EVERY SPOKEN WORD
150 min read · 30,019 words- 0:00 – 2:28
Dropping diet labels: vegan vs carnivore as identity politics
- JJJohn Joseph
Must be from New York.
- JRJoe Rogan
Yeah. Well, you can definitely tell that. Four, three, two (claps hands) , and we're live Jon Joseph.
- JJJohn Joseph
What's happening?
- JRJoe Rogan
What's up, brother? How are you, man?
- JJJohn Joseph
Yo. This is like-
- JRJoe Rogan
I'm excited.
- JJJohn Joseph
Yeah, man.
- JRJoe Rogan
And, uh, I'm excited too for, uh, I think it could set a nice precedent because there's so much fucking toxic energy between vegans and non-vegans. Even if we're just joking around, people get so fucking angry, and it's not necessary.
- JJJohn Joseph
Absolutely. I mean, where's the humor? Where's the comedy?
- JRJoe Rogan
Yeah.
- JJJohn Joseph
I mean, the other thing is I don't sit around call ... Like, I'm not defined by what the fuck I eat. Like, like this dude said, "How come you don't call yourself a vegan?" I'm like, "'Cause I do a lot more shit than just eat plant-based food." It's part of what I do.
- JRJoe Rogan
But don't you call yourself a vegan? I mean, you are a vegan, right?
- JJJohn Joseph
Uh, I practice that, uh, lifestyle for sure, but I don't call myself a vegan. Um, uh-
- JRJoe Rogan
That's interesting.
- JJJohn Joseph
... I would say, uh, uh, people say, uh, "You know, how do you l-" ... I, I don't like to put any type of material-
- JRJoe Rogan
Labels.
- JJJohn Joseph
... label on myself. And if somebody says, you know, to me and pushes the issue, I'm like, "I'm more of a Hare Krishna Bhakti yoga person than I am a vegan." You know, even though I don't wear animal products, I don't use animal products, I, I eat a plant-based diet 100%. Um, but, uh, to call myself that just puts me in some, you know, some shelf, "Oh, it's just another vegan." Or whatever the fuck. You know, it's just-
- JRJoe Rogan
Well, you know, it seems to me, it's like people are always searching for an identity, and if they have an identity that, uh, "No. I'm a, I'm a carnivore. I'm on the carnivore diet."
- JJJohn Joseph
Yeah.
- JRJoe Rogan
Which is all the latest trend.
- JJJohn Joseph
Right.
- JRJoe Rogan
And then people get really hopped up on that and that's all they wanna do is talk carnivore diet. So the, the, the difference between what's happening right now with this carnivore diet and vegans seems very similar to me in that they're very into the identity of their food.
- JJJohn Joseph
Right.
- JRJoe Rogan
Not, not their food choices, but certainly into the fact that this is how they identify. They talk about it all the time.
- JJJohn Joseph
Yeah.
- JRJoe Rogan
And I just think there's f- there's pitfalls in that. There's like traps that people fall into where they lock their identity into a group.
- JJJohn Joseph
Absolutely.
- JRJoe Rogan
And this is what happens with vegans, it happens to hunters, it happens with, uh, R- Republicans, happens with Democrats. It just becomes a group thing. And then you automatically oppose people of the other group and you, you have like, you have conflict with them. You have hate with them.
- JJJohn Joseph
Do we need more walls?
- JRJoe Rogan
We don't need more walls.
- 2:28 – 10:23
John’s origin story: foster care trauma, incarceration, and finding yoga/PMA
- JJJohn Joseph
We don't. And I, and I'll tell you what really got it for me, uh, and, and I started doing this in '81 before anybody. I came out of incarceration, I came out of abusive foster homes. My father was a professional fighter. Uh, tried to murder my mom, beat her continuously. I didn't even find out, I, I w- you know, that I wa- I was conceived out of a rape from him on my mom. So getting locked up, hitting the streets, and then meeting the Bad Brains in 1980 and seeing them and who they were surrounded by, it was a lot of, uh, you know, people who were into very metaphysical stuff, I g- So I got into the yoga, and I know you've been doing yoga now too. So one of the first tenets of the yoga practice, which slams all of this sh- all this label shit, is aham brahmasmi, that I'm actually s- My identity is the spirit soul. It ... Beyond anything in the material world, any label you wanna put on yourself. So that's really where I come from with the whole thing. And I think, uh, the toxicity level that is existing now just because of what people fucking, you know, choose to eat. I mean, I have my issues with, uh, certain things that are being done because e- because of the condition of the planet and we're not being good custodians of this planet that we're in charge for kids and future generations, what's being done now. There's industries that are destroying the planet, uh, like, you know, some of it is irreparable, uh, damage being done. But I really try to keep it metaphysical, uh, with everything I do and who I help. I mean, I'm working on a documentary right now here at 30 to Life with hardcore fucking ex-cons that just did 20, 25 years, 30 years. If I go in there trying to preach some v- some vegan shit to them, I'm, I'm coming at them like a fucking-
- JRJoe Rogan
Yeah.
- JJJohn Joseph
... like, "Yo dude, this is where I've been. I, I've been where you are. People helped me and I'm, I'm here to help you." I ... We didn't start out, you know ... We don't even say, you know, we, we said, you know, "Put ... We're gonna put you on a plant-based diet." What are you gonna do? Tell them, "Don't wear leather fucking shoes. Don't do this, don't do ..." You know, uh, uh, and the whole thing, even when Jay-Z and Beyonce, it's never enough. Okay. They went and d- you know, they said "vegan", right? "Okay, we, we're practicing a vegan diet. We're doing a 30-day vegan d-" So what do the vegans do? Attack them. "Oh, but he, they're wearing fucking leather." And it, it's ... You have to be able to fan the spark, so if you see some goodness in someone, you have to be able to fan that spark, not throw water on it, and that's the problem that's being done is people are so judgmental because they've built this walls, the walls between them that, um, it's just fault finding, and I was telling the guys, I trained them this morning, we're doing this 30 to Life with Kip Andersen and, uh, we're at the Amity Foundation where these guys got paroled and I said, "Look, there's two types of mentality in the world. There's the bee mentality that's looking for the sweet and the good in people, and then there's the flies and they're looking for the shit." I said, "When you see shit on a sidewalk and a dog takes a shit, or in New York (laughs) a, a, you know, a human takes a shit-
- JRJoe Rogan
(laughs)
- JJJohn Joseph
... within a matter of fucking 20 seconds, there's flies on that motherfucker." So I try to roll with the PMA, which I learned from Bad Brains, positive mental attitude.Which, um, Napoleon Hill ... H.R. copped it from Napoleon Hill, Think and Grow Rich and all those books on self-help. And it was like he told me, "No matter what circumstances you may be in ..." And I was in the Navy at the time, in Norfolk, fucking smuggling, fucking up, catching cases, came out of ... Took- took Navy over going back to jail, and I was fucking up. I didn't know what to do. Fucked out of my mind, hanging out with Henry Rollins and Ian MacKaye and all those guys in the DC hardcore scene and New York punk scene, and, you know, hanging with John Belushi on Fear that night. We were the ones that wrecked the set of Saturday Night Live. And just, you know, the cl- just doing crazy shit. And he was ... Just told me, "You know, whatever you may be going through in life, if you keep a positive mental attitude, you could get through anything." So, how am I going to criticize people just 'cause, uh, you- you eat meat or do whatever? It's like, you know ... And some of these people are hardcore Christians, and it's like you're supposed to say, "Hey." What? You know, "Hate the sin, not the sinner," or whatever the fuck that whole philosophy deals with. I mean, my point is I'm- I'm trying to knock down the walls between people and unify people, so ...
- JRJoe Rogan
I think what you do good is you- you're a very positive role model in terms of hard work, in terms of your- your- your mental fortitude and how you approach things, and I think people need that. And I think one of the things that's going on right now with social media, and one of the reasons why people will attack Jay-Z for wearing leather shoes, even though they're v- they're, they're looking to stand out. They're looking to be virtuous. They're looking to be the person that's more virtuous than the person we're pointing a finger at, man. Fuck them. And there's al- always a lot of, "Fuck people who aren't this," or, "Fuck people who aren't that." Should never say, "Fuck people," 'cause people-
- JJJohn Joseph
Right.
- JRJoe Rogan
... are ... They're just like you. They're human beings and everybody's on a different path. Tell me why you believe the way you believe. Tell me why you think the way you think. And I'll tell you why I think the way I think, and I bet we'll find common ground. And that's what human beings need to do more with each other. The problem with social media is it gives us- them this unusual platform to get people to pay attention to their ideas when maybe their ideas aren't even that good. Or maybe their ideas are very obvious. You know, like you're gonna point at someone, "Hey man, you know, you shouldn't say this word. Hey man, you shouldn't do this thing." Because th- we've decided that that's a bad thing. We've decided that that's, like, culturally unacceptable anymore, and now everyone's gonna attack for that very reason. Instead of describing how they feel, what makes them feel when they say something, what makes them feel when they do things, where, what's going on in their head so we can all relate on common ground, people just wanna attack. And i- it's- it's a big po- problem with what's going ... Social media is way too young. It's a new thing, and people are using it in these really fucked up ways. They don't exactly know what they're doing while they're doing it. They're not even aware of the effect of their printed word, what it's gonna have. That's why you have so many trolls and so many mean people and so many people just trying to get a rise out of someone. They're not even aware of the- this process they're setting in motion. They just know they could push a button and watch something happen. They're just going, "Woo, woo!"
- JJJohn Joseph
Yeah.
- JRJoe Rogan
You know what I mean? This is, this is a lotta what's going on today.
- JJJohn Joseph
I mean, a- and some of this stuff is- is destroying people's lives.
- JRJoe Rogan
Yeah.
- JJJohn Joseph
What they're fucking doing. They don't, they don't realize that, um, you know, it- it's, it's a shame because, uh, like, when I was growing up, we didn't have social media. There was no motherfucking internet. There was no none of th- You know, I remember I had the first pager. It was fucking, you know, gigantic.
- JRJoe Rogan
Yeah.
- JJJohn Joseph
So, like, we didn't even have no internet. Everything was, you know, word of mouth and if you wanted to catch shows, if you wanted to do this. If you had a beef with somebody, you didn't go on fucking social media and talk a bunch of bullshit. You fucking walked up to the person and you said, "Hey, here I am and what the fuck? Let's- let's deal with this. Let's talk about it, talk it out." But now you got people buying followers and doing other-
- JRJoe Rogan
Yeah.
- JJJohn Joseph
It's just that it's ... You know, it's just the most toxic environment in a lotta ways and it's a shame, 'cause it could be used. And that's why I never post negative shit. I try to use the platform, you know, make light of shit, not have a stick up your ass. There's too many people that do even the plant-based vegan thing and everything's so fucking serious. I'm like, "You might reach more people if you lightened up." You know, like, like-
- JRJoe Rogan
Yeah.
- JJJohn Joseph
... stripes. Lighten up, Francis.
- JRJoe Rogan
(laughs)
- JJJohn Joseph
You know, fucking ...
- JRJoe Rogan
Yeah, I've heard-
- JJJohn Joseph
"If you t- if you say you eat meat, I'll kill you."
- 10:23 – 13:45
“Meat Is for Pussies”: controversy, backlash, and the real meaning of the title
- JRJoe Rogan
(laughs) Well, you did write a book called Meat is for Pussies.
- JJJohn Joseph
Well, I'll tell you how that came about.
- JRJoe Rogan
(laughs)
- JJJohn Joseph
And- and- and actually, I got attacked ... I'm gonna tell you something else. You wanna talk about destroying people. I got attacked more by the vegan feminists for that book, fucking tried to destroy me.
- JRJoe Rogan
'Cause you wrote "pussies"?
- JJJohn Joseph
They wrote everybody-
- JRJoe Rogan
(clears throat)
- JJJohn Joseph
... 'cause I wrote "puss-" ... Now, first of all ... And then she, uh, she went on a blog and called me a misogynistic ... I say, "Yeah, I like massages." Uh, (laughs) no, but-
- JRJoe Rogan
(laughs)
- JJJohn Joseph
You know, called me a misogynistic scumbag and a fucking piece of shit and all this, so I just had ... I just wrote, uh, "Hey, any of you ladies that bought this book for the, for their fellas and it helped them, please fucking holler at this fucking woman and tell her something." They shut her fucking blog down. And then she called me a maniac and I said, "Listen-
- JRJoe Rogan
She called you a maniac because you sent-
- JJJohn Joseph
Yeah, she called ... Yeah, sh-
- JRJoe Rogan
... people on her the way she sent people on you.
- JJJohn Joseph
But dig this. And then I said, "We have a f- We have a saying on the streets in New York back in the day, 'Don't start none and there won't be none.'"
- JRJoe Rogan
Yeah.
- JJJohn Joseph
So I said, you know ... But the thing was, I'm gonna tell you how that book title came about, 'cause it was a woman, actually Karen Rinaldi from, uh, Harper Collins Wave, w- and what happened was, uh, I was training at Crunch. Aaron, uh, Dr- uh, Drago Zdanowski is my trainer, and he's got me through all my fucking Ironmans, everything. I was a fucking broken up person, injuries, all this shit. So I'm work- I was working at Crunch sh- and training with him, and then another person, a friend of mine ... All the five points guys used to be there. You would see them all. They had a ring on the second floor. So, this guy was doing pad work and I'm telling him, "Hey, you know, listen, man, you got a fight coming up, man. Get on the chlorophyll, get on the wheatgrass, get on ... You know, eat as much recovery foods as you can that's gonna fight inflammation." So, some fucking mameluke with fucking 1980s tiger stripe pants, fucking-
- JRJoe Rogan
(laughs)
- JJJohn Joseph
"Yeah, fucking ..." You know, like, he, he, he just took everything out of context and then he's like, "Yeah, fucking, uh, people that don't eat meat are fucking pussies." And I'm like, uh, "Yo, you got like 50 pounds on me, but if you wanna put some headgear and- and- and get in the ring, I'll- I'll oblige you." He's like, "What?" I said, "I don't eat meat, bro."And then, the funny shit with the whole book title was, it was gonna be called The Go Green Road to Health, Fitness, and Longevity-
- JRJoe Rogan
(laughs)
- JJJohn Joseph
And my business partner, Todd Irwin, goes, "Motherfucker, who are you? Dr. Oz?"
- JRJoe Rogan
(laughs)
- JJJohn Joseph
"Nobody wants to hear that book from you. You're John 'Bloodclot' Joseph Singer from the Cro-Mags. They want-" And then I-
- JRJoe Rogan
"Meat Is for Pussies."
- JJJohn Joseph
They... A- a- and then I said, "Yeah." I said, "Yeah, this motherfucker was like, you know, saying fucking people that don't eat meat are pussies." I'm like, "Motherfucker, that dude ain't s- probably ain't seen his dick in fucking 10 years." He was overweight and all this shit. I was like, "That motherfucker's the pussy." And he's like, "Yo, you know what? Throw it back in their face." And I was like, "I don't know, man. That's, you know, that's, you know, a pretty fuckable statement." He said, "Do it, do it." So we released-
- JRJoe Rogan
(laughs)
- JJJohn Joseph
So right away, the fucking emails and the toxicity-
- JRJoe Rogan
That's hilarious it started that way.
- JJJohn Joseph
... of the vegans. Yo, that's how it started. And then we be- uh, our agent, Dan... Uh, we got hooked up with, um, this guy, uh, Dan from ICM. He's like, met my business partner in the Hamptons. He's like, "Yo, that book is fucking dope, man. I think we could get a deal." Within a week, he had four offers.
- JRJoe Rogan
So you wrote it first?
- JJJohn Joseph
Yeah, I wrote it first and he put it out.
- 13:45 – 14:49
Learning to write: Robert McKee, memoir work, and telling the truth
- JJJohn Joseph
Yeah. W- well, I studied writing under Robert McKee, so I wrote my memoir first.
- JRJoe Rogan
Interesting.
- JJJohn Joseph
Yeah, story, I- I fucking... That guy's like my guru for writing. I- I took, I took the story seminar twice.
- JRJoe Rogan
Great guru.
- JJJohn Joseph
He's fucking amazing. I mean, Brian Cox's portrayal of him in-
- JRJoe Rogan
Mm-hmm.
- JJJohn Joseph
... in fucking, in, uh, Adaptation.
- JRJoe Rogan
Mm-hmm.
- JJJohn Joseph
Fucking brilliant. Spot on. So, and, you know, I- I actually became friends with, uh, Robert, with Mr. McKee. I would... He smokes like crazy.
- JRJoe Rogan
Really?
- JJJohn Joseph
Yeah, he smoked cigarettes like a fucking chimney.
- JRJoe Rogan
A lotta writers do, man.
- JJJohn Joseph
Yeah, but not during the class. So when he had the breaks, he would fucking do like two, three cigarettes. I said, "You know, my friend has an organic green tea extract company and the polyphenols in that is gonna counteract all your fucking smoking shit that you're doing." So I gave him five bottles and then every time he would call m- he would have his people call, "Yo, you know that guy, fucking McGowan? Get him to bring me some more of that green tea shit." And...
- JRJoe Rogan
Did he quit s- smoking?
- JJJohn Joseph
I don't know. I haven't seen him in a while.
- JRJoe Rogan
The problem is, it gives them a charge.
- JJJohn Joseph
(laughs)
- JRJoe Rogan
It gives them a, you know, a nootropic charge.
- JJJohn Joseph
Yeah.
- JRJoe Rogan
It fires up your brain.
- JJJohn Joseph
Yeah, it's, uh-
- JRJoe Rogan
You ever smoke a cigarette?
- 14:49 – 21:29
Lockup realities: smoking, “smoker fights,” and the mindset of survival
- JJJohn Joseph
Man, I smoke like crazy. I used to smoke Kools in- in- in lockup and shit. Like, you know, 'cause that's what they give you in Spofford and, and, uh, and when I went upstate, it was Kools. Like if you-
- JRJoe Rogan
Why'd you quit?
- JJJohn Joseph
I quit 'cause I started boxing in lockup and they would have us run this fucking hill called Suicide Hill, and I would be fucking puking. And I was like, "I gotta quit fucking smoking." So I quit smoking bec- they used to do smoker fights in the lockup. So if you had a beef with somebody, you went into this rec room was about-
- JRJoe Rogan
Explain smokers to people that don't know what that means.
- JJJohn Joseph
Smoker fights means you just have a beef with somebody and you can just throw on the gloves and- and go at it. And as long as it's like reasonably within 20 pounds (laughs) of a weight difference-
- JRJoe Rogan
Yeah.
- JJJohn Joseph
... like, y- you know... Although, i- in lockup I saw people, much bigger people, uh, fighting much smaller people. (laughs) And some of them guys... I mean, I w- I was not good. I got... I would fight the Black dudes and they would just beat the shit out of me.
- JRJoe Rogan
(laughs)
- JJJohn Joseph
But I would just keep coming back. You know, I'm Irish, I don't quit, man. I was... A- and then, you know, I learned more of the- the sweet science and, you know, went into the Navy and- and, uh-
- JRJoe Rogan
So you quit smoking just for boxing, just to get your adrenaline...
- JJJohn Joseph
Yeah, I quit, I quit smoking, uh, yeah, for that, for that reason. But when I was locked up, I didn't quit al- almost to the end because toward the end of your, uh, sentence, they allow you to go home because y- they want to reintegrate you back with your family or whatever. And I never grew up with my mom, so they would send us home. So we would take the carton of cigarettes and open it up very carefully, open up the cellophane carefully, slide the cellophane down and put joints inside the cigarette pack, slide it back up, glue it, close the carton of cigarettes, and that's how we would get the weed back from the visits.
- JRJoe Rogan
(laughs)
- JJJohn Joseph
'Cause I wasn't smoking weed coming back out of nobody's ass. That was not happening.
- JRJoe Rogan
(laughs)
- JJJohn Joseph
I'm like, "No, thank you." So, uh, that... You know, so that was the process and, um, you know, so that's why, that's why I quit. But that's... The book came... Uh, I- I had a lot of shit, uh, a lot of demons inside of me from what happened to me. Me and my two brothers, uh, were s- you know, pretty severely abused in all kinds of ways in this foster home. Physically, mentally, sexually abused by the older kids in the home. It was fucked up and I never told anybody, but that was always something, n- no matter how much... I lived as a monk for two years, a Hare Krishna monk. Nothing, uh, cured that fucking anger that was inside of me that I had toward these people for what they did to me and the secret of like, "Yo..." It's fucked up to say like, "Yo, yo, you're this dude from the streets, you had knife fights with Puerto Ricans." I- I got shot with a .22 in Forest Park selling angel dust, I got stabbed. And then to try to say, "Yo, this motherfucker molested me," is... It took a lot out of me to- to... And nobody knew it, 'cause I never talked about it. And I took McKee's class and that was the turning point, because I went up to him and I was writing a script at the time based on what happened to me in the foster home. The kids, uh, in the screenplay, we based, uh, what- what happened to me, uh, in- in- in my younger, uh, period of my life. And, um, I never told anybody what happened. I would just avoid that. But then when I wrote the b- I started writing the book and I was taking his class... And between, uh, you know, parts of his thing when you went on a break, you could walk up to Robert McKee and say-... ask him, uh, questions. So I said, "Mr. McKee, as far as the protagonist who was abused, uh, as a kid..." And he stopped me right there and he said, "Listen, stop right there." He said, "McGowan, everybody uses it. It's a cliche, you know, abuse of children, uh, f- to develop empathy for characters we could otherwise not give a fuck about. It's not what happens to somebody, it's what they do as a result of it." And that's the fucking light came on. And, I mean, for years I would sit there, and it took me seven years to write The Evolution of a Cro-Magnon. And I would get to that part of the story and I would lose my shit and break down crying, like, fucking uncontrollably, um, because of what happened to me and my brothers. So I just skipped over that part and I would never address it. But then, you know, he gave me the strength in a lot of ways to be able to say, "Hey, man, you gotta t-" He wrote in my book. So I have his book, and he wrote to me. He goes, "John, always write the truth." And that's when I knew that that needed to come out in a book to cleanse myself. I'd been two years on crack. Uh, '88, '88, uh, uh, to '90, crack, pills, you know, uh, doing whatever. Uh, getting shot at with fucking AR-15s, robbing dealers. I had, uh, TOS, or na- it was KOS at the time, kill on sight. I was, I was a fucking maniac because I just didn't care. I- I- I actually kind of wished subconsciously that somebody would put a fucking bullet in me. When you're doing crack-
- JRJoe Rogan
That happens to a lot of people. A lot of people who get molested-
- JJJohn Joseph
Yeah.
- JRJoe Rogan
... they, they almost act out to the point where they want someone else to do it for them because they don't wanna live.
- JJJohn Joseph
Yeah, I was definitely, in a lot of ways, that's- that's what I was doing. But when I took, uh, his... When... That seminar helped me so much 'cause it's really like, he's really like a fucking, uh, a guru and a teacher, man. The man is amazing. If you ever get a chance to take the Robert McKee Story Seminar, it's a three-day seminar. I took it twice, then he does workshops. But the story seminar, I just walked out of there after the third day, it's 10 hours a day and you're just like, you're fucking, you're- you're, like, speechless. Like, "What the fuck did I just experience?" It's incredible. And- and that gave me, uh, the power to- to go and tell my story the right way. And the amount of emails of people that I received that were like, "Yo, that shit was done to me. Thank you for having the courage to tell the story." And, um, you know, I just kept writing after that. So even the Meatus for Pussies, uh, book was... You know, if you read it, it's tongue-in-cheek. I'm not calling... There's a lot of dudes that eat meat that could kick the shit out of me, I'm not saying... What I'm saying is if you continue to lead a sedentary lifestyle and you eat this fucked up food that's out there, that they're putting out there, that they're knowingly putting out there to fucking poison you because they're tied in with the pharmaceutical companies, it's a racket. It's, it, it's not a conspiracy, it's been proven that this is what they're doing. You will become a pussy dependent on the pharmaceutical companies to keep you alive. If you, if that's what you want, then this book is not for you, put it back.
- 21:29 – 37:59
Hardcore to Hare Krishna: Jamaica, Rastafarian culture, and meeting Bad Brains
- JRJoe Rogan
So you got into Hare Krishnas and you got into this whole consciousness trip from the Bad Brains, which is crazy. Like, think about that. Like, people would assume, like, you think of the hardcore scene, you're thinking of drugs and violence and tattoos and-
- JJJohn Joseph
Nah, man.
- JRJoe Rogan
... chaos. And you were getting into... Uh, th- so tell me about that. How'd you get into Hare Krishnas?
- JJJohn Joseph
I'm gonna tell you. So, um, initially, my first in- my first interaction with Rastafarians, it was 1980. So I went to... My ship was going to Jamaica. So when you go to s-
- JRJoe Rogan
Oh, shit.
- JJJohn Joseph
When you go... Yo, yo, take this.
- JRJoe Rogan
(laughs)
- JJJohn Joseph
So you go to any port and they take you down on the mess deck and they show everyone, "You go here, you go there." They're like, they show you these films. So when we were getting ready to go to Jamaica, they're like, "If you're gonna use..." And it's these, like, military films from, like, the '60s. "If you're gonna use, uh, you know, have sex with a prostitute, make sure you use a prophylactic." And then (laughs) the next photo was a fucking Rastafarian with smoke coming out of every fucking orifice.
- JRJoe Rogan
(laughs)
- JJJohn Joseph
And they're like, "And under no circumstances should you talk to these people. They're just gonna try to sell you drugs." So who the fuck do you think-
- JRJoe Rogan
(laughs)
- JJJohn Joseph
... was the first people I went, when I got off the ship? 'Cause I didn't hang out with, like, any of the dudes on my ship. I got the fuck away from... I was the only punk rocker. I was wearing Sex Pistols Destroy fucking T-shirts. They're looking at me like... I was already into punk rock since the '70s. So I get off the ship and I meet this, like, 20-something-year-old fucking dread- dread dude. And he's like, "Yeah, man, what you need?" I said, "Listen, uh, you know, I'm fucking smuggling some weed back. I- I- I wanna, I wanna get take..." 'Cause this other sailor told me, "Yo, you go in there and you get them to take you to the carving shops." And they carve out the fucking statue and they pack the lambsbread in there and then-
- JRJoe Rogan
Ah.
- JJJohn Joseph
... seal up the statue. And then I had a hookup with the, uh, the officer, the guy who did the watch and counted, so say every fifth person, you got searched. So I was always avoiding that 'cause I would hit the dude off with some weed or whatever the fuck it was. So when I went to Jamaica, t- I asked this kid... As soon as I got off the boat, like, there was no hotels in Montego Bay, nothing. It was just you took the ship, the ship anchored out in the bay, and you took a boat in and landed at the dock. And it was just like some fucking ancient, like, crazy shit, like, that you would see back in the 1800s.
- JRJoe Rogan
Sailor port.
- JJJohn Joseph
Yeah, sailor port. And then this dude was eating his carton of fucking shit. I'm like, "Yo." I'm- I'm, like, french fries and burgers at the time. And I'm like, "Yo, what the fuck are you eating? What is that shit?" He's like, "Yo, man. This callaloo and ackee." And he's like, "Man, you eat this, you'll live to be 150 taras." I was like, "Really?" I said, "Let me check that shit out."Took one forkful and I just was like, "This is fucking-" (laughs) "... disgusting. That shit tastes like dirt, dude." (laughs) What was it? It was callaloo. I- What is callaloo? Callaloo is a green, it's like one of the most nutritious, it-it- Like a collard green? Yeah. It's like collard green, it's like... They have a, they have greens down there that don't really grow anywhere else. So I think it's like a combination of kale and, and collard greens. And then ackee is like this fruit and it looks like... It's yellow, it looks like a egg almost. But if you eat ackee when it's not ripe, you'll die. You, you get poison. It's this type of thing, like when the fruit opens up, the... It's like a red fruit. If you eat it when it's not open, you will die. Really? Yeah. Ackee, ackee will poison you. And then, and then he was eating seaweed and beans and... Anyway, so I went up into the hills, he took me... Now I don't know if you like reggae, but- I do. I fucking love reggae. So do you know where Peter Tosh, um, wanted Dread or Alive? Do you know where that came from? No. Okay, I'm gonna tell you. (laughs) So back in, I think it was '78, this cop... They hate the Rastafarians in Jamaica by the way, 'cause it's a big Christian... The Christians invaded that place and just fucking turned everybody into dogmatic, fucking thinking people. You know, the Judo... You know, the... What, what the white man does everywhere across the planet. "You gotta be my religion. Fuck everybody else. This is what's up." So they did that there. So, um, what they call the Jamaicans... What the Rastas call the Jamaicans who don't grow knots, they call them bald heads, man. Y- you know, like Bob Marley, crazy bald head. So what they did with these guys, uh, uh, a cop tried to kill a Rastafarian and the Rastafarian killed the cop. So they put a bounty on every single Rastafarian, wanted dead or alive. You could kill a Rasta and drag him to the precinct and collect a reward. So all the Rastas fled up into the hills and it was called the Green Bay Killings. They just started killing all these Rastafarians. It... And it... And so this guy brought me up into the hills and I met these Rastas, and the Nyabinghi, the drummers and all that shit. And the guy had the actual... 'Cause it was only like two, maybe three years prior to me going there in 1980. And I got to meet, like, these cats that survived that shit. And they had the news clippings and all this shit. So that was like my first experience with the whole Rasta thing, and then I met the Bad Brains one night at... First, Ian MacKaye and all them cats came down with Teen Idols and Untouchables. That was Henry's whole crew first. I know Henry's been on here. I'm, I'm pretty good friends with him. He's coming on next week. Tell him I said what's up- I will do that. I, I fucking love him, man. I do too. He's, he's a fucking great human being. He's a beast. And yeah, he, he... Like, when I split the Navy, he let me stay at his house and I was eating his food. And then after a week of him going to work and coming home and his food's gone, he's like, "All right, John, you gotta get the fuck out." (laughs) "Go somewhere, not here." But, uh, they played, and then a week later, uh, I used to go during the middle of the day, uh, in my car in the Navy and, and go to Happy Hour. Uh, and I'm walking in and the owner comes out. He's like, "You gotta see this fucking band! You gotta see this band!" I'm like, "All right. Uh, cool. I'm going in." He's like, "No, you don't understand! They're fucking Black, man, and they're f- they're incredible!" So I go upstairs and Bad Brains are sound checking and I'm just like, "What the fuck is this?" (laughs) And if you haven't seen the Bad Brains, I'll tell you the best video to watch. 1982, CBGBs, they got the whole set up there, and if you wanna have your shit blown away, just watch that. So that's what, uh... I actually sold their, their manager acid. I was selling acid at the time. (laughs) So their manager, I sold him acid, but I got to talk with HR and he started telling me about this PMA shit. And, and I told him, "Yeah, man, I fucking got outta jail and went into the Navy 'cause I caught another case. They offered me military." Here we go. There's them right there. Yeah. Fucking amazing, dude.
- NANarrator
(cheering)
- JJJohn Joseph
Will this get us taken off YouTube, you think?
- JRJoe Rogan
Uh, maybe when it's
- NANarrator
Play a little bit.
- JJJohn Joseph
Yeah. Play a little bit, see what happens. Look at him go. Uh, that's the singer. He's a fucking maniac. He does a back flip perfectly on the end of this one song at the movies and lands it perfectly. That's at CBs in '82. Wow, '82. I wasn't there. I was their roadie. I was in high school. Yeah. So I was actually living as a Hare Krishna monk at the time in Hawaii when, when this- So how did the Hare Krishna thing happen? Well, I'm gonna tell you. Okay. So what happened was, um, they had... So I talked with HR, he said, "Yeah, mon." It was really funny 'cause they were all from DC but they talk with patois accent. "Yeah, mon. Jah gonna arrange, mon. We're gonna run into (laughs) into each other again," you know? So, uh, I beat someone down on my ship pretty bad and I got caught for a drug case in Norfolk. So I knew that they was trying to persecute me and, uh, you know, send me to fucking prison. And I was like, "Really not gonna have that." So my ship pulled out and we were going to like Shellback to South America and, um, I had this... They... I was under ar- you know, basically under arrest 'cause the fight... It was a civilian case for the drugs I sold to an undercover cop outside of a club called King's Head Inn in Norfolk on Hampton Boulevard. It was... They had did punk shows. So I sold him, um, you know, LSD and he was a undercover cop. So I got arrested for that, and then that was pending. Meanwhile, I go on my ship, we go out to sea, this one redneck kept fucking with me and he was like, "Fuck you, New York faggot." And like just... I'm like, "Dude, chill. Like, you don't know me. Like, I'm not fucking with you. Just let it go, man." And he just wouldn't let it go. So, uh, I, I trapped him in the, in the paint locker, I was a boatswain's mate, and, uh, I beat him with a fucking paint can.... in the-- in the soft tissues till he shit his pants. Then they arrested me. So they had, uh, they had me on the fucking ship's arrest and all this shit. And, um, I got this bad infection. They had to medevac me off the ship back to Roosevelt Roads, Puerto Rico. And they forgot to say that, you know, I'm supposed to be handcuffed to the fucking bed. And then, uh, they cut. They didn't send those orders 'cause this was pre-computer, so the paperwork got fucked up. They gave me my, my ID and, and then they sent me back to Norfolk, and then, uh, I was just doing all my shit and hanging-
- JRJoe Rogan
So they just didn't know that you were supposed to be incarcerated?
- JJJohn Joseph
Yeah. They didn't know that I'm supposed to be awaiting court, probably court-martial or whatever the fuck, and then the civilian case too. So then, uh, the d- I d- I was in Nimitz Hall, which is TPU, Transient Personnel Union, waiting for my ship to come back, and they were gonna deal with it then. So I was there for like, I don't know, like a month and a half, and, and they were like, "Yo, your ship..." The dude I was cool with, he warned me. He goes, "Yo. Your ship is, is fucking docking today." And I was like, "Fuck." I was like, "I gotta get the fuck outta here." So I just packed up a couple of things, and I got on the bus that used to go through the base and then roll out Hampton Boulevard, and it... As I'm fucking... They had already pulled in. And as I'm pulling out the gate in the seat, the fucking master at arms of my ship, the police are right there walking across the street to fucking Nimitz Hall to get me. And I just shrunk, uh, shrunk down in the seat. But if they would've looked up-
- JRJoe Rogan
(laughs)
- JJJohn Joseph
... that was it. I wouldn't be here telling you this story-
- JRJoe Rogan
(laughs)
- JJJohn Joseph
...' 'cause my life would have taken a much different, uh, trajectory. So what happened was I went up and I hitchhiked with this band, The Undead, from New York, this punk band. Bobby Steele was in the-
- JRJoe Rogan
So were you AWOL at the time?
- JJJohn Joseph
Yeah, Bobby Steele was a m- original Misfits. So they, they played the 9:30 and they gave me a ride back to New York. And I get out the van and right there on Avenue A, 171 was motherfucking HR In the doorway where they recorded and lived. He's like, "Rastafari." I'm like, "Fuck." And what happened was they were playing a show a couple of days later and there's a big Puerto Rican gang that was right there that didn't want them hanging out, so they went in there one night and they... I mean, they, they killed people. I'm not gonna say the name of the, of the fucking gang because for whatever... You know, I b- I'm not trying to out 'em like that, but they were, had the largest heroin/cocaine spot in America. The feds busted their hou- ha- they busted them, knocked down their building, the whole shit. Alphabet City was out of fucking control. So nobody... The Beastie Boys were there that night, nobody would fight these dudes back. And I was on a fucking Quaalude, which is a gorilla biscuit. You think you got crazy strength. And, uh, I said to Jay Dub Lee, who was the engineer there, shit, I was like, "Yo. Let's get these motherfuckers, man." And he's like, "Dude, they kill people. Don't fuck with them. They will kill you." And I was like, "Yo, come on, you fucking dudes. You're punk rock. You're supposed to be fucking tough. Let's fucking get these guys." So they s- calmed me down, but when I got outside, the dude tried to stab me, so I blocked the knife and I hit him with a elbow and bop, bop, bop, knocked him down, smashed his head off the curb. Next thing I know, four of his homies come charging at me, "Yo, you white motherfucker," trying to stab me, and I used to wear a chain belt. And you can ask Henry, we all used to wear these chain belts with a quick release, a bike chain, to fight people. 'Cause in DC it would be the Marines would fucking s- or the rednecks would beat up the punk rockers. So I got in a chain fight with these motherfuckers-
- JRJoe Rogan
(laughs)
- 37:59 – 46:53
Joining the temple: Bhagavad Gita, monk discipline, and training for peace
- JJJohn Joseph
So then I was like... I worked there for a little while, and Vinnie took me to the Hare Krishna Temple on 55th Street. So I kept trying to defeat this dude philosophically. I was like, "Yo, bud." And he knew the whole philosophy of the Vedas and the Bhagavad Gita is where all the yoga, uh, the, uh, all the yoga sutras and all of that comes out of the Bhagavad Gita. And Prabhupada put out the Bhagavad Gita As It Is, which was the original Bhagavad Gita from India. And, uh, I kept trying to defeat it.
- JRJoe Rogan
Do you read it? Do you read the Bhagavad Gita?
- JJJohn Joseph
I... All the time. Every day. I read Bhagavad Gita, Srimad-Bhagavatam.
- JRJoe Rogan
What do you think soma is?
- JJJohn Joseph
Who?
- JRJoe Rogan
Soma.
- JJJohn Joseph
What's... The soma? Soma ras. Soma ras, that is a drink that they drink on the heavenly planets.
- JRJoe Rogan
Yeah.
- JJJohn Joseph
It's a, it's a, it's a beverage on the heavenly planets that they get intoxic- intoxicated from.
- JRJoe Rogan
Yeah. The big question is, like, what's in it? There was-
- JJJohn Joseph
I don't know.
- JRJoe Rogan
No one knows. They think it's-
- JJJohn Joseph
There's elements... You know, when people say, "You think there's life on other planets?" I'm like, "What are you, a fucking Mameluke? Of course there's life on other... You think you're the only fucking life in the universe? Come on, man."
- JRJoe Rogan
Well, that's one of the things in the Bhagavad Gita is, uh, flying crafts and soma is one of them. And th- the-
- JJJohn Joseph
Yeah.
- JRJoe Rogan
The so- soma's one of the interesting things, rather. And soma, they... It's some sort of a psychedelic concoction, but nobody knows exactly what it is.
- JJJohn Joseph
Where?
- JRJoe Rogan
They think it might be a combination of several things. They think for sure psilocybin's in it, but they think it might also be hashish, that hashish might be in it.
- JJJohn Joseph
Yeah, I mean, it... There's other... There's elements in the, in the upper planetary system that... Brahmaloka and all these different planets in this, in the solar sys- The Vedic astrology is much different than, uh, the Western astrology. So they talk about planets way above Earth, you know, that-
- JRJoe Rogan
What are they... When you... They're teaching you the Bhagavad Gita though, what do they describe soma as? Like what do they think it is?
- JJJohn Joseph
Uh, uh, so, uh, uh, they called it soma ras, and it... That was a beverage that's drunk in the heavenly planets. It's not available on the Earth planet. Is, is, uh, the demigods drink soma ras. Demigods on, on other planets.
- JRJoe Rogan
That's the only time people drink it? I mean, I thought it was part of a ritualistic-
- JJJohn Joseph
Yeah, I mean, you have Shiva. Shi- the Shivites smoked the ganja and stuff like that.
- JRJoe Rogan
Right.
- JJJohn Joseph
And I don't know... Uh, you know, they put the ashes of the crematorium on their bodies and stuff like that.
- JRJoe Rogan
Mm-hmm.
- JJJohn Joseph
But they... Uh, you know, the, the thing about, uh, there's four principles in the Hare Krishna when you live as a brahmacari monk, which I did. And it's no intoxication at all. No ill- no eating of meat, fish, eggs, none of that. Um, no gambling and no illicit sex. So I was actually a f- uh, uh, 100% brahmacari celibate monk.
- JRJoe Rogan
For how long?
- JJJohn Joseph
For two years. And I trained martial arts in Hawaii in the hills with this one Black dude who was fucking fierce. And he was a brahmacari too, so we would train. And completely celibate. I was getting up 2:00 every single day in the morning. I was in bed by 8:00. And training and working and just, you know, trying to heal my, uh, my soul. But that came because when I first was going to the temple, I wrote... I would write down my questions. "I know I'm gonna get these motherfuckers tomorrow." 'Cause I was reading Gurdjieff, Krishnamurti, Ram Dass. Like I studied... I s- uh, uh, you know, I saw all those guys. Uh, I went to see, uh, Krishnamurti speak and meditate. I was g- I was just eating it up. Like once that light came on, uh, metaphysically for the meditation and the yoga and everything, I just went full fucking bore into it.
- JRJoe Rogan
So it started from the health food store.
- 46:53 – 52:20
Power, shame, and Hollywood: Me Too, blackballing, and speaking up
- JJJohn Joseph
Listen, like, the whole, like, it's a, you know, the whole Me Too shit ... First of all, my mother was raped twice. So, if some dude is pushing his, uh, weight around, uh, on a w- on a female, I think that shit's fucked up. And then they're gonna turn around and fucking ... But fuck these people. I say fucking get 'em the fuck outta there. And I'm gonna tell you a story because, um, Julia Phillips and Michael Phillips, they, you know, they fucking produced one of my favorite movies of all time, which was Taxi Driver and, uh, Close Encounters. They did all those movies. She wrote a book called You'll Never Do Lunch in This Town Again, in the '80s. She had The Cro-Mags come and play in a movie at The Ritz. They flew us off the Motörhead tour, picked us up in limos. She wanted the shit to be lip synced. I said, "Nah, if you want The Cro-Mags, it's a fucking real show and we're gonna fucking lay it down." We had like a thousand of our fans there.
- JRJoe Rogan
Ankle tape, everything.
- JJJohn Joseph
Fucking, dude, just crazy shit.
- JRJoe Rogan
(laughs)
- JJJohn Joseph
And two people broke their necks during the shooting. So the movie's called-
- JRJoe Rogan
That sounds normal. (laughs)
- JJJohn Joseph
It's called The Beat. Yeah. But the thing was she was one of the first people to put out and expose these fucking scumbags for doing that shit, uh, to, to people in Hollywood and exposed a lot of that in a book, the, uh, You'll Never Do Lunch in This Town Again. And when the book came out, she was on the set for Interview with a Vampire and they came and pulled her off the set and she was fucking blackballed from fucking Hollywood. She never made any more fucking movies and then even-
- JRJoe Rogan
This is all pre-internet, this is what this was.
- JJJohn Joseph
Yeah, this is pre-internet.
- JRJoe Rogan
They could get away with things like that back then.
- JJJohn Joseph
Yeah, and she just fucking put up the middle finger to all of them, like, "Fuck you." She, she passed away of cancer, but she was like a real fucking punk rocker, man. She fucking took on the system, the boys club in Hollywood. And, uh, you know, even the shit ... I don't know how legit the Corey Feldman ...... you know, stuff is. I, I know him and whatever, but like he's saying-
- JRJoe Rogan
It's a problem that you don't... Yeah, it's like one of those things where I don't know what to do here.
- JJJohn Joseph
Yeah.
- JRJoe Rogan
It seems there's like-
- JJJohn Joseph
You know-
- JRJoe Rogan
... some shenanigans.
- JJJohn Joseph
But I know that it's, I know-
- JRJoe Rogan
Something happened.
- JJJohn Joseph
Yeah. I know it, I know it goes on. Something happened.
- JRJoe Rogan
And it's not just him. I mean, the, the list is a mile long, and for everybody that comes forth, there's a million people that are sitting back going, "I don't wanna say anything-
- JJJohn Joseph
Yeah.
- JRJoe Rogan
... because I don't wanna take that shame on." You know?
- JJJohn Joseph
Well, that's what happened with me, you know? It was the same thing.
- JRJoe Rogan
Mm-hmm. Yeah.
- JJJohn Joseph
Like, uh, you know, you have this rep in whatever the fuck, but that's all false ego-
- JRJoe Rogan
Right.
- JJJohn Joseph
... even all of that stuff, like-
- JRJoe Rogan
Yeah.
- JJJohn Joseph
A- a- and then the person that I was with at the time said, "You know, this story is gonna help a lot of people y- by you coming forward and, and saying what happened to you and how you're dealing with it now." And that's wha- that's what I... E- even th- I got this new book, The PMA Effect, coming out and-
- JRJoe Rogan
Mm-hmm.
- 52:20 – 1:00:29
Environmental cost of industrial meat & agriculture: runoff, CAFOs, ag-gag laws
- JJJohn Joseph
I don't come from that. I come from like, "Yo, man, let's help one another to make this world a better place." How are we gonna save the oceans? How are we gonna save... You know, and you know, i- my thing is this. Look, they just f- said that the, the fucking commercial meat and dairy industries are now the most toxic, uh... They're the most toxic, uh, companies on the fucking planet. They just surpassed fossil fuel with the destruction they're doing to the planet. So I'm like, "Eat a little less meat."
- JRJoe Rogan
Where is this coming from?
- JJJohn Joseph
It just, I just... It's, it's, it was just all on, uh... Where did I read it? It was on, uh, one of the main sites, like, uh, that-
- JRJoe Rogan
So is this by, uh, from methane gas? Is it from runoff?
- JJJohn Joseph
Fossil, fossil fuels, runoff. Look, here's the, here's the thing. So before that Gulf oil spill ever happened, there was a fucking dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico the size of New Jersey. Why? All the fucking runoff of-
- JRJoe Rogan
From farms.
- JJJohn Joseph
... the caFOs and the farms with the fucking toxic pesticides, the fucking... All the shit that these guys are spraying, Roundup and everything else.
- JRJoe Rogan
Mm-hmm.
- JJJohn Joseph
And, and the nitrogen that's in the fucking shit when these lagoons that have 100,000 fucking gallons of pig shit. You know, it all d- was draining into the, into the Mississippi and then draining into the Gulf. So if you look at what's going on in North Carolina right now, 'cause I was just there, motherfuckers can't even swim in the fucking rivers anymore. And it's happening in Europe too. They just had to cancel the swim on, uh, the Ironman in, in Hamburg because of the green algae and all the shit that's happening now because of all the runoff that's happening with the farms and everything. It's just... We're, we're making this planet a fucking toxic wasteland, and-
- JRJoe Rogan
Well, what we've done with farms and it's gotten... We, we, we developed cities. We have giant groups of people that aren't growing anything, and then we've given people incentive to make as much profit as possible. And when they're trying to make as much profit as possible without ethics or morals and consideration or, or the impact on the environment, they set off a process in motion that we are many, many decades into right now. So to try to correct it now, we're just seeing the effects. And then on top of that, there's all these ag-gag laws.
- JJJohn Joseph
Right.
- JRJoe Rogan
And the ag-gag laws are devastating because when you see... Like, one of the reasons I became a hunter is because I was watching these films of factory farming.And I was like, "I'm not, I'm not participating in this. I have to figure out what I'm gonna do. I'm either gonna become a vegetarian or I'm gonna become a hunter." I decided to become a hunter and that's how I get my meat. But when you see those videos, those are the videos that expose people to the realities and the horrors of factory farming. And those are illegal in most places.
- JJJohn Joseph
Yeah. You go to prison now. It's a-
- JRJoe Rogan
You go to prison-
- JJJohn Joseph
... federal-
- JRJoe Rogan
... for showing horrible-
- JJJohn Joseph
Yeah.
- JRJoe Rogan
... immoral acts that are done to these animals and the way they're treated and the way they're contained. And we were talking yesterday about, um, this video of a pig farm that there's this, there's this pig farm where these pigs are smashed into this place where they can't move at all. They're all in these cages.
- JJJohn Joseph
Crates.
- JRJoe Rogan
And then it's ... There's a runoff from where they shit and piss and there's a giant lake outside of pig shit and pig piss. And no one who lives anywhere near that can avoid that smell. You drive anywhere near that area, it's a horrific toxic smell. So it's already gotten to this almost, like, i- incorrectible position. Like that, that, that business is a toxic business. But it's not a regular f- ... like a Joel Salatin farm. You, you know who that guy is?
- JJJohn Joseph
No.
- JRJoe Rogan
You ever heard of him? He runs this farm called Polyface Farms and what, what he does is he has all these animals live like normal animals. Like the pigs, they're not in these cages. He has them roam free and they set s- they set up these enormous portable fences. So they ta- take the pigs, they roam in this one area like pigs naturally do, and then they move the fence to a different area and they transport th- uh, they did s- m- you know, move the pigs over with it. So the pigs are never contained. The chickens run free and then they go back into the chicken house at night. And then they try not to have mono crops. Like when you have mon- when you have a thousand acres of soybeans, that shit ain't normal.
- JJJohn Joseph
Yeah.
- JRJoe Rogan
That's not how plants are supposed to be. And then you have to throw pesticides on 'em. And then when you're rolling 'em up, you have to grind everything up with these gigantic machines and everything gets caught up in there. Mice and rabbits and everything that might be in the, in the neighborhood-
- JJJohn Joseph
Right.
- JRJoe Rogan
... while these machines are rolling over. All of that is unnatural and it's not how s- human beings are supposed to grow food. It's not how s- food is supposed to be ... It's not how these plants or animals are supposed to be interacting with the environment. But what we're doing with these things is making an incredible amounts of profit and these people are addicted to this profit. These corporations are addicted to these profit. They have this constant growth mentality where every year, every quarter has to have more. There, there's a never-ending growth cycle.
- JJJohn Joseph
And they make, and they make the laws.
- JRJoe Rogan
And the only way ... Right.
- JJJohn Joseph
That's the other thing.
- JRJoe Rogan
Well, they have massive amounts of money so they bribe politicians and they use all of these, uh, these lobbyists and what they do is they get these laws passed where it's illegal to film them doing immoral shit. And so then you don't see this. You just go to the store and you buy a cheeseburger or you go to Jack in the Box, you go wherever you go and you buy these things. You get corn, you know, or you get corn syrup in your soda and you don't think twice about what, what has to happen for that corn to become syrup and how much environmental damage has to take place.
- 1:00:29 – 1:10:42
Diet wars and evidence: blue zones, bloodwork, and defining “healthy plant-based”
- JJJohn Joseph
But if you look at the blue zones around the planet of the people who are the most centenarians and the people that live the longest, they have three things in common.Okay? And there's, there's blue zones in Japan, Costa Rica, Greece-
- JRJoe Rogan
Iran.
- JJJohn Joseph
... United States. Well, the top five-
- JRJoe Rogan
Mm-hmm.
- JJJohn Joseph
... uh, with the most. And then, and then California, and it's the Adventists, the Seventh-Day Adventists. So the three things that they have most in common with the people that live the longest, number one, they have a meditation spiritual practice. They do something every day for PMA, for positive mental attitude. Whatever their higher power is, they do that every day. Number two, they move their bodies. They're working, they work in the farm, they're exercising. Number three, they eat primarily a plant-based diet. They may have a piece of fish in Japan or whatever, or a piece of meat once in a while, but primarily, the Seventh-Day ... The Adventist study was actually the best one because it was all from different people with different ethnic backgrounds and the one thing that they had in common, the Seventh-Day Adventists don't eat meat.
- JRJoe Rogan
Mm-hmm.
- JJJohn Joseph
And, uh, that's my point with the whole thing and, you know, w- when it comes down to diet is I just see what, what worked for me and I try to relay that to people. And not, not be like, "My way's the only way," and this and that, because people, people are doing other sh- people are doing other things, uh, in their way. There's raw foodists, there's all these different people. And the problem is with the false ego in the human being, everybody wants to think-
- JRJoe Rogan
They have the right one.
- JJJohn Joseph
... that the glass is full, don't try to tell me shit, I know it all.
- JRJoe Rogan
Here's an issue with centenarians. Uh, centurions, how do you say it?
- JJJohn Joseph
Centurions.
- JRJoe Rogan
Centenarians?
- NANarrator
Centenarians?
- JRJoe Rogan
Centenarians.
- JJJohn Joseph
Yeah.
- JRJoe Rogan
I think it's centenarians, yeah. Um, people that live to be 100 years. Uh, one ... This is one thing we have to take into consideration, you're talking about people that lived already to be 100 years. So when they were 50 was 50 years ago, all right? We're talking about 1967. Nobody knew shit about diet back then. This is a fact.
- JJJohn Joseph
Right.
- JRJoe Rogan
Okay. So the people that did live that long and they were living ... This, it's almost, uh, an accident in some ways or inconsequential. Like what, what is going on today with people's diet and how long will people live today? There's far more information-
- JJJohn Joseph
Yeah.
- JRJoe Rogan
... in terms of, like, nutrition and what you should do-
- JJJohn Joseph
Absolutely.
- JRJoe Rogan
... and shouldn't do for your body. So what I'm concerned with is, like, what optimizes people today? I wanna see blood work.
- JJJohn Joseph
Yeah.
- JRJoe Rogan
I wanna see, like, what is going on with your blood lipids.
- JJJohn Joseph
Absolutely.
- JRJoe Rogan
What is going on with your nutrient levels, what is going on with that. And in, in that case, we don't have ... We have just a few studies from a few people or a few tests from a few people that have done this carnivore diet. We have some people that have done the vegan diet and have n- had real hard problems with that diet.
- JJJohn Joseph
Yeah, but let's just ... Let me just say one thing, 'cause to throw the word vegan on something, that does not make it a healthy diet.
- JRJoe Rogan
It's true. Yeah.
- JJJohn Joseph
I know vegans that are fucking 100 pounds overweight, they eat nothing but fried tofu.
- JRJoe Rogan
Yeah. Vegan pizza, yeah.
- 1:10:42 – 1:15:10
Glyphosate, gut biome, and chemical exposure: from Roundup to indoor toxins
- JJJohn Joseph
... all the people that are having the gut issues, I don't know if you listen ... You know, I know you had Rich Roll on twice.
- JRJoe Rogan
Mm-hmm.
- JJJohn Joseph
He's my fuckin' boy, he's a homie.
- JRJoe Rogan
He's a great dude.
- JJJohn Joseph
He ... Dude, he's fuckin' ... Everyone asks me, like, "What's that motherfucker like in real ... What's he like in real life?" I'm like, "That's the most genuine fucking dude." You know, you ever have anything going on, uh ... He just wrote the forward to my new book, uh, The PMA Effect. I mean, he's such a fucking ... He's a solid cat.
- JRJoe Rogan
Very solid.
- JJJohn Joseph
But, um, where was I going with that? You took me down a fucking-
- JRJoe Rogan
Uh, plants, glyphosate.
- JJJohn Joseph
Yeah, so he just had-
- JRJoe Rogan
Yeah.
- JJJohn Joseph
... Dr. Zach Bush come on, who's a doctor. This is clinical research. This is not speculation, this is not fucking vegan propaganda. This is fucking science. And he proved that glyphosate and what's happening now with the gut health effect.
- JRJoe Rogan
Mm-hmm.
- JJJohn Joseph
Gut health is such a huge issue.
- JRJoe Rogan
Yeah.
- JJJohn Joseph
Everything ... The bad fucking disease (snaps fingers) , it starts in the gut. And the glyphosate is eating through the stomach wall and causing leaky gut and all these other, uh, uh, physical, uh, diseases from happening. Now, the other thing is you have to realize what these pesticides are. They're neurotoxins, and then the ones that they're putting inside the seed, when the bug eats the leaf, it fucking dies. So, you're eating these fruits and vegetables that are completely fucking toxic. And-
- JRJoe Rogan
Well, here's what happens. When they created it, one of the things, one of the reasons why they were able to implement it, they said, "It doesn't kill people, it kills plants and it kills bacteria." So, everybody's like, "Oh, fine."
- JJJohn Joseph
Yeah.
- JRJoe Rogan
"No problem. It only kills plants and bacteria. That's totally safe." No, your body is filled with bacteria. Your gut-
Episode duration: 3:22:49
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Transcript of episode _5dMj7iFfGM
