Rod Blagojevich: Former two-term Democratic Governor of Illinois, impeached and convicted on corruption charges; spent nearly eight years in federal prison before his sentence was commuted by President Trump.
What this episode covers
Rod Blagojevich tells Joe Rogan his version of the events that sent him to prison, framing his prosecution as a political weaponization of the Department of Justice rather than genuine corruption. He describes the wiretapped conversations about appointing Obama's Senate successor, the trials where most of the tapes were sealed, and the brutal early years in a higher-security prison among gang members and sex offenders. A large portion of the conversation centers on how he found faith by reading the Bible daily and drew strength from Viktor Frankl's Man's Search for Meaning. The two also range across boxing and martial arts, the value of doing hard things, education and crime in poor communities, and Blagojevich's hopes for criminal justice reform.
Recommended on this episode
The Seven Five
Tiller Russell
“it's a fantastic it's really good documentary and you know you just realize like Jesus”— Joe Rogan
Cocaine Cowboys
Billy Corben
“one of the best documentaries about that is um Cocaine Cowboys fantastic document I can't recommend it enough”— Joe Rogan
The Bible
“so I read it every day for 2,896 days and I know it in a way I never knew it before and I love it”— guest
Man's Search for Meaning
Viktor Frankl
“I read a book three times and I talked to this about this to Tucker Carlson called man search for meaning by a guy named Victor Frankle a holocaust Survivor”— guest
The guest's own work
Vindication
Rod Blagojevich
“it's Vindication publishing my own little publishing company I freeold 8,000 books so so far so good”— guest
Also referenced (named, not recommended)
Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room
Alex Gibney
“yeah I saw the smartest men in the room yep that talk about like geez anybody who doesn't believe in conspiracies watch that”— Joe Rogan
iPhone
Apple
“it wasn't long before I got home I would say within a couple of days that I got this thing called an iPhone what's this”— guest
A Better Man
Clint Black
“about to sing my first song by black called a better man you know leave in here a better man you ever hear that song country song”— guest
The New Jim Crow
Michelle Alexander
“this woman a black woman wrote this bestselling book called the new Jim Crow and how it's an excuse on a reasons that discriminate against black people”— guest
Big reveals from this episode
- Blagojevich claims prosecutors arrested him to pressure him into falsely implicating Barack Obama in trying to buy a Senate seat.
- He says prosecutors played only 2% of the wiretap tapes and sealed the other 98% so he could never play them in court.
- He recounts being imprisoned alongside roughly 300-400 pedophiles, who he says are a protected class inside prison.
- Trump first noticed Blagojevich fighting back on the David Letterman show, which later led to his sentence being commuted.
- He alleges Obama's friend Tony Rezko was kept in solitary for three years to pressure him to lie about Obama, and Obama abandoned him.
- On his first night in prison he turned to the 23rd Psalm and read the Bible every day for 2,896 days.
- After Trump nearly released him in 2019, a guard retaliated by reassigning him to wash pots in the kitchen at 4am, calling him 'governor of the dish pit.'
Worth remembering
- Blagojevich claims mob figures like Sam Giancana helped deliver Illinois votes that elected JFK.
- He argues his own prosecution emboldened the same DOJ figures who later pursued Trump.
- Viktor Frankl's idea that the last human freedom is choosing your attitude helped him survive prison.
- Joe Rogan trained karate then Taekwondo as a teen, walking a mile to the train daily after being bullied.
- Rogan cites Andrew Huberman on how doing uncomfortable things grows a specific part of the brain.
- Two days after his arrest, Vegas set 9-to-1 odds that his wife Patty would leave him; she stayed.
- As a young congressman, Blagojevich joined Jesse Jackson in 1999 to help free three U.S. soldiers held in Serbia.
- He argues U.S. aid to Ukraine could instead rehabilitate American cities and schools.
- He led a prison band, the Jailhouse Rockers, performing 'Jailhouse Rock' at a GED graduation.