Home Tim Ferriss Episode
Tim Ferriss · 2022-09-23

A Rare In-Person Random Show with Kevin Rose! How to Shape Your Mind, Books, Movies, and More

Tim Ferriss and Kevin Rose reunite in person for a Random Show on podcasting, psychedelics, Zen retreats, fiction, films, and full-body health scans.

A Rare In-Person Random Show with Kevin Rose! How to Shape Your Mind, Books, Movies, and More
The guest

Kevin Rose: Kevin Rose with Tim Ferriss

What this episode covers

In a rare in-person Random Show recorded on the floor of Tim's new Los Angeles apartment, Tim Ferriss and Kevin Rose catch up over tequila and champagne after months apart. Kevin explains his move from Portland to LA and pushes Tim to consider a live show, while Tim shares his philosophy for why he avoids gotcha-style interviews and won't try to out-compete Joe Rogan. They dig into psychedelics and the future of psychiatry, Kevin's upcoming 7-day silent Zen retreat, and Tim's renewed passion for writing science-fiction and fantasy fiction. The episode rounds out with movie recommendations, a Series I Bonds investing hack, physical training tips, and sobering reflections on full-body MRI scans and friends facing cancer.

Recommended on this episode

ProductRecommended

Dos Artes Tequila Blanco (100% agave)

Dos Artes

“This is one of our our favorite tequilas”
“Dos Artes 100% agave blanco. I wanted something that would maybe be less likely to donkey punch me in the head hangover wise.”— Kevin Rose
ProductRecommended

Ace of Spades Champagne (Armand de Brignac)

Armand de Brignac

“It's actually quite good”
“something called Ace of Spades, which is Jay-Z's champagne. It's actually quite good. It's actually quite good.”— Kevin Rose
ProductRecommended

Snoop Dogg's Cali Red Wine (19 Crimes)

19 Crimes

“It's quite good ... Very dry, um fantastic”
“It's quite good. Oh. Very dry, um fantastic.”— Tim Ferriss
MediaRecommended

Top Gun: Maverick

“great. Fantastic ... damn that was good. It was really good”
“So the new Top Gun. [ __ ] great. Fantastic. Can you believe that he did all that flying himself?”— Kevin Rose
MediaRecommended

The Price of Everything

“highly recommend it”
“It's just a crazy behind the scenes view of the art world and for someone that's into NFTs, it was just like I learned a lot. So, highly recommend it.”— Kevin Rose
MediaRecommended

Elvis

“highly recommend it”
“It was like a history lesson in a movie. So highly recommend it ... I walked away being like he was a badass.”— Kevin Rose
MediaRecommended

Everything Everywhere All at Once

“it's brilliant ... I really enjoyed it”
“but it's it's it's brilliant. It's brilliant at the end of the day. Oh, yeah. I really enjoyed it.”— Kevin Rose
MediaRecommended

Airplane!

“It's fantastic to watch again”
“there's so many iconic moments and and bits that when you watch it ... It's It's fantastic to watch again.”— Kevin Rose
MediaRecommended

Spirited Away

Studio Ghibli

“My favorite movie of all time”
“if people have not seen I recently rewatched it, Spirited Away ... By Studio Ghibli ... My favorite movie of all time.”— Tim Ferriss
BookRecommendedISBN verified

The Wizard of Earthsea

Ursula K. Le Guin

“it's incredible. It's such a beautifully crafted book”
“called The Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin. And it's incredible. It's such a beautifully crafted book.”— Tim Ferriss
MediaRecommended

Arcane

Riot Games / Fortiche

“highest recommendation ... it's really gorgeous”
“is Arcane ... every every frame of this series could be a beautiful, large NFT or a piece of artwork ... highest recommendation.”— Tim Ferriss
BookRecommendedISBN verified

The Graveyard Book

Neil Gaiman

“which is just fantastic ... The audiobook by Neil Gaiman is fantastic”
“Like The Graveyard Book, which is just fantastic ... try that out. The audiobook by Neil Gaiman is fantastic.”— Tim Ferriss
BookRecommendedISBN verified

The NeverEnding Story

Michael Ende

“which was my favorite book as a kid ... I fell so in love with it”
“right now I'm rereading The NeverEnding Story by Michael Ende ... which was my favorite book as a kid.”— Tim Ferriss
ProductRecommended

Waking Up (meditation app)

Sam Harris

“you can check his stuff out there. Fantastic Zen teacher”
“Henry has a lot of his courses on the Waking Up app from Sam Harris, so you can you can check his stuff out there.”— Kevin Rose
ProductRecommended

MasterClass

MasterClass

“The first few segments in particular I found incredibly compelling”
“I watched a masterclass ... they had one with Amy Tan ... The first few segments in particular I found incredibly compelling.”— Tim Ferriss
ProductRecommended

Supernatural (VR fitness app)

Within

“This app is amazing ... It's really good”
“I do a VR workout called Supernatural three times a week ... This app is amazing ... you're going to freak out, dude.”— Kevin Rose
ProductRecommended

XPO Trainer (mechanically resisted sled)

TRUE Form / XPO

“I have actually lost a decent amount of this baby fat using ... the XPO Trainer”
“I have something called the XPO Trainer that is a mechanically assisted or say mechanically resisted sled ... I've been using the XPO Trainer.”— Tim Ferriss
ProductRecommended

I bonds (U.S. Treasury inflation savings bonds)

U.S. Treasury

“I'll lock in that rate any day ... that's just like free money”
“you get 9.62% from the government ... I'll lock in that rate any day ... that's just like free money.”— Kevin Rose

The guest's own work

MediaBy the guest

If You Want to Start a War

Tim Ferriss

“my first NFT experiment ... was a short fiction piece called uh If You Want to Start a War. And I really enjoyed the process.”— Tim Ferriss

Also referenced (named, not recommended)

BookReferencedISBN verified

The Fellowship of the Ring

J.R.R. Tolkien

“I also listened to ... The Fellowship of the Ring for the first time ... you realize how many of the archetypes ... came out of this guy's head.”— Tim Ferriss
MediaReferenced

The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power

Amazon

“did you see the new Amazon series? ... they spent a billion dollars on the series. Something crazy. Bezos went nuts.”— Kevin Rose
MediaReferenced

Bridging the Rift (The Making of Arcane)

Riot Games

“there's a a separate behind-the-scenes series, which is the making of Arcane, called Bridging the Rift, which I'm also watching.”— Tim Ferriss
BookReferencedISBN verified

The Three Pillars of Zen

Philip Kapleau

“if you read a lot of the Zen books that are out there ... whether it be the three pillars of Zen or Zen the authentic gate.”— Kevin Rose
BookReferenced

Zen: The Authentic Gate

Koun Yamada

“whether it be the three pillars of Zen or Zen the authentic gate, a lot of the big unlocks that happen with meditation.”— Kevin Rose

Big reveals from this episode

  • Kevin Rose reveals he has moved to Los Angeles, leaving Portland, Oregon after years of rain and few friends, driven partly by NFT work calls based in LA and New York and wanting to stay close to his mother who is undergoing cancer treatment.
  • Tim explains a deliberate early decision that defines his show: he does not want a gotcha or hardball format like Mike Wallace, instead aiming for well-researched, evergreen conversations.
  • Kevin announces he is doing his first 7-day silent meditation retreat at Mountain Cloud Zen Center, run by his teacher Henry Shukman.
  • Tim reveals he is doing a lot of fiction writing focused on world-building in sci-fi and fantasy, and may have something to show in the next few months.
  • Kevin reveals he did a full-body MRI scan and on the second year's scan they detected a tiny 1mm brain aneurysm (not treated until 7mm), which had been missed on the first scan.
  • Tim shares that a friend recently went in for a routine exam and was diagnosed with terminal stage-four metastasized cancer, contrasting the friend's remarkable meditative equanimity.
  • Kevin shares his Series I Bonds investing hack, buyable on treasurydirect.gov, yielding 9.62% at the time of recording.

Worth remembering

  • Kevin is drinking Ace of Spades, Jay-Z's champagne, which Daria bought on sale; Tim is drinking Dos Artes 100% agave blanco tequila chosen partly for its ceramic bottle.
  • Tim rails against 'conspirituality,' a term he loves, describing it as centered in Austin and complains he moved to Austin to escape a scene only for COVID to turn Austin into one in 18 months.
  • Tim says he talks far more people out of using psychedelics than into them, warning the compounds are strong and can be incredibly destabilizing.
  • Tim names Spirited Away by Studio Ghibli's Miyazaki Hayao as a favorite, citing nostalgia from watching it around age 15-16.
  • Tim says without Ursula K. Le Guin's 1968 novel The Wizard of Earthsea, Harry Potter and modern wizarding schools wouldn't exist; he also read Tolkien's Fellowship of the Ring for the first time.
  • Tim highly recommends Arcane on Netflix, made by French studio Fortiche based on League of Legends, noting it reportedly cost nine figures.
  • Tim recounts hiding his favorite childhood book, The NeverEnding Story by Michael Ende, in a different library corner so no one else could check it out.
  • Tim watched a MasterClass with novelist Amy Tan, praising her segment walking through her rejection letters and the detailed feedback fiction editors gave on her manuscripts.
  • Kevin does a VR workout app called Supernatural three times a week, using two lightsabers choreographed to music, while Tim has been short VR for a decade.
  • Tim has lost baby fat using an XPO Trainer mechanically-resisted sled, jump rope, kettlebells, and intermittent fasting (late lunch, early dinner).