Joe Rogan Experience #1557 — Gad Saad Transcript

Transcript

0:00 Joe Rogan Podcast, check it out! What do you think of that, of marketing? we had to do the right thing. Positive in a good way. has gotten it. It's amazing that Jamie How much has this whole thing affected your life? I mean, other than having to do things But this is a great second best. And it's just such a weird, weird time. I mean, I just I want it to be over in hopes that not just the election, but also COVID so that people can get back to work, which I think will calm people down when the financial situation starts to improve. I think people will be less on edge. It's just such a divided time.

4:06 there's a lot of things you can get done yeah these are minor concerns i believe in comparison You know, the initial conversation, they were going to shut it down until they flattened infringed upon rather it didn't seem like the what we signed up for you know we never signed I mean that they are – they're doing this for political purposes, which is terrifying.

6:40 and not allowed to do? And are they as draconian as they are here in the united states well I think it varies across each province because of all of the provinces for much of the COVID Yeah, what they tried to do in L.A. is really bizarre. They tried to tell people you can't have people over for like a party. You can't have families over for your house. And they were actually asking people to turn their neighbors in.

8:51 They would have been furious. And several of them have told me that they early in the lockdown that they thought that there wasn't a very good cost benefit analysis in terms of the repercussions of such a lockdown, that many of the costs of the lockdown were not being taken we were supposed to be paying attention to. And YouTube literally said that they were going to

10:54 if they could blame it on Donald Trump. And this is where we find ourselves. Because it seems like there's no real conservative cities. would be another explanation. There's so few intellectuals and academics that have avoided I think I'm endowed with a happy disposition so that when I wake up in the morning, not I think I would have beaten down a long time ago. I mean, the only way that, as you know, you could survive in the cesspool of

13:55 by the honey badger? to spread your word, YouTube, podcasts, all these different things. And I think I might have mentioned this story before to you you know, doing research so that you could appear on Joe Rogan. I said, well, what do you mean? You don't think it's a good idea to appear on a platform that allows you to spread if I published 10 papers in the most elite scientific journals.

16:58 being described by a person such as yourself who has deeply studied them. and someone's going to recognize me any way that I can spread ideas, that they can do well. And that's great. I mean, we are professors, we should be publishing academic That's nothing. But doesn't it suck that I could then I mean, I always analogize academics to Navy Rather, we create, you know, tepid, sheepish academics who stay in their lanes, who never rock the boat. And as you and I know, the world is shaped by people who are unorthodox, right?

20:15 Well, honestly, the risks, they're not that great. And I don't even remember how you and I first got in contact with each other. That's I think how it started. It was through some, you know, connection through Ariel. I don't It's very bizarre. it doesn't make any sense being modest yeah i'm always modest right but um but i'm also honest your intellectual curiosity. And that's one thing that I always tell my graduate students when

23:49 days ago. And if she's listening now, I'm sorry if I haven't responded yet. I will. I was contacted Well, is it good for my brand to be speaking to a porn star? Of course, in my case, my show is infinitely smaller than yours, but it's been successful within my sphere for, I think, similar reasons to why yours has been so successful. I just want to say that you said his name and not me.

26:10 that one thing from your mind and you could look uh you don't want to be fixated by something if But when you discuss it, people are like, oh, they roll their eyes. Two Seinfeld references that speak exactly to that point. it's interesting to look at what was the trigger that caused them to lose the bet. And then the second point I want to make that is also from Seinfeld is there's an episode where George decides to forego sex.

29:43 It probably has to do with our puritanical shame. it turns out that there's a lot more what's called polyandrous depictions in porn. It was a book or a paper on sperm wars that was later discredited. So he argued in his book and in several studies that he had published that when men ejaculate, they actually have three types of sperm within their ejaculate. There is the traditional sperm that you could

32:55 If the theory is correct, this basically argues that women, evolutionarily speaking, just as salacious in their sexuality as men, and that supports the feminist argument. the idea of calling you a Nazi becomes incredibly offensive and ridiculous. I was still a neo-Nazi. called a fast and frugal heuristic. So most of us, when we're making a decision, don't necessarily

36:42 We're done. they still, I hate to use the word, but they're lazy. Or you could be a polymath. You could be a broad thinker. And regrettably, problem that I think I could contribute to, sign me up. And that kind of speaks to what we talked that should be rewarded. So, and I'll give you a wonderful example affect variety seeking? How does affect affect word completion? So it was basically affect and

41:09 This is the kind of guy that you want to be hanging out with at a party. And by the way, of your success. Well, I had a conversation with Eric Weinstein about that once, and he was like, and that I could get a guy like Roger Penrose to sit down and talk to me I don't know if it works that way, but maybe it should. with whom you are personal friends with?

44:31 Are there any guests that you've yet to have that would be sort of, Yeah, even Kanye. His mind is going in a million different directions all at the same time as well. But I understand why he does it. And if you listen to his music i mean he's They're just openly masculine. No, no, no. And I answered no. I get that. I mean, I would hate to be... Look, I've been hit on by gay men, and it's odd.

50:07 So I was like, listen, man, stop. When a woman is being approached by a man, Violence is violence. And I would say I've never done it. It's harassment. because everyone knows violence is bad, right? narrative that you want. And I call it the homeostasis of victimology. And so let me explain what is what, basically? And it's exactly the reason, by the way,

54:56 Well, in his case, it's extreme, right? And whenever we're allowing people to willingly distort language, we're in some ways at least encouraging a form of deception. When a woman came up for against Joe Biden with apparently more evidence. in a very clear way and explains the mechanisms behind them but does it frustrate you that we are moving it seems like

57:44 Are you conservative? Are you of most people. Yeah. And the United States, at least, I'm not really that familiar with your political system There are people that work for these social media companies that have since left and now talk about it openly that they did have the freedom to edit things. You should be free to express the idea that the two-party system has major flaws.

1:00:56 or the right has, you'll be rewarded. On the right, you're supposed to be pro-Second Amendment. a post where I basically said, hey, you know, Joe Biden might have been a parasitic nothing for the bullying to him. That's the world we live in. So I think guys like, I don't know if you know these tenable in the future, because just like Brett Weinstein was kicked out, look, the New York

1:04:03 It's very confusing. He thinks that all these people that have been deplatformed should have a place and but uh in my conversations with him i think he really does believe he's actually proposed that there be two Twitters, a Twitter that is that there is some moderation and a Twitter that's a wild west. forevermore we're going to be beholden to their BS? I think it's the only way out of this. I think

1:07:03 you can kick them out of your house. But that's your own house. It's a private house. But when your house is they started saying a bunch of really offensive things, you can kick them out of your house, but that's your own house. talking about that want to silence alternative They've canceled their voice. So I started, I have a column on psychology today where I publish these, you know, short psychology articles on all sorts of interesting topics.

1:09:49 seemed maybe a bit bombastic, a blogger sets a dangerous precedent. And what was the other gentleman? in this sort of intellectual combat. And we could see who rises and whose ideas when we were in diapers, right? I mean, what he's done essentially is had this entire career of doing this, like well ahead of the curve. Do you think there would ever be a context where some of the powers that be will kind of wake up to the power of your platform and try to replicate it in mainstream media? Or do you think it's simply too corrosive to actually allow two people who have different positions to share the same, you know, the same

1:14:00 have a very liberal and left-wing ideology. The only way... felt like if they wanted to do it, they would reach out to me. And if they did, I would have And then the other things about saying that his son never received any money from Russia, And are you sure that would you be willing to say this in court? It's so ridiculous. And that's how you find out

1:18:02 Show what he actually did, as opposed to whether or not Joe Biden really did say I think for me, what amazes me about when he says things like that, and I suspect maybe we can say the same thing about Trump, although I can't remember quite the same types of lies. where we can quickly have Jamie fat check you, right? and this is how we have to do it, it's like,'s so weird it's so weird such an important decision all right sorry

1:21:13 which that disappointment will manifest itself, in my view, won't be as drastic as if Trump wins. You should see the one that he released because the one that he released, it's like this woman And so he can just filibuster. Sit down at a podcast and have him here for four hours and have him sit down and talk Is this propaganda? They become sensational.

1:23:53 People would laugh and they would go, I like him. telling people, well, wait a second, aren't you being a bit too tribal? And so that's really the but it's also he's playing on their strategy which has always been to catch people saying Whereas again, from distance, when I look at someone like Barack Obama, I don't get I think he'd be a great guy to talk to.

1:27:26 at someone who's a president as a representative of the best aspect of the United States. ever had. I think it's probably terrifying. There's photos of him smoking it. can be locked in a cage for and when you're seeing states like colorado then ultimately california We know it's propaganda. because it would fuck with their bottom line and it would it would interfere with their the money that they have coming in and so that that's very disappointing

1:31:59 Yes. minister and he's presidential. All those things might be true, but it's exactly what I think I and you're already drunk. So I'll give you an example. And in that sense, he does himself a disservice in a lot of ways. forever, like the intelligence communities. He's the enemy of a lot of the intelligence fascinating to see it it's fascinating to see these mechanisms being put into place and these

1:36:07 Yeah. hero, right? You know, you get the feeling that Trump simply wants someone, maybe because he is narcissistic, he wants someone to Trump. But it is unfortunate that he has this desire to get them to pat him on the back So my esteem of I have to apologize to him here on the record that I thought of him in the past as sort of this really annoying kind of progressive guy.

1:38:46 And he goes, and then I started listening to your show. incredibly intellectually honest and and he's also willing to discuss some real landmine issues, real hot-button topics. But we need more of them. inappropriate for me to bring it up. So you recently obtained a, you know, huge deal with I mean, money, in a sense, it's an inverted U. like you i'm happy to be able to express myself um you know i'm not a guy who needs a lot of money for stuff. I don't live the most

1:42:44 even distort uh that And also, the head of Spotify was a fan. Don't say this don't bring like, whew, like I don't have to worry about my bills like the first time in my life. But what it can do is add more pressure. My workouts are so intense that whatever the pain or the frustration or the difficulty I'd lose my fucking mind. I really would. And if I got into it and I started engaging with those

1:47:37 When I've had a show where I wasn't at my best or I said something that wasn't accurate or I said it in a way where I could have done a better critic because I set the bar very high so that at the end of the night when I put my head worst critic. Did I say the perfect thing? Did i say the right thing was i at my best but in a sense I love a lot of things.

1:50:22 I think it's, it's probably better to be like ruthlessly self-critical That's the ruthlessly introspective part. You're going to run for 10 years, 15. You just kept going. that's all you've done the people that are listening it it resonates they it's nice to hear. They like it. within five minutes, you see the, the morphology of their face change because they really just get into it. And I

1:53:42 didn't narrate your own book because people didn't you so i yeah thank had you insist that you narrate it. Yeah, I agree with your fans. Is there a way to fix this? Can you before it was released, and he said that the guy did a reasonably good job. True. and he has a book on the American buffalo. did not want him to narrate it initially, is just an actor too. That's crazy. Have you thought about maybe dipping your polymath toes

1:57:31 And I said, that's ridiculous. I'm not doing that. And when you talk to, you know, really intelligent people that have studied this over and over again they say that's highly likely but that is the case I'm like, stop, I'm going to give you your money back. And so in my case, my editor for the Parasitic Mind was just the perfect guy because, you And so the feedback that I got from him was really just one main thing.

2:00:27 baby. But I think you have to come with the humility. You can't be the type of guy who says, my old blog entries, they weren't like that. Like some of them were humorous and some of them were But in the process of doing that, I would write a lot of things Meaning I'll do a bit that I know works and then in between that bit I'll sandwich in this new stuff.

2:03:17 It's rare, but occasionally you have a finished product from the paper to the audience, and it works right away. I think it's called The Comedy Store. hey, you're funny. I mean, that in a sense demonstrates that we're all looking for that that you knew were the greatest of all time she allowed the lunatics to run the asylum fuck you. And it's so hard to get good.

2:06:56 The comedy store forced you to grind because you weren't just performing for you got to bring the heat. sort of environment then with podcasts the atmosphere changed and then it became no we night because the tuesday night everybody would come into town and so the people like sebastian This is crazy. And that all happened within the last 10 years. and Ari Shaffir on my show,

2:10:02 matters are you funny is the audience laughing well then you're good. That's all that matters. Are you funny? Is the audience laughing? They would get free tickets and free drinks. months to write it up. You send it to a journal and you have a 90, 95 percent chance of it being rejected consistently is in the order of 80, 90, 95 percent. It's a tough pill to swallow,

2:12:51 front of a stage and you're not funny, you can't fake it. If I get up in front of people and I It's like you got to get better so You could be too cocky or too confident And one of the best ways is to be completely tuned into what you're thinking and what you're You have to figure out how to make it humorous. people are upset. when they look at you.

2:15:57 There's so many different factors. We're not going to have sex. Right. Yeah, it does. And it's, but to get back to the point, them think for me. Like when they're going I just I abandon all my oh yeah there's a lot of them how do you explain that this guy why would you be funny in your I met him a couple of times. This is the one who committed suicide?

2:20:34 Who's the worst person you had to bring to radio? You know, I'm sure I could be a movie star if I could get out of this place. and to really appreciate how good he was live. it kind of, if we circle back to one of the first points that we talked about the place where you spend most of your waking time is at your job, right? And the fact that I am happy, sure, I'm dispositionally

2:23:07 And I always tell people, I mean, I know it sounds cliche. And everyone's different. I don't know what it would take for someone to be successful in their chosen field. Is there something, uh, I hope it's not too personal question, but that's what your podcast even the mistakes that I've made, they have given me the information and the knowledge that has

2:25:57 Clinical psychologists would be out of business if everybody was made up of Joe Rogans. I work the biggest venues. it at all. I'd have zero regrets in terms of inaction. Any regret that I have of action, the things that I've done wrong, But really try to make that decision as carefully as you can because that itself can be either a source of great happiness or terrible misery.

2:28:16 you're not going to get a person who is a good person. You have to work out your own bullshit But I agree with you. Having a family and having people that you love and loved ones, on paper he's successful but his real life is a shambles because he spent all of his time I mean, that's Michael Douglas in the movie Wall Street, right? hate to say it, that it's turned out that way because, you know, love is a protective belt.

2:31:41 and that's what a lot of people do that are in business, right? You're really, your life is fixated on numbers. You're like, fuck. It's keeping up with the Joneses. you know, are you happy with your sex life? The amount of sex you have is less important To me, that makes me happy or at least keeps me engaged and satisfied. chess or getting better at tennis or whatever, pick a thing. There's something about it that

2:34:45 lockdown is I said, because I am now addicted to this step counting thing, you know, that's on my It's funny because there's a book that I read recently by Adam Alter. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, it really does. But I joked with her at the start of the show. I told her that, uh, you know, when I invite people on my show, I have all sorts of She makes you get after it.

2:37:25 out from joe rogan saying well done would have been the appropriate thing for you to do but i'll Very quickly. Yeah. For me, it's pasta. Oh, is that your weakness? But when I eat meat, I'm already full. decadent I'm eating and then I will write, please forgive me, Joe Rogan, hashtag Joe Rogan. So to hurt anybody's feelings but sometimes their feelings need to be hurt a little in order to

2:40:53 She's a fitness expert, a health expert. being celebrated for her body and go that that's ridiculous. And she's right because there's health consequences to being that big and to ignore those And, of course, by the way, there are marketing campaigns that have become famous in selling that BS, right? Well, because I mean, of course, women do look at men's physical markers, but not to the same extent, because in a sense, men can compensate for some of their physical shortcomings by doing well in other metrics. Right. So you could have a guy who's very funny who's

2:44:01 fat. You're like, look at that slob. know and you're allowed to and no one will say you're fat shaming no one says you're fat shaming men it's always fat fat shaming is everyone his gut that he did it. that's not true. You know it's not true, but it's okay that you say it to a man that it's not true. That's not because life is ageist. Exactly. into, and they've put them into an easily digestible list for us, right? Well, that's why it's important

2:47:27 intellectuals to come up with really dumb ideas. And so I trace what these bad ideas are, how they originated, and then I offer solutions for how we can protect ourselves against these So, for example, when it comes to feminism, equity feminism is a great idea because it basically says that men and women should be equal under the law. as I think we both are. But that doesn't mean that we reject biology, what I call biophobia,

2:49:36 potentially criticize these ideas and what arguments they would have against what you've cumulative evidence that would allow me to pronounce a definitive position. Have you ever debated someone who disagrees with your positions on these things, but also in my scientific career, And the second war has been the war on reason, logic and science that I have experienced as a professor of 26 years.

2:52:49 But with enough force, they become mainstream stuff. Yeah, well, these people graduate from those universities and they go on to enter the workforce with these notions that they have. But the denying of this particular factor is very strange, because it makes... Transgender people have every right to live free of bigotry, but they shouldn't compete with

2:55:09 I just, you know, it's not going to happen. for a fact, that, you know, give me any 12 infants, I could turn any one of them into the next beggar, who believed this nonsense? thought that gender is completely due to social construction. It has nothing to do with biology. So these ideas the streets it's still happening like that that is literally those chickens coming home to roost

2:58:05 You know, every single one of the dreadful things that I talk about in the book, he exemplifies just happened to me recently. My daughter came to me and told me that her science teacher had an needs to do. You need to be engaged in the battle of ideas because they have truly severe consequences weren't given a guarantee of safe passage. They knew that most of them were going to be mowed down like little

3:01:12 end this. We just got through three hours, believe it or not. Isn't that nuts? Just flew by. Please, whoever's listening, audio people, the people that are responsible, the publishers, Bye-bye.