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Joe Rogan Experience #1748 - Beeple

Mike "Beeple" Winkelmann is a digital artist whose body of work includes concert visuals for Eminem and deadmau5, multiple short films, and an ongoing series of images posted daily to his popular instagram account: Beeple_Crap.

Joe RoganhostMike "Beeple" Winkelmannguest
Jun 27, 20242h 50mWatch on YouTube ↗

EVERY SPOKEN WORD

  1. 0:00 – 2:16

    Meet Beeple + why he's here: explaining NFTs after a $100M year

    1. NA

      (drumming music) Joe Rogan podcast, check it out.

    2. The Joe Rogan Experience.

    3. JR

      Train by day, Joe Rogan podcast by night. All day. (instrumental music) Hello, Mike.

    4. MW

      Hey, how's it going? (laughs)

    5. JR

      You, you look exactly how I thought you were gonna look.

    6. MW

      (laughs)

    7. JR

      Isn't that perfect?

    8. MW

      How was that?

    9. JR

      Good. You look like a-

    10. MW

      (laughs)

    11. JR

      ... like a eccentric-

    12. MW

      (laughs)

    13. JR

      ... fun art guy.

    14. MW

      An eccentric... (laughs) Fun art guy. Okay, I'll take that.

    15. JR

      All those things are positive.

    16. MW

      I'll take that.

    17. JR

      They're all- it's all positive.

    18. MW

      I guess that's-

    19. JR

      It's all positive.

    20. MW

      That's actually pretty accurate right now, I guess.

    21. JR

      Yeah.

    22. MW

      I guess we're-

    23. JR

      You're an eccentric-

    24. MW

      ... I guess we're right there.

    25. JR

      ... fun art guy.

    26. MW

      Uh, yeah. (laughs)

    27. JR

      And I brought you in here for one specific reason.

    28. MW

      Okay, what's that?

    29. JR

      Or two reasons. One, 'cause I think you're really talented and I enjoy your stuff.

    30. MW

      Thank you, thank you.

  2. 2:16 – 5:24

    NFTs for charity, DAOs, and the ConstitutionDAO example

    1. JR

      I've thought about doing something. This is my thought. I thought about creating, uh, like, a separate branch of this company and then having that entirely dedicated to charity.

    2. MW

      Yep.

    3. JR

      And then just use that, the NFTs, to generate money for charity.

    4. MW

      100% you could do that.

    5. JR

      'Cause, I'm like, it seems like a great way to just generate money for charity.

    6. MW

      Absolutely you could do that.

    7. JR

      It seems gross if I generate money for myself at this point in time.

    8. MW

      (laughs)

    9. JR

      But if I just, uh-

    10. MW

      That's fair, that's fair.

    11. JR

      ... generate just money for charity with that, I think it's a good idea.

    12. MW

      You could generate a lotta money.

    13. JR

      Yeah.

    14. MW

      Because that's the thing. It's really just a great way to sort of, like, organize people around, like, a common goal. Like, did you see the Constitution DAO thing?

    15. JR

      No.

    16. MW

      So, basically there's like-

    17. JR

      The constitution what thing?

    18. MW

      Con- it's a cons- it's called Constitution DAO.

    19. JR

      DAO? Like T-A-O?

    20. MW

      And so basic- No, D-A-O. That's another-

    21. JR

      D-A-O.

    22. MW

      So, there's... DAOs are sort of decentral autonomous organizations. And so that's another-

    23. JR

      Oh.

    24. MW

      ... sort of, like, thing kind of in this NFT ecosystem, where people-

    25. JR

      Hold on a second. Did you know about this? Is this a new thing for you?

    26. NA

      Uh, nope. I've tried to explain this too once or twice, but-

    27. MW

      The DAO thing?

    28. NA

      ... it gets lo- I know it gets lost.

    29. JR

      (laughs)

    30. NA

      Oh, no-

  3. 5:24 – 11:25

    Governance risks: scams, bots, and paid voting to reduce manipulation

    1. JR

      And the problem with that is you could have groups that are organized that would go and-... generate money for a specific charity, and that charity might be bullshit.

    2. MW

      Well, and that's where you-

    3. JR

      You can scam it.

    4. MW

      ... have role, you can program in the rules in it, uh, for it.

    5. JR

      I think-

    6. MW

      So, you can make it very, like, checks and balances so it's sort of not just, like, okay, one person's just like, "Okay, here, let's give it to whatever." That it's just-

    7. JR

      I don't want to do that. I want to, to be, to have control over the charities.

    8. MW

      And you could do that too. You could have that too.

    9. JR

      'Cause I think-

    10. MW

      Uh, you kind of, like, you can set it up however you want. Like, here's the-

    11. JR

      Yeah.

    12. MW

      ... like, choices. Like, "Okay, I'm gonna pick-"

    13. JR

      I would want to-

    14. MW

      "... these three, these charities that I like and I approve all of them and you guys, like, vote with the community." So, you can set it up however you want. You know what I mean?

    15. JR

      Do you know much about charities?

    16. MW

      I know not that much. I'm learning more and we're doing a bunch of charity work, like, next year that we're, like, selling artworks and stuff-

    17. JR

      There's-

    18. MW

      ... and, like, a bunch of auctions.

    19. JR

      There's a few charities that I support 'cause I know the people that are responsible for the charity. I know, like, how they organize and how they run it. But man, a lot of charities are slippery. And what's slippery about them is-

    20. MW

      They're bullshit.

    21. JR

      ... well, it's not necessarily that they're bullshit. The pro-

    22. MW

      Or they've wasted a lot of the money. They're, it's a-

    23. JR

      The money goes to fucking, just bullshit.

    24. MW

      Yeah.

    25. JR

      Th- so, what happens is a lot of the people that are running these charities wind up making an exorbitant amount of money while running charities. And you find out that these people are making, like, high six figures and they're running charities and you're like, "Wait a minute, what, uh, how much of the money actually goes to the charitable act?"

    26. MW

      Sure. Yeah, that's important.

    27. JR

      And generally speaking, it's not much.

    28. MW

      Yeah, yeah.

    29. JR

      Like, there, we've pulled it up before where we've shown, like, some of the best charities and worst charities in terms of, like, how much you donate-

    30. MW

      I'm like a charity navigator.

  4. 11:25 – 13:45

    Beeple’s “Everydays” discipline: 14+ years, no days off

    1. JR

      So, how did you find out? Like, well, I mean, you've been, well, well, let's go back to this. You've been basically putting up a new piece of art every single day-... on your website.

    2. MW

      Yeah.

    3. JR

      And it's amazing stuff.

    4. MW

      Thank you.

    5. JR

      A lot of it is animated, a lot of it is not. It's like, h- how ... First of all, how do you generate this stuff?

    6. MW

      So, I've been doing, yeah, a picture every day for the last 14 plus years. And, it's-

    7. JR

      Wow.

    8. MW

      ... every single day, no days off.

    9. JR

      That's crazy.

    10. MW

      It's done that day-

    11. JR

      Christmas?

    12. MW

      ... start to finish.

    13. JR

      New Years?

    14. MW

      Christmas, kids born, like, yeah.

    15. JR

      Wow.

    16. MW

      Wife's, you know, about to go to the hospital.

    17. JR

      Is your wife like, "You fuck face-"

    18. MW

      To the picture.

    19. JR

      "... take a day off."

    20. MW

      No. No.

    21. JR

      No?

    22. MW

      Absolutely not. Insanely supportive. Like, complete-

    23. JR

      Wow.

    24. MW

      She's been there the whole time. Like, she's ... A year be- she- we started going out a year before I started this, so she's seen the whole thing when nobody gave any fuck about what I was doing. And I'm like-

    25. JR

      But now you gotta be like-

    26. MW

      ... in a fucking coffee shop, like, with a fucking computer, no fucks given. Like, seen the whole sort of, like, progression. Super supportive.

    27. JR

      Now you have to be like, "I told you so."

    28. MW

      (laughs) No, no, no. She knew. Like, she was super supportive the whole time. So it's like, she honestly ... A- and it ... I think what people don't maybe realize is m- my story is a little more incremental than it looks like. It kinda- it got- it went- it went a little fucking hockey stick at the end here. But, like-

    29. JR

      (laughs) Hockey stick. I like that. Yeah.

    30. MW

      But it was, like, sort of, you know, gaining popularity.

  5. 13:45 – 20:47

    How Beeple makes the images: Cinema 4D, Octane, kitbashing, and asset libraries

    1. JR

      How are you generating this- these images? What are you using?

    2. MW

      So, the program is called Cinema 4D, and the renderer that I use is Octane. And it's basically, uh, it's kind of like a- a sort of like 3D space. Like you play- that's the thing. You play- used to play, I heard, um-

    3. JR

      Quake.

    4. MW

      ... Quake, and like, yeah. So it's like that. It's like a 3D space like that where I can, like ... Think about the monsters, you can like place them wherever. That's like you just place whatever sort of like images- or- or sort of like 3D models wherever I want. Scale them up, break them apart, put boobs on them, draw on them afterwards, draw in the picture on top of it too. Like, change out any sort of like piece of it. Like I could ... (laughs) So there's last night.

    5. JR

      Oh, the penises. I saw that. I saw you had it blurred out on the Instagram with the sloppy chins.

    6. MW

      This is literally just y- you know, four ... This was like a bit longer, but like four hours in my hotel room last night on a laptop, sitting alone, listening to music, like ...

    7. JR

      Looking at dicks. (laughs)

    8. MW

      (laughs) Not looking at dicks, making dicks.

    9. JR

      Making uncir-

    10. MW

      Drawing.

    11. JR

      All of them uncircumcised.

    12. MW

      Drawing ... (laughs) And so basically I found a 3D model of a dick. I went and bought, or I bought a 3D model of a dick. And so I've got a lot of these other sort of like models of like people and like stuff like this. I've got like a huge library of like these like models-

    13. JR

      Can I-

    14. MW

      ... that I can like put- jam shit in. It's called kit bashing. I can like bash shit in really fast to like make this.

    15. JR

      Okay, let me ... I gotta interject sometimes. Like what do you mean you bought a 3D model of a dick? What does that mean?

    16. MW

      So-

    17. JR

      He just glossed over that. You notice that? (laughs)

    18. MW

      (laughs) That's true. That's true. I was like-

    19. JR

      How did you do this?

    20. MW

      Okay. Over-

    21. JR

      I don't know what you're saying.

    22. MW

      Okay, so a 3D model of a dick is basically just a ... I'm trying to like ... It's kind of like a representation in like a game sort of like, uh, engine of a, like, dick. And it's- so it's like the shape of a dick, and you can put any sort of like texture on it. So again, think of like in a 3D world, you see like a gun or a car.

    23. JR

      Right.

    24. MW

      Instead of it being a car, it's a dick. And I can place it wherever I want and then sort of like compose a, like, picture with it.

    25. JR

      But you purchase it? You have to purchase it.

    26. MW

      Yeah, you can just buy it. There's just like sites where you can just like go on there, 3D dick, penis 3D model. And that's just-

    27. JR

      And how much does a d- 3D dick model cost?

    28. MW

      I believe it was $12.

    29. JR

      So you get a 3D dick model.

    30. MW

      (laughs)

  6. 20:47 – 28:37

    From internet presence to big clients: Louis Vuitton collab + free VJ loops

    1. JR

      So, when you first started doing this, this kind of digital art, did you have a regular job? And were you just doing this for fun?

    2. MW

      So I started when I was in college.

    3. JR

      There's water in this thing too if you want some. There, there's a glass right there for you.

    4. MW

      Oh. Um, I started when I was in college, and I went to school for, like, computer science. And then I just started making these, like, weird, like, digital art things and, like, short films with my friends and stuff like that. Um, and then out of school I got a job doing web design and then just kept making this stuff on the side. Nobody was... There was no way to sell it. It was just sort of, like, putting it out online and then sort of... It was getting me better, like, freelance jobs though.

    5. JR

      Mm-hmm.

    6. MW

      So I was slowly sort of, like, getting better stuff to the, to, you know, at the end I'm doing stuff for the Super Bowl and Louis Vuitton and-

    7. JR

      Really?

    8. MW

      ... Imagine Dragons, cover, Hallmark, and stuff.

    9. JR

      When did that start happening?

    10. MW

      Uh, it just slowly kept building. And this-

    11. JR

      This is because of your presence online? Like, people would find out about you?

    12. MW

      Yeah. And so, like, Louis Vuitton came, and they were just sort of like, "Okay, we wanna put the Everydays on the, like, clothes." And it was just like, "What? Like, you're just gonna put these pictures on, like, women's clothes?" And they're like, "Yeah."

    13. JR

      What, what are you saying? Everydays?

    14. MW

      The Everydays. Those pictures.

    15. JR

      Oh.

    16. MW

      The Everydays. Just each one of those, like, images.

    17. JR

      Oh, you're talk... You call your images Everydays? Okay.

    18. MW

      Yeah. Well, those, those pictures.

    19. JR

      Most people don't know what the fuck you're talking about.

    20. MW

      (laughs)

    21. JR

      So slow down. Slow down. So this is one of your images on clothes? (laughs)

    22. MW

      That's fair. That's fair. Yeah. So-

    23. JR

      You could... You're saying Everydays, like everybody know... Right? You didn't know what he was saying, did you?

    24. MW

      Uh, I do, yeah. (laughs)

    25. JR

      Yeah, he's, he, he speaks, he speaks Spectrum.

    26. MW

      Oh, he did. He did, bro. I'm deep in the internet.

    27. JR

      Both you guys are on the same level of the Spectrum.

    28. MW

      That's on you. That's on you.

    29. JR

      That is not on me.

    30. MW

      (laughs)

  7. 28:37 – 32:55

    Culture tangent: Trump in memes, Madonna filters, and internet pile-ons

    1. JR

      I was listening to some old, uh, rap music, some '90s rap yesterday, and I was thinking like, "God, so many guys use Trump in rap songs-"

    2. MW

      Yeah.

    3. JR

      "... in a positive way in the '90s."

    4. MW

      Natalie. (laughs)

    5. JR

      Yeah.

    6. MW

      Yeah. There are-

    7. JR

      Guys were calling themselves the Black Trump.

    8. NA

      (laughs)

    9. JR

      Like, they were c- they're talking, "I'm, I'm rich like Trump," you know, holding, holding cash like Trump.

    10. MW

      You think he's gonna run? You think he's gonna run?

    11. JR

      100%.

    12. MW

      100%.

    13. NA

      Did you catch the Nancy Reagan stuff over the weekend?

    14. JR

      No.

    15. NA

      No?

    16. MW

      Nancy Reagan stuff.

    17. NA

      Me neither.

    18. JR

      What, what Nancy Reagan stuff?

    19. MW

      No. What is that?

    20. NA

      Uh, someone put up a picture of, uh, like comparing Nancy Reagan... Actually, it was Ben Shapiro's sister, I think.

    21. JR

      (laughs)

    22. MW

      Oh, boy.

    23. NA

      Uh, Nancy Reagan to Madonna at age like 63 or 64. And then someone commented below that, "Hey, Nancy Reagan is known historically in Hollywood as being, like, very good at, uh, blow jobs."

    24. JR

      What? (laughs)

    25. NA

      (laughs)

    26. JR

      Yeah.

    27. NA

      Yeah.

    28. JR

      What?

    29. NA

      Yeah.

    30. JR

      But, but what, what history?

  8. 32:55 – 42:43

    Tech acceleration: phone cameras, exploding Note 7s, and DIY filmmaking

    1. JR

      So, when did you first start doing the animations?

    2. MW

      Um, so I've been doing animations for like a very long time, but they looked very, very different like 20 years ago. Like, they were very simple and like the tools were, it was not 3D. It was like, sort of like, very synced audio and video. Um, and so slowly I've sort of like, the tools have gotten much more sophisticated that like, the things you could do now were like, you know, Hollywood, like full effects, like you know, 15 years ago.

    3. JR

      Mm. Yeah.

    4. MW

      That it's like, okay, that shot would've cost like, you know, $15 million. Now you can do it for a thousand bucks.

    5. JR

      Yeah. There's, there's all sorts of like fan created videos online now.

    6. MW

      They're fucking good too, dude.

    7. JR

      Amazing.

    8. MW

      They're fucking insane.

    9. JR

      Amazing.

    10. MW

      They're fucking insane.

    11. JR

      Well, the, um, the special effects that you can do with a regular computer now are just off the charts.

    12. MW

      The fucking phone now, dude.

    13. JR

      Yeah.

    14. MW

      Like, the fucking phone's fucking crazy.

    15. JR

      I know.

    16. MW

      Like, it's just, it's, it's getting... The tools are like getting cheaper and cheaper and there's so much information out there too, to like-

    17. JR

      Yeah.

    18. MW

      ... like sort of, you know, let people get really, really quickly assimilated into a technology and then they share their information and it's just like multiplying like so fast how these things sort of like, you know.

    19. JR

      It's very exciting.

    20. MW

      Yeah, it's definitely.

    21. JR

      It really is.

    22. MW

      It is.

    23. JR

      The, um, the cam, just the cameras on these phones. I'm like, you... Digital cameras, like a small digital camera. Jamie's a real photography nut and so he, he uses like, he still uses a real camera camera. But for regular photos, it's, it's totally unnecessary now.

    24. MW

      Insane. They're insane. They're so good.

    25. JR

      The, so I have a, a, I have an iPhone that I use. I have, I ta, I carry two phones and I have a Galaxy S21 Ultra. And you can take a photo of the fucking moon with this thing.

    26. MW

      (laughs)

    27. JR

      Have you seen that?

    28. MW

      No, no.

    29. JR

      Dude, it's incredible. It has like some sort of AI fuckery is involved in it, but it's also, that has some insane digital zoom where you, you hold the galaxy towards the f- the moon.

    30. MW

      Mm-hmm.

  9. 42:43 – 56:35

    Hollywood & acting: why Joe quit + the social pressures of the industry

    1. MW

      (laughs) When's the last time you were like, in like, a full, like, movie or something like that? Like, has it been, like, a long time?

    2. JR

      Here comes the boom. Yeah, here comes the boom.

    3. MW

      Oh, how much is that ago?

    4. JR

      Just like, more than 10 years.

    5. MW

      Would you ever do it again or you can't?

    6. JR

      No, I'm done. I'm done.

    7. MW

      No, totally done?

    8. JR

      I've passed on some good ones.

    9. MW

      (laughs)

    10. JR

      Yeah.

    11. MW

      You never... Just even-

    12. JR

      No.

    13. MW

      ... like a small role in something?

    14. JR

      No, no, no. Kevin Smith offered me a nice role and I'm, "I can't, I don't wanna do it anymore." I don't like it.

    15. MW

      Just, "Nah, don't like it."

    16. JR

      Uh, it's too time-consuming. I don't have the time. It'd be, like financially, it's not viable. And but then, there's also like, the, the actor f- factor. The actor factor's big. Like-

    17. MW

      What do you mean?

    18. JR

      ... hanging out with actors.

    19. MW

      Don't like them.

    20. JR

      It's exhausting.

    21. MW

      Don't like them that much.

    22. JR

      Well, I, I like a lot of them. I like, like 20% of them.

    23. MW

      Okay.

    24. JR

      But the other ones are fucking exhausting.

    25. MW

      (laughs)

    26. JR

      They're just so full of shit and they're so scared of everything.

    27. MW

      (laughs)

    28. JR

      They're just-

    29. MW

      Scared of what?

    30. JR

      Well, they're afraid... Their, their whole existence is about getting cast in things, so they have to constantly be like, saying the right things and following the right, like, progressive ideology and espousing it whenever possible. To let everybody know that you're on the right team, because you're worried about being cast in things.

  10. 56:35 – 1:03:18

    Beeple’s physical NFT drop gift: ‘Spring/Summer Collection’ unboxing

    1. JR

      (coughs) What's in the bag, bro? What's in the bag?

    2. MW

      This?

    3. JR

      No, the bag. What's in the bag?

    4. MW

      This? Um, this is, so this is something I wanted to bring you.

    5. JR

      Is that a towel?

    6. MW

      No. That is a ...

    7. JR

      It says medium adult anus.

    8. MW

      (laughs)

    9. JR

      A 3.5 inch fully dilated regular butt hole. That's what it really says.

    10. MW

      So that is a pair of-

    11. JR

      I'm not making this up.

    12. MW

      That is a pair of underwear to sort of-

    13. JR

      I'm scared to open this.

    14. MW

      ... put on before the box.

    15. JR

      The contents of this box are entirely visually pleasing and have been known to cause a loss of normal bowel function, adult onsen's- onset pants shitting.

    16. MW

      (laughs)

    17. JR

      Please make sure (laughs) this disposable underwear is properly fastened prior to opening the box for the first time.

    18. MW

      Mm-hmm.

    19. JR

      Bro, what the fuck is wrong with you?

    20. MW

      You're gonna shit yourself.

    21. JR

      I'm gonna shit myself? And, uh, I don't understand how this says medium adult anus.

    22. MW

      (laughs)

    23. JR

      Is this just underwear?

    24. MW

      It's underwear. It's like way too tight.

    25. JR

      But why does it say medium adult anus? You know, your anus is just like a small hole.

    26. MW

      (laughs)

    27. JR

      That's not-

    28. MW

      I don't know. I was just assuming.

    29. JR

      This-

    30. MW

      You're a medium. Are you not medium or what's-

  11. 1:03:18 – 1:27:43

    End-of-life ethics, suicide pods, and Joe’s story about losing his dog

    1. JR

      So how long do you think you're gonna keep doing this? Is this-

    2. MW

      Um, probably the rest of my life.

    3. JR

      Is this a lifetime project?

    4. MW

      Yeah. This is-

    5. JR

      Really? Every day? One a day?

    6. MW

      We gotta see it through at this point.

    7. JR

      Wow.

    8. MW

      We gotta see it through at this point. I mean, it's-

    9. JR

      See it through to the end. On your-

    10. MW

      I mean-

    11. JR

      On your d- deathbed. "Hold on."

    12. MW

      (laughs)

    13. JR

      "Before, before you put me in the suicide pod."

    14. MW

      (laughs)

    15. JR

      Have you seen those suicide pods they have now? Th- you ever seen that?

    16. MW

      Suicide pods?

    17. JR

      Yeah. There's a su- ... I think some, um, European country has d- developed a, an actual suicide pod and you climb into this thing when you wanna end your life and, uh, it's designed to peacefully send you into the next realm.

    18. MW

      Jesus. And what does it do?

    19. JR

      I'm not sure. I just saw the headline. I didn't read into it.

Episode duration: 2:50:25

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