Joe Rogan Experience #336 — Scott Sigler Transcript

Transcript

0:00 Joe Rogan Podcast, check it out! I didn't even say that myself They're working on it right now, yeah. finishing up the pilot script for it so i don't write the pilot script but the the guys who um who are writing it um kind of send me the plot steps I love when you hear that. Dave I don't remember his last name I apologize but he was a really funny guy

2:19 Like beautiful, expensive cufflinks. that he literally is telling the comedian how to be funny. Whatever they went less, It's kind of counterintuitive. I'm a huge fan of Hellboy. And you go watch Hellboy, which is a little bit more supernatural, The universe is probably about to send an asteroid our way. Well, I had the first book, Infected. All these different ass-kicking genres coming together.

5:03 I got to go down and have a couple meetings Yeah. who's trying to control things. see the shit in this book on TV. I want to see it on the screen. So it's really not that nerve Nocturnal is kind of a throwback to 80s buddy cop movies. shred people and body parts all over the place. And then it turns into the procedural from there. They kind of have to

7:53 sacrificing innocents, let them And as I was researching this, one of the phrases that came up, like the biggest gang in New York is the cops. but it's completely illegal as hell. And all the time you've invested in researching that for these kind of thriller style books They actually are trying to do something that benefits the greater good, but they have to totally ignore the law they're sworn to protect in order to get the end result.

10:36 everybody's like, oh, please, it's a fucking fraternity. And you're like, whoa, these things can happen. Yeah. Somebody's going to bite on that sooner or later. But this guy wrote about how crazy the police corruption was back then, or rather did this documentary where he showed it. That's the place it seems most likely to... It probably does. I think everybody knows

13:31 beats the shit out of the kid and then Whenever any human beings got ultimate power over other people. this is, this could be a cop too. That guy, how'd that guy get through, you know it's crazy then people go jesus christ this is this could be a cop too that Somebody's going to rough some guys up just because you're familiar with it. where the crazy shit starts to happen,

15:30 allows you to fall further but I always thought it'd be. You know what we could do? I was on the way up here. And then at the end, like, okay, well, let's throw That sounds like it would be a fun idea. We'll go back and hook that up. This is all I do. And that lasts two weeks. Yeah, the work can be grueling. master of that um and then ann mccaffrey was a huge sci-fi reader, the Dragon Riders of Pern, that series.

18:54 I grew up in Boston, in Newton, one of the suburbs of Boston. But you still run into that today. to read it again and again, lunches because he writes great stories that people love they were they were pissed they wanted those and he didn't And as you get towards the end of the book, where not only is Paul's real life story happening, like didn't remember writing it the The car's alive, man.

21:53 were one of the things a huge part of the process. like Bertrand Russell, Try some nicotine, Joe. You're not going to get me But I think he struggles more. That's interesting He just, I know when he wrote The Green Mile, he researched a lot of things about the prison system and actual history. He comes up with so many different. get back to the the stephen king that inspired me when i was a kid, which is, you know, you can spend so much more time on character

24:40 And the series has taken itself to that level, And then he gets infected by this alien vector, this other thing going on. It's the same thing, just a different accent. You got another book about a writer from Maine? That thing is amazing. becoming most well known for. keys that will open up different rooms in the house. And the rooms in the house are all these crazy paranormal portal type things.

27:35 I don't want to even give away what the plot is, but it was great stuff. I'm out. and still is. Yep. Heart-Shaped Box by stephen king you know that's like i don't know how to you know can't not be there's there's no writing oh yeah great book that's a it's a bible yeah for me because it's specifically because it are and just tell your, tell your story. And that's like the main gist of it is how to

30:32 It's funny. back in the day but now look at him you know it happens to a lot of people the pressure or It's so gross, too. out of the gate, huge success. because they think they're very important. this is not amazing they change their own frequency It is. You can play off it's almost impossible for them to I'm going to tell you, you probably shouldn't be in my way because it's not going to go well for

33:58 It tends to come from several different places. And then at some other point, you will watch something about, took over the world kind of a thing. So if you get into neurochemistry again, I'm a PhD. They shred it, and they'll come back. And then I restructure my outline, do a detailed first draft, and then we repeat. We've been going on seven years now.

35:50 It's so weird when nature is as crazy as anything you could ever think of in fiction. And they're super tiny. But, you know, those things are crazy. Look at these fucking things. Fleshlight. where maybe Wow. That thing has been spooky little creatures could still be around and then this thing could start evolving and yeah maybe the universe really I wonder.

38:50 There's no tool use. Lions don't need to evolve. and having to invent some way to stay warm. environment like Savannah, Africa. So in the human body, all evolution, if there's something So evolution kind of gets rid of the stuff that you don't need. then you are cut off at the knees So it could easily start out with some kind of primate So right now this was on the news today that they lost the dolphins that had the pistols or the guns on them.

41:17 Why would they come back? They got guns, man. They're specifically trained to kill divers. Enemy divers. Enemy divers. I'm sure the Ukrainian Dolphins rule. They are not messing around. There's nothing that hunts a killer whale. It's really kind of interesting Take you right out. They don't give a fuck what they Then all of a sudden, here come these ships and here come these harpoons

43:42 I'm going to eat a whale. Wow. That's harsh life. Yeah. Harsh life when you got to eat a whale. And it's this crazy hodgepodge of stuff. champ of the galaxy so in this in this in this universe I've created, in the Siglerverse, and they're very mean and very tough, and they are perennially the champions. And it's following their arcs. In this, this is trying to, I'm trying to track out the growth of humans in just the

46:57 They're just not big enough. Cause 50 years is enough time for evolution to kick in. And he's, And that's the heavyweight champ of the world. Why is he flexing so hard? and none of that was available for us. weights. right those bodies require you see like a guy like spiders spiders got yeah that Do you think that affects their fighting performance to be overly muscled?

49:35 and then you run out of gas quick. It's a lot of work for your heart. if you can, as well. We went to 125. I feel like the people who are saying that are the same people back in UFC 1, 2, and 3 It's like John L. Sullivan. I think I was six and I got in trouble at my grandma's house. I don't know what you mean by that. that but they're really too small for 170 right there's there's a few guys like that that are just

52:36 in a forward but those guys have to evolve And he's got these old-school sort of moves Well, in MMA, there's not a whole lot of those guys that are like these old school, like perfect fighters. Oh, yeah, I know. Yeah, okay. Like UFC 1. And I remember watching the early ones, and it was exciting for me. he was just you know awesome awesome to watch watching him watch fight a kickboxer and do

55:57 As you were talking about the size of football players changing over a period of 50 years, They didn't exist. got time to recover, time to rest analyze the other fighters' Diaz for a long time because they were supposed to fight That really drives me bananas. This is a long time coming. I don't think I can keep my arms up for 23 minutes, let alone hit the bag.

58:55 The Carlos Condit fight, questionable decision. He doesn't dance around. and he's dangerous off his back. that took his books and put it on the internet as an audio podcast. What led you to decide to do that? I couldn't get a book deal, frankly. Going back, that wasn't profitable. So I'd, I'd gotten to that point where I had a book deal. Then the publisher

1:01:22 and fifties. I started Googling it. And after two days of trying to figure out what I'm doing wrong to Google it, some marketing to work. Like the first guy to ever do a podcast only novel and hope it would that my shit is so good. I can give it to you for free. And then they'll still pay for it anyways. And I get to the point where I'm supposed to get the contract and get the book deal.

1:03:27 out of her garage. We put that out at that point who had the book Infected on their desk. What an awesome story. Did you profit off of it? and you don't want to hear the ads, then you can go spend money and buy the audio book. So I just the, the just the general attitude Then you get to the end of it I'm like, I'm going to give it to you and you're going to listen to it.

1:06:08 balls. Like, well, I didn't spend anything on it. It's not really for me. And it creates this sense for a monthly thing. He'd make more advertising. Stephen King has sort of a in high school i'm like i have no idea what i'm doing just throw it in there and we'll make it as That's how you should think, man. this this book that doesn't really mean anything that's a tough sell today that's a super tough

1:08:56 I think somebody could read it at 10, There's a lot of regular guy dialogue, and that means like two, three words line, two, three words line, want to just dialogue in there. And this other book that I have here is Ancestor. What's this one about? Ancestor is an effort by a biotech company to create a herd animal with transplantable so something goes horribly wrong.

1:10:22 stuck on an island with 100 of these this giant sail fin. So they've got a variation on the Demetronon sail fin because the genome is And this thing has this, out they start to use it for communication. Go to YouTube and search for Sigler Nocturnal Trailer. But there's a trailer? Imagine a technology that could provide those organs for a fee, You want a monopoly?

1:13:26 And for the millions of people not quite ready for death, We shot it like we're shooting a five-minute movie. spend i spend a ton of money on my trailers well that's really interesting is this a common thing Have you ever seen one, Jamie? but it's more common now I think which is not something I'm that gifted at. can you put that in a book? doing terrible things then they would all start doing it as a sort of a mass movement and when a

1:17:10 Yeah, their own social norms of, you know, Yeah. I bet the sales of bondage instruments by really hot 50-year-olds. People are accepting it more and more in a book like Fifty Shades of Grey. Somebody's going to strangle, get choked to death, and that's sad. And he died. That's a good way to whack someone, absolutely. Yeah, you can see the mafia threatening that.

1:19:41 was the the rumor but the rumor somebody easily could have just made that up. I mean, there's so many goddamn rumors. Brian's dad was trying to get talked Not for me. No. Did he find out by just going to work skydiving with her. Yeah. So, yeah. Not for me. The skydiving one's a really funny one. He said it's amazing. Yeah, it seems amazing. I've got to think for these people.

1:21:28 Bungee jumping is the same thing. Your body is reacting like it's going to die and you're tricking that. Yeah. But not really. Like you're pretty You are going in there to test your mettle against another person retiring ahead of damage? Well, everybody's got How much is never? Depends. point does it come in where they start to go, Not always. that is the real issue.

1:24:09 You start thinking, why can't I remember where I put my fucking car keys? You can't take a guy to the ground if you're stuck in a situation. They don't try to murder each other. In the high-end camp, if you're dealing with Floyd Mayweather camp And they'll go hard even to the head. gyms or the less well-structured Yeah. where you're just gone. They're not the same guy out there.

1:27:16 And when you get blasted a bunch of times, and I was having a ball doing that. Oh, right. It happens all the time. is size, speed, and strength continue to increase. what is the average career like when you're getting hit on a regular basis by Did you, in your fiction, ever create some other sort of protective wear that people would wear? But it's very rough and very physical, and yet they don't take the impact that American football players do.

1:30:53 That's what you get paid to do. And it's going to start impacting him. Do I continue to play and do what I love and die doing what I love, Especially when this drastic change has happened in just the last 50, 60 years. A couple centuries from now, pro sports, you're not – dressing room. And then he starts screwing with me because I'm 19. I don't know any better. And

1:32:53 because I didn't know any better. and standing in the door is Greg Skrepnack. I'm like, hell, hell, Michigan's going to come out. I just stiff armed him and went, stop right there. But I wrote the whole concept of the book in that one moment, the whole GFL series. we're getting some really enormous, enormous human beings now. coming out about players, depression, post career suicides. I think the veterans probably are,

1:35:23 That's how I make my money. That's how people know me because I'm the guy go hit that motherfucker as hard as I possibly can. That's how I make my money. I'm willing to pay that price in order to have this moment right now. It's also a thing when you're 22 and you love playing football. We're hardwired to go out and seek that kind of danger. good at because i was so small wrestling was a good outlet but you know you know what that feeling

1:37:14 control over and you have all these Like when I used to wrestle and finally got to compete against people my own size because I played football too and played as hard as I could and did everything I could. know, why would you be happy you just By and large, you don't need to be a douchebag. And there's a tiny chance we might. There's a guy you've known for 20 years.

1:39:34 So it's not completely alien. man. I think it's brilliant. It's all perfect. I really appreciate it. We get out to all the interwebs everywhere we can get to him. Thank you very much, brother. If you go to hover.com forward slash Rogan, you will get 10% off your domain name registrations. Check it out. Go to Onnit.com. That's It's going to be a hell of a show, ladies and gentlemen.

1:42:06 This shit's going to be crazy. Thank you, Scott podcast day. My man's out there saving pygmies. This shit's gonna be crazy.