Cody Tucker — A history and 'random facts' content creator known for short videos on the dark and weird side of history and pop culture. Author of the book 'And Now You Know,' released the same day as this episode.
The gist
Joe Rogan hosts Cody Tucker, a self-taught history storyteller whose viral fact videos and new book inspired the invite. The two free-associate across a huge range of topics: AI manipulation and 'dead internet' experiments, the corruption of the music and pharma industries, the dangers of nicotine and processed food, and the ethics of self-driving cars. The back half dives deep into ancient history mysteries, Atlantis and the Richat Structure, the lost cities of the Amazon, cannibal warlords in Liberia, and whether biblical giants and dinosaur de-extinction are plausible. It's a classic wandering, anecdote-heavy JRE episode with no single thesis beyond a shared love of learning weird true stories.
Big reveals
- Tucker reveals his book 'And Now You Know' came out the exact day Rogan booked him, which both treat as eerie 'synchronicity.'
- Tucker explains the author of the novel behind 'The Outlaw Josey Wales,' Asa/Forest Carter, was a KKK member and George Wallace speechwriter who left the Klan for not being racist enough.
- They discuss University of Zurich researchers secretly unleashing AI bots on Reddit's r/changemyview to manipulate real users, a real-world 'dead internet' experiment.
- Tucker describes Chinese experiments splicing tardigrade DNA into human cells to make people radiation-resistant.
- Tucker admits he literally grew up surrounded by functioning meth labs in East Texas, one of which blew up next door.
- Tucker openly discusses being on Effexor since 2013 with no noticeable effect, plus taking a Klonopin during the show.
- They detail Liberia's 'General Butt Naked,' who sacrificed and ate children before battle and never faced trial after finding Jesus.
- Rogan recounts UFC fighter Nick Diaz swimming from Alcatraz five times in shark-infested water 'for funsies' between fights.
Things worth remembering
- Stephen King published under the pseudonym Richard Bachman (e.g. The Running Man) and even gave the fake author a fake author photo.
- Both Norm Macdonald and Chadwick Boseman hid their cancer diagnoses and kept working until they died.
- Nicotine itself may be neuroprotective; it's the smoke and additives, not the nicotine, that cause most of the harm.
- Tardigrades ('water bears') can survive in space, and some may be alive in suspended animation on the moon from a crashed lunar lander.
- Jelly Roll has lost roughly 140-180 pounds and run a 5K, with a half-marathon goal for the next year.
- Troy was thought to be purely mythical until it was actually discovered, casting new light on which Iliad characters may have been real.
- The Richat Structure in Mauritania matches Plato's description of Atlantis in size, concentric rings, and surrounding water erosion.
- Thomas Jefferson popularized macaroni and cheese in America and was among the first Americans to cultivate tomatoes, which people feared as poisonous.
- People allergic to shellfish are often also allergic to cockroaches due to shared tropomyosin proteins.
- Studies suggest the average human brain may contain microplastics equivalent to a plastic spoon, about 0.5% by weight.
- Montana and most of the US interior were once covered by the Western Interior Seaway, an inland ocean full of giant prehistoric creatures.
- De-extinction company Colossal says true dinosaur DNA is too degraded to clone; they'd instead engineer dino-like animals from descendants such as chickens.