David Choe: A Korean-American painter, graffiti and street artist, writer, and TV host best known for painting Facebook's original offices for equity that later made him rich. He hosted Vice's 'Thumbs Up!' and FX/Hulu's 'The Cho Show,' and is openly a recovering process addict (gambling, sex, work).
What this episode covers
This episode is an unusually personal, free-flowing monologue rather than a structured science interview. David Choe traces his life from an abusive, chaotic Korean immigrant childhood through graffiti, theft, jail, pornography illustration, and his accidental fortune from painting Facebook's offices. He explores how his mother's relentless 'you're the greatest artist' messaging collided with deep self-hatred, producing a lifelong addiction to shame, anger, and novelty. He and Huberman discuss the nature of addiction (all addiction as gambling), creativity born from suffering, the deaths of mentors like Anthony Bourdain, and the male suicide epidemic. The conversation closes with Choe challenging Huberman to take a full year off work and embrace surrender, connection, and self-worth.
The guest's own work
The Cho Show
David Choe
“I started making my version of Peewee's Playhouse, which was um The Cho Show and it came out on FX on Hulu”— David Choe
Also referenced (named, not recommended)
Pee-wee's Playhouse
Paul Reubens
“Mr. Rogers, Bob Ross, and then of course Peewee Herman. Do you remember the do you remember the secret word?”— David Choe
The Social Network
David Fincher
“it was so funny when the David Fincher movie came out cuz it's just an awesome movie but it's just I was there for all of it”— David Choe
Blow
Ted Demme
“I see uh Johnny Depp come out of the house and it's Blow, that movie Blow with Peewee Herman, right?”— David Choe
21 Jump Street
Phil Lord and Christopher Miller
“he put out uh 21 Jump Street which Johnny Depp again. There's a Ice Cubes talking to Korean Jesus during that movie.”— David Choe
Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations
Anthony Bourdain
“his his show changes. No reservations. It's it kept changing. So you go in a restaurant and they bring out every food.”— David Choe
There Will Be Blood
Paul Thomas Anderson
“Tarantino saying Paul do this like the worst part of there Will Be Blood. You saw like everyone come out to say how brilliant he is.”— David Choe
Predator: Badlands
Dan Trachtenberg
“middle-aged men in the middle of the night talking about Predator Badlands, talking about like childish arrested development type of stuff”— David Choe
Angry Birds
Rovio Entertainment
“I couldn't stop playing Angry Birds, which like everything's like so I can make a joke out of it.”— David Choe
Pokemon Trading Card Game
The Pokemon Company
“My kid gets into Pokemon. I go into a shop. I had no idea that packs cost $20. I open a pack and now I spend thousands of dollars a day on it.”— David Choe
Big reveals from this episode
- Choe opens by declaring he is a severe gambling addict and that every addiction is really a gambling addiction.
- Reveals he was in jail in Japan for beating up an undercover security guard right before the Facebook job, and badly needed money.
- Explains he asked for Facebook equity instead of cash and 'quietly became a millionaire,' worth millions by his 30s.
- Describes self-harm as a teen: punching himself to a 'berserker rage' while listening to Soundgarden.
- Admits he had a heart attack / angina attack at 35, collapsed and went blind, then went straight back to gambling.
- Reveals he paid friends to physically punch him and drag him from casinos or away from relationships to control his addictions.
- Confesses a current relapse into Pokemon card gambling, spending thousands of dollars a day after his kid got into it.
- Huberman effectively commits to negotiating taking time off after Choe repeatedly challenges him to take a full year off.
Worth remembering
- To join early Facebook you needed an Ivy League or Stanford email, and Sean Parker offered Choe a fake Stanford email so he could be part of it.
- Parker told Choe to paint the offices so investors would be 'horrified' and know they weren't MySpace; Mark Zuckerberg didn't even like the art.
- Choe believes the Facebook murals were likely painted with stolen spray cans.
- Choe argues the smartest, most creative people he knows almost always had severe childhood trauma, often sexual, that 'unlocked' their intelligence.
- He links his IBS directly to stress, saying he took up to seven bowel movements a day at the height of his addictions.
- Marvel hired him to draw the X-Men around age 23, then quietly fired him; he retaliated with a viral homophobic, racist rant emailed to all of Marvel, calling it career suicide.
- He once traded a giant painting he spent months on for a brakeless 1972 Plymouth Fury.
- On Bourdain's show he insisted authentic Korean-American food was Sizzler, not trendy restaurants; the Sizzler episode became the most-watched and won an Emmy.
- Choe won an Emmy for Vice News work the same season Vice cut ties with him over his out-of-control podcast.
- His central tools for recovery are daily affirmations ('I am enough'), depriving himself of electronics, asking for help, and 'playing the tape out.'