Andrew Huberman on Practical Wellness Tips, the Danger of "If Only" Thinking, and the Important "Protocols" For Life | Ep. 1392

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Megyn Kelly (1:01)

Welcome to The Megyn Kelly Show, live on Sirius XM Channel 111 every weekday at New East.

Hey everyone, I'm Megyn Kelly. Welcome to The Megyn Kelly Show. We've got a first time guest on the show today, Dr. Andrew Huberman. He's a neuroscientist, Stanford professor and host of the hugely popular Huberman Lab Podcast. He has published more than 75 peer reviewed articles and top scientific journals and delivered more than 100 invited research and keynote seminars around the world. He's had a fascinating life and provided guidance on how to live better to millions of fans and followers, but he's never written a book until now. His new book is called Protocols, An Operating Manual for the Human Body. And it's available right now for pre-order. It's out later this month. And it is a guide to improving brain function, enhancing mood and energy, optimizing bodily health and physical performance, and rewiring your nervous system to learn new skills and behaviors even that could positively transform your life. Our sponsor, The Electronic Payments Coalition says Washington politicians are always getting in your wallet and that now they're messing with your credit card. They say your credit card and the security it offers are under attack and that Senators Dick Durbin and Roger Marshall want to change the nation's payment system to benefit corporate megastores like Walmart and Target at the expense of everyday Americans. Credit cards can keep your payments secure and provide rewards that families use and rely on to help make everyday purchases more affordable. The Electronic Payments Coalition says the Durbin-Marshall mandates would let corporate megastores cut corners on credit card processing routing transactions over cheaper untested networks with weaker security and fewer protections. Find out more at guardyourcard.com and consider telling Congress to guard your card.

Andrew, welcome to the show.

Andrew D. Huberman (3:05)

Thanks so much for having me. Great to finally meet you.

Megyn Kelly (3:08)

Yeah, same. It's a pleasure. I'm a big fan and I've learned a lot from you over the years, from clips and from your show. So this is a thrill. And I'm loving the chance to get to talk to you about you before we kick off the health and other advice.

So you're a California boy. I am. Right? Grew up in California. I am. And it seems like from the book, you had sort of an idyllic first 14 years and the family had dinner together every night. And that's so important to one's mental health and well-being. And then something happened in your family that gets downplayed by a lot of people is really not that relevant to a child's mental health, but it is relevant and it was life-changing for you. And that was your parents' divorce.

Andrew D. Huberman (3:54)

Yeah, I did have a quite idyllic life. My dad's a scientist.

My mom's a writer. And, you know, and along with my sister, we had dinner together every night. In my home, there wasn't a lot of discussion about sports, but I certainly got to hear a lot about the luminaries of science and ideas from my dad. We always shared that. My mom has a real love of literature, obviously, and I have a close relationship with my sister, and everything was pretty fantastic. And then, you know, I was born in 1975, so divorce wasn't as common back when. But when I, about at age 14, they separated and got divorced. This happens a lot nowadays, as we know, unfortunately.

Look, I love my parents. Everyone did the best they could with what they had. But it was a high-conflict situation. And, you know, as things played out, I found myself disengaging from academics, disengaging from kind of standard social milieu of school. I went to a very, very good public school in South Palo Alto. Keep in mind, at this time, Palo Alto wasn't the Palo Alto that it is now, you know, of .com and tech fame. But most of the kids there were the children of academics or engineers or something like that. And we were well enough off. I wouldn't say we were, like, at the high end of the wealth scale or low end. You know, the focus in our house was on love and ideas. But what happened was, in response to that, and I regret this, and I encourage all kids of divorced parents, high or low conflict situations, to keep studying, keep doing your homework, and stay engaged in school sports and activities. What happened for me was I ended up organizing my life around basically skateboarding and hanging out with skateboarders. Because back in the late 80s and early 90s, that's where all the feral kids went. And I talk about this a little bit at the beginning of the book, even though it's not the main focus of the book. What was really great was, in that community, there were a bunch of kids whose parents were not engaged in their lives much, right? That was the unifying theme. That's why we skateboarded, because you didn't need your parents to come to baseball or soccer practice.