Penn Jillette Has Never Done Drugs | Joe Rogan

But it's just that whole idea that you've got to, I mean, my life is so heavily affected by drugs, even though I had this whole, you know, I'm not going to do any drugs. Why did you have that decision? You know, I don't know. I don't know. That's always, and I've talked about this on my podcast forever, you know, I tried to ... How old are you now? I'm 64 years old. And you have no experience with drugs other than medication, radiation, surgery, right? Medication, medication, surgery. So, I mean, yes, and I've had deep enough injuries that I have experienced more. You just keep getting surgery because you love drugs. Exactly. Well, you know, Trey Parker said that my big flaw was never having been high. We can fix that. Sorry, I don't ... So he did fix that. Did he? He did a serious dental surgery, and they fucked up. And the dentist told the nurse what he had given me in terms of painkillers, and she took that as what she was supposed to give me. So instantly doubled the dose. And I was so fucking high and out of my mind ... People can die that way. Yeah. I pulled my wife through my haze of not knowing who I was, called Trey Parker. Trey came to Vegas and said, I want to sit with Ben High. So he flew in immediately while you were fucked up? Yeah. Oh my God. How long did it take him to get to you? He was planning on being there like ... He came like a day early. Oh, okay. So he got there like I was still high, and Trey said ... I didn't remember anything, and Trey said the next day, I was right. You should be high. Joe. Well, there's different kinds of high, just like there's different kinds of music. And you know I was very close to Lou Reed, and I was a very good friend of mine, and Lou said, speaking on behalf of the people of Earth, which I often do, we don't want to see you high, motherfucker, don't do it. So Lou says no, Trey says yes. What does Joe say? Well, Joe, this is interesting, because I wanted to talk to you about this, because we had a conversation a long time ago about this, and you said ... I remember this very clearly, I may paraphrase this, but you said, I think we've learned all there is to know, and I don't need to do it. Yes, I said that, and I was wrong. Yeah. Yeah, just wrong. I think you should experience psychedelics, because I think psychedelics are a totally different thing. They don't take you out ... But we know Sam Harris. Sure. And Sam Harris is the one who got me meditating. Oh, awesome. Which took him years of arguing with me, and now it's been three or four years that I have not missed a day. Not missed a day. You have a problem. Here's one of your problems. You're very intelligent, you're also very large, and you're very articulate, and people like to hear you talk. So you just can talk, and you can take over, you could overrun things, and you can make an argument that people just go, all right, okay, and they step back. That's good if you're trying to win an argument, but sometimes it's bad to take in ideas. And I remember when I had that conversation ... Perfect, exactly right. Thank you. When I had that conversation with you, I remember saying, I'm going to revisit this someday, and one day I want to get panned fucked up on mushrooms. That's what I remember thinking. It might be a good thing for ... Well, the best thing for you would be something that doesn't take very long, just so you can ... DMT is the best one, because it takes like 15 minutes, and it's over, and then your body brings it back to baseline almost immediately. So you literally travel to another dimension, and then you're back, and you don't have to worry about any overdosing, because it's an endogenous chemical. Your body knows exactly what to do with it. It's one of the quickest chemicals that your body can break down and bring back to baseline. In my defense, from the very beginning of my not doing drugs, which is an odd kind of baseline there, I always left a door open for psychedelics in the heart. What I disliked the most was wine with dinner. Really? I disliked the most social kind of lubrication. Wine with dinner is amazing. I'm doing this in past tense. That's where I always was, and I always left open the possibility of some of the more intense stuff. Wine with dinner is a delicious drug. It's one of the rare, delicious drugs. I like whiskey, but let's be honest. It tastes like shit. It's weird. You're drinking this stuff. It's like, ah, woo. It's got kind of a good flavor, but it's harsh. You can't drink it. It can't fuck with Kool-Aid. Kool-Aid tastes way better than whiskey. Kool-Aid's cheap. He just mix it up. It tastes delicious. It's way better tasting, but wine has a delicious taste that you can enjoy. Here's my problem, one of my many problems. We'll detail more than one, but I have no skill at moderation. I'm 64 years old, and I've never been able to do anything with moderation. So I think if you told me we're going to do acid for the rest of our lives every single day, you could make that argument. The idea for me that's hard, like I said, when I said I was meditated, I haven't missed a day. Maybe you should microdose. Yeah, maybe. We could give you a little right now, just a little spray. You do microdosing sprays. I'm not going to do it now. I want to think about it a little bit before, although it would be pretty boss. You tell me when. I'll open the box. You got the box right there. I got a box right here. So how often do you... I was going to answer that question. I have a zillion answers to why I've never done drugs, and none of them are, of course, true. I don't have access to that stuff that we really do. But my parents and my whole family and back generations, teetotalers, so there was never alcohol in the house, ever. I never saw my parents take a drink. When it was on TV, it was a totally different thing. It just didn't happen. I didn't... They never preached about it. They never said, don't drink. They never said, don't do drugs. It just never was in the house. And that statistically has a huge effect on people. And then the first people I fell madly in love with, Lenny Bruce, Jimi Hendrix, had been, in my mind, killed by drugs. And I kind of said, people that have this kind of personality, when they get into drugs, they sometimes have trouble. And I think that maybe being 19 years old and trying to get into show business, that maybe being the sober one allowed the dumber guy to do a little better. Because everybody else kind of got out of my way. Has ever fucked up some of the time, I could get other stuff done. And then that starts reinforcing. Let me no longer be valid.