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Joe Rogan Experience #2147 - Mike Baker

Mike Baker is a former CIA covert operations officer and current CEO of Portman Square Group, a global intelligence and security firm. He’s also the host of the popular "President’s Daily Brief" podcast: a twice daily news report on critical events happening around the globe available on all podcast platforms. www.portmansquaregroup.com

Joe RoganhostMike BakerguestGuest (secondary in-room voice)guest
May 8, 20242h 54mWatch on YouTube ↗

EVERY SPOKEN WORD

  1. 0:004:19

    Kendrick vs. Drake beef turns real: rap battles, ghostwriters, and a Toronto shooting

    1. NA

      (drum roll) Joe Rogan podcast, check it out. The Joe Rogan Experience. (energetic music) Train by day, Joe Rogan podcast by night, all day.

    2. JR

      Mike Baker, it's very important that I ask you about this.

    3. MB

      What's that? (laughs)

    4. JR

      'Cause, uh, I know you're an expert on conflict. How do you feel about the, uh, Kendrick Lamar and Drake beef?

    5. MB

      (exhales) Man, I am so glad you asked (laughs) me about this.

    6. JR

      (laughs)

    7. MB

      Because my boys, you know, I got, I got three boys, and all three of them have mentioned this in the past few days, right?

    8. JR

      Yeah.

    9. MB

      (clears throat) And they want to, they, they want to talk about it, right? So, S- (laughs) Scooter will say, "God, did you hear what he said?" And, it's like, "Re- honestly, no, I haven't." But, um, they've, they've all brought this up. Uh, I am completely unfamiliar with the, uh... Although it sounds like the old days, east versus west, right?

    10. JR

      Yeah, I, I think it's-

    11. MB

      In the old rap battles.

    12. JR

      ... a g- it's a personality thing, 'cause one of them is Toronto, so it's actually America versus Canada.

    13. MB

      Oh, well, that's right.

    14. JR

      It's, it's a real conflict there.

    15. MB

      And which one is the, uh, the little guy?

    16. JR

      Kendrick Lamar.

    17. MB

      Kendrick Lamar, that's right.

    18. JR

      (laughs)

    19. MB

      (laughs) Yeah, so that's what my middle boy, Slugo, said.

    20. JR

      (laughs)

    21. MB

      I think he's, like, 5'1" or something.

    22. JR

      He's not a big fella.

    23. MB

      No.

    24. JR

      Him, uh, and Drake have been going at it now four songs apiece, so eight songs dedicated to beef.

    25. MB

      I think that's fantastic. I think we need-

    26. JR

      Pretty wild.

    27. MB

      ... more of that, right? It's better than the, uh, Hamas conflict.

    28. JR

      Is there more?

    29. MB

      Yeah.

    30. JR

      Security guard injured in shooting outside Drake's home in Toronto.

  2. 4:196:04

    AI voice cloning and deepfakes: from new Randy Travis songs to fabricated scandals

    1. JR

      Did you hear that Randy Travis-

    2. MB

      George Jones.

    3. JR

      Randy Travis is using AI now to make new songs? Because he's, he was paralyzed by a stroke.

    4. MB

      (inhales deeply) Wow.

    5. JR

      But because they could take his voice, which is an iconic voice-

    6. MB

      Yeah, yeah.

    7. JR

      ... Randy Travis has it.

    8. MB

      Yeah.

    9. JR

      Incredible voice. But because of AI, they can get recordings of him singing, and he could plug it into AI and he can still make songs.

    10. MB

      And you know how much of a recording they need nowadays-

    11. JR

      Oh, yeah.

    12. MB

      ... to actually mimic the entire range of a person's voice? As, as-

    13. JR

      I think it's 30 seconds.

    14. MB

      ... but less than that now. Start-

    15. JR

      Really?

    16. MB

      Not that long ago, it was 30 seconds. Now you need a snippet, and by a snippet, I mean seconds.

    17. JR

      Yeah.

    18. MB

      And you can then, you can, you can then, uh, mimic that voice through a range of emotions-

    19. JR

      Mm.

    20. MB

      ... uh, and, and, uh, scenarios. It's, it's stunning what they can do.

    21. JR

      There was a guy who just got fired because he made a fake AI recording of a guy he worked for saying a bunch of racist things.

    22. MB

      Okay. (laughs)

    23. JR

      And the guy, like, everybody was attacking him, he got in trouble, and then they somehow or another did an analysis on it and realized-

    24. GV

      The select director did it to, like, the principal of the high school.

    25. JR

      Right.

    26. GV

      Because he was about to get fired, so he was like, "All right, instead of me getting fired, watch this."

    27. JR

      Right, he thought he was being slick.

    28. GV

      Yeah.

    29. JR

      But he's a dummy, and he didn't know that they can tell.

    30. MB

      (laughs)

  3. 6:0411:27

    Detecting the fake isn’t enough: watermarking, provenance, and public responsibility

    1. MB

      There's, there's two aspects of this whole thing, right? There's the, there's the detection portion of it, right? Can you detect, like, something like this is, is fake-

    2. JR

      Right.

    3. MB

      ... whether it's audio, whether it's video, uh, combination of both? And then there's the other side of it, which is, uh, uh, trying to stay up with the capabilities of those that are trying to do these, you know, identity thefts or whatever you want to call it.

    4. JR

      Mm-hmm.

    5. MB

      And that's the, um, that's sort of the proactive effort to lock down recordings, right? And there's some, some interesting work being done in that space, where if you film something... Say you go to a, a campaign rally and you film that campaign rally, there are, um, there are a handful of companies out there figuring out that you can, uh, essentially watermark it, right?

    6. JR

      Mm-hmm.

    7. MB

      So that it cannot be fucked with, right?

    8. JR

      Mm-hmm.

    9. MB

      And that you can determine if it's an actual recording or not. And that's really... I mean, you think about, you know, how much disinformation is roiling around out there now, right?

    10. JR

      Yeah.

    11. MB

      So, but detection, it's important, but it's not enough anymore. So where the focus has to be is on ensuring that anything that's being recorded, whether it's a body cam for a police officer, whether it's maybe someone's at a protest, right? And they're, and they're a protester or they're on the other side, whatever. To be able to, to film something and then ensure that it's accurate and true going forward, right? That's, that's a really important part, because you can't... The detection side of it's important, but it can't stay up with the developments of all the folks out there.

    12. JR

      Right.

    13. MB

      All the criminal gangs, criminal elements, and whether it's state sponsored or not that's out there, you know, j- just with this disinformation effort. So, I mean, it's a fascinating, it's a fascinating problem. But people are getting duped constantly.

    14. JR

      It's a fascinating problem that is only going to get worse.

    15. MB

      Mm-hmm.

    16. JR

      As these new versions of AI get rolled out, it's going to be more and more difficult to detect what's true and what's fake.

    17. MB

      Yeah.

    18. JR

      It's... And people can do it on their computer so easy now. I was... (laughs) This one of Biden, he's walking and he pauses to talk to people, and they CGI'd shit, like, that he's pooping himself.

    19. MB

      I saw that.

    20. JR

      Yeah, that one?

    21. MB

      The one where, the one where he kind of stops. He pauses-

    22. JR

      He's in that weird pause.

    23. MB

      ... like he's got to fart. Yeah.

    24. JR

      And then you just see him poop himself.

    25. MB

      And people are out there saying, "Look, that's a, that's a mid-stage dementia stance," right? That's what they're, that's what they're saying now. They're, they're talking about that. I don't know, I don't know about that, but, but look, there's-

    26. JR

      Well, something's going on.

    27. MB

      There are... If you talk about, uh, just, uh, what do they call it? Face swap, right?

    28. JR

      Mm-hmm.

    29. MB

      So, they can take a photo of somebody now. They can take a little snippet of, of somebody talking now. And there are over 100 apps out there, readily available to anybody, right? Um, that can basically do this fape s- face-swap technology and put somebody else in there. And the, and criminal elements are doing it all the time, right?

    30. JR

      Yeah.

  4. 11:2717:28

    IQ vs. emotional intelligence: why social skills and empathy matter more than test scores

    1. JR

      ... that are concerned about Drake and Kendrick Lamar and don't even know what's going on in Gaza.

    2. MB

      (laughs)

    3. JR

      They're much more concerned with them. Like we have, like a lot of 84 IQ-ers out there bouncing around, walking into traffic.

    4. MB

      Yeah, 84's, what, is that average nowadays? Or is that... I don't even know. Um...

    5. JR

      I think it's 15% of the population is 84 and below, right? Is that what it is? Remember when we looked that up?

    6. MB

      50%?

    7. GV

      Yeah, but that would also mean 15% is whatever 100 and, plus and above too.

    8. JR

      What's the actual numbers? Like let's-

    9. MB

      Yeah, yeah.

    10. GV

      Yeah.

    11. JR

      Let's get a pie chart of IQs.

    12. GV

      Let's see, it's, uh, a g- it's a standard deviation thing for, uh...

    13. MB

      See, already I know that you're above 84 just because you said that.

    14. JR

      Yeah, you said standard eight- deviation.

    15. MB

      Wow. Wow.

    16. JR

      And he Googles with one hand.

    17. GV

      Yeah. (laughs) So like-

    18. JR

      (laughs)

    19. GV

      It's 'cause Carl's being petted.

    20. MB

      (laughs)

    21. GV

      Just no matter what, almost no matter what thing you're trying to average out, they're almost always end up looking this way, and 15% will always be on that side of it.

    22. JR

      Bro, fif- wh- what, what percentage? 0.1% are 55 and below? Fuck. 2% of the population is 70.... Jesus, between 55 and 70, 2% of the population. And then 14% of the population is 85.

    23. MB

      Yeah, but 34% is below a hundred.

    24. JR

      So, most people are between 85 and 115, and me, I'm in that sweet zone-

    25. MB

      Mm.

    26. JR

      ... between 115 and 130.

    27. MB

      Are you?

    28. JR

      Yeah.

    29. MB

      Really? That's-

    30. JR

      Yeah.

  5. 17:2829:38

    Kids rejecting ‘woke’ culture: schools, furries, pronouns, and the limits of indulgence

    1. JR

      Reports from the front lines-

    2. MB

      Mm.

    3. JR

      ... of kids in high school today.

    4. MB

      Oh.

    5. JR

      That woke shit's out the window. That word retard comes flying-

    6. MB

      (laughs)

    7. JR

      ... out of these kids' mouths. They're- they're bringing that back strong.

    8. MB

      Yeah.

    9. JR

      They are bringing that back strong.

    10. MB

      Yeah.

    11. JR

      I'll tell you, that woke thing, it got into college, it ... And then the high school kids, the ones coming up now-

    12. MB

      Yeah.

    13. JR

      ... they are rejecting it.

    14. MB

      I 100% agree with you, and I- and I know that because, um, our youngest, uh, uh, Mugsy, he's, like, what, 12 years old now. And so he's in seventh grade, and he- it was in the complete blast zone of woke, right?

    15. JR

      Mm.

    16. MB

      The c- And- and, like, the oldest one who's, you know, 16, he kinda had some of it. The middle one, again, didn't care. He was like, uh, you know, "Fuck you. You don't play ball, so I'm not paying attention to you."

    17. JR

      (laughs)

    18. MB

      And, um ... But the youngest one was in the complete firing z- you know, fire zone of this- this- this- this woke culture.... and you'll never meet a more (laughs) conservative, sexist kid in your life.

    19. JR

      (laughs)

    20. MB

      'Cause he's just like, I... Y- he'll come back and he'll tell us some stories from his, his school, which is a great school, but it's, it's pretty woke, it's pretty liberal, right? You got, you got kids walking around as furries. You got-

    21. JR

      No.

    22. MB

      ... a lot of multicolored hair, you got all sorts of things going on there.

    23. JR

      (laughs)

    24. MB

      And, uh, and he'll come back and tell us stories and he's just like, "I just don't understand what the hell's happened." And so-

    25. JR

      Because he works hard at a sport.

    26. MB

      Yeah, yeah.

    27. JR

      And that's what you get from a lot of people that work hard at sports, people that value hard work. And people that value hard work tend to be more conservative and-

    28. MB

      I think so, yeah.

    29. JR

      ... more less inclined to indulge people on their mental illness, you know? "Oh, you're a cat? No, you're not. You have cat ears on."

    30. MB

      (laughs)

  6. 29:3844:30

    CIA disguise craft: Hollywood-grade masks, surveillance tradecraft, and “acting” in the field

    1. JR

      It's very fascist. I wanted to ask you this before I forget.

    2. MB

      Yeah.

    3. JR

      When you were, uh, working for the agency, did you guys... I know that there is a program where they would use special effects makeup-

    4. MB

      Mm-hmm.

    5. JR

      ... to change someone's appearance.

    6. MB

      Mm-hmm.

    7. JR

      Have you ever seen that in person?

    8. MB

      Oh, yes. Yeah.

    9. JR

      How does it look?

    10. MB

      Yeah. It, um... Well, it, it gets better all the time, right? Because-

    11. JR

      So if I go to a concert, like, could I sneak into-

    12. MB

      Sure. Yeah.

    13. JR

      ... sneak into a concert with a rubber nose?

    14. MB

      Yeah. (laughs)

    15. JR

      Get me a nice blonde wig.

    16. MB

      Yeah, yeah. That's what we used to do. We'd hand out rubber noses and, uh, googly eyes. (laughs)

    17. JR

      (laughs)

    18. MB

      Yeah.

    19. JR

      Who in the... (laughs)

    20. MB

      So then nobody would see us coming.

    21. JR

      Like Clark Kent.

    22. MB

      Uh, yeah. No, we have a disguise, uh, unit, uh, at the agency, and I'm, I'm super proud of them. And I, I, I was the benefit of their expertise on numerous occasions because you might guess, I mean, I, I'd spent almost all my time with the agency overseas in operations, and there's some places where I don't blend, right? In.

    23. JR

      Crazy.

    24. MB

      And so... I know. I know.

    25. JR

      So they blended you just like on Team America: World Police?

    26. MB

      (laughs)

    27. JR

      Remember?

    28. MB

      Yes.

    29. JR

      Bro, should have pictured that.

    30. MB

      One of the, one of the, one of the greatest...

  7. 44:3046:46

    Masks at protests, facial recognition, and the modern surveillance state problem

    1. MB

      'Cause I- I- I, uh... There's been some talk about the protests on campus, right? And the fact that all these (laughs) - all these outside agitators, activists, and then the students, the- the- the actual students, the ones that are actually affiliated with the university, most of them wearing masks, right?

    2. JR

      Right.

    3. MB

      And, you know, I- part of it is... (sighs) I don't know. It- it's just-

    4. JR

      They're- they're mentally ill.

    5. MB

      Yeah, they're mentally ill. It's a s- ah, God.

    6. JR

      I pho- I photograph people every time I see them. I photographed one today.

    7. MB

      Yeah.

    8. JR

      Saw somebody walking outside with a mask on, the dumb kind, too, the surgical glue stupid one?

    9. MB

      Yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah.

    10. JR

      That doesn't do a goddamn thing.

    11. MB

      But this was- I think was- was a solidarity thing. They're all wearing masks. And part of it was also, I think, they were thinking they couldn't be identified.

    12. JR

      Yeah.

    13. MB

      And then there's- there's a lot of talk about retinal scanning, right? So, how much of the face do you need in order to identify people, right?

    14. JR

      How much do you n-

    15. MB

      And it's not-

    16. JR

      Not much?

    17. MB

      ... much, right? Retinal scanning, it's not 100% accurate, so there's other things you have to do, but-

    18. JR

      So would you be able to retinal scan that lady with that crazy outfit on?

    19. MB

      Yeah. Yeah.

    20. JR

      Just retinal scan her-

    21. MB

      Yeah.

    22. JR

      ... and then none of that shit would work. The mustache also wouldn't work.

    23. MB

      Well, which is- which is... And that's... Yeah, that's a great point.

    24. JR

      Now you got glue on your face for another- (laughs)

    25. MB

      (laughs) And that shit is tough to take off, too.

    26. JR

      (laughs) Oh, that's gross.

    27. MB

      It's not good.

    28. JR

      (laughs) .

    29. MB

      Um, so, uh, yeah. A- and that's a- that's a- it's a really good point, because now it's made the life of- of somebody who's working, uh, in operations a lot tougher, right?

    30. JR

      Right.

  8. 46:461:07:55

    Campus protests aren’t organic: funding networks, NGOs, and foreign influence incentives

    1. JR

      They all think they're doing something great. They think they're going to fix it. It's- it's, you know, a lot of misplaced energy (taps desk) with tents.

    2. MB

      With tents. And with- with matching tents.

    3. JR

      Yeah.

    4. MB

      And um, and that's, that's the part. Look, I (sighs) again, you know, hey, God bless the- the actual students who are out there, feeling like they're being a part of something. I get that. They're young people. Most of them are gormless, right? They're just saying whatever, right? This is, you know, this is their moment to shine. So they're excited. So they don't... And they, you know, most of them couldn't find Gaza on a- on a map of Gaza. So I think that, you know, that's- that's one side of it, right? And I can't, you know... Whatever. But it's the, it's the coordination of it all-

    5. JR

      Right.

    6. MB

      ... by the various outside-

    7. JR

      Right.

    8. MB

      ... groups and the activists and the funding of it, right? And the potential for that funding and the coordination to tie back to groups like Hamas or Hezbollah, which basically means you're tying back to the Iranian regime, right? Because they, that's the only reason those groups exist. But nobody seems curious about that because a lot of the media wanted to portray this as just like kids being kids. "Oh, look at it. This is their moment to shine-"

    9. JR

      Right.

    10. MB

      "... as- as student activists."

    11. JR

      Right.

    12. MB

      "And isn't it wonderful? And it's their Vietnam protests," and- and bullshit. Some of it... Okay, fine. So it's layered, right? So some of that's true. You got those kids that are just doing that. But there- there's the incuriosity of the media to say, "Well, what the hell is behind this?" Right? "And what groups?" Is it- is it students for Justice in Palestine? Is it, um, US Campaign for Palestinian Rights, Samidoun, right, which has connections back to Hamas? Um, there's an education for whatever, Just Peace in the Middle East. There's groups that have been actively engaging in this. And that's why you get the coordination of all of this, right? It's that... But nobody asks, "Okay, what's behind it?" "Oh, just students acting." No, it's not. It's- it's a coordinated effort. And then you look at those groups who are always active in this- in this realm, right? And always looking to, uh, have organizations disinvest from, uh, Israel or to, uh, promote causes that are anti-Israeli, right? And then you say, "Okay, well, who's funding it?" Right? So you look at these groups and you say, "Okay, where's the money coming from?" The money is always coming from the same places, right? The, uh, the Tides center, right? Which is part of the Tides Network, which gets significant funding, no surprise, from Soros' Open Society Foundation. Um, you get Westchester People's, whatever, Action Coalition. Um, so you get these groups and you get the legal support. So all these people, the activists who are getting arrested, they can turn to Palestine Legal, which provides-... legal support to the activists and the NGOs that are-

    13. JR

      And who funds that?

    14. MB

      ... engaged in all this. Again, you get, they, they're getting their money-

    15. JR

      (clears throat)

    16. MB

      ... from charities. A lot of times the charities don't know they're putting money into these groups, right? It g- it goes into the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, right? And the Rockefeller Brothers Fund provides money to these NGOs, you know, like Justice for, you know, Palestine or whatever. And then, uh... (sighs) And, and Rockefeller Brothers gets m- m- you know, funding from, uh, Soros Open Society Foundation as well.

    17. JR

      That guy-

    18. MB

      That guy.

    19. JR

      ... seems to be a bit of a problem.

    20. MB

      Right. Well, yeah. And now his kid is even more of an activist than George is, right?

    21. JR

      Of course.

    22. MB

      I mean, his kid is, yeah.

    23. JR

      His kid inherited it.

    24. MB

      Kid inherited it. Right.

    25. JR

      So he's gotta make up for the fact that he inherited it by being extra woke.

    26. MB

      Yeah. (laughs) And, and he is, right?

    27. JR

      And extra guilty-

    28. MB

      Oh, God. F-

    29. JR

      ... for having all those billions. You should feel guilty, you little fuck.

    30. MB

      Yeah, yeah. Exactly.

Episode duration: 2:54:52

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