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Elon Musk created quite a stir when he appeared on comedian Joe Rogan’s podcast Thursday night, smoking weed and sipping whiskey.
During the episode, which was filmed and shared on the 51-year-old funnyman’s Instagram page, the Tesla founder puffed on a joint. He claimed, however, that he’s not a regular marijuana user.
‘I’m not a regular smoker of weed. Almost never,’ he said.
Joe Rogan invited Elon Musk to appear on an episode of The Joe Rogan Experience, during which they smoked weed and drank together
Elon Musk puffed a joint as he rambled on a Thursday episode of The Joe Rogan Experience
‘I don’t actually notice any effect. I know a lot of people like weed, and that’s fine, however I don’t find it’s very good for productivity.’
Joe and Elon also shared some whiskey before the controversial tech genius launched into a tirade about a past meeting he took with President Obama. He claimed he did it ‘for one reason’, which was to warn him of the dangers of artificial intelligence.
Elon also opened up about his past, recalling the moment he realized he wasn’t like other kids.
‘I thought I was insane,’ he said, adding that he kept his ‘never-ending explosion of ideas’ under wraps to avoid being ‘taken away’ from his parents.
Joe has been criticized for having Elon on the podcast and the behaviour the two exhibited during their chat. Elon recently falsely claimed he was privatizing Tesla in a deal with Saudi Arabia and doubled down on calling a Thai rescue diver a pedophile.
‘Black kids are still being arrested for smoking weed in many of America’s cities, but Elon Musk and Joe Rogan are sitting here smoking blunts on camera in California. Marijuana should be legal in all 50 states,’ one Twitter user wrote.
Another said: ‘By ignoring every Elon Musk controversy, Joe Rogan is implicitly saying they don’t matter.’
Not everyone was unimpressed, however.
Ross Gerber tweeted: ‘By the way. The podcast was amazing. Smoking pot and drinking is quite common in California and it’s legal. Stop being so lame. Listen to it. Very very fun and interesting. @JoeRogan is great and funny. And Elon is brilliant. I loved it.’
What else do you need to know about Joe Rogan? Find out below.
Who is Joe Rogan?
Joe Rogan, born August 11, 1967 in Newark, New Jersey, is a stand-up comedian, martial arts commentator and podcast host.
His career in comedy started in 1988 in Boston, Massachusetts. He moved to New York City in 1990 and began performing there before relocating to Los Angeles, California and signed a deal to appear in Hardball and NewsRadio while working in comedy clubs.
In 1997, Joe started working for the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) as a commentator.
He continued working on his comedy routine, releasing his first special in 2000. Since then, seven others have followed.
The Joe Rogan Experience podcast launched in 2009. It’s since become one of the most popular podcasts out.
Joe Rogan net worth
Joe Rogan’s net worth is $25 million (£19.3m), according to Celebrity Net Worth.
Elon Musk on Joe Rogan
Elon Musk appeared on the Joe Rogan Experience podcast on Thursday. During the interview, Elon smoked marijuana and drank whiskey while talking about Tesla, his other projects, personal and business connections and his childhood.
For much of the interview, Elon appeared to be rambling.
On Tesla, which recently dropped significantly in value amid several controversies involving the founder, and his other companies he said: ‘It’s quite hard to run companies. Especially car companies. It’s quite challenging. Space X is no walk in the park, but it’s very difficult to keep a car company alive.
‘There is only two car companies in the history of American car companies that haven’t gone bankrupt and that’s Ford and Tesla. That’s it. We barely survived.’
Elon admitted, however, that Tesla came ‘very close’ to folding.
The company has lost a quarter of its value since August 7, the same day Elon tweeted that he’d arranged funding to privatize Tesla. He abandoned the plan by August 24, but is now facing lawsuits and an investigation from the US Securities and Exchange Commission into the accuracy of his tweet.
Elon and Joe also discussed the threat of artificial intelligence.
Asked if he was ‘honestly and legitimately’ worried about AI, Elon said: ‘It’s not necessarily bad, but it’s definitely going to be outside of human control.
‘You’re already a cyborg, and most people don’t even realize. That phone [in your hand] is an extension of yourself.’
Elon added that he took a meeting with former President Obama with the sole purpose of warning him about AI.
The Tesla founder spoke a bit about his childhood, revealing that he realized he was different early on and feared he ‘was insane’. He coped by keeping his thoughts a secret as he feared authorities may take him from his family.
Is The Joe Rogan Experience on Spotify?
The Joe Rogan Experience is not available on Spotify. The streaming service does not have a licensing deal with Joe.
The comic has been critical of the platform on many occasions as well, though it’s unclear whether that has anything to do with him not being on the service.
You can listen to The Joe Rogan Experience on Stitcher, Apple’s podcast app or Google Podcasts.
Joe Rogan tickets
Joe Rogan is heading out on tour on September 13. The first show will be in Darby, Pennsylvania at 7:30pm ET.
Tickets for all the shows are still available. You can find ticket information and more on Joe’s website.
Who is Elon Musk?
Elon Reeve Musk was born June 28, 1971. He’s an entrepreneur, known best for his work with Tesla, SpaceX, Neuralink and PayPal.
He was born in Pretoria, South Africa and taught himself computer programming at a young age. At 17, Elon moved to Canada to attend college.
Eventually he transferred to the University of Pennsylvania.
PayPal, which he co-founded, was one of his first big creations. eBay bought the company for $1.5 billion in October 2002.
He founded SpaceX in 2002, serving as CEO and lead designer. He helped fund Tesla and became CEO of that company in 2003.
Elon Musk was married to Canadian author Justine Wilson in 2000. They separated in 2008.
During their marriage the couple’s first child, Nevada Alexander Musk, died of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) after 10 weeks.
The pair later had five boys through in vitro fertilization. Two of their sons are twins and three are triplets.
They were born in 2004 and 2006 respectively.
Elon dated Talulah Riley in 2008 and married her in 2010. They split in 2012, however.
Elon and Talulah remarried in 2014 only to file for divorce again in 2014. The action was withdrawn until 2016 when divorce proceedings were reported to be under way again.
After that relationship was over, Elon started dating Amber Heard. They called it quits after a year. He then started dating Grimes in 2018, but have since ended the relationship.
Elon Musk net worth
Elon Musk’s net worth is reportedly about $19billion (£14.6billion).
Tesla stocks
Tesla stocks dropped nine per cent on Friday. The drop brought the company’s value down $3.1billion.
