Joe Rogan Experience #1530 - Duncan Trussell

Joe Rogan 0:00 (drum music) Joe Rogan podcast, check it out.

Narrator 0:03 The Joe Rogan Experience. Train by day, Joe Rogan podcast by night. All day. (energetic music) Hello, Duncan.

Duncan Trussell 0:15 Hello, Joe. How are you, my friend? I'm great, man. I'm psyched to be here.

Joe Rogan 0:18 Cheers, sir.

Duncan Trussell 0:19 Cheers, brother.

Joe Rogan 0:20 So good to see you.

Duncan Trussell 0:21 Hare Krishna.

Joe Rogan 0:21 Hare Krishna.

Duncan Trussell 0:22 Great to see you. Mm. Mm.

Joe Rogan 0:24 Always.

Duncan Trussell 0:26 That's good.

Joe Rogan 0:27 My friend, it's a strange time and uh, we're both departing this land.

Duncan Trussell 0:33 I know.

Joe Rogan 0:33 For greener pastures.

Duncan Trussell 0:35 I keep thinking back to when we first became friends and the strange path since from there to here. And all our predictions and all the things that we... W- we never would have imagined this. You know, specifically, like, that there would be this fucking global pandemic that we would suddenly be, like...

Joe Rogan 1:01 (coughs)

Duncan Trussell 1:01 ... some kind of, like... Refugee is way too dramatic a word for it. But suddenly-

Joe Rogan 1:06 (coughs)

Duncan Trussell 1:06 ... just part of this diaspora of comedians pouring out of LA.

Joe Rogan 1:11 Yeah.

Duncan Trussell 1:11 Like, and not just comedians, but just people lea- leaving, man.

Joe Rogan 1:15 Well, (coughs) um, I talked to Joey today from New Jersey. Called, you know, I called him. He's in New Jersey and it's just such, so strange. I'm like, "You're in Jersey?" He's like, "That's right, motherfucker."

Duncan Trussell 1:26 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:27 You know, he's, he's all happy in Jersey.

Duncan Trussell 1:29 You know, he was the last. Like, you leaving was intense, but I was still like, "You know, maybe we'll stick around and see what happens." And then, like, I'd been getting all these... You know, the problem with me is, like, I get weird vibes all the time. And, uh, not... Like, the last time I was on here, I legitimately thought a meteor was gonna hit the earth. I mean, I got-

Joe Rogan 1:47 (laughs)

Duncan Trussell 1:48 I really thought that. So, I r- I worked very hard on not listening to that part of me most of the time. But I was getting this real weird vibe from LA and I'm like, "Come on, man. You're just, like, superstitious." It's, it's probably nothing." And then, then my wife would say like, "I'm getting a really weird vibe. Like we... May- maybe, I don't know if we should stay here renting or if we should stay in the place." And I didn't wanna tell her, "Oh, I've been getting a weird vibe too," 'cause I didn't wanna amplify it, whatever that was. And then I got on the phone with Diaz and he's like, "Yeah, I'm leaving. Getting the fuck out of here." And that was it. That's-

Joe Rogan 2:22 'Cause Diaz was telling me Burbank was sketchy, where he lives in Burbank. He says, "My neighborhood turned to shit, like instantly."

Duncan Trussell 2:29 Dude, it's like... Yeah, it's, it's, it's not, and it's not just any one thing, you know?

Joe Rogan 2:34 No.

Duncan Trussell 2:35 It's like, not just like... Some of the stuff I get, stuff had to get shut down. And because stuff was shut down, it got a little more weathered than usual. And it's like, the, you know, the homeless encampments. I was in Echo Park, man. And like, I really feel like, you know, like the red state people, one of the things they love to tweet is like, "Don't bring your liberal bullshit here." Right? And they're like-

Joe Rogan 2:56 They're right.

Duncan Trussell 2:57 Well, this, that's where I'm eating shit a little bit-

Joe Rogan 2:59 Yeah.

Duncan Trussell 2:59 ... because, you know, I am, I do still believe that we need to, uh, decriminalize drugs. That the-

Joe Rogan 3:06 Yes.

Duncan Trussell 3:06 ... drug policy's bullshit. The way we're handling, it's all wrong. But they, there u- used to be a way that they could get people who were like camping out on the streets and a lot of the times that was possession of, like, illegal drugs. And because that, that stuff got removed, uh, suddenly, you were witnessing like... Holy shit, man. There's people who are making like real, uh, like, s- r- rational decision from the perspective of a heroin addict, which is they love heroin so much. You know that Doug Stanhope joke, "Some things are better than life."

Joe Rogan 3:41 Mm-hmm.

Duncan Trussell 3:42 Like, they love heroin so much. They're addicted to it, they love it and the shelters that are apparently available won't let them do drugs in the shelters.

Joe Rogan 3:52 They want you to kick it.

Duncan Trussell 3:53 Y- yeah.

Joe Rogan 3:54 Yeah.

Duncan Trussell 3:54 And so, that's ridiculous. But now, I could be wrong about that, but that is what I've heard is one of the reasons these people are staying out in the street, is not 'cause they don't wanna be in a shelter, it's because they don't want to be prevented from getting high.

Joe Rogan 4:06 Yeah.

Duncan Trussell 4:06 And so, this has produced this like situation in a lot of the big cities which is, we're seeing like massive tent cities. And by the way, the tent city thing, aesthetically i- it's not a, it's not the best look. But the stuff that I began to experience in Echo Park, man, I took, I r- I took my kid to the playground, right? And there's like a dude that looks like he emerged from a time portal from an apocalypse.

Joe Rogan 4:34 (laughs)

Duncan Trussell 4:34 You know what I mean? I'm not talking about like run-of-the-mill, like, somebody who's a junkie who's like... I'm talking, like, covered in, like, soot, like-

Joe Rogan 4:45 Mm.

Duncan Trussell 4:46 ... pure dilated eyes, not wearing like, you know, the disheveled clothes you might expect from someone who's been addicted to heroin for a long time. But like wearing like, like, he broke into wherever the costumes from Mad Max were. Like some kind of weird leather vest thing and like, like creepy fucking cutoff shorts and he had a, a machete.

Joe Rogan 5:10 Oh, Jesus Christ.

Duncan Trussell 5:11 And he's throwing it into the ground of the playground and pulling it out, like he's practicing throwing a machete. I'm with my fucking toddler, man.

Joe Rogan 5:20 (sighs)

Duncan Trussell 5:20 And, you know, it's like, and so obviously we didn't go to the playground, but that was, you know, my w- you know, it was not uncommon in that area to see completely naked people just... Not that that's bad, but not naked like the way I-

Joe Rogan 5:34 Covered in dirt, wandering aimlessly.

Duncan Trussell 5:37 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 5:37 Yeah.

Duncan Trussell 5:37 Well, even worse than wandering aimlessly, wandering with what seems to be a purpose in their eyes. Some of them seeming like they're late. Where the fuck are you going naked that you're late for?

Joe Rogan 5:49 (laughs)

Duncan Trussell 5:50 (laughs) Like, are you being summoned?

Joe Rogan 5:52 Oh.

Duncan Trussell 5:52 Like, that was, that was we- but that wasn't just it, man. You know, it's a lot of other things too and it all just started piling on top of-

Joe Rogan 5:59 Dude, I don't think this is sustainable, living in giant groups of people. I think it's, when it's, when it works, great.... it was wonderful.

Duncan Trussell 6:06 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 6:07 When, when LA was, was working well, it was fantastic. When the Comedy Store was packed and restaurants were doing well and the economy was doing well-

Duncan Trussell 6:14 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 6:14 ... and the w- the crime wasn't high, it's great. But when things go bad, there's no sense of community.

Duncan Trussell 6:20 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 6:20 So then there's a sense of, like, people capitalizing on other people who either own stores or who aren't home or whatever, people who are desperate. There's to- there's too many people.

Duncan Trussell 6:31 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 6:31 If you're in a community that's a small town and something goes wrong, you can kind of bunch up together and help each other-

Duncan Trussell 6:38 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 6:38 ... 'cause you feel like you need each other and you feel like you're, you're a part of something.

Duncan Trussell 6:42 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 6:42 People don't feel like they're a part of something here.

Duncan Trussell 6:43 Right.

Joe Rogan 6:43 They're all transient. Everybody's moved here from someone else-

Duncan Trussell 6:46 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 6:46 ... from somewhere else. Everybody thinks they can go somewhere else, and they can, and they probably will. I mean, I, you know, we all came from d- You were North Carolina, I came from, uh, New York at the time. We all, uh, everybody who comes to LA in show business, God, what are the percentage of like, uh, uh, how many do we know that are just straight LA? Like, Christina Pazsitzky, she's straight LA.

Duncan Trussell 7:07 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 7:07 Who else?

Duncan Trussell 7:08 Um ...

Joe Rogan 7:10 Sebastian came from Chicago. Theo came from Nashville. Did he? Nashville is where he came from?

Narrator 7:16 No. Louisiana.

Joe Rogan 7:18 No. Louisiana, that's right. I mean, Joey, obviously Jersey.

Duncan Trussell 7:21 Yeah. Well, and it's a gypsy town.

Joe Rogan 7:22 And all over the place.

Duncan Trussell 7:23 It's a gypsy town.

Joe Rogan 7:24 Gypsy town. Gypsy town.

Duncan Trussell 7:24 Which is something I've always loved about it. I've loved that element of, like, just this wild vortex-

Joe Rogan 7:29 Yeah.

Duncan Trussell 7:30 ... of artists and narcissists and people who've just gone insane. And, like, it's a, a, a lot of, uh, the sparks fly in, in that kind of insane cauldron of identity. All that stuff is super cool. It's, it's beautiful.

Joe Rogan 7:44 Yeah.

Duncan Trussell 7:44 That's one of the things I loved about it is, like, the place we all know this is a, this is a place where you make illusion.

Joe Rogan 7:50 Yeah.

Duncan Trussell 7:50 That was the idea. You make things that aren't real seem real, and people like to watch that. That's the whole TV movie industry. The whole place is based on creating an identity that you, like, somehow monetize or a studio-

Joe Rogan 8:02 Yep.

Duncan Trussell 8:02 ... makes, uh, monetizes your identity or something. It was something magical and beautiful in all of that. But not, it seems like there's a real emperor wears no clothes thing happening right now, not just in LA. And by ... I feel bad talking shit about LA 'cause, man, she's been-

Joe Rogan 8:20 I love this place.

Duncan Trussell 8:20 ... so good to both of us.

Joe Rogan 8:21 Yeah.

Duncan Trussell 8:21 I mean, this city is like ... I will, uh, always love this place.

Joe Rogan 8:25 It's not ... The problem is not the city. This is the, there's ... I've been thinking about this a lot lately, and here's an issue. Um, I am progressive on just about every issue across the board.

Duncan Trussell 8:36 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 8:36 Uh, gay rights, civil rights, women's rights, whatever, women's right to choose, f- fill in the blank. Pro-Medicaid, pro-universal basic income, um, I'm pro so many things. But there's a thing that happens in large cities, where large cities are always blue. And I'm trying to figure this out 'cause, like, New York is al- And I used to think it's, oh, it's 'cause they're educated, you know? And educated people are more likely to be compassionate, and compassionate people are more likely-

Duncan Trussell 9:03 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 9:03 ... to be Democrats. (sighs) But there's a balance that has to be achieved. And when the shit hits the fan, you need law and order. And I think that some people who are Democrats, who are pro- progressive people, they don't understand that aspect of human nature. Or they wanna deny that aspect of human nature. Like when the mayor of Seattle was dealing with that whole six area lockdown-

Duncan Trussell 9:27 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 9:27 ... little, small little country that they had put up barriers and shit. And, and then, like, literally were, had armed guards there that, uh ... What was it called again?

Narrator 9:37 CHOP.

Joe Rogan 9:38 CHOP. CHOP or CHAS, right? The, the mayor said, "Maybe this is our summer of love." Well, there's no, it's not the summer of love. Some people took over other people's businesses with force. Like, just because they think the way you think or they subscribe to liberal ideas like you, like, you're a liberal too. So these, this is, like, your gang of thugs you have to support when they take over other people's businesses? No, we have to be able to call out everybody. And just because somebody is on your side, you can't let them take over city blocks and just institute their own government and then say it's the summer of love. This is crazy talk. And this is how, uh, this is gets, gets cities destroyed. And this is what gets the police defunded. And this what, what gets people j- saying crazy things, like, "We, we need to disband, uh, release everyone from prison," and, "No more prisons," and, "No more laws," and, "No more police." I'm like, "N- no." The way things go well is you have to be safe. The only way you're safe is if you have a strong military and a strong police force. And there's something about liberals that don't wanna believe that. They see the bad cops, they see these videos, and we all agree, we gotta get rid of bad cops. They gotta reform the police. They have to. But those are not all the cops. That's crazy. You're just only seeing the bad ... No one's t- no one's filming excellent interactions with friendly cops and compliant, uh, people. That's not what you're filming. You're, you're-

Duncan Trussell 10:59 Not gonna get a lot of YouTube downloads.

Joe Rogan 11:01 ... something that gets views. But that's the majority of these interactions. But we have this distorted perception based on what we're exposed to, which is viral videos of cops being cunts, 'cause there are cops that are cunts, because there's people that are cunts. And there's who knows how many fucking hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of cops there are. The odds that they're not hundreds and thousands of cunts is, is outrageous.

Duncan Trussell 11:21 Well, you know what I've been doing with this whole fucking thing, man? Uh, because if I get, uh, 'cause, because you know me, the way my mind goes is not gonna be, like, a red state consciousness when it comes to that shit-

Joe Rogan 11:33 No.

Duncan Trussell 11:33 ... 'cause when I saw that autonomous zone pop up, I'm like, "Let's do it, baby!"

Joe Rogan 11:38 (laughs)

Duncan Trussell 11:38 "Spread it out! Come on!" (claps hands)

Joe Rogan 11:41 But what did you think would be good? What could, good could have h- come of that?

Duncan Trussell 11:44 Well, I mean, the history of America is, is, it is, it's ins- beautiful yet somewhat, like, uh, there's a, there's a mania, a utopian mania in the heart of, uh, I think, of the American spirit-

Joe Rogan 11:57 Mm-hmm.

Duncan Trussell 11:57 ... which is like Americans-... identify with this. It's, you know, George Carlin did a great job of designating it by saying, "It's called the American Dream because you got to be asleep to believe it." I love that joke.

Joe Rogan 12:08 Yeah.

Duncan Trussell 12:08 But I love the American Dream and the, what's so beautiful about it is it's this idea of, like, I think together, we can do something new that's going to be better than anything that happened before. And from that spirit, you get all great innovation that cuts... goes across all political-

Joe Rogan 12:26 Right.

Duncan Trussell 12:26 ... ideologies, right? So, to me, you know, and they always call it, I've always loved that they call it the American Experiment.

Joe Rogan 12:32 Yeah.

Duncan Trussell 12:32 Fucking love that, man-

Joe Rogan 12:33 Yeah.

Duncan Trussell 12:33 ... 'cause it's an experiment. It's like let's see what we can do here together. And for an experiment to work, we need to be able to look at what didn't work in the experiment and improve upon it. Now, that being said, it's like, for me, I've been trying to, like, pull myself out of the, even though I- I identify as a progressive, I'm gonna vote Democrat. I'm, that's just what I'm gonna do. But that being said, I try to pull myself out of that 'cause I don't wanna be cubbyholed, man. And I have a lot of friends who are, like, hardcore conservatives. And I know that there is this idea, and I think a lot of the, uh, the idea gets perpetrated by people who are into tribalism, blue/red.

Joe Rogan 13:12 Mm-hmm.

Duncan Trussell 13:12 And so the- the blue people, they propagate a conceptualization of the red people, which is kind of what you said there. "Well, they're not compassionate."

Joe Rogan 13:21 Yeah.

Duncan Trussell 13:21 It's like, shut the fuck up.

Joe Rogan 13:23 Ridiculous.

Duncan Trussell 13:24 Get the fuck out of here. These are some of the most compassionate people I've ever met in my fucking life. They would die for people that they've never met. They would-

Joe Rogan 13:31 Don't you think a big problem is the figurehead right now in the Republican Party is Trump?

Duncan Trussell 13:35 Yes.

Joe Rogan 13:35 That Trump is such a polarizing-

Duncan Trussell 13:37 That's the problem.

Joe Rogan 13:37 ... figure and he doesn't seem to have much empathy, if- if any.

Duncan Trussell 13:41 No.

Joe Rogan 13:41 He doesn't seem, you know, I mean, that's, it's... You don't know who he is really 'cause you don't talk to him privately, but his public persona is that of a winner and who doesn't give a fuck and you're fired. I mean, that's, that's a non-empathetic perspective. And we ass- associate people who support him with also lacking empathy. Then you add into it children in cages at- at- at the border-

Duncan Trussell 14:01 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 14:01 ... and you see those videos. You know what bothered me more than anything about the kids in cages? There was one video that really bothered me where Mike Pence went to visit. Like, he's on the ground, like, next to the cages. See if you can find that. Mike Pence visiting the border-

Duncan Trussell 14:16 Ugh.

Joe Rogan 14:17 ... cages. Now, apparently, these cages had been put up through Obama, and that's what's interesting about this whole border wall and border discussion and immigration discussion, 'cause Obama, particularly when he was running for president, he was very tough on illegal immigration. I mean, he, uh, he said a lot of the same things that Trump said. If you listen to the speeches that Obama said, people believed him and, and agreed with him because it wasn't a Republican talking point. It was just a safety talking point, and it was also a way that he could get people that were more, like, more concerned about the problem with illegal immigration or more... You know, he could, he could tie that up with just saying, "Listen, we have to follow the rule of law." And, you know, they, they had these talks and they built these, these cages. They did that during the Obama administration, right?

Duncan Trussell 15:05 Uh, yeah, that's-

Joe Rogan 15:05 See if you can f- wh- so here- here's this. So se- these, these are the guys that fled from Mexico and who knows where else and came through the Mexican border, and then Pence is standing there in front of these guys. So, like, imagine you're a dude. You live in, you know, Ecuador and you make your way up through Mexico because you have a fucking dream. Like, America is the land where people can make it.

Duncan Trussell 15:32 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 15:32 This is this guy who fights in the UFC, his name is Marlon Vera, and, uh, he's a bad motherfucker, and he just won this weekend. And he's, I believe he's from Ecuador, right? That's Marlon's-

Narrator 15:41 Yeah, I think so.

Joe Rogan 15:41 Yes. And he, um, talked about it in his, his victory speech. He was talking about, you know, how m- hey man, you know, you can, you can actually do it. He came over here. He was talking about it in the countdown show too. He came over here. He lived a year without his family just building up money and fighting to try to get money to bring his family over, and then he brought his family over. And then, as time has gone on-

Duncan Trussell 16:00 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 16:00 ... he keeps winning. He's on like a seven-fight win streak and now he's like a top 10 contender in the UFC. And he could've been one of those dudes.

Duncan Trussell 16:07 That's right.

Joe Rogan 16:07 See, this, this, this is not... These are just people that are in a fucking terrible place and they're trying to get out. Putting them in cages, like, it just, it's a bad look and it's an even worse... Imagine you're that guy who comes over from Ecuador-

Duncan Trussell 16:21 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 16:21 ... and you're in this cage and you see Pence. He could touch them. You could touch them. If that cage wasn't there, you could reach over-

Duncan Trussell 16:27 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 16:27 ... and touch him on the shoulder.

Duncan Trussell 16:28 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 16:28 He's right there.

Duncan Trussell 16:29 Right.

Joe Rogan 16:29 The fucking guy who's second in line to the- the- the most powerful army-

Duncan Trussell 16:35 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 16:35 ... the world has ever known. The- the- Trump's the commander-in-chief, that's number two.

Duncan Trussell 16:39 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 16:39 And he's right there in front of a cage and he doesn't seem to care. Like, play this. It's weird. And I don't know how I want him to- to look, but he's not, like, looking at the people. He's kind of, like, looking away. He's kind of, like, ignoring the people. I mean, I don't know what you're supposed to do. Are you supposed to look at them? Would that, would it fill you with sorrow and despair? Would you not be able to, uh, rationalize and disconnect yourself from the humans that are suffering? When you think about all of us-

Duncan Trussell 17:08 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 17:08 ... we're basically the products of a fucking enormous chain of events, not one thing. But h- look at, they, they have foil blankets, man. I mean, this is crazy shit. They're stacked in there, stacked on top of each other wearing foil blankets.

Duncan Trussell 17:24 Yeah, yeah. It's terrible. The, and- and- and it's, look at that, guys. Think about his kids.

Joe Rogan 17:28 Yes.

Duncan Trussell 17:29 And- and- and-

Joe Rogan 17:29 He's got a family back home like that?

Duncan Trussell 17:30 It's, it's... Well, no.

Joe Rogan 17:30 Yeah.

Duncan Trussell 17:30 No, his kids got separated from him.

Joe Rogan 17:32 Yeah, that too. Could be, could be true.

Duncan Trussell 17:33 That's what he's thinking about.

Joe Rogan 17:34 Could be true.

Duncan Trussell 17:34 And, and, you know, the, and again, man, it's like I keep trying to, uh, get out of the, like, I- I keep trying to get out of... 'Cause I, I, this is what I've realized 'cause I love flipping through. I go from, I will jump back and forth from, like, Fox News to CNN-

Joe Rogan 17:52 Me too.

Duncan Trussell 17:52 ... to MSNBC.

Joe Rogan 17:53 Yeah.

Duncan Trussell 17:53 I'll check out some Tucker Carlson, blast over to Rachel Maddow. Find these, like, uh, like m- polar opposites and what I, I feel like what's happening just as a result of the entertainment that is news is that we're getting a very non-nuanced, uh, we're being told what we are basically.

Joe Rogan 18:11 Do you, do you listen to the, or watch The Hill?

Duncan Trussell 18:14 No.

Joe Rogan 18:14 You should watch Rising The Hill. It's, uh, uh, Krystal and Saagar. And Saagar is a Republican and Krystal is a Democrat and... But both of them, super smart and really rational and they're honest.

Duncan Trussell 18:28 That's cool.

Joe Rogan 18:29 They're honest and they, they're non-partisan and they break things down based on their honest interpretation of what's going on.

Duncan Trussell 18:36 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 18:36 And it's so refreshing, these two right here.

Duncan Trussell 18:38 That's cool.

Joe Rogan 18:38 Krystal Ball and Saagar Enjeti. They are fucking fantastic and they... I love the fact that they're friends, yet she's left, he's right, and it's not bullshit. They're not frauds and it's-

Duncan Trussell 18:49 You think her real name's Krystal Ball?

Joe Rogan 18:52 Um, if I ha-... If my last name was Ball, I'd name my daughter Krystal. It's dope.

Duncan Trussell 18:56 Come on.

Narrator 18:57 (laughs)

Duncan Trussell 18:57 You would not name your-

Joe Rogan 18:58 Yeah. I'd call her Magic Krystal Ball.

Duncan Trussell 19:00 (laughs) It's like, I don't know, man.

Joe Rogan 19:03 Why not?

Duncan Trussell 19:04 Well, 'cause then every... 'Cause you do that and you're gonna, like, uh-

Joe Rogan 19:09 I didn't even notice it until now because I'm not name-aphobic.

Duncan Trussell 19:12 I'm not name-aph-... It's kr-... My name's Duncan. I, I am name-

Joe Rogan 19:15 (laughs)

Duncan Trussell 19:15 How do you think I, I, I, just, I'm sensitive to names like that 'cause if their real name is Krystal Ball-

Joe Rogan 19:21 Yeah.

Duncan Trussell 19:21 ... be a third-grader named Krystal Ball. Have fun-

Joe Rogan 19:24 (laughs)

Duncan Trussell 19:24 ... with that.

Joe Rogan 19:24 Well, third-grader, you might be able to get away with it, but 10th grade, you're gonna get tortured. By the time girls reach 15-

Duncan Trussell 19:29 Hey, Krystal Balls.

Joe Rogan 19:31 Yeah. Yeah.

Duncan Trussell 19:31 You know?

Joe Rogan 19:32 Oh, my God.

Duncan Trussell 19:32 It's like a never-ending... You know. Anyway, the... What I'm... The... To me, it's like the, the propaganda. It's propaganda.

Joe Rogan 19:39 Mm-hmm.

Duncan Trussell 19:40 And, uh, the, the reality of it is, like, I, I, I'm trying to figure out, well what do we all have in common? It sounds like a cheesy thing and what we all have in common is we wanna be happy.

Joe Rogan 19:50 Yeah.

Duncan Trussell 19:50 When I talk to my f-... My, my liberal friends, they wanna be happy. When I talk to my conservative friends, they wanna be happy. And then you add to it. Now, this is where shit gets weird. A lot of people wanna be a hero and why wouldn't you? A lot of people wanna help other people. They have a service mentality. They would... They wanna die for something good. A lot of people really do wanna help and then that's, to me, where the problems start, is because that's being subverted. And the way it's being subverted is... You know what sucks, man? When you're around somebody who's telling you how you feel.

Joe Rogan 20:21 Yeah.

Duncan Trussell 20:21 Have you ever had that happen, where you're around someone and they're like, "Why are you unhappy today?" And you're not unhappy.

Joe Rogan 20:26 Ugh.

Duncan Trussell 20:27 But if you're not careful, you'll be like, "Maybe I'm unhappy."

Joe Rogan 20:30 Yes.

Duncan Trussell 20:30 And then you, then you become the unhappy thing and they've, like, sucked you into a thing you're not.

Joe Rogan 20:34 Yes.

Duncan Trussell 20:35 And so, for me, this is the danger of the news, is they kinda tell us how we are, how we feel. They... First of all, this ridiculous red/blue bullshit. It's like, stop. I mean, every single person I've ever met wouldn't... I don't think I've ever met anybody who wouldn't try to help someone who was drowning.

Joe Rogan 20:52 Yeah.

Duncan Trussell 20:53 I think most people I meet would... Are like that and I think that transcends politics. But somehow, they've got us thinking we're all different and separate. And then on top of it, the thing that really bothers me and annoys me. Obviously, man, I'm no fucking Trump fan. That guy's a lunatic and he's driving people crazy.

Joe Rogan 21:08 (laughs)

Duncan Trussell 21:08 But what bothers me... He is. It's like-

Joe Rogan 21:11 Can you pass that lighter? You're right. No, for sure.

Duncan Trussell 21:13 He's driving people nuts and, and, and w-

Joe Rogan 21:14 It's just the way you said it.

Duncan Trussell 21:15 And, and, and, and, and what, what bothers me is that the response from, like, really intelligent people who consider themselves, uh, liberals, is they're shaming these people. They're shaming them. They're saying, "Oh, they're idiots, they're rednecks, they're dumb, they're peasants. Stupid peasants. How could you like 'em?" It's like, how... They liked this guy 'cause they thought that he was gonna help their families. They were fucking... They were not doing great economically. He... They bought into a thing and they invested

Duncan Trussell 21:46 themselves in it and if they are starting to, like... It's dawning on them that they succumb to another American tradition.

Joe Rogan 21:53 Mm-hmm.

Duncan Trussell 21:54 Which is the con artist.

Joe Rogan 21:55 (laughs)

Duncan Trussell 21:55 This is an American tradition.

Joe Rogan 21:57 Yes. Yes.

Duncan Trussell 21:57 It's American to be a con artist and it's American to get sucked in by one.

Joe Rogan 22:01 Yep.

Duncan Trussell 22:01 Happens to the best of us. It's happened to me at a Grateful Dead concert.

Joe Rogan 22:04 (laughs)

Duncan Trussell 22:04 We wanted to buy 100 hits of fucking acid. This son of a bitch got us a sheet of acid, convinced us to try to sell it to make more money to get more acid. We left there with one mushroom stem on the way back to Hendersonville. I've been conned. I know what it's like. It's a very American thing. But it's like-

Joe Rogan 22:20 So there was no acid at all?

Duncan Trussell 22:21 Dude, he's... No. He... We got... He took our money to buy acid.

Joe Rogan 22:26 (laughs)

Duncan Trussell 22:26 And then he's like, "We could sell this acid and buy more acid." And then-

Joe Rogan 22:30 Oh.

Duncan Trussell 22:30 ... you know, we're like, "Yeah, let's do it." And then he sold the acid, I guess, and then we were gonna buy more a-... The point is, like-

Joe Rogan 22:36 He started a business.

Duncan Trussell 22:37 Well, he... My friend almost gave him his fucking car.

Joe Rogan 22:40 Whoa.

Duncan Trussell 22:40 Like, this was a very charismatic hippie. He was, like, looked exactly the way you'd expect him. A f- fucking hippie bandana, big hippie beard, long-

Joe Rogan 22:48 Dude, some people are good at that and it's weird.

Duncan Trussell 22:50 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 22:50 And they do weird things, like they talk a little too close to you, they make you uncomfortable.

Duncan Trussell 22:55 Yeah, they use the... What's it? Neuro-linguistic programming. They, like... They, like...

Joe Rogan 22:59 Yeah.

Duncan Trussell 22:59 They just get you and, and-

Joe Rogan 23:00 They know how to talk. You know, when I used to work at Newport Creamery, uh, some-... I'd work the register sometimes and we had lessons on how to deal with flim-flam artists. That's what they called 'em, flim-flam artists.

Duncan Trussell 23:10 Oh, yeah.

Joe Rogan 23:10 So they would teach you. So we had to, uh, sit there and be taught, like how someone will fuck you up, like they'll... Something that costs three bucks and they'll give you a 20 and they'll say, "Hey, uh, can you give me a 10 and a five, and then the rest in quarters?" And you're like, "What?"

Duncan Trussell 23:25 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 23:25 "How much is that?" And then before you know it, he's saying something else and talking over you and you think you owe him $40.

Duncan Trussell 23:32 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 23:32 Like, you're giving him more money. It's like, "I gave you a 50, so you give me the 20, that 20 and then what is it? It was three bucks?

Duncan Trussell 23:38 Yup.

Joe Rogan 23:38 "So you owe me 47." So, like, before you know it, you're giving money away and you don't under- understand what's happening to you.

Duncan Trussell 23:42 That's right.

Joe Rogan 23:43 Especially when you're a kid. I was like, I think I was 16 when I was working there.

Duncan Trussell 23:46 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 23:46 I was a monkey, basically a monkey. Right? And, you know, these people travel all over the place and they do this to folks. They just trick 'em. They pickpocket 'em.

Duncan Trussell 23:54 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 23:55 Like, watching David Blaine do card tricks, okay? From as close as you are to me, I don't get it. I don't know what he's doing. He could get me every time.

Duncan Trussell 24:03 Right. Right.

Joe Rogan 24:04 He's gonna... He's gonna trick me every time. He's so good at it.

Duncan Trussell 24:06 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 24:06 And there's guys that are l-... I don't know if they're at that level, but there's guys at a level that you or I can't-... perceive and they'll steal your watch.

Duncan Trussell 24:14 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 24:14 Like, there's guys who can get your watch off.

Duncan Trussell 24:15 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 24:16 Like, they can get your watch off. I don't know how they do it, but it's a known thing. It's a known thing that guys know how to get your watch off.

Duncan Trussell 24:22 Fucking guys. I mean, there are how many videos on YouTube ... There's awesome videos of, like, children doing this to people. You could see, like, kids, like, get trained to do this.

Joe Rogan 24:31 Dude.

Duncan Trussell 24:31 It's like they ... It's hacking our operating system, essentially.

Joe Rogan 24:34 He stuffed a card into my friend Jeff's watchband, and Jeff didn't even know it was in there. And he's like, "Look, it's there." And he's like, "What?"

Duncan Trussell 24:42 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 24:42 And he looks at his watchband and he's like, "Pull it out," and it's the card he was looking for, folded up, tucked into his watchband, and you're like, "What did, what did you just do?" So, if that guy's a thief, if he was, like, some f- ... Like, "Oh, is this someone stealing something?" Yeah.

Duncan Trussell 24:53 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 24:53 There's a whole genre of YouTube video- Lots of kids doing it. Yeah. Oh, boy. Look at that. Wow. Little tiny kids.

Duncan Trussell 25:00 Yeah. They're trained.

Joe Rogan 25:01 Wow. They're trained to steal shit.

Duncan Trussell 25:03 They practice. Yeah, they practice to do it. I mean, this is just a ... Look, we see this on the human realm and we're like, "Oh my God, they're children." You see a coral reef and a little fish come and take food from another fish, it's, like, just totally normal. I mean, it's not even ... This is just part of being in a hive, you know?

Joe Rogan 25:19 Did that guy just steal that guy's watch? (laughs) Watch. Is that what just happened? I don't know. Bro, back that up. That was crazy. Look. Watch how this guy bumps into this guy. He takes his watch. Watch this. Is that what he did? I don't know. No. No, the guy still had a watch on. What did he steal? I don't know. I think the bottles.

Duncan Trussell 25:36 You'll never know.

Joe Rogan 25:37 I'm, I'm too high for this. Yeah, I don't know. Just give it to him. I'm too high for this. But I've, I've never seen anybody take someone's watch off, but I know it's a real thing. Like, guys can actually take your watch off.

Duncan Trussell 25:45 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 25:46 Like ... Yeah. I mean, like, one with a strap, where they do the buckle. It, it's annoying for you to do.

Duncan Trussell 25:50 Yeah. Dude, I ... Like, to me, this is a natural part of the environment we're in. How many things camouflage themselves as other things, take energy out of a system using the camouflage?

Joe Rogan 26:00 Mm-hmm.

Duncan Trussell 26:00 It's completely fucking normal.

Joe Rogan 26:01 Sure. It's nature.

Duncan Trussell 26:02 Nature.

Joe Rogan 26:02 100%. Yeah.

Duncan Trussell 26:03 And so you, you get this Trump, and you get people who fell for it, and now those people are deeply invested in that hip ... Like magic trick, which he did. And by the way, this is another thing. It's like, look, you don't have to like somebody. Like, I don't like Charles Manson.

Joe Rogan 26:19 Yeah.

Duncan Trussell 26:19 But, man, I do recognize, like, how fucking entertaining he is. You know what I mean? Like, that's a-

Joe Rogan 26:25 Oh, yeah.

Duncan Trussell 26:25 ... very entertaining cult leader. Similarly with Trump. Not a fan. I, th- You know, the moment he said, uh, he implied you should shoot looters, all the ... Look, we can go on and on with the anti-bul ... I'm not, I'm not talking about that. I'm saying the problem is that, that our tactic as Americans is not supposed to be we listen to the state and get our cues about how to be good people from the state. Our ... As Americans, what we do is we have, like, basic, fundamental ideas that are really fucking beautiful, one of them being that we, like, believe that people have a right to be free and seek their own personal happiness. That's beautiful, man. That's not ... We shouldn't have the state telling us different versions of what that is. We g- we have to be intelligent and autonomous enough to do that for ourselves, and then from that, like, really be a u- un- a United States. And, and, like, what's happening now is these motherfuckers, uh, are, are not unifying us.

Joe Rogan 27:20 No.

Duncan Trussell 27:20 This is supposed to be the United States of America. That's what it's supposed to be. So, if you're in a government official here and you're doing a thing that's making it all divided and fucked up-

Joe Rogan 27:29 Yeah.

Duncan Trussell 27:29 ... and you're telling lies and you're shaming people for telling the truth, it doesn't matter if you're a Republican or a Democrat. Whatever you are is, as far as I'm concerned, anti-American.

Joe Rogan 27:38 Yeah.

Duncan Trussell 27:38 Which is like, man, Americans ... And f- and fuck anybody who gets mad at me for saying this. Americans are beautiful people. We, we both tour. We get to meet people all over the fucking place and talk to them an- and they're always generally wonderful. Yes, some of them will take your fucking watch. You know what I mean?

Joe Rogan 27:53 (laughs)

Duncan Trussell 27:53 (laughs) But still, still, you know, in general-

Joe Rogan 27:55 In general.

Duncan Trussell 27:56 ... they ... You, uh, you encounter very f-

Joe Rogan 27:57 When things were going well. See, this is the thing-

Duncan Trussell 28:00 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 28:00 ... that shifts everything, is COVID. The reason why everybody's ramped up ... I mean, it's not ... No small feat. It's not just about getting sick. It's about everybody being scared that they're gonna lose loved ones or that they're gonna die or they're-

Duncan Trussell 28:10 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 28:10 ... gonna lose lung function. You can't work, so you're worried about your income. There's so many people whose businesses are eroding right before-

Duncan Trussell 28:18 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 28:19 ... their eyes, their eyes. I mean, imagine if you own commercial real estate now. Jesus Christ. And you, you, you, you start thinking of the prospect-

Duncan Trussell 28:25 It's brutal.

Joe Rogan 28:25 ... of leasing a building that you invested all your money in out to some folks. They're not gonna have offices like that anymore. People are gonna do shit from home. There's a lotta people that are actually more productive working from home.

Duncan Trussell 28:36 I know.

Joe Rogan 28:36 Th- it's, it's a fucked-up time, so everybody's on eight. Everybody's walking around on eight-

Duncan Trussell 28:41 That's right.

Joe Rogan 28:41 ... trying to keep it together.

Duncan Trussell 28:42 That's right.

Joe Rogan 28:42 And so a guy like Trump exacerbates it-

Duncan Trussell 28:46 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 28:46 ... 'cause he doesn't ever come out with a unity speech.

Duncan Trussell 28:49 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 28:49 It's always, like, a str- he's always the strong boss. "You're fired. I'm the man."

Duncan Trussell 28:55 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 28:55 And so, I mean, this is the message and it works with a lot of people. It's a good ... Look, it's, it's like comedy or music. Th- Not, not everything works on everybody, but there's a lot of people that vibe with his fucking real cartoonish version of being the boss, right?

Duncan Trussell 29:08 Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 29:09 But it's not a bring-everybody-together thing. And th- this is what we need. We need the guy in the movie that stands on top of the hill.

Duncan Trussell 29:17 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 29:17 The guy that says, "We have more in similarity than we do that we disagree with."

Duncan Trussell 29:24 Yeah, man.

Joe Rogan 29:25 "We're together. We're friends." W- most people, most of our issues, we could work out amicably.

Duncan Trussell 29:31 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 29:31 We could talk. Most of our issues.

Duncan Trussell 29:34 All, all of them.

Joe Rogan 29:34 The vast majority. And we need to not just dwell on those, but embrace those.

Duncan Trussell 29:39 Mm.

Joe Rogan 29:39 Like, embrace all the things we like. We want safe s- schools for our kids. We want safe streets.

Duncan Trussell 29:45 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 29:45 We, we want a, um, a fucking, uh, b- bridge maintenance so the bridges don't collapse. We want everybody to be okay.

Duncan Trussell 29:52 Yeah, man.

Joe Rogan 29:52 We want no crime.

Duncan Trussell 29:53 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 29:54 We want ... We, we don't want unjust prison. We don't w- want people being unjustly accused and then sentenced to life in jail-

Duncan Trussell 30:00 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 30:00 ... and other people to work forever to get 'em o- We don't want any of that.

Duncan Trussell 30:03 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 30:03 We don't want any prosecutors that hide evidence that shows that a person was innocent. That's real today in 2020.

Duncan Trussell 30:09 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 30:10 They don't even get in trouble for it.

Duncan Trussell 30:11 Yeah, man. It's r- It's, it's true, and I think that the only ... The-... maybe this is naive. I think we gotta get over our addiction to the person on the Hill.

Joe Rogan 30:21 We gotta get over our addiction to the idea that the way we govern is the only way to govern.

Duncan Trussell 30:25 That's it. And that's why when I see that... What was it called again, a CHAZ?

Joe Rogan 30:29 Mm-hmm.

Duncan Trussell 30:30 You know, again, like-

Joe Rogan 30:31 Be like, "Yeah!"

Duncan Trussell 30:32 Yeah. To me, it's not... It, it... To me, what I'm seeing there is, at the very least, a radical experiment and a potential. Now-

Joe Rogan 30:38 It's a temper tantrum by some 20-year-old kids who hate capitalism.

Duncan Trussell 30:42 How old were the Founding Fathers? I, it's-

Joe Rogan 30:44 That's a good question, but-

Duncan Trussell 30:45 ... and, and, you know-

Joe Rogan 30:45 ... they didn't have YouTube.

Duncan Trussell 30:46 And ag-

Joe Rogan 30:46 I think they would've formed a much better opinion.

Duncan Trussell 30:48 Well, the, the whole... And this is the other part of it. Like, so I- I keep thinking about... And again, man, this is where my case is gonna start falling apart, but-

Joe Rogan 30:56 (laughs)

Duncan Trussell 30:56 (laughs) That's okay. I don't mind if my case falls apart. The... For me, it's... I keep thinking like, "Okay, so what are they telling us now? How to feel?" They're saying, "Well, either you're a socialist or a capitalist or a communist, or tell me what kind of -ist I am or what -ism I'm into." And I keep thinking like, "Man, can't there... Isn't it possible, with all the technology we have, that there's a new -ism that, that no one's... That, that doesn't have the first part of the word attached to it?"

Joe Rogan 31:21 Right, right. Good point.

Duncan Trussell 31:22 So it's like... And, and, and so, at the very least, if you meet someone who's like in... Passionate in a real way, not in a bullshit way, by the way, man. 'Cause like there's a big difference between like you, you know, right away when you run into somebody who's trying to tell you how to be. It's horrible. It's a-

Joe Rogan 31:38 Ugh.

Duncan Trussell 31:38 ... even, even if it's in a light way.

Joe Rogan 31:40 It's such a... It's so drone-some.

Duncan Trussell 31:42 Ooh.

Joe Rogan 31:43 Like, ugh.

Duncan Trussell 31:44 Ugh.

Joe Rogan 31:45 Ugh.

Duncan Trussell 31:46 Ugh. Some people want you sick. Some people want you destabilized and like unbalanced. Some-

Joe Rogan 31:50 Yeah.

Duncan Trussell 31:50 One, one thing's for sure, people don't want you to know who you are because if you know who you are, they can't tell you who you are. But, but, you know, if you run into someone who's legitimately uto... An, a utopian. Here we go. Get ready to lose fucking viewers right now, baby.

Joe Rogan 32:05 (laughs)

Duncan Trussell 32:05 Pe- this is where people press stop on Spotify, go on to like listen to like My Favorite Murder or whatever.

Joe Rogan 32:10 (laughs)

Duncan Trussell 32:10 But I was at Burning Man and-

Joe Rogan 32:13 (laughs)

Duncan Trussell 32:14 (laughs) Stop! Stop! Stop! Stop! Stop!

Joe Rogan 32:19 Hey, man, I am sure Burning Man is like everything else in the world. There's a lot of profound conversations and few of them that wanna make you just bury your head in the sand.

Duncan Trussell 32:27 Definitely.

Joe Rogan 32:28 Right?

Duncan Trussell 32:28 And, and, and, but one... This guy came up to... You're just getting these great chats. And this guy came up to me. We're just yapping. And he said, "Do you think world peace is possible?" He wasn't being a missionary or anything.

Joe Rogan 32:39 Just asking.

Duncan Trussell 32:39 Just asking.

Joe Rogan 32:40 It's a real question, but it's so cliche that it seems like a joke question that a moron would ask you.

Duncan Trussell 32:45 Yeah, but he-

Joe Rogan 32:45 Isn't that funny?

Duncan Trussell 32:46 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 32:47 Like w- what would you want more than that? World equality, world, uh, financial equality-

Duncan Trussell 32:52 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 32:52 ... world peace. There's like four or five things you would ever say, like, "Look, that might cure up a lot of shit."

Duncan Trussell 32:57 Yeah, that's right.

Joe Rogan 32:58 And, but to ask it is so cliche.

Duncan Trussell 33:01 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 33:01 Like, everybody's like-

Duncan Trussell 33:01 You could do it at Burning Man. You could-

Joe Rogan 33:02 What?

Duncan Trussell 33:03 Well, that's a, that's a-

Joe Rogan 33:03 World peace.

Duncan Trussell 33:04 Well, you know, and that's the other thing. If like, let's say you're at the Venice Boardwalk and some son of a bitch dressed like Uncle Sam comes and asks you that, you're gonna like go the other direction like, "Fuck you."

Joe Rogan 33:13 (laughs)

Duncan Trussell 33:13 Like, you're just gonna leave, right?

Joe Rogan 33:15 Maybe if you get out of Nicaragua, man.

Duncan Trussell 33:17 Yeah, yeah, but, but, yeah, he was actually somebody who's really into Buckminster Fuller. And I think that was something Buckminster Fuller put out there, which is like this, this question is very important Buc... And you should all... You should ask yourself this as an individual, because if you think world peace is possible-

Joe Rogan 33:32 Right.

Duncan Trussell 33:32 ... uh, even if you acknowledge that maybe right now it's not possible, but if you can invent in your mind some technology, some... Or even if you can invent in your mind like an X, like in algebra for a thing you don't have the space for yet, but it could be-

Joe Rogan 33:45 Right.

Duncan Trussell 33:45 ... if there's any sense in you at all that world peace is possible, then from that point forward, you should be part of whatever it is that's gonna make us have that great utopian ideal that transcends American borders.

Joe Rogan 34:00 Hmm.

Duncan Trussell 34:01 And 'cause the am... That's the other problem is the American dream thing, it's confined... It's not the American dream. It's the human dream. The human dream is the intuition we all have that there's a way for us to be on the planet together that doesn't involve blowing each other up.

Joe Rogan 34:15 Right.

Duncan Trussell 34:15 And that's... I think it's possible. I think it's possible. I just don't know how it would be... How to get there necessarily, but I think it's possible. And one thing's for sure, whenever you get a Trump or any fucking pundit blowing out divisive shit into people's brains, they are not dr... If there's like a scale, one side is world peace, one side is chaos, they're dropping, they're dropping their, their pebbles on the chaos part of the scale. And it's like you-

Joe Rogan 34:42 Why, why do you think they're doing that?

Duncan Trussell 34:43 'Cause man, let me tell you, there's a lot of money to be made in fucking chaos, man. There's a lot of money. I mean, isn't that what an engine is? An engine is kind of like controlled explosions.

Joe Rogan 34:52 Do you remember when Trump talked openly once about the military-industrial complex?

Duncan Trussell 34:57 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 34:58 And he said they want to go to war?

Duncan Trussell 34:59 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 35:00 And you're like, "What?" The problem is he says so many other things that are ridiculous.

Duncan Trussell 35:06 I know. If only he just said that.

Joe Rogan 35:08 If only he just said that. The problem with him saying that is you can go, "Yeah, yeah, yeah, but he also called this chick he fucked a horse face." Like, (laughs) you know, he... (laughs) And you go, "Oh yeah, that's not nothing nice."

Duncan Trussell 35:21 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 35:21 Like he, he had, he had a p- he had a thing there, like a moment, like an Eisenhower moment, not quite as eloquent. But when Eisenhower was on television and he warned people about the military-industrial complex as he was leaving office, that's to this day like one of the most profound speeches I've ever seen.

Duncan Trussell 35:36 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 35:37 Because it gives me a chill because I think, "Well, this is black and white from how many fucking years ago?"

Duncan Trussell 35:42 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 35:43 If this shit was going on then, it's not like it stopped going on.

Duncan Trussell 35:45 Didn't stop.

Joe Rogan 35:46 We... See, one of the reasons why we're in such a fucked up space politically is 'cause this is the first time where politics have been really exposed to the general public.... by the internet. Like, you, you have a different access to politics-

Duncan Trussell 36:00 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 36:00 ... you never had before. You have real time things breaking. You find out... So, like, if someone... Like, Gavin Newsom said he was gonna take a pay cut, he didn't. Fox News princess, it goes wi- and you get all these stories. Like, "Oh." Would you have known that before cell phones and the-

Duncan Trussell 36:16 No.

Joe Rogan 36:16 ... internet? You would've never known that he didn't do that.

Duncan Trussell 36:17 No.

Joe Rogan 36:17 You would have to be a person who's really into politics.

Duncan Trussell 36:19 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 36:19 And there's not that many of them. Most people are busy. So now, politics relies on scandals. And scandals-

Duncan Trussell 36:26 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 36:26 ... are what weasels people through.

Duncan Trussell 36:28 That's it.

Joe Rogan 36:28 So, the thing about scandals is, not everybody's a good person, all right? And if you, if you do a lot of fucked up shit, but you own it the way Trump did, people didn't count on the asshole vote-

Duncan Trussell 36:39 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 36:39 ...'cause there's a lot of assholes out there and finally they had a king.

Duncan Trussell 36:43 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 36:43 They're like, "This is our king."

Duncan Trussell 36:44 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 36:44 "Fucking MAGA." They wear the fucking sunglasses-

Duncan Trussell 36:48 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 36:48 ... and they talk shit to-

Duncan Trussell 36:49 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 36:49 ... Ted Cruz at rallies. Those guys finally had a king. And th- that, that's ano- like, we didn't... There was no king on the other side. There was no king that... Compassionate, intelligent king who actually made sense.

Duncan Trussell 37:01 Well, that's the sad part.

Joe Rogan 37:02 That's what we don't have.

Duncan Trussell 37:03 Think how d- how depressing your very astute observation is, in the sense that the pr- idea was we weren't gonna have a fucking monarchy here.

Joe Rogan 37:10 Yeah.

Duncan Trussell 37:10 That was the whole point. And-

Joe Rogan 37:11 And now we elect a monarchy.

Duncan Trussell 37:13 Yeah. Yeah. That's the whole point, man.

Joe Rogan 37:15 Yeah.

Duncan Trussell 37:15 And, and it's like... And again, it's like, look, if... Like, if you start playing the game that you're the smart person in the room, and that if people disagree with you, they must be dumb, if people have d- different ideas than you, they must be stupid, and then you start shaming them, what can you... What... All you're doing is creating this like, uh, you're gonna create a reaction to that. And the reaction is gonna be a celebration of every single thing your... With your great vast elite intelligence deriding, you know?

Joe Rogan 37:42 Mm-hmm.

Duncan Trussell 37:42 And so, I think, you know, that's the problem, is it's like, I ha- I just think there's nothing worse than when, like, people who are legitimately smart, have read a bunch of fucking books, have got master's degrees, have not developed enough compassion to understand that just about every single person on the planet wants to be happy, wants to have a full stomach, doesn't wanna hurt anybody, and would run into a building on fire to save somebody. Most everybody, I would say. I would say at least 90%.

Joe Rogan 38:11 A large percentage.

Duncan Trussell 38:12 A large percentage. And these motherfuckers are, are shaming them and telling them they're idiots or they're stupid or this and that. It's like, "Fuck you, man." You don't know what these people came up through. You don't know... These people were born into, like, houses filled with fucking methamphetamine smoke-

Joe Rogan 38:26 Mm-hmm.

Duncan Trussell 38:26 ... whose parents were like, you know, absolutely fucking insane and they still managed to get out and get a job and have a fucking life and pay taxes.

Joe Rogan 38:34 Yep.

Duncan Trussell 38:35 And now your fucking ass is gonna tell these people who didn't have the fucking trust fund that you had that got you into the fucking Ivy League university-

Joe Rogan 38:42 Yeah.

Duncan Trussell 38:42 ... that they're fucking idiots? Shut the fuck up. Stop. They're not. And then I'm shaming those people, that's the problem. (laughs) The idea is like, every-

Joe Rogan 38:49 But you're not shaming them, you're just honestly illuminating their, their, their current situation.

Duncan Trussell 38:54 Let's just-

Joe Rogan 38:55 I don't think it's shaming them.

Duncan Trussell 38:56 ... let's just drop it. Let- Yeah. It's time to, like, let go of the whole, like, snooty thing. It's time to... Also, on the other side, it's time to let go of, like, every single one of these people must be, like, burning candles to Moloch in their backyard thing too. Like, let's let go of the, all those stories for a second. I'm not saying there aren't people burning candles to Moloch. I've never-

Joe Rogan 39:14 There definitely are.

Duncan Trussell 39:14 I've never met one.

Joe Rogan 39:15 I've seen the Bohemian Grove video.

Duncan Trussell 39:17 Is that Moloch?

Joe Rogan 39:18 Yes. That's Moloch, the Owl God. When Alex Jones and-

Duncan Trussell 39:20 Isn't it just an owl?

Joe Rogan 39:21 ... Jon Ronson s- no. It's Moloch. They w- they were talking about him.

Duncan Trussell 39:25 Is it Moloch? Is that how you pronounce it?

Joe Rogan 39:26 Moloch the Owl, Owl God, according to Alex. Uh, Jon Ronson and Alex Jones, they snuck into Bohemian Grove. This was when everybody was saying it was all bullshit. And I, I'd say this many times, and I'll say it some more. Give me that lighter.

Duncan Trussell 39:38 You got it, friend.

Joe Rogan 39:39 Look, Alex Jones, he's, he's made some mistakes and some big ones, but he's also actually exposed some real shit. And he owns up to the mistakes he's made. They're not good. He doesn't think they're good. Th- there's a thing about finding conspiracies everywhere that's not good for your brain. I really believe this. I think that if you go looking for those things and that's all you look for and you look for them all the time, you can get real paranoid and real crazy. And then, uh, there's also a bunch of people that are trying to stop you from doing that, because you do expose some crazy shit.

Duncan Trussell 40:09 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 40:10 You know, he was talking about Epstein a long time ago.

Duncan Trussell 40:12 I know.

Joe Rogan 40:13 A long time ago. He was saying there is a fucking island and, and they take all these rich politicians and, and some celebrities and they bang these kids. And I was like, "Come on." He was telling me this a long time ago. So he's also the one who told me about B- Bohemian Grove. Well, I actually watched it for... That's... Like, I think this tape was actually made before I met him. So he went and snuck in to this place where like former presidents go.

Duncan Trussell 40:35 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 40:35 There's a photograph of... It's, uh, Ronald Reagan with Herbert Walker Bush and a couple other people all standing around. And it's like, these are the people that used to hang out at this place and they would put on robes and they would worship an owl go- an owl god, and they would burn an effigy. And they're play- and the... And Alex snuck in and made video footage of this shit. And then no one's denying that it's real. This really did happen. They're... So they're in with these bankers and former presidents and they're dressed like druids.

Duncan Trussell 41:03 Yes.

Joe Rogan 41:04 And they... And some guy brings over something that it's an effigy that's supposed to be a body, a wrapped up effigy. It's a, it's a bunch of sticks in bl- in a blanket, but it's like shaped like a body.

Duncan Trussell 41:13 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 41:13 And they drop it in the fire. And they're all worshiping an owl god.

Duncan Trussell 41:17 Why is that bad?

Joe Rogan 41:18 Ima- imagine if you saw those... If that's what your business is, just finding those things. How crazy do you think you'd get?

Duncan Trussell 41:23 First of all, wait-

Joe Rogan 41:23 Then you add in vodka and head wounds.

Duncan Trussell 41:26 Wait. Wait, wait. Hold on. Wait. Go to the vodka and head wounds part. What do you mean?

Joe Rogan 41:29 That's Alex Jones.

Duncan Trussell 41:30 Oh, okay. I got you.

Joe Rogan 41:30 He had a lot of vodka and he had a bad head injury when he was younger.

Duncan Trussell 41:32 Look, goddammit man, when I was in liberal arts school, man, there was this great teacher who changed my life, Sam Scovill, and he... One of the things he taught was so beautiful. He still teaches there. One of the things he taught was, figure out a way to take in all information and then filter out the shit that's not real and-

Joe Rogan 41:48 Yes.

Duncan Trussell 41:48 ... keep the real stuff. And like, you know, Alex Jones is like, "Let's..." Yeah. He, uh...

Joe Rogan 41:53 Some of the stuff is real.

Duncan Trussell 41:54 Take what's real and throw out the rest.

Joe Rogan 41:56 There's a, there's a good chunk of it-

Duncan Trussell 41:57 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 41:57 ... that's real. Like, I remember he, he was telling me that, uh, there's... The government's using chemicals that turn frogs gay. I was like, "What? What are you talking about?"... he goes, yes. He goes, "Pesticides are turning frogs gay." And I'm like, "That can't be real." No, there really is.

Duncan Trussell 42:10 Is that true?

Joe Rogan 42:11 Yes. There's pesticides that change frogs genders.

Duncan Trussell 42:14 What?

Joe Rogan 42:15 Yes. Yes.

Duncan Trussell 42:16 But y-

Joe Rogan 42:17 Some pesticide fucks with frogs' genders.

Duncan Trussell 42:22 That sucks.

Joe Rogan 42:23 Maybe it doesn't.

Duncan Trussell 42:24 I mean, depends on the frog. (laughs)

Joe Rogan 42:25 Maybe it's awesome for the frog. Maybe frogs-

Duncan Trussell 42:27 Depends on the frog. (laughs)

Joe Rogan 42:27 ... don't give a fuck 'cause they've never been taught homophobia.

Duncan Trussell 42:29 Why would they care?

Joe Rogan 42:29 They don't care who they fuck. But-

Duncan Trussell 42:31 Th- Yeah, but-

Joe Rogan 42:31 But there's a real thing that d- see if you can find that.

Narrator 42:34 I'm looking again.

Joe Rogan 42:34 It's, it's a pesticide that has some sort of an effect, an unintended effect, on frogs' genders. Dude, that's another thing that people don't talk about. Pesticides that have been used in, like, golf courses and, like, there's people who live around those, that's a chemical dump.

Duncan Trussell 42:51 Yeah, golf courses are fucked up.

Joe Rogan 42:51 Pesticide atrazine can turn male frogs into females.

Duncan Trussell 42:55 Whoa. Cool.

Joe Rogan 42:56 (laughs) So, so there's a fucking pesticide-

Duncan Trussell 42:58 Berkeley news.

Joe Rogan 42:58 ... that changes the gender, or should I say the sex? Is it the same thing?

Duncan Trussell 43:03 What?

Joe Rogan 43:03 I have to t- sex and gender?

Duncan Trussell 43:04 Hey, I'm not getting sucked into that fucking black hole, Rogan.

Narrator 43:07 (laughs)

Duncan Trussell 43:07 You can keep that shit to yourself.

Narrator 43:09 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 43:09 (laughs)

Duncan Trussell 43:09 But hey, I'll get sucked into another black hole. Hey-

Joe Rogan 43:11 Isn't that crazy though?

Duncan Trussell 43:12 Well, yeah. That-

Joe Rogan 43:13 That's, okay, what else?

Duncan Trussell 43:14 Before we get into the, that, that stuff, I wanna say this real quick.

Joe Rogan 43:17 Okay.

Duncan Trussell 43:17 Is that camera on me? Friends at the Bohemian Grove.

Joe Rogan 43:21 (laughs)

Duncan Trussell 43:22 Future friends, I should say, I just want you to know, I don't know much about you. I know Alex Jones, you know, probably on vodka drinks.

Joe Rogan 43:30 I don't think he was then. I think he was sober. He started drinking after all this.

Duncan Trussell 43:33 Please don't fuck this up for me.

Joe Rogan 43:34 Sorry, sorry.

Duncan Trussell 43:35 S- he had an infiltrator. Look, I went to a summer camp.

Joe Rogan 43:38 (laughs)

Duncan Trussell 43:39 We had bonfires. We wore robes. I mean, not like maybe what you do. I just wanna say, hey, come on. Invite me please.

Joe Rogan 43:48 (laughs)

Duncan Trussell 43:48 I won't tell anybody anything. I've heard you guys are pretty awesome. Actually, what I've heard is the idea was to get a bunch of hardcore neocons together and then mix some artists in, in the hopes that, like, having, like, brushing shoulders with artists would in some way, shape, or form loosen some people up a little bit.

Joe Rogan 44:04 (laughs)

Duncan Trussell 44:04 And I've also heard you have a tram that connects campsites there to other campsites, meaning you just get in the tram and suddenly you're hanging out with Dick Cheney. Listen, I won't tell anybody. I got a podcast, I won't even tell Joe. Let me in. I'll worship Moloch. I won't worship Moloch if it means hurting people, but I don't understand why people are upset about fucking, by the way, they're, that's like that, you had fucking video.

Joe Rogan 44:27 Jesus Christ.

Duncan Trussell 44:28 Why is, what's wrong with worshiping-

Joe Rogan 44:30 There's, nothing.

Duncan Trussell 44:30 This is the thing.

Joe Rogan 44:31 You're getting so excited.

Duncan Trussell 44:32 This is the thing that I get confused about here.

Joe Rogan 44:33 Okay.

Duncan Trussell 44:34 It's like, in our country, we've got people who are Christian.

Joe Rogan 44:39 Yes.

Duncan Trussell 44:40 And that's a beautiful thing. And I do love Jesus. I was reading the Book of Mark today regarding the Parable of the Sower. But that being said, I don't think it's fair, necessarily, to tell people they can't worship an owl or burn an effigy in front of an owl in some kind of symbolic magical ritual that represents the disintegration of your negative energy or whatever it may be. I really don't know. But that be, you know, to me, that's the other problem that's happening right now is, like, superstition is ru- running rampant. I'm friends with lots of witches, I know a few Satanists, and I know a few people who are into the occult, and I don't know a single one of them that would tolerate child abuse. I don't know a single one that wouldn't kill somebody. Some of them would kill people if they thought they were hurting kids. Not, and, and make it so that nobody found the body. Some of the Satanists I know, they would kill some, they would've killed someone probably. I don't know for sure. I'm not trying to throw any Satanists under the bus, but I'm just saying, like, this idea that we can't have altern- alternate pagan religions in our country-

Joe Rogan 45:39 Right.

Duncan Trussell 45:39 ... without immediately being associated with human sacrifice or child abuse, I think that goes against the American spirit. It's like, look, 'cause people don't wanna subscribe to your particular, like, very popular global religion doesn't necessarily implicate them in, like, something that is truly a horror, which is h- human trafficking.

Joe Rogan 45:58 Right.

Duncan Trussell 45:58 So to me, this is the problem is, like, man, we gotta be a little bit more nuanced in our apprehend- or not, in our conceptualization of these people. Again, I don't know what's going on at the fucking Bohemian Grove, but from what I've heard, it's basically a summer camp for billionaires where they try to get artists in there to, like, loosen 'em up a little bit. That's what I've heard. I could be wrong.

Joe Rogan 46:17 Who told you this? Is this-

Duncan Trussell 46:19 I honestly can't fucking say.

Joe Rogan 46:21 Hmm.

Duncan Trussell 46:22 Ahem.

Joe Rogan 46:24 Hmm. Interesting.

Duncan Trussell 46:25 Look, man, I don't know. And I know, and I've seen-

Joe Rogan 46:27 Have you seen the video of Bohemian Grove? Have you seen it?

Duncan Trussell 46:29 The g- the, the, the ritual in front of the Owl God?

Joe Rogan 46:32 Yeah. Have you seen it?

Duncan Trussell 46:33 Yeah. Dude, go, come with me to Burning Man and you will see that every-

Joe Rogan 46:38 Oh, I'm sure.

Duncan Trussell 46:38 ... every 50 feet.

Joe Rogan 46:39 Look, I don't think it's that big of a deal. I really don't.

Duncan Trussell 46:43 If it involves hurting kids, it's a big deal. And if these motherfuckers are doing anything that involves human sacrifice, hurting human beings, in, in in a, in, in any application of that-

Joe Rogan 46:54 Of course.

Duncan Trussell 46:54 ... then it's the worst thing on earth and I'm so sorry that I said anything about it. But if these are-

Joe Rogan 46:59 But I don't think, I don't think that's what this is. I mean, uh, obviously what we're seeing is not that. We don't know what else happens. But what you're seeing is them burning sticks in front of this, uh, Owl God. And it's like this crazy, um, crazy, uh, speech they're giving while it's going on. It's, it's really weird.

Duncan Trussell 47:16 Hey, can we-

Joe Rogan 47:17 Can we hear some of it? The speech?

Narrator 47:20 Uh, I don't know where the speech is in the video. I found another video-

Joe Rogan 47:22 Hmm.

Narrator 47:22 ... where this, like, stabilized the footage. The f-

Joe Rogan 47:24 Oh.

Narrator 47:25 It's like, uh, captured in another one.

Joe Rogan 47:25 But I mean, before, before this, nobody really believed that... Listen to this.

Narrator 47:30 Fire shall have its will of thee. Beyond all care. And all the winds, may ferry without us. Hail fellowship's eternal flame. Once again, midsummer sets us free. Yay. (clapping) Woo.

Joe Rogan 47:50 And now they're, they're lighting the effigy on fire and everybody's cheering.

Narrator 47:56 Woo.

Duncan Trussell 47:57 It looks fun.

Joe Rogan 47:58 So Stanley Kubrick had this, uh, quote once to, uh, Nicole Kidman, I think it was. They were working on Eyes Wide Shut. See if you can find what she said about the elites.... that he had- that he had said sa- I kno- I know I saved it. I can find it if I have a chance to look at my laptop. But it was something about him, you know, talking about the- the powers that run the world and that they all have something on each other and that's how they all can stay together. They all compromise each other. That's what Skull and Bones was about. Like, that's what all that stuff's about. So he had a- a much more concise, uh-

Duncan Trussell 48:34 Yeah, man.

Joe Rogan 48:34 ... quote on that. But when you see something like that, you go, "W- well..." Like, maybe it's, like, fun that they do it, that nobody knows they do it. You know what I'm saying?

Duncan Trussell 48:41 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 48:41 Like, maybe it's, like, one of those rituals where you get together, your dad thinks it's hilarious, and you both put your hoods on-

Duncan Trussell 48:46 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 48:46 ... and you go out there and you burn the owl, or you burn the sticks in front of the owl. And what's fun is that n- you're not supposed to be doing it and it's a secret, but nothing really is happening. That's also on the table.

Duncan Trussell 48:58 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 48:59 It's possible. But it is fucking weird, man. That was weird. The fact that-

Duncan Trussell 49:04 Imagine if there was no Catholic Church.

Joe Rogan 49:06 Imagine if you are a billionaire. That's what you're doing with your weekend?

Duncan Trussell 49:09 But imagine if there was no Catholic Church and there was one video of a mass.

Joe Rogan 49:14 Right.

Duncan Trussell 49:14 We would be like, "What the fuck?"

Joe Rogan 49:16 Right. "What is that?"

Duncan Trussell 49:16 "That's fucked up."

Joe Rogan 49:17 "What is this craziness?"

Duncan Trussell 49:18 Imagi- imagine any religious ceremony, if there was only one version of it. 'Cause I- I- I'm not trying to reduce it to summer camp fun or even, like, fraternity games. There's a-

Joe Rogan 49:26 Who knows what it is, right?

Duncan Trussell 49:27 Well-

Joe Rogan 49:28 We just- we just know-

Duncan Trussell 49:29 We could be- you can know what it is.

Joe Rogan 49:30 Yeah.

Duncan Trussell 49:30 A-

Joe Rogan 49:30 They'd have to tell us. But we just see-

Duncan Trussell 49:33 (laughs) Yeah.

Joe Rogan 49:33 ... something crazy. But it's not evil. I mean, what is it?

Duncan Trussell 49:38 Well, it s- for me, it's a question mark. I don't- I don't really know. I know that my-

Joe Rogan 49:41 They're just dressed weird.

Duncan Trussell 49:42 ... my- my tendency, whenever I have a question mark, is to assign malevolence to it, just out of a basic kind of weakness and my own bias. Like-

Joe Rogan 49:50 Right.

Duncan Trussell 49:50 ... if I don't know what a thing is, like, you know, when you're waiting for the doctor to call regarding some scan they just did on you. You know, if you- if you have the slightest fear of death or any kind of bias in you, then that space in between when you- when you-

Joe Rogan 50:03 Maybe we're overlooking this. Maybe it's, like, their version of Renaissance fair. And people just wanna escape reality and pretend that they live with Moloch, the owl god, and throw a fucking hood over your head, and "Yes, please, and peace be with you."

Duncan Trussell 50:16 Yeah, I mean, it c- it could be some kind of, like, pagan celebration.

Joe Rogan 50:21 Could be, right?

Duncan Trussell 50:21 You know, and if you look back at, like, the history of, uh, paganism or hedonism or... Terence McKenna does such a great job talking about the Eleusinian mysteries and the-

Joe Rogan 50:30 Mm-hmm.

Duncan Trussell 50:30 You know, all these, like, things that aren't really quite as accessible as the main- main religions of the world. All the re- r- religions of the world, they have this beautiful quality in them, depending on the religion. And generally, one of the qualities that's so beautiful is a mechanism of self-forgiveness-

Joe Rogan 50:47 Mm.

Duncan Trussell 50:47 ... and a mechanism of purification, that a general assessment of the human condition as being somewhat depraved. The ayah- w- how many... Like, the puking in ayahuasca, you're purging yourself from your darkness. The confession booth in Catholicism. Uh, maybe you could say in Gnosticism, like, true gnosis, or in Buddhism, like, connecting with the, like, actual reality versus your overlays of reality, or... You know, it goes on and on. This is all... Within each one is this idea of, like, there's a way for us to ritualistically, uh, create, if you wanna be a pure scientific materialist, a beautiful placebo effect that gets you to drop some of your nor- neurotic qualities, or the very least, reset your intention to make the world a better place. And anything, whatever that... I don't care what the fuck it is, whatever it may be, if that's what it- what it's all about, is a recognition of like, man, you beat yourself up every day. You're so hard on yourself. You beat yourself up for all the shit you did in the past. And- and- and we live in a world right now where there's not much tolerance, there's not much forgiveness. And- and- and anything that allows a p- a, uh, kind of, like, steam valve from which all that shit can get released, so from this day forward, you're born again, you're brand new. I don't care if it's an owl. Man, go... If you think that's crazy, look at, like, Main Street Disneyland any night. (laughs) That's some crazy shit to watch too.

Joe Rogan 52:10 Mm-hmm.

Duncan Trussell 52:10 And some people's entire lives have not been, like, changed from, like, having a great night anywhere.

Joe Rogan 52:17 Yeah.

Duncan Trussell 52:17 So, you know, to me it's like ritual is not scary to me. What's scary to me, though, i- is, uh, anything that objectifies humans, enslaves humans, uh, uh, hurts kids.

Joe Rogan 52:32 Sacrifices.

Duncan Trussell 52:32 And so I... Yeah, human sacrifice, any of that stuff. And if that's what's really happening there, I truly don't know, then I completely apologize for any defense of it.

Joe Rogan 52:39 No, it's just sticks. It's just sticks. The question is-

Duncan Trussell 52:41 I think it is sticks.

Joe Rogan 52:42 ... was it always just sticks? Did it use to be people? Did they use to sacrifice a person? Did they stop doing it at one point in time? "One widely cited Nicole Kidman interview was made up by the fake news site Newspunch." You sons of bitches. Goddamn it, they got me.

Duncan Trussell 52:58 They got you. But again, that-

Joe Rogan 52:59 Does it say what the quote is?

Duncan Trussell 53:00 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 53:01 What is the quote? Uh, he said that Hollywood's run by pedophiles or something like that. No. I found the Reddit page where it was put up, but now that that's- God damn, they got me. ... now that's gone. Now they took it down. Glad I asked you.

Duncan Trussell 53:08 Hey, you wanna see something real creepy? Can y- uh, J- Jamie, do you, may I ask you to look something up?

Joe Rogan 53:13 Sure.

Duncan Trussell 53:13 Look up the- that ch- there's a- a video of a van that was actually used for human trafficking.

Joe Rogan 53:19 I saw that.

Duncan Trussell 53:20 That shit is chilling.

Joe Rogan 53:21 Terrible. Terrifying.

Duncan Trussell 53:22 Chilling.

Joe Rogan 53:22 Yeah.

Duncan Trussell 53:22 And it's like, to me, it's like, man, if we're gonna be... I- it is- there's... Anybody who is at the helm of the ship that's fighting those motherfuckers right now-

Joe Rogan 53:32 Yeah.

Duncan Trussell 53:32 ... deserves medals.

Joe Rogan 53:33 Mm-hmm.

Duncan Trussell 53:33 And I hope that they never stop what they're doing. I just want them to be very precise in their attacks.

Joe Rogan 53:39 Yeah.

Duncan Trussell 53:39 That's all. Don't dilute your position by getting caught up in something. And again, I am not... I'm- I'm already gonna get attacked for this, saying, like, "Doug works for the blah, blah." I don't. I- I don't. I'm a Buddhist, and I- I go to Ram Dass retreats and Burning Man. But, uh, if they invited me to the Bohemian Grove, I'd go, and if I went there and I saw that hurt-

Joe Rogan 53:56 I was gonna say, if Stanley Kubrick could k- keep a secret, we can too.

Duncan Trussell 54:01 Are you saying you would go to The Grove with me?

Joe Rogan 54:03 Yes.

Duncan Trussell 54:05 That'd be awesome.

Joe Rogan 54:06 I won't tell anybody.

Duncan Trussell 54:06 But, you know, if you and I were invited there and we saw anything happening that was anything to do with, like, what people s-

Joe Rogan 54:12 I would think it would be a trap and they would be setting us up.... they would put on, like, some sort of fake thing just to make us look like fools, so we talk about it on our podcast.

Duncan Trussell 54:21 Do you know, man-

Joe Rogan 54:22 (laughs)

Duncan Trussell 54:22 ... if we ever do a movie together, that's the movie. Like, it should be all of your friends going to the Bohi- get invited to the Bohemian Grove.

Joe Rogan 54:27 Exactly. Right? Like, I become friends with some guy who's, like, a banker who really likes comedy.

Duncan Trussell 54:32 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 54:33 Right? And then this guy tells you... He gets drunk one night. Like, "I, I know the Illuminati. They're real."

Duncan Trussell 54:37 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 54:37 "The Bilderberg Group? It's real." Like, "What?" "Yeah, man. Jekyll Island. It's a... They made the Federal Institute... It's not even from America, man." And you're like, "What? What?" And then this guy starts un- unraveling the tale of America.

Duncan Trussell 54:51 Can I tell you something crazy?

Joe Rogan 54:53 The Federal Reserve... Yeah.

Duncan Trussell 54:54 People in my family used to own parts of Jekyll Island.

Joe Rogan 54:57 Th- Okay, tell the story of Jekyll Island, 'cause that's what I'm talking about, if people don't know it.

Duncan Trussell 55:00 Well, here's the problem. I don't know the story. Like, I-

Joe Rogan 55:03 (laughs)

Duncan Trussell 55:03 ... like, I remember hearing some shit-

Joe Rogan 55:04 I have, like, two paragraphs in my head memorized.

Duncan Trussell 55:06 I, I remember hearing people in my family had some claim on land there, and that they sold it. And I... Uh, since then, I was just kind of resentful because it's like they sold it for nothing, and, like, if they'd held onto it, like, uh, you know, I would be at the fucking Bohemian Grove.

Joe Rogan 55:21 (laughs)

Duncan Trussell 55:21 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 55:22 And so Jekyll Island's supposed to be the place where they invented the Federal Reserve, right?

Duncan Trussell 55:27 I, I went t-

Joe Rogan 55:27 Isn't that it?

Duncan Trussell 55:28 There's a great hotel-

Joe Rogan 55:28 Is that it, Jamie? Hi. Jes-... What does it say? Um, I don't know. Listen, this... All d- disclaimer- Gotta know where to look. ... we're... All three of us are morons.

Duncan Trussell 55:35 Yes!

Joe Rogan 55:36 Okay? This is not... You... Th- The- That's one thing that drives me crazy. This is one of the things about silencing people that are crazy online. I can tell when someone's crazy. And part of someone being crazy is you see these crazy people and you go, "Oh, I think they might be crazy." And then you look into it, and you go, "Yeah, none of their... None of what they're saying makes sense. They actually are crazy. But damn, that was pretty close."

Duncan Trussell 55:56 Yeah, dude.

Joe Rogan 55:57 You gotta be... The thing about people saying things that other people disagree with when they want to silence those people is: you don't think that other people are smart as you. You're thinking that's gonna work on other people.

Duncan Trussell 56:08 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 56:08 If someone's saying that the Earth is flat and there's lizard people that control the sunrise, if that was s-... You, you, you'd go, "Okay."

Duncan Trussell 56:16 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 56:16 You know what I'm saying?

Duncan Trussell 56:17 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 56:17 It... It wouldn't work.

Duncan Trussell 56:18 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 56:18 So, why not let someone say it? So, if someone says it, it doesn't work on you.

Duncan Trussell 56:22 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 56:23 Well, what are you worried about? You're worried it's gonna work on somebody else.

Duncan Trussell 56:25 Yes.

Joe Rogan 56:26 That's what you're worried about. You're worried it's gonna w-... And that's the weird thing about COVID, because it's the one thing where you're not allowed to do that anymore. Because if you do anything that goes against the government bylines, anything that goes against what the World Health Organization thinks you should do, or CDC thinks you should do, you'll get kicked off of YouTube. You get silenced. Everybody gets removed.

Duncan Trussell 56:47 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 56:47 Whether you're right or wrong. It's the one thing where you can't talk crazy. You can talk crazy about the Earth being hollow. You could talk about beings that are made out of light that fly in and out of our consciousness-

Duncan Trussell 56:58 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 56:59 ... and that's responsible for all of our ideas.

Duncan Trussell 57:01 Yes.

Joe Rogan 57:01 And then w-... You could talk about how there's an application that's coming in 2023, it's right now being vetted by the NSA to make sure that we can use it so we can communicate with the aliens. You can have all these k-... wacko videos where you're making shit up and no one cares. But if you say that masks don't help, and what we need to do is, uh, get healthier, they'll remove you from YouTube.

Duncan Trussell 57:19 Well, that's the fire in a crowded theater thing.

Joe Rogan 57:21 Yeah.

Duncan Trussell 57:21 Like, you can't yell "fire" in a crowded theater, so... So, like, the pro-... Like, look, the problem with it is, to me, i- is I, like, have, like, gone through every single stage of grief over YouTube's history.

Joe Rogan 57:31 Mask is a bad, um, analogy. Maybe a better analogy is you can open up businesses, as long as you do it carefully.

Duncan Trussell 57:38 I used to love YouTube, man. I used to love it-

Joe Rogan 57:41 I still love it.

Duncan Trussell 57:42 But what I loved about it in the old days... I still love it. I still go on every day. But what I loved about it in the old days is what you're saying. No one's putting a cork in the champagne bottles.

Joe Rogan 57:50 It was wild.

Duncan Trussell 57:51 It was... It was a museum of madness.

Joe Rogan 57:53 Yes.

Duncan Trussell 57:53 And... You would... And what was even better is the algorithm was working in your favor, so it's like punch in Hollow Earth-

Joe Rogan 57:59 Yes.

Duncan Trussell 57:59 ... that's gonna take you all the way to, like-

Joe Rogan 58:01 Oh, deep.

Duncan Trussell 58:01 ... some crazy-

Joe Rogan 58:03 Deep, deep, deep.

Duncan Trussell 58:03 ... deep shit. And, uh, never once in all of my explorations in, in the early days of YouTube was I like, "This could be real." It was more like, "Wow! Look at how all the different versions of reality that people are processing." And, and it was a joy. But I think what happened probably is, like, people realized, like, "God," Like, "what we've got..." Like, you talk about this sometimes, man. The nightmare when... And it will happen, when primates figure out to, like, use friction to make fire.

Joe Rogan 58:34 (laughs)

Duncan Trussell 58:34 You talk about this.

Joe Rogan 58:35 Yes.

Duncan Trussell 58:35 And that's a nightmare-

Joe Rogan 58:36 Yeah.

Duncan Trussell 58:36 ... for the planet. Like, you think the fucking shit's bad now.

Joe Rogan 58:39 Wait till the chimps figure out guns.

Duncan Trussell 58:41 Yeah. Uh, just fire. Just fire.

Joe Rogan 58:44 Just fire.

Duncan Trussell 58:44 Just-

Joe Rogan 58:44 Just figure out how to make their own fire. Yeah.

Duncan Trussell 58:46 Think, think of, like, the beginning, uh, the... When, like... I-... Uh, the protohominid shift into, like, figuring out-

Joe Rogan 58:52 That's a really good point.

Duncan Trussell 58:53 You know, this is trouble. Imagine how-

Joe Rogan 58:54 That's a really good point.

Duncan Trussell 58:55 Think of how many people died in the beginning of, like, discovering fire.

Joe Rogan 59:00 Oh, my God.

Duncan Trussell 59:00 How many experiments were done with fire. How many things were just set on fire.

Joe Rogan 59:05 (laughs)

Duncan Trussell 59:05 How many people just burnt... "I'll, gonna eat it! I bet you can eat it! Let me eat it! I'll get its energy in my body! Holy fuck, he melted his face off!" You know? So, similarly, like with, with the internet, we have this fi-... We have this new fire. And, like, people who are, like, in the conduits of the fire are, are, are... I think they're, they're having this really rotten come to Jesus moment where they're like... 'Cause I think a lot of these... Especially if you look in the Silicon Valley, these people are freaks. The early day... Like, the people making technology, they're nuts. I was sending you that Steve Jobs-

Joe Rogan 59:37 Mm-hmm.

Duncan Trussell 59:38 ... thing with him in a commune or whatever. These people are fucking crazy. But I think they're recognizing that, like, it... Oh, it's like... Okay-

Joe Rogan 59:46 The internet is the new fire.

Duncan Trussell 59:47 Yeah. And, and, and so... And they're starting to understand that, like, because of them, because of their intentional manipulative coding-

Joe Rogan 59:55 Yeah.

Duncan Trussell 59:55 ... because of their deep study of B.F. Skinner and behaviorism, they've produced this hyper-seductive, semi-sentient information dispersal device that is driving people who don't have the immune system to data that you're supposed to naturally get from school crazy.

Joe Rogan 1:00:15 (laughs)

Duncan Trussell 1:00:15 That's what's happening. And so people are going nuts because it's like-

Joe Rogan 1:00:18 Well, add that with the r- d- addictive quality of technology, those two things together, the addictive quality of just looking at, like, your phone and getting information off your phone and then add it to all the stuff that you're saying.

Duncan Trussell 1:00:30 Yeah, man. And, and, and, it's-

Joe Rogan 1:00:31 It's a crazy combination.

Duncan Trussell 1:00:33 And there, I think, Google and YouTube and as much as, like, you know, and I do think censorship's fucked. I would hate to be in anybody's position there because on one hand, you're looking at, like, a very liberal, very beautiful idea, which is like, everyone should be allowed to say whatever they want to say. And then it's meeting like, well, but what about these hyper charismatic, seductive people who like Hitler?

Joe Rogan 1:00:58 Mm.

Duncan Trussell 1:00:59 You know what I mean?

Joe Rogan 1:00:59 Right, right.

Duncan Trussell 1:00:59 Like, so now you run into this terrible place of like, and also we know that there's people who don't quite have the ability to discern what's real from what's not. I mean, I-

Joe Rogan 1:01:08 But we allow... This is my beef. We allow some of that because we allow evangelists.

Duncan Trussell 1:01:15 (chewing) Mm.

Joe Rogan 1:01:15 I heard Robert Tilden on one of his shows.

Duncan Trussell 1:01:17 Wow. Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:01:18 He goes-

Duncan Trussell 1:01:18 Wow.

Joe Rogan 1:01:18 ... "Every time you write a check to me, Satan gets a black eye."

Duncan Trussell 1:01:23 (laughs) That's good.

Joe Rogan 1:01:25 Dude, it was in my act for a while. That was-

Duncan Trussell 1:01:27 Dude.

Joe Rogan 1:01:27 ... him, I was like, "Where's my checkbook?"

Duncan Trussell 1:01:29 Ugh.

Joe Rogan 1:01:29 "You, Satan, you son of a bitch."

Duncan Trussell 1:01:32 Dude, it's-

Joe Rogan 1:01:32 Imagine you could steal money that way.

Duncan Trussell 1:01:35 It's... Look, man, I, I don't-

Joe Rogan 1:01:36 Don't you know what I'm saying?

Duncan Trussell 1:01:37 Yeah, I do know exactly what you're saying. And it's like this type of con artistry... Also cigarettes. Oh, you know, it's like this type of con artistry-

Joe Rogan 1:01:46 Yeah.

Duncan Trussell 1:01:47 ... he- generally it seems like there's some kind of grandfather clause on specific-

Joe Rogan 1:01:51 Yes.

Duncan Trussell 1:01:51 ... styles of con-

Joe Rogan 1:01:52 Of thie- of thievery and murder.

Duncan Trussell 1:01:54 Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:01:54 (laughs)

Duncan Trussell 1:01:54 'Cause like-

Joe Rogan 1:01:55 Cigarettes, like they know they're killing people.

Duncan Trussell 1:01:57 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 1:01:57 Imagine if you had bubble gum that killed a half a million people a year. Just bubble... It's like bubble gum, but it just, people are just dying.

Duncan Trussell 1:02:02 Stop selling that shit.

Joe Rogan 1:02:03 Stop. What the fuck are you doing?

Duncan Trussell 1:02:04 What are you doing? You're seeing-

Joe Rogan 1:02:05 "Well, people have a right to chew their bubble gum."

Duncan Trussell 1:02:07 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:02:07 "A lot of people like bubbles."

Duncan Trussell 1:02:08 Yeah, that's right.

Joe Rogan 1:02:09 Imagine if that's all it was. It's like you chewing bubbles makes you happy and everybody's dying of cancer, and this company is making $500 billion a year-

Duncan Trussell 1:02:16 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:02:17 ... or something like... How much do they make on cigarettes?

Duncan Trussell 1:02:19 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:02:19 How much... Let's, let's guess. Let's guess. What do you... How much, what do you think the ann- By the way, I wanna say it before. This is a box of cigars, okay? Mike Binder gave me that and he gave me that one over there, another box of cigars. I'm not anti-tobacco in any way, shape, or form. I'm a pro-free choice person. You absolutely should be able to s- smoke cigarettes. And I think you absolutely should be able to sell them because I don't wanna roll my own. And if I want a cigarette as a grown fucking man-

Duncan Trussell 1:02:43 You can s- you can roll it up.

Joe Rogan 1:02:44 ... I want to be able to have a cigarette. But cigarettes do kill a half a million people in this country every year.

Duncan Trussell 1:02:51 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:02:51 Or, uh, they're gonna die anyway, right? Cigarettes kill them early or they die directly because of diseases that you can get from smoking cigarettes.

Duncan Trussell 1:03:02 And their kids get sick.

Joe Rogan 1:03:04 Dude, the worst, man. Kids that live in h- Greg Fitzsimmons, he has lung problems to this day because his parents chain smoked and they lived in Massachusetts-

Duncan Trussell 1:03:11 Did your parents smoke?

Joe Rogan 1:03:11 ... where it's cold. My mom did, but she quit when I was real young.

Duncan Trussell 1:03:14 Did you ever-

Joe Rogan 1:03:14 She quit when I was like six, I think.

Duncan Trussell 1:03:15 Were you in the car with her when she smoked?

Joe Rogan 1:03:17 I, I must have been if she-

Duncan Trussell 1:03:19 With the windows up?

Joe Rogan 1:03:20 I don't... Well, we lived in New Jersey, so it was cold in the winter, I'm sure I was. I don't think she smoked in the car with her kids though.

Duncan Trussell 1:03:26 Dude, do you mind if I have a little more of this?

Joe Rogan 1:03:28 No, fucking hell. Have a little drink it all, man.

Duncan Trussell 1:03:29 Thank you. It's so good.

Joe Rogan 1:03:30 It's fire.

Duncan Trussell 1:03:31 Uh, I, I remember, you know, Fletcher, North Carolina, middle of winter-

Joe Rogan 1:03:36 Mm-hmm.

Duncan Trussell 1:03:36 ... you'd go down and wait for the bus. My friend Jimmy Fink, I think it was Jimmy Fink, his mom would, like, let us get in her car to wait for the bus. It's wonderful, very sweet. But also I think... And I'm sorry, Jimmy, if you're out there, I know we haven't talked in a long time. I still love you though. But like, and I'm sorry if it's not you and I'm getting confused here, but, uh, I just remember she smoked and we, and like there was smoke in the car. My dad smoked. I would ride in the car with him on trips and he would smoke and you'd breathe in the smoke. And like so, so to me, like where... And again, like this is always the problem, which is like clearly we need regu- we... There has to be some regulatory principle in the world. If there are people who steal watches, there mean- that means there's gonna be groups of people who get together and talk about better ways to steal watches. If there's groups of people who get together and talk about better ways to steal wa- watches, and then we create a way for them to form a thing called like a corporation-

Joe Rogan 1:04:29 (laughs)

Duncan Trussell 1:04:30 ... you know what I mean? The, you got, you need to regulate that.

Joe Rogan 1:04:33 Yeah.

Duncan Trussell 1:04:33 That's why we need regulation.

Joe Rogan 1:04:34 Yes.

Duncan Trussell 1:04:35 So, but then the problem is like, who does the regulating?

Joe Rogan 1:04:38 And what, what's the incentive for you to regulate? Is there a financial incentive?

Duncan Trussell 1:04:42 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:04:43 Do regulators get paid an exorbitant amount of money?

Duncan Trussell 1:04:46 Let's say you and I start a vape pen company that like is a nicotine vape pen-

Joe Rogan 1:04:51 Mm.

Duncan Trussell 1:04:51 ... and like we-

Joe Rogan 1:04:51 I like what you're thinking.

Duncan Trussell 1:04:52 ... start pouring money into people who are against tobacco knowing if we can make tobacco illegal but keep the vape pens legal-

Joe Rogan 1:04:58 (laughs)

Duncan Trussell 1:04:58 ... we're gonna become the new tobacco.

Joe Rogan 1:05:00 But here's the thing about vape pens. This is the real thing about vape pens. Some of them are not good for you at all. They're real bad for you. And there's a connection-

Duncan Trussell 1:05:10 Right.

Joe Rogan 1:05:10 ... they're saying now between COVID and, uh, kids that vape. Kids that vape dying of COVID-

Duncan Trussell 1:05:16 I saw that.

Joe Rogan 1:05:16 ... or getting serious COVID pro- But it makes sense. I have a friend who's got a kid that sucks on one of them things all day long, just, just vapes constantly. Kids vape.

Duncan Trussell 1:05:29 I know.

Joe Rogan 1:05:29 And these kids that vape all the time, like the oils that you're taking into your lungs, that's not healthy. The idea that it's not cigarettes so it's healthy, no. It's, there's a lot of evidence that points to some of those companies that make those oils, they don't do it in a way where, you know, there's like different kinds of oils.

Duncan Trussell 1:05:49 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:05:50 And they have dif- the different reactions to the heat and some of them are like apparent... Am I saying this right? Let's check on this. What is the problem with the different types of vapes? Because I think there was one type of oil that they're using because they have to, they have to somehow or another mix the same with the, the marijuana ones, they have to mix-

Duncan Trussell 1:06:08 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:06:08 ... this stuff with the THC in some sort of, uh, chemical.

Duncan Trussell 1:06:12 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:06:12 But it's different... You can do it organically. I, I know they've done it with, um-... uh, coconut oil. I know they've done it with, like, things like that.

Duncan Trussell 1:06:20 It's the same way with hash, man. I think it's, like, the, the way people make hash varies. In some people there's a healthy way to make it.

Joe Rogan 1:06:27 Yeah.

Duncan Trussell 1:06:27 And there, there, obviously the way using the most chemicals is the cheapest. And so, there's certain types of hash that you, that I think are derived... And again, my friends out there, look, I don't know, but it's something like butane. Someone told me this at a, at a marijuana store, I can't remember what. But yeah, man, it's like cheaper.

Joe Rogan 1:06:44 I, I think the concern is the oil, like, what kind of oil? Like, I know there's one guy that was selling them with MCT oil. Okay, here it is. Authorities and the Food and Drug Administration and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention still aren't sure what's causing the dangerous trend, but theories range from issues with vegetable oil in vape juice-

Duncan Trussell 1:07:00 Jesus Christ.

Joe Rogan 1:07:01 ... to the idea that doctors are just now taking note of a problem that's been percolating for a long time. So, okay, that was a speculation that people were using, um... Like, if you try to cook, okay, and you try to like sear a steak and you do it with olive oil, you're gonna fuck it up because olive oil is, it's not like something that you really, um, sear something with. Like, you put olive oil and you don't, you don't wanna get it that hot.

Duncan Trussell 1:07:23 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:07:24 Olive oil is more something that you'd like to saute with.

Duncan Trussell 1:07:26 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:07:26 But other oils like avocado oil or, um, or beef fat, like that stuff is amazing 'cause you can get it really fucking hot.

Duncan Trussell 1:07:34 Ah.

Joe Rogan 1:07:34 And it has a very, very high, uh, temperature where it turns to smoke.

Duncan Trussell 1:07:38 Right.

Joe Rogan 1:07:39 So it's, like, healthier for you-

Duncan Trussell 1:07:41 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:07:41 ... the idea. So if you're misting this stuff into your lungs, you don't want it burnt.

Duncan Trussell 1:07:45 Right.

Joe Rogan 1:07:45 Right? You want something that's more t-

Duncan Trussell 1:07:47 Oh, yeah. Right.

Joe Rogan 1:07:47 So I would imagine if you're using these cheap... This is, again, I'm a moron, I'm not a scientist, but we're doing science. If you're using a vape-

Duncan Trussell 1:07:53 Let's do science.

Joe Rogan 1:07:53 ... vape pen with like some really shitty canola oil and you're getting that s- burnt spray inside your lungs, like, that could be terrible for you.

Duncan Trussell 1:08:01 Terrible.

Joe Rogan 1:08:02 You got some fucking GMO corn syrup bullshit in your lungs.

Duncan Trussell 1:08:06 Yeah. You know the haunting thing, man? You go to a pharmacy, right? And you watch as the pharmacist dispenses the drugs, th- how careful he is, right?

Joe Rogan 1:08:14 Mm-hmm.

Duncan Trussell 1:08:14 Like, they are, like, so careful in their administration of these pills 'cause they know if, like, if for one second you give someone Xanax when they were supposed to get penicillin-

Joe Rogan 1:08:23 Oof.

Duncan Trussell 1:08:23 ... you killed somebody, right? So you have to be very careful. But, like, meanwhile look at us right now, Joe. Did you do a test on that bottle of booze or these s- I didn't even... I... Honestly, it was embarrassing. I'm like, "I-"

Joe Rogan 1:08:35 These blunts.

Duncan Trussell 1:08:35 "... I don't know how to light this blunt." But then, like-

Joe Rogan 1:08:37 You don't know how to light a blunt?

Duncan Trussell 1:08:37 ... I'm smoking something called Dad Grass. I don't know what's in this shit.

Joe Rogan 1:08:41 Dad Grass. (laughs)

Duncan Trussell 1:08:41 I don't do any studies here. I just-

Joe Rogan 1:08:43 That's for people who love Steely Dan.

Duncan Trussell 1:08:44 I d- (laughs) I do love Steely Dan!

Joe Rogan 1:08:47 I do too.

Duncan Trussell 1:08:47 (laughs) But-

Joe Rogan 1:08:48 They have some great fucking songs.

Duncan Trussell 1:08:49 You know what I mean? I'm saying, like, the general, like... I- in, in America and anywhere, the general sense is, "I'm gonna eat it if you give it to me, especially if it's in a colorful box."

Joe Rogan 1:08:59 Right.

Duncan Trussell 1:08:59 And then you're like, "It must be okay." And, and the problem is, is like sometimes it's not okay. Look at thalidomide, man. Like, you know, look at, like, the big moments in history when it was shown, like, actually sometimes the stuff we sell you-

Joe Rogan 1:09:12 Is that thalidomide?

Duncan Trussell 1:09:14 Thalidomide. Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:09:15 Thalidomide.

Duncan Trussell 1:09:16 Thalidomide.

Joe Rogan 1:09:16 That's the stuff that gave kids birth defects.

Duncan Trussell 1:09:17 Defects. Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:09:18 Yeah.