Transcript
Dave Asprey (0:00)
So I rebranded Longevity into biohacking. I spent $2.5 million doing this. It's been 58% women since the start. It's not that I'm weak. It's not that I'm not trying hard enough. It's not that I'm dumb. It's not that I'm lazy. The environment around you controls how you perform, much more so than the environment inside you.
Host (possibly a health or detox expert) (0:17)
Dave, from £300 to the founding father of the biohacking movement, you've had an incredible journey, and I think.
Dave Asprey (0:24)
And abs. And abs. Congratulations.
Host (possibly a health or detox expert) (0:28)
I will not be showing my abs, but I'm also proud of them.
Dave Asprey (0:30)
You know, we're all working on it.
Host (possibly a health or detox expert) (0:32)
You and I have both been through chronic illness hell. And one of the things I find when people talk about biohacking is that it actually has been kind of boxed in as this high performance, almost vanity project. And I know that's not what you intended it for, and I know that's not what the impact is. Can you speak to that?
Dave Asprey (0:48)
Sure. Biohacking is a global movement now. It's a $36 billion market size, according to industry analysts. And it started with 100 people in a bar in San Francisco with the first biohacking conference today. It's called Beyond Biohacking. And I created it after spending almost a decade running a longevity nonprofit in Palo Alto, California. And the real challenge is that the things that make old people young make young people powerful. But young people aren't going to listen. So I rebranded longevity into biohacking. And the benefits are high performance. But having had chronic fatigue syndrome and fibromyalgia and a long list of other things going on, including autoimmunity. I mean, we could talk for a half hour about all this stuff that's gone wrong in my biology. Having had all that, you know what I really wanted? I didn't want to be healthy. I wanted to kick ass. Everyone wants to perform better, and the sicker you are, the more important it becomes in your life. But unless you're really deathbed, deathbed ill, you're never going to say, the most important thing today is health. Because the most important thing today is actually feeling full of energy and doing what you're here to do. And so that's why biohacking is different. I'm not going to take you and say, oh, you're sick. Did you want to be well? Did you want to be average? No. We want to take you from wherever you are, even if you're as far off as I was. And we want to make you fully able to access everything that's possible for you, and that includes living way longer, because once you get your energy back, you want to do that. And it includes learning how to be conscious, because who wants to live a long time and be a jerk? So you will enter the path of consciousness and longevity if you become a biohacker. And the sicker you are when you start, the more important it'll be. And that's why when you come to the biohacking conference, yeah, you see pro athletes and celebrities and people who have achieved a ton. And you'll see a ton of people who used to be really sick, and you'll see a ton of people who are still working on it, but now they have power. That's why it's so important. And it's a new word. Biohacking entered the English language through Merriam Webster's in 2016. My name's in the dictionary because I didn't trademark the term. I wanted it to be a new movement in society that it's about enhancing how we show up in the world. And of course, if you're sick, you want to do that. But being well is table stakes. We want to go beyond table stakes. We want to win, and that's why it's so important. Another common myth about biohacking is like, oh, it's for men. No, no, no. It's been 58% women since the start. In fact, women make better biohackers than men at the beginning of the movement, because men, unless there's a bone sticking out, we're like, I'm pretty good. And women are like, you know, my body changes on a regular basis. And I might be aware of that more than guys are. So that's kind of how it happened, is because I wanted to share the things that changed my life in my mid-20s, when people in their 80s reversing their age were teaching me how they did it, I thought, this is amazing. Now I'm healthy. But now I'm better than healthy. I know how to make my brain work better than it's ever worked before, and why would I stop? And the message for anyone who's dealing with chronic fatigue or the chemical sensitivities. Got it. I used to have them so bad, they can go away, and they can go away permanently, or they can go away and they might come back a little bit, but you don't care because you have the tools of. Well, screw that noise. Turn it off.
