Andrew Huberman: Focus, Controversy, Politics, and Relationships | Lex Fridman Podcast #435

Hardship will show you who your real friends are. That's for sure. Could you read the quote once more? "Don't eat with people you wouldn't starve with." The following is a conversation with Andrew Huberman. His fifth time on the podcast. He is the host of the Huberman Lab Podcast, and is an amazing scientist, teacher, human being, and someone I'm grateful to be able to call a close friend. Also, he has a book coming out next year that you should pre-order now, called Protocols: An Operating Manual for the Human Body. This is the Lex Fridman Podcast. To support it, please check out our sponsors in description. And now, dear friends, here's Andrew Huberman. You think there's ever gonna be a day when you walk away from podcasting? Definitely. I mean, I came up within, and then on the periphery of skateboard culture. And for the record, I was not a great skateboarder. I always have to say that, 'cause skateboarders are relentless if you call something you didn't do or whatever. I mean, I could do a few things and I loved the community, and I still have a lot of friends in that community. Jim Thiebaud at Deluxe. You can look him up. He's kind of the man behind the whole scene. I know Tony Hawk, Danny Way, all these guys. I got to see them come up and get big and stay big in many cases. Start huge companies like Danny and Collin McCausland, or DC. Some people have a long life in something, some don't. But one thing I observed and learned a lot from in skateboarding, at the level of observing the skateboarders and then the ones that started companies, and then what I also observed in science, and still observe, is you do it for a while, you do it at the highest possible level for you, and then at some point you pivot and you start supporting the young talent coming in. In fact, the greatest scientists, people like Richard Axel, Catherine Dulac, there are many other labs in neuroscience. Karl Deisseroth. They're not just known for doing great science, they're known for mentoring some of the best scientists that then go on to start their own labs. And I think in podcasting, I am very fortunate I got in, in a fairly early wave, not the earliest wave, but thanks to your suggestion of doing a podcast, fairly early wave. Mm-hmm. And I'll continue to go as long as it feels right, and I feel like I'm doing good in the world and providing good. But I'm already starting to scout talent. My company that I started with Rob Moore, SciCom Media, there's a couple other guys in there too. Mike Blaback, our photographer, Ian Mackay, Chris Rea, Martin Fobes. We are a company that produces podcasts. Right now that's Huberman Lab Podcast, but we're launching a new podcast, Perform, with Dr. Andy Galpin. Nice. And we wanna do more of that kind of thing, finding really great talent, highly qualified people, credentialed people. And I've got a new, um, kind of obsession with scouring the internet looking for the young talent in science, in health, and related fields. And so will there be a final episode of the HLP? Yeah, I mean, Bullet Buster Cancer aside, you know, (laughs) someday I'll, there'll be the very last, "And thank you for your interest in science," and I'll clip out. Yeah, I love the idea of walking away and not be dramatic about it. Right. When it feels right you can leave and you can come back whenever the fuck you want. Right. Uh, Jon Stewart did this well with The Daily Show. I think that was during the 2016 election when everybody wanted him to stay on and he just walked away. Dave Chappelle for different reasons, walked away. Disappeared, came back. Gave away so much money, didn't care. And then came back and was doing like standup in the park, in the middle of nowhere. Genius. You have Khabib who, undefeated, walks away at the very top of, of a sport. Is he coming back? No, he's done. Or at least we don't know. Yeah. Right, we don't know. I don't know if he knows. Yeah, bears everywhere are worried. (laughs) Yeah, I think, you know, it's, um, it's always a call, you know, you know, the last few years have been tremendous growth. We launched in January 2021, and even this last year, 2024, has been huge growth, (laughs) you know, in all sorts of ways. It's been wild. And we have some short form content planned, es- 30 minute shorter episodes that really distill down the critical elements. We're also thinking about moving to other venues besides podcasting. So there's always the thought and the discussion. But when it comes to like when to hang up your cleats, you know, it's like there just comes a natural time where you can do more to mentor the next generation coming in than focusing on self. And so there will come a time for that. And I think it's critical. I mean, again, I saw this in skateboarding, like Danny and Collin, and Danny's brother Damon started DC with Ken Block, the driver who unfortunately passed away a little while ago, rally car driver. And they eventually sold it, I think, to Quicksilver or something like that. But they're all phenomenal talents in their respective areas. But they brought in the next, you know, the next line of amazing riders for the Plan B thing, you know, Paul Rodriguez. For skateboarders, they know who this is. Now in, in science, there are scientists like Feynman for instance. I don't know if anyone can name one of his mentor offspring. So there are scientists who are phenomenal, like beyond world class, right? Multi-generational world class, who don't make good mentors. I'm not saying he wasn't a good mentor, but that's not what he's known for. And then there are scientists who are known for being excellent scientists and, and great mentors. And I think there's no higher, um, celebration to be had at the end of one's career if you can look back and be like, "Hey, I put some really important knowledge into the world. People made use of that knowledge." And guess what? You spawned all these other...... scientific offspring, or sport offspring, or podcast offspring. I mean, I, in some ways we look to Rogan and to some of the other earlier podcasts as like they, you know, they paved the way. Rhonda Patrick, first science podcast out there. So, you know, it, eventually, the baton passes, but fortunately right now everybody's active and it, and it feels really good.