Joe Rogan Experience #1345 - Steve Aoki

Steve Aoki 0:02 These are pretty cool. And we're live. Hello, Steve. Yeah, that's the Kanye one. Nice. That's, that's the most recent. That's, uh, this guy, Plastisel, Phong Tran. He, uh, creates all these. H- he hand paints each one. They're really nice. Yeah. He sculpts it. Very nice. And then he makes, uh, like a mold and then, uh- Yeah. ... he's got a bunch of dope ones. It's all on his line. And you got a book, bro. I do. Color of Noise. Yeah. Blue: The Color of Noise. Yeah. What's this about? It's my memoir. It's, um, uh, talks about the beginnings, um, goes through my process. It goes through a lot of different things. I mean, at the end of the day, it's a memoir so it's more about... It's less about what's happening now and more about, like, how I- I got there, you know? Like, the story and different piecemeal stories that, that are thematic and, you know, with this overarching idea of blue, which is, like, the different shades of blue of my life. It's my favorite color and actually, my last name is, means blue tree. Really? Yeah. Yeah. So it's like there's a lot of synergy with the color so when I was coming up with the idea to name the book, you know, I had to think of, like, uh, you know, something that relates throughout my whole life. So there's so many different shades, emotions, feelings that are represented in, in all these different stories. D- have you always been a writer? Um, I'm like a, yeah, I guess, like a piecemeal writer, you know? Mm-hmm. I, I needed help finishing this book. There's no doubt about it. I had so much, it's like... You know, 'cause I'm still, like, you know, of the pen and paper still, you know? Like, I grew up before, before computers and all that stuff, I was, when I was writing, uh, lyrics for my bands, I was, it was always, like, a notepad. Mm-hmm. So I had just so many different stories that I didn't know how to put it all together. Um, I started the inception of writing, you know, these, these different stories of my life six years ago and then I shot a documentary for Netflix and, uh, we dropped it, called, it's called I'll Sleep When I'm Dead. We dropped it three years ago, four years ago? Fi- 2015, 2016, I think. And a- and I, after I saw the reception and, and how people responded to the doc, then I knew that, like, you know, this is really gonna take shape. (laughs) This is gonna be front and center as finishing and, and writing a m- a proper memoir. So the, the idea of writing a memoir is only... The idea of writing and writing about yourself is only to write this memoir? It's not like you, you write on a regular basis? No. I mean- No, no, no. I mean, you know, like, I am actually coming up with some new ideas for the next, you know, conception of what I would put out there in book form because it's a different process for me that's, like, quite exciting just to, like, the challenge to do something like this. 'Cause I'm, my natural way to express myself is through music and, um, and I love being able to step outside my comfort zones. I think at the end of the day, when you do that enough, you just, you just get better as a human being and- Yes. ... and try, you know. If you always do the same thing over and over again, you're never really learning. So it's, uh, it's, it's been like a great learning process, you know, putting out this memoir and, uh, and, and, and, like, actually opening up this vulnerable side to who I am that I, I don't necessarily, I don't talk about really. You know? Like- Mm-hmm. ... for people that know me, like my fans or my music fans, or anyone else that knows Steve Aoki, they don't really know what's in this book. You know, they might have a glimpse of it from my documentary which I did because I, I talk really deeply about my relationship with my father and, and, like, this drive that I have as a kid to make it. And, uh, and it shows you enough where it's, okay, now I have a little bit more than my live shows and what's already out there, but this goes, you know, obviously, a- a lot deeper because it's a book and we're going through emotions and the vulnerability and, and, um, and I, and I wanna tell stories of the hardships. And at the end of the day, I wanna speak to young kids out there, y- young people out there, even older people that are trying to figure th- their own thing out and, and because the documentary related in so many ways on a personal level that I shared there, this is how I wanted to share that through my own words. Do you find that writing these things down and just thinking about your life and, and, and trying to express it in a way that's gonna resonate with people, that this h- helps you think about it and helps you sort of, uh, categorize it and put it all in your head and... 'Cause d- do you know Eddie Huang? Do you know who that is? Yeah. Yeah. The famous chef? Yeah. Uh, yeah. Yeah. Definitely, yeah. Yeah. He's a friend of mine, great guy, and writes every day, and I asked him why, I'm like, "Why, why are you writing?" Because he's written books, but he's, he writes to sort of collect his own thoughts. Yes. You know? 100%. It's like once you, that's the trigger for me because even when I read, I write right after. Mm-hmm. Like, what I gain from it. Al- almost like it's like my note, my, uh, homework- Yeah. ... for retention on, on what I gather or take away from what I'm reading. So I'm always, like, reading and writing or writing and scribbling in my, in my book or, or, like, writing off the side in a notepad or, like now, like, you know, I, like, like a tablet or something. But- I wri- ... it's like you need to gather your, your, your headspace so you have retention. Yeah. You write to understand. Right. Yeah. And then you write to express it so that other people can understand. Yeah. And in that process, you kinda understand yourself better. Right. Yeah. I mean, that's, that's how I sort of, Eddie described it. And when he said it to me, I was like, "God dammit, I don't write enough like that." I write more comedy stuff. I try and write material and essays on things and pull jokes out of them. Right. But, like, I think there's probably a great benefit for anybody to just sort of write about your thoughts- Yeah. ... to your diary, you know? (laughs) You just ac- you think- (laughs) You know? I mean, there's something to that because in that time, I mean, you could speak to this because you've written a book on yourself, but in that time of writing-

Joe Rogan 6:07 ... about yourself and reflecting upon your life, you probably learn a little bit about who you are and why you're the way you are.

Steve Aoki 6:14 Yeah. And, you know, thinking about this, I never really thought about it to this point or found the, the parallel here. But when I started seeing a therapist to go into my past and try to break down what, like why I make the decisions I do or, like, why I spiral out here or do something that I am not comfortable with or I want to change, a lot of that I'm able, like after these sessions, I go and start writing.

Joe Rogan 6:39 Mm-hmm.

Steve Aoki 6:39 You know, and then a lot of that, you know, eventually makes it in the book.

Joe Rogan 6:44 Do you write longhand or do you write on a keyboard?

Steve Aoki 6:46 I, I would do both. Uh, now I do both, but like, I have scribbles of stuff everywhere, you know. But then I ma- it, like, at the end of the day, for organizational purposes, it's, it's just got to go in, like ... I gotta put it in the computer.

Joe Rogan 6:59 Yeah.

Steve Aoki 7:00 You know.

Joe Rogan 7:00 Yeah.

Steve Aoki 7:01 But, um, yeah. It, this is a very, this is my own therapy. (laughs) You know, as you could say, it's like, it is putting all these stories and these memories and the feelings and the emotions and the, the hardships or whatever it might be, you know. It's, it's like, I think the hardest part is, like, picking the right ones, you know, at the end of the day.

Joe Rogan 7:22 When you've put all this stuff together and you spend so much time on this, do you find that the process of that in any way enhances your music?

Steve Aoki 7:31 Yes, it does because, I mean, when I think about ... First of all, when I think about the process of making music, I think about it, uh, very simp- similar to what you're doing when, when you're, when you write for your comedy skits and you're efficient. You're like, "Okay, this is gonna work 'cause I'm gonna be able to share it this way." You're not just writing your thoughts down, right?

Joe Rogan 7:54 Mm-hmm.

Steve Aoki 7:55 So like when I'm in the studio, I'm very efficient, you know. I'm like, I'm going and going. I'm gonna make a club banger just for the festival so the crowds go crazy, and it's less about the emotional message, you know. What, with this, being able to talk about that side, that's, that adds that other layer that, that, um, I'm seeing now more than ever in the last like three or four years when I started making songs with lyrics that actually, you know, I've, you know, seen the fans come out in droves saying how much it's gotten them, gotten them through hard times 'cause the lyrics were able to speak to them a certain way. So it's ... And that's m- the essence of collaboration at the end of the day, you know, working with songwriters and singers. And, and being able to be pulled in that direction is incredible as an artist, you know, instead of just having, like, all right, we're making this record to make everyone go crazy, even though essentially electronic dance music is all about the music.

Joe Rogan 8:51 Yeah.

Steve Aoki 8:52 It's not about, you know, the touching lyrics. They might be, like, the flavoring on top, but the, the foundation is all about the beat, you know. But now it's, like, about mixing both worlds as much as possible, you know, 'cause at the end of the day when you think about my shows, it's a very full-on experience. Like when I, when I put on a show, I'm trying to, like, I'm trying to com- like, compound all the senses, you know. I want it to be entertaining as hell. I want it to be fun, engaging. Um, I want you to leave knowing that you saw a Steve Aoki show, so that's why I try to do different unique things like, uh, you know, I cake people. I don't know if you know this, but I cake people at my shows.

Joe Rogan 9:35 Cake them?

Steve Aoki 9:36 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 9:36 Like you hit them in the head with cakes?

Steve Aoki 9:38 Yeah, I wouldn't say the head, but yeah. (laughs) But this is all consensual, by the way. So-

Joe Rogan 9:42 (laughs)

Steve Aoki 9:42 Uh, uh, uh, yeah, I'll give you a little story to this. So, you know, I think as you are on the stage all the time, you wanna make your skits, you wanna make your, everything that you do unique to Joe Rogan, you know. Like, you don't wanna be like, "Oh yeah, he's a copy of this person." No one wants to be that, you know. Uh, so I'm thinking like, what am I gonna do that's gonna be unique and different, engaging. Um, "Hey. Ho."

Joe Rogan 10:06 (laughs)

Steve Aoki 10:06 You know, like, everyone's doing that.

Joe Rogan 10:07 Right.

Steve Aoki 10:07 "Everyone sit down and everyone jump." So, you know, I'm like, you know ... Your brain's always thinking, so I got an idea after a song, uh, that I released on my label. I have my own label, and we, we released this artist where the video was cakes exploding in people's faces. Super slow motion, high def, really beautiful. And then I was like, "You know what? Uh, I'm gonna go to a bakery, I'm gonna buy a cake, scribble, like, the song on the top of the cake, and let's just see what happens."

Joe Rogan 10:38 (laughs)

Steve Aoki 10:38 "It'll be funny little thing," you know. And I, I brought the k- this is 2011, mind you. So this is seven years or however long ago that was. You know, a long time ago. Do, do the math. (laughs) Anyway, so it was a long time ago and I walked around the front of the stage and one of the, one of the kids in the front, one of the guys at front was just like, "Why is he walking around the front? Like, am I supposed to, like, grab it?" And then he just starts pointing at his face and then all his friends around him se- are pointing at him, and the whole place was just staring and waiting and watching and wondering what the hell's gonna happen. So I caked him, we filmed it before, this is pre-Instagram, put it up on YouTube. I was like, "I gotta do this every show. This is incredible." And then six months later people started coming out with "cake me" signs.

Joe Rogan 11:23 (laughs)

Steve Aoki 11:25 Six years later-

Joe Rogan 11:26 Look at this.

Steve Aoki 11:27 Okay, here we go. So six years later, like I've, I think I've caked over 15,000 people now.

Joe Rogan 11:32 (laughs)

Steve Aoki 11:33 You know?

Joe Rogan 11:34 Oh my God. (laughs) Jeez, look at her go crazy. (laughs) You had it right in the mug too, dude. Perfect shot.

Steve Aoki 11:40 Well, I'll tell you, I mean, you know, it was just practice makes perfect, you know. (laughs)

Joe Rogan 11:43 Yeah, you've thrown 15,000 cakes, I guess you get a, you get a feel for it. Look at her, she's dancing.

Steve Aoki 11:48 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 11:48 Wiping it off. Well, let me see one more time. (laughs)

Steve Aoki 11:50 This is like, uh, that was Ultra.

Joe Rogan 11:52 Boom. Oh my goodness. (laughs)

Steve Aoki 11:54 We have a cake rider.

Joe Rogan 11:56 (laughs)

Steve Aoki 11:56 We have very specific cakes at our, you know. Uh, at our show you have a s- it's a, it's like a special Aoki cake.

Joe Rogan 12:01 What is in it?

Steve Aoki 12:02 It's, uh, the strange thing is, is there's, like, not as much cake as you would think. It's just like frosting. It's just, so it just explodes everywhere.

Joe Rogan 12:11 So it's less bread.

Steve Aoki 12:12 Yes.

Joe Rogan 12:13 Just-

Steve Aoki 12:13 So, like, less carbs, more sugar.

Joe Rogan 12:15 (laughs)

Steve Aoki 12:17 Well, if you're diabetic, just get out of the front row please. (laughs)

Joe Rogan 12:21 (laughs) What a crazy-

Steve Aoki 12:22 But-

Joe Rogan 12:22 ... thing for people to enjoy too.

Steve Aoki 12:24 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 12:24 Getting caked in the face.

Steve Aoki 12:26 Yeah, but-

Joe Rogan 12:26 That lady was having a good fucking time.

Steve Aoki 12:28 That, uh, that's, okay, that's the most important thing at- at the end of the day is, like, my shows-

Joe Rogan 12:31 Look at this cake made with a bull's-eye. (laughs)

Steve Aoki 12:33 Dude, okay, this is very normal for me to see.

Joe Rogan 12:36 What? (laughs)

Steve Aoki 12:36 You know, like, in some cases there's, like, 50, 50 people with signs up, you know, so-

Joe Rogan 12:41 Oh, that is so crazy. Look at that cake face. The one on the upper right. "Oh, I want cake in my face." (laughs)

Steve Aoki 12:46 Yeah, I mean, it's just so f- it's a signature part of the show. It's fun, it's exciting. Um ...

Joe Rogan 12:53 Dude, I need to go to one of your shows 'cause, uh, everybody that I know that's been says it's a wild experience. It's not just music, it's just, there's something li- you're- you're doing something transformative, you know, that w- people come out of there, they're just like, "Whoo!" They're buzzing.

Steve Aoki 13:06 Yeah, yeah.

Joe Rogan 13:07 They're flying.

Steve Aoki 13:07 That's the goal, you know. And if I c- if I feel like I'm doing that, if I feel like I'm really having this impact, then I go, the, not, that's why I end up doing, like, so many shows, 'cause I, on average I'm doing about 250 shows around the world every year.

Joe Rogan 13:23 That is so crazy.

Steve Aoki 13:24 And I do this, I've done this consistently for over 12 years. So it's- it's, uh, it's not like an artist that just drops an album and then they tour, like, around the world for a year or two. Like, I'm on, I'm on a worldwide tour, you know, every- every single year.

Joe Rogan 13:41 Is that sustainable? How- how's your body holding up?

Steve Aoki 13:44 It's, yeah-

Joe Rogan 13:44 I know you work out a lot.

Steve Aoki 13:45 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 13:46 I know you're really into health and wellness and all that stuff, but that seems insane.

Steve Aoki 13:50 Particular-

Joe Rogan 13:50 Particularly with all the travel.

Steve Aoki 13:51 It does. I mean, you have to, you have to, like, treat yourself a- like an athlete, that's for sure. Um, the way I think about my regiment is different, you know. And I, and I'm, like, obsessed with, uh, trying out new ideas, using myself as a guinea pig to work with different scientists, sleep doctors, uh, you know, different people in dif- various fields that are testing new ideas to- to, like, deal with jet lag, or things that I'm dealing with that are there on the road that- that can wear you down and make it not sustainable.

Joe Rogan 14:28 Do you do IVs?

Steve Aoki 14:30 Uh, like stem cell?

Joe Rogan 14:31 No, no, like vitamin, like vitamin drips-

Steve Aoki 14:34 Um-

Joe Rogan 14:34 ... or anything like that.

Steve Aoki 14:35 Not as, no, I don't. But I, you know, like, I, at one point I was, I- I wasn't down the same road as Ray Kurzweil doing 250 vitamins a day, but I was probably, you know, experimenting with about 50.

Joe Rogan 14:48 Have you met him?

Steve Aoki 14:49 I have.

Joe Rogan 14:50 He's an interesting dude.

Steve Aoki 14:51 Yes, he is.

Joe Rogan 14:51 He's quite a trip.

Steve Aoki 14:53 He-

Joe Rogan 14:54 Like, behind his eyes there's a l- there's a lot going on.

Steve Aoki 14:56 Yeah, absolutely. And, uh, I mean my, so, like, I have a whole album series called Neon Future. So I have Neon Future One, Two and Three that just came out. My al- my albums, in each album, um, I actually work with a scientist on a song.

Joe Rogan 15:10 Oh, wow.

Steve Aoki 15:11 So I had Ray Kurzweil on- on One, so he's talking on a song about, like, life expansion, life extension. I'm big singular, not- not necessarily singularity, not, but, like, I'm a big fan of the idea that we can live indefinitely. Uh, I'm a enthusiast of that world. I might not, I'm not, definitely not an expert, but I'm an enthusiast for sure.

Joe Rogan 15:29 Yeah.

Steve Aoki 15:30 And I got JJ Abrams on Two. I got-

Joe Rogan 15:32 Wow.

Steve Aoki 15:32 ... Aubrey de Grey on Two who-

Joe Rogan 15:33 Oh, wow. I've had him on.

Steve Aoki 15:33 ... wrote the book Anti-Aging.

Joe Rogan 15:34 I've had him on as well. Yeah.

Steve Aoki 15:36 Yeah. And, like, I interviewed him. I went to o- I went to Ray's, Ray Kurzweil's apartment in- in the Bay Area with-

Joe Rogan 15:42 Me too. Yeah.

Steve Aoki 15:43 Yeah, so, I mean, we, I know that we have a lot of synergies on the-

Joe Rogan 15:46 Yeah.

Steve Aoki 15:46 ... science and tech stuff. And Three, I had Bill Nye.

Joe Rogan 15:50 Oh, wow.

Steve Aoki 15:50 And Four, which is coming out next year, I'm having my favorite author on the album that I've read so far. So I'm ver- very excited to have-

Joe Rogan 15:59 Who's that?

Steve Aoki 16:00 I've n- I, I, you know, I might as well annou-

Joe Rogan 16:01 You don't want to say?

Steve Aoki 16:01 I m- I might as well announce it here if I'm going to announce it anywhere.

Joe Rogan 16:04 Okay.

Steve Aoki 16:04 I haven't announced it yet. But Yuval Harari.

Joe Rogan 16:07 Oh, wow. I love that guy.

Steve Aoki 16:08 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 16:08 Sapiens is amazing. It's f-

Steve Aoki 16:09 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 16:10 ... fantastic book.

Steve Aoki 16:10 Sapiens is my favorite book.

Joe Rogan 16:11 I'm on the second one right now.

Steve Aoki 16:12 Yeah, I just finished Homo Deus and, uh, I mean, he has a very, like ... See, I think of the future very positively, so Neon Future. (laughs)

Joe Rogan 16:20 Yeah, he doesn't think of it so- so rosy.

Steve Aoki 16:22 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 16:23 Yeah.

Steve Aoki 16:23 But, you know, I like his, I like his, uh, his analysis and, you know, the way he's trying to understand how we've evolved or pushed out- outwards.

Joe Rogan 16:34 Yeah.

Steve Aoki 16:35 And I agree with a lot of what he's saying.

Joe Rogan 16:37 Well, a lot o- a lot of what he's saying is irrefutable, but what's interesting is the- the way he sort of coalesces it, the way he combines it all, and you- you really get a sense of, "Wow, that this is what a person is. Like, this is how it all went down." You know?

Steve Aoki 16:50 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 16:51 He's a brilliant guy too. I've seen him interviewed. Really fascinating character.

Steve Aoki 16:55 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 16:55 You know?

Steve Aoki 16:57 Yeah, yeah.

Joe Rogan 16:57 And Aubrey de Grey is a trippy dude too because he drinks so much.

Steve Aoki 17:00 I know.

Joe Rogan 17:01 I've- I've hung out with him and, like, it's, like, pint after pint. I'm like, "Hey man, aren't you supposed to be the fucking wellness-

Steve Aoki 17:08 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 17:08 ... longevity guy?"

Steve Aoki 17:09 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 17:09 He's so in- entrenched in science that he thinks that the solutions are going to come through the laboratory.

Steve Aoki 17:17 Right.

Joe Rogan 17:17 He- he, I mean, he doesn't seem to exercise. If he does, I think he just rows a boat.

Steve Aoki 17:21 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 17:22 I think. Have you seen that? He, like, he, like, rows boats around the- the harbor wherever he lives in England and, um, he drinks.

Steve Aoki 17:30 I think it's in his beard though.

Joe Rogan 17:31 The booze?

Steve Aoki 17:32 The beard. The beard is his-

Joe Rogan 17:34 (laughs)

Steve Aoki 17:34 ... his, like, magical wizardry.

Joe Rogan 17:36 Yeah.

Steve Aoki 17:37 You know, but actually that's against science, but, uh, but, uh, yeah, he's a very interesting guy. He ju- I have a foam pit in my house, he jumped in my foam pit watching-

Joe Rogan 17:44 Oh, nice.

Steve Aoki 17:44 ... a 50-year-old man with a- a beard down to his-

Joe Rogan 17:46 (laughs)

Steve Aoki 17:47 ... below his nipples jump into a foam pit. It's actually pretty cool.

Joe Rogan 17:50 That is cool.

Steve Aoki 17:51 A scientist as- as well, you know. Just, like, you know, it's ...

Joe Rogan 17:54 It's cool that he's willing to be silly.

Steve Aoki 17:56 Yeah, yeah, exactly. You know, like, and I- I have a, uh, you know, I have the Aoki Foundation which I'm wearing. It's um ... Obsessed with the human brain, so all of our- our- our money that we raise goes to brain research organizations, brain science orgs. And, uh, but also, like, uh, orgs that deal with anti-aging or anything that's interesting that relates to, um-... you know, living longer, healthier lives. And one of which is the SENS org, which is Aubrey's org.

Joe Rogan 18:24 Have you ever heard ... Do you know who David Sinclair is?

Steve Aoki 18:26 Uh, remind me.

Joe Rogan 18:28 He's a Harvard professor. He's on the podcast next week. Uh, he's been on before but he is, uh, at the front of the line of anti- anti-aging technology. The podcast I did with him was incredible. He's a- a brilliant, brilliant guy. Dealing with things like NMN and, you know, and, uh, NAD and all these different, uh, drip infusions and concoctions and molecules that, um, lengthen telomeres, enhance the, you know, the, the, the body's ability to regenerate and age much slower.

Steve Aoki 19:00 Right.

Joe Rogan 19:00 Really, really interesting stuff.

Steve Aoki 19:02 Oh, that ... I mean, I love that stuff.

Joe Rogan 19:04 Yeah.

Steve Aoki 19:04 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 19:05 So how did you get in this? Because you're thinking about your own mind or is this just something you've always been fascinated by?

Steve Aoki 19:13 I think, uh, it, it started, um, when ... After my f- my father passed away. Seeing the death of your father, he died of, uh, um, cancer but it started with hepatitis C from a, uh, boat accident he had in the, in like the late '70s.

Joe Rogan 19:32 A boat accident gave him hep C?

Steve Aoki 19:33 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 19:33 How'd that happen?

Steve Aoki 19:34 Uh, blood transfusion.

Joe Rogan 19:36 Oh, wow.

Steve Aoki 19:38 And then he ... I mean, he was surviving, uh, with hep C for, for decades. Changed his, his, um, interferon and the things that would keep him going before there was a vaccine or, or cure. This is all before then. Um, I'm not sure if there is but I'm, I'm almost positive there is. But, um ...

Joe Rogan 19:55 Yeah, I think there is.

Steve Aoki 19:56 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 19:56 I think it's a very expensive involved process.

Steve Aoki 19:59 But that, that, that hurts, you know what I mean? It's like-

Joe Rogan 20:02 Right.

Steve Aoki 20:03 ... if someone dies close to you and then, like, something like that happens.

Joe Rogan 20:06 Yeah.

Steve Aoki 20:07 So this is all happening, right? And I see him die and I'm also like, you know, I think I know about health. I'm a vegetarian, you know, this, that, and the other. I'm like sort of healthy but after I saw him die, I read books on cancer. I started reading, like trying to research like what could I have done to, to help my father. And I still have people in my life that I absolutely love that I wanna learn and share. Like my mother, like, you know, anyone else that's like close to me that's getting older. And, um, then it just ... I just, I just went on this, like, bender, like, you know, reading books on anti-aging and then, you know, I'm really a big sci-fi nut. So if anything, I love living between the world of science fiction and science fact, and finding out in that gray area what is going to be science fact in our, you know, in our, uh, as long as I'm alive, you know.

Joe Rogan 21:03 Mm-hmm.

Steve Aoki 21:03 And there's a lot of things happening because I do agree with that, that, uh, that curve that we are not moving at a linear rate, you know. We are moving ... I don't know if it's exponential, but it's definitely between linear and exponential with technology, with what we're learning in science and medicine. And as I'm learning more about this stuff, my music career is also raising, uh ... Uh, my platform as a personality is, is also getting raised. So then now, I get to go and make a phone call to Ray and he'll answer, and I get to meet him. And, and then I wanna have fun too.

Joe Rogan 21:39 Mmm.

Steve Aoki 21:39 So I'm like let's make a song, let's do a video, let's do an interview. So I created this whole Neon Future session so I could meet, you know, Stan Lee, rest in peace. Like, I got to meet him, hang out with him, did an interview with him, took some photos and it was-

Joe Rogan 21:52 Stanley?

Steve Aoki 21:52 Uh, Stan Lee, Marvel.

Joe Rogan 21:53 Who's Stanley Marvel?

Steve Aoki 21:55 Stan-

Joe Rogan 21:55 Stan Lee?

Steve Aoki 21:55 Stan Lee, the, the Marvel Comics.

Joe Rogan 21:57 Oh, Stan Lee.

Steve Aoki 21:57 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 21:58 Oh, okay.

Steve Aoki 21:58 I'm, I'm just going across the board here.

Joe Rogan 22:00 I'm like Stan Lee Marvel. I was like, "Who's Stanley Marvel?" (laughs) Okay.

Steve Aoki 22:02 (laughs) But, you know, like, I just went across the board of all the people outside of my music space that I can talk to. Science people, science fiction people.

Joe Rogan 22:09 Oh, that's cool.

Steve Aoki 22:09 JJ Abrams, to, like, whoever it might be. Um, even authors of books I've read like Richard Dawkins. I flew to Oxford University and I sat with him.

Joe Rogan 22:17 Oh, that's great.

Steve Aoki 22:18 And, and I talked to him and he, he was like, "I don't know why I'm here with you, but someone told me I should be." You know? (laughs)

Joe Rogan 22:25 (laughs) I think I'm gonna get the same response. He's supposed to be coming on next month.

Steve Aoki 22:28 Yeah, and, uh-

Joe Rogan 22:29 I'm really excited to talk to him.

Steve Aoki 22:30 Yeah, it's like, uh-

Joe Rogan 22:31 Did you talk to him after his stroke?

Steve Aoki 22:33 No, this was, uh ... I remember him riding his bike to, to interview, which was kinda cool, seeing Richard Dawkins ride his bike. Felt like Albert Einstein was coming at me or something (laughs) you know?

Joe Rogan 22:44 Right.

Steve Aoki 22:44 'Cause he was kinda like that, kinda like, like he has an allure with him. Um-

Joe Rogan 22:49 Yeah, he does.

Steve Aoki 22:50 But that was, uh, 2015, '16, I think, so-

Joe Rogan 22:55 That sounds like around when he had his stroke.

Steve Aoki 22:57 Okay, may- ... I mean, I actually wouldn't-

Joe Rogan 22:58 Find out when he had his stroke. He's, um ... He recovered very well though, apparently. He still has some residual issues.

Steve Aoki 23:06 Oh, wow. So this is definitely pre-stroke.

Joe Rogan 23:08 May 2016?

Steve Aoki 23:09 Yeah, so this is pre-stroke.

Joe Rogan 23:10 Pre-stroke, pre-stroke.

Steve Aoki 23:11 The, the, the, the crazy thing is I did all these interviews with all these different people, didn't, didn't actually post them up online.

Joe Rogan 23:18 Why?

Steve Aoki 23:18 We did two with Wired magazine. We did the one with Ray Kurzweil and the one with Stan Lee, and I had, like, the rest lined up. But we wanted to, you know, like present them the right way. And-

Joe Rogan 23:28 There you go.

Steve Aoki 23:29 Oh, wow. That's actually ... (laughs) You're, you're great on the internet. (laughs)

Joe Rogan 23:34 (laughs) Jamie's the best.

Steve Aoki 23:36 Uh-

Joe Rogan 23:36 Yeah, that's cool. Is that in his office?

Steve Aoki 23:38 No, we got, um ... Oxford University gave us this room s- you know, and, uh, I took it over-

Joe Rogan 23:46 That's awesome.

Steve Aoki 23:46 ... with him.

Joe Rogan 23:49 D- when you talked to Kurzweil, did you get into his idea of being able to download consciousness?

Steve Aoki 23:55 Um, no, we didn't get that far, but I would lov- love for you to tell me more about that.

Joe Rogan 23:59 (sighs) It's a weird one 'cause we went to this, uh, I, I think it's called the 2045 Conference in New York City, and the idea behind it is that they think that somewhere around 2045, there's gonna be some sort of a technological singularity with the exponential growth or perceived exponential growth, whatever it is, the leaping, the new innovations creating these new possibilities, that somewhere around '25, 2045, there's going to be-... m- so many changes and so many new innovations that they believe they're going to be able to put your consciousness either into some sort of a hard drive, some sort of a quantum computer, or perhaps even a, a physical embodiment of a Steve Aoki.

Steve Aoki 24:44 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 24:44 Like, you have a, an artificial Steve Aoki.

Steve Aoki 24:46 Like a sleeve.

Joe Rogan 24:47 Yeah, and then your con- your actual brain, reep-

Steve Aoki 24:50 Yep.

Joe Rogan 24:50 ... inside this thing. So as your body dies, now you will exist in this whatever the fuck it's made out of.

Steve Aoki 24:57 Right.

Joe Rogan 24:58 You know? And he thinks he's going to be able to do that. And, you know, he's got a really bizarre motivation too. His father died when he was young and he didn't really get to know him that well, and he has all these images and all this tu- And he thinks that he is going to be able to, in some way, shape, or form, recreate his father and have some sort of a, a reasonable facsimile, some sort of a, uh-

Steve Aoki 25:22 Yeah, like, a way to communicate with his-

Joe Rogan 25:23 ... with his dad.

Steve Aoki 25:24 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 25:24 Like, actually have his, with all the memories that he has of his father, all the, the video and images, and actually recreate his father to have a communication with him. It's very weird stuff.

Steve Aoki 25:36 Yeah. Well, I, I mean, I think a lot of these, those, those storylines get drawn out in, in sci-fi.

Joe Rogan 25:42 Yes.

Steve Aoki 25:43 'Cause that's essentially where we want, like, we wanna go without any issues and problems and, and backfire.

Joe Rogan 25:49 Uh-huh.

Steve Aoki 25:49 And, and no, like, Black Mirror episode, you know, kind of blunder. Because I, I mean, it, we are, we are definitely going in that direction.

Joe Rogan 25:57 We're going somewhere weird, for sure.

Steve Aoki 25:58 We're, we're 100% going there and there's no stopping it.

Joe Rogan 26:00 No way, yeah.

Steve Aoki 26:01 (laughs) You just can't-

Joe Rogan 26:02 Every, yeah, everyone's buying new phones and new technology and we're pushing it as far as we can. There was a guy, um, I think it's from the University of Connecticut. He is the preeminent researcher on time travel, and he is right out of a fucking Spider-Man comic book. His dad died when he was young, same sort of situation, and he wanted to figure out a way to go back in time and save his dad. So he's literally trying to come up with a workable theory for time travel. That's, that's the gentleman. What is his name? Mm...

Steve Aoki 26:36 Dr. Ron Mallet.

Joe Rogan 26:38 Yeah, Dr. Ron Mallet. And it's, right now, I mean, he's got a working theory but it's, it becomes a matter of having enough energy to actually pull this off. But the idea behind it was all inspired by his father dying, and he thinks he's going to be able to, or someone may be able to go back in time. But what he believes now-

Steve Aoki 26:59 But when you hear stories like this, right? When you hear the story, 'cause I know y- Like, this is, like, what you do. You get to talk to all these people.

Joe Rogan 27:05 Yeah.

Steve Aoki 27:06 Do you, do you believe them to a certain extent? And then you, like, you go... 'Cause for me, I need the scientific understanding. I, you know, like-

Joe Rogan 27:13 Yes.

Steve Aoki 27:14 ... uh, I'm not too much into the paranormal. I need to, like, understand to, to see if this actually is conclusive. You know?

Joe Rogan 27:20 Well, I think he found out something unfortunate, uh, in that the idea, as far as time travel as we know it, will only exist from the time the time machine is invented forward and backward to that moment. The idea, uh, like Terence McKenna described it, the idea that you cannot travel where there are no roads. And so once a road is established, then things get really fucked up because if you create a time machine, as least as, uh, in terms of what they understand or what Dr. Mallet believes about time travel right now, and I hope I'm not butchering... I'm sure I'm butchering it, but I hope I'm not butchering it too bad.

Steve Aoki 27:56 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 27:56 He... You can only travel back to the moment the first time machine is invented. So once that door is open, then time ceases to become linear. Anything from the end of time till the invention of the time machine happens all at once, because anyone can come back to that moment because a time machine exists now. It's made, so of course they're gonna innovate. Anyone in the future is gonna innovate. These people that do innovate are gonna have a much s- much superior version of this time machine, and everyone is gonna be able to go back to the moment that the time machine is invented in any point along the way from the end of time to the beginning of time from the moment that time machine is invented.

Steve Aoki 28:35 So in that case, if that really is the case-

Joe Rogan 28:38 Yeah.

Steve Aoki 28:39 ... has a time machine been invented?

Joe Rogan 28:41 I don't think it has.

Steve Aoki 28:42 Why?

Joe Rogan 28:43 Well, I'm, I could be wrong.

Steve Aoki 28:44 Yeah. But what, what's your, like, thought?

Joe Rogan 28:45 I think everything is gonna be completely fucking gonzo. You're gonna have people appearing and disappearing and, and, and showing up and, and going.

Steve Aoki 28:52 And it's a normal thing. It's like, "Oh, yeah-"

Joe Rogan 28:54 Yeah.

Steve Aoki 28:54 "... he's traveling through time." It's just like-

Joe Rogan 28:56 Well, not only that. Like, all events. Say if, like, there was a World War V.

Steve Aoki 28:59 But you would, would you know that? But w-

Joe Rogan 29:01 But if there was a World War V 100 years from now and you were like, "Fuck this, I'm going back in time 100 years before World War V and I'm just gonna live there," and they do, they decide to do that, or World War III or World War IV, they just keep going back in time and forward in time. You could go... If you had a time machine and the time machine was in... Again, I'm butchering this, I'm a moron, I'm not a scientist.

Steve Aoki 29:22 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 29:22 But if, if you had a time machine and time machines existed from now until, you know, the perceivable end of the lifespan of the Earth, right? When the sun supernovas and there's no more life left on Earth, you could kind of go anywhere you want from now to a million years from now as long as there's a place to go.

Steve Aoki 29:42 Right.

Joe Rogan 29:43 As long as there's a time machine available. And the idea is that time as we know it will cease to exist, because our time now is dependent on, you, you know, our biological entities waking up, moving forward. "What time is it? Oh, it's 3:00. Oh, my meeting's at 5:00. Better hurr- hurry over to downtown. Traffic's rough this time of day." All that stuff's gonna be nonsense if there's time machines because you're just gonna be able to move anywhere you want at any point in time. Sounds ridiculous, but so does the internet. If you brought the internet up to some guy who lived in Victorian, you know, times-

Steve Aoki 30:13 Right.

Joe Rogan 30:14 ... and said, "Look at this. This is my phone, and you can ask it a question, it'll give you all the answers-"

Steve Aoki 30:18 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 30:18 "... anything you want," that would be the most astounding form of witchcraft ever invented.

Steve Aoki 30:23 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 30:23 And now my 11-year-old daughter has one of those.

Steve Aoki 30:26 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 30:26 You know? I mean, she, she asks that thing questions all the time. She gets answers to stuff all the time that we used to have to go to a library for. Um, she could watch videos that just come out of the air.

Steve Aoki 30:35 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 30:35 That's magic.

Steve Aoki 30:36 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 30:36 I mean...... and, but it's, we are accustomed to it.

Steve Aoki 30:38 Right.

Joe Rogan 30:38 We, we adapt very easily.

Steve Aoki 30:39 Exactly.

Joe Rogan 30:40 So the idea is that what this would do is change every aspect of reality as we know it, uh, in terms of, like, linear time. It would no longer exist.

Steve Aoki 30:51 But would on- would only those people that know how to use a machine have access to it? I mean-

Joe Rogan 30:55 Well, I mean, wouldn't it be like cell phones? Like, uh, eventually everybody gets one. And we're talking about time, right? So if everybody gets access to it a year from now or three years from now, it doesn't matter because the time machine's already been invented. So they could travel back to that moment and forward from that moment. So the moment (snaps fingers) they turn that fucker on, everything goes haywire.

Steve Aoki 31:14 Wow. So let's, so let's not turn that thing on.

Joe Rogan 31:16 Oh, it's, we're ... and it's inevitable.

Steve Aoki 31:18 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 31:18 People press buttons.

Steve Aoki 31:19 That's good, yeah. Like, well, th- they wanna see if they can even make that happen.

Joe Rogan 31:23 I used to have a bit that I used to do about the Big Bang because they were tr- everyone's always tried to figure out, like, what was the universe like before the Big Bang? Like, what, what happened? How was it created? And when you look at the progress of technology, my thought was that if you look at where we're going and we're constantly innovating and people are constantly coming up with new and more impressive forms of technology, that one day we're gonna create a Big Bang machine. And that this is what happens, that every five billion years or so, things get so intelligent they develop a Big Bang machine. And they sit around, these dudes are on Red Bull and Xanax and, and-

Steve Aoki 32:05 Simulation.

Joe Rogan 32:06 ... and one guy goes, "I'll fucking press it." And he hits the button and boom!

Steve Aoki 32:10 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 32:10 The whole universe starts all over again. And if you had a Big Bang machine and you knew that if you pressed it, within five billion years humans would create another Big Bang machine, this is an endless cycle, would you press it? Fucking for sure there's someone that would press that button.

Steve Aoki 32:26 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 32:26 There is 100%-

Steve Aoki 32:27 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 32:28 ... a person out there that would press that button.

Steve Aoki 32:31 Yeah. No, I, I heard more about the simulation idea.

Joe Rogan 32:35 Well, that's another, that's another idea. But that's-

Steve Aoki 32:38 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 32:38 Elon believes that. He believes that it's very possible. Like, like, one of the things they said if you could ask AI, what, what would you ask? He said, "What's beyond the simulation?" Like, he believes this is a simulation. But if you're Elon Musk, of course you'd believe it's a simulation. People are letting you drill tunnels under LA and shoot rockets off into space.

Steve Aoki 32:57 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 32:57 You're making electric cars. Fucking solar roof panels.

Steve Aoki 33:02 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 33:02 I mean, he's, he's literally living like some character in a movie.

Steve Aoki 33:06 That's true.

Joe Rogan 33:06 He's like Professor X or something.

Steve Aoki 33:07 Yeah. But if you're in a simulation, there's nothing you can do about it, right? So you just-

Joe Rogan 33:10 That's true.

Steve Aoki 33:10 ... might as well just do, do it all. Uh, so it's a great way to think (laughs) about life.

Joe Rogan 33:14 Right. But if you, it, what is a simulation if everything is a simulation? It's still life, right? Like, your-

Steve Aoki 33:20 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 33:20 ... existence is still-

Steve Aoki 33:21 Exactly.

Joe Rogan 33:21 ... everything you're accustomed to and everything you experience. And if it is a simulation, at least some aspects o- of this are, are comfortably or comfortingly, uh, like, obvious. Like, work hard, you can get better at things.

Steve Aoki 33:37 Right.

Joe Rogan 33:37 You can, you know, be nice to people, they're nice to you. You're like, ha- be, be a good friend, you get good friends. Eat healthy food, you're healthier.

Steve Aoki 33:45 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 33:45 Like, there's, there's really some comfort to the l- lack of ... I mean, there, there, there's, there's certainly some variables that are very difficult to account for. But there's also, th- there's a surprising amount of life that's pretty straightforward. So if it is a simulation, it's not the most difficult one to follow.

Steve Aoki 34:05 Right.

Joe Rogan 34:05 It's pretty crazy and chaotic. But there's, there's a lot of comfort in it. Like, as much as we try to dwell on the horrors of humanity, and there's certainly a lot of them, there's kinda a lot of beauty in people too.

Steve Aoki 34:16 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 34:16 And there's a lot of cool shit in people. You know?

Steve Aoki 34:19 Yeah. I mean, when you focus on that, then-

Joe Rogan 34:21 Yeah.

Steve Aoki 34:21 ... then there's real growth. You know?

Joe Rogan 34:23 I was at The Comedy Store last night till, like, two o'clock in the morning (clears throat) in this, uh, comedians' bar, just hanging out with all these comedians. We're just laughing and talking.

Steve Aoki 34:31 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 34:31 And there's no, no audience, just a bunch of people that paid to make people laugh. Like, Jon Stewart was back there, Michelle Wolf, and all these really funny comics. We're all just laughing and having a great time and talking. And it was, it was like, "Wow, this is so nice and rew- it's so fun. It's rewarding." It's like, there's cool things in this life.

Steve Aoki 34:50 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 34:51 If you can find good people and friends and, and communicate and, and, and spread love and have interesting, fascinating, thought-provoking conversations, there's a lot of really positive things.

Steve Aoki 35:03 Right. I agree with you.

Joe Rogan 35:03 So if this is a simulation, it's a pretty badass simulation-

Steve Aoki 35:07 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 35:07 ... for Steve Aoki.

Steve Aoki 35:09 Yeah, definitely.

Joe Rogan 35:09 Yeah, man.

Steve Aoki 35:09 And for Joe Rogan too. (laughs)

Joe Rogan 35:10 Yeah, out there kicking people and shit. You know? Making a brain foundation. I mean, what a fucking great simulation you're in.

Steve Aoki 35:17 Absolutely. I think, yeah, it's like you, you can make what you want of it. I mean, it's not, it might not be the dream like the Elon Musk scenario right away, but it takes time to get there.

Joe Rogan 35:27 But you don't want that dream. I don't want his dream.

Steve Aoki 35:29 Yeah, exactly.

Joe Rogan 35:30 His dream's crazy. It's ab-

Steve Aoki 35:31 Well, I, I mean, his dream of, like ... I mean, like you said, he's this, like, almost a superhero. He's, he's, he's Bruce Wayne, you know?

Joe Rogan 35:36 Yes.

Steve Aoki 35:36 He's doing whatever, you know, he's, he's Iron Man, you know?

Joe Rogan 35:39 Well, you know, some, some cars have small engines, right? There's Honda Civics out there, and then there's fucking rocket cars. He's got some sort of crazy quantum rocket car engine for a brain. Like, what-

Steve Aoki 35:51 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 35:51 Have you talked to him?

Steve Aoki 35:52 No, I haven't.

Joe Rogan 35:53 He's a trip.

Steve Aoki 35:53 He's actually on the, on the list of people I would love to be in the studio with to make music with and, you know, just get into his mind a bit. I've been putting that out there to the, the universe.

Joe Rogan 36:05 He's one of those guys that when you're talking to him, you have this feeling that he's running code in the background while he's talking to you.

Steve Aoki 36:10 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 36:10 Just (humming) . Like, I, I think he just gets bored with, like, regular, mundane conversations and he's got 50 million things going on constantly. And he's also trying ... Like, he was talking about it to me, about how difficult it is to manage his mind. He's like, "You wouldn't wanna be me."

Steve Aoki 36:25 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 36:26 I'm like, "Oh, Jesus Christ." (laughs) He thought he was crazy when he was younger 'cause, like, so much was bouncing around in his head and, and he realized that other people weren't like that. And he's like, "Oh, no." You know? But-

Steve Aoki 36:37 I'm alone. (laughs)

Joe Rogan 36:38 Yeah. I mean, like literally, he's probably alone. Who the fuck is like that guy?

Steve Aoki 36:42 Right.

Joe Rogan 36:42 In terms of like a, a public intellectual who's responsible for so many groundbreaking technologies, you know, the number one electric car in the world, like s- SpaceX, tunneling under LA-

Steve Aoki 36:54 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 36:54 ... with the Boring Company. I'm like it's a fucking ... He's a crazy man.

Steve Aoki 36:57 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 36:58 Fas- thank God he's around, though.

Steve Aoki 37:00 Yeah, I know. (laughs)

Joe Rogan 37:01 You know? People like that, it's so cool to have, like, a true outlier, you know?

Steve Aoki 37:05 Right.

Joe Rogan 37:05 Someone who's just really out there. And, and, oh man, he's constantly attacked and maligned and people are misrepresenting him and, and, you know, people are like all the crabs in a bucket don't like it.

Steve Aoki 37:15 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 37:15 They're trying to pull him down.

Steve Aoki 37:16 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 37:16 Like he's too goddamn smart. All these people that fancy themselves smart, you meet that guy, you're like, "Oh."

Steve Aoki 37:22 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 37:22 "Okay. There's levels to this game." (laughs)

Steve Aoki 37:24 Yeah, no. He's, he's like my, the top of my list, just to, you know, be in his presence, but I- I think it would be very exciting to try to do a song with Elon Musk.

Joe Rogan 37:33 I'll ask him. We'll ... After the podcast-

Steve Aoki 37:35 That'd be great.

Joe Rogan 37:35 ... I'll send him a text message.

Steve Aoki 37:36 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 37:37 See ... So he's, he's probably busy. (laughs)

Steve Aoki 37:38 Yeah, yeah.

Joe Rogan 37:40 (laughs)

Steve Aoki 37:40 I could, I could always make it as easy as possible. (laughs)

Joe Rogan 37:42 (laughs) Yeah, but just go to SpaceX or Tesla or wherever he's at.

Steve Aoki 37:45 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 37:47 So what are you, in particular, are you doing with this, uh, BRAIN Foundation?

Steve Aoki 37:51 Um, I mean, I- I think one of the most important things is inspire people more about brain, the brain, you know? Like, uh, I mean, obviously it's to raise money for brain research orgs, uh, for one, finding cures for degenerative brain diseases, and two, just understanding the brain more, working with orgs that, that wanna understand the brain more so that we can expand what our limitations are, you know, in the conversations that we're talking about. You know, bring some of the science fiction, the science fact, you know? Um, I love this idea that, like, you know, telekinesis is when you can move things with your mind.

Joe Rogan 38:26 You think that's possible?

Steve Aoki 38:27 It's ... It already is.

Joe Rogan 38:28 Really?

Steve Aoki 38:29 Not like in the supernatural sense, like Magneto, but you know. It's like, you know, there's ... I mean, it's happened like five years ago, people moving wheelchairs with their ... with like, uh-

Joe Rogan 38:40 Implanted things.

Steve Aoki 38:40 ... implanted ... Yeah, exactly.

Joe Rogan 38:41 Yeah.

Steve Aoki 38:41 I'm not sure the, the right terms, but I've seen the videos, you know?

Joe Rogan 38:45 Yeah.

Steve Aoki 38:45 Like a monkey being able to move, uh, an arm to its mouth to eat the apple.

Joe Rogan 38:50 Yeah.

Steve Aoki 38:51 Those were ha- those happened in 2013 or '14 or ... Fact check that, but it was not 2019. It was like years ago. So whatever they're doing at DARPA, whatever they're doing at, like, Google, what ... Whoever's got these research orgs and labs, I, I wanted ... I would love to jump in there and just, like, put my ear out there and just listen and find out what's going on. And, you know, 'cause I have my own interest and passion on what's, what the breakthroughs are. And I would also love to try some of these things.

Joe Rogan 39:21 Do you think they'd let you? Do you think they'd let you?

Steve Aoki 39:23 Sometimes, I mean-

Joe Rogan 39:24 Mm-hmm.

Steve Aoki 39:24 ... listen. No, you gotta try. (laughs)

Joe Rogan 39:25 I think, like, Boston Dynamics-

Steve Aoki 39:27 (clears throat)

Joe Rogan 39:27 ... might be your best bet. The, the r- the, uh, robot people.

Steve Aoki 39:30 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 39:31 They might let you in. But DARPA's ... That's a defense agency.

Steve Aoki 39:33 Uh, DARPA would ... Like a darp- DARPA won't let me in, obviously.

Joe Rogan 39:36 (laughs)

Steve Aoki 39:36 They will not let me in.

Joe Rogan 39:37 You're gonna have to sign some paperwork.

Steve Aoki 39:38 Yeah. (laughs) But I wanna get into as many doors as I can on any of this kind of stuff. And, uh, that's like my own personal th- gain.

Joe Rogan 39:49 Yeah.

Steve Aoki 39:49 But also with the, with the BRAIN org, it just, the BRAIN Foundation, uh, it's just to like, you know, help out the smaller orgs too, that are, that are, one, finding the cures, because at the end of the day, what I've learned is that if you don't die of cancer or heart disease, you're gonna have a brain degenerative disease. You're gonna, you're gonna go crazy. You're gonna-

Joe Rogan 40:09 Yeah.

Steve Aoki 40:09 You're gonna lose your memory.

Joe Rogan 40:10 You're gonna deteriorate.

Steve Aoki 40:11 Yeah. And, you know, it ... You know, in years down the line, we're gonna be able to literally turn our body into like a used car and change ev- all the parts.

Joe Rogan 40:22 Yeah.

Steve Aoki 40:23 But, you know, if you start losing your memory, then you start losing who you are.

Joe Rogan 40:28 Did you talk to Kurzweil about this?

Steve Aoki 40:30 Uh, yes. It was years ago, so I'm trying to remember even like the interview that we did. But I, you know, I went in deep on a lot of the anti-aging stuff, and you know, I- I think the struggle that he's gonna have is if he's gonna make it to 2045, 'cause he's 70 or something, right?

Joe Rogan 40:48 Right. Yeah. That's a-

Steve Aoki 40:49 And he has a heart ... Um, he has a genetic defect with his heart.

Joe Rogan 40:53 Yeah.

Steve Aoki 40:54 So, um, but it ... I mean, he's just, like, one of those, like, uh, those heroes of mine that I was lucky to, to be in his space, you know, playing on his Kurzweil keyboard. (laughs)

Joe Rogan 41:07 That he invented.

Steve Aoki 41:08 Yeah, the synthesizer. Uh, that was, that was a moment. We're both on the keys-

Joe Rogan 41:13 He invented speech-to-text too, didn't he?

Steve Aoki 41:15 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 41:15 I think, I mean, he's, he's invented, uh, more than 100 really significant inventions.

Steve Aoki 41:21 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 41:21 Fascinating guy.

Steve Aoki 41:22 Absolutely.

Joe Rogan 41:23 Yeah. But can we squeeze 25 more years out of him?

Steve Aoki 41:26 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 41:27 Yeah. His biological life, to get to 2045.

Steve Aoki 41:30 Because if he's gonna ... L- like he's gonna be the one that's gonna really push that envelope hard. I think he's ... If there's anyone out there. That's why I'm ... I ... You know, it's, it's clearly obvious why Google picked him up.

Joe Rogan 41:41 Yeah.

Steve Aoki 41:42 You know?

Joe Rogan 41:42 Yeah.

Steve Aoki 41:42 And had him, like, head the whole ... I forgot what the department's called, but you know.

Joe Rogan 41:47 Well, g- didn't Google buy Boston Dynamics as well? They bought a robot company, I know that, which is like, "What are you guys planning?" (laughs)

Steve Aoki 41:57 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 41:57 You control everybody's email, you have the number one search engine on the planet Earth, you have, uh, the number one browser. Like, what are you guys doing? What are you doing over there?

Steve Aoki 42:05 Yeah. Yeah.

Joe Rogan 42:06 You making robots?

Steve Aoki 42:07 But you o- but don't you wanna be in the room?

Joe Rogan 42:09 W- yeah.

Steve Aoki 42:10 You know?

Joe Rogan 42:10 You wanna be in the room, but, you know, some of their choices are a little bit questionable. It's, uh, there's so much ... Uh, th- there's, there's science, but then there's so much ... There's social decisions, you know, that they're making, in terms-

Steve Aoki 42:24 Right.

Joe Rogan 42:24 ... of like what people get to see and talk about and hear, and a lot of it is based on the zeitgeist. It's based on the, you know, the current state of politically correct ideology, what you can and can't say or can and can't do, and that becomes really dangerous, 'cause you're kind of controlling information, you're throttling information like ... You know, Tulsi Gabbard is suing Google for, what is it, like $50 million or something crazy like that? It's probably a lot more than that.... they say that they purposely stifled her search engine results so that people wouldn't be able to find her as easily. And they've ... She's apparently proven it.

Steve Aoki 42:55 Wow.

Joe Rogan 42:55 (coughs) Excuse me. Um, it, so it's not a pure information-based company. There's ideology behind it. There's motivations behind it that, you know, politically leaning motivations.

Steve Aoki 43:10 Right.

Joe Rogan 43:11 You know, so I don't know.

Steve Aoki 43:13 Yeah, when he goes into that-

Joe Rogan 43:14 They do a lot of great shit, though. I love them.

Steve Aoki 43:14 ... when he goes into that world, I'm-

Joe Rogan 43:16 Yeah.

Steve Aoki 43:16 ... like, "Oh, I, I ... You forget about that sometimes-"

Joe Rogan 43:18 Yeah.

Steve Aoki 43:18 "... when you're like, 'I wanna be in the ba- breakthrough rooms,'" you know?

Joe Rogan 43:22 Well, there was a, an internal memo that, where they were referring to Ben Shapiro and someone else, I think it was Jordan Peterson and, and ma- maybe Dennis Prager as Nazis, which is hilarious because both Ben Shapiro and Dennis Prager are both Jewish. So it's like their, their perception of who, who a person is ... This was brought up (coughs) ... This was brought up by, um, uh, people in, in Congress. Like, they had to have hearings on it, trying to figure out, like, what is Google doing? Like, what are you allowed to ... How are you allowed to define people internally in your memor- memos? And then, of course, once you call someone a Nazi, then you can act as if they're a Nazi and, and, you know, stifle any sort of search on them or stifle results or, you know-

Steve Aoki 44:06 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 44:06 ... point, point people in the direction that you think would be better for humanity versus just pure information. And it gets, it gets very weird, you know? But as a technology company, look, they're amazing. Like, just what they're doing with Android and Google searching and Google Assistant and ... Google Maps is by far the most, the superior m- map application on the planet Earth. And it's constantly getting better and constantly gathering up new information. I mean, part of me loves the fact that they exist and part of me is like, "That is too much power."

Steve Aoki 44:39 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 44:39 That's too much power for one-

Steve Aoki 44:40 Right.

Joe Rogan 44:41 ... one company to be able to influence people one way or the other.

Steve Aoki 44:45 So what's, uh ... What's your s- what's the Joe Rogan solution to something like that?

Joe Rogan 44:48 T-

Steve Aoki 44:48 Regulations?

Joe Rogan 44:50 No. Well, I'm too stupid for this.

Steve Aoki 44:52 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 44:52 This, I, I need to rely on people that have actually spent real time studying the effects and understand it from a, a very deep level. I don't. (coughs) I understand it, that it's ... I understand that it's problematic. I just don't understand what the solution is. And I don't know if it's even, it's just a free distribution of information across the board because then what do you do about actual Nazis? Like, if you find actual-

Steve Aoki 45:18 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 45:18 Like, if-

Steve Aoki 45:18 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 45:18 ... there's a new Hitler and he-

Steve Aoki 45:20 Right.

Joe Rogan 45:20 ... arises and he really does wanna exterminate the Jews. What happens there? Do you just allow that guy to be on Google? Is he in-

Steve Aoki 45:26 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 45:26 ... Google Hangouts with a-

Steve Aoki 45:27 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 45:27 ... little Nazi hangout and they're planning on exterminations and where's-

Steve Aoki 45:30 Right.

Joe Rogan 45:30 ... the ... Where's the next, uh, Auschwitz? You know?

Steve Aoki 45:33 No.

Joe Rogan 45:33 No. I don't think that, that shouldn't be the case.

Steve Aoki 45:35 Exactly. Yeah.

Joe Rogan 45:36 So what is the case? Do you allow white supremacists on there to organize rallies? Fuck. Um, where, where does freedom of speech end, you know?

Steve Aoki 45:45 Right.

Joe Rogan 45:46 W- w- yeah. It's very complicated questions-

Steve Aoki 45:49 Yes.

Joe Rogan 45:49 ... that we're all learning to navigate.

Steve Aoki 45:52 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 45:52 I think, in many ways, and this is a weird thought that I have and I repeat it over and over again, but I think technology is going to provide us with a new way of communicating that's not dependent upon language, but rather can read actual intent. Like, an actual mind-reading technology. And I s- ... When I, when I see Elon's, um, uh, Neuralink, this thing that he's trying to do, where they're opening up the bandwidth to humans and information through use of implants and some sort of a Bluetooth wearable device. Like, that I think is, like, a step in that direction. And I think Elon ... In, you know, in many interviews he's said that he thinks that human beings are the organic biological boot loader for a- for artificial intelligence. So if we're a boot loader for AI, the way to sort of combat that is-

Steve Aoki 46:42 T- ... B- boot loader?

Joe Rogan 46:43 Boot loader. Yeah.

Steve Aoki 46:44 Like-

Joe Rogan 46:45 Like a computer boot loading-

Steve Aoki 46:46 Oh, okay.

Joe Rogan 46:47 ... and operating system.

Steve Aoki 46:48 Okay, gotcha. Yeah.

Joe Rogan 46:49 (clears throat) That what we're doing is we're the biological ... L- uh, the way I've described it is that we're sort of an electronic cocoon that's about to make the butterfly, and that we're, we're the caterpillar that's making the cocoon. And we're c- constantly in pursuit-

Steve Aoki 47:06 And-

Joe Rogan 47:06 ... of innovation.

Steve Aoki 47:06 ... the butterfly is the AI?

Joe Rogan 47:08 Yes. The butterfly ... Like, if you see a caterpillar-

Steve Aoki 47:11 Right.

Joe Rogan 47:11 ... that caterpillar doesn't know what the fuck's going on. It's just making a cocoon. That's what it does.

Steve Aoki 47:15 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 47:15 W- and-

Steve Aoki 47:15 And s-

Joe Rogan 47:16 ... the idea is-

Steve Aoki 47:16 That's what it knows to do, essentially.

Joe Rogan 47:17 Yeah. (coughs) And the idea is that we don't know what the fuck we're doing either. Like, why do we need 5G? Is 4G not good enough? Goddamn, I get on the internet pretty goddamn quick.

Steve Aoki 47:25 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 47:26 (laughs) Like, who ... What are we, what are we doing? Well, it seems like 5G's better and 6G will be better than 5G.

Steve Aoki 47:30 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 47:30 And if you wanna get that mind-reading software, you gotta get 7G.

Steve Aoki 47:33 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 47:33 And we're, we're gonna do this to the point where one day there's going to be a real thing sitting in front of you.

Steve Aoki 47:40 But we will merge with the-

Joe Rogan 47:42 Yeah.

Steve Aoki 47:42 ... AI? 'Cause that's ... I, I mean, that's the future that I hope for. You don't lose yourself in that, you know? Like, you're-

Joe Rogan 47:48 But are you yourself once you've merged with the AI? And then what's holding you back? God, all these emotions are bullshit. That's getting in the way.

Steve Aoki 47:54 Yeah. Right.

Joe Rogan 47:55 Let's get rid of those.

Steve Aoki 47:56 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 47:56 Let's just have pure people.

Steve Aoki 47:57 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 47:58 Pure people, now available through Nabisco.

Steve Aoki 48:00 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 48:01 (laughs) And, you know? You know?

Steve Aoki 48:03 It's interesting 'cause I ... 'Cause, like, my whole point with neon future is the convergence of ... I mean, the ultimate goal is you have convergence to the ... of technology and our-

Joe Rogan 48:11 Yeah.

Steve Aoki 48:11 ... humanity to the point where we live f- you know, forever through, you know, this downloading system that we were talking about earlier on, or-

Joe Rogan 48:18 Yeah.

Steve Aoki 48:19 ... or, you know, whatever seemingly makes sense in the trajectory of where technology is going.

Joe Rogan 48:24 Mm-hmm.

Steve Aoki 48:24 You know, so we do live indefinitely, you know? I mean, that's like a ... Uh, for me as well, you know, my insurance policy for if I don't make it to this point, like my dad didn't make it to that, that cure, is, you know, obviously, uh, cryogenically freezing the body.

Joe Rogan 48:42 You wanna do that?

Steve Aoki 48:44 Well, I- I'm already signed up.

Joe Rogan 48:45 Jesus.

Steve Aoki 48:46 So, you know, 'cause I feel like ... I mean, if we are really ... This discussion is are we gonna make it there?... in our timeline. I'm 41, so I have a better chance than Ray Kurzweil, obviously.

Joe Rogan 48:57 Yeah.

Steve Aoki 48:57 So, if I, I, and I really believe that, you know... I guess it's hopeful, you know, that, that we'll get to this point in our generation that we'll, that'll make it.

Joe Rogan 49:07 What if-

Steve Aoki 49:07 But we're, it's that close, right? So, either we make it and then I die, and then everyone lives forever. Do I wanna be that generation that, of people that die? Or the generation of people that go, "Oh, death is, is a cure we just f- uh, we just found. We, we found a cure for death, just like a cure for cancer, just like a cure for whatever."

Joe Rogan 49:24 What if after your biological ceases to function, you move into a new realm of reality that is a completely different dimension that's filled with love and understanding-

Steve Aoki 49:37 Like the after death.

Joe Rogan 49:38 And there's, yeah, there's no-

Steve Aoki 49:39 What's the ef- whatever it is that we don't know.

Joe Rogan 49:40 There's, there's no biological shortcomings. There's no emotions, and there's no fear, none of that. And there's, there's no bodies. You just, you're a soul in another dimension. And then someone unfreezes you. Like, "Well, Steve wanted to be unfrozen."

Steve Aoki 49:55 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 49:56 And then, fsh, shh, sucked back in caking people.

Steve Aoki 49:59 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 49:59 You're like, "Fuck, man. I was g- I was there. I was on the other side."

Steve Aoki 50:03 Yeah, they're like, you'd be like, "Click, opt out." (laughs)

Joe Rogan 50:06 And then they're like, "No, I can't believe this." And so then you go, "Well, I'll just die again."

Steve Aoki 50:11 Well, here, here's, okay, this is, this is what I know 'cause I don't know, I mean, we both don't know what's really gonna happen. It's, that's likely. I mean, anything is likely, okay? I'm not saying that, I'm not like a, "I don't believe in God," or, "I do believe in God." I just don't know what's really happening afterwards. But-

Joe Rogan 50:25 Right.

Steve Aoki 50:25 ... I know f- I know that what I've seen as me, what I understand of what's around me and my feelings is that if I wake up tomorrow, or if m- someone I love wakes up tomorrow with an incurable disease that's gonna kill them, it would be the most perfect thing. And I think at the end of the day, the human race is going out to find cures for those kinds of situations.

Joe Rogan 50:48 Sure, suffering.

Steve Aoki 50:49 You know, that's like, yeah, suffering, pain. I mean, that's what we do. We try to stop and elongate our life.

Joe Rogan 50:56 Yeah.

Steve Aoki 50:56 Essentially, we all wanna live indefinitely, you know? Like, through finding cures for all of these issues. So-

Joe Rogan 51:02 And we wanna live healthily.

Steve Aoki 51:03 Yeah, yeah, exactly. You don't wanna be in a wheelchair-

Joe Rogan 51:05 Mm-hmm.

Steve Aoki 51:05 ... like, for f- 50 years, just, like, staring at a TV.

Joe Rogan 51:08 Like Hawkins.

Steve Aoki 51:09 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 51:10 Yeah, which is, it looks like a rough way to live.

Steve Aoki 51:12 But, but then again, like y- yeah, maybe he found a silver lining. I'm not sure. But, you know, if you're healthy and moving, and then, boom, night and day, you're there. Of course, that's awful. But, um, at the end of the day, y- you just don't want that, you know? Like, I mean, you, I mean, you, you don't want that kind of thing to happen.

Joe Rogan 51:29 Yeah.

Steve Aoki 51:29 So for me, it's like, I would rather opt out than have someone make the, some like, disease make that decision for me, you know?

Joe Rogan 51:37 Yeah, the s- the suffering thing is the thing that we all want to avoid. We wanna avoid discomfort and pain, and also causing discomfort to our loved ones. Like, one of the scariest things about dying is leaving behind grievers, leaving behind people that are sad and, and miss you terribly, you know?

Steve Aoki 51:52 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 51:52 It's like when you've seen people where their loved ones have died, it's, it's, you know, and w- I have lost loved ones, we all have. And it's a weird void that's-

Steve Aoki 52:02 It's a, yeah, it's horrific. It's-

Joe Rogan 52:03 Yeah.

Steve Aoki 52:04 ... traumatic, and it's... You know, that's where my conquest or my interest and passion led to anti-aging, the future, you know? And then building on that for the ones that I love that are alive now, you know? And doing whatever I can to, like, share the information so that they live as long as they possibly can in the healthiest way possible.

Joe Rogan 52:26 Yeah.

Steve Aoki 52:26 You know? So, like, I'm, like, just gathering, gathering information as I go. You know, and it's, and it's exciting because as I was saying, as, as I get bigger as a, a personality, you know, sometimes I do jump into these rooms. And in one case, just recently, I, I, uh, there's a doctor that, that just, that I've worked with. He, I've gotten st- done some stem cell, um, inj- injections with him in Denver. And he came to my house, and he was with some other doctors, and they're like, "Oh, yeah, there's a doctor convention." I live in Las Vegas. There's conventions all the time there. So, they all came over and like, "Hey, you know, there's some breakthrough, um, groundbreaking stuff just happened this year. Uh, you can now find out on a cellular level of, uh, cancer detection, uh, for at least 16 different cancers." You know? So, like, it's like very, very preventative, you know?

Joe Rogan 53:16 Mm.

Steve Aoki 53:16 Far along the line. So, I was like, "I want in." So, I got the information, and I just, like, that was a Christmas present for everyone.

Joe Rogan 53:22 What kind of stem cell, uh, procedures are you getting?

Steve Aoki 53:25 I mean, the first time was through, through Dan Bilzerian. He, he's introduced me to, uh, uh, the one in Panama, so I went down there. Did-

Joe Rogan 53:35 Dr. Neil Reardon.

Steve Aoki 53:36 Exactly, but-

Joe Rogan 53:37 My mom was just down there.

Steve Aoki 53:38 Oh, yeah?

Joe Rogan 53:38 Last week, yeah. I've sent her down there twice.

Steve Aoki 53:40 That's great. And then-

Joe Rogan 53:41 (clears throat) She was in the verge of getting a knee replacement. And, uh, her knee was really bad. And, uh, eight months, it was, took a while, you know, 'cause my mom was 73. And, um, within eight months, her knee stopped being in pain. And she was able to walk, and she can... And she, they went to the Grand Canyon, and-

Steve Aoki 54:01 Amazing.

Joe Rogan 54:01 Yeah. And now she went back again to just get a, a second dose and juice it up some more. It's incredible.

Steve Aoki 54:07 I just know when I was there, I saw a lot of kids in there with the one in Panama because-

Joe Rogan 54:11 Mm-hmm.

Steve Aoki 54:12 ... it's, it, it like, grows muscle. Or does something. Uh, like, uh, I don't wanna-

Joe Rogan 54:17 Regenerates, regenerates tissue.

Steve Aoki 54:18 ... say the wrong thing. Regenerates. Right.

Joe Rogan 54:18 Yeah.

Steve Aoki 54:19 So, kids with muscle dystrophy, kids with, uh, like, where they can't walk anymore, they get the stem cell injections and they can walk for... And then after six months, you know, the, the, the stem cells do leave your body. Or, or, like, the-

Joe Rogan 54:33 The results diminish, yeah.

Steve Aoki 54:34 ... it doesn't stay with you. Right. So, once again, I don't, scientific terms, I could be off. But they have to go back in, get the stem cells, and they can have, you know, as m- as, you know, that kind of life instead of having me in a wheelchair.

Joe Rogan 54:48 Mm.

Steve Aoki 54:48 So, I went, I went in there, um, because I just wanted to try it out. My friend also came with me who has asthma.... knocked out his asthma. He never had to use an inhaler for way past six months.

Joe Rogan 54:59 Really?

Steve Aoki 55:00 Yeah, because the stem cells also really affect the lungs. Um, the umbilical cord cells, they, they travel to the lungs first from what they were doing.

Joe Rogan 55:09 So this is an IV, IV version of it.

Steve Aoki 55:11 Yeah, an IV. We did IV. I did shoulder, my shoulders because I have... I, I later got, uh, um, a rotator cuff surgery, um, 'cause I had a, like, a bone spur going into my tendon. But I tried to use the stem cells to, so I didn't have to go to surgery.

Joe Rogan 55:30 Mm-hmm.

Steve Aoki 55:30 But you can't erode bone.

Joe Rogan 55:32 Right.

Steve Aoki 55:32 So, yeah.

Joe Rogan 55:33 Bone... So you got it shaved down? Is that what they did?

Steve Aoki 55:35 Exactly.

Joe Rogan 55:36 Yeah.

Steve Aoki 55:36 And, um, but I just, like, my performance level went up. The, like, the general, kind of, markers of what it's supposed to do actually increased. Actually, right after, um, right after that, I, I went back, I went, uh, went back to Vegas, met up with Dan, and we, we did a workout, and it was like... It just... (laughs) You know, two times more. And he- uh, it, it, you know, it worked. Like, you know, it did what it was scientifically supposed to do for me, for my stamina, my energy.

Joe Rogan 56:06 Yeah.

Steve Aoki 56:06 And, um...

Joe Rogan 56:08 You did it for three days? Did you do the three day treatment?

Steve Aoki 56:09 Yeah, three days.

Joe Rogan 56:10 And three days of IV and then injects in- into different joints and...

Steve Aoki 56:14 Exactly. And, uh, I did that, and then about a year later, um, I was with, uh, Dr. Grossman. He's the doctor I, I work with and, um... He wrote the book with Ray Kurzweil called, uh, um... I think it's the sub- the subtext of the book is staying, um, alive until we get... till, till we reach singularity or something like that.

Joe Rogan 56:35 Mm-hmm.

Steve Aoki 56:36 It's a, it's like a, a book on being healthy, basically, anti-aging book. He wrote that in, um, with, uh, with, with, uh, Ray Kurzweil. So that's why I heard about him. I went to him years back to get, like, the full blood work going for me and my family. I want... We did, like, two days of testing, all kinds of stuff to learn more about our bodies and see what we're deficient in, what we're not, what vitamins we needed to take to supplement the things that we're deficient in. And I came back just, you know, maybe a year ago to do, um, his version of stem cells, because in America it's a different kind of thing. Like Panama is obviously out of America, so they're doing the umbilical cord stem cells, or they harvest the stem cells from u- umbilical cords. So they have s- day zero stem cells. He's doing stem cells. It's almost like a plasma therapy when they, they took my blood, spin it, and they're tr- uh, you know, pulling out the stem cells from my own blood. So it's 41-year-old stem cells. But his point that he's saying is that the size of the stem cells, they're much smaller, so they're able to travel past where it ends up clogging, which is, like, the lungs and, like, certain areas of the body. So it does travel more, just it's not the day zero stem cells, but it's still effectively doing its work.

Joe Rogan 57:54 When you think back to, like, 20 years ago, there was no discussion of this.

Steve Aoki 57:58 Yeah, yeah.

Joe Rogan 57:59 So this is a, this is a completely... You know, I've had stem cell shots too, and I had a full-length rotator cuff tear in my right arm that's gone. Just, it went (swoosh) sealed up-

Steve Aoki 58:07 Wow.

Joe Rogan 58:07 ... healed. Yeah. I was having real problems with this arm where I was thinking I was gonna need surgery. Now it works great and no problems at all. I hit the bag, lift weights.

Steve Aoki 58:15 And you, you injected intravenously and into the arm?

Joe Rogan 58:17 Yeah, I've done both. Yeah. Exosomes. I've done... Uh, there's a new thing called Wharton's jelly that, uh, had a pretty profound effect. It's a very potent mixture of stem cells. We're getting close to the point where you don't have to go to Panama, but going to Panama right now is the way to go.

Steve Aoki 58:32 So that's why you went for-

Joe Rogan 58:34 Like, you got a real problem. No, I didn't go to Panama. I did it all in America.

Steve Aoki 58:36 Where?

Joe Rogan 58:37 Santa Monica. Place called LifeSpout Medicine.

Steve Aoki 58:39 Oh, Santa Monica.

Joe Rogan 58:39 Yeah.

Steve Aoki 58:40 I'll have to try that out.

Joe Rogan 58:40 It's a place I r- originally started going to for Regenakene. Do you know what Regenakene is? Regenakene was, uh, originally invented in Germany. And, uh, a lot of guys like, uh, Peyton Manning and Kobe Bryant, they had to flew out- fly to Germany, uh, back in the day to get this. And what they do is it's a, a more advanced form of platelet-rich plasma, right? Like, they're taking your blood out. They spin it in a centrifuge and heat it through some process, and they add things to it. And in the process, it creates this incredibly potent anti-inflammatory agent that's from your own blood. It's like this yellow serum. Then they inject this yellow serum directly into areas where you have injury and/or inflammation, and it has a radical healing effect. And it's really, really good for bulging discs. People that have disc issues and back issues, and I had a pretty bad one in my neck that was keeping me out of jujitsu. My hands were going numb, you know, 'cause the, the bulge was pushing against my nerve. Now it's gone. Like, I've got a, I got MRIs six months later after the procedure. There's no more bulge. Now, most of the time when you have a bulging disc, sometimes it can go back and heal, but most of the time, it does not. And most of the time what happens is you wind up having to get a discectomy where they go into the disc (clears throat) , they remove the offending piece that's sticking into your nerve. But now you have a smaller disc, you have less d- disc tissue. So your discs start to collapse. Your, your actual spinal column, you know, the, the actual hard bone moves closer to the other hard bone, and, you know, becomes a real problem. Arthritis forms, scar tissue forms. The more disc tissue y- you have, you know, the, the better off you are. And they're able to do that now to the point where they-

Steve Aoki 1:00:24 To increase the disc tissue.

Joe Rogan 1:00:25 Well, it woul- it doesn't decrease it.

Steve Aoki 1:00:28 Okay.

Joe Rogan 1:00:28 So when the disc is bulging, it actually gets it to go back in. It g- it gets it to retreat and take its normal form.

Steve Aoki 1:00:33 The stem cells or the blood plasma therapy?

Joe Rogan 1:00:35 Regenakene.

Steve Aoki 1:00:35 Okay, Regenakene.

Joe Rogan 1:00:36 But stem cells have been shown to start to do that too. They've actually started injecting stem cells directly into dix- disc tissue. And I was talking to Dr. Roddy Magee out of Las Vegas. He's, he's one of the guys that's really at the cutting edge of all this stuff-

Steve Aoki 1:00:50 Wow.

Joe Rogan 1:00:50 ... working with UFC, uh, fighters, and they're doing that with them. And he was the guy I originally went to to tr- to treat my shoulder because of Dr. Davidson from the UFC who's the, the main doctor for the UFC. He was telling me he had shoulder surgery. He's a little bit older than me. And, uh, his shoulder surgery took (clears throat) , but-... he was still having issues with it. He was trying to figure out, um, what he, what he should do because he was still having pain when he was swimming. Went and got some stem cell injections, all the pain went away. So, he was telling me about that. He's like, "You know, you got some pretty significant tears. You might really need surgery, but maybe this will help you for now." So, I went there and the, the, the amount of help that it, e- e- the amount of alleviation of pain and discomfort was stunning. I was like, "I can't even believe this is a real thing." You could just shoot this into whatever it's bothering you, and then all of a sudden, like, four months later you're like, "Wait, where's the pain? I don't have any fucking pain anymore."

Steve Aoki 1:01:44 I need a meet. Can I, can you introduce me to Magee?

Joe Rogan 1:01:46 Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. He's great. Yeah, yeah. I'll give you his number.

Steve Aoki 1:01:49 That'd be great.

Joe Rogan 1:01:50 (coughs) I send people to him all the time. But he's on the cutting edge of everything. Like, anytime ... He's a young guy and he's really enthusiastic and super brilliant. And anytime there's any sort of cutting edge medical practice, that guy is he's on it. Like, for instance, one of the things they're doing now is when people get ACL tears, which usually when you get an ACL tear, usually you need reconstruction. And what, usually what that reconstruction is, is either a cadaver graft, where they take the Achilles tendon out of a dead person and shove it into your knee-

Steve Aoki 1:02:20 Oh.

Joe Rogan 1:02:20 ... and then your body re-proliferates that with its own cells. It takes about six months and then you have a functional tendon again. It's great. I had it done myself.

Steve Aoki 1:02:28 Wow.

Joe Rogan 1:02:28 It works. But now, they're able to re-attach the actual torn ACL with ... They have some special technique they do. And they've had people tear an ACL and then compete in the Olympics four months later.

Steve Aoki 1:02:42 Wow.

Joe Rogan 1:02:43 Which is fucking bananas. (laughs)

Steve Aoki 1:02:44 That's crazy.

Joe Rogan 1:02:45 Yeah. I mean, he showed me this procedure and how they do it, and then he showed me this guy four months post-op. doing all these box jumps and shit, and I was like, "This is nuts. It is nuts."

Steve Aoki 1:02:55 Wow.

Joe Rogan 1:02:55 Yeah. So, there's a lot of hope in, when, in terms of regenerative medicine.

Steve Aoki 1:03:00 Absolutely, yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:03:01 And, uh, and thank God for people like Dr. Riordan and Dr. Magee and, um, Dr. Benrahia, who's the guy that I go to in Santa Monica. I mean, these guys are just on top of this incredible new wave of regenerative medicine.

Steve Aoki 1:03:15 Yeah. I'm, I'm obsessed with that world.

Joe Rogan 1:03:18 Oh, that's amazing.

Steve Aoki 1:03:18 So, the more you talk to me about it, it's like a ... It's very exciting, 'cause it's-

Joe Rogan 1:03:21 Yes.

Steve Aoki 1:03:21 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:03:22 When you're in Vegas, you gotta visit Roddy.

Steve Aoki 1:03:24 I would love to meet him. I would love to meet him.

Joe Rogan 1:03:24 He's a great guy, too.

Steve Aoki 1:03:26 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:03:26 You would love him.

Steve Aoki 1:03:27 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:03:27 And he's, like, super enthusiastic about it. If he finds out that you're enthusiastic about it, he'll just-

Steve Aoki 1:03:31 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 1:03:32 He's, uh, he'll geek out with you. (laughs)

Steve Aoki 1:03:34 Sounds awesome. Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:03:36 Yeah. What else have you had done?

Steve Aoki 1:03:38 Um, stem cells. Um, shoulders, shoulder. I, I had, um, I just had vocal surgery, vocal cord surgery.

Joe Rogan 1:03:46 Whoa.

Steve Aoki 1:03:47 Uh-

Joe Rogan 1:03:47 Did you get polyps or something?

Steve Aoki 1:03:48 Yeah, I did. Yeah. A polypoid on my vocal cord, 'cause I used to sing in a band. I used to, I used to be a s- like, in a screamo hardcore band.

Joe Rogan 1:03:55 Ooh.

Steve Aoki 1:03:56 Or a few of them. I mean, that's where I, like, that's my roots of who, like, my, where my music was as far as what led me to DJing, was being in these, like, hardcore punk bands.

Joe Rogan 1:04:06 So, that's a lot of screaming.

Steve Aoki 1:04:08 Lots of screaming. Yeah. And then I carried that through when I finally, like, when I f- uh, when I, you know, retired that hat and I started DJing years and years later. And I started doing these bigger and bigger shows and I started doing the festivals, I brought out that same energy again. And I started, you know, when I started producing the music, uh, electronic music, I was bringing in guitars. I was screaming on some of these songs. So, I'm bringing some of my past in with my music and I'm back again, but in a different world. Um, and, and I just, I, I'm not, I, I'm not a trained singer, you know? So, I destroyed my vocal cords and I was just, like, raspy as hell. Like, I was just like an old Italian man-

Joe Rogan 1:04:53 (laughs)

Steve Aoki 1:04:54 ... at some of my shows.

Joe Rogan 1:04:56 The Godfather.

Steve Aoki 1:04:57 Yeah. (laughs)

Joe Rogan 1:04:58 (laughs)

Steve Aoki 1:04:58 And, uh, and then I saw a doctor and he's like, "You don't have a choice. You're gonna have to, like, you're gonna have to take a break." And I'm, you know, I'm doing like 250 shows a year. So, I was like, "Well, (laughs) I gotta stop for the month and, and, uh, and, and not talk for a month." That was crazy. No-

Joe Rogan 1:05:16 No talking for a whole month.

Steve Aoki 1:05:18 Yeah. Imagine Joe Rogan not talking for a whole month.

Joe Rogan 1:05:21 Wow. I bet a lot of people would be excited. (laughs)

Steve Aoki 1:05:25 (laughs) But I had to do that. That was very hard. I actually saw a life coach before, 'cause I'm like, "I'm terrified. I don't want my, like, demons or whatever's, anxiety, or whatever things that I have, like, creeping up," where they're like, "Okay, you're mine now. You can't, you can't talk to someone about ..." You know?

Joe Rogan 1:05:40 Yeah.

Steve Aoki 1:05:41 I'm like, "I don't know. I'm scared," you know? But, uh, I, I got through it. I just ... I'm a very busybody kind of person, so, like, I just scheduled ... It was like going back to college, but with things that I needed to train and get better at. Like, get better at piano, get better at meditation, get better at, at, uh, you know, twisting the knobs, engineering. Whatever it might be that I wanted to be better at, I just brought more people into my world. Then I finished, like, an album (laughs) in that month, making music with different people. So, I just was just so focused on creation and, and learning and reading and, you know, all that good stuff. So, when I left, I was like, "Okay, now I know how to do TM meditation," uh, or transcendental meditation, and, uh, you know, I'm, I'm more comfortable doing the things that, that help me be- be a better artist. Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:06:31 Well, it obviously worked, right? But what was the first sound that you made after a month? What was the, the first word?

Steve Aoki 1:06:38 I'll, I'll tell you something that's just really interesting. I know now to do the most hygienic sneeze-

Joe Rogan 1:06:43 Oh.

Steve Aoki 1:06:43 ... that you can possibly do.

Joe Rogan 1:06:45 Tell us.

Steve Aoki 1:06:45 Because now I can sneeze with no, um, visible, uh, vapor resi- residue. 'Cause you know when people sneeze, you can, they see those videos?

Joe Rogan 1:06:54 Yeah.

Steve Aoki 1:06:54 It's like shoo. It's like this cloud of trillions of bacteria floating in the air.

Joe Rogan 1:06:58 Yeah.

Steve Aoki 1:06:58 Of, of course, if you do that to me, you'll probably see some vapor. But you don't feel it on your hand. If you sneeze and you're just like, you're, it's all like gunky and, you know, it happens sometimes, right?

Joe Rogan 1:07:09 Yeah.

Steve Aoki 1:07:09 Well, now I can sneeze because I'm not using my vocal cords. So, as I sneeze, I blow out really hard 'cause I had no choice. I couldn't cough.I couldn't actually use a vocal cord after the surgery, or else-

Joe Rogan 1:07:22 So what if you had to cough?

Steve Aoki 1:07:24 So I'd be like ... (sneezes)

Joe Rogan 1:07:26 Whoa.

Steve Aoki 1:07:27 (sneezes) So when I sneeze, I sneeze like that. I go ... (sneezes) so if you do that, if you do that-

Joe Rogan 1:07:32 So that's how you do it now?

Steve Aoki 1:07:32 ... kind of sneeze ... What's that?

Joe Rogan 1:07:34 That's how you do it right now?

Steve Aoki 1:07:34 That's how I sneeze.

Joe Rogan 1:07:35 I almost wanna get some dust. See, see if you can sneeze.

Steve Aoki 1:07:38 Yeah. Like, you, you could ... if you could make me sneeze, I will show you, and then-

Joe Rogan 1:07:41 (sneezes)

Steve Aoki 1:07:42 (laughs) Yeah, basically.

Joe Rogan 1:07:44 So you just breathe out?

Steve Aoki 1:07:45 Yeah. It's, it's the, the cleanest sneeze you could possibly do when ... yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:07:49 Hm.

Steve Aoki 1:07:49 So that's one very important thing I learned through this whole ... (laughs) But the first sound, I mean, I don't remember.

Joe Rogan 1:07:57 Were you scared to say a word? Like, when the-

Steve Aoki 1:08:00 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:08:00 ... 30 days was up?

Steve Aoki 1:08:01 Yeah. Yeah. Uh, uh, it's probably just, you know, you know ... also, whispering is really bad.

Joe Rogan 1:08:08 Whispering's bad? Like that?

Steve Aoki 1:08:09 R- yeah. Like whispering like this.

Joe Rogan 1:08:11 Like this?

Steve Aoki 1:08:11 Yeah. So you-

Joe Rogan 1:08:12 Really?

Steve Aoki 1:08:12 Whispering is not good for your vocal cords. Uh, you think it's, like, gen- gentler on them, but from what I was told, to not whisper. Don't whisper. So I literally was texting all the time for-

Joe Rogan 1:08:24 Mm.

Steve Aoki 1:08:25 ... you know, until I had to make that, you know-

Joe Rogan 1:08:27 You probably developed some fucking lightning fast thumbs.

Steve Aoki 1:08:30 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 1:08:31 'Cause you, you wanted to get things out, but did you ... that's what you did most of the time, just text-

Steve Aoki 1:08:35 Text-

Joe Rogan 1:08:35 ... text people?

Steve Aoki 1:08:36 ... text to t- or, or it's called text-to-talk when I was in my meetings, 'cause, you know, I run various different, uh, you know, businesses. And I have to, you know, be on call, so I'm, like, texting to talk, and I always ...

Joe Rogan 1:08:49 Stephen Hawking.

Steve Aoki 1:08:50 Yeah. You know. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But- (laughs)

Joe Rogan 1:08:52 Yeah.

Steve Aoki 1:08:53 So if we go back to it, but yeah. Uh-

Joe Rogan 1:08:55 Here is the agenda for today.

Steve Aoki 1:08:56 Yes. (laughs)

Joe Rogan 1:08:57 They apparently wanted to give him a better voice, and he didn't want it.

Steve Aoki 1:09:00 Yeah. He was like, "I like that."

Joe Rogan 1:09:02 They wanted to give him a smoother, more Siri-like voice.

Steve Aoki 1:09:04 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:09:04 You know? "Sorry, I didn't understand that."

Steve Aoki 1:09:07 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 1:09:07 Siri, you know, you can get Siri in a nice English voice, English lady voice.

Steve Aoki 1:09:11 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:09:11 He was not interested. He likes that he liked while he was alive, that weird, rough computer voice.

Steve Aoki 1:09:17 Yeah. He ... I mean, from what I heard about him, it's just his sense of humor was, was very funny. And he's just a very sarcastic guy. He seemed-

Joe Rogan 1:09:25 He seemed like a really interesting guy-

Steve Aoki 1:09:27 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:09:27 ... who also really liked strip clubs.

Steve Aoki 1:09:29 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 1:09:29 Did you know that?

Steve Aoki 1:09:30 No, I did not.

Joe Rogan 1:09:31 Yeah. Eric Weinstein told me about that, remember? See, uh, but there was a, a really interesting article written about him that, uh, he would love to get wheeled into a strip club. He, like, he enjoyed it and liked, liked being there. But I guess that completely makes sense if you lost control of your body-

Steve Aoki 1:09:50 Right.

Joe Rogan 1:09:50 ... but you still were attracted to women-

Steve Aoki 1:09:52 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:09:52 ... and you still found them amazing, you'd, you'd want to see them naked-

Steve Aoki 1:09:56 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:09:56 ... dancing in front of you.

Steve Aoki 1:09:57 Right.

Joe Rogan 1:09:57 It's like-

Steve Aoki 1:09:57 It makes total sense.

Joe Rogan 1:09:58 Yeah.

Steve Aoki 1:09:59 You know?

Joe Rogan 1:09:59 Why not?

Steve Aoki 1:10:00 Yeah. 'Cause you want, like ... I mean, exactly. You can't get it, but you can at least be there.

Joe Rogan 1:10:06 Yeah. What do you got, Jamie? There it is. Acclaimed physicist Hawking a regular at California strip joint.

Steve Aoki 1:10:13 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 1:10:13 He's a regular.

Steve Aoki 1:10:15 Wow.

Joe Rogan 1:10:15 That's hilarious. Look at him.

Steve Aoki 1:10:16 That's pretty awesome. (laughs)

Joe Rogan 1:10:19 Hmm. Make it rain.

Steve Aoki 1:10:20 I, I am proud to say that I saw him speak when I was in college.

Joe Rogan 1:10:23 Oh, wow. No kidding.

Steve Aoki 1:10:25 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:10:25 Look at him with all the strippers. Hello.

Steve Aoki 1:10:27 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 1:10:29 Peter Str- Stephen Hawking goes to strip clubs. Look at him. That's amazing. With his, with his smile. He looks-

Steve Aoki 1:10:35 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:10:35 ... so happy.

Steve Aoki 1:10:37 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 1:10:37 He looks so happy. Who are we to hate?

Steve Aoki 1:10:39 Absolutely.

Joe Rogan 1:10:40 Yeah. Yeah. Um, I would, I would imagine that would be, uh, a very trying 30 days. So when it came, when it was over, was your voice normal? Did it, did it come back? Did it s- there was a-

Steve Aoki 1:10:53 It, it was different. Uh, but I was warned that it would sound a little different.

Joe Rogan 1:10:56 Like you sound different now than you sounded before the operation?

Steve Aoki 1:11:00 I'm used to what I sound like now, so I almost forgot what I sounded like before. But I think maybe a semitone differently, you know?

Joe Rogan 1:11:07 Oh.

Steve Aoki 1:11:08 Um, but, you know, it's like you just get used to the new you. Like, if I was gonna be half cyborg, half, half man, I'd probably just be like, "Okay."

Joe Rogan 1:11:18 Yeah.

Steve Aoki 1:11:18 "This is me." You know? Like, you just get to that when you've, when you've situated in that ...

Joe Rogan 1:11:25 The half cyborg thing is gonna be really weird when people start replacing legs, because I think if you could develop a leg, like, a cybernetic leg that's better than a normal leg, someone's gonna say, "Chop my leg off and give me one of those." Someone. Someone somewhere is gonna do that. And if that becomes seamless and, you know, you get some Steve Austin Six Million Dollar Man type shit going on, things could get real weird.

Steve Aoki 1:11:53 That's, uh, what, um, Yuval talks about in Homo Deus.

Joe Rogan 1:11:56 Yeah.

Steve Aoki 1:11:57 You know, that whole idea that, like, first we use the technology to heal the people that need it, but at the end of the day, it's gona be used for advancing humanity.

Joe Rogan 1:12:07 Mm.

Steve Aoki 1:12:08 You know? Like, there's like ... you know, the, the, you wanna save ... you wanna help people that, that need to walk first, right?

Joe Rogan 1:12:14 Yeah.

Steve Aoki 1:12:15 But th- but then it's like, just like you said, if it becomes very normal, then the upgrades will be used as well to advance the people that don't need it.

Joe Rogan 1:12:27 Yeah. And then we get to the point where you're unscrewing your head.

Steve Aoki 1:12:30 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 1:12:32 Taking your brain out. Sticking-

Steve Aoki 1:12:33 But ... and, and it's ... that's also what's interesting, is that when you say that, you know, now it sounds crazy.

Joe Rogan 1:12:40 It does, but it doesn't.

Steve Aoki 1:12:42 Yeah. Well, to you, it doesn't.

Joe Rogan 1:12:44 Yeah.

Steve Aoki 1:12:44 But to me, it doesn't either. But that's exactly what you're saying about the phone to ... you know? Or, like, what you're showing, uh, someone in the Victorian age-

Joe Rogan 1:12:52 Yeah.