Transcription
Itos, I was what could only be described as just like feral. Wayward youth. The following is a conversation with Andrew Huberman. I have Andrew Huberman today. Andrew Huberman, he's a neuroscientist, a neurobiology professor at Stanford Medical School. I got exposed to drugs, alcohol, fights. He has made numerous important contributions to the fields of brain development, brain function, and neuroplasticity. I stopped really paying attention to school. A brand new member of our faculty, Andy Huberman. I did everything I could to resist getting taken away, but they, they took me away and put me under locking key. There. I have two sons. They are obsessed. In the country, he's become like this go-to guy. It was really like the, the, I'm going to end up dead or in [Music] jail.
Born into the vibrant cityscape of San Francisco in 1975, Andrew Huberman's early years were happy and full of learning. His mother was a stay-at-home teacher, and his father was a physicist. As a young boy, Huberman was incredibly passionate about science and animals. Because I was obsessive about learning, so when I was like six, I'd spend all my time in, you know, pet stores cataloging all the fish. His father's profession as a physicist further fanned the flames for Huberman's enthusiasm for science. So I had this really unusual childhood where, you know, we didn't talk about sports, we talked about science, and I had this close relationship with science and the people around science.
Yet, as Huberman approached his teenage years, the trajectory of his life took a dramatic turn. His world, as he knew it, began to unravel, setting the stage for a journey filled with unexpected twists and profound transformations. And so, everything took a hard turn when I was about 12, 3. Um, my parents divorced, and unfortunately, they didn't read the rule book, or if they did, they broke every rule in the rule book. Um, and it was a very high conflict situation. His safe family home became impossible to live in. His father, once a stable rock, left, and as a result, his mother suffered a terrible depression, unable to give Huberman the parental support he needed. A young child, neglected and left to his own vices. I can know in retrospect, it was a super traumatic, daily traumatic environment. If I was at home, or it was, um, just like pure, pure, pure neglect. He was lost, alone, adrift in a sea of chaos. He flocked to the streets to find support and found skateboarding, a rough subculture that embraced and celebrated the lost misfits of society.
But basically, what happened was, I stopped really paying attention to school, and I got really heavily into skateboarding and kind of punk rock music, and I found my pack, or my community, through like a pack and community of kids that also just were kind of parent. And there, I got exposed to a lot. I got exposed to drugs, alcohol, fights. Um, I got exposed to a lot of kids that just didn't go to school. Um, just didn't go. Um, there were a bunch of, you know, lot of untour elements. And so it was this pack of maybe a hundred guys, and it was run like a little city, and it was chaos. It was like there was fights, and there was drinking, and there was, um, lawlessness. With no parents watching over him, he stopped returning home at night and would regularly miss classes at school. All of a sudden, I realized, you know, I don't have to be home at any particular time, or, um, you know, none of these kids are going to school, and so we all, it was a kind of a big group of truants, and I was drifting further and further away from any kind of academic rigor.
But his frequency of skipping school caught the attention of his teachers, and he was taken away to a residential treatment program where he was locked up in a shocking attempt to help him get his life back on track. In any case, to make what happened was, uh, something about my behavior cued the school system, probably the fact I wasn't going to school much anymore. Um, I got taken away. I got put into a residential treatment program up on the peninsula. This was not for drug use, alcohol use, or hurting anyone or myself. This was mainly for truancy, and they were really concerned about me. I can't sleep. They're coming in doing bed checks like three times a night. They, you know, they're frisking us. They're doing cavity searches for did we bring in weapons? Did we bring in drugs? Whilst detained, Huberman followed the rules, enrolled in therapy, and was released just after one month.
But after leaving the detainment facility, his behavior and lack of enthusiasm for his education remained unchanged. He moved from school to school. Basically, they just said, you need to either start coming to school, or, you know, or you're done. So I got shifted to another high school, and that was the same story. It just was, it was a mess. It just fell apart. I was not a good student. I barely finished high school, and I was really struggling to figure things out. Despite his lack of enthusiasm for academia, he applied to study at UC Santa Barbara to be with his then girlfriend. You know, I got into UC Santa Barbara, and I went there to be with her, and let's just say two quarters into it, I had more fights than I did time in class, and by the end of the year, I was basically flunking out. Fighting, flunking out. Huberman was lost and on a one-way path to trouble. [Laughter]
But on July 4th, 1994, an event would take place that would change the trajectory of his life forever. And what ended up happening was, um, I got into a physical altercation on July 4th, 1994 with like a bunch of guys. And I, we show up at a friend's house, and, um, a bunch of guys were stealing some stuff from the house that was clear. They're loading up their cars. So I got into this fight with a bunch of guys, and the people I had shown up there with all scrambled. Dale just took on. And so this fight started getting ratcheted up into weapons and like, and, and people hitting each other with skateboards and like, so knives coming out and the whole thing. The police show up. In the end, I was let go, and I realized I'm like, I'm, I'm officially a loser, right? I'm 19 years old. Girlfriend and I are split up. I screwed up my first opportunity, or the opportunity to get a college education. I'd gotten straight C's and D's my first year. M, if I even got that. M, hmm. I already been to youth detention once, but now I'm 19. I'm delivering bagels. I don't like the guy who owns the bagel shop. I have a bad attitude. Like, I'm officially a loser. Because it was, it was really like the, I'm going to end up dead or in jail.
As Huberman stood at a crossroads, facing the consequences of his actions, he found himself at a defining moment, a moment of deep reflection that would pivot his life in a new direction. He made a desperate promise to his mother that he would change. And I actually wrote a two-page letter to my mom, still have it, where I said, you know, this is it. I'm turning it around. I don't care if the teachers are good. I'm going to just do the work. And I just was a machine. It was like Henry Rollins style, just like work out. I listen to Rancid, listen to Bob Dylan, listen to classical music on loop, drank coffee, worked out, ran, studied. Through this intense period of monk-like discipline, Huberman would find a way to tap back into the passion for learning he had as a young child.
With a new aptitude for study, Huberman would become a straight-A student, graduating with honors. You know, I was a student, and I became a straight-A, you know, straight A, A+ student as best I could, just through hard work. I used to sit in my room, read my textbooks, and just rewrite them and rewrite them and rewrite them, memorize them. I used to close, close my eyes and memorize them. His work paid off. After graduating from UC Santa Barbara, he would be accepted to Berkeley, where he would begin working in Harry Carlile's lab, a Maverick professor who took a liking to him and helped reignite his passion for science. You know, I started getting really into working Harry's lab, and he was great, my kind of guy. He smoked cigarettes in the lab, he lit them with the buns and burg and smoked in the fume hood. We drank coffee. We were injecting rats with with with MDMA. Huberman had his first real taste of neuroscience, and he was hooked.
There was one professor in particular who took note. He was like, oh, you know, you seem really interested in this stuff. And I was like, yeah, because he was teaching me about depression, schizophrenia, neurochemicals. I thought I was totally turned on by the world of neuroscience. It was just a light bulb went on. I was like, this is it. I'm going to do. I'm going to do this. I want to work on this. I want to understand the mind. I want to, because I'd gone through my own thing of having been kind of normal kid, happy, healthy childhood, then everything just kind of fell apart. I was depressed, but I was also angry. I was seeking, but I, you know, and I was like, I, I want to figure this out. You know, I was 20 years old at that point. So I just made the decision, I'm going to get a PhD, I'm become a professor, I'm going to get tenure. I'm going to be like this guy, you know, this guy who has looked like he had a pretty good life to me.
Rediscovering his childhood fascination with science and the natural world, Huberman began to see education not as a burden, but as a gateway to understanding the complexities of life that once overwhelmed him. Inspired and motivated, he would indeed go on to get his PhD, become a professor, and then get tenure at Stanford University. This is Neurosciences Connections, and I'm Bill Mobley. Uh, here today, uh, with real pleasure in interviewing, uh, a brand new member of our faculty, Andy Huberman. Huberman's life was good. Now 43, he had spent the past two decades rising in the academic world. He could have easily continued along this path for the rest of his career, but one day, a good friend challenged him to do more.
So, um, the reason I got involved in educating on social media was actually because of a, a Pat Dosset. And we were talking one morning, and he said, so what are you going to do to serve the world in 2019? Like, well, I run my lab. I like, no, no, no, what are you going to do that's new? Um, if I had my way, I would just, you know, teach people, everyone about the brain, because I think it's amazing. He goes, well, do it. All right, you got Sher on it. Did it, you know? And so I started putting out these posts. Huberman would take to Instagram in an effort to further educate the world about neuroscience. Hello, and Happy New Year. My name is Andrew Huberman, and I'm a professor of neurobiology and Ophthalmology at Stanford School of Medicine. These first posts were sterile and awkward, but as 2019 progressed, Huberman found his voice, infusing his posts with personality and insight, and he was drawing attention from beyond the academic sphere for the first time.
Then, as the world grappled with the unprecedented challenge of a global pandemic in 2020, Huberman offered practical, science-backed advice for the public. Concerned by the lack of common sense health information, he stepped up. So 2020, I was just really concerned for the world, frankly. I was like, listen, I know the guy who's the director of the National Institutes of Mental Health. I don't see one sound bite. Sorry, Josh, but like, I don't know you well enough to kind of poke at you, but if it wasn't him. No advice on get regular sunlight, stay on a circadian rhythm, learn some stress mitigation techniques. It was like, in the world's kind of falling apart due to stress, I'm thinking, okay, no one's going to step up. I'm just going to do this. And I wasn't selling a book. I didn't have a podcast. It was just giving information.
Huberman's newfound visibility led him to the world of podcasting, where his impact would multiply. And 2020 started with one podcast. We did 30. I did 30 podcasts that year. I went on about 30 podcasts and went on Joe's podcast, you know, Rogan's podcast, and Lex's podcast. At the end of 2020, his appearances on these high-profile podcasts not only showcased his expertise but also his ability to translate complex scientific concepts into digestible, practical advice. This resonated deeply with a global audience, catapulting him from an unknown scientist to the number one most sought-after guest in the self-development sphere.
Riding on this wave of popularity and impact, Huberman embarked on a new venture in 2021, launching his own podcast, fittingly named The Huberman Lab. Welcome to The Huberman Lab podcast, where we discuss science and science-based tools for everyday [Music] life. Huberman Lab became a top 10 podcast within the year that it launched, and since then, it's grown to millions of listeners eagerly tuning in each week. Like I have two sons. They are obsessed. Most m in the country are. He's become like this go-to guy. From the streets, skating, rebelling, and fighting, to Stanford and creating content, teaching millions how to improve their lives every week, Huberman's journey teaches us that the path to finding one's true calling is often nonlinear and full of challenges. His story is more than just one of discipline and turnaround. It's about rediscovery of passions that were buried deep. It's a testament to the human spirit's resilience, the ability to find direction in the midst of chaos, and to kindle hope when all you see is despair. A reminder that our past doesn't define us. Rather, it's our relentless pursuit of growth and understanding that shapes our destiny.
It's like right now, I, I truly say, you, if you gave me $100 billion dollars to stop podcasting, I wouldn't do it because to me, I, what I know for sure based on my experience is that at some point, the lights are going to go out for dead. Just like gone. You know, this as a physician, people don't like to think this. It's going to be lights out. And sort of like, what are you going to have, and what you have done? And so I really feel like as much as I can touch into like the beauty and utility of biology and sure that then I'm good. Um, the rest is just no wors.