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Joe Rogan Experience #2048 - Reggie Watts

Reggie Watts is a comedian, actor, author, and musician. Look for his new book "Great Falls, MT: Fast Times, Post-Punk Weirdos, and a Tale of Coming Home Again" on October 17. https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/714088/great-falls-mt-by-reggie-watts/

Reggie WattsguestJoe Roganhost
Jun 27, 20242h 46mWatch on YouTube ↗

EVERY SPOKEN WORD

  1. 0:00 – 1:32

    Kratom/kava “Feel Free” and why some people get nauseous

    1. RW

      (drum roll) Joe Rogan podcast, check it out.

    2. NA

      The Joe Rogan Experience.

    3. Train by day, Joe Rogan podcast by night. All day. (rock music) I'll take that.

    4. JR

      Yeah?

    5. NA

      Yeah.

    6. JR

      I only drink a half of one though. You drink the whole one?

    7. RW

      I drink the whole one, but I'm gonna try a half this time, just to see.

    8. JR

      No.

    9. RW

      'Cause, you know, it's weird, man. I have friends that are like, they will not... They're just like... I don't know what it is. Like, they, they, well, they can't take it 'cause... Well, some people do get nauseous on it, but I haven't, I've never, ever had that experience. It's really weird, like, all throughout my life, like, I've taken all kinds of things that people are like, "Oh, I throw up," or like Robitussin or something, like, drinking a whole thing of Robitussin. I throw up and I'm like, "I don't know why but I just, I don't have that reaction." It's weird.

    10. JR

      Hmm.

    11. RW

      So I feel either lucky or I'm dumb. I don't know.

    12. JR

      Do you ever get seasick?

    13. RW

      No.

    14. JR

      Oh, okay.

    15. RW

      Yeah.

    16. JR

      Do you throw up when you get sick? Do you ever throw up?

    17. RW

      I try to avoid it at all times but I don't get sick that often.

    18. JR

      Hmm.

    19. RW

      I get sick maybe once every four years or something.

    20. JR

      Do you ever drink too much and then you throw up? You just downed the whole thing, didn't you?

    21. RW

      No, I did like-

    22. JR

      Three quarters?

    23. RW

      No, I did ha-... Well-

    24. JR

      I don't know why this is two portions.

    25. RW

      I, I, I-

    26. JR

      That's silly.

    27. RW

      I-

    28. JR

      'Cause how do, you can't even see through the glass.

    29. RW

      I know.

    30. JR

      Like, how do I know where the half is?

  2. 1:32 – 3:30

    How kratom feels at different doses (and why it’s deceptively intoxicating)

    1. JR

      Kratom is a weird one.

    2. RW

      Yeah.

    3. JR

      'Cause it's kind of an opiate, right?

    4. RW

      It uses the, as far as I, I, the little I understand, it uses the opioid receptor but it's not technically an opiate.

    5. JR

      There was a, a, a friend of mine was telling me that he takes, uh, kratom, uh, before he works out. I go, "How many do you take?"

    6. RW

      Really?

    7. JR

      And he goes, "I take 10." And I go, "Really?"

    8. RW

      10 What?

    9. JR

      He said 10 pills.

    10. RW

      Oh. Oh, just pure kratom?

    11. JR

      Yeah. And I'm, I don't know what the milligrams is.

    12. RW

      Mm-hmm.

    13. JR

      I go, "10? I was taking two." So I tried 10, and I go, "Dude, you're getting high as fuck." I was, I was so high.

    14. RW

      (laughs)

    15. JR

      On 10, I was like, "Oh my God, this is a drug." But it's a weird drug where it doesn't affect your motor skills.

    16. RW

      No, not really.

    17. JR

      Like, I was, I was high but, uh, my coordination, it, I was like, nothing feels off.

    18. RW

      Yeah.

    19. JR

      You know, like, when you're drunk, it's like, "I can do this," but everything's in-

    20. RW

      No, you can't.

    21. JR

      ... slow motion.

    22. RW

      Yes. (laughs)

    23. JR

      No, you can't. (laughs) But kratom was like high in some weird way.

    24. RW

      Yeah.

    25. JR

      But it was definitely intoxicating.

    26. RW

      It's, it's an, it's an interesting one, especially w- you know, with Feel Free, you've got kava and kratom-

    27. JR

      Mm-hmm.

    28. RW

      ... which does that, like, here's a mellowing anti-anxiety vibe and then here's like a euphoric energy thing in the center of it.

    29. JR

      Mm.

    30. RW

      And so it gives you that, like, that's why people feel so groovy on it because it's got those two. However, I do understand if people get sick on it, like they, they... I think some people just, it's too much for their brain or they just need to do, like, a third of a bottle or something.

  3. 3:30 – 6:01

    Substances, conversation flow, and the ‘editing’ brain—ketamine example

    1. JR

      Yeah. Isn't that interesting that there's actual things that can make you a better conversationalist?

    2. RW

      Mm-hmm.

    3. JR

      There's things that you can take where you'll be, you know, you'll be better talking to people. You'll say different things than you would without those things.

    4. RW

      I know. I know. I don't know, I think it has something to do with the, uh, I think, like, certain things re- remove the editing aspect and you're just more fluid. Like, I remember a friend of mine, she had, like, this... I don't know if you know people like this but they, they analyze everything that they're thinking, like it's a, like a, a compulsion. So, like, my friend, she's amazing musician but every time she would speak, she'd be like, "Well, I'd like to... I'm not sure if I... I, I should... But I, you know, I, I would like to... But I..." A lot of this, like, looped kind of thing.

    5. JR

      Hmm.

    6. RW

      And, and selfana- but, like, the analysis loop is so clo- cl- so small that I'm like-

    7. JR

      Mm.

    8. RW

      ... you know, I'm like, "I wish I could help." But then one night, I can... She was nervous about taking ketamine that... And I gave her just a little bit of ketamine.

    9. JR

      (laughs)

    10. RW

      And finally she was like, "Okay, I'll try it out, I'll tr- try." And she's like, "I don't know. Should I, I, I th- maybe is it too much?" And then, and I was like, "Trust me, just, just do this amount. I'm really good at dosing." And she took it and I progressively saw her go from, "I don't know what's going... I, yeah, so, um, yeah, and you know, I was just kind of wondering, my career is interesting but I have a lot of fear based ar-" And she was just calm, relaxed, and completely fluid, and I let her go for a while and then I said, "Did you notice that you haven't stopped yourself once, like, in the last 10 minutes?"

    11. JR

      Hmm.

    12. RW

      She was like, "Oh my God, you're right," and I was like, "Yeah. Like, if you notice that when you're on it, it's possible you could carry that over into your functioning everyday life," but-

    13. JR

      Hmm.

    14. RW

      ... I don't know. It was, it was a cool, it was cool to see that transformation.

    15. JR

      Yeah, wonder if that's possible without the ketamine.

    16. RW

      I think of course it is. But the ketamine just puts you immediately in a spot where you're, you're no longer emotionally connected to your observational self. You're just in an observational state. So it's, it's... For me, I notice that I'm very clear. Even though I'm a, I- I think of myself as a pretty good communicator, sometimes when I'm on ketamine, the thoughts are just flowing in a way that I'm actually watching them. It's the same feeling when I'm improvising and it's going really well, like I'm with a bunch of cats and we're, like, jamming or whatever. There'll be this weird thing where I'm suddenly, I'm like, I'm just li-... It's almost like I'm standing next to myself going like-

    17. JR

      Hmm.

    18. RW

      ... "Hey, that's pretty good. Oh wait, uh," and then, and then I'm-

    19. JR

      (laughs)

    20. RW

      ... and then I'm playing again, and it kind of puts me in that kind of a state. And I don't know, there's something about it. Uh, I- I'm really interested in ketamine, like doing more research with it too, like FMRI's, like, you know, real-time FMRI and mapping regions of the brain when you're improvising and things like that. There's been a little bit of that but I want to do it myself just to see.

  4. 6:01 – 9:27

    Ketamine basics: dissociation, medical use, and comparisons to PCP/DXM

    1. JR

      Wasn't it originally devised as an animal tranquilizer?

    2. RW

      ... yeah, it was an anesthetic as far as I know. I think-

    3. JR

      Like cats or something.

    4. RW

      Yeah. It was like, well, horses... Like large a- uh, large mammals that can do a lot of damage. (laughs) I think it was used for them to just ca- as an anti-anxiety, and then it's an anesthetic. So I know a friend of mine, he was... Or a friend of a friend, he was skateboarding, shoulder went out of place, went to a hospital, they shot him with ketamine, and then put his shoulder back in.

    5. JR

      I think they use that in medic kits overseas.

    6. RW

      Oh, that's probably right. Yeah.

    7. JR

      I think they do, if they have to do like, uh, in the field surgery-

    8. RW

      (inhales deeply) Yeah.

    9. JR

      ... if something happens on the battlefield.

    10. RW

      Well, I know in Vietnam, all the, the burn victims from like napalm and stuff like that, um, they used a mixture of opiates and ketamine.

    11. JR

      Huh.

    12. RW

      Because the dissociative takes you out of your body, so you're not related to the pain in your body, and then the opiates obviously suppress pain at the same time.

    13. JR

      (exhales deeply)

    14. RW

      Crazy, right?

    15. JR

      Pharmacology.

    16. RW

      I know.

    17. JR

      From Reggie Watts and Joe Rogan.

    18. RW

      Hey. (laughs)

    19. JR

      (laughs)

    20. RW

      Everyone's like-

    21. JR

      We're not giving advice.

    22. RW

      There's all these doctors going like, "That's not true. It was actually... " And, and like, "Okay."

    23. JR

      Everything you're saying-

    24. RW

      (laughs)

    25. JR

      ... is dangerous.

    26. RW

      I'm trying. I'm trying. (laughs)

    27. JR

      Everything you're saying is misinformation.

    28. RW

      It's, it's all of us different... I mean, it's like, it's like sometimes it's just what you understand at the time. Oh, there it is. Yeah.

    29. JR

      There it goes. Ketamine was found of many the same a- anesthetic and analgesic properties as PCP.

    30. RW

      Yeah.

  5. 9:27 – 11:27

    Phones filming everything: war footage, desensitization, and dark curiosity

    1. JR

      That's a big part of the world now. So many things are being filmed. This... There's good and bad of it, right? The good thing is like citizen journalism.

    2. RW

      Sure, yeah.

    3. JR

      You know, like we know more about the horrors of war, like the wars that are happening right now. Do you remember like during... It was, uh, I think it was Desert Storm or it was the ne-... It was after... Whate- whatever 2020... Uh, the... 2001, after, uh, the 9/11 attacks, they weren't allowed to show bodies of troops coming home.

    4. RW

      Hmm.

    5. JR

      They weren't allowed to show coffins. Remember? Photographers were not allowed.

    6. RW

      I remember something like that.

    7. JR

      Yeah. Which is insane. And then now, here we are 22 years later, and you just get graphic cellphone footage from Ukraine.

    8. RW

      Mm-hmm.

    9. JR

      Now you're getting it from Palestine and Gaza.

    10. RW

      Yep.

    11. JR

      It's just horrific graphic footage from phones.

    12. RW

      That's... Uh, I mean, even back in the days, like, remember when ISIS was on the rampage, uh, you would still... You could still see videos online, on YouTube-

    13. JR

      Mm-hmm.

    14. RW

      ... like before they took them down.

    15. JR

      Right.

    16. RW

      Like people were exposed to some pretty-

    17. JR

      Beheading videos.

    18. RW

      Yeah. Like-

    19. JR

      Yeah.

    20. RW

      ... I saw one of those and I was like, "I should have never s- seen that."

    21. JR

      Yeah.

    22. RW

      Should have never seen that. I can't, I can't get it out of my head.

    23. JR

      No, I've seen quite a few of them, unfortunately.

    24. RW

      Yeah. It's just like... (sighs) You know, I mean, it's like... I, I mean, on one hand, it's like the barbarism is, is, is a good thing to see, where you're like, "That, I never want to put myself in that situation."

    25. JR

      Yeah.

    26. RW

      Or I want to do everything I can to try to make our society not do that kind of shit. But at the same time, it's... It can desensitize and some people can kind of fetishize on it as well. So it's... I don't know. It's a, it's a twofer.

    27. JR

      Yeah, it is. That is a thing with people. They do fantasize about things-

    28. RW

      Mm-hmm.

    29. JR

      ... that they see. And they want it... I mean, you've heard that about serial killers. They, they study serial killer documentaries and shit before they actually go out and do it.

    30. RW

      Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I know. But, you know, humanity. (laughs)

  6. 11:27 – 14:36

    Why conflicts persist: capitalism critique vs. ‘the alternative’ and political systems

    1. JR

      You know, this idea of eradicating all war. I mean, uh, (whoosh effect) I remember when I was a little boy, uh, I was living in San Francisco during the height of the Vietnam War, and the Vietnam War ended. And I remember as a boy thinking, "Oh, this is great. Now there's not gonna be any more wars. They figured it out. The war is bad."

    2. RW

      Hmm. Yep.

    3. JR

      (laughs)

    4. RW

      They didn't.

    5. JR

      They didn't.

    6. RW

      They didn't. Because wars will end. That's the one thing, uh, about war. A war will end, but does, uh, another one... What's the next war that starts?

    7. JR

      They're always sparking up. They're always sparking up somewhere.

    8. RW

      I, I have this weird theory. Uh, well, it's... I don't know if it's a weird theory. But like... And it's a gross generalization, but I think like pretty much every conflict is a result of-... uh, capitalism.

    9. JR

      Hmm.

    10. RW

      In the sense that raw capitalism, like in its nascent form, is like, it's just a system of trade and so forth. But the way it's been wired, because it doesn't have human well-being involved in the equation, it's just about, "Can we make this graph go up?" Like, "We need more of these numbers," and it's just chasing-

    11. JR

      Always.

    12. RW

      ... infinite wealth, right?

    13. JR

      Right.

    14. RW

      It's like, um, wealth amassing but it, but ... So it has a value system, but human well-being's not in it. So eventually, over time, it's like, of course people are gonna game it. Very few people are gonna game it, and they're gonna acquire all the stuff. And they're just gonna be like, desensitized to the rest of the inequities and so forth. And then you're gonna cause all this animosity, and then there's gonna be a lot of people going like, "Well, I need to get my stuff back." And then you get all these opportunists that are using the disgruntalism and like using that to harm... It's like, that's my over-gross oversimplification. I'm sure I'll, I'll be corrected millions of times over. But whenever I see any of these conflicts or even a conflict in my own neighborhood or my neighbors arguing over, it's about a property line, or it's about, um, you didn't do this, or you didn't do that. It's this weird, uh, thought process that goes into I don't have enough, or I have all the stuff and I wanna keep the stuff, or I want more stuff, and then someone else kind of responding to that in some way. I'm not phrasing it as eloquently as I usually do on ketamine but, um, but that's kind of my ... (sighs) Whenever I see all of these things, I'm just like, "Ah, I have a feeling that it's probably maybe that." I, I, I don't know.

    15. JR

      The problem is the alternative is even more horrific.

    16. RW

      What's the alternative?

    17. JR

      Socialism.

    18. RW

      Socialism. Yeah.

    19. JR

      Yeah.

    20. RW

      I don't know enough about that.

    21. JR

      'Cause the only way that's enforced is by dictators. And then the dictators-

    22. RW

      Mm-hmm.

    23. JR

      ... wind up doing what every human being in power does, which is control all the resources, control all the wealth, live in extravagant houses while everybody starves. Every single communist dictatorship is all run the same way. It's the only way to run them, 'cause the only way to enforce socialism is through violence.

    24. RW

      (laughs) Yeah.

    25. JR

      The only way to take people's resources and evenly distribute it-

    26. RW

      (laughs)

    27. JR

      ... is to go in with guns.

    28. RW

      But what about like, countries like Sweden and things like that? They have social, they ... Well, we have social s- we have socialist systems.

    29. JR

      We should have social systems, yeah.

    30. RW

      Yeah, social, socialist systems.

  7. 14:36 – 19:13

    AI in government: low-level legislation, an ‘AI president,’ and reducing corruption

    1. RW

      Yeah, I mean, I'm not ... You know, that's why here's something that's interesting. I really think within our lifetimes, if it hasn't happened already, governments are gonna start using AI to do, uh, low-level legislation. Um, and now I'm just like, I'm summarizing in a very op- optimistic way.

    2. JR

      We've been talking about this a lot actually.

    3. RW

      Oh, okay. Okay, good.

    4. JR

      Yeah.

    5. RW

      So I got a friend of mine, Dr. Allen D. Thompson. Um, if you don't know about him, you should check him out. He's a, he's an AI expert researcher. He's an explainer. He has a thing called The Memo that comes out, I think, like every two weeks, something like that. But it gives you this, uh, really holistic State of the Union of AI, and he's hyper-optimistic and calls it human evolution, which I believe in that as well. If it's used well, uh, you get rid of the emotional factor, and you just have something that's looking to solve problems.

    6. JR

      Yeah.

    7. RW

      And you know, and so I think like it can at least give you five solutions that are not emotionally based that are just addressed, that are supposed to kind of maximize the, uh, positive probable outcome. And I think we may see a human AI, uh, synergistic gover- low, at least low-level government implemen- implementation. Probably some country that's like can do that and not feel like they're betting the farm on it.

    8. JR

      Yeah. And if they, if it goes well, then other people implement it.

    9. RW

      Exactly.

    10. JR

      Yeah, I think so. We were, we were talking about a AI president.

    11. RW

      Yeah. (laughs)

    12. JR

      And that you need a president that is immune to bias-

    13. RW

      Yes.

    14. JR

      ... corruption, influence, and someone who just looks at things rationally and in an intelligent way that spans all the disciplines, right? Like, how could any president really be an expert in foreign policy, the environment-

    15. RW

      Mm-hmm.

    16. JR

      ... economics, social justice-

    17. RW

      Mm-hmm.

    18. JR

      ... uh, infrastructure, um, immigration.

    19. RW

      Mm-hmm.

    20. JR

      Y- it's not possible.

    21. RW

      Yeah.

    22. JR

      How could one person really know the correct solutions to all those issues? Even if you're briefed ... Look, I can't imagine. I, all I do is run a podcast and do comedy and occasionally g- commentate on fights.

    23. RW

      Yeah.

    24. JR

      And all those three things take up so much of my fucking time.

    25. RW

      Mm-hmm.

    26. JR

      My whole day today has been having conversations with people about replacement opponents because there's a UFC coming on in two weeks.

    27. RW

      Oh, wow.

    28. JR

      So I've been having all these conversations with experts and people that I know and commentators of who can fit this f- spot and who, who's ready and who's in shape and who's turning the fight down and ... How could anybody? That's not, that's so minor. That's a, my, my, uh, my role is so small. Like, I have so little to do, and yet it's, it takes up so much of my time. How could anyone manage all those things? They can't.

    29. RW

      But AI could.

    30. JR

      Yeah, totally.

  8. 19:13 – 24:06

    Inequality, student debt, homelessness, and the ‘wasted potential’ argument

    1. JR

      Do you remember Bernie Sanders, uh, his idea?

    2. RW

      Oh, no. What was that?

    3. JR

      His idea that I thought was really fascinating when I talked to him, he said he's going to take a small fraction, less than one cent, for every speculation buy on the stock market.

    4. RW

      Whoa.

    5. JR

      And that would account for insane amount of money. And you could essentially, through that money, just through that money, provide free healthcare, free education, just, just through that. If we could, there's two things that we could do that could stop people from living a shit life. One of them is keep them from being saddled down by student debt. Student debt, student loan debt is fucking insane. Because you're taking these vulnerable young people, 17 years old, right out of high school, about to go to college, and they sign on for these fucking deals where they, they're gonna owe a, an insane amount of money over the next five, six years, and they could never get out of that debt. That is crazy.

    6. RW

      (laughs)

    7. JR

      It's crazy what we do to people. So then you force-

    8. RW

      Hm.

    9. JR

      ... them into jobs that perhaps they don't want to do, and maybe there's things that they would have thought of pursuing that they can't pursue because they have a nut that they have to pay every month, 'cause they have student loan debts. And it's a big nut. If you're in medical school, it's enormous. It's an enormous nut.

    10. RW

      It's, it's so insane because the way I look at it is, like, any time someone's in survival mode, they're in a crisis state. They're not, they're less likely to be in a solution-based mind state. They're m- they're generally in a crisis state.

    11. JR

      Right.

    12. RW

      So if you're in survival mode, you're spending all of this brain trust energy that could be contributing to amazing solutions for all kinds of things, and you're just wasting it. And that's why when I, when I drive through LA and I see how many people are on the street, like, I'm like, there's probably a genius in there. There's probably someone who could invent a new water filtration system, or there's probably, whatever it is. We're, it's a waste of human...

    13. JR

      Potential.

    14. RW

      ... potential.

    15. JR

      Yes.

    16. RW

      And I'm like, if you don't invest in your population, if you don't believe in your population-

    17. JR

      Right.

    18. RW

      ... and you don't invest in them... And I just, like, the, some of the arguments are like, "Well, if you, you know, you're just giving away stuff and people are just gonna freeload." It's like, there's gonna be, there might be some of that, but most of the time people want to get involved in something and they want to make the people at least close around them, they wanna make their lives a little bit better.

    19. JR

      That's if you're not a drug addict.

    20. RW

      Well, yeah.

    21. JR

      The problem with the, the homeless community is the vast majority of them are mentally ill and/or drug addicts. So what you really-

    22. RW

      Yeah.

    23. JR

      ... what you really need, first of all, we definitely need to look at the country like it's our community, and we don't do that.

    24. RW

      100%.

    25. JR

      100%. It should be one giant community. There shou- there's no, there's no excuse for im- radically impoverished, gang-ridden, crime-ridden neighborhoods. There's no excuse for that. We should be engineering that out. We should figure out a way to ru- If you wanna make a better country, you wanna make America great again, make less losers. What's the best way to make less losers? Give people opportunities from the jump.

    26. RW

      Mm-hmm.

    27. JR

      You know how much potential we're missing out?

    28. RW

      So much.

    29. JR

      So much potential we're missing out because people who might have brilliant minds, might be incredibly creative, but they're born in horrible, hostile environments and they get caught up in it.

    30. RW

      Yeah.

  9. 24:06 – 32:11

    Housing pressure in LA and Montana: bidding wars, migration, and ‘Yellowstone’ effects

    1. RW

      Yeah, I mean, it's, it's, it's crazy to me. When I s- when I see this, like, the United States, like... I mean, and the United States that I grew up in the '80s, there was like... Yeah, we were kind of blinded by a lot of, like, you know, kind of glamorizing and just, like, everything's groovy. You know, like the, all the movies and TV shows and stuff like that. But at least when I grew up, I didn't have that stress of the micromanaging of constant reminders that the inequities are insane and that the middle class is just getting squeezed. And everybody I know... And I'm talking about, like, I tried to get a, I tried to buy a house in LA for three years.... I bid on f- uh, four houses. One, one of 'em, one of 'em, uh, the ev- the, uh, listing agent was like, "We want you to have this house." They spoke French, I spoke French to them. I was like, "Oh, okay, this is great." I'm buttering them up. The people who owned the house were French. The listing agent was Swiss, but Fren- spoke French. And I was like, "Oh, yeah." And they were like, "Yeah, we want you to have the house, want you to have the house." I was like, "This is great." House went for $1.7 million, and of course that was like an underbid, you know, however they do that, that bullshit psychological, uh, whatever. Low, low pricing. So I was like, "Okay, great. I'm gonna give you a healthy offer." I gave them a healthy offer, you know, talked to my real estate agent and everything. I sent it to them, and I was like, "Okay, this sounds like this is gonna go through." And then they're like, "Ah, sorry, they went with this, this other person." "Oh, really? What did they offer?" They offered 1.2 million o- on top of the, uh, adjusted asking price, with no, waiving all the inspections, contingents, and it was cash. That happened-

    2. JR

      Jesus.

    3. RW

      ... that happened to me three times. And it was li- it felt like, it felt like the city or life was like, "Oh, you want a house? I'll give you a little bit of hope, and then I'm just gonna f- and then there's gonna be a team that just goes out (laughs) and says, 'We're gonna o- outbid you, and we're gonna just waive all the conti- there's no way you're gonna compete with it.'" And I thought about that, and I have friends that are like trying to find apartments right now. And even in Great Falls, Montana, where in, where I'm from, and it, I think some property value went up, I don't know, a huge percentage.

    4. JR

      Californians moving in.

    5. RW

      Well-

    6. JR

      That's a lot of them.

    7. RW

      ... yeah, Yellowstone, man, Yellowstone.

    8. JR

      (laughs) They tricked everybody.

    9. RW

      Yellowstone.

    10. JR

      (laughs) And they-

    11. RW

      I thought-

    12. JR

      ... they're gonna be a rancher. (laughs)

    13. RW

      When I, when I heard about that, no, well, no, not even that, it was just like they, like everyone thought, I thought, like, "Oh, yeah, a TV production promoting that area, like whatever, that, that should bring in money, right?" It did.

    14. JR

      Yeah.

    15. RW

      But now every Montan- 'cause Montana's already, it's like I have the same, I feel the same way. I'm like, "Just visit. Don't, don't move here, but just come and visit." You know, that's been, (laughs) that's always been my vibe growing up. All my friends have the same vibe. They're just like, "Just, just come here, and, you know, check it out, and then, you know, we'll see you a little bit later, and you're always welcome back." And that's always been the vibe, and now it's like almost militant now. Like people are really like, "Do not come in here. Don't, don't, please."

    16. JR

      Yeah, but you can't do that.

    17. RW

      "Please don't."

    18. JR

      You can't stop people from-

    19. RW

      I-

    20. JR

      ... coming. That's silly.

    21. RW

      ... I know you can't, I know you can't, but-

    22. JR

      That's a ridiculous perspective.

    23. RW

      ... but, but I'm just saying that it got harsher because of this show and how-

    24. JR

      (laughs)

    25. RW

      ... it changed the economy in Bozeman. I mean, they called Bozeman Bozangeles, and-

    26. JR

      Yes.

    27. RW

      ... and, uh, and, and now no one ca- no one can buy a house there. I have m- I have a couple friends who are like, "We couldn't buy in Bozeman. We, we had to, we had to move somewhere else." And like prices are going up everywhere.

    28. JR

      Wait till they get that 30 below winter for-

    29. RW

      I know.

    30. JR

      ... like five weeks in a row.

  10. 32:11 – 35:38

    Tribal ideology, social media arguments, and the ‘10% rule’ for being wrong

    1. JR

      Well, it's also a problem that people have an opinion based on an ideology that they subscribe to.

    2. RW

      Yes.

    3. JR

      And say if you have a leftist ideology and you subscribe to that, then you have some very speci- I, I'm p- I bet I know where you stand on climate change. I bet I know where you stand on many issues.

    4. RW

      Yeah.

    5. JR

      And the, the problem with that is if your tribe all agrees to something, you signal to your tribe by also agreeing too, and it's much easier than having a real objective conversation about the realities of that thing and not being attached to these ideas, but just saying-

    6. RW

      Yes.

    7. JR

      ... "Well, what are, what are the realities of these things?"

    8. RW

      Yes. Yes. I always call it the, the 10% rule. Like, I may believe in something and, and think about it and go, "Yeah, that makes sense for me," but I always leave 10% margin of me being completely wrong-

    9. JR

      Mm.

    10. RW

      ... or me misunderstanding the whole situation-

    11. JR

      Yeah.

    12. RW

      ... because I can't hold onto something so fervently 'cause I have, like ... I have all kinds of friends. I have conservative friends. I have, uh, I have, uh, anarch- our anarchist friends. I have agnostic friends, whatever. I have religious friends. I have leftist friends. But the thing that I ... that brings us together is that we can have conversations about issues, and if I bring up something like, you know, something that is a counter to what they believe, they're-

    13. JR

      Yeah.

    14. RW

      ... at least listening, and they're like, "That's interesting. Well, yeah, if we incorporated a little bit of what you're talking about into what we're doing and we kinda deescalate on here-"

    15. JR

      Yeah.

    16. RW

      "... we can arrive at something that's a little bit more rational and works for more people."

    17. JR

      What's stunning how emotionally attached people are oftentimes to subjects that they're not even informed on, and then-

    18. RW

      Oh, yes, of course.

    19. JR

      ... when you really have a conversation with them about the actual data, they, they fall apart because they're ideologically driven.

    20. RW

      Yes.

    21. JR

      They're, they're camp, whether they're a right-wing conservative or a left-wing progressive, their camp believes a certain thing, and so they're locked in on this certain thing as being correct. And then emotionally, they respond to a, a differing opinion.

    22. RW

      Mm-hmm.

    23. JR

      And that is just rough, man.

    24. RW

      Wow. (laughs)

    25. JR

      Those are rough conversations. I don't enjoy them. I really enjoy having conversations with people that I disagree with that are polite and kind and objective and fair. Those are great conversations-

    26. RW

      Yes.

    27. JR

      ... 'cause they're stimulating.

    28. RW

      Yes.

    29. JR

      I get to see how you think about things and why-

    30. RW

      Yes.

  11. 35:38 – 56:42

    Kindness, conflict de-escalation, and social survival as a public figure

    1. RW

      It's like, I, I want ... I just wanna ... I wanna come to an understanding because there's nothing better. I mean, one of my favorite highs in the world ... And I love drugs, but my favorite high in the world is when I t- had a conversation, uh, fr- this is just an example. I was in Montana, back steps of my friend Wally's, uh, house. His next-door neighbor was an armorer in the Iraq war, um, was responsible for, I don't know, I think it was a battalion's worth of, of weapons, and it was only he and another guy that were monitoring these things. So, he has all these stories and his viewpoint on all kinds of things that are ... He's definitely more conservative-leaning. I had this conversation about the perspective from people who are ... You know, it was a police issue, and I was saying like, "Well, police need to be better trained." It's like, it's not necessarily about getting rid of them, but I believe that they need better training. In other countries, police go to school for two and a half years before they even get out, so there's a different- difference in quality. And we kinda went back and forth, and I saw his eyes narrowing, and it was just kind of, like, s- steaming up a little bit. But then the more we talked about it and the more I said, like, "I understand where you're coming from. I, I get where you're coming from, and I'm not saying, um, I'm not saying the opposite of what you're talking about. What I'm looking for is a solution of perspective." And-... and I saw him cool o- It was crazy. It cooled off.

    2. JR

      Mm-hmm.

    3. RW

      And we left like, he's, you know, he's still gonna believe what he's believing, but it did not escalate, and it was feeling kind of a little dangerous, and then it was fine.

    4. JR

      Mm.

    5. RW

      And I'm like, the more that we can have these conversations, people aren't what they are for their entire lives. They, they aren't-

    6. JR

      Yeah, that's true.

    7. RW

      ... they aren't e- they aren't, they aren't even what they are necessarily in any given moment, because when we get information that we can tap into, and feel, and get it from somebody instead of these tiny little bite-sized-

    8. JR

      Yeah.

    9. RW

      ... nuggets that are, like, decontextualized, then it's brilliant, and I get off on that. That's the, my biggest high in the world is like my, my friends going like, "Uh, this about this," and I'm like, "Okay, okay. I g- I hear you, but what about this?" And they're just like, "Oh, no." "But, uh, check this out," and they're like, "Oh, well, eh." You know, I, I don't know what it is. I, I, I get off on it.

    10. JR

      Well, that's the wonderful thing about some drugs.

    11. RW

      Yes, that's true.

    12. JR

      Because some drugs, like for me, it's marijuana.

    13. RW

      Mm-hmm.

    14. JR

      Marijuana makes me so much more considerate of other people's perspectives and feelings.

    15. RW

      Mm.

    16. JR

      'Cause I'm much more sensitive when-

    17. RW

      Mm-hmm.

    18. JR

      ... when I'm on it. So when I'm talking to someone, I'm so much less likely to engage in, like, a real disagreement, you know? It'll be much more passive, much more like, "Okay, I see what you're saying."

    19. RW

      Mm-hmm.

    20. JR

      "Okay, so that, so you feel that, that like," reaffirm, and then have you considered, and this is a, a thing, and I also, I say this all the time 'cause it's a very important thing to say, I've tried very hard to not be connected to my, my ideas, that these are just ideas, that I as a individual, as a y- as a separate being, a conscious being, am engaging with these ideas, but I don't claim them as my own to the point where I'm married to them and I, and I fight for them, and these are my fucking, these are my ideas, and I stand by them.

    21. RW

      You're dying, dying on the hill.

    22. JR

      There's only a few-

    23. RW

      Sure.

    24. JR

      ... that like, you know-

    25. RW

      Yeah.

    26. JR

      ... there's a few.

    27. RW

      Yeah.

    28. JR

      Right?

    29. RW

      Yeah.

    30. JR

      But most things, I'm like, I wanna know why you think the way you think, and that, that's one of the beautiful things about having a podcast is I have so many conversations with so many people that have completely different perspectives.

  12. 56:42 – 1:01:56

    Reggie’s memoir announcement and sci‑fi detour: Star Trek, communication tech, and humor

    1. RW

      Oh, by the way, I wrote a book.

    2. JR

      (laughs)

    3. RW

      Oh, what's your book about?

    4. JR

      Sorry to jump-

    5. RW

      If I created that, I was like, "I should slip that in a little bit." It is about fight choreography-

    6. JR

      (laughs)

    7. RW

      ... and that's why I was... Well, it took a long time, but I was steering us in that direction.

    8. JR

      (laughs)

    9. RW

      Um, no, it's just called Great Falls, Montana. It's a, it's a autobiography about-

    10. JR

      Oh, cool.

    11. RW

      ... me growing up.

    12. JR

      Oh, nice.

    13. RW

      Um, and, uh-

    14. JR

      How long did it take to write that? Was that a pandemic project?

    15. RW

      This was a pandemic project, yeah.

    16. JR

      Nice.

    17. RW

      Year and a half. Year and, um-

    18. JR

      Nice.

    19. RW

      ... almost two years. Oh, there it is.

    20. JR

      There it is.

    21. RW

      There she is.

    22. JR

      Look at that out of control fro, son.

    23. RW

      I know. I know.

    24. JR

      Fast Times Poke- Post Punk Weirdos: A Tale of Coming Home Again, Reggie Watts. Nice.

    25. RW

      Yeah.

    26. JR

      Did you do an audio for it?

    27. RW

      I did, yeah.

    28. JR

      Good. Beautiful.

    29. RW

      I kinda didn't want to. I was so-

    30. JR

      You have to.

  13. 1:01:56 – 1:11:37

    Ketamine culture and ‘functional’ highs: dosing, K-holes, and telepathy-like perception

    1. JR

      Oh.

    2. RW

      "So those particles are the essence of perception." I mean... Oh, God, I couldn't... No, man. I've done some functional things on K before, which were- were pretty surprising.

    3. JR

      Functional things?

    4. RW

      Well, things that you're-

    5. JR

      Like what?

    6. RW

      ... supposed to be functional for.

    7. JR

      Like what?

    8. RW

      I think the first time I did a lozenge, it was a 200 milligram lozenge, and 'cause I have a prescription for it. Um...

    9. JR

      What is the prescription for? What does the doctor say when they write that prescription? "He likes to get high." (laughs)

    10. RW

      It's like, it's like he really is into... He's a psychonaut. I don't know. No, I mean, it was- it's kind of like- it's for therapeutic reasons.

    11. JR

      Sure.

    12. RW

      But you can, like... It's a friend of a friend. So I was like, "Well, let me experience this 'cause I wanna know what this- what is this like." But I took the- I took it and I did a livestream, and it was during the pandemic. And I didn't know how high I was gonna get, but I just set up the equipment. I had to problem-solve a bunch of stuff, and I totally did it successfully. No one knew that I was high.

    13. JR

      (laughs)

    14. RW

      And that- that's my- that's my secret, I will say. It's the one strength I have on psychedelics. I can always do an impression of a non-high me.

    15. JR

      (laughs)

    16. RW

      Unless, like, my eyes are crazy. But generally, people are like, "I didn't know you were high." I was like, "No, no, I was completely peaking on acid when I was talking to you."

    17. JR

      Duh.

    18. RW

      And they're like, "That's impossible." I'm like, "No, it's like, it's something I actually like to practice 'cause it's- it's fun."

    19. JR

      Practice normalcy.

    20. RW

      Yeah. Like, I'll do... Like, oftentimes, if my (laughs) friends are like- were like all really high on K or something like that. I'm like, "Guys, I'm gonna do an impression. This is my favorite thing. I'm gonna do an impression of a normal person." And so I'll, like, get up and go like, "Oh, man, I forgot to do this thing. Oh, shit. Um, hey, when you get a chance, can you call so-and-so," or whatever. And then (laughs) like, go over it, like, wash my hands, and like, you know, just do normal-person stuff.

    21. JR

      Yeah.

    22. RW

      And I- there's some- something about, like, trying to find your center in the middle of a storm that I feel is kind of like... It's like strapping on weights on your ankle or wearing- wearing a weighted vest in training. It's like, it's a way of, like, kind of challenging yourself to the point at which you hopefully make a goal by, like, achieving some-

    23. JR

      Hmm.

    24. RW

      ... something.

    25. JR

      Yeah.

    26. RW

      But I don't know. That's a little too (laughs) weird.

    27. JR

      Well, it's also you're comfortable with that state, you know?

    28. RW

      Hmm.

    29. JR

      For someone who's never experienced it at that state before, it becomes overwhelming. And then you kind of, like, give into the anxiety of the moment and your... And that's the thing about bad trips, right?

    30. RW

      Yeah.

Episode duration: 2:46:39

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