The guest
Duncan Trussell: Comedian, podcaster (Duncan Trussell Family Hour) and longtime Rogan friend known for psychedelic, Buddhist-tinged philosophical riffing.
What this episode covers
A wide-ranging, mostly philosophical conversation recorded around Halloween 2022 with both men in clown suits. They open on The Intercept's reporting that DHS was working with Twitter to police 'mis-, dis- and mal-information' and spiral into the absurdity of a two-party binary, the wealth of ex-presidents, and the idea that leaders are projections of the collective unconscious. The middle turns to ancient civilizations and the pyramids, UFOs/UAPs, and AI-generated VR/AR as a possible decentralized future. The back half gets personal and health-focused: seed oils and macular degeneration, the 1960s sugar-industry cover-up, the opioid crisis, video-game and Xanax addiction, and the Russia-Ukraine war. Duncan repeatedly lands on his thesis that the only real leverage anyone has is calming their own mind and reducing suffering, which then radiates outward.
Recommended on this episode
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Uncut Gems
“it's amazing... probably one of the best movies about gambling if not the best ever made”
“you seen uncut gems no it's amazing it's an Adam Sandler movie it's not a comedy at all it's it's a great one”— Joe Rogan
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Midjourney
Midjourney
“this incredible text to Art AI”
“like a mid-journey which is this incredible text to Art AI you you kind of part of the fun is you sit there”— Duncan Trussell
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House of the Dragon
“the new one which is badass House of dragons”
“sometimes I watch Game of Thrones or the new one which is badass House of dragons and you're like everybody wants to be King”— Joe Rogan
Also referenced (named, not recommended)
MediaReferenced
Terrifier 2
“I'm excited to watch terrifier 2 tonight you know what I mean I've got like a little hook in me”— Duncan Trussell
MediaReferenced
World of Warcraft
Blizzard Entertainment
“you and I have both had like major problems with videos oh my God major problems so addicted to World of Warcraft unbelievably”— Duncan Trussell
MediaReferenced
Hearthstone
Blizzard Entertainment
“so addicted to World of Warcraft unbelievably Hearthstone got me too I have managed though to uh only play video games for like seven hours a day now”— Duncan Trussell
MediaReferenced
Call of Duty
Activision
“it's not Call of Duty Call of Duty it's that still big Jamie came out last night new one just came out”— Joe Rogan
MediaReferenced
MotoGP
“what game is this Moto GP this seems so real dude the water on the windshield I'm getting this game as soon as”— Joe Rogan
ProductReferenced
Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090
Nvidia
“it's showing off this 4 000 series video card which is about to come out... the 40 90 is what it's called but then the RTX is the ray tracing”— Joe Rogan
ProductReferenced
NyQuil
Vicks
“remember the old NyQuil the one that really got you up... I took that old NyQuil in the 90s and I was sick one day”— Joe Rogan
ProductReferenced
Vicodin
“I used to like taking like a Vicodin and like I like the buzz but then it's the weirdest thing man just one day”— Duncan Trussell
MediaReferenced
Game of Thrones
“why would I only watch The Big Bang Theory when I want to watch Game of Thrones right I watch Game of Thrones”— Duncan Trussell
MediaReferenced
The Big Bang Theory
“why would I only watch The Big Bang Theory when I want to watch Game of Thrones right I watch Game of Thrones”— Duncan Trussell
MediaReferenced
The Shining
“remember that scene in The Shining it's real quick where they open the door and it's like a furry like sucking a guy's dick”— Duncan Trussell
MediaReferenced
Close Encounters of the Third Kind
“do they work the same way they used to work in those old movies we're like Close Encounters yeah you see the things in the radar”— Joe Rogan
MediaReferenced
Coraline
“no no no no information AI rabbit that looks like Coraline's mother look at that yeah the rabbits pushed him around”— Duncan Trussell
BookReferenced
The Way of the Bodhisattva
Shantideva
“Auntie Davis way of the bodhisattva says the mind is like a wild elephant think about that dude that's a crazy thing”— Joe Rogan
Big reveals from this episode
- Duncan describes getting addicted to Xanax on an Australia tour from his dad's sleeping pills and white-knuckling through dangerous withdrawal.
- Both Joe and Duncan admit to major video-game addictions (World of Warcraft, Hearthstone) and frame obsession as their personal 'monster'.
- Duncan reveals he quit drinking and says staying stable and calm is 'working wonders'.
- Duncan demos real-time AI-generated VR (Stable Diffusion / Deforum) and predicts wearable AR where everyone walks through a different personally-generated reality.
- Joe links his own vision concerns and macular degeneration to seed-oil consumption, citing Paul Saladino's data.
- Duncan frames his whole worldview: leaders mirror the collective unconscious, so reducing your own suffering is the real political act.
Worth remembering
- The Intercept reported years of DHS memos showing efforts to influence tech platforms over 'misinformation, disinformation and mal-information'.
- Duncan's mother, studying psychology, hypnotized him as a kid and a wart fell off his hand days later.
- Some King's Chamber stones in the Great Pyramid were reportedly transported from a quarry over 500 miles away.
- Industrial seed oils (soybean, canola, corn, cottonseed) are linked to inflammation and age-related macular degeneration.
- In the 1960s the sugar industry quietly paid scientists to shift blame for heart disease from sugar to fat.
- CDC data cited shows nearly 70,000 people 18 and older died of opioid overdose in 2021.
- US airstrikes are estimated to have killed 22,000 to 48,000 civilians across roughly 100,000 strikes since 9/11.
- Obama's net worth is looked up at roughly $70 million, prompting a riff on paid presidential speeches.
- Biden's federal marijuana-possession pardon released zero people because nobody is in federal prison for simple possession.
- The conversation previews Nvidia's then-unreleased RTX 4090 video card and ray tracing while marveling at photorealistic racing games.
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