> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.themeatmafia.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Scott Hickle: What Your Poop Says About Your Health, and Why He's Building a Smart Toilet - URL: https://www.themeatmafia.com/episodes/scott-hickle-throne-what-your-poop-says-about-your-health/ - Published: 2026-11-04T19:39:08.000Z - Updated: 2026-11-04T19:39:08.000Z - Description: Throne founder Scott Hickle on why stool is an overlooked health signal, the 30-day ultra-processed food experiment he ran on himself, and why blood in your stool means see a doctor. - Author: Harry Gray - Tags: Gut Health, Labs, Bloodwork & Wearables, #blog, #episode **By The Meat Mafia (Harry Gray and Brett Ender)** *We sat down with Scott Hickle in Austin, and this was the most fun we've had talking about something nobody wants to talk about. Scott is an engineer, and for a while the idea that became his company was a running joke between friends.* Scott and his co-founder Tim both come from healthcare families. Scott's mom is a geriatrician; his dad is an anesthesiologist and medical device inventor. Their first company idea, a nurse-staffing marketplace, fell apart within weeks of fundraising. Then a friend asked if they'd ever thought about smart toilets. They had: there were texts going back to 2022 joking about it. They'd never taken it seriously, until Scott called his mom and asked if there was any medical value in looking at people's waste. > "I've stopped giving my phone number to my patients because they send me so many pictures of their poop." ([\~30:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RB5VtniNVKk&t=1800s)) That answer stuck with him. His mom lives in Ruidoso, New Mexico, far from the Austin wellness bubble. These were everyday Americans, he says, who sensed there was health information in the toilet and had nowhere to take it. So they did six weeks of homework on what biomarkers show up in human waste and what conditions map onto them. Scott points out this isn't new: traditional Chinese medicine and Ayurveda both put weight on stool observation, and Henry VII and Henry VIII had a royal post called the groom of the stool. He's careful not to oversell. Throne won't diagnose anything, he says. The goal is to throw up a red flag sooner, so people get to a doctor before small problems grow. > "I wanna build the smoke detector for colon cancer" ([\~52:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RB5VtniNVKk&t=3120s)) He told us he's met dozens of people who lost a parent to colon cancer since making this his mission. If one person gets a colonoscopy they otherwise wouldn't have, he says, that's why he was put on this planet. That's the Scott Hickle we sat down with: an engineer who decided the toilet bowl was worth paying attention to. Below is the rest of the conversation, from his 30-day ultra-processed food experiment to Brett's own early warning signs. This is his view, not medical advice. If you see blood in your stool, talk to a doctor. (Timestamps are approximate.) [Listen to the full episode](https://share.transistor.fm/s/8b6c70c8) · [Watch on YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RB5VtniNVKk) **TL;DR:** Scott Hickle's smart-toilet company, Throne, started as a joke until his mom, a geriatrician, told him her patients send her so many photos of their poop that she stopped giving out her number. He thinks stool is an overlooked health signal that cultures from Ayurveda to the Tudor court took seriously. In a 30-day experiment eating only ultra-processed food, he reports gut inflammation markers appearing and his testosterone dropping about 30%. His bottom line: a pattern of blood in your stool means see a doctor. **Who is Scott Hickle?** A mechanical engineer from UT Austin and the co-founder and CEO of Throne, a pre-launch health-tech company building a toilet-mounted device to track gut health and hydration. Both his parents are physicians. ## Key takeaways - Throne began after his geriatrician mom said patients send her photos of their poop (\~30:00). - Traditional Chinese medicine and Ayurveda both emphasize stool observation (\~37:00). - He wants to detect trace blood in stool as an early nudge to see a doctor, not a diagnosis (\~52:00). - In his own 30-day experiment on only ultra-processed food, he reports gut inflammation markers appearing (\~1:10:00). - He says his testosterone dropped about 30% in that experiment and visceral fat rose sharply, while his weight dipped slightly (\~1:11:00). ## His 30-day ultra-processed food experiment Scott kept his calories at about 3,000 a day, kept exercising and sleeping, and switched only what he ate: from eggs, salmon and Greek yogurt to 100% ultra-processed food for 30 days (\~1:09:00). He tracked it with a WHOOP, an Oura ring, DEXA scans, bloodwork and microbiome tests. By his account he went from no inflammatory markers in his gut to having them, his testosterone dropped about 30%, and his visceral fat went from 0.2 to 1.12 pounds even though he weighed slightly less at the end (\~1:10:00–1:11:00). It's one person's experiment, not a study. SAVE & SHARETHEMEATMAFIA.COM [![Infographic titled What Your Poop Can Tell You, from Scott Hickle on Meat Mafia episode 391: doctors get the photos, it's an old idea, blood is a red flag, food shows up fast, don't wait, don't obsess.](https://storage.ghost.io/c/a7/74/a7746fb4-f95a-43c9-80de-d89d93cfaf68/content/images/2026/11/hickle_card.png)](https://storage.ghost.io/c/a7/74/a7746fb4-f95a-43c9-80de-d89d93cfaf68/content/images/2026/11/hickle%5Fcard.png) What Your Poop Can Tell You, from Scott Hickle on MMP #391\. Tap to open the full-size card (1080×1350) to save or share. ## Red flags, not diagnoses He says blood in the stool can come from many things, from ulcers to hemorrhoids, and the scariest is colon cancer. "All we need to say is, Hey, you have a pattern of co like blood in your stool. You should go show this to a doctor" (\~53:00). He also doesn't want people obsessing over a gut health score (\~59:00). ## Brett's warning signs Brett shares that he first saw blood in his stool in fall 2015, waited about two months to see a doctor, and was diagnosed with full-blown ulcerative colitis in August 2016 (\~1:03:00). That delay is exactly the kind Scott hopes to shorten. ## FAQ **Who is Scott Hickle?** The co-founder and CEO of Throne, a health-tech company building a toilet-mounted device to track gut health and hydration. **Why does stool matter for health?** Scott says stool carries signals about gut health and hydration, and a pattern of blood in your stool is a reason to see a doctor (\~53:00). **What happened in Scott Hickle's ultra-processed food experiment?** Over 30 days of only ultra-processed food he reports gut inflammation markers appearing, about a 30% drop in testosterone and a rise in visceral fat (\~1:10:00). **Does Throne diagnose disease?** No. He says the goal is to flag patterns early and get people to a doctor, not to diagnose (\~1:04:00). ## Related on The Meat Mafia - [Chris Kresser on autoimmunity and Brett's Remicade years](https://www.themeatmafia.com/episodes/chris-kresser-autoimmunity-functional-medicine/) - [Robb Wolf: from junk food to real food](https://www.themeatmafia.com/episodes/robb-wolf-paleo-junk-food-to-real-food/) - [More on Gut Health](https://www.themeatmafia.com/health/gut-health/) - [Browse all episodes](https://www.themeatmafia.com/episodes/) **Get the free guide: 100 Books to Transform Your Health.** Join the Meat Mafia email list and we'll send it to you. [Sign up free →](https://www.themeatmafia.com/100-books/) --- *Not medical advice. This post summarizes a podcast conversation for education. The views are the guest's own. Talk to a qualified clinician before you change your diet, supplements or any medication.*