Neuro Experience

Keith Rabois has built companies, backed some of Silicon Valley's biggest successes, and earned a reputation as one of the sharpest strategic minds in venture capital. But when Louisa sat down with him, they barely spoke about investing. Instead, they explored the system behind his decision-making: the daily habits he believes keep his brain performing at an elite level. From treating himself like a professional athlete to measuring every workout for more than two decades, Rabois argues that the strongest predictor of longevity isn't genetics or supplements, it's VO₂ max. He explains why every ambitious person should know their VO₂ max, why he believes improving it may have a greater impact than many of the world's biggest public health campaigns, and why he asks founders the same question before asking about their company. You'll hear why he wears a fitness tracker every day, why he hasn't missed more than seven workouts in seven years, and why he believes consistency, not intensity, is what compounds into

Ask most people what a brain chip does and they will tell you it reads your mind. Dr. Michael Lawton implants these devices, and he says that is not what comes off them. He is President and CEO of Barrow Neurological Institute in Phoenix, the hospital where Neuralink's first human implant was performed, and he has completed more than 10,000 brain operations and clipped around 5,500 aneurysms. Louisa sat down with him inside Barrow to find out what the electrodes actually pick up, how far the technology has come, and where it stops. He walks through the surgery itself. The device goes into the hand knob, one small lobule of the motor cortex, where 64 electrodes have already become 108. The threads carrying them are about a tenth the thickness of a hair, so a robot inserts them while avoiding every arteriole on the surface. You'll hear what Nolan Arbaugh, Neuralink's first patient, can now do with a cursor at world record speed, and why Lawton can't keep up with him in a head to head. Then the correction. Th

Two out of three Alzheimer's patients are women, and for decades that gap was written off as a side effect of living longer. The newer neuroscience tells a more specific story: menopause is not a reproductive event, it's a neurological one, and the pathology begins 20 to 30 years before the first symptom. In this episode, Louisa breaks down why the female brain loses its primary protection around 40, what actually drives the disease, and the seven evidence-based protections that can change the trajectory. She starts with the estrogen shield, the four things estrogen does in the female brain that nothing else replicates: it drives mitochondrial biogenesis, suppresses amyloid plaque formation, upregulates antioxidant enzymes, and maintains white matter integrity. You'll hear why estrogen doesn't decline smoothly but swings wildly through perimenopause before dropping roughly 80% by postmenopause, what PET scans already show in women in midlife, and why a 2021 paper by Mosconi and colleagues named menopause th

Six days before he sat down for this conversation, he ran a marathon. Then he explained what the race did to his brain. When you run 26 miles and your glycogen runs out, your brain still needs energy, so it starts stripping the fatty myelin off its own neurons and burning it for fuel. MRI scans caught a 20% drop in myelin up to two months after a marathon, and cognitive testing showed real impairment for about a month. In this episode, Louisa sits down with Brady Holmer, exercise physiologist, 2:24 marathoner, and author of VO2 Max Essentials, for one of the most practical conversations on aerobic fitness, brain health, and longevity the show has recorded. They cover why "marathon brain" is real but temporary, the menopause parallel where a starved brain catabolizes its own white matter, and whether pre-loading ketones or omega-3s can protect your myelin through a hard endurance effort. Then Brady breaks down VO2 max the way almost nobody does: not as a heart-and-lung number, but as a five-step oxygen cascad

"Everyone gets cancer five times a day — your body already knows how to take care of it." Sam Bertram is the co-founder and CEO of OnePointOne, the vertical-farming company behind the Willo brand. With his brother John (CTO), Sam is building fully automated indoor farms — powered by AutoStore robotics, AI, and precision LED light — that grow nutrient-dense produce in about 15 days, with no soil and no sunlight. But the vision goes far beyond salad: using plants as living factories to manufacture pharmaceutical-grade molecules (like monoclonal antibodies) at a fraction of today's cost, and eventually "closing the loop" on human nutrition — food grown to your own blood work. *Reduce your risk of Alzheimer's with my science-backed protocol for women 30+: * https://go.neuroathletics.com.au/yout... Subscribe to The Neuro Experience for evidence-based conversations at the intersection of brain science, longevity, and performance. _____ TOPICS DISCUSSED 00:00 – Cold open: bold claims & who is Sam Bertram 00:5

Fifty years ago the U.S. government classified it alongside heroin: no accepted medical use, high potential for abuse, illegal in most of the world. The peer-reviewed data now coming out of Johns Hopkins, Imperial College, and Nature tells a different story, one that has some of the most credentialled neuroscientists alive rethinking how the brain heals. In this episode, Louisa breaks down exactly what psilocybin does to your neurons, why it works where antidepressants stall for decades, and where the research is heading right now. She walks through the default mode network, the self-referential system that turns rigid and hyperactive in depression, and the 2024 Nature study that described psilocybin's effect on it as "massive" disruption. You'll hear how a single dose drove a measurable jump in dendritic spine density within 24 hours, why psilocin binds the TRKB receptor 300 times more strongly than any conventional antidepressant, and how Robin Carhart-Harris's head-to-head trial against escitalopram produ

He carried two copies of ApoE4, the highest genetic risk factor for Alzheimer's disease, went through medical school knowing exactly what his LDL of 700 meant, decided the experts were wrong, and then published the case report to prove it. In this episode, Louisa sits down with Dr. Nick Norwitz, PhD researcher and metabolic scientist, for one of the most scientifically dense conversations on brain health, cholesterol biology, and Alzheimer's prevention ever recorded on this show. They cover why the phospholipid form of DHA reaches the brain more effectively than standard fish oil, how ApoE4 carriers burn through omega-3s differently and what to do about it, the lithium orotate data that sold out supplement shelves worldwide, and why GSK-3 beta, the enzyme that phosphorylates tau, may be the most under appreciated target in Alzheimer's research today. Then Nick lays out the case that challenges the "LDL is always the enemy" consensus: why metabolically healthy individuals may not benefit from aggressive lipid

Every AI breakthrough you've heard of, ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, traces back to a single 1943 paper, and its co-author was a homeless teenage runaway who never finished high school. Walter Pitts taught himself Greek, Latin, and the foundations of modern logic in a Detroit public library, corrected Bertrand Russell's math by letter at age 12, and was taken in by a 45 year old scientist who treated him like a son. He helped found the architecture behind every neural network in existence at 19, and then a single lie destroyed every relationship he had, sending him into a 17 year drinking spiral that ended in a Cambridge boarding house in 1969. In this solo episode, I tell the full story of how Pitts' partnership with neurophysiologist Warren McCulloch produced the unbroken ancestor of the perceptron, backpropagation, and the transformer architecture behind today's large language models, and what happened when a fabricated accusation cut him off from every mentor he had. I lay out the specific conditions, free

70% of what American children eat today is ultra processed food and the regulatory system that's supposed to protect them has been asleep for decades. In this episode, I sit down with Nick Green, co-founder and CEO of Thrive Market, the membership-based online grocery platform that built a $700 million business by treating healthy food access as an infrastructure problem, not a willpower problem. Nick grew up watching his mother drive across Minnesota to find organic options before the internet existed and 20 years later, built the company meant to make that struggle obsolete. We get into the GRAS self-certification loophole that lets food companies rubber stamp their own ingredients as safe, why synthetic dyes and preservatives banned across Europe remain standard in the US, and how Thrive goes beyond EU standards to vet every single product on its platform. We also cover what the GLP-1 trend is actually revealing about the deeper food system failure, why the American healthcare model was built for infectio

If you think you need to train to failure to build muscle, you've been operating on outdated science. Dr. Brad Schoenfeld has nearly 400 peer-reviewed papers on hypertrophy and he's done a complete 180 on some of his most firmly held beliefs. In this episode, I sit down with Dr. Brad Schoenfeld, PhD, professor of exercise science and one of the world's most cited researchers in muscle hypertrophy. We break down the training myths that are still circulating online including why training to failure isn't necessary, why light weights can build as much muscle as heavy ones, and why two 30-minute sessions a week is genuinely enough for most people. Brad also explains the science of type one versus type two fiber loss with age, how GLP-1s are complicating muscle retention, and what the research actually says about rest intervals, cold plunges, and post-exercise heat. We also go deep into the cutting edge of hypertrophy science: lengthened partials, electro-stimulation, the overlooked connection between muscle and m

Most people think tracking their protein is enough. The science says what your body actually craves is something far more specific and the person making that argument spent 23 years inside legacy media watching the wellness industry sell women everything from "bikini body in two weeks" to canned protein soda. In this episode, I sit down with Liz Plosser, former Editor in Chief of Women's Health, where she oversaw brands reaching 44 million women. We break down why the nine essential amino acids are what your body is really after when you chase protein, why BCAAs are only a fraction of the picture, and why a study found four of the top six creatine gummies on Amazon contained zero creatine. Liz also opens up about her own supplement stack, her shift from endurance running to heavy lifting, and makes the case that testing instead of guessing is one of the most empowering moves you can make for your health. Then we go deep on the science most people get wrong: why aging women struggle to pull amino acids f

Most people think breast cancer treatment ends when the tumor is gone. Science says that's where the real damage often begins, and the woman making that argument was diagnosed at 28, lost her mother to ovarian cancer the same year, and turned her own dismissal by the medical system into a specialization that now treats women nobody else will touch. In this episode, I sit down with Dr. Corinne Menn Board Certified OBGYN, breast cancer survivor, and one of the few specialists in the world treating menopause in cancer survivors. We break down why 80% of women diagnosed with breast cancer have no strong family history, why tamoxifen and aromatase inhibitors quietly devastate brain, bone, and sexual health, and why telling a woman with severe vaginal atrophy to use coconut oil is not evidence-based medicine. Dr. Corinne also opens up about her own diagnosis, her premature menopause at 28, the truth about hormone replacement therapy after breast cancer, and the BRCA, ApoE4, and surgical menopause snowball nobody

*Reduce your risk of Alzheimer's with my science-backed protocol for women 30+:*https://tinyurl.com/55c24w66 Most people think tracking your brain is science fiction. The truth is, the technology to measure your brainwaves, train your focus, and deepen your deep sleep already fits inside a sleek little headband and the woman who built it has been studying neuroplasticity since long before consumer neurotech existed. In this episode, I sit down with Ariel Garten, neuroscientist, psychotherapist, and co-founder of Muse, the brain-sensing wearable backed by the world's largest consumer EEG data set. We break down what brainwaves actually are, why your individual alpha peak frequency is one of the most underrated markers of cognitive aging, and how just five minutes of focused attention meditation per day can make your brain look 7.5 years younger. Ariel walks me through sleep spindles as the single greatest predictor of brain age, how the glymphatic system clears amyloid beta during deep sleep, and why hemispher

Most people think building a billion-dollar consumer brand requires a Stanford MBA, a celebrity co-sign, and a war chest of venture capital. The reality is messier. The person making that case mixed nootropics in his college dorm room, helped his paralyzed best friend find his edge again with the same compounds, and turned a piece of gum into one of the fastest-growing functional brands in America. In this episode, I sit down with Kent Yoshimura, neuroscientist, martial artist, muralist, and co-founder of Neuro Gum. We break down why the founder's identity matters more than the ingredient list, why cold compression makes most creatine gummies a scam, and why nano-influencers will quietly outperform every Kardashian-tier post by 2027. Kent also opens up about the trademark lawsuit that nearly killed the company, the Daniel Lubetzky DM that ended a war of attrition in a single message, the 25,000-creator Discord running Neuro's TikTok flywheel, the $10 million raise that built the team, and what he would do

Most people think their kitchen is the safest place in their home. The truth is the opposite. The cookware you use every day, the cutting boards you trust, the utensils you stir with, even the coffee maker on your counter, may be quietly leaching forever chemicals, microplastics, and heavy metals into your food and into your brain. In this episode, I sit down with Jordan Nathan, founder and CEO of Caraway, the brand redefining what nontoxic actually means in the modern home. Jordan walks me through the night he called poison control after overheating a Teflon pan, the 2-year journey to launch a cookware line free of PFAS, and why six U.S. states have now banned forever chemicals in cookware. We unpack what PFAS, PFOA, and PTFE actually are, why they accumulate in fat tissue and cross the blood brain barrier, and why scratched pans, plastic cutting boards, and black nylon utensils are some of the most dangerous things in your kitchen. Then we go deep on the science. I break down the Nature Medicine 2025 stu

Elon Musk is widely regarded as the benchmark of elite human performance. From a neuroscience perspective, he is something else entirely: by his own self-documentation across interviews and social media, he has become the most thoroughly traceable case of elite cognitive deterioration ever observed in real time. The same biology eroding his decision-making carries categorically different, and far more dangerous, consequences for a specific hormonal architecture, with a 15 year delay on the damage. In this solo episode, I conduct a forensic neuroscience breakdown of what chronic, extreme output actually does to the brain. I examine why the 100 hour workweek punishes rather than rewards the prefrontal cortex, how the glymphatic system clears neurotoxic byproducts like amyloid beta only during deep sleep, and what chronic cortisol does to the hippocampus, including measurable volumetric reduction visible on MRI. I walk through the 2025 Framingham Heart Study showing that elevated midlife cortisol predicted in

Most people think a brain scan is just a snapshot of what is wrong right now. Dr. Mistry has spent twenty years reading over 300,000 neuroimaging studies and what he has found is that your brain scan does not just show you the present. It reveals your past and with the right tools, it predicts your future. In this episode, I sit down with Dr. Mistry, a neuroradiologist and neuroimaging specialist, to break down exactly how AI is transforming what we can detect in the brain and why the window to intervene is decades earlier than anyone tells you. We cover the F1 car analogy that reframes every component of your central nervous system, why Alzheimer's disease begins twenty to thirty years before diagnosis, and how a volumetric MRI spotted a 2.2% hippocampal volume loss in a woman in her 50s that the human eye could not detect on two consecutive normal scans. This episode will change how you think about your brain scans, your cardiovascular health, and the daily decisions that are either protecting or sile

Most people think allergies are seasonal annoyances and autoimmune disease is just genetic bad luck. The science says otherwise and the doctor making that argument has spent her career tracing both epidemics back to a cascade of well-intentioned medical decisions made thirty years ago that got it catastrophically wrong. In this episode, I sit down with Dr. Tania Elliott, board-certified in internal medicine and allergy and immunology, to break down why your immune system is not broken, it is confused. We cover how chronic stress triggers the same physiological response as a bacterial invasion, why 80% of autoimmune diseases occur in women, and what is actually driving the 1 in 3 allergy epidemic. Dr. Elliott reveals the institutional failure behind the 2001 peanut guidance, why the 0.2% peanut allergy rate in Israel versus 10% in the US is not a coincidence, and why nut-free schools may be quietly creating the next wave of food allergies. We also get into what Benadryl is actually doing to your brain, w

Most people think astrology is a personality quiz. This conversation will make you reconsider that entirely. Naomi Nama Bracha is one of the most sought-after birth chart readers working today. In this episode, she sits down with me for a live, cold read of my chart pulling from the exact position of the sky at the time of my birth to reveal things I've never had explained to me before. Not in therapy. Not in any other conversation. We break down what a birth chart actually is, why it's more mathematical than mystical, and what the planets, signs, and houses each represent. We go into the Saturn-Neptune conjunction that just occurred an event that happens once every 320 years and what it means for the collective and for your chart right now. I also bring the science: a 2015 Columbia University study of 1.7 million patients found birth month correlates with risk for nine types of heart disease, and a 2023 meta-analysis confirmed that being born in winter or spring carries a 5 to 8% higher risk of developing

Most people think going to the gym for aesthetics is shallow. Science says it's actually the most honest starting point you've got and the person making that argument built one of the most respected evidence-based fitness companies in the world, openly used steroids, and then had surgery to remove his love handles. In this episode, I sit down with Dr. Mike Israetel, PhD in Sport Physiology and co-founder of Renaissance Periodization. We break down why two 20 minute workouts a week can build genuine muscle, why compound movements beat isolation exercises for nearly everyone, and why yoga and Pilates will not get you the physique you're after. Mike also opens up about his own use of anabolic steroids and cosmetic surgery, and makes the case that aesthetics pursued honestly and without shame is one of the most empowering conversations in health. Then we go deep on the future of the human body: GLP-1s, myostatin inhibitors, retatrutide, and why Mike believes that by the 2040s, no disease we can identify to