Dave Asprey: About 1/4 Of Americans Don't . - Bulletproof

my pain, so when it comes to expressing humor with sarcasm or satirism, whichI think comes from Saturn .Dave Asprey:Saturn? No. I think that comes from those half goat, half horse . Isn't Saturnlike a-JP Sears:You've offended all the vegans out there already.Dave Asprey:It's almost a dish. It's like half goat, half tofu, and you mix it all up.JP Sears:That sounds disgusting, but nonetheless, when one expresses their humor, yes, Ido believe there's pain in it. Are we projecting that pain onto someone else andhurting them, or are we essentially owning our pain? Therefore, I think shiningthe light to help other people get in touch with their pain, rather than havingthe humor inflict pain on them, that's why I think self-deprecating humor, I thinkwith a compassionate consciousness toward self rather than using selfdeprecating humor to shame self and just hurt our pain even more, I think that'simportant to be aware of, so that humor doesn't become a way of just hurtingother people, which to me, it absolutely can. Humor is a powerful energy,powerful psychological energy. Light side is, I think it can be an alchemist ofhealing and self-awareness, and shadow side is, I think it can be a knife that cutsinto people.Dave Asprey:Well, I mean, there's the sort of dick joke comedians with three hour podcasts,where it's mostly just chewing on stuff, where sometimes, it's funny, but youkind of feel a little dirty when you're done listening to it. There's another side ofit, where you're like, "Okay, it was damned funny, but I feel uplifted by that,instead of angry."JP Sears:Yeah, for sure. I think listening, if I can use a big word . Listening. That wastough. Listening to our bio-feedback, like how do you respond to humor thatyou're using or someone's using around you? If you hurt, our feelings don't lie. Ithink Carl Yung said it best. Our feelings are the language of our soul. I thinkthey come from a very deep place of truth inside of us. If we feel worse, andheavy, and fatigued from a conversation or listening to people joke, it's like,"Wow, that was probably hurtful humor." We can be amused. We can belaughing, but laughing is a form of weeping. It can be us emoting pain, becausewe're experiencing pain being inflicted on us with humor.To me, the light side of humor, it's one of my favorite. I would honestly call it apsychological biohack. I really would. I think when we can laugh, not atourselves, but with ourselves, and with other people, you get the whole shot ofendorphins. It's a uplifting experience, and I think also, another angle thathumor is a powerful biohack is it helps us not take ourselves so seriously. I'm abig fan of have beliefs, but don't believe your beliefs. I think when we can usehumor as the force of detachment, so we can have our beliefs, but not be soBPR-JPSearsPage 5 of 35

attached, and just believe our beliefs, to me, that's one of my favoritepsychological brain biohacks.Dave Asprey:So you're saying humor can make people maybe less tribal?JP Sears:Absolutely.Dave Asprey:At the same time, if it's applied wrong, if you're only making fun of the otherside and not of yourself, then it actually increases tribalism, right?JP Sears:For sure. Actually, just so I'm clear, what do you mean by tribalism?Dave Asprey:The way I see tribalism, it's always an us versus them thing, so okay, I'mBulletproof, and McDonald's, they're bad people. You sort of build wallsbetween people, but end of the day, what those walls do is they make you stopthinking about what you're doing, about what they're doing, and make it aboutgood versus evil, which is just a straight-up way to stop thinking and use youremotions, very old, primitive emotions, instead of actually using your rationalbrain and just realizing, "Oh, maybe we just disagree about what to put on ourGoddamn plate for ." Does it really matter?JP Sears:Yeah. I don't know who it is, like the Zen people. They don't make me soundintelligent if I say this is a Zen quote. The Buddhists said this, too, whoever elseis dead, whose attorneys aren't going to sue me for misrepresenting them. TheBuddhists said this and whoever else, Abraham Lincoln, probably. They suggestthat the source of all disease is a sense of separation. I know that reallyoversimplifies things, yet I think it's also a very helpful consideration. If we'reincreasing tribalism, us versus them, that separation . And to me, part of thebeauty of humor, the light side of humor, is it's a form of communication,communion, so it decreases tribalism, increases our sense of connection, so if alldisease is created by a sense of separation, then maybe health and healing, andan increased quality of life, comes through more connection, connection withthyself, and connection with our community.Dave Asprey:Well, you definitely cracked the code, because a lot of people, in fact, I thinkmost people who've seen your work have no idea that you're a Holistic CoachAdvanced Practitioner. You've actually done a lot of your own work on thatfront, and that translated into a hundred million views on YouTube, which is aninsane number. I believe that I have five million, so I'm sort of feelinginsignificant.JP Sears:Who's the real man?Dave Asprey:I have no idea what my numbers on YouTube are, but that seems about right,whatever. You've definitely done something different, because the virality ofthe stuff that you say, like when you put together a video like that, people justshare it, because you did something that wasn't maybe as hurtful as just a rant.BPR-JPSearsPage 6 of 35

We certainly see hurtful rants shared sometimes, but it's a different energy to it,and I think it does get shared more. I don't know if you or anyone else has donequantitative analysis on that, but there's something, a different vibe in what youdo that I haven't really seen from other comedians. That was why I wanted tohave you on the show, plus, we just got to be friends when you started makingfun of biohacking, and I was like, "You have to be on, 'cause ."JP Sears:Yeah. I love to make fun of what's important to me. Yeah. When someone's onsocial media, and they click share . I've been very blessed by whoever's upthere blessing people. I think it's Santa Claus, still.Dave Asprey:He's one of them.JP Sears:Yeah. He's my favorite saint, Saint Nick. When someone clicks share on socialmedia, I think, at a deep level what it means is they've just seen somethingabout themself that they weren't aware of. Something that's very important tome in the work that I do, including the comedy work that I do, is facilitatingincreased self-awareness. I think the purpose of our lives is to live our life, and Ithink a lot of us walk around, and we are just a stranger to ourself. We don'tknow who we are, but we sit here, and we think we know who we are. Then, webecome convinced that we are who we think we are, but I think who we are, thetrue being inside Dave, the true being inside JP, we're far more expansive thanwhat we can comprehend.One of the reasons why I love facilitating increased self-awareness, even if it'sjust a little reflection of self-awareness, like you watch a comedy video, you seesomething about yourself that you didn't know was there, and you like it, youresonate with it, so you hit share. To me, that self-awareness helps us stepdeeper into truly living the miracle of who we are, rather than treating ourselveslike a stranger while we're just trying to be who we're expected to be, who wethink we're supposed to be. I think life is too short to be someone other thanourself.Dave Asprey:When you decide to share something on social media that's not your own work,what thought process goes through your mind before you decide whetheryou're going to share something or not?JP Sears:Yeah. That's a great question. I think a couple things, one, that I receive benefitfrom this. If I receive benefit from that, that's a great green check mark, greenmeans go. I think the other thing is, is this a message that's kind of congruentwith my brand? My brand, the comedy, as well as just sincerity, are toocomponents of my brand. I think the comedy's more well-known. It's if acongruent message, awesome, but just because something's a great message,and I receive benefit, doesn't necessarily mean I'm going to share it. Someonemight have these amazing orthotics for your shoes. I'm like, "Wow, that's abeneficial message," but I'm probably not going to share that.BPR-JPSearsPage 7 of 35

Dave Asprey:Orthotics aren't funny. Is that the deal?JP Sears:Not yet, as far as I know.Dave Asprey:I think you can break through that glass ceiling for orthotics.JP Sears:If I can make orthotics funny, then I'm really making . I'd be curious, if I'mallowed to turn that question back on you, what makes you share something onsocial media that's not your own content?Dave Asprey:I have kind of a religious thing, and I'm always working to share this with thestaff at Bulletproof, and with the team who support our mission, and it's justthis simple question, what's in it for you? I don't mean for you, our staff. What'sin it for you, the audience? My filter is I read the thing, and then is it worth thetime that I'm asking someone to invest by looking at it? Will it add more than ittakes away? I did a math equation a while back, and it was a really hard one. Ithad algebra and stuff in it. It was what's the dwell the time on the website,when people read Bulletproof content, and then what's the around 50 milliondownloads on Bulletproof Radio. 50 million hours divided by the number ofwaking hours is hundreds of human lifetimes.JP Sears:Wow. That's so-Dave Asprey:You, by the way, are at a bigger number than I am, with 100 million YouTubethings. I don't know if you look at your average listen time, but that means thatif we're not adding value with what we do, we're actually mass murderers.JP Sears:Wow. I like that. That's gruesome, but that's a powerful way of looking at it.Dave Asprey:Yeah, and that is how I view it. I'm not going to share something if it takes awaymore than it gives, whether it's something I wrote, or whether it's somethingthat someone else did. I see all sorts of shit on Facebook, and I'm like, "No, I'mnot going to share that," even if it might be mirthful, or a little funny orwhatever, so that the people who come and follow me on Facebook, or onInstagram, or wherever, that they're like, "Okay, this was valuable," and thenthey become engaged. The engagement levels for Bulletproof people, thecomments and likes and things like that are very high as a ratio, because they'rereal followers, versus bots or something. It is that constant what's in it for you,not what's in it for me.A lot of times, I think that the unconscious sharing of we're just going to throwstuff up on Facebook, like what's in it for me? What's this going to make melook like? For me, it's like, "Will this serve you, because if this serves you best,it's actually going to make me look good, anyway." I honestly don't really care ifit makes me look good. I get these people who are like, "This offended me,therefore I'm going to unfollow." The response, and I'd offer this to anyone whodoesn't like this show, same thing, "The unfollow button is right here," and IBPR-JPSearsPage 8 of 35

draw a little arrow. I'm like, "It's okay. If this isn't serving you, I want you to stoplistening."JP Sears:Yeah, go live your life. Don't detract from your life just to mindlessly listen tothat.Dave Asprey:Yeah, and don't hold me hostage by un-liking me. Trust me, I won't notice.JP Sears:That's so true. I love your . I mean, that's a very caring view. Are you going tojust rob minutes, hours from people's life? If so, wow, that's taking life. That'smurdering. That gets your attention.Dave Asprey:That's the center of marketing.JP Sears:Or [crosstalk 00:22:43], for sure. There's some Facebook pages that I personallyused to follow, used to being the key word. These become the pages wherethey're just doing the constant, like every single hour, we're going to postsomething. They're playing that game. Nothing wrong with that, but whatthey're posting, is it adding, or is it subtracting? Unfortunately not all, but someof them detract, so I'm really quick with the unfollow button.Dave Asprey:Yeah. I am, too. It's like, "Show me like less posts like this." I've managed to getmost politics out of my feed. What pisses me off now is-JP Sears:Politics, is that a thing now? I didn't notice.Dave Asprey:It's like a religion, but different.JP Sears:Okay.Dave Asprey:Because people fight wars over both of them, but I think the order of operationsis different. I don't really know.JP Sears:I think with politics, they worship more people than just the one guy or gal.Dave Asprey:Yeah, and neither one of them has anything to do with money.JP Sears:Nothing. It's just caring about human nature is at the heart of both of them.Dave Asprey:This just turned dark, didn't it?JP Sears:It did. Dave, why do I have so many unfollows on my channel right now?Dave Asprey:No. It's really kind of funny, because I posted something about the FDA recently.It was basically one of Trump's picks for the FDA is actually a board member ofone of the most aggressive anti-aging research institutes out there. I'm like,"This is the coolest thing ever, because if we get like a libertarian anti-agingBPR-JPSearsPage 9 of 35

radical dude running the FDA, maybe we'll be allowed to have access totherapies that they're already doing in China and Japan, that are not even onthe radar here." Immediately, people were like, "Oh, welcome to the Trumptrain." I'm like, "Jesus Christ, guys. The fact that I like some things a presidentdoes, and I don't like some things a president does, it doesn't mean that Isupport the office. It doesn't mean I support a specific candidate or a specificpresident. I only care about what they do, and I've actually never found apolitician who does anything close to what they promise to do. They all do theopposite or whatever's in their best interest once .JP Sears:For sure.Dave Asprey:. they've bought your vote by lying to you." How's that for dark? They're goingto do whatever they're going to do. Once I say something, either pro or con,then the tribalism and those religious behaviors come in, and here's the deal forpeople listening, like, "Dave, you're a leftie," or, "You're a libertarian." I'm like,"Actually, here's the deal. You cannot take the probably 10,000 different facetsof things that you believe would make the best system and convenientlyseparate them into two buckets and say, 'This is my bucket.' That's anti-thinking.Here's the deal. Think for yourself, and yes, there are times when I absolutelysupport a decision, and there are other times where I absolutely don't .JP Sears:For sure.Dave Asprey:. and so to try and simplify things into there's only too sides, oh, for God's sake.That's so boring."JP Sears:To me, that'd be like saying your body only has two cells. It's like, "Well, I thinkwe're a little more complex than that." That's part of what adds the threedimensionality to life, and the psychological experience of our socialenvironment, politics being part of it. I'm routinely fascinated with politics andreligion, how . And I'm going to see present company included with what I'mabout to say, just so you don't get too offended at me, or get offended. Now,you're offended that I'm trying not to offend you. "JP, you don't think I canhandle it?"Dave Asprey:You insulted everyone now, including yourself.JP Sears:I hate myself right now, Dave. Do you have a biohack for that?Dave Asprey:We do.JP Sears:I am absolutely fascinated by the emotional nature of humankind and how ouremotions can completely override our prefrontal cortex. We can have a veryintelligent person in a discussion, and the name Trump is brought up, like youjust said, and all of a sudden, the prefrontal cortex is completely shut down, andthere's just this emotional reactivity. There's no logical, rational thoughtBPR-JPSearsPage 10 of 35

happening. It's just an emotional outpouring, which is fine. I think we need tofeel our emotions. I think if you try to suppress them, it progressively kills us,but when we don't know we're in a state of reactivity, and we're trying to solveour emotional reactive issues in a logical discussion about politics, I think mostdiscussions about politics aren't about politics. They're too very wounded innerchildren inside just getting angry, because they're really afraid inside.Dave Asprey:That matches my reality. In fact, in Head Strong . And yes, did you see that? Ijust conveniently worked a plug for my new book in there, because-JP Sears:It is graceful.Dave Asprey:The reason I brought up Head Strong is exactly because it's relevant to whatyou're saying here. There's these three behaviors that I wrote about in theBulletproof Diet. I call them the Labrador brain, but in Head Strong, it actuallygoes deeper than that. The three behaviors are what every life form has to do,and it works for mammals, but it turns out, it also works for bacteria, and yourmitochondria are bacteria. These are three things you'd be very familiar withand comfortable with. The Labrador Brain, it requires you to eat everything, soyou don't starve to death, because then the species can't reproduce, okay?Then the one that we're talking about right here, which is run away from or killeverything that might be a threat.JP Sears:Wow.Dave Asprey:This is why dogs bark at random crap. It's just an inborn behavior. This is thealgorithm for anything to stay alive, including a plant. They can't run away from,so they grow spines to kill you, or they grow poisons to kill you, so you won't eatthem, right? Because otherwise, those species can't reproduce. The final thinginvolved in reproducing a species is the Labrador goes, "Oh look, a leg. I'll gohump it," so there's the actual act of reproduction. I'm just trying to figure out,is there anything in your life you've ever done that you're ashamed of, thatdidn't come from one of those three behaviors?JP Sears:That's a great question. I would guess it'd probably be hard to find somethingoutside of those behaviors.Dave Asprey:Right, and all of the emotions we're talking about in political discourse, inreligious disagreements, even pro sporting, like, "That's not my team!" Justthose deep emotions, those emotions come from the lowest level bacteria thatare running our bodies, which are mitochondria.JP Sears:Welcome to the club of thinking like a low-level bacteria. What that means tome, to me, that sounds like all self-preservation. If you are different than me,psychologically, something's different than me, I see it as a threat, so I want tokill it, fight it or flight it. To me, yeah, that's a very self-preservation mentality,and I think self-preservation's geared around creating more quantity of life, liveBPR-JPSearsPage 11 of 35

longer, don't die, but to me, self-realization is what gives us quality of life. Ithink self-realization isn't about kill what's different from me. I think selfrealization is understand what's different from me, because I get to expand. Idon't like hanging out with only like-minded people. I don't grow. I don't getchallenged. I love hanging out with like-hearted people, but preferably likehearted people, so there's a acceptance-based relationship. It's a safe space. Butlike-hearted people who are also, at least at times, different-minded, not justlike-minded. I think when everybody agree

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