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Joe Rogan · 2024-06-18 · 2h 39m

Joe Rogan Experience #2165 - Jack Carr

Author and former Navy SEAL Jack Carr talks writing, AI's threat to creativity, war, geopolitics, and conspiracy lore with Joe Rogan.

Joe Rogan Experience #2165 - Jack Carr
The guest

Jack Carr — Former Navy SEAL turned bestselling thriller novelist; author of the James Reese / Terminal List series, now releasing his seventh novel Red Sky Morning and an upcoming nonfiction book on the 1983 Beirut Barracks bombing.

The gist

Jack Carr joins Joe Rogan to discuss his discipline-driven writing process, the two-year effort behind his first nonfiction book about the 1983 Beirut Barracks bombing, and adapting The Terminal List for television. The conversation turns to AI tools like Sora and Unreal Engine 5 and what they mean for Hollywood, writing, and human creativity, with Rogan arguing ideas behave like a real life force. Carr draws on his combat experience in Iraq to talk about fate, leadership, and writing authentic fiction. They range widely into geopolitics (Ukraine funding, Russian subs off Cuba, China buying land near US bases), the JFK assassination, UFO history, and distrust of mainstream media. Throughout, both reflect on technology, manipulation, and trying to stay grounded amid rapid change.

Big reveals

  • Jack Carr's first nonfiction book, on the 1983 Beirut Barracks bombing, comes out in September, co-written with military historian James Scott.
  • Carr reveals he is involved in all casting and outline-writing for the Terminal List TV adaptation this time around, including a Taylor Kitsch prequel series.
  • Rogan lays out his theory that ideas are 'an unrecognized life form' that injects itself into human consciousness and guides creation.
  • Carr explains his fiction draws directly on personal combat memories, such as being ambushed in Baghdad in 2006, rather than secondhand research.
  • Danny Trejo claimed about 10 people were murdered over involvement in the film American Me, including two consultants.
  • Carr says he can no longer safely travel to research locations like Russia, Macau, or China because his work has become too high-profile.
  • The episode digs into 'sketchy people wear Breitlings' lore, tying the brand to Blackwater, arms dealer Victor Bout, and ex-CIA director George Tenet.

Things worth remembering

  • The 1983 Beirut Barracks bombing killed 241 US service members and 58 French paratroopers, the biggest Marine Corps loss of life since Iwo Jima.
  • Disney reportedly has one of the best omnidirectional VR floors, which moves under you so you walk continuously while staying in place.
  • Carr owns the typewriter Ernest Hemingway used to write A Moveable Feast, acquired at auction in January 2020.
  • Carr never wrote short stories first; he credits decades of reading thriller masters as his entire writing apprenticeship.
  • Sylvester Stallone added the knife to First Blood because he understood the importance of props; broke his neck doing stunts in The Expendables.
  • The 1947 Kenneth Arnold sighting near Mount Rainier, of objects estimated at 1,200 mph, gave rise to the term 'flying saucer.'
  • Carr keeps a framed front page of the 1947 Roswell Daily Record reporting a crashed UFO recovered by the military.
  • Operation Paperclip brought Nazi scientists to the US; many bore facial dueling scars from university sword fights used to identify them.
  • Mike Baker showed footage of AI-piloted fighter jets winning dogfights against human pilots 100% of the time.
  • The US government spends over $7 million a year maintaining the $300 million superyacht Amadea seized from a sanctioned Russian oligarch.

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