EVERY SPOKEN WORD
150 min read · 30,002 words- 0:00 – 0:43
Sauna health check-ins and mysterious “Austin allergies”
- ACAdam Curry
(drum roll) Joe Rogan podcast, check it out.
- NANarrator
The Joe Rogan Experience.
- JRJoe Rogan
Train by day, Joe Rogan podcast by night, all day. (rock music plays) That's bullshit. I never got it-
- ACAdam Curry
(laughs)
- JRJoe Rogan
... 'til this year. But they, that's what they say.
- ACAdam Curry
That's what they say. You get it within a couple years you get it, and then, all of a sudden, you got it.
- JRJoe Rogan
Yeah.
- ACAdam Curry
Yeah.
- JRJoe Rogan
I don't know who the fuck they are, but it's not bad.
- ACAdam Curry
I could hear it the other day. I, I heard it...
- JRJoe Rogan
Stuffiness?
- ACAdam Curry
Yeah.
- JRJoe Rogan
Yeah.
- ACAdam Curry
I heard Joe moaning.
- JRJoe Rogan
Yeah, I had it for, like, four days, I've had stuffiness.
- ACAdam Curry
Yeah.
- JRJoe Rogan
But the thing is, like, when I work out, I feel great. The way I can really tell, like, the way I judge whether or not I should even work out is when I get-
- ACAdam Curry
Mm-hmm.
- JRJoe Rogan
... in the sauna, in the cold plunge. If I feel tired and weak when I'm in there-
- ACAdam Curry
Then you know.
- JRJoe Rogan
... then I know something's going on.
- ACAdam Curry
Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.
- JRJoe Rogan
It's not as simple as allergies.
- 0:43 – 2:09
Dental infections, restored hearing, and why oral health is underrated
- ACAdam Curry
So I thought for 10 years I had the Austin allergy. For 10 years. It was so bad. I'd go out to dinner. Even when we moved out to Fredericksburg. We'd come into Austin. I thought it was Austin. Uh, ser-, I was like, "Ah, Austin has given me this." Uh, we'd go out to dinner, start eating, and then, oh, my nose, my eyes, everything just... And I have to always excuse myself, always have to have tissues in my back pocket. Then I got my teeth done, which we talked about, I think-
- JRJoe Rogan
Mm-hmm.
- ACAdam Curry
... the last time I was here. And, uh, um, Maverick, my, uh, periodontist, he did one of these 360 MRIs. He says, "You know, man, you've got some low level infection here, and, uh, that could be responsible for a whole bunch of stuff." Now, I'd had hearing aids for five years, so when he did the initial extraction, uh, I think I took one or two shows off. And then I went back in the studio, put my headphones on, I'm like, "Whoa." I thought I'd hit something, uh, you know, a volume knob or something. Came back because-
- JRJoe Rogan
Your hearing came back?
- ACAdam Curry
... because this was infected, and it was basically clogging up my sinuses and that was affecting the, the, the hearing.
- JRJoe Rogan
Jesus.
- ACAdam Curry
(laughs) Yeah. And-
- JRJoe Rogan
Having a mouth infection like that's very dangerous, isn't it?
- ACAdam Curry
People have no idea (laughs) how important oral health is. It's really, really critical. And also, I feel better because, you know, I'm not fighting infection continuously.
- JRJoe Rogan
That's crazy.
- ACAdam Curry
I, I mean, I-
- JRJoe Rogan
So what, how did it all start? Like, what, what was going on with your teeth-
- ACAdam Curry
(laughs)
- JRJoe Rogan
... that, like, made all these infections?
- 2:09 – 4:44
Childhood tooth damage, headgear trauma, and the wild dentist texting story
- ACAdam Curry
I had a b- I had a bad start in life when, uh, when I was two or three, we were living in Uganda, and my parents would put me to sleep with a chocolate cookie. So I had kind of a-
- JRJoe Rogan
Oh.
- ACAdam Curry
... bad start, you know, and I had a lot of work. I had, uh, you know, just tons of fillings on my baby teeth. Everything was messed up. Then I had the big outboard headgear, which really traumatized me for life, taking that to school, you know?
- JRJoe Rogan
Oh, yeah. To have the-
- ACAdam Curry
It's like I was one of those guys.
- JRJoe Rogan
... outboard headgear as a ki-
- ACAdam Curry
Oh, yeah.
- JRJoe Rogan
Oh.
- ACAdam Curry
Oh, yeah. It was bad. And, uh, about, um, uh, 10 years ago, maybe a little bit more, I went to the dentist here in, uh, in Austin, and, you know, he's like, you know, "We really gotta start doing stuff. We gotta start looking at repairing." And then this dentist started hitting on me and texting me and, you know, I'm like, "That's not..." (laughs)
- JRJoe Rogan
Oh, great. Guy or girl?
- ACAdam Curry
Guy. (laughs)
- JRJoe Rogan
Damn.
- ACAdam Curry
(laughs) Like, like, no, no, no, no. So, and I knew that there was a Pandora's box in there.
- JRJoe Rogan
How wild is that? Like, what a-
- ACAdam Curry
It was-
- JRJoe Rogan
... what a risky move. Like-
- ACAdam Curry
It was so dumb. Like, why?
- JRJoe Rogan
You're a married straight guy, and he's like-
- ACAdam Curry
(laughs) What, what?
- JRJoe Rogan
"Yeah, I think I can get him, though."
- ACAdam Curry
We can get, we could...
- JRJoe Rogan
(laughs)
- ACAdam Curry
He could be on our team.
- JRJoe Rogan
That is such a ma-
- ACAdam Curry
(laughs)
- JRJoe Rogan
A man move.
- ACAdam Curry
(laughs)
- JRJoe Rogan
It's such a thing that men would do.
- ACAdam Curry
(laughs)
- JRJoe Rogan
It's so stupid.
- 4:44 – 7:04
Quitting smoking, nicotine delivery, and the setup for a vaping debate
- ACAdam Curry
Yeah, it was like, um, uh... And that's also when I stopped smoking, you know, 'cause-
- JRJoe Rogan
Mm-hmm.
- ACAdam Curry
Uh, Maverick called me up. He said, "Hey man, I'm gonna be operating on you in a week. You know, could you do me a favor and stop putting fire in your mouth?"
- JRJoe Rogan
(Laughs)
- ACAdam Curry
And I've been smoking weed and tobacco since I was 15. And I quit at that moment. I haven't-
- JRJoe Rogan
Oh.
- ACAdam Curry
I didn't ever use... I mean, I vape like a, like a crazy horse, but...
- JRJoe Rogan
Well, that's not good, is it?
- ACAdam Curry
Well, that's a question. It's-
- JRJoe Rogan
This is, we, you and I have gone over this, and we will go back to it.
- ACAdam Curry
Yeah, it's a nicotine-
- JRJoe Rogan
Yeah.
- ACAdam Curry
... uh, uh, delivery device.
- JRJoe Rogan
Delivery device.
- ACAdam Curry
Yes.
- JRJoe Rogan
Right.
- ACAdam Curry
That's what it is.
- JRJoe Rogan
We'll get to that.
- ACAdam Curry
Yeah, sure.
- JRJoe Rogan
But, so, so just cleaning out the infections, what was going on that that was fucking up your hearing? It was like you- the whole area was inflamed?
- ACAdam Curry
Yes, right by your sinuses.
- JRJoe Rogan
Uh-huh.
- ACAdam Curry
And so that, you know, everything's connected, you know. If you hold your nose, you can hear.
- JRJoe Rogan
Right.
- ACAdam Curry
You hear differently, so-
- JRJoe Rogan
Right.
- ACAdam Curry
... whatever it was doing, and it literally just a couple days after he extracted the- I mean, it extracted more than that, but after he extracted those teeth, it just came back.
- JRJoe Rogan
Wow.
- ACAdam Curry
And I didn't have horrible hearing loss, but it was enough where I was sick of saying, "I'm sorry, darling? What'd you say? I'm sorry."
- JRJoe Rogan
Right.
- 7:04 – 15:11
Fluoride in water: neurotoxicity, “expert” capture, and industrial incentives
- JRJoe Rogan
This episode is brought to you by ZipRecruiter. The hiring process is stressful. There are so many different things to consider. And on top of it all, you need to get it done quickly. It's like when you're trying to find a decent contractor for a home renovation project or even a new primary care doctor. You don't want just anyone. You probably want a person who knows their shit and will take your concerns seriously, but also need to find them, like yesterday. If you're an employer struggling to find that perfect fit, I've got one word for you: ZipRecruiter. They work fast to find you great talent. Try it for free at ziprecruiter.com/rogan. They're so fast, four out of five employers who post on ZipRecruiter find a quality candidate within the first day. That might be why hiring site employers prefer ZipRecruiter the most, based on G2 ratings. They get the work done without wasting your time or money. So relax and let ZipRecruiter speed up your hiring. See for yourself. Just go to ziprecruiter.com/rogan to try it right now for free. That's the same price as a genuine smile from a stranger, a picture-perfect sunset, or a cute dog running up to you and licking your hand. Again, that's ziprecruiter.com/rogan. ZipRecruiter, the smartest way to hire. You know, it's a, it's an interesting subject because candy and sugar is really what caused all this horrible tooth decay in people, and the, the goofy fucking solution that someone came up with along the way was putting fluoride in the water-
- ACAdam Curry
Fluoride in the water, mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
- JRJoe Rogan
... which is so goddamned insane that you're taking a neurotoxin and you're putting it in the water, but it... And I, again, like, I'm, I don't wanna take even a political position on this. I just wanna look at this... I wanna look at this from a, a human lens. There is something that people do where even if something is obviously stupid, if it's a part of a system and there's enough air quotes "experts" that have endorsed this, regardless of the fact that we've seen time and time again throughout history that experts are compromised, experts are... You could put in, you could have a court case for a murder and bring in experts that will tell you he definitely did it and experts that tell you he definitely didn't do it. So, we know this for a fact. But still, people will argue on the side of the experts. And I've seen this about fluoride, and it, it's so mind-boggling. There are conclusive studies that show a direct correlation between high levels of fluoride in the local water-
- ACAdam Curry
Mm-hmm.
- JRJoe Rogan
... and lower IQs.
- ACAdam Curry
Mm-hmm.
- JRJoe Rogan
And it's a neurotoxin. We know it's bad for you in large doses, and yet there are fucking people out there with college degrees who read The New York Times who think they're sensible people that will get angry if you wanna remove this neurotoxin from water because look at all the strides-
- ACAdam Curry
Mm-hmm.
- JRJoe Rogan
... it's done in preventing tooth decay.
- ACAdam Curry
Yeah.
- JRJoe Rogan
A- and you just wanna say, "Hey, man, fuck you."
- ACAdam Curry
Well, so-
- JRJoe Rogan
"This is stupid."
- ACAdam Curry
I went to dinner at Mitch's house. I call him Robert.
- JRJoe Rogan
I'm a little upset. I got a little upset.
- ACAdam Curry
No, no, it's okay because-
- JRJoe Rogan
I go crazy.
- ACAdam Curry
... because we're sitting down.
- JRJoe Rogan
(laughs)
- ACAdam Curry
It's my wife, his wife. You know, he, he has a, one of those houses right on the airport where this plane rolls out of the garage, you know, or the hangar.
- JRJoe Rogan
Oh, he's out of touch. (laughs)
- ACAdam Curry
Exactly. I paid for that.
- JRJoe Rogan
(laughs)
- ACAdam Curry
I'm like, "I paid for that hangar." Um, and, and we're sitting down, and we're having a good time. You know, we're talking about stuff. He says, "So, what do you think about fluoride?" I said, "Should not be in the water." He's like, "You're wrong. You know what you..." And this is only a couple years ago, and now he's come back and he said, "Oh, man. This is, I was, this was-"
- JRJoe Rogan
Did you apologize?
- ACAdam Curry
Yeah, of course.
- JRJoe Rogan
Oh, that's nice.
- ACAdam Curry
This was drilled into my head, like-
- JRJoe Rogan
Yeah.
- ACAdam Curry
But what I understand is fluoride is a byproduct of aluminum production, and a lot of this, you know, they had this fluoride waste product basically they needed to get rid of. And from what I understand, it was Alcoa. I could be wrong, but I think it was Alcoa who made these deals. And who knows how they set that up with the American Dental Association, and that's how fluoride got into our water, and we got this kind of psyop of it's good for you. I knew it was wrong in, uh, 2000, in 2000, and there was a book that came out called Legacy of Ashes. It was written by a gol- a guy called Tim Weiner, who used to be New York Times, and it was all about the CIA. And it was a great book because my uncle is in it many times, Donald Gregg. He's still with us. He's 95 or 96, and he was really high up in the CIA. He was, you know, part of OSS back in the day. And in it, it talks about how the, how the agents would go and fluoridate the enemy's camp water so they could go in at night and they could... They were docile, and they could pull them out, and they could kind of-
- 15:11 – 18:17
Pharma advertising and media dependence: why TV won’t bite the hand that feeds
- ACAdam Curry
We're, we're reliably informed. Um, and I hadn't really watched network television a lot, and there's a lot of commercial breaks, but the first 10 all had a pharmaceutical product, which I'd never heard of, a name I can't remember, and side effects literally included death. I'm like, "What is going on with this?"
- JRJoe Rogan
(sighs)
- ACAdam Curry
I'm like, "Ask your doctor." I'm like, "Do I have this? Should I have this? Do I want this? I mean, is this going on with me?" And people are all happy in the commercials. They're like, "Look, my skin looks good, and I'm happy."
- JRJoe Rogan
Yeah.
- ACAdam Curry
"And I have a beautiful family." It's almost like we used to, you know, sell cars. Now they're just selling the pharmaceuticals.
- JRJoe Rogan
Well, that will be an interesting thing if RFK Jr. gets in place. If RFK Jr. gets in place and they stop this-
- ACAdam Curry
Advertising.
- JRJoe Rogan
... advertising on... We are one of two countries on Earth that allows-
- ACAdam Curry
New Zealand.
- JRJoe Rogan
Yeah, New Zealand, and New Zealand's far more restrictive than us. We should be really restrictive about this because advertising works. You know? And there's advertising that doesn't bother me at all, like Chevrolet Corvette. Vroom, vroom. Uh, I don't want one of those.
- ACAdam Curry
(laughs)
- JRJoe Rogan
You know, it's okay.
- ACAdam Curry
Yeah.
- JRJoe Rogan
It's fine. But when it can give you bloody diarrhea and suicidal ideology-
- ACAdam Curry
Anal leakage. (laughs)
- JRJoe Rogan
Yeah, and you, you're just fucked up in the head and you're depressed-
- ACAdam Curry
Yeah.
- JRJoe Rogan
... and like you don't know why but now your zits are gone. Like, hey.
- ACAdam Curry
(laughs)
- JRJoe Rogan
Slow down.
- ACAdam Curry
Yeah.
- JRJoe Rogan
That was not in that commercial with the, the lady-
- ACAdam Curry
Yeah.
- JRJoe Rogan
... dancing in the field with her child and the people at the picnic.
- ACAdam Curry
Yeah.
- JRJoe Rogan
And they're all smiling and laughing and having a good time together.
- ACAdam Curry
It's good. Yeah.
- JRJoe Rogan
That looked like fun. Like what, where's that part?
- ACAdam Curry
Yeah. Well, of course, you know, this was... They tried, they've all tried all kinds of things to stop this and, you know, First Amendment comes up, although we have stopped, uh, tobacco advertisements and there's all kinds of things that have been done throughout the years. Um, but what happened with television is all the money, I mean, really 60%, 70%, maybe 80% of all the advertising income is from pharmaceutical companies. That's why there's also no reporting. Like we're not gonna bite the hand that feeds us. We can't-
- JRJoe Rogan
That's the real problem.
- 18:17 – 22:25
USAID, culture psyops, and how identity politics becomes a mobilization tool
- ACAdam Curry
Well, we've, I mean, I say that we're in the season of reveal. I've been saying this for about a year now becau- and it's really happening real quick with what we're uncovering and starting to underst- I haven't seen your- your-
- JRJoe Rogan
Yeah, Mike Benz-
- ACAdam Curry
... talk with Mike Benz, yeah.
- JRJoe Rogan
... dropped some fucking seeds yesterday. If we're- we're-
- ACAdam Curry
Because it's true. (laughs)
- JRJoe Rogan
... in the season of flowers, it's- it's- he's blooming today, 'cause-
- ACAdam Curry
Yeah.
- JRJoe Rogan
... he was so nervous yesterday. Jamie was talking about it before, like he was making all these tweets like they were gonna kill him.
- ACAdam Curry
Really?
- JRJoe Rogan
Probably, yeah. It's probably-
- ACAdam Curry
Hmm.
- JRJoe Rogan
... been discussed.
- ACAdam Curry
Hmm. Well, I- I think it's way too far beyond. And I- I think, you know, I look at, um, Levita Beaver I call her. Who- who's the- the new press secretary? She's 27 years old.
- JRJoe Rogan
Oh, yeah. She's good though.
- ACAdam Curry
She's fantastic. She's younger than my-
- JRJoe Rogan
I don't think you should-
- ACAdam Curry
... than my two daughters.
- JRJoe Rogan
... use an- it's a gr- a- a gal. I don't think you should say Levita Beaver. Call her-
- ACAdam Curry
I'm sorry.
- JRJoe Rogan
... Levita Beaver. (laughs)
- ACAdam Curry
I'm sorry. That's just-
- JRJoe Rogan
(laughs)
- ACAdam Curry
... just, that's how I remember her last name. All right, Caroline Levit. I think it's Levit.
- JRJoe Rogan
(laughs)
- ACAdam Curry
Thanks, Joe. Thanks. Thank you. So she- (laughs)
- JRJoe Rogan
Because we're old enough to remember when beaver-
- ACAdam Curry
We- (laughs)
- JRJoe Rogan
... was a vagina. Most kids are like, "I don't even know what the fuck they're talking about."
- ACAdam Curry
What? Levita Beaver? What are you talking about?
- JRJoe Rogan
What a dumb name for a vagina, a beaver. 'Cause dudes didn't really have any derogatory names for dicks. It's just dick is the worst one. Like, "Ah, your dick. Put your dick away, you fucking weirdo."
- 22:25 – 28:14
Viral city council clip, trans panic narratives, and the ‘beach ball’ distraction theory
- JRJoe Rogan
Did you see the city council thing in Worcester, Massachusetts yesterday that's gone viral today?
- ACAdam Curry
No, which one is that?
- JRJoe Rogan
Jamie, did you see it?
- NANarrator
I have- I- I'm seeing it right now on Twitter.
- JRJoe Rogan
Oh, yeah.
- ACAdam Curry
Yeah.
- JRJoe Rogan
Yeah, yeah. Pull this bitch up. (laughs)
- ACAdam Curry
(laughs)
- NANarrator
On the-
- JRJoe Rogan
'Cause it's-
- ACAdam Curry
I haven't seen it. (laughs)
- JRJoe Rogan
... there's a- there's a compilation of these people like absolutely freaking out. The best one's the compilation, if you can find the compilation. But it's all these LBGT people show up at this city council meeting to say there's like a trans genocide. It's one of those, dude. "We're gonna round up in concentration camps." Yeah.
- ACAdam Curry
Yeah, five minutes long. I'll play the beginning.
- JRJoe Rogan
Yeah, just give me- start from the beginning. Give me- g-
- NANarrator
Can you wrap up, please?
Yes, I can. If you say that you're afraid of Trump and that's why you don't want city to be- the city to be a space- safe space for trans people, you better prepare for trans people to make this a very unsafe space.
- ACAdam Curry
Oh, brother.
- NANarrator
I'm shaking right now. I don't want to be here.
- ACAdam Curry
Can you wrap up, please?
- NANarrator
I'm sorry, am I taking too long pleading for my life?
- JRJoe Rogan
(laughs)
- NANarrator
You remembered how many children I have and how many- and that two of them are trans.
- ACAdam Curry
There it is.
- JRJoe Rogan
Yeah.
- NANarrator
I speak as both the B and the T in the LGBT.
- JRJoe Rogan
He's both. (laughs)
- NANarrator
I'm multiply disabled. I have Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, which is a connective tissue disorder that causes me immense physical pain. I, um, I'm on the autism spectrum, and I have narcolepsy, and I couldn't drive myself here, so I had to hide from my driver that I was in drag, which is not an easy thing to do in drag. I do not want to be here.
- JRJoe Rogan
Whoa.
- NANarrator
It's my day off. I do not want to be in your DMs. I do not want to be in your email inboxes. I do not want my creativity writing diss tracks like Kendrick. I don't want to spend an hour applying glitter on my face so that you will hear and see me.
- JRJoe Rogan
What? (laughs)
- 28:14 – 32:07
Psychedelics, prison reform, and government narratives as long-running ‘psyops’
- JRJoe Rogan
There's people that are nice, kind people that also understand the value of hard work and reality and kindness and also sternness and rule of law, and you can't just let violent criminals out in the street. And hey, maybe you should do some actual rehabilitation with the fucking billions of dollars you make in the in- prison industrial complex-
- ACAdam Curry
Mm-hmm.
- JRJoe Rogan
... when there's no rehabilitation, like, uh, no real concerted efforts to completely change these people and studies-
- ACAdam Curry
It's, it's a mess. It's a mess.
- JRJoe Rogan
It can be done. It could be done, and it probably could be done with psycholo- psy- uh, with psychedelic drugs. They-
- ACAdam Curry
(laughs)
- JRJoe Rogan
... they probably can do some things with people, especially non-violent criminals that are trying to figure out, like, "Why have I been stealing from people my whole life?" Like, "What the fuck is wrong with me that I..." i- i- uh, unless they're a, a legitimate psychopath, they have no empathy. There's, there's people that can be kind of woken up to why they're in this horrific pattern of continual abuse in their life. And there's, there's ways to do it, and you know, Rick Perry has been really r- uh, like, brave in this case because, you know, he's a former Republican governor of Texas and-
- ACAdam Curry
That's right.
- JRJoe Rogan
... and now he's advocating for ibogaine therapy, particularly for veterans.
- ACAdam Curry
Mm-hmm.
- JRJoe Rogan
For guys who come over, they've seen the most horrific shit, their brain is in a shambles, and they want to do something, and they, they, they have no h- no help in these-... pills that just dull their mind and m- w- make them feel detached from reality and all these fucking antidepressants and things they give them. And they d- they wanna fuckin' end their life. And they can go and get therapy that, it cures 80% of them with one dose, and it's like 95% with two doses. It's fucking nuts, man. And we've been hiding this-
- ACAdam Curry
(clears throat)
- JRJoe Rogan
... because, because of the sweeping Schedule I Drug Act of 1970 that was put in place directly by Nixon to go after his political opponents. It was directly put in place to demonize the anti-war movement and demonize the Civil Rights Party and the Black Panthers and anybody who was a problem with the government. So they just said, "Let's just make all these things that these people are taking on a regular basis completely illegal." Not only just... Schedule I, like with no medical use whatsoever, things that people have been using for thousands and thousands of years. And it's all the same shit. It's all psyops.
- ACAdam Curry
Mm-hmm.
- JRJoe Rogan
It's all psyops. Have you ever heard of the audience effect? It is a psychological theory that our behavior changes when we know we're being watched. And here's the thing, we are being watched. When you use the internet, data brokers watch and record everything you do online, even if you're using a private browser. But you don't have to become a slave to the digital surveillance state. You can free yourself with ExpressVPN. With ExpressVPN, 100% of your online activity is rerouted through secure, encrypted servers that hide your IP address. That means you can get to use the internet with real freedom and privacy. It's incredibly fast. It doesn't slow down your streaming or downloading. And it lets you connect instantly to secure servers in 105 countries around the world. ExpressVPN is easy to use. It takes just one click and it works on all of your devices, even smart TVs. Use it on up to eight devices at the same time and protect your whole family with just one subscription. And the best part? Podcast listeners can get four extra months of ExpressVPN for free at expressvpn.com/rogan or by tapping the banner. That's expressvpn.com/rogan or tap the banner. If you're watching on YouTube, you can get four free months by scanning the QR code on screen or by clicking the link in the description.
- 32:07 – 37:29
Adam Curry’s origin story: pirate radio, MTV censorship, and inventing podcasting via RSS+iPod
- ACAdam Curry
Well, the number one thing that happened around that time, of course, during Kennedy, is we realized that television was a big force. Television and radio-
- JRJoe Rogan
Oh, yeah. They got that handsome guy.
- ACAdam Curry
... and, and they got ha- w- he... And if you listen to some of the debates, like, uh, um, you know-
- JRJoe Rogan
(sniffs)
- ACAdam Curry
... it s- would sound on the radio like Nixon did better. I mean, it's, it's, it's, it's amazing (clears throat) how this worked between radio and television, but then newspapers, uh, we know the intelligence agencies were all writing stories. I mean, you look at CNN, you still see ex, ex-CIA guy shows up. Uh, a little stor-... When I saw you sitting at the inauguration, and I think I texted you, I'm like, "Dude, I can't believe it. I see you sitting there." You were texting me American flag emojis-
- JRJoe Rogan
(laughs)
- ACAdam Curry
... and stuff, like, and then you w- you and, uh, and Trump, I'm like, "Oh, look at him, he's in a tuxedo." And I thought... (stutters) So my li-... In 1983, um, I was still a teenager and, um, I, I grew up in Amsterdam, socialist country, the airwaves were controlled by the government. It was horrible st-... It was almost like Russia. Your phone was a gray phone and that was your phone. You couldn't get a different phone. You could... It was illegal to unplug it from the wall. And I was doing pirate radio at a place called Radio Decibel in Amsterdam and we were playing-
- JRJoe Rogan
Right. And klis-... You were Christian Slater.
- ACAdam Curry
I- in a way. In a way.
- JRJoe Rogan
You remember that movie? (laughs)
- ACAdam Curry
In, in a w-... Oh, yeah. Yeah. What was that cal-... What was that movie called? Uh...
- JRJoe Rogan
(sighs) I don't remem-
- ACAdam Curry
Pire-... Uh, maybe it was called Pirate Radio?
- JRJoe Rogan
But it was crazy. They were trying to arrest him. Remember?
- ACAdam Curry
Well, so we all got arrested several times. And we were playing 12-inch imports from your Chicago warehouse.
- JRJoe Rogan
You got arrested several times-
- ACAdam Curry
Oh, yeah.
- JRJoe Rogan
... for doing pirate radio?
- ACAdam Curry
Oh, oh, they would always get... They would always come and arrest us.
- JRJoe Rogan
How did they find you?
- ACAdam Curry
We, we literally had the station name on the door.
- JRJoe Rogan
(laughs)
- ACAdam Curry
People would come around. We'd be smoking weed or hanging out. You know, we weren't making any money. We were basically- (laughs)
- JRJoe Rogan
(laughs)
- ACAdam Curry
... paying to do it. You know, and we had this huge antenna on the roof.
- JRJoe Rogan
Did this ever come up when you got hired by MTV? Did they get nervous about that? Like, did they have to do-
- ACAdam Curry
No. (laughs)
- JRJoe Rogan
... a background check? Say, "This guy's got a record."
- ACAdam Curry
No. I'd... I'll... And remind me to tell you my USAID story in a minute. Um, so no. Uh, but this is 1983 and I, and I felt it was so... First, I was a gawky, awkward kid. I got tics, you know, I got the wrong hair, every-... I got the wrong moped, everything's wrong. But on the radio, people are like, "Wow." And I was doing it in English. You can do that in Amsterdam. People are like, "Wow, it's so cool you got that Black guy on your station." I'm like, "I'm Black? Oh, cool." So I was-
- JRJoe Rogan
(laughs)
- 37:29 – 47:59
Breaking the ‘elite messaging machine’: politics on podcasts, fate, and building the comedy club
- ACAdam Curry
I see the, the President of the United States wrapping up his campaign with Joe Rogan on a podcast, completely being himself, being a dude for thr- by the way, props for you sticking to your guns. I love that you did that. "No, it's gotta be here." No restrictions on time.
- JRJoe Rogan
Well, he didn't impose any.
- ACAdam Curry
But-
- JRJoe Rogan
He was more than willing to do it exactly how I do it.
- ACAdam Curry
But he, he understands it. But at that moment, then I see you sitting there. I'm like, "We just broke the elite messaging machine. Phase one, complete."
- JRJoe Rogan
All because of you, dog. (laughs)
- ACAdam Curry
No, no. You dog, you dog, man.
- JRJoe Rogan
Hello, man. You did this. (laughs)
- ACAdam Curry
Glory to God, I, I, I think I was just used.
- JRJoe Rogan
Oh, but remember what, though? I always give you your props.
- ACAdam Curry
I was just used. I think-
- JRJoe Rogan
You, you were the first, too.
- ACAdam Curry
I was just a vessel. It, it makes sense to me now.
- JRJoe Rogan
Well, they... I'm just a vessel too. I think-
- ACAdam Curry
Mm-hmm.
- JRJoe Rogan
... that's the case with all of it, you know?
- ACAdam Curry
Absolutely.
- JRJoe Rogan
I say that to the guys at my comedy club, you know. Like, well, they're always so thankful that I built this comedy club. I'm like, "I think this thing built itself." I think it was just... I was a thing that it did through me. It caught me because it knew that, you know, I was capable of doing it-
- ACAdam Curry
Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.
- JRJoe Rogan
... and, and impulsive enough, and, and brash enough to like, say, "Fuck it. Let's just dump a bunch of money in this spot and see what happens."
- ACAdam Curry
You were given gifts, and you s-
- JRJoe Rogan
I was given gifts.
- ACAdam Curry
And you stuck with your gifts. And, and I know you're a very generous guy. I know you help a lot of people with all... Not monetary, necessarily, but just helping them, getting them on their feet. You know, like, even, you know, Parker. I'm like, "Can I bring this kid? He's a big fan." You're like, "Absolutely, bring him in." You're, you're a gracious guy. And so when you get whatever word it is to build a comedy club, you did.
- JRJoe Rogan
I think you have to do that. I think that's the un- the universe is testing you. And if you, if you pay attention to yourself, you'll feel like, what's the right thing to do? Like, what's the thing... What is the greedy, impulsive thing to do? What is, like, the miserly thing to... "Save it all. It's my money. Save it all." You know, that's the, the... You know, like, "I'm out."
- ACAdam Curry
That usually doesn't, usually doesn't end well for those people.
- JRJoe Rogan
No, it's just, it's bad for you too, because it's... I always talk about this in terms of careers. Like, and, and I really try to put this in young comics' minds. There's an impulse that you will have when someone's doing better than you, and you'll, you'll be angry at them. It is a bitter, pathetic, jealous, normal instinct that people have.
- ACAdam Curry
It's the enemy, the enemy talking to you.
- JRJoe Rogan
It's just, you have to recognize what that is.
- ACAdam Curry
Mm-hmm.
- JRJoe Rogan
What that is, is you have a desire to be doing the same thing. This person is doing this thing. They are in the movie, they are on the TV show, they are headlining at the club. And you feel bad because it's not you, so you decide that they are bad. And so you start looking at them as a source of negativity towards you, and you don't do all the logical, objective reasoning that allows you to go, "Oh, no, no, no, no, no. They didn't do anything wrong. It's just me." And then those people who get really super big and famous oftentimes get very defensive and very elitist, because they do understand that people are mad at them now, so then they're like, "Fuck those people."
- 47:59 – 58:30
Music rights gridlock and Podcasting 2.0 ‘value-for-value’ payments for artists
- ACAdam Curry
We're screwed. Because here we have all these pod... You know, there's four and a half million podcasts. Really only 400,000 update regularly, so it's not even that much. And that's global. Um, they've- (music) We-
- JRJoe Rogan
Oh, how dare you. (laughs)
- ACAdam Curry
We- (laughs)
- JRJoe Rogan
You're teasing me.
- ACAdam Curry
So we can't play music in podcasts because of all these different entities that own it. And so, you know, if you s- if you perform something on the radio or in a livestream, that's a performance right, which, you know, the club plays for that too, if you're playing your music. So that's ASCAP, BMI. Then you have the publishing right. Now, because you download a podcast, well, all of a sudden now you've made a copy of it, so that's another group over here. So you have the publishers, then the record companies, you have all the... And they, they just could never agree and they've locked themselves in so tight that the biggest opportunity for music would be to play it on podcasts. They've just ha- They've, they've painted themselves into a corner and it's so... And we all know now that most artists, you know, you get 10,000 streams on Spotify and you get a, you know, a penny after, after a couple of years, and then-
- JRJoe Rogan
Did you see what Snoop Dogg, when he, he was going over this?
- ACAdam Curry
Oh, he's-
- JRJoe Rogan
You ever seen that video?
- ACAdam Curry
It's horren- No, I'm, I'm sure it's, it's horrendous. He got 1,000 bucks.
- JRJoe Rogan
He had thousands bucks. Billions-
- ACAdam Curry
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
- JRJoe Rogan
... of streams-
- ACAdam Curry
Mm-hmm.
- JRJoe Rogan
... and he got a check for 45 grand.
- ACAdam Curry
Yeah. And Taylor Swift gets all the rest of the money. I mean, it's, it's very odd.
- JRJoe Rogan
But isn't that because Taylor Swift owns her music? Isn't that the whole deal?
- ACAdam Curry
Yes.
- JRJoe Rogan
Like if you own your music, it's diff-
- ACAdam Curry
If you're the publisher.
- JRJoe Rogan
Right.
- ACAdam Curry
And, and you... You know, this... I don't want to get too deep into, to Spotify and all that, but people are starting to move away from that and what I call the value-for-value model, where, uh... And we actually built this with Podcasting 2.0, where you can se- you can send a boost, like I wanna send some money to this person straight from the app.
- JRJoe Rogan
Mm-hmm.
- ACAdam Curry
So you can play it, you can play a song in the podcast as long as they've agreed to the, to the license, they own all their stuff. You can send them money. Uh, we just did Suzanne Santo. We had a, uh... I invited you to that.
- JRJoe Rogan
Yeah, I couldn't make it-
- ACAdam Curry
Nah.
- JRJoe Rogan
... unfortunately.
- ACAdam Curry
All I had to say is, "I invited Joe." That was all-
- JRJoe Rogan
(laughs)
- ACAdam Curry
... I needed to say. Um, and, you know, we had six people on stage, six different bands. And they all made between $600 and $800 coming just from, from out there. There were not... There was maybe 50 f- At the end of the night, maybe 50 people left, it's a Monday night, but they were all making more money than they had ever made on any other platform in their life, just because people can send it through the internet, through... We actually used-
- JRJoe Rogan
Isn't that crazy that $600 for a performance that goes on the internet is the most they've ever made from the internet?
- 58:30 – 1:12:34
Algorithms, creator science, and attention traps: MrBeast, TikTok shop, and social media discipline
- JRJoe Rogan
But doesn't that show you that the formula's bullshit then? You know, like, you got a guy like MrBeast who is not, like, a classically good-looking guy who's got the biggest show in the world.
- ACAdam Curry
That guy has ... I mean, so I don't ... People say he's a creator. I think he's a creation. He, he is a creation of YouTube and how it works. Y- you don't have this, uh, because you're, you know, you're so established, but they, his team, and he's talked about this, micromanage every second of each video, every cut, every ... The poster images, all these things. And it's all about time spent viewing. If one video does a minute 38 and the other one does 1:40, that other video was more successful. I mean, it's really ... In order to, to, like, hook the algos, get everything rolling-
- JRJoe Rogan
Mm-hmm.
- ACAdam Curry
... you have to bring that down to a science. And of course, um, this is not for you and I, I don't think, is you have to always keep feeding the machine. You gotta keep feeding it, feeding it, feeding it. You have to make your life a part of your YouTube channel. Otherwise, you know, psh, you drop off very quickly.
- JRJoe Rogan
Yeah. Well, um, I just think he has a different approach. I mean, his approach is very, like, scientific. He's very-
- ACAdam Curry
Yeah.
- JRJoe Rogan
... very intelligent about it. And I'd ... I'm a m-... like, feel person, which is why I- when I get people as guests, I never think, like pe- sometimes people think, "Oh, you try to get, like, the biggest name guests because that'll be the most popular videos."
- ACAdam Curry
No.
- JRJoe Rogan
I don't- I don't do that at all.
- ACAdam Curry
No, no.
- JRJoe Rogan
I only, who do I want to talk to? That's ex- exactly how I've always done it. So that's how I'm gonna always do it. Do I want... and i- if it happens to be Mel Gibson, you know, and he- happened-
- ACAdam Curry
Great interview, by the way.
- JRJoe Rogan
He was great.
- ACAdam Curry
By the way. He was f- I mean, I'm like, that's, for me, he's always Mad Max. When I was a kid-
- JRJoe Rogan
Yeah.
- ACAdam Curry
... you know, we, we'd play hooky from school. We'd go back. We'd, and someone would have a VHS, no a Betamax, he had a Betamax-
- JRJoe Rogan
Oh, yeah.
- ACAdam Curry
And like, we're watching Mad Max and then Diana Ross in the round. I mean that (laughs) -
- JRJoe Rogan
Diana Ross in the round.
- ACAdam Curry
We love Diana Ross. You're like, "Oh, she's so awesome." But that Mad Max, man, that original. And he's-
- JRJoe Rogan
Yeah.
- ACAdam Curry
... standing there with his boots in the desert in, at the beginning. It was just-
- JRJoe Rogan
Great fucking movie.
- ACAdam Curry
Oh.
- JRJoe Rogan
He had a bunch of bangers. But he just, he's an interesting-
- ACAdam Curry
There he is.
- JRJoe Rogan
... guy. You know.
- ACAdam Curry
Yeah.
- JRJoe Rogan
And that-
- ACAdam Curry
And-
Episode duration: 3:06:30
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Transcript of episode IYGG84s1a28
