Biohacking, Cognitive Optimization, and Becoming Anti-Fragile | Elias Arjan

Far Out With Faust (FOWF)

We break down the basics of biohacking and anti-fragility on this episode of the Far Out with Faust podcast. Meet Elias Arjan, the founder of Biohackers Collective (a health and cognitive optimization community), and an exec with Biostrap wearable tech. He’s at the forefront of the DIY biology and the longevity extension movement.
Get ready for a crash course in biohacking 101: what it means, how it fits into our current culture, and most critically, how to hack the hack. According to Arjan, biohackers believe that you can manipulate your internal and external environment to optimize your life: your body, your mind, your experience in the world. We’ll give you a list of his top biohacks — stay tuned!
It wouldn’t be a Far Out podcast if we didn’t delve into the state of our society: you probably know that Facebook’s AI was conceived by neuroscientists — but have you heard of Dopamine Labs? Close your eyes: it’s 1984. The amygdala hijack is happening.
Even though most of the country has lost the ability to carry on nuanced conversations, there’s still hope: Arjan and the biohacking camp believe in the human spirit’s ability to overcome. Maybe the darkness isn’t new, he says — maybe it’s just that today, technology is illuminating it in ways we can no longer ignore.
Take for example the state of our health — or more accurately, the meteoric rise of our diseased state (please, please, look into those statistics). Arjan takes us on his journey: a Canadian teen (“that kid who couldn’t do one push-up”) sent to live with his grandfather who becomes AWARE — in one pivotal moment — that there must be more.
This is a pattern interrupt — a jolt of awareness that turns biohacking from some esoteric hocus pocus into an ever-expanding frontier of inspiration. But it’s not enough to disrupt your dysfunctional neural connections — we must also have an inspiring model to guide us into our new selves.
Arjan’s goal? To become ANTI-FRAGILE: constantly adapting, ever-evolving, perpetually optimizing his way out of a status quo that’s become hazardous to our health. Let’s just be honest: whomever has been in charge of our health to this point has failed — miserably. Ever heard of the gut-brain axis? When you’re not at your best physiologically, your cognitive function is severely repressed.
Waiting for those biohacks? We’ve got ‘em. And spoiler alert: a lot of them are free — and dare we say, EASY. Tune in to hear more about the power of light: remember when the sun meant life?
So what’s all the hype about cold showers and ice baths? That’s right, Wim Hof has entered the conversation. And thank you, Dr. Zach Bush, for your 4- Minute Workout. Lean in to the name dropping because here comes Dr. Joe Dispenza with the mind-blowing notion that we’d better find something exciting and novel in our lives that gets us out of bed every morning the way we used to roll out of bed on that day the school scheduled a Field Trip!
Sure, there are gadgets too: including Arjan’s Biostrap: “the most advanced, cloud-based wearable platform” that measures things like heart and respiration rates, blood oxygen, and how well you’re sleeping — then provides a detailed analysis.
Stay with us until the end, when Arjan distills the essence of biohacking and answers Faust’s famous question, “what message would you send to humanity” with a surprisingly low-tech request.
With a background in human kinetics and athletics, Elias Arjan has a lifelong interest in understanding the relationship between human health, performance and behavior. As a serial entrepreneur, Arjan has started his own businesses, worked for and with Fortune 500 companies, startups and non-profits.
In recent years, Arjan has been working to optimize individuals and companies as a consultant and trainer, and has been a leading proponent of evidence-based biohacking. He is currently the Senior Vice Pr