Young and Profiting (YAP) with Hala Taha
Dave Asprey: Biohacking for High Performing Entrepreneurs | Mental Health | YAPClassic
Fri, 23 May 2025
Tech entrepreneur Dave Asprey once found himself battling chronic fatigue, autoimmunity, and the threat of a stroke - all while climbing the Silicon Valley ladder at 300 pounds. Confronted with life-or-death stakes, he poured millions into biohacking his brain health, metabolism, diet, and sleep to reclaim his energy and sharpen his mindset. In this episode, Dave reveals the science-backed strategies behind fasting, longevity, and peak health that earned him the title “Father of Biohacking,” and that any entrepreneur can use to boost energy, productivity and mental clarity. In this episode, Hala and Dave will discuss: (00:00) Introduction (01:29) Dave Asprey's Early Life and Health Struggles (03:05) From Internet Pioneer to Biohacking Guru (06:24) The Birth of Bulletproof Coffee (09:31) The Philosophy Behind Biohacking (17:21) The Future of Human Longevity (25:40) Preventing and Reversing Alzheimer's (26:46) Dave Asprey's Current Ventures and Closing Thoughts (27:57) Redefining Age: Biological vs. Calendar Years (28:54) Measuring Biological Age: True Age and Telomeres (29:46) Personal Development and Biological Influence (31:15) Anti-Aging Investments and Strategies (32:32) The Power of Intermittent Fasting (35:27) Understanding Fasting: Beyond Food (41:56) Ketosis vs. Autophagy: The Science Explained (45:03) Fasting During Ramadan: Health Insights (49:05) Quick Fire: Different Fasting Methods (51:04) Fasting Differences: Men vs. Women Dave Asprey is a four-time New York Times bestselling author, founder of Bulletproof 360, and host of the Webby Award-winning The Human Upgrade Podcast. Recognized globally as the “Father of Biohacking,” Dave is a Silicon Valley veteran who pioneered functional coffee and popularized MCT oil. He also launched Upgrade Labs, the world’s first human performance center. Dave has been featured on TODAY, CNN and in The New York Times for his groundbreaking work in brain health, nutrition and longevity. Sponsored By: Indeed - Get a $75 sponsored job credit at indeed.com/profitingIndeed Shopify - Sign up for a one-dollar-per-month trial period at youngandprofiting.co/shopify Microsoft Teams - Stop paying for tools. Get everything you need, for free at aka.ms/profiting Mercury - Streamline your banking and finances in one place. Learn more at mercury.com/profiting LinkedIn Marketing Solutions - Get a $100 credit on your next campaign at linkedin.com/profiting Bilt - Start paying rent through Bilt and take advantage of your Neighborhood Benefits™ by going to joinbilt.com/PROFITING. Airbnb - Find yourself a co-host at airbnb.com/host Resources Mentioned: Dave’s Book: Fast This Way: https://www.amazon.com/Fast-This-Way-Inflammation-High-Performing/dp/0062882864 Dave’s Website & Upgrade Collective: daveasprey.comDave’s Podcast, The Human Upgrade: https://bit.ly/THU-apple Active Deals - youngandprofiting.com/deals Key YAP Links Reviews - ratethispodcast.com/yap Youtube - youtube.com/c/YoungandProfiting LinkedIn - linkedin.com/in/htaha/ Instagram - instagram.com/yapwithhala/ Social + Podcast Services - yapmedia.com Transcripts - youngandprofiting.com/episodes-new Entrepreneurship, entrepreneurship podcast, Business, Business podcast, Self Improvement, Self-Improvement, Personal development, Starting a business, Strategy, Investing, Sales, Selling, Psychology, Productivity, Entrepreneurs, AI, Artificial Intelligence, Technology, Marketing, Negotiation, Money, Finance, Side hustle, Startup, Career, Leadership, Mindset, Health, Growth mindset, Mental Health, Health, Psychology, Wellness, Biohacking, Motivation, Mindset, Manifestation, Brain Health, Life Balance, Self-Healing, Positivity, Happiness, Sleep, Diet
Chapter 1: What are Dave Asprey's early life and health struggles?
Hey, Yap fam. I hope you enjoyed my interview with the father of biohacking Dave Asprey earlier this week. Dave had some great tips on how to get smarter about your workout and self-care routine and how you can save time while getting even better results. So be sure to listen to that episode if you haven't already. But why stop there?
If you want more biohacking strategies from the master himself, then stay right where you are because in this Yap Classic episode, we are revisiting Dave Asprey's first time on the show back in 2022 in episode 149. In this conversation, Dave told me how he became one of the world's most famous biohackers and how he went from hacking the internet to hacking his body.
Chapter 2: How did Dave Asprey become a biohacking guru?
He also shared some great diet and energy biohacks, as well as his thoughts on spontaneous meal skipping, why women and men fast differently, and why he thinks humans will start to live well into their hundreds in the future. Dave also turned up to the interview with a blue tongue. And of course, it turned out there was a pretty good reason for that too.
All right, folks, it's time once again to push the limits of human capability with Dave Asprey.
We like to start off with backgrounds and childhoods and things like that. So in your own words, you were a fat kid growing up. At one point, you were almost 300 pounds. And it turns out you were sick and you didn't even know it. So talk to us about your health journey and how you ended up starting this path on biohacking.
When I was a kid, I had all the behavioral problems that are common in entrepreneurs, what we would now call ADHD. But I also had Asperger's syndrome, which is a neurological condition, and it's on the autism spectrum. I don't present as someone with Asperger's anymore, and I, in fact, don't likely have it because it is a curable condition. It's related to autoimmunity. I was also overweight.
I had chronic fatigue syndrome, which was diagnosed by a couple of people, fibromyalgia, thyroid problems, lower testosterone than my mom in my 20s in labs, high risk of stroke and heart attack before I was 30, arthritis when I was 14. So I think I was pretty much, you could say biologically a shit show as a kid. I don't know if I can say that on here.
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Chapter 3: What is the philosophy behind biohacking?
You can beat me out or something, but not in a good place. That said, I did, let's see, I was at the top of my class in high school, but I was such a jerk that they wouldn't let me be valedictorian.
Oh my God.
That's not to say that I was doing that well in high school. I was just at a school that wasn't that competitive.
Well, that's really cool. I mean, everybody knows you as Bulletproof, Dave Asprey. That's what we know you as. But it turns out you had a whole super successful career before all of this. You made $6 million by the time you were 26. You had a very successful career. And I actually did a bunch of research and found out that you were the first person to ever sell anything on the internet.
So talk to us about your whole background before being the father of biohacking.
Yeah. Yeah. In fact, it seems to make people mad when I talk about that. In the early days of the Internet, I mean, early days before web browsers were created, it was entirely possible to know everything on the Internet because it was something called Usenet was where most people communicated and you could follow all of the groups. And these were kind of like Reddit forums today.
But imagine if Reddit only had 100 forums. OK, you could follow all those if you wanted to spend a good amount of time doing it. So I did go out there. I had a, let's just say it was a nine times increase in my tuition at the university of California. Uh, when I was on Joe Rogan show, I said it was 15 times. I had made a math error. That was the only error that I had on that show.
So anyway, I couldn't pay for it. So I'm going to start a business here. What can I do? Well, I like caffeine. So I emailed a caffeine scientist and said, tell me about the caffeine molecule. And I'm whatever, 19 or something. And. he tells me a bunch of stuff. So I made a t-shirt and said, caffeine, my drug of choice with a picture of the caffeine molecule.
And I posted to the discussion group where we talked about coffee and said, you guys should buy this. And then, Oh, two weeks later. And I did really well. I sold shirts in my first month to 16 countries and, And OK, I'm living in a shared one bedroom apartment that I can barely afford, like not not the the, you know, college experience that someone who's having their college paid for would have.
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Chapter 4: How can we prevent and reverse Alzheimer's?
Just kidding. Okay. But there are 10% of people who don't tolerate coffee. But okay, that's one way. Eating quality food makes the world a better place. But at the time, having a digital nervous system for the planet so we could have the conversation we're having right now, I worked on the network engineering and protocols
When Google was two guys and two computers, the company that I helped to co-found a part of this company that held their servers and designed architecture for many of the biggest brands out there when it was the Facebook, that mattered because we were building a way for all of us to connect so that you and I could have this conversation.
Chapter 5: What are Dave Asprey's views on longevity?
Because if you go back 25 years, there was no way for us to know about each other. much less to meet each other and have a conversation. So the world has become much better because of that. And in the last two years, now that we've turned on government censorship, it's become actually maybe worse because of it. So we've got to fix that. But that's a short-term blip.
Yeah. So let's go back to you said you got into Entrepreneur Magazine. I think I read that you were 297 pounds when you were in that magazine. So what made you decide like, you know what, I've had it with computer science. I want to kind of take what I learned with computer science and apply it to my body now because I'm almost 300 pounds.
Well, I'm going to make a bunch of people mad now, too. I got tired of studying computer science because here I was, I had a web page. I had started a business online and all of computer science was how do you do esoteric math on large computers? Like this isn't how this doesn't match my view of where the world's going.
So I dropped out and I got a degree instead in something called information systems, which is how do you solve problems? And my concentration was in a form of artificial intelligence. There, how do I make a business work better? How do I solve a problem using computers instead of how do I do science stuff in a lab somewhere?
Chapter 6: How does intermittent fasting work?
And a lot of computer science still to this day is very esoteric and theory based versus let's go out there and change something. And as an entrepreneur minded person. It hurts to not make things better. And so that was why I went out. But then I got to Silicon Valley. And by the time I was 26, I did make six million bucks. I lost it when I was 28. It's an important part of the journey.
This is about having a good mentorship, good advice and being willing to take it. But that whole path, I said, OK, I'm going to lose the weight. I'll just work out hour and a half a day, six days a week, go on a low fat, low calorie diet. I will use my willpower. And after 18 months of that, what I found was I could max out all but two of the machines at the gym. I still had a 46 inch waist.
I still weighed 300 pounds and no, I was tired. So it didn't work. And it was sitting down. at Carl's Jr. with some friends. And I thought to myself, wait a minute, I'm having the chicken salad with no dressing and no chicken, right? Because I'm the lowest calorie, low fat thing. My friends are eating double Western bacon cheeseburgers.
I work out more than all my friends combined and I'm the fat one. And I thought, it isn't that I'm doing something wrong. I used to think it was a moral failing. It was a weakness. It was that I needed to eat less lettuce. No. What I was doing wasn't working. And I just said, wait a minute. I just studied how to manage a complex system where you don't know what's going on.
Because that's what the internet is. I teach classes at the University of California on how to do this. And I can't do it to myself. My doctor, when I went in, said something's not right. So maybe you should try to lose weight. Like, no, really? You think so? Tell me how. Eat healthy. And I just fired the doctor.
I literally said, you're fired when he didn't know some very basic info about nutrition. And I went off and said, I'm going to do it myself. And so every night after I'd finish the building cloud computing phase of my career, I would go home and I would study biology because I didn't want to die. And I was tired of feeling like crap. So it was enlightened self-interest.
I started learning from people three times my age who ran an anti-aging nonprofit group who had more energy than I did. And I hacked it. And then I said, OK, fine. I'm a VP at a publicly traded computer security company in charge of cloud security. So I have some credibility in that space. I started blogging.
I said, you know, five people are gonna read my blog, but it's going to prevent them from spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on recovering their health. And I'm performing better than I ever have, better than I ever thought was possible, even when I was younger. And so five people avoid my pain, avoid all the money that I spent. I have done a solid for the world and I'm okay with that.
I wasn't starting a company. I was sharing hard earned knowledge through suffering. And it turns out more than five people liked what I had to say. And pretty soon I said, I want to make coffee that doesn't make me crash. So I said, this will be my first product. The market size for functional coffee was zero. It's a multiple hundred million dollar product.
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Chapter 7: What are some key insights about fasting during Ramadan?
My seed capital for what became Bulletproof was actually an investment bank hiring me to fly around the world to meet with hedge fund managers to teach them how to be smarter.
Hmm.
And I did this so they could walk into the room with me. So their salespeople would come in because the hedge fund managers wouldn't take a meeting with a banker, but they would take a meeting with a brain hacker and a banker walking in with them. So I was the booth babe, for lack of a better word for hedge fund managers.
I took the money from that and I used it to buy my first round of coffee and to hire the first members of my team. So that's how it got started. And I started until I could replace my salary from a publicly traded company. I worked as a VP and I grew Bulletproof.
Chapter 8: How do men and women differ in fasting methods?
That is such an amazing story. And it's so cool how just having good intentions will almost always when you're starting a business or starting something, having good intentions and just wanting to help people, eventually the money will come find you. You know, you just wanted to put that information out there to the world.
And it all worked out because you were doing a service to others and having pure intentions with it. I find that a lot with all the people that I talk with.
It's cool that you mentioned that. When I was young, it was like, look, I'll do anything for money because money is going to make me happy. And I really believe that. And it motivated a lot of my decisions. What taught me the two biggest lessons in my career, it was like money and fame are what people want. We're told that that will make us happy since we're young. Okay.
So here I am, I'm 22, 23, whatever. I'm in entrepreneur magazine, like full color photo. Right. And I got some phone calls and some emails from people. And then two weeks later, okay, that was cool, but it didn't make me happy. And I was like, what the heck? I'm famous. I should be happy. I was happy for 10 minutes. Right. And. Then I said, OK, a little while our money. So I made a ton of money.
Six million dollars in 19 late 1990s dollars is 18 million dollars in today dollars because of inflation driven by the government. So it should be enough. Right. I looked at a friend who all of us at this company. I mean, this was let's see. Our market cap hit $36 billion. We split three times in one year on NASDAQ.
This is one of the most phenomenal companies that helped to build the first wave of internet companies. It's called Exodus Communications for people who were around back then. And I looked at a friend and I said, I'll be happy when I have $10 million because $6 million wasn't enough. And if you are motivated by money, you will probably act like a jerk and you will never be happy.
And you will have what the Buddhists call hungry ghost syndrome. And in the hungry ghost realm of hell, it's one of the many levels of hell Buddhists talk about. This is where no matter what you eat, you're constantly hungry and you walk around with a distended belly and you can never be satisfied. Yeah. So if when I finally figured out I'm going to start this thing as a it's just a blog.
I just want to share things. It makes me feel good to help people. I didn't understand that flow states come from service to others because we didn't have the science for that. So all of a sudden, I'm motivated to stay up late and write these blog posts and to share this knowledge and to start a podcast. before podcasts were really much of a thing.
I've been blessed to be, I don't know if it's genetic or something, but I'm a futurist. I can see what's coming and like podcasts. Yeah, that's going to be, it's going to be a big thing. And it's why I was successful in tech as well, because I could say I could tell the direction of it. And if some people are good at telling the weather, that's what I do. I tell the future. And so for this podcast,
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