60 Days Alone in Antarctica: Amputation, Frostbite, and Lessons from Extreme Suffering | Akshay Nanavati

Dave Asprey

May 29, 2025

Episode description

This episode dives into the brutal, mind-altering experience of spending 60 days alone in Antarctica, and how extreme suffering became a catalyst for spiritual awakening, peak performance, and deep inner peace.

Watch this episode on YouTube for the full video experience:

https://www.youtube.com/@DaveAspreyBPR

Host Dave Asprey sits down with elite adventurer, Marine Corps veteran, and Fearvana founder Akshay Nanavati, who dragged a 420lb sled solo across Antarctica in a brutal test of endurance, fasting, and spiritual transformation. Akshay shares how he used suffering as a tool to transmute PTSD, expand consciousness, and awaken what he calls the “paradox of oneness”—where discomfort unlocks the deepest joy.

Together, they explore how cold therapy, isolation, and extreme hardship reshape dopamine, mitochondria, neurochemistry, and the stories we tell ourselves. Akshay’s journey through darkness retreats, trauma healing, and polar expeditions opens a raw and unfiltered look at self-quantification, mental resilience, and human performance at the edge.

This episode will challenge your assumptions about comfort, suffering, and what it means to live fully awake. Whether you’re optimizing for longevity, exploring consciousness, or breaking free from invisible scripts, this conversation blends science, spirituality, and hardcore biohacking with moments of unexpected humor and wisdom.

You’ll Learn:

• How intentional pain resets your dopamine response and boosts performance

• Why Akshay chose fasting and cold exposure over nootropics and psychedelics

• How darkness retreats and solitude sharpen consciousness and intuition

• The neuroscience behind pain, trauma, and transformation

• Why true freedom lies in facing discomfort—not avoiding it

• How to find God in suffering and create meaning from chaos

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 is the top podcast for people who want to take control of their biology, extend their longevity, and optimize every system in the body and mind. Each episode features cutting-edge insights in health, performance, neuroscience, supplements, nutrition, hacking, emotional intelligence, and conscious living.

Episodes are released every Tuesday and Thursday, where Dave asks the questions no one else dares, and brings you real tools to become more resilient, aware, and high performing.

SPONSORS:

- Zbiotics | Go to https://zbiotics.com/DAVE for

Episode description

Watch this episode on YouTube for the full video experience:

https://www.youtube.com/@DaveAspreyBPR

You’ll Learn:

• How intentional pain resets your dopamine response and boosts performance

• Why Akshay chose fasting and cold exposure over nootropics and psychedelics

• How darkness retreats and solitude sharpen consciousness and intuition

• The neuroscience behind pain, trauma, and transformation

• Why true freedom lies in facing discomfort—not avoiding it

• How to find God in suffering and create meaning from chaos

Episodes are released every Tuesday and Thursday, where Dave asks the questions no one else dares, and brings you real tools to become more resilient, aware, and high performing.

SPONSORS:

- Zbiotics | Go to https://zbiotics.com/DAVE for

Mindsip insights from this episode:

Edit your perception to reshape reality

Your brain creates a 'user interface' on reality fit for survival, and you can consciously edit this lens by recognizing that your perceptions are constructs.

#cognition

#consciousness

Cultivate solitude to foster healthy relationships

If you are not truly comfortable with yourself in solitude, you cannot build a truly healthy and free relationship with another person.

#relationships

#solitude

Avoid second dart of suffering through mindful response

The first dart of suffering is an event you don't control, but the 'second dart' is the optional, negative internal dialogue you have in response to it.

#emotion

#mindfulness

Value comfort alongside discomfort for meaningful balance

The demonization of comfort is as mistaken as the demonization of discomfort, as both polarities are valuable because they give meaning to each other.

#resilience

Trust calm knowing to distinguish true intuition from urgency

A key sign that a feeling is true intuition, rather than fight-or-flight urgency, is that it comes from a place of peace and calm knowing without emotional baggage.

#intuition

#peace

Transmute trauma into personal evolution

Instead of viewing trauma as something to heal from to go back to normal, you can view it as something to evolve into that can make you better.

#personal-growth

#trauma

Utilize brief pain exposure to enhance dopamine sensitivity

Intentionally exposing yourself to something briefly painful, but not harmful, can reduce the amount of dopamine required to stimulate your receptors by up to 250%.

#dopamine

#pain

Enhance supplements with subatomic particles to improve biomarkers

A company called Igneaton uses subatomic particles, which may be what we call 'qi' or life force, to enrich supplement formulas and improve biomarkers like inflammation.

#biofield

#supplement

Use ZBiotics probiotic to reduce hangover effects

The pre-alcohol probiotic ZBiotics contains a genetically engineered enzyme that breaks down the toxic byproduct of alcohol, which is the primary cause of feeling bad the next day.