527 JRE Review of Gad Saad

Summary

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Episode Overview

Podcast: Joe Rogan Experience Review
Host: Adam Thorne (with co-host)
Episode: #527 – JRE Review of Gad Saad
Date: May 21, 2026

This episode of the Joe Rogan Experience Review focuses on breaking down the latest JRE episode featuring evolutionary psychologist and author Gad Saad. The hosts dig deep into Gad’s signature blend of intellectual rigor, sharp commentary, and unfiltered takes on science, education, billionaire psychology, modern AI, political culture, and more. The conversation is rich with memorable moments, thought-provoking insights, and the occasional irreverent jab—all delivered in the candid, relatable style fans expect.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Gad Saad’s Communication Style & Parenting Insights

• Gad’s Preparation & Memory:
  • “He’s just so fascinating and so well prepared. I mean, there’s never, like, a lull in the conversation... his memory is immaculate.” (Joe Rogan, 00:58)
• Gifted Children & Early College:
  • Discussion about trade-offs between academic acceleration and social/emotional development.
  • “Some kids get to college, like, really early... but they’re not going to be socially that mature and clearly probably physically different.” (Joe Rogan, 01:33)
  • Personal account: Struggles with emotional maturity and independence even as an academically advanced student. (Co-host, 02:38–05:16)

Notable Quote

• “Is it really appropriate to expect a child to act more adult than his age? That to me just sounds like, just act... a good way for your age.” (Joe Rogan, 04:31)

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2. Issues in Scientific Publications

• Publication Bias/Noll Effect:
  • Explains Gad’s point about the tendency for scientific journals to favor studies showing strong positive effects and to under-publish “null” results (studies showing no effect).
  • This skews meta-analyses and can create a misleading scientific consensus. (Joe Rogan, 07:52–09:40)
  • “Papers that were never written that contradict all of this, that are not calculated in, I wonder really what difference that makes.” (Joe Rogan, 11:20)
• Consequences in Medicine and Psychology:
  • Skewed data impacts everything from pharmaceutical marketing to mental health treatments. (Co-host, 12:31–13:57)

Memorable Moment

• “It’s basically like cherry picking. Really.” (Joe Rogan, 11:18)

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3. Mike Tyson vs. Jake Paul: Real or Staged?

• Fight Commentary:
  • Joe Rogan describes the event as “more like a sparring session than a real fight.” (15:15)
  • Debate over whether the fight was staged or simply underwhelming.
  • The co-host suggests Jake Paul orchestrated an outcome favorable for both, mostly for financial reasons.
  • “Tyson could have punched his head off at any minute…He would have just knocked him through the ring...” (Joe Rogan, 17:27)

Notable Quote

• “People know bullshit when we see it.” (Joe Rogan, 16:45)

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4. Billionaires & Wealth Psychology

• Showiness vs. Subtlety:
  • Contrast between new money (“peacocking”) and discreet behavior of billionaires.
  • Gad argues true billionaires shun flashy spending because their peers can outspend them anyway.
  • “You don’t often see them driving a Ferrari…there’s no competition.” (Joe Rogan, 21:45)
• Influence and Power:
  • Discussion moves to tech billionaires (Bezos, Musk, Zuckerberg).
  • Elon Musk’s $40 billion acquisition of Twitter exemplifies “nothing he can’t purchase.”
• Old Money vs. New Money & Privacy:
  • “Those that have $20 million, you know their names. Those that have $300, $500, $900 million, they don’t want you to know their name.” (Co-host, 25:58)

Quote

• “Billionaires don’t wear gold chains.” (Kanye to Dave Chappelle, quoted by Joe Rogan, 25:41)

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5. AI Race & Global Tech Fears

• Chinese AI and “Deep Seek”:
  • Concerns over China’s rapid progress, potential IP theft, and U.S. response.
  • The co-host admits: “All of this absolutely terrifies me…AI is coming to be quantum computing. We’re on the verge of that. Those combined will be unstoppable.” (Co-host, 32:29)
• Future of War:
  • “It’s gonna be wild. Yeah, they’ll be using this stuff to fight wars for sure…It’s turning into like robots with guns and drones that explode with hacking AI.” (Joe Rogan, 33:20)
• Societal Risk:
  • Power outages, cyberattacks, and the fragility of infrastructure. (34:13–35:06)
  • “If our Internet goes out…we’re all fucked.” (Co-host, 34:23)

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6. Eerie Literary Coincidences: Elon Musk and Barron Trump

• Elon Musk & von Braun Novel:
  • Werner von Braun’s novel featured a character named Elon leading humans to Mars.
  • Discussion of fate vs. coincidence; namesakes and predestined paths.
  • “...Astronomically low odds. That you would name them, set them on this trajectory, and then they also happen to become the richest person they ever lived and the most likely person to get to Mars.” (Joe Rogan, 39:38)
• Barron Trump & The Last President:
  • Ingersoll Lockwood’s 19th-century novels: unnervingly similar plotlines and character names to the contemporary Trumps.
  • “...This one feels like more…have more questions about this one…his mentor's name was Dawn. Like, this one feels like more…I get more questions about this one.” (Co-host, 40:46)
  • Musings on simulation theory and fate.

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7. Free Speech, Cancel Culture, and "Wokeism"

• Academic Backlash:
  • Gad Saad’s uniqueness as a non-left-leaning academic; outspoken on pronouns, political correctness, and the “woke” culture.
• Freedom vs. Sensitivity:
  • “You can’t move the bar to where everything you hear insults you or offends you because then you’re stopping every single person from saying anything.” (Joe Rogan, 46:48)
• Broader Social Implications:
  • Freedom of authentic self-expression is linked to happiness and mental health.
  • “The fact that you don’t feel like you can just be yourself without judgment… That’s like just creating one problem, fixing one problem and creating another.” (Co-host, 46:16)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

| Timestamp | Speaker | Quote | |------------|------------|----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 00:58 | Joe Rogan | “He’s just so fascinating and so well prepared…his memory is immaculate.” | | 04:31 | Joe Rogan | “Is it really appropriate to expect a child to act more adult than his age?” | | 11:18 | Joe Rogan | “It’s basically like cherry picking. Really.” | | 16:45 | Joe Rogan | “People know bullshit when we see it.” | | 25:41 | Kanye (quoted by Joe Rogan) | “Billionaires don’t wear gold chains.” | | 32:29 | Co-host | “All of this absolutely terrifies me…AI…quantum computing…Those combined will be unstoppable.” | | 34:23 | Co-host | “If our power goes out…our Internet goes out…we’re all fucked.” | | 39:38 | Joe Rogan | “It’s astronomically low odds…they also happen to become…the most likely person to get to Mars.” | | 46:48 | Joe Rogan | “You can’t move the bar to where everything you hear insults you…then you’re stopping every single person from saying anything.” |

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Segment Timestamps

• 00:00–02:38 | Gad Saad’s return; parenting, gifted children, and social maturity
• 07:52–13:21 | Scientific publication bias, the “null effect,” consequences in medicine
• 15:14–19:37 | Analysis of the Mike Tyson vs. Jake Paul fight, boxing legitimacy
• 21:45–29:55 | Billionaires’ wealth psychology, old/new money, showiness vs. privacy
• 29:58–36:43 | AI race, Deep Seek, quantum computing, and future global technology threats
• 37:47–43:35 | Literary coincidences: von Braun’s Elon and Lockwood’s Barron Trump
• 43:36–48:51 | Gad Saad on free speech, political correctness, and cancel culture
• 44:31–48:51 | Highlights from Gad’s upcoming book The Saad Truth About Happiness
• 48:51–End | Closing thoughts

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The Saad Truth About Happiness – Preview

• Upcoming Book: Secrets on leading a good life; happiness as more than success or wealth.
• Key themes:
  • Personal freedoms
  • Comedy and humor
  • Authenticity
  • Resilience against cancel culture and hypersensitivity

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Final Thoughts

A classic, engaging, and wide-ranging review that taps into the core of why both Gad Saad’s and Joe Rogan’s voices resonate so powerfully: smart skepticism, humor, and an unfiltered approach to controversial topics. From the meta-problems of science to dystopian tech and the quirks of the ultra-rich, the episode delivers insights, laughs, and plenty of food for thought—perfect for new and hardened Rogan fans alike.

Transcript

[Joe Rogan]

Hey, guys, and welcome to another episode of the Joe Rogan Experience Review. Awesome to have you guys with us for this episode. This week we are reviewing Gad Sad. Gad Sad's back on. I always like to see Gadon.

[Co-host or Guest]

It's a great name.

[Joe Rogan]

He's awesome. Quick shout out to a couple of our new patreons. Thank you so much for supporting the show. Grace and Nancy, couple of ladies supporting this show.

[Co-host or Guest]

Thanks, guys.

[Joe Rogan]

If you guys want to hop over to the bio and sign up, we got all sorts of goodies over there. Exclusive episodes, episodes without commercials. You know, we're setting up some Q&As and some fun stuff. So it's just a great way to support the show. It helps us out. We love it. So cheers. All right, get sad. What's he up to this time around?

[Co-host or Guest]

Great conversation.

[Joe Rogan]

It always is. I mean, he's just so fascinating and so well prepared. I mean, there's never, like a lull in the conversation. He's always coming up with interesting points and breakdowns and his memory is immaculate. I mean, the details that he puts in, I don't know if he goes with a bunch of notes. I don't remember seeing any. He just is that kind of collected when it comes to his communication. But on top of that, you know, a very smart guy.

[Co-host or Guest]

Yeah.

[Joe Rogan]

Opened up a little bit about children and, like, raising them and, you know, highly intelligent children, for one. And I've often thought about this. He mentioned that, you know, they. Some kids get to college, like, really early sometimes. You hear that. And whether they did like, AP or they were homeschooled, they tested out, whatever, and, you know, they're finishing their degree at, like, 19. And it sounds amazing. That's a gifted child. But I've never really considered the parts that they're missing. Like, they may be that intelligent, but they're not going to be socially that mature and clearly probably physically different. So I wonder how that changes the whole, you know, college experience for them. And I think about it in terms of like, let's say our kids or a friend of ours kids is really advanced. Is it the best move to kind of push them ahead or just. Just let them stay where they are and do very well?

[Co-host or Guest]

Yeah, I. I think there's a balance there of challenging a child academically, but also, like you said, following the trajectory, the appropriate, emotionally, you know, emotional, like, trajectory of, like, where they're at and making sure that they're. That's being accounted for in their success. I personally, I mean, I graduated on time I just was young for my class. So at 17, ended up moving away before I turned 18. And I struggled my first year away, you know, and I was only three hours from home, but it was, I just wasn't emotionally mature enough. Like, I wasn't ready for being alone. I wasn't ready for managing my own time, you know, entirely. And every child and every young adult is different. But I would say some of the fault here, I think lies in, I mean, obviously being in high school can be fun. Some people have a really great experience and some people don't. Some people have a really poor experience. You know, we've talked in the past a lot about like bullying and you know, the traumas that come with being in the public education system. The potential is there, but I think a lot of it, like parents lean too much on the public education system to help their students develop, you know, emotionally, and it just isn't there. I mean, they're teaching them curriculum, they're teaching them, you know, be on time and you know, go from class to class kind of thing, but they're not teaching them how to like, be adults.

[Joe Rogan]

Yeah. And you know, it's one thing to teach a smart kid concepts that are kind of above that standard age.

[Co-host or Guest]

Right.

[Joe Rogan]

Complex math or some science or something like that. But is it really appropriate to expect a child to act more adult than his age? That to me just sounds like, just act the way, like a good way for your age. You know, you don't want a little kid acting like, you know, an old man. It's like, just be a kid still. Like you're not expected to be able to communicate with 20 year olds. Like you're saying the 17 go off to college, you really didn't feel prepared. And you knock two years off that sure, you're academically smart, but that doesn't mean you know how to do a lot of other things or you're even really capable of doing that.

[Co-host or Guest]

Yeah. And then, you know, like, like my personal story, I moved home, I took two years off, and two years later I was really ready. I was ready to be by myself. I was ready to live alone, I was ready to get good grades. I was ready to like make something of myself and had like a mindset of like wanting to be successful and not just, you know, oh, I'm just gonna like go from, you know, being in high school where everything's really easy. I mean, academically I did not have.

[Joe Rogan]

Well, it's not easy for everybody.

[Co-host or Guest]

Well, no, but I'm just saying, like my Personal story. It was not. It was really easy. Like I didn't try very hard. And then I got to college. I'm like, oh, it's gonna be the same thing, but there's all these other distractions of, you know, what's going on in college, you know, partying and so on. And I was like, oh my gosh, I actually have to try. I'm not ready for that. And so while I was like, good, you know, ready academically, I just wasn't like prepared for the changes and I didn't have like the emotional support there, you know, with me every single day. But I also think there's some element of this where back to like my kind of quarry with the public education system is starting children to young, expecting things of them and you know, starting children with curriculum at age four and a half, five. That doesn't feel really right to me either. I mean, it's not play based in American public schools. And really children need like learn so much through play. And so in my mind, really everything should be delayed in America a couple of years. Right. Like, you know, children really shouldn't be able to move away from home at 18. Like almost no 18 year old is ready for that, is emotionally mature enough for that. Neither are they intellectually like acute enough to make the decision to take on student loans. Yeah, right.

[Joe Rogan]

But again, you can't generalize. I couldn't have been at home past 16. It was impossible for me. I was like, get me out of here right now. And that was probably after two years of already wanting to go.

[Co-host or Guest]

Yeah.

[Joe Rogan]

So, you know, it didn't necessarily mean I was prepared for it, but I did all the things that you needed to do once you were gone. Make it work and keep an apartment and. Yeah, and you know, bare minimum, I guess you would call it.

[Co-host or Guest]

So it seems like the solution here is personalized approach. You know, there's got to be some way to test the emotional and, you know, maturity of a student and sort of gauge their next steps based on that.

[Joe Rogan]

Yeah, yeah. It's the individualized experience. I mean, that's also very important. Back to the gifted child thing. Yeah, they're going to get so bored if they're in a classroom and they're kind of teaching to the middle of the class. It's just, it's just going to drive them nuts. Switching gears a little bit. Gad talked about the scientific process and this, this kind of surprised me. I mean, he's a guy that has done a lot of research. He has published papers and helped students do it, work with grad students, PhD students, so on. And one thing that he said is that scientific studies, even including the meta analysis, which Harvard does a lot of these, they're very well respected peer reviewed scientific papers that are a collection of a ton of different papers. So, you know, you're thinking, oh wow, this finally has to be the answer. But Gad was talking about the null effect, this effect where if you're going to do a research paper and the conclusion is that there's no significant difference or change. I can't remember exactly how he defined it, but you don't see the result that you hypothesize for that paper is often not published because it's just, I don't know, not interesting, not compelling. You know, people don't want to put. I guess there's extra time and effort that goes into the peer review process. So none of those papers are counted. So you're only getting a bunch of the ones that represent the change and even adding those together, you don't have the full picture. And that was really quite surprising to me. I had not heard of that.

[Co-host or Guest]

Yeah, I mean this feels like a huge problem in like the world of psychology and the medical field. Studies that are published that only talk about strong effects. Right.

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[Co-host or Guest]

There is. There's maybe an inaccurate consensus of like what is happening in that topic. Right. Like if we only think about like the, the like one end of the spectrum. Yeah, right. It's sort of that like place. Not the placebo effect but like if you start thinking what's.

[Joe Rogan]

It's basically like cherry picking. Really.

[Co-host or Guest]

Yeah.

[Joe Rogan]

So a good, a good bit of science is that you incorporate all of the data points right now you may get some that are called outliers that you don't average in, you know, your line on the graph. But if you're looking at it in terms of how many papers it takes to make a meta analysis and then the potential null effect, papers that were never written that contradict all of this, that are not calculated in, I wonder really what difference that makes.

[Co-host or Guest]

Yeah, I mean, the data is evidently skewed, right.

[Joe Rogan]

Like, it's, maybe it's related to why, you know, so many pharmaceuticals or meds are really not that effective or, you know, ultimately they're not very good for your health or there's a bunch of side effects. It just seems like a system that could be cleaned up and hasn't been. And honestly, it's great that somebody like GAD talks about it because you don't hear this, you just hear, oh, peer reviewed paper. Here's the facts as best we know it. Believe this and try not to question anything.

[Co-host or Guest]

Yeah. I mean, this concept is, I think, I mean it's, it's well known, right. Like you don't want to, like with any medicine or any mental health treatment, you don't want to basically talk about like anything negative or that may not happen. You only want to talk about what will happen. Right. So in marketing they would say, oh, Ozembic, it'll make you lose weight and it'll lower these things. This is what we know will happen, right. For sure that we've intended for it to, to happen. Right. But they're not going to advertise. Oh, there's a 40% chance that nothing's going to happen or that you're going to have negative side effects. Like, think about how skewed that would make the usage. Right. Maybe with something in our world like ozemic, not so much. But if it was a mental health treatment and there was all of these potential negative or just like non effective side effects. Right. Or just like non effects.

[Joe Rogan]

Yeah.

[Co-host or Guest]

It's like, who people may decide to not go through with something for that reason and they're definitely not gonna talk about those in the marketing aspect of it.

[Joe Rogan]

Right. If like screaming at a patient that, you know, falls in a category of a percentage of clients that have had no positive effects from therapy and the screaming works and it's like, great, do that with all the people like this.

[Co-host or Guest]

Yeah.

[Joe Rogan]

And then you count that as successful, but you don't count in the other 90% of people that got screamed at. And actually it got way worse didn't like it and.

[Co-host or Guest]

Right.

[Joe Rogan]

Like, I'm afraid that didn't help them, so we won't count that.

[Co-host or Guest]

Yeah, well, I think there's, like, all also this concept of, like, context. Right. Like, and sort of wording that can impact how someone understands something. And this is definitely that, you know, leaving out the potential opposite effects or the potential opposite, you know, results of something just to highlight what you want. You know, it's.

[Joe Rogan]

Sounds like politics.

[Co-host or Guest]

Exactly. What's going on. Sneaky. Sneaky. But, you know, it's affecting our overall understanding of so much around us. And I think it's really important that we all keep this concept in mind when we're talking about, oh, well, I feel so confident that this treatment or this medication or this activity is gonna work for me, because I've read that it works for so many other people. It's like, yeah, but that's only what you're seeing. You're not seeing what they don't want you to see.

[Joe Rogan]

Right.

[Co-host or Guest]

In that, you know.

[Joe Rogan]

Yeah. Yeah. Talking about kind of sneaky behavior. And Joe was very diplomatic with his stance on talking about the Mike Tyson, Jake Paul fight. So he saw the fight, as did many, many other people. It's very popular.

[Co-host or Guest]

Crashed Netflix.

[Joe Rogan]

He said, yeah, he said, I'm happy for both of them. I'm glad they made a good amount of money. I'm sure he's talking mainly about Mike, who really needed it, and he has a lot of respect for Mike. He said it looked more like a sparring session than a real fight. And I happen to agree. Now, there was a lot of talk online and, you know, a lot of MMA and boxing kind of analysis. Analysis, guys that. That I do respect that really came out and said, listen, if this was faked, you know, like, that's a huge legal problem because this is boxing. You could bet on it. Just the idea that they would have somewhat rigged it, it just impossible. Like, the legalities, all the rest of the things, however, you go watch that fight and if you know something. And I don't know a ton about boxing, but, you know, I've seen plenty of boxing matches and how they move, and it's just like, it looked very amateur and very protected. You know, there was. There was not even a dangerous swing that missed, from what I can tell. And a lot of people saw that too. A lot of people were pretty frustrated after the fight. And, you know, it's not like everybody is a boxing expert. It's like, people know bullshit when we see it.

[Co-host or Guest]

I think I know literally Nothing about boxing. And I knew from the moment it started, this is not real. Look at him. Look at Mike. Like, he's howled in his 70s and he's fighting this person who somehow has become like, one of the best boxers of our time. You know, I mean, maybe not that. Maybe that's subjective.

[Joe Rogan]

You know, Jake Paul sucks. He's not even.

[Co-host or Guest]

Okay, but he's very popular. Right. And he is. I mean, just in general, like, in terms of your. His physicality and everything. Like, he's got something there. Right. But he. Yeah, it was obviously staged.

[Joe Rogan]

Tyson could have punched his head off at any minute. Just at any minute. You could just tell he was winding up. And it was like, he's just so much more technical than Jake Paul. Even being old, he would have just. He would have just knocked him through the ring and probably potential to really hurt Jake. So he wasn't. He wasn't down for that.

[Co-host or Guest]

See, I don't know. I kind of see it differently. I see it as. They knew that it was gonna bring an audience. Jake Paul is in it for the numbers. Like, he's not in it to really be like, you know, like I said before, the best boxer of all time.

[Joe Rogan]

Yeah, he wants money.

[Co-host or Guest]

He wants the money. And Mike, he basically proposed to Mike. This is how I envisioned it. Went down. He proposed to Mike and said, I won't knock you out. I won't hurt you. I'll let. I'll make you look good, but I'm gonna win and you're gonna make this much money. And Mike's like, I'm in. And I mean, I just see it as Mike was struggling and Jake Paul was, like, kind of pretending to struggle.

[Joe Rogan]

I mean, that's kind of what Jake said at the end of the fight. I don't know. Right. I don't know. Either way, it's like, maybe that was how it went, but something was off. Even for Jake to say, oh, yeah, I just. I pulled some punches. I didn't really want to, you know, hit him, which, you know, you can kind of respect. But it's also a boxing match. A lot of people are watching, like, you know, give him a few more body shots, then people can take that. It's not going to give him brain damage.

[Co-host or Guest]

Yeah, but. And then, I mean, I think Mike, this is not verbatim, but he essentially said afterwards, I don't care that I lost. I didn't care if I lost. I basically did it for the money. And, you know, that just goes to show. I think it was all staged. I Think, you know, obviously we wouldn't have known what would have happened going into it, like, but it was going to go one way or another. And it being orchestrated by Jake Paul. We knew. I knew who was going to win, like, one way or another.

[Joe Rogan]

Like, I would say, moving forward, he's a good bet. If Boogies are taking bets.

[Co-host or Guest]

Yeah.

[Joe Rogan]

Then. Because they probably are rigged in his favor, you know, unless it's like an actual young boxer that can box. That's the only loss he's had. And even that was. I don't know if it was close, but it was close enough. Yeah, he didn't get knocked out even by that guy, but, yeah, he'd be a safe bet to bet on me personally. I will. I'm sure I'll get around to watching some highlights of his next fight, but there's no way I'm sitting there on Netflix and doing that whole thing. It's just. Yeah, absolutely not worth it. It was so much time and, you know, just a massive letdown. Honestly, jumping over to something that Gad was saying. Kind of like the psychology of billionaire spending habits, which I found quite interesting. So, you know, he's talking about people that are kind of newly wealthy. You know, probably everybody has somebody in their life that's like that, you know, they gotta buy the BMW or they get the big house. And, you know, this is new to them. They're showing off. Maybe they're even, you know, keeping up with the Joneses. So they're really stretching their budget, that kind of thing. Then you've got the millionaires you see on tv, the rappers, the actors, whatever. They've gotta have all the flashy cars, all the flashy gold chains. It's like very much. What would it be? Peacocking type thing. It's like, look at me, I'm obviously rich. I'm obviously wealthy. But Gad was saying with billionaires a lot different, you don't often see them driving a Ferrari, you know, or even a supercar or it's like. Because all of their peers can literally buy everything that they want, anything that they want. So there. Then it's no competition. You're not really showing anything off. Even if you go and buy a really big house, which often the billionaires will do. Yeah, they're not really posturing that house against their peers because they can all buy. Yeah, a mega castle. They could probably buy like a block of Manhattan.

[Co-host or Guest]

Yeah. I mean, you look at the billionaires right now, sort of like that billionaire space race concept. It's like that's something that a single person with $1 billion is not doing. Right?

[Joe Rogan]

That's true.

[Co-host or Guest]

Someone who has $200 billion, they're trying to get to Mars.

[Joe Rogan]

I wonder, I wonder what Bezos and Zuckerberg think. Thought when Elon bought Twitter for like 40 billion. Like, that's such a ridiculous move in terms of finances and a risk. You know, it like, halved in value right away. And Elon was just like, yeah, no worries. Here you go. Yeah, there's that. And it's done. I wonder if they look at it like, oh, he is seriously bowling. Like, there is nothing he can't purchase if he wanted to.

[Co-host or Guest]

I think with. When you get to this point, to that point, not this point, we're nowhere near that up. But, you know, the.

[Joe Rogan]

What are you talking about? I'm a billionaire.

[Co-host or Guest]

Okay, okay. But like the, you know, this concept of, like, influence and, like, namesake and like, you know, what Elon has done, sort of playing into and getting involved with the presidential election, this recent 2024 presidential election, I mean, that's not something that just anyone can do. You need not only money. I mean, he invested like 80 something billion or some whatever to get Trump elected. Million, million. And he's increased his wealth by 160 million since then.

[Joe Rogan]

Who has?

[Co-host or Guest]

Elon?

[Joe Rogan]

Oh, no, he's increased it by billions.

[Co-host or Guest]

Billions. Okay, but so like the return on

[Joe Rogan]

investment, he got to half a trillion dollars in his stock value shortly after.

[Co-host or Guest]

So he invested 80 million to get Donald Trump elected, and within like a week after him getting elected, his wealth went up 150 billion. Right, something along those lines.

[Joe Rogan]

Regardless, like, I don't think that was his primary motivation, though, do you know?

[Co-host or Guest]

Well, what I'm saying is that that's a different level of wealth that, like in this concept that his peers, you know, I mean, other than like maybe three people, five people on the planet could even imagine getting involved in. Yeah, right. And so 40 billion here and there. It's like, okay, like, I have the potential to increase my wealth so drastically with my influence. Not just money, not just, you know, intelligence, but now it's influence. It's all of these things that he has his fingers wrapped into, you know, social media and now politics and the space race and, you know, AI technology. Like, he's done it the right way and like, it's this formula that almost no one can replicate. And obviously he's a unique human being. Like, he's so incredibly unique and special. People are going to talk about him for centuries to come, but he, you know. Yeah, I mean, this, this concept of $300 million yachts, like to him, whatever, like he's out here building things for humanity. Yeah.

[Joe Rogan]

Why would you give a shit about a big yacht when you have your own rockets?

[Co-host or Guest]

Yeah.

[Joe Rogan]

The starships that can land on. Not that he can like fly around in him with his buddies, but I mean, it's bowler as hell.

[Co-host or Guest]

Yeah. I mean, you even think about like, like the billionaires, the way that they dress like Mark Zuckerberg, Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, they just wear like T shirts. Like, they're not even like dressing up in anything flashy. Right. They, they don't want to be known for that. They want to be known for what's inside their head. They want to be known for something bigger.

[Joe Rogan]

That Zuckerberg does have a bunch of super dope expensive watches.

[Co-host or Guest]

Well, of course, yeah. But you know, you think about like when, when a, like a musical artist makes their first $10 million, they still out and they spend it on flashy things to sort of indicate that they have this.

[Joe Rogan]

Yeah, well, it's like Kanye said to Dave Chappelle when he got to billionaire status and somebody asked him where his gold chains are, and he's like, billionaires don't wear gold chains.

[Co-host or Guest]

Right.

[Joe Rogan]

Yeah, that's really. That sounds like a really sick rap line.

[Co-host or Guest]

And I, I won't go into too much detail on this, but you know, my family has been involved with some, some of the work that my family's done, like essentially developing real estate for like this market. Maybe not like the Elon Musk market, but those in the billionaire sector and, but more in like the multi million, you know, those that are between 20 and $300 million. Very, very wealthy people. And you know, on the development side, like, not really having any personal connection with them, but what has been noticed about it and what I've personally witnessed is Those that have 20 million, you know their names, those that have 300, 500, $900 million, they don't want you to know their name. You know, you don't know who they are. You. They're unassuming people.

[Joe Rogan]

Like, they're very private.

[Co-host or Guest]

They're very private. And you don't know anything about their families. They don't have Wikipedia pages about them. Like, they're not celebrities that have. The celebrities actually have less money typically than a lot of these individuals. You just don't know who they are.

[Joe Rogan]

That's interesting. I mean, it makes the most sense. If you, if you get the mega money, you don't need the attention no, like, people are after. They love to hate on that. They like to get your money. They like to sue you if they can. Yeah.

[Co-host or Guest]

Another concept with this is like, old money, new money. And being in the UK for a few weeks or two months that we just were like, we. We heard a lot about this. Like, oh, those that have the old money, it's like they have older things. They drive vintage cars, you know, like. But they're not out being obnoxious with their money. And like, you. Those that have new money, it's like, it's almost like frowned upon. It's like you're a nuisance kind of.

[Joe Rogan]

Yeah, there's weird class stuff like that, for sure. And I'm sure the behaviors are different because, you know, if you're coming from, like, you're a lord, right, or a duke or something, then your family's used to having money. They have all the lawyers and financial advisors and trusts all in the right place, you know, advising you on how to spend and where and, you know, what polite societies to be in. I mean, if you just rolled up in the dopest Ferrari or, you know, a super pimped out BMW, it doesn't really fit that lifestyle of those people. They probably just go to Monaco and gamble.

[Co-host or Guest]

They have this concept in, like, fashion, in designer fashion of, like, you know, like the masses want something that says Balenciaga on it, right?

[Joe Rogan]

What?

[Co-host or Guest]

So the designers.

[Joe Rogan]

Okay, you're talking to zero percent of my audience.

[Co-host or Guest]

Okay. I'm just saying, like, you know, anything that says the name brand costs a fraction of what something that actually was representative of the brand's, like, designs and style is right? So, you know, a bag. Okay, I'm Michael Kors. Do you know Michael Kors? There's all of these things out there that say Michael Kors on them and those cost $100 a piece. But something that's like a true, genuine, like, designed by Michael Kors product, you don't even know that it's Michael Kors. And that's just like an example. I mean, there's hundreds and thousands of different designers out there, but it is that sort of like people that have less money wanting to show that they have money. And once you have it, you don't really care. It's less about the status. It's less about the awareness that you are wearing something specific or that you have something. It's just you're doing different things with your money.

[Joe Rogan]

I think there's a lesson there for anybody with any level of money, though. It's Just like, you know, don't feel the need to show off because no one gives a shit. Like, no one's really envying you at all because you have a nice this and that. And if they do, they're. They're just thinking that kind of same way. It's like, I've done it before. I bought a car that I thought everyone would think I was cool if I bought it, did nothing. It was expensive, and I learned from it, and I won't do it again.

[Co-host or Guest]

And you're never gonna have another.

[Joe Rogan]

Just, like, not gonna do that. But back to Elon and kind of things that he's getting involved in. Mark Zuckerberg as well, and there's a lot of talk about in the White House is AI and where AI is going. And Sam Altman from Chat gbt. It's that whole world's been kind of thrown upside down with the release of. What was it? DeepMind or Deep Seek or something. What is that Chinese app called?

[Co-host or Guest]

Think it's Deep Seek.

[Joe Rogan]

Yeah, yeah. And I heard that Texas is trying to ban it. If you go and use it on the desktop, which I did recently. It is like format for format copy of Chat GPT. I mean, to the point where I've used Chat for a while now, you know, period. You know, just sporadically here and there for things. And when I brought up the Deep Sea page, I'm pretty. It is Deep Sea gray. I've got a double check this. Otherwise, just sound dumb.

[Co-host or Guest]

Come.

[Joe Rogan]

All right, I can't find it. Doesn't matter. But, yeah, I knew how to navigate the page immediately. There was just no surprises. And that's a really smart way to grab a bunch of people that want to check out your technology. And what. What was it called?

[Co-host or Guest]

Deep Seek.

[Joe Rogan]

Deep Seek. Okay. Yeah, yeah. And, you know, if it is not just that they stole the format, which is very clear, they did that. It's like, no doubt. Yeah, but if it's stolen tech, did they hack in? You know, how did they get it? Do they have people on the inside? What does this mean for. I think the AI community is shaken because they were sure that the US Were ahead of this. You know, I don't want to say arms race, AI race, but maybe not. I mean, they might even be doing it with much cheaper technology.

[Co-host or Guest]

Yeah. It's so funny. Even I can't remember what the name of it is, but the, like, the little icon, when you search it, it, like, almost looks identical to the chat GPT1, but it's different. It's like black and white and like swirly black. Like it's, it's scary similar. And then they have a different icon that's like its actual icon. Favicon. That's what it's called.

[Joe Rogan]

Right.

[Co-host or Guest]

All of this absolutely terrifies me. All of these platforms in general, the conversation, the concept that AI is coming to be quantum computing. We're on the verge of that. Those combined will be unstoppable. And obviously I know that if you can learn to use it for your benefit and get ahead of it, then you're going to be okay. I just fear that not only myself, but so many people are going to get left behind by this and just get overwhelmed by the possibilities and the potential here. And there's obviously so many implications of this in terms of global security control and just power dynamics.

[Joe Rogan]

It's super important that, you know, we have countermeasures and the only ones are other smart AIs that can stop attacks and hacking stuff from. I mean, it's, it's gonna be wild. Yeah, they'd be using this stuff to fight wars for sure. And we don't know what the capabilities are. It's turning into like robots with guns and drones that explode with hacking AI.

[Co-host or Guest]

Well, yeah, I think it's gonna be all just like technology wars essentially.

[Joe Rogan]

You know, like, I mean, our, like, no people die. It's just like a bunch of.

[Co-host or Guest]

It's just hacking into each other's systems and, and, and, you know, stalling our operations. I mean, we can't, you know, people won't get paid. You know, logistics will shut down. Like, literally they can just shut down our country. If you can hack in and make enough happen. Right?

[Joe Rogan]

Well, they say, they say about the power grid, that's a big concern. Yeah, like being able to turn off our power so quickly, we're all screwed. Like, we're useless.

[Co-host or Guest]

I mean, that's like apocalyptic style. Like we will fall apart. And I mean, America being as vast and as sort of independent and, you know, people having so many. What's the word? Like, opinions in general and like, thoughts and sort of like autonomy in their thought. Like, it's gonna be fucking chaos if our power goes out. If our Internet goes out, if our, you know, access to government, you know, systems goes out, like, what will happen? You know, I mean, obviously if you have billions of dollars and you can be like, I'm going to the Mars and I'm just gonna bypass this whole issue, that's one thing, but the average person, even, you know, above and below average, like, we're all fucked.

[Joe Rogan]

Yeah, basically everyone. Well, this is why Zuckerberg, I think, just spent like 200 million on a, like a doomsday bunker.

[Co-host or Guest]

Yeah.

[Joe Rogan]

And you know, I'm sure a bunch of them are doing it. I'm sure Elon has one.

[Co-host or Guest]

Yeah.

[Joe Rogan]

You know, just because they have so much money, they could do it. Maybe then they're even thinking, look, we're not going to use this. This is, it's not necessary. But it makes you think. And of course, like, there is no easy. There's no solution for the rest of us that is comfortable. There's no comfortable solution. No, it's, It's. You better hope that other groups of people like you a lot, otherwise it's death.

[Co-host or Guest]

Yeah, I just, I see this point where combat is irrelevant, you know, individuals. I mean, a human life is going to be measured in. I mean, basically to nothing like the, the impact that a human soldier can have on technologies like this that are so vast and think 20 times, 20,000 times quicker and deeper and, you know, harder than a human, like combat is going to not exist. It's all going to be intelligence, you

[Joe Rogan]

know, robots and drones.

[Co-host or Guest]

Robots and computers and drones and. Yeah, I mean, obviously I think nukes are still an issue, like, because. But that's still, that's all technology based. Like no one's like picking the nuke up and like put loading stuff in it. Like, it's not like it's all just ready to go. It's just a button.

[Joe Rogan]

Drones with tiny nukes. Yeah, nukes just blow up one house. Oh, yeah.

[Co-host or Guest]

It's. It's terrifying. Absolutely terrifying. I don't want to be. I want it to happen after I'm gone.

[Joe Rogan]

Let's get on to some of the, like, weirder parts of the pod in terms of, you know, what are the odds or the coincidences. They mentioned a few novels and this kind of blew my mind. And I was curious what, you know, the listeners thought of this when they heard this on Rogan's pod. There's a couple of books, so one is by Werner von Braun, 1950s novel. And it's about this person named Elon that takes the humans to Mars and then basically becomes like the President of Mars. That's wild. Now, Gad took a good guess and was like, maybe his dad read the book or someone read the book and then they named Elon after that. Fair enough. But Joe brought up, and I was thinking the same thing, like, yeah, but so what you can name. I could name my kid Jordan. He's not Going to become the best basketball player in the world. Right. It's just. Doesn't matter.

[Co-host or Guest]

Right.

[Joe Rogan]

Or I can name him Maximus Decimus Meridius. He's not going to be the gladiator that saves Rome or some other civilization, as much as I would like that to be true.

[Co-host or Guest]

Yeah.

[Joe Rogan]

But then it did turn out that Elon's dad did read that book, liked it and named that character. But still the coincidence, like the idea of fate with it all, or just like a foreseeing, foreshadowing, like it's. It's madness.

[Co-host or Guest]

It is. I mean, when they first started talking about it, my mind. Because this is my first I've heard of it. I'm sure people listening, you know, listeners have. This has come across your. Your feedback all before. I mean, this wasn't brand new, but my mind went to that. Like, there has got to be some explainable coincidence here with the name. Right. Like, if, you know, I mean, it was a novel, like it was a public novel of a public figure, you know, he was a rocket scientist, whatever. There is also probably some like, influence that this person, like if Elon's father was. Intro. Was a scientist, was interested in these things, maybe named Elon after this person. Maybe Elon was aware of it, even though he's indicated supposedly on his social media that he's like, oh, what are the odds? Like, what's the coincidence? Like he didn't know. I'm sure he knew where he was named after. Most people do. And it sort of because of his father's interests and sort of this, like, namesake that he was. That he had, like, he had kind of led into a life and an interest of science. So it's not like a pure coincidence that he has some involvement in science and technology. Right. So there's. There's definitely some things that have led him. The fact. The whole Mars thing. I think. Definitely.

[Joe Rogan]

But it's astronomically low odds.

[Co-host or Guest]

Yeah.

[Joe Rogan]

That you would name them, set them on this trajectory, and then they also happen to become the richest person they ever lived and the most likely person to get to Mars.

[Co-host or Guest]

Yeah.

[Joe Rogan]

You know, I guess in the same way, another book, they talked about Ingersoll Lockwood's Barron Trump novels, so. Novels about someone called Barron Trump. Now, it's reasonable to believe that maybe Trump knew about this book and liked the name Baron and thought that was cool. Or someone in his family knew of these books, you know, because you would know books that have your name in it, but they're from the 1890s and some of the predictions are, like, kind of eerily similar to this person's life.

[Co-host or Guest]

Mm. It is. I mean, I think both of these are very interesting. They're very thought provoking. You know, the. The fact that the character had lived in a castle. Castle Trump.

[Joe Rogan]

Well, that was the name of the book.

[Co-host or Guest]

Right. And his mentor's name was Dawn. Like, this one feels like more. Like I get more. Have more questions about this one than, you know, this. Not this. Werner von Braun's novel, you know, Hidden

[Joe Rogan]

Connection with Elon and dawn was from, you know, Manhattan.

[Co-host or Guest]

Yeah. And I mean, those eyebrows go up thinking about Trump's family. And then there's the next book called the Last President, and the parallels are even more kind of unsettling.

[Joe Rogan]

And to think that Baron is possibly not planning this in the future or his dad's planning it for him. I mean, if you think of his sons, the other two that are a bit older have not really stood out as the kind of leaders that could become president. Maybe. Maybe they can. Who knows? Wild world. But it feels like Baron could be kind of trained and put on that trajectory to a higher degree almost. And he's very young, but there's just something about his role in the last election that's like.

[Co-host or Guest]

Okay, yeah, that's what I was gonna say is his role in his sort of like, being involved with the campaigning. Like, that says a lot about one, his enthusiasm, his interests, but also his potential for building a life in politics, whether it's a career, being a career politician or finding a role, you know, like Donald Trump has, where he's built businesses, he's, you know, built his empire, he's got his celebrity, you know, accolades that he's got, and then he's decided that this is what's next for him. And who knows? Baron could be bigger than his father, he could be wealthier than his father. He obviously is intelligent. He's got a good foundation of, you know, education and resources, and he may do better than Donald Trump. And he could be a pres. You know, a president in the future. The concept of the last president, that's a bit scary. I don't know. Exactly. I obviously didn't read the novel and, like, what that is indicative of in terms of the storyline. But, yeah, I mean, it's definitely kind of, like I said, unsettling and very eerie the. The parallels that exist here.

[Joe Rogan]

Yeah, yeah, that one was. That one was unusual. I really don't know what to think about it. I mean, even Elong's one is. It's just like you know, they bring up that whole idea of the simulation theory. Is it that I just. Sometimes it makes you think. And it's fun. It's fun just to be like, look how weird that is. That's freaking. Whatever. I mean, where do you go from there?

[Co-host or Guest]

Yeah.

[Joe Rogan]

They talked a little bit about, like, consumer behavior, marketing stuff. I mean, that's kind of. Gad's talked about that before. A little bit about political correctness, free speech. You know, Gad is very outspoken and gets away with a lot because that's kind of his personality. He's a tenured professor. He's not getting fired for that. He's unusual in academia because he's not very left leaning. He pushes back a lot on, you know, the pronoun woke stuff and says when he needs to. Which is, I think, why Joe connects with him and respects him a lot and why he resonates so well with Rogan's audience.

[Co-host or Guest]

Yeah.

[Joe Rogan]

And is so often back on. And he's writing a book, right?

[Co-host or Guest]

Yeah. The Sad Truth About Happiness.

[Joe Rogan]

Oh, that's right.

[Co-host or Guest]

Secrets for Leading the Good Life.

[Joe Rogan]

Mm.

[Co-host or Guest]

Kind of breaks down how happiness isn't just about success or wealth and it's about tied a lot to personal freedoms, you know, comedy, humor in your life and being authentic and sort of embracing your authentic self. He talked a bit. A bit about cancel culture and like, how hypersensitive people can be and how it's sort of like people have a hard time expressing themselves nowadays without sort of any pushback. And that can really in turn affect your well being. Like, not feeling like you can actually say what you want and put your true, you know, authentic self out there and feeling like you're always having to, like, appease those listening and those out there that, you know, you want sort of in your corner. You know, you don't want to offend anyone. Yeah, we've walked. We've walked, you know, the line for so long trying to not offend people. And I think, as you know, there's. There's definitely a correlation. And he may or may not talk about this too much in the book, but, like, just hearing him talking about this, you could visualize the correlation between this, you know, politically correct political correctness and wokeism sort of increasing in, like, popularity and in like, influence and people sort of self like, identifying as, like, someone who follows that, like, religious, like a religion and the deterioration of mental health in our country.

[Joe Rogan]

Yeah.

[Co-host or Guest]

Like, you know, if you don't feel like you can just be yourself without judgment, which is like, which is Sort of like contradictory to what the whole like, wokeism, like, argument is. It's like, oh, don't, don't put people down for who they are. But it's like, I can't say that I have a problem with something because it's going to offend someone else. And it's like, but then I can't be who I am. Right, Right. Or I can't say I just don't understand something. But then you're like, oh, well, that means you're a bad person. That doesn't like, that's like just creating one problem, you know, fixing one problem and creating another.

[Joe Rogan]

But yeah, you don't want to live in a world where everyone is intentionally trying to hurt your feelings or insult you. But at the same time, you can't move the bar to where everything you hear insults you or offends you because then you're stopping every single person from saying anything at you. Even the idea of the microaggressions where it's like, oh, it's tiny aggression. It's like, well, it's also very relative to the conversation, you know, and it's individualistic. It's like you could mean your very best not to upset anybody and be very careful about what you say, but you're just trying to talk about some complex ideas that are based in reality. Somebody can find offense to that if they are sensitive enough. And that's kind of what's happening. It's almost like a victimhood mentality that's being encouraged.

[Co-host or Guest]

Right.

[Joe Rogan]

You know, under this, like, careful umbrella of like. No, it's all about including everyone in their uniqueness and their. No, it's just within the rules and the parameters that you like.

[Co-host or Guest]

Yeah. Fall within the narrative of what they want and everyone will be happy. But that's like, just obviously not the truth because there's no one's ever going to fit. Like, our, our country and the people within it are never going to align entirely.

[Joe Rogan]

Yeah, it's almost. Not that it is like this, but it's an example, like communism before it was tested. It sounds really nice that everyone shares everything and everyone has a piece of the pie and no one goes hungry. And then time after time it's been tested and it was a disaster. And I feel like this experiment will turn out the same way each time. And, you know, right now you're seeing a shift. There were a lot of votes where people went, I think I've had enough of that for a minute. That's a lot.

[Co-host or Guest]

Yeah.

[Joe Rogan]

I don't want to deal with that.

[Co-host or Guest]

Yeah. Yeah. The Sad Truth About Happiness. So sounds like a great, great book.

[Joe Rogan]

Check it out. All right, so that was it from us and Gad. Great episode. Love the guy. Looking forward to checking that book out. Everyone listening. Thank you so much as always. You guys are the best. Thanks for the support, and we will talk to you soon.

[Co-host or Guest]

Cheers, y'. All.