Ep. #743: Andrew Huberman, Jonathan Swan, James Kirchick

Real Time with Bill Maher

The episode explores the volatile political climate surrounding Donald Trump's return to the spotlight, specifically focusing on his interactions

Key takeaways

• Andrew Huberman emphasizes that viewing sunlight within 30-6/minutes of waking is crucial for regulating circadian rhythms and sleep cycles.
• The discussion on GLP-1 peptides highlights their success in weight loss but warns of potential muscle loss without resistance training.

Main topics

• Trump administration press relations
• Biological rhythms and biohacking

Notable quotes

It's not cuddling. It's sizing up for when it eats you.

Conclusion

The episode provides a multifaceted look at how biological, political,

Transcript preview

Speaker 1 (0:00) Welcome to an HBO podcast from the HBO Late Night series, Real Time with Bill Maher. Thank you Speaker 3 (0:49) for coming. I can see you. Thank you. I can see you're very happy today. Yes, I agree. Great news. Trump is back on TV. Speaker 3 (1:10) Did you see what happened this week? First, he got very mad at the president. He threw CNN, MSNL, and Politico out of the White House. And then all the other networks in solidarity, including Fox News. This is pretty interesting. In solidarity, he said, well, we're not going to cover him at all either. So no one was covering him. And then a judge saved Trump's ass from the worst fate he could have, which is not being covered, and made them go back. Speaker 3 (1:41) And now the press is back at the White House, and Trump is like, fine, First Amendment, whatever, you got me. Now get back in there and report on me so I can sue you. But they didn't really take this lying down at the White House. The White House has introduced a new app called Trump TV, which countries that are, shall we say, not democracies would call state TV. Really. So we have that now. State TV, our top stories tonight. Gas prices are down and Iran is begging for a deal. Oh, speaking of state TV, a guy who does it really well, President Xi of China. He was here all week. Have you seen that? Oh, yes, he came in, landed on a big, beautiful new plane. Trump went out and gritted... Is this for me? They, of course, had a big banquet. Xi didn't eat much. He was very full from eating our lunch. I don't know. This should have been the AI summit. Because here, finally, we had all in one room, the two most powerful leaders in the world with AI, Xi and Trump. Plus, at the dinner, Sam Altman, Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, Hong from Nvidia, all these people. Tim Cook, head of Apple, sat next to China's first lady. She said to him, how's the iPhone business? He said, it's good. It'd be better if you could make the kids work faster. Speaker 3 (3:34) You Speaker 1 (3:35) know... Speaker 3 (3:37) The problem with these summits with Trump and Xi, is it me or do they have them like every two weeks? I feel like they're always with each other. And Trump thinks that Xi could give a fuck about being his friend. So it's all personal. Trump did everything he could to show him around. He showed him the new spot where the limo drops people off. That's been improved. Really, I'm not making this up. Showed him the new helipad, the ballroom. Does he know that China builds, like, entire cities in a week? And... And he's showing him the new driveway? This is like showing Gordon Ramsay how to reheat pizza, you know? Oh. So, no, it just seems like this administration is very into redecorating. Redecorating or annihilating? I've said it before. It's the most macho and the gayest administration ever. Speaker 3 (4:45) The latest redecoration obsession is Trump is like, we need an arch. Yesterday. Fuck, all the cities in the world have an arch. I didn't know that. Okay, yeah, great. I mean, you know, I could Paris, yes. Berlin, St. Louis. Okay, good. We're looking bad over here without an arch. Fucking Biden let us go archless for years. Luckily, my good friend President Xi is an understanding man. He accepts that we don't have an arch because to not have one is criminal. And if anybody knows about an arch criminal, it's Donald Trump. Speaker 3 (5:31) It's always the love that we get. So that is our agenda here in America. Arch annihilate. He was at the U.N., Trump, that the U.N. met this week, and he was there before the Xi thing, and he talked about annihilating Iran again, and then he met with Mondami. This is the third time he's met Mondami. Wow. Went over to Gracie Mansion. So that was his week. Xi, Mondami, for a guy who hates communists, he likes hanging out with them, I'll tell you that. But... Speaker 3 (6:03) The war in Iran is really dragging down his approval rating. I mean, he's even losing the Speaker 2 (6:09) people who used Speaker 3 (6:09) to be his, the bros. You know, the Latinos who voted for him in bigger numbers last time. There's only one demographic now that thinks the war is going well. Pedestrians. They love it. Because... Speaker 3 (6:29) Gas, I've got to tell you, is pretty expensive, gas. Here in L.A., they gave up on putting the numbers on the sign. It just says market price. I was at the gas station the other day. I saw a guy put the thing in the tank. There was just a little drop at the end. And he took it and he rubbed it on his gun. Speaker 2 (6:52) All right, we've got a great show. We have Jonathan Swan and James Kocic. But Speaker 3 (6:57) first off, he is the host of the Huberman Lab podcast and author of the new number one bestselling book, Protocols, an operating manual for the human body. Andrew Huberman. Andrew, good to see you. Okay. Speaker 3 (7:18) So you have a new book out. What's that like? It's number one? It is. It was number Speaker 4 (7:23) one New York Times bestseller. Oh, fantastic. Thank Speaker 3 (7:26) you. You call it a manual. Yes. And you speak out, I love this part, you speak out against biohacking, because I see that always when you're scrolling through stuff. Everything is a hack. Right. And you talk about how hacks are Speaker 4 (7:42) really, well, they come from hacks, Speaker 3 (7:44) don't they? Speaker 4 (7:45) Often. And they're really kind of bullshit. Yeah, it's like taking a paperclip to fix a pair of glasses. It's a temporary solution. What's in the book are tools that are based on scientific mechanisms that exist in all of us from birth until we die that you can tap into. Specific ways of breathing, using access to sunlight at specific times, learning to get better at learning, learning how to increase focus, and on and on. Mitigate stress. And all of those are anchored in real, known... physiological mechanism, so there's no mystery to them. And I don't claim ownership of any of them, but I share them with the readers, and then they can use them if they like. How Speaker 3 (8:21) many of them may have to do to be really healthy? I mean, I feel like, I don't want to make this all about me, but... You seem like you're doing really well. Yeah, well, I mean, like the sun one. Like, I've been doing a lot of this stuff before it was cool. You know, I've been talking about all this alternative stuff for years. People thought I was crazy. Now it seems a lot more mainstream. But, I mean, like the sun one. Like, I get up at the crack of noon. Speaker 3 (8:52) It doesn't mean I'm less productive. I'm just productive at different times of the day. But Speaker 4 (8:57) that's not good, right? Well, regardless of when somebody wakes up, could be 5 a.m., could be 10, could be noon, getting some sunlight in your eyes in the first 30 to 60 minutes after you wake up is a great idea because it just sets in motion this huge wave front of molecules in the brain and body that make you more alert, more alert and calm, better able to focus. It's best for your immune system throughout the day. And most importantly, it sets you up so that 14 to 16 hours later, you get tired and you can go to sleep more easily. So it sets a timer. So if you start that timer at noon, what time do you go to sleep, Bill? Speaker 3 (9:31) Well, let's... Speaker 3 (9:35) I mean, I believe in getting the right amount of sleep. I mean, sometimes you have to be in bed ten hours to get eight hours of sleep. And I don't even get eight. But, you know, seven and a half or something like that, that's a good night. Speaker 4 (9:46) Yeah. Speaker 3 (9:47) But, again, I'm just asking, does it matter? Because the hippies have always told me that it matters when you sleep. that, like, the healing takes place between 10 and 2 a.m. or something like that. You know, I'm not even asleep at 2 a.m. Yeah, that's nonsense. Oh, good. Fantastic. The Speaker 4 (10:04) truth is there are these so-called chronotypes. I talk about this in the book and how people can figure out theirs. Some people feel best going to sleep late, waking up later. Some people waking up early, going to bed earlier. And you can shift. It does change across the lifespan. But the truth is most people find that. And if they can manage it with their work and other responsibilities, if you can adhere to your chronotype, as we say, that is going to be best for your health. So early to bed, Speaker 5 (10:29) early to rise Speaker 4 (10:30) is great for early risers who want to be early risers. Otherwise, change it up. But that light in the first hour is ideally from sunlight. That's Speaker 3 (10:39) a Speaker 4 (10:39) real thing, regardless of when you wake up. Speaker 3 (10:41) I can do that. I remember when COVID hit, right before they took us off the air, because, oh, you know, it was so dangerous. But I said, you know, the S's. Just take care of your S's. Sugar, cut down on sugar. Sun, get sun. Stress, sleep. Of course, we did the opposite on all of them. Everything we did the opposite. People did, I mean, Gavin Newsom said last week, you know, it was insane to close the beaches out here. And in hindsight, well, some of the people... were saying in present day time, go to the beach, that it was the beach, sunshine, fresh air. I feel like COVID and how we treated it may have turned people more to like our alternative way of thinking about Speaker 4 (11:32) things. You think that's true? Yeah, I think it's true. And I think it made what used to be called alternative or just Eastern or niche mainstream. I mean, the reason I started the podcast, which of course I did before the book, was because during the pandemic, there was a lot of discussion about vaccines, and that was the business of other people to handle. I decided to focus on the problems that I did not see the NIMH or anyone else doing good messaging about, and that's how to manage your stress, how to keep your rhythms, your biological rhythms intact so that you could be at your best mood, have your immune system functioning at its best, and social connection, nutrition, exercise, how to do that under the conditions of the lockdowns, et cetera. That was the mission of the podcast when I launched it, and eventually it became a bunch of other things in this book. But indeed, all the things you describe are crucial for the immune system. and for just general well-being. Most of the things that you would do for a dog or a cat or even for a fish tank, like turn the lights on in the morning, turn them off at night, make sure it's a good ecosystem, most people don't think about doing that for themselves. But we need to control our own ecosystem as much as we can to be at our best health. And that's not hippie biology, right? No, no, you are not Speaker 3 (12:41) a hippie biologist. No, I'm definitely not. You're a real one. Right. Speaker 4 (12:43) I mean, that's just how our brain and body work. These rhythms of day and night, and the sun, of course, is what anchors us to that. vital. If anything, you know, one message that people could really take from this conversation is you want the brightest possible days. Don't get sunburned, but have the brightest possible days whenever they may start for you. And you want the darkest possible nights that you can manage with your job and schedule. Those two things alone have been shown in studies with huge numbers of subjects to greatly benefit mental and physical health of all kinds. Okay, Speaker 3 (13:12) so can we play a little lightning around here? Sure. We don't have all that much time. And I know it's hard for you because you have great things to say. And I'm not known for being succinct. No, I know. But just let's give me like the skinny on like a few things that I like. I want to know because you go into a lot in this book. You know, what's a real thing and what sort of a trend? OK. Speaker 4 (13:32) Intermittent fasting. Real thing, but just lowering calories will do it, too. But it really helps certain people control their caloric intake, meaning some people it's just easier to not eat the croissant at all. than to try and eat half. Speaker 3 (13:45) Right. So that intermittent fasting, meaning like you eat within an eight-hour window of the day. Speaker 4 (13:50) Yeah, like 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. The problem is most people don't stick to it, or they find that they stack everything towards a late meal, and then it can disrupt their sleep. But it can work as a tool for caloric restriction, but there are other tools, like smaller meals throughout the day, or, you know, just a standard three-meal-a-day thing. Peptides. Yeah, Speaker 3 (14:09) I hear a lot about peptides. My... Question is, what is a fucking peptide? Because I hear it and I... Speaker 4 (14:22) Well, there is a category specifically of fucking peptides. Really? There is, actually. There are some that are FDA approved for treating hyposexuality. Hypo? Yes. Why would you want to treat it? But let's talk about the most common peptides. So the ones that most people are familiar with are the GLPs, right, that are for weight