Decoding the Gurus - Supplementary Materials 9: Galaxy Brains Collide

Episode Date: July 6, 2024

We get put in our place by an old champion, who reminds us why they are the king. Also this episode:Chris' post-conference thoughts on the UKMatt's Great American Burger GiveawayNon-Tribal Joe Rogan meets Jimmy DoreLex Fridman meets Ivanka TrumpThe UK election and the heterodox responseJordan Peterson and the spiritual kingdom of FarageismRussell Brand and Alex Jones pray togetherGalaxy Brains Collide: Eric Weinstein meets Terrence HowardStill wearing a jacket to save the worldEric is the one who knocksEric the scientist defends his colleague Neal deGrasse TysonThe hidden layersGold-tier criticism and cultish subredditsBad faith Matt and Good faith Chris say FarewellThe full episode is available for Patreon subscribers (1hr 29mins).Join us at: https://www.patreon.com/DecodingTheGurusLinks “Something BIG is about to happen” - EXCLUSIVE Alex Jones Interview on INFOWARS shut down - 391 Russell BrandIvanka Trump: Politics, Family, Real Estate, Fashion, Music, and Life | Lex Fridman Podcast #436Joe Rogan Experience #2173 - Jimmy DoreJoe Rogan Experience #2171 - Eric Weinstein & Terrence HowardJordan B. Peterson Podcast - Conservative Failings and the Reform UK Party | Nigel Farage

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Music Music Music Music Music Hello and welcome to Decoding the Guru's Supplemental Material, where a cognitive anthropologist and some brand of psychologist get together and shoot the shit about the crazy stuff that has been going on in the guru sphere recently a bit less in depth than the decoding episodes but no less insightful man no less insightful indeed indeed but look i don't

care for the way that you say the introduction there chris you say it ironically as if your heart isn't really in it you know there's there's a time. That wasn't ironic. That's just my consistent aura of doubt about everything. Am I here? Should I be saying this? Do I mean this? Yeah. Is this okay?

Yeah, you're very. That's it. Yeah, you're clearly from the UK. Yes. I'm just scared of the woke mob. Speaking of the UK, Matt, I'm back. I've got a post-conference report. I was at a conference.

I went back to the Muller land of sorts. I didn't go to Ireland, so not the real Muller land, but my adopted semi-Muller land, forced on me by the colonial oppressors of the british empire oh yeah yeah yeah yeah and if anyone's wondering why there's been a bit of a delay since the last supplementary materials that would be it that would be it you thought you could podcast while on the move and surprise surprise you could not that's true that's true i was too busy being an academic socialite and also preparing slides that was the other thing that took up my time in part matt because one of

the panel i i gave two presentations during my time in the uk i was very efficient in this way but one of the panels that i was on at the conference it had four people presenting and two of them pulled out for various reasons so the remaining two presenters had to substantially increase their presentations and i was one half of that so but i did it i did it that's fortunately you've had experience like talking for hours so filling up an extra 20 minutes is not a problem god bless those that listen. But I enjoyed it. And I will say that I haven't been to many academic conferences because of COVID and lockdowns in Japan and so on. So it was interesting going back to that environment, you know, dealing with the networking, the hustle and bustle, the Q&As, the more of a comment than a question so on and so forth so i i find and also i haven't been back to the uk in a long time so i was you know i was testing out the culture

and how things are over there you updated me on a few of your impressions one of them was i remember the food is expensive and awful compared to what you used to. Yes, that's broadly true. I'm not saying it's all awful, but I will say that, like, I could not stop doing the calculation of, you know, convert to currency and what would I get in Japan for this. And it was always, always disappointing, except for Nando's. I did like Nando's. I went there with a certain philosopher known to the internet as Liam Bright.

And I did enjoy that. Nando's is like a chicken chain for those that may not have encountered it. But apart from that, oh, and the other thing was, I do like British pubs. I like the whole atmosphere. Especially in Oxford,

you know, the little old pubs with all the beams and wooden rickets poking out uh i was at the turf tavern if people know that and uh i was quite impressed with the the whole vibe there i mean i've been there before but yeah and and the other thing is like the uk is it's a it's a disarray mat like they're freaking trains i i went down to london for various administrative purposes and i remembered thinking i normally got the bus why did i get the bus like because the train is quicker when i lived in oxford and i couldn't you know i had this thing like something about the trains like you know they'll trust the trains and that proved. The first train was delayed by like 30 minutes.

Not so bad. The second train, can't hurt. If a train was ever delayed that long in Japan, then there would be people killing themselves ritually in shame all over the place. The one thing I did appreciate this, and I remember this, I was like, oh yeah, I remember this about the UK.

It's like the train driver sounded equally annoyed. The one thing I did appreciate this, I remembered this. I was like, oh, yeah, I remember this about the UK. It's like the train driver sounded equally annoyed. You know, like in Japan, there's a very official voice where the people are very apologetic whenever something happens, right? And they're, you know, they're giving the information. But in the UK, there's like a, all right. So I've just received notice. We're be held i don't know i'm so like and you know it sounds like they're almost ready to hang it up yeah i i feel like they're trying to imply they're implying it's the passengers fault like you know no no no no in this case it

was quite clearly whoever is at the signaling side. They're like, you know, they're telling me it's because of this like signaling, which it always is. It's always that. But they're like, yeah. So I will say that that part of the UK I find quite frustrating. But this is, you know, this is not a travel show much. This is just me saying, oh, I'm one other thing. The other thing in the UK. And I remember this about Oxford or it might specifically be the Oxford that like keys

to doors are like comically old fashioned. It looks like the key that you would get in a role playing game or something. And then the lock is equally as old. So, you know, you're jiggling around, you unlock this contraption in even houses that look relatively new. So that was a fun part of the adventure as well but that's my report about the uk it's okay it's all right but it's too expensive the food's not great and the trains are bloody shambles yep the weather's bad the people

are miserable we know we know the rest of the world well no the people were okay the people were roughly okay yeah and the weather was all right during my visit there was no rain the whole time i was there so uh there we go that's it i could tell you more things about the specific conference and i will my into coding academia where it's relevant because the presentations the various things a lot of things a lot of exciting things and actually i was presenting our study you were the co-author i flashed your picture up and told people if they have any problems with the stats to contact this australian uh man so yeah that was uh that's right i remember because you you called me up and spoke to me for two hours in a panic before presenting because you weren't sure you were worried about people asking you difficult questions about the stats and you need a primer don't you get such a wrong impression i

was just being thorough and checking that i understood exactly what we had done and i was just i'm just a thorough preparation person so that was it not a panic i dare you i dare you but but anyway it was well received. So there we go. That's good. That's good. Now. Yeah. Well, what about me?

Do I get to give an update? I have a life. I have things going on. All right. Okay. Yeah, go. People are interested in me too. Yeah.

All right. Yes, I look. Please, please tell me. I know that you had Smash Burgers. Yeah. That's what I was going to tell you about. The Smash Burgers. That's right. Not traveling.

The Smash Burgers. Oklahoma, onion, Smash Burgers. I'm getting into American culture now. I'm getting ready. I'm rearing up for my American odyssey. Three months in America. I'm going to squirrel what's wrong with it. I'm going to dig deep into the dark heart of the United States.

And I want to visit a whole bunch of classic burger joints and i'm getting ready i'm getting ready i'm getting acculturated and i'm listening to a podcast about the american civil war it's very good their banter is comically bad it's comically forced but you just have to roll with that and i'm getting sort of indecently involved in the american civil war like I was actually upset because McClelland retreated from Robert E. Lee's army. And he had a bigger army, but it was just such a wuss. And I panicked and I retreated. It all could have been over.

I was very upset. So anyway, I've been armchair generaling, making smash burgers, getting ready for America. See, that's all right. And Americans need to know you're coming because, you know, various people will say, come meet me, Matt. Come grace our state with your presence. And Matt is available for parties, bar mitzvahs, and hamburgers. I will buy any gold tier patrons burger in the United States.

How's that? No, they should buy you a burger, right? No, no, no. You'll buy them's that no they should buy you a burger right no no no no you'll buy them a burger i'll buy them a burger burgers burgers for all to the first three that arrived yeah you should be careful what you do uh but there we go so look now you've had an update on matt and his smash burgers and his American plans. You've had my world travels and various moaning about public services. But Matt, things have been happening while we haven't been around. The gurus fear continues to rotate in its various dimensions.

And I've got things that I need to draw to your attention. I'm afraid. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Hit to your attention, I'm afraid. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Hit me with it. I'm aware. I'm aware of some things that have gone on. But let's get some updates. What's first on the chopping block?

Well, so this is just a short thing. This is actually quite recent. It's just another one of the never ending illustrations that whenever people present that Joe Rogan is a political, he's just a, you know, he's just a guy with various opinions. He doesn't take sides like he's critical about Biden or whatever. Yeah, but, you know, he's got issues with the Republicans, too. So Jimmy Dore recently was on this podcast with him. too so jimmy dore recently was on this podcast with him jimmy dore conspiratorial little freak that promotes anti-vaccine stuff is allegedly a comedian was previously on the young turks but has become you know kind of trump apologist like the horseshoe theory in effect kind of he's he's

another one of these alleged leftists but not really really. Yeah. He's hopped over to the other pointy end of the horseshoe. Yeah. Yeah. So let's hear him on Rogan, and Rogan will be demonstrating his centrist bona fides. It's all because of Trump derangement syndrome, though they have to pretend like Joe Biden's some kind of guy with integrity and dignity instead of, you know, the horrible criminal anti-worker guy that he's been his whole life. He's been anti-student, anti-worker, and he crossed a goddamn railroad strike.

And everybody just memory holds that, that that happened. Like, if Trump did that, it would be on billboards forever. And, again, it's—Joe, why do you think that these— because my whole life, the establishment loved Donald Trump, right? Because the only option is if you don't go with Biden, then you're not with the Democrats. And the Democrats view themselves as a team. They view themselves as a team as much as patriots think of America first. It's like that team is Democrats first. And that's the only representation they have right now like apparently now

I don't know if this is true, but someone was telling me you telling me about this Jamie about the live streaming of Was it you or was it someone else of Rob Reiner and all these people? Oh, they were earlier It's like I'll find the story I will they were all live streaming the debate and freaking out Barbara Streisand's crying They were all live streaming the debate and freaking out. Barbra Streisand's crying. These people are deranged. These people are no different than the Manson family in that they are in a cult.

Yeah. They're locked into this ideology. It's not as bad as the Manson family, but it's clearly a cult. It's an ideological cult where you're not willing to go against any of the doctrines of the cult. And you're not allowed to. You're not allowed to have, you have to practice groupthink and that's it. And Bill Maher's a heretic, even though he's like, he's very much a liberal. He's a heretic because he says- Because every once in a while he'll tell the truth.

A lot of times. Yeah. He's not as informed as I'd like him to be about some of the stuff, like MKUltra, the W-E-F. Or Ukraine. Well, I don't know what he knows about Ukraine, but he hates Donald Trump. But I think... I couldn't figure it out on the pocket. He wouldn't even have a rational

discussion as to why he hates him. He's crazy. Okay. So that's them trying to untangle the mystery of why Democrats won't get behind Donald Trump. They must be... Yeah. Well, they're, you know, they're in a cult, Matt. Like matt like you know they're not as bad

as the manson family but it's essentially the same but there's an ideological street jacket you know you have to accept all these complete collection of beliefs in order to not be kicked out of the group now unlike joe and jimmy door where they're talking about the WEF, Ukrainian, MKL. They're not in a cult. No, no, it's chapter region. Unlike the Democrats love, you know, the Democratic Party, just like the American first patriots love America. That's their thing.

So, you know, it's not noticeable that there's a personality cult that has developed around Donald Trump or anything anything like that no no no no it's uh it's purely about love of america so yeah just you know rank partisanship right like that's that's clearly what it is i mean we're not we're not going to rebut that nonsense but it's just yeah it does illustrate that joe rogan i mean he believes that he's still what he says he is a reasonable guy he's just he's yeah he's noticing things that don't add up etc but uh yeah it is amazing to get this insight into what people do like you notice them they psychologize the democrats in the same way admittedly myself and other progressive people we psychologize maca and donald trump etc i mean and i think i'm right but it's just kind of weird to look and other progressive people. We psychologize MAGA and Donald Trump, et cetera. I mean, and I think I'm right,

but it's just kind of weird to look through the looking glass here and see how they perceive progressives. It's kind of exactly symmetrical, right? Yeah, or at least the bit that I do not like is the constant appeal to victimhood status, right? They're supposed to be against that, but they're constantly talking about

how they are being presented as unreasonable and people are, you know, alleging that they are conspiracy-brained and so on. But they do the exact same thing. So, like, just don't throw stones when you live in a glass house or wherever that phrase goes but yeah it just there's so there's so many clips of this like joe rogan getting upset when somebody was doing an

impression of rfk and then you know immediately doing impressions of whatever democratic person he wants to blabber on about or you, so there's just a constant application of double standards. And you see the same thing, just to mention that Lex Friedman's most recent podcast was with Ivanka Trump, right? Like, you know, I know that Lex has other people on and stuff, but he's had on Jared Kushner, Ivanka Trump, like, I don't think he's going to have on Hunter Biden or these kind of people. And yeah, people are constantly buying into it. Yeah, celebrating, celebrating the rational,

above it all, truth seeker positioning that they put themselves in. Yeah, it's annoying. Just admit, just see them for what they are. I mean, it's okay. I mean, it's not okay. But, you know, there are rank partisans of all stripes yeah there's nothing exceptional about that but you know it's just that thinking that you're not what you are that just that's annoying yeah everything that donald trump

does is portrayed unfairly but biden is a shambling walking corpse right and and like it's always presented like you can never say a negative word against biden and i'll say very upfront that he did terribly in that debate as everybody is acknowledging and talking about but there are of course there are polemical partisans who you know want to spin things positively but obviously like obviously they're going to try to do that. Well, on Twitter, my circles are obviously lean, heavily Democrat and Americans, because it's the internet. 90% of people are Americans.

And all I hear is people bemoaning Biden's performance in the debate. Yeah, these are these are partisan Democrats. So that's not very cult like behavior. Shouldn't they be twisting the reality to make out that it it was you know amazing and inspired fantastic performance yeah not at all but the other thing i hear chris i've got to get this off my chest is like i have no particular opinion about kamala harris right i know relatively little about her but what got stuck in my throat was trump apologists playing clips of her and going, this person cannot possibly be president.

She's far too unpresidential, just not presidential enough. This is from Trump apologists, Chris. I mean, even if you like Trump, even if you think you want Trump to win, nobody that is not mental could think that he's presidential, right? So it's just uh well yeah although now i do think that the whole like since he was president and stuff that like the whole image of the presidency in the u.s is now up for grabs like what is presidential behavior you could probably be coco the clown and it's like it wouldn't be surprising but that's the

way it goes. And while we're speaking about politics, just saying, as we record, looks like the UK is about to experience a landslide victory for Labour, led by a moderate left-wing leader. I know you were devastated by this, Chris. You're really hoping for either Jeremy Corbyn or the Tories to get back in. That's what you're hoping for. Yeah, that's it. I mean, I don't know the exact mechanism by which Jeremy Corbyn would have regained the leadership.

I feel he'd be suspended or kicked out of the party. But, you know, I was just crossing my fingers for that. But, like, look, by the exit polls, it looks like there's going to be a landslide victory. And the question is like, you know, how much? But no, something I want to say here is, yes, I think in general, most people recognize this is mostly a protest vote against the Tories, right, who have mismanaged the UK for long enough and the whole Boris Johnson and Brexit shambles and so on. So it is not like an enthusiastic endorsement of stormerism

that is leading to this result. But nevertheless, he's the leader and they're going to win. And it is like a moderate left-wing leader landsliding a victory in the current political environment. And the funny thing is that the take home message that I've seen bumping around, you know, the heterodox fear mostly is that this illustrates the amount of support that there is for Nigel Farage and the hard right. So even though the Tories pandered to the hard right, you know, the hard Brexit, all of that, it doesn't matter.

And that normally, you know, if Constantine Kissin had our election result where the Conservatives won by this majority, he would never shut up about the will of the people being expressed in this vote. You know, it's historic. You can no longer ignore. being expressed in this vote. You know, it's historic. You can no longer ignore. Whenever Brexit won by like, you know, 52 to 48 or whatever it was, like the couple of percentage,

that was the, you know, instantiated will of the people. But in this case, no, there's no, like the only thing that matters is that the reform party, Nigel Farage things gained like slightly more seats or looks at the set again you know a couple of seats and so that's the important story out of it you're like maybe it isn't that

you guys are like so focused on you know interpreting what the majority the wants from things maybe it's actually your politics that you're focusing on and projecting the will of the people yeah maybe they're hardline reactionaries and partisans just like joe rogan right it's another is another joe rogan constantin kiss presents himself as above that kind of thing just a reasonable guy looking for a return to normality but clearly you don't even need to finish the sentence well i mean we've covered it in so many of the content just go and look at trigonometry's thumbnails or read any comment on their any of their political videos and you'll see exactly you know the audience they've cultivated the audience

understands who they are so yeah like we don't spend our time dunking on people that are actual hardline reactionaries when that's what they say they are right that's like that's not our remit it's like okay go go and do your thing you know there are there are socialists as well lots of different you know let a thousand flowers bloom we don't endorse it but it's at least they are what they say they are the thing that gets up my nose and yours i know is this delusional attitude that they either hold themselves but or that their audience clearly is there for the hardline reactionary right wing stuff that's what's getting their rocks off but there's a shared kind of delusion that that's not who they are they're pretending yeah so you can see it because like Constantine was recently feuding

with Candace Owens, right? Because she said some stupid stuff about the, you know, the world being flat and her like having, like she doesn't believe in the cult of science or whatever anymore.

But this is the thing that they take that as illustrating that they're not partisans because they can disagree with, you know, conservatives. With Candace Owens about something absolutely insane. Yeah. take that as illustrating that they're not partisans because they can disagree with you know with conservatives about something yeah absolutely insane yeah yeah yeah and it's this comes up so often as well you know with sam harris as well he kind of presents it that if you have any

disagreement with people that you broadly align with that that means that you are not a coherent yeah group that you yeah and that's every group every group has divisions don't say the t word chris don't say the t word yeah the tribal by the way for those it's not not that they're the only keywords so so now matt just just to follow up on that a little bit so in the approaching election period, you know, Nigel Farage has been popping up around the place. And, you know, various heterodox figures have been trying to give nuanced takes on the UK election or this kind of thing. So let's hear Jordan Peterson introducing an interview he did with Nigel Farage. interview he did with Nigel Farage. Hello, everybody. In the last week, we've made arrangements with Nigel Farage, who is the man who took Great Britain out of the European Union with Brexit,

and who now runs a political party in the UK called Reform. The aim of Reform is to shake the conservatives up, let's say, and return the classic liberals and the moderate right to something approximating, what would you say, an orientation that's actually based on the fundamental principles of Western civilization itself. Judeo-Christianity at the bottom, the democracy that emerges out of that as a consequence of the concept of the sovereignty and divine import of the individual, the family above that, the community, the city, the state, the nation, under God, that entire subsidiary structure to return to an orientation that makes that primary and the foundation of identity itself.

Nigel Farage's party is making great headway in the UK, surprising headway, and also among young people. Yeah, so one thing that you didn't get there from the audio, Matt, is that he's got his eyes closed for the majority of that like kind of imagining this triangular structure emerging out and he's you know kind of gesticulating with his hands like you know he's deep in thought thinking about the philosophical bedrock of farajism and oh my god like it's definitely the most generous description I've heard of Nigel Farage's political platform. You know, it does suggest to me, though, that for all of Jordan's obsessive interest in the Bible and imagery in the Bible and, you know, interpreting the symbolism of Christianity, a lot of it is mostly connecting that to fairly bog standard

right wing reactionary politics. That's where he essentially goes with a whole bunch of that. It isn't into the realm of Jungian interpretation. It's Jungian interpretation that supports a particular conservative worldview, which is very much focused on climate change didn't happen. We need to support right-wing populists. And in this case, you know, Nigel Farage, right? Like not mainstream conservatives. And so it's just that I think in terms of the hierarchy for Jordan, yes, he really likes his postmodern theological waffle. But it, I think, is like political skew is more like in his crystalline structure. The foundation, Matt, is that reactionary politics. And then from that springs his metaphorical dalliances.

Yeah. And once again, the enthusiasm there is not for the centre-right in the UK, which is frankly, would not be great either. But for the far-right, you know, that's the kind of politics that gets Jordan's head in a tizzy. So yeah, no, I think I'm agree with you there it's a it's a cosmic religious philosophical world um you know family morality the supreme sovereignty and divinity of the individual such high-minded languages but it all peters down to nigel farage ukip that kind of thing yeah the the nigel Farage as the fucking prophet leading us to the promised land. Good God.

So yeah, that's that. There's a theme. There's a theme arising from these three random clips, I guess. There's a theme. Well, there is. There is, yeah. And I'm just going to play another one

before we get to the main course. This is the last of your entrees. And it's another crossover episode from a formerly revolutionary left-wing figure now playing footsie, if not in bed and in a loving relationship with the hard right. It's Russell Brand, but let's see who he's talking to. It's Russell Brand, but let's see who he's talking to. Hold on, Matt.

There is a slight issue. That was delightful. Yeah, that is a bird song, and that indicates that the wrong thing has happened. Not the birds too, Chris. Not the birds as well. God damn it. Yeah, I'm sorry. They too have fallen. So I just need to push this again. Replace that.

There we go. I'm a professional. This is but a mere hiccup. Here we go. Second try. Take three. Russell Brand and mystery guest. Absolutely.

I pray for my enemies. I love them. I care about them. Even though I hate what they do, I love them because I don't want to see them cut off from God forever. Lord Jesus Christ, at the foot of your cross, by your blood and by your wounds, we pray for our enemies, Lord.

We pray for their forgiveness and we pray for redemption. We pray that we may belong to you individually and collectively and that we may become a vessel for your light, Holy Father. We know that we survive and thrive only by your grace and by your power, not by anything that we have done, but by what you do for us. In your holy name, Lord Jesus Christ, we pray. Amen. Oh, for fuck's sake, somebody slap him. Make him stop. Hold on. He's not done yet.

Somebody slap him. Make him stop. Hold on. He's not done yet. Well, Alex, I pray that the next few days for you pass well and easily. I pray that we can continue to align and find ways to be of service and that the light prevails. Russell, thank you. I felt the Holy Spirit during that to the point of almost fell over god bless you and i appreciate you russell and i hope i can see you again in person i love you yeah i

love you man i'll come two more disgusting grifters you could not find and you got them together there in the same room that is so that's about as low as you can sink first of all getting on there with alex jones and hamming it up but chris it doesn't isn't it interesting this is like a this is a revival of the maybe it never really went away but you know the great 1980s you know drive talk radio or the fire and brimstone type preachers with the obvious grift that they were doing. I mean, Alex Jones was always doing this, but Russell Brain absolutely shamelessly reinventing the wheel there. Oh, and the context of this, Matt, just to say, so InfoWars is in financial trouble,

right? Because Alex is being forced to repay the parents of the dead children from Sandy Hook that he demonized and encouraged his audience to target. So Brand is talking to Alex about how it feels for the deep state to try and, you know, cancel his platform and take away his voice. And, you know, this is them praying that these evil people who are trying to shut down Alex's's voice that they find god and think about what they've done so it's even more despicable than you might imagine and this and

i'm going to return to my previous take that it is not a coincidence that this like insane fundamentalist christian turn occurred right after these allegations of sexual misconduct occurred against Brand. I mean, you know, he's been victimized by the deep state, they want to shut him down. Yeah, well, I think that turn was, you know, on the cards as this right wing audience grew, but it was definitely convenient, the timing given all of that. So yes, there is something to that, Matt, but these crossovers continue and, you know, you know, there might be issues to some extent with horseshoe theory. It might not always hold, but there are certainly illustrations that it does hold on some occasions, right? It does look like there's a reaching across from the young

turks to info wars or you know whatever russell brand you you categorize him as so yeah i'm just i'm just saying it does occur there does seem to be something of a horseshoe effect that occasionally happens that we might note. Yeah. Yeah. I follow an account on Twitter called Post Left Watch, which cites a number of convincing examples. Yeah.

Yeah. But, you know, these are the people that are opposed to you and me, mindless defenders of the institutions of the orthodoxy. Chris, these are radical truth seekers looking to destabilize things, shake things up, speak truth to power power but we're going to stop you know the people saying that about me those people man no they uh they should have been there for my talk the second talk at the conference where i discussed all of the issues all of the problems you know we need pre-registrations we need registered reports reports. We need adversarial collaborations.

You want to fix things? There are ways. There are ways. Academia has its problems, but mindless defender of the orthodoxy, indeed. In any case, I'll get on to the actual topic before I become into my own preaching about open science. So the main course for this week, Matt, could have been an episode on its own right.

It could have been, but I don't want to inflict this on either of us. So I've instead taken some select cuts from this, you know, meaty course. And the meaty course is Terrence Howard and Eric Weinstein appearing together on the Joe Rogan experience. Terrence Howard, the Hollywood actor who made all the insane, stupid claims about physics and mathematics and stuff recently, and a thousand little TikTok clips and Instagram shorts or whatever they're called, were memeing around, right, about things that he'd said.

But this time we have elder statesman Eric there. And I was very curious to see this dynamic because Eric, a man himself, not shy about claiming to have invented revolutionary theories of everything or being silenced by the physics power and there's a new kid on the block who was getting a load of attention you know had become the the mean center of the universe for a week so what's the dynamic going to be who's going to be the one that like drives it that was my question going into this and we shall see matt uh as the as the clips reveal so yeah are you excited i am excited i'm excited so let's remind people what are what are some of the things that um poor uh deluded terence howard believes something about one times one equals two or am i getting mixed up uh yeah so he thinks that you can't have for indecipherable reasons but

basically you know just the simple thing that you would expect that there's a one in the one so that he thinks therefore it cannot equal one he also thinks you can't like multiply things by zero or and that that you know the periodic table should be arranged by harmonic frequencies and he's got diagrams and like he's almost textbook example of like a cook, right? Yeah, a crank. Yeah, there is a stereotype. Any physicist who works in a department would get these scrolls, these letters from cranks with their theories about how mathematics is all wrong,

physics is all wrong and they've got their own bespoke theory that involves these elaborate diagrams and weird scrolling so yeah he is like he's a victim of being mental so of course joe rogan sees this as an excellent opportunity like this is exactly somebody we should have on oh joe rogan loved it you know he's been doing this podcast a very long time. And he's always been fond of, you know, people with outdoor theories, Graham Hancock, conspiracy theories, and alternative theories. But in this case, he seems really energized by, you know, that he's found a new person that he can bring to the discourse. And he knows that a lot of it seems crazy and stuff, but it's just, it's so fun, right?

And it's so, it's funny. It's the, I think the way that he likes to spend his time talking with people like Alex Jones and Eddie Bravo and Graham Hancock and getting them together to talk about the mysteries of the universe and so on. Right. And so here's Joe introducing a little bit about the podcast this time. Gentlemen, here we go. Terrence, thank you for coming back. It was a lot of fun having you on the first time. Obviously, a lot of people wanted to talk to you after they heard all these ideas

of yours. And and then my friend Eric reached out and he said he would love to do it. Eric, one of my most brilliant friends. Tell everybody your background, like your academic background, so people understand what you do. Sure. So I'm a Ph.D. in mathematics, specifically in mathematical physics. If you'd like to continue listening to this conversation, you'll need to subscribe at patreon.com slash decoding the gurus.

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