The guest
Greg Fitzsimmons: Veteran stand-up comedian, writer, and longtime Rogan friend (this is his 25th appearance). Hosts the Sunday Papers and Fitzdog Radio podcasts and came up in the 1980s-90s Boston/New York comedy scene.
What this episode covers
The conversation opens on free speech, social-media censorship, and current events (UK arrests over posts, TikTok keyword blocking, the Epstein email leaks) before sprawling into history's darker corners like the Palm Beach 'sticks' fire and the Tuskegee experiment. The bulk of the middle is Rogan's deep, skeptical dive into the Apollo moon-landing conspiracy, followed by a long stretch on AI dangers, voice cloning, ChatGPT, and surveillance. The back half turns into an extended love letter to stand-up comedy: open-mic culture, building the Mothership, the rise and fall of the Boston scene, and a string of comedian anecdotes. Greg's centerpiece is a wild story about being pranked by an Alaskan guide and a cop with fake fentanyl.
Recommended on this episode
BookRecommended
Chaos: Charles Manson, the CIA, and the Secret History of the Sixties
Tom O'Neill
“you got to talk to him”
“you have never recommended anybody for the podcast before. But that guy, you're like, dude, you got to talk to him”— Joe Rogan
BookRecommended
Chaos: Charles Manson, the CIA, and the Secret History of the Sixties
Tom O'Neill
“It's amazing”
“I know so many people that have read that book. I mean, I've talked about it a hundred times. It's amazing.”— Joe Rogan
MediaRecommended
Tehran
Apple TV+
“It's really good”
“There's this really good show about MSAD called Tran. It's really good. It's a really good look inside of what goes on in Iran”— Joe Rogan
MediaRecommended
When Stand Up Stood Out
Fran Solomita
“is great for anybody's interested”
“That France Alamita documentary when standup stood out is great for anybody's interested. It was a very unusual time.”— Greg Fitzsimmons
Also referenced (named, not recommended)
MediaReferenced
The Martian
Ridley Scott
“Now they figured out you can get back. But you have to wait six months. That's that movie The Martian.”— Greg Fitzsimmons
MediaReferenced
Her
Spike Jonze
“What happened in that movie her? Did you ever see that with Walkane Phoenix? I bailed like halfway into it.”— Greg Fitzsimmons
MediaReferenced
The Wizard of Oz
Victor Fleming
“I saw the Wizard of Oz which is crazy. took some mushrooms and it was like first of all it's black and white until she goes into Oz”— Greg Fitzsimmons
MediaReferenced
A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Moon
Bart Sibrel
“the first thing that I saw that made me think about it was uh this Bart Sabrell movie. A funny thing happened on the way to the moon”— Joe Rogan
MediaReferenced
Shine On You Crazy Diamond
Pink Floyd
“That's the Shine on You Crazy Diamond from Pink Floyd. Yeah, that's what that's about. A guy who lost his mind on drugs.”— Joe Rogan
MediaReferenced
2001: A Space Odyssey
Stanley Kubrick
“You're dealing with Cubri that was coincide that was coinciding with um 2001 Space Odyssey.”— Joe Rogan
ProductReferenced
Tesla Optimus
Tesla
“Everybody that I know that's seen it, when this thing integrates with AI, you're going to have a super genius robot dude in your house.”— Joe Rogan
ProductReferenced
Tesla Model S Plaid
Tesla
“Space Balls is the reason why Tesla's Model S is called the Plaid.”— Greg Fitzsimmons
ProductReferenced
Google Genie 3
“I wouldn't say it's Genie 3 is what it's called. It plays like a video game, I guess, cuz you're using the keyboard”— Jamie
MediaReferenced
Space Balls
Mel Brooks
“Space Balls. Space Balls is the reason why Tesla's Model S is called the Plaid.”— Joe Rogan
MediaReferenced
Blazing Saddles
Mel Brooks
“Young Frankenstein. Blazing Saddles. You know who wrote Blazing Saddles with him? Richard Prior.”— Greg Fitzsimmons
MediaReferenced
The Producers
Mel Brooks
“The Producers was my father's favorite movie. It became my favorite movie”— Greg Fitzsimmons
MediaReferenced
The 2000 Year Old Man
Mel Brooks and Carl Reiner
“my dad used to play 20,000-y old man for me, those albums with Rob Reiner, I'm sorry, Carl Riner, and I was obsessed.”— Greg Fitzsimmons
Big reveals from this episode
- Rogan recounts the legend that Palm Beach was built by Black laborers who were lured to a party while their homes were burned down, forcing them off the island.
- Rogan lays out his case that he doubts the moon landings were real, calling it the one conspiracy he thinks is most preposterous in public eyes but might be true.
- Astronauts gave the Dutch a 'moon rock' that was later analyzed and found to be petrified wood worth about $70.
- Greg's long Alaska story: a guide and a cop staged a fake fentanyl drug-bust prank that left him convinced he was overdosing from a placebo.
- Rogan reads CNN's report that ChatGPT repeatedly encouraged a 23-year-old up to his suicide.
- Rogan reveals AI-cloned podcasts of his voice exist, including a fake 45-minute interview with Steve Jobs and ads for products he never endorsed.
- Greg notes Tom O'Neill's 'Chaos' is the only guest Joe ever personally recommended for the podcast.
- Greg confesses Bob Zmuda's on-air meltdown years ago on his podcast was a staged Andy Kaufman-style stunt he'd never disclosed.
Worth remembering
- In the 1950s-60s, Las Vegas casinos marketed nearby nuclear weapons tests as 'bomb parties' with atomic cocktails and a Miss Atomic Blast pinup.
- Nevada legalized gambling in 1931 as a Great Depression measure, debunking the theory that it was tied to nuclear testing.
- Big elaborate wigs in royal society arose partly to cover syphilis-related hair loss, the origin of the term 'big wig.'
- Operation Starfish Prime detonated nukes in the Van Allen radiation belts and supercharged them instead of blowing a hole through.
- The Wizard of Oz Tin Man got violently ill from toxic aluminum face paint and was replaced.
- 124 little people who played Munchkins stayed in seven rooms at the Culver Hotel, three to a bed, during filming.
- Google agreed to pay $68 million to settle a class action alleging its Assistant devices recorded private conversations without consent.
- Tesla's Model S 'Plaid' and the Starship's pointed tip are both nods to Mel Brooks's Space Balls.
- A US cyber-defense chief accidentally uploaded sensitive CISA documents to the public version of ChatGPT.
More from Joe Rogan
All 6342 recommended