Joe Rogan Experience #2575 - Sam Tallent
Comedian and novelist Sam Tallent joins Joe Rogan to talk about his hitman novel Brute, the grind of road comedy, ignoring online noise, book picks, fitness basics, and Rogan's warning that AI is coming fast.
The gist
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Tallent recommends Rogue Male, Denis Johnson's Angels and Butter, and says start Cormac McCarthy with No Country for Old Men, saving Blood Meridian.
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Rogan tells comics to treat attention as 100 units and skip comments, since both praise and hate steal focus from the work.
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Tallent says he lost 120 pounds by quitting drinking, then using Mounjaro with guidance from his doctor wife, and does 50 Hindu squats daily.
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Rogan suggests starting small: dead hangs for shoulders and spine, 10 push-ups and 10 squats daily, plus Hindu push-ups, building up over months.
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Rogan predicts AI will take many jobs within 5 to 10 years, calls it a digital life form, and urges people to unite.
"Rogue Male's a book that was forgotten... It's about a guy who's trying to assassinate Hitler on Hitler's compound... I don't want to ruin the ending, but I think you'd love that book, dude. Rogue Male is a heater."
▶ Play at 1:28:15"If anyone out there's listening and they want to read a really good book, Angels by Denis Johnson is about a bank robbery gone awry and it might be the most beautiful, ugly, bleak thing and it's my favorite book ever."
▶ Play at 1:28:45"Japanese fiction is [ __ ]... There's all these books about like women who eat each other. Butter is an insane novel."
▶ Play at 1:23:36"Or just read No Country for Old Men. Like get someone into Cormac McCarthy... Start with No Country for Old Men and then get a feeling of how Cormac writes."
▶ Play at 1:29:26"Finish up when you're done with all of his work and then finish up with Blood Meridian, which is the best book we've produced."
▶ Play at 1:29:41"So I quit drinking and then I got on Mounjaro... I took it because it sounded like Italian food. And then my wife, who's a doctor, was like very heavily involved in my weight loss, so I think I did it the right way."
▶ Play at 1:35:42"I do 50 Hindu squats a day... That's like the only thing I do because I'm scared that my knees will lock up."
▶ Play at 1:38:46
Joe Rogan recommends it
"You should hang from a chin-up bar. Very important. Grab your chin-up bar with your hands and hang with your body weight... so that your shoulders don't become impacted... One of the things that hanging does also decompresses your disc, so it helps your back."
▶ Play at 1:37:443 creators recommend it, including Andy Galpin. and Peter Attia.
See all on the Dead hang page
Joe Rogan uses it
"Hindu push-ups is like a bomber push-up. Like your butt goes in the air and you swoop down... They're really good... I love those. I do those all the time. And it also it's just like good for like spinal flexibility."
▶ Play at 1:39:13What they recommend · 21 picks
Health & fitness
7 picks · Joe Rogan and Sam Tallent
"You should hang from a chin-up bar. Very important. Grab your chin-up bar with your hands and hang with your body weight... so that your shoulders don't become impacted... One o..."
"One of the challenges was we had to do 15 90-minute hot yoga sessions in a month... I felt so relaxed and so nice and so kind and calm... there's something about it that it's li..."
"It's one of the reasons why I like bow hunting. It's a lot of pressure. It's very difficult to do... And those elk don't give a [ __ ] that you have the number one podcast in th..."
Joe, Andrew, Mark and Rhonda agree on 42 things
See what they all use, in their own words. Paid ads are left out.
See what they all swear by Or pick your own peopleBooks
6 picks · Joe Rogan and Sam Tallent
"I'm really into the Gray Man series and Jack Carr... It's all about an assassin. And you would enjoy it. Read Gray Man one. Mark Greaney... He bangs one out every year. And they..."
"Japanese fiction is [ __ ]... There's all these books about like women who eat each other. Butter is an insane novel."
"Rogue Male's a book that was forgotten... It's about a guy who's trying to assassinate Hitler on Hitler's compound... I don't want to ruin the ending, but I think you'd love tha..."
Media & entertainment
4 picks · Joe Rogan and Sam Tallent
"Former Navy SEAL. He wrote the book The Terminal List... The Terminal List is a [ __ ] great book... There's a lot of corruption, government corruption, but it's really well wri..."
"Or just read No Country for Old Men. Like get someone into Cormac McCarthy... Start with No Country for Old Men and then get a feeling of how Cormac writes."
"Twilight Zone. Yeah, man. God, those are good. Those hold up, man. You like Black Mirror? Put on an old Twilight Zone."
Other picks
4 picks · Joe Rogan and Sam Tallent
"Write down a list of the stuff you have to do... You have an iPhone, one of the cool things about the Notes app is you can make a little checklist, and so you write those things..."
"My buddy Jordan Harper writes these insane books about like Hollywood pedophile networks and like white supremacist biker gangs and they're bad to the bone."
"You ever play that game Cities: Skylines? You have to put in the pipes to move the water along. I've been on stage, sold out, killing, and I'm thinking of grid patterns in my he..."
Joe Rogan
11 picks · host
"I'm really into the Gray Man series and Jack Carr... It's all about an assassin. And you would enjoy it. Read Gray Man one. Mark Greaney... He bangs one out every year. And they..."
"Former Navy SEAL. He wrote the book The Terminal List... The Terminal List is a [ __ ] great book... There's a lot of corruption, government corruption, but it's really well wri..."
"You should hang from a chin-up bar. Very important. Grab your chin-up bar with your hands and hang with your body weight... so that your shoulders don't become impacted... One o..."
Sam Tallent
10 picks · guest
"Japanese fiction is [ __ ]... There's all these books about like women who eat each other. Butter is an insane novel."
"My buddy Jordan Harper writes these insane books about like Hollywood pedophile networks and like white supremacist biker gangs and they're bad to the bone."
"Rogue Male's a book that was forgotten... It's about a guy who's trying to assassinate Hitler on Hitler's compound... I don't want to ruin the ending, but I think you'd love tha..."
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