Dave Attell & Ian Fidance: Stand-up comedians; Attell is a veteran comic known for Insomniac and the album Skanks for the Memories, Fidance is a younger sober comedian who tours with him.
What this episode covers
This is a loose, free-associating comedy hang rather than a structured interview. Attell and Fidance trade road stories with Rogan while the conversation jumps across health and diet, the opioid epidemic, government conspiracies around heroin in Vietnam and Afghanistan, immigration and squatting, and military drone warfare. Long tangents cover bull sharks invading freshwater, AI robots and nuclear batteries, the Maui fire 'directed energy weapon' conspiracy, and the early Boston comedy scene. It closes on Vegas culture, gambling addiction, off-track betting, monkeys in India, and the snake-charmer/cobra-bounty story. Attell plugs his new Netflix special Hot Crust Buns at the end.
Recommended on this episode
Skanks for the Memories
Dave Attell
“Skanks for the Members is still one of my all-time favorite comedy albums it's a classic”— Joe Rogan
Also referenced (named, not recommended)
Dreamland
Sam Quinones
“there's a book called Dreamland that talks about um the pill crisis and everything and how it started with black tar heroin”— guest
Call of Duty
Activision
“they can basically take control of the or stop the signal and it'll just land it's like a perk in Call of Duty”— guest
Raising Arizona
Coen Brothers
“you got to look like Tex Cobb in Raising Arizona exactly no but he he was still vulnerable his skin was exposed”— Joe Rogan
Levi's 501 jeans
Levi's
“their number one export that they would use all their money the drug dealers was uh Levi's 501 jeans”— guest
BetaVolt nuclear battery
BetaVolt
“nuclear battery produces power for 50 years without needing to charge that's crazy beta Volt says its battery could power mobile phones”— Joe Rogan
Big reveals from this episode
- Rogan recounts that Rush Limbaugh's deafness was reportedly caused by massive Vicodin/painkiller use, taking dozens of pills a day.
- They discuss US troops guarding Afghan poppy fields and Geraldo Rivera's reporting framing it as protecting culture.
- Bull sharks can survive in freshwater and have swum up the Mississippi all the way to St. Louis and into Illinois.
- Fidance describes a YouTube guide for squatting in vacant homes using fake leases and utility transfers to claim tenant rights.
- News story of a woman from Spain beaten to death by squatters in her late mother's vacant NYC apartment.
- Maui fire 'directed energy weapon' conspiracy: people painting roofs blue believing blue surfaces resist the weapon.
- Claim that Maui fire victims received a one-time $700 payment while billions went to Ukraine.
- The cobra-bounty origin story of snake charming: British bounties led Indians to breed cobras, worsening the problem.
Worth remembering
- Las Vegas airport is cited as having a smoking booth, unusual among US airports.
- Limbaugh reportedly had 2,000+ painkillers and a housekeeper claimed he did 30+ Oxys a day.
- Parrots can live 50 to 100 years, and people leave provisions for pet parrots in their wills.
- Pigeons were brought to North America from Europe as a food source; 'squab' is pigeon meat.
- Grasshoppers turn into locusts via density-dependent phenotypic plasticity when crowded.
- Boston Dynamics robots can do construction, hop on boxes and acrobatics, demonstrated years before public AI.
- BetaVolt nuclear battery is claimed to produce power for 50 years without recharging.
- Wing Lei in Las Vegas is cited as the first Chinese restaurant in America to earn a Michelin star.
- Penny slots generated 99.6% of total slot win, about $3.15 billion, down 12% from 2022.
- Snake charmers stitch or wax snakes' mouths and dehydrate cobras for milk festivals, often killing them.