Joe Rogan Experience #2070 - Evan Hafer

Joe Rogan and Black Rifle Coffee founder Evan Hafer open with a riff on IQ, experts, and intellectual debate before moving into a long meditation on freedom, responsibility, and what gives life purpose. Hafer ties his special-operations background and obsession with hard work to building Black Rifle as a company with a mission. Big stretches cover elk hunting and archery gear, the science of toxoplasmosis and how cats kill billions of animals, coffee and hot-sauce nerdery, and combat-sport brain damage. The back half turns to cultural and political critique: wokeism, comedy under attack, information warfare from China and Russia, the costs of forever wars, and the WMD justification for Iraq. Hafer closes with gratitude for American freedom forged by his wartime experience.

• Hafer recounts Eric Weinstein announcing and publishing his Theory of Everything on this very podcast.
  00:02:37
• Evan reveals he deliberately engineers Black Rifle mugs with extra heft so they could be used to hit someone in the face.
  00:46:21
• Joe shot Elon Musk's Cybertruck with an 80-pound bow and the heavy arrow just bounced off, leaving only a tiny scratch.
  01:07:07
• A rap song made about bowhunter Cam Hanes climbed to roughly number six on the all-around hip-hop charts.
  01:21:38
• Hafer shares that his best friend died by suicide about a year ago, which he attributes to mixing alcohol with a traumatic brain injury.
  01:55:11
• Hafer argues Iraq was invaded over weapons of mass destruction that never existed and not one person ever went to jail for it.
  02:38:01
• Evan describes a close personal friendship with Bass Pro Shops founder Johnny Morris, calling him remarkably humble despite his wealth.
  01:50:29

• Roughly 16% of Americans have an IQ below 85, which Hafer cites as the cutoff for military service.
  00:00:34
• Toxoplasmosis rewires a rat's brain to be sexually aroused by cat urine and to lose all fear of cats, because the parasite can only reproduce in a cat's gut.
  00:54:08
• At one point as much as 50% of France's population was infected with toxoplasmosis, which is linked to recklessness and disproportionate motorcycle deaths.
  00:53:35
• US house cats kill an estimated 1.4 to 3.7 billion birds and up to 20.7 billion small mammals every year.
  00:59:16
• An MIT-designed solar-powered desalination device can produce fresh water cheaper than tap water, yielding four to six liters per hour for years.
  01:27:47
• Gary Brecka claims some Himalayan salt is contaminated with mercury and recommends Celtic salt instead.
  01:29:19
• Boxer Jerry Quarry's brother suffered brain damage as severe as Jerry's from gym sparring alone, despite having only about one pro fight.
  02:01:07
• Sensors in mouthpieces show UFC's Sean Strickland gets hit less than anyone, even though he spars more than almost any other fighter.
  02:02:30
• KGB defector Yuri Bezmenov outlined in the 1980s how the Soviets would erode American culture over generations, off by only about ten years.
  02:16:33