The guest
David Blaine: Magician and endurance performer famous for extreme feats of bodily control, from being frozen in ice to record breath-holds.
What this episode covers
David Blaine joins Joe Rogan to discuss his new National Geographic series, for which he learned to kiss a wild king cobra after just a week of training. They cover his catalog of dangerous stunts, the dislocated shoulder he performed through in Vegas, and the mental techniques he uses to control his heart rate, hold his breath for over 20 minutes, and endure extreme cold and heat. A large portion of the conversation drifts into diet, inflammation, stem cells, cold plunges, and saunas. The back half becomes a deep dive into card magic and the secretive world of card cheats, marked decks, and casino gambling.
Recommended on this episode
ProductRecommended
AG1 (Athletic Greens)
AG1
“it's great ... it's like 75 different vitamins and nutrients very good it tastes good easy so simple”
“ag1 is athletic greens no it's great it's just very simple you take a scoop of it put it in some water”— Joe Rogan
Also referenced (named, not recommended)
ProductReferenced
Morozko Forge (cold plunge / ice bath)
Morozko Forge
“I have a what's called a morasco cold Forge and it's really cold it's just above Freez”— David Blaine
ProductReferenced
White Lions playing card deck
Ellusionist
“by the way the the deck is called the white lions oo why is that”— David Blaine
ProductReferenced
Everlast boxing glove
Everlast
“I feel my knuckle piercing against the tight leather gloves on the Everlast boxing glove”— Joe Rogan
BookReferencedISBN verified
Swami Mantra
“there's a book called Swami Mantra which is a collection of pamphlets of Secrets of what the fakir were doing in India”— David Blaine
BookReferencedISBN verified
The Discoverie of Witchcraft
Reginald Scot
“the first one was like uh I think it was called discovery of Witchcraft from like 1584 or something like that”— David Blaine
BookReferencedISBN verified
The Expert at the Card Table
S.W. Erdnase
“there's a book written by a guy that called himself erdes the expert the card table and he had so many secrets in this book”— David Blaine
MediaReferenced
Fear Factor
NBC
“we covered people with bees on Fear Factor we covered people with scorpions on Fear Factor”— Joe Rogan
Big reveals from this episode
- Blaine kissed a wild king cobra for the Nat Geo series after only a week of training, with an ambulance and antivenom standing by.
- He dislocated his shoulder jumping from a nine-story height into boxes in his Vegas show and finished the show one-armed.
- His monitored breath-hold record is 20 minutes 2 seconds on pure oxygen, with his heart rate dropping to 8 beats per minute.
- In his Vegas show he swallows a gallon of water (about 8.43 lbs) and later spouts it out to extinguish fire.
- Blaine spent two years developing his own invisible marked-deck system that even expert magicians couldn't detect.
- Blaine hit the long-odds 'fire bet' at the Palms craps table, winning everyone roughly $10,000 each and forcing a two-hour casino review.
- Dana White was banned from the Palms for winning about $7 million at blackjack, prompting him to pull the UFC from the casino.
Worth remembering
- One of the king cobras used in filming had previously killed its own owner.
- Joe Rogan says he avoided shoulder surgery using stem cell therapy at a clinic in Tijuana.
- Selectively bred modern watermelons and wheat yield far more sugar and gluten than their Renaissance-era ancestors.
- Mirin Dajo, the 'human pin cushion,' died after swallowing a needle that eventually ruptured his heart.
- A 3-minute cold plunge can raise dopamine by about 200% for hours, producing a drug-like high.
- A Finnish study found four sauna sessions a week was linked to a 40% drop in all-cause mortality.
- Scientists map leaf-cutter ant colonies by pouring in concrete, revealing astonishingly complex ventilation and chambers.
- Fear of public speaking is theorized to stem from being an elevated, exposed target for predators.
- Poker pro Phil Ivey reportedly won millions by detecting a near-invisible misprint in casino card backs.
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