Episode 562: Shawn Stevenson: Why Your Relationships Shape Your Health More Than Any Wellness Trend

**Shawn Stevenson** (0:01)
Hi, guys, it's Tony Robbins. You're listening to Habits and Hustle. Crush it.

**Jen Cohen** (0:07)
Hey, friends, you're listening to Fitness Friday on the Habits and Hustle podcast, where myself and my friends share quick and very actionable advice for you becoming your healthiest self. So stay tuned and let me know how you leveled up.
Today, we have Shawn Stevenson, you guys. He is probably an OG, you are an OG in podcasting. He has one of the top health podcasts, probably in the, is it in the US or in the world at this point?

**Shawn Stevenson** (0:41)
You know, it's like the billboard charts, but you've been number one in the United States, like, you know, many, many weeks.

**Jen Cohen** (0:46)
Forever, like a long time. It's also could be because of your voice. He does have a really nice sounding voice, which kind of helps kind of, not to mention the science background, but the combination. And you always give such great information. So the whole thing, it's really nice to finally have you. I can't believe how long I, I'm shocked it's taken six years to have you sit here, because I feel like we should have met before. I want you to tell me the top three biggest myths in wellness right now.

**Shawn Stevenson** (1:17)
Okay, top three biggest myths in wellness right now. Oh, you want to get controversial?

**Jen Cohen** (1:22)
Oh my gosh. I've been waiting.

**Shawn Stevenson** (1:26)
Okay, I mean, the hot thing on people's tongues right now, which they might be injecting their tongues is the peptides.

**Jen Cohen** (1:34)
Yeah.

**Shawn Stevenson** (1:34)
You know, that's super popping right now. And for good reason, there's some interesting science around this. And I'm saying this from the perspective of somebody who was unintentionally kind of saw this coming. When I was working on my book, Eat Smarter, and this was like 2018, 2019, when I first started to put the book together, I was pointing out some of the most significant, what again, we relate to peptides, like insulin, GLP-1s, these are literally written in my book. It came out around the end of 2020 But I was talking about GLP-1, but I was talking about the pathways to get these things activated in your system, right?
And I also considered like, what if we can just take these things to help, like just like taking insulin, right? And but I kind of just like left that tab open. And little did I know within the next couple of years, what was going to happen with GLP-1, for example, which is life transforming for many people, but also abused as well, as most things are in this kind of pharmaceutical mindset.

**Jen Cohen** (2:39)
Are you on a GLP-1?

**Shawn Stevenson** (2:41)
No, no, I've-

**Jen Cohen** (2:42)
Because every time, every single person sitting here, who are thin, not thin, bulky, not, but whatever, everyone's either microdosing it or taking it. And they all just like talk, you know, kind of like just speak it away like, oh yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm just taking a microdose of Trezapetide, or I'm just taking a microdose of this.

**Shawn Stevenson** (3:01)
I've watched all the specials with my heroes growing up, Mark McGuire, Jose Kinseko. You know, I didn't-

**Jen Cohen** (3:08)
Remember HG.? Yes.

**Shawn Stevenson** (3:10)
Hulk Hogan. I just watched the Hulk Hogan die.

**Jen Cohen** (3:11)
How was that one, by the way?

**Shawn Stevenson** (3:13)
It's fire. I mean, I was, maybe that's what got me emotional, low key today.

**Jen Cohen** (3:17)
No, I love Hulk Hogan. I'm very close with his agent. And that whole thing, I met him, I loved him. He was great.

**Shawn Stevenson** (3:23)
It was, I mean, such a big part of my childhood.

**Jen Cohen** (3:26)
Oh, it was my childhood, yeah.

**Shawn Stevenson** (3:29)
By the end and just how everything unfolded on me, I was just like choked up.

**Jen Cohen** (3:32)
Don't even tell me, because I haven't watched it yet.

**Shawn Stevenson** (3:34)
I'm going to watch it this week.

**Jen Cohen** (3:35)
Don't tell me anything.

**Shawn Stevenson** (3:36)
But just again, he was right there. Oh, I didn't take anything, brother. Eat your vitamins, say your prayers.

**Jen Cohen** (3:40)
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

**Shawn Stevenson** (3:42)
I have not injected a damn thing, like-

**Jen Cohen** (3:45)
Nothing.

**Shawn Stevenson** (3:46)
Nothing. Yeah, so, you know, keeping that in context, but it's not that I'm against it. I'm much more on the side of like, let's stack conditions in our favor and do the things that our genes expect first. If you're not doing those things, stop trying to take a particular, which again, I want to say this with compassion, a shortcut in order to get a certain response. If you're sleeping for three hours and then looking towards like, let me take this peptide in order to lose weight or in order to help to try to increase the length of my telomeres or whatever, you're burning your telomeres away by staying up and being on your phone. Like, let's address the behavior. Also, we can have these other newly invented products to support us when appropriate.