Shawn Ryan
Appearances
Shawn Ryan Show
#151 Joe Lonsdale - The AI-Driven EMP Weapon Built to Destroy New Jersey Drone Swarms
Right on, man. There's a lot of money at stake here for those companies, Raytheon, Lockheed, Northrop Grumman, companies like that.
Shawn Ryan Show
#151 Joe Lonsdale - The AI-Driven EMP Weapon Built to Destroy New Jersey Drone Swarms
Does that make sense? It does make sense. It does make sense. All right, let's break from warfare for a second and let's rewind. Let's go back to your life story. Where did you grow up? Grew up in Fremont, California, the East Bay, near Silicon Valley.
Shawn Ryan Show
#151 Joe Lonsdale - The AI-Driven EMP Weapon Built to Destroy New Jersey Drone Swarms
Who's the best chess player in the family?
Shawn Ryan Show
#151 Joe Lonsdale - The AI-Driven EMP Weapon Built to Destroy New Jersey Drone Swarms
You're a Stanford-educated visionary who co-founded Palantir Technologies, a company that's become synonymous with big data and analytics, helping governments and businesses worldwide to make smarter, more informed decisions. After Palantir, you ventured into the world of finance and founded Adipar. revolutionizing how wealth management works, making it transparent and data-driven.
Shawn Ryan Show
#151 Joe Lonsdale - The AI-Driven EMP Weapon Built to Destroy New Jersey Drone Swarms
Nice, nice. What kind of games were you into?
Shawn Ryan Show
#151 Joe Lonsdale - The AI-Driven EMP Weapon Built to Destroy New Jersey Drone Swarms
How old are you?
Shawn Ryan Show
#151 Joe Lonsdale - The AI-Driven EMP Weapon Built to Destroy New Jersey Drone Swarms
Okay, so same age. So yeah, you grew up with Nintendo. Nintendo, Super Nintendo. Right on. Yeah, all that kind of stuff. Right on. What got you so interested in tech?
Shawn Ryan Show
#151 Joe Lonsdale - The AI-Driven EMP Weapon Built to Destroy New Jersey Drone Swarms
No kidding. Yeah. What was it like, I mean, I don't remember what it was like back then, but Peter Thiel, Elon Musk, Sachs, Reid Hoffman, I mean, were these big names in the space?
Shawn Ryan Show
#151 Joe Lonsdale - The AI-Driven EMP Weapon Built to Destroy New Jersey Drone Swarms
Of the nine U.S. defense unicorns, billion-dollar companies, you founded three and were one of the earliest investors in another three. You're deeply invested in education reform. You co-founded Cicero, an organization dedicated to advancing educational opportunities and policy to transform lives and societies.
Shawn Ryan Show
#151 Joe Lonsdale - The AI-Driven EMP Weapon Built to Destroy New Jersey Drone Swarms
It's good to have you in there. After PayPal, you went on to build in social media. What were you doing in there?
Shawn Ryan Show
#151 Joe Lonsdale - The AI-Driven EMP Weapon Built to Destroy New Jersey Drone Swarms
What caught your interest in national security? It sounds like you made a switch there.
Shawn Ryan Show
#151 Joe Lonsdale - The AI-Driven EMP Weapon Built to Destroy New Jersey Drone Swarms
I don't remember that at all. How long did it take you guys to solve that problem?
Shawn Ryan Show
#151 Joe Lonsdale - The AI-Driven EMP Weapon Built to Destroy New Jersey Drone Swarms
Your influence extends into policy with your involvement in 8VC, a venture capital firm that doesn't just fund startups, it pushes for policies that encourage innovation. You've been an advisor to leading political figures, advocating for a future where technology and policy work hand in hand to solve our biggest challenges.
Shawn Ryan Show
#151 Joe Lonsdale - The AI-Driven EMP Weapon Built to Destroy New Jersey Drone Swarms
From a layman's term, it seems like it helps predict
Shawn Ryan Show
#151 Joe Lonsdale - The AI-Driven EMP Weapon Built to Destroy New Jersey Drone Swarms
You shape the ideas of the future with your op-eds and articles that often delve into intersection of tech, policy, and culture. You're a father of five kids. You just had your first son, and you've been married for eight years. Yep, that's right. Congratulations on your son. Thank you, Sean. He's not a second percentile. He's a big little baby. Yeah? Nice. Healthy boy, huh? Yeah. Well...
Shawn Ryan Show
#151 Joe Lonsdale - The AI-Driven EMP Weapon Built to Destroy New Jersey Drone Swarms
100%.
Shawn Ryan Show
#151 Joe Lonsdale - The AI-Driven EMP Weapon Built to Destroy New Jersey Drone Swarms
man that's uh that's great to hear i don't have much trust in anybody in government but um there's some good ones every once in a while who really care and you just gotta partner with those you know becoming one of the top serial entrepreneurs in the 2000s i mean what are some what are some lessons learned you know when it comes to building companies you know
Shawn Ryan Show
#151 Joe Lonsdale - The AI-Driven EMP Weapon Built to Destroy New Jersey Drone Swarms
I didn't ask this about your childhood, but I'm curious. Did you grow up in a fairly wealthy household?
Shawn Ryan Show
#151 Joe Lonsdale - The AI-Driven EMP Weapon Built to Destroy New Jersey Drone Swarms
Joe, I want to do a, I want to do a life story on you starting from childhood and get into all of your different companies and involvement, uh, with different things that you're in. But, um, but it just so happens that, uh, you know, I've been super interested in your company, Epirus. And, uh, I've had several conversations with your business partner, Grant for standing and, um, and, uh, love him.
Shawn Ryan Show
#151 Joe Lonsdale - The AI-Driven EMP Weapon Built to Destroy New Jersey Drone Swarms
How did you... How did you get going? You're talking about lessons learned and basically what you're saying is hire the best tech people there are. How were you able to find the capital to afford to bring that in?
Shawn Ryan Show
#151 Joe Lonsdale - The AI-Driven EMP Weapon Built to Destroy New Jersey Drone Swarms
Wow. What kind of percentage of ownership are your shares like?
Shawn Ryan Show
#151 Joe Lonsdale - The AI-Driven EMP Weapon Built to Destroy New Jersey Drone Swarms
Wow. How long did it take you to start? I mean, was there a turning point?
Shawn Ryan Show
#151 Joe Lonsdale - The AI-Driven EMP Weapon Built to Destroy New Jersey Drone Swarms
Man, that's super inspiring. So from Palantir, what was next for you?
Shawn Ryan Show
#151 Joe Lonsdale - The AI-Driven EMP Weapon Built to Destroy New Jersey Drone Swarms
Amazing guy. But, uh, We got a situation going on literally right now in New Jersey with all these drones, and nobody seems to know what it is. So I just want to kind of start the interview right there. What the hell do you think these drones are? This is funny.
Shawn Ryan Show
#151 Joe Lonsdale - The AI-Driven EMP Weapon Built to Destroy New Jersey Drone Swarms
Very interesting. Very interesting. We're talking about all things pretty much AI. What is powering all this stuff? Because AI takes a tremendous amount of energy, from what I understand.
Shawn Ryan Show
#151 Joe Lonsdale - The AI-Driven EMP Weapon Built to Destroy New Jersey Drone Swarms
Do you know anybody that's working with cold fusion?
Shawn Ryan Show
#151 Joe Lonsdale - The AI-Driven EMP Weapon Built to Destroy New Jersey Drone Swarms
Can you go into a little bit of that? Because I don't think people understand why... cheaper energy would really help the economy and middle-class, lower-class homes. Oh, yeah. I mean, this is the cost of everything.
Shawn Ryan Show
#151 Joe Lonsdale - The AI-Driven EMP Weapon Built to Destroy New Jersey Drone Swarms
It was like two years ago, we're freaking out about a spy balloon traversing the United States from Washington all the way down to South Carolina.
Shawn Ryan Show
#151 Joe Lonsdale - The AI-Driven EMP Weapon Built to Destroy New Jersey Drone Swarms
Do you think that big oil and gas lobbyists have something to do with it?
Shawn Ryan Show
#151 Joe Lonsdale - The AI-Driven EMP Weapon Built to Destroy New Jersey Drone Swarms
I'm hoping. I mean, a lot of people, me included, are very concerned about our power grid. Yeah. And so I would like to kind of hang out on this subject for a little bit. Sure. A lot of people are seeing rolling blackouts. The power grid structure is extremely outdated. It's old. It doesn't seem like it's getting updated anytime soon. How much is our outdated power grid holding us back?
Shawn Ryan Show
#151 Joe Lonsdale - The AI-Driven EMP Weapon Built to Destroy New Jersey Drone Swarms
Are you concerned that China manufactures a lot of our energy equipment?
Shawn Ryan Show
#151 Joe Lonsdale - The AI-Driven EMP Weapon Built to Destroy New Jersey Drone Swarms
That makes a lot of sense to me. Where do we start with updating the grid? We're talking everything from power lines to power plants to transformers.
Shawn Ryan Show
#151 Joe Lonsdale - The AI-Driven EMP Weapon Built to Destroy New Jersey Drone Swarms
Exclusive merch and more. Join us and become a patron starting at just $5 a month by visiting patreon.com slash vigilance elite. That's patreon.com slash vigilance elite. Thank you for listening to The Sean Ryan Show. If you haven't already, please take a minute, head over to iTunes, and leave The Sean Ryan Show a review.
Shawn Ryan Show
#151 Joe Lonsdale - The AI-Driven EMP Weapon Built to Destroy New Jersey Drone Swarms
We read every review that comes through, and we really appreciate the support. Thank you. Let's get back to the show. All right, Joe, we're back from the break. We had a little side conversation about the incoming administration, and we're both pretty fired up about it. Who are you most excited about? Do you have anybody in particular?
Shawn Ryan Show
#151 Joe Lonsdale - The AI-Driven EMP Weapon Built to Destroy New Jersey Drone Swarms
I mean, how fast do you think they're going to start cleaning this stuff up?
Shawn Ryan Show
#151 Joe Lonsdale - The AI-Driven EMP Weapon Built to Destroy New Jersey Drone Swarms
I mean, where do you think they're going to start? You think they'll go from agency to agency? Will they do it in sections or will it be all one big sweep at different stages?
Shawn Ryan Show
#151 Joe Lonsdale - The AI-Driven EMP Weapon Built to Destroy New Jersey Drone Swarms
I assume it's ours because if it's not, that's insane. Why wouldn't they fly this over Area 51 or some testing grounds?
Shawn Ryan Show
#151 Joe Lonsdale - The AI-Driven EMP Weapon Built to Destroy New Jersey Drone Swarms
Yeah, I'm ecstatic that Cash got in there. I think he is going to do a phenomenal job. What do you think about Chris Wray resigning? Why do you think he did that? I think these guys are probably afraid at this point.
Shawn Ryan Show
#151 Joe Lonsdale - The AI-Driven EMP Weapon Built to Destroy New Jersey Drone Swarms
Do you think we're going to see some mass pardons?
Shawn Ryan Show
#151 Joe Lonsdale - The AI-Driven EMP Weapon Built to Destroy New Jersey Drone Swarms
I've never thought of that. Interesting. Well, let's move back into... I know we already talked a lot about Epirus, but I'm just fascinated with the subject. So how did that even pop up on your radar? What was going through your head when it started?
Shawn Ryan Show
#151 Joe Lonsdale - The AI-Driven EMP Weapon Built to Destroy New Jersey Drone Swarms
Yeah.
Shawn Ryan Show
#151 Joe Lonsdale - The AI-Driven EMP Weapon Built to Destroy New Jersey Drone Swarms
Do you think this might be a distraction? From something going on in the Middle East? I don't know, maybe some... Some bad juju's going on somewhere else and they're just throwing these things up to distract everybody.
Shawn Ryan Show
#151 Joe Lonsdale - The AI-Driven EMP Weapon Built to Destroy New Jersey Drone Swarms
So what would you point the weapon at? If you wanted to take out a, could you take out a city?
Shawn Ryan Show
#151 Joe Lonsdale - The AI-Driven EMP Weapon Built to Destroy New Jersey Drone Swarms
What other type of stuff are these things going to be deployed on? Naval ships, I would assume.
Shawn Ryan Show
#151 Joe Lonsdale - The AI-Driven EMP Weapon Built to Destroy New Jersey Drone Swarms
Well, I mean... Drone warfare is becoming obviously very prevalent. Absolutely critical.
Shawn Ryan Show
#151 Joe Lonsdale - The AI-Driven EMP Weapon Built to Destroy New Jersey Drone Swarms
100%.
Shawn Ryan Show
#151 Joe Lonsdale - The AI-Driven EMP Weapon Built to Destroy New Jersey Drone Swarms
So, you know, people... One of the reasons I'm bringing this up is obviously I'm just extremely curious of what your thoughts are. But another reason is, I mean... You know, I've been reading reports on CNN. People are posting the neighborhood watch groups and the Facebook groups and stuff, and people are, they're freaking out. And what I find,
Shawn Ryan Show
#151 Joe Lonsdale - The AI-Driven EMP Weapon Built to Destroy New Jersey Drone Swarms
You had mentioned that Lockheed, Raytheon, Boeing, these companies, the big guys, you guys are underneath them. Do you see that flipping?
Shawn Ryan Show
#151 Joe Lonsdale - The AI-Driven EMP Weapon Built to Destroy New Jersey Drone Swarms
You know, you had mentioned Facebook kicking him out because of a billboard. What do you think about Zuckerberg trying to get in with the conservative crowd? It's pretty interesting to watch the, you know, I mean, well, four years ago you kicked the president off your platform. Now you want to buddy up? Yeah. What's going on here?
Shawn Ryan Show
#151 Joe Lonsdale - The AI-Driven EMP Weapon Built to Destroy New Jersey Drone Swarms
Yeah, I see what you're saying. So you're basically saying he wasn't necessarily the catalyst, but he... He wasn't the George Soros.
Shawn Ryan Show
#151 Joe Lonsdale - The AI-Driven EMP Weapon Built to Destroy New Jersey Drone Swarms
probably isn't a coincidence because I believe in a higher power, but you have, you founded Epirus. And Epirus is a directed energy, basically a directed EMP weapon. And it is, I mean, it seems to me from the reading I've done on it, it's... It's defense against drones.
Shawn Ryan Show
#151 Joe Lonsdale - The AI-Driven EMP Weapon Built to Destroy New Jersey Drone Swarms
You're obviously a major player in tech as well. How have you kept that rot out of your companies? Yeah, you got to.
Shawn Ryan Show
#151 Joe Lonsdale - The AI-Driven EMP Weapon Built to Destroy New Jersey Drone Swarms
That's a great way to put it. That's a great way to put it. Back to the future of warfare. I mean, what are some things that other countries are getting involved in that concern you?
Shawn Ryan Show
#151 Joe Lonsdale - The AI-Driven EMP Weapon Built to Destroy New Jersey Drone Swarms
Shit. That wasn't even on my radar. What about technology? Are you worried about, is China developing anything that you're aware of that we should be concerned about? Or does Russia have any technology that they overplayed their hand, maybe?
Shawn Ryan Show
#151 Joe Lonsdale - The AI-Driven EMP Weapon Built to Destroy New Jersey Drone Swarms
Wow. Is there anything else you're aware of going on? I mean, that's fascinating in itself.
Shawn Ryan Show
#151 Joe Lonsdale - The AI-Driven EMP Weapon Built to Destroy New Jersey Drone Swarms
That space thing blows my mind. I mean, if that happens, we're not up there already. And with that one meter thing, when you had mentioned you could stop anything else from coming up there, I mean, that right there is global domination.
Shawn Ryan Show
#151 Joe Lonsdale - The AI-Driven EMP Weapon Built to Destroy New Jersey Drone Swarms
Wow. That's fascinating. Let's go into Seronic.
Shawn Ryan Show
#151 Joe Lonsdale - The AI-Driven EMP Weapon Built to Destroy New Jersey Drone Swarms
Man, you are involved in so many things. How about Anduril? Did I pronounce that correctly?
Shawn Ryan Show
#151 Joe Lonsdale - The AI-Driven EMP Weapon Built to Destroy New Jersey Drone Swarms
100%.
Shawn Ryan Show
#151 Joe Lonsdale - The AI-Driven EMP Weapon Built to Destroy New Jersey Drone Swarms
Yeah, yeah. Let's move into... Let's move into fighting for Western civilization and your efforts to combat, basically, wokeness. Yeah. When did you start doing that?
Shawn Ryan Show
#151 Joe Lonsdale - The AI-Driven EMP Weapon Built to Destroy New Jersey Drone Swarms
This is the thing to do right now?
Shawn Ryan Show
#151 Joe Lonsdale - The AI-Driven EMP Weapon Built to Destroy New Jersey Drone Swarms
And when I think of Black Lives Matter, I think of burning towns down.
Shawn Ryan Show
#151 Joe Lonsdale - The AI-Driven EMP Weapon Built to Destroy New Jersey Drone Swarms
What is the magazine?
Shawn Ryan Show
#151 Joe Lonsdale - The AI-Driven EMP Weapon Built to Destroy New Jersey Drone Swarms
Man, man.
Shawn Ryan Show
#151 Joe Lonsdale - The AI-Driven EMP Weapon Built to Destroy New Jersey Drone Swarms
I mean, it seems like you guys are getting a lot of interest in there. I saw it was on 60 Minutes. What is the media saying? It sounds like there's a lot of trolls.
Shawn Ryan Show
#151 Joe Lonsdale - The AI-Driven EMP Weapon Built to Destroy New Jersey Drone Swarms
Man, I love it. I love it. Let's move into the Cicero Institute. Yeah. What is it? Cicero Institute is our policy group.
Shawn Ryan Show
#151 Joe Lonsdale - The AI-Driven EMP Weapon Built to Destroy New Jersey Drone Swarms
Amazing.
Shawn Ryan Show
#151 Joe Lonsdale - The AI-Driven EMP Weapon Built to Destroy New Jersey Drone Swarms
Joe Lonsdale, welcome to the show. Thanks, Sean. Glad to be here. Man, I am super excited to talk to you. I've been following what you've been doing and a lot of your different companies for a while now, and... I know you're a busy guy, and I just want to say it's an honor to have you here.
Shawn Ryan Show
#151 Joe Lonsdale - The AI-Driven EMP Weapon Built to Destroy New Jersey Drone Swarms
No.
Shawn Ryan Show
#151 Joe Lonsdale - The AI-Driven EMP Weapon Built to Destroy New Jersey Drone Swarms
That's amazing. That's amazing to hear. I also see you're involved in trying to fix the prison and parole systems.
Shawn Ryan Show
#151 Joe Lonsdale - The AI-Driven EMP Weapon Built to Destroy New Jersey Drone Swarms
What else are you working on? That's a lot. I don't know. That's fun, man. I mean, how do you... You're involved in so many things. You've got five kids, you're married. I mean, how do you manage both the tech companies, the University of Austin, everything that you're involved in? How do you?
Shawn Ryan Show
#151 Joe Lonsdale - The AI-Driven EMP Weapon Built to Destroy New Jersey Drone Swarms
How do you recruit them? I'm curious because I'm trying to build my company out and I have no business sense.
Shawn Ryan Show
#151 Joe Lonsdale - The AI-Driven EMP Weapon Built to Destroy New Jersey Drone Swarms
Right on, man. Right on. Do you have anything particular, one of your ventures that you're the most excited about?
Shawn Ryan Show
#151 Joe Lonsdale - The AI-Driven EMP Weapon Built to Destroy New Jersey Drone Swarms
So how many... How many drones could one of these, what do you call the actual weapon? Is it Leonidas?
Shawn Ryan Show
#151 Joe Lonsdale - The AI-Driven EMP Weapon Built to Destroy New Jersey Drone Swarms
congratulations you're doing just phenomenal things not only for the country but for the world and well i'm honored to be part of this stuff that all these other amazing people are doing too that i get to invest in and get to back and try to help because our man we live in an awesome civilization there's so many smart people doing so many great things here and we should be more positive about that you know i'm i am uh i'm just honored to have you here and and i'm so thankful that we met that you're an amazing human being who are three people you'd like to see on this show
Shawn Ryan Show
#151 Joe Lonsdale - The AI-Driven EMP Weapon Built to Destroy New Jersey Drone Swarms
At some point, you've got to get Elon on, of course.
Shawn Ryan Show
#151 Joe Lonsdale - The AI-Driven EMP Weapon Built to Destroy New Jersey Drone Swarms
I'll let him know. But, Joe, it was seriously, it was an honor to have you here, and I hope to see you again. I really do. Thank you, son. Thank you.
Shawn Ryan Show
#151 Joe Lonsdale - The AI-Driven EMP Weapon Built to Destroy New Jersey Drone Swarms
Wow. Wow. I'm just... So that gives us hope. So basically, all these drones in New Jersey, if we wanted to, they could deploy a Leonidas. Take it down that way.
Shawn Ryan Show
#151 Joe Lonsdale - The AI-Driven EMP Weapon Built to Destroy New Jersey Drone Swarms
Yeah, I mean, we just, I had a former CIA targeter in here just a couple days ago. We just released the interview now and actually yesterday. And she's talking about, you know, there are at least 1,000 very well-trained terrorists within our borders right now.
Shawn Ryan Show
#151 Joe Lonsdale - The AI-Driven EMP Weapon Built to Destroy New Jersey Drone Swarms
You're involved in so much with technology, and also I love what you're doing with the University of Austin. I'd love to hit on that, but I really appreciate you coming, and I've been looking forward to diving into this for a long time. I'm excited to be here. It's an honor to be on the show. Thank you. Thank you.
Shawn Ryan Show
#151 Joe Lonsdale - The AI-Driven EMP Weapon Built to Destroy New Jersey Drone Swarms
Do you think that they want something to happen for a particular reason? to start a war? It's possible. I mean, if they come in... Yeah, it's possible. And do another terrorist attack, then we go right back to war. That spins up the military-industrial complex.
Shawn Ryan Show
#151 Joe Lonsdale - The AI-Driven EMP Weapon Built to Destroy New Jersey Drone Swarms
Yeah, you know, that's one of the things, that's one of the things I love about what you're doing is, you know, with the traditional military industrial complex companies, you know, we're shooting down $500 drones with million-dollar missiles. It's crazy, man.
Shawn Ryan Show
#151 Joe Lonsdale - The AI-Driven EMP Weapon Built to Destroy New Jersey Drone Swarms
With a company like what you have, Epirus, it's not that way. It's an energy weapon.
Shawn Ryan Show
#151 Joe Lonsdale - The AI-Driven EMP Weapon Built to Destroy New Jersey Drone Swarms
But everybody starts off with an introduction and we could go on for probably an hour here, but I tried to summarize it up here. Joe Lonsdale, you're a real titan of industry and innovation, a man whose journey from Silicon Valley to the halls of policymaking reads like a modern-day epic.
Shawn Ryan Show
#151 Joe Lonsdale - The AI-Driven EMP Weapon Built to Destroy New Jersey Drone Swarms
For those guys, that's funny.
Shawn Ryan Show
#150 Rick Ross - Inside the Dark World of Cults
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Shawn Ryan Show
#150 Rick Ross - Inside the Dark World of Cults
You know, it seems like the commonality behind a lot of these is manipulating Christianity.
Shawn Ryan Show
#150 Rick Ross - Inside the Dark World of Cults
Are there any cults that you, any newer ones that you have your eye on right now?
Shawn Ryan Show
#150 Rick Ross - Inside the Dark World of Cults
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Shawn Ryan Show
#150 Rick Ross - Inside the Dark World of Cults
Well, I'm sure this show will help out with that.
Shawn Ryan Show
#150 Rick Ross - Inside the Dark World of Cults
Well, Rick, we're wrapping up here, and I just want to say thank you for coming on. That was a fascinating conversation. And I got to be honest, I totally wasn't expecting you to know about the yellow deli. I cannot wait to get home and tell my wife about that. What was it, the 12? 12 tribes.
Shawn Ryan Show
#150 Rick Ross - Inside the Dark World of Cults
She's going to be... We've been talking about this for seven years. And to just have you just go, the yellow deli, I was... Wow. Just goes to show you, these places, I mean, Pulaski, Tennessee is a, you and me are probably the only ones that have ever heard of it that are watching this.
Shawn Ryan Show
#150 Rick Ross - Inside the Dark World of Cults
Very interesting. What I was getting at is Pulaski is a very, very small town. And so it's, you know, there's... I guess they just pop up anywhere.
Shawn Ryan Show
#150 Rick Ross - Inside the Dark World of Cults
It's not far from here. It's only about 45 minutes south of here. So if you want to go grab a bite. No thanks. I'm just kidding. But Rick, it was a pleasure interviewing you. I really appreciate it.
Shawn Ryan Show
#150 Rick Ross - Inside the Dark World of Cults
Yeah, yeah. Well, I'm going to kick it off with an introduction.
Shawn Ryan Show
#150 Rick Ross - Inside the Dark World of Cults
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Shawn Ryan Show
#150 Rick Ross - Inside the Dark World of Cults
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Shawn Ryan Show
#150 Rick Ross - Inside the Dark World of Cults
So Rick Allen Ross, you are a globally recognized expert on the inner workings of destructive cults, controversial groups, as well as subversive movements. You have been qualified, accepted, and testified as a court expert in 13 states, including the United States Federal Court.
Shawn Ryan Show
#150 Rick Ross - Inside the Dark World of Cults
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Shawn Ryan Show
#150 Rick Ross - Inside the Dark World of Cults
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Shawn Ryan Show
#150 Rick Ross - Inside the Dark World of Cults
He has a son, and you're describing this perfectly. It's almost like It's almost like there's a textbook out there or something on how to do it. They've lied to the kid. They've turned him completely against him. His family has disowned him. It's really sad to see it happen.
Shawn Ryan Show
#150 Rick Ross - Inside the Dark World of Cults
Since 1982, you've been studying, researching, and responding to problems often posed by controversial authoritarian groups and movements. You've intervened in more than 500 deprogramming cases in various countries. You were the only deprogrammer to work with members of the Branch Davidsons prior to the Waco siege.
Shawn Ryan Show
#150 Rick Ross - Inside the Dark World of Cults
That seems to be a commonality in a lot of these cultish and cult-type organizations. What is the, why do they, I mean, when they recruit somebody into a cult, I don't know the percentage, but it has to be like 99% of people realize that molesting children is pure evil. So when you get a cult, like, Jehovah's Witness or an authoritarian organization? A destructive authoritarian organization.
Shawn Ryan Show
#150 Rick Ross - Inside the Dark World of Cults
How do they manipulate somebody off the street who knows sexual abuse and exploitation of children is wrong? How do they get them to look the other way?
Shawn Ryan Show
#150 Rick Ross - Inside the Dark World of Cults
You've been called upon as an expert, resourced by law enforcement, including the BATF, FBI, and United States Justice Department. You also have been a guest lecturer at many universities, including Penn, Carnegie Mellon, and the University of Chicago. You are the executive director of the Colt Education Institute, author of the book, Colt's Inside Out, How People Get In and Can Get Out.
Shawn Ryan Show
#150 Rick Ross - Inside the Dark World of Cults
I mean, what is... So how do they... We're going to get into this a lot more, but just for a frame of reference, I mean, how, what is the, do they have an explanation on why they need to molest and exploit kids sexually inside that cult?
Shawn Ryan Show
#150 Rick Ross - Inside the Dark World of Cults
Your reputation has led you to becoming a paid consultant for CBS, CBC, and Nippon of Japan Television Networks, as well as retained a technical consultant for both Miramax and Disney Film Studios. GQ Magazine identified you as America's leading cult expert, and Britain's FHM Magazine named you America's number one cult buster. You previously worked as an expert consultant
Shawn Ryan Show
#150 Rick Ross - Inside the Dark World of Cults
Man. What are some of the most prevalent cults today?
Shawn Ryan Show
#150 Rick Ross - Inside the Dark World of Cults
for Ubisoft in the creation of the very popular video game Far Cry 5. Quite the intro. Thank you. Very interesting career. I am curious, what got you so interested in cults?
Shawn Ryan Show
#150 Rick Ross - Inside the Dark World of Cults
You know, when you say, I want to explore Scientology for a little bit, but when the leader of a cult says, when the torch gets passed, how do they, how's that person selected?
Shawn Ryan Show
#150 Rick Ross - Inside the Dark World of Cults
So what is the basis of Scientology?
Shawn Ryan Show
#150 Rick Ross - Inside the Dark World of Cults
I've heard a lot of rumors about people that have tried to escape this, that have been blocked away, kind of kidnapped. What do you make of this? Is that true?
Shawn Ryan Show
#150 Rick Ross - Inside the Dark World of Cults
How long could somebody be locked down?
Shawn Ryan Show
#150 Rick Ross - Inside the Dark World of Cults
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Shawn Ryan Show
#150 Rick Ross - Inside the Dark World of Cults
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Shawn Ryan Show
#150 Rick Ross - Inside the Dark World of Cults
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Shawn Ryan Show
#150 Rick Ross - Inside the Dark World of Cults
What's it like for you as a deprogrammer when you see the epiphany happen?
Shawn Ryan Show
#150 Rick Ross - Inside the Dark World of Cults
Back to the Scientology stuff. You had mentioned that the reeducation process can be extremely harsh. What kind of stuff are they doing?
Shawn Ryan Show
#150 Rick Ross - Inside the Dark World of Cults
That's, I mean, is there... Is there any proof of this? Or is it all kind of, because you keep seeing words like allegedly and reports of and stuff like that. Has there ever been a wellness check by police or a federal law enforcement agency on this?
Shawn Ryan Show
#150 Rick Ross - Inside the Dark World of Cults
Speaking of the brainwashing stuff, how does the thought reform or brainwashing, how do they start that process? Can we just go through the whole thing?
Shawn Ryan Show
#150 Rick Ross - Inside the Dark World of Cults
It's sneaky. And we'll get into that. A couple of things I have to knock out before we get too into the weeds, and I can't wait to do that. But I have a subscription account on Patreon. They are our top supporters, always have been, and they're the reason I get to do this and that you get to be here as well. And so I offer them the opportunity to ask each guest a question.
Shawn Ryan Show
#150 Rick Ross - Inside the Dark World of Cults
Fascinating stuff. Rick, let's take a quick break. And when we come back, I want to dive into NXIVM. Oh, okay. Perfect. Well, it's that time of year again. The holiday season is officially here, and we've got an amazing holiday offer from my partners at one of the top-rated precious metal companies, Gold Co. You can get up to $15,000 in bonus silver, possibly more on qualified orders.
Shawn Ryan Show
#150 Rick Ross - Inside the Dark World of Cults
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Shawn Ryan Show
#150 Rick Ross - Inside the Dark World of Cults
See if you qualify for this amazing holiday offer by going to SeanLikesGold.com. That's SeanLikesGold.com. Enjoy the holidays with Gold Co. Performance may vary. Consult with your tax attorney or financial professional before making an investment decision. With every holiday season, the year ends and a new one begins. And that's when I really see how much my kids have grown.
Shawn Ryan Show
#150 Rick Ross - Inside the Dark World of Cults
And so this one came in from Brandon White, and he wants to know, how can individuals protect themselves and their loved ones from falling victim to these groups? We're going to get into that a little bit later. So I'm going to change the question just a little bit because we are going to cover this.
Shawn Ryan Show
#150 Rick Ross - Inside the Dark World of Cults
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Shawn Ryan Show
#150 Rick Ross - Inside the Dark World of Cults
That's meetfabric.com slash sean. Policies issued by Western Southern Life Assurance Company not available in certain states. Prices subject to underwriting and health questions. All right, Rick, we're back from the break and we're getting ready to dive into NXIVM, which I know you had a big part in, not in the cult, but deprogramming and getting involved with some court stuff.
Shawn Ryan Show
#150 Rick Ross - Inside the Dark World of Cults
So could you go into that a little bit?
Shawn Ryan Show
#150 Rick Ross - Inside the Dark World of Cults
What are a few things that, what are just a couple of quick identifiers for somebody who might think that they would be, they're being recruited by a cult? What are some quick identifiers?
Shawn Ryan Show
#150 Rick Ross - Inside the Dark World of Cults
How many women are out there with his initials branded on them?
Shawn Ryan Show
#150 Rick Ross - Inside the Dark World of Cults
It's interesting to see the type of people that they're able to manipulate into their agenda and spread that type of gossip or rhetoric. But back to the cult within a cult, the sex slaves. So are these actual sex slaves or are they voluntary slaves?
Shawn Ryan Show
#150 Rick Ross - Inside the Dark World of Cults
I mean, what kind of secrets are we talking about here?
Shawn Ryan Show
#150 Rick Ross - Inside the Dark World of Cults
How many women are we talking about here in this secret cult inside the cult?
Shawn Ryan Show
#150 Rick Ross - Inside the Dark World of Cults
How early does that kind of happen? Does that happen early on, or is that they ease people into it?
Shawn Ryan Show
#150 Rick Ross - Inside the Dark World of Cults
What kind of thought reform techniques would he use?
Shawn Ryan Show
#150 Rick Ross - Inside the Dark World of Cults
Rick Ross, welcome to the show. Nice to be here, Sean. It's a pleasure to have you.
Shawn Ryan Show
#150 Rick Ross - Inside the Dark World of Cults
You know, it's interesting. All these cult leaders seem to go, from what you're saying, off the same playbook. Where... is that playbook? Where's the model from?
Shawn Ryan Show
#150 Rick Ross - Inside the Dark World of Cults
I mean, if they were in a cult and then started, would they have deprogrammed themselves?
Shawn Ryan Show
#150 Rick Ross - Inside the Dark World of Cults
Next thing, everybody that comes on the show gets a gift. Thank you. You're welcome. I don't know if you got any guesses. Well. Oh, gummy bears. Those are Vigilance League gummy bears. All right. Made right here in the USA. Legal in all 50 states. Fortunately or maybe unfortunately for you, I don't know. But yeah, let's get on with it. So I have one of the...
Shawn Ryan Show
#150 Rick Ross - Inside the Dark World of Cults
What's the fastest you've seen one of these cults hit traction, growed.
Shawn Ryan Show
#150 Rick Ross - Inside the Dark World of Cults
One of the gentlemen on my team, he actually edits all of the episodes, all the show stuff, grew up in the Jehovah Witness community. And he is, what he likes to say, escaped that community. He calls it a cult.
Shawn Ryan Show
#150 Rick Ross - Inside the Dark World of Cults
What kind of stuff goes on in group housing?
Shawn Ryan Show
#150 Rick Ross - Inside the Dark World of Cults
So I've been looking into taking a peek into secret societies and cults and kind of stuff like this. And you came across our radar, and it sounds like you are the expert in cults and kind of deprogramming people out of these things. Yes. I'm just really fascinated in the subject, and this is the first interview that I'm diving into the subject, and I'm just really happy you're here.
Shawn Ryan Show
#150 Rick Ross - Inside the Dark World of Cults
And, you know, some of the stuff that he has to say about what he's been through and kind of our discussion on the way here from your hotel, I was telling you, you know, his family has totally abandoned him. He doesn't talk to – it's just there's so many things that are fascinating to me about what they go through. And you had kind of mentioned that they have kind of moved away from the cult –
Shawn Ryan Show
#150 Rick Ross - Inside the Dark World of Cults
I would imagine there's quite a bit of pushback at the beginning.
Shawn Ryan Show
#150 Rick Ross - Inside the Dark World of Cults
Interesting. You know, I've seen a couple of people things in surrounding areas here one of them I want I remember when I first moved to Tennessee me and my wife went to this restaurant and it was the it was in this place called Pulaski Tennessee and we went into this restaurant and it was uh I don't know any other way to describe it other than very, very hippie-like.
Shawn Ryan Show
#150 Rick Ross - Inside the Dark World of Cults
And it was a lot of like falafel, vegetarian, stuff like that. But that's not what I'm getting at. What I'm getting at is the minute we entered And it was before we actually moved here. We were looking for a place to live, and we had checked this town out, and this was the only restaurant still open. And we walked in, and immediately it was just a weird vibe in there.
Shawn Ryan Show
#150 Rick Ross - Inside the Dark World of Cults
I don't know, from the cult, uh... It sounds like they're not as much of a cult as they used to be. Am I correct?
Shawn Ryan Show
#150 Rick Ross - Inside the Dark World of Cults
Exclusive merch and more. Join us and become a patron starting at just $5 a month by visiting patreon.com slash vigilance elite. That's patreon.com slash vigilance elite. That is, I'm so glad I brought this up. That was about seven years ago. We sat down, our waiter came up and it was immediate. I was like, something's going on in here. And my wife picked up on it immediately as well.
Shawn Ryan Show
#150 Rick Ross - Inside the Dark World of Cults
So we started questioning the waiter and asking, I can't even remember what the conversation until, but I do, this is what I remember. He would always refer to the leaders of the cult as the authority. The authority is not gonna like this. The authority wants us to do this. And he was talking about all these different restaurants. And I'd asked him, you know, how do you know where you're going?
Shawn Ryan Show
#150 Rick Ross - Inside the Dark World of Cults
He goes, well, the authority lets us know where we're going. And he would go, you know, get another drink or whatever. And I'd look at my wife like, the authority? Like, what the hell is this? What's going on in here? And we never went back. Yeah.
Shawn Ryan Show
#150 Rick Ross - Inside the Dark World of Cults
To my editor, the guy that edits the show, he talks about I talk to him all the time about this stuff, and he does. He talks about when he left Jehovah's Witnesses. Is that what he said, Jehovah's Witnesses? When he left, I mean, he still says it. He's like, it's like I'm still trying to learn how to live like a normal life. He's like, I've never celebrated a birthday.
Shawn Ryan Show
#150 Rick Ross - Inside the Dark World of Cults
I've never celebrated a Christmas. He's any of that stuff. And he's like, there's just so many things that I don't know that are normal in society that I have. He's still trying to figure out what's normal and abnormal. And it's, wow, wow.
Shawn Ryan Show
#150 Rick Ross - Inside the Dark World of Cults
I find it very interesting how when you're talking about mothers and fathers who are giving up their kids inside these cults or when we're talking about the Yellow Deli crew and these people are working for room and board and that's it. I mean, how do you get a graduate from...
Shawn Ryan Show
#150 Rick Ross - Inside the Dark World of Cults
I mean, how do you get an anesthesiologist who's making half a million a year, maybe more, maybe millions a year, to join a cult and give all of that up for room and board? I mean, what does that conversation look like?
Shawn Ryan Show
#150 Rick Ross - Inside the Dark World of Cults
Wow. Wow. When it comes back to... You know, giving up everything for peanuts. Let's talk about, I mean, what are the conversations like when a woman gives up her children in a cult? That has to be some serious program to overtake Mother Nature's instinct of these are my kids.
Shawn Ryan Show
#150 Rick Ross - Inside the Dark World of Cults
Can we, wow, can we go into the Waco incident a little bit? What was that cult about?
Shawn Ryan Show
#150 Rick Ross - Inside the Dark World of Cults
When I started podcasting, I had no idea how to run an online business or where to get started. I tried several different companies to get my web store up and running, and they were all confusing. Then I found Shopify. Now my online store runs smoother than ever. I love how easy Shopify is to set up. It's flexible, powerful, and helps me grow my business.
The Joe Rogan Experience
#2207 - Shawn Ryan
You quit right before they talked about the 10 person sex parties.
The Joe Rogan Experience
#2207 - Shawn Ryan
Oh, yeah. I was going to compare it to special ops. That guy doesn't know shit. I know, you know, that's kind of how.
The Joe Rogan Experience
#2207 - Shawn Ryan
A lot of people are. I mean, it's crazy. It's like everything you knew is just flipped upside down.
The Joe Rogan Experience
#2207 - Shawn Ryan
I got a really good friend of mine that's deployed in. overseas right now. Not according to Kamala Harris. Yeah, he's sniping bad guys over in Africa.
The Joe Rogan Experience
#2207 - Shawn Ryan
I'm sure that's what's going on. It could be that. I don't think it's really immoral. It's not immoral. It's just a rally. Everybody wants their rally to be full. I mean, you know, it's just, I don't. It's a facade, man. Yeah. It's just a facade.
The Joe Rogan Experience
#2207 - Shawn Ryan
I mean, this has been going on for a long time, though. You know, sometimes a Kung Pao chicken is a chicken.
The Joe Rogan Experience
#2207 - Shawn Ryan
I just want to hear how they're going to accomplish all this stuff.
The Joe Rogan Experience
#2207 - Shawn Ryan
I think it's crazy they didn't cover it. I mean, it barely got covered.
The Joe Rogan Experience
#2207 - Shawn Ryan
Have you looked into the BlackRock commercial stuff at all?
The Joe Rogan Experience
#2207 - Shawn Ryan
What do you think – I mean, have you thought about who's behind all these assassination attempts? Do you think they're lone wolves or –
The Joe Rogan Experience
#2207 - Shawn Ryan
I mean, I don't think they're going to be around that much longer. I feel like that the media will die with the baby boomer generation.
The Joe Rogan Experience
#2207 - Shawn Ryan
Was it nice for you to come off YouTube? Did you enjoy that when it first happened?
The Joe Rogan Experience
#2207 - Shawn Ryan
That's what I meant. I meant with like the censorship stuff. I was wondering, you know. Want to hear something interesting? Yeah.
The Joe Rogan Experience
#2207 - Shawn Ryan
You know what really bothers me is— We both put a lot into this, you know? And what bothers me, it's like, just tell me what you want me to take out. What is it?
The Joe Rogan Experience
#2207 - Shawn Ryan
Illegal stuff. Even language. I mean- There's three-year-olds out watching. I got a three-year-old kid. He's watching YouTube.
The Joe Rogan Experience
#2207 - Shawn Ryan
So I get it when they mark my shit with 18 plus, but they won't tell me. I can't correct the fucking problem if you don't tell me what it is. Right. I mean, they just don't want to abide by... They don't want to box themselves in and not be able to censor somebody.
The Joe Rogan Experience
#2207 - Shawn Ryan
I mean, if you can control what comes out of people's mouths and you can control what they think.
The Joe Rogan Experience
#2207 - Shawn Ryan
You know, it doesn't seem like everything's so compartmentalized in government and especially at that kind of classified level.
The Joe Rogan Experience
#2207 - Shawn Ryan
It's scary, man. I mean, I don't know. I think about it all the time, obviously. Yeah. I mean, it's industry. So it just – I don't know. I hope X turns out to be the new thing.
The Joe Rogan Experience
#2207 - Shawn Ryan
I mean, I hope, you know, I just hope this shit starts to turn around. Yeah.
The Joe Rogan Experience
#2207 - Shawn Ryan
Yes. He was like, you don't have to wear a mask. Then it was wear two. Then it was wear doubles. Put two face diapers on.
The Joe Rogan Experience
#2207 - Shawn Ryan
the joe rogan experience train by day joe rogan podcast by night all day How are you, man? How's it going? Nice to meet you. Nice to meet you.
The Joe Rogan Experience
#2207 - Shawn Ryan
I know. It was, I mean, it's like, what are you, there's nothing they won't do.
The Joe Rogan Experience
#2207 - Shawn Ryan
Do you think they're cowards or do you think they just they're just lazy and they like being told what to do?
The Joe Rogan Experience
#2207 - Shawn Ryan
Whatever, security clearance level. I mean, there's... Whatever, I didn't get that high up, but... I've not seen like a database where you can just look anything up like, oh, shit, who killed up JFK?
The Joe Rogan Experience
#2207 - Shawn Ryan
You know, I went down to the border about, I think it was about two years ago-ish, maybe a little longer. And I went down with Ed Calderon. I love Ed. Yeah, what a great guy, right?
The Joe Rogan Experience
#2207 - Shawn Ryan
Yeah, well, that's where I found him. So thank you. But so, no, I went down to TJ with him. And this was like before it really, really hit the news cycle. And we walked into a migrant camp. There's probably a couple thousand migrants there. And so I yanked one of them out and interviewed him and, you know, used Ed to help translate.
The Joe Rogan Experience
#2207 - Shawn Ryan
And I mean, the guy's been sitting there for like I think he was there with his wife and kids for like two years. And I was like, why don't you just like go across, dude? It's I mean, it's an honest question. Like, why don't you just go across? He said he wanted to do it the right way. Wow. You know, he's like now he's like, I just want to do it the right way. Oh, my God.
The Joe Rogan Experience
#2207 - Shawn Ryan
He's running around with this little battery pack charging cell phones for 50 cents. You know, and I'm like, I'm just like, fuck it. Hey, man. Like, why don't like why don't they just. Because nobody's anti-immigration. No. Not that I know of. No, we're anti-terrorists sneaking in. Yeah.
The Joe Rogan Experience
#2207 - Shawn Ryan
Why don't you just unfuck the immigration process and maybe we can get some more people in here quicker legally if you do that. And then we actually know who's coming in and we have documentation of who they are.
The Joe Rogan Experience
#2207 - Shawn Ryan
Good point. Good point. I mean, have you done any digging on who's coming across there? Yeah. I talked to Dr. Phil about it.
The Joe Rogan Experience
#2207 - Shawn Ryan
It's fucking scary, man. I've been diving into the border shit for quite a while. And ever since this Afghanistan withdrawal, that was like a big... I mean, that was just fucking horrible.
The Joe Rogan Experience
#2207 - Shawn Ryan
Dude, do you know who Tyler Andrew Vargas is? No. That's the one Marine that survived that big, that suicide bombing at Abbey Gate. Abbey Gate was, it killed 13 Marines. Yeah. And so I called him. Well, everybody wanted him to come on the show. And I was like, I'm never going to get this fucking guy. Like, all the media, everybody wants him. And, um, but I was like, all right, fine.
The Joe Rogan Experience
#2207 - Shawn Ryan
I'll reach out. So hit him on, hit him on the, on the gram and, uh, message right back. And he got in and he's like, man, he's like, I'm so glad that you reached out to me. He's like, I was literally just praying with my fiance that you would reach out. Cause he had just did an ABC good morning, America interview interviewed for seven hours.
The Joe Rogan Experience
#2207 - Shawn Ryan
They released five seconds of that interview because it made the administration look so fucking bad. They wouldn't air it. So I got him on, kept getting dinged by YouTube. They didn't like the real footage, which was actually from his cell phone that we put. We do previews and shit. But... man, like to have like his, you know, testimony about what happened that day.
The Joe Rogan Experience
#2207 - Shawn Ryan
And, and, uh, and then the, the care that afterwards, which was a fucking trocious, you know, guy, I watched this guy, my studios on the second story. And, um, I'd watch a 23-year-old kid hobble up those fucking stairs with one leg, one arm, all kinds of shit going on in his intestine. I mean, I was like, man, what the fuck, man? This didn't even have to happen. They had the guy.
The Joe Rogan Experience
#2207 - Shawn Ryan
They had the fucking guy in the sights. They could have killed him. And, you know, nobody... Nobody gave him permission. I just, you know, maybe they, I mean, I can't backseat quarterback it, but maybe they shouldn't have asked, just eliminated him. Jesus Christ. But I mean, he's talking about, you know, before we got into the actual incident, he was talking about,
The Joe Rogan Experience
#2207 - Shawn Ryan
You know, like moms trying to throw their babies over the wall and getting caught up in razor wire and just seeing a fucking baby dangle there by the leg. Yeah. You know, it's... And there's like no... you know, there's no repercussions for how that went down. The media just wants to fucking cover it up.
The Joe Rogan Experience
#2207 - Shawn Ryan
And so, so I, I started digging deep and, uh, I teamed up with the former, uh, CA targeter, Sarah Adams, and then a really good friend of mine, Scott man. And we went over to Vienna, uh, to interview this guy, Ahmad Masood, who's the leader, the commander of the Northern Alliance out there. That's like the resistance it's kind of fighting the Taliban.
The Joe Rogan Experience
#2207 - Shawn Ryan
You know, the Taliban pretty much took over government in Afghanistan. I saw the parade. Yeah. With all our shit that we left there. Crazy. Yeah, man. So we got a bunch of intel from Massoud and, you know, like still kind of looping all the way back around to the southern border. I mean, so once Taliban took control of all of our shit, I mean, this could go on for a while, but...
The Joe Rogan Experience
#2207 - Shawn Ryan
So now what they're doing is they have the passport office over there just making legitimate passports to – now there's 21 terrorist organizations over there training. Hansa Bin Laden, who we were told was killed, is actually fucking alive. And he's marrying into all these other terrorist networks. So he married Mullah Omar's daughter. He married into all these different terrorist networks.
The Joe Rogan Experience
#2207 - Shawn Ryan
And so these guys used to be like competitors, kind of, just like the UFO guys. They all hate each other, but they all have the one common theme, like disclosure. These guys, the one common thing is, let's go take over the Western world. So he is basically Hansa bin Laden, is, is married into all these terrorist organizations.
The Joe Rogan Experience
#2207 - Shawn Ryan
Now they all have one common goal to come over to, you know, the Western world and, and ruin our way of life. And so what they're doing is they're funneling as many of these terrorists into the passport office, creating them legitimate, real passports. And then they sprinkle them, they get them flights into all over South Central America, and then they funnel them up. Um,
The Joe Rogan Experience
#2207 - Shawn Ryan
through the Darien gap into the, into the U S. And so, you know, there's, there is, there is zero, I don't give a fuck what the FBI or any of these people are saying. They have, there is zero way to track how many of these fuckers have come in to the U S. And so, you know, now what we're going to see is like, October 7th style attacks like we just saw in Israel and in the mall in Russia.
The Joe Rogan Experience
#2207 - Shawn Ryan
And everybody's like, oh, you know, there's well, do you think this is by design?
The Joe Rogan Experience
#2207 - Shawn Ryan
Absolutely, I think it's by design. I mean, they basically told Border Patrol, stand down. Like, do not do your fucking job. We're going to blast you. I mean, remember the guy on the horse that they said was whipping people and it wound up being like the reins of the horse? Yeah. Yeah, I think it's I think it's by design, you know, from from the government.
The Joe Rogan Experience
#2207 - Shawn Ryan
But I don't I think that there look, I think that the government is is is more incompetent than it's ever been before. And I think they have one common goal and that I think the goal is voting. You know, they want them to vote. But I don't think that they I don't think they're competent enough to realize the the death and destruction and the the other repercussions that we're going to face.
The Joe Rogan Experience
#2207 - Shawn Ryan
By keeping that border open, you know, because because they don't have anybody, you know, that did. They don't have anybody with any experience that's – they don't have any solid intelligence stuff going on that's telling them, like, hey, this is what's going to happen. It's all agenda-driven. Jesus Christ. Does that make sense?
The Joe Rogan Experience
#2207 - Shawn Ryan
I mean, shit, though. I mean, unrest, I mean – They got really good at unrest, you know what I mean, in 2020, right? All through or even before 2020, up to that election. So I don't think they need to import terrorism in cartels.
The Joe Rogan Experience
#2207 - Shawn Ryan
Yeah, yeah. I mean, you know, and then people, I mean, do you ever think about why nothing's happened yet? Like China. Have you looked into the power grid at all?
The Joe Rogan Experience
#2207 - Shawn Ryan
Yeah. Well, I mean, China, you know, we have those we have we have you know, we get those big trans. Everything's imported from China and we have these huge, you know, transformers. You can tell me shut up if you already know all the shit. But all of those transformers are imported from China. And they're not checked. They don't even fucking check them for malware or Trojan horses or anything.
The Joe Rogan Experience
#2207 - Shawn Ryan
on top of that so then then doe department of energy actually investigated one because somebody somebody was it got to dc that whatever they decided to look into it and they wouldn't fucking release the results they wouldn't fucking release the results So, you know, they're in our water treatment plants. They're in our power grid.
The Joe Rogan Experience
#2207 - Shawn Ryan
I've been talking about this shit for years, and then— Cell phone towers. Cell phone towers. And then FBI Director Chris Wray comes out and says, oh, yeah, turns out our grid's really vulnerable. China's in there. And they're also in our treatment plants, which means they can fucking poison us.
The Joe Rogan Experience
#2207 - Shawn Ryan
You seen those piles? I remember pulling the fucking masks out, you know. I didn't wear them very long, but I fell for it for about 30 days. Did you? And then I was like, this is fucking bullshit. But, yeah, you pull the mask out, and I live out in the woods, so I didn't, you know. But, yeah, made in China. I'm like, wait, didn't the thing come from there? They're making money hand over fees.
The Joe Rogan Experience
#2207 - Shawn Ryan
I mean I just – I don't feel like – I feel like technology is advancing. It's such a rapid pace. I mean, I feel like AI and robots will take over everything.
The Joe Rogan Experience
#2207 - Shawn Ryan
Yeah. That would be good. No, I'm with you. I guess what I'm saying is I don't see the union worker. I don't see where their place really fits in anymore. There's going to be a lot less of them, that's for sure.
The Joe Rogan Experience
#2207 - Shawn Ryan
Yeah, I think that would be great. I mean – I probably shouldn't be talking about my direction that I'm going to go, but fuck it, whatever. That's what I want to do. I want to start going and talking to all these foreign dignitaries and getting a different perspective on what we're doing. I don't think we're the good guys anymore.
The Joe Rogan Experience
#2207 - Shawn Ryan
I don't agree with a lot of the shit that I was involved in as a SEAL or a CIA contractor. I mean, like BRICS. Are you familiar with BRICS? No. Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa. Don't quote me on this. I think they have 22 countries now. It's kind of like... It's kind of like a counter to NATO.
The Joe Rogan Experience
#2207 - Shawn Ryan
It's all these countries that are tired of us, tired of the tariffs, tired of the weaponization of the U.S. dollar. And so basically what they're trying to do is throw the U.S. currency off the world stage and pull it and use Chinese yen. Whoa. And, you know, I mean, that would destroy us if all trade went to...
The Joe Rogan Experience
#2207 - Shawn Ryan
If the world reserve currency went to the Chinese yuan, that would destroy our economy. And so – but they're gaining a lot of traction on this. And so, yeah, I would love to go to any one of these 22 countries and talk to them and just ask, like – Why are you doing this? Right. Why are you doing this? Because that gives – nobody's fucking talking about this shit.
The Joe Rogan Experience
#2207 - Shawn Ryan
Yeah, there's no journalists talking about this. You could look up Bricks on X. There's a page. It's pretty – I don't know if it's like an official one, but – But they're always posting, like, updates about it and what's going on.
The Joe Rogan Experience
#2207 - Shawn Ryan
And so I think it would be really important for somebody to go around and start talking to, you know, getting another perspective rather than what, you know, Fox and CNN have to say about it.
The Joe Rogan Experience
#2207 - Shawn Ryan
Really? Yeah. I mean, that's I mean, I used to get like really upset when people would, you know, talk about, you know, the war in Iraq and the war in Afghanistan and and. when I was still in, you know, and I got so pissed off. I've moved out of the fucking country. And I was like, I don't even want to listen to this shit anymore.
The Joe Rogan Experience
#2207 - Shawn Ryan
But after diving in and looking at the policies that came out and kind of, you know, it's kind of like when it's just reflecting on some of the policy decisions and stuff that didn't really make sense at the time when I was in that now I look back and I'm like, man, what the, like, I didn't have time to think about it then. Cause it was okay. Go on the next stop, go on the next mission, whatever.
The Joe Rogan Experience
#2207 - Shawn Ryan
Right. And, but now like looking back through the podcast and talking to, you know, my podcast started with all my former colleagues and, and, and mill and agency. Nobody thinks we should have been there, especially Iraq. Nobody thinks we should have been there. Um, It's, and I just keep going down the rabbit hole and man, I just, I don't,
The Joe Rogan Experience
#2207 - Shawn Ryan
diving into the military-industrial complex, all the lies that the government has been telling us, all the unreleased classified shit. It's overwhelming, and it's created 100% complete distrust in government. I mean, the Dick Cheney stuff. I mean, you know about Dick Cheney, Halliburton. Yeah. Have you looked into that at all?
The Joe Rogan Experience
#2207 - Shawn Ryan
I don't think people understand like how – Crazy that is. How big... I mean, it was the fucking logistics company for two wars. That's like... That's everything, Joe. That's... They're delivering your mail. They're building your barracks. They're cooking your food. They're in charge of garbage. They're in charge of fuel. They're everything. Everything.
The Joe Rogan Experience
#2207 - Shawn Ryan
Everything that's logistical over there is Halliburton, KBR.
The Joe Rogan Experience
#2207 - Shawn Ryan
In both countries. And I mean... You know, I think people think Afghanistan like, oh, man, you're probably on a tent or sleeping on the side of a mountain or something. No, man, there's fucking Burger King, KFC, Pizza Hut, Thai restaurants. I mean, that's all. That's all logistics. I mean, it's it's fucking it's it's cities that we built over there. And it all was built by Halliburton. Wow.
The Joe Rogan Experience
#2207 - Shawn Ryan
Who is, you know, the vice president. The CEO's vice president in the fucking country. Like, what? Are you serious?
The Joe Rogan Experience
#2207 - Shawn Ryan
Yeah, there's no, nobody died. It's like nobody actually has an opinion anymore. They're just told, you know, they're just told, hey, this is what we're going with for the next two hours. Right.
The Joe Rogan Experience
#2207 - Shawn Ryan
Wow. I didn't know that. Yeah. Have you messed around with the, have you heard of the Yuka app? No. Dude, you got to get the Yuka app. What is it? So you basically scan anything, like food related. It's Y-U-K-A? I think it's Y-U-C-A. There it is. Nice. There it is. Y-U-K-A.
The Joe Rogan Experience
#2207 - Shawn Ryan
Yeah. That's what I was saying about the baby boomer generation. I mean, I think that the media will die. If things continue just the way they are and the censorship doesn't get too bad, I think the media is done when the baby boomers.
The Joe Rogan Experience
#2207 - Shawn Ryan
Yeah, I mean, the guy's so wealthy, I don't think he really cares about a good investment. Also, he's so old. He just wants a megaphone.
The Joe Rogan Experience
#2207 - Shawn Ryan
I wonder if they're... buying their place outside of the rules. Like, hey, I donated your thing. I don't have to live by these fucking rules.
The Joe Rogan Experience
#2207 - Shawn Ryan
There it is. See, like honey nut sugar. So it'll tell you the additives in there.
The Joe Rogan Experience
#2207 - Shawn Ryan
That's what I – sometimes I think it's all – it is a complete facade.
The Joe Rogan Experience
#2207 - Shawn Ryan
And it'll tell you all the chemicals and what the chemicals do to you.
The Joe Rogan Experience
#2207 - Shawn Ryan
That's, you know... Yeah, he shaved... What did he shave? Like 80% of the staff off Twitter? Oh, yeah. When he got it?
The Joe Rogan Experience
#2207 - Shawn Ryan
It's that control what they say, control what they think.
The Joe Rogan Experience
#2207 - Shawn Ryan
Yeah, I don't... I mean, it's a tough... I mean, what are we going to do, though? I mean, China, you know, Xi Jinping has come out and said that he believes that the winner to the race of AI will achieve global domination. So what do you do? Do you try to control it? Is... So is Americans, do you try to control it or do you go, fuck it, we got to do it, man. We got to go.
The Joe Rogan Experience
#2207 - Shawn Ryan
We got to go or China is going to pass this up, which they probably already have.
The Joe Rogan Experience
#2207 - Shawn Ryan
Let them fly spy balloons, you know, traverse the entire United States.
The Joe Rogan Experience
#2207 - Shawn Ryan
You know, it bothers me, though. Maybe they're not ahead of us, but, I mean, you know, the energy that they're building coal mines every day to power all this stuff. And we're going on about should we use fossil fuels or not. Yeah. And, you know, we just talked about how weak our grid is. So if we don't beef up the grid and start going, you know, nuclear.
The Joe Rogan Experience
#2207 - Shawn Ryan
Yeah, there's literally no – I mean I look into this all the time. There's no infrastructure going in to correct the problem because the problem is so big that nobody wants to tackle it.
The Joe Rogan Experience
#2207 - Shawn Ryan
Didn't NVIDIA start producing all their chips in the ocean? They're buying these massive ships. Really? You'd have to look that up.
The Joe Rogan Experience
#2207 - Shawn Ryan
It was one of those articles I started reading, and I was like, I don't understand any of this shit.
The Joe Rogan Experience
#2207 - Shawn Ryan
Well, the drone game, too. I mean, that's the future of warfare, right, is all these drone swarms. And DJI, you know, that's a Chinese company. And this is a... This is going to be a big fucking problem when we realize, hey, the next one isn't going to be guys in caves anymore. Right.
The Joe Rogan Experience
#2207 - Shawn Ryan
Yeah, yeah. It's, uh... I mean, I don't... I hope it comes back to the U.S., but I would just... I would like to see us just start getting stuff from somebody other than China. That would be nice. That would be a great start.
The Joe Rogan Experience
#2207 - Shawn Ryan
Well, I mean, you have to just think, I mean, it's Chinese. From what I understand, it's Chinese law that anything, any business that is taking that is being conducted within China. If it helps – if the technology helps the military or could potentially help the military, then China – then CCP has access.
The Joe Rogan Experience
#2207 - Shawn Ryan
And that's end of story. So anything, any fucking thing over there that's being developed or manufactured – It's – all of that technology is in their hands. Yeah. It just is.
The Joe Rogan Experience
#2207 - Shawn Ryan
Yeah. They suck these American companies in with getting around the red tape and – And then it's in the cheap labor, cheap prices, and then once it's going, I mean, they control it. Do you want this money train to end right now? Because you're not in America, buddy.
The Joe Rogan Experience
#2207 - Shawn Ryan
Yeah. I mean, do you – you've dove into this more than anybody else I know. I mean, what do you think this – what do you think it all is?
The Joe Rogan Experience
#2207 - Shawn Ryan
I've seen it. Yeah, I've seen it. Crazy story. Kind of like that. Do you know who is that? Chris Bledsoe?
The Joe Rogan Experience
#2207 - Shawn Ryan
Have you heard of him? What's that one? Chris Bledsoe, he's a guy that had that experience as well. You've not heard of Chris Bledsoe? Maybe, I haven't or forgot. It's possible. Yeah, it's kind of the same thing. His memory's kind of gone, and that's what it sounds like.
The Joe Rogan Experience
#2207 - Shawn Ryan
Yeah. Yeah, I don't know. I don't know what all this is, man. I just, you know, I try to dive into it on the podcast and have talked to, you know, a handful of guys and
The Joe Rogan Experience
#2207 - Shawn Ryan
Yeah, he kind of like mixes it with biblical stuff, right? That's kind of I don't know. That's what I lean towards with all this stuff, to be honest with you, is maybe I think there's some consciousness aspect. I think there's I think there's I think it is the afterlife.
The Joe Rogan Experience
#2207 - Shawn Ryan
Yeah, yeah. Have you ever looked into, because I think I kind of group all this stuff in together, but have you looked into the remote viewing stuff?
The Joe Rogan Experience
#2207 - Shawn Ryan
Does it bother you if there's some type... I don't know, some type of a new... Does it bother you if it's not FDA approved at all, if it's new? Like nobody's looked into it?
The Joe Rogan Experience
#2207 - Shawn Ryan
Happens all the time, man. That's weird. I mean, what they say, we use 10 percent of our brain.
The Joe Rogan Experience
#2207 - Shawn Ryan
No. Dude, you have to talk to him. Who's he? He is remote viewer number one for the U.S. But he's not like kooky or anything like that at all. Really? No. How do you not be kooky in your remote viewer? Dude, you just have a conversation with him. He's there. Okay. No weird vibes, not from my end anyways. But...
The Joe Rogan Experience
#2207 - Shawn Ryan
But the way he, you know, I asked him, I'm like, well, how do you, like, how does it, how did it happen? Do you think, does everybody have this? Or, you know, I was just pinging him with questions. And he said he thinks we all have had it since the beginning. And that, I mean, he was basically saying, if you look at how animals communicate, they kind of communicate telepathically, right?
The Joe Rogan Experience
#2207 - Shawn Ryan
And he was talking about caveman times. He used to point at shit and grunt and nod heads and look at things, and everybody would know what you're thinking about. And he goes, and then we started traveling in groups, and then language was kind of born. Yeah.
The Joe Rogan Experience
#2207 - Shawn Ryan
And he goes, language actually slowed down our initial form of communication, which was, you know, it wasn't maybe as descriptive, but it was just as deliberate as speaking a language. And then you introduced technology, and basically what he was kind of saying is, you know, that our brains have been kind of dubbed down from, you know, thousands and thousands of years of,
The Joe Rogan Experience
#2207 - Shawn Ryan
technology coming out and language and all these other things and i don't know lose the ability to exactly we we we don't i mean you hear it all the time you don't use it you lose it right you know and and so basically what he's saying is we're losing our instincts i mean that and that makes sense if you don't use it i mean isn't that what the appendix is in the isn't the appendix an organ that we no longer need anymore because we cook food
The Joe Rogan Experience
#2207 - Shawn Ryan
Yeah. I mean, you know, there's all kinds of I mean, if you've heard of people, if you heard of people kind of. How do I describe this? Me and my wife were just having this conversation the other day. If you heard of people that kind of they start preparing for their death. but they're not realizing they're preparing for their death.
The Joe Rogan Experience
#2207 - Shawn Ryan
It's like an intuition that they're unaware that they're going to die, and so they start preparing everything for their departure and not even realizing that they're going to pass.
The Joe Rogan Experience
#2207 - Shawn Ryan
I mean, I think that's just another example of – I think that we have – lost a lot of intuitions and we don't really know how to go back and exercise them. That's kind of what I think.
The Joe Rogan Experience
#2207 - Shawn Ryan
Yep. You know, my – this person that works for me turned me on to this podcast the other day, and it was talking about how – this is unverified, but it was still a fascinating conversation. They were talking about how in – I can't remember the amount of years, but humans will begin to lose their peripheral vision because they're looking at a phone so much. Whoa. That we're evolving.
The Joe Rogan Experience
#2207 - Shawn Ryan
I guess you could, I don't know if I would call that evolving. Yeah, devolving. Wow.
The Joe Rogan Experience
#2207 - Shawn Ryan
I mean, it's like, shit, go anywhere. That's what everybody's doing.
The Joe Rogan Experience
#2207 - Shawn Ryan
Yeah. That's, I mean, if you're up for 12 hours, it's 25% of the day.
The Joe Rogan Experience
#2207 - Shawn Ryan
It wasn't a thousand years, man. It was like, I mean, I, it was way, it was within our lifetime.
The Joe Rogan Experience
#2207 - Shawn Ryan
It's, it's, uh, this stuff all just scares the hell out of me. I mean, I think psychedelics plays a role in all this, you know, in, in, in accessing, you know, other information and,
The Joe Rogan Experience
#2207 - Shawn Ryan
Dude, do you want to hear the best story I've ever heard from that? So I got one of my best friends, former Green Beret, worked with him at the agency for a long time. He was blown up, survived like the worst fucking car bomb I've ever seen. Like got up, walked away, dude's head's like right next to the car. Then gets out.
The Joe Rogan Experience
#2207 - Shawn Ryan
I don't want to mention his name because I'm going to bring up some symptoms. But then he got fucking shot in the head by a 38 special round in the middle of the road and survived it. And I've stayed with him through this whole process. Anyways, couldn't walk without a cane. Was bedridden five, six days out of every week. Hadn't had sex with his wife in over two fucking years.
The Joe Rogan Experience
#2207 - Shawn Ryan
Couldn't go outside without sunglasses on because of the light sensitivity. And I'd been telling him, hey, you need to, dude, you have to go down and like do this Ibogaine thing. Nothing else is working. I think this shit's going to change. I wasn't even aware of all this stuff. I knew about the bedridden stuff and But he was hiding a lot of that shit from me, and his wife got and called me.
The Joe Rogan Experience
#2207 - Shawn Ryan
And so I got him piped in to this program, went down, did Ibogaine, and did 5-MeO, left his fucking cane there, went home, banged his wife, doesn't need the sunglasses anymore. And is not bedridden. And that was about six months ago. And I just talked to him the other day. He's still, like, good to go.
The Joe Rogan Experience
#2207 - Shawn Ryan
And, dude, this shit happened, like, when did he, I bet it was four years. Four years of, like, living through that shit. I mean, cracked skull.
The Joe Rogan Experience
#2207 - Shawn Ryan
One Ibogaine treatment, done. I was like, do you think you'll go back and see if more benefits show up? And he was like, no, I'm not going to do it. But he's like, not unless I start to slip. But he's like, I'm good. I'm at peace. I feel fucking great.
The Joe Rogan Experience
#2207 - Shawn Ryan
Yep. You know? And... I mean, even mine, like, I haven't drank in almost three years now. Really? Yeah, I just... I went down and did the Ibogaine experience, and, like, it was just like, have you done Ibogaine? No. Why not?
The Joe Rogan Experience
#2207 - Shawn Ryan
Yeah. Well, there it is right there, right? I kind of drank it almost three years, but... I mean, it was, like, do you want, like, the whole experience? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, so I went down to Mexico, and I just kept having these guys come on my show, and the first one was Eddie Gallagher. He was talking about psychedelics, and I was like, oh, no, that shit's for hippies.
The Joe Rogan Experience
#2207 - Shawn Ryan
And then, you know, the one that really got me was I had this guy on, his name DJ Shipley, and he, like— I saw that one.
The Joe Rogan Experience
#2207 - Shawn Ryan
Yeah, it's great. Dude, DJ's a fucking beast, bro. Yeah, I follow that guy on Instagram now.
The Joe Rogan Experience
#2207 - Shawn Ryan
Like, takes Navy SEAL to a whole different level. But anyways, but yeah, he, like, went out of his way after we recorded, and he was like, hey, dude, like—
The Joe Rogan Experience
#2207 - Shawn Ryan
you should really fucking think about going down there and um I was like all right well you know I've done all the I've done like a ton of research I've talked to a bunch of guys about it I understand like how it works now and so fuck it I'll go and so I went down there because uh I just wanted to be more in the moment with my with my family I got two little kids now and I
The Joe Rogan Experience
#2207 - Shawn Ryan
And so I went down there and that was like I felt like I was kind of like through the PTSD type stuff and and maybe not. But but I would I just wanted to get rid of anxiety and be in the moment with my family and did it ended up.
The Joe Rogan Experience
#2207 - Shawn Ryan
And so I went down and did the Ibogaine thing, and we took these pills, and, like, I didn't get a lot of visuals, but the first visual I got was I was just sitting there, like, looking in this mirror, shaking this fucking maraca, and my head's, like, I was like, all right, this shit is not working. Well, then my head, like, it, like, split open like a,
The Joe Rogan Experience
#2207 - Shawn Ryan
Yeah, dude. It was like, I watched my head, like, peel like a fucking banana. Like, it was just like, whoosh. And then another head, like, just blossomed out of it. Whoa. Yeah, it was really odd. And then I was like, all right, it's definitely fucking kicking in, so I'm going to... I'm going to lay back.
The Joe Rogan Experience
#2207 - Shawn Ryan
And it was kind of – to me, like the whole experience maybe – I guess I just lost total concept of time. It didn't feel – it was like 12 hours, but it didn't feel like 12 hours. It didn't really feel like five minutes either. But I got like this life review kind of thing. and just had these TV screens. It looked like all black, like you're in space or something.
The Joe Rogan Experience
#2207 - Shawn Ryan
And then these two lines of TV screens that were going in my peripheral vision And what was playing in those TV screens was, and it was moving, like, at kind of a slow pace. And so, like, I could see what was going on in the TV screens through my peripheral. But if I tried to concentrate on any one particular thing, then they would, like, all just disappear until I stopped trying to focus.
The Joe Rogan Experience
#2207 - Shawn Ryan
like concentrate on one thing and then they'd all appear again and i could like look at it through my peripheral and i'd i'd be like oh you know that was uh that was in baghdad that's when i was five years old and my dad was like yelling at me and that was this and it was like but it wasn't like i wasn't like reliving um traumatic events they were it was just like passing me by. Like a recording.
The Joe Rogan Experience
#2207 - Shawn Ryan
Yeah. And, um, so I just let him like pass. And then I went into some other stage, which I don't really understand, but it was a bunch of like these walls of stuffed animals. And I was kind of like going through this maze. And then like the last thing I talked about before I, I, uh, before I did the experience was China. So then I had like this horrible thing about the Chinese invasion.
The Joe Rogan Experience
#2207 - Shawn Ryan
But what came out of that, like it's like, oh, well, that doesn't sound very good. Well, yeah, what came out of that, I lost 11 pounds in literally one week. It's a week-long type of experience. I lost 11 fucking pounds. It's also a heavy metals detoxer, by the way, so that's probably –
The Joe Rogan Experience
#2207 - Shawn Ryan
probably had like some heavy metals blocking me up or something but um though the i the whites of my eyes like cleared up like and it wasn't just me i'd like journaled all this shit down and then i didn't tell my wife any of this stuff and i came home and she's like
The Joe Rogan Experience
#2207 - Shawn Ryan
uh your eyes look like a lot lighter like the whites look a lot lighter whiter and and and my brown eyes looked like they had lightened up huh yeah and then it was also like i had realized every everything that i was ingesting that was poison it was like this going back to intuition it was like this intuition of like i just i was like you know i didn't come
The Joe Rogan Experience
#2207 - Shawn Ryan
I didn't go down there to quit drinking. It just fucking happened, man. I was just like, I don't think I'm going to drink anymore. So I haven't had a drink in, like I said, just under three years. Do you think you had a drinking problem? Oh, fuck yeah, man. I had a drinking problem. Big drinking problem. But you didn't think it at the time. Well, my drinking problem had digressed quite a bit.
The Joe Rogan Experience
#2207 - Shawn Ryan
So, I mean, I used to. I used to. Drink close to two-fifths of vodka a day. Whoa. Yeah. But, you know, then that was coming out of the agency. I didn't have anything to do, really. And, you know, I was processing a lot of kind of what had happened over the past 14 years. I didn't have any friends. I was severely depressed. Whatever, man. Loved to party. You know, and that just, it was wake up.
The Joe Rogan Experience
#2207 - Shawn Ryan
drink many bottles of vodka all day long. And then, uh, at night, you know, I'd crack a fifth. But by the time, by the time I went, uh, there, it was, it was like a, probably two bottles of wine instead of two bottles of vodka at night.
The Joe Rogan Experience
#2207 - Shawn Ryan
Well, I mean, that's, yeah, it is. But, um, anyways, uh, came back and I just didn't want the wine anymore. I used to take Adderall. I was addicted to that. Didn't need that. Didn't need this ambient anymore. Didn't need anything. Cold turkey. Cold turkey, man. Weed. Quit weed for about six months and then... And then, yeah, then I went back. But – and even sugar, man.
The Joe Rogan Experience
#2207 - Shawn Ryan
I quit sugar for about six months. And it was – you know, the funny thing is, man, like it was zero effort. It wasn't like I'm not fucking drinking and I'm not going to do sugar and I'm not going to smoke weed and no more Adderall. I just didn't want it. And there was no – There was just no urge. There was no addiction left. It was gone. Wow.
The Joe Rogan Experience
#2207 - Shawn Ryan
He was a cool dude, man. He was a cool dude. That would have been a hell of an interview.
The Joe Rogan Experience
#2207 - Shawn Ryan
Yeah, yeah. Yeah, because they say it's like the one that you would... You can't get addicted to. Honestly, I don't think I could get addicted to any of them, but...
The Joe Rogan Experience
#2207 - Shawn Ryan
I mean, it's fucking working. Yeah. I mean, it's working, and it's just... Like, why? Why? Why? Why? Why can't you, like, let us... I'm speaking, you know, for the veteran population right now. But like, why just why can't you just let us fucking get better? Right. Like everybody knows the 22 a day, you know, which is actually like 40 something a day veterans that are killing themselves.
The Joe Rogan Experience
#2207 - Shawn Ryan
And this shit is a fucking game changer. But I don't think big pharma is going to allow it. I think that's what the holdup is.
The Joe Rogan Experience
#2207 - Shawn Ryan
I mean, it's – I don't know, man. I mean, it's – there's just – There's so much that goes into this, like that first shooter, right? What was he, 20 years old? Yeah. You know, 20 years old. Then you got, you know, Trump's basically been in the media for, what, about eight years. I think he showed up, what, about a year before the 2016 election, right? Kind of went in.
The Joe Rogan Experience
#2207 - Shawn Ryan
So we're going on, what, eight years now of the media just – slamming him over and over he's a threat to democracy this is going to ruin the country you know so if you take that 20 year old i mean eight so he's since he was 12 years old that's all he's heard yeah 12 fucking years old that's all he's heard and little kids have no ability to discern
The Joe Rogan Experience
#2207 - Shawn Ryan
So is it a very well orchestrated act to kill him or is it media manipulation that nobody really thought too far into this and now it's all – now we're seeing the consequences of what that kind of – pushing an agenda like that will do?
The Joe Rogan Experience
#2207 - Shawn Ryan
I don't know where this ends, man. I mean, part of me thinks, you know, it's just, it's part of me thinks we're just going to, end in some type of a civil war. That's terrifying. Yeah.
The Joe Rogan Experience
#2207 - Shawn Ryan
I mean, I think we're kind of already there. It's just going to look a lot different. It's a cold war, right? You know?
The Joe Rogan Experience
#2207 - Shawn Ryan
You see these states banding together. Mm-hmm. You know, you see blue states spanning together. You see bright states spanning together. You see, you know, a lot of governors aligning, sending National Guard down here to Texas, you know, to try to secure the border. You got, you know, these extreme... Look, I don't – whether you agree with me or not, they're extreme.
The Joe Rogan Experience
#2207 - Shawn Ryan
And so like the abortion stuff, like you got states that are making these like super harsh abortion laws like we're going to hunt you down if you get one and throw your ass in prison. And I think – I can't remember how many states now have passed constitutional carries like – I can't remember. I think there's only like a state or two left that need constitutional carry.
The Joe Rogan Experience
#2207 - Shawn Ryan
But I mean, I think basically what I'm getting at is I think the lines are kind of like being...
The Joe Rogan Experience
#2207 - Shawn Ryan
drawn right now or the alliances are kind of forming up like hey let's pass these super uh super red laws these super left law or blue laws and and it'll drive everybody out of the state that we won and it'll do you know what i'm getting i do know you know i think this is all like kind of happening naturally
The Joe Rogan Experience
#2207 - Shawn Ryan
I think one way would just be having podcasters and journalists – I mean, how the fuck would you do this? But one thing on my show, and I kind of went off the rails a little bit the last month, I got a little probably more political than I wanted. I hate politics, man. Yeah, me too. They come up all the time.
The Joe Rogan Experience
#2207 - Shawn Ryan
Every time I dive in, I feel like I fucked a hooker on a rusty couch. I don't think this shit's gonna wash off me now. You know what I'm talking about? I do, I do, I do. But anyways, where I was going is, people have just lost the fucking ability to think for themselves. They can't critical think anymore.
The Joe Rogan Experience
#2207 - Shawn Ryan
So one thing that I do on mine is if I bring somebody on that's, I'm like, don't say Trump 500 times on my show. Let's not say like, fuck the left, fuck the right. Like, let's not say these fucking Democrats and these fucking Republicans. Like, just just give me the policy. Just give me the problem. Just like, let's just leave all that shit out.
The Joe Rogan Experience
#2207 - Shawn Ryan
Yeah, because if you leave all that, all those adjectives out, then it forces people to go. Well, shit, I don't really know. It forces them to formulate their own opinion because they don't know what their side thinks about that particular issue. Unless you're talking about abortion or something like that. But you know what I mean?
The Joe Rogan Experience
#2207 - Shawn Ryan
If you leave that out of... If you can leave those adjectives out, then I think common sense will start to make a comeback because it won't be so tribal. It will be like, well... Actually, I don't really I don't I don't know where the party that I align with stands on this. So I'm going to have to formulate my own fucking opinion here. And man, that would do wonders.
The Joe Rogan Experience
#2207 - Shawn Ryan
Well, I used to teach weapons and tactics. And I taught Keanu Reeves for John Wick 3. And... And then I got a lot of hate. I'll just put it that way. I got a lot of hate, uh, from, from the, from the special operations community, from the two way community. And, um, and I was like, you know what, man, like it's very egocentric community anyways.
The Joe Rogan Experience
#2207 - Shawn Ryan
And so I was like, I'm, I'm like fucking done with this shit. And, uh, So I just started – dude, I didn't know what to do. I was like doing camping stove reviews and I bought a bunch of fucking alpacas and put them in my front yard and I thought I was going to be a farmer and like – yeah. And then – but you know what I did? I was like – I was like, dude –
The Joe Rogan Experience
#2207 - Shawn Ryan
I'm so fucking tired of, like, my guys killing themselves and going into depression and suicide attempts. And I got sick of the same talking heads on TV kind of documenting what was going on over there. It was a bunch of people who had never even stepped foot. in any of those war zones documenting what happened over there.
The Joe Rogan Experience
#2207 - Shawn Ryan
So I just started and I built like, I don't know, maybe 250,000 subs on YouTube from like gun stuff. And so I started I was like, I got to one, we got to document the history to there's a major fucking suicide epidemic happening. So let's talk about some guys that had had attempted.
The Joe Rogan Experience
#2207 - Shawn Ryan
I was I mean, I tried to kill myself, but let's let's get some guys that have really been through it, dug themselves out of it. And and and let's so it's so it's we're documenting history the way it happened. We are talking about the veteran crisis that's going on and how people got out of it.
The Joe Rogan Experience
#2207 - Shawn Ryan
And then at the end of every episode was, hey, let's talk about your business because it's stories what sell. So let's do the whole story and get everybody super attached to you. Let's document the history, talk about your vulnerabilities, what it was like re-transitioning back into civilian life.
The Joe Rogan Experience
#2207 - Shawn Ryan
how fucked up it was, how you ruined your family, how you tried to kill yourself, all that shit, how you came out of it. And then let's talk about your business. And so, I mean, these guys would come on and, and, uh, you know, their business would like jet launch overnight, which I'm sure you, you know, um, but, and that, I just, dude, I just like doing it. I liked fucking helping people.
The Joe Rogan Experience
#2207 - Shawn Ryan
And I, and, uh, and, uh, But I'll tell you, like I started – it was awesome. I loved it. I still – there's nothing else I'd rather do. I started feeling a lot of resentment to my guests because they would come on my show and then they would like pass me up business-wise like that. And I was like, fuck, man, like, what the fuck do I have to do to make a business out of this shit?
The Joe Rogan Experience
#2207 - Shawn Ryan
Like, I'm great at, like, jet launching everybody else's shit, but I'm not making any fucking money here, and I got a family to support, and this isn't going to work out. And then I don't know what happened, man, but then something just, like, switched. Like, God just stepped in and was like, you're doing good shit, like, I'm going to I'm going to bless you.
The Joe Rogan Experience
#2207 - Shawn Ryan
And and I just like hit a turning point. And now I just talk to whoever I'm interested in.
The Joe Rogan Experience
#2207 - Shawn Ryan
I can't do it. There's no reason to do it. Yeah, you know, when I started, we started in the attic. It was me and my wife.
The Joe Rogan Experience
#2207 - Shawn Ryan
We had these shit cameras that had, like, 30-minute timers, so Mike Glover was my first guest, and so my wife was, like, running back and forth, resetting these 30-minute fucking timer cameras, and I'm trying to run the sound and listen to what the hell Mike's saying, and I'm like, this is fucking awesome.
The Joe Rogan Experience
#2207 - Shawn Ryan
I started, first one got pumped out Christmas of 2019. Wow.
The Joe Rogan Experience
#2207 - Shawn Ryan
Thank you. Thank you. Well, I studied the hell out of your show when I was doing it. And, you know, I wanted to – I just wanted to make it different. I didn't want to copy the red curtain and – you know what I mean? You made it yours.
The Joe Rogan Experience
#2207 - Shawn Ryan
You know, I mean, you know what bothers me about the whole camp is nobody, none of these camps like talk to each other. Right. It's my camp knows everything.