Joe Rogan Experience #1925 - Sonny, from Best Ever Food Review Show

1. 0:00 – 15:00

   (drumming) Joe Rogan podcast,…

   1. JRJoe Rogan0:00

      (drumming) Joe Rogan podcast, check it out.

   2. NANarrator0:04

      The Joe Rogan Experience. (metal music)

   3. JRJoe Rogan0:06

      Train by day, Joe Rogan podcast by night, all day. (metal music) What's happening, Sonny? How are you?

   4. SSSonny Side0:14

      I'm good. I'm great. Um, I'm happy to be here. I gotta say, to start off, I wanna say thank you so much for having me here, uh, in the first place. By all accounts, I should not be here right now.

   5. JRJoe Rogan0:23

      Why is that?

   6. SSSonny Side0:24

      And I say that because, not to be too grand- grandiose from the start, but the way I grew up, I grew up white trash from central Minnesota, super poor family, one of six, failed college three times, and now, somehow years later, I have the most viewed, most followed travel show online or otherwise, and I'm on the motherfucking Joe Rogan Experience. So-

   7. JRJoe Rogan0:43

      How did this all happen?

   8. SSSonny Side0:44

      ... thank you.

   9. JRJoe Rogan0:44

      How did ... Y- you're welcome. How did you get on this, uh, journey of food exploration?

   10. SSSonny Side0:48

       Um, gosh.

   11. JRJoe Rogan0:49

       You have a really fun show.

   12. SSSonny Side0:50

       Thank you.

   13. JRJoe Rogan0:51

       It's really fun to watch.

   14. SSSonny Side0:52

       I, yes, I was very stoked. You know, when you reached out to me for the first time, I was in Egypt with COVID. I was going through one of my worst travel experiences ever. And, uh, God, how did it start? (sighs) I mean, everything starts, obviously, where I come from in Minnesota. Growing up, um, I, I was quite directionless. I didn't know where I wanted to ... I didn't know what I wanted to study. Uh, I didn't really have any guidance. I didn't really have any mentorship. And so, hence the reason I failed outta school so many times. Um, in high school, I was really into filmmaking because we had a- fortunately, we had a filmmaking course there. But it's just not something I, I pursued afterwards. And so around the age of 24, I felt like I was pretty rudderless. I tried doing a couple things. You know, I did radio for a while. I was at 104.7 KCLD, the, I think the hundredth market in the country, not bad, doing 11:00 PM to 5:00 AM, uh, making minimum wage. And so I tried getting-

   15. JRJoe Rogan1:49

       Minimum wage on the radio?

   16. SSSonny Side1:51

       Yeah.

   17. JRJoe Rogan1:51

       They really pay you minimum wage?

   18. SSSonny Side1:53

       (laughs) Yeah, well, if they would've paid less, they probably would've.

   19. JRJoe Rogan1:55

       (laughs) They could've.

   20. SSSonny Side1:55

       Are you surprised? I, I mean, radio's kinda infamous for not paying any money.

   21. JRJoe Rogan1:59

       Yeah, but minimum wage sounds crazy.

   22. SSSonny Side2:02

       I, I guess they saw it as like they're doing me a favor by teaching me a, a trade or a skill.

   23. JRJoe Rogan2:07

       Hm, okay. Maybe.

   24. SSSonny Side2:09

       Yeah. And so, um, I, I, I tried to get a j- uh, getting a job doing that. That didn't work out. And so I was at a point in my life where I, I just thought, "I need to do something." I'm still youngish. I was 24, and, uh, I, I wanna travel. I wanna see the world. I wanna figure out something before I actually develop a long-term career, uh, 'cause at that point I had nothing. And so I had a friend. My, my brother had a friend who lived in Korea. And at the age of 24, I moved to Korea to teach English. And to me, it made sense because, uh, I could go there. I could travel. I could, I could see the world. I thought it would maybe last an hour and then I would come back. But I ended up staying there for eight years. And so I ... Maybe I'm giving too long of an answer.

   25. JRJoe Rogan2:52

       No, it's okay.

   26. SSSonny Side2:52

       Is this too long of an answer?

   27. JRJoe Rogan2:53

       N- no, don't worry about it.

   28. SSSonny Side2:54

       All right, I gotta take a deep breath.

   29. JRJoe Rogan2:57

       (laughs)

   30. SSSonny Side2:57

       (sighs) Let me reset a little bit.
2. 15:00 – 30:00

   And so along the…

   1. SSSonny Side15:00

      I wouldn't have been able to do that here in the USA. And so I got to take part in, in things and, and jobs and experiences that I wouldn't have been able to otherwise.

   2. JRJoe Rogan15:10

      And so along the way you say, "I wanna make some food videos."

   3. SSSonny Side15:14

      Yes. So I'm, I'm getting sick of doing the client work. I wanna make content for myself. I've, I've read Gary Vee's first book, Crush It! (laughs)

   4. JRJoe Rogan15:22

      (laughs)

   5. SSSonny Side15:22

      And I wanna, and I wanna crush it. And, uh, I loved the book, and it's, it taught me about content marketing, and that's something I started doing. "Hey, instead of a corporate video, let's make you m- weekly videos or monthly videos. And from there, you can, uh, offer value to the people watching, and then you can have a call to action." And, um, I- I just t- I just thought, "Well, I could do this for myself." And I had a couple of different ideas, but the idea that stuck was doing food. And at the time, I had a couple of channels that really inspired me. I, I listened to h3h3, who did comedy at the time, and then I listened to ... I watched a channel called jacksgap, and he had these very wander-lusty travel- th- travel videos that he did as a young kid from the UK who would go to India, who would go to these interesting countries, and it felt so remote. And at that time, um, maybe this is 2014, 2013, there's almost no travel content on YouTube. And if there is any, people are just trying to emulate what already exists on the Travel Channel, which is what I didn't understand at the time 'cause all the shit on the Travel Channel was so dry. It's just like, "Today, we walk in Cairo, a city thousands of years old, rich with history." And I was like, "This is so fucking boring." Why not mix something more spon- spontaneous, a little bit more humor, um, the pacing, the pacing of YouTube, faster pacing, um, and, and make a completely new travel format that people hadn't seen before. Now, it took me a few years to get it right, but that was the initial idea, that was the inspiration at the time.

   6. JRJoe Rogan16:55

      So where was your first video? Where'd you do ... Where'd you go?

   7. SSSonny Side16:58

      Oh, that's a good question. So I've, I've made a few different pivots since I started. If you look at my first six, eight videos, they're still online. I mean, my first video's just about a grilled cheese. My, my first few videos were in Korea, but I was just covering international food. I was, uh, doing nachos, and burgers, and a Jucy Lucy. And at some point, I mean, that ... I guess that was just a practice. It was like, "Can I do this? Can I edit a video?"

   8. JRJoe Rogan17:19

      Mm-hmm.

   9. SSSonny Side17:19

      "Can I be in front of camera?" And I just thought, "Nobody's gonna watch about a ... Is a cheeseburger good in Korea?" That is not international content. So early on I decided, and, and I wasn't shy about it, I said, "I'm ... I really liked Andrew Zimmern's show growing up." Before I moved to Korea, I, I worked at this job. I'm bouncing around a little bit, but I worked at this job at, at a home, and I would have to stay overnight at the home. I didn't have cable in my apartment, but at this home, four guys lived there. They're assisted living folks. And one guy would have seizures at night, potentially. Maybe once out of every four times, he would scream. You'd grab a magnet from the fridge, rub it on his chest. Somehow that made the seizure go away. When that wasn't happening, I was watching Andrew Zimmern, uh, Bizarre Foods and Bourdain's No Reservations back to back on the Travel Channel. And this shit was so inspiring to me. As someone living in central Minnesota who just had very few experiences ... It's not like there were a lot of international restaurants. Maybe there's one sushi place that was also like a Thai place and an Indian place. Like, all the Asian stuff just gets mixed over here.Um, and... So I... I took inspiration from those shows and that's another thing that helped me want to move abroad in the first place. And so... I forgot your question. (laughs)

   10. JRJoe Rogan18:41

       (laughs)

   11. SSSonny Side18:41

       I was on a roll there.

   12. JRJoe Rogan18:42

       It's... It's basically... You were on a roll. It's just, how did you get started? Like, what... what was-

   13. SSSonny Side18:46

       Hmm.

   14. JRJoe Rogan18:46

       What was the inspiration to start making food v-

   15. SSSonny Side18:48

       Sorry.

   16. JRJoe Rogan18:48

       Were you always, like, a food enthusiast or is this just-

   17. SSSonny Side18:51

       Yes. Well, so I... Oh, so I love that... I loved watching that show. I remember watching Andrew Zimmern when he was in Taipei, Taiwan and he was eating something called Stinky Tofu. And he ate something that was so smelly, so intense that he couldn't even handle it, and he had to spit it out. And, uh, to me, that was just fascinating and the story behind that. And so, I made this pivot early on in the channel. I said, "I wanna go explore more bizarre foods, exotic foods, foods that seem way out there." And for me, the reason is that those types of foods just have an intrinsic story attached to them.

   18. JRJoe Rogan19:22

       (sniffs)

   19. SSSonny Side19:22

       If you're eating something strange, bizarre, exotic, um, however you wanna term it, um, uh, there's, uh, naturally a story of, "Why are people doing this?"

   20. JRJoe Rogan19:31

       Right.

   21. SSSonny Side19:32

       Attached to it. Recently, I was in the Faroe Islands.

   22. JRJoe Rogan19:34

       Why were they eating a Stinky Tofu?

   23. SSSonny Side19:36

       So, Stinky Tofu is... Uh, there's a lot of cultures around the world that like to ferment food. And for some reason that... that fermentation process, they... I mean, they have almost like this goo or a batter that they put the tofu in, and they'll let the live bacteria saturate the tofu over time and it just gets incredibly putrid, uh, and smelly over time. And I... I think people developed a taste for it, um, and it's... it's hard to say why, but I guess there's-

   24. JRJoe Rogan20:03

       Did you try it?

   25. SSSonny Side20:04

       Oh, yeah. No, I went to... I made a point of going to the same restaurant that Andrew Zimmern went to, ordering the same food and showing like, "Yeah, I got it. I could eat this." The same food that he spit out. And I... I sent him that video on Twitter and he laughed, he thought it was funny. It was all, you know, in... in good, uh, spirits. And so-

   26. JRJoe Rogan20:22

       What is it like?

   27. SSSonny Side20:23

       Oh, it's really stinky.

   28. JRJoe Rogan20:26

       (laughs)

   29. SSSonny Side20:27

       I mean, it's... it's tough. It's like-

   30. JRJoe Rogan20:28

       Like what? Co- compare it to something.
3. 30:00 – 45:00

   Hmm. …

   1. SSSonny Side30:00

      suffer from that, and then to have it also suffer from dying afterwards." So, it's kind of, like, two points of suffering, compared to one.

   2. JRJoe Rogan30:07

      Hmm.

   3. SSSonny Side30:08

      I mean, (sighs) it's a tough question. Would you rather have your throat slashed or have someone suffocate you to death?

   4. JRJoe Rogan30:14

      Well, throat slash would be quicker.

   5. SSSonny Side30:16

      It'd be quicker, but it would feel so traumatic and insane, like, oh my-

   6. JRJoe Rogan30:19

      You don't think it's traumatic to get suffocated to death?

   7. SSSonny Side30:21

      Well, I do think that they're both pretty bad.

   8. JRJoe Rogan30:23

      Yeah, they're both pretty bad.

   9. SSSonny Side30:24

      Yeah.

   10. JRJoe Rogan30:25

       Yeah, so they just have come up with some sort of a moral reason.

   11. SSSonny Side30:29

       Uh, yeah, exactly.

   12. JRJoe Rogan30:31

       Yeah.

   13. SSSonny Side30:31

       And it's also about blood collection. So, if they, uh, they want the blood to pool within the body.

   14. JRJoe Rogan30:36

       Mm-hmm.

   15. SSSonny Side30:36

       So, I think it, it's moral, but I, I think it's, uh, practical, too, because then they can cut the body open, the blood's pooled in there-

   16. JRJoe Rogan30:42

       They don't-

   17. SSSonny Side30:42

       ... and they can scoop it out to, you know-

   18. JRJoe Rogan30:43

       They don't waste any of the blood-

   19. SSSonny Side30:44

       Mm-hmm.

   20. JRJoe Rogan30:44

       ... 'cause they eat the blood. Now, when the women get first dibs, what do they choose?

   21. SSSonny Side30:49

       Organs.

   22. JRJoe Rogan30:50

       Organs?

   23. SSSonny Side30:50

       And it's, it's, all over the world-... organs.

   24. JRJoe Rogan30:53

       Really?

   25. SSSonny Side30:53

       Organs are always eaten first. And liver is one of the most valued, uh, any place you go. Also, with the Maasai, the Maasai are really interesting. So, I, I've heard you talk about the Maasai before. The Maasai are really famous for eating milk, blood, and meat, almost exclusively. At least it used to be that way, and now, you know, corn, um, corn flour, a- and, like people mix corn flour with water. It's called ugali, at least in some countries, th- uh, but that's eaten all over Africa. And so, that's more pervasive now, but it used to be just those three things. And the blood, you, you might think, "Oh, so to collect blood, they just, when they kill the animal, they eat the blood." No. The Maasai will take an arrow, put it into a live cow's neck, drain some of the blood, then seal it up with some shit, and then drink that blood. Or mix that blood with milk.

   26. JRJoe Rogan31:41

       Why would they seal it up with shit?

   27. SSSonny Side31:44

       Yeah, so to me, that seemed, uh, not like the cleanest choice.

   28. JRJoe Rogan31:46

       Right.

   29. SSSonny Side31:47

       But maybe the shit's sac- uh, saturated with piss? Which helps to, um, keep it clean? I don't know. I was kind of sh- I was shocked when I saw it. I, I, I, I'm not sure.

   30. JRJoe Rogan31:58

       They're using animal shit?
4. 45:00 – 1:00:00

   Yeah. …

   1. SSSonny Side45:00

      they said that was nearly extinct years ago. But because of this, you know, this purple, uh, personal interest people have in the animals being around, they'll help tr- try to breed them and-

   2. JRJoe Rogan45:10

      Yeah.

   3. SSSonny Side45:10

      ... make sure they're healthy, make sure they have enough water so that people can come and shoot them.

   4. JRJoe Rogan45:15

      Yeah, exactly what we were talking about before. Um, this is, uh, like again-

   5. SSSonny Side45:18

      (coughs)

   6. JRJoe Rogan45:18

      ... it's a very, very controversial topic, you know?

   7. SSSonny Side45:22

      Yeah. And I mean, and that's why I wanted to, to go for it. And I, I think, I think we did a good job of presenting their case and their point of view and, and just logistically how it works. And, um, I, I think it's a fascinating topic, and I probably wouldn't do it again.

   8. JRJoe Rogan45:38

      Well, I mean, it's a food source for those people. I mean, zebra is something that's traditionally eaten over there, and it's, uh, according to you and according to people that I know that have eaten it, it's very delicious.

   9. SSSonny Side45:50

      Oh, the zebra was fantastic, except for the, the organs. The organs were weird 'cause yes, it was like a horse barn, but I still kinda liked it. It's-

   10. JRJoe Rogan45:58

       Have you ever seen Louis Theroux's, uh, piece on African hunting?

   11. SSSonny Side46:03

       No.

   12. JRJoe Rogan46:03

       Very interesting. You know Louis Theroux, the, um, documentarian from, uh, England?

   13. SSSonny Side46:09

       Uh, maybe if I saw his work-

   14. JRJoe Rogan46:10

       Really interesting guy. He, he's a, he was a great podcast guest too. But he, uh, did this whole thing where he stayed over there for several weeks and really annoyed them. And, uh, you know, like really just constant questions, constant this, constant that. And this guy who was running this game park basically laid it out to him, like, "The only way these animals survive is if they're worth something."

   15. SSSonny Side46:33

       Mm-hmm.

   16. JRJoe Rogan46:33

       And even then, you have to spend so much money to keep them from getting poached 'cause while they're over there, they're constantly finding animals that were, had been snared, and then the meat had gone to waste 'cause they didn't get to the animal before, you know, it died early, and then-

   17. SSSonny Side46:46

       Right.

   18. JRJoe Rogan46:46

       ... was rotten. And it's, uh, it's very conflicting 'cause we like to think of Africa as this just wild, amazing Narnia place-

   19. SSSonny Side46:55

       Mm-hmm.

   20. JRJoe Rogan46:55

       ... where all these animals are running free, and you can go there in a Jeep, and they won't kill you.

   21. SSSonny Side47:00

       Right. (laughs)

   22. JRJoe Rogan47:00

       (laughs) You know, but, but the reality is a lot of those animals are there because they're valuable to people to go over and hunt.

   23. SSSonny Side47:07

       Yeah, or to look at.

   24. JRJoe Rogan47:08

       Yes, or to look, but much more to hunt.

   25. SSSonny Side47:10

       Like the Serengeti. Hmm.

   26. JRJoe Rogan47:10

       It's much more valuable. That's why a Cape buffalo is $10,000 to hunt. How much does it cost to take a picture of one?

   27. SSSonny Side47:16

       Right.

   28. JRJoe Rogan47:17

       Yeah.

   29. SSSonny Side47:17

       Yeah.

   30. JRJoe Rogan47:18

       And so do they eat the Cape buffalo? So, if someone j-... 'cause one of the things about buffalos, um, is, uh, my good friend Adam Greentree, he hunts them up in Australia. Uh, they're, they're invasive. It's a Asian water buffalo.
5. 1:00:00 – 1:11:44

   Really? …

   1. SSSonny Side1:00:00

      so they sell it here." And I'm like, "You buy that? You, you believe that?" And she did. So, what they're doing is different in the Faroe Islands because they're not going out to sea. Uh, and so, they're never f- ... Their method of getting the whales is never gonna lead to their extinction. The whales populate the Atlantic, and the Faroe Islands is just a tiny, small collection of 18 islands in the middle of the Atlantic between, like, Scotland and Iceland, and they've got 50,000 people. So, when a pod of whales comes by and somebody spots them, they kinda sound the alarm. They ... First of all, they'll get some boats together and try to guide them to one of the bays. At this point, this is what I love, this idea that everybody is so, uh, into, um, the grind, this, this event that happens, that you could be in your corporate job in a, uh, in a, in a room talking about, uh, quarter four sales, doing your, your report, pitching to your team, and then you could get a phone call, "Hey, the whales are here. Let's go." Everybody, when the, when the alarm goes off, p- if you gotta leave church, if you gotta leave work, you do it. It's understood. Yeah, go get the whales.

   2. JRJoe Rogan1:01:06

      Really?

   3. SSSonny Side1:01:07

      Yes.

   4. JRJoe Rogan1:01:07

      Even today?

   5. SSSonny Side1:01:08

      Even today.

   6. JRJoe Rogan1:01:08

      Corporate jobs?

   7. SSSonny Side1:01:10

      It's ... I, I met ... I went to the most normal family's home ever and I did a fridge tour, like on Men's Health on YouTube, and it was like all, like, "Here's a whale that we got from l- earlier this year. We got about 300 pounds." It was so interesting. And this is like the most n- normal corporate white-collar guy ever. And so they all get the call. They go down there, because the amount of meat you get depends on how much you help out. They have a very detailed system for how to allocate the meat.... the process of actually getting the whales, though, they, they steer the whales towards the shore. Then, once they get close to the bay, they start clanging on the boats and making noise and trying to throw off their sonar. Eventually, the whales get close enough to the shore where people can run out from the beach and hook the whales in their blowhole and start pulling them up.

   8. JRJoe Rogan1:01:58

      What?

   9. SSSonny Side1:01:59

      This is our video that's gonna be coming out.

   10. JRJoe Rogan1:02:00

       Oh, my God. This is horrific.

   11. SSSonny Side1:02:04

       Well, yeah. That's-

   12. JRJoe Rogan1:02:04

       Holy shit.

   13. SSSonny Side1:02:05

       That's why it's controversial.

   14. JRJoe Rogan1:02:07

       So, all of these people... And, uh, these people were wearing, like, modern clothes and, I mean, th- these do not look like tribal people. They look like anybody that could be in fucking New Hampshire.

   15. SSSonny Side1:02:20

       Yeah. Exactly.

   16. JRJoe Rogan1:02:21

       And they're just slaughtering these whales.

   17. SSSonny Side1:02:23

       So-

   18. JRJoe Rogan1:02:23

       And they're slicing their necks. Oh, my God. This is horrible.

   19. SSSonny Side1:02:27

       So, what makes it horrible to you?

   20. JRJoe Rogan1:02:29

       That they're whales. I mean, just whales, to me, are li- it's almost like killing a Golden Retriever.

   21. SSSonny Side1:02:35

       Hmm. And I'm not-

   22. JRJoe Rogan1:02:37

       This is rough. Yeah.

   23. SSSonny Side1:02:38

       I'm not saying you're wrong or right.

   24. JRJoe Rogan1:02:39

       Yeah.

   25. SSSonny Side1:02:39

       But I think it's interesting to explore where that-

   26. JRJoe Rogan1:02:41

       Well, I think if you lived there-

   27. SSSonny Side1:02:41

       ... the ethics exist for each person.

   28. JRJoe Rogan1:02:43

       Yeah, s-

   29. SSSonny Side1:02:43

       So, for you, like, what is the line for okay to eat, not okay to eat?

   30. JRJoe Rogan1:02:46

       Yeah.

Episode duration: 2:56:28