#2547 - Daniel Everett

**Joe Rogan** (0:01)
Joe Rogan Podcast, checking in.

**Daniel Everett** (0:03)
The Joe Rogan Experience.

**Joe Rogan** (0:06)
Trained by day, Joe Rogan Podcast by night, all day. Good to see you, sir.

**Daniel Everett** (0:14)
Good to be here.

**Joe Rogan** (0:15)
Thank you very much for doing this. I'm really excited to talk to you. I've been looking forward to this a lot.

**Daniel Everett** (0:19)
Thanks very much for having me.

**Joe Rogan** (0:21)
You have a very, very unique life story.
So I want to start with how did you be... You became... Let's lay it out for people. What got me interested in you is you became a Christian missionary, and then went to the jungle and met these people. Let me say this right, the Piedaha?

**Daniel Everett** (0:43)
Piedaha.

**Joe Rogan** (0:44)
Piedaha.

**Daniel Everett** (0:44)
Piedaha.

**Joe Rogan** (0:46)
And stopped being a missionary and lived with them for how long?

**Daniel Everett** (0:51)
Well, the total time that I lived with them is about eight years in the jungle with them over a period, but I've been working with them for 40 years. I go back a lot.

**Joe Rogan** (1:00)
Wow. But you lived with them for eight years, and during that eight-year time period, you kind of...
Is it safe to say you're an atheist?

**Daniel Everett** (1:10)
Yes, it's safe to say that.

**Joe Rogan** (1:11)
And so, let's take it back to the beginning. How did you become a missionary? Did you come from a religious family?

**Daniel Everett** (1:17)
No, I came from a very un-religious family. I was...
In fact, I was standing out in front of a Jimi Hendrix concert in 1968, trying to sell LSD to get in.
And this guy that I knew from high school that was really straight-laced came up with his sister. She was very cute. And so, I went up to try to sell them some LSD. They didn't use drugs. And so, I said, well, you got any change? I need to get some money to get into the concert. And I saw that she went to the same high school that I did. So, after the concert, which she didn't like, but I loved, I went to see her in high school. I went to set by her during lunchtime, and found out that she was a missionary and had been raised in Brazil. And that really intrigued me because it was the 60s, and I was, you know, didn't want to have just the typical US life, and living in the Amazon sounded really cool. But then I became, you know, a genuine, strong, believing Christian. I went to Bible school. I did my undergraduate degree in Bible and theology, and I was an ordained minister in the Wesleyan Church, and very active in church, and was preached on street corners, and did all that kind of thing.

**Joe Rogan** (2:30)
How did you make this transition from being a guy with a bag of acid in front of a Jimi Hendrix concert to?

**Daniel Everett** (2:38)
Well, her father, who had been a missionary now for 20 years, was the most influential person outside my family in my life. And he and I would sit up late at night talking. And, you know, I was 17, and I found everything he said to be very convincing and very interesting. But mainly, I loved his stories of the jungle, and what it was like to live in the jungle. And I wanted to do that. And I became a believer.
It was a gradual process. Well, actually, no, it wasn't that gradual. It was, my father was just astounded. He said, you know, from one minute, I'm worrying about you getting arrested, and now you're going to church every Sunday with these people I don't even know. He wasn't that happy about it.

**Joe Rogan** (3:20)
He'd rather you just get loaded in front of the Hendrix concert?

**Daniel Everett** (3:23)
Yeah, he would have, actually, because he was a heavy drinker and a construction worker, and he considered that to be part of the masculine experience, you know.

**Joe Rogan** (3:31)
But acid? Was acid okay with him?

**Daniel Everett** (3:33)
I don't think he knew I was doing acid. But he knew I was doing, you know, weed and things like that.

**Joe Rogan** (3:38)
And he didn't mind that?

**Daniel Everett** (3:40)
No, that was, he didn't want me doing it in the house, which I did. But...

**Joe Rogan** (3:44)
So your rebellion was to become an outstanding citizen and a Christian missionary?

**Daniel Everett** (3:49)
Right. That was my greatest form of rebellion against the life I had been leading, yeah.