[ MUSIC ] We actually have our first Thrive Global board meeting on Thursday. But David wants a preview of the board meeting. [ LAUGH ] Yes, so obviously you've tackled so many things in your career. So what was the impetus? I mean obviously, Huffington Post changed everything. They literally changed the whole media space and so that pivot, that change, tell us the story of it. So it started and Alan and I go a long way back because our children went to kindergarten together at St. Patrick's Episcopal School in Washington DC. So we've known- My wife to St. Patrick's. Wow, you see, another coincidence. So we've known each other long before there was any new media. And for me, it all had to do with democratizing media who was giving a platform to multiple voices that otherwise would not have a chance. So even though Huff Post became a big journalistic enterprise, won a Pulitzer, and when I stepped down, there are 850 editors, reporters in 16 countries. For me, the fact that we're also a platform where hundreds of thousands of people could tell their stories. Was a very important part from the beginning. And one of my favorite stories is one day because there was no hierarchy. You could have Francois Lund next to a homeless teenager writing something interesting and that actually happened. And the Harvard admissions office happened to read it and Offered him a place at Harvard. Francois Hollande? [ LAUGH ] [ LAUGH ] [ LAUGH ] No Francois Hollande could not get in. [ LAUGH ] But homeless in Asia made it. So. I'm gonna tweet that. No I will never be allowed in Paris again. [ LAUGH ] No you can tweet anything Allan says. [ LAUGH ] So that for me is also part as you know what we're trying to do with Thrive which is again to open up a platform where you can have great scientists like here. People working in this field And transforming our health. But also having people tell their stories because there's something very, very powerful about hearing other people's stories. And, as you know, it all started with my story in 2007, two years into building the Huffington Post, I actually collapsed. From burn out and exhaustion and hit my head on the way down, broke my cheek bone. And that was the beginning of my getting interested in this field. And looking around and seeing literally thousands and hundreds of thousands of other people also burnt out with many, many worse consequences than mine. And asking the question, Why, what's wrong with our culture, and how can we change it. And so Thrive Global is an effort to change it. Yes .>> And how's it gonna work? What's it gonna do? So we have three components, and deliberately so because when I looked at the history of When this culture. And then many people here who are upon near us and we won't exist without their work. I've talked to people here, what an amazing group you have assemble. And who are the first to introduce marking sensation at work and introduce biometric serum and these are all incredible innovation. But what has happened is that they did not become sustainable. So, our big challenge is how to make them sustainable and how to make them measurable. Because in order to really help them spread you have to be able to affect the bottom line. People are not going to invest resources if it's purely a soft benefit So for us to stand in ability skill and in order to make what we are offering to corporations sustainable and also to reach consumers directly. We have immediately platform launching on November 30th, which is going two things. First of all go direct to the consumer. Bring them the latest science. Give them a platform where they can tell their stories again. But also where any company we're working with, like we're working with Accenture, working with JP Morgan, working with Snapchat and Uber. But beyond the trainings, beyond the e- courses Beyond the support groups there's gonna be this constant avalanche of content and information and education. And the third part, which is e- commerce, so that it will actually affect their whole life. So they can read something, and then they can order something, which you've been critical in that. Everything has to be validated and vetted. And because there's so much of that. And consumers are very confused. So we want to be able to make sure that, when they choose to go on an app, to help with their diabetes it is the best app that they can go on. So it's interesting. Earlier last week the AARP, American Association of Retired Persons. Sued the EEOC because workplace wellness programs could infringe on privacy and potentially enable discrimination. So how does that fit in? I mean, you're going, you're getting the most intimate details of people, you're trying to change their lives. But at the same time they have to admit a weakness for them to change. So how do you make it so the boss doesn't say, hey listen I'm gonna send the person who will work 20 hours to Europe for the trip, cuz I know you are doing some sort of [ UNKNOWN ] Global program. Well one of the reasons why I think bringing outside companies like [ UNKNOWN ] Global is going to become increasingly important. It's because of this concern around privacy. If the employer has the data then it's more likely to affect decisions theoretically. Although a lot of employers, as you know, are claiming absolutely not. But the employee is not going to be sure. And also groups like the AARP are going to continue to challenge that. So that's why also, anything we are doing is very customized. I think it's very important to integrate any new offering into the culture of the company. For example, right now we are working with Uber. Very, very specific culture I also happen to be on the board. And that's kind of my commitment is to work with our teams around the world. And then bring it to the drivers, which is also fascinating. Because a lot of companies we're working with don't want to stop at their employees. They want to make it part of their marketing. Like JP Morgan. We're working with executives. We're working with people at the call centers. We're a lot of the stresses. And we're also providing content for there's 35 million customers on Chase. com. So bringing it all together, the internal and the external is key but very much based on the culture of the company. At Uber, for example, one of the culture values is not crossing your red line. But people don't know when they're crossing the red line I mean if you had asked me the morning I collapsed, Ariana how are you? I would have said great, I was clearly running below zero. But we're so unaware, we're all so used to being perpetually tired and perpetually on that we need to help people understand the signals. Before they cross the red line. And right now, if you think of it, we all take better care of our smart phones than we take care of ourselves. I bet everybody here knows approximately how much battery remains on your smart phone. [ LAUGH ] It never gets below 17 %, I get nervous. Allan is looking to see where his batteries are. I'm tweeting you. .>> You're tweeting. [ LAUGH ] We take better care of our smartphones. [ LAUGH ] We actually tend to look for a rechargeable body or something. Lest anything would happen to our precious smartphone. But we definitely don't take as good care of ourselves and in fact if you go on Google now and type I tried it in LA, let's see what is here now. Who am I? The common Google autocomplete is, why am I so tired? And the second most common autocomplete is, why am I always tired? So it's almost like the cultural Zeitgeist captured by the Google algorithm. And we need to change that. And David, you are a scientist and I'm obsessed with science. And I feel that right now we are living our lives on false scientific assumptions. Like it is not accurate That in order to succeed you have to burn out. It is not accurate that in order to be super productive, type A, driven people like everybody here and on the stage we need to be always on and we need to sacrifice our health and well- being. In fact, science is now unequivocal That when we put around oxygen mask first, we are actually more productive. Our performance improves. Erick Courtland is here and McKenzie is actually done the best study on the proven link as the title went between Leadership and Slave. When I first saw that I thought it was like a unknown headline. McKinsey. But in fact it is an amazingly scientifically rigorous study of what happens to our prefrontal cortex when we're sleep deprived and how this affects our leadership capacities, our judgment, our ability to build teams and inspire. So when you have McKenzie actually doing a study like that you know that there's a culture shift happening. The goal of Thrive Global is to help accelerate the culture shift. That's great. Who's your role model? I mean so who do look up to that you want to emulate? So in this arena One of my role models actually happens to be on our board, and that's Mark Bertolini. I think Mark Bertolini, the CEO of Aetna has done amazing work in this field. And again, as so often happens in this area, it came from his own painful experience. He Broke his neck in a skiing accident. He was, for the first year, literally, addicted to painkillers, and not being able to function, and then he discovered a lot of meditation, acupuncture, acupressure, yoga, and Became absolutely devoted to them. They made such a difference to him that he introduced a lot these programs to Aetna, to his 49, 000 employees, and then he brought Duke University to measure the impact. And in the first year, they found a 7 % reduction in healthcare cost. And a 62 minute a week improvement in productivity. That was really game changing. A lot of other companies paid attention. Then he introduced a sleep incentive. And he gave employees Fitbits, and if they wanted to opt in [ BLANK_AUDIO ] They could measure, they didn't even have to prove it, they could just say that they slept for seven hours or more for 20 nights and they got $ 300. So you gave a financial incentive to people. What mattered tomorrow, when we talked to employees, was not the $ 300. I see. It was the fact that the CEO of the company was telling them that getting enough sleep is good for the bottom line of Aetna. That there's no tradeoff between the two, and, during that whole time, he was making all these changes, the Aetna stock was going up, which is fantastic, because, then again, you could see The connection that we are trying to prove. And what is so interesting with Mark is that he says that he has a very, very, we all have a sudden road that we have to hold in order to be healthy. His is incredibly straight and narrow. Like he'll tell you, if I don't do these things, if I don't get enough sleep, if I don't meditate and take care of myself, I'm in excruciating pain. So it's like his barometer, speaking of knowing your red line, his is screaming at him. The rest of us have the luxury, but also it makes it harder on us to be sufficiently aware of our red line not to cross it. I love that. Listen to your own body. When you sold having a pause you make billions and billions of dollars ->> Yeah billions and billions and billions [ LAUGH ] You could have gone off and meditated and exercised and relaxed and slept and do all of those things yet you have one big venture again. Wha \ t drives you? Why go do another and Like it or not, you're working hard. I know you're doing so in a very thoughtful passion and meaningful passion, but what drives you? I actually absolutely love what I am doing. I think everyone here is really lucky to be doing things we love. What changed for me, Is that I realized that I would do what I'm doing and continue to put my whole self in. But if I also took care of myself first, I would also bring a lot of joy in what I'm doing. And this has become really important to me. Because I feel we're so lucky To do to have jobs we love. I'm sure everybody here, we all have challenges but nevertheless we're all doing really interesting things. But very often I know if I can judge by my pre- collapsed self, we're just like we're just Working really hard and not really bringing draw into it. We're just getting stuff done, because we're about getting stuff done. And I'm now so driven to actually help people see that they're actually gonna be even more effective. And that's why in my last book about sleep, I just Stress that science, that unless you have a genetic mutation, and I'm sure some people in this room have, and then you can do great on four hours. The rest of us, the vast majority of us, need seven to nine hours. For me, that's like my nonnegotiable thing. When I get that My optimal number is eight. Somebody else here may be seven. Then, everything else is amazing. It doesn't mean there aren't problems and challenges and difficulties, but I can deal with them in a very different way, than if I'm running on empty. And now, of course, you have the science that shows that. Running on empty is kind of the cognitive equivalent of going to work drunk, so there are real consequences. And that's why for our launch, I've asked a lot of leaders to write about that, because we need new role models. So Jeff Bezos, for example, is writing a piece And the tight list, why am i sleeping eight hours a night is good for Amazon share holders. You know we need to make this connection between leaders who take care of themselves and heavily charge themselves and the decisions they are making. And of course we do not want to talk about politics But we have an example of extreme sleep deprivation running for office. [ LAUGH ] [ APPLAUSE ] Without naming names. [ LAUGH ] Without naming names, we see the impact. You know, it actually We see all the symptoms of chronic sleep deprivation according to the American Society of Sleep [ CROSSTALK ] Well, we see a lot of other things too, to be fair. But we see instability, incoherence and no impulse control, etc. [ LAUGH ] So my one hope is that after November 9, if things go well There's going to be one value left in very public our nominees run. And this will be, mothers can look at their children and say, look at him. That's what will happen if you don't get a good night's sleep. [ LAUGH ] All right. Well on that So obviously there are a bunch of rules that you've come up with and ways to structure for employee wellness, for employee retention and to keep employees happier and more productive. Will technology play a role? Yes, technology will play a big role. In fact Because of you David we're launching Flight global with a store. You're acting like it's a blame. No I know it's been a lot of work no, no, no, and David had this idea that it's great to actually have something tangible to show people. To show them this most amazing technology that many of you in this room kind of are working on Around wellness. And so we're launching this pop- up store for a month and a half in SoHo on November 30th, that will display as though you are in a museum. A lot of this technology, both products and apps, and has people who have been educated. About it to explain the process. A little bit like the Apple genius bar. Because there's so much amazing stuff, I mean, it's awe inspiring to be here and listen to what is happening. But a lot of people don't know about it, or if they know about it, they feel it's so complicated. That's what we are doing. The only thing that we are also doing is stressing the importance of setting boundaries with technology. It's like celebrating technology. But also realizing that we need to reclaim a humanity, and that requires boundaries. And It requires boundaries, from a very early on, for our children and grandchildren. Tell me about the family- So, one of the first products that we are launching with is a family bed for smartphones. So this is a, basically it looks like a bed, it's a charging station but looks like a bed, and it lives outside everybody's bedroom. So people learn through ritual. So the idea is that you have expense from mommy's phone and daddy's phone and every child's phone. And from the minute you give your child a phone, the child knows that's where the phone sleeps. And they're little blankets that you put over them. [ LAUGH ] And on one side there are You use them to clean the screen and other side it's sat in and looks very much like a blanket. And the goal here is to basically educate our children. Because, I know, when my daughters were teenagers, it became a battle to get the phones away from them at night. And we saw with the latest big story in Time magazine, About the dramatic increase in depression and anxiety among teenagers. And that's very connected with the abuse of technology. And the truth is that we are all addicted. So how can we help each other set these boundaries? In today's world, where kids graduate from college, and they no longer wanna go to medical school. They no longer wanna Help. They want to work at Google, they want to work in Silicon Valley. Went I went to Thrive Global for the first time actually last week, and saw this young workforce. Was it hard to get them? Are they the right people? Was it hard to get young kids interested in this? In working in health and wellness, or was it easy? No, in fact, it was actually incredibly easy. We're overwhelmed with an amazing amount of candidates. Both, at the entry level, but also at the senior level. I think what is interesting, that a lot of people are passionate about the topic. I mean, a lot of people, like our head of sales. Was head of global monetization at YouTube. Trust me, we are not paying global monetization head of YouTube salaries. [ LAUGH ] [ LAUGH ] But that is our passion. And our chief technology officer was the chief technology officer of the New York Times for four- and- a- half years and was about to take another big job with a huge salary. But he Was born in India. His grandfather was a doctor. He always wanted to do something in this field. So if we're liking both at the similar level and at the younger level, because again, I feel it's in the air. I feel everybody in this room works in this field. And I'm sure you can feel it. People are so excited about what is happening. And about how it can apply to their own lives. [ MUSIC ]

Watch Arianna Huffington’s full interview at Fortune’s Brainstorm Health conference.

Huffington Sits Down with Fortune to Talk Health, Politics, and Role Models