Joe Rogan Experience #2006 - Brian Simpson

A loose, wide-ranging conversation recorded while the OceanGate Titan submersible was still missing, which becomes the recurring anchor of the episode. Rogan and Simpson speculate about the sub's design failures, the fired whistleblower, and how horrific the deaths would be, returning to it repeatedly between tangents. They cover longevity-obsessed billionaires, gambling addiction, Korean Air's hierarchy-driven crashes, coyotes and rabies, shark and whale attacks, and the addictive design of casinos and video games. A long comedic centerpiece has both men sniffing increasingly potent smelling salts on-air and reacting in pain. Throughout, Simpson talks comedy clubs, the Mothership's open-mic culture, and his love of Diablo 4.

• They detail OceanGate's 2018 warnings: director David Lockridge flagged the Titan's viewport was only rated to ~1,300m (not the ~4,000m Titanic depth) and was fired.
  00:03:39
• Discussion of Bruce Willis allegedly selling AI 'digital twin' rights due to his aphasia, with an on-air correction that reports conflict on whether he actually did.
  00:16:11
• Simpson explains his obsession with the Bug-A-Salt fly gun via a story about swarms of starving flies during his first Iraq deployment.
  00:39:54
• Rogan and Simpson sniff an extremely potent batch of smelling salts on-air, react in genuine pain, and nearly halt the show.
  01:33:18
• They note Elizabeth Holmes is heading to prison in Texas and had children shortly before, speculating it was a sociopathic bid for leniency.
  02:33:25
• Korean Air's crash record is tied to cultural hierarchy in the cockpit; switching pilots to English helped flatten deference (per Gladwell).
  02:35:29
• A rabies story: a 21-year-old BC man was lightly nicked by a bat, didn't seek treatment, and died six weeks later when symptoms appeared.
  03:05:36

• They reference the old 'happiness plateaus around $70,000 of income' saying, joking it's probably ~$85,000 now.
  00:08:23
• The longevity-obsessed billionaire reportedly takes ~40 vitamins twice daily, gets blood transfusions from his son, and even counts his nighttime erections.
  00:24:23
• Low WHOOP 'recovery' scores despite feeling fine became an early signal that someone had caught COVID.
  00:24:54
• AirTags/SmartTags have no GPS themselves; they only report location by pinging off nearby phones, so Apple's market dominance makes AirTags more accurate.
  02:09:51
• Persecuting coyotes backfires: lost pack members trigger larger litters and territory expansion, so coyotes now live in every major North American city.
  02:14:31
• Casinos track players via loyalty cards and legally must hit jackpots within set spans, drip-feeding small wins to keep gamblers hooked.
  02:44:47
• Toxoplasmosis from cats rewires rats to be sexually aroused by cat urine, making them seek out cats and get eaten.
  03:08:42
• Gladwell argues the safest airlines come from cultures with low 'power distance' that don't enforce strict hierarchy in the cockpit.
  02:35:29

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