Podcast #141: The Science of Free Diving With James Nestor | The Art of Manliness

Originally published September 2015. When I was researching my post on how to hold your breath a few weeks ago, I came across a book called Deep: Freediving, Renegade Science, and What the Ocean Tells Us About Ourselves by James Nestor. In it, Nestor highlights the art of freediving — a competitive endeavor in which people dive down to depths of 400 feet on just a single breath. To reach that depth and make it back to the surface, freedivers have to hold their breath for 4 minutes. Blackouts are common and people have died trying to break new records. But besides these daredevil athletes, Nestor came across a group of renegade scientists who are using freediving to learn more about what’s going on in the ocean’s depths, particularly with dolphins and whales. By not using SCUBA or submarines, these scientists are getting a much closer look at these animals than we ever have before, which has put them on the brink of learning how to communicate with these fascinating creatures. It sounds New Agey, but it’s not. Today on the podcast, James and I discuss what he learned about the human body and about our connection to the ocean as he followed freedivers around the world, and we end the show by talking about his own experience learning how to freedive. https://ift.tt/1FOPIX2 http://twitter.com/artofmanliness https://ift.tt/YAd15k https://ift.tt/1DUJeqE