Woody Harrelson

High-Level Overview

Actor, playwright and activist Woody Harrelson, in Austin to promote his deep-sea survival film Last Breath, sits down with Joe Rogan for a rambling, good-natured conversation driven by a shared distrust of institutions. They start with the blowback from Harrelson's Saturday Night Live monologue, which he says was really about profiteering, and move through COVID mandates and media coverage, war and the military-industrial complex, cannabis prohibition and psychedelics, private prisons, UFO testimony, chess with Magnus Carlsen and Willie Nelson, raw vegan eating, and toxins in the food supply.

The tone is warm and conspiratorial in the friendly sense, with two old fans of each other's work trading stories, jokes and indignation. Rogan does most of the talking on health policy and media, while Harrelson brings personal anecdotes, including a remarkable moment with Jimmy Carter. The conversation swings between politics, personal philosophy and offbeat tangents, returning again and again to one theme: follow the money.

The Discussion Explores:

• Profiteering as the root problem: from Pfizer's pandemic revenue to wars that make a few people rich.
• Carter and the October surprise: what Jimmy Carter privately told Harrelson.
• COVID mandates, masks and media trust: Hollywood sets, the Robert Malone interview backlash and the collapse of legacy news.
• Division versus common ground: why outrage sells and why a smile can change an interaction.
• Cannabis, psychedelics and victimless crimes: prohibition's history, private prisons and psychedelics as compassion builders.
• Ego, success and moderation: Rogan on voluntary adversity and why the key to all things is moderation.
• UFOs and chess: Bob Lazar, Travis Walton and Harrelson's opening move for Magnus Carlsen.
• Food, health and farming: raw living food, fasting, glyphosate in Girl Scout cookies and regenerative agriculture.

Deep Dive into Main Ideas

The SNL Monologue and the Problem of Profiteering

Harrelson says his SNL monologue drew heavy blowback, but insists it was "really about profiteering." Even if you believe a war or a crisis is necessary, he asks, why should anyone make enormous sums from it, citing Pfizer's roughly $100 billion in 2021. Rogan agrees that profiting off everything is "the dirtiest aspect of human beings" and that people will prolong crises to extend the profits.

Harrelson points to history: Richard Nixon's campaign interfering with Lyndon Johnson's 1968 Vietnam peace efforts, which Rogan confirms by reading an account of Johnson being warned by the FBI, and the alleged "October surprise in which Reagan's side supposedly urged Iran not to release American hostages before the 1980 election. Harrelson, who calls Jimmy Carter the best president of his lifetime, tells of meeting Carter a few years ago and asking him directly. Carter told him he had never talked about it publicly, but we did still have people in the White House after we left who confirmed it was true. Harrelson also believes Carter's windfall profits tax on gouging oil companies cost him a second term, because every president must kiss the ring."

The pair extend the theme to war more broadly. Harrelson cites millions of deaths in Korea and Southeast Asia and says the U.S. has "become masters of war" for the benefit of the rich. As one of them puts it, "if war weren't so lucrative, there'd be a lot less of it." Rogan adds that the drive for more is pointless in a short life: "You got 80 summers."

COVID, Mandates and the Media

Harrelson thanks Rogan for his Robert Malone interview, saying most critics never listened to it, and says he wanted to sit down with Joni Mitchell and Neil Young and hand them Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s book. He calls mandates "fascistic behavior" and says the "last two entities on earth I would trust with my health" are Big Pharma and big government. He describes Atlanta film sets where every crew member had to be vaccinated and boosted on a strict six-month schedule, and says he refused to wear masks on set because he hadn't been sick in years; he even filmed an 11-second video blowing cannabis smoke through a mask to show how it passes through.

Rogan makes a series of claims about the pandemic response, including that Malone's warnings have been vindicated, that vaccinating during a pandemic with a non-sterilizing vaccine encourages variants, that PCR tests produced many false positives, and that early treatments were suppressed; these are his views as stated on the show. He argues the biggest casualty was trust in legacy media, whose ratings are collapsing, calling cable news a format built on "three talking heads yelling at each other" before commercials for antidepressants. He praises independent journalists like Matt Taibbi, Michael Shellenberger and Glenn Greenwald, and X's Community Notes as a better answer to misinformation than government censorship. Harrelson is struck to learn the term "malinformation," true information deemed harmful, which he calls straight out of 1984.

Rogan recalls his debate with CNN's Sanjay Gupta and the channel's treatment of his ivermectin use, and his interview with Peter Hotez, questioning public health messaging that never urged people to lose weight, exercise or eat better. Both express hope that RFK Jr. will push for real safety trials, removal of vaccine liability protections and his "make America healthy again" agenda, and Rogan praises Kennedy's The Real Anthony Fauci for its account of AZT during the AIDS crisis.

Common Ground, Smiles and Tribalism

In a gentler stretch, Harrelson describes instantly judging a stranger as an asshole, catching himself, and then being disarmed when the man smiled at him. All you sometimes need, he says, is to generate a smile on the other person's face. Rogan builds on this: a person isn't fixed; "they're who they are when they interact with you." The problem, he argues, is that in media and politics "there's no currency in common ground," because division builds momentum, even though most people want the same things: safety, health, friends, family and love.

Rogan emphasizes that he likes many individual journalists at the New York Times and CNN; the problem is institutions funded by the industries they should be covering. He urges listeners not to go tribal, describing angry partisans on both sides as "sad lost angry people" whose real grievances trace back to corporations and money. Harrelson says he mostly avoids news and social media to protect his peace, admitting it keeps him somewhat ignorant but joking that ignorance is bliss.

Cannabis, Psychedelics and Victimless Crimes

Harrelson, who owns a cannabis dispensary in Los Angeles and brings Rogan a gift of Northern California flower, argues for federal legalization and for the principle of consensual, victimless crime: "Anything I do that hurts you or your property. Otherwise, there's no crime." Rogan traces prohibition to 1930s propaganda from Harry Anslinger and William Randolph Hearst, noting it rose after alcohol prohibition ended, and ties drug laws to private prisons and prison guard unions profiting from incarceration. Harrelson says the documentary 13th first made him see prison labor as a form of slavery.

Rogan argues that Nixon's 1970 scheduling of psychedelics was aimed at crushing the anti-war and civil rights movements, and that psychedelics foster compassion, which is why they threaten an us-versus-them culture. He recommends John Marco Allegro's The Sacred Mushroom and the Cross and Brian Muraresku's The Immortality Key, describing the eerie feeling of visiting Eleusis in Greece, where he believes ancient rituals involved ergot-laced wine. Harrelson calls psychedelics "God's little helper," and they joke about spiking a congressional punch bowl and about Graham Hancock's suggestion that leaders should be required to have psychedelic experiences.

Ego, Success and Moderation

Asked how he keeps his ego in check at the top, Rogan says he stomps on it through workouts, martial arts and cold plunging: "I put myself through voluntary adversity." Putting himself through more than life throws at him keeps him balanced and aware of his weaknesses. He values gratitude and mindfulness while lamenting that good concepts get co-opted by people with wooden beads, just as megachurch pastors in private jets turn people off religion.

He shares that he didn't smoke cannabis until 23 because he feared becoming a loser, having grown up around people with drug problems, and says he remains hypercritical of himself but tries not to feed either insecurities or delusions of grandeur. On vices, his philosophy is simple: Big Macs, Doritos and whiskey are terrible for you but fine occasionally, because "the key to all things is moderation." Harrelson jokes that Rogan should run for president; Rogan declines, noting you'd never get a lazy morning in bed.

Stories: Rick Ross, Kids for Cash and Afghanistan's Poppies

Rogan recounts the story of "Freeway Rick Ross, the illiterate but disciplined Los Angeles cocaine dealer who, he says, was unknowingly tied to Iran-Contra funding, learned to read in prison, taught himself law and won his release. He also highlights his friend Josh Dubin's work freeing wrongly incarcerated people and the Pennsylvania kids for cash" judge who sent children to detention for kickbacks. Harrelson proudly shares that his daughter is a public defender in Manhattan. They also note that Afghanistan produced over 90% of the world's illicit opium during the U.S. occupation, and joke that maybe you should follow the drugs instead of the money.

UFOs, Chess and Willie Nelson

Rogan explains that his biggest podcast was with Bob Lazar, who has claimed since 1989 that he reverse-engineered alien propulsion at Area 51's S4 site. Rogan says he doesn't know what to believe, but notes Lazar has told the same story for decades and that recent Navy videos show craft behaving as Lazar described. He also recounts Travis Walton's abduction story and Harvard psychiatrist John Mack's work on abductees, which Harrelson has read.

Rogan relays that Magnus Carlsen told him Harrelson once made an opening move for him that turned out to be legitimate. Harrelson explains the famous mix-up: he misheard a whispered move, jokingly tipped the king over and then played it anyway. They praise Carlsen for forcing a dress-code change after being penalized for wearing jeans, and Harrelson says he used to beat his friend Willie at chess until Willie steered their matches to dominoes, where he crushes him.

Raw Food, Terrain Theory and Toxic Cookies

Harrelson explains that he is vegan and believes most in raw living food, arguing that enzymes are the food's life force and that cooking over 118 degrees destroys them, along with much of the nutrition. He takes niacin and ginseng, likes medicinal mushrooms, and considers fasting the best way to restore health, describing disease as congestion that begins in the colon. He also favors Antoine Béchamp's terrain theory, that health depends on your internal environment, over Louis Pasteur's germ theory, calling Pasteur a charlatan who took credit for others' ideas. Rogan suggests it's likely both, crediting sanitation and antibiotics while warning about overuse and MRSA, and recommends Defense Soap, a natural soap he uses daily to prevent skin infections from grappling.

Rogan reads a report claiming 100% of tested Girl Scout cookies contained glyphosate and most contained heavy metals, and argues food safety standards themselves need to change. They close on regenerative agriculture, with Rogan praising Joel Salatin and Will Harris of White Oak Pastures, whose soil sample in the studio is dark and rich next to pale industrial soil, while acknowledging cities still depend on factory farming. Both end on a hopeful note that people are more informed than ever.

Conclusion

This is a loose, friendly hang between two longtime admirers who share a deep suspicion of anyone profiting from human suffering, whether through war, pharmaceuticals, prisons or processed food. Harrelson's Carter anecdote and his reflections on kindness and smiles are highlights, while Rogan supplies extended commentary on COVID, media and psychedelics that reflects his well-known positions. Beneath the tangents about UFOs, chess and Girl Scout cookies runs a consistent message: look for common ground, practice moderation, question institutions, and always follow the money. Fans of either man will find it an easygoing, entertaining listen.

This is a summary of "Woody Harrelson" from The Joe Rogan Experience, giving you the GIST so you can decide if you want the REST. Listen to the full episode.