Joe Rogan Experience #2235 — Mike Rowe Transcript

Transcript

0:00 Need more hot takes? Head to the FanDuel Sportsbook app. They've got more ways to bet, more ways That was the greatest line from Blazing Saddles by the way, when Gene Hackman. I thought you were talking about me. No, Carl. For an awful moment. We wore him out. Carl's got a lot of personality. Yeah, me too. Yeah. I think that Robert Noyce was doing a rat how to run a maze on the East Coast, a rat on the West Coast will

4:09 toxoplasma gondii and histoplasmosis and And then it gets super complicated They became prey and they became It's worse than that. The toxo-infected rats? Why? Yeah, it makes people more impulsive. and risk equilibrium and the unintended consequences especially with motorcycle desire to compensate for the environment around us. So compensatory risk and the

8:46 Yeah, I mean it's controversial, but I understand it. going to probably drive it faster and you're probably going to take more risks because than I do in the big car? to adapt to the externality, right? It is interesting. Heck no. Look, I mean, for me, it was really a it took two years to kind of puzzle it through because know, a cracked rib and singed off my eyebrows and my eyelashes and mild

12:49 to believe, either on the job site or just in life, that somebody else cares more about Aspect to them and then you don't think about it as much because someone's supposedly looking out for you Glad you're happy with it. didn't do this we'd kind of be fucked yeah and you don't even think about it kind of interesting to me. the nature of the work and had a pretty good balanced life really. And then I was in San

16:29 Right, right, right. got me. He basically said, dude just get a different, you can be a tradesman. I An aria is a song. It's the they're in an opera most of the big moments are arias sounds did and I can carry a tune so I just memorized the sounds. And then I before I was born that I found super interesting. And so my I'm not saying it's cool. I decided that my toolbox wasn't gonna let me work in the construction trades

21:09 told me, he said, hey, so there's the Screen Actors Guild. So my plan... I mean, there's always a back way in. I was singing it loud and I was singing it like I understood what I was saying. And I had some friends who were in the chorus Like when you get up in the catwalks and the sound is just amazing. had a mole the size of your thumb on his eyelid

24:45 It was a world that I didn't know existed. Yeah. Yeah. intermission and I'm I'm not needed on stage for like 40 minutes after the shopping channel. I'm like Rick why are we watching this and he says Could probably do that job if I had to so I went with him the next day and auditioned was nice enough. He sang in the opera with me too. or each family you have this facts about the pencil? No, nothing. Nothing.

28:43 And if you hired a TV person that personality, fucking around, having fun with the toy and selling it. Well that's what I did. Look, remember. That's what you did. Was that novel that So you were like a morning DJ it reminded me, like my favorite comedians, I never get the sense that they're trying And that's why he's fun to watch. So you would be on three hours at a time?

32:21 It changes you. Like, what the hell? and you could take the time to prepare. But it was just a blue card. of the pencil so when this thing is down to a nub you'll still have enough eraser left. Yeah. While you're wondering like when your next meal is and who you're going to have at three in the morning. It's also a perfect example of a kind of job You know the progress you're making as you make it.

36:46 get yourself a nice donut and a coffee, reward yourself days over. Yeah, my day would be done That's an interesting number. I drove all throughout my competitive or fucking frozen rain on the streets, black ice, didn't matter. You got to deliver newspapers. maybe they trained us for like one day you were taught how to fold the paper So I'll do two papers and then New York Times

39:41 They were very serious people. American which was sort of like the upstart and I never thought too much about the difference Oh, that's so silly get the news American because you know old girlfriend whose sister worked there worked for It's like this place in the center. But so many of them. They're laughing. How can we be different? who brought me here, I said, you know, it's been fun

44:29 And that's been, whether it's comedy or whether it's music, done it it's just having conversations with people. Yeah, but it's just because it's simple, right? Because they don't enjoy it. it's like a scientific reality. I mean, I think if we could figure out a way to study it, we would Why are you so fascinated with painting? And if your explanation is because very few people genuinely enjoy it, I can't disprove

47:12 somebody's got to do it I don't even know returning the favor I think we did a because I'm not, because I lack the requisite intelligence to remember. For And that freaks me out. you choose to be interested in a thing enough to know that you're not gonna Things that are fascinating. I remember remember things that are fascinating. I remember much but like with martial arts I'm interested in martial arts I'm

51:00 and to overcome fears, and to do something that's very scary and to compete and that was like it formulated me as a teenager so I started competing and then I would teach, you go into the thing. I don't have hobbies and I don't collect things. This is the difference. You're insatiable in that way. You get a thing and you're gonna nail it to She triple checked.

53:28 He took big bites, he took big swings. came to one of my comedy shows we became friends started going to dinner by the way with Anthony Yeah, Fear Factor was maybe, it was probably at the, Fear Factor stopped in 2007 and No He loved to eat their street food. I felt really triangulated then. and Jeff Zucker wanted something with Tony. And that's when we had the conversation where I said,

56:46 They're easy, but jeez, he was just one Peabody award after the next. We used to, when I was on news radio, or the Single Guy, and what Paul Sims, Do the table reads. because that was like the year after Phil died on another show after that. What did you learn? What was the big lesson from News It was crazy, ridiculous bad money. And this guy's telling me he wants me

59:58 I'll take care of it. nice to meet you and fucking up and go, I'm sorry, I met you. I'm sorry. Jeff Martin and Kevin Curran, super-funny talented guys So I got a nice apartment. roles do you want to come in and so I came in and auditioned for it and the scenes like on the spot, come up with punch lines for everybody. We all did that for everybody. Like we would

1:02:28 world to have to do a basically to do a play every week. If it's a good sitcom. But you're on it and it sucks and you have to repeat these terrible lines. Cause they got mad at him because he was right wing. Wow. All right, yeah, yeah, now that's a great one, and being welcomed into their little world. Dirty Jobs is truly unscripted. Everything I ever did, there were never any lines.

1:04:44 I was just trying to find a sitcom at some point somewhere. You got to be kidding me. Oh yeah, yeah, it is important. Like he was this one guy who was like a super sweet guy I just wanted, I was just a comic. Those were the only two shows I ever auditioned for. It was just, I was just stepping in shit paths? His former assistant turned out to be his wife later.

1:07:30 So this is like 1999. And so I audition for that, and then later that week, That's that was I dare you to hire me. I got hired for both jobs that week sitting in my cubicle. My dad's my granddad's 90 years old. Remember this? I got published in like the News American and the Baltimore Sun, you know, local took my cameraman from Evening Magazine into the sewer of San Francisco the next

1:11:17 that comes out of your body, head with... it's like a shooting gallery. There was a rat the size of a loaf of bread that crawled So I go over to this guy, his name was Gene Cruz, and I say, hey, what are you and put it on TV anyway, what would happen? some people said it was funny and they liked it, And I'm like, oh my God. into their shithole or wherever they work?

1:15:28 is 29. I mean, what if you just let all that go? And you know, I don't know that I would have thought of it like that at 20, at 22, certainly not, not even at 32, but at 42, I was entering a more Everyone's Ed Sullivan, everyone's Jack Parr. It's no people act like that. That's me. So like,'m I can't do that. Everybody would just hang out and talk.

1:17:46 Doing a Tom Green show because Tom Green had his own sort of internet talk show they did out of his house sure but it was a statistic it was like 12 15 in the morning, you know, and they sent me one of It's a 96? He was saying how much he loves like an antique road show and this old house you know I said I But my point is, part of the charm of those shows

1:20:38 I learned that turned out to be useful. You know, I learned in the middle of the night. you ever notice they change scenes every five seconds? Well, here's a thesis. realized that and I wasn't sure what to do about it, but I thought maybe That's what I called it. Well, he could pull it off. the spokesman who just wants to be seen as credible, where like the least persuasive thing you can do

1:24:29 That's the real bill yeah, that's that's the real bill. That's it. Yeah, that's what's interesting about And so the only way for us to find out what's real and what's not real It's it that that's the truth cam. That's the solution on Twitter supposed to read it. And they've become something else, you know, something else. is that no, you're not an expert.

1:27:17 Where's the humility, man? That's it. The whoever is the it's like the audience is I mean without the audience what are you doing Let me figure out a way to, you gotta move a conversation. He was at, very tall, very tall. So I was at, the bed was, he was a long man. He was at, very tall. But that is for me, like as an audience member, I really tried you did I think that's why it resonated so much with people

1:30:33 because you understand first and foremost hey, that's Joe being a good host, works, I will ask a person how a thing works so that the audience can hear it from them rather Yeah. Why do you say that? internet censorship and then they changed their tune and then they wanted Does it freak you out when you fuck up a sentence and you ramble? That's what it is, right?

1:33:39 Are some people gonna vote Yeah. I might have asked her about immigration. China have these places in Mexico where they only have Chinese menus, Chinese writing, Chinese want to talk about the marijuana and didn't want to talk about internet censorship, immigration is an interesting Like what are you doing with your life Bob? You're the problem, you know, and now all of a sudden that's Texas, right? That's where we are. We live here now

1:36:55 So yeah, man, there are a lot of ways to go with all this too. You know, I can't read off a teleprompter. I'm not interested in doing that. It's not And if you're not a powerful person, like a big personality like Donald Trump who could not just yours, but the country, I just think they're just exhausted The way people communicate now is much more realistic.

1:39:32 can't feel, what are you doing? It was a fucking amazing show. It was an amazing show. You had Like it would be weird. It would be like a weird were putting on a parody. It would be weird. Right. Thirty years ago. Right, right, right. It's impossible. impossible. A whole lot of things had to happen in front of that That's when, like Discovery is a good example.

1:41:34 the like what was the guiding principle behind this this business model and of Cousteau, it was Jane Goodall, it was, you know, the Discovery brand was very much a this authoritarian expert into a guest with a bunch of questions. So this and don't ask me to know more than I know, Very nearly, it was canceled a month before like a German porno called Dirty Jobs winds up on the air and it rates like through the roof.

1:45:33 of the time when it happens, you know, the the you just walk it behind the barn and That got me in trouble later. And so we reached this kind of detente, so pick one. truth and that's that's a sliding scale. Yeah that's other's throats trying to navigate this weird line of reality and because you know that he's kind of sabotaging the narrative And you can see him.

1:50:33 So his real rant happens months later in the VO booth, And he just drinks for the rest of the show. Look, I'm pretty sure it was Parts Unknown. Yeah. Who knows, man? You had to trust him. That was a very unique show too because it taught me that food is art. or you hear, right? It's a different kind, but they, Like, I mean, to me, It could be art and fuel.

1:54:00 in a very unique way that I don't think anything else does. because I was developing tendonitis in my lower back You have to be in shape to do it. Because that excitement's like hardwired You have to make sure the wind is going in the right direction. Archery is art. and that's what you practice for. You know Josh Smith over at Montana Knife, Huge moose.

1:56:32 Bow hunting is that times 100. I don't have an answer for it, but I know that people talk about it, like some people I really did and and I did it mostly in You know, I talk to boxers who say that it's so odd, But there's some fighters that are just so artist. He's dancing, but he's also, he has an understanding Floyd Mayweather said he was the most skilled opponent ever fought Wow

1:59:36 I mean a fucking phenomenal boxer just a fantastic Do you know what does custom auto say to that? When they see something weird, they change their tune. There's a bunch of guys that fight weird, but they're really good at it. Well think baseball too. I mean, it's everything Louie Tion back to the batter without leaving the rubber right so this guy would spin all the way around before he threw and he'd go

2:02:20 Flexible everything cuz look at the the angle his knee is in before he turns. That's crazy. Yeah you know, oh, Bada Hari's fighting, oh, you know, this guy's fighting, that guy's fighting. He was fighting in Cage Warriors, This guy is fucking insane. You're getting these 18 year old kids seat to to watching that sport become as dominant as it is at the same time

2:05:23 I was training at a bunch of different places in North Hollywood, this place called the on direct TV and we had to do these shows in like Dothan Alabama where you They were bare knuckle, people wore shoes, you could grab their shorts. in 2001, these billionaires that happened They didn't even have any money at the time, So my thought was like, oh, I have money.

2:07:48 I mean it was such a ridiculous contract the way they own you so yeah, isn't it crazy? There's no contract that can force you And I walked into Craig's office in Hollywood and Dana was sitting in there. It was great. I think the art thing, we should not be done with that yet. There's something, I'm that don't require a four-year degree and there's 1.7 trillion dollars in student

2:11:22 That's what they called it. Doing a job where you have to work your way up a corporate ladder that might be hell It's skilled, it's a job that is creative, and you go through the university system, I mean, you could get a small business loan, They read books they watch documentaries. They're interesting people and they're entrepreneurial We've got this bizarre thing in our head that if you didn't go to a school and get a degree you must be a dumb person

2:14:07 Right, you guys are stupid. And it wasn't enough just to make a persuasive case and myths and misperceptions is like all you could do because you couldn't make it in school. Even dumb things. I didn't have any desire to make furniture, of it I can tell a pretty good story anecdotally but now I'm able to go back We're doing three and a half million a year.

2:16:56 or entrepreneurship or the willingness to move. Really? who might who might be useful you know I know? I'm not that guy. But he was serious and I was weirdly flattered maybe. Know he asked Do you understand 77% of the youth today wouldn't wouldn't qualify to get into the armed forces? Do you understand? challenging. Something colossally horrible has happened.

2:21:28 You're being lied to, okay? We know what the ingredients are that are bad for you. country do you think understands? What percentage has been informed? This is part of the problem and this is why it benefits to have What do I want to take with D, by the way? undetectable levels of vitamin D because they were just never You need essential fatty acids.

2:23:58 I mean the best way to get vitamin D most certainly is from the sun. It's a, or a precursor to a hormone, Yeah, and there's a reality to that. There's no ifs, ands, or buts about it. You need those three things. 100%. when Bobby called this one he's hard to understand sometimes I was impossible to This idea of, what do the Japanese call Voluntary discomfort.

2:27:06 He's a neuroscientist, much more eloquently. Engaging in challenging activities So uncomfortable moments are rare, equate discomfort or uncomfortableness Sure. like hit your blinkers, change lanes, you're so plugged in. Right. it yeah but I love it when I get out I the moment before I get in I'm always overarching benefit in and that's why it produces all these anti-inflammatories. Your body just feels better when you get out the endorphin rush you get.

2:31:18 It's like you've got to go through that suck to get those benefits. They're all just they're cowards. And yet look at the stadium 50 years ago and look at it today. Yeah for the week before they're living Oh yeah, that's real starving. Real starving. And what happened was, and I think it was 1821, Years? This book will, I mean, it's rich in a lot of different ways.

2:34:48 the ship and the cutting of the blubber and the cauldrons that burn 24-7 on the Essex, was a couple thousand miles off the coast of Venezuela and what happens is Can't go under much further can't pull two boats down and it doesn't they tend to Well. I mean, I knew about it, but I never thought about it. Yeah, yeah Ron Howard made a movie on this. Yeah, it's amazing. Look, I mean, they were everywhere. So these guys harpoon one.

2:38:21 the whale boats is discovered not far from, I think, Venezuela. They were almost like cookbooks that were very common. They lived together on Nantucket. When did this movie come out? I mean, in the the day there were strict whether you're on a boat or an island with nothing to eat at all, So like people were being prepared for consumption. The men spent over three months to see and had to resort to cannibalism in order to survive. Captain Pollard and

2:42:11 Oh, girl. Oh, God. I know. Reality is so terrifying in that regard that we have, sailors dating back to the 17th century. And he understood the absolute imperative need to get energy, you can make a really interesting and controversial case around how the fossil There used to be deer everywhere. And back then, they didn't really have a real understanding of what would happen that had

2:44:52 east. of Crazy Horse. Nobody knows really what he looked like. Well, they're working from a model that seems to have been blessed by all the appropriate parties, Yeah. And I scaled down his, uh, forehead to do basically some tidying up of his nostrils That's what we're shooting for. I don't know. Wayne might be on its come well you have this novel thing where you know

2:47:38 Big thing goes off, you gotta stand still. Americans and this was a love letter for them and to them. wanted to be I've wanted to be the first show back during the lockdowns because I just felt like I wanted to be, I wanna tend to this statue, this statuary, this monument. with the people who work on it. Crazy Horse was nearby and the answer was oh yeah come on out anytime and the

2:50:44 Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it's a some When you think about a couple of guys smoking cigars and sipping a coffee and just passing He wrote American Coyote and he wrote, what is it, Buffalo Diplomacy, Buffalo Ecology? a buffalo. So when the buffalo have new the country, never did they describe massive herds of buffalo. It wasn't a thing. It wasn't a thing until

2:53:32 really want to get into this you should really look up the Younger Dryas Impact Theory online 65% of North American Humans are on these horses, and then they're hunting these animals. that they had kinda extirpated from America, where 90% of Native Americans die. Narrated a special about all that he always hires Peter Coyote. And you know, he knows all of the information in the show,

2:56:43 because it's like goddamn I should know I That's essentially a new thing. consistently bombarding you with new facts. dedicated to what happened on your podcast. get anxious because they can't process all of it. It helps. I'd have to say you don't- okay. Like it's all exponential, piles on top of each other. I might say that's some new information, but you would go no dude. That's old information. You're just learning it, right?

3:00:51 information that I also don't know because it's new right and the body of Yeah. Now that either makes you intensely curious Like how are you spending the one truly finite resource There's still people out there that are interested in being curious. For sure. It's just a time thing. Oh, he'll call you one day. There's a lot of people out there 27 it's about 9,000 man hours oh my god that thing looks a fucking incredible so

3:03:50 Yeah. Maybe, auctions are crazy, But I went up to Columbus to see the garage where they make this thing. and turn them into these gems.