Video summary
In this behind-the-scenes look at a high-production podcast shoot in Los Angeles, the host provides an intimate glimpse into the chaotic yet ritualistic process of creating cinematic interviews with Andrew Huberman. The production involves significant logistical challenges and financial investment, requiring the team to maximize their time on location due to expensive venue rentals, insurance costs, and travel arrangements for guests. A central theme is the tension between meticulous preparation and unpredictable reality; while the host follows strict personal rituals like a pre-podcast visit to Cheesecake Factory with producer Chris to ensure mental readiness, external factors such as last-minute guest cancellations can throw entire schedules into disarray. The team often finds themselves pivoting rapidly, sometimes losing an hour of shooting time or needing to scramble for replacement guests just hours before recording begins. The technical and creative demands of the shoot are immense, utilizing five cameras in 4K resolution which results in massive data files that require extensive offloading and management after each session. The host emphasizes a deep commitment to visual storytelling, aiming to provide top-tier podcast guests with cinematic beauty that matches the quality of their ideas—a standard he felt was previously missing on the internet. This dedication extends to his personal preparation routine, where he spends mornings walking, meditating, and ensuring he is physically rested before arriving at what can feel like a Christmas morning or an absolute nightmare depending on how well the crew has set up the environment. The goal is always to arrive feeling good mentally and physically so that anxiety does not interfere with delivering high-quality conversations under artificial lighting for extended periods. Despite the pressure of spending tens of thousands of dollars per shoot block, the host maintains a focus on authenticity and connection rather than flexing his productivity records. He candidly admits that while he has managed to complete four episodes in roughly 27 hours—a new personal record—he does not view this as an achievement but rather a necessity driven by economic constraints and a love for creating special events. The production includes mandatory ad reads, which the host performs with varying degrees of memorization depending on fatigue levels, often reciting scripts for partners like A1 Wisdom that he uses daily but struggles to recall after long hours. These commercial breaks are described as an essential part of sustaining the business model required to afford such high-end productions and bring world-class guests onto his platform. Ultimately, the video concludes with a reflection on the unpredictable nature of filmmaking where plans change catastrophically within 20 hours before shooting is set to begin. The host acknowledges that while some days go smoothly, others involve total chaos, yet he remains committed to riding this production vehicle until it falls apart because he genuinely loves these conversations and the creative process. The episode serves as both a celebration of the visual respect given to intellectual discourse and an honest admission that behind every polished final product lies a struggle against logistical hurdles, technical failures, and schedule conflicts. As the day ends with file offloading and plans for future guests already forming, the host signals that the work is far from over, setting the stage for another round of high-stakes production in Los Angeles.
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[Music]
welcome to the
[Music]
show this looks
cool this weekend we have a pretty cool
production so I figured it might be a
good idea to capture it see what happens
behind the scenes show you guys what we
get up to kind of how the sausage is
made at least a little bit the producer
isn't here
which means that he can make decisions
about where we stay that he doesn't have
to deal with the consequences of but we
do see this is what you don't see behind
the scenes all it looks like happens is
I sit down at a table and Andrew
huberman's opposite me service here is
fantastic solution is to park this side
of
we're moving in I live here
now
no there's a pungent smell Mark let me
show you the crib full on Suite
microwave television fridge with nothing
in
it uhhuh how you feel take the ride
great mhm useful you look great thanks
when I'm tired of life I can just hang
myself if I was spending the night
before a big episode fretting about
where the grip trucks going to be stored
or whether the lenses are going to work
right and it's just I can't I couldn't
do it trying to talk about cuber
husbands tomorrow I can't be distracted
about lenses and batteries and stuff all
good I mean that's got to be I mean it's
a [ __ ] closed up gate it's already
there for tomorrow best
play most of my prep can't make video
[ __ ] yeah so typically when we we land
uh on location we check out the set we
spent the first day looking around
looking at different potential camera
layouts potential set
layouts there's only one place to go
before we record a podcast Cheesecake
Factory what I love most about working
with Chris is our ritualistic Cheesecake
Factory visit it's super important that
we have that otherwise the whole
production falls
apart and you will
see this is the third time that we've
been to this one two times in a row we
were placed at this very table he's come
in and put a special request tradition
tradition but the line between tradition
and Superstition begins to get a little
bit dicey I come back to LA again and I
get put on that table we like what if
tomorrow I forget how to speak tomorrow
what if it doesn't work what if the
building burns down film him don't film
me there we go that remains stylish you
know that's the pre podcast Cheesecake
Factory done obviously the most
important part of the weekend uh we're
going to get to bed the guys have got to
be up super early I have no idea what
happened I've never been on set when
these guys have actually built the set
so maybe it's total chaos and an
absolute catastrophe and everything's on
fire I don't know but I guess we'll find
out tomorrow
[Music]
peace for shoots like these I really
like having as much time as possible to
light cuz it's five cameras a little
further back the process of making this
interviews happen is pretty insane uh
the production quality the team so it's
the same thing every time I get to spend
my morning making myself feel good and
prepping and stuff and then I arrive and
I have no idea what they've done so it's
kind of like Christmas every single
morning is like Christmas or a
nightmare so the process before each
interview is pretty varied I have my
prep that I need to do to get ready for
the guest to make myself feel good to be
in a good mood to make sure that I've
slept and ate appropriately and then the
rest of the boys need to make sure that
everything looks
nice this looks cool this looks really
really cool
so I have a process that I go through
before each episode especially these big
ones uh I found that I would get a
little bit anxious in my body it used to
be anxious in my mind too although
that's largely
dissipated I like to go for a walk on
the morning I like to think about what
I'm going to talk about to the guest I
like to Envision things going well
sitting inside under artificial lights
all day is not always great for the
brain
[Music]
so yeah I'd be like I'd be really
[ __ ] cranking this thing is out but
weend huh is
out we came out here to do three
interviews and uh unfortunately we had
someone drop out relatively at the last
minute just before I started recording
with Andrew hubman I realized that
onethird of the entire shoot had just
been thrown out of the window and I
needed to change that so obviously we
come here it's expensive to put all of
this together so we try and maximize
amount of shoots that we can get her
Setter uh so yeah we're just seeing what
we can do so Chase lives in LA and works
a lot here so he'll try and yeah booking
the
guest tough schedules are tough so yeah
uh it's not quite as smooth sailing as
it could be all the time we need to
Pivot and find someone else for tomorrow
morning put the [ __ ] put the call out
let's see what he can
do it's a little bit tough to have the
pressure on you if you you know that
there's an awful lot riding on this
you've spent you know 20 or 30 grand for
one 3our block and if you mess up then
it's a big
waste I want you just focus on this
Andrew is going to arrive in an hour so
not ideal timing but I I don't want to
get distracted by thinking about
tomorrow while I'm trying to record it
him today so I've sent a few texts we'll
see we'll see what comes back
okay Andrew is a world class like
absolutely world class podcaster so he
makes it
easy the most fun part of this podcast
is the conversations I did it six years
ago I started doing it because I wanted
to have conversations with interesting
people the only thing that's changed is
the quality of the lights and the number
of people that watch all right good yeah
feel great you're on the other side get
off my side
get off my side it's a reshaping of the
mouth dud Let's do let's [ __ ] I want to
start talking about this
Comfort hold on rolling a rolling B
there it is you can't teach them they've
tried
to I did it uh get I did it 3 2 one Dr
Andrew hman welcome to the show a few
years ago I made the decision to turn
pro with the podcast and that meant
committing properly to putting
everything that I could into trying to
be as good of a podcaster as possible
but we had more headro to improve the
quality of the production and really
make something beautiful I'm fortunate
that I have access to some of the
biggest podcast guests on the planet now
and I wanted to make something that
really felt special I wanted something
that is an occasion that is an event
that visually looked as good as the
concepts that were being communicated
and I didn't think that anyone was doing
that on the internet I didn't think that
these great guests with fantastic ideas
were being given the Cinematic beauty
that they deserved and this is a weekend
of doing that
again yeah love your podcast man your
podcast is so good it's so good I feel
proud of the stuff that we've created I
think these Cinema episodes are the most
beautiful podcast interviews that have
ever been made I I got to uh got to
repost do
ads got to do ads not done yet that's
very important got to pay the
bills that's [ __ ] money these shoots
are very expensive and the only way that
we can afford to come and film in this
kind of quality is if we put advertisers
on I need to Now record a bunch of ads
for partners that I absolutely love
working with we'll get back to talking
to Andrew in one minute but first I need
to tell
you I I can't reach it's the final thing
that you do at the end of the shoot day
when you're the most tired when you've
been talking for the longest sometimes
this goes really well sometimes this
goes really badly after some research I
found that after a ton of research after
a ton of research I found out that Marik
health is the best thank you very much
for tuning in if you enjoyed that clip
right here go
on press
it did it
baby this is the best part of the day
episode's done episode went well ad
reads are done all of the pain is out of
the way can't go to Cheesecake Factory
again I'm afraid but um get to chill out
tonight need to find a guest for
tomorrow morning because Robert Green's
cancelled need to prepare for whoever
that is need to prepare for the guy
that's after
him actually the day is not over at all
is it Dean's currently offloading all of
the files which is one problem that we
have with these shoots storage is a big
deal like these files a massive
three-hour episode on five cameras in 4k
is huge all the plans change the plans
that we've had for weeks have changed in
20 hours before we're about to shoot so
trying to fix the problems and we will
uh we'll see if I manage to do it but
yeah that's day one done see you
[Music]
tomorrow 3 2
1 I've done four episodes in probably 30
hours but four in 27 is a new record
that I don't intend on trying to be like
this isn't a flex for me to try and get
this many episodes done in such a short
space of time but as I said it's really
expensive to get all of these people
here to get all of this kit to get the
insurance to get the venue rental to fly
everybody in it's not cheap so try and
maximize it I'm going to keep riding
this thing till the [ __ ] Wheels fall
off like I love what I do I love these
conversations and creating something
that I think visually respects the
quality of the conversation is pretty
important all right are we uh
we we actually have a bit too much space
on this side again I need to tell you
about mud water mud water is a coffee
alter so that's the bit that you don't
see how many takes it takes to say 60
seconds of AD reads most of which I know
off by heart all of which are products
that I use every day but by this time of
the day none of which I can remember you
think anyone would notice so many if I
just did it like this no let's let's
switch out with human
the alternative oh that's nice came up
with that SL modern
wisdom first I need to tell you about
the product I've used every single day
for over SL wisdom that's drink a1.com
[Laughter]
wisdom what a rap what a [ __ ] rap
that that's it done [ __ ]
it so that's it that is what four
episodes in 27 hours looks like might
look way more chaotic than you thought
maybe it's completely controlled I don't
know uh but this is kind of what it
feels like to do these shoots things
change sometimes catastrophes occur
thank you for coming along seeing what
we get up to
I don't know yeah I'll see you in the
next
one wow that's heavy