Bulletproof Radio

In this episode of Bulletproof Radio, my guest Steven Kotler believes there’s a formula for the impossible and that the answer lies in our biology. He’s spent a lifetime researching and looking for ways to achieve his own peak performance, and today we get his advice on how you can achieve yours. In Steven’s newest book, “The Art of Impossible: A Peak Performance Primer” he’s combined neuroscience and decades of research to make a playbook for extreme performance improvement and an exploration of the frontiers of human possibility. He lays out four components to maintaining peak performance: motivation, learning, creativity and flow.He’s a New York Times-bestselling author, an award-winning journalist, and has been nominated for two Pulitzer Prizes. He’s also the executive director of the Flow Research Collective, an institute that researches the neuroscience of flow states and trains individuals to harness their own flow-state, so they can achieve more, faster.“One of the qualities of a f

In this episode of Bulletproof Radio, the focus is on inflammation and how it’s related to fasting, cancer and even Covid. If you want to know how your immune system works, Dr. Miriam Merad most definitely is the expert to ask. So I did. She’s an internationally acclaimed physician scientist who’s doing groundbreaking research on how our immune system fights common and recurring infections. Dr. Merad leads the Precision Immunology Institute at the Icahn School of Medicine (PrIISM) at Mount Sinai, New York. Her research lab recently found that fasting reduces inflammation and improves chronic inflammatory diseases without affecting the immune system’s response to acute infections. However, our immune systems respond differently to stressors like fasting, diets and levels of activity. “We are not all equal,” says Dr. Merad. “So, we have to really understand that it’s important to stratify people, and this stratification comes from teamwork with computational and quantitative immunologies and

In Dave Asprey’s brand new book, “Fast This Way: Burn Fat, Heal Inflammation, and Eat Like the High-Performing Human You Were Meant to Be,” he asks you to throw out the rules you think you know about fasting. He shows you how to do it easily without facing down cravings and shows how you can radically reframe your relationship with food to seriously upgrade our health. This means simply conquering your fear of going without. “This is the most accessible book I've written,” Dave says. “There's plenty of science in there, but it's also like here's step one, here's step two.”In this unique episode of Bulletproof Radio, Dave steps out of the hosting seat and hands the podcast mic to Lara Logan to ask the questions. Lara’s been a journalist and war correspondent for nearly three decades. She currently hosts her own news show on Fox Nation called “Lara Logan Has No Agenda.” She previously reported for the CBS network for over 15 years and is best known for her coverage of signific

In this episode of Bulletproof Radio, I’m joined by Australian researcher Leonie Heilbronn, Ph.D.. Her fasting research looks at the biological pathways that support reducing the risk of chronic diseases.Leonie leads the Obesity and Metabolism group based within the Lifelong Health Theme at South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute at Adelaide University in Adelaide, Australia. Today, I have her on to talk about her studies on fasting, many of which show more specific results than what we’ve seen in this field before. She looks at intermittent fasting, time restricted eating, calorie restriction and more. In a particular study on women, Leoni says, “We did see that the intermittent fasting group lost a little bit more weight than the caloric restriction group, and they had better improvements in their health.” There were other positive results like reductions in diabetes and cardiovascular risk markers. Fasting isn’t one-size-fits-all, so I asked Leonie a lot of 

In this episode of Bulletproof Radio, I’m joined by Dr. Alan Goldhamer, one of the world’s leading experts on medically supervised, water-only fasting. He’s supervised the fasting and care of more than 20,000 patients at TrueNorth Health Center in Santa Rosa, California, since he founded it in 1984.His mission is to expand evidence-based knowledge of how medically supervised, water-only fasting and diet impact human health; train clinicians in the use of these interventions; and share findings with researchers and the public.“We know using this protocol, this process can be done safely,” he says. “We’ve actually published a fasting safety study–the first fasting safety study that's been published in a peer-reviewed journal–that involved tracking all the patients for five years, and all of the symptoms, and classifying them according to the CTCAE criteria, the adverse events criteria on hundreds of patients.”A few things you may not know about water fasting:Your Body Self-Cleans: “The body does a really g

In this bonus replay episode of Bulletproof Radio, we've taken all the best parts of my previous podcast with Mark Mattson, Ph.D., and condensed them here for a shorter episode. Highlights include Mark's great research on fasting and supports the topic of my new book, "Fast This Way: Burn Fat, Heal Inflammation and Eat Like the High-Performing Human You Were Meant to Be."Pre-order at https://fastthisway.com before the Jan. 19, 2021, launch and get cool stuff! Mark, a neuroscientist at Johns Hopkins Medicine, is one of the world’s top experts on the health benefits of intermittent fasting on the brain and body.Decades before intermittent fasting diets became popular, he began studying mouse models to understand how the brain adapts to challenges like fasting and exercise. He and his research teams have shown that fasting can improve cognitive function and metabolic health. See some of his current research in the New England Journal of Medicine on how fasting can help people live l

In this episode of Bulletproof Radio, I’m talking with well-known journalist Amy Robach, who’s covered major national and global news events and people over the past 20 years. Her most important story, however, came when she had an on-air mammogram at age 40 and was shockingly diagnosed with breast cancer.We go into her lifestyle since the diagnosis, which has radically changed, and now is based in keto and intermittent fasting.Amy got an on-air mammogram to highlight Breast Cancer Awareness Month for a special news program in September 2013. She was 40, had never had a mammogram before and had no family history of breast cancer. Two years later, Amy wrote a memoir about the experience: “Better: How I Let Go of Control, Held On To Hope, and Found Joy in My Darkest Hour.” The whole notion of the book, she says, is to “take that fear and have it be that wake-up call, for you to live better.”"What am I going to do with this fear?,” Amy asked herself. “Am I going to let it cripple me or am I going to let it

In this episode of Bulletproof Radio, my guest is Gary Taubes, an award-winning (and my all-time favorite) scienceand health journalist widely known for his investigative work on the food and diet industries. He explains how the conventional thinking on obesity has led to 60 years of controversy, the on-going “diet wars,” and the current obesity and diabetes epidemics. You may know his previous book, “The Case Against Sugar,” which exposed the harsh dangers of sugar in our diets. He’s on this episode with his new book, “The Case For Keto.” “The nutritional and academic authorities have failed us, and they and we should acknowledge that,” he says. “Had they not failed us, we would, almost by definition, never have reached this point of epidemic obesity.”Decades of bad science within the mainstream medical community led to all sorts of bad advice from doctors on how patients should diet and manage their overall nutrition. In this episode we talk about the decades of those misconceptions:How autho

In this episode of Bulletproof Radio, I talk with Thomas Kostigen about how there’s no returning to nature as we knew it. His current work focuses on climate disaster and emergency preparedness. And to write his newest book, “Hacking Planet Earth: How Geoengineering Can Help Us Reimagine the Future”, Thomas went to the frontlines of geoengineering projects that scientists, entrepreneurs, engineers, and other visionaries around the world are developing to solve the problems associated with global warming. “My book is based in rigorous science and all the methodologies that are in it are backed by serious scientists who have certain solutions,” Thomas said. “Geoengineering is controversial by its very nature, by certain segments, not only of the environmental movement but others.”A New York Times bestselling author, award-winning National Geographic writer, activist and journalist, Thomas has reported from war zones to the world's wonders across five continents. He’s now looking at what spac

This episode of Bulletproof Radio is a little different. I’m featuring Brian Rose, the founder, CEO and host of the wildly popular London Real podcast, livestream platform, TV show and multi-media company. He’s a great friend, longtime supporter and the current frontrunner in London’s political race for mayor. Brian left a career in banking that spanned Chicago, New York and London to start the London Real podcast in 2011. He wanted to broadcast content he couldn’t find in the mainstream media. His aim was to have real conversations with real people, so his show featured guests that could come on and speak in unscripted, unedited and uncensored ways. “I do not agree with everything you say,” he proclaims, “but I will defend to the death your right to say it.”With that mindset, he’s created a multi-media business reaching billions (yes, billions) of people around the globe.“And then 2020 came,” Brian says. “And there was a lot of fear out there. And people didn't know who to trust

In this episode of Bulletproof Radio, my guest, Scott Barry Kaufman, Ph.D., is a humanistic psychologist exploring the depths of human potential. We go way beyond basic needs and discuss how to get close to transcendence. Hint: you get to change (or even drop) the story you tell about yourself. It’s one of the hard parts of self-actualization, but worth it to move your life forward.When Scott discovered Abraham Maslow's unfinished theory of transcendence through unpublished journals, lectures and essays, he felt a deep connection to his own work. Maslow is most famous for his theory on the hierarchy of needs “We can harness [Maslow’s theory of] transcendence in our lives and we can be motivated by what he called the B values, the values of pure being, the values in life that you don't engage with and you're not one with because you want something else,” Scott says.Scott’s curiosity led him to finish Maslow’s theory and update it with seven decades of new science that’s been discovered since. The res

In this special bonus episode of Bulletproof Radio, the person known as America's No. 1 Success Coach–Jack Canfield–joins me to talk about how you still have time to finish this year strong and move into the new year with a powerful plan.“Everyone says, "Well, we're going to have a new normal,” Jack explains. “What if we say, "Let's have a new better"?”He’s developed a 16-week Coaching Club that combines the energy, excitement, and connection of a live event with the face-to-face accountability, commitment, and feedback of an ongoing coaching program. Jack will be personal mentor– live!“This program helps anyone take their next step and helps them figure out what is it that they want to create,” Jack says. “It's pretty much for anyone who wants to get better and produce more and have more fun and have a better life.”Jack’s favorite meme of 2020 is both funny and spot on: "Nobody got it right in 2015 when they said, 'Where do you see yourself in five years?'"This past year made everyone rethink life, work

Cool Facts are quick hits of new human and world science curated into short bursts of information just for you. This fun compilation publishes one Friday a month. Enjoy!Here’s the current lineup for episode #6:Lonely brains crave people.A new drug reverses age-related cognitive decline super quick.Repetitive behaviors and gut problems may be related.Degenerative diseases progress in two distinct phases.Sensitivity to oxidative stress increases without enough sleep.Farming on Mars is about more than poop.EPISODE SPONSOR: The Eng3 NanoVi device helps repair oxidative stress damage and support the body’s natural repair mechanisms. https://eng3corp.com/DAVE/See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In this episode of Bulletproof Radio, my guest Dr. Elizabeth Yurth explains how spermidine, a substance found in the human body and almost all plants and animals, can slow down the cellular aging process and influence your overall health.“Where we see spermidine work is at a very, very base level to correct the autophagy to get rid of those bad mitochondria so that now we're not being overwhelmed by reactive oxygen species,” Dr. Yurth says. “We actually will start to recycle the bad parts of the cell and start with a new cell at that point.” Dr. Yurth is medical director/chief medical officer at Boulder Longevity Institute, and a partner with Longevity Labs+, the company that’s been pioneering spermidine research for the last decade and focuses their research on the improvement of aging. So what does spermidine do? Most importantly, it regulates a cell renewal process called autophagy, one of the most touted benefits of fasting.Spermidine helps you take control of the aging

In this episode of Bulletproof Radio, I’ve invited two experts who know a lot about plants and how plants interact with our cell biology. We discuss the exciting new discovery of a molecule called Urolithin A that’s a breakthrough in mitochondrial health. Urolithin A promotes mitochondrial function, muscle strength and longevity. Navindra Seeram, Ph.D., is professor and chair of the Department of Biomedical and Pharmaceutical Sciences at the University of Rhode Island and is one of the most highly cited scientists in Agricultural Sciences.With a background in cell and molecular biology, biomedical engineering and engineering, Chris Rinsch, Ph.D., has been immersed in the biotech and life sciences industry for more than two decades. Our conversation centers on Mitopure™, the first clinically tested Urolithin A available through Timeline Nutrition.One of the most important things Urolithin A does is revitalize the energy factories inside our cells. Each of our cells contain mitochondria

In this episode of Bulletproof Radio, my guest Lisa Wimberger was struck by lightning at age 15 and lived. That lightning strike set in motion a grand mal seizure disorder that she lived with for the next two decades and ultimately influenced her life’s work with neuroplasticity.The seizures became life threatening, but that condition inspired her to find ways to protect and rebuild her body and mind. She went on to explore neuroplasticity, a process that helped her to disrupt her seizures.“There's a seizure halo from stress and maladaptive vagal tone and then there's a seizure. Well, there's a gap in space and time between those two things and it might be a fraction a second, but that is a response pattern that I've gotten really good at. Neuroplasticity says I can change those things. It doesn't tell me how exactly, but I'm going to figure it out. I had all of this meditation that I was not using for my well-being, and then all of the science, and I just backwards engineered.”The most profound insight she l

In this episode of Bulletproof Radio, my guest is Dr. Phil Wolfson, the creator of Ketamine Assisted Psychotherapy. He shares his vast knowledge about the benefits of ketamine, and other healing chemicals like mushrooms or MDMA, as a treatment for depression, PTSD, addiction and other conditions. Dr. Wolfson leads patients through psychedelic psychotherapy sessions, guiding them through their past and present in an open, altered state of mind.Dr. Wolfson is a specialist in psychedelic psychotherapy, a practicing Buddhist, and a “psychonaut.” His invaluable work is the result of an intense, many-decades-long clinical psychiatry/psychotherapy practice that focuses on new pathways for healing.“There's really no right or wrong with psychedelics,” Dr. Wolfson says. “They have special properties. People go through either a low dose or moderate to high dose experience. That experience is separated from your life here. And then the real work is the integration as people come back, [asking] How am I different? What ha

In this episode of Bulletproof Radio, I dive into an intriguing discussion about trauma with my guest, Rachel Yehuda, Ph.D. We touch on what her latest research is uncovering about the role epigenetics plays in trauma and how to identify signs of trauma in your own life. “Trauma affects everybody,” Rachel says. “Having a traumatic event will definitely change you in some way in terms of how you view the world.”RRachel is a professor and vice-chair of Psychiatry and professor of Neuroscience at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York. Her work focuses on the fields of psychology, trauma, and epigenetic research. She has authored more than 300 high-cited journal articles and book chapters and developed fascinating insights about risk and resilience. Her research on cortisol and brain function has revolutionized the understanding and treatment of PTSD worldwide.With her in-depth knowledge of PTSD and epigenetics, Rachel walks us through how our parents' traumas can be passed down through the gen

In this episode of Bulletproof Radio, we take a look at how and why food allergies affect so many of us. Conquering mine has helped me immensely on my Bulletproof journey and I want to share a conversation that could help you do the same.Dr. Kari Nadeau is considered one of the world’s leading experts on food allergy, and is the author of the new book “"The End of Food Allergy, featuring Immunotherapy: The First Program to Prevent and Reverse a 21st-Century Epidemic". For more than 30 years she’s focused her expertise on the environmental and genetic factors that affect the risk of developing allergies and asthma, and the molecular mechanisms underlying the diseases. Allergies play a growing role in every part of our lives. They happen because of the products we put on our skin, the foods we eat every single day, and the products we use in our home and work environment. Dr. Nadeau offers ways to spot the allergens all around you.“We have the science,” Dr. Nadeau says. “We should do better and make people

In this episode of Bulletproof Radio, my guest is Colleen Cutcliffe, Ph.D., CEO and co-founder of Pendulum Therapeutics. We explore exciting new discoveries in the body’s gut microbiome and discuss how Pendulum is disrupting what we know about probiotics.Pendulum uses biological and computational insights into the microbiome to develop solutions for health and disease conditions. “Rather than calling a disease by what the symptoms are, we are actually looking at the microbiome as an underlying infrastructure within our body,” Colleen says. Pendulum also identifies and isolates new bacterial strains, then combines those new strains to create unique probiotics. These are backed by clinical research studies. Using this discovery platform, Pendulum created the world’s first microbiome intervention for people with Type 2 Diabetes. “Managing your blood sugar is at the core of so many health issues, including your immune system,” Colleen says. “You really are more vulnerable and suscept