Young and Profiting with Hala Taha (Entrepreneurship, Sales, Marketing)
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 were Dave Asprey's early 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 transition from tech pioneer to biohacker?
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.
Chapter 3: What is the philosophy behind 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.
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.
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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 the science-backed strategies for 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.
Chapter 6: How does biological age differ from calendar age?
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?
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.
Chapter 7: What fasting methods can enhance health?
Chapter 8: What innovations is Dave Asprey working on today?
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.
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?
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.
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