Tim Ferriss on suffering, psychedelics, and spirituality

Tim Ferriss is the author of The 4-Hour Workweek, as well as the new book Tools of Titans. He’s also the host of The Tim Ferriss Show, which is one of my favorite podcasts.

Tim is a relentless optimizer, and on his program he interviews fascinating people to discover how they work, think, and get things done. It’s a show about the secrets of high performers.

Here, I ask Tim about basically the reverse of that. How does he think about the parts of his life that, though crucial, are harder to optimize and systematize? We discuss friendship, love, psychedelics, spirituality, death, health, and whether it’s possible to get too addicted to productivity hacks (spoiler: it is). This is a discussion, in other words, about much of what makes life worth living, and it left me with a lot to think about.

You can listen to our conversation by subscribing to my podcast, The Ezra Klein Show, on iTunes, Spotify, or wherever you get your fine audio programming. Or you can stream it off SoundCloud.

Will you support Vox’s explanatory journalism?

Most news outlets make their money through advertising or subscriptions. But when it comes to what we’re trying to do at Vox, there are a couple reasons that we can't rely only on ads and subscriptions to keep the lights on.

First, advertising dollars go up and down with the economy. We often only know a few months out what our advertising revenue will be, which makes it hard to plan ahead.

Second, we’re not in the subscriptions business. Vox is here to help everyone understand the complex issues shaping the world — not just the people who can afford to pay for a subscription. We believe that’s an important part of building a more equal society. We can’t do that if we have a paywall.

That’s why we also turn to you, our readers, to help us keep Vox free. If you also believe that everyone deserves access to trusted high-quality information, will you make a gift to Vox today?

One-Time Monthly Annual

$5/month

$10/month

$25/month

$50/month

Other

$

Yes, I'll give $5/month

Yes, I'll give $5/month

We accept credit card, Apple Pay, and Google Pay. You can also contribute via