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Adam Thorne
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Coy
You are listening to the Joe Rogan Experience Review Podcast. We find little nuggets, treasures, valuable pieces of gold in the Joe Rogan Experience Podcast and pass them on to you, perhaps expand a little bit. We are not associated with Joe Rogan in any way. Of us as the talking dead to Joe's Walking Dead.
Adam Thorne
You're listening to the Joe Rogan Experience Review. What a bizarre thing we've created now with your host, Adam Thorne.
Coy
This might either be the worst podcast
Adam Thorne
or the best one. One go.
Coy
Enjoy the show.
Adam Thorne
Hello and welcome, guys, to another episode of the JRE Review. Today we got a special Rogan classic for you. It's episode 142, Graham Hancock and Duncan Trussell. Today I'm joined by a buddy of mine, Coy. How you doing, Coy? All right, so Coy picked this one and I really like that he did that because I feel like in a lot of ways it was the first time Joe really took his interview style to like a next to another level, you know, a lot of times before this podcast, way back when, this must have been, I don't know, 2010, 2011, maybe, maybe a couple of years in. What do you think? Yeah, something like that. And yeah, before that was mostly comedians and him getting stoned. And this was more of a real interview.
Coy
Yeah, yeah.
Adam Thorne
So, yeah, let's get started with it. He's the writer of the Fingerprints of the Gods. Is that what it's called, his book?
Coy
Yeah, Fingerprints of the Gods. And then before that, he actually wrote a book about the Ark of the Covenant, which is. He was a journalist for several newspapers before that. But writing that book about the Ark of the Covenant and traveling to Ethiopia, you know, investigating where it might be, that is what pulled him out of journalism.
Adam Thorne
Oh, nice.
Coy
And I mean, that pretty much just made him fall in love with, you know, just ancient mysteries. And after he wrote the Ark of the Covenant book is when he wrote Fingerprints of the Gods.
Adam Thorne
Okay. So it kind of set him on that path. Like he started to see some weird things and was like, maybe what we've been taught isn't. Isn't really what the truth is.
Coy
Exactly. Yeah. That and smoking a lot of weed.
Adam Thorne
It's always that, right? A combination of the two. Now, he talked a lot about what the Ark was meant to be. And I thought it was cool that he kind of mentioned that it was a weapon or like, that's how it's.
Coy
Dude. Yeah. That was one of the more interesting things that they got into is whenever they mentioned that it was maybe some kind of tech and that the Israel used it as a weapon and that they said that at some point they were following it through the woods and that the. The Philistines had actually got the Ark of the Covenant and that they opened it up and then it killed a bunch of people. Like maybe some type of radiation or something. That just was insane for me to hear that. The Ark of the Covenant could have maybe been some type of, you know, super advanced tech or something.
Adam Thorne
Right. Almost like they found it, they could use it, but they didn't know how it worked.
Coy
Yeah, exactly. And there was stories of this thing flying through the air. They would use it in war. It's insane stuff.
Adam Thorne
That's wild. The thing about, like, an idea like that is it does make you think, like, how did it not get, say, you would have thought it would be so precious and so worshiped, which it sounded like it was, but, like, where the hell did it go? Like, why did we lose it? Does somebody have that fucking thing or what?
Coy
Yeah, but. Well, Graham Hancock actually said that he went down to Ethiopia and he had a chance encounter with a monk. And that monk was like, hey, I have the Ark of the Covenant and it's in this church. He was like, well, hey, can I go look at it? And he was like, no, you can't go in there. But he said that the Ark of the Covenant, there's a replica of it in every single church in Ethiopia. And Graham seems to think that it might actually really be inside that church, which is insane to think about that some. You know, the Ark of the Covenant could just be behind some monk that doesn't want to let us into his church. You know what I mean?
Adam Thorne
Yeah, right. But also, doesn't it make you think that the reason you can't see it is because that shit's not really there?
Coy
That'll kill you.
Adam Thorne
Yeah, all that. I mean, there's a place in Sri Lanka, and I used to live in Sri Lanka when I was like, 21. I lived there for almost a year when I was teaching English. And when I was young, there's a place called Kandy, which is a city kind of centrally located in. In the country. And a Buddhist temple there is supposed to have one of the Buddha's teeth, right? And you can go worship it, but no one can look at it. And I always felt like that's the same thing. One of his teeth.
Coy
Teeth?
Adam Thorne
Like a tooth? Yeah, like a tooth.
Coy
Oh, wow.
Adam Thorne
Yeah, but no one can look at it. So I'm like, well, how the hell does anyone know it's there? Like to me, I'm like, if it's fucking there, show us. Like, come on.
Coy
Yeah, dude, for real. Like let us, let us get in there. Just take a picture of it or something, you know.
Adam Thorne
Right. And you would think that, I mean if you're a church and you have the Ark of the Covenant, like that would be a pretty big story. Especially if you're in Ethiopia, like show it off. So.
Coy
Yeah, man. I mean, can you imagine the people, like how much money, like some, some people would pay to just like, you know, Elon Musk or some private enterprise type people, the amount of money they would pay just to get their hands on that?
Adam Thorne
Oh, of course, if it was like legit and was old technology, a hundred percent. So I think it would be tough to, tough to hide. It was interesting that they said that it also housed the ten Commandments, like maybe the, that if it was this technology, it brought this, these, these rules and information to us. I don't know. Those rules are kind of pretty simplistic. So I would imagine it would have a more detailed message than that. Like don't kill your neighbor. Like, yeah, for sure. But who knows? It was a wild time back. Yeah, imagine maybe they needed that.
Coy
Yeah, imagine if it does have some type of message like that, it's probably been dumbed down over the years through, you know, translations in the Bible and whatnot.
Adam Thorne
Yeah, no doubt, no doubt. It was crazy that he was talking about like all the people that got wiped out in the Ice Age. Like most of humanity was possibly destroyed during the ice Age. And that's when like basically like a technological civilization was lost. Right. Whether it's, what did he say? The Atlantis, the people of Atlantis, or you know, like the pre Egyptian empire. And uh, it. That to me is just so wild to think, but I mean, it's totally plausible in a way. I mean, 5,000 years after something, I don't know, sank into the ocean, there's not going to be a lot of it left.
Coy
Yeah, man, I used to think that Atlantis was just kind of a fairy tale, you know what I mean? Anytime it was brought up, you know, I never really saw why people could take that serious. But you know, listening to Graham talk and the more I, you know, Kind of hear him talk about ancient, you know, cataclysmic events and stuff. It just seems more, more and more plausible that, you know, and Plato too, right after Plato, when he started traveling the world, he didn't he write about visiting Atlantis?
Adam Thorne
Yeah, I believe so.
Coy
He. Yeah, I mean, it just seems more and more plausible that Atlantis could have been some just advanced lost civilization that was just lost by rising, you know, sea levels.
Adam Thorne
Yeah, I was really surprised almost on this podcast just because it was. It's one of the older ones, like Joe's knowledge of. I mean, it was like when Graham was talking, it wasn't really like Graham was schooling Joe in the sense of, like, he had all the knowledge. And Joe was like, oh, okay. He'd heard of all the same writers. He knew the documentaries, he knew some of the people. Like when he was talking about the DMT studies. Yeah, he, he knew about Dr. Strassman out of UNM. And I think Joe even did a documentary called the Spirit Molecule with that featured all the Dr. Strassman's work. So I guess he knew him then. But, you know, he's well versed in a lot of these ideas, which was pretty cool.
Coy
That's what I think was cool about this episode is it was one of the first episodes where, you know, like we said that Joe got a guest that he really looked up to. And it was one of the episodes where Joe kind of realized. And you can kind of see him realizing it at the beginning, like, hey, you know, I can actually bring some heavy hitters in here maybe, and, and the more and more Joe gets these, you know, big time names and you can kind of see that he's a really smart guy, you know, but you can kind of see over the course of him bringing in these big names that, you know, that his, you know, intelligence is kind of, you know, verified, I guess, you know, and reassured that his intelligence could be up to par with these guys.
Adam Thorne
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Coy
like, Neil Tyson on and or Brian Cox, you know that he's able to have intelligent conversations with these people and you can kind of see through these episodes that, you know, that he's realizing that himself. Sure.
Adam Thorne
I think that that's an important distinction as well, because it's like Joe always says, it's easy to just look at him, all the stuff that he's done, and just make assumptions like, oh, you're the Fear Factor guy. Or the way that he speaks loosely and he's a comedian, so he says funny things in relaxed ways that, you know, he's not going to have, like, a good conversation. And I, and I think even some of the guests that come on that maybe don't know him that well, but he just wants to speak to them. I'm sure almost all of them believe, like, surprised with the conversation and, like, with a whole new respect for, like, his analysis of things. For sure.
Coy
Yeah, for sure. And I mean, a lot of guests have even pointed that out in conversation. You know what I mean?
Adam Thorne
I like that. So even back then, I think he was getting something like half a million downloads per episode at that time, which is still massive. That's massive for any podcast, even today. But it's not.
Coy
Yeah, they crashed Graham's website during.
Adam Thorne
That's right. Yeah. I mean, he was the powerful Joe Rogan even back then. And that's, that's a cool distinction, I think, for these types of guests coming on, because then they realize, you know, there's like a huge bump for them after they go on because people are searching them, looking at their website, buying their books. I mean, after that point, it was like pretty soon after that. He must have known he could get pretty much any guest that he wanted.
Coy
Yeah, man. He.
Adam Thorne
He brings up Steven Pressfield's book, the War of Art, which he's done many a time, but he used to talk about it a lot more back in the day. And that's a great book. Have you read that Coy?
Coy
No, I haven't. Which one's that?
Adam Thorne
The War of Art by Steven Pressfield. So it's a great book he's had Steven Pressfield on, I think, a couple of times, at least once. And basically it's just about. It's specifically for writers because that's what Stephen does. But you can use it for anything. It's just about getting shit done. Right. And not procrastinating, like getting your work done and the hurdles you have in front of you. And then it kind of.
Coy
Goggins type shit.
Adam Thorne
Kind of. Yeah, but, but like less forceful, more creatively. It's not about doing push ups, it's about, it's about allowing what he calls the muse, which is like your inspiration and drive to like come forward. But, but getting all the other shit out of the way so you can do that. And it's a, it really is an inspiring book. Like I see why Joe used to always hand that out to his guests. I've bought a bunch of copies and handed them out to friends and it always gets the same response. Like people love that book so you should definitely check that out. If you haven't read it, that's cool.
Coy
Yeah, I'll check that out.
Adam Thorne
But along with the same things, it's like what is your creative inspiration? And I loved how Graham talked about when he wrote his book, he did that ayahuasca experience that trip.
Coy
Yeah.
Adam Thorne
And, and it kind of gave him a vision to like write the book. Like the inspiration he gave him that message. It's so fascinating. I've never, I've never done that. I haven't done an ayahuasca thing. I'd be totally open to it. But some of the stories that I've heard from people that have done it and then when guests on Rogan come on until I'm like, it just, it seems so wild and unbelievable. I just can't relate it to anything.
Coy
Dude. Yeah. When Rashad Evans was on, did you ever listen to that episode? Rashad Evans?
Adam Thorne
Oh yeah, yeah.
Coy
He talked, his ego was like. He seemed like a completely different person when he was on. But he talked about doing. Yeah, it was either that or mushrooms. I can't really recall which one it was. But dude, he talked about being in like this vast open like arena or like open space and that there was these two giant like skyscraper sized serpents sitting next to him. And they were just kind of next to him like letting him know like hey, everything's okay. And that just sounded absolutely insane to me that these like thulu ass serpent gods just sitting next to you. This has got to be an insanely wild experience. Right?
Adam Thorne
And it's those descriptions. Like you see, you know, I have the one friend that saw this giant octopus and like each of the legs represented like parts of his life. And yeah, he was actually a buddy of mine that did Some standup once, and his standup routine was talking about the story, and he did a great job doing it. And he would, like. It would be funny, but it's also, like, pretty close to what was happening for him and what it meant. But the detail and description, I just can't even fathom it, you know, I mean, I've done some shrooms, I've done some hallucinogenics I haven't seen. I've only seen, like, vague, like, outlines of maybe shadows and shapes that I've probably just misunderstood as I'm, like, trying to figure out what it is. And it looks like something that moved. But I mean, to actually be sat talking to some creature just blows my mind. I'm like, what? This is a thing you can do? Like, man, I want to try that.
Coy
Yeah. I've never, you know, I've done, you know, like, some acid and some mushrooms, but I've never actually seen anything. But I imagine that ayahuasca and DMT is just a whole new level. Man, that's definitely something that, you know, probably everybody should, you know, if you're mentally ready for that, should probably check off the bucket list.
Adam Thorne
Oh, yeah, 100%. And I think, you know, I mean, Portland just decriminalized everything. I think maybe we're, you know, 20, 21, we're getting close. Who knows where we'll be in the next five or 10 years. Maybe that'd be a thing that's available to the masses and the stigma will be gone. You know, more people would do it. They see the benefits. It'd be seen more as like, yeah, this is really useful. You should try this. And then, you know, there's less kind of, I don't know, bullshit around it. People are open to it and I like that idea. I hope something comes of it. But with all this thinking and all the controversy of, like, his Graham's ideas and how he's, like, kind of really mixing up the historical record and he's upsetting all these academics that are, like, coming after him and seeing all these biases. It's really sad to hear that that show BBC Horizon, which, when I lived in England when I was younger, Horizon is, like, it was, like, seen as a great show. They make really good documentaries and they get into things and it's really sad to see that they chose to make him look like a fool when he's just asking, did you ever watch that? I didn't see it, no. Did you watch it?
Coy
No, I didn't watch it either. But you Know, I've. I've heard Graham talk about it several times and yeah, man, it just sucks what Graham talks about it. You know, that looking back and you know, at history, you know, universities have sort of a one track mind. This is the way it was, you know, and especially ancient history, that this is the way it was. And anybody that thinks outside this box is, you know, shunned away. And it sucks, man.
Adam Thorne
To some degrees I get it. Right. I mean, you look at science or medicine, so when I was in school doing biochemistry, we had to read a lot of papers, you know, peer reviewed. And those are important. I couldn't write papers based on non peer reviewed scientific journals. And there's a reason for that, because even though the idea might be close to something you're trying to prove, if it hasn't been peer reviewed, then it doesn't have the validity. And that's the idea. You have to create some sort of standard for it. And you know, that follows certain rules and it has to be tested and then retested to make sure that the theories are sound. And you know, that's kind of a scientific approach in a sense, the historical record, it needs to be formulated. Right. So you're like, this is from this time. This is from this time and this is what we know. If somebody comes out of nowhere that's maybe not a high level academic and is like, hey, I think The Sphinx is 12,000 years old because of water erosion. I understand why people are skeptical.
Coy
Right.
Adam Thorne
I understand why people would be like, well, wait a second, where are you getting this from? Why is no one else noticed this? And also this fucks up our timeline majorly. Yeah, but you shouldn't go at them like they're a piece of shit.
Coy
That's. Yeah, I mean, we can just have civil conversations about it. You know what I mean? If he's wrong, then show him that he's wrong.
Adam Thorne
You know, Exactly. You know, you don't have.
Coy
Yeah, and that's reason, Graham, the way he did it, the sort of vigilante geologists, you know what I mean, he was able to. Aren't a lot of people now sort of starting to accept that the Sphinx is actually a lot older than we initially thought?
Adam Thorne
I think, I think many of his ideas, I mean, he did say that Mars book he wrote, like that's kind of seen as a bit way out there, but. But you know, he probably just drove himself way out there in some ways. But yeah, a lot of his ideas. Instacart understands that not all bananas are created Equal. Some people want them green, some want them ripe, some want them ready right now. With Instacart's Preference Picker, now available at most retailers, you can choose how you like certain items, like banana ripeness, deli thickness, even avocados before your shopper even starts. So instead of crossing your fingers and hoping for the best, you get groceries picked the way you would pick them. It's a small thing, but it makes a big difference. Download the app and get bananas just how you like. With Instacart have been kind of backed up and now they found Gobekli Tepe, which is super fucking old. I mean, that changes the timeline. We're like, wow. Actually people were doing shit way further in the past than we thought. So we can adjust just the timeline, I think, you know, when it comes to the establish anything, they just move slower. Like take the Catholic Church. How long did it take them before they decided Galileo was actually correct? I mean, it took them a while. So I get it, you know, I get it. You don't want to jump into things. You don't want to be changing your paradigms like every day because you wouldn't even know what the hell is going on. But yeah, you're right. I mean, they didn't disprove him in a lot of areas. And when he comes on now, I mean, he's way more famous than he used to be. He's got a lot more money from his books and everything and he's working with more serious people to come up with kind of, you know, better theories on things.
Coy
Yeah, and if a guy like Graham Hancock can come in and shake up geology like that, I mean, imagine, you know, what other secrets are buried in our history. You know what I mean? I mean, just Africa alone, dude. Imagine what kind of secrets are just buried In Africa, dude, 100%. Like, the, the history there is immense. It goes back to the beginning of mankind, you know what I mean? So history isn't some type of one track thing, you know, like history is super complex. You know, people back then didn't have Twitter and cell phones. So it's not down to an exact, you know, thing, you know, it's all dependent on what somebody decided to put on paper 100%. So, yeah, to have somebody like Graham come in and put forth these, you know, who cares if they're crazy ideas? Let's look at them. Seriously. You know, I mean, let's take this serious. This is our history that we're talking about. So I think hopefully in the future, somebody like Graham Comes in, who cares what, you know, Department of History, they're looking into. Let's look at it. Seriously, man. Because, you know, we, we want to know what our history is.
Adam Thorne
Yeah, I mean, it's all about what is the actual truth. It's not about the truth that we just put forward. And it, you know, I mean, there is some validity in like, I mean, if you're just a dude off the street and you were a plumber and all of a sudden you've got these theories. Well, all right, hold on. How much do we want to listen to this guy? But he was a serious reporter and journalist for a good amount of time. So his ability to collect data and information regurgitates it is, is, you know, it's going to be better than a lot of other people. So that's, that's a resume that should be. Exactly, exactly. It's things like. So the. What they. On their Horizon show, he was saying that he was able to kind of go after them and have them change something because they didn't represent it well. And it was to do with like the Orion belt and maybe the alignment of the pyramids and that stuff. Yeah, so that's legit. They've shown that the pyramids line up that way and they're trying to tell us something. Right. And then he gives the example of the end where the guy that built the Hoover Dam did the same sort of thing with the same. With a notion that like, if in 10,000 years we're all gone and no one knows how the fuck this dam gotta here, they're going to know when it was made. Like, that's, that's an important part of these massive structures. So there's no reason that the Egyptians wouldn't have done that as well. I love that. That's just cool. Fucking shit.
Coy
Yeah. How heartbreaking is it that the Library of Alexandria was burned down, Man, Imagine the secrets that were in that library. I mean, we would probably know how the pyramids were built.
Adam Thorne
Oh, no doubt. If, if time travel is ever made, even if it's just one of those things, I'm going to Egypt, right? You're going to Egypt. If you can just go back and maybe just be an observer, right? Maybe because of the way the system's set up, you can't interact because it's just like watching an old recording, you know, Then that almost doesn't matter because the only place you want to be is the Library of Alexandria. I'd say, like really just trying to gather all the information from there. Because up until one point, that was like all the information we had.
Coy
Man, how cool would it be if we could just send a text message to some aliens like 30 light years away to just, hey, use your telescopes, look down at Egypt and let us know what you see?
Adam Thorne
Yeah, yeah, send us, send us a DVD of all that stuff. Yeah, man, it's cool, you know, even. Look, even if he's wrong, it's just cool to start thinking in a different way now. Be careful you don't run yourself into a flat earth.
Coy
Yeah, for sure.
Adam Thorne
Conspiracy. But at the same time, it's nice to ask these questions and kind of open your mind to these ideas. Yeah, I really like that you picked this one, Corey, for sure. This is a great one to run over.
Coy
Yeah, thanks, man.
Adam Thorne
If you guys haven't listened to this one Again, it's episode 142. Spotify has them all. And what's really nice about it is it even has the video from way back, so you can even watch the video of it, like it, you know, if you like to do that. And it just makes for a great conversation. Obviously, Joe's different than he is now. He talks a little bit differently, but, you know, he doesn't give himself enough credit. He talks about how the really old podcast used to suck a ton. I don't think that's necessarily true. He's always been a good interviewer. He's always kept the conversation going and. And yeah, they've always been entertaining, I think.
Coy
Yeah, the old ones are, you know, some of the older ones are a little bit more enjoyable sometimes because it kind of felt like back then it was kind of like. Like you were in on something that, you know, like getting some secret information type thing, you know what I mean? Like, it just kind of seemed like it was, you know, like a secret or something, you know.
Adam Thorne
Yeah, there was definitely less pressure on him. So he, he was freer just to be a bit sillier, but, you know, he's still very good at doing that, which is excellent. He just. The main difference is now he just has to talk about how big the podcast is, how he didn't know it was going to happen, and how it feels like this obligation that I think he's always trying to be careful of so it doesn't change, you know, what his message is or how much he enjoys it, you know.
Coy
Yeah.
Adam Thorne
Anyway, that's a good wrap up for this week. Classic Rogan. We'll be doing more of these in the future. We'll just be picking random ones especially on slow weeks when maybe Joe takes a week off to go hunting or something. Just so you guys have something to listen to. As always, contact us on Joe Rogan Experience Review. That's how Coy got a hold of me. You emailed me, right? That's how you got me.
Coy
Yes, sir.
Adam Thorne
Yep. So always good for people to reach out and connect with them. And you can get us on Instagram, too. The same. Same handle there. Thanks for joining me today, Coy. And thanks, everyone, for listening.
Coy
Yep. Take care, guys.
Podcast: Joe Rogan Experience Review
Host: Adam Thorne (with co-host Coy)
Episode: JRE 513 Classic Rogan – Graham Hancock
Release Date: March 13, 2026
Main Theme:
A retrospective breakdown and thoughtful analysis of the classic Joe Rogan Experience episode #142 featuring Graham Hancock and Duncan Trussell. Adam and Coy dig into the significance of this early JRE conversation, how it marked a shift in Rogan's interview style, and examine Hancock’s controversial theories about lost civilizations, ancient technology, psychedelics, and the importance of open-minded inquiry in history and science.
Adam and Coy deliver a vibrant, nostalgia-tinged analysis of a foundational Joe Rogan Experience episode. By unpacking the enduring appeal of Graham Hancock’s controversial theories—and Rogan’s unique ability to engage deeply with unconventional thinkers—they offer listeners both a primer and an invitation: stay curious, ask bold questions, but don’t neglect healthy skepticism. For fans of ancient mysteries, psychedelics, and the history of podcasting itself, this review is an engrossing listen and a compelling argument for revisiting the classics.