I: Huberman cult
II. Brand new podcast
I.
The seasons in life are always changing.
For those of us motivated by a strong desire to move to the light — away from the darkness — our journey takes us in manifold unexpected directions.
My break from Substack over the past three months has mostly been the result of a draining semester at university with multiple philosophy courses assigning many more essays than I was mentally equipped to handle (thanks ADHD!).
In my free time, I’ve devoted much of my energy to deepening my understanding of physical and mental health optimization and taking various steps in that direction. I may have more to share about this in years to come, but I realized earlier in ‘23 I had been taking my health far too for-granted. I was unhappy with my weight, muscular strength, sleep cycles, and anxiety levels.
Searching for answers like every other young man seemingly hungry for complete bio-psycho-social alignment, I recently joined the Andrew Huberman health cult.
Exhaustive workout protocols, sauna time, adaptogen use (cordyceps and ashwagandha are excellent), exhale-focused breathwork for parasympathetic relaxation, bed-time magnesium supplementation, slumber before 10:30pm (gotta get that deep sleep), and a general commitment to overall neurophysiological health have been the new obsessions.
That taking measured care of one’s mental and physical health — down to the calorie or molecule — has now become trendy and popular is certainly a net benefit for our society. Too many people are stuck in shitty cycles of bad sleep, unhealthy eating, potato couch syndrome, and unassailable mental roadblocks.
A big thank you to Dr. Huberman on behalf of every steadfast man and woman taking increasing ownership of their mind-body health.
II.
Every now and then, the creative mind generates new ideas.
Whether it’s for work, leisure, lifestyle, travel, or a new Taylor Swift song to try.
For the hyper-creative types, this can happen at a night-disruptingly high frequency. As it turns out, this is both a blessing and a curse. Often-times — since creatives happen to be the most mentally unstable, disturbed people — this is merely a reflection the egocentric “self” restlessly trying to overcome and medicate itself with some novel, distracting activity. I have acutely noticed this in myself and others.
In such situations, new travel destinations, academic subjects, romantic partners, or cannabis strains are not the remedy. Rather, deep inner work is necessary — with the aid of trained therapist to point you in the right direction — to address and placate the restless mind which can’t sit still without continually conjuring up new (or old) shit to do/stir over.
All that aside, on the rare occasion one comes across a new idea that is practically feasible, one-of-a-kind, and even societally beneficial. This has dominated much of my time over the past two months, as I have been working hard to design, develop, and finalize my new publication and podcast with Dr. Jay Bhattacharya
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I’ll have more to say about the inspiration, goals, and, ideas behind this new media project in the coming days. For now, all I will say it’s an exciting new endeavour that will expose and dismantle illusory consensus in science and the increasingly uncovered “Censorship Industrial Complex'“ (credit to Matt Taibbi and Michael Shellenberger).
Had it not been for the opportunistically exploited and politicized COVID-19 pandemic (how can Left and Right diverge on virology and immunology?), I perhaps would not have awakened to the corruption of our society’s most integral institutions.
My weekly podcast with Dr. Jay Bhattacharya on the legacy of the misinformation-demic — and guests such as Dr. Marty Makary, Geoffrey Miller, Dr. Ladapo, Dr. Matt Johnson, Bobby Azarian, Jonathan Pageau, and others — will dismantle “The Illusion of Consensus” on the pharmaceutical complex, public health policy, nutritional science, psychedelic medicine, consciousness, organized religion, and many other topics. Please consider subscribing and supporting us:
I look forward to writing and publishing articles here with some regular frequency starting next week.
Shalom
Rav, I love the sentiment of section II, Every now and then, the creative mind generates new ideas.
It made me think of an article I read recently,
In the spirit of upsetting settled minds, you don’t believe in having an unsettled mind, you think that having an unsettled mind is more productive, more progressive, and more open-minded than having a settled mind (an unquestioning belief). You realize that belief in general is counterproductive, because you understand that the human mind is a delusion-generator rather than a truth-generator. It pumps out delusions like a spider pumps out webs. But, unlike the spider, it tends to get caught in them. Thereby, you understand that the only window to truth is through a questioning, circumspect, and a sceptical mindset, rather than through an unquestioning, dogmatic, and certain mindset.
The only solution to a delusion-generator is a question-generator. Luckily, the human brain is both.
Love what you are doing with Dr Jay. You should connect with Kim Witczak-she’s been in this fight for 20 years after her husband died of an undisclosed side effect of SSRI’s. She sued Pfizer, got black box warnings on antidepressants and continues to advocate for informed consent. She has spoken globally on the concept of “selling sickness”. Kim also has helped with vaccine issues. She was part of the citizen petition sent to the FDA regarding inaccurate Covid vaccine labels. She has partnered with Dr Doshi Dr Healy Maryanne Demesi. She was recently the moderator at the Dartmouth college mandate round table. you should interview her. www.kimwitczak.com @woodymatters