Joe Rogan Experience #2203 - Eric Goode & Jeremy McBride
Narrator, Joe Rogan (host), Eric Goode (guest), Jeremy McBride (guest), Joe Rogan (host), Eric Goode (guest), Joe Rogan (host), Narrator
In this episode of The Joe Rogan Experience, featuring Narrator and Joe Rogan, Joe Rogan Experience #2203 - Eric Goode & Jeremy McBride explores chimp Crazy exposes America’s dark obsession with captive wild animals Joe Rogan interviews documentarians Eric Goode and Jeremy McBride about their HBO series "Chimp Crazy" and its spiritual link to "Tiger King."
Chimp Crazy exposes America’s dark obsession with captive wild animals
Joe Rogan interviews documentarians Eric Goode and Jeremy McBride about their HBO series "Chimp Crazy" and its spiritual link to "Tiger King."
They explore the psychology and ethics of people who keep dangerous wild animals—especially chimpanzees and big cats—as pets, props, or status symbols.
The conversation broadens into a critique of zoos, the exotic animal trade, conservation versus animal rights, and how urban life distorts humans’ relationship with nature.
Throughout, they highlight specific horrifying incidents, legal gaps, and the uncomfortable parallels between human and animal captivity.
Key Takeaways
Shocking animal stories are used as Trojan horses to reach new audiences.
Goode and McBride say both "Tiger King" and "Chimp Crazy" deliberately center on outrageous characters to pull in people who normally ignore conservation issues, instead of preaching only to the already-converted.
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Private ownership of chimps and other primates in the U.S. remains largely legal.
Despite notorious maulings like the Travis case, around 20 U. ...
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Captive chimps are psychologically and physically altered to be manageable—and still aren’t safe.
Handlers routinely castrate chimps, pull canines, and use shock collars, yet attacks and severe maimings remain common; experts note most incidents are underreported because owners fear losing their animals.
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Many zoos function more as entertainment venues than conservation engines.
The guests describe how a small number of major zoos subsidize many others, most operate like amusement parks, and only a modest fraction of revenue goes to real conservation—even as animals like primates, elephants, and cetaceans suffer in confinement.
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Conservation and animal rights often clash over uncomfortable trade-offs.
Goode supports lethal control of invasive species (e. ...
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Humans are deeply disconnected from nature, which distorts policy and ethics.
Rogan argues that city dwellers rarely encounter real ecosystems or predators, yet they drive policy on issues like wolf and bear reintroduction, often without understanding the daily risks faced by rural communities.
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Our treatment of animals mirrors our own self-imposed captivity.
The hosts draw parallels between a chimp in a basement scrolling Instagram and humans glued to screens in cities, suggesting both are trapped in unnatural, psychologically damaging environments of our own making.
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Notable Quotes
“We’re this bizarre animal that likes to keep animals in cages.”
— Joe Rogan
“People think we made Tiger King to preach to animal people, but we made it to reach people who had no idea this world existed.”
— Eric Goode
“It’s a lot easier to have a tiger act than a chimp act. Chimps can figure shit out.”
— Eric Goode
“Tonia, if you really love this chimp and Tonka loves you back, why the cage?”
— Eric Goode
“We’re not as extreme as Tonka being trapped in that lady’s basement, but it’s in the neighborhood.”
— Joe Rogan
Questions Answered in This Episode
Should there be a nationwide U.S. ban on private ownership of great apes and other high-risk exotics, and what exceptions—if any—should exist?
Joe Rogan interviews documentarians Eric Goode and Jeremy McBride about their HBO series "Chimp Crazy" and its spiritual link to "Tiger King."
Get the full analysis with uListen AI
How do we ethically balance the suffering of individual animals in zoos and sanctuaries against the potential conservation benefits for endangered species?
They explore the psychology and ethics of people who keep dangerous wild animals—especially chimpanzees and big cats—as pets, props, or status symbols.
Get the full analysis with uListen AI
Where should the line be drawn between legitimate conservation hunting and unethical trophy hunting, and who should decide that line?
The conversation broadens into a critique of zoos, the exotic animal trade, conservation versus animal rights, and how urban life distorts humans’ relationship with nature.
Get the full analysis with uListen AI
In what ways does urban disconnection from nature lead to misguided wildlife policies, and how could media or education close that gap?
Throughout, they highlight specific horrifying incidents, legal gaps, and the uncomfortable parallels between human and animal captivity.
Get the full analysis with uListen AI
If we eventually decode complex animal communication (e.g., dolphins, great apes), how might that force us to rethink captivity, pet ownership, and our legal concept of animal rights?
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Transcript Preview
(drumbeats) Joe Rogan podcast, check it out. The Joe Rogan Experience. (rock music)
Train by day, Joe Rogan podcast by night, all day. Gentlemen, thanks for being here. Please introduce yourselves.
Eric Goode.
Jeremy McBride.
And you got, did you guys both do Tiger King as well?
Yeah. I mean, um, I kind of came in towards the tail end. I remember meeting you about this.
Keep it th- this close to your face.
Okay.
Yeah. It's okay.
Um...
You can scoot your...
Yeah.
It moves and stuff.
Okay. Yeah. I, um, I met Eric, uh, kind of towards the tail end of filming Tiger King. Um, yeah, that was kind of the first experience I had with you.
Yeah.
You guys, like, struck-
Yeah.
... lightning with that, 'cause it came right at the pandemic where everyone's locked at home and everyone was like, "What the fuck is going on with these guys?"
Yeah. Yeah, captive cats and captive audience.
And just crazy people. And, um, and then your new show, Chimp Crazy, is, like, basically along the same vein. And it is so odd how nutty these animal people are, these people that have captive animals at their home. It's such a bizarre... Uh, there's, there, I would, I would like to see, uh, like, a psychologist, like, like a clinical psychologist do an examination of what type of personality-
Yeah.
... wants to have these enormous wild animals captive in their homes.
Yeah. No, for sure. Um, it, it's, um, it's incredible and, of course, that's what interests us because, you know, I'm an animal guy, but, uh, you know, you have to have interesting people to tell a good story.
Well, we are animals. That's, yeah-
And we are, and we are animals.
That's the, the weird part about it. We're this, uh, bizarre animal-
Yeah.
... that likes to, uh, keep animals in cages.
(laughs)
And some people think we should've been in the same genus as apes-
Yeah.
... you know? But, of course, there's something called religion and dominion. And, of course, you know, we're not animals. We're not apes.
(laughs)
Well, we certainly are. I mean, those people, they, they still believe in religion, but, uh, you know, the reality of observable science is also there. So-
(laughs)
... unfortunately, you know, we're just a weird animal. We're the fucking weirdest ones. But, um, the show Chimp Crazy, I'm, I just finished episode three last night, and we got to number four, and my daughter wanted to watch number four. I'm like, "I don't think I could do it." I go, I was so bummed out after episode three. I was like-
What the fuck?
... "Oh, my god." The, I mean, I don't wanna give away anything for people who haven't watched the series yet. I highly recommend it. It's really fucking good. (Blows out air) But episode three, man, is, it's like, it's like there's something about... F- first of all, this is one of the rare times where I'm fully with PETA. (laughs)
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