Sep 10, 2026 · 3h 12m
Joe Rogan and guests dissect the psychology of high-profile scammers and AI
#2552 - Ehsan Ahmad & Deric Poston
This episode connects the dots between historical scams, modern pharmaceutical dependency, and the looming societal shifts driven by artificial intelligence.
- 1High-profile scammers rely on calculated physical and vocal performances to exploit societal trust and secure massive influence.
- 2The rise of digital platforms like YouTube and Netflix has completely decentralized the comedy industry away from traditional gatekeepers.
- 3Rapid advancements in artificial intelligence threaten to erode individual cognitive abilities in favor of a digital hive mind.
Don't miss
The hosts use an AI assistant to simulate the unpredictable psychological effects of a PCP trip.
The brief
Comedians Ehsan Ahmad and Deric Poston join Joe Rogan to dissect the bizarre psychology of famous scammers, tracing how figures like Elizabeth Holmes use calculated performance and deep voices to manipulate elite circles.
The conversation moves from the deceptive tactics of modern grifters to the shifting dynamics of the comedy world, exploring how the era of network sitcoms has given way to decentralized, algorithm-driven success on Netflix and YouTube.
The trio also tackles the rapid evolution of artificial intelligence, debating whether the technology is leading humanity toward a collective hive mind while eroding individual cognitive capabilities and critical thinking.
In a bizarre turn, the hosts experiment with an AI assistant, prompting it to simulate the unpredictable effects of a PCP trip and answer highly controversial historical conspiracy theories.
Ultimately, the episode serves as a wide-ranging examination of modern anxiety, highlighting how digital subcultures, extreme cosmetic surgeries, and societal pressures reshape human behavior.
What was said on this episode
76 statements · 18 positive · 44 negative · 4 mixed · 10 neutral
Theranos’s blood-testing product did not work.
“it didn't work at all. It literally didn't work at all.”
Listen at 3:09
Google AI identified DeSean Love as a 49ers wide receiver.
“the initial Google AI would say DeSean Love is a wide receiver for the 49ers.”
Listen at 14:53
Pyramid schemes pay participants through money from recruited members.
“the more people you get to join up to this, they put in money, the more money you get out.”
Listen at 15:42
Victor Lustig sold the Eiffel Tower and nearly repeated the fraud.
“sold the Eiffel Tower, almost sold it twice.”
Listen at 19:01
Elizabeth Holmes will remain at risk after leaving prison.
“even when she gets out, her life is in danger.”
Listen at 20:00
Some SSRIs can eliminate sexual desire and orgasm.
“it doesn't just kill their sexual feeling, like they no longer orgasm, but they don't have any sexual desire anymore.”
Listen at 24:49
SSRI sexual dysfunction is unintended and does not affect everyone.
“it's an accidental side effect. It doesn't happen to everybody.”
Listen at 25:20
Government organizations benefit from social conflict and have influenced it.
“it has definitely influenced by government organizations and poisoned in a way where they benefit from us being at each other's throats.”
Listen at 30:23
The courthouse protest involving Lindsay Clancy is a government psychological operation.
“This is a psyop.”
Listen at 31:54
Having children substantially changes a person’s empathy.
“you have a level of empathy that's just different.”
Listen at 35:30
Creators should prioritize improving their work over ancillary promotion.
“Just concentrate on making that really good.”
Listen at 46:57
Carrot Top’s comedy is clever and funny despite its style.
“it's clever. Yeah, it's funny. Like, it's silly, funny comedy.”
Listen at 49:30
Constantly attacking others is a bad way to live.
“living your life attacking people and going after things like that, it's just not a way to live your life.”
Listen at 50:57
Killing a national leader during Ramadan may worsen terrorism or chaos.
“Maybe you shouldn't kill the leader of a country during fucking Ramadan.”
Listen at 51:52
The transition from rock to rap music appeared orchestrated.
“it was a very— it seemed orchestrated.”
Listen at 52:40
USAID specialized in regime-change activities.
“It really specialized in regime change.”
Listen at 54:18
A population that cannot read becomes vulnerable to enslavement.
“if you have a whole populace who doesn't read, you just have a populace of slaves.”
Listen at 56:32
Using ChatGPT for thinking is shrinking children’s brains.
“their brains are shrinking because they use ChatGPT to think for them.”
Listen at 56:36
AI integrated into glasses will eventually take over conversations.
“once it's integrated into our glasses and stuff, like it'll just take over our conversations 100%.”
Listen at 59:13
Human brains will eventually become electronic to counter AI takeover.
“I think the brain gives out and then the brain becomes electronic”
Listen at 59:39
Mind-reading technology will make politicians ineffective.
“Politicians will be completely ineffective.”
Listen at 1:01:41
AI systems have hundreds of agents communicate in chat rooms.
“they have hundreds of agents meet in chat rooms and talk.”
Listen at 1:05:38
Some AI systems are trained to behave ruthlessly in competitive tasks.
“they had been programmed, or at least they had been trained to be ruthless.”
Listen at 1:09:27
AI could automate resource extraction and construction through robots.
“AI could get to a point where it did all the resource It pulled all the minerals out of the ground, did everything with robots, all the construction.”
Listen at 1:11:54
AI and robots will replace humans in manufacturing, government, and resource management.
“AI takes over all of that.”
Listen at 1:14:12
Mind-reading technology would make criminal trials instantaneous.
“if you get to the point where we actually could read each other's minds and someone gets brought to trial, it would be instantaneous.”
Listen at 1:14:39
Fifty Shades of Grey normalized choking during sex
“I think choking has become a way more normal part of sex post those books for sure”
Listen at 1:20:02
Virginia Wade popularized the monster-erotica subgenre
“Wade fully propagated the subgenre called monster erotica”
Listen at 1:22:59
Non-binary identification among children fell after Twitter was purchased
“there's like a direct correlation between the purchase of Twitter and children identifying as non-binary drops off a cliff”
Listen at 1:29:19
Twitter removals caused users to self-censor political expression
“if you didn't go along with it, you'd be removed from Twitter. So you self-censored”
Listen at 1:30:00
Humor can expose audiences to outside perspectives and spark ideas
“Humor is a great way to spark ideas because people don't realize, like, they're being told outside perspectives when they're laughing”
Listen at 1:31:37
Current internet communication will probably disappear
“it's like a vestigial part of like internet communication that is gonna probably go away”
Listen at 1:34:54
Head-worn connectivity will fundamentally change social media
“It's gonna be social media, be a completely different thing”
Listen at 1:35:06
Focusing energy on loved activities improves progress toward goals
“if you have 100 units of energy and you devote them 100% to things you love and zero percent the things you hate, you will just naturally get way further in everything you're trying to do”
Listen at 1:37:08
Thoughts create either harmful or beneficial psychological energy
“with thoughts you create this horrible energy, but also with your thoughts you could create beautiful energy”
Listen at 1:40:49
Poor health habits increase negative mood and outlook
“if you feel terrible, if you feel like lethargic all the time, you're drinking every night, you're hungover every day, and you're not taking care of yourself, you have no energy, you're gonna be negative”
Listen at 1:41:40
Ehsan Ahmad uses exercise to alleviate sadness
“if I start to feel sad, I'll do like— I'll literally do like start doing some push-ups”
Listen at 1:43:30
Repeated thoughts strengthen the associated mental pathways
“I am rewarding these pathways by constantly thinking about them. I am giving— I'm strengthening them”
Listen at 1:46:44
Negative mental patterns can be replaced with positive ones
“you can replace them with good grooves”
Listen at 1:47:40
A 12-step program could help many people with depression
“I think depression is an addiction in the sense that like, I bet you if you had like Depressions Anonymous or whatever, or something like a 12-step program, it would help a lot of people”
Listen at 1:48:12
Consciousness continues elsewhere after the body dies
“When this ecosystem shuts down, it clearly goes somewhere else”
Listen at 1:50:33
People with severe brain damage may retain consciousness
“when someone's a vegetable, are they maybe conscious still”
Listen at 1:53:00
Genetic engineering will eventually alter people’s appearance
“they're gonna be able to change your genes, and they're gonna be able to like change the way you look”
Listen at 2:01:37
Parents will eventually customize children’s traits
“Your parents will be able to have like boutique children basically where they can be like, I want the kid have this, this, and that”
Listen at 2:01:42
Early genetically engineered children may have severe abnormalities
“the first few kids might turn out like monsters for sure, and then they'll figure it out”
Listen at 2:03:28
Cosmetic surgery complications can cause necrosis, sepsis, and death
“that tissue necrosis, like, you could die, and your blood can get sick. Like, you can, you know, sepsis”
Listen at 2:06:11
Prison can make inmates more violent criminals
“the worst-case scenario of what prison does to you. Yeah, turns you into a more violent criminal”
Listen at 2:10:38
Repeated hard sparring can cause brain damage
“I'm giving myself brain damage”
Listen at 2:12:03
People should avoid using PCP because its effects can become dangerous
“the best way to mess up is to not use PCP at all”
Listen at 2:15:55
The Dancing Israelis incident probably indicated undisclosed activity
“So there was probably something going on”
Listen at 2:22:27
The Dancing Israelis incident is not credible evidence Israel planned 9/11
“it does not constitute credible evidence that Israel or Mossad planned”
Listen at 2:23:32
Some actors allow harmful events when they expect strategic benefits.
“there's definitely been stuff that happens that they let happen because they know it's gonna be beneficial to them to let it happen.”
Listen at 2:27:54
The Oklahoma City bombing may have been deliberately allowed to occur.
“There's a lot of alleged stories about that with the Oklahoma City bombing. They allowed that to happen.”
Listen at 2:28:07
Fertilizer bombs cannot normally cause the Oklahoma City bombing’s level of damage.
“fertilizer bombs, they're not that potent. They don't have the kind of power to do the kind of damage that that one bomb did from a truck.”
Listen at 2:28:33
The Patriot Act reduced rights and autonomy by expanding ubiquitous government surveillance.
“we lost a lot of of our rights because of that. We lost a lot of autonomy as it became— government surveillance became ubiquitous.”
Listen at 2:29:36
The United States organized a coup that removed Ukraine’s elected president.
“we organized a coup and got that guy tossed out.”
Listen at 2:31:40
The 2012 NDAA authorizes indefinite detention without charge or trial in terrorism cases.
“2012 NDAA— indefinitely detain individuals, including potentially American citizens captured in connection with terrorist activities without charge or trial until the end of hostilities.”
Listen at 2:33:04
Authorities can define activities such as drug selling as terrorism convincingly.
“you can define a lot of things as terrorist activities if you're convincing enough, including selling drugs.”
Listen at 2:33:16
Marijuana may worsen psychosis risk for people predisposed to schizophrenia.
“some people who have a tendency towards schizophrenia already— don't, you know, I'm obviously no expert— I think there's something to that.”
Listen at 2:33:54
Marijuana safety requires allowing use, research, and information sharing.
“The only way to find out what to take and what not to take is to let people take it, let people do studies, let people share information.”
Listen at 2:36:56
Marijuana does not kill users, whereas alcohol does.
“Because it doesn't kill you and alcohol does, right? So why is that one legal?”
Listen at 2:37:55
Alcohol-focused Sixth Street venues and concrete surfaces promote severe fight injuries.
“you've developed a fighting arena with the worst possible arena. Like, it's all concrete. Everybody's getting head brain damage.”
Listen at 2:40:17
Full-time streaming turns streamers’ lives and relationships into performances.
“your whole life is performing. Your whole life you're in front of— like, even his girlfriend's a famous streamer, so like even your relationship is like a performance in a way.”
Listen at 2:43:19
Thousands of people now work as reality-style online streamers.
“Thousands and thousands of people do that job now. That's wild.”
Listen at 2:44:17
UAPs may be benevolent entities opposing hostile artificial intelligence.
“the UAPs we see are the John Connors coming to save us from the T-800s or whatever that are sent ahead.”
Listen at 2:46:45
Metropolis was a major filmmaking achievement of the 1920s.
“this is clearly— this is a massive feat of moviemaking in the '20s.”
Listen at 2:50:45
Critic scores are generally worthless or very poor.
“The fucking critic scores, dog shit.”
Listen at 2:53:18
Prominent contemporary pro-socialist figures are generally wealthy.
“the biggest like pro-socialist people right now are all like pretty rich.”
Listen at 2:55:41
A slow, unhealthy populace would be more useful to the ruling order.
“what would be more useful to the ruling order if the populace was slow and fat.”
Listen at 2:56:47
Religious participation is increasing because people need real-world social connection.
“I think like things like religion, like church attendance is going up, and like all these things are coming back because like, oh, I need real people to talk and connect with.”
Listen at 2:59:09
Personalized phone feeds trap users in harmful information bubbles.
“you get so locked into your phone, which is showing you what you want to hear, which is terrible for you.”
Listen at 2:59:34
Algorithmically specialized media leaves politics as people’s main common topic.
“the only thing we have in common is politics.”
Listen at 3:01:04
Most people currently are not having children.
“most people aren't having kids now. The majority of people, a lot, way less.”
Listen at 3:01:20
The Apostle Paul never personally met Jesus.
“Paul never even met Jesus.”
Listen at 3:03:28
Paul wrote his teachings decades after Jesus’s death based on a claimed vision.
“Paul wrote all this shit 20 years after Jesus was dead and said that he met Jesus in a vision.”
Listen at 3:03:32
Bible translations into accessible vernacular languages emerged around the 1500s.
“It wasn't until the 1500s that they had phonetically transcribed and translated the Bible into other languages. So, you could actually read it because it was all Latin back then, right?”
Listen at 3:06:17
Statements are attributed to the speaker as said on the episode and reflect their view at the time, not PodLume's. They are not advice.
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