Bill Thompson

Date: 2026-03-25 | Duration: 2h 21m

Episode Overview

Bill Thompson — Navy SEAL veteran, cybersecurity expert, and founder of the hunting app Spartan Forge — joins Joe Rogan for a wide-ranging conversation about traditional skills, military service, digital privacy, and American culture. The episode opens with Thompson presenting Joe a hand-crafted knife made using pre-1840 brain-tanning techniques learned at historical rendezvous events — living history gatherings where participants camp and live by period-accurate rules. Thompson shares stories from his 2007 deployment to the southern Philippines fighting Abu Sayyaf and Jemaah Islamiyah terrorist organizations, including providing real-time air defense intelligence to pilots during the early stages of the Iraq war. The conversation pivots into cybersecurity: Thompson explains how China's PLA has embedded botnets in American infrastructure through routers, how Meta recently removed DM encryption on Instagram, and how CAPTCHA systems secretly train AI models using user clicks. Joe and Bill discuss the 17th Amendment's unintended consequence of centralizing power away from states, the psychology of compliments in the #MeToo era, divorce culture's impact on children, and ADHD as a potential superpower rather than a disorder. Thompson closes by promoting Spartan Forge, a hunting and e-scouting app he built to connect people with nature, individual freedom, and the experience of providing food for their own families.

About Bill Thompson

Bill Thompson is a retired U.S. Army Chief Warrant Officer with an impressive career that spans over two decades of dedicated military service. As the founder and CEO of Spartan Forge, he has pioneered cutting-edge technology designed to enhance outdoor navigation and hunting experiences, merging his military expertise with a passion for the outdoors. Known for his innovative approach to data-driven solutions, Thompson has gained recognition for transforming how enthusiasts interact with nature, making him a compelling figure in both the tech and outdoor communities. His insights into the intersection of technology and adventure have made him a sought-after guest, culminating in his recent appearance on the Joe Rogan Experience, where he shared his unique perspectives and experiences.

Key Moments

– Historical Rendezvous and Traditional Skills
– Navy SEAL Deployment: Philippines and Abu Sayyaf
– Chinese Cyber Threats and Botnet Infiltration
– Digital Privacy: Meta DMs and CAPTCHA AI Training
– 17th Amendment and Federal Power Centralization
– ADHD as a Superpower
– Divorce Culture and Its Impact on Children
– Spartan Forge Hunting App
– Brain Tanning and Primitive Skills
0:00:01 – Bill's Gift: A Hand-Crafted Knife Made With Pre-1840 Brain-Tanning
0:00:37 – What Is a Rendezvous? Historical Living History Camps Explained
0:01:31 – Mountain Man Skills: Archery, Brain Tanning Hides, Traditional Crafts
0:09:59 – Rendezvous Nights: Gambling Tables, Period Costumes, Camp Names
0:14:34 – Growing Up in Divorce Culture: When Should Marriages Dissolve?
0:44:59 – The Compliment Debate: When Does 'You Look Great' Become Harassment?
0:59:23 – 2007 Philippines Deployment: Air Defense Intel Against Abu Sayyaf
1:04:45 – Fighting Abu Sayyaf and Jemaah Islamiyah Terrorist Networks
1:14:39 – ADHD as a Superpower: Thompson's Personal Experience
1:24:44 – Chinese PLA Botnets: Compromised Routers Across U.S. Infrastructure
1:34:46 – Meta Removes DM Encryption on Instagram — Why It Matters
1:44:58 – How to Audit Your Own Android Phone for Spyware
1:59:58 – CAPTCHA's Secret: Your Clicks Are Training AI Models
2:09:58 – 17th Amendment: How It Centralized Power and Neutered State Sovereignty
2:19:58 – Spartan Forge: Building an App to Get People Back Into Nature and Hunting

Transcript Excerpt

Starting point is 00:00:01 Joe Rogan podcast, checking out. The Joe Rogan Experience. Train by day, Joe Rogan podcast by night, all day. What's up, Bill? How you doing, Joe? Good to see it, bro. Good to see it. This might be one of the coolest things anybody's ever given me. Starting point is 00:00:18 So you gave me this knife. Explain all this. All right, so, I mean, there's a larger explanatory reason behind this. My brother and I grew up, my father died when I was five. My brother and I grew up doing these things called rendezvous. Have you ever heard of them? In what way? What is a rendezvous? Starting point is 00:00:37 So there you go. So what a rendezvous is, it's not, you know, you go to those like, I don't even know what they're called, but people do like reenactments. Oh, okay. Like civil war reenactments? It's not like that. So that's the closest thing approximation to probably what it is. You get invited to them or these days are easier to get to. But my stepfather, the guy my mother remarried brought us to him. Starting point is 00:01:00 All you do is camp, but you're only allowed to camp and no one comes to the camp. or sometimes they might have people at the end. But while you're in the camp, everything in the camp has to be 1840 or prior. So there can be no modern pertinances, nothing like a refrigerator or nothing like that. 1840, why that year? At the end of the fur trapping. Starting point is 00:01:18 That was considered like Jeremiah Johnson time, like peak fur trapping. So there's people, you know, they dress like either, you know, revolutionary, like American revolutionaries, or they dress like mountain men or they dress like Indians. How'd you guys dress? Starting point is 00:01:31 Mountain men. So while we're there, you learn all kinds of stuff while you're reenact me. Like I learned how to brain tan hides. They learned how to traditionally art or do traditional archery, stuff like that. So anyway, this knife was a knife. I had actually start...

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Frequently asked about this episode

Who was the guest on Joe Rogan Experience #2473?

Bill Thompson was the guest on JRE #2473. This page includes the episode overview, topics discussed, and related resources.

What topics were discussed on JRE #2473?

On Joe Rogan Experience #2473 with Bill Thompson, topics include Historical Rendezvous and Traditional Skills, Navy SEAL Deployment: Philippines and Abu Sayyaf, Chinese Cyber Threats and Botnet Infiltration, and Digital Privacy: Meta DMs and CAPTCHA AI Training.

Where can I read the transcript for JRE #2473?

The full searchable transcript for Joe Rogan Experience #2473 with Bill Thompson is available on this page, along with key topics and timestamps.