The Random Show — Biohacking, Tim’s COVID Experience, Holiday Gift Ideas, Favorite New Apps, Bad Science, Quarantine Delights, and a Small Dose of NFTs and DAOs (#549)

Illustration via 99designs

Technologist, serial entrepreneur, world-class investor, self-experimenter, and all-around wild and crazy guy Kevin Rose (@KevinRose) rejoins me for another episode of The Random Show.

In this one we discuss the recent KevKev and TimTim reunion in Marfa, good television for anyone passing time in quarantine, Kevin’s latest biohacking adventures, utility NFTs (including Kevin’s upcoming PROOF drop), donating cryptocurrency for psychedelic research, ketamine therapy, my COVID experience, holiday gifts, financing and budgeting apps, and much more.

Please enjoy!

Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Stitcher, Castbox, Google Podcasts, Amazon Musicor on your favorite podcast platform. You can watch the conversation on YouTube here.

Brought to you by Tonal smart home gym, LinkedIn Jobs recruitment platform with 770M users, and Helix Sleep premium mattresses. More on all three below.

The transcript of this episode can be found here. Transcripts of all episodes can be found here.

#549: The Random Show — Biohacking, Tim’s COVID Experience, Holiday Gift Ideas, Favorite New Apps, Bad Science, Quarantine Delights, and a Small Dose of NFTs and DAOs

This episode is brought to you by Tonal! Tonal is the world’s most intelligent home gym and personal trainer. It is precision engineered and designed to be the most advanced strength studio on the market today. Tonal uses breakthrough technology—like adaptive digital weights and AI learning—together with the best experts in resistance training so you get stronger, faster. Every program is personalized to your body using AI, and smart features check your form in real time, just like a personal trainer.

Try Tonal, the world’s smartest home gym, for 30 days in your home, and if you don’t love it, you can return it for a full refund. Visit Tonal.com for $100 off their smart accessories when you use promo code TIM100 at checkout.


This episode is brought to you by LinkedIn Jobs. Whether you are looking to hire now for a critical role or thinking about needs that you may have in the future, LinkedIn Jobs can help. LinkedIn screens candidates for the hard and soft skills you’re looking for and puts your job in front of candidates looking for job opportunities that match what you have to offer.

Using LinkedIn’s active community of more than 900 million professionals worldwide, LinkedIn Jobs can help you find and hire the right person faster. When your business is ready to make that next hire, find the right person with LinkedIn Jobs. And now, you can post a job for free. Just visit LinkedIn.com/Tim.


This episode is brought to you by Helix SleepHelix was selected as the best overall mattress of 2022 by GQ magazine, Wired, and Apartment Therapy. With Helix, there’s a specific mattress to meet each and every body’s unique comfort needs. Just take their quiz—only two minutes to complete—that matches your body type and sleep preferences to the perfect mattress for you. They have a 10-year warranty, and you get to try it out for a hundred nights, risk-free. They’ll even pick it up from you if you don’t love it. And now, Helix is offering 20% off all mattress orders plus two free pillows at HelixSleep.com/Tim.


What was your favorite quote or lesson from this episode? Please let me know in the comments.

SCROLL BELOW FOR LINKS AND SHOW NOTES…

Want to hear another Random Show? Listen to my most recent conversation with Kevin Rose, in which we discussed the evolving war against elevated blood glucose, recent bad decisions, workouts for the aging, how to avoid getting swindled in the NFT Wild West, emergency preparedness, riding the emotional roller coaster of investment, perceptions of clean vs. “dirty” crypto, DeFi regulation, dollar-cost averaging, tips for better sleep, keeping stress in check, and much more.

#527: The Random Show — Life-Extension Misadventures, Blockchain/Crypto Investing, NFT Experiments, Dogecoin, Zen Buddhism, and Weathering Sharp Elbows
  • Connect with Kevin Rose:

Website | PROOF | Modern Finance | Instagram | Twitter

SHOW NOTES

  • How did generative art bring Kevin and me to Marfa, Texas recently, and when was the last time we really got to hang out? [05:59]
  • What have we been drinking? [10:41]
  • Kevin and his best friend Toaster’s latest forays into biohacking. [15:54]
  • Saffron highs and the calming joy of Pym mood chews. [25:56]
  • Bad ideas for conquering COVID and good TV for anyone passing time in convalescence or in need of psychological comfort. [31:14]
  • On wine clubs in high demand, and how NFTs can be used for the purpose of membership allocation. [39:02]
  • Kevin’s own utility NFT announcement, and why he’s devoting so much of his time to the NFT space these days. [45:51]
  • DAO (decentralized autonomous organization) and Dilbert discourse. [49:53]
  • Kevin applies his unique superpowers to how I might best make use of utility NFTs and the wide, wild world of Web3. [52:53]
  • What’s with the adoption of .xyz domains by crypto nerds? [1:01:28]
  • How my non-profit foundation has entered the crypto world, and thoughts on once-unthinkable strides in the mainstream acceptance — from both sides of the political aisle — of psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy. [1:02:42]
  • Can at-home ketamine treatment work, and is it safe? [1:10:32]
  • My own recent experience with the dreaded COVID: from precautions taken to treatments administered to lingering effects. [1:14:41]
  • Thoughts on the vaccine’s effect on fertility, and a suggestion for anyone trying to make the right decisions around scientific unknowns. [1:43:23]
  • Holiday gifts. [1:49:15]
  • Kevin’s financing and budgeting tools. [1:56:10]
  • Parting thoughts. [2:02:21]

PEOPLE MENTIONED

MEDICAL DISCLAIMER: I’m not a doctor, nor do I play one on the Internet. Speak with a medical professional before doing anything medical-related.

FINANCIAL DISCLAIMER: I am not an investment adviser. Nor is Kevin Rose. All opinions are mine alone. Or his. There are risks involved in placing any investment in securities or in Bitcoin or in cryptocurrencies or in anything. None of the information presented herein is intended to form the basis of any offer or recommendation or have any regard to the investment objectives, financial situation, or needs of any specific person, and that includes you, my dear listener or reader. Everything you’re going to hear is for informational entertainment purposes only.

The Tim Ferriss Show is one of the most popular podcasts in the world with more than one billion downloads. It has been selected for "Best of Apple Podcasts" three times, it is often the #1 interview podcast across all of Apple Podcasts, and it's been ranked #1 out of 400,000+ podcasts on many occasions. To listen to any of the past episodes for free, check out this page.

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japvanarendonk
2 years ago

I try to find the episode where Tim interviews a man who wrote a book, worked as a trucker and lived in a forest where everynight a wild cat would come close to his place. Anyone know the name of the guy?

Team Tim Ferriss
Admin
2 years ago
Reply to  japvanarendonk

Hi, japvanarendonk –

It’s the Steven Pressfield episode, which you can find here: https://tim.blog/2021/02/26/steven-pressfield/.

You can find the transcript here: https://tim.blog/2021/02/27/steven-pressfield-transcript/ .

Best,

Team Tim Ferriss

Bryant Allen
Bryant Allen
2 years ago

Love the Dil Doa idea. And ownership NFTs info. If you haven’t heard about it, you should look at what Mila Kunis and Ashton Kutcher are doing with cartoons and in this space. Pretty cool!

Sveta
Sveta
2 years ago

@Tim it’s off topic completely.

What do you say a person who does work that she doesn’t like and has no idea how to change that and what she might like doing for a living?

Thanks.
Smile, always

Michael
Michael
2 years ago

Hey Tim!

I’m glad you successfully recovered from COVID-19. Thanks for talking about it on this episode.

ANTHONY
ANTHONY
2 years ago

Great show. Love hearing the hacks. Peter attia keeps coming across my radar. Can’t seem to find his office location in NYC? Any help appreciated.

Jill J
Jill J
2 years ago

Glad to hear you are on the mend — the disinformation / sheer stupidity / haters railing against vaccine / vaccine efficacy drives me insane; your perspective is coherent and consistent with what clinicians (with a brain) promulgate (my husband is one who – by the way – worked in the trenches from March 2020 on while all the ‘misinformed’ sheltered at home…). Also, I nominated our 15 yo yorkie for the Dog Aging Project and will speak to our vet about rapamycin during her next acupuncture visit…thanks for funding this important work! And thanks for – bottom line – funding scientific inquiry. Science is the empirical, reproducible understanding of our world as we know and experience it – it is not ‘left’ or ‘right’ or ‘liberal’ or ‘conservative.’ Thanks, be well and happy holidays.

cat
cat
2 years ago
Reply to  Jill J

That’s so cool your husband is a doctor and worked on the frontlines. Does he share any tidbits on adverse reactions? My brother is blind now (arterial rupture) and has no income now, thanks to a mandate.

emanshams9186
emanshams9186
2 years ago

Hey Tim! Thank you for an amazing work. I really need your help selling my book on Amazon. What is the best way to sell my book? [Moderator: LinkedIn and Amazon links removed.]

JoAnn
JoAnn
2 years ago

Hi Tim,

I was wondering if you were wearing a mask when you were in the van where you think you got COVID.

JoAnn

tyler
tyler
2 years ago

Your shownotes are always wrong. Please revise your process for generating shownote timestamps.

Keith Keller
Keith Keller
2 years ago

Response to Tim’s question for the writers out there: Do you agree or disagree with this? Why or why not?
“A writer is unfair to himself when he is unable to be hard on himself.”
— Marianne Moore
This is so relevant to my practice and experience of writing, which is in the crowded addiction-recovery space. My short answer is yes—I do my audience disservice, and therefore myself, by failure to set the bar as high as possible in terms of relevance and understandability. Longer response—part of the value I offer is translating for people like Nora Volkow, Anna Lembke and Andrew Huberman; sadly, those who most need cutting-edge information and wisdom are least able to interpret it from the direct source. In addition to direct reader communication, I need to function as an impartial observer of that communication, a lesson from the quantum model. If I’m not objective, I’m screwed.

Stefan
Stefan
2 years ago

Fantastic podcast! Regarding the budgeting apps: If you’re looking for something like YNAB, but more privacy focused, it might be worth trying out Actual Budget. It’s extremely similar to YNAB, but it has built-in end-to-end encryption. I’m still on YNAB, but I’m planning to switch to Actual next year.

Dominic
Dominic
2 years ago
Reply to  Stefan

Great question Stefan. I have something similar in mind regarding Security vs Privacy vs Usability in Web2 vs Web3 applications

Do you know of any services, that offer the same usability of KUBERA, copilot & Co put taking a different approach at collecting and storing your personal information? Have you heard of new web3 projects in the making that you can recommend checking out?

My question is related to your knowledge in budgeting / asset mgmt tools like the ones you recommended (KUBERA, copilot, etc).

Most of the modern finance webapps use plaid or similar services to connect to your bank accounts and import the necessary data from there.

Doing a quick research, I found this article on stackoverflow flagging that services like plaid a privacy/security nightmare (see below)

Quote:
I want to point out that despite Plaids apparently honest attempts at security, their approach is a privacy nightmare, as you give full access to Plaid, to all and every single information your bank has on you, including loans, funds, investment accounts, credit card statements, address, etc. This makes Plaid differ substantially from other payment services, such as PayPal, as they only have your account number.

If you don’t believe me, here’s their data collection description from their privacy statement (Effective Date: February 22, 2021, my italics). found at https://security.stackexchange.com/questions/198005/is-plaid-a-service-which-collects-user-s-banking-login-information-safe-to-use

Jeff Rovner
Jeff Rovner
2 years ago

Hi, Tim. I created something you might find worthy of a discussion on your podcast. It’s called Concept Companion. It’s a deck of 88 cards, each of which explains and provides an example of an important concept (e.g., comparative advantage, 80-20 rule, confirmation bias, the law of accelerating returns, Ben Franklin effect). I created it to teach my daughter what I viewed as the most important and practical concepts from a variety of disciplines. I got the idea from a speech Charlie Munger gave at the USC Business School. (Charlie and his daughter were pleased that his speech was the catalyst behind the project.) Because you are committed to personal mastery and to gaining an edge in life, I thought the project might be of interest to you. I’d be delighted to discuss it with you. Thanks!

jehosephat
jehosephat
2 years ago

Another great episode guys! Feels like hanging out with old friends every time you do these. I was wondering what you think about the Gala Games company? Looks like more than just a “project” they’ve got a bunch of games in the works and one released. Generative 3D (voxel) pfp series and art by Frank Miller. P2E features on games that are actually fun in their own right. Seems to be way ahead of a lot of the other offerings out there. Would love to get your take.

Nate
Nate
2 years ago

Hey, Tim – I remember you were loathe to promote a product you haven’t used…so what’s your take on Tonal? Price is on-par with a couple of Xfit gym memberships, aside from maxing out around 200# of resistance is it close to the same physical effect?

Alex
Alex
2 years ago

Yes! Have carried the Leek for several years now. On #2 (TSA got first). Very slick once you practice opening a few times.

Scott James
Scott James
2 years ago

Love that you did NERT training in SF. Also appreciate your implementation of the 2:1 1:0 rule at your place in Austin. Well done!

As you may have gathered during the TX Big Freeze, there are lots of folks still misguided in following the myth of solo survivalism. Group resilience with neighbors is a more sustainable approach.

If of interest, take a peek at the replicable NGO model my crew built over the last 10 years. We look at community preparedness through a unique lens of love, rather than fear: [Moderator: domain name removed per link policy.].

I’ve also documented a number of the practical (yet fun!) group resilience projects (with a heavy emphasis on permaculture) we’ve done on our island of 24K folks near Seattle that you might find useful: [Moderator: domain name removed per link policy.]

Scott James
Scott James
2 years ago
Reply to  Scott James

First time commenting; apologies for not knowing the link policy.

NGO is called Bainbridge Prepares. Book is called “Prepared Neighborhoods: Creating Resilience One Street at a Time”.

Dominic
Dominic
2 years ago

Hi Tim,

Regarding Oura and Covid-19, when did the ring recognize elevated body temperature? I‘m an Oura user too and I learned that the body temp measurement is a early warning sign (that your body is fighting off an infection).

How did this hold true in your case?

Thanks,

Dominic

Luke Parham
Luke Parham
2 years ago

Hey Tim, I am actually experiencing the issue you did where you wake up at 4am and have an extremely rapid heartbeat. It happened to me for 3 or 4 weeks every morning after recovering from COVID and now it seems to pop up every now and then if I’m stressed or overstimulated. Did you ever get any input from a doctor on what that might be and if it’s something to worry about? My doctor did an EKG and blood work and said it was probably just anxiety but the every night thing made me think otherwise…

Mary P
Mary P
2 years ago

Tim I certainly hope you don’t suffer one one of the adverse reactions that has killed many, many many people and caused very serious injuries to many more. That’s what’s been reported and recorded, that is. At least in the US they are more honest and upfront about recording these adverse events unlike in Australia for example where they just pretend they don’t exist. Kind of impressive actually for the first ever vaccine that doesn’t work the first time, doesn’t work the second time, oops may not work the third time – in Israel they are fingers crossed the 4th time may do something here’s hoping! So I have in my possession an interview with the inventor of the PCR test. He plainly states it is not a diagnostic instrument. It’s a hypothetical study or research tool. It literally can’t identify the nature of type of virus it detects. It can’t tell the difference between influenza and ‘covid’ or any other. It finds fragments of rna, the ‘dead’ shell of a virus that once was. It could have been a virus that was present weeks or months prior. This result is then amplified until a result is found. Labs do between 35-45 cycles of amplification to create a result. At these numbers of cycles there is no remaining biological sample, the outcome is literally manufactured. This is all extensively documented and even the CDC and the New York Times and other mainstream sources have covered this. Large numbers of scientists have protested against the veracity of this test. The Supreme Court in Portugal ruled against it as a diagnostic device, upheld on appeal. I have a copy of that ruling. So some of you will argue ‘but the genomic sequencing they do proves the test result is a real positive!’. Sounds nice, but where is the genome? I haven’t been able to find it, to see what it looks like. They have to get that genome from somewhere. One would imagine a real tissue sample, an in vitro specimen of covid for their research and testing. Sounds good. Wheres that? Well the CDC literature I have in my posseession admits they don’t have a sample, a specimen. I also have freedom of information requests to a great many primary medical research facilities. All the central, major ones for a given country. In the US, Australia, Canada, England, New Zealand. Scotland, South Africa. Ireland I think also. Can you show me the documents detailing an isolated sample of Covid, and also, specificall, ‘delta variant’ that you were surely using for your research, development, to test the vaccines against – every possible thing that is being implement has to start somewhere. Surely it all comes back to source principals – ‘here we have a virus, in our hand, that we can study and test and trial and etc etc..’ Every single agency and department, without fail, responded they had no documents in their possession nor could they refer to anyone who had such documents, to indicate the existence of an isolated in vitro specimen or sample of covid-19 nor delta variant.

Craig Lambie
Craig Lambie
2 years ago

TimTim NFT
Thanks TimTim and KevKev for another great discussion of all things modern and relevant in today’s social situation.
I love the idea of a Tim Ferriss Show NFT.
Some of the things I would love to have that would take little effort/ or totally automated.
– automatic email of the show notes post listening to the show (so I can easily read them afterwards without hunting for the URL on your website, which took ages for this btw)
– Voting on Q&As via a private Discord/ Reddit
– More likely to have staff reply to a comment (not you perse)
– a more detailed 5 bullet Friday maybe with expanded thoughts/ the uncut version

Just some ideas. I invite other listeners to add their thoughts in reply to this.