As a health nut who borders on orthorexia (an obsession with healthy eating with associated restrictive behaviors) I am a big fan of podcasts about nutrition and health. I think I came to Andrew Huberman through the Rich Roll podcast and I’ve been fascinated by his take on the neurology of health and body dynamics.
I’m not alone – Huberman is all over the airwaves and especially on YouTube where you can find sound bites of his strategies and cartoons made from his now-famous morning routine. He’s a good looking guy and comes across as sincere and brilliant, the kind of nerd that you’re sure must be right about everything.
This week an exposé in New York Magazine brought this Neptune in Pisces illusion to a screeching halt with a deep dive into Huberman’s relationship life. Apparently he cheated on the woman he was living with and lied to women that he dates. Most of the article is written from the perspective of his live-in partner, and as I read the article I kept wondering: Why did she stay with him after these repeated incidences? At some point we have to take responsibility for our own choices.
In any case I thought this would be a good time for a Huberman profile. Andrew Huberman (September 26, 1975, Palo Alto California, no time known) was born with the Sun and Mercury in Libra. For Libra people, relationships are paramount, as is the need to please others and avoid conflict. Huberman’s Sun conjoins Pluto, an aspect which often shows a great deal of challenges in early life when there may be abuse or power conflicts at a minimum.
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Huberman talks about how his parents’ divorce at the age of 13 changed his life; his father disappeared and his mother went into a deep depression. He became truant and was “put away” (where he was confined is rather vague and I suppose now with the questions over his history this will come under greater scrutiny). At the time (1988-1989) Saturn, Chiron and Uranus were all in a square aspect to his Sun, and later (1989-1990) to Pluto and he began seeing a therapist to help him through these issues, a practice which he says he continues to this day. He went on to study psychology (Sun/Pluto people often seek a deeper meaning) and went on to obtain a Ph.D in neuroscience.
Huberman has both the Moon and Mars in the sign of Gemini. Ruled by Mercury, planet of the mind, Gemini is changeable and adaptable and often hard to pin down. The Gemini Moon here is opposed by Neptune suggesting a flexible relationship with the truth – what we call “truth” can be a spectrum of facts with this kind of placement. The New York Magazine article suggests that Huberman is reliable and doesn’t follow through with personal commitments, and that is not unusual with Gemini placements, especially where Neptune is involved. And Mars in Gemini has a hunger for new experiences and a dislike of being tied down.
As the ruler of the Libra Sun, Venus is important in this chart. Venus is in Leo, the sign that seeks admiration and self-respect. Venus in Leo people need to feel good about themselves, and a more immature expression of this is to need attention from others. As they grow and evolve the good feelings come more from good deeds and less from external validation. But the fact that Saturn is also in Leo suggests that he has a dearth of self-confidence that motivates a desire to be known.
I doubt that this exposé will hurt Huberman much; it may increase his fame and Challenging transits in the past have only increased his prominence in the media landscape, and he does have transiting Pluto in a harmonious trine with his Sun and natal Pluto right now.
It’s been interesting to observe, with Neptune in Pisces since 2010 making it difficult to find any kind of absolute truth, that the reliability of science has come into question. Principles and concepts which were once considered fringe (leaky gut, plate tectonics, unified field theory etc) are now mainstream and with Pluto entering Aquarius we will be seeing more and more innovation and radical thinking in all fields, especially in areas like neuroscience which are tied to human behavior which cannot easily be quantified.
“I doubt that this exposé will hurt Huberman much.” I think it might. If we imagine that only half of what is written in that article might be true, we can imagine we have a man completely out of integrity. Honestly, there is no good reason to believe someone with anything, when he is able to inject woman with hCG while texting with someone else. When things seem to good to be true, they usually are. Neptun game.