The guest
Greg Overton: Fine artist known for large-scale Native American portrait paintings (Soul Catcher, Dreamer); former OSHA graphics designer and tattoo apprentice turned full-time Western painter.
What this episode covers
Greg Overton recounts his path from a rebellious, art-obsessed kid into a professional Western fine artist celebrated for powerful Native American portraits. He and Joe Rogan rail against the indoctrination of school and office life, championing the freedom of a creative, tribe-centered existence. The conversation roams across Bigfoot and UFO skepticism, psychedelics as perception openers, and a long stretch of cosmic speculation about Dyson spheres, hypernovas, the Carrington event, time machines, and galaxies the James Webb telescope says shouldn't exist. They close on the depth of Native American history, citing Empire of the Summer Moon, Crazy Horse, Quanah Parker, the Creek warrior William Weatherford, and Sun Dance rituals. Overton plugs his upcoming gallery shows in Santa Fe and Jackson Hole.
Recommended on this episode
BookRecommendedISBN verified
Empire of the Summer Moon
S. C. Gwynne
“some of these amazing books where you get a real understanding”
“until people started writing these like Empire of the Summer Moon, some of these amazing books where you get a real understanding”— Joe Rogan
BookRecommendedISBN verified
Black Elk Speaks
John G. Neihardt
“amazing books where you get a real understanding of like Black Elk Speaks”
“like Black Elk Speaks, like those kind of things. We you actually hear from the people that lived that life”— Joe Rogan
MediaRecommended
The Outlaw Josey Wales
Clint Eastwood
“That's a great movie. That's a great movie”
“Clint Eastwood took it to another level. Like especially The Outlaw Josey Wales. That's a great movie. That's a great movie.”— Joe Rogan
Also referenced (named, not recommended)
BookReferencedISBN verified
Fighting Indians of the West
“There was books in my grandparents' house. Like the one of them was called Fighting Indians of the West”— Greg Overton
MediaReferenced
Office Space
Mike Judge
“Reminds me of that movie Office Space. Yes, exactly. Like that's why I think our country is almost like right now”— Greg Overton
MediaReferenced
Finding Bigfoot
Animal Planet
“Like Finding Bigfoot. Yeah. Like that show. That show was hilarious. Like How do they pull that off for like eight seasons?”— Joe Rogan
MediaReferenced
Joe Rogan Questions Everything
Syfy
“when I did that TV show for Syfy called Joe Rogan Questions Everything. We went and hung out with these Bigfoot people”— Joe Rogan
MediaReferenced
Dances with Wolves
Michael Blake
“my mentor, a friend of mine wrote Dances with Wolves. He's like one of my best influences that guided me in my career, Michael Blake”— Greg Overton
MediaReferenced
Avatar
James Cameron
“It's kind of like a version a real version of uh Avatar. When they have to hop on those dragons and they have to like merge with them”— Greg Overton
MediaReferenced
A Man Called Horse
Elliot Silverstein
“Do you ever see Man Called Horse? I yeah, dude. I own that. I got that on DVD. He goes through that ritual.”— Joe Rogan
MediaReferenced
The Fifth Element
Luc Besson
“Like, when you watch The Fifth Element or Blade Runner, they're still using telephones. They didn't even think of cell phones.”— Joe Rogan
MediaReferenced
Blade Runner
Ridley Scott
“Like, when you watch The Fifth Element or Blade Runner, they're still using telephones. They didn't even think of cell phones.”— Joe Rogan
MediaReferenced
Star Trek
“Star Trek, they had a walkie-talkie. Yeah. Kirk out. Cuz you're you're still like relating it from like 1960 military space.”— Joe Rogan
MediaReferenced
God of War
Sony
“That's not the Unreal 5 engine. going to God of War? Holy keep going.”— Joe Rogan
Big reveals from this episode
- Overton's massive painting Soul Catcher hangs in Joe Rogan's library, and Dreamer is another piece Rogan owns.
- Before becoming a fine artist, Overton worked as a federal graphics designer for OSHA, editing gory accident photos to make them less bloody.
- He apprenticed at Big Deluxe Tattoo in Salt Lake but got fired after a drunken Muay Thai high kick missed its target and knocked out his manager's teeth.
- Overton describes a horse bolting and running a full mile across the desert with him hanging on by the saddle horn, refusing to jump off.
- Overton reveals his mentor Michael Blake, who wrote Dances with Wolves, told him 'Don't be the next anything. Be the first Greg Overton.'
- Overton does spiritual work and consults Oglala Lakota relatives of Crazy Horse, seeking 'permission' before painting the leader who refused to be photographed.
- Taylor Sheridan is set to write and direct a film adaptation of Empire of the Summer Moon about Comanche leader Quanah Parker.
Worth remembering
- Bill Maher noted an article claiming a '300% rise in measles' in the US actually meant just 35 cases.
- Marijuana was made illegal partly through William Randolph Hearst's newspaper campaign to protect his paper mills and DuPont's nylon patent from hemp competition.
- The Carrington event of September 1-2, 1859 was the most intense geomagnetic storm in recorded history, causing sparks and fires in telegraph stations.
- During the Carrington event the coronal mass ejection crossed roughly 90 million miles from sun to Earth in about 17.6 hours.
- Galaxy JWST 7329, observed by the James Webb telescope, formed about 13 billion years ago, defying current dark-matter models of early galaxy formation.
- Sitting Bull reportedly cut about a hundred pieces of flesh from his shoulders and back before the Battle of Little Big Horn to obtain a vision of soldiers falling into camp.
- In the Sun Dance endurance ritual, participants are suspended by pierced chest skin for four days without food or water until the flesh tears free.
- Creek warrior William Weatherford (Red Eagle) surrendered to Andrew Jackson, who was so impressed by his bravery he shared whiskey and ordered no one to harm him.
- 'Sioux' was not the Lakota people's name for themselves; it derived from a word other tribes used meaning 'enemy.'
- Astronomers first detecting gamma-ray bursts every few seconds worried they were witnessing wars in space before identifying them as hypernovas.
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