#2379 - Matthew McConaughey

Matthew McConaughey (0:01)

Joe Rogan Podcast, check it out.

Joe Rogan (0:03)

The Joe Rogan Experience.

Matthew McConaughey (0:06)

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

SPEAKER_3 (0:14)

Good to see you.

Jamie (0:16)

My man.

SPEAKER_3 (0:16)

Hey.

Joe Rogan (0:17)

Hey. You, uh, you're a man of many talents, my friend. Tell me about this book.

SPEAKER_3 (0:27)

Poems & Prayers. Yeah, um, so I've been kind of writing.

Joe Rogan (0:33)

Try to keep this like, these are a little bit directional.

SPEAKER_3 (0:36)

How's that? I've been kind of, I've been writing Poems & Prayers down for, since I was like 18 Um, and then this last, I don't know, couple years, I started looking around at life and the facts and evidence and people and I was like not finding the amount of things or people to believe in that I was wanting to. And I was starting to have doubt to myself as well. And I started to see myself slip into a little bit of cynicism, which I promised myself that's, that no, that's a living man's disease, don't go there. You go from innocence to naivety to skepticism, but let's stop there, skepticism. And I kinda got scared and a little pissed off at myself. I was like, wait a minute, I'm not ready to give up, I'm not ready to wave the white flag and let myself off for certain things I was starting to even want to let myself off on or other people. And I said, all right, Poems & Prayers, those are ideals, those are pursuits that's going to the dream and saying, let's go to, let's look at the dream and see if we can still believe in making that a reality.

Joe Rogan (1:49)

Aspirational.

SPEAKER_3 (1:50)

Instead of looking at reality and saying, how do you turn that into a dream? Which is what I usually do. I'm like, art emulates life, man, not the other way around. But I flipped the script a little bit here and said, no, no, let's dive into the dreams. And belief, man, I think it's in short supply. It was getting, my tank was getting low on belief. Not just in-

Joe Rogan (2:08)

What was bothering you so much? What specifically?

SPEAKER_3 (2:12)

Maybe it's turning 50, something like that. Maybe it's that where I start to project, you know, what's the next half?

Joe Rogan (2:20)

Right.

SPEAKER_3 (2:21)

I don't know. Maybe subconsciously it was. I think I look around and there's a lot fewer leaders that I'm like, hey, son, I want to grow up like that.

Joe Rogan (2:34)

Right.

SPEAKER_3 (2:34)

I look around, I see people not trusting. I see people that aren't embarrassed for doing something shitty.

Jamie (2:45)

Right.

SPEAKER_3 (2:46)

I see people that sleep just fine. I found myself starting to go, oh, I can sleep fine, too. That's that part where I was like, uh-uh. You can't-

don't sleep fine if you half-ass that situation. Or if you did that person wrong and can get away with it. Right. Um, and so- so trust, uh, what a- where do we look to for belief? Me, I believe in God, but it doesn't have to be that. What's your- your better self, your chance in itself, your kids, their future?

Joe Rogan (3:17)

Um, there's all kinds of things to believe in.

SPEAKER_3 (3:19)

Humanity itself. Yeah.

Joe Rogan (3:19)

Yeah.

SPEAKER_3 (3:20)

Believing in it, our potential.

Joe Rogan (3:23)

Which is- we understand that humans can be so amazing at times. And all my favorite people are humans. Like all- all the- I love people. I love being around them. But yet, simultaneously, people can be fucking horrific. They're terrible at the same time.

Like, the problem today is that you're inundated by these people that are terrible. your phone is filled with these news feeds of people doing terrible things. And I don't think we're supposed to have access to 8 billion people's bad stories. I don't think that's normal. And I think that also changes your own perception of the world and invites cynicism. like, what is the point of being a good person? What is the point of being friendly and nice when the world's gone mad?

SPEAKER_3 (4:15)

Well, it's consequences, man. None of it. If I can short cut it, and latch heat and steel to get the same thing. And I'm in a world that rewards that.

Joe Rogan (4:23)

Especially CEOs. I mean, if you're working for some giant corporation, if you're trying to make your shareholders billions of dollars, like, yeah, you kind of have to be a psycho. And those are the people that a lot of people look up to.