The guest
Kevin Rose: Tech entrepreneur, partner at True Ventures, and host of the Modern Finance podcast, co-hosting the recurring 'Random Show' with Tim Ferriss. Early-stage crypto and NFT investor (Chia, BlockFi, OpenSea).
What this episode covers
In this freewheeling Random Show, Tim Ferriss and Kevin Rose cover a lot of ground after a rough start (Kevin's Ozempic-induced nausea and Tim's house losing power to a lightning strike). They dive deep into blockchain and crypto investing, NFTs and generative art (Art Blocks, CryptoPunks), Dogecoin and meme coins, and the case for DeFi and crypto interest accounts. The conversation also explores health and fitness topics including mobility training, rucking, Pilates, sleep optimization via fish oil and sun exposure, and disaster preparedness. The episode closes with an extended, thoughtful discussion of Kevin's year-long Sanbo Zen meditation practice, koans, checking questions, and the parallels between Zen and psychedelics.
Recommended on this episode
ProductRecommended
Ozempic
Novo Nordisk
“it's pretty amazing it just works really well”
“one of them is called a zympic which is this subcutaneous shot that you do so you just shoot yourself anywhere you want it lowers your glucose levels it's pretty amazing it just works really well”— Kevin Rose
ProductRecommended
Zofran
“good old zofran it helps”
“you made a good suggestion on something that decreases nausea i did that and here we are good to go good old zofran it helps”— Tim Ferriss
ProductRecommended
JuneShine (hard kombucha)
JuneShine
“i'm a huge fan”
“i don't seem to have the hangover nor the losing arms race this has turned into more of a recreational light alcoholic beverage for me i'm a huge fan”— Tim Ferriss
ProductRecommended
GoRuck (weighted rucking backpack)
GoRuck
“goruck is the brand i use”
“it is yeah goruck so goruck is the brand i use there are many other brands i prefer to use the weighted backpacks and i have a 20 pound a 35 pound a 45 pound”— Tim Ferriss
BookRecommendedISBN verified
The Price of Everything
“you'll love it”
“there's a documentary that goes into some of this the price of everything though i believe i have to watch that that's awesome you'll love it”— Tim Ferriss
BookRecommended
Lights Out: A Cyberattack, A Nation Unprepared, Surviving the Aftermath
Ted Koppel
“a book that i highly suggest people check out”
“there's actually a book that i highly suggest people check out called lights out a cyber attack a nation unprepared surviving the aftermath by ted koppel”— Tim Ferriss
ProductRecommended
Tesla Powerwall
Tesla
“those are cool those are cool”
“i'm on the wait list for those tesla power walls so i think yeah those are cool those are cool they're all back ordered”— Kevin Rose
ProductRecommended
BlockFi (crypto interest accounts)
BlockFi
“what they're really good at is these interest accounts that give people real like insane interest”
“what they're really good at is these interest accounts that give people real like insane interest at right now i think it's like 7.5 right now on stable coins”— Kevin Rose
ProductRecommended
Gemini (crypto exchange)
Gemini
“another really world-class exchange”
“gemiini is another really world-class exchange that gives you interest on just holding your crypto there”— Kevin Rose
ProductRecommended
Eight Sleep (mattress cover)
Eight Sleep
“i do use eight sleep on the bed which is incredibly helpful”
“i do use eight sleep on the bed which is incredibly helpful creating two zones the eight sleep does provide some tracking and surprisingly accurate”— Tim Ferriss
ProductRecommended
Oura Ring
Oura
“that's going to be the primary for looking at sleep quality and hrv”
“i do use the ora ring that's going to be the primary for looking at sleep quality and hrv so those would be the two tools predominantly”— Tim Ferriss
ProductRecommended
Nordic Naturals ProOmega (650 EPA / 450 DHA fish oil)
Nordic Naturals
“which i've been using the effect is really remarkable”
“this is a nordic naturals pro omega 650 epa 450 dha which i've been using the effect is really remarkable”— Tim Ferriss
ProductRecommended
Thorne Super EPA (fish oil)
Thorne
“the effect is really remarkable”
“the second that i have is thorn that's t-h-o-r-n-e super epa that's this guy right here cool so those are what i ended up choosing”— Tim Ferriss
Also referenced (named, not recommended)
ProductReferenced
Allopurinol
“dude i've been taking out pnl for five years now yeah even though it's very very well tolerated right as far as drugs going”— Kevin Rose
Big reveals from this episode
- Kevin discusses using Ozempic for glucose disposal, jumping straight to a 0.5 dose and waking at 4am violently nauseous, which forced rescheduling the recording.
- Kevin's Twitter profile art is a 'squiggle,' the very first project launched on Art Blocks, explaining generative art where the buyer's mint timestamp seeds a unique algorithmic output.
- An alien CryptoPunk sold at Sotheby's for $13 million; auction houses like Christie's and Sotheby's now treat NFTs as real art (and charge ~20% commission).
- Kevin says True Ventures has deployed roughly $50 million this year into crypto-related deals, a significant chunk of the fund.
- Kevin reveals he personally held millions of Dogecoin years ago when it was a worthless Reddit tipping joke, and explains it lacks an active developer community.
- Kevin had to rip out his entire sauna and buy a new one after oiling the wood caused it to off-gas toxic smoke for months.
- Kevin admits he committed to serious hour-a-day Zen meditation because he was deeply depressed during the pandemic with a new second child and mounting stress.
- Tim names selling Amazon stock in the 2008 subprime crash (and Shopify earlier) as his biggest investing regrets, he had rules for buying but not for holding or selling.
Worth remembering
- Tim last wore a continuous glucose monitor around 2008 with a first-gen Dexcom that required a barbecue-pitchfork-style two-pronged manual needle insertion.
- Beeple's NFT collage sold for $69 million after he created art every day for around 5,000 days straight.
- Chia (founded by BitTorrent inventor Bram Cohen) uses hard-drive 'farming' and roughly one-thousandth the energy of Bitcoin mining; demand caused hard-drive shortages at retailers like Best Buy.
- Tim notes blockchains like Solana can process around 50,000 transactions per second.
- Kevin cites Wells Fargo's 2021 footprint, 7,200 branches, 13,000 ATMs, 268,000 employees, and $72.34 billion in 2020 revenue, as the overhead DeFi removes.
- Kevin describes Alchemix self-repaying loans: deposit collateral, get half back immediately, and yield pays off the loan automatically in a little over two years.
- Stanford neurobiologist Andrew Huberman advised Tim to take at least 1 gram of EPA fish oil daily; Tim uses Nordic Naturals ProOmega and Thorne Super EPA.
- Tim's gout-related toe stiffness dropped roughly 90% within a week or two of increasing fish oil intake; he notes fructose, not just animal protein, is an understated gout culprit.
- Kevin practices Sanbo Zen (a lay Zen lineage derived from Soto and Rinzai), doing 25 minutes sitting, 5 minutes walking, then 25 minutes more, 55 minutes daily for a year.
- The famous koan 'Mu' comes from Zen master Joshu, who answered 'Mu' when a monk asked whether a dog has Buddha nature; lineages use 20 to 100 checking questions.
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