Latest / The Joe Rogan Recap / Miranda Lambert (2025) - Creative Balance, Hobbies and High-cost of Fame

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Miranda Lambert (2025) - Creative Balance, Hobbies and High-cost of Fame · The Joe Rogan Recap

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  Welcome to the Joe Rogan recap. Hey there, so today we're doing
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  a deep dive into JRE Shack 24-O2.
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  It was this really wide-ranging conversation, but it turned into
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  something fascinating. Yeah, almost like a road map,
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  right? For how to handle these super
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  high pressure creative jobs or honestly any job that just
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  demands a ton from you. Exactly.
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  It ended up being full of these like surprising insights into
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  mental focus, what fame really costs, and this absolute need
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  for intense hobbies. Hobbies that pull you completely
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  out of your own head, out of the business, That seemed key.
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  That's the mission today, yeah, to pull out those lessons.
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  How do you stay focused? What's the price?
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  And why do you maybe need something like, I don't know,
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  shooting targets from a horse? Right, it connects the physical
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  side of things, the wear and tear, directly to mental
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  survival. Almost.
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  You got it. Protecting your body, forcing
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  your mind somewhere else entirely.
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  Apparently that's how you stick around long term when things get
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  competitive. OK, so let's start with that
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  physical cost. The obvious one in music,
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  entertainment, even hunting, hearing loss.
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  Oh yeah, the transcript mentions how so many musicians, crew,
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  even gun guys from, you know, back in the day.
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  They're just almost deaf now. It's a known hazard of the job
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  or the hobby. It is that constant exposure to
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  loud noise. It just adds up.
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  And they talked about how things have changed, like within your
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  monitors for musicians. Which you're seen as a necessary
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  evil, almost a good trade off to save your hearing later.
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  A really good trade off, yeah, but you do lose something,
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  right? Definitely.
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  You lose that raw energy of the room, that feeling of the crowd,
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  the vibration. You're kind of in your own sound
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  bubble. You are you sacrifice that
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  immediate sensory connection for, you know, being able to
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  hear your grandkids later. It's a practical choice.
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  And Speaking of not hearing things, they link this to
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  communication issues like selective hearing.
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  Yeah, that led to this great story about a retired cop.
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  His dog eats his hearing aid. And he just doesn't bother
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  replacing it. And the punchline is that's
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  maybe why his parents are still married.
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  It's funny because it rings true, you know?
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  But the interesting part was why it happens, especially in
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  relationships. They talked about that technique
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  asking your partner, OK, say back to me to make sure they
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  heard you. Right.
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  And the insight was for the person who tends to check out
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  mentally, that technique actually backfires.
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  It makes it worse. How so?
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  Why worse? Because asking them to repeat it
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  immediately puts this like cognitive demand on them.
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  And if they were already tuning out?
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  They just resist it completely. Yeah, they actively block it
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  out. It's like the brain just rejects
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  the task entirely. So instead of encouraging
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  listening, it reinforces the habit of not listening.
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  Wow. OK, so that's a learned defense
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  against feeling, I guess, mentally overloaded.
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  Pretty much. And that theme of the body
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  rejecting things, it came up again with allergies
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  specifically in places like Austin and Nashville.
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  Right, big music cities, but apparently allergy hotspots too.
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  Yeah. And this was interesting.
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  They pointed out it often takes about three years after you move
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  somewhere new for allergies to really kick in.
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  Three years. Why so long?
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  It's the time it takes for your immune system to really react to
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  the new environment. Different trees, different
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  grasses, pollens you haven't met before.
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  So for the first couple of years you think you're fine and then
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  suddenly bam you're confusing it with a sore throat or just
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  feeling rundown all the time. Exactly.
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  You think you're always getting sick, but it's actually your
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  body fighting the local flora. Man move for the dream, survive
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  the road, and then the cedar pollen gets you OK.
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  This feeling of constantly battling something unseen, it
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  leads right into that core idea, doesn't it?
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  Needing a mental escape through focus.
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  Perfectly. The idea is if you're creative,
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  you have to go live to write about it.
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  You can't just stay inside the industry bubble forever.
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  Or you just end up repeating yourself, lost in your own echo
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  chamber. Yeah, lost in your own little
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  world, as they put it. Just recycling the same stuff.
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  You already said you need something external.
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  Something that forces you like 100% into the present moment.
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  And the main example they used was intense cowboy mounted
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  shooting. OK, yeah, let's break this down
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  because it sounds wild. You're riding a horse full speed
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  shooting a revolver. But not like regular bullets.
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  No, no, that's key. It's black powder, blank, so it
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  makes noise and smoke, but it's safe for spectators, safe for
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  the horse. You're aiming at balloons maybe
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  15 feet away while navigating a course.
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  OK. Yeah, I can see how you wouldn't
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  be thinking about your e-mail inbox doing that.
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  Exactly. There is absolutely no room for
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  thinking about oh, I got to do laundry.
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  That's the point. The sheer focus required
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  provides a total mental reset. It just blasts away the internal
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  chatter. And it's a serious sport, like
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  competitions and stuff. Oh yeah, World Championships.
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  They mentioned A10 time champion Kendall and Sane as a mentor
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  figure. It's described as super
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  addictive. Addictive like performing,
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  giving you that same kind of jolt or high.
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  Apparently so. That same rush.
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  But here's the thing. Is it just trading one intense
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  focus for another? How does that reset you?
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  Yeah. That's a good question.
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  What's the difference? I think the difference is the
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  type of focus. Performing is about the
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  audience, the feedback, keeping energy up.
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  Mounted shooting is purely about immediate physical execution.
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  OK, skill precision, controlling the horse hitting the target.
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  It's internal feedback, not external validation.
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  Precisely. The stakes are high, but the
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  reward is hitting the balloon, mastering the pattern.
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  It's completely separate from, say, ticket sales or reviews.
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  Got you. They also mentioned some less
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  explosive hobbies that demand similar focus.
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  Archery. Yeah, archery.
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  Shooting a compound bow, maybe for hunting Whitetail, described
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  as something that just cleans your mind.
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  Simple, pure focus. And pool billiards.
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  Pool was a great example. They called it a dance of the
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  mind. Playing well requires intense
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  concentration on the touring. The cue ball with English,
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  that's the spin you put on it. Right.
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  You're not just hitting the object ball, you're thinking
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  about where the cue ball goes next.
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  Exactly. You need draw, follow, spin,
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  planning multiple shots ahead. It's complex geometry and
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  physics, all happening intuitively when you're good and
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  players chase that state called Deadstroke.
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  Deadstroke. What's that?
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  It's like the ultimate flow state in Pool.
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  When everything just clicks, the cue ball feels like it has no
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  weight. It goes exactly where you intend
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  with almost no effort. Like perfect mind, body
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  connection, effortless precision.
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  That's it. Total alignment and chasing that
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  feeling, that moment of mastery, is what makes it so absorbing
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  and mentally cleansing. It's clear these aren't just
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  casual pastimes. They require serious dedication.
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  The speaker even said she wasn't really an adrenaline junkie.
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  Right. But she saw the connection.
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  These high focus activities, especially something like
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  mounted shooting, it's like joining the circus or joining
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  the rodeo. It taps into that same need for
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  intense, immediate engagement that has zero to do with your
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  day job or or fame. And that need for external input
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  also showed up when they talked about the creative process
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  itself, like Co writing versus writing alone.
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  The preference seemed to be for Co writing more fun to celebrate
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  it with your friends. Yeah, an environment plays a
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  huge role. They mentioned Marfa out in the
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  desert as this literal different world, magical for cowriting
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  because it completely removes you from normal life, forces a
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  different perspective. That idea of needing separation,
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  it leads right into the discussion about fame, doesn't
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  it? Especially contrasting the old
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  way versus the new way. Totally.
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  The traditional path meant years of grinding, playing like they
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  said, shitholes with no lights, building confidence, slowly,
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  starting young, maybe 17, lining the ropes before anyone really
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  knew who you were. You build resilience, you build
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  character through that process. Right.
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  But then you look at the modern example, like Oliver Anthony
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  with a rich man north of Richmond.
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  Instant massive fame. Yeah, one day he's selling farm
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  equipment, next his first ever real live show is this huge sold
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  out event. He was famous before he even had
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  stage experience. And the conversation was really
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  clear on the potential danger there.
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  Building that foundation, that character takes time.
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  They use the analogy of mixing the cement correctly.
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  If you get the fame too fast, too young, before the cement is
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  set. It crumbles.
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  There's a huge personal cost. They even brought up Michael
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  Jackson fame. Too young ruins the cement.
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  You have the spotlight, but maybe not the internal structure
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  to handle the pressure. So if that foundation is shaky,
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  or if the pressure just gets overwhelming anyway, how do
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  people cope? How do they try to manage focus?
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  They touched on nicotine. Yeah, which was surprising, not
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  focusing on the addiction, but nicotine itself discussed as
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  potentially being a neuroprotectant and a nootropic.
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  A nootropic meaning something that helps with cognitive
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  function like focus, memory. Correct, the argument was
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  separating the chemical from the delivery system.
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  Nicotine might have benefits, but the way people get it,
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  smoking, vaping is the problem. Especially those cheap gas
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  station vapes. Right.
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  They're super addictive. You're always chasing that first
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  buzz. And they might even have things
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  like sugar oils that could mess with your blood.
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  Sugar. It points to this larger
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  cultural craving for focus, doesn't it?
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  Which ties into the Adderall numbers they mentioned.
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  Those numbers were staggering. 45,000,000 Adderall
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  prescriptions in the US in 2023. Which is up 10 million since
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  just 2019. That's a massive jump.
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  It suggests a real societal push, or maybe desperation for
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  enhanced focus. And the argument made in the
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  source was interesting that for some people, maybe those with
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  ADHD, stimulants might actually hinder their natural superpower.
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  Their superpower being. The ability to hyper focus
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  intensely on things they're genuinely passionate about.
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  Yeah. The idea is that drugs like
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  Adderall force a kind of conformity, making you focus on
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  things you don't care about, like maybe forcing little kids
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  to sit still in class for hours. Instead of finding ways to
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  harness that natural energy. And it's not just kids, right?
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  They mentioned journalists, high schoolers getting diagnosis for
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  extra test time. Yeah, it seems widespread, a
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  symptom of living in this information overloaded world
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  where peak performance feels constantly demanded.
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  Which? Naturally takes a mental toll.
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  All that information all the time.
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  Digital stress. Exactly.
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  And that led to the story about their friend Ari, who takes
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  these radical breaks. Right, he just vanishes,
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  disappears for like 3 months every year and a half.
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  Yeah, backpacking through Asia, No phone, no e-mail, totally
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  unplugged and apparently comes back weird.
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  Probably just readjusting to the noise.
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  That's where those metaphors came in handy.
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  The TikTok river. Yeah, described as this raging
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  river that never stops, always pulling at your attention,
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  draining your battery. And the solution isn't to fight
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  the river head on, but to step away to go next door.
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  Exactly. Take a small strategic mental
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  break. Find that focused activity that
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  resets you, even if it's just for a little while.
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  But it's hard to actually do that, isn't it?
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  Right, They pointed out. The irony.
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  Oh, the hypocrisy. People using social media to
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  announce they're taking a break from social media.
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  Right. It shows how deep that digital
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  hook is set. We can't even seem to step away
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  without broadcasting it on the very platform we're trying to
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  escape. It's woven into everything.
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  Necessary maybe, but definitely draining that focus battery.
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  So tying this all together then, the thread seems to be about
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  managing your energy strategically.
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  Yeah, I think that's the core finding a successful creative
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  life or maybe just a sustainable life in a demanding field.
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  It requires really conscious energy management, like tuning a
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  high performance engine. From the basics like protecting
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  your hearing. To deliberately seeking out
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  these really demanding hobbies. Things like the mounted shooting
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  or getting lost in a game of pool chasing, that dead stroke.
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  Activities that force a total mental reset.
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  Because focused attention is the real currency now.
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  It really is, and you have to find these intentional ways to
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  charge the battery, ways to step completely out of that digital
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  current and the constant pressure.
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  Makes sense. Hey, before we wrap with the
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  final thought, they did mention something specific, the Mutt
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  Nation Foundation. Oh.
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  Right Good Catch started back in 2009.
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  It advocates for animal rescue. Big on spay and neuter programs.
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  And they've done serious work, raised over $11 million,
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  apparently give out $5000 grants to shelters in every single
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  state. Yeah, that's a really cool
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  example of using a platform to make a real difference worth
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  highlighting. Definitely.
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  OK. So for that final thought for
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  you the listener. We've talked a lot about the
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  intense focus needed for things like pool, archery, mounted
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  shooting, these high skill activities that demand
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  everything. So the question for you is,
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  what's your equivalent? Yeah, what's your version of
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  going next door? Your way to find that dead
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  stroke state of mind? What intense high focus activity
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  can you use to defend your mental space against that
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  constant raging TikTok river? Find that thing, that place
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  where there's just no room left to worry about.
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  Your To Do List. Go there regularly.
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  Your brain, your focus, your battery.
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  It'll thank you for it.