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Joe Rogan Experience #1506 - James Nestor

James Nestor is a journalist who has written for Outside magazine, Men's Journal, Scientific American, Dwell magazine, National Public Radio, The New York Times, The Atlantic, the San Francisco Chronicle magazine, and others. His new book Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art is available now: https://www.amazon.com/Breath-New-Science-Lost-Art/dp/0735213615

Joe RoganhostJames Nestorguest
Jul 9, 20201h 46mWatch on YouTube ↗

At a glance

WHAT IT’S REALLY ABOUT

How Proper Breathing Transforms Health, Performance, Sleep, and Even Your Face

  1. Joe Rogan interviews author James Nestor about his book *Breath*, exploring how modern humans have largely forgotten how to breathe in ways that optimize health and performance.
  2. They discuss the science-backed benefits of nasal breathing versus mouth breathing, including impacts on endurance, blood pressure, sleep apnea, asthma, and anxiety.
  3. Nestor explains how facial structure, diet, and orthodontics influence airways and breathing, and shares experiments—from taping mouths at night to expanding the upper palate—to restore better function.
  4. The conversation also covers powerful breathwork modalities (Wim Hof, Tummo, Kriya, holotropic breathing) that can alter physiology, nervous system activity, and even subjective consciousness.

IDEAS WORTH REMEMBERING

5 ideas

Prioritize nasal breathing for everyday life and exercise.

Breathing through the nose filters, humidifies, and conditions air, produces nitric oxide, and can deliver up to ~20% more usable oxygen while reducing over-breathing; habitual mouth breathing is linked to snoring, sleep apnea, metabolic issues, and reduced performance.

Breathe less and more slowly to improve efficiency and calm.

Most people chronically over-breathe; patterns like ~6 seconds in, 6 seconds out can lower blood pressure, improve gas exchange, and calm the nervous system by maintaining beneficial CO₂ levels instead of constantly blowing them off.

Train CO₂ tolerance instead of chasing more oxygen.

The urge to breathe is driven mainly by rising CO₂, not falling oxygen; through controlled breath holds and slower breathing, you can raise your CO₂ tolerance, which supports better endurance, calmer responses to stress, and reduced asthma and panic symptoms.

Treat mouth breathing and sleep-disordered breathing as core health issues, not side details.

Snoring and sleep apnea are strongly tied to mouth breathing, small airways, and tongue position; interventions like nasal surgery when needed, mouth taping, and airway-focused orthodontics can markedly improve sleep quality, blood pressure, and overall health.

Recognize that modern diets and orthodontics have literally shrunk our mouths and airways.

Soft, processed foods reduced chewing stress, leading to smaller jaws, crowded teeth, and narrower airways compared with ancient skulls; conventional extraction-and-retraction orthodontics can further shrink the mouth, while expansion-focused approaches can widen the palate and improve breathing.

WORDS WORTH SAVING

5 quotes

Breathing has to be considered along with diet and exercise as a pillar of health.

— James Nestor

We have 50 years of rock solid science showing the problems with mouth breathing… and no one’s really been paying attention.

— James Nestor

You can breathe less and get more by breathing through the nose.

— James Nestor

Everybody wants to be Swami Rama, but nobody wants to do what Swami Rama did.

— Joe Rogan

Even if you eat keto, vegan, paleo, whatever… if you’re not breathing right, you’re never really gonna be healthy.

— James Nestor

Nasal breathing vs. mouth breathing and their physiological effectsBreathwork modalities: Wim Hof method, Tummo, Kriya, holotropic breathingRespiratory health issues: snoring, sleep apnea, asthma, anxiety, panicCO₂ tolerance, oxygen delivery, and the science of over-breathingFacial structure, industrialized diet, orthodontics, and airway sizeDevices and techniques to expand the palate and improve airwaysPractical breathing habits for exercise, sleep, and daily stress

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