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Joe Rogan · 2025-10-23 · 2h 17m

Joe Rogan Experience #2399 - Daryl Davis & Jeff Schoep

A reformed neo-Nazi leader and the Black musician who helps people leave hate groups explain how human connection deradicalizes extremists.

Joe Rogan Experience #2399 - Daryl Davis & Jeff Schoep
The guest

Daryl Davis & Jeff Schoep — Daryl Davis is a Black blues musician who has befriended and helped convert over 200 KKK members and neo-Nazis out of hate movements. Jeff Schoep was the commander of the National Socialist Movement, the largest U.S. neo-Nazi group, for 25 of his 27 years in the movement before leaving and now helping others exit extremism.

The gist

Joe Rogan talks with Daryl Davis and Jeff Schoep about how people get pulled into white supremacist movements and how they get out. Schoep recounts his 27-year journey from a teenage fascination with his grandfather's Nazi past to leading the National Socialist Movement, and how meeting Davis and a Muslim filmmaker cracked open his humanity. Davis explains his decades-long method of disarming adversaries by listening, refusing to escalate, and offering better perceptions rather than attacking their reality. They discuss the fear-driven psychology of the movement, the demographic '2042' anxiety, media manipulation tactics, recruitment of military and law enforcement, and the stigma former extremists face. The conversation closes on Davis's 'pick a line' philosophy and his Prohuman Foundation as ways anyone can help.

Big reveals

  • Davis says he stopped counting after converting 200-plus people out of hate groups.
  • Schoep recounts being doxed on a radio show at 19, which cost his mother a judgeship and made him double down into the movement.
  • Schoep admits pounding the table shouting 'I'll fight to the last bullet for my people' because he was getting along too well with Davis.
  • Schoep reveals all his violent attacks and assassination attempts (a tire iron that scalped him, stabbings, shootings) came from his own side and outsiders, never from the races he hated.
  • A lifelong 60s-something member changed after his son's suicide, which he blamed on the ideology.
  • Schoep, once a raging anti-Semite, now works with the Simon Wiesenthal Center and says the Jewish community has been the most welcoming since his change.
  • Davis explains his core tactic: when Schoep escalated, Davis refused to react, which broke down the wall and triggered curiosity.
  • Davis names mass shootings (Charleston church, Tree of Life, Buffalo, Oak Creek, El Paso) as 'lone wolves' who acted when groups moved too slowly.

Things worth remembering

  • Before WWII, the German American Bund held a Nazi rally in Madison Square Garden, before the swastika was widely associated with evil.
  • The 'Nazi salute' was essentially how Americans used to perform the Pledge of Allegiance before it was abandoned.
  • Henry Ford wrote an anti-Semitic book called 'The International Jew'; Ford and Hitler reportedly kept photos of each other on their desks.
  • Adidas was founded by Nazi party members, an irony given Kanye West losing his Adidas deal over anti-Semitic remarks.
  • If Wernher von Braun (NASA rocket pioneer brought over via Operation Paperclip) were alive, the Wiesenthal Center says it would prosecute him for crimes against humanity.
  • White supremacists fear the year 2042, when the U.S. Census trend predicts whites become a minority (the demographic basis of 'great replacement' fears).
  • Hate groups increasingly recruit veterans within their first two years of service, before they're seen as too loyal to the government, for their weapons and survival training.
  • Davis explains 'ZOG' (Zionist Occupied Government), 'RAHOWA' (Racial Holy War), and the 'boogaloo' as the race-war jargon of the movement.
  • Davis notes Italians, especially Sicilians, trace ancestry partly to the Moors of Africa, and all humans share 99.9% identical DNA.
  • Davis's 'pick a line' philosophy: front line, back line, sideline, or online, no role in fighting hate is more important than another.

Recommended in this episode

Books, products and media the guest or host genuinely endorsed here — with the buy link.

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Guest’s ownBook

American Nazi: From Hate to Humanity

Jeff Schoep

“And you also have a book out. Um, just tell everybody. It's called American Nazi: From Hate to Humanity.” — Joe Rogan 00:43:48
Find it on Amazon
Guest’s ownBook

Klan Whisperer

Daryl Davis

“So, your book American Nazis available now. And Daryl, your book Clan Whisperer, also available.” — Joe Rogan 02:16:47
Find it on Amazon
Guest’s ownMedia

Accidental Courtesy

Matthew Ornstein (inferred)

“It was uh for a film for Daryl's film, Accidental Courtesy.” — Jeff Schoep 00:24:43
Find it on Amazon