Timothy Ferriss's Blog

This one is a very special interview and is available exclusively on YouTube. Jacques Pépin has been my teacher from afar for years, and it was a real gift to sit down with him in his home.

Jacques Pépin is an internationally recognized chef and the author of more than 30 books, including the best-selling The Apprentice and the award-winning Jacques Pépin Celebrates and Julia and Jacques Cooking at Home (with Julia Child). He has appeared regularly on PBS programs for more than a decade, hosting more than three hundred cooking shows. Jacques is a former columnist for The New York Times, and his articles have appeared in countless food magazines, especially Food & Wine, where he is a contributing editor. Before coming to the United States, he served as personal chef to three French heads of state, including Charles de Gaulle.

Please enjoy!

TranscriptsThis episodeAll episodesShow NotesConnect with Jacques PépinJacques Pépin Foundation | Jacques Pépin Foundation on YouTube | Support the Jacques Pépin Foundation | Jacques Pépin’s ArtworkRelated Reading, Listening, and ViewingFree Cooking Videos | Jacques Pépin FoundationFrench Omelette Lesson | Jacques Pépin FoundationJacques Pépin’s Hand-Painted Menus | Jacques Pépin Foundation90/90 Dinner SeriesThomas Keller’s Simple Roast Chicken | EpicuriousBooks The Apprentice: My Life in the Kitchen by Jacques Pépin Jacques Pépin New Complete Techniques by Jacques Pépin Jacques Pépin Art of the Chicken by Jacques Pépin Julia and Jacques Cooking at Home by Julia Child and Jacques PépinPeopleJames BeardJulia ChildCraig ClaibornePierre FraneyHelen McCullyClaudine PépinOrganizations, Places, and ResourcesLe PavillonHoward Johnson’sPer SeTimestamps[00:00:00] Preview.[00:00:43] Start.[00:01:26] Preparation, mise en place, and the PBS years.[00:03:22] What cooking and painting have in common.[00:05:00] From apprentice to chef for French heads of state.[00:08:32] Growing up in war-torn France and “fridge soup.”[00:10:16] Why Jacques turned down JFK’s White House for Howard Johnson.[00:14:19] Teaching technique over recipes.[00:16:15] The car accident that changed his career.[00:19:54] Chicken, eggs, and the 90/90 campaign.[00:21:59] The Jacques Pépin Foundation.[00:24:02] How fatherhood changed him.[00:25:29] Claudine’s first dishes (and the tough chicken).[00:26:44] Meeting Craig Claiborne, Helen McCully, James Beard, and Julia Child.[00:29:14] New York, Columbia, and a rejected dissertation topic.[00:31:03] Claudine Pépin joins.[00:32:24] Spinach, béchamel, and breaking the blanching rule.[00:34:14] Why you should follow a recipe exactly twice.[00:35:18] “Don’t touch anything.”[00:36:09] From carrots to caviar: what sets Jacques apart as a teacher.[00:38:50] The foods of childhood.[00:40:10] Learner, teacher, impatient.[00:42:52] Chefs he admires: Thomas Keller, José Andrés, Daniel Boulud.[00:45:04] Inside Per Se and the kitchen brigade.[00:48:42] Great chefs are generous teachers.[00:51:22] “We are all equal in the eyes of the stove.”[00:52:34] Hundreds of hours of free lessons at jp.foundation.[00:54:30] Food waste: restaurants vs. home.[00:56:25] Advice for new cooks: have a glass of wine.[00:57:58] Two new books and a lifetime of menus.[01:00:58] Parting thoughts.

The post Legendary Chef Jacques Pépin — The Pursuit of Mastery, Cooking for Presidents, Meeting Julia Child, and More appeared first on The Blog of Author Tim Ferriss.

This episode explores what The 4-Hour Workweek looks like in the age of AI, rebuilding momentum when you’re stuck, navigating friendships, making room for serendipity, and much, much more.

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This episode is brought to you by:

Incogni, which removes your personal data from the web, helping shield you from fraud, scams, and identity theft: Incogni.com/Tim (Use code TIM at checkout and get 60% off an annual plan.)Our Place’s Titanium Always Pan® Pro using nonstick technology that’s coating-free and made without PFAS, otherwise known as “forever chemicals”: FromOurPlace.com/Tim (Get 10% off with code TIM at checkout.)Momentous high-quality creatine for cognitive and muscular support: https://LiveMomentous.com/Tim (Use code TIM for 14% off your first one-time order or a total of 35% off your first subscription order.)AG1 all-in-one nutritional supplement: https://DrinkAG1.com/Tim (Get a free AG1 Pro Yeti Shaker in your subscriber Welcome Kit.)[image error]Listen onSpotify Listen onApple Podcasts[image error]Listen onOvercastQ&A with Tim — The 4-Hour Workweek in a World of AI, Rebuilding Personal Agency, The 4-Hour Body After 40, and MoreAdditional podcast platforms

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

TranscriptsThis episodeAll episodesShow NotesRecommended Reading, Listening, & Viewing“What Might This Look Like If It Were Easy?” — A Conversation at Harvard Business School | Tim FerrissReal Mind Control: The 21-Day No-Complaint Experiment | Tim FerrissHow to Lose 100 Pounds on the Slow-Carb Diet — Real Pics and Stories | Tim FerrissPAGG | Tim FerrissFilling the Void: Thoughts on Learning and Karma | Tim FerrissParkinson’s Law | The EconomistBlind Men and an Elephant | WikipediaFierce Intimacy: Standing Up to One Another with Love by Terry Real | Sounds TrueMoney for Couples with Ramit Sethi | I Will Teach You to Be RichBooksAtomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones by James ClearBack Mechanic: The Step-by-Step McGill Method to Fix Back Pain by Stuart McGillBrain Energy: A Revolutionary Breakthrough in Understanding Mental Health — and Improving Treatment for Anxiety, Depression, OCD, PTSD, and More by Christopher M. Palmer, MDCrucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When Stakes Are High, Third Edition by Joseph Grenny, Kerry Patterson, Ron McMillan, Al Switzler, and Emily GregoryThe Effective Executive: The Definitive Guide to Getting the Right Things Done by Peter F. DruckerThe 4-Hour Body: An Uncommon Guide to Rapid Fat-Loss, Incredible Sex, and Becoming Superhuman by Timothy FerrissThe 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich by Timothy FerrissThe Great Nerve: The New Science of the Vagus Nerve and How to Harness Its Healing Reflexes by Kevin J. Tracey, MDThe Happy Body: The Simple Science of Nutrition, Exercise, and Relaxation by Aniela Gregorek and Jerzy GregorekHealing Back Pain: The Mind-Body Connection by John E. Sarno, MDOn Grief and Grieving: Finding the Meaning of Grief Through the Five Stages of Loss by Elisabeth Kübler-Ross and David KesslerPain Free: A Revolutionary Method for Stopping Chronic Pain by Pete Egoscue with Roger GittinesThe Surrender Experiment: My Journey into Life’s Perfection by Michael A. SingerTiny Habits: The Small Changes That Change Everything by BJ Fogg, PhDTools of Titans: The Tactics, Routines, and Habits of Billionaires, Icons, and World-Class Performers by Timothy FerrissMoviesBabeSnatchSpirited AwayRelated ResearchEffects of Intermittent Fasting on Health, Aging, and Disease | New England Journal of MedicineReal-World Effectiveness of a Single-Day Regimen for Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation Using Optimized, Neuroplasticity-Enhanced Techniques in Depression (ONE-D): An Open-Label Case Series | Transcranial Magnetic StimulationStanford Accelerated Intelligent Neuromodulation Therapy for Treatment-Resistant Depression (SAINT) | American Journal of PsychiatryStanford Neuromodulation Therapy (SNT): A Double-Blind Randomized Controlled Trial | American Journal of PsychiatryTraining the Brain to Overcome the Effect of Aging on the Human Eye | Scientific ReportsRelevant Episodes of The Tim Ferriss Show Dr. Keith Baar, UC Davis — Simple Exercises That Can Repair Tendons (Tennis Elbow, etc.), Collagen Fact vs. Fiction, Isometrics vs. Eccentrics, JAK Inhibitors, Growth Hormone vs. IGF-1, The Anti-RICE Protocol, and How to Use Load as an Anti-Inflammatory | The Tim Ferriss Show #797Sir Richard Branson — The Billionaire Maverick of the Virgin Empire | The Tim Ferriss Show #272James Clear, Atomic Habits — Simple Strategies for Building (and Breaking) Habits, Questions for Personal Mastery and Growth, Tactics for Writing and Launching a Mega-Bestseller, Finding Leverage, and More | The Tim Ferriss Show #648Seth Godin on Playing the Right Game and Strategy as a Superpower | The Tim Ferriss Show #792Dr. Jeffrey Goldberg — Creating Supranormal Vision, Cutting-Edge Science for Eye Health, Supplements, Red Light Therapy, and The Future of Eyesight Restoration | The Tim Ferriss Show #823The Lion of Olympic Weightlifting, 62-Year-Old Jerzy Gregorek (Also Featuring: Naval Ravikant) | The Tim Ferriss Show #228The Most Incredible Transformation I’ve Ever Seen — Jerzy Gregorek on Autism, Cerebral Palsy, Coaching, and the Power of Micro-Progressions | The Tim Ferriss Show #865Dr. Michael Levin — Reprogramming Bioelectricity, Updating “Software” for Anti-Aging, Treating Cancer Without Drugs, Cognition of Cells, and Much More | The Tim Ferriss Show #849Chris 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 #633Terry Real — Breaking the Rules of Traditional Couples Therapy for Superior Results, A Few Frameworks That Work | The Tim Ferriss Show #798Terry Real — The Therapist Who Breaks All The Rules | The Tim Ferriss Show #810Tony Robbins and Jerry Colonna | The Tim Ferriss Show #742The Random Show — AI Super Assistants, Boner Pills, Dream Engineering, Wizards, Supplements, Books, and More | The Tim Ferriss Show #886Ramit Sethi — How to Play Offense with Money, Plan Bucket Lists, Build a Rich Life with Your Partner, and Take a Powerful $100 Challenge | The Tim Ferriss Show #524Henry Shukman — Zen, Tools for Awakening, Ayahuasca vs. Meditation, Intro to Koans, and Using Wounds as the Doorway | The Tim Ferriss Show #531The Secrets of Gymnastic Strength Training | The Tim Ferriss Show #158The Secrets of Gymnastic Strength Training, Part Two — Home Equipment, Weighted Stretches, and Muscle-Ups | The Tim Ferriss Show #180Pavel Tsatsouline and Christopher Sommer | The Tim Ferriss Show #748Interview with Peter Thiel, Billionaire Investor and Company Creator | The Tim Ferriss Show #28What Most Has My Attention Right Now — Credible (vs. Bogus) Vagus Nerve Stimulation | The Tim Ferriss Show #824A Glimpse of the Future: Electroceuticals for 70%–90% Remission of Depression, Brain Stimulation for Sports Performance, and De-risking Ibogaine for TBI/PTSD | The Tim Ferriss Show #714Health, Science, & BiotechAmpa HealthBrainsWayDeltaG KetonesDexcomEgoscue MethodMagVentureNootropicks | NeutonicOryx NeuroMeditationThe Way with Henry ShukmanTranscendental Meditation (TM)Technology & AIChatGPT | OpenAIClaude | AnthropicWispr FlowXFitness & MovementAcroYogaGymnasticBodiesThe Happy Body ProgramIndo BoardMusic & AudioGet MOAR Work Done Productivity Playlist | deadmau5Focal Bathys Headphones | AmazonCorazón de Oro by Francisco CanaroPeopleKeith BaarRichard BransonJames Cleardeadmau5Jonathan DownarPeter DruckerPete EgoscueBJ FoggSeth GodinJeffrey GoldbergAniela GregorekJerzy GregorekDavid KesslerElisabeth Kübler-RossMichael LevinStuart McGillWilliam of OckhamChris PalmerVilfredo ParetoC. Northcote ParkinsonNaval RavikantTerry RealTony RobbinsKevin RoseJohn SarnoRamit SethiHenry ShukmanMichael SingerChristopher SommerPeter ThielKevin TraceyNolan WilliamsChris WilliamsonTimestamps[00:00:00] Introduction.[00:01:23] The 4-Hour Workweek in the age of AI.[00:06:29] Revisiting old advice as your life changes.[00:09:10] Rebuilding momentum with small daily actions.[00:12:58] The one question I would ask every guest.[00:18:06] Staying close when friends drift apart.[00:22:19] Knowing when to persist and when to quit.[00:27:15] Oryx and age-related vision changes.[00:31:51] Investing 10 times more in health and relationships.[00:37:35] Making room for serendipity.[00:42:37] What I get from live Q&As.[00:43:54] Climbing and building finger strength.[00:44:49] My experience with accelerated TMS.[00:48:01] Bioelectric medicine and vagus nerve research.[00:49:22] State, story, strategy: answering questions well.[00:53:39] The movies and music behind my writing routine.[00:55:09] 10-minute meditation sessions, twice a day.[00:57:45] John Sarno, back pain, and the limits of one explanation.[01:04:26] Back Mechanic and the Egoscue exercises I still use.[01:05:03] The 4-Hour Body after 40: slow-carb, fasting, and supplements.[01:09:01] A book recommendation for grieving.[01:09:55] What I would prioritize as a new parent.[01:12:20] The Happy Body and gymnastic strength training.

Want to hear another episode with someone who’d rather you spend lavishly on what you love than skimp on lattes? Listen to my conversation with I Will Teach You to Be Rich author Ramit Sethi, in which we discussed defining a rich life, why comparing yourself to the neighbors is irrational, his money rules, getting on the same page financially with a partner, a bucket-list exercise inspired by Stephen King, monthly money meetings, prenups, the $100 challenge, rejecting fear-driven frugality, generosity, how Billy Joel impressed a teenage busboy named Tim, and much more.

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This episode is brought to you by AG1. I’ve taken AG1 for more than a decade. Longtime listeners have heard me call it my nutritional insurance. Here’s the news: they recently launched AG1 Pro, designed for people focused on performance and longevity. I’ll be traveling soon, and I’m throwing this in my bag to cover my bases while I travel. Past a certain age, maintaining lean muscle becomes priority number one, and AG1 Pro is formulated to support exactly that. It includes HMB, a clinically studied compound that supports protein synthesis and helps reduce protein breakdown, plus zinc carnosine to support the gut lining. Remember: training is only half the equation. Recovery is where the work compounds, and AG1 Pro is built to support it. It’s NSF Certified for Sport, so what’s on the label is what’s in the pouch. Get your free AG1 Pro Yeti Shaker in the Welcome Kit at Drinkag1.com/Tim.

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The post Q&A with Tim — The 4-Hour Workweek in a World of AI, Rebuilding Personal Agency, The 4-Hour Body After 40, and More (#887) appeared first on The Blog of Author Tim Ferriss.

In this edition of The Random Show, I reunite with Kevin in L.A. to talk AI super assistants that run your life over text message, agentic shopping, beta-alanine for climbing endurance, walnuts and sperm quality, dream engineering and anesthesia dreams, boner pills, man makeup, The Dark Wizard, my upcoming book, a Jean-Claude Van Damme splits bet, and much more.

Please enjoy!

This episode is brought to you by:

Timeline Mitopure, a highly pure form of Urolithin A that supports mitochondrial health and cellular renewal: Timeline.com/Tim Shopify global commerce platform, providing tools to start, grow, market, and manage a retail business: Shopify.com/Tim Fin powerful AI Agent for all your customer service: Fin.Ai/Tim Gusto simple and easy payroll, HR, and benefits platform used by 400,000+ businesses: Gusto.com/Tim [image error]Listen onSpotify Listen onApple Podcasts[image error]Listen onOvercastThe Random Show — AI Super Assistants, Boner Pills, Dream Engineering, Wizards, Supplements, Books, and MoreAdditional podcast platforms

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

TranscriptsThis episode (coming soon)All episodesShow Notes

Connect with Kevin Rose:

Website | Newsletter | Digg | Diggnation Podcast | The Kevin Rose Show | Instagram | X | Threads | Bluesky

Connect with Tim Ferriss:

Website | 5-Bullet Friday | Saisei Foundation | Instagram | X

Relevant Tim Ferriss Show EpisodesDr. Matthew Walker, All Things Sleep — How to Improve Sleep, How Sleep Ties Into Alzheimer’s Disease and Weight Gain, and How Medications (Ambien, Trazodone, etc.), Caffeine, THC/CBD, Psychedelics, Exercise, Smart Drugs, Fasting, and More Affect Sleep | The Tim Ferriss Show #650Henry Shukman — Zen, Tools for Awakening, Ayahuasca vs. Meditation, Intro to Koans, and Using Wounds as the Doorway | The Tim Ferriss Show #531James Clear, Atomic Habits — Simple Strategies for Building (and Breaking) Habits, Questions for Personal Mastery and Growth, Tactics for Writing and Launching a Mega-Bestseller, Finding Leverage, and More | The Tim Ferriss Show #648Michael Pollan — This Is Your Mind on Plants | The Tim Ferriss Show #520The Random Show, Couch Edition! — Supplements, Hummingbirds, Cock Rings, Optimizing Mitochondria, Breathing and Balance Training, Cool Grip-Strength Tools, and More | The Tim Ferriss Show #858The Random Show — Tim and Kevin Talk Retreats, Mortality, AI Predictions, Supplements, Rock Climbing at (Almost) 50, and Not Waiting for “Someday” | The Tim Ferriss Show #875UFC Hall of Famer Bas Rutten on Fundamentals of Real Self-Defense, Savage Fight Stories, How He’s Handled Bullies, Breathing Techniques for Increasing Stamina and Endurance, The Art of Personal Reinvention, and Cultivating the Practice of Prayer | The Tim Ferriss Show #621Books & Recommended Reading The 4-Hour Body: An Uncommon Guide to Rapid Fat-Loss, Incredible Sex, and Becoming Superhuman by Timothy Ferriss | Amazon The 4-Hour Chef: The Simple Path to Cooking Like a Pro, Learning Anything, and Living the Good Life by Timothy Ferriss | Amazon The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9–5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich by Timothy Ferriss | Amazon Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones by James Clear | Amazon Breakfast of Champions by Kurt Vonnegut | AmazonCompound Writing: How I Turned My Process into a Plugin by Katie Parrott | Every A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas | Amazon Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes, translated by Edith Grossman | Amazon Exploring the World of Lucid Dreaming by Stephen LaBerge and Howard Rheingold | Amazon Fifty Shades of Grey by E. L. James | Amazon Twilight by Stephenie Meyer | Amazon Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros | AmazonKurt Vonnegut’s Envelope Story | Snopes Moonwalking with Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering Everything by Joshua Foer | AmazonPersonal Renewal by John W. Gardner | PBSPlease Use AI by Shawn Smucker | The Courage to Live It Tribe of Mentors: Short Life Advice from the Best in the World by Timothy Ferriss | Amazon Why We Sleep: Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams by Matthew Walker | Amazon Working: People Talk About What They Do All Day and How They Feel About What They Do by Studs Terkel | Amazon Hard Times: An Illustrated Oral History of the Great Depression by Studs Terkel A World Appears: A Journey into Consciousness by Michael Pollan | AmazonFilms & TV The Dark Wizard | HBO Dirty Jobs | Discovery 60 Minutes | CBS The Tim Ferriss Experiment | YouTubePeopleMiguel de CervantesJames ClearEd CookeDiana, Princess of WalesAl PacinoJoshua FoerJohn W. GardnerAdam Haar HorowitzAndrew HubermanMichael JacksonE. L. JamesSteve JobsStephen LaBergeMichael LevinSarah J. MaasStephenie MeyerElon MuskRhonda PatrickMichael PollanDean PotterMike RoweBas RuttenHenry ShukmanShawn SmuckerStuds TerkelJean-Claude Van DammeKurt VonnegutMatthew WalkerZooko Wilcox-O’HearnChris WilliamsonRebecca YarrosAI Agents & TechAmazon Blocked Meta’s Muse. Then Shopify Wired It into Every Store. | The New StackApple Intelligence | AppleChatGPT | OpenAIClaude | AnthropicCompound Engineering | EveryCompound Writing | EveryDaVinci Resolve | Blackmagic DesignDots | OpenAIFinal Cut Pro | AppleGemini | GoogleGrok Bot | xAIInstinct (Personal AI Agent)MindMax (Ed Cooke’s Learning App)Muse | MetaOpenTablePhotoshop | AdobePremiere | AdobeResolve 21.1 Adds MCP and Finally Gets Presets | Digital ProductionSupplements, Food, Drinks, & PerformanceArtisana Organics Raw Almond Butter | AmazonArtisana Organics Raw Walnut Butter with Cashews | AmazonThorne Beta-Alanine-SR | AmazonBodyTech Elite Creatine Beadlet | The Vitamin ShoppeCollagen Peptides | MomentousCreatine Travel Packs | MomentousMonster EnergyMuscle MilkN.O.-XPLODE | BSNOrganic India Whole Psyllium Husk | AmazonA2 Protein Shakes | Pioneer PasturesPlum Flower Curing Pills | AmazonNature Made Vitamin C | AmazonYerba Prima Psyllium Whole Husks | AmazonMedicationsBelsomra (Suvorexant)Cialis (Tadalafil) | MedlinePlusD-Cycloserine | DailyMedGabapentin | MedlinePlusPropofol | National Cancer InstituteQuviviq (Daridorexant)Stendra (Avanafil) | MedlinePlusViagra (Sildenafil) | MedlinePlusSleep, Dreams, & Brain StimulationAmpa Health (Portable TMS and the One-Day Protocol)Claria: Anxiety & Depression | Mindset HealthCould Anesthesia-Induced Dreams Wipe Away Trauma? | Stanford MedicineCould Anesthesia Dreams Be a More Palatable Psychedelic Therapy? | Stanford MedicineDust (Dream Engineering App)A Sleep Medication to Lower the Risk of Alzheimer’s | The Matt Walker Podcast #118Real-Time Dialogue Between Experimenters and Dreamers During REM Sleep | Current BiologyCould Anesthesia-Induced Dreams Wipe Away Trauma? | Stanford MedicineCould Anesthesia Dreams Be a More Palatable Psychedelic Therapy? | Stanford MedicineBrain-Stimulating Contact Lenses Match Prozac in Depression Study | Neuroscience NewsResearchBeta-Alanine Supplementation and Sport Climbing Performance | Sas-Nowosielski et al., International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health (2021)Vitamin C–Enriched Gelatin Supplementation Before Intermittent Activity Augments Collagen Synthesis | Shaw et al., The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition (2017)Walnuts Improve Semen Quality in Men Consuming a Western-Style Diet: Randomized Control Dietary Intervention Trial | Robbins et al., Biology of Reproduction (2012)Nut Consumption and Fertility: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis | Cardoso et al., Advances in Nutrition (2024)Real-Time Dialogue Between Experimenters and Dreamers During REM Sleep | Konkoly et al., Current Biology (2021)Reduction in Trauma-Related Symptoms After Anesthetic-Induced Intra-operative Dreaming | Hack et al., American Journal of Psychiatry (2024)Feasibility of a Multicomponent Protocol to Promote Dreaming During Surgical Anesthesia | Sikka et al., Anesthesiology (2026)Lucid Dreaming Verified by Volitional Communication During REM Sleep | LaBerge et al., Perceptual and Motor Skills (1981)Suvorexant Acutely Decreases Tau Phosphorylation and A? in the Human CNS | Lucey et al., Annals of Neurology (2023)Contact Lens Bioelectronic Platform for Non-invasive Depression Treatment with Machine-Learning-Based Evaluation | Park et al., Cell Reports Physical Science (2026)Training, Skin, & HealthAirofit Breathing TrainersCicapair Soothing Color Correcting Treatment SPF 30 | Dr. Jart+Dexcom Continuous Glucose MonitorCaptains of Crush Hand Gripper | AmazonOneSkin (Topical Peptide Skin Care)Companies & OrganizationsAmazonAmpa Health (Portable TMS and the One-Day Protocol)Authors EquityBiographBlackmagic DesignDUST (Dream Engineering)EveryPrenuvoShopifySpectraCell LaboratoriesStretchLabTimestamps[00:00:00] Start.[00:00:52] AI super assistants: Instinct, Muse, Grok Bot, and ChatGPT dots.[00:09:04] How AI agents could reshape shopping and video editing.[00:20:02] Beta-alanine for climbing endurance.[00:26:42] Psyllium, contaminants, and creatine without stomach trouble.[00:30:53] Walnuts, sperm quality, and micronutrients.[00:40:34] A2 protein shakes and practical training nutrition.[00:46:39] Dream engineering, lucid dreaming, and brain stimulation.[00:53:25] Anesthesia dreams and trauma recovery.[00:59:38] DORA sleep medications and Alzheimer’s research.[01:01:43] Plum Flower Curing Pills and Airofit breathing training.[01:05:54] Brain-stimulating contact lenses and the mysteries of anesthesia.[01:10:25] Boner pills, back pain, and the lure of enhancement.[01:13:13] AI writing tools and the value of lived experience.[01:17:10] “Personal Renewal”: John Gardner and the story of Cervantes.[01:19:03] Man makeup, rosacea, and Kevin’s skincare routine.[01:22:35] The Dark Wizard and the extraordinary life of Dean Potter.[01:25:07] Studs Terkel’s Hard Times, Working, and the art of oral history.[01:27:52] Exploring romantasy: Fourth Wing and A Court of Thorns and Roses.[01:30:59] What Fifty Shades of Grey teaches about clear positioning.[01:35:02] Tim’s next book: saying no in a world of noise.[01:37:42] Authors Equity, publishing timelines, and the case for print.[01:43:29] “Please Use AI,” Vonnegut’s envelope, and preserving human connection.[01:45:12] Will AI create more leisure—or just more work?[01:47:53] The $500 Jean-Claude Van Damme splits bet.

Want to hear the last time Kevin and I got together for a Random Show? Listen to this tequila-fueled edition, in which Kevin and I discussed losing Om Malik, five days of silence and the koan “Mu,” rock climbing after 40, finger-strength training, A2 protein and Maui Nui venison, deltaG ketones, the MM120 anxiety study, Kevin’s AI-powered home, Wispr Flow and my recording rig, letting your winners run, Digg’s relaunch, and much more.

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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. 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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The post The Random Show — AI Super Assistants, Boner Pills, Dream Engineering, Wizards, Supplements, Books, and More (#886) appeared first on The Blog of Author Tim Ferriss.

Please enjoy this transcript of a special compilation episode on how to simplify your life. It features wisdom and advice from Chip Conley, Greg McKeown, David Allen, Elizabeth Gilbert, and Oliver Burkeman.

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CHIP CONLEY

Hi, I’m Chip Conley, the founder and executive chair of MEA, and also formerly the modern elder of Airbnb and the founder and CEO of Joie de Vivre, the second largest boutique hotel company in the US.

Tim asked me to talk about simplifying life. My God, I don’t know why he would ask me because I tend to complicate my life, but I can say that I’ve had two experiences in my life where my health forced me to simplify my life. And then I could—I learned some new tools and practices. So let me, let me give a little storytelling. When I was in my late 40s, I had this boutique hotel company, Joie de Vivre, which means joy of life, that I’d started in San Francisco.

Ultimately, we had 52 hotels around California. We were the second largest boutique hotelier in the US. But in my late 40s, my life was really complicated. We were going through the dot-com bust and 9/11, and then we were going through the Great Recession, and I didn’t want to be doing this anymore. And I ended up having an NDE, a near-death experience. And NDE happened because I had an allergic reaction to an antibiotic.

So I was giving a speech on stage in St. Louis and I went flatline. And I ended up in the hospital for three days because they were trying to figure out what went wrong. Yeah, why did I go flatline nine times over 90 minutes? Bottom line was that experience woke me up. The hotelier needed a wake-up call. And the wake-up call was this. I had started that company because I wanted creativity and freedom.

But with 3,500 employees and going through our second once-in-a-lifetime downturn in the same decade, I realized that the identity that I was attached to—being the founder and CEO and the VIP status I had—it was less important to me than my health. And while it wasn’t—I didn’t have a heart attack. It was an allergic reaction to an antibiotic. It might as well have been a heart attack because I was living my life that was a very complicated life.

And so I decided to do something that I call mindful decoupling. Mindful decoupling. This is not unconscious or conscious uncoupling. This is not a Gwyneth Paltrow thing. Mindful decoupling means I said, “I don’t know what I’m supposed to do next, but I know I’m not supposed to do this anymore. I don’t know what my next identity is going to be, but I know that the identity that I have been so reliant upon, the VIP status, and now I may be a PIP, a previously important person. I know that that is what I need to move toward. I need to move toward this fertile ground, this chrysalis space.”

You know, between caterpillar and butterfly, there is a chrysalis. In the chrysalis, the transformation happens. And what I learned by selling my company at the bottom of the Great Recession, by actually changing a lot of my habits and even changing friendships and ending a romantic relationship that wasn’t working anymore, but I wasn’t willing to leave it because I felt like it was my life preserver.

I was holding on to it at a difficult time. I made space in my life. And what I wanted to say is if you are a talented person, create space in your life, especially in midlife. I have become sort of an expert on midlife. And midlife is where we actually have to let go of who we’ve been in order to allow something else to emerge. But in the meantime, in between, the decoupling that has to happen is you have to be willing to let go of the identity and the roles in order for something new to emerge.

I spent two years from age 50 to 52 in what I would call, or Mary Catherine Bateson, Margaret Mead’s daughter, would call the midlife atrium. So what we know about an atrium is that an atrium is a very simple space. An atrium has light and air and all kinds of beauty that allows you to see what’s going to actually emerge from that space. During—between age [unclear], I spent a lot of time in a hammock in my backyard.

I did a lot of reading. I got really curious. Curious—curiosity is not something you do when you’re really busy. So I got curious about hot springs. So I went around the world exploring hot springs and learning about the geothermal properties of hot springs. I got interested in emotions because when I was struggling through my emotions in my late 40s, I didn’t feel like I was emotionally fluent. And ultimately I wrote a book called Emotional Equations, which became a New York Times bestseller.

But the thing that was the most fun was I decided I wanted to go around the world and become the world’s leading expert on festivals. I was the first board member of Burning Man. Who knew Burning Man had a board? But the six founders of Burning Man came to me and said, “Chip, we’re going to take our non—our for-profit and turn it into a nonprofit. We want you to be part of the board.” So I spent two years, you know, going around the world.

I went to 36 festivals in 16 countries just in one year. I brought Tim, Tim Ferriss, to my 50th birthday party at Burning Man. And I learned an awful lot about the cultural curiosity that happens in festivals around the world. And then at age 52, in the midst of all that, I got asked by the three founders of Airbnb, a company nobody had heard of, but was also based in San Francisco like I was, to join them.

And so I created this space, I simplified my life. I went out and had fun. I got curious. And out of that fertile ground, that good soil, came this Airbnb opportunity, which was quite beautiful. I loved it. And I spent seven and a half years there helping the founders of Airbnb turn that little tech startup into the world’s most valuable hospitality company. So that’s one experience about simplifying life. And from that simplified life, something beautiful grew.

The more recent experience that I’m going to talk about, I talked with Tim about it in 2019 when I was on his show. Tim surprised me. He showed up in Austin and we were going to have lunch before we did the show. And I was talking about the fact that I had found out I had cancer, prostate cancer. At that point, it was stage one. And we talked a lot about it on the show. So over the course of the last seven years, since that time, seven and a half years, my cancer’s moved from stage one to stage two to stage three.

And I have learned that I’ve done what I’ve always done. I’ve made my life more complicated, but it’s not so much just being complicated. It’s like I have such a sense of calling in what I’m doing that I take on a lot. And when I have the sense—I’m now at stage three with my cancer—I have this thing called holy urgency.

I call it holy urgency. The sense like I have a calling and I’m supposed to pursue it because I don’t know how much time I have left. But it actually makes me a little bit manic. And the thing I’m learning right now is, how do I turn manic into magic? It’s just changing one letter to go from manic to magic. And so the kinds of things I’m doing to simplify my life, to try to actually be more magical in my approach to my calling: Number one is I do a Sunday sabbatical as much as I can.

I try to take Sundays off. And I try to do that, and I try to actually not look at my—I go offline for the day. And I do that partly because it’s great for my nervous system. It’s great for my creativity. It gives me time to meditate for an extended time. It gives me time to take long walks.

I’m also doing something this coming February that I’m really excited about. I call it the month I died. You know, I think one of the things that’s really interesting about our lives is we do a very poor job of telling people how much we love them while they’re living.

At the funeral, we do the eulogies, but we don’t do that while we’re living. And so I call this the social eulogy. So in February, I’m going to take the whole month off. Sabbatical, but I’m gonna do it in a sort of a radical kind of way. I’m gonna actually do the following. I’m gonna act—I’m gonna wake up one day, the first day of February, and say, “Who am I?” And my real name, you know, on my passport is Steve, and chip off the old block from Steve Jr. I am gonna be Steve for the month.

I have nothing on my calendar. I’m not gonna use my phone. I’m gonna have a burner phone. I am gonna simplify my life by not checking email for the whole month. I am going to just almost disappear. But what I’m going to do before I actually take this month off, that month off where no one will know where I am except for a couple of friends in case there’s an emergency—is, and I have no idea where I’m going to be, by the way. I’m going to wake up and just say, like, “Where do I want to be?” But what I’m going to do is I’m going to do these social eulogies.

I’m going to simplify my social life down to having three social eulogies. One in San Francisco, I have a lot of friends. One in Santa Fe, where MEA, the Modern Elder Academy, has a campus and I have a lot of friends. And the last one in Baja, where MEA also has another campus, where I have groups of friends. And with small groups of friends, we’re gonna actually come together, have a dinner, and we’re gonna give the eulogy for each other that we would give if we were to die tomorrow. Because when you have stage three cancer, and I don’t know how much longer I’m gonna live, I wanna hear that while I’m still living.

Because one of the things that’s beautiful about the experience I had when I was 47 years old and I had my flatline experience is what I experienced was I saw birds. During my time in that liminal space between life and death, I was in this 40-foot tall ceilinged living room and I had the capacity and ability to fly. And there were all these small birds in there and I could talk bird talk and they could talk to me.

And so they were saying to me, “Slow down. You can’t see beauty [unclear] awe unless you slow down.” So my life today in terms of simplifying my life is learning how to fuse or alchemize slowing down with holy urgency. Slowing down because often when I slow down, I have my best ideas. I have my best conversations. I feel a sense of spaciousness.

I do love my Sundays. I love my silent retreats that I do, often with MEA at one of our MEA campuses. Um, but I also have that holy urgency, that sense of purpose, that sense that what I’m supposed to do in my—with my life, I’m doing, and I feel very passionately about it. Um, so my biggest, uh, lesson in life right now is, how do you alchemize two things that sound opposites?

Slow down, holy urgency. And most importantly, I think what’s true of many people as they get closer to death—and Laura Carstensen at Stanford has proven this at the Stanford Center on Longevity—is the less perceived time you have left in your life, the more you focus on what’s important. You don’t focus on the future or the past, you focus on the present moment. And in focusing on the present moment, you often are happier. So how could you go out and focus on the present moment? How could you go out and get curious and create the space for something to emerge? I hope this was helpful.

Simplifying is something that is really bounded in wisdom. MEA is the world’s first midlife wisdom school dedicated to helping people in midlife get wiser. And the difference between knowledge and wisdom is knowledge is something you accumulate, you add. Wisdom is something you distill, you simplify. It’s like the difference between a plus sign and a division sign and the square root of something. So simplification is what wisdom is all about. Thanks so much, Tim, for letting me share this and wishing you all the best.

GREG MCKEOWN

Tim Ferriss: I write very long-winded books and I’ve done them over a long period of time. So every once in a while, I get quoted and I feel lost. So if that happens, let me know. I have everything in front of me. Could you talk about the Endowment Effect and how you turn around questions people might ask themselves about certain things, whether that is something they own or an opportunity that gets presented to them? I think this is really important.

Greg McKeown: Well, let’s use a metaphor to get to the Endowment Effect. Our closet is a pretty good metaphor for the problem and what to do about it. So for a lot of people listening, even, as you say, they don’t feel incredibly successful financially, incredibly successful in all the things in their life. Right. They probably still have more things in their closet than they actually can use usefully. It’s a bit cluttered. Maybe it’s a lot more than a bit cluttered.

I talked to somebody not too long ago and they said, “Oh, Greg, my closet – you’ve identified the pain point.” They said, “I have my closet organized by decade.” So they had organized it. I said, “You don’t have a closet, you have a museum.” They have the ‘70s and the ‘80s. She’s not using any of these things. She just has them. That’s an organized version of the problem, which is we just have so much stuff. Now that is true in the physical stuff. It’s literally true in the closet. But in the closet of our lives, it is equally true.

Now just staying with this metaphor for a moment, almost everybody has had a moment where they said, “I’ve had enough. I’m going to organize my closet.” They begin the process and they take an item off the shelf, off the floor, and they say, “It’s time to just get rid of this item.”

In the moment of picking it up and reflecting on it, as if to give it away, something mysterious, almost magical seems to happen to many of us, which is that in that moment, we think, “I’m not sure I want to get rid of it. I can use it some time in the future. So-and-so give it to me.” Something somehow in the act of giving it away, it’s harder to give it away than it was before we picked it up to give it away.

So what’s going on? It turns out there’s a heuristic, a brain heuristic pre-disposition that we have to all physical objects in our life and also all of the opportunities that we have in our life too. It is this – we value things more because we have them. That’s a good thing in certain situations. That’s why essentially owning a home is generally a good thing. People look after the home better.

It explains the phenomenon of why nobody in the history of the whole world has washed their own rental car. It’s a positive phenomenon until and unless we over-value something that we really ought not to have in the closet at all. It ought to go. It is actually not useful to us. It’s not valuable to us, but we are overvaluing it and therefore keeping it. So it’s over-valuing because we own it or it’s endowed to us.

So in our life, that is an incredibly real problem. I’ll give you an illustration. It’s not in the book but it’s something that happened to me that really hit a chord. It happened when I was staring at myself in the mirror dressed from head to toe in a stormtrooper outfit.

Tim Ferriss: Where all good epiphanies start.

Greg McKeown: And I’m looking at myself and I realize two things. I realize that I have been thinking of this moment in some small degree for 30 years. This is true. I’m standing there staring. I’m in the Halloween store. This is not a cheap suit that I’m trying on. I remember that this goes back to like when I’m 10 years old. Maybe Return of the Jedi had come out or one of the Star Wars movies.

One of my older brothers had said to me in passing but with quite a lot of enthusiasm, “Wouldn’t it be a great to own a stormtrooper outfit just like from the movies, like the real thing?” Somehow, that got lodged in me, “That’s an idea. That’s something you should pursue. That would be so cool. My older brother thinks so, so it must be so.”

Somehow in the back of my mind, there it lives unquestioned for 30 years. Finally, I’m in the store thinking about whether to buy this. In that moment, I actually did have a eureka moment, which was: “There is no part of me that wants this. It’s stayed with me, but my 40-year old self doesn’t need this. This is ridiculous. Why are you in this suit right now?” I was able to sort of separate myself from the moment. That’s exactly what I’m advocating here.

I’m saying that for a lot of us, we have a lot of – it became a shortcut phrase. My wife will say it sometimes to me now: “Is that a stormtrooper that you’re pursuing? Is that a stormtrooper opportunity?” You used to think this was the thing, but you’re pursuing it because you caught on to it. You feel a sense of this Endowment Effect, this sense of, “It’s my opportunity. It’s my thing. It’s my goal. It’s not serving me anymore.”

I think a lot of people have a lot of stormtroopers in their life. So it’s not about the closet. It’s not about the stormtrooper outfit. It’s about the stuff that really we need to get past and let go so that we can pursue the right things now, not just the things we are pursuing because at one time, we wanted to pursue them or one time, they came into our life.

Tim Ferriss: And it seems like there are a number of ways to identify these, whether they’re stormtroopers or items, opportunities that we are endowing with greater value because we have them. We either own them or are being presented with them, right? You can take let’s just say that sweater from Aunt Mildred or whatever it is. Rather than asking, “How much do I value this item?” You turn it around and ask, “If I did not own this item, how much would I pay to obtain it?” That turnaround seems really important to me.

Or in the case of opportunities – and I’m quoting directly from you here – “How will I feel if I miss out on this opportunity?” instead of that, “If I did not have this opportunity, how much would I be willing to sacrifice in order to obtain it?” That strikes me as a very powerful reframe. I think it was Andy Grove at Intel who also used this. There are many other business examples, but, “If we were not already in this line of business, how much would we pay to pursue it or would we pursue it in the first place?” as a way of pruning activities and conserving resources so they could be applied to the most important things.

Greg McKeown: Yes. The idea is to trick your brain, putting it in the position where you don’t own the thing, where you don’t have the opportunity. You have to reflect on it fresh. You have to say, “Starting now, do I want this thing now? How hard would I go after this now if I didn’t own it, if I didn’t have it.” It helps us to evaluate things without this inflation of the fact that we own it, which is, of course, the Endowment Effect.

DAVID ALLEN

Tim Ferriss: What are the first questions you ask, or exercises you do, when you sit down with high-functioning but, nonetheless, overwhelmed people, to work with them? What are some of the first things that you do with them?

David Allen: Well, aside from establishing rapport.

Tim Ferriss: Right.

David Allen: Which is, “Hi,” and, “Why did you bring me in here? And what is your presenting issue, as best you can describe it?” And, “Here’s a little bit about who I am and kind of what we’re going to do.” But ideally, and over the years, I discovered the less I tell people about what we’re going to do, the better. You know, “Surprise.”

So if I just walked in cold, the tabula rasa here is, first thing I would do, Tim, with you, would be, “Let’s make sure you have an in-tray.” A physical in-tray. We need some place to throw stuff until we can make decisions about what it means and what you’re going to do about it. But we need to collect a bunch of stuff first.

So that’s what we’re going to do first is get some sort of a material version of collection, or “capturing” stuff that has people’s attention. So we just get a big stack of printer paper, a favorite pen or pencil, sit them down and say, “Okay. What’s on your mind? What has your attention?” “Oh, I need cat food. Oh, I need a life. Oh, I need a new vice president of marketing. Oh, our next vacation is coming up. Oh God, my cell phone just crapped out. The printer broke.” Yada yada.

And we literally start writing, they write, each one of those items that has their attention on a separate piece of paper, and they toss that into their in-tray. You’d be surprised by, first of all, how many people don’t have an in-tray. Or if they do have one, it’s petrified because it’s just been sitting there with crap in it for weeks.

Tim Ferriss: Right.

David Allen: We need to have some sort of clear space to just collect all that stuff to begin with. That process, Tim, takes, usually, in my experience over all these years, for the mid- to senior level professional that we actually coach with this process, it takes one to six hours, just to capture what has their attention. Not to organize it. Not to prioritize it. Not to make decisions about it. Just to identify it.

Tim Ferriss: Yeah. It’s so impressive and horrifying at the same time. And I was doing prep for this conversation, I found one paragraph that struck me as important that’s related to this, I think, in some capacity. This is from an older piece in Wired, and it reads as the following.

At his seminar, Allen asks the audience to try to capture all their stuff by writing a list, and at the end of a few minutes he tells us to look at the list and think about the way it makes us feel. He guesses that our feelings include a mixture of grief and relief. The relief, he suggests, comes from the simple fact of making the list. But where does the grief come from?

And this is the quote that really caught my attention.

“These items represent agreements you haven’t kept with yourself,” Allen says. “What happens when you break an agreement with yourself is that your self-esteem plummets.”

Could you speak to this a bit? Because I would imagine a lot of folks would say, “I feel guilt, perhaps, about all of the things I haven’t done for myself or for other people.” But this grief and agreements that you haven’t kept with yourself struck me as important, and at least got my attention. Could you speak to that?

David Allen: Well, I’m going to reverse engineer a little bit and come back to the fact that your breaking of the agreement is because you’re keeping track of it in your head, and where you keep track of that has no sense of past or future. So that part of you, that little subliminal part of you, thinks you should be buying cat food 24 hours a day, or hiring a vice president 24 hours a day. That’s why it wakes you up at 3:00 in the morning. “Oh, shit, cat food. What am I going to do?” Because that thing has no sense of past or future.

So because it doesn’t, you can’t do it all. You can’t do more than one thing at a time. And so there’s a part of you that thinks you should be doing all of that all the time. So talk about a ton of broken agreements. But you don’t have to finish the thing to keep your agreement. You do need to get it out of your head.

See, agreements—and this is one of the things I learned back in the old personal growth days. Agreements, there’s an automatic price you pay when you break an agreement, is you disintegrate trust, either with other people or with yourself, or both. So if you don’t want to have a broken agreement, you have three options. One is don’t make the agreement, called “No, not going to do that.” Move it to someday, maybe, or something. Keep the agreement. Go buy the cat food. Go hire the VP. Go finish the thing. Or, most importantly for most people, is renegotiate the agreement.

If I made an appointment today, for instance, Tim, as people may hear ambient noise out there. There’s construction going on. If that was too loud, I would probably have to try to renegotiate and reschedule this talk with you. And then I don’t have a broken agreement if I don’t do it, because we’ve renegotiated it.

But you can only feel good about what you’re not doing when you know what you’re not doing. So most people have just made so many more agreements than they’re aware of. So all we do in our coaching is get people aware of, “What are all the agreements you’ve made? What are all the would-, could-, should-, need-tos, ought-tos?”

And that’s one of the reasons people feel good when they make a list is they look at it and go, “Well, gee, I can’t do all this right now.” No kidding, right? And so it comes back to externalizing stuff out of your head. That’s why it’s so critical to do that. And most people, I don’t think have really understood or certainly managed themselves with an understanding of that dynamic.

ELIZABETH GILBERT

Tim Ferriss: When you do say an integrity check, and I had read that when Rayya was sick, for instance, you began deleting or archiving emails without responding as a bit of a treat to yourself.

Elizabeth Gilbert: Deleting. Not archiving, deleting.

Tim Ferriss: Okay. Deleting, goodbye. When you say now, check in with yourself, and decide to say no to something—let’s just, to make it easier, make it concrete, via email, you get an invitation from a friend you do actually really like with something that could plausibly advance your career or be fun, but you check in with yourself and it’s like, “Nope, this isn’t a yes.” How do you phrase your nos or declines? Do you have any particular go-to language that you’d like to use?

Elizabeth Gilbert: I just want to make sure everybody knows that this is not easy. I didn’t want to have any illusions for anybody that this is simple. And the closer the relationship, the harder it is. The closer and more intimately I’m involved with somebody, the more stakes there are for me and the harder it is for me to tell the truth. That feels like it should be—there’s a paradox, the people you love the most should be the people that you are able to be the most honest with. Well no, because they’re the people who you want to hurt the least. Right? That’s where it’s really, really hard.

There’s a couple layers of it, right? So if it’s somebody—I now treat my inbox like it’s my home because I think it’s an extension of my home. So if somebody walks into my home uninvited and announces themselves and doesn’t say how they got a key and asks for something, I delete that email. I will delete that email even if they are a producer for Good Morning America. You know, I’m just like, “I didn’t invite you in. There are proper channels, you know what they are. I don’t know how you got my personal email,” and I just, I just delete it. If I feel a sense in my sternum of offense, of feeling like this person has taken a liberty, I don’t believe that I owe them anything. I don’t believe that I owe them anything any more than if I came down to my kitchen and saw people sitting at my table who I didn’t know eating breakfast, I wouldn’t believe that I owed them to make them a cup of coffee. I’d be like, “Get out of my house. You’re not supposed to be here.” I don’t think I even owe them—I don’t even think I owe them a polite response. I owe them nothing. I didn’t ask you to come into my house, I don’t owe you anything.

That’s the easiest. Those are the ones that are easy and I now treat myself to doing that. I mean, I do that every day. I clear my inbox out very quickly that way. Then I’m entertained when they come back later and they’re like, “Just circling back,” and I’m like, “Yeah, just deleting you again.” Circle back as many times do you want, you are not coming in. So that’s simple.

Tim Ferriss: Just bumping this up because I know you—

Elizabeth Gilbert: Yeah, I’m just bumping you back—it’s like whack-a-moles. It’s like, I can do this all day. Delete, delete, delete. If it’s somebody who I care about, if it’s something that I’m interested in but I’m just not going to do it because I don’t want to, I will write back and say, “Thank you so much and I’m really honored that you invited me to this, but I’m not going to be able to do this at this time.” And I don’t feel the need to give a reason. I think a simple no is really, really good and sometimes the reason it’s good not to give an explanation is that if that person is an expert manipulator, as many of us are, that explanation will not suffice. So it won’t matter what you give as an explanation because they can come back and be like, “Well we can do it by audio,” you know? Or we can do, “Oh, well we can do it a different weekend.” Just no.

I learned a lot about this from my teacher Byron Katie, who teaches an amazing thing called The School for The Work. That’s a whole, she’s a whole ‘nother being who’s not at all living by the rules.

Tim Ferriss: She’s extraterrestrial, for sure.

Elizabeth Gilbert: She is extraterrestrial. She is the only fully enlightened human being I believe I have ever met. As such, she does not have any trouble saying an honest yes and an honest no to people.

Tim Ferriss: Just to underscore that, because I did an in-person training with her. I mean, literally no hesitation—

Elizabeth Gilbert: None.

Tim Ferriss: No struggle, no conflict.

Elizabeth Gilbert: None.

Tim Ferriss: It’s bizarre and just mesmerizing to watch.

Elizabeth Gilbert: And she loves you.

Tim Ferriss: Yeah. Yeah.

Elizabeth Gilbert: And she loves you. There’s also no hostility.

Tim Ferriss: No offense, no hostility—

Elizabeth Gilbert: I remember seeing somebody come up to her, somebody came up to her at an event, handed her a book that they’d written, which people do to me all the time too. So I really marveled at this and they said, “I wrote this and I want to share it with you,” and she said, “Oh, sweetheart, I’m never going to read that.” True. It’s just true. “I’m never going to read that.” And I’m like, “Oh, my God, I didn’t know you could say that.” Right? It’s so—that’s amazing and she said it so lovingly like, “Oh. Oh no, I have no interest in reading that.”

She teaches—I don’t know if you did, when you took her training, did you do where she teaches a simple no and she does training on how to give a simple no?

Tim Ferriss: I don’t think we actually spent much time on that. So I would love to hear you say more. We worked on the emotional one-pages and the turnarounds.

Elizabeth Gilbert: Yeah, the turnarounds.

Tim Ferriss: We did a lot on the turnarounds, which is probably, we could do a whole episode just on that.

Elizabeth Gilbert: Everybody look up Byron Katie, she’s amazing. And if you have the means and if you have the chance to ever take her nine-day School for The Work, it’s the most important thing I’ve ever done for myself.

Tim Ferriss: Oh wow.

Elizabeth Gilbert: I say that quite simply. But she has a whole day in the nine-day School for The Work, which is about the simple no. The simple note is ways to say no. It always begins with, “Thank you,” and there’s never a “But,” because she feels that the word but is very cruel. It’s just an “And.” So it’s “Thank you” and “No.” That’s it, that’s a simple no. Then if they come back, you can say—

Tim Ferriss: Well, hold on, just to pause for a second. Is that literally the phrasing or is it just—

Elizabeth Gilbert: Yes. “Thank you” and “No.” Yeah, that’s it. That’s it. It’s a simple no. It still makes my stomach, because I’m like, “Oh, my God, you can’t just do that. You’ve got to give, you’ve got to like do the dance,” and she’s like, “You don’t have to do the dance.” And she’s the one who taught me, if the person is a good enough manipulator, it doesn’t matter what you bring, they’re going to manipulate it. Right? And the beautiful thing about a simple no is that it gives—in the jiu jitsu game, it gives somebody no weapon that they can take and bring back at you. They can say you’re being incredibly selfish and you can say, “I hear that and you might be right about that.” That’s another one. She always says, “You might be right about that. You might be right about that.” And no. And you just keep adding “and no” after the statement. So then there’s, you know, but you know, “I really—I need you to do this. I’m desperate,” and you say, “I see that, I see your desperation, and no.”

One other thing she’ll add is you can say, “If I change my mind about this, I’ll let you know. And no.” That’s been a game-changer for me. I just did one last week. Somebody who I have a professional relationship said, “I want you to do this one-hour video interview to promote this thing that I’m doing.” Old Liz would have thought, “I owe her that because she did this other thing for me that time.” I checked in with my inner compass and I was like, “Nothing in me wants to do this.” So I just wrote back to her, I said, “I’m sorry and I’m not going to be able to do this at this time,” and she wrote back and pushed in and said, “Oh, let me clarify. I wasn’t clear about why we need it. We really need it because right now, it’s really hard for us to sell things because we don’t have, because of COVID-19 and it’s just—you know, that’s why we need it.” I wrote back and said, “I hear you and I understand you and no.” And it goes away. They don’t tend to come back a third time.

It really does just stop. And let it sit at the no. The more words you add after that, more entangled you get. But again, I want to make clear, it’s hardest closest to home and it’s hardest with family and. With family, I find if I anticipate that I’m going to be asked something, I really have to practice. I really—because it’s scary and I have to really practice and be like, and just practice saying, “I’m not doing that right now. I’m not coming this year. I’m not doing it.” And I’ll say it a thousand times. I’ll just go for a long walk and I’ll just practice it and practice it and practice it. Because as I say, the closer the people are to you, the more difficult it is.

OLIVER BURKEMAN

Hello, I’m Oliver Burkeman. I’m the author of books including Four Thousand Weeks and Meditations for Mortals and The Imperfectionist newsletter.

So, I have to answer this question about simplicity and simplifying my life, honestly, I think, and say that I have tried so many ways to simplify my life, only to discover that in subtle ways they’ve actually had the opposite effect. So I’m going to tell you what has truly simplified my life in a moment, but I want to get there by way of explaining what I think the downside is with quite a lot of simplification advice.

It’s just that pretty much any system, as we all know, creates overheads to maintain. So it becomes all too easy for some supposedly pro-simplicity practice to make things more complicated. One random example I like: famously, Barack Obama only wore, I think, two shades of suit in order to reduce decision fatigue. He didn’t have to worry about what range of suits he was going to choose from so that he could make more important decisions later in the day.

I always loved this example, but of course Barack Obama was the president and he had a team of people to keep his wardrobe of suits in perfect condition. Whereas for me, for most of us, you know, maintaining a wardrobe full of clean iterations of a work uniform, making sure that I always had everything I needed in order to only make a small number of choices, that’s actually going to be quite likely to add to my overheads.

It might be a good idea for other reasons, but I’m going to have to think about it, going to have to put in the upfront work to setting it up, and then a lot of maintenance work to make sure that it’s always ready. And actually, for me, it’s probably easier and simpler to just look inside my wardrobe and pick something that’s—that’s there and that’s clean and that basically works. There are some other systems I can think of that are equally kind of great in a way, but I do question if they make life simpler.

So, for example, I try to nominate specific time boxes during the week for calls and doing podcasts and things in order to safeguard time for writing. This is often described as a way of simplifying your life, a decision filter. And it’s true, it stops me having to think so much maybe about whether I can fit in another call outside of those predetermined boxes. But in fact, it actually makes for many more tough moments where I either have to tell someone no because I can’t fit them in, or alternatively have that time where I’m thinking, “Well, [unclear] an exception? This guy’s quite a big deal. I should probably alter my rules to make time for him.”

So it doesn’t actually end up simplifying my life to try to impose this alleged simplicity on it. You know, I think about the image of the obsessive minimalist in interior design who lives in a sort of perfectly simple apartment, all clean lines and stark bare surfaces. So that might be your idea of beauty and that’s fine.

I think I can really see the appeal. But it’s not actually very simple in the psychological sense of reducing the thought and cogitation and stress that has to go into keeping it that way. It’s actually pretty high maintenance, which, in the important sense here, I think is the opposite of simple.

So to stop being so negative and say something practical and positive instead, I think what all this is leading up to—and this is something that I’ve really taken from Zen Buddhism especially—is that I think true simplicity, the simplicity that actually practically helped me in life, is not a question of techniques; it is an attitude.

It’s a kind of a relationship between me and my reality. It’s the kind of relationship in which I’m just not so attached and clinging to how things are in the external world in which I can pass through my days less bothered by whether things are one way or another. So, you know, for example, it’s less about keeping a really minimalist home and more about not being made anxious because the home is a bit messy, not feeling that I can’t get down to work or to something else important until I’ve done every little bit of clearing up.

It’s less a case of rigidly time-boxing my day in order to reduce interruptions, though again I think that can have a role, and maybe more about being able more fluidly to drop back into work and to focus after an interruption has happened. I’ve seen this attitude described variously as entrusting everything to nature, entrusting everything to reality, letting go of the idea that reality needs me to help operate it, just sort of unclenching, withdrawing my claws from things and learning, as Krishnamurti put it rather wonderfully, to not mind what happens.

I don’t think that means to be a doormat or a pushover or to be passive. Far from it, the opposite. I think it is to be able to say, okay, look, well, reality is as it is, and that’s fine. I mean, it better be fine because it’s the truth of the matter. And now I can just be okay with that situation and take action, vigorous, bold action on the things I really want to do. So that is, after many learning experiences, what simplicity has come to mean for me. I hope it’s useful. Thanks.

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Many of us feel like we’re drowning in invisible complexity. So I wanted to hit pause and ask a simple question: What are 1–3 decisions that could dramatically simplify my life?

In this episode:

Chip Conley shares how a near-death experience onstage changed his lifeGreg McKeown reveals what a stormtrooper costume has to do with all the goddamn clutter in our livesDavid Allen explains why the to-do list living in your head costs you more than you think.Elizabeth Gilbert explains why she treats her inbox like her home, and what she does when uninvited guests show up.And Oliver Burkeman explains why so much simplicity advice backfires and what has actually worked for him.

This episode is brought to you by:

Eight Sleep Pod 6 , which cools or heats each side of the bed, with custom elevation and snoring reduction and wearable-free sleep tracking: EightSleep.com/Tim AG1 Pro all-in-one nutritional supplement: DrinkAG1.com/Tim [image error]Listen onSpotify Listen onApple Podcasts[image error]Listen onOvercastHow to Simplify Your Life — Tips from Oliver Burkeman, Chip Conley, Elizabeth Gilbert, and MoreAdditional podcast platforms

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TranscriptsThis episode (coming soon)All episodesShow Notes

Connect with Chip Conley:

MEA | X | Facebook | LinkedInChip’s appearance on the podcast: 374

Connect with Greg McKeown:

Website | X | Facebook | InstagramGreg’s appearances on the podcast: 786, 719, 510, 355

Connect with David Allen:

Website | Substack | X | Facebook | InstagramDavid’s appearance on the podcast: 384

Connect with Elizabeth Gilbert:

Website | Substack | Bluesky | Facebook | InstagramElizabeth’s appearances on the podcast: 770, 430

Connect with Oliver Burkeman:

Website | The Imperfectionist | XRecommended Reading, Listening, & ViewingChip Conley’s TED Talks | TEDThe Karmic Capitalism of Chip Conley | Stanford MagazineHow to Become an Effective CEO: Chief Emotions Officer | Tim.blogBurning Man28 Festivals and 8 Reasons They Can Change Your Life (Plus: Free Burning Man Tickets!) | Tim.blogAirbnbStanford Center on LongevityAnomalies: The Endowment Effect, Loss Aversion, and Status Quo Bias | Journal of Economic Perspectives Star Wars: Return of the Jedi | Prime VideoWhat It Feels Like to Be a Stormtrooper | Great Big StoryGetting Things Done Guru David Allen and His Cult of Hyperefficiency | WiredDavid Allen Guides You through a Mind Sweep | GTD PodcastThe Work of Byron KatieObama’s Way | Vanity FairBooks Emotional Equations: Simple Truths for Creating Happiness + Success by Chip Conley Wisdom @ Work: The Making of a Modern Elder by Chip Conley Learning to Love Midlife: 12 Reasons Why Life Gets Better with Age by Chip Conley Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less by Greg McKeown Effortless: Make It Easier to Do What Matters Most by Greg McKeown Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity by David Allen Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear by Elizabeth Gilbert Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman’s Search for Everything Across Italy, India, and Indonesia by Elizabeth Gilbert City of Girls: A Novel by Elizabeth Gilbert Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals by Oliver Burkeman Meditations for Mortals: Four Weeks to Embrace Your Limitations and Make Time for What Counts by Oliver BurkemanPeopleGwyneth PaltrowMary Catherine BatesonMargaret MeadBrian CheskyJoe GebbiaNathan BlecharczykLaura CarstensenAndy GroveRayya EliasByron KatieBarack ObamaJiddu KrishnamurtiTimestamps[00:00:00] Start.[00:01:36] Chip Conley: Turning manic into magic.[00:13:00] Greg McKeown: Is that a stormtrooper you’re pursuing?[00:20:18] David Allen: Agreements you haven’t kept with yourself.[00:28:35] Elizabeth Gilbert: “Thank you” and “No.”[00:36:37] Oliver Burkeman: Simplicity is an attitude, not a technique.Quotations from This Episode

“Knowledge is something you accumulate, you add. Wisdom is something you distill, you simplify.”

— Chip Conley

“I think a lot of people have a lot of stormtroopers in their life.”

— Greg McKeown

“You can only feel good about what you’re not doing when you know what you’re not doing.”

— David Allen

“I now treat my inbox like it’s my home because I think it’s an extension of my home.”

— Elizabeth Gilbert

“True simplicity, the simplicity that actually practically helped me in life, is not a question of techniques; it is an attitude.”

— Oliver Burkeman

Want to hear more strategies for simplifying your life? Listen to my conversations with Derek Sivers, Seth Godin, and Martha Beck, in which we discussed why simple is the opposite of complex (not a synonym for easy), living without subscriptions or dependencies, building a house from scratch in New Zealand, getting clear on who your work is for, eliminating gray areas, reclaiming time with personal boundaries, following true joy instead of dopamine hits, how a near-death experience sparked a radical commitment, and much more.

This episode is brought to you by AG1. I’ve taken AG1 for more than a decade. Longtime listeners have heard me call it my nutritional insurance. Here’s the news: they recently launched AG1 Pro, designed for people focused on performance and longevity. I’ll be traveling soon, and I’m throwing this in my bag to cover my bases while I travel. Past a certain age, maintaining lean muscle becomes priority number one, and AG1 Pro is formulated to support exactly that. It includes HMB, a clinically studied compound that supports protein synthesis and helps reduce protein breakdown, plus zinc carnosine to support the gut lining. Remember: training is only half the equation. Recovery is where the work compounds, and AG1 Pro is built to support it. It’s NSF Certified for Sport, so what’s on the label is what’s in the pouch. Get your free AG1 Pro Yeti Shaker in the Welcome Kit at Drinkag1.com/Tim.

This episode is brought to you by Eight Sleep. Temperature is one of the main causes of poor sleep, and heat is my personal nemesis. But a few years ago, I started using the Pod Cover, and it has transformed my sleep. It fits over your existing mattress and cools or heats each side of the bed independently. I run hot. My lovely partner tends to run cold. With the Pod, we each get the temperature we want. No more fighting over the thermostat.

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The post How to Simplify Your Life — Tips from Oliver Burkeman, Chip Conley, Elizabeth Gilbert, and More (#885) appeared first on The Blog of Author Tim Ferriss.

Kevin Ryan is one of the leading entrepreneurs and investors in New York. Often called the “Godfather of NYC tech,” he is the founder and CEO of AlleyCorp, a New York based venture capital firm that incubates and invests across healthcare, AI and software, consumer tech, deep tech, and more. Kevin is also the co-founder of several notable companies including MongoDB, Business Insider, Zola, Gilt Groupe, and Transcend Therapeutics. Earlier in his career, Kevin was the CEO of DoubleClick, which he helped grow from a 20-person startup to a publicly-traded company with more than 1,500 employees.

Please enjoy!

This episode is brought to you by:

Eight Sleep Pod 6 which cools or heats each side of the bed, with custom elevation and snoring reduction, and wearable-free sleep tracking: EightSleep.com/tim Shopify global commerce platform, providing tools to start, grow, market, and manage a retail business: Shopify.com/Tim Momentous high-quality creatine for cognitive and muscular support: LiveMomentous.com/Tim AG1 all-in-one nutritional supplement: DrinkAG1.com/Tim [image error]Listen onSpotify Listen onApple Podcasts[image error]Listen onOvercastHow to Spot 10-Year Trends and Build Billion-Dollar Companies — Kevin Ryan of DoubleClick, MongoDB, Business Insider, and Many MoreAdditional podcast platforms

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

TranscriptsThis episode (coming soon)All episodesShow NotesConnect with Kevin Ryan and AlleyCorpAlleyCorp | AlleyCorp at X | AlleyCorp’s Newsletter at Substack | Kevin at AlleyCorp | Kevin at LinkedInRelated Reading, Listening, and ViewingTeam Extreme in Antarctica | Fabrice GrindaOtsuka Pharmaceutical Completes Acquisition of Transcend Therapeutics | Otsuka PharmaceuticalAlleyCorp’s New $335M Fund | AlleyCorp’s NewsletterHow Do You Identify a Big Idea? AlleyCorp’s Kevin Ryan Shares Tips | Founder’s JourneyValue-Based Care | Centers for Medicare & Medicaid ServicesKevin Ryan — How This Billionaire Founder Finds +$20B Business Ideas (#495) | My First MillionSequoia’s Shaun Maguire Leads $1B Round for Nuclear Startup Valar Atomics | TechCrunchHelion | Sam AltmanQualified Small Business Stock (QSBS): 26 U.S. Code § 1202 | Legal Information Institute, Cornell Law SchoolIMPACT-1 Study Published in JAMA Psychiatry: Results of TSND-201 (Methylone) in Patients with Severe PTSD | Transcend TherapeuticsDr. John Krystal — All Things Ketamine, The Most Comprehensive Podcast Episode Ever (#625) | The Tim Ferriss ShowRick Doblin — The Psychedelic Domino That Tips All Others (#440) | The Tim Ferriss ShowDr. Martin Polanco and Dr. Dan Engle — Are Psychedelic Drugs the Next Medical Breakthrough? (#104) | The Tim Ferriss ShowTrump Signs Executive Order Urging More Research into Ibogaine and Other Psychedelics | CNNDr. Nolan Williams — 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) | The Tim Ferriss ShowPublic Benefit Corporations | Delaware Code OnlineNYC Startups Raise $8.88B in Q2 2026 — Best Capital Quarter Since 2021 — as AI and Fintech Megadeals Reshape the Market | AlleyWatchBooks How to Change Your Mind by Michael PollanPeopleSam AltmanHenry BlodgetNicolas BoillotUsain BoltDr. Dan EngleHarley FinkelsteinKathy HochulPeter KafkaTravis KalanickDr. Ben KelmendiDr. John KrystalTobi LütkeBlake MandellDwight MerrimanAtanda MusaSam ParrDr. Martin PolancoMichael PollanShaan PuriSasha ShulginPeter ThielDonald TrumpOrganizations, Places, and ResourcesDoubleClickMongoDB Inc.Business InsiderPrudential Investment Corp. (now PGIM)INSEADEuro Disney (now Disneyland Paris)United MediaAlleyCorpGilt GroupeZolaNomad HealthAxel SpringerHudson’s Bay CompanyTranscend TherapeuticsOtsuka PharmaceuticalDeep Tech New YorkDOCDigital Health New YorkOdysseyVal d’IsèreDialogShopifyVente-privee (now Veepee)Marc JacobsMacy’sFarfetchTheorySaks Fifth Avenue Business Week (now Bloomberg Businessweek) Dilbert IBMExciteMicrosoftProcter & GambleY Combinator The Wall Street Journal Union Square VenturesValar AtomicsCommonwealth Fusion SystemsHelionSequoia Capital The New York Times Yale Program for Psychedelic Science | Yale School of MedicineU.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)Lykos Therapeutics (now Resilient Pharmaceuticals)Psychedelic Science Funders Collaborative (PSFC)Oregon Psilocybin Services | Oregon Health AuthorityNatural Medicine Division | Colorado Department of RevenuePortal Space SystemsBoston DynamicsAescapePremier League FootballDatadogTimestamps[00:00:00] Start.[00:01:25] The chronology, prepared by the robots.[00:03:40] 20 trends on a whiteboard, 10 years out.[00:06:33] Four conferences, a China trip, and how to seat 30 people.[00:11:42] The YouTube Kevin didn’t start.[00:17:47] Gilt: $500 million in year four, then a falling knife.[00:22:06] “We’re going to wait for the next internet.”[00:25:58] DoubleClick: 25 countries before one was profitable.[00:27:52] The AlleyCorp model: $500K each, a year to build, then raise.[00:32:26] Recruiting Henry Blodget in 30 minutes.[00:38:28] The two-week business crush.[00:41:44] Valar Atomics: $20 million to $6 billion in three years.[00:45:25] Why the fund stays small: 2% vs. 20%.[00:47:15] Ping pong, red wine, and Ibiza dance floors.[00:49:05] Three things only; everything else cut 80%.[00:51:52] The book that changed Kevin’s mind at 54.[00:54:20] Methylone: MDMA’s gentler, shorter cousin.[00:56:54] The second mouse gets the cheese.[00:59:57] A public benefit corp that actually pays out.[01:05:46] Is early-stage venture dead?[01:08:04] Robot massage and the AI agent that switched to Spanish.[01:11:35] The healthcare Shopify that failed; MongoDB’s revenue-free years.[01:15:06] Kevin’s billboard.[01:16:19] Pulling levers: taxes, training, and immigrants.[01:20:04] New York is booming.[01:21:41] Parting thoughts.Quotes from Kevin Ryan

“There is no next internet.”

— Kevin Ryan

“It’s important to start narrow.”

— Kevin Ryan

“It’s better to do one thing really well than a bad job on everything.”

— Kevin Ryan

“I never think about exits. We need to focus on the product. Do we have a product that everyone wants to use? If you solve that, everything else follows.”

— Kevin Ryan

“There’s a saying that the early worm gets the bird, but the second mouse gets the cheese.”

— Kevin Ryan

“There are 164 soft drinks. The odds of you coming up with one that stands out is pretty slim.”

— Kevin Ryan

Want to hear another episode with someone who builds category-defining companies and bets on where technology is headed? Listen to my conversation with Netscape co-creator and Andreessen Horowitz co-founder Marc Andreessen, in which we discussed his rules for investing, how he decides whether a company should stay the course or pivot, why his firm bets for change when others bet against it, the factors behind a big investment, the future of AI and drones, bitcoin, “strong opinions loosely held,” his debate with Peter Thiel, and much more.

The post How to Spot 10-Year Trends and Build Billion-Dollar Companies — Kevin Ryan of DoubleClick, MongoDB, Business Insider, and Many More (#884) appeared first on The Blog of Author Tim Ferriss.

My guest today is Tania de Jong, co-founder of Mind Medicine Australia. Tania and her husband, Peter, helped lead the push that, in 2023, made Australia the first country in the world to allow MDMA and psilocybin to be prescribed for psychiatric conditions. I wanted to understand how the hell they helped make that happen and what the rest of the world can learn from it.

Please enjoy!

This episode is brought to you by:

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TranscriptsThis episodeAll episodesShow Notes

Connect with Tania

Website | LinkedIn | Mind Medicine Australia

Timeline:

February 2, 2015: Michael Pollan publishes “The Trip Treatment” in The New Yorker, which is the article Tania credits with setting her journey in motion.March 21, 2015: Tim releases his James Fadiman interview, “The Psychedelic Explorer’s Guide” (#66). Its show notes link to “The Trip Treatment.”January 15, 2016: Tim announces support for Johns Hopkins’ psilocybin research and a personal commitment of at least $100,000 toward psychedelic research that year.2016: Tania and Peter travel to the Netherlands for their first guided psilocybin experience. (Source)2017–2019: UCSF conducts the psilocybin-assisted group-therapy study involving long-term AIDS survivors that Tim helped support. (Source)May 6, 2018: Michael Pollan joins Tim for “Exploring the New Science of Psychedelics” (#313), discussing his forthcoming book ( How to Change Your Mind ).May 15, 2018: Pollan’s How to Change Your Mind is published.February 13, 2019: Tania and Peter publicly launch Mind Medicine Australia. (Source)2020–2022: MMA applies to reschedule MDMA and psilocybin, faces rejection, and submits new applications in March 2022. (Source)November 21, 2022: David Nutt presents to Australia’s medicines regulator, the TGA, supporting the case for therapeutic access. (Source)February 3, 2023: The TGA announces restricted prescribing access to MDMA for PTSD and psilocybin for treatment-resistant depression, effective July 1, 2023. (Source)January 2024: Patients begin receiving treatment under the new prescribing program. (Source)

Books

Be Here Now by Ram Dass How to Change Your Mind by Michael Pollan Waking the Tiger: Healing Trauma by Peter A. Levine, with Ann Frederick

Related Reading, Listening, and Viewing

“The Trip Treatment” by Michael Pollan | The New YorkerHow Singing Together Changes the Brain — Tania de Jong | TEDxMelbourne Becoming Nobody — a documentary about Ram Dass“‘Serious Concerns’ over TGA’s Decision Making on Landmark Psilocybin, MDMA Ruling” | ABC NewsChange to Classification of Psilocybin and MDMA to Enable Prescribing by Authorised Psychiatrists | Therapeutic Goods AdministrationPsilocybin-Assisted Group Therapy for Demoralized Older Long-Term AIDS Survivor Men: An Open-Label Safety and Feasibility Pilot StudyDr. Gül Dölen on Rethinking Psychedelics, the Neurobiology of Beginner’s Mind, and the Master Key of Metaplasticity | The Tim Ferriss Show #667Rick Doblin — The Psychedelic Domino That Tips All Others | The Tim Ferriss Show #440Roland Griffiths — Facing Death, Meditation, Psychedelics, and Living a Life of Gratitude | The Tim Ferriss Show #641

Organizations and Resources

Mind Medicine Australia’s Patient Support FundCertificate in Psychedelic-Assisted TherapiesMind Medicine Australia’s TGA Rescheduling Submissions and ResourcesMultidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS)Usona InstituteInternal Family Systems InstituteAustralian Interventional Pharmacotherapy and Psychedelic-Assisted Psychotherapy Research Registry | Australian National University

People Mentioned

Peter HuntRobin Carhart-HarrisRoland GriffithsRick DoblinDavid NuttBill LintonPaul FitzgeraldGül Dölen

Timestamps

[00:00:00] Intro from Tim.

[00:02:46] The article that changed Tania’s life.

[00:04:39] A first psychedelic experience—and the year it took to integrate it.

[00:10:17] Rick Doblin’s encouragement and the birth of Mind Medicine Australia.

[00:13:15] Turning regulatory rejection into a stronger application.

[00:20:48] Building a grassroots movement and training clinicians.

[00:23:23] Cold emails, scientific allies, and singing your way into the room.

[00:31:11] A week with Ram Dass: silence, singing, and an extraordinary LSD story.

[00:37:54] Bringing David Nutt—and a family’s devastating story—to the regulators.

[00:42:42] Dancing in the kitchen: Australia’s rescheduling breakthrough.

[00:43:40] From changing the rules to treating patients.

[00:48:18] Why Tim thinks MDMA is still underestimated.

[00:50:23] Integration beyond the session: therapy, nutrition, and exercise.

[00:52:29] Scaling access and collecting real-world evidence.

[00:58:13] Getting insurers, government agencies, and philanthropists on board.

[01:01:39] Syrian rue, psilocybin, and learning to let go of control.

[01:10:01] Dosing, expectations, and the pressure to take more.

[01:12:02] The promise of group therapy and shared integration.

[01:14:22] Hiring mistakes, personal attacks, and the resilience advocacy requires.

[01:23:38] Turning a window of change into lasting habits.

[01:25:51] Getting through to regulators and pushing for end-of-life access.

[01:28:27] The bureaucratic barriers that remain.

[01:31:38] What treatment costs—and why therapist time drives the bill.

[01:35:07] Could shorter-acting compounds make treatment more affordable?

[01:38:46] Ketamine, kratom, and the limits of “all natural.”

[01:43:14] The unexpected payoff from Tim’s ketamine experiment.

[01:47:46] What might come next for psychedelic access worldwide?

[01:49:04] Persistence versus pushiness—and knowing when to try another door.

[01:54:22] Supporting patients and training the next wave of clinicians.

[01:57:51] “Be curious”: exploring your inner world and walking each other home.

[02:01:35] The ripple effects of sharing your curiosity—and simply asking for help.

The post How to Legalize Medical Psychedelics in Your Country — Tania de Jong on The Playbook Behind Australia’s World-First Breakthrough (#883) appeared first on The Blog of Author Tim Ferriss.

This episode is a bit different. It’s a live, unscripted working session with a founder, and I’ve only done one other earlier this year.

Niels Hoven (@NielsHoven) is the founder and CEO of Mentava, a company building software to support fast learners. Eager kids are dramatically underserved by today’s education system, and Niels created Mentava to allow students to achieve their potential. Prior to Mentava, Niels worked at Cloudflare, ClassDojo, and Pocket Gems, where he ran the highest-grossing mobile game in the world in 2011. He has a graduate degree in electrical engineering from UC Berkeley.

Please enjoy!

This episode is brought to you by:

Fin powerful AI Agent for all your customer service: Fin.Ai/Tim Shopify global commerce platform, providing tools to start, grow, market, and manage a retail business: Shopify.com/Tim Wealthfront high-yield cash account: Wealthfront.com/Tim [image error]Listen onSpotify Listen onApple Podcasts[image error]Listen onOvercastHow to Teach a 3-Year-Old to Read and Rethinking Education — Tim Coaches Niels Hoven of MentavaAdditional podcast platforms

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

TranscriptsThis episodeAll episodesShow NotesConnect with Niels & Explore MentavaMentava | Mentava’s Reading-Readiness Guide | Niels’s Story | Niels on XBooks Green Eggs and Ham by Dr. Seuss Hop on Pop: The Simplest Seuss for Youngest Use by Dr. Seuss Elephant & Piggie: The Complete Collection by Mo Willems The Lean Startup: How Today’s Entrepreneurs Use Continuous Innovation to Create Radically Successful Businesses by Eric Ries The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich by Timothy Ferriss The 4-Hour Chef: The Simple Path to Cooking Like a Pro, Learning Anything, and Living the Good Life by Timothy Ferriss Tools of Titans: The Tactics, Routines, and Habits of Billionaires, Icons, and World-Class Performers by Timothy FerrissRelated Reading, Listening, & ViewingTim’s Founder Kitchen — From Brainstorm to the President’s Office in Two Months (Featuring Jake Becraft, Strand Therapeutics) | The Tim Ferriss Show #868My Two-Year Secret Project, COYOTE — The Strategies and Tactics for Building a Bestseller from Nothing with Elan Lee of Exploding Kittens | The Tim Ferriss Show #821 Lenny’s Podcast | Lenny’s NewsletterHow to Turn Your AI Into a World-Class Designer by Anshu Chimala | Lenny’s Newsletter Waiting for “Superman” (2010) Glengarry Glen Ross (1992) Rashomon (1950)Niels Hoven: From Blair to ‘Beauty and the Geek’ | Silver Chips Online Beauty and the Geek (2005–2008)Tools & ProductsPickFuOptimizelyClaudeChatGPTDropbox’s Referral ProgramCoyoteAlpha SchoolTiEMaui Nui VenisonPeopleKamal AgarwalaAlec BaldwinJacob BecraftAdam CarollaJensen HuangJoe LiemandtMerlin MannAnita ManwaniMarc MaronDavid OgilvyLenny RachitskySrinivasa RamanujanEric RiesJoe RoganRobert ScobleTimestamps

[00:00:00] Start.

[00:01:32] What Mentava is—and the toddlers reading before age three.

[00:08:31] Game design, slot-machine motivation, and lowering the hoop.

[00:11:54] Tim’s red pen: rewriting the bio and positioning.

[00:16:59] The real problem: wasted early years, high-school pressure.

[00:23:55] Learning at your own pace—and “what if you did nothing?”

[00:29:32] Dog-fish, fish-dog: readiness, failed trials, and follow-ups.

[00:35:06] The $500 price, school pilots, and videos-for-tuition scholarships.

[00:41:39] Teach a kid to fish: selling relief, not nagging.

[00:47:49] Viral posts, the culture-war trap, and why exaggeration is death.

[00:55:05] Put the ask on top: investor updates and what actually converts.

[00:59:35] The thirty-year phonics war—and it’s not with teachers.

[01:01:10] A $1,000 coupon, zero takers: why the referral bribe flopped.

[01:08:04] Lead with the love letters: testimonials, homepage, and who’s buying.

[01:20:03] “No scam charges $500 a month”: pricing and who you’re not for.

[01:34:16] Uncrowded channels and workshopping like a standup.

[01:42:08] Don’t let Amazon be your debutante ball: testing what sells.

[01:46:42] Alpha School, the competitive map, and the eager investor.

[01:48:39] Reaching the already-converted: be the painkiller, TiE, surround sound.

[02:08:18] Niels’s charge: advocate for your child, unapologetically.

“Kids are these little sponges. They want to learn everything.”

— Niels Hoven

“The metaphor for motivation that I like to use is it’s like trying to get someone to jump through a hoop. You can either increase the size of the reward on the other side or you can lower the hoop.”

— Niels Hoven

“If you allow kids to learn at their own pace, you can pack the entire school day into a very small amount of time.”

— Niels Hoven

“Everybody in cognitive science—everybody in the rest of academia—completely understands that phonics is the only way to teach reading.”

— Niels Hoven

“Being able to say, ‘My kid can already read. You need to give them more opportunity,’ is one of your strongest negotiating levers.”

— Niels Hoven

“Never ever let anybody make you feel guilty for advocating for your kid.”

— Niels Hoven

Want to hear another episode with someone fixated on the outer limits of how fast humans can learn? Listen to my conversation with chess prodigy and The Art of Learning author Josh Waitzkin, in which we discussed initiating flow states, cognitive biases, fixed versus growth mindsets, the hazards of a rigid identity, presence in parenting, cultivating quality as a way of life, the principle of scarcity in the learning process, thematic interconnectedness in education, and much more.

This episode is brought to you by Fin! Fin is an AI agent that delivers high-quality answers and helps resolve complex queries that your customers may have. Rapidly-growing companies like Anthropic (the AI lab behind Claude) rely on Fin to deliver accurate and thoughtful customer support to millions. Fin is built using custom models trained on thousands of customer interactions, and it understands the complexity and nuance of customer service like no other agent. You feed Fin your internal knowledge and policies, it learns your rules, and it can start supporting your overstretched support team. And because every business runs things differently, Fin is fully self-manageable. See the difference Fin can make for your business with a free trial at Fin.ai/Tim.

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. 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.

This episode is brought to you by Wealthfront! Wealthfront is a financial services platform that offers services to help you save and invest your money. Right now, your cash can earn 3.30% APY—that’s the Annual Percentage Yield—with the Wealthfront Cash Account from its network of program banks. That’s 8 times more interest than a typical savings account at a bank, according to FDIC.gov as of 05/18/2026 (Wealthfront’s 3.30% APY vs. 0.38% average savings rate). Right now, for a limited time, Wealthfront is offering new clients that use my sign-up link an additional 0.75% boost over the base rate for three months, meaning you can get up to 4.05% APY, limited to a $150,000 balance. Terms & Conditions apply. Visit Wealthfront.com/Tim to get started. 

The Cash Account, which is not a deposit account, is offered by Wealthfront Brokerage LLC (“Wealthfront Brokerage”), member FINRA/SIPC. Wealthfront Brokerage is not a bank. The 3.30% Base APY on cash deposits is as of January 30, 2026, is representative, subject to change, and requires no minimum balance. Wealthfront Brokerage sweeps cash balances to Program Banks, where it earns the variable base APY. The Direct Deposit Plus Investing Program from Wealthfront Advisers LLC and Wealthfront Brokerage LLC provides eligible clients a 0.25% APY increase above the base APY on eligible Cash Account balances (up to an overall boosted rate of 4.30% for a limited time when including the three month 0.75% APY boost for new Cash Account clients) when you direct deposit $1,000/month plus maintain a funded investing account. Wealthfront may change or end the program at any time and determine eligibility at its discretion. Terms and conditions apply. Full details for both promotions at wealthfront.com/promo-terms.

Tim Ferriss, who is not a client, receives cash compensation from Wealthfront Brokerage LLC for advertising and holds a non-controlling equity interest in the corporate parent of Wealthfront Brokerage LLC, which creates an incentive that results in a conflict of interest. Tim expresses his own opinions and Wealthfront does not endorse, sponsor, or promote them. This ad may not reflect the experience of other Cash Account clients, and similar outcomes are not guaranteed. Investment advisory services are provided by Wealthfront Advisers LLC, an SEC-registered investment adviser. Securities investments: not bank deposits, not bank-guaranteed or FDIC-insured, and may lose value. See full disclosures here . 

The post How to Teach a 3-Year-Old to Read and Rethinking Education — Tim Coaches Niels Hoven of Mentava (#882) appeared first on The Blog of Author Tim Ferriss.

This episode is a bit different. It’s a live, unscripted working session with a founder, and I’ve only done one other earlier this year.

Niels Hoven (@NielsHoven) is the founder and CEO of Mentava, a company building software to support fast learners. Eager kids are dramatically underserved by today’s education system, and Niels created Mentava to allow students to achieve their potential. Prior to Mentava, Niels worked at Cloudflare, ClassDojo, and Pocket Gems, where he ran the highest-grossing mobile game in the world in 2011. He has a graduate degree in electrical engineering from UC Berkeley.

Please enjoy!

This episode is brought to you by:

Fin powerful AI Agent for all your customer service: Fin.Ai/Tim Shopify global commerce platform, providing tools to start, grow, market, and manage a retail business: Shopify.com/Tim Wealthfront high-yield cash account: Wealthfront.com/Tim [image error]Listen onSpotify Listen onApple Podcasts[image error]Listen onOvercastWhy Kids Can Learn 10x Faster Than We Think — Niels Hoven of Mentava (Tim Coaching Session)Additional podcast platforms

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

TranscriptsThis episode (coming soon) All episodesShow NotesConnect with Niels & Explore MentavaMentava | Mentava’s Reading-Readiness Guide | Niels’s Story | Niels on XBooks Green Eggs and Ham by Dr. Seuss Hop on Pop: The Simplest Seuss for Youngest Use by Dr. Seuss Elephant & Piggie: The Complete Collection by Mo Willems The Lean Startup: How Today’s Entrepreneurs Use Continuous Innovation to Create Radically Successful Businesses by Eric Ries The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich by Timothy Ferriss The 4-Hour Chef: The Simple Path to Cooking Like a Pro, Learning Anything, and Living the Good Life by Timothy Ferriss Tools of Titans: The Tactics, Routines, and Habits of Billionaires, Icons, and World-Class Performers by Timothy FerrissRelated Reading, Listening, & ViewingTim’s Founder Kitchen — From Brainstorm to the President’s Office in Two Months (Featuring Jake Becraft, Strand Therapeutics) | The Tim Ferriss Show #868My Two-Year Secret Project, COYOTE — The Strategies and Tactics for Building a Bestseller from Nothing with Elan Lee of Exploding Kittens | The Tim Ferriss Show #821 Lenny’s Podcast | Lenny’s NewsletterHow to Turn Your AI Into a World-Class Designer by Anshu Chimala | Lenny’s Newsletter Waiting for “Superman” (2010) Glengarry Glen Ross (1992) Rashomon (1950)Niels Hoven: From Blair to ‘Beauty and the Geek’ | Silver Chips Online Beauty and the Geek (2005–2008)Tools & ProductsPickFuOptimizelyClaudeChatGPTDropbox’s Referral ProgramCoyoteAlpha SchoolTiEMaui Nui VenisonPeopleKamal AgarwalaAlec BaldwinJacob BecraftAdam CarollaJensen HuangJoe LiemandtMerlin MannAnita ManwaniMarc MaronDavid OgilvyLenny RachitskySrinivasa RamanujanEric RiesJoe RoganRobert ScobleTimestamps

[00:00:00] Start.

[00:01:32] What Mentava is—and the toddlers reading before age three.

[00:08:31] Game design, slot-machine motivation, and lowering the hoop.

[00:11:54] Tim’s red pen: rewriting the bio and positioning.

[00:16:59] The real problem: wasted early years, high-school pressure.

[00:23:55] Learning at your own pace—and “what if you did nothing?”

[00:29:32] Dog-fish, fish-dog: readiness, failed trials, and follow-ups.

[00:35:06] The $500 price, school pilots, and videos-for-tuition scholarships.

[00:41:39] Teach a kid to fish: selling relief, not nagging.

[00:47:49] Viral posts, the culture-war trap, and why exaggeration is death.

[00:55:05] Put the ask on top: investor updates and what actually converts.

[00:59:35] The thirty-year phonics war—and it’s not with teachers.

[01:01:10] A $1,000 coupon, zero takers: why the referral bribe flopped.

[01:08:04] Lead with the love letters: testimonials, homepage, and who’s buying.

[01:20:03] “No scam charges $500 a month”: pricing and who you’re not for.

[01:34:16] Uncrowded channels and workshopping like a standup.

[01:42:08] Don’t let Amazon be your debutante ball: testing what sells.

[01:46:42] Alpha School, the competitive map, and the eager investor.

[01:48:39] Reaching the already-converted: be the painkiller, TiE, surround sound.

[02:08:18] Niels’s charge: advocate for your child, unapologetically.

“Kids are these little sponges. They want to learn everything.”

— Niels Hoven

“The metaphor for motivation that I like to use is it’s like trying to get someone to jump through a hoop. You can either increase the size of the reward on the other side or you can lower the hoop.”

— Niels Hoven

“If you allow kids to learn at their own pace, you can pack the entire school day into a very small amount of time.”

— Niels Hoven

“Everybody in cognitive science—everybody in the rest of academia—completely understands that phonics is the only way to teach reading.”

— Niels Hoven

“Being able to say, ‘My kid can already read. You need to give them more opportunity,’ is one of your strongest negotiating levers.”

— Niels Hoven

“Never ever let anybody make you feel guilty for advocating for your kid.”

— Niels Hoven

Want to hear another episode with someone fixated on the outer limits of how fast humans can learn? Listen to my conversation with chess prodigy and The Art of Learning author Josh Waitzkin, in which we discussed initiating flow states, cognitive biases, fixed versus growth mindsets, the hazards of a rigid identity, presence in parenting, cultivating quality as a way of life, the principle of scarcity in the learning process, thematic interconnectedness in education, and much more.

This episode is brought to you by Fin! Fin is an AI agent that delivers high-quality answers and helps resolve complex queries that your customers may have. Rapidly-growing companies like Anthropic (the AI lab behind Claude) rely on Fin to deliver accurate and thoughtful customer support to millions. Fin is built using custom models trained on thousands of customer interactions, and it understands the complexity and nuance of customer service like no other agent. You feed Fin your internal knowledge and policies, it learns your rules, and it can start supporting your overstretched support team. And because every business runs things differently, Fin is fully self-manageable. See the difference Fin can make for your business with a free trial at Fin.ai/Tim.

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. 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.

This episode is brought to you by Wealthfront! Wealthfront is a financial services platform that offers services to help you save and invest your money. Right now, your cash can earn 3.30% APY—that’s the Annual Percentage Yield—with the Wealthfront Cash Account from its network of program banks. That’s 8 times more interest than a typical savings account at a bank, according to FDIC.gov as of 05/18/2026 (Wealthfront’s 3.30% APY vs. 0.38% average savings rate). Right now, for a limited time, Wealthfront is offering new clients that use my sign-up link an additional 0.75% boost over the base rate for three months, meaning you can get up to 4.05% APY, limited to a $150,000 balance. Terms & Conditions apply. Visit Wealthfront.com/Tim to get started. 

The Cash Account, which is not a deposit account, is offered by Wealthfront Brokerage LLC (“Wealthfront Brokerage”), member FINRA/SIPC. Wealthfront Brokerage is not a bank. The 3.30% Base APY on cash deposits is as of January 30, 2026, is representative, subject to change, and requires no minimum balance. Wealthfront Brokerage sweeps cash balances to Program Banks, where it earns the variable base APY. The Direct Deposit Plus Investing Program from Wealthfront Advisers LLC and Wealthfront Brokerage LLC provides eligible clients a 0.25% APY increase above the base APY on eligible Cash Account balances (up to an overall boosted rate of 4.30% for a limited time when including the three month 0.75% APY boost for new Cash Account clients) when you direct deposit $1,000/month plus maintain a funded investing account. Wealthfront may change or end the program at any time and determine eligibility at its discretion. Terms and conditions apply. Full details for both promotions at wealthfront.com/promo-terms.

Tim Ferriss, who is not a client, receives cash compensation from Wealthfront Brokerage LLC for advertising and holds a non-controlling equity interest in the corporate parent of Wealthfront Brokerage LLC, which creates an incentive that results in a conflict of interest. Tim expresses his own opinions and Wealthfront does not endorse, sponsor, or promote them. This ad may not reflect the experience of other Cash Account clients, and similar outcomes are not guaranteed. Investment advisory services are provided by Wealthfront Advisers LLC, an SEC-registered investment adviser. Securities investments: not bank deposits, not bank-guaranteed or FDIC-insured, and may lose value. See full disclosures here . 

The post Why Kids Can Learn 10x Faster Than We Think — Niels Hoven of Mentava (Tim Coaching Session) (#882) appeared first on The Blog of Author Tim Ferriss.

This is a special episode about overcoming mistakes and failure. What do you do when your work is rejected, when the big bet fails, or when the path ahead suddenly disappears? As you’ll hear in this episode, setbacks can often present opportunities if you know how to look for them.

Enjoy!

This episode is brought to you by:

Helix Sleep premium mattresses Gusto  simple and easy payroll, HR, and benefits platform used by 400,000+ businesses Incogni ,   which removes your personal data from the web, helping shield you from fraud, scams, and identity theft[image error]Listen onSpotify Listen onApple Podcasts[image error]Listen onOvercastTales of Overcoming The Odds, and How to Turn Losses Into Wins — Tim McGraw, Terry Crews, Dax Shepard, and MoreAdditional podcast platforms

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

TranscriptsThis episodeAll episodesShow Notes

Connect with BJ Miller:

Website | LinkedIn | TwitterBJ’s appearance on the podcast: 153

Connect with Terry Crews:

X | Facebook | InstagramTerry’s appearances on the podcast: 587, 287

Connect with Tim McGraw:

Website | X | Facebook | Instagram | Threads | TikTok | YouTubeTim’s appearance on the podcast: 852

Connect with Jessica Lahey:

Website | X | Facebook | InstagramJessica’s appearance on the podcast: 553

Connect with Dax Shepard:

Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard | X | Facebook | InstagramDax’s appearance on the podcast: 480

Connect with Cathy Lanier:

LinkedInCathy’s appearance on the podcast: 862

Connect with Janna Levin:

Website | X | Facebook | InstagramJanna’s appearance on the podcast: 445

Connect with Boyd Varty:

Website | X | InstagramBoyd’s appearances on the podcast: 832, 571Recommended Reading, Listening, & ViewingBJ Miller: What Really Matters at the End of Life | TED TalkOne Man’s Quest to Change the Way We Die | The New York TimesAprilia Mana — Shiftless Shiver | Motorcyclist Brooklyn Nine-Nine | Prime Video America’s Got Talent | Prime Video Tim McGraw by Tim McGraw Not a Moment Too Soon by Tim McGraw“Indian Outlaw” by Tim McGraw Landman | Prime Video CHiPs | Prime VideoCHiPS (2017) Financial Information | The Numbers Parenthood | Prime Video Sliding Doors | Prime Video1991 Mount Pleasant Riot | City Cast DCBoyd Varty: What I Learned from Nelson Mandela | TED TalkThe Original Leopard Trackers | Londolozi BlogBooks A Beginner’s Guide to the End: Practical Advice for Living Life and Facing Death by BJ Miller and Shoshana Berger Manhood: How to Be a Better Man — or Just Live with One by Terry Crews Tribe of Mentors: Short Life Advice from the Best in the World by Tim Ferriss The Gift of Failure: How the Best Parents Learn to Let Go So Their Children Can Succeed by Jessica Lahey The Addiction Inoculation: Raising Healthy Kids in a Culture of Dependence by Jessica Lahey The Lion Tracker’s Guide to Life by Boyd VartyPeopleRandy SloanMert LawwillTerry JeffordsJamie FoxxDebbie MillmanByron GallimoreSam ElliotBilly Bob ThorntonScott BorchettaMike BorchettaFaith HillKristen BellJosh WaitzkinRenias MhlongoAlex Van Den HeeverMartha BeckTimestamps00:00 — Introduction from Tim01:23 — BJ Miller: Making an Impossible Motorcycle Dream Real05:35 — Terry Crews: Why You Have to Take the Shot16:28 — Tim McGraw: Failing on Your Own Terms27:31 — Jessica Lahey: From “Unpublishable” to Bestseller31:48 — Dax Shepard: When Failure Saves You From What You Want38:11 — Cathy Lanier: Rebuilding a Life47:33 — Janna Levin: Life Is the Obstacles54:36 — Boyd Varty: Finding the Next Track When You’re StuckQuotations from This Episode

“I love two wheels. I love the gyroscopic lifestyle. I love the feeling of it.”

— BJ Miller

“If I win or if I fail, it’s going to be on my terms. It’s going to be up to me. If I have the opportunity, I have to go for it.”

— Terry Crews

“If you don’t have a vision about what you want to do, if you don’t have a plan about what you want to do, if you don’t act on it every day, it’s not going to happen. It’s just not going to happen.“

— Tim McGraw

“It’s not that I’m a great writer. It’s that I was humble enough to say, ‘Teach me how to be better. I will take it to heart, and I will be able to be objective about it, and I will use it, and I won’t make the same mistakes again.'”

— Jessica Lahey

“What I know most is that I don’t know what’s best for me.”

— Dax Shepard

“I remember the first day I went to get food stamps, going to the big white building by Prince George’s Plaza right near my home and standing in the same line with my son that I stood in with my mom when I was a kid, and I was like, ‘This is not my path. This can’t be my path.'”

— Cathy Lanier

“Life is not great for most people, and they have to do a hell of a lot more than not screw it up.”

— Janna Levin

“I don’t know where I’m going, but I know exactly how to get there.”

— Boyd Varty

Want to hear another episode with someone who turned getting unstuck into a life’s work? Listen to my conversation with author and life coach Martha Beck, in which we discussed the amazing and brutal results of telling zero lies for 365 days, how to do a beginner “integrity cleanse,” owning your right to say no, honest alternatives to saying no, finding joy in the body, want versus yearning, the opposite of anxiety, Internal Family Systems, lessons from lion trackers, and much more.

This episode is brought to you by Incogni: erase your personal data from the web and prevent scams, fraud, and identity theft! Incogni automatically removes your information across 420+ data brokers (1,000+ additional sites covered in their Unlimited plan), and they keep it scrubbed automatically. Deloitte has independently verified the headline numbers (245M+ removal requests), and the company adheres to AICPA SOC security standards, with an A+ rating from the BBB. And with their Unlimited plan, if you find your info on a site they don’t automatically monitor, just send them the link, and their privacy team will handle it. ​Protect yourself now with Incogni. Go to Incogni.com/Tim to get 60% off their annual plan.

This episode is brought to you by Gusto! If you’re a small business owner looking to simplify payroll and HR tasks, Gusto could be the game-changer you need. Gusto is an all-in-one payroll, benefits, and HR platform designed specifically for small businesses. Gusto automatically files federal, state, and local payroll taxes, handles W-2s and 1099s, and offers straightforward health benefits and 401(k) options for nearly any budget. With an intuitive interface and features like time tracking, onboarding tools, and direct access to certified HR experts, Gusto saves time and eliminates headaches so you can focus on what matters—growing your business. ​As a special offer to listeners, new customers get Gusto free for their first 3 months. This is the perfect time to choose Gusto to take care of your team and stay compliant. See for yourself why 9 out of 10 businesses recommend it. Get started now! Terms apply at Gusto.com/terms.

This episode is brought to you by Helix Sleep! Helix was named best overall mattress of 2026 by Forbes, Wired, and Sleepopolis; best mattress for couples by Oprah Daily; and one of the most trusted brands of 2026 by USA Today. 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 listeners 20% off sitewide for a limited time at HelixSleep.com/Tim.

The post Tales of Overcoming the Odds, and How to Turn Losses Into Wins — Tim McGraw, Terry Crews, Dax Shepard, and More (#881) appeared first on The Blog of Author Tim Ferriss.