Joe Rogan Experience #1754 - Suzanne Santo
Suzanne Santo (guest), Suzanne Santo (guest), Joe Rogan (host), Narrator, Narrator, Narrator, Narrator, Narrator, Narrator
In this episode of The Joe Rogan Experience, featuring Suzanne Santo and Suzanne Santo, Joe Rogan Experience #1754 - Suzanne Santo explores suzanne Santo, Survival, Art, and Sanity Amid Viral Blizzards Joe Rogan and musician Suzanne Santo have a long, free‑flowing conversation about navigating anxiety, pressure, and identity through the pandemic, touring shutdowns, and social media overload.
Suzanne Santo, Survival, Art, and Sanity Amid Viral Blizzards
Joe Rogan and musician Suzanne Santo have a long, free‑flowing conversation about navigating anxiety, pressure, and identity through the pandemic, touring shutdowns, and social media overload.
They dig into mental health, body image, COVID risk, government overreach, censorship, and the corrosive effects of online outrage culture, contrasting that with real-world connection, discipline, and self-work.
Santo shares personal stories of isolation, moving to Austin, finding love, near-childhood dangers, and how therapy, boundaries, and creativity reshaped her life and career.
The episode closes with discussions on technology, surveillance, meaning, and the power of live art, culminating in Santo performing an intimate, emotionally heavy new song live in the studio.
Key Takeaways
Pressure and uncertainty can become catalysts for deep personal work.
Santo describes 2020 as a forced pause that exposed emotional baggage she’d been outrunning on tour; confronting it led to major life changes like moving to Austin and ultimately meeting a healthier partner.
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Your identity cannot be entirely built on your work or your art.
Rogan notes many performers spiraled when live shows stopped because their core sense of self was tied to performing; both emphasize cultivating inner balance so you’re not psychologically destroyed when external structures vanish.
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Being ‘nice’ without boundaries leads to burnout and resentment.
Santo admits her people‑pleasing and feeling she ‘owed’ others her energy left her drained and sometimes trapped in unhealthy dynamics; learning to say no and step away is framed as late but essential emotional maturity.
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Health conversations need honesty without shaming.
They argue that obesity, like addiction, is often rooted in deeper emotional or educational problems; avoiding the topic to spare feelings doesn’t change outcomes, but approaching it with concern and an emphasis on positive change can.
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Mandates and digital control mechanisms are more dangerous than individual choices.
Regardless of one’s stance on vaccines, Rogan stresses that coerced medical decisions and emerging ideas like social credit or digital health passports erode personal agency and create systems ripe for abuse.
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Social media amplifies victimhood and outrage, distorting reality and self-worth.
Both describe how timelines full of confessionals, metrics (likes, followers), and pile-ons pull people into comparison, dependency, and performative suffering, whereas time in nature, books, and offline relationships restores perspective.
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Live art is ‘medicine’ that reconnects people to meaning and joy.
Santo credits seeing Rogan and Dave Chappelle live in Austin as a turning point that reminded her how vital in-person art and laughter are; Rogan frames comedy and music as shared experiences that keep society humane amid chaos.
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Notable Quotes
“If I’m waiting for the success I’ve always wanted, I’m gonna be miserable.”
— Suzanne Santo
“You can’t just give up control. Even if you’re right, the real problem is telling someone that they have to do something.”
— Joe Rogan
“My life gets smaller as the world gets crazier. My juice, my life force, is the simplest shit — art, love, quality time.”
— Suzanne Santo
“We’re not designed for the internet. We’re not designed for the ability to access the opinions of millions of people simultaneously.”
— Joe Rogan
“Don’t wait until you die, ’cause you can always change your mind and make it right.”
— Suzanne Santo (lyrics from her song performed live)
Questions Answered in This Episode
How did the forced isolation of the pandemic change your relationship with your work and sense of identity?
Joe Rogan and musician Suzanne Santo have a long, free‑flowing conversation about navigating anxiety, pressure, and identity through the pandemic, touring shutdowns, and social media overload.
Get the full analysis with uListen AI
Where do you personally draw the line between compassionate support and enabling in conversations about health and weight?
They dig into mental health, body image, COVID risk, government overreach, censorship, and the corrosive effects of online outrage culture, contrasting that with real-world connection, discipline, and self-work.
Get the full analysis with uListen AI
In what ways has social media subtly reshaped how you value yourself and others, and what boundaries might you need to put in place?
Santo shares personal stories of isolation, moving to Austin, finding love, near-childhood dangers, and how therapy, boundaries, and creativity reshaped her life and career.
Get the full analysis with uListen AI
How do you balance legitimate public health concerns with the dangers of government overreach and digital tracking?
The episode closes with discussions on technology, surveillance, meaning, and the power of live art, culminating in Santo performing an intimate, emotionally heavy new song live in the studio.
Get the full analysis with uListen AI
What forms of art or live experiences have felt like ‘medicine’ for you during the last few years, and why did they matter so much?
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Transcript Preview
(drumming) Joe Rogan podcast, check it out.
The Joe Rogan Experience.
Train by day, Joe Rogan podcast by night. All day. (rock music) So-
(laughs)
Jayme's cool. So-
Cheers. (laughs)
Cheers, my friend. So good to see you.
You too. (laughs)
Mm. These are the wildest of times.
Oh my God. (sighs)
The wildest, right?
Ah, I have no words for it. I, every day.
No one does. It, the, and your words change-
Mm-hmm.
And, you know, you see a lot of people that are trying to, uh, say things because they want to assure themselves.
Mm.
And then they wanna find other people that agree with them.
Mm-hmm.
That's why, like, Twitter is such a dangerous thing-
Oh, forget it.
... for people who are mentally unstable during these trying times.
I, you watch people lose their minds.
Yeah.
Well, it's a form of escapism.
It is, but it's also, um, they're, they're trying to find some stability in, in a time where there is no stability. And there's some people that are very uncomfortable with, uh, the unknown. They're very uncomfortable with things being, like, in a state of flux.
Mm-hmm.
They don't, they don't know how this is gonna work out.
Mm-hmm.
And they get serious anxiety. You know, 'cause some people, they just, they're just not good under pressure.
Correct.
And this is a thing where everyone's under pressure.
Yes, yes.
So you see all, all these (screams) people-
(laughs)
... that are freaking the fuck out.
I know.
It's 'cause-
Oh, I know. It's-
Those folks haven't had to deal with pressure.
Right.
I mean, like, think about yourself.
Mm-hmm.
You've had to deal with a lot of pressure.
Oh, yeah.
Right? Yeah. You're-
Well, I did that.
You thrive under pressure.
I d- I do. And, like, you know, I, I, you know, witnessed the challenge in front of me, and then I'm like, "Well, what, what the fuck are you gonna do?"
Right.
"Are you gonna freak out?" And I have, like, a, a nice bandwidth for my, you know, understanding with myself. So I've, I went through all that last year. Like, I, I really, like, you know, I didn't tour at all in 2020. And so, like, I was alone a lot, and I had to, like, work on some shit.
Yeah, that's rough.
And, and you know what's interesting is, um, I, I did this thing where I, like, figured some stuff out. 'Cause like, when you're on the road, you know, you can just like leave your shit. Like, you're just busy. Like, what's in front of you is, is a show.
Right.
And you're entertaining, and you have ... And you're exhausted. You don't sleep that much. And it's go, go, go, go, go. And then when, like, time stopped last year, I was like, "Oh man, I got all this baggage." (laughs)
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