Joe Rogan Experience #1968 - Jason Everman

Jason Everman tells Joe Rogan how he went from playing in Nirvana and Soundgarden to becoming an Army Ranger and Green Beret. He describes being pushed out of both bands, a heroin flirtation, and a deliberate choice to enlist as a 'punctuated equilibrium' catalyst for growth. He recounts deploying to Iraq for the invasion and four rotations in Afghanistan, reflecting on the primal pull of combat, the tribe, and the corruption and history he witnessed. The conversation widens into philosophy, the emptiness of chasing money and external validation, fatherhood, and human flourishing. He closes by promoting his engineless Race to Alaska sailing project.

• He was pushed out of Nirvana after their first full US tour and later fired from Soundgarden, his favorite Seattle band.
  00:01:39
• He deliberately joined the military as a 'punctuated equilibrium' shock to force personal growth.
  00:39:14
• He took an Army Ranger contract because the Navy wouldn't guarantee him a SEAL/BUDS tryout.
  00:42:25
• He was in Special Forces Thai language school at Fort Bragg the morning of 9/11.
  00:52:59
• He deployed to Iraq for the invasion and did four rotations in Afghanistan as a Green Beret.
  00:55:04
• After a Columbia philosophy degree, he now works mostly in yacht/sailboat delivery.
  01:35:51
• He declined to pursue royalties owed from Nirvana and Soundgarden reissues, choosing peace over money.
  02:23:05

• Both grandfathers were WWII vets; one rose from corporal to company commander on a Sherman tank purely through attrition.
  00:33:31
• His step-grandfather was a Navy corpsman attached to a Marine platoon and did seven amphibious assaults in the Pacific.
  00:34:34
• As a kid his mother dropped him off alone with a $20 Kmart raft to float miles of the Ho River.
  00:37:39
• He frames PTSD through Sebastian Junger's 'Tribe' - the pain is losing the tribe, not the horrors of war.
  01:00:53
• Dunbar's number (~120-150) matches the size of an Army infantry company.
  01:01:24
• In Afghanistan each family home is a 'miniature fortress' because of a culture of preying on one another.
  01:16:51
• He visited Greek ruins (Ai-Khanoum) from ~300 BC in Afghanistan, founded as one of Alexander the Great's Alexandrias.
  01:17:28
• Greco-Buddhism briefly flourished in Central Asia; the Greco-Bactrian king Menander converted to Buddhism.
  01:21:09
• He's prepping a four-man veteran crew for the engineless Race to Alaska (~750 miles, Port Townsend to Ketchikan).
  01:49:36
• At 55 he says he is happier than he has ever been, with each year getting better.
  02:27:15

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