The Joe Rogan ExperienceJoe Rogan Experience #2020 - Python Cowboy
Joe Rogan and Mike "Python Cowboy" Kimmel on python Cowboy battles invasive predators, bureaucracy, and Florida’s dying Everglades.
In this episode of The Joe Rogan Experience, featuring Narrator and Narrator, Joe Rogan Experience #2020 - Python Cowboy explores python Cowboy battles invasive predators, bureaucracy, and Florida’s dying Everglades Joe Rogan interviews "Python Cowboy" Mike, a Florida hunter and conservationist who removes invasive pythons and iguanas while advocating for better Everglades management. They detail how Burmese pythons, cane toads, iguanas, and other exotics are devastating native wildlife and infrastructure, and how regulations often block effective control efforts. Mike recounts near‑fatal encounters with giant pythons, his use of highly trained dogs to find underground nests, and a suspected history of intentional exotic releases for profit. The conversation widens into water mismanagement, Everglades politics, occult encounters in abandoned facilities, and broader worries about human tinkering with ecosystems, from genetically modified mosquitoes to uncontrolled development.
At a glance
WHAT IT’S REALLY ABOUT
Python Cowboy battles invasive predators, bureaucracy, and Florida’s dying Everglades
- Joe Rogan interviews "Python Cowboy" Mike, a Florida hunter and conservationist who removes invasive pythons and iguanas while advocating for better Everglades management. They detail how Burmese pythons, cane toads, iguanas, and other exotics are devastating native wildlife and infrastructure, and how regulations often block effective control efforts. Mike recounts near‑fatal encounters with giant pythons, his use of highly trained dogs to find underground nests, and a suspected history of intentional exotic releases for profit. The conversation widens into water mismanagement, Everglades politics, occult encounters in abandoned facilities, and broader worries about human tinkering with ecosystems, from genetically modified mosquitoes to uncontrolled development.
IDEAS WORTH REMEMBERING
7 ideasInvasive pythons are decimating Everglades mammals and reshaping the food web.
Burmese pythons have wiped out 90–99% of small mammals like raccoons, rabbits, and otters in parts of the Everglades and heavily reduced deer, while increasingly preying on alligators and wading birds.
Management is possible, but current policies make meaningful control unlikely.
Mike argues that with broad public participation, better access (airboats, buggies), and dog teams, python populations can be significantly reduced; instead, national park rules, vehicle bans, and limited contractor programs keep efforts shallow and road‑bound.
Highly trained dogs are a breakthrough tool for finding hidden pythons and nests.
His dog Otto and others can locate underground pythons and nests that humans almost never find; this season alone his team found more nests than had been found in the state’s entire prior history, stopping dozens of snakes before they hatch.
Well‑intended bans on exotic pets can backfire and worsen invasions.
Florida’s bans on owning iguanas and tegus have prompted some owners to dump animals rather than have them euthanized, eliminating responsible keepers and free removal via the pet trade while leaving only law‑breakers and wild breeders.
Iguanas cause massive infrastructure damage and expensive repairs.
Green iguanas undermine foundations, seawalls, levees, and roads with burrows; one small town spent $1.7 million on levee repairs alone, and Miami‑Dade is now comparing iguana spending needs to its mosquito control budget (tens of millions annually).
Everglades decline is driven as much by water mismanagement as by invasives.
Levees, locks, agricultural interests, and development have blocked the natural southward water flow, causing toxic algal blooms, fish kills, and ecosystem collapse; restoring flow conflicts with existing cities and farmland, so political will is weak.
Human tinkering with ecosystems repeatedly has unintended and long‑term consequences.
Examples range from imported cane toads and melaleuca trees to genetically modified mosquitoes and alleged exotic releases for farming; Mike and Rogan stress that once such decisions are made, they’re effectively irreversible at landscape scale.
WORDS WORTH SAVING
5 quotesWe're never getting rid of the pythons or the iguanas. They're here to stay, but management is absolutely essential.
— Python Cowboy (Mike)
One snake gives birth to 70 snakes… it shows what we’re up against.
— Python Cowboy (Mike)
If you’re not looking for these snakes, you’re not finding them.
— Python Cowboy (Mike)
Florida is unlike any other place… it’s almost appropriate that all these invasives are there.
— Joe Rogan
This idea that we’re supposed to trust these guys that they know exactly how everything’s gonna work out—like, fuck off.
— Joe Rogan
QUESTIONS ANSWERED IN THIS EPISODE
5 questionsWhat specific policy changes would most immediately improve python and iguana control without causing new ecological problems?
Joe Rogan interviews "Python Cowboy" Mike, a Florida hunter and conservationist who removes invasive pythons and iguanas while advocating for better Everglades management. They detail how Burmese pythons, cane toads, iguanas, and other exotics are devastating native wildlife and infrastructure, and how regulations often block effective control efforts. Mike recounts near‑fatal encounters with giant pythons, his use of highly trained dogs to find underground nests, and a suspected history of intentional exotic releases for profit. The conversation widens into water mismanagement, Everglades politics, occult encounters in abandoned facilities, and broader worries about human tinkering with ecosystems, from genetically modified mosquitoes to uncontrolled development.
How feasible is it to scale up dog‑based python detection teams across the entire Everglades, and what would that realistically cost?
Could Florida ever design a legal market or bounty system for invasive species that incentivizes removal while avoiding past abuses?
How should the public weigh the risks of emerging biotechnologies (like GMO mosquitoes) against more traditional, imperfect control methods?
What lessons from the Gladesmen’s history and exclusion from the Everglades could guide more effective, community‑based conservation today?
EVERY SPOKEN WORD
Install uListen for AI-powered chat & search across the full episode — Get Full Transcript
Get more out of YouTube videos.
High quality summaries for YouTube videos. Accurate transcripts to search & find moments. Powered by ChatGPT & Claude AI.
Add to Chrome