Joe Rogan Experience #1762 - Josh Szeps

1. 0:00 – 15:00

   (drumming music) Joe Rogan podcast,…

   1. JSJosh Szeps0:00

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

   2. NANarrator0:04

      The Joe Rogan Experience.

   3. JSJosh Szeps0:06

      Train by day, Joe Rogan podcast by night. All day. (rock music)

   4. JRJoe Rogan0:12

      Hello, Josh.

   5. JSJosh Szeps0:13

      (laughs)

   6. JRJoe Rogan0:15

      (laughs)

   7. JSJosh Szeps0:15

      Hi, mate. I'm free.

   8. JRJoe Rogan0:15

      Good to see you, man.

   9. JSJosh Szeps0:16

      They let me out. They- they let us out-

   10. JRJoe Rogan0:18

       They- they let you out of your prison colony.

   11. JSJosh Szeps0:19

       Oh, my goodness.

   12. JRJoe Rogan0:19

       Isn't it strange how Australia's reverting back to what it originally was?

   13. JSJosh Szeps0:23

       Well, (laughs) sort of, supposedly.

   14. JRJoe Rogan0:24

       (laughs)

   15. JSJosh Szeps0:25

       But now they're, now, I mean, Omicron's going crazy there now.

   16. JRJoe Rogan0:27

       (sighs)

   17. JSJosh Szeps0:27

       Now we're, now we're open. I mean-

   18. JRJoe Rogan0:29

       But it's a cold.

   19. JSJosh Szeps0:30

       It's, um, yeah.

   20. JRJoe Rogan0:31

       Omicron is a cold.

   21. JSJosh Szeps0:32

       Yeah, yeah, it is now.

   22. JRJoe Rogan0:33

       It's not the Delta, it's not this dangerous one?

   23. JSJosh Szeps0:35

       Well, we're- we're embracing it wholeheartedly.

   24. JRJoe Rogan0:37

       Good.

   25. JSJosh Szeps0:38

       We got, we got, uh, like, um, and we can talk about all the numbers and stuff, but, uh, like, this whole, this whole, like, kind of theory that Australia has become a prison colony and there were definite excesses over the past couple of years-

   26. JRJoe Rogan0:48

       (laughs)

   27. JSJosh Szeps0:49

       ... in the way that some Australian states-

   28. JRJoe Rogan0:50

       Yes.

   29. JSJosh Szeps0:50

       ... dealt with it. Uh, but since the first of November, when the biggest state, New South Wales, where Sydney is, where I'm from basically was like, "All right, we're open. We're letting people, you know, come in from abroad. We're not gonna have ha- quarantine anymore. You're allowed to do whatever you want. We're not gonna have-"

   30. JRJoe Rogan1:05

       Oh, that's beautiful.
2. 15:00 – 30:00

   Willingly bring it in…

   1. JSJosh Szeps15:00

      instead of allowing it to just come in and go."

   2. JRJoe Rogan15:01

      Willingly bring it in is funny.

   3. JSJosh Szeps15:03

      Well, I mean, yeah, that's that sort of thing. But how, how the hell do you do that? Like New Zealand-

   4. JRJoe Rogan15:07

      You can't. Yeah.

   5. JSJosh Szeps15:07

      ... New Zealand and Western Australia are jurisdictions where, like if you've never had it, and you've got no experience of it, (laughs) wha- what politician would have the guts to go, "All right, my, you know, my little cloistered population of people who've never been exposed to this pathogen, let's just bring it in voluntarily and manage how we do that." That's the conundrum that they face and that's the conundrum that New South Wales, my state in Australia, on November 1st was just like, "Well, okay, now or never. We're- we're as vaxed as we're gonna be, we're as prepared as we're ever gonna be, we understand the treatments now, we're not gonna go through what New York and Northern Italy did, you know, in March of 2020. Uh, let's do it and let's see how we go." So-

   6. JRJoe Rogan15:45

      What is it-

   7. JSJosh Szeps15:45

      ... cases have been doubling basically every week in New South Wales for the past few weeks.

   8. JRJoe Rogan15:48

      What is it like over there in terms of the recognition and the discussion of vaccine injuries? Is there suppression of it?

   9. JSJosh Szeps15:56

      Well, I've been thinking about this like in what is suppression and what is just the sort of habit of the media elite to find certain sources credible and certain sources non-credible? So like, uh, we've given nine billion doses of this, of the vaccine so far, right? Almost four-

   10. JRJoe Rogan16:17

       Nine, oh, because multiple-

   11. JSJosh Szeps16:18

       Yeah, al- yeah.

   12. JRJoe Rogan16:18

       Yeah.

   13. JSJosh Szeps16:19

       Almost four billion people have been fully vaxed. There's no widespread incidents of worrying disease. That doesn't mean that there aren't-

   14. JRJoe Rogan16:27

       Worrying disease?

   15. JSJosh Szeps16:28

       Well, yeah. People aren't dropping, drop- dropping dead from the vaccine in those five billion double doses. But that doesn't mean that there aren't side effects and-

   16. JRJoe Rogan16:36

       Yeah.

   17. JSJosh Szeps16:36

       ... so I mean, I've, I've tried to do a good job of not-

   18. JRJoe Rogan16:38

       But some people are dropping dead, right?

   19. JSJosh Szeps16:41

       Yeah, just not as many as you would if you infected all those people with COVID.

   20. JRJoe Rogan16:45

       Well, it depends on who the people are. Like if you're talking about the young soccer players that are dropping dead, I don't think they would have died from COVID.

   21. JSJosh Szeps16:51

       So I mean, I think the... Well, it's, again, it's a numbers game, isn't it? I mean-

   22. JRJoe Rogan16:55

       It is.

   23. JSJosh Szeps16:55

       ... you only need a one in, even if there's only a one in 100,000 chance or a one in a million chance that someone with a p- a particular risk profile is gonna die of COVID, then you're right, that the, the balance becomes different when you're talking about, let's say, a 15-year-old male's risk of COVID and a 15-year-old male's risk of, uh, of some side effect from the vaccine than if you're-

   24. JRJoe Rogan17:14

       Yeah.

   25. JSJosh Szeps17:14

       ... talking about an 82-year-old person who's got, you know-

   26. JRJoe Rogan17:16

       Right. Very different. Right.

   27. JSJosh Szeps17:17

       ... some pulmonary disease or whatever.

   28. JRJoe Rogan17:18

       Well, that was a lot of people's, um, impression that what- what we should have done early on is protect the vulnerable and- and concentrate on protecting the vulnerable, and not mandate it for everybody, particularly for people that may have like, for young boys in particular, there's an adverse risk associated with the vaccine. It's like-

   29. JSJosh Szeps17:36

       Yes.

   30. JRJoe Rogan17:37

       ... a two to fourfold increase in the instances of myocarditis-
3. 30:00 – 45:00

   There's no, no transmission…

   1. JSJosh Szeps30:00

      have to wear masks.

   2. JRJoe Rogan30:00

      There's no, no transmission out- outside. It doesn't, doesn't get transmitted outside.

   3. JSJosh Szeps30:04

      I mean, any time a government imposes rules, there are always gonna be like edge cases where the rule gets stupid. You know what I mean?

   4. JRJoe Rogan30:10

      Right.

   5. JSJosh Szeps30:10

      It's like Djokovic coming into Australia, it's like, "Well, his visa wasn't like technically correct and they put him in a-"

   6. JRJoe Rogan30:14

      They're gonna let him play now, right? In-

   7. JSJosh Szeps30:15

      I think so.

   8. JRJoe Rogan30:16

      Yeah. I think there's a-

   9. JSJosh Szeps30:16

      But don't they have ... They put him in a hotel for ... Well, he needs to be in this ro- hotel, you think he's a flight risk or something? I mean, it's like, you know, rules everywhere are, are silly once you start-

   10. JRJoe Rogan30:24

       Yeah.

   11. JSJosh Szeps30:24

       ... trying to enforce them and trying to look at the edge cases.

   12. JRJoe Rogan30:26

       What do you guys do i- in terms of early treatment if someone catches COVID over there?

   13. JSJosh Szeps30:31

       Not a lot yet but I wish we were doing more. Um, I wish there was more-

   14. JRJoe Rogan30:35

       Why is that? See that, that's one of the things that drives me nuts.

   15. JSJosh Szeps30:37

       Yeah.

   16. JRJoe Rogan30:37

       Because as a person who wasn't, wasn't vaccinated and got early treatment and got over COVID very quickly-

   17. JSJosh Szeps30:45

       Yeah.

   18. JRJoe Rogan30:45

       ... I was like, this narrative that the only way to beat COVID is to be vaccinated is nonsense.

   19. JSJosh Szeps30:50

       Mm-hmm.

   20. JRJoe Rogan30:50

       It's nonsense.

   21. JSJosh Szeps30:51

       Well, I mean, there would be ... I mean, so the, the ... I think the idea of getting everybody vaccinated is a way of avoiding what you were alluding to earlier which is like, can't we just protect the really vulnerable people? Nowhere has done that successfully. It's-

   22. JRJoe Rogan31:03

       Well, you're not gonna be able to do that unless you take them out to Western Australia and drop 'em off.

   23. JSJosh Szeps31:06

       Well, exactly. That's right. What are you gonna do, like round up everyone over the age of 70?

   24. JRJoe Rogan31:09

       If they have any contact with people. Look, they got it in fucking Antarctica.

   25. JSJosh Szeps31:13

       Yeah. Yeah.

   26. JRJoe Rogan31:13

       It made it up to Antarctica, so it's like-

   27. JSJosh Szeps31:15

       Yeah. And not Western Australia, so it's like Antarctica. (laughs)

   28. JRJoe Rogan31:17

       (laughs)

   29. JSJosh Szeps31:17

       And Antarctica was actually-

   30. JRJoe Rogan31:18

       They have no cases in Western Australia? None?
4. 45:00 – 1:00:00

   Well, what about those…

   1. JSJosh Szeps45:00

      then you're off to the races. Brought it right, right down. Everyone's basically living a normal life during that first wave period between like, you know, April, May, June of 2020. Aussies are like, "Sweet. We closed the borders. We suppressed the virus. We're able to essentially live normally. We're, we're not wearing masks and we're not doing all that sort of stuff," by essentially June of 2020. And-

   2. JRJoe Rogan45:21

      Well, what about those videos where you see cops arresting people for not having masks on outside?

   3. JSJosh Szeps45:26

      So what happened in Melbourne was that then they got an outbreak and they went really hard on a lockdown. I mean-

   4. JRJoe Rogan45:32

      Right.

   5. JSJosh Szeps45:32

      Well I-

   6. JRJoe Rogan45:33

      That... You don't think that is concerning?

   7. JSJosh Szeps45:34

      Yeah.

   8. JRJoe Rogan45:34

      When you see that kind of shit-

   9. JSJosh Szeps45:36

      Yeah.

   10. JRJoe Rogan45:36

       ... where people get arrested and thrown to the ground because they don't have a mask on?

   11. JSJosh Szeps45:39

       Y- Uh, yes, I would think that's very concerning. Some of those videos that you see are also like, uh, when you actually ask the cops about it, they were like, "Actually, we were arresting somebody for, um..." Like that was a person being arrested for a crime.

   12. JRJoe Rogan45:52

       No, but no. There's videos where the guy says, "Is all this because I don't have a mask on?"

   13. JSJosh Szeps45:55

       Right, right.

   14. JRJoe Rogan45:55

       Are you serious?

   15. JSJosh Szeps45:56

       Yes. That's crazy.

   16. JRJoe Rogan45:56

       There's a bunch of those videos.

   17. JSJosh Szeps45:58

       Yep, yep. That is-

   18. JRJoe Rogan45:59

       You working for the state?

   19. JSJosh Szeps46:00

       (laughs)

   20. JRJoe Rogan46:00

       You seem like you're a little dismissive of any criticism-

   21. JSJosh Szeps46:03

       No, no.

   22. JRJoe Rogan46:03

       ... of the way they've handled it in Australia.

   23. JSJosh Szeps46:05

       No, no, no. I- It's a little bit.

   24. JRJoe Rogan46:07

       Part of the... No, part of the difficulty-

   25. JSJosh Szeps46:08

       A little bit.

   26. JRJoe Rogan46:08

       Part of the difficulty... Well, I don't mean to come across that way.

   27. JSJosh Szeps46:10

       You're a little smiley.

   28. JRJoe Rogan46:11

       I don't mean to come across-

   29. JSJosh Szeps46:12

       A little dismissive.

   30. JRJoe Rogan46:13

       I'm, I'm, I'm a Fauci, fauchy stooge. (laughs)
5. 1:00:00 – 1:04:43

   I mean, it depends…

   1. JRJoe Rogan1:00:00

      losing his place and-

   2. JSJosh Szeps1:00:01

      I mean, it depends whether or not you find, like, uh, sort of bumbling incompetence better or worse than intentional, uh, like, corruption.

   3. JRJoe Rogan1:00:10

      Well, it's not better or worse in my eyes. It's definitely not good to have intentional corruption, but I don't know if he's immune from, uh, uh, accusations of intentional corruption either. It's got me-

   4. JSJosh Szeps1:00:21

      I mean, I don't know. He doesn't, he doesn't own a hotel that he gets foreign heads of state and their delegations to all stay in so that he can make a personal profit out of it-

   5. JRJoe Rogan1:00:27

      That's true.

   6. JSJosh Szeps1:00:27

      ... when they're on government business.

   7. JRJoe Rogan1:00:28

      But he does have a son that he sent overseas-

   8. JSJosh Szeps1:00:31

      (laughs)

   9. JRJoe Rogan1:00:31

      ... and his son made a lot of money and for no reason whatsoever, and his son wrote down that the big guy gets a cut and then they, you know, had a story about his laptop-

   10. JSJosh Szeps1:00:41

       Yeah, and then it comes back to the whole, like-

   11. JRJoe Rogan1:00:43

       ... and there was an active move to suppress it.

   12. JSJosh Szeps1:00:44

       It comes back to the media thing and, like, the trust in media-

   13. JRJoe Rogan1:00:46

       Yeah.

   14. JSJosh Szeps1:00:47

       ... th- thing. I mean, that's-

   15. JRJoe Rogan1:00:48

       That was not just media, right? That's, that's, that's where it gets really scary because they're cutting off-

   16. JSJosh Szeps1:00:51

       Well, I mean, the fact that they suppressed-

   17. JRJoe Rogan1:00:52

       ... the access to independent media.

   18. JSJosh Szeps1:00:53

       Yeah. Like d- didn't... Exactly.

   19. JRJoe Rogan1:00:54

       Yeah.

   20. JSJosh Szeps1:00:54

       But didn't The Post publish it?

   21. JRJoe Rogan1:00:55

       Yes.

   22. JSJosh Szeps1:00:55

       And then, like, Twitter banned the article from being shared-

   23. JRJoe Rogan1:00:58

       Yeah.

   24. JSJosh Szeps1:00:58

       ... on Facebook or something?

   25. JRJoe Rogan1:00:59

       Yeah, you couldn't even share it in a DM.

   26. JSJosh Szeps1:01:01

       Unbelievable.

   27. JRJoe Rogan1:01:01

       Yeah.

   28. JSJosh Szeps1:01:02

       I mean, that's, to me-

   29. JRJoe Rogan1:01:03

       Terrifying.

   30. JSJosh Szeps1:01:04

       ... like, the whole new thing to be a- afraid of. Like I, I am sad that we've lost so much faith in conventional media because I do think that there are... Like, if you're, anyone who's worked in a newsroom, in a formal newsroom at a big, old legacy institutional media outlet like the New York Times or The New Yorker or The Atlantic or the BBC or something like that, knows that, you know, you bring in a story. An editor will be on your back about, like, "How many, uh, how can you verify it? How many s- how many sources do you have?"

Episode duration: 3:05:15