Video summary
Andrew Huberman emphasizes a core principle for navigating public discourse: one should avoid engaging in controversies unless they are prepared to stake their entire reputation on it, arguing that focusing on discovering new things is far more sustainable than becoming known solely for conflict. He views the ability to communicate thoughts rapidly via social media as an enormous privilege and asset that must be guarded rather than exploited for entertainment or controversy. To protect this integrity, Huberman adheres to a strict rule ensuring that 90% of his online posts are designed purely for audience benefit, aiming to educate listeners on mental and physical health topics like deliberate cold exposure, while acknowledging that scientific papers often invite diverse interpretations from those who may not have published extensively themselves. The transcript details how this philosophy was tested when Huberman commented on a podcast featuring Robert F. Kennedy Jr., hoping all presidential candidates would appear on long-form shows to allow for deeper understanding of their views. His comment regarding the candidate's gym routine and attire sparked an immediate backlash, leading Stanford colleagues and major media outlets to falsely label him as an antivaxer or an RFK supporter without listening to his actual content. This resulted in a significant distortion where assertions about his political agenda were scraped from Wikipedia and used against him until editors locked the page, leaving out all of his research contributions despite over 70 peer-reviewed articles indexed on PubMed supporting his work since around 2016. Huberman reflects that while he loves forging for information to benefit public health, this very dedication irritates some who prefer a different narrative landscape. He notes that many podcasters and public figures often pivot from their core topics of expertise to comment on current events like the Ukraine conflict or climate change because they feel compelled to share opinions in an era where sensitivity dials are turned up high enough for minor details, such as tattoos or beards, to become political flashpoints. He contrasts his approach with this trend, noting that while he has personal opinions and votes, he chooses not to engage in these specific controversies to avoid becoming a distraction from the larger messages of science and health education he strives to deliver. Ultimately, Huberman concludes that much online information is massaged based on presumptions rather than facts, making it crucial for individuals to learn how to be good scientists and foragers of data themselves. He points out that even major news outlets share advertisers with his podcast, suggesting a shared economic interest in maintaining certain narratives, yet he does not view this as an excuse to ignore the need for critical thinking regarding what can be trusted online. By understanding that no single person holds absolute truth—rejecting the idea of "Mount Olympus" where one stands above all others—he encourages listeners to recognize how easily information is manipulated and to focus on verifying facts rather than succumbing to massaged stories or conspiracy theories, such as those surrounding cold plunges which he jokingly refers to as a distinct group dynamic.
Read the full video transcript
there was a a quote that stuck with me
that you tweeted last year or maybe you
just taught it to me I can't remember
advice I got early in my career don't
over engage in any controversy unless
you are willing to stake your entire
reputation on it rather keep focused on
discovering new things and creating or
else you become known for the
controversy and nothing else there is no
going back right yeah this um isn't
about avoiding being cancelled because I
think some people might translate it to
mean that which is why I said it's not
about that it's about you know we're
given this enormous um privilege to
communicate our thoughts very fast now
through social media and whether or not
you have a big following small following
or no
following it is still a privilege and
it's something that I've learned to
really think through and guard and
protect as an asset right that we have
and I've I've thought about this from
the beginning of posting on things
online um and set up certain rules for
myself uh
for instance I try to ensure that 90% of
my posts are really for the pure benefit
of the the audience and not for my own
entertainment occasionally I'll see
something and I'll have a one of these
like you know I'll see something animal
post or something like oh that's so cool
or the other day I saw something on a on
an X account about you know bumblebees
that sleep inside of flowers and it was
really cool about how they look at
polarized light and stuff but I just was
really tickled by this fact I thought
other people might be as well but it was
more for my own entertainment frankly
but 90% of what I put out there I'm
really trying to think will people
benefit from this will they learn from
it not are they going to be interested
in it but are are they going to learn
from it will it get them thinking or
doing something beneficial to their
mental health or physical health Lord
knows I've been attacked for you know
saying hey this is an interesting study
about deliberate cold exposure and then
people were like oh it's underpowered
and you know it's a marginal effect and
you know and I love this because I come
from the field of science it's sort of
funny to turn people loose on a paper
where because you know you're going to
get a range of opinions because no two
people read the same paper the same way
and everyone would like to say that they
are the Arbiter of truth and how to read
papers which just makes me chuckle
normally those people have not published
very many papers themselves it's sort of
this inverse relationship but
nonetheless I like to put things out
there that stimulate thinking uh
positive thinking I don't like
controversy for sake of controversy but
you and I have colleagues in the podcast
space and there are many people in who
are public facing who see a current
event and they just say what they think
and you know what more power to them but
it is an I will say it is a distractor
from a larger message that they likely
have if they have one at all but and and
you see this and it's not that they go
down what happens is they they take
their audience that has been built
around a certain set of topics and
suddenly they're talking about current
events I guess what I'm basically saying
is I don't talk about current events
yeah you've never as far as I'm away
you've never commented on politics
you've never made any no I actually this
is I've um politics came to around to me
in an interesting way I'll just share
this because it's it's exactly how it
happened Rogan had Robert Kennedy Jr on
his podcast okay and I um liked the post
and I commented and the comment was the
following I said I hope all um I I hope
all presidential candidates uh go on
long form podcasts because I happen to
believe that it's a great way to get to
know candidates plural [ __ ] no so didn't
someone edit your Wikipedia page okay so
in this so this is interesting so I got
calls from colleagues of mine at
Stanford I got L literally calls and
texts I got calls from major media
Outlets asking whether or not I'm an RFK
supporter antivaxer to which I said I
don't know how you concluded that okay
that's certainly not my stance right my
politics are my politics but but there
was a huge leap from and I said and I in
my comment I said you know I I look
forward to listening and I hope all the
candidates go on long form podcast I
also see Robert in the gym and it always
looks like he's training hard he trains
hard he's in good condition yeah he
wears jeans which I don't understand
when he trains but anyway but he trains
hard odd Choice odd choice but it free
free country so so so be it so was I
commenting on the content of the of his
podcast no was I commenting on probably
hadn't even listened to it yet I hadn't
listened to it yet so what was
interesting was in the subsequent days I
got an onslaught lot of kind of
assumptions or presumptions really what
they were and then yes my I mean this
isn't about maybe this is the time I
I've published over 70 peer-reviewed
articles that are indexed on PubMed um
you know many of which had secondary
sources in time and and other major
Outlets that covered the the findings
for their relevance to the general
public at the time this is around 2016
mostly but in the subsequent years as
well that was scraped from my Wikipedia
scraped from Wikipedia you mean like
scrub removed from
well my research contributions are not
there on Wikipedia still and um and then
it was there were assertions that I was
an antivaxer there were assertions that
um that I was supporting certain uh
political agendas and and so on and then
the the page was locked by the editorial
staff I've had Communications with the
founders of Wikipedia who the page has
been adjusted somewhat um but not none
of my research has been put back I I
actually am at this point I I think it's
sort of interesting because it's such
it's more actually it's kind of
fortunate that it happened in the sense
that it's more telling about how the
kind of editorializing around Wikipedia
exists then this is really not about me
I'm I'm telling this this anecdote um as
a way to sort of reveal what was my
experience makes very clear that um you
know now it includes some some positives
some negatives about the podcast that's
fine we we cover supplements some people
are and promote supplements in certain
contexts mostly behavioral tools but
supplements too and so I'm perfectly
fine with that being included cuz that's
true um but it was very interesting to
see how um when I the the way that sort
of people will pick up the ball and run
with things yeah and um and it's and
it's it's been super useful for me to
understand this because what it's
allowed me to do at first it was like
Hey like what's this about then I tried
to figure it out then I went you know
straight to the top in terms of trying
to understand and I realized it's like
okay what do I really love doing I love
forging for information that can benefit
people's mental health and physical
health I love organizing that
information I love dispersing that
information to the best of my abilities
and um and those are the things that
make me happy and those are the things
that um seem to resonate with a certain
number of people those are also some of
the same things that seem to irritate a
certain number of people and and I love
doing it and so what I'm going to do is
just return to doing that and I learned
a lot about the landscape of online
information in the process formative
experience it seems very formative and
as an academic you know all the my
papers are on Pub there's no unless a
paper is retracted or corrected there's
no removing things from the library of
Google Scholar will just be kind of Lo
like no one's going in that my H index
is fixed and it's not to be very clear I
want to be very clear uh because I don't
want to contradict the the very thing
that I opened up the question which is
this is not this is not something I
wanted to like die on The Sword of right
but it it it really alerted me to the
fact that so much of the information
that's on the on the inter internet um
has been massaged in a particular
direction based on presumptions so one
of the reasons I'm taking this
opportunity to talk about this is not to
counter major Media news outlets they're
just trying to make a living for it's
kind of interesting they have a lot of
the same advertisers that my podcast
does you know I don't advertise fendy
bags but um but you know they use
advertisers we we use them it makes it
free to everybody um as a consequence
but I think that it's really important
for people to realize that this question
of like what can we who can we trust
what can we trust we all have to learn
to be good scientists and foragers of
information and and and the macro for me
is that hopefully people are learning to
forge for information better as a
consequence of understanding that like
yeah no one person holds the truth this
is not Mount o Olympus right so I think
the interesting thing one of the reasons
why you might have seen an outsized
response to this is people aren't used
to you being in anything right like the
the the biggest conspiracy that Andrew
hubman is going to be a part of is like
some new study on sunlight in the eyes
or something it's like is the where's
the P value and stuff it's like it's
it's like it's not uh accessible to the
nor plunge Mafia precisely yeah there is
by the way a cold plunge Mafia who are
they yeah well I'm not going to talk
about it's like a what's it called the
Saros you've got the Brotherhood you've
made a blood I probably shouldn't have
said that you can keep it in but it's
it's a pretty it's it's a strong group
let's just say politically socially
financially
I understand why people are nervous
about the Cal plun it's me too
so lots and lots of people
online
um get known for their expertise within
one area and then start to think to
themselves
well why why shouldn't the world know
about my opinion on the Ukraine conflict
like I've got lots of things to say and
everybody thinks that it's very very
valuable so maybe I should contribute to
what we should do about climate change
or what we what we think should happen
in the next election and I think that
you know to your credit you've done a
really good job because you will have
opinions you've just chosen not to share
them presumably right and I vote yeah so
but you've chosen not to do that and I
think that it's almost like uh the
sensitivity dial was turned up so much
it's like where's the first ever so we
knew we knew that it was the tattoos and
the beard we always knew that that guy
was like a like an RFK or do you know
what I mean and any opportunity for
somebody to jump on this right in other
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