Have Your Best Brain ft. Thoryn Stephens | Coffeez for Closers with Joe Shalaby

24:41We are that generation. And you're helping cultivate the brain part of the AI. So we're going to see robots that have like true human cognition. I mean, for sure. I mean, that's also the fear, you know. That's also the fear. What do you think, like, how is that going to impact mankind? So again, I'm an optimist. I think there are reasons to be, you know, very mindful, you know, in this stage. I think we have to ultimately work with the AI and the machines, you know. And so I look at these BCIs, and again, there's invasive where they're literally drilling a skull, drilling a hole in your skull like Neuralink.

25:19But there's also now non-invasive BCIs that are becoming more prevalent as well. Like what? I couldn't name a brand off the top of my head, but I mean a lot of research actually – Can I get a BCI? And what would the benefit of a BCI be to me? So instead of having, you know, to drill like a, you know, a essentially a hole in your skull, a non-invasive ACI, you know, essentially could read essentially your neural activity through your skull. The problem is it's like less resolution. You have impotence and, you know, so forth. But that's the concept that you could be thinking something and then it could translate into a text message or an email.

25:53I actually was with one of the founders of League of Legends last week. Yep. And he told me that he put that on his head and it was tracking his thoughts and his emotions. It was a non-invasive BCI, but it was accurate. Exactly. And it was kind of like a light helmet. Yeah. I mean, so there's EEGs. Brian Johnson's company, Colonel, is an example of that. Brian Johnson's company. Leading the charge here. Yeah. But that's a helmet, right? That's a helmet. Correct. Yeah. I think it has like 19 nodes or so. So and again, the resolution, you know, it's not going to be as high resolution as a BCI, which is literally measuring the actual, you know, like the on the actual cells of the brain.

26:33What is the benefit of kernel or neural link to a normal person? Well, so I think I mean, neural link is a more advanced use case. You know, the immediate benefit there is someone who maybe has, you know, there's also. I mean, why is Elon Musk putting billions into neural? Because it's the future. Right. I mean, again, you also have, you know, you have BCI's brain computer interfaces. What's also next is spinal computer interfaces as well. And so that's where that's I mean, to be clear, that's what Neuralink's focusing on. It's focusing on humans who, you know, ultimately are not able to, you know, they've had an accident of some kind.

27:08They're not able to use their spine or their brain. Exactly. Or, you know, there was a great study probably about nine months ago now with a woman who was able to use her brain to essentially speak to her partner through an avatar, you know, speak to the world through an avatar. just using our brain who had, you know, again, an accident. So that's very, very much the future. I think that most humans should be doing a, you know, regular brain scan, you know, once a year, go in and measure your neural activity through an EEG, QEEG, and then you can optimize it though. You know, you could use treatments, modalities like neurofeedback as an example, and you can actually see the improvement in your brain or imaging, you know, as another example.

27:47So by understanding the baseline of where you're at today, you can improve. And that's been the basis of my career around measurement, you know, data driving insights, you have a baseline, and then how do you improve it? You know, in this case, applying these principles to, you know, general biology of the human. Wow. You came up with brain one. Now, what do you think was like that aha moment? You're like, damn, people need a generic protocol where they're able to implement and adopt this something a little bit more basic for the general masses. because nobody thinks about a bio-optimized protocol for the public.

28:21Yeah. It's really like, and so needed, you know, like the public needs to understand like what is a good protocol and what they can, what, and meet them where they're at. Because everybody just thinks it's for triathletes. Sure. It's for Brian Johnson, crazy people. Correct. Or it's for whatever. It's like, why did you think about something for the general public? Like, what was that aha moment? Again, it was when I was training for this triathlon and I was like, you know, I was following this structured framework and that concept of just, you know, ultimately developing these different types of protocols.

28:58And so initially we were going after science-based protocols. And it's very linear. You know, again, the Lancet 2020 study where dementia is preventable if you follow these modifiable risk factors today. Our parents, our grandparents, they're all terrified of Alzheimer's and dementia. you know there are protocols they could be following you don't want to start when you're in your 50s or 60s you want to be starting when you're in your 30s and 40s and or even younger or younger these are basic life principles you know and so as you look at longevity as an example you know they're all following these same general principles but what brain one does is it puts it into a structured framework you can again print you can use digitally you can follow like i'd like to have my kids on these protocols because you're meeting them where they're at like that's it kids Here is how you're going to prevent dementia.

29:43Correct. You're going to be in absolute best physical health. Because that's like, if the kids could adopt this at a hundred percent. Yes. So we started off with these, again, science-driven protocols, taking peer-reviewed scientific papers and then developing editorial and then developing, again, an actual protocol someone can follow. And that's all using our AI. And then as I started to talk to more health influencers and athletes, I asked them the question. I was like, hey, do you get asked what your health protocol and routine is? And every single one of them was like, absolutely. And that's when I knew we had something.

30:18I was like, oh, my gosh, like literally. So now we're working with some really big names and developing, you know, working with them to develop their health protocols that they can either give away or monetize. You know, like would you spend a dollar to, you know, see Tom Brady's protocol? Well, you probably would, you know, or if it's someone that you follow. And so we went down that road then with health influencers. And then further, we started doing research with traditional health protocols. Like, what did the Spartans do? What did they do in China? What did they do in Japan over these last thousands of years?

30:48And began developing traditional health cultural protocols as well. And we developed the world's largest database of health protocols and then microhabits. And that's the other side of this. When you think about a health protocol, what is it? It's just a series of things that you do when you get up. cold plunging as an example would be a micro habit. And so as you're looking at - It just sounds sophisticated. Protocol is just intimidating. It's just a routine. It's just a routine. What's your morning routine? You know, that's it. That's it. It's just a regimen routine. It's just what you do. You know, it's a fair point.

31:18And I've talked about this with my team. You know, do we not use the word protocol? It sounds intimidating. I think routines is more for the masses. Routines, that's how I, because I don't start my show with, what's your health protocol in the morning? Right. What do you ask? You ask, what is your routine? What's your morning routine? Yeah, that's great. And again, it's meeting people where they are. I mean, as a scientist, you know, I'm I was going down this road. Actually, you know what it was, though? I we developed we have hundreds of these protocols. And I was talking to one of my advisory members.

31:44His name is Russ Nash. And he's like, I don't know if we should use the term protocol for. And I was like, well, you know, as a scientist, it just I, you know, Brian Johnson uses that term. Of course. It's intimidating. It is. That's why I never jumped on the bandwagon. I mean, immediately I'm like, I'm not gonna do. But then. But, you know, so I was having this conversation with Russ and. And literally the next day, Huberman announced his new book. Do you know what it was called? What was it called? Protocols. And literally it's coming out in the next couple months. I mean, this was about six months ago.

32:14But he literally announced his new book called Protocols. And so he's obviously a very tried and true scientist. But it's a routine. It's a regimen. It doesn't matter what you call it as long as you do it. And to your point, too, I mean, kids should be learning these things. And it's not complicated. It's what are the six things you need to do? And you look at all these longevity experts and so forth. It's pretty simple. You know, it's high protein. It's going to be sunlight in the morning. You know, it's going to be a level of hydration. It's going to be connection, you know, and you just oversimplify.

32:45There's like five things, you know, you could do every day to live a better, more robust life. Yeah. From the Don't Die Summit, I gathered that basically the number one thing that's most important for a health protocol is sleep. Absolutely. Yes. Of course. Yes. Yes, we've actually been developing a protocol called sleep maximization, you know, and it's following all of these, you know, micro habits you could be doing. Yeah. It could include, you know, some level of supplementation like magnesium. You know, I don't generally don't go towards melatonin, but magnesium and then all the things you can do in your preparation for sleep.

33:18And so with my friends, you know, what we share is like, you know, what was your you know, what was your sleep score the night before? You know, like I got a 91 the other day. I like, you know, I shared it with my friends. I'm like, yes, you know. Yeah. It's tough. 72 last night. I know it's well, but it's, but it's okay. You can't beat yourself up on it. Then I was doom scrolling after. There you go. It's like, there's probably a connection. There's definitely a connection. Yeah. But those are the metrics we should be optimizing sleep score, you know, ultimately, you know, when you oversimplify like, you know, whatever you call it, the micro habit, it, it comes down to these, you know, again, like five or six basic principles.

33:52Yeah. And then also a resting heart rate while you sleep is super important. And I learned that, you know, to drop your resting heart rate depends on one, when was your last meal? Sure. So like, if you fast eight hours before your last meal, your resting heart rate will plummet. Yeah, absolutely. And HRV as well, of course, as a measurement of your parasympathetic. To that point, like I, I had dinner last night, sushi at like 10 PM. Oh yeah. My wearable told me this morning, she's like, you sums up your heart rate was counting. It was 65. Yeah. Well, that's because as you're trying to sleep, your body's still digesting all that food.

34:28Yeah. So the basics of intermittent fasting, I mean, at least not eating two hours before you go to bed. You know, these are all the very, very basic principles that we're just not really taught. You know, we haven't, you know, like as a child, I mean, you're not really taught about the brain or the nervous system at all, let alone, you know, this concept of your health routine. We're definitely not taught because three of the people I was out with were doctors and some of them were specialized doctors, oncologists or whatever. And here we are, there's like, you know, eating right before bed, like they're not optimizing for, they're learning with me about this stuff.

35:01I know it's, it's not taught in med schools. It's not taught in specialized schools. It's now part of the met, you know, longevity studies, but it's a longevity and functional medicine doctors are aligned, you know, where they're, they're looking at the holistic human and they're looking at it from a preventable perspective. You know, you're not just treating the disease, you know, you're treating the human to ensure that they don't get the disease. So it's more of a movement and that's not even, you know, as widely accepted in traditional, you know, Western medicine. Western medicine is all driven by big pharma.

35:35And Robert F. Kennedy's announced that he's going to try to cut all big pharma commercials. Like, because big pharma is just a big scam. It's just, they just try to just get you sick. so they sell you medicine. You know, it's just a big hustle. Yeah. We've all been like blinded by these multi-billion dollar corporations that are just basically there to enable us to get sick. Sure. I mean, they are incentivized for sickness. So I would absolutely agree with that. And, you know, you look in general at our FDA, you know, I mean, it is it's pretty upsetting that, you know, you have these like stalwart, you know, U.S.

36:16brands like Kellogg's that has different ingredients in the U.S. than in Canada. You know, why is glyphosate in our food chain at all? Like, you know, as an herbicide, I mean, it is absolutely criminal that, you know, these herbicides have been allowed into our food chain. Or like another example is like PFAs, you know, what's going on with polyfluoralkyls? Why are they in like every single water supply in the U.S.? it's absolutely tragic and it does need to change. And so, you know, I'm optimistic. I mean, I think some of, you know, what RFK spouts can be a little wackadoodle, but in, you know, I also agree with some of the things that he says as well.

36:55And so I, I do think that there absolutely needs to be radical change at these, you know, the EPA, the FDA, and I am optimistic that, you know, under the new leadership, we will start to see those changes because it is absolutely criminal in terms of what our children are being exposed to. To that point, with AI, with neuroscience, with implementing this into a legitimate, profitable business, what does this all look like for the future? For brain one or just in general? For neuroscience in general. I mean, again, I think it starts with awareness. People are becoming more aware of what a PFAS is, of what glyphosate is.

37:36And so I think it has to start there. And then it, you know, ultimately can shift behavior, you know, fundamentally. I mean, these things should not be even in the food supply, but then people shouldn't be buying them. And they need to be more aware of, you know, what they're putting into their body and, you know, the overabundance of preservatives and so forth. So I see this general trend. You know, you hear a lot about health span and longevity as an example, you know, really optimizing for those last 10 years of your life to be some of your best years, you know, so you're not verklempt and, you know, in a nursing home, you know, faced with dementia.

38:10So I'm up. Exactly. And I'm optimistic, you know, for, you know, the steps ahead. But I can use Peter Attea's frame of reference. Absolutely. Not life. Of course. Yes, absolutely. And it's all about health span. It is 100 percent. What the heck's the point of lifespan if you have no health? Correct. You know, if you're like living, you know, in a nursing home, I mean, it's pretty tragic what we've done to the older generations as well. And we have the opportunity to help change that right now, you know, and again, by following these pretty basic principles. Now, the hardest factor there is the human, you know, like we can build the best technology on the planet, but, you know, the human still needs to do the thing.

38:50And so that's why I think from the behavioral modification step, you know, our approach at Brain One is the idea of like incremental, you know, micro habits, incremental change over time. But by starting earlier, you know, with children and getting them on, you know, these are the 10 basic principles, you know, then at least they have a chance. I love the incremental concept because I started like bio-optimization with just like one thing. Yeah. This feels good. Yeah. I'm going to add another thing. Yeah. Oh, this even feels better. Sure. Well, let's add this, this and this. Yeah. and now I'm just like, this is kind of addicting.

39:21A hundred percent. Now I'm like, I should buy that. I think it's good. I think the only time it can start to be a negative is if you get too obsessed with the data. You know, if you wake up in the morning and your sleep score is a 71, you're like, oh shit, I'm not going to have a good day as opposed to getting up and feeling how you feel and then seeing if you're going to have a good day, you know, and so as a data scientist and someone who does, you know, these things on a daily basis, it's good to have a balance in all these things and I'll go through periods. That is true. That is very true.

39:49It's totally true. Because if I wake up and my sleep score is 60, I'm pissed. You know, I'm like, my day's ruined. So try to get up and experience the day, do your routine and then look at your sleep score, you know, check in with yourself. And that's where data, you know, as a data scientist, I mean, you have to be careful. And I think generally, it's very much a positive, you know, but I'll also go through periods where I turn off all my wearables. You know, I'll go through a period where, you know, I just, I, you know, don't need the data at that time period. So, yeah, that's when I'm on vacation vacation, or even if I get sick, you know, I already know, you know, dah, dah, dah.

40:22I mean, I just don't need to see the data. So that's a balance, you know, and all of these things. And, you know, you look at someone like Brian Johnson, that's constantly, you know, he says he's has the, you know, the best biomarkers on the planet, which may be true, but it's also important to live your best life, you know, to have the best quality of life you can have, which means going out and grabbing sushi with friends, you know, and eating at 10 o 'clock at night and not being too hard on yourself, you know, the next day or doing the things, you know, whatever it might be. So I think it's a balance in all these things.

40:52And if you're too restrictive, you know, you may, you know, you might miss that thing. You might miss that event with your family or your friends, you know, that it's good to have balance in all of this as well. Now, I'd like to conclude the show a couple last questions. This is a three-pronged question. What's a personal goal that you have for yourself? Yep. a personal goal that you have for the business and some of the personal goals you're setting yourself up for your family? 100%. Okay. So personal goals for myself. So when I look at myself, I try to optimize against four quadrants. And so one is science, you know, and so a goal there is for brain one to continue to publish research papers and, you know, get our science out there, reach a billion humans.

41:32Another goal I have personally, you know, in my matrix essentially is, um, is art and music. I'm also a musician. So like I mentioned, you know, I'm releasing this punk song with Dr. Galen, you know, which includes his neural activity in the song where he's singing and we actually have his neural activity out of the clinical trial at Caltech. That's amazing. Super fun. You know, and I'm going to get that on Spotify. Absolutely. It'll be on Spotify. Give me like a month. Um, and so, and then physiology, you know, just in general, like being in the best shape I can possibly be for myself, for my family, you know, um, that is very, very important to me.

42:07You know, I, I do MMA, I do triathlons, I do all these things and it's not to prove anything. I do it for myself, you know, but, um, trying to, you know, do the best I can. I mean, like last season, my triathlon season, I qualified for USA triathlon, you know, nationals. I got second place in Hermosa beach and it's all for fun. You know, like I didn't even go into it. Like, I want to get second place. I was like out there, you know, and I'm like, Oh, well, I'm like, And then last is spirit, you know, so I try to optimize against, you know, my spirit as well. And I spent a lot of time in the jungles.

42:37I spent a lot of time with, you know, different indigenous cultures and alignment of that spirit ultimately. And so those are the four things that I, as a human and a man, I'm trying to optimize against. For brain one, you know, the vision and the mission first is to reach a billion humans and to, you know, basically make these protocols accessible to any human that wants to make a change in their life and, you know, to productize the human health protocol. So that's very exciting to me. Um, so, you know, that's all happening. And then, um, what was the third? That was just family. Yeah. The family.

43:11Yeah. Again, you know, leading by example, you know, just trying to lead the best life I can, you know, be as healthy as possible, but also be as balanced as possible, you know, in all of these things. Um, and you know, your sister, your mom, they're all falling the health protocols? They're getting there. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, again, you know, it's they all follow a routine, but it's getting them on a more structured health protocol. And like as an example, yesterday I took my mother. We did a hydrogen cloud treatment in Westlake Village at the Four Seasons with an amazing practitioner named Sports IQ.

43:42And our family dog just had surgery and she had a splenectomy. And we literally brought the family dog into this hydrogen cloud and then she did bioresonant treatment and she's doing great today. You know, does it work? Well, you know, the science and some of this stuff is a little bit, you know, mixed and a little bit woo woo. But, you know, that's also why we're trying to utilize brain one to help drive, you know, the validity of these somewhat fringe, you know, types of treatments and so forth. But, you know, just like even in my business, like you have to be an early adopter. Of course. If you're not an early adopter, you're just not going to be winning.

44:16100 and the beautiful thing about this new longevity movement is that there's so much to adopt there's so much to adopt like right after this like we're gonna go check out this data bed like yeah you haven't even adopted that you might be like joe that was great you know i heard about this that was like yes you know but like i'm just like i like to adopt everything in business for my family like sport whatever it is like there's just something that like there's even somewhat of a hint of validity, I'm on it. That's awesome. I'm on it. And then like, oh, that was totally BS. Like, well, yeah. And some of it is though.

44:51I mean, especially in the neurotech space. I mean, there are new devices being added and none of these were FDA approved. Very few of them have clinical trials, you know, so you also have to be careful at the end of the day. But, you know, that said, I mean, and some of these treatments like the, you know, the, the bioresonant stuff has been around since the thirties and forties, but then all the technology went to Russia and Germany because it, you know, basically was not outlawed here, but all the research went overseas, you know, is that because of, you know, pharma and so forth. But all that to say, I think it's a very, you know, I'm an optimist and I think it's very exciting.

45:24And, you know, we have an incredible array of modalities that we can tap into. From a personal perspective, like ever since I started this journey, I can with 100 % certainty show you pictures of me like a year ago. And you'd be like, Like I look 10 years younger than a year ago. Right. Weight. Yeah. It's way less than 40, 30, 40 pounds less than weight. Skin, like hair. Every single attribute of my body. I mean, I showed you my biomarkers. They're all dropping in age. I am reducing. I'm reversing my age. And I meet people like, Joe, you look like a, you know, like fantastic. Like what the heck?

45:59And I'll see them. They're like overweight or whatever. They're like, you could see them aging. And it's like, that's not what's happening to me. Sure. That's great. And it's like, I want to reverse backwards in age. So does everybody, but it takes work, takes protocol, it takes adoption. Yes, 100%. Yeah, I mean, again, I don't necessarily want to live forever, but I want to live the best life I can every single day possible. Yeah, I mean, you're 46, you look amazing, your skin looks great, you're, you know, you're amazing shape. I mean, I'm the most ripped I've ever been, you know, like, and I think part of that is learning.

46:29You know, again, we didn't necessarily have these tools when we were in our 20s and 30s, you know, and so forth. And now they're absolutely everywhere. What's going to happen in a year, I feel like this is what's going to be the new trend. This is what's going to be cool. Yeah. Like this is what's how you're going to meet, you know, your significant other. You're going to meet them at a biohacking lounge. Oh, sure. You're not going to meet them at a nightclub. Well, so what you can do with Brain One is you can share your health protocol. You meet someone on the street, you meet them, you know, da, da, da.

46:54And you're like, oh, yeah, check this out. And you literally just SMS them your protocol. Yeah. And they can see what you do. Yes. You know, literally. I mean, and it's becoming, you know, it's productizing your health routine so anyone can see. And then if there's alignment, you know, maybe that's someone good to hang out with. That's awesome. I love that when I started my show, you're like, Joe, your question of morning routine is that's my business. Yeah, literally. That's the question we were answering at Brain One, just oversimplified. What do you do when you wake up in the morning, you know?

47:21And what do you do when you go to bed? Exactly. During the day. Exactly. All of those things. You know, what does Peter Atiyah do? You know, what does David Goggins do? You know, these amazing athletes, human that are putting, you know, their mental, physical, you know, just capabilities to the next level. And that's it fundamentally. And then you can learn from that and you can adopt it and you can create your own health protocol and, you know, ultimately live your best life with the highest quality of life possible. Last question. I ask everybody this question. When you're in front of the pearly gates, what do you think God's going to tell you?

47:56I didn't, you know, that I didn't live with any regret. You know, I lived every single day to the fullest. And I believe that wholeheartedly. You know, I wake up in the morning and I feel excited. And, you know, I want to go just, you know. You want to ski. I want to see the beautiful mountains of. Absolutely. Aspen. And just live the best life that I can. And I can, you know, I feel that I've been able to do that, you know. And, of course, we all have had ups and downs and all the things. But, you know, I can say I've truly lived every day to its fullest. Thorne, you've been an absolute pleasure to have on the show.

48:28Such a pleasure. Thorne Stevens, guys, founder of Brain One. It's going to be released. You're going to be able to access it for free right now. Yep. They can join our wait list if they go to brain.one. And, yeah, you know, we're allowing people on the platform and just really excited, you know, chatting with you and seeing where this goes. That's awesome. Thank you so much. It's been a pleasure to have you on the show. Such a pleasure. God bless you, man. Thank you.

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