Joe Rogan Experience #1114 - Matt Taibbi

1. 0:00 – 15:00

   Five, four, three, two...…

   1. JRJoe Rogan0:02

      Five, four, three, two... That countdown gives me anxiety. I gotta stop doing the countdown. See, look, I spilled my fucking Alpha Brain.

   2. MTMatt Taibbi0:11

      (laughs)

   3. JRJoe Rogan0:11

      God damn it.

   4. MTMatt Taibbi0:12

      What is Alpha Brain?

   5. JRJoe Rogan0:13

      It's, uh, brain juice. It's like a cognitive enhancing supplement.

   6. MTMatt Taibbi0:18

      Really?

   7. JRJoe Rogan0:19

      Yeah, you ever fuck with nootropics? You know what nootropics are?

   8. MTMatt Taibbi0:21

      No. Do you have an extra one? Can I try?

   9. JRJoe Rogan0:22

      Yeah, sure. For sure. The... Nootropics are essentially the, uh, building blocks for human neurotransmitters. They improve your memory. Not too radically. Not like, uh... Have you ever fucked with modafinil or any of that stuff?

   10. MTMatt Taibbi0:35

       No.

   11. JRJoe Rogan0:37

       No?

   12. MTMatt Taibbi0:37

       No.

   13. JRJoe Rogan0:38

       Modafinil's like, uh, Provigil. It's, um... They give it to fighter pilots.

   14. MTMatt Taibbi0:42

       Oh, yeah. Yeah, yep.

   15. JRJoe Rogan0:43

       You know what I'm talking about? It helps keep them awake. I was just-

   16. MTMatt Taibbi0:45

       Well, I have a doctor, so yeah, yeah.

   17. JRJoe Rogan0:46

       You have a doctor?

   18. MTMatt Taibbi0:47

       Yeah, my wi- my wife is a doctor.

   19. JRJoe Rogan0:48

       Oh, your wife's a doctor.

   20. MTMatt Taibbi0:49

       Yeah, yeah.

   21. JRJoe Rogan0:50

       Oh, that's perfect. So she knows about all that jazz.

   22. MTMatt Taibbi0:52

       Yeah, yeah.

   23. JRJoe Rogan0:52

       Um, but there was just an article recently about it improving cognitive performance. You're gonna probably have to bite into that. You got it?

   24. MTMatt Taibbi1:00

       Yeah.

   25. JRJoe Rogan1:01

       Um, it's good to meet you, man. I'm- I've enjoyed your work.

   26. MTMatt Taibbi1:04

       Nice to meet you too. I mean, I've been a fan forever, so-

   27. JRJoe Rogan1:05

       Thank you. Me too.

   28. MTMatt Taibbi1:06

       ... I'm looking forward.

   29. JRJoe Rogan1:07

       Uh, I've enjoyed your writing for sure.

   30. MTMatt Taibbi1:10

       Oh, thank you.
2. 15:00 – 30:00

   (laughs) Of course. …

   1. JRJoe Rogan15:00

      people don't smoke marijuana." Like, just saying that alone, y- do you know how many grandmas out there with cancer are smoking marijuana?

   2. MTMatt Taibbi15:07

      (laughs) Of course.

   3. JRJoe Rogan15:08

      You know, fuck you.

   4. MTMatt Taibbi15:09

      Right.

   5. JRJoe Rogan15:09

      Crazy asshole.

   6. MTMatt Taibbi15:10

      Right.

   7. JRJoe Rogan15:10

      Just the fact that someone could be in such a position of influence and say something like that.

   8. MTMatt Taibbi15:14

      Right.

   9. JRJoe Rogan15:15

      Like, this isn't just your dad saying that, "Good people don't smoke marijuana," he goes out in the yard and fucking smokes a cigarette. This is, this is Jeff Sessions.

   10. MTMatt Taibbi15:21

       This is the Attorney General.

   11. JRJoe Rogan15:22

       Yeah.

   12. MTMatt Taibbi15:23

       Yeah, exactly.

   13. JRJoe Rogan15:23

       It's terrifying.

   14. MTMatt Taibbi15:24

       Yeah, and, and, you know, when you take ignorance and then the full weight of the executive branch, um, eh, you know, especially the d- the anti-drug apparatus, uh-

   15. JRJoe Rogan15:36

       Yeah.

   16. MTMatt Taibbi15:36

       ... you know, that's, that's a terrible, terrible combination. When ... And it's too bad because I think, I think even the law enforcement community was kind of coming around on this.

   17. JRJoe Rogan15:45

       Yes.

   18. MTMatt Taibbi15:45

       Um, you know, they, uh, they don't want to be picking up people for dealing weed. I mean-

   19. JRJoe Rogan15:50

       No.

   20. MTMatt Taibbi15:51

       ... uh, I, I, I talked to ... For my last book, talking ... About the Eric Garner case, I talked to lots of cops, and they, they just hate having to do that, you know? Those-

   21. JRJoe Rogan15:58

       Yeah.

   22. MTMatt Taibbi15:58

       ... those busts are not fun for them.

   23. JRJoe Rogan15:59

       Well, the Eric Garner case is the guy who got choked in New York, right?

   24. MTMatt Taibbi16:02

       Yeah, exactly.

   25. JRJoe Rogan16:03

       With loose cigarettes, which is even the m- even more fucking crazy.

   26. MTMatt Taibbi16:05

       Even dumber, yeah, yeah. And that's ... And, you know, cops having to do that, that's not even a misdemeanor in New York.

   27. JRJoe Rogan16:12

       Right.

   28. MTMatt Taibbi16:12

       And, you know, if you gotta, if you gotta drag somebody in for selling a 50 cent cigarette, like, you know, that's not exactly Serpico, you know what I mean?

   29. JRJoe Rogan16:19

       Yeah, yeah, yeah.

   30. MTMatt Taibbi16:19

       Like, again, uh, cops don't ... You don't join the force dreaming of doing that, so. But, uh, yeah, I mean, uh, the Sessions thing is terrible.
3. 30:00 – 45:00

   Right. …

   1. JRJoe Rogan30:00

      essentially a pharmaceutical intervention into not just, um, American lives in terms of individuals, but in terms of the way policy is driven-

   2. MTMatt Taibbi30:10

      Right.

   3. JRJoe Rogan30:10

      ... and the way the country moves forward. It might literally be pharmaceutically enhanced.

   4. MTMatt Taibbi30:16

      (laughs) That's very Philip K. Dick, but it could easily be true, right?

   5. JRJoe Rogan30:19

      It could easily be true. Lookit-

   6. MTMatt Taibbi30:20

      Yeah.

   7. JRJoe Rogan30:20

      It all seems true.

   8. MTMatt Taibbi30:22

      Right.

   9. JRJoe Rogan30:22

      It seem ... Like, like I'm not saying anything that's outlandish. First of all, not ... We're talking about something that's real. Pills are, these pills are real. We're talking about something that's widely consumed. Everybody knows this. And we're talking about a guy who has an extraordi- extraordinary amount of energy for someone who doesn't work.

   10. MTMatt Taibbi30:35

       Right.

   11. JRJoe Rogan30:35

       D- workout, rather, doesn't eat healthy-

   12. MTMatt Taibbi30:38

       Right.

   13. JRJoe Rogan30:39

       ... and, like, w- where's he getting all this energy?

   14. MTMatt Taibbi30:40

       Yeah, no, I mean, I remember talking about this with some of the other reporters, because e- a- as you say, the, the campaign trail is incredibly grueling. Uh, there's a reason why some candidates can't do it, um, or, or they opt to do lots of legacy media appearances or ad buys. They, they travel less and appear more. The people who tend to succeed are the ones who can do three or four appearances a day, fly to three different cities a day, um-... and they ... M- most of those people are either health freaks, uh, people who are, you know, in good physical condition. Obama was, was definitely one of those people who, who, you know, had to have a run at some point or else he couldn't do that schedule. But Donald Trump, you know, you look at him and it's kind of a mystery because-

   15. JRJoe Rogan31:29

       There it is. There it is. Fun fact, in 1982, Trump started taking amphetamine derivatives, abused them. Only supposed to take two for 25 days, stayed on for eight years. Really.

   16. MTMatt Taibbi31:39

       (laughs)

   17. JRJoe Rogan31:39

       And this is Kurt Eichenwald.

   18. MTMatt Taibbi31:41

       Right.

   19. JRJoe Rogan31:42

       Um, White House submit- uh, admitted it to me. Uh, said, "Only a short time for diet," in quotes, "when he was not overweight. I countered with medical records. They cut me off. People misreading. Drug was diethylprop- propion, 75 milligrams a day. Prescription filled at Duane Reade on 57th Street in Manhattan."

   20. MTMatt Taibbi32:02

       Oh, I know that one.

   21. JRJoe Rogan32:03

       Not that I know things.

   22. MTMatt Taibbi32:04

       Yeah.

   23. JRJoe Rogan32:04

       "Doctor who, uh, wrote prescription, Dr. Joseph Greenberg, diagnosed him with metabolic imbalance," which we have never heard about again. "Greenberg was later publicly slammed as someone who provided uppers to rich (laughs) people in Manhattan. A metabolic imbalance, in quotes, uh, if true, could be electrolyte insufficiencies, anaerobic imbalances, acid imbalances and an assortment of related disorders that can have serious health consequences. Yet his other doctor, Dr. Harold Bornstein, said he had been Trump's doctor since 1980 and had never mentioned the metabolic imbalance found by Greenberg." Yeah. (laughs)

   24. MTMatt Taibbi32:43

       Hm.

   25. JRJoe Rogan32:44

       (laughs)

   26. MTMatt Taibbi32:45

       Right, right.

   27. JRJoe Rogan32:46

       So save that.

   28. MTMatt Taibbi32:47

       (laughs)

   29. JRJoe Rogan32:48

       Save that and bookmark it. Now find out what the, the other stuff, 'cause he was in ... Just, just Google Trump is on one of the ingredients in Phen-Fen.

   30. NANarrator33:00

       Yeah. So I Googled that. That came up in like a Gawker article. Excuse me, Ga- Gawker article.
4. 45:00 – 1:00:00

   Right. …

   1. MTMatt Taibbi45:00

      your predilections probably are, what your opinions, your political stances. And so they pick out, uh, news stories that they think are y- you're l- you're likely to endorse or spend a lot of time reading, um, which likely means that you're never gonna see a news story that says you personally are responsible for something bad, right?

   2. JRJoe Rogan45:21

      Right.

   3. MTMatt Taibbi45:21

      That's like thing one. Uh, you will see a lot of news stories that say your neighbor is responsible for something bad, um, and that's one of the reasons why, like, divisiveness is a conscious commercial strategy. It's just, it's, it's a natural, uh, result of a lot of this, uh, a lot of these behaviors.

   4. JRJoe Rogan45:40

      What is the mean age of people that are watching Fox News? You're talking about like old-

   5. MTMatt Taibbi45:44

      Oh, it's like-

   6. JRJoe Rogan45:45

      ... people freaking out.

   7. MTMatt Taibbi45:45

      68. Yeah.

   8. JRJoe Rogan45:46

      Is it really?

   9. MTMatt Taibbi45:47

      Yeah. It's, it's something ridiculously old. And, and, and that's true of all the, all the cable networks. They're all pre-

   10. JRJoe Rogan45:52

       Even MSNBC?

   11. MTMatt Taibbi45:53

       Yeah, even MSNBC. Um, the ... You know, it's, it's worse, uh, with Fox and, and, uh, and, um, CNN, and I don't wanna, I don't wanna misquote it, but, uh, I know they're all like above 65. Um, so if TV is-

   12. JRJoe Rogan46:12

       68. You're right. Look at that.

   13. MTMatt Taibbi46:14

       Is that-

   14. JRJoe Rogan46:14

       Median age of, uh, prime time at Fox News. Whew.

   15. MTMatt Taibbi46:18

       Yeah. Do we, do we have MSNBC?

   16. JRJoe Rogan46:21

       MSNBC, 65. The youngins. CNN, 60. Oh, they're little kids.

   17. MTMatt Taibbi46:26

       (laughs)

   18. JRJoe Rogan46:27

       Wow.

   19. MTMatt Taibbi46:28

       Yeah. And so, a lot of that has to do with the fact that young people just don't watch television, right? Like-

   20. JRJoe Rogan46:34

       Right.

   21. MTMatt Taibbi46:34

       ... they-

   22. JRJoe Rogan46:34

       They're done.

   23. MTMatt Taibbi46:35

       Yeah. They're done. So, th- they're getting their news some other way, uh-

   24. JRJoe Rogan46:39

       They're not getting it. (laughs)

   25. MTMatt Taibbi46:40

       Right. Well, yeah, they're not ... Or yet-

   26. JRJoe Rogan46:41

       They're watching-

   27. MTMatt Taibbi46:41

       ... or they're not getting it. Yeah.

   28. JRJoe Rogan46:42

       ... Netflix and YouTube videos-

   29. MTMatt Taibbi46:44

       Right.

   30. JRJoe Rogan46:44

       ... and they're getting almost no news.
5. 1:00:00 – 1:15:00

   Yeah. …

   1. JRJoe Rogan1:00:00

      ruling." And you know, it was like something you would never hear Trump say.

   2. MTMatt Taibbi1:00:03

      Yeah.

   3. JRJoe Rogan1:00:03

      You'd never hear him say something like that.

   4. MTMatt Taibbi1:00:05

      No, absolutely. I mean, uh, I, I, I look back and Bush seems to me almost like a Scandinavian statesman compared to-

   5. JRJoe Rogan1:00:14

      (laughs)

   6. MTMatt Taibbi1:00:14

      ... compared to Donald Trump. (laughs) I mean ...

   7. JRJoe Rogan1:00:16

      Lil Tay.

   8. MTMatt Taibbi1:00:17

      (laughs)

   9. JRJoe Rogan1:00:17

      Tell 'em, Lil Tay. Lil Tay, she would go to the White House, too. You know a lot of people didn't wanna go to the White House for the inauguration.

   10. MTMatt Taibbi1:00:22

       Uh-huh.

   11. JRJoe Rogan1:00:22

       Lil Tay will go. She'll go.

   12. MTMatt Taibbi1:00:25

       I mean, the White House is gonna, it's gonna look like the White House in Idiocracy when she's, when she's in there, right? I mean, it's, it's, uh, it's, it's gonna be terrible, but, uh-

   13. JRJoe Rogan1:00:33

       Well, that was a weird time, too, right? Like during the inauguration when no celebrities wanted to go-

   14. MTMatt Taibbi1:00:37

       Right.

   15. JRJoe Rogan1:00:37

       ... and they had to dig out like really weird, like s- s- real fucking on the outskirts celebrities.

   16. MTMatt Taibbi1:00:45

       Oh, it was ... Yeah. And it was the same thing with the RNC. I cov- ... I remember I covered the RNC and, and, uh, and they had to have Scott Baio, uh, do one of the first day's speeches, um, and he-

   17. JRJoe Rogan1:00:57

       Yeah, Scott Baio's a huge supporter.

   18. MTMatt Taibbi1:00:59

       Right, but I mean-

   19. JRJoe Rogan1:01:00

       I know Scott.

   20. MTMatt Taibbi1:01:01

       Do you?

   21. JRJoe Rogan1:01:01

       I know him personally.

   22. MTMatt Taibbi1:01:02

       Yeah?

   23. JRJoe Rogan1:01:02

       He's a very nice guy.

   24. MTMatt Taibbi1:01:03

       I'm sure he is. I'm sure he is.

   25. JRJoe Rogan1:01:04

       Super nice guy.

   26. MTMatt Taibbi1:01:05

       Yeah, yeah, but that was their-

   27. JRJoe Rogan1:01:07

       (laughs)

   28. MTMatt Taibbi1:01:07

       ... that was their A-list for the Republican National Convention.

   29. JRJoe Rogan1:01:11

       (laughs)

   30. MTMatt Taibbi1:01:11

       And, uh-
6. 1:15:00 – 1:17:01

   Yeah. …

   1. MTMatt Taibbi1:15:00

      Hollywood actors.

   2. JRJoe Rogan1:15:01

      Yeah.

   3. MTMatt Taibbi1:15:01

      And so he made, he made sure as much as possible to talk about, uh, all the, all the groups, the major food groups of pe-

   4. JRJoe Rogan1:15:08

      (laughs)

   5. MTMatt Taibbi1:15:08

      ... of hate in America, right? Like immigrants-

   6. JRJoe Rogan1:15:12

      Immigrants.

   7. MTMatt Taibbi1:15:12

      ... Hillary Clinton, Hollywood actors, and reporters, and th- those were the staples of his routine, and, and, uh, it worked. I mean, he wa- it, it was, it was smart on his part, uh, you know. And I think, uh, particularly the targeting of journalists was brilliant because he was able to portray us as the wealthy elite. And, you know, he's the billionaire, uh, but he's pointing the finger at us as, "Oh, look, the, you know, they're the guardians of, of rich America," which, which worked and was a brilliant thing.

   8. JRJoe Rogan1:15:43

      It's just, um, it's unprecedented.

   9. MTMatt Taibbi1:15:45

      Yeah.

   10. JRJoe Rogan1:15:46

       When was last time any presidential... Well, maybe Nixon complained about them at the time, but I believe it was privately.

   11. MTMatt Taibbi1:15:53

       Yeah. Well, he, he, he hated the press pretty openly. I mean, he had that 1962 press conference where he's like, "You won't have Nixon to kick around anymore."

   12. JRJoe Rogan1:16:02

       Right, right.

   13. MTMatt Taibbi1:16:03

       Uh, and, uh, he... From all accounts, he was an incredibly profane, nasty person in private, and he only talked to a few reporters. Um, I, I, I mean, I think all politicians hate reporters. If they, if they don't, uh, there's probably something wrong with them because, you know, the press corps, in most cases, is, is really is out to get them, um, or at least is, is dangerous, you know? Uh, but with Trump and Nixon, it was... It went to a whole new level and it wa- it went to a paranoid place. And, um, you know. But on the other hand, and I don't wanna bore you with this, but, but the, the whining about being kicked out of the White House and not being able to fly with, with Trump and, and the sort of div- separation between the president and the press corps, and the fact he doesn't show up at the White House Correspondents' Dinner, like, as a reporter, I... My response to that is, so what? We should be on the outside, you know?

Episode duration: 2:20:41