#1282 - Adam Conover

SPEAKER_1 (0:08)

All right, cut all this out.

SPEAKER_2 (0:09)

Right, right, right, right.

Joe Rogan (0:11)

Hello, Adam.

Adam Conover (0:12)

Hey, thanks for having me, Joe.

Joe Rogan (0:13)

Thanks for being here, man.

Adam Conover (0:14)

Of course.

Joe Rogan (0:14)

I'm a giant fan of your show.

Adam Conover (0:16)

I really appreciate that.

Joe Rogan (0:17)

I love the fact that it annoys people, too.

Adam Conover (0:19)

It really pisses people off.

That's the goal, pretty much. I mean, I'm not the kind of person where I'm like, ah, if you're pissing people off, you're doing something right, but there's some truth to that.

Joe Rogan (0:27)

There's some truth to that. And also the way you structured the name. I mean, I don't know if you came up with the name of it, but Adam Ruins Everything.

Adam Conover (0:33)

I think I might have to give that to my former boss, Sam Reich of College Humor might have, I think, we came up with the name together. He might have been the first person to say it, but yeah.

Thank you. I'm really, yeah, it like lets you know, it lets you know that, hey, this is gonna annoy you a little bit. That like, I'm gonna be telling you shit that you don't wanna hear. That's gonna make everything a little bit worse, you know? But at the end of the day, it makes it better. It's an optimistic show at the end of the day.

Joe Rogan (0:56)

Yeah, yeah, you give them the truth.

Adam Conover (0:58)

I think that, yeah, I mean, the thesis of the show is that it's always better to know the truth. That it's momentarily uncomfortable, but hopefully, for most people, 99% of people who watch the show, it grinds your gears a little bit to find out something. Oh, I thought that was true at the, ah, crap, you know? But then at the end, we show you why you're actually better off knowing that thing. And you're always better off knowing the truth, in my view.

Joe Rogan (1:18)

In my view as well. Yeah. Was there ever, was there one episode that stands out as being one that people got the most upset about?

Adam Conover (1:25)

Whew.

Uh, there's a bunch of them. I mean, people get upset with us for a lot of different reasons. We did one about how breastfeeding isn't better than formula feeding.

SPEAKER_2 (1:39)

It's not?

Adam Conover (1:40)

No, they're both like, formula feeding is fine, you know? And the problem is formula feeding is becoming stigmatized now.

And there's a lot of people who can't breastfeed or who for medical reasons, you know, and the fact is that formula is like a scientifically proven wonderful way to feed a baby. And if, you know, someone's choice or need is to do that, there's no reason to stigmatize it. And we go through all the reasons that that's the case. And yeah, people get a little, you know, there's a lot of people who sort of have an ideology about that, you know, and don't want to hear the truth about it.

We did one about trophy hunting animals about how, cause people, you know, people get so mad. Oh, look at this guy, he shot a lion, right? And the truth is that in some countries, not 100% of the time, but in some countries, they are effectively using trophy hunting as a way to protect the animals, because, you know, that's how they're able to sort of like monetize, you know, in that place and, you know, get money coming in in order to protect the animals. And they're very specific and strategic about it. And it can be part of a good, you know, sort of animal management, you know, strategy, and it's being used to some success, you know? And yeah, people don't want to hear that, right? It's still really hard.

Joe Rogan (2:52)

That's a weird one to me, and I hunt.

Adam Conover (2:55)

Yeah.

Joe Rogan (2:57)

Yeah, the whole lion and elephant thing, like...

Adam Conover (3:00)

Right.

Joe Rogan (3:01)

Ooh, that's a weird one.

Adam Conover (3:02)

Well, what they can do is they can say, okay, well, we've got these elephants. One of these elephants is an old male that's like killing the other elephants, right?

And if we organize these hunts, where you gotta pay half a million dollars for the right to even go in there.

Joe Rogan (3:16)

Does that happen with old male elephants? I know that was the issue with that giraffe, that woman that got in trouble.

Adam Conover (3:22)

I don't know that specific case.