The Becoming Superhuman Podcast

As you guys know, my connection to the “superhuman” world is the work I do in accelerated learning, speed reading, and memory techniques. And I would imagine that you all, like yours truly, are very interested in keeping your brains happy and healthy, as much if not more than the rest of your bodies. Well, today, we’re going to talk about exactly that - keeping your brain healthy - now and well into your old age. We are joined by Steven William Fowkes, the biohacker, author, and health expert behind Project Wellbeing, who’s spent the last 14 years promoting an insight into Alzheimer’s prevention. Now, you might not yet be the age where you need to worry about Alzheimer’s, but in fact, Steven’s words of wisdom apply to all age groups. That’s because he has authored or co-authored 6 books, and is a true renaissance man with interests and work spanning from nanotechnology to nutrition to material’s science. In this episode, we talk about all things related to the brain and improving it’s performance. We talk abo

Today we are joined by the New York Times Bestselling Author behind the book, “The Paleo Cure” and the host of Revolution Health Radio Podcast. You might remember in the past, we had my friend and role model Robb Wolf on the show, who is considered one of the most central folks to the Paleo movement. Well, Robb called today’s guest the most knowledgable clinician in the paleo world - and for that reason, we just had to get him on today’s show. You’ve seen him and his work in TIME, NPR, The Atlantic, and more - but it turns out that as a licensed acupuncturist and a self-described “health detective,” today’s guest has a lot more to teach us about health than just dieting. In this episode, we talk about everything from the paleo diet, to how it can repair quite a bit of chronic health ailments, to the many issues with our modern lifestyles, and much, much more.

Normally, on the show, I interview real-life superhumans to tease out the skills and strategies they use to achieve the seemingly impossible. This week is a little different. This week, we have a "mini" episode; an essay I've written on learning, and why I feel that it's the only skill that really matters. I hope you enjoy listening to it as much as I enjoyed producing it. Please take a moment to let me know what you think in the comments either way!

Today we’re joined by Alex Charfen, a serial entrepreneur who has has spent his life seeking to understand how to make business grow - a question that eventually evolved into wondering: “How do you help people grow?”   Through his research and years as a top consultant to billionaires, the Fortune 500 and global 100, Alex discovered what he calls the long-misunderstood Entrepreneurial Personality Type (EPT). Best-selling author Robin Sharma recently described Alex as, “the most progressive entrepreneurial mind on the planet” - and for good reason. Since the tender age of 8, Alex has been starting, growing, and selling businesses, and teaching tens thousands of people all over the world how to do the same. He is even a regular contributor to The Wall Street Journal, MSNBC, CNBC, FOX News, and USA Today.   As you guys know, we don’t often talk entrepreneurship on the show, focusing more on health and fitness. Well, Alex has some important things to say about that, as well. But more importantly, I think that th

Today, we’re joined by Craig Ballantyne, a Productivity & Success Transformation Coach, online marketing guru, entrepreneur, and the author of The Perfect Day Formula: How to Own the Day and Control Your Life. In 2001, Craig created the popular home workout program, Turbulence Training, and he’s also the founder of the Certified Turbulence Training Program, certifying trainers from all corners of the globe. He built on that success, building and buying numerous wildly successful online businesses such as Early to Rise, ETR University, and Online Info Blueprint, and today is considered one of the biggest names in my industry, having impacted literally millions of people’s lives. Craig’s online success has led him to create books and a coaching program to show other gurus how to take their ideas and help thousands of people. He holds seminars around the world, and he teaches at the annual SovereignAcademy.org camp every summer in Lithuania. Craig has been a contributor to Men's Health magazine since 2000, a

We are joined by Dr. David Orman, a wellness entrepreneur, expert, educator, coach, and bestselling author commonly known as “Doc Wellness." Over the years, David has lectured to Congress, taught at major universities, and treated thousands of patients. He’s also an avid martial artist, practicing no less than 5 individual martial arts. In this episode, we talk about the ancient tradition of Tao, and how you can use it excel in health, abundance, and life. We talk about Daoism, martial arts, acupuncture, energies, and how it all fits together. I think this episode is going to pique your interest and curiosity about some of the eastern philosophies, and if so, I encourage you guys to continue learning more and checking out the books and resources we mentioned in the end of the interview.

Today we are joined by Derek Rydall, an american screenwriter and author. Derek has worked as an actor, a screenwriter, a screenplay consultant, and has written a few books. He also hosts a podcast called Best Year Of Your Life. But actually, he joins us today to talk about his latest book - Emergence: Seven Steps for Radical Life Change.It's a book about enacting change in your life and in yourself, and figuring out how to re-engage with an ancient principle for living a better life. During this episode, we talk about the Law of Emergence and some of the misconceptions about self help and personal growth, we learn Derek’s story of his own emergence, and if you stick around to the end, you’ll even get a free copy of Derek’s book! I hope you guys really enjoy the episode and get a hefty dose of inspiration and motivation from it!

Today we are joined by a real-life superhuman - a man who has risen to prominence in not just one, but two extremely competitive arenas. David Heinemeier Hansson, better known as “DHH,” is a software developer, entrepreneur, and race-car driver from Denmark. He’s most known for his company, Basecamp, and for developing the popular Ruby on Rails web development framework that has taken the world of web development by storm. In 2005, he was recognized as “Hacker of the Year” by Google and O’Reilly. He’s written a slew of books on software development, and 3 very popular books on building and managing software companies: Getting Real, Rework, and Remote. If that weren’t enough, David has also had a meteoric rise to prominence in the world of auto-racing, climbing through the ranks and coming in among the top spots in what many would call record time. In this episode, I wanted to deconstruct David’s thinking process and figure out how he learns so much so effectively. I wanted to understand how he has managed to

Today we are joined by Jayson Gaignard - quite possibly one of the world’s best networkers. In 2012, Gaignard began curating dinners in Toronto, Canada with small groups of entrepreneurs that focused on relationship building. The invite-only dinners became MastermindTalks—larger conferences for entrepreneurs geared toward health, wealth, self-improvement, and networking. Despite humble beginnings, Jason has grown mastermind talks into a world-renowned institution in the entrepreneurial space, hosting such greats as Tim Ferriss, James Altucher, A. J. Jacobs, Esther Perel, Dave Asprey, Guy Kawasaki, and Marc Ecko. In fact, Forbes described Gaignard as one of the top networkers to watch in 2015. He’s also published a book and produces a podcast on the topic of network building. In this episode, I wanted to learn more about how Jayson has built such strong ties with some of the world’s most influential entrepreneurs, and see if we can learn anything from his success. My father always told me that it’s not just ab

Today, we are joined by one of the top names in the world of Yoga - Tiffany Cruikshank. Because we've done episodes on meditation and ayurveda, it seemed only fitting to round out the trifecta and discuss Yoga, especially since it has seen such an incredible renaissance in the last decade, and is, in many ways, the go-to for tens of millions of people looking to improve their health, their lives, and their performance. With a B.S. in medicinal plant biology and nutrition, a masters in acupuncture and oriental medicine, and a specialty in sports medicine and orthopedics, Tiffany Cruikshank is an expert in how holistic medicine and yoga come together. She teaches vinyasa yoga, and leads teacher trainings in her therapeutic style of yoga, called Yoga Medicine. In addition to all of this, she has written two books, Optimal Health for a Vibrant Life, and Meditate Your Weight, and has served as the acupuncturist at Nike's World Headquarters for the last 5 years. In this episode, we talk about all things holistic me

Today, we are going to talk a bit about “drugs” - or rather, medicines. But not the drugs or medicines you’re thinking of. In fact, we're going to be talking about ancient, psychedelic medicines, used for hundreds or even thousands of years by indigineous societies for spiritual exploration. You may have heard of some of these substances - things like ayahuasca, psilocybin, or MDMA. What you may not have heard is how powerful they can be for personal growth and development. On that note, we are joined today by Dr. Dan Engle, a board certified expert in Psychiatry and Neurology with a clinical practice in holistic medicine, orthomolecular psychiatry and integrative spirituality. He is medical consultant to the Temple of the Way of Light Ayahuasca Center in Peru and Onnit Labs in Austin, Texas. He is also Medical Director of Crossroads Ibogaine Recovery Center in Rosarito, Mexico and the Rejuvenation and Performance Institute in Sedona, Arizona. In this episode, my objective was to learn more about the power of

Today, we are joined by Eric the Trainer, a renowned fitness trainer who has worked with some of the greatest names in Hollywood. He's trained UFC fighters, celebrities, and police academies alike, and he's a spokesperson for Gold's Gym, a writer for Muscle and Fitness and TRAIN magazine, and the Host of "Celebrity Sweat" on Spike TV. In this episode, I wanted to gain some clearer understanding on the world of fitness training and muscle development, from someone who knows so much about it. But, in reality, I got much, much more than I was bargaining for. You see, because my guest today is literally THE force behind some of the most incredible physical transformations in Hollywood - the ones that make your jaw drop when you see them - my mind was opened up to a whole new realm of possibility. We talk about diet, nutrition, and exercise - as we do in many episodes - but with the distinct difference that in this episode, we talk about the extreme end of the spectrum. The end where people’s bodies can be radical

Today, we are joined by Aubrey de Grey, biomedical gerontologist and Chief Science Officer of the SENS research foundation, and co-author of the book Ending Aging. You might know Aubrey from his appearances on 60 minutes, the BBC, The New York Times, Fortune, the Colbert Report, or his popular TED Talk. If you’ve heard him speak before, you’ll know that he is one of the chief drivers behind the view that medical technology may one day enable people alive today to live… well, forever. Through his research on regenerative medicine, and what he calls “Strategies for Engineered Negligible Senescence, or SENS,” de Grey has proposed a number of ways to not only slow, but even stop and reverse the effects of age on the human body. During the episode, we talk about these methods, the effects of aging, and also raise some of the ethical and practical issues surrounding the idea of a-mortality. We talk about learning, and I was just blown away by how much knowledge and expertise my guest has accumulated - and how he h

Today, we are joined by Dr. Mark Hyman, one of the most respected health & wellness experts on the planet - and one of the experts that experts themselves turn to. Dr. Hyman is the founder of the UltraWellness Center, the Medical Director at Cleveland Clinic’s Center for Functional Medicine, and the ten time #1 New York Times Bestselling author of books like Eat Fat, Get Thin, Blood Sugar Solution, and the 10-Day Detox Diet. He is the medical advisor to both Bill and Hillary Clinton, the medical editor at the Huffington Post, and has been featured in just about every publication you can think of, from TED to NPR to CNN and more. In this episode, we talk about… diet, nutrition, supplementation, and why over 70% of people are less healthy then they can and should be. We get pretty sciencey, and so I’m sure you’re going to learn quite a bit about your body, what it needs, and how it works.  

In this episode with Rabbi Moshe Miller, we are going to be exploring something a little bit different… In the past, we’ve talked about meditation and yoga, and in a sense, this episode will be a continuation of that. However, today, we’re going to explore it from another angle - Kabbalah. For those of you who have never heard of it, Kabbalah is a lesser-known teaching of Judaism, characterized by mysticism and mystery. In recent years, it’s become hugely popular among dozens of celebrities, from Madonna to David Beckham, Ashton Kutcher, and Natalie Portman. Personally, I’ve always been intrigued and curious about it, given my interest in and enthusiasm for meditation, so I decided to explore that curiosity in a conversation, and record it for all of you. In that sense, I’m inviting you all to join me on my own learning journey, on a topic I used to know little to nothing about. In this episode, I wanted to gain a deeper understanding both of what Kabbalah is, and what benefit it can offer us in our own lives

Today, we’re joined by yet another incredible expert I met during the Summit at Sea event late last year. His name is Colter Merrick. As someone who doesn’t drink alcohol, I was particularly happy to meet Colter, as he is an expert in non-alcoholic elixirs and cocktails. What does this have to do with Becoming SuperHuman, you ask? Well, it turns out that Colter runs a company called Elixart, where he and his team develop and produce powerful cocktails with loads of health and mood benefits. After trying just about everything on his menu, I was determined to get him on the show and pick his brain about some of the substances he introduced me to. In this episode, we talk about everything from traditional herbs and plants used for healing, all the way to the flow of energy in our bodies and in our lives, and everything in between. We talk about some plants and substances that you may never have heard of, and why it might behoove you to experiment with them in your own lives… It's a great episode, and I just know

Greetings, SuperFriends! In this episode, we are joined by a highly esteemed author and public speaker, a Harvard MBA and formal Walmart executive, who’s book, entitled “The Book of Awesome,” has been a New York Times Bestseller for 5 years straight. His popular TED talk has garnered millions of views, and his award winning blog, 1000 Awesome Things, ranks among some of the top blogs on the web. In addition, he’s published a number of other books, and has most recently published The Happiness Equation, a book on how to rethink your life, your career, your time, and your relationships.   In this episode, I wanted to get behind the science of happiness and simplicity with someone who has devoted his career to it. We talk about the habits of happiness, the law of attraction, the science of success, life satisfaction, motivation, life transitions, and much, much more. It’s an absolutely fascinating episode with a brilliant mind, and I just know you’ll take away a ton of motivation and inspiration, just like I did

In this episode, we are joined by Chris Ashenden, the founder and spokesperson of Athletic Greens, the all-in-one supplement that industry experts Tim Ferriss swear by as their nutritional insurance policy. In addition to that, our guest today is a food blogger and nutrition expert who shares his wisdom with people all over the world. In this episode, my goal was to learn more about athletic greens, supplementation in general, and hear my guests’ fascinating story. We really covered a TON of ground on this episode… We discuss supplementation, superfoods, nutritional disorders, learning, depression, entrepreneurship, elimination diets, and the incredible story of how my guest became one of the closest people in the world to Tim Ferriss. Stick through to the end, because our guest shares some really solid actionable tips and diagnostic tools that can help you stay on top of your health in case things go wrong!

Today, we are joined by Jeff Sanders, the public speaker and author behind the Amazon Bestseller, The 5AM Miracle. I know what you’re thinking - 5AM is really early - but stay with me, because morning rituals are really interesting and important. In this episode, we’re going to learn how you can better dominate your day by hacking mornings to work in your favor - before you even have breakfast. As someone who has really been struggling recently to get out of bed before 7AM, and who, to be completely honest, has been struggling to stay productive past 1pm, I was really interested in learning some strategies for hacking mornings and creating more effective days. As you guys know, I’m a huge fan of learning any productivity related hacks I can get my hands on, so I was really excited to dive into this episode.

Today, we have a very special guest, and someone many of you have requested. It’s not everyday that we have someone on the show that exhibits actual “superhuman” skills in the traditional sense of the word, but that’s exactly what our guest today has been able to prove. Better known as “The Iceman,” my guest today is none other than Wim Hof. He holds no less than 20 world records, ranging from the world’s longest ice bath, to climbing Mount Kilimanjaro and 6.7 kilometers of Mount Everest wearing nothing but shorts and shoes, to resisting an injection of rattlesnake venom, running a marathon in the desert without water, and much much more. What’s most interesting is that he has been able to successfully teach others to do these amazing feats, using simply the power of yoga and breathing techniques. You'll tell straight away that his passion, energy, and enthusiasm far outweigh my ability to lead the conversation, and so you won't hear too much of me speaking this episode - but I don't think you'll mind one bit