, which was the long path.”
— Chris Beresford-Hill

“If the idea is good enough, there’s always more money.”
— Chris Beresford-Hill

PEOPLE MENTIONEDMark CubanLance JensenJohn CaplesCinderellaJohn StarksAnthony MasonCharles OakleyPatrick EwingMarv AlbertMichael JordanTodd McFarlaneRob LiefeldDeadpoolJim LeeStan LeeJeff GoodbyRich SilversteinRick RubinSteve SimpsonMatt HermanDavid FincherPeter FarrellyBobby FarrellyKawsRobert GouletFatboy SlimSpike JonzeChristopher WalkenAndrew BurkeMickey GoldmillCraig AllenEric KallmanHenry FordKevin KellyThe Perlorian BrothersVera GouletIan McKenzieBob GarfieldGene SiskelRoger EbertDavid LubarsAmy FergusonJulia NeumannDaniel Day-LewisWill FerrellNicole JonesGreg LyonsRussell CroweBryan CranstonTracee Ellis RossTor MyhrenBillie Jean KingRicardo FrancoNancy ReyesBill BurrLuke SullivanTrey ParkerMatt StoneLars UlrichJames HetfieldConan O’BrienArthur AsheAlfred HitchcockAlonzo WilsonMolly FerrissAllen CarrDaniel CoyleJohn McPheeTed KaczynskiRob SchwartzDerren BrownFrank LuntzBill MurrayRob ReillyDan LuceyJed BergerMike TysonEvander HolyfieldDennis RodmanBrett FavreAaron RodgersKanye West

The post Chris Beresford-Hill — A Master Ad Man on Superbowl Confessions, How to Come Up With Great Ideas, Cold Emailing Mark Cuban, Doing Naughty Things, Poetic Mind Control, Creative Process and Insider Tips, How to Negotiate with Bosses and Clients, and The Power of a Stolen Snickers (#715) appeared first on The Blog of Author Tim Ferriss.

Illustration via 99designs

“The best ideas are when you’re like, ‘We can never do this. We’re going to get in big trouble. This is so wrong.’ When you feel that, you’ve got to stay there. You absolutely have to. That’s where all the interesting stuff happens.”

— Chris Beresford-Hill

Chris Beresford-Hill is one of the most sought-after creative leaders in advertising and has led brands with a combined market cap of over $1 trillion. He was recently named Chief Creative Officer of the Americas at BBDO Worldwide.

Previously, Chris served as North America President and Chief Creative Officer at Ogilvy and Chief Creative Officer at TBWA\Chiat\Day. His work for clients like Guinness, Mtn Dew, Dove, Workday, Adidas, FedEx, McDonalds, HBO, and Foot Locker has driven sales while putting dent after dent into pop culture. 

Chris and his teams have won every award for creativity and effectiveness many times over, including five campaigns in the permanent collection at MoMA. He has been named to Adweek’s list of best creatives — Adweek’s Creative 100 — Business Insider’s Most Creative People in Advertising, and the Ad Age 40 Under 40, back when he was under 40.

Please enjoy!

Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Castbox, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music, or on your favorite podcast platform. Watch the interview on YouTube here.

Brought to you by Wealthfront high-yield savings account, LMNT electrolyte supplement, and Nordic Naturals Ultimate Omega fish oil.

Listen onApple Podcasts[image error]Listen onSpotify[image error]Listen onOvercast#715: Chris Beresford-Hill — A Master Ad Man on Superbowl Confessions, How to Come Up with Great Ideas, Cold Emailing Mark Cuban, Doing Naughty Things, Poetic Mind Control, Creative Process and Insider Tips, How to Negotiate with Bosses and Clients, and The Power of a Stolen Snickers

This episode is brought to you by LMNT! What is LMNT? It’s a delicious, sugar-free electrolyte drink mix. I’ve stocked up on boxes and boxes of this and usually use it 1–2 times per day. LMNT is formulated to help anyone with their electrolyte needs and perfectly suited to folks following a keto, low-carb, or Paleo diet. If you are on a low-carb diet or fasting, electrolytes play a key role in relieving hunger, cramps, headaches, tiredness, and dizziness.

LMNT came up with a very special offer for you, my dear listeners. For a limited time, you can get a free LMNT Sample Pack with any purchase. This special offer is available here: DrinkLMNT.com/Tim.

This episode is brought to you by Wealthfront! Wealthfront is an app that helps you save and invest your money. Right now, you can earn 5% APY—that’s the Annual Percentage Yield—with the Wealthfront Cash Account. That’s more than ten times more interest than if you left your money in a savings account at the average bank, according to FDIC.gov. 

It takes just a few minutes to sign up, and then you’ll immediately start earning 5% interest on your savings. And when you open an account today, you’ll get an extra fifty-dollar bonus with a deposit of five hundred dollars or more. Visit Wealthfront.com/Tim to get started.

This episode is brought to you by Nordic Naturals, the #1-selling fish-oil brand in the US! More than 80% of Americans don’t get enough omega-3 fats from their diet. That is a problem because the body can’t produce omega-3s, an important nutrient for cell structure and function. Nordic Naturals solves that problem with their doctor-recommended Ultimate Omega fish-oil formula for heart health, brain function, immune support, and more. Ultimate Omega is made exclusively from 100% wild-caught sardines and anchovies. It’s incredibly pure and fresh with no fishy aftertaste. All Nordic Naturals’ fish-oil products are offered in the triglyceride molecular form—the form naturally found in fish, and the form your body most easily absorbs.

Go to Nordic.com and discover why Nordic Naturals is the #1-selling omega-3 brand in the U.S. Use promo code TIM for 20% off your order of Ultimate Omega.

Want to hear another episode with someone who sells for profit and fun? Listen to my conversation with domain broker Andrew Rosener in which we discussed securing brand identity, negotiating equity, a potential digital real estate boom, avoiding attraction to unnecessary pain, domain investors vs. domain squatters, the impact of AI on the domain industry and SEO business, and much more.

#711: Andrew Rosener — Becoming The Hokkaido Scallop King, Leasing Blue Chip URLs, Life Tenets from Charlie Tuna, Selling 8-Figure Domains, and More

What was your favorite quote or lesson from this episode? Please let me know in the comments.

SCROLL BELOW FOR LINKS AND SHOW NOTES…

SELECTED LINKS FROM THE EPISODEConnect with Chris Beresford-Hill:

LinkedIn

BBDO WorldwideModernista! | WikipediaTimeline: The Rise, Fall, and Return of the Hummer | Visual CapitalistThe Dallas MavericksTBWA\Chiat\DayA Safe Place For Brave Ideas | ArnoldHow to Increase Your Luck Surface Area | Codus OperandiThe Media Business: Advertising; Volkswagen Campaign Presents Driving as a Metaphor for Life | The New York TimesVolkswagen Da Da Da Commercial Spot | The Ad ClubTested Advertising Methods by John Caples | AmazonA Father Teaches His Son the Secret of Creativity | Muse by ClioUniversal Studios HollywoodPsycho | Prime VideoBack to the Future | Prime VideoThe Ultimate ‘Back to the Future’ Filming Locations Map | L.A. CurbedJaws | Prime VideoTimeshares, Vacation Clubs, and Related Scams | Consumer AdviceMy New York Knicks: Comparing the 1993 Knicks to the Knicks of Today | Bleacher ReportPurchase College | SUNYComics and Graphic Novels | Image ComicsYoungblood | Image Comics DatabaseNew York Comic ConDave Matthews BandIt’s the Simple Things: How to Aim in Golf | The Left RoughGoodby, Silverstein & PartnersGot Milk?Hummer Ads: A Trip Down Memory Lane at $4 a Gallon | Daily KOSThe Origin of Super Bowl Ads — And How They Conquered the Game | TimeThe Essential Robert Goulet | Amazon MusicFatboy Slim ft. Bootsy Collins: Weapon Of Choice [Official 4k Video] | YouTubeRocky | Prime VideoAn Oral History of Old Spice: The Man Your Man Could Smell Like | Creative ReviewHenry Ford, Innovation, and That “Faster Horse” Quote | Harvard Business ReviewKevin Kelly — Excellent Advice for Living | The Tim Ferriss Show #669Emerald Nuts: Boogeyman | Ad AgeGild the Lily Idiom | Grammarist“I Drink Your Milkshake!” Clip | There Will Be BloodThere Will Be Blood | Prime VideoRussell Crowe Accused of Assault With Hotel Phone | The New York TimesCast Away | Prime VideoThe Shining | Prime Video‘The Shining’: Bryan Cranston Stars in Mountain Dew Commercial | Rolling StoneThe Harvard LampoonIconic Ads: iPod “1,000 Songs in Your Pocket” | Point of View“Where’s the Beef?” The Story of the Most Famous Slogan Ever | Better MarketingThe Shoe SurgeonAdidas: Billie Jean King Your Shoes | CliosA Short History of Napster | LifewireHey Whipple, Squeeze This: The Classic Guide to Creating Great Advertising by Luke Sullivan | AmazonThe Making of South Park: 6 Days to Air | Prime VideoBoardomatics | Milowerx MediaMetallica: Some Kind of Monster | NetflixMetallica by Metallica | Amazon MusicConan O’Brien Can’t Stop | Prime VideoBird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life by Anne Lamott | AmazonAnne Lamott on Taming Your Inner Critic, Finding Grace, and Prayer | The Tim Ferriss Show #522Progress Over Perfection | Tone HouseDog Tips and Training with Tim Ferriss | YouTubeAllen Carr’s Easy Way to Quit Smoking Without Willpower by Allen Carr | AmazonThe Easy Way to Quit Caffeine: Live a Healthier, Happier Life by Allen Carr | AmazonThe Culture Code: The Secrets of Highly Successful Groups by Daniel Coyle | AmazonConan Learns Korean And Makes It Weird | TBSLevels of the Game by John McPhee | AmazonBalthazar Restaurant New York“Always Be Closing” Clip | Glengarry Glen RossGlengarry Glen Ross | Prime VideoMessage on a Bottle: The Story Behind Dr. Bronner’s Soaps | DielineDr. Bronner’s Pure-Castile Liquid Soap (Baby, Unscented) | AmazonDerren Brown: The Push | NetflixDerren Brown: Miracle | NetflixWords That Work: It’s Not What You Say, It’s What People Hear by Dr. Frank Luntz | AmazonRepublicans Say ‘Death Tax’ While Democrats Say ‘Estate Tax’ | Business InsiderModell’s Sporting GoodsDimeMag | UPROXXFoot Locker Commercial with Mike Tyson, Dennis Rodman, Brett Favre | TYT SportsGuinness Wheelchair Basketball Commercial Breaks the Beer Industry Stereotype | SlateSHOW NOTES

Editor’s Note: Timestamps will be added shortly.

How Chris landed his first job with the help of Mark Cuban.Lessons learned from first boss Lance Jensen.Writing cold emails that work.What Chris’s dad taught him about workarounds.A golf strategy that inspired Super Bowl aspirations.Good taste and the Modernista style.Portfolio building.How Chris landed his first Super Bowl ad.Editing and expectations.Critical acclaim.Working with BBDO’s David Lubars.Working fast and resisting the urge to “gild the lily.”Shining a light on the Super Bowl LIV Mountain Dew commercial.The value of the vaguely naughty mindset.Making less more with Tor Myhren.The Adidas/Billie Jean King gambit.A Napster campaign crashes.Creative industry-related reading and viewing.Overcoming creative roadblocks.What Chris does in lieu of meditation.Books and videos that save lives and inspire curiosity.Best investments of less than $100.Capturing and saving good ideas for later.What words are worth.If the idea is good enough, there’s always more money.Give Chris a Foot Locker and he’ll take a mile.An ego check.Chris’s billboard.Parting thoughts.MORE CHRIS BERESFORD-HILL QUOTES FROM THE INTERVIEW

“I’m not here to do what the plan is today. I’m here to see what’s possible.”
— Chris Beresford-Hill

“The best ideas are when you’re like, ‘We can never do this. We’re going to get in big trouble. This is so wrong.’ When you feel that, you’ve got to stay there. You absolutely have to. That’s where all the interesting stuff happens.”
— Chris Beresford-Hill

“Another lesson — certainly in advertising, but anywhere — is the more ground you can cover in a room, the better because you start further ahead than if you constantly come together, and split off, and come together, and split off.”
— Chris Beresford-Hill

“The best gift you can ever get is a first boss that has great taste or high standards.”
— Chris Beresford-Hill

“It just felt like I was able to create the life of my dreams, even if the day-to-day reality didn’t totally match it. And that was fine by me.”
— Chris Beresford-Hill

“This is not the kind of idea that gets green-lit. I had a stolen Snickers in my pocket, and I wanted out of that store.”
— Chris Beresford-Hill

“I liked my climb. I liked working my way up slowly and learning my craft and not doing something that might’ve made me very sought after and might’ve gotten me a bigger, better job faster. So it was a heartache, but it put me right on the path that I needed to have, which was the long path.”
— Chris Beresford-Hill

“If the idea is good enough, there’s always more money.”
— Chris Beresford-Hill

PEOPLE MENTIONEDMark CubanLance JensenJohn CaplesCinderellaJohn StarksAnthony MasonCharles OakleyPatrick EwingMarv AlbertMichael JordanTodd McFarlaneRob LiefeldDeadpoolJim LeeStan LeeJeff GoodbyRich SilversteinRick RubinSteve SimpsonMatt HermanDavid FincherPeter FarrellyBobby FarrellyKawsRobert GouletFatboy SlimSpike JonzeChristopher WalkenAndrew BurkeMickey GoldmillCraig AllenEric KallmanHenry FordKevin KellyThe Perlorian BrothersVera GouletIan McKenzieBob GarfieldGene SiskelRoger EbertDavid LubarsAmy FergusonJulia NeumannDaniel Day-LewisWill FerrellNicole JonesGreg LyonsRussell CroweBryan CranstonTracee Ellis RossTor MyhrenBillie Jean KingRicardo FrancoNancy ReyesBill BurrLuke SullivanTrey ParkerMatt StoneLars UlrichJames HetfieldConan O’BrienArthur AsheAlfred HitchcockAlonzo WilsonMolly FerrissAllen CarrDaniel CoyleJohn McPheeTed KaczynskiRob SchwartzDerren BrownFrank LuntzBill MurrayRob ReillyDan LuceyJed BergerMike TysonEvander HolyfieldDennis RodmanBrett FavreAaron RodgersKanye West

The post Chris Beresford-Hill — A Master Ad Man on Superbowl Confessions, How to Come Up with Great Ideas, Cold Emailing Mark Cuban, Doing Naughty Things, Poetic Mind Control, Creative Process and Insider Tips, How to Negotiate with Bosses and Clients, and The Power of a Stolen Snickers (#715) appeared first on The Blog of Author Tim Ferriss.

Illustration via 99designs

“What’s so hard about this scientifically, and to get the scientific community fully on board with these ideas, is that we’re likely going to figure out this works before we have any idea on how it works.”

— Dr. Nolan Williams

Welcome to a very special episode of The Tim Ferriss Show, an episode that might be an example of peeking around corners and catching a glimpse of the future of mental health treatments in the next five to ten years.

My guest is Nolan Williams, MD (@NolanRyWilliams). Nolan is an associate professor within the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University School of Medicine and director of the Stanford Brain Stimulation Lab. He has a broad background in clinical neuroscience and is triple board certified in general neurology, general psychiatry, and behavioral neurology and neuropsychiatry. Themes of his work include examining spaced learning theory and neurostimulation techniques, development and mechanistic understanding of rapid-acting antidepressants, and identifying objective biomarkers that predict neuromodulation responses in treatment-resistant neuropsychiatric conditions.

Nolan specializes in looking at cutting-edge treatments and new technologies that can be applied to treatment-resistant psychiatric disorders—so, treatment-resistant depression, disorders that are notoriously difficult to address, such as OCD, and many others.

Nolan’s work resulted in an FDA clearance for the world’s first noninvasive, rapid-acting neuromodulation approach for treatment-resistant depression. And I’ve tested this myself, and we get into this in the conversation. He has published papers in Brain, American Journal of Psychiatry, and Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Results from his studies have gained attention in Science and NEJM Journal Watch. He has received two NARSAD Young Investigator Awards, the Gerald L. Klerman Award, and the National Institute of Mental Health Biobehavioral Research Award for Innovative New Scientists.

We also discuss things like ibogaine that are seemingly unrelated to neuromodulation, as Nolan is very well-versed in multiple disciplines and in multiple toolkits, both pharmacological and non-invasive neuromodulatory. It’s this combination, actually, this rare Venn diagram, that makes him incredibly interesting to me.

I really enjoyed this conversation. I think it is very important, highly tactical, and I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

P.S. “Magnesium–Ibogaine Therapy in Veterans with Traumatic Brain Injuries” is now live in Nature Medicine.

Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Castbox, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music, or on your favorite podcast platform. Watch the interview on YouTube here.

Brought to you by  Nordic Naturals  Ultimate Omega fish oil,  Eight Sleep’s Pod Cover  sleeping solution for dynamic cooling and heating, and  AG1  all-in-one nutritional supplement.

The transcript of this episode can be found here. Transcripts of all episodes can be found here.

Listen onApple Podcasts[image error]Listen onSpotify[image error]Listen onOvercast#714: A Glimpse of the Future: Electroceuticals for 70%–90% Remission of Depression, Brain Stimulation for Sports Performance, and De-risking Ibogaine for TBI/PTSD

This episode is brought to you by Eight Sleep! Eight Sleep’s Pod Cover is the easiest and fastest way to sleep at the perfect temperature. It pairs dynamic cooling and heating with biometric tracking to offer the most advanced (and user-friendly) solution on the market. Simply add the Pod Cover to your current mattress and start sleeping as cool as 55°F or as hot as 110°F. It also splits your bed in half, so your partner can choose a totally different temperature.

Conquer this winter season with the best in sleep tech and sleep at your perfect temperature. Many of my listeners in colder areas enjoy warming up their bed after a freezing day. Go to eightsleep.com/Tim and save $250 on the Pod Cover by Eight Sleep this winter. Eight Sleep currently ships within the USA, Canada, the UK, select countries in the EU, and Australia. 

This episode is brought to you by AG1! I get asked all the time, “If you could use only one supplement, what would it be?” My answer is usually AG1, my all-in-one nutritional insurance. I recommended it in The 4-Hour Body in 2010 and did not get paid to do so. I do my best with nutrient-dense meals, of course, but AG1 further covers my bases with vitamins, minerals, and whole-food-sourced micronutrients that support gut health and the immune system. 

Right now, you’ll get a 1-year supply of Vitamin D free with your first subscription purchase—a vital nutrient for a strong immune system and strong bones. Visit DrinkAG1.com/Tim to claim this special offer today and receive your 1-year supply of Vitamin D (and 5 free AG1 travel packs) with your first subscription purchase! That’s up to a one-year supply of Vitamin D as added value when you try their delicious and comprehensive daily, foundational nutrition supplement that supports whole-body health.

This episode is brought to you by Nordic Naturals, the #1-selling fish-oil brand in the US! More than 80% of Americans don’t get enough omega-3 fats from their diet. That is a problem because the body can’t produce omega-3s, an important nutrient for cell structure and function. Nordic Naturals solves that problem with their doctor-recommended Ultimate Omega fish-oil formula for heart health, brain function, immune support, and more. Ultimate Omega is made exclusively from 100% wild-caught sardines and anchovies. It’s incredibly pure and fresh with no fishy aftertaste. All Nordic Naturals’ fish-oil products are offered in the triglyceride molecular form—the form naturally found in fish, and the form your body most easily absorbs.

Go to Nordic.com and discover why Nordic Naturals is the #1-selling omega-3 brand in the U.S. Use promo code TIM for 20% off your order of Ultimate Omega.

Want to hear another episode that explores the frontier of ibogaine therapy? Listen to my conversation with Hamilton Morris in which we discussed Alexander Shulgin’s psychedelic research at the height of the War on Drugs, concerns about psychedelic research in the for-profit sector, how ibogaine’s usefulness for treating opioid addiction was discovered, sustainable alternatives to popularly used compounds, required reading, and much more.

#511: Hamilton Morris on Iboga, 5-MeO-DMT, the Power of Ritual, New Frontiers in Psychedelics, Excellent Problems to Solve, and More

What was your favorite quote or lesson from this episode? Please let me know in the comments.

SCROLL BELOW FOR LINKS AND SHOW NOTES…

SELECTED LINKS FROM THE EPISODEConnect with Dr. Nolan Williams:

Brain Stimulation Lab | Twitter

Magnesium–Ibogaine Therapy in Veterans with Traumatic Brain Injuries | Nature Medicine Clinical Trials (Ongoing and Upcoming Studies) | Brain Stimulation LabA Life-Saving Treatment for the Severely Depressed | Magnus MedicalAccelerated TMS: Moving Quickly into the Future of Depression Treatment | NeuropsychopharmacologyWe Do Coffee Differently | Philz CoffeeDr. Nolan Williams: Psychedelics and Neurostimulation for Brain Rewiring | Huberman LabAnterior Cingulate Cortex | Neuroscientifically ChallengedDorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex (DLPFC or DL-PFC ) | WikipediaIs the Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex Actually Several Different Brain Areas? | Journal of NeuroscienceTargeted Neurostimulation Reverses a Spatiotemporal Biomarker of Treatment-Resistant Depression | Proceedings of the National Academy of ScienceResting-State Functional MRI: Everything That Nonexperts Have Always Wanted to Know | American Journal of NeuroradiologyThe Psychiatry Milestones 2.0: How Did We Get from 1.0 to 2.0 and What Can Users Expect? | Academic PsychiatryThorazine (Chlorpromazine) | RxListHow Viagra Was Discovered by Accident | BBCSome Practical Thoughts on Suicide | Tim FerrissStanford Accelerated Intelligent Neuromodulation Therapy (SAINT) for Treatment-Resistant Depression | American Journal of PsychiatryTranscranial Magnetic Stimulation: A Review of Its Evolution and Current Applications | Industrial Psychiatry JournalWhat is Faraday’s Law? | Khan AcademyElectroconvulsive Therapy: A History of Controversy, but Also of Help | The ConversationOne Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest | Prime VideoCould I Lose My Job If I Admitted Myself to a Hospital (Having a Mental Crisis)? | QuoraFDA Clears SAINT Rapid-Acting Brain Stimulation Approach for Those Suffering From Resistant Major Depression | Brain & Behavior Research FoundationDoes TMS Therapy Cause Headaches? | Principium PsychiatryTMS for Migraine: Benefits, Effectiveness, Precautions, and More | HealthlineEndogenous Opioids Mediate Left Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex rTMS-Induced Analgesia | PubmedPersonalized (N-of-1) Trials: A Primer | JAMA PediatricsNSAIDs (Nonsteroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drugs) | Cleveland ClinicMontgomery-Asberg Depression Rating Scale (MADRS) | MDCalcAnhedonia | Cleveland ClinicWhat Is Idiopathic Parkinson’s Disease? | Verywell HealthParkinson’s vs. Parkinsonism | Davis Phinney FoundationParkinson’s UK Brain Bank | Parkinson’s UKDeep Phenotyping: The Details of Disease | NatureSubstantia Nigra (SN) | Cleveland ClinicSequenced Treatment Alternatives to Relieve Depression (STAR*D) | WikipediaLexapro (Escitalopram) | Cleveland ClinicCelexa (Citalopram) | Cleveland ClinicEffexor (Venlafaxine) | Cleveland ClinicKetamine versus ECT for Nonpsychotic Treatment-Resistant Major Depression | NEJMA Trip into the Future | American Physiological SocietyInside Ibogaine: A Promising and Perilous Drug for Addiction | TimeFighting for Those Who Fought for Us | VETSFormer GOP Texas Governor Promotes Psychedelics Research for Veterans at Event with Leading Experts | Marijuana MomentHuman Subjects Institutional Review Board | Research Compliance Office, StanfordThe Bachelorette | ABCTorsades de Pointes | Cleveland ClinicHoward Lotsof Dies at 66; Saw Drug Cure in a Plant | The New York TimesBreaking Open the Head: A Psychedelic Journey into the Heart of Contemporary Shamanism by Daniel Pinchbeck | AmazonWhat is an Open-Label Clinical Trial? | News-Medical.NetAlexithymia Causes, Symptoms, and Treatments | HealthlineBiden Signs Defense Spending Bill Funding Psychedelic Research | ForbesDr. Deborah Mash: Ibogaine Can Make You Review Your Life | The New Health Club with Anne PhilippiListen: Neil Gaiman Reads ‘A Christmas Carol’ | The New York Public LibraryMinority Report | Prime VideoComparing Iboga to other Psychedelics and Entheogens | Root HealingGlial Cell Line-Derived Neurotrophic Factor (GDNF) | WikipediaBrain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor (BDNF) | Wikipedia5-HT2A Receptor | WikipediaControversial Drug Shown to Act On Brain Protein to Cut Alcohol Use | UC San FranciscoThe Anti-Addiction Drug Ibogaine and the Heart: A Delicate Relation | MoleculesNoribogaine | WikipediaFrom Bwiti to Ibogaine and Back: A Transnational History of Tabernanthe iboga | ChacrunaTreatment | Ibogaine Safety GuidelinesWoman Dies While Being Treated for Drug Addiction | NZ HeraldTikosyn (Dofetilide) | Cleveland ClinicWalmart’s Food Sales Are Rapidly Dropping — Is Ozempic to Blame? | Eat This, Not ThatDr. Gül Dölen on Rethinking Psychedelics, New Applications (Autism, Stroke, and Allergies), The Neurobiology of Beginner’s Mind, Octopuses on MDMA, and The Master Key of Metaplasticity | The Tim Ferriss Show #667Concussion/Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) | CDC Injury CenterWhy Ibogaine for TBI? | VETSFive Myths about Using Suboxone to Treat Opiate Addiction | Harvard HealthWhat is Naltrexone? | SAMHSAKentucky Eyes Ibogaine, a Psychedelic, to Treat Opioid Addiction | The EconomistCan Brain Ultrasound Treat Addiction? Study at WVU, UVA May Hold Answers | WV NewsDeep Brain Stimulation for Severe Opioid Addiction | NIH HEAL InitiativeFinding the Cure for Scurvy | Naval History MagazineChris Palmer, MD, of Harvard Medical School — Optimizing Brain Energy for Mental Health, The Incredible Potential of Metabolic Psychiatry, Extraordinary Case Studies, and Harnessing Mitochondria for Anxiety, Depression, OCD, PTSD, and More | The Tim Ferriss Show #633I Feel Love: MDMA for Autism and Social Anxiety by Rachel Nuwer | Tim FerrissThe Psychoactive Drug Ibogaine Could Save Lives — And Everyone Wants to Cash In | National GeographicAn Urgent Plea to Users of Psychedelics: Let’s Consider a More Ethical Menu of Plants and Compounds | Tim FerrissVoacanga: An Alternative, Sustainable Source of Ibogaine Treatment | Psychedelic TimesVoacangine | WikipediaHamilton Morris on Iboga, 5-MeO-DMT, the Power of Ritual, New Frontiers in Psychedelics, Excellent Problems to Solve, and More | The Tim Ferriss Show #511Bufo Alvarius: The Psychedelic Toad of the Sonoran Desert by Ken Nelson, Expanded and Updated Edition by Hamilton Morris | Department of InformationOpen-Label Study of Consecutive Ibogaine and 5-Meo-Dmt Assisted-Therapy for Trauma-Exposed Male Special Operations Forces Veterans: Prospective Data from a Clinical Program in Mexico | The American Journal of Drug and Alcohol AbuseU-M Study Investigating If Magic Mushrooms Can Help Fibromyalgia | WXYZDr. Nora Volkow — Director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) | The Tim Ferriss Show #673Scientists Use High-Tech Brain Stimulation to Make People More Hypnotizable | Stanford MedicineClinical Translation of Ultrasonic Ketamine Uncaging for Non-Opioid Therapy of Chronic Pain | NIH RePORTERSnow Crash by Neal Stephenson | AmazonCorpus Callosotomy Surgery | Children’s Hospital of PhiladelphiaAaron Rodgers Pushes for Acceptance of Psychedelics | ESPNSHOW NOTES[07:49] How SAINT helped Deirdre Lehman.[13:59] Typical vs. atypical sequences of activation.[21:00] Psychiatry 1.0, 2.0, 3.0.[26:41] How SAINT (Stanford Accelerated Intelligent Neuromodulation Therapy) came to be.[34:00] TMS vs. ECT.[35:26] Rewards and risks of shortening treatment timeframe.[43:43] Numbers treated and common side-effects.[46:32] Patient demographics.[49:51] Where to find current open trials.[51:01] Observed benefits of SAINT over more conventional treatments.[52:45] Adapting treatment when symptoms prove misleading.[58:03] SAINT remission numbers versus those of alternative therapies.[1:02:50] Delayed remission speculation.[1:07:06] How Nolan became The Ibogaine Bachelorette.[1:11:37] The origin of Nolan’s interest in ibogaine.[1:12:40] Amazing results of the quickest-recruiting study Nolan has ever run.[1:15:19] Dealing with alexithymia and self-reporting inaccuracies in research.[1:19:41] Ibogaine research gets federal funding (approved since this conversation took place)![1:21:09] Isolating the ibogaine effect.[1:21:49] The value of life review on ibogaine.[1:25:56] How ibogaine differs from other psychedelic treatments.[1:30:05] The challenge behind synthesizing naturally occurring compounds.[1:31:54] Coping with ibogaine’s cardiac risks.[1:39:37] Understanding habitual action through ibogaine, Ozempic, caffeine, and alcohol.[1:45:43] Ibogaine for TBI.[1:50:08] Ibogaine for alleviating opioid withdrawal symptoms.[1:51:34] Ibogaine in Kentucky.[2:00:59] Weighing ethics with potential outcomes in research.[2:04:31] Can ibogaine be sourced (or synthesized) sustainably?[2:08:24] Does 5-MeO-DMT complement ibogaine enough to justify its collection?[2:16:48] What might Psychiatry 4.0 look like?[2:25:12] Could we develop therapies to change hand dominance?[2:28:08] Boosting performance.[2:34:01] Parting thoughts.

UPDATE FROM BRYAN HUBBARD:

Since Dr. Williams’ interview, a new Attorney General has assumed office in Kentucky.  In a letter dated December 26th, 2023, Bryan Hubbard resigned from the Kentucky Opioid Abatement Advisory Commission due to the new Attorney General’s opposition to the use of its funds for ibogaine research. 

MORE DR. NOLAN WILLIAMS QUOTES FROM THE INTERVIEW

“You’re actually sending a memory signal into the brain. The stimulation pattern you’re sending into the brain, this kind of Morse code, is really a ‘Turn on, stay on, remember to stay on’ memory signal that’s going into the brain. You’re just basically taking the hippocampus, the part of the brain that’s involved in memory and that signaling that comes out of there, and you’re playing that back through the prefrontal cortex in a way to try to tell the prefrontal cortex to ‘Turn on, stay on, and remember to stay on.'”
— Dr. Nolan Williams

“I’m a pragmatist … for me, the patient’s the most important thing. I have this view of psychiatry that it’s going to look like in-patient cardiology in 20 years where we’re going to use drugs, we’re going to use devices, we’re going to be able to figure out what the best thing is for that patient.”
— Dr. Nolan Williams

“If we gave one of the big pharma companies a hundred billion dollars and said, “Don’t just re-synthesize ibogaine, but make a drug that works like ibogaine,” … I think they’d have a hard time doing it because we don’t have the neuroscience to understand what’s going on there.”
— Dr. Nolan Williams

“What’s so hard about this scientifically, and to get the scientific community fully on board with these ideas, is that we’re likely going to figure out this works before we have any idea on how it works.”
— Dr. Nolan Williams

“If people think it’s really weird, it’s a positive signal that I need to do it.”
— Dr. Nolan Williams

PEOPLE MENTIONEDDeirdre LehmanClark LehmanAnish MitraKarl DeisserothSigmund FreudMark S. GeorgeAnthony BarkerLionel PenroseJoseph J. TaylorMichael J. FoxMarcus and Amber CaponeRick PerryRick DoblinHoward LotsofDeborah MashDaniel PinchbeckKenneth AlperEbenezer ScroogeTom CruiseAlexander ShulginGül DölenSrinivas RaoBryan HubbardJames LindChris PalmerRachel NuwerHamilton MorrisKen NelsonNora VolkowJohnny CashRaag AiranNeal StephensonAaron Rodgers

The post A Glimpse of the Future: Electroceuticals for 70%–90% Remission of Depression, Brain Stimulation for Sports Performance, and De-risking Ibogaine for TBI/PTSD (#714) appeared first on The Blog of Author Tim Ferriss.

Illustration via 99designs

“What’s so hard about this scientifically, and to get the scientific community fully on board with these ideas, is that we’re likely going to figure out this works before we have any idea on how it works.”

— Dr. Nolan Williams

Welcome to a very special episode of The Tim Ferriss Show, an episode that might be an example of peeking around corners and catching a glimpse of the future of mental health treatments in the next five to ten years.

My guest is Nolan Williams, MD (@NolanRyWilliams). Nolan is an associate professor within the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University School of Medicine and director of the Stanford Brain Stimulation Lab. He has a broad background in clinical neuroscience and is triple board certified in general neurology, general psychiatry, and behavioral neurology and neuropsychiatry. Themes of his work include examining spaced learning theory and neurostimulation techniques, development and mechanistic understanding of rapid-acting antidepressants, and identifying objective biomarkers that predict neuromodulation responses in treatment-resistant neuropsychiatric conditions.

Nolan specializes in looking at cutting-edge treatments and new technologies that can be applied to treatment-resistant psychiatric disorders—so, treatment-resistant depression, disorders that are notoriously difficult to address, such as OCD, and many others.

Nolan’s work resulted in an FDA clearance for the world’s first noninvasive, rapid-acting neuromodulation approach for treatment-resistant depression. And I’ve tested this myself, and we get into this in the conversation. He has published papers in Brain, American Journal of Psychiatry, and Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Results from his studies have gained attention in Science and NEJM Journal Watch. He has received two NARSAD Young Investigator Awards, the Gerald L. Klerman Award, and the National Institute of Mental Health Biobehavioral Research Award for Innovative New Scientists.

We also discuss things like ibogaine that are seemingly unrelated to neuromodulation, as Nolan is very well-versed in multiple disciplines and in multiple toolkits, both pharmacological and non-invasive neuromodulatory. It’s this combination, actually, this rare Venn diagram, that makes him incredibly interesting to me.

I really enjoyed this conversation. I think it is very important, highly tactical, and I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

P.S. “Magnesium–Ibogaine Therapy in Veterans with Traumatic Brain Injuries” is now live in Nature Medicine.

Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Castbox, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music, or on your favorite podcast platform. Watch the interview on YouTube here.

Brought to you by  Nordic Naturals  Ultimate Omega fish oil,  Eight Sleep’s Pod Cover  sleeping solution for dynamic cooling and heating, and  AG1  all-in-one nutritional supplement.

Listen onApple Podcasts[image error]Listen onSpotify[image error]Listen onOvercast#714: The New Frontiers of Mental Health — Dr. Nolan Williams on Brain Stimulation, Ibogaine, Rapid-Acting Tools for Depression, Enhancing Sports Performance, and More

This episode is brought to you by Eight Sleep! Eight Sleep’s Pod Cover is the easiest and fastest way to sleep at the perfect temperature. It pairs dynamic cooling and heating with biometric tracking to offer the most advanced (and user-friendly) solution on the market. Simply add the Pod Cover to your current mattress and start sleeping as cool as 55°F or as hot as 110°F. It also splits your bed in half, so your partner can choose a totally different temperature.

Conquer this winter season with the best in sleep tech and sleep at your perfect temperature. Many of my listeners in colder areas enjoy warming up their bed after a freezing day. Go to eightsleep.com/Tim and save $250 on the Pod Cover by Eight Sleep this winter. Eight Sleep currently ships within the USA, Canada, the UK, select countries in the EU, and Australia. 

This episode is brought to you by AG1! I get asked all the time, “If you could use only one supplement, what would it be?” My answer is usually AG1, my all-in-one nutritional insurance. I recommended it in The 4-Hour Body in 2010 and did not get paid to do so. I do my best with nutrient-dense meals, of course, but AG1 further covers my bases with vitamins, minerals, and whole-food-sourced micronutrients that support gut health and the immune system. 

Right now, you’ll get a 1-year supply of Vitamin D free with your first subscription purchase—a vital nutrient for a strong immune system and strong bones. Visit DrinkAG1.com/Tim to claim this special offer today and receive your 1-year supply of Vitamin D (and 5 free AG1 travel packs) with your first subscription purchase! That’s up to a one-year supply of Vitamin D as added value when you try their delicious and comprehensive daily, foundational nutrition supplement that supports whole-body health.

This episode is brought to you by Nordic Naturals, the #1-selling fish-oil brand in the US! More than 80% of Americans don’t get enough omega-3 fats from their diet. That is a problem because the body can’t produce omega-3s, an important nutrient for cell structure and function. Nordic Naturals solves that problem with their doctor-recommended Ultimate Omega fish-oil formula for heart health, brain function, immune support, and more. Ultimate Omega is made exclusively from 100% wild-caught sardines and anchovies. It’s incredibly pure and fresh with no fishy aftertaste. All Nordic Naturals’ fish-oil products are offered in the triglyceride molecular form—the form naturally found in fish, and the form your body most easily absorbs.

Go to Nordic.com and discover why Nordic Naturals is the #1-selling omega-3 brand in the U.S. Use promo code TIM for 20% off your order.

Want to hear another episode that explores the frontier of ibogaine therapy? Listen to my conversation with Hamilton Morris in which we discussed Alexander Shulgin’s psychedelic research at the height of the War on Drugs, concerns about psychedelic research in the for-profit sector, how ibogaine’s usefulness for treating opioid addiction was discovered, sustainable alternatives to popularly used compounds, required reading, and much more.

#511: Hamilton Morris on Iboga, 5-MeO-DMT, the Power of Ritual, New Frontiers in Psychedelics, Excellent Problems to Solve, and More

What was your favorite quote or lesson from this episode? Please let me know in the comments.

SCROLL BELOW FOR LINKS AND SHOW NOTES…

SELECTED LINKS FROM THE EPISODEConnect with Dr. Nolan Williams:

Brain Stimulation Lab | Twitter

Magnesium–Ibogaine Therapy in Veterans with Traumatic Brain Injuries | Nature Medicine Clinical Trials (Ongoing and Upcoming Studies) | Brain Stimulation LabA Life-Saving Treatment for the Severely Depressed | Magnus MedicalAccelerated TMS: Moving Quickly into the Future of Depression Treatment | NeuropsychopharmacologyWe Do Coffee Differently | Philz CoffeeDr. Nolan Williams: Psychedelics and Neurostimulation for Brain Rewiring | Huberman LabAnterior Cingulate Cortex | Neuroscientifically ChallengedDorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex (DLPFC or DL-PFC ) | WikipediaIs the Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex Actually Several Different Brain Areas? | Journal of NeuroscienceTargeted Neurostimulation Reverses a Spatiotemporal Biomarker of Treatment-Resistant Depression | Proceedings of the National Academy of ScienceResting-State Functional MRI: Everything That Nonexperts Have Always Wanted to Know | American Journal of NeuroradiologyThe Psychiatry Milestones 2.0: How Did We Get from 1.0 to 2.0 and What Can Users Expect? | Academic PsychiatryThorazine (Chlorpromazine) | RxListHow Viagra Was Discovered by Accident | BBCSome Practical Thoughts on Suicide | Tim FerrissStanford Accelerated Intelligent Neuromodulation Therapy (SAINT) for Treatment-Resistant Depression | American Journal of PsychiatryTranscranial Magnetic Stimulation: A Review of Its Evolution and Current Applications | Industrial Psychiatry JournalWhat is Faraday’s Law? | Khan AcademyElectroconvulsive Therapy: A History of Controversy, but Also of Help | The ConversationOne Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest | Prime VideoCould I Lose My Job If I Admitted Myself to a Hospital (Having a Mental Crisis)? | QuoraFDA Clears SAINT Rapid-Acting Brain Stimulation Approach for Those Suffering From Resistant Major Depression | Brain & Behavior Research FoundationDoes TMS Therapy Cause Headaches? | Principium PsychiatryTMS for Migraine: Benefits, Effectiveness, Precautions, and More | HealthlineEndogenous Opioids Mediate Left Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex rTMS-Induced Analgesia | PubmedPersonalized (N-of-1) Trials: A Primer | JAMA PediatricsNSAIDs (Nonsteroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drugs) | Cleveland ClinicMontgomery-Asberg Depression Rating Scale (MADRS) | MDCalcAnhedonia | Cleveland ClinicWhat Is Idiopathic Parkinson’s Disease? | Verywell HealthParkinson’s vs. Parkinsonism | Davis Phinney FoundationParkinson’s UK Brain Bank | Parkinson’s UKDeep Phenotyping: The Details of Disease | NatureSubstantia Nigra (SN) | Cleveland ClinicSequenced Treatment Alternatives to Relieve Depression (STAR*D) | WikipediaLexapro (Escitalopram) | Cleveland ClinicCelexa (Citalopram) | Cleveland ClinicEffexor (Venlafaxine) | Cleveland ClinicKetamine versus ECT for Nonpsychotic Treatment-Resistant Major Depression | NEJMA Trip into the Future | American Physiological SocietyInside Ibogaine: A Promising and Perilous Drug for Addiction | TimeFighting for Those Who Fought for Us | VETSFormer GOP Texas Governor Promotes Psychedelics Research for Veterans at Event with Leading Experts | Marijuana MomentHuman Subjects Institutional Review Board | Research Compliance Office, StanfordThe Bachelorette | ABCTorsades de Pointes | Cleveland ClinicHoward Lotsof Dies at 66; Saw Drug Cure in a Plant | The New York TimesBreaking Open the Head: A Psychedelic Journey into the Heart of Contemporary Shamanism by Daniel Pinchbeck | AmazonWhat is an Open-Label Clinical Trial? | News-Medical.NetAlexithymia Causes, Symptoms, and Treatments | HealthlineBiden Signs Defense Spending Bill Funding Psychedelic Research | ForbesDr. Deborah Mash: Ibogaine Can Make You Review Your Life | The New Health Club with Anne PhilippiListen: Neil Gaiman Reads ‘A Christmas Carol’ | The New York Public LibraryMinority Report | Prime VideoComparing Iboga to other Psychedelics and Entheogens | Root HealingGlial Cell Line-Derived Neurotrophic Factor (GDNF) | WikipediaBrain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor (BDNF) | Wikipedia5-HT2A Receptor | WikipediaControversial Drug Shown to Act On Brain Protein to Cut Alcohol Use | UC San FranciscoThe Anti-Addiction Drug Ibogaine and the Heart: A Delicate Relation | MoleculesNoribogaine | WikipediaFrom Bwiti to Ibogaine and Back: A Transnational History of Tabernanthe iboga | ChacrunaTreatment | Ibogaine Safety GuidelinesWoman Dies While Being Treated for Drug Addiction | NZ HeraldTikosyn (Dofetilide) | Cleveland ClinicWalmart’s Food Sales Are Rapidly Dropping — Is Ozempic to Blame? | Eat This, Not ThatDr. Gül Dölen on Rethinking Psychedelics, New Applications (Autism, Stroke, and Allergies), The Neurobiology of Beginner’s Mind, Octopuses on MDMA, and The Master Key of Metaplasticity | The Tim Ferriss Show #667Concussion/Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) | CDC Injury CenterWhy Ibogaine for TBI? | VETSFive Myths about Using Suboxone to Treat Opiate Addiction | Harvard HealthWhat is Naltrexone? | SAMHSAKentucky Eyes Ibogaine, a Psychedelic, to Treat Opioid Addiction | The EconomistCan Brain Ultrasound Treat Addiction? Study at WVU, UVA May Hold Answers | WV NewsDeep Brain Stimulation for Severe Opioid Addiction | NIH HEAL InitiativeFinding the Cure for Scurvy | Naval History MagazineChris Palmer, MD, of Harvard Medical School — Optimizing Brain Energy for Mental Health, The Incredible Potential of Metabolic Psychiatry, Extraordinary Case Studies, and Harnessing Mitochondria for Anxiety, Depression, OCD, PTSD, and More | The Tim Ferriss Show #633I Feel Love: MDMA for Autism and Social Anxiety by Rachel Nuwer | Tim FerrissThe Psychoactive Drug Ibogaine Could Save Lives — And Everyone Wants to Cash In | National GeographicAn Urgent Plea to Users of Psychedelics: Let’s Consider a More Ethical Menu of Plants and Compounds | Tim FerrissVoacanga: An Alternative, Sustainable Source of Ibogaine Treatment | Psychedelic TimesVoacangine | WikipediaHamilton Morris on Iboga, 5-MeO-DMT, the Power of Ritual, New Frontiers in Psychedelics, Excellent Problems to Solve, and More | The Tim Ferriss Show #511Bufo Alvarius: The Psychedelic Toad of the Sonoran Desert by Ken Nelson, Expanded and Updated Edition by Hamilton Morris | Department of InformationOpen-Label Study of Consecutive Ibogaine and 5-Meo-Dmt Assisted-Therapy for Trauma-Exposed Male Special Operations Forces Veterans: Prospective Data from a Clinical Program in Mexico | The American Journal of Drug and Alcohol AbuseU-M Study Investigating If Magic Mushrooms Can Help Fibromyalgia | WXYZDr. Nora Volkow — Director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) | The Tim Ferriss Show #673Scientists Use High-Tech Brain Stimulation to Make People More Hypnotizable | Stanford MedicineClinical Translation of Ultrasonic Ketamine Uncaging for Non-Opioid Therapy of Chronic Pain | NIH RePORTERSnow Crash by Neal Stephenson | AmazonCorpus Callosotomy Surgery | Children’s Hospital of PhiladelphiaAaron Rodgers Pushes for Acceptance of Psychedelics | ESPNSHOW NOTES[07:49] How SAINT helped Deirdre Lehman.[13:59] Typical vs. atypical sequences of activation.[21:00] Psychiatry 1.0, 2.0, 3.0.[26:41] How SAINT (Stanford Accelerated Intelligent Neuromodulation Therapy) came to be.[34:00] TMS vs. ECT.[35:26] Rewards and risks of shortening treatment timeframe.[43:43] Numbers treated and common side-effects.[46:32] Patient demographics.[49:51] Where to find current open trials.[51:01] Observed benefits of SAINT over more conventional treatments.[52:45] Adapting treatment when symptoms prove misleading.[58:03] SAINT remission numbers versus those of alternative therapies.[1:02:50] Delayed remission speculation.[1:07:06] How Nolan became The Ibogaine Bachelorette.[1:11:37] The origin of Nolan’s interest in ibogaine.[1:12:40] Amazing results of the quickest-recruiting study Nolan has ever run.[1:15:19] Dealing with alexithymia and self-reporting inaccuracies in research.[1:19:41] Ibogaine research gets federal funding (approved since this conversation took place)![1:21:09] Isolating the ibogaine effect.[1:21:49] The value of life review on ibogaine.[1:25:56] How ibogaine differs from other psychedelic treatments.[1:30:05] The challenge behind synthesizing naturally occurring compounds.[1:31:54] Coping with ibogaine’s cardiac risks.[1:39:37] Understanding habitual action through ibogaine, Ozempic, caffeine, and alcohol.[1:45:43] Ibogaine for TBI.[1:50:08] Ibogaine for alleviating opioid withdrawal symptoms.[1:51:34] Ibogaine in Kentucky.[2:00:59] Weighing ethics with potential outcomes in research.[2:04:31] Can ibogaine be sourced (or synthesized) sustainably?[2:08:24] Does 5-MeO-DMT complement ibogaine enough to justify its collection?[2:16:48] What might Psychiatry 4.0 look like?[2:25:12] Could we develop therapies to change hand dominance?[2:28:08] Boosting performance.[2:34:01] Parting thoughts.

UPDATE FROM BRYAN HUBBARD:

Since Dr. Williams’ interview, a new Attorney General has assumed office in Kentucky.  In a letter dated December 26th, 2023, Bryan Hubbard resigned from the Kentucky Opioid Abatement Advisory Commission due to the new Attorney General’s opposition to the use of its funds for ibogaine research. 

MORE DR. NOLAN WILLIAMS QUOTES FROM THE INTERVIEW

“You’re actually sending a memory signal into the brain. The stimulation pattern you’re sending into the brain, this kind of Morse code, is really a ‘Turn on, stay on, remember to stay on’ memory signal that’s going into the brain. You’re just basically taking the hippocampus, the part of the brain that’s involved in memory and that signaling that comes out of there, and you’re playing that back through the prefrontal cortex in a way to try to tell the prefrontal cortex to ‘Turn on, stay on, and remember to stay on.'”
— Dr. Nolan Williams

“I’m a pragmatist … for me, the patient’s the most important thing. I have this view of psychiatry that it’s going to look like in-patient cardiology in 20 years where we’re going to use drugs, we’re going to use devices, we’re going to be able to figure out what the best thing is for that patient.”
— Dr. Nolan Williams

“If we gave one of the big pharma companies a hundred billion dollars and said, “Don’t just re-synthesize ibogaine, but make a drug that works like ibogaine,” … I think they’d have a hard time doing it because we don’t have the neuroscience to understand what’s going on there.”
— Dr. Nolan Williams

“What’s so hard about this scientifically, and to get the scientific community fully on board with these ideas, is that we’re likely going to figure out this works before we have any idea on how it works.”
— Dr. Nolan Williams

“If people think it’s really weird, it’s a positive signal that I need to do it.”
— Dr. Nolan Williams

PEOPLE MENTIONEDDeirdre LehmanClark LehmanAnish MitraKarl DeisserothSigmund FreudMark S. GeorgeAnthony BarkerLionel PenroseJoseph J. TaylorMichael J. FoxMarcus and Amber CaponeRick PerryRick DoblinHoward LotsofDeborah MashDaniel PinchbeckKenneth AlperEbenezer ScroogeTom CruiseAlexander ShulginGül DölenSrinivas RaoBryan HubbardJames LindChris PalmerRachel NuwerHamilton MorrisKen NelsonNora VolkowJohnny CashRaag AiranNeal StephensonAaron Rodgers

The post The New Frontiers of Mental Health — Dr. Nolan Williams on Brain Stimulation, Ibogaine, Rapid-Acting Tools for Depression, Enhancing Sports Performance, and More (#714) appeared first on The Blog of Author Tim Ferriss.

Happy New Year!

Thank you from the bottom of my heart for listening to The Tim Ferriss Show, which will hit its 10th anniversary soon.

Below are some of my favorite TFS moments from 2023. I’m using them, and I believe you can use them, as launching points to become healthier, wealthier, and wiser in 2024. I’ve thrown in a few laughs, too, as those are perhaps most important of all.

The clips below cover a wide range of topics—the very tactical and practical (exercise routines, optimizing to-do lists, building habits, goal setting), life-transforming decisions and big-picture moves (rites of passage, personal reinvention), and much more. 

2024 is going to be very big! Secret plans are already in the works…

If you haven’t done so already, you can subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you find your audio morsels.

Sending all the best to you and yours, and please enjoy (click on the guest’s name for the full episode):

1. Arthur Brooks explains how to create lasting satisfaction:

2. Dr. Peter Attia on his personal rules for alcohol consumption:

3. Derek Sivers goes into when and why you should stop playing “the game“ you’re playing:

4. Dr. Andrew Huberman addresses the importance of neck strength training:

5. Dr. Shirley Sahrmann recorded her exercise routine after discussing it on the podcast:

6. Sam Corcos explains his approach to getting things done (and ditching the standard to-do list approach):

7. Kevin Kelly on cultivating a strong rest ethic:

8. Atomic Habits author James Clear on how to build good habits in 2024:

9. Professor John Vervaeke on reading for personal transformation:

10. My thoughts on AI companions, and how they will reshape society (from a recent Q&A):

11. Live demo with famous pickpocket Apollo Robbins:

12. Neuroscientist David Eagleman explains how to “stretch time” with novelty:

13. Founder of Shake Shack Danny Meyer on the four quadrants of performance:

14. Famed explorer Wade Davis on the importance of rites of passage:

15. Why We Sleep author Dr. Matthew Walker on the impact of coffee on sleep:

16. Investor Bill Gurley on the superpowers of Jeff Bezos:

17. Award-winning game designer Justin Gary on the art of goal setting and how to make progress:

18. Director of the Harvard Negotiation Project Sheila Heen on inviting (and giving) feedback:

19. My friend Kevin Rose on his magic rice cooker:

20. Dr. Willoughby Britton on how to choose your next meditation retreat:

21. Co-Creator of Exploding Kittens Elan Lee on the keys to creating a great game:

22. Neuroscience professor Dr. Gül Dölen on whether psychedelics can help with autism:

23. Seth Godin on why we need meaning:

24. Jake Muise on becoming a lava cowboy and rescuing cows with a helicopter: 

P.S. In case you missed it, transcripts for all episodes are available for free at this link, and you can find our highly-vetted podcast sponsors at this link.

P.P.S. To learn about all sorts of hidden gems before the mainstream, take a few seconds and sign up for my newsletter here. Join 1.5M+ subscribers and enjoy 5-Bullet Friday, a very short email of five bullets that describe the most interesting, useful, and wild things I’ve discovered each week. It’s free, and it’s easy to unsubscribe. Most of my podcast guests are subscribers.

The post 24 Highlights from The Tim Ferriss Show to Make You Healthy, Wealthy, and Wise in 2024  appeared first on The Blog of Author Tim Ferriss.

Illustration via 99designs

“Companies don’t die from competition. They usually die from suicide.”

— Matt Mullenweg

Matt Mullenweg (@photomatt) is co-founder of the open-source publishing platform WordPress, which now powers over 40 percent of all sites on the web. He is the founder and CEO of Automattic, the company behind WordPress.com, WooCommerce, Tumblr, WPVIP, Day One, Texts, and Pocket Casts. Additionally, Matt runs Audrey Capital, an investment and research company. He has been recognized for his leadership by Forbes, Bloomberg Businessweek, Inc., TechCrunch, Fortune, Fast Company, Wired, University Philosophical Society, and Vanity Fair.

Matt is originally from Houston, Texas, where he attended the High School for the Performing and Visual Arts and studied jazz saxophone. In his spare time, Matt is an avid photographer. He currently splits his time between Houston and San Francisco.

Please enjoy!

Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Castbox, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music, or on your favorite podcast platform . You can watch the interview on YouTube here.

Brought to you by  Momentous  high-quality supplements,  Helix Sleep  premium mattresses, and  AG1  all-in-one nutritional supplement.

Listen onApple Podcasts[image error]Listen onSpotify[image error]Listen onOvercast#713: Matt Mullenweg — The Art of Crafting a Sabbatical, Tips for Defending Against Hackers, Leveraging Open Source, Thriving in an AI World, and Tips for Life’s Darkest Hours

This episode is brought to you by AG1! I get asked all the time, “If you could use only one supplement, what would it be?” My answer is usually AG1, my all-in-one nutritional insurance. I recommended it in The 4-Hour Body in 2010 and did not get paid to do so. I do my best with nutrient-dense meals, of course, but AG1 further covers my bases with vitamins, minerals, and whole-food-sourced micronutrients that support gut health and the immune system. 

Right now, you’ll get a 1-year supply of Vitamin D free with your first subscription purchase—a vital nutrient for a strong immune system and strong bones. Visit DrinkAG1.com/Tim to claim this special offer today and receive your 1-year supply of Vitamin D (and 5 free AG1 travel packs) with your first subscription purchase! That’s up to a one-year supply of Vitamin D as added value when you try their delicious and comprehensive daily, foundational nutrition supplement that supports whole-body health.

This episode is also brought to you by Momentous high-quality supplements! Momentous offers high-quality supplements and products across a broad spectrum of categories, and I’ve been testing their products for months now. I’ve been using their magnesium threonate, apigenin, and L-theanine daily, all of which have helped me improve the onset, quality, and duration of my sleep. I’ve also been using Momentous creatine, and while it certainly helps physical performance, including poundage or wattage in sports, I use it primarily for mental performance (short-term memory, etc.).

Their products are third-party tested (Informed-Sport and/or NSF certified), so you can trust that what is on the label is in the bottle and nothing else. If you want to try Momentous for yourself, you can use code Tim for 20% off your one-time purchase at LiveMomentous.com/Tim. And not to worry, my non-US friends, Momentous ships internationally and has you covered. 

This episode is brought to you by Helix Sleep! Helix was selected as the best overall mattress of 2022 by GQ magazine, Wired, and Apartment Therapy. With Helix, there’s a specific mattress to meet each and every body’s unique comfort needs. Just take their quiz—only two minutes to complete—that matches your body type and sleep preferences to the perfect mattress for you. They have a 10-year warranty, and you get to try it out for a hundred nights, risk-free. They’ll even pick it up from you if you don’t love it. And now, Helix is offering 20% off all mattress orders plus two free pillows at HelixSleep.com/Tim.

Want to hear the episode Matt Mullenweg and I did from Antarctica? Listen to our conversation here, in which we discussed whisky, perpetual daylight, living with zero internet access, the “patient” landscape of Antarctica, witnessing a total solar eclipse, the grieving process, podcast tech specs, existential revelations, bucket list items, and much more.

#578: Tim Ferriss and Matt Mullenweg in Antarctica: Exploring Personal Fears, Bucket Lists, Facing Grief, Crafting Life Missions, and Tim’s Best Penguin Impressions

What was your favorite quote or lesson from this episode? Please let me know in the comments.

SCROLL BELOW FOR LINKS AND SHOW NOTES…

SELECTED LINKS FROM THE EPISODEConnect with Matt Mullenweg:

Twitter | Instagram | Blog | Facebook | Spotify

AutomatticWordPress.comWordPress.orgWooCommerceTumblrWordPress VIPDay OneTextsPocket CastsAudrey CapitalSpam Protection for Websites | AkismetBerkshire HathawayBuyers of First Resort | Works in ProgressOpen-Source Software | WikipediaPhilosophy | WordPress.orgTom Sawyer Whitewashing the Fence | PBS“The First Thing Our New Hire Did…” | (ROBIN) at TwitterCould Your Hiring Process Use Some ‘Mystery Shopping’? | IndeedWhat Is Red Teaming? | WhatIs.comWhat’s in My Bag, 2023 | Matt MullenwegState of the Word | WordPress.orgThe #1 App for Meditation and Sleep | CalmApple’s Newest Headache: An App That Upended Its Control Over Messaging | The New York TimesCandies & Chocolates Online | See’s CandiesThe 2020s Will Be an Era of Atoms, Not Bits | Digital TontoTwitter to Remove Free API Access in Latest Money Making Quest | The VergeThe Customer Company | SalesforceThe Many Annoying Ways Google Forced Users onto Google+ | The VergeNotes | App StoreA Note-Taking Tool for Networked Thought | Roam ResearchSharpen Your Thinking | ObsidianThe DevSecOps Platform | GitLabSecure Collaboration and Messaging | ElementPower Your Entire Business | SquareJack Dorsey Gives Decentralized Social Network Nostr 14 BTC in Funding | CoinDeskBlueskySimple, Secure, Reliable Messaging | WhatsAppSpeak Freely | SignalA Conversation with Charlie Munger & John Collison | Invest Like the BestSiddhartha by Hermann Hesse | AmazonZorba the Greek by Nikos Kazantzakis | AmazonAwareness: The Perils and Opportunities of Reality by Anthony de Mello | AmazonThe Acceleration of Addictiveness | Paul GrahamHow to Do Great Work | Paul GrahamSlate Star CodexThe Knowledge Project PodcastThe 4-Hour Chef: The Simple Path to Cooking Like a Pro, Learning Anything, and Living the Good Life by Timothy Ferriss | AmazonThe 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich by Tim Ferriss | AmazonMaking Commerce Better for Everyone | ShopifyWriters’ Strike 2023: Historic Strike Ends, Impacts Hollywood | Los Angeles TimesWait But WhyThe Top Idea in Your Mind | Paul GrahamMaker’s Schedule, Manager’s Schedule | Paul GrahamCandyman | Prime VideoPaul Graham on Ambition, Art, and Evaluating Talent | Conversations with TylerSmall Steps Toward a Much Better World | Marginal RevolutionNational Fed Challenge | WikipediaFederal Open Market Committee (FOMC) | The FedEffective Federal Funds Rate | Federal Bank Reserve of New YorkWhat Is the Illuminati? 9 Questions about the Illuminati, Answered | VoxKinder High School for the Performing and Visual ArtsBlogging the Milt Friedman Conference | Matt MullenwegBody for Life: 12 Weeks to Mental and Physical Strength by Bill Phillips and Michael D’Orso | AmazonRed Ocean Strategy vs. Blue Ocean Strategy I Blue Ocean StrategyWhat Is USB-C? An Explainer | PCMagApple Pushes Back Against iPhone USB-C Regulations in India | MacRumors6000mah Ultra Slim Built in Cables Power Bank | AmazonPrompt Engineering GuideIntroducing ChatGPT | OpenAIMidjourneySweeping Changes for Leading-Edge Chip Architectures | Semiconductor EngineeringCar Dealership Disturbed When Its AI Is Caught Offering Chevys for $1 Each | FuturismEmpty Planet: The Shock of Global Population Decline by Darrell Bricker and John Ibbitson | AmazonWorld Population Growth Is Expected to Nearly Stop By 2100 | Pew Research CenterWill Traditional Colleges and Universities Become Obsolete? | Smithsonian MagazineHobbes’ Moral and Political Philosophy | Stanford Encyclopedia of PhilosophyEmergency: This Book Will Save Your Life by Neil Strauss | AmazonWe Cannot Predict the Future, But We Can Invent It | Quote InvestigatorWill Data Liberation Grow WordPress? | The WP MinuteCreate a Free Website Today | WixApple Says It ‘Expects to Make’ App Store Policy Changes Due to EU DMA | TechCrunchEvery Apple App Store Fee, Explained: How Much, for What, and When | AppleInsiderBeta Testing made simple with TestFlight | Apple DeveloperBlazingly Fast Email for Teams and Individuals | SuperhumanTwitter Is Still Throttling Competitors’ Links — Check for Yourself | The MarkupGoogle AMP: How Google Tried to Fix the Web by Taking It Over | The VergeAll-In Summit: Bill Gurley Presents 2,851 Miles | All-In PodcastA Stark Contrast Between the US and Europe on Tests | BloombergHow Alignment Charts Went From Dungeons & Dragons to a Meme | The AtlanticPassword Manager for Families, Businesses, Teams | 1PasswordPasskeys (Passkey Authentication) | FIDO AllianceWhat is PGP Encryption? Pretty Good Privacy Explained | FortinetWordCamp Asia 2023Taipei City | Tourism AdministrationRatatouille | Prime VideoTim Ferriss and Matt Mullenweg in Antarctica: Exploring Personal Fears, Bucket Lists, Facing Grief, Crafting Life Missions, and Tim’s Best Penguin Impressions | The Tim Ferriss Show #578Automattic’s Sabbatical Benefit | AutomatticOpen Vacation Policy: How Automattic Makes It Work | Culture AmpHow to Take a Mini-Retirement: Tips and Tricks | Tim FerrissJerry Colonna — How to Reboot Yourself and Feel Unrushed in the New Year | The Tim Ferriss Show #554Jerry Colonna — The Coach with the Spider Tattoo | The Tim Ferriss Show #373Your Body Called, Your Future Self Answered | BlueprintHedonic Treadmill | Psychology TodayThe Lessons of History by Will Durant and Ariel Durant | AmazonFallen Leaves: Last Words on Life, Love, War, and God by Will Durant | AmazonAnti-Nuclear Movement | WikipediaFormer Greenpeace Director Explains His Support for Nuclear Energy | ANS / Nuclear NewswireWhat Are the Safest and Cleanest Sources of Energy? | Our World in DataA Nuclear Innovation Company | TerraPowerClean, Reliable, Affordable Energy | OkloReefer Madness | Prime VideoPsychedelics 101: Books, Documentaries, Podcasts, Science, and More | Tim FerrissDr. Gül Dölen on Rethinking Psychedelics, New Applications (Autism, Stroke, and Allergies), The Neurobiology of Beginner’s Mind, Octopuses on MDMA, and The Master Key of Metaplasticity | The Tim Ferriss Show #667Some Thoughts on For-Profit Psychedelic Startups and Companies | Tim FerrissThe World’s Largest Psychedelic Research Center | The Tim Ferriss Show #385How Many People Have Died at Disney World? | Something About OrangeDr. Nolan Williams: Psychedelics and Neurostimulation for Brain Rewiring | Huberman Lab“The Iceman,” Wim Hof | The Tim Ferriss Show #102About Holotropic Breathwork | Grof Transpersonal TrainingHolotropic Breathwork: A New Approach to Self-Exploration and Therapy by Stanislav Grof and Christina Grof | AmazonA Leading Center for Exploring Human Potential | Esalen InstituteWaking Up with Sam Harris AppDepression: How You Label Determines How You Feel | Tim FerrissSome Practical Thoughts on Suicide | Tim Ferriss“Productivity” Tricks for the Neurotic, Manic-Depressive, and Crazy (Like Me) | Tim FerrissDr. John Krystal — All Things Ketamine, The Most Comprehensive Podcast Episode Ever | The Tim Ferriss Show #625Accelerated TMS: Moving Quickly into the Future of Depression Treatment | NeuropsychopharmacologyStanford Accelerated Intelligent Neuromodulation Therapy (SAINT) for Treatment-Resistant Depression | American Journal of PsychiatryHow to Discover Your Peak State with Emotional Triad Psychology | Tony RobbinsExcellent Advice for Living: Wisdom I Wish I’d Known Earlier by Kevin Kelly | AmazonSir Richard Branson — The Billionaire Maverick of the Virgin Empire | The Tim Ferriss Show #272The Work | Byron KatieOne in Five Young Americans Think the Holocaust Is a Myth — And It’s All Down to TikTok | The Jewish ChronicleThese Countries Have Bans on Twitter, Facebook, and TikTok | TimeBlog Articles | Derek SiversLibby’s Vienna Sausage | AmazonFlour + WaterPizzeria DelfinaLa ConnessaSaisonHeinz Ranch Single-Serve Packets (Pack of 200) | AmazonWhat is Wabi Sabi? The Elusive Beauty of Imperfection | Japan ObjectsTranscendental MeditationDr. Willoughby Britton — The Hidden Risks of Meditation, Overlaps with Psychedelic Risks, Harm Reduction Strategies, How to Choose a Retreat, Near-Death Experiences, and More | The Tim Ferriss Show #705Defying Cavity: Lantern Bioworks FAQ | Astral Codex TenGene-Engineered Mouth Bacteria | Lantern BioworksZBiotics Pre-Alcohol Probiotic Drink | AmazonUSB Mini Disco Light | AmazonSHOW NOTES[05:12] The Argentine Dr. Mullenweg.[08:15] Open source.[10:19] Secret hiring.[12:59] Matt is always on tour.[15:14] Texts.[17:39] How Matt chooses his next project(s).[21:51] Building a digital Berkshire Hathaway.[29:01] Why Matt’s excited about messaging.[32:03] How Matt discovers companies he buys.[32:53] RIP, Charlie Munger.[33:28] Worthy rereads.[37:10] My reflections on blogging, writing, and podcasting.[48:55] Tyler Cowen’s inimitable style.[49:42] Matt’s high school economics competition.[57:05] Cables.[57:59] AI spellcasting and community.[1:01:09] Developments that will amaze the future.[1:04:51] AI-proofing jobs.[1:07:23] Why Matt’s optimistic about future generations.[1:12:17] Data Liberation Front.[1:14:12] More open app stores.[1:18:53] Invisible tools (and weapons) of competition.[1:23:40] Online security advice for the layman.[1:26:21] WordCamp Asia.[1:32:12] Taking a sa-Matt-ical.[1:45:25] Rethinking nuclear energy.[1:47:20] Rethinking psychedelics risks.[1:57:59] Rethinking breathwork.[2:02:05] Coping with depression.[2:15:16] Rethinking TikTok.[2:16:40] Blogging: absurd and beautiful.[2:18:40] Rethinking Vienna sausages.[2:19:57] Pocket ranch.[2:21:36] Answering ancient emails.[2:22:45] The curse of the ultra-critical eye.[2:25:51] Rethinking meditation.[2:28:38] Bacterial dentistry.[2:32:06] Pocket party.[2:32:55] Parting thoughts.MORE MATT MULLENWEG QUOTES FROM THE INTERVIEW

“Don’t build on proprietary platforms. They can pull the rug, and will pull the rug, at any point. In open source, one, the rug can’t be pulled. Two, typically, they’re ultra pluggable. You can really change every line of WordPress.”
— Matt Mullenweg

“How do we help bend the long arc towards more freedom, more liberty across the world? Technology does that better than, I think, any sort of diplomacy or anything else that I could work on.”
— Matt Mullenweg

“Companies don’t die from competition. They usually die from suicide.”
— Matt Mullenweg

“If you have the people on your side, I feel like that’s what truly matters in the long term.”
— Matt Mullenweg

PEOPLE MENTIONEDTom SawyerHuckleberry FinnThe Rolling StonesCharlie MungerWarren BuffettBenjamin FranklinSid SijbrandijJack DorseyBrian ActonJohn CollisonAnthony de MelloPaul GrahamScott AlexanderShane ParrishAndrew HubermanRich RollNeil StraussSeth GodinTim UrbanTyler CowenAlan GreenspanBen BernankeBeyoncéRobert GlasperScott RomanMilton FriedmanBill PhillipsWilliam ShakespeareSam AltmanGreg BrockmanCyan BanisterRoonKevin KellyThomas HobbesAlan TuringAlan KayElon MuskBill GurleyToni SchneiderJerry ColonnaBryan JohnsonWill DurantAriel DurantBill GatesGül DölenRoland GriffithsNolan WilliamsWim HofTony RobbinsSam HarrisStan GrofHumpty DumptyJohn KrystalRichard BransonByron KatieDerek SiversLudwig van BeethovenWilloughby Britton

The post Matt Mullenweg — The Art of Crafting a Sabbatical, Tips for Defending Against Hackers, Leveraging Open Source, Thriving in an AI World, and Tips for Life’s Darkest Hours (#713) appeared first on The Blog of Author Tim Ferriss.