Witnessed: Devil in the Ditch - Infamous on New Cold Plunge Deaths

Episode Date: February 15, 2024

The podcast Infamous is covering how, in the last decade, the “Iceman” Wim Hof (a.k.a. Justin Bieber’s “Breathwork Santa”) has become a household name. Orlando Bloom to Oprah Winfrey have practiced his method, which includes daily cold plunges and hyperventilation breath work. But despite intense success, is Wim Hoff responsible for encouraging practices known to be dangerous—and even deadly? In this episode, Vanessa interviews investigative journalist Scott Carney, Wim’s former ghostwriter, who has been looking into deaths related to Wim’s method. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hey, it's Vanessa Grigoriottis, and I'm here to tell you about a new episode of my podcast, Infamous, that I think you'll like. I'm going to play a clip of it for you now. As I've mentioned before, I live in New York City, and this past week, it's been cold. Not like snowpiercer cold, not even Canada cold, but I am not used to these temperatures, and I can tell you, I'm not into it. But lately, there are a lot of people who seem to be really into the cold. Welcome to the polar plunge, baby! Yeah! It's become almost an obsession.

The latest culty fad in cities. I'm talking cold plunges, ice baths, freezing cold showers. Supposedly there are all sorts of health benefits, and the celebrities love it, including, obviously, Gwyneth Paltrow. Now you understand that you can control your body, even the ritual of a cold shower, to you tell yourself, I'm in control of this.

That's amazing. That's amazing. Justin Bieber's a fan too. I do the ice plunge regardless every day because it's good for your body. You do it every day? Pretty much every day, yeah. Ice plunge in an ice bath or just cold water?

Ice bath. Is it Wim Hof? Wim Hof, but he has these breathing techniques, and he's a G. Hello. I've just been watching YouTube videos of you. All right. Can I hug you?

Of course. You're a lovely lady. Thank you. It's so nice to meet you. Nice to meet you. Nice to meet you. You're the living example of mind over matter. Nowadays, the cold is so hot.

And it's all thanks to that man, Wim Hof, who likes to call himself the Iceman. Hey guys, I'm the Iceman. Very cold. No. Very warm. Hotter. The reality is it goes back 2,000, 3,000 years. You know, the Stoics talked about it, the Yogis talked about it. This idea of cold plunges goes throughout all of history

because it's a thing that we've always done. Challenging cold. There's also Paul-Free Ivanov, who was until 1980. He was a Russian Christian water saint, a guy who like preached cold water. And then Wim Hof looks like exactly like Paul-Free Ivanov, really funny. And he's preaching the same stuff. So we see this cycle come over and over again. And I think to every generation, they're like, Hey, we're too comfortable. Hey, let's go in ice water. And Wim is the current guy doing it.

Let me read your description of him. He wore a green hat and had a red nose and ruddy skin that made him appear a little gnomish. He was bursting with energy, talk loudly, and smelled like an onion. Yeah, like a pleasant little gnomish onion. Yeah, breathwork Santa. I followed him for 10 years. I eventually hiked up Mount Kilimanjaro with him in my underwear,

and it was negative 30 degrees outside. We made it to the top, which is Gilman's point. We have done it with the Wim Ha himself. And I was, I mean, it wasn't warm, but I made it. We have done it with the Wim Ha himself. And I was, I mean, it wasn't warm, but I made it, right? I made it. And it is truly surprising, truly shocking. That is so unbelievable. Can we just pause on that for a second?

You hiked up Mount Kilmijart. So when you say underwear, do you mean like long johns that are just shorts? I meant like a bathing suit. With a warm hat? I had a hat. are just shorts? I meant like a bathing suit. With a warm hat? Yeah, I had a hat. With a hat? I might have had gloves too.

And we. A bathing suit. And you're pouring, pouring wet. And you're naked. I must have been. I know, it sounds dumb, right? It sounds dumb. There's no real point except to take that naked selfie

off the top, right? Right, right. Well, that's the the great male ego has been satiated. Yes. So when does the questioning start? So there are like several origin parts of this for me. One is that I'm always been skeptical of the cult of personality that shows up around gurus. At the same time, I've often seen gurus have usually pearls of wisdom

that are useful and interesting. So I have a conflicted feelings about gurus. But then I asked the question which really altered my life in the last year. How many people have died doing the Wim Hof method? Because no one had really asked this question since about 2015, when four people had been documented for drowning in the water doing the Wim Hof method. The thing with Wim Hof is that he has created an aura of fighting the extremes, going out, pushing your limits.

And when I learned from him, he taught me that I should be doing this in water. I would do laps in the community center pool here and I would hyperventilate, I would swim under water and I'd swim here and I would hyperventilate I would swim underwater and I'd swim back and I just get right to my limit I'd come up and I'd like oh look how cool I am you felt faint you felt faint you felt like you couldn't go any further No, that's the thing This is the recipe for something called shallow water blackout. I started digging into it. Listen to info.

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