#2411 - Gavin de Becker
Joe Rogan talks with criminologist Gavin about historical and modern government operations, pharmaceutical industry behavior, and public health policy. They discuss CIA covert programs like Project Gladio, patterns of propaganda and information control, and parallels between the AIDS crisis and the COVID-19 response. Gavin argues that citizens must adopt deep skepticism toward government, media, and pharmaceutical narratives, using examples from vaccine policy, Agent Orange, baby powder litigation, population control documents, and the war in Ukraine.
#2408 - Bret Weinstein
Joe Rogan describes an unusually vivid dream involving humanoid beings and uses it as a springboard to ask Brett about what dreams are and how lucid dreaming works. They then move into an extended discussion of artificial intelligence as an emergent, biology-like phenomenon, its potential to manipulate humans, and its interaction with social media, sexuality, education, and governance. The conversation also covers intelligence agencies, systemic corruption, pedophilia and blackmail, COVID-19 policy and vaccines, pharmaceutical incentives, wealth, socialism versus markets, academic resistance to paradigm shifts, and whether there is a viable path from the current crisis to a healthier societal structure.
Colleges Push Back, Ozempic Price Promise, and White House vs. Anthropic
Kara Swisher and Scott Galloway open with personal banter about Las Vegas, aging, relationships, and Kara's upcoming trip to Korea to film a show about demographic aging. They then discuss the nationwide No Kings protests against Trump, the Trump administration's proposed Compact for Academic Excellence and universities' coordinated pushback, and the White House's conflict with Anthropic over AI regulation amid broader concerns about regulatory capture by big tech. The hosts also cover GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic and Trump's claim about cutting their price, a major Chinese-linked cyberattack on F5 and U.S. infrastructure vulnerabilities, the externalities of AI data centers, and wins and fails including the protests, George Santos' commuted sentence, and debates over billionaire influence and philanthropy.
#2395 - Mariana van Zeller
Joe Rogan talks with investigative journalist Mariana van Zeller about her high‑risk reporting on global black and gray markets, the end of her TV series "Trafficked," and the launch of her new podcast "The Hidden Third" exploring the underground economy and people living outside the law. They discuss drug cartels, counterfeit money, rehab and insurance fraud, the fentanyl and "tranq dope" crisis, and systemic failures in U.S. drug policy and healthcare. The conversation also covers immigration raids and asylum, pharmaceutical corruption around OxyContin and fentanyl, the explosion of sophisticated online scams and scam factories in Asia, political polarization, and Mariana's belief that empathy‑driven journalism is essential to understanding crime and fixing broken systems.
#481 - Norman Ohler: Hitler, Nazis, Drugs, WW2, Blitzkrieg, LSD, MKUltra & CIA
Lex Fridman talks with writer Norman Ohler about his research on drug use in Nazi Germany, including methamphetamine in the Wehrmacht and opioids in Hitler's inner circle. They discuss how overlooked pharmaceutical and illicit substances shaped military campaigns like the Blitzkrieg, Hitler's declining leadership, and postwar CIA programs such as MKUltra. The conversation also explores German resistance within the Third Reich, Berlin's postwar drug and club culture, and Ohler's broader project on the role of psychoactive drugs across human history.