Joe Rogan Experience #1973 - Joey Diaz
Narrator, Narrator, Joe Rogan (host), Joey Diaz (guest), Joe Rogan (host), Joe Rogan (host), Narrator, Narrator, Narrator
In this episode of The Joe Rogan Experience, featuring Narrator and Narrator, Joe Rogan Experience #1973 - Joey Diaz explores joey Diaz, mortality, madness, and meaning on Joe Rogan Experience Joe Rogan and Joey Diaz range from wild comedy stories to serious reflections on death, drugs, crime, and redemption, anchored by Joey’s new memoir and life review. They talk in depth about the funeral industry, early exposure to death, and how different cultures handle dying, using it to question modern American practices. The conversation moves through conspiracies (Epstein, JFK, CIA), politics and ‘defund the police,’ fentanyl and pill addiction, and what it took for Joey to get off Xanax and rebuild a sane daily life. They close by reflecting on aging, stand-up comedy’s evolution with the internet, how The Comedy Store and Mitzi Shore shaped them, and why they still push to get better as human beings and comics.
Joey Diaz, mortality, madness, and meaning on Joe Rogan Experience
Joe Rogan and Joey Diaz range from wild comedy stories to serious reflections on death, drugs, crime, and redemption, anchored by Joey’s new memoir and life review. They talk in depth about the funeral industry, early exposure to death, and how different cultures handle dying, using it to question modern American practices. The conversation moves through conspiracies (Epstein, JFK, CIA), politics and ‘defund the police,’ fentanyl and pill addiction, and what it took for Joey to get off Xanax and rebuild a sane daily life. They close by reflecting on aging, stand-up comedy’s evolution with the internet, how The Comedy Store and Mitzi Shore shaped them, and why they still push to get better as human beings and comics.
Key Takeaways
Treat your life as something you actively spend and evaluate.
After writing and recording his book, Joey concludes he “got his money’s worth” from life—good and bad—emphasizing that constant reinvention, risk, and stories matter more than conventional success.
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Be intentional about how you and your family deal with death.
They argue American wakes and embalming can be psychologically damaging and ecologically unnatural, urging people to question funeral-industry upselling and consider simpler, more natural burials or cremation choices.
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Question official narratives around power and high-profile events.
From Epstein’s death to JFK’s assassination, Rogan and Diaz highlight CIA history, MK-Ultra, and suspicious forensic details to illustrate how rarely elites are held accountable, and how that erodes public trust.
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Recognize how policy experiments can unintentionally empower crime.
They criticize ‘defund the police,’ permissive bail, and revolving-door shoplifting as naive, arguing that underfunded and demoralized policing plus weak consequences predictably embolden repeat offenders and destabilize cities.
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Treat modern street drugs and prescriptions as potentially lethal.
With fentanyl’s tiny lethal dose and contamination of cocaine, pills, and heroin, they suggest either fully abstaining or only using substances from trusted, testable sources; Joey also warns how benzos like Xanax quietly create brutal dependence.
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Tapering off benzodiazepines requires a structured, patient strategy.
Joey describes six months of tapering Xanax under guidance, central nervous system chaos, relentless heart pounding, and lifestyle changes (exercise, diet, breath work, grounding) as necessary supports—not something you can safely quit cold turkey.
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Focus your creative life instead of scattering your energy.
Both men stress that periods of doing ‘only stand-up’ made them grow most; Joey says if he returns, he’d likely avoid touring-heavy schedules and side projects, opting for focused residencies to reduce anxiety and improve his craft.
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Notable Quotes
“When they picked me for a life, I got my money’s worth. Whether it was good or bad, I got my money’s worth outta this life.”
— Joey Diaz
“If I haven’t died from it, ain’t nobody gonna die from marijuana.”
— Joey Diaz
“If you don’t have the freedom to choose what you put in your own body... you’re not really free.”
— Joe Rogan
“You have no idea what life is ’til your central nervous system is fucked with.”
— Joey Diaz
“As long as you don’t give up, don’t get cynical, and don’t get hateful, you can keep getting better at being a human.”
— Joe Rogan
Questions Answered in This Episode
How does early exposure to death—like childhood wakes and open caskets—shape someone’s relationship with fear, faith, and risk later in life?
Joe Rogan and Joey Diaz range from wild comedy stories to serious reflections on death, drugs, crime, and redemption, anchored by Joey’s new memoir and life review. ...
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Where is the line between healthy skepticism of official stories and getting lost in conspiratorial thinking about power and institutions?
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What criminal justice reforms could balance meaningful punishment (to deter crime) with real second chances for people leaving prison, especially felons?
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Given the fentanyl era, what practical harm-reduction strategies should be normalized among casual drug users who refuse to abstain completely?
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How should aging performers in high-anxiety, travel-heavy careers like stand-up comedy redesign their work to protect mental health without losing their edge?
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Transcript Preview
(drum roll) Joe Rogan podcast, check it out.
The Joe Rogan Experience.
Train by day, Joe Rogan podcast by night, all day. (instrumental music plays)
Look at Jamie looking yoked, like a motherfucker. Hitting balls across the fucking desert.
Yeah, he's addicted to that golf. You should see him out there with the simulator, just whap!
He told me he was out in the backyard.
Whap!
Good for him, man.
Whap! Whap!
You still won't hit a golf ball?
I've hit a couple golf balls, I'm just not gonna play golf.
Okay.
I'm scared.
Of what?
Get addicted to it. They're all addicted. Ron White, Tony Hinchcliffe, him, all these guys. They just ... They're addicted. Look at them. He's over there Jonesing.
Got, got the bug.
They go every day?
(laughs)
You guys go every day?
He does. He's-
Nah, I mean, as much as I can.
He's on the simulator every day. Look, the motherfucker can whack a golf ball.
It's like shooting jump shots though. You gotta practice the jump shots to keep it-
Yeah, you gotta practice the jump shot. Yeah.
... keep it wet.
Yeah. Tremendous.
Tremendous.
How long this take you to do?
22 fucking years.
Jesus.
And then I hooked up with Erica Florentine, Jimmy's niece, and she put it all together for me, man.
Nice.
I'm happy I did it and got it over with.
Nice.
I got all that shit off my fucking chest.
Joey Diaz is an author. Look at this. I bet this is great. I've heard most of these stories, I'm sure. But I don't know with you. You know, with you, I always think I've heard all the fucking stories, and then another one pops up. (laughs) You know? If you really could, like, document everything you've been through in your life, like, no one would believe it. They don't believe it. The people still s- sometimes don't believe some of those stories.
We on?
Yeah, we're on.
Oh.
(laughs)
Good to see you. Uh. The one thing that writing it and reading it ... And I did the audiobook.
Oh, nice.
I did the audiobook.
How was that?
Good. And everybody said, "It's gonna suck. Blah, blah, blah." I go, "Give me three hours a day. Give me a space in between, and I'll go in there and just knock it ..." I knocked it off in two and a half weeks.
Nice.
But once I read it, like, you know, 'cause it's been in your head for a long time and shit, once sh- I read it, I only got one thing out of this book. I got my money's worth. When they picked me for a life, I got my money's worth. Whether it was good or bad ... You know what I'm saying? Whether it was good or bad, I got my money's worth outta this life. If I get hit by a plane tonight-
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