Latest / The Joe Rogan Recap / RZA (2026) - Martial Arts, Momentum and the Mastery of Will

Transcript

RZA (2026) - Martial Arts, Momentum and the Mastery of Will · The Joe Rogan Recap

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  Welcome to the Joe Rogan Recap and before we get going, please
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  follow us right here on Spotify to make sure you get sight of
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  our latest episodes in your feed.
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  Absolutely. It really helps us out.
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  So today we are taking a deep dive into what I can only
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  describe as a sprawling, deeply philosophical conversation.
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  We're looking at the source material from Joe Rogan and the
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  hip hop legend filmmaker RZA. Yeah, and the mission for
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  today's deep dive is really to extract the most profound
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  insights from the well, it's a massive block of a conversation.
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  It really is. We're going to navigate from the
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  internal mechanics of, you know, personal willpower and Shaolin
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  philosophy, and then we're taking that all the way out to
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  the dark realities of the modern medical and tech industry.
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  Right, the macro stuff. Exactly.
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  And finally, we'll land on a debate about what constitutes
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  absolute authenticity in a world that is just, well, increasingly
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  synthetic. It's such a fascinating
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  trajectory because they really start by looking at the
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  microcosm of the individual mind and body, right?
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  And then they use that foundation to diagnose the
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  macrocosm of global society. Yeah, And for you listening
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  right now, whether you were just trying to find the motivation to
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  drag yourself to the gym today or maybe you're wondering about
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  the hidden costs behind the smartphone in your hand, this
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  deep dive is custom tailored for you to get those aha moments.
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  For sure, before we can even talk about fixing the broken
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  systems of the world, the sources make it very clear that
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  we have to talk about mastering ourselves first.
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  Right, they ground the entire concept of willpower in physical
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  biology. Which is a crucial distinction
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  because, you know, we often treat willpower as this vague,
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  purely psychological trait. Like, oh, either you have it or
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  you don't. Yeah, like a personality quirk
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  or something. Exactly.
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  But RZA introduces this core concept from Shaolin philosophy
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  regarding chi, or vital energy. He explains that chi actually
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  travels through the bloodstream. Oh wow.
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  Yeah. So when you engage in intense
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  physical movement, you're literally forcing oxygen into
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  your blood, which then energizes every vessel and Meridian in
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  your body. It's a biological mechanism that
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  is required for mental clarity. That makes so much sense.
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  And he shares this incredible anecdote about his Sifu.
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  Right, His Shaolin mask. Oh yeah, the guy in his 60s.
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  Yeah, this is a man in his 60s who works out six times a day,
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  and he can still bend over and kiss his own toes.
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  Unbelievable. And the golden rule this master
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  lives by is just incredibly strict.
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  He says if you don't exercise before breakfast, you don't eat.
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  He's directly tying a basic survival need, like eating
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  directly to physical discipline. It it's intense, but it works.
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  OK, let's unpack this. Because if the human body is
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  just a system that requires constant movement to function,
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  is Chai just an ancient word for biological maintenance?
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  Right. Like is it just cardiovascular
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  health? Exactly.
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  Rogan actually brings up a very similar point.
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  Using modern terminology, he describes humans as biological
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  batteries. We're constantly storing kinetic
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  energy. Yeah, I love that analogy.
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  Right. And he says if you don't
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  physically discharge that energy, it leaks out.
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  And it leaks out in the form of tension, crippling anxiety, and
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  just a total lack of mental focus.
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  Which is the why behind all this.
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  This isn't just about physical fitness, it's about controlling
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  your planes of energy. Because, as RZA points out, a
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  strong will prevents others from controlling you.
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  If you don't govern your own energy, external forces will
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  gladly step in and govern it for you.
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  Oh. For sure, they actually joke
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  about how that lack of internal governance is exactly how culls
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  are formed. Right, because people with weak
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  wills naturally become susceptible to people with
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  strong wills. Precisely.
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  And that brings up kind of the ultimate test of governing your
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  own nervous system, which is the cold plunge.
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  Oh man, the cold plunge. Brogan details his morning
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  routine, where he basically forces himself into freezing
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  water for three minutes every day.
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  Just brutal. And to survive it, he counts his
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  breasts to 10 just to get through the initial shike of
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  that first minute. He says he does it to defeat his
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  inner bitch. Yeah, just completely over
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  equating the biological urge to flee.
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  Though honestly I find RZAS take on cold exposure way more
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  relatable. The New York story.
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  Yeah, because RZA admits he is not a cold weather guy at all,
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  but he tells this hilarious story about doing a one time
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  cold plunge in New York alongside A Tibetan Lama and ATV
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  host. Right, the younger host.
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  Exactly, and RZA only stayed in the ice past the one minute mark
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  for one reason. Pride.
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  He just absolutely refused to be beaten by the younger guy.
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  I mean, hey, whatever works, right?
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  Because it perfectly illustrates the broader point.
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  Willpower can be summoned through totally different
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  mechanisms. For Rogan, it's this solitary
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  internal battle. For RZA, it was a competitive
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  drive. But.
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  The physical result is exactly the same.
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  Exactly. The mind forcefully takes the
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  steering wheel away from the body's base survival instincts.
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  So, OK, we've established how crucial it is for the individual
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  to maintain discipline and govern their own energy, but I
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  want to scale this up. Let's do it.
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  What happens when you look at a massive institution, like an
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  entire industry, that lacks any sort of moral willpower and
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  discipline and instead becomes driven purely by profit?
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  Well, you end up with the monetization of sickness.
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  When an entire systems driving force shifts from human
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  well-being to financial gain, the incentives become entirely
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  perverse. They really do.
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  The sources dive into some incredibly sobering realities
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  about the modern medical system here in America.
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  Yeah, they bring up the opioid crisis.
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  Right. The staggering statistic of
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  70,000 opioid overdose deaths every single year in America.
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  And they trace a massive portion of this back to the Sackler
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  family's initial push. Just aggressively incentivizing
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  doctors to prescribe these highly addictive pills.
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  Yeah, while completely downplaying the risks and and
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  you can see how that systemic corruption trickles all the way
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  down to the individual patient. Rogue shared a really unsettling
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  personal story about this. Oh, with his nose surgery.
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  Yeah, he went in for a very minor deviated septum surgery
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  just to clear his nasal passages, and as he's
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  recovering, feeling literally 0 pain, his doctor tries to push
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  two different opioid prescriptions on him.
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  Two different ones for no pain. He practically had to argue his
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  way out of the office. He's sitting there with tubes in
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  his nose saying I am not in pain.
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  And the doctor responds. Well, you probably will be.
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  It's. Wild, but it highlights a
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  fundamental shift, right? In that specific scenario, the
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  doctor isn't acting as a healer. They are operating as a
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  distributor in a financially incentivized supply chain.
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  Here's where it gets really interesting.
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  We expect greed on Wall Street, right?
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  We kind of accept that, but seeing it in medicine feels
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  uniquely evil. It's like going to a mechanic
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  for an oil change and they intentionally cut your brake
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  lines just to guarantee you come back as a paying customer.
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  What's fascinating here is the insidious nature of systemic
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  financial incentives. When money is the primary
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  driver, a human life is very quickly devalued to a mere
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  commodity. It's abstracted into a data
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  point on a spreadsheet. And the sources touch on a
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  really dark, extreme anecdote that proves this.
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  The oncologist. Yeah, an oncologist who was
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  caught prescribing incredibly expensive chemotherapy.
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  We're talking treatments costing 30 to $60,000.
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  And he was prescribed driving it to healthy people.
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  People who didn't even have cancer, he gave them false
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  diagnosis, terrified them and pumped them full of toxic
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  chemicals purely for financial profit.
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  It's horrific, and RZA had a very emotional reaction to this,
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  having recently lost a brother to cancer.
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  It made him realize that the old phrase cash rules everything
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  around me applies lethally to the medical field.
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  Yeah, lethally is the right word.
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  It's a heavy realization. And if human life is devalued in
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  the American Medical system, it is is utterly commodified in the
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  global supply chain. The supply chain that powers
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  pretty much our entire modern life.
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  Exactly. I mean, think about the device
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  you're using to listen to this deep dive right now.
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  There's a massive irony that the most technologically
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  sophisticated aspect of our society is entirely propped up
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  by the most primitive, brutal slave labor.
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  Yeah, shifting from the biological batteries of our
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  bodies to the lithium ion batteries in our tech, The
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  conversation turns to Siddharth Kar's book Cobalt Red.
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  Right, because cobalt is a critical for cell phone and
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  electric car batteries, and the vast majority of it is mined in
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  the Congo. And the conditions described are
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  just biblical. We are talking about hand dug
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  open pits, women working with babies strapped to their backs,
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  breathing in toxic dust. People using literal hammers to
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  bash rocks apart, living on dirt floors in abject poverty while
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  they're sitting on top of trillions of dollars of
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  resources. And RZA compares this modern
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  slavery directly to King Leopold's brutal rubber trade in
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  the Congo. The extracted material changed,
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  but the exploitation hasn't. He actually recites these
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  prophetic lyrics he wrote for a track called The Great
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  Fisherman. Oh right, the combo of
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  concentrated. Elements.
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  Yeah, he says. In the middle of the Congo
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  jungle, there's a combo of concentrated elements that make
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  the world's phones glow. He wrote that before he even
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  sought the investigative footage.
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  He just sensed it. But you know, the source
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  material does mention a technological shift happening.
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  Right, the new Chinese smartphones.
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  Yeah, brands like Honor and OnePlus are starting to use
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  silicon carbide batteries. They require much less cobalt,
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  which is a step. It's a step, but the human cost
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  of the mining that's already happened remains a massive
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  issue. If we connect this to the bigger
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  picture, this really highlights the disconnect between consumer
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  convenience and global suffering.
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  It raises the critical question of how everyday people can even
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  demand ethical transparency when the supply chains are guarded by
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  corrupt military forces. It's just an overwhelming amount
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  of chaos to process. So how does a person navigate
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  this without just shutting down? Well, for ours a day, it's about
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  channeling that anger into art and seeking out absolute
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  authenticity in an increasingly fake world.
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  Yes, let's talk about his new film, One Spoon of Chocolate.
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  It premieres May 1st. The lead character Unique, who
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  is a homage to ODB. Right, old dirty bastard it is,
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  and Unique is a guy dealing with severe anger management issues,
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  but he learns to channel it into a disciplined life.
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  And there's that line that Dave Chappelle praised as pure bars.
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  Oh man, I love this line, he says.
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  Heaven is what you make it, and hell is what you got to go
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  through to get it. It's profound, and RZAS
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  insistence on authenticity extends to the release of the
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  film too. The 35mm film release.
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  Right in the era of digital streaming, he insisted on
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  releasing it on 35mm at at the Vista Theatre in Hollywood
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  because it feels like a genuine, rich cinema experience.
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  Unlike digital which is just synthetic, which perfectly
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  transitions into their massive tangent on artificial
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  intelligence. Oh, the perplexity AI moment.
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  Yeah, they're just sitting there and on the fly.
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  They use AI to calculate the weight of the Earth, which by
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  the way is 13 septillion pounds. And the surface area is 8 * 10
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  to the 17th power square inches. The computational power is
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  staggering. But RZA has this great
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  philosophical local take on it. He says we shouldn't call it
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  artificial intelligence, we should call it assisted
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  intelligence. Because humans inherently reject
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  the artificial. Exactly.
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  We want tools, not replacements. And that brings us to the
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  ultimate debate on authenticity. Lab grown diamonds versus Earth
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  mind diamonds. This was such a fascinating part
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  of the conversation, right? Because they pull up images of
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  these massive 75 carat lab grown diamonds and molecularly
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  scientifically they are identical to diamonds pulled
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  from the dirt. But women still overwhelmingly
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  prefer the real 1. Yeah, they even compared to
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  those super clone fake Rolexes from China.
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  They look and perform identically to a $30,000 real
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  Rolex, but they only cost $1400. But the prestige is still with
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  the real 1. So what does this all mean?
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  If a lab diamond is physically identical to a mined diamond,
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  isn't demanding an earth mined diamond just demanding a blood
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  diamond for the sake of human ego?
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  This raises an important question.
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  How do we actually assign value? RZA's conclusion is brilliant,
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  he says. When the real thing shows up,
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  it's going to be real. The value isn't just in the
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  molecules. Exactly.
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  It's in the time, the history, and the human craftsmanship.
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  A lab diamond takes weeks to make.
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  An Earth's diamond took 1.18 billion years to form, just like
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  a digital movie lacks the tangible grit of 35mm film.
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  Right. It lacks the struggle exactly
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  that pulls all these concepts together so perfectly.
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  So just to summarize the through line of this deep dive, today we
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  started with the discipline required to master our own
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  biology. Right, treating our bodies as
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  systems that need maintenance so we can control our own will.
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  Then we explored the devastating consequences when greed
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  overrides human value, both in the American Medical industry
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  and in global tech supply chains.
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  And we ended on the artistic pursuit of authenticity in a
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  synthetic age. Yeah.
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  Which leaves you listening to this with a final lingering
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  question to Mull over. If technology eventually allows
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  us to Florida State fake everything from lab grown
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  diamonds to AI generated art to perfectly engineered lab food,
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  willing human flaws are struggles and the literal
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  passage of time become the only true currencies of value left in
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  the world. It's something to think about
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  for sure. It really is.
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  Well, thank you so much for joining us on this custom deep
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  dive. Keep staying curious and keep
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  seeking out the real thing.