Joe Rogan Experience #1920 - Dave Portnoy

1. 0:00 – 3:06

   Political labels, nuance, and being miscategorized online

   1. NANarrator0:00

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

   2. The Joe Rogan Experience.

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

   4. JRJoe Rogan0:12

      We up?

   5. NANarrator0:12

      Okay. All right. Hello, Joe Rogan. How you doing, man?

   6. DPDave Portnoy0:14

      How's it going?

   7. JRJoe Rogan0:15

      Good to see you, brother. What's going on?

   8. DPDave Portnoy0:16

      Not too much.

   9. JRJoe Rogan0:17

      We were just talking about how, uh, we're a couple of right-wing psychos.

   10. DPDave Portnoy0:21

       Yeah.

   11. JRJoe Rogan0:21

       (laughs)

   12. DPDave Portnoy0:21

       Perceived that way at least. Perceived that way.

   13. JRJoe Rogan0:24

       It's so weird. People just have to lump you into one category or another, and if you're not completely aligned with the left, they'll just lump you in with the right.

   14. DPDave Portnoy0:33

       Yours is pretty easy to figure out, though, because you didn't endorse Bernie Sanders.

   15. JRJoe Rogan0:37

       Did you... (laughs)

   16. DPDave Portnoy0:38

       Right?

   17. JRJoe Rogan0:39

       Yeah. (laughs)

   18. DPDave Portnoy0:39

       So I mean, it- it- it should be, like, all of one second to figure out maybe you aren't.

   19. JRJoe Rogan0:44

       Uh, yeah, but that doesn't mean anything to anybody. It just, uh, it's just, we live in the weirdest time. People just want to categorize people in a tweet. You know, they want to categorize people in 140 or 280 symbols. It's just, uh, they just decide that you're this or you're that, that way they can categorize you as the enemy.

   20. DPDave Portnoy1:06

       Does that bother you at all?

   21. JRJoe Rogan1:06

       No nuance.

   22. DPDave Portnoy1:07

       Do you care?

   23. JRJoe Rogan1:09

       I mean, I wish that they didn't, but what are you gonna do?

   24. DPDave Portnoy1:12

       Yeah.

   25. JRJoe Rogan1:12

       You know, I mean, does it bo- I mean, yeah, if somebody miscategorizes me or mis-, uh, mislabels me, I guess it would bother me a little bit. But that's just on them, you know, it's- it's not who I am. So-

   26. DPDave Portnoy1:25

       Yeah.

   27. JRJoe Rogan1:25

       ... I- I'm a big believer in social programs. I'm a big believer in welfare. I'm a big believer in- in taking care of poor people. I'm a big believer in, like, social programs to clean up cities. And we, there's- there's a lot of shit that we should be doing in this country to- to help people that are disenfranchised, because it's not fair. Anybody thinks it is fair that someone lives in a fucking crime-infested, gang-ridden inner city and that's exactly the same as someone who grew up in the suburbs, that's crazy.

   28. DPDave Portnoy1:52

       Right. So that would go against what I think a lot of people would expect you to say.

   29. JRJoe Rogan1:55

       Yeah, but I also, you know, I'm a v- cage-fighting commentator. I- I, I'm a big believer in the Second Amendment. You know, there's- there's a lot of reasons why they would decide to categorize me as a- a right-wing person. But it's- it's not correct. And also, there's all this ridiculous woke shit that's going on, this bizarre mind virus that's going from universities into- to tech companies and- and the media, and just fucking infiltrating people with these rigid ideas of what you have to say and not say, and what you can and not say. And it's like, th- none of that is liberal. None of th- none of that is really, like, open-minded or progressive. It's all just a, it's a cult. It, and so if you go against it, the only thing you could possibly be is the other.

   30. DPDave Portnoy2:44

       Hm.
2. 3:06 – 6:08

   Ukraine, NATO complexity, and vague prophecy talk

   1. JRJoe Rogan3:06

      Yeah, there's a lot of that, right? Like, if you are on the right, I have to assume you're dismissive of climate change. You know, if you're on the left, I have to assume that you want a woman to have the right to choose, period. You know, and you, like, there's, like, things like that. Like, you are pro-abortion, or you are pro-this, or you are pro-that, and- and that, what's weird now is, like, if you're on the left, you're pro-Ukraine war. You want to send, like, you- you're pro-military-industrial complex getting funneled billions and trillions of dollars into their system to be able to create weapons to fight off Russians. Like, whoa. That's the left now?

   2. DPDave Portnoy3:42

      And, really, that should have nothing to do with either side, really.

   3. JRJoe Rogan3:46

      No.

   4. DPDave Portnoy3:46

      Like, I mean, you, it, how you feel about that I don't think should be left or right. I mean, that's a super complicated issue, to be honest. For me, at least, it's like Ukraine, like I don't, you don't want a country being invaded that doesn't want to be invaded. They're not Americans, but they are humans.

   5. JRJoe Rogan4:01

      Yeah.

   6. DPDave Portnoy4:02

      So it's like, what do you do? What, like, what do you do there? It's a tough situation.

   7. JRJoe Rogan4:05

      It's very tough. And it's also very complicated too, because there's NATO, NATO's involvement and pushing weapons closer to the border of Russia, and what, and trying to get, you know, trying to get the- Ukraine to join NATO, and god knows.

   8. DPDave Portnoy4:18

      It's like, uh, Jack Ryan.

   9. JRJoe Rogan4:20

      (laughs) Yeah.

   10. DPDave Portnoy4:20

       Like, this season's Jack Ryan. It's literally sort of like that plot.

   11. JRJoe Rogan4:23

       Yeah.

   12. DPDave Portnoy4:23

       But yeah, no, there is no easy answer to a lot of issues. But it's just so black and white, and that- that's no good.

   13. JRJoe Rogan4:31

       Tsk, it's, none of it's good. Yeah, this is a sc- scary time to be alive. You know? Um, uh, someone told me the other day that, uh, Nostradamus predicted that there was gonna be some sort of a World War III.

   14. DPDave Portnoy4:43

       Oh, it- it-

   15. JRJoe Rogan4:44

       But doesn't that, every year, like, how-

   16. DPDave Portnoy4:46

       Nostradamus, though, just throws his hat on the field-

   17. JRJoe Rogan4:49

       (laughs)

   18. DPDave Portnoy4:49

       ... and it's like it's vague enough where anything could be true.

   19. JRJoe Rogan4:52

       Yeah.

   20. DPDave Portnoy4:52

       So everything he's ever said can be true.

   21. JRJoe Rogan4:55

       Right. Didn't he predict someone named Hister that was going to, uh, start a world war? He- he- he came real close with, like, Hitler.

   22. DPDave Portnoy5:05

       That's an-

   23. JRJoe Rogan5:05

       He's con-

   24. DPDave Portnoy5:05

       Have y- have you seen the- the Titanic book? The- the- the book that was written about the Titanic-

   25. JRJoe Rogan5:11

       No.

   26. DPDave Portnoy5:11

       ... before the Titanic? If you want to Google that, there is literally a book that is called, like, I forget the name of the book. But it's like the biggest cruise ship that will ever sail is gonna hit an iceberg and it's gonna sink. That is weird. But Nostradamus, I'm not buying the hype on him.

   27. JRJoe Rogan5:30

       I haven't looked into it enough.

   28. DPDave Portnoy5:31

       Now, if he has a guy named Hister...

   29. JRJoe Rogan5:34

       What does it say? What fewer people have heard of a short novel called The Futility - The Wreck of the Titan, published in the US, writer Morgan Robertson. A novel that tells the story of the world's largest passenger ship, the Titan, and how it sank after hitting an iceberg. A novel published 14 years before the Titanic sank.

   30. DPDave Portnoy5:50

       That's pretty crazy.
3. 6:08 – 8:44

   Cigars, ‘toxic masculinity’ banter, and Barstool’s newspaper origins

   1. DPDave Portnoy6:08

      See, how does yours stay lit? I don't-

   2. JRJoe Rogan6:10

      I just keep puffing on it.

   3. DPDave Portnoy6:12

      I told you, I don't-

   4. JRJoe Rogan6:12

      Gotta get better at this.

   5. DPDave Portnoy6:14

      I'm not a big cigar-

   6. JRJoe Rogan6:14

      You're a toxic-

   7. DPDave Portnoy6:15

      ... told you.

   8. JRJoe Rogan6:15

      ... masculinity guy. You have to do toxic and masculinity things.

   9. DPDave Portnoy6:20

      Not a huge cigar guy.

   10. JRJoe Rogan6:22

       No? Not like-

   11. DPDave Portnoy6:23

       Not guy. I mean, I do like them, but I don't smoke them a lot. I kind of quit. When I started my paper route, we had a, uh, cigar company called Honeys, something Honeys. So it used to be a paper route. I delivered it, and it was like our first advertiser. I'd smoke them when I drove the Astrovan. I got so high, and I was just done with them.

   12. JRJoe Rogan6:40

       When was this?

   13. DPDave Portnoy6:41

       Uh, 2004.

   14. JRJoe Rogan6:42

       You had a paper route in 2004?

   15. DPDave Portnoy6:44

       Barstool started as a newspaper, so I used to like hand it out and we had those little news racks outside subway stations. For 48 hours, I'd just jump in my Astrovan and fill the news racks, drop them in bars throughout Boston.

   16. JRJoe Rogan6:56

       Really?

   17. DPDave Portnoy6:57

       Yeah. That's how it started.

   18. JRJoe Rogan6:58

       That's how you started?

   19. DPDave Portnoy6:58

       Yeah, as a newspaper.

   20. JRJoe Rogan6:59

       Wow.

   21. DPDave Portnoy7:01

       Yeah.

   22. JRJoe Rogan7:01

       So your own newspaper?

   23. DPDave Portnoy7:02

       Yeah.

   24. JRJoe Rogan7:03

       You... Wow.

   25. DPDave Portnoy7:04

       I'd wake up like 4:00 AM, go to the subway, hand it out to people, like walking by me and just scream at them, like, "Take the newspaper."

   26. JRJoe Rogan7:11

       (laughs)

   27. DPDave Portnoy7:11

       Yeah.

   28. JRJoe Rogan7:12

       What was the motivation to do that?

   29. DPDave Portnoy7:14

       So-

   30. JRJoe Rogan7:14

       Like how did you get the idea?
4. 8:44 – 11:50

   Hooters, hiring on looks, plus-size models, and the altruism debate

   1. JRJoe Rogan8:44

      Barstool Sports. Oh my God, look at that. 2003, the first issue of Barstool Sports.

   2. DPDave Portnoy8:52

      Yeah.

   3. JRJoe Rogan8:52

      Wow. Hooters Football Headquarters. (laughs)

   4. DPDave Portnoy8:55

      First advertisers. Yeah. Hooters.

   5. JRJoe Rogan8:56

      Hooters was your first-

   6. DPDave Portnoy8:57

      Yeah. Yeah.

   7. JRJoe Rogan8:58

      Wow. Hooters is apparently in trouble. I just read something about Hooters is not doing well.

   8. DPDave Portnoy9:04

      The... Your... That's the fake story?

   9. JRJoe Rogan9:05

      Is it a fake story?

   10. DPDave Portnoy9:06

       I don't know. The one that they're... that people aren't interested in tits anymore.

   11. JRJoe Rogan9:10

       Well, that's a fake story.

   12. DPDave Portnoy9:11

       I don't know if that's the one. (laughs)

   13. JRJoe Rogan9:12

       That's not true.

   14. DPDave Portnoy9:13

       I think that, that is... That's a ridiculous conclusion. Like just because a business that has girls, you know, with, uh, owl eyes over their tits-

   15. JRJoe Rogan9:22

       I don't know how they get away with it. I've always wondered that in this, like, culture, basically-

   16. DPDave Portnoy9:27

       Hooters?

   17. JRJoe Rogan9:27

       ... where it's, where you can just hire on looks.

   18. DPDave Portnoy9:29

       (smacks lips) Yeah. That is true, right? But don't, don't they do that in strip clubs too?

   19. JRJoe Rogan9:34

       Yeah.

   20. DPDave Portnoy9:35

       I mean, they kind of do.

   21. JRJoe Rogan9:36

       (smacks lips) Yeah. But I don't know how, like-

   22. DPDave Portnoy9:38

       Yeah, there's no equality in strip clubs. They're all in-

   23. JRJoe Rogan9:40

       No, some are better than others, but yeah, it's based on looks. Yeah, all that body positivity shit that does-

   24. DPDave Portnoy9:45

       Out the window.

   25. JRJoe Rogan9:45

       (laughs)

   26. DPDave Portnoy9:45

       So how... You figure, like how do they get away with it? How does a restaurant get away with it?

   27. JRJoe Rogan9:49

       Uh, it's a good question. But it's the same thing in like those Chippendale shows.

   28. DPDave Portnoy9:53

       Absolutely.

   29. JRJoe Rogan9:54

       It's... Yeah. I mean, that's what you're selling. If that's what you're selling-

   30. DPDave Portnoy9:57

       You get away with it.
5. 11:50 – 18:29

   Charity skepticism: overhead, scams, and controlling donations directly

   1. JRJoe Rogan11:50

      ulterior motives, if someone has a... Like, like charities bother me when I find out that the people behind the charities are making millions of dollars.

   2. DPDave Portnoy11:58

      That's the worst thing in the world.

   3. JRJoe Rogan11:59

      That is scary.

   4. DPDave Portnoy12:00

      So-

   5. JRJoe Rogan12:00

      That freaks me out.

   6. DPDave Portnoy12:01

      W- we've almost... So we've done a lot of charity through... And obviously, anytime you say do charity, it, it is self-enhancing. But we've done a ton of charity and it started... We did it with, um...

   7. NANarrator12:10

      ... Boston Marathon. So we were in Boston at the time of the bombings. That's the first time we did it, and we don't really ever give our money to anybody else. We control it. We give it direct to the people because of what you said. Like, I don't trust charities for the most part.

   8. JRJoe Rogan12:23

      Yeah. There's just too much overhead.

   9. NANarrator12:25

      Mm-hmm.

   10. JRJoe Rogan12:26

       I mean, when you give to charities, there's a, there's a list of charities that you can find online where, like, you can see what their overhead is and how much money actually gets to the people, and it's a very small percentage in most of them.

   11. NANarrator12:38

       Yeah.

   12. JRJoe Rogan12:38

       What's, like, the lowest charity in terms of, like, the worst charity for, like, you give them money and how much of it actually goes to the charity? Because some of them are pretty good, but, man, some of them are shockingly bad. Like, you know, 10%.

   13. NANarrator12:55

       Yeah.

   14. JRJoe Rogan12:56

       Like, which is crazy. You know, when you got executives making six figures, and...

   15. NANarrator13:00

       Yeah. It, it, well, it becomes a business.

   16. JRJoe Rogan13:02

       Yeah.

   17. NANarrator13:02

       It's no longer, like, charity.

   18. JRJoe Rogan13:04

       Yeah, that's real common though. Like, a lot of people freaked out when the Black Lives Matter people were buying mansions and shit (laughs) .

   19. NANarrator13:11

       Yep. Well, I mean-

   20. JRJoe Rogan13:11

       You know?

   21. NANarrator13:11

       ... rightfully so. Make-A-Wish.

   22. JRJoe Rogan13:13

       Oh, my God, look at this. The name game.

   23. NANarrator13:16

       Yikes.

   24. JRJoe Rogan13:16

       "A very commonly known and respected group is the Make-A-Wish Foundation. This organization spends the vast majority of its donations on children. Kid Wish Network. However, it spends only three cents of every dollar collected on kids. But their website and solicitations are designed to look and sound like Make-A-Wish. In fact, they count on confusion to gather contributions." What?

   25. NANarrator13:41

       Do, uh, do we just bury Make-A-Wish? I hope not.

   26. No, it's not Make-A-Wish. It's this, this Kid's Wish Network-

   27. Oh. Oh.

   28. ... is the one that's copying Make-A-Wish.

   29. JRJoe Rogan13:48

       Kid's Wish Network.

   30. NANarrator13:49

       Put it on the record, we're not-
6. 18:29 – 25:38

   Sports scandals, CTE, and why MMA risk is treated differently than the NFL

   1. DPDave Portnoy18:29

      ... like, the Brett Favre stuff's crazy.

   2. JRJoe Rogan18:31

      (clicks tongue) Yeah, I didn't look into that that much, because I'm not, I'm not the biggest football fan, but it looked pretty sad.

   3. DPDave Portnoy18:37

      Yes, very sad from what it seems. Like, uh, the money that should have been going to the state was going to build a, uh, a volleyball court at the school because his daughter played volleyball.

   4. JRJoe Rogan18:47

      Yeah.

   5. DPDave Portnoy18:48

      Not great.

   6. JRJoe Rogan18:49

      D- did... And he was aware of all that?

   7. DPDave Portnoy18:51

      Certainly seems that way.

   8. JRJoe Rogan18:53

      (clicks tongue) Doesn't he also have, like, probably pretty significant CTE? Th- there was a thing about Brett Favre, but, like, he thinks he's had a thousand concussions.

   9. DPDave Portnoy19:02

      A thousand?

   10. JRJoe Rogan19:03

       Yeah. Wasn't... That was him, right?

   11. NANarrator19:04

       Yeah. It was because just, like, every time... Any shaking could be a concussion, so he was considering, like, the definition of concussion to be like, "Well, then I've had thousands of them."

   12. JRJoe Rogan19:12

       Yeah. It was... He was talking about how many, how many times he's got his bell rang.

   13. NANarrator19:14

       Yeah.

   14. JRJoe Rogan19:15

       That is a concussion for the most part. It's, uh, certainly close to it.

   15. DPDave Portnoy19:20

       Is... I've always had this question. You're an MMA guy, obviously. So the NFL, the concussion thing, I think, is because if they start acknowledging it really, they got, they're, they gotta go all the way back in time and deal with ex-players and things like that.

   16. JRJoe Rogan19:34

       Mm-hmm.

   17. DPDave Portnoy19:34

       MMA guys get hit in the face every two seconds.

   18. JRJoe Rogan19:36

       Yep.

   19. DPDave Portnoy19:37

       Are they just released? Is that why no one ever talks about concussions in MMA, but in football, it's a huge discussion?

   20. JRJoe Rogan19:44

       I think in football it was never known, whereas in boxing, it was always Punch-Drunk. Everybody always knew about it. So, I think you thought going into it that this was a risk that you were taking if you wanted to be a fighter. So, the... I think the thought b- behind it was, "Look, everybody knows what happened to Muhammad Ali. Everybody saw Joe Frazier at the end of his career. Everybody saw all these guys who could barely talk, who used to be these great, great fighters." And everybody who was aware, who's in the game said, "Look, you gotta talk to your fighters when it's time to leave, and you gotta be aware of the risks, but you know what you're getting into when you get into it." You know, just like y- you know, if a, a guy is a BMX jumper and he does those flips on dirt bikes and then he falls and fucking breaks his neck, like-

   21. DPDave Portnoy20:33

       Yep.

   22. JRJoe Rogan20:33

       ... you know he knew that that was, that was... It's on the menu.

   23. DPDave Portnoy20:37

       Yeah, I get it.

   24. JRJoe Rogan20:38

       It's possible.

   25. DPDave Portnoy20:38

       You, you, you know the risk going into it, where football they-

   26. JRJoe Rogan20:41

       I think they didn't know.

   27. DPDave Portnoy20:42

       Yeah.

   28. JRJoe Rogan20:42

       I don't think people really knew-

   29. DPDave Portnoy20:44

       And he hit it.

   30. JRJoe Rogan20:45

       Yeah.
7. 25:38 – 30:40

   UFC fandom and controversy: Paddy Pimblett decision and Gaethje Twitter fight

   1. DPDave Portnoy25:38

      I've been blessed at this point with things that I never thought I'd be able to do, ever. Walking in with Paddy, I got to walk in with Paddy in London when the crowd was chanting his name. That is still, like, maybe the best thing that I've gotten to do.

   2. JRJoe Rogan25:54

      (laughs)

   3. DPDave Portnoy25:54

      I can't imagine being a fighter, like, in the tunnel, coming out. There is nothing really else like it in sports, in anything, the walkout.

   4. JRJoe Rogan26:02

      No, there's nothing like it. Especially for-

   5. DPDave Portnoy26:04

      I saw you, by the way, roll your eyes when Paddy won.

   6. JRJoe Rogan26:07

      Shouldn't have won.

   7. DPDave Portnoy26:08

      I thought that, I thought it was a close decision.

   8. JRJoe Rogan26:10

      Uh, I thought Jared won. I taught- I thought Jared Gordon won that fight. But-

   9. DPDave Portnoy26:15

      Did you see-

   10. JRJoe Rogan26:16

       It was a good fight. It w- it certainly wasn't a blowout. It wasn't one of those fights where there's no fucking way. Uh, it was, it was a close fight.

   11. DPDave Portnoy26:25

       Did you see the fight, uh, Twitter war I got in with, um, a guy after the fact?

   12. JRJoe Rogan26:29

       No.

   13. DPDave Portnoy26:30

       Justin Gaethje.

   14. JRJoe Rogan26:31

       Oh, Justin Gaethje? Yeah.

   15. DPDave Portnoy26:33

       Yeah. He and I, he threatened to beat me up.

   16. JRJoe Rogan26:35

       Well, he definitely could. (laughs)

   17. DPDave Portnoy26:36

       That's, by the way, that's not saying much. Like, your producer could beat me up. So I don't ... (laughs)

   18. JRJoe Rogan26:41

       (laughs)

   19. DPDave Portnoy26:41

       That's not much of a threat. I've never been in a physical altercation in my life.

   20. JRJoe Rogan26:45

       He's the most violent man in MMA. Justin Gaethje's a fucking savage.

   21. DPDave Portnoy26:49

       Is, is he capable of beating up a civilian?

   22. JRJoe Rogan26:53

       Would he? No, he wouldn't do that.

   23. DPDave Portnoy26:54

       That's good to know.

   24. JRJoe Rogan26:55

       No, he wouldn't do that. He's not stupid.

   25. DPDave Portnoy26:57

       'Cause th- this is what happened. After the fight, Paddy in the ring, "Fight of the night." He said, "Fight of the night." The third round, they didn't throw a punch. It wasn't fight of the night. But he's, he was talking fight of the night. Paddy's our guy.

   26. JRJoe Rogan27:09

       Well, he's just a fun guy.

   27. DPDave Portnoy27:10

       Yeah, so we're saying-

   28. JRJoe Rogan27:11

       Yeah.

   29. DPDave Portnoy27:11

       ... "Fight of the night, fight of the night." He got mad at us. He's like, "You're trying to steal money from the actual fighters who won fight of the night." We're like, "No, we didn't." People went into his background and, and ... Wait, what did he say exactly? What was his quote to me? He said, uh, embarrassing ... What was the ... No. He ... Something, "We gotta be better. We don't stand for this." People, the comments littered. He was out with like a third world, like, dictator.

   30. JRJoe Rogan27:41

       Oh, the Chechnyan guy.
8. 30:40 – 43:00

   Media control, Twitter Files, shadowbans, and algorithmic suppression

   1. JRJoe Rogan30:40

      What ... Is there something where Ukraine is cracking down on the media?Somebody sent me something about the UKaine, uh, Ukraine trying to control the media now.

   2. DPDave Portnoy30:50

      Are we anti-Ukraine?

   3. JRJoe Rogan30:52

      They're, they're taking steps... No. No.

   4. DPDave Portnoy30:53

      Oh.

   5. JRJoe Rogan30:54

      No.

   6. DPDave Portnoy30:54

      Why would they crack down on the media?

   7. JRJoe Rogan30:55

      Well, I think because of the war effort. You know, if the media is saying things like, "Oh, you know, Ukraine is corrupt," or, "Oh, Ukraine has done this." (clears throat) Critics say a new media law signed by Zelenskyy could restrict press freedom in Ukraine. Lawmakers who passed the bill said it would help meet European Union conditions for membership, but journalists have denounced it as a move towards censorship. Oh. Imagine if you have to, to join the European Union, you have to fucking... What is that? Some of the law's most stringent provisions were relaxed in response to the criticism. Serious concerns about the independence of the regulatory body remain, domestic and international news media groups said on Friday, noting that they were still receiving details of the final 279-page legislation. The law expands the authority of Ukraine's state broadcasting regulator to cover the online and print news media. That's not good. Previous drafts gave the regulator the power to fine news media outlets, revoke their licenses, temporarily block certain online outlets without a court order, and request that social media platforms and search giants like Google remove content that violates the law. Well, you know, they're doing that over in America. I mean, we found out that because of the Twitter files, when Elon released all the Twitter files, they found that the United States government was actively trying to suppress the voices of certain people that were saying things they found disagreeable on Twitter.

   8. DPDave Portnoy32:20

      Yeah, to me-

   9. JRJoe Rogan32:21

      Like, that's a fact.

   10. DPDave Portnoy32:21

       ... yeah. I... Now, I got attacked for this take. I said that was like a... And I get it, obviously, but I assume... That was like a "no, duh" to me. Like, I, I, that's what I expected. Like, I wasn't... Like, I get suppressed. Like, the second Elon took over, my Twitter... And I'm sure... I don't know if you use Twitter, but mine went way up. Like-

   11. JRJoe Rogan32:43

       I got 900,000 new followers-

   12. DPDave Portnoy32:45

       Yes.

   13. JRJoe Rogan32:45

       ... in like a couple of weeks.

   14. DPDave Portnoy32:46

       Correct. So I-

   15. JRJoe Rogan32:46

       It was crazy.

   16. DPDave Portnoy32:47

       ... I didn't get to that, but I, I... Direct up arrow.

   17. JRJoe Rogan32:49

       Yeah.

   18. DPDave Portnoy32:49

       Like, I went from couldn't gain a follower to-

   19. JRJoe Rogan32:51

       Right.

   20. DPDave Portnoy32:52

       ... up. So-

   21. JRJoe Rogan32:52

       You're being suppressed.

   22. DPDave Portnoy32:53

       I, it... And I knew I was-

   23. JRJoe Rogan32:54

       Yeah.

   24. DPDave Portnoy32:54

       ... so I wasn't surprised. That's why I was like, "Oh, that's not surprising if you're paying any attention." I got attacked b- uh, people don't pay any attention. They acted like I was on the left on that. It's like, no, I was one of the ones being suppressed.

   25. JRJoe Rogan33:05

       Yeah.

   26. DPDave Portnoy33:05

       I'm just saying, yeah, no shit. That's what they do.

   27. JRJoe Rogan33:08

       Yeah, I don't complain about that shit, but I'm definitely aware of it. My Instagram used to move way quicker.

   28. DPDave Portnoy33:13

       Same.

   29. JRJoe Rogan33:14

       And then something happened a while back where it's slowed down by a significant margin, the amount of growth. And I'm like, how do you complain when you have 16 million followers? Like, do you really complain that you're not... That you're somehow or another suppressed? Or am I really suppressed? Or maybe it's because I'm not doing Reels. You know, what... Maybe this is like a leg- logical reason for it. I don't know. I mean, I think there's a lot of fucking algorithms and weird shit at play when it comes to, uh, Instagram and all-

   30. DPDave Portnoy33:41

       I think there's-
9. 43:00 – 47:37

   Distrust in mainstream media and the rise of independent journalism

   1. DPDave Portnoy43:00

      Yeah, so do you try... Like, if you're trying to read up on something, I'm talking now the major, like, outlets. So whether it be a, you go on Twitter, you're, Facebook, but I'm going New York Times, Washington Post, they're one side, Fox News is the other. Is there any place where you're like, "I wanna get a clean slate"?

   2. JRJoe Rogan43:18

      Not from, uh, I don't think from mainstream media. (sighs) I think, first of all, mainstream media is so controlled by advertising. There's so many... Like, if you know that 75% of all advertising on television is pharmaceutical companies, 75%, that's a big fucking number.

   3. DPDave Portnoy43:35

      Mm-hmm.

   4. JRJoe Rogan43:36

      If you think that they are going to have an unbiased, negative perspective on pharmaceutical drugs or the pharmaceutical industry, that's not gonna happen. That, they're gonna suppress that because that's bad for their business. It'll shut them down. If they lost 75% of their advertising, they would fucking go under. Spe- think about a company like CNN, right? CNN is already hemorrhaging money, hemorrhaging viewers. I mean, they've dropped radically since Trump left office, right? If they came out and started attacking pharmaceutical companies and they lost all their ads-

   5. DPDave Portnoy44:10

      Right.

   6. JRJoe Rogan44:10

      ... then they're, they're fucked. So you're not gonna get a, an unbiased, really honest perspective on anything that has to do with pharmaceutical companies when it comes to CNN or when it comes to any of these mainstream news platforms that rely on pharmaceutical companies for ads. You're just not-

   7. DPDave Portnoy44:27

      Right.

   8. JRJoe Rogan44:27

      It's like-

   9. DPDave Portnoy44:27

      Well, I mean, I don't think any of those are. Uh, the, the ones you just mentioned, I mean, I'm super jaded now at this point, but...

   10. JRJoe Rogan44:33

       And then you have ideological perspectives. You have the people that are in these audiological camps where you, this is this and that is that, and you can't differ from, you can't, like, have any sort of nuanced perspective or look at people that have a different point of view in a charitable way.

   11. DPDave Portnoy44:51

       Right.

   12. JRJoe Rogan44:51

       You can't do that because then you're a sympathizer or you're a, you're platforming these bad and evil people and you're carrying water for... There's all these stupid fucking phrases that they like to use.

   13. DPDave Portnoy45:02

       It's crazy how quick-

   14. JRJoe Rogan45:03

       Yeah.

   15. DPDave Portnoy45:03

       ... they jump. Yeah.

   16. JRJoe Rogan45:04

       Yeah. But also, they're fucking dying too. Like all those media companies, uh, they're, no one can trust them anymore. And the reason why no one can trust them anymore is because they're not trustworthy.

   17. DPDave Portnoy45:13

       Yeah.

   18. JRJoe Rogan45:14

       It's not, it's like, it's real simple, it's real clear. It's not like fucking, you know...

   19. DPDave Portnoy45:18

       So you l- you lashed that cigar with one light-up, huh? (blows smoke)

   20. JRJoe Rogan45:23

       No, I had to hit it a second time.

   21. DPDave Portnoy45:24

       Okay, good.

   22. JRJoe Rogan45:25

       I hit it with this little lighter. I just, it wasn't as loud. (laughs)

   23. DPDave Portnoy45:29

       That's good.

   24. JRJoe Rogan45:30

       Yeah, it goes out. I think that, uh, you know, it's an interesting time though because it's caused the emergence of, uh-

   25. DPDave Portnoy45:36

       You.

   26. JRJoe Rogan45:37

       Well, the, me, yeah, but also independent journalism. Like guys like Matt Taibbi, guys who were with these corporate news structures who left and now they're doing it on their own. Glenn Greenwald, uh, you know, uh, Krystal and Saagar from Breaking Points. All these kind of people that you can trust because even if you don't agree with them-

   27. DPDave Portnoy45:55

       Mm-hmm.

   28. JRJoe Rogan45:55

       ... you know they're not lying. That's all I need.

   29. DPDave Portnoy45:57

       Same.

   30. JRJoe Rogan45:58

       So you can, you can have opinions that I don't agree with and I, I 100% support your ability to do that. I don't wanna s- I don't wanna suppress people I don't agree with, but I want you to be honest. I want you tell me what the actual data says and I want... And even if your perspective on that data I don't agree with, at least I know you're telling me the truth. That's all I need. And there's not a lot of that in mainstream media and that's why mainstream media is dying. It's too controll- it's controlled by these corporate interests that really care more about money than they do about anything else. Then, then, like, if you think that, like, The Washington Post or The New York Times is really just about getting out the truth, that's not real.
10. 47:37 – 53:00

    Why Twitter feels toxic: mental health, troll farms, and ‘post and ghost’

    1. DPDave Portnoy47:37

       And, uh, on top of that, what, like Twitter is not the real world.

    2. JRJoe Rogan47:42

       Right.

    3. DPDave Portnoy47:42

       It's important, but you step outside, you walk down the street and most people don't even know what's going on at Twitter.

    4. JRJoe Rogan47:48

       Right.

    5. DPDave Portnoy47:48

       They're just, it's, we're in it so you see it and you, you pay attention to what people are saying. But I, I always, if I'm in the center of a controversy or something's going on, I focus like, "Oh my God, the world, everything's happening here." And then you go outside and nobody knows.

    6. JRJoe Rogan48:05

       I think Twitter's radioactive. I think that you can stay in it and you'll get sick. That's what I think. I think, but if you just visit briefly and get the fuck-

    7. DPDave Portnoy48:13

       (coughs)

    8. JRJoe Rogan48:13

       ... out of there and then take care-

    9. DPDave Portnoy48:14

       Just coughing.

    10. JRJoe Rogan48:14

        ... of yourself, you're gonna be all right. (laughs)

    11. DPDave Portnoy48:16

        Yeah.

    12. JRJoe Rogan48:16

        But I don't think it's good for people.

    13. DPDave Portnoy48:18

        It's the old, uh, Ricky Gervais, he's like my favorite comedian of all time. He had a quote... Do you like Ricky Gervais?

    14. JRJoe Rogan48:24

        Yeah, he's great.

    15. DPDave Portnoy48:25

        He had, what was the, uh, he has one about Twitter that the, someone posts something in a town square, I'm botching his line, has nothing to do with you but people run up to it just to complain about it. That's kind of it.

    16. JRJoe Rogan48:36

        Yeah.

    17. DPDave Portnoy48:37

        It's, uh, his talk, it's an echo chamber. It's t- toxic.

    18. JRJoe Rogan48:39

        It, it's also, but I think, uh, legit- legitimately bad for mental health to communicate that way. To communicate just through text and it's almost all of it is aggressive and almost all of it is insulting and almost all of it is disparaging of people. The, the, the amount of like anti or negative tweets versus positive tweets, I mean, I wonder if anybody's done a study of that. Like how much negative tweeting versus positive tweeting-

    19. DPDave Portnoy49:00

        It's... (laughs) ... probably, I would guess like 90%.

    20. JRJoe Rogan49:02

        It's probably somewhere like that. It's just bad for you. It's bad for you to ... If you, if you went to a bar, and every time you went to a bar people were fucking arguing and screaming at each other, you'd be like, "Fuck this bar."

    21. DPDave Portnoy49:13

        100%.

    22. JRJoe Rogan49:13

        "This ain't fun. I wanna go have a good time. I don't wanna be around these people." It's- it's not a normal way for human beings to communicate, where they're not looking at each other, across the- a table, having a drink, just s- s- looking at each other as another human.

    23. DPDave Portnoy49:27

        Yeah.

    24. JRJoe Rogan49:27

        Appreciating each other as a person, a human being. When you just see text on a screen and you're like, "I'm gonna fuck this guy up," and you go-

    25. DPDave Portnoy49:34

        And it's easy to do it.

    26. JRJoe Rogan49:36

        Yeah.

    27. DPDave Portnoy49:36

        You can say whatever you want.

    28. JRJoe Rogan49:38

        Yeah.

    29. DPDave Portnoy49:38

        And then i- i- there's been plenty of times I've seen examples where someone tracks down, like, the commenter.

    30. JRJoe Rogan49:44

        Mm-hmm.
11. 53:00 – 57:32

    Portnoy’s pettiness: champagne-bottle enemies and the ESPN/Skipper saga

    1. DPDave Portnoy53:00

       See, I, I'm like a petty person.

    2. JRJoe Rogan53:04

       (laughs)

    3. DPDave Portnoy53:05

       I'm quite petty, actually. So, like, if somebody says something I don't like, not once, but if someone says it a bunch, th- it, I, I keep a record. I keep a mental record.

    4. NANarrator53:18

       What'd he do? The champagne bottles?

    5. DPDave Portnoy53:20

       Champagne bottles, yeah. That I, that I became ... That's something so ... (laughs) I had champagne bo- I have champagne bottles engraved with the top-of-the-list enemies of mine. And I wait for them to fuck up-

    6. JRJoe Rogan53:36

       (laughs)

    7. DPDave Portnoy53:37

       ... and then I pop them.

    8. JRJoe Rogan53:38

       (laughs)

    9. DPDave Portnoy53:38

       So, like, the most famous example of that is John Skipper, the old ESPN guy.

    10. JRJoe Rogan53:44

        I don't know who that is.

    11. DPDave Portnoy53:44

        He, he ran ESPN.

    12. JRJoe Rogan53:46

        Oh, okay.

    13. DPDave Portnoy53:46

        Dana just talked about him the other day because he said he was anti-MMA, the deal never woulda happened. He ran ESPN. So we had a show on ESPN, um, Barstool Van Talk, and it, it maybe set a record the last one episode. He canceled it, for things we said which, in hindsight, I wish we didn't say 'em what- that- the way we did. Um, but it was years in the past. So we launched one episode. ESPN had a multi little uprising about doing business with us, and, uh, they canceled after one episode. They didn't tell us. And John Skipper was quoted as saying, "I didn't realize Barstool Van Talk ..." That was the name of the show, Barstool Van Talk. "... would be associated with Barstool." That was a direct quote he had.

    14. JRJoe Rogan54:30

        (laughs)

    15. DPDave Portnoy54:30

        So we put him on a champagne bottle. Literally, like, three days later, he got blackmailed by his coke dealer.

    16. JRJoe Rogan54:36

        (laughs)

    17. DPDave Portnoy54:36

        Supposedly. This is what happened, and had to s- and had to step down. According to John, it's the only time he used this guy. He found a random coke dealer off the street, impossible to believe, and got blackmailed. So he popped the champagne bottle. It was like per- it was perfect timing.

    18. JRJoe Rogan54:51

        He had to leave ESPN because of a coke dealer?

    19. DPDave Portnoy54:54

        S- that's, that's the story.

    20. JRJoe Rogan54:56

        (laughs)

    21. DPDave Portnoy54:56

        That's the story. Yeah.

    22. JRJoe Rogan54:58

        (laughs)

    23. DPDave Portnoy54:59

        And, and then he went o- (laughs) he went over to run DAZN.... uh, how-

    24. JRJoe Rogan55:03

        He runs the Zone now?

    25. DPDave Portnoy55:04

        He used to-

    26. JRJoe Rogan55:04

        Oh.

    27. DPDave Portnoy55:04

        ... he doesn't anymore. Um, so yeah, that, but the champagne bottles, and then, uh, HBO did a quick little, like, documentary on us. I thought it was gonna be fair and even. That's one of the last times I'll... That was almost the last time I believed the media would be fair. It wasn't. It was a hit piece, but they showed the champagne bottle, so people became aware of it.

    28. JRJoe Rogan55:23

        Mm, that's funny.

    29. DPDave Portnoy55:25

        You know?

    30. JRJoe Rogan55:25

        Yeah. That's funny. (laughs)
12. 57:32 – 1:08:11

    Rogan’s early discipline: martial arts obsession, Boston stories, and avoiding cocaine

    1. DPDave Portnoy57:32

       How old were you?

    2. JRJoe Rogan57:32

       15 to 21.

    3. DPDave Portnoy57:34

       Huh.

    4. JRJoe Rogan57:34

       From 15 to 21. Those were like, you know, high school-

    5. DPDave Portnoy57:37

       How'd you get into that?

    6. JRJoe Rogan57:38

       Uh man, um, w- I was bullied, l- like most people. You know, got, I didn't know how to fight. I was scared. And I was like, "I need to learn how to fight." And, uh, I joined a martial arts school, and, and I just got obsessed with it.

    7. DPDave Portnoy57:51

       Because that's early, like that, the reason I'm asking, that's before the trend of MMA.

    8. JRJoe Rogan57:55

       Yeah, but martial arts had always been around, and you know, I was a big Bruce Lee fan, Chuck Norris fan (clears throat) . Watched a bunch of those movies and shit, and went, "God, man, amazing to do that. How, how cool would it be to be able to do that?" And then I watched a bunch of kickboxing matches, and I got into it, and then, uh, coming home from a Red Sox game, it's a crazy story. Um, I would, I already been taking karate a little bit, but it was too far from my house, it was hard to get there, my parents didn't wanna drive me. And, uh, this place was right off the T. Um, so I was, uh, at Fenway Park with a buddy of mine, went to see a baseball game, and then, I was like 14 or 15. And when we were walking home from the baseball game, there was so many people waiting in line for the T. You know how it is after a game.

    9. DPDave Portnoy58:35

       Yeah, yeah. Yeah.

    10. JRJoe Rogan58:35

        So we decided to, uh, just fucking walk upstairs and see what this, uh, Taekwondo school was all about. And as I was walking up the stairs, I was hearing this sound, and it was like whomp, kachink. Like, it was whomp, kachink. And w- what it was was this guy kicking this heavy bag, and the bag was flying, and the kachink was the chains that was holding the bag. And I got up there at the top of the stairs and watched this guy, John Lee, who was the national champion, who was training for the World Cup. So he's hi- at his peak of training. And he was doing a, a spinning back kick over and over again into this heavy bag. And I remember watching it, and I could not believe what he could do. I couldn't believe the power that this guy could generate in that kick. And he became, like, a mentor to me. And, uh, this guy, who was, like this wild street guy from Chelsea, Massachusetts, who was this elite Taekwondo fighter. Like, he wasn't like, you know, like, bow, like he-

    11. DPDave Portnoy59:41

        Mm-hmm.

    12. JRJoe Rogan59:41

        ... was like, "Hey what's up man?"

    13. DPDave Portnoy59:42

        Yeah, yeah, yeah.

    14. JRJoe Rogan59:42

        "What the fuck you doing, man?" He was a funny dude. He would like, uh, eat food right before he fought. "Ah, fuck these people, man. I'm gonna fuck these dudes up." He was a street guy who was really good at martial arts. I mean, he bowed and said, "Yes, sir," to everybody and all that stuff, but when people were not around, he was just cool.

    15. DPDave Portnoy59:58

        Yeah.

    16. JRJoe Rogan59:58

        He was hanging out. He had drug problems, there was a lot going on. But in that moment where I saw him, he was in the, he was 27 years old, he was in the prime of his career, and he was the elite of the elite. And I-

    17. DPDave Portnoy1:00:09

        And that's how you got hooked.

    18. JRJoe Rogan1:00:11

        I got hooked, hooked, hook, line, same thing. I, I went there the next day, I signed up, and I was there every fucking day.

    19. DPDave Portnoy1:00:18

        Huh.

    20. JRJoe Rogan1:00:18

        Every day. Yeah, I became obsessed.

    21. DPDave Portnoy1:00:21

        Interesting.

    22. JRJoe Rogan1:00:22

        So, I didn't want to do anything that fucked me up. And my f- my friend Jimmy, his cousin, was selling coke. And I knew, uh, his cousin Mike from, like, when he wasn't selling coke. Like, he was a mechanic, he was a cool guy, you know, fixed my car for me. He was just a fucking guy from the neighborhood. We'd hang out with him. And then him and his girl got into coke bad. He was selling coke, and then he was just fucking, just emaciated, he looked like he got bit by a vampire.

    23. DPDave Portnoy1:00:47

        Hmm.

    24. JRJoe Rogan1:00:47

        And they would hide in their, they had an attic apartment. They would just go in that attic apartment and do coke every day, and I was like, "Fuck coke." And it-

    25. DPDave Portnoy1:00:54

        That's hardcore to get h- like, hooked like that.

    26. JRJoe Rogan1:00:56

        He got hooked. Well, he was also selling it.

    27. DPDave Portnoy1:00:59

        Yeah.

    28. JRJoe Rogan1:00:59

        So he had all this access to coke. But it was, people in the neighborhood, I saw them doing coke, and they just wanted to do coke all the time. They wanted to get out and do coke. And...... as a kid who was, like, finally ... I was a loser my whole life, and then finally when I was 15, I found this thing that I got obsessed with that changed the way people looked at me. Like, I was ... Now all of a sudden I was good at something, like, really good at something. And then I became state champion four years in a row, and I won the US Open, and I won these national tournaments, and it was a big fucking deal for me. So, I was like, "I am not doing anything to jeopardize that."

    29. DPDave Portnoy1:01:31

        Right.

    30. JRJoe Rogan1:01:31

        And Coke to me was the big one. Like, I knew that that was a ... I felt like if I got drunk, in which I did occasionally, I would feel like shit the next day. I couldn't train well. I was hungover, and, and I'd get beat up in sparring. I was like, "I can't do this."
13. 1:08:11 – 1:21:48

    Adderall, stimulants, and ‘everything in moderation’ health philosophy

    1. DPDave Portnoy1:08:11

       Yeah, people always... It, it, there was a phase where everyone called me a coke head. I'm not. Uh, like, I've... A handful. This is a Bar Stool, like, people make fun of it, but I've, I've done coke less than a handful of times. Adderall, yes. Coke, no.

    2. JRJoe Rogan1:08:23

       Well, (laughs) my friend, Duncan Trussell has a great joke about Adderall. The Adderall is like someone did coke and they were a scientist, and they went, "I can fix this." (laughs)

    3. DPDave Portnoy1:08:32

       (laughs) Maybe. No, Adderall, I, I, I was warned even for this podcast, they're like, "Don't do too much Adderall. You'll talk too much." It's like, but I did a little.

    4. JRJoe Rogan1:08:41

       How much do you do?

    5. DPDave Portnoy1:08:42

       I've, I've toned it down, but like, you know, a 30 a day? If I, if I have to think, it makes me feel like I can cure cancer.

    6. JRJoe Rogan1:08:50

       Really?

    7. DPDave Portnoy1:08:51

       Yeah, it makes me... I love it. Like, I don't get jittery. At least I don't think I do. Coffee, Adderall, I like, it gets the brain going.

    8. JRJoe Rogan1:08:57

       Yeah.

    9. DPDave Portnoy1:08:57

       But I have tried to wean off of it 'cause I don't want it not to work when I need it.

    10. JRJoe Rogan1:09:01

        Right, right. So you want it to be a tool.

    11. DPDave Portnoy1:09:03

        Yeah.

    12. JRJoe Rogan1:09:03

        Uh, well, we were just looking that up last night and we were trying to figure out how many people are on Adderall, and there was 41 million prescriptions, I think, in 2020. 41 million. Now how many of th- How many of those are-

    13. DPDave Portnoy1:09:17

        Fake?

    14. JRJoe Rogan1:09:17

        No. It's like how many people are doing it. If you have 41 million prescriptions, like, will you get a prescription? Like, if you get a prescription, is it for 30 days or for 60 days? Like, how many prescriptions do you get a year? Like, how many humans are we talking about?

    15. DPDave Portnoy1:09:29

        Yeah. I mean, that's-

    16. JRJoe Rogan1:09:31

        I mean, you're saying 41 million prescriptions, like, how many people? If it's 41 million people on Adderall, we got a fucking meth'd up country.

    17. DPDave Portnoy1:09:40

        (sighs)

    18. JRJoe Rogan1:09:40

        You know?

    19. DPDave Portnoy1:09:40

        Yeah. Everyone's like, you'll wait, I mean, for documentation that it's really bad for you, but who knows?

    20. JRJoe Rogan1:09:46

        (smacks lips) Well, is coffee really bad? I mean, I think-

    21. DPDave Portnoy1:09:48

        Coffee is good for you.

    22. JRJoe Rogan1:09:49

        Some of it. Yeah.

    23. DPDave Portnoy1:09:51

        I've, I've gone to war on this. Cof- The studies say, like, uh, it's pretty good for you.

    24. JRJoe Rogan1:09:55

        There's some studies that say it's bad for you.

    25. DPDave Portnoy1:09:57

        Well, that's...

    26. JRJoe Rogan1:09:58

        They used to say that it dehydrated you.

    27. DPDave Portnoy1:09:59

        You can find that with everything.

    28. JRJoe Rogan1:10:00

        But now they find out that coffee actually can hydrate you.

    29. DPDave Portnoy1:10:02

        That I don't believe.

    30. JRJoe Rogan1:10:04

        Yeah. It g- It is. It's liquid. Coffee hydrates you.

Episode duration: 3:20:39