In this 26 January 2026 published video, host Shawn Ryan talks with Tim Ferriss, the author of five top New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestsellers, including The 4-Hour Workweek, The 4-Hour Body, and The 4-Hour Chef. His podcast, The Tim Ferriss Show, has surpassed one billion downloads and is widely regarded as the “Oprah of audio.” Named as one of Fortune’s “40 Under 40”.
Tim is an early-stage technology investor/advisor (Uber, Facebook, Shopify, Duolingo, Alibaba, and 50+ others) and was ranked among the “Top 20 Angel Investors” by Forbes. A Princeton University graduate (BA 2000, East Asian Studies), Tim is a polyglot who speaks five languages to different degrees, a national Chinese kickboxing champion, the first American in history to hold a Guinness World Record in tango spins, and a practiced horseback archer (yabusame) in Japan.
His business ventures include bootstrapping a nootropics company (BrainQUICKEN) to millions in revenue before selling it in 2010, launching the audiobook imprint Tim Ferriss Publishing with Amazon Audible (responsible for modern classics like Ego Is the Enemy and The Obstacle Is the Way), and co-creating the hit card game COYOTE (2025) with Exploding Kittens creator Elan Lee—now sold in over 8,000 stores worldwide including Target, Walmart, and Amazon.
Known for normalizing vulnerability while achieving massive success, Tim pioneered the remote-work and lifestyle-design movements pre-pandemic, popularized biohacking, and has served as an advisor at Singularity University and a 2009 Henry Crown Fellow at the Aspen Institute.
00:00 Introduction and Welcome
12:09 Investing in Relationships and Intuition
33:58 Fear Setting vs. Goal Setting
44:39 Balancing Fear, Action, and Resilience
46:37 Minimalism and Mental Toughness
50:26 Morning Pages and Mental Clarity
54:42 Childhood Challenges and Trauma
01:02:30 Mental Health, Trauma, and Healing
01:08:05 Bioelectric Medicine and the Future of Health
01:11:56 Community, Connection, and Suicide Prevention
01:28:29 Psychedelics, Growth, and Caution
01:44:56 Lucid Dreaming and Altered States
01:54:55 Reentry into Psychedelics and Spiritual Inquiry
02:15:01 Happiness, Culture, and Social Cohesion
02:22:58 Adversity, Expectations, and Meaning
02:31:59 Personal Drive and Life Direction
02:46:10 Time Perception and Life Experience
02:58:28 Near-Death Experiences and Skepticism
03:12:35 The Art of Saying No
03:24:25 Startup Investing and Risk
03:36:15 Final Thoughts and Conclusion
