The DNA of Things with Dr. Jeremy Koenig

Dr. Jeremy Koenig

The DNA of Things," hosted by Dr. Jeremy Koenig, is an auditory journey into the evolving world of health science, performance, and longevity. This podcast brings together the sharpest minds in the field, including elite health strategists, pioneering scientists, and wellness mavericks, to share cutting-edge practices and revolutionary insights. Each episode is meticulously curated to enrich your understanding of well-being and to extend your vitality, propelling you toward a future filled with possibilities. Join Dr. Koenig as he unveils the secrets of human potential through the lens of genomics, and discover how to transform your health and life trajectory.

  1. 3d ago

    Episode 123: The Human Sleep Paradox: Why We Sleep Less Than Every Other Primate with Dr. David R. Samson

    What if the biggest problem with modern sleep isn’t duration, but disconnection? Dr. David R. Samson, evolutionary anthropologist and author of The Sleepless Ape, joins Dr. Jeremy Koenig to explain why humans sleep less than every other primate studied, yet devote an unusually large share of that sleep to REM. They explore what sleep among the Hadza reveals about circadian health, how early humans built a protective “SHELL” around sleep, and why light, temperature, social structure, and evolutionary history may matter more than chasing a universal eight-hour target. Key Takeaways  🦧 Humans are evolutionary outliers: comparative models predict we should sleep roughly 11.5 to 12 hours, yet we sleep far less than other primates.  🌍 Data from 54 populations found that small-scale societies averaged 6.4 hours of sleep, compared with 7.1 hours in large-scale societies.  ⏱️ Sleep efficiency averaged 74% in small-scale societies and 88% in large-scale societies, challenging the idea that industrialized populations universally sleep worse.  ☀️ Small-scale societies showed stronger circadian function, pointing to regular exposure to natural light and temperature as a major advantage.  🛖 Samson’s SHELL framework covers Shelter, Hearth, Environmental preparation, Lux, and Lookouts.  👁️ During 20 days of Hadza observation, everyone was simultaneously scored asleep for only 18 minutes; a median of eight people remained awake at any given nighttime interval.  👵 Intergenerational chronotype variation may have created a natural security system, with older “larks” and younger “owls” covering different parts of the night.  🧠 REM sleep helps regulate emotion, while slow-wave sleep supports immune function, placing a biological floor on how far humans can safely reduce sleep.Connect with Dr. David R. Samson  Website: davidrsamson.com University of Toronto: Sleep and Human Evolution Lab Instagram: @primalprimatologist X: @Primalprimate LINKS: https://www.drjeremykoenig.com/ https://www.instagram.com/drjeremykoenig/ https://www.youtube.com/@drjeremykoenig Here's the link for this week's episode: https://drjeremykoenig.substack.com/.

    Episode 123: The Human Sleep Paradox: Why We Sleep Less Than Every Other Primate with Dr. David R. Samson

  2. Aug 9

    Episode 122: Joel Smith on Why Play Beats Protocol: Gamified Training, Flow States, and Jumping Higher at 41

    Speed and jumps coach Joel Smith (Just Fly Performance) joins Dr. Jeremy Koenig on The DNA of Things for a conversation that starts with a missed dunk and ends in Jungian psychology. Joel walks through the freshman-year college moment that convinced him rigid protocols weren't enough on their own — and how gamified training, from tennis-ball street games to a "speed gate golf" drill borrowed from UK coach Sam Portland, has helped him and his clients hit personal bests without chasing them. Jeremy matches him story for story, including the workout with his old coach Garnett that took him from ranked 700th in the country to 7th in three months. By the second half, the two are drawing mandalas before workouts, debating Carl Jung's warning about "consciousness you haven't earned," and mapping out Joel's new book and coaching cohort. Key Takeaways 🏀 In his freshman year of college, Joel stepped away from basketball to focus purely on strength training — and his vertical jump got worse. He missed his first three or four attempts at a dunk he used to make cold, no warm-up needed 🎯 UK speed coach Sam Portland's "Speed Gate Golf" drill — chasing a target time like 2.1 seconds instead of a personal best — got athletes in their 30s matching their 20s-era PRs, simply by removing the pressure to beat a number 📬 Joel's own training now includes a game he plays on his street using his and his neighbor's mailbox as targets — at 41, he was jumping higher and sprinting faster than he was at 37 🏃 Jeremy's old coach Garnett — a 70-year-old Trinidadian sprint guru with a PhD in geology — took him from a walk-on ranked 700th nationally to 7th in the country in three months, using a no-warm-up 20x60m ladder from walk to sprint, with less total training 🧠 Joel breaks training down by brain network — default mode (rumination), task-positive (external focus), salience (what matters right now) — and argues pickup games light up all three at once 🌀 Before workouts, Joel draws a Jungian "mandala": a circle mapping the athlete he wants to embody, the actions and emotions he's chasing (and avoiding), and one keyword at the center. He says his training reliably "drifts" toward whatever he's written 📚 Joel is finishing a book, Strong in the Water, about his seven years coaching swimmers at Cal, and launches a new performance cohort, Athletic Fusion, this September ⚠️ Citing Carl Jung, the two discuss the risk of chasing "states of consciousness you haven't earned" — comparing unearned intensity or unprepared inner work to the injury risk of performance-enhancing drugs  LINKS: https://www.drjeremykoenig.com/ https://www.instagram.com/drjeremykoenig/ https://www.youtube.com/@drjeremykoenig Here's the link for this week's episode: https://drjeremykoenig.substack.com/.

    Episode 122: Joel Smith on Why Play Beats Protocol: Gamified Training, Flow States, and Jumping Higher at 41

  3. Aug 2

    Episode 121: He Carries the Alzheimer's Gene — So He Built a 650-Person Experiment to Beat It with Dr. Kevin Tran

    At 34, pharmacist Dr. Kevin Tran took a routine consumer gene test expecting supplement tweaks — instead he found two copies of APOE4, a variant tied to up to a 33x higher Alzheimer's risk. When neurologists across three countries told him the same thing — come back when you have symptoms — he built his own answer: the Phoenix Project, a crowdsourced "N-of-many" self-experimentation community now approaching 700 members. In this episode of The DNA of Things, Kevin walks Dr. Jeremy Koenig through his own biomarker turnaround (HbA1c, cholesterol, VO2 max), the humbling truth buried in Phoenix's unpublished data (zero of 250 supplements hit statistical significance), a surprising creatine-and-sleep finding, and why he believes APOE4 carriers deserve their own lane in Alzheimer's drug trials. Key Takeaways: 🧬 25% of the population carries APOE4, but most never get tested — Kevin didn't know until a random consumer swab test📈 Two copies of APOE4 = up to 33x higher Alzheimer's risk; one copy is closer to 4x🩺 Three neurologists, three countries (US, France, Singapore), same advice: wait for symptoms — which Kevin calls "insane"💪 In 6-7 months of diet/exercise changes: HbA1c dropped 5.9% → 5.4%, cholesterol 115 → 70, body fat 22% → 13%, VO2 max 36 → 51🔬 Across 250+ supplements tested by 650 Phoenix members over 6-7 months, none crossed statistical significance community-wide😴 High-dose creatine (20g/day) disrupted deep/REM sleep in ~15% of members — a finding not reported elsewhere🧊 Sauna use (4-5x/week) shows the strongest anecdotal signal in the community for energy and reduced brain fog✂️ Kevin believes APOE4's single-base difference makes it a prime CRISPR target — but brain delivery remains the core obstacle LINKS: https://www.drjeremykoenig.com/ https://www.instagram.com/drjeremykoenig/ https://www.youtube.com/@drjeremykoenig Here's the link for this week's episode: https://drjeremykoenig.substack.com/.

    Episode 121: He Carries the Alzheimer's Gene — So He Built a 650-Person Experiment to Beat It with Dr. Kevin Tran

  4. Jul 26

    Episode 120: Dr. Bruce Dame - The Hot Springs Hypothesis and the Origin of Life

    How did life actually begin — and did it start in Yellowstone's boiling hot springs instead of the deep ocean? In this episode, astrobiologist Dr. Bruce Damer joins Jeremy to unpack the hot springs hypothesis, the origin-of-life theory he co-developed with biophysicist David Deamer that's reshaping how scientists think about where the first living cells came from. Bruce walks through the childhood vision at age 14 that set his entire career in motion, the wet-dry cycling experiments in volcanic pools that produce trillions of protocells, and why his NASA background in virtual worlds and asteroid mining eventually looped back into origin-of-life research. The conversation goes deep into the Drake Equation, the Great Filter, and whether complex life might be vanishingly rare in the universe — then takes an unexpected turn into consciousness, psychedelics, and whether humans are tapped into a larger energetic field none of us fully understand yet. If you're into astrobiology, space science, or just love a good "how did any of this even happen" rabbit hole, this one delivers. Key Takeaways: 🌋 The hot springs hypothesis says life may have started in cycling volcanic pools, not the ocean  🧬 Wet-dry cycling in hot spring analogs produces trillions of protocells in the lab  👁️ Bruce's origin story starts with a literal vision at age 14 that mapped out his entire career  🚀 Two decades of NASA work on rovers, space stations, and asteroid mining fed straight back into origin-of-life science  ☄️ Meteorites carry prebiotic ingredients like amino acids and nucleobases that may have seeded early Earth  🔭 The Drake Equation and the Great Filter suggest we might be genuinely alone in the cosmos  🧠 Carl Woese's "progenote" theory reframes evolution before cells even existed  🍄 A candid dive into ayahuasca and psychedelics as tools for creative and scientific insight  💫 A closing theory on whether humans tap into a shared conductive energetic field  👨‍👧 Why raising a child might be the most direct path to understanding "duty of care" in an AI-driven world Connect with guest: BIOTA Institute (his research org, Hot Spring Hypothesis): https://biota.org/ Personal archive site: https://damer.com/ Research profile / publications: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Bruce-Damer  LINKS: https://www.drjeremykoenig.com/ https://www.instagram.com/drjeremykoenig/ https://www.youtube.com/@drjeremykoenig Here's the link for this week's episode: https://drjeremykoenig.substack.com/.

    Episode 120: Dr. Bruce Dame - The Hot Springs Hypothesis and the Origin of Life

  5. Jul 19

    Episode 119: His Testosterone Was 159. What Happened Next Changed Everything with Kyle Hulbert

    At 22, Kyle Hulbert was doing everything "right" — clean diet, eight hours of sleep, daily workouts — and still found himself standing on a 27th-floor balcony in Dubai, depressed and suicidal, with doctors telling him nothing was wrong. It took a functional medicine physician to uncover the real problem: rock-bottom testosterone and chronic mercury poisoning. That diagnosis didn't just save his life — it became the blueprint for Longevity Clinics of America, a functional medicine model built to be affordable instead of another concierge health perk for the wealthy. In this episode, Kyle sits down with Dr. Jeremy Koenig to unpack how pharma funding shapes medical school curriculums, why testing for root causes shouldn't cost thousands of dollars, and how he's scaling a business that runs consults at a loss because he believes access, not upsells, is what actually saves lives. Key Takeaways 🧠 Suicidal at 22 despite a "perfect" lifestyle — until testosterone testing changed everything  💉 His testosterone came back at 159 — ten times lower than normal for his age  ⚡ Mental health cleared up in just 7 days after starting hormone therapy  ☠️ Chronic mercury poisoning was the hidden root cause behind years of fatigue, brain fog, and joint pain  🏥 Why medical schools are funded by pharma — and what that leaves out of doctor training  💰 Functional medicine testing can cost thousands, pricing out everyone but the wealthy  🩺 How Kyle and his business partner built a pricing model that undercuts the concierge health industry by 10x  📉 Clinics intentionally operate consults at a loss because "treatment gives value, not the consult"  🌍 The goal: 10-20 clinics across America to make functional testing accessible, not exclusive  🏠 Simple home heuristics — mold, water filtration, movement — that can catch problems before they become a crisis  👨‍👩‍👧 Why parents should get their kids tested for the same toxicities they struggled with  📺 The "Netflix test" — a surprisingly simple gut check for whether your lifestyle needs an intervention  LINKS: https://www.drjeremykoenig.com/ https://www.instagram.com/drjeremykoenig/ https://www.youtube.com/@drjeremykoenig Here's the link for this week's episode: https://drjeremykoenig.substack.com/.

    Episode 119: His Testosterone Was 159. What Happened Next Changed Everything with Kyle Hulbert

  6. Jul 12

    Episode 118: How AI Found What 15 Years of Dermatologists Couldn't | OK Capsule's Dr. Andrew Brandeis

    Dr. Jeremy Koenig sits down with Dr. Andrew Brandeis, CMO and co-founder of OK Capsule, for a wide-ranging conversation about the real reason personalized supplements fail: it's not the science, it's the logistics. Andrew shares his journey from naturopathic physician working alongside MDs in San Francisco urgent care to building a manufacturing-as-a-service platform that pre-sorts and drop-ships personalized daily vitamin packets for supplement brands worldwide. The two dig into supplement quality scandals, the psychology of adherence, and how AI — specifically Claude — is quietly becoming a diagnostic thought partner for both doctors and patients. Andrew even tells the story of how an AI chat uncovered the real root cause of his decade-plus psoriasis flare-ups after dermatologists came up empty. The episode closes with a look at OK Capsule's new MCP integration (basically an AI-native API that turns weeks-long tech integrations into a single click), plus a teaser for Andrew's upcoming satirical novel on how blockbuster drugs actually get made — through marketing, not medicine. Key Takeaways 💊 Supplements only work if three things line up: the right formula for the right condition, verified label-accurate quality, and actual consistent adherence — most plans fail on that third one🏭 OK Capsule isn't a supplement brand — it's an API/MCP-driven platform that lets other supplement brands offer personalized, private-labeled daily packs at scale📉 Independent testing has repeatedly found a shocking number of Amazon supplement products don't actually match their label claims — brand trust exists for a reason🤖 AI tools like Claude are becoming a "second opinion" layer for both patients and physicians — pulling years of labs, wearables, and raw genetic data into one context window no human doctor could hold in their head🧬 Andrew's real-life psoriasis case: 15 years of dermatologists saying "it's genetic, here's a steroid cream" — until an AI-assisted deep dive into his raw 23andMe data flagged a specific immune overreaction to a common skin yeast, and treating that actually resolved it🔌 MCP (Model Context Protocol) is being called "the new API" — reducing what used to be weeks of engineering integration work down to a single click for AI-to-AI systems📊 Function Health and its wave of copycats nailed the "here are your results" part of personalization — but most stop short of actually delivering a physical product or solution, which is the gap OK Capsule fills👨‍👩‍👧 A fascinating tangent on where this is all headed: "family LLMs" that hold context across a household's health history, habits, and dinner-table conversations📚 Andrew's satirical novel Pillars: Science and Other Profitable Lies (out early 2027) pulls back the curtain on how pharmaceutical "blockbusters" are really built — through marketing narratives, not necessarily medical superiority🎯 Big picture theme: stop waiting for better information and start building better infrastructure — make the healthy choice the easy choice, and behavior change follows automaticallyChapters List: 00:47 Transitioning Roles: From CEO to CMO 05:50 The Journey to OK Capsule: Foundational Insights 09:34 Building a Platform for Personalized Supplements 13:04 Navigating Quality and Compliance in Supplements 16:06 AI in Healthcare: Opportunities and Challenges 19:00 The Rise of Personalized Health Solutions 21:30 Innovations in AI and Health Integration 25:29 The Impact of MCP on Health Management 28:47 Personalized Supplements and Health Outcomes 32:40 AI as an Augmentation Tool for Doctors 39:02 The Future of Personalized Health and Family Dynamics 41:41 Closing Thoughts and Future Directions   LINKS: https://www.drjeremykoenig.com/ https://www.instagram.com/drjeremykoenig/ https://www.youtube.com/@drjeremykoenig Here's the link for this week's episode: https://drjeremykoenig.substack.com/.

    Episode 118: How AI Found What 15 Years of Dermatologists Couldn't | OK Capsule's Dr. Andrew Brandeis

  7. Jul 5

    Episode 117: The Molecule That Made Rats Live 90% Longer — Chris Burres on ESS60 & The Science of Aging

    Chris Burres has spent over three decades chasing a molecule most people have never heard of, and the story behind it sounds almost too wild to be true. In 2012, a French toxicity study accidentally discovered that Carbon 60 (ESS60) extended rat lifespans by 90%, making it one of the longest mammalian longevity results ever recorded in peer-reviewed research. On this episode of The DNA of Things, Dr. Jeremy Koenig sits down with Burres, co-founder of SES Research and founder of My Vital C, to unpack the science of oxidative stress, mitochondrial health, and his own BOSS Theory (Buffering Oxidative Stress System). From the Nobel Prize-winning discovery of the molecule at Rice University to real-world testimonials on sleep, energy, and mental focus, this conversation dives deep into carbon nanomaterials, biohacking, and what it actually takes to buffer aging at the cellular level. Key Takeaways 🧬 The 90% Longevity Study — How a 2012 French toxicity study on Carbon 60 accidentally became one of the longest-recorded lifespan extensions in mammal history ⚗️ From Nobel Prize to Supplement Shelf — The 1985 Rice University discovery of the C60 molecule and its 11-year path to a Nobel Prize in Chemistry 🔋 Mitochondria & Oxidative Stress, Explained — Chris breaks down the BOSS Theory (Buffering Oxidative Stress System) using his now-famous Mardi Gras/bumper cars analogy 😴 The Sleep-Energy Connection — Why the most consistent testimonial from ESS60 users is better focus and energy during the day paired with deeper sleep at night 🧪 The Messy Supplement Industry — Why Chris resisted entering the supplement space for years, and what finally changed his mind 💊 Real Protocols & Dosing — Olive oil vs. avocado oil vs. MCT oil, and how Chris personally stacks his morning routine 📊 What's Next: Ongoing Research — Upcoming studies on headaches, HS-CRP inflammation markers, sleep, and skin aging 🎁 Free Resources for Listeners — Chris shares an 18-tip biohacking guide from his Longevity Summit interviews with 57 experts, plus an exclusive discount link  LINKS: https://www.drjeremykoenig.com/ https://www.instagram.com/drjeremykoenig/ https://www.youtube.com/@drjeremykoenig Here's the link for this week's episode: https://drjeremykoenig.substack.com/.

    Episode 117: The Molecule That Made Rats Live 90% Longer — Chris Burres on ESS60 & The Science of Aging

  8. Jun 28

    Episode 116: Death by Five-Minute Paper Cuts: Fixing Functional Medicine's Data Problem with Jeremy Malecha

    Jeremy Malecha spent his career building cloud-connected medical devices at ResMed before functional medicine pulled him in through the side door — literally, as his wife's first patient. What he found was a mess: lab results in one place, wearable data in another, supplement protocols scribbled into a Word doc, and zero way to connect any of it. That frustration became Biocanic, a platform now used by thousands of practitioners and over 270,000 patients to turn raw biomarker data, wearable streams, and intake forms into structured, repeatable protocols. In this conversation, Jeremy and Dr. Jeremy Koenig dig into why functional medicine is data-rich but action-poor, how AI changed the speed of building personalized care tools almost overnight, why "death by five-minute paper cuts" is quietly burning out practitioners, and what it actually takes to scale individualized health without losing the personalization that makes it work. They also get into the bigger shift happening post-pandemic — from "doctor knows best" to "I'm responsible for my own health" — and why that shift, not better algorithms, is what's actually going to disrupt healthcare. Key Takeaways: 🧬 How Biocanic turns scattered labs, wearables, and intake data into one trackable health record  ⏱️ Why "death by five-minute paper cuts" is the real bottleneck stopping practitioners from scaling  🤖 What changed for health tech builders once AI tools caught up to what Jeremy was doing back in 2018  📊 Why functional medicine is data-rich but action-poor — and what closes that gap  🔁 How practitioners build repeatable protocols without sacrificing personalized care  💍 Using wearables (Aura, Whoop, Garmin) and self-experimentation to catch health shifts before they become problems  🩺 The difference between functional medicine patients, health optimizers, and longevity biohackers — and why practitioners serve them differently  🏥 Why healthcare disruption is coming from outside the system, not from insurance or hospitals  🧠 The "teach a person to fish" philosophy behind personalized health coaching  ❤️ Why the real metric of long-term health might be relationships, not biomarkers  LINKS: https://www.drjeremykoenig.com/ https://www.instagram.com/drjeremykoenig/ https://www.youtube.com/@drjeremykoenig Here's the link for this week's episode: https://drjeremykoenig.substack.com/.

    Episode 116: Death by Five-Minute Paper Cuts: Fixing Functional Medicine's Data Problem with Jeremy Malecha
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About

The DNA of Things," hosted by Dr. Jeremy Koenig, is an auditory journey into the evolving world of health science, performance, and longevity. This podcast brings together the sharpest minds in the field, including elite health strategists, pioneering scientists, and wellness mavericks, to share cutting-edge practices and revolutionary insights. Each episode is meticulously curated to enrich your understanding of well-being and to extend your vitality, propelling you toward a future filled with possibilities. Join Dr. Koenig as he unveils the secrets of human potential through the lens of genomics, and discover how to transform your health and life trajectory.

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