Joe Rogan Experience #2192 - Raanan Hershberg

Joe Rogan hosts comedian Raanan Hershberg for a freewheeling conversation that opens on cold plunges and stimulant addiction before diving deep into the craft of stand-up comedy. Hershberg shares his struggles with Adderall addiction, anxiety, panic attacks on stage, and his relationship with a girlfriend recovering from open-heart surgery and a stroke. The pair explore history's brutality, from the abuse on the set of The Wizard of Oz to Nazi drug use and the depravity of Emperor Nero. The back half turns to conspiracy theories, with Hershberg arguing for incompetence over conspiracy while Rogan defends the JFK and Epstein cases. They close on the fragility of modern civilization and Hershberg plugging his special and film.

• Hershberg became addicted to Adderall, escalating to 90mg a day, accidentally took bath salts, and ended up in rehab.
  01:04:23
• Hershberg's 37-year-old girlfriend had open-heart surgery early in their relationship and recently suffered a stroke leaving a permanent blind spot.
  01:10:02
• Hershberg endured roughly four months of constant dizziness and on-stage panic attacks after weaning off Paxil.
  01:48:02
• Hershberg says repeatedly facing on-stage panic attacks, rather than avoiding them, is what eventually cured them.
  01:51:07
• Discussion of a Canadian man who beheaded a Greyhound bus passenger, ate his organs, and was later granted full freedom.
  01:37:35
• A California woman stabbed her boyfriend 108 times after smoking potent marijuana and was deemed not criminally responsible.
  01:39:08

• A study suggests ADHD traits may have been an evolutionary advantage for hunter-gatherers, helping foragers cut losses and move on.
  00:08:24
• On The Wizard of Oz set, Judy Garland was reportedly groped by cast members, slapped by the director, and the actors playing the witch and Tin Man were injured.
  00:31:11
• The 'radium girls' developed cancer and rotting jaws from licking radium-coated brushes while painting watch dials.
  00:32:55
• Pervitin, a form of methamphetamine, was sold over the counter in Germany and used widely, including by the Nazi military.
  01:06:59
• In the documentary Relentless Enemies, a pride of female lions stranded with water buffalo evolved to become unusually large and muscular.
  00:57:44
• John F. Kennedy wore a tightly laced back brace that may have kept him upright after the first shot, setting up the fatal kill shot.
  02:20:01
• Emperor Nero had a slave boy named Sporus castrated and married him as a replacement for his dead wife Poppaea.
  02:27:13
• A New Yorker article questions whether Nero was as monstrous as history records, suggesting possible smear campaigns.
  02:35:30

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