Bulletproof Radio

IN THIS EPISODE OF THE HUMAN UPGRADE™...… you’ll find out about the relevance of shamanism in a modern world and why high performers are turning toward shamanic practices to get ahead.The show’s guest, Manvir Singh, Ph.D., is an anthropologist at the Institute for Advanced Study in Toulouse, France. He studies universal or near-universal cultural practices, including music, shamanism, and witchcraft. For the past seven years, he’s conducted ethnographic fieldwork in Indonesia. He recently wrote an article in WIRED magazine titled, “The Shamanification of the Tech CEO,” noting some curious parallels.“Silicon Valley austerity continues to grow more extreme. By 2020 intermittent fasting was no longer enough, and dopamine fasting—an abstention not just from food but from any form of stimulation, including music, eye contact, and playing Magic: The Gathering—had taken off. These self-denial fads are often touted as biohacking innovations. Yet as an anthropologist who has studied austerity in some of the