His parents divorced when he was 12 years old.[7] After his parents' divorce, he disengaged from traditional academics and had an interest in skateboarding. He also briefly considered a firefighting career.[7] After a break from formal education and a reassessment of his interests influenced by therapy and an interest in biopsychology, Huberman resumed his studies and attended Foothill College.[7]
Huberman does research in his lab known as Huberman Lab, which he established at the University of California, San Diego, focusing on biological sciences.[7] Later, he transferred his lab to Stanford when he joined there in 2016.[7]
The lab gained attention in 2016 for using virtual reality (VR) to stimulate retinal neuron regrowth.[7][13][14] The lab also researched non-pharmacological interventions for anxiety disorders, including VR exposure to controlled stressors and breathing techniques.[7][15]
In 2023, Huberman's lab, with David Spiegel, published a research paper on stress mitigation and carried out research on cortisol.[7][10] The lab also released a study on the regeneration of the visual system, contributing to the understanding of stress management techniques and the potential for visual system recovery.[7]
Huberman has also led work investigating the regeneration of eye tissue in mice, which may have a future application in studying optical nerve regeneration in humans.[16][17]
In 2024, New York Magazine stated that Huberman's lab at Stanford "barely exists", with only a single postdoc working there and the lab having been scaled back significantly during the COVID-19 pandemic. A spokesperson for Huberman said that the lab was still operational.[5]
Podcasts
Huberman was introduced to Robert Mohr in 2019, a New York-based health and fitness publicist who produced "The Fight with Teddy Atlas," a boxing podcast. As the COVID-19 pandemic progressed, Huberman grew dissatisfied with what he viewed as health authorities' narrow focus on the virus without providing guidance for improving public health. Mohr facilitated Huberman's appearances on major podcasts, including those hosted by Joe Rogan and Rich Roll. These appearances helped increase his social media following. By the end of 2020, Huberman had appeared on Lex Fridman's technology podcast. Fridman encouraged him to start his own podcast.[7]
In 2021, Huberman launched the Huberman Lab podcast.[10] In the same year, Huberman and Mohr co-founded Scicomm Media to produce science-related content.[7] As of 2023, the podcast had become the third most popular podcast in the US on Spotify platforms and the most followed show on Apple Podcasts.[18][19] In 2023, GQ magazine called it "one of the most listened to shows in the world."[2] His YouTube channel has 5.5 million subscribers and his Instagram account has 6.4 million.[20][21][22]
According to immunologist, microbiologist, and science communicator Andrea Love, Huberman's podcast content is characteristic of pseudoscience, often presenting health claims as scientific when they are in reality insufficiently backed by scientific evidence, or simply wrong.[3]Jonathan Jarry from the Office for Science and Society has questioned Huberman's promotion of "poorly regulated" dietary supplements. According to Jarry, The Huberman Lab podcast has been sponsored by "companies offering questionable products from the perspective of science-based medicine".[4] Joseph Zundell, a cancer biologist, trusts Huberman's expertise in neuroscience but also criticized him for extrapolating animal research for human use without appropriate scientific justification and straying from his area of expertise.[20] These criticisms were echoed by New York Magazine, which also stated that Huberman often "posits certainty where there is ambiguity".[5] Neuroscientist David Berson, who has known Huberman since his postdoctoral research and has been a guest on his podcast, says that Huberman's research is respected among neuroscientists and described his podcast as "a fabulous service for the world" and a way to "open the doors" to the world of science.[20] However, Berson also noted that the research community did not always approve of Huberman's monetization of his podcast through sponsors and partnerships. His promotion of unregulated health supplements has been particularly controversial, as these products often have little scientific evidence supporting their effectiveness.[20]
According to an article in Coda, Huberman has promoted anti-sunscreen views on his podcast, saying he is "as scared of sunscreen as I am of melanoma" and claiming that molecules in some types of sunscreen can be found in neurons 10 years after application without providing any evidence.[6] In a 2023 GQ article, Huberman said that he is not a "sunscreen truther" – a term used to describe anti-sunscreen conspiracy theorists.[23] Huberman has also expressed scepticism towards fluoridation and flu vaccination, despite scientific evidence for their effectiveness.[3]
Awards and recognition
Cogan Award for Contributions to Vision Science and Ophthalmology (2017)[24]
For his dissertation, he received the Allan G. Marr Prize for superior dissertation by a doctoral student at UC Davis in 2005.[12]
