Kara Swisher Says the #1 Longevity Tool Isn't Sleep, Food, or Exercise | Project Swagger with Robin Arzón

Support for the show comes from ChoraWave. Everywhere you look, AI is expanding what we thought was possible. And at the center of it all is ChoraWave. Medical research and diagnosis, education, complex visual effects for movies, science and technology breakthroughs. ChoraWave powers AI pioneers around the world with purpose-built tech, building what's never been built before. ChoraWave is the essential cloud for AI, ready for anything, ready for AI. To learn more about how ChoraWave powers the world's best AI, go to ChoraWave.com/readyforanything. Support for the show comes from First Citizens Innovation Banking, formerly Silicon Valley Bank. First Citizens is the bank of the Innovation Economy. The name may have changed but for over 40 years their commitment to bold ideas for relentless ambition and delivering what's next as strong as ever. So, if you're wondering where the road innovation starts, it's here. First Citizens Innovation Banking. at thefirstcitizens.com/innovationtolearnmore. How much have you spent on your pet's medical care this year? Maybe more than your own? 25 years ago, it was very rare to hear of a pet having an MRI. Now it's kind of standard if a pet presents with an issue. Big corporations and private equity have seen all of this and have rushed into the sector. While your vet bill is so high, that's this week on Explain It To Me. Listen to new episodes, Sundays, wherever you get your podcasts. Hi everyone, this is Kivot from New York Magazine in the Box Media Podcast Network. I'm Cara Swisher. We're off today, we have something special in the feed for you. Today we're sharing a conversation I had with Robin Arzahn on her podcast, Project Swagger, recorded while I was in Cannes. Robin is a force in fitness and wellness, and she's well known as Peloton's VP of fitness programming and head and structure. Project Swagger is about how to add years to your life and life and vitality to those years. I join her to discuss why I dug into the longevity industry for my CNN show, Cara Swisher, "Once to Live Forever." We cover everything from red light therapy to hyperbaric chambers and we get into what's overhyped, what costs too much, and what all of us should actually be doing to live longer and healthier. Enjoy the conversation and be sure to check out new episodes of Project Swagger every Tuesday on YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts. Cara Swisher, welcome to Project Swagger. Thank you for being here, making your way through Cannes and Sweating just for you. We're sweating and we're going to talk about longevity, so maybe it's apropos. Let's talk about your most consistent, daily habit. Now it's walking. I know it sounds crazy, but I did the series for CNN and one of the things that I was trying to do was show how regular people cannot overthink exercise, although exercise, as you know, is critically important, but the small movements they can make to move towards that. One of them is always moving after you eat, like in some walk fashion. It doesn't have to be really fast, it doesn't have to be sweaty, just to get your body going. Are you tracking it? Are you a step count person? No, because what does 10,000 steps mean? I don't think it means anything, and I think one of the things I've been fighting against is sort of the obsession with data, and I think it's too much, especially Matt and I hate to say if they like tell you, and it doesn't have any meaning whatsoever on people's lives. Now some of it's, yes, absolutely, getting moving, moving your heart rate, the heart rate, the O2 max, I think is important. It's something they do at Palatella up and down the scale, I know it's really important, but I think in general, we over index on data and not enough about the actual acts we can do individually through the day that are manageable for people. And like trading intuition for these data points? Why is that so much intuition, is that they basically sell your health back to you in a lot of ways, that is just not helpful for most people in general. So this idea that you have to buy everything is really a problem for me, and so I was trying to find things that are happening both scientifically, which are groundbreaking at the same time, some of the stuff on social media that's nonsense that just doesn't really help you at all, and a lot of it actually is quite dangerous. Okay, so what is, what's the biggest red herring or BS thing? Well, it's the little ones, it's how much things do for you, like red light. It's fine, it's fine, but it does not solve every, it's literally like it's going to solve every problem known to me, and most of the data on it is skimp. One thing that I think is dangerous is pushed towards hyperbaric chambers for regular people. If you don't have the bends or have a wound, you really shouldn't do it. But they sell it for hundreds of dollars a session. Yes, in New York City, it's like, if you have a little oxygen, a lot more is right? It just doesn't, it's like not true, it's just very little scientific evidence. I call it majoring in the minors, it's like if you haven't cleaned up the basics of sleep and hydration and movement, who cares if your red eye might have worked or not? Absolutely perfectly, like it's some of it's just obsession and sort of making you think that you're making. It's productivity, it's action versus productivity, and I think they like, there's a lot of activity versus productivity. The other one that I think drives me crazy is peptide craze. Now, GLP1's are really interesting and they're showing incredible promise and look one in eight people in the United States, for example, are using these. There's all these things around cancer, all this interesting stuff happening. The same time, there's this whole craze of taking all the peptides and doing it with, you know, off the shelf stuff that they get and a lot of it is from China. It is unclear how clean it is or how pure or anything else in people injecting themselves. It's very dangerous. But that's like, there's nothing, you know this, there's nothing new to the exercise craze every five minutes. There's a new. That's true. It's a lot of the electricity here. The bike is good, but the best that zap you, I know, it's a different from that thing that shook your butt. Well, there's always going to be a new fitness trend around the corner, but a lot of these things that you just mentioned, you talk about and you dive deeper into on your show on CNN, Cara Switzer wants to live forever. Is that true? Do you in fact want to live forever? No, I was because of the, there were a couple things. One was all these social media, all the social media stuff that was full of shit that was hurting people and costing people and was dangerous, you know, take this, do this, by people who are non experts. That was driving me nuts. And then there was all this amazing, at the same time, scientific progress being made because of technology, because of AI, all kinds of things around cancer research and things like that. The possibilities are huge. Hasn't happened. It's moving in that direction, gene folding, crisper, all this stuff that's becoming really interesting around drug discovery, the ability someday, some of these mRNA technologies which are astonishing, which at the same time on social media are being demonized by the top levels of our government, which is really dangerous. And so there's all this great information and it gets messed up with the bad information and when there's false and true information, the true becomes false. Absolutely. And I wanted to show what actual scientists are up to that aren't getting their funding cut by the Trump administration. And then also about what are the smaller things you could do that you don't have to buy back from the industry, which I think it's nothing wrong with making a dollar out of helping people exercise. That's not my issue. It's the nonsense and the overspend and the hopes that you put into people about long life. That's really was my goal because let me just, our health span, our lifespan, our life span are like this. Okay. That's what I was going to ask. So what's the distinction for you? It's how healthy you are and fit you are because a lot of our, I think in the United States at least, I don't know what it is, here is 64 and our life span is 79, mostly because of men, men die quicker than women. But you have this gulf of sickness that you are in that doesn't need to happen. You can be well up until your death essentially. And so collapsing that lifespan health span, there's a lot of things you can do in your 20s, in your 30s, in your 40s, balance, exercise, walking, all kinds of things that it's like putting $20 in the bank and then later being able to yield it. But in our country, in the United States, compared to say France or other countries, we spend $15,000 per person on health care and they spend six, seven, and pure countries and we have the worst health outcomes, obesity, all manner of cancer, all manner of this nut. So I was trying to sort of like, how do you collapse that and save us money and give people better lives until they die? Also, injecting longevity conversation with what's missing, I think, is the vitality piece. Correct, yeah. Do it with those extra 10 or 15 years. Yeah, mobility, the ability to move around and so I was looking at robotics, all the exoskeletons, there's all these manner of things and eventually they'll print your liver again. That's where, you can imagine it, you can do it, it's just how do you get from there to here to try to solve. There is no cure for death. Death is undefeated so far in world history and so how do we get there and remain relatively healthy until the final year? Absolutely. Which would be amazing. Everyone's talking about the prospect of a democratic wave in the midterm elections, but here's something that matters just as much. The battle to control state legislatures. That's the most important thing we should be focusing on right now. The GOP has a trifecta in 23 states, which means if they control the governor's seat, plus the State House and the State Senate. For Democrats, it's 16 states. - Meaning that the opportunity to pass the policies that the majority of our state supports, things like increasing minimum wage, legalizing marijuana, codifying abortion. - If Democrats flip just a handful of state legislatures, the majority of Americans will now live in the state under full democratic control, which could have big policy implications. - That's all on the table with the democratic trifecta. - This week on America actually, we're in Wisconsin. And we talked to Francesca Hong. - We have an opportunity through Wisconsin to actually start improving the brand for Democrats. - Catch us every Saturday on YouTube or wherever you get your podcast. - What if we told you there was one thing you could eat to reduce your risk of death by about a quarter? - Interested? - And what if we added that this magical substance can dramatically lower your cholesterol, improve your mood, and keep your weight stable? - No, it's not protein. It's actually fiber. The least sexy, most overlooked nutrient of all. But what is fiber? How could one nutrient do all those amazing things? And how can you get enough? Is a powder you stir into some water gonna do it for you? - All that plus the strange tale of the gorilla poop obsessed, father of corn likes in the latest episode of Gastropod. Find Gastropod and subscribe, wherever you get your podcasts. - I'm Phoebe Judge, host of the podcast Criminal. Usually I'm telling stories about other people, but this fall, I'm headed out on the road with a brand new show. Stories about me and the people I love. It's called Don't Worry. I hope you'll come out and see it. We'll be in cities like Boston, Chicago, Philadelphia, New York, and lots more. Get your tickets at ThisIsCriminal.com/Live. - What's something that you adopted since doing your CNN show? - Something that's interesting, I was just noticing. So now, because of GLP1s and a number of things, like the processed foods are down or down. This is the only thing I agree with RFK Jr. and you're like, well, no shit, sure, a lock about Doritos. We all understand that, including the deleterious effects on our body, not just that they're bad for you, they're really quite bad for you. But the rise in cottage cheese, for example, is really interesting, right? Cottage cheese, fermented foods. I drink kefir every morning. I don't like yogurt. Yogurt is another thing you can have. - For microbiome, for digestion. - Fermented foods are absolutely true, but you may not want sauerkraut. It's got a lot of salt in it, that kind of thing. So I drink kefir every morning with maybe a tiny bit of honey or sweetener or some sort, not too much. And then I try to keep sort of a nice protein during the day, it doesn't have to be a meat protein, but lentils, you can have an avocado. I've changed my diet in that regard. - Do you have, I just recently released a plant-based cookbook to you incorporate my cheese? - Absolutely, 100%. I think it's, the more you can lean towards it. I mean, I get the people, I happen to like me. But that's because it's an acquired taste over a whole lifetime, essentially. But lean meats, this whole protein-maxing thing with men is really, it's actually more men, now women are doing it, right? Too much, that's what happens with social media. You've got to get this many. And when you, when you can get it from plant-based, from lentils, from, as you know, lentils, there's all manner of things that have a lot of both fiber and protein. - That's the magic combo. - You know, it's, of course, easier for meat, but it's, it's not necessarily the only way to go. - And what would you say is the most underutilized wellness tool that could be massively adopted? - Well, the other two things, one is don't be poor. I mean, I know it sounds crazy, but being poverty is so closely equated with earlier death, like forever, since forever, not, that's not a new thing. But being wealthy or having money does help, like an enormous amount. I had an argument with one of these billionaires where he was like, well, you know, everyone can get a good night's sleep. I'm like, everyone can't. Like that kind of stuff. So obviously, good sleep. You don't have to have as much as people think. It's not eight hours, it's 6.5 to 7.4, I think. I'm good sleep, like where you're not, like, one of the things people, they think they need to go to sleep right away. Actually, going to sleep right away is not as good for you as drifting off to sleep. I'm drifting as what, like 10 to 12 minutes, right? Not instant. And the same thing is insomnia as a problem too. So good sleep, I would say. These are the little things. Obviously diet, like you were just talking about, a much more plant-based diet, but with plenty of protein fiber and less sugar. And micronutrients. Micronutrients, especially kefir, those kind of things, fermented foods. But the most important thing you can do is friends and family. I know it sounds crazy, but all the scientific evidence points to connect social connections. Friends and family don't have a chatbot boyfriend, that kind of stuff. Like, no, but people, that's true. It's true, it's true about it, but it's a crazy-- We are at the time, for sure. But people are moving into these synthetic relationships that are very bad for us, health-wise, from a mental-wise and health-wise and really bad. Because there are seamless relationships with no friction whatsoever. So social connections. Encounters with people you don't know every day. On the way here, the reason I was laid was because I talk. Everyone stops me. I talk to them. It's one of these silly things you can do for yourself. I have an encounter with a barista. I have an encounter with the clerk. I have an encounter with someone you've never met. They're all incredibly good for your mental state. And one thing my son does naturally is whenever he sees someone, he goes, how is your day going? Watch someone, do it for a week and watch what people do. They go like this. And it's a job like yours has enormous social implications. You're constantly interacting with people. I think in this digital age and something I've been chronicling for years, it is so deleterious to our health. I mean, it can be helpful in a lot of ways. But at the same time, the constant strolling, not just doom scrolling, just scrolling. It's so bad for our psyche to be isolated. And that's one-- number one, social connections. What's something that you stop doing through this wellness lens? The sugar, I really-- I'm trying. That's my-- I don't eat a lot of sugar, but it's hidden all over the place. Process foods, for sure, like Greek yogurt. I eat versus the more-- the right kind of yogurt, for example. I don't like yogurt as much as kefir. So kefir is just easy. It's an easy fix for me. I happen to like it. But seeing all the hidden stuff in foods, try to-- I'd recommend Michael Pollan's book, "Eat Food," mostly plans, not too much, and write that kind of stuff. "Eating on a regular basis," I would say. Trying to sleep more. I don't get enough sleep. What are young parents supposed to do? Given this list, right? 'Cause I can imagine a listener being like, OK, great, Kara. I got it. How the hell do I fit it all in? I don't like to immediately get on the phone when they put the kids to bed. Don't give the kids a habit of using your phones. It's happening all over the country. I mean, look at schools right now. They're pulling phones out of schools. There's nothing worse for kids for their health than to be constantly on their phones. I mean, it creates a lifetime of isolation. And the problem is parents are as addicted as their kids. I think the worst thing we can do is delve into this digital world in a way that's significant, that creates lack of connections between people are the answer to people. And for young parents, go to sleep, right? When your kids do, like, try to get-- or at least one of you get the sleep. Kids aren't up 24 hours. They do go to sleep, you know, not always. So you have two older sons. By the way, having kids is great for you, too. Like you've talked about some things. I have a five-year-old and a four-year-old, and they've infused my life with so much joy. It's tiring. And it's chaotic and exhausting. But she's actually good for you. Yes, yes. You have to have kids. I don't regret it one bit. But you have two older-- you have kids on either and just spectrum. You have young kids and you have young adults. And what are you telling the young adults about the job market in AI? Well, it's interesting, because my both my kids have jobs that are actually a little AI-proof. My son is a cook, and so that's very hard. There's not going to be a robotic cook anytime soon. And so he's working in a restaurant right now. He's working on a political campaign, because I want him to be engaged. But this is a friend of ours is running. And maybe he'll go into that. But he does door to door, door knocking. I know it sounds good. But he's really friendly. And so he's really good at this. And he cooks. And so he's in a kitchen. There's community. My other son is a techie. And he goes to University of Michigan. And he's working in mechanical engineering. So one of the things he's doing is doing stuff by hand. So it's very much-- it's not it's easy. AI is actually additive to his job versus subtractive. He did not go into computer programming, because he saw very early that AI would be replacing software engineering. And the seven and five-year-old don't have to work, at least for another year. But I keep them off the screens as much as I can. I really do. You know, not like they watch Frozen. There's just no way around it. And I watched television. It didn't hurt me that much. Yeah. That kind of stuff. But I try not to use it as a babysitter as much as I can. And I think all parents know that. They know what they're doing. They need a minute and a break. And that's OK. Totally. And where do you think, to combat the loneliness epidemic, where is the average person finding community if they don't-- they're no longer part of the bowling league? Right. Well, they should be part of the bowling league. But you could be part-- one of the things when I started covering online early-- one of the first groups of people I met with quilters who met online on AOL and they'd become friends over, and I don't, that's a friendship, and then they met together to talk in person, and so it was the perfect mix of online and offline as they had these offline relationships and online relationships. And I always, I remember being so struck by that because a lot of these people couldn't find other people, I mean, people can you find that like quilting in your own community. And so I thought that was actually a useful use of online. And I think one of the things that's important is to try to mix things up in your life. I just recently, I mean it's a big trend right now, but this was about a year ago. I just organized a group, a teacher to teach us how to play Mahjong because it was starting to get popular. But I invited 16 people who knew me, but they didn't know each other. And everyone afterward was like, that was fun. It was Mahjong. And then Mahjong is fun, but that's not why it was fun, it's because people, it was the group. It was the group. It wasn't done, but everyone came to me and we're like, I feel better. And you actually physically do, like if you actually tested people right then, not that you should, who cares, but you know what, most humans know this. What are you most excited about right now, like personally, professionally? I think probably trying to stay healthy or longer, I have four kids, I want to be there to meet my grandchildren, to be a cogent and everything like that. And so it's really important to me and it's a motivator. But I do think we have to sort of get away from this sort of dunking culture that sort of is represented over the last 10 years of the Trump administration. It's all about besting people and beating them. It's never about lifting each other up. And I think that's getting away like the Pope and I'm not religious, but he just gave a speech which he said, enough of the bullying, enough of the pushing around, enough of the dunking. And the word in Italian is "basta", my family's Italian. And I thought, "Yeah, fucking basta with this." I think that's the bike drop. But more of Peloton. More of Peloton. I have my Peloton. I love my. Well, a lot of what you're saying, you know, the. I like going to Peloton. I don't like doing it by myself. Interesting. Well, I see all the time the people who are connected virtually on the leaderboard and again, they'll have tags like knitters of Peloton, quilters of Peloton and then they will meet up in London or in New York City or in their local, you know, retail space. And it makes me so incredibly happy. I think my name is not the leaderboard, it's something like that, but I'm actually like being in person. Well, you're always welcome. I'm in person. I'm going to be in the back row. In the back row? I'm going to the back row. When your glass is on? Yeah, in the back row. Way back row hiding. And the leader always finds me like, "You in the back row, the glass is like, this cover up." Are you lifting weights? Yes, I am. That's the other thing. Okay. People who are older and I am older is weightlifting is really important. Yeah. It's kind of like weightlifting stretch stretching. If you notice all these stretch labs all of a sudden, which is, I like it just because it's fine. If it's going to ritualize it for you. Yes, ritualize it. But definitely, strength training is the most important thing anyone over the age of 40 should be doing on some level and guided correctly initially. So at least, you know, because I go to the gym and I, I have a trainer. I really do because I do know I'll mess it up. It's worth the money for me to do that. But I do learn when I'm away what to do and what not to do. But one of the things that drives me crazy is watching people lift wrong. I know. Painting. Painting. And also working to, I started running again on a treadmill because I love that, which I love actually and it was, I really got back to that and it's one of those meditative states. I'm not a good meditator. So you should meditate but I can't. I run instead. One should. It's good for you. Do as I say that as I do. It's 100% good for you. There's no question. But it's like a lot. Some things I just can't do it. You got to know yourself well enough to know where you're going to put your energy into. Well, thank you for putting your energy into projects. Thank you. I'm so grateful for you. Thanks for your leadership. Thanks. I love the Majang Group. Do you all play Majang? Still the tea. Is this, do I need to get on the Majang train? And I know like there are, like, lots of cultures that I've been doing this for a really long time. Can I come in? Can y'all teach me Majang please? I'm so down. So down. That and knitting are kind of on my short list of activities for future Robin. So let me know if you're in. I would be a super newbie. I literally know nothing. That is my takeaway from my conversation with Kara. Community is just as important as your workout, nutrition and sleep routine. Let's take that into our weeks. In the next episode, y'all know I am training for my 28th marathon. So I am sharing the 10 rules I never break. These rules will level up any fitness routine, whether you are training for a marathon, a 5k or just life. That is out Tuesday, July 28th. See you soon.