Person
Andrew Huberman's book recommendations
Andrew Huberman appears on Huberman Lab, On Purpose with Jay Shetty, and This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von as a podcast host and scientist exploring brain function, health, human behavior, psychology, and relationships. Through these conversations, he frequently recommends books that bridge scientific rigor with deeply personal storytelling and emotional growth. Huberman strongly recommended James Hollis's psychological works, including "Under Saturn's Shadow" for its insights on trauma and healing, and "The Eden Project" for exploring the complexities of relationship psychology. Delving into biology and modern lifestyle habits, he praised Michael Easter's "The Comfort Crisis" for its observations on how sedentary living prevents natural physical energy expenditure, and he referenced Anna Lembke's "Dopamine Nation" to explain how rapid dopamine spikes lead to tolerance and diminishing returns in human reward pathways. Huberman also endorsed Karl Deisseroth's masterful book "Projections," highlighting how it successfully combines scientific brain exploration with compelling storytelling. When discussing existential fears and human motivation, he highly recommended Ernest Becker's Pulitzer Prize-winning book "The Denial of Death" as a challenging yet rewarding read on the drivers of human behavior. Additionally, Huberman recommended Nick Hornby's novel "High Fidelity" when considering the pitfalls of relying entirely on intuition, and he shared how reading the Bible provided him with unexpected wisdom after encouragement from a friend.
Books Andrew Huberman recommends
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Dopamine Nation
Recommended“thank goodness uh Anna author of Dopamine Nation made so clear that those big fast inflections in dopamine very quickly lead to smaller and smaller peaks in dopamine from the same behavior or substance”
Where to get it
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High Fidelity
Recommended“There's a great line in that movie High Fidelity based on the Nick Hornby novel, which I also highly recommend where he's like, you know, people tell me that we should listen to our gut.”
Where to get it
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How to Read the Bible
Recommended“my friend of mine who was a former tier one operator and he's run some of my security stuff like he encouraged me to start reading the Bible and I was like wow there is so much wisdom here”
Where to get it
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Projections
Recommended“it's a wonderful it's it's a masterful book really and one that as a scientist and um somebody who is a bra uh fellow brain explorer uh hits all the marks of of rigor and is incredibly interesting and there's a ton of storytelling. Definitely uh check out the book.”
Where to get it
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The Comfort Crisis
The Comfort Crisis by Michael Easter is an exploration of how modern comforts and a lack of physical exertion negatively affect human health and well-being.
Recommended“You know, I mean, Michael Easter's book Comfort Crisis is great. You know, it's it's like, you know, we used to walk like 10 miles a day and, you know, we're not burning that energy.”
Where to get it
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The Denial of Death
Recommended“I happen to be reading it's a hard book a genuinely difficult book but I'm really enjoying it um I'm reading Erns Becker's the denial of death highly recommend it to everyone a Pulitzer after all you don't need my endorsement”
Where to get it
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The Eden Project
Recommended“He wrote The Eden Project, which is the psychology of relationships. Brilliant, brilliant man.”
Where to get it
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Under Saturn's Shadow
Recommended“He wrote some incredible books that I was aware of years ago. One is called UnderSaturn Shadow, on healing and trauma.”
Where to get it
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"Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!"
Discussed“The great Richard Fineman, Nobel Prize winning physicist of surely you're joking, Mr. Fineman fame, said that understanding things at a reductionist level added to his sense of beauty with the with the physical world.”
Where to get it
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5 Types of People Who Can Ruin Your Life
Discussed“Bill Eddie was on this podcast. He's a therapist and lawyer and he wrote the book uh I think it was like five types of people that will ruin your life.”
Where to get it
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Awakenings
Discussed“Remember that movie Awakenings where people were frozen? Yes. With Robert Dairo. That's right. And Robin Williams. Yes. Robin Williams. Yes. And they gave those patients, it was a true story. It's based on a story by the neurologist writer Oliver Saxs. And they gave those people L-dopa.”
Where to get it
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Jaws
Jaws by Sandra Kahn and Paul R.
Discussed“and of course the book Jaws which was published by Paul erck and Sandra Khan my amazing colleagues at Stanford years ago”
Where to get it
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Mimi's Ghost
Discussed“And you know it's uh difficult to decide whether or not movies like Ghost um I think that was the movie, right? Where she loses her spouse or a loved one.”
Where to get it
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The Creative Act
The Creative Act: A Way of Being is a book by legendary music producer Rick Rubin that explores the nature of creativity, artistic processes, and how to access creative energy by embracing self-doubt and observation.
Discussed“Rick Rubin talked a little bit about this in his book the creative act like we need to be on the front end of the of the vehicle experiencing space and time”
Where to get it
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The Denial of Death
The Denial of Death by Ernest Becker is a Pulitzer Prize-winning examination of human motivation that argues our deepest terror of mortality drives much of our cultural and psychological behavior.
Discussed“Um you know if you read uh the denial of death you learn about this.”
Where to get it
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The Secret Pulse of Time
Discussed“And I've been motivated to read there's a wonderful book the secret pulse of time that talks about this somewhat.”
Where to get it
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True Romance - Love and Laughter
Discussed“a couple years ago I saw you on a podcast and you were talking about the movie True Romance Oh sure uh love that movie”
Where to get it
Books Andrew Huberman wrote
Appearances
Other mentions (13: passing, ad reads, own books)
“So, there were three things that happened along the way for me that really motivated me further to write the book protocols, to have a podcast where we talk about health, where I teach about what we do and don't know about the brain and how people can benefit.”
“where you hear your life is what your thoughts make it, which, by the way, came first from the Bible, but then you find in every philosopher said that.”
“So there were three things that happened along the way for me that really motivated me further to write the book protocols, to have a podcast where we talk about health, where I teach about what we do and don't know about the brain and how people can benefit.”
“protocols is really about there neuroscience textbooks called principles of neuroscience. So it would be like principles of health and wellness that you can really hang your hat on.”
“For those of you that haven't heard, I have a new book coming out. It's my very first book. It's entitled Protocols: An Operating Manual for the Human Body.”
“Dopamine has been called in a in a book, I forget the author, the molecule of more. It's all about wanting more.”
“For those of you that haven't heard, I have a new book coming out. It's my very first book. It's entitled Protocols: An Operating Manual for the Human Body. This is a book that I've been working on for more than 5 years, and that's based on more than 30 years of research and experience.”
“Relationships are more like the deer hunter or something. really they're long and they're complicated”
“It's entitled Protocols: An Operating Manual for the Human Body. This is a book that I's been working on for more than 5 years”
“For those of you that haven't heard, I have a new book coming out. It's my very first book. It's entitled Protocols, an operating manual for the human body.”
“For those of you that haven't heard, I have a new book coming out. It's my very first book. It's entitled Protocols: An Operating Manual for the Human Body. This is a book that I've been working on for more than five years and that's based on more than 30 years of research and experience.”
“It's entitled Protocols, an operating manual for the human body. This is a book that I've been working on for more than 5 years, and that's based on more than 30 years of research and experience.”
“it's entitled protocols an operating manual for the human body this is a book that I've been working on for more than 5 years and that's based on more than 30 years of research and experience”