#2290 - Michael Kosta

Joe Rogan (0:01)

Joe Rogan Podcast, checking out The Joe Rogan Experience.

Michael Kosta (0:06)

Shrink by day, Joe Rogan Podcast by night, all day.

Joe Rogan (0:12)

Yes, sir, Michael. Good to see you, my friend.

Michael Kosta (0:14)

Thanks for having me, and really appreciate you showing me around. Wow, what a space you've created, man.

Joe Rogan (0:19)

Thank you.

Michael Kosta (0:20)

That's so cool. Keeps going. I was excited to show you the picture of my sauna, and then you show me, you got an archery. It's so cool, man.

Joe Rogan (0:30)

Thank you.

Michael Kosta (0:30)

That's so cool.

Joe Rogan (0:31)

It's fun. We were just singing John Stewart's praises before this started, but I'm so happy he's back at The Daily Show, and I'm so happy he makes fun of everything, and I'm so happy he still makes dick jokes. Yeah. You know, it's fun. It's like The Daily Show seems like The Daily Show again. Like, that guy is a very unique dude, very unique person, and one of the most important pieces to unify everybody. He's reasonable. Like, he gets the whole big picture. Like, let's stop being so fucking ridiculously tribal.

Michael Kosta (1:00)

In the morning meeting, he'll come in, and we're all sitting there, the writers, and he just kind of shuts the door behind him, and we start talking. But it's like a conversation with a college professor, but he's in charge, and it's beautiful. All sides. This. I disagree with that. What about this? And it's like, oh, wow, it's really fun to be a part of.

And then someone will yell out a dick joke, and then that joke will make it to the show, too. You know, it's like smart things and dumb things. That's beautiful.

Joe Rogan (1:28)

Well, he's never abandoned being a real comic, which is what got him to the dance in the first place. So he always has those instincts. And he's the very best at holding a line and making something even more preposterous just with a facial expression and pointing out these fucking unbelievably ridiculous in-your-face hypocrisies that we see every day from both sides.

Michael Kosta (1:54)

Yeah, from both sides. Have you ever done stand-up with him? Oh, yeah.

Joe Rogan (1:57)

We've done stuff together, like back in the day. Yeah. God, I can't remember the last time. I was supposed to do something with him at one of Dave's things that he was doing outside back in the day, but I never wound up doing it. But I definitely did stand up with him in the clubs back in New York. And I knew him way, way back in the day when he was on MTV.

Michael Kosta (2:18)

Yeah, I remember that. And I think I remember one of his books was called Naked Pictures of Famous People, which was great.

Joe Rogan (2:26)

He's a solid guy. He's a solid guy. I don't know if he's agree with him, but I don't always agree with everybody. I don't even agree with me.

Michael Kosta (2:33)

Isn't that good? Isn't that the point of this? It's like you want a couple of people to be mad sometimes.

Joe Rogan (2:38)

I also think we all as human beings need to be divorced from our ideas. Your ideas are not you. You are you. And ideas are things that you should consider. Ideas are something that you should... I mean, if it's going to have some sort of a real physical impact on your life and your family and your family's life, the people you care about, I understand. I understand why you get connected to things like that. But for the most part, most of these ideas don't affect you. A lot of them don't. And yet we're so ideologically captured that we fight for these ideas as if it's our very nature. You're talking about your essence as a human being.

And it's stupid.

Michael Kosta (3:16)

This reminds me of a time I left my joke book on a train in New York. And in the joke book I have, this book is important to me. Call me if you get this, you know? And this guy texted me and he says, I have this joke book. And you know, talk about your ideas. The joke book is the most unfiltered dumb idea ever. That's the beauty of it. And I said, man, I'm sure he's reading it.

You know, you're going to read it. You're going to read a stranger's joke book. And I connected with him. He was very kind. He gave it to me, but he kind of looked at me like, are you a comedian type thing? And I said, yeah. But it's terrifying when that idea gets attached to you when it was just a fleeting idea.