Dave Portnoy: Founder and owner of Barstool Sports; blogger and media personality who built the brand from a four-page 2003 Boston newspaper into a major sports and gambling media company.
What this episode covers
Joe Rogan and Dave Portnoy open by complaining about being lazily labeled right-wing, then range across media bias, charity fraud, the Twitter Files, and COVID misinformation. Portnoy recounts how Barstool Sports began in 2003 as a printed gambling rag he handed out at Boston subway stations, and shares his habit of engraving champagne bottles with the names of enemies to pop when they fall. Rogan tells his own origin story of discovering Taekwondo as a bullied teen, becoming a four-time state champion, and staying away from cocaine in the Boston martial-arts and comedy scenes. A long middle stretch covers MMA and boxing fandom, performance-enhancing drugs, and bodybuilding. Portnoy closes with the inside story of signing Call Her Daddy's Alex Cooper and Sophia Franklin and the contract war that cost Sophia millions.
Also referenced (named, not recommended)
The Wreck of the Titan (Futility)
Morgan Robertson
“a short novel called the futility the wreck of the Titan published in the US writer Morgan Robertson a novel that tells the story of the world's largest passenger ship”— Joe Rogan
Jack Ryan
“it's like uh Jack Ryan L season Jack Ryan it's literally sort of like that plot but yeah no there is no easy answer”— Joe Rogan
Concussion
“I believe they buried the surveys at least from that movie concussion with Will Smith yeah I didn't watch that movie”— Joe Rogan
Gladiator
“to be honest I think most politicians it's like the movie Gladiator when Maximus asks he he wants uh Maximus to be the president of Rome”— Dave Portnoy
Big Brother
“an exclusive story on Vice that says the reason he was kicked off of Big Brother was not the reason that was publicly known”— Joe Rogan
Hustlers University (The Real World)
Andrew Tate
“Hustler University experience modern wealth creation I haven't looked at this I didn't know this was even real yeah no this is what he said”— Joe Rogan
Big reveals from this episode
- Portnoy reveals Barstool Sports started in 2003 as a four-page printed gambling/men's-interest newspaper he handed out at Boston subway stations, with Hooters as the first advertiser.
- Portnoy keeps champagne bottles engraved with the names of his enemies and pops one when they 'screw up', most famously after ESPN's John Skipper bashed Barstool.
- Rogan says he'd keep doing the podcast for free if he lost all advertisers, and that leaving YouTube for Spotify ended the demonetization of his episodes.
- Rogan explains he turned down billionaire offers to go direct-to-subscriber because he has a great relationship with Spotify's CEO.
- Portnoy details hiring Call Her Daddy's Alex Cooper and Sophia Franklin for $70k each, the contract war, and how Sophia's boyfriend cost her millions.
- Portnoy recounts getting a phone call from Scooter Braun during the Call Her Daddy dispute and immediately making a video calling him out.
- Portnoy and Rogan dissect Andrew Tate's Hustlers University, mocking its countdown-timer sales pitch and $49-to-$147 'enroll now' funnel.
Worth remembering
- An 1898 novel, 'Futility / The Wreck of the Titan' by Morgan Robertson, eerily described the world's largest ship sinking after hitting an iceberg, 14 years before the Titanic sank.
- 'Kids Wish Network' spends only three cents of every dollar collected on kids while designing its branding to be confused with the respected Make-A-Wish Foundation.
- The American Red Cross spends an average of about 90 cents of every dollar on delivering care, keeping roughly 10 cents for operations.
- Wounded Warrior Project's top executives were fired in 2016 over a lavish-spending scandal; a watchdog said it spent only about 60% of its budget on veterans.
- A former FBI security specialist estimated that over 80% of Twitter accounts could be bots.
- ESPN's John Skipper resigned in 2017 over a cocaine extortion plot after 27 years at Disney.
- There were roughly 41 million Adderall prescriptions in the US in 2020.
- Congressman George Santos fabricated nearly his entire biography, jobs, heritage, and family history, yet remained seated and voting in Congress.