The guest
Julian Lennon: Musician and photographer, son of John Lennon; founder of the White Feather Foundation and author of the photography book Life's Fragile Moments.
What this episode covers
Julian Lennon joins Joe Rogan for a sprawling, philosophical conversation that ranges from a recent skin-cancer scare to gain-of-function research and lab leaks. Lennon describes his life in Monaco, his love of motorcycle travel through France and Corsica, and how a celebrity photographer mentor pushed him into exhibiting his photography. He shares the deeply personal origin of the White Feather Foundation, which sprang from an Aboriginal elder gifting him a white feather, fulfilling a promise his father once made. The pair dig into COVID-era restrictions, quitting cigarettes cold turkey and the depression that followed, and the carrying weight of being 'John Lennon's son.' They close on quantum computing, the multiverse, simulation theory, UFOs, and free will versus determinism.
The guest's own work
MediaBy the guest
Jude
Julian Lennon
“there's occasions where I'll I'll be totally blanked like with the last album I came out with Jude uh which took uh you know in between five and 30 years”— Julian Lennon
MediaBy the guest
Saltwater
Julian Lennon
“it was called saltwater and saltwater is about environmental and humanitarian issues and I was number one in Australia”— Julian Lennon
MediaBy the guest
Whale Dreamers
Julian Lennon
“I spent 10 years making a documentary with a best friend Kim Kindersley who initiated this whole thing and we made a documentary called whale dreamers”— Julian Lennon
BookBy the guest
Life's Fragile Moments
Julian Lennon
“I really enjoy your photography and the book is available life's fragile moments it's an awesome coffee table”— Joe Rogan
Also referenced (named, not recommended)
MediaReferenced
28 Years Later
Danny Boyle
“there's a new one have you seen the the trailer for the new one there's a new one 28 years later come on yeah yeah San Murphy's back let's go”— Joe Rogan
MediaReferenced
28 Days Later
Danny Boyle
“I mean that's like the opening of 28 Days Later right yeah”— Joe Rogan
ProductReferenced
Triumph motorcycle
Triumph
“I used to have Harley I at the moment I ride a Triumph a couple of triumphs oh nice uh one that looks like an old school but actually works”— Julian Lennon
MediaReferenced
BackBeat
Iain Softley
“I flew back to London see a premere of a film called BackBeat it's about the early Beatles uh I didn't know anything about it but I had an invite”— Julian Lennon
MediaReferenced
No Reservations
Anthony Bourdain
“I watched his first Show No Reservations like oh okay duh it's art it's art that you eat”— Joe Rogan
ProductReferenced
Leica camera
Leica
“I had a a show here at Leica in LA because it was a Leica camera uh which was about 50 images of the trip that I did”— Julian Lennon
MediaReferenced
Everything Everywhere All at Once
Daniels
“I think everything like that kung fu movie everything all at once I think that's there's probably a lot to that”— Joe Rogan
Big reveals from this episode
- Julian recently had a cancer scare on his head from a mole he kept picking at, and got the all-clear after a dermatologist excised it.
- John Lennon told Julian that if anything happened to him, he would send a sign in the form of a white feather; years later an Aboriginal elder presented Julian with a white feather, inspiring the White Feather Foundation.
- Julian legally changed his name by deed poll in 2020 to simply 'Julian' and titled his album 'Jude' to take ownership of the name.
- Despite doing radio shows, the actual TV shows (Jools Holland, Graham Norton, US late-night) repeatedly turned him down, which he attributes to the burden of being John Lennon's son.
- Julian says he clearly saw a UFO as a child from a TWA plane, about 50 feet from the wing, and that his father John also saw one in New York on film.
- In Mexico Julian saw see-through Mayan Indians dancing around a fire; the next day his host revealed the property was built on a Mayan burial ground and showed him a book matching the headdresses he'd seen.
- Julian quit smoking cold turkey after smoking since age 11-12, which triggered a multi-year depression he attributes partly to a chemical change.
Worth remembering
- Joe references an Australian laboratory reportedly losing track of hundreds of vials of deadly viruses including Hendra, Hanta and Lyssa virus.
- Dubai (UAE) does not levy income tax on individuals but applies a 5% value-added tax on goods.
- Julian and Joe note European food and portion control leave you feeling better; Joe blames seed oils and sugar in American food.
- Julian set up the Cynthia Lennon Scholarship for Girls (named for his mother) to send girls in Kenya to college.
- The woman on the cover of Julian's book is Charlene, now Princess of Monaco; he photographed her getting ready the day before her wedding.
- All photos of Walt Disney have his cigarette photoshopped out; Disney park employees were trained to do a two-finger gesture as a tribute, a practice that stopped around 2014.
- Google's Willow quantum chip reportedly performed in 5 minutes a benchmark that would take a classical supercomputer 10 septillion years.
- Google's Quantum AI lead Hartmut Neven said the chip's performance lends credence to the idea we live in a multiverse.
- Julian says he has the worst memory of anyone he knows and now has over 120,000 photos, having started by shooting clouds out of airplane windows.
- During COVID in France/Monaco, Julian could only leave home with written police paperwork, limited to a 1-kilometer radius.
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