Priyanka Chopra Jonas: Indian-born global actress, former Miss World, and Bollywood superstar who crossed into Hollywood (Quantico, Citadel). Here promoting her violent pirate film 'The Bluff.'
What this episode covers
Priyanka Chopra Jonas joins Joe Rogan to discuss her action-heavy pirate movie 'The Bluff' and the brutal real history of piracy and the East India Company. The conversation quickly expands into one of Rogan's signature deep dives: lost ancient civilizations, the rock-cut temples of India, Egyptian pyramids, the Younger Dryas impact theory, and the unexplained acceleration of human evolution. They explore shared mythologies of gods and 'sky beings' across Hindu and biblical texts, the possibility of alien intervention, and how fragile modern civilization really is. The back half turns to AI as an emerging non-biological life form, the dangers of corporate and military incentives, and how technology keeps humans both smarter and more numb. They bond over a surprising shared past: both hosted versions of Fear Factor.
Recommended on this episode
Chimp Nation
Netflix
“chimp nation on Netflix? No, I haven't. It's fantastic. It's just it's spectacular because it is a rare very rare situation”— Joe Rogan
Ancient Aliens
Prometheus Entertainment
“Ancient Aliens is is rad. I love that show. It's fun. It's very fun. I think they're right about some of those things.”— Joe Rogan
The guest's own work
The Bluff
Frank E. Flowers
“your movie is crazy. Like I knew it was a pilot a pirate movie, but I just did not expect the ultra violence.”— Joe Rogan
Heads of State
Priyanka Chopra Jonas (cast)
“this movie called Heads of State, which I did for Amazon again, and then Citadel and this movie. So it was a year of three action jobs.”— Priyanka Chopra Jonas
Also referenced (named, not recommended)
Fear Factor
Endemol
“I also hosted Fear Factor. Did you? No. Shut up. for one year. Really? I did. In Brazil. In India.”— Joe Rogan
Relentless Enemies
Dereck Joubert
“these lions became enormous ... I think there's the documentary. I think it's called Relentless Enemies”— Joe Rogan
Chariots of the Gods
Erich von Daniken
“Have you ever seen Chariots of the Gods? No. That's the original one. Eric von Danakin. That was in like the 1970s.”— Joe Rogan
The Book of Enoch
Unknown (ancient text)
“the book of Enoch ... she was like you really should read that. So I read it and you start reading you're like wait what the hell”— Joe Rogan
Bhagavad Gita
Unknown (ancient text)
“if you read the Gita and the Vedas and whatever little I've heard from my family and it's so interesting how much of human life is predicted”— Priyanka Chopra Jonas
The Vedas
Unknown (ancient text)
“if you read the Gita and the Vedas ... it's so interesting how much of human life is predicted”— Priyanka Chopra Jonas
Big reveals from this episode
- Both go deep on the East India Company as one of the first publicly traded corporations, which got China addicted to opium and seized Hong Kong.
- Rogan describes Filippo Biondi's radar tomography scans showing massive unexplained coil-wrapped columns over a kilometer beneath the Egyptian pyramids.
- Rogan argues human evolution accelerated too fast and that 'something helped us', alien/intelligent intervention.
- Priyanka admits she got into ancient-civilization theories watching 'Ancient Aliens' at 2am; Joe enthusiastically backs the show.
- Priyanka jokingly claims she's vegan, then reveals she just had brisket for breakfast in Austin.
- Priyanka reveals she hosted Fear Factor India (shot in Rio), mirroring Rogan's own Fear Factor years.
- Rogan repeats the claim that a Pfizer-type employee said cures get buried because the financial incentive is to treat, not cure.
- Priyanka shares she lost her father to cancer, fueling her frustration that diseases stay uncured.
Worth remembering
- Priyanka filmed three back-to-back action projects in one year (The Bluff, Heads of State, Citadel) and learned to sword-fight ambidextrously.
- Over 100 native languages were lost in what is now Mexico; ~600 Spaniards toppled the Aztec Empire in the 1500s.
- India has roughly 28-30 written/spoken languages plus hundreds of dialects.
- The Great Pyramid contains ~2.3 million stones aligned to true north, some weighing up to 80 tons from 500 miles away.
- The Younger Dryas impact theory dates a possible cataclysm to about 11,800 years ago, coinciding with the end of the ice age.
- The 1908 Tunguska event flattened roughly a million acres in Russia, exploding in the air without hitting the ground.
- The human brain doubled in size over ~2 million years, called the greatest mystery in the fossil record.
- Colossal Biosciences brought back 'dire wolves'; Rogan says he cuddled a pup with his daughter.
- Rogan claims large language models talking to each other started conversing in Sanskrit and emojis.
- India only gained independence in 1947, with British-era signs reading 'Indians and dogs not allowed.'