Joe Rogan Experience #1274 - Nicholas Christakis

The gay folks took over the rainbow. Four, three, two. Will it work today, Jamie? Yes. Hello, Nicholas.

Hey, Joe. How are you, man?

Great to meet you.

It's really good to meet you, too.

Uh, I became aware of you, like many people did, with the infamous Halloween costume incident at Yale, uh, where, uh... Explain that for people who don't know what happened 'cause it was-

Um.

... kind of, kind of a crazy scene. It went national.

Yes. It was, um, a moment when, um, around the country, many students were struggling with how to balance a conflicting, um, sort of needs and-

Try to keep that a little bit closer-

Con-

... to your face. There you go.

... conflicting needs, uh, w- uh, wha- how on the one hand, to create an environment in schools where peop- everyone sort of felt welcome.

Mm-hmm.

As we've democratized, uh, admissions to our American universities, as I think we should have, people from all walks of life have started moving into these institutions, claiming them for their own, which I think is appropriate. But at the same time, these institutions had wonderful heritages of commitment to free expression and open debate and, um, and reason as a principle for resolving our differences. And, uh, s- and some of those values came into tension. And so around the country, there was a lot of, um, heat about this, and I happened to walk into a propeller, uh, myself.

Hmm.

And, um, and wound up, um, in some challenging, uh, circumstances and, um, y- you know, I, I, uh, it was not, uh, it was not the, um, worst thing that's ever happened to me, but, you know, it was in the top 10, uh, challenging moments I've had in my life, let's say.

Yeah, that's a very lawyer-like way of describing exactly what happened. (laughs)

(laughs) Well, I, well, I, yes. I mean, the thing is, I, you know, I, I, I, uh, you know, I struggle... I mean, you can tell the story if you want-

Yeah.

... and then I can correct things, but here's the thing is, uh, it's my job to be a teacher.

Mm-hmm.

And I have taken responsibility for teaching young people, and it is the case that many people, uh, lost their s- their minds. I mean, lost-

Yeah.

... their senses. And, and, and the faculty too, incidentally. I mean, you know, ther- it's one thing to talk about people in their, and college-aged people, but then d- you know, the faculty also didn't d- necessarily do what they should've done. But, um, but, uh, the, the, the thing is is that y- you know, m- my commitment, it, my commitment is to, is to teaching more generally, and I don't wanna be defined by that event. I don't want that to become a, the most important thing about me. You know, I have this book-