Joe Rogan Experience #1129 - Tom Papa
Tom Papa (guest), Joe Rogan (host), Tom Papa (on-stage stand-up clip) (guest), Jamie Vernon (guest), Bert Kreischer (guest), Jamie Vernon (guest), Jamie Vernon (guest), Narrator, Narrator, Tom Papa (audiobook/reading clip) (guest), Jamie Vernon (guest), Tom Papa (additional clip/conversation) (guest)
In this episode of The Joe Rogan Experience, featuring Tom Papa and Joe Rogan, Joe Rogan Experience #1129 - Tom Papa explores tom Papa on Writing, Bread, Bourdain, Outrage Culture, and Civilization Joe Rogan and Tom Papa dive into Papa’s new family-humor book, his disciplined writing routine, and the anxiety of putting permanent work into the world versus the instant feedback of stand-up. They discuss how Rogan’s podcast bread bits unexpectedly led to Papa landing a Food Network baking show, highlighting how genuine passions can become careers.
Tom Papa on Writing, Bread, Bourdain, Outrage Culture, and Civilization
Joe Rogan and Tom Papa dive into Papa’s new family-humor book, his disciplined writing routine, and the anxiety of putting permanent work into the world versus the instant feedback of stand-up. They discuss how Rogan’s podcast bread bits unexpectedly led to Papa landing a Food Network baking show, highlighting how genuine passions can become careers.
The conversation shifts into a long, serious stretch on Anthony Bourdain’s suicide, depression, psychiatric meds, exercise, and how modern life and overmedication may intersect with the rising suicide rate. They also explore outrage culture, language taboos, and how social media mobs distort nuance in cases like Roseanne Barr, Kendrick Lamar’s onstage incident, and cultural appropriation debates.
Later they wander into history, from World War II and Nazi scientists to ancient Egypt, climate cataclysms, and how fragile and recent modern civilization is. Throughout, they return to themes of enjoying life, valuing simple pleasures like bread and family, and being kinder and less reactive in how we treat each other.
Key Takeaways
Treat writing like a job with a fixed daily schedule.
Papa finished his book by committing to morning writing sessions from 7 a. ...
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Permanent work requires different standards than live performance.
Books and specials live for decades without real-time feedback, so Papa obsessively revised every essay, stripping unnecessary words and repetition, unlike stand-up where bits evolve nightly via immediate audience reaction.
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Lean into your genuine hobbies; they can become your career edge.
Papa’s home sourdough obsession, amplified by Rogan’s podcast, built a fan micro-community around bread that directly led Food Network to give him a travel-and-baking show—proof that authentic enthusiasm can open unexpected professional doors.
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Exercise is a powerful, often underused antidepressant.
Rogan and Papa emphasize that regular running, lifting, or jiu-jitsu can dramatically reduce anxiety and improve mood, and research suggests exercise can rival or beat many antidepressants, especially in a sedentary, screen-sitting culture.
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Be cautious and nuanced about psychiatric meds, not dismissive.
They discuss anti-anxiety drugs, SSRIs, opioids, and post-surgery hormone crashes as possible contributors to suicide risk, arguing that while meds help some, the trial-and-error approach and side effects (including suicidality) deserve more open scrutiny.
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Resist social media mobs and over-simplified moral judgments.
From Roseanne’s tweets to Kendrick Lamar’s fan incident and Bruno Mars “appropriation” critiques, they argue that intent, context, and proportionality are often ignored, and that piling on people for clout erodes honest discourse and basic kindness.
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Perspective from history should humble modern certainty.
Their digressions into WWII atrocities, Nazi scientists in NASA, King Tut, possible ancient cataclysms, and how recently the American West was settled underline how fragile and young our systems are—and how easily they could be reset by disaster.
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Notable Quotes
“Whenever I work on something else, standup kind of… I work on it at night. The book was every morning at 7 a.m.—seven days a week—wherever I was.”
— Tom Papa
“You have to just get it down and know that it’s bad. Just get it down, then go to work on it—like a bit.”
— Tom Papa
“Food is a fascinating thing to me… he [Bourdain] made me think of food as an art form.”
— Joe Rogan
“We have the highest suicide rate among middle‑aged people in America than ever… and there’s also this pharmaceutical opioid crisis at the same time.”
— Tom Papa
“The culture has enough hate. I think the campaign has to be for more kindness.”
— Tom Papa
Questions Answered in This Episode
How should creators balance the need for rigorous self-editing with the risk of paralyzing self-criticism when working on long-form projects like books?
Joe Rogan and Tom Papa dive into Papa’s new family-humor book, his disciplined writing routine, and the anxiety of putting permanent work into the world versus the instant feedback of stand-up. ...
Get the full analysis with uListen AI
Where is the line between helpful psychiatric medication and harmful overmedication, and who should be responsible for monitoring that balance?
The conversation shifts into a long, serious stretch on Anthony Bourdain’s suicide, depression, psychiatric meds, exercise, and how modern life and overmedication may intersect with the rising suicide rate. ...
Get the full analysis with uListen AI
How can we reform social-media culture so that serious misconduct is called out without creating indiscriminate mob pile-ons and witch hunts?
Later they wander into history, from World War II and Nazi scientists to ancient Egypt, climate cataclysms, and how fragile and recent modern civilization is. ...
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What does the discussion of ancient Egypt and possible lost civilizations change about how we think of our own society’s stability and longevity?
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In practical terms, what daily habits—like exercise, meaningful work, and family rituals—most effectively protect against the anxiety and depression Rogan and Papa describe?
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Transcript Preview
(laughs)
Young James ready to launch. Five, four-
We can do it.
... three, two, one. (music plays)
We can do it.
Tom Papa is a motherfucking author.
I'm a man of letters now.
You're an author.
I'm an author.
I've always, uh, admired that-
(laughs)
... and secretly wished that I, uh, n- not even so secretly wished that I had the-
Yeah.
... discipline to write a book.
You do have the discipline. You just have to focus it on that.
Mm.
You can do it.
How long did it take you to write this?
About two years.
That's too long. I don't got that kind of time.
(laughs)
(laughs)
If you wanted-
You can do it shorter. Oh, okay, like a little pamphlet?
(laughs) Yeah, just do a flyer.
(laughs)
(laughs) Something real short.
Just make a f- yeah. (laughs)
Yeah.
This is all I could do.
Yeah.
How long before you started writing the book did you think about writing the book?
Ah, I've always kind of wanted to write a book.
Did you have a book deal?
I pitched a book... I, no. Well, yeah, on this one. I had pitched doing a book, I don't know, like six years ago, pretty much the same concept and no one was into it.
Hmm.
And then, a couple years ago, three, two, three years ago, a publisher contacted my agent or whatever, and they had interest. So we made a book deal, and that changes everything, because now-
You got-
... someone's waiting for you.
Yeah.
You know, you gotta turn stuff in, and they make books, and they're probably smart. (laughs)
(laughs)
And (laughs) you don't wanna seem like an idiot.
Did you, uh... Did you have an editor that, like, went over your stuff and said, "This is too long. This is too short"?
Yeah, they were pretty great. They were pretty... They just left m- the material alone.
Oh.
There was a couple little things where they're like, you know, "You're repeating something." Or-
Mm-hmm.
... uh, that, but mostly it was, uh, uh, grammar kinda things. "Do you wanna say it like this?"
Right.
"This isn't technically grammatically correct, but would you-"
Mm-hmm.
You know, typos.
Right.
That kinda stuff. They were pretty hands off about the actual material.
And does it... Is it a book of essays? Is it your life story? What is it?
It's all on family. It's called Your Dad Stole My Rake (laughs) -
(laughs)
... (laughs) and Other Family Dilemmas. And it's broken down by, uh, by everyone in your family. Like, the basic, uh, thing is as a comedian, I've been writing about family and looking at all, everyone's families for so long, so I'm gonna write about all of them. So it's moms, dads, cousins, aunts, uncles, all broken down in chapters like that.
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