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May 26, 2022 - The Joe Rogan Experience
02:42:41
Joe Rogan Experience #1824 - Lex Fridman
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joe rogan
01:23:59
l
lex fridman
01:12:28
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elizabeth holmes
00:04
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jamie vernon
00:40
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Speaker Time Text
unidentified
Joe Rogan Podcast, check it out!
The Joe Rogan Experience.
Train by day, Joe Rogan Podcast by night, all day!
Hey fella.
lex fridman
Hey buddy.
joe rogan
What's going on?
Good to see ya.
lex fridman
It's been a while.
joe rogan
It has been a while.
You've been nose to the grindstone.
lex fridman
Yeah, it disappeared for a bit.
I've been hiding from the world.
joe rogan
Is this because of Ukraine?
Is it personal?
Is it busy?
lex fridman
Well, no, actually it's because I proposed to Tim Dillon and he said yes.
unidentified
Nice.
lex fridman
This happened in February.
joe rogan
You want to get in shape for the wedding?
lex fridman
Yeah, I want to get in shape for the wedding.
I've been focusing on that.
Also, I'm having second thoughts.
Because when you sign the paper, you realize this is a real commitment, and you're going to have to live with this man for the rest of your life.
joe rogan
Not only that, they're going to write fake stories about you like they do about him.
The New York Post wrote a fake story about him today, about his real estate holdings.
They're inaccurate about the amount, and also even about the locations in which he owns homes.
lex fridman
In cyberspace, right?
joe rogan
No, no real homes.
lex fridman
Actual homes.
joe rogan
Yeah, they're like ratting them out about those real houses.
unidentified
Community Tendal.
joe rogan
Community Tendal slaps down $4 million for Hampton Spread.
Fake news, kids.
Sorry.
But the thing is, it's like real estate people, there's a lot of dirty business in real estate when a famous person buys a house.
They sell the data.
They, you know, someone does it.
Whether it's someone who works in the office or what have you, they'll be Weasley with it.
lex fridman
Yeah, is that data public?
Depends.
joe rogan
Like, you know, a lot of times famous folks will put a house in under an LLC so that they hide it.
But then when it gets leaked, you know someone from...
Generally speaking, someone from the real estate office leaked it because they can get paid.
There's websites that will pay you.
So say if Elon buys a house and he tries to keep it all hush-hush and under the table.
There was a time where they were trying to say that he's living in someone's house and he's lying about living in this tiny house.
It's not true.
You and I know it's not true.
But they were trying to pretend that he was staying in this opulent house on Lake Austin just because he had been there before.
lex fridman
He actually lives at my house now.
joe rogan
Oh, congratulations.
With Tim Dillon?
lex fridman
With Tim Dillon.
joe rogan
Nice.
That's a great Odd Couple show.
lex fridman
I probably shouldn't mention this.
joe rogan
That would be a wonderful sitcom.
You, Tim Dillon, and Elon Musk in the house.
Guys, what are we doing?
We're getting eggs and pancakes?
lex fridman
What did he say?
He said he was comparing like a Saudi prince with Elon Musk and like there's trade-offs between the positives and the negatives.
He was saying something positive about Elon that he's working on rockets but the negative is that he likes Austin.
And then comparing to the Saudi prince, I think, like, jet skis or something like that, that's a positive.
But then this corrupt, that's the negative.
joe rogan
Tim Dillon is one of my favorite people.
I'm so happy he's around.
I'm so happy.
He's just like, that guy makes me laugh so hard.
It's just his take on stuff.
He just rants with Ben when they're just sitting there next to each other, and he's just talking shit.
And I love it when he wears the cop glasses, like the aviators.
It's almost like he's on a drug when he has those on.
Like, he's in a fog.
lex fridman
I don't even see you.
Yeah, he's channeling something else.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
It's a Conor S. Thompson type thing.
joe rogan
Yeah.
lex fridman
Yeah.
Yeah, but in reality, the Tim Dillon thing was real.
It was April 1st, but yeah.
I think my world, my family's world, and I think the world in general was somehow fundamentally changed down February 24th this year when Russia invaded Ukraine.
I have a lot of thoughts about it.
I've been talking to a lot of people about it.
I have family in both countries.
I come from both countries.
First and foremost, it made me realize that a global hot war is within a possibility for the century.
That we're not so far from a World War III outbreak.
joe rogan
No.
lex fridman
And the reason I realized this It's because of the behavior of the United States in response to this humanitarian crisis, this invasion, and the response of China that's currently quietly watching but for the most part supporting Putin and Russia.
India, for the most part, is supporting Putin and Russia.
And so you have this division in the world.
You just look at the population, the large economies, large military forces, nuclear powers, are just watching this conflict, watching this humanitarian crisis, and nobody seems to be shy about escalation.
Nobody seems to be shy about mentioning You know, the word nuclear.
And it just feels like...
I've reread recently, as a kind of therapy, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich by William Shire.
He's a journalist that was there for the rise of the Nazi Party and the World War II and everything like that.
And you just have to put yourself, let's say 100 years back, 1922, nobody would predict World War II. In fact, everybody would be sure that World War II would never happen.
Surely there will never be another World War when you're sitting there in the 1920s.
And at the same time, you have Hitler, young Hitler, What is it?
1919 maybe?
He is employee number seven of the Nazi party.
So he's the seventh person to join the National Socialist German Workers' Party that ended up being one of the most consequential parties ever, political parties ever.
So from a party of seven people, 20 years later you have a party that's threatening the existence of human civilization.
If they had nuclear weapons, that would be the case.
So in a span of 20 years, that can happen.
So now we're sitting here in 2022, the possibility of nuclear war seems to be not as distant as at least I, with my innocence, had imagined.
And the possibility of hot war It's not that distant.
And there's escalation.
There's warmongering going on.
And at the same time, just the humanitarian crisis.
I mean, on a personal level, it's the biggest humanitarian crisis.
Six, seven million people, refugees.
Eight million people inside Ukraine displaced.
The biggest one since In Europe, at least, since World War II. So that's one perspective, that there's this authoritarian who invaded a sovereign land and laid claim on it.
I recently talked to two folks that have this different perspective.
One is Stephen Kotkin, who's a historian of Stalin.
I highly recommend people read his biography of Stalin.
And the other is Oliver Stone, who you talk to mostly about JFK. But he also interviewed Putin.
So Oliver Stone's perspective is, look, first of all, America throughout its history has blood in its hands.
NATO is pressuring through its expansion, pressuring Putin, pressuring the other non-NATO regimes.
And so they bear some responsibility for this.
And, you know, you look at post 9-11 wars.
In Afghanistan, Iraq, Yemen, Syria, the number of refugees there, the number of people displaced from their homes is close to 40 million people, 40 million people.
And the number of dead is over a million people.
And those are wars either started or catalyzed or propped up by the United States.
That's the Oliver Stone perspective.
You know this this idea that the United States is the good guys is a complicated one and so he has been starting from the Vietnam War a critic of the military industrial complex and this kind of imperial imperative of the United States that's that perspective then you have Stephen Kotkin you have just the Western perspective is like no Yeah,
America has blood on its hands, but you can't do this moral—there's no moral equivalence here.
There is good guys and bad guys in the world.
The good guys are flawed, yes, but the reality is Putin's Russia is an authoritarian regime.
No respect for freedoms of all kinds, including freedom of the press and freedom of speech.
There's a lot of basic violation of human rights, and there's just a straight-up invasion of a sovereign land, and that's a war crime, and Putin is a war criminal.
I'm much closer to that perspective, but it's not factual, it's more emotional, because I just see how much pain there is in that place.
I've been listening to a lot of people crying, angry, afraid, For me, there's been just so much personal emotion.
Because this idea that we're all one people, we're all one humanity has been challenged for me personally.
I know there's a lot of suffering in the world.
I know there's a lot of atrocities in the world.
But for me, it's just because I know directly the people.
It's like, you know, there's been recently a couple of shootings.
There's been a shooting yesterday in the United States.
It's different when you have nothing to do with the people, then you directly know the people.
joe rogan
Yeah, the shooting is an hour and a half away.
Yeah, in Texas.
lex fridman
And that's 20 children or something like that.
It's an atrocity, but it's closer to us, and that's why we, as Americans, we feel it intimately.
Just imagine that on another side of the world where you can feel it intimately because you know the people.
joe rogan
I mean, I guess we think of it as differently because what Putin is trying to do is command resources and control a country that used to be a part of the Soviet Union.
And what happened yesterday is just beyond explanation.
It's just a completely fucked up situation where a sick person got a hold of a bunch of guns and decided to go kill kids.
And it happens in this country every now and then.
It's like...
How do you stop that?
No one knows how to stop that.
What is the answer?
Is the answer take everyone's guns?
Well, they're not going to give their guns up.
Only criminals are going to have guns.
It's not going to be a good situation.
And is the answer, make schools these armored compounds where you have armed guards outside of every school dressed like it's a military?
Boy, that's not something we want either.
But what do you do to protect the children?
And how many dollars is that going to cost?
Do we even have the money to do that?
But the Oliver Stone perspective, when you're talking about the difference between the way we look at the rest of the world versus the way we look at our own actions, when you start bringing up Yemen, Yemen is one that I've had Dave Smith on the podcast multiple times where he talks about it.
Dave is very, very well read about Yemen.
It's a horrific scenario because no one cares.
In the United States, this is not something that gets mainstream media attention on a daily basis.
But the bombings are ongoing.
We put up a chart once.
Where they talked about the bombings that are happening in Ukraine versus the bombings that are currently happening in Yemen and bombings that the United States...
It's wild because it's like swept under the rug and we don't think about it.
And we don't even understand why we're doing it.
I guarantee you if you just polled a random 1,000 people and say, what are we doing in Yemen?
No one would have any idea.
You'd have to have someone who really gets into the sort of esoteric, the details, like what is going on politically, what is going on economically.
Someone like Dave Smith even might struggle with the full explanation of what our motivation, not our, the military's motivation is to do this.
But it's happening.
And because it's not getting any attention, it's allowed to happen without scrutiny.
It's allowed to happen without real mainstream criticism.
If you comb the television news sources, cable, left and right, you're not going to find discussions of Yemen on a daily basis.
But that is the one...
If there's an area where we can't have that moral high ground, where we say, well, what about you?
Why do we have those?
Wouldn't it be better if the United States didn't have any of those that are unjustifiable?
Where you could say, oh, the United States did this in Vietnam.
Yes, we did, but it was in the 1970s.
Well, that would be ideal in terms of an example of learning and growing.
lex fridman
Well, so that's the Oliver Stone perspective.
joe rogan
Yeah.
lex fridman
The thing is, there is, if you look at the details, a fundamental difference between what Vladimir Putin is doing and what the United States is doing.
Now, everybody's a victim of somebody's propaganda.
Now, I talked to Russians, which is a very interesting thing.
Both Russians and Ukrainians say that they are not at all under the influence of propaganda.
Russians believe there's no propaganda in Russia.
And Ukrainians believe there's no propaganda in Ukraine.
Russians think the West is influenced by their propaganda, by the CNNs and the Foxes, and Ukraine is influenced by their propaganda by the limited number of news channels they have that are state-controlled.
From our Western perspective, that seems ridiculous because it's obvious that Russia is under influence of propaganda.
So it's hard to know what is true or not.
But the reality seems to be that Russia is currently an authoritarian regime that tries to appear as much as possible as a democracy.
Because there is an election.
And there's an extra hard truth on top of that.
I don't know what to do with it, but Putin is still and even more so popular in Russia.
He's very popular in India, in China, and in Russia, and some small countries around the former Soviet Union.
What do you do with that?
That's real objective, well, as far as we can tell, data taken from outside of Russia.
joe rogan
Do you give any credence to the rumors that he has cancer?
lex fridman
I'm not an investigative, you know, because there's a lot of sort of rumors of this nature.
joe rogan
Oliver Stone even discussed it.
He said it was the case while he was there.
lex fridman
Yes, he said it very nonchalantly, and I thought that was a known fact.
And then later I looked and it was, you know, I'm not sure that was objectively publicly known.
But if Oliver said it, then perhaps there's some truth to it.
joe rogan
He stayed there for quite a while when he was interviewing Putin.
lex fridman
Yeah, two years.
No, he visited multiple times and he spent time with them.
Yeah, but according to Oliver, he beat it.
He beat the cancer.
But, you know, he's 69 years old.
joe rogan
He's going to be 70. Yeah, but beating the cancer when Oliver was there versus what he has now.
lex fridman
Oh, what he has now?
joe rogan
Yeah, because he looks, like, puffy.
You know, which is oftentimes, you know...
We were talking about this with the Chris DiStefano podcast.
I had a friend who had gout, and they gave him prednisone.
Now, he had something else, too.
Sarcoidosis.
And they gave him prednisone, and his, like...
His face got big.
lex fridman
Yeah.
joe rogan
And it's just like, you look puffy.
And he said it's just a side effect of the steroids.
Yeah, his face is puffy, you know?
Yeah, Oliver Stone says, Vladimir Putin has struggled with cancer during his time in which the filmmaker focused on his work on the Russian president, pictured about Putin waves during the Victory Day parade, Red Square, May 9th.
lex fridman
Well, I'm much less concerned about the puffiness of his face and more concerned about what's going on with his mind.
It seems like he's a different man now than he was even a year ago.
unidentified
In what way?
lex fridman
This is what Oliver Stone commented on.
And I agree.
He's formed a much stricter information bubble around him, that there is that isolation that a lot of us have experienced with COVID. I honestly think it might have to do with just the isolation due to COVID. You know, the basic distance you have to keep and all that kind of stuff.
As a political leader, you have to have extra precautions.
joe rogan
Especially a political leader that assassinates his enemies.
unidentified
Yes.
Well, that was always the case that has less to do with COVID. But don't you think that increases his paranoia?
lex fridman
Yes, the paranoia.
The paranoia is the thing, that's what gets dictators.
That's what gets, you start mistrusting everybody, not just on the outside of the circle, but the inner circle.
And so you don't know who to trust, even though the closest advisors, you don't know who to trust.
So your flow of information is really flawed.
joe rogan
Yeah.
lex fridman
It's very limited.
joe rogan
Yeah.
lex fridman
And so you start making really poor decisions, even more so than before.
And there, that's where...
I mean, if you...
And I hate thinking of it that way, because to me, the war in Ukraine is a humanitarian...
Not a geopolitics thing.
But if you think geopolitically, invading Ukraine was just a giant miscalculation on Putin's part, on every level.
Geopolitical, social, militarily.
Unless there's very few scenarios in which this was calculated all along.
The only scenarios of Putin thought through...
First of all, maybe he thought that Zelensky...
We'll just back down.
We'll just crumble under the pressure of even a minor invasion.
And obviously, you have to give credit.
This is really important.
So Ukraine got its independence for the first time in many centuries, in 1991, 30 years ago, when Soviet Union collapsed.
So they're dealing with independence, with sovereignty, which is a difficult process.
As the United States knows, we had a civil war about it.
The same thing in Ukraine.
There's factions.
There's a lot of corruption.
It's the second most corrupt country in Europe, next to Russia.
joe rogan
Did you see when the New York Times was questioning Candace Owen on where is she getting her information?
Because the New York Times was trying to push this while the Ukraine invasion was happening.
They were trying to push this thing that Ukraine was good and Russia is bad.
And she was saying, well, this is one of the most corrupt countries on earth.
So they said to her, like, where are you getting this information?
They sent her an email.
And she sent them back links to the New York Times and all these articles about how badly corrupt Ukraine was, which just makes me go, god damn.
If I can't trust a fucking New York Times to get it right, you're supposed to be the paper of note.
lex fridman
But a lot has changed, though.
So Zelensky, the president, he got into office with 70% approval, and before the war he had less than 30% approval.
There's factions, there's divisions.
The west side of Ukraine is pro, let's say, Ukrainian, and then the right side is pro-Russia.
joe rogan
So he got into office, and he had a high approval rating, and then before the war, it dropped very low?
lex fridman
Yeah, it had been dropping gradually because of the division, because of the factions.
He wasn't able to bring the country together.
And the war, turns out, his great leadership...
Was catalyzed, was made possible.
Sometimes a catastrophe brings out the best in us, and that was the case with him.
joe rogan
George W. Bush.
That's exactly what happened post 9-11.
lex fridman
Yes, exactly.
But in his case, he wasn't able to hold that for a long time.
Let's see what Zelensky does.
But at the moment, He was...
Zelensky united a previously divided country, which is very difficult to do.
So that...
I mean, that's a historic event for Ukraine in its sovereign history.
And so in terms of corruption, that might be a really big blow to corruption, that kind of unification.
So I think there's a fundamental difference between the corruption in Ukraine and the corruption in Russia.
joe rogan
What is the conflict in Ukraine, besides Russia?
What is the internal conflict, the factions?
What do they want?
unidentified
What is the dispute?
lex fridman
Well, no, it's just factions that are vying for power.
That's just at the basic level.
joe rogan
So it's basically like right versus left in America.
lex fridman
Yeah.
But, okay, so there's a bunch of differences in what they stand for, what they're looking for.
A lot of it in the recent years has been centered around the war with Russia, starting with 2014. And so some parts are Ukrainian-speaking, pro-Ukraine.
Some parts are Russian-speaking or primarily Russian-speaking and pro-Russia.
So in the east, you have the Donbas region, but around that as well, they want to be closer to Russia.
And the west part wants to be closer to Europe, closer to NATO, closer to the European Union.
That's one of the divisions.
You want to be Pro-democracy or you want to be pro-whatever-the-heck Russia is.
So it's like, are you pulling towards the West, the Western civilization, or are you pulling towards the East, the way of Russia, the way of China, the way of those countries?
joe rogan
I'm sure they're influenced and the ones who are pro-Russia, they're getting some signals from Putin or meeting with him and he's giving them indications that they would best be served to be aligned with him and be better for them.
lex fridman
Yeah, but he is still popular.
I mean, I don't know exactly why he's popular, but there's a longing, as there is in a lot of nations, to be the greatest nation on earth.
joe rogan
Isn't there always just a longing for a strong man, like the strong man leader?
lex fridman
I would say a strong vision, and that sometimes can coincide or often does with the strong man.
joe rogan
Isn't it like a natural inclination that people have to be led by a strong man?
Like Putin, like him or hate him, think he's evil, that's all good, but there's no doubt that he's strong.
He's a strong leader.
I mean, he's been running Russia for a long time, and the way he's been doing that, sort of unopposed, in a ruthless manner, is very impressive.
It's evil, but in terms of its efficacy, it's impressive what he's been able to do.
lex fridman
I think strength is one of the things we admire in leaders, but it's not the entirety of it.
joe rogan
No.
lex fridman
So that's why Zelensky is extremely popular.
He stepped up, you know, the famous thing, Biden offered him a ride and he said, fuck that.
I'm staying put.
Give me more bullets.
And he stayed in Kiev and held his ground where most leaders would have fled.
This is the failure we had in Afghanistan, where we fled.
Here's a leader that stepped up and held his ground, and that's rare in this world, and we admire that kind of strength, yes.
And the same could be said by the Russian people, the Indian people, the Chinese people that admire strength in Putin.
But we also admire Other values that make this country great, the United States of America, is this kind of respect for human freedom, human rights, and sort of the embodiment of this ideal of all men are created equal.
That's not exactly communicated very clearly by Vladimir Putin.
unidentified
Right.
lex fridman
But there's also a difference between, and this again, the Oliver Stone perspective, is between the messaging and the actual execution.
You know, Hitler's messaging was also very sort of beautiful sounding, right?
What is he talking about?
Sort of national socialism, respect for workers.
joe rogan
Right.
lex fridman
Like the downtrodden workers that were...
Germany is a great nation that deserves to be respected among other nations, and it was not respected because of World War I. Okay, but are you also going to mention that you're going to murder and imprison and torture millions of people?
You're not.
And the same thing with America.
Not moral equivalents at all, obviously, but we talk a lot about freedom.
What does freedom actually look like?
When we fight terrorism and evil in the world, what does that actually look like?
It turns out that it looks like you're bombing civilians, children, lose their fathers and mothers.
Hundreds of thousands of civilians die when you're spreading freedom all over the world.
So we have to be very careful separating the messaging from the actions.
And we have to, as Americans, make sure we live up to the ideal, and we don't always.
And I think when you just paint the whole world as black and white, it's easy for us to say America good, China, Russia bad, instead of the full complexity of that.
And that there's warmongers that watch Ukraine now with the money that we're sending there, and they get excited because they can escalate.
And if they escalate, they can get more and more money for manufacturing weapons.
To both sides.
To all sides.
And what if China enters with Taiwan?
That tension.
That military conflict.
And there's nukes on the ready.
Everywhere.
joe rogan
There's hypersonic nukes.
You know, this whole mutually assured destruction.
Mike Baker explained this to me.
From the CIA. Yeah.
Mutually assured destruction is not on the table anymore.
He goes because with hypersonic weapons they can attack so quickly we can't retaliate.
So it's a matter of who pulls the trigger first.
lex fridman
Well, there's so much secret stuff.
joe rogan
If you're standing apart from a guy, and you have a gun, and he has a gun, and you have your finger on the trigger, and he has his finger on the trigger, and you're like, you know what?
I don't trust this guy.
Boom!
You pull that trigger.
That guy's dead.
There's no retaliating.
He's not going to retaliate.
That's what he's saying.
He's saying it's not like you have a gun, and he has a gun, and you are 700 yards away, and you have a pistol.
And he's 700 yards away, so you're out of the effective range.
And you say, you know what?
I'm going to move in on this guy and I'm going to shoot him.
But then he's going to shoot me, he's going to see me coming, he's going to shoot me, and we're both going to die.
That's mutual short destruction.
What he's saying is, no.
You can launch this thing and it looks like it's going to hit Seattle and it takes a hard left turn and goes right into Chicago.
And there's not a damn thing you can do to stop it and you can't predict where it's going to go.
lex fridman
I think the American military industrial complex is listening to this and is saying, hold my beer.
joe rogan
No, I'm sure they are, but if they do it too.
But the thing is, Russia does have that.
lex fridman
But I am pretty sure.
joe rogan
Yeah, we do too, but it doesn't matter.
Once someone launches it.
lex fridman
No, no, no, no.
American defense systems are incredible.
joe rogan
You think that they can stop that?
unidentified
Yes.
joe rogan
They say they can't.
lex fridman
Who says that?
joe rogan
Military experts.
lex fridman
I want to see their credentials and how much access they actually have.
Because, yeah, people that comment on stuff...
Okay, so just even with the limited access I've had, I've spoken with a lot of people in Lockheed Martin and all over, I realize how much secrecy there is in terms of how many incredible weapon systems there are.
Given how much money is poured into these...
joe rogan
Black Ops.
lex fridman
Just ridiculous.
And they think of them almost as toys.
The way you love cars, they love incredible weapons.
And it's almost...
They take pride in making sure that America's high-tech military systems are better than anybody else in the world.
joe rogan
You know, that's what I think more and more that these UFOs are.
I don't think that those things are from another world anymore.
I've been watching these videos of these things where these fighter jets are getting scrambled to intercept these objects that are flying in insane speeds over the ocean.
I'm like, why would we assume that those aren't just super fucking capable drones that we don't know exist yet?
lex fridman
We can have both.
joe rogan
Yeah.
lex fridman
We definitely could have both.
joe rogan
We definitely could have both.
I think both is on the table.
lex fridman
Yeah.
joe rogan
But I think a lot of this shit that they're watching...
Like, here's one.
I've been thinking about this Commander David Fravor thing.
This Tic Tac thing off of the coast of San...
Why would he go there?
Why would it go there?
Well, that's where all the fucking military is.
Why would it go there and be completely undetected and be operating in the middle of the ocean and be operating over what looks like something that's some sort of a submerged base or some sort of a submerged vehicle that interacts with this drone that operates at an insane rates of speed?
And it has active radar jamming, so it actively jams you.
Why wouldn't we assume that that's ours?
lex fridman
Yeah, given how much secrecy there is in American government and Chinese government.
joe rogan
Not just that, but how much fake transparency there is from the Pentagon and from Congress where they're having meetings about UFOs.
We need to inform the general public like they give a fuck about what we think, about anything.
What benefit is there to inform the general public other than none?
lex fridman
Yeah, and I'm not sure how much politicians know.
I feel like politicians is like the surface wave of an ocean.
I feel like most of the work is done by people that are employed for their whole life and working in the DOD Department of Defense.
joe rogan
Deep State.
lex fridman
Yeah, I mean, that term has been...
joe rogan
That term is beat up, but it's a real term.
lex fridman
Yeah.
joe rogan
You know, I mean, whatever that is.
The state.
What is the state?
What is the government?
And what is the government that is not elected and doesn't get removed from office every four years?
lex fridman
Well, I think...
Doesn't the deep state imply there's a deep, like, corruption and manipulation of the populace to sort of, like, a conspiratorial, like, controlling the populace?
The goal is to, like, for the people that are really in control to get richer and more powerful and that kind of stuff.
joe rogan
But doesn't that just come with the territory?
lex fridman
I don't think it does necessarily.
joe rogan
Have you checked Nancy Pelosi's bank account?
lex fridman
I did.
Me and her are very close.
I like older women.
No.
joe rogan
She was hot when she was young.
lex fridman
Was she?
joe rogan
Yeah.
lex fridman
Can you pull that up?
unidentified
What is this?
This is different.
joe rogan
We'll get to that in a moment.
Start drinking before we start talking about how hot Nancy Pelosi was.
jamie vernon
Googling underwater drone stuff, you know, and I found the sales, this looks like a sales video from 2016, showing a drone that could be launched and controlled from a submarine that's underwater.
This was, you know, around the time of that Tic Tac thing, wasn't it?
joe rogan
The Tic Tac was 2004. Oh, okay.
Sure, close enough.
I mean, if this is something that they're talking about in 2016, they're probably on the 18th generation of it.
jamie vernon
Launched out of there and is being controlled by it.
joe rogan
I mean, what?
How many?
That's crazy.
unidentified
Yeah.
joe rogan
So this is, but this is all CGI, right?
jamie vernon
Well, this is, but I mean, I believe that means they have it.
unidentified
They're just showing it.
joe rogan
I watched one drone, this super fast drone, that was hovering, and this was like something that they were just showing the capabilities of.
It was hovering, and it goes...
It just took off, and it was propeller-driven, some sort of electrical propeller-driven thing.
It wasn't like any sort of combustion engine, but it was fucking insanely fast.
lex fridman
Yeah.
I've been working with drones recently, too, like robotics, just small experiments.
joe rogan
I know, I try to pretend that you're normal.
I try to pretend that you're not actually working on artificial intelligence.
lex fridman
I stopped so much of that.
Like I said, I've been at a really low point, like really low point.
joe rogan
I'm sure.
lex fridman
Up and down.
joe rogan
But these drones.
lex fridman
But the drones there, I mean, you're talking about, I don't want to exaggerate, but you're very high speeds.
It's like 40 miles an hour.
Not 40 miles an hour.
joe rogan
30, 40. Not 40 miles an hour.
It's slow.
40 miles an hour?
lex fridman
For a tiny drone, that's very fast.
joe rogan
No, no, no.
These fucking things are way faster than that.
lex fridman
But the agility, so just to be clear, you can navigate at that speed inside a building.
joe rogan
Oh, whoa.
So small drones.
unidentified
Yeah, yeah.
lex fridman
Like small, small drones.
joe rogan
This thing that I was looking at, it was so fast.
It was hovering, and then it just went and took off.
And I was watching this video, this thing.
I mean, it took off really fast, like hundreds of miles an hour.
And I'm watching this, and I'm like, how do we know that that's not what these UFOs are?
Like, why wouldn't we assume that one of these things would be considered a UFO? Because here it is hovering, right?
So it's at a dead stop, and then it just fucking bolts off at insane rates of speed.
lex fridman
Well, of course, you're talking about pilots observing this, and they say that this was beyond the realms of physics.
Right.
But there could be like...
I mean, I don't understand why there couldn't be just manipulation of the human eye, sort of hologram type of stuff.
joe rogan
Because it was detected on these machines.
Right.
And they recalibrated their machines to make sure that these things were accurate.
What is this one?
Let's see this.
unidentified
See?
joe rogan
That's what I'm talking about, son.
unidentified
That's different.
lex fridman
That's different.
unidentified
Come on, son.
That is wild.
joe rogan
Watch that.
That's what I'm talking about.
That's exactly what I'm talking about.
That's not the video.
Yeah, but watch this again.
lex fridman
What?
joe rogan
Zero to 120 miles an hour in one second.
And then it comes back.
lex fridman
All right.
joe rogan
Is that fake?
Looks fake.
jamie vernon
I just found a good one to show you.
joe rogan
Watch this again.
lex fridman
I feel emasculated with my 30 miles an hour.
joe rogan
Yeah, when you were going 40 miles an hour, I thought he was going to say 40,000 miles an hour.
You mean 40,000?
lex fridman
No, it just feels really fast.
It looks really fast.
Because when it's small, I don't know what that...
When it's small, that speed is...
joe rogan
Yeah.
lex fridman
It's felt much more intensely.
joe rogan
Sure, because it's difficult to follow with the eye.
lex fridman
Yeah.
joe rogan
Where it's a large object going 120 miles an hour like a plane.
A plane's going 500 miles an hour.
It doesn't look like it's going fast at all.
lex fridman
Yeah.
joe rogan
This one goes 316 miles an hour?
unidentified
Oh, jeez.
joe rogan
Yeah.
See, that's what I'm talking about, man.
These fucking things are fast as shit.
So if you're looking at a small thing, if they make something that's the size of a Frisbee, and it's going 300 miles an hour, it's going to look preposterously fast.
It's going to look like it's from another world.
lex fridman
And more and more they're being controlled by AI. Yeah.
It's great.
joe rogan
Yeah.
Great times.
But it brings me back to when Bob Lazar, and I know he's a super controversial character, the people immediately roll their eyes.
unidentified
I like him.
joe rogan
I like him, too.
His discussions of that fusion engine, that whatever the...
I don't know if you'd call it fusion.
What is it with the Element 115?
I mean, whatever it is, the gravity-defying or gravity-manipulating drive that he said that Sportcraft hat, which is this thing right here.
lex fridman
That's the thing?
joe rogan
Yeah.
That's the model of it.
Yeah.
lex fridman
Yeah.
Yeah, he didn't say anything about his capabilities, he was just saying that's something he observed.
joe rogan
Yeah, he didn't know the physical speed of it because they never figured out how to do it.
All they figured out how to do it was to get it to move around a little bit.
They never figured out how to get it to just like completely manipulate gravity, but he said the function, the way it does it, It manipulates gravity around it.
The way he described it, he said, would be like putting an insanely heavy bowling ball in the middle of a mattress.
So it pulls everything around it like that and bends space and time through its manipulation of gravity.
And by doing that, it can go from one point to another point insanely fast.
So like when Commander David Fravor described this vehicle that was more than 50,000 feet above sea level and went to 50 feet above sea level in less than a second.
Like that kind of capability.
lex fridman
Yeah.
Yeah.
joe rogan
If that's real.
lex fridman
By the way, I tried to ask her on MIT, and there's no record of Bob Bizarre ever being there.
joe rogan
No.
I'll tell you why.
I can't tell you why.
We're going to edit this out.
Okay.
And we're back.
See?
That's why.
But doesn't it make sense now?
lex fridman
Yeah, it makes sense.
joe rogan
Well, there wasn't a record of him being at Los Alamos.
They lied about that.
I mean, he was on the employee register.
Not only that, when they took him to Los Alamos, he navigated his way through the entire building.
He knew the security guards.
He talked to people that had worked there when he worked there.
Some of them went on the record.
Some of them were unwilling to go on the record.
He knew the very machine that they'd use to detect the length of the digits in your fingers, you know, through some sort of a, I don't know what kind of scan it is, but you put your hand on this and he described it and someone took a photo of it that had existed in Los Alamos.
He's like, yeah, that's it.
He went from there.
I mean, it was clear that he has a very high level of scientific sophistication, right?
He developed this rocket engine that he put in his Honda.
So he put a fucking jet engine in a Honda.
He developed a hydrogen engine to put in his Corvette.
This is all working functional stuff, and he talked about it, how incredible it was.
I mean, there's a video of him describing his Corvette.
The guy's fucking brilliant.
lex fridman
Yeah, but he also seems to have some demons.
joe rogan
We all have demons.
lex fridman
I don't know if I should comment on that part or not.
I'm tempted to.
But all of this started since we started using nukes.
joe rogan
Right.
lex fridman
Which brings us back to the reality that the nukes aren't off the table.
joe rogan
Right.
Well, all this started because we were using nukes and that's when the wave of UFO appearances happened.
lex fridman
Yeah.
joe rogan
See, I'm inclined to believe that we are being visited.
And if we are being visited, the level of sophistication of any civilization that's able to send, whether it's a drone, you know, piloted by AI or by some sort of robot creatures, like...
I would measure us.
I would watch us.
I would keep a fucking very close eye on our capabilities and the stories of them hovering over nuclear facilities and shutting down all their facilities.
Shutting down all the weapon systems?
That would make sense.
Like, if I was monitoring from another world, I would say, look, these are territorial apes with nuclear weapons, and we need to figure out a way to stop them in their transition.
They're making a transition from...
Extremely primitive to using tools, to engines, the industrial age, to the technological age in which we're at now, where things are accelerating far beyond our capacity to understand the implications of what happens if, like your field of study, AI. If AI gets implemented on a large scale and becomes sentient and then Countries that have...
I don't even know what our morals are.
But if we had that capability in a brutal military dictatorship and they decided to use it to control the entire world...
lex fridman
And they probably have information about how other civilizations have failed.
The great filter that stopped them from existing.
And they realize when you start to get something like nuclear weapons, that's when...
joe rogan
Yeah.
lex fridman
Within like 100 years, it all goes to shit.
So there's...
If you want to preserve a particular civilization, like a tribe, you would want to start helping them out.
That's the positive spin of it.
I do think that their capability...
I think the universe is just full.
Of alien civilizations.
But I think their capabilities are far, far superior to human capabilities.
joe rogan
But maybe not.
Maybe we're the best.
lex fridman
I just don't...
I can't imagine that.
joe rogan
Why not?
Someone has to be the best.
lex fridman
Yeah.
joe rogan
Why isn't America?
Imagine we're the best in the universe.
This is as good as it gets.
lex fridman
This is the best.
joe rogan
Most people are...
lex fridman
Most things are evil.
I could see that argument.
Evil.
Oh boy, I've been listening to a lot of people tell me how they feel about America.
A country, by the way, I love.
And I should say, this is, you know, I joke around about this, but I am American.
I'm now, I believe in the ideals of this country.
I will die an American.
I love this country.
And also, my heart is the only thing I care about is with the people in terms of the war in Ukraine, is with the people of Ukraine, and I do think that the invasion of Ukraine is a war crime, and I think Putin in this act is a war criminal.
I just want to put that on the table because we're talking about Oliver Stone a lot.
Yeah.
So evil, you know.
joe rogan
Evil's a weird word.
lex fridman
It's a weird word because they'll look at what we're doing with cows and they'd be like, uh, all you humans seem to be torturing your food a lot.
joe rogan
Okay, how about what we're doing with plants?
lex fridman
Yeah.
joe rogan
We now know that plants have some sort of innate intelligence, some sort of ability to communication, some sort of a community that they share with the mycelium, with neighboring plants.
They allocate resources to plants that are in jeopardy.
They release defense chemicals when they know they're being eaten.
lex fridman
Your salad is screaming in pain.
joe rogan
It might be.
lex fridman
It might be.
And, you know, aliens obviously would be able to know this kind of information much better.
If you have a deep understanding of what is life, of what is a life form, how you go from non-life to life, you're able to understand...
What is the nature of consciousness?
What is the nature of suffering?
And then you could see maybe plants do suffer, maybe to a lesser degree than humans.
But at scale, we're basically parasites and torturers of all life on Earth, we meaning humans.
So they could have that perspective.
But I just think the most advanced alien civilization would be the one that reaches us first.
And so they would be just orders of magnitude more advanced.
So anything we see visibly in terms of stuff that Commander Fravor saw, that's them trying to sort of talk down to us, like dumb down their stuff to be able to communicate in some kind of way with us.
Otherwise, if they wanted to be invisible, I think they could be invisible to us.
joe rogan
Well, I think they probably are, for the most part.
I think that's why there's these unique experiences where people have these interactions with them and then they don't know what to do or what to say because it seems so bizarre and no one wants to believe it because we have an inability to really think rationally about something that we have no evidence of.
If someone has an experience, it's a completely unique experience.
If you walk outside of the studio and you get in your car and then all of a sudden something hovers over your car, all traffic stops around you, time stands still.
Your car stops.
You get outside the car and this thing hovers and these creatures come out and they communicate with you.
And they communicate with you telepathically and tell you that this civilization, that life itself on Earth is in grave danger.
And that you have to do your best to try to implement artificial intelligence in a way that's going to subvert that.
That's going to save people.
And this is imperative.
And if you don't do that, there's a real possibility with the capabilities of weapons now that they're going to miss something.
And something's going to detonate.
It's going to start a domino chain of events that's going to be unstoppable and it's going to wipe out life on Earth.
And then they go away.
And then you're standing there in front of your car and then traffic starts moving again.
And you're just standing there and you're going, what the fuck happened?
Was that real?
And then you call me.
lex fridman
And you're not going to believe shit.
joe rogan
I believe you.
I'm fucking crazy.
I believe a lot of shit.
lex fridman
So that's a possibility, but that's like a physical manifestation.
I just think there's so many other ways to influence humans.
Where do ideas come from?
What about the seeding of ideas?
What about consciousness itself?
joe rogan
I think ideas are aliens.
lex fridman
Yeah, they're like, tell me one scientist or artist that can tell you where their good ideas came from.
joe rogan
Right.
lex fridman
They're all like, oh, just, I mean, it's never systematic.
It's always like you're like channeling your receiver, an antenna for something.
joe rogan
Yeah, what is creativity, right?
lex fridman
Yeah, where is that coming from?
joe rogan
Where's it coming from?
The muse!
I mean, Pressfield always talks openly about the muse and he treats it that way when he sits down to write.
He treats it like it's a real object that's giving him information and that he treats it with respect because that's how the muse rewards him for his hard work.
lex fridman
Yeah, but also not just ideas, consciousness itself.
joe rogan
Yeah.
lex fridman
Like we take this for granted.
It feels like something to be this.
joe rogan
Yeah.
lex fridman
Like, what is that?
Do other animals have this?
Maybe this kind of consciousness that we have, the ability to richly experience the world in a really interesting, complicated way, maybe that's a gift from elsewhere for us to be able to understand ourselves and to create something that will save this place.
joe rogan
Or maybe it's a function of the universe that constantly encourages innovation.
If you look, I mean, I've said this ad nauseum, but I'll say it again because it fits into this conversation.
If you were observing the earth from afar, if you had no context, if you didn't understand the human species at all, if you were completely alien from it, You're being made of light, and you're observing what these creatures do.
Well, what's the predominant change-oriented creature on this planet?
It's humans.
And what do humans do?
Well, it seems like they make better and better stuff.
That's what they're always doing.
And maybe that's what materialism is all about.
Maybe our obsession with materialism is an insurance policy that fuels constant innovation.
I have a phone, an iPhone, one of my other phones, that's three years old, maybe?
When I use it, I can't fucking tell.
But when the new one comes out, I'm going to be one of the first dorks to get it.
Why am I going to get it?
Because I'm a fucking idiot.
Because I want the newest, latest, greatest shit.
And I want to fuel this innovation.
Well, why is that?
What are we doing?
Well, we're eventually moving towards more and more capable things, more and more capable machines.
We are the electronic caterpillar.
We're giving birth to the butterfly, and we're making a cocoon, and we don't even know why.
We're just fucking constantly trying to buy the newest.
Oh, this one goes zero to 16, 1.9 seconds.
unidentified
Oh, gotta get it, gotta get it.
joe rogan
And we're constantly involved in this pursuit of technological innovation.
Now if you think of ideas, every single thing that exists on this planet, whether it's a mug or a house or a fucking windmill that creates electricity, all of those came out of the human imagination.
All of them.
You had an idea, a guy Collaborates with this woman, and she has an idea, and her idea fits with your idea, and it makes your idea better and more capable, and then you get together with a group of people, you form a startup, and your ideas all gel together, and you're working 16 hours a day around the clock to make the world a better place with this new idea, and this new product, and everything gets better over time.
Nobody goes, you know what?
These phones we got here right now, we're good.
Let's just stop innovating.
Let's tell Samsung and Apple, let's just leave it the way it is and we're good with phones.
And let's channel this into cancer research.
Let's channel all this creativity into fertility work.
Let's try to take the phthalates out of the fucking bloodstreams and the microplastics out of people's water supply.
No.
No, no, no.
More, better, crazier stuff.
lex fridman
But by the way, to push back, you said nobody says we had enough of the...
Communist regimes did.
Authoritarian regimes often do.
They actually suffocate innovation, which is interesting.
If you look at Earth as a whole...
It seems like that's why they fail.
It's like the capitalist imperative.
The innovative societies flourish and they push out.
True.
Throughout history, they get rid of the tyrants and the authoritarians and so on.
Because there's something about innovation that wins.
It is almost like at least Earth wants us to be innovative.
joe rogan
Well, the human race wants to innovate.
It seems like the whole universe wants constant states of complexity.
Just from the time the Big Bang exists, to multi-celled organisms, to conscious things, to conscious things that manipulate their environment like human beings.
It's this constant state of ever-increasing complexity.
lex fridman
Yeah.
Yeah.
In all different forms, which makes me wonder what that looks like.
Because there's probably life here in the solar system Probably, it might be dead, but maybe living on Mars and Titan, different moons throughout, and what that fucking thing looks like.
Because there's moons that are volcanoes, there's moons that are ice, oceans, and that's going to be all weird kinds of life.
It could be microscopic, it could be gigantic things that span, I don't know, kilometers.
joe rogan
Yeah.
lex fridman
I don't know why I say kilometers, miles.
joe rogan
Well, how about the fucking mushroom growth that's in the Pacific Northwest?
Yeah.
Mycelium growth that's literally the largest physical organism that's on Earth.
lex fridman
That counts as one organism?
joe rogan
Yeah.
They think of it as one organism.
And it's conscious.
It has a consciousness.
It's communicating with plants.
I mean, you know, fungus breathes air.
Yeah, it breathes air.
And not only that, it might have come here from panspermia.
It might have hitched a ride.
Spores exist.
They can exist in a vacuum of space.
They can exist at insane temperatures.
They could have come here, like psilocybin and all these psychoactive compounds that Terence McKenna believed were responsible for the development of the human brain, the doubling of the human brain over a period of two million years.
That's his stoned ape theory.
That might have come from outer space.
lex fridman
You know, there's this idea I don't know where I read this.
I think Robin Hansen?
It doesn't matter.
But this idea that a super advanced alien civilization planted life somewhere in our galaxy, in this local pocket around our solar system.
And then the aliens we're seeing now are just our local neighbors.
They're like similarly advanced as us because they started out at the same similar time.
But there's a much...
There's like...
There's daddy.
Somewhere.
They came from somewhere, this giant thing that just planted life and walked away.
joe rogan
Yeah.
lex fridman
And is watching from a much larger distance, which would better explain that the technological advancements of the aliens that visit us are similar to ours.
joe rogan
Yeah.
lex fridman
They're maybe ten times better, but not millions times better.
joe rogan
Yeah.
lex fridman
So that's interesting that we have a bunch of neighbors.
And in that case, Elon and the rockets will help us find those neighbors.
There's hope.
joe rogan
Well, look at it this way.
If you had neighbors, and your neighbors were a bunch of 18-year-old kids with guns that maybe even admired you if they met you, like, Lex Friedman, what are you doing around here?
Well, I'm trying to get you guys to stop fucking blowing up refrigerators in your backyard.
You guys are doing stupid shit, and it's causing real fucking problems in the world.
lex fridman
I would have to watch how I present that case to them.
joe rogan
What if they knew you?
What if they respected you?
lex fridman
I think that could turn quickly, right?
joe rogan
Depends on who they are.
I feel like if there was a bunch of 18-year-old dudes that were UFC fans, I could probably knock on their door and talk to them.
lex fridman
And talk them out of the refrigerator activities?
joe rogan
I could probably explain what you're doing by putting thermite in these gigantic...
Have you ever seen these guys that do this?
Thermite is...
It's called thermite, right?
I believe it's called thermite.
Oh, Tannerite.
Tannerite?
Yeah, that's it.
So there's this shit you can buy.
Thermite is something else.
Tan, thermite is some shit they think cuts...
jamie vernon
I mean, I typed in thermite and it's coming up as both.
joe rogan
Yeah.
I think thermite is that thing that they believe cuts...
Like, you can pour it on metal and light it on fire and it'll slice right through the metal.
It's like some kind of incendiary compound.
lex fridman
By the way, you have whiskey?
unidentified
Yes!
joe rogan
Now you're ready!
unidentified
Yay!
joe rogan
Just for science.
Just for science.
unidentified
Tannerite's an explosive.
joe rogan
Yes, Tannerite is what I'm talking about.
Thermite is the stuff that cuts metal.
So Tannerite, what they do is...
Let's get some ice and glasses and whiskey.
Thanks, Jamie.
Tannerite, what they do is they fill up refrigerators, and then they'll shoot it from a distance, and on impact it explodes, and so many people have died fucking with this stuff.
Like, man almost killed...
Watch this.
Okay, watch this guy.
He shoots his refrigerator.
unidentified
Watch this.
joe rogan
Yeah.
unidentified
Holy shit!
joe rogan
That's Texas.
Welcome to Texas.
That's where you live.
unidentified
Welcome to Texas.
lex fridman
So you're saying you could talk that guy out of doing that particular activity?
joe rogan
Well, that particular activity is not the worst thing in the world.
That's dangerous and you're probably going to die if you're...
You don't...
A lot of times people don't understand that the physical force that that stuff generates that you think this refrigerator like they've done it with safes where they've detonated safes and these enormous vault doors like bank vault doors going a hundred and fifty miles an hour through a fucking tree like it's it's immense amounts of power and miniscule compared to you know nuclear explosions So if,
you know, you take me visiting the neighbors and say, hey, let me just explain what's going to happen.
If you blow that thing up, you guys can't be anywhere near here.
You're going to have to be like a mile away.
What?
No, a mile away.
Like a mile is only 5,000 feet, kids.
And you go, do you know how 5,000 feet is?
It's not that far.
You can run it in four minutes if you're fast.
Dallas County explosion caused by teens using tannerite while target shootings.
Yeah, see?
This is fucking normal shit.
Yeah, you can get it.
But tannerite is very dangerous stuff and readily available.
I know guys who have it.
lex fridman
Yeah.
This sounds like a perfect metaphor for nuclear weapons because I also know guys that have nuclear weapons.
joe rogan
You've seen those videos of when they first detonated nuclear bombs in the ocean.
Those tests.
They had no idea.
They just took a chance.
They're like, we have a rough understanding of how much energy is going to be dispersed and how far they...
It was way bigger than they thought.
unidentified
Way bigger.
lex fridman
Well, Eric Weinstein is actually a big proponent of above-ground...
Return to above-ground nuclear testing so that humans can see...
joe rogan
What it looks like.
lex fridman
What it looks like.
Because this is real.
joe rogan
Yeah.
Yeah, grab some of it.
Thank you.
lex fridman
Thank you, brother.
joe rogan
Yeah, above ground nuclear testing is fucking really dangerous though.
lex fridman
Don't you think we know?
No, we don't.
He's saying like with, you know, Will Smith slapping somebody and we get distracted.
We need to be reminded what are the actual catastrophic possibilities of the weapons that we have.
joe rogan
Many of those...
I think that's wine, buddy.
Isn't it?
Is it really?
Oh, cool.
lex fridman
Maybe it's good.
joe rogan
I bet that's really good.
Oh, it's 12 years old.
Okay.
lex fridman
I only drink anything above 30 years old, but that's fine.
joe rogan
You're going to have to slum it, buddy.
30-year-old stuff is great.
God, it's so smooth.
lex fridman
Can you actually tell the difference?
unidentified
Yeah.
Unfortunately...
lex fridman
That means you've been drinking a good amount.
joe rogan
Well, I really love...
This is my favorite.
My favorite is Buffalo Trace for a couple reasons.
One, because it's the oldest continually operating distillery in America.
It's literally older than America itself.
This is from 1773. But it's also just really good.
And the people that make it are awesome.
Cheers, my friend.
lex fridman
So maybe you could be an expert witness for the Johnny Depp trial on alcohol and drugs.
joe rogan
No, I can't be on drugs, because there's too many drugs I'm uninitiated in.
Like, no cocaine experience whatsoever.
None.
lex fridman
Yeah.
unidentified
Yeah.
lex fridman
Do you wish there's a part of your life where you've experienced that?
joe rogan
No.
lex fridman
Because I'm the greatest comedians ever.
joe rogan
Listen.
Um, it's good.
lex fridman
Talking to you.
joe rogan
It's good to get crazy.
unidentified
Yeah.
joe rogan
Getting crazy is good for comedians.
Like, it's good to get drunk.
I have a very specific kind of mind where my ego should not be encouraged.
unidentified
Yeah.
joe rogan
But in fact, be squashed as much as possible.
Humility should be encouraged at every turn.
And what does that to me is marijuana.
Marijuana is the perfect drug for me.
Because marijuana calms me down, makes me sweeter, much more friendly, much more affectionate, much more kind, much more generous.
And more creative.
I think about things more.
I have an ape mind.
My mind is, you know, I don't want to encourage confidence.
I have plenty of that.
I'm not looking to do that.
I'm looking for the opposite.
lex fridman
And just a little bit of anxiety and paranoia.
joe rogan
Yeah, I like a little of that.
I like a little paranoia.
I like it.
lex fridman
And you're saying alcohol...
joe rogan
Alcohol is just like a social lubricant for me.
It makes me silly.
I'm not a mean drunk.
I'm a happy drunk.
I get happy.
I talk a lot of shit.
I laugh a lot.
I want people to know I love them.
I think that's good for me.
In moderation.
The drunkest I ever get is really on the podcast.
Because you're sitting here for hours and hours just drinking and talking.
lex fridman
By the way, I regret the Vegas thing where I got really drunk and an empty stomach.
I don't remember anything, and I feel like I embarrassed myself deeply.
unidentified
No, you didn't.
lex fridman
I've recently spoken a few times with David Goggins, just on the phone and stuff, and I just...
Should we tell the whole story?
unidentified
Oh, God.
joe rogan
So we go to Schultz's wedding.
Great fucking time.
And we're having a good old time at our boy Schultz's wedding.
It's beautiful.
I cried.
lex fridman
Can I take a tangent on that?
joe rogan
Yes, please.
lex fridman
And I think...
I have to mention, I mentioned to you before, I'm a huge fan of Bobby Lee.
He should be on this podcast.
joe rogan
I love Bobby Lee.
I saw he was on your show, too.
By the way, Bobby Lee's been invited to do my podcast multiple times.
Multiple times.
lex fridman
But you should get him on.
joe rogan
I'm going to have to reach out to him.
lex fridman
I feel like he's so...
joe rogan
I might have to fly to LA and hold his hand and drag him on a flight.
lex fridman
I think he just needs a real invitation.
joe rogan
He knows I love him.
Because there's been a lot of drama lately, and one of the things that happened was somehow or another my name got entered into this thing, and I don't want to get into it in too much detail, but I'm like, okay, I must call Bobby.
And I called him, and I said, listen, I don't know what kind of...
I'm just hearing about this nonsense now, but I love you.
I would never let anybody talk bad about you.
I would never let anybody come on my show and talk bad about you.
I think you're an awesome guy.
I think you're incredibly talented.
And I know that you have fear of, like, performing and putting out a special and stuff like that, but I really think you should because I think you're one of the best comedians alive.
And I've said that to him many, many times.
I always give him shit like, when are you going to do a special?
What are you doing?
Because Bobby Lee, like, first of all, his special is so tight because he's been doing the same material for so long.
He's a fucking amazing comedian.
He really is.
lex fridman
But there's also a natural uniqueness to his comedy.
I can think of Duncan Trussell.
There's certain comedians that just occupy their own space.
It's not just that they're funny, but you haven't seen one of those.
joe rogan
Right, yes.
Duncan's 100% like that.
He's 100% Duncan Trussell.
Whatever influences he has, his influences are like...
Fucking gurus and weird LSD pioneers.
Those are the type of people that are influenced in his comedy.
But he's...
Bobby Lee is...
He's a unique case.
lex fridman
Yeah, definitely.
It would be an amazing podcast to have with him to be on your show.
joe rogan
He was great on yours.
lex fridman
Yeah, I was also starstruck, which is weird.
Certain people you meet, because you've seen them so many times, it hits you like, oh wow, that's a real person too.
I was like that when I met you for the first time, but actually many times since.
The podcast thing is when you listen to a person, you get to know them really well one way.
So he has a really good Tiger Belly podcast.
And still, he wasn't invited to Andrew Schultz's wedding.
joe rogan
Why was that?
What happened there?
lex fridman
No, because what Andrew told me is it was between me and Bobby and he chose...
No, I'm just kidding.
No, I don't know.
I think they joke back and forth about it.
They're talking shit.
Because Bobby says he wants to get...
I think he wants to get married just so he can not invite Andrew Johnson back to his wedding.
I think that's the joke.
Yeah, anyway.
So yeah, the wedding.
And then we drank.
We started drinking...
joe rogan
We started drinking.
Yeah.
And then Whitney had a gig in Vegas and she was going to fly out of Santa Barbara to Vegas.
So I talked to my wife and I talked to you and I said, let's go with Whitney to Vegas and we'll fly back tonight.
It'll be fun.
So, Lex keeps drinking and you have it in your head.
unidentified
Well, there's the push-up contest.
joe rogan
I get that first.
Oh, yeah, yeah.
The push-up contest was in there.
But this is the end of the night.
Let me just lay this out.
Let me lay this out, too.
Because at the end of the night, we're supposed to fly back, and there's no jet.
So Whitney, they had charted a private jet for Whitney to do a private show with Dana Carvey in this woman's house.
This opulent house in this beautiful community in Vegas.
But the whole thing is wild.
It's crazy.
You're flying in.
Come here, ladies and gentlemen.
Dana Carvey's here.
And you keep drinking.
So at the end of the night...
unidentified
Hey, you're making it sound like you're not also drinking heavily.
joe rogan
Yeah, but look, at the end of the night, you can tell I got a little slurred in my words.
Like, listen, I'm not driving.
Oh, hello.
I've been out here in Vegas.
lex fridman
You sound quite drunk, sir.
joe rogan
Yeah, I'm a little drunk.
I went to Andrew Schultz's wedding.
But it's also three in the morning.
I'm really tired, too.
unidentified
Whitney Cummings and my wife and Rex Friedman.
And then we went to Vegas.
And...
Lex...
Got a little drunk.
joe rogan
Now, I'm not drunk.
unidentified
I'm wide awake.
joe rogan
And I'm drinking coffee.
lex fridman
My favorite part is the end.
joe rogan
Lex is a little drunk.
lex fridman
Where Whitney realizes what the fuck...
joe rogan
She's yelling in the background.
lex fridman
She's like, what?
Did she realize that you're just fucking with me?
joe rogan
No, she's trying to figure out how to get out of there, too, because they were trying to make a decision.
We wound up actually getting a car service to drive us all the way back to L.A. It's like a four-hour drive all the way back to L.A. That was fucking odd.
lex fridman
Out of it.
joe rogan
Yeah, and so Whitney's, like, fucking doing her taxes next to me.
She's wide awake.
My wife fell asleep in the very backseat.
lex fridman
Yeah, she's an interesting person, because, like, amidst all of that, she's on top of shit.
joe rogan
Oh, she's got a lot of energy.
lex fridman
And, like, yeah, being able to manage everything.
unidentified
Yeah.
lex fridman
Like, all of these different, like, career things, personal things, all of it.
You would think comedians are, like, a little bit disorganized.
Not her.
joe rogan
No, her brain is very different.
Very different than any other comedians that I know.
And she's a beautiful person.
Like, not just pretty, but like her brain.
Like, she's so nice.
She really is.
She gets caught in conflicts and stuff like that.
And like everyone does, you're dealing with social dynamics and shit.
But she's a really sweet person.
I love her to death.
lex fridman
Yeah.
joe rogan
You got a little fucked up, buddy.
lex fridman
That's what happens in Vegas.
joe rogan
You gotta eat.
That's the thing.
This whole idea of fasting, that's out the window as soon as you start boozing.
You gotta let that go.
Because booze is calories, so you're definitely eating something, but you're eating something that says zero nutrition.
lex fridman
But you don't realize it, because you think, eventually, I'm sure I'll get some food.
But then what alcohol does is it becomes a slippery slope to where you no longer remember food or any of that.
You just enjoy the full experience.
Just like the conversations with different people along the way.
Plus it's Vegas.
joe rogan
Yeah, we were having a good time.
We did a little gambling.
The wife and I lost some money playing blackjack.
lex fridman
We're not good at that.
I don't know why you thought it was...
Is anyone really good in the end?
joe rogan
Dana White.
He's so good they kick him out of casinos.
lex fridman
Blackjack?
joe rogan
Yeah, listen to this story.
This was back when it was the Palms.
It's not the Palms anymore, it's something else.
The Sands now.
He won so much money.
I think the most he's ever won in a night is $7 million.
Yeah, exactly.
Most he ever lost in the night is a million.
He's really wealthy.
So for him to feel it, to get that charge, he's got to be betting big money.
So he won so much money, they told him he's banned from the casino.
And he said, oh really?
Well, guess what else is banned?
And he pulled the UFC out of the palms.
So the UFC, we used to do the Ultimate Fighter and some of the smaller shows we'd do at the palms.
And he pulled it from the palms.
And then it became like a fucking big to-do.
Because they told him he can't gamble there.
And he's like, oh, guess what else?
I can't do here.
I can't have fights here, you fucking idiots.
lex fridman
I didn't know a casino could do that.
They are allowed to do that.
joe rogan
Yeah, for no reason other than you're too good at gambling.
So you win money.
And he's not counting cards.
Dana White is not a mathematical genius.
He's just a wild fucking dude who likes to gamble.
lex fridman
He basically probably just keeps increasing the amount of money he's staking.
joe rogan
I don't know.
lex fridman
And just walks away when it's a big, big win.
joe rogan
I know so little about that kind of gambling, like Vegas gambling.
I've been to Vegas so many times.
I've gambled, like I said, I gambled with my wife when you were hammered doing push-ups with David Goggins.
She and I were playing a little blackjack.
lex fridman
Why'd you call David Goggins?
joe rogan
Because I love him.
I want to see him.
He's in town.
lex fridman
All right.
joe rogan
I didn't call him to embarrass you.
lex fridman
Okay, it's just natural.
joe rogan
No, listen, I call him when I'm around him.
So I say, what are you doing?
You know, come meet us.
Because he was in town and, you know, I love that guy.
Every time I get a chance to be around Goggins, I'm around him.
lex fridman
And his wife?
joe rogan
She's great too.
lex fridman
I mean, the thing I remember about that night is, like, wives or the significant others are, like, I don't know.
A healthy relationship is awesome.
A healthy relationship brings out the best in you.
joe rogan
Yes.
Yes.
That's possible.
This is the push-up contest you guys had.
And this guy just joined in.
This guy joined in.
This guy next to us.
There's a lot of people.
And you're saying, get your full fucking body down.
You're cheating.
unidentified
You're hammering.
joe rogan
You're telling me you're cheating.
lex fridman
Oh, boy.
joe rogan
So, I called Goggins just to say hi.
Just because I always tell him, I always call him when I'm in town.
lex fridman
Yeah, I went back to Vegas.
You go for UFC, right?
joe rogan
Yeah, yeah, yeah, and shows and stuff like that, but yeah.
lex fridman
They're so, I love the darkness of that place.
I went there recently, just walked around the strip, just the characters that are there.
joe rogan
It's a wild place.
lex fridman
I got to hang out.
Do you know Imagine Dragons, the band?
There's a lead singer, Dan Reynolds.
I hung out with him.
He grew up Mormon, and I think there's a lot of that kind of community around Vegas.
And it's so interesting that Vegas with the darkness that's in the middle, like in the strip, around there's like a normal city.
joe rogan
Yeah!
Well, if you go to Henderson, super normal.
lex fridman
Yeah.
joe rogan
Yeah.
There's a lot of places outside of Vegas that kind of rely on the tourism and all the jazz, but they're really normal.
lex fridman
Yeah, and Dan, I don't know.
You talked to Black Keys recently.
I don't get a chance to interact with many musicians, but a super famous person, obviously, but super normal.
It's so exciting and refreshing to see when people are like...
I don't know, at the top of the world and they're just normal.
joe rogan
There's a lot of them out there.
lex fridman
They're sweet.
And he's been open about it with depression and stuff like that.
So I think psychological struggle is something, struggle of any kind, but deep psychological struggle really humbles you.
No matter what.
You get to appreciate every single day.
joe rogan
Yeah.
lex fridman
And that fame doesn't matter.
Just being alive, being close to the people you love and all that kind of stuff, you start to realize that's what matters.
joe rogan
Well, me and my wife have been having these conversations recently about people that we know now because there's a level of fame you get where other famous people reach out to you and you go hang out with them.
unidentified
Yeah.
joe rogan
Why is it funny?
lex fridman
It's a funny, almost like a blue checkmark, but for fame.
joe rogan
Yeah.
No, it's real.
I get people reach out to me.
lex fridman
You're famous too now.
We should talk.
joe rogan
Yeah.
Well, they know that I'm going to just be a person around them.
And also, if they're fans of the podcast, they know that I am just a person.
You can't hide three hours a day for thousands of episodes.
I think everybody listening to this podcast knows me as well as probably anybody in my life, other than my wife.
So it's you get to get an understanding of that person.
Then you go, you know what?
I think I can hang out with them and it'd be normal.
Whereas a regular person would be like, oh my god, Matthew McConaughey!
I loved you in Interstellar!
You're so amazing!
Can I get a selfie?
I become friends with Matthew McConaughey.
And had dinner with his family and we went to the soccer game the other day.
He's a beautiful person.
Sweetheart of a guy.
Super normal.
Like movie star.
Oscar winner.
Greatest guy.
So normal.
Like normal.
Like you hang out with him.
He and I just chill.
We talk.
Like it's just a guy.
But he's a movie star.
But he needs someone around him who can also just be normal.
And I think most people are just so, like you were with Bobby Lee or you were with me when you first met me, or I was with Anthony Bourdain when I first met Anthony Bourdain.
I was such a fucking dork because I couldn't believe it was him.
I'm hanging out with him and he knows who I am and he likes me.
unidentified
Oh!
joe rogan
And then he came to see my show, and I'm like, and he told me how funny I was.
I'm like, ah!
This is crazy!
This can't be real!
lex fridman
How long did it take you to lose that with Anthony Barney?
joe rogan
It took a few hangs.
We had a hang a few times.
It's just, it was odd.
I've deeply admired him while he was alive.
I love his thought process and the way he, you know, he wrote all of the narration of No Reservations and then of Parts Unknown.
He wrote all that.
And he's a brilliant writer on top of being like this amazing just thinker.
Like he's capable of, he was capable of Putting that down in a way where the way he flavored these conversations was like the way a great chef would flavor a great meal.
It's like there was something to it that was I really admired his His appreciation of creativity and of rebellion and of art and someone who's really good.
He wrote in his Twitter bio, it just said, Enthusiast.
That's what he was.
So it took a while for me to hang with him.
But fortunately, I got to hang with him quite often.
And maybe not often enough.
Yeah, you know, I just get fucking sad about that one.
That one's a hard one.
That one's a hard one for me because that's a waste.
It's just so unnecessary.
It's like you hit a low point and you pulled the chute and the world suffered because of that and his family suffered and his daughter suffered and it's like, fuck man, I know that those feelings are there but you can fight those off and there will be a better day.
This too will pass and there'll be a better day and the thing that helps you in those better days are friends.
And I don't think I was quite close enough to him for him to reach out.
But if he did, I think I could have helped.
Because I've had a lot of experience with crazy women in my life.
I've had a lot of experience with what he was going through.
And sometimes you need a guy to go, hey man, I'll tell you fucking exactly what's going on.
And there's a lot of these people out there in the world.
And they'll get close to you, and then they'll try to damage you.
And they'll try to hurt you because they're hurt.
Because they're fucked up.
And they're fucked up because someone fucked them up.
And it's a fucking endless cycle.
It's almost like a cycle of you hear about people that were molested and then they go on to molest other people.
It's like that kind of a thing.
lex fridman
But I think it's probably often difficult to reach out when you're in that state.
joe rogan
It's almost impossible.
First of all, you don't think that when you're struggling and you're all fucked up, you feel pathetic and you feel weak.
lex fridman
And you don't want to be a burden to others.
unidentified
Exactly.
lex fridman
That's how you think about it.
joe rogan
Well, that's him anyway.
He was very independent anyway.
lex fridman
Have you ever been to a dark place like that yourself?
joe rogan
No.
lex fridman
You never thought about suicide?
joe rogan
No.
No.
lex fridman
Not even in the distance?
No.
joe rogan
Not in my adult life.
Maybe I thought about it fake when I was a kid.
I was faking it.
But as an adult, no.
I've had dark moments, obviously.
I've had dark public moments, right?
But I'm very aware what it is.
And I'm very aware that things pass.
lex fridman
This too shall pass.
You can just wait.
joe rogan
Yes.
And not only that, but there's value in those experiences.
And this is something that really needs to be...
It needs to be addressed and you need to understand it is that you will become stronger through your overcoming of these terrible moments.
These terrible moments in them is an opportunity for growth.
And also, perspective-wise, whatever these terrible moments are, relatively speaking, we're talking about Yemen, we're talking about people that live in the Congo, people that are in the middle of a civil war, these are nothing.
And there's that old expression, the worst thing that's ever happened to you is the worst thing that's ever happened to you.
Whether it's you're a spoiled kid who doesn't get the toy that they think they deserve, Or whether you're an adult whose relationship with this woman like Bourdain turned out to be insanely toxic and you're deeply embarrassed and you're going to be exposed because you paid off a child that she was having sex with and you know it's going to come out because you were a vocal proponent of the Me Too movement because you thought it was a good and just thing and you're trying to be a good person and
you know and then It's a lot, man.
The whole thing was a lot.
But it was just, when you lose a great one, and in my opinion, I mean, you've seen the giant artwork I have of him around here.
I think he was a great soul.
Like a great, creative, innovative, fascinating person.
The way he thought, the way he expressed himself.
lex fridman
Yeah, there's certain people there, and they're rare, it seems like, It's almost like Conor S. Thompson or somebody like that.
They are able to reveal a culture of a place, like the spirit of a place when they show up.
And that means, I mean, he was, I guess, talking about food, but it's much bigger than that.
joe rogan
It's really culture that he talked about.
The food was like a vehicle to get into the culture.
And he was really interested in exploring these cultures and talking to these people, and he just loved it.
Vietnam was one of his favorite places.
He always talked about Vietnam.
It made me want to go.
There were so many places that he was always visiting.
But one of the things that really bonded us was while we were friends, he became addicted to jiu-jitsu.
And then, then we became, like, closer.
Because then we were hanging out.
He would ask me questions.
We were on a pheasant hunt in Montana, and we were rolling around on the ground.
I'm showing the Japanese necktie to him.
Because I'm explaining to him, like, if you can't sink a darse up, I'm like, you've got long arms.
I'm like, you've got to learn the Japanese necktie.
So we're, like, rolling around on the fucking ground, and I'm explaining the Japanese necktie to him.
So I'll never forget that.
It was fun.
lex fridman
Yeah, discovering the human's chest.
joe rogan
Well, it's also the vulnerability that you are acutely aware of.
lex fridman
It's so honest.
It's unlike anything else in terms of honesty.
It's like being smacked in the face over and over.
Just like the embarrassment of it, the brutality of it somehow connects you to your animal origins.
Because the closest for most of us we'll ever get to death is being choked out.
joe rogan
Yeah.
Yeah.
Or, you know, heel hooked or, you know, anything.
Like, you're going to be crippled, then someone can do whatever they want to you.
It's a spiritual game.
You're playing a game that doesn't just test your body, it tests your spirit.
Remember, some of my favorite people are very good at jiu-jitsu.
It's because I think they'd learn something from that.
lex fridman
You know who just started doing jiu-jitsu?
unidentified
Who?
lex fridman
Mark Zuckerberg.
joe rogan
Get the fuck out of here!
lex fridman
I told him you should come down to Austin and roll.
I told him that you're a bit injured.
joe rogan
I'll roll with him.
I don't have to be 100% to roll.
lex fridman
Well, white belts are dangerous.
joe rogan
Are they really?
lex fridman
Well, white belts in general, they get very excited.
joe rogan
Yeah.
lex fridman
Especially you roll with Joe Rogan or somebody like that or with me.
joe rogan
Yeah.
lex fridman
You get very excited.
joe rogan
Well, he went on a period of time for like a whole year where he killed his food.
Everything he ate, he killed.
Did you know about that?
lex fridman
No, I didn't know that.
joe rogan
Yeah, like he had chickens and I think he did a little bit of hunting.
He went for a period of, I believe he made a goal for one year.
All the meat that he ate was something that he killed.
lex fridman
Yeah, actually, I mean, he did extreme sports and so on.
I got a chance to meet him and talk with him and hang out with him and talk with him a lot after.
He seemed like a normal person.
joe rogan
Well, you know, you can only be so normal if you're running Facebook.
But as far as being a normal person in that context, I bet.
lex fridman
Well, no, I've interacted with a lot of tech leaders, and a lot of them are not quite normal.
That's a political way of phrasing it.
I just felt that the human being is compassionate.
It's the small things, the details.
The way he's presented is robotic.
But the way he pays attention to people and people that work with him, for him, just small details, the kindness he has, it's interesting.
I mean, I didn't expect that because the public paints him as a kind of maybe, not necessarily a monster, but somebody who's almost like a sociopath or something like that, who's not able to feel other beings.
And he did not, that's not how he came off.
What that shows to me is, you know, Facebook is a machine.
And perhaps the leaders of the machine don't necessarily have power to control the machine always.
unidentified
Right.
lex fridman
I don't know.
I don't know.
I don't know what that shows to me.
unidentified
How much power do you have?
joe rogan
I mean, how much can you have?
You have how many hundreds of thousands of employees worldwide?
lex fridman
Well, I think it actually has to do with how much power you want to take.
Which is like, there are certain leaders like Elon or Steve Jobs that I think like to be in control.
And they like to make big decisions and revolutionary decisions.
Saying, no, no, no.
The way we've been doing things, let's change completely.
Let's change the direction of the company completely.
His bid for Twitter.
You know, having the sort of...
The character and the guts to go in and say, we're going to change the way things are done completely.
That's a certain kind of personality.
I think those are the kind of personalities that lead to the creation of great businesses, that lead to the pivoting of businesses that are becoming stale into becoming great businesses again.
So I think that we admire those people, but they have also sort of downsides of You know, yelling and being passionate and being, you know, anger issues, all those kinds of things.
If you're polite, that's a difficult thing.
You know, how much politeness, kindness, and compassion do you want in a leader of a company?
Because if you're too polite, you're going to have corporate structure that's going to just become stale.
There's going to be momentum.
You know, you see that in Silicon Valley with a bit too much wokeism taking over.
joe rogan
Well, have you seen some of those Project Veritas videos of the people that work at Twitter that were secretly filmed discussing what it's like there?
lex fridman
Yeah, I mean, obviously they...
It's...
joe rogan
Yeah.
lex fridman
Yes, I know, but that's...
joe rogan
What you just did is, yeah.
This, that's the problem I have with all of it.
lex fridman
Well, with all of it on all sides, though.
joe rogan
Yeah, but I mean, with all of it, like these people being interviewed, like, without their knowledge, they think they're on dates.
Right.
They're drinking, stupid shit gets said, and then, you know, he confronts them at a restaurant.
lex fridman
I think that's unfair, and it's clickbait, and so on.
But it's also representative of a culture.
joe rogan
And it's also an expose of a culture that has immense power.
And so if you can get these rare windows into how it actually functions, that might be the only way to do it, is to get these people in these intimate moments where they're candid, where they don't know that they're being recorded.
And they say things and you get an understanding of the fact that you could just take time off whenever you don't feel well, mentally.
You could take a week off, you could take a month off, no one cares.
And that the entire operation is essentially, they think that they're communists.
And that they think that, you know, capitalism is inherently bad and that these are the people that are running the discourse of the biggest social media site in terms of the ability to disseminate information the world's ever known.
lex fridman
And it's not necessarily what they believe.
What bothers me the most is the arrogance that they can know the truth or they can know what is and isn't misinformation.
I think it's okay to be whatever, a capitalist or a communist, as long as you have a deep humility about your understanding of the world.
joe rogan
And you're not trying to enforce those ideals on other people.
lex fridman
You might bring them up as part of a conversation, but you have a sense that you might be very wrong, and that's the kind of humility you have to bring to the table, and then that's where you have to have actual diversity of ideas at the table.
That's why I think Elon is a really good pushback at Twitter against the sort of woke culture, corporate culture that emerged in Silicon Valley.
I admire the man for doing that.
I think he brought onto himself a lot of political division and hate that comes with the political division, saying he's not going to vote Democrat anymore.
You just entered the political domain.
joe rogan
Well, he openly stated he's going to vote Republican, too.
It's not like he said, I'm a libertarian from here on out.
So I'm throwing my vote away, essentially.
Not really, but kind of.
lex fridman
Vote.
Now you're pissing off David Smith.
I think he's running for office, actually, under the libertarian.
joe rogan
David?
Where?
lex fridman
No, for president.
joe rogan
Dave?
lex fridman
Yeah, Smith, the comedian.
joe rogan
2024?
lex fridman
Yeah, yeah.
joe rogan
Is he for sure?
I didn't know he announced.
lex fridman
No, I don't know if he's announced, but he's flirting with the announcement.
I mean...
joe rogan
He knows a lot.
Very, very intelligent.
lex fridman
I think, self-admittedly, he says he doesn't care about winning, which is exactly the kind of people that should probably run or actually win.
joe rogan
You need very unique human beings to take on any of those jobs and do it in a compassionate...
Humanitarian beneficial way for the society at large because it's going to be at a detriment to you and I think part of the problem with politicians as we know them is that they do things for the benefit of themselves that are ultimately at a detriment for their constituents because they're doing things and they get corrupted by money like money comes in and you know they start you know moving in this way or that way depending upon their relationships and this sort of And money is delicious,
lex fridman
power is delicious, and then there's assholes that start criticizing the press and you want to suppress them.
And then you get Navalny, I think yesterday, just got nine years in prison.
Navalny, you know, in Russia.
joe rogan
Yeah.
lex fridman
Probably the second most popular political figure in Russia.
joe rogan
What did he do?
What was his...
lex fridman
So, I mean, obviously there's several narratives here.
So Navalny is a critic, outspoken, extremely popular critic of Putin and the Putin regime.
I think what he's in prison for is some kind of fraud.
Even fact checking me on this is very difficult to figure out.
But I think the official thing is there's some kind of movement of money that did not follow law.
I don't know the exact details.
Navalny was already serving a jail term.
He addressed the court.
The point is, they're not going to tell you here.
You're not going to get clear articles on either side.
Most of the Western press are going to tell you it's all bullshit.
But there might be some truth of the fraud, but it doesn't matter.
Obviously, he does not deserve any of this.
Most people believed he would actually die, be murdered, you know, suicided.
Like our good friend Jeffrey Epstein.
You're a good friend, sorry.
joe rogan
Fuck you.
I had an opportunity to meet that guy once.
lex fridman
You did?
joe rogan
Yeah.
Yeah, somebody invited me to go to lunch with him.
I was like, what the fuck are you talking about?
lex fridman
Oh, you didn't actually go?
joe rogan
No.
unidentified
Okay.
joe rogan
This was after he'd been arrested.
Before he'd been arrested a second time, but after he'd been arrested the first time.
A lot of people did.
He had parties at his house where celebrities went and scientists went.
This was post being arrested.
He had some sort of a weird jail sentence where he was house arrest.
lex fridman
I've gotten a bunch of invites to parties over the past few months.
And I've gotten a chance to meet rich people.
I'm very suspicious about these people.
unidentified
You should be.
joe rogan
You should be.
lex fridman
I don't know if the weird people become rich.
Or does wealth make you weird?
I don't know if there's a...
There's a weirdness.
There's something...
Your basic calculus of morals seems to become corrupted over time.
And not necessarily in an evil direction, in a weird direction.
All kinds of weird options.
joe rogan
Eyes wide shut type shit?
lex fridman
Yeah.
Why don't we all wear masks and go naked?
It's like that kind of stuff.
It makes me feel like I'm not on sturdy ground in terms of what is good and what is evil.
The same thing with Ukraine and Russia.
I've been getting so much information from so many people that is so heartfelt, both actual journalistic information and spoken information from people.
The same thing, like, racism in America, right?
You have the BLM movement, you have African American people on Clubhouse or wherever I get a chance to speak with them.
There's a particular message.
Like, there's significant institutional racism in America.
And then you listen to, like, Douglas Murray or whoever is saying, no, let's look at the data.
Like, you have to be very rigorous and analytical about this, and there's not institutional racism or something like that.
And you listen to both these, like, groups that are very passionate about this, and you don't know exactly what the truth is.
You have to kind of think, you have to keep an open mind, have a humility, read, try to control your emotions, all that kind of stuff.
I'm trying to do that with Ukraine and Russia and China and India and Western press, and I'm trying to do that with these weird elites who are, like, you know, that I'm not exactly sure.
Like, I'm really afraid of becoming corrupted, either by fame or money, all that kind of stuff.
Does that naturally happen to people?
Do you become weird?
joe rogan
I still hang out with comedians, man.
lex fridman
Yeah, I think comedians are...
joe rogan
I hang out with comedians and fighters.
I mean, that's most of my friends.
I have a few bow hunter friends, comedians, martial artists.
That's just...
I find them to be the most inquisitive people, the people of the best character.
I like them.
They're real.
lex fridman
I wouldn't trust Tim Dillon with power or fame.
joe rogan
I'm trying to make him president.
lex fridman
Yeah.
You do realize once you do, he'll turn on you.
I don't care.
And destroy everything you stand for.
joe rogan
It's okay.
Good luck.
But I know what you're saying about the elites, and I think part of it is there's a thrill about being able to do things that other people can't do.
There's a thrill about...
One of the things you hear...
About, like, elites is that, like, sometimes they'll have these parties and then the help will be the ones who talk about it, like the people that are the caterers or the people that are the maids.
And it's like the arrogance to be naked with a crow mask on wandering around the maid.
Like, what is that?
Well, it's like part of what they want is they want someone who's not them to observe the How much freedom they have and how the rules don't apply to them.
It's like something they want.
I think that's like why people like to take photos in front of private jets.
It's like, I'm not doing what you're doing.
I'm doing something different.
Look at me.
Look at me here with my Gucci bag and my fur coat about to step on a fucking...
Giant jet.
lex fridman
And if you cross, if you break, like, moral rules, that's exciting, because look at you all, suckers following your morality.
We can break that.
And then when you break legal rules, like, I mean, that's what probably Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell got off on.
It's like, we don't have to follow society's rules.
Fuck them.
joe rogan
Or they were intelligence and they subverted, they attracted that aspect of these people.
You know, Eric said something to me once, Weinstein.
He said, I think there are people that try to curate experiences for other people that are too high profile.
And so the way they do that is to get comfortable with them, Get them comfortable to relax their guard.
And then, of course, with heterosexual men, bring them around women.
With homosexual, bring them around men that are there to please them.
Like, there are scenarios where people have hired people to go...
Like, for instance, I know of influencer parties they had in L.A. where they would hire hot models.
They would hire them to just be friendly to everybody.
You didn't have to have sex with the guests, but the idea was you would have, like...
A hundred gorgeous women at this party of 500 people.
And these gorgeous women were literally hired to walk around and be friendly to people.
You know, and just make it so it's a thrilling experience to dorks.
lex fridman
It's so weird.
It's so weird.
unidentified
It's weird.
lex fridman
That's why I don't talk to women.
I assume they're CIA or FSB. All of them.
joe rogan
But, I mean, that's what Epstein did.
He had a fucking island and he would fly these beautiful, I don't want to say women, because some of them weren't women, some of them were girls, and fly them there.
And he curated these experiences and by all accounts, there was at least some connection To intelligence, whether it was foreign or domestic, there was some sort of a connection to intelligence agencies.
And they used this sort of very relaxed social climate.
I don't know if drugs were involved.
I'm assuming alcohol was involved.
And then sex was involved.
lex fridman
So do you lean towards believing that intelligence seeks that kind of influence?
joe rogan
100%.
They always have.
If you go to Operation Mockingbird...
lex fridman
They haven't always have.
They've had examples throughout history, but the question is the scale.
The scale of their operation is the question I have.
joe rogan
Well, wouldn't you want...
If you had someone who had ultimate power, like a president, right?
Someone that...
Wouldn't anyone get a little something on them?
Get a little something on them?
Can I influence them one way or another?
Me, personally?
lex fridman
No.
joe rogan
I don't mean you.
I mean, if you were in this sort of geopolitical game, a lot of it is about relationships and influence, right?
There's decisions that can be made one way or another, and sometimes you make these decisions based on the relationships that you have, based on the influence, based on what the other people around you are also being influenced by these groups.
unidentified
Yeah.
joe rogan
And you go in one way or another, and you can shift things so that one group of people make enormous amounts of money, or one group of people, their business dies.
This is a weird game of 4D chess.
lex fridman
But how many people, that's what I ask of myself, how many people are willing to cross the line of compromising others, installing shit on- It's funny people.
joe rogan
Secret CIA files say staffers committed sex crimes involving children.
What the fuck is this?
Declassified CIA Inspector General reports show a pattern of abuse and a repeated decision by federal prosecutors not to hold agency personnel accountable.
What is this about?
jamie vernon
I heard about this recently.
This article came out in December, so it's not new.
I feel like it's 10 different employees that are contractors.
joe rogan
Committed sexual crimes involving children.
Though most of these cases referred to U.S. attorneys for prosecution, only one of the individuals was ever charged with a crime.
Prosecutors sent the rest of the cases back to the CIA to handle internally, meaning few faced any consequences beyond the possible loss of their jobs and security clearances.
That marks a striking deviation from how sex crimes involving children have been handled at other federal agencies such as Department of Homeland Security.
The Drug Enforcement Administration's CIA insiders say the agency resists prosecutions of its staff for fear the cases will reveal state secrets.
That makes sense.
lex fridman
That said, the Catholic Church is doing a much larger scale operation.
joe rogan
Well, that seems to be just a function of how they operate.
It seems so prevalent that, I mean, you know, when Pope Benedict was removed...
He was being wanted by other countries for crimes against humanity.
From what I understand, he's trapped in the Vatican, which is essentially its own country.
It doesn't have extradition, which is very weird, because it's a small country that's a few city blocks inside of Italy.
lex fridman
Yeah, but there's probably a definitive power hierarchy, and you can control people.
It's basically like a nice version of the mob.
joe rogan
But it's also, there's something, we were talking about like...
lex fridman
No disrespect.
joe rogan
No disrespect to the mom.
unidentified
To the Catholic Church.
joe rogan
We were talking about people who get molested, like boys who get molested when they're young by men, oftentimes will molest other boys.
This is a horrible, it's almost like, I've always thought about it, it's like I wonder if it's where the concept of being a vampire comes from.
Like you're stealing life.
And that you, by biting someone, you turn them into that.
That's almost like an analogy of that or a metaphor of that.
It's a crazy thing that it happens so often.
One of the things you hear about when men are molested when they're children, that they'll go on, like a lot of these guys who molest children, they're molested when they were children.
A lot of these men who go to rape boys, like these Catholic priests were molested by other Catholic priests.
And it's almost a thing that carries on.
lex fridman
Abuse and trauma propagates through the generations.
It's strange.
It's hard to stop the cycle.
joe rogan
And there's also probably an insane amount of power psychologically that's involved in doing something to someone that was done to you when you were a boy.
It's fucking dark shit, but when you find out the prevalence of it in the Catholic Church, it's like, holy shit!
Holy shit.
There was one guy that Pope Benedict had moved from one place to another place because that's what they would do.
They would catch these guys molesting children.
They move them somewhere else.
And this one priest went on to molest a hundred deaf kids.
They brought him to a place where the kids were deaf so he could apparently do it and there would be less likelihood of them...
I mean, if you went over the history of the Catholic Church from whatever, as far back as you could find, what are the numbers, man?
I mean, is there another organization that's so inexorably tied to child molesting, like the Catholic Church?
lex fridman
I mean, they're pretty open.
I've actually spoken to a priest recently.
They're pretty open to sort of acknowledging the fact that if you're somebody who's a pedophile, What better way to get access to children than to become a priest?
So it's not that necessarily...
I mean, that's their defense about saying, like, there's, you know, taking the vow of celibacy is not the thing that creates pedophiles.
What creates pedophiles is that oftentimes pedophiles will become priests just so they can get access to children.
joe rogan
Well, not just access to children, but access to children where they are the representatives of God.
So they have power over the parents.
They have power over the church.
It's dark.
It's dark, man.
And another one is daycare.
Most daycare places are run by caring people who love children.
But occasionally, someone will get involved in daycare that wants to be around children to sexually abuse them.
That's what happened with Cain Velasquez with his son.
I mean, this is just, it's not a blanket statement you could say about people who run daycares.
It's not.
But, man, when it comes to Catholic Church, it's so prevalent and so hidden.
I mean, when I was living in New Jersey when I was in first grade, I was in Catholic school.
We had heard stuff.
You would hear things.
You would hear something that happened to your uncle or something that happened to this boy.
You would hear things like, stay away from this priest.
Don't be alone with this guy.
A friend of mine literally had to run away.
He had some sort of a thing like a sporting event where he was in Catholic school where the priest made him stay with him in the same room.
And he was literally running away from him in the room.
elizabeth holmes
I think he was like pre-teen.
joe rogan
I forget how old he was.
But I remember him saying how terrified he was.
He was running from this fucking priest that he couldn't believe it was real.
lex fridman
And then the same thing with coaches and athletes.
joe rogan
Yes.
lex fridman
There's a lot of stories of that.
Again, you have the power over an athlete, a young athlete, a teenage athlete.
joe rogan
How about that doctor that molested all the children that were...
lex fridman
The gymnasts.
joe rogan
The gymnasts, yeah.
Yeah, it doesn't mean that all doctors who take care of children do that.
Of course not.
But if you wanted access, if you had that horrible thing and you wanted access to children, what better way?
lex fridman
And we don't often, or don't talk about it enough.
There's certain atrocities we don't talk about as much as others.
joe rogan
Yeah, well that's one that people tell, I know people who are molested by Catholic priests where their parents told them not to tell anybody.
lex fridman
Yeah.
joe rogan
There's a lot of that, man.
There's a lot of that.
lex fridman
That has to do with the shooting we had yesterday.
That's what I was wondering.
So there's all this political debate about gun control and all that kind of stuff.
I wonder how much role there is, how much responsibility there is on the press not to cover it.
joe rogan
In terms of, like, making the person famous?
lex fridman
Yeah.
Or even that, like, the location or anything.
Maybe the fact that it happened is important to talk about.
But I wonder what it would look like, what the world would look like if it was illegal to report on it or something like that.
Or there was a culture of not reporting on it.
joe rogan
How could that be possible, though?
lex fridman
I don't know.
joe rogan
Because it's an atrocity and that needs to be taken into consideration when people talk about gun control, when they talk about psychological problems that people have, all sorts of psychological disorders that people have, medicines that people are on.
There's a question of correlation versus causation, right?
A lot of these people are on disassociatives or they're on psychotropic medicine.
Is that causing them to be able to do that?
Is it just because they're fucked up already and that's why they're on this medication?
If you look at the number of school shooters and mass shooters that are on psychiatric medication, it's astounding.
lex fridman
But that's usually not talked about in those terms, right?
Right.
In Buffalo, it's talked about the racial aspect of it.
It's a hate crime.
unidentified
Right.
lex fridman
And then here in Texas, it's talked about...
I mean, they politicized it immediately about gun control.
joe rogan
Yeah.
lex fridman
And so it seems like there's an over-the-top artificial drama conjured up by the press to get more attention versus sort of properly putting this thing in its context.
And this...
I think any one event deserves the press it gets, but...
It's worthwhile thinking about the fact that, not the fact, but I think every coverage increases the chance of it happening again.
joe rogan
Yeah, it does.
lex fridman
Because it plants that idea into the minds of young people that this is, you know, it sucks being young.
It sucks being human, first of all.
You go, especially drugs, depression, life can be a struggle.
And nobody gives a fuck.
You can feel like nobody gives a fuck about you.
You can feel angry.
You can feel lost and hopeless and all those kinds of things.
And that can manifest itself in wanting to be heard by the world.
joe rogan
Yeah.
lex fridman
So you can understand that sort of imperative.
And if the press tells you that this is one way to be heard, I think that a different message is better.
First of all, a message that all of us struggle.
That life can be hard.
And then a message of health, of sort of this too shall pass, of challenging yourself, of being optimistic about the future, of Trying to grow, trying to survive, whatever the hell you're feeling, going through, trying to survive that, and growing from that, all of those things.
As opposed to, sort of like, nobody cares about you.
Nobody cares about you if you're struggling, nobody cares about you if you're on medication, all those kinds of things, and you get side effects that are resulting in all kinds of sort of mental or physical struggles.
I just feel like the press wants the drama Of the shooting.
They're hungry for that drama.
I see that with Ukraine.
And what worries me about Ukraine as well is that the press will move on from the war in Ukraine.
And then the war will still be going on.
And they will no longer care.
And there was just a temporary moment of time where it could be used between the Johnny Depp trial and the Will Smith slap to get the world's attention.
And the suffering of the humanitarian crisis will continue, as it does in Yemen and Syria.
There's something that seems to be broken about that kind of mechanism of jumping from point to point to point, and nobody's talking about the nuclear war.
joe rogan
When you're dealing with a school shooter type situation, how else would you address it?
We want to find out what's wrong with this kid.
He's dead, so you can't interview him.
What caused it?
Will we get an understanding of it?
Do you hold the parents responsible?
Like, what if you find out the parents were horribly abusive?
Or what if you find out this is the product of schizophrenia, of bullying in school?
Like, how does one address it?
I wrote this thing once that I said this country has a mental health problem disguised as a gun problem.
And that's what it is.
There's so many guns.
There's more guns than there are people.
I don't think it's a gun situation.
And I don't think you can change the fact that there's...
And I don't think it's wise to take the guns away from the people and leave all the power to the government.
We see how they are even with an armed populace.
They still have a tendency towards totalitarianism.
And the more increased power and control you have over people, the easier it is for them to do what they do.
And there's a natural inclination when you are a person in power to try to hold more power and acquire more power.
And it's never, there's never an inclination to give more power back to the people, to give more freedoms back to the people.
Freedom's loss are rarely regained.
And so, the situation is, should you be able to own a gun to defend yourself if you're a law-abiding citizen and you know that the police are horribly understaffed, and you know that crime and violence are real things, and I, you know, I personally know people have been robbed.
I know people who've had home invasions.
I know people that have been in gunfights.
What should we do?
Should you leave these people unarmed and to be at the mercy of a criminal?
Or what should we do?
Should we red flag any kid who writes an awful poem or draw something fucked up on his notebook?
lex fridman
That discussion comes up in terms of basically NSA-style surveillance.
Anybody that posts a gun, should you be allowed to post pictures of guns?
Because the kid, this particular gentleman, I think on his 18th birthday got two ARs, two rifles.
joe rogan
From his family?
lex fridman
No, he bought it.
joe rogan
He bought them.
lex fridman
Which is a lot of people are asking.
I vaguely pay attention to the details, but you're talking about...
So for ammunition, it's pretty expensive.
And so he somehow was able to afford two rifles and ammunition.
There's complexities around that.
But there's a lot of people saying, well, you should red flag it if it's...
If you post pictures of guns or have any kind of the symptoms of somebody that might be able to commit this kind of crime, but that's pushing surveillance.
joe rogan
Well, what about people that are just gun enthusiasts?
lex fridman
Right.
joe rogan
People that love handguns the way some people love watches.
There's people that are enthusiasts of...
Gun engineering.
lex fridman
And that's most of them.
joe rogan
The vast majority of them.
lex fridman
So it's a much more mental health problem.
And it's also, in the full context of things, and this is a tragedy, but there's also an element to this.
That it's a tragedy the way a hurricane is a tragedy.
That there is cruel things happening in this world.
There's tragic, unexpected, dark things happening in this world.
And it's dangerous to generalize from those problems into something like what I hear about is a race war.
Or there's a gun control problem.
As people sort of leverage these tragedies to make some kind of political statement.
Some kind of societal statement.
Versus...
Dark evil shit happens in this world.
joe rogan
I think also people try to formulate solutions to problems as if these problems have a limited amount of variables.
Like if you have a hundred people and you have a gun violence problem versus 330 million people.
That have all sorts of problems, all sorts of issues with their past, psychology and fucking abuse and trauma, medicine and psychoactive drugs and psychiatric disorders.
lex fridman
I think you just described Johnny Depp and Amber Heard.
joe rogan
No, because I didn't leave in lying.
lex fridman
Lying.
What do you think is lying?
joe rogan
She's lying, for sure.
She's lying up a storm.
If you can't tell that, you've never been around a liar.
lex fridman
Yeah, no, she's...
joe rogan
She's a manipulative liar who's beautiful.
She has a beautiful face, and that's a real problem.
lex fridman
She's not very good at lying, though.
joe rogan
Terrible at it.
It's amazing she made a career as an actress.
She's awful at it.
But I also think that she realizes the jig is up.
I mean, she's on the world stage looking like a fucking buffoon.
And I don't think a person like that has the discipline to not read the comments.
Like, in that case, I tell people never read the comments.
In her case, might want to read the fucking comments.
Well, what do you do?
lex fridman
You gotta stick with the story.
You can't.
joe rogan
It's over.
It's over.
She's in the middle of chaos right now, and she knows it.
It's all over.
It's never going to be the same again.
No one's going to ever look at her the same way again.
If she had never taken that stand, if she had publicly apologized, if she had done something to get out of it, if she had not pursued it, if she had not written that op-ed, which, by the way, she didn't even write for the Washington Post.
She had the ACLU ghost write it for her.
It was part of the deal where she was going to give them $3.5 million, which she never gave them.
If she had just done that, she would have been like so many other actresses and actors in Hollywood.
They're fucking sociopaths.
There's a lot of them.
They're broken, narcissistic weirdos that pretend for a living.
And in her case, she happens to also have this spectacularly beautiful face.
And she's irresistible to a lot of men.
And so there's a power in that.
There's that expression, beauty is a short-lived tyranny.
lex fridman
That's a good line.
joe rogan
It's a great line.
Who wrote that?
Let's find out who wrote that.
Beauty is a short-lived tyranny.
But that's what it is, man.
lex fridman
On the self and on others.
joe rogan
Yeah, and she's a famous actress and she is wealthy.
I mean, she has a lot of power.
And the power that she has over men and just her ability to manipulate.
Like, you listen to those conversations that she had with Johnny.
First of all, how bad is that relationship?
They're both secretly recording each other?
What the fuck?
lex fridman
And they've convinced each other it's a good idea.
No, it wasn't secret.
I think it was Socrates that said this.
joe rogan
Oh, did he really?
Socrates is a bad motherfucker.
Can you think about how long that guy lived?
lex fridman
He's an ugly dude, too, so that's what it takes to come up with that kind of point.
joe rogan
All they had of him was drawings.
Maybe they weren't accurate.
lex fridman
I think they were recording each other to help the relationship to understand because the claim was that he was too drunk or drugged out all the time so he wouldn't remember the different things.
But it just shows you how in a relationship, crazy can become normal.
And it can drift.
That's the dark side of love.
joe rogan
You're doing mason jars filled with coke.
lex fridman
Mega pint of wine.
One of my favorite.
Mega pint.
joe rogan
Yeah.
There's a lot.
There's a lot to that relationship.
But it's also...
It's an insight into fame, you know, and actors in a way that we never really had before.
lex fridman
Well, Johnny Depp is the really, really famous one.
It makes you wonder, and he was famous for many, many years, but he said the Pirates of the Caribbean was when he really got famous.
joe rogan
Oh, yeah.
lex fridman
And I wonder, can you be a normal person through that?
joe rogan
Johnny is a very nice guy.
I know him and I communicate with him.
I text message him.
I've called him.
He's good friends with Doug Stanhope.
I had a long conversation with him on the phone.
Seems like a really nice guy.
And Doug is a very good judge of character and Doug loves him.
I think you can be as normal as you can, but you're not...
It's like...
I always liken it to...
If you're going to create concrete, you need a lot of ingredients and they have to be in a very specific quantity.
Like you have a specific amount of water, a specific amount of sand and gravel and all that shit that's involved in concrete.
But if one of those is off...
What if you don't have enough water, Lex?
It still looks like concrete, doesn't it?
It kind of does, but it doesn't have the structure.
It doesn't have the rigidity.
It doesn't last.
lex fridman
This is such a Boston metaphor for the human mind.
Listen, the human mind is not concrete.
Yeah, for sure.
joe rogan
It's not a human mind.
I mean, I'm just talking about the development of a life.
lex fridman
Of a life.
But the human mind is fundamental to the...
Because there's so many...
Listen.
Clearly Johnny Depp is not a normal human.
joe rogan
No.
lex fridman
Just the wit, the darkness.
Also, I think he can hold his liquor better than anybody I've ever...
I mean, it just seems like he consumes a very large amount of alcohol and drugs and is able to behave normally.
joe rogan
Yeah.
lex fridman
I mean, there is a Hunter S. Thompson quality from Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, like the character, the fictional character, not the real character.
Yeah.
I mean, there is like fiction imitates life.
There is an element to where I wonder to what degree he started becoming that.
joe rogan
I bet a lot of it was hanging around with Hunter.
I mean, he was really good friends with Hunter for a long time.
lex fridman
He planted a seed.
joe rogan
You know, he spent millions of dollars to fulfill Hunter's dying wish of being launched into space, or launched into the air, have his ashes blown out of a cannon that had the gonzo fist, the two-thumbed fist, holding a masculine tab in the center of it.
lex fridman
It's the only way to go.
Do you think he wins this?
joe rogan
Yes.
I think unquestionably.
He's already won.
lex fridman
No, public opinion.
joe rogan
Yeah, the court of public opinion, he wins.
He wins like Mike Tyson in the 80s.
lex fridman
I like how I'm asking you like you're a legal expert.
You think...
joe rogan
Basically...
lex fridman
I've watched a lot of this.
joe rogan
I've watched so many episodes of Judge Judy.
lex fridman
I listen to it like...
Oh, okay.
I listen to it like it's a podcast and I get annoyed like I get annoyed at ads during podcasts.
I get annoyed when they get like interrupt, you know, they have to address the judge or whatever.
I have never seen...
I'm not the kind of person that likes like celebrity drama or something like that.
The reason I really enjoy this is because it's raw, Presentation of two humans.
I realize we don't get to see that.
joe rogan
It's that, but it's also someone's lying.
And they're being cross-examined.
They get busted all the time.
You can only do that so often.
I mean, she's created a fake narrative.
You know, the whole, I pledged the money.
lex fridman
Yeah.
I mean, there's a lot of problems.
That's one of them.
The other thing I realized, because I'm a fan of psychiatry, is just competence of two professional positions.
One is lawyers.
It seems like Johnny Depp's lawyers are really good.
joe rogan
Yes.
lex fridman
And I wonder if they cost a lot more?
Do you have to pay a lot more for that kind of quality?
I don't know.
joe rogan
That Camille Vasquez, the main woman who was interrogating her, that lady's a gangster.
She's amazing.
I hope Johnny and her fall in love.
That's what I hope.
I hope after this trial's over, they go out to dinner, and he thanks her, and then they fall in love, and he gets sober.
lex fridman
Look at you.
You're such a sweetheart, romantic.
joe rogan
I think she loves him.
I think she loves him, and I think she hates Amber, because Amber hurt him.
Maybe she's married.
Maybe she's married.
unidentified
Someone asked her that and she laughed.
jamie vernon
She's dating someone from Britain or something like that.
joe rogan
Oh, well fuck that guy.
He doesn't have a chance.
Against Johnny Depp?
lex fridman
Jesus Christ.
joe rogan
Step aside, sir.
Whoever you are.
unidentified
That guy's got a real accent.
joe rogan
Fuck him and his accent.
There's other fish in the sea, sir.
Move along.
This is greater than you.
lex fridman
This is bigger than you, sir.
joe rogan
Yeah.
lex fridman
And then the psychiatrist, too.
There's that...
I don't remember his name.
joe rogan
The crazy guy?
lex fridman
The crazy guy.
joe rogan
They said he analyzed him based on his character, Jack Sparrow.
unidentified
Yeah.
joe rogan
And then they said, well, what about the Willy Wonka character?
And he's like, do I have to answer that?
lex fridman
I love that guy so much.
joe rogan
He seems so crazy.
lex fridman
I hope that Johnny Depp plays him in a movie.
He feels like he was, somebody wrote in the comments that he feels like a patient who escaped from an insane asylum and is pretending to be a psychiatrist.
joe rogan
That's probably all she can afford.
lex fridman
That's true.
Money does matter.
joe rogan
Fuck yeah, her fucking lawyers are terrible.
She probably found them on Craigslist.
They don't make any sense.
Their questions are terrible.
They're so ill-prepared, but also, what are they dealing with?
Like, what are they dealing with?
They're dealing with someone who's a clear sociopath, a clear liar.
The way she, like, turns, like, she answers the question, looks at the jury, and answers them like she's doing a little show for them, like...
She's nuts!
lex fridman
Well, also to be fair to this whole trial, I don't know how much they're aware about public opinion, but this being televised, it's almost unfair to the judicial process because I feel like the lawyers aren't as terrible as they look.
They're probably just following the game of how, like, trials usually are, but they just sound disingenuous.
She sounds disingenuous.
She sounds like she's lying.
Maybe to the jury it doesn't, but to us, observing from the outside, it just looks terrible.
joe rogan
I think it does to anybody who pays attention.
lex fridman
The jury, too, you think?
joe rogan
Yes.
Unless they're...
First of all, here's the problem with the jury.
They're too dumb to get out of jury duty.
lex fridman
Spoken like a true American.
joe rogan
I'm kidding.
But here's the problem.
You don't know who they are.
You don't know what they're doing.
You could be anybody.
lex fridman
It's Virginia.
joe rogan
You might get a jury filled with brilliant, sensitive, compassionate, kind, caring, intelligent, objective people who really want justice to be served.
Or you might have nutty people.
Who knows?
Who knows how they chose the jury?
I mean, look at the jury that convicted or that exonerated O.J. Simpson.
That's wild.
The fact that they looked at that case and said, not guilty.
That is wild, right?
So that's real.
That's a jury.
That's the problem with the jury.
It's like you're getting judged by people and how much do those 12 people actually know about what the fuck is going on?
unidentified
Yeah, it's like judges for UFC fight.
lex fridman
But actually, that's not true at all.
joe rogan
They're more competent, hopefully.
At least they'd gone through some sort of regulatory process.
lex fridman
Here, it's supposed to be a sampling of the regular population in the United States.
So you don't know if there's bias against a woman or against a man.
And these are famous people, so what if you don't like their movies?
Or what if you love their movies?
Right.
Yeah.
This is what actually, some of you talked about, Douglas Murray thinks.
He thinks that there's no way, like Johnny Depp is winning for sure, because famous people always get away with shit.
The more famous you are, the more you get away with shit.
joe rogan
Do you think Alec Baldwin would get away with that?
Do you think if Alec Baldwin got tried for the accidental shooting of those two people on set, that he would get exonerated by a jury?
I don't think so.
lex fridman
I think Douglas Murray's theory is wrong.
joe rogan
I don't think that theory is good at all.
lex fridman
Yeah.
joe rogan
I think the O.J. Simpson case is an unusual case because it was right after that extremely high-profile case.
What the fuck's his name?
The guy got beat up by the cops when they exonerated the cops.
Do you know the Los Angeles case that started the riots?
Rodney King, thank you.
When the Rodney King video got released, and those cops were beating Rodney King with batons, and everybody saw it, and then those cops got released, there was riots, everybody was furious.
The OJ Simpson trial happened right after that, and a lot of people felt like that was...
Some sort of a payback.
Like, you know, here's an African American representative and if we make him not guilty, somehow or another we get that back.
And I actually saw people say that.
There's a friend of mine who went on stage and he was talking during the whole thing and he was saying that he didn't believe that O.J. Simpson was guilty because he's black.
lex fridman
Right.
joe rogan
And he's black.
He said, I'm black.
I don't believe he's guilty because I'm black.
lex fridman
Right.
joe rogan
And he was saying that, like, openly.
And some people were clapping.
I was like, whoa, this is heavy.
lex fridman
Yeah.
Yeah.
So is slavery, Joe Rogan.
Sure.
So there's a balance to this.
joe rogan
Well, that's a different time, but yes.
lex fridman
Yeah.
joe rogan
Not like a guy who killed a waiter and his wife with a fucking butcher knife.
lex fridman
Allegedly.
joe rogan
And I was like, I don't know what happened.
unidentified
I went to Vancouver, and then I heard the news, and I was shocked.
Yeah.
joe rogan
Hello, Twitter world.
It's yours truly.
lex fridman
I still think you should be on this very podcast.
OJ? Yeah.
joe rogan
Really?
Should I have him on?
lex fridman
Yeah, you should have him on, for sure.
joe rogan
Then I should get him a little liquored up.
lex fridman
Yeah.
joe rogan
Get loose talk.
You know, I have a copy of his book.
lex fridman
If I did it, that would?
joe rogan
Yeah, I have a copy of that.
lex fridman
You should do the podcast saying, okay, let's pretend you did it.
Now tell me all the details.
If you did it, how you would have done it.
joe rogan
Well, it's in the book.
lex fridman
That's how it actually does it.
joe rogan
I never read the book.
Somebody gave it to me as a goof.
I was like, what the fuck?
What the fuck are you giving me, man?
lex fridman
Yeah.
I don't know if anyone read the book, but that's how you should do the conversation.
joe rogan
I mean, they wrote it.
Somebody had to go over it, right?
lex fridman
Yeah.
I mean, how do you talk to somebody who committed a crime?
joe rogan
That's a good question.
unidentified
How do you talk to someone who committed a horrific murder type of person?
lex fridman
You have never done that in the podcast, right?
joe rogan
I interviewed someone who is in jail now, this guy War Machine.
He beat his girlfriend almost to death, and then I think he was going to get a knife or something like that, and she escaped.
And he's in jail for the rest of his life.
And I interviewed him, and she was actually in the green room waiting.
This is before this happened, obviously.
lex fridman
Yeah.
joe rogan
So that was the most...
In terms of, like, meeting someone and talking to them and them committing a horrific crime afterwards.
lex fridman
But I feel like it's not your style, like, just putting it on the table.
Putin.
joe rogan
No.
Dude, I didn't even want to interview Trump.
lex fridman
Right.
So if there's any kind of dark shit that you know you won't be able to really get to the core of with the person, you're not interested in talking to them.
joe rogan
I wouldn't be interested in talking to him regular.
So I wouldn't be interested in talking to him and broadcasting it.
I don't want to be around that.
I know it exists.
lex fridman
Wait, you don't want to talk to dark...
Like, uh...
Would you talk...
joe rogan
Like murderers?
lex fridman
Yeah, murderers.
joe rogan
I've had opportunities to talk to people who've murdered people.
lex fridman
No, but like privately.
Just to understand, like, what the fuck is wrong...
Like, what is up with your mind?
Who are you as a human being?
joe rogan
How much are you going to get into that?
And how much are you going to get out of that?
And how much are you going to carry that with you as you walk away?
lex fridman
The last question is the important one.
How much is that going to change you?
How much of a burden is that?
I feel like you'll learn a lot about yourself, about people, about what's possible.
I feel like it's really powerful to learn that there's murderers that have certain normal human...
joe rogan
Well, they're humans.
lex fridman
They're humans, and realizing that they're humans, they're capable of this, maybe they're sociopaths or psychopaths, you'll detect those things.
Maybe not.
Not all murderers are going to be psychopaths.
joe rogan
Well, you wanted to interview Putin, and you were going to be able to do it in Russian, which was much different than any way I would be able to interview him.
The richness of the Russian language and your understanding of the Russian language, you'd be able to interview him in a way that a person like myself would never really be able to talk to him.
lex fridman
Which is the reason I was interested in it, because I would be able to bring the full perspective of the intelligence, the nuance of that human being, no matter what evils they have done.
I mean, I think it's important to...
I mean, I would interview Hitler in 1941 and 42. In 45, I would interview Hitler.
That's really important to understand.
People like to paint those people as...
As bad in a way that is somehow distinct from anything we are.
Like it's another creature.
No, it's a human being and you too are capable of that.
If you're given power, a lot of us will become corrupted, especially over time.
And our angers, our resentment builds over time.
joe rogan
And if you get away with a certain amount of things like killing your political enemies, you're doing it over a period of time, and you exist in a world where that's commonplace, right?
unidentified
Yeah.
lex fridman
And then propaganda.
So the interesting thing about propaganda, it's not only a tool to convince the populace of something, you start to believe it yourself.
I mean, most of the propaganda machine of Hitler, he started to believe.
There's no evidence he didn't believe.
Everything about Jews, everything about the German superiority over the Slavic people, just the thing we think of as hateful and idiotic, he truly believed.
That he's actually spreading the pure, the strong people across the world.
That's going to make a better world in his view.
joe rogan
You also have to take into consideration he was on heavy amphetamines, which severely distort your ability to make rational decisions.
I'm sure you've seen that video of him at the Munich Olympics in 1936, just rocking back and forth, cracked out of his mind.
lex fridman
Yeah, there's a book called Blitz, I think.
Sorry, there's a book called Blitz on this topic.
Most history books on Hitler, Third Reich, and Nazi Germany actually did not know this about the drugs at all.
Because that wasn't known at the time.
How did they find out?
I don't know, actually.
I think a bunch of documents started getting released, a bunch of confessions, all the doctors and all that kind of stuff.
Because the propaganda was saying the drugs are evil.
The Nazi regime was very much about purification in all forms.
Healthy diet.
Hitler was a vegan or vegetarian or a vegan.
joe rogan
Vegetarian, yeah.
lex fridman
Yeah.
joe rogan
One of the reasons why he had chronic flatulence.
Did you know that?
lex fridman
No, I didn't.
Yeah.
I think that probably was at the source of everything evil that happened in that regime.
unidentified
Yeah.
joe rogan
Yeah, he was a known abuser of amphetamines.
That was his thing.
lex fridman
And, you know, a lot of the opera echelons and the soldiers of the Third Reich used drugs.
joe rogan
Yeah.
Well, I mean, that was also a part of the kamikazes.
The kamikazes would get cracked out on meth and then fly their fucking planes into ships.
lex fridman
It kind of makes you want to try meth, if I'm being honest.
joe rogan
I've thought that before.
I've thought of that before.
lex fridman
But there's no, it's a door you open, there's no closing that door.
joe rogan
I don't believe that.
lex fridman
Well, if you're well off, if you believe, what is it called, heart, that if you're well off in your life, you can try heroin, you can try cocaine, you can try crack.
joe rogan
If you're well off.
So if you're not using it as an escape, you're just using it to find out what the effects are like.
lex fridman
Yeah, I'm afraid.
I'm fine with coffee.
joe rogan
And weed.
The people that I know that try Adderall get fucking terrified by it.
And Adderall is a type of amphetamine that's closely related to methamphetamines.
It's not that far off.
lex fridman
And then the other side is pain.
Pain medication.
joe rogan
Ooh, yeah.
unidentified
Oh, yeah.
lex fridman
That's a dark road to walk.
joe rogan
It's a dark road.
lex fridman
And then that one is prescribed by doctors.
joe rogan
Well, Steven Tyler just had a foot operation, and they put him on pain medication, and he's been sober for years, and he just had to check himself back into a rehab because he was getting whacked out on the pain meds, so they canceled their residency in Las Vegas for Aerosmith.
lex fridman
Yeah, you're never sober.
You're never out.
joe rogan
Well, the people that get really addicted, man, that's like a part of your life that's just always in the background, always in the shadows.
unidentified
Well, you can be fine with a little drinky poo.
joe rogan
Come on, Alex, what's a little line of coke?
What's the big deal?
A little bump of meth.
A little bump.
Just a little bump for pick-me-up.
You've got to clean the garage.
Remember how good you were good at cleaning when you were on the meth?
lex fridman
I'm that way.
I've never had meth.
I'm that way with food, so I'll be fucked with meth.
joe rogan
You're that way with, like, spaghetti?
lex fridman
Well, like, healthy carbs.
See, I don't do unhealthy carbs.
I'll do healthy carbs.
joe rogan
Like, what's a healthy carb?
lex fridman
Like, fruit.
joe rogan
Oh.
You get crazy with fruit?
lex fridman
Apples and cherries and shit.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
I've gained weight since Ukraine, which is stress.
And the way that I take that out is I just hide from the world, listen to Rise and Fall of the Third Reich or different books about the dark periods of history and eat excessive amounts of fruit.
And then call relatives and listen to them cry and then go back to eating fruit.
joe rogan
Jesus Christ.
lex fridman
Yeah, it's great.
But I do want to...
I don't want to.
I'm going there.
I'm traveling to Ukraine and to...
joe rogan
When are you doing that?
lex fridman
I shouldn't say...
joe rogan
Soon.
lex fridman
Soon.
I don't want to do travel logistics and all that kind of stuff.
joe rogan
Are you apprehensive about your own physical safety?
Are you worried about...
lex fridman
Yeah.
The thing I don't...
So I'm talking to a lot of people.
I know what the risks are involved.
It's not insane, but it's dangerous.
But it's not insane.
joe rogan
Pelosi was just there.
Just wild.
lex fridman
I'm going to save my girl.
joe rogan
Show her when she was young.
Show me a young photo.
lex fridman
It's a callback.
joe rogan
Nancy Pelosi.
Yeah, I forgot.
lex fridman
For the record, Jamie just rolled his eyes.
joe rogan
She was back.
They have photos of her with Kennedy.
lex fridman
Kennedy.
joe rogan
Yeah.
lex fridman
You know what?
I think I remember her being hot.
No.
That is the picture I remember, and it's not.
joe rogan
Kind of hot back then.
Kind of milfy.
lex fridman
Yeah.
Especially if you find power attractive.
joe rogan
No, you like a lady in a suit.
lex fridman
Yeah, but I like a more tight-fitting suit.
joe rogan
Look at that one in the blue down there with the blue background, Jamie.
Yeah, click on that.
That's her.
Even as a freshman, Pelosi was a political insider.
lex fridman
There's a little like AOC energy.
joe rogan
Well, the amount of energy.
The amount of energy that must be involved in that life, you know, the amount of power and influence.
She has some big ol' mama jammers.
unidentified
Look at that, bud.
lex fridman
I think that's fake.
joe rogan
Give me that.
Two other ones right there.
lex fridman
Those are real.
joe rogan
Stop it.
They're real.
Don't be an asshole.
Look at those giant titties.
Does Nancy Pelosi have some giant, big ol' fakies?
lex fridman
Yeah.
joe rogan
Are those real?
unidentified
This could be a series of photoshops we stumbled into, but I don't know.
joe rogan
Or maybe not.
lex fridman
This is a rabbit hole.
joe rogan
Maybe go back to those photos.
Those are real, bro.
Those are real cans.
The cleavage.
unidentified
The cleavage.
joe rogan
Those are real.
Shut the fuck up.
unidentified
They're real.
joe rogan
I want to believe.
I want to believe.
Look at them.
Giant.
They're massive.
lex fridman
Yeah.
I'm pretty sure that's fake.
joe rogan
The other ones?
Which has got the big ol' fakies?
Think so?
lex fridman
Yeah, no, the cleavage.
unidentified
What?
joe rogan
What do you got?
There's way more photos.
This is definitely fake.
Shut your mouth.
Perfect.
That's real.
It's 100% real.
lex fridman
I think that's real, buddy.
joe rogan
I think that's real.
lex fridman
You know what, guys?
joe rogan
Pelosi cleavage.
lex fridman
100%.
joe rogan
Dude, that's real.
unidentified
Yeah.
It's tough.
joe rogan
I think it's real.
lex fridman
What are you guys talking about?
Of course it's fake.
joe rogan
Shut your mouth!
Shut your damn whore mouth.
lex fridman
It was like watching a porn with Pelosi's head on it.
I'm pretty sure that's real.
joe rogan
That's real.
But that's a weird thing about deep fakes, man.
They're doing that with deep fakes.
You see porn with Scarlett Johansson.
lex fridman
There's probably porn with your head on it.
joe rogan
I'm sure there is.
There is now, you fuck.
lex fridman
Like gay porn.
joe rogan
Yeah, you've just started it.
lex fridman
If there isn't, please make it.
joe rogan
That's always the rule of Photoshop.
unidentified
And DM me.
lex fridman
And I will post it everywhere.
joe rogan
Send it to Tim Dillon.
If there's a photo of you, someone somewhere has Photoshopped a dick in your mouth.
That's the golden rule of the internet.
lex fridman
And if you haven't, please...
joe rogan
But we're going to get to a point where you're not going to have any idea whether or not it's real or not.
lex fridman
That's what Elon is really...
the bots problem.
He thinks it's really important.
I think it's almost an unsolvable problem.
I love the ambition of trying to solve that problem, but it's extremely difficult to know what's real or not.
joe rogan
Well, what he's doing...
At the very least, is he's forcing Twitter's hand to address it and expose it, and it's very likely that they've been lying.
First of all, something's weird happening over at Twitter.
When he said that he was going to start, when he started this process, and then announced that he was making an offer for Twitter, and then Twitter accepted his offer, Since then, I've gained 800,000 followers.
It's not that long.
It's very quick to gain that many.
And it makes me wonder, like, was I in Twitter jail before that?
Probably.
I was probably in some sort of shadow ban type situation.
And why am I released?
Am I released because they realize that these algorithms that they're using are really fucking creepy and that they're going to be exposed and these people are going to get in trouble?
So are they just like killing all this code?
unidentified
Yeah.
lex fridman
This is great.
This is great.
That pressure was really, really necessary.
I don't know if his ideas are, his off-the-top-of-his-head ideas are good, but the point is innovation is really needed.
joe rogan
Because that's an Instagram, too, for sure.
lex fridman
Instagram, all of the, they, listen, I've talked to a lot of those people, and they actually mean well, and they're great engineers, but they've become stale in terms of the amount of innovation they're doing, and they've become arrogant And dismissive.
Like they become arrogant in thinking they know what is information, what is misinformation.
They've become arrogant in thinking they can know what is good and not.
And also they become dismissive of these other conspiracy theories or theorists or these other humans that are trying to manipulate our platform to do bad to the world.
And that starts to fuck with your head.
And if you just hire everybody that believes the same thing as you in a room, that you can start to believe that there is this particular thing that is true about COVID and everybody else is lying.
And not only are they lying, but their lies are going to have mass damage on society.
They're going to hurt a lot of people.
And that kind of arrogance can build and build and build until you're actually just...
Until the algorithm...
That you use for your platform for both the search and discovery and for the recommendation and for the feed is no longer actually a great product.
It's no longer serving the people.
It's not just like it's violating freedom of speech and all those kinds of things, which is very important, but it's just a shitty product.
The timeline is shitty.
Some people might feed some kind of echo chamber thing, but a lot of people are not going to enjoy it.
A lot of us enjoy being challenged.
And a lot of us enjoy seeing multiple opinions and growing from it and all that kind of stuff.
joe rogan
Yeah, but you say a lot of us.
Is it the majority?
lex fridman
I think so.
joe rogan
I don't know about that.
The whole idea of the algorithm is to give you things that you're interested in.
And unfortunately, a lot of people are interested in things that upset them.
lex fridman
In the short term, yeah.
joe rogan
I don't think they created the algorithm with the intention of making people upset.
That's like a false narrative that I think gets tossed around about a lot where they say that these algorithms exist to encourage engagement and encourage people to get angry.
People get angry and people engage with things that they get upset by.
All the algorithm does is find out what you like.
If you look on my YouTube algorithm in general, it's mostly professional pool, Muay Thai matches, muscle cars, and food.
That's the vast majority.
I like watching people cook.
I like watching billiards matches and kickboxing.
That's like most MMA fights.
That's most of my algorithm.
There's not a lot I'm getting upset about.
lex fridman
Well, here's the thing.
Everybody criticizes Twitter and YouTube and so on.
Try to do better.
Because the algorithm is pretty dumb, but it's pretty effective.
It's a great innovation, I would say.
We need to have further innovative steps, but it's basically engagement as a primary signal.
What are the things you lingered on the longest you kept returning to?
And also clustering, which is what are other people that like the same stuff as you also staying on?
Which is that's the kind of video I might recommend to you if you haven't seen it yet, because other people like you also liked that video.
It's a pretty cool algorithm because it's like, hey, you've liked all of these hunting videos or these animals fighting each other videos.
You might like some more of them.
That's a really amazing thing.
I think that's a beautiful thing.
And then everything we're focused on now is the small slice of that.
That's unintended consequences, negative consequences.
Yes, and they do suck and we need to make them better and improve them because they have mental health consequences because the drama seems to be maximized and there's journalists that feed this algorithm that use the ads for income so they're going to feed the most engagement It's not the social media algorithm, which is a platform.
It's the people that feed the drama, which is often journalists, I think.
joe rogan
In their defense, journalism is dying in the sense of people paying for newspapers.
So they're starving, and they're trying to figure out how to maximize engagement in this very valuable- Now you sound like Oliver Stone.
lex fridman
In Putin's defense, NATO was pressuring them, so he had to invade Ukraine.
joe rogan
I think Oliver Stone was just being objective, looking at the whole thing.
lex fridman
Yes, but...
joe rogan
I'm not defending.
I'm just saying that journalists are in a precarious position where without clickbait, it's very difficult for people to click on links.
And the only way they make any money is if someone clicks on links.
They get advertiser revenue or they can get people to subscribe.
They'll trick you with a very salacious headline and then say, this is only available to members.
Sign here.
lex fridman
But just because you're broke and desperate doesn't mean you get to be a shitty person.
joe rogan
True, true.
But I mean, you know, I think that the institutions themselves are shitty, and they're trying desperately to try to maintain relevance in this day and age where people don't want to buy print anymore.
They don't want to pay for it.
And there's so much available that's free, and they're sort of playing catch-up now.
And a lot of the free stuff, the model that is most successful is clickbait, unfortunately.
And I think what we're talking about with YouTube and Twitter and all that stuff is one of the problems is managing its scale.
Imagine the sheer volume of tweets you have to go through or the sheer volumes of YouTube videos get uploaded every day.
The problem is censorship.
It's not the problem of the algorithm.
If the algorithm existed independently of censorship, I don't think people would have as much of a problem with it.
It's that the algorithm exists and then on top of that they censor things.
You know, they remove things where it's like YouTube will remove a video if it is a discussion of a peer-reviewed paper, scientific paper, that doesn't fit in with whatever ideology they're pushing.
That's like the most blatant and ridiculous censorship.
And that exists.
People have had videos removed.
For discussing trials of ivermectin on yellow fever because they're doing things about ivermectin and they've decided that ivermectin is negative because of the political consequences.
lex fridman
Or they also do something, I would say, worse, which is, I think they call it deceleration, which they don't, you know, I guess people call that shadow banning.
They don't recommend it or recommend it much less in the search and discovery process.
Yeah.
Which is very difficult to detect.
joe rogan
Yeah.
lex fridman
So like when your video gets removed, at least there's a definitive like, okay, that happened.
That act of censorship, usually automated censorship happened.
You can protest or you can at least go to another social platform and say, what the hell, this happened.
You have some power.
When you're being shadow banned, you have no power because you just sound like a whiny person that says they're shadow banned.
There's no evidence.
unidentified
Yeah.
lex fridman
And that to me is really concerning.
I think there should be like transparency about being decelerated and all those kinds of things.
joe rogan
Yeah, and it's just like, it's mostly going in one direction.
You know, it's mostly going against conservatives.
lex fridman
Which is why Elon has a good kind of balance to all of this.
joe rogan
Yes.
lex fridman
And why, I mean, he got, even I got some shit for the idea of bringing Trump back to social media, to Twitter.
unidentified
Yeah.
joe rogan
Well, look what he did the other day.
Trump on his Truth Social re-truthed someone talking about Civil War.
The person just said Civil War talking about something that upset them.
And then Trump re-truthed it, which is like their version of retweeting it.
I'm like, what the fuck, man?
Civil War, yes.
Civil War, no.
No comment.
Civil War is bad.
Very bad.
Very bad.
Hopefully we don't use it.
Hopefully.
Don't want to.
Don't want to use Civil War.
lex fridman
It does seem that removing him from Twitter solved some of this problem, but aren't you afraid of the slippery slope of it?
joe rogan
There's a slippery slope, for sure.
And also, he's a lot of fun to follow.
He's kind of a hilarious guy to follow.
I mean, I like stupid shit.
The problem is like with stupid shit, it's like if someone makes a video about the world being hollow and aliens live underneath it and they're using marionette strings to control our dictators, that's funny.
It doesn't, it doesn't, I don't believe in it, but somebody might.
And the problem is we're protecting dumb people from bad ideas.
There's a lot of people out there that think that they are smarter than other people and so they're worried about people being influenced by ideas that they think are invalid.
Whether it's ideas about the Illuminati or ideas about whatever the fuck it is.
It's like you're protecting people because like if there's flat earth videos and you're banning them.
Who are you saving?
Who are you saving?
Is that affecting you?
Are you buying into the flat earth video?
lex fridman
I've had this discussion with YouTube a bunch.
I talk to their engineers a lot.
And they bring up Flat Earth as an example of something that's been debunked.
And just the confidence and arrogance they have about that concerns me.
joe rogan
Is it just the fact that they say it's been debunked?
lex fridman
Yeah.
They give it as a clear example as we know that there's no scientific basis for this.
unidentified
Right.
lex fridman
I'm not exactly sure why that bothers me so much, but I sense behind that that, first of all, a lot of them probably, if we sat down, wouldn't be able to prove to me that the Earth is round.
unidentified
Right.
joe rogan
Right, they probably wouldn't understand how they have proved it in the past.
lex fridman
No, other people, but I'm saying them directly.
So you're now trusting, there's a kind of universal trust in science.
Fine, that's good, because there's so much science has done, we can't possibly understand all of it.
You can't just have a blank check for trusting all of authority, all of scientific institutions, especially on new things.
Right.
The biggest thing I have a problem with is the arrogance, because you should have a humility.
Why is there a community of people that believe the Earth is flat?
You can say it's because they're all stupid, but I just feel like that's a slippery slope too, believing that there's just a bunch of dumb people.
That's an opportunity to educate them or hear them out.
What is at the core of this belief?
Probably it's a distrust of the scientific institutions, which to me seems to be the problem you need to solve.
Not censoring this community of people that believe the earth is flat.
joe rogan
I think the correct way is to have a video responding to that, proving that they're wrong.
And that way you can watch both.
lex fridman
Without rolling your eyes during the video, which is what they often do.
There's a kind of mocking of the other side.
It's an opportunity to educate.
Most of us, even the people that believe the Earth is round, don't know 99.999% of, cannot explain how this universe works.
99.999% of it.
Science is the very early stages of understanding.
We don't understand most of anything about the human mind, most of anything about the universe, about biology, it's a giant mystery, and we congratulate ourselves because we made a lot of progress in the past century or two centuries, depending on the discipline.
But the world is shrouded in mystery, and I think humility should be the driver for the recommender systems on YouTube, on Twitter, on Facebook, and so on.
And always err on the side of free speech, I think.
joe rogan
I think so too, and I think it's also an interesting opportunity to explore why people believe stupid shit, why people believe the Earth is flat, why people believe space is fake.
You know, there's a thriving community of people that think space is fake.
And a lot of it has to do with, like, religious beliefs.
They believe that, you know, there's, like, a dome over the Earth, and the Earth is like a flat disk.
lex fridman
Well, I also, I mean, I can empathize because there's something, I mean, I'm sure there's something genetically, biologically wrong with me or right with me, but I find those things fun to think about.
joe rogan
They're fun.
lex fridman
Why is that fun?
joe rogan
There's nothing wrong with you because it's so silly.
lex fridman
Yeah, but then maybe it's a slippery slope.
You have a little bit of fun, you get into a room, you have some beers with your friends, and then you're like, the fun turns and you get t-shirts.
unidentified
Yeah.
lex fridman
And mugs.
And all of a sudden you have a Facebook group.
joe rogan
But isn't Scientology fun too?
When you find out that there's like, they think there's thetans inside of you and they were frozen, they threw them in a volcano.
That's fucking fun.
lex fridman
But then they start threatening you that if you ever leave, we'll reveal some shit about you.
joe rogan
Well, that's criminal.
That's not cool.
But the actual beliefs themselves, like the Mormons believe when you die you get your own planet.
Hilarious.
lex fridman
Each person gets their own planet?
joe rogan
Oh yeah!
lex fridman
Oh shit.
joe rogan
Did you know that the Osmond Brothers had an album that was dedicated to that belief and that inside the album is like all these worlds?
It's like in the jacket of the album when you open up the album cover there's like these worlds and this is all based on this Mormon principle written by a fucking 14 year old con artist Allegedly.
In 1820. Maybe he was onto something.
unidentified
Maybe not.
lex fridman
Do you know what happens?
joe rogan
No.
lex fridman
How do you know you don't get your own planet?
joe rogan
Imagine if this one guy was onto something, he really knew, and everybody's like, he lied about everything else, but he was right about this.
lex fridman
What if planet is just a metaphor for a simulation?
You get to enter, you get transported to another world.
joe rogan
Or your entire life in your existence.
I mean, you don't know how the world sees you when you're not around.
Maybe you literally do live in your own planet.
Maybe as you go through life thinking that you're gonna go visit your friend and that he's there when you're not there.
Maybe he doesn't even exist until you show up.
unidentified
Yeah.
joe rogan
Maybe all that social media stuff.
Maybe it was all an illusion.
lex fridman
I created you.
I manifested you.
You and Jamie and this microphone.
This is all for me.
joe rogan
Thank you.
lex fridman
This whole world.
You're fake, Joe.
joe rogan
I'm honored to be at least alive.
lex fridman
Can I shoot you now?
joe rogan
Not yet.
lex fridman
Okay.
joe rogan
Wait for this podcast.
It's almost over.
We're about three hours.
But if you...
If you just waited until...
I mean, imagine if you found out that your life was really a simulation, and that all of your interactions with people were pro and con, were all these little lessons that you learned, and you're just going through this thing to experience enough different scenarios to have a better, more comprehensive understanding of who you are as an individual.
lex fridman
Yeah.
It's like a meditative journey exploring your own mind.
If you think of what VR would be in the future, you create a whole world.
That's what video games are, right?
You create a whole world just to be able to understand yourself better.
That's what a therapy session will be of the future, is you create an entire planet, See, the Mormons are onto something.
You create an entire planet, entire civilization, and places you into a particular aspect that helps you to work out your ancestral issues, like your relationship with your dad, your relationship with your mom, your, like, former girlfriends or whatever.
You have to figure all that out, and it creates just the kind of crazy people around you, or healthy people, to help you figure that out.
And then, at the end of your life, you come to that realization, and then you return back, To the eternal self with the deep realization of resolving some of the deep psychological issues that you had before.
joe rogan
Well, you know, Elio Gracie felt his belief was that you lived the same life over and over and over again until you got it right.
Until you made all the correct choices, made all the right decisions at every single stage of your life.
And that this life is like this constant process of improving upon your existence.
lex fridman
So Nietzsche had the eternal occurrence thing where unlike Ilya Gracie, I guess you don't get to change.
joe rogan
You just keep doing it.
lex fridman
You keep doing the exact same thing which focuses your mind saying the decisions you make at any one moment We'll be repeated for all eternity.
Therefore, there's a lot of pressure to get it right.
There's a lot of importance to getting it right.
Like, imagine every single thing you do today will be repeated for eternity, over and over and over and over and over.
joe rogan
Is that terrible?
Here's my thought.
Why are people afraid of that?
Because they are.
If you tell people that they feel trapped, they feel like locked into this existence over and over and over again, having to live your life over and over and over again.
But don't you like it now?
It's just now.
It's always now.
It's always this.
It's always this moment.
lex fridman
The moment.
joe rogan
Forever.
unidentified
Yeah.
joe rogan
So I like this.
So why am I scared of doing it over and over again forever?
lex fridman
So you might not like the day.
unidentified
Right.
lex fridman
Most of us, if we're conscious of the moment, we like the moment.
joe rogan
If you treat it with care and understanding and humility and compassion and intelligence, it's possible to enjoy a lot of them.
Obviously, there's horrific accidents and terrible tragedies and there's things you can't enjoy.
But overall, if you're alive, especially if you're you or me, and you're very privileged, and you're very fortunate, and you live in America, and you have a job that's rewarding and fascinating and great and all these good things, why wouldn't you want to keep doing it forever?
Like, what are you scared of?
Are you scared of living today?
No.
Then why are you scared of living today forever?
lex fridman
Yeah.
Why does that feel like it's trapped?
joe rogan
It feels like a trap.
Yeah, because I think we want to transcend.
I think we feel trapped by our monkey bodies.
We want to transcend this existence and be something more spiritual, be something more complete.
I think we find these little moments of that when you do show kindness and compassion and love and camaraderie and all these different things.
That elevate us beyond the base existence and give us this new, even if it's only a temporary, fresh perspective, fresh enjoyment of life.
And then we hope that one day we'll be free of all the things that hold us down to this very primal, survival-based existence.
lex fridman
Yeah.
Can I read a poem?
joe rogan
Yeah.
Let's end with your poem.
It's a tradition, right?
It's kind of a tradition.
lex fridman
Do you want Robert Frost or Bukowski?
joe rogan
Oh, always Bukowski.
unidentified
All right.
lex fridman
This is about the moment.
It's a little bit of a long one.
joe rogan
It's perfect, though.
The moment?
I mean, it's literally right there.
It's in line with what we were talking about.
lex fridman
It's called Nirvana by Charles Bukowski.
joe rogan
Cheers, sir.
lex fridman
Cheers.
joe rogan
Thank you.
lex fridman
It's good to see you.
joe rogan
It's good to see you always.
lex fridman
Nirvana by Charles Bukowski.
Not much chance.
Completely cut loose from purpose.
He was a young man riding a bus through North Carolina on the way to somewhere and it began to snow.
And the bus stopped at a little cafe in the hills and the passengers entered.
He sat at the corner with the others.
He ordered and the food arrived.
The meal was particularly good in the coffee.
The waitress was unlike the women he had known.
She was unaffected.
There was a natural humor which came from her.
The fry cook said crazy things.
The dishwasher in the back laughed a good, clean, pleasant laugh.
The young man watched the snow through the windows.
He wanted to stay in that cafe forever.
The curious feeling swam through him that everything was beautiful there, that it would always be beautiful there.
Then the bus driver told the passengers that it was time to board.
The young man thought, I'll just sit here.
I'll just stay here.
I'll just stay here.
But then he rose and followed the others into the bus.
He found his seat and looked at the cafe through the bus window.
Then the bus moved off, down a curve, downward, out of the hills.
The young man looked straight forward.
He heard the other passengers speaking of other things, or they were reading or attempting to sleep.
They had not noticed the magic.
The young man put his head to one side, closed his eyes, pretended to sleep.
There was nothing else to do, just to listen to the sound of the engine, the sound of the tires in the snow.
So, the magic is the moment.
Here's to the magic, Joe Rogan.
joe rogan
Here's to the magic, my brother.
lex fridman
Thank you, brother.
Love you, man.
joe rogan
Love you, too.
unidentified
It's always great.
joe rogan
Always great to see you.
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