Joe Rogan Experience Review podcast - JRE Week in Review I Ethan Hawke, Jelly Roll, Brendan Allen

Episode Date: December 15, 2025

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Hey guys, and welcome to the quick review of the week. We're just going to shoot through all the episodes. And what have we got? We got Brendan Allen, MMA fighter. We got Jelly Roll and finishing up with Ethan Hawke. Yeah, Brendan Allen. I mean, an incredible MMA fighter, something for MMA fans. I know that's not Brendan's world.

I like this guy. I don't know a ton about him. It's a no-nonsense conversation. It's if you're an MMA fan and you like these up-and-comers, watch it. Like, you're going to be into it. If you're the type of Rogan fan that skips those ones, it's not going to be for you, okay? It's just one of those. Again, if you're a fight fan and you love to see who is going to be the next big thing type of,

type of listener yeah it's going to be on your radar okay um you know they cover everything discipline verse obsession it's all this it's like the mental load of fighting um you know what it takes to get there it's it's that whole grind type of thing but um if if it's not your if it's not your world yeah don't even get into it but you know I like those ones

yeah well I'll say this man of course they talk about the fluffy loss and you know the UFC event at the White House and yeah like if you're not into MMA you might feel lost

but I'll be honest There were some, like, topics on here that I thought were pretty enjoyable. As someone not, like, extremely into MMA, I enjoy it, but I'm not really following it as heavily as I'd like to. It was still interesting to hear them talk about, like, stem cell research, recovering from injury, the best and worst way to do that. Also, just like him getting into training in his family life, I wasn't really familiar with him as a person. And, but just hearing him talk about that was pretty interesting. And also for Joe Rogan and, you know, talking about the UFC event at the White House right off the bat in the episode, this was not a political episode at all. It was kind of just two dudes talking shit, talking about UFC, talking about training and working out.

And it was cool. It was a cool episode. I actually really liked it. Yeah. And that's the thing with the MMA episodes too is like you do. get some gems in there and it doesn't always go in the direction that you think it will you get some interesting philosophy in there i mean what keeps these guys in the ring is they have to keep their mind in a particular state in a position of focus and that's not just the training

that's like a lot of focus and it often comes with a philosophy and the philosophy is really interesting so it's cool that you picked up on that um yeah i i like this guy's philosophy you know it often does lead to some interesting characters and um yeah and that's why i say be open to those episodes but also it's difficult for me because you know i do this has been my job for how many years so it's i have a bias to just be like oh be open and listen to every episode. I also want to give people the opportunity to be like,

yeah, skip over one. You know? Skip over one if you're not that pumped on this type of an episode. It was a solid week. It was a really solid week, man. I feel like all three episodes were worth checking out.

Oh, for sure. Yeah, just a pretty solid week. For sure. I mean, let's jump over to Jelly, spring roll now oh slim roll come on dude let's let's just take a second and give him some respect i mean

holy hell he did it without the diet medication he did it on pure heart um he started surrounding himself with the right people and and like look this is the shit about jo rogan that he doesn't get a lot of credit for and jelly roll gives it to him often Joe doesn't take it

and he's not out there preaching about it in terms of like look what I've done for people but it's pretty fucking clear that he has been a huge influence on jelly roll and look at what this guy has been able to accomplish

it's it's kind of superhuman to be fair i don't know what it takes to even get that big but i could imagine getting that big would be such a toll like you think about the habits that you would have to build to get to that place and then having to unwind those habits i mean that is so much work and hats off to this man The dude lost 300 pounds, you know, which is insane. And just hearing his weight loss journey, the comparisons between drug abuse and just like the ability to not stop eating, the similarities there. I thought were really interesting. And we'll get more into this, more in depth in the episode we're about to do about jelly roll.

But I loved it. And it was very emotional, too. The whole thing where he got, you know, he became a member of the grandola. that's insane right that's like the highest honor in country music uh yeah very emotional for him this whole episode i would say as an overall kind of like theme of this episode if you're the sort of person that listens to rogan just to kind of get really motivated and inspired if you like looking at those instagram posts that just get you you know a bit teared up honestly you know where you see that guy gives someone you know a homeless guy a thousand dollars and it changes their

life like it's it this has that feeling that's what this episode is about it also if you're looking for an excuse to get the fuck off the couch this is what that sort of um podcast is all about very motivating and you know you know you might think also oh well it's jellyroll is about music Not really. No. It's like, no, zero about music. It's about that. It's about moving. It's about what could we do. It's about, you know, who could you go from and become. And he talks about how much he's changed and how humble. He really is about that description, which is impressive, honestly. very impressive very humble very impressive um i think it's going to help a lot of people what's your thoughts yeah the the jelly rule stuff was great everything i enjoyed every bit of it uh especially some of the examples he gave about like the psychology of opening the fridge of opening you know the pantry it's like what are you looking for in here you know the parallels between

some of his psychology when it comes to his early childhood and why is he eating he's not hungry he just finished dinner why is he about to eat a box of cookies and he really got down into his psychology it's not just well i like eating you know i just like eating a lot there's there's more depth to that and i found that interesting because i didn't know how deep that depth went um yeah And just his, at the end of the episode, Joe plays for him a song he did that kind of reflects his journey and everything that he sang. And he was choking up to that. Also, God, what was that place he performed at that church? Do you know what I'm talking about? Yeah, I can't remember. Yeah. What was it? Shit. But it was just so insane.

and how it's like, you know, it's like just everything led up to this moment. Like that performance from him, uh, the weight loss, everything. Like it's just so much has led to this point in his life of just being better and being a better person and having better habits where it's just really awesome to see that. And it's so motivational, so motivational to the point. where like every single comment I saw of this podcast were just people sharing their own recovery stories. Yeah.

And people saying, this was the episode where I realized I have a problem and I need to ask for help. And just hearing that was like, wow, this is, this was serious. This was like a very impactful episode. I saw some people even saying it's the greatest, uh, episode of the entire podcast, which that says something, man. That really does say something. But I thought it was great.

But it's, but it's what Joe loves the most. These are Joe's favorite stories. He, he actually doesn't really give a fuck about people like, Elon's story is cool. Elon just became the richest guy in the world. He likes that. But Joe actually prefers stories where someone became massively obese or completely ruined their life and then has the best redemption.

story. That is what Rogan really connects with. And I just love that. Because if you think about it, that's like the best hero's journey story. You know, it's kind of like the

archetype. That's what we grow up on. Exactly. And it was like a cathedral he performed at. We'll get into it when we do the episode based on his episode. but just insanely good really motivating too

like I've never really had an episode of this podcast like touch me like that one did like just so inspirational I'm like fuck it I think we were going to walk right yeah it was making me feel a bit like a lazy bitch today honestly

listen to that right all right let's jump over to Ethan Hawke really cool to see him on there love that guy forever what was your feel of this guy overall? Great dude. Joe talks about

how it's just funny seeing these guys on movies and they just, they're just such an icon and they don't even seem real. And then you just talk to them and hang out with them and you're like, oh, you're, you know, Ethan, you're just a normal dude like me, you know? And they,

they kick it off. You know, he's talked about how he started acting at age 12, dead poet society, uh, the dangers of being a child star. I thought was really cool to hear them talk about eliminating self-consciousness and acting, which I thought was crazy, like being in the moment when it comes to playing a character.

Social media is a fact on children, I thought was a cool topic. Managing fear and anxiety, hearing that come from Ethan Hawk was really interesting and like his view on it because he's had such a crazy life and just his perspectives on a lot of things i thought like we're really interesting especially on managing fear and anxiety and what his view on that is and uh yeah just in general like a great down-to-earth introspective interview and yeah of course the paul dano stuff um quentin tarentino saying he's just like weak he's a weak actor which he isn't obviously there will be blood i thought he was great uh yeah next to daniel day you'll look like

anyone performing next to him you're going to look a little bit like a you know you're acting in high school theater but still I feel like he held his own in that movie and did a good job playing this crazy preacher guy he's had some great roles

everything I've seen him in I've liked you know Joe kind of also talks about how the people who criticize like that like even you know meaning Tarantino are having some issues with them themselves. Like they're having some self-hated issues.

They're having some introspective problems and they're projecting them onto other people. And that's what he's saying is happening. So I don't know. Yeah, pretty reasonable. I don't really know. I think Tarantino will come out and say something about it. But for now, I think that's a pretty good view

on the situation from him. yeah it's a fun like not to take too much away from the Ethan Hawke episode but like they did bring it up and it is also something that is really going on online right now so it's worth talking about um yeah it's it needs to be addressed it is interesting that it's happening um and you know it does make you think because i you know that is Like, there's no doubt that that affected him in a very negative way hearing that. Like, Quentin Tarantino's review on things is going to be damning to anybody. So why did it happen? You know, what is the point? What are you trying to achieve? Is it really worth it?

Like, at this point in your career, couldn't you just be, like, positive for the sake of it? Even if you didn't like an actor, just be like, yeah, yeah, he's pretty good. Yeah, he's good. And just don't put him in your movie. But like to carry something, hey, like, it just seems unnecessarily nasty. It's out of nowhere. And that is worth discussing, right? When people talk about clickbait and they're like, oh, they just created this story.

so you click on it it's like but this is the original click bait this this wasn't made so that you click on it this is just that good this is just so interesting people should discuss it yeah yeah and he was he was talking about also how like he's like a comedian friend of mine went down to reddit rabbit hole and he's like everybody hates me and joe's like well uh that's just angry people and they just hate themselves and stuff, and I've been trying to figure out who can be, like, I think it's my Brendan Schaubb who told Joe about that because I'm trying to think who has the worst

Reddit pages, but I don't know. I thought it was an interesting episode. Yeah, but if we're talking about Brendan Schaub, like there's also some feedback that you should pay attention to, let's be honest. There's a, there, that is true. Like, there's a point. There's a balance to this.

There's a balance. There's a very healthy balance between, criticism and hey maybe if everybody's saying something all at once maybe there's a little truth to it but yeah i thought i thought in general just uh solid solid like jo's getting some good get like some of the good guests he's gotten recently have been like really like like high level actors like not yeah some bee list character like some real fucking actors and it's just cool to see them on the podcast And I think he's staying away from politics.

That's what I think. Yeah. I think he's staying away from controversy at the moment. Not a political episode, a week at all. Hasn't been for a while. What's going on? I think it's better for the show. I think it's way better.

We'll see. But anyway, we'll dive into the rest of the week. And that was the quick review. Go check him out. That's it. That's all. See you. Thank you.