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Oct. 31, 2019 - The Joe Rogan Experience
01:56:46
Joe Rogan Experience #1374 - Justin Wren
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joe rogan
27:59
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justin wren
01:26:49
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jamie vernon
00:04
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Speaker Time Text
joe rogan
And we're live.
Hello, Justin Wren.
justin wren
Hello.
joe rogan
What's going on, buddy?
You got a book in front of you?
I do.
unidentified
What's going on?
justin wren
Oh, I just got a couple notes.
joe rogan
Look how organized you are with your tabs.
justin wren
Yeah.
joe rogan
I've never had tabs in my life.
justin wren
Yeah, this is actually from James Clear.
Have you heard of him?
Atomic Habits, New York Times bestselling author.
I didn't plan on talking about him at all.
joe rogan
What the notebook is?
justin wren
Yeah.
joe rogan
Oh, so you bought one of his notebooks?
justin wren
Yeah.
It goes along with his New York Times bestselling book called Clear, where you put down your daily habits, and then you just kind of can check them off as you do them throughout the day.
joe rogan
What's your daily habits?
justin wren
We'll have a morning routine where I wake up and where I'm at I have a Peloton so I jump on that for like 30 minutes right in the morning right when I get out of bed.
joe rogan
Right when you get out of bed?
justin wren
Well right when I get out of bed I do 15 minutes of breathing.
joe rogan
Just breathing.
justin wren
Yeah, but I do like five minutes of myself.
joe rogan
I do that too.
It's called laying in bed.
justin wren
There you go.
Yeah, drifting awake.
I kind of drift awake for 15-20 minutes.
joe rogan
What kind of breathing are you doing?
justin wren
So just kind of focused where I breathe in six to eight seconds and kind of count the in-breath, then count the hold, and then count the exhale.
joe rogan
So it's a meditation.
unidentified
Mm-hmm.
joe rogan
And you do that for 15 minutes every morning?
justin wren
15 minutes.
Three short ones, back to back to back.
They're through Headspace.
And I actually just got a new phone.
I don't have the new Headspace downloaded, but I have three five-minute breathing techniques that are really three to five minutes each.
So sometimes it's only like nine minutes.
joe rogan
And what do you get out of that?
justin wren
For me, I think I'm just kind of setting the tone for the day and just kind of clearing my mind.
I used to be bad about this.
First thing waking up, I'd grab my phone.
joe rogan
Everybody does that.
justin wren
And then it would be emails, text messages, notifications, and then you're starting your day reactive.
Instead of proactive.
joe rogan
Ooh, I like what you're saying, Justin.
I like his thinking.
justin wren
Yeah, wake up, do that.
I get on the Peloton right after that.
I try to drink a liter of water.
Now, you got me on this Laird Superfood.
joe rogan
It's a great thing to get going with.
justin wren
It is so good.
joe rogan
I love this stuff.
Yeah, his coffee, particularly his turmeric.
I love it.
justin wren
Yes, that's what this is.
This is my first time having that.
It's always out.
joe rogan
It's so good for you.
First of all, turmeric is amazing for you.
Fight off inflammation.
And then this with coffee as well.
God, it tastes so good too.
justin wren
Have you had the hydrate?
Not the coffee, but the hydrate.
joe rogan
Is that another one of his products?
I have not tried that.
justin wren
Oh my gosh, it's so good.
I should have brought it for you.
I'm in California, and we had this already set up, but a buddy of mine walked across America for Fight for the Forgotten.
He heard us on the show.
joe rogan
You know him?
justin wren
I didn't know him before the show.
joe rogan
So he said, I'm going to walk across the entire country for the Pygmies.
justin wren
Right.
unidentified
Wow.
justin wren
Yeah, which was wild.
He had already done something a year before for the Paradise Fires.
He's a professional drummer.
Actually, you got to meet him right before we walked in here.
joe rogan
Just out there, yeah.
justin wren
Yep.
He's wearing the cowboy hat, the Stetson.
joe rogan
He's the second guy that I know that walked across America this year.
Mike Posner is the other one we've been talking about coming on.
Mike and I have been going back and forth.
He got bit by a fucking rattlesnake.
justin wren
Jeremy has some wild stories.
He actually just started this adventure coffee brand.
His drum company is called Beats from the Core, like Beats from the Drum Corps.
And then he had Beats for a Cause.
And so last year he did it for the Paradise Fires.
This year he did it for Fight for the Forgotten.
joe rogan
I can't believe how many people I know that have coffee companies.
Matt Brown, Immortal Coffee.
Larry Hamilton, Coffee.
Tate Fletcher and Keith Jardine, Caveman Coffee.
Black Rifle Coffee.
All those guys.
I love the Black Rifle Coffee guys.
Their stuff is the shit.
Well, Schaub's through Black Rifle.
He's just got...
justin wren
Well, we just had our team loaded up.
Actually, the documentary team that I know, kind of through you, because they do a lot of your Netflix specials.
joe rogan
Yes, they do all my specials.
All of them, yeah.
And they're phenomenal.
They're the best.
They've done everything since 2009. Everything that I've done.
Positive image.
My boy, Anthony Giordano, who's director of the UFC. He's the best.
justin wren
Yeah, he's awesome.
I've gotten to meet him a time or two.
And then Brady, I've gotten to spend a lot of time with.
He's the vice president, and he's come to Uganda with me.
unidentified
Jesus.
justin wren
He's gone to Vegas.
Jesus, Brady.
Colorado and Oklahoma and Texas.
joe rogan
Hey, how are you physically?
Because you were saying that you had some crazy parasite.
justin wren
Yes.
I have a lot of stuff that's still being tested.
joe rogan
Jesus, man.
justin wren
So that's actually, well, first reason I came, I'll share a little bit of my last week with you.
Went up to Redding, my first time up to Northern California.
It's beautiful.
joe rogan
Gorgeous.
justin wren
Gorgeous.
The river right there.
joe rogan
So green.
justin wren
Yes, absolutely.
I didn't even know that.
And all the fly fishing that was going on up there.
I've never gotten the hang of fly fishing, but I love it.
It looks like it's so...
joe rogan
Yeah, it's not hard.
You could get it in a couple minutes.
You're a smart dude.
I mean, you're an athlete.
You'd figure it out quick.
justin wren
Well, Jeremy literally walked from the Brooklyn Bridge all the way to Reading, the Sundale Bridge.
It was 3,100 miles.
joe rogan
Does he know about flights?
justin wren
I think he's flown in a time or two.
His story is actually really unique.
You'd like it.
He grew up with...
Well, he was put in special education classes because he had Tourette's, really, really bad Tourette's.
It's where he had these tics, where he'd slap his foot.
joe rogan
What causes that?
justin wren
I have no idea.
But he had these tics and this stutter.
Well, through this walk and through drumming, he thinks he started to rewire the neural pathways in his brain.
Through the walk?
No, the walk and the drumming.
joe rogan
But the walk, I mean, he just did the walk, right?
justin wren
Yeah, he just did it.
But he finished the walk, and he said whenever he was playing stadiums, Drumming, right?
That's the pinnacle of being a professional drummer, playing stadiums with tens of thousands of people.
So he's back there drumming, and it's before his first time he's ever come out and drummed that way.
Well, he's drumming, and instead of him being in the moment, thinking about, wow, I'm at the pinnacle of my sport, or not sport, but of my art, he's literally thinking about how he wishes there'd be a day that he could grab the microphone and just state one clear sentence where there wasn't a stutter.
So he's literally back there.
He's arrived, or at least what a lot of people would say is his arrival for a stadium tour.
And then all of a sudden he's thinking about just having a clear sentence in a conversation with people.
joe rogan
There was something that I just read really recently about a new treatment for Tourette's.
justin wren
Jeremy would tell you that it was drumming that really helped him because he went from Reading up to Seattle.
He was in the grunge scene.
And then I think his name is Steve Smith or Sean Smith, maybe Steve Smith, that started the Seattle Drum School of Music, the really prestigious school.
They would send kids off to Berkeley School of Music, and then they would graduate from Berkeley, and they'd come back and they'd hire them.
Well, Steve Smith saw Jeremy and said, hey, I want you to be an instructor at my school.
And Jeremy kind of laughed.
I can't read music.
I didn't graduate high school.
How would I ever be a drum teacher at the Seattle Drum School of Music?
He's like, well, I'm the owner.
I'll coach you for two years and then you'll be a drum teacher.
Lo and behold, two years later, he's literally a drum teacher there for ten full years.
joe rogan
What kind of a person has that much commitment to somebody that they say, I want to coach you for two years before I give you a job?
justin wren
Yeah.
Wild, right?
He became his mentor.
That's pretty crazy.
So he was able to start having fluid conversations.
Then he did the Paradise Fires fundraiser.
Then he walked all the way across America.
He fell off a 40-foot cliff.
Got surrounded by coyotes out there.
He was in Oklahoma, and he came through our offices, and then he ended up in the middle of nowhere, Oklahoma, in the panhandle.
And these cops came by and said, hey, who are you?
Because he set up his tent.
And 90% of people that do this walk, they fail within the first 400 miles.
joe rogan
Yeah, that's a long way to walk.
justin wren
Oh, yeah, yeah.
joe rogan
And he's still got 3,000 to go.
justin wren
And then the people that do complete it, kind of like Mike, right?
They have an assistance vehicle the whole way, where they're sleeping there, they're being fed, or they have some comforts.
joe rogan
And he didn't do that.
justin wren
He just backpacked it.
joe rogan
So you're saying Mike's a pussy?
justin wren
I'm not saying that about Mike.
joe rogan
That's what I heard.
unidentified
Jamie, did you hear that?
joe rogan
I heard that too.
justin wren
I just said my guy Jeremy.
joe rogan
Mike has an assistance vehicle?
He had an assistance vehicle?
justin wren
I think he had a camper, right?
joe rogan
I guess he needed it when he got bit.
unidentified
Mm-hmm.
justin wren
And so Jeremy didn't.
He fell off that cliff.
He had a mountain lion that, I guess, purred or whatever, sniffed at his tent.
unidentified
Oh, great.
justin wren
And when it came out, he had footprints all around it.
So he documented everything.
unidentified
Jesus.
joe rogan
He was surrounded by coyotes, huh?
justin wren
Yeah, surrounded by coyotes.
Oh, and a prison break happened.
joe rogan
Oh, Jesus.
justin wren
While he was out there.
joe rogan
He looks like a prisoner.
unidentified
Yeah.
joe rogan
Looks like a guy would scoop up.
If there was a prison break, I'd be like, this fucking guy.
justin wren
Well, he told him, well, don't worry about it.
You know, if you hear sirens, it's probably the tornadoes because of the bad weather coming in.
joe rogan
Oh, great.
justin wren
Tornadoes when you're in a tent.
So a tornado siren, he thought, went off, but it was actually the prison break siren.
First time they had those in like 20 years, but it was the night he was right outside the prison.
So he's got some stories, man.
And then for me, I came out here.
I completed the walk with him.
I did the last day with him, so 20 miles.
And I was sore for a week after just walking up and down these hills.
joe rogan
Really?
justin wren
Not a week.
Three or four days.
joe rogan
You're in really good shape.
justin wren
I'm in good shape, but I think it's different.
joe rogan
But stop all about this guy.
I want to hear about your parasites.
justin wren
Oh, yeah, yeah.
joe rogan
So what's going on?
justin wren
Well, there's still more testing, but they did find something called schistosomiasis in me.
So schisto is from the tropical rainforests of Africa.
I think that's the only place it exists, but it comes from these snails.
And so because I probably bathed, not because I probably, I have bathed in the rivers there.
Been in the rivers, going across rivers.
joe rogan
Did you get it in your mouth?
justin wren
No.
They can get into your skin.
I was real itchy for a couple weeks there.
What that was was some of the parasites, I guess.
What did you call it?
They're like egg sacs or something that got on me.
joe rogan
Yeah.
justin wren
Got inside of my stomach, my liver.
joe rogan
Oh, Jesus.
justin wren
Could be potentially even in my brain.
joe rogan
In your brain?
justin wren
Potentially.
unidentified
Yeah.
joe rogan
So they don't know yet.
justin wren
Well, what's today?
Today's Wednesday, right?
Yeah.
Monday, I did my final exams, and I did three full days with this doctor, Dr. Daniel Amen.
He would be phenomenal for the show, by the way.
He's incredible.
Two TED Talks, millions of views.
joe rogan
Stop, stop, stop.
You're such a great promoter of your friends.
justin wren
Yeah, yeah, yeah, sure.
joe rogan
You divert, and you want to talk about them.
I want to talk about you.
justin wren
Okay, let's talk about me.
What's going on with your brain?
Because I kept getting jerked around by all these different doctors.
It's this, it's this, it's this, it's this.
And I've had numerous endoscopies to go look in my stomach because why am I throwing up?
And one says it is an ulcer.
Another comes out and says your stomach's perfect inside.
It's a little red, but there's no ulcer whatsoever.
And so I have Shisto.
I've had an intestinal bacteria that's really bad called Shigella.
I've had malaria three times.
I've had dengue fever.
So dengue was in me for at least a month.
The CDC found it in me.
joe rogan
But you've had this parasite in you for a long time now.
How many months?
justin wren
At least six.
Since April.
joe rogan
And have you been able to train at all during this time?
justin wren
Ups and downs.
So I was at the police and fire training center of Oklahoma City and I was just helping them.
There's some really great guys there.
And I was helping them and the fire chief ended up putting me in the cold shower for like 20 minutes because I got so, they said I got like ghostly white and I started dry heaving and I was just shaky all over.
joe rogan
This is all from your parasites?
justin wren
Yeah.
unidentified
Jesus Christ, man.
justin wren
And so it's up and down.
I'll start getting in shape.
I'll start losing weight.
I'll start feeling good.
And then I just crash.
I've had shingles five times, Joe.
joe rogan
What the fuck?
justin wren
Five times.
joe rogan
So what can you do about this stuff?
justin wren
Well, I'm starting to do hyperbarics, hyperbaric oxygen therapy.
I've got a prescription for that.
And that's been helping more than anything right now.
Yeah.
I'm trying to have that morning routine, protect my sleep, eat right.
My wife helps me meal prep.
I have juices all through the day.
I have a superfood coffee.
I'm doing all the stuff I can.
I was on 28 pills a day for four or five weeks in a row.
joe rogan
Just for this parasite?
justin wren
Yeah.
Well, a whole parasite cleanse because they think I could have a parasite that they haven't found.
Because I'm going so remote, Joe, in the forest, they think I could have picked up something crazy.
So they just did a Lyme disease test on me.
This was on Monday.
So Lyme disease, they did a cheek swab from genetics.
They did hair.
So they cut off six different spots of hair from my scalp.
joe rogan
Your glowing locks?
justin wren
Yeah.
So they cut that.
My wife and my mom were teasing me because I was like crying about it.
I was like, don't cut it here.
joe rogan
Don't cut it here.
justin wren
So they took six spots of hair samples from me, blood, urine, stool samples.
They did two different kinds of brain scans on me.
injected something that was very minorly radioactive in me so that it could light up all the different spots in my brain activity.
So where there's too much blood flow or there's not enough.
And literally, so one of the things I found on the scan, which I already knew, but they can test not just stuff for like CTE or mild traumatic brain injury and TBI before autopsy.
Now these brain scans are, They can also test for like PTSD. And so there's this diamond in the middle of your brain and you're only supposed to have a little bit of activity there, just very, very small.
But if you have this, what they call the ring of fire, this diamond of red and white being lit up on the brain scans, that literally shows that you have PTSD. I had Dakota Meyer in here.
joe rogan
Do you know who he is?
justin wren
That was an incredible podcast.
I meant to text you afterwards.
joe rogan
He's an amazing guy.
justin wren
If people haven't heard that one, go back and watch it.
It's one of my favorites that you've had.
joe rogan
Dakota's a legitimate hero.
But one of the things that he was saying was that they injected him.
Do you remember what the blocker was called?
That blocker?
justin wren
KG or...
joe rogan
Whatever the blocker was, he described it and he said it completely stopped his PTSD. It just cured all of his anxiety.
See if you can find it, Jamie, just so we could reference it.
justin wren
I remember that.
I sent it to my wife.
She's in psychology right now.
She's going to be a counselor.
And I sent that to her because they were talking about PTSD. And the teacher said, oh yeah, that's been around for a while too.
And that's what Dakota said.
It's been around for a while.
joe rogan
I think they made a clip that Jerry Clips guys did.
What's it going on?
Stellate ganglion blocker.
justin wren
Yes.
joe rogan
Yeah.
SGB. SGB. Stellate ganglion.
unidentified
Ganglion.
joe rogan
Yeah.
That, he said, it just instantly alleviated all of his problems.
justin wren
Yeah.
joe rogan
Which is insane.
I mean, like, wouldn't you love that?
unidentified
Yes.
joe rogan
The miracle cure.
They give you a shot, boom, your problems go away.
justin wren
Absolutely.
joe rogan
Didn't he say it lasts for like a year?
justin wren
I think he said six months to a year, depending on...
You have to have other traumatic stuff.
joe rogan
I'm thinking of doing it even though I don't have anything wrong.
I just want to feel great.
justin wren
Well, this is what's crazy.
Oh, and Dakota said that, but this Dr. Daniel Amen, he's a 10-time New York Times bestselling author, and he's got a book about PTSD. Basically, he was saying...
That, yeah, that shot really, really does work.
And people have been doing it for years.
And with veterans, it's one of the quickest things.
joe rogan
Do they think that you have some PTSD? Yeah.
justin wren
So he was saying this, which Dakota said, you just queued that up, or triggered that in my memory, where the most common PTSD is car wrecks.
I think that's what Dakota said, right?
unidentified
Yes.
justin wren
Is car wrecks cause the most PTSD. Same spots in your brain, that diamond of fire.
And that's something you can't avoid, right?
You have to go back and be in public transportation or get in your own car.
joe rogan
Do you have them from car accidents?
justin wren
No, not from car accidents.
joe rogan
What do you think you have it from?
justin wren
From some tough stuff in the rainforest, whether it's Uganda or Congo.
We've had to flee from a village whenever a rebel group came into the village next to us, and they killed six or eight people, and we're all fleeing across the river in these little pygmy dugout canoes.
Which aren't big enough really for me.
And we're trying to flee across the river before the sun's even up.
And there's like crocodiles and hippos in the water.
Oh, Jesus.
And then a couple other really terrible things.
I mean, I've held kids that have died and buried them and dug their graves.
And that's happened numerous times.
We've had machine guns pointed at us.
I won't get into that story too much.
joe rogan
We talked about that, one of those stories before.
justin wren
Yeah, and someone I love or a bunch of people that I love were with me.
So that was really tough because we were unarmed and we were being threatened.
And so that was tough.
And then some like childhood stuff, I think.
Different kinds of abuses.
joe rogan
Bullying and stuff like that.
justin wren
Some public shaming and different things like that.
I think one bullying moment that I even kind of forgot about until going through this with Dr. Amen was I was in the locker room and this little guy named Raiden that I've been hanging out with a lot, he was just beat up in the bathroom.
joe rogan
I saw that video, the video that was online.
It's a horrible video of these kids beating him up.
But then I saw him with you.
justin wren
Yeah, so that's been fun.
joe rogan
What are you doing with him?
justin wren
Man, it's great.
joe rogan
Perking up his spirits?
justin wren
Yeah, just wanting to rally around him.
That's awesome.
Surround him with love and support and compassion.
We're in the same town.
unidentified
No shit.
justin wren
Yeah, in the same town, Oklahoma City.
Actually, Jamie, is it okay to play one of those videos I saved?
It's called Raiden Videos, and it's the first one.
But just for people that haven't seen it, you and Dakota talked about this and you and Laird about the diffusion of responsibility.
Is that what it's called?
joe rogan
Yes.
justin wren
And people can just stand around and watch.
joe rogan
Right.
justin wren
Well, that's what happened with Raiden in the urinal.
Actually, not this video, but the next one.
This one's a fun, supportive one.
And then this one right here is just him at the urinal going to the bathroom.
joe rogan
I don't want to watch this.
justin wren
Just real quick after that.
So that's him at the urinal.
There's eight to ten kids in the bathroom.
They actually think up to twelve.
Four or five are just filming it.
He's got special needs.
He was born with autism, deaf in his right ear, so he's got a hearing aid.
He's diabetic.
He's got diabetes in his family, and he's been relentlessly bullied since he was nine years old.
This is him.
So the bathroom was on Thursday.
This is on Friday after school.
Three kids jumping him, hitting him from all sides.
joe rogan
For no reason.
justin wren
For no reason.
He's a big teddy bear.
And he just, his mom said since her picking him up at school in kindergarten, first grade, second grade, kids would just walk up and hit him in the stomach or punch him in the arm.
Okay, let's stop playing this.
Yeah, we don't have to keep playing it.
joe rogan
But it's really cool that you reached out to him.
justin wren
Yeah, well, they, I guess, knew about Fight for the Forgotten, and we're in the same town, and so a dad reached out to Jim Stewart.
You've met Jim, he's our director.
And Jim hit me up right away and said, hey, is this a kid that we could rally around, that you could...
We want to do all this.
We have a curriculum for bully prevention, and I think character development is bully prevention.
So if you have good character, you're not going to bully.
joe rogan
Well, that's one of the things that I've always said about martial arts.
Believe it or not, learning how to fight is one of the best ways to keep people from being assholes.
justin wren
Absolutely.
joe rogan
Which is so counterintuitive, but it really is.
Because a lot of people being bullies, it comes from a lack of confidence.
justin wren
Right.
joe rogan
And confident people are generally pretty kind.
justin wren
Yeah.
joe rogan
Confident, accomplished people.
And you know yourself, so you don't have this need to prove something.
justin wren
Prove yourself.
You don't have that insecurity there.
joe rogan
Yes, the need to diminish others.
justin wren
You've already worked it out.
Right.
unidentified
Yeah.
joe rogan
And the other beautiful thing about gyms, particularly jujitsu, I think, is that everybody kind of boosts everybody up.
It's a real family, sort of camaraderie.
justin wren
Yeah.
joe rogan
Feeling a real, those environments, almost every gym I've ever been to, every jujitsu gym that's good, they have this family environment to it and it just makes you feel like you belong somewhere and you get used to being kind to people and nice to people.
justin wren
Yeah, absolutely.
joe rogan
Even if someone catches you with a technique, they'll show you.
justin wren
Yeah.
joe rogan
They'll show you.
This is, you know, you left your arm here when you were transitioning and if you do that, it gets stuck and this is why I can catch you.
Yeah.
justin wren
Humble hearts.
So with jujitsu or with martial arts, if you hurt your training partner, you lose the person that's helping you get better.
And so as you help them get better, they make you better.
And it's this give and take where actually the more you give, the more you get in return because you're making them a better...
Training partner, a better person.
And I think martial arts takes it to another level.
I've done numerous sports.
My parents, I grew up with them being the professional or official photographers of like the Dallas Cowboys and the Texas Rangers and the Dallas Mavericks.
And so I grew up around professional athletes.
But what's so different, I think, about martial artists and why people love MMA, one, because the sport's so pure.
And it's like a chess match.
And it's an incredible sport.
But the athletes, they truly are more approachable.
And I think that they're more giving and compassionate and more community-minded and driven.
Not that other athletes aren't, but just martial artists are.
joe rogan
are so more yes because they've had it drilled into them from having mentors in other black belts yeah that are on this lifelong journey of even service to others that's part of the black belt journey and self-respect and discipline and um one of the things that bothers me about all this trash talking lately the trash talking trend in mma that was really i mean when people saw how much money conor mcgregor was able to make it just became this promotion tool just and chael sonnen was a part of it too just guys just relentlessly talk shit about him
i'm so torn because in one on one hand it's very entertaining yeah and i do enjoy it right but on the other hand i'm like man that is the wrong message to send it kind of removes some of the beauty of what competition is The beauty of competition is two people respecting each other but being aware that they're going to have to go to battle.
They're equally skilled, equally trained, and we're going to find out who's got the more effective strategy or implementation, and here we go.
But now it's like...
You can't sell a fight without some shit talking.
It's changed from this martial arts thing to sort of this promotion of this thuggish behavior, which again, hypocritically, I enjoy.
I do enjoy it.
You know, when people talk shit, I clap my hands and get a kick out of it.
But I'm a dummy.
justin wren
Well, one thing pretty cool about jiu-jitsu, what you're saying, one, Rafael wanted me to, he texted me coming in here, that he wanted me to tell you what's up.
joe rogan
Oh, tell him I said hi, congratulations.
unidentified
Yeah.
joe rogan
Bellator World Champ now.
justin wren
Champion.
Champions.
unidentified
That's awesome.
joe rogan
Gegard Massassi talking a lot of shit about him being on steroids.
justin wren
Yeah.
joe rogan
Must have not liked the squeeze.
justin wren
Man, he is the most disciplined, obsessed, and...
Yeah, just dedicated person.
joe rogan
Yeah, that's how you become a champion.
justin wren
I mean, the way that he eats, the way that he trains, sleeps, schedules, everything around him being the world champion, and everyone else has to kind of come around that goal, that dream.
joe rogan
Accusations of steroids with no proof whatsoever seems unfortunate.
Yeah.
I mean, all this Nate Diaz shit that happened, here's the issue for people to understand what happened with Nate Diaz.
Nate Diaz tested positive for a trace element of something called SARM, S-A-R-M. It's a type of, it's basically a performance-dancing substance, but it's It existed in a minuscule trace amount in a vegan vitamin supplement.
And the reason these things are being found is that the tests that they can run now, the USADA testing, the equipment, is so powerful.
It's so much more powerful than it's ever been before that the problem is they're working with tools that are almost too good.
So instead of catching people cheating, they're catching people that just have come in contact with something that's illegal.
It might have been like the tiniest amount that was in a bin that they also used to mix these vitamins.
They didn't clean it properly.
You know, minuscule, parts per million.
It's a little tiny amount, but these USADA machines will pick that shit up.
So then it looks like someone like Nate Diaz, who everybody...
There's some people that are beyond reproach.
Nate Diaz is one of those.
justin wren
You know he's never been on anything.
unidentified
Never.
joe rogan
He's not cheating at all.
justin wren
That's...
Enhance his performance.
joe rogan
Yeah, well, maybe wheat does, but I don't even think he eats meat.
I mean, I think he's very clean with his diet.
I know he's eaten fish in the past.
There's a Vice video of him out eating with Bourdain, and they're eating fish.
I don't know if he still eats fish, but he's very clean with his diet and very clean with his supplements and what he eats.
justin wren
Right.
Well, you're talking about jiu-jitsu and Raphael and just how martial arts, how it teaches you that character development.
You're going to like this.
I got you a couple of gifts, my man.
I don't know if you've ever seen someone come in with a suitcase.
I have.
You have?
joe rogan
Yes, but before you give me these gifts, I don't want to lose track of what I was asking about your health.
justin wren
Okay.
joe rogan
So what are they doing and what can they do about what you have?
So when you said you might have some crazy shit, meaning you might have a parasite that they don't even know yet?
justin wren
Yes.
joe rogan
So it might be an undiagnosed...
justin wren
That's why they did my urine blood, stool, hair, and cheek swab samples.
joe rogan
So it's possible that you have something that very few human beings have ever had because you're in this deep, deep, deep jungle.
How long does it take you to get to where you go?
justin wren
Well, it depends on where we go.
The deepest place.
Okay, a plane from Oklahoma City to normally Chicago or Dulles or JFK or Atlanta.
And then we go to Amsterdam or London or is it Qatar or Qatar?
joe rogan
I think it's Qatar.
justin wren
Qatar, okay.
joe rogan
I think.
justin wren
And then we'll fly either from there to Nairobi, Kenya or Kigali, Rwanda.
And then from there you connect to Kampala, Uganda.
And then from there, you get a private missions or humanitarian plane that's just you and the pilot.
And so you take that plane from Uganda to Congo, and then you land, you do customs, and then you get back in the plane, and you go and you land on a runway that...
Normally, they have just cleared with machetes.
joe rogan
So how many times are you flying from Oklahoma City?
Let's just say Oklahoma City to JFK. JFK to London.
justin wren
Two planes.
joe rogan
So two to London.
London to...
Kenya.
Kenya to Uganda.
justin wren
Four.
Uganda to Congo, five.
And then you get the plane again to go out to the range.
So six planes.
Six flights, at least.
Five planes.
joe rogan
How many days?
justin wren
That's normally two or three days.
And then 30 hours or something of travel.
And then after that, you get in a car and it could be six hours.
So where you land used to be in the rainforest.
But you drive six hours now to get to the rainforest.
joe rogan
How come?
justin wren
Because it's deforestation so bad.
The deforestation in the last 25 years, they've cut down about the size of Texas.
It's pretty wild.
We've helped replant 4,000 trees, but that's not even scratching the surface.
joe rogan
Who's doing this?
Who's deforesting?
justin wren
Everybody.
It's a lot of Chinese, UK, and outsiders that come in and exploit the rainforest.
There's a lot of mahogany in the area.
What is it?
Ebony.
Do they get licenses to do this?
No, no, no.
joe rogan
They just do it?
justin wren
They just send someone in and cut down the trees and pay the locals to do it.
joe rogan
So no one stops them?
unidentified
No.
joe rogan
So they just claim the resources they don't have?
justin wren
On the border, they might have to pay some sort of bribe or tax.
They call them VAT. Wow.
VAT or taxes.
They call them VAT? Yeah, V-A-T. That's the Ugandan way to say taxes.
Oh, man.
And then from there, that drive, that six hours, sometimes it's taken 25 hours one time, and another time it took 47 hours.
Same drive.
joe rogan
47?
unidentified
Yeah.
joe rogan
Why did it take 47?
justin wren
Oh, I think we helped get 40-something cars out of the way that were stuck in the mud.
So it's really silty there.
You don't call Congo roads, roads.
I've never been on tarmac in Congo.
Actually, that's why.
I have been on cement in Goma.
But outside of Goma, there are no concrete roads anywhere, tarmac roads.
So I've seen an 18-wheeler or lorry three-fourths of the way sunk to where it's up to their window, the driver's side window, up to silt.
joe rogan
How'd they get it out?
justin wren
I don't know that one.
That one was just kind of in the graveyard.
That one was like done.
No one's getting that thing out.
Really?
Yeah.
So it's just there.
I mean, you're going around mountains and you look down to the side and you'll see four, eight, twelve vehicles that have flipped off of that corner.
joe rogan
Oh, fuck this, Justin!
justin wren
I'm not kidding.
joe rogan
Goddammit.
justin wren
There's some vice videos of the craziest roads in the world.
A lot of them are in Congo.
Some say Rwanda because there's so many hills.
It's the land of a thousand hills.
And so there's so many sharp turns.
And they take those turns at 40, 50, 60 miles an hour.
And so they'll literally just fly off the mountain.
joe rogan
So you catch this parasite.
You've gone through all these...
I mean, this has been...
We've been talking about it on the podcast for several months now.
So for me, hearing that you're still dealing with it is...
Really disturbing.
What can they do about this?
What are they going to do about this?
justin wren
I think getting off that cleanse.
I mean, I was on 28 pills for four weeks, maybe five weeks.
And some of it were like antibiotics, but I have to stay away from certain antibiotics.
Here's a couple of things that I know I have.
PTSD because of my brain scans.
And then they see in my brain toxicity.
And so the toxicity in my brain, which kind of form these little divots, but not really divots.
It's not really changing the biology or makeup of my brain, but it's just activity of my brain isn't fully developed right there.
Toxins are there that are either from mefloquine or from Cipro.
Have you heard of Cipro toxicity?
joe rogan
What's the first one?
justin wren
Mephiloquin.
joe rogan
What is that stuff?
justin wren
That's a malaria drug.
That nobody should take for any reason.
It used to be the drug of choice for our military.
Now tens of thousands of our military veterans, if you look up mefloquine toxicity, military times, they've done two articles.
One was just a month or two ago.
But the first one showed that tens of thousands of our military veterans have wrongly been diagnosed with PTSD. And it's been because of this mefloquine.
So they never saw war.
The mefloquine toxicity of the brain, it's like this poison for your brain.
And if you've taken it for like six months, you can have it.
It starts giving you bad nightmares.
You can have different kinds of mood swings and different stuff.
Right.
well, tens of thousands have been wrongly diagnosed with it when they take it for once a week.
So you take the pill once a week, and that was why it was our drug of choice.
Instead of it being every day or two times a day, you just take it once a week.
Well, when I had malaria the three times, I was allergic to the normal malaria medication, quinine and artefan and some other drugs like doxycycline and malarone, I wasn't responding to those well.
I was vomiting.
I was allergic to them.
So mefloquine, my body digested the best or I just took it the best.
So the three times I had malaria, they gave me two in the morning, two at midday, and two at night.
And so I'm taking six in a day for five to seven days.
And these other guys that were getting methicone toxicity were taking it once a week for six months.
So I had 30 to 42 in a week's time.
I had six months in a week's time.
And I did that three different times.
joe rogan
Why are they giving you so much?
justin wren
It was what my body was responding to against malaria.
The first time I lost 33 pounds in five days.
And so I was vomiting red and green, blood and bile.
I lost most of my hearing.
My peripheral vision started disappearing.
I had something called blackwater fever where my urine was literally as dark as that black clock.
joe rogan
Take pictures of it?
justin wren
I didn't.
I probably should have.
It freaked me out.
Five days I didn't urinate.
And then when I finally did, if you Google blackwater fever, One in four or one in two people that get it, they die.
joe rogan
You didn't urinate for how many days?
justin wren
Five days.
Five days I couldn't pee.
joe rogan
Oh, my God.
justin wren
They were trying to get IVs in me.
My veins were collapsing.
Oh, Jesus.
So that was pretty brutal.
But yeah, man, so I'm getting my health better there because I do want to fight.
joe rogan
But how can you if you have this stuff in your brain?
justin wren
I'm journaling my road to recovery.
joe rogan
But if they don't know what this parasite is, how are they treating it?
How are they going to get it out of your system?
justin wren
Hopefully they don't find anything because I just got off those rounds of...
So they're testing me for Lyme disease.
They're testing me for all these kind of parasites, amoebas, bacterias.
joe rogan
You can get Lyme disease in the Congo?
unidentified
Yeah.
justin wren
Well, I've been camping out here and I've gotten bit by five or ten ticks or something like that.
But yeah, there's these wicked kind of ticks.
My record is pulling five roaches out of my beard in one night.
joe rogan
Oh, Christ.
justin wren
So there's tons of bugs there.
joe rogan
Do you know, does Oklahoma have that Rocky Mountain tick?
I think so.
Or the Lone Star tick?
justin wren
Yes.
joe rogan
The one that gives you a meat allergy?
Have you had that one?
justin wren
I've been bit by that one.
I don't think I have a meat allergy, though.
I hope not.
joe rogan
Yeah, that's a crazy one.
What is it called?
Alpha-gal?
Alpha-galactose?
It's something that, it's the reaction that this tick bite gives you.
It makes you allergic to this specific element in red meat.
justin wren
Wow.
joe rogan
Yeah, you can only eat fish and like if you try to eat meat you'll get really sick.
justin wren
Wow.
joe rogan
It's crazy.
justin wren
That is crazy.
But they're trying to figure it out why.
This is going to be crazy.
Why I'm 32 and I've had shingles five times.
My first time I got malaria, I don't know if you can see the white in my beard over here, but I got white in my beard the first time I had malaria.
The second time I had malaria, I had white come out in my beard down here.
joe rogan
So your body's just freaking out.
justin wren
Yeah.
So now I've got shingles five times.
And then this is going to sound crazy, but I know I have to have a...
This might be too much information, but I know I have to have a bowel movement whenever my nose starts running.
unidentified
Hmm.
justin wren
So, literally, whenever I have to go, my nose starts running and running and running.
joe rogan
How is that connected?
justin wren
I don't know.
That's what they're looking into.
They're like, that's your second brain.
And so, I don't know, it's digestion.
Your stomach is your second brain, they said.
joe rogan
Oh, that's why they say trust your gut.
justin wren
Trust your gut.
unidentified
Yeah.
justin wren
It's got literally more neurons in your stomach than in your brain.
unidentified
Really?
justin wren
That's what the doctor was saying.
joe rogan
I know that's the case with your heart as well, right?
There's a bunch of neurons in your heart that they're realizing now, like that whole idea of trusting your heart, trusting your gut, like these thought processes that people had might have actually been based on some intuitive understanding of how the body actually works.
justin wren
Wow.
joe rogan
It's really weird.
justin wren
It is weird.
joe rogan
Really weird.
justin wren
Strange.
Everything's connected, right?
Everything's connected.
joe rogan
That's not weird, really.
justin wren
Okay.
joe rogan
I mean, it makes sense over time.
justin wren
The doctors in Oklahoma are like, we have no explanation for that.
And then the doctors out here are like, oh, that's because this is connected to this.
And they did all my blood work, even though they did more blood labs before I ever came out here, like a week or two ago.
They still poked me five more times to get more blood at work because, well, three times they were drawing blood, two times they were putting that stuff in me so they could do the brain scans.
joe rogan
So you're getting better doctors out here, more informed.
justin wren
Yeah, more informed.
And then, man, have you heard of hyperbarics?
joe rogan
Yes.
I know Uriah Faber used it quite a bit after his fight with Jose Aldo.
justin wren
Yeah.
joe rogan
When Aldo fucked his leg up.
justin wren
Yeah.
joe rogan
His leg swole up real bad.
justin wren
I'm telling you, this is one of the biggest game changers.
I love to float.
Go and float tanks.
I've done it at least 50 times.
At Float OKC in Oklahoma, my wife and I, that's our date night.
Once a week, we go and we do that.
And I float fight week at least twice a week.
I really believe in floating.
Hyperbarics is unlike anything I've ever done and felt immediate long-lasting benefits from.
joe rogan
How so?
What does it make you feel like?
justin wren
I get better sleep than I've ever gotten.
That was instant almost.
I mean, I noticed it the first night.
The second night, I've done over 20 treatments now of hyperbarics.
You get in the tank, you put on an oxygen mask, and they fill the tank up with oxygen.
And you lay there for an hour and a half to two hours.
Some people only takes an hour, but I'm bigger and they take me to a lower depth.
And then my ears kind of mess up on me a little bit on flights.
They kind of get clogged up or whatever.
joe rogan
Because of the hyperbaric chamber?
justin wren
No, it's just they've always done that on planes.
And so it's like you're in a plane when you're in the hyperbarics.
And what it does is it pressurizes the oxygen down into your cells.
So it's literally going into your mitochondria.
That's what the new studies are showing.
Now oxygen gets in there and it promotes healing and in your brain, it literally brings blood flow into every part of the brain that needs it.
So it's one of the best things after a concussion.
So I was with Raiden and what's, I'm one of those guys that sometimes thinks, um, everything happens for a reason, you know, or there's, there's not a lot of quince.
I just started hyperbarics two or three days before I met Raiden.
Then I'm doing it and they're saying it's one of the best things for concussions.
Raiden gets a concussion from one of those fights.
Um, or maybe it was one of the ones that wasn't on the fight, but they diagnosed him.
with the doctors and his mom and his dad, whenever the doctor says, I think he really has a concussion, did some testing on him, wrote a prescription and said, Hey, I really think he needs to do hyper barracks.
That's one of the best things for concussions now.
And I was like, I just started.
And so literally that day, the doctor hands him a prescription for hyper barracks.
And then I take him in there and get hyper barracks.
And this is probably the story I wanted to share with you about hyper barracks the most.
There's this kid named Caleb Freeman, and he just made NBC nightly news.
Um, I think Fox news and ABC, um, he's making the news everywhere because of his comeback The kid probably should have never been able to eat again on his own, especially never be able to walk.
His parents were told that he would be left in a vegetative state.
And if you have that Caleb Freeman video, he got in a vicious car accident.
Sixteen years old.
He had just started driving.
He was the number one cross-country runner at his school, but also in his district.
And then he got in this brutal car accident.
Here's the video of him trying to learn to put up the finger number one again.
He's trying to do a one.
That's his dad kind of coaching him.
But he was the number one cross-country runner.
Now he's trying to get him to do a thumbs up.
joe rogan
And this is all from brain damage.
justin wren
Yep.
driving down the road hit hit uh uh what's it hydroplained gotten a brutal wreck um and they thought he would be left in a vegetative state for the rest of his life so you can see right here his muscles are so atrophied because he had been in like a i think he was in a coma or he was um in intensive care for so long um And so his dad's trying to get him to do a thumbs up.
You know, he's trying his hardest to do that.
You can go to the second video.
And they're telling him, you should really try hyperbarics.
They try everything you can.
And so the whole community has rallied around him in Oklahoma.
He's from Newcastle, where one of our board members are from.
And they're trying to help him learn to walk again, assist it.
I don't know what they have him in here.
joe rogan
Did he break his arm?
justin wren
Yeah, he broke his arm.
joe rogan
Did he fall down and break his arm?
Because in the other picture, it seemed like he didn't have a...
justin wren
I actually don't know.
joe rogan
This is post-accident?
justin wren
Yeah, this is post-accident.
So maybe this was before that other video.
joe rogan
So which video are you trying to show then?
justin wren
I'm trying to show you both of these because this is how far gone he was.
And then after 40 hyperbaric treatments...
They say, get him in there, it'll flood his brain with oxygen.
When it has the oxygen, it'll reproduce the blood flow, and that'll bring actual healing into his brain.
And so that third video is right here.
He was the number one cross-country runner at his school.
So now he's trying to learn how to do cross-country again.
He wasn't ever supposed to walk again on his own.
He came in there to the hyper barracks, assisted like you saw, where people are assisting him on both sides.
He does 40 treatments of hyperbarics, and then all of a sudden he walks up and down the football field 14 times unassisted.
Nothing changed.
Just 40 hyperbaric treatments.
The doctor's like, you gotta keep doing this.
Yeah, that next video is actually him.
That's a JPEG. Oh, that's us at hyperbarics with Raiden.
That's the young man that got the concussion on the right.
In this video right here, I don't know if there's volume, but this is actually a pretty special video.
This is after 80 treatments.
He's literally finishing his cross-country run again.
And he was never supposed to walk.
And that's after like three or five miles.
Wow.
joe rogan
And how's his ability to communicate?
Is that coming back as well?
justin wren
Yeah, he was actually texting me this morning.
He texted me that picture of us and Raiden.
Wow.
And his dad actually forgot.
He goes, where do we take that picture again?
Or I don't have it saved.
And Caleb goes, it's in your phone, Dad.
Just look.
And so he's able to recollect a lot of different stuff.
joe rogan
That's amazing.
So this is all something that you're experiencing as well for your treatment.
And for the parasites?
unidentified
Yep.
justin wren
And I've literally never gotten better sleep.
I feel more positive when I come out of it.
And then I feel like I can focus better because one of the things that they saw in my brain scans where I have PTSD and then I have real severe ADD. And they can see that on how my brain functions.
I guess there's like eight different types of ADD brains.
joe rogan
Dude, don't put me in one of those fucking things.
justin wren
I don't even want to know.
I think you need to do it.
joe rogan
I don't even want to know what's wrong with me.
justin wren
Dr. Amen's awesome, man.
And so then I have that.
And then so going into the oxygen, they can see from scan one to scan two how my brain is actually functioning better.
And the spots with ADD have kind of cooled off a little bit.
The spots of PTSD have literally kind of gone down a little bit.
And so that was Caleb's story.
There's also this girl named Eden Carlson.
In Eden Carlson, there's like a minute clip on the New York Post, and they did it on YouTube.
This girl drowned for two hours.
She was facing float down in a pool, or face down in a pool.
Her mom pulled her out.
Maybe 15 minutes, she drowned.
For two hours, she didn't breathe.
She didn't have a heartbeat.
And then at the hospital, they miraculously got her back.
Her story's all over.
If you just Google Eden Carlson.
joe rogan
She was dead for two hours.
justin wren
Two hours.
Eden Carlson.
Eden Carlson.
She's the first one to have brain damage reversal.
Scientifically proven.
They've done all the MRIs and CAT scans.
unidentified
Wow.
joe rogan
From the hyperbarics.
justin wren
From hyperbarics.
So how is she now?
Is she normal?
Man, I think this is worth trying to pull up one of those videos.
It's New York Post, Eden.
Oh, okay, you can't pose that.
But literally, there's an Eden Carlson video on YouTube, and it's wild to see how she's recovered and how they told her she would never be able to eat again, never be able to go to school, never be able to do that.
Now she's basically a normal little girl again.
joe rogan
Look at her there.
justin wren
Yeah.
joe rogan
So cute.
justin wren
Right there.
joe rogan
With a little smile.
That's amazing.
justin wren
Her mom is like a huge advocate for it now.
joe rogan
That's incredible.
But with you, what do they have to do?
Like, they have to find out whether or not the parasites are still in your system, identify the parasites, because it could be an unknown parasite.
justin wren
Right.
Well, they know it's shisto, and if I've had shisto in me for as long as they think, they don't think it started in April.
They think maybe that was another, not an onset, but took it to another level.
When I went there and got sick...
And it was brutal.
I mean, I was hugging basically the, not the toilet, but the latrine while I was in Uganda in April, in May.
I mean, I was just so sick.
joe rogan
This hyperbaric is helping you, but you're still not able to train right now.
You don't have a fight scheduled at any time.
justin wren
I don't have a fight scheduled, but I would like to fight first quarter of next year if I can.
joe rogan
Is that Literally possible?
I mean, if you're not...
justin wren
Six months from now, I have another follow-up appointment here in March, and we're going to have a lot more data to show, like from my blood work to my bacteria in my stomach to those brain scans are going to be the big thing that show how my brain has started to heal, how my body started to feel, and show my health just increasing.
Right.
That's the goal.
I'm on this mission to get healthy so I can fight again, but also just so that I can function better and have not these big swings.
joe rogan
So the hyperbaric chamber is helping you, but yet you're still feeling some serious significance.
justin wren
I just started the hyperbarics a month ago.
joe rogan
Okay.
justin wren
So I'm 20 treatments in.
I need to get 40 done as soon as possible.
And then they think I'll probably do another round of 40. And then, yeah, I mean, seeing how Caleb's doing, I mean, Caleb showed me this.
This is wild.
I come in, and I'm about to get in the chamber with him, and he shows me his hands shaking.
And he's showing me, I don't know what that's called, but it's whenever, is that when Parkinson's and different stuff?
Like you have those kind of shakes in your hand or Alzheimer's or whatever that is.
So Caleb's got that and he gets in the chamber.
90 minutes later, we get out.
He shows me his hand and it's completely still and he can put contacts back in his eyes.
unidentified
Whoa.
justin wren
But before, there's no way at all that he can get contacts in his eyes.
Afterwards, his body's calmed down enough, his brain has enough oxygen and blood flow in it that he can put his contacts back in.
joe rogan
That's insane.
justin wren
Yeah.
So, Raiden, his parents say that he was always up and down in the middle of the night and that they'd have to try to put him back to sleep.
And now he just, once he's asleep, he's asleep until they wake him up.
They think it's helping with his autism, his diabetes, his AC1 levels or whatever those are called.
Those have started to come down.
And what the doctors have told us is like there's nothing better.
The doctors take an oath that say to do no harm.
Like that's first and foremost is to do no harm.
And like if someone has a concussion or if someone has autism or if someone has this bacteria or a parasite that might be in the brain, why not flood the body on a cellular level?
Oh, you're going to love this part.
That can increase your stem cells by eight times in your body.
So it's one of the best treatments for whenever you have the stem cells injected in you.
So I had the MSCs, the mesenchymal stem cells from my hip put in my shoulder.
They said one of the best things I could have done for it would have been to get in a hyperbaric chamber because that would promote the stem cell growth and life of the stem cells because they're cells and you're pushing oxygen into the cells and increasing blood flow into it and you're extending their life and helping them reproduce.
So it's one of the best things out there, Joe.
I wouldn't be talking about it like this without Rafael is getting into it.
Joe Namath.
Joe Namath has his own clinic now for hyperbarics.
joe rogan
Yeah, he's doing that to reverse his brain trauma for football, right?
I read about that.
justin wren
Right, and it's the first time there's ever been documented cases of brain trauma reversal.
Where if you can heal your brain, you can basically heal your life.
Where you have a healthy brain, you have a healthy life.
joe rogan
Dude, we need a hyperbaric chamber in here.
justin wren
That's what I'm saying.
joe rogan
You buy portable units?
justin wren
Yeah, absolutely.
I use something called a Seacrest, which I think you would really like.
It's the hard chamber.
It's glass.
joe rogan
You have one in your house?
justin wren
No, but the Seacrest one, there's Joe Namath doing it.
I think Michael Phelps does it, you know, getting in the water.
joe rogan
Look at that.
unidentified
Wow.
justin wren
Literally, it's wild at how much stuff it actually helps.
joe rogan
So what's the prognosis, like with you, with the doctors that have looked for parasites, they're doing all this blood scan, do they think that they're going to be able to straighten you out?
justin wren
They think so.
They think with doing a holistic approach where medication can come in at a later date.
I had this doctor that said, oh, you have PTSD, here's these pills.
Oh, you have depression, here's these pills.
Okay, now you're starting to have anxiety for the first time in your life.
You've never had it before.
Here's some more pills.
Oh, you think you have ADD? Here's some more pills.
They put me on three or four different pills at the same time.
I started feeling like a zombie.
I felt weird.
I felt like I started having electricity running through my veins or something.
My muscles started twitching.
My eyelid was constantly spasming.
joe rogan
So the doctors that have looked at this, all the various ailments that you have, and they don't want you to do pills.
So what do they want you to do and what do they think is going to be able to happen?
They think you'll be able to fight again?
justin wren
So Dr. Amen, he's a guy that says, man, our brains are the, literally, you can live, they can do lung transplants, right?
And heart transplants and kidney transplants.
Like you can't do a brain transplant.
joe rogan
Right.
justin wren
And so he's saying that anyone that's in a brain-damaging occupation, and he said whether that's fighting football or even being a firefighter, because that is a brain-damaging occupation.
You're breathing in burning couches, which are putting off all these harmful chemicals.
And so he said you want to protect it.
And promote your brain health as much as you possibly can.
unidentified
Right.
justin wren
So he's a brilliant guy and he's going to be on weekly calls with me, guiding me, keeping me accountable on how am I protecting my sleep?
How am I, what am I getting to eat?
You know, also supplementation.
What's that one that you were on here with David Sinclair talking about?
NMN? It's like that.
Rolls...
joe rogan
Resveratrol?
justin wren
Yes, that one.
joe rogan
Yeah, it's not a drug.
It's an antioxidant.
justin wren
Well, that plus some of the other things that you guys were talking about, they're all in his supplements where he tells you, go get these supplements from here and here and make sure that you're optimizing your brain health.
joe rogan
So it seems like there's a bunch of different things going on.
With the PTSD, PTSD has to do with things that you've seen in your childhood.
But then you've got the drug, the...
justin wren
Methyloquine toxicity of the brain or Cipro toxicity.
Have you heard of Cipro, what it does to you?
joe rogan
No.
What is Cipro?
justin wren
Cipro is probably the number one antibiotic for intestinal bacterias.
So if you get intestinal bacteria, they give you this Cipro.
joe rogan
And what happens with that?
justin wren
It kicks the bug out, whatever it is.
It's like the number one thing for humanitarians to take with you overseas.
But a huge side effect now is cartilage, ligaments, and muscle tears.
joe rogan
Oh, I have heard of that.
I have heard of people taking extreme antibiotics for staph infections.
justin wren
Yep, so Cipro is for staffs.
And then afterwards, so you're taking it because you got it wrestling.
You take Cipro, you clear up, and you go back into wrestling.
Now all of a sudden you tear your Achilles tendon.
joe rogan
Yeah, and how long does it last?
How long does it weaken your ligaments and everything for?
justin wren
It's at least for six months, they say.
unidentified
Oh, Jesus.
justin wren
But it could be for a year or longer.
joe rogan
What the fuck?
justin wren
And so I took Cipro while I was in Congo for my gut health and in Uganda.
Well, I tore my left labrum.
I came back.
I got another round of sickness.
I took Cipro.
I come back.
I tear my right labrum.
Come back.
I tear my meniscus.
And so they're like, you probably definitely have probably Cipro and mefloquine toxicity.
joe rogan
Did you get operations on your labrum or your meniscus?
justin wren
Yeah.
joe rogan
So you got your labrum surgically repaired, both of them.
justin wren
No, just the left one, but I need the right one, I think.
joe rogan
Fuck.
justin wren
Yeah.
And then I got my meniscus trimmed up.
unidentified
Jesus.
justin wren
Man, it's been wild.
joe rogan
Dude, you've been through the ringer.
justin wren
Yeah, it's been wild.
But it's all been worth it.
This stuff that happened with...
Dustin Poirier and Khabib and then Dana matching it.
I mean, that blew us away.
joe rogan
Well, explain what you mean because people don't understand what you're saying.
Dustin donating money for Fight for the Forgotten and Dana matching that money and Khabib as well.
justin wren
Yeah, it was nuts.
So for that fight, which was basically the modern-day Rocky story, the undefeated Russian, they're building an arena for him.
Yeah.
Arguably never lost a round, potentially, or at least a fight.
And Dustin goes there, the underdog, and he started the Good Fight Foundation, his own foundation with his wife, Jolie, and they're awesome.
I was actually on my first ever bowfishing trip, and I get a call or a text, Instagram message from Jolie, saying that Dustin and her want to help us raise funds for this fight.
So I get back to them, then they call me, and I literally have a bow fishing thing in my hand.
It was my first time going.
I didn't get anything.
But anyways, they say they want to help us raise funds.
I'm like, this is awesome.
They put up a fundraiser for $25,000 to help us drill a well for an orphanage.
So this orphanage for the Pygmies there, it's a school, but they've all lost their parents, a lot of them because of HIV. And their water source was taken out by a flood, a torrential flood that happened there.
So in the 80s, they had built this kind of sort of well.
It's more called a spring box.
It was like a mountain-fed spring.
Well, the mud got all in it.
It busted up the pipes from the 80s.
There was no way to recover that thing.
So they needed a new one.
Um, and so Dustin decided to set a goal to help us raise funds for 25,000 to be able to put a big water tower with a big solar system that put piped water into the classrooms, into, um, their living quarters, into the kitchen or the cafeteria.
And so, um, through the fight, we had it funded.
And then after that, the fund just kept coming in.
Dustin and Khabib exchanged shirts.
And then Khabib said he was going to auction off his shirt and give 100% of it to Dustin.
So that brought in $100,000.
Dana said he would match it.
Dana matched it.
And so we're going to be able to drill seven wells now, not just one with a water tower.
But seven wells.
We're serving the other six right now.
We're getting close to finishing the first one.
joe rogan
So has this, the parasites and this disease, has this in any way weakened your desire to go back there?
justin wren
No, not weak in my desire to go back there.
Just influenced or encouraged me to be a little smarter when I'm there.
joe rogan
What could you do differently?
Just not go in the water?
justin wren
I could stay in nicer places.
Like the doc team stayed in a hotel last time.
joe rogan
You didn't?
justin wren
I actually did.
And that was the first time I had ever done that.
Normally I sleep in the twig and leaf huts.
I sleep on the dirt.
And if I'm rained on, I'm rained on.
And I don't use a mosquito net and things like that.
I wanted to live like they lived and not have any of the real comforts and luxuries.
And then they'll wonder why they don't have that or this or the other.
unidentified
Right.
justin wren
But yeah, now I'm going to take my own food.
I'm not going to eat the food there that can be contaminated.
I'm going to make sure everything I eat, you know, I have clean hands before I eat it.
And I normally do that, but just double checking everything, Purell, eat the food I bring, sleep in a hotel, and just go on day trips there.
And that'll probably be smarter anyways, because if we bring someone with us, normally it's just me going.
But last time we brought Chris Cyborg.
And she helped with the kids.
She helped drill two wells there.
So that was awesome.
We're up to 16 wells now in Uganda.
Wow.
61 total.
And we're about to get 30 acres of land with the money that came in from Dustin and Khabib.
joe rogan
Was she concerned at all about catching anything while she was there?
justin wren
Yeah.
She got a little sick.
But I think it was just from this chicken that we had.
It's like chicken soup.
I don't think they maybe cooked the chicken long enough.
And so she got a little sick from that.
But no, I think going back is going to be okay and then doing strategic smaller trips.
What really messed up Chris was – so in Uganda, the pygmies lived in the Similiki National Forest, which was bordering Congo.
Well, they were kicked out of the rainforest by the Ugandan Wildlife Authority to protect the forest.
Now, they're the protectors of the forest.
Why do you kick them out of the forest?
They're not poachers.
They only take what they need and their hunter-gatherers.
But they – yeah, anyway, so they got rid of them in the forest, put them behind a slum in this little town.
And so they put them on one acre of land, over 300 people.
Over 300 people living on one acre of land that's actually their land that they can call theirs.
So we're walking around and they did that six years before we get there.
And the chief told us that there's now 35 families, only 151 people, and that they're scared that if it goes another six years, that they're all going to be gone, that their people group won't exist anymore.
And so that was Chief or King Zito that told us that.
And so we're walking around, and Chris...
Chris kind of gets tripped up a little bit on this mound.
She looks down and she looks down and sees all these mounds around her.
And she said, what are these mounds?
And the chief said, that's so-and-so.
And this is so-and-so.
And like says a name and says a name.
It's like, we live on top of our graveyard.
We don't have anywhere to bury our dead.
joe rogan
Jesus Christ.
justin wren
And so over 300 people on one acre of land.
Now there's only 151 people.
The rest of them are buried in the ground right there because the slums throw out their sewage and it goes right through their land.
joe rogan
Oh my God.
justin wren
So we've got them back five acres of land right now, but they're practicing how to farm on that.
And then we're about to get 30 more acres of land.
And then they'll be able to live on the five acres and have these little plots of land for households for $1,000, $2,000 each.
We can build them a home.
And then they can start farming that 30 acres and we'll want to expand that to 50 or 100 to where they can have sustenance farming to feed themselves.
And then they'll be able to feed the community and sell that and then be able to send their kids to...
School with school uniforms and buying school fees or paying school fees and stuff like that.
unidentified
Wow.
justin wren
Yeah.
joe rogan
This makes you realize how easy we have it.
justin wren
This what?
joe rogan
Makes you realize how easy we have it.
justin wren
Oh, man.
Absolutely.
And so that's why whenever you ask me, like, does this make you not want to go back?
I'm like, man, look at the challenges that they have each and every day.
joe rogan
Have you caught everything that you can catch over there?
Dengue fever, malaria, black wire fever, schistosomiasis.
And this is a parasitic disease as well?
justin wren
I think it's in the fluke family or it's a worm.
And then hopefully I don't have anything else besides that, but this toxicity stuff, Cipro or Methlequin, that could be messed with me.
joe rogan
Have you changed your diet as well?
justin wren
Yeah.
Yeah, my wife meal preps for me.
What are you eating now?
I eat mostly, I eat meat, but I eat mostly vegetables, like more of that, like the small portion is meat.
It'll be chicken or fish or something lean.
A lot of nuts and a lot of thick leafy green vegetables.
joe rogan
And have you found that that's helped you?
justin wren
That's helped me a lot.
That's helped me a lot.
joe rogan
Are you juicing at all?
justin wren
Yep.
I'm doing that.
Juicing with the Vitamix.
joe rogan
Okay, so you're getting all the fiber in there as well.
justin wren
Yeah, the fiber.
So that's been really good.
And then I've been keeping myself busy.
If I can't go there, we're really starting to expand our mission and vision here stateside to bully prevention because, Joe, it's nuts right now, the second leading cause of death.
So Butch is Raiden's grandfather, and he is an old bull rider, and Raiden lives with Butch and Claudia, his grandparents, right now.
And they found him in his forearm.
He wrote, I want to kill myself in Sharpie.
And he's 12. He's 12. Butch said the first time Raiden wanted to kill himself that he knew of was whenever Raiden was 9 years old.
So he's 9 years old and already suicidal.
And Butch said that just makes his heart want to fall out of his chest.
You know, I'm his grandfather.
How does my 12-year-old grandson not have enough to live for?
And the leading, second leading cause of death among kids from 10 to 14 is suicide.
If you're between the ages of 10 to 14, that's the second reason.
joe rogan
And bullying is the cause of most of that.
justin wren
Most of it's from bullying.
Because bullying is linked to the increase in depression, addiction, isolation.
joe rogan
Do they think that the people who do it, is it because they were bullied at one point in time or abused physically?
unidentified
No.
justin wren
So they do think that and the easy way to remember that is hurt people hurt people right hurt people hurt people whether that's an addict or a bully but here's a statistic from the CDC it's funny the CDC found out that I had dengue fever and then also the CDC did the study on bullying and the number three at risk of suicide is the bully the person that acts out by being a bully number two Surprisingly, it's the victim.
They're the second highest risk.
So then you think, who's number one?
Well, number one is actually the one that does both.
They are bullied, and then they act out by being a bully.
And so they're getting it on both ends.
joe rogan
No positive feelings at all.
It's just all a storm of negativity and awfulness.
justin wren
It's this huge storm inside of them.
joe rogan
Now, what can you do for bully awareness, right?
How can you prevent it, or how can we mitigate it?
justin wren
Yeah.
I think it's by promoting a culture of...
Cultivating a culture of kindness.
And I know that can sound a little wimpy.
joe rogan
No, I don't think so at all.
justin wren
Yeah.
But if you look at Rafael Lovato Jr., he was bullied because he didn't look like everybody else.
So was George St. Pierre.
George St. Pierre.
joe rogan
So many guys.
A lot of fighters are bullied.
justin wren
Most fighters I find were bullied not being the bully.
unidentified
Right.
justin wren
And so I think to cultivate a culture of kindness, there's actually this school in Oklahoma.
It's pretty awesome.
They're called Edmond Santa Fe.
They selected us between 44 applicants.
So we were up against like Boys and Girls Club and Make-A-Wish, these phenomenal organizations, Special Olympics.
Some really, really great charities and nonprofits out there.
Last year, the school selected a foster home and they raised in a week.
This high school raised $234,000.
A high school in their philanthropy week because they wanted to help these kids get a new main center among the foster homes.
So this year they selected us because they want to get our bully prevention program into public and private schools.
joe rogan
Now, what is the prevention program?
justin wren
Yeah.
So it's mostly character development with bully prevention inside of it.
So it's a 12-week program and it's 12 weekly lessons.
So we have it online.
It's digital.
It's on our website, fightfortheforgotten.org.
And if you click Heroes in Waiting, you'll find it.
That's our curriculum.
What's called is Heroes in Waiting.
And what that is, is there's a digital curriculum where I teach the teacher or instruct the instructor how to instruct the lesson that week.
But then there's a video for the parents and for the students that's the weekly hero challenge.
And so they get a weekly lesson or Matt Chat discussion, and then they get a weekly challenge, which the challenge will be something like, recognize when you're being a bystander.
Or my favorite is probably go out.
Your mission this week, your hero challenge, is to go out and complete a secret random act of kindness.
So the rules are you have to be safe.
You have to be smart, but you have to be completely anonymous.
And you have to go out and make someone feel great.
And so journal or report back to us, you know, what did you do?
How'd that make them feel?
How'd that make you feel?
How can you build onto this for next week?
And you go out and you complete these missions because I think first you have to educate the kids that they are part of the solution and part of the problem.
They just have to pick where they're going to be because in bullying, if you stand by and you watch, if you laugh, giggle, like in that video, there's 12 kids in the bathroom, four or five are filming it.
You filming it is encouraging it.
You standing by and not doing anything, you're actually not an innocent bystander.
You're a silent supporter because you're standing there and you're not doing anything.
joe rogan
They're actually trying to pass laws about kids in schools filming other kids getting beat up and making them somehow a part of it, an accomplice in some way, shape, or form.
justin wren
Because you are.
You're at least an encourager.
joe rogan
Yeah.
justin wren
And then if you stand by and watch, you are an accomplice.
You're not doing anything.
You didn't choose it.
It chose you.
joe rogan
What happened to those kids in the video that were doing those things to raid?
justin wren
They're minors, so I can't really talk about what's happened, but the school has taken appropriate or at least in their eyes appropriate and swift action.
The parents are thankful to the school and the school district for them taking this serious.
I know that the family has felt this has been going on since he was nine at least, and now he's 12. So three years, and they say the only reason now something's being done is because it was filmed, because it's on video, and it went viral.
some fun stuff.
If we can pull up some of those Raiden pictures, I'll show you.
joe rogan
There's another one recently with Dylan Danis.
Dylan Danis got jujitsu lessons.
He paid for jujitsu lessons for this young boy who was also beat up in the bathroom.
And there's a film of that as well.
You know what I'm talking about?
justin wren
Yeah.
And Dylan posted this video too, and it got over 10 million views, which was awesome.
And Rafael now is actually going to scholarship Raiden and his brother Brock with jujitsu lessons.
joe rogan
Oh, that's amazing.
justin wren
So they're going to start doing martial arts training after Raiden's done with his hyperbarics and his concussion has settled down.
He's going to come into the mats and be part of the kids program, the little warriors for Rafael's school, which are the best youth program in the state.
joe rogan
Yeah.
justin wren
Is there a way to pull up some of those pictures of Raiden?
And this is kind of cool.
I'm going to give you this because Raphael really likes this.
And it's some Tenth Planet guys.
Um, there's Raiden after, uh, after a, uh, uh, actually a press conference, all the news wanted to like post pictures of them, um, or they wanted to get exclusives.
And so as parents are being chased all around town, people are literally posting their home address online, doxing them, but doxing the bullies mainly saying here's the 12 year old girl's address and go, go find her.
You can go through a couple more of those pictures.
There's some pretty cool ones where...
unidentified
He's eating Chick-fil-A? Yeah, he likes Chick-fil-A a lot.
justin wren
His dad says he's a chicken-eating fool.
But there's at a football game, the Edmond Santa Fe.
They've surrounded him with a lot of love.
That's awesome.
And then it's been cool.
Like, Emily, my wife, has said...
Oh, here's...
If we can have volume on this, this is pretty cool.
Emily, we're making you a video.
I am introducing Raiden to what...
unidentified
Hummus.
justin wren
You asked me what hummus is, so we got him some carrots and hummus.
The chips are for me, that you packed us.
Alright, my man.
Try carrots and hummus.
unidentified
They're actually really good.
justin wren
Really good?
joe rogan
So what's the book?
justin wren
Yeah.
So this right here is the Jiu Jitsu Planner.
And what it does is you have actually a training autopsy.
And you take notes, what you're learning, the techniques you're learning.
And this is out of 10th Planet, or at least the guys that created this.
Ben is a 10th Planet Austin guy, a guy named Zach Moore that's there too.
Yeah.
joe rogan
So is this available online if somebody wants to buy one of these things?
justin wren
It's available online on Instagram.
It's jiu-jitsuplanner.
I think it's jiu-jitsuplanner.com or jiu-jitsuplanner.org.
And they give 10% to Fight for the Forgotten now, which is pretty cool.
joe rogan
Look at that!
justin wren
Yeah, 10% of the proceeds go to us, but try to optimize your game.
joe rogan
It's got a training schedule, shows you when you're training, so you get to mark down.
So you're essentially held accountable for your lessons.
justin wren
What is this?
joe rogan
Is this an injury report?
Pay attention to your body.
Interesting.
justin wren
You have supplements you can put down there.
joe rogan
Like showing you what's hurt, what's going on.
justin wren
And then you have a competition tracker, so you can record your opponents, how it went, and you can also, at a tournament, start scouting out your competition.
And then they're going to have it to where they make new additions and things like that.
And so as it grows and as it scales, every planner they have from now on, 10% is going to go to Fight for the Forgotten.
joe rogan
This is very interesting, man.
Training autopsy.
justin wren
Yeah.
I like it.
I thought you'd dig it.
joe rogan
Session notes, what was drilled, strengths, weaknesses, role notes, and then for next class.
I like this.
Listen, man, writing things down, anything you can do where you're focusing on something and trying to improve, if you can write it down, it's better.
Was this inspired by the kind of book that you have?
Would you exactly see what that book was called again?
justin wren
This one's called Clear.
It's just a habit tracker.
And then you have like a journal in it too.
And I really like that.
And I like how I also have another one called the Full Focus Planner.
And that way you can plan out your day, your week, and you break it down.
And I can track my food, my training, all my important meetings.
And for me, writing it down physically is better than having it digitally.
Yeah, I just remember it better me too.
joe rogan
If I know if I haven't written it down, I'll probably forget it I keep notes like comedy notes.
I keep them on my phone But then when I go to do a show I always write it out.
Hmm always.
That's really smart They say the writing things just so there's something about physically putting a pen to paper that like really commits it to memory Yeah, anything else.
justin wren
Yeah, so that's why I have those two I actually have three.
I have another one called the 5-Minute Planner.
I take three journals around with me.
unidentified
Really?
justin wren
I do.
The Habit Tracker, the Full Focus Planner for my daily and weekly schedule.
The Habit Tracker that I can also just take other notes.
And then the 5-Minute Planner or 5-Minute Journal.
You start off with what would make today great three things.
And then three things, actually start with three things you're grateful for.
So you write that down.
Then three things that would make today amazing.
Then a daily affirmation.
And then at the end of the day, what three great things did happen today?
And then the very last one is how could you make today better?
And so kind of this reflection of, I could have done this better today.
So that way you're kind of keeping yourself accountable on that.
And I also have something else for you, my man.
Yeah.
I can't come bearing gifts.
Look at this thing.
joe rogan
What the fuck is that, dude?
justin wren
This is called a bushwhacker, I think.
joe rogan
Is this something they use in the Congo?
justin wren
No.
joe rogan
No?
justin wren
We'll get there.
joe rogan
What in the fuck?
Bro.
justin wren
So that is like a machete.
Be careful because that thing is really sharp.
The weight behind it.
I don't want you to cut yourself.
joe rogan
Okay.
Yeah, it's like a giant wood handle, like you could double fist this sucker.
justin wren
Yeah.
Mike Jones' knife and tool, you actually have one of his knives.
joe rogan
Yeah, I do.
justin wren
And he made this because he is now giving 5% of all of his knife sales to Fight for the Forgotten.
And he was turned on to us through the show.
This one's another one that he made.
unidentified
Oh.
joe rogan
My friend Mike Hawkridge gave me one of these.
justin wren
Yeah, that's what he said.
joe rogan
Oh, wow.
It's got a built-in little sharpener?
justin wren
Yep.
joe rogan
Look at that.
justin wren
Actually, that's a knife or a fire starter.
joe rogan
It is?
justin wren
Yeah.
joe rogan
Oh.
justin wren
That's a fire stick.
And it's a moose antler.
joe rogan
How's it supposed to stay there?
justin wren
You use that tie over the top.
joe rogan
Oh, it's a bungee.
Oh.
justin wren
Okay, and now the knife itself is super sharp.
It's Damascus steel.
joe rogan
Ooh, it's pretty.
justin wren
And then that's his bow hunter style knife.
The wood is Koa wood from Hawaii.
So we thought you'd like that.
And then he always has his little signature smile.
joe rogan
Yeah, I follow him on the Instagram.
justin wren
Yeah, he's a great guy.
joe rogan
Yeah, the other knife that Mike had made for me is a bow hunter as well.
This is beautiful, man.
Thank you.
Thanks, Mike, too.
That's pretty, man.
justin wren
And there's one more there from Mike Jones himself.
So he did a thing called Knife for the Forgotten.
And he sold 100% of his knives for Fight for the Forgotten.
And so that one's a chef's knife that he thought you'd really like.
unidentified
Oh, that's pretty.
justin wren
The wood and handle is actually black wood from Africa.
unidentified
Wow.
justin wren
So it's probably from Tanzania, but it's a chef's knife.
He's got that smiley face in there.
But it took him like 15...
I knew how much you appreciate craftsman work.
So that took him 15 to 18 hours to make that.
joe rogan
That's pretty.
It's a small handle, too.
It's interesting.
Wow, that's beautiful.
Thanks, man.
justin wren
Yeah, man.
I thought you'd like it.
joe rogan
I'm not worthy.
justin wren
Well, and then that was just to set up this one.
This knife is what it was actually all about, but Mike said, oh, let me throw in a knife or two, because he literally gives 5% of all his knives.
joe rogan
Is this one of the ones that was made by the Pygmies?
justin wren
That was made by King Zito himself.
It was some scrap metal.
It's not the sharpest knife, and he said it wasn't the best for me to give to you, but I thought it was the most unique.
That's his actual kind of signature design that he puts in there.
joe rogan
It's so light.
It's crazy.
What is this wood?
justin wren
So it's a wood that's out of the Simuliki National Forest, and they've been collecting it for generations.
joe rogan
I wish people could feel this, how light this is.
justin wren
It's light, right?
joe rogan
It feels like styrofoam.
It's crazy.
justin wren
So they have these different kind of like almost cork-feeling knives or handles.
joe rogan
Please tell them I said thank you.
justin wren
I will.
That's from Zito.
joe rogan
Very nice of him.
justin wren
N-Z-I-T-O. Wow, that's so pretty.
So yeah.
joe rogan
That's cool, man.
justin wren
I was able to get you one of those.
And then Dustin Poirier one as well.
joe rogan
That's dope.
Beautiful.
justin wren
Yeah.
joe rogan
So what's the plans now?
Like you're going, you're trying to get your health back together.
And when are you planning on going back to the Congo again?
justin wren
So I'm definitely going to Uganda sometime soon.
Hopefully, well, if I could fight first quarter of next year.
joe rogan
How is that possible?
justin wren
I don't know.
I'm being optimistic.
joe rogan
Please don't rush it.
justin wren
I'm not going to rush it, but it's been over two years.
joe rogan
But you need shoulder surgery.
That takes six months anyway.
So how are you going to do that?
That's first quarter.
Forever.
Because we're almost in November.
It's November in two days.
justin wren
It's true.
joe rogan
So December, January.
Okay, now we're into the first quarter of the next year.
justin wren
They said structurally I could fight with this shoulder.
joe rogan
Structurally?
I hate that word.
Please.
No, man.
Come on, man.
justin wren
I need to go slow, but I also need to...
Yes, please don't fight.
joe rogan
Don't fight for a while, please.
justin wren
Fight for a while.
joe rogan
Yeah, you've got to get everything in order, man.
justin wren
And that's what I've been telling people.
And people are...
There's people that are really excited for me to fight, but then also I know I can hold it.
joe rogan
Who are these people?
You mean fans?
justin wren
Yeah.
joe rogan
Hopefully they'll hear this and they love you and they'll be like, Justin, please, not right now.
Get yourself 100% back.
justin wren
Right.
So I guess what we're doing is actually, there's two really exciting things for now.
You said, so what now?
We're doing two things back-to-back, or actually simultaneously.
For Fight for the Forgotten, we have an end-of-the-year fundraising competition.
And so last year we did it and we invited about 100 martial arts academies to raise funds on our behalf.
And in eight weeks we raised $135,000.
joe rogan
That's amazing.
justin wren
It was incredible.
joe rogan
That's amazing.
justin wren
So now we're calling this our second annual fundraising competition.
Last year the academy that won the top fundraiser, his name was James Wright out of Martial Arts and More in North Carolina.
Their academy had just been hit by a hurricane.
And so since it was hit by a hurricane, the mats were ruined and the equipment, all their pads and mitts and bags were all molded.
So they had to get rid of everything.
Well, they won the fundraising tournament and they got a better than new gym.
It was over a $20,000 gym renovation that Century Martial Arts did and also Zebra Athletics.
joe rogan
That's cool.
justin wren
So, literally, they got a better than new academy.
joe rogan
That's very cool.
That's very cool.
justin wren
And it was because they were fundraising on our behalf.
This year, we've got a top ten.
Instead of the top one fundraiser, gets a prize.
Now, the top ten get a martial arts draft pick.
So martial arts superstars, world champions, whether it's former, current UFC or Bellator champions, Hall of Famers, martial arts coaches of the year that will fly out to their academy to do a seminar or a training day or a fan experience for fundraising on our behalf.
joe rogan
That's fucking awesome, man.
Well, that's so cool of Zebra and so cool of Century.
Century's been around forever, man.
justin wren
Yeah.
They made the kicking jeans.
joe rogan
Yes, I used to have those.
They lace up in the front like a pair of sneakers.
justin wren
They still make those.
joe rogan
Do they?
I used to wear the Taekwondo version of that for tournaments.
I used to wear the ones that laced up in the front.
I like those.
Because they made like kickboxing pants.
Remember when they used to have...
Kickboxing used to be above the waist, like PK, karate style.
Sentry used to make those pads for karate tournaments.
I still think they have the best bag.
They have the sweet spot in the Muay Thai bag.
I bought four different kinds of Muay Thai bags for this gym here, and the Sentry one that I have at home is the best one.
I have a 150-pound big Muay Thai bag.
It's the best one.
It's the sweet spot.
Between not too soft, not too hard, just...
Just perfect.
justin wren
Well, they're the only ones that actually make those here.
unidentified
There it is.
joe rogan
Bill Superfoot Wallace.
unidentified
Look at that.
justin wren
I was just with him this summer.
joe rogan
Gets his kicks and kicking jeans.
How is he doing?
justin wren
He's doing good.
He's aged from that.
joe rogan
I believe he has.
He was the first commentator for the UFC. Really?
Yeah.
justin wren
Is that Chuck down at the bottom?
joe rogan
There's Chuck.
justin wren
There's Chuck, yeah.
I got to meet him this summer, too.
joe rogan
I got to meet him a couple times.
I still love meeting him.
I still get a fucking boyish thrill out of Just the fact that he knows who I am, I'm like, I can't believe it.
It won't bind your legs.
But Chuck and Bill Superfoot Wallace, those guys were the real innovators back in the early days of kickboxing in America.
Those guys, if you go back and watch some of those tournaments that those guys fought in, Chuck Norris was a legitimate world champion.
justin wren
And I never really knew Dallas-Fort Worth had such a big martial arts background.
joe rogan
Oh yeah, huge martial arts background.
justin wren
With Chuck there.
joe rogan
Do you know Bill Wallace's story?
He had a fucked up knee, and so he couldn't kick with both legs.
He could only kick with one leg.
justin wren
I didn't know that.
joe rogan
Yeah, so he developed this insane left leg kick.
justin wren
Super foot.
joe rogan
Yeah, and a hook kick.
Like, a hook kick is a kick that's very rare that someone develops that to the point where you can knock people out with it.
It's just a weird kick, and you don't really see it very often in MMA. I mean, I think Sean Jordan dropped...
Who did he drop?
justin wren
Derek Lewis.
joe rogan
That's right.
The hook kick.
justin wren
Black Beast.
joe rogan
It's crazy because Sean is a tank of a man.
justin wren
And he's a small, heavy, or short.
joe rogan
Short.
justin wren
5'10"?
unidentified
5'9"?
joe rogan
But he's at least 260. Oh, yeah.
He's a big fella.
He's in the range of 260. So to see him lift those tree trunk legs.
I know, man.
justin wren
Super LSU. Yes.
joe rogan
And the guy can do fucking backflips.
He's a crazy athlete.
But to see him throw a hook kick, you're like, what?
justin wren
Yeah, absolutely.
joe rogan
But it's such a rare technique.
Connor throws it.
He throws it occasionally.
justin wren
He does.
joe rogan
But Bill Superfoot Wallace, he figured out how to fuck people up with just one leg.
And it was really hard to deal with.
That style of attack that he developed in his early days.
I got to see him fight live once.
Way, way, way back in the day.
justin wren
Wow.
joe rogan
Yeah, here it is.
justin wren
Oh, here it is, yes.
joe rogan
That's crazy.
Crazy that he hit, he dropped him with a hook kick to the heel.
justin wren
I think the picture of it is just...
joe rogan
Where is Sean these days?
justin wren
He was fighting for the PFL. Was he?
But I think, I don't know if he's in this tournament or not.
I know he was in the last tournament.
unidentified
Oh, man.
justin wren
So him and Josh, Big Josh fought.
I think Josh won.
Yeah, good decision.
So yeah, I guess for now though, we're doing that tournament.
That competition, and last year, the last four or five kind of top gyms or schools competed for it all the way until midnight of New Year's Eve, central time, because that's when the cutoff was, and the winner was going to get their gym renovated.
So there was four or five at the end, and we raised like $30,000 on the last day because everyone wanted the gym renovation.
So this year, we've got a top three prize pack that's like that.
The first one gets like a $25,000 gym renovation from Zebra and Century.
They get featured in Black Belt Magazine.
They get featured in MA Success.
I think Bruce Buffer is going to announce them as the winner.
They're going to get a trophy and a medal.
They're going to get a championship belt for the champion, and then they get the first-round draft pick of guys like Rashad Evans, Justin Gaethje, Chris Cyborg, Rose Namajunas, Pat Berry, Rafael Lovato Jr., Shanji, Laborio, these people are going to fly out.
Frank Mir are going to fly out and do a seminar at their academy.
joe rogan
So they pick whoever it is?
justin wren
So whoever is 1 through 10, you want to get number 1 or number 2 because you get the top draft pick.
joe rogan
What's the top draft pick?
Who's the top one?
justin wren
Well, whoever raises the most is the first.
They claim the first draft pick.
And then they get to choose between that list of like 20 martial arts superstars.
What, is Dustin Poirier coming out to your gym?
Or is it Chris Cyborg?
Or is it Justin Gaethje?
Or is it Rashad Evans?
So when you secure the first place, you get the first round draft pick.
And then all the way down to 10. And then on the individual side, they're going to get four.
joe rogan
There we go.
justin wren
Yeah, it's on our website.
So it's fightfortheforgotten.org slash heroes.
And we're even missing a few of the people that are on there.
joe rogan
Our man, Richie.
Boogie.
justin wren
There you go, Richie.
joe rogan
Boogie man.
justin wren
Yeah, I thought he would like that jiu-jitsu planner.
But he's going to be on it with Ali Malay.
We're missing Paige Van Zandt and Austin Vanderford.
joe rogan
That's awesome.
justin wren
Oh, even John Hackleman.
joe rogan
Oh, really?
justin wren
Just throwing his name in it.
He'll go out and train someone and put on a bully-proof seminar.
joe rogan
Yeah.
He's got a great Instagram page.
justin wren
Yeah, he does.
joe rogan
He's got a great podcast, too.
He's such a fucking character, man.
justin wren
I just drove down the, what do you call it, the PHC? Pacific Coast Highway?
Oh, yeah, PCH. Yeah.
And stopped into the pit and saw him in Slow or San Luis Obispo.
joe rogan
San Luis Obispo, yeah.
That's awesome.
That's a cool little town, isn't it?
justin wren
Yeah, it is.
joe rogan
Yeah, very nice town.
He loves it out there.
justin wren
Yeah, his wife's sweet, and they have a great academy there.
joe rogan
Yeah, he's old-school, hardcore training methods.
He does, like, wheelbarrows filled with shit.
You've got to carry up a hill and stuff.
That kind of stuff.
justin wren
Yeah, I walked into the boot camp area.
And it's where his wife runs the women's boot camp.
He's like, no, no, you don't want to be in here.
This is the torture room or something like that.
This is a dungeon.
You don't want to be in here.
joe rogan
How about the pit itself?
It's an outdoor gym, an outdoor octagon they have set up.
justin wren
Pretty badass.
It was wild.
He has a podcast studio.
joe rogan
Does he?
He's doing a podcast?
Jesus Christ, everybody's doing a podcast.
Who's not?
justin wren
I'm not yet.
joe rogan
You're not?
unidentified
No.
joe rogan
Weird.
justin wren
Maybe I should.
That's what my buddy, Jacob Wells, wants to do, is start a podcast.
joe rogan
Why not?
Fight for the Forgotten Podcast.
It's a great idea.
I mean, it's another way to raise awareness.
justin wren
That would be cool.
So Jacob is actually buddies with...
he's a, he's a hilarious guy.
Um, he's friends with Theo Vaughn.
He wrote a few jokes for Theo and Theo said that they were too dark.
Uh, he couldn't, he couldn't share them.
Um, but him and Theo, uh, when Theo came to OKC, Jacob and us hung out.
And, uh, anyways, Jacob has started this GoFundMe for Raiden because he knows their family and Raiden has like $8,000 in medical bills, um, is going to need counseling.
So So $3,000 to $5,000 of like a counseling budget.
And then they want to do something practical for the family.
And I've gone to 20 hyperbaric treatments with Raden now.
We've had family dinners at my house, at their house, at our offices.
His grandma can cook.
She can cook some meatloaf.
And she had me over there.
And they live in this mobile home park.
outside Oklahoma City.
And the boys, so the dad, he had worked in automotive industry and then at a dealership.
And then he came and kind of took over the family restaurant.
Well, it started to struggle.
The family restaurant did.
And anyways, his dad now has two jobs.
He's trying to make ends meet.
His mom can't really work because she has to take him to appointments, whether it's counseling or for his hearing aid or for his diabetes or for his autism.
She's taken them to all these different appointments.
And so they had to take in Scotland's mom because of health issues.
So the parents now have one of the grandparents living there.
So they're in the bedrooms.
They had to send Raiden and his brother Brock to live with the other grandparents down the street.
So still the same mobile home park, but they put them in like the three bedroom kind of nicer one with more space.
And so Jacob's like, what would really help this family and bless them in a way?
Because his dad doesn't want to hand out.
He's not asking for extra stuff or he didn't come up with this idea.
But Jacob's like, what if we could reunite the family?
So get his hyperbaric treatment covered.
Get his counseling covered.
But then what if we could even raise funds for a...
Either a single-wide, three-bedroom, two-bath, or maybe it's a double-wide that just reunites the family that gets Brock and Radin back in the home with his parents.
And so Jacob brought that idea up.
We shared it with his parents.
They started bawling, just saying that that's their greatest need is just to have the boys back in the home with them.
And so there's this car dealership in Oklahoma City called Hudeburg, and they're really community-minded.
They give to Fight for the Forgotten, and they give to a lot of organizations.
And so they have a campaign called Hudeburg Helps.
And so Hudeburg Helps is sponsoring this.
I think they've already raised like $8,000, $9,000.
It's called Stand with Raiden on GoFundMe.
So it's GoFundMe, hashtag standwithraden, and I think it's already at $8,000, $9,000, $10,000 of like the $50,000 goal.
So that's something that we're focused on now.
My wife was like, hey, why are you...
Fight for the Forgotten couldn't send funds to one kid individually.
That's showing bias, and we have to have like a...
And a pool of people to choose from, applicants, and it has to be unbiased for us to fund something.
So I can rally around him.
I can be his friend, but we can't pay for his medical treatment or pay for his counseling.
But GoFundMe can.
And so Jacob started this.
It was his idea, and he just wanted to rally around Raiden.
And my wife asked me, why are you doing all this, even though the funds can't be raised for Fight for the Forgotten?
It's like, well, you know, I don't know.
I just, I really connect with Raiden.
And she goes, I know why you're doing this.
You're just trying to be the guy that you needed whenever you were his age.
And that really...
I don't know.
That one kind of hit home because when I was 12 or 13 years old and was suicidal, being bullied, it would have been cool to have someone rally around me.
A few years later, I had coaches that rallied around me that made me believe in myself.
But it's been awesome, man, seeing Raphael come alongside Raiden and his family, scholarship him, the Steelers, the Pittsburgh Steelers, the LA Chargers.
That Baker Mayfield, all these people posting videos and support for him.
Mick Foley is their favorite wrestler.
WWE, Mankind.
Anyways, he made a video for Raiden and his mom and dad literally cried because that was their favorite wrestler and he knows exactly what they're going through because his son, Mick Foley's son, has autism.
And so to see that support go out to Raiden, like that just blew them away.
joe rogan
That's very cool of you, man.
I don't know what is in store for you in the next life, but I sense some sort of sainthood.
justin wren
I don't know about that.
joe rogan
Your whole life is dedicated to helping people.
It's very humbling, man.
It really is.
I mean, everything you do is helping other people.
Your goals and your desires, even for you fighting, with people maybe they don't know, some people don't know, you got back into fighting so that you could raise awareness for Fight for the Forgotten.
And, you know, became a world-class heavyweight.
You really became a better version of yourself than you were when you were fighting in the UFC. Yeah.
You know?
And then, I think also through Rafael Lovato, training with him, your jiu-jitsu skills came up big time.
justin wren
Yeah, big time.
joe rogan
Yeah.
justin wren
And I think this is what I've learned through Rafael.
And through a guy out here named Ed Milet that's become a friend, these guys say it's usually, it's either Raphael or Ed that says it's usually the person with the most reasons that usually wins.
Unless you're fighting Anderson Silva in his prime.
That's true.
That's true.
You must have had a lot of reasons.
It'd be so good.
joe rogan
There's certain people, man.
It doesn't matter what you believe, they're going to fuck you up.
justin wren
Yeah.
But knowing your why, and for me, it was, for you, it's like how to be, I love that quote you have in our programs called Heroes in Waiting, right?
Well, you say, be the hero of your own movie.
of your own movie and after you become that hero, be a hero for someone else and let them know they can be the hero of their own movie.
joe rogan
Yeah.
justin wren
And so, our premise is what is a hero?
It's not someone with supernatural strength or superhuman power.
It's actually someone with a humble heart that just sees a need and takes action.
They don't need They don't need the exposure.
They do it because it's the right thing to do.
And so how can we just see a need and take action, make a difference, be the change we want to see in the world?
joe rogan
Where do you see yourself in like 10, 15 years?
Do you see yourself pursuing this exact same thing, past the point where you're fighting anymore?
Do you see yourself just continuing to fight for the forgotten?
Do you think that's probably going to be your future?
justin wren
Fight for the Forgotten is, well, so we became an official 501c3 charity last August.
So it was more of a passion project before that.
Now we're official 501c3 as of August.
We've had, since that time, more than 3,000 donors from all 50 states.
joe rogan
It's very cool what Square and the Cash App is doing as well.
justin wren
Yeah, without a doubt.
joe rogan
That's amazing.
justin wren
58 different countries have donated.
unidentified
Wow.
justin wren
58 different countries, Joe.
joe rogan
I mean, that's all your raising awareness.
justin wren
That and you sharing the platform with me so that I can get the word out there.
I mean, I want Fight for the Forgotten to outlive me.
This isn't just a passion project of Justin Wren.
I want it to be...
unidentified
How many people are involved in it now?
justin wren
On the organizational side, we have five voting board members.
We have seven, and we might take that up to nine.
joe rogan
We should tell people that we're going to be doing a charity event in Los Angeles.
We're just trying to get a venue.
We're trying to move it now to the first quarter of 2020, but we're going to do a charity show at one of the big theaters in LA. Yeah, that's going to be incredible.
justin wren
That's going to be so fun.
joe rogan
We get together with all my funny friends.
We'll have some fun.
justin wren
I know a lot of people that want to go.
I just got to record with Mike Tyson yesterday, and he told me to tell you what's up.
joe rogan
I'm going to do a show soon.
justin wren
Do it!
joe rogan
I'm so scared.
I couldn't do it during this month, because this is sober October.
justin wren
Oh yeah, don't do it during this month.
joe rogan
Isn't that funny that Mike Tyson has become this crazy weed activist?
justin wren
Yeah, and his resort that he was telling me about, he said it's like Disneyland with weed.
joe rogan
Well, they're doing concerts there and shit.
You can stay there.
justin wren
Yeah.
Well, so what he's going to do, and hopefully this isn't...
I'm not committing him to it, but they kind of said, we're going to do this for this fundraising tournament that we're doing right now, the competition.
They're going to give away, and we'll have to update people later.
But for $15,000, $25,000, someone donating, they're going to get an exclusive VIP experience at Tyson Ranch, the resort.
joe rogan
Oh, you get to hang with Mike Tyson?
justin wren
You get to hang with Mike Tyson, and you get to take a picture and tour the studio and hotbox in.
I think you get to sit in on an episode or something.
Yeah.
joe rogan
Wow.
justin wren
Something like that.
And it's going to be a higher ticket item, so that way they're like, it's not just some crazy person.
joe rogan
That's very cool.
justin wren
But they're doing that.
I was thinking there might be a way, we can talk about this more afterwards, but we'd maybe give a fan experience to someone at the comedy show.
We could give like a VIP front row tickets or something like that.
If someone donates to help kickstart our fundraising competition, because what we're doing right now, last year raised $137,000.
This year we're shooting for $200,000 to $250,000.
And then we want it every year to become kind of the premier fundraising event of the martial arts world, the combat sports world, where everyone knows about this charity event.
And you can win once in a lifetime experiences with martial arts superstars or personalities or things like that to where we could build it into a sustainable.
This is going to bring in seven figures a year, a million dollars a year.
And then that way we know our budget, how many wells we can drill, how much land we can get, how many farms we can start.
How many kids here we can help with the martial arts curriculum?
It takes us close to $500 to get into the martial arts academies with the bully prevention curriculum.
joe rogan
Now, as this expands, as Fight for the Forgotten expands and you do more and more work in the Congo, do you anticipate moving to other parts of the world?
unidentified
Yeah.
justin wren
So we're already in Uganda, right?
We started that last year, but we really kick-started it April with this big kind of celebration on new land, five acres.
Yeah.
Because of Dustin's donation, we're going to take that up to 30 more acres, so 35 acres in Uganda.
We want to get that to 100. We want to get it to even more than that.
There's a potential that with Fight for the Forgotten, we could potentially start up a social enterprise or what are those called?
B Corps or something like that where it's a social entrepreneurship gig where we start up maybe a coffee farm, maybe a honey farm in these mountainous regions.
And the pygmies can have a sustainable job.
They love coffee and honey.
Those are two things that they love.
joe rogan
Coffee and honey.
justin wren
Coffee and honey.
It's funny.
There's this Bajanji is a pygmy man, grandfather, an elder in Mabukulu village.
Bajanchi He's actually in the book, a picture with my wife leaning over and she's squatting down and she's still as tall as he is.
And she's in a full squat.
So he's a really little guy.
But this one time I saw him, his grandkids had just raided a honey hive or a beehive.
And they just had honey all over their hands, their arms, their faces.
joe rogan
How do they keep from getting stung?
justin wren
No, they get stung.
They get stung like crazy.
They start a fire at the bottom, and then they throw a vine around it, and then they just walk up it with your feet, and you're holding onto the vines with your hands.
And it's crazy.
You take an axe up there, and then you just start hacking into the tree with Africanized colonies of bees, which are killer bees.
Which is nuts.
joe rogan
So they're stealing honey from killer bees?
justin wren
From killer bees.
They're gangsters.
They're crazy.
They're stealing honey from killer bees.
joe rogan
Oh my god.
justin wren
And everyone else is freaked out by it.
joe rogan
How many stings do they get?
justin wren
Hundreds.
Hundreds, but it's worth it to them.
So they start that fire underneath and the smoke goes up.
So that helps keep them off.
Then if two people climb up, the sole person's job on the back is to have these leaves from a twig and they just are hitting the bees off of the guy raiding the hive.
joe rogan
Do you remember when everybody was worried that Africanized killer bees were going to come over here and kill us all?
justin wren
Yes.
joe rogan
That was like a big fear, like 20 years ago.
Oh, the killer bees, they've been spotted in New Mexico.
justin wren
They came up from, but then they breeded right in the Amazon.
joe rogan
With our pussy bees.
justin wren
Right?
I think they, yeah.
We don't have to worry about those.
joe rogan
Our bees just sweetened them up.
justin wren
But when they went down to the Amazon and came up here, those would be dangerous.
joe rogan
Yeah, so these guys, they do this, and do they catch it in a bag or something?
Like, how do they...
justin wren
They put it in a basket.
joe rogan
A basket.
justin wren
A basket of hand.
joe rogan
Oh, here it is.
unidentified
There you go.
jamie vernon
In India, this is some guys doing pretty much the same exact thing.
justin wren
Those aren't the killer bees.
joe rogan
Yeah, those are different bees, but it's the same sort of strategy.
justin wren
Same strategy.
joe rogan
Oh my god, look at that.
You can reach in and grab bees?
This guy's an asshole.
What are you doing, man?
Have you guys seen that there's a certain type of honey that has some sort of psychedelic effect, and it's a very popular honey?
I want to say Nepal?
Somewhere.
Is it Nepal?
Yeah.
And these guys, they climb up to get this shit.
It's like on the side of cliffs.
justin wren
Wow.
joe rogan
See, do we have anything on this?
And yeah, see, these guys use these ropes to climb up to get...
That rope looks sketchy as fuck.
That looks like some homemade shit right there.
justin wren
Wow.
joe rogan
And so this honey hunting work is very misky.
justin wren
Oh man, it's the craziest thing I've seen people do.
joe rogan
But these guys, this honey...
justin wren
They go up 100, 200 feet in the air, man.
joe rogan
This is a different kind of honey.
For some reason, this honey makes you trip balls.
Of course, it's a Vice documentary.
The Nepalese honey that makes people hallucinate.
justin wren
So they add something into it.
joe rogan
No.
No, no, no.
No, it has to do with whatever these plants, these guys are getting the pollen from.
unidentified
Oh, the bees are...
joe rogan
Wow.
So they're making a psychedelic honey.
justin wren
Just naturally?
joe rogan
Yes, naturally.
justin wren
Wow.
joe rogan
So you can put it in your tea and meet Jesus.
justin wren
That seems dangerous.
I don't know.
joe rogan
Maybe it's like a mild microdosing type deal.
justin wren
Oh, that's true.
joe rogan
I don't know.
justin wren
Yeah, so like that, they just grab it and eat it.
joe rogan
Honeycomb's delicious.
justin wren
Elder Hunter.
Yeah.
So these kids, I think there's a video on my YouTube, Jamie, if you can find it, of these kids climbing these trees.
I think it's just Justin Wren Fight for the Forgotten is the YouTube channel.
And there's this kid that I put a GoPro on his head.
Because he was just climbing trees like crazy, up to the canopy of the rainforest.
He's like nine years old, and he climbs 200 feet in the air, and he looks down at us.
It's a 12-minute video or something, but we could fast-forward through it.
joe rogan
Does he have any kind of safety harness right now?
justin wren
No!
He's literally just doing it, shimmying up it.
He doesn't even have a vine.
He's doing it with his arms and his thighs, and he's just scaling it.
Just scaling it.
And he looks down on us.
I can barely see him in the tree still.
Because he's like over 200 feet tall.
joe rogan
And what's he getting up there?
justin wren
Well, they practice for two different things.
He had his bow and arrow up there so he could shoot a nest and shoot birds out of a nest in the trees.
joe rogan
From 200 feet up?
justin wren
200 feet up, but he's shooting to other trees.
joe rogan
Oh my God.
justin wren
And then that's how they collect honey.
Look at him.
This is a little guy.
This is him going from a little tree to getting over to a huge tree next to it.
But that's in Bobofy, and I lived there for three months, I think, in this village.
And he's seriously just scaling the tree.
Yeah, it's a 12-minute video.
joe rogan
What?
justin wren
It's wild.
If we can't have sound, it's just him breathing.
unidentified
Look how high this little guy is.
justin wren
You can see us.
That's him not even close to the bottom.
joe rogan
My hands are sweating.
justin wren
And he just keeps going until he gets...
And once he gets to the big part of the tree, I should go back.
unidentified
This is insane.
justin wren
Back a little bit more because he starts just zooming down.
He gets to the top and looks down at us.
And whenever you see us, I think this is where it is maybe.
Whenever he looks down, look at that, how high he is.
joe rogan
Oh, boy.
justin wren
And that's not even when he was at the very top.
joe rogan
And he's just using his hands and feet.
justin wren
Yeah.
He literally has no rope, no vine, no safety net.
joe rogan
Don't you feel like you should be under him to catch him?
justin wren
Yeah.
joe rogan
But could you catch someone from 200 feet up?
It would just break your arms.
unidentified
Yeah.
joe rogan
That's like, yeah.
justin wren
It would squish me.
There's one other video.
Oh, yeah, this right here.
Look at this sharpshooters of these little mice.
They put mice in the middle of the village.
joe rogan
And they shoot them with bows and arrows?
justin wren
Yep.
joe rogan
That seems mean.
justin wren
It is kind of mean, but he got real close.
joe rogan
Did they eat them?
justin wren
Yeah.
Yeah, they eat them.
So that's their target practice.
So they shoot these rats.
joe rogan
That's a rat, by the way, and a mouse.
justin wren
Yeah.
joe rogan
They shoot these rats, and then they eat them?
justin wren
Yep.
And actually, not this one.
joe rogan
Have you eaten rats?
justin wren
But I have.
What's it like?
Not good.
It's kind of stringy.
I've had python.
I've had cobra.
joe rogan
You ate cobra?
justin wren
I've had monkey.
I think there's a video of me eating monkey on there.
joe rogan
That's dark.
justin wren
Is there a video of the kid with the machete?
joe rogan
What's it like eating monkey?
Does that freak you out?
You're eating one of your ancestors?
justin wren
This was right before the Ebola breakout.
unidentified
Oh!
justin wren
I didn't know about it.
And then all of a sudden, Ebola, and they're like, it's from eating monkeys.
unidentified
I'm like, guys.
joe rogan
Oh, Jesus.
justin wren
Why didn't you all tell me you could eat Ebola?
Well, we always eat monkeys.
None of us have ever had Ebola.
joe rogan
What kind of method of cooking?
Is it like a smoked monkey?
justin wren
Yeah, you just smoke it.
joe rogan
Yeah.
justin wren
Wrap it in a banana leaf.
joe rogan
Yeah, it's a very stringy, hard, muscular animal.
Yeah.
My friend Steve Rinella had some.
justin wren
Yeah.
joe rogan
I think in Guyana, he ate a monkey.
unidentified
Yeah.
justin wren
See this, uh, look at this kid here.
He's with a machete.
The machete's as long as that kid is tall.
joe rogan
What is he doing, chopping down this tree?
justin wren
Yeah, just chopping down the tree for firewood.
joe rogan
That kid looks like he's five years old.
justin wren
He's younger than that, I think.
joe rogan
How old?
justin wren
Well, he might be five.
unidentified
Maybe.
justin wren
You might be right.
joe rogan
Four or five, and they're letting him use a machete to chop down a fucking tree.
justin wren
Dude, they climbed the trees with that.
The kid you saw climb that tree, he was doing that with bows and arrows.
joe rogan
Oh my god.
justin wren
With bows and arrows, he climbed that tree.
joe rogan
They're so hard.
justin wren
And look at that kid that's just hanging out by him.
joe rogan
To us?
justin wren
The kid is right next to him.
joe rogan
How many of these guys that live in these villages are injured?
justin wren
I mean, they get injured from time to time, but they're super smart with the blades.
I mean, they grow up with them.
joe rogan
I don't even mean from getting cut.
I mean, just injured.
There's no medical...
justin wren
I mean, they roll their ankles through the forest when they're climbing stuff.
joe rogan
Ripped knee ligaments.
justin wren
Yeah.
joe rogan
What do they wind up doing?
justin wren
They just heal up by giving it rest.
What's kind of cool about the forest life or the village life is they literally – they're up early right when the sun's coming up.
They're up.
They're down when the sun goes down.
And so they're – In tune with nature in that way.
joe rogan
Yeah, absolutely.
justin wren
The circadian rhythm is what I was looking for.
joe rogan
Yeah.
justin wren
And then midday, during the heat of the day, right, 3 to 5 p.m., they're normally just chilling, napping, or in their hut to where they're out of the sun.
And so they're up working before that, they rest, and if they need to go back out before the sun's down, they go back out a second time, hunting, gathering, come back in, prepare it.
joe rogan
What's their primary, like, what are they trying to hunt?
justin wren
So, forest antelope, forest hog or wild hog out there.
Lots of different kinds of birds, parrots, different things like that.
joe rogan
And they're using bows and arrows?
unidentified
Mm-hmm.
joe rogan
Homemade bows and arrows, right?
justin wren
Homemade, yeah, definitely.
And the dangerous ones, I'm going to have to bring you a bow and arrow.
I haven't done that.
I have one that I really love.
I'll see if I can get you one.
But they...
We'll give you two arrows.
One has a metal blade and one's just a sharpened tip.
And they ask you, which one would you use on an antelope?
And you choose which one you choose.
And then you ask, which one would you use on a bird?
And then you choose, which one would you think?
Between a blade and the sharpened wood, which one would you use on the antelope?
joe rogan
You'd use a blade.
justin wren
Okay.
And then on a bird, which one would you use?
joe rogan
Sharpened stick.
justin wren
Yeah.
That's what makes sense to our mind, right?
joe rogan
Yeah.
justin wren
It's actually the opposite.
joe rogan
How come?
justin wren
They use the metal on the bird because that's going to kill the bird.
joe rogan
Right.
justin wren
They use the wooden tip because they dip that in poison.
joe rogan
Oh, Jesus.
justin wren
And so that's what they take the bigger animals out with.
I see.
joe rogan
So they just have to hit it.
justin wren
Oh, yeah.
joe rogan
They just have to nick it.
Anywhere in its body and it gets in there.
Now, does that poison infect them when they eat it?
justin wren
No, it cooks out.
It's out of this, there's these two things.
It's these berries and these, not roots, but it's like a root fruit, like a potato.
It's this poisonous black potato that they mash up.
And if you mess with that stuff, the potato gets smashed or something in that oil or that whatever.
joe rogan
Cassaba.
justin wren
Not cassava.
joe rogan
Because cassava is the same thing.
justin wren
Cassava is a root.
joe rogan
But it also gets strychnine.
justin wren
Oh, I know that.
joe rogan
You have to boil it forever.
They have to do all this shit to cassava.
justin wren
Cassava is white inside.
joe rogan
Yes.
justin wren
And this is a black potato.
joe rogan
I know they use the strychnine from cassava to poison things as well.
justin wren
Oh, wow.
joe rogan
And they have like a bucket.
In Rinella's show, Steve Rinella's show, The Meat Eater, which is on...
It is on Netflix.
No, The Meat Eater is his website.
Meat Eater is the Netflix show.
But he went to Guyana, and he's done a couple trips to, I think, Bolivia as well.
And when he goes to the jungle, they have this incredibly intricate process for cooking and making this cassava edible.
And these buckets that they have of this sort of processed stuff as they're doing it is fucking hugely toxic.
And it's just laying around.
And like kids are playing near it.
justin wren
The kids have to be so careful.
The parents have to be so careful with the poison.
Because once they dip those tips of those arrows, they don't come back with them.
They dispose of them out in the forest.
joe rogan
It's just too dangerous.
justin wren
Too dangerous to have around the kids, the toddlers that are walking around.
Because toddlers are walking around with bows and arrows already.
They have a bow and arrow before they're able to walk.
unidentified
Wow!
justin wren
So they're just the sharpened wooden tips without the poison dipped in it.
And so it's awesome, man.
Their way of life is so incredible.
And so that's why we're trying to help the pygmies of Uganda right now.
So our trip, even Brady, who you know, Brady was messed up.
So all of us were.
joe rogan
Sick over there, are you saying?
What do you mean by messed up?
justin wren
Culture shock.
Oh, okay.
And not just culture shock, but...
What is it whenever you...
It's not just PTSD, like just jolted with devastation of like...
joe rogan
In shock.
justin wren
In shock.
joe rogan
Yeah.
justin wren
In fact, we could play that one video and it's a documentary trailer that Cash App helped fund and Friends of Joe Rogan.
And this trailer video is just from our last trip to Uganda.
It's got sound, but I'll speak over it.
But it kind of sums it all up.
Yeah.
This little boy named Paulo, you'll see in his eyes what I mean.
When you see this boy's eyes, you'll know just some of the devastation that he's gone through and seen.
The eyes are the windows to our soul.
You can see the heartbreak in this kid.
But I think it's called the Batwa trailer video.
Or something like that, Jamie.
But it's got an opening where it's just like, thanks to Cash App, but then it shows their struggle.
joe rogan
How long is this video?
justin wren
It's about a minute and a half.
joe rogan
Okay, we'll play this, then we've got to wrap this thing up.
justin wren
Okay.
I've got one more thing to give you.
So that is in the Simuliki National Forest.
That's King Zito in the red.
But they were driven from their ancestral home, and they're struggling to survive.
And this is on that one acre of land that they live on.
That's the mushrooms.
But they live in eight structures on this one acre of land.
Forced to live in this unknown village and literally don't have any food or clean water, that's where they live in those shelters.
That's what they've been given when they were kicked out of the forest.
But there's no way.
That's the sewage running through their village.
And just being abused.
Yeah, beyond imagination.
Because they think they're a cure for HIV. That woman was raped because these men thought they would be cured.
That's little Paulo there.
You can see in his eyes.
joe rogan
Men thought they'd be cured by having sex with her?
justin wren
Yeah.
Or by collecting their blood.
And so Paulo was held down and...
That's the new land, five acres of land that we were able to get them.
So this is a celebration, just kind of transitioning into dancing with the drums and the leaves.
But now they have hope that they're going to survive.
And here's at the school where they're getting new water and they're in class for the first time.
They were told that they couldn't go to school, that they couldn't learn.
And now, actually, the top five students at the school over the last six years are all Batwa, pygmy children.
That's the new well that they're drinking from, one of them.
So it's just celebration.
They're learning some MMA. And we're there to help come alongside them and say, hey, how can we, with our vision, to defeat hate with love, our mission to knock out bullying worldwide, how can we do this in a practical, sustainable way?
And so, yeah, Joe, like that little boy, Paulo, that you saw, has scars on him from people holding him down and slicing him open, collecting his blood because they think he's the cure for HIV or the women there being sexually assaulted.
Some terrible stuff.
But what we want to do to kind of sum up this documentary when we get there is...
Is have new land for them, them back in school, them farming for themselves, them selling it at the markets, and then also stateside here.
So kind of the two things to wrap up, the two or three ways that people could support.
If you're a martial arts academy, jiu-jitsu school, you do MMA, taekwondo, wrestling, boxing, any of that, you can join our end-of-the-year fundraising competition.
And the top 10 are going to win incredible prizes, gym renovations.
There's also a raffle prize where every $500 you raise, you get the opportunity to have your gym transformed.
joe rogan
And this is all on fightfortheforgotten.com?
Yeah, fightfortheforgotten.org.
justin wren
Yeah,.com will take you there too.
joe rogan
Okay.
justin wren
Fightforforgotten.org.
Go to Heroes.
joe rogan
Okay.
justin wren
If you're an individual and you want to support that way, we just started our Fight Club.
And so our Fight for the Forgotten Fight Club, first rule is you do speak about Fight Club instead of you don't.
Yeah, it's our monthly giving club.
People can give $5, so the price of a latte, and that would make us a sustainable nonprofit where we know what our budget is every single month, how many wells we can drill, how much land we can get, how many people here stateside we can help.
joe rogan
Fightfortheforgotten.org.
justin wren
The Fight Club is on fightfortheforgotten.org.
That's our monthly giving club.
And then if you want to support Raiden, there's that GoFundMe, and you just look up the hashtag StandWithRaiden, and you can give to him personally.
joe rogan
Spell Raiden?
justin wren
R-A-Y-D-E-N. So it's StandWithRaiden, and you can go check out my Instagram, TheBigPigme, or Twitter, TheBigPigme, and that will point you into the direction of StandWithRaiden.
And then as we come to a close with Sober October, I got one thing for you.
joe rogan
Uh-oh.
justin wren
It's just one thing.
unidentified
What?
justin wren
It's a little big though.
joe rogan
Whoa.
justin wren
We're going to have to go over your...
joe rogan
What is that?
justin wren
This is from another friend.
joe rogan
Jesus Christ, you got a lot of friends, bro.
That's what happens when you're a nice guy.
Oh, whiskey.
How dare you?
justin wren
So I know Silver October is coming to an end.
joe rogan
Whoa, these are serious glasses, man.
justin wren
What is that made out of?
joe rogan
I don't know.
You tell me.
Liberal tears.
Oh, it's made at the bottom.
justin wren
Sit that right next to it.
joe rogan
It's made at the bottom of a Johnny Walker bottle.
justin wren
Johnny Walker blue bottle.
unidentified
Wow.
joe rogan
That's very cool.
justin wren
So that's the blue, which is like 18 or 20 years.
joe rogan
That's a smart way of recycling.
The bottom of these containers, too.
justin wren
That's actually, here, check this out real quick.
unidentified
Okay.
justin wren
Oh, yeah, you can have some of that.
joe rogan
No, I can't.
justin wren
Not Sober October.
joe rogan
I can't.
Oh, it's Fight for the Forgotten Coasters.
Very cool.
justin wren
And so this right here, just B-cycled bottles.
unidentified
Okay.
justin wren
This guy literally recycles these.
He's a fundraiser full-time for non-profits.
joe rogan
So he makes glasses out of the bottles.
unidentified
Yep.
joe rogan
That's very cool.
justin wren
Out of Tito's, all that, he gives 75% back to Fight for the Forgotten.
joe rogan
Dude, your kindness and your generosity has inspired a shitload of people, man.
It's a beautiful thing.
It really is.
justin wren
I can't thank you enough.
joe rogan
Please, man.
I can't thank you enough.
I always feel like a piece of shit when you come here.
I always compare myself, like, God, this guy's going to get malaria and fucking worms, and he's always traveling over there helping people, and your focus is always about helping people that are in need.
It's very humbling, man.
It really is.
It's very admirable.
justin wren
Well, thank you.
I appreciate that.
joe rogan
And you always have a home here, man.
Anytime you want to come on and talk about something.
justin wren
Thank you so much, Joe.
I appreciate you.
joe rogan
Thank you, brother.
justin wren
Appreciate it.
joe rogan
We'll talk to you soon.
justin wren
Yeah, absolutely.
joe rogan
Bye, everybody.
justin wren
I'm excited for the comedy show.
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