Podbit · 2 Bears, 1 Cave with Tom Segura & Bert Kreischer
Kratom was once a sponsor on their podcast — they told listeners to take it before workouts. Looking it up live, they discover it binds to the same opioid receptors as morphine and oxycodone. Awkward.
Where this was said
At 49:50 · chapter starts 47:57
The drug discussion begins innocuously — Bert wondering why so many sober people in his feed are addicted to kratom — and escalates fast. Tom reveals they used to sponsor kratom as a pre-workout supplement, then they look up the science live: kratom binds to the same opioid receptors as morphine and oxycodone [1] — Tom Segura "Kratom was once a sponsor on their podcast — they told listeners to take it before workouts. Looking it up live, they discover it binds to …" 49:50 . Tom then relays Dr. Drew's brilliant cocaine-vs-PCP behavioral split: cocaine users see cops and run, PCP users see cops and charge [2] — Tom Segura "Dr. Drew's best drug insight: coke people see a cop and bolt; PCP people see a cop and want to fight all of them. The difference between st…" 48:25 . The stories get wilder: a hotel guest returns from breakfast to find a cleaner passed out in their bed after mistaking a bag of ketamine for cocaine; British kids in a park dose an Irish traveler and film his K-hole. Bert concludes he'd consider ketamine only if it helped with his flying anxiety. The chapter closes with Tom referencing Matthew Perry's ketamine death as a sobering data point.
Dr. Drew's best drug insight: coke people see a cop and bolt; PCP people see a cop and want to fight all of them. The difference between stimulant-driven paranoia and dissociative invincibility, explained through pure chaos.
Tom and Bert looked up that kratom's active compounds bind to the same opioid receptors targeted by morphine and oxycodone, acting like a stimulant at low doses and an opioid at high doses.
Bert referenced that actor Matthew Perry died from ketamine use, noting it as one of the drug's real-world dangers.
A photographer at Bert's magazine shoot casually mentioned she'd 'fallen' — then revealed she jumped off a 10-story building during a ketamine treatment for depression, broke both shins, required a tracheotomy, and woke up 4 weeks later in a hospital with no memory. Didn't even scratch her face.
A photographer at Bert's photo shoot revealed she jumped from a 10-story building during a ketamine treatment, broke both shins, required a tracheotomy, and woke up 4 weeks later in hospital.
AI nailed Andrew Huberman's vertigo-vs-low-blood-pressure diagnosis because that pattern has been reported millions of times. But every patient's liver is different and data on liver surgeries is scarce worldwide — making solo robot surgery dangerous. The rule is simple: data abundance means AI can help; data scarcity means keep the human in the loop.
Fei-Fei Li's father had liver surgery performed by a da Vinci robot guided by a surgeon. The result: 10 times less blood loss than a typical procedure. This isn't replacement — it's the gold standard of human-machine collaboration, where the human's judgment and the robot's precision combine.
US drug overdose deaths fell from 110,000 to roughly 70,000 — the biggest CDC-recorded single-year drop ever. Men's rates fell 27% in one year, and the steepest decline of all was among 15–24-year-olds, down 37%. The crisis narrative around young men needs to make room for signs of genuine progress.
Kessler thought his grief expertise would protect him. It didn't. When his son David died unexpectedly, he found himself on the floor — and eventually realized that acceptance alone wasn't enough. That unmet need became the sixth stage: finding meaning.
Grief isn't just death — it's any unwanted change. Kessler lectured at Coca-Cola and General Mills not because they had lots of funerals, but because change management is grief management. People who grieve well live well.
Witnessing someone's grief isn't just emotional support — it's an essential act of healing. Kessler argues grief is a severance and connection heals it. But real witnessing has two steps: seeing the pain AND affirming the person's capacity to recover.
Avoiding grief isn't free — it's exhausting. Kessler's beach ball metaphor nails it: pushing a small balloon down is easy, but holding a massive beach ball underwater takes constant, draining energy. Unattended feelings don't disappear; they just consume you.
Most people try to control their environment to avoid triggers. Kessler flips this entirely: triggers aren't problems to manage around — they're a detailed map to your pain and your healing. Every trigger points directly to what needs attention.
Running from pain doesn't leave it behind — it accelerates the chase. Whatever we run from pursues us, and whatever we face transforms us. Both Kessler and Lewis Howes testify to knowing both roads firsthand.
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