Joe Rogan Experience #2030 - Protect Our Parks 9

The ninth installment of the 'Protect Our Parks' series, recorded in Austin with comedians Shane Gillis, Mark Normand and Ari Shaffir while the group drinks beers and bong hits on a timer. There is no real topic; the conversation free-associates from microplastics and fluoride to medieval hygiene, the Donner Party, the Comanche, World War II battles, octopuses and hippos. Long stretches are pure comedic riffing and conspiracy-theory mockery (Michelle Obama, the Maui fire, swastika history). It closes with a marathon of clips: Lynyrd Skynyrd's Freebird, James Brown live, and a long drunken argument over whether Tom Cruz is the greatest movie star.

• Joe lays out Shanna Swan's research that phthalates in plastics shrink the taint, penis and testicles, drop sperm counts and feminize male mammals and humans.
  00:06:50
• They recount the story of a lone FDA official allegedly locked in a hotel before OxyContin was approved as 'believed to be non-addictive,' the first use of that language.
  00:40:08
• Discussion of Columbia professor Dr. Carl Hart openly using heroin while a tenured scientist and arguing for decriminalization.
  00:47:54
• Joe explains how the Comanche dominated the plains until the Colt revolver let the Texas Rangers turn the tide (Empire of the Summer Moon).
  01:31:52
• Joe explains the Salem witch trials may have been caused by ergot-poisoned grain producing LSD-like hallucinations.
  03:05:36
• Joe asserts horses evolved in North America, went extinct there, then were reintroduced by Europeans after 1492.
  03:33:38
• The story of James Brown insisting he go on before the Rolling Stones and opening the Ali-Foreman fight in Zaire.
  04:11:53

• Studies cited show a significant inverse relationship between fluoride concentration in drinking water and IQ.
  00:11:26
• Claim that the average person consumes roughly a credit card's worth of plastic per week.
  00:10:25
• In 'The Great Mortality,' the King of England bathing three times in three months was considered a scandal.
  01:21:31
• King Henry VIII's court relocated among 60 residences because palaces filled up with accumulated human waste.
  01:23:36
• Around 2,500 Americans died on D-Day at Omaha Beach and the wider Normandy landings.
  02:13:51
• The Battle of Kursk is estimated to have caused around 800,000 Soviet and 200,000 German casualties.
  02:15:25
• Joe Theismann reportedly changed the pronunciation of his name so it would rhyme with 'Heisman.'
  03:19:39
• The earliest horse ancestor, the fox-sized 'dawn horse' (Eohippus), lived in North American forests around 55 million years ago.
  03:34:41
• Canada holds about 318 billion trees (roughly 30% of the world's forests), while Russia has around 640 billion.
  03:57:39
• Hitler is believed to have had an undescended testicle and a rare condition called penile hypospadias.
  02:59:48

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

Affiliate link — we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you.