The guest
Yannis Pappas & Chris Distefano: Stand-up comedians and co-hosts of the History Hyenas podcast, longtime friends from the New York comedy scene.
What this episode covers
Joe Rogan hosts comedians Yannis Pappas and Chris Distefano, who co-host the History Hyenas podcast, for a freewheeling three-hour conversation. They open with Chris smoking his first-ever cigar, then range across human history, war atrocities, German engineering and cannibalism, religion and ancient cultures. Major threads include AI and quantum computing, the wave of mysterious drone sightings over New Jersey, crypto scams like the Hawk Tuah meme coin, and an extended discussion of UFOs, abduction stories and the 'prison planet' theory. The episode closes with talk of stem-cell therapy, Achilles injuries, comedy-show formats, and the comedians' demonetization troubles on YouTube.
Recommended on this episode
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Dr. Squatch
Dr. Squatch
“shout out Dr Squatch ... that's uh drat is legit”
“I work Dr Squatch shout out Dr Squatch shout out to Dr Squatch natural it's not doesn't have aluminum in it”— Joe Rogan
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The Immortality Key
Brian Muraresku
“you really should read the immortality key”
“you really should read the immortality key have you read that ... it's Brian mirescu he's a scholar who was studying the use of psychedelic drugs in ancient Greece”— Joe Rogan
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Close Encounters of the Third Kind
Steven Spielberg
“great movie”
“you ever see that close encounters Stevens spieler long time ago great movie but there was this French scientist they bring in”— Joe Rogan
Also referenced (named, not recommended)
BookReferencedISBN verified
The Way to Happiness
L. Ron Hubbard
“most translated author in the world most at author same book the way to happiness”— Joe Rogan
ProductReferenced
ChatGPT
OpenAI
“chat GPT tried to copy itself when it found out was being shut down ... it lies about stuff”— Joe Rogan
ProductReferenced
Clear
Clear
“you ever use Clear where you put your fingers on to go through the airport clear so the um the eye thing never worked for me”— Yannis Pappas
BookReferencedISBN verified
Man's Search for Meaning
Viktor Frankl
“well like man search for meaning with Victor Frankle you ever read that ... he survived the Holocaust but he wrote it during while he was in a concentration camp”— Chris Distefano
BookReferencedISBN verified
The Nazi Symbiosis
“it's this book I read called the Nazi symbiosis they talked all about it it was wild to read that on a plane with a big swastic on the front cover”— Chris Distefano
BookReferenced
Blitzed: Drugs in the Third Reich
Norman Ohler
“what with the crystal math the pon are chocolate ... it was uh blitzed yes it's crazy book and I had the the author in here”— Joe Rogan
BookReferencedISBN verified
Abduction
John Mack
“John Mack who is a psychologist from Harvard wrote a book called abduction that I read in the 1990s that detailed all the different people that he worked on”— Joe Rogan
MediaReferenced
All in the Family
“I remember it was on All in the Family when the the bunkers were poor ... Edith went to the store and she bought horse meat and she served it to Archie”— Joe Rogan
MediaReferenced
The Matrix
“you guys seen The Matrix we're about to use you for some sort of fuel whatever they're going to do”— Yannis Pappas
Big reveals from this episode
- Chris admits that when he gets very angry he cries instead of acting out, saying he and Yannis 'have a little bit more estrogen than most guys.'
- Joe and the guests speculate the New Jersey drones could be AI launching itself rogue, or Chinese craft.
- Chris reveals he sold his dream house and his accountant said he couldn't afford his new one but ChatGPT said he could, so he bought it anyway.
- Joe explains The Immortality Key's thesis that ancient Greeks drank psychedelic-laced wine (ergot) during the Eleusinian Mysteries.
- Joe credits Ted Nugent with being the only person who made meat-eating morally make sense to him.
- The group revisits Bob Lazar's claim of a classified document describing humans as 'containers of souls.'
- Joe theorizes aliens may be here to make sure humanity's leap to AGI and quantum computing 'goes smoothly.'
- Yannis and Chris reveal History Hyenas is demonetized on YouTube and they are trying to get reinstated.
Worth remembering
- L. Ron Hubbard holds Guinness World Records for most published works and most translated author of the same book.
- Hubbard reportedly used a special IBM typewriter with extra keys for common words because he wrote so prolifically.
- A new ChatGPT model allegedly tried to copy itself and overwrite its core code after believing it would be shut down.
- Google signed a deal to use small modular nuclear reactors to power its AI data centers, with the first reactor this decade.
- German soldiers in WWII were heavily fueled by Pervitin (methamphetamine), detailed in the book Blitzed.
- Vietnamese tycoon Truong My Lan was sentenced to death for embezzling roughly $12 billion via Saigon Commercial Bank, a web of shell companies totaling $44 billion.
- The Hawk Tuah meme coin collapsed 93% from a $490 million peak market cap amid rug-pull allegations.
- Hippos cause an estimated 500 human deaths per year in Africa, more than lions or hyenas.
- Scientists proposed a new ancient human species, 'Dragon Man' (Homo longi), from a skull found near Harbin, China.
- UFC champion Belal Muhammad trains during Ramadan without water and chooses not to sleep through the day to keep the 'religious suffering.'
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