The Peter Attia Drive - July 02, 2019


The one-year anniversary episode with Olivia Attiaļ¼š Reflecting on the past year and looking forward to exciting times ahead


Episode Stats


Length

16 minutes

Words per minute

200.01993

Word count

3,345

Sentence count

223


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

In this episode of The Peter Atiyah Drive, we celebrate the one year anniversary of the podcast with a look back at the past 12 months and a look forward to what's to come in the next 12 months.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
00:00:00.000 Hey everyone, welcome to the Peter Atiyah drive. I'm your host, Peter Atiyah. The drive
00:00:10.880 is a result of my hunger for optimizing performance, health, longevity, critical thinking, along
00:00:15.940 with a few other obsessions along the way. I've spent the last several years working
00:00:19.660 with some of the most successful top performing individuals in the world. And this podcast
00:00:23.620 is my attempt to synthesize what I've learned along the way to help you live a higher quality,
00:00:28.360 more fulfilling life. If you enjoy this podcast, you can find more information on today's episode
00:00:33.000 and other topics at peteratiyahmd.com.
00:00:41.320 Hey everybody, welcome to this week's episode of the drive. I guess today is sort of me. As you may
00:00:47.460 recall, we launched this podcast with three episodes on July 2nd, 2018. And a few weeks prior to that,
00:00:54.360 we launched a special little sneak peek episode where I was interviewed by my daughter, Olivia.
00:00:59.600 So we figured there would be no better way to celebrate the one year birthday of the drive
00:01:06.020 than with another interview by Olivia, as we talk about the past year and some exciting things to
00:01:11.400 come over the next 12 months. So I hope you enjoy this little look back and look forward.
00:01:16.440 I'm going to start by asking the first question I asked a year ago. Does the world really need
00:01:24.100 another podcast? Um, I mean, probably not. Someone told me that there are, and I could be wrong,
00:01:31.220 but like 500 new podcasts appear in the podcast store every week. That's a lot. Yeah. So I'm not
00:01:39.380 going to put you on the spot and make you calculate how many podcasts that is in the last year. And by the
00:01:45.000 it's probably more than 500, but anyway, no, the world does not need another podcast. But I think
00:01:50.720 that what we started out doing last year was a three month experiment. And at the end of that 12
00:01:55.580 weeks or whatever it was, I was surprised by how much fun I had doing this. I was surprised by the
00:02:01.760 feedback we got from folks that said that they kind of dug it. And so even if the world doesn't need
00:02:06.960 another podcast, we're just going to keep doing this. I remember you telling me from when I interviewed
00:02:11.380 you for the preview that if it worked out well, you would start making more, right? Yep. That's what we've
00:02:16.780 done. So is there something you've learned in the past year making these podcasts? Well, like, do you
00:02:22.040 mean specific new pieces of knowledge or just more generally? More generally. Uh, yeah. I mean, I've
00:02:28.780 learned that it's way harder to do a good interview than I could have imagined at the outset. I think,
00:02:36.440 for example, now when I listen to other podcasts, I find I'm not listening to them from a pure
00:02:43.960 enjoyment standpoint. I'm listening to them and trying to learn from them. So for example,
00:02:49.300 like I think Tim Ferriss, who, you know, of course, very well, I think he just does an awesome job. I
00:02:54.320 think Sam Harris does an awesome job. I mean, I think, you know, Steven Dubner, I think there's a lot
00:02:58.760 of people out there that do really good jobs interviewing people. And so now I listen to these people and I
00:03:06.000 take notes on what could I do better? How can I be a better interviewer? And I think right now I'm a
00:03:13.260 two out of 10. I was a one out of 10 a year ago. So I've got a long way to go. And that's, I didn't,
00:03:19.020 I wouldn't have expected that a year ago that it would be this difficult.
00:03:21.500 So every podcast you're kind of writing something down and then the next one you try and make it even
00:03:25.760 better. I mean, it's not always that linear because as, well, I don't know if you know,
00:03:29.520 have you listened to any of them? Yes. Which ones have you listened to? I've listened to
00:03:32.840 Jocko, Tim Ferriss. I listened to the one where I interviewed you and a couple other
00:03:37.480 ones too. Okay. So, but you probably haven't listened to some of the really nerdy technical
00:03:41.180 ones. I don't think so. So I think the podcast fit into different categories. Sometimes the
00:03:46.500 technical ones, my criticisms of myself are different. They're, Hey, in listening to this,
00:03:53.160 I can see how someone who's not well-versed in this topic could get lost. You could have done
00:03:57.880 a better job structuring the discussion or pausing to set context. And then in other ones where it's
00:04:05.200 less technical, like the Jocko one, you know, I think, Oh gosh, like you, you didn't ask that
00:04:11.260 question that in retrospect, when you listen back, you realize like that was such an obvious question
00:04:16.720 to ask. And that could have gone down a totally new rabbit hole that everybody would have, you know,
00:04:21.200 potentially benefited from. So yeah, it's a work in progress.
00:04:23.980 Yeah, I can tell. So how many more podcasts are you going to plan on making?
00:04:28.920 I hope it's a very big number. We're putting out at least one a week, sometimes more. And the good
00:04:35.260 news is we are recording them faster than we can release them. So we're just accumulating. We
00:04:41.460 probably have a reserve of three months and we're the, I have a spreadsheet of all the people I want to
00:04:47.140 interview. And it's, it's freaking huge. It's, I think I have three years worth of people on it.
00:04:52.920 Like there's 150 people on that list. So, and it's just, it just keeps growing because I get a
00:04:57.520 lot of feedback from listeners who say, Hey, I know you talked about such and such, but you really
00:05:01.420 need to interview this person to which, and a lot of times I've never even heard of who that person
00:05:04.900 is. So I have to look them up and go, Oh yeah, that would be cool.
00:05:06.680 So speaking of comments, how do you deal with negative comments from people that disagree with
00:05:11.500 what you're saying?
00:05:12.800 Oh, well that, so people, negative comments where people disagree, doesn't phase me. That's, that's to me,
00:05:17.780 that's like a healthy part of existing. And frankly, a lot of times people disagree with me and I read
00:05:22.780 what they say. And I'm like, you know, they have a really good point. So I, I, I mean, just as me
00:05:28.000 being dad for a moment, don't view people disagreeing with you as negative. The negative is when people
00:05:32.980 just say really nasty things about you or to you or whatever. And I mean, I think there's a very
00:05:38.440 simple heuristic that you can operate by when you see that kind of stuff, which is, and I'm
00:05:43.720 plagiarizing this from somebody. There's a, there's a, there's a woman who wrote a book that I'm blanking on
00:05:48.060 her name and the name of the book, but I think it's sort of her heuristic. And it's basically you
00:05:52.660 ask yourself the following question. Is this true? Is what this person is stating true? And if the
00:05:59.180 answer is no, it's not true, then you, you are much easier to sort of dismiss what they're saying.
00:06:06.020 So if somebody says, Peter, you're a freaking idiot. I mean, okay, sometimes I am, but for the
00:06:12.740 most part, I'm not an idiot. So sometimes you are. So it's not about me. So I can, I'm better at
00:06:18.920 dismissing those. But another trick is don't spend too much time reading social media. Yeah. So if I
00:06:24.600 or somebody else wanted to start our own podcast, what kind of advice would you give us to make it
00:06:29.700 successful? Well, I think you, you know, you have to have sort of a topic that you think is so
00:06:34.960 interesting to you that you can do the type of work that's necessary to prepare for it and,
00:06:41.620 you know, do the heavy lifting that is involved in sort of figuring out people you want to interview,
00:06:46.180 assuming that's the type of podcast you want to do. There are lots of podcasts out there where
00:06:49.040 people are just talking about things that are really interesting. Like, you know, Jocko,
00:06:52.720 most of his podcasts, he's actually talking about something that's really interesting,
00:06:55.760 which I actually think is even harder than what I do, which is interviewing.
00:06:59.840 And in the end, I think if you really want to be a purist, you want to put out a podcast that is
00:07:05.500 something you would want to listen to and then hopefully find an audience that agrees with that.
00:07:11.420 As opposed to saying, you know, like if you wanted to make a podcast and you want it to be about
00:07:16.580 drumming because you're an amazing drummer and you love the drums and you've played them your whole
00:07:21.440 life, then you should, you could start a podcast about kids who'd rock. And you might say, well,
00:07:27.060 oh, I don't know if that would be popular and I don't know if people would like it, but in the end,
00:07:31.140 because you're so passionate about drumming, that passion will come through. And even if you don't
00:07:36.000 have the biggest audience, you'll have a very passionate audience that's supportive.
00:07:39.800 Yeah. So dad, you are kind of a knucklehead, like no offense, but sometimes you can't even
00:07:46.260 turn on the TV. So how did you manage making a podcast?
00:07:50.580 Okay. First of all, I've never not been able to turn on the TV.
00:07:54.080 Oh, sure.
00:07:55.200 Sometimes I struggle with Apple TV, but that's a totally separate system. And sometimes Apple TV
00:07:59.420 just sucks. So I'm not going to, okay, but you're right. I'm not, I'm a bit of a technical
00:08:03.060 phobe. So I just have a kick-ass team. So all I do is the interview. So on the front end,
00:08:10.440 Bob Kaplan and Nick Stenson do a ton of research. So once I like, you know, meet somebody and connect
00:08:19.140 with somebody and say, Hey, I'd love to interview you, blah, blah, blah. Then Bob and Nick help me
00:08:24.640 by doing a ton of research so that I have a thought, like a list of things I want to think about.
00:08:31.720 So then after the interview, which I use this equipment that you can see sitting on the table,
00:08:36.820 you can, you know, it's pretty easy to take the files and get them back to the team who then do
00:08:43.560 two things with them. One, they give them to a guy named Matthew Passy, P-A-S-S-Y, who's our
00:08:49.040 production guy. And Matthew, he does all the sound editing. So for example, like half the time during a
00:08:55.100 podcast, somebody has to get up and go to the bathroom or I forget something I want to say,
00:08:59.960 or the guest says something and they want to do it over again. You know, all those things have to be
00:09:03.200 edited, although we lightly edit. And then on the other side, we have a guy named Travis Denson,
00:09:07.760 who's awesome. And he is solely in charge of making the show notes. So he then has to listen
00:09:14.780 to every podcast and create these huge show notes. And there's a whole bunch of other things that are
00:09:18.800 involved, but the long and short of it is basically there are like five other people that make the
00:09:23.060 podcast work. And I have the easy job, which is just recording it. And that's like the job that
00:09:27.920 doesn't require that you know how to work Apple TV. Okay. So is there anybody that you've wanted
00:09:33.100 to interview, but you haven't done that yet? Yes. A ton of people that I've wanted to interview
00:09:38.200 and have not yet. And in some of those cases, it's just because we have not been able to,
00:09:45.320 like we haven't made it work in the schedule, but you know, I've spoken with the person,
00:09:49.140 their game to be interviewed. And it's just a question of making the interview happen. So there's
00:09:54.300 lots of people that are coming up on the podcast that, you know, once we get our schedules aligned,
00:10:00.160 we'll sit down and do that. But there is a subset of people who I've reached out to
00:10:05.280 and either they just haven't responded or they've responded and said no.
00:10:10.180 And that's kind of a bummer. But my hope is that if the podcast gets bigger and better,
00:10:15.980 they'll see more value in potentially making the time to do it. And I get that I've declined
00:10:20.200 being on many podcasts myself because there's only so many hours in the day. So my feelings
00:10:24.700 aren't hurt when people say no, but I'll probably still keep bugging a few of them.
00:10:28.920 Okay. So is there anything new you're going to plan on doing this year for upcoming podcasts?
00:10:34.240 Yes. I had an idea a couple of weeks ago. And I don't know if you, you might've heard me
00:10:39.620 talking about it with Nick the other day, but I want to launch something called Qualies.
00:10:45.100 Oh.
00:10:45.640 So you know what the name of the podcast is, by the way?
00:10:47.720 The Drive.
00:10:48.180 Oh, you remember.
00:10:49.340 I remember. I was in it.
00:10:51.960 Remember what you wanted to call it?
00:10:53.420 The Ice Cream.
00:10:54.600 The silliest name ever.
00:10:56.060 The best name ever.
00:10:57.680 So.
00:10:58.280 Comment if you agree that that's like a better name than The Drive. Come on, people.
00:11:01.900 The Ice Cream.
00:11:03.940 So, anyway.
00:11:05.500 I don't think those people would have declined to you.
00:11:11.800 Hey, I really wonder if you could be on my podcast, The Ice Cream. Oh, of course.
00:11:16.040 Gosh. Happily.
00:11:18.180 So, the drive, of course, is like there's a little undertone of racing in the theme, right?
00:11:25.600 Yeah.
00:11:26.000 And so, a quali is a qualifying lap.
00:11:28.980 So, remember how we watch races on Sunday mornings?
00:11:31.960 Yes, I do.
00:11:32.280 Every other Sunday, we watch Formula One races.
00:11:34.580 Yeah.
00:11:34.760 Well, what's happening on Saturday is the quali.
00:11:37.800 The quali is how you determine your position on the grid.
00:11:40.880 And the qualifying lap is the fastest lap.
00:11:43.680 The drivers go way faster in the qualis than they do.
00:11:47.040 Even the, you remember at the end of the race, every race, you see who had the fastest lap and they get extra points.
00:11:51.700 That fastest lap time is way slower than probably the slowest quali lap the day before.
00:11:57.340 Usually goes to Lewis Hamilton.
00:11:58.900 Yes.
00:11:59.420 This season, it's pretty safe to say Lewis Hamilton should win every race or pretty close to it.
00:12:05.280 So, anyway, what I was thinking about is, you know, we have so much old content that's already like a year old, but it's really rich.
00:12:12.920 And for people who are new to the podcast, there's no way for them to sort of catch up on all of our old content.
00:12:19.220 So, what I want to do, and luckily the team thinks this is a good idea or else we wouldn't be doing it, is every day, Tuesday through Friday, we're going to put out a short sprint of a podcast, which is going to be taking highlights from previous podcasts and putting them out.
00:12:34.000 So, Monday will still be the big podcast, you know, it's two, three hours long, but then Tuesday through Friday will be these little quali sprints.
00:12:42.200 So, for example, you know, you listened to the Tim Ferriss podcast a year ago, but there were highlights of that podcast that we want to replay, you know, really pointed stuff.
00:12:51.300 So, then Tuesday, you'll get like an RSS feed that'll zip to your podcast player.
00:12:56.100 This is for the subscribers only, by the way, which we'll come back to in a second because I want to also thank the subscribers.
00:13:00.900 And so, I guess everybody will probably get one and then maybe we'll make the rest of them available just to the subscribers.
00:13:06.940 But it'll be like a real punchy, short, kind of easy to digest thing that allows people to kind of get caught up on previous content.
00:13:14.340 Because I also realize our podcasts are pretty dense.
00:13:17.640 We put out a lot of stuff and I think there's a high demand for people to be able to digest this in an easier manner.
00:13:24.260 And I think there's no better way to digest complicated stuff than to sort of revisit it in a more concise way.
00:13:29.100 So, I think that's the quality is hopefully going to be out.
00:13:33.300 I think we're going to try to do it this summer.
00:13:34.820 So, get back to thanking the subscribers.
00:13:37.140 Yeah.
00:13:37.660 So, I don't know if you know this, but we don't take ads.
00:13:41.220 Yes.
00:13:41.840 How do you know that?
00:13:42.640 Well, you explained that you want your subscribers to know that you're telling the truth to them and not just saying that because you're paid to say that.
00:13:50.720 That's a very nice way of explaining it.
00:13:52.680 Yes.
00:13:52.880 I, which isn't, by the way, to say that people who take ads are not telling the truth, but yes, I just feel strongly about being able to talk about stuff that I love without being paid to say that.
00:14:03.180 So, we created a subscriber system this year and it's going well and we're totally honored by these people who have supported us.
00:14:11.760 And our goal is just to continue to come up with ways to create more and more value for those subscribers.
00:14:18.380 The qualities will be a big part of that, but we have two or three other ideas in the hopper.
00:14:23.260 And as time goes on, our goal is to make that an even better and better offering for everyone.
00:14:27.860 Okay.
00:14:28.260 You have any other questions for me or am I allowed to ask you any questions now?
00:14:32.260 You can ask me any questions.
00:14:33.820 Okay.
00:14:34.620 Are you going to play a Zeppelin song for your next talent show?
00:14:39.340 Well, that depends if the song is actually good.
00:14:43.460 Have you ever heard a Zeppelin song that is not good?
00:14:46.060 Well, I've heard one that's like boring.
00:14:48.720 Okay.
00:14:49.060 Stairway to Heaven, maybe not a good solo, drum solo song for the talent show, but I think,
00:14:55.660 do you remember who the drummer was for Led Zeppelin?
00:14:58.600 Like John Bonham or something?
00:15:00.500 Or something.
00:15:01.560 Yeah.
00:15:02.060 Yeah.
00:15:02.420 Bonzo, honey.
00:15:03.160 Or something.
00:15:04.080 Yeah.
00:15:04.440 Oh God.
00:15:04.980 The people, there's people listening to this right now that are just rolling or something.
00:15:10.660 All right.
00:15:11.220 Well, Olivia, it's been great.
00:15:13.360 Can we do this again in a year?
00:15:14.580 Yes, we can.
00:15:15.580 All right.
00:15:16.480 See ya.
00:15:16.740 Okay.
00:15:16.900 I'll talk to you people in a year.
00:15:20.400 You can find all of this information and more at peteratiamd.com forward slash podcast.
00:15:25.660 There you'll find the show notes, readings, and links related to this episode.
00:15:29.800 You can also find my blog at peteratiamd.com.
00:15:33.420 Maybe the simplest thing to do is to sign up for my subjectively non-lame once a week email
00:15:37.700 where I'll update you on what I've been up to, the most interesting papers I've read,
00:15:41.380 and all things related to longevity, science, performance, sleep, et cetera.
00:15:46.160 On social, you can find me on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook, all with the ID peteratiamd.
00:15:51.580 But usually Twitter is the best way to reach me to share your questions and comments.
00:15:54.820 Now for the obligatory disclaimer.
00:15:56.860 This podcast is for general informational purposes only and does not constitute the
00:16:00.660 practice of medicine, nursing, or other professional healthcare services, including the giving of
00:16:05.900 medical advice.
00:16:07.140 And note, no doctor-patient relationship is formed.
00:16:10.060 The use of this information and the materials linked to the podcast is at the user's own risk.
00:16:15.120 The content of this podcast is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice,
00:16:19.180 diagnosis, or treatment.
00:16:21.360 Users should not disregard or delay in obtaining medical advice for any medical condition they
00:16:25.640 have and should seek the assistance of their healthcare professionals for any such conditions.
00:16:31.120 Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, I take conflicts of interest very seriously.
00:16:35.220 For all of my disclosures, the companies I invest in and or advise, please visit peteratiamd.com
00:16:42.160 forward slash about.