Bert Kreischer: Comedy, Drinking, Rogan, Segura, Churchill & Kim Jong Un | Lex Fridman Podcast #382

Bert Kreischer and Lex Fridman have a loose, freewheeling conversation that centers heavily on drinking culture, comedy, and male friendship. Bert breaks down his philosophy of drinking in different contexts (alone, behind your wife's back, the perfect afternoon Campari Spritz) while reflecting on the joy and camaraderie alcohol brings. He shares deep affection for his close friends Joe Rogan and Tom Segura, crediting Rogan with reshaping the stand-up world and teaching him to trust again. The talk also covers his approach to viral self-promotion (dance lessons, marching bands, a promo read going into surgery), his late-blooming love of history podcasts like Dan Carlin's, his marriage, fatherhood, and how a serious young poet became a joyful comedian. It ends on advice to young people: find what you love and let it kill you.

• Bert celebrates Winston Churchill's death anniversary each year by drinking and partying all day the way Churchill lived.
  00:08:23
• His own management team tried to convince him Tom Segura was 'the rat' who leaked information; Bert refused to believe it and was proven right.
  00:29:12
• On a business deal, he and Segura agreed 'our feelings are more important than the money' and just split it evenly.
  00:33:46
• Bert says without Rogan he'd never have told the Machine story, started a podcast, done arenas, or gotten a movie.
  00:39:33
• At the movie premiere his father sobbed and told him 'I've underestimated you your whole life.'
  00:21:57
• He recorded a tour-date promo read while going under anesthesia for arm surgery, having the anesthesiologist stop the recording.
  01:56:58
• Bert got blackout drunk at his own Whitney Cummings roast and remembers none of it.
  01:51:48
• Recalls a drunken, embarrassing first meeting with David Goggins that turned into a push-up contest.
  01:47:39

• Bert is dyslexic and gravitated to Hemingway because he wrote simply.
  00:01:35
• His favorite afternoon drink is a Campari Spritz (Campari, Prosecco, soda water).
  00:14:38
• Flight attendants now bring him a 'double Jack on the rocks, lots of rocks' without asking.
  01:23:19
• Bert has genuine tactile issues and is far more comfortable shirtless than in a shirt.
  00:25:34
• The nickname 'The Machine' came from Bert mangling Russian while trying to say something else.
  01:38:18
• His viral hip-hop dance promo sold out his entire tour, changing how he markets shows.
  01:53:51
• His old ritual: a full day, then a box of wine on the treadmill walking at 3.5 mph until midnight.
  01:06:32
• He swore off IPAs for ~10 years after throwing one up before jumping off the Stratosphere.
  01:21:46
• Bert credits Dan Carlin's history podcast as a gateway to his late-life love of history.
  01:10:47
• His comedy 'greats outside his friend group': Norm Macdonald, Mitch Hedberg, George Carlin, Dave Attell, with Chappelle and Bill Burr as best of the generation.
  02:01:41