The Human Upgrade: Biohacking for Longevity & Performance
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PodcastThe Human Upgrade: Biohacking for Longevity & Performance
Publisher/creatorDave Asprey
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About this episode
If you want more time, better energy, and a calmer mind, this episode gives you a blueprint for achieving it. Host Dave Asprey talks with entrepreneur Jonathan Swanson, who explains how delegation functions as a powerful form of biohacking that frees cognitive load, improves sleep quality, protects your mitochondria from chronic stress, and opens space for longevity, brain optimization, supplements, fasting, ketosis, and the full Human Upgrade approach. Jonathan shows how eliminating low value tasks can reclaim hours every day and upgrade your human performance far more than people realize. Watch this episode on YouTube for the full video experience: https://www.youtube.com/@DaveAspreyBPR Jonathan Swanson is the Founder and Chairman of Thumbtack and Athena, two global companies he scaled to more than one thousand team members each. He has raised over seven hundred million dollars from leading investors including Sequoia Capital, Google Capital, and Blackstone. At Thumbtack he built one of the top marketplaces for local services. At Athena he created an elite academy for executive assistants and leadership development. Jonathan also served in the West Wing for the President’s chief economic advisor, giving him rare insight into time leverage, decision making, and performance under pressure. Jonathan breaks down why overloaded to do lists elevate stress hormones, reduce neuroplasticity, interfere with recovery, and sabotage longevity goals. He explains how removing decision fatigue improves metabolism and cognitive function, how AI can accelerate human support instead of replacing it, and why even small forms of leverage increase ambition, resilience, and overall life satisfaction. Jonathan shares real examples from scaling billion dollar companies, building global teams, managing his own health routines, and designing systems that create more time for family, recovery, and meaningful work. You’ll Learn: • Why leverage comes before ambition, not after, and how that shift changes what you believe is possible in your life • How Jonathan went from 16 to 18 hour days and polyphasic sleep to becoming a “time billionaire” through ruthless delegation • The cardinal sin of delegation, why doing it yourself feels faster at first, and how that belief traps you in busywork • The stages of delegation, from single tasks to projects to goals to “clairvoyant delegation,” where you first hear about a task when it is already done • How to start at any budget level, from using AI as a starter assistant, to hiring directly on global platforms, to working with a fully trained Athena EA • Practical ways an assistant can support biohacking, sleep optimization, supplements, lab tracking, family logistics, and even creative life projects • How to build trust, set boundaries, and protect security when you work with remote assistants who have access to sensitive parts of your life • Why human plus AI assistants beat AI alone, and how the next generation of support will supercharge human performance instead of replacing it • How to think about your hourly rate so you stop doing tasks that kill your metabolism, focus, and long term longevity Thank you to our sponsors! -BEYOND Conference 2026 | Register now at https://beyondconference.com/ -BrainTap | Go to http://braintap.com/dave to get $100 off the BrainTap Power Bundle. -Essentia | Go to https://myessentia.com/dave and use code DAVE for $100 off The Dave Asprey Upgrade. -Generation Lab | Go to http://generationlab.com/ , use code Dave20 for $20 off, and see what your body’s really doing behind the surface. Dave Asprey is a four-time New York Times bestselling author, founder of Bulletproof Coffee , and the father of biohacking . With over 1,000 interviews and 1 million monthly listeners, The Human Upgrade brings you the knowledge to take control of your biology, extend your longevity, and optimize every system in your body and mind. Each episode delivers cutting-edge insights in health, performance, neuroscience, supplements, nutrition, biohacking, emotional intelligence, and conscious living. New episodes are released every Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, and Sunday (BONUS) . Dave asks the questions no one else will and gives you real tools to become stronger, smarter, and more resilient. Keywords: time leverage, personal delegation, executive assistant training, Athena assistant, cognitive load reduction, decision fatigue relief, daily workflow optimization, biohacking time freedom, human plus AI support, inbox offloading, calendar management, task automation, overwhelm reduction, founder performance, global talent recruitment, delegation ladder, clairvoyant delegation, lifestyle efficiency, home logistics support, entrepreneurial time scaling Resources: • Athena Website: Go to https://athena.com/upgrade for a generous discount! • Dave Asprey's Latest News | Go to https://daveasprey.com/ to join Inside Track today. • Danger Coffee: https://dangercoffee.com/discount/dave15 • My Daily Supplements: SuppGrade Labs (15% Off) • Favorite Blue Light Blocking Glasses: TrueDark (15% Off) • Dave Asprey’s BEYOND Conference: https://beyondconference.com • Dave Asprey’s New Book – Heavily Meditated : https://daveasprey.com/heavily-meditated • Upgrade Collective: https://www.ourupgradecollective.com • Upgrade Labs: https://upgradelabs.com • 40 Years of Zen: https://40yearsofzen.com Timestamps: 0:00 - Trailer 1:30 - Introduction 2:44 - From 18 Hour Days to Delegation 6:42 - Dave’s EA Journey 10:43 - Overcoming Shame 12:21 - Finding Trust 15:00 - Delegation Options 18:20 - Never Lift a Finger 22:32 - Clairvoyant Delegation 27:58 - Human + AI Future 30:42 - Security and Boundaries 43:10 - Creative Uses 47:24 - Night Watch 51:37 - Do Less, Do More See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info .
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Episode summary
I want to be a billionaire in time, so I obsess over buying back hours through delegation and personal leverage. The big mistake is doing it yourself because it’s quicker once; train someone and a thousand repeats disappear, and when you get really good, tasks finish before you even knew they started, freeing you from chores so you can do what you love.
You’re listening to The Human Upgrade with Dave Asprey. Today’s guest, Jonathan Swanson, has built billion‑dollar companies and created Athena, which my team uses, and we’re diving into how delegation and AI give back time and attention without wrecking your budget—why this, and why now?
Longevity adds years, but I also want more hours today, and the way to crack the clock is delegation. That’s why I’ve devoted the last decade to building systems that multiply time.
Exactly—more life is more time, and efficiency matters; back when you launched your first unicorn, how many hours were you working?
During early Thumbtack days I was grinding sixteen to eighteen hours and even tried polyphasic sleep, then I hired a woman in Manila who transformed my life by taking my inbox, calendar, and later my personal world. She organized salon dinners where I met lifelong friends and even my future wife, and that opened my eyes to how far delegation can go at work and at home.
I’ve stumbled with assistants before and trust is hard, which is why Athena’s rigorous screening and training caught my attention and made it affordable. What does a full‑time, well‑trained EA cost, and how do you keep quality high?
Start by dropping the guilt—this is a great job for them and a life upgrade for you. It’s a mutually beneficial exchange where they grow alongside your success.
I tell founders the first hire should be an EA because it clears your head, but trust is the blocker; how do you vet for reliability?
Tactically, I run life off my calendar, not a to‑do list, and protect mornings for thinking and recovery; my first hire was an assistant and the ROI was immediate. Even spending approximately three thousand dollars a month can unlock growth because you stop doing an assistant’s job and get back to yours.
People think success comes first and then leverage, but leverage actually creates ambition by freeing mental space to dream bigger. I grew up modestly and never pictured having multiple assistants, yet each one creates opportunity for them and more impact and freedom for me.
I’m fascinated by how deep your screening goes and what makes someone not a fit; to show what’s possible, I bought a property and a truck with almost no effort because the work happened behind the scenes.
Delegation evolves from handing off tasks to owning outcomes, and eventually to a level where the first you hear of something is when it’s done. That takes training and time, but it’s the target.
I joke that laziness fuels innovation, so I track my hourly rate and refuse to do low‑value tasks, using AI plus trusted assistants to avoid waste. My biggest struggle was trustworthy help, which is why your model felt too good to be true until I used it, and I want listeners to see that asking for help is part of biohacking your energy.
Hiring an assistant is like adding more of you to your team. Our family joke is that if I’m doing the work, I failed to delegate, because that time is better spent on high‑leverage projects or with my wife and kids.
Delegation let me have dinner with my kids almost every night and avoid burning out.
Having someone whose job is to think about your time and well‑being is underrated—they anticipate, they care, and they act, like booking a massage before a brutal travel day. That feeling of being supported is powerful.
Do families who aren’t running companies use Athena?
All the time—founders and small business owners are common, but households also get huge value from a remote EA who coordinates with local help. Send a photo of the fridge, they keep the pantry stocked and the home humming.
AI can help, but the human relationship changes everything; can we blend both?
Great assistants become confidants who see your highs and lows and keep you accountable, which a bot can’t replicate. Mine pings me about workouts and meditation, logs it, and shares a friendly scoreboard with friends so I stay honest.
Can co‑founders share one assistant, and how do you delegate without micromanaging or getting over‑personal?
Shared assistants usually end in conflict or poaching, so avoid it. Keep the relationship professional, expand access gradually as trust builds, and set clear boundaries so intimacy grows in a healthy way.
What about security and sensitive information with remote assistants?
Here’s a secure, high‑impact example: I had my assistant mine my inbox and calendar for every medical visit across twenty years, request records from my email, assemble a single database, and now I query it with AI for targeted advice on goals like lowering LDL. It’s like an on‑demand concierge doctor that knows my full history.
I’ve built similar tools with my research, and that records project makes me want another EA.
The more help you have, the more extraordinary you can be—like arranging a year of daily messages from friends and contacts for my mother‑in‑law’s seventy‑fifth birthday, which we could only pull off through an assistant.
Our live audience asked about remote night monitoring for kids—how do you make that work?
It’s an advanced move and you must be careful, but we’ve used ex‑nurses overseas to watch baby cams, soothe through the monitor, and ping us when a cuddle is needed, which lets parents sleep most nights. Many wake‑ups are brief noises, and they escalate to us for real needs.
That lines up with co‑regulation—step in when contact matters, otherwise protect sleep, because rest underpins everything else.
Bottom line, it’s okay to ask for help; vetted remote assistants at this price point are a breakthrough even for tiny teams, and every saved minute can go to health, family, and the work only you can do.
Do fewer draining chores and more of what lights you up, and with a team behind you, you can chase bigger goals than you ever could alone.
This show is informational and not medical advice. Talk with your healthcare provider, read labels, and know that guests speak for themselves and there may be paid endorsements.
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