#3057: Andrew Huberman

Andrew David Huberman is an American neuroscientist and associate professor of neurobiology and ophthalmology at the Stanford University School of Medicine, and he is, without doubt, a real and respected researcher in his field. But Huberman is also an extremely popular and influential podcaster (the ‘Huberman Lab’), and as an influencer he goes way beyond of his areas of expertise to offer, like so many influencers, lifestyle advice (his podcast has, for instance, won a ‘Best Wellness & Fitness Podcast’ award at the iHeartPodcast Awards) based largely on pseudoscience, conspiracy theories, denialism and a rather arrogant trust in the powers of his own intuition; as a result, Huberman the wellness guru – he is an unofficial leader and champion of the biohacking movement – “recommends activities that are more befitting a deranged shaman than a scientist”, though the recommendations are often adorned with pop neuropsychology, and his podcast has been aptly described as a “Goop for bros” wellness space.

 

In particular, Huberman has promoted a range of “poorly regulated” dietary supplements, and his podcast is of course monetized and sponsored by “companies offering questionable products from the perspective of science-based medicine”, including AG1 (formerly Athletic Greens) – indeed, his podcast functions largely as a lucrative infomercial for unnecessary and shitty supplement products. Huberman has for instance contributed massively to the largely idiotic peptide craze currently plaguing America, and yes, his claims are backed mostly by pseudoscience and handwaving dressed in scientific-sounding jargon, with Huberman’s primary gambit being to refer to his own credentials. Perhaps as importantly as using his credentials as a scientist to lend credibility to such products, Huberman uses them to lend legitimacy to his guests, who comprise a colorful array of contrarians, grifters and pseudoscientists, including notorious nutrition misinformer Robert Lustig and hormone balancing quack Sara Gottfried. It’s all shit.

 

Huberman has also explicitly endorsed a number of specific pieces of misinformation and, yes, conspiracy theories. He has, for instance, endorsed the pseudoscientific leaky gut diagnosis, a pseudo-diagnosis championed e.g. by promoters of so-called functional medicine – fake diagnoses are, of course, a central part of alternative medicine: patients themselves are, after all, somewhat disposed to recognize that a quack’s favored piece of quackery doesn’t actually help against any real disease they might suffer from; if the diagnosis is fake too, things might quickly be less clear.

 

He has also thrown his lot in with the sunscreen denialists, stating that he was “... as scared of sunscreen as I am of melanoma” on the grounds that the ingredients include chemicals and citing a study that doesn’t appear to exist (he did, in fairness, backtrack on that one). And although Huberman can’t quite be called ‘antivaccine’, he has stated that he himself doesn’t get the flu vaccine mostly because a tough bro like him ain’t scared of no flu. His claims about colds and the flu are, predictably, rife with misinformation, as documented here, here, here, here and here: Huberman “misrepresents basic immunology, undermines proven public health measures, and exaggerates unproven wellness trends”, and yes, his take on the flu is dumb enough to include nonsense hacks for boosting your immune system (he also dismissed criticism on the grounds that he had “consulted” with some MDs when preparing the relevant episodes).

 

In line with his attraction to the pseudoscientific and conspiratorial, Huberman has expressed skepticism toward water fluoridation, and has on at least one occasion stated that he believes his Bluetooth headphones are harmful, thus feeding into the Wi-Fi/microwave conspiracy theories of his buddy RFK Jr., by claiming that he is getting “swollen lymph nodes and cysts” behind his ears due, apparently, to harmful “heat effects”. Here are some data. We are confident that Huberman’s fans won’t be bothered with them.

 

Diagnosis: The biohacking bro du jour, Huberman has, perhaps unwittingly, become one of the main poster boys for MAHA and belongs in the group of people like Dr. Oz and Deepak Chopra who use their credentials to spread pseudoscience – and no, it’s not all bad, and Huberman is probably not remotely as bad as those other two loons just mentioned; on the other hand, his reach is even wider: Indeed, Huberman’s reach is wide enough that he could probably have been doing a real service to the world if he had just bothered to cut the garbage (which, unfortunately, is where the money is).