The following is a conversation with Joe Rogan that we recorded after my recent appearance on his podcast The Joe Rogan Experience Joe has been an inspiration to me and I thank to millions of people for just being somebody who puts love out there in the world and being genuinely curious about wild ideas from chimps and psychedelics to quantum mechanics and artificial intelligence like many of you. I've been a fan of his podcast for
For over a decade and now somehow miraculously and humbled to be able to call him a friend. If you enjoy this thing subscribe on YouTube review it with five stars and up a podcast follow on Spotify support on patreon or connect with me on Twitter Lex Friedman.
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Joe Rogan
Do you Ponder your mortality Are You Afraid Of Death
I do think about it sometimes I mean, it does pop into my head. Sometimes just the fact that I mean, I'm 53. So if everything goes great, I have less than 50 years left, you know, if everything goes great, like no car accidents no injuries.
They can happen today. This could be your last day because be that's kind of a stoic thing to meditate on death. There's a there's a bunch of
Ernest Becker and Sheldon Solomon they believe that death is the at the core of everything wrote this book warm at the core. So does that come into play the way you see the world?
I think having a sense of urgency is very beneficial and understanding that your time is limited. Can Aid you greatly I think knowing that this is a temporary time that we have finite life spans. I think there's a there's
Is great power in that because it motivates you it gets you going. I think being an immortal living forever would be one of the most depressing things particularly if everybody else was dying around you and I think one of the things that makes life so interesting and fascinating is that it doesn't last you know that you you really get a brief amount of time here and really by the time you're just starting to kind of figure yourself out who you are and how not to screw things up so bad like times up there.
Over what about from your like from your daughter's perspective do you think about the world we're in now and what kind of world you're going to leave them?
I do do you worry about
it? I do. Yeah, I do I do when I see these protests and riots and chaos and so much so much anger in the world today and then particularly today, I think because of the pandemic and the fact that so many folks are out of work and through no fault of their own and can't make ends meet and just people feel so helpless and angry. It's a particularly.
Divisive time it's a particularly turmoil filled time and it just doesn't seem like the world of a year ago even his feels very chaotic and dangerous and this is and it's a small thing like in terms of the like the possibilities of things that could happen to the world like a pandemic that like the one we've experienced. It really just doubles the amount of deaths on a bad flu year. So it relatively speaking is a small thing comparison to
Super volcano eruptions asteroid impact a real horrific pandemic or one that you know, really wipes out millions and millions of people. It's it's stunning how fragile civility is it stunning how fragile our our society really? Is that something like this can come along some unprecedented thing unprecedented thing can come along and all sudden everybody's out of work for six months and then everybody's at each other's throats.
And then politically everyone's at each other's throats. And and then with the Advent of social media and the images that you can see, you know with videos of police abuse and just racial tensions are an all-time high it to a point where like if you asked me just five or six years ago like our have racial problems in this country. We largely been alleviated. I probably say yeah, it's way better than it's ever been before but now you could argue that it's not now You could argue is notes.
Way worse and just a small amount of time. It's way worse than it's ever been during my lifetime you cut while I'm aware of it, you know, obviously when I was a young boy in the 60s, there were still going through the Civil Rights Movement, but now it just seems very fever pitched and I think a lot of that is because of the pandemic and is because of all the heightened just tension the when I liken it to is Pete road rage because
People have road rage not just because they're in the car. No one can get to them but also because you're at a heightened State because you're driving fast, you know, you're driving fast, you know, you have to make split-second movements. And so anybody doing something like what up people go crazy because they're they're already at an eight because they're in the car and they're moving very quickly. That's what it feels like with today with the pandemic feels like everybody is already at an eight. So anything that comes along it's like light it on fire, you know burn it down like that's
Part of what I think is part of the reason for a lot of the looting in the riots and all the chaos. It's not just the people at our work but it's also that everyone feels so tense already and everyone feels so helpless and it's like, you know doing something like that makes people it just it gives people a whole new motivation for chaos a whole new motivation for for
And destructive things that I'm never experienced in my
life and your better days when you see a positive future. What do you think is the way out of this cast of 2020 like if you visualize in 2025, that's a better world than today. What is that? How do we get them? What does that look like? It's good question.
I can honestly say I don't know and I wouldn't have said I don't know a year ago a year ago. I would have said we're going to be okay as much people hate Trump the upon economy's doing great. I think we're going to be fine. That's not how I feel today today. I don't think there's a clear solution politically because I think of trump wins people going to be furious and I think if Biden wins people going to be furious particularly like if things get more
Woke, you know if people continue to enforce this Force compliance and make people behave a certain way and act a certain way which seems to be a part of what this whole woke thing. Is that is the most disturbing for me is that I see what's going on. I see there's a lot of losers that have hopped on this and they shove it in people's faces and it doesn't have to make sense. Like there was a black lives matter protest that stop this woman at a restaurant they were surrounding
Her outside a restaurant. They were forcing her to raise her fist and compliance. This is a woman who's marched for black lives multiple times, but black lives matter multiple times and the people all around her doing this were all white. Yeah, it's all it's all weird. My friend Coach T. He's a wrestling coaches also on a podcast my friend Brian Moses his take on it. Is that black and he's black eyes black lives matters of white cult and I'm like when you see that picture it's hard to argue that he's got a point and it's clearly not all about that.
There's a lot of people that have jumped on board that are very much like cult members because think about black lives matter or any movement is you can't control who joins. There's no entrance examination. So you don't go. Okay. How do you feel about this? What's your perceptions on that? Like what how you like the man who shot the Trump supporter in Portland, you know that guy who murdered the Trump supporter than the cop shot him that guy was walking around with his
hand on his gun looking for Trump supporters. Just want I mean, he's a known violent guy who was walking around looking for Trump Sports found one and shot one that has nothing to do with black lives matter. He's a white guy shot another white guy. It's just it's just Madness, you know, and that kind of Madness is it's disturbing to see it ramped up so quickly. I mean, there's been there's been riots in Portland every night. Excuse me demonstrations 401 days.
No hundred one days in a row of them lighting things on fire breaking into Federal buildings. It's like whoever saw that comment. Nobody saw that coming. So I don't know what the solution is. And I don't know what it looks like in five years or 20 25 to answer your question. Like they could be anything. I mean we could be looking at Mad Max we could be looking at the apocalypse. We could we could also be looking at an invasion from another country. We could be looking at a war like a real hot War.
To put a little bit of responsibility on you like for me I've listened to since the Red Band Olive Garden days. That's the very beginning and there was something in the way you communicate about the world. Maybe there was all theirs but you're the one I was aware of as you're open-minded and like loving towards the world especially as the podcast developed like you just demonstrated and lived this kind of just kindness or maybe even like lack of jealousy and
Own
little profession of Comedy. It's it was clear that you didn't you didn't succumb to the weaker aspects of human nature. And thereby Inspire, like people like me who I was I was naturally probably especially in like the 20s early 20s kind of jealous on the success of others and you'll really the primary person that taught me to truly celebrate the success of others and so by way of question you kind of have a
a role in this of making a better 2025 you have such a big megaphone. Is there something you think you can do on this podcast with the words the way you talk the things you discuss that could create a better 2025.
I think if anything I can help in leading by example, but
You know, that's only going to help the people that are listening. I don't know what else I can do in terms of like make the world a better place other than
express my hopes and wishes for that and just try to be as nice as I can to people is often as I can. But I also think that I've fallen into this weird category particular with the Spotify deal where you know, I'm one of them now, I'm not a regular person anymore now Mike some famous. Rich guy. Yeah, so you go from being a regular person to a famous rich guy. That's out of touch, you know, and that that's a real issue.
Whenever you're talking about the economy about just real life problems. It's
interesting kind of hurts. My heart to hear people say about Elon Musk is just the
billionaire. Yeah, it's
an interesting statement. But I think if you just continue being you and he continued being him people people. I think people are just voicing their worried that you become some
rich guy. I don't even know if they're doing that. I think they're just finding what the way he describes it an attack vector.
Right. Yeah, and I think he's right. I think they just they could dismiss You by just saying. Oh, you're just a that, you know, you're a you know, you're easily definable
right? But there I mean there's truth to that you if you're not careful, you can become out of touch but you that that's an interesting thing like why haven't you become out of touch like as a human off the podcast if you don't act like a
Like it you talk to somebody like me. You don't talk like a famous person or you don't you don't act rich like you're better than others. There's a certain this enough talk to quite a few you have to but I've talked to a specially kind of group of people that like Nobel Prize winners. Let's say they have sometimes have an heir to them that sense of arrogance. Yeah, and you don't what was that
about? Well, you got to know what that is right like that air of arrogance comes from
Drinking your own Kool-Aid you start believing that somehow another just because you're getting praise from all these people that you really are something different. Usually it exemplifies. There's there's something there there's where there's a lack of struggle, you know, and I think struggle is
Probably one of the most important balancing tools that a person can have and for me I struggle mentally struggle physically a struggle mentally in that. I like we're talking about on the podcast. We did previously you and I on my podcast that I'm not a fan of my work. I'm not a fan of what I do. I'm a my harshest critic. So anytime anybody says something bad about me. I'm like listen I said way worse about myself.
Delphi you know, I don't like anything I do I'm ruthlessly introspective and I will continue to be that way because that's the only way you could be good as a comedian. There's no other way. You can't just think you're awesome and just go out there. You have to have to be like picking apart everything you do, but there's a balance to that too because you have to have enough confidence to go out there and perform good. You can't thank all my God I suck. I know what I'm doing, but I know what I'm doing because I put in all that work and one of the reasons why I put in all that work is I don't like the I don't like the end result.
Result most of the time so I need to work at it all the time and then there's physical struggle which I think balance is everything out without physical struggle. I've always make the analogy that the body is in a lot of ways like a battery where if you have extra charge it's like it's leaks out of the top and it becomes unmanageable and messy and that's how my psyche is if I if I have too much energy if I'm not if I'm not exerting myself in a violent way.
An explosive way like wearing myself out. I just don't like the way the world is I don't like the way I interface with the world. I'm too tense. I'm I'm too quick to be upset about things up to but when I work out hard and you know, I put in a brutal training session. Everything's fine.
Well the first time I talked to you on Jerry you were doing octo silver October October and there's
Open your eyes. Like I think you've talked about that you you know you exercise the demons out essentially so you exercise to get whatever the parts of you that you don't like out. There was a dark there's a darkness in you. They're like the the competitiveness in the focus of that person.
That was a scary time in a lot of ways that sober October thing because my friends were all talking shit, right because we're competing against each other in these fitness challenges and you had
On point poor like you got a certain amount of points for each minute that you went to 80% of your max heart rate and one day I got 1,100 points. So I did seven hours on an elliptical machine watching the bathhouse scene from John Wick. We murders those people to battle. I watched probably 50 times in a row. I went crazy. I went crazy but I went crazy in a weird way where it brought me back to my my fighting days it was
Like the state that person came out again is like well, I didn't even know he was in there. So they're like
like like an assassin like a killer like I felt I felt like
I felt like a like a different
person is it echoes of like what Mike Tyson talked about essentially like
the but no orgasm in oceans.
Crazy shit that he is there there that Violet. Is there a violent person in there? Oh, yeah. Yeah. There's a lot of there's a lot of violence in me for sure. I don't know if its genetic or learned or it's because during my formative years from the time I was 15 till I was 22. All I did was fight. That was all it did. That was all I did. All I did was train and compete. It's all a debt. That was my whole
life. Is it connected to so you your mom and dad broke up early on is it connected to
The dad at all. I'm sure it's connected to him also because he was violent and it made me feel very scared to be around him. But I also think it's connected in who he was as a human is transferred into my DNA, you know, I think there's a certain amount of I mean, I mean to be prejudiced against myself. I look like a violent person, you know, if I didn't know me, I'm just even the way I'm built not even just to working out by just a size of my hands and
like there's the width of my shoulders like there's most likely a lot of violence in my history in my past and my ancestry and I think I think we minimize that with people so much of your behavior. Like I when I see my daughter of a one daughter that's obsessive in terms of like she wants to get really good at things like could she and she'll practice things all day long and it's 100% my personality like she's me in
Male form but without the anger as much and without the fear like she is loving household and everything like that, but she has this intense obsession with doing things and doing things really well and getting better with the point. We have to tell her stop by stop doing handsprings in the house. Stop. Stop. Come on just sit out have dinner like one more one more like she's just like she's like, she's like, oh, yeah, and I think there's
a lot of behavior and personality and a lot of these things are passed down through genetics. We don't really know right. We don't know how much of who you are genetically is be learned behavior, you know nature and nurture. We don't know if it's learned behavior or whether or not something that's intrinsically a part of you because of you know, who your parents were. I think there's there's certainly some genetic violence in me.
There's any channel that yeah, I figured out is basically your life is a productive exploration of how to channel
that yes. Try to figure out how to get get that monkey to sit down and calm down is another person in there. Like this is a calm rational kind friendly person who just wants to laugh and have fun and then there's that dude who comes out when I did sober October that guy's scary. I don't like that guy. Yeah guy just wants to get up in the
And go, you know, it's like, it's me when I was competing. It was necessary, but it makes me remember I didn't really remember what a what I used to be like until that it's like when I'm working out seven hours a day and it just so obsessed and and also thinking about was winning. That's all I was thinking about like if they were there working out five hours a day. I wanted I wanted them to know that I was going to work out an extra three hours and I was going to get up early and I was going to text them all. Hey pussy.
I'm up already take pictures. Send selfies is like you're gonna die. Oh, it kept telling them. You're all gonna die. You try to keep up with me. I'm gonna
die. You weren't fully
joking. No, I wasn't joking at all. That's what was fucked up about it the scary thing when I
interact with Goggins and what I saw in you on doing that time is like this guy like like this is why I've been avoiding David Kong has recently is like because he wants to meet he has to do the talking.
This podcast but he also wants to run an ultra marathon with me and I felt like this is a person if I spend any time in this realm if I spend any time with the Joe Rogan of that sober October like I might have to die to get out like there's this kind of
yeah, there's a competitive aspect that super unhealthy. I mean you saw the video that we watched earlier today of Goggins draining his knee that would stop me from running ever again because I would think of my head. Okay. I'm going to ruin my cartilage. I'm going to need a knee replacement.
I would start thinking I would go down that line, but he is perpetually in this push it mindset, you know, the what he calls the dog in him, you know, he's got that dog is in him all day long and he feeds that dog, you know, and that's that's who he is. That's one of the reasons why he's so inspirational and he's fuel for millions and millions of people. I mean he really is he motivates people in a way that is so powerful, but it can be very destructive. I just I know I
I know now, especially after the sober October thing that things still in me, you know, I didn't know it's a really haven't done anything physically competitive except one time. I was supposed to fight Wesley Snipes it came out then to that came out to dog that got creepy too, but luckily that never happened, but that was many months of training like training twice a day every day kickboxing the morning Jiu-Jitsu at night. I was just going going and going and going and I was just thinking just
The lungs and it but it but it fucks with all the other aspects of your life fucks with your friendships fucks with your fuck with my comedy fucks with everything because that mindset is not a mindset of an artist's a mindset of a
conqueror the Conqueror. Yeah Destroyer. That's why it's so interesting to see Mike Tyson's make the switch. It's clear that like whatever that is. However, that fight goes you made us. There's a switch of add if he stepped into a different dimension
Roy Jones jr. Is coming on my podcast soon. And you know, Roy's gonna
To be on before the fight. I'm
I'm just so curious to see how it goes down but genuinely concerned because Mike Tyson is a heavyweight and Roy Jones at his best was 268 pounds and
that has enough Roy has that room in his house mental House of where Mike Tyson goes.
I don't know if he has a room. I might just never room. He's got an empire in there with the open side door. He's opened up a door this there's a whole empire in his head and he's in that firmly, you know when he got out of the weed
And and start training again. You could see it in him by the way it physically in person. He looks spectacular. He looks like a fucking Adonis. I mean, he looks ready to go. It's crazy. Yeah watching videos of
him. What about you? Have you ever considered competing in
Jiu-Jitsu? No for that. Very reason. I don't want to get obsessed. That's my number one concern. I had a quit video games. Yeah, when we were playing video games the studio. I had a quit because I was playing five hours a day.
Like out of nowhere all of a sudden I was playing five hours down was coming home late for dinner. I was ending podcast early and jumping on the video games and playing I get obsessed with things and I have to recognize what that is and these competitive things like competitive especially like really exciting competitive things like video games. The very dangerous for me. The ultimate competitive video game is like Jiu-Jitsu and if I was young I most certainly would have done it. If I didn't have like a very clear career path. It was something that I enjoyed.
Concern would be that I would become a professional jiu-jitsu fighter when I was young and then I would not have the energy to do stand-up and do all the other things that I want up doing as a career when I was 21. I quit my job teaching. I was teaching at Boston University. I was teaching Taekwondo there and I knew and I also have my own School in Revere. I knew I couldn't do it right and also be doing stand-up comedy. I knew I couldn't do both of those.
Things there's no
way you have to be cognizant of that obsessive Force within you to make sure
yes, I know I have to know how to manage my mental illness, right? That's that's a very particular mental illness and I think that mental illness again my formative years from 15 till I was you know, 21-inch 22 those those years were spent constantly obsessed with martial arts. That was my whole day. I mean, I trained almost every day the only time
Not trained as if I was either injured or if I was exhausted if I needed a day off, but I was obsessed. And so that part of my personality that I haven't nurtured is always going to be there under the surface and when it gets reignited by something, it's a very weird. It's a weird feeling and it can get reignited with a video game. You can get reignited with anything that obsessive that you know, whatever it is that competitive demon. Yeah the way you talk
about guitar.
I know you would love fall in love with playing guitar, but I think you're very wise to not touch that
thing. So I won't golf. I have friends who want to golf and my fucking with that
thing. So a lot of people ask me about like what's Joe Rogan's digits a game like like like like assuming that I somehow spend hours rolling with you before and after we drag, I mean, what's a good we should at some point show a technique or something? That would be
for sure. I mean I've got what's your game and lets you?
There that I saw I saw you doing a I think had an arm something
online. Yeah, I did. That was I fucked my neck. I'm doing head and arm chokes. I did him so much that I you know, because you use your neck so much with head and arms chokes. I developed like a real kink in my neck and turned out I had a bulging disc and you know
say Joan on that just one side.
Well, it was no I can do it on the left side, but I definitely am better on the right side. The right side was my best side
though.
If you were to compete, let's say like what's your A game? What would you go from standing up? How would you go to submission? Would you pull guard would you take down? Well, how would you put it past guard?
What's I don't have good take down some I was on a good wrestler. So I would most likely either pull guard or I would pull half guard you have a good guard. Yeah. Are you comfortable being on your yeah. It's about on your back. Yes. I have I'm very flexible. So I've good. My rubber guard is pretty good a regular. Yeah. You have a good arm bars and good.
Those off my back but I also have a very good half card. But my top game is my best. I very strong top game. We have a hash card you have give
preference of like what kind of guard and how to pass that guard and like yeah, like is there a specific game plan like you would
you double underhooks from half guard is the game plan for me if I can get double underhooks from half guard. I could sweep a lot of
underhooks of what sorry the arms are.
So hap Carr.
I'd locked down right like I've guard go into lockdown double underhooks. Got it clinch to the body suck. The body is its high pressure and yet massive pressure and then inch my way into a position we call the dogfight in to inch my way to a position where I could get the person on their
back. Yeah. That's what because he did show me I still disagree with you about the tie thing they can chill times with it so wrong, it's wrong.
Well, it's not wrong with you with you. It's wrong because you
know, I think there's a system what I do.
I've have this thing with Donna how we're going to figure it out. Okay, but the have a little Velcro on the
back. So it's see that's you're just not
cheating. You're not the here's the exact escheat. Yeah, you did. I did feel when you showed me. I think you showed me the rubber guard because it's still a got this little bit foreign to me. I just felt that you can immediately feel not with the rubber guard just but the way you move your body is your like a Shan ji type of guy who knows how to control another.
A human being so like some people are a little bit more. I would say agile and Technical like playful and kind of loose loose and treasure they work on transition transition transition your control guy like, you know how to control position and advanced position. Donna has the same way. He's all about
control. My game is Smush smush my game smush you grab ahold of you once I have you why would I let you go? That's my thought is like, why would I let you go? I just want to incrementally move to a better position.
Took a strangle you but I'm much more into strangling people than anything else. It
was just a great MMA. Yeah approach for
Jiu-Jitsu. Well too many people don't tap when you get their arms, you know, and I'm it's not am not opposed to our bars are love Arm bars, but everybody goes to sleep. Yep,
and and quit from pressure to I mean, yeah quit mentally Mmm Yeah. It's
nothing like I can't breathe. You know, if you got a guy who's like a really good top game.
Oh guy and he mounts you and I'm a big fan of mounting with my legs crossed, you know, like a guard like a top guard and so I can squeeze with both legs smush and I'm just I'm just looking for people to make mistakes and slowly incrementally bettering my position until I can get something locked up. I love Jiu-Jitsu though, man. I just wish it didn't injure you. Yeah, you know just do is like if your joints were more durable, they can figure out a way to make joints more durable God. Could you just
Forever. Yeah, it's fun.
Actually. I talked to this roboticist rustad, Jackie builds, one of the world class people that build humanoid robots. You're interested in Boston Dynamics. Yeah, the key people in that kind of Robotics. So I asked them to stupidest question of like how far are we from having a robot be a UFC champion? And yeah, it's actually a really really tough problem. It's the same thing that you know makes somebody like Danielle called me at like on
the wrestling side special because you have to understand the movement of the human body in ways that so difficult to teach it's so subtle the timing the pressure points. I like the leverage all those kinds of things. That's just for the clinch situation. And then the movement for the Striking is very difficult. As long as you're not allowed as a robot to like use your natural abilities of having a lot more
power right a lot more power and more durable, right? Then human body like especially meniscus.
Like like you see the heel hook game, like everybody's involved leg locks and he looks like all those guys wind up with torched knees. Everyone's get torched knees everyone's knees are torn apart you and you don't grow new meniscus, you know, that's like one of those joints were meant when it goes so, you know, those guys are 28 years old blown-out knees.
Let me ask the ridiculous question. What do you think? We're talking about cops? What do you think is the best martial arts self-defense
for sure jiu-jitsu?
Yeah Force wrestling right? I think grappling I should say what Judo is. Well, I'm especially in a cold climate if you get someone who's got like a heavy winter jacket on my God like Judo is an incredible Place concrete does the worst place to be with a heavy winter jacket with a judo specialist and you're standing up with them. Oh my God, but I think grappling because in most self-defense situations usually winds up with grappling. You're definitely better off though knowing some striking because there's nothing more
Terrifying then when you go to take someone down. They actually have takedown skills, but they can fight and so they have takedown defense and they know how to fight and then you don't know how to stand up like the worst thing in the world seen someone like reaching who doesn't know how to do striking and someone cracks you
what about all that Krav Maga talk, which is like, you know, the whole line of argument that says that Jiu-Jitsu and wrestling and all of these Sports they fundamentally take you away from the nature of violence. So they're just teaching you how to play.
Versus the reality of violence that is involved in like a self-defense situation. That is a totally different set of skills would be needed
in general the people that say that Jiu-Jitsu or other martial arts. Don't they? It's more of a sport and they don't really understand and don't really understand violence in general the people that say that suck. Yeah. That's anybody who thinks like
Someone's like, you know, hey, man, I'll just bite you Mike. Are you going to bite me? Okay, you think I'm gonna bite you too. What do you think of that? What if I punch you in your fucking face? You think you're still going to bite me when you can't even see ya when you're you barely even know you're alive and I choked you unconscious if someone's really good at Jujitsu good luck stabbing them with your keys. You know, you don't have a chance, you know have a chance if someone's much better you in a trip you and get you on your back and then they fucking elbow you and your face and get ahead and arm choke on you.
All that crap my gosh. It's out the window, son. You you're way better off learning what works on trained Killers like this whole idea that you're going to poke some of the eye and then you're going to kick him in the nuts and like you're going through these drills that yeah, it's good to know what to do. If you run into someone who doesn't know how to fight. It's way better to know what to do to someone who knows how to fight. That's the best thing learn how to fight against people who know how to fight like all that practice self.
And again, it's gonna come at you with a knife you gonna grab the wrist and do that. Like it's good to know self-defense, but it's much more important to understand martial arts comprehensively when you understand martial arts comprehensively like there's no crop that I shouldn't say, there's no Krav Maga guys, but it's it would be shocking if a Krav Maga guy and a mixed martial arts guy had a fight and the Mixed Martial Arts guy was a trained killer all around didn't fuck that guy up there.
That's that's what I would expect would happen. I would I would I would not think that some guy who has a little bit of this and a little bit of that and prepares for the streets is going to be able to handle a person who trains with killers on a day-to-day basis or roles. Would you Jitsu black belts who trains with Muay Thai Champions? Like you're the best martial arts of the martial arts that work on martial artists, not the martial arts that work on untrained
people. What about we're in Texas. Now, what about guns?
The best martial art now, but would you
like in this crazy time should people carry
guns? It's not a bad idea to have a gun because if you need a gun you have a gun and if you don't need a gun if you're a person with self-control, you're not going to use it. You're not going to just randomly use it. But you have something to protect you. This is the whole idea of the Second Amendment the whole idea the Second Amendment gets distorted by mass shootings or by terrible people who murder people and do terrible things, but it's definitely
that's all those things are real, but they don't take away from the fundamental efficacy of having a firearm and defending your family or Defending Your Life and there are real lives situations where people have had firearms and it's protected them or their loved ones or their stopped Shooters. They've there's many of these stories but people don't like those stories because then it tends to lead to this gun culture argument is pro gun culture argument that people find very
Comfortable it's human beings are messy and we're messy and so many different ways right? We're messy emotionally. We're messy messy physically, but we're also messy and what's good or bad? What's we want things to be binary want things to be right or wrong, you know one or zero and they're not but but there is crime in the world there is violence in the world and you're better off knowing how to fight and you're betting better off knowing how to defend yourself and you're better off having a gun.
And I generally think that guns I do like the idea that guns Second Amendment helps protect the First Amendment there's a kind of sense that makes puts me at ease knowing that so many people in this country have guns that I mean Alex Jones, I just listened to one episode of Infowars for the first time Boise. He Minds me like when I drink some tequila, I felt like I'm going to some Dark Places today. That's how I feel like listening to him, but
He talks about like that. It's he worries about martial law. So basically government overreach by which happened throughout history like this. There's something to worry about there, but it's it puts me at ease knowing that so much of the population has guns that people government would think twice before instituting martial law on cities, but I actually was asking almost like on the individual level. I maybe shouldn't say this, but I don't yet own a
a gun and I felt that if I carry a gun statistically just for me as a human knowing my psychology. I feel like I'm more likely to die. Like I feel like I would put myself in situations that I shouldn't like the way I will see the world will change because my natural feeling is like when somebody when I was in Philly and I knew late at night if West Philly when some guy looks at you.
You can immediately calculate that this is dangerous human being there. It starts with a monkey. Look at first like I'm a bigger Market than you and that's where I found like, for example, I'll do the beta thing of just looking down and turning away and just getting out of trouble like very politely and basically that kind of approach because if you have a in terms of getting out of serious violent situations, like serious something where you could die versus if I had a gun I
like I would want to be that that would be that cowboy monkey thing where I would want to put myself in situations where I'm a little bit of a savior even of myself and almost create danger which can no longer could like the escalation of which I can no longer
control. Well you talking about taking a gun somewhere versus having a gun in your
home. Yes. Yes. I mean carry on me. That's a
different situation much harder to get a warrant for or license for that, you know.
Concealed carry licenses the especially in Massachusetts. They don't come easily message. Yeah, that's a whole nother
thing. Yeah. Oh you're saying gun in the
home. Yeah got in the home having a gun haven't knowing how to use a gun. Like I know how to use a gun. I've trained, you know many hours learning how to shoot a gun at tactical places, you know, there's a bunch of videos of me doing it on Instagram. I I practice and I think it's good to understand down to be accurate.
So I've been a fan of your podcast for a long
Time you don't often talk about it because you always kind of looking forward but if you look at the old Studio, they just left. Is there some epic memories that stand out to you that you like you almost look back. I can't believe this
happened. Oh, yeah almost too many of them to count
that something pops into mind all of
of Elon Musk blowing that flamethrower in the middle of the hallway get a video of that. Have you seen the video of
it? Yeah. I think I post on
Instagram. I think I did too.
Yeah, he's a Madman having Bernie Sanders in there, you know, just all the fun fight companions. We did and all the crazy podcast with Joey Diaz and Duncan Trussell and there were so many there were so many moments. You know, it's podcast is this is e weird art form and it almost seems like sounds silly but almost seems like something that chose me rather than I chose it I think of that all the time and some strange way. It's like I'm
I'm showing up as like an antenna and I just plug in and twist twist on and then I take in the thing and I put it together and I'm all like our passenger of this weird ride.
Yeah, I think you've talked about this before. I really like this idea of that human beings is just carry as of these ideas. No ideas are the ones who are breeding. Yeah in a sense like the idea following you as a useful brain to use to spread itself through the podcasting medium. Yeah, something like that.
I know but it's because when I think about your podcast, I think about Joey Diaz, I think about all those comedians you've had. I mean, I think you've had Joey on I mean maybe close to 50 times 6 or some crazy number is there and he is over the top offensive just that's who he is to the core. Is there some sense where you you wandered like
whether it's right to have the Spotify episode number one Duncan Trussell for
five hours. Well, I do it that way. That's why we were NASA suits and we got high as fuck. It's like that's the whole idea behind it.
I'm making you introspect that a little bit like a thick like what is that because that's rare. It's such a rare thing to do because there you're not supposed to talk to Duncan Trussell with a huge platform of the you have five hours.
Why not because Donald Trump apparently watches your butt. So so just the idea that there's these. I mean, that's what I think about. You know, these CEOs right to me that they listen to the podcast that that I do and I have somebody like a David favor and that was nervous about it. I was nervous to have a conversation for me David favor is the Duncan Trussell which is like just because of
his experiences with
UFOs. Yeah, just even just the
Way, he sees the world because he is open and if he's always like this, but he opened himself to the possibility of unconventional ideas. Most people in the scientific Community kind of say well, I don't really want to believe anything that doesn't have a lot of Hard Evidence. Right? And so that was to me like a step and as the thing somehow becomes more popular that it becomes this fear of like, well should I talk to this person or not? And I mean you're an inspiration and saying like do whatever the hell you
You have to first of all I have what you call fuck you money. And if you have fuck you money, you don't say fuck you. What's the point of having the fuck you money? You're wasting it like you're wasting the position. Like someone said to me like why do you why do you like sports cars so much. Like how many cars do you have a bunch of cars? So because if I was a kid and I said, hey if I was at crazy Rich famous guy, like I don't want have a bunch of cool fucking cars like it. So I so I would do that like it because not
everybody gets to do that. Like if you're the person that gets to do that you're kind of supposed to do it. Like that's if you if you want to if that really does speak to you and you know, I've talked to you about this before but muscle cars specifically once in the 1960s and early 70s, they speak to me some weird way man. I could just stare at them. Like I have a 65 Corvette. I walk around it. Sometimes at night when no one's around. I've I just like to
hear that favorite muscle car like what's your most badass ladies?
60s the
probably that car probably that 65 Corvette. Yeah, I walk around it when no one's around. I think I'm
during the 69 Corvette. Is there a particular year that
just 65 is Generation? 269 is Generation 369 is like the it's even more curvy. They're both awesome. Just awesome in different ways, but I just love muscle cars for whatever reason but it but the point is like I like what I like and if I can do what I want to do.
Do I should do what I want to do and it's not hurting anybody and the thing is like I would do the Duncan podcast. If no one was listening, right if it was if we were just starting to do a podcast together and no one cared. No got like two thousand views which we did four years. Long time. I would do a Duncan and we would get high we talk crazy shit about aliens spaceships and maybe dude maybe ideas are a living life forms, and they're inside your head and that's how things get man, man. I've been just kind of morphed me and him together.
Because the life-form idea life-form idea is mine that I've realized really think about a
lot I think about a technical side, by the way, I got when I heard you say that because I've been thinking I was like, whoa, that's interesting that they might
be they might be alive because they I don't know what the fuck they are. But when someone has an idea for you know, whatever and invention a toaster and then they think about this all it need is like these heating elements and the spring and then it pops on this done. So I have a timer
And then they build this thing now also it's alive. It's like you manifested in the physical form toasters. Not the best example, but a car airplane you're thinking about a thing like an idea comes into your head and you can say oh, well, it's just creativity. It's a part of being a person that's how we invented tools and how you know, we became better Hunters all those things are true. It's I'm not saying that there's some magic to what I'm saying, but there's also a possibility that we're seeing
Of finding something by saying that it's just creativity that it's just a natural human inclination to invent things. Why is it possible that ideas like creativity? Like we are the only animal other than there's a few species that create things like bees make beehives and but it's very very uniform, you know, some animals use tools, you know, like, you know chimps will use like sticks to get termites and things like that, but there's something about
about what we do that's it makes you wonder because we look at the skin just look at this room that we're in look at all these Electronics. Look at all this crazy shit that human beings have invented and then built upon others inventions and proved and innovated. These all came out of ideas like the idea. They it germinates in someone's head. It bounces around. They write it down. They share it with others the other people who have similar ideas or ideas.
Are complementary they work together and they change the
world and the new thing in that is the idea is not the people. It's like we think we found the ideas but it's more like the ideas the ideas found
us on you. Yeah, they're essentially in the in the air. Yeah. I think they come to you. I always felt like that with bits like when I come up with a bit. That's why I'm always telling people at the Steven pressfield book The War of art because he talks about respecting The Muse and the idea that your
ideas come when you sit down and you do the work while you sit down like a professional and you you talk to the Muse like come tell me what to do. Like if the Muse was a real thing as if it amuses like a some mystical creature that comes and delivers you ideas even if that's not real. That's how it works. Yeah, it does work like that. If you do treat it like it's a muse and you treat it with the respect and you treat it like a professional the ideas do come to you
and never thought about what he's doing is just sitting there waiting.
Idea, that's trying to breed to find him. Yeah, there's that's a that's a tricky thing. If you
show up chirpy if you show up and put in the time and focus your energy on that the ideas that will arrive that will arrive and that's the same with writing comedy like this been many many times where I'll come home from The Comedy Store just sit down and start writing and I just haven't I got enough and there's nothing there. I'm just writing it's all bullshit. It's nothing's good. It's just like hmm and then also,
Sudden bam, there's the idea. You may also not can't stop and then, you know a couple hours later and I'm like whoa, and then the next night. I'm on stage and I'm like, how about that boom? And it's this big laugh my holy shit. And I know that came out of the discipline to sit down and call The Muse.
I mean the cool thing is the ideas have found you two, like I'm going to use this dude like you seems to have a podcast that's popular. I'm going to breathe inside his
I mean, yeah and spread it to others is yeah, this is things
and it were an inventor. You know, I'm going to use this guy who's like Desperately Seeking some sort of a product to bring to Market some guy wants to invent things is thinking about inventing things all the time like these ideas that weasel their way into your head and it seems to me also that you're the frequency that your mind operates under has to be correct? Because one of the things about creativity seems to be if you think about yourself a lot if you're really into
yourself or your image or you're selfish those ideas are not they don't find
you funny the iodine pills the creative. Yeah. Yeah, it stifles the opportunity that the idea has 40 finding.
Yes, which is one of the reasons why joke thieves people that steal jokes are terrible writers. There's never like really good writers who are also joke these it's just joke thieves and then you know when they have to write on their own if they get exposed they become terrible comedians.
They are of a shadow of what they were when they were stealing other people's ideas because the thing that would make you steal a person's idea. Is that ego part the the like the wanting to claim it for yourself to wanting to be the man. I'm going to or the woman, you know, you want to be the person who gets out there. It says it and everybody's gonna love me for it. Like you can't think like that and be creative. It requires a humility and it requires a Detachment from self in order to create like when I'm
Writing I'm blank. I'm like, I'm just staring. I'm like, I'm just at the part of my mind that's active is not like me. It's like this weird core function part where I'm not I'm not aware of my personality. I'm not aware. I'm not aware of any of that. I'm just trying to put it together in a way that I know works.
It's just being there being present. Yeah pressfield is just a big believer. Just sitting there you have staring at a blank page after putting in the
Yeah, and sometimes it's not that way sometimes it's an inspiration like sometimes I'll be sitting there at dinner. I'll be like I'll be right I got an idea and I'll my wife is really cool about that. I'm like I have an idea and I bought I have to just run out of the room real quick and I write it down on my phone and then I can come back, you know, because those are those are like little gifts that you get sometimes from the universe out of nowhere and some people rely only on those gifts, you know, and I've talked to comics about it. Like I can't come on my best ideas when I don't write I'm like no I do too.
Come up with great ideas when I don't write but I also write like you can do both of those things. They're not mutually exclusive.
You mentioned fuck you money. I feel like I have fuck you money. Now a year ago. I was at zero. I have fucking money now because probably my standards my I don't need much in this world, but because also probably because of you but it's three hundred to four hundred thousand people isn't every episode I do and it and that was weird. It's definitely
useful television show on cable. Yeah, it's
crazy. It's all you it's amazing, but
At this point that also resulted in a few money in a sense that I don't I don't need anything else in this world. But so by way of asking I've looked up if you've inspired me for a long time. Do you have advice?
You've done this the on the podcast side of life. Do you have advice for somebody like for me and somebody like me going on this journey Eric Weinstein is going on this journey. Is there advice both small and big that you have somebody like
me?
The advice is to keep doing what feels right to you and do what you're doing. Obviously, it's resonating with people if you're getting that big of an audience and I've listened to your podcast. You're very good at it. So just keep doing it the way you're doing it. Don't let anybody else get involved. What
about you've connected? I think you met Jamie at The Comedy Store. I'm at the ice
house. I thought I saw my thing. I met him at the comedy store. But then we talked at the ice
house. I mean what you'd have to ask him. Did you think deeply
About because like, you know, you basically have nobody on your team. And and so it almost feels like a marriage where it's a what you selective about like a Jamie to somebody to bring into your little circle.
Well Jamie's exceptional
he is it really is amazing special. I mean, he might have grown. I don't remember how it was in the early days. Maybe you could say but
he was definitely better at it. But he right away. He's exceptional. He's got very little ego. Yes. He's not a guy who needs
a lot of attention. He's not a guy who overestimates anything like in terms of like negative or positive like his like his interpretation of whether it's good things that happen to the show are bad things and happened the show. He just takes it all like flat. He's chill. He's just cool as fuck and he's so smart and he's so good as an audio engineer and as a podcast producer he's the
best
Basically, one of the only people on you on this whole team. So yeah, how do you find I mean when you let people in I mean, I'm sure other people wanted to get involved. Like why don't you have a co-host that can you basically kind of well, do you will there's a
problem with a co-host like when you and I are talking when we're talking I'm tuned in to you and I'm waiting to hear what you're saying and I'm listening and I'm interpreting it and then I'm calculating whether or not I have anything to say.
Say whether to let you keep talking whether I maybe have a question that lets you expand further or whether I have a disagreement or like there's a dance that's going on. Now when there's another person there chiming into if fuck's the dance up. It's like dance and like if you doing a dance with someone, you know, like if you're slow dancing with someone and then a third persons, they're stepping on your feet. Sometimes it's fun. Yeah, sometimes having a third person is fun comedy podcast. Sometimes it's fun.
Debate companion structured yeah debate structures, but even then it gets difficult because people talk over each other. And also I find that without headphones it's way easier to talk over each other. It makes mistakes. Yeah, you don't you don't hear the same way when you have headphones you I hear what you hear. It's all one sound and I the audience here is exactly or rather. I hear exactly what the audience here is whether it's over here what my voice is louder than
yours because you're over there and if I don't have headphones on it doesn't it's not
altogether and that point one of the interesting things about your show is you don't almost never have done and you generally don't do remote like a side not remote calls, but you don't go to another person's location. Like
you have only done a few small
handful and then just like I will just the policy he should be yeah, he should do this, but I actually we went back and forth on email. I told him he needs to get your his ass back in this and this the
He's working on a
book. I was a fan of his long time ago because I became obsessed with toxoplasmosis, you know, and I have reached out to him a long time ago before he was willing to do it, but then I caught him in Downtown LA was there for something else and I just greedily snatched up an hour of his time.
Well, he doesn't get a think some of those folks don't get how much magic can happen in this podcast Studio like bigger than anything they've ever done in terms of their work not
I'm not talking about reach but in terms of the discovery of new ideas, there's something magical about conversation like that like somebody as brilliant as him if he gives himself over to the conversation for multiple hours at a time. That's another place where you been inspiration where I like, you know, I'm getting more and more confidence of telling people like an Elon Musk that like, you know, a lot of CEOs are like, well he has 30 minutes on a schedule. I'm like no.
Three hours and then they're like so some say no and then they come back those people have started coming back to like, okay, we're starting to get it. They start to get it and you're a rare Beacon of Hope in that sense that there's some value in long form. They think that nobody wants to listen for 34 more than 30 minutes the day think like I have nothing to say, but the reality is if you just give yourself over to like
Like the three hours just let it go three hours four hours. Whatever it is. There's so much to discover about what you didn't even know you
think yeah. Yeah, you have to be confident that you could do it and in the beginning I just did it because that's what I wanted to do and no one was listening. So I've always been a curious person. So I've always I've always been interested in listening to how people think about things and how and talking to
About their mindset and just and expanding on my own ideas just talking shit. And so we would have these podcasts and they would go on forever and my I've my friend Ari I've never let him died and never let this die down never let him forget this he was always like you have to order your podcast Tony right now. You're fucking up I go why he's like because people are not going to listen to it I go they don't have to yeah, I go you listen to part of it goes he was just do it. Just I'm telling you trust me cut it down.
I'd like 45 minutes. That's all you need. And I'm like no. No, I don't think you're right. I got I like listening to long-form things. No one has that kind of time like okay I'm going to do is I'm just going to keep doing this way
so and
substitute good,
but you wouldn't say I mentioned to you before this gonna happen. It's actually made a lot of progress towards it. I'm going to talk to Putin, but you wouldn't travel to Putin if you want to talk to you poses a danger.
Character he's not he's not here talk to
ever seen the thing with Jerry craft with stole his Super Bowl ring.
Yeah. Yeah those I think that was a little bit of
misunderstanding. Oh, really? I think it's a little bit. He just decided he's going to steal that Super Bowl ring
kind of I think it was a kind of he thought can I
see your ring? He shows him his ring that he puts it on says I can murder somebody with this ring. So he and then he walks off with it. It's possibly he did it
as a he's a big believer in displays of power.
Power. Yeah, so like it's possible he did that. But I'm I think he sees himself as like a tool with which to demonstrate that Russia still belongs in the stage of the big players. And so he does a lot of actions selected through that lens, but in terms of human being outside of any the evils that he may not have done he is a really thoughtful intelligent.
Fun human being like the width and the depth from the JRE perspective is really interesting. I'm like his manager now selling
the here's a judoka. Yeah. He's really good at Judo is I have seen him practice Judo. He's a legit black belt and not only
that he loves it not just skill wise but to talk about it to reason about it to think about it, too. I'm a may as well. So yeah, I'd be I'd be a good conversation, but you wouldn't travel to him.
Well, that's holds your principal. So that's the core of the advice just I don't do whatever I
would rather. Here's the thing. There's not a person that I have to have on the show, right and now I'm happy to talk to anybody. I'm just as happy to talk to you as I am to talk to Trump as I am to probably more happy to talk to you as I am to talk to Mike Tyson as I am to talk to Joey Diaz. I like talking to people I enjoy doing podcasts. I enjoy.
Talking to a variety of people and I schedule them based on I want to like I try not to get too many right-wing people in a row or too many Progressive people in a row. I don't want to get repetitive to try not to get too many fighters in a row. I try to balance it out. Not too many comedians comedians are the one one group why I can have three four in a row five in a row because that's my tribe. You know, those are my people so easy we can talk about anything. It's a weird dance, you know the conversations that you're doing on a
Podcasts are there they're a strange dance and you want to you know, you want to not step on your own feet. And you want to make sure that you do it in a way do the podcast in a way that's entertaining for people and it's a conversations are learning how to talk to me. It's a weird skill. Yeah, so weird skill that took a long time for me to get good at and I did know is a skill until I started doing it and then I died. I just thought you're just talking like always I know how to talk. We'll just talk to people and then along the
I realized like oh and then when you talk to people that are bad at it you realize that it's a skill like particularly. One of the things about my people about comedians is a lot of them tend to want to talk but don't want to listen, right so they're waiting for you to stop talking so they can talk but they're not necessarily think about what you're saying, you know, and they're just they're just waiting for their opportunity or they talk over you or they and I try real hard not to do that and sometimes
Zai fail but my when I'm at my best I'm I'm dancing
the ultimately the skill conversation is just really listening hmm, like really and listening and thinking
listening and thinking and being like genuinely curious and and really having you know a take on what they're saying and and and maybe a follow-up question or maybe you just got it's got to be real. It's got to be authentic and when it is authentic and it's real it.
Resonates with people like they're listening and they go. Oh like I'm locked into with the way you're thinking like you two guys are in a conversation and I'm locked in you know when she talks and you listen I'm listening to you know, when he says something to her when she says something to him. Like there's a thing that happens during conversations where you are there like you're listening to and it's with me when I listen to a good podcast. I feel like I'm in the room. I feel like I'm in the room and I'm like, I'm like the
A friend that got to sit down and listen. Okay. Oh, yeah. It's a great conversation. Yeah, you know, I love conversation. So I love listening to them and I love putting them together and the fact that this podcast has gotten so fucking big. It's stunning to me blows me away. Now. I never anticipated it never thought for a second that that stupid thing that I used to do in my couch in my office was the biggest thing I've ever done in my life by far like people used to make fun.
Of it, like there's a comic store documentary that's coming out and one of the parts of the documentary is my friend Tom Segura when he first started doing my podcast he would he would be leaving and he talked to read been he's like, what the fuck is he doing? Yeah, like why is he doing this? Like who's listening is like how some people like it? Yeah, and he's like fucking nonsense waste of time and like in the the documentary shows like 2,000 views like one of the early Ustream episodes
larious and they don't just like it really they form a
Friendship with you. It's like even me when people come up to me like the love in their eyes is kind of beautiful weird, right? Yeah. It's like part of the life. Yeah, and it I don't know. It's all it's also heartbreaking because you realize you'll never really get to know them back like because they they clearly are friends
with you. Yeah, and it's sad to
see a person who's clearly brilliant and interesting and it's friends with you, but you don't get a chance to return.
I love and I mean my kids it took
them a while to figure out what's going on, but people come up to me and you know, they would say something like hey, man, I fucking love you. Thanks, man. All right, baby, brother. Nice to meet you. My daughter was like six, but do you know him? Yeah, but you know, I don't know him. She's like, how does he know you? Okay. It's very weird conversation. I used to have with young kids when I explained. I do this thing called the podcast and me.
Millions of people listen so now one of my daughter's is 12 and one of her friends is 13 and he's a boy and he goes to school with her and he's obsessed with me. And so she's weirded out and she says Dome I think you like me. I think you're just into my dad fucking weirdo.
She's gonna have that conversation a few stages in her life that that
hard conversation with a boyfriend.
Yeah, probably. Yeah that well. That's the thing about men to this this podcast is my podcast is uniquely masculine. I'm a man and I'm not I'll I'm also a man that doesn't have to go through some sort of a corporate filter. I'm not going through executive producers to tell me don't don't have this guest on don't talk about that.
You know that we looked at focus groups and they don't they don't seem to like when you do this like there's not that I just and I I just do it. So if that's so I have a whole podcast. We're just talking about cars and people like I don't want to hear you talk about cars. Well good. Congratulations. You found what you like? Here's good news. There's 1,500 other ones go listen to the other episodes where I don't talk about cars, you know, you don't have to
listen and it's not like your brand you just don't are who you are and that's what you do, but it's like
it's
authentically what I'm interested in all the podcast whether I'm talking to David favor about his experience with UFOs, whether I'm talking to David Sinclair about life extension, whether I'm talking to you about artificial intelligence or what it's because I want to talk to these people and that that resonates I like when people are in a shit, you know, I've talked about this before like things that I have no interest in making Furniture, but I like this PBS show with this guy makes furniture by
I love watching harassment because he's so into it. Is he sanding this and polishing? I'm not going to do that. I don't give a fuck about furniture furniture for me is function like this desk function works, but I love when people are into it, you know, and I'm happy that someone can make it and they do a great job, but I'm not I'm not interested in the the task is or the even the finished product as much as I'm interested in someone's passion for
something the passion that they put into this. Yeah that shines through
Last question, I sometimes ask this just for to what is it to challenge to make people roll their eyes to make legitimate science as well. Right? That's what is the meaning of life. Hmm going to Joe Rogan do not think there is a meaning. I
think there's many many meanings of life. I think there's a way to navigate life. That's enjoyable. I think it requires many things. It requires first of all requires. Love you have
Have loved ones you have to have family you have to have friends. You have two people that care about you and you have to care about them. I think that is primary then it also requires interests. There has to be things that stimulate you now, it could be just a subsistence lifestyle. There's many people that believe and practice this lifestyle of just living off the land and hunting and fishing and living in the woods and they seem incredibly happy. Yeah, and there's there's something to be said for
Or that that is an interest, right? There's something and there's a there's a direct connection between their actions and their sustenance they get their food that way they're connected to Nature and it's very satisfying for them. If you don't have that, I think you need something that is interesting to you pass something that you're passionate about and there's far too many people that get sucked into living a life where you're just doing a job. You're just showing up and putting in your time and then
Going home, but you don't have a passion for what you're doing. And I think that is that's the recipe for boring and very unfulfilling
life. You mentioned love if we could jack track what we talked about the demons and the violence in there somewhere. What's the role of love in this in your own
life? It's very important man. And this one of the reasons why I'm so I'm so interested in helping people. I'm very
interested in people feeling good. I like them to feel good. I want to help them. I like I like doing things that make them feel like you care about me like you I care about you. I really do like I want people to feel good. I want my family to feel good. I want my friends to feel good. I want guests to feel good about the podcast experience. You know, I am I'm a big believer in as much as I can to spread positive energy and joy and happiness and and relay all the good advice that I've ever gotten.
All the things that I've learned and if they can benefit people and I find that those things benefited people that actually improve the quality of their life or improve their success or improve their relationships or I'm very happy to do that. That means a lot to me the way we interact with each other is so important. It's one of the reasons why I like someone gets cancelled or you get publicly shamed it's so devastating because there's all these people
that negative all this
negative energy coming your way and you feel
It as much as I like to pretend that you you're immune to that kind of stuff and some people do like to pretend that you feel it. There's a there's a tangible Force when people are upset at you and that's the same with loved ones or family or anytime someone's upset at you whether it's a giant group of people or the small amount of people that has an impact on you and your psyche and your physical being so the more you can spread love and the more love comes back to you. You also create this
Butterfly Effect, right because we're other people start recognizing like oh, you know when heat is nice to me, I feel better and then I'm going to be nicer to people and when I'm nicer to people they feel better and I feel better and and it spreads outward and that's one thing that I've done through this podcast I think is I've I've imparted my personal philosophy on in kindness and generosity to other people
and have I mean to correct you you didn't do it the ideas that are breeding themselves through your brain
have check it out.
We are made their way into my
head love is a more efficient mechanism of spreading ideas. They figured out
yes, probably man, probably so as far as like the meaning of life, that's that's a bit without that you have nothing. You know, one of the biggest failures in life is to be extremely successful financially, but everybody hates you everybody hates you and your just miserable and alone and angry and depressed and sad, you know when you you hear about
Famous people that commit suicide like wow you missed the mark. You got some parts, right? But you put too many eggs in one basket you put too many eggs in the financial basket or the success basket or the accomplishment basket and not enough in the friendship and love basket and there's a balance to that and what I talked about the violence and all that stuff like that to me is me understanding recognizing that is me trying to achieve that balance. Its till I go kill those demons.
It's so that this boat is level, you know, because if it's not that the boat is like this and then everything's all fucked up and every time we hit a wave Things Fall Apart balance that boat out figure it out like know who you are. Some people don't have that problem at all. Some people they could just go for walks and they're cool as a cucumber. I need more, you know, I need kettlebells. I need a heavy bag. I need I need the Echo Bike, you know the air assault bike. I need some hardcore shit. And if I don't get that, I don't feel good. So I figured that.
Out to and that makes me a nicer person that makes my interactions nicer makes it changes the quality of my my friendships my relationships with people.
I think we mentioned your link. I can I can certainly guarantee that this is one of the memories I'll be replaying 20 30 years from now wants to get the feature ready Joe. It's a huge honor to talk to
you. I hope it's an honor to talk to you tonight. Do I came down here for this the first week of me doing this here and
It's it's very cool to have you
always I hope you make Texas cool again and and and do your podcast rather 1011, whatever. However many years you could you're still on this Earth? All right. Thank you, brother. Thank you shit you man.
Thanks for listening to this conversation with Joe Rogan and thank you to our sponsors neuro a sleep and Dollar Shave Club check them out in the description to get a discount and to support this podcast. If you enjoy this thing subscribe on YouTube or view it with five stars in a podcast following Spotify support on patreon or connect with me on Twitter Alex Friedman, and now let me leave you with some words of wisdom from Joe Rogan.
The universe rewards calculated risk and passion. Thank you for listening and hope to see you next time.
