Skip to content
The Joe Rogan ExperienceThe Joe Rogan Experience

Joe Rogan Experience #2139 - Akaash Singh

Akaash Singh is a stand-up comic, actor, and co-host of the podcast "Flagrant" with Andrew Schulz. Check out his new special, "Gaslit," on YouTube. www.akaashsingh.com

Akaash SinghguestJoe Roganhost
Apr 23, 20242h 45mWatch on YouTube ↗

EVERY SPOKEN WORD

  1. 0:00 – 2:38

    Phish at the Vegas Sphere: sensory overload and the new live-show arms race

    1. NA

      (drumbeats) Joe Rogan podcast, check it out.

    2. The Joe Rogan Experience.

    3. Train by day, Joe Rogan podcast by night. All day. (instrumental music) So, Jamie, I'm sending you these things right now. You wanna feel like a lazy piece of shit?

    4. AS

      Uh, yeah.

    5. NA

      (laughs)

    6. AS

      (laughs) Yeah. Yeah.

    7. JR

      This is what me and Ari were saying to each other last night. This is all the Phish concert at The Sphere.

    8. NA

      Oh.

    9. AS

      Oh, Phish is a fascinating thing.

    10. JR

      Dude, the gra- you know The Sphere in Vegas?

    11. AS

      Yes.

    12. JR

      That giant globe.

    13. AS

      Yes.

    14. JR

      The whole ceiling is all LCD or-

    15. AS

      Completely-

    16. JR

      ... LED. What kind of screen is it?

    17. NA

      I don't know.

    18. JR

      Some-

    19. AS

      L- LED?

    20. JR

      LED, I would think.

    21. AS

      Whatever the best shit is. Yeah.

    22. JR

      It's like a billion-dollar building.

    23. AS

      Yeah.

    24. JR

      But the screens on the ceiling, so Phish utilizes these for all these, like, crazy, trippy-

    25. AS

      Yeah.

    26. JR

      ... psychedelic images, and so while the show is going on people are just like, "Wow."

    27. AS

      Yeah.

    28. JR

      It's like the greatest fucking thing I've ever seen in my life. Look at this.

    29. AS

      Oh, that's-

    30. JR

      That's the ceiling.

  2. 2:38 – 4:21

    UFC at The Sphere and Dana White’s obsession-level execution

    1. JR

      So they're doing a UFC there in September and I have no-

    2. AS

      Oh.

    3. JR

      Look at the dog. (laughs)

    4. AS

      Oh, that's so sick, dude. That's so sick.

    5. JR

      Isn't that amazing?

    6. AS

      Yeah.

    7. JR

      Um-

    8. AS

      What's gonna be on the screen at UFC 300, just Max Holloway-

    9. JR

      Fights.

    10. AS

      ... knocking you out with two seconds left in the fight?

    11. JR

      (laughs) One second.

    12. AS

      Yeah, one second.

    13. JR

      Yeah, it's, it's gonna be all kinds of shit. I mean, th- they're, they're essentially planning for that different than they've ever planned for any other event.

    14. AS

      Uh-huh.

    15. JR

      Dana told me they've already spent $9 million preparing for September's event.

    16. AS

      That's so sick.

    17. JR

      Yeah.

    18. AS

      So tickets are gonna be nuts for that, I assume.

    19. JR

      It's gonna be nuts, yeah.

    20. AS

      Yeah.

    21. JR

      It's gonna be a nutty event, and I don't think they're gonna do more than one of them. I think they're only gonna do one 'cause the idea is, is like it's so expensive to do and there's so much involved in preparing for it.

    22. AS

      Yeah, but it's an investment so you're gonna get it back.

    23. JR

      Yeah.

    24. AS

      Has anybody written a book on Dana building the UFC? You would know, I would not. I'm very much casual, but just I remember being like 13, seeing the UFC commercials.

    25. JR

      Mm-hmm.

    26. AS

      And it didn't, it seemed like this fringe thing and now it's this massive mainstream thing. And not, I don't wanna give all the credit to one person, but it seems like he's the one-

    27. JR

      It's a lot of it, a lot of it goes to him.

    28. AS

      Yeah.

    29. JR

      If it wasn't for him-

    30. AS

      Yeah.

  3. 4:21 – 10:35

    Letting go of resentment: jealousy, ego, and not reading the comments

    1. JR

      I don't have that.

    2. AS

      I don't either, but-

    3. JR

      No, I keep moving. I don't li- I don't like that s- kind of stress in my life. I don't like dwelling on things. I don't like creating additional conflict. Maybe I did when I was younger, but that shit doesn't seem appealing to me at all.

    4. AS

      How do you let go... If you had it when you were younger, how did you let go of it?

    5. JR

      I just realized it wasn't helping me.

    6. AS

      Yeah.

    7. JR

      The same way I let go being jealous of people. I would be jealous of other comedians, like if they were killing it-

    8. AS

      Yeah.

    9. JR

      ... I'd be, I would be like, "Oh, I hope he bombs."

    10. AS

      Yeah.

    11. JR

      And I, and then I, I, uh, this was when I was 21 I felt this.

    12. AS

      Oh, that's very young for that.

    13. JR

      And I saw it and I was like, "God, what a, how, what a weak thought."

    14. AS

      Yeah.

    15. JR

      I was embarrassed.

    16. AS

      Yeah. I remember being 27 and just being so angry, and I haven't let go of all of it by any stretch, but being like, "I don't like me being like this."

    17. JR

      Yeah.

    18. AS

      And then I realized all my hate of other people is rooted in me worrying I'm not gonna make it or worrying I'm not funny enough.

    19. JR

      Mm-hmm.

    20. AS

      And then you get kind of like, "Well, that's embarrassing, so let's try to move away from that."

    21. JR

      Yeah, it, it, uh, especially with comedy and something that you could actually improve on-

    22. AS

      Yeah.

    23. JR

      ... it's really stupid.

    24. AS

      Yeah.

    25. JR

      Or even martial arts, something you can improve on. I get it with girls.

    26. AS

      (laughs)

    27. JR

      'Cause they get it with looks.

    28. AS

      Yeah.

    29. JR

      Like looks-

    30. AS

      Yeah. Oh, they're saying it-

  4. 10:35 – 16:01

    Masks, COVID policy whiplash, and the politics of public health theater

    1. AS

      Hey, I have some loser behavior to apologize for before we get-

    2. JR

      Really?

    3. AS

      Yeah. Yesterday, I'm walking through Austin and I'm like, "This city's great. Why did I get on Rogan the first time and shit all over Austin? What a fantastic city."

    4. JR

      (laughs)

    5. AS

      I'm a loser. 68 degrees on a Sunday, I'm walking around, there's trees, there's beautiful people, there's good food. And I realize the only reason I hated it is because I would leave Texas when I moved to New York or LA and every hacky liberal would be like, "Oh, I hate Texas, but I like Austin." And then I got insecure and some loser shit. And I was like, "You know what? Fuck Austin, dude."

    6. JR

      Yeah.

    7. AS

      "Fucking vegans, they suck. This city's great."

    8. JR

      Well, if you go to certain parts of Austin, you will get annoyed. I was in East Austin a couple months ago, and I saw some fucking guy driving his Tesla with a mask on.

    9. AS

      (laughs)

    10. JR

      I, I literally wanted to yank him out of his car and break his neck.

    11. AS

      (laughs)

    12. JR

      You fucking... You, you're a problem voting.

    13. AS

      (laughs)

    14. JR

      I guarantee you, you're a problem.

    15. AS

      Oh, my God.

    16. JR

      (laughs) You're the reason why there's no cash bail.

    17. AS

      Dude, I saw a guy in 2022 in an elevator, and he got mad at me for not having a mask on. I was like, "Buddy, it's over. It's over."

    18. JR

      He got mad at you in 2022?

    19. AS

      "Stop it." He was like, "You're not wearing a mask?" And then because New York had the whole mask thing for longer, and so I guess... But to me, once it-

    20. JR

      Was it still going on in 2022 when you got in the elevator?

    21. AS

      Oh, I don't... I guess. Well, my wife, NYU, she got a master's at NYU, and they made them take boosters, which I took the vax. I'm fine with that.

    22. JR

      (sighs)

    23. AS

      But boosters, I was like, "I'm not doing it." If it's a cold, I'm not vaccinating against a cold. I'm not doing it. And then they made them wear masks until, I think, middle of 2023, they had to wear masks.

    24. JR

      Jesus Christ.

    25. AS

      Which is insane.

    26. JR

      It just, no science.

    27. AS

      Right.

    28. JR

      Zero science.

    29. AS

      Yes.

    30. JR

      If you, you look at the science behind masking-There's actually legitimate science that breathing those dirty fucking masks with that bacteria inches from your mouth is bad.

  5. 16:01 – 18:40

    AI creativity: animation, voice cloning, and the Drake–Kendrick AI diss era

    1. JR

      Dude, I am obsessed with AI animation. I'm obsessed with it. I follow, like, 15 different people online now on Instagram. I just, it'll come across my feed and I'll just find these, these insane videos that they're creating, like, instantly with AI.

    2. AS

      Yeah.

    3. JR

      And they're beautiful.

    4. AS

      It's insane.

    5. JR

      They're amazing.

    6. AS

      We made songs with AI on the Patreon, one of the Patreon episodes, and they're so good. So, 20 seconds.

    7. JR

      So good. 20 seconds.

    8. AS

      It's unbelievable.

    9. JR

      It's crazy.

    10. AS

      Have you seen the, the rap beefs that are happening where they think the songs are AI, because they're so, like... One guy said, "I know this song isn't AI because how can AI take a breath in a song?" And I was like-

    11. JR

      No, no, they can.

    12. AS

      ... "Because it's AI. It's just gonna get better and better."

    13. JR

      No, they um. They take breaths.

    14. AS

      Yeah.

    15. JR

      They do all kinds of stuff now. They mimic all the patterns of speech that they can record from all these different people. So, they have act, like i- if you have a database, like say if you and I are... We've been on a c- a bunch of podcasts now.

    16. AS

      Yeah, yeah.

    17. JR

      So they could take us and have us say anything.

    18. AS

      Yeah.

    19. JR

      And it would be, like, weird pauses and (clears throat) clearing of the throat.

    20. AS

      Yes. (laughs)

    21. JR

      It would be indistinguishable.

    22. AS

      What is your-

    23. JR

      What is this? Drake takes aim at Kendrick Lamar with AI Tupac and Snoop Dogg vocals on Taylor Made Freestyle diss track.

    24. AS

      So, Drake and Kendrick Lamar are beefing. Pe- Drake wrote a beef, and he did AI Snoop and AI Tupac talking about how disappointed they are in Kendrick Lamar. He wrote the raps, and then the voices sound perfect.

    25. JR

      Oh, my god.

    26. AS

      It's unbelievable what's happening.

    27. JR

      What is wrong with Kendrick Lamar?

    28. AS

      They're just beefing. Just rap just... It's competitive. They beef sometimes. I think Kendrick started this one, and then it's just like-

    29. JR

      Really?

    30. AS

      ... who wants to be the best? And hip hop is rooted in this kind of, like, battle rap and like-

  6. 18:40 – 28:19

    Money, lifestyle inflation, and why expensive stuff isn’t worth the stress

    1. JR

      The thing about expensive stuff is if you can't afford it, the stress of that not being, or barely being able to afford it and working for it is not nearly worth what you get out of the thing.

    2. AS

      Yeah.

    3. JR

      The only time nice things are worth it is when they're kind of free, meaning, not that they're free, but that you don't feel it.

    4. AS

      Yeah, yeah.

    5. JR

      Like if you went out and bought a new Mustang, you wouldn't even feel it-

    6. AS

      Right.

    7. JR

      ... if you're rich.

    8. AS

      Yeah.

    9. JR

      Like it's like, "Ooh, I can enjoy this, this is fun."

    10. AS

      Yeah, yeah.

    11. JR

      It's like it doesn't affect your life. But if you make $60,000 a year and you go out and buy a new Mustang-

    12. AS

      Yeah.

    13. JR

      ... and then you're looking at those car payments and you're looking at your rent payment and then-

    14. AS

      Yeah.

    15. JR

      ... you're looking at your bills, you're like, "Fuck."

    16. AS

      Yeah.

    17. JR

      You're like, "Maybe I should take on, uh, like a little Uber thing on the side."

    18. AS

      (laughs) Yeah.

    19. JR

      You know? And that's what pe-

    20. AS

      That's my Mustang.

    21. JR

      Yeah.

    22. AS

      Yeah.

    23. JR

      People wind up doing that-

    24. AS

      Yeah.

    25. JR

      ... to pay for a car.

    26. AS

      Yeah.

    27. JR

      Which is a great thing to do if you want to do it that way, but the, the additional stress, like houses. Like I always tell people this, this is a, an important lesson that I learned when I was 27. When I was 27 was the first time I ever had a nice apartment.

    28. AS

      Mm-hmm.

    29. JR

      I moved to Hollywood. I was on a television show, and I got this place in North Hollywood, and it had a loft.

    30. AS

      (laughs) Yeah.

  7. 28:19 – 33:08

    Tipping culture, service entitlement, and regional manners (Texas vs East Coast)

    1. JR

      The tip thing is crazy. But th- people try to weasel tips out of you everywhere.

    2. AS

      Yeah, yeah.

    3. JR

      It's weird how, like, some things get tips, like a Starbucks barista-

    4. AS

      Yeah.

    5. JR

      ... but other things, you never think about tipping.

    6. AS

      Yeah.

    7. JR

      You know, that are, like, harder jobs.

    8. AS

      Yeah.

    9. JR

      You know?

    10. AS

      I, so I... This might be classist of me or whatever. When I see the, like, grocery delivery guy, I often see someone that I feel like could use the money more than the fucking barista at Starbucks, so I try to over-tip them. I'll do the $1 standard at a coffee shop 'cause my friends shame me, but, uh, now I'm like, I, I'm kind of classist in how I tip. I'm like, "Who needs it more?" (laughs) And then I'll over-tip that guy.

    11. JR

      Uh, well, I like to tip people. It's fun.

    12. AS

      I've heard.

    13. JR

      It feels nice.

    14. AS

      I've heard your tips are pretty crazy.

    15. JR

      It feels good. It's like-

    16. AS

      Yeah.

    17. JR

      I call it, like, a little love bomb.

    18. AS

      Yeah.

    19. JR

      You leave a love bomb for someone. Like-

    20. AS

      I'm f-

    21. JR

      ... changes their day, changes their week.

    22. AS

      I'm fighting against my Indian heritage.

    23. JR

      (laughs)

    24. AS

      Any time I leave a big tip.

    25. JR

      Well-

    26. AS

      I'll do it, but it's tough. It's took a lot of work.

    27. JR

      I'm Italian, and there's, you know-

    28. AS

      Oh, yeah.

    29. JR

      ... Sinatra-

    30. AS

      Yeah. (laughs)

  8. 33:08 – 41:07

    Random assaults, street violence, and Joe’s cautionary fighting story

    1. JR

      Bro, I've been watching a lot of videos on Instagram, unfortunately, of women getting punched in the face in New York. I've s- I've seen, like, four or five of them over the last few days. People just punching women for no reason.

    2. AS

      Yeah. Yeah, that's, like, a thing. That's, like, a thing.

    3. JR

      What is that?

    4. AS

      I don't know. I thought it was only white women at first, so it was just funny to me. But then, uh, I found out they're doing it to everybody, and now I'm scared for my wife.

    5. JR

      Yeah, I saw some Asian lady get punched in the face today.

    6. AS

      Yeah.

    7. JR

      What the fuck? For no reason. Just walking down the street, and this dude just way... She had a mask on too, by the way.

    8. AS

      Maybe that's why.

    9. JR

      Maybe that's why.

    10. AS

      (laughs)

    11. JR

      This dude just way laid her and knocked her mask off-

    12. AS

      Yeah.

    13. JR

      ... sent her flying-

    14. AS

      (laughs)

    15. JR

      ... out of nowhere. Like, you don't think you're gonna get hit. First of all, people die that way all the time.

    16. AS

      Yeah. I've heard.

    17. JR

      Because if you don't know you're gonna get hit and you get hit, you go unconscious, and you bang your head off the concrete.

    18. AS

      Yeah.

    19. JR

      It's, it's like getting the world dropped on you.

    20. AS

      Yeah, no, I... That's one thing that fighters are keenly aware of that most of us don't, I don't think, think about a lot.

    21. JR

      You got to really think about that on concrete.

    22. AS

      Yeah.

    23. JR

      Like, if you're gonna punch somebody on concrete, errr. You might go to jail.

    24. AS

      Yeah.

    25. JR

      You might go to jail for a long t- And you might have horrible nightmares-

    26. AS

      Yeah.

    27. JR

      ... that you could have avoided that, and you didn't have to do that.

    28. AS

      I have a f-

    29. JR

      Especially if you're, you're skilled-

    30. AS

      Yeah.

  9. 41:07 – 41:54

    Comedy scene check-in: Mothership, Mitzi’s, and Rogan’s carnivore bootcamp

    1. AS

      I'm a grappler. Well, you got Ehsan looking good. I, I went... By the way, Mothership is beautiful. Ehsan took me yesterday.

    2. JR

      Thank you.

    3. AS

      Gorgeous. Mitzi's al- also... I, as a non-drinker, I didn't have any interest in Mitzi's and then I went there and I was like, "Oh, this is a vibe."

    4. JR

      Yeah.

    5. AS

      This is like a speakeasy... And then I heard it's shut down for anybody but comics after a certain hour.

    6. JR

      Yeah.

    7. AS

      That's awesome.

    8. JR

      After 11:00 PM, it's comics and their friends.

    9. AS

      That's awesome.

    10. JR

      Yeah.

    11. AS

      But, yeah, Ehsan looks good, dude. And he said he was-

    12. JR

      Yes.

    13. AS

      ... training with you.

    14. JR

      Yeah.

    15. AS

      Yeah, yeah.

    16. JR

      Yeah, I got those guys on a, a workout boot camp. Shane Gillis, Ehsan, Derek Poston, uh, Brian Simpson, uh-

    17. AS

      Oh.

    18. JR

      ... Duncan Trussell.

    19. AS

      Is Poston still doing only meat? He's doing carnivore?

    20. JR

      Yes.

    21. AS

      He told me he was doing that.

    22. JR

      So is Ehsan.

    23. AS

      Yeah.

    24. JR

      I got them-

    25. AS

      Oh, really?

    26. JR

      ... on that for January. It was World Carnivore Month and I said, "I just want you guys to try this-"

    27. AS

      Yeah.

    28. JR

      "... for one month."

    29. AS

      He said it was so hard.

    30. JR

      You can eat eggs, you can eat... Uh, it is hard.

  10. 41:54 – 47:23

    Carnivore vs carbs: energy swings, satiety, and the ultra-processed food problem

    1. JR

      But once you get accustomed to it, like that's how I eat, man. I mean, I'll still eat whatever I want every now and then.

    2. AS

      Yeah.

    3. JR

      But the m- vast majority of my diet is all-

    4. AS

      Mm-hmm.

    5. JR

      ... just meat and eggs.

    6. AS

      No veggies?

    7. JR

      ... very little. If I want to, like the other night, I had a salad. I felt like having a salad.

    8. AS

      And blood work is all good? No-

    9. JR

      It's great.

    10. AS

      Oh.

    11. JR

      It's great. Everything's great.

    12. AS

      Look at that.

    13. JR

      Yeah. No, it's amazing. It's like your body wants to eat real food.

    14. AS

      Mm-hmm.

    15. JR

      And if you're eating bread and all that bullshit-

    16. AS

      Yeah.

    17. JR

      ... it's not real food.

    18. AS

      Yeah.

    19. JR

      It's just ... Your body's like, "Bleh." I'm never tired.

    20. AS

      Yeah.

    21. JR

      Okay, so through the ... I used to get the ... Look, I 100% am addicted to pasta. Like if you give me a-

    22. AS

      That's fantastic.

    23. JR

      ... big bowl of-

    24. AS

      So fun.

    25. JR

      ... like linguine with clams-

    26. AS

      Yeah.

    27. JR

      ... I will fuck that up.

    28. AS

      (laughs)

    29. JR

      I will fuck some lasagna up. You put a pizza in front of me, I can't stop eating.

    30. AS

      Yeah.

  11. 47:23 – 53:02

    From chickens to hoarders: internet extremes and the spectrum of human behavior

    1. JR

      Tha- it doesn't ... It's not protecting shit. You're encouraging monocrop agriculture. You're encouraging the death of untold numbers of creatures when they fucking ... When they, when they cr- wh- when they cultivate those crops, when they li- they cut them down and run those fucking combines through them, everything dies, dude. If you think one life is one life, so if you think like a bison is as important as a mouse, well, you're a hypocrite. Because those, uh, ground squirrels, shrews-

    2. AS

      Really?

    3. JR

      Yeah. Uh, d- ground nesting birds, fawns, rabbits. Things get fucking destroyed. If you talk to farmers, one of the things you see after they run a combine through the field is vultures.... vultures and crows-

    4. AS

      Oh, wow.

    5. JR

      ... just flying over the field- Yeah. ... 'cause they know everything got fucked up. Yeah. So, if one life is one life- Yeah. And this is not to say that there's not, there's not a horrific loss of life every day with, like, chickens. Yeah. The number of chickens that get killed in this country every year- Yeah. ... is in the billions. Yeah. It's in the billions. Yeah. Yeah. How many chickens do we kill every year? Let's find out. I was watching this thing on all the different animals that get killed, like, what's the, the highest number of animals that get killed? A chicken?

    6. AS

      Is it chicken? It's gotta be chicken.

    7. JR

      Chickens is high up there. I don't know if it's number one, but there's, uh, there's a lot, a lot of different things get fucking killed-

    8. AS

      Yeah, yeah.

    9. JR

      ... and eaten by people.

    10. AS

      Yeah.

    11. JR

      But monocrop agriculture is terrible for the environment. It's not good. It's bad because you, you des- like topsoil. You're not supposed to have one... 17-

    12. NA

      No, no, no. That's animals total over there, just chickens.

    13. AS

      Billion? I think that's billions.

    14. JR

      What's that?

    15. NA

      That was animals total, up top.

    16. AS

      Oh, eight billion chickens.

    17. JR

      Oh.

    18. NA

      Chickens down here.

    19. JR

      Eight billion chickens. Every year?

    20. NA

      US.

    21. JR

      US.

    22. AS

      214 million turkeys. That's surprising.

    23. JR

      That's ridiculous. Turkeys, they, they're like... They only exist because of Thanksgiving.

    24. AS

      Yeah. Wildly overrated meat.

    25. JR

      Very overrated meat.

    26. AS

      Yeah, I'm amazed that there's f- eight times more-

    27. JR

      Shellfish. Look at the shellfish. Oh my God.

    28. AS

      Yeah.

    29. JR

      43 billion.

    30. AS

      No, that's fire. I love shellfish. That one, they, they got it.

  12. 53:02 – 57:55

    Immigrant parents, identity, and the weight of generational trauma

    1. AS

      Yeah, I had so much... I had to think about... My dad struggled with alcohol abuse, struggled with a lot of stuff. And I had to understand what his life was supposed to be in India and then what it was gonna be here. In India, he was, like, set. He'd passed this exam that, like, five million people apply for, and they select, like, 200. Like, he was gonna be a millionaire, bare minimum. 24 years old. Then he's at another family member's wedding, and his little cousins are like, "Hey, you're getting married today too." He had no idea. Arranged marriage. Getting fitted for clothes on his way to the wedding.

    2. JR

      Jesus Christ.

    3. AS

      And then they're like, "You're also moving to America." That's... 'Cause in, in the '70s in India, they're just thinking, "Oh, if he's successful in India, he'll be even more successful in America." The language barrier, you never think about. And I, I thought about... Somebody, one of my cousins, it struck me 'cause he goes, "Your dad is so funny." And I was like, "What the... What are you talking about? He's the least funny." He goes, "Your dad's not funny in, in English. He's so funny in Hindi." And I was like, "Oh, this guy doesn't..." This language, he's not that good at. And he couldn't navigate the world the way he could in India. He was supposed-

    4. JR

      Oh.

    5. AS

      ... to be a superstar. Then he comes here, and he's in Texas as a brown guy in the '70s, probably less than to all these people. And he's used to being a star, and he can't-

    6. JR

      Oh.

    7. AS

      ... be funny, and he can't be himself. And that just sucks the life out of you slowly day by day.

    8. JR

      What did he do in India?

    9. AS

      He was... It's called a PCS officer. So, there's a movie called 12th Fail, a Bollywood movie. I love Bollywood. Uh, but it's about a different post, but equally competitive. That one is like IS, and then PCS is like a government officer.... kinda like state police, I guess. But, like, you are, at the very least, well-respected, and if you wanna be rich and take some bribes, you can do that.

    10. JR

      (laughs)

    11. AS

      And my dad would've done all of that.

    12. JR

      (laughs)

    13. AS

      He would've taken all the bribes. All the bribes. And in India, he just kinda knew that's how... He knew the culture, he knew how to navigate, he knew how, how to grease the wheels and all of that, how to talk to people to get what you want. Here, he's not charming 'cause he doesn't know English well enough.

    14. JR

      Right.

    15. AS

      There, he can get anything he wants. Here, he's just struggling trying to figure it all out.

    16. JR

      God damn.

    17. AS

      And so I, I've become keenly aware of, like, I don't know if we, as immigrant kids, appreciate everything our parents had to go through to get here.

    18. JR

      Yeah.

    19. AS

      For us. I'm not here without that.

    20. JR

      Well, if my grandparents, their... It was actually my grandparents' parents that moved here, but if, if they weren't the type of people that were so gangster they were willing to get on that boat-

    21. AS

      Yeah.

    22. JR

      ... I would, I would be in Europe somewhere.

    23. AS

      Yes, yes.

    24. JR

      I'd be in Europe, hanging out in a café, smoking cigarettes, talking shit.

    25. AS

      Yeah. I would be a fat, spoiled piece of shit, and it would've been fun. I'd have been a rich kid. But growing up in India, I wouldn't have been this, what I am here. I know that.

    26. JR

      Yeah. You want your own ability to s- to carve a path. And there's a lot of countries where that's not an option.

    27. AS

      Yeah.

    28. JR

      You can't really carve a path to do whatever you wanna do.

    29. AS

      Yeah.

    30. JR

      That's not available to everybody everywhere.

  13. 57:55 – 1:27:44

    China, demographics, and state power: infiltration, data trust, and geopolitical anxiety

    1. JR

      Isn't it interesting how, like, some places just... Well, I guess it's the older ones, right? Like, think about high population places. It's China-

    2. AS

      Mm-hmm.

    3. JR

      ... which is, like, our oldest civilization.

    4. AS

      Yeah.

    5. JR

      China has thrived economically for 4,000 years.

    6. AS

      Yeah.

    7. JR

      4,000 years.

    8. AS

      Yeah.

    9. JR

      So of course they have a billion people.

    10. AS

      Yeah, true.

    11. JR

      They... I mean, obviously there's d- serious poverty and all sorts of problems in China, but the point is, they've been a unit for 4,000 years.

    12. AS

      Yeah.

    13. JR

      So people have been fucking.

    14. AS

      Yeah. (laughs)

    15. JR

      They've been fucking for 4,000 years, so much that they had to say you could only have one kid.

    16. AS

      Yeah.

    17. JR

      And then they ruined everything.

    18. AS

      (laughs)

    19. JR

      That stupid idea. They, then they ruined everything so there, there's so many more men than there are women.

    20. AS

      Oh, that's right, 'cause they-

    21. JR

      So now they have, like, a real problem.

    22. AS

      Yeah, yeah, yeah.

    23. JR

      And then they, they realized that they were gonna have a real problem, so they started changing it and so you could have more kids. I think you can have three now, right? Is that what China's policy is now?

    24. AS

      Are you not worried about China as a threat to America for global dominance, I guess, is, uh... I can't think of a better way to say it, but are you worried about China-

    25. JR

      I think they already won. (laughs)

    26. AS

      Yeah, yeah, yeah.

    27. JR

      They're, they've been, uh, infiltrated all of our universities. They, they give grant money. They, they pay for things. They buy up farmland.

    28. AS

      So smart.

    29. JR

      They've been buying up farmland around military bases. They sell America cheap cellphone towers and internet routers. They sell them cellphone towers at a discounted rate so that they can have their cellphone towers around military bases so they can listen to everything that everybody fucking says.

    30. AS

      I mean, yeah.

Episode duration: 2:45:57

Install uListen for AI-powered chat & search across the full episode — Get Full Transcript

Transcript of episode yGBzg1xVtUM

Get more out of YouTube videos.

High quality summaries for YouTube videos. Accurate transcripts to search & find moments. Powered by ChatGPT & Claude AI.

iOSAndroidClaudeChrome