#1253 - Ioan Grillo

Joe Rogan (0:02)

Here we go, five, four, three, two, one. First of all, how many people get your name wrong when they try to pronounce it?

Ioan Grillo (0:11)

Well, so many people, I don't even care anymore. I just hear ever it comes out. Because I live in... It's a funny name where I come from.

From England. Growing up, it's a funny name. But in Mexico, it's even stranger names. So I just normally make it Ioan.

And my second name, Grillo, which in Spanish is Grillo.

Joe Rogan (0:29)

Right.

Ioan Grillo (0:30)

So everyone...

Joe Rogan (0:31)

They mess that up too if they see it spelled. Yeah. Pull this microphone about a fist from your face.

Ioan Grillo (0:35)

Yeah.

Joe Rogan (0:35)

Here we go.

Ioan. I don't think I've ever heard that name before.

Ioan Grillo (0:40)

There's an actor called Ioan Grufford.

Joe Rogan (0:42)

What is he in?

Ioan Grillo (0:42)

He's in Fantastic Four.

Joe Rogan (0:44)

Oh, really?

Ioan Grillo (0:45)

He's the stretchy guy.

Joe Rogan (0:46)

Oh, no shit.

Ioan Grillo (0:46)

In Fantastic Four. So yeah, he kind of... He's made that name a little bit more.

Joe Rogan (0:50)

A little bit more acceptable. How did you wind up living in Mexico City?

Ioan Grillo (0:56)

So I came to Mexico or went to Mexico in the year 2000

And I kind of messed around for a few years in the UK. Wanted to get into journalism.

So I found one way to get into it was to start working in a foreign country, rather than going to my local newspaper and work and go to a foreign country and start working. And I had a romantic idea about Latin America, thinking I'd be like... I saw the movie Salvador, you know, Oliver Stone's movie from the 80s. I kind of had a romantic idea about running around with grillers, fighting military dictatorship. So I arrived in Mexico in 2000 and got a job at an English language newspaper.

Joe Rogan (1:36)

How old were you?

Ioan Grillo (1:37)

27 when I first left the UK. Yeah, 28 when I... I messed around for a bit in Mexico as well and then got the job when I was 28

Joe Rogan (1:43)

Mexico City is a wild place.

Ioan Grillo (1:44)

Yeah, yeah.

Joe Rogan (1:45)

It's so packed. It's hard to... I've only been there twice for UFC events.

Ioan Grillo (1:49)

Yeah.

Joe Rogan (1:49)

But every time I'm there, I'm just shaking my head like I can't believe how this traffic works. It's crazy.

Ioan Grillo (1:53)

Yeah, 18 years and I've spent a lot of time in that traffic.

Joe Rogan (1:56)

Nobody cares about red lights, green lights. They don't care.

Ioan Grillo (1:59)

It's stressful. Everyone wants to cut you up all the time.

Joe Rogan (2:01)

Yeah.

Ioan Grillo (2:02)

People shout at you a lot. You have to get used to people calling you like, pendejo, cerdo.

I tried different tactics. Now just try and relax and not get angry.

Joe Rogan (2:11)

Did you know how to speak Spanish before you went there?

Ioan Grillo (2:13)

Yeah, yeah. So I spent one year in Spain, living in Spain before I went there. I spent a year in the Middle East as well.

And but yeah, I started off when I arrived, I spoke more to Spanish, Spanish, which is like, oye tío, coño, tío. And then I changed more to like the Mexican Spanish, which is like, oye wey, que paso wey.

Joe Rogan (2:33)

So when did you start getting into narco journalism?

Ioan Grillo (2:38)

So like I arrived to say with a romantic idea about what I might cover in Mexico or Latin America, and right away I realized all that idea of guerrillas and military dictatorships that had gone. That was the last century, Che Guevara, all that stuff had gone. But right away when I arrived, my very first, first back in the UK, I grew up around a lot of drugs in the UK. So going back to the 80s, I grew up with a lot of people taking drugs. I had a few friends who died from heroin overdoses back then, four people I knew died of heroin overdoses.

I had a sister who went, who became schizophrenic, smoking a lot of, a lot of, well no, she became schizophrenic and there'd be a lot of drugs being smoked around that time as well.

Joe Rogan (3:25)

Was it pot?

Ioan Grillo (3:27)

Yeah, back then it was Moroccan hashish.

Joe Rogan (3:30)

There is a connection, you know, and we've been exploring that a lot lately.

Ioan Grillo (3:34)