EVERY SPOKEN WORD
150 min read · 30,001 words- 0:00 – 0:02
Intro
- JRJoe Rogan
[upbeat music]
- 0:02 – 6:02
Canadian kettlebell gift & Pavel-style training talk
- JRJoe Rogan
Joe Rogan Podcast, check it out.
- SPSpeaker
The Joe Rogan Experience.
- JRJoe Rogan
Train by day, Joe Rogan Podcast by night. All day. [upbeat music] How are you, sir? Pleasure to meet you.
- SPSpeaker
It's great to be here. Thanks for having me.
- JRJoe Rogan
My pleasure.
- SPSpeaker
Great to be back in Texas.
- JRJoe Rogan
I'm glad we finally did this.
- SPSpeaker
Yes, me too.
- JRJoe Rogan
I wanted to do it the first go around.
- SPSpeaker
Yeah, I know.
- JRJoe Rogan
[laughs]
- SPSpeaker
Well, the w- when I got the invitation, we were in the m- in the middle of the election, and we just don't leave the country during election campaigns.
- JRJoe Rogan
I get it.
- SPSpeaker
And, uh, the problem we've had is we can't get you to come to Canada, and so, uh, we've actually hatched a full strategy to get you into Canada.
- JRJoe Rogan
Ah.
- SPSpeaker
'Cause we think it's gonna do big things for our tourism numbers. So do you mind if I present you with something right out of the gate?
- JRJoe Rogan
Sure.
- SPSpeaker
All right. This is, uh, this is from a gunsmith and machinist in Calgary, Alberta. His name is Jay. And he's designed, uh ...
- JRJoe Rogan
Look at this.
- SPSpeaker
Look at this kettlebell. Guess what the weight is.
- JRJoe Rogan
Uh, 70 pounds?
- SPSpeaker
70 pounds.
- JRJoe Rogan
Yeah.
- SPSpeaker
That's the, that's the weight you have. And it says on the front here, "Jamie" ... It says here on the front, "Jamie, pull it up."
- JRJoe Rogan
[laughs]
- SPSpeaker
So you've got that. We've got, uh, let's see here, some other stuff, uh, for a stand. We've got, uh-
- JRJoe Rogan
Oh, wow. That's really cool
- SPSpeaker
... look at this stand here. So we've got, "Seeing is believing," which I think was the slogan of the first UFC that you were the commentator for. I think it was n- number 13?
- JRJoe Rogan
12.
- SPSpeaker
Number 12, right?
- 6:02 – 10:03
From teen injury to politics: Poilievre’s origin story and philosophy
- JRJoe Rogan
Have you always been a workout guy?
- SPSpeaker
Yeah. Look, I, I was, um, big into sports until my mid-teens. I was on the wrestling team. I wasn't great. I was good, but I wasn't great. Um, then I got a, a wicked, uh, tendonitis in my shoulder.
- JRJoe Rogan
Mm.
- SPSpeaker
And it ended myathleticism for like four years, and that's how I got into politics, 'cause I was so bored. I'd get, get home from school, I had nothing to do, so I took my, told my mother, "Take me-
- JRJoe Rogan
Tendonitis got you into politics?
- SPSpeaker
Yeah, that's what it was. [laughs]
- JRJoe Rogan
[laughs]
- SPSpeaker
I just couldn't get rid of it. Like I- e- every time I thought I had it beat, I'd go in and I'd train, and it would be full of inflammation. No one could do anything about it, and so I was like bored out of my mind, and I said to my mom, like, "You know, you go to these local meetings with the Conservative Association, like take me to that, 'cause I'm going crazy." And-
- JRJoe Rogan
That's nuts.
- SPSpeaker
Yeah.
- JRJoe Rogan
So that, so what, what, what were you interested in when you first went there? Like, we just didn't like the way things were running? Like, what, what was it about it that got you so curious?
- SPSpeaker
Well, I grew up in a suburban neighborhood in South, south end of Calgary. W- you know, and, and my folks were teachers. I was adopted. My mom was a 16-year-old un- uh, you know, she, she was a s- a s- obviously a single mom. She put me up for adoption to two schoolteachers. There was electricians, and oil workers, and police officers lived on our street. Normal, hardworking, good folks. And I always grew up with the impression they were getting screwed over, and that, um, the government didn't listen to people like them, didn't listen to people who grew up on streets like ours. And living in Western Canada, there was a greater sense of that. We called it Western alienation at the time. And there was this guy, kind of a quirky guy, but a really brilliant guy, named Preston Manning, and I saw this billboard of him, and he had his fist up and it said, "Enough." And I said, "Yeah, I like that guy." So I got involved in politics, and I started reading about different things. I start- I read a, a biography on Fidel Castro, and then I read some more-
- JRJoe Rogan
Justin's dad.
- SPSpeaker
[laughs] No, no, not Justin's dad.
- JRJoe Rogan
Right?
- SPSpeaker
No, no, no.
- JRJoe Rogan
No?
- SPSpeaker
No. His dad was Pierre.
- JRJoe Rogan
You sure? [laughs]
- SPSpeaker
His dad was Pierre. His dad was Pierre. I had issues with Pierre Trudeau too, because-
- JRJoe Rogan
It is a great conspiracy theory, though.
- SPSpeaker
I- well, it is a hell of a... I don't think it's a true one, though. I, his dad is Pierre.
- JRJoe Rogan
Unfortunately.
- SPSpeaker
His, his dad, um, was very controversial where I grew up 'cause he did a lot of damage to the oil sector, and we're from oil country. And so that was one of the things that I felt kind of resentful about the national government, and one of the reasons-
- JRJoe Rogan
Mm
- SPSpeaker
... I got involved is because the West deserved a fairer deal. And, uh, but I read a lot of books like, you know, Milton Friedman, Capitalism and Freedom, and I came to, to, to develop a philosophy based on just maximizing personal, financial, religious freedom. Let people make their own decisions. And that, that animated me to get involved in politics and fight for that, and I've been doing it ever since.
- JRJoe Rogan
Wow, that's a fascinating transition from wrestling and tendonitis-
- SPSpeaker
Yeah
- JRJoe Rogan
... to getting deeply involved in politics.
- SPSpeaker
Yeah, I mean, like, you know, you're a sports guy. If you had suffered an injury that took you out of TaeKwonDo when you were young, and you s- you simply couldn't compete at anything, you'd probably be looking for some other adventure.
- 10:03 – 15:17
Canada’s drift during COVID, civil liberties, and assisted suicide concerns
- JRJoe Rogan
Well, uh, I'm really excited to have you in here, because I've seen you speak multiple times, and you're a very reasonable, intelligent person that makes a lot of sense, and that is, that is a rare thing in politics. And I love Canada. Like, I sh- I just say I don't go up there anymore, but it's because I, I, I think the government went horribly wrong over the last, you know, X amount of years, but the people are amazing. It's like, I was alw- I have always said that Canada has like, it's like America with, like, 20% less assholes.
- SPSpeaker
[laughs]
- JRJoe Rogan
Like, every time I would go up there, I'm like, "People are so nice."
- SPSpeaker
It is true.
- JRJoe Rogan
They're, they're like the nicest people.
- SPSpeaker
Yeah.
- JRJoe Rogan
And I think that's part of what went wrong for Canada, is that people are rule followers and, you know, they're trusting and kind people, and, you know, this wolf in sheep's clothing snuck in and, you know, was pretending he was a sweet guy and passing all these crazy laws. And just when we saw what happened with COVID, with just, with what happened with the truckers and people's accounts getting shut down for donating to the truckers, like, the whole thing was so concerning because it's our... Canada was like a part of America almost. I mean, you're a different country, but it's like you used to be able to go over there with just a driver's license, you know? It was like, it was such a cool place to... I started going to the Montreal Comedy Festival in, like, 1993. I loved it up there. It's, like, one of my favorite places to visit.
- SPSpeaker
Is it the Just for Laughs? Juste pour Rire?
- JRJoe Rogan
Yeah, yeah.
- SPSpeaker
Good. How's your French?
- JRJoe Rogan
Not good.
- SPSpeaker
Okay.
- JRJoe Rogan
No.
- SPSpeaker
We'll work on that. We'll get you some French lessons.
- JRJoe Rogan
[laughs] It's terrible. I don't know any French words. My wife is learning French, though. It's interesting. She's got this app that she's learning French. Um, but it's just an amazing place. It's a, it's a great country, and, um, to see it go the way it's been going and sliding the way it's been happening over the last, you know, X amount of years, there's just so many things that concern me, you know? One of the things that really concerns me is this, um, assisted suicide thing. That 1 in 20 deaths in Canada is now assisted suicide? That's insane.
- SPSpeaker
Well, listen, my, my view is that people should have the choice, but, uh, the concern we have is, uh, the suggestion that it would be offered to kids-
- JRJoe Rogan
Right
- SPSpeaker
... or offered to people whose only condition is ment- mental illness.
- JRJoe Rogan
Right.
- SPSpeaker
I don't agree with that
- JRJoe Rogan
My concern as well.
- SPSpeaker
Yeah.
- JRJoe Rogan
I mean, if someone's got a terminal ill- like a good friend of mine-
- SPSpeaker
Mm-hmm
- JRJoe Rogan
... went to Oregon to end his life 'cause he had ALS.
- SPSpeaker
Okay.
- JRJoe Rogan
But I mean, he was gone.
- SPSpeaker
Right.
- JRJoe Rogan
I mean, he could barely talk at the end of his life. His name is Michael Lair. He was a regular guest on Kill Tony. Great guy.
- SPSpeaker
Right.
- 15:17 – 18:25
Meaning, Viktor Frankl, and leadership grounded in hope
- JRJoe Rogan
... the exercise thing, it's not just give them, you know, control of their life, but it makes them happier. It's, it, it show- there's been studies that show it's much more effective than antidepressants.
- SPSpeaker
Absolutely. Well, it's the ph- the, first of all, there's the phili- physiological side, which affects the brain, but it's also the sensation of discomfort that you push through-
- JRJoe Rogan
Yes
- SPSpeaker
... knowing that you have to focus on the thing you have to do. And, uh, that I think, it, it helps us in anything we're encountering, whether you're going through a divorce or a bankruptcy or an injury or an illness, if you know that pushing through to the other side because you've got a meaning there, that can give people hope for, for, for a better life. You know, my favorite psychologist is, uh, Viktor Frankl, Viktor Frankl, and he developed this, um, Lagos treatment, which was basically giving people a sense of meaning. He survived the Holocaust in the concentration camp because he had a sense of meaning, that he wanted to... His book was stolen from him in the concentration camp about this, this theory, and he wanted to live on so he could survive and write that book. And then he found his, w- in his teaching that it wasn't so much people's circumstances that determined their happiness, it was whether they had a meaning in life. And he tells this incredible story of a group therapy session where he had this very rich woman who was married to a very rich man, and he had n- next to him another lady who was living in terrible poverty. She'd lost a son and had a second severely disabled son. And he said to both of them, "What will your life look, look like when you're 80 years old and you're on your deathbed?" And the, the wealthier lady said, "Well, I will look back and think that I had some fun and enjoyed the simple, the, the, the luxuries of being very wealthy and having an easy life, that there wasn't a lot of meaning to it." And whereas the mother who was struggling with a disabled child and had lost another one said, "Well, I gave my first child a great life. A short one, but a great one. I struggled to give my disabled child a good, dignified existence, and I leave this world satisfied and happy that my life had purpose and meaning." And the lesson I take from that is that it, it is not about whether you have a gazillion dollars or whether your life is easy, it's whether you have some meaning to invest your, your, your life into. And I think we have to infuse people's lives with, with meaning so that they, that they can, they can live a good life.
- JRJoe Rogan
Well, that's a great message, and I think that's one of the most important parts of being a leader is having a great message and having a great philosophy and having a great perspective. And I mean, that's what disturbed me the most about when Trudeau was running the country, that I, I didn't feel like... I felt, I felt like he was manipulating people with woke politics and ideology, and that it was just this weird slippery slope that people were falling down where they're losing rights and you're losing your ability to express yourself.
- SPSpeaker
Right.
- JRJoe Rogan
And it just, it just really disturbed me because I always felt that Canada was, like, one of the freest places and one of the most open-minded places, and it just, I, I didn't understand how it could fall so quickly.
- 18:25 – 21:46
Parliament as a constraint on power: ‘Mind Your Own Business’ governance
- SPSpeaker
We, we still... You know, we are a free country and we, we are a democracy. We have preserved that. Um, you know, my leader, my... I had this funny moment when Joe Biden came to Parliament Hill and I said, um, uh, "Mr. President, I'm Pierre Poilievre. I'm the leader of His Majesty's loyal opposition." And he said, "Loyal opposition?"How can you be loyal and opposition at the same time?
- JRJoe Rogan
[laughs]
- SPSpeaker
It's like, what the hell are you talking about? And, uh, because y- you know, you guys have a r- a system based on the r- a republic, whereas ours is the British system. And in our system, the, the opposition is an act of loyalty. That's what our system... It means that if you are opposing the government, you are doing it out of loyalty to the good of the people. In our House of Commons, you have a half circle in your Congress, we have two sides in our Parliament. It's two and a half sword lengths apart because they used to literally kill each other in the old English days. But the idea is the opposition is to prosecute the hell out of the government, make the mighty low. The p- most powerful people in the country are supposed to tremble every time they walk in that place because know every mistake they made, every abuse of power, every corruption they might have done can be exposed and in front of all eyes. So our system is really designed to constrain the power of government through what we call Parliament. Like, I don't work for government, I work for Parliament, and Parliament works for the people. We call it the House of Commons because the, it's the house of the common people. It's green in there because they used to meet in the, in the fields of England. And so I really view the role of our Parliament to limit the power of government, to maximize the power of the people, make people bigger, stronger, and more fulfilled by having the government narrowly focus on the, on the things it's supposed to do. Roads, military, basic social safety net, borders, police, et cetera, but then leave people alone to live their lives. If I were to start a political party from scratch, it would be the Mind Your Own Damn Business Party. You know, just get the government to do its job well, do f- you know, do four or five things really well, and then let people live their lives.
- JRJoe Rogan
Well, that sounds very reasonable.
- SPSpeaker
Yeah.
- JRJoe Rogan
Yeah, I mean-
- SPSpeaker
It is
- JRJoe Rogan
... anybody that doesn't go along with that, anybody that's opposed to that, that doesn't even make sense.
- SPSpeaker
No, look, uh, m- like I said, w- the way I grew up and everything I've seen ever since, when I talk to farmers or factory workers, electricians, I find they know just as much or more than the so-called experts I encounter on Parliament Hill. Like back during COVID when all these governments were printing money, uh, and all the politicians and bankers said, "Oh, this is great. Uh, well, look at all this money we get to spend." I'd walk around communities and I'd have, like, mechanics say, "You know we're gonna have inflation." And, uh, I would say, "Yeah, it makes sense to me." And I'd go back to Parliament Hill, and the experts would all say, "No, no, there's not gonna be any inflation." And sure enough, all that money filtered into the economy, bid up all the goods we buy, and, and everybody got smoked with higher prices. But the point is that it was the, it was the common people who don't study this stuff for a living, who don't read endless reports and studies, who could just figure out that if there's money pouring into the economy that's not matched by goods and services, it's gonna bid up the cost of everything. So that's my experience and my lo- my ideology is the common guy knows how to make his own decisions. We need to empower him to do that.
- JRJoe Rogan
Yeah, just stay out of people's lives.
- SPSpeaker
Exactly.
- 21:46 – 26:03
Trump’s ‘51st state’ comments, tariffs, and the case for Canada–U.S. trade alignment
- JRJoe Rogan
So there's a narrative in America, and the narrative is that you were about to win and your party was about to win, but then Trump came along and said he was gonna turn Canada into the 51st state.
- SPSpeaker
[laughs] And then-
- JRJoe Rogan
And everybody went crazy. Is that accurate?
- SPSpeaker
I wouldn't say they went crazy. I mean, it w- like-
- JRJoe Rogan
Well-
- SPSpeaker
It was a f-
- JRJoe Rogan
... they got very upset
- SPSpeaker
... they should be upset, though. I mean, and-
- JRJoe Rogan
Well, it's a crazy thing to say
- SPSpeaker
... it is a crazy thing to say. Canada's not for sale. We're never gonna be the 51st state. Uh, you know, we love Americans, uh, as neighbors and friends, but we, we wanna be C- uniquely and s- uh, we wanna be sovereign as Canadians. It's our country. It's where we grow up. You're a patriot as an American. I'm a patriot as a Canadian. It's where my grandfather arrived. It's where our collective ancestors, uh, put on military uniforms and sailed to fight wars. It's where our grandkids are gonna live. We're very proudly Canadian. So we're never gonna be the 51st state, and I'd, I just wish he'd knock that shit off so that we can get back to talking about the things that, that we can do as two separate but, but two separate countries that are actually friends.
- JRJoe Rogan
Did that really have that much of an effect up there? Like, did people take him seriously?
- SPSpeaker
[laughs] I think at, at first everyone thought it was a joke because we've always had these jokes like, you know, one day we're gonna take over Vermont and-
- JRJoe Rogan
[laughs]
- SPSpeaker
... Detroit should be part of Canada and all that stuff. But then he kept saying it and saying it and, uh, you know, it became un, uh, it became, uh... A lot of people got upset about it, and I think understandably so.
- JRJoe Rogan
Understandably.
- SPSpeaker
Yeah.
- JRJoe Rogan
Yeah.
- SPSpeaker
So-
- JRJoe Rogan
I mean, it's a crazy thing to say.
- SPSpeaker
It is a crazy thing to say [laughs] and it, it was never gonna happen.
- JRJoe Rogan
I talked to him on the phone about it. It was, like, so funny. He's like, "At first I was joking, but then people were like, 'It's a good idea.'"
- SPSpeaker
[laughs] No, no.
- JRJoe Rogan
Like, that's not a good idea.
- SPSpeaker
Nobody's saying that, I can assure him of that. But, uh, and, and w- and the tariffs aren't a good idea either. We should get the tariffs out 'cause there's so much b- we could be doing together a- as p- neighbors and partners if we got rid of those tariffs. Um, you know. L- the, I think, what are the biggest problems in America today? Affordability, security, and we can help with both if we knock the tariffs down. Let's look at affordability. We have the fourth biggest supply of oil anywhere on, on Earth. You guys pay a huge price discount for our oil because we're effectively... All our infrastructure to ship it is north-south, and it's a very unique heavy oil. So we accept, uh, unfortunately, and for now, a price discount on the oil we send you, which can translate into more jobs and paychecks, but also lower energy prices. You've got $5 a gallon right now in lots of places in America. Uh, you're buying... I wanna produce more so we can sell two million more barrels of Canadian oil into the US market. And then there's, there's housing. You've got huge housing, uh, pressures on young people that can't afford a place to live. We're the biggest supplier of f- of lumber for home building, uh, of any country that imports to the United States, exports to the United States. Uh, we've got very low cost but high quality softwood lumber we could be shipping. Or the best truck, the best-selling truck in America for 45 years now is the Ford Series. It's aluminum. It's a l- it's a military grade aluminum body.You guys can't make enough aluminum here. You don't have enough bauxite or electricity to, to convert it into alumina and aluminum. You get your, your aluminum from us. A tariff does not bring the production to America. It raises the price of the aluminum and therefore the F-Series truck. Get rid of that tariff, you lower taxes, you lower the cost of an F-Series truck for the, for the miner in Appalachia or the electrician in Ohio. And, uh, and that's just on the affordability side. There's a lot we can do with our minerals to make the continent a hell of a lot safer as well. So I think it's in America's interest to, to, to come towards a tariff-free deal and, and trade freely as friends, and, uh, that will be good for both of us.
- JRJoe Rogan
Have you had conversations with Trump about this?
- SPSpeaker
No. I, I, I believe in the rule of, uh, one prime minister at a time. So I fought like hell to win. I didn't win. We came very close. So I've, I've said, "Listen, I'll leave it to the prime minister to do the negotiating," and I've said I'll support him any way I can. Even in my visit down here, I'm sending him text messages to tell him what's going on, to try and support his work, 'cause what we want, we both want what's re- best for Canada.
- 26:03 – 39:41
How Canadian elections work & the ‘government-in-waiting’ role
- JRJoe Rogan
Where are your elections now? When do you have the next elections?
- SPSpeaker
That's, um, [laughs] this is a, a strangely hard question to answer because we're-
- JRJoe Rogan
I know, you have a weird system.
- SPSpeaker
Yeah, it, it's-
- JRJoe Rogan
Weird in comparison to ours, rather
- SPSpeaker
... y- yours are fixed, um, as you know. Ours, we have technically fixed election dates, but they c- but the government can fall at any time. It's very simple. A rule is that if the opposition parties bind up and they can vote down the government, that is to say, the majority of MPs in the House say, "We've lost confidence in the government," the election is now. Or if the prime minister, uh, decides he wants an election, he can call it, and the election is now. But, uh, he, it has to be sometime in the next roughly three years.
- JRJoe Rogan
Oh, so you have a deadline where it has to take place?
- SPSpeaker
We have a deadline. Yeah, that's right. So-
- JRJoe Rogan
But it could happen tomorrow.
- SPSpeaker
The, uh, y- it wouldn't necessarily be tomorrow, but, like, you know, in the next few weeks, if there were a non-confidence vote and the government lost it, then, then they, then they go to an election. So it's kinda like the British system.
- JRJoe Rogan
Interesting.
- SPSpeaker
Yeah.
- JRJoe Rogan
Um-
- SPSpeaker
Well, it is the British system, really. We, we, we adopted the British system almost identically.
- JRJoe Rogan
So when you're campaigning, you're essentially, this is like a long game.
- SPSpeaker
Yeah.
- JRJoe Rogan
You're, you're just laying out your strategy, laying out what you would do to make Canada a better place.
- SPSpeaker
Yeah. Well, we have two roles, uh, r- so I, I said I, I'm the leader of the opposition, but I'm also prime minister in waiting. [clears throat] So the notion is that the Canadian people should not only have a government, but they should have an alternative, and that alternative has two functions. Official opposition. It's actually called that. I think it's a proper noun, a, a capital O Official, capital O Opposition, and also government-in-waiting. So you have to be prosecuting the government, but you have to present to yourself, yourself to people in a way where they say, "Yeah, that guy or that team could actually be the government." So those are the dual roles that I have to carry out.
- JRJoe Rogan
Interesting. And how long have you been attempting to become prime minister for? How long has this been going on for?
- SPSpeaker
Uh, almost exactly four years, because I launched my campaign in, uh, February of 2022.
- JRJoe Rogan
Was this something that you had always had in the back of your mind, or...?
- SPSpeaker
I, I, I, I'd say in the back of my mind, but it wasn't something I was set on. Like, uh, I, I thought maybe, you know, when I'm in my 50s or 60s I would try it, uh, but I was in no rush to do that.
- JRJoe Rogan
How old are you now?
- SPSpeaker
I'm now 46.
- JRJoe Rogan
And so what motivated you to do it?
- SPSpeaker
Well, you know, in, after COVID, uh, as COVID was unfolding, it wasn't just the, the, the COVID policies themselves. It was the economic policies, 'cause I've been very focused on economics in my parliamentary career. And I was seeing the size and cost of government, not just in Canada, but all around the world, growing so much, and that inflation was just destroying the working class people, and that it was gonna get a lot worse. And so I, I ran on the platform of making Canada the freest country on Earth, uh, that we had a, a tradition of freedom in Canada. Our, our, one of our earliest prime ministers, Wilfrid Laurier, was asked, "What's your, what's Canada's nationality?" And he couldn't actually list an ethnicity or a religion because we were already mixed up even 100 years ago. We had Scots and Irish and First Peoples.
- JRJoe Rogan
French.
- SPSpeaker
So he said, "Look," yeah, French p- French most of all, French and English, and First, First Nations. So he said, um, uh, "Canada's free and freedom is its nationality." And I wanted to reinstate that idea. I wanted it to be the freest country anywhere on Earth. And, uh, so I ran on that platform and won the leadership, and then, uh, ran in the last election and stayed on after that election. So that's kind of the, the last four years of my journey.
- JRJoe Rogan
And so the way your elections work now, so you, you're essentially just stating your case and going around and talking about what policies you p- would implement and how you would do things differently and just waiting to see how it all plays out.
- SPSpeaker
It's, i- i- we have, um... See, our, our, our p- prime minister is different than, than the president. He's actually part of the legislative branch, so he comes in to the House of Commons and we debate multiple times a week, he and I. So it's not just, you know, in your system, the, the Republican and Democrat hold, like, four debates right before the pre- the, the election. In our system, we're always debating. So he comes in, he's on one side. I come in, I'm on the other side, and I ask him, like, six consecutive questions, and then he answers, and we go back and forth, and that's called question period. Then we have these committees where we prosecute and propose, uh, on finance, natural resources, healthcare, you name it. So we're constantly prosecuting the government, also proposing better ideas at the same time. So, like, the other day I proposed to, to bring back the AutoPAC between Canada and the U.S. to have tariff-free trade going both ways across the, the border. So that's an example of how I'm in a position to actually offer solutions even though I'm not in the government, and then hopefully government actually steals my ideas, and I've been encouraging them to steal my ideas.
- 39:41 – 44:45
Unblocking Canadian resources: faster permits, pre-approved zones, and strategic minerals
- SPSpeaker
I would unblock our resources. So we have the most resources of any country in the world per capita, bar none. We need to have... To make it happen, though, we need to have the fastest permits anywhere in the world and the lowest taxes on producing those resources. We're the fourth in oil, the number, number one in uranium, number one in potash for fertilizer. We have the fifth biggest supplier of natural gas. We have, um, the longest oceanic coastline. Like we are, we have 12 of NATO's, um... Sorry, we have 10 of 12 of NATO's defined defense minerals. So you know you had that guy, uh, Palmer Luckey on?
- JRJoe Rogan
Mm-hmm.
- SPSpeaker
I don't think he can make his stuff without Canadian minerals. Maybe I'm wrong, maybe he'll correct me, but like night vision technology, you need to have, uh, you need to have germanium for that. You need to have ga- uh, gallium to make, uh, semiconductors and radar. You need to have aluminum for armored vehicles and, uh, airplanes. You need cobalt for heat-resistant alloys in fighter jets. You need tungsten for, uh, body... Sorry, um, uh, armor-piercing ammo- ammunition. We have it all, and what I wanna do is unblock those resources, produce them in abundance for ourselves and our allies, make, you know, $200,000 paychecks for our trades workers, build up an enormous strategic stockpile of it so that we have tons of leverage in international relations. And if, God forbid, there is ever a global conflict, we would have all the resources necessary to win it. So, uh, but we need to, we need to pass, we need to get rid of a lot of laws that are blocking and, and replace them with laws that have fast permitting so that we can produce this stuff, uh, on scale very quickly.
- JRJoe Rogan
So is the concern the environmental impact of extracting these things? Is that-
- SPSpeaker
That's, that-
- JRJoe Rogan
... what's holding it up?
- SPSpeaker
That is the, that's the ostensible reason, but I just think across Western, the Western world, like Europe, UK, parts of the US, and Canada, there's a problem with bureaucracy just growing way too damn big. Like, you know, the First Nations in our country are incredibly forward-looking. The Squamish built 6,000 units of housing on 10 acres of land. You can believe it. In a town, in a c- city of Vancouver where it's very hard to get a permit to do anything, because it was their land, so they did it. They're trying to build, they're building now a, an LNG liquefaction plant where they replaced, uh, an old dirty mill. So they cleaned it up and put an LNG plant there. But the federal government took a lot of time, 14 years, to give them a permit. So we need to think like they're thinking, which is entrepreneurial, speed of business, get it done quickly. Um, that's how you develop. Like we have this community in my r- my district, it's called Hardisty, 600 people. They manage $100 billion of oil in a town of 600 people. Why is it there? Because their municipality offers a permit in one week with one page. And I wanted to tell this story, so I called them and I said, "Can I have someone come and do a video with me?" And they said, "We don't have anyone here. We don't have like bureaucrats that can help you."
- JRJoe Rogan
[laughs]
- SPSpeaker
"They're, they're all out on their farms right now. They come in, they stamp the permit, and they go back to their farm." Well, that's why we have $100 billion of energy moving through the area, which is bigger than the GDP of many countries, because they have fast permits, and that's what we need in Canada. We need to be the fastest place to get things done.
- JRJoe Rogan
But don't you think you need some safeguards-
- SPSpeaker
Of course
- JRJoe Rogan
... to protect the environment? And, uh, how do you balance that out?
- SPSpeaker
Protect it quickly. We can figure out what, what, whether a project is damaging to the environment in weeks and months rather than decades. Like there's nothing you're gonna learn in year 14 of the review that you couldn't have learned in-in month 14. So there's ways to protect the environment. When the Germans... So when the Germans had to break their dependence on Russia after it invaded Ukraine, they approved an, an LNG import terminal in 60 days. They completed the whole damn thing in less than 200 days. And guess what? No environmental problems. They, they got their engineers to sit down and figure out how to do it quickly, and that's the, that's the mentality that we need to get in Canada.
- JRJoe Rogan
So what would you be able to do to bypass all this bureaucracy? How could that be done legally?
- SPSpeaker
Well, you slim it down to one project, one environmental review instead of 20 or 30. You have, uh, a fixed timeline that the bureaucrats have to give an answer of six months rather than just as long as they wanna drag it on for. Um, and the other thing I would do is study areas where they're, they're perfectly situated to have a project like a pipeline or a mine or an LNG export terminal or a port expansion, and I would pre-permit it. I would say to our officials, "Go in, study, make sure that the environmental aspects are all in good order. I'll issue a pre-permit, and then anybody who comes along and wants to build it, as long as they follow the terms and act responsibly, has a guaranteed permit before they even apply for it." Uh, and, uh, that... I think we would have a roaring economy if we did that.
- JRJoe Rogan
That sounds awesome.
- SPSpeaker
Yeah.
- 44:45 – 49:17
Oil sands controversy, environmental safeguards, and First Nations partnerships
- JRJoe Rogan
But the, the great fear is that if you do have an impact on the environment, that impact is often permanent, and then, uh-
- SPSpeaker
Mm-hmm
- JRJoe Rogan
... it's devastating. And I, I've seen some of the oil extraction that they've done up in Alberta, where you look at the area, it looks like l- like scorched earth.
- SPSpeaker
No, no, no, no, no. No, no, no, no.
- JRJoe Rogan
No, no?
- SPSpeaker
It's the most responsible o- oil extraction in the world.
- JRJoe Rogan
But when you, when you see these... What is that one area that often gets criticized?
- SPSpeaker
Fort Mac.
- JRJoe Rogan
Is that what it is?
- SPSpeaker
Yeah. It's... They're open pit mines. You, you open up a mine-
- JRJoe Rogan
Right. That's, uh-
- SPSpeaker
You take out the, you take out the bitumen. Um, you subtract... You, you separate the sand from the oil. You, you make it less viscous by putting diluent in it, and, and you ship it off. And then after the oil is, after the mining is done, they, they resurface it, and you wouldn't even know there was a mine there. And-
- JRJoe Rogan
And there's no impact to groundwater, no impact to the environment?
- SPSpeaker
I mean, uh, there's an invi- impact no matter what you do, but at the end of the day, the people who live there are very healthy and very happy, and they're the strongest supporters of the expansion of the oil sands. It's an incredible-
- JRJoe Rogan
Because economically, it's amazing for them.
- SPSpeaker
Oh, it's incredible. It's the best resource in the world.
- JRJoe Rogan
Yeah.
- SPSpeaker
So it's like, uh, there's no decline rate. You guys have shale here, but, you know, as the years go by, you get less and less out of a shale, uh, reservoir. We ha- we have very little de- decline. We can keep producing and producing. Uh, we have, um, what's called in situ, where there's an entire oil sands operation under your feet. You could be out in a forest hunting, and you wouldn't even know that under your feet they're extracting it through a whole system of pipes where they inject just steam, steam vapor. That loosens up the oil. It sinks down. It goes into another pipe, comes up to the top. And you can have beautiful, pristine nature, the bears, the, the, uh, the deer, the birds. They don't even know that there's extraction happening under their feet. So we have the best industry, the most responsible industry anywhere in the world. It's been a, a really disgusting PR campaign by extremist environmentalists and, frankly, some of our competitors to try and make our industry look bad, but it's the best industry in the world.
- JRJoe Rogan
Yeah, they got me.
- SPSpeaker
Yeah. We-
- JRJoe Rogan
I saw some videos on it, and I was like, "Oh my God."
- SPSpeaker
Yeah.
- JRJoe Rogan
"What are they doing to the ground?"
- SPSpeaker
Wow.
- JRJoe Rogan
"What are they doing to the earth? It looks horrible."
- SPSpeaker
They're all... It, it's all bullshit. Uh, we have the cleanit-
- JRJoe Rogan
It looks horrible. Like-
- SPSpeaker
Yeah, but I mean, it, it... That's just a superficial look at it. You... I'll take you for a tour in the oil sands, and you'll be amazed. We have the best engineers in the world. And by the way, the First Nations people absolutely love it because it's lifting their people out of poverty. They're getting enormous job opportunities out of it. One of our MPs is a former chief, uh, the- where they took, uh, 18% unemployment, brought it down to 3, balanced their budget. Another one of my Members of Parliament in northern British Columbia negotiated a $40 billion LNG plant on his, uh, on the Haisla territory. It's completely eliminating poverty for the First Nations there. And by exporting clean Canadian natural gas, which we can liquefy 25% cheaper 'cause it's cold as hell in Canada, [chuckles] um, they, uh, actually displace dirty coal overseas. So instead of Asia burning coal, they're burning clean Canadian gas, uh, that's delivered by First Nations partnerships. So this is the best way to do it. Makes everybody richer and makes our entire continent better off.
- JRJoe Rogan
Well, it seems so simple the way you're laying it out. I don't understand why this hasn't been implemented.
- SPSpeaker
Yeah. This is, this is the, the story of my life. Uh, it's frustrating.
- 49:17 – 53:23
Inflation, money printing, and restoring fiscal discipline (PAYGO, cuts, ‘hard money’)
- SPSpeaker
Look, I think a lot of them could move very quickly. There's a lot of projects that are pe- that, that investors are sitting on, but they don't have, uh, certainty and permits. So I would unblock that, and I think in the first year you would start to see immediate benefits, uh, for the working people who'd be getting these jobs. Uh-Um, some of it would take more and more like a medium term. Like, the second thing I would go after is just the inflationary spending, which is a big problem all over the Western world. Like, uh, people just can't afford to live. I don't know if you've... Do you, do you, do you encounter that around here?
- JRJoe Rogan
Oh, yeah. Yeah.
- SPSpeaker
It's, it's crazy.
- JRJoe Rogan
I mean, inflation's crazy.
- SPSpeaker
So-
- JRJoe Rogan
And it's, I mean, the national debt in America just went up to 39 trillion.
- SPSpeaker
Right, which is bigger than your GDP.
- JRJoe Rogan
It's a lot of money.
- SPSpeaker
So, so explain this to me. 50 years ago, a barber and a, a barber and a waitress could buy a house with a big yard for a dog and raise four kids, meat and potatoes on the dinner table every night. And now an accountant and a lawyer can't do that. Why is that? It's crazy.
- JRJoe Rogan
Well, there's a lot of spending-
- SPSpeaker
Yeah
- JRJoe Rogan
... and a lot of making money. A lot of just-
- SPSpeaker
Creating cash
- JRJoe Rogan
... turning, you know, z- just making dollar bills with nothing behind it, nothing to back it.
- SPSpeaker
This is the biggest fraud perpetrated on the working class people in the last 100 years.
- JRJoe Rogan
Printing money is just insane.
- SPSpeaker
Printing money.
- JRJoe Rogan
It's just, the, the idea you just print more money is like... And people go, "Oh, okay." Like-
- SPSpeaker
Well, it looks, it looks painless at first.
- JRJoe Rogan
Right.
- SPSpeaker
But if you have an economy with 10 apples and $10, it's a buck an apple. You double the number of dollars to 20, but you still only have 10 apples. Well, all of a sudden it's two bucks an apple. And it's not that the cost of apples has gone up. It still costs the same resources to grow the, and pick the apples. It's that the, the price has gone up because the value of the money has gone down.
- JRJoe Rogan
Right.
- SPSpeaker
So in America, over the last 55 years, you've doubled the number of homes in America from about 70 million to 150 million. You know how much the money supply has grown? 30 times. So you have twice the homes, but 30 times the cash. So what's happened? Housing costs have gone up 15-fold in 55 years, and now an entire generation of kids can't afford homes. We have exactly the same problem in Canada. Uh, this is the biggest wealth transfer from the working class to the, the elites, from, uh, I say the have-nots to the have yachts. And Washington and Wall, Wall Street love it, by the way, 'cause it inflates the stock market, inflates the bureaucracy. Politicians get to spend. CEOs get, uh, their stocks, uh, inflated. Um, but it destroys the working people, and we need to get back to, to hard money. Everything should be getting cheaper, by the way. You know, it takes 80, 60 to 80% less resources to grow food. We grow four times the food on the same acre, get four times as much milk from the same cow. We use 80% less water and fertilizer. So why isn't it that food is not less expensive? It's because all of those gains are being erased by monetary inflation. So it's not that food is more costly, it's that the value, the money we use to buy it has less, uh, purchasing power. And, uh, we need to do what the Swiss do, which is they don't print money. They have balanced budgets. They have almost no deficit. And they have almost zero inflation in Switzerland. They have the strongest money in the world, the Swiss franc. And, uh, we would all be better if we o- operated like the Swiss when it comes to our money.
- JRJoe Rogan
So in a, a real world scenario, so like, you, you take over Canada.
- SPSpeaker
Mm-hmm.
- JRJoe Rogan
How would you go about implementing this?
- SPSpeaker
You gotta cut bureaucracy, consultants, which consume, by the way, $26 billion of spending.
- JRJoe Rogan
How big is your debt in Canada?
- SPSpeaker
Uh, 1.3-ish trillion. So it's-
- JRJoe Rogan
Oh, that's baby debt.
- 53:23 – 1:03:32
Immigration pressures, ‘fake refugee’ claims, and unwinding rapid population growth
- SPSpeaker
And we, we, we don't have that luxury. And so, uh, but we do have a lot of debt, and we have a lot... We have provinces, too. They're quite indebted. But, um, I would cut the bureaucracy. I would cut, uh, consultants. Foreign aid, I'd cut way back on foreign aid. Uh, the, we give, uh, corporate welfare, these checks to corporations. I believe business should make money rather than take money, so I would get rid of that. We're giving a lot of money to fake, fake refugees, um, people who come in and don't, uh, actually, or they're not actually fleeing danger. Um, like, I love real refugees. My wife was a refugee, but I have no time for people who are pretending, but they're not really. So I would cut that.
- JRJoe Rogan
And what do you mean by pretending to be a refugee? How are they doing this?
- SPSpeaker
Well, they're not actually endangered in their home country, so they've come to be, uh, declared themselves as students, and then, uh, wanting to stay, declaring a refugee status.
- JRJoe Rogan
Oh. And this is common?
- SPSpeaker
Yeah, it happens.
- JRJoe Rogan
It's just a loophole?
- SPSpeaker
It happens, and I mean, they just wanna have a better life, so I don't, I don't begrudge them as people. But we can't, we can't spend money on social servi- enhanced social services, advanced programs that we as Canadians don't get-
- JRJoe Rogan
Right
- SPSpeaker
... for people who are not paying into the system.
- JRJoe Rogan
So you're not opposed to them being there, you're opposed to them getting Canadian welfare.
- SPSpeaker
Well, I'm opposed to them... If, if they're not real refugees, they shouldn't be brought in as refugees. I think we have to distinguish between those people who are actually in danger in their home country, which is the definition of an, a refugee, and someone who just wants to come, uh, in, uh, in excess of, uh, of their, their proper immigration stream.
- JRJoe Rogan
Is this that common that it's actually affecting your economy?
- SPSpeaker
Right now it's a challenge because, um, we had a big number of international students and temporary foreign workers that came in, in very large numbers in, like, two or three years. Um, we were bringing in about a million people a year, which in C- in America's terms would be 10 million, like, just if you're doing per capita. And it really caused a housing shortage. Um, like some places where you have 26 of these students living in one basement. Um, so we're trying to unwind that now.
- JRJoe Rogan
And how, how do you do that?
- SPSpeaker
Well, when their work permit and their visitor visa runs out, then we have to encourage them to, to head back, um, lawfully.
- JRJoe Rogan
Right. But you don't wanna do it ice style.
- SPSpeaker
No. No, I don't think we need to do that. I just think we have to be orderly and lawful about it.
- JRJoe Rogan
And is that supported by the Canadian people?
- SPSpeaker
Yes, because we're a very welcoming country. We're a nation of immigrants, but we're also a nation of laws. And, uh, we... The... There's a general consensus, like, across the, the spectrum in Canada that there, there, there was t- There, the, the population growth was too fast for, like, four or five years. And, uh, so we're, we're trying to unwind that now.
- JRJoe Rogan
Um, what are, what are the other things that you would have to do to d- drop your debt and sort of balance your budget and begin to turn things around?
- SPSpeaker
Well, in addition, so I, I, I like this idea that, actually, believe it or not, that Clint- that Bill Clinton and the Republicans did in the '90s in the US. It was called the PAYGO law. It was a very simple principle. Every time the administration wanted to bring in a new dollar of spending, they had to match it with a dollar of savings. So there was no extra net spending for, like, eight years, and that's when your government balanced its budget and paid off $400 billion of debt. That law lapsed in 2002, and immediately after that, America went back into deficits, and you haven't emerged. You've been in deficit now for 25 years. This is about internalizing scarcity. Every creature in the universe, every bird in the trees, every fish in the seas has to live with scarcity, maximizing use of scarce resources. The only creature who doesn't do that is the politician because he's always using someone else's money.
- JRJoe Rogan
Right.
- SPSpeaker
Right? It's like, "Oh, well, I'll just print it or borrow it or tax it. It's not my money." And so they routinely show up to their cabinet meetings and say, "Well, I've got a new idea. It's $100 million." "Where are you gonna get it?" "I don't know. We'll print it. We'll borrow it. We'll, we'll tax it. Not my money." But if you had a law saying you can't actually bring a proposal to cabinet unless you have matching savings to pay for it, well, then you'd have these politicians walking up and down the hallways in their departments looking for waste and, like, rooting it out. So instead of making the single mom, the senior, or the small business owner live with scarcity, I want the politicians and bureaucrats to live with scarcity. A- and that's what I would impose by law on my government.
- JRJoe Rogan
Well, it's just a rational way to deal with the problem. Like, don't spend money unless you can save money.
- SPSpeaker
Exactly.
- JRJoe Rogan
That's how you balance things out. I mean, Clinton did balance the budget-
- SPSpeaker
He did
- JRJoe Rogan
... during his time, and people forget that 'cause we've always assumed that there's always been this extraordinary debt, but that's not the case. During the 1990s, I mean, it, he did a fantastic job at that.
- SPSpeaker
Yeah, they... And it was that Congress was, was very disciplined as well, and the American people just got fed up and said, "We're not tolerating these deficits anymore." And, and they imposed scarcity from the center. And by the way, the economy boomed 'cause the government was restrained, and the free market economy could just roar. And that's, uh, another part of the equation, by the way, is unlock the power of free enterprise. Like, this is the 250th anniversary, not just of the Declaration of Independence, but also of Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations, where he basically, for the first time in human history, described the free market system. And, um, that was starting to flourish in the States and in parts of Europe. And that system w- it basically started to come into place after, you know, s- the late 1770s. The growth since the free market system has came in- come into place in, in the world has been 200 times faster than it was before because there's, it is the most powerful system for generating material benefit for the people, and that's what we need to restore in Canada. I wanna make it the freest economy in the world.
- JRJoe Rogan
Well, that all sounds amazing. How the hell did you lose? [laughs]
- 1:03:32 – 1:08:39
Crime and bail reform: targeting repeat offenders
- JRJoe Rogan
Um, so what else is, uh, an, an issue in Canada that you would like to fix? James-
- SPSpeaker
Um, we-
- JRJoe Rogan
... can you toss me those napkins?
- SPSpeaker
We have to, we-
- JRJoe Rogan
The tissues. I got a, I got a allergy I'm dealing with. Thank you.
- SPSpeaker
We, we gotta toughen up our justice system. Um, it, it got way too soft, and, uh-
- JRJoe Rogan
What's wrong with your justice system?
- SPSpeaker
Basically bail. Um, I, I mean, we all believe in the basic principle that it- you're innocent till approved, proven guilty, but if someone's convicted, has, have, like, 150 prior convictions and they're newly arrested on their latest crime-
- JRJoe Rogan
Yeah
- SPSpeaker
... uh, I don't think we should be release- releasing them onto the streets. And, uh, so we got too lax on bail. So there's now a consensus in Canada that you should have severe restrictions on repeat offenders. Like in Vancouver, they had to arrest the same 40 guys 6,000 times in one year. 40 guys, 6,000 arrests. So they're basically being released within hours of their latest arrest. So we're, we're, we now bri- built a bipartisan, a multipartisan consensus to fix that, and, uh, we're pushing to toughen the bail system, um, and ensure that r- it's the repeat offenders, a tiny group. We don't have a lot of criminals in Canada, but they do a tremendous amount of crime. So you take them off the street, you put them in prison, you can basically reduce the crime rate dramatically.
- JRJoe Rogan
Well, we probably have more crime percentage-wise in America, but it's still a small percentage of the population that commits the crime.
- SPSpeaker
Yeah.
- JRJoe Rogan
But it's the same issue. Like in New York City, it's extraordinary the amount of people that are repeat offenders.
- SPSpeaker
Yeah.
- JRJoe Rogan
And they just let them go. In California, no cash bail, let them go. It's like, it is bananas, and it doesn't make any sense, and it doesn't make anybody help. I understand you wanna be empathetic, and I understand these narratives that the prison system is racist and the justice system is racist, and these people never been given a, a great shake in life.
- SPSpeaker
Mm-hmm.
- JRJoe Rogan
Well, if you wanna fix that, start in these impoverished neighborhoods, establish community centers, establish better education. Fund that, but don't let hardened criminals back on the street-
- SPSpeaker
Exactly
- JRJoe Rogan
... when they, they're habitual. They've been... If you've been arrested 40, 50 times, it doesn't seem like you're getting any better, so whatever rehabilitation process they have going on there, that's not working.
- SPSpeaker
Let's-
- JRJoe Rogan
So keep doing the same thing over and over again. Unless you like crime, I don't understand why you would do that.
- SPSpeaker
It, this has been... You know, it's imposed by these so-called experts. They tell, "Oh, we've done all these studies that show that these soft-on-crime policies work." But everywhere it been, it's been tried, it's been an absolute disaster, anywhere in the Western world. We have a town called Penticton. There's one guy who the police can tell by looking at the cri- the crime rate whether he's been in jail or not. [laughs] When he comes out of jail, the crime rate for the entire town-
- JRJoe Rogan
Oh, my God
- SPSpeaker
... of Penticton actually goes up. [laughs]
- JRJoe Rogan
That's so crazy.
- SPSpeaker
But you just keep him in prison though.
- JRJoe Rogan
That seems so simple to solve.
- SPSpeaker
[laughs]
- JRJoe Rogan
It's like there's so many of these problems with government that it's just like rational thinking is-
- SPSpeaker
Exactly
- 1:08:39 – 1:27:08
Food quality, fitness culture, and public health: from maple syrup to glyphosate
- SPSpeaker
Well, in the meantime, you can buy Ambrosio apples from, uh, the South Okanagan. I'm really plugging a lot of, uh, sales for the Canadian economy today. Um-
- JRJoe Rogan
You know what I found out about Canadian, um, uh, maple syrup?
- SPSpeaker
What's that?
- JRJoe Rogan
It is actually a superfood, and it is actually better for you than honey.
- SPSpeaker
Is that right?
- JRJoe Rogan
Yeah, it contains a bunch of polyphenols and a bunch of like, healthy nutrients.
- SPSpeaker
That's great.
- JRJoe Rogan
I always thought maple syrup was just a guilty pleasure you poured on pancakes.
- SPSpeaker
No, it's a totally Canadian thing.
- JRJoe Rogan
But apparently it's really good for you.
- SPSpeaker
So you take it before your workout?
- JRJoe Rogan
No. No, I just watched a Instagram video yesterday.
- SPSpeaker
Okay.
- JRJoe Rogan
Somebody sent it to me.
- SPSpeaker
Well-
- JRJoe Rogan
And I was like, "What is this?"
- SPSpeaker
We'll have to send you a bunch of maple syrup from Canada if we can get it in.
- JRJoe Rogan
Oh, I've got a bunch. I've had a bunch of Canadian friends who sent me some.
- SPSpeaker
We actually have a maple syrup reserve in Canada, like a reserve of, of excess stockpiles.
- JRJoe Rogan
Like a oil reserve?
- SPSpeaker
Well, we don't have an oil reserve. This is something I wanna change.
- JRJoe Rogan
[laughs]
- SPSpeaker
I wanna have an oil reserve, but I also wanna keep the maple syrup reserve, 'cause we're Canadians after all. There's nothing more Canadian than that.
- JRJoe Rogan
Well, it's so delicious. I can't believe it's good for you. Make sure that's true.
- SPSpeaker
It should-
- SPSpeaker
I, uh, I mean, in what way is it true?
- JRJoe Rogan
Uh, are there nutrients? Let's put it into Perplexity-
- SPSpeaker
No, I did, I did
- JRJoe Rogan
... our sponsor.
- SPSpeaker
I mean, it, I compared it versus honey. I'll give you what it showed.
- 1:27:08 – 1:42:49
Opioid crisis, treatment-first strategy, and ibogaine as a ‘factory reset’
- SPSpeaker
But the, the system is like, um... You know, I think the opioid thing, that's an incredible story, really.
- JRJoe Rogan
That's a horrible story.
- SPSpeaker
Um-
- JRJoe Rogan
That's a horrible story, and you know, the fact that no one's going to jail for that is infuriating.
- SPSpeaker
They should.
- JRJoe Rogan
What they did and what the, the deception that they used to pretend that that stuff is not addictive, that it's not the same as heroin, is just absolutely atrocious. And the fact that they got away with it and that the Sackler family, just that one family... I don't know if you've ever seen the Netflix docudrama series-
- SPSpeaker
Yeah
- JRJoe Rogan
... Painkill- or what was it? Was it called Painkiller?
- SPSpeaker
They're the guys-
- JRJoe Rogan
Yeah
- SPSpeaker
... from, uh, Purdue, right? Purdue Pharma.
- JRJoe Rogan
Yes.
- SPSpeaker
I think they were Purdue Pharma-
- JRJoe Rogan
Yes
- SPSpeaker
... if I'm not mistaken.
- JRJoe Rogan
I mean, how many lives were destroyed by that?
- SPSpeaker
Well, a f- half a million ended in the US.
- JRJoe Rogan
Yeah, at least.
- SPSpeaker
And 50,000 in Canada. We lo- we lost more people in the last 10 years to opioid overdoses than we lost fighting in the Second World War.
- JRJoe Rogan
Oh my God.
- SPSpeaker
And, uh-
- JRJoe Rogan
That's so crazy
- SPSpeaker
... and we, you know, these companies, I mean, it started in the States with Purdue and, uh, a number of others, where they basically started lying to the system and paying... They actually paid bonuses to distributors for every overdose they caused.
- JRJoe Rogan
What?
- SPSpeaker
They actually tracked the overdoses and then paid bonuses to distributors because that was an indicator of how successfully they were pushing the drugs onto doctors and pharmacists and the system.
- JRJoe Rogan
No way.
- SPSpeaker
This all came, all came out in the, in the court, uh, 'cause there was a huge lawsuit, and they, the companies had to pay $50 billion because of an American government lawsuit against them, but they actually paid bonuses for overdose rates.
- JRJoe Rogan
That is-
- SPSpeaker
It's true
- JRJoe Rogan
... insane.
- 1:42:49 – 2:13:02
Martial arts deep dive: UFC evolution, injuries, and what makes elite fighters
- SPSpeaker
Do you, do you have, uh, like, uh, residual injuries from fighting back in, in the day?
- JRJoe Rogan
Oh, yeah. Yeah, I've had three knee surgeries, two reconstructions, two ACL-
- SPSpeaker
Was that from taekwondo?
- JRJoe Rogan
Mm-hmm. Yeah.
- SPSpeaker
And-
- JRJoe Rogan
And jujitsu. One of m- one of my ACL injuries was from, uh, jujitsu.
- SPSpeaker
And what, uh, like, what injuries are the most common in jujitsu, jujitsu?
- JRJoe Rogan
Knees, backs, necks, shoulders.
- SPSpeaker
Okay.
- JRJoe Rogan
Those are the big ones. Elbows.
- SPSpeaker
Is that because of the-
- JRJoe Rogan
Yeah
- SPSpeaker
... the, the arm bars and all that stuff?
- JRJoe Rogan
Uh-huh. Yeah. Not tapping.
- SPSpeaker
Right.
- JRJoe Rogan
That's a big one. Lot of, a lot of guys get hurt just because of their ego, 'cause they don't wanna tap.
- SPSpeaker
And you don't, you don't s- strike me as the type of guy who taps very quickly.
- JRJoe Rogan
Well, when I was younger, I was really stupid, and I, I wasn't into tapping.
- SPSpeaker
Right. [laughs]
- JRJoe Rogan
[laughs] But, uh, as I got older, I got a lot smart... Uh, fortunately, I got a lot better, so I wasn't, like, in a situation where I had to tap a lot.
- SPSpeaker
Right.
- JRJoe Rogan
But if I did, I did. I just tapped, and that's the smart thing to do. And I, I would tell people, "Treat it like s- you're playing basketball. Don't treat it like it's your life or death."
- SPSpeaker
Right.
- JRJoe Rogan
The game is life or death. The game is if a guy gets you in an arm bar, he's essentially breaking your arm. If he breaks your arm, he can kill you, right?
- SPSpeaker
Right.
- JRJoe Rogan
That's the game.But don't treat it like that.
- SPSpeaker
Right.
- JRJoe Rogan
Treat it like you can tap and keep going.
- SPSpeaker
Right.
- JRJoe Rogan
Or you can not tap and your arm's gonna be destroyed maybe for the rest of your life.
- 2:13:02 – 2:20:58
Canada pride, tourism invites, and closing message: freedom, humility, and tariffs
- SPSpeaker
Well, you should come to Winnipeg. They, they have a fight coming up. I think it's in, uh, I think it's in April. It's in April.
- JRJoe Rogan
A UFC in, in Winnipeg?
- SPSpeaker
Yeah.
- JRJoe Rogan
Yeah. I've avoided UFCs in Canada.
- SPSpeaker
Well, come on up.
- JRJoe Rogan
Well, I, I've avoided it just because of the government.
- SPSpeaker
Well-
- JRJoe Rogan
Just because of what was going on, as a protest. I was like, "This is so fucked."
- SPSpeaker
Well, we'll come back up and, uh-
- JRJoe Rogan
Well, if you win, I'll go up there.
- SPSpeaker
Well, we, [laughs] we-
- JRJoe Rogan
How about that?
- SPSpeaker
We should get you up before then. [laughs]
- JRJoe Rogan
If you become prime minister, I promise I'll do all the UFC events that they have in Canada.
- SPSpeaker
We, we need you up in Canada to come, uh, come do one of your comedy shows, and, uh, it would be great for C- Canadian tourism.
- JRJoe Rogan
I used to love going up there. I used to love going to Massey Hall.
- SPSpeaker
Yeah.
- JRJoe Rogan
I, I used to-
- SPSpeaker
In Toronto?
- JRJoe Rogan
Yeah.
- SPSpeaker
Yeah.
- JRJoe Rogan
I, I loved performing there. I did, um-
- SPSpeaker
You used to do Montreal and-
- JRJoe Rogan
Mm-hmm
- SPSpeaker
... and, uh, how old were you when you were in Montreal?
- JRJoe Rogan
Oh, I star- Uh, I think the first time I was up there, I was, like, 25.
- SPSpeaker
Such a beautiful city, eh?
- JRJoe Rogan
Yeah, 26.
- SPSpeaker
It's gorgeous there.
- JRJoe Rogan
Oh, I loved it up there.
Episode duration: 2:22:39
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Transcript of episode JtbGgSwuE_U
