Ben Greenfield spent two decades obsessing over biohacking and aesthetics—peptides, hormones, six-pack abs—until it nearly destroyed his marriage and estranged him from his twin sons. His new documentary, Boundless, co-executive-produced by Zac Efron, is a cautionary tale about chasing optimal health at the expense of family and real relationships.
Biohacking is more than just a buzzword when it comes to wellness. People are paying premiums for the promise of lasting health and longevity.
Our next guest knows that all too well as he spent years biohacking his body and chronicled his experience in a new documentary called Boundless. We welcome Ben Greenfield, longevity, biohacking, and human performance expert. Good morning. And for people who don't know you, you're known as a biohacking and human performance expert. What made you start the biohacking journey two decades go?
Probably the same reason a lot of people start that journey, trying to optimize every last nook and cranny of their body and brain. And, you know, I really got sucked into the deep end of a lot of things that people are now obsessed with, right? Peptides, hormones, lifting, six-pack abs, looks maxing, hair maxing, you name it.
Yes. You must have been watching our show.
We know all about the looks maxing and hair maxing.
Brother maxing.
And you said the word peptides. Seem to be all the rage. It seems in my circle, we're millennials, it seems like people really wanting to tap in. It's going beyond now just working out and obsessing over the food trends and staying healthy. I'm sensing from you that there is some worry there. Can you dive into it? And then maybe you wanted to do a documentary and why so?
Yeah, I mean, don't get me wrong, there's, there's great value to beauty and symmetry and aesthetics and the confidence and pride in ourselves that can arise from that. But I think I think that we live in a culture where things have gotten a little bit too obsessive. Uh, an influencer culture, a look at me culture, a social media culture in which we can lose track of the things in life that are really important. That's what happened to me, and that's why I made this film.
And the film—
from experience. Okay, good.
Oh no, no, no. So the film is called Boundless: The Man Who Became Human. What do you hope people take away from this? That was also a collaboration with Zac Efron executive producing the film. How did come together?
Yeah. Zach is a friend and he's genuinely curious about this entire world. I mean, he's also experimented with a lot of these things and has a similar perspective as me. You know, I nearly got divorced 10 years ago. I lost my father. I began to grow distant from my twin sons who are now 18 years old. And I had to push the giant reset button. In terms of shifting the focus to what's truly important in life. And this documentary is about that journey, that journey of balancing health with the things that we all know deep inside are more important, family and faith and community and relationships, and what even science has shown really results in a more happy and fulfilled life.
Let's take a look at the clip from Boundless.
His work took precedence in a really kind of narcissistic kind of way.
For a while, he wasn't really a part of the family.
Everything I grew up holding dear and knowing was most important just kind of started to get put on the back burner. You know, it did not feel right at all. It wasn't right. Eventually, the body will fade. And so, if there's one part of your body that you're going to prioritize above everything else, it would be the soul. Having something, someone that you can depend upon.
I want to see this whole thing.
I know, very intriguing. For people interested in trying longevity protocols and biohacking, What is your advice and would you do it all over again?
I would certainly learn about the body all over again. I mean, I love human science and physiology and biomechanics and all the things that I've lived for the past couple of decades. But because there is so much available now that we can do to make ourselves particularly look better, this, this film is a big warning sign about what happens when you pour all your energy into it. Because you'd think that it would be pretty fulfilling to finally get the perfect body and the six-pack abs and the jaws and the teeth and the hair and everything that you're looking for. But in the end, it's pretty unfulfilling. I'm really hoping that this is a wake-up call for our culture not to go sit on the couch and eat Twinkies because staying fit doesn't matter, but instead to balance that with the things again that truly produce happiness and fulfillment.
Summit. Yeah, so Boundless again is the name of the documentary. What is the hope for you that people take away after watching this documentary?
To walk out of the film and feel a real tug in their soul to develop deeper ties with their community, IRL, right? In real life relationships with real people in flesh and blood, doing things like the things that we do at our house. Dinner parties and family dinners and prioritizing getting to know your parents better and your children better and spending time with your spouse and building tight-knit communities. Um, and you know, if, if that happens to even just a tiny extent across our nation, I think we'll see a real shift from the obsessive selfishness that I think a lot of people live on the day to day. And we'll see a little bit more of people living the way together that people were meant to live.
All right, Ben, thanks very much. Ben Greenfield, longevity, biohacking, and human performance expert. Thanks so much for joining us. For tickets to the premiere of Boundless this Friday, July 24th, at the Belasco in LA, go to ticketmaster.com. You can also follow Ben on Instagram at Ben Greenfield Fitness. We're back after this. Thanks on the KTLA Weekend Morning News.
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