Joe Rogan Experience Review podcast - 523 JRE Review of Special guest Dan Doty

Episode Date: April 28, 2026

In this special episode, I sit down with Dan Doty, who first took Joe Rogan hunting and has been on The Joe Rogan Experience three times, and someone who's had a major influence on my life. I've known Dan for over a decade, and his work with Everyman played a role in my path into men's work and eventually becoming a therapist. We talk about what actually changes when men start showing up honestly, why so many feel stuck or disconnected, and what grounded masculinity really looks like in practice. This is a real conversation about growth, responsibility, and doing the work that actually moves your life forward. If you've ever felt like you're capable of more but not living it, this one's for you. Check out Dan's new program https://www.fatherhoodready.com/ Thanks to this weeks sponsors: Head to Chime.com/JRER Fee-free and smarter banking built for YOU Listen to Two Percent with Michael Easter anywhere you get your podcasts For more Rogan exclusives support us on Patreon patreon.com/JREReview www.JREreview.com For all marketing questions and inquiries: [e-mail] Please email us here with any suggestions, comments and questions for future shows.. [e-mail]  

You are listening to the Joe Rogan Experience Review podcast. We find little nuggets, treasures, valuable pieces of gold in the Joe Rogan Experience podcast and pass them on to you. Perhaps expand a little bit. We are not associated with Joe Rogan in any way. Think of us as the Talking Dead to Joe's Walking Dead. You're listening to the Joe Rogan Experience Review.

What a bizarre thing we've created. Now with your host, Adam Thorn. This might be the worst podcast or the best one a whole time. One, go. Enjoy the show. Okay, and welcome to the Joe Rogan Experience Review. Today, we have a special guest, Dan Dodey. Now, Dan has been on Rogan.

Is it three times before, Dan? Yeah, that's right. Yep. Okay, so Dan's been on, yeah, three times before. And this is part of a series we're doing where we are speaking with previous Rogan guests. and just getting to know a little bit about their experience and what it was like. So, Dan, yeah, why don't you introduce yourself for those listening that don't know you and go into really how you met Joe and some of your experiences there?

Yeah, man. Well, thanks, Adam. It's nice to be here, man. So I'm Dan Doty. I'm a father of three and a husband, and I've had a pretty wild. career path. I've done a lot of different things. Currently, I run adventure trips and rights of passage

for boys and men, and I'm also an executive coach. But to rewind, I met Joe and I met him through the show Meat Eater. I was a I worked on that show

for about four and a half years, maybe five years altogether. But to give you a little context for that. So I started my career as a wilderness therapy guide. I used to take groups of teen boys and young adult boys out on these therapeutic wilderness trips or adjudicated, like kind of incarcerated wilderness trips. So that's where I started. And then I moved to New York City for a couple of years, became a high school teacher. And I met through a men's group, actually, I met one of the first directors and producers of the meat eater series, right? And so it was in

the Anthony Bourdain world for a company called ZPZ. And I met this dude and they sold this new show that eventually became meat eater and they needed somebody with wilderness chops, sort of a wilderness guide background to come help the crew on these hunting, these wilderness hunting shoots in the backcountry. And so that's how I got introduced to that line of work. And, you know, if the listeners are familiar with meat eater, it became a smash hit, right? Just an absolute smash hit in the hunting space. And I think it was season three, either season two or season three, that we first met Joe. And he was a fan of the show and he reached out.

He had never hunted before. And so I got to be part of the crew. and at the time I was directing and producing so I was kind of leading and running the shoots and got to take him out on a handful of hunts. I think three or four times I was out with Joe.

Yeah, man, that's the origin. That's the origin story. And that was the context in which I was first on J.R.E. I was first on with a secondary show that I helped create with a guy named Remy Warren, who's a hunter, a hunting figure. And so Remy and I went on once. And then I was on a second time just myself with Joe.

And that was an interesting episode because we recorded it while we were driving from a hunt site back to the airport. There was actually no video. It was just an audio episode. Yeah. And then I was on one more time in 17 or 2018 was the last time, I think. Yeah. That was about right. Yeah.

Sure. Yeah. Yeah. Now, when he first reached out, I'm sure you were familiar with Joe, like the people knew he was from either UFC and from his other shows. But, you know, how familiar were you with his podcast and, like, how kind of big of a figure was he to you? I mean, when you got that reach out, was it immediately like, oh, we've got to have Joe on. He's that character? Was it like, oh, this sounds interesting, maybe, or we're kind of busy. We'll see if it fits. Yeah, it wasn't the latter. It wasn't that we're kind of busy. We'll see if it fits. It was an easy yes. It was a clear yes.

But I also think that, you know, I, in my understanding and knowledge of Joe in general, I don't feel like maybe he hit critical mass until, I don't know, a couple years after I met him and we went out in the woods. but I certainly knew who he was. I knew him from Fear Factor. I think, like, let's say if on a scale of one to ten of, like, clear knowledge of Joe and who he is and what he did, I was probably at a six or maybe even a five when he first reached out. But we did know it was a big deal and that it could be a big deal, right? So we took it very seriously.

We weren't messing around. And we were super excited to get out in the woods with him. Sure. And I mean, your show was pretty new then, too. So having a celebrity guest on. You had other celebrity guests on at that point? I'm trying to think if we had any before that. I think he was the biggest at that point for sure.

We might have had some guests before. But no, he was the biggest. Right. And Brian Cowling, came out too, right? Yeah. Yeah. What was it like?

I spoke in to Brian a few times in passing at the comedy store because in my four years of being out there in L.A. and doing standard. Brian was always obviously there and a friendly guy and would always have chats with any of the open micers. And he is seriously one of the funniest human beings just off the all the time. What was your experience like with Brian and Peter? Yeah, I could barely handle it, man. I mean, the level of just like gut-wrenching laughs on those trips, man, there was, so we did the trips, I think four trips, now that I think about it, and I think maybe he did one more that I didn't go on,

but the first time we went up to Alaska, no, that was, that's not right. First we went to Montana and floated in Missouri breaks and hunted for mule deer. We went to Prince of Wales, Island in Alaska and hunted for blacktail deer and man there's just so many stories about all of these that I could tell we went to Wisconsin and hunted white tail and then the last one was Nevada and Brian didn't go did Brian go on that one no I don't think Brian went on that one but man the the fucking jokes and laughter it's it's true right like I think Brian's stand up is funny and wonderful but in person like there there's no I've never been around somebody. that is as wildly creative in the moment and just,

um, just fucking hilarious. And he, I mean, I'm an easy laugh generally, but he had my number, man. Like he could just fuck me up and did constantly.

Yeah. He's definitely one of those guys that sometimes I think that, and don't get me wrong, you watch his stand up, it's great. Sometimes I think that, um, you know,

it, it's like Joey Diaz. Like sometimes you don't, don't see it captured all the way in their specials sometimes. But those two especially seem to be in-person some of the funniest human beings that I've ever interacted with. They just, it's just in their soul. They don't know any other way to kind of interact.

And, and yeah, and talking about hunting, obviously the impact that you guys had inviting him out. I mean, let's take the whole trajectory of Joe's show. And over the years, it's evolved in its own way. Not only has Joe's popularity skyrocketed to a point that really is hard to quantify now. I mean, there's a case to be made that no new presidents will get elected without going on his show at this point. I mean, it's getting strange. He is his own sector of the news in that way.

But along the evolution of his thought process, his politics, everything, a big part of what changed for him is this avenue of hunting. And it feeds into so much of his philosophy and even many of the guests that come on and just how the show has evolved. What do you think about that and that kind of impact? I mean, I just feel, you know, I don't know Joe that well, but we've spent enough time together for me to get a sense of who he really is. And I think one of the things about him, I respect, and there's a lot of things I respect about him, but one is just how. Most banks are still hitting you with random fees, overdrafts, monthly charges,

and all of that stuff that quietly eat your money. That's why Chime Stans, out. It's fee-free banking built for normal people, no overdraft fees, no monthly fees. You can get paid up to two days early with direct deposit and even access up to 500 bucks of your paycheck when you need it. They also help you build credit without the usual stress and you can earn up to 3% APY on savings. Honestly, my younger self would have benefited from this. It just gives you more control of your money. Chime is not just smarter banking. It is the most rewarding way to bank. Join the millions who are already banking fee-free today. It just takes a few minutes to sign up.

Head to chime.com slash J-R-E-R. That's chime.com slash J-R-E-R. Chime is a financial technology company, not a bank. Bank. Bank. Bank, card are provided by the Bank or Bank-N-A. Optional services and products may have fees or charges. See chime.com. Fees info. Terms apply.

Limited time only. Must open the new account and complete qualifying activities to earn rewards. Advertised annual percentage yield with Chime Plus status only. Otherwise 1% APY applies. No minimum balance required. Chime card on-time payment history may have a positive impact on your credit score. Results may vary. See chime.com for details on applicable terms. How fully transparency is, right?

Hanging out with him on a hunt is not a different Joe than on the show. It's all just the same dude. He's just a primal guy, you know. I remember one of the things we were, we were butchering and cutting up a deer on one of the shoots. And he showed us like an arm bar from jiu-jitsu and used it to snap a deer's leg, right? A dead deer, right, a deer that we were cutting up. So he didn't hurt the deer. But just that moment of like using his is like, you know, powerful arm to just just like snap into his leg as we were out there just kind of summed it up for me. You know, he's just a very primal dude and very naturally took to, you know, he obviously had a lot of respect for Steve Ronella, the host of the show. And they kindle the relationship and a friendship.

And just it worked, you know, philosophically or ethically. and sort of just interest-wise, it clicked. And, you know, he became a regular on the series, on the show, which nobody else did, right? At least no other celebrities or anybody outside the circle of the show. And, yeah, I mean, I figure if he hadn't come on meat eater, he would have just gone somewhere else and had a similar experience. I just think we got lucky to make that connection and be part of his journey there. And, you know, it is, it's like I'm really proud of my work on meat eater and what we did and what they've done since. And it's, it is a, I just think it's such a timely and kind of universal message that fits in Joe's wheelhouse, which is that, you know, we're, there's some potential hypocrisy in eating meat and not paying attention to what you're actually doing there.

and the actual physical act of getting out in the mountains and the woods and the health benefits and like the incredulness of eating the meat like it's all just you know all of the storyline and and i don't know talk about what it's like it's all very real you know it's not just something flippant that joe's talking about or meat eaters talking about it's like just very real it's a very powerful thing to uh to live that way or to experience what that means and Yeah, it was just, it's really cool how it all work together. Well, I mean, he often talks about, you know, this kind of fork in the road where he came to disliking the idea of factory farming

so much that he was considering like, hey, I'm either going to be a vegetarian because I really dislike this. Or I'm going to learn this other route. And, you know, I hear what you're saying with maybe he would have just gone hunting with other people but often and i'm sure you've come across this like sometimes these first experiences are what it takes to really hook you as well and yeah and he's got a magic for honing in on the right people man you know he's he's got just a magnet in him that just finds people who are doing something very real and authentic and and yeah man that early couple years of meat eater that was as pure and passionate and

and like real as anything I've ever been a part of, you know? We were getting after it and he fit. Now, you've probably taken a lot of first time people hunting that, you know, in a similar way to Joe. What was it that you noticed? I mean, what is it you notice about a person when they're going to take to something or not like that? Yeah, I mean, what it takes up front is.

just a desire and a willingness that's a sense of like I there's something here that I want to experience and it's hard to know what that actually is you might get a sense of it right like I might take a life I might actually pull a trigger I might actually you know get my hands deep in blood in a carcass of a deer or an animal and but all of that is so hard to really grok until you've done it it's such an experiential thing right um this is actually one of my real passions of in life is taking first time hunters and it's something I do every year. And the prep for it, you know, I think it's good to come in with an idea of why you're doing it. And that could be a lot of different reasons, right? It could be that, you know, you always wanted to hunt, but your

family didn't or your dad didn't. And so you didn't know how to get into it or it might be a very ethical food thing, right, which is, you know, either I need to be a vegan or actually understand this or, you know, or actually even more existential of like wanting to feel that sort of primal sense of being a predator and understand it, right? So there's a lot of reasons. But I think it's good to be clear on your why coming into it. And then it's just, you know, especially if you can go with somebody who knows what they're doing and is aligned in a values sense, then you just to kind of get to surrender and go for it, you know? And I mean, the thing about hunting is the, the silly old saying is, you know, we don't call it killing. We call it.

hunting, right? So there's no guarantee. There's a lot of different ways to do it. You can sit in a stand in Texas and not move a muscle or you can, you know, camp in the back country and make it really hard. And hunting is a very, very like staged or varied experience, right? You can hunt with a bow to make it more challenging. You can hunt with high-tech rifles. You can do it all kinds of different ways. I like how we did it with Joe for our first experience, which is we floated the wilderness section of the Missouri River in Montana. We hunted with rifles. There was lots of opportunity.

There was a lot of animals. So it was both a combination of real challenge and also, you know, a reasonable sense that we were going to have success, which I think is a nice balance for a first time. But yeah, I, for anybody who wants the experience, I couldn't recommend it more. And knowing it's hard to get into it. at, you know, finding someone to mentor you or support you is really helpful.

Yeah. Well, you certainly got him hooked. That's for sure. So something worked out there. Definitely. And I mean, how could you not, man? We had a successful hunt. And then we buried a deer skull under the ground on coals and ate the cheek meat with our, you know, I mean, it was just, it was fucking epic.

Yeah. It sounded like a perfect type of hunt for sure. definitely put off and and also i mean once this happened i mean did you notice and steve's been on rogan before like since then and has kind of jokes of talking about bozeman um because he kept bringing it up and obviously i live there now you'd live there before a lot of people moved here or visit here maybe because joe had talked about it so much as well as many other reasons. But do you think that he has changed hunting? I mean, hunting itself is changing on its own just because of its own popularity. But with Joe's reach, do you think there has been a change?

I imagine so, man. I mean, you know, Steve and Mediator changed hunting fundamentally, you know, in a cultural sense. And I think Joe helped to just like blow that up in terms of visibility and reach. I'm sure he has, you know. I've been out of the hunting profession, you know, technically for quite a while now. I'm still a hunter myself and I do do, I do some, you know, first time hunter camps every year,

so I'm still involved. But yeah, I think that the, I think that he's definitely changed a lot of people's, level of desire to hunt. You know, I think there's a lot of people who have followed his journey and their curiosity has been stoked by that. And I'm sure there's been a real uptick in, I don't know, gear purchased and tags purchased

and demand for hunting. But the interesting thing about hunting, too, is just that it's not something that you can just show up at, you know, in the woods, just go buy a gun and show up and have any fucking clue what's going on, you know? There's a real learning curve to becoming a hunt. right? It's not like bowling where you can just go grab a ball and give it a shot. I mean, I guess you can, right? But if you want to be successful, you know, I know what you're doing, you want to be safe, then there's a real learning curve. So my hunch is that it, Joe probably got a lot of people riled up about it. And then there's not that many resources or avenues for people to actually get good training or learning, right? So I'm sure a bunch of those dudes started and are now, I'm sure we have a whole crop of hunters out there. in the woods in the fall that are, you know, kind of born of listening to Joe. But it's probably less than the amount that want to.

Sure. Yeah, it's not like showing up to the pickleball courts and just with a racket. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And talking about heading on to Rogan and definitely the third time there, and I'd heard you each time you had gone on, but the third time you were on was what really stood

out to me, and that's how we ended up meeting through a mutual friend. And that's when you were talking about every man, which is something that became really quite a big influence in my life. And I think many people that listened to that episode, because many people that I now know went into joining those groups, those men's groups through every man. And funnily enough, many of them have become therapist now too which i don't know if that was all part of your original plan but uh it's kind of this trajectory that started to happen and um i'm wondering and i've always kind of wondered this like when you think of the things that we were developing through those groups and it's like a masculine kind of um um understanding of like self and honesty and

all the rest of it. When, of what you knew of Joe and spending time with him, how does he represent as a man when it comes to those things? Because obviously, I only hear him through the podcast and he seems very genuine. Obviously, that's, I think, why people resonate so much with him. But I think what he is as a man is like what really. kind of what many men gravitate towards. It's like we look up to him in a way. And yeah, I wonder what your thoughts were about that. Yeah. So that, yeah, the third time I was on was, it was about a year or a year

and a half or maybe close to two years into the every man journey. Right. So I, that was the next thing I did after I left the meat eater world. And so just to state. very basically what we were doing at meat eater was supporting men's, you know, overall health or mental health through, uh, through men's retreats and through men's groups that really just kind of simply help men be authentic and honest with themselves and others and, um, gave them some tools for how to express themselves and have their emotions in a more simple and direct way. And I guess maybe the last thing I'd say, you know, it was a repressing, repressing, repression of our experience and our feelings is really harmful to us, whether we're men or women, anyone.

And every man was a structured way where men could learn to not be so repressed about everything. And so, yeah, it's really interesting, man. I think what you're saying about Joe is, you know, he is fully, fully, fully, fully expressed in so many ways, I think. He's a very emotional dude, very connected, very, you know, talks about how much he loves his friends and it doesn't withhold, you know, the, what I would think like the softer parts of life. And he also, you know, is a warrior as well, right? You know, and loves hunting and martial arts and all. So he's a very masculine dude, but also I think holds a really healthy, you know, emotional world. At least that's my sense. You know, again, I don't know for sure, but that's my sense. have some time. But he also, you know, doesn't, it was interesting because on that, that last time I was on and I talked about every man, you know, it's uncomfortable to have those conversations about men having feelings and men needing to express themselves. It's very countercultural to do that, right? And so, I think that, you know, that's not Joe's, Joe, I let, what I like about Joe's way

of approaching all that is that it's not even an approach. He's just sort of like kind of seems to be naturally effusive with his love and connected to people. And, you know, my role at that time or how I saw it was kind of just trying to get the word out that, hey, guys, there's old male stereotypes that are hurting us and maybe hurting those people around us. So it's helpful if we lean in this direction. And yeah, man, we've got a lot of people's ears.

We've got a lot of people's attention. It really helped us. expand our message and get our men's movement sort of really moving. So yeah, I don't know. Does that answer your question? I think Joe just is, it just seems to be a pretty healthy dude across the spectrum. And again,

that's my, those are my thoughts. Yeah, I just felt like, I mean, with the group work that you did and the amount of men that you worked with and that you helped and you kind of saw that direct progression of them working on themselves and it just kind of the outcome and then you know just kind of seeing

Joe as he is and making that comparison. I just thought that it would be just interested to kind of hear your breakdown of that because you know what Joe was interested in with me and in mind, you know, what he locked into with me in me was my first block of work in my life that I did with young men and rights of passage and being in the wilderness and taking young people out into the wilds to find out who they were. There was something in that I think that Joe's radar really locked into, you know. And I think that, you know, in some ways what we did at meat eater was a right of passage for Joe and for other guests that we brought on and for really anyone who learns how to hunt you know honestly i think

the conversation when i started every man and it was about men specifically um it wasn't it wasn't like a home run from my understanding it wasn't a home run in joe's head right yeah we need all these dudes to go out in the woods together and feel their feelings like it wasn't he didn't like become a a a massive force behind that idea but but i think the the rights of passage and the working with young men there was something in it that that sparked for him for sure sure well it certainly resonated with a lot of people that heard you on that episode and met people that i've talked to and talked to since and obviously you know through the retreats and the groups and the multiple states worth of every man groups that i joined i mean it made a huge impact so um you know kudos for going on

and um people heard it for sure so no thanks yeah And then, yeah, lastly, I just wanted to cover what the actual experience was like going to the studio and kind of being on the show itself. Because, you know, I think a lot of our guests, I mean, our listeners have wondered, you know, it's a pretty high pressure moment. I mean, you've done a lot of it. You've been on national television and done the things. But it's like, that's kind of big deal, you know. Yeah, you know, it was interesting. So the first time I went on with Remy and it felt like a big deal,

but it didn't feel like it was about the new show that we created. We were doing it together. You know, Remy and I kind of, I produced and directed it. He was the host. So he had a little bit more of a leading, you know, role on the interview. It was, that felt pretty comfortable. I mean, I remember being nervous. And that was certainly the,

It was part of the first podcast I was ever on. Yeah, it certainly was. But it didn't. Yeah, yeah, that first one with Remmel was the first podcast I'd ever been on. Yeah. But I don't know. It didn't fuck me up too bad. The second one, we were literally, I was driving a truck through the desert,

and we were just cruising and having a conversation. So that didn't feel too intense. But the third time, after I had started every man and had something more at stake, it felt like there was more at stake, right? like I was kind of putting myself out into the world. Yeah, man, I was shaking like a, I was shaking like a leaf in the wind, man. I was nervous.

And yeah, very nervous. Kind of went into a bit of a, I don't know, I don't think I was disassociated, but a little bit of out of body experience during it. His audience wasn't near what it is now, but it was still massive. It was still the biggest podcast in the world, you know?

Or at least I think it was. So, yeah, it was. rag on that yeah huge but he's so easy to talk to you you know and it's so like it's a little bit surreal but it's also just like sitting in somebody's like pretty fucking cool living room you know and then the time period too i mean again it goes to three hours i do i of all the years of podcasting that i've done i don't think that i've done anything that went over like an hour and a half and it's still astounds me that he is able to just kind of have the stamina to work for that long.

But it just seemed like, and you can answer this better for sure than me, but is it one of those things that once it gets going, once you get over that like hour, hour 20 mark, that you're just kind of fully into it. Like you just lock in and then it's all go. Or you just always kind of in that moment of nerves? No, the nerves go away. at least they did for me

and I don't think it took an hour I don't remember exactly but you know I mean it's it's like a it's like a psychedelic trip a little bit you know where the entry is a little bit intense

and then you're just like all right this is what we're doing man there's like no turning back there's no you know it doesn't do any good to get nervous or tense about you just got to like fucking hit the gas and roll with it yeah fantastic

well that's also Awesome. And I really appreciate you coming on and kicking off this series of previous guests on Rogan. And yeah, we're going to do a second part to this and you have something introduced. So I'm really looking forward to hearing about that. Right on, man. Thank you. Yeah, thanks, Dan.