Unveiling the Minds Behind the Huberman Lab Podcast: A Deep Dive into Its Most Influential Voices
One of the reasons Dr. Andrew Huberman is so popular is not just his expertise, but his guests. He has hosted an amazing group of academics, athletes, authors and other interesting people on his show.
As part of my analysis in building a knowledge graph based on his podcast I want to understand who are the most frequent guests and most frequently mentioned experts… ie “the most influential”. Based on my analysis of 164 Huberman Lab Podcast episodes, 836 people were referenced. This article looks at the top 5 people who were a guest or had their work discussed on the Huberman Lab Podcast. I have done some basic research on each of them, summarizing their expertise, experience, and any relevant popular media resources, so others can learn more about these amazing minds.
So who are these people?
#5 Anna Lembke
Dr. Anna Lembke is an expert in addiction, author and a professor of psychiatry at Stanford University School of Medicine. Her professional journey has included extensive research and clinical work in various facets of addiction, extending from traditional substance abuse to behavioral patterns linked to technology, social media and smartphones. While her work on addiction is broad, the focus on apps and devices in today’s technology-driven society is relevant to all of us.
Dr. Lembke is a colleague of Dr. Andrew Huberman and has only appeared in one episode (Dr. Anna Lembke: Understanding & Treating Addiction | Huberman Lab Podcast #33), but her work is referred to in at least 13 other episodes.
Links to relevant work:
- Book: Drug Dealer, MD addresses the complexities of the opioid crisis.
- Book: Dopamine Nation, Finding Balance in the Age of Indulgence explores compulsive consumption in a world overloaded with dopamine triggers.
- TED Talk: Dr. Lembke has delivered a TEDx talk on the opioid epidemic.
- Documentary: Lembke appeared in the 2020 The Social Dilemma Netflix documentary, in which she argued that “social media is a drug”
#4 Karl Deisseroth
Dr. Karl Deisseroth is a Stanford University bioengineering and psychiatrist known for his groundbreaking work in optogenetics, a technology that enables controlling cells with light. Deisseroth’s journey in the scientific world has been marked by significant contributions to our understanding of brain function, particularly in the context of psychiatric disorders. His work has been instrumental in advancing our knowledge of neural circuits and how they can be manipulated for therapeutic purposes (e.g. with optogenetics).
Dr. Deisseroth is a colleague of Dr. Andrew Huberman and he was the first guest interviewed for the Huberman Lab Podcast, appearing in June 2021 (Understanding & Healing the Mind). In addition to this episode his work is referenced in 17 other episodes.
Links to relevant work:
- Book: Projections: A Story of Human Emotions(2021) explores how physical biology intersects human emotion.
- Book: Connections: A Story of Human Feeling(2021) using case studies, including personal accounts, Deisseroth digs into the evolution of mental illness, and emotions.
- Podcast: Lex Fridman Podcast: Karl Deisseroth: Depression, Schizophrenia, and Psychiatry | Lex Fridman Podcast #274
#3 Robert Sapolsky
Dr. Robert Sapolsky, a Stanford University professor, is a leading neuroendocrinologist known for his research on stress, and neuronal degeneration. He has had a fascinating career including studying stress in wild baboons in Kenya, experiencing the Uganda–Tanzania War, criticizing organized religion, speaking out on the impact of mental health in the US legal system and advocating for a deterministic view of free will.
Dr. Robert Sapolsky, is also a colleague of Dr. Andrew Huberman at Stanford and has only appeared on one episode (Dr. Robert Sapolsky: Science of Stress, Testosterone & Free Will | Huberman Lab Podcast #35), but his work is referenced in at least 18 other episodes. I can see why he is a favorite of Dr. Huberman with such a broad scope of interesting work related to how our neurobiology works.
Links to relevant work:
- Book: Determined: A Science of Life Without Free Will (2023), he explored the biological underpinnings of human behavior as a basis against the concept of free will.
- Book: Behave: The Biology of Humans at Our Best and Worst (2017) — understanding why humans do the things we do.
- Book: Why Zebras Don’t Get Ulcers (2004) — examines prolonged stress causes physical and mental afflictions.
- TED Talk: The biology of our best and worst selves (2017)
#2 Andy Galpin
Dr. Andy Galpin is a notable figure in the world of sports science, specializing in muscle physiology, as an expert in the science of strength, flexibility, performance and endurance. He is a Professor of Kinesiology at California State University, Fullerton, as well as the co-Director of the Center for Sport Performance. Galpin’s unique approach combines traditional scientific research with hands-on work with athletes, bridging the gap between theory and practice in sports science.
While Dr. Galpin is another academic expert in the fields of health, he is unique on this list in a couple respects. First he is not one of Huberman’s peers at Stanford. Second he takes a different approach and prides himself in being a scientist, teacher and coach. To get a sense of his unique perspective and approach his bio is worth a read.
Dr. Galpin is the second most frequent guest of the Huberman Lab Podcast with his first initial appearance in 3.5 hour episode #65 (Dr. Andy Galpin: How to Build Strength, Muscle Size & Endurance). After this initial appearance there was a dedicated set of 6 episodes as part of strength and fitness guest series. In my analysis of 164 episodes his work was referenced on 22 of them.
Links to relevant work:
- YouTube: Dr. Andy Galpin’s YouTube Channel with 87k subscribers and 73 videos.
- Website: AndyGalpin.com, his website is worth a look. It covers his philosophy and a number of resources he makes available to the public.
- Book: Unplugged: Evolve from Technology to Upgrade Your Fitness, Performance & Consciousness (2017) — How to become less reliant on technology and trackers in measuring your fitness.
- Research: Academic Papers covering topics like biomarkers, exercise, training, etc.
#1 David Spiegel
Dr. David Spiegel is a renowned psychiatrist and researcher at Stanford University, and the leading expert on clinical hypnosis. His extensive research has explored the connections between stress, trauma, grief, pain management, and the immune system, offering valuable insights into mind-body interactions.
Another peer of Dr. Huberman at Stanford, Dr. Spiegel appeared on episode #60 of the Huberman Lab Podcast: Dr. David Spiegel: Using Hypnosis to Enhance Health & Performance. In addition to this episode his work was highlighted on 26 other episodes in my analysis of 164 episodes.
This puts him at #1 on this list of most referenced people for the Huberman Lab Podcast. I was surprised by this as I would not have thought about hypnosis related research as a frequent topic, but I attribute Dr. Spiegel’s popularity to 2 factors.
- Mental Health the most frequent topics on the Huberman Lab Podcast.
- Dr. Spiegel was on a relative early episode (#60) and his references likely increase after being a guests (I would need to confirm this)
Links to relevant work:
- YouTube: Clip of Dr. Spiegel hypnotizing Dr. Huberman.
- Mobile App: Dr Spiegel is the creator of the Reveri, a self-hypnosis app. (Apple/Android)
Conclusion
These are 5 amazing people whose contributions to science and knowledge are regularly highlighted by Dr. Andrew Huberman. I personally have learned a lot in prepare this article and I hope others find it useful.
If you would like to see more analysis(people discussed, books mentioned, etc) and a full episode listing, I have previously published a full Huberman Lab Podcast Analysis PDF.
About This
Helping to connect the web of resources is an interesting and important problem that I would like to help solve for others. The approach I am using is based on knowledge graphs and data science. I have taken a set of Huberman Lab Podcast transcripts and extracted out guests, topics, tools, techniques, etc. Then these were imported as “nodes” into a graph database. It is that graph database of ~10k nodes and ~30k relationships that I am using to enable the analysis of most common elements, most shared elements, and most related episodes.
