Joe Rogan Experience #1579 - Suzanne Santo & Gary Clark Jr.
Narrator, Narrator, Joe Rogan (host), Suzanne Santo (guest), Gary Clark Jr. (guest), Gary Clark Jr. (guest), Narrator
In this episode of The Joe Rogan Experience, featuring Narrator and Narrator, Joe Rogan Experience #1579 - Suzanne Santo & Gary Clark Jr. explores psychedelics, live music, and rebuilding life in pandemic-era Austin Joe Rogan sits down with musician Suzanne Santo and guitarist Gary Clark Jr. for a sprawling conversation that jumps from psychedelic experiences and spirituality to live performance, parenting, COVID, and moving from Los Angeles to Austin.
Psychedelics, live music, and rebuilding life in pandemic-era Austin
Joe Rogan sits down with musician Suzanne Santo and guitarist Gary Clark Jr. for a sprawling conversation that jumps from psychedelic experiences and spirituality to live performance, parenting, COVID, and moving from Los Angeles to Austin.
Suzanne shares recent LSD trips used for deep emotional healing, discussions about energy, grief, and ‘sacred pain,’ while Joe connects these to broader ideas about altered states, dimensions, and how psychedelics may reveal hidden aspects of reality.
Gary reflects on the power of live music, his COVID experience, time at home with family, and diving back into practicing guitar, while all three talk candidly about how the pandemic has forced them to reassess work, touring, and what “home” should be.
They also cover social media addiction, fame, narcissism, relationships, pets, moving to Texas, physical health habits (yoga, stretching, cryotherapy), and close with Suzanne performing two songs live in the studio.
Key Takeaways
Use psychedelics with clear intentions to process trauma, not just to party.
Suzanne describes using LSD in Joshua Tree to consciously work through grief and deep personal pain with a close friend, contrasting it with a purely recreational trip; the intention shaped the depth and usefulness of the experience.
Get the full analysis with uListen AI
Choose carefully who you take psychedelics with and where.
They stress that set and setting matter: tripping with unstable or very dark people, or in chaotic environments, can greatly increase the risk of a bad trip or psychological overload.
Get the full analysis with uListen AI
Live music and shared experiences are powerful altered states in themselves.
Joe and Gary describe how a great show can transport both performers and audience to a unique mental and emotional space, offering catharsis and connection many people have been starved of during lockdowns.
Get the full analysis with uListen AI
The pandemic can be used as a forced reset to reevaluate priorities.
All three talk about losing touring income but gaining time: for Gary, to see his kids grow; for Suzanne, to confront emotional issues and deepen musicianship; for Joe, to reassess where he wants to live and work.
Get the full analysis with uListen AI
Social media often amplifies mild mental illness and unprocessed anger.
Joe argues that constant online arguing, obsession with tweets, and performative outrage are akin to other compulsive behaviors, worsened by isolation and the lack of real-life human contact during the pandemic.
Get the full analysis with uListen AI
Curate your relationships around people doing their own internal work.
Suzanne emphasizes surrounding herself with friends and partners who are actively dealing with their wounds and growth, not projecting unprocessed trauma or seeking worship, which she sees as crucial for healthy connections.
Get the full analysis with uListen AI
Physical maintenance (stretching, bodywork, basic health habits) is non-optional for long careers.
They discuss bunions, flat feet, yoga, long stretching sessions, cryotherapy, and recovery routines as essential investments that allow performers and athletes to keep doing what they love without breaking down.
Get the full analysis with uListen AI
Notable Quotes
“When you have these altered states of consciousness, it seems more real than regular life. You come back and go, ‘Wait a minute, is this the bullshit?’”
— Joe Rogan
“There’s this space of sacred pain where we put it, where we had love for each other and were like, ‘I see you. I respect all your shit you’ve been through.’”
— Suzanne Santo
“At the end of the day, like, we all gotta live our lives. I envy people that have got [COVID] and kicked it and don’t worry about it now.”
— Gary Clark Jr.
“The more you take care of yourself, the harder it is to find a partner… but that’s also how you stop being basic.”
— Suzanne Santo
“We’re not individuals really. We are, but we’re really a part of this gigantic superorganism known as the human race.”
— Joe Rogan
Questions Answered in This Episode
How much of psychedelic insight should be taken as ‘real’ versus brain-generated hallucination, and does that distinction even matter if it leads to healing?
Joe Rogan sits down with musician Suzanne Santo and guitarist Gary Clark Jr. ...
Get the full analysis with uListen AI
What are healthier ways to get some of the benefits of altered states—connection, perspective, emotional release—without drugs?
Suzanne shares recent LSD trips used for deep emotional healing, discussions about energy, grief, and ‘sacred pain,’ while Joe connects these to broader ideas about altered states, dimensions, and how psychedelics may reveal hidden aspects of reality.
Get the full analysis with uListen AI
How can artists and performers realistically protect their mental health and sense of self when fame or success starts to distort the feedback they get from others?
Gary reflects on the power of live music, his COVID experience, time at home with family, and diving back into practicing guitar, while all three talk candidly about how the pandemic has forced them to reassess work, touring, and what “home” should be.
Get the full analysis with uListen AI
In what ways has the pandemic permanently changed your own priorities around work, place (where you live), and relationships?
They also cover social media addiction, fame, narcissism, relationships, pets, moving to Texas, physical health habits (yoga, stretching, cryotherapy), and close with Suzanne performing two songs live in the studio.
Get the full analysis with uListen AI
How can individuals realistically reduce their dependence on social media while still using it professionally or staying informed?
Get the full analysis with uListen AI
Transcript Preview
(drum music plays) Joe Rogan podcast, check it out.
The Joe Rogan Experience.
Train by day, Joe Rogan podcast by night. All day.
(instrumental music plays) These are jokes.
(laughs)
We're live, we're rolling now.
That's funny.
Don't, don't clam up.
I know.
What are you telling me, what are you telling me about acid? Tell, tell me...
Oh. (laughs) Right into it.
Yes.
Yeah.
Because it was very, very ... And I stopped you, because it was too good.
Hmm.
It was like, it was very interesting.
Well-
You, you were saying that y- you did it once, and you, you were in a bathtub-
Mm-hmm.
... and it was interesting, but then you did it ... Uh, where were you the second time you did it?
So the first time I did it, I was with, uh, three other people and we like, you know, it was celebrating someone's birthday. And all my friends are like pretty spiritual in that way, like meditative and-
Annoying. (laughs)
No, you know ... No it's good stuff.
(laughs)
I love it. I, they-
I'm kidding.
I know, it can be annoying, I agree. That shit can be really fucking-
With the wrong people.
... 100%.
When it's inauthentic, it's super annoying.
Oh yeah, yeah, no.
Yeah.
I, I think there's ... It's like any other area of bullshit-
Yes.
... you pick up on it and you're like, "Mm, no."
I had two-
But-
... different yoga teachers that did the same thing, and with one of them it was amazing, and with the other one it was so annoying.
Yeah.
With the, the guy would like chant in class and-
Right.
... and he would sing. And I'd be like, "Let ... Get me away from this motherfucker."
Mm-hmm.
He was just a bullshit artist. It was like a fake spiritual guy. But then another guy who did it, his classes were all donation based.
Hmm.
You didn't, you didn't have to pay to c- to come.
Yeah, that's the way.
And he would see ladies pull up in Mercedes and not pay.
Oh.
I'd be like, "You dirty bitches."
(laughs)
Oh. (laughs)
(laughs)
They just wouldn't pay. They'd sneak by.
Wait, was that the good one or the bad one?
The good one.
Yeah, the good one, interesting.
The good one, he did the exact same thing.
Yeah.
But you can tell, there was no pretense.
Yeah.
It was all ... So, sorry I fucked up your story. Go ahead.
No, I'm, I'm with you though, I feel the same way.
Spiritual friends.
I have spiritual friends. And it was more of like a, we ... I laughed for like eight hours, it was just like laugh therapy. And just around like wonderful people, just good, energetic. And I w- I was so ... I was high for like two days. (laughs)
Install uListen to search the full transcript and get AI-powered insights
Get Full TranscriptGet more from every podcast
AI summaries, searchable transcripts, and fact-checking. Free forever.
Add to Chrome