WEBVTT - Part Two: Wim Hof's Surprisingly Deadly Story 0:00:01.200 --> 0:00:08.760 What uh dangerous con man? My this fucking dude. Will 0:00:09.280 --> 0:00:12.360 James Guest happy? How are you. 0:00:14.000 --> 0:00:19.560 Wonderful? Good? Yeah, thriving ready for learning more about park animas. 0:00:19.960 --> 0:00:23.880 Very happy to hear that, James, I, you know, speaking 0:00:23.920 --> 0:00:24.520 of enemas? 0:00:25.239 --> 0:00:26.040 What why? Why? 0:00:26.040 --> 0:00:26.160 Did? 0:00:26.400 --> 0:00:27.440 What is it about animas? 0:00:27.480 --> 0:00:27.600 Why? 0:00:27.800 --> 0:00:31.000 Why are some people fucking obsessed with this? Is like 0:00:31.040 --> 0:00:32.040 the key to all health? 0:00:32.640 --> 0:00:35.120 Does seem to have a captivating power of the human spirit, 0:00:35.240 --> 0:00:36.559 doesn't it? The enema? Yeah? 0:00:36.640 --> 0:00:39.280 Yeah, there's a kind of person Inema guys and anima 0:00:39.320 --> 0:00:42.839 girls who are just like obsessed with fucking animas? Is 0:00:42.840 --> 0:00:44.520 the answer to all health problems? 0:00:44.880 --> 0:00:48.680 Yeah, it's I don't know, it's it's it's a lasting 0:00:48.680 --> 0:00:52.800 thread throughout human history. Someone should do a PhD on it. Yeah. 0:00:52.920 --> 0:00:54.920 I think it may have something to do with the 0:00:54.920 --> 0:00:59.400 fact that it's like an intense experience that I met you. Yeah, 0:00:59.680 --> 0:01:04.840 create it's like powerful physical sensations, and some people just 0:01:05.080 --> 0:01:07.640 flip out over it. I don't know, Yeah, and it 0:01:07.720 --> 0:01:09.440 seems thankful to their life. 0:01:09.520 --> 0:01:12.720 Yeah. Yeah, in a way that it's not if you 0:01:13.040 --> 0:01:15.360 inject park water into your colon. 0:01:17.000 --> 0:01:21.200 Yeah, you gotta, like, I don't know, like there are 0:01:21.319 --> 0:01:25.960 like obviously. Sometimes enemas are a useful tool for healthcare 0:01:26.280 --> 0:01:29.440 people to give. Sometimes people need edemas. But it should 0:01:29.440 --> 0:01:32.560 never be like a regular part of your day to day, right, No, 0:01:32.600 --> 0:01:33.360 it shouldn't be. 0:01:33.400 --> 0:01:36.720 Just like giving yourself enemas for fun. Yes, yeah, yeah, 0:01:37.080 --> 0:01:41.360 under medical supervision only. I think it's my starts on enemas. Yeah, 0:01:42.640 --> 0:01:44.840 they look at us, Enema cops, both of us. Yeah, 0:01:45.000 --> 0:01:47.960 NIMA cops. That's that's my job. I'm going to make 0:01:48.000 --> 0:01:53.200 sure people's assholes are nice and dry. I've broken with 0:01:53.240 --> 0:01:56.320 the anarchis obis, and I'll be becoming one of those 0:01:56.320 --> 0:01:58.000 really annoying stalinists on Twitter. 0:01:58.360 --> 0:02:01.880 You're an asshole authority. Well, you know who's not an 0:02:01.920 --> 0:02:06.440 asshole authoritarian is wim Hoff. But he thinks, you know, 0:02:06.960 --> 0:02:09.840 if you live in a state with public health care, 0:02:10.120 --> 0:02:12.919 you should just cut your guts to ribbons with a 0:02:13.000 --> 0:02:16.520 sprinkler head. And you know your fellow citizens can pay 0:02:16.520 --> 0:02:19.440 for that because you're a drifter who abandoned your family 0:02:19.480 --> 0:02:20.519 for a decade. 0:02:21.320 --> 0:02:26.280 That's what socialism does to him, to a motherfucker, Yeah, yep, 0:02:26.480 --> 0:02:31.120 every time. Can't not do it happened everywhere, So. 0:02:31.200 --> 0:02:34.120 James, when we left Whim. He had just shattered his 0:02:34.160 --> 0:02:36.880 guts by taking a public enema from a water fountain 0:02:36.919 --> 0:02:40.040 to avoid acknowledging that he'd abandon his family. That said, 0:02:40.320 --> 0:02:43.400 he does eventually come back to the picture. His book 0:02:43.440 --> 0:02:46.040 The Way of the Iceman gives us very little detail 0:02:46.160 --> 0:02:50.000 on the long gap between oleah suicide and his rise 0:02:50.040 --> 0:02:55.320 to prominence right after Later, Wim remarried and had another son. 0:02:55.480 --> 0:02:56.520 We just get this line. 0:02:57.040 --> 0:03:00.760 The children grew up and Hoff looked for more challenges. Yeah, 0:03:00.760 --> 0:03:03.359 they grew up more or less without you, buddy. Yeah, 0:03:03.480 --> 0:03:06.280 helik for challenges. It did not include parenting, are you Yeah? 0:03:06.600 --> 0:03:10.120 Not a challenge you was that interested in. So at 0:03:10.160 --> 0:03:13.160 this point his story jumps ahead to the mid aughts. 0:03:13.440 --> 0:03:16.640 There are not any particularly good or objective sources about 0:03:16.639 --> 0:03:18.680 the reality of his life in this period, so we're 0:03:18.680 --> 0:03:21.040 gonna have to rely on some bad ones. I found 0:03:21.080 --> 0:03:24.760 an article with irishnews dot com that features heavily an 0:03:24.760 --> 0:03:29.120 interview with Laura Hoff. Now today, Laura is involved in 0:03:29.160 --> 0:03:33.320 her father's business in her fire, so not an unbiased 0:03:33.360 --> 0:03:37.000 source without a financial interest in how Wim is seen, 0:03:37.920 --> 0:03:41.720 and her interview does not acknowledge some of the unpleasant 0:03:41.880 --> 0:03:45.240 stories that Scott talks about. But I think her claims 0:03:45.240 --> 0:03:47.160 about what it was like being raised by Wim are 0:03:47.200 --> 0:03:50.320 still worthy of analysis, because, at the very least, if 0:03:50.360 --> 0:03:54.400 this is not accurate to reality, it does show how 0:03:55.280 --> 0:03:58.440 his kids, who are affiliated with his business, think it 0:03:58.520 --> 0:04:02.160 is advantageous for their to be seen. Right yeah, yeah, 0:04:02.240 --> 0:04:05.360 sure if this is not an accurate recitation of reality, 0:04:05.680 --> 0:04:08.640 and we do not objectively know what happened with women 0:04:08.680 --> 0:04:13.480 as kids, right yeah yeah. Quote On a cold winters 0:04:13.560 --> 0:04:16.120 day in Amsterdam many years ago, while other parents were 0:04:16.120 --> 0:04:19.120 wrapped up warm to collect their kids from school, Laura 0:04:19.200 --> 0:04:21.599 Hawf recalls her dad turning up in a T shirt, 0:04:21.640 --> 0:04:23.880 shorts and sandals and then doing a bit of yoga 0:04:23.920 --> 0:04:26.320 in the school yard. I think I was raised by 0:04:26.320 --> 0:04:28.960 a very special man, which I only understood later, says 0:04:29.000 --> 0:04:31.840 Laura thirty six, agreeing the childhood that she shared with 0:04:32.000 --> 0:04:34.920 her three siblings was absolutely different than that of her friends. 0:04:35.520 --> 0:04:37.799 We always used to play outside if it was cold, 0:04:37.800 --> 0:04:40.200 it didn't really matter. The weather man never dictated what 0:04:40.240 --> 0:04:44.720 we needed to wear. Now that could be also go 0:04:44.800 --> 0:04:48.239 with whims, basically abandoning them to a squat the fact 0:04:48.240 --> 0:04:50.200 that like no one was there to make sure they 0:04:50.240 --> 0:04:52.200 were dressed brock so we did call clothes. 0:04:52.440 --> 0:04:55.920 Yeah, so we didn't have any clothes. Laura gives us 0:04:56.000 --> 0:04:58.960 little detail on what Whim's life was like after Oleah's 0:04:58.960 --> 0:05:01.560 suicide and his event return to his family, which she, 0:05:01.600 --> 0:05:04.160 of course has no obligation to do, but it does 0:05:04.279 --> 0:05:06.080 mean that this next period of his life is a 0:05:06.120 --> 0:05:08.599 bit of a black box when it comes to hard facts. 0:05:09.120 --> 0:05:11.920 This is as much as she says about being raised 0:05:11.920 --> 0:05:14.360 by Wim. We were very free. I don't think there 0:05:14.400 --> 0:05:17.200 were any rules. Sometimes you would think, okay, kids need 0:05:17.240 --> 0:05:19.000 some rules. But it was also the best time in 0:05:19.040 --> 0:05:21.159 my life. My father used to play more than we did, 0:05:21.400 --> 0:05:23.720 so he always wanted to go outside with us and 0:05:23.760 --> 0:05:24.440 that was great. 0:05:25.480 --> 0:05:27.840 So I don't know. That's another version of the story 0:05:28.839 --> 0:05:31.800 believe what you want, rather juxtaposed. Yeah. 0:05:32.320 --> 0:05:32.440 So. 0:05:32.800 --> 0:05:35.919 Wim claims that after his wife's suicide and returned to 0:05:36.000 --> 0:05:38.880 his return to his family, he traveled around the world 0:05:38.920 --> 0:05:42.440 doing what a normal person would call extreme stunts, summarized 0:05:42.440 --> 0:05:46.160 in his idobiography This way, his breathing techniques, yoga and 0:05:46.200 --> 0:05:48.479 cold training gave him enormous strength, and he liked to 0:05:48.480 --> 0:05:51.240 share it with others. The media got him in their sights. 0:05:51.640 --> 0:05:53.640 Encouraged by the attention and the effect it had on 0:05:53.680 --> 0:05:56.479 other people, wim broke record after record. He took the 0:05:56.520 --> 0:05:59.279 longest path in ice. He climbed snow covered mountain peaks 0:05:59.320 --> 0:06:02.160 wearing shorts. He ran a marathon th on in Lapland 0:06:02.160 --> 0:06:05.320 at negative thirty degrees celsius. He swam hundreds of meters 0:06:05.400 --> 0:06:09.520 under ice. His records were reported on television in Japan, Germany, Poland, 0:06:09.600 --> 0:06:12.640 Spain and many other countries. The BBC made a documentary 0:06:12.640 --> 0:06:14.839 about him, and millions of people watched his feats on 0:06:14.880 --> 0:06:18.760 the internet. And again, the way he's talking about his 0:06:18.880 --> 0:06:22.239 early activities is almost as if they like the fame 0:06:22.279 --> 0:06:25.159 that he received. The media coverage was an accident, right, 0:06:25.400 --> 0:06:27.920 The media got him in their sights, as opposed to 0:06:28.360 --> 0:06:30.640 he was kind of a fame hound, and he deliberately 0:06:30.680 --> 0:06:32.760 went out of his way to get covered by the media. 0:06:33.560 --> 0:06:37.200 Yeah, he actively pursued being in the media at any opportunity. 0:06:37.520 --> 0:06:39.799 Yeah, it was like, oh, he just wound up getting 0:06:39.839 --> 0:06:40.679 famous somehow. 0:06:40.760 --> 0:06:40.920 Real. 0:06:41.360 --> 0:06:44.280 Shoot, there's some dudo over that climbing mountain in box 0:06:44.320 --> 0:06:45.719 of shorts. Maybe we should hear a story. 0:06:46.200 --> 0:06:49.920 Yeah, Now, all of these records. The twenty six Guinness 0:06:49.920 --> 0:06:52.360 World Records that he claims to have set are in 0:06:52.400 --> 0:06:54.960 reality somewhat less than accurate, and we'll cover that shortly, 0:06:55.040 --> 0:06:57.240 but for right now, I want to return to another 0:06:57.279 --> 0:07:01.080 one of Whim's claims. He says frequently that after years 0:07:01.120 --> 0:07:05.719 of groundbreaking athletic success, he grew frustrated quote possibly because 0:07:05.760 --> 0:07:09.200 he was still coming to terms with Olea's suicide quote 0:07:09.240 --> 0:07:11.440 from his book. He felt the need to share his 0:07:11.480 --> 0:07:13.880 knowledge and the possibilities of his body with more people. 0:07:14.040 --> 0:07:16.240 Could other people do what he can do? In two 0:07:16.240 --> 0:07:19.040 thousand and seven, the renowned Feinstein Institute in New York 0:07:19.080 --> 0:07:21.320 studied Hoff. The results showed that he was able to 0:07:21.320 --> 0:07:24.920 control his autonomic nervous system. For Whim, the results were logical, 0:07:25.120 --> 0:07:27.320 after all, he had trained to do it for many years, 0:07:27.560 --> 0:07:30.240 but the researchers thought he was a medical wonder. From 0:07:30.240 --> 0:07:32.840 then on, Hoff put himself at the disposal of science. 0:07:33.080 --> 0:07:34.880 His main aim was to show others that they could 0:07:34.880 --> 0:07:36.920 also train to do what he does. It was the 0:07:36.960 --> 0:07:39.480 start of a very special time in Whim's life. He 0:07:39.520 --> 0:07:42.000 attracted more and more attention, and those who started using 0:07:42.000 --> 0:07:46.920 his method were wildly enthusiastic. Now, James, I'm gonna admit 0:07:46.960 --> 0:07:49.240 to a potential failure as a researcher here. I have 0:07:49.360 --> 0:07:53.280 definitely found evidence of the Feinstein Center and doctor Tracy 0:07:53.320 --> 0:07:56.239 who runs it, commenting in articles that feature whim Hoff. 0:07:56.280 --> 0:07:58.840 They seem to be connected. I have not come across 0:07:58.880 --> 0:08:02.720 any publication from the Feinstein Center about whim from two 0:08:02.760 --> 0:08:05.280 thousand and seven, But two thousand and seven is the 0:08:05.360 --> 0:08:07.720 year that he claims to have run the world's fastest 0:08:07.720 --> 0:08:11.480 half marathon while barefoot on ice or snow in two 0:08:11.480 --> 0:08:12.840 hours and sixteen minutes. 0:08:13.120 --> 0:08:17.440 Yeah. How much competition is that for that? I don't 0:08:17.480 --> 0:08:20.200 think there's a lot. Yeah, there a previous record. 0:08:20.960 --> 0:08:23.560 First, it is important you remember the qualifier here is 0:08:23.600 --> 0:08:27.040 this is the fastest half marathon barefoot on ice or snow, right, 0:08:27.360 --> 0:08:30.680 not the fastest half marathon, not even the fastest half 0:08:30.720 --> 0:08:35.360 marathon barefoot. Now, this is his only legitimate Guinness World record. 0:08:35.440 --> 0:08:38.880 He did do this, This was verified by Guinness. He 0:08:39.000 --> 0:08:41.800 does hold this record. I do want to note here 0:08:41.840 --> 0:08:45.160 that Whim's time, if you are not using the qualifier 0:08:45.200 --> 0:08:47.640 that that's the fastest half marathon barefoot on or snow, 0:08:48.040 --> 0:08:51.720 is not particularly historic, right, as a half marathon time, 0:08:52.120 --> 0:08:55.280 the current fastest half marathon is fifty nine minutes and 0:08:55.320 --> 0:08:59.599 forty seven seconds, which is insane for thirteen point one miles. 0:09:00.000 --> 0:09:04.040 He wouldn't be record breaking as a marathon time. Yeah, no, 0:09:04.360 --> 0:09:06.640 it would be good. It'd be very impressed. Two hours 0:09:06.720 --> 0:09:09.840 is great marathon, yesh. But to two and a quarter hours, 0:09:10.000 --> 0:09:12.679 it's like, yeah, it's lessened in fast. People are running 0:09:12.679 --> 0:09:17.320 for fast marathonism. So the first hard evidence of scientific 0:09:17.360 --> 0:09:20.760 analysis of Whim's claims that I have is from twenty eleven. 0:09:21.240 --> 0:09:23.920 Wim had by this point turned his experiments in cold 0:09:23.960 --> 0:09:26.880 weather endurance into a lifestyle. He was well known for 0:09:26.960 --> 0:09:29.360 going on long, barefoot runs in the snow and submerging 0:09:29.440 --> 0:09:32.320 himself in ice for long periods of time without shivering. 0:09:32.760 --> 0:09:37.079 A twenty eleven article published by Radboud University's Medical Center 0:09:37.160 --> 0:09:39.880 is the first example I found of him being tested 0:09:39.880 --> 0:09:43.160 by a reputable scientific source. It is notable that this 0:09:43.240 --> 0:09:48.040 early article describes him as the iceman wim Hoff. Radboud's 0:09:48.080 --> 0:09:51.640 researchers were specifically testing Whim's claims that he could influence 0:09:51.679 --> 0:09:55.120 his autonomic, nervous system and immune response through concentration and 0:09:55.200 --> 0:09:58.520 meditation and in that they are talking about what people 0:09:58.600 --> 0:10:01.200 now call wim Hoff breathing, that is a version of 0:10:01.240 --> 0:10:03.920 g tomo breathing. And I'm going to quote from this 0:10:04.120 --> 0:10:09.400 study here. To investigate this, Hoff was administered indotox and 0:10:09.400 --> 0:10:13.960 while practicing his concentration and meditation technique. During this experiment, 0:10:14.120 --> 0:10:18.440 various measurements were performed, including brain activity, autonomic nervous system activity, 0:10:18.440 --> 0:10:22.199 and inflammatory mediators in the blood. One of the researchers said, 0:10:22.320 --> 0:10:25.640 after indotox and administration, the increase of the stress hormone 0:10:25.679 --> 0:10:28.640 cortisol in Hoff was much more pronounced compared to other 0:10:28.679 --> 0:10:31.640 healthy volunteers. We know that this hormone is released in 0:10:31.679 --> 0:10:34.679 response to increased autonomic nervous system activity and that it 0:10:34.720 --> 0:10:37.559 suppresses the immune response. In accordance to the levels of 0:10:37.600 --> 0:10:41.040 inflammatory mediators in Hoff's blood were much lower. On average, 0:10:41.120 --> 0:10:44.320 Hoff's immune response was decreased by fifty percent compared to 0:10:44.360 --> 0:10:48.360 other healthy volunteers. In addition, hardly any flu like symptoms 0:10:48.360 --> 0:10:53.440 were observed. These results are definitely remarkable, so that makes 0:10:53.440 --> 0:10:56.040 it sound like Hoff was able to basically control his 0:10:56.080 --> 0:10:59.600 immune system to reduce his immune response to being mildly poisoned. 0:10:59.600 --> 0:11:00.240 In a way that. 0:11:00.200 --> 0:11:03.880 Reduced his symptoms, which is very impressive sounding, right. If 0:11:03.880 --> 0:11:06.600 that's a thing he was able to do, that is impressive, 0:11:06.679 --> 0:11:10.360 that's interesting. But the paper went on to caution those 0:11:10.400 --> 0:11:12.760 results were only obtained from a single person and thus 0:11:12.760 --> 0:11:15.319 could not serve as evidence for claims that Hoff's techniques 0:11:15.520 --> 0:11:18.160 could influence the immune system in meaningful ways. 0:11:18.760 --> 0:11:20.600 Sure he could just have a weigh response. 0:11:20.920 --> 0:11:23.760 Yeah, we will refer. There's follow ups to this study, 0:11:23.760 --> 0:11:25.439 so we will talk about that in a little bit. 0:11:26.080 --> 0:11:30.079 The year before that twenty eleven study, twenty ten, Hoff 0:11:30.120 --> 0:11:32.200 and his eldest son in Am had set up a 0:11:32.200 --> 0:11:36.120 company called innert Fire to capitalize on the growing fascination 0:11:36.200 --> 0:11:39.120 with Whim and his claims of superhuman abilities granted through 0:11:39.120 --> 0:11:43.359 breathing techniques. They started organizing workshops, first in the Netherlands, 0:11:43.360 --> 0:11:45.800 but then all over the world. Several other of his 0:11:45.880 --> 0:11:49.080 children joined the organization, which grew rapidly as Wim became 0:11:49.120 --> 0:11:52.520 a bonafide celebrity. Now, if you don't recall, the period 0:11:52.559 --> 0:11:55.200 from twenty ten to twenty thirteen was the birth of 0:11:55.240 --> 0:11:59.920 commodified viral content. Online journalists and writers for culture webs 0:12:00.000 --> 0:12:02.600 sites like my old employer crack dot com had a 0:12:02.679 --> 0:12:05.760 voracious appetite for so weird it must be true stories, 0:12:06.000 --> 0:12:08.680 and wim Hoff was perfectly situated to go viral in 0:12:08.720 --> 0:12:11.520 this area. The number one reason for his success was 0:12:11.559 --> 0:12:15.439 his embrace of mainstream scientific studies of his techniques. Hoff 0:12:15.480 --> 0:12:18.200 could do this because g TMO breathing, which is the 0:12:18.240 --> 0:12:21.840 basis of all of his claims, does work in measurable ways. 0:12:22.200 --> 0:12:25.640 In twenty twelve, researchers from Radboud performed that follow up 0:12:25.640 --> 0:12:29.680 study comparing volunteers trained by Hoff and a control group. 0:12:30.160 --> 0:12:33.440 Testes were poisoned lightly, and the immune activation of the 0:12:33.440 --> 0:12:36.800 different groups was studied. An analysis of various studies on 0:12:36.840 --> 0:12:40.640 wim Hoff breathing by the medical journal Temperature notes the 0:12:40.720 --> 0:12:44.480 trained group had significantly increased epinephrine levels, increased levels of 0:12:44.480 --> 0:12:49.000 anti inflammatory cytokin decreased levels of pro inflammatory mediators, and 0:12:49.120 --> 0:12:52.440 less pronounced fever. Also, flu like symptoms were lower in 0:12:52.480 --> 0:12:55.559 the trained group compared with the untrained group, and you 0:12:55.600 --> 0:12:58.760 will find this cited constantly on Whim's website and in 0:12:58.840 --> 0:13:02.160 news articles about which usually the study results are summed 0:13:02.240 --> 0:13:04.560 up as the people who Whim trained were able to 0:13:04.559 --> 0:13:08.080 control their immune systems and avoid sickness. That is not 0:13:08.240 --> 0:13:12.320 what happened, and that journal article continues. The setup of 0:13:12.360 --> 0:13:15.920 the research, however, did not allow discrimination between the acute 0:13:16.000 --> 0:13:19.760 and the acquired responses, because during the experiment itself, the 0:13:19.840 --> 0:13:23.440 volunteers from the intervention group were allowed to hyperventilate and 0:13:23.480 --> 0:13:27.280 the control group was not. Therefore, the investigators included that 0:13:27.400 --> 0:13:31.840 hyperventilation can temporarily activate the sympathetic nervous system and suppress 0:13:31.920 --> 0:13:36.400 the innate immune response a long term yeah, long term 0:13:36.440 --> 0:13:39.199 training effects were not addressed. Therefore, it still needs to 0:13:39.240 --> 0:13:42.040 be sorted out if the training itself, hyperventilation, cold end 0:13:42.160 --> 0:13:46.920 or meditation caused the observed effects. This study also notes 0:13:46.920 --> 0:13:50.559 that the trainees were not just given cyclic hyperventilation training, 0:13:50.880 --> 0:13:53.960 they were immersed in ice cold water, while the control 0:13:54.000 --> 0:13:57.640 group was not. This matters more than you might think. 0:13:58.040 --> 0:13:58.599 Quote. 0:13:58.840 --> 0:14:03.000 Finally, coal may exert health effects. First of all, cold 0:14:03.040 --> 0:14:06.720 may increase energy expenditure by shivering, but also by non 0:14:06.760 --> 0:14:10.640 shivering thermogenesis, as mentioned above. In the recent past, quite 0:14:10.640 --> 0:14:13.360 a few studies from several laboratories showed that humans are 0:14:13.360 --> 0:14:17.320 able to increase their non shivering thermogenesis capacity due to 0:14:17.360 --> 0:14:21.760 cold acclamation. This mirrors numerous studies in rodents. However, the 0:14:21.760 --> 0:14:24.440 study effects in humans are of a smaller magnitude compared 0:14:24.440 --> 0:14:27.480 with these animals. So number one, it's very debatable. There's 0:14:27.480 --> 0:14:30.880 no evidence that there's significant health benefit to this. These 0:14:30.920 --> 0:14:34.640 people had mildly less symptoms than the control group, right 0:14:34.680 --> 0:14:38.200 of this mild poisoning in a controlled situation. And number two, 0:14:38.680 --> 0:14:41.840 there are too many variables that were not isolated for that. 0:14:41.880 --> 0:14:43.800 You can't say, oh, it was because of the breathing 0:14:43.880 --> 0:14:46.080 or the meditation, or it may have just been. Yeah, 0:14:46.200 --> 0:14:48.840 there's health benefits to being immersed in cold water, like 0:14:48.920 --> 0:14:50.440 potentially at least short term. 0:14:50.400 --> 0:14:54.120 Ones that buddy was freaking out because yeah it was drowning. 0:14:54.560 --> 0:14:58.080 Yes, you can't say the kinds of things that are claimed. 0:14:58.720 --> 0:15:01.240 Yeah, yeah, I mean that it was like for people 0:15:01.240 --> 0:15:03.320 who were on the internet back then, Like yeah, that 0:15:03.560 --> 0:15:07.240 was the whole genre of like health viral influencer, right, 0:15:07.400 --> 0:15:11.840 was taking a solid scientific claim and then building gradually 0:15:11.880 --> 0:15:14.720 less and less solid claims on top of that, and 0:15:15.400 --> 0:15:17.640 then grifting off that in too many people you can 0:15:17.760 --> 0:15:20.080 make them happy and healthy and see their lives and such. 0:15:20.760 --> 0:15:26.520 Yeah, So anyway that gives you an idea and you 0:15:26.560 --> 0:15:30.360 can find other studies about Whim. They all have breakdowns 0:15:30.560 --> 0:15:34.200 like that when you actually get into what is being studied. Anyway, 0:15:34.280 --> 0:15:36.080 we will talk a little bit more about this later. 0:15:36.920 --> 0:15:39.720 So that's twenty twelve that that follow up study is 0:15:39.720 --> 0:15:42.320 conducted by Rad Bowd and it is the very next 0:15:42.400 --> 0:15:45.680 year that are ethically questionable. Friend Scott Carney comes onto 0:15:45.720 --> 0:15:48.680 the scene. Twenty thirteen is the year that he met 0:15:48.720 --> 0:15:51.560 Wim Hoff well, and he's he's working on this book 0:15:51.600 --> 0:15:54.800 called The Enlightenment Trap, and he thinks Wim might be 0:15:54.840 --> 0:15:57.080 an interesting subject for it. He kind of wants to 0:15:57.080 --> 0:15:59.960 expose him as a grifter, so he talks Playboy Magus 0:16:00.200 --> 0:16:02.160 into letting him go like hang out and take one 0:16:02.520 --> 0:16:07.480 of Hoff's classes. So yeah, and he specifically writes in 0:16:07.560 --> 0:16:10.000 his more recent article that he wanted to quote debunk 0:16:10.080 --> 0:16:13.040 him as a charlatan trying to sell fake superpowers to 0:16:13.160 --> 0:16:16.640 the masses, which is I think a reasonable way to 0:16:16.680 --> 0:16:17.680 describe Wim Hall. 0:16:17.760 --> 0:16:20.000 Yes, yeah, he started out just fine. 0:16:21.000 --> 0:16:24.560 So Carney describes Wim in twenty thirteen as quote at 0:16:24.640 --> 0:16:28.080 merse most a circus act. He wore a green hat 0:16:28.120 --> 0:16:30.160 and had a red nose and ruddy skin. That made 0:16:30.240 --> 0:16:32.800 him appear a little gnomish. He was bursting with energy, 0:16:32.880 --> 0:16:35.640 talked loudly, and smelled like an onion. To the extent 0:16:35.720 --> 0:16:37.920 that he was known at all, it was for performing 0:16:38.000 --> 0:16:40.600 death defying stunts in ice water and for a stint 0:16:40.640 --> 0:16:44.680 shilling battery heated jackets for Columbia sportswear, not for possessing 0:16:44.760 --> 0:16:51.360 valuable insights on the mind body connection. Yeah yeah real, 0:16:51.520 --> 0:16:54.160 uh yeah, I didn't feel like they had a fallout. 0:16:54.280 --> 0:16:56.520 Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, that's something happened here. 0:16:57.160 --> 0:16:57.560 M hmm. 0:16:58.320 --> 0:17:00.720 It is interesting because, like he describes in this period 0:17:00.800 --> 0:17:03.440 is like, yeah, he was like a big media figure 0:17:03.480 --> 0:17:05.679 in this part of Europe, but he was kind of like, 0:17:05.840 --> 0:17:07.800 you know, a little bit of a carny, you know, 0:17:07.960 --> 0:17:11.119 someone who you would show these gimmick jackets. 0:17:11.840 --> 0:17:16.159 Yeah, he's like a Joe Exotica of like doing this stuff. 0:17:16.200 --> 0:17:19.000 You know, like he's famous but not necessarily respected. I 0:17:19.000 --> 0:17:22.240 guess yeah, I would. I would say that. 0:17:22.359 --> 0:17:26.040 So Scott gets to work studying Whim and listening to 0:17:26.080 --> 0:17:29.840 his classes, and he finds himself, as he says, flabbergasted 0:17:29.880 --> 0:17:32.560 by the fact that Whim's techniques really do work. There's 0:17:32.600 --> 0:17:35.439 powerful benefits to this stuff. That's how Scott describes it. 0:17:36.440 --> 0:17:36.880 Quote. 0:17:37.080 --> 0:17:38.760 Within a few days, I learned to hold my breath 0:17:38.800 --> 0:17:41.000 for several minutes at a stretch and heat my body 0:17:41.000 --> 0:17:43.560 in the snow. An autoimmune illness that had plagued me 0:17:43.600 --> 0:17:45.879 for thirty years went away. A few years later, I 0:17:45.880 --> 0:17:49.120 climbed shirtless up Mount Kilimanjaro with Hoff. When the temperature 0:17:49.119 --> 0:17:52.040 dipped into minus thirty degrees. There was no doubt about it. 0:17:52.119 --> 0:17:54.959 I was a convert. Soon I became as chief evangelist, 0:17:55.040 --> 0:17:57.360 not only writing the book What Doesn't Kill Us, which 0:17:57.400 --> 0:17:59.480 spent a few months on the New York Times bestseller list, 0:18:00.000 --> 0:18:02.800 appearing from more than three hundred media engagements, from TV 0:18:02.880 --> 0:18:06.120 shows and news articles to radio programs and podcasts, where 0:18:06.119 --> 0:18:07.320 I preached the good news. 0:18:08.720 --> 0:18:11.000 That's so weird. Like, I don't know, man, I've written 0:18:11.000 --> 0:18:13.080 Abassi people like mine. I've writen ABAUSI people like hey, 0:18:13.119 --> 0:18:17.000 but I've never like, done three hundred podcast interviews about 0:18:17.000 --> 0:18:21.000 how great anyone is like it. He kind of seems 0:18:21.000 --> 0:18:24.119 to have moved from journalism to part of this Hoff 0:18:24.800 --> 0:18:28.520 grift at this point. Yeah, So. 0:18:30.160 --> 0:18:32.480 It's at this point that we should probably talk about 0:18:32.480 --> 0:18:37.159 Mount Kilimanjaro. James, because Kilimanjaro is central to Whim's claims 0:18:37.160 --> 0:18:41.200 of supernatural ability. It features heavily in all of his stories, 0:18:42.200 --> 0:18:43.919 and I'm going to quote first from his how his 0:18:44.119 --> 0:18:47.280 conquest of that infamous mountain is described by Rolling Stone 0:18:47.359 --> 0:18:51.680 article Eric Headiguard in a twenty seventeen article, he attempted 0:18:51.680 --> 0:18:54.240 to scale Mount Everest wearing nothing but shorts and shoes, 0:18:54.280 --> 0:18:57.600 but was thwarted by a foot injury. He tackled Mount 0:18:57.680 --> 0:19:01.040 Kilimanjaro next wearing only shorts and shoe and reach the 0:19:01.080 --> 0:19:06.240 top in less than two days and unheard of feet. So, James, 0:19:06.760 --> 0:19:10.879 that's not thankfully he has given us some stuff to 0:19:10.920 --> 0:19:13.200 dig in do here. So the first question we should 0:19:13.200 --> 0:19:16.720 ask ourselves is it an unheard of feet to reach 0:19:16.960 --> 0:19:20.359 Kilimanjaro and the top of Kilimanjaro in less than two days? 0:19:20.440 --> 0:19:20.600 Right? 0:19:21.080 --> 0:19:22.760 Is that exceptionally rare? 0:19:23.640 --> 0:19:23.680 No? 0:19:24.440 --> 0:19:27.520 The current world record, and this is fucking nuts, by 0:19:27.520 --> 0:19:30.840 the way, the current world record for an individual climb 0:19:30.920 --> 0:19:35.440 and descent of Kilimanjaro is six hours and forty two minutes. 0:19:35.720 --> 0:19:39.919 That is fass. That is fucking nuts. That is mountain running. 0:19:40.000 --> 0:19:43.639 That is fucking yeah. That is wild. I don't I 0:19:43.680 --> 0:19:46.960 actually don't know how that's physically possible, but it apparently 0:19:47.000 --> 0:19:50.479 has been. Yeah, the altitude change. I haven't. I've been 0:19:50.560 --> 0:19:54.040 up the other two highest mountains in Africa, a High 0:19:54.040 --> 0:19:57.680 Atlas and Mount Kenya. But yeah, that you've ever done 0:19:57.800 --> 0:20:00.600 higher than fourteen k for a peak, and like that 0:20:00.800 --> 0:20:04.080 is a thing, you know, like fucking and this is 0:20:04.160 --> 0:20:06.680 like so, by the way, Carl Eggloff of Switzerland is 0:20:06.720 --> 0:20:08.680 the guy who did that. Obviously it is Swiss. Dude, 0:20:08.760 --> 0:20:11.720 not surprised. Yeah, I had it down for being like 0:20:12.080 --> 0:20:14.480 someone from tanzanierro Kenyero somewhere. 0:20:15.359 --> 0:20:17.440 I mean, and it is like when we are talking 0:20:17.480 --> 0:20:21.360 about Kilimanjaro. The peak of Kilimanjaro is nineteen thousand feet 0:20:21.440 --> 0:20:25.200 above sea level. It is sixteen thousand feet above its 0:20:25.240 --> 0:20:29.360 base plateau. That's the topographical prominence, which is a commonly 0:20:29.440 --> 0:20:31.560 used measure for the difficulty of climbing a mountain. 0:20:31.560 --> 0:20:32.280 Basically, it's like. 0:20:32.440 --> 0:20:33.960 Because you have a lot of peaks that might be 0:20:34.040 --> 0:20:36.119 like sixteen thousand feet, maybe they were only like a 0:20:36.119 --> 0:20:38.919 two thousand foot hike or whatever above kind of the 0:20:39.000 --> 0:20:42.920 ridge or whatever. So yeah, Kilimanjaro has the fourth highest 0:20:42.920 --> 0:20:46.679 topographical prominence of any peak on Earth, which makes it, 0:20:46.760 --> 0:20:49.919 you know, by any widely accepted mountaineering metric, one of 0:20:49.960 --> 0:20:52.880 the harder mountains out there to climb. So hey, whim 0:20:52.960 --> 0:20:55.840 is bullshitting about his time up to the top of 0:20:56.040 --> 0:21:00.159 Kilimanjaro being particularly exceptional. But hiking to the top of 0:21:00.200 --> 0:21:04.320 Kilimanjaro in shorts and shoes does seem impressive, and it's 0:21:04.359 --> 0:21:07.520 certainly not a bad time. But he generally fails to 0:21:07.560 --> 0:21:11.119 note that he didn't actually summit Kilimanjara. He didn't actually 0:21:11.160 --> 0:21:14.040