The Jordan Harbinger Show - 490: Boo's Rightful Vexation Over Frightening Fixation | Feedback Friday

Episode Date: April 2, 2021

You love jumping out of random hiding places in your house to startle your fiancée, but your fiancée does not share your enthusiasm for this "hobby" and wants you to knock it the heck off. You understand your boo's rightful vexation over this frightening fixation, but you can't seem to stop. Is this a common problem? We'll tackle this and more here on our special Day-After-April-Fool's-Day episode of Feedback Friday! And in case you didn't already know it, Jordan Harbinger (@JordanHarbinger) and Gabriel Mizrahi (@GabeMizrahi) banter and take your comments and questions for Feedback Friday right here every week! If you want us to answer your question, register your feedback, or tell your story on one of our upcoming weekly Feedback Friday episodes, drop us a line at [e-mail]. Now let's dive in! Full show notes and resources can be found here: jordanharbinger.com/490 On This Week's Feedback Friday, We Discuss: Jordan shares a story about the time he thought he was going to get arrested at the donut shop in the middle of the night. You think you might be addicted to the thrill of jumping out of random hiding places in your house to startle your fiancée, because now you can't stop (even though she really, really wants you to). Is this a "normal" problem? Do Jordan and Gabe brush their teeth and floss every day? What have been Jordan's best and worst interviews? Does he stay friends with any of them afterward? What are the strangest things Gabe and Jordan know how to do? How do Jordan and Gabe feel about psychedelics? Have any questions, comments, or stories you'd like to share with us? Drop us a line at [e-mail]! Connect with Jordan on Twitter at @JordanHarbinger and Instagram at @jordanharbinger. Connect with Gabriel on Twitter at @GabeMizrahi. Sign up for Six-Minute Networking -- our free networking and relationship development mini course -- at jordanharbinger.com/course! Like this show? Please leave us a review here -- even one sentence helps! Consider leaving your Twitter handle so we can thank you personally!See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Welcome to a special edition of Feedback Friday. I'm your host, Jordan Harbinger, and today I'm here with Feedback Friday producer, my court jester of cracking judgment, Gabriel Mizrahi. On the Jordan Harbinger show, we decode the stories, secrets, and skills are the world's most fascinating people and turn their wisdom into practical advice that you can use to impact your own life and those around you. We want to help you see the Matrix when it comes to how amazing people think and behave. And our mission is to help you become a better informed, more critical thinker, so you can get a much deeper understanding of how the world works and make sense of what's really happening even inside your own mind. If you're new to this show on Fridays, we give advice to you and

answer listener questions. The rest of the week, we have long-form interviews and conversations with a variety of amazing folks, from spies to CEOs, athletes, authors, thinkers, and performers, and if you're joining us for the first time, or you're looking for a handy way to tell your friends about the show, we now have episode starter packs, and these are collections of your favorite episodes organized by popular topics to help new listeners get a taste of everything we do here on this show. Just visit jordanharbinger.com slash start to get started. And also, in case you're wondering why I'm in my freaking pajamas, this is a special April Fool's Day edition of the Jordan Harbinger show. Technically it's coming out on April 2nd, but, you know, let's not split hairs.

Today we're taking some of the funnier questions we've gotten recently, some of the stranger ones that landed in our inbox this year and maybe late last year. These are all real questions. We're still going to be offering advice. We're just going to be having a little bit more of a laugh than usual. And if you are new to the show or you're looking for a more traditional feedback Friday, feel free to jump to another episode and give that a listen first. That's going to be a better introduction to the show if you're new versus listening to me and Gabe roast each other about how often we floss or why Gabe looks

like he's about to wearing a beanie and about to teach what a Reiki class and Silver Lake or something like that. Oh, damn. It's getting started off the top. Wow, I feel so attacked. We haven't even begun yet. I do look like that. I'm wearing my bare bottom app leather pants today. It's a different mode. You said April Fool's show. I figured they're amazing. Do you have a pair? They're so good. I do have bear bottom. Yeah, so this is a sponsor of the show. And if you go to bear bottom clothing and you use the code Jordan, so bear B-E-A-R, like the animal, bear-bottom clothing, use the code Jordan. This is, they're fans of the show. They really,

stuff is super comfortable, but it doesn't look like it's supposed to be as comfortable as it is, if that make sense? Totally. You know, because like a lot of comfortable stuff looks, it looks comfortable, right? This just is comfortable. It is comfortable. You could go to a meeting in this, and nobody would bat an eye. Do people bat eyes, or do they bat eyelids? They bet eyelids. But look, they didn't pay for this sponsor slot, so we're done. We're just kind of right here. Stop doing it. Bare bottom, you can renew if you want more. No, I do love their stuff. So thanks for sponsoring the show. On a more serious note, this week we had Frank Morasa. This guy is really something. He printed 250 million U.S. dollars in counterfeit currency, and he got away with it.

So here are this incredible tale. It's a two-parter for you here this week. I also write every so often on the blog, by the way, the latest post is about morning routines. You heard me talk about it before. I think morning routines are overrated. I think they're overrated, especially as a productivity tool. And I think for a lot of people, they work against you. So in that piece, we talk about the right way to create a morning routine.

that really serves your unique needs and interests, drawing on the latest science around all this, my interviews here on the show, and my own experience designing a routine that actually worked for me. So make sure you've had a look and a listen to everything we created for you here this week. You can reach us Friday at Jordan Harbinger.com. Please keep your emails as concise as you can. Try to include a descriptive subject line. That makes our job a whole lot easier. And if there's something you're going through any big decision you're wrestling with,

or if you just need a new perspective on stuff, so life, love, work, how to reconnect with your father in the creepy family cult you escaped. Whatever's got you staying up at night lately, hit us up Friday at Jordan Harbinger.com. We're here to help. We keep every email anonymous. So, Gabe, I remembered this old story that I hadn't thought about in years, and I wanted to tell you about it for a second to kick off here. Because, again, this is like a special edition of Feedback Friday with ridiculous questions and stories.

But back in college, a bunch of friends of mine, we were goofing around. I think it was like one of those breaks where we couldn't afford to go anywhere. we were playing Xbox, and I remember we were playing Halo a lot, like the original one that came out 20 years ago or something. And they're like, yeah, let's smoke weed and get high. And I was like, no, I don't want to do that. So they decide to just load the bong for the next three hours over and over and over. Well, we're in this one-bedroom studio apartment type situation. So the whole room is filled with smoke. And I don't really do that stuff. I certainly didn't back then. So I'm inhaling this stuff over and over. And I eventually get a little bit of a contact buzz. And I'm like, man, I'm really, really

And they're like, yeah, that'll happen. So unfortunately, the only thing that was open near my friend's place within walking distance, because none of us could drive at that point, was a donut shop. And I'm like, I don't care what it is. We got to go get something to eat. I'm dying. So we walked down to this donut shop. And every single person in there aside from us and the people that work there are cops.

Every single person. And I'm paranoid, right? Because I'm like, they can tell that we're high. Like, this is terrible. Totally. And I was more, I was, I've never been so paranoid. I've never been so sure that we're getting arrested because they're all staring at us. We're staring at them.

And my friend's like, go order a donut. I'm like, okay, okay. And I get to the front and I go, I'm like thinking to myself, I can't do it. I can't functionally order a donut right now. I just can't do it. So my friend's like, all right, I'll handle it. And he looks up at the menu and we're like squinting because our eyes are so dry and dilated. Yeah.

You're the perfect target customer for. those donuts. The perfect, the perfect target customer. And also the, I've never been more sure that I was going to jail. And the cops, they're all staring at us. And finally, like, for what takes, seems like 20 minutes was probably two seconds, right? They get our donuts and we were walking out. And as I'm going for the door, this female cop steps right in front of me. And she goes, I know what you're thinking. And I'm like, all right, this is it. I'm about to like put my hands on my head and step down on the donut shop floor. And she goes, you think that you walked into a donut shop and it's full of cops. So.

cliche, isn't it, guys? And all the cops start laughing because they're the ones who are embarrassed, right? They're the ones who are like, man, we come in here for five minutes to get a donut and some coffee at 2 o'clock in the morning. And these three guys, young guys walk in and they're staring at us because we're at the donut shop. And I'm thinking, yeah, because that's why I'm acting weird right now. That's why I'm super awkward right now. Yeah, that's why we just don't want to say anything. So I just thought this was really a funny lesson, but also a lesson nonetheless, right? Because you're so much more worried about yourself and how other people perceive you than other people really are. They're just as worried about themselves. And this is actually known as the spotlight effect. It basically refers to the

tendency that we overestimate how much people notice about us. We're all living in our own realities. We're all sort of the star of our own show here. My reality was, I was in a donut shop, worried about being busted for being a little smiz, right? And the cops were in their reality, worried about being a cliche and just getting caught in the act with their badges hanging down and everything. Same space, two totally different experiences, each of us assuming the other person had access to what we were thinking and feeling. And that has stuck with me for a while, not only because it's funny, and not only because they still have nightmares about getting arrested on the floor of a freaking happy donuts in Detroit, Michigan, or Ferndale, to be specific, but because it really,

is such a perfect illustration of the spotlight effect. Yeah, I like that a lot. That's a great illustration of it. Also, every person's first time being high experience is always hilarious, right? It's always weird. It's always awkward. There's always some bizarre thing that you did or said or thought about when it happened. I love it. That's a great one. All right, we've got some really fun ones and some ridiculous ones and some even more ridiculous ones. So let's get to it. What's the first thing out of the mailbag? Hey, Jordan and Gabe. My fiance and I have been together for two years. We recently bought a house together and are waiting for the pandemic to round the corner so we can tie the knot. The thing is, I have a problem.

Whenever I'm alone in a room and I know that my fiancé is going to return, I'll arrange the bed so that it looks like I'm under the covers, I'll hide in the closet, and then I'll jump out and intentionally startle her. I'll also sometimes hide under the covers and spread out so it looks like I'm not in bed, then wait till she comes into the bedroom and startle her that way. Very occasionally, I'll hide in the closet in the hall, wait until she walks by and start talking to her from inside the closet. The end result is me laughing uncontrollably with glee and delight, and I find it super fun.

She does not share the laughter and does not find this amusing. She's asked me repeatedly to stop and says she doesn't like being scared in the house. I finally admitted today that I have a problem as I find it hilarious and cannot stop this game. But I see no other way to channel my sneakiness in normal society. Am I in the wrong here? Should I stop? Signed, Scare her straight or placate my mate. I got to admit, Gabe, I was laughing when I first read this one because this is definitely

one of the more unusual relationship problems that we've heard on the show. Usually it's like, I cheated and I want her back, or we're doing long distance, and I think I'm in love with my Peloton instructor. What do I do? But this one is very different. This is two people who seem to have a good relationship, aside for the fact that this guy can't stop acting like their whole apartment is not scary farm and every day is Halloween. Yeah.

I can just picture one of those TikTok compilations of this guy scaring his wife in every room of their house. Right. Like the couples prank each other with those all like all those staged things, except this is real and it's about to cause like a serious rift in the relationship. It's like those early YouTube super cuts from like the 2000s. So look, you said you had a problem and that got me curious because we know there's such a thing as addiction to fear. And there are people who are obsessed with haunted houses and horror movies and Ouija boards. And there have been a lot of articles coming out during the pandemic about how being afraid of the world, how that can actually become addictive.

and how sometimes that addiction is scarier than coronavirus, for example, itself. And we can definitely get addicted to thought patterns and emotional responses. I think that's probably what happens with adrenaline junkies, people who have obsessive thoughts or compulsive behaviors, stuff like that. But is there such a thing as an addiction to creating fear? Can you be addicted to scaring other people to being kind of a low-key sadist? And I don't mean sadist in the way we often hear about it, usually in some sexual context.

I'm talking about a more general kind of sadism where somebody derives pleasure from inflicting something unpleasant on someone else. Well, we looked into it, and there isn't much in the literature about this one, but there was one interesting studies some years back that made the case for what researchers called everyday sadism, or a kind of sadism that average people seem to enjoy, not just narcissists and psychopaths. And then there's this forensic psychologist. His name is Jason Davies. He's a sadism researcher, which apparently is a real job, a journalist asked him if this impulse to inflict pain on someone else, if that's a manifestation of something more malevolent. And his answer was interesting. He basically said that it ultimately comes down to intent, of course, right? According to him,

something is sadistic if the individual is motivated by dominance or achieving pleasure at the expense of other people. That's how he put it. So to get back to your question, I think the key is really your motivation here, your intent. When you scare your fiancé, why are you actually doing it? I know you said you find it super fun and that it's a way to channel your sneakiness, but what I want to know is why it's fun, why you feel that impulse towards sneakiness in the first place, and I don't mean to suck all the fun out of this.

I'm sure there's an aspect to your pranking that's actually really playful and sweet, but it's worth exploring a little. When you scare your fiancé, what feeling are you left with? Do you enjoy feeling more powerful than she is? Do you enjoy watching her suffer, even if her suffering is relatively minor? Does it make you feel like you're kind of the big dog in the house, like she's more susceptible than you, maybe more fragile? Does it make you feel less scared because you're the one who creates fear in the house,

so you're less likely to feel it yourself? If the answer is yes to any of those questions, even a little bit, then I think your fiancé absolutely has a reason to be upset, and you should stop. That would mean there's more to this game than just some harmless fun, and you need to explore your motivations here a little bit more. Yes, I agree 100%. But even if you realize that you're not trying to, I don't know, assert your dominance in the house or derive any real pleasure from any of this, the fact that she's not enjoying this, the fact that she's asked you repeatedly to stop. I think that should probably be enough for you to stop, right? She's just not into it. If you want to have a relationship where

you take each other's feeling seriously, you listen to each other, then I would listen to her and respect that. Even if it seems trivial, even if you both know that it's no harm, no foul, I do think that stuff matters. Because look, if you were doing this a few times a year or even once a month, and it was just this annoying, quirky, practical joke you guys kind of have in the house, that would be a different story. But if she can't even grab a friggin Luna bar from the pantry without you popping out and scaring her half to death, you know, I do think that's kind of something else. And if you absolutely refuse to stop just because you're having fun, then it's probably pretty hurtful to her too, I imagine. Agreed. I think if I did this in our house, Jen would laugh the first few

times, then it would start to get kind of weird, a little bit cringy. But I also don't really get off on scaring other people. It's just not something I'm into. I'd make the worst employee at a haunted house. I'd probably be apologizing to everyone after I jumped out at them. I'd be fired on the first day. Or if somebody looked really scared already, I would just be like, eh, maybe not right now. Give them a pass, yeah. So that's our take. I know we probably overanalyze this quirk of yours to death, but I do think there's something deeper going on here. I'd find out what that is, maybe even talk to your fiance about it. Explain why you enjoy scaring her. Let her explain to you why she doesn't enjoy being scared by you. Try to understand where she's coming from so you can empathize with

her experience a little bit more. And bottom line here, if she's asking you to stop turning your house into a West Craven movie, I'd give it a rest. Nobody needs that kind of stress. And if you spare her all these stressful adrenaline dumps, you get to be married to her longer as well, which I think we can all agree is probably the right trade-off. All right. What's next? Hey, Jordan. Do you always brush your teeth? If so, how many times a day?

Signed, four out of five dentists recommend this email. So this is an interesting question. And I got this more than once, which is even more bizarre. The answer is, yeah, I pretty much brush every day. Whenever I don't want to brush my teeth before I go to bed, and I'm not even kidding here, I do think, what if somebody who listens to the show knows that I didn't do that? And then I brush my teeth. I hold myself to the standard of the invisible.

listener who can't possibly smell my disgusting breath at any point in time. But then there are also plenty of nights where I think, I want people to know that I don't always brush my teeth because I know other people failed too. That guy who wrote in on Feedback Friday who didn't get the raise and feels bad about it. He needs to know that everyone's human. So maybe me skipping this round of brushing is for him. So it is unhealthy to hold yourself to these crazy high standards. And I think it's fair to not hold myself to these self-imposed consequences every now and again as well. I do floss much more than I did when I was younger though every single day to be exact except when I don't. Gabe, what about you? How many times you're scrubbing those things?

Three to four times a day, maybe. Are you kidding? No. Wow, great. Well, that explains why your teeth are so white. I sound like a total miscreant at this point. No, to each his own. I'm kind of obsessed with oral hygiene. I genuinely enjoy doing it. Like, it's not a chore. I look forward to it. I'm like, oh, it's been a few hours. I get to go do that again. So, I'm a little bit. I realize that it's borderline OCD, but I don't know, just from a young age, I was just really into it. Do you go to the dentist like twice a year? Of course. I go more than that. I actually go three to four times a year and I get the cleaning. Yes, it costs extra. I don't

have dental insurance because I don't need it. I've really good teeth and I go to the dentist four times a year and I just pay in advance for the whole year. So they cut me like a 50% off deal kind of thing or whatever, something off deal. And I get it cleaning every single time, and it's awesome. So I feel like, and I've been cavity-free since doing that. It's been years. I think I had one or two old-ass cavities that needed to get drilled out, but nothing new. That's awesome.

I, too, go to the dentist three times a year, usually. I would love to go four, but I'm not living that kind of life yet. I just do it every four months. And I genuinely love going to the dentist. Like, it's one of my favorite places. Like, when I see it on the calendar and there's a little reminder a week ahead, I'm like, oh, I can't wait to get there. That's weird.

It's like a massage in your mouth. I've discovered that it's weird because nobody else seems to enjoy it. But I don't know. I don't understand. If you brush your teeth and take care of your teeth and you floss, another thing I love doing. Going to the dentist is like, it's like a reward. Like they look in your mouth. They give you compliments.

You feel very validated. Like, I love that place. One of my favorite places. It reminds me that scene in American Psycho where he's getting the skin, the facial. And they're like, you have very nice skin, Mr. Bateman. Or whatever his name is, right? And he's because he uses all those creams. That's you at the dentist.

That's 100% me, and I wish you didn't call that out, but that's exactly what it's like. I'm basically Patrick Bateman. Right, yeah. Inside my mouth. Cool, cool, cool. Yeah. Great, great, great. Yeah, look, and people right now are going, what the hell of these guys talking about?

And I will say, I warned you at the top of the show. This is a weird episode of the Jordan Harbinger show. And if you're new to the show, this is not representative of what this show is normally like. We normally don't talk about this at all. You know what I need, Gabe? I need one of those, you know, alligators when they open their mouth and a bird goes in there and just like picks out all the stuff that's stuck in their teeth.

I need one of those. No. You've never seen this? No, I've never heard of this. Google bird cleaning alligator teeth, I guess. And it's like, alligators will just go up to the riverbank and open their jaw completely wide open to, I think, cool down, or for other reasons. But these birds land in their mouth.

And everyone's like, why don't they eat the bird? And the reason is the bird is cleaning their teeth. And they've sort of evolved to just put up with this bird pecking at their gum line. Oh, my God. I'm looking at the photos now. that's amazing. So isn't this basically a dental hygienist? Yeah, but I just kind of want to be like chilling watching Netflix and just be like, ah, and then like some little tiny nano robot is just grinding away all the plaque that I have from eating a bag of Cheetos on a Saturday. That's amazing.

It's kind of like sort of like the fish that eat stuff off your feet in China, right? I think that one is BS. I feel like they don't do anything. I feel like it's just you think they're doing something, but I just think it's complete BS. I don't think they're doing anything. You're listening to Feedback Friday here on the Jordan Harbinger show. We'll be right back. And now back to Feedback Friday on the Jordan Harbinger show. Anyway, what else do we have that might be anything that's more interesting than our dental hygiene regimes? Hey, Jordan.

I've always wanted to ask you, what has been your worst guest experience? Who's been the best? You don't have to name names, but I'm curious about the highs and lows of your interviews. Also, do you stay friends with any of your guests after you interview them? find, give me the goss. So there are a lot of people who have done different embarrassing slash not cool things on the show, myself included, of course. Usually I just find it funny, but in a few cases it did stand out. So here are a few that come to mind. And I'm not going to mention names on the negative stuff because I don't want other guests or potential guests to think,

like, uh-oh, is this going to end up on an April Fool's Feedback Friday episode? So there's a time that I heard one guest. We finished an interview. He's like a cranky, He kind of aggressive, older guy, and he was in the Philippines at some studio doing it. And we wrapped the interview, and it was on Skype. He wasn't controlling Skype. One of his assistants was, and again, he's in the Philippines. And so I left Skype on. I'm saving my files.

I'm like making sure everything uploads and records properly and all this stuff. And I just hadn't hit the hang up button because I don't really need to right away. So he thought we stopped streaming. And at the end, he's getting ready and he gets off his stool and he stands. up and he goes, y'all hear that? You lazy Filipino bastards, listen up and do this right now. All you guys should do it, you lazy Filipino bastards.

And he was in the Philippines, in a studio with a Filipino crew all around him. And I just thought, this is wild. It was just so blatant. And my wife, Jen, she heard it. And she goes, I can't believe that that just happened. Wow. And she goes, you know, you should probably delete the video

just because otherwise you're going to be so tempted to do something with that or you're going to show somebody else and that's going to get out or you're going to share it with somebody because it's so unbelievable. So if you don't believe me on this one, ask Jen, she remembers it to this day. I think she was the one who suggested that we share this one as an answer to this question. Wow. But we got rid of that. I always delete incriminating stuff after the show is over because I don't want to even, I don't even want to like lose my laptop and someone else finds it or it's on the cloud and someone hacks my stuff and now this video out there because second story when I interviewed a very well-known right-wing political operative one time.

I got a lot of shit for it, but whatever. At the end of the interview, who was set up by his assistant, the camera, I guess, computer was probably like in his bedroom or one of his guest rooms. The camera was left on because his assistant had left during the interview. So the guy takes off his suit, gets up. And I'm not noticing, I'm not like watching all of this in slow motion, right? I'm saving my files, I'm making sure the audio processes correctly. But I saw this later on because I saw the end of the video and I was like, whoa, how did this happen? Let me rewind.

Just to be clear, I'm not sitting here watching this guy do it. So he leaves the camera on. I go to the bathroom. I come back. Skype is still going from his room or this guest room, takes off the suit, drops his pants, picks up some, you know, basketball shorts, whatever. And I'm like, oh gosh, I'm so embarrassed. I probably shouldn't be watching this.

But before I'm even able to turn this off, right, I look at it. And he sits on the bed and he starts rolling up a big fat ass joint. Oh, okay. I'm like, all right, there's a non-zero chance this video is going to be worth like $100,000 at some point, right? Which is, again, the reason why I deleted it because I'm like, Jen, you have to see this. And I think at the time I had my other producer, producer also named Jason, and he saw the end of the video and he's like, you have to keep this.

You have to sell this. because the guy is all over the news, and he's been all over the news for a long time. I'm not that guy, though. I deleted it. I just remember that as a very, very funny episode of the show because now I think he talks about marijuana and legalization and things like that,

but this is a guy who's worked with presidents and always, always, always on the right, and he just sits on the bed, you know, takes off his fancy suit, sits on the bed with his boxers on or whatever and rolls up a fatty. And I just couldn't believe what I was seeing. is definitely not a cigarette.

Do you think there's any part of him that wanted you to see it? No, I think he's just an older dude that had no idea that Skype doesn't hang up automatically. Okay. Like, he's not used to having a webcam on his screen on his MacBook Pro or whatever it was. You know, so he was just like, all right, bye, and then he just got up, probably rightfully expecting me to have hung up at that point. And, you know, I go to the bathroom, come back and I'm like, oh, there's a, there he is, You know, basically half naked and rolling up a J.

Another one, when I was interviewing Kobe Bryant, as you can tell, I dropped the name, so he was not the guy who did the thing here before you get upset. I was interviewing Kobe Bryant, and if you heard the episode on my podcast and then you maybe later on watched it on YouTube, you might be going, huh, why is only half the interview on video or why is the length so different on YouTube? that's because my videographer at the time, who only worked with me one time, was an absolute knob. Before the interview, we get there super early. We set up everything.

He goes, hey, I have to use the restroom. I go, come back in like two seconds because Kobe could be here any second. He was already like 15 minutes late. My videographer leaves, goes to the bathroom, never comes back, right? I shouldn't say never. It takes something like 18 minutes. and I'm looking at my photographer, who I also thankfully had there as crew, and he's frantically taking photos and turned on the camera, and he runs out and goes out and looks for him, and he goes to

the bathroom, and he's like, what are you doing? And the guy's like, oh, man, I thought you guys would call me when he showed up. And I'm like, what are we, your mom? Why would I call you? You know, you're already at call time. Like, I thought you were going to go to the bathroom and come right back. So he misses everything. He had never turned on the cameras after he framed the shots. He just went to the bathroom, figured we would have all this time to get the shot. shooting started and we're driving back and I had already flown these guys down put them up in a hotel in the area in Orange County so the night before bought them all food so that nobody would have to commute drive fly or be late at all and this guy we get there two hours early and this guy somehow

ends up missing half the interview unfriken believable we're driving back to go get lunch because at that point I'm not I'm not like the kind of guy who explodes on somebody in the moment I'm like okay let it go, never hire him again, total idiot, loser, whatever. Right. In the car, I'm sitting with a photographer, he's steaming mad. He's more mad than me. I don't really know why, but he's more mad than me. I think he was a huge Kobe fan and was just like, what the hell?

Luckily, I controlled the audio. I'm a control freak with the audio, so I was controlling the audio. He had volunteered to control the audio. Thank goodness he didn't, and that I took control of that because I didn't trust him with it, and rightfully so. In the car, he goes, so, um, that was a mess, huh? Are we cool? My photographer puts his hand on my shoulder

because he saw me like stiffen up and like inflate. And I go, no, no we're not. We'll talk about it later. It was the most awkward thing I've ever had to say because I wanted, if he weren't driving, I think he would have flown straight out the passenger side window,

but he was in the driver's seat. Then we go eat and this guy like houses a giant meatball sandwich and he's like eating all this disgusting food. Me and my photographer were so angry that we have like half of our stuff and we're like, all right, let's get out of here and go to the airport.

His boss, this videographer, because he was a freelancer who worked for a company kind of deal, his boss calls me and says, oh, you know, I'm so sorry. I heard what happened, but, you know, he was sick, and he didn't say anything. And I'm so sorry, we're willing to make it up to you. We'll do it for free next time, the next two times.

You know, I'll send a crew for free. I'm like, I will never let you near my business again. Also, the dude wasn't sick. He had a giant hoagie. at lunch minutes after screwing up one of the biggest interviews of my career at the time. And she's like, oh, because his excuse was, I was sick the whole time. I was sick the night before. I didn't want to cancel on the client. I had an emergency. Just a total BS lie. And, you know, the part of this that's my fault is hiring somebody new to add to the team for something

this big. But this guy came vouched for from other people. The company he worked for was legit. I didn't have another option because my regular guy was like out of town. I brought my photographer and I'd had the audio under control. So I figured, okay, I can risk it. What did the odds he screws it up? Well, apparently they were pretty good. Wow, that's so frustrating. It must have been hard to do the interview knowing that you were missing the video. It was. So people ask me a lot of the time, do I get nervous? I don't get nervous when I'm sitting in front of a superstar because they're a superstar. I get nervous going, please tell me that the cameras are freaking working. Please tell me the audio's working properly.

Right. Especially if I don't have like, Jen there. Jen, we just had the baby. So she's like, I can't fly to OC with you. Right. And control this and manage this. You have to go alone. Yeah.

And that's the interview of a lifetime. Like, you don't want to mess that up or miss the opportunity. Yeah. It really was. So thankfully, we have the audio and we have like half of the video interview, but it was beyond frustrating. That's why the YouTube version of the interview is kind of like an abrupt start and short. It was a full 50 minute interview or something like that.

And I think we got. got like 30 minutes of it on YouTube after editing. It was beyond frustrating. And it kind of made me sad for this guy in a way. I know that I should be thinking about, you know, the audience in the show and I was. But it made me sad because I just thought, this is a guy that's almost like so hopelessly stupid and inept and incompetent that I don't know how much you can come back. This guy wasn't that young. It wasn't like a 20 year old who's like, oh, I thought you would come get me.

And you go, look, man, you're a child that's not how this works. this is a full grown-as 30-plus-year-old guy who just was just kind of a, I never use this word, but he was just kind of a loser, you know? Wow, yeah. He just turned out to be a guy who had no sense. That's a whole other level of incompetent where you can't even get mad at them because they're so incompetent. That's how I felt about it.

When he's like, are we cool? I was like, no, but I was like, why am I going to get mad at you? It's not going to, like, I have no responsibility to get you to improve in this area. And while I love helping people, and if it was a guy, who had normally done all this good work and he made a big mistake, I would either let it go or I would go, here's what you need to do to improve and I'm mad at you, but I'll get over it. This was one of those, I'm not even going to expend the energy getting mad at you because I will get so mad. And also, I just don't care if you do well in the future in this career because you're in,

it's not, I'm so annoyed right now that I'm not even going to bother to invest anger in you, if that makes sense. That kind of makes me feel bad saying that out loud. because everyone deserves a break, but for this, I just went, you're not even worth the energy getting mad at. Like, I just don't want to see your mug again. That's it. Just drop me off at the airport and never want to talk to you again. That was kind of how that ended.

And it makes me feel a little bit guilty saying even that. Because, again, you know, I'm sure he felt bad about it too, but what a piece. Another story that I've got that's maybe a little bit funnier. Dennis Rodman, and I can mention this because it's on video and he said he didn't care. Dennis Rodman, during that interview, if you look at the YouTube version of the video, He was getting some sort of IV drip during the show is really annoying because the nurse kept walking in every five minutes into my damn shot to like check on something so that she could justify her paycheck. It's a freaking vitamin IV drip. You know, you don't need to keep checking it.

But he was doing using something called NAD, which is anti-aging something. I think it's a little bit pseudosciencey. But NAD makes you feel really sick if you turn it up too high. That's why it's a drip. So he kept getting really sick. He kept turning it up, like, yeah, I want more and more of that. And he's kind of maybe got a little bit of an addictive personality when it comes to stuff. You know, he's intense.

He's an NBA star. So he kept turning it up and wanting it turned up. But then he wasn't able to function. He's already kind of tough to understand when he's talking. So I told the nurse to turn it down so he could function. And as he turned it down, he started to get more and more animated. And that's why as the interview goes on, he's a little bit more receptive and responsive. And at the end of the interview, he's like, hey, man, this is a good interview.

You know, you're really not judgmental. You're really well prepared or whatever he said. And then he goes, you know what? I'm going to do DMT, which is like a psychedelic for those of you who don't know. He goes, I'm going to do DMT with Mike Tyson. Y'all should come and do it with us. So Dennis Rodman invited me and a bunch of other people in the crew to go to Mike Tyson's ranch and do DMT after doing it.

a bunch of IV drip vitamins during the interview on camera. It was the, that was one of the weirdest experiences that I've had. Did you take them up on it? So what happened was a lot of appointments got made and canceled. They're still planning on doing it, but there's, there's all this COVID stuff. And also, Dennis Rodman is sober. So a lot of the folks who were there were like, he won't ever really do it, but he wants to go with you and a couple other folks. And you guys can do it, because Mike Tyson's definitely going to do it. So who knows if it'll ever happen. But it's kind of one of those, like, are you going to say no to DMT with Mike Tyson? It's kind of going to be a once in a lifetime story. Or we get killed doing it somehow because you're with Mike Tyson and he's like,

you're a demon and then punches your skull in. I don't know. It's anything could happen. Maybe I shouldn't. Further, Millie, who does our transcripts, she lives in the Philippines. Her English is great, but it's their second language, right, or her third or whatever. So she was doing the transcripts and she was kind of new at this point, not new, new, but newish. And she goes, so I, I, I had some trouble with the Dennis Rodman transcript because, one, he's hard to understand. Two, he was doing this NAD IV drip and mumbling even more than usual. So we're going, all right, just show us what you got and we'll fill in the rest. Bob or a show notes guy will fill in the rest.

It was like one in ten words. It was like this unknown, unknown, unknown, unknown, dude, unknown, unknown, unknown. And I'm like, hey, Bob, can you just handle this one by yourself? Because it was impossible. Even when I was listening to it again, after it was edited, I went, if you're not somebody who understands English natively and you have experience with people who talk in this particular vernacular, I guarantee you half of America could not understand what he said in that interview. There was no way. The transcription software that we used to do like the machine version of it, it was a total mess. We literally had to do that manually word for word. I've never had to do that in an interview before. Those are some of the weirder stories. There have been some really positive moments. as well with Howie Mandel when we went to go interview him at the end of the show. First of all, he gave us a tour of his office. Let us see all these collectibles. We spent like two and a half hours looking around at stuff setting up, him telling us stories and everything on camera, off camera,

on air, off air, off air. And then at the end of the show, he goes, hey, I know you guys said you watched the show. Did you catch yesterday's golden buzzer moment or whatever, which is a thing in America's Got Talent where they can like automatically award somebody a ticket to the finals? And I said no. And he's the one who would hit the golden buzzer and he goes, oh, you got to see it. So he sits us down on the couch and has them set up a giant TV with the episode from the night before. And we're watching America's Got Talent with Howie Mandel doing like direct, is it called director's commentary, Gabriel or producer commentary where like you watch a movie and the director goes, yeah, this scene was impossible to get the light incorrect. Yes. Yeah. Yeah, totally. So we did one of those with America's Got Talent

with Howie Mandel telling us kind of beginning to end all the things that were going through his mind. and like what he really thought of each of the acts and how things work and how they do this and this and the other thing. It was so surreal because that's a show that's hugely popular. Everyone's seen it. And to get director commentary, so to speak,

from one of the judges, I don't think you could buy that experience. I mean, I don't know anybody that's done anything like that. And it was just because Howie Mandel is a super, super nice, friendly, genuine guy who loves people. And I love that. It's one of my favorite moments

That's dope. Of the show. I love that. Yeah. Also very cool with America's Got Talent because it's so highly produced. It's so well produced. You actually can't really tell

how it all comes together. Damn, that's dope. I love that. Really, really cool. And, you know, watching that show in itself is sort of inspirational. I can't remember who got the golden buzzer that night,

but I remember that experience really, really well. Another one, and I'll leave out of stories after this and we'll go on to the next question here. But going to Darren Brown's house in the UK, Darren Brown is kind of a, he's a famous illusionist. He's kind of like the David Blaine of the UK. So he does all these mind tricks and illusions, and he's really, really, really impressed.

I mean, he's an amazing, amazing performer. So we went to his house, and it's like a two-story house, and it's a very little tiny, it looks tiny from the outside, because everything in London looks tiny from the outside. And we're looking for it. It's kind of hidden. And then you hit this buzzer, and then you walk past these bushes, and there's the house there, and then he lets you in,

and, like, you walk in, and there's a skeleton in the corner in a glass case, and then there's a stuffed giraffe head from an African safari from 150 years ago or something like that, like sticking out of the wall and goes all the way up to the ceiling. There's all this wooden furniture and, like a stuffed monkey, like a real one in the corner. I mean, it's just, it's like a Sherlock Holmes Laboratory scenario, and he has a whiskey bar with a ton of different whiskey's and all these hand-painted portraits that he does that are amazing. And there's a wax body that looks super real that he used in one of his shows called The Push. And the body is sitting in a wheelchair reading. And it looks like an old man reading in the corner, but it's a, you know,

$60,000 Hollywood made body that looks so real that even if you were holding it, you would think, holy crap, this is a dead guy, right? It weighs the same. The skin feels similar. It's a little rubbery, but you're not sure because it's a dead person, unless you handle a lot of dead people, you don't know. So this old guy, this old fake dead rubber guy is sitting in the corner reading. It's really, really impressive. So he shows us the whole house. We set up everything. We do the interview. He's the nicest guy in the world. I mean, I love Darren Brown, just a wonderful human, a really, really cool guy. And I'm leaving and he goes, well, all right, you're satisfied with everything. And I go, well, there's just one thing that I find slightly disappointing.

And he's like, oh, what? You know, he's thinking, great. I give you three and a half hours of my time. in an afternoon, you're freaking disappointed, you prick. And he gives me this look, and I go, you know, I thought you would have at least one secret passage. I mean, you have whiskey and hand-painted portraits, and you've got a giraffe, and you've got a skeleton, you've got a body, and you're in a freaking illusionist, you know, world famous, you don't have one stinking secret passage. And he goes, all right, take off your coat. And I'm like, yes! And I literally yell, like, yes, I knew it. And Jen starts giggling, because Jen, of course, is with me, and she also loves Darren Brown. And we, I don't want to give this away because although I think he moved,

I think, you know, it's a secret room that's also for his safety. So he shows us how he gets into his secret room and how he gets into his secret passageways and what's in the secret room and all the devices and cool stuff that he's got in his house. And he has actually, has a huge movie theater, like a private theater in there, along with a bunch of other rooms. it's almost like an entire secret area of the house. I was blown away. It was one of the coolest things I've ever seen. I wanted to buy the house.

I was like, how much is this house? It was so freaking cool. And he says, look, man, not many people know about this. So seriously, like don't post it on social media or anything like that. I think I'm allowed to talk about it now because he's moved. It was years ago and also I'm not giving away any detailed details. But it was one of the coolest things I've ever seen. And sort of on top of one of the other coolest things that I've done,

just meet an amazing world famous performer and hang out in their house and see all their cool stuff. So do you stay friends with guests after you interview them? Yes, I do sometimes. A lot of times it's with people you wouldn't expect. So Anthony Ramondi, the mob enforcer, he sends me videos and calls and text me. A lot of the ex-mafia guys are like, hey, let us know when you're in town and we'll do dinner and I'll text them or email them and they're like, yeah, let's meet at this Italian restaurant. And of course, they walk in and everyone knows them there. A lot of the FBI guys I'm in touch with a lot of them. I keep in touch via email with Darren Brown. He invited me to one of his shows in New York. I use the six-minute networking stuff that I teach here on the show to keep in touch

with a lot of these folks. And, you know, Adam Grant and I are friends. There's a lot of folks on the show that I'm in regular touch with over the years. Over time, a lot of guests become closer friends over time. I would say that happens three or four times a year. You're keeping in touch with people for five years. That's how relationships develop, right? It doesn't, doesn't happen right after the show. They're not like, you're so cool, we should hang out. Occasionally that happens, it's rare. Or they have a great time on the show. They come out with two more books. We end up talking for hours on the show. But it's not really always the people you might expect. I don't go to Austin and hang out with Matthew McConaughey. Kobe Bryant didn't invite me to catch a

basketball game. And I get it. Those guys do a ton of media. We don't have a hell of a lot in common. But I find that people who rarely do media, these are the folks who have never gotten to tell their story. So for some of them, it's a more unique experience for them. And those are the ones that I tend to stay in touch with. That was a super long answer. So let's go to the next one, Gabe. This is The Jordan Harbinger Show, and this is Feedback Friday. We'll be right back.

Thanks for listening and supporting the show. Your support of our advertisers keeps us going. Who doesn't love some good products and or services? You can always visit Jordan Harbinger.com slash deals for all the details on everybody that helps support the show. And now for the conclusion of Feedback Friday. What else we got? Hey Jordan and Gabe. You guys seem to have a lot of unusual skills. What's the weirdest talent you have? What's the strangest thing you know how to do? Signed, Jack of All Trades. Gabe, why don't you go first? I don't know if I have any weird talents the way Jordan is good at like hacking into stuff and all the weird stories he tells about his childhood. But I guess one thing I'm kind of good at is eavesdropping. I mean, it's funny. I get really annoyed when people talk too loud in public. But another part of me kind of love.

listening in on people's conversations and sometimes, okay, look, it's a little weird. It's, it's pretty creepy, I'm not going to lie, but I love parsing and transcribing people's speech. Like if I'm at Coffee Bean and two people are having a weird conversation or even if they're not, but they speak in a really interesting or idiosyncratic way, I will, I will write down what they're saying word for word in my phone with all of the pauses and the stumbles and the repeated words and the commas and all of that. And then I'll look back on the transcript later that night or even weeks or months later and I'll even text it sometimes to my sister and we'll laugh about it and I'll just enjoy the conversation all over again. It's weird. I don't know. Is that a talent or is

that just a weird obsession? I think it's probably more of a weird obsession. Huh. Interesting. Do you think you do it because you're a writer and it's part of like you're writing screenplays. So if somebody's doing something funky or quirky with their speech, it's kind of maybe that's interesting for that reason. That's my justification. Okay. Fair. It has helped me become a better writer, but I also feel like it's kind of a cover. Like, I just enjoy it a little too much and I need an excuse. But yeah, it does help to study people's speech patterns and figure out what makes a character a character. But it also is just a reason for me to listen to some, you know, a couple ladies at the gym talking about their grandsons or whatever. So that's my thing. What's your thing? What's your talent?

You know, you're also pretty good. You come up, people don't know this maybe. You come up with all the sign-offs for all the letters on the show. Oh, that's such a better one. That's a very charitable talent that you just gave me. Yeah, I think it's really good. I'm terrible at that stuff. I mean, you're talking to a guy who named his own show, the Jordan Harbinger show. It doesn't get less creative than that. Yeah, I don't know if that's something to brag about, but I am happy to say that I do the sign-house for the show. And it's fun. I like doing that. So my weirdest talent, I think one is I can wiggle my ears. And if you ever meet me in person, I probably will refuse to do it. But it depends. I don't know. If I have enough white claw, maybe then I can't stop doing it. I don't

know, I can wiggle my ears, but seriously, I think probably my weirdest, possibly most useful talent, weird talent anyway, is getting into places that I'm not supposed to be in. And by way of example, there's a ton of examples throughout the years, but by way of example, there was a time when I was in L.A. with a friend over a decade ago. This is well before I moved to L.A. I live in San Jose now, Silicon Valley. So I lived in New York. We went to L.A. on some trip. We went to this lame self-help workshop. And in the middle of it, we kind of left because my friend was like, dude, this is so stupid. We're in L.A. Let's go have fun. Let's do something. And he's like, let's go to a club. We're in Hollywood right now. Let's go to a club. I didn't even know where we were.

So I thought, all right, great. We walk up to a club. The line was around the block. And there was just no way we were getting in. There was no way we were getting. It was probably 10 p.m. There's no chance. I went to the front of the line. And I told one of the Bouncers who is controlling the line. I said, hey, it's Jordan Harbinger. I'm from electronic, this is before I started the show in fairness. It's Jordan Harbinger. I'm from electronic scene magazine. Our flight was late. We just got in. We're really sorry. We're late. And he's like, okay, whatever. So he goes, talk to the ticket person. I don't know anything about this. So I do the same thing with the ticket taker or the ticket salesperson in the box.

And she didn't know. And I said, well, let me talk to the manager. Is Mike here? And she's like, you mean the GM? I was like, oh, okay, that was pretty fortunate, right? I mention that I need to get in and do this write-up. We're late. I'm super tired. I'm super jet-lagged. I'm really sorry. We're late.

So she goes and gets the manager because she's like, I can't just let you in, man. This is like a full sold-out show with whatever big-name DJ. I can't remember at the time. So she goes and gets one of the managers. He doesn't want anything to do with it. He goes and gets the GM who takes a while to get there. And he's like, man, I can't let you in. I'm sorry, but this is a sold-out show.

I can't just let you in. We're letting people in slowly if you just want to get in line. I go, no problem at all. Tell me your name because I need to tell my editor why I couldn't do the piece, but I am happy because I'm just going to go to my hotel and crash. And he's like, ooh, hold on a second because if you're going to mention my name is the reason you didn't get in, maybe the owner of the venue is going to be pretty pissed off, right? And that was my exact thoughts behind asking for his name.

Nobody wants accountability. Everyone will say no until maybe they're going to have consequences from there. So I wanted to create invisible imaginary potential consequences for this. And I feel bad about this now because I actually used to go to that venue all the time when I lived in L.A. and I was very good friends after a while with the GM that I essentially had scammed. And this is in my 20s, right? So we had a good laugh about this later. That's my disclaimer. I don't condone this behavior at all anymore. But he finally is like, all right, fine, come on in. Let me get you a beer and you guys enjoy the show and do whatever you need to do.

And I go, great. Okay, thanks for everything. How do we get backstage? And he's like, backstage? I go, yeah, of course. I need to be near the talent. I want to make sure that I can write everything up. I need to put my pad down on something.

I can't be like with all these kids bumping around. And, you know, I'm getting old. I need to sit down. I'm probably 27 at this point, 28, whatever. He's like, okay. So he walks us past all these security guys to backstage. And he goes, I have to go. I'm running a full bar.

This is crazy. But here, enjoy. is this good? Are we good? I said, yes, thank you. I walk up to the security guy, the head of security. Remember, I used to work at bars and clubs, so I know who to look for in security teams. I walk up and I go, hey, how do I get to the restroom, the bar, and back? Do I need a wristband, or are you going to remember me? And he goes, no, I'm not going to remember you. I'm the head of security. And I go, what do I do? Do I grab a wristband from one of your guys? Because I need to be able to kind of like go back and get back and forth so I can do my article. And he goes, no, you need a

wristband, hold on a second. So he grabs wristbands from his pocket and puts the same wristbands on that all the servers have, the bartender has that all of his security guys have. Now, there are VIP wristbands, but then there are staff wristbands, and these are different. These are basically you can go anywhere with this. And he just thought, all right, these are journalists, you know, what are they going to do? They're not going to go mess with the lighting. You know, they just need to be back here. These are the wristbands I have in my pocket. So he puts these on us, and we ask to see the DJ area. And I go, hey, look, I don't want to get in the talents. way, but can I see the DJ area and get a couple snaps on my brand new iPhone, which nobody,

at this point, almost nobody had iPhones, so he was blown away. This is probably 2008. So he was like, wow. And I'm like, yeah, I just need to get a couple picks in the dark on an iPhone one. You know, not great, but whatever. He's like, okay, fine, just don't bother the talent. And then he says, there's some seating over there on the other side of the DJ booth if you want. So me and my buddy go to the DJ area and I noticed that on stage, I mean literally on the stage, there's a DJ booth, a DJ dancers, and for some reason that I still don't understand to this day, there is a couch, the three-seat couch, no clue why. So my buddy and I go on the stage, wave to the DJ, and sit down on a couch, looking out at like 2,000 people in this packed venue,

while the DJ booth is right next to us, and I'm drinking a free beer on stage. I look at my watch, and I turn to my buddy, and I go, it took us 42 minutes from being out on the street to being inside the club, on stage, sitting on a couch, drinking a free beer. The line alone is an hour in 42 minutes. Forget 42 minutes.

And then you're inside with nothing. So that was one of my sort of, like, trophy moments. And again, I don't condone this behavior because now I look at it and I go, You know, it's kind of a crappy thing to do. I've done this kind of thing in ways that are less entertaining, you know, getting a flight upgrade, eliciting information from people on LinkedIn. I actually gave a whole talk about that where I, I guess the technical word is tricked people with security clearances into defraending somebody that doesn't exist, telling people information they shouldn't have based on conversations I had on LinkedIn. I gave this talk at a conference for hackers called DefCon and I got on NPR because of it. I should actually, uh, put the NPR piece and embed it into a show at some point. I'm going to make a note about that. And I've done a lot of stuff like that in the past, but the club thing has to be up there with the funniest. And I've done this at a lot of clubs, a lot of concerts and a lot of different

countries even. Now that I'm older, I don't do this stuff because I can just freaking buy a damn the IP ticket like anyone else. It's funny when you're in your 20s because you don't care about the consequences. And I figured if they catch us, they just throw us out. Now there was a business owner, I see that I definitely cost people money. I drank their booze. I lied to them. I wasted their time. That doesn't feel very great. You know, why do that? I'm not a fan of that. My only excuse for that particular instance is I became friends with a ton of the people that worked there. And I brought a ton of my friends there for years and years and years and years and years and years. And my clients at my old company, we brought them there all the time. And so we made up for it in new revenue. But yeah,

I'm not bragging about it. It's just one of those things that I think I always had a talent. for doing that and now, you know, you got to use your powers for good. You got to use the light side of the force. All right. Last but not least. Hey, Jordan. What's your opinion on psychedelics? Do you think they're helpful or just an excuse to trip balls and call it profound? Signed, interested in a trip, but not without travelers insurance. See, these are good. I would never think of this kind of thing. All these puns. All I got are like dad joke puns. You know, and I got stories. And I got an earpiece that won't freaking behave. If you're watching us on YouTube, I just can't. I can't. It's not, I'm not fidgeting with it. It's just that annoying.

Anyway, this is a great question. The short answer is yes, I definitely think that psychedelics can be super interesting and educational and therapeutic and useful if they are done consciously and safely and all that. The right person, the right stuff, the right dose, the right mental state, the right physical state, the right setting. If all those things line up, then yes, without a doubt, they can be very powerful. There's obviously a long tradition of using this stuff to expand consciousness and reach new insights and all that jazz. And now, as I'm sure you know, they're doing clinical studies with these compounds and

finding incredible results. And if it helps you understand yourself and the world around you and you're being safe, I say why not. but there are definitely risks and downsides to all of this stuff. And I don't want to downplay that because I think right now it's very trendy for influencers and life hacker, biohacker guys to be like, yeah, I do ayahuasca every weekend or whatever. And, you know, they say, oh, it's therapeutic and this and that and the other thing.

And you know damn well, they're kind of like wink, wink, nudge, nudge. Yeah, it's therapeutic. But we had fun last weekend, didn't we, with our triple dose acid tabs at Davos. I don't know. I'm not that guy. There are definitely risks and downsides to all of it. A lot of these people these days, they're treating psychedelics like a panacea, right? They're treating ayahuasca like it's magical.

They're taking it every other weekend under the guise of consciousness expansion. But really, if you're doing any substance that often, it's escapism and it's addiction, couched as self-improvement. And a lot of the effects of psychedelics are very special and can indeed be therapeutic. but most extreme psychedelic use has the potential for negative effects that many people just don't appreciate. I heard Sam Harris say that he used to love psychedelics, but he had one experience that was so bad that it negated any of the positive experiences that he'd gotten in multiple sessions with psychedelics that went well. That tells you how bad a bad trip can be and how much that can damage you.

And there are lots of unpublicized stories about psychedelic use gone wrong. For example, Gabriel, have you ever heard of all gas, no brakes? It's this like ridiculously funny YouTube show where this guy interviews people from all walks of life. So that guy, he's, I think he's some kind of comedic genius. He looks like Napoleon Dynamite, you know, or something like that. But he can't drive now. I watch an interview with him and he says he doesn't drive there. They live in an RV and they do everything in this RV. His buddy and his producer or whatever it is, that guy drives and he doesn't drive at all. And the reason is because he has vision problems and visual artifacting. from doing mushrooms. And I don't know how much he did or how often he did it, but he has vision that prohibits him from driving a car forever. What do you mean? Like he sees things now?

Like he has after effects or something? Yeah. Like I don't know if he has light trails or halo effect times a million where like, you know, it just seems like a visual distortion or if he sees things that are just not there. I don't think he's full on hallucinating. You know, he's not seeing his dead relatives walking across the highway

while he's driving or something, but he's seeing things that are. are definitely not there that he maybe knows aren't real, but he can't tell what's a light and what's a visual artifact. Not good. Interesting. Not good, right? It's very trendy to do a bunch of psychedelics,

but there's a lot of damage you can do, especially if you're doing enough to give yourself visuals. There's no guarantee that this stuff is going to turn out well. But I absolutely think, yes, they should be studied for medicinal purposes. Yes, you should be studying and looking at these for PTSD and trauma, but you have to be reasonably cautious. I'm not super worried about a 40-something or even a 30-something doing mushrooms and going for a hike and meditating with some friends as long as a bunch of those people are sober and it's not

their first time trying a new substance. But some 17-year-old or 21-year-old taking three tabs of acid from his fraternity brother and then going to an outdoor EDM concert with no water and no supervision, that's the worrisome scenario because, yes, I'm 41, but I love, I freaking love raves, man. I love EDM and concerts and all of these outdoor events and these like, you know, EDC. I love that stuff. And without exception, every single time that I go to one, I'll run into a kid who's half my, not even half my age. And it's like, do you know where I am?

And I'm like, oh, my God, this guy, his friends are gone. He doesn't know where he is. I ask him when he got there, he's like, you know, 10 hours ago. He doesn't know where he's staying. He's dehydrated. He hasn't eaten since he got there. And I'm just thinking, like, who the hell brought this kid in and said this is a good idea? And the answer is a bunch of other 20-year-old idiots, just like me when I was 20.

Dumb people that don't know what the hell they're doing that just took a bunch of drugs thinking that the more the merrier, the more the better. And it's not the case. When I was younger, I used to be like, I want to go out. Let's throw some shrooms in the blender. Let's get weird. But now, you know, I've only done it with doctors since then. Legit medical doctors.

That's important. It's very important. I actually did intravenous ketamine with a doctor for therapeutic reasons. I hated it, by the way. Not a fan. I felt horrible. And he did a light dose and I was like, oh, I barely felt it. I just feel a little sick.

And then I went back again a couple weeks later and I did a heavier dose and I was like, this is legit terrible. I don't know why anybody, that's how you know it's therapeutic. It's not fun in games. You're not jamming to the Steve Miller band or like Scrillex. Right. You're doing something. You're laying down.

there's a nurse who's like, you're okay, you're fine. Do you want to come out again? I can turn it off. You're like, okay. Right, I did it. I wanted to see what it was like and experiment with some stuff, and I wanted to work on some things, never again. I've done other things with actual medical doctors only who are making sure that you get a physical beforehand, right? You do blood panels before and after. They make sure it's not screwing you up. And even then, there is a large element of risk. It's not something you do just because you're bored on a Saturday afternoon. I want to be very clear on this. All of the experts in this world and all of the reasonable people who sought this stuff out to get better, they all come to the same conclusions, which are these molecules, they're not

something you need to go back to again and again. They are a tool. They're just a tool. They help you see things more clearly. They bring you into a deeper awareness sometimes. They might reset some parts of your brain sometimes. But the real benefit to psychedelics is taking all those lessons into your normal life and living a better life because of them. I recommend reading how to change your mind. If you're really interested in this stuff, read How to Change Your Mind by Michael Pollan. We actually did an episode of this show with him about that. That's a good read, a good guide on how to start to approach these substances. Gabe, you have any recommendations when it comes to this kind of thing? The Pollan book is great. I also recommend a documentary on Netflix.

I think it's on Netflix right now. It's called The Last Shaman. It's a great, great documentary. If I remember correctly, it's about a guy who's dealing with some pretty severe depression and who's at the end of his rope, so to speak, and he goes to the Amazon to explore ayahuasca and find a shaman, a legit shaman. It's a very beautiful documentary, actually. It was very touching. And he came to the exact conclusion you just did, you know, that you were just talking about where at the end of the thing, having done what I imagine is multiple, multiple rounds of ayahuasca. I mean, probably dozens of ceremonies over the course of a year, if I remember correctly. his conclusion was the best takeaway from the stuff is you don't have to keep doing it over and over and over again. You learn what you have to learn. You have your experiences. Ideally, you do it with the right person who's legit and you're safe and all that. But he just went home. He went back home and his life, at least the way they left the documentary is that his life was very different afterward. But he wasn't jonesing for the next ayahuasca ceremony in some guy's studio apartment up the road. He was just taking the lessons from the plant into his normal life. It's a great watch. I think you guys should check. it out. It's a good one. I've researched a lot of this, and I will say, because I want to temper that story, because a lot of people get a lot of good out of ayahuasca, but there are people that have had strokes because they do, I don't know if it's necessarily ayahuasca, but a lot of the,

you know, peyote or whatever it is, there are people who straight up have strokes while they're on it, because it can be traumatizing, you can put your body through a lot if you're not in great shape, and you don't know if you're in great shape. That's the thing. Like, if you're feeling like, oh, I've got depression and I've got this and I've got that and I've had these other issues, you can have a freaking stroke and you're then what? You're in the middle of a, Mexican desert 150 miles away from anybody and all anybody has is a cell phone with one bar of service. That's the other problem I have with this is I'll give you, rather than just whinge about this, I will give you an example. I've got a friend who's a very smart entrepreneur, very, very,

intelligent guy, and he said he did ayahuasca and he enjoyed it. And then he said, you know, it wasn't good at first. And he told me about what he did when he did it. And he said that he was in a room in a cabin with like nine or ten other people. They were all on the floor. And in one room. And in the beginning, a couple of people started really feeling it and having negative effects early on. And you can't get away from them when that happens because you're all in one room, which is one thing that the doctors I've done these things with say, never do that. You should be spread out. You got to have your own experience. You don't want to be influenced by the person next to you having a bad trip because they're reliving the night they were assaulted by somebody or something

like that. Right. So multiple people start having really bad experiences. And the social called shaman. It's him and the shaman another guy. And the shaman is some 30-something dip shit former stockbroker who is also high off his ass on ayahuasca. Right. So he's not sober. He's not a shaman. He's just a druggie who does ayahuasca like every weekend. I'm not exaggerating. This guy's done it like 300 times, right? 300 times, that is a lot of ayahuasca. You're doing it all the time. I don't care how much experience you have with it. You're supposed to be sober when you're supposed to be taking care of other people. So my friend, who's, again, messed up as hell on ayahuasca, runs out of the cabin and runs into the woods alone and on ayahuasca. And thankfully, like,

gets near a highway and goes, what am I doing? I need to go back. Runs back through the woods by some miracle finds the cabin where he was staying. And I mean miracle, because I don't understand how that even happened. And goes, I need a shower. Luckily, they had a shower. Luckily, they had a He takes a shower, starts to feel better. And he's like, wow, I don't know if that was stressful or insightful. We're so lucky that this guy didn't die. We're lucky that multiple people didn't die. Because if your shaman is a stockbroker and he's high and you have nobody sober

and you're 300 miles away from a hospital and you almost ran onto I-75 after running through the woods and you didn't twist your ankle or break your leg and then you made it back in one piece, you, ayahuasca isn't the breakthrough here. The breakthrough here is you have a guardian angel that made sure you. You didn't run into a highway and die or die in the woods or just have a freaking seizure 300 miles away from a hospital. That's the breakthrough. The breakthrough is you're the luckiest man in the universe, okay?

Right. At that point in time. Right. And so that's the stuff you have to be careful of. Not because your friend knows what he's doing really or you go to Peru and you're in the jungle and this guy's legit. You are far away from medical care. This is medicine.

That's why it's called medicine. It should be administered by medical professionals with experience and nobody else. That's my opinion. I know we have more, Gabe, but I feel like we should just push some of these to other shows, because this is actually kind of fun. I think people are going to dig hearing about the weird stuff. Maybe we can throw a weird one in every few shows, because I know we're not super short on Bizarro feedback Friday questions. We'll do one next week. Cool. All right. Well, I hope you all enjoyed that. I want to thank everyone that wrote in this week and in the past. If you have a weird one, please throw it at us, because we are not shy about this. I would love to answer people's questions, even if they are a little bit off-kilter.

because I don't know, Gabe, there's something about it that just makes it even more authentic and interesting. So thanks to everyone. Friday at Jordan Harbinger.com is where you can find us. Go back and check out Frank Barrasso. It's a two-part of this week. Go and check that out. This guy printed a literal fortune in counterfeit U.S. currency and got away with it. And if you want to know how I managed to book superstars like Ray Dalio, it's about the network. The networking course is free. It takes a few minutes a day. Dig the well before you get thirsty. Six-minute networking is over there on the think-ithic platform at Jordan Harbinger.com slash course. Once you need relationships, you're too late to make them. Don't kick the can down the road. Dig that well before you get thirsty.

Jordan Harbinger.com slash course is where it's at. A link to the show notes for this episode can be found at Jordan Harbinger.com transcripts by Millie in the show notes. There's a video of this feedback Friday on our YouTube at Jordan Harbinger.com slash YouTube. I'm at Jordan Harbinger on both Twitter and Instagram or hit me on LinkedIn. You can find Gabe on Twitter at Gabe Mizrahi or on Instagram at Gabriel Mizrahi. This show is created in association with podcast one. My team is Jen Harbinger, Jay Sanderson, Robert Fogart, Ian Baird, Millie Ocampo, Josh Ballard, and Gabriel Mizrahi. Keep sending in those weird-ass questions to Friday at Jordan Harbinger.com. Our advice and opinions and those of our guests are their own. And I'm a lawyer, but as you can hear from this episode, I am grossly

irresponsible. So do your own research before implementing anything you hear on this show. And remember, we rise by lifting others. So share the show with those you love. And if you found this episode useful, well, maybe not this episode. But if you found any of our other episodes useful, please share them with somebody else who can use the advice that we gave on that episode or even the advice we gave here today. In the meantime, do your best to apply what you hear on the show so you can live what you listen. And we'll see you next time. over $18 million in diamonds and spent 11 years in some of the toughest federal prisons in the country. How did Larry Lawton wind up getting into the jewelry heist game in the first place?

I was always a hustler. I was 11, 12 years old doing football tickets, making money. I remember making $125 in a week in 1972. That's $775 in today's money. Three grand a month at age 12. at age 12. I knew the hustle game. My first robbery was a guy wanted the insurance job. So when they wanted an insurance job, they called me and it said,

Larry got a job here, blah, blah, blah. Here's what it is. The guy wants the insurance. You're going to get to keep the jewelry. And he's going to get his money and we're getting a cut of this action. I said, okay, good enough. Sure enough, I had to set it up just like a robbery.

And I'll tell you what we talk about an adrenaline dress. Because the girl behind the count had no idea. She actually reached for a gun. And I was so quick, you know, I jumped over the counter so quick. And I said, are you crazy? And I was pointing a gun at her. And I had a BB gun. I didn't even have a gun. But I was a little bit quick. And I often laugh when people say, I wish I had a gun. I wish I got. Trust me. I'll take that gun away from you. I mean, most people think it's, oh, I'm having a gun. I'm going to be a badass. It doesn't work that way. But listen,

I've been stabbed twice, shot, car accidents and operations and hit with a bat. And you don't want to try this life. It's crazy, you know. I robbed so much jewelry in my life. robber 15 to 18 million. There was no drug better than walking out of that store with X amount of dollars of diamonds. And not only that, there were some people who I robbed today.

They were trying to rob me as a customer. Literally, and I said in the back of my head, he don't know he's getting robbed, but they were trying to rob you. And there was total a high. I used to always want to be a fly on the wall, Jordan. See how long it took them to get out. See how long it took the cops to figure out what happened.

Of course, I wouldn't. For more with Jewel Thief Larry Lawton on how he planned and executed his heists, what he would do to hide his trail from the inevitable investigation and how a business owner can ensure their place isn't the one chosen when a burglar is casing his business in search of an easy target. Check out episode 432 of the Jordan Harbinger Show. This episode is sponsored in part by Something You Should Know podcast. Finding a new great podcast shouldn't be this hard, so let me save you some time.

If you like the Jordan Harbinger Show, you'll probably like something you should know with Mike Carruthers. It's one of those shows that makes you smarter in a practical, useful way. Same curiosity vibe we go for here, just in a fast-focused format. Mike brings on top experts and asks the exact questions that you'd want to ask, and the topics are all over the place in the best way. Recently, they've covered things like why we care so much what other people think, the benefits of laughter, why sports fans get so invested, and what makes people like you or not. The through line is always the same. Smart ideas you can actually use in real life. Something you should know has been featured in Apple's shows we love,

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