The guest
Duncan Trussell: Comedian, podcaster (Duncan Trussell Family Hour) and longtime Joe Rogan friend known for psychedelic, philosophical, free-associating riffs.
What this episode covers
This is a sprawling, three-hour stream-of-consciousness conversation between Joe Rogan and his old friend Duncan Trussell with no single topic. They open mocking pandemic masks and plague-doctor history, then drift through propaganda (Edward Bernays), the formaldehyde funeral racket, child labor in cobalt mines and chocolate, automation and universal basic income, and the rise of AI like ChatGPT. Duncan shares a sincere story about quitting alcohol after pandemic drinking pushed him to peak weight. The back half spirals into drug policy, compassion versus enabling homelessness, the Alex Murdaugh trial, bot-driven misinformation, hollow-Earth and Dyson-sphere theories, catastrophism, and a long geek-out over phone cameras, laptops, and game-engine graphics.
Recommended on this episode
BookRecommendedISBN verified
The Singularity Is Near
Ray Kurzweil
“I [ __ ] love revisiting that book”
“so I'm reading the singularity is near R Kell's book I [ __ ] love revisiting that book he's talking about like how do we”— Duncan Trussell
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Butt Boy
Tyler Cornack
“you have got to watch it man it is so funny it's like one of the funniest movies I've seen”
“but boy is one of the funniest craziest movies I've ever seen in my 2020 yeah I mean it's basically about a”— Duncan Trussell
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The Walking Dead
“I love The Walking Dead... it's amazing... it's a classic it's a banger”
“this is why I love The Walking Dead I started watching the series again it's amazing and it's an analysis of this it's like”— Joe Rogan
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Apocalypse Now
“one of the great movies”
“Apocalypse Now There Will Be Blood yes one of the great movies but butt boy I put just under There Will Be Blood”— Duncan Trussell
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There Will Be Blood
“one of the great movies”
“Apocalypse Now There Will Be Blood yes one of the great movies but butt boy I put just under There Will Be Blood”— Duncan Trussell
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King Kong vs. Godzilla
“it was fun oh it was awesome”
“King Kong vs Godzilla was fun oh it was awesome they team up at the end spoiler alert damn you're just going to ruin one”— Joe Rogan
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Total War: Warhammer III
Creative Assembly
“this amazing game... it's so cool... so badass”
“I started playing this amazing game called Warhammer 3 it's so cool it's like a war simulator a Fantasy war simulator so badass”— Joe Rogan
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Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra
Samsung
“I want one it's [ __ ] wild... I got to get that... get that for the camera the camera sounds insane”
“have you seen this new Samsung Galaxy s23 Ultra no that can it it has a 200 megapixel camera on it and it can take photographs with the zoom lens”— Joe Rogan
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MacBook Pro
Apple
“those MacBook Pros are gorgeous... crystal clear images amazing process speed everything's amazing”
“those MacBook Pros are [ __ ] gorgeous they're loaded with powder Power rather crystal clear images amazing process speed everything's amazing but the typing is shallow”— Joe Rogan
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ThinkPad
Lenovo
“I really like think pads”
“the problem with the lack of variety is like I like a a Windows laptop I really like think pads well I mean the games on Apple are embarrassing”— Joe Rogan
Also referenced (named, not recommended)
BookReferencedISBN verified
Tell Your Children
Alex Berenson
“Alex Baron's book uh tell your children is very interesting in that regard because um he wrote uh you know Alex Baron used to write for the New York Times”— Joe Rogan
BookReferencedISBN verified
Cobalt Red
Siddharth Kara
“sidarth Kara who uh wrote that book on Cobalt who came on the podcast and had this it was one of the most uh heavy podcasts I've ever done”— Joe Rogan
BookReferencedISBN verified
Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World
Jack Weatherford
“in defense of the Mongols they were Multicultural like that I read that book CU of you that kingas Kook yeah and they would go”— Joe Rogan
MediaReferenced
Contagion
“you should I initially like what the [ __ ] have you not seen contagion you know how this stuff goes down you you know”— Duncan Trussell
MediaReferenced
Slacker
Richard Linklater
“look at slacker look at the great Austin movie slacker link later you know that was a he put that on credit cards”— Joe Rogan
MediaReferenced
Hearthstone
Blizzard Entertainment
“I want to play some Hearthstone now I'm going to jerk off I'm going to go to sleep and I want to do that”— Duncan Trussell
MediaReferenced
Roger & Me
Michael Moore
“it's like Roger and me when when when he made that documentary oh yeah 1960s when a building boom pushed people to the suburbs”— Joe Rogan
MediaReferenced
Twister
“scrambling like one of those [ __ ] cows in that movie Twister just just [ __ ] flying through the air inside the tornado”— Joe Rogan
MediaReferenced
Fortnite
Epic Games
“this this what I'm showing you on screen now is going on in fortnite I'm pretty sure where like the foliage doesn't disappear when you get closer”— Joe Rogan
MediaReferenced
Quake
id Software
“we used to make uh Quake computers I used to go to fries uh uh electronics remember fries course and I would buy all the stuff”— Joe Rogan
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Pong
Atari
“I had a pong no way yeah when I was a little kid we got pong and those things were like blowing”— Joe Rogan
MediaReferenced
Into the Wild
“if you read what is that transcendentalist is it thorough he's like you know into the wild the the the American utopian dream”— Duncan Trussell
MediaReferenced
A Clockwork Orange
“Clockwork Orange the C DOA Milk Bar you go there get a little milk mixed in with some kind of weird drug it's okay”— Duncan Trussell
MediaReferenced
Escape from L.A.
“I just didn't see like the pandemic Mad Max thing that you're talking about like that that that looks like Escape From LA or something”— Duncan Trussell
MediaReferenced
Aliens
“now it's aliens now it's like working for the corporation on the on the ship like in the beginning of aliens all those”— Joe Rogan
MediaReferenced
Invasion of the Body Snatchers
“it's not even human beings anymore more now it's Invasion of the Body Snatchers now it's it's really scary cuz with at least with human beings”— Duncan Trussell
MediaReferenced
Game of Thrones
“Game of Thrones Man winner is coming this is video of them making the TV show 1899 they used it on that”— Joe Rogan
MediaReferenced
1899
“this is video of them making the TV show 1899 they used it on that wow it's like it's on a set but they're also surrounded by a screen”— Joe Rogan
MediaReferenced
Saturday Night Live
“how much of arguments where people get upset about Woody Harrelson's monologue on Saturday Night Live how much of that is real people”— Joe Rogan
ProductReferenced
Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra
Samsung
“It was impressive on the S21 Ultra which is what I used to have and now this s23 that's come out it's way better”— Joe Rogan
ProductReferenced
Samsung DeX
Samsung
“they have a thing called Dex and Dex allows you to use your um phone connected to a monitor and it works as a PC and it work wirelessly”— Joe Rogan
ProductReferenced
iPhone
Apple
“if you take a moon shot on your iPhone it's just going to be a white ball in the sky but if you do it on one of those”— Joe Rogan
ProductReferenced
Traeger Grill
Traeger
“I just gotten that Trager football's on I got the Trager Grill it's a Sunday oh beer”— Joe Rogan
ProductReferenced
23andMe
23andMe
“they need this on 23 and me do you know how [ __ ] cool that' be on your 23 and me where it's like don't smoke weed”— Duncan Trussell
ProductReferenced
N95 mask
“maybe it's worth wearing a good one like an n95 mask if you're in a similar situation or if you have compromise immune system”— Joe Rogan
ProductReferenced
Adobe Premiere
Adobe
“I had Premiere a video editing program Open I had Ableton open I had Photoshop open I had like all of these processor and Hearthstone open”— Joe Rogan
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Ableton Live
Ableton
“I had Premiere a video editing program Open I had Ableton open I had Photoshop open I had like all of these processor and Hearthstone open”— Joe Rogan
ProductReferenced
Adobe Photoshop
Adobe
“I had Premiere a video editing program Open I had Ableton open I had Photoshop open I had like all of these processor and Hearthstone open”— Joe Rogan
ProductReferenced
Unreal Engine 5
Epic Games
“this is it I have not seen this this is unreal 5.1 and it is [ __ ] spectacular and when you look at the the graphics”— Joe Rogan
Big reveals from this episode
- Duncan reveals he hit peak weight of 184 lbs from heavy pandemic drinking and quit alcohol by 'white-knuckling' the cravings.
- Joe recounts Siddharth Kara's podcast exposing 19-year-old mothers digging cobalt by hand in the Congo to power our phones.
- They detail child labor and slavery on West African cocoa farms that supply about 70% of the world's chocolate.
- They break down the Alex Murdaugh trial, where he admitted on the stand to stealing from catastrophically injured clients.
- Duncan recounts John Lilly's ketamine 'contact' with machine-intelligence aliens that wanted to cool the planet so machines run better.
- Joe geeks out over the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra's 100x zoom that takes crisp moon and astro photos.
- They cite Dr. Leana Wen reportedly conceding on CNN that COVID death counts were substantially overestimated.
Worth remembering
- Embalming with formaldehyde spread after the Civil War, when undertakers needed to preserve soldiers' bodies for the trip home.
- The days of the week are named after gods, like Thor's day, Freya's day, and Odin's day.
- Edward Bernays, Sigmund Freud's nephew, is called the father of modern propaganda and brand-attached social movements.
- They cite that roughly 44.8% of federal inmates are imprisoned for drug offenses.
- A former FBI/CIA specialist claimed over 80% of Twitter accounts may actually be bots.
- Scopolamine, or 'Devil's Breath,' is a deliriant used in motion-sickness patches; one gram can reportedly kill 10-15 people.
- Alex Berenson's book 'Tell Your Children' argues high-dose marijuana is linked to schizophrenic breaks in some people.
- During plague eras, people bought magical 'seals' inscribed to protect them from disease, bad luck, and the evil eye.
- They invoke the roughly 11,800-year catastrophe theory and Graham Hancock's lost-civilization ideas.
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