EVERY SPOKEN WORD
150 min read · 30,039 words- 0:00 – 15:00
(drumbeats) Joe Rogan podcast,…
- JRJoe Rogan
(drumbeats) Joe Rogan podcast, check it out.
- BBBen Burgis
The Joe Rogan Experience.
- JRJoe Rogan
Train by day, Joe Rogan podcast by night. All day. (instrumental music) All right, cheers, sir.
- BBBen Burgis
Mm-hmm, cheers. (glasses clink) Salut.
- JRJoe Rogan
Salut. Mm.
- BBBen Burgis
Mm.
- JRJoe Rogan
So this is for you.
- BBBen Burgis
Oh, thank you so much.
- JRJoe Rogan
This is your own ... It's got a little JRE label on the back of it. This is, uh, your own bu- on the side, this little thing.
- BBBen Burgis
Oh, yeah.
- JRJoe Rogan
Um, this is a part of, uh, a thing we did with Fight For The Forgotten.
- BBBen Burgis
Yeah.
- JRJoe Rogan
Which is, um ... I don't know if you know what that is, but it's a, a charity that my friend, Justin Wren, put together.
- BBBen Burgis
Mm-hmm.
- JRJoe Rogan
It's, um ... They build, uh, wells for people in the pygmy, uh, pygmy, um, population in, uh, Uganda and in, um, uh, the Congo as well. And so they did a thing with Buffalo Trace where we picked out one very specific batch and they, they literally gave us a barrel of whiskey. So we have ... It was one giant bottle and then a bunch of these bottles to give out to guests. So there you go.
- BBBen Burgis
Nice. Uh, man, this feels strange. I, uh ... You know, I've got to tell you, in the late '90s, I watched NewsRadio all the time, so, you know, get the, uh ... You know, feels, uh, feels weird having a drink with you.
- JRJoe Rogan
Yeah. It feels weird just being me, so ...
- BBBen Burgis
(laughs)
- JRJoe Rogan
(laughs) It's weird for p- It's weird for people to feel weird to meet me, so that's, that's odd too.
- BBBen Burgis
Mm-hmm.
- JRJoe Rogan
Um, so your book, uh, is, uh, speaks to my heart. Did you bring a copy?
- BBBen Burgis
Uh, I did not.
- JRJoe Rogan
You have a book with you.
- BBBen Burgis
No, I have a book with me.
- JRJoe Rogan
Oh.
- BBBen Burgis
This is, uh ... This is a book by my friend Adolph Reed. Uh-
- JRJoe Rogan
Oh.
- BBBen Burgis
So it's, um, about growing up in New Orleans under Jim Crow and, like, kind of how the South and the country has changed and how it hasn't changed. So, uh-
- JRJoe Rogan
Mm.
- BBBen Burgis
This is good stuff, but, uh ...
- 15:00 – 30:00
Right. …
- BBBen Burgis
right? But, like Jeff Bezos isn't up for election by anybody, right?
- JRJoe Rogan
Right.
- BBBen Burgis
Like, like, like he's just there, right? So like if you have, you know, like if, for example, you know, you, you didn't have like the, uh, public post office, right? It was, it was just like Amazon, you know, taking the, you know, like Amazon trucks and that's it.
- JRJoe Rogan
Mm-hmm.
- BBBen Burgis
Then now you're talking about an institution that, uh, that there's no democratic control over, right? There's some like a little bit of indirect control in the case of the, uh, the post office, which, you know, by the way, I would point out that like when conservatives talk about, you know, bureaucracy and inefficiency and stuff like that, they always bring that up. But like if you actually look at polls, like 90% of Americans like the post office, you know.
- JRJoe Rogan
The post office is amazing. They can get a fucking letter across the country for less than a dollar.
- BBBen Burgis
(laughs) Right, yeah. Right.
- JRJoe Rogan
How crazy is that?
- BBBen Burgis
Yeah, you could write-
- JRJoe Rogan
What is the cost for a stamp?
- BBBen Burgis
Uh-
- JRJoe Rogan
Let's hit that now.
- BBBen Burgis
Yeah, it's like, uh, I know it's less than a dollar. It's, it's been a while since I actually, uh, you know-
- JRJoe Rogan
Yeah.
- BBBen Burgis
... like I think my wife usually like buys the stuff at the post office.
- JRJoe Rogan
I just email stuff. I don't fucking mail shit anymore. But like-
- BBBen Burgis
But like, but the fact that you can take a letter from Austin to like rural Alaska-
- JRJoe Rogan
For a buck.
- BBBen Burgis
... for a buck is-
- JRJoe Rogan
Fucking bonkers.
- BBBen Burgis
It's ridiculous. And no private company would, would have the, uh, the incentive to, to do that, right? You know.
- JRJoe Rogan
Right.
- BBBen Burgis
And, and I think that that's, uh, like one of the things that Bernie Sanders was talking about, uh, the two times he ran for president, you know, it's not one of the things that was played up the most, is, um, postal banking, you know, which is the idea that you could have like bak- basic banking services offered at the post office, which they actually do have in some Scandinavian countries. And that was-
- JRJoe Rogan
Basic banking services like deposits and ex-
- BBBen Burgis
Yeah, yeah.
- JRJoe Rogan
... withdrawals and stuff like that?
- BBBen Burgis
Yeah.
- JRJoe Rogan
At the post office?
- BBBen Burgis
At the post office, which is-
- JRJoe Rogan
Why would you do that?
- 30:00 – 45:00
Yeah. …
- BBBen Burgis
agree with you because yeah, if there are only a couple million people watching like one of the, you know, traditional networks, uh, at any given night, well th-... then, you know, what's their profit incentive? Their profit incentive is to, like, relentlessly pander to whatever audience they have, they have left. So if, you know, if you're Fox, you know, you, you scare old, you know, conservatives and, you know, whatever. Like, MSNBC has their own version, like we were talking about. But I think that, like, this is why I try to, like, go out and do debates all the time, because which, like, some people, and this is one of the things I talk about in the book, right? Some people on the left don't like that, right? They say that, like, if you're, um, you know, if you're... Like, if you talk to a bad person basically, right? You know, they'll say like, "Oh, you're platforming-"
- JRJoe Rogan
Yeah.
- BBBen Burgis
... "you know, that, that person."
- JRJoe Rogan
That's so stupid.
- BBBen Burgis
Which is a word I hate so much, but they have, uh ... (laughs) But, but-
- JRJoe Rogan
I get that more than anybody.
- BBBen Burgis
Yes?
- JRJoe Rogan
'Cause I, I, you know... People want to say that I'm like a, a fake liberal because I talk to conservatives and I'm friends with some conservatives. Like, that is the dumbest fucking thing to ever... You, you, we need to communicate with each other. We're supposed to be in a community. The community is the human race-
- BBBen Burgis
Yeah.
- JRJoe Rogan
... first of all, and then the United States second. We're supposed to be a community. And if there... I have a lot of friends that have completely different perspectives-
- BBBen Burgis
Yeah, sure.
- JRJoe Rogan
... than, than me. They... I have a lot of friends that are, like, very Christian, I have friends that are very Muslim, I have friends that have, you know, no religious affiliation whatsoever.
- BBBen Burgis
Sure.
- JRJoe Rogan
I have friends that are right wing and left wing. And I don't, I don't mind all those things. As long as you're not a suppressive person, you're not suppressing people that have an opposite position or an opposite perspective, like, why not? Like, what are we doing here? Aren't we just talking to each other?
- BBBen Burgis
(laughs)
- JRJoe Rogan
Shouldn't we, like, communicate with people that are ... And th- but when I have people on, you know, you'll, I'll get all this pushback, like ... Or someone like Ben Shapiro.
- BBBen Burgis
Mm-hmm.
- JRJoe Rogan
Ben Shapiro's a lovely guy. Meet him, get to know him, he's very nice. I don't agree with him a lot.
- BBBen Burgis
Yeah.
- JRJoe Rogan
A lot! On a lot of stuff.
- BBBen Burgis
Yeah. I mean, look, if, if, uh-
- JRJoe Rogan
But I love the guy.
- BBBen Burgis
Sure. I mean, look, if, if, you know, Ben Shapiro ever wanted to, like, come on my show and argue with me, I would, I would 100% do that, right? Because-
- JRJoe Rogan
I bet he could.
- BBBen Burgis
Okay. Well, you know?
- JRJoe Rogan
But he talks really fast, you gotta be careful, 'cause it's hard to keep up with him.
- BBBen Burgis
(laughs)
- JRJoe Rogan
It's like his fucking brain is on a different RPM, you gotta... You... Whenever I talk to him, I try to slow things down.
- BBBen Burgis
(laughs)
- JRJoe Rogan
"Slow down, youngster." (laughs)
- 45:00 – 1:00:00
Yeah. …
- BBBen Burgis
I don't blame anybody as an individual for, like, taking it, like, like, look, if, if you're told here are the rules, right?
- JRJoe Rogan
Yeah.
- BBBen Burgis
That this is, like, that everybody has to function in, like, within reason, like, if you're not, like, you know, doing some things that I do think, you know, Bezos has done, but, like, you know, but if, you know, but there are, like, a list, you know, like, if you're not, like, busting unions and this and that, right? Then, like, look, if you-
- JRJoe Rogan
Look at that.
- BBBen Burgis
(laughs)
- JRJoe Rogan
Just look it, how it started. How's it going? They, they did it. Someone did it. (laughs)
- BBBen Burgis
(laughs)
- JRJoe Rogan
Ah.
- BBBen Burgis
Yeah.
- JRJoe Rogan
Look at that. That's fucking amazing.
- BBBen Burgis
(laughs)
- JRJoe Rogan
That's amazing. Work hard folks, and you don't have to be a dork.
- BBBen Burgis
(laughs)
- JRJoe Rogan
Imagine, shave your head, get a bombshell girlfriend. Whoo, I love it.
- BBBen Burgis
You have to-
- JRJoe Rogan
Happy days are here.
- BBBen Burgis
Yeah, yeah.
- JRJoe Rogan
Let's go.
- BBBen Burgis
100 billion dollars help?
- JRJoe Rogan
That guy's lived different lives. He's lived di- uh, billions of dollars, hundreds of billions, not hundreds of millions, sir, hundreds of billions. That's outrageous.
- BBBen Burgis
Yeah, no, I mean, he's on track to be the first trillionaire, right? It's, uh, that's what they-
- JRJoe Rogan
Oh, there's trillionaires out there.
- BBBen Burgis
Yeah. Okay, are there?
- JRJoe Rogan
Yeah, I guess, sure.
- BBBen Burgis
'Cause I thought, I thought they were saying, like, in 2020 they were saying that, like, at the end of the... Okay.
- JRJoe Rogan
No, the trillionaires are all nonpublic.
- BBBen Burgis
Okay.
- JRJoe Rogan
See, if you think about, like, the royal families-
- BBBen Burgis
Mm-hmm.
- JRJoe Rogan
... like, they, they, they don't have to disclose their wealth. These people that have l- literally-
- 1:00:00 – 1:08:46
Mm-hmm. …
- JRJoe Rogan
an... It's a, it's a dangerous way to, to set a precedent because you're filtering ideas. You're filtering ideas through your own standards. And I don't think that's good 'cause I, I think it's, it's, it's bad for you too. It's bad for your ideas 'cause if your ideas can't stand the vetting-
- BBBen Burgis
Mm-hmm.
- JRJoe Rogan
... of the, of, of an opposing position, then your ideas might suck and you maybe should look at them. Is so- maybe you're lazy-
- BBBen Burgis
Mm-hmm.
- JRJoe Rogan
... and you don't want to go through the, the-... hassle-
- BBBen Burgis
Yeah.
- JRJoe Rogan
... of, of debate or, or of, like, serious discourse. But if your ideas can't handle that kind of a discussion, you probably shouldn't have them. You shouldn't adopt them. You shouldn't be-
- BBBen Burgis
Mm-hmm.
- JRJoe Rogan
... holding on to them. That's my position on all this. And I think this, whenever someone's trying to silence someone, it's, it's more political than it is anything.
- BBBen Burgis
Mm-hmm.
- JRJoe Rogan
It's more this person has an incredible amount of influence and they don't align up very rigidly with what our ideology is, and they could cause us problems if they discuss certain things in an unorthodox way, and we don't like that. So we're going to silence them and we're going to ch- pretend that they're something that they're not. And we're going to do that openly, and it's going to be obvious.
- BBBen Burgis
Yeah, and I think, and I think especially, like, look, if you think the status quo is totally fine, that, like, everything is the way that it should be, I can, I guess, understand that.
- JRJoe Rogan
Who the fuck thinks that?
- BBBen Burgis
(laughs) I don't know. That's a crazy argument. Right.
- JRJoe Rogan
There's not a single person alive that thinks everything's perfect.
- BBBen Burgis
(laughs)
- JRJoe Rogan
Right? Is there?
- BBBen Burgis
I, I mean, if so, I haven't met them. Uh-
- JRJoe Rogan
I never met them.
- BBBen Burgis
But-
- JRJoe Rogan
... so I don't think you can have that argument.
- BBBen Burgis
Yeah, so I mean, if you think that there are things that are really seriously wrong with the society that you live in right now...
- JRJoe Rogan
Have discussions.
- BBBen Burgis
... then, then you, like the last thing that you want to do is to make it harder to get your ideas out- about that out there. So, uh, you know, so people can, people can talk about them, people can, you know, people can, can hear about them, right? Like, I, I think that if you, you know, if you want, um... If you want to have, like, you know, in my case, you think that like we have, you know, we have way too much economic inequality, I think it's particularly crazy to support, like, more corporate censorship.
- JRJoe Rogan
Yeah.
- BBBen Burgis
Because again, who do you think (laughs) , you know, who do you think is going to get censored, right? Like, like-
- JRJoe Rogan
Exactly.
- BBBen Burgis
... if, like, if it's, uh, you know, I mean, if there's some Starbucks worker who's, like, you know, got fired when they were trying to organize a union, and Starbucks says that, "No, they weren't really fired for that, it was really, you know, because they-"
- JRJoe Rogan
Mm-hmm.
- BBBen Burgis
"... you know, whatever, they-"
Episode duration: 2:48:31
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