Podcast Notes Playlist: Latest Episodes

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Raw milk farmer, Rick Anglin, used to be in the conventional dairy industry before switching to raw milk. His farm, Fond du Lac Farms, is the exclusive raw dairy provider to Sprouts grocery stores across the state of Arizona. Does hot coffee pasteurize raw milk? What is the listeria risk from consuming raw dairy? Should you only drink raw milk from grass-fed cows? Farmer Rick joins Alex to put raw milk conspiracies out to pasture.

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You know him as the CEO of OpenAI — but did you know that Sam Altman is an avid writer? 

As one of today’s most successful entrepreneurs, Sam champions the tremendous value of writing: how it clarifies your thinking, expands your ideas, and levels-up your life in every sense, both personally and professionally. Plus, he has a love for the creative. (Have you ever met someone who can recite Percy Bysshe Shelley poems from memory? Well, Sam can.) 

In this episode, we discuss how Sam uses ChatGPT in his daily life; how LLMs are changing the future of writing; what it means to be a novelist in the age of technology; and Sam’s best-learned writing lessons from Paul Graham. If you want to learn how the king of ChatGPT writes, this episode is for you. 

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• Microplastics don’t just vanish in our bodies, they accumulate; by understanding the sources, we can take preventive measures to avoid or minimize the use of harmful products
• Once microplastics enter our bodies, they can circulate in our bloodstream and deposit in various tissues and the bloodstream

• As our environmental plastic pollution increases, so does the accumulation in human tissue
• While the body does have mechanisms to clear toxins, we’re in an almost constant cycle of consuming and clearing microplastics and associated chemicals (BPA, BPS, phthalates)

Sweating helps enhance microplastic-associated chemical excretion. Get my free sauna report when you sign up here for my newsletter.

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Every week, the average person ingests the equivalent weight of a credit card in plastic.* While certain preventive measures can significantly reduce your intake of these harmful substances, it’s crucial to acknowledge a more daunting concern: the bioaccumulation of microplastics in the brain, potentially at ten times the rate of other organs. Microplastics and their associated chemicals are alarmingly ubiquitous — they permeate breast milk, sperm, the hippocampus, the prefrontal cortex, the air we breathe, medications, the water supply, and our bloodstream, accumulating in most major organ systems. During this episode, we’ll explore the unsettling realities of microplastics and their associated chemicals, diving into how they infiltrate nearly every facet of our environment and body, and discuss actionable strategies to reduce exposure.

Timestamps:

• (00:00) The extent of the problem
• (02:12) Top sources of exposure
• (04:00) Contamination of our water
• (05:04) BPA, phthalates, & PFAS (forever chemicals)
• (07:06) How heating plastic affects BPA exposure
• (09:21) Our unfortunate habit of eating credit cards
• (11:33) Microplastics in major organs
• (14:05) Crossing the blood-brain barrier
• (15:01) How microplastics affect a developing fetus
• (15:55) The bloodstream is a highway for microplastics
• (18:12) Endocrine and hormonal effects
• (23:09) Consequences in pregnant women
• (25:35) How phthalates affect reproductive health
• (26:36) BPA's involvement in autism spectrum disorder
• (29:58) Side effects of prenatal BPA exposure
• (32:18) The brain may be a super-accumulator of plastic
• (34:50) Human brain microplastic levels are rising
• (36:06) Lost fertility in women
• (38:07) Changes in sperm quality
• (39:23) Microplastics in sperm
• (40:59) Why the heart suffers
• (42:51) Microplastics in arterial plaque
• (43:56) How BPA affects blood pressure
• (45:58) Risk of cancer
• (50:31) Topo Chico sparkling water
• (53:02) Reverse osmosis filtration
• (54:56) Food-based strategies for limiting microplastics
• (56:32) The "myth" of BPA-free plastics
• (58:14) Is salt a source of microplastics?
• (59:18) HEPA filters
• (1:00:52) Choose your clothing wisely
• (1:01:47) How to prevent release of microplastics (from laundry)
• (1:02:32) Receipts and thermal paper
• (1:04:17) Microplastic excretion and breakdown
• (1:06:28) Sulforaphane for detoxifying
• (1:08:38) Can dietary fiber increase microplastic excretion?
• (1:10:15) Are plastic chemicals excreted through sweat?
• (1:11:21) Do excretion strategies work for "forever chemicals"?

Show notes are available by clicking here

Watch this episode on YouTube

* Some sources suggesting this figure may need to be revised downward as a result of some disagreement on the math used. However, in spite of this lack of consensus, the human and animal intake of microplastics is substantial and pervasive.

• “The founder has to be accountable for the story. The founder holds this secret knowledge and vision that other people do not.” – Lulu Meservey 
• Go Direct: If the founder’s secret has to go through seven layers of filtering before it is shared with the world, then it will become something that is already familiar to people and that already exists
• The Core Ingredients of Founder Communications:
  • 1. Have a willingness and eagerness to take on the company’s comms 
  • 2. Have a clear vision of the company’s goals 
  • 3. Know your audience
  • 4. Reach people where they intellectually hang out
• “Communication is a vector, not a scalar. It only matters if there is a direction attached to it.” – Lulu Meservey 
• Know your audience; if you are talking to the wrong people, then you would be better off talking to nobody because you may be making new enemies or unwanted friends 
• Do not worry about converting your haters into believers; doing so successfully is so rare that it is probably not worth your scare time
• Know where your target audience intellectually hangs out so that your message can reach them in that medium 
• Do not worry about converting your haters into believers; doing so successfully is so rare that it is probably not worth your scare time 
• Craft your hook and know the erogenous zone of your target audience, then present them with a “gateway drug” that bridges them into the new world that you are creating

My guest today is Lulu Meservey. Lulu is the Founder and CEO of Rostra, a company that partners with founders to level up their communications around all strategic initiatives, from hiring to fundraising. She is also on the board at Shopify. I have been recently fascinated by the challenge of founders telling their story and Lulu is an expert in comms and a believer in creative problem-solving through effective communication and compelling storytelling. We discuss the evolution of media and its pitfalls, innovative methods for managing crises, and the power of going direct with your communication. Please enjoy my conversation with Lulu Meservey.

I’m excited to announce that we are hiring an Editor in Chief at Colossus. This will be a critical and central role in our growing media platform and in our quest to find and showcase the best people, businesses, and ideas in the world. This person will work on existing shows like Invest Like the Best and Founders, our soon-to-be-announced print publication, and more. We aim to be the dominant media company exploring business and investing frontiers, so this person needs to be obsessed with these topics and bring serious operational chops. I firmly believe this role can help define someone’s career. Go to joincolossus.com/eic to apply.

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Jonny Miller is the founder of Nervous System Mastery, a course that has helped hundreds of founders and tech leaders cultivate calm, reduce nervousness, enhance resilience, and elevate their sense of aliveness. Having personally benefited from Jonny’s teachings, I’m especially excited to have him on the show. In this episode, we discuss:

• How shifting your focus from the mind to the body can help ease nervousness

• The power of breath in changing states

• The importance of “interoception”

• Specific breathing exercises to both calm and excite your nervous system

• The A.P.E. (awareness, posture, and emotion) framework for recognizing body signals

• The “feather, brick, dump truck” phenomenon

• The concept of emotional debt and how to release it

• The competitive advantage of feeling emotions

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Jonny’s five-week boot camp, Nervous System Mastery, will equip you with evidence-backed protocols to cultivate greater calm and agency over your internal state. Learn to rewire maladaptive stress responses and improve your sleep (use code LENNY for $250 discount). Apply here.

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Find the full transcript at: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/managing-nerves-anxiety-and-burnout

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Where to find Jonny Miller:

• X: https://twitter.com/jonnym1ller

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonnym1ller/

• Website: https://www.jonnymiller.co/

• Podcast: podcast.curioushumans.com 

• Email: [email protected]

• Course: https://nsmastery.com/lenny

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Where to find Lenny:

• Newsletter: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com

• X: https://twitter.com/lennysan

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lennyrachitsky/

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In this episode, we cover:

(00:00) Jonny’s background

(07:19) The bottom-up approach to nervousness and anxiety

(09:42) The power of breath in changing states

(11:47) The concept of state over story

(13:56) Personal experiences with nervousness

(15:01) Breathing exercises to calm you down

(20:40) The “espresso” breath exercise to give you energy

(25:44) Interoception and the A.P.E. framework

(34:47) The “feather, brick, dump truck” phenomenon

(37:40) Recognizing emotional debt and avoiding burnout

(40:47) Using somatic-oriented therapy for healing

(45:26) Telltale signs of emotional debt

(48:13) The competitive advantage of “feeling the feels”

(50:20) Advice for people overwhelmed by stimuli

(52:36) The NSDR (non-sleep deep rest) practice for emotional release

(55:38) Daily practices for emotional well-being

(58:23) Thoughts on meditation

(01:01:26) The Body Keeps the Score

(01:01:58) Contrarian corner

(01:04:43) Lightning round

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Jonny’s If [This] Then [Breathe] Recipes:

• If [overwhelmed], then [hum]

• If [anxious], then [breath of calm]

• If [lethargic], then [espresso breath]

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Referenced:

• The Operating Manual for Your Nervous System: https://every.to/p/the-operating-manual-for-your-nervous-system

• Afferent vs. Efferent Neurons: https://www.osmosis.org/answers/afferent-vs-efferent-neurons

• Insular cortex: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Insular_cortex

• Jonny’s TED Talk, “The gifts of grief”: https://www.ted.com/talks/jonny_miller_the_gifts_of_grief/details

• Humming (Simple Bhramari Pranayama) as a Stress Buster: A Holter-Based Study to Analyze Heart Rate Variability (HRV) Parameters During Bhramari, Physical Activity, Emotional Stress, and Sleep: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10182780/

• 14-Minute Guided NSDR (non-sleep deep rest) practice: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vjXX2c72fYY

• Breathing Techniques to Reduce Stress and Anxiety | Dr. Andrew Huberman on the Physiological Sigh: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kSZKIupBUuc

• Interoception: the hidden sense that shapes well-being: https://www.theguardian.com/science/2021/aug/15/the-hidden-sense-shaping-your-wellbeing-interoception

• Exteroception: https://dictionary.apa.org/exteroception

• Interoceptive Awareness and ADHD: https://chadd.org/adhd-news/adhd-news-adults/interoceptive-awareness-and-adhd/

• Childhood Trauma Affects Stress-Related Interoceptive Accuracy: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6813623/

• The Hour Between Dog and Wolf: How Risk Taking Transforms Us, Body and Mind: https://www.amazon.com/Hour-Between-Dog-Wolf-Transforms/dp/0143123408

• Somatic Experiencing: https://www.somaticexperiencing.com/

• Hakomi Institute: https://hakomiinstitute.com/

• Decisions and Desire (about Antonio Damasio’s work): https://hbr.org/2006/01/decisions-and-desire

• When enough is enough | Andy Johns (ex-FB, Twitter, Quora): https://www.lennyspodcast.com/when-enough-is-enough-andy-johns-ex-fb-twitter-quora/

• What Is Yoga Nidra?: https://health.clevelandclinic.org/what-is-yoga-nidra

• Becoming Fully Yourself, What AI Wants, Family Rituals & Rites of Passage, with Kevin Kelly: https://podcast.curioushumans.com/episodes/becoming-fully-yourself-what-ai-wants-rites-of-passage-with-kevin-kelly

• Tim Ferriss: https://tim.blog/

• The Power of Sensations: Intermediate’s Vipassana Body Scan: https://insighttimer.com/carola.ananda/guided-meditations/the-power-of-sensations-intermediates-vipassana-body-scan-meditation

• Vipassana Meditation: https://www.dhamma.org/en/index

• The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma: https://www.amazon.com/Body-Keeps-Score-Healing-Trauma/dp/0670785938

• Waking the Tiger: Healing Trauma: https://www.amazon.com/Waking-Tiger-Healing-Peter-Levine/dp/155643233X

• Consolations: The Solace, Nourishment and Underlying Meaning of Everyday Words: https://www.themarginalian.org/2015/04/29/david-whyte-consolations-words/

• The 15 Commitments of Conscious Leadership: A New Paradigm for Sustainable Success: https://www.amazon.com/15-Commitments-Conscious-Leadership-Sustainable/dp/0990976904/

• The Conscious Leadership Group: https://conscious.is/

• Recapture the Rapture: Rethinking God, Sex, and Death in a World That’s Lost Its Mind: https://www.amazon.com/Recapture-Rapture-Rethinking-Death-World/dp/0062905465

• Kubo and the Two Strings on Prime Video: https://www.amazon.com/Kubo-Two-Strings-Charlize-Theron/dp/B01K5BSWX0

• Wolfwalkers on AppleTV+: https://tv.apple.com/us/movie/wolfwalkers/umc.cmc.amuoq00hqelfi98j0gvg641x

• Scavengers Reign on Max: https://www.max.com/shows/scavengers-reign/50c8ce6d-088c-42d9-9147-d1b19b1289d4

• Jerry Colonna on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jerry-colonna-reboot/

• Ra Optics “Sunset” blue-light blockers: https://raoptics.com/collections/night-lenses

• Nurosym vagal stimulation device: https://my.nurosym.com/vns1564/

• Pulsetto vagal stimulation device: https://pulsetto.tech/new-year/?gc_id=20124962116&h_ad_id=686249897188&gad_source=1

• Apollo vagus nerve stimulator: https://apolloneuro.com/products/apollo-wearable

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Additional research:

• Cellular allostatic load is linked to increased energy expenditure and accelerated biological aging: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0306453023003001

• Somatic experiencing: using interoception and proprioception as core elements of trauma therapy: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00093/full

• Relationship between interoception and emotion regulation: New evidence from mixed methods: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0165032718323723

• Out-of-the-blue panic attacks aren’t without warning: body sends signals for hour before: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21783179/

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Production and marketing by https://penname.co/. For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email [email protected].

—

Lenny may be an investor in the companies discussed.

• Populism in the new Communism; the same strategies that were used to fight and combat the spread of Communism during the Cold War are now used to fight populism
• Global censorship is not a “left vs right” issue; it is the Blob vs. populism 
  • The “Blob” as a term used to describe the entrenched foreign policy establishment in Washington, DC
• Following World War II, the Blob was created to influence events in foreign countries so that those events would suit the interests of the United States
  • After 1948, the United States needed a new mechanism to maintain its empire – not by military means, but by political vassalage 
  • The US would intervene in countries that did not pose any national security threat but had resources or services that supported the interests of the US and its people
• Starting in 2016, the foreign-policy established institutions felt threatened that the entire rules-based international order might collapse due to nations pursuing their own nationalism; to combat this trend, the Blob created its online censorship apparatus around the year 2014

• The Blob is used to prevent or handicap the rise of populist political candidates in a given region 
• During the Cold War, the CIA and State Department viewed left-wing Communism as the ultimate threat; today, they view right-wing populism as the threat 

• “The American people are subsidizing their silence.” – Mike Benz

Mike Benz is a former official with the U.S. Department of State, known for his work in international communications and digital freedom. He has played a significant role in advocating for internet freedom and the protection of online expression.

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• “The Allies floated to victory on a sea of oil.” – Lord Curzon 
  • Access to oil resources was critical for the Allies’ military operations, fueling their ships, planes, and machinery; this provided the Allies with a mobility advantage over the Germans 
• Hydrocarbons have been the engine of economic development
• “World War II was not an oil war, but there was an oil war within World War II.” – Daniel Yergin 
  • When Hitler invaded Russia, he was not only going for Moscow but also for the oil fields in Baku 
  • Admiral Nimitz said if the Japanese had come back a third time and hit the oil tanks, then World War II in the Pacific would have taken another two years 
  • One reason why the Japanese Kamikaze flew into the aircraft carriers was to save fuel so that they did not have to fly back
• Energy security as a national strategic imperative tends to fall out of focus until it hits you in the face
• Warfare tends to be a beta-test environment for new technologies: World War I began with calvary and ended with tanks, airplanes, and motorcycles
• After World War I, there were fears that the country would run out of oil; to mitigate this fear, the American government began to support American companies that wanted to expand into the Middle East 
• Six out of every seven barrels of oil used by the Allies in WWII were produced by the United States  
• After World War II, all world leaders understood the significance of securing oil as a strategic resource 
• Estimates suggest that by 2030, about 10% of electricity in the United States will go towards powering data centers; today, that figure is 4% 

Unless you understand the history of oil, you cannot understand the rise of America, WW1, WW2, secular stagnation, the Middle East, Ukraine, how Xi and Putin think, and basically anything else that's happened since 1860.

It was a great honor to interview Daniel Yergin, the Pulitzer Prize winning author of The Prize - the best history of oil ever written (which makes it the best history of the 20th century ever written).

Watch on YouTube. Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or any other podcast platform. Read the full transcript here. Follow me on Twitter for updates on future episodes.

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This episode is brought to you by Suno, pioneers in AI-generated music. Suno's technology allows artists to experiment with melodic forms and structures in unprecedented ways. From chart-toppers to avant-garde compositions, Suno is redefining musical creativity. If you're an ML researcher passionate about shaping the future of music, email your resume to [email protected].

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Timestamps

(00:00:00) – Beginning of the oil industry

(00:13:37) – World War I & II

(00:25:06) – The Middle East

(00:47:04) – Yergin’s conversations with Putin & Modi

(01:04:36) – Writing through stories

(01:10:26) – The renewable energy transition

• The key to understanding Ancient Rome is to understand that it was obsessed with the past
• The Romans were hyper-competitive and cared deeply about their status amongst their peers; their public competitiveness drove them
• One of the secrets to Rome’s success was its ability to absorb and integrate non-Roman ideas 
• “If we were to write a realistic textbook of the Roman Empire, nine out of ten chapters should be details of what it was like to be a small-time family farmer, because that’s what 90% of the people in the ancient world did.” – Gregory Aldrete
• Roman law is perhaps the most significant legacy the empire has left on the modern world; about 90% of the modern world uses some derivation of it 
• The Great Contradiction: Rome’s very success made almost every group within Roman society deeply unhappy and boiling with resentment
• Caesar succeeded in taking over the state as one man, but he could not solve the problems of ruling Rome as one person and appearing to function as a king  
• Augustus is one of the most significant individuals in Roman history given he was the one who founded the Roman Empire; he led the transition from the republic to empire
• Public speaking was an essential aspect of life in Rome; those who were great orators, such as Cicero, had a great advantage in seeking power and influence 
• While Gladiators were considered low status – because they performed for others – many of them became wildly popular in Roman culture 
• The Five Good Emperors period (96-180 CE) of Roman history is often seen as a high point in Roman history

• The five emperors were Nerva, Trajan, Hadrian, Antoninus Pius, and Marcus Aurelius

Gregory Aldrete is a historian specializing in ancient Rome and military history.

Transcript:

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The story of how John Wooden won ten national championships on the way to becoming the greatest coach of all time.

Writing, production, and sound editing by Ben Wilson with support from Michael Lackner.

• In medicine (and everywhere), there is a resistance to new ideas, tied to effort justification – the idea that you’ve spent so much time holding a certain belief, that the cost is too high to change
• Nothing in science is not 100% certain – there are no proofs; science is not a ‘thing’ it’s a process

• You shouldn’t cling to hypotheses with absolute certainty and should be open to updating beliefs based on new information
• “Just having a crazy idea is not sufficient. You have to have a means of stating what a hypothesis is, determining how to test that hypothesis, and above all else – having the ability to update your hypothesis based on new, emerging information.” – Peter Attia

• “Women are confused because the same megaphone used to say estrogen causes breast cancer has not been used to correct course.” – Peter Attia

• We need to increase public awareness, we’re targeting the wrong organ
• At Johns Hopkins, fallopian tubes are removed instead of tied to eliminate the 1 in 78 chance of getting ovarian cancer

• The NIH doesn’t fund big, new ideas – it funds small ideas that are a likely bet
• We don’t have a vehicle to encourage big thinkers

View the Show Notes Page for This Episode

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Marty Makary, a Johns Hopkins surgeon and New York Times bestselling author, returns to The Drive to discuss his latest book, Blind Spots: When Medicine Gets It Wrong, and What It Means for Our Health. In this episode, Marty explores how a new generation of doctors is challenging long-held medical practices by asking critical new questions. He discusses the major problems of groupthink and cognitive dissonance in the medical community and delves into several of the "blind spots" raised in the book, including treatments for appendicitis, the peanut allergy epidemic, misunderstandings about HRT and breast cancer, antibiotic use, and the evolution of childbirth. He explains the urgent need for reform in medical education and the major barriers standing in the way of innovative medical research. Throughout the conversation, Marty offers insightful reflections on where medicine has succeeded and where there’s still room to challenge historic practices and embrace new approaches.

We discuss:

• The issue of groupthink and cognitive dissonance in science and medicine [2:30];
• How a non-operative treatment for appendicitis sheds light on cognitive dissonance [7:00];
• How cognitive dissonance and effort justification shape beliefs and actions [13:15];
• How misguided peanut allergy recommendations created an epidemic [17:45];
• The enduring impact of misinformation and fear-based messaging around hormone replacement therapy allegedly causing breast cancer [25:15];
• The dangers of extreme skepticism and blind faith in science, and the importance of understanding uncertainty and probability [28:00];
• The overuse of antibiotics and the rise of antibiotic resistant infections and poor gut health [33:45];
• The potential correlations between early antibiotic use and chronic diseases [40:45];
• The historical and evolving trends in childbirth and C-section rates [50:15];
• Rethinking ovarian cancer: recent data challenging decades of medical practice and leading to new preventive measures [1:05:30];
• Navigating uncertainty as a physician [1:19:30];
• The urgent need for reform in medical education [1:21:45];
• The major barriers to innovative medical research [1:27:30];
• The dogmatic culture of academic medicine: why humility and challenging established norms are key for progress [1:38:15];
• The major successes and ongoing challenges of modern medicine [1:51:00]; and
• More.

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