Joe Rogan Experience #2026 - Peter Berg

1. 0:00 – 15:00

   (drumming) Joe Rogan podcast,…

   1. PBPeter Berg0:00

      (drumming) Joe Rogan podcast, check it out.

   2. NANarrator0:04

      The Joe Rogan Experience.

   3. JRJoe Rogan0:06

      Train by day, Joe Rogan podcast by night, all day. (rock music plays) What's happening? Good to see you.

   4. PBPeter Berg0:14

      Good to see you, my friend.

   5. JRJoe Rogan0:15

      Your show is fantastic. It's really good, man. Uh-

   6. PBPeter Berg0:18

      Thank you.

   7. JRJoe Rogan0:19

      ... Painkiller on Netflix, can't recommend it enough. Um, I'm only two episodes deep. Uh, I started the third today. It's so fucking good, dude. And it's so dis- it's so disturbing, because it's true.

   8. PBPeter Berg0:31

      Mm-hmm.

   9. JRJoe Rogan0:32

      I mean, it's an accurate account of how this all happened, and it's just ... it makes you so uncomfortable to think that there's people in the world that would do what the Sackler family did.

   10. PBPeter Berg0:44

       Do you know anyone who's, who's-

   11. JRJoe Rogan0:46

       Yes.

   12. PBPeter Berg0:46

       ... gone down from, from opioids or Oxy?

   13. JRJoe Rogan0:48

       Quite a few.

   14. PBPeter Berg0:48

       Yeah, same here.

   15. JRJoe Rogan0:49

       Quite a few people.

   16. PBPeter Berg0:50

       Um, when, uh, when they first came to me, uh, and asked me if I was interested, my buddy, Eric Newman, who, who put the whole thing together, uh, you know, said, "You wanna do something about the Sacklers? Do you know who the Sacklers are?" And I did. I knew they were the, you know, family behind OxyContin. Uh, and he said, "Are you interested?" And I, I started thinking, and I started counting the people I know who've died or whose kids have died, uh, because of OxyContin and opioids. And I, I quickly got off on both fingers, you know?

   17. JRJoe Rogan1:22

       (sighs)

   18. PBPeter Berg1:22

       And then I, I started thinking about, um, some of my heroes, my art- my artistic heroes, um, Chris Cornell, Tom Petty, and, like, one of my big heroes was Prince.

   19. JRJoe Rogan1:34

       Yeah.

   20. PBPeter Berg1:34

       I was a huge, huge Prince fan. I, I went to school in Minneapolis when he was coming up. Uh, I was an extra in Purple Rain back in the day, you know-

   21. JRJoe Rogan1:42

       Wow.

   22. PBPeter Berg1:42

       ... on First Avenue in, in Minneapolis. And, you know, those three guys. When, when Prince died, you know-

   23. JRJoe Rogan1:48

       Yeah.

   24. PBPeter Berg1:48

       ... Prince was, he was su- had such a, a ... he was legendary for his work ethic and his lifestyle, no alcohol and no swearing, and just incredible work ethic.

   25. JRJoe Rogan1:58

       Yeah.

   26. PBPeter Berg1:59

       And the fact that OxyContin got him-

   27. JRJoe Rogan2:02

       Yeah.

   28. PBPeter Berg2:02

       ... and that, that really kinda fucked with me. So when they came to me and, you know, started talking to me about doing something about the Sacklers, I was like, "Yeah, I'm all in." Um, and the more I dug into it, and the more experts and writers who have been covering this, uh, epidemic for so long, the more I learned. Um, you know, I'm not necessarily the biggest conspiracy guy of all time. I, I do, I'll, I'll ... if the proof's there, I, I'm, I'm down. But the more I learned about the Sacklers and how they maneuvered what is essentially just heroin in, like, a little M&M pill, you know, how they were so artful and so good at manipulating the system, uh, I was shocked, and I, I was all in on Painkiller.

   29. JRJoe Rogan2:51

       Well, I'm glad you were all in, 'cause people need to know this story, and a lot of people aren't gonna watch a documentary and, you know, they're not gonna read about it. This is a very entertaining show that shows accurately how this went down. And, you know, there's a, there's a moment, and I don't wanna give too much away, but there's this one moment where this ethical doctor confronts the salesgirl, and that's a very, very, very powerful moment.

   30. PBPeter Berg3:16

       Yeah.
2. 15:00 – 30:00

   Right. So, this was…

   1. JRJoe Rogan15:00

      for the relief of coughs."

   2. PBPeter Berg15:01

      Right. So, this was real.

   3. JRJoe Rogan15:03

      Wow.

   4. PBPeter Berg15:03

      This was real shit, and this is what, you know, doctors like Arthur Sackler, who sp- ... was Richard Sackler's uncle and is, you know, arguably the go- the godfather of OxyContin and opioids. Th- they were, they were sending this stuff out. They ... Your, your child's having trouble sleeping? Put a little liquid morphine on a blanket and let him suck on it.

   5. JRJoe Rogan15:26

      Geez.

   6. PBPeter Berg15:26

      This was happening, like, our grandparents were around for this.

   7. JRJoe Rogan15:30

      Oh, my god. Cocaine tooth drops? You see that? Look at that. That's insane.

   8. PBPeter Berg15:34

      But that's real.

   9. JRJoe Rogan15:35

      Oh, my god. Instantaneous cure. You don't give a fuck about your teeth.

   10. PBPeter Berg15:38

       No, you feel good.

   11. JRJoe Rogan15:39

       You're trying to start a business. (laughs)

   12. PBPeter Berg15:41

       Or, or you're 12 and you're just being annoying-

   13. JRJoe Rogan15:43

       Yeah.

   14. PBPeter Berg15:43

       ... because your tooth hurts, so your parents just give you a bunch of blow.

   15. JRJoe Rogan15:47

       Yeah, so crazy. "Stay fit and slim by taking amphetamine." (laughs) Jesus Christ.

   16. PBPeter Berg15:52

       Right.

   17. JRJoe Rogan15:53

       It's so crazy how, uh, how naive people were back then.

   18. PBPeter Berg15:56

       Well, and, but, still today, right?

   19. JRJoe Rogan15:58

       Yes, still today.

   20. PBPeter Berg15:59

       And like, so, so the catchphrase for OxyContin that, that Richard Sackler came up with was, "OxyContin, the one to start with, the one to stay with."

   21. JRJoe Rogan16:08

       (sighs)

   22. PBPeter Berg16:08

       And that, those were the ads, and that's what the cute little 23-year-old graduates from Ohio State or Duke or wherever they were from, these cute girls would come into your office. You're a, you're a doctor in, you know, some Midwestern town.

   23. JRJoe Rogan16:23

       Yeah.

   24. PBPeter Berg16:23

       And in comes this beautiful girl with a, with a brochure that says, "OxyContin, the one to start with, the one to stay with," and you've never heard of it, so you just start, you know. And it ... The, here's the thing about OxyContin. Have you ever taken an OxyContin?

   25. JRJoe Rogan16:37

       No.

   26. PBPeter Berg16:40

       I took it once, recreationally, so-

   27. JRJoe Rogan16:42

       Did you do it before you started doing this?

   28. PBPeter Berg16:44

       Yes. I did about, I don't know, eight years ago. A friend of mine had one, and she's like, "You gotta try this."

   29. JRJoe Rogan16:49

       (laughs) Jesus Christ.

   30. PBPeter Berg16:51

       I'm like, "Okay."
3. 30:00 – 45:00

   That's what it looked…

   1. JRJoe Rogan30:00

      pristine. It looks like a bullet that you shot through water. Anybody that shoots things with guns knows that when bullets hit bones, they distort. That's h- that's part of ... Unless it's a steel-jacketed, you know, uh, like, armor-piercing round, that's what it looked like. I mean, that's just bonkers. That things like that w-

   2. PBPeter Berg30:19

      That's what it looked like after it went-

   3. JRJoe Rogan30:21

      Yeah.

   4. PBPeter Berg30:21

      ... through Kennedy and Connally. That's-

   5. JRJoe Rogan30:22

      It's bonkers. It's bonkers to believe that.

   6. PBPeter Berg30:25

      Yeah.

   7. JRJoe Rogan30:25

      The idea that he wasn't ... that Lee Harvey Oswald wasn't involved, though, I don't buy that either.

   8. PBPeter Berg30:30

      Well-

   9. JRJoe Rogan30:30

      I think, I think they set him up. I think, uh, uh, for sure he knew what was going on. He seemed to have been some sort of an operative. He w- went back and forth to Russia. There's a lot ... But that conspiracy, it's like, I don't know. We're talking 1963. I don't ... you know. But there's conspiracies today that are real.... and this Sackler family is one of the best examples-

   10. PBPeter Berg30:55

       Yes.

   11. JRJoe Rogan30:55

       ... of one that was enormously successful, and worked on multiple levels. And this story about getting this regulator to approve it by putting him in a hotel for two weeks, how the fuck is that not illegal? Like, how is that not illegal?

   12. PBPeter Berg31:13

       I mean, they, they handled themselves... W- he, he spent a year still working for the FDA, when, be- before he came and worked for, um, Purdue. And, um, it's pretty intense. I just saw a video that, that, I don't know whether it was TMZ or somebody found the guy, the, um, Curtis Wright, uh, up in, I think he's in New Hampshire, just like two days ago, and they like, they kinda went after him.

   13. JRJoe Rogan31:39

       Oh, wow.

   14. PBPeter Berg31:39

       And I was like, they're like, "What do you say? What do you have to say about the show? What do you, what do you think?" And, um, uh, he like got in his car and wouldn't talk. And then they just interviewed the local, um, police chief for this town in New Hampshire, who said that, "Well, we had no idea that this, this guy's living in our town."

   15. JRJoe Rogan31:58

       Oh, boy.

   16. PBPeter Berg31:58

       "I wanna take him on a tour of our morgue and our cemeteries, and show him," uh, "show him..." Um, you can, I think you'll find Curtis Wright if you look him up. Um...

   17. JRJoe Rogan32:10

       That is the definition of living in hell.

   18. PBPeter Berg32:12

       Yeah. And now, and, and that's, you know, I think that people have asked, you know, like, "What, what is justice? What does justice even look like in a situation like this?" Right? Like, if you're, uh...

   19. JRJoe Rogan32:27

       That's the guy?

   20. PBPeter Berg32:28

       ... in the red. That, yeah, so that's Noah, who plays him, and then that was just, uh-

   21. JRJoe Rogan32:33

       That's the actual guy?

   22. PBPeter Berg32:33

       That's the actual, um, gentleman who ap- who approved it. That's the guy who was, went and worked for-

   23. JRJoe Rogan32:40

       So, he just moved to a remote town.

   24. PBPeter Berg32:42

       Yeah. Moved to a remote town, and after our show came out, I, I think it was-

   25. JRJoe Rogan32:46

       Is that a gun on his hip?

   26. PBPeter Berg32:48

       Mm, I don't think so. I tried to find out.

   27. JRJoe Rogan32:50

       What is that?

   28. PBPeter Berg32:50

       It's like a flashlight. He's got like a rig. Looks like a little-

   29. JRJoe Rogan32:54

       He's got his phone in the front.

   30. PBPeter Berg32:56

       Yeah, he's got a whole vibe going on.
4. 45:00 – 1:00:00

   But is it? 'Cause…

   1. PBPeter Berg45:00

      Right. And, you know, like, obviously, Dahmer is (laughs) a fairly extreme example of, of the-

   2. JRJoe Rogan45:05

      But is it? 'Cause he only killed, like, six or seven people.

   3. PBPeter Berg45:08

      Right. I, I just mean the... But he really, like, put his hands on those people, right?

   4. JRJoe Rogan45:12

      Oh, he definitely did.

   5. PBPeter Berg45:12

      So that-

   6. JRJoe Rogan45:13

      Yeah.

   7. PBPeter Berg45:13

      ... the idea of a serial killer as such an extreme... real but extreme version of that.

   8. JRJoe Rogan45:19

      Right.

   9. PBPeter Berg45:20

      But, like, how many times do you kinda come across someone who's, who's maybe not killing people or engaged in a lethal career, but you're like, "Whoa, that dude doesn't seem reachable"?

   10. JRJoe Rogan45:32

       Right.

   11. PBPeter Berg45:32

       I don't, I don't know what's going on there. Like, I'm trying-

   12. JRJoe Rogan45:36

       Yeah.

   13. PBPeter Berg45:36

       ... to have some sort of human connection, but this dude is just like...

   14. JRJoe Rogan45:40

       Yeah.

   15. PBPeter Berg45:40

       You know? And I, I've met many people, generally, are... who organize their lives strictly around making money. Like, money is-

   16. JRJoe Rogan45:50

       Right.

   17. PBPeter Berg45:50

       Money is the prize, money is the art. And I kind of am... I'm like, "Hello?"

   18. JRJoe Rogan45:56

       Yeah.

   19. PBPeter Berg45:56

       (laughs) Like...

   20. JRJoe Rogan45:57

       That's a very weird, non-human-

   21. PBPeter Berg45:59

       Yeah.

   22. JRJoe Rogan46:00

       ... pursuit.

   23. PBPeter Berg46:00

       Yeah. It's like, "I'm about making money and my morality and, um, you know, sense of humanity is just not very readily apparent." And I think that that's, like, on a spectrum, not that... Not necessarily that far removed from something that could turn into a Jeffrey Dahmer.

   24. JRJoe Rogan46:23

       Yeah, it's not that far.

   25. PBPeter Berg46:25

       I mean, do you, do you ever, like, study Putin and try and figure out what's going on in that guy's head?

   26. JRJoe Rogan46:29

       I could only imagine.

   27. PBPeter Berg46:31

       Like, I think it was Bush who said, uh, you know, he had just come back from meeting Putin years ago, and he said, "You know, I looked into his eyes, and I didn't see a soul." And I remember that guy was younger when he said that, but it chilled me. Like, and Bush, look... This was Bush two. And he's like, "I looked into his eyes, and I didn't see a soul."

   28. JRJoe Rogan46:52

       P- pull that quote up-

   29. PBPeter Berg46:54

       Yeah.

   30. JRJoe Rogan46:54

       ... 'cause that's crazy.
5. 1:00:00 – 1:15:00

   Uh, twen- …

   1. NANarrator1:00:00

      uh, there's something in the range of ... I found some that said we had 3,700 nukes.

   2. PBPeter Berg1:00:05

      Uh, twen-

   3. JRJoe Rogan1:00:05

      Let's round it off to 3,500. Imagine 3,500 nuclear missiles launching through the air, the horrors of that.

   4. PBPeter Berg1:00:15

      One, one of those is, uh, 83 Hiroshima bombs. Just two.

   5. NANarrator1:00:19

      Shh.

   6. PBPeter Berg1:00:19

      Just one of them, it's over. Game over. One.

   7. JRJoe Rogan1:00:23

      83 Hiroshima bombs.

   8. PBPeter Berg1:00:25

      Yes, th- that's like, this is the issue. Like-

   9. JRJoe Rogan1:00:28

      Holy fuck.

   10. NANarrator1:00:29

       Because yeah, even that one blew up in the sky, and these can go underground and make things worse I guess.

   11. JRJoe Rogan1:00:34

       Oh my god.

   12. PBPeter Berg1:00:35

       But those are just air delivered, yes? Those are-

   13. JRJoe Rogan1:00:36

       Can you show me that sub, that nuclear sub? Those are-

   14. NANarrator1:00:38

       I was trying to f- I mean, there's a few. I don't know exactly the one he saw. I was trying to find a good picture from Pearl Harbor of a bunch of subs and had to find one.

   15. JRJoe Rogan1:00:45

       It is pretty fucking amazing-

   16. PBPeter Berg1:00:46

       They're amazing.

   17. JRJoe Rogan1:00:47

       ... that they have a sub that runs on a nuclear reactor.

   18. PBPeter Berg1:00:49

       They're, they're, they're beautiful achievements of engineering and-

   19. JRJoe Rogan1:00:53

       Amazing.

   20. PBPeter Berg1:00:53

       ... you know, skill and talent. And like, to be on that thing was awe-inspiring. But my god are they expensive. (laughs)

   21. JRJoe Rogan1:01:00

       Yeah.

   22. PBPeter Berg1:01:01

       Like, like really expensive.

   23. JRJoe Rogan1:01:03

       Yeah, makes sense. I mean, can't get one that does something like that for cheap. But it's just, it is kind of amazing that our biggest accomplishments are in the world of weaponry.

   24. PBPeter Berg1:01:12

       In the world of weaponry. And like-

   25. JRJoe Rogan1:01:14

       I mean, other than communication, like cellphones and, and the like, and, and, uh, wireless internet. Th- this is crazy that they develop a nuclear-powered underwater m- weapon-... that is capable of-

   26. PBPeter Berg1:01:30

       Designed, designed to deliver-

   27. JRJoe Rogan1:01:31

       ... taking out a country.

   28. PBPeter Berg1:01:32

       Yeah. Designed s- really only to deliver nuclear missiles.

   29. JRJoe Rogan1:01:36

       I mean, how, uh, how many does this motherfucker carry on it? How many cities can this thing take out?

   30. PBPeter Berg1:01:42

       I mean, this-
6. 1:15:00 – 1:21:29

   Wow. …

   1. PBPeter Berg1:15:00

      Our wives have no idea what's going on. Um, we're going out and building the bomb all day and coming home and just like drinking. They all drank and like-

   2. JRJoe Rogan1:15:10

      Wow.

   3. PBPeter Berg1:15:10

      ... I think there was, like, a lot of wife swapping and weird shit going on too.

   4. JRJoe Rogan1:15:14

      (laughs)

   5. PBPeter Berg1:15:14

      They were just partying and building fucking nuclear bombs.

   6. JRJoe Rogan1:15:17

      Jesus.

   7. PBPeter Berg1:15:17

      And now, you go out there and see what this... And it's just like, I just want to know, what are we doing? How much does it cost? And who's in charge? And Los Alamos now... So, so if there is those systems, in my mind, if there was an alien ship found the government wanted, they're gonna take it to Los Alamos. That's where they're gonna take it. That's where they're gonna dissect it. And whatever's going on out there is some deep and real shit.

   8. JRJoe Rogan1:15:47

      (laughs) That's where Lazar worked. Um, if you go from Orville... Wilbur and Orville Wright's invention of the aircraft, how long is the time period before someone drops a nuclear bomb out of one?

   9. PBPeter Berg1:16:02

      Uh-

   10. JRJoe Rogan1:16:02

       How much time is between... Was it 60 years? Like, what was-

   11. PBPeter Berg1:16:07

       That-

   12. JRJoe Rogan1:16:07

       When was Wilbur and Orville's first flight?

   13. PBPeter Berg1:16:08

       That's a great, that's a great question.

   14. JRJoe Rogan1:16:10

       What... 'Cause if you think of that, just think of, like, what an insane jump in technology, from the very first airplane to dropping a nuclear bomb out of one inside of a lifetime.

   15. PBPeter Berg1:16:22

       Or, yeah, or just dropping a bomb, right?

   16. JRJoe Rogan1:16:24

       Right.

   17. PBPeter Berg1:16:24

       Like weaponizing-

   18. JRJoe Rogan1:16:26

       Yes, air flight.

   19. PBPeter Berg1:16:27

       ... weaponizing air flight and, like-

   20. JRJoe Rogan1:16:29

       But a nuclear bomb.

   21. PBPeter Berg1:16:30

       Yeah.

   22. JRJoe Rogan1:16:31

       Even more insane, the... because of the technology involved. Just what a cr-

   23. NANarrator1:16:34

       I think 1902 is around when they credit them for flying.

   24. PBPeter Berg1:16:38

       That was Kitty Hawk.

   25. JRJoe Rogan1:16:39

       Wow.

   26. NANarrator1:16:40

       I'm trying to find the exact date.

   27. JRJoe Rogan1:16:40

       I thought it was the 1800s.

   28. PBPeter Berg1:16:41

       Yeah, I did too. That seems late.

   29. JRJoe Rogan1:16:43

       1902, that's crazy. So, that's 45 years? Is that real?

   30. PBPeter Berg1:16:50

       Right.

Episode duration: 2:22:43