Why I fell for Wim Hof and Andrew Huberman

I needed to do a lot of soul searching to record this video.

#hubermanlab #wimhof #breathwork #icebath

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[flyoverurbangarden]

When Huberman said you can instantly change your life by moving your eyes laterally I tried it and he was right, I've been side eyeing him and all of these grifters since.

[stevemarsden]

My approach to people like Wim and Huberman is that they do offer useful information, but you can't just take them at their word. I have done the breathing and the cold showers, and I certainly get a nice temporary boost from them (physically and mentally). I do not expect them to do anything more than that. I have no interest in doing wacky stuff that takes a bunch of time and energy. I won't be seeking out mountain streams to sit in. I did 3 rounds of wim hof breathing yesterday. I felt more calm and relaxed afterward (for a few minutes anyway). I don't want skepticism to keep me from trying new things. If a benefit is claimed, I say "hmm. I would like that benefit. Maybe i will give it a try for a little while and see what happens". I track the activity, along with what my initial expectations are. If they aren't met, then I can at least say I tried. I can take what I learn and move on. The activity is free. It only takes my time, and not too much of it. I count it as meditation, as well. You are kind of forced to be in the moment when doing it, and that is a good thing. So far in life, I have found that there has been no 'magic pill' that can transform my life. Sad, but true.

[zita-lein]

I give you a lot of respect and credit for running a video like this. Your honesty at cost to yourself is much appreciated. Keep the faith! ❤️💙

[MaximoToro]

Glad to see Huberman exposed. The biggest obvious red flag was when he first said blue light blockers don't work... Then he got sponsored by blue light blocking glasses 😂😂 the man just isn't honest. Which isn't shocking, considering he had FIVE girlfriends, all of whom didn't know about each other, and he professed to each one individually that they were his one true love, his soulmate lol....

[iamwolf]

That’s growth! Good for you. I think as we move forward it’s becoming more crucial that we take a moment to really get a feel for someone, check in on your instincts and intuition. Even if you have no physical evidence, just trust yourself. Can you believe I actually felt bad at one point for not liking Huberman? So many people like him and live by what he says, I kept trying to force myself to watch his videos but every time alarm bells would go off in my stomach, like something is just not right about this guy. Then the article came out, then after I dug into it more I found more scientists and doctors who had made videos months back debunking his science. Now I know just to listen and trust myself with or without proof.

[SnakeAndTurtleQigong]

I appreciate your commitment to honesty and having an open mind!

[katenowell-smith]

Thank you for this Scott. I began listening to Huberman Lab in Nov 2021, and have listened to nearly every episode. I have taken a lot from them, however as the years progressed and Huberman's fame grew I have become uneasy with the direction this podcast is going in. Before I get to that, there are a few things that always bothered me about him, which I mention here because I have not come across others saying these things and they are worth thinking about now, given all the recent goings on:

-His exceptionalism is everywhere! If you start listening for it you will hear it all over his show. Some are silly things along the lines of (throughout I am paraphrasing) 'I love blueberries more than anybody'. But many are darker: 'A thing nobody gets is....', 'what people don't understand', 'What nobody realizes is...' etc. Why are you assuming your listeners are so uneducated? Why do you think you are the only holder of knowledge? 'When I studied, I would read the text, then underline it, and highlight it, I mean I really studied hard'. Hello? This is not exceptional, this is how anyone with a serious academic mindset studies. And my personal favorite 'I really hate bug bites, I mean I really hate them.' No kidding!

Why does this matter? Because he seems to be going through life thinking that he is living on some higher plane than the rest of us, where his likes and dislikes are greater, more telling, more meaningful than ours, and his knowledge is above others. There is moral fallout from this.


-He frequently will talk about people "dissolving in a puddle of their own tears". He seems obsessed with this idea of weakness, can't hide his disdain for it. But why? Why perseverate on "weakness"? Why keep bringing it up? We are all human, we all have strengths and weaknesses, good moments and bad, why is he so hung up on this concept? I suspect it's a outgrowth of his exceptionalism. He's up here and the losers are dissolving into puddles of their own tears down below. Maybe he needs to learn that having a good cry can be therapeutic, and that tears are not always a sign of weakness or something to fear.

-He makes a lot of faux-contrite statements such as (again, I'm paraphrasing): 'Lord knows I'm not perfect', 'I have many flaws'. He talks about praying to God to be better. [Side note: He's been bringing God up a lot more in recent podcasts, that's part of the directional shift of his content.] Knowing what we know now, the self-deprecation seems highly manipulative. Allowing your partner(s) to think you are monogamous, and thus getting to have unprotected sex with them and others is pure evil. I came of age in the time of HIV/AIDS. Perhaps his younger fans don't understand how truly reprehensible his actions are. You are playing with people's lives. To say things like 'gee shucks I've got flaws' is a clever way to disarm the listener. We are sympathetic to someone who admits to flaws. We naively assume, because of his honesty, that he his speaking about the kind of garden-variety flaws that we all have, not that he is grossly lying and manipulating people and playing with their lives. I do not know a single woman who would have unsafe sex with her partner if she knew they were not monogamous. Maybe I'm showing my age (52), but that's just a hard no.

-Huberman has an unsettling view of women and romantic relationships that he shares with his great friend Lex Fridman. They often wax on about finding love, how they want to start families. Lex will go on about trust being all important. They idealize love, and the perfect woman, in a manner that a) explains why they have not yet created families of their own and b) comes across as misogynist. Stop seeing women as "the other", stop fantasizing about some teenage bro idea of being in a relationship. Start seeing individual women as the people that they are (human, real, wonderful and flawed- all of us) and then perhaps you may find real love. And stop being so paranoid about trust!!! Then again, if you are a serial cheater, maybe you think everyone else lies. That must be a hard way to go through life. Now I'm digressing.

As for the direction Huberman Lab has been going in. You talk about this in this video, so I won't go long here. Just wanted to say that as his popularity grew I watched him veering further away from science and more into the toxic Bro podcast space. All those navy seals and ultra-marathoners. Maybe he's just following the money, but he's a fool if he thinks we don't notice. He is increasingly grasping at straws, trying to get his guests to formulate "protocols" out of their research. I understand the appeal of codifying things, it can give us something to follow that may be beneficial. But to my mind he is trying harder and harder to package bunk as "science" to keep it on brand, when it clearly is not.

-And finally, could he, Lex, et al please stop thinking that because they are experts in one area it makes them qualified to aver on everything. Listen to Lex's latest interview with Elon Musk if you want an example of how dangerous and ridiculous this can get. Elon gets talking about China's history at one point; it's all said with assurance but he's just flat-out wrong about the facts. It goes back to the exceptionalism: they are like little kids who think their success in one area has magically made them all-knowing and given them the right to expound on all things, and that's dangerous and should be called out.

Thank you for reading.

[flamesintheattic]

Don't pay attention to individuals, pay attention to the information they offer and whether or not it is valid or useful based on your own judgement. Keep your sources of information broad and don't take anyone seriously. There's a high likelihood they are wrong, lying or exaggeration their expertise. Don't over commit your resources (time, money and energy) to any particular individual or they will inevitably gain control of you.

[j-trandell]

Love this channel - real journalism: The world is a complicated place.

Keep TRUTHING, Sir!!

❤

[lyinbobbycottonseed]

I’m a huge skeptic and still fell for Huberman. It was the Stanford pedigree, his seemingly humble nature, his seeming focus on and dedication to real science. He never brags about himself, he doesn’t make it all about him, he listens well to his guests. He has a lot of self-awareness and thus was able to create this humble, science-focused character.

After a while I started noticing that his podcasts were getting way too long, he was getting really deep in the weeds of stuff outside his expertise, and that all these protocols were impossible to follow all at once. Some of the stuff he was saying just sounded too far-fetched. It was just too much, and that’s when I started to wonder about him. That and his friendship with Lex Fridman was a huge red flag. Then he went on Jordan Peterson’s podcast - another huge red flag. I’ve been done with him for a year and in that year heard rumblings of his shoddy science and tendency to exaggerate.

I was really shocked by the article. I figured he was a bit off but I never would have imagined all this.

I guess even the biggest skeptics are susceptible to these people who are expert manipulators. Have compassion for yourself, Scott.

[WARLORD]

Scott. Do you still do the wim hof method why or why not?

[provocativehypnosis]

Not many people are willing to admit their mistakes in public in the way you just did. I Much respect to you.

[chrissyhiking]

Thank you for your honesty! Really appreciated. I agree that taking sponsorships and promoting products is a conflict of interest. Very cool that you choose to make your income on social media through your books.

[strongs]

I just tried to watch an interview on "Diary of a CEO" with Wim Hof about a week ago and I just couldn't make it to the end. 
He was yelling his ideas at the audience/interviewer. The basis of his theories are not rational and he screams (literally) lack of objectivity in many statements he makes. He's definitely of a different mentality so what may have worked in his unconventional life, is not a recipe for the average well-adjusted human.
Thanks for having the humility to reverse direction Scott. That's a sign of a true scientific mind!

[charlesjohnson]

'It's not that I loved Huberman less, it's that I loved truth more.'

[JH-surn]

So glad to hear that someone else was thinking along similar lines. I initially listened to him because of his Stanford pedigree, his down to earth nature and the fact that he was talking about interesting subjects in a knowledgeable way but gradually fell out of love with him when he started pontificating at great length about subjects he wasn’t an expert in, (2 or 3 hours’ worth - it really sounded like bamboozling, not science communication!) and those embarrassing adverts really put me off. Stopped listening to him last year and was a bit mystified that the longer the videos, the more people seemed to like him.

[bonitaclaireloveday-wprq]

If you don't put your Idols on a pedestal.
When they fall
You wont bump your head...
Thank you for your honesty.
Respect to you.
☮️Out 😊

[Ivan.p]

Stop idolizing these people and you won’t be disappointed. They’re human. Just like all of us. Nobody is perfect. We all have things in our lives that we aren’t happy about. We all make mistakes. We all have done things we would be mortified if the public knew. If you don’t, you’re lying.

[flybymight]

Rough times, excellent honesty, well articulated. thank you.

[sherrylewis]

Thank you for sharing vulnerably, for honesty and integrity! Those are the most valued things.