#829: James Nestor — Breathing Protocols to Reboot Your Health, Fix Your Sleep, and Boost Performance

The Tim Ferriss Show

Tim Ferriss: Bestselling Author, Human Guinea Pig

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4.6 • 17.4K Ratings

🗓️ 30 September 2025

⏱️ 110 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

James Nestor is a science journalist and the author of the international bestseller Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art, with more than three million copies sold in 44 languages.

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Timestamps:

[00:00:00] Start.

[00:01:37] Why I waited years to interview James about Breath.

[00:02:35] Maurice Daubard: The mysterious 90-year-old who preceded Wim Hof.

[00:05:01] Tummo breathing: Ancient Bon Buddhist heat generation.

[00:08:13] James’ personal breathwork practice and the Wim Hof method (with warnings).

[00:09:25] How breathwork cured James’ chronic respiratory issues.

[00:11:46] Sudarshan Kriya: The weekend workshop that changed everything.

[00:16:56] My nine-minute breath hold experiment (hyperbaric chamber edition).

[00:18:57] Post-book revelations and angry doctors’ offices.

[00:20:41] The ADHD-breathing connection: A controversial Venn diagram.

[00:22:00] DIY breathing assessments for kids.

[00:25:55] Mouth tape: From hostage situations to sleep optimization.

[00:28:48] James’ seven-year mouth taping commitment.

[00:31:14] CO2 levels: Your LEED-certified hotel is suffocating you.

[00:36:50] Monitoring CO2 with the Aranet4 and building a CO2 database.

[00:39:51] James’ travel kit: Red lights, granny packs, and a Soviet-era PEMF device.

[00:51:59] In Weirdville, eyes sing The Body Electric.

[00:52:58] The supplements included in David’s granny packs.

[00:54:16] Natto vs. nattokinase.

[00:56:18] Athletes and breathing: The BOLT score explained.

[01:03:25] LeBron James’ alternate nostril breathing and diaphragmatic dysfunction.

[01:04:47] Inspiratory muscle training and the back soreness warning.

[01:08:47] The Relaxator: An adult breathing pacifier for focus.

[01:12:54] San Francisco Writers Grotto and the trustafarian invasion.

[01:16:10] Writer’s block: A convenient excuse for hobbyists.

[01:19:04] Cutting the corporate cord: James’ visceral “I quit” moment.

[01:23:25] The freediving story that launched a book deal.

[01:25:41] Deep‘s disappointing launch and publisher betrayal.

[01:28:10] Breath: From 290,000 words to 85,000 in a house in the woods.

[01:31:51] Finding the skeleton: The Stanford experiment as through-line.

[01:35:44] Prayer and coherent breathing: The 5.5-second secret.

[01:38:44] James’ critique of breathwork culture and barriers to entry.

[01:41:07] Sleep optimization: SnoreLab, side sleeping, and incline bed therapy.

[01:44:56] Parting thoughts and where to find James and free breathing protocols.

Show notes for this episode: https://tim.blog/2025/09/30/james-nestor-breath/

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello, boys and girls, ladies and germs. This is Tim Ferriss. Welcome to another episode of the Tim Ferriss show.
0:05.0	My guest today is someone I have wanted to have on for quite a few years now. James Nestor. He is a science journalist and the author of the international bestseller, Beret, the new science of a lost art, with more than three million copies sold in 44 languages.
0:20.1	And I mentioned this in the episode, but this book came at me from probably 20 different
0:24.4	directions and close friends of mine, including folks who've been on this podcast.
0:28.9	And he's learned a lot since that book came out.
0:32.2	So we dig into a lot of specifics.
0:34.1	I took a ton of notes.
0:35.7	There is a lot related to improving sleep and particular ways
0:40.0	that you can tweak and fine-tune your sleep quality. If you haven't read breath, it was named
0:45.2	the best general nonfiction book by the American Society of Journalists and Authors and was a
0:49.6	finalist for the Science Book of the Year at the Royal Society, which is a BFD. It's a big deal. He is also the author of Deep, Free Diving, Renegate Science, and What the Ocean Tells Us About Ourselves, and Get High Now Without Drugs. You can find all things, James, that's M-R, James Nestor, N-E-S-T-O-R, Mr. James Nester.com.
1:12.2	And here we go.
1:18.3	At this altitude, I can run flat out for a half mile before my hands start shaking.
1:20.2	Can I answer your personal question?
1:22.8	Now we'll have seen an appropriate time.
1:23.9	What if I get in the album?
1:27.9	I'm a cybernetic organism living tissue over metal and those calories.
1:40.2	James, so nice to see you and hear you. Thanks for making the time.
1:41.5	Thanks for having me.
1:48.5	And I must tell you a bit of background to begin. I remember when breath, the new science of a lost art first came out. And I don't know if I've ever had,
1:54.7	maybe deep survival would be another one, I believe, but two books that have come at me from so many different vectors, from so many friends,
2:04.7	from so many athletes, from so many doctors. And I thought to myself, you know what, this is
	...

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