#489: Guy Raz Interviews Tim Ferriss — How I Built This — Key Lessons, Critical Decisions, and Reinvention for Fun and Profit

Well, hello boys and girls, lemurs and squirrels. This is Tim Ferriss. Welcome to another episode of the Tim Ferriss show, where it is usually my job to deconstruct world class performers, tease out their routines, habits, and so on that you can apply to your own life. This time around, the tables are turned. I was interviewed by Guy Raz on Twitter. You can find him at Guy Raz R-A-Z for his mega popular NPR podcast, how I built this there's a lot of fun in this episode. Guy traces my story from the very early days to the current day, asking me about key decisions, hard times, obstacles, lessons learned, mistakes, all sorts of things. We had a blast, we covered a lot of new ground, and Guy was kind enough to offer me the chance to post the audio here. So that is what you'll hear in this episode. For more Guy, check out his podcast, how I built this wisdom from the top and the rewind. He's also the co creator of the acclaimed podcasts Ted Radio Hour and wow in the World, a children's program, and last but not least, happy holidays and a very happy new year to you and yours. Thanks so much for listening. This episode is brought to you by athletic greens I get asked all the time what I would take if I could only take one supplement. The answer is invariably athletic greens. I view it as all in one nutritional insurance. I recommended it in fact, in the four hour body. This is more than ten years ago and I did not get paid to do so. With approximately 75 vitamins, minerals and whole food sourced ingredients, you'd be very hard pressed to find a more nutrientdense and comprehensive formula on the market. It has multivitamins, multimineral greens, complex probiotics and prebiotics for gut health, an immunity formula, digestive enzymes, adaptogens and much more. I usually take it once or twice a day just to make sure I've covered my bases. If I miss anything I'm not aware of. Of course, I focus on nutrient dense meals to begin with. That's the basis. But athletic greens makes it easy to get a lot of nutrition when Whole Foods aren't readily available from travel packets. I always have them in my bag when I'm zipping around. Right now, Athletic Greens is giving my audience a special offer on top of their all in one formula, which is a free vitamin D supplement and five free travel packs with your first subscription purchase. Many of us are deficient in vitamin D. I found that true for myself, which is usually produced in our bodies from sun exposure. So adding a vitamin D supplement to your daily routine is a great option for additional immune support. Support your immunity, gut, health and energy by visiting athleticgreens.com tim. You'll receive up to a year's supply of vitamin D and five free travel packs with your subscription. Again, that's athleticgreens.com tim. This episode is brought to you by givewell.org. Tis the season of giving, and you've got this week and next to make your charitable donations. Before we close the books on 2020 2021 is just around the corner. That's why I've been talking to you on this podcast about givewell.org. For more than ten years, givewell.org has helped donors find the charities and projects that save and improve lives, most per dollar. Here's how. Givewell dedicates more than 20,000 hours a year to researching charitable organizations and handpicks a few of the highest impact evidencebacked charities. I recommend givewell.org, and they shared a note with me, which is just incredible. And here it is. Quote, here are the data they sent me. A spreadsheet we have from organic donations that cited Tim over the past few years. Transactions that specifically cited Tim Ferriss sum to 133,040 dollarsventy $0.04. We estimate that those donations will save 15 to 24 lives. How did this happen? I suspect that a lot of these donations came from my interview with Will McCaskill, who really knows what he's talking about when it comes to effective giving. He's a philosopher ethicist and one of the originators of the effective altruism movement. He is an associate professor in philosophy at Oxford, that is the University of Oxford and a researcher at the Global Priorities Institute at Oxford. Just a great guy overall, and in our podcast together, he recommended Givewell, by far as one of the best places to give if you want to make an impact, especially if you're busy. It came to his mind immediately. All of their research is publicly available for free on their website. And more importantly, Givewell never takes any fees. So all of your tax deductible donations are given to the charity you choose. Since 2010, Givewell has helped more than 50,000 donors direct more than $500 million to the most effective charities. These donations will save more than 75,000 lives and improve the lives of millions more. You only have a few days left to make tax deductible donations before the new year, so go right now, and when you make your first donation to Givewell, your gift will be matched up to $250. Just go to givewell.org Tim and Pick podcast and Tim Ferriss at checkout. You got to do those things so they can track it. This matching offer is good for as long as funds last, so the race goes to the swift he who hesitates or she who hesitates is lost. Get your first donation matched up to $250 at givewell.org Tim and select podcast and Tim Ferriss at checkout one more time. Definitely take a look at this givewell.org slash Tim this episode is brought to you by athletic greens I get asked all the time what I would take if I could only take one supplement. The answer is invariably athletic greens. I view it as all in one nutritional insurance. I recommended it, in fact, in the four hour body. This is more than ten years ago and I did not get paid to do so. With approximately 75 vitamins, minerals and whole food sourced ingredients, you'd be very hard pressed to find a more nutrientdense and comprehensive formula on the market. It has multivitamins, multimineral greens, complex probiotics and prebiotics for gut health, an immunity formula, digestive enzymes, adaptogens, and much more. I usually take it once or twice a day just to make sure I've covered my bases. If I miss anything I'm not aware of. Of course, I focus on nutrient dense meals to begin with. That's the basis. But athletic greens makes it easy to get a lot of nutrition when whole foods aren't readily available from travel packets. I always have them in my bag when I'm zipping around. Right now, athletic Greens is giving my audience a special offer on top of their all in one formula, which is a free vitamin D supplement and five free travel packs with your first subscription purchase. Many of us are deficient in vitamin D. I found that true for myself, which is usually produced in our bodies from sun exposure. So adding a vitamin D supplement to your daily routine is a great option. For additional immune support. Support your immunity, gut health and energy by visiting athleticgreens.com Slash TFS, you'll receive up to a year's supply of vitamin D and five free travel packs with your subscription. Again, that's athleticgreens.com tfs. As in Tim Ferriss show athleticgreens.com tfs. This episode is brought to you by five Bullet Friday, my very own email newsletter. It's become one of the most popular email newsletters in the world, with millions of subscribers, and it's super, super simple. It does not clog up your inbox. Every Friday I send out five bullet points super short of the coolest things I've found that week, which sometimes includes apps, books, documentaries, supplements, gadgets, new self experiments, hacks, tricks, and all sorts of weird stuff that I dig up from around the world. You guys, podcast listeners and book readers have asked me for something short and action packed for a very long time. Because after all, the podcasts, the books, they can be quite long. And that's why I created five bullet Friday. It's become one of my favorite things I do every week. It's free. It's always going to be free. And you can learn more at Tim Blog Friday. That's Tim blog Friday. I get asked a lot how I meet guests for the podcast, some of the most amazing people I've ever interacted with, and little known fact, I've met probably 25% of them because they first subscribed to Fibulit Friday. So you'll be in good company. It's a lot of fun. Five bullet Friday is only available if you subscribe via email. I do not publish the content on the blog or anywhere else. Also, if I'm doing small in person meetups, offering early access to startups, beta testing, special deals, or anything else that's very limited, I share it first with Fibull at Friday subscribers. So check it forward slash Friday. If you listen to this podcast, it's very likely that you'd dig it a lot. And you can, of course, easily subscribe anytime. So easy peasy. Again, that's Tim blog Friday, and thanks for checking it out. If the spirit moves you at this altitude, I can run flat out for a half mile before my hands start shaking. Can I ask you a personal question? Now?