The guest
Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson: Actor, businessman, and former WWE champion turned Hollywood megastar; son of wrestler Rocky Johnson.
What this episode covers
Joe Rogan hosts Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson after a group workout at Joe's gym with several comedians. They open on training philosophy, cold plunges, saunas, and the discipline-versus-enthusiasm balance, then move into gratitude, being present, and finding your 'thing' through difficult pursuits like martial arts. The conversation turns heavy on the Israel-Hamas war, the dangers of othering, misinformation and troll farms, social media's toll on mental health, and the Maui wildfire relief gap. The back half is a candid oral history of The Rock's life: a chaotic poor childhood, his pivot from failed football to pro wrestling against his father's wishes, his disastrous-then-triumphant WWE debut era, and how the freeing 'Rocky sucks' heel turn saved his career. They close on a long, joyful tangent about cars, Tesla, the Cybertruck, and muscle cars.
Recommended on this episode
ProductRecommended
Kill Cliff Spicy Pineapple
Kill Cliff
“it's good”
“Kill Cliff this is my own flavor so spicy pineapple that's my nickname in college, yeah there's, it's good”— Joe Rogan
ProductRecommended
Tesla Model S Plaid
Tesla
“I love that thing; they're so fast; it's a time machine”
“I have The Plaid they're the best, yeah they're so fast it's it's a time machine”— Joe Rogan
ProductRecommended
Tesla Model 3
Tesla
“it's so competent; it's a joy to drive”
“if you get a model 3 which is like their entry level Tesla it's fast as hell it's so fast it's so competent and it's so it's a joy to drive”— Joe Rogan
ProductRecommended
Toyota Tacoma (2003)
Toyota
“it's a bulletproof car they never break”
“for him I drive a 2003 Toyota Tacoma it's a bulletproof car they never break”— Joe Rogan
ProductRecommended
Toyota Land Cruiser (1995)
Toyota
“I love it; they will go hundreds of thousands of miles and not mess up”
“I have a Toyota Land Cruiser I have a 1995 that I drove here tonight I love it”— Joe Rogan
ProductRecommended
Ford F-150
Ford
“those things are bulletproof”
“if you go on a ranch almost everybody has an F-150 oh those things are bulletproof”— Joe Rogan
ProductRecommended
Ram 1500 TRX (Hennessey)
Ram
“that thing's a badass”
“I have a TRX that thing's a badass is that thing's the best, mine is a Hennessy so it's a thousand horsepower”— Joe Rogan
Also referenced (named, not recommended)
ProductReferenced
Blue Cube cold plunge
Blue Cube
“that's called a blue cube and the blue cube has a very cool option where you can crank up the water flow so you never get a thermal layer”— Joe Rogan
ProductReferenced
Tesla Cybertruck
Tesla
“it's a spaceship it looks like something seeing it in real life is so cool because it doesn't look anything like any other car”— Joe Rogan
ProductReferenced
Plymouth Barracuda (1970)
Plymouth
“I have a 1970 Barracuda that's insane the Roadster shop Bill silver and it's got a 900 horsepower Mercury engine in it”— Joe Rogan
MediaReferenced
Enter the Dragon
“there's a great Bruce Lee quote from Enter the Dragon do you remember when he was like it's a finger pointing away to the Moon”— Dwayne Johnson
MediaReferenced
Wall Street
“just like if you go back and watch Wall Street like Michael Douglas had that big ass brick telephone he was walking on the beach”— Joe Rogan
MediaReferenced
Spaceballs
Mel Brooks
“he made the tip of the SpaceX rocket pointy because he wanted it to look more like the one on Space Balls”— Joe Rogan
MediaReferenced
John Wick: Chapter 4
“you know that 71 Barracuda you know what crazy that's what John Wick had in John Wick four”— Joe Rogan
MediaReferenced
The Iron Claw
“they got a big movie coming out by the way on the Von Erich called Iron Claw, who's starring in that Zack Efron”— Dwayne Johnson
Big reveals from this episode
- The Rock reveals one of the political parties came to him at the end of last year asking him to run for president, backed by data on likely outcomes.
- His father Rocky Johnson did not want him to wrestle; they got into the biggest fight of their lives before his dad agreed to train him.
- The Rock's WWE debut was thrown in front of 14,000 people in Corpus Christi despite him never having had a single match.
- Forced to keep smiling while crowds chanted 'Rocky sucks,' his career nearly ended until a live two-minute promo turning heel made him the hottest heel in WWE within a month.
- Joe quit kickboxing after realizing he was getting brain damage, watching peers deteriorate, slur their words, and fall apart from one drink.
- The Rock's People's Fund of Maui has helped over 8,000 verified people with $1,200 per month payments.
- Joe shot an arrow at Elon Musk's Cybertruck and it bounced right off, barely scratching it.
Worth remembering
- The Toba super volcano about 70,000 years ago reduced the entire human population to perhaps a few thousand people.
- The US reportedly accidentally overpaid Ukraine $6 billion, roughly the exact cost to rebuild every single house in Maui.
- Maui wildfire victims received a one-time $700 government payment, which Joe and Dwayne call insulting.
- A report found 19 of the top 20 Christian Facebook pages were run by Russian troll farms.
- Joe taught an accredited Taekwondo course at Boston University when he was 19 years old.
- The Rock didn't live in an actual house until he was 27, when he became WWE Champion.
- Elon Musk told Joe that Neuralink will enable people to 'talk without words' and read thoughts, possibly within a decade.
- The Cybertruck's beast mode has ~1100 horsepower, three motors, 0-60 in under 3 seconds for a 7,000+ pound vehicle, and can stop a .45 round.
- Pro wrestling evolved out of carnival catch wrestling, where real submission wrestlers took on anyone in the crowd.
More from Joe Rogan
All 6342 recommended