#1320 - Eric Weinstein

Joe Rogan (0:00)

think it's important when you recreate without bullshit.

It's very important when you recreate, you have no bullshit. So it's Eric Weinstein, not Weinstein.

Eric Weinstein (0:12)

Yeah, I think it was originally Weinstein.

Joe Rogan (0:14)

Weinstein?

Eric Weinstein (0:15)

Stein.

Joe Rogan (0:16)

Oh, Weinstein, German.

Eric Weinstein (0:18)

Yeah, but it was, we came from a town between Odessa and Kiev called Umein, and that's where the Weinstein family came from.

Joe Rogan (0:31)

We talked about how many people mispronounce Weinstein instead of Weinstein.

Eric Weinstein (0:38)

It's epidemic, and yet nobody ever says Albert Einstein.

Joe Rogan (0:43)

Yes, that's, yeah.

Eric Weinstein (0:45)

Strange, right?

Joe Rogan (0:46)

That is a weird one. The Einstein is, no, is there a guy named Mike Ein, like, oh, Mike Einstein, no, no, no, Einstein.

Is there a guy like that?

Eric Weinstein (0:55)

Do you remember the old, it was Blazing Saddles with?

Joe Rogan (0:59)

Sure, Mel Brooks.

Eric Weinstein (1:00)

Yeah, Mel Brooks, and Harvey Corman's character was Headley Lamar, and everyone would call him Heady Lamar, that was like the running joke in the picture.

Joe Rogan (1:10)

That's right. I fucking loved Mel Brooks' movies.

Eric Weinstein (1:13)

Do you remember the Yiddish-speaking Indians? That had to be the best.

Joe Rogan (1:16)

Oh yeah, that's right. He had some great movies, man. There's fun fucking movies, man.

Just silly, fun, outrageous movies.

Eric Weinstein (1:26)

Yeah, I mean, he was transitional, right? I guess it was the borscht belt being updated for the modern era.

Joe Rogan (1:31)

Yeah, into film, yeah. But it was also, it was, you know, for the time, much more contemporary, but with that sort of borscht belt, sort of sticky sort of.

Eric Weinstein (1:43)

Right, and the writers room, I guess, from Sid Caesar's Show of Shows, was this legendary factory before Saturday Night Live for all of these kind of crazy talents behind the scenes. I think he came out of that with Carl Reiner.

Joe Rogan (1:57)

Oh, that makes sense. He's, how old is Mel Brooks now?

Eric Weinstein (2:01)

I don't want to ask the question because maybe something will happen.

Joe Rogan (2:04)

I know, right? It's one of the, I think I saw recently that he turned 93, and I thought, shit, is he dead? Like Mel Brooks, you know, because they were saying all these great things, Mel Brooks, I'm like, fuck, do we lose Mel Brooks?

But it's like one of those things where it's gonna happen. I mean, he's 93

Eric Weinstein (2:24)

I know, but every time it does. I know.

I mean, I guess Betty White is another one of these people.

Joe Rogan (2:32)

Right.

Eric Weinstein (2:32)

Right?

And so we need these very exotic links to our past, and they become more important as time goes on if they're still vital. Because we want desperately to be connected to something before, you know, our current era, given that I think a lot of us sort of don't believe in anything that happened before Google.

Joe Rogan (2:52)

Right. Imagine Kids Today. Imagine trying to describe to Kids Today what it was like to grow up without the internet.

Eric Weinstein (3:00)

Yeah, or not being able to reach people. You have to make extensive plans.

Joe Rogan (3:04)

Yeah.

Eric Weinstein (3:04)

You know, backup plans. Well, if you're not there at this time...

Joe Rogan (3:08)

Yeah, you used to have to yell. Open up your window and yell for your friends.

I remember when I first got an answering machine. I thought it was the most amazing thing ever. When I was in high school, my family got an answering machine. And I was like, this is incredible. And you would leave like stupid music, like to let everybody know you were cool. Like you have some cool music. Like, hey, it's Joe, not here right now. But if you leave a message, I'll get back to you.

Eric Weinstein (3:31)

Probably. And then you've got like old people who are, I think someone in my family still has one of these cutesy messages from like the late 80s.

Joe Rogan (3:42)

Really?

Eric Weinstein (3:43)

Yeah, on their voicemail. But then who leaves voicemail? And the thing that gets, that marks me as an old person is that I actually call people.

Joe Rogan (3:49)

But that's, I like that. I've been doing that more lately.

Eric Weinstein (3:52)

Yeah.

Joe Rogan (3:53)

I call a lot of people now.

I just feel like it's just, it's better.

The texting thing, the problem is, if I, it's very interesting how we separated ourselves into this electronic communication world, where I will, during the day, be in communication almost constantly with a stream of people. The only thing that stops it is a podcast.