‘Word Salad’: Andrew Huberman’s Cannabis Claims Slammed by Experts
Andrew Huberman is such a successful podcaster and wellness guru that his most devoted male followers are known by a teasing nickname: “Huberman Husbands.” But when recording his show Huberman Lab, Huberman has plenty that an influential podcasting superstar like, say, Joe Rogan, doesn’t: a PhD in neuroscience and a position at Stanford University School of Medicine as an associate professor of neurobiology.
It is these credentials that lend Huberman a voice of authority, even as he has strayed far from his fields of specialty (ophthalmology and visual systems) to become a generalist for his millions of listeners. Covering topics that range from dreams and dopamine to meditation and nutrition, he is positioned as an all-around expert who can distill some of the most complex questions in science into accessible explainers for the curious. But the result can be oversimplification or outright miscommunication that leads to charges of pseudoscience — as when he recently shared a video about the effects of cannabis on X (formerly Twitter).
The 20-minute clip comes from a nearly three-hour episode of Huberman Lab originally released in 2022. Outside that context, and free-floating on social media, this content attracted the ire of those who specifically study cannabis and its effects on the brain and body. The video includes claims about the supposed differences between sativa and indica variants of cannabis, the mechanisms by which cannabinoid compounds interact with the nervous system, and how the drug alters memory and appetite that experts tell Rolling Stone are either misleading or inaccurate. On X, Huberman appeared to stand by these assertions but encouraged critics to submit feedback via a portal on his show’s website; a representative also replied to a request for comment with sources Huberman had used in preparing the episode.
