Contracts of Love & Money That Make or Break Relationships | James Sexton

Andrew Huberman:
Welcome to the Huberman Lab podcast, where we discuss science and science-based tools for everyday life. I'm Andrew Huberman, and I'm a professor of neurobiology and ophthalmology at Stanford School of Medicine. My guest today is James Sexton. James Sexton is a renowned attorney with over 25 years of experience in family law, specializing in prenuptial agreements and divorces. He is known as what many call the voice of reason between love and legal. Today, we discuss something that might seem counterintuitive, which is how the legal frameworks and contracts surrounding relationships, particularly prenuptial agreements, can actually deepen emotional connection and build trust between partners. As James points out, intimacy and trust are fundamentally about the ability to be your true self with your partner and them with you. It's about allowing ourselves to be vulnerable. It's also about having a same-team spirit, of course, respect for one another, and admiration for each other's unique qualities. Today, we explore how prenuptial agreements, which most often are viewed as being unromantic or pessimistic, can actually serve as ways to establish a sense of safety for both people and prevent many common conflicts and misunderstandings. As James puts it, everyone has a prenup. You either have one that was created by the state legislature, or you can tailor one to you and your partner's unique needs. He also points out something that many people will find surprising, which is that the vast majority of people who do prenups stay married, and yet most people opt not to do them. We also discuss love itself and the key questions that we all need to ask to find the right partner, and if you have one, to build the strongest possible bonds with them. The information in today's episode is going to be extremely important for anyone looking for or currently in a relationship. Whether you're single, dating, engaged, or married, understanding how the legal and emotional frameworks that support lasting relationships intersect can help you navigate one of life's most rewarding but challenging journeys with much greater awareness and intention and probability of success. Before we begin, I'd like to emphasize that this podcast is separate from my teaching and research roles at Stanford. It is, however, part of my desire and effort to bring zero cost to consumer information about science and science-related tools to the general public. In keeping with that theme, this episode does include sponsors. And now for my discussion with James Sexton. Jim Sexton, welcome.

James Sexton:
Thank you. It's good to be here.

Andrew Huberman:
I've been wanting to do this for a while.

James Sexton:
I know. It's a long time in the making, yeah.

Andrew Huberman:
I think if two guys sit down, one of them a lawyer who's known as a divorce lawyer, and they're talking about divorce and love and money and contracts and the ending of things, I think there's a understandable default mindset where the female half of our audience are probably going to think, "Here are a couple guys talking about relationships and divorce through the lens of their Y chromosomes."

James Sexton:
Uh-huh.

Andrew Huberman:
Which, of course, it's impossible to avoid completely because-

James Sexton:
Sure

Andrew Huberman:
... I haven't done the karyotyping, but-

James Sexton:
Yeah

Andrew Huberman:
... you have a Y chromosome, and I do as well. I would like to know, in your experience working with male clients and female clients-

James Sexton:
Mm-hmm

Andrew Huberman:
... is there something unique to the female experience of divorce or the female experience of realizing, wow, this contract that I thought was for life may not or is not for life, that sort of drives a kind of female specific set of-

James Sexton:
Yeah

Andrew Huberman:
... psychological responses? Here, I'm basically asking for a generalization.

James Sexton:
Yeah.

Andrew Huberman:
And I want to be clear, I'm not asking this for politically correct reasons.

James Sexton:
Yeah.

Andrew Huberman:
I'm asking this because, like I said, two guys sitting down to talk about-

James Sexton:
Yeah

Andrew Huberman:
... relationships, love, and divorce-

James Sexton:
Yeah

Andrew Huberman:
... it's kind of where the mind goes.

James Sexton:
Yeah, and before I would get canceled in the comments for being misandrist or misogynist, I always try to say that the things I'm observing are a function of having divorced thousands of people, men and women. For 25 years, I've done nothing but divorce law on a full-time basis, and I mean it on a truly full-time basis. So I wake up in the morning thinking about this stuff. I go to bed thinking about this stuff. I work six, seven days a week. That's why I'm divorced. I really, really love the work. And so all the things I'm saying are really just my observations. So in response to that question, I think the world relates to divorced men and divorced women differently, and I think people's self-conception, right, is very different. So I often tell my male clients when we're dealing with a custody case, for example, which is arguments over when a child's going to live with whom and when they're going to spend time with whom, and there was this concept called the maternal presumption, which was around legally for years, or something called the tender years doctrine. It's called different things in different states, but it was around until probably the 1980s, and that was that a child was assumed to stay in the custody of the mother unless you could prove she was an unfit mother. So men were automatically second class when it came to being a parent. So it was automatic. It was the default. Now, of course, in the '80s, there was a different makeup of the workforce. There was a different in gender roles, obviously, in terms of assignment of childcare responsibilities. It was a different world to some degree. But that was eradicated in the 1980s. And the bench, even the judges, have changed dramatically. When I started practicing 25 years ago, 90% of the judges I appeared in front of were old white men, period. That was it. It was old white men. And so I got in the habit of have a short haircut, hide the tattoos, look like you're coming out of the set of "Inherit the Wind." Because you've got a conservative old man as your judge. That is not the makeup of the bench anymore. The bench now is as diverse as the people that it serves. So one of the things, though, that I tell my male clients is, even though that maternal presumption is gone, women fight harder for custody than men do.

Andrew Huberman:
Really?

James Sexton:
I'd love to say to you that it's because the maternal instinct and bond is so strong that women just care about their kids, and they want custody. I don't really believe it's that. I think it's the following If you and I just met in normal life, right? We're just out at a bar, and I sit up, and you say, "So, Jim, tell me about yourself." And I say, "Well, I'm divorced. My kids live with their mom. I see them every other weekend and once a week for dinner." You would go, "Okay, cool. Jim's a divorced guy. He's working. He does his thing." I'm a woman, and I say, "I have two kids. They live with their father. I see them every other weekend." You go, "What is wrong with this one? Is she on substance use issues, mental health issues? Why does he have custody of the kids? Why doesn't she have custody of her kids?" So there is an element of how motherhood is perceived as an identity, even for a working woman, that it's like if you don't have your kids on a full-time or close to full-time basis, there's this perception. So that infuses, that changes the way that women are in custody litigation. That's a huge piece of it. On the other side of things, the gender stuff in divorce and in breakups is really interesting and complicated in the sense that, for example, if a man cheats on his wife, he's a piece of shit, can't keep it in his pants, he's a child. Why couldn't he be honest? A woman cheats on her husband, she was driven into the arms of another man. He wasn't meeting her needs. This was her journey of self-discovery. You see it in popular media. Watch any film, any TV show. When the man cheats, it's like he's a lecherous guy who just... The woman cheats, it's like, oh, this poor woman. She needed to find herself. She needed her Eat Pray Love moment. And so that's, again, the way the world interacts with people in breakups and in the clay that builds to the breakup is very different. So how people react to it is very different. Men, in my experience as clients, there's a lot of anger that manifests in very honest ways, very blunt ways, very because men are-- Bill Burr, recently, in one of his recent specials, has this thing about men are allowed to be two things: angry or fine. That's it. Angry or fine. And I used to always say that growing up, I'm 52, growing up, I had two choices. You're either Clint Eastwood or Richard Simmons. Those were your two choices as a man. You were either stoic, stony, no emotion, or gay. That was it. Those were your two choices. And of course, it's totally dishonest. Of course, the reality is, is men have a different, we have an emotional vocabulary. It just expresses in different ways. But anger is something men are allowed to have. So when men are sad, they seem angry. When men are angry, they seem angry. Women, my experience of women in divorce is, is they're much more forgiving in unhappy marriages. They're much more willing to stay in relatively unhappy marriages and sort of torture their partner. And then when they've decided, okay, I'm out, there is a level of like, yeah, whatever we got to do, we got to do. That sometimes to me, as someone who does this for a living, is like, oh, okay. You're just willing to go there.

Andrew Huberman:
Like a mercenary.

James Sexton:
Yeah. And you look at the history of the marriage, and you go, wow, when they were together, there's nothing she wouldn't do for him. And now it's ending, and man, there's nothing she won't do to him. She is just weaponized on him. And it used to be surprising to me. It's not really surprising to me anymore. I have a friend who was a criminal lawyer for many years, criminal defense attorney, really good one in the city. And we used to laugh because he used to say, as a criminal lawyer, he sees bad people at their best. And as a divorce lawyer, I see good people at their worst. And it's always astounding to me because I've reached a level in my career, thankfully, where I represent elite athletes. I represent people in the financial markets who literally move markets with their trades, people in the entertainment industry. And they are as bad at this as any of us. They're as bad at relationships, they're as bad at heartbreak as anybody. So, there were differences in the gender piece. There are differences in the socioeconomic piece. But at the end of the day, it's hurt people hurting people, and it kind of looks roughly the same.

Andrew Huberman:
It's very interesting, and there's a lot in there. I want to return to this sort of divergent response to men cheating versus women cheating a little bit later. Super interesting area for exploration.

James Sexton:
Well, I feel like I have a PhD in infidelity because it's part of 90-plus percent of divorces in some form.

Andrew Huberman:
Yeah. Really?

James Sexton:
Well, it's why people, I think, mistake correlation for causation. People all the time are like, "Why are you getting divorced?" "Because he's sleeping with his secretary." And it's like, oh, that's a pretty good reason to get divorced. But then when you scratch the surface, you're like, "Okay, but why is he sleeping with his secretary?" And there's almost always this very deep backstory of like, "Well, we stopped sleeping together." Why did we stop sleeping? "Well, because he's unkind to me." Well, why is he unkind to you? "Well, because you're totally indifferent to me." And you start to go, okay, the truth's at the bottom of a bottomless pit, and we're never going to get there. And all of those facts come with a point of view. So when you do what I do for a living, which is full-contact storytelling, basically, in a courtroom against someone who's trying to tell the opposite story, you find a lot of what you're doing is just figuring out how to present the most persuasive version of this person's subjective experience of their own life.

Andrew Huberman:
I would like to take a quick break and acknowledge one of our sponsors, Wealthfront I've been using Wealthfront for my savings and for my investing for nearly a decade, and I absolutely love it. At the start of every year, I set new goals, and one of my goals for 2025 is to focus on saving money. Since I have Wealthfront, I'll keep that savings in my Wealthfront cash account, where I'm able to earn 4% annual percentage yield on my deposits, and you can as well. With Wealthfront, you can earn 4% APY on your cash from partner banks until you're ready to either spend that money or invest it. With Wealthfront, you also get free instant withdrawals to eligible accounts every day, even on weekends and holidays. The 4% APY is not a promotional rate, and there's no limit to what you can deposit and earn. And you can even get protection for up to $8 million through FDIC insurance provided through Wealthfront's partner banks. Wealthfront gives you free instant withdrawals, where it takes just minutes to transfer your money to eligible external accounts. It also takes just minutes to transfer your cash from the cash account to any of Wealthfront's automated investment accounts when you're ready to invest. There are already a million people using Wealthfront to save more, earn more, and build long-term wealth. Earn 4% APY on your cash today. If you'd like to try Wealthfront, go to wealthfront.com/huberman to receive a free $50 bonus with a $500 deposit into your first cash account. That's wealthfront.com/huberman to get started now. This has been a paid testimonial of Wealthfront. Wealthfront Brokerage isn't a bank. The APY is subject to change. For more information, see the episode description. Today's episode is also brought to us by BetterHelp. BetterHelp offers professional therapy with a licensed therapist carried out entirely online. I've been doing weekly therapy for well over 30 years. There are essentially three things that great therapy provides. First of all, it provides good rapport with somebody that you can really trust and talk to about any issues you want. Second of all, it can provide support in the form of emotional support and directed guidance. And third, expert therapy provides useful insights, insights that allow you to better not just your emotional life and your relationships, but of course, also the relationship to yourself and to your professional life and to all sorts of life and career goals. With BetterHelp, they make it extremely easy to find an expert therapist who you can really resonate with and that can help provide these benefits that come through effective therapy. And because BetterHelp allows for therapy to be done entirely online, it's very time efficient and easy to fit into a busy schedule. There's no commuting to a therapist's office, finding parking, or sitting in a waiting room. If you'd like to try BetterHelp, you can go to betterhelp.com/huberman to get 10% off your first month. Again, that's betterhelp.com/huberman. We're talking about breaking one contract, the contract of marriage.

James Sexton:
Mm-hmm.

Andrew Huberman:
And creating a new contract.

James Sexton:
Mm-hmm.

Andrew Huberman:
The contract of divorce. I'm fascinated by contracts.

James Sexton:
Mm-hmm.

Andrew Huberman:
In the world of business, my business partner and I that started this podcast, I insisted that we take an even split. That was important to me. It's absolutely critical, because this podcast wouldn't be what it is without him-

James Sexton:
Yeah

Andrew Huberman:
... and his incredible expertise. He is the genius behind it all. Our initial contract was on a piece of paper-

James Sexton:
Mm-hmm

Andrew Huberman:
... in a little coffee shop in Manhattan.

James Sexton:
Mm-hmm.

Andrew Huberman:
Where I said, "How about this? How about this?" And we discussed it.

James Sexton:
People like you give lawyers-

Andrew Huberman:
Yeah.

James Sexton:
Like, we get hives.

Andrew Huberman:
Okay.

James Sexton:
Like you say that and-

Andrew Huberman:
Okay

James Sexton:
... I instantly start like, you know.

Andrew Huberman:
Six months later, or so, a lawyer told us we had to get a real contract.

James Sexton:
Yeah.

Andrew Huberman:
And we did it, and I have to say it was fine, and I'm glad we have contracts, but to me, all contracts, whether or not it's a scribble on a piece of paper or it's a formal contract, contracts make me feel safe. They make me feel good. I like rules and guidelines.

James Sexton:
Sure.

Andrew Huberman:
I like knowing what's going to happen if. For a scientist-

James Sexton:
Yeah

Andrew Huberman:
... this doesn't really exist. You like to think you can control outcomes, but you can't, and you acknowledge-

James Sexton:
Yeah

Andrew Huberman:
... that, and you go into the unknown.

James Sexton:
Yeah.

Andrew Huberman:
So contracts are very reassuring to me.

James Sexton:
Yeah. Yeah.

Andrew Huberman:
I want to talk about the contract of marriage first.

James Sexton:
Yeah.

Andrew Huberman:
And what you think is going through people's mind when they decide to get married. There's the engagement, there's a lot of love, hopefully, there's a lot of love.

James Sexton:
Mm-hmm.

Andrew Huberman:
Hopefully, there's a lot of dopamine. That's a wonderful thing.

James Sexton:
Mm-hmm.

Andrew Huberman:
Presumably, there's a lot of pheromones, there's a lot of-

James Sexton:
Mm-hmm

Andrew Huberman:
... emotional and biological stuff happening.

James Sexton:
Sure.

Andrew Huberman:
There's the recognition from others. There's the party.

James Sexton:
Mm-hmm.

Andrew Huberman:
There's the bachelor party, the bachelorette party-

James Sexton:
Yeah. Yeah

Andrew Huberman:
... the shower, the wedding.

James Sexton:
Yeah.

Andrew Huberman:
There's so many things reinforcing this-

James Sexton:
Yeah

Andrew Huberman:
... bond.

James Sexton:
And every one of the things you just named are awesome.

Andrew Huberman:
Mm-hmm.

James Sexton:
They're great.

Andrew Huberman:
Yeah.

James Sexton:
Like those are all positive things. From the cake to the bachelor party, bachelorette party, to the dress, to the way we're going to have photos taken to commemorate the moment and sort of have this snapshot in time of who we were and who our families were. Like all of that, how could you not cheer for that?

Andrew Huberman:
Mm-hmm.

James Sexton:
It's phenomenal.

Andrew Huberman:
Right.

James Sexton:
All of that sounds great. It's like, "Oh, I like this ice cream." What's not to like? It's ice cream. Of course, you like ice cream.

Andrew Huberman:
Yeah. To me, it's celebration of life.

James Sexton:
Yeah.

Andrew Huberman:
It's very different than the birth of a child, but it's this-

James Sexton:
Yeah

Andrew Huberman:
... each one of those is a celebration of the life spirit.

James Sexton:
Yeah, and your place in-

Andrew Huberman:
Yeah

James Sexton:
... the timeline and the history and the merging of families, the merging of clans. And sort of this, we're going to merge now, and maybe new life comes of that. And then that life merges with more life, and we become part of this chain. Like this is gorgeous stuff, and this is the fundamental building blocks of human civilization.

Andrew Huberman:
Mm-hmm.

James Sexton:
So it is perfectly understandable that we get absolutely intoxicated by the thought of it-

Andrew Huberman:
Mm-hmm

James Sexton:
... and that we get so hopped up. But here's what people don't think about. The term contract never gets into that discussion. I'm telling you right now, right now, someone's getting married somewhere, and the word contract's never come out of there. They don't view marriage as a contract. The two things that I as a divorce lawyer I'm constantly thinking about is marriage as an economy and marriage as a contract. And those are two, the minute you say that, people assume you don't believe in or experience emotionally any of those other beautiful things you just said. And I think 90%- Of the appeal of my media work in this chapter of my life has been that people go, "Oh, a divorce lawyer. This is just going to be a guy talking about how marriage is the worst thing ever." And in reality, I think what I'm saying is, "Look, this is amazing. This is wonderful. Why wouldn't you fall in love? Why wouldn't you have pair bonds? Why wouldn't you consider locking in with another person and say..." But my God, be honest with yourself about the risks involved, be honest with yourself about the ways you can hedge that risk, and be honest with yourself about the contract and the economy. Because those are two things that I do not think that there is anything unromantic, I don't think it takes away from the romance or the beauty of a thing. I often say my favorite poem is a poem by Joseph Brodsky called "A Song," and he wrote it when his wife passed away, and it's a beautiful poem about love and loss. And the sort of refrain of the poem is, "I wish you were here, dear. I wish you were here, dear. I wish you were here. I wish we sat in the car and you sat near." It's this beautiful poem. And one of the lines is, "I wish you were here, dear. I wish you were here. I wish I knew no astronomy when stars appear." And I remember the first time I read that line thinking, "Oh, that's so beautiful," because once you know astronomy, there's something less magical about the stars.

Andrew Huberman:
Is there?

James Sexton:
Well, I don't know. See, I don't believe it has to be that way.

Andrew Huberman:
Yeah. I don't either. The great Richard Feynman, Nobel Prize-winning physicist of "Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!" fame, said that understanding things at a reductionist level added to his sense of beauty with the physical world.

James Sexton:
And I think it can.

Andrew Huberman:
That's my sense of biology and physiology-

James Sexton:
Yeah

Andrew Huberman:
... and what I know of psychology. Understanding the deeper layers adds to my sense of wonder. But I acknowledge and agree with you completely that for most people, when we think about all those things around marriage, the engagement, the wedding-

James Sexton:
Yeah

Andrew Huberman:
... the party, they all imply a ton of trust.

James Sexton:
Sure.

Andrew Huberman:
I believe in you. I have faith in you.

James Sexton:
Sure.

Andrew Huberman:
I'm going to merge lives with you.

James Sexton:
Yeah.

Andrew Huberman:
The word contract implies somewhere in there a lack of trust.

James Sexton:
Mm-hmm.

Andrew Huberman:
I gave this little anecdote about something very different than marriage, right? A business contract with my business partner-

James Sexton:
Mm-hmm

Andrew Huberman:
... where when they said, "Oh, you need to have a formal contract."

James Sexton:
Yeah.

Andrew Huberman:
There is something about that that implies-

James Sexton:
Yeah

Andrew Huberman:
... that things could go wrong.

James Sexton:
Yeah.

Andrew Huberman:
Or that there will be unforeseen circumstances that our verbal contract-

James Sexton:
Yeah

Andrew Huberman:
... can't anticipate-

James Sexton:
Yeah

Andrew Huberman:
... and won't allow us to navigate-

James Sexton:
Yeah

Andrew Huberman:
... as business partners. And there's, again, far and away-

James Sexton:
Yeah

Andrew Huberman:
... different, arguably lesser example than a marriage contract-

James Sexton:
Right

Andrew Huberman:
... which is a much bigger life milestone.

James Sexton:
But I think a point you're making that I think I would slightly reframe is the following. There is a contract that binds you and your business partner. It was written by the legislature of the state in which you reside. Okay? So do you want your relationship with this person governed by a contract you didn't write, you had no input in, and the government can change without your consent or knowledge? And by the way, once they've changed it, you can't say, "Oh, I don't like the new rules, so I don't want those to apply." Yeah, too late. So I tell everyone, "You have a prenup." Every married person has a prenup. It was either written by the government or written by the two people who allegedly love each other more than the other eight billion other options in the world. Now, if you ask me, who is going to write a better contract, unnamed politicians who are subject to being elected and unelected, or two people who have an abundance of optimism towards each other? There's a rule set. And if you're signing up for a rule set you wrote or co-authored with your partner, I think you're in a better place than saying, "Let's trust it to the government." I have to tell you, I've been to the DMV. I've never walked into the DMV and thought, "These people should be in charge of everything. This is great. They have got it down. They should be in charge of my marriage. They should be in charge of everything, my business dealings. They should be the ones who make the rules because they're clearly so together in their thinking." I don't feel that way. I feel like there is tremendous value in the level of trust and optimism that two people at the beginning of a venture, whether that venture is a marriage or whether that venture is a business venture. While we're in this heady space of optimism, excitement, trust in each other, that's the time to say, "Hey, we're going to disagree about something at some point." It happens. It'll be my fault. I say dumb shit. I say dumb shit all the time. So I'll probably say something that's going to upset you. So why would you learn how to fight while you're in a fight? Learn how to fight before you get in a fight. Learn the rule set.

Andrew Huberman:
Mm-hmm.

James Sexton:
Have a discussion about, "Hey, if we disagree, what's the best way? Do you need a minute? Do you need some time to yourself to cool off? Or are you the kind of person that's like, 'No, we got to sort this out right now. I can't go to bed angry. I'll fester.'" So that, to me, the right mindset is not faith and trust or contracts. I think that's the totally wrong way to frame it. I think the right way to frame it is there's a contract. Whether you want to call it a contract or not, just like there's an economy. An economy is an exchange of value.

Andrew Huberman:
Mm-hmm.

James Sexton:
This many bananas is worth this many coconuts. Because if it was, how many bananas will you trade me for bananas? That's not an economy. We're not bringing the same thing to the table. So it's the same thing. Why is it a dirty word to say, "Hey, I'm marrying you. Why? What do I bring to your life? What do I mean to you? What value do I present to you? And what value do you present to me so I know what to protect and preserve, so I know when that slips to start talking to you about it." And by the way, you can tell me and remind me when, "Hey, this thing I loved about you has changed." So, you talked about all these good things about your business partner, like, "Oh, he has this vision," or, "He has this patience," or, "He has this organizational skill, and he makes up for some things that I don't have." If you just said, "Oh, yeah, he has the exact same characteristics as me," it's like, well, what do you need him then? It's many hands light work maybe, but ideally you have the Steve Jobs and the Steve Wozniak. Either of whom without the other would've been kind of, "Eh." But together, it's like lightning in a bottle. So, I just genuinely think framing this slightly differently and saying there's going to be a rule set, so we are the best people to write that rule set.

Andrew Huberman:
Mm-hmm.

James Sexton:
That's the way to look at it.

Andrew Huberman:
Yeah. The way you are framing the contract of marriage and prenups, I love it, because you're putting a positive emotional lens on it, right?

James Sexton:
Sure.

Andrew Huberman:
Two people who love each other, therefore, let's discuss the contract of love and marriage.

James Sexton:
Yeah.

Andrew Huberman:
Two people that are committed to creating, perhaps, children together and a whole life together-

James Sexton:
Yeah

Andrew Huberman:
... braiding together lineages. Let's get a contract to really solidify this.

James Sexton:
Right. What do we owe each other?

Andrew Huberman:
Yeah.

James Sexton:
What do we owe each other? That's a huge piece for me.

Andrew Huberman:
Mm-hmm.

James Sexton:
It's like, why are we doing this? What is the problem we seek to solve, or what is the value we add to each other's lives? That's such a beautiful question.

Andrew Huberman:
Yeah.

James Sexton:
And by the way, it's an invitation to such an intimate discussion. These are the things that you make me feel. These are the things you do that make me feel that way. You make me feel loved. Really? When? When you remember that tea that I like, and you make sure that it's here. Or, oh, when you remembered it was my sister's birthday and sent her a text-

Andrew Huberman:
Mm

James Sexton:
... and then sent me a screenshot. These are these dumb little things that make us feel so loved and seen, so why wouldn't we embrace an opportunity to say to this person, "By the way, do you know what I love about you? Do you know what you do that makes me feel so loved and makes me feel so in love with you?" Because that's a worthy conversation.

Andrew Huberman:
The way you're framing this, I think, is entirely different than how most people would envision a discussion about a prenup.

James Sexton:
I think that's true, yeah.

Andrew Huberman:
Which I really appreciate, and I know the audience appreciates, too, because you're putting a different lens on things. I'm going to just put on my hat as a neuroscientist and biologist for a moment. I think there are certain words that people, for whatever reason, consider kind of a buzzkill.

James Sexton:
Mm-hmm.

Andrew Huberman:
We're talking about pheromones and love and children-

James Sexton:
Yeah

Andrew Huberman:
... and romance and-

James Sexton:
Yeah

Andrew Huberman:
... sex and vacations and honeymoons and-

James Sexton:
Yeah

Andrew Huberman:
... parties, and then someone says, "Contract."

James Sexton:
Yeah.

Andrew Huberman:
And somebody says, "Finances," which-

James Sexton:
Yeah

Andrew Huberman:
... maybe that turns certain people on. I guess people in the finance world, it probably turns them on. But do you get where I'm coming from?

James Sexton:
I do, yeah.

Andrew Huberman:
I have to assume it's a different brain circuit-

James Sexton:
I think it probably is

Andrew Huberman:
... for most people. Whereas what you're doing is you're coming at this from a different perspective-

James Sexton:
Yeah

Andrew Huberman:
... which is part of the reason why you're here-

James Sexton:
Yeah

Andrew Huberman:
... is that you're saying this discussion around a prenup contract can potentially shed more light into the nature of the bond, and maybe-

James Sexton:
Of course

Andrew Huberman:
... even deepen the connection.

James Sexton:
Of course. And I will tell you, I've been doing prenuptial agreements for 25 years for clients, and I usually end up having a very good relationship with the person I do a prenup with because you're talking a lot about their fears, their hopes.

Andrew Huberman:
Is it one person or both? I wanted to ask this.

James Sexton:
One. One at a time. Yeah.

Andrew Huberman:
So each of you has your own lawyer.

James Sexton:
Each of you has your own attorney. You cannot, as a lawyer, represent both people because they have what's called potentially adverse interests.

Andrew Huberman:
And what if one person has substantially more income to hire a-

James Sexton:
Mm-hmm

Andrew Huberman:
... better lawyer?

James Sexton:
Yeah.

Andrew Huberman:
Assuming that more money gets you a better lawyer-

James Sexton:
Yeah

Andrew Huberman:
... I have to assume-

James Sexton:
Yeah

Andrew Huberman:
... on average it does-

James Sexton:
Yeah

Andrew Huberman:
... than the other.

James Sexton:
Yeah. It's unfortunate. It's an unfortunate thing. One of the projects I've been involved in in the last couple of months is a website, trustedprenup.com. I worked with a couple of tech people to put together something that's going to democratize prenups, because up until now, prenups have been something that you spend five, 10, $15,000 for a traditional lawyer to draft for you, and then your fiancé brings it to an attorney to review, and then they want to make revisions, and it sort of walks into this adversarial process, as opposed to democratizing prenups. So what we are trying to do is leverage technological innovation, AI. My hundreds of prenups I've drafted, we fed into this to create the ability for you to go online and to create a prenup for in the realm of $600, $700.

Andrew Huberman:
Oh, that would be a game changer.

James Sexton:
It's really an opportunity. But the purpose of it, as far as I'm concerned, is not just to democratize prenups, which I think we have to do, but to really reframe the way we look at it. Because people come in all the time and they're like, "Well, I don't know if I need a prenup because I'm not wealthy." And you say, "Well, you're still going to have a rule set applied to your marriage." And actually, if you're super wealthy, like most of my clients, they could afford to buy six more houses. "You keep the house, I'll buy another house down the street, and then we'll buy another house for the kids, and then we'll visit with them in that house." That's actually called nesting. That's a thing.

Andrew Huberman:
That's nesting?

James Sexton:
Nesting is when you each-

Andrew Huberman:
When I was coming up, nesting meant something very different.

James Sexton:
No, nesting now is when you each have your own home, and then one home is just where the kids live, and instead of doing a custodial rotation where the kids go back and forth between homes, the kids have a home, and the parent who has parenting access during that time is in the nest with the kids.

Andrew Huberman:
When I was in college, nesting was when you got a tablecloth.

James Sexton:
Nice. Nice. Yeah. The rich divorce in different ways than the normal general populace. And so that's why we're trying to say, "Look, democratize this, bring this to be... Let people develop a rule set." Because especially, too, when you have scarcity, most people can't afford to give away one half of everything they have and still have enough to function. Most people are going paycheck to paycheck. Most people are a couple of paychecks off from being in bankruptcy if things don't go the right way. So when they divorce, and now we have two electric bills and two internet bills and two... That's something most people can't do. So all the more reason for people to have a rule set that the two of them created, again, when they were feeling positive and benevolent and optimistic towards each other, and they were trying to protect you. Because to me, personally, I don't know how you can feel loved if you don't feel safe. I think you have to feel safe, emotionally safe, physically safe. If you're afraid of your partner emotionally, physically, how can you really feel loved? So to me, the prenup is an invitation to, A, can we talk about hard things? Because I'll tell you right now, when somebody says to me, "Well, I would do a prenup. I know it would be good, but that's just going to be a hard conversation." Don't get married. If you can't have hard conversations with a person, you have absolutely no business marrying them. It's good for me as a future income stream, but I'm telling you, I don't think it's a good idea. You're going to have to talk about hard things. And you're going to have to have uncomfortable truths instead of comfortable lies to this person. So I'm a big fan of early on in the process, having those conversations. And again, it doesn't all have to be the conversa-- Like when you talk about your will, that's a hard conversation. There's no upside to being dead, other than being off social media. There's no upside to it. So I understand why people are like, "It's really hard to think about if I die and if both of us die, what do we do with the kids?" That's a hard conversation. But look, if we break up, what would you need to feel safe? There's a line from a Prince song, "If I Was Your Girlfriend," and it is, "Would you run to me if somebody hurt you even if that somebody was me?" And I think there's something really sweet about saying to someone like, "Hey, if I hurt you, how can I still have you feel safe? How can I have you still feel loved?" I don't think that when I meet someone and their exes are like they just have painted them as a villain, with no redeeming qualities whatsoever, and that's frequent. It's frequent people do that. And to me, that says a lot about the core values of both of these people. I think there's real value in saying to someone early on, like, "Hey, if I hurt you, what are you going to need from me? What do we need to be made whole? How can we both feel safe in this relationship?" That's what those discussions are about. Throwing the words contracts, throwing the words economy in there, I understand. I think you're totally right. There's something about those words. But I think reality can be beautiful. I don't think you have to CGI everything for it to be perfect. I think it's perfect. I think it's already perfect. There's something very perfect about how imperfect and flawed and frightened we are, and I think there's something really beautiful about finding someone that you can be that with.

Andrew Huberman:
Mm-hmm.

James Sexton:
And I don't think I can learn everything I need to know about myself from myself.

Andrew Huberman:
Mm-hmm.

James Sexton:
I think I need someone there, ideally someone who really loves me and is cheering for me and sees my blind spots. And I think the conversation about a prenup, that's what that conversation should be.

Andrew Huberman:
It's fantastic. I love the way you lean into life in all its light and shadows and say, "Okay, let's accept all of that right off the bat and figure out what's going to give this the highest probability of working."

James Sexton:
Well, it's reality.

Andrew Huberman:
I've never thought about prenups as a way to bolster the probability of the marriage working.

James Sexton:
Well, I'm telling you, and I got sidetracked as I tend to do, but I've done probably hundreds if not thousands of prenups over 25 years. I think there are maybe five people that I did their divorce after they had a prenup.

Andrew Huberman:
Really?

James Sexton:
Yeah.

Andrew Huberman:
I think people need to hear that again.

James Sexton:
I think that, yeah. So I've done hundreds, if not at least 1,000 prenups in 25 years. I probably do two or three prenups a week. So I do a lot of prenups. Most of my colleagues do a lot of prenups. And I've never asked my colleagues this, but usually when you do a prenup, you have a good relationship with the person by the time it's finished. It's a transaction people feel good about. It's a divorce. Sometimes you finish a divorce and the person's like, "Oh my God, I never want to see you again because you remind me of this really dark chapter." But prenups, it's usually a very friendly transaction. It's positive.

Andrew Huberman:
This is surprising to me. So people who prenup tend not to break up. Yes, that rhymes.

James Sexton:
Yes.

Andrew Huberman:
I think many people will be very surprised to hear that.

James Sexton:
I think it's self-selecting. I think the kind of people who can have a conversation that you need to have in order to discuss and negotiate, and again, there's another term, I don't think it's the right term, negotiate a prenup. Negotiate gives the impression it's like you're buying a car. The kind of people who can have the conversations you need to have in order to have a prenuptial agreement, I think are the kind of people that are going to be successfully married, period. There's something about, that I'm not going to talk about a prenup because I don't want to talk about the possibility that anything could ever go wrong with this thing. It's perfect, it's wonderful, it's cake, it's roses, it's nothing but romance and sex and it's wonderful. Okay. Listen, falling feels like flying for a little while. And then you hit the ground and it is waiting for you. And if the first time you ever think about what legal rights and obligations do I have is when you're in my office, you're already screwed. You're already screwed. You did nothing to prepare emotionally, financially, nothing. So there's something about the imagination, right? If you're just the kind of person who's like, "I don't even want to talk." I actually met, they'll remain nameless, but it was a neighbor, and every once in a while I get it in my head that I'm going to try to be a more social person. So I'm like, "Oh, I should invite the neighbor over for a drink," a couple. And they don't live near me anymore, so I can get away with it now. But I invited these people over for a drink, and they came over, lovely people. But at some point she said, "Oh, I don't know how you do what you do. We don't allow the D-word in our house." And I was like, "What do you mean?" She's like, "No, no, you're not allowed to say the word divorce in our house." And she said it like divorce like she was saying Voldemort. She was like, "We don't say the D-word." And I was like

Andrew Huberman:
And I thought to myself, if only it was that easy.

James Sexton:
By the way, got divorced three years later.

Andrew Huberman:
Really?

James Sexton:
Oh, yeah. 100%.

Andrew Huberman:
You saved me the asking.

James Sexton:
And a knock-down, drag-out, brutal, both of them tried to call me and hire me. And I will not represent people that I know in any capacity. And I just remember thinking, that is such a delusion, that I'm never going to say the word. What are you, my great-grandmother? You have to say cancer like this, because if you say cancer it, like of speaking volume, suddenly tumors will develop. Are you that superstitious? Do you believe in Chewbacca, too? That's crazy.

Andrew Huberman:
Yeah. Superstition is a form of paranoia.

James Sexton:
Yeah, of course.

Andrew Huberman:
It's a mild form of paranoia.

James Sexton:
Of course.

Andrew Huberman:
But it's a form of paranoia.

James Sexton:
Of course. Yeah. I say all the time that I think most of our attitudes about marriage have been just handed down. This is something that, marriage, you could be the most modern, Bella Abzug feminist person, and a lot of women are like, "Oh, yeah, I still want my dad to walk me down the aisle and give me away." Give you away? Seriously? You're a C-suite executive at a software company, and he's going to trade you for what? Goats? This is going to be because you are your father's property, and now you will be the property, and he will give you away to your husband, and you'll now be his property. That's where that tradition comes from, gang.

Andrew Huberman:
What do you think the psychological underpinnings of what you're describing are about? Is it some sort of internal validation of worth, external validation of worth? None of it computes for me when I look at, like you said, let's say, these are extreme examples-

James Sexton:
Yeah

Andrew Huberman:
... but C-suite female executive.

James Sexton:
Yeah.

Andrew Huberman:
Or a founder also.

James Sexton:
Sure.

Andrew Huberman:
These exist.

James Sexton:
Sure.

Andrew Huberman:
I'm from the Bay Area. There are plenty of them.

James Sexton:
I've represented a few of them. Yeah.

Andrew Huberman:
Yeah. And typically, they will take their soon-to-be husband's last name.

James Sexton:
Mm-hmm.

Andrew Huberman:
Interesting. Not always.

James Sexton:
100%.

Andrew Huberman:
That's far more common than men taking-

James Sexton:
Oh, yeah

Andrew Huberman:
... their wife's last name.

James Sexton:
Oh, yeah. Far more.

Andrew Huberman:
Actually, I can't even think of a single instance.

James Sexton:
I've had a few that hyphenate. That's a new thing.

Andrew Huberman:
Oh, evolutionary biologists do that. It used to be that all the evolutionary biologists did that.

James Sexton:
Most give the kids the husband's name.

Andrew Huberman:
Oh.

James Sexton:
Most give the kids the husband's name. And again, I don't know if that's a male thing that men are like, "That's my kid. They're going to have my name." I really don't know. But yeah, a lot of the feminism gets thrown out the window.

Andrew Huberman:
Another one is that in divorces, I've observed this, I don't have statistics on this, but women will keep their ex-husband's last name-

James Sexton:
Yeah

Andrew Huberman:
... because what I was told is they want to have the same last name as their kids.

James Sexton:
That's pretty common.

Andrew Huberman:
Which is understandable.

James Sexton:
Yeah.

Andrew Huberman:
But of course, the kids could switch last names.

James Sexton:
It eliminates a certain level of confusion because at school, to say-

Andrew Huberman:
Mm-hmm

James Sexton:
... "This is my name," and the kid's name is different.

Andrew Huberman:
Yeah. So as long as it's through the kids, it makes sense. Yeah.

James Sexton:
So that piece I get, I absolutely get.

Andrew Huberman:
Yeah, that makes sense.

James Sexton:
And by the way, I have clients, because you don't have to change your name back, but you have the right to.

Andrew Huberman:
Mm-hmm.

James Sexton:
And I have male clients who want their name back. Like, "I want her to no longer be allowed to use that name."

Andrew Huberman:
Are you serious?

James Sexton:
And I have to explain to them you're-

Andrew Huberman:
That's kind of funny to me

James Sexton:
... you can't force her to not have your name. He's like, "Well, that's my name." And I'm like, "You understand, as long as you're not doing it for the intent of defrauding creditors," I could change my name to Andrew Huberman tomorrow if I want to.

Andrew Huberman:
Yeah.

James Sexton:
As long as I'm not doing it to defraud my creditors.

Andrew Huberman:
You'd get a lot more problems than it's worth.

James Sexton:
Be delightful. I'd be Mrs. Huberman. It's very fun. It's very fun.

Andrew Huberman:
Oh my goodness. No, you'd be Andrew Huberman, and that comes with a certain number of liabilities as well.

James Sexton:
Yeah, that sounds exhausting. I don't think I could handle it.

Andrew Huberman:
Full-time fun.

James Sexton:
I can't do that. I can't bench that much either, I don't think.

Andrew Huberman:
That's right. Full-time fun. No, just kidding. In all seriousness, wow, people have asked for their name back?

James Sexton:
Yeah, they want her prohibited from having their name.

Andrew Huberman:
Oh, goodness.

James Sexton:
And even though the kids have that name. But again, that's that anger thing. That's just a pure expression of anger, and I get it. A lot of what I do is sort of helping people get to the core of what are they really upset about, and that's a lot of what my job is. My undergraduate degree was in psychology. My master's was in cultural anthropology, and specifically in the study of death and dying. And then my law degree, I wanted to be a divorce lawyer as soon as I started law school. And I think I used the psych degree as much as I used the law degree, because so much of what I do is just dealing with people when they're in this very heightened emotional state. I'm a fan of faith, but just not blind faith. I'm a fan of fairy tales. If the fairy tales inspire something in you, that's incredible. If you say to me, "Jim, I love 'Star Wars.' The struggle of the Jedi against the Empire, it inspires me to want to be a disciplined person, and to fight for good, and to not be afraid of evil, and to know." That's a beautiful story. If you try to tell me Wookiees are real, though, we've got a problem, man. You got to get checked out. That's not okay. That's not true. So the divorce rate's 56%. So 56% of the time, this technology fails.

Andrew Huberman:
56?

James Sexton:
56, yeah. It changes every year, but 56 is the divorce rate currently, okay? So 56% of marriages end in divorce. Now-

Andrew Huberman:
Is that true, excuse me, in Europe as well, and South America as well, and Australia as well?

James Sexton:
Every country, the statistics are different.

Andrew Huberman:
Continue to range?

James Sexton:
The United States, you can actually look this up online. There's a running tally that's kept. But the highest divorce rates are in, I believe Italy is currently winning that race. Ireland was at the bottom because basically divorce was not possible in Ireland for an extended period of time. Countries that have a very strong underlying religious narrative, like Sharia law and things like that, obviously have a very low divorce rate.

Andrew Huberman:
Mm-hmm.

James Sexton:
But it varies. But countries that are, I don't want to say very modern-

Andrew Huberman:
Mm-hmm

James Sexton:
... where there's been a proliferation of social media, where there is an open information environment, so people can compare themselves to other people constantly.

Andrew Huberman:
Not North Korea.

James Sexton:
Not North Korea. Great example, yes. That there is a sense of, because actually even North Korea has an underlying religious narrative. It's just that they've decided or they've been told their leader is a god. So I think when you don't have A core foundational religious narrative that prohibits divorce as part of its structure, then you're left to people's desires to some degree, and the cultural foundations of it, and tradition, right? And tradition for many, many years, tradition was you stay married even if you're unhappy. And then tradition in the 1970s and 1980s started turning into your happiness is more important than the institution of marriage, so if you're unhappy, you might need to leave your marriage and get divorced. And that's when the divorce rate started to spike, right? And I think there's some value to that. Tradition is, in some ways, like the wisdom of the people before us, and they saw things we might not see. And to some degree, tradition is peer pressure exerted by dead people. So I think our fascination with marriage as this, I've found my soulmate, and now we're not even going to think about the possibility of us ending, even though fully 56% of the time the thing's going to end. That's the part I can't wrap my head around is... And again, look at the numbers there. Let's assume conservatively that another 10% stay together for the kids. Because the 56 is just the ones who actually said, "This is so bad, we're getting lawyers, and we're ending this thing." How many people stay together for the kids or religious reasons or because they don't want to give away half their shit? That's got to be a big number. I mean, conservative, 10%. I think it's more than that. 20%?

Andrew Huberman:
Definitely more. And these are first marriages?

James Sexton:
First marriages. The statistics for each subsequent marriage, the divorce rate gets much higher. So like by the time-

Andrew Huberman:
Really?

James Sexton:
... second marriage is higher than first marriage. Third marriage is much higher.

Andrew Huberman:
Interesting.

James Sexton:
Yeah. And then once you get past three, it's like you're, you know.

Andrew Huberman:
All the divorced people in my family remarried and have been in those second marriages-

James Sexton:
Yeah

Andrew Huberman:
... very long periods of time.

James Sexton:
I know a lot of very happy second marriage people.

Andrew Huberman:
And still together, very happy.

James Sexton:
Yes. And I think there's value to that because I do think as a divorced person, you learn a lot about yourself through the process of divorce. You learn a lot about what you don't want to do again in a relationship and what didn't work for you.

Andrew Huberman:
Mm-hmm.

James Sexton:
So I don't do anything perfectly the first time I do it, so I think that there's value in sort of giving something a try. You don't learn how to swim by reading books about swimming. You learn how to swim in the pool. So that's why I'm a fan of marriage, even though the divorce rate is very high. It's clearly a very risky technology. One could argue it's a reckless thing to do. The legal definition of negligence is a failure to perceive a substantial and unjustifiable risk of serious harm, okay? Recklessness, legally, is a conscious disregard for a substantial and unjustifiable risk of serious harm, okay? So if you know something ends in heartbreak and division of assets and fighting that requires attorneys 56% of the time, and you don't make any plan for that in advance, I would argue that's reckless. You're consciously disregarding a substantial risk of harm, period.

Andrew Huberman:
Yeah, and if there's kids, it brings a different-

James Sexton:
It's a different kind of, yeah

Andrew Huberman:
... into the bargain, doesn't it?

James Sexton:
An even higher level, yeah.

Andrew Huberman:
Do you happen to know the numbers or the rough numbers on percentage of first marriages with kids that last, whether or not they're happy or not?

James Sexton:
I don't. I don't know that delineation. I know that these statistics are fairly closely tracked-

Andrew Huberman:
Mm-hmm

James Sexton:
... so you can find them out-

Andrew Huberman:
Mm-hmm

James Sexton:
... online pretty easily because they're tracked by the government. Every time we do a divorce, we have to file what's called a Certificate of Dissolution of Marriage.

Andrew Huberman:
Mm-hmm.

James Sexton:
And that certificate includes the grade level, the highest grade level each person completed, whether there are children, how many children, the ages of the children, and the whole purpose of that document is to compile demographic information. So the government for many, many years has been monitoring this and looking at, okay, what are those numbers? Those numbers are not well-publicized, I think partly because the wedding industrial complex does not want people getting involved in that conversation. They don't want people to really look at the truth of things because it takes away from the fantasy of things. But see, again, I think that's a framing issue because to me, I think the stars are still beautiful even if you know astronomy. I think if anything, I actually think, and maybe this is just the way that I look at things, the fact that love is loaned and not permanently gifted makes it more beautiful. The fact that I'm going to die for sure makes my life more beautiful. There's a finite number of sunsets I'm going to see. There's a number. I don't know it yet. It might be five. It might be 500. But there's a number, right? And so when you're with someone, that marriage is going to end. Every marriage ends. It ends in death or in divorce. It's one of the only things in the world that you go, "I hope this ends in death." If you said to someone at their wedding, like, "Man, I really hope your marriage ends in death," they would be like, "What is wrong with that guy?" But it's the truth because all marriages end. They end in death or divorce. I hope that yours ends in death. But I don't think that makes it less beautiful. I think it makes it more beautiful, that every day this person wakes up and decides to continue to be your spouse and to continue to be your partner and ideally your cheerleader and your fan. And to me, the fact that you don't own this person, that they have free will, they have autonomy and agency, and they choose you, not just on one day where you put on nice clothes and played good music and everybody got drunk, which there's value in that and the memory of that and the photos of that and a reminder, but the fact that they every day get up and continue to choose to be with you. And if you said to me that the reason why they stay with you is they don't want to get divorced

Andrew Huberman:
That's a terrible reason. I was a smoker many years ago. People used to say, "Oh, you got to quit smoking. It's going to take 10 years off your life." And I'm like, "Right, like the last 10, like the adult diaper-wearing years. I don't want them anyway." Like, you've met a 90-year-old? I don't want to be 90. It's fine. You're taking them off the tail end. Once I made the connection between I feel better, I taste food better, I can run further and faster, then it made sense to me because now there's something real and tangible in the present. There's something that has value. So I think it's the same thing with marriage. It's the same thing with prenups, which is let's not talk about what is this going to give us on the back end, or what are we going to lose if we don't have this on the back end. Let's talk about what can this do for us in the present? What can this conversation do for us in the present about understanding what we mean to each other and what we owe to each other? 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I'm beginning to adopt a mindset around contracts that they are a tool to embrace reality. Mm-hmm. Both potential negatives, but also to enrich the positives. And imagination. I think imagination, too. I think that marriage is about an imagined future. It's about we're going to build this thing. What's it look like? When you and your business partner sat down together, you had an imagination together. You weren't just like, "Okay, what are we going to do today? What are we building?" Mm-hmm. "What do we want it to be?" And by the way, it never ends up being what you thought it'd be. No. It turns into something completely different. There was no premonition. That's a very different scenario, but no premonition. But I don't think it's really even that different. I think that if you want to make God laugh, tell Him your plans. I think the best thing is this vague idea of what do we want to do? I don't know. We want to do something exciting together. I don't know exactly what it's going to look like. I think this is the loose structure, but I don't know exactly what it is. You and I are friends. We didn't talk about what we're going to talk about today. Right. We talked a dozen times, but we didn't go, "Well, so what should we talk about?" Why? Because I think if we did, it wouldn't be authentic. There's something so much better about like, "Yeah, we want to have a good conversation, something of value, something we'll both enjoy, and then maybe the people watching would enjoy." So that's so much better, and I think that's what you're doing with a prenup or with a marriage, is you're imagining a future together. Okay, what does it look like? Tell me. So it's not just about the rule-outs. I think about- Yeah ... certain guidelines. Like in the octagon, it's no groin shots- Yeah ... no thumbing eyes. So there's all the This is not going to happen type stuff.

James Sexton:
Right. And there's reasons for each of those risks.

Andrew Huberman:
No matter what, X, Y, and Z are off the table.

James Sexton:
Right.

Andrew Huberman:
That makes people feel safe.

James Sexton:
Right.

Andrew Huberman:
Right? Because you want to know that certain very dangerous things are off the table.

James Sexton:
Right. Right.

Andrew Huberman:
But what you're talking about are a number of opt-ins through contracts-

James Sexton:
Sure

Andrew Huberman:
... and prenups.

James Sexton:
Sure.

Andrew Huberman:
Because you can return-

James Sexton:
And also markers, like markers of... Look, you spend so much time, one of the reasons I consume so much of what you put out there is I like to know the markers before I have the problem. I like to know what are the things? Measure what matters, right? I want to look at what has changed, and then what can I do to adjust at that point? And I think relationships, it's the same thing. By the time you're in my office, it's too late. It is so much harder to take a broken relationship and try to make it good again than it is to take a good relationship and keep it good and keep it strong. It's so much harder to gain a bunch of weight and then try to lose all of it than it is to maintain a healthy body mass. It's just easier. So I think the same concept applies, which is be honest with yourself about what it is we're moving towards and what it is we're building, and how do we stay at this place? I don't like to just have, it's not just about the opt-outs. Like, okay, if we're split up, we're not going to have to hire lawyers, and we're not going to have to go through the court system. We're going to know what the rules are. There's value to that. But there's also tremendous value to the conversation about what do we owe each other? What are we bringing to this relate- Because that's where the economy piece of it comes in.

Andrew Huberman:
Mm.

James Sexton:
Which is, and this is the part which is so laden with gender stuff and no one wants to talk about it, or it doesn't feel safe to talk about.

Andrew Huberman:
Mm-hmm.

James Sexton:
Or to talk about it honestly.

Andrew Huberman:
Hence 56%.

James Sexton:
Yeah, I think so.

Andrew Huberman:
Mm-hmm.

James Sexton:
I think we are poorer for that dishonesty.

Andrew Huberman:
Mm-hmm.

James Sexton:
Because I think I understand it's an uncomfortable truth. I understand that it's difficult to say, "Yeah, I don't know, there's something in me that wants it this way. I don't know what it is. I don't know if it's biology, I don't know if it's hormones. I don't know what." This is important to me. Yeah, I want to have a fulfilling sexual relationship with you, but we want different things sexually. I want frequency. You want intensity. Whatever it might be, the male sex drive, the female sex drive, they're not the same. Hormonally, they're not the same. So is it okay to have a conversation about, hey, if we're marrying each other, we have a sexual relationship usually. And so where it's at right now is good, I'd imagine. So how do we know when we're slipping off baseline? And how do we know where-- And by the way, how do we know when we slip off baseline, it's not a sign of disaster, right? If I'm eight years old and my eyesight starts to get really bad, it's probably more alarming than if I'm 52 and now I need reading glasses. These are more normal things.

Andrew Huberman:
Mm-hmm.

James Sexton:
Right? So why not say, "Hey, I'm not saying the amount of sex we're having when we're dating or engaged is the baseline, and if we ever slip off of that, it means that the relationship's in trouble." That's an insane statement.

Andrew Huberman:
So do prenups include discussions or agreements about sex, money-

James Sexton:
They can

Andrew Huberman:
... et cetera?

James Sexton:
Well, money for sure. Sex, they can. And I think the overall conversation that should surround prenups, and the reason why I think people who get prenups, in my observation, are less likely to get divorced, is at the front of this thing, you are having conversations about what do we owe each other, what do we expect from each other? What is meaningful to us about each other?

Andrew Huberman:
Mm-hmm.

James Sexton:
What value do you bring to my life? Why can we do that in any other relationship? If right now, you as my friend, someone said, "Why do you like Andrew Huberman as a friend?" I could run off a list of things. He's super interesting. He's super interested. He knows a lot of cool workout stuff. He's a lot of fun to hang out with. He eats the same way that I do, kind of boring. He doesn't drink, just like me, so we can hang out and I don't feel weird because I'm not drinking because he's not either. There's a whole list of stuff I could say.

Andrew Huberman:
I'd say the exact same things about you.

James Sexton:
There you go. All right.

Andrew Huberman:
Except you know a bunch of stuff I don't know in addition to that.

James Sexton:
But we're interested, we're interesting. Our friendship makes sense, right?

Andrew Huberman:
Mm-hmm.

James Sexton:
And by the way, isn't it lovely to hear what someone likes about you? I think it's one of the nicest things in the world when somebody says, "You know what I like about you, Jim?" I'm all ears. Tell me. Or if someone who I love and trust and know, like I know you're my friend, so if you called me and you said, "You know, Jim, can I give you some constructive feedback? Something I think you're doing that's getting in your own way," dude, I would be all ears. I would be all ears.

Andrew Huberman:
Likewise.

James Sexton:
I would want to hear that.

Andrew Huberman:
I might have made that call, won't you trust me?

James Sexton:
You've made that call to me a couple of times. Yes, attorney-client privilege, I can't bring it up. But yeah, I think that's an event in a couple's life, right? So why in this romantic context would you squander the opportunity to have that conversation? Here's what you bring to my life. Here's how you make me feel. Here's when I feel the most loved. Here's when I feel not as loved by you.

Andrew Huberman:
I think it's because when people hear the word prenup, they're thinking ending. It's about the ending.

James Sexton:
Mm.

Andrew Huberman:
It's the contract that-

James Sexton:
Yeah

Andrew Huberman:
... is going to divide the resources, so we don't have to give a certain amount to the lawyers.

James Sexton:
Yeah.

Andrew Huberman:
Everyone's going to feel safe. You don't have to worry that you're going to end up with-

James Sexton:
Yeah

Andrew Huberman:
... whatever, less than or more than this amount.

James Sexton:
There is value to that.

Andrew Huberman:
But I don't think-

James Sexton:
Those are all valuable things

Andrew Huberman:
... I could be wrong, but I don't think most people associate the word prenup with anything about the success of the marriage.

James Sexton:
Yeah.

Andrew Huberman:
Which is probably why so few people get them. Is there any idea roughly what percentage of marriages-

James Sexton:
No, because what's amazing about a prenup is a prenup is not filed anywhere It's just you have one in your safe, the lawyer has one in their safe, it's a contract.

Andrew Huberman:
And is it as binding as anything else?

James Sexton:
Oh, yeah.

Andrew Huberman:
Because we know nowadays things like NDAs are kind of fluid.

James Sexton:
No. NDAs are fluid because NDAs are a relatively new construct, and they haven't really been tested. Just like non-competes, there was a period of time where non-competes were-

Andrew Huberman:
They had everything was-

James Sexton:
... they were overly broad-

Andrew Huberman:
Overly

James Sexton:
... and they weren't worth the paper they were printed on, and then people tried to tailor them. And now, non-competes that are specific as to geography and duration, the court system, the living law, figures out, "Okay, here's how we have to tweak it." Prenups, the same thing happened. There was a lot of prenups back in the day used to get tossed out. But for the 25 years I've been practicing, trust me, I've had a couple of prenups I've tried to set aside, and I've been unsuccessful. And I'm a good lawyer, but it's very hard to set aside a properly drafted prenup. And I think that that's a good thing, because again, the framing needs to change, which is everyone has a prenup. It's either written by the government and subject to change by the government without notice to you, and then you can't opt out of the new rule set, or it's one that you and your partner draft-

Andrew Huberman:
Mm-hmm

James Sexton:
... together.

Andrew Huberman:
I want to return to prenups, and unfortunately, to divorce. But I'd like to talk about love and the contracts, both emotional and practical, around love a bit more.

James Sexton:
Sure.

Andrew Huberman:
Do you think people are completely honest with themselves and with the other person when they decide to get married, or simply to become, quote-unquote, "life partners," or to just become partners? Do you think that part of the allure of the dopamine, oxytocin, pheromone, social cloud, excuse me-

James Sexton:
Mm-hmm

Andrew Huberman:
... and all that goes with it.

James Sexton:
Mm-hmm.

Andrew Huberman:
What's more fun than leaving the bedroom with someone you're totally crazy about, showering up and heading out-

James Sexton:
Yeah

Andrew Huberman:
... and going to see friends?

James Sexton:
Yeah.

Andrew Huberman:
And you're happy, they're happy.

James Sexton:
Yeah.

Andrew Huberman:
And then going back home again.

James Sexton:
Yeah.

Andrew Huberman:
Repeat.

James Sexton:
Yeah.

Andrew Huberman:
There are very few things that are as, from the other side of the fence too, to see a couple that's really happy and in love-

James Sexton:
Oh, yeah

Andrew Huberman:
... and you don't need to know or care about what they do in private. You can feel how much they adore one another.

James Sexton:
Yeah, you feel the vibe off of them.

Andrew Huberman:
Yeah. I think there's a pheromone effect of that.

James Sexton:
Yeah.

Andrew Huberman:
And there's really serious primate biology that supports-

James Sexton:
Yeah

Andrew Huberman:
... all that, that we don't even-

James Sexton:
Yeah

Andrew Huberman:
... have to discuss. We can just-

James Sexton:
Yeah

Andrew Huberman:
... put that one on the shelf and everyone knows what we're talking about. But underneath there is, like you said, our needs.

James Sexton:
Yeah.

Andrew Huberman:
Needs that, in the future, somebody might not feel are being met.

James Sexton:
Sure.

Andrew Huberman:
And that sort of thing. It's hard to anticipate one's needs too-

James Sexton:
Sure

Andrew Huberman:
... especially if it's a-

James Sexton:
Sure

Andrew Huberman:
... first relationship or third relationship.

James Sexton:
Sure.

Andrew Huberman:
You need some-

James Sexton:
Sure

Andrew Huberman:
... experience, and sometimes-

James Sexton:
Sure

Andrew Huberman:
... you meet the right person at 18, and that's a-

James Sexton:
Oh, yeah

Andrew Huberman:
... beautiful thing.

James Sexton:
Oh, yeah.

Andrew Huberman:
So, to what extent do you think people understand how to understand their own needs-

James Sexton:
Yeah

Andrew Huberman:
... and let alone express them?

James Sexton:
Yeah. I've always said that the most dangerous lies are the lies we tell ourselves. And I say in my book that all marriage problems stem from two underlying problems. We don't know what we want, and we don't know how to express what we want. Even if we know what we want, we don't know how to express it to our partner. And I think those are two really different, but deeply correlated problems. I think one of the great mistakes we make is, I think we fall in love very fast in what we call love, right? I'm fuzzy on the whole love concept because a lot of what's described as love is something that was designed in the 1950s to sell shampoo. This idea of you meet this one person, and then that person, you're going to be with your soulmate. Whoever created the term soulmate, I owe them a tremendous amount of money.

Andrew Huberman:
Well, in some religions, there's actually a word for the God-

James Sexton:
Yeah

Andrew Huberman:
... designated choice.

James Sexton:
Yeah, like my bashert, my fate, right?

Andrew Huberman:
Yeah. The God-given choice.

James Sexton:
Yeah.

Andrew Huberman:
A singular person-

James Sexton:
Yeah

Andrew Huberman:
... that is going to meet that need.

James Sexton:
But even if you were to say, okay, this person's been selected by an omnipotent creator deity, that's at least more reasonable than saying, "I've met this one person, and they are now going to be the best friend, best co-parent, best roommate, best travel partner, best sexual partner, best confidant, best financial partner." Wait, all of those? They're going to check all of those, and they happen to live three miles from you? And go to the same coffee shop in a world of eight billion people? What are the odds? I would definitely believe in God if that's the reality. But the truth is, I don't think it's like that. I think it's a combination of pheromones, and it's a combination of dopamine. And look, I get it. I get it. I get it. But why do we have to look at it like those early days of a relationship where you... Look, we've both been in love. We've both been in a romantic relationship where just the person brushes up next to you, or the scent of them hits you, and it's like an electric shock through you.

Andrew Huberman:
It's magic.

James Sexton:
It's just the greatest drug in the world. But if that stayed forever, you would never get anything done. Civilization would perish, because we would all just want to sit there smelling someone's hair all day. We would just want to be around each other all day. And by the way, not just how we feel about them, how they make us feel about ourselves. Why do you think affairs are so intoxicating? Because you've been in this relationship with this person, and they don't even see you anymore, and you don't even see them anymore. And then you meet this other person, and they're like, "You're fascinating. You're brilliant. You're handsome." And all of a sudden, you start to feel brilliant and handsome again. Why? Because you observed, right? You're seeing yourself through the lens of this person's gaze.

Andrew Huberman:
Yeah. Esther Perel, when she was sitting in the same seat you're sitting in now, said that 90% of affairs people describe as they had those affairs because they made them feel, quote-unquote, "alive."

James Sexton:
Yeah.

Andrew Huberman:
There was an aliveness-

James Sexton:
Yeah

Andrew Huberman:
... that was in stark contrast to the deadness or lack of aliveness in their relationship.

James Sexton:
Well, there's a poem-

Andrew Huberman:
And it's not a justification. We were discussing, so what is the underlying thing-

James Sexton:
Yeah

Andrew Huberman:
... that they're seeking? Is it sex?

James Sexton:
Yeah.

Andrew Huberman:
Is it adventure? And in some cases, it might be both.

James Sexton:
Well, her book, Redefining Infidelity, like all of her writing, she and I were on a panel together some years ago, and I think she's a brilliant mind. And she has an insight into the nature of infidelity and human relationships, romantic relationships. But again, she's saying the quiet part out loud. And again, I don't think she's not a romantic. I don't think that she doesn't believe in love. When someone says to me, "Well, do you believe in love?" It's like, do you believe in oxygen? It's all around me. Love's all around me. It's everywhere. It's the-

Andrew Huberman:
I guess the question is, do you believe in the potential permanence of romance and love?

James Sexton:
Yes. Because I-

Andrew Huberman:
With the same person.

James Sexton:
Yes, because I've seen it, just like you have.

Andrew Huberman:
Mm-hmm.

James Sexton:
It's a rare and special thing. One of the things I've said before, and I get pilloried for it every time I say it because people want to misinterpret it intentionally, is that marriage is like the lottery. You are probably not going to win. But if you win, what you win is so good that you might as well buy a ticket. Give it a try. Give it a shot. Again, with a prenup, then your downside is controlled to some degree. But I am a fan. Now, people take that quote and go, "Oh, well, so you're saying that it's random? You can't do anything to increase your chances of winning the lottery other than buying more tickets." Marriage, it's a practice, it's work. And when people say to me, "Well, marriage is hard work. Marriage is hard," I don't know what you're talking about. I don't know that love has to be hard work. There's so much that we put on love, romantic love, that just doesn't make sense as far as I'm concerned, by observable experience. If you watch people who are happily married, they're cheering for each other, they enjoy each other's company. But again, are they dealing with those early days intoxication to the point where if the other person starts speaking, they lose their train of thought? No, because they're building a life and a family and an ecosystem in the home together, and they have to divide responsibilities as... But those two things do not have to be incompatible with each other. But you cannot throw into that equation ignorance and willful blindness to the reality of the impermanence of love and the fragility of love. My career is about the fragility of love. And why can't we talk about this fragile thing and treat it like you treat a fragile thing? Why not treat love like what it is? It's something that's so amazing, powerful, and beautiful that it sucks the reason right out of our heads, and all you want to do is be with this person and tuck in, and just, "What do you want to do tonight? Do you want to go to the greatest concert and the greatest venue and sit in the front row, or just sit with this person and watch something on Netflix and eat some popcorn?" Yep, I'll take that. I'll take that, because it's the best thing.

Andrew Huberman:
Right. Well, the friendship piece is something that I've heard you talk about before, and with all the discussion that we're having here about pheromone clouds and dopamine and romance and sex, I think that I'll put in a strong vote for saying all that's wonderful, but the mellow times, just hanging out on the couch-

James Sexton:
Are the best

Andrew Huberman:
... are different.

James Sexton:
Yeah.

Andrew Huberman:
Starkly different.

James Sexton:
Yeah.

Andrew Huberman:
But are as bonding in many ways, especially on a backdrop of a world that, especially now, is chaotic, uncertain-

James Sexton:
Yeah

Andrew Huberman:
... threatening to many people.

James Sexton:
Yeah, frightening.

Andrew Huberman:
Even if you're successful in the world, the world's a lot.

James Sexton:
Yeah.

Andrew Huberman:
Pretty overwhelming now.

James Sexton:
Yeah.

Andrew Huberman:
There's a lot coming at us all the time through devices and through-

James Sexton:
Yeah

Andrew Huberman:
... things. There's a lot of uncertainty about our whole species at some level.

James Sexton:
And criticism. There's so much criticism from the outside world, so much self-criticism and comparison, that there's something about having someone who sees the beauty in you and is cheering for you.

Andrew Huberman:
Mm-hmm.

James Sexton:
And that when you fall down, their response is, "Okay, you fell down. Come on, people fall down. It's okay. Come on, get up. You got it."

Andrew Huberman:
Mm-hmm.

James Sexton:
"You got this." Something about that, to me, is that's the best thing. When I see successful married couples, they're not taking the piss out of each other. All the tropes now of women just being like, "Oh, yeah, he's just such an idiot." That it's cute somehow to talk crap about your husband or your wife.

Andrew Huberman:
Men as children.

James Sexton:
Men as children, and women as the most loathsome harpies ever to castrate a man. Like, "Oh, yeah, well, please, she's this one. There's nothing. We're not..." I don't find that cute. I don't find it charming.

Andrew Huberman:
Yeah, it's sort of an American theme. I've noticed half my family's in South America.

James Sexton:
Yeah.

Andrew Huberman:
Completely different picture.

James Sexton:
Yeah.

Andrew Huberman:
Now, one could argue there are problems with the picture there.

James Sexton:
Yeah.

Andrew Huberman:
And I'm sure they exist. But it's not the same-

James Sexton:
Yeah

Andrew Huberman:
... men are children-

James Sexton:
Yeah

Andrew Huberman:
... women are cutthroat.

James Sexton:
Yeah, and I guess for me, especially in this increasingly performative and curated age that we live in, where we're watching on Instagram and all these other social media. We're watching everyone's greatest hits while we live our gag reel. And we're sort of comparing ourselves to this curated version of other people's relationships and lives. And so a lot of the time, we're just not feeling good about what we're doing or where we're at. Our bodies, our minds, our success, our accomplishments. We're looking at everybody else's curated greatest hits.

Andrew Huberman:
Mm-hmm.

James Sexton:
And I think there's something really valuable about having another human being Next to you who's not criticizing you. Even constructive criticism is criticism. There's something about having another person, and I'm not saying by the way, that part of being in a good relationship is not criticism, or the ability to give feedback to a person. But it's like I said earlier about our friendship. If you know it's coming from a place of love, of like, "Hey, man, I know you're great, and I feel like this is dampening your greatness," or, "This is shining light in the wrong place." I think there's so much value in that. But again, it requires these two people to have a conversation early on, I think, about what do we expect, what do we feel towards each other. And again, to look at that as a con-- Marriage is a contract, divorce is a different contract. A prenup is a contract. We're living in this world of contracts whether we want to admit it or not. So why not admit it, say it out loud? I promise it is not going to take away the beauty and the romance of this thing. I've been a divorce lawyer 25 years. I still get misty-eyed at weddings. I still watch love stories. I watch "Love on the Spectrum." I literally cry every episode.

Andrew Huberman:
I haven't seen it.

James Sexton:
If you ever want to just feel the most affirmed you'll ever feel in your life, because these are people who are struggling with tremendous difficulties and challenges in life, challenges you and I don't have, and all they want is connection with another person.

Andrew Huberman:
Beautiful.

James Sexton:
And there's something about how they both are like, "Oh my God, I want this." "Oh, do you like ice cream?" "Oh, I like ice cream, too." And it's just, "Oh, okay. Okay, good. We found a thing. We found a connection point." And you're just watching it on the edge of your seat going, "Oh my God. Yeah. Good. Okay, good. You're doing so good. Okay." They ran out of things to talk about. Okay. It's okay. And I watch it like I imagine some people watch the Super Bowl. Just on the edge of my seat. You'd think I had money on what happens to Tanner. I'm watching it, and because there's something so pure about I just want to find love. I just want to find another person that I'm going to feel loved by and safe with, and who likes me, and who the way they look at me makes me look at myself in a more positive way. There's something so beautiful about that, and maybe you have to strip away a lot of this intellectual crap to be able to really see that that's what this comes down to, and to make it its purest distilled version. But again, I think that's something that's easiest and best to do when you're at the beginning of that journey, not midway through, definitely not where it's gone off the rails.

Andrew Huberman:
I'm thinking about standards of expectation.

James Sexton:
Mm-hmm.

Andrew Huberman:
And obviously, social media plays an important role in that.

James Sexton:
Huge.

Andrew Huberman:
You mentioned that people showing their best lives, best selves, best everything. I have a friend who is very high up in one of the social media platforms. Let's just say in the original 10-

James Sexton:
Okay

Andrew Huberman:
... who told me social media is 99% about women and female biology and psychology communicating to one another and to men, and getting men to communicate to the world things that support kind of an ideal.

James Sexton:
Mm-hmm.

Andrew Huberman:
Some people are going to hear that and get upset, and then I'm going to tell you that the person that told me that is a woman.

James Sexton:
Mm.

Andrew Huberman:
Which kind of bends people's brains around it.

James Sexton:
Mm.

Andrew Huberman:
Men will show their workouts. Men will compete with other men.

James Sexton:
Mm-hmm.

Andrew Huberman:
Men will just show their half-court shot prowess, et cetera.

James Sexton:
Mm-hmm.

Andrew Huberman:
Is that for women? Maybe. Is it for men? More likely. In some cases, both. All of it. But the argument is that this idea of ideals being presented as something to keep striving toward is very much the modern version of the Disney movie.

James Sexton:
Yeah.

Andrew Huberman:
The wedding at the end.

James Sexton:
Yeah.

Andrew Huberman:
Right? The bride and groom, and everything's perfect.

James Sexton:
Yeah.

Andrew Huberman:
That there's a subconscious text there.

James Sexton:
Yeah.

Andrew Huberman:
We're all kind of aiming for and hoping for, and so we see the top veneer. Let me put it this way. I don't think I've seen a movie, or an Instagram account for that matter-

James Sexton:
Mm-hmm

Andrew Huberman:
... of a couple resolving a really hard-

James Sexton:
Mm-hmm

Andrew Huberman:
... challenge-

James Sexton:
Yeah

Andrew Huberman:
... that wasn't cancer or something.

James Sexton:
Yeah.

Andrew Huberman:
Like a discussion-

James Sexton:
Yeah

Andrew Huberman:
... a hard discussion.

James Sexton:
Yeah.

Andrew Huberman:
A real one in real time.

James Sexton:
Yeah.

Andrew Huberman:
I've seen some staged ones that are just ridiculous.

James Sexton:
Yeah.

Andrew Huberman:
Where somebody listens. "I hear you."

James Sexton:
Yeah.

Andrew Huberman:
"I hear you." Okay. But that doesn't get to the underlying emotions at all. And so I think what's happening is people are getting more and more entranced by this ideal-

James Sexton:
Yeah

Andrew Huberman:
... and losing track of what you just described, which may be the real ideal.

James Sexton:
Yeah.

Andrew Huberman:
This one from this show, "Love on the Spectrum," right?

James Sexton:
Yeah.

Andrew Huberman:
That you're trying to find connection along the lines of simple everyday things that you-

James Sexton:
Correct

Andrew Huberman:
... can bask in over and over-

James Sexton:
Yeah

Andrew Huberman:
... without the fear of them disappearing.

James Sexton:
Yeah.

Andrew Huberman:
Because they're not that hard to attain, and they're not dependent on some transient dopamine wave that you just can't get back.

James Sexton:
But I think what you're saying is spot on. So I've always interpreted social media as a form of advertising.

Andrew Huberman:
Mm-hmm.

James Sexton:
It's really what it is.

Andrew Huberman:
Absolutely.

James Sexton:
It's advertising.

Andrew Huberman:
Yeah.

James Sexton:
And there's two things about advertising that I think should be said out loud. One is that advertising is the dream life of a culture. It's the ideal.

Andrew Huberman:
Mm-hmm.

James Sexton:
It's the dream life.

Andrew Huberman:
Mm-hmm.

James Sexton:
It's this idea of this is what a Bud Light drinker looks like. They're having a good time. They're with their friends. This is what a guy who drinks this beer looks like. And which guy are you? This is what a BMW driver looks like versus this is what a Hyundai or a Subaru or Jeep driver looks like. So it's the dream life of a culture, and I think there's tremendous value to that. Tremendous value to what do we imagine ourselves to be? Because whenever I'm talking to someone in a negotiation, as someone who negotiates for a living and litigates for a living, like I'm not just interested in who you are, I'm interested in who you want me to think you are, and who you think you are and who you want to be. Right?

Andrew Huberman:
Mm-hmm.

James Sexton:
So advertising, social media, it's the dream life of a culture. But here's the thing we don't like to talk about. Advertising at its core is the opposite of therapy. If the goal of therapy is to create a sense of wellness and wholeness in a person, okay? Advertising is the opposite. You're not okay. You could be. If you had potato-- You would have-- Then you would be better. You're good-

Andrew Huberman:
True

James Sexton:
... you're good now. It is true. It's actually delicious. But the purpose of advertising-

Andrew Huberman:
Mm-hmm

James Sexton:
... is essentially to say, "You're not okay. You're not okay. You could be."

Andrew Huberman:
Mm-hmm.

James Sexton:
"Redemption is available to you."

Andrew Huberman:
Right. That's the subtext. You're not okay, and if you did X, Y, or Z, or got X, Y-

James Sexton:
Then maybe you'll be better

Andrew Huberman:
... or you'll be better.

James Sexton:
You'll be much better. So social media's the same thing. You're not okay. Maybe if you did contrast therapy, saunas, cold plunges, you'd be better. Maybe if you took more creatine, you'd be better. You're good now, but you could be better. And so that constant barrage of our dream life, our imagination, again, it's inspiring, it's really good for people in some ways. But to be inundated on a daily basis with, "You're not okay. You're not..." Over and over again, this is not a normal condition for humans to be in. And that is why I think to some degree, we find that romantic relationships so appealing because you're closing the door and this person, "You're okay. You're good. I have you. That's what I need." "Yeah, well, I have you. That's what I need."

Andrew Huberman:
The cocoon.

James Sexton:
Yeah. And what a warm, wonderful-

Andrew Huberman:
Mm-hmm

James Sexton:
... place to be. Particularly, it's really nice to be in a warm house when it's cold outside. It's really nice to be in a dry house when it's raining outside. Well, when you're living in an ecosystem where information has become a form of garbage that comes at you from every possible angle all the time, devoid of context, and everything is an advertisement telling you there's something wrong with you, why wouldn't you want to slam the door, close the windows, and be with someone, and ideally a couple of dogs, where you guys can just be warm and happy and love each other? And by the way, it's right there. It's so accessible. You don't have to buy much of anything. You don't need that much. If you have love and you have each other, you don't need... And by-- That's why I think our society, I think capitalism likes love insofar as it sells Hyundais, and it'll get people to buy, like the wedding industrial complex. It'll get you to go out and do all the stuff you do. But the idea that, hey, if we just find another person, that we might realize that this is all the matrix. That I don't need all of that to be loved, and I don't need all of that to feel love. The fullness you feel when you love someone and are loved by them, again, it doesn't even have to be a human. Your dog. Why do you think people are always like, "Man, we don't deserve dogs"? Yeah, because your dog doesn't give a shit what car you drive or what you do or if you got six-pack abs. They don't care. They just love you, and you love them in a way that is mind-blowing in that, again, do you ever look at, people are always like, "Oh, well, this person I'm in a romantic relationship with, they're aging, their body's not as jacked as it was," or, "They're not as..." Do you ever look at your dog and go, "I got to get a puppy, man. This dog is old now. This dog's like..."

Andrew Huberman:
No, it's just more and more appreciation.

James Sexton:
It's just deeper and deeper. It's like the pair of jeans that you're like, "Oh, my God, it gets more comfortable every year." And that's how love can be and should be. But again, it requires to some degree that that noise of that ecosystem, that constant, "You're not okay. You're not okay," that we can figure out a way to turn the volume down on that and turn up the volume on what are we creating here together. Again, it may not sell as many cars. It may not sell as much beer. It may not, but that's okay. That's the wholeness, that sense of wholeness, that depth of connection to me, that makes all the sense in the world.

Andrew Huberman:
What you're describing is very alluring and when you said two people together in the cocoon, maybe some dogs as well, if one were just to inject a smartphone in there, completely different picture.

James Sexton:
Totally changes the ecosystem.

Andrew Huberman:
And I'm not trying to be a buzzkill here, but what you describe is so beautiful, and if I look back on the best moments in romantic relationships that I've had, it was, well, in recent years, driving a segment of the California coast where there was no-

James Sexton:
Yeah

Andrew Huberman:
... phone reception.

James Sexton:
Yeah.

Andrew Huberman:
The kind of peace that comes from that. It's always moments of simplicity.

James Sexton:
Yeah.

Andrew Huberman:
Always.

James Sexton:
Almost anybody, if you ask them, genuinely ask them like, "What was a moment where you felt the most loved?" Their answer will surprise you. It rarely costs anything. It rarely... I was on, you and I both done "Diary of a CEO," Steve Bartlett, and we both have a friendship with Steve. And one of the questions he asked me was, "When did you feel in your life the most loved?" And I instantly knew the answer, and it was the silliest answer and yet the most honest. And I told a story about how when I was a kid, we used to get pizza every once in a while, and pizza's cut into a certain number of slices. And I remember my friend Tommy and I were having pizza and my dad, there was an odd number of slices, and my dad had one slice and we two young boys just devoured three, four slices a piece. So there's only one more slice left. And of course, he and I are both looking at it, even though we'd had three or four slices of pizza and my dad had only had one. And my dad went like, "Yeah, you guys can have it." And we split that last piece, my friend and I. And a couple of weeks later, I was at his house and ordered pizza, and his father just ate the last slice of pizza. He ate more slices than we did. And I remember looking at him and thinking, "My dad would never do that." And I remember thinking, "Oh, he loves me." I just felt it to my core that he loves me so much. I know he wanted that other piece of pizza, but the joy he felt in watching me eat another piece of pizza was bigger than the hunger he had for another piece of pizza. That is the purest expression of love. And most people, if you say to them, "What was a moment in your romantic relationship where you felt loved, where you just felt joy inside yourself?" Like, "God, I'd rather be here than anywhere in the world." The answer is not going to be, "We were at the most expensive restaurant," or, "We were having the most mind-blowing sex." Listen, you'll have fond memories of all those things, but it's some little moment of just connection or just the feeling of holding this person's hand or the way that the light hit them at the particular sunset when you were sitting outside together. And to me, of course, modern consumer culture doesn't shove that down your throat, because you don't need to buy anything to experience that. You don't need to do anything to experience that other than find another person and love them, and let them love you. And that doesn't require a lot of purchases.

Andrew Huberman:
I'd like to take a quick break and acknowledge one of our sponsors, Function. Last year, I became a Function member after searching for the most comprehensive approach to lab testing. Function provides over 100 advanced lab tests that give you a key snapshot of your entire bodily health. This snapshot offers you with insights on your heart health, hormone health, immune functioning, nutrient levels, and much more. They've also recently added tests for toxins, such as BPA exposure from harmful plastics, and tests for PFAS, or forever chemicals. Function not only provides testing of over 100 biomarkers key to your physical and mental health, but it also analyzes these results and provides insights from top doctors who are expert in the relevant areas. For example, in one of my first tests with Function, I learned that I had elevated levels of mercury in my blood. Function not only helped me detect that but offered insights into how best to reduce my mercury levels, which included limiting my tuna consumption, I'd been eating a lot of tuna, while also making an effort to eat more leafy greens and supplementing with NAC, N-acetylcysteine, both of which can support glutathione production and detoxification. And I should say, by taking a second Function test, that approach worked. Comprehensive blood testing is vitally important. There's so many things related to your mental and physical health that can only be detected in a blood test. The problem is, blood testing has always been very expensive and complicated. In contrast, I've been super impressed by Function's simplicity and at the level of cost. It is very affordable. As a consequence, I decided to join their scientific advisory board, and I'm thrilled that they're sponsoring the podcast. If you'd like to try Function, you can go to functionhealth.com/huberman. Function currently has a wait list of over 250,000 people, but they're offering early access to Huberman podcast listeners. Again, that's functionhealth.com/huberman to get early access to Function. You've got my mind going to a number of pleasant memories and examples.

James Sexton:
That's good. It's good to do.

Andrew Huberman:
But I love your pizza example. I'll just quickly give one. I was in a long relationship with somebody. We're still on very good terms, and we still laugh and delight in this one moment. There's a diner here in Los Angeles that we had come to. It's closed now, but it's still there.

James Sexton:
Yeah.

Andrew Huberman:
Every time I drive past it, I think about this.

James Sexton:
Yeah.

Andrew Huberman:
I think about this.

James Sexton:
And you think about her.

Andrew Huberman:
I think about her, and it was the early days of dating.

James Sexton:
Yeah.

Andrew Huberman:
And I remember she asked for cream for her coffee and put a little bit more cream than one would normally put-

James Sexton:
Yeah

Andrew Huberman:
... in the coffee. And I was like, "A little cream with your coffee?" She's like, "Well, actually, I want to put the whole thing in here, but I'm trying to be polite."

James Sexton:
You're trying to be demure.

Andrew Huberman:
And I said, "Put the whole thing in."

James Sexton:
Go in.

Andrew Huberman:
And without hesitating, she just went plonk and put the entire-

James Sexton:
Yeah

Andrew Huberman:
... beaker of cream in there.

James Sexton:
Yeah.

Andrew Huberman:
And we still laugh about that.

James Sexton:
Yeah.

Andrew Huberman:
And I remember that moment being so freeing for me-

James Sexton:
Yeah

Andrew Huberman:
... because it was this moment where I knew she was relaxed enough to do it.

James Sexton:
Oh, yeah.

Andrew Huberman:
It was hilarious for reasons that-

James Sexton:
Oh, yeah

Andrew Huberman:
... were only clear to us, and people are probably bewildered about why it would be so meaningful now. And-

James Sexton:
I don't think they will be

Andrew Huberman:
... and to me, it was a moment where I was like, I don't want to reveal who this person is.

James Sexton:
Yeah.

Andrew Huberman:
People in my life will know. But she has such a lust for life.

James Sexton:
Yeah.

Andrew Huberman:
Like, full blast.

James Sexton:
Yeah.

Andrew Huberman:
All gas pedal on everything.

James Sexton:
Yeah.

Andrew Huberman:
And it was like, "I love cream, I want the entire beaker of cream."

James Sexton:
Yeah.

Andrew Huberman:
And it was this permission that she gave herself. So I still delight in that. So these little things-

James Sexton:
It's great

Andrew Huberman:
... right? And I think as you were describing the pizza example or my example, what's clear to me is that the memory of, say, the incredible early stage of a relationship or some big vacation or event-

James Sexton:
Sure

Andrew Huberman:
... which is wonderful, that stuff can set a kind of yearning as much as an appreciation.

James Sexton:
Sure.

Andrew Huberman:
Like, you want it again, whereas for me, this-

James Sexton:
Yeah

Andrew Huberman:
... probably silly-sounding thing about the cream in the coffee or the pizza thing, you still have that. It's not like you want it again.

James Sexton:
Yeah.

Andrew Huberman:
You've got that. It's yours.

James Sexton:
Yeah.

Andrew Huberman:
It's never going away.

James Sexton:
Yeah.

Andrew Huberman:
And I think there's something very deeply biological and psychological-

James Sexton:
Yeah

Andrew Huberman:
... about those kinds of things, because I think they drive really deep pillars-

James Sexton:
Yeah

Andrew Huberman:
... into our memory. It's like we still have them. I mean, look at the way you describe it-

James Sexton:
Yeah

Andrew Huberman:
... or the way that I feel.

James Sexton:
Well, first of all, there's nothing silly about that example. Just the fact that you say, "Well, that silly example I gave," there's absolutely nothing silly about that. I completely got it. I completely was smiling while you were telling that story, because it's lovely. Because what is it? It's intimacy. Like the definition of intimacy has nothing to do with sex. Intimacy is defined as the ability to be completely yourself with another person. And what was she doing there? She was doing what we all do on a date. Those first few days, those early days, we have Spanx on our personality. Everything is like, okay. And again, is it lying? No. Is makeup lying? No. It accentuates the positive, dissentuates the negative. It's not a lie. If someone was wearing makeup and then they take their makeup off, I don't go, "Your eyelashes don't look like that. You're a liar." No. Look, you're trying to impress me. I get it. You're trying to be the-- But eventually, you're going to see this person without makeup. Eventually, you're going to find out she puts an insane amount of cream into her coffee. But these are the things we love about people. It's what makes them human is that she puts so much cream in her coffee, so weird to me.

Andrew Huberman:
It's ridiculous.

James Sexton:
But let me tell you something. You still think of her when you drive. You think of that moment. That was an investment that paid dividends forever. You'll remember that forever. And by the way, it's not a betrayal to future relationships that you fondly recall this moment of intimacy where this person felt loved enough and comfortable enough with you to go, "Yeah, I'm going to take that mask off. I'm going to show you I like an insane amount of cream. I have no idea why I like that much cream, but I just do. Does that make me weird? Is that okay?" And then you going like, "Yeah, go to town. Whatever, man. I don't even use cream, but go to town. Be you." That's the feeling we all want is that feeling of like, yeah, you're not crazy. You make sense to me. You're not just like me. We're very different, but you make sense to me. And I feel understood.

Andrew Huberman:
Mm-hmm.

James Sexton:
And that to me, that's the whole thing. And so if you say, well, this is where we were in early days, and that's the baseline, and if we don't continue to feel that intoxicated by each other, that we're doing it wrong. Okay, then you've set an impossible standard. That's like saying, "I'm not in the shape I was in when I was 25, so I must be doing something wrong." No. The organism doesn't change, it doesn't evolve that way. This is the nature of things is that it's supposed to be what it is. It's supposed to merge or evolve into something different. But again, having conversations about what that is and what it looks like, that's the best possible way to preserve what's best in it. And I think starting a marriage with, we're not going to talk about any of that. We're not going to look at any of it. We're just in love. That's all that matters. We're just in love. That's all that matters. Let's not talk about any of this other stuff. That to me, you're doing yourself a disservice. Start early by creating the pattern of we're just going to say it. We're just going to say what we're doing right, what we're doing that hit the wrong way. Because here's the thing, you and I are friends. If you hurt my feelings, if we had a conversation and you said something and it just hurt my feelings, I know you didn't mean to. We're friends. I know you don't want to hurt me. I don't want to hurt you. You're my friend. I get it. But I'm going to probably say something sometime that hurts you, and I didn't mean to. So what do you do? Carry that around? Just don't say it out loud because it's uncomfortable to say that to Jim. He's going to feel badly that he said that to me and that it upset me, so I'm just going to carry it around. That's how, if you've been in a long-term romantic relationship, which we both have in our lives, that's how you're having some very banal sort of argument about what's the best way to get from here to Calabasas or whatever. And five minutes later, it's like, "You know, I never liked your mother," and like, "You never respected me." And you're like, "Wait, how did we get there? How long have you had that in the chamber? How long you been holding onto that?" And the answer is, since the day it happened. So why not create a framework early where if something blips the wrong way, I'm not saying dwell on it. I'm not saying put a person in a defensive situation by immediately calling it out. But if I said, I'm telling you right now as my friend, if I say something to you at some point that hurts you, I know I didn't mean to. I know I didn't mean to. So I'll tell you in advance, I'm sorry. I'm sorry, because I know I didn't mean to hurt you. Doesn't mean what I said isn't true. It might be true.

Andrew Huberman:
Mm-hmm.

James Sexton:
It might be fair criticism, but I know I didn't mean to hurt you. I know, because I love you. And so if you're my friend and I love you, I didn't mean to hurt you. I know that for sure. So why can't we from the beginning, and that's why I like prenups, because from the beginning, let's talk about this. What do we mean to each other? What do we owe to each other? What are the benchmarks of this economy? What are the exchanges of value between us? And as we grow and change, how will we hold on to the part that's most meaningful to both of us?

Andrew Huberman:
Can you give some examples of what a prenup, kind of the scaffold of a prenup might-

James Sexton:
Yeah

Andrew Huberman:
... look like? Barring the extremes of like-

James Sexton:
Yeah, of course

Andrew Huberman:
... billionaires and-

James Sexton:
Yeah

Andrew Huberman:
... and they have 19 Chihuahuas or whatever it is.

James Sexton:
Yeah.

Andrew Huberman:
Good Lord, who has 19 Chihuahuas? But-

James Sexton:
It's an ambitious-- Actually, one of my jujitsu teachers, Paul Shriner, he's got a remarkable number of Chihuahuas. He rescues Chihuahuas. I admire it tremendously.

Andrew Huberman:
I think Steven Kotler, who is involved in a lot of the literature and popular writing around flow-

James Sexton:
Yeah

Andrew Huberman:
... has a lot of Chihuahuas, and he told me that in some country other than the United States where they translate books-

James Sexton:
Yeah

Andrew Huberman:
... someone played a joke or something where on the title of the book, it translates as Chihuahua Man.

James Sexton:
Love that.

Andrew Huberman:
Or something like that.

James Sexton:
Well, if you think about Chihuahuas, it's fair because if you glued like 20 of them together, it's still not a great dane. You know what I mean? Size-wise, just mass in terms of volume of it.

Andrew Huberman:
I like all dogs.

James Sexton:
I like all dogs, too.

Andrew Huberman:
I like all dogs. For the record, I'm not being politically correct.

James Sexton:
I'm partial to hounds, but I like all dogs.

Andrew Huberman:
Yeah. Well, you and I are friends for a reason.

James Sexton:
Yeah.

Andrew Huberman:
Some of the basic scaffold-

James Sexton:
Yeah. Sure

Andrew Huberman:
... of a prenup. Because I can imagine the, "If we break up, you'll get X amount of blah, blah, blah, blah, blah."

James Sexton:
Yeah, it can be a lot of that.

Andrew Huberman:
Yeah. Maybe list off some core tenets.

James Sexton:
Yeah. So to do that, what you're doing is we're going to do a consultation for a prenuptial agreement right here. I do them all the time.

Andrew Huberman:
Great.

James Sexton:
So the first thing that... Yeah, you're getting it for free. That's pretty good. It's usually $850. So, what I'll say is the following. To understand what a contract does, the first thing you have to understand is what are your rights in the absence of that contract, right? Most contracts, that's pretty easy. Like, I'm going to lease a car. I know in the absence of that car lease, they have the car and I have the money, right? So that's a really easy contract because whatever the contract is, we both want the same thing. They want my money, and I want their car. So now we're just trying to figure out what are the terms and how do we codify them, and then we'll come up with what are some things that could go wrong. What if I stop making the payments? What if I drive the car off the lot and the wheels fall off? Like, okay, now we have to start using some imagination about what do we do in these contingencies. But at its core, simple contract, which is I want the car, you got a car. You want money, I've got money. Let's figure this out. And if we can't, somebody else will get the car and somebody else will take my money. We'll be all right. We'll be okay, scheme of things. Right? So this is the same thing. Okay? It's the same thing. So if we don't marry, we both know that's easy. Right? We both know we're in love, we're happy, we're together, we're enjoying each other's company. Now we're not going to get married. What happens? So suddenly love goes out the window. The whole thing falls apart. I don't think so. That's kind of weird, right? So again, first order of business is why are we getting married? Why? What is the problem to which marriage is a solution? Why is it so strange to say to another human being, if I said to you, "Andrew, great news, I'm getting married." If you said, "Really? Why?" Why would that be like, "What kind of jerk is Andrew today?" Why? "Well, my parents, it's really important to them that I get married, and we're having a great time, she and I, but her parents are very religious." And then you say, "Oh, that's a good reason. That's a good reason to get married." We do things to make our parents happy or our partner's parents happy. That's okay. That makes sense to me. I genuinely think that there's a valid thing there, which is this is the reason why we're getting married, or I want the tax break that comes with getting married.

Andrew Huberman:
There's a tax break?

James Sexton:
There's a significant tax break.

Andrew Huberman:
Yeah.

James Sexton:
Yeah, yeah. On federal and state. You get your different dependency exemptions. You get different schedules of how much you have to make to pay at a different... Yeah, there's a whole bunch of purely financial reasons to get married. Again, with a prenup, you can take away the risk but still have all those benefits. You can file married joint returns. You have all kinds of inheritance rights if you want them. There's all kinds of potential perks to getting married, right? There's also certain cultural legitimacy. Again, another good reason for people to say they're getting married is, hey-

Andrew Huberman:
Yeah. We'll return to that one. I want to make sure we flag that because things are changing, but I agree.

James Sexton:
Yes.

Andrew Huberman:
There's always the have they ever been married? Why aren't they married?

James Sexton:
Right.

Andrew Huberman:
We'll get back to that.

James Sexton:
If you say, "This is my girlfriend," that could mean a week. We've been together a week, or it could mean we've been together 10 years and we have kids together.

Andrew Huberman:
It implies transience.

James Sexton:
Or if you say, "My wife." Now, that's a fallacy. That's insane, right? Just because we went and did... 20 bucks, Elvis will marry you in Vegas, and you're telling me that that gives more legitimacy than someone who's got two children with someone, has lived with them for 10 years, but just didn't get the government involved?

Andrew Huberman:
Mm-hmm.

James Sexton:
That doesn't make any sense to me. But we've decided, it's like presto change-o, you're married. That means now you're a totally legitimate relationship.

Andrew Huberman:
A family member told me that years ago, I won't tell you what the course of their relationship was-

James Sexton:
Mm-hmm

Andrew Huberman:
... said the reason to get married is because it's an additional buffer against walking out when things get tough.

James Sexton:
Yeah.

Andrew Huberman:
And they're going to get tough.

James Sexton:
Yeah. See, I want to hear that a lot. And what if we closed emergency rooms from 10:00 PM until 5:00 AM? Do you think people would do less risky shit? Do you think people would go like, "Hey, you know what? If I break my leg skateboarding," sorry to pick on skateboarding, "if the ER is closed, I won't be..." That's insane to think that people in this dopamine state, intoxicated by pheromones, that they're going to say, like, "Oh, we are legally married. I might have to get..." The numbers don't bear it out.

Andrew Huberman:
Mm-hmm.

James Sexton:
With the divorce rate what it is, it doesn't work. You want to create barriers, create barriers to entry. How bad do you want it? How bad do you want to get married? There's a waiting period, or you have to take a test, or you have to whatever. Something, some barrier to entry. You have to pay some amount of money to get married. I don't know. If you believe in the barrier concept, barriers to exit makes no sense. Barriers to entry might make sense. Again, still don't think it would make that much sense. But to tie it back to the prenup question, so the first question is, why are you getting married? Okay? What's the purpose? What is the problem to which marriage is a solution? The next question is, okay, if we marry without a prenup, what will govern-

Andrew Huberman:
Mm-hmm

James Sexton:
... our relationship in the event that it doesn't end in death?

Andrew Huberman:
Mm-hmm.

James Sexton:
Okay? So if it ends by some other reason, either I divorce you, you divorce me, we come to the joint decision that this isn't working, some intervening circumstance occurs that changes the dynamic between us in a way that we couldn't possibly have anticipated, whatever that might be, a medical issue, something with a child. I've had cases where, and these are tragic cases, but in a 25-year career, I've maybe had a dozen cases where people lost a child. By usually some kind of tragic accident. So kid falls in the pool, drowns, and they cannot be together anymore. They are a reminder to the other person of this immeasurable loss that they can't wrap their brains around. And so they lose each other. And it's not anyone's fault. It's not either of their fault that this horrible tragedy occurred.

Andrew Huberman:
It's just too painful.

James Sexton:
But it's just too painful. They just remind each other of this loss. They can't ever extricate that from their feelings. Now, I don't look at that person and go, "Well, you should never get divorced. Divorce is..." Dude, who am I to say to that person, "No, no, continue to feel that torturous pain," or, "Oh, go to therapy and that'll get rid of that." It's not that simple. So if that person who's been through that exquisite, unique kind of torture, that person says, "Yeah, we just can't do that. We love each other, but we just can't. We have to start over and reboot our lives separately so that we have no memory of that anymore, or as few reminders as possible." I have nothing I can say to that except that's not a choice I could tell you is wrong. I don't have the right to tell you that. So there are circumstances that can end a marriage that were not anticipated by or caused by either person's malfeasance, right? So, okay, now what? Right? So if we know in the absence of a rule set, in the absence of a prenup, what happens if we divorce? Well, most people never even get to that step. Most people, when they get married, they never sit down with anyone and go, "What's legally going to happen to me right now? What just changed?" You buy a house, you get a HUD-1 that tells you the nature of the loan and how much you're paying in interest so that nobody can claim they didn't know that. You get a lead paint disclosure, you get all kinds of things. You get married, you didn't get a pamphlet. You just did the most legally significant thing you're ever going to do other than dying, and no one told you anything about what just happened. So you've opted out of the title system. So right now, if you and I buy a house together, title controls. Whose name is it in? If it's in your name, it's yours. If it's in my name, it's mine. If it's in our joint names, we own it 50/50 unless there's a contract that says otherwise. Right? So there are defaults in the absence of a contract. There are legal defaults. Again, lawyers make a ton of money over people's aversion to contracts.

Andrew Huberman:
Yeah.

James Sexton:
It's great. The worst thing, when I got involved in Trusted Prenup and I told people, "Oh, I'm doing this thing. I want to democratize prenups," all my colleagues were like, "Are you nuts?" A, prenups are the easiest thing we do, and we make pure profit on them. We can charge $5,000, $10,000 for basically a document that you go into Word and change the names and it's the same one for a lot of people. Okay? Or we've done so many of them that we just go, "Oh, this is just like that one," and you just change the name, and here it is, and I can charge you $5,000, $10,000 for it. And if it's successful, I'm taking hundreds of thousands of dollars in counsel fees out of my pocket because now you're not going to have a litigated divorce. It's not going to be a knockdown, drag out with whatever the government's current way of handling things happens to be. Which, by the way, is going to be different five years from now than it was five years ago. I know that because I've been doing this 25 years and the law's completely different than it was 25 years ago, 10 years ago, 15 years ago. It changes constantly because politicians change constantly. So fundamentally, what happens with a prenup is simple. We're creating a rule set together, whatever that might be, and it can be as detailed as you want it to be. So I've seen ones that have very specific things about how often we're going to have sex and if we split up what'll happen-

Andrew Huberman:
We're talking literally requirements?

James Sexton:
Well, what they are is either aspirational guidelines-

Andrew Huberman:
Mm-hmm

James Sexton:
... or it is tied in some way to some incentive or disincentive.

Andrew Huberman:
You're kidding me.

James Sexton:
Like some penalty. Oh, yeah.

Andrew Huberman:
You're kidding me.

James Sexton:
I'm not kidding you. I don't advocate for that. I don't think it's a good idea. But this story I tell pretty frequently is I did a prenup defense where I didn't write the prenup, so don't blame me, but I defended the prenup successfully, where for every 10 pounds the bride gained, she would lose $10,000 a month in alimony when they split up.

Andrew Huberman:
You're kidding.

James Sexton:
Yeah. And a court upheld it. The court in its decision actually said, "This is boorish. This is disgusting. I don't know why you married this person who insisted on this being in the contract, but it's a contract. You signed it. He signed it. You're adults. You were both represented by counsel, and it's enforceable."

Andrew Huberman:
Whoa.

James Sexton:
Yeah. But again-

Andrew Huberman:
Did the marriage last?

James Sexton:
No, they divorced. Yeah. They divorced, and she lost $20,000 a month in alimony. She gained around 20 pounds during the marriage.

Andrew Huberman:
Do you think that was the factor?

James Sexton:
Well, he was rich and she was gorgeous. And he got richer, and she got less gorgeous, reluctantly.

Andrew Huberman:
But there are a lot of rich, gorgeous matchups.

James Sexton:
Yeah. That's pretty common.

Andrew Huberman:
So I guess that-

James Sexton:
And that's, by the way, it's gender blind, too.

Andrew Huberman:
Yeah.

James Sexton:
The C-suite executive founder that you're talking about, female founder, they very often don't marry. I know some people in the red pill community want to say hypergamy and stuff like that, that C-suite women only marry even more successful men than that. I have a lot of female clients who I have to tell them they owe alimony. And they're like, "Wait, why do I have to pay? I'm a woman. He's a man. He's got a strong back. Why do I have to pay alimony?" I'm like, "Because you are a C-suite executive who makes millions, and you married the super hot, unsuccessful musician who has the, 'Oops, I didn't know I was sexy' stubble because he looks really good. You married the equivalent of me marrying the hot yoga teacher. I get it. But you did the thing." And gender has nothing to do with it. If you marry someone who earns significantly less money than you do, and they have a diminished lifetime earning capacity, then you owe them alimony, most likely.

Andrew Huberman:
Is it always 50/50 of assets?

James Sexton:
Generally, yeah. There's a presumption that equitable distribution, equitable meaning fair, is really the law. But equitable is presumed to mean equal. There are some reasons and some circumstances where equitable does not mean equal. There can be things called wasteful dissipation of marital assets, where a person has squandered money that should've stayed in the marital estate, gambling, having a paramour, a girlfriend, or a boyfriend. But again, to tie it back to prenups, what you're doing with a prenup, as a fundamental, is just saying, okay, there's yours, there's mine, and there's ours, right? In terms of assets and liabilities. Which, by the way, I think is an excellent analog to the nature of relationships themselves. Right? There's you, there's me, and there's we. Right? And in a healthy relationship, there's still you, there's still me, and then there's this Venn diagram of we, right? And of course, you don't want you and me to be subsumed by the we, because I fell in love with you. You fell in love with me. Why would we want those to go away completely? But of course, the we is intoxicating, and you want to become the we more. But there's value in staying you and me and having a healthy we, having a healthy intersection there. So why not, in your structure of the marriage, have, okay, yours, mine, and ours? So at a fundamental level, if you're going to have a basic prenuptial agreement, it's just going to say, hey, we're staying in that system. You, me, we, right? Yours, mine, ours. If it's yours, you keep it, asset or liability. If it's mine, I keep it, asset or liability. If it's ours, we divide it 50/50. Fair enough? And now we're going into this relationship knowing the rule set. So I get a big bonus at work, okay? If I put it in my account and my sole name, I've protected it. We also need to have a conversation. "Hey, babe, you just got that big bonus at work, and you didn't put any of it in the joint account. What's that about? Something going on that we need to talk about?" And again, I understand. People don't want to have uncomfortable conversations. Well, you can have a series of mildly uncomfortable conversations throughout the course of a relationship, or you can duck that and then have some really difficult conversations in divorce court. And to me, that's pretty easy, which of those two things I'd choose. So at its core, a prenuptial agreement can cover as many... People put in infidelity clauses, where there are financial penalties if someone cheats. Again, I discourage it.

Andrew Huberman:
Financial penalties?

James Sexton:
Oh, yeah. Liquidated damages, whether it's a lump sum or a waiver of alimony if you're caught cheating. It used to be the law of the land that if you could prove adultery of a person, at that point, typically women, because the workforce was predominantly male at that time. If you could catch it. That's why the picture of a divorce lawyer with a private investigator with a telephoto lens taking pictures of someone coming out of the hotel, it's in everyone's mind forever. And by the way, people still come in to my office, and they're like, "I've got him. I've got photos of him coming out of this hotel with this girlfriend." I'm like, "Okay. You know there's no good spouse bonus and bad spouse penalty, right?" You don't get extra stuff because you were a super good spouse who never cheated, and you don't lose stuff because you cheated. Other than maybe the marriage, you don't get anything less. It used to be if you could prove adultery, you waived alimony. So if this person cheated, they weren't allowed to ask for alimony. That was abolished in the 1970s by statute. So it's gone now. Not a thing anymore.

Andrew Huberman:
So it's no-fault divorce.

James Sexton:
No-fault divorce is the law of the land.

Andrew Huberman:
Assets are split according to the prenup or according to the laws of the state.

James Sexton:
Again, according to the law as it stands, which has changed dramatically over 25 years and varies state to state. Whereas with a prenuptial agreement, you're agreeing on a rule set. And again, if people want to agree to weird clauses like infidelity penalties and things, you can do that. And lawyers, we can draft stuff like that.

Andrew Huberman:
Who gets the dog?

James Sexton:
No problem. Who gets the... Listen, pet clauses. It was very funny because when the team at Trusted Prenup, I was the legal advisor piece of it, obviously. And so I was really feeding them so they could feed to this AI all of these prenups I had done. And, Ben, who's our tech guy, he lives in Australia, he called me up, and he was like, "You do know the pet clauses are actually the most complicated and diverse out of all of the things."

Andrew Huberman:
I believe it.

James Sexton:
And I said, "Yeah. Well, do you have pets?" I said, "Because I'll tell you right now..." Because there are people that go so hard in the paint on pet stuff, that it's like they have custody rotation schedules for the pets. They have clauses about what to do if there's a conflict about veterinary decisions. And unlike children, you are most likely going to outlive your pet.

Andrew Huberman:
Mm-hmm.

James Sexton:
And so you have to have clauses in for if this pet has to be euthanized, can we both be there? What do we do with the cremated remains of this pet? If we can't agree on a park or whatever that it's going to be sprinkled at, should we each get half, and then we can do what we want with it? These are things that, again, have that conversation. Because here's the thing. If we have that conversation when we are now angry at each other and breaking up, right? When hell hath no fury like a woman or a man scorned. Do you think the answer's going to be a compassionate and thoughtful one that honors the relationship we both had with this companion animal? No. It's going to be, "I'm keeping the ashes." Why? "Because fuck you, that's why." That's the answer. I've had people explicitly say... I had a case a couple weeks ago where we went in and had... It was supposed to be a four-way discussion, but I was doing shuttle stuff, so I'm talking to the wife and her counsel, and I've got my client in another conference room. And these people own 12 properties, really high net worth case. And I said, "Look, which of these properties do you want to keep?" And she was like, "Well, which ones does he want?" And I said, "Well, why does that matter? Why don't you tell me?" And she's like, "Well, because I want to know which ones he wants." And I said, "Right, but why?" And she's like, "Because whichever one he wants, I want those."

Andrew Huberman:
Wow.

James Sexton:
And I said, "Well, that feels like you're just trying to be contrarian." And she goes, "Well, no, he's actually a pretty shrewd investor, so whichever ones he wants are probably the best ones, so that's actually why I want them." Now, look, whether that's true, which seems like a fair logic, or whether it was because, "Fuck you, that's why," the time to have that conversation was not that moment where we're at odds, and we both lawyer it up. The conversation should've been had back in the day. Back when there was still an abundance of optimism and affection between these people. And so pet clause is a great example. I think there's tremendous value in putting that stuff in there because let me tell you something. Heartbreak is hard enough. Breaking up cohabitation with someone, I don't care if you're married or not. You lived with someone, and now you're not cohabitating anymore?

Andrew Huberman:
It sucks.

James Sexton:
It sucks. We've all been there. It sucks, man. Who keeps what? And even if I keep a thing, I don't want that anymore. It just reminds me of you. We got that on that trip. I don't want to look at it. And I don't want to throw it out because it was special. But I also don't want to look at it, so I'm going to put it in a box somewhere and hope that someday I'm going to open that box and smile.

Andrew Huberman:
And no one else opens that box.

James Sexton:
And no one else opens that box and goes, "Oh, where'd you get..." "Oh, nothing." You know what I mean? This is the challenge of this. But that's why having that conversation earlier, that's the way it is. So for me, what prenups can bind, is a long list of things you can bind with prenups. What's important is what's the prenup that's right for this couple? What issues are important to you? The simplest one, yours, mine, ours. 50/50 divide on the ours. Yours and mine, we each keep our own, whether that's the stuff we had before the marriage or what. Because even states like California that have community property, okay? Community property, just to give you a CliffsNotes on it, and there's a couple of community property states. California's not the only one. So when you marry, what you own at the time of marriage is your separate property. Okay? And then everything you acquire from the date of marriage forward is presumed to be marital property. You're one person in the eyes of the law. So if you buy your wife a Rolex watch, you bought yourself one half of a Rolex watch. Okay? It doesn't matter. Title is irrelevant. If you win the lottery, she won half the lottery. Okay? So that's how it works in the absence of a prenuptial agreement. Community property is after a certain period of time, and that period of time varies from state to state. In California, it's seven years. Once you hit that benchmark, all the separate property is now marital property. You're considered fully married. You're one person in the eyes of the law.

Andrew Huberman:
All the mine becomes ours.

James Sexton:
All the mine becomes ours. So the you and the me both becomes part of the we. Now, in theory, the legislative intent, okay, was, yeah, after a certain number of years, you're like the tree that's grown in the way that now it's inextricably. There's no more you and me. There's just we. Right? Love that idea. Cool. Very romantic concept, right? In reality, do you know what it did? It spiked the divorce rate at six and a half years.

Andrew Huberman:
Mm.

James Sexton:
Because why? Because six and a half years, honeymoon's over. That intoxication's passed. That early days intoxication's passed. The creamer is no longer like, "Look at which creamer she uses." It's like, "Jesus Christ, do you need that much creamer? I got to go buy more creamer now."

Andrew Huberman:
Now, don't destroy my story, man.

James Sexton:
I'm not trying to.

Andrew Huberman:
Just kidding.

James Sexton:
The divorce really-

Andrew Huberman:
I'm just kidding

James Sexton:
... I'm the skunk in the picnic.

Andrew Huberman:
She'll listen to this, and she's going to be like, "Wait a second."

James Sexton:
Oh, shit. All right.

Andrew Huberman:
No, I'm kidding.

James Sexton:
No, you were still speaking of it fondly.

Andrew Huberman:
No, listen, I'm-

James Sexton:
So I'm the divorce lawyer

Andrew Huberman:
... just joking.

James Sexton:
If I don't bring a little black cloud to the conversation.

Andrew Huberman:
There's nothing you can do to-

James Sexton:
To take away the creamer

Andrew Huberman:
... to puncture that memory for me.

James Sexton:
I love that. And by the way, all the more reason why it's not silly-

Andrew Huberman:
No, it's insane

James Sexton:
... or stupid. It's incredible. That's an incredible thing. And we all have those things, if we're being honest, in every relationship we've ever had.

Andrew Huberman:
Mm-hmm.

James Sexton:
In every single one. Nina, my girlfriend in high school, loved Skid Row. She loved the band Skid Row. She was madly in love with Sebastian Bach from Skid Row, and I was so jealous because I looked absolutely nothing like him. And I just remember that about her, that she had a poster of Skid Row on her wall. You know how many years ago that was? She's a mother of two. But I still remember very fondly being so insecure about Sebastian Bach from Skid Row, and her kind of reassuring me like, "Oh, that's okay. I think you're much more handsome than him." And me being like, "That is so not true. He's so good-looking." But we all have those memories of every single, no matter how short the relationship was, we have a memory like that. And many of them, it's been eclipsed by the shit that happened at the end, the negative stuff that happened at the end. And by the way, that's another good reason to control that downside, because you can destroy 20 years of amazing, beautiful memories with six months of litigation. All you're going to remember is that last six months. That's it. Whoever said that money can't buy love, they didn't know it's like a restaurant. The check comes at the end. That's when you got to pay the bill is at the end, right? If you do it the old-fashioned way, which is we're just going to submit ourselves to a game that we don't know the rule set of, and then when it's ending, we're going to let lawyers just go at each other.

Andrew Huberman:
Mm-hmm.

James Sexton:
Or we're going to rely on the hope that we won't use the adversarial system, and we'll be able to sit across each other from a table with a mediator and hold hands and sing Kumbaya.

Andrew Huberman:
What you're saying is really important. Forgive me-

James Sexton:
Mm-hmm

Andrew Huberman:
... for interrupting, but because I think that nowadays there's kind of a growing... I hear more often like, "Yeah, we were These are colleagues of mine, typically

James Sexton:
Sure

Andrew Huberman:
... like, "Oh, yeah, we were married, we got divorced, but we had 15 really great years. We raised our daughter."

James Sexton:
That's great.

Andrew Huberman:
And they're still friends, or at least friendly.

James Sexton:
Yeah.

Andrew Huberman:
And they look on those years, or at least speak about them-

James Sexton:
Yeah

Andrew Huberman:
... I believe them, with a ton of fondness.

James Sexton:
Yeah.

Andrew Huberman:
And without the major injury of what you're talking about-

James Sexton:
Yeah

Andrew Huberman:
... which is this rough litigation at the end.

James Sexton:
And that's the thing.

Andrew Huberman:
So that's another reason to have a prenup.

James Sexton:
Another great reason to have a prenup, because look, I have an ex-wife. I've been divorced for 20 years. She's been remarried for 15. She's a wonderful person. She's a friend. I care deeply about her. She will always be. There's a lot of people I love I wouldn't want to be married to. And she would describe me that way. She'd be like, "I love Jim. He's a great guy. He's a great ex-husband." I'm a much better ex-husband than I am husband. Totally different skill set, totally different resume. I'm an excellent ex-husband. I do not have the patience to be a good husband, but I have the patience to be a good ex-husband. I can be a great co-parent, too. I'm a really good father. You don't have to be a great husband to be a great father. It's a different skill set. Just because you cook doesn't mean you can farm. Those are two different things. Yes, they both deal with food, but they're two totally different skill sets. So fundamentally, I think how things end very often impacts your perception and memory of the entire thing, and you as the brain scientist would be able to tell me why that works in terms of what actually imprints on us. But I believe, and I'm sure there's some chemical reason for it, pain, we remember pain-

Andrew Huberman:
Hmm

James Sexton:
... more than pleasure.

Andrew Huberman:
Well, you know all this stuff about 28 days to form a habit or adult neuroplasticity. There's something called one-trial learning-

James Sexton:
Mm-hmm

Andrew Huberman:
... and it comes fast, and it sticks around forever unless you do something to reverse it.

James Sexton:
Mm-hmm.

Andrew Huberman:
And that's the basis of trauma.

James Sexton:
Yeah.

Andrew Huberman:
Bad, hard, painful stuff-

James Sexton:
Yeah

Andrew Huberman:
... is etched into our nervous system-

James Sexton:
Yeah

Andrew Huberman:
... in one trial.

James Sexton:
Yeah.

Andrew Huberman:
Sadly, in some cases, but-

James Sexton:
And it shapes you.

Andrew Huberman:
Yeah.

James Sexton:
Like it's the-

Andrew Huberman:
And it changes your memory of everything that precedes it.

James Sexton:
The truth is, divorce of the ugly kind is trauma, period. I am involved in a tremendous amount of trauma. Trauma for each of the parties, trauma for their children. It's a tremendous trauma, and it does not have to be. But here's the problem. No one comes into my office and sits down in front of me and says, "I want this to be complicated and expensive and awful. I want it to last a really long time. I want to put your kids through college instead of mine, and I want it to just be miserable. I want it to be a shit show." Everybody who comes in says the same thing. "I want to be fair. I just want to be fair. I want this over with quickly, and I want to be fair." Problem is, their definition of fair and their spouse's definition of fair are completely different. Completely different. And what they think they owe each other is completely different. And now, you've both got guns on each other. You both hired lawyers. And I've argued both sides of every single issue you could argue in a divorce. I have argued both sides, probably in front of the same judges. I've had days where, in front of the same judge, I argue complete opposite positions on different cases. Because that's the nature of our job, right? And a weapon in the hands of a virtuous person protects, and a weapon in the hands of the villain causes tremendous harm, but the weapon is neutral. And I'm the weapon. And there's plenty of me out there, and we get paid by the hour, and we get paid whether we win or lose, by the way. Personal injury lawyers, everything is no fee unless we recover for you. Not divorce lawyers.

Andrew Huberman:
Yeah, your 56% statistic reminded me of marines. Sometimes you'll see them with the tattoo, "Killing is my business."

James Sexton:
Yeah.

Andrew Huberman:
And on the other arm, it's "And business is good."

James Sexton:
"Business is good."

Andrew Huberman:
You're going to say divorce is at 56%?

James Sexton:
Yeah.

Andrew Huberman:
And business is good.

James Sexton:
Business is good. Business is really good. And the truth is, I don't need to make it rain just because I sell umbrellas. I'm not at a bar saying to people like, "Hey, man, you could do better than her." I don't need to. People are doing a fine job of fucking their relationships up all by themselves.

Andrew Huberman:
No, you're the love guy.

James Sexton:
Yeah. Oh, well, I happen to be. But even my colleagues, we're not cheering for divorce any more than an oncologist is cheering for cancer. And when people say to me, "Oh, this guy, he makes his living in people's ruined lives and heartbreak," it's like, "Oh, okay." My mom had cancer. I didn't look at the oncologist and go, "Well, I bet you feel good about yourselves making money on my mom's cancer." No, I understand. They're there because this exists. And they're there to try to do what they can to help. And by the way, there are so many people that divorce the way that you described your friend's divorce and the way that I described mine. You just don't hear about it. You know why? It's the least interesting thing. Do you think that's interesting? If you invited me to a party and somebody said, "Oh, what do you do for a living?" And I said, "I'm a divorce lawyer." And they said, "Oh my God, you must have some stories." And I went, "Oh my God, I've got this one." So there's this couple, and they fell in love with each other, and they were quite young when it happened. And then gradually, they just wanted different things. They matured into different people, and they sort of lost the plot of what they were together, and the Venn diagram of their overlapping interests and joys kind of got smaller and smaller. So they decided amicably that they should end the relationship, but they wanted to continue to co-parent really well.

Andrew Huberman:
Oh.

James Sexton:
Dude, you'd be like, "That is the worst story." Whereas if I go like, "And then he took a chainsaw, and he cut the car in half, and he was like, 'Pick which half you want, bitch,'" that's one that you're going to be like, "Oh my God, Jim, you got to tell the story to this guy." You want to hear that story. It's so much more interesting. And by the way, people who have an ugly divorce, it's so traumatic that it becomes part of who they are. It becomes a lens that they see the whole world through. It damages their trust so much, and they're so wounded by it.

Andrew Huberman:
And it's the fight. I mean, often they-

James Sexton:
Yeah, and they almost don't know what to do with themselves when it's over.

Andrew Huberman:
And the impact on the kids and the pets.

James Sexton:
Yeah.

Andrew Huberman:
Yeah.

James Sexton:
And by the way, most human beings, you and I both know When they tell you the story of their life, they're the hero of the story.

Andrew Huberman:
Or the victim.

James Sexton:
Or the victim, right? One of the things I like about our friendship is that you and I are very aware of our own flaws and cognitive biases. And so when we talk to each other, all of the people I like best are people that like reality, and that see themselves with a certain level of reality. And so I don't have to be afraid to talk to them candidly and blunt. And I think that in marriage and in divorce, if you tell the story and you're like, "Yeah, I could've done better. I really screwed that up, but I did get this right, and she's being unfair when it comes to this." When you tell the story and you're not the hero of the story, it's much more credible as far as I'm concerned. I say that as someone who tells stories for a living in a courtroom, to try to be as persuasive as possible. I always tell my clients, I'm like, "If you make yourself the hero, and you make the other person the villain, you lose credibility tremendously." Everybody has to be a flawed hero, a villain that has some traits of positive to them. It's a much more believable, real story. That's why little kids' TV shows, there's the villain, and the music gets dark when the villain comes on. Then the hero's all good. But as adults, that's not what we want. We want Breaking Bad. We want anti-heroes. We want complicated heroes. We want villains that we kind of feel a little bad for, like the Joker. We get it.

Andrew Huberman:
Well, because we can relate.

James Sexton:
Right. Because we know that's what we actually are. And by the way, that's what our partners are. So this idea that let's just put a tux on him and a white dress on her, and then everybody's heroes, that's kind of silly. And that's where I think that anger that becomes toxic and definitional to a person, it doesn't have to be that way if early in the discourse about love, we just normalize this idea of you're a human being, I'm a human being, we're flawed, we have hopes, we have fears, we have things we got right, things we get wrong. We're going to change. We're going to change in good and bad ways, if you want to parse it that way. So how do we water the plant? How do we keep this thing healthy and vibrant? How do we check in with each other? You have a job, you have performance reviews, right? You have some system whereby there's feedback about what you're doing right and doing wrong, or there's a bonus structure so that there's skin in the game. Why does it make it less romantic to look at our relationship that way? To say, "Hey, it's important to check in on this stuff. It's important to have routine preventative maintenance on this thing." If you said to me, "Oh, I'm taking my car for an oil change." You'd be like, "What? You don't have faith in your car?" No. "What, you have a cheap car?" No. Of course, preventative maintenance makes sense. It's a whole lot better than waiting for there to be a problem and then trying to fix the problem.

Andrew Huberman:
Well, I think it's this business of egos, right? There's something in the, quote unquote, traditional courtship dance-

James Sexton:
Mm

Andrew Huberman:
... that is about sort of before people are critiquing one another, before people are commenting on the things that aren't working, where it's a false reality, right?

James Sexton:
Mm-hmm.

Andrew Huberman:
That you're only seeing the good, they're only seeing the good. And it feels good.

James Sexton:
Mm-hmm. Well, sure, what wouldn't feel good about only seeing the good?

Andrew Huberman:
Right.

James Sexton:
The previews is the best part of the movie. If you watch the previews and you go, "Oh my God, that preview was good." Haven't you ever seen a preview and gone, "Oh my God, I can't wait to see that movie," and then you see the movie and you're like, "That sucked." The only good scenes were the things that were in the preview, in that two-minute preview.

Andrew Huberman:
Mm-hmm.

James Sexton:
Okay. Well, what do you think courtship is? Courtship's the preview. By the way, and if the preview sucks, the movie's really going to suck.

Andrew Huberman:
Yeah. Relationships are more like "The Deer Hunter" or something.

James Sexton:
Right.

Andrew Huberman:
They're long-

James Sexton:
They're long

Andrew Huberman:
... and they're complicated, and there's-

James Sexton:
And there's moments in it that you kind of go like, "I don't know what the point of this is, but I'm in for the ride, so let's do it," right?

Andrew Huberman:
Yeah. Hats off to anyone that got through "The Deer Hunter." It's a great movie.

James Sexton:
But it's really long.

Andrew Huberman:
But yeah, it takes some time to get through it. Let's talk about movies, and as a serious thing.

James Sexton:
Sure.

Andrew Huberman:
A couple of years ago, I saw you on a podcast and you were talking about the movie, "True Romance."

James Sexton:
Oh, sure.

Andrew Huberman:
Love that movie. Anyone that was a teen or in their 20s in the '90s will remember that movie. Everyone should see that movie who's old enough and mature enough to see it.

James Sexton:
I get so excited when anybody knows that movie.

Andrew Huberman:
It's just such an awesome movie.

James Sexton:
There's so much in it.

Andrew Huberman:
And the cast is amazing.

James Sexton:
Yeah.

Andrew Huberman:
Gary Oldman.

James Sexton:
Gary Oldman, greatest scene in history. Yep.

Andrew Huberman:
Brad Pitt. Michael Rapaport's hilarious in that movie.

James Sexton:
Phenomenal. Brad Pitt is in it. He has a little scene in it.

Andrew Huberman:
I think Quentin Tarantino makes a cameo.

James Sexton:
Quentin Tarantino might make a cameo. He wrote it.

Andrew Huberman:
He makes a cameo.

James Sexton:
Mm-hmm.

Andrew Huberman:
Anyway, incredible movie. And Patricia Arquette, who's just awesome.

James Sexton:
And Christian Slater at his coolest.

Andrew Huberman:
Yeah. Very cool movie. And you made the excellent point, which doesn't give away the plot, so no spoiler alert necessary, which is that the essence of the movie is really about someone seeing something or a collection of things in somebody and just thinking that they're awesome.

James Sexton:
Yeah.

Andrew Huberman:
I don't want to give away any more than that.

James Sexton:
Yeah.

Andrew Huberman:
And just that kind of appreciation for quirkiness and uniqueness.

James Sexton:
Yeah. The two protagonists of the film, without giving anything away, are deeply flawed.

Andrew Huberman:
Mm-hmm.

James Sexton:
They're deeply flawed.

Andrew Huberman:
Yeah.

James Sexton:
By any traditional definition-

Andrew Huberman:
Yeah

James Sexton:
... they are not something that you would go, "Oh, this is the perfect romantic partner." It's actually quite the opposite.

Andrew Huberman:
Yeah, their histories alone are reason to walk away.

James Sexton:
Right. On paper, there's a lot of reasons to just walk away from this person. And they meet, and there is this instant true romance. There is this sense of, I see you for what you actually are, and all that negative stuff on paper, that means nothing because that's not who you are. I see who you are, and I'm cheering for you. And you are so cool. That's the reality.

Andrew Huberman:
Mm-hmm.

James Sexton:
And that to me, movie still stands up for that reason, because it's this sense of being seen With all your warts and all, and just being, "I see you and you see me, and it's you and me. It's you and me. Let's do this. Let's hold hands and walk this thing together, and it's a game you cannot win, and we're going to play it to the utmost. Let's just play this thing through." And, it doesn't get better than that.

Andrew Huberman:
Yeah, you nailed it. You nailed the description. I feel that in contrast to how you described, I think very aptly, social media as an advertisement of a life to aspire to, even if it's not possible to have. I felt for a long while that movies and television and books and music were advertisements for exactly what you just described.

James Sexton:
Mm-hmm.

Andrew Huberman:
The uniqueness and the quirkiness of relationships that are not typical. There's nothing generic about them-

James Sexton:
Mm-hmm

Andrew Huberman:
... even if the decision to... The bond, the legal bond, the marriage. Marriage is marriage is marriage is marriage. There are some subtleties depending on state and conditions-

James Sexton:
Yeah

Andrew Huberman:
... but each one of those is unique.

James Sexton:
Mm-hmm.

Andrew Huberman:
The right people found one another.

James Sexton:
Mm-hmm.

Andrew Huberman:
So, there's something really quite beautiful and special about that picture, right? True romance, right?

James Sexton:
Yeah.

Andrew Huberman:
As seeing the quirkiness, the everyday things, and-

James Sexton:
Yeah

Andrew Huberman:
... as you said, a teammate perspective.

James Sexton:
Yeah.

Andrew Huberman:
Right? One plus one equals three.

James Sexton:
There's tremendous value to that.

Andrew Huberman:
Yeah. Tremendous value. That's in very stark contrast to what I think many people experience now, where they have their relationship, but then they also have visual and movie access to all these other relationships in the form of social media.

James Sexton:
Yeah.

Andrew Huberman:
They're always being presented with other options of at least how things exist for other people.

James Sexton:
Yeah.

Andrew Huberman:
And so I believe, again, the biologist in me, thinks this sets a kind of a yearning for something that one doesn't have.

James Sexton:
Yeah.

Andrew Huberman:
Because ultimately, all the good stuff we've talked about, whether or not it's dogs or a person-

James Sexton:
Yeah

Andrew Huberman:
... or the pizza story, the creamer story-

James Sexton:
Yeah

Andrew Huberman:
... whatever, is about basking in the completeness of what one already has-

James Sexton:
Yeah

Andrew Huberman:
... as opposed to needing more or wanting more. So would you say that social media, I teach on social media, you're on social media-

James Sexton:
Yeah

Andrew Huberman:
... but let's be honest, that it in some way may be poisonous to things like-

James Sexton:
100%

Andrew Huberman:
... appreciation, fidelity.

James Sexton:
Of course.

Andrew Huberman:
Not just because you can meet people there, but because-

James Sexton:
No

Andrew Huberman:
... of the yearning that it creates.

James Sexton:
Look, while you were saying that, all I could reflect on was a prior conversation you had on a podcast about pornography and the effect that it has on us and our perception of sex, our dopamine, all these other things.

Andrew Huberman:
Yeah, because young guys are writing to me about this all the time.

James Sexton:
Rom-coms are porn.

Andrew Huberman:
Mm-hmm.

James Sexton:
That's all rom-- Listen, I'm not saying that there's not a purpose in having an ideal, a romanticized ideal, but most romantic comedies are not true romance, a story about two flawed characters who find... Most rom-coms are like an ideal. They're a romanticized ideal, that, by the way, ends before reality can kick in. So if you think Jack, I forget what Kate Winslet's character was on "Titanic," but if you think he'd lived at the end of "Titanic," that a few years later she wouldn't be like, "All right, enough painting the French girls. You got to get a job, buddy." You're telling me... Most of these movies, these rom-coms, they end at the high, "I love you, I've always loved you." "I love you, too," and then it ends. They don't ever have to live together. You don't have to ever see the actual reality of them at Trader Joe's waiting on the line, arguing over what to...

Andrew Huberman:
He doesn't find someone else.

James Sexton:
He doesn't find somebody else. He's not sitting on the couch scrolling when she's trying to talk to him.

Andrew Huberman:
Well, in this video, so she would've expired the age limit.

James Sexton:
Right, absolutely. It's like Menudo. You turn 20-

Andrew Huberman:
I'm going to get in trouble for that one

James Sexton:
... you're out. Sorry. Yeah.

Andrew Huberman:
I'm going to get in trouble for that one.

James Sexton:
Well, I think it's not public knowledge. So I think at the end of the day, what's really core here is, look, I'm not saying let's get rid of pornography. I have two sons. They're adults now. But when they were young, they got to a certain age, they had phones, they had iPads, we had the internet, and I was like, "They're going to encounter pornography because it's coming at them in a way that it did not come at me when I was that age." When I was that age, you had to trade a bunch of things. You had to get someone's dad's porn magazine for a day so that you could look at it. You couldn't just log on to any device and be inundated with any kind of kink you wanted to see.

Andrew Huberman:
Yeah, it's inconceivable.

James Sexton:
It's not even fathomable. And I don't know what effect, you know better than I do, and you've spoken eloquently about it, about the effect that has on the organism. But here's what I will tell you. It definitely creates in people a perce... If your sex education is pornography, you're going to have a really hard time navigating an actual sexual relationship. And by the way, I've seen pornography, and I've had sex. Sex is not like it is in pornography, but it's great. It's still so fun. It's the most fun thing. So I don't know why anybody would, "Oh, we got to make it better." Sex is great. It's great. Sex sells sex. You don't need to put all that on it. I understand why. Yes, of course. It's just like what they do to french fries at a fast food restaurant. They figure out ways to make them more addictive. I get it. But same thing with rom-coms. Rom-coms is an idealized, stylized version of the best part of all of it. Just like porn. So, if you make your relationship, your sexual relationship, based on pornography or what looks good in movies, you're setting yourself up for heartbreak. So, same thing with rom-coms. Same thing with the, "I've met my soulmate, and that's my soulmate," and then where it's perfect, and it stays perfect, and if it's not perfect, then they mustn't have been my soulmate. All that is is pornography. All that is is taking the dream life, the stylized perfect parts, showing just that, and then convincing people that's what it's supposed to look like, and if it doesn't look like that, you're not having a satisfying time. The reality is that people are flawed, but we want the same thing. I don't believe that the path of like, I'm going to own 50... You and I both know men who own every car you could ever want and could sleep with any number of gorgeous women three, four at a time if they want to, and they're unhappy. They're desperately unhappy. I represent people who have a net worth of you and I combined times 100, and they're miserable because they don't have love. They don't have this basic connection with another person. They don't have the sense of who they are as an object of someone's love and the worth that comes with it, which by the way, is foundational. Look at a baby. Look at a baby and look at how they look at their mother. Mom is the name of God on the lips of children. There's something about like, "This thing loves me and wants what's best for me." We come out half-formed, and there's this person that just loves us, right? And so, of course, we're always looking to find that again, that kind of love and that kind of connection. And there are people that find it, but the way they find it is not through fairy tales. It's not through the romanticized version of pornography. It's through realism.

Andrew Huberman:
I think one of the reasons why I hear from so many young men about their challenges with pornography, which tells me that they've defaulted to pornography or that there are elements of it that have gotten them, quote-unquote, "addicted" or at least-

James Sexton:
Yeah

Andrew Huberman:
... a compulsive way with it. And I also frankly hear from a lot of women that are frustrated with men dating apps and this kind of thing-

James Sexton:
Yeah

Andrew Huberman:
... is that people are very afraid, I think, in large part because of what you're describing with social media and other forms of media, but also just by virtue of the way that everything is shared-

James Sexton:
Yeah

Andrew Huberman:
... so much now that people are afraid to reveal any kind of flaws or authenticity-

James Sexton:
Oh, yeah

Andrew Huberman:
... in themselves, unless it's the kind that they can leverage to make themselves seem more attractive or something.

James Sexton:
Yeah.

Andrew Huberman:
Because if they go out on a date or, let's say they share a first kiss or something, that if they're not a great kisser, that-

James Sexton:
Yeah

Andrew Huberman:
... she's going to tell all her friends or worse, put it on an app or something-

James Sexton:
Yeah

Andrew Huberman:
... where his name is named.

James Sexton:
Yeah.

Andrew Huberman:
Or he's going to sleep with her and-

James Sexton:
Yeah

Andrew Huberman:
... and then might even share photos of it with people covertly.

James Sexton:
Yeah.

Andrew Huberman:
Things that are-

James Sexton:
And that's real

Andrew Huberman:
... illegal/just breaches of trust.

James Sexton:
Mm-hmm.

Andrew Huberman:
The contract of trust that is purely, I don't know, for lack of a better word, is kind of a spiritual contract where you say-

James Sexton:
Yeah

Andrew Huberman:
... "Hey, listen. I don't know if this is going to work. You don't know if this is going to work."

James Sexton:
Yeah.

Andrew Huberman:
I'm willing to wager in a healthy way some of my own safety by revealing some things that aren't super great about myself.

James Sexton:
Yeah.

Andrew Huberman:
And maybe you'll do the same or maybe you won't, and I'll just feel okay just with the way it lands.

James Sexton:
Yeah.

Andrew Huberman:
That seems more rare nowadays.

James Sexton:
Sure. Because it's brave. It's brave. I grew up, I wanted to be brave. I aspired to being brave. My heroes growing up were from Last of the Mohicans, right? Le Long Carabine. They were samurai, in the films, like the Miyamoto Musashi films, all those kinds of films. And so if you're not scared, it's not brave. It's only brave if you're scared and you do it anyway. That's the thing that makes it brave. And that's the thing we're not teaching young men anymore, is it's like, yeah, it's scary. It's so much easier to just be like, "Yeah, women don't mean anything. Women, they're disposable. They're like iPhones. I'll get a new one. It'll have different features. It'll be great." You think Andrew Tate's brave? Andrew Tate's brave because he fights Muay Thai. That's brave. That's brave. Even ground with another man, bare hands, let's do this thing. Yeah, that's brave. But having a bunch of women and sort of not committing to any of them, not having being vulnerable to any of them, what's brave about it? There's nothing brave about that. What's brave is, I'm going to give you the ammo to hurt me. I'm going to give you the ability to hurt me. And I'm going to do it anyway. And I'm scared, but I'm going to do it anyway. And that's what makes it brave. And I think that that's the thing we've just lost in this culture. And that's where I think it's so backwards. That we go, well, a prenup's antithetical, it goes to the opposite direction. Because a prenup is you're saying, "Well, I don't believe in this thing. It only works if you..." That's insane. That's insane to say that if you take any precautions at all or give anything, or by the way, more accurately, that if you don't trust it to the legislature of your state, that you're not being brave. That's insane. It's brave to merge your destiny with that of another person. It's brave to let someone see what you're afraid of, what you hope for, and aspire to. Those are all, divorce is intimacy weaponized. And I say it as someone who's been in the room with thousands of people going through it, and I mean the pain and terror of this person who in hushed tones you whispered to them all the things you're most afraid of when you trusted them more than anyone, and now they're going to use that against you in a public forum, in a courtroom. My God, man. Thank God I have no idea what that feels like to have done to me. It must be horrible. But again, is it worth it to try? Is it worth it? Yes, but I think having conversations from the beginning about, listen We've got to figure out, is this the kind of person who's going to hurt? If you're mad at me, if I tell you something you don't want to hear, are you going to throw at me these intimate things I shared with you? Because if you are, pull the rip cord now and get out. Get out. I've had guys come to me, successful people come to me and say, "Yeah, I told her I want a prenup," and she was like, "Well, if we have a prenup, I'm leaving. That's it." I'm like, "Okay. Then let her leave, man." Because if you're saying, "I love you. I love you more than anyone in the world, and I'll love you forever." "Great. Could we sign this contract?" "Absolutely not." "But then that's it. I don't even want to see you again." Wow, that changed fast. Because a minute ago, you loved me more than anything in the world, and you would never let me go under any circumstances, and you'd never hurt me. And now I just told you that there's a financial concern I have about letting the legislature make decisions about our future, and you've now decided you don't even like me anymore, and we're out? That's a hell of a jump.

Andrew Huberman:
Yeah, good data there.

James Sexton:
Yeah. But how do you reconcile that? If they say, "Wow, why do you want that? Do you not have faith in our relationship?" Now let's have a conversation. No, of course I have faith in our relationship. Why would I want to marry you otherwise? And what is it you're afraid of? Are you afraid that the contract will be lopsided? Because here's the thing, I want it to not be. I want to know what you're-- I was having a conversation with the trusted prenup guys, and we were talking about marketing prenups. How do you market prenups to people? And they were saying, yeah, when you talk about it deepens the relationship and connection. Okay, that's a very feminine aspiration. That's a good way to sell prenups to women, is to say the conversations are going to deepen the connection, and there's going to be this sense of, hey, we're talking about what we expect of each other, what we're afraid of. And I was saying, well, for me, I think a great entry point for men in heterosexual relationships is to say, hey, you want your woman to feel safe. She's with you, she's safe. Her heart is safe, her body is safe. You're going to keep her safe.

Andrew Huberman:
Yeah, provider, protector.

James Sexton:
Yeah, provider, protector. So one of the best things about being a man is the feeling of, I love that. You don't test that theory? Say to any man, "I can't open this jar." "Okay, give me that. Look at that. Here you go." We're thrilled for that opportunity. We all want to provide and protect. So, okay, why do we not turn the conversation about prenups into how can she feel loved if she doesn't feel safe? So, okay, in that situation where he has more resources than her, and she says, "I'd like to be a mom someday," or, "There's a good chance I'd be a mom someday." So if I'm going to be the primary caretaker of our children and your career is going to stay your focus so you can provide, then you're going to get way ahead of me in the race in terms of economics. So we need to figure out how we would deal with that imbalance. Who would say that's not a fair conversation? Who would say... Now look, if you bring it up when we've decided we hate each other and the relationship is over and I've been sleeping with my secretary, okay. Yeah. Now I get why you don't want to have a fair conversation about that. But at the beginning, when we're still abundance of optimism, we're still feeling positive about this, would any man say, "Well, you're being greedy. You're being a gold digger."

Andrew Huberman:
No.

James Sexton:
No. You'd say, "Hey, listen, of course, you're going to make certain sacrifices and focus on certain things," and I rarely have ever met a couple, a happy couple, that they go, "We brought the exact same things to the relationship. She's a great provider, and I'm a great provider."

Andrew Huberman:
No, complementarity is what it's about.

James Sexton:
Of course. And so say that out loud to each other. Maybe you don't want to announce it to everybody and put it on your social media, but you can talk to each other privately about, hey, what do we owe each other? What do we expect of each other? If we split up, what should it look like? What would you need? What would I need? And you can talk about that in very practical ways, and I think that's actually quite romantic. Because what you're saying is, "I want you to feel safe. I want you to feel safe," because I'll tell you, for me, even just selfishly, I don't want you here because you don't know what you're going to do economically if we split up. That's not a good reason to stay with me. I want you to want me next to you because you like me. You like having me around. Your life is better for my presence in it on a day-to-day basis. Not that, well, who's going to pay my rent? You know what? I'll pay your rent. You can have your rent paid. Are you still here? Because if somebody said to me the other day, "If somebody gave you $100 million, would you still do your job? Would you still be a lawyer?" And I was like, "Absolutely." Would I do it at the level I'm doing it currently? Would I be as stressed about it as I currently am? Probably not. But I would still do the job because I love the job. And the answer is, if you had $100 million tomorrow, would you still do the podcast?

Andrew Huberman:
Absolutely.

James Sexton:
If the answer is no, stop.

Andrew Huberman:
I've said this before. It's still true. I check in with myself now and again. If you offered me a billion dollars-

James Sexton:
Right

Andrew Huberman:
... to quit the podcast, no effing way.

James Sexton:
Okay.

Andrew Huberman:
No, I just love it. I love my team. I love learning. I love teaching.

James Sexton:
Right.

Andrew Huberman:
End of story.

James Sexton:
Right. And by the way, let's take that further. You get tremendous value out of it, and the people who are participating in it, audience, and the co-producers of it, all get something out of it, too. This is a totally wonderful economy. Everyone's getting something. Advertisers getting something out of it. Everyone's getting something out of it. It's like win-win-win for everybody involved. Okay, so in the relationship between a man and a woman, or a man and a man, and a woman and a woman, because of marriage equality, in a romantic relationship, in a marriage, if you said to your partner, "I'll give you $10 million to give up this person," if the answer is, "See ya," then that's not the person to be with.

Andrew Huberman:
Definitely not.

James Sexton:
Okay. So I would rather have that conversation early on. If you want to talk about barriers to exit... By the way, you can put anything you want in a prenup. So you could put in financial terms in a prenup that will give this person a financial windfall. I had a client who was a young man in his 30s. He was at Goldman, I can say that. And he was worth $30, $40 million at the age of 30. So he was in the beginning of his career. He was going to do well in life.

Andrew Huberman:
It's a lot of money.

James Sexton:
And he was marrying a yoga teacher who made no money at all. Stunningly beautiful, funny, brilliant, just insightful, spiritual. He was very quant, very analytical, and she just lightened him up and was adventurous and fun. It was very barefoot in the park. It was very like, he kind of reeled her in a little, and she pulled him out of his comfort zone, and it was a really nice coupling. And they did this prenup. And of course, they both lawyered up with good lawyers. So he hired me, and she hired a colleague of mine at a great firm in the city who I have a lot of cases with. And, the lawyers went at our thing. And so I put in a waiver of any alimony, spousal support, and the other side came back and said, "No, no. If they're married this many years, it's this percent, and if it's this many years, it's that percent." So I go to my client, because this is kind of a negotiation, but it's with a person who he's then going home to every night because they're cohabitating already. And I say to him, "Listen, they want this structure and this amount for it." And he goes, "Yeah, just put $5 million." I was like, "I'm sorry. Wait, what?" And he goes, "Yeah, if we get divorced, she gets $5 million." I was like, "Wait, if you get divorced in a month because she's sleeping with her tennis instructor, she gets $5 million?" And he's like, "Yeah, you know what? If we get divorced, I got bigger problems. If she's staying, I'll know she likes me more than $5 million, so that's good."

Andrew Huberman:
Good for him.

James Sexton:
And I thought, you know what? That is gangster in a good way. I loved that. And they're still married. And that was probably 10 years ago. And they've got a couple kids now. And in that moment, I remember thinking, "Yeah, they're going to be fine, probably, these two."

Andrew Huberman:
Yeah. It never hurts, and it often helps to be generous.

James Sexton:
Yeah.

Andrew Huberman:
Sometimes generosity, people will look back on their generosity and... Actually, no. I can't think of a single instance where I was maybe even pushed myself to be a bit more generous than-

James Sexton:
Yeah

Andrew Huberman:
... my impulse at the time would've had me be-

James Sexton:
Yeah

Andrew Huberman:
... and didn't think in retrospect that was the right thing to do.

James Sexton:
Yeah.

Andrew Huberman:
I haven't dealt with circumstances of, A, having that much money, or B-

James Sexton:
Yeah

Andrew Huberman:
... doing a prenup. But-

James Sexton:
Well, if you have that much money, it doesn't really mean anything anymore. I have a couple of billionaire clients. One of my clients is worth $8 billion. It's like Stalin said, "The death of one is a tragedy. The death of a million is a statistic."

Andrew Huberman:
Oof.

James Sexton:
I think if I said to you, "Andrew, great news. You've won $150 million. I'm sorry, $130 million," you wouldn't go, "Ah, shit."

Andrew Huberman:
Right. Yeah.

James Sexton:
The numbers on a page are numbers on a page at some point.

Andrew Huberman:
It starts to feel like a drop in the ocean.

James Sexton:
You couldn't possibly spend that amount of money.

Andrew Huberman:
Right.

James Sexton:
The amount of money that money makes on an annual basis just in interest alone is insane. So-

Andrew Huberman:
Yeah. Well, the joy in being generous is the opportunity, at least in this instance or something parallel to it, is the opportunity to do something that, for someone else, would be quite meaningful-

James Sexton:
Yeah

Andrew Huberman:
... and for you, just feels good to do.

James Sexton:
Yeah.

Andrew Huberman:
One would hope that he didn't say give her $5 million because $5 million didn't feel like anything. If he's got $30 million-

James Sexton:
No, I think he felt-

Andrew Huberman:
Yeah.

James Sexton:
He felt that was not his reason.

Andrew Huberman:
$5 million is $5 million.

James Sexton:
This is not a man who did not take money seriously.

Andrew Huberman:
No.

James Sexton:
He made his bones in it. But I think what he was saying is, well, there's no way that $5 million isn't enough for her to be okay.

Andrew Huberman:
Mm-hmm.

James Sexton:
And I want her to be okay. I want her to be safe. I want her to feel-

Andrew Huberman:
It was an act of care.

James Sexton:
Right. And he was saying, because look, when you marry someone the right way, or even cohabitate with someone, or even get in a relationship with someone, you're kind of handing them a dagger and saying, "Okay. Here you go. If you want to, it's yours. If you want to stab me with that, here it is. Here's my soft spots. I'm going to show you where they all are, and I'm giving you that." And again, I think that's the bravest thing in the world, and I think it's the coolest thing in the world.

Andrew Huberman:
Oh, man. I've done it a number of times. Sometimes it ends well, sometimes it doesn't end well.

James Sexton:
Yeah.

Andrew Huberman:
But I'll tell you-

James Sexton:
And by the way, with enough time, both of those, there's something really beautiful about them.

Andrew Huberman:
I've been reflecting on this a lot lately, and I don't want to pivot it to my unique circumstances, but since I was, probably since I was an embryo, but since I was old enough to remember, I'm interested and on the adventure of life.

James Sexton:
Yeah.

Andrew Huberman:
And trying to get through those-

James Sexton:
Well, and you're a romantic at heart.

Andrew Huberman:
Yeah.

James Sexton:
That's a function of our... Our friendship is born of the fact that I think you're a romantic at heart, and I think the people who have had their ass kicked by love and still go, "Yeah, I'm going to do it again. Let's do it."

Andrew Huberman:
Yeah. Put me back in.

James Sexton:
I love that.

Andrew Huberman:
Yeah, put me back in.

James Sexton:
I love that.

Andrew Huberman:
Absolutely.

James Sexton:
And by the way, that's the statistic that everybody forgets, which is 56% of marriages end in divorce, and 85% of people who get divorced are remarried within five years.

Andrew Huberman:
That's an incredible statistic. And-

James Sexton:
It's an incredible statistic. And usually I do their prenup. I tell all of my clients, by the way, that if I did your litigated divorce, I will do any prenup for you for any subsequent marriage for free. And I've only had three clients take me up on it.

Andrew Huberman:
So people are braver than one might think.

James Sexton:
I think so. Look, I think discretion is the better part of all valor. So I think I'm a fan of bravery, but I'm also a pragmatic human being, and I think there is value in saying, "Okay. Let's dive into this thing. Let's do it brave." But see, again, I think bravery on the front end, which is bravely having a conversation about What does this look like if we hurt each other? What if we end up like the majority of people? What do we do? What do we do? And there's value in that conversation. Come on. Any heterosexual man is going to tell you they've been in a conversation with the woman in their life where she goes, "If I was missing a leg, would you still love me?" And you're like, "What? Where did that come from?" Because what's the person saying? They're saying, "Hey, if I wasn't exactly who I am, what parts of me would you have to lose for you to not love me anymore?" I understand that question for what it is. To some degree, it's a thought exercise, it's anecdotal, it's funny. And my response to it is always, "A whole leg? Forget it. You break a nail, I'm out."

Andrew Huberman:
You know my response?

James Sexton:
Yeah.

Andrew Huberman:
I'd love you more.

James Sexton:
Yeah.

Andrew Huberman:
And then they go, "Wait, what are you into?"

James Sexton:
Yeah. You'd be like, "Well, we play hopscotch. I don't know."

Andrew Huberman:
No. I think the question is such a beautiful one because-

James Sexton:
Yeah

Andrew Huberman:
... it's a question of vulnerability, right?

James Sexton:
Yeah.

Andrew Huberman:
It's saying, "If I were..." Because generally, people aren't asking, "Hey, if I gained 50 pounds-

James Sexton:
Yeah

Andrew Huberman:
... would you still love me?"

James Sexton:
Yeah.

Andrew Huberman:
A missing leg is more dramatic.

James Sexton:
Mm-hmm.

Andrew Huberman:
But at the same time, it preserves certain things while it-

James Sexton:
Mm-hmm

Andrew Huberman:
... removes a certain thing.

James Sexton:
Yeah.

Andrew Huberman:
It's very well-defined.

James Sexton:
But I also think that there's another way to look at it. So I grew up watching "L.A. Law." I think it's part of the reason why I became a lawyer is I loved that show. I've tried watching it recently. It's up on one of those streaming services, and it didn't age well. But I grew up watching-

Andrew Huberman:
Because of a lack of political correctness by today's standards?

James Sexton:
Yeah. And also, some of the plots, there's gender stuff in there that you're like, "Oh my God." And it's also, as a lawyer, it's very hard as a lawyer to watch lawyer shows because you're like, "That would never happen. Objection, leading." You find yourself going like, "This is not-"

Andrew Huberman:
None of my friends that were in Special Operations can watch a movie that-

James Sexton:
Yeah, exactly

Andrew Huberman:
... they just can't.

James Sexton:
It's just you can't.

Andrew Huberman:
It's too painful.

James Sexton:
It's physically painful to do it.

Andrew Huberman:
Too painful.

James Sexton:
But I grew up watching it, and I wanted to be, Jimmy Smits played this really cool criminal defense attorney called Victor Sifuentes, and he had an earring, and I was like, "I'm going to be him." Instead, I ended up becoming Arnie Becker, which was the divorce lawyer on the show that Corbin Bernsen played him. And I'd never imagined that's who I would grow up to be. But it definitely created in me this love of the law. But there was a character on the show named Benny, and he was developmentally disabled, and he worked in the copy room. And he has a crush on this secretary. And she says something to him about, "Well, I'm trying..." She's eating a salad, and he says, "Why are you eating that for lunch? That doesn't look very good." And she says, "Well, I want to be skinnier." And he says, "Why do you want to be skinnier?" And she says, "Well, because if I lost 20 pounds, I'd be prettier." And he says, "No, you'd just be smaller." And there's a simplicity to that that's completely honest. Like, "No, there'd just be less of you." When someone says, "If I gained 50 pounds, would you still love me?" I hear that as both, A, a thought experiment, B, you're looking for me to reassure you how much I love you. But also what you're saying is if something changed, what about me can change and what about me can't? What would be the things about me that could change? Because, by the way, sometimes things change totally beyond our control. The tumor is what made you gain weight. It wasn't that you liked Big Macs. So if you gained weight because you were irresponsible in your eating habits versus you gained weight because of the tumor, these are two very different circumstances. But if what the person is saying is, "What do you love about me? And what about me could change, and I would lose your love potentially?" Again, what is that conversation but the prenup conversation? It's what do we mean to each other? What do we owe to each other? Where do we store value in this relationship? And when it changes, not if, when it changes, what changes can we communicate? How can we communicate about what those changes feel like? Because here's the thing, if we're having less sex 10 years into the relationship, I don't think that's abnormal. When you're first dating, the amount of sex you're having and the amount of sex you're having 10 years later with two kids is probably going to be different and probably less. Does that mean something's wrong in your relationship? Not necessarily. You're also aging. That might change. Your testosterone levels change. Maybe her body changes when you had kids. Who knows? By the way, if you're having more sex, does it mean your relationship's healthy? Not necessarily. Right? So the question becomes is when things change, how will we check in about it? Because I don't think, let's just pretend everything's exactly the same and it's fine. It's fine. It's fine. I don't think that's the answer. I think that's what gets us a 56% divorce rate.

Andrew Huberman:
I've heard it said that men marry women thinking that they're not going to change. Women marry men thinking they will change.

James Sexton:
I think that's true.

Andrew Huberman:
And therein lies the challenge.

James Sexton:
I think there's something-

Andrew Huberman:
It's just a saying, but-

James Sexton:
Yeah. There's a lot of good axioms. The one I've heard before that I think is similar is that women marry the man they want to spend the rest of their life with, and men marry the woman they don't want to imagine the rest of their life without.

Andrew Huberman:
That's a more romantic version of it.

James Sexton:
Women are parsing it in the imagined future-

Andrew Huberman:
Mm-hmm

James Sexton:
... with this person, and men are thinking about the imagined future loss. I've spent a lot of time in the room with people who have recently been caught or caught their spouse cheating. And the most common question the man wants to know is, "Did you fuck him?" And the most common question the women want to know is, "Do you love her?" And that says something about value for those two people. Because for the man, it's like the, "Did you betray me physically," right? And for the woman, it's like, "Do I have no value to you anymore? Do you not love me? Do you want this person more than you want me?" It's more about the value than the sex necessarily, right?

Andrew Huberman:
Mm-hmm.

James Sexton:
And again, I'm not saying all men, I'm not saying all women, but I think there is a sense in men, a lot of the men, I say this even in my personal relationships with male friends, that they're like, yeah, once they find someone that they're like, "Yeah, I just can't imagine her not being here." And they marry because they're like, "I got to marry her or else I'm going to lose her." I never met a guy who was like, "I can't wait for my wedding day, and I've imagined my tux, and I just can't wait." It's just not something men-- I don't know a lot of men that could dreaming of their wedding day. Whereas I know a lot of women, again, some of that's cultural, that we've been shoving weddings down women's throats, and you get to be a princess for a day and wear the dress, and everyone's paying attention to you because the bride's the star of the show. I get it. But there is also something about the idea that most of the men I know, they're like, "Yeah, we got married because that's what you do. You make an honest woman of her. Her parents would've killed me if we didn't get married. Her friends were all getting married," so it's like, all of her friends, she's been a bridesmaid eight times. It's like, it's about time. Whereas women very often it's like, where is this going? Where is this going? Are we moving it? And again, there's probably a myriad of reasons, evolutionary, biological, having to do with procreation. There's lots of cultural, religious, there's all kinds of... But at the end, we are where we are in that equation. And I think marriage is something most men are like, "Okay, if that's the price, if I got to buy that ticket to take the ride, I like the ride. I don't want to lose the ride. I don't want to lose this person."

Andrew Huberman:
Oh, man. I'm not necessarily agreeing with you, but I can just hear the-

James Sexton:
Oh, yeah

Andrew Huberman:
... the voices in people's heads about the, really, it's that passive for men? It sounds almost like a passive response, like, yeah, I guess there's really no other path here, right?

James Sexton:
Let me tell you something. People lie to their therapist. They don't lie to their divorce lawyer. I have had 25 years of conversations with men who are ending a marriage, or starting a marriage and getting a prenup, or thinking about getting a prenup, but they're too afraid to say anything to her about it. I've had those same things with women. I've represented roughly half, half men, half women. And I'm telling you, you don't have to like the truth. The truth is the truth.

Andrew Huberman:
Mm-hmm.

James Sexton:
You don't have to like-- I get it, man. Don't shoot the messenger. That's how it is. And every time I speak about these things, because they're so tied in with gender stuff, and they're so-- I know I'm putting a huge target, and everyone's like, "Oh, this guy." I don't care because here's the thing, sit in my office for a week.

Andrew Huberman:
Well, you're an equal opportunity assassin when it comes to these conversations.

James Sexton:
Sure.

Andrew Huberman:
Sure, what you just said kind of puts a target on men in the sense that it makes them sound like, well, they kind of went into it because there really wasn't another trail on the mountain.

James Sexton:
Sure.

Andrew Huberman:
On the other hand, there's something kind of both romantic and actually very honorable about, yeah look, there might be other options, but this is the one I like, and she really wanted this, and I wanted her, and so-

James Sexton:
Right

Andrew Huberman:
... that's the contract.

James Sexton:
Wait, how is that-

Andrew Huberman:
There's something pretty nice to that

James Sexton:
... how is that passive?

Andrew Huberman:
Yeah, right.

James Sexton:
How is that passive? That's love.

Andrew Huberman:
It's love, and it's logical.

James Sexton:
That's the economy of love.

Andrew Huberman:
Yeah.

James Sexton:
What, you like going to antique shows? I don't. But you know what, if she wants to go, if that's something she enjoys-

Andrew Huberman:
Right, exactly

James Sexton:
... you think she enjoys Brazilian jujitsu tournaments? Have you smelled one? Trust me. But you know what? I love it, and she's excited to see me be so excited.

Andrew Huberman:
Have you smelled one? I've never been to one, but I can imagine.

James Sexton:
Oh, trust me, you can smell it from here, it's unbelievable.

Andrew Huberman:
Amazing.

James Sexton:
The funk is like you'd never believe in your whole life. The only other thing is equestrian is maybe the only other habit that could smell as bad as that.

Andrew Huberman:
Horrifying.

James Sexton:
But the truth is, part of love is you want that slice of pizza more than I do.

Andrew Huberman:
Mm-hmm.

James Sexton:
Part of it is like, "Okay, this is important to you."

Andrew Huberman:
Yeah, the pleasure in sacrifice.

James Sexton:
Right. Well, good. Because listen, if it's important to me and it's important to you, am I doing it for you or am I doing it for me? Or both of us?

Andrew Huberman:
Yeah.

James Sexton:
What's beautiful is when you're not sacrificing to give.

Andrew Huberman:
Mm-hmm.

James Sexton:
When there's this feeling of like, if this is important to you, it just became important to me.

Andrew Huberman:
Mm-hmm.

James Sexton:
But that's at the core of any healthy relationship. If you say to me as my friend, "Jim, this upsets me," okay, or, "I'm scared of this." If I go, "Well, I'm not scared of that," like, thanks, that didn't do anything for me.

Andrew Huberman:
Yeah, it sort of ceases to be a friendship at that point.

James Sexton:
Right. When you say to someone like, "Hey, I get that, man. You know what? Honestly, I understand that. I'm not afraid of that, and here's how I think about it, which is why I'm not afraid of it, and I hope that maybe helps." Or just hearing the person and going like, "Yeah, I get that, man. Hey, that's fair. People are afraid of things. Hey, I got some stuff I'm afraid of that you're probably not afraid of. That's okay." So why is it I don't think there's something passive about a man saying, "Yeah, marriage was not that important to me, but it was important to her."

Andrew Huberman:
Mm-hmm.

James Sexton:
"And what's important to her becomes important to me."

Andrew Huberman:
Right.

James Sexton:
"Because she's important to me."

Andrew Huberman:
Mm-hmm.

James Sexton:
That's beautiful.

Andrew Huberman:
Yeah, I didn't want to imply it was passive. I want to be very clear. I think that some people might be surprised to learn that many men, because I agree with you, by the way-

James Sexton:
Yeah

Andrew Huberman:
... will agree to do things not out of the sheer joy and delight of the thing, but the deeper delight of making the person that they care about happy.

James Sexton:
I feel like that's love. That's a big piece of love. And so I think marriage can be one of those things where just look, whether you wanted it or the other person wanted it, there's something wonderful about you're excited about this. Okay, let's do it.

Andrew Huberman:
But get a prenup.

James Sexton:
Of course, get a prenup. Why would you not get a prenup? Listen, man, I love you, and I trust you're a good driver. We get in the car, I'm putting on a seatbelt. Putting on a seatbelt. Why wouldn't I?

Andrew Huberman:
Because there are other drivers out there.

James Sexton:
There's other drivers on the road, you're damn right.

Andrew Huberman:
Oh, man.

James Sexton:
There's other drivers on the road. And by the way, again, This is a situation where there are rules in place, whether you accept it or not. That's the thing about the truth, right? My beliefs don't require you to believe them. You don't have to believe the truth. If it's the truth, it's the truth. There is a rule set governing every single marriage. It was written by the state legislature, period.

Andrew Huberman:
I want to discuss relationships that start earlier in life-

James Sexton:
Mm-hmm

Andrew Huberman:
... versus later in life.

James Sexton:
Mm-hmm.

Andrew Huberman:
When I was an undergraduate, I took a course, several courses, actually, from a professor who was just phenomenal. Learned neuroanatomy from him, developmental neurobiology. Gave me the only B+ after my freshman year. That's not to boast about my other grades, but that's the course that I learned the most from.

James Sexton:
Mm-hmm.

Andrew Huberman:
I still remember the questions I got wrong. I still remember him explaining exactly why I got it wrong, and it was the best learning, right?

James Sexton:
Yeah.

Andrew Huberman:
Yeah. It was amazing. Years later, I went back to visit him, just for social reasons, and he had kids now. He was married, and he had a new baby. And he said to me something. I don't know why he felt compelled to tell me stuff about his personal life and giving me advice, but he did. Because he was known for being a pretty rigid guy.

James Sexton:
Sure.

Andrew Huberman:
Very particular, which is part of what made him such an excellent neuroanatomist.

James Sexton:
Sure.

Andrew Huberman:
And he said to me, "I don't know what your personal life is like, but you should get married as young as possible, within reason." And I said, "Oh, yeah? Why?" And he said, "Because there's this thing that happens when you reach a certain age, that you need to have the toothpaste on the right-hand side of the sink. And when the toothpaste isn't on the right-hand side of the sink, then it irritates you. But if you get married and merge lives with somebody early-

James Sexton:
Yeah, early enough

Andrew Huberman:
... you develop a flexibility, and you go through a lot of developmental milestones with them."

James Sexton:
Yeah.

Andrew Huberman:
And I found it both amusing and-

James Sexton:
Yeah

Andrew Huberman:
... and interesting that he would share that. I know examples of people who merged lives early and are still together.

James Sexton:
Yeah.

Andrew Huberman:
I know some that merged lives early and diverged later.

James Sexton:
Yeah.

Andrew Huberman:
Got divorced.

James Sexton:
Yeah.

Andrew Huberman:
I know people, they get married and have kids later in life. I'm almost 50 in September, so this question isn't about me, but certainly pertains to me in some sense. In your observation of successful versus unsuccessful-

James Sexton:
Yeah

Andrew Huberman:
... marriages, is there a tendency for people who marry younger-

James Sexton:
Yeah

Andrew Huberman:
... to, despite the fact that they, quote-unquote, "might not know themselves as well," et cetera, for those marriages to be more successful because they go through a lot of these life milestones-

James Sexton:
Yeah

Andrew Huberman:
... together? Setting aside here whether the toothpaste is on the right-

James Sexton:
Yeah

Andrew Huberman:
... hand side or the left-hand side of the sink.

James Sexton:
So I've given this a lot of thought because the nature of my constitution is to look at patterns and look for patterns. We're similar in that regard. And so I'm always looking at that. For 25 years, I've been looking at same religion, different religion. Cohabitated before marriage, didn't cohabitate before marriage. Age gap, no age gap. Female age gap, she's older, he's younger, versus the other way. I try to find patterns, the patterns that can't be tracked by the government in a certificate of dissolution of marriage. The patterns that can only be tracked by someone who's observing this, right? And I've really tried to look at that from every angle, including the angle that you just said, which is people that connect in the romantic setting or enter a monogamous relationship, or make a romantic connection, even if it doesn't stay monogamous throughout that whole journey. So they met in high school, dated in high school, and then went off to college, dated other people, and then they reconnect to each other after they've played in the other fields, and then they go, "Okay, now we're going to be together." I've looked at all of that. And what I will tell you is, in my experience, in my observation, what he said is certainly true. But it also ignores the negative, which is also true. So yes, there is a scenario where people meet at a relatively young age, teens, 20s, whatever it might be. They marry, or they become monogamous with each other, and then they eventually marry or stay in a romantic relationship together, and they grow in that tree, that the roots become intertwined, and they build a history together that is just irreplaceable. Because you were there when my mom was still alive. You were there when I got into law school. Not just when I passed the bar, or not just when I built the... You were here for this whole trajectory, and there's this shared history. You have old friends, I have old friends. There's something about someone who was with you when there was just no... I have some friends that it's like, "Dude, there was no reason to be friends with me other than I had nothing to offer you. I had no money. I had no status. I was a C student." And something about you still was like, "Nah, that's my buddy." And I love that. So there is a tremendous beauty in that when it works. There is also that people who have known each other since the beginning, as they grow and age and mature, and they reach the stage in life where they start to, as we can call it, a midlife crisis. Which, by the way, is not reserved for men. Men and women both have a form of that. That they start to say, "Hey, have I really felt everything there is to feel? I've only slept with this person for the last 15 years. There's so many other things out there. There's so many other experiences out there, and I haven't had them." And by the way, there's also mistaking correlation for causation in the sense of saying, "I'm dissatisfied with my life, and you've been here for the whole thing, so it must be you." That I'm unhappy with, as opposed to the choices I've made and where they've led me, or the person who I've become rather than who you-- But it's much easier to point to the other person and say, "Oh, well, you're the reason why I'm so unhappy. I gave you my skinny years. It's over now." And so I think it ignores that. I have not found, and believe me, I'd be the first to say it. If I could find a pattern where I would say, okay, live together or don't live together, or these are ways to prevent divorce is like this is what you should be looking for in a partner, same religious structure, same whatever, you were both raised in households with alcoholics, or neither of you is raised, whatever. I don't see it. I think everything that's virtue can be vice. I think that there's lots of ways that being together from an early age can add depth and beauty to your relationship, and there are ways that it can cause people to not value each other the same way or view each other the same way. I think familiarity can breed contempt.

Andrew Huberman:
Mm.

James Sexton:
And I think that, no man is a hero to his butler. I think that when people have been together through a lot of those things, sometimes there is a familiarity that comes. Whereas, again, I think the opposite is true also, which is having had someone who's in your corner for an extended period of time solidifies and deepens that relationship. There is no simple answer to that. I think there are a lot of things people can do in the relationship to heighten the bonds created by a long-shared history and keep everyone's eye on that ball than to have them distracted by novelty. I also think realism becomes really important, looking at it and saying if you've been with the same partner for 15, 20 years, that the fact your eye might wander to a shiny object, not being afraid to admit that and figure out ways to like, hey, I feel this. No, that's a human way to feel. That's okay. How do we deal with that? What do we do with that? Is it an ethical non-monogamy, which is what a lot of younger, I don't want to say younger, but a modern generation is certainly there are people coming up with different permutations of relationships, where there's ethical non-monogamy, where there's a sense of, okay, we're going to have certain open things in our relationship. A lot of my gay male friends have been doing that for years. Because, again, a culture that has been ostracized and told that what you're doing is an aberration, which is what it was when I was growing up. The gay community had to hide to some degree because you could be literally killed for expressing your sexual orientation. So what did that do? Well, there's a freedom that comes with that to some degree. If you're on the outskirts of society, you're like, "All right, well, we just make up our own rules, I guess."

Andrew Huberman:
They're like relationship outlaws.

James Sexton:
Yeah, they really are. They're like, "Listen, we're already told we're awful, terrible people for being who we are, so we might as well come up with our own ways of doing stuff." So I knew lots of gay men from the '80s on who were like, "Yeah, we have certain rules in the relationship. We can hook up, but the other person has to be transparent about it, or there's certain boundaries you can't cross in terms of how sexually you interact with this person, or it's something that we'll only do together in the form of a threesome." Well, again, it's a permutation of relationship that is between those two people. It's up to them. That's the conversation the two of them can have. So I think there are things any couple can do to feed what's good in the relationship and dampen the negative impact of the things that are challenging in a relationship. I don't think there's anything. But again, the solution to that problem is not just pretend we don't have a problem, just shut your mouth, because if you say it out loud, it's going to make it real. It's real.

Andrew Huberman:
Living in the delusion.

James Sexton:
Yeah.

Andrew Huberman:
Living in the illusion should really be called living in the delusion.

James Sexton:
Delusion, yeah. Because I think these are precious illusions that people have.

Andrew Huberman:
Mm.

James Sexton:
And they cling to them. And I understand why. It's nice to pretend everything's fine. But it's not honest. And I think there's tremendous value in saying these things to your partner, sharing them, hearing them. Which, by the way, that's a two-way transaction. If you're going to be in a relationship where you're able to say things that might be hard for your partner to hear but are important for them to hear, you have to be prepared to let them do the same thing. So again, that's why it's brave. Because there's this sense of I would like an uncomfortable truth more than a comfortable lie.

Andrew Huberman:
I realize you've examined every permutation of the relationship structure and tried to correlate that with outcome, whether or not the relationship survives happily or not, divorce, et cetera, amicably or not. There is one question that I do think might fall into a distinct category.

James Sexton:
Sure.

Andrew Huberman:
Which is the amount of time that people know one another before they decide to get engaged.

James Sexton:
Yeah.

Andrew Huberman:
We hear about, and it's been romanticized somewhat, people met on vacation.

James Sexton:
Mm.

Andrew Huberman:
And you still see these in traditional media. I don't look at traditional media too much anymore. But you'll see, they met in Cabo for four days.

James Sexton:
Yeah.

Andrew Huberman:
Went back, realized, and then there they are married.

James Sexton:
Yeah.

Andrew Huberman:
But they might've been together 50 years.

James Sexton:
Yeah.

Andrew Huberman:
Or people were together a very long time.

James Sexton:
Yeah.

Andrew Huberman:
To me, nothing's sadder, here's the kind of the Disney thing.

James Sexton:
Mm-hmm.

Andrew Huberman:
When you hear about a couple in their late 70s having been married very long time, grandchildren, they decide to get divorced.

James Sexton:
Yeah.

Andrew Huberman:
And we all reflexively go, "Oh."

James Sexton:
Yeah.

Andrew Huberman:
And everyone romanticizes the couple sitting together is all over Instagram, right?

James Sexton:
Yeah.

Andrew Huberman:
The old couple. He still does this for her. She still adores him, and he adores her.

James Sexton:
Yeah.

Andrew Huberman:
Amount of time that people have known one another-

James Sexton:
Yeah

Andrew Huberman:
... prior to engagement.

James Sexton:
Yeah.

Andrew Huberman:
Any correlation with outcome?

James Sexton:
Yeah. So what I'll say is a couple of things. Again, not a clear correlation. We all have anecdotal stories we can tell of people who were together for extended periods of time and then split up, and we all have a couple of stories of people who-- Like, I have a dear friend who got a woman pregnant on the first date. Like, first date. They went to a movie and dinner, and then they had sex, and she got pregnant. And she called him a couple of weeks later and was like, "I'm pregnant." And he was like, "I'm marrying her." And I was like, "I'm sorry, is it 1950? Like, what? No. You don't even know her. You went out on one date with her." And he's like, "Nope, I'm going to do the right thing." I'm like, "The right thing is to marry a stranger because you had sex with her and got her pregnant? Are you serious?" They've been married 28 years. 28 years-

Andrew Huberman:
Happily?

James Sexton:
... three kids. Happily. Yeah. 28 years, three kids.

Andrew Huberman:
That's wonderful to hear.

James Sexton:
And now, yeah. I mean, it's anecdotal.

Andrew Huberman:
It's a warming story.

James Sexton:
Yeah. It's a warming story. It's anecdotal. It's not proof of anything.

Andrew Huberman:
It's not a playbook.

James Sexton:
I'm not suggesting people go out and knock somebody up on the first date and then just take the chances. If you do, get a prenup. That's all I'm going to say. But I think that, again, it depends. If I said to you, "I go to the gym for an hour every day. Is that good for me?" If your answer is anything other than, "I don't know, what do you do there?" Because if what I do is I walk on the treadmill for three minutes, and then I sit in the steam room for a half an hour, and then the rest of the time I'm on my phone, then I might as well have stayed home probably. Right? Whereas if I say, "Oh, I never go to the gym," does that mean that's bad? No. Maybe I do body weight workouts at home all the time, and I never set foot in a gym. So I don't think it tells the story. So the truth is, is a couple that's together for an extended period of time and has the kind of relationship where they're learning about each other through that process. Practice doesn't make perfect. Perfect practice makes perfect. Look, time is good. Time is good in the sense that you're going to see some good things and some bad things. You're going to see this person at their best and at their worst. You're going to see them through some difficult times. They're going to see you in some difficult times. And hopefully, if you got to drive a car for six months before you decided if you were going to buy it or not, you'd make a much more informed choice. Why do you think they don't let you drive a car for six months before you buy it? There's a reason for that, because you'd see the whole thing. Again, I think it's a great idea. But you test drive any car, it's going to be fun. Maybe you'll see, like, "Oh, this is boxy. I don't really like it." Look, I've seen, again, successful and unsuccessful brief pairings. What I will say is when people have had a long, I'll call it courtship period or pre-marital period, that they used to deepen their connection to each other and get to know the good and bad of each other and see each other in good circumstances and bad circumstances, and with and without makeup, and when you're mad and got cut off in traffic, and when you're happy and blissed out, yeah, they're making an informed choice. They're buying something that they understand what it's like. Friends of mine say to me all the time, like, "I'm thinking about getting a dog." Sorry to make this analogy for romance and dogs, but-

Andrew Huberman:
No, it works for me

James Sexton:
... somebody says they want to get a dog. Well, it's a beautiful day out and I want to go running with the dog in the park. Who wouldn't? But if you're not ready to have the dog when it ate something and now has diarrhea, and it's raining outside, and you've got to keep taking it outside, and you've got to keep washing your cup, then don't get a dog, man. Because you know what? It's not playing in the park all day long. It's, "I've got to get home." Why? Because the dog's been alone for four and a half hours, and I don't want the dog to be alone for that long. You've got to change your life for this thing. So again, is it worth it? 100%. 200%. Are you kidding me? Because one of those sunny days is worth everything. And by the way, if you love it enough, even that stupid part, it's an act of love. It's like, "I don't care. I'll clean up after this thing. I fucking love it."

Andrew Huberman:
Dogs, the diarrhea, they feel bad about it.

James Sexton:
Yeah.

Andrew Huberman:
They feel bad because they're uncomfortable.

James Sexton:
And by the way, you love them so much-

Andrew Huberman:
Yeah, I know

James Sexton:
... that all you care about is like, "It's okay, buddy. It's okay. You're all right." My dog throws up and all, I'm like, "It's okay. Get it out. It's okay. Get it out."

Andrew Huberman:
Man, I'd give my entire left hand to have-

James Sexton:
Yeah

Andrew Huberman:
... one more week of Picasso with diarrhea.

James Sexton:
Yeah.

Andrew Huberman:
Except that would suck for him.

James Sexton:
One more week.

Andrew Huberman:
Yeah.

James Sexton:
And you know what? I think that a romantic relationship, there is no reason why you can't use the courtship period to sort of test all those permutations. And I don't think, by the way, that people would just stop buying cars if you had a six-month trial period on the vehicle. I think there's something really okay. Maybe when you made a choice, you would really be picking one that you really like. So what I will say in response to the question, I made a long answer, is I don't think that a long courtship period, for example, if the courtship period, the length of it is a function of one of them being super reluctant to commit to the other person, that might not be a good indicator. But if the purpose of that courtship period, that extended engagement or that extended dating period, is to really get a feel of each other in a variety of conditions. Like, to know a thing, know its limits. When it's pushed beyond its tolerances, its nature emerges. So I think there's value in seeing, like, I don't want to just see you with makeup on because you're going to not be wearing makeup for a lot of this relationship. I want to see what you look like coming out of the shower. And by the way, you should want that. You should want that too. You want me to look at you with no makeup on and go, "You're beautiful. You look great." Like, do I love it when you put on makeup? Of course. But do I love it when you've got the flu and I can take care of you? Yeah, I love that too. That's beautiful in a different way. So I think that if you use the time the right way, there's tremendous value in that, much better than just throwing a dart at the board. Like, "I find this person attractive. They find me attractive. Fuck it, let's do this thing." I don't think that that is a good recipe. I've seen a lot of divorces that come from a very brief courtship. But is that the death knell? No. I think sometimes people just get it right. Listen, you and I both know people, take it out of the romantic context, who just get rich quick. They make one cool decision, and it just pays off. They make one good bet, and it pays off. And I know other people, man, they had to take the stairs. They had 15 versions of it, and it went bankrupt three times, and then one of the things hit. And that was the one. And then everybody goes, "I always knew you were going to be successful. I always knew it." Really? Because I didn't. It was a series of near misses until I hit. So I think it's the same thing. I think how you use the time is what really matters.

Andrew Huberman:
Love it. Last question.

James Sexton:
Oh, boy.

Andrew Huberman:
Some people listening to this are in relationships. Some are married, some are divorced, some are not in relationships. Is there such a thing as a postnup for the-

James Sexton:
Mm-hmm

Andrew Huberman:
... people who have already been married, and what are the pros and cons of opening up that conversation and the contract itself? And for people who are still looking for partner, exploring a relationship or relationships, whatever their life structure happens to be, what do you think are the questions that they might ask themselves and the other person that would give some insight into-

James Sexton:
Yeah

Andrew Huberman:
... not necessarily should there be a prenup for the dating period.

James Sexton:
Yeah.

Andrew Huberman:
But a lot of the things you're talking about are in the circles of close intimacy.

James Sexton:
Yeah.

Andrew Huberman:
What are your real flaws? What are you afraid of? What are you afraid I'm going to do?

James Sexton:
Yeah.

Andrew Huberman:
That's not the kind of conversation, maybe nowadays people do, that typically people have on their fifth date or sixth date. But at some point, it makes sense to have real conversation with somebody-

James Sexton:
Yeah

Andrew Huberman:
... to try and make sense of whether or not-

James Sexton:
Yeah

Andrew Huberman:
... you go forward.

James Sexton:
Yeah.

Andrew Huberman:
So I just threw a lot at you. I realize it's a-

James Sexton:
Yeah, those are a couple of different questions, but all-

Andrew Huberman:
It's a little bit of a scattershot, but yeah.

James Sexton:
No, but those are all really important questions.

Andrew Huberman:
But for the committed and non-committed folks out there.

James Sexton:
Yeah. I'm paraphrasing Jung when I say that the thing you seek most is in the place you least want to look.

Andrew Huberman:
Mm-hmm.

James Sexton:
A friend of mine once said to me that the most important or really the only question that therapy is designed to answer is what is it that you're afraid to feel? And so I think that there's tremendous value in sharing with a partner and learning about a partner what it is they're afraid to feel, and looking at the things about yourself that you're afraid to share. I think in my own experience, and I think in that of most of my clients, I'm not religious anymore. I was raised religious. So I don't really believe in the devil. I don't think that there's this malevolent creature that's out there trying to convince people to be evil. But if there was a devil, I think the principal function of the devil would be to convince us that we're so bestial that God couldn't possibly love us. I think the greatest mistakes of my life I always made, and the most selfish, awful decisions I made, I made because I convinced myself that I wasn't good. I convinced myself that what does it matter? Nothing means anything. Just do whatever. Who cares? No one's looking. Just do it. Doesn't matter. And when I look at, whether you want to call it the presence of God in me, Buddha nature, call it anything you want to call it, but when I hold to the angels of my better nature, the part of my heart that is good and loving and compassionate, and I let that be my compass, that's when the greatest victories, the greatest joys, the best things happen. And I'm not suggesting being ignorant and being like, "Oh, the whole world's full of puppies and sunshine." Listen, I'm a divorce lawyer, man. I live in the world of misery. But it has not robbed me of the belief in the good and the depth of the power of love, and how badly I want it and how bad we all want it. And so I think the most valuable thing that people can do is when you're not in a relationship or whether you're in a relationship, is when do you feel the most loved, and when do you feel the most loving, right? And then when you connect to another person, find out the answer for them, because it's probably different. It might be some things that are the same, but there might be some things that are completely different. There's a good possibility that if you told the creamer story, that she would be like, "Oh my God, I don't even remember that. I don't even remember that happening." And yet for you, it was such a... So I think there's a lot of those things. Sometimes when you ask somebody, "What's your favorite memory of me?" The thing they'll tell you, you'll go, "I don't even remember saying that." I've had people say to me, "Oh my God, you said this thing on this podcast." And I'm like, "What was it?" And they say it. I'm like, "I said that?" I'm like, "It sounds like I agree with it. I have absolutely no recollection of saying that." Partly, I talk so much it's hard to remember what's important. But I really think that There's tremendous value in being brave in the conversations we have with ourselves about love. I think that lying to yourself-- because here's the thing. If you can be authentically yourself with another person, then you're going to feel their love. That's what I mean about the devil, is the idea that if I just show my partner the best parts of myself and I don't admit to them or share with them the things I'm afraid of, the shit I need to work on, all that kind of stuff, then I'm never going to feel their love because they don't love me. They love the character I'm playing. They love the persona that I've developed in this relationship, and I'll never feel their love. Whereas if I'm brave enough to share with this person the parts of me that I don't understand, I'm afraid of, I'm unhappy with, I'm ashamed of, and they love me anyway, then I'm going to really feel that love. And that love can be a transformative kind of love. That's a love worth having. So I think anything that deepens your ability to know yourself and deepens your ability to know your partner and let your partner know that you want to know them, the whole thing. I want to know what you need to work on. I want to be here to help. I'm here for you. I'm here. It's just like friendship. Friendship's easier. Friendship's easier than romantic love. It's super easy to say, "Hey, man, you know I'm cheering for you. You know I am. I wouldn't be here. I don't have to be here." I don't have to be here. That's part of why I like prenups. I don't want you here because you have to be here. I want you here because you want to be here because you're in, man. There was a time where we were in, and we decided to do this thing. And that, to me, that's the whole thing. So I think that's the secret. In terms of if you're already in a relationship and you go, okay. Postnups, there's problems with postnups because from a contractual legal standpoint, contracts fail for what's called want of consideration, meaning that in every contract, there has to be an exchange of value. So to use the car thing again, I'm giving you money, you're giving me a car. We're each exchanging. We're each giving and receiving value. The consideration for a prenup is we don't have to get married, but I'm willing to marry you if we amend the rule set in the following way. So that has a mutuality of consideration. There are some courts that have held that a postnup, there is no consideration, and it fails as a contract because staying married is not consideration. It's assumed that you would stay married legally. So that's why postnups can fail. Now, that being said, do I think the message that I have about connection and how to interact with your partner and the things I wrote in my book, "How to Stay in Love: Practical Wisdom from an Unlikely Source," the idea was not to just talk about people in troubled relationships or to approach people who were not yet in relationships and give them a rule set to start with. I trained Brazilian jujitsu for many years, and people will often say, because people are 30, 40, 50, and they want to get into Brazilian jujitsu, and there's an old joke. I don't know. It was one of the Gracies who first said it. I don't want to offend Hoyler or I think it was Hoyler, but I'm not sure. It might've been Hickson. Where someone said, "What's the best age to start jujitsu?" And he said, "Five or now." And I think that's the answer. So all these techniques, all these things we're talking about, what's the best time to implement them? The day you meet this person or now. I don't care if you're married 10 years, 20 years, 30 years. You're telling me that right now there wouldn't be value in seeing your partner, allowing yourself to be seen by your partner? A lot of the practical wisdom, I think, that's so simple of like in my book, there's a chapter where I just talk about it's called Leave a Note, and it basically just says leave your partner a note. When you leave for the office in the morning, leave a note. Like, "Hey, it was so fun on the couch with you last night watching TV. I married the prettiest girl in the world. Can't wait to see you again." What does that take, 30 seconds? Thirty seconds, right? Nothing. Such a minimal investment. Didn't cost you anything. That's why you won't see it on TV advertised, by the way, because it didn't cost anything. You don't have to buy anything. You don't need anything to do that thing. But what does it say to your partner? I see you. You're important to me. I took the time in the middle of the things I'm doing to let you know you're important to me. And who wouldn't want that? Who wouldn't want their partner, even after 20 years of marriage, especially after 20 years of marriage, to say, "God, you're handsome. Hey, I just, I don't know, something about you." Who wouldn't want to hear that? Who wouldn't have their day brightened by that a little bit? And again, maybe at first your partner will go, "Are you all right? What are you doing?" I had a buddy who actually did the note thing, and he said, he was like, "Yeah, for the first week, she was like, 'What's going on? Are you having an affair? Are you dying? What's going on?'" And he said, "But after, and I just said, 'No, I just want to make more of a point of being present.'" And he said after three weeks, four weeks, he was like, "Dude, we're having the best chapter. We're having more sex. We're having more fun." He's like, "And now she's texting me in the middle of the day." By the way, again, not to gender things, but leaving a note or sending a text in the middle of the day that just says, "I was just thinking of you. I just wanted you to know I was thinking of you." Da, da, da, da, da. It's the equivalent of sending a man nudes. Because what does it say? It says, "Hey, I know the world's crazy and everything's kind of, but it's you and me." It's you and me, and you're this special person that gets to hear these things from me or see these things of me that other people don't get to see because I'm yours in your mind. What is better than that, and what is the downside to trying, to giving it-- Because worst case, you spent 30 seconds of your life and you didn't get a return on your investment. Okay. You're no worse off than you were. So even though you may not be able to avail yourself of the rule set concept that can happen when you haven't married yet and you have a prenup and you have that discussion, I think you could still have that core conversation. Again, not about if we split up, how do we divide our assets? That's not what this is about. It's about what do we owe each other? What do we bring to this economy, this relationship of the two of us, this exchange of value? I have a friend who's been married probably about 10 years happily, really happily. And he was telling me how they call it a walk and talk, that once a week, they just go for a walk, like a hike together. They live in Colorado. And they've made a practice of telling each other two or three things that they did that week that were a big win, two or three things that made them feel loved or whatever it might be. And then they try to have at least one or two things that they could've done better or where they might have crossed wires, and they kind of do a praise sandwich. So they do the good, and then a few of the bad, and then back to the good again. And I said to him, "Is there a discernible impact?" And he's like, "It's the best thing we do." He's like, "Because it really helps us course correct in real time. But the most valuable part is actually not the here's what you got wrong, it's the here's what you did right. Here's the stuff that made me feel loved." Because that death spiral that people get into in relationships where it's like, "Well, I'm not happy. Why should they be happy?" And like, "Well, I didn't get to go out with my friends. Why did she get to go out with her friends?" You know? And, "Well, I had a miserable day, too." Well, it's like, well, why is your miserable day more important than my miserable day? That death spiral, you can reverse that. It can work the other way, which is just keep meeting this with an abundance of love, affection, compassion, positive reinforcement. It can, and again, not always. Believe me, I work in the clay of domestic violence, intimate partner abuse. I've seen it up close and personal. I know there are toxic, awful people who are just not going to be able to have a functional relationship. But find that out sooner rather than later, and then cut your losses and get out. Because I have to tell you something. You say how you see a couple that's 70 or 80 and they're getting divorced, and it's the saddest thing. It is, but it also begs the question, what would've happened if they were ill-suited for each other? How long did they hold on? Because I got to tell you, man, I'm not impressed when somebody says, "Oh, we were married for 60 years. We were miserable for 45 of them, but we did it." Like, oh, great. Great. That's like that race they run in Death Valley where it's like, "I ran 150 miles in Aug-" Oh, okay. That's great. That's insane. But okay, congratulations. You did something that sounds horribly painful and in no way positive. But if you feel good about it, cool. That's not, to me, a successful marriage. A successful marriage, to me, is we made each other's lives better. We made our own lives and each other's lives better for our coupling, for the fact that we were together. Maybe we created life and cultivated life together by birth or adoption, or maybe we just radiated joy to the people around us. Or maybe we had pets and we gave them a wonderful existence together, or maybe some combination of all those wonderful things. But do I think that the solution is longevity and say... No, because I don't think that the duration of something is the success or failure of it. Listen, if you make a six-hour shitty movie, I'm not going to be like, "Well, but it was six full hours. That is pretty good." No. Whereas if you make a six-hour movie that holds my attention the entire six hours, that's a damn good movie. That's a movie worth making. I'll watch "Casino" or "Goodfellas" every time it's on, and it's a full three hours almost. And I don't care because it's that good. So I think that longevity, endings and how relationships end, the fact that something ends does not mean that it wasn't valuable at all. I think that's a really crazy thing. Every movie I've ever enjoyed ended, and if somebody said to me three-quarters of the way through it, "This is going to end," I wouldn't be like, "Well, what's the point?" No, I want to watch the whole thing. And knowing that it's going to end is part of what makes it beautiful. So I think that protections are really important. Prenups are really important. It's ideal as early in a relationship as possible to have some of these conversations about the painful things that I have to help people wrestle with every single day, but I think the value received from that conversation is immeasurable.

Andrew Huberman:
Jim, what I love about you so much is that you're willing to, and maybe you just reflexively look at things through every possible lens. So if it's something dark like divorce, you look at it through the lens of that, but also, does it always have to be dark? You look at it through the lens of a lawyer's eyes, right?

James Sexton:
Well, I think that's part of lawyering is you have to argue both sides of everything.

Andrew Huberman:
Yeah. But I would also say that if ever people had the stereotype in mind that all lawyers are heartless and cutthroat, and it's all just about money, you clearly shatter that because so much of what we talked about today wasn't about divorce, it was about contracts.

James Sexton:
Yeah.

Andrew Huberman:
And it wasn't just about contracts. Really, what I kept hearing over and over is that By asking what at first are practical questions, you can really get to the emotional layers underneath those that really speak to what people need most-

James Sexton:
Yeah

Andrew Huberman:
... in order to make things work-

James Sexton:
Yeah

Andrew Huberman:
... even if the relationship doesn't last forever. And I think that's such an important lens on the kind of overwhelming thing that we call relationships and marriage and prenups and divorces. And I think it's enough to make anyone terrified. It's also enough, as you said, to make some people bitter. And I think-

James Sexton:
Yeah

Andrew Huberman:
... we didn't talk about it too much because it's such a potent word, didn't have to, but this notion of bitterness is really the thing to avoid most, right?

James Sexton:
Yeah.

Andrew Huberman:
Because it contaminates the thing that you embody so much, which is you just have such a huge forward center of mass-

James Sexton:
Yeah

Andrew Huberman:
... full tilt, arms around all of it, love of-

James Sexton:
Yeah

Andrew Huberman:
... life and people and dogs and-

James Sexton:
Thanks. Yeah

Andrew Huberman:
... and it just comes through over and over in everything you do-

James Sexton:
Thanks, man

Andrew Huberman:
... and in every way that you describe it. So I see you as, yes, a lawyer.

James Sexton:
Sure.

Andrew Huberman:
Not just a divorce lawyer, but a lawyer. You're certainly a psychologist. You're definitely on the adventure of life. There's no-

James Sexton:
For sure

Andrew Huberman:
... question about that.

James Sexton:
For sure.

Andrew Huberman:
You're an anthropologist, which reflects some of your-

James Sexton:
Little bit

Andrew Huberman:
... prior training.

James Sexton:
Sure.

Andrew Huberman:
And you're just a really amazing human being in the way-

James Sexton:
Thanks, man

Andrew Huberman:
... that you're willing to just launch yourself into all of it and consider all of this. And like you said, you see some really unfortunate things, but it's clear that you also see a lot of really wonderful and beautiful things.

James Sexton:
And I think some of the awful things are really beautiful. There's a line from Hemingway from "A Farewell to Arms" where he says, "The world breaks everyone, and some are stronger in the broken places."

Andrew Huberman:
Mm-hmm.

James Sexton:
And I think divorce and heartbreak, heartbreak is like that. Heartbreak breaks everyone, and sometimes we're stronger in the broken places. I think I've learned so much through love, and I've learned so much through loss, and I don't want my love of love to make me forget that loss exists, and I don't want the pain of loss to make me forget that love exists.

Andrew Huberman:
Well, I and everyone listening really appreciate you taking the time to come here. Look, you make a living doing something else. You make a very-

James Sexton:
Yeah. I got a full-time day job

Andrew Huberman:
... you don't need to do this-

James Sexton:
I love this, man

Andrew Huberman:
... traveling cross-country. Well, I so appreciate it. I know people appreciate it.

James Sexton:
I mean, I love talking to you in general, but we've never done it on mic, which is really funny.

Andrew Huberman:
Right. We've had some good conversations, and-

James Sexton:
Yeah

Andrew Huberman:
... you've been a wonderful and trusted friend to me.

James Sexton:
Thanks, man. You too.

Andrew Huberman:
I also trust that if I'm going to make a dumb decision or if I've made a dumb decision, that you'll let me know.

James Sexton:
I'm there. I promise.

Andrew Huberman:
All right. Write back at you.

James Sexton:
I haven't. I will in the future.

Andrew Huberman:
Write back at you.

James Sexton:
Yeah. Well, you have for me as well.

Andrew Huberman:
I don't have your legal wisdom, but write back at you.

James Sexton:
No.

Andrew Huberman:
Well, I haven't yet. But-

James Sexton:
You have plenty of wisdom

Andrew Huberman:
... you're a trusted and amazing friend, and you just have so much wisdom to share. My dad has this saying that some people when they speak, they just might as well have exhaled. He's Argentine. He's a little cynical.

James Sexton:
Mm-hmm.

Andrew Huberman:
But he also says, "But some people when they speak, just wisdom falls out of them." And that's how I feel every time I'm in your presence.

James Sexton:
That's so funny.

Andrew Huberman:
Or I hear you on a podcast or even a short clip. I prepared a lot for today's episode by just watching as much content of yours as I could possibly consume, and I was like, "Wow, the density of value per unit time for your speech is unbelievably high." So-

James Sexton:
That was the most Huberman description of me. I love it.

Andrew Huberman:
So-

James Sexton:
The density of value within the... I love the scientific lens through which-

Andrew Huberman:
Well

James Sexton:
... you even look at the unscientific, although I guess everything is scientific in some ways. So, but no, man, I'm really glad we had a chance to do this. And I love all of our conversations, and I thought to myself, "It's going to be interesting and odd to have one," but I sort of immediately forgot that the microphone's here or the camera's here, and that's really lovely. That's the best thing, is when, if you said to me how long have we been talking, I would imagine it's like an hour, but I know it's way longer than that. I have no idea, though. I've completely... And that's that flow state that happens when we're wrestling with these ideas that are the most human ideas. And I love, I want to pay you a compliment. Before we were friends, I listened to your program in the earlier days of it, and I love how the journey of becoming fully human and exploring the depth of our full humanity has become. Because something that was always very science-based tools, and it's very easy to sort of just keep yourself in that box. You've really stepped out of your comfort zone, especially in recent years, and brought in these things that really are the totality of the human experience, all these relationship things. The pet thing I just listened to, I loved. And I think that we're coming to a time where we realize that we're, what's the old saying? That we're not thinking machines that sometimes feel. We're feeling machines that sometimes think.

Andrew Huberman:
Mm-hmm.

James Sexton:
I think that you're really starting to get deeply into the totality of our humanity, the physical state, the emotional, spiritual, all of those things. And I think that's what we need. That if there is a cure to the ailment of our time, the partisan, the hyper-partisan environment, the misery and anxiety that so many people are feeling, and the yearning, the spiritual hunger that has people consuming opinions and podcasts deeply. I mean, who would've ever thought podcasts would be what it is, right? Long-form audio conversations. We would go back to the radio? When we can world-build with AI now and make anything visual for us, that we would go back to finding wisdom in this? And the fact that hunger is being fed by people like you who are saying, "Hey, science won't save us. Spirituality won't save us. Love won't save us. Anger won't save us. All of it. We need all of it, and we need to try to wrestle with it and figure it out." And no one is necessarily better at this. Whatever car you drive, whatever profession, how much money you have in the bank, you may not be better or worse at this. So I think it's really beautiful that the palette of things that you're discussing has become so broad, but you have remained very much you and very able to bring it to a lens that is authentically yourself, and I love that about the show. I remain a friend, but I also remain a fan, so.

Andrew Huberman:
Thank you. I'll take that in and right back at you.

James Sexton:
Thanks, man.

Andrew Huberman:
And please come back again.

James Sexton:
Anytime.

Andrew Huberman:
You have a very exciting project that we didn't get to today, so save that for a future episode.

James Sexton:
You got it.

Andrew Huberman:
It's super cool.

James Sexton:
You got it.

Andrew Huberman:
It's completely different than this, and like everything you touch, it turns to platinum, so.

James Sexton:
Thanks, brother.

Andrew Huberman:
Thank you for joining me for today's discussion with James Sexton. To learn more about James' work and to find links to his book and other resources, please see the show note captions. If you're learning from and/or enjoying this podcast, please subscribe to our YouTube channel. That's a terrific zero-cost way to support us. In addition, please follow the podcast by clicking the follow button on both Spotify and Apple. And on both Spotify and Apple, you can leave us up to a five-star review, and you can now leave us comments at both Spotify and Apple. Please also check out the sponsors mentioned at the beginning and throughout today's episode. That's the best way to support this podcast. If you have questions for me or comments about the podcast or guests or topics that you'd like me to consider for the Huberman Lab podcast, please put those in the comments section on YouTube. I do read all the comments. For those of you that haven't heard, I have a new book coming out. It's my very first book. It's entitled "Protocols: An Operating Manual for the Human Body." This is a book that I've been working on for more than five years, and that's based on more than 30 years of research and experience, and it covers protocols for everything from sleep to exercise to stress control, protocols related to focus and motivation, and of course, I provide the scientific substantiation for the protocols that are included. The book is now available by presale at protocolsbook.com. There you can find links to various vendors. You can pick the one that you like best. Again, the book is called "Protocols: An Operating Manual for the Human Body." And if you're not already following me on social media, I am HubermanLab on all social media platforms. So that's Instagram, X, Threads, Facebook, and LinkedIn. And on all those platforms, I discuss science and science-related tools, some of which overlaps with the content of the Huberman Lab podcast, but much of which is distinct from the information on the Huberman Lab podcast. Again, it's HubermanLab on all social media platforms. And if you haven't already subscribed to our Neural Network Newsletter, the Neural Network Newsletter is a zero-cost monthly newsletter that includes podcast summaries as well as what we call protocols in the form of one- to three-page PDFs that cover everything from how to optimize your sleep, how to optimize dopamine, deliberate cold exposure. We have a foundational fitness protocol that covers cardiovascular training and resistance training. All of that is available completely zero cost. You simply go to hubermanlab.com, go to the menu tab in the top right corner, scroll down to Newsletter, and enter your email. And I should emphasize that we do not share your email with anybody. Thank you once again for joining me for today's discussion with James Sexton. And last but certainly not least, thank you for your interest in science.