Joe Rogan Experience #1916 - Jon Bernthal
Jon Bernthal (guest), Narrator, Narrator, Joe Rogan (host)
In this episode of The Joe Rogan Experience, featuring Jon Bernthal and Narrator, Joe Rogan Experience #1916 - Jon Bernthal explores jon Bernthal, Redemption, and Real Talk on America’s Fractures Today Joe Rogan and Jon Bernthal trace parallels between the chaos of the 1960s and today’s polarized, media-saturated America, touching on assassinations, Vietnam, and modern social media outrage. They dive deep into policing, anti-police sentiment, and how social media amplifies extreme narratives while erasing nuance, with Bernthal arguing that real understanding comes from people on the ground, not pundits. Bernthal explains why he launched his podcast “Real Ones”: to put cops, ex–gang members, soldiers, lifers in prison, and other ‘in the trenches’ voices in the same room, showing how people who’ve done terrible things can also transform and help others. The conversation also covers his formative years studying theater in Moscow, his violent past and near-prison moment, fatherhood, masculinity, forgiveness, and how pivotal, painful events can catalyze profound personal change.
Jon Bernthal, Redemption, and Real Talk on America’s Fractures Today
Joe Rogan and Jon Bernthal trace parallels between the chaos of the 1960s and today’s polarized, media-saturated America, touching on assassinations, Vietnam, and modern social media outrage. They dive deep into policing, anti-police sentiment, and how social media amplifies extreme narratives while erasing nuance, with Bernthal arguing that real understanding comes from people on the ground, not pundits. Bernthal explains why he launched his podcast “Real Ones”: to put cops, ex–gang members, soldiers, lifers in prison, and other ‘in the trenches’ voices in the same room, showing how people who’ve done terrible things can also transform and help others. The conversation also covers his formative years studying theater in Moscow, his violent past and near-prison moment, fatherhood, masculinity, forgiveness, and how pivotal, painful events can catalyze profound personal change.
Key Takeaways
Nuance is lost when complex issues are reduced to tribal talking points.
Bernthal and Rogan argue that social media and 24/7 news force stories into ‘teams’—pro/anti police, left/right—flattening complicated realities like police brutality, community safety, and race into slogans instead of solutions.
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Real understanding of social problems must come from people living them, not distant commentators.
Bernthal insists pundits and celebrities are the least qualified to frame debates around policing, gangs, or crime; instead, he seeks out veteran cops, ex–gang leaders, lifers, and community activists who actually share streets and stakes.
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Exposure and conversation between “enemies” can radically shift perspectives.
His first “Real Ones” episode paired an LAPD crash-unit cop with a Bloods gang member from the same housing projects; initial reluctance gave way to mutual respect, shared humor, even a joint fishing trip—illustrating how direct contact dissolves caricatures.
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Redemption is possible, but it demands brutal honesty, shame, and long-term work.
From lifers who’ve transformed prison culture to an ex–Marine who planned to bomb a mosque but became its Muslim leader, Bernthal highlights people who own horrific acts, sit in their shame, and devote their lives to service and prevention.
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Personal turning points often come from near-catastrophe—and require killing an old identity.
Bernthal recounts nearly going to prison after knocking a man out in a street fight; the scare, legal jeopardy, and mandated anger work pushed him to abandon his ‘wild’ persona, quit violence and drinking, and focus on acting, family, and discipline.
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Art can alchemize pain and darkness into something useful for others.
He sees performance—and now podcasting—as ways to turn his own and others’ worst moments (violence, prison, addiction, abuse) into stories that resonate with people in similar valleys and maybe keep them from making the same mistakes.
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Fatherhood and reading are core tools for building better men.
Influenced by his Russian teachers who ordered him to ‘never let a day go by without reading a book,’ and by his role as a dad, Bernthal frames discipline, literacy, sports, and a healthy relationship to violence as essential to raising grounded, empathetic sons.
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Notable Quotes
““These issues are enormously complicated and they’re not easy. Trying to say they are, or that you’re just on this team or that team—I find that enormously un‑American.””
— Jon Bernthal
““If these two guys can sit down—who’ve lost friends, taken lives, been part of this war—and then go fishing together, what are you doing standing on the side saying ‘I hate those people’?””
— Jon Bernthal
““I’m so pro Black Lives Matter but also super pro‑law enforcement, and I understand these things are not mutually exclusive.””
— Jon Bernthal
““All that shit you’re doing that you know you shouldn’t be doing—just stop doing that.””
— Jon Bernthal (quoting advice he received about fatherhood)
““We’re so ready to slam the door on people. Your capacity to create havoc is directly related to your capacity to create good and connection and growth.””
— Jon Bernthal
Questions Answered in This Episode
How do we scale the kind of cop–community and ex–gang member dialogues Bernthal describes into actual policy and practice in American cities?
Joe Rogan and Jon Bernthal trace parallels between the chaos of the 1960s and today’s polarized, media-saturated America, touching on assassinations, Vietnam, and modern social media outrage. ...
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What are better frameworks for holding abusers accountable while still allowing for genuine rehabilitation and public storytelling like Bernthal’s Shia LaBeouf episode?
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How can media consumers practically cultivate ‘nuance’ in a feed-driven world that rewards outrage and oversimplification?
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What specific structures—legal, educational, or cultural—would help more kids in violent, neglected neighborhoods get the kind of second chances Bernthal had?
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In what ways could American arts training and institutions adopt elements of the Russian seriousness about craft and discipline without importing its authoritarian baggage?
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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. (heavier rock music) You know, I grew up in, in, in DC and, um, I, I think about the people, you know, who, who were my teachers, and, you know, my parents, my friends' parents, and, uh, y- you know, they're sort of at the forefront of, uh, y- y- y- you know, troops coming home and getting-
Yeah.
... fucking spit on and, and-
Yeah.
... and you, you, you got people, y- you know, you're coming out of, you know, Jim Crow and people, uh, y- y- you know, people going down south and getting lynched, you know-
Yeah.
... in Meridian, Mississippi. And y- y- y- you know, I just... And then these assassinations. I just can't imagine what that must... Like a-
Right.
... string of assassinations.
Yeah.
And y- and just g- given the conversation, you know, if you're talking about the most fucked up time when you think everything is going to complete shit and it's just hari-kari. I'm like what would... I mean, imagine if right now, you know, in the, in, in the string of next week, like, Kanye was assassinated-
(laughs)
... Trump was assassinated. You know, like...
Right, right.
I mean, I guess we had the thing at Pelosi's house. I mean, I guess that's, like, kinda weird, but, like, it's also kinda like-
That's just weird.
It's just weird, right?
Yeah.
And, but like, imagine that. Like, imagine what, what we'd all be sa... I mean, it's like, uh, eh. You know, I think w- in the last couple years we really saw what it, how close, how fragile this whole thing is-
Mm-hmm.
... and how close this thing c- can go to just breaking down, and you're kinda on your own. But I just, you know, to have like both-
Yeah, you got a good point.
... both Kennedys?
Yeah, like-
Like, what did that feel like?
... John F. Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X.
Malcolm X.
All these murders, all these assassinations, very close to each other.
You're talking about what, like '68, '6-
Yeah.
And then, and then also you have, I mean, not to the same extent. I don't know what, how it would r- sh- register now, but you had Altamont, you had, you know. And then, again, just, you know, scores of, uh, uh, you know, you just had troops coming home, you know. Like, think about how we regard our military now.
Yeah.
And, and, and, and the reverence and respect that, that, that, that, that we treat our military. And think about it, you know, these troops coming home getting, getting, getting spit on.
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