#2171 - Eric Weinstein & Terrence Howard

Joe Rogan (0:12)

Gentlemen, here we go.

Terrence, thank you for coming back. It was a lot of fun having you on the first time. Obviously, a lot of people wanted to talk to you after they heard all these ideas of yours. And then my friend Eric reached out, and he said he would love to do it. Eric, one of my most brilliant friends, tell everybody your background, like your academic background so people understand what you...

Eric Weinstein (0:36)

Sure. So I'm a PhD in mathematics specifically, in mathematical physics.

I've had positions in economics, mathematics and physics departments at places like MIT, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Harvard, after my doctorate, Oxford.

And I'm a podcaster in part of...

Joe Rogan (1:00)

Very good podcaster. Bring it back to Portal.

Eric Weinstein (1:04)

You have a lot to do with all of these things, Joe.

Joe Rogan (1:07)

One of my favorite episodes of any podcast was your interview with Werner Herzog.

Eric Weinstein (1:10)

Oh man.

Joe Rogan (1:11)

That was a great episode.

Eric Weinstein (1:12)

Have you had him in here?

Joe Rogan (1:13)

I have not, but I would love to.

Eric Weinstein (1:14)

Because it seems to me like that's the conversation I want to listen to.

Joe Rogan (1:17)

I would like to corner him because I believe that Grizzly Man was a secret comedy.

I really do. There's something about the way he edited Grizzly Man. I'm like, this motherfucker is being funny on purpose. I know he is. I know he's like editing these short clips. So the guy's so ridiculous that you start laughing.

Eric Weinstein (1:35)

I didn't see it because I...

Joe Rogan (1:37)

You haven't seen Grizzly Man?

Eric Weinstein (1:38)

We have different tastes.

Joe Rogan (1:39)

How dare you?

Eric Weinstein (1:40)

By the way.

Joe Rogan (1:40)

It's a work of art.

Eric Weinstein (1:41)

I need to also just say that I was not... Terrence, I think, I heard him on TMZ. I was not looking for a debate. I wanted to make sure that Terrence had his position steel manned so that anything that he didn't know how to do within mathematics that was legit gave a chance to put his best foot forward before he got reviewed.

And I didn't ask to come on. You asked to have me on. I'm happy to do it because I'm a friend of the show.

Joe Rogan (2:09)

Well, you reached out about the episode specifically and I felt like if anybody could talk to Terrence and actually understand what they're talking about.

Terrence Howard (2:15)

Yeah, and after I watched the interview with you and Brian Keating, I realized that you weren't trying to eviscerate me or anything like that. You actually wanted to hear a well put together argument concerning these things. So I appreciated you taking the time to come and examine these things and love to hear yourself. But I wanted to say thank you to you Joe and for putting me on the show initially and for your audience, for how they responded and the support and the people that were against it because it raises the idea of critical thinking because that's what we're supposed to be doing at this crucial time is the critical thinking. So I thank all the haters and I thank all the supporters and I thank the people that's on the fence. And I'm hoping that today we can move people over to one side or the other.

Joe Rogan (3:07)

Well, at least we can better inform people. And Terrence, it's been really cool to meet you because I'd heard about you and you're an exceptional human being. You really are, you're very, very unusual. For a guy to be that good of an actor, I almost always dismiss them as being a moron.

Or at least crazy, or at least crazy. You know, like, but in a different kind of crazy, like you're super friendly and your recall's insane.

But I wanted you to talk to someone who's had a deep education in it. And let's see like what he believes about these ideas and maybe you guys can collaborate or just like, let's start from Eric, like what out of the podcast that I did with Terrence really stood out with you or something that you wanted to?

Eric Weinstein (3:52)

Well, what I thought is, I gotta have to be honest, I've been listening, I was not so happy with certain things that happened in the podcast. And then I started hearing the response to it. And I was much more infuriated by the response than anything I heard in the podcast, because I thought that a lot of people just use their position of greater formal education in some of these areas to be jerks and to be really dismissive and pretend that they couldn't understand things that you were saying.