The Tim Ferriss Show #352: Dr. Peter Attia vs. Tim Ferriss
Healthspan Over Lifespan
- Peter Attia distinguishes lifespan from healthspan and prioritizes healthspan for most people.
- Improving quality of life, especially near the end, often matters more than adding years.
Near-Fatal College Decision
- Tim Ferriss described coming close to suicide in college and how a postcard to his parents prevented it.
- That accidental interruption became a pivotal wake-up that changed his life trajectory.
Transformative Yet Risky Plant Journeys
- Peter Attia detailed multiple guided psychedelic experiences, including a traumatic second iowaska night with seizures.
- Weeks later he experienced durable emotional changes, especially reduced anger in personal relationships.
"Unhappiness is at the root of more pain, I would suspect, than any ailment that falls in the 'physical' body. And to think that we have compounds that could play such an important role that are really facing challenges in getting approved, I just find that really frustrating." — Dr. Peter Attia
This is a special episode and features one of my dear friends.
A number of guests have started incredible podcasts after being on this show as their first-ever podcast interview, including legendary Navy SEAL commander Jocko Willink.
What people don't know is that Jocko was introduced to me by a fella named Peter Attia.
Dr. Peter Attia (TW: @PeterAttiaMD, IG: @peterattiamd, peterattiamd.com) is a former ultra-endurance athlete (e.g., swimming races of 25 miles), a compulsive self-experimenter, and one of the most fascinating human beings I know. He is one of my go-to doctors for anything performance or longevity-related. He is also easily the best quarterback and sherpa for the US medical system I've ever met.
But here is his official bio to do him justice:
Peter is the founder of Attia Medical, PC, a medical practice with offices in San Diego and New York City, focusing on the applied science of longevity.
Peter trained for five years at the Johns Hopkins Hospital in general surgery, where he was the recipient of several prestigious awards, including resident of the year, and the author of a comprehensive review of general surgery. He also spent two years at NIH as a surgical oncology fellow at the National Cancer Institute where his research focused on immune-based therapies for melanoma. He has since been mentored by some of the most experienced and innovative lipidologists, endocrinologists, gynecologists, sleep physiologists, and longevity scientists in the United States and Canada.
Peter earned his M.D. from Stanford University and holds a B.Sc. in mechanical engineering and applied mathematics.
In our conversation in this episode, Peter actually interviews me, though he shares a lot of his own experiences. It is audio from Peter's incredible podcast, The Peter Attia Drive, which can be found on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or anywhere podcasts are found. It is one of the few podcasts I listen to regularly.
Many friends I've shared this particular episode with have now listened to it multiple times. It takes us both a few minutes to warm up, but then it goes really deep. These are many of things people like Peter and I aren't supposed to talk about publicly.
Please enjoy!
Click here for the show notes for this episode.
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Past guests on The Tim Ferriss Show include Jerry Seinfeld, Hugh Jackman, Dr. Jane Goodall, LeBron James, Kevin Hart, Doris Kearns Goodwin, Jamie Foxx, Matthew McConaughey, Esther Perel, Elizabeth Gilbert, Terry Crews, Sia, Yuval Noah Harari, Malcolm Gladwell, Madeleine Albright, Cheryl Strayed, Jim Collins, Mary Karr, Maria Popova, Sam Harris, Michael Phelps, Bob Iger, Edward Norton, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Neil Strauss, Ken Burns, Maria Sharapova, Marc Andreessen, Neil Gaiman, Neil de Grasse Tyson, Jocko Willink, Daniel Ek, Kelly Slater, Dr. Peter Attia, Seth Godin, Howard Marks, Dr. Brené Brown, Eric Schmidt, Michael Lewis, Joe Gebbia, Michael Pollan, Dr. Jordan Peterson, Vince Vaughn, Brian Koppelman, Ramit Sethi, Dax Shepard, Tony Robbins, Jim Dethmer, Dan Harris, Ray Dalio, Naval Ravikant, Vitalik Buterin, Elizabeth Lesser, Amanda Palmer, Katie Haun, Sir Richard Branson, Chuck Palahniuk, Arianna Huffington, Reid Hoffman, Bill Burr, Whitney Cummings, Rick Rubin, Dr. Vivek Murthy, Darren Aronofsky, and many more.
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