Joe Rogan Experience #1666 - Duncan Trussell

1. 0:00 – 2:23

   Episode 1666 cold open: wigs, candles, and old-friend chemistry

   1. DTDuncan Trussell0:00

      (drum music plays) Joe Rogan podcast, check it out.

   2. NANarrator0:04

      The Joe Rogan Experience.

   3. JRJoe Rogan0:06

      Train by day, Joe Rogan podcast by night. All day. (rock music plays) Welcome to episode 1,666. (echoes) Oh ...

   4. NANarrator0:22

      (chanting)

   5. JRJoe Rogan0:26

      (echoes) Oh ...

   6. NANarrator0:29

      (chanting)

   7. JRJoe Rogan0:30

      (echoes) Oh ...

   8. NANarrator0:40

      (chanting)

   9. JRJoe Rogan0:48

      There can be only one (laughs) why? (laughs) ? I don't know, it's the rules. Them's the rules. (laughs)

   10. DTDuncan Trussell0:54

       That's a terrible rule. (laughs) That's like the worst rule.

   11. JRJoe Rogan0:57

       But for, for episode 1,666-

   12. DTDuncan Trussell1:00

       Yeah.

   13. JRJoe Rogan1:01

       ... there was only one option. That was you.

   14. DTDuncan Trussell1:03

       Oh, thank you. I'm honored by that. Thank you so much, Joe. It's so nice to be here.

   15. JRJoe Rogan1:07

       Dude, it's so nice to see you.

   16. DTDuncan Trussell1:09

       Oh, man.

   17. JRJoe Rogan1:10

       It's ... You're such a good friend that every time I see you, I'm transported, like there's no time lost.

   18. DTDuncan Trussell1:16

       Yeah.

   19. JRJoe Rogan1:16

       You know what I'm saying?

   20. DTDuncan Trussell1:17

       Yep.

   21. JRJoe Rogan1:17

       When you've ... So tight with someone that when you see them again, you're like transported.

   22. DTDuncan Trussell1:23

       Yeah.

   23. JRJoe Rogan1:23

       Like you're immediately back to where I last saw you again.

   24. DTDuncan Trussell1:26

       Yeah.

   25. JRJoe Rogan1:26

       There's no like, "Hey. God. Haven't seen you in a while."

   26. DTDuncan Trussell1:30

       Yeah.

   27. JRJoe Rogan1:30

       "How are you?"

   28. DTDuncan Trussell1:31

       "What's going on?"

   29. JRJoe Rogan1:32

       It's like ah!

   30. DTDuncan Trussell1:33

       Yeah. Yeah. That's real friendship. I mean, that's it. If it's not that, what is it?
2. 2:23 – 5:41

   John Cena’s Mandarin apology and the gravitational pull of the Chinese market

   1. DTDuncan Trussell2:23

      Dude, that was weird. That was really weird.

   2. JRJoe Rogan2:25

      (sighs)

   3. DTDuncan Trussell2:25

      That was one of the weirdest things. I'm not a fan of ... or not a fan of John Cena. No John Cena opinion.

   4. JRJoe Rogan2:31

      Right.

   5. DTDuncan Trussell2:31

      But that was just an odd ...

   6. JRJoe Rogan2:33

      It was scary.

   7. DTDuncan Trussell2:34

      'Cause they want ... It's a lot ... I guess it's just a lot of money, man. The Chinese dollar is something-

   8. JRJoe Rogan2:38

      Here's how much money it is. Ready for this?

   9. DTDuncan Trussell2:40

      Mm-hmm.

   10. JRJoe Rogan2:41

       That movie made $160 million the opening weekend.

   11. DTDuncan Trussell2:44

       Yeah.

   12. JRJoe Rogan2:44

       I believe $134 million of it was from China.

   13. DTDuncan Trussell2:48

       Oh, God.

   14. JRJoe Rogan2:50

       Oh, God.

   15. DTDuncan Trussell2:50

       We gotta get in. Let's do our apologies to China.

   16. JRJoe Rogan2:53

       I need to learn Mandarin and start talking shit in Mandarin.

   17. DTDuncan Trussell2:56

       Just, just say-

   18. JRJoe Rogan2:56

       (laughs)

   19. DTDuncan Trussell2:58

       (laughs)

   20. JRJoe Rogan3:01

       Start doing my act in Mandarin.

   21. DTDuncan Trussell3:03

       (coughs) It sounds cool.

   22. JRJoe Rogan3:04

       It sounds great. Well, the amazing ... The, the most impressive thing about that video-

   23. DTDuncan Trussell3:09

       (coughs)

   24. JRJoe Rogan3:09

       ... was not just that China got John Cena to cuck, but also that John Cena speaks perfect Mandarin.

   25. DTDuncan Trussell3:16

       Yeah.

   26. JRJoe Rogan3:16

       How long did that take?

   27. DTDuncan Trussell3:18

       It's a mystery. I don't know, man. It was just strange. That's like ... That's some really, really ... The most ... It's again, like you know when we were watching that fight? Oh my God!

   28. JRJoe Rogan3:29

       Reflexes, bro. That caught me.

   29. DTDuncan Trussell3:29

       When we were watching that fight last night-

   30. JRJoe Rogan3:31

       Yeah.
3. 5:41 – 14:33

   Soft-power invasion: tech dependence, censorship-by-platform, and bot-driven culture warping

   1. DTDuncan Trussell5:41

      You know also that thing that just popped up, they said it was a mistake but Bing apparently made it so that if you image search the Tiananmen Square guy holding the suitcase, didn't show up on the day of, on the anniversary of the Tiananmen Square Massacre, and so everybody's like what the fuck? Just like are you...... are you, like, owned by China now?

   2. JRJoe Rogan6:05

      (laughs)

   3. DTDuncan Trussell6:06

      You know? That's, that's a, that is a really strange form of invasion, isn't it? It's like, it's not a, the normal kind of invasion where we're thinking about invasions from old historical versions of invasions, but that's not how it works anymore. Now, it's, you know, if you get your technology into another country, if you become the supplier of a lot of their pharmaceuticals, if you ... All these things, then you don't really need to invade. You know what I mean? If you've bought up a lot of their property.

   4. JRJoe Rogan6:37

      You don't need to fly in with jets.

   5. DTDuncan Trussell6:39

      You don't need, 'cause you're buying it, and you're like-

   6. JRJoe Rogan6:41

      Yeah.

   7. DTDuncan Trussell6:41

      That's like, to me, that's the, that's where countries like the United States, what makes them so amazing is also this huge, terrible weakness, which is they have a permeable membrane. Shit can get in there easier than other places, you know? And like, especially now, with the ability to, like, just have a thousand AI bots running various Twitter accounts, expressing kind of similar sentiment regarding whatever the fuck it is you want to promote.

   8. JRJoe Rogan7:11

      Yeah.

   9. DTDuncan Trussell7:12

      Whoo. That's crazy. You can just warp people's minds any way you want. I mean, you know, we, I have, we have no ... I'm not just talking state agencies either. I mean, just cobbles of, like, anarchists who feel like just fucking around with the zeitgeist could theoretically just put out a shit ton of bots or phone banks of people putting weird ideas into the culture that, you know, you hear it enough times, you start thinking like, "I guess that is true."

   10. JRJoe Rogan7:40

       Right.

   11. DTDuncan Trussell7:40

       "That must be true." I don't know if you've ever had the thing happen where you're just scanning Twitter and you see some completely wrong, like, deeply wrong fact in physics, but you didn't... You were just shitting or something. So you're like, "Well, that's interesting." Then later you repeat it without looking it up to see if it's true, and then you go back to see it. I ... This happened to me. And you realize like three tweets above that tweet, it's like the guy's like, "I'm the reincarnation of Marilyn Monroe."

   12. JRJoe Rogan8:08

       (laughs)

   13. DTDuncan Trussell8:10

       (laughs) You know what I mean?

   14. JRJoe Rogan8:11

       Yeah.

   15. DTDuncan Trussell8:11

       Like, oh fuck, I repeated-

   16. JRJoe Rogan8:13

       Yeah.

   17. DTDuncan Trussell8:14

       ... some fact I heard from a guy who thinks he's the reincarnation of Marilyn Monroe-

   18. JRJoe Rogan8:18

       Ugh.

   19. DTDuncan Trussell8:18

       ... literally at dinner.

   20. JRJoe Rogan8:19

       Yeah.

   21. DTDuncan Trussell8:20

       You know? That's what I'm saying, is it leaks out. And so it's just trippy, you know. It's just weird to imagine that, like, what country are, are we even the United States anymore? Is it-

   22. JRJoe Rogan8:30

       It's confusing, right? Because we're really governed by money. When we have no money, we have nothing, right?

   23. DTDuncan Trussell8:37

       Yeah.

   24. JRJoe Rogan8:38

       If we run out of money, all bets are off.

   25. DTDuncan Trussell8:40

       Right.

   26. JRJoe Rogan8:40

       'Cause we don't have money to fix the roads. We don't have money to keep the grid up.

   27. DTDuncan Trussell8:44

       Right.

   28. JRJoe Rogan8:44

       So it's ... We have to have a certain amount of money. And one of the things that became abundantly clear during COVID was that we rely on a lot of other countries to make our stuff.

   29. DTDuncan Trussell8:55

       Yeah.

   30. JRJoe Rogan8:56

       You know, like when they were running short of certain supplies and, and medicine even, they're like, "Hey, who, how come we don't make this?"
4. 14:33 – 16:48

   Russia-style meme ops and engineered conflict: the Internet Research Agency example

   1. JRJoe Rogan14:33

      It totally makes sense. I mean, w- w- what they're doing at, with the Internet Research Agency, or at least what they were doing prior to 2016, if we assume that they don't get any more sophisticated over the last four or five years, well, it'd be so silly.

   2. DTDuncan Trussell14:47

      Yeah.

   3. JRJoe Rogan14:47

      Like, they... This lady, Renee DiResta, I heard her on Sam Harris's podcast and I got her on mine, and she was explaining to me all the research that she did e- looking into how the Russians were, uh, making these Facebook page-... Not the Russians. This one agency, I should say.

   4. DTDuncan Trussell15:03

      Yeah.

   5. JRJoe Rogan15:03

      Internet Research Agency. They were making these memes, and she's like, "Hundreds of thousands of memes," and a lot of them are really funny.

   6. DTDuncan Trussell15:09

      Yeah.

   7. JRJoe Rogan15:09

      She's like, "I was really laughing while I was doing this." And she said she got to study how they created these pages, and that's where it was really interesting. Like, they would create these pages and they would use them for a while, so, like, maybe a Simpsons fan page or something like that, and they would get a certain amount of following. And then they would switch it over to Occupy Wall Street, or they would switch it over to Black Lives Matter-

   8. DTDuncan Trussell15:30

      Ah.

   9. JRJoe Rogan15:30

      ... or they'd switch, switch it over to LBGTQ page. And they would just get a bunch of followers, and then just use those followers. Use a ton of hashtags and connect people through hashtags, and, and they would just try to figure out what sticks.

   10. DTDuncan Trussell15:43

       Yeah.

   11. JRJoe Rogan15:43

       And they would have meme pages, and they, they would organize arguments. So, like, they organized a Texes- Texas separatist meeting across the street-

   12. DTDuncan Trussell15:53

       Yeah.

   13. JRJoe Rogan15:53

       ... from an Islamic, uh, some Islamic pride, uh, rally.

   14. DTDuncan Trussell15:57

       Yeah.

   15. JRJoe Rogan15:57

       So they got the two of them on catty-corner of streets, so they're yelling at each other. Like, they're like... D- you ever see that video of the, the cat and, uh, he's on a roof and, uh, a crow gets behind him and starts fucking with him?

   16. DTDuncan Trussell16:08

       (laughs) No.

   17. JRJoe Rogan16:09

       And then he gets the cat to fight with another cat?

   18. DTDuncan Trussell16:12

       Oh, yeah. Yes, yes, yes-

   19. JRJoe Rogan16:13

       You ever see that video?

   20. DTDuncan Trussell16:13

       ... I've seen it. It's amazing. (laughs)

   21. JRJoe Rogan16:15

       It's an amazing video.

   22. DTDuncan Trussell16:16

       Yeah.

   23. JRJoe Rogan16:16

       This crow is so slick.

   24. DTDuncan Trussell16:18

       Yeah.

   25. JRJoe Rogan16:18

       He, like, fucks with the cat, like, "Hey, man. Hey."

   26. DTDuncan Trussell16:20

       Yeah.

   27. JRJoe Rogan16:20

       "The fuck's going on with you, bro?"

   28. DTDuncan Trussell16:22

       Yeah.

   29. JRJoe Rogan16:22

       The cat's like, "Grr." And then there's another cat that's on another, uh, another rooftop just, like, five feet away. And that cat, he looks at that cat. He's like, "Man, fuck you." And then wa-... "Why you, why you staring at me, man," while this crow's fucking with me.

   30. DTDuncan Trussell16:34

       Yeah.
5. 16:48 – 22:40

   When anyone can run an op: basement geniuses, UAP speculation, and lab-leak misdirection scenarios

   1. DTDuncan Trussell16:48

      Y- yeah. And not just the Internet Research Agency. I mean, this is the thing. It's like, this is what I've realized I've been doing, is any time any kind of crazy shit happens, I assign responsibility to some unknown state agency. 'Cause we think, "There's no way any normal group of people could do that. It's gotta be a country with a shit ton of money-"

   2. JRJoe Rogan17:09

      Right.

   3. DTDuncan Trussell17:09

      "... and those group of people could do that." But I'm realizing that is just not the case anymore, because the technology th- that everyone has access to is sufficient to at least, like, in a really degraded way, imitate what, you know, probably what state agencies are doing, meaning that now it's pure anarchy, 'cause, you know-

   4. JRJoe Rogan17:31

      Yeah.

   5. DTDuncan Trussell17:31

      ... you assume those, like, whatever the fuck they are, the UAPs-

   6. JRJoe Rogan17:35

      Ps.

   7. DTDuncan Trussell17:35

      ... we are all like, "Oh, well, uh, we know it's not a state agency, or if it is, we're n- it's, like, deeply secret." But it's like, "Motherfucker, you think it's a state agency. What if it's just a group of geniuses who, like, cr- secretly crack their own thing in their basement, and they're, like, just fucking around with this thing?" You know, that's the... Or the, uh, you know, the, the, the obvious thing coming out now that it, uh, um... Everyone suspects that the virus came from the virology lab in the place it was at, the epicenter, where they-

   8. JRJoe Rogan18:06

      Where they used to study the exact virus.

   9. DTDuncan Trussell18:08

      Everybody, not-

   10. JRJoe Rogan18:09

       Yeah.

   11. DTDuncan Trussell18:09

       ... everybody went that... At first, they were like, "Oh, fuck. It definitely came from there." And then they're like, "Well, actually, there's the wet markets there." But anyway, the point is, like, what if...... what if you're, like, an- an e- hyper eco-environmentalist group, and you know that if you engineer this thing that's got, like, an extra two weeks or whatever, where asymptomatic, like you engineer a thing not to kill people but to fuck up economies.

   12. JRJoe Rogan18:35

       Right.

   13. DTDuncan Trussell18:36

       And then you go to the place where there's a institute of virology, and you release it there. And of course people are gonna be like, "Well, it must have come from there." Right?

   14. JRJoe Rogan18:46

       Right. That's a good point.

   15. DTDuncan Trussell18:46

       We just assume it's from, like, this place or that place.

   16. JRJoe Rogan18:49

       Right.

   17. DTDuncan Trussell18:50

       You know what I mean? It could be from anywhere.

   18. JRJoe Rogan18:52

       Well, three people that worked in that lab got sick, but we're assuming they got sick from that lab. Like, what a great cover if you, like, sprayed them at a restaurant.

   19. DTDuncan Trussell18:59

       Yeah. Get them to go in there.

   20. JRJoe Rogan19:01

       Right?

   21. DTDuncan Trussell19:02

       Get everyone sick. It seems like it comes from there.

   22. JRJoe Rogan19:04

       Dude. She-

   23. DTDuncan Trussell19:04

       Duncan Trussell thinking on a 4-D chess scale. Yeah. (laughs) Yeah, man. I like it. Well, it's scary, though. I mean, this is ... Like, again, like, to me, that's the part that's, like, a little daunting. Oh, it's- And we all ... You know, is that this shit ... You know, that it- it's not like it's gonna get better.

   24. JRJoe Rogan19:21

       It might get better. I think, uh, if any way, uh, any way that's gonna make it better is technology. I think technology's gonna allow ultimate transparency, where you could read minds. Once you could see, clearly see people's intent, it's gonna chase all the demons into the shadows, like roaches with the lights on. You're gonna see. Like, you kinda tell, but you kinda allow some of it to exist. Like when you see, like, Schumer and Pelosi kneeling with African garb on and you're like, "What are you doing?"

   25. DTDuncan Trussell19:55

       Yeah.

   26. JRJoe Rogan19:55

       "What is happening here? Like, what is this weirdness?" All right, when you see someone doing weird shit, you kinda, "Okay." Politicians, for example, the- the best. Like, they'll say a speech but it's off. Doesn't sound like anything you would say. They're doing weird things with their hands.

   27. DTDuncan Trussell20:09

       Yeah.

   28. JRJoe Rogan20:09

       And you, like, accept a certain amount of insincerity. But you don't like it.

   29. DTDuncan Trussell20:13

       Well, no, you-

   30. JRJoe Rogan20:13

       Right?
6. 22:40 – 25:34

   Digital money, universal languages, and neural interfaces: accelerating toward the Singularity

   1. JRJoe Rogan22:40

      Well, a country didn't exist in the form of the United States until 1776, and then it's evolved from there.

   2. DTDuncan Trussell22:46

      Yeah.

   3. JRJoe Rogan22:46

      Right? As they g- as money starts getting weirder and weirder, like, 'cause money's all digital now, right? It's all flying around. And then what it becomes, Bitcoin money. Then that's really digital. We get into cryptos, if crypto becomes the- the general currency of the world-

   4. DTDuncan Trussell23:00

      Yeah.

   5. JRJoe Rogan23:00

      ... right? And then what's to stop that from happening with language? So we have a universal, uh, currency that, uh, is, uh, it d- it doesn't have, like, a, uh, some backing behind it. It's just this weird thing where people just agree that a Bitcoin is worth $52 today or whatever the fuck it is.

   6. DTDuncan Trussell23:19

      Yeah.

   7. JRJoe Rogan23:19

      You know, it's- it's a weird one, right?

   8. DTDuncan Trussell23:20

      Yeah. Yeah.

   9. JRJoe Rogan23:21

      It's like how do you, uh ... How do you stop that from happening with language? Like, what if people come along with a language that's easy to learn, you can learn it, you know, you can learn it, it's fun, there's games you can play, you can learn it while you're playing a game.

   10. DTDuncan Trussell23:34

       Yeah.

   11. JRJoe Rogan23:34

       And you- you get points. Like, what if there's a Call of Duty language? Like, no bullshit. You know, like, how different-

   12. DTDuncan Trussell23:40

       Yeah.

   13. JRJoe Rogan23:40

       ... video games are thought about creating their own coins?

   14. DTDuncan Trussell23:43

       Sure.

   15. JRJoe Rogan23:43

       People have ... Different people have different coins, right? They're-

   16. DTDuncan Trussell23:45

       Yeah.

   17. JRJoe Rogan23:45

       ... making their own coins. What's to stop you from making a language that goes along with a video game-

   18. DTDuncan Trussell23:50

       Whoo.

   19. JRJoe Rogan23:50

       ... and as you get really good at the video game, you learn the language?

   20. DTDuncan Trussell23:53

       Also, yeah, if, like, Musk's neural mesh works out and so we can expedite the-

   21. JRJoe Rogan23:58

       Yeah.

   22. DTDuncan Trussell23:58

       ... ability to learn new languages so it's not just, like, new languages are being formed but then also you can just digest them, like-

   23. JRJoe Rogan24:05

       Yes.

   24. DTDuncan Trussell24:05

       ... instantaneously.

   25. JRJoe Rogan24:06

       Yes.

   26. DTDuncan Trussell24:07

       And then so now you get this, like, weird hyper-evolving language that is probably gonna be the language they- that the settlers speak on the moon colonies and the Mars colonies and the asteroid miners.

   27. JRJoe Rogan24:18

       Yes.

   28. DTDuncan Trussell24:18

       Like, what are you ... You're not gonna be able to speak. You're gonna have to have some pidgin. By the way, I watched the Stanford professor that you had on. He, like ... You know who I'm talking about? You have so many people on.

   29. JRJoe Rogan24:29

       W-

   30. DTDuncan Trussell24:29

       You had a s- you had a Stanford professor who's, like, a s- a cultural biologist or something. He was showing, like, how gene expression, uh, affects, like, the w- just basically a lot of humanity.
7. 25:34 – 33:08

   Sapolsky, toxoplasmosis, and the parasite that hacks behavior (plus bear-parasite comedy)

   1. NANarrator25:34

      Sapolsky?

   2. JRJoe Rogan25:35

      What?

   3. NANarrator25:35

      Robert Sapolsky?

   4. DTDuncan Trussell25:36

      Sapolsky.

   5. JRJoe Rogan25:36

      Oh, he's one of my favorites.

   6. DTDuncan Trussell25:38

      Yeah, Sapolsky, yeah. Well, but-

   7. JRJoe Rogan25:39

      Oh, my God. He's, he's, he's, uh, the, the guy that got me to think, first of all, the hardest about parasites. 'Cause his, his big thing was toxoplasmosis.

   8. DTDuncan Trussell25:47

      Oh.

   9. JRJoe Rogan25:47

      That's how I found out about him. He was teaching a, a lecture on toxoplasmosis and I was like, "Oh my God, do I have that?" 'Cause, like, I've had cats.

   10. DTDuncan Trussell25:56

       Yeah.

   11. JRJoe Rogan25:56

       Like, and I had wild cats at one point in time.

   12. DTDuncan Trussell25:58

       Yeah.

   13. JRJoe Rogan25:58

       I had a... And, um, it's really common in cats and really common in, in cat people. You know, it's really common in, um, uh, poorer parts of the world where they have a lot of feral cats. Some places are, like France at one point in time, but 50% of the people were infected by this brain parasite that comes from cats.

   14. DTDuncan Trussell26:18

       Yeah.

   15. JRJoe Rogan26:18

       And you know the whole story behind the, the parasite?

   16. DTDuncan Trussell26:20

       Oh, yeah.

   17. JRJoe Rogan26:21

       Yeah.

   18. DTDuncan Trussell26:21

       But I've loved it. I mean, I, for some reason, it never gets old.

   19. JRJoe Rogan26:25

       It never gets old. It's a fascinating parasite and this is what it does. It gets into rats and it hijacks the reward systems. It hijacks the way the rat's brain works and it makes the rat sexually attracted to the smell of cat urine.

   20. DTDuncan Trussell26:39

       Yeah.

   21. JRJoe Rogan26:39

       So their, their, their, their, their balls swell up, their dick gets hard. It's crazy.

   22. DTDuncan Trussell26:44

       How embarrassing.

   23. JRJoe Rogan26:45

       How embarrassing. And it also simultaneously removes their fear. It's so strange and it's a strategy for this parasite-

   24. DTDuncan Trussell26:55

       (laughs) Like, I'm sorry, I'm sorry. I'm so sorry, Joe, 'cause I'll forget it.

   25. JRJoe Rogan26:56

       (crying)

   26. DTDuncan Trussell26:57

       Imagine if there was, like, a, a grizzly bear parasite that made your dick hard around bears. (laughs) And it made you want to-

   27. JRJoe Rogan27:05

       And it just brought you a cave, into the den.

   28. DTDuncan Trussell27:08

       (laughs)

   29. JRJoe Rogan27:09

       (growling) Oh my God, that would be hilarious.

   30. DTDuncan Trussell27:13

       You'd see, you'd see-
8. 33:08 – 39:32

   From parasites to pandemics: bioweapon fears, “mind-virus” advertising, and information-as-life

   1. DTDuncan Trussell33:08

      The implication is, this, this is really creepy, but it is, when I'm, like, looking at, like, people with COVID or afraid to get the vaccine or people who are, like, f- put, like, you know, the, like, the... We, we have this fucking thing. I- it's probably a bioweapon, man, and we got this thing. And people gathering together, you know, when, in the, in the, when it was soaring, just gathering together at Sturgis, you know?

   2. JRJoe Rogan33:32

      Mm-hmm.

   3. DTDuncan Trussell33:33

      You have to... Like, I was thinking, like, "Fuck, did they not just engineer a bioweapon? But did they figure out a way to make it so that part, one of the things it does is it makes people want to get really social and, like, go against the thing that would slow it down?" You know, like, is this some kind of fucking insane new version of toxoplasmosis that makes people, I don't know, just wanna get it? There's some people who just wanted to get it.

   4. JRJoe Rogan34:01

      Just to get it over with.

   5. DTDuncan Trussell34:02

      Just to get it over with.

   6. JRJoe Rogan34:03

      Yeah.

   7. DTDuncan Trussell34:03

      But that's, like... For a virus, Jesus Christ, that's the best thing that can happen to you, man.

   8. JRJoe Rogan34:07

      Right.

   9. DTDuncan Trussell34:07

      Like, with chickenpox-

   10. JRJoe Rogan34:08

       But it's the pressure. That's just pressure. (sighs) You know? Like some, some people just can't handle the pressure of awaiting something over and over and over again.

   11. DTDuncan Trussell34:16

       Yeah.

   12. JRJoe Rogan34:16

       The anxiety of when is it gonna come?

   13. DTDuncan Trussell34:18

       Right. Yeah. I, I mean, look, uh, that was, it was, it wa- I remember when we didn't even know what it was.

   14. JRJoe Rogan34:23

       Yeah.

   15. DTDuncan Trussell34:23

       And I, that's when I'm like, "Well, I'm, uh, it's probably gonna just fucking kill me at some point." I was having, like, you know, when we didn't know, when it's like-

   16. JRJoe Rogan34:30

       Yeah.

   17. DTDuncan Trussell34:30

       ... this could be a post-apocalyptic movie in three months, 'cause this is a new thing. So we're not positive everything that it does. We don't know what the fuck it does. It could make your feet explode. You know what I mean? It could do, who knows? Like-

   18. JRJoe Rogan34:44

       (laughs)

   19. DTDuncan Trussell34:44

       ... what, uh, all of a sudden, a few months in, people are having, like, seizures. And the toxoplasmosis stuff, I mean, I've, I've, I'm in a fucking robe and I'm wearing a wig.

   20. JRJoe Rogan34:54

       (laughs)

   21. DTDuncan Trussell34:55

       I'm obviously not saying that-

   22. JRJoe Rogan34:56

       But you're in good company. (laughs)

   23. DTDuncan Trussell34:57

       I'm not, hey! Clearly you're not listening to, like, some kind of, like, s- s- uh-

   24. JRJoe Rogan35:03

       Yeah. Don't listen to him. He's got an Illuminati ring on.

   25. DTDuncan Trussell35:05

       This is not, this is not a, this is not a fucking TED Talk here. (laughs)

   26. JRJoe Rogan35:11

       (laughs)

   27. DTDuncan Trussell35:11

       But I was thinking, you know, if toxo, if, like, over zillions of years toxoplasmosis can make rats get horny when they smell cat piss-

   28. JRJoe Rogan35:22

       Right.

   29. DTDuncan Trussell35:23

       ... so- couldn't someone whip some shit up in the laboratory that makes people just, I don't know, like a certain kind of sneaker? You know, could it, could a-

   30. JRJoe Rogan35:32

       (laughs)
9. 39:32 – 46:12

   Apple as wizard tower: spells, avatars, and a future of identity swapping

   1. DTDuncan Trussell39:32

      Dude, those Apple-

   2. JRJoe Rogan39:33

      Hoo!

   3. DTDuncan Trussell39:33

      ... commercials lately, I want to fuck the commercial.

   4. JRJoe Rogan39:35

      Hoo!

   5. DTDuncan Trussell39:35

      Like it's ju- yeah, it, you know, have you seen the... You know what I'm talking about? The new-

   6. JRJoe Rogan39:39

      No.

   7. DTDuncan Trussell39:39

      ... Apple commercials?

   8. JRJoe Rogan39:40

      I haven't, but I can only imagine.

   9. DTDuncan Trussell39:41

      They're definitely s- like, you know, like someone who used to work at MKUltra-

   10. JRJoe Rogan39:45

       (laughs)

   11. DTDuncan Trussell39:46

       ... got a job at Apple and was like, "Look, why don't you try this thing that we did during Project Stargate, and we'll make this thing-"

   12. JRJoe Rogan39:52

       (laughs)

   13. DTDuncan Trussell39:52

       And then suddenly-

   14. JRJoe Rogan39:53

       Project Stargate? (laughs)

   15. DTDuncan Trussell39:53

       ... you get this Apple commercial. It's just some woman says, "Eh, beh, shah, meh nah dah." And it's like beautiful, beautiful computers-

   16. JRJoe Rogan40:01

       Yeah.

   17. DTDuncan Trussell40:01

       ... that I don't need at all.

   18. JRJoe Rogan40:03

       Here's-

   19. DTDuncan Trussell40:03

       My wife and I watch it and we're like, "We gotta get one."

   20. JRJoe Rogan40:06

       (laughs)

   21. DTDuncan Trussell40:07

       And it's like fu- but why?

   22. JRJoe Rogan40:09

       (laughs)

   23. DTDuncan Trussell40:09

       I've got a computer, you have a computer. But the commercial is so potent, you're like, "Yeah."

   24. JRJoe Rogan40:14

       They get you.

   25. DTDuncan Trussell40:15

       "I want a blue, a blue Mac."

   26. JRJoe Rogan40:17

       Ah, blue.

   27. DTDuncan Trussell40:19

       Yeah, yeah.

   28. JRJoe Rogan40:19

       Oh, yes.

   29. DTDuncan Trussell40:20

       Yeah.

   30. JRJoe Rogan40:20

       New colors.
10. 46:12 – 57:45

    Downloads vs. struggle: merit, ego, and the ethics of engineered advantage

    1. JRJoe Rogan46:12

       Cheers, my brothers.

    2. DTDuncan Trussell46:14

       "You become so much funnier ever since you did that upgrade."

    3. JRJoe Rogan46:17

       Right.

    4. DTDuncan Trussell46:18

       You know what I mean? "I..." You know? "I, I-"

    5. JRJoe Rogan46:19

       But isn't this ego? Right? Like, isn't this what we're thinking about? Just ego that, like, people have gone through this intense, laborious process to become the greatest tennis player of all time, but if you could just get there through technology, isn't it... It's... I mean, I get that there's like, all these signals of discipline and-

    6. DTDuncan Trussell46:38

       Yeah.

    7. JRJoe Rogan46:38

       ... all these signals of being something special, but it seems like that's just because it's hard to do, right? It's... There's a thing that's going on here-

    8. DTDuncan Trussell46:48

       Yeah.

    9. JRJoe Rogan46:48

       ... where it's like, we're praising things that are hard to do because it's an ethic, right? It's, like, burned into our system, and we think it's definitely positive. The things that are hard to do make you a better person. But we're basing that on the idea that that's the only way to make you a better person. Like, that just taking-

    10. DTDuncan Trussell47:04

        Mm-hmm.

    11. JRJoe Rogan47:04

        ... these downloads and all of a sudden learning how to play concert piano or learning how to do kung fu or learning how to do calculus, like, instantaneously adds to your database. Maybe you just become the same version or, or even maybe a better version of a better person, because you're not constantly bitter about struggle. Because one of the things that sucks about really famous people or, uh, really successful people or really exceptionally accomplished people is they want you to know, right? When they kno-... Want you to know, and I think we've all been guilty of it, and I don't... I know I've been guilty of it for sure, you know, where I was like, uh, like, happy about certain success and I bragged about it. And, and, you know, in retrospress-... re- retrospect rather, it's probably gross, but in the moment, I was being celebratory.

    12. DTDuncan Trussell47:48

        Yeah.

    13. JRJoe Rogan47:49

        But that is the thing where when people are trying to do something and it's difficult to do, when someone does something like that, we admire them because they made it through. But ultimately, the benefit is supposed to be that it makes them somehow or another a better version of what they were.

    14. DTDuncan Trussell48:04

        Yeah.

    15. JRJoe Rogan48:04

        With everything they do, whether they climb Mount Everest or write a novel-

    16. DTDuncan Trussell48:07

        Yeah.

    17. JRJoe Rogan48:08

        ... hard things make you a more interesting person.

    18. DTDuncan Trussell48:10

        Yeah.

    19. JRJoe Rogan48:10

        Everybody that I know has gone through some interesting shit. And it's one of the things that I love most about comics, because I know the emotional roller coaster ride that it takes to become a competent comedian-

    20. DTDuncan Trussell48:20

        Yeah.

    21. JRJoe Rogan48:20

        ... where you're a working professional. It's fucking crazy.

    22. DTDuncan Trussell48:23

        Yeah.

    23. JRJoe Rogan48:23

        And then to do what we do, what you and I do, which is even weirder, where you're just thinking out loud in front of the world, which is fucking bananas-

    24. DTDuncan Trussell48:31

        Yeah.

    25. JRJoe Rogan48:31

        ... a ridiculous thing to do, and while you're doing it, most of the time you're high or drunk-

    26. DTDuncan Trussell48:35

        Yeah.

    27. JRJoe Rogan48:36

        ... or a lot of the time at least. All these things, they're interesting and we're, we celebrate them because we know they're hard to achieve, but why do they have to be? Why can't people just become a better person with a download? Do we want someone to fucking have to run marathons for ten years to be a better person?

    28. DTDuncan Trussell48:52

        Yeah.

    29. JRJoe Rogan48:53

        Maybe we... Maybe there's a download, beep, and all of a sudden you're like a guy who runs marathons every day for ten years. You're like a stoic person who, uh, you know, just appreciates things for what they are. You don't come with any bullshit. You're not emotionally over-needy.

    30. DTDuncan Trussell49:07

        Yeah.
11. 57:45 – 1:09:36

    Gain-of-function as demon-summoning: mousepox, lab safety, and civilization bottlenecks

    1. DTDuncan Trussell57:45

       But like, the, the, uh, but yeah, the, like, if you look at like the... So the big controversy right now is virology gain-of-function research, which is taking a, some fucking virus, altering a little bit. And sometimes you need to do that to study it, right? Like there's a, there, I was looking it up, there's like these small, these pox, mice, uh, mice pox I think in Australia. 'Cause basically like, you wanna take this virus, whatever it may be, that might pose a threat to humanity, like what we, what happened in Galveston.

    2. JRJoe Rogan58:17

       Right.

    3. DTDuncan Trussell58:17

       That's what they were looking at. The idea being, okay here like the-

    4. JRJoe Rogan58:20

       Well w- which is a, we, uh, went to a place in Galveston where they study these things.

    5. DTDuncan Trussell58:24

       Oh yeah.

    6. JRJoe Rogan58:24

       We said, "What happened in Galveston?" Like there was an outbreak that people don't know about.

    7. DTDuncan Trussell58:28

       Oh. (laughs)

    8. JRJoe Rogan58:28

       You know?

    9. DTDuncan Trussell58:29

       The Galveston fucking outbreak because-

    10. JRJoe Rogan58:30

        They might have been like, "What happened in Galveston?" They'd be like, "Fuck, what happened in Galveston? What were we talking about?"

    11. DTDuncan Trussell58:35

        Nothing happened in Galveston.

    12. JRJoe Rogan58:35

        "Let's Google it."

    13. DTDuncan Trussell58:35

        No, we just went to this creepy, you know, place where there was, uh, creepy only because like there's like tiny little microscopic demons all around you.

    14. JRJoe Rogan58:44

        And I should say that we got so high at the airport that we missed our flight.

    15. DTDuncan Trussell58:48

        (laughs)

    16. JRJoe Rogan58:48

        They left, they took off, they were already gone, like, and we're like, "Where's this flight?"

    17. DTDuncan Trussell58:52

        Yeah.

    18. JRJoe Rogan58:52

        We were so baked, we're sitting there talking for so long. And then we had to take a flight late that night, and we flew all through the night and then-

    19. DTDuncan Trussell59:00

        Oh my God.

    20. JRJoe Rogan59:00

        ... landed in the morning, and then had an hour to sleep, I think.

    21. DTDuncan Trussell59:03

        Then the next day you're in like one of the most secure-

    22. JRJoe Rogan59:07

        (laughs)

    23. DTDuncan Trussell59:07

        ... bio laboratories.

    24. JRJoe Rogan59:09

        What is that, Jamie? What'd you put up, Jamie? Q.

    25. DTDuncan Trussell59:10

        Mouse pox.

    26. JRJoe Rogan59:11

        Oh wow.

    27. DTDuncan Trussell59:11

        Mouse pox. S- but like, so okay, so the idea is you have y- essentially like you're planting... A virus, uh, two multiverses over where Apple's w- a wizard tower, a virus is a demon. And so if you're one of the, one of the royal demon defenders, you gotta study like what are the most possible 15 demons that might break out of hell and rampage through Earth, right? And so, so in this dimension that's like, uh, the coronaviruses, but not just the coronaviruses. Ebola, not just Ebola, like all the possible things we might have to worry about. The avian bird flu, right? So if you're like in one of these labs, you need to study it, but you gotta study it in, in a, in a living thing that is easier to study than whatever it came from. Gain-of-function, make it so that it infects mice, right?

    28. JRJoe Rogan1:00:05

        Right.

    29. DTDuncan Trussell1:00:05

        Now you can put it in mice and start studying the way it works in living organisms, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, right? So that's gain-of-function research, right? So like virologists... So now there's like the, a moratorium on it, at least I hope there is. It's very strict. But virologists are kind of like, "Look, uh, we have to do gain of function if we're gonna study the shit that's coming," because we want to try to at least begin the process of making a vaccine, understanding how it's gonna affect civilization so that if it does come, if the demon comes out of hell, we know the spells to cast. That's r- the reason we got the COVID vaccines. Everyone's like, "They, they started working on it six months ago." It's like, no, they didn't. They've been working on versions of it for a while because of this very thing. But anyway, the problem is, the problem with gain of function, the double-edged sword is, you're making the thing. It's like instead of waiting for the demon to explode from hell, you summon it in a sealed chamber of Lornax. It's-

    30. JRJoe Rogan1:01:06

        Like where they put the Hulk in that clear box?
12. 1:09:36 – 1:16:01

    Post-pandemic life, family logistics, and the return of domestic absurdity

    1. JRJoe Rogan1:09:36

       Duncan, can I just tell, say something before you do it?

    2. DTDuncan Trussell1:09:38

       Yeah.

    3. JRJoe Rogan1:09:38

       I'm better with you.

    4. DTDuncan Trussell1:09:40

       Oh, okay.

    5. JRJoe Rogan1:09:40

       I'm at my best podcaster with you. I'm, I'm, um, I'm a better-

    6. DTDuncan Trussell1:09:43

       Same.

    7. JRJoe Rogan1:09:43

       We, we know each other so well. We used to be roommates, you know?

    8. DTDuncan Trussell1:09:48

       Yeah. (laughs)

    9. JRJoe Rogan1:09:49

       (laughs)

    10. DTDuncan Trussell1:09:49

        Definitely. How many months-

    11. JRJoe Rogan1:09:50

        We lived together.

    12. DTDuncan Trussell1:09:51

        How, how long was I at your... was I, live at your house?

    13. JRJoe Rogan1:09:53

        I don't know. Six? Was it, like, six?

    14. DTDuncan Trussell1:09:56

        Uh, it was close to that. It was-

    15. JRJoe Rogan1:09:57

        Yeah.

    16. DTDuncan Trussell1:09:58

        It was cro-... That was cro-

    17. JRJoe Rogan1:09:58

        It was so much fun.

    18. DTDuncan Trussell1:09:59

        That was so much fun.

    19. JRJoe Rogan1:09:59

        I loved having you at my house. I thought it was amazing.

    20. DTDuncan Trussell1:10:01

        That was a blast, li- what I, I gotta tell you, man. To, like, emerge out of this fucking pandemic having, like, you know, been with my wife who was pregnant for a lot of it, you know, having kids-

    21. JRJoe Rogan1:10:13

        Which is really scary, right? Yeah.

    22. DTDuncan Trussell1:10:15

        Oh, yeah. But I... We made a decision. We were like, "Look, we're not gonna let fear determine, like, our lives." Like-

    23. JRJoe Rogan1:10:23

        Are you guys taking vitamins? Are you doing the whole vitamin thing?

    24. DTDuncan Trussell1:10:25

        She eats more vitamins than I've ever seen anyone eat, 'cause she breastfeeds.

    25. JRJoe Rogan1:10:32

        (laughs) .

    26. DTDuncan Trussell1:10:32

        So she, like-

    27. JRJoe Rogan1:10:33

        Oh. All over.

    28. DTDuncan Trussell1:10:33

        And I've tasted her milk. It's sweet.

    29. JRJoe Rogan1:10:35

        (laughs) . (laughs) .

    30. DTDuncan Trussell1:10:35

        Whatever she's doing is right.

Episode duration: 3:03:53