EVERY SPOKEN WORD
150 min read · 30,050 words- 0:00 – 1:06
Chewing tobacco, cancer risk, and chemicals in our food system
- NANarrator
(Drums playing) Joe Rogan podcast. Check it out. The Joe Rogan Experience.
- JRJoe Rogan
Train by day, Joe Rogan podcast by night. All day. (Rock music plays)
- CWChadd Wright
Yeah, I do too, man. I chew tobacco pretty much since I was about 13 years old.
- JRJoe Rogan
(laughs)
- CWChadd Wright
But, you know, as you get older, you start to try to optimize everything because, uh, the world tells you everything's gonna kill you.
- JRJoe Rogan
Is chewing tobacco gonna kill you?
- CWChadd Wright
Well, you know-
- JRJoe Rogan
I've heard people getting mouth cancer.
- CWChadd Wright
... a very bi- Yeah, that's the main thing is mouth cancer.
- JRJoe Rogan
Yeah.
- CWChadd Wright
And it- it's pre- mouth cancer's pre- a pretty nasty form- all forms of cancer are pretty nasty, but mouth cancer can really screw you up. And I think it's the, uh, the, you know, like the chemicals that they spray on the tobacco when they're growing the tobacco. So I don't know, maybe if you grew tobacco organically and then you chewed it, it wouldn't give you mouth cancer.
- JRJoe Rogan
Probably makes sense.
- CWChadd Wright
I- I don't know.
- 1:06 – 3:18
Glyphosate everywhere: industrial farming’s soil damage and the slow path to regeneration
- JRJoe Rogan
Well, I was just reading something that 100% of California wines that they've tested had glyphosate on them, 100%.
- CWChadd Wright
Yeah, I believe it.
- JRJoe Rogan
Which is just nuts.
- CWChadd Wright
You know, yeah, that stuff is everywhere. I mean, it's not-
- JRJoe Rogan
Everywhere.
- CWChadd Wright
It's never gonna go anywhere because, you know, uh, when I was in the Navy, I lived in Virginia, and we moved out to a rural community. And, um, they grew corn and soybeans primarily in the fields, and nothing else would grow in that dirt. Like, you could walk the rows of those crops, you know, and there would not be a single weed growing in the field. Nothing would grow except for the genetically modified seed or whatever they put out there.
- JRJoe Rogan
Yeah.
- CWChadd Wright
You know what I mean? And how long does that stay in the soil? Like, does that ever come- can you ever get that out of the dirt so that other things could or would actually thrive there again? I- I guess after many, many years you could.
- JRJoe Rogan
Yeah, it's many, many years. I had Will Harris from- he's from Georgia, uh, White Oaks Pastures. You ever heard of that guy?
- CWChadd Wright
I- I actually listened to that episode that you did with him, man, because I've ordered a- a pile of meat from them.
- JRJoe Rogan
He's great.
- CWChadd Wright
He is.
- JRJoe Rogan
He's great.
- CWChadd Wright
That was a great episode.
- JRJoe Rogan
And it's a great episode to educate people on like how much time it takes to take a- an industrial farm and convert it to regenerative agriculture.
- CWChadd Wright
Yeah.
- JRJoe Rogan
It's not easy. It's a long grind, super costly, not nearly as profitable, and, you know, he did it over the course of 20 years. And we have two, uh, jars of soil out there that he gave us, and one of them is a soil from his neighbor's farm, which is an industrial farm, and the other one is his. And his is like a dark brown, rich, alive soil.
- CWChadd Wright
Mm-hmm.
- JRJoe Rogan
And the one from his neighbor's farm is just pale and dead and they have to spray shit all over it-
- CWChadd Wright
Yeah.
- JRJoe Rogan
... and use industrial fertilizer and, I mean, we've-
- CWChadd Wright
Yeah, it's ugly, man.
- JRJoe Rogan
Um, and then it's gotten so far that, like, to turn it around and try to feed all the people that we have established here in this country in places where nobody's growing food, it's like it's almost impossible. It's almost like they're stuck with this system of industrialized farming.
- 3:18 – 8:29
City air, homelessness, and why nature feels like medicine
- CWChadd Wright
Yeah, I mean, yeah, there- there's, uh, it's- it's- being here in Austin, you know, I don't go to the city much. I live on 700 acres in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains.
- JRJoe Rogan
Nice.
- CWChadd Wright
And, uh, I come here to the city and, you know, you see the result of packing so many human beings into one area. Yeah, how you gonna feed them people?
- JRJoe Rogan
Right.
- CWChadd Wright
O- other than- other than the way that we've figured out how to do it? I mean, how you gonna feed them?
- JRJoe Rogan
Right.
- CWChadd Wright
I don't know, man. Walking around the city, man, it's just... Coming from where I live, and- and don't take this as negative, I mean, s- people love cities. There's cool stuff in cities, right? Like, people get a lot... But me, when I come from where I live, you know, I- I- dude, where- I- I'm in the woods every day for hours and hours. I don't go to town hardly ever. I'm a squirrel hunter. I have a little mountain cur, you know, we go out and squirrel hunt for hours every day and, uh, but coming to the city, it's like the air burns my nose. It's like, I've been coughing all day today.
- JRJoe Rogan
You really notice it?
- CWChadd Wright
I notice, I can smell it. It- it smells... Now, we're staying right in downtown. The smell reminds me slightly of Lagos, Nigeria, which it's 100x in Lagos, it s- it literally burns your eyes and your nose to breathe the air there. But even in Austin, I can kinda smell the sour, you know, on-
- JRJoe Rogan
Mm-hmm.
- CWChadd Wright
... and- and then I'm looking at these poor people, man, like, these people lay- laying on these park benches and all this stuff, and I'm like... It just ma- it- it makes you think, it makes you wonder, the hu- humans' propensity to e- to stoop lower than an animal. Like, we have the propensity as human to stoop lower than an animal.
- JRJoe Rogan
In the worst case scenarios.
- CWChadd Wright
In the worst case scenarios.
- JRJoe Rogan
Right.
- CWChadd Wright
Yeah, I mean, I understand there's so much that goes along with the story-
- JRJoe Rogan
Yeah.
- CWChadd Wright
... that those- all the- all of those people have, and it was funny, I saw a lady sitting on the- the edge of the sidewalk today, she was smoking crack or something. And, uh, uh, and now my wife's in recovery. And I said, "It's- it's just mind-boggling to me, me being a man of the country, to see the humans' propensity to stoop that low." And she looked at me and she said, "Well, I've done it."
- JRJoe Rogan
Wow.
- CWChadd Wright
I said, "That's good." I- I- man, my woman is so good, brother.
- JRJoe Rogan
She came out of it.
- CWChadd Wright
She- she came out of it, right?
- JRJoe Rogan
Yeah.
- CWChadd Wright
I mean, by the grace of God, but, um...
- JRJoe Rogan
Well, I'm glad you didn't come visit us in LA. I would've showed you some real shit.
- CWChadd Wright
Dude, I went-
- JRJoe Rogan
'Cause this is nothing.
- CWChadd Wright
... I went to LA one time to- with my buddy, Jesse Itzler. He took me out there when all this stuff started, I got out of the Navy.... he said, "Chad," and he said, uh, he, he asked me to come coach him, teach him how to run a long ways. And I said, "All right, I'll come out there," and me and Jesse became fast friends. He said, "I'm gonna take you out here to LA." He said, "I'm gonna take you on a few of these interviews with these people." He said, "But I want you to realize that if you decide to do this, your life will never be the same." And I said, "All right, let's go."
- JRJoe Rogan
You mean like do a podcast?
- CWChadd Wright
Yeah.
- JRJoe Rogan
Yeah.
- 8:29 – 10:28
Rogan’s dream: a ranch studio, tactical course, and bringing guests outdoors
- CWChadd Wright
So why, why do you, why, why... I understand you love what you do, but, I mean, you could build a studio somewhere out in the, out in the mountains somewhere. Like why, why do you-
- JRJoe Rogan
We're gonna probably do that. We're gonna probably build a studio on a ranch next. That's the-
- CWChadd Wright
Okay.
- JRJoe Rogan
That's the next move. I wanna have like a tactical course out there-
- CWChadd Wright
Good for you, bro.
- JRJoe Rogan
... and a bass fishing lake and have it set up and do fun shit with guests, too, have-
- CWChadd Wright
'Cause people are gonna come see you, man. Like-
- JRJoe Rogan
That's what I think.
- CWChadd Wright
It's un- I mean, what you've done, man, is, is so cool. I tell people all the time, if you ever have the opportunity to go and see someone who is the best in the world at what they do, take that opportunity. Whether it's a, a runner, a fighter, a kayaker, or a podcaster, like it's so cool to be here and to get to witness what you do, how you do it, the level that you go to to make all this happen. You're the best in the world. Like that's, it, that's so cool for me, man. Like if we don't talk here but for 30 minutes-
- JRJoe Rogan
(laughs)
- CWChadd Wright
... I got to see the best in the world do what he does, and how cool is that, man?
- JRJoe Rogan
Oh, thank you.
- CWChadd Wright
And like the hospitality that you have, you know, given me since I've been here, it's just next level. And that's what you see when you get to witness the best in the world do whatever it is they are the best at. You just get to see this whole nother level of, uh, of proficiency, of skill, of technique, of mastery, and that opens up your mind-
- JRJoe Rogan
Mm.
- CWChadd Wright
... into like what's possible.
- JRJoe Rogan
Yeah, this, I mean, you can go back and watch the beginning episodes of this. It was terrible in the early days. (laughs)
- CWChadd Wright
What, I'm a podcaster too, man. I mean, I-
- JRJoe Rogan
I know you are. I watch your show all the time.
- CWChadd Wright
I, I've got like 400-and-something episodes out, and, and same here when I first started, uh, yeah, it was awful. But it's so much fun. I love it. I love it.
- 10:28 – 13:22
Land Cruisers, EMP paranoia, and the appeal of older, reliable vehicles
- JRJoe Rogan
I think I found your show because of a video that you did on your Land Cruiser, 'cause I'm a Land Cruiser nut.
- CWChadd Wright
Yeah.
- JRJoe Rogan
And you were talking about like have a truck that will fucking, like no matter what, will work. Like if, if they throw EMP pulses in the air-
- CWChadd Wright
Mm-hmm.
- JRJoe Rogan
... and kill all the electronics, which is... People don't understand, like every car everyone is driving has a fucking computer in it, and if something goes on, there's some sort of a power grid failure or some sort of a, a solar flare that knocks out electronics, it could knock out your fucking car. You have a brick now, and it's not gonna work. If you don't have a carburetor, and you don't have a car... (imitates engine revving) Like a regular old-school car-
- CWChadd Wright
Yeah.
- JRJoe Rogan
... it's not gonna... You know, Tucker Carlson, he drives like a 1978 pickup truck. And I go, "Why do you drive that?" And he goes, "'Cause they can't shut it off. The government can't get... and it's got no GPS, got no..." (car screeching) He, he's super fucking paranoid. (laughs)
- CWChadd Wright
Well, the, the newest vehicle that I have, and yes, Land Cruisers are my favorite. I've become close friends with Daniel at TLC 4x4, and he's done two for me, a 100 series and a 60 series.
- JRJoe Rogan
And they did mine, too-
- CWChadd Wright
And-
- JRJoe Rogan
... when they were in LA.
- CWChadd Wright
Yeah, man.
- JRJoe Rogan
Yeah.
- CWChadd Wright
They're just awesome, and, uh, and like I said, my favorite part about driving the Land Cruiser is that it makes people smile. I, I'm not a very funny guy, you know? So there's not many... I don't get many opportunities to make human beings smile. But I can drive this Land Cruiser and people look at it and point at it and they're smiling and, like, that just, that's cool to me. You know what I mean?
- JRJoe Rogan
Yeah, especially 60 series, I think. There's just like a, a c- core group of people who love those things.
- CWChadd Wright
They, yeah, and you don't see them as-
- JRJoe Rogan
I slow down when I see one. I slow down. I check it out.
- CWChadd Wright
Yeah, but the newest vehicle that I have, and I'm a car guy-... uh, now I was poor most of my life. I'm still fairly poor, but you know, I got enough money I can buy the cars that I want now. And the newest car that I have is a 1997, uh, Dodge diesel truck. I have two '97. I have an, a OBS Ford, it's a '97 with a Power Stroke diesel. I have a '97 Dodge Ram with the Cummins diesel because those are the two best diesel engines, undisputedly, that have ever been produced. Um, I have the 100 Series Land Cruiser. Actually, the 100 Series is a '98, but I kind of gave that to my brother, so I can't count that. The 60 Series is a '84. I have an '86 Toyota they call Pickup, it's a Hilux.
- JRJoe Rogan
Mm-hmm.
- CWChadd Wright
(sighs) I don't know if I'm missing something, but j- I love, I love old cars, man.
- JRJoe Rogan
Those old Toyotas are bulletproof. They never break.
- CWChadd Wright
That's my squirrel hunting truck.
- JRJoe Rogan
Yeah?
- CWChadd Wright
It'll go anywhere.
- JRJoe Rogan
(laughs)
- CWChadd Wright
You know, why am I gonna go spend $30,000 on a side-by-side? I, I can get in this Toyota truck and I can go anywhere you can go in a, in a, a side-by-side.
- JRJoe Rogan
That's true.
- CWChadd Wright
That's my squirrel hunting truck, man.
- 13:22 – 16:11
Squirrel hunting every day: dogs, breeding lines, and the joy of small-game tradition
- JRJoe Rogan
So, e- is squirrel hunting the most hunting that you do?
- CWChadd Wright
I love pro- it's, eh, I do it every day that I'm at home. I squirrel hunt every day.
- JRJoe Rogan
How much squirrel do you eat?
- CWChadd Wright
Uh, well, (laughs) I eat squirrel on special occasions. Uh, I give away a lot of squirrel meat, you know? (laughs) I'm blessed enough in life now that I can eat rib eye steak. Um, I give away a lot of squirrel. I don't kill all the squirrels that we tree either. Uh, really, since ou- a young age, I h- I was introduced to hunting with dogs, tree dogs specifically, and it, there was something about a tree dog that just stirred this, this passion within me. It is the sin- it is the only thing that has stuck with me from childhood, young childhood. The first tree dog I ever walked to, I mean, I was, I didn't even know, I, I should, probably shouldn't even have been in the woods, but I followed my uncle to a coonhound tree down in a swamp, and it just, even at that age, it just stirred something in me, like w- w- this is some sort of primal instinct, a- of partnering with this dog in this chase. And, uh, I've done it even up until now, and, um, it's just a, it's a unique experience, man. A- and the great thing about dogs, hunting dogs too is, um, the breeding aspect of it. That's a lot of fun. So not only are, do you have your best friend, you know, my little mountain cur, her name's Wendy, she stays in the house, she's my best friend, we hunt every day together, but, but now I get to breed her. I get to select a mate, and over the course, I'm hoping over the course of the next 30 years or so, I can breed in these specific characteristics of this type of dog that I value. And so that's fun, you know? Not only is the hunting fun, but the breeding is fun, the training's fun. Everything about it's fun. And you take a group of guys out squirrel hunting, man, and it's a blast, because you don't have to be quiet. Look, man, you just, you're out there in the woods on four-wheelers, everybody's got shotguns, you know, you get to the tree. Here's this dog just hammering a tree on this tree. "Bow, bow, bow, bow." Everybody surrounds the tree, and that squirrel gets nervous and he starts timbering out, going tree to tree, and you got five or six guys with shotguns blasting away, and everybody's cutting up and laughing. I mean, it's just a blast, dude. But that's my thing, you know?
- JRJoe Rogan
It's a funny thing. (laughs)
- 16:11 – 21:27
First elk hunt setup: New Mexico tags, rifle vs bow, and modern bow tech
- CWChadd Wright
I like th-, I like the white, I like to hunt white tails, I like, I get to go on my first elk hunt this year.
- JRJoe Rogan
Oh, wow, where you going?
- CWChadd Wright
There's a, there's a, a, a family out in Utah. Uh, they, they own some ranch out there, I think it's called R5 Ranch, and they wanted to put a hunt on for a veteran. So they partnered with an outfitter called G3 Outfitters, and they bought a tag, and s- for some odd reason, they selected me as their veteran that they want to take out on an elk hunt.
- JRJoe Rogan
Wow.
- CWChadd Wright
Now, I've always wanted to elk hunt, man. I've just, you know, I've just never made it happen. There's a lot that goes into it, as you know.
- JRJoe Rogan
Yeah.
- CWChadd Wright
And so they're taking me to New Mexico. They bought a, some tag from a landowner, and, uh, they're going to take me out there elk hunting.
- JRJoe Rogan
That's a great spot. New Mexico's a great spot for elk.
- CWChadd Wright
He sent me some pictures of some of these bulls.
- JRJoe Rogan
Yeah.
- CWChadd Wright
I said, "What an animal."
- JRJoe Rogan
Yeah, and New Mexico's got some crazy genetics too. There's, uh, there's two, there's, there's a guy who explained this to me, that there's really two different, besides like Tule elk and Roosevelt elk, there's Rocky Mountain elk and then there's Yellowstone elk, and the Yellowstone elk are an older breed-
- CWChadd Wright
Hm.
- JRJoe Rogan
... that has a larger antlers, a bigger animal, and you find a lot of those in, uh, Arizona, and you find a lot of those in New Mexico.
- CWChadd Wright
So where we're hunting at is right, it, it, is on the border of Arizona and New Mexico.
- JRJoe Rogan
Mm, yeah, so I bet you have great genetics out there.
- CWChadd Wright
You know what, man? I can't believe it.
- JRJoe Rogan
Yeah.
- CWChadd Wright
I, I can't believe this is the first pl- that my, gonna be my first elk hunt.
- JRJoe Rogan
Are you rifle or bow hunt?
- CWChadd Wright
It, it's gonna be rifle.
- JRJoe Rogan
Yeah.
- CWChadd Wright
Now, now I'm a big, I'm a big archery guy too, um, when I hunt white tails, when I started hunting white tails, that was what I did was bow hunt, and still bow hunt quite a bit, but, uh-
- JRJoe Rogan
I love it.
- CWChadd Wright
... but this is a rifle hunt.
- JRJoe Rogan
I love rife- bowhunting. Uh, rifle hunting's great, and it's the most effesh- effective, most efficient way to hunt, but there's something about having to get inside, you know, 70, 80 yards-
- CWChadd Wright
Yeah.
- JRJoe Rogan
... sneaking up, executing a perfect shot.
- CWChadd Wright
Now, you're a Hoyt guy too, right?
- JRJoe Rogan
Yeah. Yeah.
- 21:27 – 25:04
Primitive archery, mule deer stalking, and why some animals are impossibly “wired”
- CWChadd Wright
Uh, it's, it's a cool... Have you ever shot-
- JRJoe Rogan
I wish-
- CWChadd Wright
... a stick bow?
- JRJoe Rogan
Yes.
- CWChadd Wright
Okay.
- JRJoe Rogan
I'm not good at it though. I w- I shot it on vacation once. I was, uh, shocked at how bad I was, 'cause I'm so good with a compound bow-
- CWChadd Wright
Yeah.
- JRJoe Rogan
... that I'm trying to figure out where to aim, where it goes-
- CWChadd Wright
Yeah.
- JRJoe Rogan
... and do all this shit and how to let loose right. It's, uh, I have a buddy who hunts exclusively. My buddy, um, uh, Ryan Callahan, he hunts exclusively with a homemade bow. He's got a, like, a longbow that he made.
- CWChadd Wright
Mm-hmm.
- JRJoe Rogan
I don't know if he made this one. I know he's made them before. But he, you know, it's those real simple bows. I'm like, "Why? You c- can't even get much energy out of that thing." But it's the extra challenge.
- CWChadd Wright
You gotta get real close.
- JRJoe Rogan
You gotta get real close and be real accurate.
- CWChadd Wright
Yeah. I went on, I took mine on a mule deer hunt up in, uh, the Wasatch Range in Utah two years ago, and yeah, I mean, you, you got to get within seven to 10 yards of that animal with a, with a longbow.
- JRJoe Rogan
Yeah.
- CWChadd Wright
I mean, I do-
- JRJoe Rogan
Which is crazy.
- CWChadd Wright
... I do anyways, you know? Fred Bear might, he might could have made a 20- or 30-yard shot, but, you know, you gotta get s- you gotta get right in their laps. And we were-
- JRJoe Rogan
Yeah.
- CWChadd Wright
... I was on public land. It was a wilderness area. That's where I like to hunt. I mean, I like wilderness areas. Uh, that's the highest designation of preservation that Congress can award to a piece of land. So, if you're in a wilderness area, you know you, there's not gonna be n- no horses, no mechanized tools, nobody's gonna be clearing tr- trails with a chainsaw up there. If you ever want to go in, in the back country, find a wilderness area, not a national park, not a national forest. Find a wilderness area. But we were watching these mule deer, and, you know, I'd watch them in the morning. They'd get up and feed. And then they'd, I'd wait for them to go lay down, and then you had to move on that mule deer and use the terrain, put the terrain between you and him. And they'd be bedded down, and you could get with, I, the closest I got to one was about five yards, and he was bedded down under a tree just kind of out in this big old rock. I was way up in the mountains, big old rocky area. Well, I stalked all the way up there to him, and I got about five yards from where I'd last seen, where I saw him bed down at. You know, I lost sight of him when I started to stalk, and, uh, I got impatient, and I got there, and I was laid down up against a rock, and that tree was right there, and I thought, "You know, it took me about an hour to stalk over here." I said, uh, "I wonder if he got up and moved." And I peeked my head up over that rock, and that big son of a gun was just looking right at me. I'm talking about eye to eye, five yards.
- JRJoe Rogan
(laughs)
- CWChadd Wright
(laughs) He jumped up and tore out of there. That was the closest I got to killing one. But if I would have just laid there with that longbow and been patient and wait- waited for him to stand up off his bed-
- JRJoe Rogan
Yeah.
- CWChadd Wright
... I could have drew and shot him right there, you know?
- JRJoe Rogan
Well, he's probably already alert-He probably heard you.
- CWChadd Wright
(sighs) I don't know if he heard me or not.
- JRJoe Rogan
Yeah? We both were-
- CWChadd Wright
I, I had the wind. I had the wind. Uh, I-
- JRJoe Rogan
Their ears are so good.
- 25:04 – 30:39
Axis deer on Lanai: overpopulation, constant pressure, and hunting as practice
- JRJoe Rogan
Other than, like, the craziest ones are axis deer. Have you ever hunted axis deer?
- CWChadd Wright
I haven't, no.
- JRJoe Rogan
Axis deer evolved with tigers. So they're, they move so fast. I, I had a video of an axis deer that I shot at, at 70-plus yards and, uh, with a lighted knock, and you see the arrow lau- I mean, this arrow's going 290 feet a second. You see this arrow launching towards this deer and this deer is feeding in a field, totally broadside. He hears the arrow within 10 yards, ducks down, hauls out, and he's gone by the arrow got ... by the time the arrow got to him.
- CWChadd Wright
He hears the arrow in flight?
- JRJoe Rogan
Exactly. He had no idea. We were very far away. That's why I took the shot. It's one of the things with those animals, like you're sometimes better off taking a long shot than a close shot because they (fingers snap) hear that bow go off and they just duck and go. I mean, they're not trying to duck under your arrow. What they're trying to do is load up their weapons, or load up their legs rather, get super low so they can launch themselves forward and gone.
- CWChadd Wright
Yeah.
- JRJoe Rogan
They're just trying to take off as quickly as possible and that means dropping down and when they drop down, arrows go right over 'em. But this one was so fast within 10 yards, he was nowhere near the arrow. His ass was over here. The h- the, the l- the vitals where I aimed for was right here. He was already over there.
- CWChadd Wright
Good night.
- JRJoe Rogan
He was two feet away from it and he didn't start moving until that arrow was 10 yards away from him.
- CWChadd Wright
Where was that at?
- JRJoe Rogan
That was in Hawaii.
- CWChadd Wright
Hawaii, okay.
- JRJoe Rogan
Lanai is a crazy place, 'cause Lanai has no predators and it's a small island. It only has 3,000 people living on it, but it has 30,000 deer plus.
- CWChadd Wright
So they want you to kill 'em.
- JRJoe Rogan
They want you to kill on 'em. Kill 'em as many as you can. They have people that are snipers that go out there at night and-
- CWChadd Wright
Mm-hmm.
- JRJoe Rogan
Everybody on the island eats good, 'cause it's the best meat. Axis deer is delicious if you've ever had it. It's right up there with elk. It's fantastic meat. And they're just completely overpopulated, so they have to do it, so people hunt them there 365 days a year. So high pressure, so they're used to, like ... They're always w- with their head on a swivel, always looking around for a hunter.
- CWChadd Wright
That would be a fun hunt.
- JRJoe Rogan
It's a great hunt.
- CWChadd Wright
That would tune you up.
- JRJoe Rogan
Oh, it's great before elk season. It's great.
- CWChadd Wright
Yeah, that would tune you up.
- JRJoe Rogan
Because you'll get ... If you blow a stalk, you get another stalk in 10 seconds.
- CWChadd Wright
Mm-hmm.
- JRJoe Rogan
Like, you're on another animal and you're in these fields that used to be where, uh, the dole plant grew pineapples. So it's, it's kind of a weird ground. Like, I guess the way they would farm pineapples, they would put, like, a layer of plastic down and then the soil would be above the plastic, so everywhere you go, it's weird, you see, like, almost like g- garbage bag plastic-
- CWChadd Wright
Hmm.
- JRJoe Rogan
... underneath the dirt all over the place.
- CWChadd Wright
I'll be darned.
- JRJoe Rogan
And these animals are ... You'll, you'll, like, you'll sit on the top of a hill and look down on a field and you might see 600 axis deer wandering around this field.
- CWChadd Wright
Good night, man.
- 30:39 – 34:13
Reverse-searing steaks and living close to the land (gardens, bread, spring water)
- JRJoe Rogan
(laughs) I watched you cook a steak on a Traeger and I was like, "Listen-"
- CWChadd Wright
... the way to cook a steak on a Traeger is, you can cook a steak on a Traeger. Like, you could t- cook, like, if you have a roast, like, you can cook a good roast on a Traeger. But the reality is, you need to be able to sear it, and so you can't really sear things on a Traeger. And I j- I saw what you did, you tried to turn the temperature up real high and then cook at the end. The key is getting it on a frying pan. Like, get it low and slow on the Traeger, uh, like 225 degrees with the SuperSmoke, get it nice and smoky. Mm-hmm.
- JRJoe Rogan
Get it up to 120 degrees, and then cast iron f- skillet.
- CWChadd Wright
Okay.
- JRJoe Rogan
Get that motherfucker hot. Put some beef tallow in there and s- (searing sound) like, 90 seconds on each side.
- CWChadd Wright
Yeah, seals it up.
- JRJoe Rogan
Perfect.
- CWChadd Wright
Now, do you do most of your own cooking?
- JRJoe Rogan
Yeah, I do almost all my own cooking.
- CWChadd Wright
Okay.
- JRJoe Rogan
Yeah. I cook a lot.
- CWChadd Wright
Does your wife cook?
- JRJoe Rogan
Yeah, she cooks too.
- CWChadd Wright
Yeah. My, my wife cooks. I'm so blessed that, that she cooks, 'cause I've got a long ways to go. I actually made a, a goal of mine I've been working on, I, I cook for her one night a week.
- JRJoe Rogan
Mm.
- CWChadd Wright
And, uh, it's worked out a few times, but I'm learning.
- JRJoe Rogan
You can figure it out.
- CWChadd Wright
I appreciate that tip on the steak, though, man.
- JRJoe Rogan
Yeah, the tip on the steak, it's reverse sear, is what it's called. And, uh, I learned that, uh, from, uh, Whiskey Bent, my friend Chad, Whiskey Bent Barbecue, and he said, "If you really want to cook a steak correctly," he goes, "you want it to be slowly cooked and then seared the outside." A lot of people will try to sear it first. He's like, "I don't agree with that," 'cause I think the way to get, uh, the juiciest steak is to slow cook it and then sear it at the end, the reverse sear method.
- CWChadd Wright
Well, I'm gonna try that when I get to the house.
- JRJoe Rogan
It's the move. It's the move, and that's what I do.
- CWChadd Wright
My cou- my cousin raises all the cows we eat.
- JRJoe Rogan
Oh, that's great.
- CWChadd Wright
So, my mama makes all the bread we eat.
- JRJoe Rogan
Wow.
- CWChadd Wright
My wife grows all the, the vegetables that we eat. I'm, I'm gon' say seasonally, you know what I mean, seasonally, uh, my cousin raises all the cows. You know, we get our water right out of the ground. I take buckets of water once a week, go collect water.
- JRJoe Rogan
Wow.
- CWChadd Wright
Comes right out of a, a, a, a spring, some old rednecks found a spring back in there and ran a PVC pipe out of it, you know? And so we just go there and collect all our water.
- JRJoe Rogan
So you're totally off the grid?
- CWChadd Wright
Well, you know, we'll, we'll order some stuff from the grocery store, you know, just y- it, it would-
- 34:13 – 43:23
Wild game realities: raccoon, bear, trichinosis, and sharing meat with the community
- JRJoe Rogan
What does raccoon taste like?
- CWChadd Wright
(sighs) Raccoon's pretty greasy. You gotta, again, you gotta cook it right, you know? So much wild game, other than elk, I've found elk seems to be really, really good even if you're not a skilled cook.
- JRJoe Rogan
Yeah.
- CWChadd Wright
You know? To me, anyways, it's the best wild game meat I've ever ate.
- JRJoe Rogan
Yeah, I agree.
- CWChadd Wright
But, but, like, these squirrels, coons, uh, things like small game, even rabbit, they can get real tough, you know? That you can-
- JRJoe Rogan
Is that raccoon jam?
- CWChadd Wright
Yeah, that's coon right there. You cook it in a Crockpot. A lot of this small game you, you, uh, slow cook it, you know?
- JRJoe Rogan
Mm-hmm. Break it down.
- CWChadd Wright
And that kind of helps keep it moist and, and break it down.
- JRJoe Rogan
Yeah.
- CWChadd Wright
But, anyways, man, I'm all over the darn place.
- JRJoe Rogan
And you probably have to cook it to a high temperature, too. Raccoons probably get trichinosis, right?
- CWChadd Wright
I don't know if a coon does or not. I've killed a bunch of bears, and I know they do.
- JRJoe Rogan
They do.
- CWChadd Wright
Yeah, that's the one thing I didn't like about bear.
- JRJoe Rogan
Yeah, me too.
- CWChadd Wright
Uh-
- JRJoe Rogan
It, it makes me uncomfortable.
- CWChadd Wright
I killed, I've killed two black bears, both of them with my bow. Uh, both of them about 500 pounds.
- JRJoe Rogan
Whoa.
- CWChadd Wright
And, uh-
- JRJoe Rogan
Those are big black bears.
- CWChadd Wright
They're big, big black bears. I-
- JRJoe Rogan
Are these Georgia black bears?
- CWChadd Wright
No, these are Virginia.
- JRJoe Rogan
Oh.
- CWChadd Wright
There's a place in Virginia called the Great Dismal Swamp. It's, uh, about 110,000 acre continuous block of land. That's what's left of it. It's eat up with bears. I mean, I would take my coon dog down the, down the, the, the swamp bottom, we called it the run, and, uh, during springtime, when them bears were out with cubs, I couldn't even hardly run my coon dog up and down through there, there were so many bears in there. And them sows would get, they would get f- you know, mad at us for being in there and start popping their teeth and making racket. I took a young man with me down in there one time, first time he ever been coon hunting. I was hunting a dog called a leopard cur, and I cut that dog loose in there and he went down in there, ah, boom, slam treed. I thought, "All right, this is good," 'cause coon hunting can be rough. We walked down in there and I had this ma- this young guy with me, he had the rifle. We got up to the tree and I walk up to that dog and leash it up and I'm fooling with the dog, getting it leashed back on the tree there, and he said, "What is that?" I said, "What are you talking about?" He said, "Stop and listen." And I stopped, and that dog quit barking for a second, and all of a sudden I could hear bark raining down on the leaves above my head, 'cause it was summertime. About that time, about a 300-pound black bear comes sliding down out of that tree like it was-
- JRJoe Rogan
(laughs)
- CWChadd Wright
... on a fireman's pole, landed, I'm talking about that joker landed right in the midst of me, him, and the dog, and he's standing there, he's just frozen, 'cause he never been coon hunting before. He's got the gun-He's just frozen. And about the time that bear hit the ground, I snapped the leash off of that dog, 'cause the dog was my only chance to run this bear out of our vicinity. And those, these cur dogs are real gritty. They won't back up. They're, I, I mean, they won't back up for nothing. They're like a, a, like a game cock, man. And, uh, that dog tore out after that bear, ran him out for ... I looked over at that boy, I said, "What, were you just gonna ... You've got the gun."
- 43:23 – 44:57
Yukon River 1000 and sitting with a dying mentor: confronting death up close
- CWChadd Wright
Have you been, uh, have you been up to the Yukon Territory at all?
- JRJoe Rogan
No. No, I haven't.
- CWChadd Wright
I just got back.
- JRJoe Rogan
What were you doing up there?
- CWChadd Wright
It's been, it's been, you know, it's been quite the journey, both on the m- on the macro and the micro level, (laughs) to wind up here at this table with you. I, I spent the last, about the last month sitting with a good friend of mine, one of my biggest mentors in my life. I'd si- I'd sit with him for hours on end while he was dying. Uh, and, um, then I, I, I had to leave him, and I went out to the Yukon. Sorry, man. Uh, we need to talk more about that, by the way. A- and, uh, I had a, I've got a teammate that I went through SEAL training and all with. He was paralyzed 14 years ago. And, uh, he wanted to go on a, a, an, an adventure. And I said, "Well, there's a race out there. It's a 1,000-mile kayaking race. It's the longest kayaking race in the world on the Yukon River. Totally unsupported." He said, "All right." Well, it took ... He prepared for about two years. And, uh, we went out there and did that on the Yukon River.
- JRJoe Rogan
Wow.
- CWChadd Wright
And then, uh, I came home and my, my buddy died the day I got home. And so, uh, it's been a, man, it's been a wild last month or so. Have you ever got to sit with anybody-
- JRJoe Rogan
While they're dying?
- CWChadd Wright
... important to you?
- JRJoe Rogan
Not while they're dying, no.
- 44:57 – 50:41
Death as the ‘great foe’: scripture, hospice visions, and the “death reach” phenomenon
- CWChadd Wright
I highly recommend it. It will teach you so much, man.
- JRJoe Rogan
About what's important?
- CWChadd Wright
It has made me grow, like, I don't know, man. It just gives me the doggone chills thinking about it. And the crazy thing is, is the type of person I used to be, I woulda thought, you know, going and sitting with someone who's dying is a waste of time. Like, I got other things to do, right? You do too. We got busy lives. (sighs) Well, this man, he mentored me, uh, hunting and everything, working, all that. His name was Don Tidwell. From the time I was about 13 to the time I left to go become a Navy SEAL. Well, I did my whole Navy thing. I got out. I reconnected with Don for a while, but then I started this company now that we have, 3F7 Project. Got busy. I have a curse from my military service, is, is I have this unique ability to be able to forget you ever existed. Uh, when, when I, you know, when y- when I get on some sort of mission, and you're not part of that anymore, I can forget you ever existed. And so I lost touch with him because of my own selfishness, and been doing this thing for the last four or five years. Well, his wife called me and said, "Look, he just wants to see you one more time. He's got pancreatic cancer. He's got maybe two weeks left. He just wants to see you one more time." (exhales) Good night, man. Took a lot of courage for me to go show up in front of him, and sit down with him and say, "Mr. Don, I'm sorry I haven't been the friend to you that you deserve. Will you forgive me?" He's laying there dying. He looks back at me and says, "Son, there's nothing to forgive." I, I mean, just like ... A- and then from that point, I'd go sit with him twice a week for eight or nine or 10 hours, just sit right there by his bed. I'd read the scriptures to him. He only had a third-grade education. We read about the Gospel, and we read about the resurrection, and we read about creation and ... You know, we don't ... The first thing that you learn, I think, when you sit with somebody that's dying is that death is the great foe that, that sits above mankind and scoffs at our wisdom. You get what I'm saying?
- JRJoe Rogan
Yeah.
- CWChadd Wright
He, he s- the death is this great foe. It is the enemy that sits above us and mocks the wisdom of man. Uh, Mr. Don had c- built a, a, an e- basically an empire within the e- within the community he lived in. He had made millions and millions of dollars as an entrepreneur, couldn't read or write. But, um, he still had to succumb to this process that's coming for all of us. Like, I don't know, man, that was like ... That, that just hit me. Like, we think ... We wanna look up at the sky and we want to explain how the cosmos began, and we can't even solve our own biggest problem? We can't solve our own biggest problem. Which is death, right? It's the b- it's the biggest problem for all of us.
- JRJoe Rogan
Yeah.
- CWChadd Wright
We can't figure out how to solve it, how to overcome it. Like, we don't think about this enough. Like, have you ever thought, why are you dying? Have you ever thought about that?
- JRJoe Rogan
Sure.
- CWChadd Wright
Like, like, not ... Like, I get it. Like, all of us, we understand death as, you know, we go along through this life, but, and then something happens. We get hit by a car, one of our organs fail, cancer happens, whatever, and we say that killed us, right? And that thing did kill us, but your entire life is leading you to that point.Like, why do you have to die? Like, it's, it's by necessity you must die. Why? What's killing you? What, what are you, what's killing you?
- JRJoe Rogan
Well, age. Your body stops reproducing correctly, your cells don't reproduce correctly anymore.
- CWChadd Wright
So, why does that happen though?
- JRJoe Rogan
Well, every animal.
- CWChadd Wright
What's causing that?
- JRJoe Rogan
Every animal, almost every animal on this planet has a, a timeline that it exists in. It's probably, it's probably, uh, a natural function of keeping a balance. Like, all of nature has a balance.
- CWChadd Wright
Mm-hmm.
- JRJoe Rogan
And I mean, can you imagine if mosquitoes lived 1,000 years, what a fucking pain in the ass that would be? No, they get a couple but, you know, how long does a mosquito live? A week?
- CWChadd Wright
Mm-hmm.
- JRJoe Rogan
How long does a fly live? A week? Good. 'Cause, uh, otherwise we'd be fucked, you know? Or a deer, a good deer, a good deer that's like, the best days of its life, it's like, 13 years, it's done, it's over-
- CWChadd Wright
Mm-hmm.
- JRJoe Rogan
... it's gonna, it, it's limping, it's gonna get torn apart by coyotes. Whatever gets it. Everything has a time because if it didn't then there'd be too many people.
- CWChadd Wright
Yeah.
- JRJoe Rogan
There'd be too many animals.
- CWChadd Wright
The balance would be-
- JRJoe Rogan
The balance would be all fucked up.
- CWChadd Wright
Yeah. That's, that's a great answer, man. Like...
- 50:41 – 1:05:33
Aging, anti-aging science, and whether death is ‘fixable’
- JRJoe Rogan
The thing is, there's a lot of scientists that are working on that. A lot of scientists-
- CWChadd Wright
(clears throat)
- JRJoe Rogan
... that I've talked to that are treating aging, uh, like a disease. So instead of just accepting the fact, like, "Oh, you're 50 now. Things are slowing down." Like, well, why are they slowing down and what can we do to reverse that?
- CWChadd Wright
I love thinking along those lines, man.
- JRJoe Rogan
Yeah.
- CWChadd Wright
Like, yeah. I, I love that.
- JRJoe Rogan
At the very least what it does is improves your performance radically as an older person.
- CWChadd Wright
Mm-hmm.
- JRJoe Rogan
Improves your physical performance.
- CWChadd Wright
Mm-hmm.
- JRJoe Rogan
It's what, what was, what people would be capable of naturally with no supplements 20, 30 years ago. It's a very different world today.
- CWChadd Wright
Mm-hmm.
- JRJoe Rogan
Very, very, very different.
- CWChadd Wright
Mm-hmm.
- JRJoe Rogan
And with all the different modalities, all the different things you could do like hyperbaric treatments, NMN supplementation, red light therapy, cold plunge sauna, all these different things radically change the composition of your body and your overall metabolic health. Radically changes it. And then with hormone therapy and all the other different things that you can do, I mean, it's just a, just because of science and because of people figuring these things out, it's, it's a radically different world than it was in the past.
- CWChadd Wright
But is, is there a solution? Like, is there a fix for death? Like, is anyone searching-
- JRJoe Rogan
Yes.
- CWChadd Wright
... or even contemplating that?
- JRJoe Rogan
Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. David Sinclair is all over that. He's a guy from Harvard that we've had on the podcast a few times. That, that he's, that's his primary study. They're, they're treating aging as a disease and trying to figure out what different types of medication, what different types of therapies, what's the root cause of the cells aging-
- CWChadd Wright
Yeah.
- JRJoe Rogan
... and not reproducing correctly. Yeah.
- CWChadd Wright
It's an ugly thing, man.
- JRJoe Rogan
Oh, it gets rough, especially if you don't take care of yourself.
- CWChadd Wright
(sighs)
- JRJoe Rogan
You know? That's the rough one, when you see people that have been drinking their whole life and then they, they quit at 75 and you're like, "Pff, it's a little late." You know, you've been torturing your body, forcing your body to process poison for decades.
- CWChadd Wright
Yeah.
- JRJoe Rogan
You know? And the w- and also just living in cities alone, you knew, you were talking about that smell. That, that weird smell that you get in cities? That's fucking brake dust and tires and exhaust fumes.
- CWChadd Wright
And doo-doo.
- JRJoe Rogan
And doo-doo. There's a little bit of doo-doo. Not bad here. Go to San Francisco.
- CWChadd Wright
I found a turd on the side of the trail today.
- 1:05:33 – 1:10:47
Election and ‘the Almighty calling you’: faith as something received, not chosen
- CWChadd Wright
But look, man. Uh, I- and- and I don't even need all these signs and wonders. Like, I- I don't even need all that, man. I mean, i- it's great when you get the opportunity to witness things like I got to witness with my friend, Mr. Don, and- and just see his faith and see that the Word manifest power in him. Like, it's great when you get to see it, but you can get c- too carried away with all that stuff too, you know what I mean? It's like, uh, r-... (sighs) I don't know, man. You know, I'm wondering, Joe, if the Almighty ain't calling you.
- JRJoe Rogan
Calling me how? On the phone?
- CWChadd Wright
Calling you, man.
- JRJoe Rogan
What do you mean? In what way? (laughs)
- CWChadd Wright
I'm just wondering. I think a- I think a lot of people are wondering what the Almighty is doing, uh, what He's working in you. Um, (sighs) see, scripture is dripping with something that's called election. Uh, a lot of people get mad about me talking about this, but the- this- this truth that we will never choose God the Almighty, we will never choose to believe. Uh, as a matter of fact, scripture actually says over and over again, the- the whole message of the cross is foolishness. It's foolishness! I mean, seriously? Some dude died on a cross? What does that represent to man? That represents weakness. That represents defeat. That represents death. You're gone. The- the message of the cross is foolishness to man. W- we will never choose to believe in the message of what we call the Gospel, that is that Jesus Christ died on the cross according to the scriptures, he was buried, and that he rose again by his own power according to the scriptures. That's foolishness.And the only way that we can or will ever believe that, like truly place our faith in that and everything that's contained in that statement right there, 'cause there's a lot there. You could literally spend the rest of your life meditating on that right there, the Gospel, the what was done on the cross and by way of the resurrection of Christ. You would never get to the end of it. You would never comprehend everything. You would never search it to its bottom. You will never believe that, and the only way that you can believe that is if The Almighty, in His grace, basically makes you alive spiritually. Because these things are spiritually discerned. They're not logically discerned; they're foolishness to man. These things must be spiritually appraised. And so The Almighty, by His grace, makes you alive, literally spiritually alive, so that then you can discern the truth of not only the Gospel, but everything, the totality of what is contained in Scripture. It's called the Doctrine of Election. And so when I say, "I wonder if The Almighty's calling you," what I mean is, I wonder if you are one of The Almighty's elect.
- JRJoe Rogan
Oh, boy.
- CWChadd Wright
(laughs)
- JRJoe Rogan
That's a lot.
- CWChadd Wright
And if- and if you are, you better hold onto your britches, son.
- JRJoe Rogan
(laughs)
- CWChadd Wright
(laughs)
- JRJoe Rogan
I oftentimes wonder what's going on and why me. Yeah.
- CWChadd Wright
You- you must, man.
- JRJoe Rogan
Yeah.
- CWChadd Wright
You must.
- JRJoe Rogan
It doesn't make sense.
- CWChadd Wright
You must.
- JRJoe Rogan
Yeah.
- CWChadd Wright
And I ha- you know, that's a personal thing, man, and I- I don't- I- I hope you don't take that as any disrespect.
- JRJoe Rogan
No, I don't.
- CWChadd Wright
It's just, um, for me, seeing ... It's- it's odd how much we have in common, seeing what- what a, uh, special human being you are. Like, it's exciting for me to be able to hope that The Almighty is indeed calling you. Like, that's exciting, dude.
- JRJoe Rogan
(laughs)
- CWChadd Wright
Like I pr- like literally, I prayed for you last night.
- JRJoe Rogan
(laughs) Wow.
- CWChadd Wright
Like I- I literally, on your behalf, I begged The Almighty to basically make you alive spiritually so that you could have discernment and be able to appraise these things that are in Scripture that s- have seemed like foolishness for so long to you. You know what? They seemed like foolishness for me- to me for a long, long time, dude.
- JRJoe Rogan
What changed?
- CWChadd Wright
We're talking about a bunch of wild stuff, man, and I want-
- 1:10:47 – 1:14:40
From SEAL aspirant to heart surgery to the teams: early identity, grit, and the Hard Charger arc
- JRJoe Rogan
Can I take you back while we're in the middle of this? I- I'd like to take you back to, like, how you got on this journey of being a podcaster and then to that. Because I want to know, like, what is the transition from the SEALS to becoming this guy who's very outspoken on YouTube and starts putting these videos out and things get interesting, and then you, very, very religious and- and spreading that in your YouTube as well. Like, how did this whole journey get started for you?
- CWChadd Wright
Well, I had, uh ... I decided I wanted to become a SEAL because I wasn't really good at anything else in life, and I, you know, didn't wanna go back to school and all that stuff. That's a whole long story, but I decided I wanted to do that. Uh, uh, finally, I went to join the Navy. Had- I- they disqualified me, sent me back home after boot camp, wouldn't let me go to BUD/S, told me I never would be able to become a SEAL because I had a pericardial cyst on my heart, seven-centimeter cyst on my heart. You can look it up. Research "Navy SEAL pericardial cyst." You can read the whole medical journal. I'm the only one. Came back home, paid for my own heart surgery as a civilian, showed back up in the Navy less than a year later, made it all the way through SEAL training unscathed.
- JRJoe Rogan
So what'd they have to do? They have to remove the cyst?
- CWChadd Wright
Yeah, they had to cut my chest open and take a big old cyst out of my heart.
- JRJoe Rogan
How big is the- did they have to open your ribs, the whole deal?
- CWChadd Wright
About from here to here.
- JRJoe Rogan
Oh, so they go through the ribs?
- CWChadd Wright
Yeah, they peeled my pec up.
- JRJoe Rogan
Ooh.
- CWChadd Wright
Peeled it up, cut me open right there, went in there and took that cyst out.
- JRJoe Rogan
How long did it take to recover from that?
- CWChadd Wright
Took me about a year. I was back in the Navy about a year after that surgery, uh, you know. But- but I- i- if it- if it wouldn't have been for that, I wouldn't have made it through SEAL training, man. I didn't even know how to swim, dude. I didn't even know how to swim.
- JRJoe Rogan
That's crazy.
- CWChadd Wright
I- I- I- I was the most unlikely person to ever make it through SEAL training. Okay? Hands down.
- JRJoe Rogan
Did you have any background in physical fitness?
- CWChadd Wright
No.
- JRJoe Rogan
Nothing?
- CWChadd Wright
Lord, no, I didn't, man.
- JRJoe Rogan
(laughs)
- CWChadd Wright
It took me- it took me two or three months to pass a mile and a half run.
- JRJoe Rogan
Wow.
- CWChadd Wright
Yeah. Made it through SEAL training, all this and that good stuff. I had a very colorful career. Uh, started off real good, got real bad. I mean, I've been through it all. I've been ... I- in SEAL training at the end of our BUD/S prep phase, you know, I was awarded the Hard Charger Award, you know. Everybody selected me. The instructor cadre said, "You're the one that's gonna make it." I was actually the only one to ever receive that award to make it through that training pipeline. Everyone else they had selected up until that point all quit. But they selected me not based on my physical abilities, but based on the fact that I had had a dang heart surgery just to have a chance to toe the line, to try something that everybody quits anyways.
- JRJoe Rogan
So did you train for the SEAL training? Did you, like, give yourself enough time-
- CWChadd Wright
Af-
- JRJoe Rogan
... to get physically fit?
- CWChadd Wright
After that heart surgery, when I went in the first time, I could barely pass the physical standards test that I needed to pass to get the SEAL contract. If I woulda went straight through and wouldn't have had that heart surgery, there's no way I woulda made it. I wouldn't have been able to meet the physical standards once I actually got to BUD/S. There's no way. But when I had that heart surgery-And then I finally got to where I could, you know... Okay. Man, I wa- At that point, I wanted it so bad because I had to go through all that. You see what I'm saying?
- NANarrator
Yeah.
- CWChadd Wright
I didn't want it that bad until I had to go through all that pain and, and fear, and have my chest cut open and all this crap. But, man, when I came out the other end of that, like I said, man, I was like a game rooster, man. It was like you look into the eye of a game rooster and he's got one burning hot desire is to fight. Man, you a man who appreciates combat sports, you ought to go watch a cockfight one day.
- NANarrator
I've seen.
- CWChadd Wright
I mean, just, that's what I had.
- 1:14:40 – 1:20:03
Moral collapse, negligent discharge, and the beginning of conversion
- CWChadd Wright
I just had this burning hot desire to- for this thing. Nothing was gonna stop me. Made it all the way through. Man, I had a, a lot of ups and downs in my time in the teams. Uh, that's a whole ... That's, that's a three-hour-long story. But basically-
- NANarrator
We got plenty of time.
- CWChadd Wright
Basically, man, I, I got to my SEAL team and they had slotted our entire team to, uh, cover down on Africa and a couple other European countries, and, uh, I got so pissed 'cause I'm like, "There's a war happening." Like, that's the reason I joined. Like, everybody that joined wants to go and fight in this war, and here now I'm wind up at this place that's, you know, not gonna go where everybody wants to go. I got so hateful, and, uh, through the course of a couple of years, I just got involved in all manner of what I would call sin. All manner. Drunkenness, uh, sleeping around with women, hurting people on purpose. Hateful, terrible person. I didn't love anybody. And, uh, the, the, the whole down- the- what, what the downfall of it is I was overseas, I was on a- I- w- and we had a range day. The night before, I had went out and then just burned it down, son.
- NANarrator
(laughs)
- CWChadd Wright
I had no business going to the range that day, I'm gonna go ahead and tell you. But what do you do? You get up and go to the range, right? I'm sitting over there on the range, messing with my gun, pretty out of it, and I have a negligent discharge, and the guy that's standing beside me is my gunner's mate, and it barely skims him in the side of his leg.
- NANarrator
(exhales)
- CWChadd Wright
The- it was pointed down, thank God. Pointed down. That happened, and that was the thing that, like, like, stopped me in my tracks. Like, "Holy crap, Chad, if you keep going the way that you're going, you're gonna kill somebody." You know what I mean? I mean, I was involved in all manner of sin, buddy. Stopped me right there. I had to go through a trident review board, a, a disciplinary review board, a captain's mass, the whole nine yards. Luckily, I had a good enough reputation up to that point that I had guys that, that vouched for me, specifically my sea daddy, Jake Hubman. He, he, he wrote a whole long thing. "Chad's, Chad's done well. He's this is..." You know, this and that, and they presented that, and the Navy let me stay in, keep my trident. Well, went back home, moved in with some lesbians-
- NANarrator
(laughs)
- CWChadd Wright
... still continuing on this, this path or this just trajectory of just ugliness, just hatefulness. You know what I mean? But I had kinda started hiding it a little more, (laughs) you know, while I was at work. I was like, "Okay, if I'm gonna have to go to work, I'm gonna have to square myself away a little bit." Um, you know, tell you how hateful I was, this man, Jake Hubman, my sea daddy, he, uh, um, he started struggling with alcoholism shortly after I had that big mistake. Well, I- I got back in the platoon and, uh, they told us, they said, "Well, you know, Jake's struggling with alcoholism. We're sending him off to this rehab program." They said, uh, "Just leave him alone." Well, remember I told you I can forget people exist? I just forgot he existed. A couple months later, he killed his self. That's what kind of friend I was. That's what kind of person I was. Here's this guy who... That's the kind of person that I still am sometimes today. What a, wha- there, there is, there's literally nothing good in me. I'm convinced of that. Here's this man who had poured so much into me, literally trained me up, taught me the ways of war. It's on account of his mentorship probably that I was able to stay alive throughout the course of my career, and I just turned my back on him when he was going through the hardest time of his life. He kills his self. I don't ever get to make that up. I just ignored him. Uh, that's the kind of- does this describe to you the type of person that I was?
- NANarrator
Yeah, for sure.
- CWChadd Wright
That's pretty bad, ain't it, brother? I mean, that's pretty bad. That's pretty ugly.
- NANarrator
Understandably selfish given the circumstances.
- CWChadd Wright
So I get back in a platoon, get ready, deploy again. I'm keeping my wickedness c- under control, you know, outwardly, but it's still all there, man. Well, we go up to Tunisia and North Africa, and Arabs attacked the embassy up there when all that Benghazi and that stuff went down. Uh, it happened all over North Africa. So we went up there, re-secured the embassy. We came back.
- 1:20:03 – 1:49:23
The ‘demon barracks’ story: prayer, olive oil, and a sudden inner transformation
- CWChadd Wright
We left there and came back to Germany.... to re-jock our equipment because that mission was over in Tunisia. Came back to Germany to re-jock and then we were going out to Nigeria. And while we were in Germany, the only way for me to tell you this in- in just simple terms is we were staying in a barracks that was inhabited by some sort of demon. And that is, that was the genesis of my conversion, (laughs) of me being made aware that... Okay.
Episode duration: 2:55:35
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Transcript of episode xpM-pGPb8kc
