LIVE EVENT Q&A: Dr. Andrew Huberman Question & Answer in Chicago, IL

Recorded after a live lecture at The Chicago Theater, this episode is the audience question-and-answer session. Huberman answers wide-ranging questions on keeping the aging brain healthy, optimizing sleep on shift work, how clinical hypnosis and NSDR (non-sleep deep rest) work, and the science and risks of psychedelics. He also gets personal, discussing how the podcast changed his life, what he does for fun, his introverted four-mode work rhythm, and advice for a 19-year-old on maximizing neuroplasticity. He closes with thoughts on daylight saving time, future health frontiers, and reforming education to teach kids about their own brains and bodies.

• Recounts a Nobel laureate (later named as Richard Axel) chewing five pieces of Nicorette in a meeting, citing nicotine's protection against Parkinson's and Alzheimer's, while stressing he does not recommend it.
  00:05:54
• Admits he had a bad LSD trip as a teenager and was a 'wayward youth,' and that he feared being dosed with LSD for years afterward.
  00:20:07
• Says microdosing psilocybin data is not particularly compelling and warns kids should absolutely not use psychedelics.
  00:21:41
• Reveals he disagrees with friend Matt Walker on whether sleep can be partially replaced, and that Walker will debate this on his podcast.
  00:27:29
• Confesses he is deeply introverted, spends a lot of time alone, and operates in basically four modes centered on foraging, organizing, and dispersing information.
  00:31:08
• Announces an upcoming documentary about his late postdoc advisor Ben Barres, plus a planned release of audio interviews Huberman recorded in Barres's final year.
  00:32:44
• Declares daylight saving time 'anti-health' and 'just dumb,' linking it to more car crashes, heart attacks, and depression.
  00:44:15
• Reveals that during the 2020-2021 pandemic he was not allowed to talk about vaccines, so he didn't, and instead focused on circadian and stress tools.
  00:51:06

• To fall and stay deeply asleep, body temperature must drop about 1 to 3 degrees, and to wake refreshed it must rise about 1 to 3 degrees.
  00:02:41
• Huberman cites roughly 150-200 minutes of zone 2 cardio per week, borrowing from his friend Peter Attia.
  00:03:15
• Grip strength and increasing asymmetry between hands is an indicator of brain-to-periphery control deficits correlated with cognitive decline.
  00:04:21
• You can buy a 900 lux LED inexpensively on Amazon for morning light exposure rather than pricey daylight simulators.
  00:08:02
• The Spiegel eye-roll test gauges hypnotizability by whether you can keep gazing upward while closing your eyelids.
  00:12:18
• Huberman renamed yoga nidra as 'non-sleep deep rest' (NSDR) because the original name turned some people off.
  00:15:55
• He notes the theory that SSRIs may work not by fixing a serotonin deficiency but by increasing neuroplasticity.
  00:18:32
• Cites Wendy Suzuki's data that as little as 10-13 minutes of meditation can increase memory and focus.
  00:24:25
• Huberman claims 'Chimp Empire' and 'Succession' have striking parallels and interleaves watching them.
  00:30:05
• Says learning a musical instrument, even later in life, greatly increases your ability to learn all sorts of things.
  00:50:01