Richie Davidson just went on Huberman Lab.
Dr. Davidson sits down with Andrew Huberman on meditation, neuroscience and his life's work
Update: High Level Summary here:
What Richie Discussed on Huberman Lab: The Science, The Studies, The Protocols
Dr. Richie Davidson of Dharma Lab just appeared on Andrew Huberman for a conversation that covered brain oscillations, neuroplasticity, pain research, psychedelics, parenting, self-control, sleep, and the four pillars of human flourishing.
Dr. Richard Davidson sat down (for 3 hours!) with Andrew Huberman for a wide-ranging conversation covering brain oscillations during meditation, the neuroscience of states versus traits, gamma activity in long-term meditators, how meditation changes the brain’s response to physical pain, pre-sleep meditation and deep sleep, psychedelics, self-control data from a 60-year longitudinal cohort, digital hygiene, meditation for children, and the four pillars of human flourishing.
On the power of a short daily practice:
“If you do it for 30 days and you do it just five minutes a day, you will see a significant reduction in symptoms of depression, symptoms of anxiety, and symptoms of stress. We’ve shown that repeatedly in randomized control trials.”
Richie’s lab has also shown that this amount of practice produces increases in measures of wellbeing and measurable decreases in IL-6, a pro-inflammatory cytokine. Huberman referred to a short practice as “Richie’s Five” (minutes).
On parenting, Richie said something that stopped the conversation:
“One of the best things a parent can do for a kid is not to have the kid meditate — but meditate yourself and just be with the child and be fully present.”
They also discussed new unpublished data on 13,000 students: when teachers received wellbeing training, their students’ standardized math scores improved. Same curriculum. The only variable was the inner state of the teacher.
Richie and Cort’s new book Born to Flourish comes out March 24 from Simon & Schuster. Huberman gave it a shout-out on the episode.
Watch or listen to the entire thing - Dharma Lab will be breaking this down more so stay tuned but wanted to get this out to you.
— Dharma Lab Dr. Richie Davidson Dr. Cortland Dahl
I'm happy that Richie had the opportunity to share his wisdom with a broader audience.
Incredible. This makes me so happy. When I was at a very low point 3.5 years ago (with mental health/depression) Huberman podcast gave me so many useful pointers for rebuilding from that.
Digging deeper and deeper(and beyond Huberman) I eventually found Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche & Tergar (and the both of you). Great, great news you are now right at the source (it is amazing how many men now at my local gym are in a similar position to myself a few years back and also listen to Andrew Huberman).