Brief: The Liver King Crash-Out

Summary

Conspirituality Podcast Episode Summary: "The Liver King Crash-Out"

Release Date: July 5, 2025

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Introduction

In the episode titled "The Liver King Crash-Out," hosts Derek Barris and Julian Walker delve into the tumultuous rise and dramatic downfall of Brian Johnson, popularly known as The Liver King. This episode meticulously dissects how Johnson's blend of extreme fitness routines, ancestral lifestyle branding, and charismatic influence spiraled into controversy, legal troubles, and potential mental health crises.

The Rise of The Liver King

[01:18] Julian Walker:
Julian paints the picture of Brian Johnson's initial emergence in the wellness and fitness scene. Starting in August 2021, Johnson adopted the moniker "Liver King," presenting himself as a pro-wrestler-turned-influencer despite lacking a wrestling background. His persona was characterized by:

• Biblical Beard & Long Hair: Emphasizing a rugged, primal image.
• Animal Skins & Headdresses: Enhancing his mystical and ancestral appeal.
• Extreme Workouts: Showcasing feats akin to competitive bodybuilding.
• Raw Organ Meat Consumption: Promoting a carnivorous diet, particularly the intake of raw liver and other organ meats, positioned as a pathway to optimal health and masculinity.

[03:30] Liver King (Brian Johnson):
Brian emphasizes the superiority of the ancestral lifestyle, stating, “The ancestral man had a much more favorable hormone profile than a manicured man that lives today.” He outlines his nine ancestral tenants—sleep, eat, move, shield, connect, cold, sun, fight, and bond—each aimed at optimizing physical and hormonal health.

Commercial Success and Underlying Facade

[06:48] Derek Barris:
The hosts reveal that The Liver King and his collaborator, Paul Saladino, amassed substantial wealth through their venture, Ancestral Supplements, which peaked at $60 million in revenue. The company marketed desiccated organ meat supplements, capitalizing on followers' inability or unwillingness to consume raw organ meats directly.

Exposure and Backlash

[07:43] Julian Walker:
Skepticism about Johnson's claims grew, particularly doubts about his naturally achieved physique. Joe Rogan and other commentators publicly challenged the authenticity of his transformation, suggesting steroid use was the real culprit behind his muscular build.

[08:50] Derek Barris:
The skepticism was validated when leaked emails in November 2022 revealed Johnson's use of performance-enhancing drugs, including steroids and growth hormones, costing an estimated $11,000 per month. This revelation sparked condemnation among his followers and the broader community, undermining his credibility and exposing his practices as a "grift."

[09:15] Julian Walker:
Derek and Julian discuss the irony of Johnson's steroid use leading to side effects like reduced sperm count and erectile dysfunction, contradicting his preached benefits of his ancestral lifestyle. They also note his overcompensation through symbols of masculine virility—guns, cigars, whiskey—while exploiting conspiracy theories and pseudoscience.

The Netflix Documentary and Public Perception

[10:02] Julian Walker:
A Netflix documentary surfaced, portraying Johnson sympathetically as a man overcoming childhood trauma and striving to cultivate true manhood for his family. However, the hosts argue that behind the scenes, Johnson's family appeared to be coerced into participating in his brand, with his wife and sons showing signs of fear and discomfort.

[11:35] Derek Barris:
Drawing parallels to fictional portrayals like "Righteous Gemstones" and "Talladega Nights," Derek highlights the dynamics within Johnson's family, suggesting that his authoritarian persona may be negatively impacting his loved ones.

The Crash-Out: Legal Troubles and Mental Health Concerns

[13:21] Julian Walker:
The narrative takes a darker turn as Johnson's behavior becomes increasingly erratic. On June 23, Johnson posted multiple aggressive videos challenging Joe Rogan to a fight, wielding gold-plated AR15-style rifles and wearing animal headdresses. These actions culminated in his arrest when authorities intervened.

[14:05] Derek Barris:
The hosts describe the absurdity and aggression in Johnson's videos, noting his presence in luxury settings like the Four Seasons hotel while making threatening statements toward Rogan.

Notable Clip from Liver King:

[14:32] Customer (Johnson):
“Rogan, I'm calling you out. My name is Liberty. Man to man. I'm picking a fight with you. ... I'll come to you whenever you're ready.”

[16:07] Derek Barris:
This dramatic confrontation seems rooted in Johnson's exposure on Rogan's podcast, where Rogan doubted Johnson's claims of natural physique, inadvertently amplifying Johnson's notoriety.

Mental Health and Psychological Analysis

[33:15] Liver King:
In one of his latest videos, Johnson exhibits erratic behavior, including personifying his car and displaying signs of paranoia and possible hallucinations.

[34:23] Derek Barris:
The discussion shifts to the potential mental health implications of Johnson's steroid use. Erik Walker and Derek express deep concern for his well-being, citing psychiatric side effects from performance-enhancing drugs.

[34:42] Derek Barris:
They advise that Johnson's family should distance themselves to ensure their safety, highlighting the dangers of his deteriorating mental state.

Conclusion and Implications

The episode concludes with Derek and Julian reflecting on the broader implications of conspirituality—the intersection of conspiracy theories and spiritual influencer culture. The Liver King's trajectory from a revered wellness figure to a figure embroiled in scandal exemplifies the potential dangers of unchecked influence, pseudoscience, and the exploitation inherent in some spiritual movements.

[34:59] Julian Walker:
Emphasizing the perilous path Johnson is on, the hosts underscore the necessity for critical discourse and awareness in combating the spread of disinformation and the manipulation of followers by charismatic yet unscrupulous influencers.

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Notable Quotes with Timestamps:

• Liver King [03:30]:
  “The ancestral man had a much more favorable hormone profile than a manicured man that lives today.”

• Julian Walker [09:15]:
  “There's a heavy leaning into all of these symbols of masculine virility symbols.”

• Liver King [14:32]:
  “Rogan, I'm calling you out. My name is Liberty. Man to man. I'm picking a fight with you.”

• Julian Walker [33:53]:
  “The number of videos he has on his feed of firearms is pretty disturbing as well.”

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Final Thoughts

"The Liver King Crash-Out" serves as a cautionary tale about the seductive allure of extreme wellness movements and the thin line between charismatic influence and manipulative cult dynamics. Derek Barris and Julian Walker expertly unravel the layers of The Liver King's saga, providing listeners with a comprehensive understanding of how such figures can rise to prominence, exploit their followers, and ultimately face severe consequences when facades crumble.

Transcript

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[Derek Barris]

Hey everyone. Welcome to Conspirituality where we investigate the intersections of conspiracy theories and spiritual influence to uncover cults, pseudoscience, authoritarian extremism and raw meat eaters. I'm Derek Barris.

[Julian Walker]

I'm Julian Walker and I cook my food.

[Derek Barris]

Oh no. I don't know if we can do this. We are on Instagram and threads at Conspirituality Pod as well as individually over on Blue Sky. And of course you can access all of our episodes ad free, plus our Monday bonus episodes at patreon.com conspirituality or our bonus episodes via Apple subscriptions. This is what we do for a living and if you appreciate our work and can support us, we would really appreciate it.

[Julian Walker]

In between the escalating ominous ice raids bombing Iran and the catastrophic chaos of Trump's big beautiful Bill, there was another story unfolding last week that had those of us who follow the manosphere on the edge of our seats, even if we wished we could look away. Brian Johnson. No, no, not the mild mannered former Mormon pale billionaire who wants to live forever. A completely different Brian Johnson, a more bombastic guy with the same name whose heavily muscled frame, though, is a red shade of brown and who worships only himself, was crashing out and. And that Brian Johnson is. Is going hard. I'm talking of course about the Liver King as He's been known since he started posting on Instagram and TikTok back in August of 2021. And he started off really coming across to me like a pro wrestler turned fitness influencer, even though he never was actually a wrestler. He's got sort of that biblical beard and the long hair. And he preached the gospel of his so called ancestral lifestyle, which included eating copious amounts of raw organ meat in totally disgusting online videos. He also often would wear and still does animal skins and like weird animal sort of head dress, things that are animal heads and then perform in these outfits. Really extreme workout feats. He claimed that staying true to what he dubbed the nine ancestral tenants was the way to reclaim and embody real true manhood.

[Liver King]

The ancestral man had a much more favorable hormone profile than a manicured man that lives today. Right. And there's research to validate this. Just 30, 40 years ago we had double the testosterone. What do you think it was a hundred years ago? A thousand years ago? 10,000 years ago. Right. So the nine ancestral tenants are really a way that we can express our highest and most dominant form, live our the best version of of ourselves to optimize our hormones. So I always tell people, let's start with liver. Let liver into your life again because liver is king. Get started with that. As you feel better, learn what all nine ancestral tenants are really about. It's going to allow you to create a life and shape a life that you goddamn love that's worth living. So much so that when this changes you and puts you on a new trajectory, you're going to feel like a piece of shit to not go tell everyone that you know about it. You're now that person next to us, another true believer, another truth seeker that knows that you got to touch someone else's life.

[Derek Barris]

I love how he says manicured. Brian was a marketing worker. Like he worked in marketing for years before he created this entire Persona. And as we're going to get into a little bit later, there's a lot of speculation that his abs, among other features, are quite manicure.

[Julian Walker]

Yeah. There are a few things more manicured than someone who's created a whole Persona and phys presentation to be in videos that he's posting like often multiple times a day. And so. And also in some of the recent videos, which we'll talk about in a moment. He's got a massive nail file that he's often talking about. This is what he uses on his nails. So like the whole thing of dissing on manicuring is kind of Odd. That's actually a pretty mellow video of Lion King. I wanted to sort of strike the balance between Liver King.

[Derek Barris]

Oh, I'm sorry, not the Lion King.

[Julian Walker]

He is hakuna matata, bro. I can call him whatever I like. That's a mellow video from the Liver King. I wanted to strike a balance between like how incredibly unhinged he can sometimes come across on the one hand versus, like the cataloging. I didn't want to go too long into the nine ancestral tenants because they're. But the summary is it's sleep, eat, move, shield, connect, cold, sun, fight and bond and everyone likes a list. And I guess that's part of how he built his brand. I'm not going to break them all down, but basically like shield your body from WI Fi and Celia Tech cellular technology is in there and do cold plunges, of course, and then of course eat a raw carnivore diet. His really over the top performance of this character combined with a physique worthy of a competitive bodybuilder and his commitment, his real unusual commitment to doing things like eating uncooked cow liver and brains and bull testicles on camera drew a lot of attention, millions of views and followers. And then of course, it turned out that if his followers were themselves unwilling to subject themselves to eating these delicacies, Liver King actually had a line of desiccated and encapsulated organ meat supplements for sale. And together with the already high profile pseudoscience health influencer business partner Paul Saladino, who I know you've covered in the past, Eric, this Brian Johnson made millions.

[Derek Barris]

Not just millions. Their company, Ancestral supplements, was making $60 million a at its peak. And this was predominantly for dehydrated testicles, as you said, but also liver. And it was really pitched as a way to be able to get the nutrients from things that people generally do not like to eat, which is organ meat. Organ meat can be fantastic and it is. It is actually more nutrient dense. A lot of animals in the wild will go for the organs first. And in fact, there is some anthropological evidence that humans did go for organs and then would discard the quote, unquote meat of animals because they didn't think it was worth it. So they are tapping into something that sounds true or actually represents some sort of history, but it is just a grift.

[Julian Walker]

Yeah, yeah. And I was gonna say from that clip, can you imagine how much Testosterone we had 10,000 years ago, Derek? I mean, our levels must have been so. Hi. Oh. So many commentators, including Joe Rogan, called bullshit. And were openly convinced that Johnson's hugely muscled body, his telltale skin tone and his amped up personality were more likely a product of steroid use than extreme nutrition and wacky philosophy. And as you know, soon after his debut, by November of 2022, so a little over a year after he burst onto the scene, this was all proven to be correct. Leaked emails between Johnson and a new do he was soliciting for drugs revealed that his long list of performance enhancing drugs, steroids, growth hormone, et cetera, testosterone, ran up an estimated $11,000 per month price tag, hence the need to sell a lot of supplements. Johnson was then widely condemned because there were a lot of true believers and they were devastated and angry to find out that they had been lied to.

[Derek Barris]

Also ironic that one of the main side effects of anabolic steroids is reduced sperm count, infert shrunken testicles, erectile dysfunction. All of the things he's out there saying that his diet and lifestyle promote are actually being, he's, he's probably suffering many of the side effects, especially if you're doing 11,000. I don't know the going rate for steroids. Yeah, I would imagine that's a lot.

[Julian Walker]

Yeah, no, he's, he's, he's taking a lot of everything and, and yeah, you're right about all of those side effects. And it just makes me think as, as I was looking through a lot of his Instagram account yesterday, like this may be some of the reason for massive over compensation. All of the guns, all of the cigars, the whiskey bottle, although of course he's doing a lot of product placement. But there's a, a heavy, heavy leaning into all of these symbols of masculine virility symbols.

[Derek Barris]

But as we'll hear later on, he also personifies his objects, like his primal one, one of his cars, who he talks to and then replies as if the car is talking. So there, there's symbols and then there's something much deeper mentally that is not great right now.

[Julian Walker]

Yeah. So it was of course a real, a real time crisis that happened online for everyone to see when Liver King was exposed. He denied everything at first, but then he eventually owned up to his lies. And then he did the classic performative, shameful apology video and promised to go all natural moving forward, but at the same time tried to justify his lies as being motivated by philanthropy. You see, he wanted save men from depression and suicide and that's why he had to make $60 million a year by lying about how he got so jacked by May of 2025. So just recently, here he was the subject of what turned out to be a disappointingly sympathetic Netflix documentary in which he presented himself as this heroic figure who was overcoming his childhood trauma and holding himself accountable for his missteps and then teaching his young sons to be real men and loving his wife as his queen. And in that film, sad to say, we get disturbing glimpses of a family that looks to me to be held hostage to Johnson's self absorbed performance of himself as the mythic Liver King. His wife, Bozina, who also goes by Barbara, kind of smiles skittishly while her eyes seem fearful. And then his sons named Stryker and Rad. Shades of. Shades of his name, Willie Bobby or whoever the, the, the. The Will Ferrell character who was the race car driver.

[Derek Barris]

We were watching Righteous Gemstones last night. We're in the final season and we're in the one where they go back. And he wanted to name his son Stallone, so it's like a flashback. He ends up naming him Gideon, but like, there's a whole scene about the, the, the manliness and the wife doesn't get to name the child. It's all the man and it's going to be Stallone. So, yeah, yeah, sounds. Sounds like Liver King might have had the same influence.

[Julian Walker]

Ricky Bobby in Talladega Nights is always doing these prayers and thanking the sweet baby Jesus for his smokin hot wife and for his son's walker and Texas Ranger. So it's very much like that. His sons are named Stryker and Rad, and they look to be about 15 and 19 when the film was shot. And to me, they just seem like they're being coerced into doing things like gagging their way on camera through eating bull testicles while sitting beside the fresh kill on the Johnson property of this animal. Gross. But here we are. And a month after all of that Derek, everything got a lot worse.

[Derek Barris]

I have not seen the documentary. Ironically, last night my wife and I, we switch off who gets to choose what we watch. And I've been absorbed in the 1971 Music Docu series on Apple TV, which is excellent. She's scrolling and she sees on Netflix, she's like, don't you. You don't you want to watch this one? And I'm like, liver King documentary? And I'm like, no. And she goes, but isn't it part of your work? I'm like, I've been following him for years and I just fear because we watch a lot of these documentaries and I'm just like she's always just terrified of what's going on. So she's like, oh, let's just do it. Five minutes in, she just shut it off. And we went and watched Righteous Gemstones because she's like, I can't actually watch this man for an hour and a half.

[Julian Walker]

Yeah.

[Derek Barris]

This all proceeds because that documentary came out a little while ago. This proceeds what is the actual crash out of what we're talking about today. So on Monday, June 23, Johnson posted multiple, multiple videos to Instagram challenging Joe Rogan to a fight. In them, he's wearing that animal for headdress that you've referenced. It was a wolf in this situation. He's holding two short barrel gold plated AR15 style rifles. I can't possibly express how absurd the entire visual is. And he's dancing most of the time. I guess what he would call dancing the entire time.

[Julian Walker]

He's also in a luxury hotel suite. He's in the Four Seasons. It's insane.

[Derek Barris]

Right? Because there's other videos around this time where he's doing like primal movements in the hallways. And that's the hotel. Right? Right. So I. This whole. The entire clip that ended up getting Johnson arrested was over two minutes long. I'm posting it as he posted it. It's only the first 35 seconds or so, but I know it sounds like shit, but this is how he posted it. So just to give you an idea of what he's putting out there, Joe.

[Customer]

Rogan, I'm calling you out. My name is Liberty. Man to man. I'm picking a fight with you. Yeah, I have field training in jiu jitsu. You're a black belt. You should dismantle me. But I'm picking a fight with you. You'll rule whatever you want me to win. Wait, I'll wait. I wait. 190 this morning. I'll tell, Wait. I'll come to you whenever you're ready. Whenever you're ready to go.

[Derek Barris]

Right. So he rolled into Austin with guns, threatening Joe Rogan and got arrested because I don't know how who contacted the police, but they were like, hey, you should check this guy out.

[Julian Walker]

Yeah. And he was posting videos like that. It seemed like, you know, very, very frequently, maybe every hour or every hours. There were a lot of videos. And you know the, the thing that strikes me listening back to that, just hearing it because obviously the visuals are so striking when you watch it, but hearing it, I'm like, what's with the Sergio Leone, kind of romantic, you know, Macho music. It's like, right. It's. It's all so epic, and it's also grandiose. And that maybe tells us a little bit about what's going on inside of his psyche. And yeah, there are multiple videos and he is being very, very threatening. It's so, so there's, there's like, videos where he's like, I want to fight you. And then there's videos where he's basically saying, I'm coming for you. I'm gonna hurt you. You have, you know, humiliated me and bullied me and I'm gonna tear you.

[Derek Barris]

Apart, essentially, which is countered by, like, this video where he ends up saying, I know you're gonna beat me. It would be a pleasure for you to beat me up. Which just tells you because Rogan would actually. Liver King is huge, but he doesn't know how to fight. But we're gonna, we're gonna get into his mental health break. But I context here of why Rogan specifically. On December 3, 2022, this is shortly after the steroid scandal that everyone knew he was on steroids came out. Rogan hosted Canadian fitness creator Derek Monroe, who's the more plates, more dates guy. He has a podcast and fitness training platform. He also has a supplements business called Gorilla Mind. So you know Joe Rogan and his gorilla kettlebells. So obviously he would be on there.

[Julian Walker]

Yeah. And what Derek is most well known for is he, for whatever reason, I don't know if he has a background in chemistry, but he is a guy who can talk about the chemistry, the drug interactions, the effects of multiple different steroids. He just, he just has that kind of mind and that kind of knowledge. That's what he. That's what he's most well known for online. So he's kind of the go to guy when you're like, okay, what's, what's this guy on? And what, what do you think it's doing to him? Right.

[Derek Barris]

So they naturally start talking about Liver King, who is in the news, you know, about a year before he very quickly, coming from marketing, went viral because he had this Q Shaman esque videos. He'd be in crowds, like in. He would go to different events. He'd be shirtless or wearing animal skins. He'd be walking around carrying kettlebells or dumbbells. He'd be doing workouts in front of the White House. So, you know, again, it was all manicured. But let's listen to part of their conversation, which again, as you flagged, has to do with Liver King claiming that he was all natural.

[Joe Rogan]

We're talking about the Liver King, by the way, ladies and gentlemen. A lot of people, like, what are they saying? This is all inside stuff. There's a guy, if you don't know who the Liver King is, a guy calls himself the Liver King. And he's this guy who walks around everywhere with no shirt on. I've seen him in Vegas with no shirt on, big, bushy beard, super jacked. And he was telling people that the way he gets that way is by sunning his balls. He, he, he literally lays down with his asshole staring at the sun, eats raw liver and just lifts like a maniac. And that's how he's so jacked. But it's preposterous.

[Derek Monroe]

Yeah. Too many polar extremes to have just like a unique marketing spin that was just highly viral, in my opinion. And I don't know, I think most people could see through it, but at the same time, he would like. There was a lot of big names that even reached out to me after the video came out, and they were like, you know, I didn't think he was natural, but this guy literally right to my face would say, like, blatantly, I am natural. And like, a lot of people will take a guide. It's word at his word when it's like a private conversation. And if he's straight up telling you in person, yeah, it's actually legit. I'm natural. And he was just lying through his teeth.

[Derek Barris]

They go on to laugh at Johnson Monroe questions as I flagged if he had cosmetic work on his AB ABs. But as with everything Rogan touches, mentioning Liver King on his podcast helped to boost him. His number soared after that. So in the video where I played earlier, the hotel video, the fact that Johnson is introducing himself by saying, joe Rogan, I am the I am. My name is Liver King. That's even weirder. Cuz, yeah, he knows who the you are. And you know he knows who the you are. Yeah, I'm going to guess. Being called out on one of the most popular podcasts in the world by someone who Johnson likely looks up to, at least from a viral marketing perspective, was the background, even unconsciously, on why he made the threatening video in the first place. Since that video dropped, Johnson has come out and said he's not going to turn down the heat on Rogan, even though he's now wearing an ankle monitor because the police want to track him and his Instagram page has been an absolute shit show. This Thursday, the three of us, Matthew, will return for this we're going to look into influencer crash outs. We're going to look at Aubrey Marcus. We recently covered his polyamory video. He has since made another podcast doubling tripling down on it. And then also we'll, we'll touch upon some other aspects of Johnson. We're not going to today for today. I've clipped some moments from the last two weeks or so for us to listen to and just kind of piece together what's going on. So just tracking the timeline a little bit here. Johnson was posting his normal workout content up until March 10th at a pretty normal clip of, you know, a clip or two every few days. Then he went silent until May 14. He returns to post about the Netflix documentary which had been out for months, but he's claiming that his family still eats raw meat deli. In fact, he says he supposedly had testicle ceviche earlier that day. Obviously something's going on where he's getting feedback about Netflix and he just doesn't feel like he's being honored in some way. It continues where he posts every few days. It's on June 19th where things really start to get weird. He posts a selfie video of himself walking through the woods talking about the Barbarian Foundation. For the visual, he's got a big gash above his left eye. His nose is bleeding both from the nostrils as well as like there's cuts on his nose. And someone in the comments points out that his right eye is super dilated and looks medically serious. This is where things begin to really take a serious downward turn. So this is from that video Barbarians.

[Liver King]

A Thing Barbarian Foundation. You should learn about it. Super Barbarian is a thing too. It's really, really, really hard. And then after that it's called Hell on Earth. It's 1000 bloody knuckle push ups from sun rise to sunset on only hard surfaces. And your three points of contact is the face, the chest. I think the belly. Yeah, the belly around there have to touch and if the knees touch that rep doesn't count. 1,000 of those takes a long time to build to be able to do it. It's awesome. You should definitely not do it until you're ready. And which point will be the gift after that is Apocalypto. I'm returning back from Apocalypto. I didn't know what it was until, until this.

[Julian Walker]

Yeah, yeah. I mean I, I have noticed that he's been trying to rebrand around, around being a barbarian around his like calling his, his followers barbarians instead of primals. This is starting to get really strange. He is starting to sound. I don't know if it's. If it's delusional, if it's just disordered thinking. It's kind of. You're like, it's hard to follow him, right?

[Derek Barris]

It's really hard. And part of this is the fact that if even in the first few minutes of the Netflix documentary, what you quickly see is what you see on Instagram, and then you see the entire team around who's creating this content. Videographers, people, audio people. Like, this is a project. This isn't just a guy. But these videos in the last few weeks, it's not that anymore. It's either just him or it's his wife holding it, or it's. It's a third party. It's someone holding a phone. The audio is horrible. The video is horrible. But these, specifically, most of them are selfie videos, which means it's just him by himself. In that clip, he trails off after he says apocalypto, he doesn't return to it. He just. He says, it's just. And then there's like five, six seconds of him walking. Then he goes on to talk about the fact that he's going on Kyle Kingsbury's podcast. Now, Kyle we have covered before, he is one of Aubrey Marcus's closest confidants, before Aubrey went monogamous after his poly thing, and now he's back to poly. Kyle and his wife were part of that circle, so he's very close, which means he also has some access. And I'm guessing he knows. I believe he's even been on Rogan's podcast. So it's a little bit weird. I think they. Looking at the timeline, they might have booked the podcast before he was on Rogan. I'm not sure. But it's after he threatens Rogan that he goes on Kingsbury's podcast. Now, Kyle replies to this unhinged video saying that he's psyched to have Johnson's energy on his podcast. Since this video, his liver king Johnson's content has just been, as I said, these unhinged selfies. There's some of him doing primal movements in hallways or in his vast property on the ground. And then he has seven clips from Kyle's podcast that is now on his feed, and that's part of the content he's churning out. I want to play something from the first clip that he posted from that podcast. So Johnson and Kingsbury are. They're sitting together on a really big couch People are walking by in the background. And I have to wonder if Kyle purposefully set this up in a more public space, given the circumstances. Because if you look at Kyle's feed, his other podcasts are in a room, like a. More of a studio setup. In this one, you're going to hear music in the background because he's in a public space. And I just kind of get the feeling that he's like, I don't know if I want to be in the same room alone with this dude. So. So it's. It's not a well recorded podcast now, Ky. He's wearing a Covid 1984 shirt because he's a big douchey anti vaxxer and Covid contrarian. He's the guy who posted those fake photos of fat people dying of COVID you know, as a joke, like during the height of the pandemic. Now I'm gonna play the entire first clip. It's. And I'm saying that because, you know, this is all he posts. It's only 25 seconds and the long pause is part of it. I didn't take it out on purpose. Given his recent legal troubles. You're going to hear a dip in the audio. That's when he says, rogan, more plates, more dates.

[Liver King]

Guy unsubscribe to him and the vigorous other guy. And then everyone who unsubscribes every single one, the millions. I'm going to donate the exact amount to a charity that does good. And I wanna. I have a present for. Been trying to give him. I didn't know the right time to give it to him.

[Derek Barris]

That's it. He posted that clip just as the first. Hey, I'm on Kyle Kingsbury's podcast, which.

[Julian Walker]

Seems like he thought, oh, this will be a way to get the word out that we can. We can get people to unsubscribe from these influencers. I don't like. And I'm. I'm gonna make this grand gesture of donating money to a charity. Wow. Yeah. And so as. As the videos continue, he starts saying, you know, you know who I'm talking about. His. His. His name rhymes with blow and schmogan. Because he's. Because he's not allowed. He's got a restraining order against him now. He can't say Joe Rogan's name, but he does.

[Derek Barris]

Since June 23, there are dozens of videos, sometimes a dozen or more a day. So he does say his name in some of them.

[Julian Walker]

Can't help himself.

[Derek Barris]

No, he can't. Absolutely not especially the ones where he's in the crowd with his friends and wife and family around, just says whatever he wants and he's not deleting them. They're all up there.

[Julian Walker]

Yeah. And that's the thing that I, that I want to say at some point here, which is like, this is the. The direct output of the idea that controversy is good, that difficult things going on and being vulnerable and exposing what's going on behind the scenes is great for authenticity and for building your brand and for keeping people engaged in your story. And the more transparent you can be and the more you keep, like, putting stuff out there that people feel is. Is real, the better it is for you. And you should, like, charge headlong into the, into the controversy. And. And so that's the combination of that and then I think the sort of fragile, narcissistic personality type that almost feels like he doesn't exist if he's not posting to his audience. Right. So he's just caught. And. And there's no one around him saying, dude, you probably shouldn't post that.

[Derek Barris]

That's part of what we're going to get into on Thursday, I feel, thing happens with someone like Aubrey Marcus. They don't. They only have yes men, yes women, yes family, whatever around them. If anyone is telling them, hey, maybe you should think better. They're definitely not listening to the person. And also in this clip, it starts off again. Remember, this is the first clip from this podcast, and he's saying Derek Monroe, which, again, as we point out, was the first time that Rogan mentions him. So he knows. So that's why I feel like whether it's conscious or not, this is the point. And it's been simmering in his consciousness for years. And now he's at this, whatever breaking point is going on with him that's stuck in his head.

[Julian Walker]

Yeah, my sense of it, what I imagine is going on is he maybe thought that the Netflix documentary would finally be his redemption and people would embrace him again. And that hasn't happened. And so he's like, if I can, like, get some kind of big confrontation to happen with Joe Rogan, maybe that'll finally be it. Right? I'll finally, like, fight for my family and my honor and I'll be redeemed and I'll get everything back again.

[Derek Barris]

But that's the thing about the size of these people's egos. Now, you've pointed out that it was mostly sympathetic toward him, which I had heard before. We think about the other Brian Johnson and the Netflix documentary and how that was a very sympathetic documentary. And yet in another one of the clips, I'm not playing this one, but from the Kings Ray podcast, Liver King, Matt Johnson goes off on Joe Pearlman, who directed the Netflix documentary, saying he was completely misrepresented. So he does not actually feel like that was sympathetic toward him. Remember, the breaking point when he comes back in May is him saying, we eat raw meat every day based on the Netflix documentary. So there's a lot going on right here that is just being compounded by whatever he's putting into his body because I'm sorry.

[Julian Walker]

Yep.

[Derek Barris]

If he's claiming he's all natural, he has not lost anything in terms of physique.

[Julian Walker]

Yeah.

[Derek Barris]

And when you stop taking steroids, you do not maintain the same body, no matter how hard you work out. It's impossible.

[Julian Walker]

Yeah.

[Derek Barris]

So since that podcast appearance, plus all of these other selfie videos, there's just been again, a flood of them. I want to play one more. I could play many. If you go to his Instagram feed, you will see them. But this should suffice. This started when you and I, Julian, started talking about doing this episode. It was the first one that I happened to come upon. It opens with Liver Cane playing Gandalf. He's got this folded sheet tapestry wrapped over his head, so he looks like a wizard. He's carrying what I think is an iron mace, which is a workout tool, but he's carrying it from the bottom so it looks like a staff. It opens with flute music playing super loud in the background. He's taking his Dobermans. He has two Doberman pinschers out for a walk. We've talked about feeling bad for the family. I also feel bad for these dogs because there's videos of him going into Austin, trying to go into the Tex State capital and going through police lines with the Dobermans. This guy is not well, like we should be clear on that. Now, in this video, he says that today is my get out of jail party and his friends are invited. And indeed, if you go later in the day, a bunch of people are at his place talking about what's going on. As I said earlier, he's going to reference primal number one and he's going to start talking in that voice that is a car. This whole opening is pretty ominous to me.

[Liver King]

I'm gonna make a lot of videos for the next four or five days and then I'm not gonna make a lot of videos for a long time.

[Customer]

Family matters are in order. Fist bump, pound lock.

[Liver King]

It the down, down, down, down. Okay, What'd you say?

[Customer]

What? What. What is that?

[Liver King]

Primal number one.

What'd you say, bro?

[Customer]

Or third? My name is Blow Slogan. Oh, wait, hold on. I suppose My name is Blow Slogan. Yo. I'm a big bully and I'm untouchable. I can do whatever I want. That's right.

[Liver King]

A black belt in jiu jitsu. You said I'm a pretend. I'm a pretender.

[Julian Walker]

Yeah. That is absolutely bizarre. He's. He's personifying the voice of his car. I guess at this point he needs imaginary friends. It's really sad. And. And we do know there's. There's plenty of documentation out there that we can draw upon in the literature about some of the side effects that can happen from performance enhancing drugs, especially steroids. And some of those side effects actually are psychiatric. And, you know, I. I am very concerned for his mental health.

[Derek Barris]

Absolutely. And I'll just point out that we were recording that five days after that video dropped. He said, I'm going to record a lot of videos for four or five days, then I'm not going to record any for a very long time.

[Julian Walker]

I've seen him say that before. And it's always so. It's false.

[Derek Barris]

True. But I would also advise that anyone that is anywhere in the air, in the proximity of him, get his family the fuck out of there. Because when you're at the point where you're hallucinating and pretending that inanimate objects are your enemy, it doesn't go well from there.

[Julian Walker]

Yeah. And the. The number of videos he has on his feed of firearms is pretty disturbing as well.