Joe Rogan Experience #2146 - Deric Poston
Narrator, Joe Rogan (host), Deric Poston (guest), Narrator, Narrator, Narrator, Narrator, Narrator, Narrator, Narrator
In this episode of The Joe Rogan Experience, featuring Narrator and Joe Rogan, Joe Rogan Experience #2146 - Deric Poston explores joe Rogan and Deric Poston on Comedy, COVID, Culture Wars, Community Joe Rogan and Deric Poston have a long-form, freewheeling conversation that jumps between stand-up comedy craft, the rise of Austin as a new comedy hub, and their shared experiences during COVID-era lockdowns and cultural upheaval.
Joe Rogan and Deric Poston on Comedy, COVID, Culture Wars, Community
Joe Rogan and Deric Poston have a long-form, freewheeling conversation that jumps between stand-up comedy craft, the rise of Austin as a new comedy hub, and their shared experiences during COVID-era lockdowns and cultural upheaval.
They detail how The Comedy Mothership and Kill Tony created a meritocratic ecosystem for comics, contrasting it with old Hollywood’s scarcity mindset and backstabbing culture.
Rogan and Poston also criticize pandemic policies, media narratives, and social-media-driven tribalism, arguing these broke people psychologically and fueled censorship, division, and bad decisions.
Throughout, they return to themes of discipline, hard work, non-resentful camaraderie, and choosing love and community over envy, fear, and control.
Key Takeaways
The healthiest comedy scenes are meritocracies, not quota systems.
Rogan emphasizes that at The Comedy Mothership, lineups are built purely on who is funniest, not on identity categories, arguing that this naturally produces diverse but undeniably strong shows and careers.
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Surrounding yourself with killers makes you sharper—if you drop your ego.
Both describe deliberately following or touring with extremely strong comics (Joey Diaz, Shane Gillis, Tony Hinchcliffe, Andrew Schulz) to force their own material to tighten, rather than choosing weak openers to protect their egos.
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Resentment and envy quietly destroy careers and friendships.
They contrast bitter comics who root for others to fail with people like Brian Simpson and Tony Hinchcliffe who actively promote other comics; Rogan frames resentment as a self-imposed mental illness that blocks growth and joy.
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COVID policies revealed how easily fear and tribalism override reason.
Rogan argues that mask mandates, school closures, and coercive vaccination campaigns abandoned real risk/benefit analysis—especially for children—and became tribal identity markers and outlets for online cruelty rather than science-driven policy.
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Long-term discipline around food, health, and work beats short-term indulgence.
Rogan admits to severe glutton tendencies but uses strict dietary discipline (carnivore phases, cutting bread, resetting after “cheat” meals) and high training volume as a way to manage health, performance, and self-respect.
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Stand-up is learned on stage; there are no real shortcuts.
They stress that you can’t “study” your way into being a comic—bombing, recording sets, rewatching them, and iterating material in front of live audiences over many years are the only path, comparable to running an ultramarathon.
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Community and genuine friendship are as valuable as career success.
The two repeatedly describe the joy of green room hangs, shared workouts, road dinners, and being able to treat younger comics; they frame building a fun, loving community as the real payoff of their “fuck you money” and risk-taking.
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Notable Quotes
“You gotta be undeniable. When you're undeniable, it's all gonna come your way.”
— Joe Rogan
“Loving is so much more fun. Just loving is so much more fun.”
— Deric Poston
“The connection between comedy and Hollywood is one of the worst ideas of all time.”
— Joe Rogan
“If you have fuck-you money and you don't say fuck you, it's a crime against fortune.”
— Joe Rogan
“If someone makes you feel bad because they're so good, go to work. That’s a good feeling.”
— Joe Rogan
Questions Answered in This Episode
How has Austin’s comedy ecosystem changed the incentives and culture for up-and-coming comics compared to Los Angeles and New York?
Joe Rogan and Deric Poston have a long-form, freewheeling conversation that jumps between stand-up comedy craft, the rise of Austin as a new comedy hub, and their shared experiences during COVID-era lockdowns and cultural upheaval.
Get the full analysis with uListen AI
To what extent did COVID-era policies cause lasting damage to young people’s development, and how should societies attempt to repair that?
They detail how The Comedy Mothership and Kill Tony created a meritocratic ecosystem for comics, contrasting it with old Hollywood’s scarcity mindset and backstabbing culture.
Get the full analysis with uListen AI
Where is the line between healthy caution and fear-driven control when it comes to public health, technology, or social norms?
Rogan and Poston also criticize pandemic policies, media narratives, and social-media-driven tribalism, arguing these broke people psychologically and fueled censorship, division, and bad decisions.
Get the full analysis with uListen AI
How can individuals in any field consciously choose collaboration and meritocracy over envy, gatekeeping, and identity-based favoritism?
Throughout, they return to themes of discipline, hard work, non-resentful camaraderie, and choosing love and community over envy, fear, and control.
Get the full analysis with uListen AI
If social media and campus activism reward outrage and extremity, what practical steps can people take to stay grounded, informed, and humane?
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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. (rock music)
Joe Rogan!
My brother.
That's my man. What's happening?
Let's get it. (laughs)
Let's go.
Joe Rogan.
Bro, we've had a million conversations like this, uh, in the green room.
Yeah.
We've already done like a thousand podcasts.
Th- This is my every night right here.
We need a fucking studio in that club. You know? We need to put a podcast studio in that club. I've been thinking about it, but like, we don't have the space for it.
Yeah, where would it go?
It wouldn't go anywhere. There's no place. There's no ... We have ... We used ... It's like very efficient. We have all the space. I don't know. (dishes clanking)
Yeah, but you gotta put-
I think what we need is a apartment. We need an apartment close, (plate clanks) so we can just go right over.
Go right over.
Like, go ... A apartment that's just set up as a studio. When you get in there it's just all studio.
That would be nice, Joe.
Yeah. 'Cause there's so many apartments that are available in that area, right?
I just got one.
Yeah, Jamie just got one.
(laughs)
... get next door so I don't have a neighbor.
Oh, that's not a bad idea.
Yeah.
How far away are you from my club?
Two blocks.
Ooh, let's go. Is the nextdoor neighbor open?
I think they all are.
Oh, that'd be perfect.
I'll wait till you-
We could give you the keys.
Wait till you see my view.
Ooh, that's what I want.
Yeah.
I want a view like that, because, like, how dope would that be? Late night, all of us chilling, windows-
Oh, God.
... see the city. I want as ... I was gonna do that in downtown LA.
Really?
Yeah, but then I went to downtown LA.
(laughs)
I'm like, "Oh my God." And I brought my family, and I brought my daughters when they were young, and I was like, "Oh my God, am I gonna have to kill somebody?" Like, this is c- It was crazy. And this is pre-pandemic, man.
Yeah.
This is before the shit hit the fan. I'm like, people were just pissing all over the place.
(laughs)
It smelled terrible. There was a ... There's some really good donut place that's in downtown LA. So we were like, "Let's go get some donuts. Let's get crazy."
Yeah.
"Let's just go find ..." So, uh, we would up going to the one in Pasadena, 'cause there's a ... Or Glendale? There's one, there's one somewhere else. There's one somewhere else that's also like that. And, uh, we wound up with ... Silverlake? Might be Silv- It was a lot of hippies.
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