Joe Rogan Experience #2232 - Josh Brolin

Josh Brolin joins Joe Rogan for a sprawling, philosophical conversation centered on Brolin's new memoir From Under the Truck. They explore the relationship between creativity and self-destruction, citing writers like Hunter S. Thompson, Cormac McCarthy, and Jack Kerouac, and comedians like Sam Kinison and Dave Chappelle. Brolin recounts a chaotic upbringing in Santa Barbara, taking LSD at 13, shooting cocaine at 15, and losing 36 of 50 childhood friends. The two also dig into money and identity, fitness and injury recovery, the COVID era and vaccine skepticism, the Austin comedy migration, and the wildness that defines elite fighters like Mike Tyson and Jon Jones.

• Brolin took LSD for the first time at age 13, twice in a 24-hour period, calling it life-changing.
  00:51:58
• Brolin reveals he was shooting cocaine at 15 years old.
  01:05:22
• Brolin says 36 out of 50 of his childhood friends from Montecito are dead from heroin, accidents, and punk-rock excess.
  00:23:47
• Rogan healed his bulging discs with regenokine (PRP-style blood treatment) and aggressive movement instead of surgery.
  01:00:10
• Rogan declined the COVID vaccine after the lot was pulled for blood clots and two acquaintances had strokes days after their shots.
  01:34:59
• Brolin was present the night before Cormac McCarthy died, at the foot of the bed where McCarthy's typewriter sat.
  02:28:32
• Sam Kinison was launched to fame via Rodney Dangerfield's young-comedian specials, peaking with his HBO hour and the album Louder Than Hell.
  01:13:46

• Brolin bought Joe Walsh's old house in Santa Barbara after a single listing came up on Zillow.
  00:25:51
• Stress over the move gave Brolin a mild case of Bell's palsy four months before the interview.
  00:26:24
• Ralph Steadman once refused to draw a graduation gift for Brolin's son, then 20 years later sent him a print unprompted.
  00:40:21
• Kerouac edited On the Road for seven years despite his 'first thought, best thought' reputation.
  00:46:08
• Hemingway's first manuscript was lost when his wife left the satchel on a train.
  00:46:41
• A teenage Mike Tyson appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated as 'Kid Dynamite' at 19.
  01:56:19
• Cus D'Amato hypnotized 13-year-old Mike Tyson, telling him 'you don't exist, only the task exists.'
  01:57:21
• Helio Gracie believed in reincarnation and that you live the same life over until you get it right, informing his 1%-better-a-day philosophy.
  02:08:43
• Brolin wrote his entire memoir before selling it, cutting it from 450 pages down to about 240.
  02:14:07

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