The Joe Rogan Experience - #1057 - Eddie Pepitone

Episode Date: December 28, 2017

Eddie Pepitone is an actor and stand up comedian. Check out his podcast called "Pep Talks with the Bitter Buddha" available on Spotify. http://eddiepepitone.com/

I get heavy, you know, I'm going to talk about life and death. You're going to talk about life and death? What else is there to talk about? I mean, that is what we're doing. We're living and some people are dying. That's life and death. What's really interesting is that we're all going to die. Yes.

And that everybody pushes away. And I guess that's normal to push away thoughts of your death. But the real enlightened, like the Buddhists, I'm into Buddhism, Eastern stuff. They say the way to get enlightened is to die, if you can check this out, is to die before you die, meaning completely kind of go into the fear. And they claim that the fear is releasing ego, which what they mean by ego is like you have this beautiful studio and you have a career and a wife and kids, I guess. And it's like you can't be attached to it. You have to die to that. Like in other words, you don't own your wife.

You don't own anything really because we're just – the bottom line of it is we are temporary and impermanent and it doesn't mean you can't enjoy you know like you're in the prime of your life right so why think about your fucking death you know what I mean but I think for guys like me I'm a little older and like for some reason, we're

on, right? Yeah. For some reason I experienced panic attacks and I had a full-blown one coming up here. While you're driving? While I was driving. Now what does it feel like?

Okay, this is what it feels like. I'm feeling kind of tired. I've been doing a lot, and that's not to brag. You're in show business. What? You're in show business. I'm in show business. You're doing a lot of work.

I'm in show business. I'm married. I have two dogs. I have three cats. A lot to manage. The dogs are intense, you know, because... You laugh. I love your dog.

I have dogs, too. I have three. You have three? Yeah. Okay, but for me, and this is I think one of my... one of the, you know, why I'm a panic attack sufferer occasionally is that I get into these dogs. Like I think a sign of someone who has panic attacks is someone who cares too much about taking care of things. Instead of trusting that everything's going to be all right, like I'm going to get up, I'm going to feed the dogs, the dogs will be okay. I'm always like doing stuff like,

hey, my dog's name is Charlotte and Basil. Charlotte, does she have something in her eye? Does Charlotte have something in her eye? And I kind of blow it up a little. You know what I mean? Instead of chilling and going, oh, she'll be okay. Let me just wipe the eye. I'll see her scratching at the eye a little, and it can set me off into this worry. of pan attacks like i'm coming up here so i get on the 101 people who don't know the 101 well you should just kill yourself because the 101 is a main artery and you should know about it what if they don't drive because think other things to worry about i think they're brilliant if they don't drive uh but anyway it it was packed it was you know the google maps was like accidents up ahead. And I started to feel this kind of feeling trapped. Have you ever felt trapped? Yes.

On the highway where, oh, and for some reason, I think because I'm overtired and I wanted to get here, this is the first time I've done your podcast, I just started feeling an anxiety about, oh, fuck, I'm going to be. And this is what happened. I'm doing it physically. You, fuck, I'm going to be. And this is what happened. I'm doing it physically. You start feeling, I'm going to be late.

The walls start closing in. Yes, man. Right. Can't breathe. Yes. And that's the real scary thing is the breath. Right. Like, oh, man.

Ooh. It's like I'm doing this in the car. And by the way, the one thing I hate about LA, I don't know about you, but here we are in December 28th and it's hot. Yeah. It's pretty warm. It's like 75 degrees out. It's like 80.

Is it 80 today? It's 80. And the sun is blaring in through my side window and I'm feeling a little, oh, fuck, there's nowhere. There's nowhere. I can't get off. I can't. You know what I mean? Right.

And it's, so it's a buildup of anxiety instead of just going, you know what? Like your shirt. Let that shit go. Let that shit go. I couldn't let it go. Like when I get entangled in it, when it reaches a tipping point. Right. let it go like when I get entangled in it when it reaches a tipping point right you know when when the anxiety reaches a tipping point where you know I I am like oh god like like here's the

voice in my head that I have to always battle it's like oh god this isn't going to work out instead of hey you know for some reason I have the, oh God. Okay. But you intellectualize it, right? Like, like now, like we're talking about it now, but now it's after it's over. You realize like, ah, I should just say, hey, let that shit go. Like you without any stake in the game, right? You removed, if you were giving yourself advice in that car, you'd be like, let's come on. Everything's great. You're living in America.

Here's a few extra people on the road. Some of them bumped into each other. Let's just get through this. You know, you text me. It's no problem. Come a little later. It's no big deal. We'll start a little later.

It's casual. Right. There's no reason to get anxious about that. Right. You don't smoke pot. No. If you did, I would understand more. Because people that eat edibles and then get on the 101 and get stuck in traffic and then what happens?

Here's your whole world starts closing in on you start thinking about your own demise. Well now I have that without the edibles. Yeah. It's the same kind of thing. It's I think one of the things that I've noticed a lot is a lot of people that have anxiety and a lot of people that they're generally they're intelligent people. And the problem is with intelligent people is that you're overwhelmed with possibilities. You're thinking about all the actual variables that are in play.

Whereas dumb people just fucking stumble into walls where they're talking on their phone. And, you know, they're like texting and walking out into traffic. They're not thinking, you know. And somehow they get, things work out for them. It doesn't. It's an illusion.

You're not living in their skin. If you were inside their nine-volt battery brain, you'd be like, oh, God, this is fucking nothing to think about here. Jamie, were you with me or was it with Tony? When we were at the airport and there was this girl, I sat next to her just to listen to her conversation. I think it was Tony. And she was just talking about amazing race, and I wanted this team to win, and I can't wait until this happens.

And when I get paid on Friday, I'm going to buy this phone, and then there's this food I really want to eat. And it was just this droning. I'm like, you might as well be a meat robot that's just sent here to consume. There's no curiosity or creativity. It was just consumption. It was just food and buy this and watch that and drone on and on and on.

And who knows if it's genetics, if it's nature, if it's nurture, whatever it is. There's a lot of really dull folks out there. If it's nature, if it's nurture, whatever it is, there's a lot of really dull folks out there. And we're not supposed to. There's a lot of really dull folks. But the culture is also geared to consumption. A lot of it is, sure. Isn't it? It's like you turn on the fucking TV and that is the message sent to you.

Is that our culture? That is our culture. It's a part of our culture. But our culture is pretty vast now. I would say that much more of our culture is the internet. Much more than mainstream media now. And that's one of the reasons why they're grasping at straws, trying to stay relevant. What, the mainstream media?

Yeah. Like television shows, they're down record numbers. Like news is down record numbers. I'm happy about that. Yeah. News is down record numbers. I'm happy about that. Yeah. I mean, I think the idea that these, it's great if someone is like, you know, New York Times, Time Magazine, respected journalism, someone who you can go to where you really

want to know what the fuck is happening in Syria. I need to know. I need to know from someone who's going to give me an objective, informed opinion. That's huge. And it's very critical. But once you get past that you're doing a lot of the shows you're dealing with it whether it's cnn or any of these fox news you're dealing with opinions and your opinion is just as valid as shepherd smith's like why why is

shepherd smith because he has makeup on and he's wearing a tie and they have ready set go and they press the green light and what you're talking about is really interesting how? How because it's just on TV because it's sanctioned Yes, sanctioned sanctioned by the powers that be like like it's really about ownership Yeah, like like I don't even know who owns CNN anymore. So what's it is? It's not Ted Turner. Yeah, he probably still owns it Yeah, he's hashtag ballin'. He is, right? I think so. I mean... He's like one of the biggest landowners

in the United States. He has millions of acres. Yes. He owns Buffalo. Yes. He's got restaurants where he serves Buffalo. Unbelievable. Hashtag ballin'. Is that Montana? I think it's called Montana. It's in montana right they have them in colorado um they might have been montana as well i think it's actually a chain

i don't know where they are but it's supposed to be very good restaurants but what my point was is that the structure at cnn says well we're going to talk about this we're going to talk about that we're going to talk about that we're going to put it on tv and people watch the fuck you know you have to break it down to the essentials. Like there is a screen, it's being transmitted into your, into your home. It's been, and it's, it's very much, it's very much with people not realizing it, a complete fucking mind control thing, like, a complete fucking mind control thing. Or it really influences you and it takes a lot to kind of disconnect.

And for instance, I have said to myself, I am going to disconnect from fucking the grid for a while. You ever try to do that? Like, I'm not going to go online. I'm not going to watch TV. Like, you know what I mean? But it's really kind of very difficult unless you go somewhere well i go hunting that's what i do i go to the woods for like a week and

i have no choice can't get cell phone signal can't there's no internet connection do you feel rejuvenated well yeah really it feels good it feels good to take breaks you know i i enjoy the internet i enjoy the information but it's overwhelming and one of the reasons why it's overwhelming is we're not it's we're not really accustomed to this experience this is a very new experience for human beings like over the last you know 20 years we've it's 20 options yeah to a little bit more 24 i think 94 ish yeah it really came up 94 is when i got online don't you think and I really want to relate this again just like kind of the panic attack I have it up here. It's an because this is it's another form of of the anxiety is that it's

information over overload 100% Yeah Because my brain My brain, I think your brain is the same way. It's like my brain I feel my brain is the same way it's like my brain I feel my brain just digging into shit like oh you know like I'll read a paragraph on I don't fucking know hunting and then you know it'll

mention something about guns and then I go to guns and then I go to gun control like I go I go and then I go to the scumbags who don't want gun control and then I go, I go, and then I go to the scumbags who don't want gun control. And then I go to a school shooting. Like, like one thing leads to another on the internet. Rabbit holes. Rabbit holes. Yeah. You go down that rabbit hole. I was, I, I, I want to do more of this on stage, but like talking to an audience about, Hey, I've only done it once and it went over okay. But it was like, hey, you ever go on Facebook and you just start reading a feed.

You just start reading your feed and you just get drawn into like people's random thoughts. You start connecting into their brains and you're like, oh, I get that. And then where you go wrong is there's 262 comments oh and you read the comments and go to their feeds you read no but after you're fucking let's say 30 comments in yeah something happens to your fucking center. Like your brain just kind of is free-forming it about, I forget what I was reading. Oh, I was reading, this was some thread somebody started. This guy said improv, comedy improv is bullshit. It's half-assed.

It's half-assed. It's, you know, amateurish. It's like they're presenting a product that hasn't been chiseled and worked out. Whereas stand-up, he was a proponent of stand-up. And he said, stand-up, you know, it's chiseled. And what people want is a finished product. And I, you know, I kind of, I disagreed. I mean, I love. They're different things.

They're different things. It's like some people enjoy jazz. Yes. That's what I love. Yeah. Some people enjoy symphonies. Some people like to go to see an orchestra. They want to see everything that's been perfectly tuned and just gotten to this point of perfection where they rehearsed it. And that's great, right?

It's great too. It's great to watch someone's finished set. I loved watching your thing about how America is now a whore and we're driving with Trump. Like you did that. Yeah, don't give my bit up. Don't do my bit in a

fucked up way. No, but here's the thing is that you get sucked in because the way the guy on the internet, and this is what happens on the internet a lot, the way the guy who said improv sucks, that's how he framed it. This sucks. This is good. Right. And then it's a thing.

Then your ego gets involved. Like, I think I even, no, I didn't engage in that one, which is really good. it's a thing then then you're then your ego gets involved like i think i even no i didn't engage in that one which is really good here's the thing he's right to him for him he's right it's just he phrased it wrong if he said the what i like is stand-up because i like a polished product i don't like improv because it feels amateurish to me and people could say i disagree i love improv because it's wild i like that feeling of being in the audience where someone yells out you know a genre world war ii films and you know that they're they're scrambling and they fucking try to pretend they're into the yeah in the what's that called the tunnels what's i'm looking for

oh trenches oh i love trenches i yeah i i build trenches and i have mustard gas at home it's great poop pond mustard gas great poop pond mustard gas i think that uh there's nothing wrong with having opinions on things but people don't like that your opinions are different than theirs and they get mad at you like some people get mad at you if you like a certain kind of music it's insane it's crazy but they'll'll get mad. Like, your taste sucks. Your taste in music sucks. But here's the thing. What we're talking about is that that's what's going on a lot on the internet.

Yeah. You suck. You suck. You suck. You're wrong. You're wrong. You're wrong. Definitely wrong. And I think it's really reached a fucking heightened state because of the politics in the country. Like, in other words, it filters down to your province.

Well, the president insults people constantly. That's all he does. Yeah. That's all. He's a divisive. I mean, this is not new, but that's how he operates. Right. But he's very manipulative in the fact that he's very praising of some people.

Yes. Like doing an amazing job, beautiful job. Like the other day he was talking about these firefighters, and he had all these firefighters behind him. And he was talking about what a great job they're doing as firefighters. And it's just like this weird speech. And now you're going to go see each other on TV. And like, you know, I don't think they get enough credit. And so he'll like bestow.

It's a very interesting method. Of course he's going to bestow praise on the firefighters. He would say that. Right. But only if it's convenient for him. Like about John McCain, who was a fucking war hero. He was like, I like people who don't get captured. Like, Jesus Christ.

Like he had like six deferments. Like, you know, I had a hangnail. Like, oh, can't go to war. Oh, he had, like, six deferments. Like, oh, I had a hangnail. Like, oh, can't go to war. Oh. Like, he had a gang of deferments. And meanwhile, he's saying something about John fucking McCain, who's a legitimate war hero who was captured and tortured by the Viet Cong. And he had the balls to say, I like people that have been, I mean, that's not respecting

the military at all. No, but here's the question. How does he get away with that shit? Just does. Because that but here's a question. How does he get away with that shit? Just does. Because that's just who he is. It's like, if you know someone's a scumbag, then the scumbag behavior is like, well, that's fucking- That's him.

That's Mike. That's what he does. Right? But if Mike is a priest, and it turns out what Mike really likes doing is smoking crack and blowing guys. You know, you find out, you're like, oh, Jesus, Mike, I thought you were this other thing. But if Mike is Andy Dick,

and you found out, oh, Andy Dick's out there smoking crack and blowing guys, you're like, oh, Andy. You know, it's like, it's... Trump is Andy Dick. He's Trump. He's Trump. He's who he is.

That's his thing, is you come after him, he comes after you and we just sort of assumed that once he became president he would stop doing that and he would act hashtag presidential he's not at all no he can't help himself making it all about himself and it's interesting back to the internet shit and what is going on. You know, just for instance, taking that example of improv sucks, stand up is the best, right? It is the guy who wrote improv sucks, the guy, you know, the guy who started the thread. It's like, it's like what they're doing and what Trump is doing. It's like, this shit is all about what I think.

And I know you're going to come at me, but that's what I want. I want, you know, the attention. I mean, I really think it comes down to I want to fight. I want to fight. You know, I want an ego fight. I want to fight. And I want the attention. There's certainly a little bit of that. But I also think he wants repercussions for challenging him.

He wants people to feel— He wants to punish him? Yeah, he wants people to feel very uncomfortable if they challenge him. I think that's a big part of his game. He wants everyone to know that he's going to come after you, like as the president. He's going to come after you. And if he does, all the Trumpkins are going to come after you, too. the president. He's going to come after you. And if he does,

all the Trumpkins are going to come after you too. Because if he comes after you, then all these puppets, these people that follow him that literally are on there all day long. You really have to realize that some of the people that are online that are tweeting for Trump or tweeting about certain things, whether it's... Are on there all day long. By the way, I don't know...

I follow people just to see how crazy they are. Just to get it in my head. Like, oh, okay, I see what you do. You do this all day. You start tweeting at 7.30 in the morning with your first cup of coffee. You're hurling insults, and you do it until 1 o'clock in the morning, and then you start all over again in the morning. How do they do that? Because they're crazy.

I go insane. I find, I don't know about you, but if I spend an hour on that kind of rabbit hole with Twitter or Facebook, my limit, I think, is about an hour before. It just something says to me, I need to get out. I need to walk. I need to do something. I need to get away. You know what I think is happening? And I've been thinking about this a lot over the last week. I think

Humanity is in the process of an Overwhelming transformation. That's something like giving birth I agree and I think that like if you have watched someone give birth like the crazy thing is how much how much pain the women are in Like when I watch my daughter come out of my wife. I was like, whoa is how much pain the women are in. Like when I watched my daughter come out of my wife, I was like, whoa, that's a lot of work. Like it's fucking painful and it's crazy.

You're talking about birth? Yeah, blood. And it's just, it's nuts. I haven't been present at a birth. It's like this. It's like, ah, but then boom. Did you film it? The most unbelievable love comes out of it. Yes, I did.

But the most unbelievable love comes out of it. And then I did. But the most unbelievable love comes out of it. And then it's like, oh, my God, and the way you feel is incredible. And it's like, I think there's a, you got to go through hell to figure out how to handle this better. And I think culturally, we're going through a weird kind of hell. And this kind of hell, it's avoidable. Look, you could just put that phone down and you could just go hiking, go with a good friend, bring your dog, go have a nice day, sit up there, crack open a cold glass of water and look over at the landscape and go, man, it's fucking beautiful. And it does something to you when you look at beautiful things, right? You can do that.

But you might want to just check your Twitter real quick, see if anybody responded to that real witty post that you left there. Oh, did I get any likes? Oh, fuck you. I didn't say that. That's not what I meant. And then you start, the wheels start turning. Exactly. You know, they did a study.

I don't know if you heard about this one, that just turning off the phone, like if you have the phone in the room with you and you turn it off, you think, okay, the phone's turned off. I'm cool. What the scientists said, it was a study. I'm not sure where the study was. But they said, no, no, no. You have to put the fucking phone out of, into another room. They said something about. What if someone wants to call you?

What if you get a text? What if someone sends you a picture? Even when it's off. But what if there's a cool Instagram post that you miss? Absolutely. That's what everybody's worried about. I think all the chaos that's going on in the world now, I really think that we're in this unbelievably tumultuous time in human history. Absolutely.

We're not designed to have access to information 24-7 like we do. It's all about information. It's connection and information, those two things. Those two things are critical. It's all about information, but I think even more insidious is the way the information is given. Like here you got our president

just being basically like a prick the way he fucking disseminates this shit. Yeah, but he takes pride in it, right? That's like part of who he is. He's insane. It's fine if you're a regular guy. See, if you're a regular guy and you're a media figure, like

some, you know, fucking, who's the guy from American Idol? What's that guy's name? That mean guy? Simon. Simon, that guy. Yeah, like he's a dick. you know, fucking who's the guy from American Idol? What's that guy's name? That mean guy? Simon. Simon. That guy. Yeah.

Like, he's a dick. You know, everybody knows he's a dick. Like, that's his thing. It's his brand, though. That was Trump's brand. You're fired. That was his brand. Yeah.

So it's reinforced with public acceptance. True. It was reinforced with attention. It was reinforced with, like, he knew that that is what got him the credit that he so gravely desired. And so then, that allowed him to run for president,

right? He runs for president coming off of a reality show. They canceled his fucking reality show while he was running for president. Remember? Did they? I thought Schwarzenegger took it over.

No. They canceled it because he was the, because he was running for president. He was saying things about Mexicans. Then, Schwarzenegger took it over. But they fired him, I should say, instead of canceling it. But they fired him.

NBC fired him from the show because of the things that he was saying about Mexicans. And that's really where it all came from. So he was a fucking, literally, an on-TV reality star on a shitty game show. And then from there, goes on to be president. So that style of... He's not going to have this moment of reflection at 70 years old where he realizes this has all been a terrible... Like, I have this amazing responsibility now. I'm in charge of the greatest nuclear...

You think he would! Yeah, you think he would. But why would he? Because he's just a person. I think we have these narratives in our head. These people become like heroes. That a president is something different than a person yeah well i i would just think too that if that yeah i get who he is but it's like god damn it don't you get also influenced and formed by the by the weight of the

jaw like yes you you do have and this is the scary part you do have a nuclear arsenal at your disposal and it is fucking dangerous because you know you're dealing with another fucking lunatic yeah you know what i mean more crazy yeah yeah i mean they found each other yeah you know what i mean i mean it's kind of a love story. Yeah, well, in a way, there's an argument. And this is the argument, that a guy like Trump is actually good in this situation. Because a guy who is too diplomatic would allow this guy to develop real long-range nuclear capabilities. That it would be extremely dangerous.

real long-range nuclear capabilities, that it would be extremely dangerous, and that with a guy who is harassing him and fucking with him like the way Trump does, and then you allow the military to do something to stop this guy from developing these long-range nuclear capabilities, that this would be better than having some very wishy-washy president

who put severe restrictions on the military and didn't allow them to stop this guy. We would all like to think that the world is like we are here. We are here in the United States, for the most part, pretty safe, not a bad place to be. Most neighborhoods, even in bad neighborhoods neighborhoods most of the time it's not that bad occasionally bad shit happens regularly bad shit happens but not like it happens in the congo you know not like it happens in syria right now not like aleppo not like all these other other parts of the world that are in constant turmoil libya go to libya right now it's

fucking k it's a failed state it's an isis hotbed right there's parts of the world that are just fucked and if you're not the kind of person that is willing to do something to protect the rest of the people from getting involved in the kind of chaos that's in those parts of the world that stuff can leak over bad people can come in to your neck of the woods and start treating where you live exactly how they treat syria exactly how they treat the congo exactly it's totally possible absolutely but i'm a believer that if this bad stuff and it is what you're talking about what you you mentioned is horrific stuff. Like if you go in, I mean, Aleppo, if you've seen pictures of it, it literally is a wasteland now.

It has been a lot of parts. It's been bombed out. Yeah. You know, and the suffering that those people have endured and the amount of refugees in the world has gone up and up and up. To me, I don't think you can isolate that. I really don't. I think that has to come back to roost in some ways. And it does. I mean, it's kind of random incidents of terrorism. other words what i'm saying is that we have to have more of a like unified worldview like like seriously have a compassion for i mean i know this guy but but for everybody like like oh no fuck fuck syria libya iraq you, they're bad people. No, because if the world is kind of a small place, especially with technology these days, you know, and if there are thousands and thousands of refugees because of bombings, you know, people, they seek revenge.

They grow up in hate. They grow up bad. Of course. But what are you saying? I'm saying that that does affect us. Like you originally said, well, we live in a nice place where it is kind of basically okay and i say that i i don't know how long that can exist with all of the turmoil what i'm saying is if you're living in the united states and you're living in a fairly peaceful place you have to take into consideration that there are people out there like kim jong-un who

do regularly kill their citizens who regularly kills people who are insubordinate, who regularly kills anyone who thinks who would challenge him in any way. And then he has nuclear powers and he is going to do something. And it's entirely possible that he could launch a missile. He's so fucking crazy. It's entirely possible that he could do it in some sort of a suicide mission. And then he could launch a nuclear strike on the United States in a suicide mission if he gets the capabilities.

Some people, it really depends entirely on how that's managed, but there are people that would manage that incorrectly, and he could get to the point where he has those nuclear capabilities, and he could launch, and he could do something. That has to be taken into consideration. We've done it. We did it to Hiroshima. We did it to Nagasaki. We did it to Nagasaki. We literally dropped indiscriminate

bombs on entire cities. That's unbelievable, by the way. It's crazy. And it just happened. It just happened 100 years ago. Not even. Right? Isn't it interesting how most people don't have a sense of time and history? 80 fucking years is nothing. That's nothing.

Nothing. That's nothing. But the modern day person is like, you know what a long time is? 45 minutes ago on my Twitter feed. Yeah. Like, that's 45 minutes ago. That's old news. Someone gives you an article. They send you an article.

Like, bro, it's from 2013. Yes. Like, whoa. That's four years ago is nothing? I get caught up in that shit. Like, you know what I love watching documentaries is because it reminds me. Holy fuck. Yes.

A lot of the same shit went down in 1960. You know what I mean? Sure. Yeah. Like demonstrations. You know, Nixon was in power. We had Vietnam going on. You know what I mean?

I think there's always been a problem with people feeling like they're represented and communication. Those two problems have always existed. It's just they exist today in a different way. We almost have like too much communication. Well, that's what I mean. Too much information. A little bit.

Yeah, for sure. And I think you're definitely right that we have to think of the whole world as being like one thing instead of like walling things off and but the problem is when you travel all over yes but you get a little scared i mean i get sometimes fuck but you have someone who's a military dictator like kim jong-un that's a totally different situation like he won't let the people live he shoots them when they try to leave like this is this is a very very bad thing to be seeing in 2017. That's entirely different than someone who's a Syrian refugee, who, you know, those people are

fleeing for their lives. And obviously, they're in incredibly hostile environments and situations. But there are substantial parts of the world that welcome those people and want those people to have an opportunity to get away from what they're experiencing. You know, there's a lot of people in this country that argue for bringing them over here and helping those people. So I think our compassion is still there, but people don't want to be unsafe themselves. You know, I think we will eventually, these boundaries will become more and more preposterous. These lines in the ground that we've drawn, where we've decided like this is, you know, we are Canada and we are against you, America, and you're connected to us by the same dirt. Like we're tribes and the tribes, we're tribe earth.

Okay. You know, and I think once we realize that we'll be a lot better off, but then we're going to have to really understand the allocation of resources. Yes. Yes. Yes. Are you talking about also distribution of wealth, which is kind of another way to put allocation of resources? Well, I'm talking about fixing places where there's no hope. You know, I mean, you could say that it's allocation of wealth. Like one of the things we think about, like when like Halliburton got these no bid deals to go into Iraq and build these things.

Why can't someone get the same sort of contracts to go in and established places like in the United States, like established community centers in impoverished neighborhoods, do the same thing to Guadalajara go into Tijuana and try to like set up here's the answer I think I mean this is my like trip not trip but like my bent is like there is just like what you're talking about community building you know going into places setting up education centers it doesn't seem to be a priority when- Well, it's not profitable. Yes. Right, but- War is a huge profitable business.

But rebuilding is profitable. That's what I'm saying. Halliburton is rebuilding, and that rebuilding is profitable. And what do you need to rebuild? You need to fucking knock it down first, right? And that- That's weird, right? Things are already knocked down, but rebuilding them is not profitable. And what do you need to rebuild? You need to fucking knock it down first, right? And that... That's weird, right? Things are already knocked down, but rebuilding

them is not profitable. What do you mean? Oh, oh! Parts of the world are already fucked, but going in them and rebuilding, you know, going to impoverished parts of Ecuador and rebuilding that and try to, you know, make it so that these people have opportunities

to advance their lives and take care of their families. And there's no money in that. Why isn't there money in that? I don't know. What's weird is that everything is about where there's money. You know? And look at how much the. That's the problem.

Look at China. Right? And look at how much their way of life has improved since capitalism has sort of been installed. The amount of people that are in poverty in China, I was just reading this, the staggering change since what's close to capitalism. I mean, it's capitalism, but they have a lot more restrictions on what they're allowed to do and not do. In China, they still can't research Tiananmen Square.

Research it? Yeah. Oh, what happened? Yeah, still can't research Tiananmen Square. Research it? Yeah. Oh, what happened? Yeah, you can't find out about it. Yeah, that's crazy. That's crazy. And I feel like when you do that to people, you know, if you say to people, look, you can't look into that, isn't there immediately, like, I don't trust you?

Like, it's immediate. I don't trust you. Like it's immediate. I don't trust you. It's a dictatorship. And that's the crazy thing about Kim Jong-un. That's the crazy thing about China. Anytime you're in a situation where you have a dictatorship, you have a group or a person who's controlling the information that gets attributed to the people,

and then the people are under the thumb of this person. And then when this person says something, that thing is the law. That is one of the scariest things about Trump is that what essentially Trump is doing is treating his word as law and saying that everyone else is fake news and they're all liars and everyone who opposes him, they cannot have a reasonable opposition of him. Any opposition must be chastised if he wasn't within our system he'd be a fucking dick i mean he is that personality yeah yeah well you know it's he's in this this thing with the fbi you know about this right they're investigating him okay

i'm not sure where it's at he's talking about firing fucking mueller yeah is he's talking about firing fucking... Mueller, yeah. Mueller. Is he talking about him still? I'm not sure. I think he knows and the people around him know that, dude, you cannot do that because I think that will... I think you're going to fuck with the wrong people there. Like, he still can fuck with the wrong people within this country. Well, he's already fucked with the wrong people. He's fucked with the intelligence community.

I mean, he's fucked with the CIA and the FBI, and they're all like, Jesus Christ, this guy. But here's the thing. I think that's dangerous for him. It is, certainly. But not as dangerous as it was in the 60s. It's harder to kill a president today. But the FBI just stopped a terrorist attack in San Francisco. They did? Yes. You don't hear

about it because the president hasn't talked about it and the news has talked about it a little bit. What happened? There was a planned ISIS terror attack at one of the piers in San Francisco. And this guy who is a former soldier was planning it and reached out to ISIS and was trying to do it. Former U.S. soldier? Yes, U.S. soldier. Look at that. Yeah. Well, you know, you get crazy on all sides. But that's what I mean about, you know, when there is bad conditions all over the world, it filters. And that's one way, you know? Yeah, but this is a guy who was an American citizen that wanted to attack random American civilians.

You know, this is a crazy person. This is a person who had blown a fuse and was just going to do this for ISIS and was doing it publicly on Facebook, was reaching out to these people. So he had a blown fuse, for sure. He didn't understand what he was doing or understand that obviously people are going to be paying attention to these fucking ISIS pages. Isn't it wild that people publicly put this shit out on Facebook? It's wild, but it's not wild. I mean, there's a lot of dull minds out there.

But anyway, the point is that the FBI thwarted this attack. The president hasn't said a goddamn word about it. He's praising these firefighters. Yeah. Doing an amazing job. Amazing job. But he's not saying anything. I wonder if because I wonder if it's because he wants everybody to think, hey, look, there's no there's no terrorist activity going on. He doesn't want to praise the FBI. Well, that, that's fucked up. I think that's exactly what it is. I think he's against the FBI. Because he's getting investigated.

Yeah, because he has a vendetta against the FBI. He's at war with the FBI. It's crazy. This is a crazy situation where someone of this mindset is running the country. And some people love it. They love it. MAGA. We're going to get things done.

Look at the joblessness rate is down. Unemployment is down. There's all this good stuff is happening. The stock market is hitting record highs. What's hilarious about when they talk about the stock market hitting record highs. First of all, I think it's a fact that 50% of America is in poverty. 5-0. Do you agree with that stat? I don't know. Is that real?

Yeah. I mean, you could look it up. What's poverty? It's a certain level of income, and I forget. I know what it means. I mean, what is the number? Is it like 20,000? Sure, yeah.

It's around. 30,000? Sure, yeah. It's around. 30,000 a year? It's around there. And I think it also talks about benefits. And there was just an article, man, in the Washington Post, dude, about how people in their 70s are having to take full-time jobs because their pensions have been taken away. I mean, corporate America is taking away a lot of shit. Well, Jamie was just talking about this yesterday, about how companies are selling you the same product,

but now it has like a half an ounce less than it used to before, and the boxes are slightly smaller. I just bought two boxes of cereal yesterday, and they both say they're 12 ounces. One's 12 ounces, and one's 12.1 ounces, but the boxes are not even close to the same size. Same cereal, too. It's Chex, so it's the same shape cereal and everything.

One's older. Do you think that they're lying, or do you think that they figured out a way to get 12 ounces in a smaller box? Because you know how you would open up cereal, and then there would be a little air space, and then you'd get to the package and then there's a little air in the package cereal might be a bad example but gatorade for example was uh 20 it's 28 ounces now it used to be 32 ounces like three years ago well that's a perfect example yeah of like taking no no no you pay more and get less.

It's just a fact. Infinite growth. That paradigm that corporations operate under where you constantly have to improve every quarter. You have to make more money. You have an obligation to your stock. It's insane. It's crazy. It's like, how come you can't make – listen, if you make $100 million in your corporation this year, why can't you make $100 million next year and everybody's happy? Yeah. dollars in your corporation this year why can't you make a hundred million dollars next year and everybody's happy like yeah i mean isn't that the is it yeah isn't that the textbook definition of greed see this three different size cups appear to hold the same amount of soda there might be a

sponge in the bottom of one of them you can't really tell but he just like i said this guy did this four or five times to sort of prove that there wasn't this is a small medium and like super large size cup and they all hold very close to the same amount of liquid huh super strange this is what i was explained to yesterday wow huh see that's the daily mail super sketchy well that's just where is that in england yeah the daily mail is like they they they're super sketchy with stuff. They're super sketchy. Yeah, I mean, yeah, there's definitely a problem that we have with the system that's in place in terms of how corporations get treated as individuals.

They're allowed to donate enormous sums of money now. And this is a fairly recent, within the last decade, the way that their structure has changed. And then there's also the diffusion of responsibility inside the corporation. If you work for a big, evil corporation, but you're a good guy. You're Eddie Pepitone. You're a good guy. You wave to your neighbor. You give money to charity.

But meanwhile, you're making toxic sludge that's killing people in the Philippines or wherever the fuck it is you know you know is that how it goes Yeah, it is how it goes, and that's how it goes also to justify this infinite growth idea This corporation keeps growing and keeps growing keeps growing. That's right Trump is like they're they're opening up these national monuments for drilling Well, that's really fucked and. And you're an outdoors guy. Scary. Scary shit. It's really scary shit. But not only is it scary, it's an affront.

It's like, no, no, don't take away our fucking land. Because to me, talking about circling back to the panic, I feel like, wow, these motherfuckers, these corporate greed, let's call it. Right. And it's rapacious and it's endless. They're taking away our places

where we get some serenity, where we fucking connect to nature. You know, like the lifeblood of it. You know what I mean? They want, to me, and to me like the, the, the, the lifeblood of it. You know what I mean? The, they want to me and I, to me, they're taking, they want everything. Well, here's what's fucked up about it. It's, it's, it is American's land, right?

It is the public's land. And so if they're going to go to these areas and extract resources, why should they have those resources? Why, why are we allowing them to take the oil out of these spots? Why are we allowing them to take the oil out of these spots why are we allowing them to take the minerals out of these spots like these these these are not there for your disposal this this is american land this is the public's land these corporations that want to come in and start drilling and mining in these areas it's it's sanctioned stealing and. And then to like jump to an issue one step further, what the fuck? We're the only country who pulled out of the climate accord, right?

Now, are you with me that it isn't climate change, it's climate breakdown that's going on? And anybody, you've had scientists on, have you had environmentalists on talking about this shit? I mean, just here in L.A., this past summer, do you live in the Valley too? Yeah. I never experienced like, there was 115 for 10 days, not 110 for like three days in a row. And then I was starting to get- It's up to 116 here one day. I remember telling my wife, hey, honey, it's only 101.

They were beating me down to like, sweetie, it's kind of nice. It's only 103 today. Right. You know what I mean? But my point is, is that they're taking land to do more oil drilling, to do fucking fracking, to do that kind of stuff. Where the fuck is the – why aren't we going completely toward solar, wind, phasing that shit out? Especially in California. If you fly over California, you see very few clouds and all the rooftops.

Like these rooftops should all be solar panels. If they were, we would have almost no need for external power. It's sunny 24-7 here. And if it's not today, within five years or ten years, as the technology improves, there would be a way to extract all of our needs from solar power. That's what I'm saying we should do instead of fucking opening up lands. Yeah, but the problem is there's so much money in that oil, and we still rely on it so heavily right now. And they're not thinking about the future. They're thinking about right now.

Right now we can get that oil and make a ton of money. Joe, here's the thing. They're not thinking about the future. Dude, there may not be a future. And I know that's really like, I don't want to be like, you know, but scientists, really well-known scientists are saying, you know, these hurricanes are the beginning, you know, the massive ones we had that buried Houston, you know, that buried, there were a couple that really fucked up and they're going to be the norm.

And also the constant heat out here. I mean, you know what really freaked me out? Four wildfires in December. Yeah, the big one that's still going on right now that they haven't even put out in Ventura. Yeah, Jamie was saying yesterday it's not totally contained, right? It's still... 90%, something like that. Fucking crazy.

It's been going on for weeks. The Thomas fire. Yeah. Gigantic fire. I crazy. It's been going on for weeks. The Thomas fire. Yeah. Gigantic fire. I mean, it's an enormous fire. Hundreds of thousands of acres. And terrifying.

By the way, the firefighters out here, I cannot believe what they do. Animals. But you know, apparently they have a lot of prisoners that they make fight the fires for like a dollar an hour yeah it's like part of the gig that's fucked up yeah you gotta fake your own death you gotta just run into that fire get free but i think a lot of them like you you have like parking tickets it's fucked up but it's fucked look i just had a boot on my car can get a fucking dollar an hour for work like why is it okay to like that's slavery it is slavery like if their work like i always used to think that about license plates like that was always

the big thing like in in massachusetts there was always a joke that like every two years a new comedian would come up with the same joke because it was so obvious is that uh new hampshire the license plates say live free or die and i'm like, those plates are made by prisoners. And that was what was crazy. It was like that was always the thing. That was always the thing about license plates. They were made by prisoners, right? That was always the reference that we would talk about.

You're going to go sent upstate and you're going to make license plates. That was what people did. But when you make those license plates, you're making like 30 cents a day or whatever the fuck you're making. Well, again again that gets back to corporate greed like like i was reading about that stuff like verizon i don't know there's so many big corporations using prisoners yeah to make stuff for their and prisoners also get charged on like they get charged i don't know where the fuck they come up with the money but they get charged

all these shit like if you want to make calls you have to buy your own fucking uniforms it's like yeah well they're being punished I get the idea behind it

they're being punished isn't punishment you have to be in a fucking confined space you know now you have to work? Well, the idea is that someone's profiting from it.

That's where it gets super squirrely. It's like, wait a minute. Okay, I get the fact they're being punished, but who's making the money? Is the money going to the victims of these crimes? No. Okay, so it's one thing if you made a guy, like say if a guy robbed your house, right?

And then he goes to jail, and then he makes 30 cents an hour. The state should pay him like what a normal working wage would be, like 25 bucks an hour or whatever it is for this job that this guy's doing. And then you get all the rest. Absolutely.

So this dickhead's working for you while he's in the pokey and he's making 30 cents an hour because he broke into your house. No, no, he's working for Verizon. Yeah, that's what's weird. He's working for some company that's willing to pay for those services at an exorbitantly discounted rate. Yeah. No, it's all not good, man. And here's the thing.

You can't keep an eye on all of it. You can't keep an eye on what's happening in Aleppo. It's exhausting. And then the private prison structure. And then, wait a minute, what happened with Bernie Sanders? His wife is involved in what? The college went under because of how? Is he legit?

How many vacation homes does he have? And then you look at Hillary Clinton. Wait a minute. What's his Clinton Foundation? How much money? She was opposed to gay marriage until 2013. You'll be overwhelmed. You'll be overwhelmed with all the different people and all the different scandals and all the different possibilities.

And you're in your car and you're on the 101 and you're freaking the fuck out, Eddie Pepitone. Jesus! That's what it is. We're overwhelmed. And that's why you have to go into nature. Yeah. You know, you have to go into nature, kind of disconnect.

Man, the Native American Indians knew how to do that. Yeah, they knew how to do it. But that's all they had. They didn't have, like, cell phones. It's not like they made a choice. It was interesting. Are you taking that shit away from them by saying that? No.

I had Sebastian Younger on the podcast. He's an author, brilliant guy. And one of the things that he was saying was that during the Revolutionary War, or I'm sorry, during the time of colonization where the Europeans were moving across America. Some of them were kidnapped by these Native American tribes. And then when they were rescued by the soldiers, they resisted. A lot of them wanted to stay with the Native Americans. I think that's true. And a lot of them moved in with the tribes.

Some people voluntarily moved into tribes. Dude, what does that tell you? Well, this is what he said. No one did it the other way. The Native Americans did not join the Western civilization. They didn't like they were the only force. Did they join the cities and move into these towns? They wanted to be with Native Americans.

Well, they wanted to live the natural way, the way they've been living forever. By the way, their system is attuned to. Yeah. Do you feel it? Because I originally started this off with talking about anxiety. And as we've been talking, I think one of the biggest causes of anxiety is disconnection from Mother disconnect, disconnection from the heart of life, like disconnection. I don't know, man. But but but but on on top of that, then what's fueling that disconnection is this incredible technology where you're bombarded with information about everything and you're trying to make some fucking sense of it. Your brain overloads. And then and then the bigger picture almost is that there are people in power and there are people in power.

I don't know if it's a conspiracy, but these people own everything. They fucking own just about everything. And they're owning more. We're talking about a bunch of different issues here, then, if you're putting all these things together. I'm trying to put them together. But I think that what you're saying about people being disconnected and being overwhelmed by all that stuff to think about, that's real. Because you're supposed to be thinking about your immediate area and what the threats are and your immediate environment

and where your friends are, where's the community. Our communities, I mean, they talk about this communities breaking down. Yeah. Like we have a comedy community. Don't you think that's a big thing, like our community, especially the comedy store? That's one of the cool things about the comedy store is we all go there and we see each other and it's like very very friendly and supportive i think

it's huge huge so rare too i mean i i i i realized that that is what we're talking about like you need you ever have a fucking thing where you're like flipping out about something and then you make one phone call or see one friend and the problem goes away yeah especially if you maybe you and a friend are in some sort of a disagreement and you thought that they thought this thing and they thought that you thought that thing and you get to talking especially if you meet each other and your friend's like no i thought this and you're like oh i thought you thought that and like ah and then everybody's happy so you were stressed out freaked out and nervous and feeling weird about talking to that person.

But then once you talk to them, everything smoothed away. Yeah. Yeah. I don't know if people – I think when you're doing that online thing and you're spending your day online or even texting. Like I have all these – I have text friends. And that's – but I don't see them. Those are weird. I have a few of those that's, you know, but I don't see them. Those are weird. I have a few of those.

A lot of East Coast buddies. Yes. I just text them every couple months. We text back and forth. It isn't to say. It's like there's something missing. No, but if they call, I won't answer. If they call, I look at them and go, I've got time for a conversation right now.

Send me a text. Send me a text. I'll get back to you. But I'm in the middle of doing my ads here. And I got to fucking write this bit and i've got to fucking go somewhere and i gotta work out an hour but um yeah but i i think you know and and we're all busy i get that too but it's like we we we have to find time for the community. You've got to find time for being a human, an actual human. Part of being a human is interacting with other humans. We need each other.

The worst thing they can do to you in prison is put you in solitary confinement. Think of that. The worst thing they can do, you're locked up in a cement cage filled with murderers and rapists and criminals. And the worst thing they can do is to leave you alone. Yeah, isn't that funny? The big punishment is not like letting you go out and hang out with all the guys in the cafeteria. No.

The big punishment is putting you in a room, taking away your clothes. So just getting back to the technology, I think voyeurism is fucking killing people. We've become like this nation of voyeurs. Yeah. Like just, like, what? I went to a little birthday party yesterday in a bar.

This is not to brag. In Silver Lake. I can't believe you're bragging about Silver Lake. I don't like Silver Lake. Anyway. You don't? I don't like Silver Lake. Anyway. You don't? I don't think I do. I mean, I'm also the guy who makes immediate judgments on places without really knowing them. I think that's a comic thing to do.

Oh, yeah. For sure. Like, that's absolute bullshit. Oranges suck. Yeah. Fuck improv. What's wrong with Silver Lake? No, but I just want to talk about voyeurism and technology.

So I was trying to do the thing we were talking about, fucking hanging with people. Around us in this bar were five fucking television screens. And I'm the type of guy and again it's my anxiety like like my tension in me i wanted to go and go can you please and this is how i would say it too which is why i never get anything done i go would you please turn off the fucking televisions by the way they didn't even have a fight on they didn didn't even have a good game on because the games were over or something. And it was just showing random dumb shit. Like, I don't know.

One was a reality show with people doing weird things. You know what I mean? And my vision was drawn to this shit constantly. And it was like, no, man, this is the problem. It was right there instead. But if you own a bar and you want people to come in and spend a lot of money, you've got to give them something to stare at. Dude, there's the problem.

You could have a cute community bar like one of them little pubs in England. It's been around for a thousand years. They don't have the TVs, right? I doubt it. I don't know. I've never been to one. but i would assume if they're a thousand years old they don't fucking stick giant flat screens everywhere right but what about if we give it a shot where if i owned a bar in silver lake fucking someone said it would be funny if i just had one black and white and i'm just showing old joe lewis fights on it really small. That'd actually be cool.

Joe Louis versus, who was the guy that he had these great fights with? Was it Max Schmeling? Yeah, Max Schmeling was unfairly thought of as a Nazi. He was really just a German. He was just a German guy who was a boxer who really didn't want to represent Hitler, apparently, from what I've read. Yeah, was he the big rival of Lewis where they had these incredible he stopped Lewis in the first fight and then Lewis destroyed him in the second fight

and the big thing about him beating Lewis was that he beat Lewis and Lewis was did he stop Lewis I think he did he think he did and Lewis hardly ever lost I mean did he lose one two fights was that he lost quite a few when he got older in his career lost to Rocky Marciano by a brutal knockout.

Ooh. But he was quite a bit older. I think he was in his 40s at the time. But I think when he had the rematch, I think Max Schmelling might have KO'd him. And then when he had the rematch, he destroyed Max Schmelling. Here it is. Lost by KO, yeah. Oh, okay.

Does it say what round? 12 out of 15. 1936. Yeah. And then he came back. Max Bear was another guy. Yeah. He came back and he was a giant hero when he knocked out Schmeling in the first round.

Scroll up all the way. How many years later was that? 38. 38, yeah. You remember the first round? Yeah. Oh, he smashed him. Yeah.

I mean, that was when Joe Lewis was Joe Lewis. I mean, that was when he had really come into his own, and then he went on this incredible tear. They used to call it the bum of the month club because he was just knocking out anybody who was willing to get in there with him. Yeah. He fought some legit guys, and Billy Kahn fought him a couple of times,

who was actually a light heavyweight. Yeah, yeah. An excellent light heavyweight. Yeah, yeah. Buddy Bear, was that Max Bear's? It says disqualified. Do you see that, 49-1? I don't know what happened there. I wonder if that's a relation to Max Bear. Probably.

The 1930s must have been. Can you imagine going back to the 30s and the 40s? So look at this. He was the champ all the way up to Ezra Charles in 1950. Think of that. And he started in 36? Yeah. So the fight with, the first fight with Max Schmeling was 30.

Hold on right there. Yeah. So he rematched him in 38. The first fight was in 36. Took two years. And then he was all the way the fuck scroll, all the way up to the top. By the time he lost, he lost to Jersey Joe Walcott, a unanimous decision in 1950. That's incredible.

That's 14 years later. Wow. Fucking crazy. No, his first loss was to Ezra Charles. Sorry. Yeah, he KO'd Jersey Joe Walcott. By the way, look at that. You know, Yankee Stadium was the venue for Chicago Stadium Olympics.

These were huge events. And look, he won a bunch of fights after that. He lost the unanimous decision. Scroll all the way up. And then lost again to Rocky Marciano. So he really only lost three times, it looks like. Unbelievable. Three big ones in the later stages of his career, unless he lost earlier.

What's his overall record? It was 66-3, according to that top. Yeah, so three losses. So one max smear, the brutal one to Rocky Marciano, which ended his career. Did you see that one? Yeah. The brutal one? Yeah, you want to watch it?

It's rough. I love, I love, I grew up watching boxing. Did you? Yeah yeah and it wasn't pay-per-view it was ABC 59 yeah it was like it was like network yeah there's a lot of that back then and I there was something it wasn't pay-per-view and they were free tv and I really got into the sport like I was like I would be like so psyched to see this shit. I'd be like, I would watch, you remember a guy named Oscar Bonav... Bonavia.

Bonavia. Yeah, yeah. He was just like this kind of wild brawler, but he was a big guy, and he'd fight guys like, I don't know if he changed his name yet, Cassius Clay. Oh, what's this?

This is Jersey, this is Ezra Charles, right? yet. Cassius Clay. Oh, what's this? This is Jersey. This is Ezra Charles, right? Is that Ezra Charles? So that's the loss. But that's not the one we want to see. We want to see the Rocky Marciano one. This is the one where Ezra Charles was the first guy to beat him, and he beat him by unanimous decision. But first of all, look how much smaller people were back then.

Like, Rocky Marciano, when he won the heavyweight title, was 15 pounds lighter than me. Is that right? Yeah. Think of that. And I think he was only 5'10", and that might have been bullshit. You know, like people were a little sketchy about how tall they were back then. Yeah.

Try to find that Rocky Marciano one. Yeah, I mean, I believe at the time, I think when he was the champ, he was 185 pounds. Maybe 190. And Marciano was known for just having unbelievable strength in his punches. Like, he could just fucking... Yeah, that's what he was. He was like this fucking tank of an immigrant. Brocktown brawl.

Like he was from Massachusetts. Yeah. Brockton. Is that him? He looks small. Yeah. Yeah, he's 15 pounds lighter than me, man. Lewis is a lot bigger.

Lewis isn't even that big. Lewis is probably 200 pounds back then. That was a heavyweight back then. It's just a different world. People didn't have that kind of food. They didn't have enough to eat. They didn't have the nutrition knowledge. They didn't have steroids. People didn't have that kind of food. They didn't have enough to eat. They didn't have the nutrition knowledge.

They didn't have steroids. They didn't have weightlifting. I mean, they had weightlifting, but boxers really didn't engage in that. It was very rare. They thought it stiffened you up. They didn't understand that the stiffening you up is just as you're getting sore and that you have to recover from that, and that's how you get bigger and stronger. Like boxers today, if you look at like Anthony Joshua, who's the heavyweight champion of the world now.

Is he? If you look at him, yeah, he's an English fellow. He's a tank. Is he? Oh, man, you look at Anthony Joshua. He looks like a superhero. Do those guys have as much stamina as these guys do, though? Oh, yeah, they do today.

Oh, they do? Yeah, because the conditioning methods that they have today are just so superior. They understand rest and recovery, and they monitor your heart rate, and they're monitoring lactic acid buildup and creatine in your blood. So the science is really, it's such a scientific. If they engage in that, some people still take it old school but i just think they know more about what gets you in condition and high intensity uh you know conditioning drills high reps but rocky marciano had something that you can't teach people which is just brutal strength brutal power he just

had the ability to land these bone crushing shots and he also was insanely tough you're dealing with just a different time like I was having this conversation with my wife this morning we were talking about old school keep that going keep that going see the end it's brutal we were talking about old school cartoons and about like Pinocchio

and they were so mean they were so mean and even old school cartoons about Santa and Christmas elves, the elves were all shitty to each other. Like, what the fuck? I thought you guys worked for Santa Claus. Has it all been PC'd out? Totally PC'd out.

But back then in the 1940s and 50s when these cartoons were originally made, the world was a hard place, man. It was hard. It's hard. Well, we're talking World War II? Was World War II just over? Yeah. Well, here's something that I didn't realize until recently.

My friend Steve Rinella was actually talking about this on a podcast. When we talk about factory farming and large-scale agriculture- I hate that stuff, by the way. When we talk about that, the reason why that all got instituted, the reason why we have those programs set in place in America was because of famine, because people were worried about what happened to the Europeans during World War II. During World War I and World War II, it's estimated that millions of people starved to death in the world. And in the United States after the war, they wanted to do something to make sure that that didn't happen over here. And one of the things they did was they started instituting subsidies for farmers to make

sure, look, you're not making enough money, but we're going to give you money just so that we have all this food on reserve. So that everyone thinks about it as, oh, this is this evil thing that the government has done to keep us fat and stupid. And no, it was originally put in place to prepare for the worst case scenario, where we're at war again and we're short on food. I get it. I get the genesis of it, but

now... Now it sucks. Now it's fucking horrible. Well, the worst part is the animals. See, that's my thing. You ever watch a fucking... I mean, I have gone to veganism and I grew up Italian and we ate everything.

I mean, I love sausage. And I mean, I just couldn't imagine. It's amazing that I have gone this way. And I did it because my wife got me into it. Big animal rights activist. And just watching some fucking slaughterhouse videos and seeing the fear. I mean, to me, animals are the most powerless because they don't have any choice in this

shit. You know, human beings who have fucking horrible lives, there's at least some fucking element of choice and free will. Fucking animals are just, it's's just like especially factory farmed animals right oh dude i mean they're just trapped so you're vegan now yeah i have been for i have been for i would say it took a while to like not like slip i would say pretty solidly for three years four years um and how's do you get your health monitor? Do you get your blood levels checked to make sure you're feeling okay? I do.

I do. My sugars are a little high because what happens for me, and this could just be fucking willpower. I don't know. But, oh, he just knocked down. Hit him with a left hook. Dropped him. And this is, you know, an older Joe Louis. How old was Joe Louis at the time of this, young Jamie?

Does it say? And Marciano. How old was Joe Louis at the time of this, young Jamie? Does it say? And Marciano. How old was Marciano? He was in his prime. I think Marciano was 30 or something like that. Boy, he is a lot smaller than him. Does it say? No.

No? He was older. Yeah, 1951, he got knocked out by Marciano. That's crazy. God, I love braddock i love that cinderella story you see that yeah russell crowe is like fucking great yeah but um so anyway so you eat too much carbs yes yeah yes i do yeah i do carbs are terrible for you man that'll do you in more than anything what about eggs fuck dude well. Do you eat... Well, that's not vegan. Yeah, but why go vegan when eggs don't harm anything?

If you get... Like, I have chickens. Free range eggs. You have chickens? Yeah, man. They just run around. You feed them. They have a good old time.

Then you eat their eggs. Like, nobody gets hurt. The eggs are not viable because there's no rooster, right? So you're not taking away a life. This is just something that the chickens almost like you have a relationship. Aren't those embryos? No. No, they're just eggs.

No, they're only an embryo if it's pregnant. So it has to get fucked by a rooster. If there's no rooster, they just lay eggs. Oh. Isn't that funny that most people didn't know that? I didn't know that. I didn't know that until I got chickens. I kind of intellectualized it, but then I was, oh, yeah, yeah, there's no rooster.

How could they? Of course. It's not like the chickens can just lay eggs and those eggs can become new chickens. No. That only happens if a rooster gets in the hen house. I guess the answer to that would be the way they house the fucking chickens to make the eggs. Well, you don't have to get them that way. You can get free range.

I mean, there's places that you can get legitimate free range. You can actually even visit the farms. You know, there's a guy that we had on the podcast. What is that gentleman's name? That runs Polyface Farms. Joel Salatin. Yeah, Joel Salatin. Oh, I've heard of that name.

Brilliant guy. Like he's a real humane. Yes. I've heard of him. I think it was in a movie called Forks Over Knives maybe. I don't know. Maybe. That movie is very deceptive. That movie is filled with a lot of bullshit. Forks Over Knives?

Yes. Yes. Yes. What's it new? The vegan propaganda movie. And they're the same guys that did the most recent one which is What the Health? Yeah. Widely torn apart by actual scientists who understand human nutrition. Oh yeah? Yes. Yes.

Real problems. Like meat does not cause diabetes. There's zero evidence that it does. Well, diabetes is caused by sugar and by complex carbohydrates, or excuse me, by refined carbohydrates. And not all diabetes. Obviously, there's genetic diabetes. What about the connection between meat and heart disease? Here's a connection. When you say people who eat meat are more likely to have heart attacks, you're not saying what they eat the meat with.

Are they eating a piece of grass-fed steak or are they eating a shitty cheeseburger on a bun that's filled with sugar, with fries, and do they have a syrupy soda with it? I've had scientists talk about this. Dr. Rhonda Patrick was on this recently, and what she said is there is a direct correlation between consumption of saturated fats along with refined sugar. When you have refined sugar and saturated fats, it produces a lot of bad cholesterol.

And this is one of the things that's been proven clinically to lead to heart attacks, clinically to lead to strokes attacks, clinically to lead to strokes and hardening of the arteries. Yeah. The big thing is sugar. The big thing is sugar and carbohydrates. Those are the big things.

And carbs turn into sugar. Yes. Do you eat no carbs? Or brown carbs? I eat very little carbs. Very little. Very little. You don't crave them, huh?

No. Once you get out of it. See, a lot of it is your gut health. A little. You don't crave them, huh? No. Once you get out of it, see, a lot of it is your gut health. A lot of it is what's going on inside your stomach. Like what your stomach is used to eating. If you feed your stomach sugar and processed refined carbohydrates all the time, that's what you've got in your gut. I mean, that's the kind of gut flora you're cultivating. Yeah, yeah. And that's what leads to leaky gut, leads to inflammation, you know? Mm-hmm. I mean, I want to pick on you, but you're a little overweight.

No, no, no, no. Right? And this is a lot of it about carbs. I know I have a problem with carbs. Yeah. And my trip has been that I'm about the animal rights. Sure. You know what I mean?

Like, I don't. I fucking hate the way they are but that's fine and it's good but you can do better for yourself i mean you can live you can live uh an ethical humane life with no animal products other than like free range eggs and be okay and just cut all the dairy out cut all the things i have cut all the dairy out but i'm that's what i'm saying to anybody even listening to this. You can have eggs and you can get plenty of it from- There's a lot of plant-based protein that's very rich and powerful for you and excellent for you.

Hemp-based protein is really good. Spirulina is fantastic for you. There's a lot of really good sources of nutrients, but you've got to really pay attention to what you're putting in your body. If you just eat vegan pizza and vegan cookies all the time, you're going to get jacked. No, no, I know. It's going to fuck you up. I know, you're right.

You're right. And I do find myself craving, and maybe that's because I put it in, you know, the fucking... Oh, yeah, that's going to be there. I mean, before I came here, I had a fucking blueberry bagel. Woo!

It's great, right? All those carbs. You feel good when they're going in i had a panic attack though i had a panic attack coming over here and i really do you what i don't think that's what gave you the panic attack no no not specifically but i but i think you know if you're feeling kind of shitty in general you're more susceptible to i think you're right for sure yeah if you could just cut out the carbs, it's harder on a vegan diet, but it's possible. It is, right? But you got to get a good book on it. You got to find out, like, there's really good vegan health books that can show you

how to eat in the right way. Do you go that way at all, or you reject it? Well, it's not that I reject it. For me, I eat wild game almost exclusively Wild animals that I hunt. Yeah, so I hunt the wild animals and if I shoot an elk I get hundreds of pounds of meat and I eat that all year. I have commercial freezers in the back I'll show you after the show. I keep meat here. I have meat at home I give meat to my friends

And so my meat that I get is a wild animal that was gonna get eaten by a wolf Like if I didn't get it, I mean this isn't a factory farmed to my friends. And so my meat that I get is a wild animal that was going to get eaten by a wolf. Like if I didn't get it, I mean, this isn't a factory farmed prisoner that gets slaughtered. This year I got an elk in Utah, shot in Utah. And I also shot one in California in a place called Tohon Ranch. It's this 270,000 acre ranch in the middle of the country or middle of the state rather right but um getting it that way to me it feels when i before i started hunting i i decided i was either going to be a vegan or i was going to be a hunter i'm like i'm going to figure out interesting what i'm going to do i didn't want to eat you don't want to farm food take part in that yeah when you

kill when you when you kill the elk right when you you shoot it do you have like like what's the feeling there that must be intense it's like, what's the feeling there? That must be intense. It's very intense. There's a moment, there's definitely a moment of loss where you feel like, you know, this animal is gone now, you know. But there's also a moment of reverence. But you got to do it sustainably. Like when I do it, I'm doing it in places that have extremely healthy populations.

You get an animal that's past its breeding prime. You get an animal that's seven, eight, nine years old where they really don't have much time left. That's what you target. Like people think when you target a trophy animal, like a big animal. You're very specific about what you're doing. Very specific. And I'm also specific about making it difficult which is why i do it with a bow and arrow i don't you know i mean i've hunted animals with rifles

and i don't think there's anything wrong with it but for me i feel like if i really want to make this a more even arrangement and make it more difficult and make it more ethical i use a bow and arrow yeah but there is that moment huh like you you know you've killed it and then you feel a sense of loss there is a sense of loss it's deep yeah that's deep but you know what we've run across a bunch of elk there's one of the things that once you get into the natural world and you really start understanding what's going on out there you realize like this is this no one gets out of this ride alive like this this ride. Like the elk that I killed, he had holes all over his body. All over his body.

When we were taking him apart, holes everywhere from other elk stabbing him. So that's what. You look up there, all that shit. Those elk antlers. Are those real? That's real. That's the one that I shot in September. Okay.

Those things are designed to kill other elk. They slash each other. They clash and smash those horns together. And it's all to fight over breeding. And the most powerful ones with the biggest antlers are the ones that get to breed. And one of the best ways to ensure the health of this group of animals is once this animal has reached its breeding prime, that's the one you take out. You take out the herd bull. It allows the younger bulls to have an opportunity to breed, spread more genetics.

You actually know who is the- You see the big dog. Yeah. You see the herd. They call them the herd bull. How'd you learn that? I got obsessed about five and a half years ago. I got crazy with it.

Yeah. Almost six years ago. You started researching food? Yeah. Well, I got obsessed before I actually went hunting, but I went hunting in 2012 was the first time I went. And then once I did that, I was like, okay, this is what I'm doing now. Like, this makes sense. And it's difficult.

So it's a pursuit. So my food now isn't just food that i got now there's this like this intense connection with that food nobody's got a fucking connection with their food most people don't and but the weird thing is everyone did until about 100 years ago that's what's really crazy this is so new yeah so new yeah you go to 1917 everybody had probably seen an animal get killed on a farm on farms yeah i mean everybody was you were around it it was a normal thing you go to 1917, everybody had probably seen an animal get killed on a farm. On farms. Yeah, I mean, everybody was, you were around it. It was a normal thing. You go to 1817, you couldn't avoid it.

You go to a marketplace, you go to a farmer, you go to, I mean, everybody, and then also, there was no pesticides. The genetic manipulation of the food was non-existent. It was, everything was as it is in a natural state or in a cultivated state where,'re splicing things and doing normal things that people do to improve fruits and vegetables. Again, my favorite topic, haven't we gone just the wrong way? Well, we've definitely gone away. But that way that we've gone in the negative ways is terrible, but in the positive ways are things like golden rice that's allowed thousands, if not millions of people to not starve to death

because it's rice that was infused with protein. There's a bunch of different things that we've done to ensure the shelf life of food, to get the food to hungry people because these foods can last longer. Like tomatoes, they look kind of fucked up now because they're hard. But these also can stay on the shelves for a lot longer. Like tomatoes, they look kind of fucked up now because they're hard. But these also can stay

on the shelves for a lot longer. And this goes back to what we're talking about like post-World War II. People were terrified of scarcity. They were terrified

of famine and they were terrified of the idea of going back to war again and not having a stockpile of food and resources. So this is, it's all bad now.

It's all bad when you go down the food aisle and most of this shit has sugar in it and simple refined carbohydrates and it's killing people and giving people cancer. Do you shop just organic markets? Mostly, yeah. Yeah. I try to get organic.

I try to go to farmer's markets too. I like the feeling I go to a farmer's market. I meet the guy who's growing the tomatoes. Yeah. You walk into fucking supermarkets and the bright lights all the fucking it feels like you've walked into that corporate death and they call sugar white death right

yeah it is I have a sweet tooth too I have a lot of things to work on it's so funny I get overwhelmed by that shit. I get like, God damn it, you know. And check this out. I've been working out with a trainer for the last year and a half, three times a week.

That's awesome. I like this guy a lot. Yeah, but you know, I'm such an idiot that I work out with him and I'm like, well, I'm okay. I'm good now. I can have this shit. You know what I mean? It's insane what I do. Like my little reward.

I'm like that child. I'm a child who is like, well, I am. That's why you're so funny. I got to fucking change that other part of me. And, you know, it's so funny because we're having this conversation and what happens to me is I'll be driving home going, well, that's fucking it. This is my state of mind.

I'll go, that's fucking it. You know, this is... Yeah, fucking Rogan, you know, he just hammered home what I already know about, you know, it's got it. The sugar's got to go. The processed carbs got to go. Then you see a cupcake.

It's got thick frosting. The fucking rationalizations and justifications. Well, it's fucking New Year. Yeah. It's almost Christmas. It's almost Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving is another 360 days. Yeah.

It's normal. Then I'm on a shoot in January and I'm like, ah, they don't have any good food here. I got to have something. You know what I mean? And it's on. Yeah, fuck, I'll have a cookie. Yeah.

It's a bitch. You got to write it down. Write down what you want to do. Write down what you're allowed to eat. Someone else, a couple of the people told me the write down thing helps. Writing down things helps with everything. Why is that? Because now you have an obligation.

It's like one of the things that Tom Segura, Burt Kreischer, and Ari Shaffir and I did Sober October. Oh, yeah. It went through all of October. I heard you talking about that. No booze, no pot. How did you like that? It was educational. I think it's important to do. I think it's important to do.

I think it's good to do. I like pot. I'm a big fan. And I like an occasional drink. I like a glass of wine with dinner. I like that. But it's also good to abstain just to feel what it feels like. You don't have an addictive personality, huh?

I do, but I don't. I do, but I don't let it. You will it. Yeah. I keep that bitch in check. But I could let it go crazy if I wanted to. I quit pot because I felt interesting. Like, I just would love to smoke all the time. Yeah.

And I'd be like, well, this movie, I'd be like, this movie is going to be great on a fucking joint. Yeah. It's I, Tonya. Yeah. I, Tonya. It's going to be, it's going to be intense. Yeah. It's I, Tonya.

Yeah. I, Tonya. It's going to be intense. Like, to me, what pot did, it was like, this is going to make, like, I'm going to CVS. And I'm going to CVS. And if I smoke, it's going to be a fun fucking trip. Yeah. Because there's weirdos at CVS. Especially in Silver Lake.

But you know what I mean? So, but what happened was that I felt like I wasn't doing my creative work. Right. Like what happened was the weed was taking me totally, again, I'm a child, like taking me totally into this. I just want to pleasure myself the whole day and I couldn't buckle down and do work. Well, that's a real problem with comics. That a lot of us struggle with having the kind of discipline that's required to get work done. It's like you're really funny, but you don't produce any new stuff because you're impulsive, because you're kind of silly.

What's the answer, man? I think writing things down helps a lot. Having rules. I was going to say about this sober October thing. I knew that I couldn't do any of this thing and I knew that I had to do 15 90 minute yoga sessions in this month. We had a rule and we

were also accountable to each other. So we all knew that we had to get this done. Community. Yeah. Community. And you know and talking shit to each other on text messages all the time. You know like we were constantly fucking with each other and having a good time. I mean, it was really fun. It was really fun.

But it was also very educational. But knowing that I have these requirements. So I give myself requirements. I write down things. Every day? Every month? Every week. Every week, okay.

Or occasionally it's daily. If there's like a big list of shit I have to do. But like I have to write five days a week. I have to write for one hour five days a week. That's where the stuff comes from. And if I write more hours, great. That's great. But at least five hours a week.

And if I miss a day, something happens. The next day I require two hours. Okay. So you stick to a plan. You have to. And you do that with food and you do it with. Yes. See, that's what's missing. I do also. For food, I do a plan. You have to. And you do that with food. And you do it with. Yes. See, that's what's crazy.

I do also. For food, I do intermittent fasting. This is my rule where I only eat for 10 hours a day. So for 14 hours a day, I don't eat at all. So whatever that cutoff is. So say if I eat my last meal, my last bite of food is at 8 p.m. I don't eat until 10 o'clock in the morning the next day. Period.

So if I get up at 7 that means for three hours I'm not eating shit. I'll work out. I'll maybe I'll ask food coffee. Yeah, I do a lot of workouts with no food That's that's cool to do. I always think oh, I'm gonna get let blood sugar and pass out. No, that's bullshit Yeah, you'd be fine. You'll be fine. It's just harder. Just it's just you don't feel good. Why are you doing it? Yeah, but if you get used to doing it, you can get used to it. Do you have coffee? Yeah. I'll have a cup of coffee.

Yeah. That helps. That helps suppress your appetite and gives you a little, a little pick me up. Yeah. And it's a psychological boost, you know, like I have a nice cup of coffee and then I'll go hit the gym. Yeah. But I definitely feel better if I have something to eat first, you know?

It's amazing how I resist structure. Of course. You're funny, man. This is, well, this is a reoccurring theme with so many of my funny friends. It is? Yeah. Crazy, impulsive, funny. But you're also the guy where if there's a group of people sitting around and they're all a bunch of fucking suits and they're all boring people, I'm going to gravitate immediately to you because you and I are going to talk real.

We're going to be silly and you're going to say some fucked up shit that I'm going to laugh at and we're going to be slapping each other in the back. That's what you do, man. But you have to manage all the other stuff. You know what the fuck it is partly with me? I swear to God, you know, I'm so anti-corporate. I'm so kind of anti-government. I don't know what this anti-authorporate. I'm so kind of anti-government. I don't know what this anti-authoritarian streak. It might have been for my

dad who was the Sicilian motherfucker, right? Any kind of constriction. Right, but stop and think about this. You're talking in a microphone that was made by a corporation. You got here. I texted you on your phone, which was made by

slave labor in China. You got here in your phone, which was made by slave labor in China. You got here in your car, which was probably constructed overseas, right? Yeah, Honda. Yeah. See, we need corporations because you and I are not going to build fucking planes, okay? Boeing is required to make sure those planes get done correctly. I just want them to do it in a way that's egalitarian and not fucking over people. But it's just like it's really convenient to put that Che Guevara t-shirt on and fuck.

I am that guy. I am that guy. Fuck society, man. I mean, it's so tempting. And your inclinations are all correct. Your heart is in the right place. Your instincts are all good. It's like you don't want people to get fucked over,

and you rightly realize that a lot of this materialism and this fucking corporate bullshit is pointless if, like you said at the beginning of this podcast, we are all going to die, and we need to face that and stop just collecting shit and instead work on having a great experience in the moment because this moment that you have right now this is all you ever have is the moment you can plan to make that moment better in the future with more discipline and

more structure and more happiness and and even more like scheduling community events and scheduling things you think military You know military guys. It's hilarious that I don't know any military guys. I know a lot. Yeah, I know a lot. Is the discipline good for them? Gigantic. Huge.

My friend Jocko, he wrote, Jocko Willink wrote a book called Discipline Equals Freedom. See, that's what I need to fucking go toward. You need to follow Jocko. Every morning at 430 in the morning, he posts a picture of his watch as he gets up to work out. What's his to follow Jocko. Every morning at 4.30 in the morning, he posts a picture of his watch as he gets up to work out. What's his name? Jocko Willink. I'll send you his Instagram after this.

But he's like a bonafide savage. Navy SEAL. And the guy's a goddamn animal. And every morning at 4.30, he works out, and then he goes and watches the sun come up on the beach. And that is his reward

that's his reward so he gives himself that and then he gets all this stuff done that he has to do during the day see the aftermath like he'll you know pictures of like his go to his actual page you see all the photos of his watch 4.32am there he's up and

you know is his heart in the right place too oh he's a good guy. Great guy. Great guy. And he spends a lot of his time right now doing these corporate seminars and, you know, explaining to people like the importance of leadership and discipline and that, you know, this is how you get things done. This is how you feel better. This is how you relieve yourself of your demons, your tension. And his concept of discipline equals freedom really resonates because if you have the discipline to get things done, then you feel like, I don't feel good unless I've accomplished the shit I need to do. But when I have accomplished the shit I need to do, then I like to kick back on the couch and watch a boxing

match or some television show that i enjoy i can enjoy it where i don't have anxiety i have fucking anxiety if i don't get things done yeah i think that's you know it's funny because you know i started the podcast talking about anxiety and and i'm thinking it's all about community and disconnection and for me it may be this just amorphous kind of days i have instead of fucking, you know, going, okay, I'm going to do this, this, and this to give me a little structure. That would probably alleviate a bunch of anxiety. It would alleviate a bunch of it. But community is important too, man.

No, I know. We fucking need each other. You know, it's one of the, like we were talking about the comedy store. And I wish everybody had something like the comedy store. You know, I used to have a pool hall that I used to go to that was like that, where I would be, everywhere I would be, I'd be like, ah, I can't wait to get back to Executive Billiards and hang out with all my friends. And it was like this freak show where it was all these weirdos and gamblers.

Where was it? White Plains, New York. Oh, okay. And all these weirdos and gamblers and strange little outcasts of society and lifelong bachelors who were in their 70s and we'd all get together and laugh and hang out until fucking 4 o'clock in the morning and then go get something to eat and you know

it was a comic but this was like a home based thing and I think the comedy store in a lot of ways is like a home deli delis yeah hey let's wrap this bitch up it's 2 o'clock already Okay

How quick was that? Just went by That was great Eddie I had a good time man I had a great time And I think I'm gonna Change my life

Change your fucking life Eddie Pepitone God damn it Follow Eddie on Twitter And you're on Instagram as well Yeah Eddie Pepitone on both of those Eddie Pep on Instagram

Eddie Pep Eddie Pepitone on Twitter of those. Eddie Pep on Instagram. Eddie Pep. Eddie Pepitone on Twitter. Eddie Pep, ladies and gentlemen. Ba-boom.