The guest
Brian Simpson: Stand-up comedian, Marine Corps veteran, and host of the podcast 'BS with Brian Simpson'.
What this episode covers
A loose, wide-ranging conversation recorded while the OceanGate Titan submersible was still missing, which becomes the recurring anchor of the episode. Rogan and Simpson speculate about the sub's design failures, the fired whistleblower, and how horrific the deaths would be, returning to it repeatedly between tangents. They cover longevity-obsessed billionaires, gambling addiction, Korean Air's hierarchy-driven crashes, coyotes and rabies, shark and whale attacks, and the addictive design of casinos and video games. A long comedic centerpiece has both men sniffing increasingly potent smelling salts on-air and reacting in pain. Throughout, Simpson talks comedy clubs, the Mothership's open-mic culture, and his love of Diablo 4.
Recommended on this episode
ProductRecommended
Bug-A-Salt
Bug-A-Salt
“everyone should have one of these / I would be their spokesperson if they paid me”
“I got one and I was like everyone should have one of these like I would be their spokesperson if they paid me”— Brian Simpson
BookRecommendedISBN verified
Coyote America
Dan Flores
“There's a great book on it called coyote America”
“There's a great book on it called coyote America oh man they're everywhere author yeah I had the author on the other day”— Joe Rogan
MediaRecommended
Succession
HBO
“great [ __ ] great show”
“succession was great [ __ ] great show yeah [ __ ] great show and the ending holy [ __ ] man”— Brian Simpson
MediaRecommended
American Psycho
“that was a great movie dude awesome”
“American Psycho that was a great movie dude awesome the book is even more [ __ ] up”— Brian Simpson
MediaRecommended
Diablo 4
Blizzard Entertainment
“I love this game / it's awesome”
“Diablo 4 just came out that [ __ ] took my [ __ ] life I took three days off and I played it for 3 Days”— Brian Simpson
MediaRecommended
Tiger King
Netflix
“they were right it was great”
“everybody's telling you you have to see it yeah and they were right it was great but it's they just caught lightning in a bottle”— Joe Rogan
MediaRecommended
The Alpinist
“you got to watch it”
“you ever seen that uh documentary The alpinist no oh you got to watch it the alpinist”— Joe Rogan
MediaRecommended
Michael (Killer Mike album)
Killer Mike
“the new Killer Mike albums are [ __ ] amazing / very good”
“the new Killer Mike albums are [ __ ] amazing it's very good yeah yeah it's very good David Lucas played it in the green room last night”— Joe Rogan
Also referenced (named, not recommended)
ProductReferenced
WHOOP
WHOOP
“when I had that whoop thing like if I looked at it I mean I still have it I just haven't been wearing it”— Joe Rogan
ProductReferenced
Red Line smelling salts
Red Line
“one I have is called get that [ __ ] away from Red Line that's worse it was just the like the highest selling one on uh on Amazon”— Joe Rogan
ProductReferenced
Apple AirTag
Apple
“really because my cat went missing for for a day oh it didn't have an air tag right well she the [ __ ] won't wear a collar”— Brian Simpson
ProductReferenced
Samsung SmartTag
Samsung
“Samsung has its version of air taxs called smart tax but the way they work is they don't actually have GPS on them themselves”— Brian Simpson
BookReferencedISBN verified
American Psycho
Bret Easton Ellis
“American Psycho that was a great movie dude awesome the book is even more [ __ ] up”— Brian Simpson
BookReferencedISBN verified
Outliers
Malcolm Gladwell
“this is from I think it was Malcolm gladwell's book uh where they describe how they to get over this problem they started making them speak English”— Joe Rogan
MediaReferenced
Uncut Gems
“did you see uncut gems oh yeah uncut gems once it's [ __ ] I can't watch it again it's so anxiety”— Joe Rogan
MediaReferenced
Avatar: The Way of Water
James Cameron
“Avatar two a lot of it is water yeah apparently he like one of the most expensive movies to film ever great movie they just pushed [ __ ] it”— Joe Rogan
MediaReferenced
The Flash
“he must be so good in this [ __ ] movie I haven't seen the movie but I heard it's really good”— Brian Simpson
MediaReferenced
The Last of Us
“you watch Last of Us yes it's like remember the old the old gay man with the shelter like yeah those if the Apocalypse come they going to be sitting pretty”— Brian Simpson
MediaReferenced
EverQuest
“the first game like that was was EverQuest... I seen it ruin people's marriages yeah and they came out with EverQuest too”— Brian Simpson
MediaReferenced
World of Warcraft
Blizzard Entertainment
“World of Warcraft I I stayed away from I seen people I seen it [ __ ] people up you know”— Brian Simpson
MediaReferenced
League of Legends
Riot Games
“I think that game is League of Legends yeah that's yeah yeah League of Legends Starcraft was the other one they used to”— Joe Rogan
MediaReferenced
StarCraft
Blizzard Entertainment
“League of Legends Starcraft was the other one they used to buy they get but this I think I think League had the largest prize”— Joe Rogan
MediaReferenced
Skyrim
Bethesda
“wouldn't it be more exciting to do this as a first player they did that with uh with uh with Skyrim yeah they kind of did”— Joe Rogan
Big reveals from this episode
- They detail OceanGate's 2018 warnings: director David Lockridge flagged the Titan's viewport was only rated to ~1,300m (not the ~4,000m Titanic depth) and was fired.
- Discussion of Bruce Willis allegedly selling AI 'digital twin' rights due to his aphasia, with an on-air correction that reports conflict on whether he actually did.
- Simpson explains his obsession with the Bug-A-Salt fly gun via a story about swarms of starving flies during his first Iraq deployment.
- Rogan and Simpson sniff an extremely potent batch of smelling salts on-air, react in genuine pain, and nearly halt the show.
- They note Elizabeth Holmes is heading to prison in Texas and had children shortly before, speculating it was a sociopathic bid for leniency.
- Korean Air's crash record is tied to cultural hierarchy in the cockpit; switching pilots to English helped flatten deference (per Gladwell).
- A rabies story: a 21-year-old BC man was lightly nicked by a bat, didn't seek treatment, and died six weeks later when symptoms appeared.
Worth remembering
- They reference the old 'happiness plateaus around $70,000 of income' saying, joking it's probably ~$85,000 now.
- The longevity-obsessed billionaire reportedly takes ~40 vitamins twice daily, gets blood transfusions from his son, and even counts his nighttime erections.
- Low WHOOP 'recovery' scores despite feeling fine became an early signal that someone had caught COVID.
- AirTags/SmartTags have no GPS themselves; they only report location by pinging off nearby phones, so Apple's market dominance makes AirTags more accurate.
- Persecuting coyotes backfires: lost pack members trigger larger litters and territory expansion, so coyotes now live in every major North American city.
- Casinos track players via loyalty cards and legally must hit jackpots within set spans, drip-feeding small wins to keep gamblers hooked.
- Toxoplasmosis from cats rewires rats to be sexually aroused by cat urine, making them seek out cats and get eaten.
- Gladwell argues the safest airlines come from cultures with low 'power distance' that don't enforce strict hierarchy in the cockpit.
More from Joe Rogan
All 6342 recommended