Dr. Daniel Amen | Club Random with Bill Maher

While you're remodeling your backyard to make it more, you know, Zen, we were remodeling our merch store to make it more random. We've slapped our new logo on t-shirts, tie dyes, hoodies, and hats and all with premium printed labels. Look, I wasn't kidding. We have it because tags are like the junk mail of clothing. All merch is available exclusively at clubrandom.com. Once again, that's clubrandom.com. I notice you're avoiding that question. I'm so excited to see your brain. Bad. It's Muhammad Ali, who is one of my nations. You had Muhammad Ali as a patient? I have his brain. What was he like? Loss. Dark. How are you, sir? So nice to see you. Ah, thanks for coming. What do you think of the place? Spectacular. Really? Is your kind of place? I love it. Really? Good. Well, listen up and Diana meets you. You're very popular. The chicks dig you, doc. Did you? You knew that, I guess. The women really, very excited to know. You have a holy, that talks on, you know. They were into that medical stuff much more than the guys. Guys are. I think of all of my followers, 80% or women. 80%? Yeah. No wonder why you're such a mack. Okay, so. My wife said I came housebroken and well-trained. I have five sisters, so. Really? Now, somebody told me you give your daughters, boyfriend's, brain scans? Absolutely. You got the machine right in the dining room, doc? The day, they go to the clinic. When I met my wife, it's our anniversary on Sunday. How many years? 18. I'm sorry, people on TV there were clapping people or married more than like two years. And I was married once before and I wasn't good. And so. She's gonna hear that and be offended. She said, when I asked her, "We're dating three weeks." And I'm like, "You haven't seen the clinic. It's time to see the clinic." And she said it was the most unusual line that you wanted to see my naked brain. I mean, when I see brains in like, I've only seen it in movies and stuff, but it is one of the more unattractive looking organs in the body. Don't you think? No, I love brains. The brain. Because it makes you who you are. I do think and feel and act. I got to tell you, I'm not one of those people who believes in the universe. I mean, I believe in the universe. Just don't believe it's speaking to me like people think. However, this is, I think this is just not a. It's a coincidence, but the sign of where medicine is moving. Not because you're coming, but two other people, not one person I read about and one person I had lunch with, Ariana Huffington, just two days ago, was all about the brain. And she's writing about it and, you know, she must be a big fan of yours. And then I was reading about someone who had no problems, but had a brain scan at like 40 and they found what they. She wouldn't have known unless she died from it. So, like, your basic message about, you know, because I never been a big fan of psychiatry. I know it works for some people, but your thing about, like, look at the physical organ, I'm much more down on that page. I mean, I'm sure it's both, but I'm going to get the brain scan. Because my brain's been through a lot of talk. I'm not going to lie to you. Could you drink? No. Oh, me neither. Because I look at the brain. Well, come on. And it comes to the brain. It's the only organ in your body where size matters. Oh, what? Now, Doc, don't give me a set-up line like that, where I can drive right down Broadway with the punchline. The only organ that matters? For the only organ that matters. Your wife's a forgiving woman. Good night, everybody. Size matters. So, I never wanted to do anything to have a smaller brain. I never wanted to only have a smaller dick than so funny. I've done so much shit to my brain. My dick, I've treated like gold. So, there's the big brain and the little brain, and which one's in charge, and I want to have a big brain in charge. In every way, Doc, I had it in my brush. But I'm 70 now, and I'm much more mature. And I've taken care of myself very well. When it got serious, I smoked stupidly for 20 years. But I quit at 40. Let me ask you that, you would know this. Like, how much poison do you think I could put in my body without it actually killing me? Not that I do it anymore very much, but I did. I feel like I still smoked pot. And I only have a few drinks a week. But I did drink, let's say, an Irishman for years, smoked for 20 years. You think your body repairs completely? Sometimes? Yeah, really? Sometimes. It depends on how much reserve you have. So there's a term I coined called brain reserve. It's the extra tissue you have to deal with whatever stress comes your way. So, take two soldiers, put them in the same tank, same blast, one of them walks away unharmed, and one of them's permanently disabled. Why? It's the brain they brought into the accident. And so some people can smoke a lot of pot, can drink a lot of alcohol, and they still have their faculties. Right. A lot more people, it really has a negative impact on their brain. Well, not to invite ridicule here by my haters, but you can hate me and many enemies who do, but nobody says I've lost my faculty. You know, like, and they could. That would be a very easy one. Well, it must be the pot talking. No, they'll say, oh, he's old. Like, that's an argument. It's not an argument. Am I right? That's an argument or wrong. About anything. But, you know, but I never hear, oh, he's, he's lost his marbles. And so. But you also don't want to lose them. I know. And one in two people. Yes. And I'm 72. So, one in two people who are 85 or older have Alzheimer's disease or another form of dementia. So, you have a 50% risk. So, if you're 70 and healthy, odds are you're going to live to 90. Really? And don't you want to go knowing everything that's going on? And, you know, I have six kids. I love them all. I never want to live with them. But don't you think by the time we're 90 AI will have made it so that our brain lives on. And we're in a completely, you know, I think they're just going to transplant the brain into a body. And we're going to get, because the brain could live more than the human life center. Or is it the brain that hunks out? No, your brain could go on. But if it's. And definitely? But if it's mothy, you're not going to be thinking. Right. So, when I first started doing scans, it was 1991. I was the director of a substance abuse treatment center. In a psychiatric hospital. And their brains were so bad compared to the other ones I scanned. I'm like. And is it. Once you kill a brain cell, you can never bring it back to life. That's not true. Great. That's not true. Oh, good. There's an area of your brain called the hippocampus. It's involved in mood and memory. And every day it produces about 700 new stem cells. Hippocampus is Greek for seahorse. So, I often think of them baby seahorses making 700 new ones every day. It's your behavior that kills them or grows them. So, what you eat, what you drink, the level of stress you're under, the toxins in your environment, all of that matter. So, if you come and get scanned, you'll learn to love your brain. And then you'll treat it back. I love my brain. I do. It's done me very well. With all the flaws it has, I have never argued that I'm some sort of super high IQ person or could do things that people I admire greatly. Sometimes who I don't agree with do like right, long research, deeply researched books. I don't have that concentration. I did when I was in high school in college. I loved doing papers and I was a great student. But, you know, I probably blew my mind out in a car too much pot and liquor and partying. And I just, I just, that just wasn't the direction I was going to go in with serious scholar. So, I fully acknowledge I'm not on that level. But those people usually, I mean, they just lack this common sense gene. I feel like I have. I feel like that's my strong point of intellect. And it's amazing the way there's a whole category called stupid smart people, I think, or a smart stupid people, like people who are brilliant in one area. And then, you know, I mean, to use an obvious example, I remember interviewing for religious doctor Francis Collins, I think, and, you know, one of the most brilliant scientists, but also very, you know, orthodox believer and Christianity, a myth, to my view. Look, folks, we've all done the annual physical. Look, three months out, half a day off work, an hour in the waiting room, and, of course, labs at a second location. 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That's superpower.com/random for $50 off your superpower membership. And after you sign up, don't ask you how you heard about superpower. Tell them club random with Bill Marm sent you to support the show. You know, you're probably religious. I know you're Lebanese Catholic, but as a scientist, you must realize it is a little hokey. The whole thing, the whole story, Jesus and all that stuff. So you think we're here by random chance? I think we don't know. And the difference between a religious person and me is a religious person says, I don't know the answer. I'm going to make up a story about it, and then believe that. And I go, well, I don't know. And I just, I'm not going to know, probably, well, I'm alive. But I'm not going to make up a story. And I was raised Catholic. Loved every minute of it, Doc. He'd tell you, that's Catholics. So I went to medical school at Oral Roberts University. So I learned medicine in the context of my faith. And we were taught to pray with patients. And I've never not believed. Nothing that I've learned has decreased my faith in a creator, in a benevolent God. Even when He allows so much horrible shit to happen here on Earth. Well, it's because the idea of free will is if He controlled everything-- A baby gets cancer. That's not free will. The baby you didn't like make-- that's not the-- No, it's-- but it's the condition of humans. And there's amazing people. And there's evil. There's clear evil. I have a new book coming in December, you might not like. But it's called "The Neuroscience of the Lord's Prayer," being raised Catholic. I was an altar boy, said it thousands of times. But I never really studied what's underneath it. And when Jesus talks about deliver us from the evil one, yeah, there is evil. But you're in this-- Well, of course there's evil. But you do, I'm sure you realize, as a scientist, you are in a distinct minority as far as religiosity. Most scientists of very high number are atheists. Well, that is-- Like Francis Collins, who's-- Against the head of the NIH, the National Institute of Health. I'm not judging now. Just saying as a fact, it is a fact, I believe, that most scientists are atheists. Well, it's not the ones I hang out with. You're right. You're right. But that's what's so interesting about human-- Anyway, get back to the point. I am with you. Again, I don't think this is cosmic. That there's like three things about the brain happen all within like a week. But I just think this is bubbling up. And I think you are right. I think we don't look at the physical part of it. Psychiatry, I know it has its place. I also think a lot of it is just utter bullshit. And this comes from having gone-- I can't even describe the circumference. Very briefly, and with another person. So-- but it just struck me as preposterous. I mean, this could ever help me. But I know it does help people. But I think you are not the right theme. I'm not going to offend it. We're not concentrating on the physical part of the brain enough. Right. Psychiatry are the only medical doctors who never look at the organ they treat. Think about that. Cardiologist look, orthopedic doctor looks, your GI doctor looks, kind of colleges. Every medical specialist look. Psychiatry makes diagnoses like they did in 1840 when Lincoln was depressed. So Lincoln was suicidal twice in his life. Really? The winter of 1840 goes to his Dr. Anson Henry. And how did Dr. Henry diagnose Lincoln with melancholia or what is now major depression? He talked to him. He looked at him. He looked for symptom clusters. Then diagnosed and treated him. That's exactly what happens today. And that's insane. Well, and that's 60 years before Freud. And Freud tried. In 1895, Freud said, the brain science of my time is not sophisticated enough to explain patient symptoms. So he then went and developed psychoanalysis. But 35 years ago, when I started to do brain spectimaging, that's the imaging study I do, it changed absolutely everything I do as a psychiatrist, as a father, as a human. With better brain comes a better life. But if you never look, you never know. Look, the reason why I've followed mostly-- although I certainly have Western MD doctors-- but the ideas of holistic medicine is because I do think the body is holistic. I think Western medicine makes the mistake of treating it like a clock that you can take the parts. And they're very big on specialists. This guy for the kidneys, this guy for the heart. And holistic medicine believes much more that, no, everything is connected. So we don't do that. That's why we treat things instead of heal things. I'm looking to heal, not treat. Because you want to know what's the cause. The root cause and heal it, not just treatment. And in four circles. So when I went to medical school, the dean of our medical school first week comes into the classroom and goes, never think of your patient as their diagnosis. Always think of them in these four circles. So what's the biology? That's where you're in medical school. What's the psychology? How do they think? What's their past level of trauma? What's the social circle? So how's their life, their relationship, their job, their money? And what's the spiritual circle? Which is why the heck do they care? What is their deepest sense of meaning and purpose? And so from that moment on, I always think of my patients in these four big circles. I have a new program. We just piloted in 100 organizations, churches, businesses, the Orange County Rescue Mission. It's called the Whole Four, because we help people get better in all those at full time. Can you hook me up with the brain scan like yesterday, though? Seriously. Can you? Absolutely. OK, great. Where's the machine? I've wanted to see now. They're not very far from here. They're not going to Encino. I don't care how much it's going to help. Well, the other one is in Costa Mesa. I mean, you haven't seen it. I love you, Encino. No, Encino's perfect. Try to-- the valley, please. The valley. Nothing will live there for years. It's nothing wrong with it. I'll go to the valley. You never thought of moving down to Beverly Hills. You seem like you must-- you're so successful. It seems like the-- by the way, will this bother you if I-- it won't? Great talk. I appreciate that, but even a little bit, say no. I'm fine. Yeah, OK, OK. I won't tempt you with it. I just-- and I probably won't just-- well, one puffer too. You know, it's just-- what do you think about the efficacy of something like marijuana? Do you think it's-- I mean, to me, it's always been benign and not just benign, but super beneficial. I mean, without this. Trust me, we wouldn't be sitting here. I'd be living in a two bedroom apartment in Van Nies. It gave me every good idea ever. I know it sounds terrible to tell that to kids, but it's kind of true. But what kind of-- and I was never an everyday smoker. I'm not like Snoop, you know? I don't get up and just light the blunt and have it going all day. But do you think I'm underestimating the toll? [LAUGHS] Oh, ready, I see I don't like this answer. I published a study on 1,000 marijuana users every year of their brain age. I know them all. And activity. And I get so much engagement when I post about marijuana. And people go, oh, you just need to get high. An independent group on another 1,000 marijuana users that learning and memory centers lower in activity. The what? The learning and memory centers. And I'm very churned. Memory yes. 21 million people in America now smoke pot every day. And if a teenager-- And this is my big worry with it, because as we go, oh, this is good medicine, because it's medically legal in 40 states. If this is good medicine, then use in teenagers goes up. And if you smoke as a teenager, or you use marijuana as a teenager, in your 20s increased risk of anxiety, depression, suicide, and psychosis. I did not smoke in my 20s. Bitch. Which could be really helpful for you. Yes. Because your brain really isn't finished. It is not. Until your 25, 26. No, I was 19 when I started. So I feel pretty good about that. And I feel like other stuff I did was much worse. And I think you always have to sort of balance, yes, physical harm. I'm not some hippie who's like, oh, no, it's good for you. It's not health, would I get it. But would I be happier if it hadn't brought me the things that has brought me? No. And if you're not happy, if you don't really want to live, I think that's a big factor. Getting back to holistic medicine and why you have to account for not just the physical, but the brain, too. And what the brain is putting out and moved. And I mean, 200 years ago, the only way they really cured people was by just convincing-- they didn't know what they were doing. They were just convinced that somebody did something, and they would believe it worked. They would put fucking dirt in your wound or something. And because you believed it. Now we call that-- what is it? Do you have aphasia, Doc? You're going to have to work it. What's it when you have a pill on there that-- Let's see. --precibo. The placebo system was like the main way of treating somebody. In many ways, it still is. Really? I mean, when they do big studies on SSR. And you think it really is a thing? Oh, it's absolutely a thing. OK. That if you're-- Being happy, wanting to live. Yes, but I think part of it is no one teaches you to manage your mind. And I was 28 years old in my psychiatric residency, which I did at Walter Reed, Washington, D.C. One of my professors said, you have to teach your patients not to believe every stupid thing they think. And I'm like, really? You can do that because I'd believed every stupid thing I thought. And I'm like, I teach all of my patients to kill the aunts, the automatic negative thoughts, that steal your happiness just because you have a thought. So we're great. Has nothing to do with whether or not it's true, whether or not it's helpful. And learning to manage your mind is a skill. We should start teaching in second grade. But we never do. And so on friends with Paul Simon, you probably love Paul Simon. I love Paul Simon. Second to no man, my love for Paul Simon's music. And he has this song, Codacrome, which starts when I think back on all the crap I learned in high school. So one where I can think at all. And it's like, why? We have a high school program called Brain Thrive by 25. We teach kids to love and care for their brain, but also to manage their mind. Well, manage your mind is a great title. You should remember that. Be your next book. It's an automatic cell with your success already. But also, I just want to say, as true as that is, that we don't teach it. A, maybe you can't teach it. And B, nobody taught it to me, except me. By stumbling my way forward, which is the condition of life, stumbling our way forward. Behind us is lit up quite well, because we already lived it. But what's ahead of us, we're just bumping into shit and making mistakes. And when I was college age when my mind was just too much energy, I remember spending a lot of time writing down besides jokes and stuff, which was my career, but lessons, trying to learn every-- be able to think, oh, if I could just write them all down and then memorize the list, and I'll never make a mistake again. And of course, that doesn't work. But I just saw from an early time that I was very invested in, as someone once said, I never make the same mistake once. That's what was my goal. I want to like-- and of course, that will never happen, except by the way it happened, which is the years go by. And you just naturally-- as much as I wrote it down, it wasn't going to get me there until things actually happened. And something happens, and it's shocking. The first time you get dumped or something. And the second time, it's like, oh, I have seen this before. I still wasn't ready for it, because I'm stupid. But-- and then like the third, the fourth, I'm like, OK, I've seen this movie enough. And now I'm going to make the right choice, because that's-- I've saw the pattern. I feel like-- I know if you can teach that to a second grader. I think that has to come. Like I say, I think you can teach it. I think I've been exercised to do with my patients. And I first came up with it in 1986, and I'm so happy I did. It's called The One Page Miracle. On one piece of paper, write down what you want. Relationships, work, money, physical, emotional, spiritual help. What do you want? And then every day, you just ask the question, does it fit? Does my behavior fit what I want? Or, you know, if you're Christian, what has gone what for me? What do I want? What does God want for me? And does my behavior fit? So for example, I want a kind, caring, loving, supportive, passionate relationship with Tana, my wife. Always want that. 100% of the time. But it don't always feel like that. I get rude comments. God, I bet you don't always get it after 18 years. But-- No, I'm fed. But come on. It's managing my mind. What do I want? Great choice. And does my behavior get me what I want? So it's not you should do this. You should do that now. None of that. It does it fit. Like, I don't have any tattoos. But if I did, that would be one of the first ones. Does it fit? Does my behavior fit the goals I had? And nobody ever said that to me. When I was growing up, it's like, you should do this. You should do that. I have this little card. It's the size of a card that people used to remember hand of my card. And it has 10 things written on the front and 10 on the back. It fits 20 little questions. I don't remember where I got it. I mean, I don't remember a lot of stuff, Doc. We've gone over that depressing part of it. But somewhere along the way, I would guess, when I was out a lot in bars and stuff and people give you shit. And it has just these 20 questions. And it's like, I've never seen all these self-help books. It's just like, on this little card, it's like, all these questions you should ask yourself. Like, am I catastrophizing? I'd never heard that word. And I immediately knew what it meant. Am I making this a bigger thing than it is? Which is an ant. The automatic names, the thoughts are nine different types of them, from mind reading, fortune telling, catastrophizing, guilt being, blaming. It's just learning to manage your mind. It was all just so practical. And like, the things you should be arguing with yourself about, you know, the problem with the mind. It's awfully great, Doc. But like, there's three forms of communication, basically. You can write it. That's very formal in the settings we're talking about of communication, because you're actually, no matter how much you think you're not editing, because you are writing something. You're not writing every thought that comes into your head. You are put-- and you're usually a little more nervous. OK, because this is to be read by another person. Then there's talking. We edit ourselves to a degree, except Trump. People just go, you're a terrible person. Good life. He's got rats, I know. But okay, but okay. So there's some like guardrails. I feel like I'm writing and talking. What goes on in your mind? It's just like no one really wants to go there. You really don't want AI to like just get into your head. Even yours doc, you got some really fucked up shit going on. There I know you do. - Jerry Seinfeldt said the brain is a sneaky organ. We all have weird, crazy, stupid, sexual, bio and thoughts that nobody should ever hear. - Every year when the weather turns warm, America decides to punish itself. We drink green juice that looks like pond runoff, eat raw leaves and pretend we're full while staring at somebody else's fries. Here's the thing nobody wants to admit. Willpower versus human biology is not a fair fight. Biology is undefeated. That's where weight loss by hymns comes in. A affordable access to FDA approved GLP1 medications, including the Wigovie pill and pen. Combined with diet and exercise, Wigovie can help you lose up to 20% of your body weight by regulating appetite. So you eat less and keep it off. And the pill is the first ever GLP1 for weight loss. No needles, it's all online. Connect with a licensed provider and if prescribed, it ships to your door. No insurance necessary. 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And like my brain's like, shut up! Why are you doing this? So give your mind a name. Then you can get distance from the chatter in your head. So when I was 16, I had a pet raccoon, really. And I loved her. But she was a troublemaker. She teepee'd my mother's birth. That's a fucking raccoon. She ate all the fish out of my sister's aquarium. How do you make a raccoon a pet? She would, they had them in pet stores back in the '90s. Oh, from a pet store? 68 when I got her. Oh, okay. And she'd leave raccoon poo in my shoes. Right. But that's my mind. So I named my mind after my pet raccoon. So when I get a storm, like all of us have these mind storms. Yeah. Like harming your own on the cage. It's just, it's learning to separate from the noise. This is not what meditation's goal is because some of my best friends, including Sam Harris, who seems to be the ultimate guru of meditation, certainly the most popular talking about it. And there's nobody I respect as much as Sam. We think so much alike. I feel he's the clearest thinker. And so like he's, but as far as meditation goes, like I know he's right, and yet like I've tried it many, many times. And you know, I think there's great value in turning your mind off for 30 minutes or what we used to call a nap. And like every time I do it, doc, it's like sometimes I feel like, okay, did I meditate or did I just bore the fuck out of myself so bad I fell asleep for 20 minutes. And I honestly don't know, but I, whenever I start to meditate, here's my method. It's like I picture like what you call the ants, the thoughts that are coming at you. And then I spend one or two minutes saying to myself, one basic thing. These thoughts that are coming at you, in a day, will they be on your mind in a week, in a month, in a year, probably not. So just picture yourself alone in a white room, your hands out, but no, not now, fellas. You know, you come back in a half hour, but just nobody, I just want to be alone now. And that's, and that I can kind of, you know, get to that place. Do you meditate every day? You do. For how long? 20 minutes. And you can go into it, rather, to be quickly. I do it with breathing. I focus on diaphragmatic breathing, and then, like the Lord's prayer. And I like, 'cause I'll go through each phrase of the Lord's prayer. Of the Lord's prayer. So that's like your mantra. Right. So, I'm sorry. It's like a mantra, but you're using the prayer as the mantra. So when you go, our father, it's like, oh, I'm part of the community. I'm part of the family. It's about belonging. It makes you feel good. It gives me direction, but I also like loving kindness. Meditation. Have you heard of that? What is it? It's very popular. Loving kindness. I'm against meditation. Meditation. It's super simple. May I be happy? May I be healthy? May I be strong? I feel like, whenever you like. I feel like all of this is on that little card. And then it's to someone you love, may tan, I'd be happy, healthy and strong. To someone you're neutral on, and then to someone you don't like. Someone you're struggling with, may they be happy, healthy and strong. That's what this country needs. This country so much. I mean, my theme more than any, I would say, in the last five years has been, I'm just over the hate. Not that I didn't participate in it myself, along the way a lot, and sometimes some people I'm sure would say, "I still do, are you?" So tough on, I'm just being honest, I think. But the country just hates each other, the two halves hate each other so much that nothing really can get done when you're in that place. I mean, what you just asked is something like a lot of people on the left would never do for the people on the right, and vice versa, like say AOC, what do you think, like super hard right wing or popular guy, do you wish her health, fuck no, I mean that's where we kind of are. But if we did, we would start listening to each other and stop labeling. Trust me. On the other. So one of the nine aunts is labeling, because when you label someone as conservative as a liberal, you now lump them with all of those people that have irritated you, and you can't deal with them, you can't talk to them. So when your mind is going like this, all I want you to do is take each thought captive. And if you ever interviewed Byron Katie, she's one of my favorite spiritual teachers. I love her. And whenever you feel sad or mad or nervous or out of control, sweat down what you're thinking, and then go, is it true? I don't feel any of those things anymore, which is why it's great to be 70. There's some shitty things about it, as we know, but that's why, list those things again. Sad, mad, what? Sad, nervous or out of control? No, we're the four things you just said, that you're sad, mad, nervous or out of control. I am not sad, I am not mad, I am not nervous, and I'm not out of control. And there have been many times in my life that I have been all the sad, mad, nervous, and fucking out of control that the marijuana stopped the bad thoughts. The marijuana exacerbates whatever mood you're in. It's not something I would ever want to do before I go to sleep because it keeps me up. It's also something I would never want to do if I was feeling shitty to begin with, because it would only make me feel shitier. Like today, I was excited to talk and meet with you. And then when I got high, I was like, even more excited to meet at talk with you. And you haven't disappointed. So there. But yeah, I mean, drugs affect everybody in such a unique way. I feel like we don't physically appreciate how different we are. Yes, we're all the same molecules and carbon based and blah, blah, blah. But the spectrum of people always amazes me, like the sexual spectrum. Some people are so fucking horny. They do it just all day, you know, nymphomaniacs. And some people are not horny at all. They're asexual. They're not, they're just like, I'd rather be reading, right? They have different things to earn them on. Yes, it's like, yeah, I mean, was, I know people who are that. talk to them and it's like, you know, they usually a little older and they're like, "Yeah, I had some good times having sex." But, you know, it was a little like that girly ride at Disneyland. It was a rollercoaster, but not really that exciting. And, you know, they just just like, "No, but this book, I really, that night I felt great. Okay, so I'm just gonna read books." You know, and that's that kind of spectrum, I think, is analogous everywhere across humans' physiology. We just are so different. Some people love to get high and can handle it, and some people totally can't. And yet, we always base the laws on what the fuck up to do. I'm never the problem with the law. (laughing) I'm not. I'm like a troublemaker or like, I'm not. I'm healing. So, growing up, you weren't a troublemaker. No, I was a shy kid, very shy, too shy, and scared, ostracized sometimes. You know, I always say, every decade, you're a different person with different goals. Well, zero to 10, my goal was, don't be bullied. No, no, 10 to 20 more. Zero to 10 was like, stay home with mommy. 10 to 20 was like, don't be bullied. School and like, you know, because kids are just feral. And when they wanna be mean, you know, they have to be taught to be civilized. Kids themselves, Lord of the Flies, we all read that one, right? They're not good people, children. I'm sure, how old are your kids now, Doc? Are they grown up? 40. 40. Eight to 16. To 16, you dog. Adopted, our two nieces, 'cause their parents were prog addicts. And the 16-year-old just got a license and I'm so proud of her. Well, that's noble. You're a noble guy. I guess you're-- It lets me know, 'cause I'm also a child's psychiatrist, it also lets me know what toys are in and what groups are in. Well, I mean, again, back to the brain, I'm sure what your brain has when you put your head on the pillow at night is healthier in a way than what I have, because you have the assurance that if you die in your sleep, you'd be going to a better place. People have said it to me many times, "I'll go to a better place." And I always say, "Then why don't you hang yourself tomorrow?" But leaving that aside, you do die. You have something that quiets your brain, that I do not. And that must be like a, you know, in a way that advantage in life. I think so, because I don't think I'm here by random chance. I think the consequences for our behavior, I think I'm here for a purpose, and I'm expected to do something useful. You know, carol. But I also do an exercise at night, every night, and it's so helpful. Pull up. It's what went well today. So when I go to bed at night, I say prayer, and then I go what went well today. And I start at the beginning of my day, and I go hour by hour looking for what I loved about the day. And it just, it sets your dreams up to be more positive. They actually did research on this. The three weeks later, you're happier. You said you want to be happy. And I remember even six years ago, the night my dad died, it was the worst day of my adult life. I hit the pillow and I went well today. And I'm like, Harmony shows up my, you know, the voice. It's like, really we're doing this tonight. But because it's my habit, right? You don't do what you want to do. You do your habits. Because it's my habit, I'm like, there's an interaction between my mom and the police officer that was hysterical. She was my dad died at home and she goes, do you think I had him killed? My mom's 89 at the time. She goes, do you think I have a boyfriend? I mean, it's just hysterical. And then I think of all the people who texted me that day who loved my dad. It's great. And then I, then I just imagine holding his hand before the Marjory took him away and it was so soft. And then I went to sleep. We have to develop habits. Yeah, but doctors serve us. You just said we have our habits and then it's not what we want to do. No, we do our habits. So you said, why don't you make your habits what you want to do? That's the point. Yeah, that's the journey, right? Do your habits. So there's a question. I'm working on the decade of brain health. So Ariana Huffington actually wrote about this in Time Magazine. I think I read this. And I'd love it. She gave it to me the other day. And the question. Great. The foundational question behind the decade of brain health is what I'm doing now, talking to you. Good for my brain or bad for it. And if I can answer that with information and love, love of myself, love of my family, I'm going to live long. I'm going to live better is what I'm doing now. That's your method. I cut off the end of the joint with the scissors. That's my method. I feel like it's maybe not. I feel like it's cleaner that way. Yeah, look, we all have our methods. Just because you have a doctor's degree or some shit like that doesn't mean-- by the way, one of my favorite books-- I forgot his name because sometimes my French is Raymond, I think. Like, "Never be sick. Do you ever hear about that book?" It's like, it has all the basics. It just lays out the basics of holistic health so well. It begins with the idea that there's one disease, which is cellular degeneration, either from too many-- two causes, two main causes. Toxins coming in or not the right nutrients coming in. And I think that's true. I mean, that's holistic medicine. And then, it manifests itself in a million different ways, which we call different diseases and we have specialists. But really, it's always about repairing cells. Makes sense to me. I mean, I have an acronym I like called Bright Mines. You want to keep your brain healthy or rescued. You have to prevent or treat the 11 major risk factors. Now, ultimately, it comes down to mitochondrial health, cellular health. But it's like, "Be is for blood flow. "R's retirement and aging. "I" is inflammation. "G" is genetics, you know, what runs in your family, like my kids who we adopted both their parents or drug addicts. But you need to be on a addiction prevention program your whole life. H is head trauma, which I think is a major cause of psychiatric illness that nobody knows. Of course. 'Cause nobody looks at the brain. Of course they do. It's a big story about the NFL. It's CTE. It's all over the news. It was to head front page news a week ago that a quarter of the players, that's just the ones they've studied, it's probably higher. Have it, and we've seen too many of them who just went, they killed themselves, or, you know, they just are leading a life that's just not worth living because their brain is messed up from, you know, Muhammad Ali. You know, I have Muhammad Ali. What? Muhammad Ali was one of my patients. I have his brain. What was he like? Awesome. I met him once and he was awesome. You wanna hear this story? Listen to this. Like the '90s was dating this hot black girl, and I took her to this event. And he was like, he was sitting in the chair like this, you know, like, it just peed down. And I took him whenever I told him that I said, "Hey, champ, how you doing?" I'm a big fan, Bill, Bill Bablah. And he said, "I want you to meet somebody." And he kinda looked up and he saw her. And he was like, it's like one of those cartoons where they put the water, the plant, and it just suddenly comes to life. And he just kinda like, and in his mind, he was 1970 and he was the champ, and he was gonna steal my girl. It was like one of the greatest memories I have of any celebrity I've ever met was at that moment. Like the eye of the tiger, still in that man. And, yeah. And his brain was heart. Yes. And I did the big NFL study when the NFL was sort of not telling the truth about traumatic brain injury and football. It scanned and treated 400 NFL players, cool players like Terry Bradshaw and Dick Buckes. - So am I showing next week, Terry Bradshaw? - Love him. - But you can tell that you can tell that he took a few too many hits. I mean, now they protect the quarterback. Like, oh my God. It's like Taylor Swift is playing quarterback. - But it's still even with the helmets, it's impossible to stop the battle. - But in his day, there was no protection of the quarterback, especially. He's one of the football players. So, and of course, how do you win the game? You knock out the, you know, this is checkmate. You take the king, the queen, whatever it just does. And so they were, the hits were outrageous. And of course, the macho ethic, you know, you're not going back in the game. You know, I remember talking to guys who played football and they said, you know, you'd be on the sideline and it would be like, you just being like, you knew your head wasn't right. You were like having like this, but you knew enough that you were in a football game, but not much more. And then you just-- - Well, and then the drugs they gave them-- - Yes. - The alcohol they would drink, it was not the best brain healthy culture. - But 80% of our players got better when we put them on a rehabilitation plan. So I hate the messaging around CTE, it's chronic, progressive, and untreatable. I don't think that's true at all. I think you should be scanning them and then rehabilitating them all the way along. So if you allow your child to play in high school, well, then you should look at their brain. And you should probably put them in a hyperbaric chamber whenever there's a concussion. There's a study from Iraq that's fascinating. - A hyperbaric chamber. - I'm a huge fan of hyperbaric chambers. - So it was Michael Jackson. - September rolls in with that fake new year energy. Everyone pretends they're getting their life together, buying planners, they'll ghost by Halloween. And in all this resetting, we skip the number one that actually matters, try 120 life. A once a day functional drink with ingredients that support healthy blood pressure, it's simple. Drink it daily, check your numbers, see if it's working. Many people notice improvement in as little as two weeks. And if your numbers don't budge, you get your money back. No hoops, no awkward emails, no fine print, taste great, made from a blend of superfruit juices and the powdered version has just one gram of sugar. Smart if you're watching blood sugar too. Go to 120life.com. That is 120life.com. And use my code random for 20% off. Try it, risk free for two weeks. If your blood pressure doesn't come down, you get a full refund. Go to 120LIFE.com and use the code random to save 20%. Don't guess, start measuring. Nothing to lose except higher blood pressure numbers. Go to 120life.com and use my code random for 20% off. Use code random today. These statements have not been approved by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. - You've discussed that. - Yes. - Time to beat it. - If anyone was the picture of health. - Justin Slapick, it was that noseless skeleton, Michael Jackson. - I think LeBron James also. - Well, Michael, I think Slapick. - What I've heard is Brian Johnson told me this, I think. And I like Brian and I'm struggling now, but I wish him well. I told him that and he really is trying to find the outer limits of the human body's something. I don't know, but I'm glad guys are trying. But, you know, he said the hyperbaric chamber, unless you need it like to recover from injury, ages you. - No, absolutely false. - Absolutely false. - Really? - I have. - It's always good. - 100. - At any level? - Well, nothing's always good. - Right. - I have the fore and after scan. So I do a show on Instagram called Scan My Brain, where I take influential people, scan them. And I don't know if you know who Tarak El Musa is. He's an HGTV star and he flips houses. And when I first saw his scan, his first scan is like one of the cockroach infested, hoarder moldy houses that he flips. It was awful. And then he did HG hyperbaric sessions. And a year later, his brain's dramatically better. And so I called the episode Extreme Makeover Brain Edition. And you're not stuck with the brain you have. You can make it better. - I feel like this is my future in the next two years. - I'm so looking forward to it. - Really? - You wish you looked after me personally, Doc. - With a better brain. - Notice you avoiding that question. - Well, we'll talk about it. But with a better brain, everything in your life is better. And I don't think people love and care for their brain. 1991, I scanned myself. I didn't really care about my brain. And I was the top neuroscience student in medical school. I'm a double board certified psychiatrist. And I didn't really care about it. The week before I scanned my mom's stunningly beautiful brain. - Really? - And then I scanned myself. And it was awful because I played football in high school. - Really? - I had meningitis, twice as a young soldier. And I had bad habits. Like I was sleeping four hours a night. I was chronically stressed. I was chubby. I was eating bad food. I just didn't care. And then I developed a term called brain envy. I always say Freud was wrong. Penis envy. I've never seen it in 40 years as a psychiatrist. Brain envy. Got it. Want a better brain. You want a better brain. Your life gets better. - You've never seen penis envy in 40 years. I feel like in my life, I've seen it. - Maybe I haven't defined wrong. - What penis envy? You go first. What is it? What is it? - You're living your life from a deficiency of how large your penis is. I'm like that sort of thing. - You don't think there's guys who are-- - Yeah, and I think guys are unhappy about it. But that's not what causes suffering. - I don't think that's true. I think guys know that you need a certain, and it doesn't have to be humongous, but you need a certain-sized dick to really make a girl like you. I do. That's my theory of humanity. You have Catholicism. - Yeah, it's just not a part of my life. - Maybe they're just not admitting it. Maybe they're just not admitting it. - Well, from my perspective, you get a brain you get a lot happier. - I think the patients you see are not the average patient, because I don't think most men care if they have a bigger brain. I think they care if they have a bigger dick. I do. But I do. I'm not joking here. I think that's what they care about. So, I don't know. - Yeah, not the ones I see. - Look, the knock on you is that your treatment is so expensive. Look, to me, it's a silly thing to say. It's like everybody wants to get somebody successful. Yes, everything at first is more expensive. Yes, rich people will get better everything. They'll get better healthcare. They get better travel. That's just capitalism. I'm sorry. It's like a game of musical chairs. And we should try to make it better, but that's better than the alternative. So, yeah, your thing is expensive, but, you know, is there a way to like, what is your answer to that critique, by the way? - I mean, a brain that doesn't work right is expensive. What we do is not expensive. It's often not covered by insurance because it's not standard, right? The standard is, just like 1840, you go and tell your doctor, what your symptoms are, he goes, oh, you fit this category in the DSM. And so, I'm gonna give you this medicine. And I think that's nuts. And so, I think, oh, we have to look, but because it's not covered by insurance, or often not, you know, our whole evaluation is about $5,000, but it's two scans, cognitive testing in our history. I think it's pretty reasonable. And 73% of our patients at six months are significantly better. If you actually do what we say, that number goes to you. - Yeah, I mean, I know. - And so, it's gonna change the only question I'm right. And I just met with the leaders in psychiatry. I'm very excited about this because for 35 years, I've sort of been in war with them. And I met Dr. Marquita Wille, she's the CEO of the American Psychiatric Association when I gave a presentation at HHS, about the decade of brain health. And she goes, let's talk. And after we talked, she goes, oh, I know the problem with you. You were just early. And I'm like, I'm putting those four words in my obituary. You were just early, and I'm like, 35 years, really. We have a database now of 300,000 scans on people from 155 countries. - Early is very, rarely reported. - But it's gonna change because they just wrote a position paper the American Psychiatric Association. We need biomarkers, including imaging. So the field is gonna be radically different. And I'm so excited about it. Now, whether that's a couple of years or two or three more decades, we're gonna start become a medical specialty. Like when I told my dad in 1979, I wanted to be a psychiatrist. He asked me why I didn't wanna be a real doctor. Why I wanted to be a nut doctor and hang out with nuts all day long. - And that hurt my feelings. But I really understand where he was coming from, just like you started. It's like, you know, psychiatry, it's nuts. He's not totally wrong. He really is. And we have to do better. We have to do better because depression isn't one thing. It's seven different things, ADHD, not one thing. It's seven different things. When you look at the brain, there are different patterns. If you just give everybody the same medicine, and I was on TV the other day for this Lindsey Clancy case, which is so sad, this mom who killed- Oh, I know it well. It's so. And all our supporters of prenatal abortion, that's really what it is. I mean postnatal abortion. It's so sad. It's so sad. I was saying it was- Nobody looked at her brain. I mean, she's going- Right. Help me. Yes, you're right. Help me. And they're like, take this, take that. She's throwing darts in the dark at her and I'm like, there's no neuroscience testimony in this trial. Isn't that crazy? No, I mean, I could see in the way AI is and how fast the future moves. I could see in five years a brain scan being like, you know, part of the checkup, just the way they ask you to turn your head and cough and grab your balls, you know, just a basic thing or the prostate, you know, prostate text. I mean, I've had a few doctors in my life with their fingers up my ass and it's always, you know, uncomfortable and they always do the joke about buying your dinner first and I'm like, just shut up and say, if we have to do this, but that's how they feel the prostate, right? Right. That's what the brain keeps- That's what they've been telling me all these years. The only organ, we're not screening, we screen our hearts and our bones and our breasts. Why not the brain? When I turn 50, my doctor wanted me to have a colonoscopy. I'm like, well, why don't you want to look at my brain? Isn't the other end just as important? Well, again, I can do the obvious joke about some people's heads are in the rest and it's true. No, I, well, both, you know, obviously you want to check out your colon and you want to check out your brain. I mean, it's, it's actually amazing considering how many parts of the body have to be functioning well for you to be healthy because there's so many different ones that could go wrong. It all works together. Yeah. I mean, not coming over to your God argument, but because, and by the way, if you want to go the God argument with like, you know, immaculate design, there are things about the human body that aren't designed perfectly. So if it is a God, he fucked up a few places. Anyway, but it is an amazing mechanism, much more amazing than anything man has ever created including AI up till now. But you do have to treat it well. And if you abuse it, it's funny, it can take a lot of abuse. You know, one thing that dude says in the book is that food is very hearty and our digestive system is very hearty. What's not hearty is nutrients. So you, the food will last. You can eat it and your stomach will fucking take anything. I mean, what are ancestors must have eaten? You know, in sapiens he says, the reason why the human brain got bigger is because we figured out fire and once they had fire, it killed the parasites. So we could eat food that didn't require this enormous digestive system and it migrated, we got bigger brains. That's why humans outlasted the fucking, you know, leopards or whatever. They didn't have that issue. We figured out fire, I don't know why it came to us but, but yeah, our brains got bigger. I mean, you know, I don't know. Size matters. Do you have pets, do you have animals? I have two dogs in a cat. Okay, but like their brains. So the human brain, 30% is your prefrontal cortex. The front third of your brain is largest in humans in any other animal, 11% of the chimpanzee brain. And what goes on dog seven percent? Is that where like decision making comes in? It's the executive part of the brain. Okay. It's fourth thought, judgment, impulse control, organization, planning, empathy, learning from the mistakes. Right. So when you were talking earlier about the mistakes you made, that's the prefrontal. That's the prefrontal. They're no mistakes. It's just every day. Where? In our brain. Well, that's the prefrontal cortex, which why letting kids hit soccer balls with their forehead is very stupid because your brain is soft about the consistency of soft butter. Your skull is really hard and has sharp, bony ridges. We want to protect it. Wow. Okay. Okay. So the prefrontal lobe, and then what's the, I mean, Freud had the id. The ego and the super ego, which, you know, back in the, you know, renaissance and middle ages, they used to call it like, you know, the, the humours of the body, you know, but it was really the same thing. Just like wine, women, and song became, you know, sex, drugs, and rock, and roll. There's nothing to it. So the hypocrite was with the humours and different humours? Yes. The different humours, bio. When we still have the words, bilious, flam, it's from fligmatic, right? Sanguine. Sanguine? Yes. You know, so it, they knew if they just didn't know how to like, analyze it. But they, they sense in back in the day that those same things were within us. Now we can quantify it. Now we know, I mean, so much. I mean, I wear this ring. Maybe it's bullshit, but it tells me it's not. Like I say, not, not bullshit. My trainer says because of rings, like the oral ring or the opa watch or whatever, that he has so many people stopped drinking because they see their sleep on the nights they don't drink, and then their sleep on the nights they do drink. And they're like, I hate to burst your bubble, but mine, I watch the same thing. Mine is better. When you drink? This is the day I drink. Tape day for club random. It's why I look forward to it, like a dog smelling and steak. Yeah, I sleep better tonight. Any time I like, get fucked up, like in the day, and then it's worn off, and I'm not really high anymore, but like, then I sleep well. That's how I sleep the best. Well, and that's biofeedback. It's your getting feedback on your body whenever you do something. And early in my career, I was trained as a biofeedback person. I love that. And I would hook people up, their hand temperature, their heart rate, their sweat gland activity. And then I would ask them questions, like, think about your dad, and like with my dad, because he was stressful. Everything would go awry. And then, like, think about your mom, and everything would sort of balance out. And so our thoughts affect our physiology, but certainly, what you smoke, what you drink, who you hang out with, all of it impacts your body. I was sitting in my reading chat the other night, and I mean, I am not a cryer. He's ever made me cry on TV, and they've tried for 35 years. And I just started to, I don't know why, but I started to think about this person who I had just spoken on a memorial service that day. I guess that's what triggered it. And I wasn't thinking about the person who I loved him, but, you know, I wasn't having this effect on me. For some reason, I was starting to think about this person who I know, and I thought if they died, and I thought, you know, I imagined myself speaking at that memorial service and made myself cry in the chair just sitting at home and thinking about something that hadn't happened. And this person is fine. But I remember saying to myself, in my rubbery, you know, I've seen a lot of people go and a lot of them were comedian friends and people would text me and email me and say, "God, you must be just beside yourself." And truth is, it's sad, and I love them, but no. But this person, very different, and just thinking that to myself made me cry in my chair. But my chair is all you're going to get, never on TV, bitches. That's because you're attached. To what? To the other person. And they're important to you. Very important. Yes, yes. Yes, yes, yes. So that's human. Yeah, I know. Trust me. I'm glad I have it. I'm glad I could, you know, something like that can happen, because you don't want to be unfeeling, and the world is moving. I'm hardly the first to point this out with the smartphone and now AI. Moving toward a very unfeeling place, a very detached place. We have to be so careful, because the incidence of depression in young people has skyrocketed. How could it not? The study from the CDC, 57% of teenage girls report being persistently sad. And 32% of thought of killing themselves, 24% of plan to kill themselves. We don't have any statistics like that when we were growing up. Things are change. We have more followers and less friends, 58% of young people report being persistently lonely. That's why this sort of whole person education needs to be. You and I are about the same age. We grew up on Pluto. On what? Pluto. We grew up on a completely different planet. There was, in my town, first of all, no racial issues, because it was an all-white town in New Jersey. Not Alabama, New Jersey. Drugs, you know, there's a few degenerates, so they smoke cigarettes. That was like the, there was no divorce. There was no fentanyl. There was no fentanyl, but there weren't broken homes. Maybe they were like crazy at home, but they, you know, stayed together and we grew up in a completely different planet. Most kids now, all those things are present and plenty more. But, you know, you rarely find someone who, the parents are to get, you know, the drug addiction parents who were fucked up or parents have stayed together, but they hated each other and, you know, just not the stable, leave it to be for upbringing we had. World War II generation people who had been through the Depression and the war and had it. At the '60s were messed up from the assassinations the. Not for us. Were you assassinated? No. No, but I remember being in church when JFK was killed and the stress around that. We had the riots here in Watts. For you? And my dad had a grocery store in Watts during Watts when I was growing up and Vietnam, I had friends who had siblings come home in boxes, body bags, so when everybody's complaining about now, I'm like, the '60s were a shit show. Let me ask you, your father, white guy on the store in a black neighborhood. Lebanese. Popular? So, Lebanese merchant to my dad, you know, like many Lebanese immigrants, merchant, handed up being the chairman of the board of unified grocers, which is a $4 billion company. I'm very proud of him. This is what is awesome about America that we are flirting with, ruining. We attract the best, smartest, most ambitious people from everywhere. This was always our secret sauce. It's true. And you know who is messing with this, you know, we didn't need to close the border, but you know, I think he's messing with it in a reaction to the insanity about the border. Totally. But closing the border to something we needed to do, I totally give him credit for that. Then they went, okay, we don't have to get into that. What I'm saying is like, I'm not helpful. People like your father always, you know, that is why I still believe in this country so much. It's because the people who, it's, and I've heard the foreigners who I know, here I'm going to say foreigners, people who are like French, Canadian, not exactly, you know, like the world away, and they say, yeah, because I've asked them, like, France is a pretty modern country. Why'd you come here? Canada, it's kind of like America. And they say, not really. You know what? They cut down the tall trees. There's just a sense here that you can reinvent yourself and go as high as you want. Yes, there's a little more inequality, but there's just this sky's the limit. You can be the grocer, and then be the, whenever this fucking thing your father was, something big. I heard that. Well, it was either that or what? It's chairman of the board of the Unified Grocers, which is— But that's an immigrant story, in one lifetime. It's on one. In one lifetime. That's America. I don't know if that happens in countries where it's more stilted. I think the opportunity is still great. Just shame what happened in Lebanon. They used to be called the Paris of the Middle East. That's so beautiful. I was actually there in April 1975, right before Civil War broke out, and it was so beautiful. You could be in the mountains, skiing, and then an hour later be on the beach. I mean, it's a beautiful— And you know who else was there at that time? Osama bin Laden before, like, when he was a teenager. When his rich-ass family brought their little Nepo baby to Beirut, because that's what people did, like before the Islamic world went nuts, you know, and before jihadists sort of, like, took the reins in too many important places. Very worried about the generational trauma that is happening with the kids in Syria, and Gaza, and Israel, and all of Iran. The generational trauma is real. Well, you are the man to scan their brains. Do you have a business overseas? I do not. You want one? My books are translated in 50 languages for now. But do you imagine—I mean, you have more than one location for what you do? I have 11. We have 11. And that sounds like the beginning of a franchise to me. Mick Braidskin. What do you think? No. I just want to give people the opportunity to learn from the work I've done. Okay, Senator. But I'm just asking you a real question. Do you want to have branches in more places, including overseas? I think 11 is good. I'm very happy with that. And what I really want is to teach people to do what we do, so that it becomes standard 10 years from now, 20 years from now, that you're depressed, you're angry, you're anxious, you can't stop thinking about bad things, somebody looks at your brain as part of the assessment. All right, you should hire me as your A&R man because we're not thinking big here, doc. I'm thinking strip malls. I'm thinking every strip mall in America, and I'm talking about small and medium-sized cities, and there is a Mick Braidskin there, and you can get your nails done by the Korean girls, and then you can go right next door and get your brain scanned. That's how I'm thinking. I'm thinking big. That's America. Okay. So, I'll let you go soon, but I just have to ask you one more thing, porn, bad for the brain, because you hear a lot of bad things about it, and people do get addicted, and it is different than when we were kids. The problem with it is six-year-old boys are being exposed, eight-year-old, ten-year-olds exposed to it, because parents are not doing a good job of supervising the devices they belong. You'll be interested in it at six. Six? I wasn't not interested in it, but that's you. There are a lot of boys who are very curious early on. At six? Yes. Six is what Freud called the latent stage. You're latent. Yes, an infant gets a heart on her, like rubs his dick, but then it like latent until puberty. So, when, when? That's not six. That's not six. I feel like I was early for my age group, eleven. I feel like when I first started to rub that part of my body and it was, "Oh, this feels good," and it changed its shape. Okay. And now, imagine you have a smartphone, and your parents didn't do a good job, or your friend's parents didn't do a good job of putting parental controls on it. You are interested in rubbing yourself, and now, all of a sudden, you have a huge menu of things to look at. That is a disaster. So, ultimately, obviously, you know about dopamine, dopamine is the pleasure. So, you're saying, chemical? If I looked, I get what you're saying. There was no opportunity for me at six to look at naked women, but now there is. And if you do, it will activate the pubic side of a brain at six. Or some people. And if you're vulnerable, say you come from a family of addicts, you know, your grandpa was an alcoholic, and you have more genetic vulnerability, all of a sudden, that's going to hijack you. I think we have to do a better job of controlling what young people. I mean, I was a huge fan of Australia and Great Britain banning social media for kids under 16. And it's spreading, and other places. And then the recent meta deal, 17 billion dollars. I mean, it just highlights this is dangerous. We're seeing it. We're paying for it as a society with when we were going to, anybody ever killed themselves in your school? No. No killed themselves, the husbands. The ones who, because there was no divorce, but the husband would wind up face down in this swimming pool. That happened more than once, and it was a small town. Because that's what happened when you can't get divorced, you kill yourself in the swimming pool. You're like, "Okay, I cannot live one more day with this woman." But it's something that I never was, and I never saw. And now almost half the children in America, they have a school may kill themselves. It's ridiculous. The number, the increase in suicide in young people. But also, if you look at the number of ailments that weren't common when we were kids, that became very common. Things like diabetes, adult acne, asthma, obesity, you know, immunologies, epinod allergies, in general, colitis, you know, irritable bowel syndrome, whatever they call, all those gut dizzy. What? They didn't even-- And why the spike in autism? Autism again. Autism again, ten thousand to one and thirty four. Some of that is because they measure differently. Some of that is because-- Yeah. And some of it's because there's a gene and environmental toxin interaction. Right. And, you know, whether it's BPAs or other-- But not the vaccine, you're saying. Probably not. Probably not. Probably not. But probably it's not useful to give all the ones they did. Right. Useful to have mercury and vaccine. And also, apropos to what I was saying before about, we're so different, run such a large spectrum of different characteristics as a human and everything. It could be that it's one in five hundred thousand. That the vaccine somehow triggers something that causes autism. It's just super, super rare. But who wants to be that person who wants the risk even? Well, and I have vaccine-damaged brains that I have scanned, of kids who, the parents say are normal. Of course. They got the vaccine and their brain looks terrible, but it's not the norm, for sure. No. It's not the norm. No, it's just-- it's amazing the way we have to politicize or people politicize this issue so much, that we can't come to what I think, again, because on Mr. Common Sense, is the reasonable middle, which is that vaccines are generally safe, but like all drugs, like all medical interventions, they have side effects. And on the whole, are they worth doing, yes. But there also is a downside. Well, you know, AI is doing therapy now. You can turn it on and go pretend like you're Carl Jung. And do a session with me. I think I'm better. My mother, I said, I remember when she was reading Carl Jung. My mother was always like, you know, into something like for a while of his mythology, Greek mythology, we heard about all that. And then she got very into psychiatry, reading all-- and Carl Jung, what was his basic thesis? What distinct-- why do we know that name? Jungian. He was one of Freud's counterparts. And rather than psychoanalysis, he talked about personality theory, he was deeply spiritual. He's the one that came up with the idea for the Myers-Briggs. What is that? It's a personality inventory, introverted, extroverted thinking, feeling. And he talked a lot about dreams and the collective unconsciousness. He's very influential. I know. Very influential. I know Jungian thought is. None of that rings a bell. But I mean, those old school first-generation psychiatrists, like-- and who is your addler? Was he another one of those guys? Like the modern crew, did they think of them as kind of like, oh, old school, yeah, I mean, in their time, of course, it was considered, you know, Freud was all about the dick, because wasn't he Freud kind of all about sexuality? I mean, wasn't-- you know-- A lot of it. I feel like I was-- He was also using cocaine, a lot of the time. Yes. He had 33-- How many was-- he was brilliant. He had 33 operations on his jaw. And he was in chronic pain. Chrotic pain. So many of these thinkers were, you wonder, how did that affect the thinking? You know, Proust wrote, "Remembrance of Things Past," one of the greatest works we've ever had in Western literature. But he wrote it, "The last 30 was life in a cork-lined room in Paris, because he had horrible, I think asthma." I don't know what the cork was there for, but I do know what was there. And it was something to, like, help him with whatever. And then Thomas Mann, who wrote-- you know, what did he wrote? I'm too stoned to remember. But that was all about being what they called "consumption" back then, which really what now we would call is, what, like, chronic fatigue? No. What's the pulmonary disease that, you know, is-- not to-- it's the OPD? No. It's back. The major thing that people got, like, a hundred years ago-- tuberculosis. tuberculosis, yes. And they would send them to sanitariums? That's-- it takes place-- the magic mountain, the magic mountain, one of the seminal novels of the last century. And, you know, they're in this sanitarium in the Alps. And they, you know, it was like people go to Arizona, because the weather is better and some-- it helps with certain things. I think that's more grounded in reality. I don't know off the sanitariums ever really helped, but, you know, this is only a hundred-- No, I think mostly they separated you from being-- getting other people infected. You think that was the purpose? You don't think they-- they thought they were curing you, they're in the sanitarium, and no. As there was in a cure, until we had drugs to kill the beast. They would literally say, take the cure. That was the saying-- that was the phrase, take the cure at bottom, bottom, you know. Hot springs, places with the air was clear, but you think it was all the scam. Yeah, I guess so. I mean, I don't remember hearing that someone was cured by doing that, but-- No, I mean, weather clearly matters, right? If you're in a highly allergenic place. You must be here in LA, but-- Well, the smog. I mean, it's actually better than when I was growing up. Way better. But that doesn't mean it's good. But it's not good. And I live in Orange County, and I can see-- I often see this brown haze ago, not good to breathe. No. And people who live in places of high pollution have a higher incidence of Val'sheimer's disease. So the air you breathe, the water you drink, the noise, the lights, all of it matters. You know where I notice my brain is when I do crossword puzzles, because I'll get stuck and I'll put it down, and I'll come back maybe later that day or a day later, and I'll finish it. And it's like, plainly, I was using the same brain 12 or 24 hours ago, and it couldn't do this task. And now it can. Something-- that tells me, this is not bullshit. This is something I can measure. This is scientific. This is a test where I got rid of the variables. It's the same clues in the crossword that I couldn't do. What was different about my brain 12 or 24 hours ago? You know, I love that you're doing that, because that's good for your brain. But then you have to go to what was to sleep, what was the consumption of substances, what was your diet like, all of that matters. And the problem with being 70 or 72, in my case, is if we're not serious about it, it just goes lower and lower and lower. I hate looking at older brains. No, I'm sure. But I have this whole group of 90-year-old people that have stunningly beautiful brains. And I'm like, I want that. That's what that's brain envy. I want that. And it's like, OK, how do you get that? That crossword puzzle test tells me, is this not about opinion, this is about conjecture. This is scientific. What it tells me for sure, I have definitive proof that my brain is in a different condition, a different state at different times. It may not be huge. I'm not a crazy person. It doesn't like, I'm like, I'm going nuts, you know, and ranting and raving or like completely, you know, out of my mind, but my brain, if we put a number on it, you know, when I put the puzzle down, when I couldn't do it, it was at 85. And then I got back to 92. I mean, you could quantify it if you could. Can you? Are there brain wave studies like that? Can you hook some. You look at that. I think you could do quantitative EEG at certain times to go when am I most imbalanced or when do my gamma rays, my really fast learning waves. Happen. And some of its circadian rhythm that all of us have rhythms, some people are mourning people, some people are night people, some people are. You think it matters? This is something holistic medicine is very big on. That it doesn't just matter that you sleep, but when you sleep. I think it's bullshit. I think some of their shit is bullshit. I think everybody's shit is bullshit. Because maybe I'm just prejudiced, because I am a late riser. Always have been my family was, my father worked nights. He got up late. I was like getting up late. I liked the night better. I liked watching Johnny Carson. He was on at 11.30. That was to me much better than watching. Something that was on at 8 o'clock. Although Michele's Navy, I'll make an exception. But so I'm always. And then I became a comic. We're out late at night. Just everything is late, late, late. I don't think it matters. I think it matters that you sleep, but they think the healing takes place like between 2 a.m. and 6. You've heard that. Tell me, Doc, what's your theory? I think you need seven. Take good hours. But sleep. When it doesn't make that much difference. When? I agree. Yeah. Because like the ring, it tells me. But it's like, yeah, I know. And by the way, ring, you know, I don't need the little like pat on the back that you write out for me every day. Hey, you know, did you have a tough night sleep? Shut the fuck up. I don't want to hear a pep talk. I'm not of this generation. I don't need it. Just give me the facts. And that does. Like it will tell you how much REM sleep, how much deep sleep. And no, Andrew Huberman tells me that it's the REM sleep that matters. Because sometimes the deep sleep's only like 12 minutes. You agree? Well, I think both of them are important. I think REM is really important and both alcohol and marijuana decrease REM. Uh, so. But that's what the devoted viewers of real time say every week when they tune in. Um, yeah, I mean, it's like, you know, I never watch my own show or this show or any show. Because it's like, I had fun doing it. It seemed like the people liked it. I don't want to. And I kind of feel the same way about my brain. It seems to be working. Do I really want to stir up trouble? You know, like. That's only good news. It's totally not perfect. I definitely have a little more aphasia than I used to, you know? But is that 70? Is that pot? Is that just, you know? But if we find out, who cares? Then we do something about it. Now, you want to care. Because if you're having a little bit now, odds are five years from now, you're going to have a little more. And 10 years from now, you may have a little more. Okay, but even if I. I just, I'm here. Even if I forget the word, which is what aphasia is. Can I just define it? Can I just go to the. What's that place where the sick people are? Where all the sick people go? What does that. Forget. What is that called? Sick people. They go there. The hospital? Yes. Okay. A little aphasia. Can I just do that, Doc? I mean, who's that? But that's not. You don't want a hospital food. Do I seem like I'm really mentally inept, Doc? Honestly. Absolutely not. You. Okay. And that's from folks. That's from the world's leading expert. But I'm not. I would know when I. When I go, I will know, and I'll go. When I go, I will know, and I will go. That should be my book, really. I will. Because what I do is not something you can do at a diminished capacity. It just isn't. If I'm not at the top of my game, I have no game. I don't want to be a sheep among goats. I mean, I go to among sheep's. All right. I'm a little stone. But yeah, I mean, so I will know. But again, getting back to my original thing, I think mood. It's a trade-off as everything in life is. It's a trade-off with the drugs and having fun. With yes, health and the actual physical perfection of the brain. Yes, I am diminishing that. But I think, for me, I've learned it is a trade-off worth making. I think it actually is this more trade-off. Because I'd rather live, you know, Sammy Davis once said, "I'd rather live 64, Sammy years." You had a great time when he stopped drinking. He said, "The worst thing about this is knowing that when I wake up in the morning, that's the best I'm going to feel all day. I know that feeling. I'm not like that. I'm not a drunk like that. But I know that feeling like I would rather die at 85, at 95, and not have a good time on the way." What's the point of. You know, when we do our high school program, and week four, we talk about what to avoid to have a healthy brain, a 14-year-old boy, never a girl. This is really a never-girl, a 14-year-old boy raises his hand and goes, "How can you have any fun?" And so we play a game with them called Who Has More Fun, a kid with the good brain or the kid with the bad brain. Who gets the girl who gets to keep her because he's not an ass with the good brain or the kid with the bad brain. It's like, it's the why people say, it's like, "Well, how can you have any fun?" And I have a whole bunch of fun, but it's like, to have to suppress your brain so you can manage your mind to have fun. That just seems like a lot of work, as opposed to learning how to manage your mind. If I may, the flaw in your theory is, we don't care about keeping her. We care about getting her. That's what you said about the 14-year-old. Keep the girl. We don't necessarily want to keep her. Look, I made him laugh. I mean, maybe we do. Well, we. I know. I know it's her because. I don't know if a painter is not right or we can't sit still. I've made crazy decisions in my life and done crazy things because I was obsessed with the idea of keeping a girl. Like crazy to things, like proposing marriage. That crazy, really crazy. I mean, beyond Catholic crazy, proposed marriage. That was a long time ago, but I was willing to put that on the table in the poker game. When she said, "I will raise you and see you," I was like, "Okay, you're right. I'm too scared to lose you. I will put that ring on the table." Of course, I backed out in the end. I just think it's the little lie people say. Drew Carey. Drew Carey. Drew Carey. Got really healthy. And he said something I'll never forget because I knew then you're going to stay healthy. I love him. He's a friend of mine. He said eating crappy food isn't a reward. It's a punishment. And I'm like, "Oh, he gets it." Because what do I really want at my age, energy, memory, passion, purpose? Yeah, but I want that. And so if you know what you want, it's like, does your behavior get you what you want? Well, I mean, but that's just obviously the trade-off of present-for-future, which is every decision in life and, you know, to say that it's not a reward. It's exactly a reward. That's why people eat like that. Look, people say to me, you know, you eat so well, you know, like, I love food. I get it. I get food is delicious. You think I don't like cake? I like cake. I just make the choice not to eat it because I know about what it does in my future. I'm making a decision based on the future. That's what's hard to get your brain to do sometimes. - You have to train at that point. - To make decisions in the future. - This is love food that loves you back. - I am making a decision about the future and the present right now when I light this joint. The future, this might be a very bad decision. This might be the one token. That really, it's not health food. But in the present, I'm having a good time. Consider you one nail on my coffin, Doc. But it's worth it. You got to live in the world you're living in. I don't want to, I'm not the kind of person who can live if I can't really live. I never got married, you know? So I don't know what it's like to be a slave. I have to be a free man. And if health makes me not a free man, I can't live. But of course, when I get sick, I'll totally pussy out on that and be like, 'cause I've learned this just getting up to 70. The things you say you won't do, and then when you get a medical expert saying, well, we have to put this camera up your deck, you go. Okay. If that's what you have to do, I know I said I'd never do this, but yeah, go ahead. Put a camera up my deck. I know it's gonna hurt. Even with the volume, it's gonna hurt. But I'd rather have a, you never had a camera up your deck? - No. - You're lucky. - I'm not looking forward to it. - You're, you'll love a star. I don't like the fingers up my ass, but you know what? I'd rather know. Again, this is a future present decision. I could be in that office going, you know what? I feel fine. You don't need to stick your fingers up my ass. I feel fine. But that's not a smart decision. It's not a decision that the front load, right? The executive, you told me? The executive is saying, yeah, you don't want a man's, you're just up your ass. Or a woman, I don't want anybody's fingers up my ass, but I'm gonna do it for the future. 'Cause you know what, I'm living in the future. I'm going to be living in the future, I want to. So let's not have present me, fuck future me. 'Cause future me is gonna be like, why didn't you let the doctor put his hands up your ass that day? It could have solved so many of the horrible problems. - It's such a good phrase. - What? - Don't let present me, fuck up, future me. - Right. - I'd love that phrase. - Well, I'll sell it to you for a very reasonable price. You demured before when I asked, well, can you get me in like? - And I said yes. - Yeah, you kind of were like, yeah. - I said we'd talk about it. - Yeah. Okay, well, okay. Well, I will make an appointment. I hope I get special consideration because we became such good friends today. - Thank you so much. - Yeah, so so much fun. - So much fun. I want to do it, very much so. I think you're on the right path. All right, go.