Andrew Santino: Stand-up comedian, actor, and podcast host (Whiskey Ginger; Bad Friends with Bobby Lee). His comedy special 'White Noise' is out on Hulu.
What this episode covers
Joe Rogan and returning guest Andrew Santino spend three-plus hours roaming across AI's rapid takeover of art, music, and jobs, framing it half-jokingly as humanity 'creating a new god' that will need nuclear-scale power. A long stretch dissects the Jimmy Kimmel suspension and the Charlie Kirk shooting, with both arguing the government should never censor comedians while picking apart the official assassination narrative. They detour into firearms and marksmanship, hunting and wildlife (moose, mountain lions killing alpacas), the JFK 'magic bullet,' Israeli intelligence operations like the Hezbollah pager attack and Pegasus spyware, seized Russian oligarch yachts, and a supposedly 12,000-year-old metallic sphere. Throughout they champion live art, generosity, social safety nets, and 'taking the temperature down' on America's culture-war hysteria.
Recommended on this episode
First Lite
First Lite
“my friend's company, First Light, I think they were like one of the first companies that started doing marino wool and they make like marino wool undergarments”— Joe Rogan
Windy City Heat
Bob Zmuda
“he did that Windy City Heat thing. I love that. Such a good movie.”— Andrew Santino
I'm Alive
Johnny Thunder
“This is the number one most ridiculous song that for some reason the guy didn't become famous... I'm Alive... Oh my god, this guy's going to be famous”— Joe Rogan
Put Me Down Easy
L.C. Cooke
“That record is one of my favorite songs... I love this song, man... it's such a good song”— Joe Rogan
Strawberry Letter 23
Shuggie Otis
“Strawberry letter 23 by Shuggy Otis... it's like that's such a good song”— Joe Rogan
Also referenced (named, not recommended)
Walker's Game Ear
Walker's
“They've had them forever called Walkers uh game ears. And you can wear them in the woods and you hear like footsteps like hundreds of yards away.”— Joe Rogan
Frankenstein
Guillermo del Toro
“There's a new Frankenstein coming out. Yeah, dude. It looks sick.”— Andrew Santino
Frankenstein
Mary Shelley
“if you read the actual book, the Mary Shelley book, she apparently wrote that book... they all decided to write the scariest story”— Joe Rogan
The Terminal List series
Jack Carr
“Jack Carr writes about it in one of his books in the terminalist books and he kind of really investigated extensively whether or not this kind of thing is possible”— Joe Rogan
Big reveals from this episode
- Rogan argues jobs aren't essential and AI is 'the new dominant life force on Earth' emerging from its cocoon.
- Both agree the government should never dictate what a comedian can say, warning the right that censorship 'will be used on you.'
- Santino (and a breakdown video) argue the Charlie Kirk shooter's rifle disassembly/reassembly story 'makes no sense.'
- Rogan reveals his family was on welfare and forcefully defends free education, food, and housing as a social safety net.
- Rogan and Santino conclude, half-seriously, 'I think we're making a god' via quantum computing and AI.
- Rogan admits a mountain lion killed his dog in Colorado, yet still says he loves mountain lions.
- Santino says people demanding others comment on Kimmel while silent about Gaza 'might need medication' and should get off their phones.
- Rogan describes a supposedly 12,560-year-old aluminum-alloy sphere with microchip-like markings, hoping 'space people' come fix us.
Worth remembering
- An entirely AI-generated band has roughly 4 million monthly Spotify streams.
- Per Marc Andreessen, a quantum computer solved in minutes an equation the entire universe-as-supercomputer couldn't finish before heat death.
- The passenger pigeon, once so numerous its flocks blocked out the sky, was hunted to extinction.
- A Utah 'freeze-off' killed about 87% of a local deer population in one event.
- $1.7 million in 1995 equals roughly $3.6 million today (confirmed via ChatGPT on-air).
- Mary Shelley wrote Frankenstein at age 18, winning a ghost-story contest with Lord Byron during the rainy summer of 1816.
- 'Mirror image' identical twins (e.g., the Rogers brothers) form when the egg splits 9-12 days after conception, just short of becoming conjoined.
- Israel reportedly planted explosives in Hezbollah pagers, letting them circulate for months before detonating them within about an hour.
- A seized Russian oligarch yacht (the Amadea) was worth about $300 million; oligarch Suleiman Kerimov's net worth is listed at $16.4 billion.