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I remember the exact moment I decided to start a podcast four years ago. I enjoyed a dinner with two friends in New York city so much that I wished I had recorded it. For two hours, over fantastic Persian food, I basically interviewed two brilliant scientists between bites of fesenjan. Although it wasn’t the first time that I wanted to record the insights of other people, that particular conversation spurred me to begin the podcast journey. July 2 marked the three year anniversary of The Drive.
We started the podcast on a 12-episode test run in late June of 2018, on the cusp of what has become a Cambrian-like explosion of podcasts in circulation today. Admittedly, I started the podcast for selfish reasons. I am always trying to learn things I don’t already know and perpetually have a bunch of questions that I am trying to answer. I also wanted to record meaningful conversations and share them with other people who could listen in.
Over 165 episodes and three years later, my intention hasn’t changed much, but the podcast operation has definitely evolved, taking on a life of its own. Each podcast episode requires about 40 hours of preparation, give or take, which includes my team working on a document about the podcast guest, the guest’s work, any pertinent background information on the given topic space, and my review thereof. The shortest of these documents was 10 pages (only happened once!); more typically they are 30 to 40 single-spaced pages. The post-production for each episode now includes audio and video, since we started video recording the conversations for our YouTube channel. I even built a mini recording studio in my office where I sit (or Zoom) with guests, trying to make it feel like we are in-person if it is over Zoom. Since a lot of the motivation to produce the podcast comes from wanting to build a knowledge base, I wanted quality in-depth shownotes that accompany each episode, which by my audit, accounts for another 20 to 30 hours of work for each episode.
We have received some feedback expressing that it can be difficult to get through one new episode every week, due to the technical nature and depth of many of the episodes. Suffice it to say that getting deep in the weeds on a given topic does not necessarily make for a quick listen, especially if you want to thoughtfully sit with the content. (I must admit, I need to go back and listen to about 10 to 15% of the episodes in an effort to reinforce what I learned, which probably says something, given the time I put into preparing and the fact that I’ve already listened once during the actual recording.) Since I want to optimize the most beneficial way of sharing information on this podcast platform, I thought to try an experiment: we are going to take off one new episode release per month during the summer (though the AMA’s will still continue at the regular pace of one per month). I figure this will allow listeners to catch up on longer episodes and go through shownotes, and also allow the opportunity to (re)visit past episodes, which may be new for a lot of you. A complete episode archive can be found here. If you want some help deciding which episodes to listen to, or are curious about a certain topic, have a look at the topics page here.
The podcast is one of my favorite extracurricular activities. It is a great privilege to talk across a wide range of topics with people I wouldn’t ordinarily be able to speak with (at least in such length and depth). It is the greatest “forcing function” to drive my learning at a rate I could never keep up organically. And I have also loved how the episodes and shownotes have become a resource for my patients and for the general public alike. I want to make the podcast as beneficial and enjoyable for you as possible, so I welcome your feedback on three things.
First, let us know if you find value in the newly added video content, including shorter clips for each episode released. Second, let us know what you think about one less new episode per month. It is our hope that you are given the opportunity to receive the (sometimes technical) information in a format and cadence that works for you. Third, please suggest people you would like me to interview and topics you would like to see explored in depth. Although we may not be able to respond to your feedback directly, we will be reading it all. Thank you for partaking in our varied experimentations over the years, and I look forward to more exciting endeavors ahead!
Dr. Attia and team, hi. I am retired with a moderate income and your podcast is one of the few subscriptions that I maintain. I am a layperson – sometimes I only understand about 60-70% of the content at first, but I enjoy the stretch learning – I feel like a student again! You are an excellent teacher and counterpoint to the guests on your podcasts. The show notes are invaluable and I listen to some podcasts more than once. I listen to the podcasts on my phone and view the show notes on my laptop. I do not currently view the videos, but maybe I should check them out. I am a little behind on the podcasts at the moment and am OK with easing off a bit over the summer – give yourself and your team a little breather. The length of the podcasts is not an issue, although some topics/guests might lend themselves to a Part 1 and Part 2 scenario. There is an overwhelming amount of opinions, approaches, information, etc., available “out there” – more than once I’ve said to myself, “I think I’ll wait and see if Dr. Attia talks about this.” I appreciate the time and effort expended and am happy to support your work. Thank you!
I like the idea of one less episode per month. I listen to every episode while I am “on the go” and don’t watch the interviews on YouTube.
Thanks Peter & team!
Erin
I look forward every week to your podcast. I rarely watch a video because it traps me in one spot foe too long. I concede that the depth often requires me to listen multiple times. That does not bother me at all. I like understanding things well enough to be able to explain to others. I find myself in the explaining business quite a lot.
I think I will be disappointed if there is one less weekly episode. But I will survive.
And I rarely don’t listen even if the subject/ interviewee doesn’t initial interest me. Because almost always I get something valuable from an interview that has nothing whatsoever to do with the direct subject.
I have followed your work for almost 10 years, having gained the basics of cholesterol from your old website.
Thank you
Do not look forward to one less podcast a month….can understand why you do and why you are cramped for time ( our most valuable commodity). I started with your 3rd or 4th podcasts and am a devoted fan. I’m looking forward to your review of the Dog study with Matt Kaeberlein and what’s new in David Sabatini’s lab. My wife and i both enjoy your podcasts and appreciate the work you and your team put into every episode. Thanks, paul tobin
I. I listen to ur podcasts so I am ambivalent to the YouTube videos.
2. I look forward to every Monday release. I can get by with one fewer per month but I would miss it.
3. Future topic: vascular health particularly lower leg varicose vein management. I note many athletes now wearing compression socks, and with the tendency for obesity and diabetes to cause lower leg vascular issues, this seems an appropriate topic.
4. Guests: a healthcare futurist could be interesting and a good follow up to your 2016 video on healthcare cost containment.
Hey Peter, a few recommendations:
1- Consider a podcast with Aubrey De Grey, who started the SENS foundation. Not only is he and his foundation at the epicenter of multiple orgs working on life extending solutions, but his foundation has also spun off multiple successful products dealing with various age related cellular damage. Would also be interesting to know the process of how donations to SENS leads to eventual product spin offs with investor funding and then eventually reach the market.
2- Look into the companies and orgs that are partnered with the SENS foundation or have spun off from the foundation and use that as a resource for getting people for the podcast. Lots of topic material including Mitochondrial DNA repair/replacement, etc. for age related/metabolite damage and how to repair it. So many interesting products and clinical trials going on.
3- Would be interesting to know the general landscape of how medical research and product development happens from someone who knows it well enough(look into someone with that knowledge base). I think understanding how investors enter the space is a under-analyzed subject that will bring more attention to the financial side of medicine.
I really enjoy your podcasts and deep dives. I listen to them while I walk so I don’t watch the videos. I would actually like more podcasts not fewer, but understand that summer with kids might necessitate a break. Maybe a few more AMAs? I appreciate the quality of the research and guests on your show. There is a lot of misinformation out there. I am from a science background so love the deep dives.
1. I find the video content more valuable now that I’m not driving as much. It’s great to watch as I do my Zone 2 training. The shorter clips are useful for going back to review important segments of an episode.
2. One less episode a month sounds like a good idea. There are many previous episodes that I’d like to revisit.
3. Episodes on women’s and children’s health would be helpful.
Thank you for sharing knowledge and thank you to the team for the amazing show notes.
Hi there,
One less per month is fine with me. I prefer quality over quantity and digesting some of them with a little more time would work fine for me.
I don’t do the video unless there’s movement oriented lessons, e.g. Beth’s casts. I prefer the audio format.
No requests for guests. I love the unsung heroes and brilliance that you seem to attract to the show. If they pass your filter for qualification then it’s safe to assume it’s good with me.
Thanks to you and your team for all the hard work. We love it
My two dream guests for this podcast are Kelly Starrett (physical therapist) and Hamilton Morris (chemist, journalist).
I love the videos. Since the podcast can be so technical I have a hard time listening to it while exercising, walking, or driving anyway.
One episode less a month is fine with me. I can not and probably never will catch up and listen to every episode. I only listen to ones that interest me.
I hate video, so I only listen to the podcasts
I have not yet bitten the bullet on a subscription due to a fixed income, a;though I dearly wish I could afford to access the AMAs and shownotes.
If I am interested in all the topics for the month, it can be hard to get through all of them in addition to the couple of other podcasts I listen to, but I don’t want to give up the depth of discussion, so I would be fine with one less podcast per month.
Thanks for all that you do!
Keep doing what you are doing. I love the depth of the conversations. I especially enjoy your questions and hearing the guest’s reponses. You have a real knack for getting them to paint the picture – be it a story or technical concept and often both.
I’ve got no problems with the length or technical deep dives. I love them. I also really appreciated the more pyschological paths you’ve travelled, as well as hunting, cars and pacific island adventures.
Listening whilst walking/drive is the sweet spot for me. I use Video/YouTube for those physical/movement episodes only.
Keep doing what you are doing. I love the depth of the conversations. I especially enjoy your questions and hearing the guest’s responses. You have a real knack for getting them to paint the picture – be it a story or technical concept and often both.
I’ve got no problems with the length or technical deep dives. I love them. I also really appreciated the more psychological paths you’ve travelled, as well as hunting, cars and pacific island adventures.
Listening whilst walking/drive is the sweet spot for me. I use Video/YouTube for those physical/movement episodes only.
Love the podcast! (I’ll get right to it)
1. Haven’t had time to watch the video content, I’m extremely busy and always listen in the car.
2. Could we trade one fewer podcast for improved compression / limiting / EQ of the audio? 🙂
3. You’ve covered these topics before, but sleep and stress are big topics I’d like to see further investigated.
(Note, I’ve been a part time audio engineer for about 20 years, and I download and run your podcast thru a plugin chain that greatly improves the listening experience, it takes about 5 minutes to do the whole process. I’d love to send an example, but I’m sure you can find someone in your circle that could do the same thing.)
Suggested guests:
1. Invite Bill Harris back on to update us on the outcome of the STRENGTH trial and how we should think about fish oil given the results. (The press picked up a negative headline and extensivly quoted Steven Nissen, MD with this: “We believe that STRENGTH demonstrates that REDUCE-IT is a false-positive result. There is no effect of fish oil on cardiovascular outcomes, just as all of the other trials have shown. REDUCE-IT we think is positive because it used a negative control rather than a neutral control,” Nissen told TCTMD).
2. For an AMA, it would be good to hear more about Dayspring’s new guidance that ApoB is better than LDL-P in assessing CVD risk. He co-authored a paper in 2016 that discussed significant discordance between ApoB and LDL-P. Do both tests need to be run periodically? https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1933287414004048
3. Lance Armstrong would be an awesome guest.
Since you asked for our input – personally I would prefer to keep the one episode per week format. Even though it is too much for me to consume all of it consistently, usually there is an occasional podcast that I’m not interested in, and the opportunity to skip means I can usually keep up with the episodes as they come, consistent with my curiosity.
My biggest request is that the framework for the website be structured more like Peter’s “5 pillars” of longevity…that structure makes sense for me, and his approach is so logical, linear and nested…seems like it would be easy to organize the online resources to match this approach. I’ve resigned to waiting on the book forever, and also really value the “permanently editable” nature of a website / blog. Seems like these advantages are not really exercised as efficiently as they could be. Thanks and I love the content either way. Cheers,
1. Yours is the only podcast that I subscribe to.
2. It’s excellent and I learn so much.
3. I appreciate your backing off. Honestly two podcasts a month and one AMA is probably better, at least for me. If in need of a “fix” I will simply replay all Tom Dayspring podcasts over and again. I always pick up something new.
4. I do not watch videos (I usually listen to casts while driving). Keep thinking I will… But haven’t yet and most likely won’t.
Topics that interest me:
1. unique options to overcome our difficult medical system (ex: I use 3 pharmacies and none do I give my insurance info. Some travel to other countries for care (good? Bad?). When in France we refill scripts…. Easily and cheaply. A clinic with known pricing (no surprises). And so on.
2. Anything new, or an interesting view of or take on, cardiovascular and Alzheimer’s issues.
3. More on hormone replacement – men and women.
4. Healthy aging work-arounds (loose skin, splotchy skin, joint pain, etc).
5. Genetic test info (where to get the best tests, best interpretations, what to be wary of…).
6. List of tests we should get (once, yearly, etc) and if there are optimum ways to track results over time. Perhaps a calendar to follow.
7. New study results explained on anything.
8. Medical issues for thin people.
Thank you!
– Thank you for putting out all of the information. It’s wonderful.
– Prefer weekly podcast.
– Support the week off – if it provides you/your team a more manageable schedule.
– Your topics section on the website is great
– Do not watch videos. Preferred method of information consumption is 2x speed on podcast then review the show notes.
– Preferred guests: Mauro Di Pasquale MD – amino acid expert, wrote anabolic solution 20 years ago, champion powerlifter. Alex Vasquez ND DO DC – alternate perspective than many of the guests and I think would be an interesting dialogue. Kamal Patel from examine.com or Greg Nuckols from MASS/Stronger by Science.
Be well and stay strong
Really appreciate what you all do and have referred a number of folks!
1. Video content is nice but I would only review it because the content, i.e. Beth Lewis, etc. made that necessary. Not a huge plus for me.
2. I do like the consistency of weekly episodes, but feel free to reduce the summer volume, you have taught us about self care!
3. What I would REALLY find valuable are more AMA’s to better capture and summarize what is being learned in an actionable way since all this comes down to implementation. Happy to reduce one weekly guest episode for an added AMA that does this specifically. AMA might not even be the right framing, but something each month where your team says, “This is what should be considered for implementation regarding these topics…”, think laser like specificity where every month I am locked in on what I should be doing in checklist fashion.
Thank you!
Found you a few months ago and have been absorbing as much as I can, I’m lucky to get 5% when you get in the weeds. You and Sam Harris are the only two podcasts I am paying for as your content provides a solid return on investment. Even when the content of your podcasts do not apply to me, I learn something and enjoy the personal conversations with your guests. I don’t watch the videos, I like listening to your podcast while I’m busy doing other things (like growing my own veggies). As a woman in early 50’s, fighting both metabolic issues and hormones, I am always looking for the practical advice. Given the high stats of metabolic diseases in our world, providing that type of information seems the most impactful. When you ask your guests how they treat their patients, I listen closely. I would vote for anything that keeps you and your team producing content! I would also love to hear more about exercise resources for the average middle age person (non pro, non athlete). I haven’t learned all of your jargon yet and still working through your library. Thanks to you and your team!!