Why Huberman and Kelly Starrett Both Recommend Breath

James Nestor's Breath has been recommended nine separate times across the podcast archive tracked here, credited to both Andrew Huberman and Tim Ferriss. Two of those nine mentions are captured on record with direct quotes, one from Huberman and one from mobility coach Kelly Starrett, and both point to the same claim: that how a person breathes, not just how much oxygen they take in, changes how their body functions.

Neither man is a pulmonologist. Huberman is a neuroscientist who runs a Stanford lab studying vision and the nervous system, and Starrett built his career coaching movement and mobility for elite athletes. That two people from different corners of performance science both single out the same book on breathing mechanics is the reason it keeps surfacing across separate shows rather than staying confined to one niche.

Huberman's mention was specific about what the book covers rather than a blanket endorsement. "There's the recent book Breath by James Nestor, which is an excellent book that describes some of the positive effects of nasal breathing," he said, tying the recommendation directly to nasal breathing rather than breathing technique in general.

Starrett's mention came up in a conversation about who to trust on the subject, and he pointed past the book toward the broader field it belongs to. "James Nestor wrote a great book on it, if you look at Lauren Chaitow, if you look at all the masters," he said, placing Breath alongside other names as part of a body of work worth taking seriously rather than a single standout title.

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Huberman's quote is narrow on purpose. He does not credit the book with covering breathing broadly, he credits it with describing the positive effects of nasal breathing specifically, as opposed to breathing through the mouth. That distinction matters because it tells you what the book is actually useful for according to the person recommending it: not a general wellness read, but a specific mechanical argument about which passage a person moves air through and what that changes.

Starrett's framing adds a second layer. By naming Nestor alongside other practitioners rather than treating the book as the definitive word, he is positioning it as one entry point into a wider set of ideas about breathing mechanics that Starrett already trusted before the book existed. Taken together, the two quotes describe a book that functions as an accessible summary of a niche that specialists like Starrett were already circling.

Breathing and sleep are adjacent subjects on these shows, and Matthew Walker's Why We Sleep surfaces repeatedly from the same circle. Huberman has credited Walker directly and more than once: "I really have to tip my hat to Dr. Matthew Walker from UC Berkeley for writing the book Why We Sleep, he deserves such a token of praise," he said in one episode, and called Walker "the one and only Mighty Matt Walker who wrote the marvelous book Why We Sleep" in another. In a third mention he described learning "a kind of mantra" from what he called "the great Matt Walker who wrote the great book Why We Sleep."

The pattern across all three Why We Sleep quotes is the same one visible in the Breath quotes: specific, repeated, unprompted credit given to a named author rather than a vague reference to sleep science in general. That consistency is part of what separates a recommendation with real weight from a passing mention.

On the physical performance side of the same conversations, creatine monohydrate comes up just as often. Rhonda Patrick has said directly, "This is the one I take. I take the creatine monohydrate because it's the most well studied," and separately, "I take ten grams a day every day. I feel great doing it. I've got to have my ten grams of creatine for my brain." Exercise physiologist Lauren Colenso-Semple gave a more measured version of the same case: "It can get you an extra rep or two in the gym or cut a second off your sprint. It's very safe, it's well studied, and so if you're somebody who is training and you're interested, then I think it's worth taking."

None of these creatine quotes reference Breath directly, but they surface across the same rotation of shows and the same performance-focused audience that Nestor's book speaks to, which is why it earns a place here rather than being treated as unrelated.

The honest limitation here is the same one that applies to most of these recommendation counts: nine mentions across the archive, but only two of them come with words a person actually said on record. That is enough to establish that the book is being handed around inside the same circle of performance-focused podcasts, but it is not enough to say every one of those nine mentions carried the same enthusiasm as Huberman's or Starrett's did.

What the two verified quotes do agree on is worth taking seriously anyway. A neuroscientist who studies the nervous system for a living and a mobility coach who has spent decades correcting how elite athletes move both landed on the same book, independently, for the same underlying reason: breathing mechanics matter more than most people assume, and Nestor's book is where they point people who want the case laid out clearly rather than picked up secondhand from a podcast clip.

Who wrote Breath?

James Nestor wrote Breath. On the podcast archive tracked here, it has been recommended nine times, credited to both Andrew Huberman and Tim Ferriss.

What specifically does Andrew Huberman say Breath is useful for?

Huberman credits the book with describing the positive effects of nasal breathing specifically, rather than breathing technique in general.

Two quotes, from a neuroscientist and a mobility coach who rarely cover the same ground, agreeing on the same book is a stronger signal than nine anonymous mentions would be on their own. Huberman's endorsement is narrow and specific: nasal breathing, described well. Starrett's is broader: one credible name inside a field of people he already trusted. Between the two, Breath reads less like a wellness trend and more like a genuinely useful entry point into a subject specialists were already taking seriously.