Joe Rogan Experience #1960 - Andrew Schulz

Andrew Schulz visits Joe Rogan at the Comedy Mothership after shooting his first archery shot, and the two settle into a sprawling conversation. They spend the first stretch dissecting comedy itself: the value of small versus big rooms, having a comedic 'North Star,' how Lenny Bruce invented the modern art form, and how Schulz struggled to write honest new material after his last special. The talk widens into history and technology, covering the Mongols, Roman lead pipes, Hedy Lamarr inventing frequency-hopping, AI and ChatGPT, and a long riff on the ethics of cobalt mining in every phone and EV. They close on discipline and ritual, comparing cold plunges and religion as voluntary suffering, and on combat sports, samurai, and what raw competition strips from the ego.

• Joe explains Steven Pressfield's The War of Art as a framework for beating 'resistance' and showing up like a professional so the Muse arrives.
  00:50:29
• Schulz admits writing material after his last special was uniquely hard because he refused to redo old jokes and wanted comedy that reflected how he'd actually changed.
  00:53:34
• Joe details his two ACL surgeries, including a cadaver Achilles graft that acts as a 'scaffolding' his body rebuilds into a stronger tendon within six months.
  01:07:44
• Both agree comedians 'blew out' the cultural scrutiny on edgy jokes, partly because podcast audiences proved comics weren't alone.
  01:41:10
• Schulz recounts the awkward phone call explaining the 'Heavies' inside joke to North Korean defector Yeonmi Park before her appearance.
  01:46:52
• They land on the moral conundrum that every lithium-ion device is tied to exploitative cobalt mining, and nobody changes their behavior because it's too inconvenient.
  01:59:30
• They explore the theory that Roman emperor Commodus went insane from lead-pipe drinking water available only to the wealthy.
  02:20:44

• Mongol horse archers timed their arrow release for when the horse was airborne to minimize the jolt and improve accuracy.
  00:01:34
• Actress Hedy Lamarr invented frequency-hopping technology, was dubbed the 'mother of Wi-Fi,' and was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 2014.
  00:18:45
• Idaho hosts the only cobalt mine in the United States.
  01:53:44
• A smartphone battery uses roughly 5-20 grams of cobalt, while an electric-vehicle battery requires 4-30 kilograms.
  01:57:56
• Samsung's 'moonshot' photos use artificial intelligence to add detail rather than pure 100x optical zoom.
  02:04:39
• The Moon is tidally locked to Earth, so it rotates at the same rate it orbits and always shows us the same face.
  02:05:11
• Japan ranked number one for countries most exposed to tropical cyclones worldwide in 2022.
  02:34:21
• The Dresden Academy of Engineers was founded in 1743, part of Germany's long head start in engineering and the sciences.
  02:36:58
• By 1944 the U.S. Alsos mission found the Nazis had only reached preliminary nuclear research and never came close to a bomb.
  02:40:44
• Swordsman Miyamoto Musashi won at least 60 one-on-one duels and held that a great swordsman must also master calligraphy and poetry.
  02:42:50