Joe Rogan - Alex Honnold Doesn’t Experience Fear Like the Rest of Us w/Nicholas Christakis

If you're one of those crazy rock climber dudes like Alex Honnold, yeah, and he's crazy. He's crazy I love him. He's told if you've talked if you met him. Yeah, I've had him on a couple times Oh my god. Yeah, he's awesome. I'm sure he is You know that he's a big deal. Of course his amygdala is fucked up. You know this right? Let me know fear No, he does have fear you're wrong. Oh, really? He absolutely has fear He just understands his capacity and his ability you think it's rashly says I can do this Therefore I should not be afraid because I read that he talks about his brain and that his his fear centers are different than the rest Of us is what I read. Maybe that's wrong. I don't know. Did he tell you he didn't say anything about that Oh, I think he was a free fish. I don't know about that man He said basically that the experience he just stays mellow and calm and then if things go wrong It's really bad like like you don't want to be freaking out. Yes, like it's like a divers Yeah, you don't panic when you're underwater and right you lose your way, right? There was a consumes oxygen a lot amazing story that my friend Donald Cerrone. He's a UFC fighter Told about being trapped in a cave that and and just barely water out when it was running out of oxygen. Yeah Horrible crazy scary story and you have to those guys are also different either They either they're born that way or they learn to be that way You have to keep calm because when you and I lose our cool and start hyperventilating Yeah, our auction consumption skyrockets, right and that's the opposite of what you need to do in that situation It's actually what he talked about. Yeah, you know like trying to stay calm and battling the demons I'm not gonna die like this. Yes. Yeah, what an incredible story. Mmm. Yeah, the Alex Honnold thing I hear something I watched the movie it what it's awesome. He got an MRI and they said that here's a quote What did it say? Yeah, his amygdala is different. What did it say? How does it say it? The kids amygdala isn't firing? Yes, okay But isn't that possible that that's just through development of constant practice of staying calm while you're in life-threatening Situation it's possible and I would like to see fighters brains measured in that regard. I would like to see Soldiers well, Special Forces guys. Yes, I think that's right and the guys a special force guys It's like the capacity to shoot back when you're being shot at keeping your calm. Yes moving positions, you know Yeah, and so forth. Those are all very important abilities not panicking But and it is also the case that some people for example, the most famous study in this regard was a study of London taxi drivers London taxi drivers can go from any point in the city to any other point in the city. It's called the knowledge They have a mental map of the whole city and it's freakish It takes years to be able to know how to navigate the city with the thousands of tens of thousands of street names Mmm, and they can do it by like dead reckoning They scanned this was a paper about ten years ago They brain scan these guys and they had I forgot which region of the brain but they had through learning It is felt modify that region of their brain So it's possible Holland is like you say that he learned to be this way that is amygdala isn't firing Because he trained himself, but I handled handled. Yeah, I'm sorry Honnell does this way because he learned this way, but it's more likely I think that he's like Usain Bolt that was born with Incredibly high preponderance of fast twitch fibers in his legs So he can run like the wind and he trains as well. You have both right good athletes require both innate ability plus training Yes, and I think Honnell does probably like that. He's probably born with an amygdala It doesn't fire so much and he's an amazing, you know climber It's purely speculative right like that and also the nature versus nurture would apply to chess players as well I would like to see their brain scanned like like Gary Kasparov. I know Gary. Yes. I would love to see that Yes. Yeah, he's an interesting guy hit what so the article goes way more into depth than I well I just showed you about just that sentence She's a doctor who studied him It was specifically looks at people that go under high stress and look for those kinds of things She's been doing that since 2005 I guess and she goes it's it's pages long this whole thing about his brain But it is unusual But it also the amount of time think about people that are in high stress high stress is one thing this kid is in a life threatening Absolute fatality situation. Yeah, steak is death every day I know all day. I know. I mean he lives in a van and just climbs. Yes, that's what he does It's really fascinating. Yes, it is. It is and it's amazing. Honestly, it's amazing So, I mean, I don't know I'd never met him I admire him very much and I love this like we said at the beginning. It's very important to have skills