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- [00:00]
Joe Rogan
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- [02:44]
Amanda Knox
The Joe Rogan Experience Train by.
- [02:46]
Joe Rogan
Day Joe Rogan Podcast by night All Day.
- [02:53]
Amanda Knox
Hey, good to see you. Good to see you again. I do. Yeah. I hope you like it.
- [02:58]
Joe Rogan
Free. That's a great name.
- [03:00]
Amanda Knox
Yeah. Well, it's. It's on point.
- [03:03]
Joe Rogan
Yeah. It's on the nose.
- [03:04]
Amanda Knox
Yes. Well, that. That whole question of what does it mean to be free and what. You know. Yes. There's the physical, like, oh, you're out of prison, but then also is your life the thing that you expected it to be? And how do you make your own freedom when you feel hemmed in by all of the things that happened to.
- [03:21]
Joe Rogan
You so yet you're connected to that forever. That's always gonna be a part of your life. It's not like anything else that didn't really happen. Like, you didn't do anything, and you're connected to something that you didn't really do forever. For people that don't know the story.
- [03:38]
Amanda Knox
Yeah. Yeah. We should do a little recap. Recap. Okay, Recap, friends.
- [03:42]
Joe Rogan
Real quick.
- [03:43]
Amanda Knox
Recap, Friends. And you can go back to the episode, that of Joe Rogan. What number was that off the top of your head?
- [03:50]
Joe Rogan
If you just Google Amanda Knox, you'll go, holy shit.
- [03:53]
Amanda Knox
They'll go down a craz. Rabbit hole. Yes. So in a nutshell, what happened? Yeah, I was studying abroad. When I was 20 years old in Perugia, Italy, one of my roommates was raped and murdered by a burglar who broke into our home. But I was accused of having orchestrated a murder orgy, and I was sent to prison for four years. I was sentenced to 26 years. I was put on trial for eight years. And it became this international scandal where it sort of pinged all of the buttons in all the right places. This happened in 2007. So, you know, early 2000s, when the Internet was. Or the Internet, the social media was really becoming a thing. The iPhone was becoming a thing. I think that that played a huge role of people sort of going into their little echo chambers and fighting online. And so I think that there was. Yeah, it was a case that, for whatever reason, rose above the level of other cases. Like, ultimately, this case was actually very simple, and it wouldn't have risen to the level of international infamy were it not for the series of mistakes that the prosecution and the detectives made at the very beginning by trying to pin a man's crime on me, a woman.
- [05:15]
Joe Rogan
Yeah. And if anybody wants, there's a documentary.
- [05:18]
Amanda Knox
Yes, There's Netflix. Documentary. I wrote a book called Waiting to be Heard. And then more recently, I wrote this book, Free My Search for Meaning, which Covers like, you know, you can read it and learn about the case, but it's mostly about how do you come out of an experience like that and make sense of it. And then part one of the big stories in it is how I then developed a relationship with my prosecutor, which I think you'll probably be in the camp of people of thinking that I'm utterly insane for having done that. Maybe, maybe, maybe you won't. I just remember that when we talked about this back in the day, you were like this motherfucker.
- [05:57]
Joe Rogan
Yeah. So you've become friends with them.
- [06:00]
Amanda Knox
Friend is an interesting word. What is a friend? Someone else asked me that, like, I was like, it depends on what you mean by friend, because. And they said, well, do you trust him? And I said, well, I think that at the point that we are now in our relationship, I do trust him. I trust that he's telling me the truth about what he really thinks and feels about the situation. So I feel like I have very privileged special access to, to the mind of the person who put me in prison. And that is a very interesting, awkward, but also empowering place for me to be. Because one of the things that really bothered me about this experience was not understanding why it happened to me. Why did this man look at a 20 year old girl with no criminal history, no motivation to commit this crime? Why did he look at me and think there's my rapist and murderer? And I didn't understand it and I didn't feel like demonizing him in my mind or vilifying him in my mind was going to actually give me a satisfying answer as to the why of it all. A lot of people said, well, it's just because he's a bad dude, he doesn't care what the truth is, he's just covering his ass. Like these were all really simplistic ways of framing his motivations and I didn't really buy them. So instead what I was interested in was going to the source and confronting him, asking why? But to ask someone, why did you hurt me? Which I think is a really common thing that people who have been hurt want to know is they want an acknowledgement that they've been hurt and they want to understand why and they want to know if that person's not going to hurt them anymore or not going to hurt other people. Like that's really common for people who have been hurt. The challenge is that people who hurt other people don't like to be confronted with that fact. And so how do you start a conversation that's not going to immediately become adversarial. And that was one of my biggest challenges. But I came up with this methodology that I actually became so important to me that I tattooed it on my arm. So this is it. There are four steps, and the first one is Find common ground. So it's this Venn diagram. Find common ground. I promise you that every single person on this earth, you have something in common with them. Find it. So I asked myself, what could I and my prosecutor have in common? I didn't know this man. I didn't know what his history was, what his background was, but I did know that. That he, like me, was part of this really big, scandalous in the media case. And he very likely felt misconstrued or misrepresented also in the process, maybe dehumanized in the process. And so I reached out to him and I acknowledged that fact. I said, hey, I don't know who you are. I only ever encountered you in the police office and in the courtroom where you were someone who was trying to ruin my life. So you were a big, scary boogeyman. And I saw you in the media, and I, you know, I've seen how the media represented you, but I knowing from experience, I know how that can be very misrepresentative. So I said to him, I want to know who you really are. And I hope that you might be interested to know who I really am, because I don't think you know who I really am. I don't think that you would have prosecuted me if you knew who I really am. And that was the beginning of the dialogue. This, like, I went out of my way to acknowledge that he might have had noble motivations even if he was wrong. And I think this is, like, a really important thing is I. I wanted to give him radical benefit of the doubt. Maybe, just maybe, this, like, horrible thing that happened to me could have been the result of understandable mistakes. And if anything, I think coming into contact with the innocence movement and criminal justice system stuff and reform, all the stuff that I've learned after having gone through this experience has made me realize that, like, some of the most horrible things can happen and can be enacted by people who have the best of intentions. And so I assumed that of him, and I gave him that benefit of the doubt. And as soon as I, like, opened that door, like, hey, you hurt me. But maybe that wasn't your intention. Maybe your intention was something else. He filled that void with his story and his message and what he wanted me to understand about himself. And I mean, one of the wildest things about this book is that I talk about, like, I do not sugarcoat what I went through. Like, and especially what he did to me. Like, I very like clearly set out, like, here's the fucked up shit he said about me in court, completely without evidence. Like, totally made up bullshit. Like, and it ruined my life. Right? Here's what it is. Acknowledge these facts. And also, and also here is a person who might have had, like, in doing so, might have been coming from a place of trying to rationalize things in his own mind, which is a thing that we all do, we all do on a regular basis. We're all just sort of interpreting our reality in the way that suits us. And so I, and I wrote this book from my perspective. I translated the entire thing into Italian before it ever got published so that I could share it with him so that he would know what I was saying about him in public, what was imminently going to come out. And his response was, I have never felt more seen. That's what he told me.
- [12:29]
Joe Rogan
That sounds like something a teenage girl would say.
- [12:31]
Amanda Knox
Well, that's an interesting observation because it's become quite emotional, especially on his part. I don't, I shouldn't go there too much.
- [12:56]
Joe Rogan
You're protecting his privacy. That's hilarious.
- [12:59]
Amanda Knox
Yeah.
- [13:00]
Joe Rogan
AG1 has been a longtime partner of the show and I'm excited to share some big news. The new AG1 Next Gen Formula is here. They did a bunch of research and improved their formula to make sure it's the best it can be. The same single scoop once a day, same subtly sweet flavors with those hints of vanilla and pineapple, but now with upgraded probiotics, vitamins and minerals for even more comprehensive formula. And AG1 Next Gen is clinically backed with four human clinical trials and it's shown to fill common nutrient gaps even in healthy eaters. Plus, AG1's next gen travel packs now come in upgraded packaging. They're easier to tear, pour, shake and go. So your daily nutrition is even more seamless wherever life takes you. So subscribe today to try the next gen of AG1. If you use my link, you you'll also get a free bottle of AG1D 3K2 and AG1 Welcome Kit and five of the upgraded AG1 Travel Packs with your first subscription. So make sure you check out drinkag1.com Joe Rogan to get started with AG1's next gen and notice the benefits for yourself. That's drinkag1.com Joe RogAN yeah, you're a very nice person. You're so much nicer than me.
- [14:25]
Amanda Knox
Well, I don't know. I've just had really bad stuff happen to me and like, I don't wish bad stuff upon other people.
- [14:32]
Joe Rogan
It's a beautiful way to live your life. It really is. I mean, that's what all Christians aspire to, is what you're doing.
- [14:43]
Amanda Knox
Yeah, I guess I'm not a Christian radical.
- [14:46]
Joe Rogan
Forgiveness.
- [14:47]
Amanda Knox
Yeah. You know, it's funny, I didn't really set out for people point to that. They're like, forgiveness, forgiveness, you're doing forgiveness. And I was like, is this forgiveness.
- [14:55]
Joe Rogan
Or is this just communicating with him? Is forgiveness in some way and not having extreme anger?
- [15:02]
Amanda Knox
Well, that's the thing. I do have extreme anger. Like, that's all part of it. And this is where like the Buddhist in me comes out, where you can have extreme anger towards a person and at the same time hold them in your hand as this like, tender, fallible creature that is capable of violence against you but is also capable of being hurt. Just because someone hurt you doesn't mean that they're not capable of being hurt. And I certainly don't want to be in the position of hurting someone. Like, that's just who I am. And if anything, like, one thing that I've communicated to him is like, look, I don't know if you're ever gonna really wrap your head around what you did to me, but if you do, one day I know that you're gonna feel really, really bad. And I just want you to know that I, I don't wish suffering on you. I don't.
- [16:14]
Joe Rogan
Did you ask him if he had gone over any of his previous cases and wondered whether he did the same thing to other people? Because I don't think that's something you do once. I don't think you are an ethical prosecutor who just really objectively analyzes the evidence and puts forth a case based on what you think is the facts. I don't think you do that your whole career. And then this 20 year old bitch, I think she's too cute. I don't like how she's smiling.
- [16:48]
Amanda Knox
Yeah, yeah, there was that element to it. Well, yeah, I think that. And I do feel like there was some kind of pornographic nature to it. Like, I don't know, like, I think that.
- [17:04]
Joe Rogan
Well, there's a lot of men that have like a deep resentment for beautiful.
- [17:08]
Amanda Knox
Women just from feelings of rejection or.
- [17:11]
Joe Rogan
Yeah, okay, yeah, yeah, yeah. Because they are attracted to them or they find them to be beautiful or desirable and they know that that woman wants to have nothing to do with them. Like, they are completely repulsive. And so that you see it a lot with unfortunately unattractive men, they develop a hate for women. I've seen it. I've seen it evolve over years with people that I used to be friends with. You know, like, just constant rejection. And then it becomes like, these women, them, they just want this. Like, okay, put yourself in their position. You're gross. Like, what are they supposed to do?
- [17:53]
Amanda Knox
Try harder.
- [17:54]
Joe Rogan
What are they supposed to do? Like, be with someone that they're not attracted to to make that person feel better. Like, that's not what people do. Like, you have a short window of life.
- [18:02]
Amanda Knox
Yeah.
- [18:02]
Joe Rogan
You're supposed to pursue what you like, and you're, you know, your fucking hand of card sucks. Sorry. You know, this is how it goes. But that thing where, you know, they look at you like, you have it too easy. You have too many gifts. There's. Life has given you too good a hand of cards, you know, and you should be punished. You should be knocked down a peg. You see that in particular in the media with celebrity. It's a big one. With celebrity women, if something goes wrong, like, they just can't wait.
- [18:38]
Amanda Knox
Oh, yeah.
- [18:38]
Joe Rogan
To dunk on them, mock them for weight gain, whatever it is.
- [18:43]
Amanda Knox
For getting out of a car in the wrong way. And they. They were the ones who were, like, showing up to get up their skirt. Yeah. Any.
- [18:49]
Joe Rogan
Any sort of. That stuff was on purpose.
- [18:52]
Amanda Knox
Oh, is it?
- [18:53]
Joe Rogan
Yeah, they think the Paris Hilton stuff. Like, back in the day of women wear. Like, it was like an epidemic of.
- [18:59]
Amanda Knox
Getting out of cars.
- [19:01]
Joe Rogan
Photographers just happened to be on the ground. Like, you're a woman. You've worn skirts. It's not easy to look up someone's skirt. If you're standing up and someone gets out there, how the do you get down? You'd have to be on your knees. I think they were doing it on purpose. I think it was a way of going viral before viral was a thing, because it went away. Like, when was the last time that.
- [19:23]
Amanda Knox
We had an up the skirt shot?
- [19:25]
Joe Rogan
Why don't you have any underwear on? That seems weird.
- [19:28]
Amanda Knox
Well, panty lines, you know, that's a real thing.
- [19:31]
Joe Rogan
Yeah, sure. But that's what G strings were invented for. Right.
- [19:35]
Amanda Knox
Those still create lines, my friend. Depends on the dress.
- [19:37]
Joe Rogan
Yes. Are you that concerned with lines that you want to go bareback?
- [19:41]
Amanda Knox
I have not gone bareback at a premiere. I haven't.
- [19:44]
Joe Rogan
You have a little skirt on, hopping out of a car, and the way they did just, I think it was like, you know, the same people that had sex tapes that leaked air quotes that were engineered. I mean, the whole thing was. It was on purpose, like.
- [20:02]
Amanda Knox
Sure, sure, sure, yeah. But in, but in terms of your. Of like trying to take beautiful women down a peg, I think you're right. I also think that something that was going on in my case that I think you also tend to see in those situations where you're trying to take beautiful women down a peg is this idea of like pitting women against each other. Like, that was a huge thing in my case where they were suggesting that, you know, here I was this like, free spirited, but also hoary, you know, American girl versus the uptight, judgmental British girl, and therefore they hated each other. And with, you know, with a vengeance, with a lethal vengeance. And then, then this idea of like a murder orgy appeared where this pornographic fantasy of women expressing their own violent fantasies towards each other in real life and using men as pawns in that game of violent hatred towards each other. I think you see that a lot, you know, even in like a person I write about in this book who's become a dear friend of mine is Monica Lewinsky. And how I feel like people really wanted to bring her down a peg in part because they wanted to bring Hillary down a peg. And the whole, like, the person who actually committed the affair was sort of. I mean, he definitely got his part, but it was all like a political game of they're trying to take down the man, but they're also taking down the woman. And they're especially railroading this young woman who made a mess, mistake, and it became known as the Monica Lewinsky scandal and not, you know, the Bill Clinton affair or whatever. Like it matters what you name a thing. And it seemed like the legacy of that and the person who became defined entirely by that scandal happened to be Monica. The one who was the person with the least amount of power and agency in that equation also.
- [22:13]
Joe Rogan
20 years old.
- [22:13]
Amanda Knox
Yeah. 23 years old. Yeah. Who did a very normal thing, which was fall in love with a charismatic, powerful man.
- [22:20]
Joe Rogan
And he was handsome as fuck back then.
- [22:22]
Amanda Knox
Oh, yeah.
- [22:22]
Joe Rogan
I mean, he was the President of the United States.
- [22:24]
Amanda Knox
He was the President of the United States. He was charismatic, he was handsome, he showered her with attention. And it makes sense that a young, inexperienced person would fall in love with him. And yet she was the one who got railroaded. She was the home wrecker. She was the. The one who became the subject of all the rap lyrics and her entire Life and her entire identity became identified with this mistake she had made. And that was not the same thing with the President of the United States. And I think that that impulse to define women by their worst moments and to tear them down for their worst moments is. Is prevalent as, from what I have.
- [23:07]
Joe Rogan
Seen, because they know it's so devastating to the person. You know what I mean? It's like there's that. The bully instinct when they know that you're weak and vulnerable, you know, to attack, you know.
- [23:19]
Amanda Knox
But why? To what end?
- [23:21]
Joe Rogan
People are cruel because they've been hurt. You know, it's the hurt people, hurt people thing.
- [23:25]
Amanda Knox
You know, I think it's like schadenfreude just as an audience. Like, we want. We want a story. Want a real life story where we get to, you know, passively enjoy the destruction of another human being.
- [23:37]
Joe Rogan
Right. And also, you don't know her, so you're disassociated.
- [23:40]
Amanda Knox
Yeah.
- [23:41]
Joe Rogan
Right. Like, if she was your friend and you did that, you'd have to be special kind of monster, like that woman, Linda Tripp.
- [23:47]
Amanda Knox
Yeah.
- [23:47]
Joe Rogan
Who did it all. That's a special kind of monster.
- [23:50]
Amanda Knox
Right.
- [23:50]
Joe Rogan
Special kind of monster who trots that out to the whole world to try to take down Bill Clinton.
- [23:55]
Amanda Knox
Yeah.
- [23:56]
Joe Rogan
Which didn't even work.
- [23:58]
Amanda Knox
No. And that's what's fascinating. It worked to destroy Monica.
- [24:02]
Joe Rogan
But also, like, you, when you look at Bill. Bill Clinton, this handsome president, and then you look at Linda Tripp, who is very unattractive, that's also plays like, I want to take him down, too. And probably I want to take her down as well. Like, there's a lot of, like, fuck everybody else. There's a lot of that, you know, when you're, you know, you're unseen to use the same vernacular, you know, and then you see, like, other people getting attention, and it's just like the fact that she did it and she knew her and she. But also, this is like, this is the game of cards that they're playing. This is house of cards. This is, you know that this is literally what they do anytime they have a chance in the political realm to.
- [24:46]
Amanda Knox
Use any window, any vulnerability, anything.
- [24:48]
Joe Rogan
It's the dirtiest game in the world. It's a disgusting game, you know, and if you get sucked into it, you'll find that out. You know, it's.
- [24:57]
Amanda Knox
Don't want anything to do with it.
- [24:58]
Joe Rogan
It's the most evil. It's really is like, when I see people that are running for president, I'm like, what are you doing?
- [25:05]
Amanda Knox
I Know, why would you do that to yourself? Yeah. And then you have to spend the rest of your life, like, with, you know, Secret Service following you around, so you can't exist in the world as a normal human being like that. I do feel like there is a. You have to be a special kind of person in order to be attracted to something like that.
- [25:25]
Joe Rogan
Yeah. And ironically, that's the kind of person that's attracted to that in general is not the kind of person you want in a leadership position.
- [25:35]
Amanda Knox
Right.
- [25:36]
Joe Rogan
You know, which is like, wow, what do we do there?
- [25:38]
Amanda Knox
Yeah. Yeah. So is democracy completely and utterly flawed because it relies upon the ambition of.
- [25:47]
Joe Rogan
The wrong people or heroes or legitimate heroes? Like, someone who's like, you know, I'm gonna tolerate this. I'm gonna carry the burden of this on my back because I think I can help people.
- [25:58]
Amanda Knox
But does anyone ever, like, actually arrive at the pre. Like at the seat of the president as that person?
- [26:06]
Joe Rogan
Like, here's the question. Do they stay that person? Because I used to think Obama was that person. I really did. You know, I was like, wow, we got a good one, you know?
- [26:16]
Amanda Knox
Yeah. I was sad I missed out on that.
- [26:18]
Joe Rogan
Yeah. Yeah, it was pretty cool. But in retrospect, you know, when looking back, like, probably not really, like, probably got corrupted by the system or was corrupt originally, you know, now willing to openly lie. Yeah, it's. It's dark. It's dark, you know, and I think it's just a. It's. It's a strange social position that I don't think is manageable for anyone. I don't think the human mind is prepared to be in that kind of a position of power and not have it completely distort what you are. And then there's the relationships that you have to have with all these various politicians and then special interest groups and lobbyists and then foreign leaders and then.
- [27:13]
Amanda Knox
Yeah. How do you manage all of that?
- [27:15]
Joe Rogan
Heads of defense, contract companies. Like what? Yeah.
- [27:24]
Amanda Knox
Can I tell you a story?
- [27:25]
Joe Rogan
Yes, please.
- [27:26]
Amanda Knox
Okay. So this story didn't actually make it in my book, but it is one that I wanted to tell you because it talks about how my weird relationship with other people who are in positions of power. Like police officers. Right. Like, you know, I'm a. I'm an advocate of criminal justice reform. I talk a lot about, like, I go and testify in front of my, you know, state congress, trying to get certain laws passed to protect, you know, innocent people. And one thing that I like to point out is that I'm not anti law enforcement. If Anything. I was a victim of crime before I became a victim of the criminal justice system. Like someone broke into my home and raped and murdered my roommate. And then I called the cops and then the cops went on to betray me. But that doesn't mean that there isn't like I'm not one of those, fuck all the police, we don't need them, you know, abolish the whole system. That's not what I believe. But as someone who has had this complicated experience with police, I don't really know what to do when something bad goes down. And I want to tell you a story about something bad that went down. It was in la. I was staying at a friend's house with my husband and our two kids. We were doing work down there and our friends were not there. But in the middle of the night, we hear someone yelling out in the, you know, out in the street. We think there's some drunk guy out there, but it gets closer and closer and closer until finally there is a huge bang. And my husband gets up in his tighty whities and says one thing to me, call the police before he marches downstairs. We were upstairs in the second story and we hear a bang, we hear yelling. He goes down there in his underwear and I don't know if the last thing I'm ever gonna hear from my husband at that point is call the police. Which is an interesting final words to get from the love of your life when you're me and my infant son is crying. My two year old daughter at the time is going, what's going on? And I'm trying to calm him while reassure her while looking around the room thinking, how do I barricade a door and can I jump out of a window with two small children? All of that before I think, dial 911. Because the last time that I dialed the equivalent of 911 to call for help, I got thrown into prison. I realized that there's nothing I can do to protect my kids. So I call 911 and eventually, you know, my husband is able to get this intruder to leave the house. The police arrive and I have a very strange encounter with them because they are very nice to me and I was not expecting that. And they are very nice to my daughter and they give her a nice little, you know, police badge. And I'm sitting here thinking, great, now I'm gonna have to throw a police themed birthday party for her because now she's gonna be super into police. And I'm just like, what is happening to my life. And I'm scared that they're gonna recognize me, and I'm scared that they're gonna think maybe she faked a break in. Like all of that is going on in my head, and I don't know how to resolve that. You know, somebody broke into. I have, you know, broke into my home once, murdered my roommate, broke into the place I was staying again, thankfully, didn't murder anybody. But, like, how do I make sense of my relationship with people who are empowered to protect me, but also are empowered to hurt me? What do I do about that? You tell me, Joe. What do I do?
- [31:43]
Joe Rogan
There's no way I could know what's going through your mind. You know, that the experience that you had is. No one can even pretend to have those thoughts in their head because this is not just paranoid fantasy. This is. This is your actual lived experience for years. Yeah, that's a good question. What. What had happened? Like, the bang? Was it someone kicking down the door?
- [32:13]
Amanda Knox
Yeah, he had kicked in the door through the deadbolt.
- [32:16]
Joe Rogan
What was the yelling?
- [32:17]
Amanda Knox
The yelling was. He was just schizophrenic. Yeah, he. He thought that he. Someone had stole that house from him and he was yelling for some name of a person who didn't live there. Clearly was just like, either confused or mentally ill in some capacity, but. And thankfully not armed. But like, my husband didn't know when he walked down the stairs in his underwear without any. Like, he grabbed a broom on his way down, and that was. He was between putting himself and a broom, between whoever this person was who had just kicked in the front door through the deadbolt and his family. And that might have been the last time I ever saw him, you know, and I did not know what to do. I try to, like, joke about it now where I actually did a stand up bit about it a while back about how I was like testing my butt to see if it was bouncy enough to, like jump out of the window and bounce. But, like, when I think back on it, it's just. It's still scary, you know, And I don't. I don't like how I feel right now that when I'm scared, I'm supposed to call the police, but I'm also scared to call the police.
- [33:39]
Joe Rogan
Jesus.
- [33:41]
Amanda Knox
And so, you know, when I go and do advocacy work for, you know, I'm now on the board of organization called the innocence center, innocence center.org, which, by the way, just got a bunch of federal funding taken away. Thanks, Elon. You'd think that they would be interested in supporting organizations that clean up the messes of the criminal justice system, but apparently not. So if you want to support us. Innocence Center.org what happened that they got.
- [34:16]
Joe Rogan
Their funding taken away? What was the circumstances like?
- [34:20]
Amanda Knox
I mean, there's a federal funding that is designed for innocence organizations. And I think what I heard is that there are certain words that sort of became taboo within the administration, that if you were using these words or these terminologies that they associate with, like dei, that then that sort of puts you on the list of being cut for federal funding. And one of those words was like the word fair. And in a organization that is interested in justice and for. In getting innocent people out of prison, the word fair is going to come up quite a bit.
- [35:01]
Joe Rogan
So is this just an algorithm? They're just scanning the mission statement of whatever these organizations are?
- [35:08]
Amanda Knox
Yeah, I mean, I think that that's a first. The first step is they'll just use this. They're going to use algorithms and AI to help them identify potential things to cut. And I think as a. As a new innocence organization, we were considered not worthy of the federal funding that we have relied on and to help innocent people.
- [35:30]
Joe Rogan
And now, are you one of the founders of this organization?
- [35:33]
Amanda Knox
Me? No. I'm on the board. You're on the board, but yes, this is formerly the California Innocence Project. That has since sort of turned into the Innocence Center. But you'll see, you're seeing this all across the board of innocence projects of getting their federal funding taken away.
- [35:48]
Joe Rogan
And there's no accusations of impropriety or misuse of funds or high salaries for certain individuals or nothing.
- [35:58]
Amanda Knox
Nope, Just it's deprioritized because I think we're considered leftist organizations, potentially. I don't know, but I know that, like, I have always thought that innocence and getting injustice were bipartisan issues. And I thought that we had been making great, you know, strides in sort of welcoming in both liberal and conservative partners in this ongoing fight. But because these sort of, these things disproportionately impact people of color, you're going to see language around that that acknowledges that fact. And I think that that has been sort of put in. We are innocence organizations are now being put into DEI camps and we're being stripped of funding.
- [36:50]
Joe Rogan
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- [39:20]
Amanda Knox
And I think that that's, I hope that that's an oversight issue and that they're going to recognize the mistake that they're making. But as it stands right now, innocence organizations, not just the one that I'm associated with, are scrambling to get the funding that they were promised to continue doing. You know, doing the things that cost money, like filing, you know, filing all of their work and going through all of the casework and doing the DNA tests and doing investigations to see if you can reach the witnesses that maybe have changed their stories in all these years. It takes a lot of money and resources to prove a person's innocence. You have to reinvestigate a case. And we're, we don't, we don't have the funding that we, we used to.
- [40:05]
Joe Rogan
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- [41:30]
Amanda Knox
Yeah, I mean, I've never met him personally.
- [41:32]
Joe Rogan
He's with the, he was with the Innocence Project and now he's with the Ike Perlmutter center for Legal justice and same kind of work. Ironically, Ike Perlmutter is very close friends with Trump.
- [41:46]
Amanda Knox
Huh. And so, I mean, I would have thought that that would have been of interest to Trump considering I think it's.
- [41:52]
Joe Rogan
A baby with the bathwater type deal.
- [41:54]
Amanda Knox
Right.
- [41:55]
Joe Rogan
There's a lot of what you would call almost like slush fund NGOs where they're inappropriately moving funds around and doing stuff. And I don't know if you've ever seen any of Mike Benz's work, but essentially says that USAID is really there to do things that are too dirty for the CIA. So the extraordinary amount of money that was being moved around, there's A certain percentage of it that was inappropriately being.
- [42:26]
Amanda Knox
Used, I imagine so, yes, an enormous percentage.
- [42:29]
Joe Rogan
It's a lot of money. But unfortunately, there's a lot of good that also is coming out of that money. And that's what's difficult. That's like, you know, when you round up all the quote, unquote, gang members. Right. And you fly them to El Salvador. Are you sure?
- [42:50]
Amanda Knox
Yeah.
- [42:50]
Joe Rogan
They're all gang members. Or do you care?
- [42:52]
Amanda Knox
Right, exactly. And I think this is.
- [42:54]
Joe Rogan
Or is it just like, we're just here to clean things up and if.
- [42:57]
Amanda Knox
And if we throw an innocent omelet. Right. Are innocent people the price of us getting to be efficient.
- [43:05]
Joe Rogan
Don't become a monster when you're fighting monsters.
- [43:08]
Amanda Knox
Yeah. And that's what I think we're brushing up against right now. And as someone who really is just interested in keeping especially this issue, like, this is a human. We all should be on the same side about this 100%. Why is it being turned into a left or right issue?
- [43:31]
Joe Rogan
Well, maybe I can get this in front of Josh and he can present it to some people and, you know, have them reconsider their position.
- [43:40]
Amanda Knox
That would be great. I. I would, you know, and if you need, put me in contact, like, I would be happy to.
- [43:47]
Joe Rogan
You know, one of the things, through working with Josh and, you know, just through this podcast, we've gotten a lot of people released that were wrongfully convicted. And, you know, when you go over the amount of corruption that's involved and I. I think there's an issue with human beings. Whenever there's a binary position, a one or a zero, you win or you lose.
- [44:15]
Amanda Knox
Yes. The adversarial system, it's like, I have to be. I have to win this side, and I cannot at all, like, acknowledge some truth that might be to the other side.
- [44:24]
Joe Rogan
Like, and then you have this game where you hire. Like, if you are a guilty person, you hire the best defense attorneys that probably even know you're guilty. But their job is to get you off by any means necessary to.
- [44:39]
Amanda Knox
Well, their job is to make the government prove your guilt. Right. That's what a. Technically a defense attorney who's really good.
- [44:46]
Joe Rogan
Right. But that's not really what they're doing.
- [44:47]
Amanda Knox
Yeah.
- [44:48]
Joe Rogan
Trying to get you out.
- [44:50]
Amanda Knox
Yeah, of course. Yeah, yeah. The goal being if you can't actually prove it, then.
- [44:54]
Joe Rogan
Well, their goal is to win as often as possible so that they're. The person like this. This is the guy you want.
- [45:01]
Amanda Knox
Although I have talked to some really interesting defense attorneys. The defense attorneys Represented Larry Nassar, for example, famously, for those who don't remember, was molesting young gymnasts. You remember him?
- [45:18]
Joe Rogan
Yeah. The Olympics guy.
- [45:19]
Amanda Knox
Yeah, yeah. And I interviewed them because it was two women who represented him. And so a lot of people were like, how dare you represent this man as a woman? How could you? And their position was, well, we didn't represent him to prove him innocent. We had him plead guilty to these crimes. We just feel that everyone deserves to have a defender. We're defenders. We represent people in the law. And they were getting, like, demonized for even taking him on as a client. And I thought that was interesting because they weren't trying to get him off. They were just trying to have to represent due process. And I felt like that was a really interesting case of people confusing what is the role of a defense attorney. And I think you're right. Like, some defense attorneys really don't care if their clients are guilty or innocent because they are also in this adversarial system. And so they are also in this position of just wanting to win and wanting to make the lives of law enforcement difficult, and they're willing to throw victims under the bus in the process. I've had really frank conversations with friends of mine in the innocence world where they talk about how they were trained to just destroy a victim in order to diminish their credibility in court and to really put them in a really bad position, so they didn't want to pursue justice for themselves. And I think that. And they look back and go, oh, my God, I can't believe that. That's how I was trained to be a defense attorney. But, like, that was just part of the game. And I think that's where this whole course of justice gets completely distorted, because it's like, well, what is the point of all of this? It should be about, like, arriving at the truth and then doing. And then having there be, like, some recognized consequences for acknowledging what really happened. Like, we need to address the issue, which is, somebody got hurt by someone else. What do we do now? What. And instead, it's become, well, I'm gonna win. Like, I'm on this team. You're on this team. Fight, fight, fight. Let's see who wins. And as a result, the whole issue of truth gets distorted and becomes about making the best story that captures the people's attention. And I think. I mean, that was a huge lesson for me, was realizing that, like, the truth didn't matter. Like, nobody cared about the truth. They cared about the story. And was it a story that spoke to them and was it a story that lingered for them? And that's, you know, an ongoing thing that I write about is like, okay, here's this crazy story that is not true that took over my life and that still has this huge role. Like, I'm still in conversation with that crazy story that was written about me and the fact that my entire identity is now wrapped up in the death of my friend that I had nothing to do with, and I'll forever be defined by it. Because it's such a captivating story and.
- [48:33]
Joe Rogan
Because the prosecutor was dead set on winning and wasn't necessarily interested in the.
- [48:42]
Amanda Knox
Truth, what he says. And it's very, again, it goes back to like, what are we telling ourselves and what is the cognitive bias? And I think this is where it gets super interesting because winning is interpreted in some people's minds as doing their duty, right? Like the way that my prosecutor has always talked about it with me is that he maintains that he was doing his duty. He, this was his job. His job was to make a case that made logical sense to him based upon certain premises, and then to win that case in court. That was his job, that was his duty. And he believes that he was doing the right thing because that's what he was trained and incentivized to do. In the same way that, like, you know, journalists, if you ask journalists back who covered the case back in the day, they'd be like, well, we were doing our job. Our job was to sell the best story that we could to our audience, right? And so that's when it gets like fucked up. Because like, how have our institutions that we've relied on to be truth seeking institutions been corrupted from the inside by ultimately what is a question of like, money or power? When politics gets brought into the equation with criminal justice, suddenly, you know, your prosecutor is now wanting to win cases not because they're the right cases to win, but because they want to be elected. Like, all of that gets distorted and the motivations behind all our institutions become warped.
- [50:33]
Joe Rogan
But with the media, it's even more disgusting because it's not about politics. It's literally just about getting people to pay attention to their story and buy newspapers or click on links.
- [50:45]
Amanda Knox
That's it, right? And then they hold the audience accountable for the kinds of stories that they are then incentivized to write. They say, well, you know, I wouldn't been writing the story if you weren't clicking on it. And it's just like this vicious cycle.
- [51:00]
Joe Rogan
That's crazy. It's like, I wouldn't have robbed your house if you didn't have nice stuff.
- [51:03]
Amanda Knox
Exactly, exactly.
- [51:04]
Joe Rogan
That's fucking crazy.
- [51:06]
Amanda Knox
But, like, that's how. If you're in that little echo chamber of a system and that's what your reward structure is, of course that's what you're going to end up delivering if you're somebody who's not. Who doesn't have the introspection to question, like, okay, wait, what am I doing? And what is the point of all of this? And do you have certain principles? But again, the people who rise to the top are maybe the ones who are willing to question those principles in order to achieve certain ends.
- [51:29]
Joe Rogan
Yes. Yeah. And then there's also the problem with. You're working for a corporation. If you're in the news, if you're not an independent journalist who has, like, rock solid personal ethics, you're working for a corporation and your job is to make money for your shareholders ultimately. And the way you do that is to get as many people to click on those links as possible.
- [51:48]
Amanda Knox
And maybe the person who's on the ground has a certain vision for what they want. They're like, on the ground reporting to do. But then once it gets in the hands of editors and other editors, like, it becomes completely warped from the thing that they were originally reporting on, because the person who's over here is so divorced from the actual on the ground story, and they know instead the story that's going to sell.
- [52:09]
Joe Rogan
Yeah. So, yeah, it's dark. I mean, it's the same sort of distortion. Excuse me.
- [52:17]
Amanda Knox
Salute.
- [52:18]
Joe Rogan
Sorry. It's the same sort of distortion when you were talking about prosecutors just trying to win. It's this thing where. And ultimately it's a severe distortion of what the best case scenario is. The best case scenario is prosecutors don't care about winning. They care about finding truly guilty people. And in cases where someone, Whether they withhold evidence that could have exonerated an innocent person or whether they distort things or twist things around in order to win, they should be forever removed from that system. You should never be allowed to do that. But this is. Kamala Harris did that and rose to be vice president and almost became president. And she is absolutely guilty of doing that.
- [53:16]
Amanda Knox
Yeah, I know. It's.
- [53:18]
Joe Rogan
She tried to withhold DNA evidence that would have exonerated someone.
- [53:22]
Amanda Knox
I know. She was not a popular choice among the innocence community, I'll tell you that.
- [53:28]
Joe Rogan
Oh, yeah, no, Josh Dubin broke her down on my show. But when she.
- [53:32]
Amanda Knox
Were they here together?
- [53:34]
Joe Rogan
No.
- [53:34]
Amanda Knox
Okay.
- [53:34]
Joe Rogan
No, no, no, no. He broke down what she was guilty of when she was a prosecutor in Cal.
- [53:40]
Amanda Knox
Yeah, no, it. It wasn't. And that's why I was so mad that our party never actually gave us a choice.
- [53:45]
Joe Rogan
Right. There was no primary.
- [53:47]
Amanda Knox
No, there was no primary. They were just like, here's the person.
- [53:50]
Joe Rogan
Now, and if you don't vote for her, you're a bad person.
- [53:52]
Amanda Knox
Exactly.
- [53:53]
Joe Rogan
You're a fascist.
- [53:53]
Amanda Knox
Yes.
- [53:54]
Joe Rogan
Okay.
- [53:55]
Amanda Knox
Yeah. No, it was that. That this whole.
- [53:58]
Joe Rogan
But then again, that's also just trying to win. Yeah, it's the same kind of thing. It's just the. The focus is on winning.
- [54:05]
Amanda Knox
Yeah.
- [54:05]
Joe Rogan
At what cost? I mean, and then that's a very slippery slope because if you're willing to accept that, guess what? Guess what? That. That slope keeps slipping, and then next.
- [54:15]
Amanda Knox
Thing you know, you don't have breaks.
- [54:17]
Joe Rogan
Right? You have to put a fucking blinder on because you're. You're part of the problem. You're part of what's destroying society. So then you have to, like, reshape your own personal narrative and lie to yourself about what you're doing and why you're doing it.
- [54:30]
Amanda Knox
Right. A little bit of, like, self brainwashing. And that fascinates me, like in conversations with my prosecutor, how. How has he convinced himself that he's the good guy? And. And how has that changed when I have approached him? Not as an adversary, but as someone who is, I wouldn't say, like, tolerant, because I've never put myself in a position of sort of saying, oh, what you did was not a big deal. Like, when I approached him, I was like, what you did was a big deal and you were wrong and you hurt people. But, like, acknowledging his humanity and the complexity of him and acknowledging that, like, he's not an evil person.
- [55:21]
Joe Rogan
Well, what is evil?
- [55:23]
Amanda Knox
Intentional malice, maybe?
- [55:25]
Joe Rogan
That seems like he was doing it intentionally if he was paying attention to the facts of the case. I mean, there was DNA evidence. There was all sorts of stuff that pointed to you not being the guilty party, and they ignored that. If that's not evil.
- [55:40]
Amanda Knox
I mean, what he did, it's interesting. He wrote a whole book about the case, and he talked about how when he first arrived at the. At the scene, he immediately knew that it was a conspiracy because he looked at the broken window, how the person had actually broken into our home and said, there's no way, zero chance that a burglar would have broken in to a house this way. He just was like 100% convinced that immediately that the break in was Staged. And if you take that, if you and your brain truly believe that, then what logically follows is a lot of what he then came up with. Well, someone in the house is trying to cover up for a crime that they were involved in. Who lives in that house? Well, there are three other girls, one of whom was in Rome, one of whom is another Italian girl who was with her boyfriend and friends, and one of whom is the American girl who was with her boyfriend that night, but who also happened to be the one who called the police and brought attention to the house. So maybe because we found her at the scene of the crime, like, all of it sort of starts to like, make logical sense if you begin with a false premise.
- [56:59]
Joe Rogan
How did he reconcile that in the book?
- [57:01]
Amanda Knox
In his book?
- [57:02]
Joe Rogan
Yeah.
- [57:03]
Amanda Knox
I mean, he makes logical leaps. So he goes, okay, well then we discovered that, you know, all of this DNA of the person who actually committed the crime, right? Like, you know, they finally get the DNA DNA back and it's all pointing to this guy who has a history of breaking and entering and aggression towards women. And he doesn't go, oh no, we made a mistake. He goes, oh, how can now he be involved in this thing that I know Amanda's involved in? Because I know the break in was staged. And you know, like, so these, the, this is how a person with good, with genuinely good intentions can, can have false beliefs that then logic from which one can logically derive an insane story that requires like him to now believe. Like one of the things that I pointed out to him that just like drives me nuts, that he continues to like somehow hang on to is this idea that I was in a threesome with, like, I was in a three way relationship with my actual boyfriend Rafaele and this burglar, Rudy, good day. And I was like, where are you coming up with that? And he was like, well, whenever I interviewed Rudy, like, he talks about interviewing, you know, interrogating Rudy. Rudy always seemed to have affectionate things to say about. He always seemed to like, be interested in you. And from that I can logically deduce that you guys had a relationship. And I was like, we. Like, I didn't even know his name. There's no record of us ever communicating with each other. No one ever like saw us hanging out with each other. Like, what are you talking about? And he's like, well, if he was involved in the crime and you're involved in the crime and he's sort of talking about, you know, you in an affectionate way, then logically it makes sense. That you were in this, you know, three way relationship with Raphael Ann, Rudy. And I'm like, that's not true. And he's like, well, that's what it's, that's what made logical sense to me at the time.
- [59:00]
Joe Rogan
I think the issue is an egotistic idiot that has power. That's really what I think it is.
- [59:08]
Amanda Knox
Because I think if someone, someone who has a belief and a confidence in their own abilities as a logical thinker. And I think anyone who is in that kind of position has to believe in themselves in that kind of way.
- [59:23]
Joe Rogan
But not just that, like, you have too much power, like, fair. There's not enough oversight. You have too much power and then you say something and if your initial assertion is incorrect, you, you then have to defend it. So then you do mental gymnastics, try to defend it.
- [59:37]
Amanda Knox
Right.
- [59:37]
Joe Rogan
At the expense of your fucking life.
- [59:39]
Amanda Knox
Yes.
- [59:40]
Joe Rogan
He was willing to put you away forever. Like, he had to know at some point in time, in the back of his stupid brain, he had to know that you were innocent and he was willing to push forward and concoct some sort of a three way relationship narrative that he still sticks to. Fuck that guy.
- [59:59]
Amanda Knox
Well, and sometimes that's what my brain says, you know, sometimes your brain should.
- [60:03]
Joe Rogan
Say that, you know, I mean, forgiveness is really important, but some people you just can't forgive. Like some people, it's like, no, you need to come to grips with the fact that you're a piece of shit. That's what's wrong here. It's not me forgiving you and you having this hall pass to just to be a piece of shit because you had this theory that you're still accusing me of. No, that's, that's not. You're bad at what you do, and sometimes people are bad at what they do. Sometimes you get bad teachers, you get bad cops. Sometimes you get a bad electrician, your house catches fire. Some, some people suck at what they do. And to like have this like eternal forgiveness, like, sometimes it's not smart to do that.
- [60:49]
Amanda Knox
Well, certainly. And I, and I think that's still.
- [60:51]
Joe Rogan
Working as a prosecutor.
- [60:52]
Amanda Knox
No, no, he's retired. He. He has retired.
- [60:54]
Joe Rogan
He should be in jail. This episode is brought to you by Visible Now. You know, I tend to go down a lot of rabbit holes. I want to know everything about everything. And if you're like that, you need wireless that can keep up. Visible is wireless that lets you live in the know. It's the ultimate wireless hack. You get unlimited data and hotspot. So you're connected on the go. Plus Visible is powered by Verizon's 5G network, meaning fast speeds and great coverage. And with Visible Plus Pro plan, you get premium wireless without the premium cost. And the best part, it's all digital, no stores. You can switch to visible right from your phone. It only takes about 15 minutes. And then you manage your plan in the app. Ready for wireless that lets you live in the know. Make the switch@visible.com Rogan Plan start at 25amonth for the best features. Get the new Visible Plus Pro plan for $45 a month. Terms apply. See visible.com for plan features and network management details.
- [61:59]
Amanda Knox
Like, literally, I do not wish jail upon him. I don't.
- [62:02]
Joe Rogan
That's sweet, but that's a crime. Like, what he did, it was not just a crime, but it was a conspiracy.
- [62:09]
Amanda Knox
Yeah, I. I would have to say that I agree that there. I always wanted. I always wondered where the adults were in the room. Like, you know, the whole first two years of my imprisonment, I was like, this is all a huge mistake. And it's really obviously a huge mistake. And when are. When are, like, the mommies and daddies gonna show up and say, okay, kids, stop your squabbling. Like, let's straighten things out.
- [62:37]
Joe Rogan
There's no mommies and daddies.
- [62:38]
Amanda Knox
There are no mommies and daddies. That's the thing that freaked me out. It's like, we're all adults now, and this is all we are. We're just a bunch of screaming toddlers just screaming at each other constantly. And here I am now, I feel, in a way, trying to mother my prosecutor through his, you know, psychological tantrums, which is a weird position to be in because now that I've, you know, developed the relationship that I've developed with him, I, like, I care about him. Like, I don't think that you can. I set out to understand him. I wanted to understand him. But in the process of, like, really understanding a human being and having them, like, be really open to you, I don't know, I feel like you inevitably begin to care about this person, even in their flawed fragility as a human being. And so on the one hand, I'm very angry at him to this day, and on the other hand, I care about him, and I have to give him some props. He didn't have to respond to me. He didn't have to. To meet with me. He didn't have to sit there and hear me talk about how he had fucked up my life and he shouldn't have. I Did not. Like, it's not that, like, me being kind to him does not mean me tolerating injustice and it does not mean me not setting boundaries and it does not mean me sugarcoating what really happened. Like, he knows what I think really happened. And he says, well, you know, we can disagree about our perspectives in some ways, but ultimately what matters is that you reached out to me and saw me as a human being. And in response, I, like, I also inevitably came to see you as a human being and I care about you. And. And so in a way, like, we're still in this awkward dance of like, one part of us is stuck in that adversarial system and one part of us is in a non adversarial, very like, accepting of all the things, space, and we're paradoxically existing in both of them at the same time. And I think that that's just kind of how life is like, you know, one of the paradoxes of life is that, like, if you really just sit down and sit with yourself and your life just the way it is right now, if you really do just like, notice, like right now, you and me, here, we are talking. We are okay, you and me, we are good. And also, there's still fucked up shit in my life, and there's still fucked up shit in your life, and things could be better. And all of those things can be true at the same time. Like, you know, I'm still fighting to clear my name in Italy. I don't know if you. Have you kept up with like the latest with my case? Oh, yeah. So still. So I've been cleared of like all the crazy, you know, horrible murder, orgy, all of that stuff cleared. The thing that remains, and this is just the bane of my fucking existence, is when they cleared me of having anything to do with the crime, they left open the possibility that I was present when the crime occurred. And I believe the reason that they did this was because they wanted to find me guilty of something. And the thing that they found me guilty of was the way lesser crime on the list of all the crimes that were there, which was slander. They accused me of, of knowingly and willingly falsely accusing an innocent person of having committed this crime. Because during my interrogation I was coerced into implicating myself and my boss, Patrick Lumumba, of committing this crime. And I immediately retracted it, all of that. But that was one of the things that they were holding me accountable for. And they, to this day, I am still convicted in Italy of knowingly and willingly Accusing an innocent man. And for me to knowingly and willingly accuse this innocent man, I would have to have been at the house and known who really was the murderer at the moment that I falsely accused this innocent person. Like, I would have had to know that he was definitively innocent for this to be the case. And for that to be true, I would have to be physically present at the crime, even if I was not participating in it. So the legal standing right now to this day is that I was there and that when I was interrogated, I knowingly and falsely accused an innocent person. I appealed this, by the way, to the European Court of Human Rights, and they ruled in my favor. They said that because I had been denied the right to have an attorney and an interpreter when I was being interrogated, that none of that should ever have been. I should never have been convicted of that. And I took that back to Italy. I took that ruling back to Italy and they overturned it. I was actually acquitted of that for a second, but then sent back for retrial recently. And recently, yeah, this is 18 years later. Recently was put back on trial for that. This was last year. And I was found guilty again.
- [68:38]
Joe Rogan
Oh, my God.
- [68:39]
Amanda Knox
On the basis not even of the statements that the police, like, coerced me into signing, but on my retraction. So I hand wrote a retraction of those statements that the police coerced me into signing. And I was like, I'm so confused. I can't testify. Like, I don't know if Patrick did it or not. Like, I just don't know. And they said, well, even a confused statement where you're not sure what the truth is, if you were physically present at the crime is. Is slander. And you falsely accused an innocent man that you knew to be innocent. And so.
- [69:10]
Joe Rogan
But they have no proof that you were there.
- [69:12]
Amanda Knox
Exactly. So we're in this, like, cyclical thing.
- [69:14]
Joe Rogan
Where they're like, they just don't want to admit that they fucked up.
- [69:17]
Amanda Knox
That's what I think. And I'm at this point where I'm like, okay, now what? Because I'm definitively convicted of this thing. And, like, the legal truth in this case does not represent the actual truth in this case.
- [69:32]
Joe Rogan
Are they trying to protect themselves from some sort of a civil suit?
- [69:35]
Amanda Knox
Maybe? I think even more than that, I think they're trying to protect themselves from admitting that they tortured an innocent girl.
- [69:45]
Joe Rogan
Oh, my God. So. So they can say, well, she is guilty. She did do this. She's a guilty.
- [69:51]
Amanda Knox
And so it's not crazy. For us to think that she might have been involved in the. In the murder. Because here she is.
- [69:58]
Joe Rogan
She probably lied about being there.
- [70:00]
Amanda Knox
Yeah.
- [70:01]
Joe Rogan
Jesus Christ.
- [70:02]
Amanda Knox
And all they were ever able to do was prove that I lived in the house that this happened in. Like, sure, my DNA is in my house. It's not anywhere near Meredith's body or where the crime occurred. But they're saying that, like, I was there. And it's sort of this, like, cyclical sort of reasoning. Like, Amanda said she was there, therefore she was there, therefore she said she was. You know, like, it's this, like, insane cyclical reasoning. And I'm at the point where I have to ask myself, like, how do I fight this? And if so, do I? And that's where this whole question of freedom comes in. Like, do I. Do I have to definitively, like, prove my innocence in a court of law to feel that I have definitively proven my innocence? Or do I need to definitively prove my innocence in the court of public opinion in order to feel free or to feel like I. Like, I'm not. Regardless of whether I definitively prove my innocence or not? Like, am I ever going to be free? Free of this? Is this ever going to be not touching me and impacting my life? And the answer that I've come to is, well, no, in the way that, like, any of our experiences have come to define us as human beings. And in a way, it's like another way of reframing this is, okay, these are my credentials now. Like, I went to the. I didn't go to four years of master's degree in poetry. I got a master's degree in whatever this is being fucked, you know, like, you know, and so, like. And I've learned things from this. I've learned. I've learned things about the criminal justice system. I. Like, I can see things that need to be fixed, that have. Are really common sense fixes to, like it. There is no reason why we shouldn't be just recording any kind of communication. Like, any time that anyone is being questioned by anyone in law enforcement, there's no reason why we shouldn't be recording it. And I'm not talking about even just suspects because, like, there's been a whole, you know, world of advocacy around, like, recording interrogations, right? Like custodial interrogations, and especially making it so that police officers can't lie to you when you're being interrogated. Because that was a huge thing that impacted me as like, a young, confused, like, overwhelmed human being. Is police lying to me and Telling me that they have proof that I was there when the crime occurred. And it made me, like, feel like I was insane. And so, like, the problem of police lying to you is not just that it's like a bullying technique, but it warps your sense of reality and you start to question yourself. And so there's psychological research to show that there are very negative consequences for police lying to you during interrogation. But at the very least, if you record it, you can sort of track how that is impacting a person who is being. Who is a suspect. The wild west of all of this is eyewitnesses or anyone else who is being questioned by police, because there's no Miranda rights. As a person who is being questioned by police, you don't really have rights. Like, you don't. You don't have, like, one of the things that they say in my case is that I never had the right to an attorney because I wasn't a suspect, I was a witness. And so, like, to this day in Italy, there's like, this resistance to the idea that I was, like, coerced into. I was. That I was even interrogated at all. Because there's this, like, little loophole where they say, oh, you weren't interrogated, you were interviewed. Oh, you weren't interviewed, you were questioned. They just changed the language. But what's ultimately happening is the same thing. You are stuck in a room with a law enforcement officer who may or may not be lying to your face and bullying you, and you don't know if you're free or not to go because the door is closed and it doesn't feel like it. And so for me, I think that if you consider how many wrongful convictions happen because of misidentification by witnesses or the number of times that, like, witnesses say, well, I wasn't really sure that it was him, but the police sort of coaxed me or pressured me into saying it was him, and let sort of made it known to me that it was him. Like, there are lots of things that are happening behind closed doors that we really don't have an experience excuse for not fixing when every single one of us has a recording device in our pocket at all times. And the amount of resistance to, like, getting just really common sense changes like that to happen from, like, law enforcement lobbies is just so frustrating as someone who, like, shows up again and again and again to, like, try to make, because it seems like this adversarial thing, like, we're. We're all on the same side. It's not like victims rights versus defendants rights. It's not law enforcement versus, you know, innocence. It's like we're all on the same page. Why can't we just acknowledge a true thing? That's been one of my biggest frustrations in this world is like, feeling like we should all be on the same side and we should be making common sense changes and that don't, you know.
- [75:23]
Joe Rogan
That'S the way the system is structured. You know, there's two sides trying to win, and when you lose, you don't like to lose. So people would cheat to win, but, like, lose.
- [75:34]
Amanda Knox
What are you losing?
- [75:35]
Joe Rogan
You know, they're playing a game. I mean, it's your life and it's other people's lives. It's innocent people's lives, but it's also guilty people's lives.
- [75:43]
Amanda Knox
But why doesn't, like, a law enforcement officer look at something that happened to me? Actually, you know what? I take that back. Plenty of law enforcement people have talked to me and said, like, we are so sorry for what happened.
- [75:55]
Joe Rogan
The ones who weren't involved. That's the problem. The problem is, do you look away when you are involved? You know, how many law enforcement officers will stick their neck out if they think their partner overstepped their boundaries and got someone to admit to something that maybe they did or didn't do? Withheld evidence that may or may not have exonerated someone. Like, there's steps along the way on the road to evil.
- [76:21]
Amanda Knox
Right. And no one gets rewarded for sticking their neck out or for holding their friends accountable.
- [76:27]
Joe Rogan
Yeah, you get exhausted, you get excommunicated from your tribe. It's very dangerous.
- [76:35]
Amanda Knox
You know, so how do we motivate any other? Like, how.
- [76:40]
Joe Rogan
It's a real problem. It's a. It's a giant conundrum. It's a real problem in the way this. The system is structured and the feeling.
- [76:47]
Amanda Knox
That you have to, like, in order to do the right thing, you just have to switch sides. Like, that really bothers me also because, like, one thing that I have I would love to see more of is more of like a collaboration between victims rights advocates and innocence rights advocates. But like, oftentimes you see us sort of pitted against each other as if, like, you know, I've always felt that the criminal justice system never did enough for victims. That, like, the only compensation that victims are really given is the idea that you're going to punish the perpetrator. And I've always wanted to know, how is the system. How is the system going to help the victim Rebuild their life and take back and like, reclaim what can be reclaimed of their experience and be uplifted.
- [77:45]
Joe Rogan
That's supposedly where the civil.
- [77:48]
Amanda Knox
Supposedly. But like, you're. You're suing the person who committed the crime. And are you ever actually going to get any money from them? Are you like.
- [77:56]
Joe Rogan
Well, sometimes money's awarded to families by the state. You know, there's those. But I mean, is that enough? Like, is money's. Is that enough? You know?
- [78:07]
Amanda Knox
No, I don't think so. I think that people need more support than that.
- [78:14]
Joe Rogan
What is the support, though? Like, what would make it right?
- [78:18]
Amanda Knox
Well, I think overhaul of the system. Yeah.
- [78:21]
Joe Rogan
Really, the only way to truly make it right is to find. I mean, if you're a person, like, I think your approach to this, all this radical acceptance and forgiveness is very, very, very beautiful. It's amazing that you can do it. It's amazing that you think the way you think. And, you know, I used you as an example the other day. We're having this conversation about horrible things that have happened to people that have made that person a beautiful person. Because you, you went through this insane thing, but on the other end of it, you came out this, like, really interesting person.
- [78:59]
Amanda Knox
Oh, well, there was.
- [79:00]
Joe Rogan
You really are. You know, I used you as an example of things that don't break you, but that you would never want to wish on anyone else. But then the result of that is this person comes out. Extraordinary.
- [79:13]
Amanda Knox
Yeah, I mean, that's a lot of the obstacles, the way kind of stuff. I mean, it's a lot of stuff that I write about in the book, actually is one of the things that my goal with this book was to try to like, yes, what happened to me is like, oh, crazy story, happened to a girl one time. But also there are, like, universal lessons and truths that I've derived from my experience that make me. And when I communicate them, they make me feel less ostracized or less like, singled out as a human being. And one of those is like, there is opportunity in every tragedy. And I think that what my tragedy challenged me to do was to not be broken by it. And my definition of being broken by it was coming out of it a person who was angry and embittered and diminished by this experience. And I just. The rebelliousness side of me was like, fuck that. What matters to me. What matters to me is the truth and is compassion, curiosity, compassion. Those are things that I genuinely care about and having the courage to approach human beings and situations that are painful and that are wrong with the Open heart that it requires to have compassion and genuine curiosity. That is what I wanted to define me. I did not want this horrible experience to define me on its terms. I wanted to define me on my own terms. And I think the challenge that any one of us has is remembering what even our terms are when we're feeling sort of overwhelmed with the, the existential crisis of it all. And, and the, and the, and the. I think the one of the biggest mistakes that people make is they are stuck. They are fixated. They dwell on the life that they should have lived instead of acknowledging and accepting that this is the life that they are living. And when you are acting in the world as if you are living the life that you should have lived, you are inevitably becoming ineffective. Like, if I were to approach the world and be like, my prosecutor never should have done this to me, and I never should have gone to prison, and people should never should have villainized me in the press, I would just find myself debunked, debilitated, utterly debilitated by the fact that reality is other than that. And I would just find myself angry and, and, and, and bitter about it all. And instead I go, well, all of that happened. Now what? And by accepting reality and life as it is, I can now become a more effective agent in my life. I don't want to, to live my life acting and feeling and thinking in ways that are not going to be effective. And so instead what happens and the radical acceptance of it all is truly coming from a place of. I'm not trying to be Christian about it. I'm just trying to, like, not be the completely and utterly overwhelmed and disempowered person that I was when I was in prison. Like, I, I lost so much. I had so little control of my life. And I think in the end, all of us do. I feel like I weirdly had a midlife crisis when I was 20 because my entire life fell apart. Or I was on, I was, I was put on this, this track, this train that just like left the station and was going on its own and there was really nothing I could do to stop it. And so. Okay, now what?
- [83:35]
Joe Rogan
That's a great way to put it. Like you're on a train that you can't stop. Yeah. I mean, what you've done is admirable. I mean, the, the approach that you take is really. I mean, if.
- [83:47]
Amanda Knox
Is it admirable? Is it self serving? Like, is it just like.
- [83:50]
Joe Rogan
It's not self serving, Obviously it's self serving, but that's a Good thing. I mean, you're serving yourself in the best possible way. And, and to, to not be completely defined by your being victimized. You, you've risen above it. I mean just the fact that you've contacted the prosecutor and, and tried to reach out and to talk to him as a human being and try to.
- [84:13]
Amanda Knox
Find out and accept him where he's at.
- [84:15]
Joe Rogan
Yeah.
- [84:16]
Amanda Knox
Like this is where you're at.
- [84:17]
Joe Rogan
Well, he's a kind of a victim in, in a way because he shouldn't have had the kind of power that he had. He. There's no way to tell. Like there's no checks and balances that are put in place to make sure the person's ego is not overwhelming them to the point where their initial idea of a conspiracy.
- [84:37]
Amanda Knox
And he's also not in a vacuum. Like there were other people around him who were like building, building him up and supporting that story. And you know, like.
- [84:45]
Joe Rogan
Well, it's also like he's in a position of power. They're underneath him. You know, there's this weird structure that's place.
- [84:52]
Amanda Knox
Yeah, all of that can be true.
- [84:54]
Joe Rogan
Yeah, all that.
- [84:55]
Amanda Knox
And I can accept that as also true. And I think there's this like weird resistance that people have to accepting the context around a person. Maybe because you, you realize that if you accept the context around the person, that feeling of self righteousness that you're ultimately grasping onto dissipates because it does inevitably dissipate. But I think that's again, that's a symptom of someone dwelling on the life that they should have lived instead of accepting the life that they have.
- [85:30]
Joe Rogan
Right.
- [85:32]
Amanda Knox
And I just find that to be a waste of time.
- [85:35]
Joe Rogan
It is not just a waste of time. It's the opposite of self serving. It kind of destroys you from within because you know it's not true.
- [85:42]
Amanda Knox
Right?
- [85:43]
Joe Rogan
Yeah. And so you're bullshitting yourself as you're bullshitting the world and that's who you are now.
- [85:50]
Amanda Knox
Yeah, that. I think that is a scary trap that victims can fall into is like how you then become self destructive in your own mind as a result of someone having been destructive towards you. That is, I think that is the deepest tragedy of hurt is how it can then become implosive. And I did not want to implode. I was scared to implode. I saw a lot of people around me in prison imploding and I did not want that to be me.
- [86:26]
Joe Rogan
It takes insane mental resolve to not. And that's, it's the trap that most people are going to fall into. And to a lesser extent, he's a victim as well. He's a victim of his own actions. And he'll. It will haunt. I mean he's defined by that as well now particularly that everybody knows that you're innocent and that you've been proven innocent. And then in the retrial you got proven again. And so that's him. That's over his head everywhere he goes. He wrongly prosecuted and jailed you for a murder you did not commit. And he has to live with that every day. When he wakes up and he looks in the mirror, that's who you are forever. And you could dance around, you know, I was doing my job. And this, you can, you can have, you know, that's, that's where you kind of try to find some sort of. No, no, you did this thing, you were wrong. You, your ego, whatever the it was that led you to come up with the initial theory and then try to use confirmation bias to reinforce it at every step of the way. That's you. And if he doesn't admit that, he will go to his grave haunted.
- [87:48]
Amanda Knox
And I think what's a really interesting thing for me is discovering what can come from approaching someone, recognizing that. So when I approached him, I approached him in a really unconventional way. Right. Like I'm trying to find common ground with this person. I'm trying to. I very, I'm deeply, genuinely curious about this person. I am primed to feel compassion for this person because that is just the mental and intentional space that I put myself in in approaching him and the surprising dividends that arise from that. Because I think everyone is evolving. No one is static. Even he is on his own journey, he's on his own path. And I'm not in control of his path. But that doesn't mean that I can't be a very compelling influence of all the people in the world who could be nice to him and have that have an impact on him, me. And like recognizing like, I didn't really fully comprehend that until I sat down with him. And like I sort of, in my mind I realized what it looked like from my position. Like, here's this person who had this overwhelming impact on my life and to this day, like continually, like this story that he made up, like took over my life and continues to take over my life. Like this is what I'm gonna live with for the rest of my life is because of him, this person who has had this outsized influence on my well being and my, my personhood and my existence. This guy I sit down across from him and I'm nice to him. And I walk away from that encounter realizing that his well being depends on me much more so than my well being depends on him. And I think because deep down he understands that there is this dynamic that, you know, whatever stories he can tell himself about what happened, he was the one who was in power and I was the one who went to prison. And for me to be kind to him, I didn't have to do that. He had never had it happen before. It was unheard of. And as a spiritual person, he experienced it in a spiritual way. Me, I came out of that experience feeling like a fucking superhero. I have never felt more powerful in my life than when I sat across from him and was kind to him. And it didn't matter what he said or what he did, because I showed up. And that was. I was not expecting that to happen. That was not how I expected to feel. It surprised me, but, like, it had such an impact on me that I felt like I had discovered something about. About trauma and about healing and about people and dynamics. And in a world that is so conflicted and where the people are, you know, not building bridges, they're blowing them up. I was like. I wanted to remind people of what happens when you. When you take a chance and you take a stand. Yeah.
- [91:49]
Joe Rogan
Well, that kind of kindness is rewarded by the universe. And that was the feeling that you got that you were on the right path to, like, the best possible person that you could be. What would the best possible version of you do? And you did that, and then you had that feeling because of that. That was the universe telling you, right. This is the best thing you can do. You could yell at that guy and call him a piece of. And slap him in the face and.
- [92:19]
Amanda Knox
Feel justified in doing so.
- [92:21]
Joe Rogan
You would be, and you would be.
- [92:22]
Amanda Knox
And that might even feel a little good in a way, but it wouldn't feel like that good.
- [92:27]
Joe Rogan
Yeah, negativity, always, no matter what, leaves you with this residue, this, like, icky, even if you're correct, just like, slime that's on this. Psychic slime.
- [92:45]
Amanda Knox
Right.
- [92:45]
Joe Rogan
That's on you no matter what.
- [92:47]
Amanda Knox
Yeah.
- [92:48]
Joe Rogan
And that's your power, that you could sit across this person and treat them with compassion. And that's why you felt that way.
- [92:57]
Amanda Knox
You know, it's like, have you ever felt that way?
- [93:00]
Joe Rogan
I've never had anything remotely like your situation.
- [93:05]
Amanda Knox
But you've had. You've had encounters with people. Like, I don't think you have to have as devastating of A situation to, like, be in a position to know that you're doing the right thing in a moment. Like, for instance, when my husband got up in his whitey tighties and walked down the stairs to put himself between me and his family and this crazy guy, I feel like maybe he felt that in that moment, like, total clarity of purpose. And it didn't really matter what happened, because he was doing the thing that had to be done in that moment, and there was no confusion. I think that, like, when I talk about it with him today, like, to this day, he's just like, I was just not confused. I just knew exactly what I needed. I didn't even think it was that flow state even that they talk about, like, Tao, when, like, you. You and the universe are moving in the exact. In sync.
- [94:13]
Joe Rogan
Yeah.
- [94:14]
Amanda Knox
And that. That was my version of it. That was his version of it. And I think that all of us have the opportunity to glimpse that in our lives. And I'm just curious if you've ever felt like you were moving in sync with the universe.
- [94:27]
Joe Rogan
I try to be.
- [94:28]
Amanda Knox
Yeah.
- [94:29]
Joe Rogan
But again, I haven't.
- [94:30]
Amanda Knox
Still feel kind of slimy?
- [94:33]
Joe Rogan
Well, I've had moments where I haven't. I've had moments where I was very negative and attacked back, and I never feel good about it. You know, it's one of the reasons why I don't engage with people online that are negative. I just. I don't, you know, especially particularly, like, the lowest level of it is social media. You know, I'm not interested in conflict. I'm not interested in it. I don't want to do it. You know, even if someone has negative things to say about me, I'm not really interested in engaging. I don't think it's valuable. You know, I think it's a trap. Yeah, but it's not the same situation as what you were in. I don't know how I would be.
- [95:12]
Amanda Knox
Because the other danger is, like, you know, I don't want to consider myself above criticism. Say, like, that's. I think the other flip side of that of like, of having confidence, is potentially having the confidence that my prosecutor had. When was he feeling in sync with the universe when he was prosecuting me. Did he?
- [95:36]
Joe Rogan
Clearly not. There's no way. No, that. But that's not confidence. That's ego. Confidence is an objective analysis of all the facts. Doing the right thing, having a rock solid ethical and moral foundation, and knowing you're doing the right thing and knowing you can do it, that's confidence. What he had was Ego, you know, this desire, you know, but people are in a position like that where people's freedom hangs on your decisions and what you do and what you don't do. And then you do it for so many years and you see so many people prosecuted, you just get calloused about it. You see it with doctors where doctors, you know, they have this. Some. Not all. Some doctors develop this very callous feeling whether someone lives or dies. They don't care anymore. They're so used to people dying. I mean, there's doctors that do surgeries that are completely unnecessary just because they want the money. We were talking the other day about this guy who is a oncologist who treated people with chemotherapy who did not have cancer because he wanted the money. And it was. He was convicted. It was like. I think it was some insane number of people took this horrible poison to try to kill the cancer inside of them and ruin their lives and ruin. And there was nothing wrong with them.
- [97:07]
Amanda Knox
Wow.
- [97:07]
Joe Rogan
Yeah. Because there's. And I think his justification was even more sick. His justification was that he was always taught that you eat what you kill. And in that business, in the business of being a surgeon and the business of being a doctor, like, you have to perform this medicine in order to get money. And this is the incentive structure that's put in front of you. I don't know if you know that, but chemotherapy is one of the most profitable things that a doctor can prescribe. They actually get an enormous amount of money from each individual person that they. Yeah, there's. There's all sorts of very twisted and bizarre financial incentives.
- [97:48]
Amanda Knox
Again, these institutions that get warped by these various.
- [97:51]
Joe Rogan
Exactly. I mean, this is the case with vaccinations. This is the case with prescriptions of various medicines. There's kickbacks, and these kickbacks become incentives. And then you have the overwhelming burden of the financial responsibility that you have with your medical school debt. And then you have malpractice insurance, which is overwhelming. You have overhead, you have staff, you have a bunch of people. And then people start justifying things in a very twisted way, and it's because of the system. And you have to be an incredibly powerful person to rise above that. And to say, this is not what I'm going to do, even if it means I can't do this anymore, I'm not doing this. And then the weakest amongst us just. Instead they go the other way and say, I'll just justify what no one is going to know. I'll just say, yeah, you got cancer. Yeah, sorry, you Know, we're just going to. I want to give her a low dose of chemotherapy for like six weeks or so. Like, you know, whatever.
- [98:49]
Amanda Knox
No big deal. Yeah, yeah. Just destroy your body from.
- [98:52]
Joe Rogan
And then just like this godlike power that, you know, that you are imposing this medication on this person that absolutely.
- [98:59]
Amanda Knox
Does not need it and that person doesn't know any better. Yeah, that's dark.
- [99:05]
Joe Rogan
Well, you could go darker. You go darker with medical transition of children. You know, this. This whole gender affirming care thing where you're taking young kids and convincing them they need to be chemically castrated or physically castrated. There's a lot of weirdness in the world. Evil's a real thing. And the motivation to do these things can be very hidden and masked with all sorts of incentives and the structure in which this institution was sort of created. And that's. That's the world we're living in. And it's not a good world. It's not. It's not a perfect world. You know, it's not like this is ideal. This is how it should be. No, it's not like that. There's. Money is a weird fucking thing. Money and power are two very, very weird things. And without some sort of a higher power that you call upon or some sort of a higher power that you are beholden to and that you have to answer or two, it's very difficult for people to make decisions if they know they're not going to get caught, if they know they're not going to get in trouble. If you're a prosecutor and you're beyond reproach and all you have to do.
- [100:19]
Amanda Knox
And the system protects you and everyone's protecting you.
- [100:22]
Joe Rogan
And not only that, once the wheels are in motion, the train's on the track. We can't turn the train around. What do you want to do? Well, the fucking train has to be on the track. So she's got to go to jail, I guess.
- [100:33]
Amanda Knox
Yeah.
- [100:33]
Joe Rogan
And there you go.
- [100:34]
Amanda Knox
Can I tell you something I'm conflicted about?
- [100:36]
Joe Rogan
Sure.
- [100:38]
Amanda Knox
So, you know, my book's been out for a month or so now, and I'm also, you know, working on. I don't know if you knew this. I have a Hulu show that I'm working on that's based on my life. Yeah. Monica is executive producing it. Monica Lewinsky is executive producing it. And I'm really proud of it. It's. It's coming out at the end of the summer, late summer. But one of the things that, like, one of the responses that I've had to my book and to the, you know, the news that I'm telling my story in this way or in another way, and I write about this in the book, is this question of do I have the right to tell my story? And what?
- [101:33]
Joe Rogan
Yeah, who's saying that?
- [101:35]
Amanda Knox
Well, people who believe that I'm not the real victim of the story. The real victim is my roommate who was murdered. And that unless I have the blessing of Meredith's family to tell my story, that I should shut up and disappear out of respect.
- [102:01]
Joe Rogan
That's crazy. You're a victim, period. Full stop. No if, ands or buts. You were 20 years old.
- [102:09]
Amanda Knox
I was 20 years old.
- [102:10]
Joe Rogan
You're a victim, period. You didn't commit a murder. You went to jail for a murder. You're a victim, period. Fuck those people. Are they even real people? Have you talked to those people? Are they humans? I mean, have you been in front of them?
- [102:21]
Amanda Knox
Are you just reading things? I mean, I. Reading things online journalists, certainly, who have interviewed me. I get this, I get this a lot. I get this a lot.
- [102:31]
Joe Rogan
From who?
- [102:32]
Amanda Knox
From people who I feel like are suffering from something I call the single victim fallacy. This, like, idea that, like, you have to decide who's the real victim.
- [102:41]
Joe Rogan
Oh, how? There's a victim hierarchy. You're not the greatest victim because you're still alive, right? You weren't raped and murdered, so you're still alive, so you're fine. Like, that is ridiculous. If that's a journalist that's saying that to you, I would just leave the room.
- [102:56]
Amanda Knox
Well, I'm trying to have a conversation with these people about it.
- [102:59]
Joe Rogan
They're talking to you about that. That's a preposterous position. To tell a 20 year old that went to jail for years for a crime they didn't commit and had their whole life publicly, publicly ruined worldwide in a country you don't even live in, or you're not even from, fuck that person. That's a crazy position. And if they're just trying to do that to, you know, just get a rise out of you, to get a reaction, to try to. Like, they're bad, they're bad at what they do. It's a bad person. The idea that you're not a victim is preposterous. That's a crazy position. An actual human being sat in front of you and was saying that.
- [103:39]
Amanda Knox
So it's, it comes in different forms. So some people are very explicit and say, like, don't you think you shouldn't be doing this? When the Kercher family's lawyer says that you shouldn't be doing this and that.
- [103:53]
Joe Rogan
So they're saying this to your face.
- [103:55]
Amanda Knox
Yeah, yeah. And then I have to sit there and again, do, like, experience the rage that washes over me and then go, how do I have an effective conversation with this human being? How do I convey that my life matters too? And that there's room in this world to acknowledge all of the truth of what happened, which included my own victimization and my own story and the things that I've learned from it that I've had the privilege to learn from it because I'm still alive.
- [104:30]
Joe Rogan
That's such a crazy position. That's like saying if you were in the Twin Towers and you got out right before it collapsed, you should shut the fuck up.
- [104:39]
Amanda Knox
Right? Because you didn't.
- [104:40]
Joe Rogan
Because you didn't die like all those other people that were inside of it. That's ridiculous. It's still your life. It's still your real lived reality. And the lawyer for the family that's telling you that you shouldn't be talking about it. Fuck that guy, too. That's crazy. That's a crazy position. You can't listen to that. You're going to get the most preposterous takes because you're dealing with something that millions of people are commenting on. So the idea that you're every one of them is going to be a rational position. That's not real. People are silly. Like, people are weird. They have crazy takes on everything. There's all sorts of personal justifications and mental illness. And there's people who hate women. There's people that, you know, whatever. Law enforcement's always right. You're always gonna have ridiculous takes. If you get a billion takes on things, that's your world. No, you shouldn't be struggling with that at all. That's crazy. Anybody who says you shouldn't be talking about it, but for fucking, of course you should be. Because there's a lot to be learned. There's a lot to be learned from. First of all, the admirable positions that you've taken, the way you've formed your life and who you are as a human being because of your struggle, because of this insane experience that you had to go through at fucking 20 years old. Your brain's not even fully formed. It's insane. Your frontal cortex is not fully formed. And for someone to say that you. You're not the real victim, well, that's crazy. That's crazy. This is a stupid position. Well, we shouldn't be conflicted in any way, shape, or form about that. And I think there's a great deal that we can learn from your experiences. First of all, again, learn from the way that you've handled it, where you can sit across from that prosecutor, and this feeling of, like, being kind to this person who did this thing to you, how it made you empowered. I really do think that's the universe telling you you're on the right track. You just can't listen to the peanut gallery. You can't listen to all the noise. There's just too much noise. And you have to learn how to do that on a much lesser scale. I see that with friends who are famous, who read comments about them or read articles and get infuriated, and it ruins vacations because they have to type up a response.
- [107:14]
Amanda Knox
The impulse to respond is like, you don't have to.
- [107:18]
Joe Rogan
Not only do not. Should you not respond. You shouldn't read what they're saying in the first place. You shouldn't pay attention.
- [107:24]
Amanda Knox
Is there ever, like, I wonder if the fear is. And maybe this is my fear, because I'm always questioning myself is like, is there. I always want to, like, at least hear it and, like, cycle the thought through my mind so that I can test the validity of it in my mind.
- [107:44]
Joe Rogan
Yes, there's definitely that. Sure. But to a point, you should probably do that yourself without those people. That's the best way. The best way is to have an internal auditing system where you look at your own life and say, what did I do that I could have done better?
- [108:03]
Amanda Knox
Right.
- [108:04]
Joe Rogan
And is there anything about what I'm doing that feels icky? Right. Is there anything about the way I'm capitalizing on this that feels icky or feels conflicted? Is there anything about it that I don't like? But just do that yourself. You don't. You're a smart person. You don't need all those other opinions to where you have to, like, you know, let's take email today from all Amanda Knox haters. Like, you don't have to do that.
- [108:34]
Amanda Knox
Fair. Yeah. And thankfully, my husband is the one who takes the brunt of that, and.
- [108:39]
Joe Rogan
He shouldn't do it either. Yeah, let me help. As a person who's been famous for a long time, don't do it.
- [108:46]
Amanda Knox
Okay?
- [108:47]
Joe Rogan
There's no value in it. There's zero value in it. I mean, there's times where I was forced into responding. Like during the whole Covid situation when CNN was saying I was taking veterinary.
- [108:57]
Amanda Knox
Medicine and you were like, I need to clarify reality or not.
- [109:01]
Joe Rogan
Also, I need to say, hey, fuck you. Because the world should, should say you, you're not supposed to be able to do that. You're not supposed to be able to be the news and lie and then hold yourself to this moral high ground and say, we have to stop misinformation. What about you? Like, what about you? You know, and so there's that. Like, I've had to respond in that way, but I mean, if I responded to everything that everybody ever says about me, I'd have no time for my children, for my family, for my life or my job. I would have no time for anything. But you can't do it. You just, you have to have an internal auditing system where you look at yourself and you have to be your own worst judge.
- [109:41]
Amanda Knox
Yeah.
- [109:41]
Joe Rogan
You know, anything anybody says about me that tries to make me feel bad, well, guess what? I'm way harsher to me than you are. And I know me, you know, and that's right.
- [109:50]
Amanda Knox
But you know, all the dark thoughts and slimy feelings.
- [109:53]
Joe Rogan
But that's why I work really hard to be a good person. I work really hard to be a good person because I don't like those feelings. I don't like the. When I judge myself and I find myself to be lacking, I don't like it. So I institute a lot of self discipline and I institute a lot of introspective thinking.
- [110:12]
Amanda Knox
Yeah. What is your, what's your auditing like, what's your self auditing process?
- [110:17]
Joe Rogan
Well, first of all, it's like, why are you doing what you're doing with your life? Like, what, why, why do you, why do you do a podcast? Why do you do comedy? Why do you do anything? Why do you do what you do? I. So the best way I approach it is I do it because I love what I do. I'm intrigued, I'm curious, and I do my best. Always do my best. Now if I half ass something, it will haunt me. Like if I have a bad podcast interview, if I don't, if I think I interrupted too much or if I didn't ask the right questions, like, that'll fuck with me for the rest of the day. Like I don't need other people to fuck with me. I fuck with myself. I really do. I. So I. So the best response to that is do better every time, every time. Like sit. When you sit down, be as open as possible to try to like, don't let all these little weird mind fucky things enter into your head. Just try to be pure, try to be genuinely curious, like what's your genuine feelings about these things? And then did you, did you handle it well? If you didn't, what could you have done better?
- [111:31]
Amanda Knox
Right.
- [111:32]
Joe Rogan
Well then work on that. Yeah, that's all you can do.
- [111:35]
Amanda Knox
I think one of the things that I am, I worry about is that people only feel safe when they're either being self righteous or when they're being cynical. And like, genuine compassion or curiosity is looked down upon as naive and a weakness. But I feel like the only way to be truly ethical is to be exposed in that way. Cynicism and self righteousness are shields. They are ways of approaching the world with a barrier. Yes, absolutely. And I can't promise anyone that doing things my way, which is really trying to push back against those impulses, which I recognize as being dangerous impulses, is going to necessarily lead to good things like it's led to.
- [112:42]
Joe Rogan
It's not your job to promise people that. It's not your job. Your job is for you, for your soul, whoever you are. It's to speak to what is the right path for you. You don't have to promise these people. This is the burden of being a public figure. Like, you're not, you're not a role model for all these people. If you are a role model for these people because they find you admirable, that's great. But your responsibility is to your, yourself, your responsibilities, to your own mind and the people that you come in contact with. So your responsibility is not to like, say, like, don't be cynical, be kind and oh, it didn't work out for you. Oh, fuck, I fucked up. It's me. It's on me. No, it's on them. It's on them. It's on you. Everyone has their own soul, their own mind, their own path. And you have to find out what's right for you in doing what you're doing. You are most certainly a role model and you most certainly will be a role model for including me. I, I find myself admiring. Like when we had the first podcast, I thought about it for a long time. I would think about it all throughout the day. Sometimes, like randomly, I would just think about imagining myself in your position and how would I be? And I, you know, I don't know, I can't answer it, but I admire the position that you've taken. I think it's incredible. I think it's a great, it's a great example to the world of what's possible if someone is thrust into a Horrible position, totally beyond their control. But what is in your control, what's in your control is how you respond to it. And how you responded to it was incredibly admirable. That's. That's your responsibilities to yourself. And you did a great job with it. A fantastic job. Exemplary. I don't think there's anybody else that I could point to that's ever been through anything even remotely close to what you've been through and come out the way you have. The only examples that maybe I could point to are some of the people that I've dealt with through Josh, where we brought people in that were wrongly accused, that went through these horrible incarcerations and came out on the other side. These incredibly well read, brilliant, articulate people that are so thoughtful and so introspective and then made that time in prison empower them. It can be done. And those are examples. But the responsibility is to yourself. It's not to these other people.
- [115:18]
Amanda Knox
I guess. Like, I think that's so. I mean, thank you. And I agree, like, I've met very incredible people who have made the most of a bad situation, which ultimately, that's what it comes down to. I guess my one pushback might be that I have come to realize that we are so interconnected. Like, we are all influencing each other constantly. And so, on the one hand, yes, I'm only answerable ultimately to myself, but when I really sit down and, like, sit with it, like, part of the reason why I was able to approach my prosecutor with the perspective that I had was realizing that, like, there is a fluidity between us and all of us where we're all influencing each other. And people in his life have now, like, the influences in his life. People I will never have met have had direct influences in my life because it's been like this fluid path, like this connectedness between me and him, me and you. Any. Any person we talk to, any person we encounter is going to then have this ripple effect. And so, on the one hand, yes, like, I'm a drop, but I'm also a drop in an ocean that has a ripple effect. And that ripple is going to interact with your ripple and all these ripples. And. And so, yes, I am answerable to myself, but I also feel like I can't ignore the potential impact that my ripple might have on another person. And I've been really rewarded in the way that I have. I've been. Those ripples have been communicated to me. Like I've had someone tell me that they didn't kill themselves. Because one day they heard me, you know, in an interview and, like, that they were going to kill themselves. And they didn't. And, like, I've had someone tell me that, and, like, I never in my wildest dreams thought that me just deciding to, like, have a conversation with someone one day on a podcast would save a human being's life. But, like, those are those, like, the interconnected fluidness of all of us that, like, I also can't discount and that I think about a lot.
- [117:42]
Joe Rogan
Well, you should. I mean, you are an example. I mean, we are all an example. And if you're a public example or we. Right now, both of us are public examples. We're two human beings that are communicating right now to millions of people. It's kind of fucked up if you really think about it.
- [118:01]
Amanda Knox
What are we doing?
- [118:03]
Joe Rogan
I know, but what we are. We're being real people publicly. So you were thinking publicly, you know, and that is very beneficial to other people that are thinking privately because you get to hear people think publicly, and especially a person like you. That's very exemplary and that I would love if more people could follow that line of thinking. And your example, it's. It's a beautiful example of someone who did nothing wrong, but had wrong done to them and came out a better person because of it. And that's. That's. It's not just inspirational. It's aspirational. It's. It's. It. It. It provides the universe with positive energy in a weird way. The human universe, I mean. And it. And. And this, this thing that you said, I think is very important. This. People protect themselves with cynicism and with people that, like, constantly want to criticize things. They're constantly criticizing things, finding fault. You're. You're. You're also. You're ignoring your own life. That's a part of what's really going on. The. The real things are in. Inside their own life. There must be things they're ignoring if they're spending that much time focusing on external factors like that and other people and other people's flaws and other people's things. Other people especially, like trivial, nonsensical things like celebrity beefs.
- [119:39]
Amanda Knox
Oh, I know.
- [119:40]
Joe Rogan
You know what I mean? It's like, what are you doing with your fucking life? Like, you don't.
- [119:45]
Amanda Knox
It's like, I just don't know how anyone has the time, honestly, like, as a.
- [119:49]
Joe Rogan
It's because they're losers. And this is the reality of, like, some people don't want to hear this because you're A loser. Loser, you know, and it sucks being a loser. I've been a loser. I've been a loser many times in my life. You're a loser if you're doing that because you are on with your own decisions, becoming a loser. You're deciding to be a loser by focusing this precious energy that you have in life on shit that should mean nothing to you.
- [120:17]
Amanda Knox
Is there like a. Is there something. Are they thinking that they're being effective agents in the world by participating in it?
- [120:28]
Joe Rogan
Like, that's the con.
- [120:29]
Amanda Knox
That's the con.
- [120:30]
Joe Rogan
That's the con. Like, yeah, by taking them down a notch.
- [120:34]
Amanda Knox
Yeah, I'm a part of something and I'm. And I'm accomplishing something.
- [120:38]
Joe Rogan
You're not. You're not. You're not. It's cynicism. It's. It's. It's, you know, the flag of moral virtue that you're. You're waving to show that you're better than other people. But in doing so, you're attacking that person, which is inherently evil. Like, you're using this justification that you're correct to try to ruin someone's lives or ruin someone's reputation or ruin someone's feelings, to hurt them that day, to reach out to them and attack. And it's almost always based on a feeling of personal inadequacy. Almost always based on your life is not what you want it to be. You know, the people leaving horrible comments on someone's Instagram page or Twitter page. There's no way you're living the life that you want to live. There's no way that you're in an ideal situation of love and harmony and success, and, you know, you have great friends and life is amazing. But, yeah, fat cunt. You know, like, there's no way. There's no way. If you're typing those things, there's no way. Like, that. It's a. It's a human flaw, and it's accentuated by this disconnect that comes with social media, this disconnect of being able to send a message to someone and have no consequences. No consequences and no social cues, not to see the person read it and get hurt by it. You know, you're like sending little bombs over the fence.
- [122:04]
Amanda Knox
Like, yeah, we are primed to be psychopaths in our. Our algorithms have primed us to be psychopaths. And that worries me.
- [122:18]
Joe Rogan
But if you're. But that's like a disempowering position, you know, like, you don't have to be. You don't have to do that. Like, it's. No one's compelling you to do that. I don't do that. Why are you doing that? Like, why do it? You don't have to do it. Then. This is the example that you can lead for, for other people. If you are talking and speaking publicly, just don't do that. It's not good for you. It's not good for them. It doesn't help anybody. Hurting someone that you don't even know, that doesn't help you. You should be. You have. I always try to. This is what I tell my friends when I talk about reading comments and reading things and engaging with social media, because I have friends with. It'll ruin their week, ruin their day. Like, one comment will them up and. And they'll come to me and talk to me about it. I'm like, listen, I want you to think about your mind and your attention like it's a number. Like, it's. You have energy and like. Like a battery, right? You have. Or bandwidth. It's on a broadband cable, right? You have a hundred units. If you're spending 30 units of your precious time concentrating on someone who's saying something that's not even true, that's mean and horrible, and it's the worst possible, least charitable position on you, you're robbing yourself, yourself of these precious units of attention. You have a hundred units. You should. Your hundred units should be all on loved ones and friends and things that you love to do and life. That's what your units should be used for. And if some of that sneaks in and it resonates and you go, oh, my God, they're right. Well, correct it. Figure out what you did. Don't do that anymore. It's like, it sounds so simple, but that's it. If you. If you are. Do something, you are doing something that people are rightly criticizing. Recognizing. Recognize it. Course. Correct. Like, this is. This is where friends are supposed to come and play. Your friends are supposed to be able to tell you, amanda, you didn't have to do that. Like, I know the. The reason why you did it, but, like, don't do that. This is why. This is what I felt. I felt like you overreacted. You didn't have to do that. Now this person's all up because of it, right?
- [124:30]
Amanda Knox
But your friends are not going to define you by what they consider the worst thing you've ever done. And they're going to recognize you're an evolving human. And I feel like. And they love you, and they love You.
- [124:38]
Joe Rogan
The whole picture of you.
- [124:40]
Amanda Knox
And it's coming like, their criticism is coming from a loving place instead of an attacking place. And so how do we get back to communicating with each other? Not from an adversarial place, which automatically instigates defensiveness and sort of refusal to acknowledge anything.
- [124:58]
Joe Rogan
Right.
- [124:59]
Amanda Knox
To a place of like. Like, genuine openness.
- [125:03]
Joe Rogan
Well, this is gonna sound so cliche. You have to act out of love. Like, I. I reached out to a friend of mine recently. They're doing a podcast, and it went completely sideways, and I reached out to him, and I. I sent him a text message. I said, hey, man, you can't do this. Like, this is why you're doing that. You have to recognize that people are listening to this. You're actually ruining your own product by doing this. And he responded back. I know. I realized that I felt terrible while it was happening. I got caught up in this thing.
- [125:36]
Amanda Knox
That slimy feeling, bunched up on slippery side.
- [125:39]
Joe Rogan
He's like, I got all bunched up. And I just responded. I felt terrible. I was like, it's okay. Just don't do it again, you know.
- [125:46]
Amanda Knox
Because he gets to have another chance.
- [125:47]
Joe Rogan
Yeah, but. And the reason why I said it to him is because he's done it before. And I'm like, stop doing this. Stop doing this. Like, you don't have to do this. This is fucking you up. And ultimately, like, if you. I hate to use. Like. Is conversation an art form? I kind of think it is, right? If people are consuming skill. Yeah, if people are consuming it, it's an art form. So if you're being overbearing and gross and, like, whatever it is, it's like that you're ruining this art that you're creating. And this real art, like, that painting is art. This is real art. This is a weird art. It's like, I don't even want to call it art.
- [126:29]
Amanda Knox
It's like a dance, but with words.
- [126:32]
Joe Rogan
It is. It is a dance. Conversation's a dance. And this is why I have such a hard time. Like, I would go on a double date with my wife or something like that. We're with people, and they start talking over everybody else, and sometimes I have to go, stop. Like, she's talking. Like, he's talking.
- [126:47]
Amanda Knox
Haven't you ever listened to a podcast?
- [126:49]
Joe Rogan
Are you guys doing. It's like playing. It's like if you were Roger Federer and you're playing tennis with people. Like, no, you can't fucking hit the ball like that. Like, what are you guys doing?
- [126:58]
Amanda Knox
You can't just do multiple balls at the same time.
- [127:01]
Joe Rogan
Do not listen. I know you want to say something, but this other person's talking right now, and you can't just talk. When you want to talk, you have to also listen. Like, listening is a part of the dance. Don't step on people's feet. Like, do you see that foot there? Oh, I want to put my foot there, but the foot's already there. Don't step on their foot. This is crazy. But you have to step on a couple of feet to realize, oh, I stepped on her feet. I can't do that. You have to accidentally fuck up to realize. Okay, don't do that again. Back up. Figure out what you did wrong. Course correct.
- [127:35]
Amanda Knox
Can I ask you about comedy?
- [127:37]
Joe Rogan
Sure.
- [127:38]
Amanda Knox
Because I want to do comedy. I'm doing.
- [127:42]
Joe Rogan
That's the way you said that.
- [127:44]
Amanda Knox
I just wanna guys as I wanna. I'm actually doing stand up on Saturday, but on my. On Vashon Island, I'm doing.
- [127:52]
Joe Rogan
What's Vashon Island?
- [127:53]
Amanda Knox
It's where I live. It's a little island right outside of Seattle. That is awesome.
- [127:59]
Joe Rogan
Okay, I know where that is.
- [128:00]
Amanda Knox
Oh, have you been to Vashon Island?
- [128:01]
Joe Rogan
No, I've been to Bainbridge.
- [128:03]
Amanda Knox
Oh, yeah. Okay. Bainbridge Island. Our island is a little more rural than Bainbridge. It's.
- [128:10]
Joe Rogan
Oh, so you're doing comedy for your community?
- [128:12]
Amanda Knox
Yeah.
- [128:12]
Joe Rogan
That's a terrible idea.
- [128:13]
Amanda Knox
Is it?
- [128:13]
Joe Rogan
Yes.
- [128:14]
Amanda Knox
Is it?
- [128:14]
Joe Rogan
Don't do it. No. You want strangers?
- [128:17]
Amanda Knox
Really?
- [128:17]
Joe Rogan
I feel like you don't want to interact with those weirdos that you live with.
- [128:21]
Amanda Knox
I. I feel like we have a very supportive community. I've done it before, and it's been great.
- [128:29]
Joe Rogan
Do you have an opening act or just go by yourself?
- [128:31]
Amanda Knox
No, I'm part of, like, it's like, this Saturday, I'm gonna be a part. I'm in a lineup of people who have, like, seven minutes set. Oh, okay.
- [128:39]
Joe Rogan
Oh, that's safe. Seven minutes to say.
- [128:41]
Amanda Knox
Yeah. Yeah. You know, walking up there, and I'm.
- [128:43]
Joe Rogan
Like, how many times you done it?
- [128:45]
Amanda Knox
This will be like the fourth or fifth time. Whitney actually was the one who first introduced me to stand up. She like. I love Whitney, by the way. Can we just gush about Whitney for a second? And I love the fact that we both have small kids at the same time, and I just. I just love her. And so she was the one who first recognized, like, this girl's been through some shit. I bet she's fucking funny. And, you know, befriended me after I got on her podcast and then when she did the roast of Whitney Cummings for Onlyfans, I was her, like, special surprise guest. And I got to do a little bit of a roast of her and a little bit of myself. Right. Like, of course, the one place that I can finally get my comedic, you know, true self out there is on OnlyFans, of all things. And, you know, I get to be, you know, when I go this Saturday, I get to be the ex con mom on the menu. And that's a pornhub search for you. You know, like, I get to, like, lean in to the tragedy of it all. But it then goes back to that question of, do people stick you into boxes or are you allowed to be more than what people expect you to be? And I've, you know, in the past, not from my, my own community, but from strangers, received criticism for making jokes about my experience. And again, coming from that place of how dare you joke about, you know, going to prison for a crime you didn't commit when you're not the real victim and whatever, or you're, or you're a true crime figure. You're a, you're a. You're a person who has been. I associate you with a tragedy, therefore, you have to stay in tragedy space, and moving into comedic space is not allowed. And so I'm just curious what your thoughts are about that.
- [130:39]
Joe Rogan
That's the same thing. You're dealing with commenters like, you can't listen.
- [130:43]
Amanda Knox
I just, just, Yeah, I just do my thing in my own business. Okay.
- [130:46]
Joe Rogan
Yeah, yeah. If I listened, I would have never done anything I've done. If I listen to people, I would have never done anything that I've done ever. Not one thing.
- [130:56]
Amanda Knox
But we should. Yeah, okay.
- [130:57]
Joe Rogan
I would have never fought. I would never got into martial arts. I never would have fought. I never would have done stand up comedy. I never would have done a podcast. Even my own wife jokes around about it because when my kids were really little, there was one time where my wife wanted to go to Disneyland and I said, I can't. I have to do a podcast. She goes, no, you want to do a podcast? I go, no, I have to. I told the people that I was going to do it, so I have to do it.
- [131:23]
Amanda Knox
I committed.
- [131:24]
Joe Rogan
But back then it was. It made no money. It was just like nonsense thing that I was doing on the Internet. Like, what are you doing? And to this day, we laugh about it. Like, thank God you didn't listen to me. But I don't listen to anybody. I listened to me. I listened to my own mind. If I wanted, like, I would have never moved to Austin. Like, I moved to Austin in the middle of this giant Spotify deal. And they were like, what are you doing? Like, you know, like, what? Like, so they gave me all this money and I'm like, I'm gonna leave la. They're like, what? Like, how are you gonna get guests? I'm like, I'm flying them in anyway. Like, who cares? I got. I want to do what I want to do. I'm going to just do it. I have a little fucking compass. It's like, right?
- [132:03]
Amanda Knox
As if. Also, as if everyone only lives in LA and you weren't like, the only people worth talking to are going to be in la.
- [132:10]
Joe Rogan
Also. I was like, I would rather be broke and not live under the thumb of retarded government than stay in LA and have a successful career. Like, fuck you. I'll just do standup and travel the country and just live in the middle of it. I'm not doing this anymore. I mean, you can't tell me I can't work. You can't tell me I can't go out. You can't tell me I have to put a mask on when I'm walking the dog. Fuck you. Like, the whole thing was just like, I'm out. I'm getting out of here. And, you know, moving to Austin was a crazy risk, you know, like opening up a comedy club. Everybody's always told me, I've always told people, be nice to comedy club owners because you don't want to be one of them. Like, you want to deal with us. We deal with a bunch of crazy people.
- [132:55]
Amanda Knox
That unreliable country.
- [132:57]
Joe Rogan
Half of them are on drugs. They're all narcissists and insane people and they're all just like, just their whole.
- [133:05]
Amanda Knox
You're really selling being a comedian right now.
- [133:07]
Joe Rogan
Yeah, well, just being honest, they just. Half their mind most of the day is trying to figure out things that are up enough to talk about on stage. Like, and how to. How do I phrase this? How do I structure it? What's a way to get into people's heads with this idea? How do I. How do I make it really funny? Like, what. What's the best way to do it? And, like, that's a crazy way to live. Like, you don't want those people to be your primary source of income because, like, with a comedy club owner, all you have is what the artists create. That's all you're selling. Otherwise, you just have a box. You have a box of the microphone and you're selling drinks, all you have is other people's creation. And those people, half of them are insane. Like, you don't want to be one of those. But then I came out here, I was like, God damn it, I have to be one of those.
- [134:01]
Amanda Knox
No regrets?
- [134:02]
Joe Rogan
No, no. It worked out great.
- [134:04]
Amanda Knox
I mean, I went to your show last night. It was super fun.
- [134:07]
Joe Rogan
Thank you.
- [134:07]
Amanda Knox
Yeah.
- [134:08]
Joe Rogan
Thank you.
- [134:08]
Amanda Knox
Great.
- [134:08]
Joe Rogan
Glad you had a good time. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You have to just do what you think you want to do and then just do the best version of it you can. But to listen to people say you shouldn't be making jokes because you're a tragic figure. Fuck you. Who says?
- [134:24]
Amanda Knox
Who says?
- [134:25]
Joe Rogan
You? Let me look at your life, bitch. Let me go through your fucking pathetic mind and find out what weird justifications you're making for the way you think and behave. Like, you're not in any position to be giving out advice. And most of those people are not in any position to give it out, to be giving out advice.
- [134:43]
Amanda Knox
Yeah. And I do worry about people's lack of imagination. It's like, I don't know. I've had enough taken away from me that I am not going to be limited by a lack of imagination.
- [134:53]
Joe Rogan
Absolutely.
- [134:54]
Amanda Knox
So.
- [134:55]
Joe Rogan
And it's also, people don't want you to succeed, you know?
- [134:59]
Amanda Knox
Sucks.
- [135:00]
Joe Rogan
Yeah.
- [135:00]
Amanda Knox
Why?
- [135:01]
Joe Rogan
Because they're not succeeding. It's all it is. People that are succeeding, for the most part, want you to succeed up until you get to their level, and then.
- [135:10]
Amanda Knox
You'Re like, hey, hey, you're butting up on my success. Is there a limited amount of success in the world? No. Why then?
- [135:17]
Joe Rogan
Well, because they're fools and it's famine thinking. It's a famine mentality. And you could either think in terms of abundance or famine, you know, but it's a real problem with comedians. Comedians. Would that criticize other comedians? Kind of crazy that they're only criticizing the ones that are way more successful than them. Seems odd.
- [135:39]
Amanda Knox
Convenient.
- [135:40]
Joe Rogan
Seems weird. But they don't think about it that way. They just look at this other person that's getting a lot of attention and they feel bad, so they think that should be them. And instead of, like, using it as inspiration, like, wow, look at her. She's selling out arenas. This is crazy. What is she doing that I'm not doing?
- [135:57]
Amanda Knox
What can I learn from her?
- [135:58]
Joe Rogan
What can I learn from that? Instead they're like, her and this and that. And what you're doing is stealing bandwidth from yourself. That 100 units, you're now spending 30 units criticizing other people who aren't even thinking about you. Haha, haha. Doing it to yourself. Not only that, but when you're doing it publicly, everybody knows what you're doing. Anybody who's really worth considering, who's an intelligent, objective person knows exactly what your motivation is. They know why you're doing it. The least charitable takes on things and the worst possible light that you're shining on things and the worst descriptions of people, like, you know what you're doing. You're just trying to make up for the fact that you've fallen short. You don't like how your path has gone and you're, you know, you see someone, all of a sudden she's telling, she's doing comedy. Now that you know you shouldn't be doing because she shouldn't be doing comedy. These hot takes that people have, you know, while they're on antidepressants and their whole world's in a tizzy, like, shut up. You don't have to listen. But it's okay that they talk. It's okay. It's like part of the learning experience of human culture, like civilization has to have a bunch of people talking about stuff. Stuff. And a bunch of. It's noise. And it's up to you to figure out what's noise. And like, well, then you see someone who's not noise and who's. Someone who's living an exemplary life and go, okay, that's not noise. Okay, what's in that? What's in that? Like, oh, she met with a prosecutor. Wow. And she, like, she felt empowered. You know, people are going to listen to what you just said about that. And just like, just like when they're alone, like throughout the day, when they're driving their car, when they're sitting on the train, they're gonna think about that.
- [137:52]
Amanda Knox
I mean, I'm still thinking about that. I'm still like, trying to figure it out. And I think that's good. I think, yeah. Yeah.
- [138:00]
Joe Rogan
We're all, like you said, we're all interconnected. We're all learning together, you know, and the only thing you could do is do your best. Do your best, do your best.
- [138:09]
Amanda Knox
Is that the advice?
- [138:09]
Joe Rogan
Yes.
- [138:10]
Amanda Knox
Is that advice, Daddy?
- [138:12]
Joe Rogan
With everything. With everything. Do your best. Be a nice person and do your best. Yeah. It's all you can do.
- [138:19]
Amanda Knox
Done and done.
- [138:21]
Joe Rogan
Yeah.
- [138:22]
Amanda Knox
We have solved.
- [138:24]
Joe Rogan
It seems so simple, but you know those demons will. They never sleep. They'll wake up in the morning tapping you on the head again.
- [138:32]
Amanda Knox
The thing that haunts me is when people think they're doing their best and they're not. That's what haunts me. And that happens. That is happening constantly, is people convincing themselves that they're doing their best and they're not. But then how do you get out of that cycle of convincing yourself? Because that's where the issue of cognitive bias comes in and like, reaffirming your. Your sense of self to yourself and your identity. Like, I'm a good guy. I can't. You know, I can't do wrong. Or like, you know, I'm. I'm a good friend. I can't be a bad. Like, there. There are ways that we define ourselves that makes it impossible for ourselves to see ourselves clearly. And that freaks me out. Like, I'm always afraid of that.
- [139:17]
Joe Rogan
Five grams in silent darkness.
- [139:21]
Amanda Knox
Prescribe.
- [139:24]
Joe Rogan
And you might have to do it more than once. You might have to do a lot of cleaning. Yeah. Clean your closet.
- [139:29]
Amanda Knox
Clean your closet. Okay.
- [139:31]
Joe Rogan
Throw out all the stupid shit. But it's hard for people because, you know, you're on this path of momentum. Oftentimes people are ahead of their skis, you know, they're on this path of them, and they don't know how to.
- [139:40]
Amanda Knox
Stop train that's out of the station.
- [139:42]
Joe Rogan
Yeah. But in a much lesser extent, because it's more in their control. You know, when your situation is beyond your control. And a lot of people, they're the. They're at. They're the engineer.
- [139:56]
Amanda Knox
They're the ones who's in the skis.
- [139:58]
Joe Rogan
They're the ones who are deciding to go straight downhill, you know, and it's. It's hard. It's hard. And then you have all these things. Once you've sort of created a life and you have all these pieces in motion, and then you realize, like, oh, my God, this is, like, kind of beyond my control. And I don't like where it's going, but everything's still moving. It takes a lot to pull that back. And you kind of have to slow it down in stages. You know, you have to, like. Like throw things off the side of the car. Like, let's go. Gotta get rid of this, Gotta get rid of that. Some you're gonna have to cut people out of your life sometimes. Sometimes it's people. Sometimes certain people, they're not going to learn. And I think, you know, the universe provides them as an example of how not to live, but also as a puzzle that you need to solve. Like, you need to. If this person is continually bringing negative things into your life and continually tripping, you up and sabotaging you. You have to, at a certain point in time, separate yourself. You have to, you know, you got to ghost people. As horrible as that seems like you can't because you don't have enough time. Yeah, there's not enough time in the world. Your time is very precious. And if people don't want to help themselves, you can't help them.
- [141:14]
Amanda Knox
True. That's very true. I've definitely found myself in the position of not being helpable. There's a story I tell in. In the book about trusting the wrong person and wanting to believe that they were someone like me, someone who could understand me. And then I realized they were not.
- [141:34]
Joe Rogan
That's horrible when you let someone in and you realize you fucked up. I've had that happen multiple times. Yeah. There's a lot of con artists out there. There's a lot of sociopaths. There's a lot of slippery people that. They're chameleons. They're like little cuttlefish. They kind of adapt to their environment and slip into your world. It's dangerous. You know, there's a lot of people that. They look at it like. Like it's a. Like a game. Like, how do I get close to this person? How do I benefit from this relationship? How do I make these connections? And in the business world, you're actually taught to do that.
- [142:14]
Amanda Knox
Right.
- [142:14]
Joe Rogan
Which is really crazy. Which is, like, no wonder why.
- [142:17]
Amanda Knox
Networking, right? It's a good word.
- [142:21]
Joe Rogan
You have to bullshit, you know? And you and the wife have to go out and, like, do the golf. I know he's an asshole, but we're gonna sit with him because it's really important for my promotion. And then, you know, that's no wonder why CEOs become sociopaths. Like, of course.
- [142:34]
Amanda Knox
Like, Johnson has a good book about that. Have you read the Psychopath Test?
- [142:38]
Joe Rogan
No, I haven't.
- [142:39]
Amanda Knox
Oh, it's.
- [142:39]
Joe Rogan
I read the publicly shamed book, though.
- [142:41]
Amanda Knox
Yeah, That's a good one, too.
- [142:42]
Joe Rogan
It's great. Yeah.
- [142:43]
Amanda Knox
He's so funny.
- [142:44]
Joe Rogan
Yeah. Yeah, it's. I mean, it's a. Being a human's weird. There's no guidebook. You know, there's. You have the most complex interactive machine that is constantly adapting and changing, and it's completely variable. It's completely variable based on your environment. Like, not just your environment in terms of the human beings, but even the, like, weather. Like, if you live in Seattle. Right.
- [143:14]
Amanda Knox
You're on a very different wavelength than when you're in Austin. It's true.
- [143:17]
Joe Rogan
Yeah. Yeah.
- [143:18]
Amanda Knox
I come Here. And I feel like I'm in a bath all the time. Just in a bath.
- [143:23]
Joe Rogan
What do you mean?
- [143:24]
Amanda Knox
It's so hot and like. And that like impacts me in a way where I just feel sort of dreamy, like I'm in a bath all the time instead of.
- [143:34]
Joe Rogan
That's interesting. Never heard it put that way in a bath. That's funny. That's funny. Yeah, I don't think about that way.
- [143:45]
Amanda Knox
I wanted to ask how you slow down though, right? You're talking about slowing down and like taking stock. And the way I do it is by meditating. But I have found that a lot of people are resistant to the idea of meditating because they have certain ideas about what meditating is. And like it's shutting off your thoughts and it's like, well, you know, eventually you might be able to do that, but ultimately it's just sitting down and noticing your thoughts that arise. But I like to say that anyone who can masturbate can meditate because.
- [144:22]
Joe Rogan
And ultimately like actually people that can meditate maybe not be able to masturbate because they don't have any arms. You'd still meditate.
- [144:28]
Amanda Knox
Exactly. And you get ultimately to a similar place of like just single minded focus and bliss. So go for it. Don't hold back.
- [144:40]
Joe Rogan
Yeah.
- [144:41]
Amanda Knox
And the funny things that occur to your brain when you are meditating. Like I have. Okay, can I. Can I tell you something that's kind of like off color?
- [144:51]
Joe Rogan
Sure.
- [144:52]
Amanda Knox
Well, maybe you know this like since becoming a mom, like my libido.
- [144:58]
Joe Rogan
Really?
- [144:59]
Amanda Knox
Oh yeah. Just because I'm constantly being like touched that like the last thing I need is for my husband to climb on me like a jungle gym. Like, it's just not what's on the menu for me.
- [145:12]
Joe Rogan
Also, you're probably tired all the time.
- [145:13]
Amanda Knox
I'm so tired. And like, I'm just like, my body is different. The chemistry is still working itself out. The one thing that reliably makes me horny is meditating.
- [145:26]
Joe Rogan
Interesting.
- [145:26]
Amanda Knox
Isn't that wild?
- [145:27]
Joe Rogan
Huh?
- [145:28]
Amanda Knox
And you know, we have this like, term in meditation, like monkey mind. Right. Like the idea being that like when you sit down, you really notice that your mind is going all over the place and is just like reacting like a monkey. But also another thing that monkeys are famous for is just masturbating voraciously. And I feel like that's also what's happening in my mind. Like I sit down and notice like, like how perverted my mind is when I'm actually just sitting there meditating in a nice group of people on a Sunday morning.
- [145:56]
Joe Rogan
That's funny. So a group meditation.
- [145:59]
Amanda Knox
Oh, yeah, yeah. It's not just like, when I'm home alone, like in my intimate space, Like, I'm like, I feel. Yeah, this is. I hope no one at my zendo listens to this conversation.
- [146:10]
Joe Rogan
Maybe they're gonna come up to you the next time you do like me too. But then you don't want to know because then you're gonna be meditating. Like, this freak is thinking about saying.
- [146:18]
Amanda Knox
Well, I mean, and you're sitting there and you're thinking, like, what else are the uses of these floor cushions? Like, you're just like going like, all of the things in your brain and then you're thinking, am I the only one?
- [146:27]
Joe Rogan
Interesting.
- [146:28]
Amanda Knox
Yeah. So I don't know. There's something again, one of those, like, weird unintended consequences of just trying to, like, sit back and take stock is like rediscovering parts of yourself that have been sort of diminished or made dormant because of the. The stress of existence. So another reason why they should advertise that. I don't know why they don't advertise that on meditation apps. Like, is this just me?
- [146:57]
Joe Rogan
It would attract the wrong people. Like, I'm trying to get perverted. I'm trying to find my inner pervert.
- [147:03]
Amanda Knox
Exactly.
- [147:06]
Joe Rogan
Yeah. I don't know. I don't necessarily meditate that way, but I do incorporate a lot of voluntary adversity. A lot of it is working out.
- [147:19]
Amanda Knox
You got a lot of Buddhas around you for someone who doesn't meditate.
- [147:23]
Joe Rogan
I know.
- [147:25]
Amanda Knox
Let's go with that.
- [147:25]
Joe Rogan
My friend Duncan has some very bizarre theories about that. I know. I'm very drawn to that. I do, though. It's just I do it while I'm doing other things. I've always said that martial arts is a form of moving meditation because it's so singular in its focus that it requires all of your thoughts and it cleanses your mind. There's a bunch of things that I do. A bunch of things that I do that. Do that. Archery does that. Oddly enough.
- [147:51]
Amanda Knox
Sending the art of archery. There's a reason why there's that book.
- [147:55]
Joe Rogan
Yes. There's something about because. Have you ever done archery?
- [147:59]
Amanda Knox
I have done it because my. My brother in law is a Ren Faire guy. He's a Ren Fair. Yeah. So cool. Can I call out Seattle Knights, by the way? He is the director of the Seattle Knights. And yes, he jousts. He like talks and.
- [148:17]
Joe Rogan
What a dork.
- [148:17]
Amanda Knox
I know. It's so Cool. It's so cool. I love it. And I always. I'm going to go to the show on would be island this month anyway.
- [148:25]
Joe Rogan
That's funny.
- [148:26]
Amanda Knox
Yeah, they're awesome. But. Yes. So, yeah. What were we saying?
- [148:29]
Joe Rogan
Archery.
- [148:30]
Amanda Knox
Archery, yes. So I've done it like in his backyard because he has all of the medieval weaponry and I partook.
- [148:38]
Joe Rogan
Yeah, I don't use the medieval ones, I use modern ones. But the. The thing about it is that it. It's very difficult to do accurately, especially at distance. Right. So when I practice, I practice it. Most of the time I practice in about 85 yards. And the amount of movement, like, so if you're at full draw. So you draw the bow back. Right. If you're at full draw, if you look at my arm, if my arm does this, I miss by six inches.
- [149:09]
Amanda Knox
Wait, what did you just do?
- [149:10]
Joe Rogan
This, this, this.
- [149:12]
Amanda Knox
Ah.
- [149:13]
Joe Rogan
I'm missing by 6 inches at 85 yards. Just slight. I mean, a millimeter of movement is 4 inches off target.
- [149:21]
Amanda Knox
So you're saying that Legolas is a badass, is what I'm hearing.
- [149:25]
Joe Rogan
Who?
- [149:25]
Amanda Knox
Legolas? From Lord of the Rings.
- [149:28]
Joe Rogan
Oh, I'm not. No, I'm not. That's not a real person. I'm applying it to human beings.
- [149:37]
Amanda Knox
Oh, okay, fine.
- [149:38]
Joe Rogan
That there's this repeatable technique that you have to do. It involves breathing and focus and concentration. And there's actually a whole process that I go through. There's this guy named Joel Turner who was a. He was a SWAT instructor and a lead guy in hostage situations where, you know, someone would, like, have a child hostage, you had to shoot the guy who was, like, holding a knife to a child. And he's had situations like that where you have to be completely focused on the task. And so he developed this process of talking yourself through a shot. With this. You have these words that you say and you repeat in your mind while you're going through all of these various techniques. So when you're drawing a bow back, you draw back. You have to anchor, so you put this string in a very particular part of your mouth. Every time my knuckle, this finger goes underneath my jaw in the exact same spot. Every time my elbow goes up in the exact same spot. And then it's staying still and concentrating on the target and pulling through, and you can't think about anything else. It's so overwhelming that you have to focus. If you want to be accurate, you have to focus only on that. And in doing so, the world just goes away. The world goes away because it requires so much of you. Martial arts is the same thing. Like if you're doing jiu jitsu and you and this person are trying to solve each other's puzzle, and you're trying, you're. You're essentially trying to kill each other, but in a friendly way, like your friends. But because you can tap out, you don't hurt each other, but you're it. You can't be thinking about your bills, you can't be thinking about an argument you got in this why did my dog shit on the rug? You can't be thinking about those things. Things, you have to be completely focused on what you're doing. And in that way, like jiu jitsu, people are some of the calmest, most chilled out people you will ever meet in your life. First of all, because they get all of their aggression out. Like all the unnecessary aggression that people carry around with them, all this angst and 100%, which is part of being a human being. Because we're designed to run away from predators. We're designed to hunt and gather and look out for invading tribes. Like, this is the genetic sequence that evolved for hundreds of thousands of years that we still have. It's still a part of us. These human reward systems are all in place. You have to honor those. And one of the ways you have to honor those is rigorous exercise. Whatever you like to do, you can play squash, you can play tennis, you can run, you could do yoga, you could lift weights, you could do jiu jitsu, but you have to do something. If you don't do something, you're gonna always be. The most anxiety ridden people I know are also sedentary.
- [152:46]
Amanda Knox
I don't think that's a coincidence. And I also always feel like whenever I'm feeling really shitty psychologically, I need to go for a run.
- [152:53]
Joe Rogan
Yes.
- [152:54]
Amanda Knox
Do you find. So here's my question, given that that is your, like, meditative practice, do you find that in the moment that you release the bow and that, like that becoming one and that flow state that you have entered into in order to perfectly align yourself with the bow and the arrow, does that moment of release ever result in some kind of unconscious processing coming into your consciousness so like some kind of new awareness of something that you've been trying to figure out, and it like, like is a catalyst for you figuring out what you need. Like that feeling of, like being in sync with the universe and knowing what you need to do. Do you ever find yourself, like, in the moment that you are like, immediately exiting that flow state, do you Real. Do you feel more clarity about your life or what you need to do or. Or that thing that you weren't thinking about, like, your to do list or your bills or that argument that you've had with somebody that you care about? Like. Like, does anything come into focus or do you find you. You walk away from an encounter in jiu jitsu, like, knowing. Not just feeling better emotionally, but, like, knowing what you need to do next?
- [154:11]
Joe Rogan
I think more so with jiu jitsu, with archery, it's just, you know, because it's so hard to do at the end. It's such a singular thing, just doing this one thing over and over and over again. Like, I'll do it, like, a hundred times in a day. The. The thing is, like, okay, what did I do right? What did I do wrong? Like, what. Why did that shot go bad? Like, what?
- [154:34]
Amanda Knox
Minute adjustments.
- [154:35]
Joe Rogan
Yeah, just minute adjustments. And again, it's just a clarity. I'm sorry about my throat, people.
- [154:40]
Amanda Knox
Yeah, no worries.
- [154:41]
Joe Rogan
It's. It's just a clarity of analysis, of technique, and of execution. So it's. It's so overwhelming. It's so singular in the focus that you don't really think about anything else. So there's no room for, like, oh, now I know what I did wrong in my life.
- [155:00]
Amanda Knox
Yeah. I guess one of the benefits that I get from meditation is feeling like, when I come out of meditation, I feel like I have a clarity of purpose that I might not have had because I had monkey mind and I was distracted and I was using my bandwidth was so much. And so you just tune down what your bandwidth is, like, paying attention to, and then you re. Enter the world with a renewed sense of clarity, and you're not as distracted. You're not on that treadmill of thought.
- [155:33]
Joe Rogan
Yeah. I think that comes to me, at least that comes much more through rigorous exercise.
- [155:40]
Amanda Knox
That makes sense.
- [155:41]
Joe Rogan
Yeah. That's at the end of a really hard workout and sauna. And stretching. Stretching is always great, too. That's a good time for reflection after it's over and it's like this wind down, cool down. And then I'm just. I always feel so much nicer. That's the one thing I really like about it. Like, after I work out, I feel so much nicer. Like, I want to be.
- [156:00]
Amanda Knox
I'm a good person now.
- [156:02]
Joe Rogan
I just want to be nice to people. I want to. I want to smile and say hi to everybody. Like, all the weirdness of being a man, it just goes away, you know.
- [156:13]
Amanda Knox
The weirdness of being a man. I do think that I am. I do not envy you being a man.
- [156:18]
Joe Rogan
Oh, my God, it's the best. I don't envy you being a woman. Yeah.
- [156:21]
Amanda Knox
Really?
- [156:21]
Joe Rogan
Yeah.
- [156:22]
Amanda Knox
Oh, no, I much prefer being a woman.
- [156:24]
Joe Rogan
Of course you're a woman.
- [156:26]
Amanda Knox
I mean, testosterone is a hell of a drug, my friend. Like, what the hell is that? Testosterone? I don't want to deal with that.
- [156:33]
Joe Rogan
It's interesting, but you have some. You have more testosterone than you have estrogen. What? Yeah, yeah, women have more testosterone than.
- [156:41]
Amanda Knox
They have estrogen, but I've never felt the impulse to punch a wall, you know?
- [156:44]
Joe Rogan
Me neither. That's stupid.
- [156:46]
Amanda Knox
Okay, well, punch walls, well, you have an outlet for your punching energy. But, like, I don't know. I mean, what I mean is, like, that innate elevate, like, an elevated level of aggression that just is not like, accessible to me as. As a. As a woman. Is that wrong? Am I, like, inaccurate in this? I just feel like I don't know what I would do if I wanted to just, like, jerk off all the time. Like, I just don't understand what that is like. And that seems over. Like, that doesn't seem fun to deal with.
- [157:23]
Joe Rogan
Yeah, well, you don't really want to jerk off all the time unless you're a sex addict, you know, then you probably got other deal issues you're dealing with. But the aggression thing, it's not just like, aggression for no reason. Like, you only have aggression for a reason. Like, I never have aggression for. I'm never, like, walking around fucking mad at everything. There's never, never. It's never the case. And. But I also, I work out a lot, so I get it. I get it out of my system. It's just a thing. Like, you just have to maintain. You just have to maintain your life. You have to maintain your body. You have to recognize you have biological needs. And as a man, I think one of those needs is you have to exercise to just calm yourself, to relieve anxiety. And again, that's that term that is used often, but I think it's the right term. Voluntary adversity. You show up at class, you work out really hard. You show up at the gym, you work out really hard. And then when it's over, you're like, you feel better, you feel good, like you're nicer. Like, strong, powerful people can be the nicest people because they don't have to be nice. They're being nice because they want to be nice. There's a lot of weak, feeble men that pretend that they're nice. But really what they are is just vulnerable. They have to be nice because they don't have any choice. Like, if you.
- [158:54]
Amanda Knox
And if they were in a position of not having to, then they would. They would drop the nice act.
- [158:58]
Joe Rogan
And that's what happens. There's some of the creepiest fucking people when they have power is like, really weak men. They're some of the scariest people. And they're the scariest people as politicians. They're just really weak men that all of a sudden have power. I'm going to fucking show you. Like, having real power is to be kind when you don't have to be kind.
- [159:19]
Amanda Knox
You know what I love about being a woman, though? What that I do think is a genuine thing and a genuine difference is it's easier for me to be nurturing in the sense that, like, no one would bat an eye if I saw a kid who was like, I couldn't figure out where their mom was, and I were to approach them and say, come here, honey, let me help you, right? As a man, like, do you. Second, Like, I know that, like, my husband has told me this, that, like, he second guesses, like, hanging out at, you know, with the kids at the. At the park, because someone might think that he's a pedophile.
- [159:55]
Joe Rogan
Oh, that's crazy. Hanging out with his kids.
- [159:58]
Amanda Knox
Yeah, because, like, if you're just, like, a guy sitting on a bench and your kids are playing, like, how does anyone know that you aren't just a guy?
- [160:05]
Joe Rogan
I think he's really overthinking things. Of course you're a dad at the park. That's crazy. You see other dads in the park. You say hi. Like, it's like, you're not a pedophile. Those are my kids. Which are, how old's your kid? It's like, it's normal, okay? I've taken my kids to parks a thousand times.
- [160:21]
Amanda Knox
You've never felt in some way that your masculinity inhibited your ability? Like, your. Your instinct to be, like, nurturing and affectionate?
- [160:31]
Joe Rogan
No, no, I think that's a weakness. Like, if you can't be nurturing and affectionate because you think you're masculine, that's crazy. That's just weak. That's. That's nuts. That's like a distortion of what strength means. Like, that's not. That's not strong. That's weak. Like, why can't you be nice? Like, why can't you be? Like, the idea that if you're nice and you're affectionate and you're kind. That you're weak. That's crazy. That's crazy. Especially if you have options. Like, if you. If you don't have to be nice and you're nice, like, that's real niceness. Like, it's pure. Like, you don't have to be. You don't have to be a nice person, but you're nice because it's a good thing to do. Like that it's the right way to do it.
- [161:17]
Amanda Knox
Okay. So what's so great about being a guy?
- [161:20]
Joe Rogan
Everything. It's awesome. We build everything. We've run the world. It's great. I don't know. I. I am a guy. I mean, I would.
- [161:31]
Amanda Knox
And yet, like, it all comes down to trying to. Trying to, like, get the attention of some lady.
- [161:36]
Joe Rogan
Not at all.
- [161:37]
Amanda Knox
No.
- [161:37]
Joe Rogan
I already have the attention of a lady.
- [161:39]
Amanda Knox
Right.
- [161:39]
Joe Rogan
Good. I'm still love being a guy. It's only, you know, it's not like that's the primary motivation.
- [161:44]
Amanda Knox
No. What is the primary motivation?
- [161:46]
Joe Rogan
Fun.
- [161:47]
Amanda Knox
Fun.
- [161:49]
Joe Rogan
Yeah. Life is fun.
- [161:50]
Amanda Knox
Okay.
- [161:51]
Joe Rogan
Life should be fun.
- [161:52]
Amanda Knox
Sounds pretty great.
- [161:53]
Joe Rogan
It should be fun if you pursue it correctly. There's a lot of stuff to do. A lot of stuff to do is interesting. That's why when I hear people say I'm bored, like, I don't even understand you. I don't even get it. How the fuck can you be bored? I Wish I had 50 lives to live simultaneously. I would do a bunch of different things. I would have a bunch of different jobs. There's, like, so many different things that I'd love to do.
- [162:12]
Amanda Knox
Aren't people sometimes beholden to doing things that they don't want to do just because they have to make bills or they have to?
- [162:20]
Joe Rogan
Yes, but that's all choices that you make, too. And unfortunately, these choices sort of of the cascade, you know, you could find yourself motivated by the wrong things and doing things for the wrong reasons. Like doing things just for money and just for this or just for that. And I've done that before. I know it. But then you have to realize, like, what you're doing and not. And.
- [162:44]
Amanda Knox
And stay focused on the prize. Yeah.
- [162:46]
Joe Rogan
Take the steps to not want to do that anymore. You know, but, you know, it's like there's people listening to this right now, like, oh, that's easy for you to say, because I have to do this and I have to do that. That's true. But you can do things to better your life with your free time. Go open your phone right now and look at your screen time. Okay. Now I Understand, the screen time is 10 minutes here, 20 minutes there, five minutes here, five minutes there. But that screen time, it's probably about five hours, which is crazy. That's five hours you could have been improving your life. That's five hours you could HAVE been doing something different. That's five hours you could have went to the gym. That's five hours you could have eaten better. You could have taken steps to have better food in your house. That you could have taken steps to pursue a career or move in the direction of pursuing something that's different than what you're doing, that you would actually find satisfying and. And fulfilling. You just have to decide, what are you doing with your time? And, you know, this goes back to people commenting and bitching at people online. Well, that's what you're doing. If. If you're distracting yourself by doing a bunch of shit, that's just worthless. And it is worthless.
- [164:07]
Amanda Knox
And easy.
- [164:08]
Joe Rogan
And easy. And very easy. Yeah. It's because you need discipline. You need to figure out what. What do you really want to do with your life and what makes you feel better?
- [164:18]
Amanda Knox
Do you feel like you are innately disciplined?
- [164:22]
Joe Rogan
No, no. I've learned that.
- [164:25]
Amanda Knox
Okay.
- [164:25]
Joe Rogan
I developed that. Yeah. That's not. No one's innately disciplined. No, I don't think that's real. I think we look at people that are disciplined, like, oh, it must be easy for them. You're just born with that gene. No, that's not real. No. You recognize the value of discipline and the rewards. You reap the rewards, and then you like it, and so you keep doing it. You keep pursuing it.
- [164:47]
Amanda Knox
I'm just curious about, like, brain chemistry, because when I think about. You know, you've been very complimentary towards me in this conversation, but a part of me is wondering, am I just lucky that I have the kind of internal chemistry that I have that makes me value the things that I value? And, you know, I'm just doing what I feel compelled to do. And I'm curious when people feel compelled to do otherwise. And I don't know where to place responsibility for that. Do you know what I mean?
- [165:25]
Joe Rogan
Well, you wouldn't know unless you are them. You could look to your own life, to times where you haven't lived in an exemplary way, or. Or done things where you're helping yourself and done things, in fact, that are actually sabotaging your life and you can correct them yourself, but it's very hard. I mean, you would have to be a fucking counselor that would have ultimate truth, access to a person's thought processes to really find out why they're doing things differently and why. Why they're not living. In a way, the only thing you could do is live by example. You know, there's a term for Taekwondo instructor, It's called a saba nim, and it's one who lives by example. And that's what you have to do. You have to. You have to live by example.
- [166:15]
Amanda Knox
Like, live like someone's watching.
- [166:16]
Joe Rogan
Yes. This is what I tell people, and I've said this for years, you want to have a successful life. If you want to live your life like there's a documentary crew around you filming your everyday life and that you want people to be impressed with you. Do it when no one's watching. Do it when no one's watching. I think about that. When I work out, I think about that. Yeah. If people were judging me and they were watching me right now and they would. What? What would you think?
- [166:52]
Amanda Knox
Yeah. And I. Now I'm wondering if, like, that's one of those weird silver linings to this whole experience. Experience is that my life became very, very public very early. And so I literally do have to walk around living my life as if there is potentially a documentary crew following me around.
- [167:11]
Joe Rogan
Yeah, I think that is. I think that's real. I think that's the gift that I have gotten by being famous, that I have to live publicly. And if I didn't, like, if I was just some fucking tyrant that no one knew, you know, and I just had all this wealth and power and no one knew me and I could just get away with being an.
- [167:33]
Amanda Knox
Right? Yeah. I think the most wealthy and the most powerful do not want fame because with fame comes accountability.
- [167:40]
Joe Rogan
Yeah, but that's good. That's good. Even the haters are good, you know, and then the people that defend the. Defend you against the haters. That's good, too. Yeah, it's all good. So everyone's just working this out together publicly, you know, and they're doing it through different vessels, and sometimes they do it through other people. They're doing it through me, and they're doing it through you.
- [168:01]
Amanda Knox
Would you wish fame on anyone?
- [168:03]
Joe Rogan
No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. You can't handle it. Yeah, no, but you can handle it. I mean, but most people can't handle it. It breaks people. That's why people can't have it when they're young. The worst thing you do to a child is make him famous. The worst thing. I mean, look at. There's countless examples I've Talked to so many of them on the podcast. They're all broken.
- [168:28]
Amanda Knox
Yeah. Like, who have you talked to? I'm curious.
- [168:30]
Joe Rogan
Macaulay Culkin? Miley Cyrus.
- [168:32]
Amanda Knox
He's doing much better now, isn't he?
- [168:33]
Joe Rogan
He's great. Yeah, he's great. I mean, he's as great as you can be to be super famous when you're six. God, I'm friends with Ricky Schroeder. You know, I've had a bunch of them on. A bunch of people on that were famous when they're young and they all are missing something. It's like when you're making cement and you don't add enough water. There's like something that happens when you have fame and adulation during your developmental stages as a child, when you're supposed to be like, figuring out, how do I get people to like me? Like, what is it about? You know?
- [169:07]
Amanda Knox
And there is that. Is that. Is that developmental stage when like, your. Your brain chemistry is being configured for the rest of your life. M. Like that. That is scary. You want to. You want to put that brain chemistry coagulation into the. In the right configuration, in the right set of circumstances, or else you're going to be having a complex for the rest of your life that you're going to be grappling with. Because I don't know if you can undo the stuff that you. That gets ingrained in your brain chemistry when you're a kid. Like, I don't know it. I don't know anything. I know fuck all about brains. But like, it. It seems to me that especially developmentally, when your brain hasn't configured yet, that's when you get hardwired to have complexes the rest of your life that you're going to be dealing with 100%.
- [169:56]
Joe Rogan
And if your brain is formulated with extreme adulation and love for no fucking reason, just because you're a cute kid, but you're a cute kid in front of the whole world in Home Alone. That's nuts. That's nuts. Yeah, I mean, he's a very thoughtful person and he's come through it. I mean, I really enjoyed talking to him. He's a really nice guy.
- [170:19]
Amanda Knox
Does he regret being in the Home Alone movies?
- [170:21]
Joe Rogan
Boy, that's a good question. I'd have to ask him. I don't know. I mean, I don't know, you know?
- [170:28]
Amanda Knox
Cause I mean, you know, you can look back. I don't even know how much of a choice that was for him. How many, how much can you choose? Anything when you're Six.
- [170:36]
Joe Rogan
How can you choose?
- [170:37]
Amanda Knox
Like so in a way, it was a thing that happened to him that he didn't really have control over.
- [170:43]
Joe Rogan
Right.
- [170:43]
Amanda Knox
And does he look back on that and go, would I. Would I give up that, like, if I could get that life back, would I have a different life? I'm curious what he would say.
- [170:55]
Joe Rogan
Well, he most certainly would have a different life.
- [170:58]
Amanda Knox
Yeah.
- [170:59]
Joe Rogan
Yeah. Would it be better? I don't know, you know, but I don't know anybody that's again gone through that. That's air quotes hole at the end of it. You know, I just think that there's also this weird thing where you become the provider for the family, which is very child.
- [171:19]
Amanda Knox
Yeah.
- [171:19]
Joe Rogan
And then you have this parasitic relationship that your parents have to you, which is. I have friends that were famous as, as young people and they have these very up complicated relationships with their parents. One of my friends, where they're found that their parents stole from them millions of dollars. Yeah. And then you have to grapple with that as you're an adult. These monsters, you know, they, they used you as an ATM machine and they stopped working and they became your quote unquote manager, really just pushing you out there to try to siphon money off of you. Hey, a. Yeah, yeah. But I got fame in a slow drip. I got slow doses, like snake venom. Get a little bit of snake venom. If you get one big bite from a cobra, you're fucked.
- [172:12]
Amanda Knox
That's what I got.
- [172:13]
Joe Rogan
Yeah. Well, you're strong, so here I am. But you're strong. You came through it on the other side. A very durable person, you know, and I think there's, you know, it's a trial by fire and you went through it. I mean, you know, that's what, you know, that's what they do in boot camp. You know, you go through something very difficult to be strong at the end. And you don't become strong, just wake up one day. I'm strong. No, you have to go through some shit, you know, and that going through some shit when you're a kid as becoming famous is different than going through like, hardship as a child. I know a lot of children that went through hardship. Like all my friends that are interesting all had horrible childhoods. All of them. All my most fascinating friends.
- [173:02]
Amanda Knox
I'm so grateful that I did not have a fucked up childhood.
- [173:05]
Joe Rogan
Well, that's probably what prepared you or helped you.
- [173:08]
Amanda Knox
Indeed. I feel like if I had gone through this experience after having a fucked up childhood, I would be a psychopath.
- [173:14]
Joe Rogan
Right.
- [173:16]
Amanda Knox
So thank God I A good childhood?
- [173:19]
Joe Rogan
Yes. Yeah. I didn't have a bad childhood. I had a complex childhood, but it wasn't bad. You know, my mother, my stepfather, very nice people. It wasn't bad, but it was fucked up. It was moved around a lot. Didn't have a lot of friends, got bullied, a lot of different things, but wasn't the worst, you know, nothing horrible happened to me, you know, so it's like the trials can't be too hard. They can't break you. They have to be just enough so that you gain some strength and you rebuild. And if they do break you, then it's a very difficult task of rebuilding. And people that have gone through horrible childhood trauma, particularly abuse and sexual abuse, that they have the most difficult hurdles to overcome.
- [174:11]
Amanda Knox
I agree. I think in. In large part because how do you trust? Like.
- [174:15]
Joe Rogan
Right.
- [174:15]
Amanda Knox
I think rebuilding your life relies upon, like, upon rebuilding yourself in the context of other human beings. And how do you do that when you can't trust anyone?
- [174:26]
Joe Rogan
It's true. But I do know some people that have gone through childhood sexual trauma that are also incredibly fascinating people because they. They. They figured out a way to acquire strength through it all.
- [174:40]
Amanda Knox
But what about trust?
- [174:41]
Joe Rogan
And that's the other thing I was gonna say. And then they've also figured out a way to. Well, they're also very skeptical people. And rightly so.
- [174:47]
Amanda Knox
Rightly so.
- [174:47]
Joe Rogan
But that's a good thing, because a lot of people don't have your intentions in mind, Especially if you're a woman. Right. If you're a woman, everybody's bullshitting you to try to get in your pants. Like, it's. Like it's constant bullshitting, you know? So you have to figure out, well, who's actually bullshitting me and who's. Who's just being nice and who's being nice, but kind of bullshitting. Just slowly playing this game. You ever heard of the. The definition of a gentleman?
- [175:11]
Amanda Knox
No.
- [175:11]
Joe Rogan
It's a patient wolf.
- [175:15]
Amanda Knox
Okay. Yeah. All right.
- [175:17]
Joe Rogan
Yeah.
- [175:17]
Amanda Knox
And then ultimately, the prey sort of acknowledges. Yeah, here you are. You're getting into my pants in the end. But because you've been the most patient, the most impressively patient of all.
- [175:27]
Joe Rogan
Yeah. You've done the dance correctly. Put your feathers out like a good peacock.
- [175:32]
Amanda Knox
Yeah, I like that. I like that dance. Yes.
- [175:37]
Joe Rogan
Yeah. Well, that's the thing is, like, women are designed to like that dance, Right. Because this person has shown you the respect of not just trying to use their physical force and take. Take it from you and not care about you as a person. They've chosen to acknowledge you as a person. Like, this is what this person wants. Wants. They want to feel comfortable with me. But then you can't be a sociopath too. It has to be genuine. You have to genuinely like this person.
- [176:03]
Amanda Knox
So, you know, for a woman to feel safe.
- [176:06]
Joe Rogan
Right. How do you know? And then that's. You got to go through a lot of trial and error with that too. You have to figure out, like, why'd that relationship fall apart? Oh, that was a piece of like, why'd that one fall apart? Oh, she was a psycho. Like, recognize, like, what. What do you actually like? Is it just that they're hot? This is the thing. Like, I've had a bunch of friends that just married hot people. And then, you know, you're going through divorce and it's all chaos. You can't just fucking marry hot people just cause they're hot and they're sexy and they turn you on. Like, that's just genes. Like, you gotta. You gotta understand, like, there's a personality involved and then there's also, like, when you're hot, you have ultimate power. You have the Willy Wonka golden ticket. Like, everybody's stumbling at their feet to try to like, open doors for you and be nice to you, put you.
- [176:48]
Amanda Knox
In prison, open a certain kind of door. I mean, we all do it forever.
- [177:00]
Joe Rogan
Yeah, it's. It's fucking.
- [177:03]
Amanda Knox
Just flirting. It was flirting in the end. That's all it was.
- [177:05]
Joe Rogan
Yeah, being a person's weird, you know, it's really weird. It's really weird. And it's temporary. It's like you're always looking at that fucking hourglass just sands running out, you know, and like, what am I doing? Why am I doing it? What's this about? What do I. Like, what do I. And then you can get overwhelmed with like existential angst. Just what's the point of it all? Yeah, well, you have to find a point if to, like, what is man's search for meaning? Like, what is it? What are we doing?
- [177:34]
Amanda Knox
Well, that's a subtitle of my book. My search.
- [177:38]
Joe Rogan
My Search for meaning. Oh my God. Right there in cursive. If you can still recursive. Some people can't anymore.
- [177:44]
Amanda Knox
It's pretty.
- [177:45]
Joe Rogan
Is that your actual handwriting?
- [177:46]
Amanda Knox
No, I wanted it to be my actual handwriting, but they should have used like. This looks so much more pretty.
- [177:54]
Joe Rogan
I don't. Yeah, you could have made it that pretty.
- [177:56]
Amanda Knox
I do have great handwriting, man.
- [177:58]
Joe Rogan
What the.
- [177:58]
Amanda Knox
It's close. Might as well.
- [178:03]
Joe Rogan
It is odd. Yeah. The. The search for meaning. Search for meaning is very odd. And you know, and you could, especially.
- [178:12]
Amanda Knox
When there's no inherent meaning, you just have to make it up, I think.
- [178:16]
Joe Rogan
I mean, it means something to you. If it means something to you, it's inherent, it's real. If it means something to you, if you actually care, it means something. Like, what's the point of it all if you're gonna die someday? And who knows what happens when you die? And then this, the real fatalist thing, when you die, it's over. It's just black and emptiness and. And then just shut off like, okay, you're still alive. Okay, you got to figure out what you're doing with your day to day. Do you enjoy your day to day? If not, why do some people, how come some people enjoy their life? Why don't you, like, what is man's search for meaning? Enjoy your life. Enjoy this life. You can, it's possible, can be done. And I think living by example shows other people that it could be done. And then being like, really honest about it, like, what is, what are the steps? What's the struggles? How do you do it?
- [179:04]
Amanda Knox
Yeah, that's actually been a really sort of fun takeaway that I've had from having just an Instagram is like, I'll post a silly video of me dancing for my kids. And a lot of the comments are just people being like, I'm so glad that someone like you can be happy. Yeah. You know, it's like, thank God someone like you can be happy. And I'm like, yeah, someone like me can be happy. That means you can be happy too.
- [179:32]
Joe Rogan
It's possible to be happy.
- [179:34]
Amanda Knox
Yeah.
- [179:34]
Joe Rogan
But you know, when you're a 500 pound person and you want to be thin, that's a long road. It's not going to come quickly. And if you're a severely depressed, very unhappy person with a disaster of a life, it's not going to turn around overnight. That's a battleship. It takes a long time to turn that bitch around, get it facing the other direction.
- [179:59]
Amanda Knox
And the motivation has to be that you have to see some kernel of opportunity embedded within that darkness. Because otherwise, like, how do you even know what direction to go towards?
- [180:11]
Joe Rogan
And you have to be enjoying the process. You have to figure out a way to enjoy the process of improvement and to.
- [180:18]
Amanda Knox
Even though it's hard.
- [180:19]
Joe Rogan
Yes.
- [180:20]
Amanda Knox
And because it's hard, can be fun.
- [180:22]
Joe Rogan
Yeah. Yeah. You have to enjoy the hard. And that's why voluntary adversity is so important. You have to force yourself to do hard Things so that you can do hard things no matter what. If I do. What's up?
- [180:34]
Amanda Knox
Pump up remixes, someone. You gotta get motivated somehow.
- [180:39]
Joe Rogan
Yeah, that's true. That's true. Although David Goggins doesn't listen to music because he thinks it's cheating.
- [180:44]
Amanda Knox
Really?
- [180:44]
Joe Rogan
Yeah. He gets all his motivation. Internal. It's like, come on.
- [180:49]
Amanda Knox
External motivation, pure.
- [180:51]
Joe Rogan
He's a complete psycho, you know?
- [180:54]
Amanda Knox
But he's like, I need a good soundtrack when I'm running.
- [180:57]
Joe Rogan
But that's the spectrum, you know? The spectrum of discipline, you know? Yeah, that's what he's doing. That's what he's doing. That's what he's doing all day long for no goal other than, like, I talked to him about it. He's like, I'm in the lab every day. Downloaded information like, whoa, cool, dude, you're in the matrix. This is a crazy video of him working out with my friend, Israel Adesanya. Israel Adesanya is the former UFC middleweight champion of the world, one of the greatest fighters that ever lived, and he is working out with David Goggins, and he can't keep up with him. And David Goggins just breaking him, and he's throwing up in garbage cans, and David is putting him through his workout. And it's one of three workouts, routes that David does in a day. And he's like this incredibly fit world champion fighter.
- [181:45]
Amanda Knox
Is he distracting himself?
- [181:49]
Joe Rogan
You have to talk to him. You have to dig into that brain. You have to dig into that. That's a very unusual brain. But he was 300 pounds in fat at one point in his time and late, and it just has become his purpose.
- [182:00]
Amanda Knox
That's his meaning, right? That makes sense.
- [182:02]
Joe Rogan
That's his meaning. That's why he says. He's like. He goes, I'm downloading knowledge. Like, every time he's, like, pushing himself past the limits that he thinks he's capable of. Further and further, he's downloading more understanding of himself.
- [182:16]
Amanda Knox
We should work out sometime, by the way. I think that would be fun. I only studied fighting when I first got back out of prison because I was getting a bunch of death threats. So I did Krav Maga. And it was a lot. A lot of it was just learning how to scream.
- [182:32]
Joe Rogan
Krav Maga.
- [182:33]
Amanda Knox
Yeah. Well, the first, like, my Krav Maga instructors, because they were instructing me on a specific. For a specific reason, wasn't just to work out. Their first thing that they taught me was how to scream. Just to, like, without. Without holding back. The amount, like, I was surprised, and they were telling me, people don't want to take up space and take and make noise. Like, we're were taught from a very young age, especially women, to not do that. And so you have to. In the first. The first lesson was make noise, take up space. And so we just practiced, like, screaming as loud and as hard and as long as we could. And then once we got through that, then we started doing the fighting moves. And the first thing I had to do before I did anything was scream first, then move, scream, move. And so that the screaming became part of the movement so it would trigger. So I wouldn't have to think about it. If it ever came down to it and someone actually attacked me, I wouldn't have to think, scream. I would just scream.
- [183:39]
Joe Rogan
Krav Maga is legit. It gets criticized a lot.
- [183:42]
Amanda Knox
Does it?
- [183:43]
Joe Rogan
Yeah, by martial artists.
- [183:44]
Amanda Knox
Why?
- [183:45]
Joe Rogan
Well, because it's a combinatory martial art, so it combines a bunch of different things together. So it's essentially like a jack of all trades.
- [183:53]
Amanda Knox
What's wrong with that?
- [183:54]
Joe Rogan
There's nothing wrong with that.
- [183:55]
Amanda Knox
Oh, okay.
- [183:56]
Joe Rogan
No, no, there's nothing wrong with that.
- [183:58]
Amanda Knox
It's like only being into purebred dogs. Like, what? What's up with that?
- [184:02]
Joe Rogan
Well, no, it's like, is it effective? Right. Like, there's no Krav Maga artists that have gone on to dominate in the ufc.
- [184:10]
Amanda Knox
Oh, interesting. Yeah, I didn't know that.
- [184:12]
Joe Rogan
But it kind of. You could kind of say that mixed martial arts, in a sense, is essentially the roots of Krav Maga, because it's taking the best aspects of various martial arts and training them.
- [184:25]
Amanda Knox
Yeah. How is it different?
- [184:26]
Joe Rogan
Well, the thing is, is that if you are training for self defense. Okay. You're training to defend yourself against an attacker. The true. In my personal opinion, the true best way to learn how to fight is to learn how to prepare yourself for trained killers, not the average person.
- [184:48]
Amanda Knox
Really?
- [184:49]
Joe Rogan
Yes.
- [184:49]
Amanda Knox
Like, how often are you going to encounter trained killers?
- [184:53]
Joe Rogan
It doesn't matter. You should be prepared for trained killers because you could run into a trained killer, and if you try to do some Krav Maga nonsense on me, I'm going to fucking strangle you. You can't defend yourself against someone who actually knows how to fight.
- [185:05]
Amanda Knox
Okay, here's a question. Can I ever actually defend myself against someone like you?
- [185:09]
Joe Rogan
No, not against someone like you.
- [185:11]
Amanda Knox
So then what's the fucking point?
- [185:13]
Joe Rogan
Because you could defend yourself against someone who doesn't know how to fight as good as me, but the Odds of someone like me attacking you are very, very, very, very low.
- [185:20]
Amanda Knox
You're saying I should train to be able to, you know, to fight against trained killers?
- [185:25]
Joe Rogan
But, yes. Defend yourself. Jiu jitsu. You can jiu jitsu. You could defend yourself. You're not gonna. The way you would be able to beat me is if I was untrained. I have too many advantages. But also, I don't have advantages if someone's bigger than me and just as well, me.
- [185:44]
Amanda Knox
Right.
- [185:45]
Joe Rogan
Or more well trained than I am. Better than me. I'm not gonna beat, you know, the UFC heavyweight champion. Like, I'm not gonna win. It's not possible. I don't care how long. I do martial arts.
- [185:57]
Amanda Knox
But you can avoid dying. No, no, no. Okay. They'll just murder.
- [186:01]
Joe Rogan
No, can't. No, no. I'm completely vulnerable.
- [186:05]
Amanda Knox
Okay, great.
- [186:06]
Joe Rogan
As an expert martial artist with three black belts, I'm completely vulnerable. Vulnerable. Yeah. That's reality. That's physics. That's.
- [186:14]
Amanda Knox
I mean, it's like you against an elephant. Who's gonna.
- [186:16]
Joe Rogan
Exactly. Exactly. That's the 100 men versus a gorilla.
- [186:20]
Amanda Knox
Yeah, they could be. Obviously, the gorilla would win. Whoever thought the gorilla would lose?
- [186:25]
Joe Rogan
Retards.
- [186:26]
Amanda Knox
Men who have never seen a gorilla.
- [186:28]
Joe Rogan
Men who think they could fight better than they can, which is most men.
- [186:31]
Amanda Knox
Why? Who. Whoever brought up that as even a thought experiment, I don't know, but it's.
- [186:36]
Joe Rogan
Funny that it's, like, viral in 2025. I thought we'd have worked that out. And the 50s, the fact that I.
- [186:43]
Amanda Knox
Feel like people just don't remember what animals are like. We're so out of touch with animals.
- [186:48]
Joe Rogan
They don't even know what an animal is. They have no idea. People know what their dog is. They have no idea what an animal is. An actual, real animal.
- [186:55]
Amanda Knox
And also, your own dog could fuck you up if you want. If it wanted to. It just doesn't want to.
- [187:00]
Joe Rogan
Exactly. Yeah. Well, unless you have a little dog, I'll fuck up a Chihuahua. To be fair, my dog Marshall, he's a golden retriever. He's the sweetest dog on the planet. But if he could probably kill me if he want. He just doesn't know, you know? Right.
- [187:14]
Amanda Knox
And he would never think to.
- [187:16]
Joe Rogan
But if, like, a rat was trying to attack you, you'd be fucking terrified.
- [187:18]
Amanda Knox
Or if he got infected by rabies.
- [187:20]
Joe Rogan
Right.
- [187:20]
Amanda Knox
You know, like, and lost his mind, like, ciao.
- [187:23]
Joe Rogan
It'd be a real problem. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, there's. There's the reality. But if you're training to defeat A trained killer, you're gonna be way better off than if you're training to defeat someone who's gonna lunge at you this way and you're gonna block that and hit him here and hit him there and like.
- [187:43]
Amanda Knox
But don't you fight differently against a trained killer versus like some dude who's like drunk and dumb?
- [187:49]
Joe Rogan
No. The right way to fight is the right way to fight, period. Whether it's some drunk dude. If some drunk dude tries to take a swing at me, I'm not gonna think, oh, he's a drunk dude. I shouldn't avoid this punch. I shouldn't. Should do something different. No, it's like, it's, it's all the language. So martial arts is essentially like a language and some people only know a couple of words and some people can eloquently recite Shakespeare.
- [188:13]
Amanda Knox
Sure.
- [188:13]
Joe Rogan
At the drop of a hat.
- [188:14]
Amanda Knox
Sure.
- [188:15]
Joe Rogan
And that's the difference between an expert and someone who doesn't really know what they're doing. And most people don't know what they're doing. When it comes to martial arts, if you're preparing for someone who doesn't know what they're doing, that's not the right way to do it. The right way to do it is to prepare for someone who knows what they're doing. Now this is very different. We're talking about like women's self defense versus just, you know, like a grown man who is of normal size defending himself against another grown man of normal size.
- [188:47]
Amanda Knox
A fair fight.
- [188:48]
Joe Rogan
Yeah, a fair fight. But in a fair fight, you should be preparing to fight against a trained killer. If you are a person who just only trains in self defense tactics. Like someone comes at me, I'm going to do this and I'm going to do that. Good luck doing that to someone who knows how to fight. Good luck. Because they're going to recognize all of your movements in advance. You're going to go like this and they're going to go, oh, well, his right arm is coming this way. So I'm just going to step this way and I'm going to avoid that. And I see his left foot step backwards. Well, now his right leg is vulnerable. So I'm going to kick it like it's like it's language, it's understanding the flow of body dynamics and movement and.
- [189:26]
Amanda Knox
It'S happening so quickly that the only way that you can actually be effective is if you're fluent and you don't have to think about it.
- [189:31]
Joe Rogan
You don't think about it. It's when you're training, it's like you very rarely think, oh, now I'm going to do this. It's like opportunities open themselves up, especially in striking. Striking is something that you, you do where you're, you're doing these techniques so often that as things happen, you're just responding in a trained way. Your mind and your neural system is like completely trained for these actions and these movements.
- [190:01]
Amanda Knox
Do you think that fighting and you know, fighting your friends, like, not like actual, like fighting for your life, but fighting for your friends is a crucial part of brain development? Because I know that I've heard, or at least I've read that roughhousing with small kids is a really important part of their brain development. And the people who become more well adapted, well adjusted emotionally, just, they seem to be more fit emotionally. Were kids who had some roughhousing when they were, when they were young, especially with their parents. Is that like an elevated form of roughhousing, part of a human being's cognitive development?
- [190:43]
Joe Rogan
Well, I think physical altercations are a normal part of human existence that have exist. It's been going on since the beginning of time and to no understanding or no knowledge of it and no experience with it at all.
- [190:58]
Amanda Knox
Because I'm not like a horrible. I don't, like, I've never gotten to a physical fight with anyone.
- [191:05]
Joe Rogan
Good.
- [191:06]
Amanda Knox
Is that good? Is that good?
- [191:07]
Joe Rogan
I haven't either. Other than ones on purpose, right?
- [191:11]
Amanda Knox
Okay.
- [191:11]
Joe Rogan
Like, I'm not, I don't get in street fights. I don't, I've never got, I haven't been in a fist fight since I was a kid. I just, they were all martial arts fights.
- [191:21]
Amanda Knox
Okay.
- [191:21]
Joe Rogan
I, I, you know, and I just think for, for men, being vulnerable is not good. It's just not good to not know how to defend yourself. It just leaves you with this deep insecurity. And that's why you see men that don't know how to fight, they use bravado and they puff their chest out and they yell. They try to intimidate people and scare people. It's just posturing.
- [191:46]
Amanda Knox
It's just like, maybe this is why I feel bad for men, because I don't feel any sort of impulse to do that, to puff up my chest. And like, I don't know, maybe is.
- [191:58]
Joe Rogan
Well, you shouldn't. Men shouldn't either. And the men that do it are generally vulnerable. It's bullies, right? Why are bullies bullies? They're bullies because they're. That's really what it is. That's why they're trying to intimidate people and hurt people. It's because they're. They're weak. It's like, you, like, trained fighters are some of the nicest people. Like, people that fight in the ufc, they're some of the nicest people you'll ever meet. It sounds crazy. Like, my. My friends that are all Jiu Jitsu people, they're nicest people. They're so friendly. They're so good, because they're not. Not scared. They're not. They're not insecure. They're not vulnerable all the time. Most men who don't know how to defend themselves who, like, are really mouthy and get. Get loud. Like, they're just vulnerable and that. You know, I have a friend, and he has real rage problems, and he does not fight at all. And he was yelling at someone in the parking lot of the Comedy Store once, and I pulled him aside. What are you doing, man? He goes, I don't want to see red. And I get. I go, you don't know how to defend yourself. I go, one of. One of these days, you're gonna do that to someone who's like me, but they're mean, and they're gonna just say, oh, here's a nice opportunity. Just fuck this guy up, and you're gonna wind up in the hospital. Or worse. Like, don't do this. Like, you can't do that. But, like, some men grow up puffing their chest out, and they get away with it. And they get away with it if they're loud enough or they're mean enough or they yell enough, and they. They. You know, that becomes their defense mechanism. They get shitty with people all the time, but it's. That's all it is. And if they don't get shitty with people publicly, they get shitty with people online. They get shitty. They do get out there crushing. They get it out that way, but it's all just weakness. That's all it is. It's just like, you're vulnerable and just don't be vulnerable. Figure out. Figure out a way to not be vulnerable. I got into martial arts because I was getting bullied, and I didn't. I just didn't. I was always scared of altercations. Like, I hate this feeling. So I was like, okay, I'm gonna become what I'm terrified of.
- [194:00]
Amanda Knox
Okay. I guess my one sort of pokeback at that, though, is I find it interesting that you. You. You frame vulnerability in. In such a negative way.
- [194:13]
Joe Rogan
Physical vulnerability is negative.
- [194:15]
Amanda Knox
Yeah. But I think the thing that I'm sort of. Of thinking about is how it doesn't matter, really how strong you are or capable you are. We all are still utterly vulnerable and.
- [194:29]
Joe Rogan
Well, sure.
- [194:30]
Amanda Knox
And so I guess, like.
- [194:32]
Joe Rogan
But what can you control?
- [194:33]
Amanda Knox
Fair.
- [194:34]
Joe Rogan
You can control some aspect of that, but you can't control guns. Right. If you. If someone has a gun, you're vulnerable. I don't care who you are. You could be Superman. Or not Superman, he's bulletproof. But you be, you know, UFC heavyweight champion. You're so vulnerable to a gun. One little kid can kill you. Bang, you're dead. Yeah, but how much can you control? You can't control some of it. So is the idea, like, oh, you can't control any of it, so why control at all? Why do anything? Why. Why be strong?
- [195:02]
Amanda Knox
Well, I guess. No, I guess my. My thing is, for me, it's. It's less about, like, prepare, like, positioning myself to not get hurt. And it's more for me, my big sort of, like, training that I attempt to do is how do I. How do I get up when I am inevitably hurt? So I understand that life is going to hurt me, and I don't know how life is going to hurt me. So there's like a million different ways that I can be hurt. It might be that I'm physically assaulted. It might be some other thing. And knowing that I can't prepare for all of the ways that I am vulnerable to existence. Instead, I try to think, okay, I am vulnerable to existence and I am going to get hurt. How do I not be broken by the hurt? And how do I. I don't know. Maybe I'm treating the inevitable pain of life as that. As that training to get strong. It's just kind of like I almost don't seek out pain because I've had enough pain come at me. Is that. Does that make sense?
- [196:15]
Joe Rogan
What do you mean by seek out pain, though?
- [196:17]
Amanda Knox
Well, you were talking about, like, voluntary adversity. Yes, right. And like, to an extent, I agree with you, because that's a very stoic thing to do to. To seek out challenges so that you can test yourself and test your mettle and push yourself to become better for the inevitable things that might happen, but.
- [196:38]
Joe Rogan
Not even just for the inevitable things that happen. Just for your own vulnerable, just for the sake, just for you as a human, to achieve balance. We're all vulnerable. There's no invulnerable people. We're all going to die. We all are made of flesh and. And bone, and we're all weak Right. There's no invulnerable humans, but you can be less vulnerable. And you should probably optimize that, especially as a man, I think, because it. With it, without it comes a lot of weird insecurities that are not comfortable and they can trip you up in all sorts of aspects of your life.
- [197:18]
Amanda Knox
I think maybe this is another like, woman, man thing maybe where like, women have to accept vulnerability as like an inescapable aspect of our lives, even just in our interpersonal relationships. Like, I know that when I walk into the room, I'm not the one who's gonna win a fight. That's for sure.
- [197:41]
Joe Rogan
Right.
- [197:42]
Amanda Knox
And so knowing that, I. I feel like I. Sure. I prepare myself in the ways that I can. Right. And I'm strong in the ways that I can. But like, I don't think about vulnerability in negative terms because I've also found that once you've been. Once you've. Been. Once you've been forced to reckon with your own vulnerability, that is when you find your strength. Strength. So I don't know, I see them.
- [198:17]
Joe Rogan
As like we're talking about different things. Yeah, Yeah. I think physical vulner. Look, I think there's certain. There's certain roles that males and females ultimately play that are unavoidable. And one of them is when your husband went downstairs to protect you.
- [198:36]
Amanda Knox
Right. There's a reason why I wasn't the one who did that. Yeah.
- [198:40]
Joe Rogan
Ultimately. Right. In that situation, if you are less vulnerable as a man, it's a good thing. If someone breaks into my house and they're a normal sized person without a weapon, I'm not scared of them. You know, I'm scared this crazy person is in my house. I'm scared that they might have a weapon. But if I realize that they don't have a weapon and they. They're physically threatening, I have a massive advantage. It's up to me whether or not they die. It's my choice. And that's better.
- [199:20]
Amanda Knox
That is better.
- [199:21]
Joe Rogan
It's better than you getting beat to death by some schizophrenic who breaks into your house because you don't know how to defend yourself.
- [199:27]
Amanda Knox
Fair.
- [199:27]
Joe Rogan
And you panic and you start flailing and you hyperventilate. You don't know what to do. Yeah, that's not good.
- [199:34]
Amanda Knox
No, it's not.
- [199:35]
Joe Rogan
That's all I'm saying. I mean, we're all vulnerable. It's. It's part of what you're doing when you're working out really hard is to try to increase the strength and decrease the vulnerability. You're trying to increase your resolve to push through difficult things, increase your, your, your character and your will. You're trying to fortify yourself and they're also trying.
- [200:01]
Amanda Knox
That's not bad.
- [200:02]
Joe Rogan
It's all positive. It's all positive, you know, but it gets labeled as negative because there's a lot of things that get attached to it. Like jocks and bullies and assholes and aggressive men and shitty men who think.
- [200:16]
Amanda Knox
Themselves superior to people who are.
- [200:18]
Joe Rogan
Exactly.
- [200:18]
Amanda Knox
More vulnerable.
- [200:19]
Joe Rogan
Exactly. Instead of just being nice because you know you can kill everybody in the room, just be nice. Like that's the real nice person is the person who can kill everybody and he doesn't want to. You know, the really shitty people are the ones that would act on that. And sometimes you'll run into those and it's better to be prepared. That's, that's all it is. Like physical vulnerability. But what you're talking about, like psychic vulnerability and not wanting to go through pain because you've been through so much. Of course, yeah, look, ideally we should go through zero pain. Ideally we should go through zero aggression. Zero shitty, deceptive, conniving, psycho people that are trying to ruin everything in your life. Ideally, yeah, ideally you shouldn't have to prepare for that. You shouldn't interact with those people.
- [201:11]
Amanda Knox
And again, I'm also like speaking at counter purposes with myself because I did the exact opposite thing with my prosecutor. I did. I didn't have to talk to him. I didn't have to have a conversation with him that was difficult and awkward and hard and forced me to confront all of this pain. And I did because I knew that there was value in that.
- [201:33]
Joe Rogan
Yeah, we seek comfort always and we avoid pain.
- [201:40]
Amanda Knox
But I don't know, maybe I'm a masochist because I always feel like there's something to gain from pain.
- [201:46]
Joe Rogan
Because you've gained so much from your pain and you kind of must know that you are who you are. You know, you're kind of an extraordinary person and you've gone through a lot to become that person. You don't just wake up and have this perspective that you have. You have to go through a lot of shit.
- [202:01]
Amanda Knox
You know what's fucked up though?
- [202:02]
Joe Rogan
What?
- [202:03]
Amanda Knox
I trust pain more than I trust joy. Because when I'm going through something painful, I know what that is and I know how to confront it. When I'm going through joy, I'm afraid that something bad is going to happen to me.
- [202:20]
Joe Rogan
That happens to people where they self sabotage you Know, I mean, I don't know.
- [202:27]
Amanda Knox
I was having a great time in Perugia and then everything just went really bad out of nowhere. And so like, I don't know, like a part of me is like always is trying to see like the, the yin yang of it all. Like the, the good that's embedded in the bad, but then afraid of the bad that's embedded in the good. Like that's, that's what. And you know, and that's a reality. Like, you know, the more that you. Now that I have the privilege of being a mom, I know that one day, you know, like if something were to happen to my kids, I would be all the more fucking, like all the more pain in my life. Like if I never had kids, I wouldn't. I wouldn't have the opportunity to experience a potential pain that would be utterly devastating. And so like that's, that's where that play goes in my head. And I just wonder if it's a trauma response where like I'm afraid of good things happening.
- [203:18]
Joe Rogan
I'm sure part of it has got to be a trauma response. I mean, I think a lot of people that self sabotage when things start going well in their life, it's because they're used to things going badly. And this idea of things going well, this. It just scares the shit out of them. It's the unknown and it's the pain that might come with it falling apart. The pain that might come with you hang all your hopes and dreams on. Wow. Things really actually are better and then they're not like, fuck. So you want it to fall apart so that you could achieve some level of comfort in the understanding of this state that you've been in many times before. The state of failure.
- [203:56]
Amanda Knox
I need to get rid of that. I need to. I need to lose that.
- [203:59]
Joe Rogan
Yeah, but you're aware of it, which is the first step, you know. I don't think you're embracing it. You know, clearly you're not. You're writing books.
- [204:08]
Amanda Knox
Yeah.
- [204:08]
Joe Rogan
You got the Hulu series. You got a lot going on.
- [204:10]
Amanda Knox
Yeah, it's like it's not going.
- [204:11]
Joe Rogan
Yeah, it's not like you.
- [204:13]
Amanda Knox
I'm just like, what? Yeah, I'm still just a little bit like looking over my shoulder like, of course. Who's coming at me?
- [204:19]
Joe Rogan
Imagine if you didn't. That would be crazy after all that you've been through. Imagine if you didn't think like that. You know, it's understandable. More than understandable, you know?
- [204:31]
Amanda Knox
Yeah, that whole like lightning doesn't strike the same place twice. And it's like, it can.
- [204:38]
Joe Rogan
I can.
- [204:40]
Amanda Knox
It can tell that to someone who's been struck by fucking lightning.
- [204:43]
Joe Rogan
Yeah. Yeah. You know, it's possible. You can't think. It's the fear of the unknown and the fear of the possibilities can really cripple you. It really can.
- [204:59]
Amanda Knox
I'm trying not to let it do that to me.
- [205:01]
Joe Rogan
You're doing a great job.
- [205:02]
Amanda Knox
Thanks.
- [205:02]
Joe Rogan
You really are.
- [205:03]
Amanda Knox
Yeah. Working on it.
- [205:05]
Joe Rogan
But again, it's a struggle. And this is important for people to hear. It's not like it's just like every day. Like it's hard. Life is hard. Even a guy like Goggins, you know, he told me and he goes, sometimes I stare at my fucking shoes for like 30 minutes before I put those motherfuckers on. He goes. Because he's like, I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. But he knows he's gonna do this. He goes, but I put him on him. It's not easy. Life is not easy. But it's worth living. It's worth doing. It really is.
- [205:39]
Amanda Knox
Does he put those shoes on because he knows that ultimately he's going to be glad that he did it?
- [205:45]
Joe Rogan
If you ask him, he's like, because I'm not a bitch.
- [205:47]
Amanda Knox
Okay.
- [205:48]
Joe Rogan
Well, because that is what it is. Yeah. He's ultimately going to be glad that he's. He's still got the strength. And that strength needs to be watered every day like a garden. It's not like you just have it now. You have it for life. No. You have to keep at it. You can. Everybody could slide. Everybody could slide back.
- [206:11]
Amanda Knox
It's true.
- [206:12]
Joe Rogan
Yeah.
- [206:12]
Amanda Knox
As much as we can improve ourselves, we can.
- [206:15]
Joe Rogan
Yeah.
- [206:16]
Amanda Knox
Not.
- [206:17]
Joe Rogan
It's not easy. It's not easy being a person, but it's worth doing.
- [206:23]
Amanda Knox
Yeah.
- [206:23]
Joe Rogan
Yeah. And you can do it. And everybody could do it. You could do it better than you doing it. I could do it better than. I'm doing it. I'm trying. And you could do it better than all of us.
- [206:32]
Amanda Knox
I'm so grumpy sometimes. It's like so unnecessary.
- [206:35]
Joe Rogan
Unnecessary. Avoidable. But it's good. It's good to, you know, struggle's good. It's good. All of it's good. It's all. We're on the path, you know, but this is like this, all this, this, all this, this idea that you should know better by now. That's also silly. I know.
- [206:52]
Amanda Knox
80 year old fools now, everyone. If there's anything I've learned from being A mom. It's that everyone, every human being is a toddler. Every single person is a toddler who either hasn't gotten enough attention or hasn't had their nap, whatever the fuck, and they're just having a tantrum. Like, that is. And if you treat everyone like a toddler, it is actually a very successful way of interacting with people.
- [207:18]
Joe Rogan
Yeah. Yeah.
- [207:19]
Amanda Knox
Like, it's true.
- [207:20]
Joe Rogan
That is the lesson of parenthood, right? Yeah. I talk about that all the time. That I started looking at people as, like, babies that grew up instead of looking at them like, oh, this is Mike. He's 35. Like, no, Mike was a baby. Like, how'd you, Mike, become so up? Oh, Mike got a lot of bad information, a lot of bad experiences.
- [207:40]
Amanda Knox
And he still is a baby. He still has the same needs that he did as a kid. They're just more sophisticated now. But ultimately they all derive down to these same things. Yep. Do you need a change of situation? Do you need some attention? Do you need to sleep on it? Like, what? You know, whatever's going on, like, just. If you can identify those, like, basic human needs and address and just tweak their circumstances, you can change a person's life.
- [208:08]
Joe Rogan
And also recognize that if you ignore those basic human needs over and over, they're gonna compound and you're gonna have.
- [208:14]
Amanda Knox
More problems and they're gonna lose their shit in the middle of the grocery store.
- [208:27]
Joe Rogan
Amanda, I really enjoy talking to you again. Thank you very much. Really appreciate you. And your book is out now. Amanda Knox Free My Search for Meaning.
- [208:37]
Amanda Knox
Yeah, if anyone wants to reach out, I'm@amandanox.com. it's pretty easy.
- [208:41]
Joe Rogan
Okay. Thank you for being here. Appreciate you. Thank you. We'll have fun. Bye, everybody. Bye.
- [208:53]
Amanda Knox
It.