Joe Rogan Experience #1702 - Laurie Woolever

1. 0:00 – 15:00

   (drumbeats) Joe Rogan podcast,…

   1. JRJoe Rogan0:00

      (drumbeats) Joe Rogan podcast, check it out.

   2. LWLaurie Woolever0:04

      The Joe Rogan Experience.

   3. JRJoe Rogan0:06

      Train by day, Joe Rogan podcast by night, all day. (instrumental music plays) Oh, hi, Laurie.

   4. LWLaurie Woolever0:13

      Hi. (laughs)

   5. JRJoe Rogan0:13

      What's happening?

   6. LWLaurie Woolever0:14

      Not much.

   7. JRJoe Rogan0:14

      Pleasure to meet you.

   8. LWLaurie Woolever0:15

      Thank you, same to you.

   9. JRJoe Rogan0:17

      Um, I tried watching the M- Boardane documentary, but I just, uh, I got too sad. I couldn't do it. And did it f- did it feel weird? Did you watch it, Roadrunner?

   10. LWLaurie Woolever0:26

       Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah.

   11. JRJoe Rogan0:26

       Did it feel weird when you knew that the voice was AI, sort of a recreation of his words?

   12. LWLaurie Woolever0:35

       It didn't feel weird to me because honestly, it was less than 45 seconds in a two-hour film.

   13. JRJoe Rogan0:40

       Oh, okay.

   14. LWLaurie Woolever0:40

       So, no. It didn't feel weird. I, I knew exactly where one of the places was that it was the AI, but the vast majority of that film is Tony's actual voice, and I think that really got lost in the discussion around the film.

   15. JRJoe Rogan0:54

       Oh, it certainly did. Yeah, I, I was under the impression that the whole thing was-

   16. LWLaurie Woolever0:58

       Mm-mm. No.

   17. JRJoe Rogan0:59

       That's how people are, they're so gross.

   18. LWLaurie Woolever1:00

       Well-

   19. JRJoe Rogan1:00

       They always wanna find the one thing (laughs) that's negative about things.

   20. LWLaurie Woolever1:03

       Yeah, yeah.

   21. JRJoe Rogan1:04

       (laughs)

   22. LWLaurie Woolever1:04

       Yeah. It really bummed me out because that was the, that was the dominant conversation-

   23. JRJoe Rogan1:08

       Yeah.

   24. LWLaurie Woolever1:08

       ... on opening weekend, and it really k- kinda took away, for me, from, you know, the... It's a beautiful film. I was a, a consulting producer, so obviously, I have a dog in the fight, and I want people-

   25. JRJoe Rogan1:18

       Mm-hmm.

   26. LWLaurie Woolever1:18

       ... to love the film, but I think it's, I think it's great. It is really sad. How far into it did you get?

   27. JRJoe Rogan1:23

       I just started it and I shut it off.

   28. LWLaurie Woolever1:26

       Yeah. Yeah.

   29. JRJoe Rogan1:28

       (sighs) I just got too sad. I just, uh, uh, maybe it was my mood that day.

   30. LWLaurie Woolever1:33

       Mm-hmm.
2. 15:00 – 30:00

   So when you say,…

   1. LWLaurie Woolever15:00

      Uh, but we had a great working relationship.

   2. JRJoe Rogan15:04

      So when you say, like, r- recipe editing and testing, what does that entail? Like, how does that work?

   3. LWLaurie Woolever15:08

      So, it's different for every project, but for this project, uh, I would get the recipes from the kitchen at Les Halles. So they were in huge quantities, and they were written in, like, a very concise shorthand meant for the cooks to use. They were not appropriate for a cookbook. Uh, so I would take those. A- and I had been to cooking school, and I'd worked a little bit as a cook, and so I knew, I knew how to deal with a recipe. I knew how to cook and kind of what the... my way around the kitchen. So I would take those recipes, scale them way down, um, kind of put them into a more, uh, accessible language for a home cook, and then test them at home and make sure that when I change the proportions and everything, the timing and the temperatures and that it all still worked for a, for a home cook.

   4. JRJoe Rogan15:54

      So was it, uh, uh, were these, like, dishes meant for large groups of people? Like, what, how'd you have to scale it down?

   5. LWLaurie Woolever16:00

      Well, because when you're making it in a restaurant, you know, you're preparing enough for 60 portions in a night, you know?

   6. JRJoe Rogan16:07

      Like certain side dishes and things along those lines?

   7. LWLaurie Woolever16:09

      Yeah. I mean, anything really. You know, if you're making a, uh, you know, I don't know, a soup, you know, you, you wanna, you think you might sell 40 portions of soup that night, so you're making a huge batch of soup. At home, you don't want that much soup, you know?

   8. JRJoe Rogan16:22

      Right.

   9. LWLaurie Woolever16:22

      You might wanna make enough for eight people. So that was, that's kind of the scaling. I mean, there's, it, nobody... There's no reason to do anything in small quantities in a restaurant.

   10. JRJoe Rogan16:31

       And when you say shorthand, do you mean shorthand like, like how some secretaries write shorthand?

   11. LWLaurie Woolever16:36

       No, no. (laughs) Uh-

   12. JRJoe Rogan16:38

       'Cause I've seen people do that. I'm like, "What is that chicken scratch," right?

   13. LWLaurie Woolever16:41

       Wow. Yeah, that's like Latin. I mean, I'm surprised-

   14. JRJoe Rogan16:43

       Why?

   15. LWLaurie Woolever16:43

       ... anybody even does that anymore.

   16. JRJoe Rogan16:45

       Yeah.

   17. LWLaurie Woolever16:45

       It's cool, but I don't know. No.

   18. JRJoe Rogan16:46

       But they do still, right? Is that a dying thing?

   19. LWLaurie Woolever16:49

       I... I think it must be, right? Like that's from the days of the-

   20. JRJoe Rogan16:51

       You ever seen it, Jo- Tony? I mean, Jamie, whatever the fuck your name is?

   21. LWLaurie Woolever16:54

       (laughs) Hey. Uh-

   22. JRJoe Rogan16:55

       You ever seen it? Yeah, the court reporters still do something weird like that, but it's not the same, right? They do it typing though, right? They only have, like, five buttons to use. Right. So they have combinations of it that equal things. I don't ever- What do they do? I've never tried to read it. I've looked at it once. I have no idea. With those five buttons. This fucking kangaroo court system we have in this country.

   23. LWLaurie Woolever17:13

       (laughs)

   24. JRJoe Rogan17:14

       Yeah, but I've seen people write in the shorthand, and I'm like, that is, like, how does one even learn that today? And is that necessary? Can't you just audio record-

   25. LWLaurie Woolever17:21

       Yeah.

   26. JRJoe Rogan17:22

       ... like on your phone? Like you could just, like if someone wants to, you know, dictate-

   27. LWLaurie Woolever17:26

       Mm-hmm.

   28. JRJoe Rogan17:26

       ... to you-... be so much easier. There it is. Like, what is that?

   29. LWLaurie Woolever17:29

       Oh, wow.

   30. JRJoe Rogan17:30

       The fuck is that chicken scratch? Pitman and Gray. So there's different versions of shorthand?
3. 30:00 – 45:00

   (laughs) …

   1. LWLaurie Woolever30:00

      to press the lever or whatever to make the, the shit explode.

   2. JRJoe Rogan30:04

      (laughs)

   3. LWLaurie Woolever30:04

      And he's just got this, he's like a 10-year-old boy. He's so psyched, and it's so genuine that he has had the most fun just like blowing shit up, you know?

   4. JRJoe Rogan30:14

      Yeah. (laughs)

   5. LWLaurie Woolever30:14

      And that's like the best of Tony. You know? Like, he, he-

   6. JRJoe Rogan30:18

      (sighs)

   7. LWLaurie Woolever30:18

      ... i- as, you know, many experiences around the world as he had and as smart as he was, he still loved like the dumb shit, you know?

   8. JRJoe Rogan30:26

      Yeah.

   9. LWLaurie Woolever30:26

      Or the, just the like basic hilarity of blowing shit up, you know?

   10. JRJoe Rogan30:30

       (laughs)

   11. LWLaurie Woolever30:30

       (laughs)

   12. JRJoe Rogan30:31

       Yeah. Well, he stayed himself.

   13. LWLaurie Woolever30:33

       Yeah.

   14. JRJoe Rogan30:33

       It's hard to do.

   15. LWLaurie Woolever30:34

       Mm-hmm.

   16. JRJoe Rogan30:34

       You know? It's hard to do. And obviously himself, there was a ... Because of the, the, the drug abuse past, the, the addiction past, and then the, the, the what, the end of his life, the boozing in particular, it's like there was obviously a lot going on there that wasn't that healthy. You know? For whatever reason and whatever, whatever it was a masking thing, if it was a genetic addiction issue thing.

   17. LWLaurie Woolever31:04

       Yeah. It's, you know, it's really hard to, uh, to say, you know? And I always very, try to be very careful not to diagnose or to ... You know, all we can do is speculate and think about what, you know, we knew when he was around. I mean, he was very upfront about his heroin addiction and his, you know, heavy use of cocaine and crack later, and then he kicked those things. You know? But I think that, you know, as somebody who, who has been sober for a couple of years and is kind of, uh, myself, kind of, you know, dived into the whole exploration of the, of the 12-step thing, I can see now. I can see what it is to be an addict, you know? And I don't think it's, uh, talking out of turn to say that Tony was an addict. He lived his life like an addict, you know? Whether it was drugs or drinking or smoking cigarettes or jujitsu or work or travel or, you know, romantic relationships. I mean, he just, y- you know, just went after more and more and more stimulating experiences in a way that it didn't ever seem there was gonna be enough of whatever it was to fill that, uh, that place. You know? That addicts are trying to fill.

   18. JRJoe Rogan32:10

       When we were get- drinking in Montana, that was one of the things that, uh, was shocking that he wanted to keep going.

   19. LWLaurie Woolever32:16

       Mm-hmm.

   20. JRJoe Rogan32:16

       Like, we were so drunk.

   21. LWLaurie Woolever32:18

       Mm-hmm.

   22. JRJoe Rogan32:18

       We were sitting around this campfire, and we were fucking hammered. And he's like, "Do I ... Where the fucking, where's the whiskey?"

   23. LWLaurie Woolever32:23

       (laughs)

   24. JRJoe Rogan32:23

       "Is there any more whiskey?" And I'm like, "You could really drink more right now? Like, how could you do this? Like, we're blasted."

   25. LWLaurie Woolever32:29

       Yeah. And he wasn't like a b- I mean, he was a tall guy, but he was s- really skinny. It was-

   26. JRJoe Rogan32:34

       Yeah.

   27. LWLaurie Woolever32:34

       ... just sort of like, where are you putting this, dude?

   28. JRJoe Rogan32:36

       (laughs)

   29. LWLaurie Woolever32:36

       Like, this is crazy. You've got no body fat. You know?

   30. JRJoe Rogan32:39

       Especially when he got into jujitsu.
4. 45:00 – 1:00:00

   (laughs) …

   1. LWLaurie Woolever45:00

      going to AA meetings and so in that hour, I turn my phone off." And he's like, "What the fuck do you want to go to AA for?"

   2. JRJoe Rogan45:05

      (laughs)

   3. LWLaurie Woolever45:05

      Like, he just, it's like, "That's a cult." You know, he just-

   4. JRJoe Rogan45:09

      (laughs)

   5. LWLaurie Woolever45:09

      ... I was like, "Okay. Uh, well, that being said, I'm gonna turn my phone off for an hour, so."

   6. JRJoe Rogan45:14

      Did you enjoy AA?

   7. LWLaurie Woolever45:16

      Yeah. I'm still, I mean, I know it's sort of like, you're not supposed to talk about it, but I'm still very much, I was in a meeting this morning. It, for me, it's great.

   8. JRJoe Rogan45:22

      How come you're not supposed to talk about it? 'Cause it's anonymous?

   9. LWLaurie Woolever45:24

      Yeah. I g- I guess. Yeah. I mean, s-

   10. JRJoe Rogan45:25

       What is the idea about not talking about it?

   11. LWLaurie Woolever45:27

       Well, I think the idea is, like, not, you know, not sharing anything that you hear your fellows-

   12. JRJoe Rogan45:32

       Oh, of course.

   13. LWLaurie Woolever45:32

       ... say.

   14. JRJoe Rogan45:32

       Yeah.

   15. LWLaurie Woolever45:32

       But I think, I, and I'm no, you know, historian or scholar of it, but I think that in, originally, it was, it was much more stigmatized to be an alcoholic, you know?

   16. JRJoe Rogan45:41

       Hmm.

   17. LWLaurie Woolever45:41

       So it was like, let's keep it on the down-low while we get our shit together. Um-

   18. JRJoe Rogan45:45

       That makes sense.

   19. LWLaurie Woolever45:45

       ... so yeah. I, I find it to be very, very helpful. Um, I di- I wasn't a, you know, bad, rock-bottom alcoholic, but I was somebody who was on a bad path. And, uh, it's, I have found it, yeah, helpful for me.

   20. JRJoe Rogan45:59

       Was it exacerbated by working with him?

   21. LWLaurie Woolever46:02

       Probably, to an extent. I mean, you know, everyone's kinda responsible for their own shit, but he-

   22. JRJoe Rogan46:07

       No, you can blame him.

   23. LWLaurie Woolever46:08

       Yeah. (laughs)

   24. JRJoe Rogan46:08

       He's not here anymore. (laughs)

   25. LWLaurie Woolever46:09

       I mean, I will say that I found a lot of, uh, of the way that he lived to be very romantic-

   26. JRJoe Rogan46:16

       Yes.

   27. LWLaurie Woolever46:16

       ... and very inspiring and, you know-

   28. JRJoe Rogan46:18

       Yes.

   29. LWLaurie Woolever46:18

       ... I, I was kind of a mess and I thought, "Well, you know, this is, Tony would approve." Or, you know, I'd talk to him about whatever kind of messy shit was going on in my life and, you know, 'cause I knew he would think it was funny or he could-

   30. JRJoe Rogan46:28

       Right.
5. 1:00:00 – 1:10:45

   Tony. …

   1. JRJoe Rogan1:00:00

      really interested in this different styles of humans.

   2. LWLaurie Woolever1:00:06

      Tony.

   3. JRJoe Rogan1:00:07

      Yeah. Like, um, like, he loved that, like, the people in Vietnam had such a distinctly different way of being-

   4. LWLaurie Woolever1:00:14

      Mm-hmm.

   5. JRJoe Rogan1:00:15

      ... than, like, say people in England.

   6. LWLaurie Woolever1:00:16

      Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

   7. JRJoe Rogan1:00:17

      You know, there was, there was a way that they, they just, uh, there was an easygoing way that they existed. They, for whatever reason, apparently have no resentment to Americans, which he found fascinating.

   8. LWLaurie Woolever1:00:30

      Yeah. Yeah.

   9. JRJoe Rogan1:00:31

      Like, "How the fuck are you not mad at Americans?"

   10. LWLaurie Woolever1:00:34

       Yeah. Well, I think, I mean, my understanding is that, first of all, there had been so many wars, you know, before that. They're just like, "All right. Come and get us. You know, fuck you." Like, the Chinese, the, you know, the French, like, everyone has fucked with us. But also I think, I mean, sort of gruesomely, I think... a lot of the people are dead. You know, it's a very-

   11. JRJoe Rogan1:00:52

       Mm-hmm.

   12. LWLaurie Woolever1:00:52

       ... very young country. Um, I forget what the percentage is, but it's, like, a huge percentage of the people are, were born at, that, that are living now in the country were born after the war, so they don't have a memory of it.

   13. JRJoe Rogan1:01:02

       Right.

   14. LWLaurie Woolever1:01:02

       You know? But yeah, I, I mean, again, I, I don't claim to be a scholar or historian, but that's, that was my understanding of how it could be possible, right? 'Cause like, yeah, we really visited some pretty bad shit on that country. (laughs) You know?

   15. JRJoe Rogan1:01:15

       Yeah. Yeah. But, but, you know, in talking to him and one of the things that he was really interested in is just the authentic way people existed in the, wherever you went.

   16. LWLaurie Woolever1:01:25

       Mm-hmm.

   17. JRJoe Rogan1:01:25

       Like, and, and that it was, there was, they varied so much.

   18. LWLaurie Woolever1:01:28

       Mm-hmm.

   19. JRJoe Rogan1:01:28

       And to really understand people, like, to really get an appreciation of all the amazing things this world has to offer, you kinda have to go to all these different places to see. And every time you go, it's like it removes a little layer of the onion where you, you just get a little bit better understanding of what it means to be a human being on Earth.

   20. LWLaurie Woolever1:01:46

       Mm-hmm.

   21. JRJoe Rogan1:01:46

       And that there isn't just this one set sort of culture that we're, uh, so accustomed to, particularly in America, where we're kinda arrogant about our culture.

   22. LWLaurie Woolever1:01:56

       Mm-hmm.

   23. JRJoe Rogan1:01:56

       Like, "This is the shit. We're America. Fuck you."

   24. LWLaurie Woolever1:01:59

       Mm-hmm.

   25. JRJoe Rogan1:02:00

       And, you know, then you go to other places and you go, "Oh, okay. Why are they so happy in Thailand?" You know? Like (laughs) -

   26. LWLaurie Woolever1:02:06

       Yeah. Yeah.

   27. JRJoe Rogan1:02:06

       ... like, like, "What's going on?" Like, "Why, why are they so, uh, why do they celebrate so much in Brazil?" Why, you know-

   28. LWLaurie Woolever1:02:12

       Mm-hmm.

   29. JRJoe Rogan1:02:12

       ... and there, and you, as you do visit all these different places, I think he had this, uh, uh, almost, uh, uh, bottomless appetite for that sort of exposure to new cultures and meeting new people.

   30. LWLaurie Woolever1:02:27

       Mm-hmm, and was really good at, uh, listening and, and being able to hear and engage with an argument or a point of view that didn't match his-

Episode duration: 1:38:17