Joe Rogan Experience #2291 - Bert Kreischer

Joe and Bert reminisce about Joe pushing Bert to leave Travel Channel TV work and commit to stand-up and podcasting, and how betting on themselves paid off. The conversation roams across health and body topics (deviated-septum surgery, mouth tape, hernias, bench-press injuries, painkiller and benzo addiction), then into wildlife and hunting, including Colorado reintroducing wolves near Aspen and detailed talk of compound vs. recurve bow hunting. They swap mob and crime stories (Whitey Bulger rigging the lottery, Johnny Carson nearly being whacked, the Comedy Store's gangster history), war and travel anecdotes from Serbia and Everest, and close on comedy-world camaraderie, jiu-jitsu, and steroids. It is a loose, joke-heavy, product-dense JRE hang rather than a topic-driven interview.

• Bert credits Joe with the pivotal mentorship that made him quit TV and chase stand-up, podcasting and a Netflix special.
  00:01:02
• Bert admits he got addicted to oxycodone painkillers, describing junkie-style negotiating when his wife cut him off.
  01:00:31
• Joe relays his cardiologist warning that Xanax/benzos are a leading cause of dementia and dangerous to quit.
  01:03:05
• Colorado reintroduced wolves near Aspen, including cattle-killing wolves from Oregon that promptly started killing cattle again.
  01:07:50
• Joe tells the story of a stitched-up pit bull whose owner followed a blood trail to nine dead coyotes.
  01:13:27
• Johnny Carson was nearly killed by the mob and saved via a deal brokered through the Italian-American Civil Rights League.
  02:32:25
• Bert admits his teenage daughter choked him out doing jiu-jitsu on vacation.
  02:50:15
• Wrestler Cody Rhodes told Bert he tore his pec at 315 lbs and wrestled a match anyway with a torn pec.
  02:58:06

• Joe notes that earning $34,000 in America puts you in the global top 1%.
  00:08:21
• Howard Stern's stations were fined about $2.5 million for indecency between 1990 and 2004.
  00:17:11
• Whitey Bulger rigged the Massachusetts lottery, setting up roughly $119,000/year in legitimate income for 20 years.
  00:40:13
• Joe had around 12+ nose breaks; deviated-septum surgery gave him noticeably better cardio in jiu-jitsu.
  00:53:14
• A woman named Patricia DeMauro holds the craps world record, rolling for 4 hours 18 minutes (154 rolls), odds ~1 in 1.56 trillion.
  01:49:41
• Early Everest expeditions reportedly packed about 15,000 cigarettes; some doctors once prescribed smoking for lung issues.
  02:11:08
• Serbia treats Gavrilo Princip, who assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand, as a national hero with statues everywhere.
  02:39:47
• Joe explains why jiu-jitsu suits women: legs can carry body weight indefinitely, so a triangle choke beats reliance on punching power.
  02:52:22
• GHB was once sold at GNC and used by bodybuilders for deep sleep and growth-hormone release before becoming a banned date-rape drug.
  03:01:46
• Derek (More Plates More Dates) argued that banning steroids halted R&D that could have made them far safer.
  03:02:47