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Jan. 22, 2021 - The Joe Rogan Experience
03:11:29
Joe Rogan Experience #1600 - Lex Fridman
Participants
Main voices
j
joe rogan
01:36:33
l
lex fridman
01:24:14
Appearances
j
jamie vernon
02:26
Clips
a
andy stumpf
00:01
d
david goggins
00:14
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Speaker Time Text
unidentified
The Joe Rogan Experience.
Train by day, Joe Rogan Podcast by night, all day.
The Joe Rogan Experience.
The X.
joe rogan
I had a surprise for you, but it didn't work out.
I had a suit and a tie, and I was gonna come in dressed like you.
unidentified
Exactly.
joe rogan
Yes, full on!
White shirt, suit, tie.
lex fridman
Fitted?
joe rogan
Yes, fitted.
But the problem is my fucking shirt was at the cleaners.
So then I tried to use, um, I have some other white shirts that are like these really stretchy shirts that you can wear them if they're open, but if I'm trying to put a tie on, they literally don't fit around my neck.
So I'm doing this and I'm killing myself.
And then I'm like, well, maybe I'll leave it open.
lex fridman
Dressing up like first day of school.
Damn, I appreciate it.
I'm honored.
joe rogan
I was going to mimic you.
lex fridman
Yeah.
Do you know, remember Michael Miles?
joe rogan
Yes.
lex fridman
He actually, I did a podcast with him and he...
He wore the opposite, which is a white suit and a white tie and a black shirt.
I mean, he is sort of the epitome of the loving kind of troll.
That's the ultimate troll.
He wore the exact opposite.
He got the exact same haircut as me, which I don't even know what that means exactly.
joe rogan
Just cut your hair short.
lex fridman
Just cut your hair short.
joe rogan
Yeah, that's all it means.
lex fridman
But it was a magical moment.
That's what trolling at its best does.
It's like you feel loved.
joe rogan
Oh, that's funny.
He's an interesting guy.
Michael Mao's a very interesting guy.
Because he's got some wacky beliefs that I don't subscribe to at all.
unidentified
Anarchy.
joe rogan
Yeah, complete anarchy, no police.
I don't think we should have police.
I'm like, what world are you living in?
You weigh three pounds, and you don't even have a gun.
unidentified
No police.
joe rogan
Like, what are you talking about?
But he's a brilliant guy.
Brilliant.
It's interesting.
I don't subscribe to a lot of his ideas, but I think...
He's also always has a half smile when he's saying things.
lex fridman
Yeah.
joe rogan
So you kind of never know.
lex fridman
I don't think he means half the things he says.
joe rogan
Really?
lex fridman
So I don't know.
He's underneath it all, which is why I talked to him, which is why I consider him a friend.
There's a really kind person in there.
joe rogan
Yes.
lex fridman
But he says things like, yeah, like police is the enemy.
It's like, wait a minute.
And you live in New York.
So he plays with ideas.
It feels like he's just somebody who's juggling with different ideas and having fun with it, not taking anything seriously.
And that's really refreshing, because in the best light, that's a fearless way to see the world.
And also, he's working on this concept of, I think he calls it the white pill, you know, like red pill and blue pill.
The white pill is basically, you know, I think he's highlighting that for red-pilled folks that there's sometimes a cynicism about the future of the world, and the white pill is seeing the truth of the world but being optimistic about it and thinking like we can actually make things better.
So not becoming cynical.
Not saying like, you know, globalists, the government is ultimately like power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely.
It's always going to be a bureaucracy.
It's always going to be greedy people who take power and take control.
So that's like the cynical, the negative view.
But the positive, the white pill view is that You know, we can actually build a better world.
I mean, he has ideas about how to build that better world that I don't agree with.
joe rogan
What is his ideas?
lex fridman
I'm not sure I've quite understood them, but because ultimately he's a counterpuncher, which is, you know, government, all government is bad.
So that's the idea of anarchism, is that you're supposed to, in this emergent way, You know, form groups and agree together how those groups should operate.
joe rogan
Isn't that like a local government?
lex fridman
It's a local government.
So his biggest problem is that we're born in this geographical space and are assigned to a particular government without having chosen it.
So he wants to do exactly what we're doing now, but choose our government.
joe rogan
Well, isn't that what happens when you move to a different state?
lex fridman
I think so.
Different state, that's the whole idea of...
joe rogan
That's one of the reasons why I'm here.
lex fridman
Yeah.
You're an anarchist, bro.
joe rogan
I guess.
I am.
If you consider California the status quo, I'm an anarchist.
lex fridman
That's right.
This is the headline now.
unidentified
The current...
lex fridman
Joe Rogan says he's an anarchist.
joe rogan
The current California is...
I mean, if rebelling against that form of government, draconian measures they've put in with the lockdowns and then allowing people to camp everywhere...
lex fridman
Yeah, but he also says, I think, that we're in a state of anarchy between different nations, because you can choose to immigrate to a different nation, and then they operate, there's no, I think there's, you know, the UN and so on, there's agreements between nations, but they operate as independent entities.
I don't know.
And his idea is like, remove as much as possible.
It's like libertarian plus plus.
Like, remove as much control from the government as possible.
joe rogan
That's great until somebody robs you.
lex fridman
Yeah, I think so too.
So this is the capitalist view, I think.
I don't know.
I don't want to misuse terms, but...
The step back from the anarchist view is, you know, we should get government out of most things, but the violence thing, we should let government protect us from.
So, the military, the police, you know, and things like firefighters and all those kinds of things.
I mean, that forms the fabric of society that can be stable and operate well, and we could do all of the amazing things in terms of...
Building new businesses, doing science, doing all the kinds of entrepreneurship, just everything that makes this capitalist United States of America possible, like all the freedoms we enjoy.
At least to me, it feels like the violence thing has to be removed off the table.
joe rogan
Yeah.
Yeah, that's the biggest problem.
Because when you have violence, you don't get anything done.
Societies didn't really form in the sense that we have now, I would imagine, until they developed agriculture in cities, right?
Where they figured out a way to put walls up and fortify them and keep the barbarians out and go, okay.
I'm thinking about a thing.
It's called a wheel.
They start putting ideas together.
lex fridman
You can just relax, write stuff, write ideas down on paper.
Yeah, and we're talking about physical violence.
joe rogan
Yes.
lex fridman
Like literally barbarians.
unidentified
Not like calling you the wrong pronoun.
lex fridman
Yeah, exactly.
But I feel like, and Tim Dillon does this really well as well, is there's like a humor to it where you're almost taking down the powerful by...
Not taking them seriously.
joe rogan
He's one of the best alive at it.
Tim Dillon is one of the best I've ever seen.
One of the best I've ever seen at making fun of things while pretending to be serious.
lex fridman
Yeah.
His YouTube is hilarious.
joe rogan
He's amazing.
I love that guy to death.
And he has a free pass because he's gay.
So, like, he gets away with so much more.
And he doesn't seem gay.
Like, my wife doesn't even believe it.
She's like, I don't even believe he's gay.
She's laughing about it.
She's joking.
But he's just, uh, he's a one of a kind.
Yeah.
lex fridman
Kamala has already arrested me.
Not mad, though.
Just enjoying the moment.
joe rogan
His Twitter's a fucking, it's a work of art.
I mean, it really is.
His Twitter feed's amazing.
What did you say that Bert made a video of the homeless?
jamie vernon
It was on his Instagram.
Let's see if I can pull it up.
lex fridman
Bert Kresher?
jamie vernon
He was driving up Highland Avenue in Hollywood and was just saying, like, he wasn't showing the whole video during it, but he was, like, at a stoplight and, like, there was tents the whole way up here.
And he was extremely, like, this is also a really nice tent.
joe rogan
It's...
lex fridman
People want me to talk to Bert Crusher because of his Russian story.
joe rogan
Oh, hi, Bert.
Look at Bert.
lex fridman
The machine.
joe rogan
Oh, it's in his Instagram story.
That motherfucker, his stories will go on for years.
He does them every 15 seconds.
jamie vernon
It might even be deleted now.
joe rogan
It's crazy.
lex fridman
Productivity-wise, he's basically the Elon Musk of Instagram stories.
jamie vernon
Maybe you took it off because it's not showing up.
Or it could be one of these.
joe rogan
Is it?
Well, there's so...
There it is.
There's tents all the way up on Highland.
jamie vernon
Where?
unidentified
People living on the side of the street.
This is fucking insane.
This is literally hundreds of tents everywhere.
By the way, that's a nice fucking tent also.
Those are two very nice tents.
I wonder if the city's giving them out.
jamie vernon
Because we don't have a tent that nice.
unidentified
I mean, I'm not even joking.
jamie vernon
Our tent isn't even that nice.
unidentified
Wow.
joe rogan
That's a tiny image he showed.
You know, you didn't get to see the real homeless situation, but Bridget Phetasy sent me a video when she was driving by Venice, and it's a minute and a half long of just straight tents as she's driving down the road.
Just nothing but tents.
lex fridman
Yep.
joe rogan
How do you put that genie back in the bottle, Lex?
lex fridman
Well, this is...
Oh, you mean it's a slippery slope?
unidentified
No.
lex fridman
Listen, I've been thinking about...
You know, a bunch of tech folks are moving to Austin, right?
unidentified
Mm-hmm.
lex fridman
In terms of starting businesses.
So that's one of the questions they're asking.
Like, where is this headed?
You're talking about the homeless.
joe rogan
Yeah.
Well, the governor just today came out and said that if the city does not reimpose a ban on camping, that the state is going to step in.
lex fridman
Well, yeah.
joe rogan
Because people are...
There's safety concerns.
People are openly defecating on the streets.
There's, you know, it's not nearly as bad here as it is in California, but it's way worse here than I've ever seen it before.
lex fridman
But, you know, homelessness is...
It feels like that's a symptom, not the problem, right?
I mean, is that...
joe rogan
It's hard to say because homelessness was horrific in San Francisco before the pandemic.
lex fridman
Right.
joe rogan
And the concern is that when you are too lenient on the homeless folks and just allow them to camp wherever they want, shit wherever they want, they just do it.
And if you don't put up rules, if you try to be progressive and open-minded, it's like they have new words for them, like the unhoused and shit like that.
And when you do that, you open up the door for more of them to migrate there because there's – like there was a video that somebody put up of them interviewing these homeless guys and like, why do you like San Francisco?
And they said, first of all, they give us food.
They give us money.
They let us – they're really loose.
They let us camp wherever we want.
And these guys had moved to San Francisco to be homeless, which is a problem.
lex fridman
But see, just like you said, that problem is tied up with the fact that a lot of people are struggling financially because of COVID. It feels like trying to solve the homelessness problem is in direct tension with trying to take care of people who are struggling.
joe rogan
Well, I think it shows that there's a problem with people losing a place to live and that the solution is not necessarily let them camp out anywhere they want.
I think there should be some sort of a step that the government takes, whether it's to develop housing or to build something for them, but when you let them just camp and shit everywhere, then you ruin all the other spaces.
Like, the best way to keep the city intact And to try to help these people is to implement some sort of a program where you provide housing for them.
Letting them just camp on the street, that's chaos.
Like, now you've fucked up everything.
lex fridman
So this particular state government just seems incompetent at solving this particular problem, but it also seems to be not very good at solving some other problems, right, in terms of encouraging businesses to stay there?
joe rogan
You mean California?
lex fridman
California, sorry.
Yeah.
joe rogan
Well, it's over-regulated.
It's a crazy regulated state.
And it's also very high taxes.
And there's a lot of people that are recognizing that there's other places that don't have any state taxes.
Like, why would I stay in a place that's...
They're telling you you can't work.
They're closing down businesses.
Gavin Newsom today, there's a lawsuit that got filed by more than 50 San Francisco Bay Area restaurants and bars.
Trying to say, like, why are we closed?
Like, this doesn't make any sense.
You can't just keep doing this forever.
And some places are starting to wake up.
My hope is that a lot of this is political, as gross as that sounds, and that now that Biden and Harris are in, that they'll open things back up.
And the mayor of Chicago has said this.
The mayor of New York has said we have to open things back up.
And I'm hoping that they take this chance.
lex fridman
It could go the other way as well, though.
Right.
The other way is now that there is a Democrat in office that they could see there's a path to pass further regulations and push this closed economy, go into lockdown further.
joe rogan
Why would they do that though?
lex fridman
Listen, I've always thought it's a terrible idea.
The long-term consequences on the economy are going to be potentially orders of magnitude worse on the fabric of our society.
So I don't know why they would do that.
Michael Malice said the devil on my shoulder.
joe rogan
Okay, Michael's the devil.
lex fridman
Wearing a white suit.
Or the devil wears a suit and tie, right?
Yeah.
That's a badass.
I've been listening to that.
How good is that guy?
Colter Wall.
And your story, sorry in a small tangent, your story that he hasn't been on your podcast because...
joe rogan
He's working on a ranch.
Like as a fucking rancher.
lex fridman
This guy's legit.
joe rogan
Like we reached out to them.
He's like, well, he's working on the ranch right now.
Like, what is he doing on that ranch?
He's a fucking cowboy.
Like a legit cowboy.
lex fridman
Like, there's literally no more badass thing to do than turn down Joe Rogan experience appearance.
joe rogan
Massive promotion.
He's like, eh, I'd rather just rope steers.
unidentified
Yeah.
lex fridman
But the Michael Malice devil argument is that, you know, that's one way for the government to gain more control or the populace is to fear mongers say that there's a big problem and that magnify the...
The sort of the narrative around how big that problem is.
And unfortunately, from my perspective, as a scientist, to use scientists to say, look, scientists are saying there's a huge problem, sort of use science as a tool of fear mongering, and then gain further and further control of the populace.
That's the devil on the shoulder.
joe rogan
You have to have an incentive to do that.
Why would they want that kind of control while also devastating the economy?
They need the economy because they need tax revenue.
If they're not getting tax revenue, how are they going to feed the military industrial complex?
How are they going to feed all their businesses?
How are they going to feed the pharmaceutical industry?
All these people that finance their campaigns and all these banks that pay for them to speak after they get out of office, where's the money coming from now if there's no economy?
I don't think that...
I think that's like one of them doom and gloom QAnon type deals where people are thinking, like, they want to kill half the population and, you know...
lex fridman
Yeah.
No, I agree with you.
Everything you said incentive-wise, it makes sense.
I was really confused why we haven't done, for example, mass-scale testing of everybody, which seemed like, you know, the antigen tests, which can be under a dollar to manufacture, manufacture hundreds of millions of them, At home testing of everybody.
joe rogan
Is it under a dollar?
lex fridman
To manufacture, yeah.
joe rogan
Really?
lex fridman
Now, yeah.
So you can start April or May of last year, start mass manufacture.
There's no reason we can't do that.
And then everybody starts getting tested.
At the individual level, you know, the accuracy is not perfect.
But at the societal level, that's one way.
If you get a positive test, you definitely have COVID. And so, based on that, trusting the individuals, not tracking them, but trusting the individuals when they get a positive test, that they will stay home.
And through that process, we would have been able to open up the economy in the summer.
Like, Michael Minna, I think, from Harvard, people should go follow him on Twitter or wherever.
He's been screaming about this.
Like, why the hell...
Is FDA getting in the way of this?
So the FDA doesn't like crappy at-home tests.
They want expensive, nice tests.
But the problem with expensive, nice tests, it's hard to manufacture them on my scale.
So people should go read his stuff.
He's an actual expert of this.
joe rogan
Do the crappy at-home tests have a lot of false positives?
unidentified
False...
lex fridman
No, they have false negatives.
So meaning, if you get a positive, for sure you have it.
joe rogan
Is that true?
Because we've had guys that got false positives with the rapid antigen test.
lex fridman
The rapid antigen test?
Yeah.
Okay, everything coming out of my mouth now is kind of crappily...
You might be correct.
joe rogan
You need whiskey.
lex fridman
This is what you need.
joe rogan
Some Whitmire's Texas single barrel.
Come on, son.
lex fridman
All right, Joe.
Do you want to drink some whiskey?
Just to clear the mind...
joe rogan
Like that sound?
That's the sound of bad decision making about to come up.
Ice or no ice?
lex fridman
No ice, please.
joe rogan
Ah, like a man.
I love it.
Fucking Russians.
Savage people.
lex fridman
Well, definitely not vodka, though, because I can drink whiskey in moderation.
joe rogan
Can't drink vodka in moderation?
You just start going hard?
lex fridman
What is it?
joe rogan
We got some of that.
lex fridman
No, no, no.
joe rogan
Cheers, sir.
unidentified
Cheers.
joe rogan
Good to see you man.
lex fridman
Good to see you.
joe rogan
How long are you down for?
lex fridman
Anywhere from one week to five years.
joe rogan
You're so free.
I love how you live, man.
It's beautiful.
Because of your podcast, you can really do whatever you want whenever you want to do it.
It's kind of amazing.
lex fridman
It's the Texas way.
It is.
joe rogan
The Russian slash Texas way.
lex fridman
But I like Boston, too.
I'm afraid of Silicon Valley now.
Everybody inside Silicon Valley, all my friends that work there, all the great entrepreneurs, all the people that work at big companies, Google, and so on, say, do not move here.
You know, here's childlike, naive me, like, texting, oh, what are the cool places to live?
It's like all cabs do not move.
joe rogan
Wyoming!
Get out now!
lex fridman
I don't understand.
They don't actually provide good reasons.
Like, the tax thing isn't the reason they provide.
joe rogan
Well, it's crime.
Elon told me 12 of his friends have been robbed.
Twelve of his friends have been assaulted and robbed there.
lex fridman
Yeah.
joe rogan
He's like, it's dangerous.
lex fridman
So culturally, the whole kind of defund the police culture is affecting the stability of the society.
joe rogan
There's that, but there's also just rampant homelessness and people with mental health problems and drug addicts.
And they need to fuel their problem.
You know, there was a show where they parked cars in San Francisco to see how long it took for the car got broken into.
And then they put, you know, surveillance camera to watch it.
And it was crazy.
You park the car, and then five minutes later, people were looking around.
They would sit in front of it, look around, look around, just pull out a hammer out of a bag, smash and grab.
You just leave a bag in there so it looks like there might be something in the bag.
It was crazy.
They watched over and over and over again.
People do this in a place where it's literally the highest real estate in the state and one of the most...
Wealthy places on earth.
San Francisco is incredibly wealthy.
And you have homelessness everywhere, crime everywhere.
There's an app that you can get where you can track the human defecation throughout the city.
Why would you live there?
lex fridman
Well, the question is, if you want to build, in the tech space, if you want to build a company to do something cool, I don't care if with that little app or change the world, it's some large-scale thing, where do you go?
joe rogan
Right here, baby.
Austin, Texas.
Come on, son.
lex fridman
But for the longest time, it's been Silicon Valley, right?
joe rogan
I'm trying to talk everybody cool and moving here.
Fahim Anwar is moving here.
One of the best comics in LA. Awesome.
lex fridman
So, yeah, Elon has moved here.
So he's been, he's kind of the reason that's making me think, like, it's very possible that this becomes, in the good sense, where the crazy, the wild entrepreneurs move.
So the tech, the cool Silicon Valley moves.
It's very possible.
Like you.
Like you.
joe rogan
Like you, Lex.
It's calling you.
lex fridman
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
unidentified
Come on.
joe rogan
I heard you ate at Terry Black's.
lex fridman
But you have to...
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Terry Black's is awesome.
joe rogan
It stopped you in your tracks, didn't it?
lex fridman
Exactly like you said.
First of all, it was amazing.
And then, of course, there's people who are like, oh, no.
Yes, Terry Black's is amazing, but you should try this other place.
So on and so forth.
joe rogan
There's all kinds of great barbecue here.
They're right.
Franklin's is awesome.
Look at that.
unidentified
Woo!
lex fridman
People are like, that's too dry.
Okay, I get it.
joe rogan
No, no, no, no.
It is not too dry.
That's a photograph, you fucks.
Not only that, it's with an Android phone.
lex fridman
How do you know it's an Android?
joe rogan
Because you're an Android guy.
You've committed to that platform.
It's very admirable.
You don't give a fuck about that green text bubble.
lex fridman
Oh, yeah, yeah.
Well, I tried Signal.
joe rogan
Oh, Signal's amazing.
lex fridman
You and I had an extensive conversation on Signal, like one message back and forth.
joe rogan
Well, we could keep going, but it seemed to be like we just text each other.
I don't mind green.
It's one of my favorite colors.
I don't mind the green bubble.
But I think it's a funny thing with people.
I'm more invested in the Apple ecosystem, and I use AirDrop a lot.
Amongst friends.
Samsung has an equivalent to AirDrop now that's supposed to be pretty functional.
lex fridman
Samsung Galaxy S21. The greatest phone coming out soon.
joe rogan
Ultra.
lex fridman
Ultra is the big one?
joe rogan
That's the good one.
lex fridman
Yeah.
joe rogan
Yeah, Phantom Black.
Looks good on you.
lex fridman
I feel like I was sponsored to say this, but I hope I was.
I hope I get a free phone out of this.
joe rogan
MKBHD had a great review of the Ultra.
He makes it very exciting.
lex fridman
Yeah, he makes everything exciting.
joe rogan
He's great.
lex fridman
Everything just looks super sharp and crisp and sexy.
Just everything.
I just want to buy all of whatever he's...
joe rogan
He's so smooth.
He's so nonchalant.
lex fridman
He's so just relaxed.
joe rogan
He's an Android guy.
There's a lot of those tech guys that review things are Android guys because you're constantly taking your SIM card out of one phone and putting it in another.
I got an iPhone 12 and I tried to get it registered at Verizon.
It took an hour and a half.
It didn't work.
I bought it online at the Apple Store.
I got it delivered.
Took an hour and a half to get it.
They go, like, we can't figure out how to do this.
We might have to change your plan.
I'm like, Jesus fucking Christ.
Finally, they got it.
They got it up and running.
I'm like, oh, it's great.
It's different.
It's more square.
Same fucking phone.
It's not much different, right?
For what I do, I mean, I'm not playing games.
I'm just making phone calls and taking pictures.
The camera on the 11 was awesome.
The camera on the 12 was awesome.
The next morning, on my way to the fucking airport, and it just stops working.
Just completely stopped working.
Wouldn't make phone calls.
I couldn't call Verizon on it.
Couldn't do anything.
It said, please contact Verizon.
And I'm like, oh, you sons of bitches.
So then I had to call them and I just reactivated my 11. I have this fucking brick of a 12 just sitting in my dresser.
unidentified
Hmm.
lex fridman
It's like buying the treadmill that you never use.
Jamie and I were just talking about the Ableton Live Push.
Sorry, what's it?
unidentified
What is it?
jamie vernon
Yeah, that's a little deep.
It's a musical instrument-like tool.
lex fridman
So actually, Grimes uses that to compose for music.
What is it?
It's a thing that...
So there's a recording software called Ableton Live, and there's a push device where you can tap it to do a beat, like...
And you can, like, mix stuff.
You can loop things.
joe rogan
Oh, okay.
lex fridman
And there's people online you can watch and they do, like, they create, like, incredible...
jamie vernon
Is that right there?
lex fridman
Yeah.
joe rogan
Oh, that looks dope.
That looks like a giant Simon Says machine.
lex fridman
Doesn't it look like something you want to learn and use to create cool stuff?
So I got it, like, two years ago.
joe rogan
Let me hear some of this.
jamie vernon
What you make out of it is what you decide.
joe rogan
Play melodies and chords in any key.
lex fridman
Oh, this is, like, a commercial.
jamie vernon
This is, like, the ad for it, yeah.
joe rogan
It does look pretty dope.
lex fridman
Well, but the point is, it's a symbol of all my failures in life because I've gotten, it's been sitting in a box just looking at me, just like that brick of a phone, just saying, this is why you're a failure because you can't take three or four hours to read a fucking manual or tutorial or learn how to actually use this.
joe rogan
Maybe a YouTube video would get you.
lex fridman
Well, no.
I was talking to Jamie.
It gets you in a way it's both exciting, inspiring, and depressing because they're so good and they make it look so easy.
Like, look, you can just tap a beat and you can start But when you actually start to learn how to use it, like Ableton Live the software, you realize there's all these buttons.
There's all these things you have to learn.
How do I even record just the basic, just even our conversation, how do I record that?
And then you have to realize there's shortcuts you have to learn.
You basically have to sit down.
Embrace the suck.
Embrace the learning curve of saying, okay, on Monday, I'm going to read this tutorial and I'm going to get it done and learn something new.
And doing that alone is really difficult when nobody's really pushing you.
I don't know.
That's probably a metaphor for a lot of things we fail to do in life.
It's like always putting it off and putting it off and putting it off.
Something that actually will probably bring, like me in this case, a lot of joy.
joe rogan
I'm sure you're accurate.
unidentified
Right.
joe rogan
But you have to be a little bit less harsh on yourself because you're very productive.
The problem with you is you do so many things.
unidentified
Right.
joe rogan
Between jujitsu and working out and having fucking phone calls with David Goggins where he talks you into things.
unidentified
Okay.
lex fridman
Can I just talk about that for a second?
unidentified
Yeah.
lex fridman
Okay, so this is why, you've told me before not to read comments, but I do write comments on Instagram, and he put a story out, I think yesterday, saying that he's doing the 48 mile challenge again, 4x4x48, where you run 4 miles every 4 hours, and like a fucking idiot.
I commented.
I thought nobody would know.
I said, I'm in.
I wrote I'm in.
I thought I would get positive and then people would be like, oh cool, talk to me about it.
And I could do it peacefully at home.
So it's March 5th, I think, is when he's doing it.
Which is nice.
He announced it down the line a little bit.
He calls me within seconds of me posting that.
He's like...
unidentified
Lex!
joe rogan
Good to hear from you!
lex fridman
Yeah, what's up brother?
Stay hard!
joe rogan
I'm in!
There you are!
Oh my god!
unidentified
Yeah.
lex fridman
And then he calls and he's like...
joe rogan
Let me hear his video.
Let me hear what he says.
Start it from the beginning.
unidentified
Alright.
That time of year again, the second annual 4x4x48.
For some of you who don't know what that is, basically, you run four miles every four hours for 48 hours.
david goggins
Some of you out here don't like running, can't run, you have bad knees, bad hips, bad ankles.
unidentified
Walk.
Do whatever you can do, you know, in that period of time when you're supposed to be working out.
So that being said, a lot of you out here did it last year.
It was a huge success.
Make sure that you have You know, like logistics set up.
david goggins
There's going to be times at night when you're running at 4 o'clock, you know, in the morning, midnight, different times, you know, the fucking boogeyman comes out at nighttime.
unidentified
So make sure that you have, you know, safety parameters in place.
Run with somebody.
Do whatever the fuck you have to do to keep yourself safe, just like last year.
All right, that said, this year I want to give away some items, and I've been talking about them a lot more.
But I have some, you know, new shorts in stock.
So this year I'm doing tons of giveaways for those of you who go above and beyond.
And what that means is some people last year raised thousands of dollars.
This is all for charity.
Tons of people got tons of people involved in the 4x4x48.
Did several things they did.
Outside the box thinking to raise awareness for their causes, their charities.
Raise awareness for fitness.
Whatever it was, it was great to see that.
Last year I had nothing to give away.
I just saw these amazing stories.
I was being tagged with amazing stories.
Didn't have anything to give away.
This year that's a different fucking story.
I have a lot of things to give away.
lex fridman
This is like the nice version of Deogog.
It's the thoughtful version.
joe rogan
This one here is wonderful.
unidentified
I think it's taking souls down the back.
I also have this shirt right here I'll be giving away.
It's a new Stay Hard shirt.
lex fridman
Okay.
So the thing is, he's like, why don't you come down and we'll do it together?
And so him and I are going to do it together.
joe rogan
You're going to do it in Vegas?
lex fridman
Yeah.
joe rogan
Oh, Jesus Christ.
So you're going to stay for two days with him in Vegas?
lex fridman
Yeah, with him.
But this is not like...
jamie vernon
It sounds like fun, but that's not a good idea.
lex fridman
Trust me, man.
Because you're not sleeping.
So it's 48 hours of no sleep with David Goggins alone.
Plus, he says we're going to do a bunch of other crazy shit, like extra shit.
And then he suggested the kind of shit that would break me.
Oh, boy.
unidentified
Have you ever thought about joining the Navy SEALs?
lex fridman
No.
I do not want to join the Navy Seals.
Talk me into it!
jamie vernon
Are you going to carry the boat?
unidentified
Who's going to carry the boat?
lex fridman
I want to be in the boat.
I don't want to carry the boat.
But that said, listen, it's all fun.
It's pretty easy.
48 miles is rough.
joe rogan
That's why you can't learn that machine.
lex fridman
What do you mean?
joe rogan
That electronic music machine.
unidentified
That's why you don't have any fucking time.
lex fridman
But those are the demons you have to face.
I'll be thinking about that electronic machine the whole time I'm running with them.
No, but, you know, it's a good test.
It's a good test of, like, going to the limit.
It's the thing he talks about, right?
Whatever that percent is, 10%, 40%.
joe rogan
40%.
lex fridman
That, you know, just take your mind to the limit and push further.
And he's a good person to deal with.
joe rogan
How are your knees?
lex fridman
Good.
So I've never had trouble...
Well, you know, knock on wood, never had trouble...
jamie vernon
Really?
joe rogan
All your jujitsu?
No knee trouble?
lex fridman
I've never been injured in jujitsu.
joe rogan
That's amazing.
lex fridman
Like, really hard training.
I think it was because of the wrestling background, I've always approached everything in training with the following thought.
Like, how can I train really hard, like, twice a day?
How can I put in a three-hour, four-hour session of training with killers without getting injured?
So don't, you know, make sure there's a strong frames, like just working on all the stabilizers, making sure to not want to, the ego, it's like silence in the ego.
Just, you know, if somebody is being rough in a way, or somebody is much better than me in a way that puts me in compromising positions, Not in terms of being submitted, but in terms of just putting pressure on some body parts that's going to break me.
I can tell.
It'll lead to injuries.
I'll not have my ego and try to beat them.
I'll flow with it more.
And just making sure I put in the miles versus the wins, the individual wins along the way.
So maximizing that allowed me to just be lucky, honestly, because you can be just unlucky.
joe rogan
Yeah, one of my worst injuries was unlucky.
One of my ACL snaps.
Was working out with a guy who was really cool, easy to work out with, training.
I was passing his guard.
I was in half guard.
And my leg was sideways.
And he did a lockdown sideways.
So you know lockdown normally extends you out this way, but it went that way.
unidentified
Right.
joe rogan
So it was like...
He locked me out that way.
And it just popped.
It wasn't a wise position to be in, especially with the gi, because there's too much friction.
I couldn't turn my knee over and slip out of it.
I really should have gotten myself in a better position and just used my shin.
unidentified
Yes.
joe rogan
An instep and tried to push my way out or tried some other methods to get out of the half guard.
But I tried to sit sideways and I was going to just try to...
And he extended his leg and I just...
It was like a carrot.
lex fridman
Yeah.
joe rogan
It didn't even hurt.
It was crazy.
I was like, ah!
And then he goes, you okay?
I'm like, I think so.
Hold on a second.
And then I moved around a little.
I'm like, it doesn't even hurt.
But it just popped the ligament off.
lex fridman
Yeah, I think the lockdown is a really perfect position.
Like, there's very few people in this world that can put me in lockdown because I'm so afraid of that position because of the injury.
So, like, I'm very cautious.
And if they do, I'm not...
This isn't like a challenge, sorry, if it makes sounds like that.
Obviously, there's a million people way better than me.
And they can put me in lockdown.
But I'm very careful to avoid that position because I know how compromising it can put the knee in.
The knee, yeah.
And funny enough, it's...
Usually, the better the person, the more you can trust them to do the lockdown.
You judge people.
I try not to judge people in regular life, but in jiu-jitsu, I'll judge them harshly.
In a sense, I'll pick people who don't move in sudden ways that are just unexpected.
The kind of people I love training hard with are the people who are exceptionally good.
But they move in ways that are like...
joe rogan
They flow.
lex fridman
They flow, but are not like the Ben Askrens of the world that are funky.
You know, like, that are creative.
The names are slipping my mind of all the different jiu-jitsu people who are super creative.
They kind of surprise you with their creativity.
I like, like, Haja Gracie style.
joe rogan
You'd hate rolling with Eddie Bravo then.
It puts you in some weird spots.
lex fridman
But I wouldn't have an ego.
There's hard training where you're trying to win and trying to improve.
And there's training where you're learning from each other.
With him, he's already probably several words of magnitude better than me, so there's no reason for me to try to beat him.
But lockdown is a good example of a position that kind of scares me in terms of just the pressure it puts on the knees.
joe rogan
Yeah, he's got a very unusual game too.
Like his students have a very unusual game.
Like Richie Martinez, a boogeyman, has this crazy guard game.
And if you're not accustomed to someone who's got that level of flexibility...
I've talked about Richie before too because he comes from a weird background.
He's a breakdancer.
And because of that breakdancing, he has incredible body control.
You know, breakdancers, people that think of breakdancers, they don't necessarily equate it with these incredibly athletic people, but my god, the breakdancers of today.
Follow Stance Elements on Instagram.
lex fridman
Breakdancer?
joe rogan
Yeah.
No, it's a page that's dedicated to breakdancing.
It is wild.
We played one the other night with Jordan Burroughs because Jordan Burroughs is kind of making fun of breakdancing.
I'm like, dude, watch this.
And there's this guy...
I forget his name.
I forget the guy's name.
The craziest guy, his name is...
Yeah, that guy.
That's B-Boy Tata.
lex fridman
As a Russian, I approve of the tracksuit.
joe rogan
You gotta see this guy breakdance, though.
Like, the shit that he does.
If you can go to Stance Element...
Well, let's see what he does here.
Look at this.
What the fuck?
He's on one hand, bouncing around like he weighs two pounds.
And he's a big guy.
He's a big athletic guy.
unidentified
Okay.
joe rogan
And he's doing freakish shit, man.
lex fridman
Timing, balance, the general body awareness.
It's incredible.
joe rogan
All of it, but the strength.
His feet don't even touch the ground.
unidentified
Just imagine how good that guy would be good at jiu-jitsu or mixed martial arts.
joe rogan
Oh, without a doubt.
But he's also, like, incredibly powerful.
Like, the Stance Elements video, go to the Stance Elements page.
Because there's a video of him in...
Oh, let's look at us.
unidentified
That's how I got to it.
joe rogan
That's hilarious.
If you see the Stance Elements page, though, scroll down to the video of him with...
I think he's got...
I think he's got a red tracksuit on there, too.
No.
They post a lot of stuff.
There it is, right there.
Watch this.
Just watch this.
Look at that.
What in the hell?
I mean, dude.
lex fridman
And there's a lot of creativity in that, too.
So it's not just like gymnasts have athleticism that's also incredible for martial arts, but this has just like creativity.
joe rogan
And he's doing it to music and he's dancing to music.
I mean, it's phenomenal.
There's another guy called B-Boy Pocket Kim.
Have you ever seen that guy?
He doesn't even seem real.
Like, literally doesn't seem real.
The guy's abilities, that's him in the upper right-hand corner, Jamie.
Click on that.
Watch this dude.
Because this literally does not seem real.
Look at that.
What the fuck, man?
lex fridman
What the hell?
unidentified
He's amazing!
lex fridman
What's that called?
joe rogan
Oh, look at this.
It's me talking about him.
I say he's the freak of all freaks.
That's hilarious.
But he really is.
I mean, he's incredible.
That other guy, B-Boy Tata, is amazing.
unidentified
That's you.
lex fridman
What's that style called where you're doing like a robot style like pop lock type situation where you're it's not it's not breakdancing it's like I think it's called pop locking no no like where you're deforming your body in different ways that it's kind of like a robot dance but on steroids you know what I'm talking about yes it's like you're making your body flow in all different kinds of I don't want to miss I'd say it's hyphy, but I think it's called hyphy and Stylebender does...
joe rogan
Hyphy?
unidentified
Yeah, it's H-Y-P-H-Y. Hyphy.
lex fridman
Let's see if I... But I think breakdancing is a better overall body awareness muscle activity for fighting, definitely.
joe rogan
Well, a guy like that, a guy like, whether it's Kim, B-Boy Pocket Kim, or whether it's B-Boy Tata, those guys, those guys can do anything.
You'd have to just show them the moves.
Whether it's kickboxing or jujitsu, their body control is just incredible.
The flexibility is incredible.
The explosiveness and the control.
When that guy is jumping up and down on one hand, you have to be incredibly strong.
They're Stylebender.
lex fridman
Yeah, that kind of stuff.
joe rogan
Is this it?
unidentified
Yep.
joe rogan
This is just overall body awareness and dance skills.
Look at that.
Look at him getting after it.
Yeah.
He's going to fight Jan Blachowicz for the light heavyweight title.
That is a very interesting fight.
unidentified
What do you, by the way, think about the Conor fight this weekend?
joe rogan
I'm very excited.
Unfortunately, I'm going to be...
I think I'll be getting offstage right around the time it starts.
lex fridman
Yeah.
joe rogan
Because we're doing these shows.
lex fridman
Dave Chappelle versus Conor McGregor.
joe rogan
Well, the problem is we picked a bunch of dates and Dave does some dates with like music and he's like, you know, which dates you want to do?
So I picked these dates and I didn't even recognize that I picked the 23rd, which is the day of the fight.
It was alright.
lex fridman
Who do you got?
joe rogan
I do not know.
I think that Dustin has gotten far better, and Dustin is much more durable at 155 pounds.
But that said, Michael Johnson KO'd him at 155 pounds.
Michael Johnson hits very hard, and he caught him with a perfect shot that could legitimately knock out most 155-pounders.
But he KO'd Justin Gaethje.
He beat Max Holloway, which, especially when you look at Max Holloway's performance this weekend.
lex fridman
That was an incredible performance last weekend.
joe rogan
Maybe the best performance I've ever seen against a guy who, in Calvin Kaner, is just a straight-up assassin.
lex fridman
Yeah, those numbers were crazy.
I saw that you put up the numbers.
When I watched that fight, it didn't feel like that dominating of performance as the numbers indicate.
It was dominating, but what is it, like a record for the most?
joe rogan
Most strikes landed ever.
Here's the crazy thing.
Most strikes thrown and most strikes landed, but here's the crazy thing.
Most of the time when you see a lot of strikes landed, it's a ground fight.
Someone's on top of the guy and beating him up and like holding him down for five rounds.
But with Max, it's all stand-up.
He's insane.
lex fridman
We think O'Connor said that he'll knock out Poirier in the first 60 seconds.
joe rogan
Well, you know, he's probably putting that in Poirier's head.
You know, you've got to always think Connor's playing mind games.
lex fridman
He's being really nice.
I don't know if you saw.
He's being really respectful.
He's donated some money to Poirier's charity.
I'm not sure what it is.
So there's a lot of love back and forth.
joe rogan
I know it's weird.
Friendly Conor.
Friendly Conor is a different Conor.
lex fridman
It's the Russian in me.
I love Khabib.
I know he's a fascinating human being.
I hope he comes back and fights for Conor.
joe rogan
But what if Dustin wins?
Is he compelled to fight Dustin again?
Because that was a close fight.
lex fridman
That was a good fight, yeah.
joe rogan
Yeah, listen, there was a moment in that fight where Dustin caught him in a guillotine where I was like, whoa, that is tight.
Dustin has a very good guillotine, but Khabib got out of it.
lex fridman
That's the problem with people who are undefeated.
It's like, where's the ceiling?
Because maybe Khabib wasn't going.
joe rogan
Or, you know, maybe that's how he stays undefeated.
He gets that close to defeat because he's fighting world-class fighters, but his will and his ability is just...
That's enough to pop that head out and keep smashing you and eventually tap you.
lex fridman
Yeah, but you gotta admire the man who's, so Khabib is talking about what, like agriculture?
Like farming?
Matt, I don't know if you were paying attention to this.
He's talking like a businessman, but a businessman not like talking about like tequila or like new clothing line or maybe doing a podcast or something like that.
I don't know.
He's talking about actually building farms and honoring the culture of his people in the kind of way, the businesses that they build, honoring the dreams that his father had and his mom has.
That's pretty badass.
joe rogan
He's an amazing person.
lex fridman
Yeah.
Amazing in many ways, but also complicated, which is really interesting.
I'd love to see how that, like, wine or vodka or whatever, I know he doesn't drink, ages.
I wonder, because he's been so, so, so focused on fighting.
You know, you have the Bouvasiya Setiev, I've talked about him before, he's from that culture.
They became more and more philosophical and poetic and so on, so...
I think Khabib will be a good guest on this podcast in like 20 years.
joe rogan
Well, his English is much better now.
lex fridman
Yeah, it's really good.
joe rogan
I would have him on any time he wants.
You know, when we first talked about it a long time ago, but he was struggling with his English, but his English is excellent now.
He can talk really good.
unidentified
I'm gonna smash your boy!
lex fridman
Well, his English is so, like, developed around, like, talking a little bit of trash in MMA. I don't know how good his English is developed in terms of being, like, philosophical for three hours in a podcast or, like, thoughtful about life.
joe rogan
Oh, I think he'd be fine.
I think he'd be fine.
I think he can...
Yeah, I've seen him speak in interviews.
I think he's fine.
lex fridman
Yeah, it could be if you need a translator.
My Russian is pretty good.
joe rogan
We got yourself a Russian right here.
I mean, dude, I had Yoel Romero on.
lex fridman
Yeah, that was incredible.
With Joey Diaz.
That worked out.
That was incredible because his English is, well, pretty good still.
He can still talk.
And Joey adding the stories.
That's a fascinating coupling.
That's one of my favorite conversations.
The going back and forth.
joe rogan
Very interesting.
lex fridman
It's music.
joe rogan
Yeah, well, you know, they know so much about that Cuban culture, too.
They know so much about each other.
lex fridman
Yeah, I think about the translation.
He did it masterfully.
joe rogan
He really did, yeah.
No, Joey speaks fluent.
lex fridman
Right.
Oh, both languages.
Yeah.
Yeah, I think about that with, obviously, Russian.
So I have the unique possibility to speak somewhat English and Russian pretty well.
It's like, who can I be a Joey Diaz for?
unidentified
Khabib.
lex fridman
Well, Khabib is already pretty good.
Oh, yeah.
I mean, here, let me do the pitch.
Hi, Khabib.
If you ever want to come on the Joe Rogan Experience and need a translator.
unidentified
No.
No.
lex fridman
I'd love to do it.
I'd love to just sit silent and translate.
joe rogan
I don't think he needs a translator though.
lex fridman
He doesn't.
joe rogan
That's the problem.
lex fridman
Stop learning English.
unidentified
Hello, you!
lex fridman
Yeah, exactly.
joe rogan
He's not...
Yoel is, you know, his English is much...
It's much more limited.
lex fridman
Yeah, but it also has an art to it as well.
Just the simplicity of it.
You know, just like Joey Diaz, who mispronounces half the things he says.
joe rogan
He does it on purpose, though.
lex fridman
Kind of.
Sort of.
joe rogan
He calls Khabib Kalabib.
Yeah.
lex fridman
But the result with Yoel is almost a caricature of the superhero fighter.
He probably has one of the most intimidating builds in mixed martial arts.
joe rogan
You think so?
lex fridman
Who else?
joe rogan
Yoel.
Yoel's got the most intimidating build, for sure.
Ever.
lex fridman
Well, then there's the heavyweights, right?
joe rogan
Francis Ngannou.
lex fridman
Francis Ngannou, right.
joe rogan
He's just all-around terrifying.
lex fridman
Yeah.
Yeah.
joe rogan
But Yoel doesn't even look like a real person when you meet him.
He just doesn't look real.
He's so big, it doesn't look real.
He's apparently going to fight light heavyweight in Bellator.
lex fridman
What's light heavyweight?
205. 205, yeah.
joe rogan
I think he's going to move up to 205. He's so big.
That's the struggle to get to 185. At his age, I believe he's 44 now, which is crazy.
He's just completely shredded at 44. Like, full six-pack, no body fat.
Looks like a Greek god.
Doesn't look like he's aged a day in all the years he's been fighting.
lex fridman
I don't think he's ever talked about diet or anything like that, right?
unidentified
Whatever!
lex fridman
Yeah, exactly.
joe rogan
I mean, I don't know what he eats, but he's got to be eating.
lex fridman
Hard work.
joe rogan
He's got to be eating fairly clean.
Look at him.
He's in a cryo chamber, laughing and smiling.
lex fridman
I've never seen that guy.
He's like the polar opposite of me.
He's always happy.
joe rogan
Yeah.
Yeah, he's always happy and smiling.
lex fridman
And I'm glad you, another guy who's shredded is Burrows, Jordan Burrows.
I'm glad you had him on here.
joe rogan
Oh, he was amazing.
lex fridman
He's a special, special human.
joe rogan
Well, when you're that kind of an athlete and also a wrestler, those guys, they don't get a lot of accolades.
They don't get a lot of press.
They don't get the attention of the media, of the love of the crowds.
It's a different world.
They do it for the love of wrestling and the love of competing in one of the most difficult physical pursuits known to man.
lex fridman
Yeah, that makes it, just like he was saying, it makes it more...
I don't know.
Money almost gets in the way.
I know it's a horrible thing to say.
People should get paid for putting their money in the line.
But when you don't get paid, which is what makes Olympics special, I think you don't get...
Especially in the early journey, you don't get paid at all or much.
It makes it special.
It makes it so pure about the sport.
And wrestling represents that amazingly well.
I talked to...
Jordan Burrows is this...
Badass new talent.
I talked to Dan Gable.
I don't know if you know who that is.
joe rogan
Sure, of course.
They offered him up for the podcast.
I would love to have him on, but I want to do it in person.
Did you do it remotely?
lex fridman
No, in person.
I flew down to Iowa.
unidentified
Oh, wow.
lex fridman
I stayed with him.
joe rogan
Is that up yet?
lex fridman
Yeah, I just uploaded.
Today?
No, like a month ago.
I actually re-uploaded it because...
I was so sad.
I never care about views or listens and so on, so it's good that we're mentioning it.
Please go there, check out Dan Gable.
Because I was so sad that I only got not much views relative to others.
And I was like, this is one of the most special humans in the world.
joe rogan
Yeah, his story's crazy too.
About how he became that dedicated and focused when his sister was killed when he was 15. Yeah, raped and killed.
lex fridman
So his wrestling brought the family together.
I mean, you couldn't write a better script because he went undefeated until his last match in college.
And he lost his last match in college against a person he should have beat because he took a lot of stuff.
He let himself get distracted.
And of course, a guy who's never lost Losing that does something to you.
He went to another level.
And then he won the Olympic gold medal without letting up a single point.
Just domination.
And then coaching-wise, he then went to Iowa and coached...
I think he's the most winningest coach in NCAA history or up there.
And just taught this whole culture of just domination, which is tough in this nuke.
I mean, he struggles with this now.
Obviously, he has daughters and family, so he's softened up a little bit.
There's still a madman in there.
He has a shed, and he goes in the shed, and there's demons in there.
joe rogan
He works out in the shed, right?
lex fridman
Yeah, yeah.
joe rogan
Still, there's videos of it.
lex fridman
It's crazy.
joe rogan
Even as an older man.
lex fridman
He doesn't.
joe rogan
Trains very hard.
lex fridman
And I think they build the shed, so he's like, in order to maintain my marriage, I have to separate those two worlds.
joe rogan
I think he's got fake hips and fake knees now.
lex fridman
Fake everything.
joe rogan
Yeah.
Shoulders as well?
lex fridman
I don't know about the shoulders, but I love his...
joe rogan
What was that?
unidentified
Oh.
lex fridman
Here it goes.
joe rogan
This is his shed gym.
There he is.
Yeah, I mean, he's all busted up, and he still trains very hard.
But he's got hip replacements.
I think he's got knee replacements as well.
Did you ask him about those?
lex fridman
No, not about those.
I was so focused on kind of...
His mindset, he's basically David Goggins before David Goggins, which is just this mindset.
I remember he said that I've always wanted to train so hard that they would have to carry me off, you know, like be near death.
They would have to carry me off the mat and he's never succeeded.
And he was proud of his daughter because she's a swimmer and she passed out during a swim meet in the pool and he was proud of her that she succeeded where her father failed.
unidentified
Jesus Christ.
lex fridman
So that drive, I mean, what can you say about that?
The thing is, I don't know how often you're in the Midwest, in like that kind of Midwest.
So I also saw Tom Brands, who's the current Iowa coach.
I spent a day with him, I spent a day with Dan Gable, and like, I wanted to stay there forever.
The family feeling?
joe rogan
Yeah.
lex fridman
Just the love?
Yeah.
We're talking about California.
You forget how good humans can be to each other.
Everybody in New York or even Boston or California, they're busy.
They've got a thing going on.
They go to the next thing and so on.
Here, they're just set back.
They don't know who the hell I am.
This was recorded two years ago.
I was sitting on it.
I had demons around it.
joe rogan
What kind of demons were on it?
lex fridman
I felt like I didn't do as good of a conversation as I could have.
I felt like I failed one of my heroes.
I don't know.
I don't know.
So, whatever.
joe rogan
What made you change your mind?
lex fridman
A bunch of the Iowa folks non-stop messaging me like, where the fuck is the video?
Stop being a little bitch.
And he was really nice to me.
There's both a love in that family atmosphere and a love within the focus that they've had.
For so many years, this is one of the magical things I experienced that made me even further believe that family can be beneficial for success is that they're all in on this effort that Dan had to win the Olympic gold, to just succeed as a wrestling coach.
Just his whole life.
They get it.
And they love him for it.
And they kind of embrace it.
And there's, like, this family atmosphere.
Like, what they did at Tom Brands is the same Olympic gold medalist, too.
Coach of Iowa.
Another guy who's just insane.
We sat down on the couch and just watched these, like, documentaries about people being badasses, like mountain climbing, just overcoming shit.
As a family thing, as a family, all together.
And they've invited me like a nobody.
I don't know.
I've never felt that before and since, I think.
Because I don't go out to the Midwest very much.
And it just felt like home.
joe rogan
There's something to be said for that kind of life.
There's a different way of life.
My good buddy John lives in Iowa.
Just different kind of people out there.
lex fridman
No Twitter, no Instagram, no...
joe rogan
Oh, he doesn't have that?
lex fridman
No.
I mean, there might be something that somebody does for him, but...
joe rogan
But it's just small town life.
lex fridman
Small town life, yeah.
joe rogan
I mean, there's good and bad, you know?
unidentified
Right.
There's a lack of nuance there sometimes.
lex fridman
Well, definitely all Trump supporters there at the time.
joe rogan
What do you think that is?
Why do you think that is?
Because here's a narrative that I don't like, and it's the Trump supporters are all racist.
I don't like that narrative.
I don't think it's true, and I think it's too simplistic, and I think it's...
There's a lot of people that don't like a lot of what Democrats are pushing, whether it is, you know, whatever the variables are, whatever the things are that they don't like about the Democrats.
It doesn't mean they're racist.
This thing keeps coming up over and over again, like you can just say it.
You can just say it.
And that Trump equals you're supporting racism, you support Biden, it means you're the future, you're progressive.
It's a weird narrative that is very polarizing to all the people that voted for Trump that aren't racist.
They don't like a lot of the things that Joe Biden stands for in terms of his politics and the way he was with the Obama administration, the way the Democrats have been throughout the election.
There's a lot of...
They're allowed to have their opinions, and I think we run a real dangerous risk in this country of separating people, like good versus evil, and not just respecting people's differences and differences of opinions.
It's a different kind of discrimination.
It's an intellectual discrimination.
It's a cultural discrimination.
It's a weird way of chastising people that don't share your ideas.
lex fridman
Yeah, and in terms of white supremacists or racists, we focus on both the left and the right, on the extremes, on the ridiculous examples.
The tiny.001% of the people.
Like with the violence in the Capitol.
You somehow equate that some of the people that stormed the Capitol are somehow equivalent to the 70 million or whatever that voted for Trump.
joe rogan
Right.
lex fridman
That kind of equivalent.
And the same is done on the other side.
Everybody's...
It's sort of the, you know, the 80 or whatever million that voted for Biden are all social justice warriors and they hate America, right?
joe rogan
So I... They hate the flag.
lex fridman
They hate the flag.
I mean, one of the things that I do does bother me about sort of the, I don't know, is it the left or something, is not loving this country unapologetically.
I mean, criticizing, but just like loving the incredible experiment that this is.
And I think what I felt in terms of Dan Gable and so on, the nature of their support for Trump was, they were not like rah-rah Trump.
It's just they're more like rah-rah America.
Rah-rah America.
Yeah.
The flags everywhere.
joe rogan
Yeah.
lex fridman
And it's not, it wasn't also like naive or delusional support for America, like everything America does is right.
It's more like, this is an incredible country and I'm proud to be here.
And this is not beyond criticizing and so on, being against wars and so on, but just being able to say, I love America.
Every time I say, I love America...
I get private emails and messages.
So public messages of support from Trump people.
I knew you'd love Trump.
Oh, God.
It's like, why does saying I love America equate to I love Trump?
It doesn't.
joe rogan
It's weird.
lex fridman
You can just love this country and be skeptical of all leaders that attain power.
Anybody with power, I think, deserves careful scrutiny.
And Trump is certainly one of them.
Biden is certainly one of them.
But you can still love this country.
That's why I think people that immigrate to this country can appreciate even further, to be honest.
Because it's like...
It can be really shitty elsewhere.
Another way to do that is just by studying history.
joe rogan
That's too much work.
lex fridman
Too much work.
joe rogan
But yeah, I mean, coming from Russia, the difference in the freedom here versus there is...
lex fridman
Yeah, it's...
I mean, there's beautiful things about Russia, too.
Like, culturally speaking, in terms of just, like, in the struggle of the...
I would say it came from the wars.
The music, the art, the poetry, the writing, the science that came from the World War that impacted Russia way more than it did the United States.
The World War II. I mean, tens of millions of people died.
China, Russia, Europe, obviously, just...
They had to for a century struggle with the biggest existential questions of good and evil, of losing most of your family to unjust slaughter or starvation in Ukraine in the 1930s.
Like I mentioned before, my grandmother survived the Something that people don't talk about.
They say that Hitler is evil and so on.
They don't often highlight the evil of Stalin.
There's not enough talk about just the fact that he imposed just things on the people without any consideration of the suffering that that causes.
So millions of people died from starvation.
joe rogan
Starvation, cannibalism, people eating their children.
lex fridman
Yeah, it's crazy.
joe rogan
If you read the depictions of it, it...
I've read some stuff that I couldn't continue, I couldn't finish, because it's so horrific.
lex fridman
You know, you should have Dan Carlin back on the podcast, by the way.
joe rogan
I would love to.
lex fridman
And you, he's been, he's like, I don't know, I don't know what's a good metaphor, but he released an episode now like once every year, and it's always like an exciting, it's like Christmas or whatever, as a duo.
I feel weird saying that.
joe rogan
What is he doing most of the time now?
lex fridman
Working on the podcast.
joe rogan
So he releases this one episode once a year.
lex fridman
Well, he doesn't.
So he released, I want to say, three or four episodes this year.
So it's been a productive year.
joe rogan
You mean 2020, right?
lex fridman
2020, sorry, I apologize.
joe rogan
What we do is not what he does.
lex fridman
No.
joe rogan
It's really rude to call what we do a podcast and call what he does a podcast.
lex fridman
But he has two, and I recommend people listen to it, he has two podcasts.
One is Hardcore History and one is Common Sense.
He shut down Common Sense for a while because he felt Too polarized by the political climate, right?
But he released an episode, People Should Listen.
One, he got a lot of shit for.
That was a little bit, I think, critical of Trump, but not between the lines, not directly, but he got shit for that before the election, was like steering into the iceberg.
Basically worried.
He's the opposite of me in his level of optimism.
But he was worried about where this country's headed.
And he released a new episode, I think Garbage In, Garbage Out, about the...
You know, basically making a case for centrism, you know, for center-left, center-right in this country as opposed to extremes.
It's poetic.
It's beautiful.
People should listen to it.
But it's done with the same kind of care that he does with the Hardcore History.
But he did release one extra Hardcore History.
He inspired me to...
You mentioned what we do.
He inspired me to try to do a solo thing, like an episode on Hitler, on the rise and fall of the Third Reich.
I read a book called The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich.
It's this huge volume.
I recommend people read it.
It tells the story of how Hitler came to power, and it tells the story from the perspective of the person who was there.
So it was written in the, I want to say, 60s and 70s by a person who was a journalist that lived through it.
And it's one of the best books on the entirety of the whole Third Reich project, how evil came to be.
And so I've been trying to, for the last two months, to do an episode.
And I think it's going to take another, like, year.
Because it sucks, and it's hard.
It's hard work.
It's fascinating.
joe rogan
Yeah, to put together it the way he does.
lex fridman
Yeah, the way he does.
joe rogan
Very difficult.
lex fridman
And he doesn't call himself a historian.
So he's got, everybody's got demons.
His demons are like the historians that criticize him for getting something incorrectly.
So he feels like he's never going to live up to the accuracy required.
To sort of be respected by the academic historians.
joe rogan
There's also a problem with the academic historians don't like the fact that he's famous for that.
lex fridman
Yeah, of course.
joe rogan
There's a lot of ego involved in anything academic, right?
lex fridman
Yeah, but he's a storyteller, and he's a masterful storyteller.
joe rogan
He's good at abandoning that stance, you know, and saying, you know, being self-deprecating and saying he's not a historian.
lex fridman
Yeah, so he's obsessed with Alexander the Great.
He wants to do a whole series on Alexander the Great, which is probably one of the most badass sort of...
joe rogan
Conquerors.
lex fridman
Conquerors in history.
I think Tyson was obsessed with Alexander the Great.
Yeah.
Genghis Khan, too.
So obviously he did an amazing job with Genghis Khan.
joe rogan
The Wrath of the Khans is the greatest historical thing I've ever listened to in my life.
unidentified
Yeah.
lex fridman
And eventually he says he wants to try Hitler.
But that one is...
I struggle with that one because I think it's the most useful to understand because it's so modern.
It's useful for...
I feel like Hitler is a really interesting person to study, in the context of Stalin as well, of communism, fascism, the economic systems, how depression in the United States leads eventually to conflict and violence, how a charismatic leader can take control of a populace.
There's so much about human nature that you can learn from there that feels more directly relevant to us now than maybe even like Alexander the Great.
It just feels like there's a lot of lessons.
joe rogan
What was the criticism about the Trump episode?
lex fridman
The Trump episode, so Steering Into the Iceberg, I think the episode is called, I think the nature of the criticism was that Trump Magnify the division, which ultimately shut down the ability of people of having nuanced conversations and to be able to reason.
And whenever you destroy reason, you're not able to do what...
You're not able to make the decisions that kind of keep this country great.
You're not able to think clearly, like grounded in...
In a deep, real, humble understanding of reality, you're more focused on the division.
So you construct sort of narratives about the other side, that they're evil somehow, and you go into this battle.
This isn't just Twitter.
This is everywhere.
And so his argument was that this kind of process, once it gets going, you're going to have a charismatic leader that takes over, like Trump or somebody else, that then is going to make it worse and worse and worse.
There's too much incentive to make it worse.
And that's going to ultimately lead us to destroy this nation.
That was great.
joe rogan
It's a different kind of mania than what grabbed Germany when Hitler took over.
It's a different kind of mania because of social media and because there's too much information and there's too many competing ideas for it to be the same sort of situation.
But I think people were really worried because that...
What happened with Hitler in World War II is...
We would like to think that's outside of what's possible today.
But I don't think we really believe that.
I think deep down in our hearts we know that a charismatic leader with all of the wrong intentions, with all of the right things lining up in terms of the economy falling apart...
In terms of the lack of patriotism in general or a feeling of insecurity by the nation and then all of a sudden they get exhumed.
They get risen from the dead by some charismatic person who...
Can talk people into doing wild shit.
And I think we saw a little bit of that with the storm in the Capitol.
When he said you have to be strong, it's a show of force.
So when I saw that, I was like, oh, Jesus Christ.
Like those words, and there's a real question of whether or not those words were inciting and whether or not what he did was illegal.
I don't know.
I'm not a lawyer, obviously.
But the rhetoric, that kind of rhetoric, like you have to show strength.
What exactly did Trump say?
Because he said something along the lines of, you can't be weak, you have to be strong, you have to show, they need to show a force or something like that.
lex fridman
Yeah, that's a really good point, because I have to read his words exactly.
Because every time I read his words, they don't, on paper, they don't sound as dramatic as I think they're being reported on.
joe rogan
Right.
Sometimes you've got to look at it again.
lex fridman
Well, you also have to, speaking of Hitler, you have to listen to the delivery, too.
And I don't think, I think people should, I think BBC did a really nice program on Hitler, on the charisma of Hitler.
joe rogan
He had way better meth.
lex fridman
The drugs are just the best.
The Nazi Germany had the best.
There's a really good book on the drugs that fueled the Nazi regime.
I feel like, damn it, I wish I remembered the title, but it's a book entirely about all the drugs that they loved that fueled that entire war, the entire regime.
And it's probably, you know, we don't talk about it often, you could probably attribute most of the Nazi regime to just really good drugs.
joe rogan
You could, a lot of it, like legitimately.
Like one of the thoughts, there was apparently, there was, God I wish I remember who told me this, but there was a moment where Hitler was supposed to meet Mussolini and he was apparently just like broken down.
He was completely exhausted.
I can't remember.
Jamie, do you remember who brought this up on the podcast?
jamie vernon
No, I feel like I had even tried to look it up before and I couldn't find it, so I don't remember who told us the story.
joe rogan
Someone told us the story where Hitler was going to meet Mussolini and Hitler was just beyond exhausted.
And they pump him full of testosterone and cocaine.
They injected cocaine into him and testosterone.
And he meets Mussolini and he just starts ranting.
He just fucking corners him and coke talks at him for like five hours.
And Mussolini was ready to back out of the war.
Mussolini's like, what are we doing?
And Hitler just fucking berates him until he gives up and he goes along with it.
lex fridman
So there's a really interesting relationship with Mussolini, but Mussolini was always on board.
He was like, but can we just not do this whole thing you're doing?
Do we need to go to war?
But there were kind of buds, and he was able to convince him.
So that's an interesting set of conversations that people should look at.
The really interesting set of conversations is between Hitler, Chamberlain, so between Hitler, Britain, and France.
And my favorite part is when it was France, Britain, and Czechoslovakia, so in the very early days.
And Hitler was just, it's clear to me, there's an element of like Jeffrey Epstein style smoothness and charisma, that in the room he was able to convince people that he ultimately wants peace.
And at the same time, there's this moment that really is so dark.
It kind of haunts me.
I'm not sure exactly.
joe rogan
You know, the Jeffrey Epstein thing is a weird comparison because Eric Weinstein says Jeffrey Epstein wasn't smooth at all.
lex fridman
I know that's what Eric says.
I love Eric very much.
joe rogan
Eric is far smarter than the average human being.
Far smarter.
To the point where he's not buying anybody's bullshit.
And he met with Epstein and he said right away, he's like, well this is a construct.
He's like, he's an actor.
This is a construct.
This guy doesn't know what he's talking about.
He thought it was 100% bullshit.
lex fridman
I love Eric.
And he is indeed brilliant.
Probably way smarter than me.
But he's also flawed.
unidentified
No!
lex fridman
Like all humans are.
unidentified
What?
lex fridman
And I disagree with him on that one.
joe rogan
Well, listen.
Did you meet Jeffrey Epstein?
lex fridman
No, but I've met a lot of people who met him.
joe rogan
Who did you meet that met him?
lex fridman
MIT, so all the scientists, everybody met him.
This is the dark thing.
All the scientists met him.
joe rogan
Let me help you out here.
Here's the difference.
Here's one of the differences.
First of all, Eric has gotten laid.
It's happened before.
unidentified
Yes.
joe rogan
He probably got laid a lot when he was younger.
lex fridman
Just to clarify, people.
joe rogan
Smooth talker.
lex fridman
I have also gotten laid.
unidentified
Congratulations.
lex fridman
That's not what Joe is referring to.
joe rogan
No, I'm not talking about you.
I'm talking about a lot of these scientists.
A lot of these scientists, that is their kryptonite.
It's not a coincidence that this guy allegedly involved a huge part of the scientific community.
In this crazy thing where he's got a fucking island and he ships off these brilliant minds over there, allegedly, and introduces them to a lot of these ladies.
Allegedly.
lex fridman
Okay, sorry.
joe rogan
Listen, that is the kryptonite.
lex fridman
I meant allegedly referring to the kryptonite of sex being a kryptonite for scientists.
joe rogan
For dorks.
lex fridman
For dorks.
unidentified
Yes, listen.
lex fridman
Listen, you're not always disagreeing this.
joe rogan
Disagree.
There's no disagreeing.
lex fridman
I don't think that we can put all scientists in the group of dorks.
But yes, there's a lot of dorks.
joe rogan
Can't put Eric in there.
That's why he saw through the bullshit.
lex fridman
I don't know.
Listen, that's a little bit...
joe rogan
I hear what you're saying.
lex fridman
That's conspiratorial, I think, because to say...
joe rogan
There's many elements.
lex fridman
I think what Eric says, which is like he was just a tool of something bigger, is...
That's a problem to me because it removes the...
The responsibility of evil from an individual and saying that there's some other evil in the darkness.
It's possible.
unidentified
No, no, no.
joe rogan
He's saying that he's a part of the intelligence community.
And that's actually been reported on.
Do you know that when he was arrested, the initial arrest and when he was given a very lenient sentence, one of the guys who was involved in that case said it was above my pay grade and that I was told he was a part of the intelligence community.
Now, the word had always been that he was either a Mossad agent or someone along those lines.
Now, if you have some of the most brilliant minds in the world and you want to compromise them and you want to somehow or another get them entangled in your world, there's two great steps.
I think you need some more of that, little fella.
lex fridman
I was going to say, do you want to be...
joe rogan
Hold up.
lex fridman
I thought you consider yourself a man.
You're drinking.
joe rogan
What are we talking about?
lex fridman
Not sufficient.
joe rogan
I already drank it.
I finished.
unidentified
I know.
joe rogan
I finished mine before you, pussy.
lex fridman
We should have another one.
unidentified
Okay.
joe rogan
What I was saying is, if you wanted to compromise, cheers, sir.
lex fridman
Cheers.
joe rogan
Good to see you, man.
Legitimately.
Really good to see you here.
Because I tried to talk you into moving to Texas.
There's two ways you would compromise the scientific community, one of them being money, right?
So he gives them money, funding, helps them, millions of dollars, right?
Donated millions of dollars to various projects, various things they're working on, to women.
Bring all these scientists together, bring these brilliant guys together with the promise of money for all their projects they're working on, and then you bring them to an island.
And they say, hey, everything's fine here.
Don't worry about it.
You know, I got a fucking temple that's painted like the Jewish flag, the Israeli flag.
lex fridman
I have faith that scientists have more integrity than that, but...
joe rogan
But it's not a matter of integrity.
Like, everything was above board.
If they don't know what he's doing, and they're innocent, right, then they haven't done anything wrong, and he's giving them money and taking pictures with them, just simply by taking pictures with them.
They're...
lex fridman
Oh, they're compromised, you're saying?
joe rogan
Yeah.
lex fridman
I see.
Okay, I thought you meant like, say there's a beautiful young lady here and then she was tasked with escorting me around to show how wonderful Texas is.
joe rogan
All you have to do is have photographs with you and this beautiful young lady.
lex fridman
The compromise.
joe rogan
Yes.
I do not know what happened, obviously, because I wasn't there.
But I would imagine that if he was really a part of the intelligence community, there was probably a directive.
There was probably something that they were working on to try to get these people to go along with whatever the fuck he was doing.
lex fridman
But say to me that those are both different flavors of evil.
Both of them are not good.
But okay, so...
joe rogan
But the intelligence community has always done that.
They have always compromised people with sex.
And they've always compromised people with money.
This is a standard.
I've directly talked to people who are in the CIA who would describe methods that they would use to compromise individuals.
lex fridman
Wait, so is this...
The scientists have done something to avoid it?
joe rogan
It's hard, because if they don't know, they're promised funding, and then you have other scientists that are also going to be there.
Hey, this guy's going to be there.
Hey, you got that guy.
This guy won this prize, and he's going to be there.
And this guy's from MIT. He's going to be there.
And you're like, well, that'll be a fun party.
Let's go.
Should I bring my wife?
lex fridman
If Epstein is that, like why, so there was, I guess actually Eric makes this argument, is like the whole thing that Jeffrey Epstein was a pedophile was actually a negative in that sense for the, if he is a part of like the intelligent community.
joe rogan
You know what I think?
lex fridman
The fact that he's a criminal, sorry to interrupt.
The fact that he's a criminal is a negative.
joe rogan
I interrupted you.
I think it is a negative, but I think when you're involved in that much depravity, I think you can get compromised.
I think it's like a DEAH and it becomes a drug dealer.
You know?
I think when you're around darkness all the time, I mean, that happens a lot where undercover cops become drug dealers.
It just happens.
They live in that world for too long and it just gets in their veins.
lex fridman
Yeah.
unidentified
Well...
joe rogan
Not saying that he wasn't initially to begin with, but...
I mean, who fucking knows?
We're throwing a lot of speculation out there.
unidentified
But still...
lex fridman
So I try to sort of defend...
joe rogan
I have faith...
lex fridman
In scientists having integrity...
But the getting laid thing is a thing.
I found myself not being affected by...
I really don't like strip clubs and money.
I'm not affected by those things.
I've actually been attacked in the past for who is your funding source because I've been supportive of some of the things that Tesla has done.
Anytime you're supportive of anything, they ask, like, what's your funding source?
joe rogan
You gotta stop reading comments!
lex fridman
I haven't actually tattooed that.
No, this is from more legitimate science.
I... I ignore it.
joe rogan
Legitimate scientists have attacked you for defending Tesla?
lex fridman
Not attacked, but, well, yes.
Yes, because the argument is that they are creating a product that's deployed out into the wild that can potentially be dangerous.
joe rogan
You mean auto drive?
lex fridman
Autopilot, yes.
joe rogan
Yeah.
lex fridman
So there's a lot of criticisms of naming that product, like autopilot, or now it's called full self-driving.
Yeah.
joe rogan
But do you think that the argument for that would be, if autonomous vehicle driving is ultimately one day far safer, and most people believe it will be, don't you believe it will be far safer than just manual human operations of vehicles?
lex fridman
It's complicated, but yes.
joe rogan
Most likely.
If you get to 50 years from now, 30 years from now, how the fuck do they think it's going to get there?
Without implementing it.
What do you think?
Is it going to be implemented completely theoretically and not in the wild?
lex fridman
Can I try to lay it out real quick?
I don't know if you're familiar.
There's a place called Phoenix, Arizona.
There's a company that used to be Google self-driving cars.
They're now called Waymo.
They have deployed what is an autonomous vehicle.
In Phoenix, it's like an Uber app.
You can order it, and it can drive you to a bunch of different locations in Phoenix.
So it's basically like Uber.
joe rogan
No driver.
lex fridman
So this is the key thing.
There's not a driver sitting there.
Not doing anything.
There's not a human not doing anything there.
Supervising.
joe rogan
There's nothing.
unidentified
There's no person in the vehicle.
lex fridman
It's trippy.
I've gone there just to try it.
unidentified
You did it?
lex fridman
Yeah, I did it.
It's trippy.
It'll freak you out.
joe rogan
In the backseat?
lex fridman
In the backseat.
You're sitting there in the backseat and letting some asshole robot turn the steering wheel for you.
And then, like, what if that thing...
No, these are just, like, some generic, some crappy...
Well, I'll do respect.
It's some minivan type of car.
It's great.
It's wonderful.
Whatever.
joe rogan
This is it?
Oh, my God.
This is madness.
lex fridman
But, like, when you're in there and it turns the steering wheel, it's like, what if it takes me to my death?
joe rogan
Well, who's manufacturing these vehicles?
What is that?
It looks like a Chrysler.
lex fridman
Yeah, it might be a Chrysler.
That's right.
joe rogan
It looks like the steering wheel looks like a Chrysler.
Is that correct?
lex fridman
Yeah, I think it's the Chrysler Pacifica.
joe rogan
Is that what it says, Jamie?
lex fridman
You're right on the Chrysler.
I think it's Chrysler Pacifica.
joe rogan
Yeah, okay.
Chrysler Pacific.
I didn't even know Chrysler made a driverless car.
unidentified
No, no, no, no, no.
lex fridman
This is really important.
This is a non-driverless car that Waymo then converts completely.
They don't, they just use, like, Waymo's the brains of the operation here.
So Waymo's doing the radar, the LiDAR on top of it.
You see that?
They've changed it.
They sexied it up.
And there's a bunch of little different sensors around.
It has all the intelligence.
It's really cool.
Like, if you want to taste the future, try this car out.
joe rogan
You get a button that says pull over.
lex fridman
Yeah, but the interface, because it's the Chrysler Pacifica, is kind of shitty, to be honest.
It's very old school.
But see that thing?
It shows you what the car is seeing and what it's doing.
And me, as a...
I connect with you on the chimp side.
We both have the same ancestors.
It feels weird to let a robot control your whole life as it's traveling 50 miles an hour in a...
joe rogan
Well, I think ultimately this is going to be way safer.
lex fridman
Ultimately, yes.
But this is an example.
The reason I bring it up, people in the scientific community, and I can see that argument, and I felt that argument, and I partially agree to it, which is this is the safe way to proceed.
They're mastering Phoenix, Arizona currently.
They're like mastering it and slowly growing.
Tesla Autopilot is like, we're going to deploy this Autopilot technology to the entire world.
To hundreds of thousands of people.
joe rogan
I don't use the Autopilot.
I have it.
I don't use it.
Jamie, do you use yours?
jamie vernon
I did it once.
Felt gnarly.
joe rogan
I've used it with my wife just to freak her out.
unidentified
Watch this, baby.
jamie vernon
I did on a windy-ass road, too, with cars coming at me, two-way road.
joe rogan
Oh, my God, did you?
jamie vernon
I kept my hand on the wheel the whole time.
And a couple times, I didn't even realize it gave it back to me.
lex fridman
The question is, have you taken a long road trip?
jamie vernon
That was 20 miles, 30 miles.
That's as long as it was.
joe rogan
That's a good move, right?
If you're taking a long road trip because you can just chill.
lex fridman
Yeah, chill on the highway.
That's where people get the benefit of it.
joe rogan
Yeah, well, I used to take it home from the Comedy Store when I was tired.
So I'd be there hanging out and it'd be like 1.30 in the morning.
I'd be tired.
I love that.
I'd get on the 101 and just let it ride.
lex fridman
Was it energizing?
At the store?
No, no, no.
Relaxing.
joe rogan
Just relaxing.
Where I can just hold on to the wheel and pay attention to the road a little bit, but not like I am if I'm driving a sports car.
lex fridman
You think you're paying attention less?
joe rogan
I think so.
lex fridman
Well, a sports car is different.
You mean like a sports car driven at a fast speed.
One of the surprising things to me...
It seems that people are a little bit more alert when they turn on autopilot.
So this idea that you become more detached from the road was counterintuitive.
That's what I thought would happen, but it seems like people are less...
They become more alert.
They become less...
joe rogan
Kind of weirded out by the fact they're doing this.
lex fridman
I don't know.
But the point is, there's a lot of open questions from a human psychology perspective.
And that's where the scientific community speaks up.
Elon seems to be going full steam ahead.
And he's doing one of the really cool things.
I don't know if you're paying attention to this, but they're really deploying the full self-driving beta.
Technology.
For the people in the beta program, the FSD beta program, it's able to take left turns, right turns, stop at the light, actually take you from point A to point B fully autonomously.
Except, the liability is still with you.
You're supposed to always pay attention.
And this is another public, what is it?
joe rogan
Service announcement.
lex fridman
Service announcement.
Always pay attention to the road.
joe rogan
I bought that and I never had it installed.
It was one of those things where I was in my car and I was like, would you like to order that?
I'm like, okay.
lex fridman
Elon's going to be mad at you.
I'm just kidding.
joe rogan
I have to bring it somewhere.
That's the problem.
I thought I could just download it.
But you've got to bring it somewhere.
lex fridman
Oh, because your car needs to be modified in order to support it.
joe rogan
Whatever the new thing is that I paid for.
Because they keep emailing me.
lex fridman
The cool...
Both the pro and the con of the way Tesla does things is that they're constantly improving things.
And some of those are in the hardware.
So sometimes you have to go and get your car modified and upgraded to support that kind of stuff.
I think it's incredibly exciting.
I think it's one of the things I've changed my mind on is...
The ability of cars to drive fully autonomously I don't think as soon as Elon says, but I think very soon.
joe rogan
When do you think it'll be?
lex fridman
It's hard to make...
joe rogan
We should tell everybody that you actually have a background in AI, so you're not talking out of your ass like me.
lex fridman
My side gig is being an expert in Conor McGregor fights, drinking whiskey.
I worked on autonomous vehicles for a long time.
I still work on autonomous vehicles.
And I'm deep in the scientific community.
And one of the only people who is appreciative of what Elon is doing and of what the entirety of the robotic community is doing.
joe rogan
One of the only people?
lex fridman
Yeah, it's Apple versus Android.
The scientists are very...
I think it's jealousy, to be honest.
joe rogan
I like both.
I have an Android phone, too.
lex fridman
You do?
joe rogan
Yeah, I do.
I have a Note.
lex fridman
I think this is a metaphor for the division that ultimately creates progress.
joe rogan
I think the Apple-Android is a good analogy.
lex fridman
Yeah.
joe rogan
Because there's a weirdness to the Android people.
They're the resistance.
unidentified
Yeah.
joe rogan
Like, I'm hanging in here.
I don't give a fuck, bro.
lex fridman
We should all use Signal.
joe rogan
Yes.
Legitimately should all use Signal.
Signal's amazing.
I use Signal on my iPhone.
I use Signal with a lot of my friends.
I use Signal on my Android phone.
lex fridman
There's like a threshold I'm waiting for that people like switch.
joe rogan
A lot of people are switching.
I talked to Moxie from Signal, one of the guys who created it.
He'd been on the podcast in the past.
lex fridman
Yeah, that's right.
joe rogan
How do you say his last name?
Mapplethorpe?
No.
Marlon Spike.
I'm thinking of Robert Mapplethorpe, the artist.
Marlon Spike.
Moxie's amazing.
He's a really interesting guy.
And...
Completely altruistic intentions.
Not trying to make any money off of Signal.
And he said that when Elon was telling people to use Signal, something happened, and Signal literally gained the amount of users of a small country in a couple of days.
They had an outage a few days ago.
Signal did, and I talked to Moxie about it.
Because I sent him a message about something where there was these...
There was an article that was demonizing signal.
It was really disturbing to me because they were demonizing signal and demonizing...
I'm going to find it.
I'll send it to you, Jamie.
They were demonizing signal and they were demonizing encryption.
And they were saying that it's a tool of the people that stormed the Capitol and this kind of shit.
I was like, what the fuck are you talking about?
So it was this weird, like, plea to Big Brother to look in on everybody and to make sure that everything's okay.
Oh, wow.
andy stumpf
A very disturbing thing.
lex fridman
I think a lot of people that got...
I'd love to hear your opinions actually on Parler.
There are a lot of people that move to Signal as a place to try to communicate with each other when all the platforms are banning just a bunch of different accounts.
joe rogan
It's really unfortunate, man, because I see both sides.
I really do.
And I know some people don't.
I'm going to send this to you, Jamie.
Some people don't see both sides.
I really do see both sides.
I don't think that most people are doing this because they want to support some sort of gigantic government overreach a la NSA, Edward Snowden exposed stuff.
I think most people do worry that these kind of things will escalate.
Now what we saw, the attack of Capitol Hill, we keep going.
Millions flock to Telegram.
So this is something that Glenn Greenwald posted.
Millions flock to...
That's okay.
Millions flock to Telegram and Signal as fears grow over big tech.
But go back to what Glenn said, because Glenn had a really good point.
He said, three journalistic units most devoted to demanding online censorship are CNN's media reporters, NBC's disinformation team, and New York Times tech reporters.
Here's the letter laying the groundwork for making encrypted apps Signal and Telegram the next targets.
And scroll down to his next tweet, please.
He said, when the internet and encryption proliferated in the 1990s, the Clinton administration seized the Oklahoma City bombing to demand backdoor access to all encryption.
Bush and Obama used 9-11 to radically expand internet surveillance.
Now it's CNN, NBC, New York Times journalists who take the lead.
And there's a whole stream of...
It's from January 15th from Glenn Greenwald, who's an amazing follow on Twitter and just a fantastic journalist.
But his take on it is accurate.
You've got to be really careful when people are calling for denouncing encryption, privacy.
You should be able to say things privately between each other.
There's no fucking reason why anybody should know what you're saying to me.
And the way you text most of the time, SMS, with your wacky fucking Android device, that is the least private way.
lex fridman
OnePlus Pro 7. Oh, is that a new one?
unidentified
Galaxy...
lex fridman
No, it's not that new, but Galaxy S21. Best phone on the market.
joe rogan
Are you going to get the Galaxy S21? Probably.
lex fridman
It looks so sexy.
It does.
joe rogan
The Ultra looks very sexy.
lex fridman
I don't know.
I... I wasn't, I don't know what to think you're right.
I'm personally torn about the whole banning of all these different accounts of social media.
The one that really hit me was Amazon, I don't know if you're paying attention to this, but Amazon removing Parler from AWS. Yeah.
It feels like that created a worse world, a more dangerous world.
Because there's a difference to me than banning accounts on Twitter, which is also very complicated.
But it's like the difference between banning the ability to make a phone call, the ability of banning your number, blocking your number, versus banning your ability to make a phone call at all.
When the actual infrastructure based on which your apps operate is now putting its finger on the scale of who succeed and not, now that starts affecting capitalism.
That means Twitter can't have a competitor that has the conspiracy theorists, that has the people that are allowed to say crazy shit about Jeffrey Epstein not killing himself or something.
joe rogan
I don't think that's crazy.
lex fridman
Some people might think it's crazy, right?
You think it's crazy?
joe rogan
What do you think?
If you had all your money and you had to put it on red or black, you had to put it on he didn't kill himself or he did kill himself?
lex fridman
Red or black.
joe rogan
I'm pushing all my chips on he didn't kill himself.
lex fridman
Yeah, I would...
I feel like you would be more excited by the push.
I would be just sadly pushing towards he didn't kill himself.
joe rogan
Oh, you feel like I have a problem with the way I look at things.
lex fridman
I'm judging.
joe rogan
Why would I be more excited?
Do you think I favor Chaos over you?
lex fridman
Well, I got enough chances to interact with Michael Malice to where you're not even close to that side of the spectrum.
He gets excited.
joe rogan
He doesn't have any children.
lex fridman
That's right.
joe rogan
Yeah, I have children.
I have three daughters.
And that's, you know, the most vulnerable.
Just slaying Maxwell, hearing illegally streamed by apparent QAnon followers.
jamie vernon
It broke in.
It says 14,000 people watching illegally.
joe rogan
But here's the thing, man.
Fucking everybody who does something like that now is a QAnon follower.
It's the greatest way to dismiss people ever.
Because you were talking, Jamie and I were talking before the podcast about these hilarious threads of these QAnon followers realizing they've been had and saying, you know, I can't believe Biden's the president.
And then there's some really dumb ones who think Biden is in on the QAnon conspiracy and he's helping.
lex fridman
Whoa, that's another level.
joe rogan
Oh, it's all nonsense, right?
It's just that it's literally the most unsophisticated minds trying to interpret things and looking for secrets that they can uncover.
So it's really crude, bumbling, and you see these guys with flannel shirts on.
Where their bellies are poking out and the buttons are stretching because they're so fat.
unidentified
And they're like, Q has told us that this is that and that is this.
And so what's going to happen is it's a setup and Trump has got them all locked up and everything has been blockchained.
joe rogan
And there's so many people that buy into all this shit.
And it's weird to watch.
It's weird to watch it all play out.
But it's the same thing as Bigfoot.
It's the same thing.
It's the same intention as people who are channeling aliens from beta reticuli.
It's the same fucking thing.
It's people that want to pretend they have some secret information because their life is boring as fuck.
And they want to spice it up with some secret intel on the US government by Q. And Q is gut.
unidentified
They know.
They know what's happening.
joe rogan
And it's easy to get sucked into that.
Just like it's easy to get sucked into channeling.
It's easy to get sucked into psychics and card readers and Bigfoot and all that stuff.
It's easy to get sucked into believing that someone has this really exciting secret.
They know some things that other people don't know.
lex fridman
But there's so many secrets that are fascinating and that are closer to the truth.
Like, a lot of science.
There's a lot of secrets.
Oh, yeah.
Sure.
I would say, I mean, you're at the forefront of reviewing some of the things on the alien side that are like...
joe rogan
Oh, I got more coming.
I got more coming.
lex fridman
Oh, shit.
unidentified
I got a lot.
joe rogan
I've been doing an alien interview once every month.
lex fridman
Yeah, hell yeah.
joe rogan
I go with UFO interviews.
lex fridman
Some of them, like the Avi Loeb guy.
joe rogan
Thank you very much, by the way, for recommending him.
lex fridman
He's legit.
So people should check him out.
Outside of aliens, the same thought mindset he has, he applies to a lot of questions in science.
His thoughts about black holes are really interesting.
People should really follow...
unidentified
He's brilliant.
lex fridman
He's a brilliant dude.
joe rogan
Brilliant.
So when a guy like him is saying that this interstellar object that travels faster by far, by more than twice of any comet or any asteroid that we've ever observed, that is coming away from the sun, not affected by the sun's gravity,
that is ten times more reflective than any other object that is ten times more reflective than any other object we've ever observed, that one of the things that Jeremy Corbell sent me is that it appears that it's commonly depicted that that object, a muamua, is a cigar-shaped object.
lex fridman
Cigar-shaped.
It's most likely flat, like Jeremy said, yeah.
joe rogan
Jeremy said it's like a disc.
lex fridman
That's what Avi says, too.
joe rogan
Yeah, it's from his book.
So the things that people have, the way they've described it...
I'll try to find Jeremy's...
lex fridman
Yes, most likely, the reflectivity suggests that it's most likely to be a disc.
joe rogan
A disc, yeah.
lex fridman
Of course, Jeremy says flying saucer-like.
joe rogan
Of course he does!
This is from Avi's book.
The likelihood of Oumuamua being disc-shaped was about 91%.
So that's like artistic interpretations based on the idea that it was an object, like a rock.
But he says that it's flat.
lex fridman
See, I tend to believe...
jamie vernon
Cigar isn't what I would go with on that.
Cigar shape?
joe rogan
What do you think?
A shit?
jamie vernon
Yeah.
joe rogan
A turd.
Yeah, it looks like a flying turd.
jamie vernon
Definitely.
lex fridman
This is a kid's show, Jamie.
I didn't say it.
joe rogan
But you know what, man?
I think this is...
I'm going to go way out here.
This thing that people have where they want to believe in Q, or they want to believe in aliens, or they want to believe in Bigfoot, they want to find these secrets.
I think this is ultimately the reaching for the branch.
This is a call to psychic powers.
And I think, ultimately, that's what we're trying to develop as human beings.
And I think it's taking many, many, many generations.
And I think the evolution of human communication through grunts and gestures, all the way up to sounds, all the way up to complicated computer code and various languages, I think that what we are doing is trying to evolve human communication, whether it's through biology or whether it's through technology, to the point where there are no secrets.
And I think that's coming.
And I don't think it's going to be as far off in the future as many people think.
And I think Elon and this Neuralink shit, these are the...
The first warning shots of this symbiotic relationship that we're going to have with technology that allows us to read each other's minds.
And this is what I've been saying for a while, that I think this is the future of human beings.
I think the future of human beings is...
The thing that's gonna save us.
We're gonna realize that we're in this massive conflict between lies and truth and encryption and disinformation and propaganda and these fucking...
Crazy conspiracy theorists and all these people that are alt-right and white supremacists.
Are the Proud Boys evil or was it all just a joke?
What's the truth?
I want to know the truth!
Because the fucking mainstream media does not have a vested interest in telling you the truth.
They have a vested interest in telling you whatever the fuck they should tell you that's going to make the most people around them happy and sell the most clicks and get them the most views.
And so we've got a conflict.
We've got a massive conflict.
Two polarized sides, right and left, red and blue.
No one knows how to get out of this okay.
No one knows.
The way to get out of this okay, the way we get out of this, is we can clearly see everyone's intentions.
And maybe some people that you thought were bad are not bad.
Maybe they're really good.
And maybe some people you thought were good were really bad.
They're just playing on the heartstrings of what's the common consensus of what you're supposed to say.
What pronouns are you supposed to use?
What are the words you're supposed to utter?
What are the things that you're supposed to repeat?
There's a lot of really bad actors out there that are playing upon these cultural narratives.
They might be sociopaths.
But they're saying the things that you can say publicly.
Privately, people know.
Privately, people are terrified.
Privately, people are like, she's fucking crazy.
Like, I can't believe she got to where she got.
Do you know what she did?
unidentified
Do you know who she is?
joe rogan
Do you know who her uncle is?
Do you know who her grandfather is?
Do you know what the fucking...
The family history of these demons from hell?
Like, this is a lot of people talking this.
But publicly, Del Espouse woke...
It's dark.
The way out of it is to read each other's minds.
That's the way out of it.
lex fridman
Well, I think I love the picture you paint of reaching for branches and everyone's reaching for different branches.
I think on the path to reading each other's minds, there's going to be a lot of technologies that allow you to read each other's minds in more subtle ways before it's like full-on waterfall, Neuralink, just...
I think that's what social media does.
We can read each other's minds.
There's a...
I mean, we're all struggling with this.
And I think despite the media and all that, everybody is just like the alien folks are reaching for the different branches and underlying that is ultimately like a curiosity and an optimism.
And that's how we got to where we are today.
It's just like chimps being, you know, the sons of apes, but it starts with bacteria.
It's just like reaching, always reaching for the next branch, like hopeful.
joe rogan
Yeah.
lex fridman
Because most of life is kind of shitty.
And you're always trying to reach out and make a better life.
And it's gotten better and better and better and better because of that kind of reaching.
That's what Elon does with his crazy thoughts about, first of all, landing on Mars and then colonizing Mars and colonizing other planets.
It seemed crazy at the time.
But because of that kind of reaching, a hundred years from now, several hundred years from now, it'll be ridiculous to think that obviously we would not be colonizing this solar system and even other solar systems.
And that kind of thinking, then that moves to robots.
AI. Yeah.
I don't know if you saw...
Okay.
I was trying to bring Spot here.
joe rogan
No!
lex fridman
Yeah.
joe rogan
I'll fucking shoot it.
lex fridman
Exactly.
joe rogan
I'll shoot that dog.
Good luck.
Spot is a...
I would never shoot a real dog.
It's a robot dog, folks.
lex fridman
Oh, it's not real to you.
joe rogan
No, not yet.
Maybe one day it will be.
lex fridman
Robot lives matter.
joe rogan
You met my dog?
You met Marshall?
unidentified
Yes.
lex fridman
No, I... Did you meet him?
joe rogan
Goddammit, I was going to bring him here today.
But in the confusion of trying to find my suit and get to the dry cleaner and all that jazz, it was a real problem.
lex fridman
I'm honored.
I think the world would love to see a joke in a suit.
joe rogan
I was gonna.
lex fridman
Yeah.
joe rogan
But I can't wear regular collars.
lex fridman
Yeah, no, that's right.
It has to be custom made.
unidentified
Yes.
joe rogan
So I have this David August custom suit for this fucking gorilla neck I have.
That I've developed.
The iron neck, man.
Do you use that yet?
lex fridman
Yeah, you showed it to me.
joe rogan
You don't have one yet?
lex fridman
No, I don't have one.
joe rogan
I'll get you one.
lex fridman
I'd love that, actually.
joe rogan
They actually just reached out to me because me talking about it so much has blown their company up.
They asked me if anybody needs one, anybody wants one.
lex fridman
I do a lot of bridges.
joe rogan
No, no, don't do that.
No, no, no, no.
That's how Mike Tyson fucked his neck up.
Bridges, the problem with bridges is you're putting all this weight on those discs.
The thing about the iron neck is when you have this halo on and this bungee cord, Mike Jolly, the guy who invented it, was a fucking gigantic NFL player.
It was so intimidating meeting him.
I'm like, hi!
He's so much bigger than me.
You pull the cord.
The cord is a 50-pound bungee.
And then you have this halo around your head that you can change the resistance.
And so you go...
But you're never doing this.
So this is how people fuck their necks up.
They fuck their necks up by putting an unnatural load on those discs.
lex fridman
Like a compression.
joe rogan
Yeah, well, a compression and just a strain on the disc itself, and it causes herniations.
By keeping everything in alignment, but...
Operating against resistance, you never put pressure on those discs.
I've had a tremendous result with it.
I talk about it.
I mean, I don't have any interest in the company.
I don't own any of it.
They never paid me.
I talk about it openly.
lex fridman
Do you try to get reps once a week or something like that?
joe rogan
I do it twice a week.
lex fridman
Twice a week?
joe rogan
Yeah, I do it twice a week.
But I do once a week pretty light.
But I do a lot of other neck stuff too.
A lot of trap stuff.
There's a lot of cleans and presses which work your traps, you know?
lex fridman
There's a lot of little maintenance work like that.
I feel like you have to study your own body, like what kind of shit gets you in trouble.
I used to, not used to, I still do, train wrist stuff.
How do I put this where people are not going to be like...
Jerk off?
Yeah, exactly.
Wrist curls.
Wrist curls.
So I get in trouble with wrists.
Shoulders is a huge problem.
You mentioned knees.
Shoulders is a huge problem for me.
So I use bands.
I recommend it highly.
Just bands to do all kinds.
There's all kinds of movements you can do on the shoulder.
joe rogan
Have you had shoulder problems?
lex fridman
Like, overuse problems, not major, like, shit broke problems yet.
joe rogan
You get MRIs?
lex fridman
Not yet.
joe rogan
So you don't know if you broke anything?
lex fridman
No.
But the Goggins thing, this is why I'm preparing.
Like, cue the Rocky music.
Because of Goggins, I did this challenge where I did 20,000 push-ups and pull-ups, 25,000.
That's when the shoulder was like, oh, shit.
joe rogan
Yeah, the problem is the tendons.
The tendons don't want that.
lex fridman
The overuse injuries.
joe rogan
There's a fine line between this idea of 40%, like people quit at 40%, pushing past that, but also having irreparable physical damage to your body.
lex fridman
You sound like a pussy, sir.
joe rogan
Yeah, I do.
I do.
I sound like a guy who's had his knees reconstructed.
There's a certain level.
lex fridman
Weakness gets us all, ladies and gentlemen.
Age and love.
Yeah, for sure.
unidentified
You have daughters and...
joe rogan
Also, knowing what you're physically capable of doing versus not doing that because you don't want your body to break.
lex fridman
The thing is, we all die one day.
Mm-hmm.
joe rogan
But do you want to be Dan Gable, walking around your garage with bad hips and bad knees and doing curls with rusty weights?
Maybe you do.
lex fridman
Maybe you do.
I think he lived a hell of a life.
joe rogan
I'd like to high-five him and then go fucking take a nap.
lex fridman
That's almost poetry.
I don't know.
That's definitely the choice you make.
I mean, you make that choice in all kinds of aspects of life.
joe rogan
I make preservation choices when it comes to my body.
I do make preservation choices because I think you...
Look, I love David.
I love David Goggins.
I love my friend Cam Haynes, who does basically the same kind of shit.
Maybe even more extreme.
Cam Haynes is in better shape.
He's more crazy in a lot of ways.
He just doesn't have the same kind of publicity that David does.
lex fridman
He screams a little bit less, but he runs like a marathon.
joe rogan
He doesn't scream at all.
Yeah, he'll run a marathon a day.
And, you know, he'll regularly do 100-mile runs.
And regularly do...
I mean, he's run the Moab 240, the Bigfoot...
200. He's done some fucking crazy shit.
Cam's an unusual human being.
And he's also older than David.
Really?
lex fridman
He looks young.
joe rogan
He's my age.
Cam's my age.
lex fridman
Interesting.
He's vibrant.
He's like super...
joe rogan
Works a full fucking eight hours a day every day.
Works for the Oregon Department of Water and Power.
Puts in his fucking punches a clock every day.
lex fridman
And puts his time on the bow and all that kind of stuff.
joe rogan
Oh, yeah.
Every day.
No, he's...
lex fridman
He's got a good father.
I think he's got a kid, right?
joe rogan
He's got three kids, and one of them's a ranger, and the other one broke David Goggins' pull-up record.
lex fridman
Yep.
joe rogan
Yeah, savages.
Raising savages.
And he's got a beautiful daughter, too, who's brilliant.
He's a man.
I mean, he's the fucking man.
But...
You know, these...
lex fridman
He stays injury-free, sorry to interrupt, to the point of preservation.
joe rogan
He's a weird one, man.
He doesn't make any sense.
Like, I don't know how his knees aren't trashed.
Like, David's...
They're pulling out giant syringes.
Like, we were highlighting on the podcast with The Undertaker how they're pulling out these giant syringes of pus from Goggins' knees.
I don't know how he keeps going with those knees.
Cam doesn't have those problems.
Like, one time I had to bring him to the doctor.
We were in Vegas and went for the fights, and he had something fucked up with his foot.
It turned out he had a stress fracture.
He didn't even stop running.
He didn't even stop running when he had a stress fracture.
lex fridman
He had different...
He on purpose constructs situations where others, including himself, thinks that this is a bad idea and pushes through it.
joe rogan
Oh, dude.
Here's another thing.
The bowhunting community doesn't know what to do with him.
There's people in the bowhunting community that don't like what he does because he works out so hard.
Here's the thing.
When you see Cam Haynes, you see a guy who's like this fitness endurance athlete, but that's deceiving.
Because although he is those things, he is those things to be the best bowhunter on earth.
And there's a real argument that he's the greatest bowhunter of all time.
Like, if you ask me, I love him to death, but if I wasn't his friend, and I was on the outside looking at him, and I'm like, who's the greatest bowhunter of all time?
I'm like, It might be Cam Haynes.
Like, there's a real argument.
Like, there's a couple of guys in the running.
John Dudley's in the running.
Fred Bear is the legend.
There's a few of these guys.
These, like, legendary bow hunters, but...
This guy is so successful.
Like insanely successful every year.
Every year in the most difficult pursuit.
It's really hard to be successful bow hunting elk in the mountains.
It's hard.
He's successful every year.
And he pulls a 90 pound bow.
Now you can't even buy a 90 pound bow from most bow companies.
They won't make you one.
But he fucking strong arms them into making him a 90 pound bow.
So all these other bow companies, or all these other bow hunters rather, a few of them that are kind of butthurt and jealous, are mad that he is telling people he has a 90 pound bow.
My question is, do you think you are as strong as him?
And if you don't, what do you give a fuck if he's pulling 90 pounds and you're pulling 70 pounds?
Are we trying to pretend that we're all the same strength?
Because that seems silly to me, because I know a lot of really fucking strong people that are way stronger than me.
I don't want to pretend that I'm the same strength as them.
And if I found out there was a guy out there that pulls a 150-pound bow, but he's built like The Undertaker, and he weighs 300 pounds, I'd go, oh, okay, that makes sense.
That's like me pulling a 90-pound bow or a 100-pound bow.
That would be easy for me.
But for him, a 150 pound bow would probably be just as easy.
Because he's fucking giant!
Cam Haynes is working out every day.
You've got a problem with him pulling a 90 pound bow.
You don't really have a problem with that.
Your problem is with yourself.
Your problem is that you know you can't really do that.
And it bothers people.
So there's this weird ego thing in the bow hunting world where they get upset at him because he's a legitimate psycho.
Because he literally does get up at 4 o'clock in the morning, run in the rain in the dark, puts in a half a marathon before work, goes to work, puts in another 10 miles during lunchtime.
He's a real psycho.
lex fridman
Yeah, and I like Goggins.
The way he's an inspiration to me is in how easy he makes it look.
joe rogan
Smiles.
lex fridman
The whole time.
He smiles.
unidentified
Stoic.
lex fridman
He's just nice.
Yeah.
He's just nice human.
joe rogan
Stay hard!
There's none of that.
lex fridman
None of that.
None of that stay hard.
joe rogan
Have a good day, everybody.
He's out there running.
lex fridman
In some sense, I don't follow David Cain's, sorry.
joe rogan
Cam Haines?
lex fridman
Cam Haines.
unidentified
That's that whiskey talking.
lex fridman
That's that whiskey talking.
joe rogan
One, two drinks.
lex fridman
It's because he doesn't get me as pumped up.
He's just an example I'd love to live up to.
There's something about the David Goggins of just like, listen, motherfucker.
You gotta look at your demons!
unidentified
Make them your bitch!
lex fridman
It wakes you up.
joe rogan
Well, he's much more outwardly inspirational because he takes a lot of pleasure in pumping people up.
lex fridman
There's a beautiful...
So he's got...
I think she's a girlfriend, but she might be a wife.
I apologize if I don't know this.
joe rogan
Dave's wife?
lex fridman
His wife?
joe rogan
Yeah, it's his wife.
lex fridman
Okay.
So they have...
She's more and more becoming part of his Instagram thing.
And there's just like this magical, in terms of relationship, moment where she's filming him for his Instagram.
They're supposed to go out to dinner or something, like a nice thing.
And he...
joe rogan
Is that when he's doing push-ups?
lex fridman
He's doing push-ups, yeah.
joe rogan
In a puddle of sweat on the carpet?
unidentified
Yeah.
lex fridman
That is the most just like there's a romantic element of just like this is what I have to live with but I also love this man from her perspective and also there's this picture of like Goggins who's like I don't give a fuck I'm getting these push-ups in um and he's he didn't really plan it he's just he's just there in the corner he's like almost like why are you filming me right now just let me deal with this guy right here I'm surprised he has a bed He's
unidentified
shaking his arms out while he's doing these fucking push-ups.
lex fridman
And like with that time limit, I know what that feels like.
joe rogan
My wife and I had dinner with him and his wife.
unidentified
And a couple other folks after UFC. The Vegas one.
joe rogan
Yeah, pre-pandemic, before all the shit went down.
And she was like, he's nice, he's normal, he eats bread.
That's what she kept saying.
My wife was like, he eats bread.
She thought he'd be like fucking fire-breathing demon.
But he's fun.
Like, he's a fun guy.
I've hung out with him a bunch of times.
lex fridman
He just gets the work done.
He just drops down to the push-ups and that.
joe rogan
Well, you know, he knows that, you know, there's my expression, conquer your inner bitch.
He knows he's got an inner bitch.
And, you know, he goes...
He goes, it ain't easy.
unidentified
Sometimes I look at my sneakers and I stare at those motherfuckers for a half hour before I put them on.
joe rogan
But just that admission that this is not, he's not a robot, but he gets everything a robot does done.
He can do it.
He pushes his mind to do things that the body does not want to do.
So he almost, in some ways, behaves like a robot, but one of the values in Dave, multiple values in Dave, one of the values is that he lets you know that he's not a robot.
He lets you know that he's got that little bitch inside of him talking to him.
lex fridman
Yeah.
I've gotten the fortune to actually interact with him on kind of the struggle side of things.
And he's definitely still...
It's not an act.
joe rogan
No.
lex fridman
He's still personally struggling with some shit.
He's working through it.
And he gets angry in certain kinds of ways that it's like, oh shit.
For example, going out and running with him, there's this movie Casino.
It's this badass movie with Robert De Niro and Joe Pesci and Sharon Stone, I think.
And they meet out...
joe rogan
James Woods, too.
James Woods is Sharon Stone's pimp.
lex fridman
Oh, that's right.
Good memory.
That's a badass movie.
God, I miss movies like that.
joe rogan
That's another one.
My wife loves that movie.
lex fridman
Yeah, it has.
joe rogan
I've seen that movie multiple times.
Against my will.
lex fridman
Oh, you don't like that one?
joe rogan
No, I do.
I like it.
lex fridman
Is this like a Scent of a Woman situation?
joe rogan
No, it's like, um, there's certain movies that, like, I've watched John Wick maybe a hundred times.
lex fridman
Yeah, you did.
joe rogan
Like, legitimately.
lex fridman
Yeah, I'm not that great of a movie.
joe rogan
Shut your fucking hole, you Russian traitor.
You're wearing a John Wick uniform.
lex fridman
There's other people that wear this.
joe rogan
No, no, no.
No one does it better.
lex fridman
He is dreamy.
I will admit that.
Kanye West is dreamy.
joe rogan
He once killed three men in a bar with a pencil.
lex fridman
Yeah.
joe rogan
With a fucking pencil.
lex fridman
Is that historically accurate?
joe rogan
Listen, that fucking movie is so...
If you like to work out and you want to get fired up, that scene at the Russian bathhouse at the Red Circle bar where he kills everybody, that fucking movie is so good.
How do you say Chad's last name?
Chad...
That guy...
I always fuck up the pronunciation of his name.
It's very confusing here.
unidentified
Hold on.
Chad...
joe rogan
S-T-A-H-E-L-S-K-I. He's going to get mad because I say his name all the time.
I communicate with him.
lex fridman
Who is it?
joe rogan
We text.
I met him at Terran Tactical.
I shot guns with him.
Where they taught Keanu Reeves how to shoot guns.
But...
lex fridman
What punks you up more?
The shooting guns?
Or the fighting?
The martial arts?
The judo?
He does pretty good judo and jiu-jitsu.
I gotta give him credit for that.
joe rogan
It's madness.
It's a masterpiece of violence.
If you want a revenge movie...
They stole his car and killed his dog.
lex fridman
Killed his dog.
joe rogan
And so he kills everybody.
lex fridman
I get it.
joe rogan
I mean everybody.
lex fridman
It's a fucking great movie.
Do you want him to also wear like some pointy ears and wear like a cape?
Because that'll probably make you even more excited.
joe rogan
No, it wouldn't.
lex fridman
Because a real movie about drama involves something like Casino.
unidentified
No.
lex fridman
Where it's like real men.
joe rogan
I don't need it to be real.
I live a real life, bro.
That's why I like superhero movies.
People are like, they're not like real life.
Like, yeah, yeah, yeah.
I live a real life, pussy.
lex fridman
Listen, speaking of which, you couldn't even get yourself in a John Wick suit, so you struggle.
Listen, you can't even live up to that.
joe rogan
I have a John Wick suit that fits me.
lex fridman
Yeah.
joe rogan
But the fucking...
You're more like the Hulk.
lex fridman
You just rip that thing apart.
joe rogan
I'm a juice head.
That's the problem.
I lift too much weights.
lex fridman
Talking a little shit.
joe rogan
This fucking scene here in the Russian bathhouse.
Boom, boom.
Come on, son.
You want to go before that.
jamie vernon
Wow.
joe rogan
Is this what it is in the YouTube video?
Go way before when he stabs the guy.
There it is.
Right there.
Right there.
When he stabs the guy under his chin and looks him in the eye.
Watch this.
All clear?
Da.
Da.
Watch this.
Right here.
This is one of my favorites.
When I was involved in this Sober October challenge with my friends, right here.
lex fridman
This is what you were thinking about.
joe rogan
I watched this a hundred times in a row.
I just kept watching it over and over and over again when I was on the elliptical machine.
lex fridman
Oh, how's the carnivore thing going?
Great!
joe rogan
It's going great!
lex fridman
You still...
joe rogan
I keep cheating, though.
I keep cheating with dessert.
lex fridman
This is the problem with carnivore, because I've been eating carnivore, too.
The problem is, watching the Holloway fight, is I drink a lot of beer.
joe rogan
Yeah.
Well, look, we're drinking whiskey.
lex fridman
Well, that's low-carb.
joe rogan
My problem is dessert.
I've been eating dessert.
But I'm lean.
Yeah, I'm fairly lean for me.
I'm probably, like, right now, like $1.99-ish, somewhere around there.
lex fridman
But the problem is with carnivore, at least for me, is it makes me feel so good and lean and focused and just energetic that when I go off the path, it hits me way harder.
And that almost enforces you to be almost too stoic to where you can't have fun.
I mean, not fun.
I'm not saying pigging out is fun, but there's something social about even just drinking beers or Just picking out...
joe rogan
It does wreck your body, though.
It's interesting, right?
lex fridman
Yeah.
It's weird.
There's a recovery to it, but it does make you feel really good.
It doesn't make any sense.
joe rogan
It's weird, right?
It jacks up your testosterone.
You should get your blood work done.
And the thing that I find is that I don't have any crashes in the day.
I'm just flat throughout the day.
lex fridman
Like mentally, super...
joe rogan
The real criticism is coming from people who are either, you know, there's some people that are very educated about nutrition and they have a problem with the carnivore diet.
They don't like, you know, there's some evidence that points to the idea that it's unhealthy.
The anecdotal evidence, though, from individuals that find great benefit in it is very compelling.
And unfortunately, I'm one of those.
Then there's also, there's a lot of people that make these arguments that are not well-founded about it being bad for the environment.
And I don't necessarily think monocrop agriculture is good for the environment.
I think the problem with the environment is massive amounts of human beings consuming food.
And I don't believe the argument that...
There's no way to eat meat that's healthy for the environment because they've shown that you can do regenerative agriculture.
The question is, you can get it.
You can definitely buy grass-fed beef from like Joel Salatin or some Polyface Farms or there's a company Piedmontese Farms.
They just sent me some beef.
You can buy...
There's Rome.
Is that the one that...
Carnivore MD... Is that his?
Rome Ranch, right?
Paul Saladino?
lex fridman
It's funny enough, I think Ben Campo, something like that.
Ben Campo's farm sent me some...
Me.
There's like ethical ways of doing it.
It's expensive though, right?
joe rogan
It is expensive.
Butcher Box, they use all grass-fed, grass-finished beef, all from ethically responsible farmers.
They have like a real relationship with farmers and ranchers where they treat their animals ethically and fairly and inhumanely.
And a lot of people are like, well, how can you do that if you kill them?
I understand your perspective.
But the way they kill these animals is instantaneous.
There's a bolt to the brain.
They die instantly.
And I see the argument that you should never kill a thing.
But I think you need to understand that that death for an animal that is essentially a prey animal.
Like if you look at this weird mandala, this weird, if you look at just the range of animals on the planet, there are animals that eat other animals.
And a cow is one of those animals that gets eaten usually by large predators.
The way they get eaten is horrific.
The best way for them to die is from human hands, if that human does it correctly.
Whether it's a hunter or whether it's a farmer.
There's no animals that are wild animals that live to be an animal that dies of old age.
The numbers are so low, it's like people that live to be 120. There's not a lot of them.
Most animals die by starvation, by disease, or by predators.
The vast majority.
If someone comes along, whether it's me shooting it with an arrow or whether it's an ethical, humane farmer, like one of the ones that ButcherBox employs or some of these other ranchers, you can get it.
The real question is not that.
I mean, there's an ethical question.
It's a debate and it should be handled.
You can have a respectful conversation about this.
But the real question is, can that sustain 7 point whatever billion people?
And I don't know if it can.
I don't know if that's true.
I think our problem might be the massive amount of human beings and the fact that very few natural ways will sustain this population.
Monocrop agriculture is terrible.
It's terrible for the soil.
It's terrible for the environment.
It displaces wildlife when they...
When they harvest those crops, it's devastating to the wildlife, it's devastating to small mammals, and devastating to insects, devastating to birds.
Life for life is not one for one.
We don't look at a mouse the same way we look at an elk.
An elk is a large, what my friend Steve Rinella calls charismatic megafauna.
We look at them in a different way.
But it's one-to-one.
These larger things we think are more valuable.
If I shoot one elk, I eat it for a year.
Like, I give it up.
Oh, do you have a place to cook?
lex fridman
Yeah.
joe rogan
You have an apartment?
Yeah.
I got food for you.
lex fridman
I love it.
joe rogan
I have two commercial freezers out here.
lex fridman
I don't know how to put into words my gratitude towards that, yeah.
joe rogan
Wow, good.
I got a bag for you.
I'm going to hook you up.
lex fridman
I feel kind of bad about eating meat that's factory farmed.
joe rogan
Yeah.
Well, I do too.
I know what you're saying.
But health-wise...
I think I feel better when I eat a lot of meat.
lex fridman
I don't know if I could break apart the psychology of it.
Do you struggle with it?
Yeah.
Ethically?
Because I feel, on a personal level, really good eating meat.
joe rogan
Yeah.
lex fridman
And I understand.
It feels...
This isn't me like being a social justice warrior or signaling or something.
It feels like this would be one of those things that in a hundred years we'll look back and say this was a really fucked up thing that we did as a society.
joe rogan
I'm not sure.
This is why I'm not sure.
Because what are we going to do to control the population of these animals?
Once we've established herds of cows and sheep and chickens and all these different animals that we consider livestock, how are we going to stop them from breeding?
Are we going to separate them from each other?
Are we going to play God?
Are we going to bring in predators?
What are we going to do?
If we stop eating them, what are we going to do?
And are we acknowledging There's a lot of people that are vegan zealots, and they do not believe that it can be healthy to eat meat.
The problem with that is, of course, that almost all elite professional athletes eat meat.
There's very few exceptions.
There's a few that do well, and there's also a few that try vegan diets and their bodies wind up falling apart.
And vegans hate that.
They hate when you talk about it, they get angry, because it's an ideology.
You could say it's almost cult-like.
But they also have some good points.
Like, they're not killing sentient beings.
And they don't think of plants as being a sentient being.
unidentified
Right.
joe rogan
The problem with that is, of course, when you do mushrooms, you realize that all things are alive.
unidentified
Yeah.
lex fridman
That's what...
I hope you get Matthew Johnson in your podcast, by the way.
That guy...
joe rogan
Is he the guy that you had on yours?
lex fridman
Yeah.
joe rogan
Psychedelic drugs guy?
unidentified
Yeah.
lex fridman
Okay.
I got a...
Okay, he opened up my mind.
So I've always thought psychedelics in general, but psilocybin, just everything.
DMT was fascinating.
Like a fascinating way to explore the mind, scientifically as well.
But he's the first person, I might be ignorant, made me realize you could actually do it as part of like, like multi-million dollar funded studies.
And explore it rigorously.
I know it sounds weird, but seriously explore.
Where can you go?
He is big on doing a heroic dose of psilocybin, which apparently is legal as long as it's part of a study.
And he's been studying it for...
joe rogan
50 years.
lex fridman
No, he's a young guy, which is like, you know, part of my excitement that this is like, this is a legit...
This is somebody that we'll be following for decades to come, I think.
He's just in the early steps of a journey.
He's running huge studies.
One of the things that really excite me about what he's doing is he went from...
Sort of using psychedelics or psilocybin or any of the other psychedelic drugs to explore how you can treat different mental disorders, diseases, addictions, and so on, to now pushing it towards how can it help?
A person who, what he calls a creative, somebody like you, a comedian, or somebody like Elon, an engineer like me, engineer, scientist, all that kind of stuff.
How can it help the mind when you're not trying to treat some kind of...
Explicit disorder, but actually trying to expand your thinking about the world.
And actually doing that as a study.
That's what I'm excited about.
Kind of waiting with just like bated breath that he runs a study that I can participate in.
Because he'll be open to in the wild.
unidentified
Do you have any experiences at all?
lex fridman
I've...
Psilocybin mushrooms.
Yeah, I've taken three, four times.
And it was...
I've never had, actually, a negative experience with drugs.
Maybe alcohol, but that was...
It's like saying...
Like, you know, it was more positive than negative.
Drugs, kids don't listen to this, but drugs have done well for me.
joe rogan
Do you listen to the podcast I did recently with Dr. Carl Hart?
lex fridman
No.
joe rogan
You would really enjoy it.
It was a little tedious in the beginning because we were talking about politics and it was post-Capital Hill and it was like, you know, he was very frustrated.
But when we got into drugs, then he came alive.
Well, his book is right here.
lex fridman
What is his...
joe rogan
Drug Use for Grown Ups.
Chasing Liberty in the Land of Fear.
lex fridman
That's not the sense...
I started listening to the podcast.
That's not the sense I got from the podcast when I started listening to it, which is awesome.
Because, yeah, I was hearing the politics and that kind of stuff.
joe rogan
Yeah, I should have steered us away from that quicker.
But I love the guy.
And I just wanted to let him talk and talk with him.
And I wanted to get us into drugs.
But I didn't want to just jump right into it because...
I felt like...
One of the things about this podcast, I feel like sometimes people come on and they realize that it's this big platform and they have a lot to say.
And when there's a thing that's happened in the news that was as ridiculous as that...
I shouldn't even say ridiculous.
Horrific is that Capitol Hill attack.
Everybody...
Wants to get it out of their system.
So we talked.
We talked about politics for a little bit.
I felt a little clunky with my descriptions of things.
But then we got into drugs.
And once we got into drugs, then he shines.
Because he was a guy who bought into all the propaganda.
And he's a research scientist and a brilliant guy who wasn't into any drugs at all until he was in his...
I believe he said he was in his 30s.
Is that correct, Jamie?
Somewhere in there?
And then, you know, now he takes drugs all the time.
He's talking about the positive benefits of heroin.
He had a shirt on that was the chemical compound for crystal meth.
lex fridman
Yeah, that's...
It's funny enough, like, so you talk to Avi Loeb, who's, you know, the Amu Amua, somebody who's really open-minded about that, but he's less open-minded about psychedelics and all those kinds of drugs.
It's fascinating.
We're, as a species, you talk about reaching for branches, are exploring, like, what's Yeah.
What's interesting?
And I think psychedelics is a legitimate, like I haven't actually tried much at all, but it feels like every time I've tried mushrooms, it makes you realize that the mind is capable of so much more than you were cognizant of.
joe rogan
It makes me think that there's more to reality than we can grasp and that we need to help.
We need something.
We need a little doorway that lets us walk through to some other side, whether it's psilocybin or dimethyltryptamine or whatever the method you use.
There's a lot more out there.
We're very crude in our perceptions, our ability to perceive, and I think Our ideas of drugs, our negative ideas of drugs, are a lot of times, they're flavored with the limitations of human personality and human beings interfacing with the world,
looking for escape rather than looking to explore and looking to give in to Mother Gaia and give in to these magical compounds.
Also, there's a lot of fucking charlatans, man.
There's a lot of people that espouse the use of psychedelics because it makes them appear to be spiritual and it boosts their ego.
I've had more than one conversation with people where they say, you don't seem like a psychedelic guy because you use a lot of...
Fucked up words and you say a lot of shit you probably shouldn't say.
I'm like, well, I'm also a comic.
At the end of the day, my goal is to...
Look, I'm also accustomed to being around people that do what I do.
Sometimes people get taken aback by my crude language or the way I think about things or discuss things, but my culture, my community is...
Comics.
At the end of the day, they're comics.
And fighters.
Both of those groups of people in the community are used to saying some fucked up shit.
It's fun for us.
When you're a person who...
People are accustomed to things...
One of my favorite videos...
It has nothing to do with psychedelics.
Of a fighter.
It shows you the sense of humor of a fighter.
My friend John Wayne Parr, after a fight, he's got this giant gash in his head.
And they're stitching him up, and as they're stitching him up, they're opening up his thing like a mouth and talking.
unidentified
Like, hey John, how was today?
joe rogan
He's got this giant cut in his head.
A lot of people would be freaked out, and they have this cut in his head.
He's laughing, it's post-fight.
You know, there's a sense of humor that fighters have, and there's a sense of humor that comedians have, and I'm sure first responders, firefighters, a lot of soldiers that I'm friends with, they have a different sense of humor too because they've seen a lot of wild shit and a lot of violence.
They use...
There's a style of communication that for a lot of people to just live a more...
Pedantic, a more pedestrian, a more placid life.
They're uncomfortable by it.
lex fridman
Yeah, I actually look to humor.
I think humor will save the world.
I think that we'll mention.
joe rogan
Look at this.
That's only one of them.
That's only one of them.
The other one was on the side of his head.
He had one where they were stitching him up.
It was above his left eyebrow, and it was giant.
John's had more than 100 stitches in his head.
I mean, way more than 100 stitches.
Like, hundreds of stitches in his face.
lex fridman
Yeah, the people that have been through the worst shit that I've had a connection with in my life, they always have a dark sense of humor about it.
And it's a kind of escape.
No, it's not an escape.
It's actually...
It's a release valve.
But not even.
It's almost a way to embrace the dual nature of life.
That it can be really shitty and really beautiful.
joe rogan
Yeah.
lex fridman
Because of the ups and downs.
And somehow, I don't know what it is about humor...
There's something about it that just reveals that, the rollercoaster of life.
The best of it.
Right now, the big one, of course, is the whole cancel culture and the hypocrisy within politics.
And so comedy, that's why it sucks that the coronavirus is keeping a lot of comedians locked up.
Comedy is a way to reveal that ridiculousness.
And I suppose podcasts are doing that.
joe rogan
They are, but there's a lot of comedians that are back on the road now.
They're like, fuck it, I can't do this anymore.
lex fridman
And hearing your show with Chappelle was so refreshing.
Actually, I won't say what it is, but Ron White was on the show.
He said the most, and I was fortunate enough to sit next to your wife, and he said the most inappropriate thing.
Joke.
And it was so refreshing for some reason.
It's kind of escape.
joe rogan
I know what you mean.
lex fridman
We've been taking ourselves so seriously in this very careful discourse in the public sphere that comedians point out the elephant in the room.
This is absurd.
And sometimes that requires going over the top.
It made me miss the world as it was.
joe rogan
It'll be back again.
And the real ones like Ron White and Dave Chappelle, they'll be raging stronger than ever.
Because people are going to appreciate it and they're going to realize, oh my god, this is the way out.
We need to stop...
Getting angry about everything, and we need to start embracing humor.
It's important.
There's a broad spectrum of human thought, and we can't just live in the fucking range of outrage.
That range is a shitty range, that range that so many people exist in.
And one of the reasons why they exist in that range, the outrage range, is because they're doing it online.
It's not a real way of communicating.
Because of the fact that everyone's been separated from just normal regular interactions with folks You know, I remember like I would feel like when I was when I first moved to LA I Didn't have any friends and I would feel real weird.
You know, I would be I had a furnished apartment So it wasn't really it didn't ever felt like mine.
It felt like a hotel said that they're this place called Oakwood's these Oakwood's apartments in Burbank and I think it was in Burbank.
But wherever it was.
I was staying in these apartments.
It was weird, man.
I felt weird.
Like, what am I doing here?
And then I would go to the comedy store.
And I'd be around people.
And I'd be around like-minded misfits.
And we'd all be laughing.
And I would be like...
It was almost like somebody took a weighted vest off of me.
Like...
I'm going to be okay.
It's going to be okay.
And then, you know, it felt weird again the next day and then I had to go to the comedy store again.
We need each other.
We need each other, but we need each other person to person.
And there was no social media back then, which if there was, I'd probably be just like a lot of these fucking idiots that are online raging about the world and looking for acceptance and looking for social justice brownie points and virtue signaling at any turn, hoping that it gets me some love and likes.
Because that's what people are doing.
They think they're doing it because they're trying to correct the world, but they really don't understand that they're contributing to the polarizing aspect of today's culture and climate.
We need to be around each other.
lex fridman
Can I ask you a weird question?
unidentified
Sure.
lex fridman
So I've been a fan of your podcast for a long time.
I listen to most episodes.
I listen to the one with Giannis, I think.
joe rogan
Giannis Papas.
lex fridman
Yeah, by the way.
He's hilarious.
joe rogan
He's awesome.
He's a great Twitter follow, too.
lex fridman
Yeah, yeah.
I got two.
Cheers.
I got to actually go to the show with him.
I was at the table with him.
I'm also a big fan of his podcast.
I think it's called...
joe rogan
History Hyenas.
lex fridman
History Hyenas, yeah.
It's like the complete opposite of Dan Carlin.
It's just like comedians shooting the shit over.
But that said, about World War II and Greek, Crete, people should like...
Greeks are bad motherfuckers.
joe rogan
Oh, yeah.
Yeah.
lex fridman
Jesus.
I was surprised how much they contributed to just pushing back.
There's a lot to discuss there, but they helped stall the Nazis in the fact that it took them much longer to then, after conquering Crete, they had to go to Russia and they succeeded.
The Greeks successfully Stalled the Nazis to where most of the war was in the winter pushing towards Stalingrad.
There's a fascinating history there.
I always love the kind of 300 where you stand back and like just a few people are able to fight back the storm of evil.
unidentified
Yeah.
lex fridman
That's always badass.
joe rogan
That movie's amazing too.
It's so fantastical and ridiculous and over the top but just fun.
lex fridman
Yeah.
But anyway, there's something about him.
It must have been the whiskey.
There's a sadness that I've heard over the past couple months.
joe rogan
From Giannis?
lex fridman
No, from you.
joe rogan
Really?
lex fridman
I might be wrong on that.
I wanted to ask, because you mentioned about friendships in LA and so on.
Are you doing okay?
joe rogan
Yeah, I'm fine.
I'm remarkably resilient, despite the fact that I fucked up the word remarkably.
lex fridman
Grammar could use some work and pronunciation.
joe rogan
I feel great.
lex fridman
You feel good.
joe rogan
Yeah.
Where are you getting that sadness thing from?
lex fridman
I think, so what I heard, maybe a slight romantic thing, you brought up your wife and so on, and there was just a longing for human connection.
joe rogan
About her?
lex fridman
No, not your wife.
Just in the way you were talking about things.
Yeah.
I don't know.
That stood out to me more than usual.
Usually it was like Joey Diaz shooting the shit for the years, right?
It just felt like you were more...
I mean, I guess we all grow and change.
It felt like you were...
I don't want to say softened up, but there's a sadness in there a little bit.
joe rogan
Well, I think sometimes I mourn for the death of L.A. I really do.
And I think when I'm around comics sometimes, particularly comics like Yana, who I met at the Comedy Store, there is a part of me that gets to this part where I'm like, God damn it.
lex fridman
This is gone.
joe rogan
It's gone, man.
L.A.'s gone.
You know, my friend Brendan Schaub, he drove his bike down to the comic store the other day.
He was texting me.
He was like, dude, this is The Walking Dead.
It is so fucked up down here now.
There's nothing open.
It's so strange.
It's so weird.
It feels so dangerous and so different than it used to feel.
lex fridman
Do people feel that way?
unidentified
Also sad to see about New York.
joe rogan
Why do you think it was when I was talking about my wife?
lex fridman
Because you don't usually bring up your wife.
joe rogan
Oh, I think it was because he was talking about his or something like that.
lex fridman
I know, but hilariously enough, he was talking about something about him becoming famous and trying to plan ahead that if he's going to continue being married...
Like, prenup style.
He wants to make sure that there's...
I mean, he's just laughing.
But there's just...
unidentified
I don't know.
lex fridman
There's a melancholic kind of longing for...
Like, Louis C.K. has this bit where he's like...
I think he talks about...
Like, listening to Bruce Springsteen and pulling out to the side of the road and crying or something every once in a while?
Just, like, remembering that life is, like, both beautiful and tragic?
There's just that, which I don't usually hear from you.
joe rogan
Well, I mean, maybe we were drinking, and that's part of it.
The reason why I don't bring my wife up too much is that she doesn't really like it when I talk about her.
Because I'll say something fucked up, and she doesn't want to hear.
So I try to hedge my bets with that.
unidentified
In your show, you brought up your wife.
lex fridman
I won't mention the bits or whatever.
joe rogan
Oh, those jokes?
She gets upset at those too!
lex fridman
She was laughing.
unidentified
I looked over at her to make sure it's cool.
joe rogan
She's a great person.
She makes me a better person.
She really does.
I don't say that lightly.
You know, if I didn't think she...
I didn't like her, I wouldn't be...
Well, see, I say I wouldn't be around, but I would.
And one of the reasons why I would is because I have kids.
And I think there's a thing that...
There's like, this is my girlfriend, and then there's this is the mother of my children.
And it is a fucking different animal, man.
It's a different animal.
You know, it's like a lot of people said like...
You know, you never really...
You thought marriage was stupid and then you decided to get married.
Well, I had children.
I had children.
Whatever I think is stupid about marriage...
I think the idea of...
The idea of committing to someone is not stupid.
But the idea of a legal contract with a government agency...
It is stupid.
There's no love in the courts.
There's no love in these civil unions and all this nonsense.
No.
The love is between two people.
And there's something weird about saying, can I get it on paper?
I love you.
You love me?
We love each other?
Okay, imagine if you did that to your best friend, like Lex.
You and I are friends.
I love you.
I think you're a great guy.
lex fridman
Can we get that on paper?
joe rogan
Can I get that on paper?
If I pull this out and say, Lex, you and I have been friends for a few years now, right?
Let's fucking make it official.
lex fridman
Yeah.
joe rogan
Let's make it official, bro.
And then if you stop taking my calls, I want money.
lex fridman
Yeah.
Half of what you make it.
joe rogan
It's weird, because when sex is involved with human beings, we have these cultural norms.
But these cultural standards about relationships are based about...
There's two things going on.
One, there's like if a woman commits to a man and she's enhancing his career...
And she abandons her own to try to help him, and then she doesn't have a career, and then he gets rid of her and cashes her out for a new model, and then she's fucked, and she needs alimony.
Or, vice versa, like the Tom Arnold situation, where Tom Arnold, that's our guy.
We've all talked about that.
That's our fucking Michael Jordan when it comes to male alimony.
He married an incredibly successful woman, Roseanne Barr, and then when he got divorced from her, he got paid, and he got rich and famous from that.
There's that, and then there's when there's children involved.
And I think as a guy who grew up without a father, without my real father, I don't know my real father.
I have a stepfather.
I'm very fortunate that my stepfather was in my life, and he's a great guy.
And my mom has been in my life my whole life.
I'm very fortunate, because there's some people that don't have neither of those things, right?
It means a lot to me to be there for my kids.
It means a lot to me.
And it doesn't mean that I love my wife any less, but whatever the marriage thing, I was like, okay.
We had a kid.
I'll abandon all of my preconceived notions about the silliness of legal contracts with the state.
It doesn't mean I don't love anyone any less or it cheapens it at all.
But I think the thing is ridiculous.
You stand in front of each other.
I do!
I do!
lex fridman
You guys have a wedding song?
No.
Do a dance?
joe rogan
Dude, I barely got through the whole thing.
As a comic, it's so preposterous to me.
But it doesn't mean I don't love any less.
It doesn't mean that I don't appreciate her any less.
I appreciate the fuck out of that lady.
lex fridman
No, you do.
And that's one of the inspiring things.
It's like...
I see that with, that's one of the reasons I like Elon, is allowing yourself to be excited about awesome things.
Just being, I don't know, seeing the beauty in things.
And one of the inspiring things about you is just saying nice things about your wife.
It's funny, but it's rare.
It stood out, actually.
Most people just kind of talk shit about...
joe rogan
I genuinely have a great time with her.
lex fridman
Yeah, that's awesome.
joe rogan
And we've been together for a long time.
And we've grown together.
Like, who I am now is not who I was when I met her.
I'm a different person.
And part of me being a different person is my relationship with her.
But she doesn't like me talking.
She's going to be mad at this.
lex fridman
Yeah.
Sorry.
joe rogan
Not really mad.
She won't be mad because I'm saying nice things.
But, you know, relationships are odd, man, because a lot of them go bad.
And my problems with marriage was growing up seeing marriages that went bad and seeing traps.
Like, when I was, like...
My grandparents were lovely people, but Jesus Christ did they fight.
They fought in the worst way.
It was horrible to be around, to be a little kid, and my grandmother screaming at my grandfather.
And I remember thinking, fuck this.
I remember being trapped in my grandparents' home.
Like, they're watching me.
Like, my mom's out doing something.
She's going to come back, and they yell at you, don't rush me, Joe!
It was Josephine and Joseph.
My unoriginal family.
unidentified
Right?
Right?
joe rogan
My grandfather's name was Joseph.
My grandmother's name was Josephine.
They're fucking yelling at each other.
And I remember being terrified because I was a little kid and thinking like, God, I don't ever want to be trapped with some fucking person where they don't like each other anymore.
Or even if they love each other, they've developed these patterns of communication that are so negative and corrosive.
They just scream at each other all the time.
And when I was a young man, that's how I thought about relationships.
And also, I had a bunch of bad ones growing up, especially when I was broke.
When you're broke, and your future looks pretty fucking sketchy, boy, you learn a lot.
And those girls were right.
They were right to look at me skeptically.
Like, this motherfucker thinks he's funny?
Like, where are you going with this?
Where's his career going?
And, you know, there was like, when girls would cheat on me, like if I found out about it, there was a relief.
I was like, oh, great.
I'm going to have to wait for this to happen.
Like, it already happened.
Like, I knew it was coming.
Like, this is my concept of relationships.
They were always tortured and struggling.
And for, what is the percentage of people that get divorced in this country?
lex fridman
I keep hearing 50%, but it's something ridiculous.
joe rogan
Chris Rock has the best bit about that.
He goes, that's the ones that have the courage to leave!
How many cowards just stay?
He's right, and he's divorced.
By the way, Chris Rock's divorced.
You know, so the problem is, and also, you know, he's got some horrific jokes about how much money he had to pay in divorce.
And, you know, he's like, my wife made more money in comedy last year than Dave Chappelle!
Fucking horrible.
lex fridman
Yeah, Jeff Bezos' wife is doing really good things with the money that she has, actually.
joe rogan
Listen, Jeff Bezos is so goddamn rich that giving her $34 billion didn't even put a dent in him.
lex fridman
No, no dent.
Elon, number one, though, currently.
Elon Musk, the richest man on Earth.
joe rogan
Well, other than the Saudis that don't give up the numbers.
lex fridman
Or Putin.
Let's just put the truth on the table.
joe rogan
Oh yeah, Putin too, right?
A lot of those oil folks, they have undisclosed incomes.
I think they probably laugh.
Oh, good job for you.
Number one.
I think it's funny.
Oh, you're number one.
Congratulations, my friend.
How did you do it?
You know, because money's a weird thing, right?
Because you really only have time.
And do you have enough time to recoup that money that you gave up?
And how much of your life is based on the lifestyle that that money provides?
What is it about your life that you think that you need a certain number?
Look, I have a friend.
I've talked about him before, but I'll say it one more time because he has one of my worst stories about marriage.
He got divorced.
He's been divorced for 14 years.
He's been married to a new woman for 12 years.
He doesn't even have a baby with the first woman.
And he's still paying her hundreds of thousands of dollars a year.
And it kills him.
It kills him.
It's crazy.
And my joke is, did he fuck her so hard she can never work again?
He was in a relationship with a woman.
It didn't work out.
But he has to continue sending her a giant chunk of his income every year.
And it kills him.
lex fridman
It can make you cynical.
It can affect their future relationships.
It can affect your ability to be like...
joe rogan
It causes some men to become misogynists.
It causes some men to look at women as like parasites.
It's not good.
It's not healthy.
I don't necessarily think that all divorce settlements are like that.
But I do think that there is an odd thing when you have an industry that is based around extracting money from people that have it.
And what that is, is like, Phil Hartman told me once, he was trying to get divorced from his wife, and he was like, I go, just give her half.
He goes, it's not half.
unidentified
It's two-thirds.
joe rogan
He goes, it's a scam.
The lawyers take a third.
And I remember thinking like, oh shit, I never even thought about that.
That's the scam.
The scam is they drag it out.
And I've had multiple friends who've been involved in divorces where it's dragged out.
lex fridman
Yeah, my worry is the...
That's my biggest fear of marriage is the lawyers on the divorce side.
joe rogan
That's why I wasn't into it for the longest time.
But listen, man, you're going to have the bigger commitment is children.
You have a life form.
You have a human being.
You have the most precious person in your life.
When you have a baby, man, the weird feelings that you have about love, the intensity of the love, it's so overwhelming.
I can look at pictures of my kids when they're little and I start crying.
It's crazy.
The feeling that you have about children is just a fucking game changer.
And it makes you just think about all of your...
Your preconceived notions about humans.
And they all go out the window.
Because I think of all people as babies now.
I used to be an angry person.
I used to think of, that guy's a fuckhead.
And now I think, that guy is a baby that just grew up all fucked up.
And now here he is, a 40 year old douchebag.
lex fridman
How do they, I hope you don't mind saying, how do they move to Texas?
joe rogan
They love it.
They love it here.
lex fridman
LA feels like a weird place for...
joe rogan
Yeah, it's healthier for them here.
Kids are more normal here.
Kids in LA, here being famous doesn't seem like a viable option.
In LA, it seemed like the most viable option, like the most primary option.
lex fridman
Oh, you mean like there's a...
joe rogan
There's a community of people that are focused around the Kardashians and the athletes and the musicians and the this and the that and their whole ideas.
You know, this obviously sounds hypocritical.
It's coming from someone who happens to be famous, but I think that it's an empty pursuit.
It's, you know...
You can get famous doing a thing that you love, or you can try to be famous.
And they're two very different things.
And I think there's been many times in my life where I was trying to get famous.
Because it seemed like it was impossible.
Like when I was young and first getting on television, first doing comedy...
Because it just seemed like impossible.
Like, how does someone get famous?
I could see other people famous.
Like, how are they famous?
This is crazy.
It seemed nuts.
But be careful what you wish for.
unidentified
You think fame changed you?
lex fridman
Like, are you able to be cognizant of ways in which the fact that this podcast is the biggest podcast in the world and just all of that, how that's changing your mind?
I mean, I think about that with power, that you might not be cognizant of the way that power is changing you.
That's why I find Putin fascinating.
joe rogan
So what...
lex fridman
Like, do you look in the mirror and see, like, you're not the man you used to be in some dimension?
Like, this is a different human because you're so fucking famous.
joe rogan
Believe it or not, I think about that very little.
LAUGHTER And I think that's one of the keys to my success.
lex fridman
I think so.
I see that.
joe rogan
Legitimately.
lex fridman
I don't think...
I think just interacting with you offline in general, I don't think you're...
It doesn't look like you acknowledge to yourself that you're famous.
You're not living with that truth.
You're not lingering.
You're still pursuing the things that make you happy.
I tend to believe that you can do the same with power.
I tend to believe a president could do that same kind of thing.
joe rogan
That's what we would hope, right?
You would hope that some president gets to a position of power not because they crave it, but because they have solutions to problems and they genuinely think that they can help the world.
I'm not saying that...
I'm not equating my...
I'm not favorably comparing myself to a president or something like that, but I think...
I got a slow drip of fame.
And that's one of the things that helped me.
You know, I started...
I got on television for the first time in, like, the early 90s with doing stand-up comedy.
And then it led to a sitcom.
It led to Fear Factor and the UFC and all these different things.
And then, ultimately, it accidentally led to the biggest thing that I ever did, which was this.
lex fridman
Oh, is this the biggest thing you ever did?
This podcast?
joe rogan
Oh, by far.
Yeah, by magnitudes.
Yeah, massive, giant numbers of magnitudes different than anything I've ever done.
lex fridman
For some reason, your Bernie Sanders conversation popped into mind, because that's my favorite part about the inauguration that happened, is Bernie Sanders sitting there in comfy clothes with mittens.
unidentified
Yeah.
lex fridman
And he's sitting back.
I don't know if you know this picture.
unidentified
There's so many memes of him.
joe rogan
The internet is undefeated.
There's so many awesome memes of him doing different things.
lex fridman
But the original.
The original.
Just the sitting there and not giving a damn.
joe rogan
Well, I think he gives a damn.
I think he's recognizing that it's never going to happen.
You know, he had this idea that he was going to sort of help the work class.
I really do believe that guy was legitimate.
I think he stood for what he really truly believed.
I think there's a lot of people that felt disappointed that there was, you know, some votes that he wasn't there for that he could have helped and some stands that he could have taken that he didn't and then ultimately that he kind of like gave in to the powers that be and the status quo.
But I think meeting him and talking to him and I don't know.
Maybe I'm a romantic, but I really do believe that he had in mind only good intentions.
And I think he really did want to help working families.
And I really do think that he wanted to.
It was one of the reasons why I supported him.
I think he really did want to alleviate student loan debt.
He really wanted to make universities free.
He really did want to make it so that healthcare was accessible to everybody.
He really did want to make it so that a living wage was something that people can expect if they work a job.
And the economists be damned.
I don't know if they're right.
I don't know who's right when it comes to that, whether or not like 15 bucks an hour is going to cripple our culture and crush businesses.
I really don't know.
lex fridman
But he's a genuine human, and that's a rare quality.
It felt like you could disagree with his policies, but it feels like we should have a person like that.
joe rogan
It's rare for a politician.
You know who's also genuine is Tulsi Gabbard.
She's genuine as fuck, man.
She was here yesterday.
She was on the podcast yesterday.
It's out today.
She's amazing.
She's a genuine, legit human being.
That's who she is.
lex fridman
One thing that's on my to-do list is to investigate, look into why there's so much hate towards her.
I was confused.
You couldn't control her.
joe rogan
We talked about it on the podcast.
The moment she decided to run for president, it all started coming after her.
They started calling her a Russian asset.
Dude, she's a congresswoman for eight years.
She served overseas twice.
She was involved in these situations where she's working for medical units.
They're bringing in soldiers blown apart.
That's why she has that white streak in her hair that came from one of her deployments.
lex fridman
Stress?
joe rogan
Just stress.
Just the freaking out over these horrific scenes that she was seeing over and over again.
That's why she has this non-interventionalist foreign policy ideas that are so important to her.
This stop ending these endless wars.
Or stop, rather, having and participating in these endless wars.
She's a legitimate patriot, man.
lex fridman
Did she talk about running...
joe rogan
No, she's doing a podcast.
lex fridman
Like her own?
joe rogan
Yeah, it's called This is Tulsi Gabbard.
Because she felt like she was so misrepresented.
We talked about her being attacked on The View and how that collapsed on those people.
It's like the merchants of hate out there trying to spew their vitriol on people.
There's a whole business in that with people.
lex fridman
Podcasting could be the thing that actually saves us.
A lot of really interesting people.
Andrew Yang is doing a podcast.
It's a way to express yourself in a long-form format and being nuanced.
It's refreshing.
I do think you should give platform to certain folks who are...
joe rogan
Crazy people?
lex fridman
No, not crazy people.
There's just some people who don't have a platform currently.
I could.
He's no longer president, but...
Trump?
Donald Trump, yeah.
You should give him a chance because he's banned everywhere else.
I figured that'd be nice.
joe rogan
Boy, that would be a crazy conversation, dude.
unidentified
I don't know if I'm into that.
joe rogan
I feel like he can make his own YouTube video.
He's got his own platforms.
lex fridman
There's a complexity to that human being.
joe rogan
Oh, for sure.
When you hear his story, again, coming from someone who has children, and the story that his cousin paints of him, or his niece?
lex fridman
Yeah, that's right.
joe rogan
Is his niece or his cousin?
lex fridman
Niece.
joe rogan
Yeah, it's a story that resonates with anyone that has had a difficult upbringing and recognizes the need that children have for the love of their parents.
There's a thing that happens to children when they're raised incorrectly.
They're raised with the wrong input.
lex fridman
Yeah, Mary Trump.
You know, I wish...
I was so mad at this book.
joe rogan
I don't even know if she's right.
I don't know.
lex fridman
So the problem with this book is that she had the opportunity to write a deep psychological study of Donald Trump that's apolitical, and she kept inserting politics into it.
She kept inserting her obviously liberal point of view, as opposed to studying a fascinating, complicated human being who's obviously achieved a lot of things in this world.
joe rogan
Well, you know what?
I bet that's probably what the editors want, and I bet that's probably what a lot of other people wanted, but I agree with you Is that I want to be able to make up my own political ideas and my own political decisions.
I want to know what you know about this human.
You know, if Donald Trump might sit down and write a book about her, let me tell you something about this bitch.
lex fridman
That's a good title for a book.
joe rogan
That's a good title of his book.
Let me tell you something about this bitch.
She was always mean and fucking...
She always complained and blamed other people.
She was always lazy and she was always mad at her cousins.
Like, who knows?
I'm just exaggerating and making things up.
She's probably a wonderful person.
But my point is...
We don't know.
When a person just writes something and the other person doesn't even get to respond, interject, it's a real problem.
You can get a very distorted perception of who that human being is.
What's the matter, Jamie?
jamie vernon
We were talking about Putin a second ago, about being the richest man in the world.
I've stumbled across a current story that is very interesting.
Do you remember the...
I think he's considered maybe Putin's rival, the guy that got poisoned a couple years ago.
So he's recently traveled back to Russia.
lex fridman
Did you hear about this?
joe rogan
Yeah, I did.
jamie vernon
As of two days ago, he uploaded a video onto YouTube.
I'm going to show you just a second.
It has 50 million views in two days.
joe rogan
This is Putin's billion-dollar palace?
jamie vernon
Yeah.
It's a two-hour video where this guy's breaking down what this is.
It's a $1.4 billion palace that has all sorts of crazy...
It sounds crazy.
There are English subtitles on here.
I obviously don't have the time to look through this at the moment.
I haven't seen a video get that many views that quick in a long time outside of some viral sun.
joe rogan
Oh, my God.
It's 49 million views.
unidentified
Yeah.
joe rogan
Play some of it.
I just want to see the palace.
This is...
How big is it?
jamie vernon
It's huge.
They're like...
One of the guys that was looking into this brings up that they have a...
lex fridman
Oh, it's legitimately Navalny's video.
jamie vernon
Yeah, this is his video.
There's other videos that are smaller, but this is the actual two-hour one.
joe rogan
How much time do you think he's got left on Earth?
lex fridman
He went back the size of the balls this man has to go back...
joe rogan
After they poisoned him.
jamie vernon
They're bringing up this, it's a stripper room, but they're like, there's this room in the basement that has no windows and weirdly a pole.
lex fridman
How does he have this information?
jamie vernon
They have the plans, they have 3D renderings, they have drone footage.
There's like an enclosed ice rink, there's a 2,500 square foot greenhouse.
joe rogan
So he might be the richest man in the world.
lex fridman
Comrade, can we take the video down?
jamie vernon
According to him, he owns everything in Russia or something.
joe rogan
He owns everything in Russia.
Does he have a lot of support in Russia?
lex fridman
Yeah, still a huge amount of support.
joe rogan
Is it the same kind of support like Trump has support?
Like support for the strongman?
lex fridman
Yes, but he is much better.
This is what I mentioned with the charisma of Hitler, not equating anybody in this conversation.
But Putin is actually two things.
He's very charismatic and witty, intelligent, thoughtful.
So he's a very different style than Donald Trump, who's more chaotic, comedian-like, just off-the-cuff kind of way.
And the other thing that Putin is, which a lot of dictators have been throughout history, is that he's really good at his job, actually, of being a manager, of being president.
He loves his job.
He loves his job more than he loves power, which is fascinating to watch.
unidentified
Really?
lex fridman
Stalin was similar to that.
joe rogan
Is that why he's effective?
lex fridman
That's why he's effective.
You can have critical perspectives on it, you can have positive perspectives on it, but the truth is he's really good at having the meetings with the different people that are responsible for energy, for agriculture, for the way the country runs, actually listening to them.
Obama was really good at this and listening to the different experts and understanding what they're saying, even though he himself is not an expert in it, asking the right questions, thinking through it.
Calling you out on your bullshit if you're corrupt.
He's actually really good at fighting corruption.
A lot of people argue that he's actually, while he's good at fighting corruption, he's creating an extra, like, another level of corruption by the way, the kind of cronies he gets into government.
But the fact is, he calls people out on their bullshit.
When he gives a lot of money to different kinds of region to perform a certain task, he expects that task to be performed.
Like if a certain kind of infrastructure has to be built, he calls you out on your bullshit if you didn't build that set of roads or whatever the infrastructure is.
So he's good at his job.
The stuff that's underneath it, the potential hypocrisy or the deeply unethical things for which there's very little proof, but almost like common sense, like Epstein didn't kill himself level of logic, it bothers a lot of people, especially in the West.
But in Russia, I think he still has...
Majority support.
I'm pretty sure he has significant support in Russia.
Young people who love the West, who love the idea of freedom.
They don't like the idea of what Putin is doing, which is essentially an authoritarian government.
He's essentially a dictator.
And if you love the idea of freedom, even if Putin is good for Russia, it feels like this is the wrong man to bring freedom to Russia.
And that's ultimately where the battle is, the battle for freedom.
They look at America, yeah, it's a giant mess of just division and all that kind of stuff.
But I think what permeates everything that's going on in America is a love of freedom.
We have a different definition of what that means, but ultimately we want to be free to pursue the thing that we love doing.
Whatever that is.
This country, the United States of America, allows people for whatever weird thing they're into, or amazing thing they're into, to be able to pursue that.
And build, if it's like engineering, to build that thing.
Or if it's art, to create that thing.
Stopped by kind of institutional breaks that slow you down.
And so like the left defines that as saying, you know, if you're a minority, then there's all these institutions that slow you down in terms of your ability to be free in expressing yourself to your fullest potential.
And then people on the right are saying, well, there's all these, like, how do you put it nicely?
But, you know, government overreach in controlling, stifling businesses, stifling conversations, stifling thought, stifling the truth, you know, by sort of saying that this is what, by using terms like white supremacy, by using all these kinds of terminology, being with Stifling freedom of speech.
People on the right are saying that about the left.
But ultimately the struggle is for freedom of speech.
And really effectively in Putin's Russia, all of those freedoms are kind of absent, if we're honest.
joe rogan
Really effectively.
That's an interesting way to put it.
Because you can make an argument that the main flaw of our democracy is that every four years we change leadership.
And there's a battle as soon as the person takes office to establish who's going to be the next person in line four years from now.
So oftentimes, this is one of the things that...
To quote Chris Rock again, he was talking about Obama.
A lot of people were disappointed with Obama's first term.
And he was saying, you've got to wait until the second term.
That's when he can do some really gangster shit.
Because he knows he can't go anywhere.
But isn't that a strange thing?
That if you had any other job...
Imagine if I only had four years to do this podcast.
Go back and listen to the first four years.
They were fucking terrible.
I didn't know what I was doing.
I wasn't good at it yet.
I needed to figure out how to communicate with people.
And I think I'm better today than I was yesterday.
And I think I'll be better tomorrow than I am today.
And I think you get better if you care, if you work at it.
Is that the same thing with someone who runs a government?
I would imagine there's some similarities and parallels.
Now, the problem with that is, of course, The best case scenario is you have a benevolent dictator.
You have a dictator that cares but realizes, like, you fucking idiots, I need to take care of you, but I really do love taking care of you, and I'm going to do it within your best interests, and I'm going to try to do my very best to run this country the right way.
I don't think anybody thinks that of any of our presidents.
I think everybody thinks that our presidents are beholden to special interest groups and lobbyists and all the people that got them into positions of power in the first place.
lex fridman
Modern day presidents, I think.
joe rogan
And also, when they get out, we know what they're doing.
They're gonna go right to bankers and start doing speeches for $500,000 and all that shit.
We know it's a scam.
But we hope they do the best they can with the system that's in place, as corrupt as it is, as fucking entangled With money as it is.
But If there was someone, like a Putin character, like an American Putin, like some...
Who would it be?
Some fucking Clint Eastwood type dude who just like...
You know what I mean?
lex fridman
Jocko Willink type of character.
joe rogan
Yeah, Jocko Willink.
I'm all for it.
Jocko for president.
lex fridman
Well, it's a good question.
To me, there's an exact parallel between your trajectory in podcasts, which have been 11 years, and Putin, who have been...
joe rogan
But I haven't poisoned anybody.
Allegedly.
He hasn't poisoned anybody.
Allegedly.
lex fridman
Allegedly.
What's in this drink?
I think the question is whether, in your case, fame.
But there's power there, too.
Changes you.
And in the case of Putin, there's power to change you.
joe rogan
I use my power as much as possible to help other people.
lex fridman
But why?
unidentified
Because I like it.
joe rogan
I like helping people.
I like letting people know about you.
I like letting people know about Tim Dillon.
I like letting people know about funny comedians and good people and really interesting authors and guys like Carl Hart.
I like people to know about interesting people.
I don't feel comfortable with the position that I'm in.
I don't deserve it.
And if people say I don't deserve it, you're right.
Guess what?
Nobody deserves it.
I know I don't deserve it.
It's unbalanced.
It's disproportionate.
I'm aware of it.
I'm 100% aware of it.
So I do my best to spread the love.
That's what I try to do.
lex fridman
Part of being a comedian, you get made fun of by your friends, and there's people that put you in check.
That's the concern with power in the political spectrum.
How many people can really talk to Putin and say...
joe rogan
Nobody.
lex fridman
Bro.
joe rogan
Nobody.
unidentified
You were kind of a dick last night.
joe rogan
Well, does Putin have anyone that's smarter than him that he's friends with, too?
That he recognizes, you know?
Like, I have a gang of people that are way smarter than me that I can talk to.
You know, I can call them up.
I go, hey, man.
lex fridman
But the important thing is something in your genetics keeps saying that they're smarter than you.
You can also convince yourself that you're smarter than them.
joe rogan
No.
lex fridman
No, I mean, but it's possible.
Human beings do that.
It's like...
joe rogan
I think it's my martial arts background, too.
lex fridman
I think...
I think there's a few things that contribute to the development of a human being.
One of them is just being humbled by whatever the mechanisms, and it seems like martial art, jiu-jitsu.
joe rogan
Yeah.
Uniquely humbling.
lex fridman
Yeah.
joe rogan
And daily.
lex fridman
This is why, sorry, I'm a little biased in being open-minded towards Putin because of his Judo background.
joe rogan
Judo background.
He's legit.
He's legit.
I mean, when you watch...
Look, I know those guys are going with him.
They're not trying to kill him.
But I've watched Putin train.
And I've watched his technique.
You know, I'm not a judoka.
I have no belt in judo.
Although, I think Wikipedia says I have a belt in judo.
I have zero belts in judo.
I know, like, two hip throws.
But he's...
Unquestionably legit.
He's a real black belt.
You know, there's no doubt about it.
I watch him move.
He knows what he's doing.
lex fridman
And actually really good at it.
Like, there's people that do Judo can understand.
There's a way when you watch a martial artist move, you understand this person understands the art.
joe rogan
Yeah.
lex fridman
And he is one of those.
joe rogan
They have refined technique.
lex fridman
Yeah.
joe rogan
Yeah, they've learned from real masters.
lex fridman
And were humble for long periods.
This isn't some little tool you learn while you're part of the KGB. He really loved Judo.
And for some reason, I might be a sucker and biased in that sense, it makes me feel like this person is human.
joe rogan
You got a little bit of a Putin crush.
You got a Putin crush on you.
lex fridman
Putin crush?
unidentified
No.
lex fridman
I'm fascinated by the man.
Yeah.
But I'm also fascinated by Donald Trump.
I'm fascinated by Barack Obama, by the complexity of what makes a human being.
And by the way, I'm a sucker for good speeches.
People who are saying that Joe Biden's speech in the inauguration, I don't know if you heard it.
joe rogan
I didn't hear it.
lex fridman
It's a good speech.
I think Barack Obama the whole time was sitting in the Bernie Sanders stance saying like hold my beer.
That was a terrible speech.
unidentified
There's such an opportunity to crush it right now.
joe rogan
Really?
lex fridman
With a beautiful speech.
And it was like very generic positive unity kind of But if you want to do a unity speech, you better bring your best Martin Luther King Jr. You better bring your best Obama.
That sucked.
But I'm fascinated by these complicated people that come to power.
Obama is one of them.
I think he's way more fascinating than people give him credit for.
joe rogan
I agree.
There's no way he's not.
You know, raised by a single mother, you know, in Hawaii.
He's an interesting character.
And, you know, rose to the highest ranks of government in a very unusual way.
You know, he's...
He's our best statesman that we've ever had, in my opinion.
I mean, people love Kennedy because he died.
If Kennedy lived, who knows what we think of him.
Probably hate him after the first term.
He was very hated when he died.
lex fridman
Yeah, he's a special human.
But also, to be special, to be fascinating, you don't have to be our best.
You can be our worst.
joe rogan
Yeah, but he was our best statesman.
lex fridman
Yeah.
joe rogan
Our best communicator.
I mean, he was the smoothest and the cleanest.
But at the time, Kennedy bucked the system harder than anybody.
I mean, I'm sure you've heard this speech that Kennedy gave about secret societies.
You know?
lex fridman
Yeah.
joe rogan
It's a brilliant speech.
It's absolutely brilliant.
And that was before they fucking shot him in the head.
They're like, that's enough of this!
Because he was combating the very thing that ultimately murdered him.
lex fridman
And his whole speech, I mean, his are really strong speeches, which is like...
unidentified
We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they're easy, because they're hard!
And also, ask not what you can do for your country.
lex fridman
What your country can do for you.
Ask what you can do for your country.
And here's a more general one about ask not what America can do for you.
Ask what you can do for the world and something like that.
joe rogan
He was amazing in a lot of ways and wasn't around that long.
Died in his 40s.
lex fridman
The good ones die young.
Can I read a poem?
joe rogan
Fuck yeah, we'll end it with this.
We have a tradition.
lex fridman
Yeah.
Maybe one day, when I bring a robot, you'll actually wear a suit.
joe rogan
You still have that same goofy watch?
That thing is gigantic.
lex fridman
It's the same Amazon.
joe rogan
Do you like it?
lex fridman
I like it.
joe rogan
Are you attached to it?
lex fridman
Oh, like John Wick style, like, if you kill my dog, I will destroy all of you?
No.
joe rogan
I feel like it's ridiculous for you.
lex fridman
Yeah.
joe rogan
It's unnecessary.
Do you use it for anything other than the time?
lex fridman
Yeah, that's what a watch is for, bro.
joe rogan
Other than the time.
unidentified
Yeah.
joe rogan
Other than the time.
lex fridman
No.
Oh, I do not use it for anything but to check the time.
joe rogan
Why do you need a watch so large?
lex fridman
This is the problem with Americans.
They want their heart rate.
They want their sleep schedule.
joe rogan
No, that's not what I'm saying.
I don't want...
unidentified
What do you want from a watch?
lex fridman
Do you want it to talk dirty to you?
joe rogan
Take this.
That's yours now.
That's an Omega.
And that has a moon phase.
See that moon in the bottom of it?
That's yours.
That's yours.
You see the moon on the bottom of it?
Do you see that?
lex fridman
This is a happy man right now.
joe rogan
That's my watch.
That's my favorite watch, by the way.
Do you see the moon in the bottom of it?
lex fridman
Yep.
joe rogan
That is the actual moon phase.
It's a real high-resolution photograph of the moon, and as the moon rises, it will rise.
It's set in the position where the moon is currently.
lex fridman
Oh, that's awesome.
joe rogan
Fuck yeah, it's awesome.
Take that piece of shit, stupid fucking Frisbee you got on your wrist.
lex fridman
You can't get this back because you just did it on record.
unidentified
No, it's yours.
joe rogan
It's yours, man.
unidentified
Joe, thank you so much.
jamie vernon
This is a steampunk watch.
joe rogan
That fucking stupid thing.
jamie vernon
Writes it and erases it every minute.
joe rogan
That's so dumb.
But that watch, that watch is my favorite watch and I want you to have it.
lex fridman
Joe, thank you.
joe rogan
My pleasure.
lex fridman
See that?
You got a big ass wrist.
joe rogan
Yeah.
I do.
Well, we can get it sized for you.
No, no, this is perfect.
lex fridman
Fuck, man.
joe rogan
Do you see the little moon?
lex fridman
Thank you so much.
joe rogan
Do you see it at the bottom?
Wait until it comes full moon.
You get a real sense of what it looks like.
It's beautiful.
It's a beautiful, high-resolution image.
And one of the reasons why I like omegas, first of all, the astronauts that went to the moon, allegedly, they wore omegas.
But also, it doesn't have the same sort of cachet value as Rolexes.
A lot of people that have a peripheral understanding of watches, but they're fucking phenomenal watches.
They make amazing watches.
I have a bunch of Omegas.
I love them.
But that is my favorite watch, and you have my favorite watch now.
lex fridman
Joe, thank you.
Actually, this is the one thing I think a watch could add, is perspective on the cosmic scale.
joe rogan
That's why I like that watch, and that's why I think you should have it.
Because I would look at that watch, and I would say, this is where we are right now with the moon cycle.
And when it comes full moon, like right now, it's just kind of like a little, it's probably a quarter moon or something.
When it comes full noon, you'll get a real sense of what it actually looks like, because it's beautiful.
It's a beautiful, high-resolution image of the moon with little stars behind it.
jamie vernon
See how much shit Connor got for his watch this week?
joe rogan
Yeah, but that's a ridiculous watch.
jamie vernon
That's a ridiculous watch.
joe rogan
I don't like those watches.
I mean, look, you could like whatever you would like.
Yeah, that's a million dollars, his watch.
That's preposterous.
It's all filled with diamonds and shit.
I don't own a single diamond.
I've never had a diamond in my life, and I want a fucking diamond.
I like engineering.
That's what I like.
I'm a fan of engineering.
And what I like about that watch is the engineering behind it.
It's a mechanical watch, meaning the time is kept within a second or two, I don't know what it is, like a day?
I forget what it is, but also with a complication.
There's this crazy complication that shows the moon rising across.
And when it goes dark, I know when I can go outside and see the stars because I look at my watch.
And when my watch shows me no moon, that's when I go outside on my deck.
Because when I go outside on my deck, I know I'm just going to see nothing but stars and no moon at all.
No light pollution, just beautiful stars in the sky.
lex fridman
I'm going to take care of this one.
joe rogan
Take care of it, my brother.
Take care of it.
Read your poem.
lex fridman
This one, maybe it doesn't make sense for a white guy from Russia to read, but the reason I love this...
joe rogan
You're a different kind of white guy.
White people from Russia are a different kind of white people.
lex fridman
I've been saying it.
joe rogan
I've been saying that about fighters for a long time.
Russian fighters, that's a different kind of white people.
lex fridman
But when I came to this country, what I fell in love with is the freedom.
That a silly fucking guy like me can do anything I want with my life.
And so this one is from Maya Angelou called Caged Bird.
She has really good...
One of the literary geniuses that America's ever produced.
But she mostly talks about the freedom in the context of racism.
But...
This is bigger than that.
This is about freedom in general.
Freedom of the human spirit.
It's called Caged Bird by Maya Angelou.
The free bird leaps on the back of the wind and floats downstream to the current ends and dips his wings in the orange sun rays and dares to claim the sky.
But a bird that stalks down his narrow cage can seldom see through his bars of rage his wings are clipped and his feet are tied so he opens his throat to sing.
The caged bird sings with a fearful trill of the things unknown but longed for still, and his tune is heard on the distant hill, for the caged bird sings of freedom.
The free-birth things of another breeze, and trade wings soft through the sighing trees, and the fat worms waiting on the dawn-bright lawn, and he names the sky his own.
But a caged bird stands on the graves of dreams.
His shadow shouts on a nightmare scream.
His wings are clipped and his feet are tied.
So he opens his throat to sing.
The caged bird sings with a fearful trill of things unknown but longed for still.
And his tune is heard on a distant hill for the caged bird sings of freedom.
joe rogan
That's beautiful.
lex fridman
She's an incredible person.
And this is an incredible country.
I love America.
joe rogan
Lex Freeman, ladies and gentlemen.
lex fridman
Thank you, brother.
joe rogan
God bless you all.
Bye-bye.
My pleasure.
Thank you for being here.
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