The guest
DJ Shipley: Retired Navy SEAL who served 17 years, much of it as a Tier 1 operator in an elite special operations unit. He's now a public educator on mindset, fitness, and mental health, and co-founder of GBRS Group.
What this episode covers
DJ Shipley joins Andrew Huberman to explain the highly structured morning and evening routines he uses to control his mental state and show up for his family and work. He recounts his path from a San Diego SEAL family through BUD/S, combat deployments in Iraq, the deaths of close friends, and a near-fatal electrocution that shattered both shoulders. The conversation turns to his collapse into addiction on roughly 60 pills a day after medical retirement, and how ibogaine and 5-MeO-DMT treatment in Mexico erased his addictions and repaired his marriage. He and Huberman discuss the GBRS fitness fit-test and standards philosophy, the value of body awareness, and the bipartisan push to bring psychedelic-assisted treatment to veterans. Throughout, the through-line is taking yourself seriously, controlling what you can control, and stacking micro-wins.
Recommended on this episode
BookRecommendedISBN verified
Lone Survivor
Marcus Luttrell
“Amazing book, I should say. I really enjoyed the book”
“Lone Survivor. Amazing book, I should say. I really enjoyed the book. The movie does, I think, a pretty good job of extracting some of the key moments from the book”— Andrew Huberman
ProductRecommended
Stew Smith Navy SEAL Prep Guide
Stew Smith
“it's a phenomenal program for anybody who's trying to go”
“it was turn it on, download the Stew Smith Guide to Navy SEAL prep, and did that like everybody else did. And it's a phenomenal program for anybody who's trying to go.”— DJ Shipley
The guest's own work
ProductBy the guest
GBRS Group Fitness Program / Fit Test
DJ Shipley / GBRS Group
“It centers around the five-day-a-week program... there's probably 800 to 1,000 movement tutorials. They're either guided by me, with Vernon doing all the coaching cues.”— DJ Shipley
ProductBy the guest
GBRS Group American Flag Hat
DJ Shipley / GBRS Group
“we wanted to do an American flag hat... that hat is almost 24,000 individual stitches. It takes 60 minutes just to make the flag.”— DJ Shipley
ProductBy the guest
Trybe Skates
DJ Shipley / Cole Fackler
“my best friend Cole Fackler, the same guy I started Trybe Skates and GVRs with. We went to BUD/S together.”— DJ Shipley
Also referenced (named, not recommended)
BookReferenced
Chasing the Dragon
Jimmy Hatch
“My buddy Jimmy Hatch wrote a book called Chasing a Dragon, and that's what it's like. You chase them long enough, you'll find them”— DJ Shipley
MediaReferenced
Lone Survivor (film)
Peter Berg
“the Lone Survivor movie... I actually think, again, they did a good job with the movie. I know the book and the movie were approved by the military”— Andrew Huberman
MediaReferenced
Captain Phillips
Paul Greengrass
“You had the rescue of Captain Phillips in 2009. That was a huge milestone win... And they made a movie. They made a movie, and it's great”— DJ Shipley
MediaReferenced
Black Hawk Down
Ridley Scott
“The back of that helicopter looked like Black Hawk Down. Just blowout kits and tourniquets and magazines and rounds all over it”— DJ Shipley
MediaReferenced
Kill Bill
Quentin Tarantino
“Have you seen Kill Bill? Remember the five-finger death touch? Five steps? I took one step and everything went...”— DJ Shipley
MediaReferenced
The Hunted
William Friedkin
“If you've ever watched the movie The Hunted with Benicio del Toro, the knife fighting, that's what they do and they are the best in the world.”— DJ Shipley
MediaReferenced
Rescue Me
Denis Leary
“have you ever seen the show Rescue Me? Dennis Leary and a bunch of guys, a bunch of firemen in New York, and they had the fat firemen”— DJ Shipley
MediaReferenced
Call of Duty
Activision
“This is a two-way range, this isn't airsoft, this is not Call of Duty. Like, those are real people”— DJ Shipley
ProductReferenced
QuikClot
Z-Medica
“I ran right back into the center of it and dropped down behind that tire, and started working all the guys back and putting on tourniquets, and QuikClot”— DJ Shipley
Big reveals from this episode
- His best friend Nic Cheque was killed in 2012; DJ says a piece of him died that he never got back.
- Recounts the closest-call fire mission of the Iraq War (inside 15 meters) when his idol Matty Roberts was shot up and DJ felt completely helpless.
- After medical retirement he was put on 60+ pills a day across 25-30 prescriptions and didn't realize he was never sober for 15 years.
- On Father's Day 2019 he was electrocuted by his skateboard fracture-burning rig, launched 20 feet, shattering his collarbone and scapula.
- Doctors warned rhabdomyolysis could force them to cut muscle off him; his enzyme markers mysteriously dropped to zero and he walked out the next day.
- Admits past infidelity and that he went to Mexico mainly to save his marriage, never believing the medicine would work.
- Describes the 5-MeO-DMT ego death that flipped him from suicidal to blissful and led him to confess everything to his wife.
- Ibogaine killed a 17-year Copenhagen addiction overnight; he never dipped again.
Worth remembering
- DJ wakes at 5:00 AM regardless of bedtime and runs a tight evening + 12-minute morning routine to stack 25 'micro wins' before his first cup of coffee.
- He and his wife take a 20-minute walk every night (10 minutes each to talk), which he credits with saving his marriage.
- Huberman notes a consistent wake-up time maximizes growth hormone release for recovery.
- A BUD/S class starts with 200+ people and graduates fewer than 20.
- DJ did almost 4,000 skydives in seven years and adopted fake identities (like 'Red Bull Air Force') to compartmentalize his real job.
- Ibogaine treatment is framed as a medical treatment with a 25-person staff including paramedics and RNs, not a recreational psychedelic.
- GBRS fit test standards: broad jump (elite ~8-10 ft), bodyweight bench (elite 20+ reps), pull-ups (elite 20+), farmer's carry, trap-bar deadlift (elite 2.5x bodyweight), plank, and 800m run.
- DJ's bench and pull-up numbers at 50 are better than in his 20s, and his VO2 max sits in the top 0.0001% despite not training for it.
- The GBRS American flag hat has nearly 24,000 stitches and takes 60 minutes just to embroider the flag; any pulled thread means it's tossed.
- Huberman cites that Hitler ranked among the top five public speakers in history, and a Robert Heath brain-stimulation experiment where subjects most wanted to re-trigger an area evoking mild anger.
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