The guest
Shane Gillis: Stand-up comedian and co-host of Matt and Shane's Secret Podcast, known for crowd work and history-laden comedy; briefly cast on Saturday Night Live.
What this episode covers
This is a loose, free-association conversation between Joe Rogan and comedian Shane Gillis, recorded around the opening of Rogan's new Austin comedy club. They open with raunchy tangents about kinks and creepy childhood encounters, then settle into a long stretch on MMA and boxing history covering Usman, Leon Edwards, Stipe Miocic, Francis Ngannou, Chael Sonnen, Jon Jones, and Tyson Fury. The back half wanders through Stephen King novels, hoarder TV clips, animal behavior, the British/Mongol/Civil War history of warfare, and a skeptical riff on money in politics, the Ukraine war, and US involvement in the Afghan heroin trade. It closes on the looming Trump-DeSantis-Biden election cycle and the value of religion as social scaffolding.
Recommended on this episode
ProductRecommended
Fleshlight
“they're pretty good ... I think it's better”
“it's as close to the physical feeling of a a warm vagina touching your dick I think it's better”— Joe Rogan
BookRecommended
Countdown
Shanna Swan
“There's a great book about it”
“There's a great book about it called Countdown by Dr shanana Swan and she was on the podcast before”— Joe Rogan
MediaRecommended
Master and Commander
“Master Commander is good”
“Master Commander is good is it yeah look at this dude that's fun guys on boats”— Joe Rogan
BookRecommendedISBN verified
The Shining
Stephen King
“the book is even more intense than the movie”
“oh he wrote The Shining he rules the book is even more intense than the the movie”— Joe Rogan
BookRecommendedISBN verified
The Stand
Stephen King
“the stand was awesome”
“I read the stand the stand was awesome the stand's a long ass B he rules”— Joe Rogan
BookRecommended
The Tommyknockers
Stephen King
“Tommy knockers is a good one”
“Tommy knockers is a good one ... Tommy knockers is about they uncover like a spaceship”— Joe Rogan
MediaRecommended
Black Bush (Chappelle's Show)
Dave Chappelle
“that's my favorite Chappelle sketch”
“that's my favorite Chappelle sketch what is it Black Bush oh where he's like”— Shane Gillis
Also referenced (named, not recommended)
ProductReferenced
Onnit
“on it was started with Aubrey who was the CEO of the Fleshlight and me”— Joe Rogan
ProductReferenced
Neuro1
Bill Romanowski
“I got really into neut Tropics because of this product called neuro one that Bill Romanowski came up with”— Joe Rogan
ProductReferenced
23andMe
“I was like dude look at about 23 ad me results you're like yeah you showed me yesterday”— Shane Gillis
MediaReferenced
Zoo
“they made a documentary about it called zoo and that documentary is pretty interesting and it got very popular”— Joe Rogan
BookReferenced
Pet Sematary
Stephen King
“some of the real ruthless [ __ ] in like pet cemetery yeah you're like whoa when you read it”— Joe Rogan
MediaReferenced
Cujo
Stephen King
“Kujo was the first horror movie I ever saw oh and I was at my aunt's house and she let us watch it”— Shane Gillis
MediaReferenced
The Dark Half
Stephen King
“The Dark Half that's what it is The Dark Half not the dark side”— Joe Rogan
BookReferencedISBN verified
The Red Badge of Courage
Stephen Crane
“it's like Red Badge of Courage in the Civil War they wrote a book that was like it's not Glory it's cowardice”— Shane Gillis
MediaReferenced
Ozark
“I just was thinking of the last season of Ozark and how they had to get involved with the cartels”— Shane Gillis
MediaReferenced
Game of Thrones
“like Thor the Game of Thrones guy the mountain from Game of Thrones like that's a gene line”— Joe Rogan
MediaReferenced
To Catch a Predator
“it was always on to catch Predator they would always catch like a mentally handicapped guy”— Joe Rogan
MediaReferenced
Hoarders
“he's like dude you watch hoarders cuz I was like all right [ __ ] I got to think of something”— Joe Rogan
ProductReferenced
iPhone
Apple
“Steve Jobs had the very first iPhone he had it on him he had the very first iPhone”— Joe Rogan
ProductReferenced
Oculus
“John karmac the guy who was one of the coders that was working on uh Oculus that's trying to fix virtual reality”— Joe Rogan
ProductReferenced
Xbox
Microsoft
“I'm nothing I'm not working out at all playing Xbox”— Shane Gillis
MediaReferenced
Fear Factor
“That was the only thing I had to promote I host Fear Factor for six years I almost threw up”— Joe Rogan
ProductReferenced
Ozempic
“you think he's on OIC I hope not God damn dude if we have a president on [ __ ] OIC”— Joe Rogan
ProductReferenced
GPT-4
OpenAI
“this is chat gp4 that just got out that beats 90% of the lawyers that are trying to pass the bar”— Joe Rogan
MediaReferenced
American Pie
Don McLean
“it's the longest song American Pie that [ __ ] song's so long”— Joe Rogan
Big reveals from this episode
- Rogan recounts dodging two childhood molestation attempts, once saved by a librarian shouting that the man had just gotten out of jail.
- Gillis describes gripping a knife at 13 when a drunk retired teacher told him there could be 'no love without sex.'
- Rogan explains Onnit began with Aubrey Marcus, whose family owned the Fleshlight company, the podcast's first sponsor.
- Rogan got into nootropics via Bill Romanowski's Neuro1 supplement, which seeded the Onnit idea.
- Treasure hunter Tommy Thompson has been jailed for contempt for years over gold he claims he can't remember where he stashed.
- They argue roughly 96% of the world's heroin comes from Afghanistan and cite Geraldo Rivera footage of US Marines guarding poppy fields.
- Gillis admits that while broke and using a Fleshlight on a mattress in West Philly, he resented other comedians' success.
Worth remembering
- A cited survey shows single men aged 18-29 rose from 51% (2019) to 63% (2022) while single women held around 32-34%.
- Jon Jones broke his own toe pushing off the ground while beating Chael Sonnen, leaving the toe flipped and needing tape ever since.
- The documentary 'Zoo' is about 'Mr. Hands,' a Boeing software engineer who died from a beastiality encounter.
- An Indian temple venerates rats, putting out milk for them based on a belief in reincarnation between humans and rats.
- Nilgai antelope, rhinos, raccoons and other animals use communal dung piles like shared toilets.
- A University of Washington study found crows remembered and scolded masked researchers for years, teaching the grudge to other crows.
- Shanna Swan's book 'Countdown' claims male testosterone has dropped about 50% in 50 years due to phthalates in plastics.
- They sympathetically reframe Neville Chamberlain's appeasement of Hitler as a WWI veteran desperate to avoid another war.
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