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Nov. 8, 2019 - The Joe Rogan Experience
03:03:28
Joe Rogan Experience #1380 - Pete Dominick
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j
joe rogan
01:20:04
p
pete dominick
01:40:59
Appearances
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j
jamie vernon
00:01
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Speaker Time Text
unidentified
Three, two, uh, uh.
joe rogan
Hello, Pete Domek.
How are you, buddy?
pete dominick
Hey, Joe Rogan.
joe rogan
Good to see you, man.
pete dominick
Good to see you.
Psyched to be here.
Psyched to be in California.
Psyched to be sitting across from you.
joe rogan
Psyched to have you.
You're a free man now.
You've escaped yourself from the shackles of satellite radio.
pete dominick
The shackles of corporate media.
joe rogan
Yeah, man.
See, that's the thing about dedicating so much time to a company like that.
They can just get rid of you.
And then you don't have a connection to all those fans.
You have to reestablish a connection.
pete dominick
It's been an amazing experience in the last, what, four weeks since it happened to try to...
First of all, I watched my funeral play out publicly because I had a huge community of listeners for 12 years that I created.
But I was trying to respond to all of them.
And, you know, you can't say...
I still can't share, like, certain details, right?
joe rogan
How much time did they give you before the show was ended?
pete dominick
The show, basically, they told me after the show that it was the last show and then they let me have, like, a...
They said I could do a last show, but instead I was like, let me just record a message.
I don't want to go.
joe rogan
So you didn't know until the day of.
pete dominick
I had a pretty good idea.
I had a pretty good idea.
joe rogan
Do they have ratings?
pete dominick
I don't think so.
If they did, I think I'd probably be in pretty good shape.
I mean, like...
It's a long story, but the show I was doing was pretty special.
It was really helping people, and we were enlightening.
It's kind of like what you do here.
I mean, that's why I love what you do here.
People learn, they get enlightened, they get entertained.
You make people better, better people.
Through this show.
The contribution that you make, that's what I was doing.
We were three hours every day talking about issues, talking about struggles that people are having, and it was rewarding and challenging and satisfying, and I had total editorial control, so, you know, I can't, I really can't complain.
Twelve years is pretty...
joe rogan
Do they know, though, how many people are listening to any given show?
pete dominick
Not that I ever know.
Not that I ever know.
unidentified
Not that you ever know.
pete dominick
That it was ever shown to me.
joe rogan
See, that is a weird thing.
That's a thing that you have with Netflix as well.
You know, like if you do a special with Netflix and they go, we really like it.
It's great.
pete dominick
But they don't share it with you.
joe rogan
Yeah, and you go, well, how are the ratings?
They go, we're really happy.
What does that mean?
We're really, really happy.
pete dominick
That's like when you first started doing comedy and you came off stage and your friends were like, you looked confident.
joe rogan
No, it's worse than that because business decisions can be made based on what kind of downloads you're getting.
If Netflix says, hey, four million people downloaded your comedy special.
They really loved it.
We're really happy.
Let's do another one.
pete dominick
It doesn't make any sense for the company to have the information and the host not to have the information.
Why wouldn't you share it so that everybody has...
joe rogan
Because they don't want you to bargain with them.
They don't want you to negotiate.
pete dominick
I mean, the best thing about being fired is you don't have to worry about being fired.
joe rogan
Yes.
pete dominick
And so you can do your own thing.
And increasingly, I think...
People are taking advantage of that.
If you're a network, you have to have a million people listening or watching to keep the ratings up to sell advertising.
You're only making just so much money.
If you launch your own thing the way you have and so many other people have, you're gambling with everything, which is what I'm doing now with podcasting, which is really an original thing to do, and a very difficult way to make money.
But if you do, if you're good, then you control it all.
joe rogan
Yeah, you can do it.
It's like if you've done a serious show and you developed an audience and that's something you definitely did do.
pete dominick
Three hours live every day, yeah.
joe rogan
You can definitely do the same thing on a podcast.
I hope you're right.
No, you can.
pete dominick
My family's relying on it.
joe rogan
Well, you have comedy, too.
unidentified
Yeah.
joe rogan
But you absolutely can do it.
And it's just one of those things where I see people doing the corporate route and I'm like, man, I get how you needed to do that 15 years ago.
You don't need to do that now.
That's a bad decision now.
Where it was a good decision.
Like, hey, you got a serious gig 15 years ago.
Wow, that's awesome.
pete dominick
I think you're absolutely right.
It's terrifying.
There's always pros and cons.
You work for a company no matter what you do.
You're working for somebody.
You have a place to go.
They control all of the, in our case, in media's case, the promotion, the marketing, the legal.
They hire producers to work for you and so on.
And so there's a certain level of comfort there.
But at the same time, you've got to answer to these people.
You've got to deal with these people.
And frankly, you know you're more talented than a lot of the people that you're working with.
And you have all these ideas and these inspirations, and they're either going to say yes or no to them, and when you're on your own, you just put the wheels on them and go.
joe rogan
Yeah.
Well, I remember last time I went to Sirius offices, went to the studios, I was upstairs, and I was like, there's too much money here.
This costs too much money.
There's too many people here.
You see these fucking people wearing suits?
I'm like, what does that guy do?
I guarantee you, he doesn't do fuck all.
That guy doesn't have anything to do with whether or not this show's any good.
And all you have to do is press a button and get it out there.
So there's all these people making decisions about, well, we got marketing and this and that, and we're going to make sure we hit the right demographic.
pete dominick
I feel like that's the way.
I've worked at CNN, I worked at MSNBC, I worked at Fox.
I feel like that's corporate media or corporate America, where you have to wonder how much work and how much value each person is bringing to whatever their job is.
I always want to know, but it's...
joe rogan
They're goofy.
Sirius is very goofy.
They offered me a great deal.
Zero money.
pete dominick
Really?
joe rogan
Zero.
pete dominick
I feel like you might have told me that before.
joe rogan
Zero.
Zero money.
It's the most hilarious deal ever.
We'll put your show on the air and we'll give you zero.
Like, oh, that sounds good.
pete dominick
I don't even know.
I don't even...
When was that?
I mean, at that point...
joe rogan
Fucking recently.
pete dominick
Really?
joe rogan
Yeah.
They're hilarious.
pete dominick
How did you...
What did you do?
joe rogan
I didn't do anything.
I don't talk to anybody.
I mean, it's all done through managers and agents, and I say no to everything, so I was like, it was easy to say no to everybody.
pete dominick
I always did everything directly myself.
joe rogan
Oh, that's a terrible idea.
pete dominick
I could never allow somebody...
I never felt like anybody could sell me the way I could sell myself.
joe rogan
Oh, Dude, then you have to think about selling yourself.
For people listening to this podcast regularly, I'm sorry, I apologize for repeating myself, but the way I look at everything, and this is something I've done over the last, really cultivated over the last 10 years, but really specifically focused on over the last couple years.
Is I look at thinking as bandwidth.
Say if you have a hundred units of thinking, whatever the fuck you're involved in to have this negotiation or sell yourself to this and sell yourself to that and talk about this and pitch your ideas to this person and that person, that's taking away time that you could be working on your other shit.
Yeah, I don't have any time for that.
I have zero time.
I allocate zero bandwidth for selling myself, zero bandwidth for doing other people's shit.
pete dominick
But have you always done that?
Were you that way at the start?
Because, I mean, you're so big now.
Anybody can understand that you can do that.
joe rogan
I never sold myself.
I always had an agent and a manager.
unidentified
Really?
joe rogan
I've had the same manager since I was an open-miker.
pete dominick
Really?
joe rogan
Yeah.
pete dominick
Who?
joe rogan
Jeff Sussman.
pete dominick
Oh, wow.
I know Jeff Sussman.
Yeah, wow.
That's awesome.
You're a loyal guy, too.
joe rogan
Well, he's awesome.
He's family.
unidentified
We've been together since 1990. Yeah, I feel that way about my agent, too.
pete dominick
But I just...
Conan Smith, he's one of the few guys I met in this business that I really always liked.
And he didn't seem like he's part of this business.
But he'd always be like, what's next?
And I'd always say, tomorrow's show, because every three-hour live show, we talked about everything, from tax policy to depression to environmentalism to anything, politics, parenting.
And so it was really challenging to do that and to prepare for all these interviews with these smart people.
And then I wanted to go home and be with my girls.
Like, I had an amazing work-life balance, and I feel like most people never find that.
They never understand it.
I found it, and I kept it for a really long time, which is what's scary, to not have that.
I've been working my ass off since the day I left...
Sirius XM went right into a meeting and have been on the phone ever since.
Reached out to you and everybody I know.
I said, hey, what can I do?
But it's not balance.
I haven't seen my girls.
I haven't seen my garden.
So I'm excited to hopefully get back to that, to some semblance of that.
But most people don't have that.
And I think finding...
Because you get so ambitious, especially as a guy, I feel like, if you're a breadwinner especially, it's just work, work, work, support your family.
If you've got a family, there's ego, there's money, and you just keep going.
But then you realize there's got to be enough.
In my opinion, you have to have an idea of enough.
And I got there.
And that's when I just...
joe rogan
much comedy as I could but that that definitely fell by the wayside because the show it was up at 4:30 in the morning I was you know done by 2:00 and then it was I turned it off well the good thing is you can do your show if you do a podcast you could do it from wherever you live right you can do it You can either rent an office space or you can do it in your fucking garage.
You can do it anywhere.
Especially when your kids are at school, you can do it.
You can do it on your terms.
You could bank a couple of them, do two or three in a day, and then take days off.
But the most important thing, I think, is that you stay independent.
We were just talking about that out there.
Because there's going to be a bunch of bozos that want you to join their network.
pete dominick
Oh, they're calling.
joe rogan
Yeah, they take a big chunk.
pete dominick
I don't know what the offers are, I don't know what the deals are, but it's like, why?
I just started doing this podcast.
joe rogan
You've already been through what that is.
pete dominick
I've got a great community of listeners who are like family to me.
They've all been so supportive.
You're like, let me just try to test that out.
joe rogan
Definitely test that out.
How active are you on social media?
pete dominick
I try to be as active as I can.
I'm not great at it.
joe rogan
I don't love it.
That's important, though, that you have some sort of engagement so you can tell people where you're going.
pete dominick
Yeah, definitely doing that.
joe rogan
I mean, you don't want to be too wrapped up in it because, again, bandwidth.
It's going to suck up a lot of your time.
pete dominick
Right.
joe rogan
For a lot of people, it's a giant distraction.
pete dominick
Yeah, I don't...
That's why I... When I say I'm not that good at it, it's because I feel like it's a distraction.
It seems like a very...
As a creative person, it's interesting.
It's an interesting outlet, and there's a lot of creative people who are great on Twitter, but I don't think in terms of what's a great tweet, or I should tweet right now, or put this up on Facebook.
You know, comics, artists...
Do this because they love to create.
They love to perform.
They don't love to promote what they're doing.
Nobody really likes that.
Some people do, and some people are great at it.
But it's usually not why you get into it.
At the same time, if you don't do it, I mean, there's a lot of great comics who don't promote themselves.
And there's a lot of bad comics, if we're talking about comedians, any performer, who are great at promoting themselves.
joe rogan
Right.
pete dominick
And I fall somewhere in between.
joe rogan
Yeah.
People that are really good at promoting usually are not that good.
pete dominick
Because they spend so much time promoting and they're trying to get famous and trying to get successful as opposed to doing the work, writing the jokes, performing.
joe rogan
They're also super conscious of how they appear to people.
They're super conscious and they're trying to cultivate an image.
They're trying very hard at that.
pete dominick
I can't be bothered with that.
joe rogan
It's not good for you.
pete dominick
I mean, I know it works, but I can't.
joe rogan
To go back to what your deal was at Sirius, when you were there, they don't give you any indication of what kind of numbers you're pulling at.
pete dominick
Not really.
joe rogan
Any indication of how many people are listening to your show.
pete dominick
It was hard to know.
You see the phone volume, you see the phones lock up, you see, you know...
Social media is not really a good measurement because the vast majority...
joe rogan
Were you getting people to follow you?
Were you saying on the show, hey, follow me on Twitter, follow me on Instagram?
pete dominick
Yeah, but what's interesting...
I don't want to disparage SiriusXM, not because they gave me a good, you know, exit deal, I guess, but because it almost seems inauthentic because they gave me five contracts, which created an amazing life and amazing community.
Like, I'm so grateful to what I had there.
But yes, certainly...
The problem, I suppose, is you're behind this firewall.
Like this morning, one of my best friends lives in Australia.
And he's like, yeah, I listen to Joe Rogan.
I listen to Rachel Maddow's podcast.
They don't have MSNBC there.
They can't get Sirius XM necessarily.
You can't, I guess, online.
The point is, if you're behind that, you're mostly in the car.
And I think what I'm trying to say is it's skewed to like 50, 60-year-old affluent men who are in cars, which...
I was psyched to have every one of them, but I would love to have a lot of young people.
I'm staying out here with my cousin, and his son is 18, and he found out I was doing the Joe Rogan show, and he's flipping out, but he didn't know what I did at SiriusXM.
joe rogan
I hate to say this because I'm thankful that Sirius put on Howard and Opie and Anthony and all these comics they had on over the years, but you're better off without it.
It's not where the future is.
The future is not in satellite radio.
It's just not.
It sucks.
You go under tunnels, it cuts out.
I mean, it's dumb.
It's a fucking dumb way.
I mean, you can download an entire three-hour show in seconds.
unidentified
Yep.
joe rogan
If you have a podcast, you get it on Spotify or whatever, you download the whole fucking thing right before a plane ride in the airport.
Right.
You're in the airport and you can go, oh hey, this new Artie Lang podcast.
Beep.
Download it.
While you're fucking waiting for your gate to be called, you have the podcast, you get on the three-hour flight, you listen to the whole goddamn thing.
It's easy.
pete dominick
What's interesting is going, I'm really curious to see what you think, but going from live radio and constant interaction with callers, which I love.
You can do that.
To podcasting and just being there alone with the mic and No, you can do that.
I'm told I can.
I'm told I can go live.
I haven't figured it out yet.
I got a great group of people that are working with me.
Amazing people have come out of the crowd.
The greatest thing has been how people have shown up.
Like people from my life, like 15 years ago, 20 years ago, phone just ringing, text just coming in, I know I haven't taught you, and saying kind of just what you're saying, you're better off, you know, one door closes, but more importantly, just people talking about how you change their life and how they can't wait to see what you do next is an amazing, amazing feeling. just people talking about how you change their life and Like if you do that with one person, your cup is full.
To have an audience of people doing that for 12 years, it's overwhelming joy and satisfaction to be able to look at my daughters and be like, No matter what happens next, what I got to do there and what I did do there on so many tough issues and helped so many people, that's it, man.
I could die right now and be happy.
joe rogan
Don't die.
Don't die.
pete dominick
It would be good for me to do it on the show, though.
joe rogan
You have a nice past, which is wonderful.
But the thing about scary things and the thing about this is that it's an opportunity for growth.
It's an opportunity to do something.
It's an opportunity to stretch your wings, to really take a chance.
And that's how you grow.
pete dominick
And I appreciate you saying that, and I'm on that same wavelength, and I'm a guy who thrives in these situations.
I've taken advantage of every room I've been in.
I've never been the best comic.
I've never been the best at anything, but I've always been gritty.
I've always worked as hard, if not harder, than anybody.
And now it's interesting because I've never been in this type of situation with a family.
You know, that's different when you're single and you're young.
But I was working that hard and making no excuses and back then doing no drugs, not drinking, everything.
It was just about my career and being a good person.
I thought if I was a good person, that mattered.
And come to find out, being a good person was the best form of currency.
Everybody competing and trying to kill other people in our business or in any other business, to me, I have no interest in that and no attraction to those people.
All I want to do is help people, not think, just for purposes of altruism, not to be virtuous, just because, same reason you are.
Being kind is the way to be.
Not putting a knife in someone's back.
And when the show ended, it was amazing because people started tweeting things that I had done that I never...
I thought it would become public.
They were private things.
They weren't for...
And it was just like days and days of people...
I used to do a segment every week called Stand Up with a Veteran for veterans.
And this veterans community came out strong.
They're like, what?
They let you go?
You did so much for us?
joe rogan
I think it's a dying company.
I don't think you should dwell on all this.
I mean, it's just a dying company and now you have an opportunity.
It's great that you did all these good things.
It's great.
pete dominick
I don't mean to sound negative.
I don't mean to sound like I'm dwelling on it.
I mean to say it was an amazing experience that was afforded to me.
I leveraged it.
I took advantage of it.
I'm really excited.
Every day I wake up now, just ideas, ideas, ideas, hammering phone calls.
joe rogan
While you were doing the show, were you under any sort of exclusive thing where you couldn't do anything on the internet?
pete dominick
Right.
joe rogan
You were?
Yeah.
pete dominick
I mean, yeah, pretty much.
We couldn't do a podcast.
It was direct, no.
That was direct competition.
joe rogan
Yeah, because do you remember when Anthony from Opie and Anthony, Anthony Cumia, had live from the compound?
pete dominick
Of course.
joe rogan
He was doing this thing.
pete dominick
Was that overlapping with Sirius?
joe rogan
Oh, yeah.
unidentified
Oh.
joe rogan
That's why I started my podcast.
100%.
Because he had a studio in his basement where he's doing karaoke holding a machine gun.
And he was drunk.
And I was like, what?
unidentified
Was it loaded?
joe rogan
You could do that.
Oh, I don't know.
It's Anthony.
I'm sure it was loaded.
He's fucking crazy.
pete dominick
I know.
I always had a great relationship with him, though.
joe rogan
I love that guy.
pete dominick
Yeah, he's one of the funniest guys.
He liked me because we agreed on nothing, but we got along.
joe rogan
But he's a genius.
pete dominick
He's pretty smart, though.
joe rogan
The way he thinks and talks about things, agree with him or don't agree with him, he's a very entertaining guy.
I love doing radio with him.
And he had this basement set up where he had a green screen.
pete dominick
Yes, I remember that.
joe rogan
Like a real production table and real production mics, and he spent all this money on really high-end stuff.
And he and I had a conversation.
I'm like, what are you doing?
He's like, I'm just fucking around.
I'm having fun.
And I was like, what?
I remember thinking about it going, I need to do something like that.
And when me and my friend Redband, when we started it, we just used a laptop.
But I remember thinking about what he had set up.
So we were just doing, like, answering questions and talking to people on, you know, like, I forget what it was.
I guess it was Twitter.
It was 2009. It'll be 10 years next month.
pete dominick
That's awesome, man.
joe rogan
But the inspiration was Opie and Anthony first because their show was just a hang.
There was no structure to it.
It was just having conversations with people.
But then when I saw Anthony have that set up in his basement, I was like, Oh, I could do something like this.
pete dominick
And by the way, having a studio, and I always thought that was weird because he was all the way out in Long Island.
I was like, is that going to work?
How's he going to get people out there?
It was hard when he got fired.
joe rogan
When he got fired, it was hard to get people out there.
pete dominick
Yeah, I'd imagine.
But...
Like him, I got a big, a vast network, and technology has gotten so much better in terms of getting guests, but, I mean, I just, you gotta wonder how it's all going to work, and how do you, if you're gonna go live, there's just so many things it seems to be thinking about, how it's gonna...
What's going to work?
Like, what works?
joe rogan
But do you know anybody that has a studio?
unidentified
Yeah, yeah.
pete dominick
They all want you to come do it.
joe rogan
Yeah.
As long as you don't have to sign...
pete dominick
But I was going to say, the commute.
The commute.
The fact that he has a studio...
When I got a studio in my house, Sirius XM had me do it early, like 6 or 9 a.m.
slot for two years.
And I was like...
joe rogan
You did it in your house?
pete dominick
Yeah, I negotiated.
I was like, you want me to do 6 or 9 a.m., you've got to build me a nice studio.
And they did.
And that was the richest I could ever be.
A friend of mine's wife works at a college and walks five minutes.
That's her commute.
I think a commute is almost a definition of your wealth.
My body turned to mush.
When I had to drive into the city an hour each way, everything about a long commute made me feel weaker and less than.
And the idea that you can have a studio in your house or work from home, no matter what your job is, is a pretty sweet deal.
joe rogan
Yeah, the commute can definitely grind on you, but it also is an opportunity to listen to books on tape.
pete dominick
For sure, you do whatever you can to be productive and be positive, yeah.
joe rogan
And you can go two hours early and get an hour workout in before you get there.
pete dominick
I did that.
joe rogan
There's a lot of good stuff that can come from everything if you look at things correctly.
pete dominick
I share your outlook.
I think that one of the things, I've been listening to your podcast for years, but not every episode, not religiously, but since I lost my job, I was like, let me just start listening to Rogan.
And what's really interesting about you, in my opinion, is you are the perfect example of somebody that everybody wants to put into a box.
And you can't.
It's what's wrong with everything in our country and our conversation.
It's whatever people think that you are...
Everybody that I tell that I'm doing this show, they have an opinion of you.
And when I listen to your show...
And here's the main takeaway I get from your conversations is that you try to find the positivity in everything.
You're like the most positive guy.
Whatever you think about any issue or any idea, any opinion you have, you're always being so positive and so helpful.
And it has been, honestly, in this like trying time, the other thing my dad just I get fired, my dad had a heart attack, and then a week later, he's on blood thinners, and he faints and bounces his face off a counter, rips his eye open, goes into surgery.
Now he can't see out of his eye, and he's a ski instructor and a cyclist, and he's a race car driving instructor, and so I'm dealing with that, dealing with my job, dealing with my family, listening to you, and you And a handful of other people just bringing as much positivity to every scenario and situation.
And that's my nature too.
But some days, it doesn't matter who you are.
You've got to peel yourself off the ground.
But I can't let my daughter see me sweat either.
Let them see me vulnerable, but they're not going to see me sweat.
joe rogan
Well, you don't have to sweat.
You just have to grind.
You just have to hustle.
Listen, you're a respected guy.
You're a very good host of a show.
You just have to find a new venue.
That's all it is.
This is a good opportunity.
You're healthy.
You don't have anything wrong with you.
pete dominick
Mentally and physically, I've always thought mentally that I was the happiest, healthiest guy.
So it's been a weird thing to not be able to...
Espouse that on people.
And physically, I'm back, too.
I'm back to training.
joe rogan
Well, all that's good shit, man.
You just need to find a place.
The thing about doing it in the city, and I know you don't want to live in the city, but doing it in the city, you can get guests in studio.
pete dominick
For sure.
joe rogan
And that is so much better.
It's so much better.
pete dominick
Why do you think that?
joe rogan
Because of the way we're talking right now.
pete dominick
I agree, but you can't look on a camera at somebody.
joe rogan
There's a weird delay.
Like when I was doing it with Snowden, there's a weird delay.
pete dominick
But he wasn't even in Russia or something like that?
joe rogan
Yeah, but it doesn't matter.
It was real time.
I mean, the actual lag was very minimal.
What do we think the lag was?
pete dominick
The Russians.
unidentified
FaceTime.
joe rogan
There's nothing, right?
There's nothing.
But even FaceTime, like when I'm on the road and I'm FaceTiming my family, it's weird.
Like, what did you say?
Huh?
Okay.
So there's a weird thing.
pete dominick
I agree with you.
I always preferred having people in the studio for sure.
joe rogan
It's 50% better.
It might be more.
I just made up that number.
pete dominick
I feel like one cool opportunity is to travel to different places and find the most interesting, articulate people and do gigs there, do stand-up at night, spend a couple days there interviewing the most interesting people in whatever town that you're in.
joe rogan
Oh, 100%.
pete dominick
And so that's kind of what I'm doing.
joe rogan
The thing about that is you're going to need someone to film if you want to do a video element of it.
Here's the thing about a video element of it.
When you talk about...
Some people don't listen to this podcast.
They only watch it.
It's a lot of people.
When we first did it, the video aspect of it was just an aside.
We did it with a webcam and then we started putting it on iTunes and the iTunes was way more popular than the video which was on Ustream.
I don't even know if it exists anymore.
Does Ustream exist?
It does?
pete dominick
Now it's YouTube.
joe rogan
Now it's YouTube.
It's a built-in platform, right?
So there's millions and millions of people who are on it just looking for shit to watch.
pete dominick
Yeah, I definitely want to do that.
I definitely want to do that.
But I'm thinking you're making obviously a lot of good points about where it can be done and the best ways to do it.
And I've been talking to so many smart people obviously every day.
I mean, my network is...
I'm lucky to have this network of amazing people that are just so kind and generous to give me this advice.
And honest, too.
They tell you, don't be an idiot.
Don't fuck enough.
Don't do that.
As a comic, I think that's the way that you think.
You want people to be as brutal...
As they can be with criticism.
You don't take it personally.
Just like, okay, yup, I'll take that advice.
I'll apply that and change that and tweet that.
Yeah.
joe rogan
Well, there's nothing wrong with getting some constructive or even destructive criticism.
You have to have feedback.
It's not always accurate or correct, but feedback is important.
And that's one of the good things about having one of those talk shows where people call in.
That's one of the good things.
They get to give you some feedback.
pete dominick
I love that.
joe rogan
One of the bad things is they get to give you some feedback.
unidentified
Fine.
joe rogan
That's one of the bad things.
pete dominick
Yeah, but it's always entertaining.
If they shit on me, it was always very entertaining.
As a comic, I love heckles.
I love anybody yelling out.
I live for it.
Those are my favorite moments.
joe rogan
What I like best is one-on-one conversations with people.
That's what I like best.
unidentified
Me too.
joe rogan
And that's what I like best to listen to as well.
unidentified
Yeah.
joe rogan
I would listen to Stern, and then when someone would call in, I was like, why are they letting somebody call in?
And some guy would yell out Baba Booey or talking about Sniff and Robin's farts or something like that.
pete dominick
Or they would just be boring and you don't want to be rude, but you have to be.
Like, I can't.
I'm doing a show here, man.
You're babbling.
joe rogan
But it's just odd that he would just go to callers in the middle of a conversation with some lady who's an actress or something.
But that's the chaos that he sort of cultivated.
pete dominick
Well, I think that's what's the great thing about this show is the people that you get and the interaction, the conversation that you have.
And I was trying to do the same thing at Sirius.
joe rogan
Well, you were doing it.
You just were doing it in this walled garden with a bunch of assholes that are running the ship.
pete dominick
And doing it for like 20, 25 minutes apiece.
I'm always amazed that you and a handful of other people can sustain a two-hour conversation.
I love that.
joe rogan
Anybody can.
You can do it, too.
pete dominick
I think I can, but that was never allowed to.
Those rules were always like...
joe rogan
Cut to commercial, yeah.
pete dominick
Yeah, you had hard breaks.
I'm doing a podcast the other day, and I'm like, thanks for tuning in.
We're almost out of time.
I'm like, you didn't tune in, and we're not almost out of time.
I can do whatever the hell I want.
joe rogan
I can just keep talking.
pete dominick
We can just keep talking.
joe rogan
Well, the worst thing is presidential debates.
You're literally picking the person who's going to run the free world.
And you have to stop because there's a Palmolive commercial.
Is Palmolive even a thing?
I'm such an old man.
I'm pulling out fucking Palmolive references.
pete dominick
I think they're usually pharmaceutical companies at this point.
joe rogan
Pfizer.
It's a boner pill.
pete dominick
The irony of them talking about the pharmaceutical companies and then they advertise during the break.
But you're absolutely, yeah, it's not real.
I mean, the presidential debates are so not real.
And all those networks, I mean, my friends produce those things.
And it's just like, it's a show.
joe rogan
Well, when you get Bernie, like when I had Bernie Sanders in here and you get to talk to him like a real human being.
pete dominick
Yes.
joe rogan
You go, oh, you're a human being who cares about people and you have a different perspective on what these people are saying.
Your idea of democratic socialism is not this wacky socialism...
pete dominick
It's not a soundbite.
joe rogan
Yeah, and it's not this thing where people think...
You're just going to steal money from hard-working folks and give it to lazy people.
That's the worst case stereotype.
unidentified
It's none of that.
pete dominick
It's none of that.
No, it's not.
We're not going to privatize shoe stores and gyms.
joe rogan
He's a very thoughtful person.
pete dominick
Yeah, I was talking to his...
Because as I told you, I'm thinking very seriously now about also running for Congress.
And I was talking to his, I think, deputy chief of staff, a guy named Ari Ravenhoff, great guy.
And I was telling him, I was doing your show.
And he told me that after Bernie Sanders did your show, everybody was recognizing him.
I'm like, really?
Like, he reached a whole different demographic talking to you than he ever had before.
Because he's mostly on those cable news shows.
He's mostly on terrestrial or, you know, radio radio.
But when you do these, what do you even call this now?
Non-traditional, alternative media?
Might as well be mainstream, but the point is, when you have a long conversation with Bernie Sanders, and he's not like up there, you know what we have to do, all that shit is annoying.
You've heard it before.
He sits down and has a real conversation with you, and everybody's like, oh man, that guy's making a lot of good points.
joe rogan
Yeah.
Well, you've got to think of what is annoying to people.
And one of the things that's annoying to people is that fucking rapid-fire nod.
unidentified
Yeah, the cadence.
And healthcare, and Medicare, and education should be free!
joe rogan
And people are like, hey, hey, hey, fuckface, I just got off work, okay?
pete dominick
Why are you yelling at me?
joe rogan
This guy's annoying and he wants to take my money.
Fuck him!
And you just press stop.
pete dominick
Right.
And you have to be able to change your cadence, your diction, and your commentary.
And you have to be able to get questions that are more thoughtful.
That's the thing about all these cable news interviewers and network.
They always want to get some headline.
And that's the other thing about corporate media, too.
They want you...
I've been in that belly of that beast, Joe, for the last 15 years.
Corporate, you know, political media.
And it's so...
Manufactured.
I could tell you so many stories.
They call you up and they say, you know, how do you feel about anything?
We want to make sure that you're completely the opposite of the other panelists and so that you have a really robust argument.
And it's like, not everything is binary.
Most things aren't.
There's a ton of nuance, a ton of gradation.
We don't have to hate each other.
That's how they get ratings.
That's how they sell advertising.
I blame most of the problems in our country on corporate media, terrestrial radio, just doing that format all day.
It works really well for conservatives, not as well for liberals, but it still works.
And they sell ads, and a few people make a lot of money, but the country suffers.
The idea that we're so divided is such bullshit.
I talk to people from all over the country, travel all over the place.
I understand the issues really intimately.
And I don't care what you think about anything.
There's something you have to offer me.
There's something you have to make my life to enrich me.
I don't care what you believe on abortion or guns or certain things.
Because if you could teach me how to fix this engine, I'm into it.
I want to learn how to do it.
If you can teach me how to exercise better, but you don't like our trade policies, I don't give a shit what you think about our trade policies.
Let's just not even talk about it.
Let's talk about the things, and it's, trying to get to the root of somebody's soul is what we should all be trying to do.
Every day.
What happened to you that made you think this way?
What is the experience?
What is your journey?
To me, that's the fascinating shit about human beings.
joe rogan
Well, one of the things about something like cable talk shows or news shows or any of these political arenas is that there's a lack of real interaction with the general public in terms of real conversations with people.
You have a host who's wearing makeup, who's got spotlights on him, and there's a microphone in front of him, and he's talking to his other people, and there's cameras pointed at them, and no one really feels like this is not a normal way of people talking.
pete dominick
No, nobody talks like that!
joe rogan
And rarely you see someone sit down, and every now and then they have those shows where it's a one-on-one.
Trump will sit across from fucking, what's his name?
What's that dude's name?
pete dominick
Which network?
joe rogan
It's a Fox guy.
pete dominick
Hannity?
joe rogan
No, Dobbs.
Dobbs, that guy.
pete dominick
Yeah.
joe rogan
Who's hilarious.
It's funny watching the two of them together.
pete dominick
I mean, Dobbs has lost his mind.
joe rogan
He's just kicking that ass and going...
pete dominick
He is digging way in.
But it works.
I used to be on with that guy, the most pleasant guy in the world.
But what he's doing, it's a North Korean situation.
Lou Dobbs, it's like state media.
Every night, it doesn't matter...
You know, he shall not be questioned kind of guy.
Worship the president.
It's like, what are you doing?
That's not even...
But that's the...
I once got into this long, drawn-out argument with Chris Cuomo, who I like a lot.
But I was talking to him about, you know, listen, man, the difference between TV and radio, it's simple.
On radio, you can have a long-form, you can have a 20-minute to 2-hour conversation, and it's real, and you get a lot done.
On TV, you can have a 5-minute conversation.
There's so many guests that you have on your show, that I have on my show, they're way more, they have the ability to be thoughtful and nuanced and make points.
They can't do that on cable, and now he's doing a radio show, so good for him.
joe rogan
Well, that's what I was getting at, is that this separation between the people and then the just unnatural environment that they're in, no one can relate to it.
What they can relate to is two people just talking to each other.
pete dominick
They can't relate to it, Joe, but they also think, because they're conditioned to, that if it's on a network, this person must be an authority and must be intelligent.
But I'm here to tell everybody.
I was talking about credit default swaps in the financial industry.
I have an associate's degree and came up in the New York City comedy clubs.
Like, I really didn't have any business talking about that.
But the thing is, I could sound really smart for three and a half minutes on anything.
Get me to minute five.
I can't go that deep on certain issues.
And I shouldn't be an authority on it.
But just because I'm on cable news with a jacket and a shirt and I'm this guy, people are like, oh, okay, well, I'll believe this guy.
It's not real.
joe rogan
It's not real.
That's a dying medium, too.
I don't think 20, 30 years from now that's going to exist in the same form.
pete dominick
Shorter than that.
joe rogan
Yeah, and then also the interjection of commercials every seven minutes.
The things that they're doing on debates is the same thing they're doing on these other cable talk shows where they're trying to encapsulate these things into these very quick five-minute sound bites.
pete dominick
Have you ever heard of Intelligence Squared debates?
joe rogan
Yes.
pete dominick
My friend John Donovan is the moderator.
He should be moderating the presidential debates.
He's the greatest guy.
They have these really well-informed panelists.
They have emotion.
And they do like two hours.
And you can come in thinking so often one idea about the issue.
And you leave thinking something completely different because you have these very smart people debating with an excellent moderator who doesn't let any bullshit, and you really learn a lot.
No commercial breaks, and you can, you know, listen to it.
joe rogan
Well, even three people is too many people.
pete dominick
Probably.
joe rogan
Yeah, it is.
It's like if you want to get to know someone, it's a one-on-one.
Because even with three people, there's moments where you have something to say, and then someone interjects something else, and then you lose your point, and then you don't express it.
And then the other person's talking, and you don't know when to talk, and then you find yourself being a little bit more assertive in the way you're talking because you're trying to get your point across.
You feel like I'm not talking enough.
And then if there's four people, you're fucked.
The most ridiculous thing they ever do is when they have those seven people panels and one person just starts fucking chiming in and screaming out loud and they talk over people.
pete dominick
But they're also talking about...
Because I had one foot in cable news for a long time.
I still do.
I mean, I still go on.
And then I had my long-form radio show where I would talk to policy experts.
Right now, when they're talking about the polls for the presidential race, anybody that's paying attention to that is wasting their time.
It's a complete waste of time to talk about who's leading in what poll a year away.
It's a year away.
You could have a terrorist attack.
You could have the economy crack.
joe rogan
People like it for a game.
pete dominick
It's not a game!
joe rogan
Okay, but it is a game.
If you're watching basketball, do you not pay attention to the first minute of the game?
Because it doesn't really matter.
What's really important is how many points are scored over the four quarters.
Is there four quarters?
pete dominick
Of a basketball game?
I think there might be two halves.
College or pro.
joe rogan
But the point is...
This is a weird game going on.
Kamala Harris was ahead and now she's fucked.
This is fun.
It's fun for people.
This is half of what it is.
I know it's serious.
I know it's significant.
I know there's grave consequences to picking the wrong leader.
But this is a game.
pete dominick
Right, but it's a bullshit game because as you said earlier, the reason why Kamala Harris or anybody else takes a step backwards is because one stupid moment.
And how are we possibly picking somebody on one?
unidentified
Not necessarily.
joe rogan
With Kamala Harris, there's a bunch of different issues.
pete dominick
Sure.
Yeah, but Howard Dean.
Come on!
I mean, have you listened to that?
It never gets old.
Never ever!
But it is weird that this day and age that that crashed him.
Given everything that all these other candidates have done and said.
joe rogan
Yeah, but honestly, there's probably something else.
It's how he responded to that as well.
It's like he showed a lack of humility or understanding of what it was.
Like, yeah, I sounded stupid.
That's not what's important, ladies and gentlemen.
Yeah, I screamed out.
Like, when you got a microphone on me, and I get excited, I go, yeah!
pete dominick
I mean, you can also talk just about the ego of the people who are running for these offices.
And they don't seem to have an understanding of the idea of ego and what it means and how they should try to separate from it while using it.
Like, once you get into politics, much less entertainment, and you get really well-known and famous, you start believing things about yourself that aren't even remotely true.
joe rogan
There's certainly some of that, right?
unidentified
Huh?
joe rogan
There's certainly some of that.
pete dominick
I feel like they all have that.
joe rogan
You're protecting yourself, right?
You have an image, you're protecting yourself.
pete dominick
Yeah, it's a delicate dance that I am completely turned off by.
I mean, that's why it's hard to think about...
I was seriously considering running for Congress.
joe rogan
You were or are?
pete dominick
It's hard right now because I learned some crazy shit.
joe rogan
What'd you learn?
pete dominick
First of all...
joe rogan
Drumroll, please.
pete dominick
The corruption...
I live in New York State.
joe rogan
Wait a minute.
New York State's not corrupt.
pete dominick
The New York State...
joe rogan
Stop the fucking...
Stop this show.
pete dominick
All of politics, there's levels of corruption.
But in the New York State Democratic Party, there's always been all kinds of issues.
So I met with a whole bunch of really smart people about running for New York 17, which is the district that I live in.
Like, the day after I lost my gig at Sirius, the woman who had been representing that district for 33 years announced that she was retiring.
And I was like, well...
I got nothing going on.
And I've always thought about running for office.
And let me seriously consider it.
I reached out to a whole bunch of people from all different walks of life.
Congressmen that were in office, that had been out of office, campaign coordinators.
I talked to Chris Cuomo.
I talked to a whole bunch of people.
But there's...
One person told me that if you want to win, regardless of your party affiliation, you have to, there's a certain special interest group that you had to promise you wouldn't interfere with and make sure they got an envelope of cash.
And I'm like, well, I'm not doing that.
I will tell everybody and everywhere I go about that.
joe rogan
What is it?
pete dominick
I can't because I don't have a second source, so I wouldn't say it.
But I'm trying to get one to prove that it's true.
joe rogan
What does it rhyme with?
pete dominick
The special interest group won't do it because everybody will know.
Everybody will know.
And it's dangerous.
But the point is...
joe rogan
What's the opposite of that special interest group?
pete dominick
Maybe the private sector.
joe rogan
Right, but what would be the thing that they're opposed to?
pete dominick
What would it be that they're opposed to?
You interfering with the way that they run their show.
joe rogan
Right, right, right.
But I'm saying what group that we know...
pete dominick
I could tell you it could be a religious group, a private sector, a union, or a company, a corporate interest.
It could be any one of those.
ACLU? No.
The point is that all of those types of organizations pressure You have to...
I'm an honest guy.
I can't lie.
I've never said anything into a microphone that I don't believe.
And that's been both to my detriment and to my benefit, I think.
I'm authentic.
So when I was talking about running for office, my brother's like, you can't lie.
You can't be dishonest to people.
How are you going to do that?
You'll have to sell out at least a little bit.
That was the other thing.
And then I realized...
I'm not sure that this district or the country is ready for someone like me.
I'm a comic.
I've said a billion things on TV and to a microphone and on stage, and we're in a humorless country right now, number one.
I smoke pot.
Are they ready?
Are we there yet?
joe rogan
I don't think we're humorless.
I disagree.
I think there's a lot of criticism going on, but that's because there's a lot of voices.
pete dominick
Do you think, I agree with you overall, but I mean for politicians, for me to run for office, and you see some stand-up bit I did, and then my opponent's playing that out of context.
joe rogan
Dude, I got five words for you.
Grab them by the pussy.
That guy's the president.
pete dominick
I think he is an aberration.
I do.
I don't think there's anything else that can get away with that kind of stuff.
joe rogan
I think you're probably right.
He's definitely an aberration.
pete dominick
Al Franken won as a senator, as a comedian, but he was a writer.
There wasn't a ton, and he got in trouble when there was a photo of him.
joe rogan
Well, it's more than a photo.
pete dominick
So there was actually all the allegations, but the photo, you know, perception, politics is perception.
And and whatever people see, it's different than what they hear and what they believe.
And so that's the point.
That photo was harmless, but it looked bad, just like any joke I said or anything that I've said out of context.
So I just feel like and then I thought that, you know, I they could destroy me in any future earning potential that I could have.
I just the second episode of my podcast, I interviewed Tim Ryan, you know, he is.
He was running for president because I was asking, what does it take?
And it's first of all, you got to run.
You got to raise a million dollars from people and individuals you don't like.
You don't want to be affiliated with, but you have to.
You've got to make them promises.
The whole system is so filled and corrupted with money in almost every district and every state, regardless of the office.
How does a person, I'm a fairly affluent guy, I'm a white straight guy, whatever, but I don't know how I can afford to apply for a job for a year and pay my mortgage.
So I want to do it if it looks feasible and if I don't have to take care of my family, my parents, not to mention pay my bills.
But you have to be an independently wealthy person, which sucks because it makes it much harder for regular people, there's plenty of exceptions, to run for office.
joe rogan
Now, when you say that you had to give them an envelope and that you had to, what did you have to do?
Did you have to support them?
pete dominick
Through intermediaries.
You have to basically say, I'm not going to interfere with With your business.
We'll just look the other way.
joe rogan
You had to say that.
pete dominick
That's what I'm told.
That was what I was told by a guy.
joe rogan
How are you told this?
Are you told this like, hey, if you ever want to be congressman, you have to do this.
pete dominick
You don't have to, but if you want to win, you're far more likely to win if you pay off these.
joe rogan
Far more likely.
pete dominick
It's not impossible, but they'll try to destroy you if you don't.
joe rogan
Really?
pete dominick
Yeah, and I can't...
It's like, Joe...
joe rogan
They'll just go after you.
pete dominick
You can destroy...
If it's just me...
joe rogan
Why can't you say who this is?
pete dominick
Only because I don't know if it's positively true.
I need another source.
I try to act like a journalist.
joe rogan
And someone who's the intermediary, like what kind of person is this?
pete dominick
He manages campaigns in that district.
He knows everything about the politics of and the special interests in that district.
joe rogan
So it could potentially be that he's hoeing you out.
pete dominick
Absolutely.
Which is why I won't tell you.
joe rogan
Because he's saying that so that he's sort of playing both sides.
pete dominick
No, he wanted me to run and he wants...
joe rogan
Sure, I'm sure he did.
But he might also want to maintain his relationship with whatever group this is.
So he says, hey, I've gotten assurance...
pete dominick
Knowing this guy, I don't think he's affiliated with that group, but it's possible.
And so I try to have journalistic ethics before I would say something.
I'll tell you off the mic.
Okay.
joe rogan
Can't wait for the show to be over.
pete dominick
But I wouldn't say, without having a second source, that's what's irresponsible about so much of our media.
unidentified
Right.
pete dominick
Like when Trump or anybody says fake news, it's like, listen, it's not.
You have to have two sources.
You go to your editor with those two sources, and then you can print it.
You can't make them up.
If you make up a source, you're like Mencia.
That's it.
You're done.
That's like stealing a joke.
You can't make up a source.
You'll never work again.
It would be a stupid thing to do.
joe rogan
Well, I think it's even worse when you make up a joke.
I mean, if you make up a source, you literally can't work.
Mencia is still working.
pete dominick
Fair enough.
joe rogan
People do work after they steal jokes.
pete dominick
Journalism and comedians are a lot different.
joe rogan
I mean, it's the worst.
If someone finds out you're making up a source...
pete dominick
Nobody does it.
In the few instances where someone did make up a source or even plagiarize, which are the two worst things you can do as a journalist, they never work again.
Or they don't work for a very long time.
You know, Johan Hari...
He's been on your show.
He's been on my show.
He was accused of some, I think it was plagiarism, and it took him a really long time to win his integrity back.
joe rogan
Yeah, I didn't find that out actually until after he'd been on the show the second time.
Great guy.
He's a great guy, but what was he accused of?
pete dominick
I don't remember.
I feel like it might have been plagiarism though.
And that kind of thing, the point is, that kind of thing ruins you.
And so I wouldn't come here and do that even though I don't I wouldn't call myself a journalist, but I would want, because of what you're saying, because you're smart, I'm very skeptical too of people and their source and what their interests are, and a lot of people really want me to run for Congress for a lot of different reasons, but mainly because they think I can tap my network of wealthy people and, you know, they can make money.
joe rogan
Love Trump or hate Trump, that is precisely what he was talking about when he said drain the swamp.
Now, this is the swamp, this sort of convoluted world of influence.
pete dominick
Well, yes and no.
The swamp...
joe rogan
Yeah, but it's also money and all the other things that he didn't drain, and he actually brought in people that were...
pete dominick
He made the swamp.
Swampier.
It's filled with malaria and crocodiles.
We don't even define things, unfortunately.
We don't have the same baseline, unfortunately, in this country of what words mean.
But I've always thought what that meant was government corruption, that the private sector is influencing government.
And the way that they obviously do it, the system that we have, is you have to get money.
From wealthy people and wealthy interests.
And then you have to advocate for them.
Whatever the interest is, you have to, or they won't give you more money.
And so that's what's beautiful about Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders.
They are not allowing any donations from any super PACs, from any wealthy individuals.
It's grassroots.
joe rogan
I think Tulsi's doing that as well.
pete dominick
Yeah, a handful of them are.
The whole Democratic Party mostly committed to it.
I don't think Biden's doing it.
joe rogan
If Biden was doing it, I don't think he remembers.
pete dominick
I totally agree with that, by the way.
joe rogan
Dude's out.
pete dominick
Well, listen, I don't think you should be running for president if you're 75. I think the same about Trump and Bernie and Biden.
All three of them are old.
joe rogan
Some people are 75 and they're very lucid.
pete dominick
My dad is in the best shape of any man I know.
Dude just had a heart attack.
Bernie Sanders just had a heart attack.
When you get older, especially as a man, shit breaks down.
Yeah, but it's like, who has the energy?
Plus, I just think younger people, like, just have more of an actual interest and understanding of what's happening.
That's why Andrew Yang is so attractive.
joe rogan
Yes.
Yeah.
No, I agree with that.
But I think that there's, I mean, it depends entirely on the individual.
There's 75-year-olds that are healthy and there's 75-year-olds that are not.
pete dominick
I disagree.
Because you could be the healthiest 75-year-old in the world, did everything right, and then shit can just shut down because you're 75. Your body's just old.
joe rogan
It's possible, but...
unidentified
It's far more...
pete dominick
The actuary possibilities are just far higher.
joe rogan
But you're balancing things out, right?
You also have wisdom and experience and education and understanding of the life.
pete dominick
So go consult a younger person.
joe rogan
Maybe.
pete dominick
I mean, Bernie Sanders is one of my heroes, but I want him to just endorse Elizabeth Warren and get it over with.
joe rogan
Well, first of all...
Being a president is a ridiculous proposition, period.
And it's an antiquated idea to have one alpha that runs this whole fucking show.
It's a great idea when there's 50 people in a trial.
pete dominick
Yes, I have a chief, but not a president of 330 million people that is an outsized influence and a bully pulpit, and then we have this reverence for them.
And this defense of them, or this attacking of their every move, their every character, and it's just such an easy thing to dunk on them, and it's just tiresome to me.
I agree with you.
joe rogan
Yeah, it's unhealthy for the country, too.
It's unhealthy for all of us.
pete dominick
It's unhealthy for our souls every single day, especially, like, the thing that you miss about pre-Trump, whoever it was, Republican or Democrat, like, remember when you used to have weekends?
Like, you could relax on the weekend.
unidentified
No politics.
pete dominick
No politics.
joe rogan
But that's internet, though.
pete dominick
You're right.
There's a lot of that.
joe rogan
Have you seen Trump's religious advisor?
pete dominick
Yes.
joe rogan
How wonderful is that?
pete dominick
She, the woman who says, if you don't support Trump, you're going against God?
joe rogan
Yes.
Yes.
Can we play any of that?
I don't think so.
jamie vernon
It's not that video I don't think we can play.
joe rogan
Too bad.
pete dominick
I can do it, I think.
If you don't support President Trump, then you are going against God!
joe rogan
And it's like, I'm not going against God.
pete dominick
Those people are so effective.
I think comics can really relate to them.
They're so good at performing.
And so conventionally.
Yeah.
And if you...
joe rogan
No, Kinison was one of those.
pete dominick
Right, right.
joe rogan
He was a preacher.
pete dominick
Right.
He's one of the...
Yeah.
Who turned into a comic.
He had that skill set.
Trump is the same way.
The way he stalks the stage and works the audience.
I mean, it's very, very effective.
But it's also...
To say...
That if you don't support a certain politician, to me that stuff is so, it's very boring.
Come on, this binary bullshit.
joe rogan
But she's a horseshit artist no matter what.
I mean, that's what she does.
She's trying to get low-frequency people.
She catches these nine-volt brains.
Nine-volt brains!
New advisor, ratchets up rhetoric, denounces demonic networks opposing President's calling.
pete dominick
Demonic!
joe rogan
She's wonderful.
I bet that lady does coke, and I bet she likes it right in the booty.
pete dominick
I think that every time you see...
joe rogan
I bet she parties.
pete dominick
Every time you see one of these people...
I just have a knee-jerk reaction.
When I see a Catholic priest, I'm like...
unidentified
Oh, yeah!
pete dominick
When I see one of these people, I'm like, they're completely contradicting.
You know, these gay conversion people that have come out...
joe rogan
Pray the gay away.
Yeah.
They're banging guys.
pete dominick
Oh, hell, all the time.
joe rogan
All the time.
You remember Ted Haggard?
pete dominick
Do I? I massaged him.
joe rogan
I'll bet you did.
pete dominick
Well paid.
joe rogan
With meth or no?
pete dominick
Smooth skin.
Yeah, of course.
I would never massage Ted Haggard without meth.
Really?
joe rogan
He blocked me on Twitter.
pete dominick
That's quite an accolade.
joe rogan
I forget what he said.
He said something like, after Sunday service, what should we do?
And I said, how about meth and blowjobs?
And that was it.
Boom.
pete dominick
That's actually what they do.
It's a joke, but it's also probably what...
He seemed like such a nice guy, too.
But it's so sad, too.
joe rogan
Not really, though.
Did you ever see the thing with him and Dawkins, when he got really nasty with Dawkins?
unidentified
Yeah, well...
pete dominick
Yeah.
joe rogan
That was before he actually got in trouble, too.
That was when he was running a whole arena filled with...
pete dominick
Back to ego.
joe rogan
Yeah.
pete dominick
When you think so much of you and your ideas, and you come up, in that case, Ted Haggard versus Richard Dawkins is like Mike Tyson versus...
joe rogan
A baby.
pete dominick
Something lower.
Something much lower.
A fetus.
And there's no match, and so you're going to lose your shit.
I love those debates on...
joe rogan
But it's also, he's frustrated that, you know, Dawkins has an arrogance about him, you know?
pete dominick
Yeah, scientists tend to...
joe rogan
Yeah, but he does, specifically and particularly.
Well, I had him in here recently, and he was talking about life after death, that he thinks, the lights just go out.
And I'm like, well...
Maybe.
But we don't know.
unidentified
What do you think?
joe rogan
We don't know.
I don't think.
I don't have any experience with what happens when you die.
I really have no idea.
It would be very interesting if there was some sort of dimensional travel thing that happens to the spirit or the soul or whatever this concept of consciousness is.
pete dominick
How much have...
Do you think about your mortality on a regular?
joe rogan
I try not to.
It doesn't do any good.
pete dominick
Right.
But when it comes in, what do you do?
joe rogan
You know, I try to be nice to the people I know.
Try to be kind to the people that I care about.
pete dominick
That's an interesting answer when I say, when you think about your own death, what do you do?
I just try to be a good person.
I love that.
joe rogan
There's nothing you can do.
While I'm here, I want as little bad feelings as possible.
It's impossible to have no bad feelings.
So, whatever...
I can do to mitigate that.
I try.
pete dominick
How have you worked on your anger and had that dissipate?
What's the best thing?
joe rogan
Exercise.
unidentified
For you?
joe rogan
Exercise is the big one.
Yeah, because I think a lot of my anger is just caveman genetics.
And then a fucked up childhood, too.
Growing up in a violent household and being around a lot of violence.
I also had to deal with...
I grew up essentially all throughout high school until I was 22 fighting.
So I was always involved with violence.
pete dominick
As an outlet for your emotions.
joe rogan
Yeah.
Well, it was also developed my human potential.
It was martial arts.
It was competition.
But it's also – there's a downside of that, that I grew up – Like, being praised for explosive violence.
pete dominick
That's wrong.
joe rogan
Yeah, I mean, it was in competition.
It was agreed upon.
I was doing it with other trained killers.
But it's still...
That's a weird thing to get past.
pete dominick
I... Yeah, I have an example of, I mean, I'm sure you have a billion of them, I didn't mean to cut you off, but when my daughter was like three years old, we're visiting family, people I don't really know, my wife's family, and his five-year-old son goes over, my daughter's just looking up at the TV, this little three-year-old girl, and he comes over and he just clocks her, knocks her over.
And we're all like, oh my god, what?
And the dad comes over and just starts beating the shit out of his five-year-old.
And I just start screaming.
I'm like, that's why he did it!
That's why he did it!
You learn what you live.
And children learn what they live.
But what you're saying, when you train, when you exercise, are there feelings, are there emotions coming out?
Or is it...
Energy that you're just expending.
joe rogan
Energy.
pete dominick
You're not thinking about when you're...
joe rogan
I'm not like angry at my child or anything when I'm hitting the bag.
No, no.
No, I'm just exercising.
unidentified
Also...
joe rogan
When I'm running or doing yoga or anything I'm doing, it's strenuous.
I just had this conversation with Ben Westhoff, who's on here before you, and the way I described it is I think that a human body has a certain amount of physical requirements.
I think there's...
pete dominick
Right.
joe rogan
Your body's a system, and this system is designed through nature and natural selection and...
Hundreds of thousands of years of being human beings to have issues that come up and to be physically prepared to deal with those issues, whether it's a neighboring tribe invades you or an animal's trying to attack you or you're just trying to hunt and gather food.
All those things are built into our system and it takes tens of thousands of years for that DNA to shift and change and become something different.
So we have a certain amount of physical requirements that we're just born with and it's different with every person.
Some people have less, some people have more.
I tend to be on the high side.
And I'm a different person when I exercise.
I'm a different person when I get time to sleep correctly and eat correctly and exercise.
I'm different.
And I like that person better.
That's a nicer person.
I like that guy better.
So I try to be that guy as much as I can.
But I have a million different people living inside my brain all the time, bouncing around, fighting for dominance.
pete dominick
Really?
joe rogan
Yeah.
It's like there's a director.
They try to keep them all in order, which is like the consciousness.
Like...
pete dominick
Is that a struggle?
unidentified
Every day?
joe rogan
Everybody has it.
There's always things.
Like, you're a better person when you're well-rested, life is going well.
pete dominick
For sure.
joe rogan
You had great interactions with your family, great interactions with your friends, and then you run into someone on the street.
Versus, you just got fired from your job, you walked in and your wife's sucking the plumber off.
You have all these things go wrong.
pete dominick
All that happened to me just now, by the way.
joe rogan
All those things can happen.
pete dominick
I lose my job, I go home, there's my wife with the plumber.
joe rogan
You are a different person.
Dependent upon what...
What you encounter in your life.
pete dominick
I completely agree with that, but it's a practice.
I like that word.
And you have to practice it every day.
joe rogan
You're not going to fix it.
You're not just going to get better.
You're just going to get better at forming the good habits.
pete dominick
What about therapy?
joe rogan
I don't do that.
pete dominick
Never did?
joe rogan
No, but I do get in an isolation tank.
I've done a lot of psychedelics.
pete dominick
I was going to ask you about that.
I'm thinking about trying that.
joe rogan
You should.
pete dominick
I feel like that's been a big pot of your life.
joe rogan
Want to do it right now?
What do you want to do?
pete dominick
Yeah, right now.
joe rogan
Have you ever done mushrooms?
pete dominick
No, but I can't.
joe rogan
You can't?
pete dominick
I mean, I would like to.
If I do it, I want to do it with you for sure.
joe rogan
Okay.
pete dominick
But I got a long night ahead of me, I think.
joe rogan
Oh, what are you doing tonight?
pete dominick
I have, like, family.
unidentified
Oh.
pete dominick
I haven't seen in a long time that they're begging me.
joe rogan
Yeah, you don't want to be tripping balls.
pete dominick
I probably don't want to.
joe rogan
Oh, microdose.
Microdose is not a bad way to get through a day.
pete dominick
Can you drive with it?
joe rogan
Oh, I wouldn't recommend it.
pete dominick
Yeah, I don't know where I am.
I got a rental car.
joe rogan
Yeah.
pete dominick
I really want to do it.
I'm ready for it, but I feel like I need...
unidentified
You've done nothing?
pete dominick
Huh?
joe rogan
You've done nothing?
pete dominick
No, I mean, weed every day.
joe rogan
Yeah.
pete dominick
That's been my saving grace.
Yeah, you got any of those Kevin Smiths?
No, I don't want to smoke...
joe rogan
We can smoke a little weed.
pete dominick
...on the show because I feel like it makes me verbose.
joe rogan
Well, you're already verbose.
You talk for a living.
There's nothing wrong with that.
pete dominick
But it makes me even worse.
What happened to this one?
Don't worry about it.
unidentified
We can do it.
pete dominick
Or towards the end.
Whatever.
Yeah, but for me, my brother was in rehab when I was 16. He was 18. I love that you're scanning the room.
joe rogan
Where's those Kevin Smith joints we have on the table?
pete dominick
Oh, okay.
joe rogan
What's that right there?
That little tube right there, Jamie?
pete dominick
That's hilarious.
There's just stuff everywhere.
What's that?
joe rogan
Oh, there's one.
pete dominick
What is this?
This ashtray filled with treasures.
But I didn't touch any alcohol or drugs until I was like 25. My brother was in rehab.
We had to do an intervention.
It was nuts.
And I was like, I knew I wanted to be a comic.
And I thought that if I did anything, it would affect me.
It would distract me.
joe rogan
Make you a loser.
pete dominick
No, no.
It would just make me pursue that and not...
My dreams.
This is the other thing, like, if I take a hit off this and I still want to run for Congress, like, it shouldn't matter.
This is how I deal.
joe rogan
Well, it's legal.
It's no different than having a drink.
pete dominick
Yeah, of course.
It's preposterous to judge, but people do.
joe rogan
Yeah, but I think the generation that's coming up will judge less.
The generation after them will judge less.
And it's just, we're living with the echoes of reefer madness, right?
We're living with Harry Anslinger and William Randolph's Hearst work in the 1930s.
pete dominick
Look them up, everybody.
Look them up.
Yeah, no doubt.
But I think that you say they're the echoes, and I think they're pretty loud.
Certainly pretty loud in certain parts of the country.
joe rogan
Yeah.
pete dominick
Yeah.
joe rogan
Well, the good thing about being a congressman is you're representing a district, right?
pete dominick
One of the guys I've become really good friends with, he was a Republican congressman.
His name is Trey Radel.
joe rogan
That's a good name.
pete dominick
He got kicked out of Congress for buying cocaine from a Fed.
You remember that?
joe rogan
No, I don't.
pete dominick
It was like three years ago.
joe rogan
I don't pay that much attention to politics.
I think politics is like baseball.
Some people just watch the World Series, and some people watch college and look at fucking first-round draft picks.
pete dominick
I'm addicted to it.
I was.
That's another nice thing, not having to be live every day and not having to know every single step of everything going on, because you realize that you're a very small minority of people.
joe rogan
When you found out that thing, when you were told that thing by that guy...
pete dominick
Let me just make sure this doesn't go to waste, Jimmy.
joe rogan
It won't.
There's plenty of it.
When you were told that thing about the guy who was, you know, the congressman job, you know, that you were going to have to play ball.
Was that...
Did you feel like...
pete dominick
Let down?
joe rogan
Yeah, like almost like, okay, I've been promoting a rigged game.
pete dominick
No, I know how well...
I know intimately how rigged the game is.
It's just that you don't always know where and who the players are.
I mean, I've done enough.
joe rogan
Right, but isn't it...
You're an honest person.
You're not a bullshit artist.
I hope everybody thinks that.
I do.
So if you're...
A part of a bullshit system, right?
It's almost like you can't.
To be who you are, you almost like can't be a congressperson.
You just nailed it.
pete dominick
What you just said almost made me want to cry.
Don't cry.
Because, well, I get very emotional when someone pings a truth.
That's what happens to me.
I'm like, Jesus, I can't believe he just said that.
My brother, who's my moral compass, my older brother, is this radical, like, ridiculous, radically different person.
He's like...
I said just what you said right before I came over here because the problem with you running is that do you really buy in to this corrupt system?
And I think because I'm such an optimist and such a positive thinking person, I've convinced myself and that I do know a lot of people in Congress, know them personally and intimately and I know a lot of people that work in government that I really admire.
But the system, it's not the people as much as the system, but I also think that the way, I don't want to talk about it in a way that exonerates the public.
Like, we have to not be apathetic.
That's what my show's always been about.
It wasn't always a confusing title, Stand Up, because I'm a comic, but it meant stand up for something.
It meant care about something.
You don't have to be a full-time activist, but don't be...
Don't be apathetic.
The United States of apathy.
We can't sit here and blame the systems that we are complicit in.
Watch this fucking every weekend in Hong Kong.
Every weekend they stand up for their democracy.
joe rogan
They've been doing it for months.
pete dominick
Right.
That's the biggest story.
It'll be the biggest story of 2019 and maybe the decade because they are fighting off China.
It's unbelievable.
Meanwhile...
I just feel like we're just so comfortable.
joe rogan
And Hong Kong used to be a part of Great Britain, right?
Yeah.
Until, like, what?
pete dominick
90-something, when they had to give it back after, like, it was a 100-year agreement or something like that.
joe rogan
Which is so crazy.
pete dominick
But China's like, listen...
We're not going to bother you.
You can keep doing what you're doing.
And then they started bothering them.
And they said, no, we're going to, you're ours now, now behave.
Because they had so much more power and leverage.
And then human beings stood up.
Now they're doing it in Chile.
And now they're doing it in Iraq.
People are protesting and they're getting shot.
The greatest thing that I was ever a part of in media was probably, well, there was a lot of good things, but CNN and SiriusXM's coverage of the Egyptian revolution.
It was a Fucking amazing!
joe rogan
And that was something that was organized by social media, essentially.
pete dominick
Exactly.
joe rogan
Same thing in Iran and the Green Revolution in 2009. What's interesting to me about this whole Hong Kong thing is that they're being introduced to the government of China over the last few decades.
That this was something they were separated from.
And then all of a sudden they become property of China again, essentially, right?
And so then you're seeing this thing where they become accustomed to the British way of things, the original Hong Kong way of doing things, and then things shift over.
It's a really unique moment of protest because it's very rare that you see the actual government of a country shift the way it has in Hong Kong.
Correct me if I'm wrong.
pete dominick
Well, I don't profess to be an expert in revolution, but this is what the conversation is about right now.
It's watching people in other parts of the world going out in the streets, risking their lives, literally.
And meanwhile, in America, what is it that will get us...
Unified and out in the streets.
What is that issue?
joe rogan
Well, things get us unified, particularly disasters.
pete dominick
Yeah, of course.
9-11, I was in New York.
joe rogan
What I'm saying about the, yeah, that was a big one, right?
pete dominick
I have a billion stories.
joe rogan
A huge shift in the way people communicate.
pete dominick
A billion stories.
joe rogan
What I'm saying, though, is we've never seen, in our time, we've never seen a government shift over.
Right?
You've never seen that kind of a shift where a free, democratic, sort of western way of running things all of a sudden shifts over.
And because of that, I think the resistance to it is very unique.
pete dominick
I think if you studied the British colonization of the world, there would be a lot of that.
I think that's what we're talking about, literally, because it was Britain.
And then, I can't speak to the specifics of the history of that, but what you're bringing up is a fascinating question that I'd love to get to the bottom of, and there's probably a billion people who would be so good on it.
Because it's so important.
People stand up for something and care, I think.
joe rogan
Even with our limited understanding of the history of it, this is one thing we know for sure.
They used to be under Britain, and now they're not.
And now they're under China, and we're watching this resistance.
And we're seeing these people, hundreds and hundreds of thousands of them in the streets.
And you know what my favorite part of it all was?
There was one time where an ambulance had to get through.
And all the people from Hong Kong just stood on the left and the right, and they let the ambulance go through.
And I'm like, whoa, good luck with that in Boston.
It's fucking not going to happen, bro.
Look at this.
Look at this video, man.
I mean, this is incredible.
pete dominick
This is what my brother and a lot of people who I respect and admire, but maybe I'm not courageous enough to challenge our system more, want to see here for something.
But what's it for?
And why can't it be climate?
joe rogan
Well, the hustle is the right versus left.
Right?
pete dominick
That's the hustle.
unidentified
That's the hustle.
joe rogan
And the real hustle is the fact that people get ideologically driven and they pick a side.
And they go, you know, the problem is these fucking liberals.
These fucking pussy liberals.
And then, you know, the problem is these racists.
These white racist assholes.
pete dominick
I love your liberal person.
joe rogan
That's how it goes, man.
I'm from Berkeley, man.
pete dominick
More.
unidentified
More.
pete dominick
I want that.
This is a character that should definitely break out.
joe rogan
I should, man.
I should bring him out every now and then, man.
It's like fucking heteronormative bullshit.
Right?
But the problem is these are patterns of behavior that people slide into.
And that's why we were talking about putting people in boxes.
People love to be able to put you in that pattern.
I want to find out who you are.
Who are you?
Are you a liberal?
Are you a libertarian?
Are you a mean person?
Are you a nice person?
Or who are you?
pete dominick
My trick for my mom when she would be telling whoever what her son does, Well, he's a comedian and he hosts a radio show.
Oh, what's his radio show about?
Oh, he talks about all kinds of news and issues and politics.
Oh, is he a liberal or conservative?
They immediately want to know that.
unidentified
Of course.
joe rogan
They want to know whether you're a piece of shit racist or a cuck.
pete dominick
Cuck, please.
joe rogan
Cuck is a fucking hilarious word.
pete dominick
But my mom, the answer, it really is.
It's really underappreciated.
unidentified
It's a great word.
joe rogan
I hope they keep it.
I hope it doesn't become racist or something.
It's one of those words where it's like, I hope it doesn't slip away from us.
We have it right now.
We can enjoy it.
You can silence a lot of nonsense by calling somebody a cuck.
You really can.
It's like, woo!
It's been overused, for sure.
pete dominick
Not in text messaging.
joe rogan
It's recent and so effective.
It's just got such a pop to it when someone calls someone a cock, especially if there's a ring of truth to it.
pete dominick
I like it most when you say something endearing.
I'll text my brother.
He's the kind of person who will use it.
Maybe to me.
joe rogan
Stop being such a cuck.
pete dominick
I'll be like, I love you, bro.
You're saving me.
My brother's like my hero.
He's always there for me.
He wrote my first stand-up material in high school when I was hosting a talent show.
And he was getting kicked out of the house and I had no material.
And I was doing Dana Carvey's impressions hosting a talent show.
And I had no material and I walked out and I see a whole script that my brother had written.
joe rogan
Wow.
pete dominick
Didn't let me down.
joe rogan
That's awesome.
pete dominick
Even though he's high and drunk, didn't let me down.
joe rogan
Those are the guys that have the best writing for you.
pete dominick
I'll say something endearing to him, like that, loving, and then you get back, cock!
Like, that kind of response, like, when you don't...
Yeah, no.
joe rogan
Perfect.
pete dominick
I'm not even...
Actually, no, I don't even know if he is actually using that or if I'm just high.
joe rogan
I'm sure he used it.
It's a good word.
unidentified
He's a smart guy.
pete dominick
But back to revolution, like, why can't it...
And what you're saying, the hustle, I love that discussion because everything is about defining...
So the answer my mom would give, excuse me, getting back to that, was, well, he talks about issues.
So, you know, that's what he talks about.
But they want to pin you into something so they can know how to feel about you, to like or to hate you.
Are you on my team or are you not?
And that destroys it.
It's so destructive.
joe rogan
It is.
And the other thing is the resistance to what you're saying.
Resistance is toxic, too, because people think, no, it's important that you take a side.
It's important that we de-platform Nazis.
They say things like that, and you're like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, who's a fucking Nazi?
Stop!
Look, they're real Nazis.
And the problem is you start calling everybody a Nazi, and then one day you meet a real one, and you ran out of words.
You fucking cried wolf.
These aren't Nazis.
And when people feel like you're treating them unfairly or talking shit about them, and this is a problem we have both in the right and the left, they fucking double down.
They dig their heels in, and they go, fuck that other group.
It's Team Red all the way.
Fuck you, it's Team Blue.
pete dominick
It is so destructive.
And watching it is so sad, and being a part of it, When we are is the problem and trying to have the answer to that the solution to that is to try to listen to each other and to try to understand because I completely agree with you that they if they don't feel respected you've lost them completely on we can't people enjoy it like a team like when the Celtics win people get pumped when the Republicans win people get pumped you know it's like when the Democrats win people
joe rogan
get pumped it's their team I had a friend of mine, a comic, who said, you know, we gotta win the House, because if we win the House, we win the White House.
I'm like, what are you talking about?
What is we?
What is we?
Are we in this?
Are you running for something that I don't know about?
Like, they have to.
pete dominick
I feel that way about sports, by the way.
joe rogan
Bro, I think...
pete dominick
When we say we, you're not on the team.
It's the Giants.
You're not a giant.
You're out here not exercising.
joe rogan
And it's the same thinking.
It's the same thinking.
People attach themselves.
I remember when I was a kid.
I was a big fan of this guy named Donald Curry.
He was this badass boxer.
This world champion, welterweight champion.
He was a fucking beast.
And then one day, he got knocked out by this guy Mike McCallum, the body snatcher.
He was another world champion, a bad motherfucker, and he hit him with a left hook to the body and a left hook to the head, knocked him out cold, flat on his back.
I couldn't believe it.
He was my favorite boxer, and he just got knocked out, and I felt so bad.
I couldn't take it.
I put my running shoes on, and I ran out of the house, and I ran for like a fucking mile.
And I was just so worked up.
I was probably like 17, I think, somewhere around then.
16, 17, I don't remember.
Maybe a little later.
18 at the latest.
I turned around and walked home.
I ran like a mile and a half, a mile, whatever.
I turned around.
I just walked home.
I am never going to get upset about someone I don't even know losing like that.
But that was a team thing.
I was on Team Curry.
And people really literally do that with fighters.
pete dominick
I feel like I have a litmus test that I feel like I fall victim to the criticism that you're laying out on the planet, on environmental stuff.
Like I feel so panicky and so anxious about that.
And I care so much about it.
For me, it is religious.
It's a spiritual connection to nature that it brings me so much joy to be in it and around it and professing it.
And to see us destroy it by the way we're living.
I'm one of those people that feels guilty about I rail against single-use plastic, which is why I want to advocate for you guys to get a big tank and everybody has thermos.
joe rogan
We've talked about that before.
pete dominick
Because if you do that today, if you made that choice, just get a big thing and a glass or mugs and sell them and raise money or something.
joe rogan
And Ari would come by and dose the bucket.
You can't have a big open bottle of water around with Ari.
pete dominick
Ari Shafir gave out like a plate of pot cookies years ago at Stan Comedy Club.
My wife does not like that.
joe rogan
Did she know it was a pot cookie?
pete dominick
Didn't know.
Went to take it.
Took a sniff of it.
And she's like, oh no!
And Ari's like, oh sorry.
joe rogan
Oh boy, she almost took it?
pete dominick
She is no good with the weed, the edibles especially.
joe rogan
Well, edibles are rough on you.
pete dominick
She once had like a whole Kit Kat because she was hungry and went to the sink and was washing her hands and just said, this water is so wet.
unidentified
And I go, oh shit, something's wrong.
pete dominick
Put some headphones on.
unidentified
Yeah.
joe rogan
This water is so wet.
When you look at that Hong Kong thing, I don't think we need a revolution.
I think we need a resolution.
I think we need to relax and come to this understanding that most of the stuff we fight about is because we're tricked into this tribal way of thinking.
I don't mean tricked by some overlords.
I mean tricked by your own biology.
We have a natural inclination to form teams.
And we have a natural...
Because there's only two real ones.
I mean, you could be one of them fucking dudes who's only into independent music and you always vote Green Party.
But for the most part, there's two parties, right?
When it comes to, like, national politics.
And when we think about...
Whoever the fuck's going to win, whether we think about what the real important thing is the economy or protecting our borders, or you think the real important thing is the environment and stopping global warming.
We've got to do something to engineer biodegradable plastics and make them mandatory.
Whatever thing becomes your side, and you can make arguments for both sides.
The problem is people then subscribe to whatever Ideas are in that party.
You could almost pick to a person.
If you're pro-life, you're probably pro-war.
pete dominick
But when you said, we're doing well, or relax, we're doing well, I react to that with working with and advocating for all these anti-poverty organizations.
joe rogan
What do you mean, relax, we're doing well?
pete dominick
I felt like you were saying, when everybody is getting fired up, maybe I misunderstood you.
It was like, I don't think we need a revolution, but...
joe rogan
I think instead of thinking about it like a competition between two teams, we should think about it as a resolution.
We should resolve our issues.
pete dominick
And what are our issues?
joe rogan
And resist being tribal.
pete dominick
Absolutely agree.
That's the entire problem.
And I'll do anything to work with you or anybody else on furthering that conversation.
Because that's all bullshit.
Theatrical, manufactured shit that you're divided by your neighbor because of any number of stupid...
And that we're not talking because of that.
I believe that our species can do a lot better.
joe rogan
And it's normal.
That's the thing.
It's like normal to not like people that...
You know, you look at somebody who's conservative, it's normal if you're a liberal to not like them.
If you're a conservative, it's normal to think these fucking silly liberals, they're going to ruin everything.
pete dominick
But don't put them in that box.
What kind of a man is he?
What kind of a father?
unidentified
Yeah, right.
pete dominick
That's how I evaluate men or women.
What kind of a partner?
What kind of a parent?
I just watch them behave with their kids.
I don't think about what they think about guns.
If I find that stuff out later, then we talk about it.
But what kind of a role model are you for your children is how I evaluate another man.
I don't know if that's a good measure.
joe rogan
That's what I do.
pete dominick
I don't think about what show he watches or what kind of car he drives or what his job is.
What kind of a man is he?
What kind of a father, a role model, a contributor to society?
Does he care about other people and other things?
What is his morality?
joe rogan
Perfect.
pete dominick
I don't know, but that's not that.
Why is that abnormal?
Isn't that how we all should be?
Isn't that how we all are to some extent?
joe rogan
I think this resonates with a lot of people that are listening.
There's a lot of people that try very hard to do that.
There's a lot of people that also escape the grips of tribal thinking as they get older and wiser.
unidentified
Sure.
joe rogan
I think I'm one of those, and I think a lot of people are one of those.
pete dominick
I am too, I hope.
joe rogan
And I think one of the ways that you help it is by having these conversations.
So people listen, and then it resonates with them.
And maybe it only resonates to a certain degree.
And maybe they slip away from it a week later when they're drinking and hanging out with their friends.
Or they're not exposed to the ideas very often.
And when they do, it's not as effective as it would be if they were around people that were like-minded.
But that's just having these conversations, you know, you're affecting, like right now, we're affecting a lot of different people's thinking, right?
They're listening to this and they go, a lot of interactions could have been different on both sides, depending upon what you did.
Like sometimes you run into someone and they're douchey, but if you just turn around a little bit, say, it's all right, brother, you know, I'm just here.
And then they relax and they go, oh, he's okay.
But if you ramped it up and they ramped it up more, you can go, that guy's a piece of shit, right?
Well, yeah, he acted like a piece of shit, but maybe part of the way he acted like a piece of shit was the way you dealt with his initial weirdness.
Because sometimes people are just fucking weird, and sometimes people come off douchey.
pete dominick
People are complex.
People are so complex and so rooted.
I mean, I... I just go straight to interviewing.
I've interviewed murderers and rapists.
joe rogan
Who have you interviewed that's a murderer?
pete dominick
Senghor, I think his last name is.
Shakti Senghor.
He wrote a book.
He changed my life.
He killed a guy when he was 18, went to prison, served 19 years, and got out and wrote a book.
And redemption.
How did he get there to murdering somebody?
And how did he become the man that he was?
That's...
The way to measure a man.
And so he did the worst thing.
So when you say you have this idea about any number of issues from race to energy issues to guns to abortion to feminism to all the stuff it's like well Where did he start?
Who were his role models?
You know, there's so much data about the zip code that you're born into in this country determines where you'll be when you're 18. And it's so accurate.
It's so hard to get out of certain places.
I heard you and someone talking about that.
It was Dakota Meyer, who was amazing.
I loved that whole interview.
It was fascinating.
Really interesting guy.
Yeah, he was awesome.
And nothing but respect for that guy.
But talking about America as, like, this place where it's the greatest place to get ahead, like, it's not.
It's so hard to get ahead here.
joe rogan
In some spots.
In some spots it's very hard to get ahead.
pete dominick
In way too many spots.
For so many reasons.
joe rogan
I'm with you if you're talking about impoverished neighborhoods that have a history of crime and violence, because they don't fix that and it doesn't change, and it's really hard to get ahead if you're not...
But in other places, if you're in a nice city and you're in a nice neighborhood, it is difficult.
But compared to the rest of the world, it's far, far easier.
pete dominick
I'm just talking about social mobility.
joe rogan
In what sense?
pete dominick
In terms of being able to move up a rung in the ladder.
joe rogan
Okay, I feel like that's only true in impoverished areas that are riddled with crime and drugs.
pete dominick
But that's not how it's measured.
joe rogan
But I'm thinking, if you're talking about places where things are doing well...
Yeah.
And you're comparing them to the rest of the world.
This is one of the easiest places to get ahead ever, that's ever existed, because there's- Only if you start in a certain spot.
unidentified
Yes, yes.
pete dominick
It's impossible, which is why the media loves to focus and Americans love to focus on even themselves.
So many people say, you know, listen, I started with nothing and now I'm a major success.
And so they don't then have sympathy for somebody else.
I'm like, that's your story to tell.
What were your opportunities?
Who were your role models?
What did you have?
Did you have healthcare?
Did you have universal pre-K? That's the bottom line.
If you have universal pre-K all over this country, this whole country would be so much more intelligent.
That's what all the education data says.
That's what every other country does.
We don't have it.
Agreed.
Is just so many fucked up budget priorities.
The budget is a moral document.
It means where your values lie and you spend what on health care, what on defense, what on anti-poverty, what on nutrition, what on education.
joe rogan
Yes.
pete dominick
That's how I determined, by the way, in a thoughtful conversation, not only are you a liberal, not are you a liberal or conservative, you know, pro- or anti-government, it's how do you think we should spend our tax money?
Where should we spend it around the world and domestically and in terms of, and it's like, we have this huge defense budget with these weapons that will never be used, and Russia beat us with Facebook, and North Korea hacked into Sony.
It's like, that's where the threat is.
unidentified
Right.
joe rogan
Let me ask you this when it comes to defense, because that's always an interesting subject.
There's two arguments, right?
There's this pro-military argument that is you have to have a certain amount of military might all over the world.
We have to be the world's policemen because if we're not, someone else will.
And we are protecting America by doing this and we fight them over there so that we can be free over here, right?
That's the pro-argument.
The anti-argument would be you could do everything that you need to do to protect us with less money.
And you could take that money and inject it into these inner cities that are impoverished and crime-ridden, and you could, in my words, that's why I always like to say, if you want to make America greater, what's the best way to do that?
Well, have less losers.
Have less people that are losing the game because they've got a shitty roll of the dice and the bad hand of cards when they're young.
pete dominick
Give people healthcare and education.
Give them an opportunity to succeed.
It's not that hard.
Most of us got it.
joe rogan
But the pro-military argument would be, okay, that is not going to work.
We will get fucked over by another country.
And then no one will have an advantage.
Like, we have to maintain a certain amount of power worldwide.
Like, I'm not...
This is not my argument.
I'm just saying.
pete dominick
But I would reject the binary on its face because it's a thoughtful binary and I'd love to answer it.
But it's so much more geopolitical and filled with history and then technology.
And so now I think if I am going to answer the question, it's like the threat matrix This is a way to look at it.
Like, what are the existential threats?
Nuclear war and any kind of geopolitical, what kind of conventional war?
Everything's online in terms of the way that countries are fighting.
It's all going online.
joe rogan
It's all transparent.
pete dominick
Well, I don't know if it's transparent.
joe rogan
It is in some ways, right?
pete dominick
But the point I would like to say, like, how is the Department of Defense not only focused on saving the planet, That's it.
That's it.
Just do that.
Everybody wins.
joe rogan
I think it's complicated, man.
pete dominick
Well, of course it is.
joe rogan
I think it's way more complicated than we would ever understand.
I think to be a military leader in 2019 and to be making decisions one way or another when you attack people.
unidentified
Woo!
joe rogan
Good luck with all that.
Good luck with trying to figure out how to kill terrorists and do it live on television while the president's watching from the fucking Oval Office or whatever really happened.
pete dominick
I think he was golfing.
joe rogan
I think he was golfing.
pete dominick
Yeah, that was a whole weird situation.
joe rogan
How about the picture afterwards?
Like, um, I know what a pose picture looks like.
pete dominick
Dude, every single one of those pictures, it does look bad when every one of those pictures comes to all the Oval offices and a bunch of white dudes.
joe rogan
Well, God wants you to wear makeup and God wants you to sit right there.
unidentified
That's right.
joe rogan
God wants that.
Right.
People don't talk enough, man.
There's too many of us.
That's a lot of what all this shit is.
pete dominick
I think you're leading.
I think one of the reasons why you're doing so well is because you're leading the conversation about how the conversation should be.
I hope that's evidence from what we're saying.
joe rogan
Well, I hope so, too.
I'm just happy people enjoy it, but the conversations that we're not having, we're not having enough of, is face-to-face, one-on-one like this.
Everyone's distracted.
You can't get to know people over soundbites.
You definitely can't get to know them through text messages or little tiny snippets of a conversation that they're going to have before they cut to commercial.
pete dominick
To get to know a person is very easy.
You just look at their internet history.
joe rogan
You find out what kind of porn they like.
pete dominick
Oh my God.
joe rogan
Whether or not they like muscle cars.
pete dominick
It's my greatest bit.
I mean, it's the idea that Facebook and your social media is what you want people to think you're doing.
Here's my family in the Bahamas.
But if you had a video of me melting down, just smoking weed and feeling my heart thumping and sweating because I'm having a panic attack, that's your internet history.
You're looking up every lump that you find.
joe rogan
Right.
And you go down weird rabbit holes.
You find out about strange diseases.
pete dominick
Yeah, very unhealthy.
joe rogan
All day today about parasites.
Mindfucking.
pete dominick
I saw your tweet about that.
I was like, no, don't put it out there!
Don't put it out there!
It's interesting as hell, but it's terrifying because the idea, like, I always get so worried, especially that one, because it's like trail running's my favorite way to run.
joe rogan
I love it too.
pete dominick
That's why I posted it.
joe rogan
Some lady got eyeball worms, man.
pete dominick
But...
Kids are terrified to go outside.
There's this amazing organization, Children of Nature Network.
Everybody should discover and support and look up the work of Richard Louv, who's just written a new book about relationships, you'll love it, with animals and humans.
And he wrote a book called Last Child in the Woods that is my Bible, changed my life.
And kids are afraid to go outside because there's ticks, there's Lyme disease, there's parents afraid that there's kidnapping.
No, there isn't.
joe rogan
There's definitely Lyme disease.
pete dominick
Well, yeah, but you just be vigilant.
joe rogan
Yeah, but Lyme disease is really significant.
pete dominick
It's horrible.
I grew up in...
joe rogan
I have several people who I'm close with.
pete dominick
I live in Rockland County.
Me too.
Horrible.
Don't get me wrong.
But we can't not send our kids outside.
joe rogan
No, I agree.
pete dominick
Cut your lawn and check your kids for ticks.
Good night.
joe rogan
Yeah, you gotta be vigilant.
pete dominick
But the kids have to stay out.
They have to be outside to appreciate getting all dried.
joe rogan
Yeah, no, I agree.
pete dominick
The connection to nature.
That's what it's all about.
It all works together.
The idea that we're drinking out of bottles that are made of petroleum.
That's what plastic is.
This is going to be here for 700 years.
joe rogan
Unless we melt it and make cool shit out of it.
pete dominick
Let's take some ideas.
Let's go to the calls.
joe rogan
Do you know who Boy Onslaught is?
pete dominick
Oh yeah, the guy collecting the plastic?
Dutch kid?
unidentified
He makes everybody else look unaccomplished.
He's like, I'm 18 and I'm going to take all of the plastic out of the ocean.
pete dominick
Like, what was I doing?
I was bashing mailboxes.
joe rogan
The first one didn't work and everybody's like, see?
He didn't know shit.
He's like, yeah, that one is a prototype.
We're trying to make it work.
Look, the next one works.
He's still only 20. Let's cheer for him.
I know, people are hating on him.
pete dominick
Why are we tribal on getting plastic, getting rid of this horrible single-use plastic?
joe rogan
Because it's connected to ego?
Because someone who's 19 years old figured out how to do some shit that you've never figured out how to do?
He's a better person than you.
unidentified
Fine!
joe rogan
No, it's a game.
It's a game.
pete dominick
I'm rooting for him.
joe rogan
No, you're not.
That's why you're happy when his machine breaks.
Like, ha ha!
pete dominick
Never!
unidentified
Fuck him!
pete dominick
I don't know that mentality.
I don't understand that mentality.
joe rogan
But you understand it.
pete dominick
I understand it, but I don't feel it.
I'm not rooting for your pain.
joe rogan
Good for you.
pete dominick
If I... I don't like your opinions.
I don't want you to get sick.
I don't want you to even get your finger crunched in the garage door.
I don't want you to have pain.
joe rogan
I think it's the same sort of feeling.
pete dominick
Because of your beliefs.
joe rogan
It's the same thing that leads people to be tribal.
It also leads people to be jealous.
It's the same kind of thing.
It's like a pattern of thinking that's easy to slide into.
A well-oiled shoot.
You just slide right in there.
pete dominick
You can name that and acknowledge it for your kids.
That's what you're doing.
That's what I'm doing, hopefully.
That's what that is.
Don't fall into those veins.
People, I think, by the way, are mostly good.
All day.
All day.
Most of my interactions.
I'm walking out the door with this lady out of the bank and we both walk at the same time.
We're both like, oh, sorry.
Both are faults.
Have a good one.
Little smiles.
That's most interactions that I have, at least.
unidentified
Yes.
pete dominick
I'm very attractive.
joe rogan
You're a handsome man.
I agree with you, though.
I think that is the case.
And also, it has to do with how you interact with those people.
And we've all been guilty of being loaded up in one way or another, interacting with someone, and it doesn't go as well as it could have gone if you were in a better place when you met that person.
pete dominick
It's all about reactions.
That's the second time you mentioned that, and that's the most important thing I've learned in therapy and with my wife.
It's if you choose how to react to a situation or a comment, and everything rides in that reaction, potentially your life.
joe rogan
I forget which book it is, whether it's one of those ancient philosophy books, but I never forgot this term.
Nothing has any meaning other than the meaning that you give it.
pete dominick
Yeah, it's...
joe rogan
Whatever it is, tragedy or positive thing, look, for sure it's a tragedy.
It's very difficult to not have an automatic...
pete dominick
It's not what we see, it's how we see it.
joe rogan
Yes, but talk regular moments in your life.
Like, the worst case scenario for a person is approaching any moment in their life and being like, woe is me.
Goddammit, why does it always happen to me?
Why...
Instead of having a perspective like, look how lucky I am that my real concern is someone keyed my car.
pete dominick
The reason, and I look at that and I say, why is that person always saying, woe is me?
Why?
Yeah, but why?
Where does it come from?
joe rogan
It's a natural pattern.
pete dominick
It's a role modeling.
That's why you have to give people an opportunity to break out of that.
We are so evolved.
We are so far, probably too evolved, that we've created plastic bottles and we're killing ourselves.
joe rogan
We're killing ourselves with plastic bottles?
pete dominick
7 billion people, or it's just too many people.
joe rogan
That's a lot.
Do you buy into the argument that the more westernized or the more advanced society gets, the population actually starts to decrease?
Because there are certain cities that they point to where that's on the trend.
I think Tokyo is one of them.
But the idea is that as people, as a civilization advances, people decide to pursue careers before having children and less and less people have children.
And that there's some sort of a direct correlation with the amount of children people have versus the amount of technological advancement is around them and the amount of education and the level of the city.
Like if you're around a place like New York.
pete dominick
I think it's generally education.
Education-based.
Generally education-based.
joe rogan
Affluence, too.
I think affluence has something to do with it as well.
pete dominick
Well, affluence usually comes with education.
joe rogan
Sometimes.
pete dominick
Usually.
You could have examples of people who came from absolutely nothing and had a gentle heart defect and overcame it to become, you know, a CEO of a McDonald's and then have to step down because they had an affair.
joe rogan
Well, people start their own businesses and shit, you know?
pete dominick
Yeah, I mean, a lot of it, and nothing, but certainly I have nothing, but I look at someone who's started a business and ran a business from a dry cleaning store to whatever they're doing.
My dad owned an insurance agency in Syracuse, New York.
That's what my dad did.
And my mom was a public school teacher, and it's like, so I saw the public and private sector.
That was my role model.
joe rogan
That's a good combination, too, to grow up with.
pete dominick
And I had healthcare, and I had nursery school.
My mom was a Early childhood.
She had an associate's degree.
My dad didn't go to college.
Shout out to my pop, by the way.
I just had a heart attack and ruined his eye.
joe rogan
How bad is his eye?
pete dominick
Can't see out of it.
It's not surgery number three.
Dude just wrapped up 44 years as a ski instructor.
And he's a competitive cyclist.
He broke every bone in his body.
He's a fucking man of steel.
joe rogan
What is the damage to the eye that doesn't allow him to see?
pete dominick
I can't explain it, but it's a laceration.
He was on his, you know, blood centers.
He fainted and bounced his face off the table, lacered his eye.
joe rogan
And that probably has a big impact on whether or not he heals quick, right?
pete dominick
Oh, yeah.
And he's all filled with blood so he can't see out of it.
And my dad is like, my dad is a very physically healthy guy.
So it's aging, man.
It's tough.
I mean, that's where my situation is.
My mom and dad married 48 years.
But that's, you know, my dad, I look at my dad, and he's a great story in America.
He didn't go to college.
He started his own insurance agency.
He did well, supported us.
We lived in the suburbs, Marcellus, New York.
joe rogan
You know what's crazy about America?
It's only 300 years old, and the idea of a new America is out of the fucking question.
unidentified
Right?
joe rogan
The idea of someone coming along, the millions of years of life on this planet, and the hundreds of thousands of years of being humans, and the 300 whatever almost years of the United States.
If someone said, we're going to start a new country now, and we found a new spot in New Zealand or Greenland or something, be like, fuck you.
You can't do that.
You can't do that today.
pete dominick
We'll see.
joe rogan
Do you think?
pete dominick
I think everything's changing.
joe rogan
Everything is changing.
First of all, people would be super suspicious.
If you were going to start a new country, they'd go, that guy's just going to fuck all the women.
pete dominick
Ah, well, there's a lot of that.
I mean, that's a lot of the world right now.
joe rogan
Yeah, well, that's a lot of why you would start your own country.
pete dominick
That's why it has almost probably always been the reason.
joe rogan
It would have to be some leader.
There would have to be someone who says, listen, this is how we're going to do this.
We're going to have an open-ended constitution.
We can amend it whenever we see fit.
Instead of having a president, we'll have a council of elders.
pete dominick
I'm all for a blown-up system and redoing it to make it more equitable, however you describe that.
joe rogan
We're going to need nukes, okay?
Because the North Koreans aren't fucking around.
The Russians are always shifting.
Those Chinese, man, they're plotting things.
I think they're going to try to cancel our internet.
pete dominick
The fact that we haven't...
You made it sound like they're the cable company.
Cut the cord.
The fact that we haven't had an accident Who is it?
Schlosser.
Eric Schlosser wrote this book and documentary.
It's fascinating.
History of accidents and close calls is nuts.
And we got to get rid of all nukes.
joe rogan
Yeah.
pete dominick
Like, all thinking people believe that.
joe rogan
It's so crazy.
pete dominick
That was a horrible statement, what I just said, by the way.
All thinking people?
That's, by the way, a great example of a condescending thing for a person to say into a microphone.
All thinking people think blank.
Stop it.
joe rogan
But it's also one of those things where it doesn't help to say it.
Even if it is true, all thinking people agree with me.
No one is going to go, wow, I don't want to be considered a non-thinking person, so I'll just agree with Pete.
pete dominick
Yeah, that's why I nailed it.
People are yelling into a microphone, what is wrong with you?
You must be a non-thinking person.
I don't want to be yelled at.
joe rogan
I dated this girl once when I was 21, and she'd get upset about shit.
She was older than me.
She was smarter than me, too.
But she got upset once, and I said, will you just please, just please relax?
She goes, no one who's upset ever wants to hear you saying relax.
It doesn't work.
And I thought about that.
I was like, damn, she's right.
Like, that doesn't work.
Someone says relax.
Relax doesn't work.
It just doesn't work.
Like, you don't go, oh.
Thank you.
I mean, sometimes you do, but you have to be not very wound up and you have to really love the person who's telling you to relax.
pete dominick
No, it's an absolute condescension.
I've done that a hundred times to my wife.
She nails me every time.
Every time.
joe rogan
I remember thinking as a 21-year-old savage going, oh, okay.
She's, uh, okay.
She's right.
That makes sense.
Yeah, I don't want to hear that either.
pete dominick
Relax.
But that's called being open-minded and being vulnerable.
Being able to check in with yourself as opposed to being this kind of authoritarian beast of, don't you tell me this is my castle.
Like, I don't understand that kind of, whatever you want to call it, I don't want to even name it.
It's just an attitude that we have to, our generation of men...
Is so much more vulnerable, I think.
joe rogan
Yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure.
pete dominick
Than our parents.
And so much more open-minded and sensitive, and it has nothing to do necessarily with sexuality.
It has to do with human growth and evolution.
joe rogan
Yeah, and realizing that you're actually weak to pretend that you're strong.
pete dominick
Absolutely.
The idea that somehow addressing your PTSD as a combat veteran is somehow seen as weak.
It's like, no, if you're taking on your worst nightmares, that's strength.
And by the way, how do we measure strength?
I mean, it's always about what you can lift, not the pain you can endure, which is why I think if you're measuring strength by gender, women can endure more pain.
So that's one measure of strength.
But more importantly, that's whatever you overcame in life.
That's the measurement of strength, not how you can force yourself.
I mean, I'm a small guy, so that's a small guy mentality.
I talk my way out of every, you know, my dad's like, just, when you walk into that class, you make friends with the biggest kid in the class, and I've done that my whole life.
So that's, I just talk my way out, but...
joe rogan
Well, whatever works.
pete dominick
But not in an authoritarian way, in a way that you're saying, in a way that you think about maybe...
joe rogan
Well, I'm just saying, when you say any thinking person agrees with that, that is a version of saying relax.
pete dominick
Oh, yes.
joe rogan
The same thing.
unidentified
Oh, for sure.
pete dominick
It's a perfect...
joe rogan
We both agree.
pete dominick
It's the same thing.
No, it's a perfect analogy.
Absolutely.
We could do a whole long story about condescending remarks, especially in marriages or any relationship.
In this conversation, if I put you down in the way that you're thinking, it's like the whole conversation then changes.
unidentified
It gets gross.
pete dominick
It doesn't respect my...
My intellect, my experience, and it's like...
joe rogan
The conversation gets gross.
pete dominick
Yeah, and effectual and damaging.
joe rogan
Well, that's the easy way...
pete dominick
But that's how you sell ads.
That's how you create ratings.
joe rogan
Oh, that's so crazy.
This show does pretty good.
We don't do that.
You don't have to do it.
pete dominick
Exactly, exactly.
joe rogan
But the thing about online conversations is that you don't have this interaction like we're having.
This is probably more intimate than a regular conversation because we're in each other's ears.
Right?
We're wearing...
I prefer headphones.
pete dominick
Yeah, I wish all of life was this way.
I don't want this to stop right now.
joe rogan
I do want this all the time.
It's too narrow focused.
But it's good for conversations.
pete dominick
Don't tell me what I want.
I will stay here and put anybody in those headphones.
Calm down.
unidentified
You need to relax.
Anybody just calm.
joe rogan
Any thinking person would agree with me.
Relax.
pete dominick
Calm down, Joe.
Will you calm down, Joe Rogan?
That's my favorite thing to say.
When someone's not worked up, you're working with a young person in a corporate...
joe rogan
Yeah.
pete dominick
You know, it's serious.
It's CNN. Calm down.
And they're not at all worked up.
They're like, hey, do you want me to send that over?
Calm down, okay?
unidentified
I was totally normal.
joe rogan
What percentage of people that you worked with were on Adderall?
pete dominick
Oh my God, I wish I knew.
I thought everybody around me was on something.
joe rogan
What do you think the number would be?
pete dominick
Antidepressants, I thought.
joe rogan
Would you think it would be a high number?
pete dominick
Adderall, I don't know.
I don't know anything about Adderall.
I know a lot about, and I hear a lot about Xanax and antidepressants and anti-anxieties, none of which I've ever put in my body.
joe rogan
Those are spooky.
I think some people need them.
I think for some people, they have a bad chemical makeup.
I mean, this is just a fact, just like some people have thyroid cancer, right?
Some people have, there's a missing link.
There's something wrong with the way their brain's firing, and this is just a biological issue, because we're, you know, we're not, There's situational depression.
Sure.
pete dominick
There's a lot of issues.
And Johan Hari writes about that in his new book.
And there's been a lot of really great work written about it, academic research on it.
And the academic research on neuropsychology, my understanding is that it's like, we know so little about the brain.
unidentified
Mm-hmm.
pete dominick
We're very early in trying to understand it.
So these medications, like right now, dealing with my career transition and thinking about running for Congress, dealing with my dad, that to me is not a reason to take an antidepressant.
No, you work.
Now you just hit it hard, and you do what you do, and you don't make excuses, and you just work.
joe rogan
My friend Jordan Peterson had an issue where his wife had developed liver cancer.
It was very serious.
Very scary.
pete dominick
I did not know that about him.
I know of him and his work, but I did not know that.
joe rogan
She was very, very sick.
And he, you know, they've been together since high school.
He loves her dearly.
And he started freaking out.
So he got on something.
What was it?
Klonopin?
unidentified
Is that what it was?
pete dominick
Oh, yeah, yeah.
I'm familiar with that.
joe rogan
I've heard of it.
She had a miraculous recovery.
Everybody's happy about that.
But then he had a really, really...
Yeah.
pete dominick
That's amazing.
joe rogan
She had surgery.
pete dominick
Oh, wow.
Did she get a transplant?
joe rogan
I don't know.
But he had a really difficult issue with the Klonopin.
Really bad.
pete dominick
Oh, he used it to deal with that situation.
And what was the issue?
unidentified
Yes.
joe rogan
Well, he was going through severe withdrawals, and he had to chuck himself into a rehab cell.
pete dominick
Yeah, I hear that's a very...
I have a family member who did everything, including heroin, and it's so great to hear Artie on the show, because I called up Artie when he was doing heroin to ask him how serious it was.
He goes, let me ask you two questions.
I go, alright.
And he goes, does he have a good life, either a job or kids or anything?
I was like, no.
He's just a single guy.
And he goes, is he shooting it or snorting it?
I go, he's shooting it.
unidentified
And he goes, I can't help you.
pete dominick
Like, that was the worst.
joe rogan
That's true, though.
pete dominick
I have so many arty stories on the road with him for so long.
joe rogan
It's so nice to see him doing well.
pete dominick
Yeah, yeah.
joe rogan
He's doing great.
I mean, he really is.
pete dominick
He certainly seems so.
He's crackling, man.
He's one of my closest friends.
My wife and I spend a lot of time with him, and I love him to death.
His story is one of the most remarkable stories in comedy.
He's one of the funniest.
He's one of the kings of comedy.
And he's a close brother of mine for a long time.
So watching him with you, I can't wait to see him.
I got 17 numbers for him.
joe rogan
I'll give you the real one if he lets me.
No greater storyteller alive.
pete dominick
He's up there.
joe rogan
He's no greater.
pete dominick
Yogi Berra was good.
joe rogan
His fucking stories are incredible.
pete dominick
Dick Cavett's pretty good.
joe rogan
Shout out to Dick Cavett.
He already tells you stories.
He does a lot of movement with his fingers.
He's got a little show he's doing.
There's a lot happening.
pete dominick
He is a performer.
He gets it.
He gets it all.
Oh yeah.
I was waiting in the wings.
He's going out.
I open for him.
I come back.
They play The Who, which song that he came out to.
And he just, at his heaviest, just falls back into me.
And I had a brace.
You know, I'm a tiny, muscular guy, and I, like, push him back up and literally push him on stage.
He's, like, zoning off.
joe rogan
That's hilarious.
pete dominick
Like, falling asleep out there.
joe rogan
That's hilarious.
pete dominick
I mean, there's just so much.
To see him and his recovery should give everybody hope.
It should give everybody hope.
joe rogan
It's interesting, too, because I don't think he's ever been funnier.
unidentified
But back to the drugs.
pete dominick
Yeah.
Yeah.
Artie is...
At the top of his game.
And really excited to see him.
And one of the funniest guys.
And one of the most generous guys, man.
He helped everybody.
It was too much.
I would tell him, like, you can't...
Dude, that guy supported so many comics in ways that were, like, beyond generous.
The way that you do, by the way.
By the way that you do.
joe rogan
I want to see his stand-up.
I want to see it.
I want to know where he's at.
Because I know he's doing only gigs around the New York area.
But I'm thinking about...
If I have to go to the East Coast, I'm thinking about taking a trip.
pete dominick
I just wanted to see you there.
joe rogan
Yeah, because, like, see him now.
It's like all the years that I've known him, he was always fucked up.
pete dominick
Yeah, I was on a road with him a lot of that time.
I witnessed a lot of stuff.
We would just be hanging out.
He'd be gone all day.
Like, where were you?
unidentified
He was like, ah, the hooker all day.
pete dominick
We were in Vegas by the pool at his cabana, and he wasn't with us.
Like, where's the king, man?
Is he ever going to come down?
joe rogan
Did you see the hooker?
Maybe.
pete dominick
Yeah, I wouldn't have hung out with us either, don't get me wrong.
But it was a nice day.
We wanted to hang out with him.
joe rogan
He's got through on the other side.
I just hope he can stay on this side.
pete dominick
Yeah, but the point is, Artie is not...
He's an aberration.
He is an exception for any number of reasons.
He happens to be one of the most talentedly funny people that he just can't fail because everybody wants to be around him and be with him and see him perform.
Drugs in this country, whether they be antidepressants or the opiates, that's something we should come together around as well.
joe rogan
No, I think so.
pete dominick
And we're medicating, you know, I think far too much.
I'd love for you to talk to my friend, Dr. Aaron Carroll, who's written so many, writes for the New York Times, he's got an amazing YouTube channel, beg you to have him on the show because he talks, He's a research expert, and there's so much to talk with him about in terms of all this stuff, supplements, fasting, and nutrition, and you absolutely love him.
I want everybody to know about his work.
joe rogan
Is he a doctor?
pete dominick
Yeah, he's a pediatrician at Indiana University School of Medicine.
He contributes to the New York Times.
He's got this YouTube channel.
It's called Healthcare Triage.
He's a really smart guy.
He's just really great at explaining research.
joe rogan
Is his thought that people are over-medicating?
pete dominick
I'm not sure.
I don't want to speak for him.
joe rogan
Yeah, that's a tricky one, right?
pete dominick
I think it's those words...
No, I mean, people get very resentful about that.
Number one, don't tell me I'm a bad parent or a bad person.
This works for me.
Yeah, no, I mean, we've got to be careful.
We've got to be very easy on the judgment with all that.
I kind of feel whatever gets you through the day.
joe rogan
Well, I don't know how your brain works.
To pretend that your brain works like my brain and that I know for sure that if I was inside your head I would be thinking the way I think out here, it's impossible.
pete dominick
Amen.
joe rogan
I don't know what it feels like.
Like, I know I have a baseline, right?
When I'm healthy, I know who I am.
I'm that guy, right?
But could you imagine being someone else other than what you know and what you're comfortable with?
pete dominick
You can't.
joe rogan
Imagine the chemical makeup of a different person.
pete dominick
No, you can't know what anybody's going through in their day.
joe rogan
Imagine if you were a woman and you were on your period.
I have.
Imagine what that feels like.
pete dominick
Often.
I've thought about that.
I've thought about it all.
joe rogan
I never thought about it until just now.
pete dominick
Don't you have daughters?
joe rogan
Yes, but I never thought about myself having a period or having premenstrual syndrome.
pete dominick
Yeah, that sounds like very little fun.
joe rogan
PMS sounds like a real bummer.
Once a month you're going to become a cunt.
pete dominick
The whole situation.
joe rogan
Let everybody know in advance.
I'm going to take calcium tablets, I'm going to do my best, but when the storm comes...
unidentified
Imagine.
pete dominick
I try to just be aware of that, but my wife and I are usually at the same baseline regardless of what's going on.
joe rogan
It doesn't affect everyone.
pete dominick
I don't know if it does.
Maybe it does, but it's something to be sensitive about because it's something that we don't have to deal with.
You know what I hate, dude, is I got a vasectomy and this idea that any guy would ever not do that.
Is bizarre to me.
It's the greatest thing.
I highly recommend it.
Population control and no more condoms and your wife should never have to put a drug in her body or cut, you know, tire tubes.
That's horrific unless I guess she's just given birth maybe.
But I'm very pro-vasectomy.
joe rogan
Do you think that we're going to come a time, there's going to come a time in America where there's too many people?
When we have like a Delhi, India type situation.
pete dominick
I think that is the case in too many communities right now, in impoverished communities, that there's too many people for the resources.
That's how you measure it.
It's not, I mean, how do you measure too many people?
joe rogan
Congestion, overabundance of traffic.
Like, right now, in LA, when I come home from the 405, get home from the airport, I'm driving home on the 405, I'm like, why is this 10 o'clock?
pete dominick
Yeah, this is my first experience on it.
joe rogan
It's 10 o'clock and it's bumper to bumper for miles and miles and miles.
Where is everybody going?
pete dominick
That's another way to define poverty.
Unless you're listening to a great conversation like ours.
joe rogan
But even then, it's not worth it.
pete dominick
How dare you?
joe rogan
It's not worth it being stuck in that.
Well, see, one thing's being stuck in it.
The other thing's being stuck in it every day.
pete dominick
I mean, it's horrible for your body.
It's horrible for your body to sit there.
Dude, when I stopped commuting, I had this driving neck pain every day.
43. And like a knife every day.
I stopped commuting.
Gone.
Gone.
joe rogan
Absolutely.
pete dominick
Sitting in a car, you've got to try to offset that if that's something you have to deal with because it's really hard.
I think that having right now in America, in many communities, there are not enough resources for the people that are living there in terms of healthy food and access to education and healthcare.
Joe, that's how I define morality of a society.
How we take care of each other.
joe rogan
Sure.
pete dominick
And We all don't have the same access in this country.
I urge people to study poverty and not get caught up in the tribalism of the argument of why people are in poverty.
No.
There's a long, really interesting and important field of study, and there's a whole bunch of anti-poverty people that I love talking to.
joe rogan
What do you mean by anti-poverty people?
pete dominick
They're just working to decrease poverty using private, public, any number of different resources.
You know, solving the problem.
joe rogan
Yeah, that's one thing that I think morally we fucked up with, with not having healthcare available to everybody readily, easily.
If you're going to pay for things, we're going to decide that we're a community, right?
We're basically a community of 300-whatever-million people.
Two things.
You've got to educate people, and you've got to take care of the sick.
And you should have food figured out.
But we don't have two of those things, and one of them is terrible.
The education system in inner cities is often terrible.
The food thing is a fucking mess.
Food stamps is a mess.
pete dominick
The education system in tribal communities.
Nobody ever talks about tribal communities.
I've done a lot of work with them.
I keep saying that, by the way.
I'm no noble.
Just advocating the type of stuff that I know that you do.
And just trying to understand what they do and advocate for the solutions.
And tribal communities and impoverished communities are all over this country in rural areas and obviously in urban areas.
We have a lot of it.
And we can solve those problems.
But being divided the way we are on not understanding the root of poverty.
Michelle Alexander's The New Jim Crow takes on racial injustice and mass incarceration.
You just read that book, you'll be a completely different person understanding history.
joe rogan
Well, the things that we need to have in order to establish, yeah, drug war for sure.
pete dominick
I mean, when is that going to end?
Where are we?
Our generation has an agreement about that.
End that.
End that shit.
Legalize all of it.
All of it.
Legalize it.
Regulate it.
Anything anybody wants to do.
What we have been doing, what's going on in Mexico right now is nuts.
It's crazy, and that's because of our demand for it.
We're directly connected to their problems.
That's just basic economics and commerce.
Legalize it.
It's not going to solve...
It's not going to end the drug cartels.
They're always going to be there.
But don't simplify this problem and don't demonize it.
Name it and solve it.
There's just been so much loss and pain.
It's got to end.
And again, whoever gets elected as president has to stop with this punitive justice bullshit where you punish people for their behavior.
I just heard about this kid who got caught with weed in his car in high school and his principal threw him off the golf team.
And his dad was like, why would you do that?
Why would you...
Not let him do the thing that he loves.
He's not just going to sit around all day.
He's doing a great thing.
This idea of punishment is changing your behavior.
We can get beyond that.
I think we can get beyond that.
joe rogan
We certainly can.
Especially weed for a kid who's playing golf.
pete dominick
No, but anything for kids.
Consequences for kids.
Spanking your kids is prehistoric.
joe rogan
It's prehistoric.
But what you're talking about when it comes to this kid with weed is...
Completely absurd.
Do you think he would have got kicked off if he got caught having a shot at Jack Daniels?
Would he have gotten kicked off a team for life if something happened at a party and he wound up having a shot of vodka with his friends?
pete dominick
I should say he had a bucket of grenades in the passenger seat as well, Joe.
joe rogan
What kind of grenades?
Love grenades?
pete dominick
No, that's what it was.
You're absolutely right.
That's all it was.
joe rogan
Whoever made that decision is an asshole.
pete dominick
Well, yes, of course.
Well, hold on.
Their judgment is clearly wrong.
joe rogan
Yes.
pete dominick
But minimizing them as an asshole, it is an asshole move.
joe rogan
It's an asshole move.
You're taking a kid and you're ruining his life.
Whether or not you want to be an asshole or not.
pete dominick
Try to understand why that person made that decision in administration.
Why the system has that kind of punitive...
Component to it.
It's archaic.
Our whole incarceration.
The capital punishment only in America.
If all the civilized...
That's so horrific.
And stupid.
And expensive.
And now, even, you know, most conservatives now agree that that is the case.
And hopefully we're drumming it out.
joe rogan
Well, what about the penalty for mass murderers?
unidentified
Crazy!
joe rogan
What do you do for someone like...
pete dominick
Doesn't matter.
It doesn't matter what they did, Joe, because you can't prove...
One percent...
The numbers are like 4% of people who were killed were innocent.
That percentage, everybody agrees, is way too high.
Some people are like if it was only 1% in the community that debates these issues.
But as long as it's 4% of people are innocent, you can't have that system for that reason, regardless of the penalty A and B. No one's thinking...
When they're murdering someone about what the penalty for murder is going to be.
That's not why they're doing it.
It does not work as a deterrent.
There's a ton of research on that.
It's silly.
It's silly that you think, well, I'm not going to murder this person because I'm going to go to jail for life.
That's not why you don't murder somebody.
Nobody wants to murder another person.
joe rogan
But what do you do with that person?
Do you just put them in a cage for the rest of their life?
pete dominick
No, you rehabilitate them.
joe rogan
You rehabilitate John Wayne Gacy?
pete dominick
Yes!
joe rogan
You take a guy who fucks kids and kills them and digs a hole in his basement and leaves the kids there.
pete dominick
If you can't rehabilitate him, you put him in a humane place cage.
You don't kill him.
joe rogan
But you're killing him.
You're just killing him real slow with life.
You're separating him from freedom and you're locking him up in a cage.
pete dominick
You have to separate him from freedom if he's raping kids.
I agree with that.
joe rogan
Right.
But if you know for a fact that he did it.
pete dominick
But you can rehabilitate people.
joe rogan
But hold on.
You're killing him either way.
You're either killing him with nature and time or you're going to kill him.
So if you're going to leave him in this cage and he's innocent, that's almost worse than killing him.
If you kill him, it's quick.
If you're going to leave him in that cage and he's actually one of the 4% that's innocent.
pete dominick
I'm for letting him kill himself.
unidentified
Okay.
joe rogan
You're not going to let him kill himself?
pete dominick
Yeah, give him a...
It's like, listen, here's a rope.
Here's a rope.
You can make a rope swing and I'll give you a swing and you can swing on it if you want.
That's what I give that.
I mean, I don't...
joe rogan
The problem is you're trying to find a binary answer to a messy question.
pete dominick
No, I don't think it's a messy question.
My answer is no.
I don't believe in the state, by the way.
joe rogan
If your kid was killed by John Wayne Gacy and they found your kid in the basement of John Wayne Gacy's house, you wouldn't want him dead?
pete dominick
I can't deal with that hypothetical.
joe rogan
I can't either.
pete dominick
I'm not doing that.
joe rogan
But I'll think for someone else and I'll say yes.
John Wayne Gacy definitely killed a bunch of his kids.
pete dominick
Well, a lot of people whose kids...
I don't think the people...
joe rogan
I mean, this is worst case scenario, right?
We're playing a thought experiment.
unidentified
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
pete dominick
No, absolutely.
It's a great part...
It's a thought experiment.
It's a hypothetical.
And I just wouldn't...
If someone was in that situation, if they're a parent in Newtown, I think a lot of those parents...
I mean...
This guy who was killed in the Charleston church shooting, I don't say these maniac's names into microphones, but the white supremacist wanted to start the Civil War, shot all those black people, Obama went down there and sang Amazing Grace.
It's lovely.
Remember that when we were to recover from horrible disasters with the president singing Amazing Grace?
joe rogan
Yeah.
Well, you remember 9-11.
pete dominick
But those people forgave that shooter.
They forgave him for killing.
All those black people forgave that white man.
And we're, you know, the greatest role models of actual, you know, Christians behaving Christian, by the way.
And I think that you can forgive.
I think that that doesn't have to be a religious tenet.
I think that you can forgive and you can rehabilitate.
But I won't buy, you know, in the hypothetical situation, obviously I would, by the way, I would defend my, I would kill anybody who ever threatened my family.
I would have no problem with that.
I'm not morally against that.
joe rogan
Yeah, it's a different thing than killing someone that you've got detained when deciding that their life is over.
pete dominick
Yeah, I don't think the state should be responsible for that and the idea that we would give the state the trust.
joe rogan
The most horrific shit is when you find out that the DA withheld information that would lead to the exoneration of someone or that they're unjustly incarcerated.
pete dominick
Happens all the time.
joe rogan
All the time.
pete dominick
That's one of the most horrific injustices in this country, and obviously it's got a racial component to it, and it's horrible, and the justice system is obviously, that's a really interesting thing to talk about, and constitutional law is a fascinating thing for people studying.
This idea that we argue about the Second Amendment, like, let's let constitutional lawyers, I think, discuss a lot of those things, and we should all understand that and be curious about it, but I would, our Constitution is also silly.
Like, let's remake everything.
Like, let's have that conversation.
There's so much better that we can do.
Have a serious conversation about what kind of guns and bullets people can have.
Not that they can have them or that they can't have...
Like, that's the conversation.
That's where we should be right now.
Everything gets regulated.
Everything...
There are trade-offs in healthcare.
There are trade-offs in everything, but Americans now are so divided, they want everything that they want.
That compromise is something that we don't do as Americans, much less in government.
That's preposterous.
The Democrats that demand purity or anybody that is doing that, you don't agree with me, you're wrong.
Hold on!
That's not...
You don't have any relationships with people in your real life like that.
Like, my wife and I don't agree on a lot of stuff.
But I love her.
I adore her.
joe rogan
Well, it's what we talked about before.
They're on teams.
And you want your team to win, so you state emphatically...
pete dominick
Why do you want your team to win?
joe rogan
It's a natural thing with human beings.
pete dominick
Alright.
I agree with that.
joe rogan
What I'm saying about the gun thing, the most fucked up part about the messiness of the gun thing is that even if you made guns illegal, even if you said you can't have any bullets, you'll all go to jail, there's so many guns.
You're not getting them all.
It's not possible.
There's more guns than there are people, which means there's more than 300 and what, 30 million guns in this country alone?
pete dominick
It's absolutely the most important point in the discussion.
joe rogan
That's a nutty number, man.
You really stop and think about that number?
You're like, what?
Is that real?
pete dominick
But you don't really stop the behavior by necessarily creating certain laws about why someone might behave a certain way and shoot people.
That's not going to necessarily change.
What you do is you do limit the access to certain types of weapons and rounds of ammunition, right?
joe rogan
The real question is why would someone do that, right?
That's the number one question.
pete dominick
Remember that incel took the truck?
It's a harder question to answer.
The easier question to answer is make them less accessible to people who have problems that we can't figure out or solve.
joe rogan
If you could, make them less accessible to people who have problems.
pete dominick
But the president will blame, I don't mean to get political, but there's no data on the video game argument.
There's no data on that.
joe rogan
Well, the video game argument is interesting because I've had soldiers bring it up to me, including Dakota Meyer.
pete dominick
Yeah, I heard that conversation.
joe rogan
I'm willing to have it.
I mean, I don't think it necessarily makes sense that people would act out in a certain way that's horrific because of video game, But if they were already inclined to violence to begin with, maybe they already had a fucking short circuit, and then they get desensitized to violence in movies and violence in video games, does that have an impact on them?
I'm not the guy to answer that question.
pete dominick
Whether or not it has an impact on them...
joe rogan
But it's a variable.
unidentified
It is.
joe rogan
But it's a variable that I think merits discussion.
I don't know if it's true or not.
pete dominick
Here's why I don't think it is.
Because...
joe rogan
You don't think it merits discussion?
pete dominick
Well, let me make this point and then you decide if you think it merits discussion.
joe rogan
Okay.
pete dominick
The violent video games are played at far higher rates in Japan and they don't have the gun violence we have.
joe rogan
That's a good point.
They have a very different culture, though.
pete dominick
They don't have access to guns.
joe rogan
That's true.
pete dominick
That's it.
joe rogan
But they don't also have...
pete dominick
Joe, it's the access...
Dude, I've shot guns.
I shoot guns.
I have nothing but respect for hunters.
I grew up in a hunting community.
But, I mean...
I don't know.
I don't think that there's much past the conversation about accessibility to guns that can fire that many rounds that quickly, killing that many people.
I don't think we have to get rid of those somehow.
But I agree.
How do you do it?
joe rogan
Yeah, that's the question.
pete dominick
That's the most important point.
There's already 330. There's more guns than there are people, so what do you do?
So, by the way, I think you buy as many as you can back for sure.
You spend a whole bunch of taxpayer money.
Just help.
By the way, there's a ton of people in a bind right now.
That have a rifle, but like, oh my god, I'm not going to be able to afford my insulin.
Let me get rid of this AK-47 to live another month.
You buy some guns back, it's a good expenditure of money, and then melt them down and turn them into furniture for people.
joe rogan
So if you wanted to do that without changing the Second Amendment, like you just have a buyback where you just offer people the opportunity to make some money by giving their guns up.
pete dominick
Well, the Second Amendment has been interpreted wrong by the Supreme Court, in my opinion.
I mean, it doesn't say that people should have...
Until 2008, it didn't say that.
Nobody thought that.
That people should have a personal right to guns, until the Heller case.
So I don't think you even need to talk about the Second Amendment.
I think people just need to agree that these guns shouldn't be sold.
joe rogan
Well, you need to talk about the Second Amendment.
I mean, it's a big conversation in this country.
pete dominick
No, because people can have guns.
You can have guns.
The Brick has a right to have guns.
You just can't have these guns.
Anymore.
No more of those ones.
You can have all these guns.
joe rogan
There's regional restrictions anywhere, right?
unidentified
And they work.
joe rogan
In New York City, you can't have a handgun.
pete dominick
Yeah, they work.
I don't think you can have a switchblade in New York City.
Yeah, Cyrus Vance, the DA there, is like...
He's terrified that they're changing.
The federal government is changing the law because he knows that those gun laws in New York work really well.
And by the way, people always make the argument, well, they have those gun laws in Chicago and there's a ton of violence.
That's because Chicago's on the border of Indiana.
It doesn't have them.
Guns go across the border just fine.
Gun laws work.
They work.
joe rogan
Well, Chicago's also in the middle of a bitter drug war.
pete dominick
Well, yeah.
I mean, that's where the violence is coming from.
But people should have less accessibility to those types of guns, like every other civil society in the world.
Come on.
joe rogan
But it goes back to what you were talking about before, that drugs, if they were legal, you wouldn't have that sort of a drug war.
unidentified
Right!
pete dominick
For sure it's the root of most of the violence in the inner cities, and obviously in Mexico.
Yeah, it's black markets.
It's the illicit drug...
Yeah, they're making tons of money on that.
joe rogan
What is the Second Amendment exactly as it's written?
pete dominick
The right to bear arms shall not be infringed.
joe rogan
So how do you think the Supreme Court misinterpreted that?
pete dominick
That in the 2008 case, everybody should just, I would plug the work of Eric Siegel.
joe rogan
A well-regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state.
The right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.
pete dominick
Yeah, those commas get argued by constitutional scholars.
But the Supreme Court didn't decide until 2008 that Americans had a right to have their own weapon.
joe rogan
That's such a crazy statement.
Like when you read it, it's so interesting because we're going back in time trying to figure out how people in 1776 thought about guns and whether or not that applies to us.
Because if it doesn't apply to us, we have to think on 1789. If it doesn't apply to us, we have to think, well, then who gets to decide?
unidentified
We get to decide as a society on any of these things.
joe rogan
One of the reasons why it's so interesting to read these things We have, for whatever reason, when things get written into stone or carved into stone or written onto a document, like the First Amendment, like the freedom of expression, we have it.
So we all agree on it.
pete dominick
Freedom of speech.
joe rogan
We don't want to change it.
Yeah, freedom of speech.
Freedom of expression, whatever.
We want to hold on to that.
We want to keep that.
pete dominick
Sure.
joe rogan
This is our law.
pete dominick
All humans do.
joe rogan
In the Second Amendment, the right to have a gun.
That's our law.
We got it written down.
unidentified
Look, look, look.
joe rogan
It's written there.
So they'll study these ancient words, like scrolls.
Like they'll go over these scrolls and look at the commas and look at the words.
Shall not be infringed upon.
What did they mean?
That's fascinating to me.
pete dominick
It is fascinating, but I think that they didn't mean this, Joe.
I think that...
joe rogan
How could they?
They didn't know what this is.
pete dominick
They didn't.
And the whole gun thing is a racket to make money.
That's what that is.
It's a way...
You sell fear.
Like, are you...
I mean, home invasion...
Is any family's worst fear?
But it doesn't happen very much, nor does kidnapping, nor do a lot of these crimes that our generation of parents is helicopter parents terrified of everything, not letting their kids go outside.
joe rogan
You're right.
pete dominick
Come on, thinking that your kid's going to get kidnapped?
You don't know anybody!
Who had their kid kidnapped?
joe rogan
But you're generalizing.
Because home invasions do happen sometimes.
pete dominick
Right, but that's not how we should make laws.
joe rogan
But we don't have to exist like everybody's going to kidnap your kid or everyone's going to break into your home.
pete dominick
But I'm saying those kind of...
joe rogan
The balance is that sometimes it's real.
That's why people want to be able to have guns.
Because sometimes someone can break into your house and people have defended their house and their property with guns.
pete dominick
Sure, but is it a way, is it a realistic threat?
Or is it something that the gun industry creates these amazing ads and scares the shit out of people?
joe rogan
Oh, come on, man.
Crime is real.
Whether they make ads or not, crime is still real.
pete dominick
I think the clear point is the reason why we have so many guns in America is because there's so much money to be made off of them.
I think we could absolutely limit them and regulate them and have a thoughtful conversation.
I think that's where most people are at, although I hate that generalization.
joe rogan
There's something to that, but there's also something to the reason why we have so many cars.
People like them.
pete dominick
I'll have that conversation.
We should get rid of all the cars.
joe rogan
Okay.
pete dominick
Well, I mean, we're not.
Don't get me wrong.
joe rogan
That seems ridiculous.
Why should we get rid of all the cars?
Do you not like freedom, or do you have a better solution?
pete dominick
I don't have a better solution, but there should be one, or I think that we are killing ourselves with all the cars.
The pollution is...
joe rogan
Okay, but you can get an electric car.
pete dominick
Yeah, then that's fine.
I think I would be fine.
I have a Chevy Volt since 2012. I have solar panels.
I'm trying to be the change I want to see in the world.
If I'm coming off as...
I'm a complete hypocrite in all of it.
I eat meat and I do all kinds of things.
I think having a thoughtful conversation about guns and why they're a huge part of our culture and not another culture, the way that other cultures and countries regulate their weapons, the problems that they have.
Our problem, sure, we should talk about mental health, but...
The problem with that conversation that people don't want to have is everything costs money.
That's why you have to pay taxes.
Paying taxes is the price of civilization.
joe rogan
What does it have to do with mental health?
pete dominick
You have to pay for people to help people.
You can't advocate in government, Republican or Democrat, for the – this is what, unfortunately, Trump and Republicans have advocated.
Let's get mental health solutions to the violence.
Let's do that.
And everybody's behind that, except they cut the Obamacare programs that funded mental health.
It's just you can't do – you have to spend the money – Providing mental health, it is a problem.
It should be addressed.
But it's not, the main issue is definitely the guns and the bullets in them.
joe rogan
Well, the main issue is the person that's capable of shooting people with the guns and the bullets.
pete dominick
No, it's the guns and the bullets.
joe rogan
The guns and the bullets are inanimate objects without a person pulling the trigger.
We're talking nonsense here.
They're not going to just shoot themselves.
The main problem is someone who's willing to grab the gun and shoot people, right?
We both agree there's problems with having guns.
No, I... But don't you think the main problem is the person who actually shoots people?
pete dominick
I think that in every other country in the world, they don't have this problem because they don't have the gun.
That's where I start and end on the argument.
joe rogan
Okay.
pete dominick
Why is that wrong?
joe rogan
They might.
That might be the case, that they don't have the guns.
But there are places that do have guns, and they don't have a lot of mass shootings.
Canada's one of them, right?
pete dominick
No, they don't have the type of guns we have up there.
joe rogan
They have a lot of guns.
pete dominick
They do, but they don't have AK-47s with unlimited rounds.
That's crazy!
joe rogan
Do you think they have more or less limitations?
pete dominick
I've shot those guns.
They're awesome.
I get it.
joe rogan
Do you think they have more or less limitations to what firearms they're allowed to have in Canada?
pete dominick
I believe the Canadian gun laws are far stronger, more regulated.
joe rogan
I think they just tried passing something.
Really recently, Trudeau announced something that was going to severely limit, this is very recent, severely limit the type of firearms you could have, including things that can have multiple rounds in chambers and certain types of guns that are used right now as hunting rifles, since there was a big pushback about that.
This was really recently.
See if you can find that?
pete dominick
The conversation about like the freedom, like the Second Amendment to me is, it's just your interpretation.
Fine.
Whatever your interpretation is, is fine.
joe rogan
Well, that's what's interesting about it.
pete dominick
But there's a human impact.
It's a healthcare issue.
And it's so extreme.
It's really, if you want to know the answer to healthcare issues, you should talk to public health experts.
They have those answers.
They have the research.
joe rogan
But hold on.
What research?
unidentified
On what?
pete dominick
Well, they don't have enough research on gun violence, unfortunately.
joe rogan
Well, what are you talking about then?
pete dominick
I'm talking about if you want to know the solutions for what is impacting and creating death by any measure, accidental death...
joe rogan
Right, but we're talking about gun violence, right?
unidentified
Right.
joe rogan
What healthcare professionals have the solutions to gun violence?
pete dominick
I think a lot of healthcare solutions...
I think certainly surgeons have argued for...
Why certain ammunition has destroyed the inside of the body and unsurvivable.
I think public health officials have argued, certainly pediatricians all argued, this idea that you can't ask a parent if they have a gun in the house because the gun lobby...
Is against that because they're building this conspiracy that the government is going to track your gun?
That's terrible.
Your pediatrician has to ask you, do you have a pool?
Where do you keep the poison?
Where are the guns?
Because God forbid, you're not responsible enough or educated enough to know that that kid might accidentally get that gun, and it happens all the time.
There's a rule against that.
Yeah, public health officials and doctors and physicians are pretty much on the same case with this issue.
These guns and mental health, I think, experts too.
I don't know.
Maybe there's a large disagreement.
And if there is, I'm happy to be wrong about this or any dumb shit I've said.
joe rogan
What you're saying is that these public health officials would be able to make these guns less lethal by banning certain types of ammunition because it's destroying people and checking to see if the parents know if they have a gun or where the gun is or how it's treated, how it's locked up.
How do you feel like public health officials...
It could have any impact on that.
pete dominick
Well, public health experts, their entire responsibility is to keep people safe from sickness and death.
joe rogan
If you have any bullets at all, they're lethal, right?
So do you want to have bullets that are less lethal?
pete dominick
I think that could be a law, for sure.
unidentified
Why not?
joe rogan
Less lethal.
pete dominick
Yeah, to human bodies.
Yeah, we shouldn't be killing each other with bullets all the time.
A bullet will stop anybody, a blunt or whatever it is.
I don't understand the arguments about ammunition.
But the point about public health...
joe rogan
Well, you brought it up.
That's why I brought it up.
pete dominick
Fine.
Public health experts will look at what is creating sickness and death.
joe rogan
Okay.
pete dominick
Car accidents.
joe rogan
What I'm saying to you is that I think it's disingenuous to say that public health officials have an answer to why we're having so much mass violence.
I don't think anybody has an answer.
I think we're terrified.
And I think we could say it's, if they didn't have guns, they wouldn't be able to do it.
And you're right.
And I could say if these people weren't mentally handicapped or filled with, I shouldn't say handicapped, mentally compromised, filled with all kinds of demons.
pete dominick
All kinds of demons.
unidentified
Agreed.
joe rogan
All sorts of different medications that are fucking with their judgment.
Abuse.
All sorts of trauma they experience in childhood.
There's a lot of factors.
No one has any idea why someone who is abused and who's fucked up is capable of making that leap.
We have some thoughts on it.
That's all.
We have some thoughts on it, and we talk about it endlessly.
And you're right.
If no one had a gun, there would be no issue with that.
You wouldn't be able to mass shoot people.
But would we still have fucked up people that are lashing out trying to hurt people?
unidentified
I think we would.
pete dominick
Of course we always will, but we have to fund mental health.
We have to fund research.
joe rogan
No one's arguing with you.
pete dominick
Yeah, a lot of people are.
joe rogan
No, I'm not.
I think you should.
I think we should...
Not only should we...
pete dominick
People don't want government to spend money.
joe rogan
Completely change the way we think about mental health.
It should be a top priority.
pete dominick
Yeah.
joe rogan
I think we should think about having four-hour workdays being mandatory.
pete dominick
Done.
joe rogan
I think we should help people.
I think, you know, they just did an experiment.
Microsoft did in Japan, in fact.
And they found that a four-day workweek, rather, increased productivity by 40%.
pete dominick
Yeah.
joe rogan
I think a lot of people, I don't know, maybe this is their culture, maybe this is a specific instance, the type of people that would get a job at Microsoft.
unidentified
Yeah.
joe rogan
But, you know, what you're dealing with for most people is beating down shells that are tired of...
pete dominick
But tie all that together.
Go back to the gun argument, argue for the four-hour work week and any other type of benefits that civilized nations around the world, especially in Scandinavia, have.
Studying that culture is really interesting and what they do.
And you realize that there's any number of things that you can do to help people.
And...
You have to be able to fund those solutions.
And people don't want to do it.
joe rogan
Right.
People don't want to pay more taxes, but they also have a distrust in the way the government spends their money.
So it becomes a catch-22.
pete dominick
I'm sorry.
joe rogan
Even if they wanted things to be better, they don't trust the government to spend their money.
Like, if you work hard and you make X amount of dollars, the government wants 45% of it.
pete dominick
That's always a fair argument, but there's not necessarily a better way.
Fine.
I give you that argument.
But we have to come together as a society and agree, this is how we're going to spend money on the fire department, on schools, and so on.
joe rogan
Yeah, but no one's arguing.
pete dominick
Yeah, but the rest of the world, why is so many other places in Scandinavia happier than us?
One of the reasons is we have to worry about getting shot.
We should not have to worry about that.
We have to worry about health insurance.
We should not have to worry about that.
We have to worry about getting, paying for our education.
Those are things that other people in other countries don't have to be as concerned about.
That they're happier.
They're more relaxed.
joe rogan
Well, they're also way smaller.
It's like Idaho versus the entire United States of America.
And you're right about a lot of this stuff.
pete dominick
But that's not how you study, you know, socioeconomics says something different about the size of the country.
Well, sure.
joe rogan
It's a huge factor.
It's affecting the way people behave.
I mean, they've done studies where they've taken cameras and they put them on opposite ends of the street and they can tell by how fast people walk and they can tell by how many syllables they say in a minute exactly the number of people that are in that city.
There's a direct correlation between large groups of people and hostile behavior, fast thinking, moving quickly, talking quickly, being impatient.
All those things contribute to a less healthy society.
When you deal with a small country that has less people, you have less of that.
pete dominick
But it still doesn't change the idea, even if we disagreed on that, that looking at how other nations' societies – neighborhoods, by the way, forget about that.
Don't make it about America.
What's this city over here doing?
What's this community doing over here?
Mayors are working together really well.
Really effectively to solve problems in cities.
They have these unions all the time, these coming together.
And they're doing a lot of good work.
Communities can copy other communities, but if you look at...
We so often talk about our national system, and that's generally what we're talking about with many of these issues here.
You look at Scandinavia, people are happier there.
Why?
joe rogan
I don't know if that's true.
Why is that true?
pete dominick
There's so much research in it.
joe rogan
But why is it true that they're happier?
What does that mean?
pete dominick
Because if you don't have to worry...
joe rogan
People think it's a big, giant generalization.
There's got to be some depressed people in Scandinavia.
unidentified
Of course there are.
joe rogan
So are there less?
pete dominick
Don't get me wrong, dude.
They're suicidal.
They have all kinds of problems.
joe rogan
There's places in the United States that are happier than other places in the United States.
unidentified
Of course.
pete dominick
Yeah, it's access to education and healthcare.
You can't be...
joe rogan
It's also environment.
It's also the beauty of their surroundings.
unidentified
Absolutely.
It's also...
joe rogan
Whether or not it's a small town or a large city.
I mean, there's places like Boulder, Colorado.
Super healthy, happy places.
But there's only 100,000 people there.
pete dominick
Right.
And it's gorgeous.
I think we have to radically change the way that we live in our communities.
And I think there's so much interesting conversation we had about sharing everything.
You know?
The car.
The car comes to pick you up whenever you need it.
And all that.
You can still have your own car or whatever.
But just the idea of ride-sharing, home-sharing, and communities.
Home-sharing?
You're going to share your house with somebody?
Through technology, you could just have...
No, you're not going to share your house with somebody, but in a community.
Like a kibbutz of the future, surrounded by...
There's a place called Serenby down south.
It's got biophilic design, and everything is renewable.
The way they live, everybody is just how you described.
Everybody is always on foot walking, communicating, surrounded by nature, exercising.
joe rogan
It's definitely better when you can get that, if you can get that.
It's just hard to sustain large groups.
pete dominick
Absolutely.
joe rogan
There's no getting away from the number of people we have here.
You're absolutely right.
The smaller the group, the less minds you have that you interact with.
pete dominick
You were talking with somebody that's a scientist who lives in a van.
It was a fascinating conversation.
unidentified
Chris Ryan.
pete dominick
That's my boy.
I feel like you made the point about...
He's great.
It was great.
I was stealing my parents' basement listening to that show.
He talked about...
Or you did, maybe.
Moore's Law?
unidentified
Moore's Law.
joe rogan
I think he talked about it as well.
pete dominick
That was pretty interesting.
I never heard anything like that.
You have to have a certain amount of people before chaos or corruption.
joe rogan
No, no.
What is it?
That was Dunbar's number.
Dunbar's number is 150 people.
Moore's Law is the law that pertains to technological innovation.
Oh, technological improvement.
pete dominick
Yeah, yeah.
unidentified
The rate of improvement of how technology...
pete dominick
And that's going straight up, and that's fascinating.
And Andrew Yang understands that, and Joe Biden doesn't.
That's a huge issue.
joe rogan
Dunbar's number is the amount of people that you can keep semi-intimate relationships with.
And it seems to have a direct correlation between ancient tribal structures.
pete dominick
I'm fascinated by that.
joe rogan
They think it's about 150 people, and more or less, I'm sure, people vary.
Like, they vary in everything else.
Intelligence, height, people vary in everything.
But this number seems to be fairly consistent, that you can't really have more than 150 people in your life.
pete dominick
Don't you think Thanos was right?
joe rogan
And still being away with them.
Yeah, yeah, no, that's the problem with that movie.
Thanos had a point.
pete dominick
Right.
joe rogan
Yeah.
I mean, he's a piece of shit, but he had a point.
pete dominick
The way he went about it was wrong.
joe rogan
Yeah, he was a dickhead.
He killed a lot of people.
pete dominick
He snapped and everybody died.
joe rogan
And then he wanted to live on his own island like an asshole.
He has a whole planet where he lives on it.
pete dominick
And the sun would always set on his face.
joe rogan
Yeah, fuck it.
pete dominick
And James Brolin.
joe rogan
I was glad when Thor fucked him up.
pete dominick
Spoiler alert.
My daughter got to interview the co-directors as part of my old show.
My favorite memory.
joe rogan
It's Josh Brolin, by the way.
pete dominick
What did I say?
joe rogan
James Brolin.
pete dominick
They're both handsome.
joe rogan
They are.
pete dominick
But yeah, Thanos.
But that's the idea of balance.
Do you think about that?
All this stuff that we use and we consume and the way that we live, I think about that a lot.
joe rogan
Yeah, I do.
And I'm happy when someone like Boyan Slott comes around that has a real legitimate solution that could be implemented at large scale and could eventually be a gigantic solution.
Not only that, but a source of resources.
We could take this plastic and this plastic, instead of being a detriment, can be used to work at certain things.
Maybe the money could be used from the sale of that plastic and it would go to charitable causes.
Maybe it could actually be a positive net benefit to the earth.
unidentified
Why?
joe rogan
If someone comes along with some technology, they could do that.
pete dominick
Why do we have in this country an argument about the future of energy and the way that we live and how to create a better renewable future?
Like, I have no idea why we're arguing everybody wins.
We're going to make a shitload of money.
The argument is that if you invest in A Green New Deal.
That that is a socialist idea.
That's a bad idea in any way.
No, everybody will get rich or we're all going to die.
joe rogan
I don't think that's what the problem is.
pete dominick
What do you think of that binary?
joe rogan
Well, I don't think we're going to die either.
I think fear-mongering is not helping anybody either.
pete dominick
I think you're right about that.
joe rogan
Things are going to get shittier.
I mean, I think that's probably why Trump wanted to buy Greenland.
He's like, I got an idea.
Let's get up there.
pete dominick
Such a move.
joe rogan
It would have been amazing if you pulled it off.
pete dominick
However much time got spent.
joe rogan
You would have turned a corner.
pete dominick
It was brilliant because...
joe rogan
He came out of nowhere, too.
pete dominick
Well, because he really knows how to play the media.
He's having a bad day.
He's like, I'll buy Greenland.
How does that sound okay?
joe rogan
Sounds pretty good.
pete dominick
And then we talk about it all day.
On the radio and on TV. And it's like, well, we just lost everything that you and I just discussed.
All these...
Really important issue.
joe rogan
Not really.
I think people are going to solve a lot of the problems.
There's going to be thoughtful people that are geniuses that are going to figure out a lot of our problems and solve them.
It doesn't mean we should give up.
I think there's going to be a way that they're going to be able to extract carbon from the atmosphere.
They have many different prototypes and many different theories that they're working on right now.
unidentified
Yeah, yeah.
pete dominick
I don't mean to sound negative.
I'm on board with solving the problem.
I just don't want to argue.
I don't want to argue about the problem.
I want to have really thoughtful discussions about the solutions and how we can do it.
But, you know, fossil fuels have to go rapidly.
joe rogan
The problem is also that...
pete dominick
I don't know how you do that, but they have to go rapidly.
It's hard.
joe rogan
The problem is also that the conversation has become...
Ideologically driven.
pete dominick
Yeah.
joe rogan
Right?
If you're on the left, you think climate change is of the utmost importance.
If you're on the right, you're supposed to at least slightly dismiss it as...
pete dominick
I think that's a bizarre binary course.
It's the most important thing.
joe rogan
But it's what we do with everything.
What we do with abortion.
What we do with murder.
pete dominick
Yeah, but the planet.
It's the planet.
joe rogan
I understand.
pete dominick
That's how I... I always put it like, people will be sensitive about sexism or racism.
Oh, easy for you to say, white guy.
No, I'm not dismissing what's most important directly to you.
I'm looking at it in the aggregate of our species.
It's the planet.
The emergency bells are ringing.
We have to stop burning fossil fuels.
We have to.
joe rogan
Dude, it burns here every couple months.
Like, crazy burns.
unidentified
It's horrific.
pete dominick
It's like what we think of a hellscape should look like on film.
You guys are living through it.
joe rogan
Dude, I've been here for 20 plus years.
25, I think.
25 years.
It's never been like this.
Where every 4 or 5 months, a fire erupts.
And there's a feeling that you have when a fire erupts that's real weird, man.
pete dominick
Explain it, because I think it's important to people.
joe rogan
I've been evacuated three different times, and there's a feeling that comes over you.
Like, first of all, there's, in my case, I can only speak for myself, there's a releasing of any, like, you don't...
No importance is attached to anything other than your kids and your wife.
Just get the fuck out of there.
The dog, whatever you gotta do, get the fuck out of there and realize, look, you're a human who's doing well living in the United States of America.
You already got four aces.
Just get the fuck out of there.
Stay alive.
Don't worry about your house.
Don't worry about your car.
Just get out.
Go.
That's number one.
And two is the intense fury of nature.
And when I saw the last ones when I got evacuated last year, our fucking neighbors, three of the houses burnt down.
Right across the street from my house.
So here's my house.
This house, this house, this house are gone.
And there's hundreds of houses.
All throughout Malibu, there was like 600 houses burnt to the ground, man.
And it's a fucking terrifying scene.
There was a woman, we played a video.
There's a woman who was trying to drive to go get her horses.
And she was driving through a firestorm, screaming and filming it at the same time.
What's she doing filming it?
I think she had one of those dash cam things on.
pete dominick
Well, I mean...
joe rogan
People have those...
pete dominick
But you're talking about a community, one community out here, and you're talking about really affluent people, so they should care.
No, man, it's everybody, dude.
Yeah, but I'm talking about Katrina.
Like, it's hurricanes, it's wildfires, and the impoverished nations...
Are suffering the most because they're burning the most fossil fuels and they have the least resources.
And we, meanwhile, are having everything we want.
And I think that that's like also kind of just a holistic experience.
We should use less.
It's a philosophical debate for sure, but we should have it.
We can use less and be happier even in so many different ways.
joe rogan
I don't think that's going to stop the fires though.
I don't know what you're saying.
Fires are coming because it's getting warmer.
pete dominick
No, it's climate change is the issue I'm talking about.
And it's people living.
joe rogan
But using less.
It's like, maybe.
pete dominick
Sustainability or reusing.
joe rogan
The problem is gigantic.
The problem needs to be addressed on a global scale.
pete dominick
Green New Deal.
The whole thing.
joe rogan
It's not addressed on a global scale.
China and India and all these other countries that are still polluting at a fucking rapid rate, they're not contributing to this concept.
pete dominick
Every one of those countries is in the Paris climate.
Every one of them.
Only we aren't.
And we just made it official.
And it's a dagger.
But do not give up and fight every day to create solutions and care about it.
That's what we should be in the streets for.
Read Bill McKibben.
Read...
joe rogan
Oh, I don't know if we need to be in the streets for this, but I think you're right.
pete dominick
You don't think that we should be out in the streets?
joe rogan
Do you think that's really going to stop people from burning coal?
Do you think that's going to stop people from...
pete dominick
Yeah, I think it's working.
I think the divestment movement has worked really, really effectively.
350.org is a very effective organization to get the fossil...
joe rogan
But you're talking like I'm arguing with you.
unidentified
I'm sorry.
joe rogan
I mean, I'm not.
Dude, I think we're all on this together.
pete dominick
Joe, that's my tone.
I'm sorry.
joe rogan
No, it's okay, but it's like whenever I say something, you're talking...
I'm sorry.
What we're talking about here is there's a bunch of different solutions, but no one's arguing with you saying don't do that one or don't do this one.
What I'm saying is we've got a real gigantic problem globally.
Yes.
Just do less is not going to stop these fires.
We're already in it.
It's already happening.
We have to figure out a way to protect ourselves.
pete dominick
You're absolutely right.
That's actually probably the smartest thing that either of us has said in this conversation.
It's my issue, obviously.
Yeah, we have to adapt.
We have to find solutions to adapt and ways to live.
And that's what I'm talking about in terms of sustainability and biophilic design and architecture and just infrastructure in general.
We have to do that.
I feel like that's our responsibility to our kids.
joe rogan
We have to be mobile.
You know, one of the things that always freaks me out...
pete dominick
Like nomads.
joe rogan
Well, I study a lot of ancient history, and I'm really interested in these civilizations that they find, like when, you know, like, for some reason, like a storm takes away some water and moves to a different place.
They find some structure underneath the water they didn't know existed before, and you realize, like, oh, Jesus, there was a city here at one point in time.
This happened several times throughout history.
Yeah, I mean, that's a good one.
That's a volcano one.
But there's a bunch of these...
Places that used to be, like, during the time of the Bering Land Bridge, right?
The water was much lower, and that was only, like, what was that?
pete dominick
I don't know.
joe rogan
12,000 years ago, I think?
pete dominick
When the continent north...
joe rogan
Like, people don't know that.
That was a goddamn country.
There was a country, the way we describe it today, between Syria...
pete dominick
Wait, there's a nation of people living?
joe rogan
No, they called it the Bering Land Bridge.
It was a place called Beringia.
I didn't even know this.
I'm listening to this book on tape by my friend Steve Rinella.
It's called The American Buffalo.
I think it's called The American Buffalo.
pete dominick
Sounds awesome.
joe rogan
It's an amazing book.
But it's about the history of wildlife and Native Americans and what changed and that these people who migrated here from Siberia, how long it took them to do it, and that it wasn't even migration.
We think of it as migration, but it wasn't.
They were just following food.
And it was a slow process over thousands of years.
But we think of it as like they're going across a bridge.
It wasn't a bridge, man.
It was a fucking country.
Right.
pete dominick
Well, that's what's happening...
joe rogan
There was so little...
Look how big it was.
There was so little water because of the Ice Age that you could walk through this Beringia area.
It was fucking thousands of miles wide.
It was huge.
pete dominick
One of the issues in Central America is just what you're describing.
It's climate change.
Right now in Central America, the coffee growers can't grow their coffee.
Can't grow drugs, by the way.
And they can't grow their coffee.
So what are they doing?
What you just described.
They're walking up through Mexico and they're being demonized.
The only thing they're guilty of is they can't grow their crop.
joe rogan
Well, we have this thing that we're doing now.
pete dominick
But that's because of climate change.
Forgive me.
That's because the soil down there is drying up.
That's what's going to happen.
And it's forced migration.
And talking about adaption, to me, that's the most interesting thing about what your point was.
How do we adapt to people migrating away from these areas that are...
And how do we live in America on the coasts and in California?
Like, that's really...
joe rogan
You're going to have to move.
All those assholes that have houses on the beach.
pete dominick
Upstate New York, baby.
joe rogan
And those pokey things that stick into the ground.
pete dominick
The stilts, the giant...
joe rogan
Those people are hilarious.
pete dominick
Yeah.
Who's buying that house?
unidentified
Yeah.
joe rogan
Those houses are like 10 million bucks, man.
pete dominick
I feel that way by, to some extent, by even going up in like a sky rise at Sirius 67th floor.
joe rogan
I'm like, this is silliness.
pete dominick
Why am I all the way up in the sky?
I don't want to work.
That brought me a sense of unhappiness.
I don't want to work or live in the sky.
These people live way up.
I don't like that.
joe rogan
It's a great view, though.
That view is sick.
It can really give you a little brain tingle and make you excited about writing.
Look at all those people.
I'm so high up here.
pete dominick
Dance everywhere.
joe rogan
These ideas.
unidentified
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
joe rogan
I feel like any time you get some sort of surge of ideas, it can be translated into some sort of a push of creativity.
pete dominick
Always.
It's lovely when it happens.
joe rogan
A great view is a kicker.
It kicks you in the balls and gets you on.
pete dominick
I think, like, what's your best one?
joe rogan
Views?
pete dominick
I'm a mountain person.
joe rogan
I'm a mountain person.
I love mountains.
I fucking love it, man.
Fuck paintings.
Paintings can suck a dick.
pete dominick
Oh, is that right?
joe rogan
I like looking at mountains.
pete dominick
Is that right you won't...
joe rogan
I mean, paintings are cool.
I like paintings.
It's places filled with artwork.
What I'm saying is that, to me, there's no comparison.
Like, a mountain view with a lake in the background, that to me is like, whatever it is about my DNA, that to me just...
It just draws me in.
pete dominick
Where's the place you were in nature that you felt the most just happy, connected?
joe rogan
Oh, I've felt it in a lot of different places.
pete dominick
Great answer, first of all.
joe rogan
But I'm a big fan of Colorado's mountains.
I'm a big fan of the mountains of Utah.
I just love mountains.
pete dominick
That park in Vancouver was for me.
joe rogan
Park in Vancouver.
pete dominick
Have you ever been to that big park?
It's like Park City.
Shane, could you look up that?
I'm so embarrassed.
joe rogan
So it's bigger than Central Park?
pete dominick
Yeah, I think it's bigger.
I think the same guy might have designed it.
But it's got beach, mountains, lakes.
joe rogan
That's one of the best moves about New York City.
They've got a giant park in the middle of it.
pete dominick
That was brilliant.
The guy who designed it is a fascinating guy.
joe rogan
I forget his name.
That's so smart.
It changes everything.
When you're in that park, you're like, I know this is bullshit.
It's not really nature.
pete dominick
I found myself.
joe rogan
It's like nature trapped.
But it's good enough.
It's good enough.
pete dominick
By the way, that was so well described.
Nature traps, I feel that way.
It's by the way why I fell in resorts.
When I go to resorts, I'm like, this isn't it.
This is not Turks and Caicos right here where I'm at.
joe rogan
Nature is only nature when it's connected to bears and shit.
Like, if you just keep going in the woods, something can eat you.
If it's not, then it's nonsense.
And what you're in, well, there's one thing, though.
They do have coyotes now in Central Park, which is really amazing.
pete dominick
What is the concern about them?
We've got coyotes.
Yeah, but what are they doing?
People are like, we get coyote alerts.
joe rogan
They'll bite your kids.
pete dominick
Where they really, forgive my ignorance, folks, if you just lost your dog to a coyote, now I feel like a douche.
joe rogan
Well, people's kids do get bitten.
And I mean, they will take people out upon occasion.
A woman who was 19 years old in Vancouver, in fact, was killed by a pack of coyotes.
pete dominick
Shit happens.
joe rogan
I know, but that's why you worry about them in your city.
You don't want them eating your kids.
pete dominick
Fair enough.
You actually answered my question.
joe rogan
Look at that fucking park, man.
pete dominick
That's beautiful.
That park is where I had an experience.
I mean, I agree with you.
The mountains and the Rockies in general.
Colorado has got to be for me.
joe rogan
Yeah, parks are close.
That's close because it's kind of like attached to the water.
You know, the ocean's there and you've got all the trees and shit.
pete dominick
Oh, man.
What a beautiful place.
joe rogan
The real deal for me, though, is like when you're out in real wilderness and you run into real wild animals.
pete dominick
No human creations is my...
I want to see nothing that's created by a human.
That's my full heaven.
That's where I'm most at peace.
joe rogan
There's something about a campfire and you're staring up at the night sky and you're cooking dinner with your friends and just knowing around for miles, man.
It's just peace.
pete dominick
Rolling down the Allagash in a Roland Thurlow canvas kayak.
Fly fishing away, not catching anything.
joe rogan
You just see stars.
unidentified
Yeah.
joe rogan
I wish you'd not want to catch anything.
pete dominick
No, that's what happened to me.
Oh.
The place that I went in Maine that we're describing way out, and we went on a fly fishing trip where I learned how to fly fish and caught zero.
joe rogan
Maine's tricky.
There's a reason why Stephen King's from Maine and every one of his books is horrific.
pete dominick
There's a reason.
What is it?
joe rogan
It's horror.
pete dominick
What is it?
I got this scar, man.
I split my finger there.
joe rogan
There's no people, man.
There's no people.
pete dominick
Right.
joe rogan
A bunch of comedians, me included, had a joke.
We would do bits about how you drive from Boston, and there's this one stretch before you get to Bangor, where Stephen King lived.
I did a gig there.
pete dominick
Husson College.
unidentified
No.
joe rogan
No radio.
There was no radio.
You would hit the scan button and you would never find a signal.
You're like, what?
And there was a full hour, I think it was 60 miles or so, 55 miles or so, where there was no gas stations.
So you get gas and then you're on your fucking own for an hour of driving.
pete dominick
Love it.
joe rogan
And it was weird, man.
But there was something about the people that you would run into along the way.
It was disturbing.
They didn't have enough contact with people.
You know how people get rickets and they get scurvy when they don't get vitamin C? Well, people get some weird shit when they don't meet enough people.
When you're just out there in the woods with your uncle and your cousin and that's it for your whole life and then all of a sudden you're 24, listen to me.
That ain't a good combination either.
That's weird.
pete dominick
That is a really great idea for a bit.
I mean, that guy, his social problems when he comes into Fifth Avenue, he's got some weird interactive or lack of social...
joe rogan
Yeah.
He didn't get the right diet.
pete dominick
But that being said, now the measurement isn't...
Can you get a radio connection?
Does your phone still work?
And I think everybody should...
I mean, it's very dangerous, so not everybody should, but if you can go with a guide.
Like, that's real...
To me, that's real human connection.
That's where we're supposed to be.
And you should have that experience.
We're so connected to our screens.
I feel like that's got to be bad, but the research is not...
joe rogan
That we're connected to our screens, it's got to be bad.
pete dominick
It's an interesting conversation.
joe rogan
No, the research is pretty solid.
You've read Jonathan Haidt's work about it?
pete dominick
I've read...
joe rogan
The Coddling of the American Mind?
You should read it.
pete dominick
Gene Twangy.
joe rogan
It's really interesting because when he discusses...
pete dominick
Yeah, I'm right calling him.
Jonathan Haidt.
unidentified
Yeah, he's great.
joe rogan
Okay, but it shows the consequences of these young kids that are getting involved in these screens.
You think that's any different with us as adults to be indoctrinated into this world of social media and constantly on our screens?
They're showing a direct correlation, particularly with...
Young girls are very vulnerable because of the pressures of social media, people talking shit about each other, isolation, bullying, and you're seeing a big uptick in self-harm, big uptick in suicide.
These are measurable statistics.
pete dominick
I think the data is pretty good on it.
I'm not quite sure.
You mentioned Jonathan Haidt.
joe rogan
The data is better than climate change.
It's as good as it gets.
The data shows a clear line.
pete dominick
I don't know about that.
I think it's a different type.
joe rogan
Dude, it shows a clear line from the invention of the iPhone to massive...
pete dominick
But that could just be a correlation.
Something else.
joe rogan
What a coincidence.
That smartphones, who every fucking kid who's 11 years old and up now has a smartphone, and every kid that you're looking at from before had a giant decrease in suicide.
It may be.
unidentified
It's pretty fucking strong.
pete dominick
I would push back on that it's stronger than climate science.
joe rogan
It's pretty fucking strong.
pete dominick
Okay, yeah.
I think you're probably right.
I certainly want to do something about it.
And I think it's a really important issue.
That's why the, you know, connecting to nature is the answer to that.
And I mean, my kids have their phones in their faces all the time.
I think it's terrible for so many different reasons, but I'm just not sure exactly.
Number one, our generation of parents really struggling with how to solve that.
I mean, what do you do?
joe rogan
Well, now we're admitting it's real, okay?
So admitting it's a problem, so there is real data.
pete dominick
I completely admit it's a problem, and I do think there's a lot of data, just not sure about it.
joe rogan
I don't know if going to the woods is going to help it.
It's going to make you feel a little bit better while you're in the woods.
But I don't think it's going to, overall, there's a problem having these goddamn devices where you're constantly addicted and checking it, and you're getting these little dopamine hits.
pete dominick
Yep, Jonathan Haidt wrote that with, I think, or he wrote a book about that with Lenore Skenazy, who also advocated that this is the problem with, you know, parents being worried about their kids too much.
joe rogan
Sure, helicopter parenting.
Yeah, Jonathan Haidt talks about that too, letting kids, you know, he's talked about his own fear of letting his own kid walk his way home.
pete dominick
Yeah, yeah, it's real.
joe rogan
His kid was really young and he got lost and it was terrifying for a short amount of time for them.
pete dominick
But he built a life skill, probably.
He didn't die.
joe rogan
You know, it's all an interesting conversation about who we are now versus who we used to be, and is it better?
pete dominick
I think our...
Yeah, I don't know.
It's a fascinating conversation.
I do think that our generation, like our kids, have...
We have more of a disconnection to what their experience is than any generation before us.
That's my argument.
I don't know if that's true.
But like, what did our parents have?
TVs.
What do we have?
Upgraded TVs.
More channels.
You know, microwaves.
But, you know, it was a gradual change.
Telecommunications gradually changed from beepers to phones.
But then, bam, back to Moore's Law, and it's just, and how do we react to all this?
How do we parent in this?
How do we live in this?
People are dying looking at the phones and their cars.
A lot of really serious consequences about them.
I kind of like, I wish we didn't have them in a way.
joe rogan
I don't know.
pete dominick
But there's no going back to that.
joe rogan
Morslaw specifically deals with processors, honestly, I think.
I don't think it specifically deals with...
I thought it was technology.
No, no, no, no, no.
pete dominick
But the argument is that technology is rough.
joe rogan
I think it only connects to processors because I don't think they could really measure innovation that well because things come along like splitting the atom.
There's things that come along that just fucking throw a monkey wrench.
pete dominick
That's a great point.
joe rogan
I don't know if there's a benefit that we're not quite aware of.
Because I think one of the things that's happening is people are way more aware of virtually everything.
We can complain all day that we have less freedom in terms of our ability to joke around about things, and people are more restrictive with language, and all these things are true.
But isn't it interesting that this is something that's happening, right?
So there's a pushback.
So we're feeling this rejection of certain types of words that we always like to use.
We're feeling this rejection with certain behaviors that a lot of, specifically, men took advantage of.
We're seeing this giant change.
Well, why are we seeing this thing?
This giant shift is because of social media and these technologies that we're talking about that create problems.
So the question is, will this ship right itself?
Are these corrections eventually going to lead to a better society?
Are we going to be more understanding of each other once we get over these initial growing pains, which is what we're going through right now as a culture, as a society, getting accustomed to these devices?
And these devices and the connectivity that they have.
Are we going to get more responsible with them?
Are we going to be nicer to each other through it?
We're going to recognize as we get older that, hey, you know, being shitty to someone on social media is just like being shitty to someone in person.
And we shouldn't support either thing.
And then we develop this sort of ethic.
pete dominick
Yeah, it's a really important set of questions you just asked about social media's effect on us.
I would pinpoint one just for people to watch this Intelligence Square debate that you would love, because given your conversation that you have with people, is, I think it was, the motion was, is Twitter specifically good for democracy or does it create democracy?
And I was on the side of, yeah, it does, and I would cite examples like Egypt and even China and different places where people, and Iran, where people use Twitter to rise up.
But the argument was, It's worse because on Twitter, a lie travels so fast, so rapidly, and it's so believable that it creates more damage about things that didn't happen and conspiracy theory than it also, you know, it's a little of both, obviously, in terms of it creating democracy.
You would think more speech...
On Twitter, it's equal, creates more democracy.
How could you argue with that?
Until you hear the other argument, which is fascinating about how much disinformation travels and how effective it is.
joe rogan
Well, my answer, I think, would be the same as my answer about technology, that I'm not necessarily sure it's all bad.
And I think we're going through some growing pains, but I think we go through some growing pains with virtually every new changing thing.
pete dominick
That's the argument that economists make.
You're talking about how it affects us, but the economic argument is interesting in terms of, is it Andrew Yang's argument?
Is the rapid technological transformation in the planet going to lead to a jobless society?
joe rogan
I don't know about that.
pete dominick
A jobless society.
And economists have always argued what you're saying.
Did the cotton gin put the farmer out?
Did the horse put the car?
All that.
But the new argument that I hear from a lot of people who are a billion times – I'm not smart.
All these people are experts.
They study this stuff – is mostly, yeah, this is way different.
The rapid change in its absolutely automation is going to kill economies around the world.
joe rogan
Well, the numbers are crazy.
Now, stop and think about you, right?
You're a smart guy who's had a successful radio show.
You do stand-up.
pete dominick
This is going to hurt in the end.
joe rogan
No.
You now are in this position where you have to adjust because you've been released from your job, right?
Yeah.
pete dominick
Yep.
joe rogan
But you have options.
Now, imagine you're a truck driver, and imagine that's all you've ever been, and you're 60 years old, and all of a sudden, they come along and say, hey man, we have these self-driving electric trucks that never crashed into anything.
We don't need you anymore.
And you don't have any skills.
You don't have any other way to make a living.
The angst that you feel right now, imagine that squared.
pete dominick
I could not agree more with you.
My perspective is, mine alone, we see things as we are, not as they are.
And thinking about, and I always talk to this about my daughters.
joe rogan
That's a good expression.
pete dominick
Yeah, my wife painted that.
Put it up on our wall.
And so my experience, it's only relative to me, but you have to widen your perspective to understand some people are struggling to just get toilet paper.
And understanding that, and your point though about the truck driver, his skill set is narrow.
And maybe his education, his grit, maybe he doesn't know how to network.
He doesn't know how to use the internet.
But he did a valuable job, and if he's going to lose his job at 63, I don't want to live in a society that worked hard, a guy who worked hard his whole life, and by the way, he's paying more as a percentage of his taxes as a truck driver than most of these guys in the financial industry, which is a complete injustice.
You know, tax on your work, how much work you're doing.
This guy should not have to go struggle and learn a new job.
He's 63. Let him ride into the sunset.
Give him a life right now.
I'd pay for that.
joe rogan
That sounds romantic.
pete dominick
If you get screwed out of your job with technology, create a system government where we take care of those people.
joe rogan
It sounds romantic?
pete dominick
Yeah.
joe rogan
It sounds wonderful.
But here's the problem with that.
It doesn't make people feel good to just get a check.
People feel like shit.
pete dominick
Right, absolutely.
Absolutely agree.
joe rogan
They get depressed.
That's a purpose.
I see you saying, right off into the sunset, there's a euphemism for death.
You're going to die.
I mean, you're being cute and you're making it like the end of On Golden Pond, but it's not.
That guy's going to shit himself and die.
pete dominick
No, no.
Let him go fish and hunt.
joe rogan
That's great, but he's not going to be able to do that.
He's going to be scratching and clawing to get through life.
If you're getting $1,000 a month, that's not enough to exist.
pete dominick
How do you feel about it, by the way?
I like it.
joe rogan
I like the idea.
pete dominick
Do you think it's realistic?
joe rogan
I'm open-minded.
I don't know.
I don't know what's going to happen.
But I think we should have all possible options on the table because what's happened in our lifetime from 1994 with, you know, give or take a few years, which is the invention of the...
Commercial version of the internet, right?
With all those AOL and all those things that people used.
It basically all started sort of blossoming around 1994 with mass use.
pete dominick
I like your jazz hands.
joe rogan
But here we are in 2019. So that's not that long.
That's 25 fucking years and the world is an unrecognizable place.
People have devices in their pockets all the time.
You're recording everything.
Think about all the shit that Snowden figured out.
That they're recording every goddamn phone call you make.
Every photo you take.
Every...
Email you send.
Everything's being recorded in a database to use against you someday in the future.
We have no idea what 25 years from now is going to look like.
unidentified
Agreed.
joe rogan
If we really believe that we don't need universal income, and then it turns out we do, we fucked up.
unidentified
Oh, no.
pete dominick
I think we have to do it.
joe rogan
I think we should look at all options on the table.
I don't know if it's the right option, and I think humanists, people that understand human nature...
pete dominick
They need a sense of purpose.
It's a great argument.
I completely agree.
Well made.
And by the way, when you say, you know, I'm open-minded about it, like, that's the conversation.
That has to keep being the conversation.
You and I have gotten into a couple of, like, arguments about little things, and it was awesome.
I learned, like, your point of view.
That's the conversation, and the idea that somehow, you know, there's got to be a beatdown, and one person has to win, and it has to be a competition.
joe rogan
Yeah, you have to dunk on each other.
pete dominick
Yeah, I mean, it's entertaining, but that's the problem.
joe rogan
But it collects and likes and it's valuable.
pete dominick
But what do you think about the idea that automation is the main driving force putting people out of work, not this idea of immigration?
joe rogan
I think some of it is true.
And some of that mindless work is also soul-sucking.
So you're saving someone from some assembly line job that makes them want to fucking shoot themselves.
I think both those things are true.
I mean, I think we're looking, again, for a binary answer here when it's a very nuanced issue filled with complexities and a lot of issues.
And people like to have something to do, but the problem is sometimes people get beaten down by life.
And again, they're 60x whatever it is years old, and they don't know what to do.
And then they can't live the same lifestyle that they had when they had a job, because when they had a job, they were making $1,000 a week.
They were making $50,000 a year, and now all of a sudden they're making $1,000 a month.
So you can kind of live, but how do you live?
pete dominick
That's why I've got to plug my podcast.
unidentified
What?
joe rogan
To keep from riding off into the sunset?
pete dominick
Yeah.
I mean, like, so I can work.
You know, you want to work.
You want to do work.
I completely agree with that argument.
joe rogan
Listen, I don't have three jobs because it's healthy.
I have three jobs because I'm crazy and because I need to stay busy and also because I don't trust any one of these things to stick around.
Do you really not?
No, never have.
You now?
Never have, never will.
unidentified
Now?
pete dominick
Come on, that's irrational.
unidentified
Never.
joe rogan
Never have, never will.
unidentified
Come on.
joe rogan
No, never have, never will.
pete dominick
What do you need?
joe rogan
I don't need anything.
I don't think that way.
I think now I'm doing it.
While I can do it, do it.
Do it and do the best you can.
It's going to vary.
Some days I suck.
Some days I'm better.
It's going to vary.
But do the best I can.
Keep doing it.
But don't think it's going to last forever.
And don't think it's going to go away either.
Don't think about it at all.
But it could go away.
The internet could go away.
Everything could go away.
People get pulled off of YouTube all the time.
You get banned from things.
pete dominick
Right.
joe rogan
Things happen.
Weird shifts take place.
Some of them are illogical.
People get banned for saying the most ridiculous things.
pete dominick
What weird shifts that are illogical?
I'm not following you.
What weird shifts?
Internet banning?
joe rogan
Sure.
Do you know who Megan...
What is her name?
Megan Murphy?
She's a woman who's a TERF. I've talked about her too many times this week.
Trans, exclusionary, radical feminist.
And she doesn't think that trans women...
I hope I'm not paraphrasing here.
She don't think she doesn't think that they should vote and speak on women's issues and that real that women are women who are biologically women and then you have a trans woman who dominates women's issues.
She thinks it's fucked up and her this is her perspective.
She wrote on Twitter a man is never a woman.
They told her you have to take it down.
So she took a photo.
pete dominick
Twitter did they told.
joe rogan
Twitter did?
So that, to me...
pete dominick
I have no patience for that, and I had not heard about it, but that's...
joe rogan
That's crazy.
That's crazy.
unidentified
Yeah, that's not...
pete dominick
No, how is that creating thought?
Talk about it.
joe rogan
Progressive nonsense ideology.
pete dominick
Well, if you can label it, I mean...
joe rogan
That's what it is.
That's what it is.
It's ideology.
pete dominick
Yeah, but I think everybody has these, I don't want to hear that, I want to shut down speech, I don't like thing.
joe rogan
Right, but only...
pete dominick
There are some people that are really consistent about it.
I like to think I am.
joe rogan
but only social media companies have the power to decide whether or not a person gets to express themselves to an unlimited amount of people like that.
Well, it's an interesting- And if you tell them that based on your ideology, which most people don't agree with, based on your ideology, they have said enough that something that merits you taking away their ability to express themselves, then I think you open up a real discussion, much like the Second Amendment discussion about the First Amendment, that what are we doing here?
What is this?
And what is free speech?
And is this a town hall?
And Jack Dorsey from Twitter believes it's a town hall.
He thinks everyone should have the ability to express themselves.
But that, like everything, is fucking complicated and messy.
pete dominick
It certainly is.
Nadine Strawson, who I think used to be something at the ACLU, wrote a book about speech and about how in Germany you're not allowed to fly the swastika and they have censorship on speech.
And that it's not effective for any of the outcomes that it's intended for.
joe rogan
They also make a lot of shit porn.
pete dominick
Is that right?
The Germans do?
joe rogan
Yeah, they like that.
pete dominick
Is there anyone in the plug?
joe rogan
I don't think I know any names, but for whatever reason, a lot of shit.
pete dominick
That's a thing?
joe rogan
Shit porn.
pete dominick
That's not a thing.
I try to be very open-minded, but I don't understand.
joe rogan
You don't have to understand it.
pete dominick
No, I don't.
joe rogan
But you allow people to do it, right?
pete dominick
I would never allow people to think about it.
joe rogan
That's a weird one, right?
Yeah, people want to shit in people's mouths and smother themselves in shit and have sex with each other.
pete dominick
My instant reaction is, what went on?
What's that about?
joe rogan
Oh, hell yeah.
pete dominick
Where's that?
I want that story.
I want that script.
How do you get to that?
That sounds very abusive and it sounds like it's a tough thing to talk about.
But no, the idea...
Of censoring speech, it backfires.
joe rogan
It's just not healthy.
pete dominick
But I think people should be generally sensitive and not assholes at the same time.
joe rogan
But it's also the thing about someone saying something in print that you read on Twitter.
It's like you can't even say anything back to them.
pete dominick
You make that argument.
joe rogan
You can make your own comment, but you're like, fuck, this is such a shitty way to talk.
pete dominick
Poison.
joe rogan
Yeah, it's a shitty way to communicate.
I don't engage in it anymore.
I post things up that I think are interesting.
pete dominick
How did you evolve on it?
joe rogan
I just decided.
These arguments make you riled up.
They're not healthy.
pete dominick
I told my daughter, hold on!
I'm arguing with someone on Twitter.
Said it out loud.
And I was like, oh, I'm the shittiest.
That's the shittiest thing that I could be doing right now.
joe rogan
I just think it's also, it's unmanageable when you get to a certain number of followers.
You just can't.
There's no way you can.
And it's also people are just like, they're fucking in their cubicle.
They're just trying to get a rise out of people.
They're angry.
They're shit.
They're bored.
You can't expect that everybody's existing in the same vibration that you are.
pete dominick
I woke up to a tweet that said, you're a pitiful person.
I was like, oh.
unidentified
Don't read that.
pete dominick
Good morning.
joe rogan
Bro, you're not.
That guy's a liar.
unidentified
No, no.
joe rogan
He doesn't even know you.
That's the thing.
pete dominick
It doesn't faze me at all.
It shouldn't.
It doesn't.
It is fascinating that someone would write such a thing.
joe rogan
It is, but it isn't.
pete dominick
But I'll click on him and be like, I wonder what his deal is.
Clearly he's projecting.
And I'm worried about...
I wonder what happened to that guy.
And then you look at their...
Well, you look at their picture and then you decide everything about their life.
Do you ever look...
Like, this is another reason I can't run for Congress, I think.
Like, I want to keep doing stand-up and I want to talk about things like...
You ever look at a guy like the guy I ran in the car from yesterday at LAX? I thought about how much he jerks off for a little while.
joe rogan
I never think about that.
pete dominick
I will sometimes look at that guy and be like, I bet that guy is in good for him and whatever, but that kind of...
I don't know why I brought that up.
joe rogan
I'll think about that now.
pete dominick
You brought up shitting in the mouth.
joe rogan
Dude, I watched a video once of this lady.
pete dominick
No, don't describe it.
joe rogan
This lady was really into guys shitting in her mouth.
She was speaking in German and they were translating it to English.
She was talking about all of her experiences and when the first time a guy did it and what kind of diet she likes a guy to follow when he shits in her mouth.
And I'm like, okay, this is not pleasant.
I'm not enjoying this, but honestly.
And this is kind of a dumb thing to talk about, right?
But here's why it's not.
pete dominick
Human psychology?
joe rogan
Yeah, that's a person.
That was a baby.
You have daughters.
I have daughters.
pete dominick
Yes.
joe rogan
That was a baby.
pete dominick
You try not to fuck them up.
joe rogan
All of a sudden, this baby is 50, and she likes guys shitting in her mouth, and she wears like...
pete dominick
The bar for parenting should be somewhere around no shitting on other people.
Then you know you've succeeded.
joe rogan
But what if you get a lot of money for it?
Like Robert Redford, Indecent Proposal with Demi Moore?
pete dominick
Oh, a million dollars?
I want to put myself out there right now.
joe rogan
Yeah, shit on your chest for a million bucks.
pete dominick
Please, tweet me.
joe rogan
It's not that long.
How long can a guy shit on you?
pete dominick
I've got a number.
What's your number?
What is your number?
joe rogan
Would you rather get shit on slowly, every day, as a clerk at Dunkin' Donuts, or one giant load on your chest?
That is like a really rough afternoon.
Not even an afternoon.
It's like an hour.
pete dominick
Hit me with a giant load.
joe rogan
You shower up.
pete dominick
I think everybody says hit me with a bar.
joe rogan
Rounds on me, boys.
I just became a millionaire.
God, just shit on your chest.
unidentified
You're impending, Eric.
It's like saying that it's solid.
What if it was like a diarrhea?
joe rogan
You do whatever you gotta do.
pete dominick
A lot of variables.
joe rogan
Whatever, let them shit all over you.
Splatter.
unidentified
All that salt water.
joe rogan
As long as you have goggles on and you get to close your mouth.
pete dominick
There's a lot of things.
Stain.
When those thought experiments come up, I'm always like, you wouldn't kiss a guy?
Never.
I told my dad this.
joe rogan
For how much money?
pete dominick
I was like, Dad, a million bucks.
He goes, no.
I go, Dad, that's preposterous.
That's ridiculous.
You got a problem.
And then he goes, no, I wouldn't do it.
He calls back and he goes...
He tells me who...
He names a guy, an old Italian.
He's like, who's a...
He goes, Paul Sorvino!
Okay, that's my answer.
A million bucks.
joe rogan
He'd make out with Paul Sorvino?
pete dominick
Everybody would.
Because what would you do with that money?
You could save other people's lives.
You gotta do it.
joe rogan
Or you could just buy a fur coat and start bawling.
pete dominick
Either way, it's a million bucks.
joe rogan
Yeah.
No matter what, that thought experiment is- Yeah, just fly private jets until the money runs out.
Just go everywhere, party.
pete dominick
I don't know if I'd do that.
joe rogan
Well, I wouldn't either, but I also wouldn't make out with Paul Sorvino.
We're living in this fantasy world.
Why does everything have to be ethical and moral?
Just have a good goddamn time.
White fur, like snow leopard or some shit.
Something exotic.
pete dominick
When you say that, what do you mean, why does everything have to be ethical and moral?
You have your moral code.
joe rogan
Yeah, man, but I'm talking about making out with Paul Sorvino for a million bucks.
That's free money.
pete dominick
Oh, yeah, don't get me wrong.
Oh, yeah.
You don't have to do good with that.
joe rogan
Right?
unidentified
Everybody should.
joe rogan
You do whatever you want.
pete dominick
Whoever you want, of course.
joe rogan
What if Paul says, listen, you want to make it real shit right on your head?
Just take a big meaty meatball shit?
pete dominick
That's exactly how you imagine it would be.
joe rogan
Right in your fucking head.
Bang!
Extra two.
Three million bucks.
You had a bad memory of making out with Paul Servino and him shit on your head.
But at the end of the day, the guy kept his promise and now you're rich.
pete dominick
Then you've put me in the best mood I've been in in four weeks, man.
joe rogan
Well, that's good.
Let's end it with this then.
When are you going to start your podcast?
Where are people going to be able to see it?
What do you think is going to happen?
pete dominick
Podcast is up.
joe rogan
It's up now.
pete dominick
Yeah, I can't say it's great.
I hope you give me a chance.
I'm just figuring it out.
I put up one with that guest, Dr. Aaron Carroll.
I talked to Congressman Tim Ryan about running for Congress.
joe rogan
How many have you done so far?
pete dominick
I'm going to have a third one, hopefully, in the can tomorrow with Emily Atkin, who writes the heated newsletter about climate change.
joe rogan
Excellent.
pete dominick
But I'm taping a special, if I'm going to plug anything, in my hometown.
I'm taping a very special stand-up special.
joe rogan
A very special stand-up special?
pete dominick
Very special.
I'm going to do a very special thing.
joe rogan
What's it going to be for?
Do you have a buyer for it?
No, no.
pete dominick
I learned on this show what Andrew Schultz did and I thought it was brilliant.
joe rogan
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
He's nailed it.
pete dominick
Schultz is the master.
I texted him and I was like, dude, I admire what you did.
We don't agree on political, but that's the kind of thing I'm like, dude, he knows we don't agree.
I'm like, that's brilliant.
Good job.
joe rogan
What do you not agree about?
pete dominick
I don't know.
But I mean, he was on the show and we just argue.
About politics?
I don't even remember.
joe rogan
Do you argue with everybody?
pete dominick
Yeah.
joe rogan
You a little argumentative?
pete dominick
Yeah, it's not a good quality.
Was I agitating?
joe rogan
No.
No, you didn't agitate me.
I like you.
But you definitely were like...
You have an argument mode that you fall into.
pete dominick
It's bad.
It's my flaw.
I hate it.
joe rogan
You can get out of that.
pete dominick
I'm working on it.
joe rogan
Yeah.
pete dominick
I think that you could see the change.
joe rogan
Totally surmountable.
pete dominick
Today.
unidentified
Yeah.
pete dominick
But, I mean, it goes back and forth.
You know, I don't want to defend it.
I don't want to be defensive, but I feel really...
I guess I'm very sensitive about a lot of things.
So I get passionate, and I get that tone, and it's the worst thing in a relationship.
joe rogan
Oh, yeah.
pete dominick
I mean, like, it's not...
joe rogan
You don't want to be annoying.
It's like what I said about podcasts.
You know, that's the thing.
People hearing your voice, it's not just your thoughts, right?
The way you express your thoughts, it changes...
If you express them well, in a nice way, it changes how people absorb those.
It sounds so simplistic, but it's true.
pete dominick
I think when you talk about how to communicate on your podcast, it's often one of the best things you do.
I've learned a lot from it.
I've been listening to you talk about trying to understand people and listen to people you don't disagree with, and I'm just sitting there beating myself up.
I'm like, I've got to be better at that.
And the idea that I would get, you know, that I was too argumentative today, it's like, oh man, I'm sorry.
I never want to communicate that way.
I don't think it's effective.
I completely agree with your thoughts on it.
It's completely ineffective.
joe rogan
Well, we get better at it.
pete dominick
I wonder how the pod affected me.
joe rogan
Probably got you a little jabber jaw on.
pete dominick
What do you think?
joe rogan
That's when things changed, right?
Got a little jabber jaw on when the pot came out.
pete dominick
I started getting verbose.
I knew I shouldn't have touched it.
joe rogan
Yeah, you maybe shouldn't have the second hit.
I only had one.
I knew.
I knew.
This one you gotta stay on the surfboard.
pete dominick
Good role modeling.
joe rogan
No, dude, it's fine.
It's all good.
But I think that...
If I've learned anything from doing this podcast, it's how to be better at talking to people.
pete dominick
I've learned from listening to this podcast how to be better.
joe rogan
Yeah.
There's an art to it.
There's a dance.
pete dominick
I completely agree with you.
joe rogan
It's like dancing with someone.
You're dancing with someone in a conversation.
pete dominick
They do condition you to be argumentative in live radio.
All the people who think they know.
joe rogan
Oh, the producers and shit.
pete dominick
Oh, the program directors.
unidentified
I'm lucky.
joe rogan
I never had a job.
pete dominick
Yeah, but I mean, it's toxic.
I agree with you.
It's a toxic way to communicate.
It's not effective.
If you're trying to convince someone, don't do it like that.
joe rogan
No, I imagine.
I mean, imagine trying to go from being a cable news broadcaster on Fox TV, like Shepard Smith, and then have him try to do a podcast.
He's in that fake voice, no matter what.
That fake voice is coming out.
I mean, they're all doing it.
It's like, this is the climate.
pete dominick
You're absolutely right.
You're very right about that.
And that's why I think your podcast, by the way, is very...
I think it's not the sexiest thing to talk about.
But it's a huge part of why this discussion is so popular, because people like a thoughtful, open-minded discussion.
I mean, what do you agree?
joe rogan
People like to think.
Some people pretend they don't, but it's really because they're bored with what they have to do all day, so they don't want to think.
But if you have some time and you're a curious person, you like to hear other people thinking too, and you like to hear someone who's thinking either in a way like, oh, I would think about that too, or in a way like you hadn't considered.
Like, oh, this guy's making me think.
Or this woman's got an idea that I never considered.
Or this guy's got a solution that I never thought was possible.
pete dominick
I try to measure – I think measuring intelligence is one great definition I've heard is by how good the questions are.
Like, are you curious?
I've tried to instill and engender my daughter's sense of curiosity about everything rather than saying, you're going to do it because I'm your father and I said so.
Like, I'm going to explain to you why that's – and try to, you know, create critical thinking skills.
That's how I measure intelligence.
How good are your questions?
You're really curious.
I mean, that's why the art of the interview, learning something, which is what I'm definitely trying to...
That's what I did for 12 years in SiriusXM.
That's what I want to do with the podcast.
Getting people who are a billion times smarter than me.
I don't know anything about anything.
joe rogan
I think it's definitely going to help you, too, to be free of people's influence.
Some production people and executives.
pete dominick
I work with some talented people that contribute to good things.
joe rogan
Also wondering when the day's going to come like it did, where they drop the fucking hatchet on you.
pete dominick
Don't need that ever again.
joe rogan
Always worried about that.
Have it over your head.
Mm-mm.
pete dominick
Done.
joe rogan
So, what's the name of your podcast?
pete dominick
Stand Up with Pete Dominic.
joe rogan
Oh, it's the same as your show.
You fucking animal.
Do you own that?
pete dominick
Yeah, they let me have it.
joe rogan
Sirius can't sue you?
You get it in writing?
pete dominick
Very gracious.
joe rogan
You're talking a lot of shit about them.
You get it in writing?
pete dominick
I did not talk any shit about them.
joe rogan
I've talked a lot of shit about them.
pete dominick
I did not.
I think what they did for me...
It was really great, but I think corporate media in general is the conversation.
They're all kind of in the same system.
I've worked and made money out of all of them.
I'm excited to be independent, but I can't deny that they created a platform for a really thoughtful conversation for 12 years.
I can't.
joe rogan
You don't have to.
pete dominick
Yeah.
It was a good life for me.
unidentified
Beautiful.
pete dominick
And now it's on to the next thing.
joe rogan
Now it's on like Donkey Kong.
pete dominick
The Syracuse Funny Bone, November 29th and 30th.
joe rogan
Oh, shit.
PeteDominic.com.
unidentified
Right?
pete dominick
PeteDominick.com.
StandupwithPeteDominick.com.
Twitter, Instagram.
Joe Rogan, I love you.
joe rogan
I love you too, buddy.
unidentified
Good luck.
pete dominick
I really admire you and what you've done here.
Jamie, thank you.
You guys are awesome.
joe rogan
Bye, everybody.
unidentified
Woo!
pete dominick
Shouldn't have taken a second.
unidentified
Hit!
joe rogan
No, it was good, man.
pete dominick
You sure?
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