Joe Rogan Experience #1887 - Maynard James Keenan

Maynard James Keenan joins Joe Rogan for a wide-ranging conversation that starts with their shared obsession with Brazilian jiu-jitsu and the lessons it teaches about discipline, listening, and self-control. Maynard explains how the same beginner's-mind approach drives his songwriting with Puscifer and his demanding life as a winemaker in Arizona. A long stretch dives deep into the economics, terroir, and logistics of running multiple vineyards, restaurants, and a coffee roaster while still touring. They riff on technology, TikTok's data harvesting, urban life versus small-town living, farming, and night-sky stargazing. The episode closes with an extended breakdown of recent UFC, ADCC, and boxing events, ending with plans to attend a live fight together.

• Joe strongly endorses the reverse hyper machine, invented by powerlifter Louie Simmons, for decompressing and strengthening the lower back.
  00:09:57
• Maynard breaks down vineyard economics: roughly $30k per acre to plant, no fruit for four years, and no first dollar for six to seven years.
  02:03:06
• Maynard reveals he employs around 110 families across his Arizona wineries, vineyards, store, and restaurants.
  02:04:42
• He explains that 95% of Caduceus wine is wild fermentation kick-started by native yeast already on the grapes.
  02:11:27
• They recount reading TikTok's terms of service on the podcast; Maynard deleted it and a listener's mom made her son delete it too.
  01:05:27
• Maynard explains the hugely popular wine The Prisoner was largely blended bulk wine, not estate-grown.
  02:31:42
• Maynard promotes two Puscifer pay-per-views (Billy D in the Hall of Feathered Serpents and Parole Violator) shot during lockdown.
  00:13:09

• Maynard explains terroir: soil geology, moisture, weather patterns, and grape clone all shape a wine's signature for a region.
  00:19:18
• He learned gi jiu-jitsu from Jean-Jacques Machado, a black belt who has only one hand and built his game around hooks and clinch.
  00:05:43
• The best pasta flour is Italian-milled but contains a significant amount of hard winter wheat grown in Arizona.
  01:38:44
• A recent study found about 80% of people tested had glyphosate (Roundup) in their bodies; Maynard stopped using it in his vineyards.
  01:40:51
• Maynard's wife is a licensed falconer with a hawk named Loki used to chase squirrels and rabbits from the vineyards.
  01:36:09
• A single hailstorm can wipe out half a vineyard, leaving vines producing no grapes for up to three years.
  02:33:47
• He references a report that feeding the Fibonacci sequence into a quantum computer produced behavior like two directions of time.
  01:54:18
• They watch footage of Mikey Musumeci taking Imanari's back, which Maynard cites as his favorite example of jiu-jitsu artistry.
  00:38:00
• Maynard lives in Jerome, Arizona (population ~500), which has light-pollution ordinances allowing clear Milky Way views.
  01:21:28

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