This Past Weekend - E503 Robert Greene

Episode Date: May 16, 2024

Robert Greene is an American author with 7 international bestsellers on power, seduction and strategy. His first book “48 Laws of Power” has sold over 1.2 million copies. Robert Greene joins Theo to talk about practical ways to find your purpose, how his disillusionment (and even anger) with Hollywood led him to write about strategy and power, and the keys to seduction that anyone can employ. They also dive into Robert’s life and talk about his experiences with psychedelics, his investigatory past as a skip tracer, and his personal favorite authors and works that helped shape his worldview. Robert Greene: https://www.instagram.com/robertgreeneofficial/ ------------------------------------------------ Tour Dates! https://theovon.com/tour New Merch: https://www.theovonstore.com ------------------------------------------------- Sponsored By: Celsius: Go to the Celsius Amazon store to check out all of their flavors. #CELSIUSBrandPartner #CELSIUSLiveFit  https://amzn.to/3HbAtPJ  Valor Recovery: To learn more about Valor Recovery please visit them at www.valorrecoverycoaching.com  or email them at [e-mail]   PrizePicks: Download the Prize Picks app and use CODE: THEO. Prize Picks will match your deposit up to $100.  Morgan & Morgan: If you’re ever injured, visit https://forthepeople.com/thispastweekend or dial Pound LAW (#529). Their fee is free unless they win. ------------------------------------------------- Music: “Shine” by Bishop Gunn https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F3A_coTcUek ------------------------------------------------ Submit your funny videos, TikToks, questions and topics you'd like to hear on the podcast to: [e-mail] Hit the Hotline: [phone] Video Hotline for Theo Upload here: https://www.theovon.com/fan-upload Send mail to: This Past Weekend 1906 Glen Echo Rd PO Box #159359 Nashville, TN 37215 ------------------------------------------------ Find Theo: Website: https://theovon.com Instagram: https://instagram.com/theovon Facebook: https://facebook.com/theovon Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/thispastweekend Twitter: https://twitter.com/theovon YouTube: https://youtube.com/theovon Clips Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/TheoVonClips Shorts Channel: https://bit.ly/3ClUj8z ------------------------------------------------ Producer: Zach https://www.instagram.com/zachdpowers Producer: Nick https://www.instagram.com/realnickdavis/ Producer: Colin https://instagram.com/colin_reiner Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Listen closely. That's not just paint rolling on a wall. It's artistry. A master painter carefully applying Benjamin Moore regal select eggshell with deftly executed strokes. The roller lightly cradled in his hands, applying just the right amount of paint. It's like hearing poetry in motion. Benjamin Moore, see the love. I have some new tour dates to tell you about. We've added a third show in London on June 16th at the Eventim Apollo.

We also have shows in New York City on May 31. Belfast in the UK on June 6th. That's an added show. June 7th is sold out. Idaho Falls, we've added a show on June 27th. Salt Lake City, Utah on June 30th. And Las Vegas, Nevada on July 5th and 6th at Resorts World Las Vegas.

Get all your tickets at theovon.com slash T-O-U-R. And if tickets are too expensive, just wait. We'll come back around. Make sure you buy them through our link and not off of a secondary site. Thank you guys so much for your support. Today's guest is one of the bestselling authors of the last 20 years. You may know him from his books, the 48 laws of power and mastery, as well as

the art of seduction and more books. Um, we're going to talk about relationships, human interaction. Um, we cover a lot of ground and I'm grateful to talk with Mr. Robert Green. Shine on me And I will find a song I've been singing I'm on the stage Oh And now I've been moving Thank you so much, man.

Oh, you're very welcome. Really. Sign up for it. Please, that's really, really nice of you. My pleasure. That's a wonderful gift to have 48 laws of power right there. Yeah Yeah, thanks for coming. Nice to meet you. Very nice to meet you. Yeah. Oh, thanks same. Yeah. Thank you for all the inspiration Yeah, thank you for taking the time to think and write down your thoughts and things that make you feel something or things that you feel

Are worth sharing with the world. Yeah, well it's been what I've been doing for 26, 28 years now. Hopefully I can keep going for another 10, 20 years. Yeah, unless the government puts like a word limit on people. Or it's like it canceled or some for some reason. Yeah, yeah I mean. I don't think so.

I don't think so. I think we would, sometimes I wish the government would put a word limit. Oh, sure. On a lot of people. God, yeah. Because then you'd have to be wonderful. You'd have to really articulate. You mean for books or just in talking? Maybe only in talking because books, because books, it's more of a choice. People can go to choose to look in it, you know, and read it, but talking, it's like, yeah, you only, you got like a, you got a thousand words a day.

Of course, some people would have more, some of you have less if they're really obnoxious or irritating. We cut it down to like 200 words a day. Yeah. Maybe your neighbors vote on how many you have or there's, um, but yeah, I think it would be great then if you're at, yeah, like, especially like if a guys, why, like a lot of guys would be like, hey guys, come over to the house today, you know,

Marjorie only has four words left this month. Yeah, that'd be wonderful, yeah. So the good times over here, you know, we're gonna be able to do whatever we want. Well, the ancient Greeks had this thing called Ostrachy, where they would put on little clay tablets fragments of a clay pot. You could write down the name of somebody that you wanted to banish from the city. And then every year they would collect that and they would banish the person who got the most votes

because he's inevitably the most obnoxious person in the whole city. Can you imagine how wonderful that would be if we had something like that? I would love that. Well, you would think if we get to vote people forward, we should be able to also vote people off the island. Yeah. Right. Yeah. Oh, that would be so wonderful. And it could even start in your own home, you know, with your kids.

I think it's up to the, it It would be quite a topic for family discussion. Oh, here it is right here. Ostracism. It's where the word ostracism comes from. Oh, that's pretty cool. They got that. Yeah. Was an Athenian democratic procedure in which any citizen could be expelled from the city state of Athens for 10 years. So you get a chance to get it together. While some instances clearly express popular anger at the citizen, ostracism was often used preemptively. It was used as a way of neutralizing someone

thought to be a threat to the state or a potential tyrant. Though in many cases, popular opinion often informed the expulsion. Wow. Wow, that's pretty cool they put that up there. Broken pottery. Yeah, that's what I was saying. Shards were used, served as a kind of scrap paper. Yeah

Wow, I'd be exciting. Yeah would it would yeah, let's bring it back. Yeah, let's bring it back, huh be a movement Yeah, you've written so much man 48 laws of power Mastery or the books that I've Absorbed the most of okay, which are the books that I've absorbed the most of. Which is so nice to have this. This is so cool, man. I really lit up when you gave me that. And a lot of what we talk about on this show for a lot of young men and women is purpose. And what it means to have purpose and how to find purpose. And you talk a lot about that in Mastery, about purpose. Do you think that everyone has purpose? Well, it's a difficult question to answer.

I mean, I believe that everyone, the way I look at it is, you, Theo, were born with a DNA that will never be replicated in the past or in the future. It's a unique marker of you, right? So genetically, there is something different about you. Weird, odd, gray, whatever you want to put it, okay? And it's like something that's planted at your birth.

It's what makes you different from everybody else. It's even what makes you different from your parents, right? I mean, you do inherit their genetics, but it's always different, okay? And so that's like a seed at your birth. If you cultivate that seed, if you cultivate your uniqueness, it gives you a purpose in life. It's why you are unique.

You can look at it as if somebody or just nature intended to be this way, but it's what makes you you. It's your energy, it's your character, it's your awareness, it's your sense of humor. It's what draws you to certain things, what you hate about certain things. It's you. If you listen to that, it's like a voice inside of your head

instead of listening to all the other bullshit that's around you, what your parents are saying, what your teachers are saying, what your friends are saying. If you listen to that voice clearly, it directs you, it gives you a purpose. Now, I'm saying everybody has that potential. I see. But quite clearly, not everybody. In fact, few people actually go that potential. I see. But quite clearly, not everybody,

in fact, few people actually go that far. So if you see somebody out there in the public eye, yourself or others, reached a level of fame and success, you can say that there's nobody else like them out there. They're unique, they're one of a kind, right? You can say that about a Steve Jobs, you can say that about Elon Musk, you can say that about political figures, etc. etc. Yeah. Richard Simmons, Mr. T. Yeah, okay. 50 cents,

somebody I've worked with. There's only one person like them. That's because they found their uniqueness and they brought it out and they cultivate it. They're not afraid of it and that's what gives them their purpose. A lot of people are afraid of being different. That's the one, that's one of the worst things that can happen to you because it's what makes you different. That is what makes you powerful. So to answer your question in my long winded way, everybody has a purpose, but not everybody follows it, not everybody connects to it. Yeah, I guess there's a lot of fear in it, huh? Because you're going to be different. You're going to have to choose to...

People are going to look at you. The eyes of the tribe are going to turn towards you if you try to step out into a different march than the group. Sometimes I would see like, yeah, sometimes you ever be like on a floor somewhere and you just see one ant by itself? Yeah. And you're like, this guy is a gangster.

Well, they're called scout ants. I mean, I wish they were gangsters, but what they're doing is they're looking for food or something and they're signaling to the army, hey guys, here's where it's happening, let's follow me. Oh, damn. Yeah, I thought they were dudes that were like, you guys, here's where it's happening, let's follow me. Oh, damn. Yeah, I thought they were dudes that were like, you know what, I'm gonna do something different.

Well, that would be the more interesting interpretation. So then are there some people, so it's not that some people don't have a purpose, it's just that some people are able to hear a voice inside of them that directs them more towards their purpose. Yeah, I mean, so what is it? I call it in Master, I call it a primal inclination. So we see that in certain people.

So at a very, very young age, and I maintain it happens to everybody, but you forget about it. So you look at like Albert Einstein, he was like four years old and his father gave him a compass and he was like mesmerized by it because it meant that there was some kind of force out there that was moving the needle of the compass, an invisible force. For a child that was an overwhelming thought that there's something out there in the

universe that is moving something but you can't see it. It had a lasting influence on his whole way of of of science and wanting to discover these unseen forces. Tiger Woods, when he was like two years old, his father would be hitting golf balls in the garage and he would be going, the little baby tiger would be going crazy. He's like, I got to do this. He was so enamored with just the physicality of it. He had to do it.

I could go on and on and on with athletes, with dancers, with writers. I'm not putting myself on their level, but I had a relationship when I was six years old or so to words. Words just mesmerized me. I couldn't believe that there was a word that meant something. I was entranced by the sound of it,

by the look of it, et cetera. Yeah, well even just to think that a bunch of letters would get together and party like that. Yeah, yeah, exactly. Yeah, because I remember like first they taught us letters and I was like, okay, but then the word showed up and I was like, oh, okay, they're in gangs. Yeah, yeah.

You know, there's some real turf wars out here. That's right. Yeah, so I guess the best way for a parent then to probably help associate their child or give them the best opportunity to find or to bring their purpose to a boil would be to present them with more options, do you feel like? Like, is that kind of what you're saying? Well, yes and no. I mean, parents try to do too much sometimes.

So children are more interesting, they're more powerful, they're smarter than we think they are. We don't give them enough credit. So they find their ways to the things that excite them and interest them. What you're looking for in your child is that spark, that look in their eye of excitement. They can't control it. I'm so excited by this, I have to do it. It can be physical activity, it could be music, it could be math, it could be technology, it could be objects and their colors. When they have that excitement,

objects and their colors, when they have that excitement, lean into it. Don't try and tell them, oh I don't know, you can't make a living doing that. You want to be a rock and roll star, you'll never make a living, you got to go become a lawyer. Cut that crap out. Let them go into their into their lane of excitement. Encourage it because that is a sign of what I'm talking about, that purpose that you were born with. Is there like certain ways or times or moments that you would create for yourself or that you would suggest people create for themselves to try and hear that voice of purpose? Well, it's a very interesting question and it's a very difficult one because I get a lot of people writing to me saying, you know Robert, I hear what you said, I've read your book,

but I have no idea, I can't hear it anymore, right? Right. I'm lost. Right, because there's still a lot of guys who are young adolescents and middle-aged and who are like, I still don't know what my purpose is. Yeah, well, so when you're younger, there's hope. Like when you're 16, you'll find it, man. And I've helped people who were younger find that path.

It's easier. By the time you're 30 or 40, it gets more and more difficult. When you're 50, I don't know, it's possible, but it's harder and harder and harder. I didn't really find my niche, if you will, until I was about 38 years old. But until then, I knew it was writing. I just couldn't figure out what kind of writing.

But you have to go through a process. The problem that most people have is they're not connected to themselves. They're too outer directed. They're not inner directed. So what you need to be doing is you need to be looking at yourself Not listening to others not listening to what's on social media not listening to what your peers are saying But listening to yourself who you are what really truly excites you you have to cut out all that other stuff that your parents told you

That other people are telling you and so you're looking for signs of things that bring back, you're looking for your childhood again, for that child inside of you that got so excited about those things but that you forgot. There is not a child on the planet that doesn't have that. In Mastery, I have a story in there about a woman named Temple Grandin. Temple Grandin was born with severe autism.

It looked like she would have to be committed for her entire life to hospitalization. She was very deep on the spectrum. But she had a teacher that kind of slowly drew her out and she discovered at a very early age that that excitement was animals. And a lot of autistic people and people on the spectrum have a very intense relationship to animals. It's humans that they can't quite relate to, but animals excite the hell out of them. Yeah, well humans can be so trashy too.

Yeah, and they can be so deceptive and tricky, but animals are genuine, right? She found animals I love. And she became a scientist dealing with animals, animal behavior. And so somebody born with deep, deep autism found her way to that voice. Yeah.

So I bring that up as if someone like that can do it, anybody can do it. But it's that she really, really wanted to break out of the shell that she had been in. So it's the level of desire. If you're, if you're 20 years old and you're lost and you're worried about it, but you're hungry and you don't want to be like your whole life wandering, you have a good chance.

But a lot of people don't have that energy. They don't have that desire. It's not strong enough in them. It's going to be a very much more difficult process Bring up temple grandin. I know she created didn't she create a more I don't know if that's the right word heartwarming way to Decease the animals. Yes. I mean you that's you put it more or less correctly. I mean She her idea was cattle,

she had a very deep connection to cows and cattle. They're going to be slaughtered anyway. She's not gonna end, she herself eats steak, et cetera. She's not going to end it. But if you're gonna have to kill them, so that, you know, for people who eat meat, then let's do it as humanely as possible. So she created a way.

One of the worst things is the whole process of how we slaughter animals. It's so horrifying for them, right? So she had found a way to make them comfortable so that they don't really know where they're going when they're being led to the slaughterhouse, whether she knew exactly how to comfort them, how to make them feel

soothed in those moments. A little more bait and sweet. Like, yeah, just something to yeah, just not make it such so horrific. Yeah. Not make it such a haunted house. Yeah. Well, because also when they're so distressed, they release all these kind of hormones and things that are actually

very bad for us as well. And then it's in the food. I believe that a ton. Yeah. so distressed. They release all these kind of hormones and things that are actually very bad for us as well. And then it's in the food. I believe that a ton. Yeah. So does everyone have the chance to find their purpose? Say if somebody like, you know, they accidentally got a girlfriend pregnant in high school, something like that, they, you know, and they got really put off track developed a lot more responsibility. Because sometimes responsibility takes away the freedom that you have, even just the space in your life to feel anything. But those people aren't, they don't not have a purpose, maybe they just haven't been able

to reach it. Well, yeah, I mean, these things happen to everyone. We're all human beings, we're flawed. We don't have, we can't see the future. Especially when we're young, we make mistakes. We do things that we later regret, etc. And I've dealt with people who say, you know, I'm stuck in a horrible, horrible job. I have, just like your scenario, I have a child I have to support, a family to support, and I'm flipping burger, I'm working at Dairy Queen, I don't care whatever it is, right? Yeah, selling things, selling, yeah, braiding hair at the beach, something like that.

Or telemarketing back in the day, you know, so what do I do? Well, the first thing you have to do is you have to realize that you have to want to get out of it, you have to want it badly enough. So you got to figure out a path out of this trap that you're in. And it is a trap because if you're living paycheck to paycheck, it becomes a habit and it's going to stay with you your whole life. So every time there isn't a paycheck, you're going to freak out and you're going to go get the quickest easiest job that you can get.

You have to break out of that. So I tell people, even in the most despondent circumstances, first of all, think of what is that childhood thing that you loved? It doesn't have to be a very specific job, it's just something that excited you, all right? Okay, we want to start moving in that direction. So let's say you're flipping burgers, but what really excites you is video games and programming,

which is fine, that could be a path in life, right? But you wanna be a programmer, you wanna be the person creating video games, all right? So let's do some research. What is the first step that usually, what's the entry level job that people take? What is the education that will lead to that kind of thing? All right, here's step it's like three possibilities. You go to school, you study this, you get a job doing that, whatever. Okay, you can choose one of them, right?

And you're going to start doing it right away. So you still have your job, you're still paying for your family, but you're going to go to school at night. You're going to take a side job. When you go home at night, you're going to study things on the internet, which is an amazing resource that nobody had 30 years ago. You're going to learn new skills in your spare time. You know, even in the only two or three hours a day that you have, you're going to create a little space in your brain for moving in that direction, a little wedge it's going gonna open up and

I've and I've had this feedback Just knowing that that's happening That's just knowing that's a possibility that I don't have to be flipping burgers But I don't have to be this horrifying soul sucking salesman my whole life and that I can go this other route It's enough to excite the hell out of it's enough to get you out of it It's enough to give your life some meaning and some purpose. Yeah and then you will build, you will follow that sort of thing. That energy, it's like it really becomes a magnet in your life.

Yeah. How did you find your way? What was it? What was it that, can you go back? Yeah I remember, well I wanted to, I, I wanted to, I think I wanted to make my mother laugh, you know? My mother was always stressed out. And I- Wow, I'm sorry, I don't mean to laugh at this. No, it's funny. That's terrible. It is what it is, you know?

And she would, but sometimes she'd go lay in her bikini outside and have a beer or whatever. And so we'd left her alone on that during those hours. But otherwise, I think I wanted to make her laugh. I don't know, the second I saw, this may sound crazy to some people. I remember being like in a, might've just been my bed or,

I don't think it was a crib, because I hate, when people say that, I remember at four months old like that, being like in a, might've just been my bed or, I don't think it was a crib, because I hate, when people say that, I remember at four months old like that, I think that's insane. You can't remember shit. That's not possible. Yeah, you've been using.

And, but I remember one time I just remember being in my bed and my brother like poked his head up, and I just remember it just made me laugh. And it was like the first thing I remember that made me feel so good. And I just, I loved it. That's interesting. And then when I saw like if somebody laughed

that they, even if they were sad, like and you could get them to laugh, it could, that someone could be crying and then a laugh could get through that. And man, I just found that to, it was like watching lightning. It's like power. Yeah. It was, it was, and it was just like watching lightning, I think. And so, um, I, yeah, I think I loved that.

And then the other thing that ever, the happiest day I ever had in my life, I was in, I was a student actually on an exchange thing and I was in India, the country. And we worked at this children's home, clearing the land or something, so they could make a playground there. And I just, I still remember it was the greatest feeling that I ever had, just this one day. So yeah, those are things in my life.

How old were you? The India part, I was probably 20. But the laughter was just most of my youth. I just became obsessed with laughter. I just, cause it was a trump card. It was like, it could be a sad moment. It could already be a happy moment. You could take it to another level.

Well, let's just imagine a scenario where you're 26 and you're you, and you somehow got off on the wrong track somewhere. Would you be able to like remember that and remember the power and the feeling that you had when you, that laughter and then when you were a kid and your brother and then go back to it in some way. Yeah, I think I would notice, I think it's, you can know, I feel like it's kind of easy to know what really makes you feel good. Yeah. I just think that sometimes circumstances have sailed our ship, you know, kind of far

and other, in other directions. And so we may be able to appease ourselves, but we may not get to a level of mastery of it in this lifetime. That's right. Just because of circumstances, you know? And then if people, another thing I notice is like, a lot of times, you know, some people aren't always gonna be trying to achieve and do more. I notice I, a lot of times, you know, some people aren't always going to be trying to achieve and do more. I notice I, I, a lot of times I enjoy also just feeling content. Like if

I can feel content, that is a victory. Right. Um, like what do you mean? Like just if I can feel at peace, right? Like not, not only, maybe, maybe I might be a little bummed if I'm not striving for something, but I'm not upset that I'm, that I'm not at a level or in a place with something, a certain thing, right? So being just content, like is there, there's nothing wrong with being content. No. The only thing is, if you're completely lost in life, if you didn't, if you hadn't become a comedian, you've gone on the wrong track, it's harder to have those moments of contentment because it gnaws at you and you become a little bit bitter. And as you get older and those childhood dreams start getting fading, you feel resentful and some dark energy

can start taking over. And that contentment can be harder and harder to come by. But to have moments of peace, to have moments where you're just happy and you've got your kids are on them, you're raising them well, et cetera, et cetera, that's fine, that's beautiful. That's another form of mastery.

I just think, and I could be wrong, because I'm not inside the skin of other people, and I've only known myself, I have to say, but if, I can say that pretty confidently, but I have the feeling that if you don't know what you're doing, and you're just flailing around in life It's hard to have those peaceful moments in your day-to-day existence. You may find them But what will happen is you will try and grab because this is the nature of the human animal

You will try to grab that contentment Through quick things through drugs through online porn, through whatever it will give you that quick instant little buzz of gratification. Oh yeah. Watch the porno. And that will become your habit. And you'll feel kind of, I don't know if it's contentment, you know, you'll feel something, some form of pleasure.

But those pleasures become harder and they become smaller and smaller and smaller and quicker and quicker and quicker. And so it's a trap that you fall into. So I still believe that if you figure out what you were meant to do in life, it opens up doors to having other moments where you don't have to constantly be pursuing. You don't have to constantly be striving, you know. Like I can sit down and I can watch Basketball game tonight and enjoy it and not feel like I'm wasting my time because I work so much hard during the day, right? Yeah, I think that's kind of what I'm getting at is it doesn't have to be occupational Finding your purpose. No. Yeah. Yeah, cuz sometimes I think the best thing that a

Person could be could be a parent. For sure. Believe me, we need more of them. Yeah. God damn, that should be like a job that people should get a degree for. It really should. Yeah, I would sub, if government subsidized parenting, good parenting, wow. Or put people to school to go learn how to do it. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, well, there should be, well there should be at least a fan flip when you leave the hospital that says, hey, these are seven things you have to do, right? But you know, I think I don't have kids,

so it's easy for me to say. Oh yeah, me either. So we're just obviously a couple of grifters yelling at people. Yeah, yeah, right. But no, I do think though that there should be something that tells a parent basic things because you can't just assume everyone has the knowledge just because they can conceive a child.

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Thank you. You talk a lot about how unique humans are. You know? And just how rare, like how unique is it that a person exists? How unique is an individual? Oh, well, that's something I'm going into in my into my new book and I'm trying to tell you how you must realize how strange it is for you to be alive at this moment I don't know if that's quite

what your question is no I think it is kind of how rare is it? Sometimes I want to be able to remember how rare I am. And not just me, I mean that as a voice of a human. I want to remind myself more often that I am one of one, and not me, but every person. Yeah. Well, the way I try to describe it in my in my new book I'm not gonna go into the full thing because it'll take hours but

first of all the idea that our planet has life on it is Incredibly strange and weird. It was like an accident totally fortuitous We know billions of other planets that have no life, right? So something snapped three billion years ago, four billion years ago, that we don't understand. All right, from that point on, life evolved in this weird fashion. And there was this moment about 600 million years ago

called the, the word escapes me, it's a period in history. Mesoloic? No, no, no, it's before that. It'll come to me a little. 600 million years ago? 600 million years ago. Suddenly life became complex. It'll come to me at some point.

Maybe it's the Cretaceous period. Spring or something? Cretaceous. Cretaceous. Cretaceous. So, suddenly complex life evolved. Cambrian explosion. Cambrian explosion. Thank you, sir. Sorry, not to cut you off, but 600 million years ago, the earth experienced an evolutionary event, which has never been repeated. The Cambrian

explosion saw a huge increase in new life forms, many of which laid the foundations for the body plans of all subsequent animal life. Wow, I've never even heard of that. So yeah, so this is this guy, Stephen Jay Gould, who wrote a book about the Cambrian explosion and how there were these forms of life, and he has pictures in his book of these really grotesque looking creatures that lived in the ocean, because all life was in water then. And if only one plant survived, which is the plan that all bodies basically have, right, with a head, etc., etc., but if that hadn't happened, it almost didn't, the most, the strangest, most weird looking forms of life would be walking around this planet.

You have to see these pictures to believe it, right? Anyway, that happened. Okay, I can go on and on and on. Then there were the dinosaurs. And the dinosaurs disappeared because of, we now know, because of a meteor, what do you call it? Heat or something? No, no, no, a meteor hit the planet Earth. Oh, a big bang. Yeah.

Or like a, a meteor wiped everything out. Yeah. It shook the whole thing, a meteor wiped everything out. Yeah. It shook the whole thing, huh? About 60 million years ago, right? It ended up to the extinction of dinosaurs. Damn. But that meteor could have easily missed planet Earth. If it had shifted just a slight degree,

it could have hit somewhere else, but it landed in exactly the spot in the Yucatan Peninsula that caused the greatest amount of damage. If that hadn't happened, dinosaurs would still be roaming the planet. And then we wouldn't. We wouldn't. Humans, about 80,000 years ago, nearly went extinct.

There were only about 8,000 of us. We had been decimated by various illnesses, et cetera. We very nearly went extinct as a species, okay? So humans surviving all of that, surviving that life evolves, surviving that life evolved in the way that it did, that dinosaurs disappeared, that mammals came on, is extremely unlikely. And then add on to this Theo, the fact that your parents met and there was a chance that they, the chance that they met was probably a bit unlikely.

It could have easily been somebody else who was your father, right? And then you would still be you, but you wouldn't be you exactly, it'd be different. Multiply that by 70,000 generations going back to the earliest humans. If they hadn't met in a certain way, if they hadn't met each other,

you would be completely, you wouldn't be you at all, right? So the fact that you are here, the odds against it are so astronomical that you, I say in the book, you must have to sit down on your knees and it's like almost like a religion. You must think it is so strange. It is so miraculous that I'm so grateful

that I am who I am. It is incredible. There I'm so grateful that I am who I am. It is incredible. There's a reason for that. Yeah. Yeah, I think that's something, yeah, that we also, yeah, it's like that you were here, like you were a creed. There was, there is purpose in you. There was some, the universe chose this. Whoever you are, the universe chose you, whatever pain, whatever prosperity, whatever this walk is right now, that you were chosen for it. It's like, I feel like it just gives, I don't know if it helps me have some ownership when I'm thinking of myself. I don't know what it does for me, but I think it's important to hear that because I think more than ever now,

it feels like that individuality is getting lost for how rare we are to exist. Like, we only, only some of us have the same fingerprint. None of us have same fingerprints, right? That's crazy, bro. Yeah. You know? And I think also is this,

I think I read that this, everybody has a same, nobody has the same sphincter either, which is, yeah, the 11th fingerprint. Never thought of it that way. Yeah, so that's crazy. Just to think that at, you know, at both ends, they really got you sealed off very uniquely. But it's definitely just,

but I feel like for as unique as we are, we're losing individuality sometimes. And that's a problem that I feel like is going on today. A lot of it is social media. I mean, you don't want to beat that drum too much, but I think there's some truth to it. We're too much attuned to what other people are doing, and it's hard for us to think about what we want,

what makes us different. A lot of young people going to high school, I mean, I know I remember when I was in high school, being weird and different, you could be laughed at, but I think it's much, much worse right now. Really? Yes, I do. I mean, I was kind of a loner in high school.

Kind of was a hippie, had very long hair, did a lot of drugs. Yeah, buddy. Oh, there you are right there, Bobby Green. Robert Green right there. That's me, that's the 19 year old Robert. Bro, you look like you were looping right there, goomin' on some boomers.

Yeah, we were doing a lot of LSD at that time. You can see the tie dyed sofa behind me. They had a tie dyed sofa? Yeah, look at that. Look at that thing. Yeah, we were like getting into the Grateful Dead, if you can believe it. Oh yeah, American Beauty, yeah, that album was out, yeah? Working Class Dead was the one, Working Man's Dead was the one that came out just at that

time. Who would you take it with, by yourself or would you take it with friends? Oh, we took it with friends. Yeah. You really want me to go into this? I mean, the drug that we really, really, really liked at this point, we're talking about the 70s, I'm an old dude, man, was peyote. Wow, I never got to do it.

It was really big because this was in Berkeley, and it was like the trendy thing. There are these buttons from cactus from Mexico or Arizona, and if you ate them, you would be incredibly sick. So you had to pull out all these little hairs And if you ate them, you would be incredibly sick. So you had to pull out all these little hairs so that you could digest them without throwing up. Then you had to, and they tasted absolutely horrible. You had to put them into these tiny little pieces and eat it in like peanut butter or like a milkshake

so you didn't have to just swallow it. Man, you'd be tripping like you can't believe it. It was just unbelievable. Totally transcendent. The most spiritual drug of all. Really? Yeah. How would it get more, like,

because spiritual is a unique word to use because LSD would get like freaky and weird sometimes. Mushrooms would get more spiritual, I felt like. Definitely. So peyote, you felt like went even more spiritual than that? I think so. I think so. I think so. I mean, I did it probably maybe about a dozen times

when I was younger. And I've done LSD and I've done, mushrooms are pretty spiritual. Kind of revealing all this crap of my youth. But- No, I think it's important. A lot of people do these things, especially psychedelics are coming back

more than ever now. Well, I must say I don't do them anymore. I mean I've I've tried little tiny micro dosing of mushrooms Yeah, I don't do it anymore But it it had a very positive impact on me. It opened my mind things that I will never forget, right? Experiences that still resonate in my brain that I may not create through drugs, but I create through other means. I like try to return to spiritual sensations that are very powerful. So those drugs could be used,

could be, I say, for very positive purposes. They shouldn't be used just for partying and just for forgetting yourself, but they can be used to open what Aldous Huxley called the doors of perception. Yeah, that's a great way. Yeah. That's the biggest thing is just the perception because perception is how you

change everything about your life. Like, um, yeah, mushrooms have helped me many times to have perception adjustment to realize where I was being, uh, not giving myself enough grace or just being, just being to trying to be control things too, you know, just to really just have a little more. Cause the mushrooms is like a sponge, you know, just to add a little bit more space into my, into your, how you view things or see things. And it could be anything a relationship.

I mean, there's business situations. I mean, they can help so much, I feel like. Um, and they're being used more than ever. It seems like, you know, because yeah, I've microdosed before that just microdose and I'll just like, during the day at one point, I'll just start off, see a mosquito and I'll kind of follow them around the house for a minute. Then I'll go back to work, but that's about as

like weird as it gets. You know, that's pretty damn weird. Yeah. I'm just kind of curious, you know, just doing a little air traffic control. Are you seeing the little ant on the ground there? Yeah, to see where he's going. Yeah. Tell me if you're a scout.

Yeah. Hey, look, dude, if you're trying to get away from something, blink once, you know. So how long did peyote last? Did it last for like a long time? You mean when you took it? Yeah. Well, it would, like all those drugs, you would take effect after about 40 minutes or so. Yeah. And then it

would be very intense for about four or five hours and then it would kind of wear off. It's kind of had the same sort of span as mushrooms. In a way, it just depended on how much, how many buttons you consumed. If you consume like a dozen button, man, you'd be tripping for like several days. Well, I don't think we went that far. Yeah. Your damn elevator car at that point, dude, you're going up, bro. Yeah. But I mean, it has an incredible history among, among Native

Americans and Mexicans. Yeah. What did they use it for? Can you bring that up, Nick? I want to learn like, if there was a distinctive like were they trying to talk to a God? Because I can't imagine the first time they took it it must have blown their minds. Well it was the first time people experimented with all kinds of drugs you know that fascinates me how they how they didn't kill themselves how they

knew that it had that effect. In the late 1800s, the modern-day Native American church was formed, a key part of which is the ingestion of peyote as a religious sacrament during all-night prayer ceremonies. In this context, peyote is not viewed as a drug, but rather as a medicine for healing. Wow. Yeah. Yeah, that kind of reminds you of how ayahuasca is these days. It is very much so. I've never done it.

I think ayahuasca sounds even more intense Yeah, so I don't know but I think it's similar to that. Yeah, I've had some good experiences with it for me It's been very therapeutic. Oh, really? Yeah, I don't think of it as a drug and I'm I understand if other people do that's fine I think of it as a medicinal drug, but I don't think of it as a party, you know it's very painful to go sit there and you go through the filing cabinet of who you are and pull out some files and kind of burn them in a way. I don't know, I'm a little bit frightened about that myself

at my age, you know. Oh, you could rock in there, I think. You think so? Yeah, it doesn't, I find it to be actually not super invasive. I could get up and go pee or go get a snack in the kitchen and then go sit back down and drop back into the meditation. Really?

Yeah, and I felt very okay with that. Well, I'll consider it. Yeah. How do you feel like we're, like, well, one thing that I worry about with society today is since we watch so much of each other, right? We're never spending that time like getting to know ourselves kind of.

We're not, you know, I remember we used to just lie around all the time and sure, it seemed like you were bored, but your brain was like maybe coming up slowly building ideas or, you know, forming like thoughts or hopes, dude. I remember you used to be able to hope so much because you would hope you would see this girl across town or you would hope that she was gonna be at summer camp or there was just no way to know everything.

So you had so much hope all the time. And now there's so much information that I feel like it's taken away a lot of hope. But I feel like even more so that, and I don't wanna be like Debbie Downer, there's still hope, but I feel like it's subdued hope. But I feel like even more so that, and I don't want to be like Debbie Downer, there's still hope, but I feel like it's subdued hope. But I feel like if you're looking, if we're always watching stuff,

then do we start to just mimic it instead of being individual? That's what I worry about. Do you think that's possible? Like if we're always, do we become more mimics than creators? And has it always been that way, do you think? No, I think things are getting worse.

Of course, I don't know. I don't have, you know, I can't see everything, but my feeling is it is getting worse. I mean, you know, I do believe that there is something as vague as the word is that is like a soul that a person has, and that soul is connected to who you are as an individual. Like you're kind of born with it, right?

And when you know who you are, when you go deep into it, when you connect to things that you really love, when you connect to your memories from childhood, to things that make you different, that soul's kind of alive. It feels alive, it feels vibrant, it feels right. The feeling of rightness, which is something people don't understand.

Some things feel right, some things don't. Okay, and I know for myself, and I'm guilty of it, if I spend an hour on Instagram chasing this thing or that thing, or wasting my time on this website or whatever, I have this feeling like a bit of my soul was sucked out of me. Yes. That I kind of lost something, that I'm just this kind of machine that's just processing data, and I'm not a human being anymore.

And I feel that soul kind of, it's like a vapor that's escaping me, right? So... Yeah, I feel like they got me, it's like a vapor that's escaping me, right? So. Yeah, I feel like they got me, they tricked me. Yeah. The second I set it down, I feel like it almost takes a couple of seconds for you to get out of this trance in a way. It is a trance.

You're like, dang, they tricked me. They did, they did trick me, yeah. Because a lot of the algorithms and just the entertainment value of it is so strong. Sure, it's entertaining, but with all the time you spend doing that, or that I or anybody spends, it's time that I feel like you could be doing things

that would get me to know myself better. Yeah. But that's what I wonder, are the scales of that other stuff getting so heavy, so like have they narrowed the algorithm so cleanly with the, with everything, the pornography, it's taken away so many, like it's frightening. It's frightening. That's what I wonder. Do you feel like there is a way for that?

Is it just a cycle and there's a way out of that? Well, the, the possible optimistic scenario, which I don't know will happen is, uh, the human beings have a spirit and that will get so disgusted with it that will rebel that a young generation will evolve, probably not Gen Z, probably three or four generations from now, that will find it so lifeless and so, you know, sick, but you know, so unfruitful,

not giving them anything, that they will rebel and they will be angry and they'll say, screw all this crap, I wanna go back to something else. I wanna go back to something in the past or whatever, however far back, or I wanna create something new, a real revolution of sorts, a consciousness revolution. That can happen because human beings have that capacity and it's happened before in history where we've gone through these cycles of kind of our soul disappearing.

Really? Yes, definitely. People kind of going crazy and moments of chaos, yeah. Does one come to mind? Well, I mean, think of the people that have succumbed to things like Nazism or, you know, those kind of things where there are mass hallucinations and being drugged. Yeah. And the Germans now, I mean, however you might not like Germans, I don't know. I mean, they're nice people.

I'm fine with them. I don't know all of them. But they're not like that anymore, right? So they emerged from that. That's a good point, huh? So kind of mass hallucinations sort of thing. But there were periods, I'm going to get kind of wonky here, but I believe it was the third century

or fourth century BC in Greece, where they went through this incredible crisis where their belief, their gods, all that, was disappearing, people who didn't believe in it anymore, and there was a crisis. You know, human beings need to believe in something, need to believe in something larger than themselves. And when they don't, things can get really nasty

and chaotic and soulless. And I think that's sort of what we're going through right now. That's kind of what I'm writing about in my new book but I think people will find their way back to it. It'll take young people who get disgusted with this kind of mechanical culture that we have. Will that happen? I don't know. These algorithms as you say are insanely powerful. Yeah it's like we're really up against this dark, this darkness that we've created,

which is kind of fascinating too, you know, it has a very much a story. It's like all the stories, you know, it's like the, it's like the perfect story, you know, it's like you create the Frankenstein. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, it really is. When it comes to like individuality, right? What is a good way for people to start to individuality, right?

What is a good way for people to start to get to know themselves? Does it make sense to you what I'm asking? Yeah, it does. Well, I keep coming back to something that I tell a lot of people I think is very important is the desire to know yourself. So people are very good at faking it.

And you could be out there listening and go, yeah, I kind of want to know myself better. Okay, let me get online. So people are very good at faking it. And you could be out there listening and go, yeah, I kind of want to know myself better. Okay, let me get online and get, you know, they just forget about it because the other forces are stronger than them. You have to have a level, you know, that if you're in recovery, a level of disgust,

you have to hit bottom. You have to go, I don't want to be like this anymore. I want to find out who I am. I want to touch that core of individuality that I know is still within me, that soul that I believe is still there. You have to have the desire. If there's no desire there, if you're just mimicking,

if you're just saying it just for the sake of it because it sounds good, I can't help you. But if it's still there, yeah, you want to start by, I mean, the many paths you can take, a very good path is to take a journal and start journaling, right? And writing down your thoughts and writing down your dreams. And when I say that, I say, don't do it on a computer. I mean, I know a lot of young people don't know how to handwrite anymore, but pick up

a pen. I still handwrite a lot of things. Pick up a pen and a journal and write it down. Dreams, I know this sounds woo woo, but it's not. Dreams are really powerful, very interesting. They're going to tell you a lot about yourself, right? It's going to tell you about those journeys your brain takes at night that are pretty fantastical. Okay, you write that down, you go back into your childhood and you go, what was it that made me so different, that was so weird about me, what was it that I was attracted to? As you go through that process, things will

start coming up. It's like you're digging, you're excavating, like you're an archaeologist into your own past. Yeah, it's like using a brush and brushing off, you see a little bit of bone and then you're like, what other questions can I ask around here that might help me remove a little more dirt? Yeah, and memories will come up, like your memory when you're two years old and your brother popping up his head, things will start coming back to you.

And you'll start connecting to who you were when you were young, and you're connecting to who you were as an adolescent. Adolescence is an extremely important part of our life. It really is almost the most formative part. It's where we really made that turn into this or into that, right? And I find returning to your adolescence, returning to those strong, powerful emotions that you felt, those sexual things that were just so overwhelming. Yeah.

Yeah. Those other things that, you know, that were happening. Returning to that, because people, psychologists have studied, that is the period when you feel what makes you different the most, right? It's when you feel the most rebellious, when you understand, this is who I am. I'm not like my parents. You're 13, you're 14, all of a sudden you go, I don't have to be like mom or dad.

In fact, I want to be totally different. Adolescence is like a really key thing to go deep into. That will show you a lot about your individuality, about who you are, and about who you've become. So it's a process, and it should be a very exciting process. Right, right. You shouldn't look at, yeah, that's the thing. If you look at it, it's like, oh shit, I got to do this, you know, but to carve out a little time where you're like, yeah, let me think, whatever some things, look at old photos and stuff like that. Really look

at yourself a little bit like a, like you're studying something, you know. Even listen to the music that you liked, however embarrassing that might be. Yeah, what'd you listen to, man? Remember the first song that you heard? I can't go, I think I was four years old or so, and my sister, who's four years older than me, had a Beatles album. And it was, I mean, this is, I'm older than you.

Abby Road? No, God, no. I'm almost so much older than that. It was like, meet the Beatles. And it was the song, I saw her standing there, I think the single. And I was like, wow, this is so weird. This is so different. It's hard for people to imagine because the Beatles seem sort of cliched now.

But when that sound first came out, I was like, there is nothing else like this out there. It's amazing, it's fantastic. And I remember my grandmother was there and she couldn't understand it. She thought it was awful. And I thought it was the most amazing thing. I think that was the first song I can remember,

I can recall. Yeah. Yeah, I remember my mom used to play Brian Adams all the time and make us clean the house to it. And then she would sometimes abuse us if we didn't clean up good. But, um. Brian Adams, wow.

Yeah, it was a bit, it was kind of crazy. But then, what else would we all, oh, I, yeah, I've told this story before, but the first, a camp counselor, a woman picked me up and took me to camp one day because my mom couldn't take me in summer camp. And she reached over and put my seatbelt on me. And it was like the first time that like a woman,

like other I guess than my mother had been near me. And then she put on Bon Jovi. And I was like, what is going on, dude? Are we married? How old were you? I was probably eight, seven or eight. And I'm sure I'd heard something before that, but nothing that, you know, this moment,

that was the first song I remember hearing and being like, yeah, I wanna hear that song again. Wow. But yeah, I think it was because there was a, you know, maybe because there was a woman there or something, but that was something that I remembered. What was it, you know, in a lot of your books,

you have the art of seduction, you have, you have 48 laws of power, you have mastery. You're always like looking at yourself and finding ways, it seems like, to encourage the most out of one self. How did that kind of begin for you? Like what was there like a period in your time where you're like I got like I wasn't my best self or I'm not gonna let this happen to me again? Like what was that trigger kind of for you?

gonna let this happen to me again? Like what was that trigger kind of for you? Well there were there were many triggers. So I was out of college I decided to go into journalism because I needed I needed to make a living I wanted to write but I had to support myself I was living in New York and you know I was very poor at the time I had a very low level job. And it wasn't connecting to me. I felt like something was wrong. I didn't like the fact that you would write something and then the next day you'd be onto something else that was totally forgotten, it didn't last.

And I was into something, because I love history, if it doesn't last more than 24 hours, what's the point? It should last like 12 years, 20, 100 years. What you write should have some weight to it. I felt wrong, so I left it. I wandered around Europe for about four or five years, sometimes with a backpack. I worked in a hotel in Paris. I did construction work in Greece because I ran out of money.

I taught English in Barcelona. I worked in a crappy television show in London. I led a tour guide thing in Dublin, Ireland, trying to write novels. And I was starving. It's like a John Irving story. It almost seems like. It was, it was like, it's such a cliche. I can't, I was a cliche of the American, great, the young American trying to write

a novel and I had amazing experiences, you know, experiences that seeded all of my books, but nothing happened and I was lonely and I was depressed and I felt like something was wrong. Were you basing your achievement on something? Were you, like, were you, what were you, what do you think you were looking for in that? Because it sounds like a searching kind of time. Well, I was trying to write a novel, but I couldn't write it. It wasn't happening. My mind wasn't... I don't think I would have been a good novelist because I'm too much into ideas and my novels were just like these kind of big kind of sticks with a big idea

on it that you were supposed to read about it didn't have life to I think I could do it now, but something was wrong about it and I Couldn't earn a living off of it, you know, I was on my own I had to earn a living I didn't want to be doing all these crap jobs my whole life So I came back to LA where I'm from my father wasn't well and I got a job in Hollywood thinking this is the golden path. Money, writing, glamour, you know, whatever, the dream. Fancy, yeah.

Cocaine, women. All of that. Yeah. And none of it happened. It was, I wasn't, it wasn't, well, I mean, I had the, I had the cocaine and all that stuff, but I didn't have the success. I had all the other stuff, but none of the really stuff I was after. And so to answer your question, nothing was going right.

Nothing was quite fitting, right? And I had a moment, I was getting kind of desperate and my girlfriend was saying, you know, maybe you gotta stop like trying to have it both ways where you have your, writing your creativity and then you have earning a living. Maybe you can't have both. So she said, I always wanted to write plays and theater and stuff.

So she said, go ahead and do that. And that was a kind of a turning point where I'm gonna stop trying to just be this person that other people wanted me to be, and I'm going to follow what excites me, even though I can't make a living in it. And that was a very important part, meant like, yeah, I can do something that's kind of fun,

and maybe it will turn into something. Well, it's the same thing you talk about in mastery too, kind of that we were talking about earlier. Yeah, and then, so sometimes fate has its weird ways of operating. Just as after I had done that, writing the plays, we put them on here in Los Angeles, we performed them, I acted in them, she directed them, we did all the work ourselves, very strange plays.

Right after that, I met this man in Italy who offered me the chance to write a book. And something clicked in me going, Robert, all the bad choices in your life, all the mistakes, everything can turn on this moment, right? You can go from being this kind of loser in your one bedroom apartment in Santa Monica. you could somehow turn this around. A book? Wow, I never thought of that before. Not a novel, but a nonfiction book.

I see, so you'd never really take, you'd never consider that. Of course not, if you're thinking of fiction, you're thinking of like the, you know, the F. Scott Fitch, you know, you're thinking of like a magnificent piece, you know, on the road with Carowite, you know, you're thinking of something that's gonna change the tide, you know? Exactly. But then you're like, you know, on the road with Karol. You know, you're thinking of something that's going to change the tide, you know? Exactly.

But then you're like, oh damn, like a nerd book. Exactly. But I'm kind of a strange individual, I have to say, for better or worse, because until I was 38, it was for the worse, right? And my parents were getting really worried about me. But when I had the chance to write The 48 Laws of Power, my first book, I made it a book that's not like anything else out there.

Right? Because I'm sure it's something you've done in your comedy. There's nobody else out there like Theo von, you're unique. I made the book look weird, feel weird. Nothing about it was like anything else. It was dark. It was kind of like, language was a little bit strong.

It was controversial. It even looks biblical almost, this one. That one, yeah. This copy. The coolest thing is the face that's in this. There's two faces. Oh, is one of them Benjamin Franklin, one of them's you? Oh no, wait, one of them's Henry, Henry.

No, it's Machiavelli. Oh, Machiavelli. And me. I was thinking it was a guy from Black Flag. You know who that is, Henry? Henry Rollins? Yeah. It looks like Henry Rollins.

A little bit. You mean me or Machiavelli? Well, unfortunately, Machiavelli. Oh, okay. He still looks like you, but you look handsome. Henry Rollins is a lot more, yeah, I know. He's a lot beefier than I am. He's different than us, man. He's more intimidating. Yeah, I know he's a lot beefier than I am

Intimidating yeah, maybe he's more intimidating. He's still alive. What happened to him? I think he lives I believe actually that he lives in Tennessee. Yeah. Oh I've heard that I heard he moved to Nashville. Yeah, I heard that he moved to Nashville I would love to meet him sometime. Some of my friends have worked with him I think he's a very interesting guy and And there's Machiavelli now. Kind of. I don't see a resemblance really there. Yeah. Maybe, maybe the eyes, yeah.

Yeah, maybe the eyes, they each have two eyes. Yeah. Thank you. That's a good one. Thank you for trying to support me there, Robert. Took me a little while to catch on. It took me a while too. I didn't realize it was a joke. It's all I've got to say. But so then at that to, I didn't realize it was a joke. It's all after I said it.

But so then at that point, that's you kind of like realizing something's different here. There's this voice that says, this could be something for you. You need to follow this. And was it hard for you to like start to make that happen for yourself? Well, you know, as I said, I was 38 years old.

I hadn't really amounted to anything. And this guy, Joost Elfers, who's the producer of the book, he offered me this chance. I pitched to him what turned out to be the 48 laws of power. He got so excited. So what happened was I went home to LA and I go, Robert, it was before 50 Cent coined the expression, but it's either get rich or die trying here, right? You either make this book work or you're just going to be floundering the rest of your life,

right? So I was so motivated. I was so hungry and desperate, and that this had to be it, that I put everything I had into it. And it's hard for me to understand now because it took two years to write, now it takes me five years to write a damn book. Damn. All that research, all the creating something

that hadn't been out there before, I don't know how I did it, but all I can say is there was something else inside of me that was so hungry that it made it happen. So there wasn't any like, I can't do this kind of thing. It was like, if I don't do it, that's it. I have in one book of my book on strategy and warfare, this thing that I call death ground strategy. That's it. I have in one book of my book on strategy and warfare,

this thing that I call death ground strategy. It's a great expression, it comes from Sun Tzu. And it's, if your back is to the ocean or your back is against a mountain and you're fighting the enemy, you're gonna fight with 10 times the energy because it's either conquer them or you're gonna die. Right, so you put yourself on death ground.

You either succeed or terrible things will happen. You find energy that you hadn't believed you had. You'll find creativity that you hadn't believed you had. Did you lock yourself in a hole or something to you? Like, did you create that scenario for yourself? Did you change your habits? Cause it seems like you have to really change your habits to produce something that... Well, I had good work habits and I had learned how to research.

But one thing my girlfriend did was I had this cat who just would never leave me alone. Oh yeah. He was so attached to me and quite honestly, he probably made it so I couldn't write a book so she created this table this very thin table that would fit right in here on the chair I could put my laptop on he couldn't get on it Oh wasn't enough space for him no and that allowed me to write the book that's they say a cat also, and I'll tell ya, because I know this, but a cat will, if you die, a cat will start eating,

will probably start eating your face within 48 hours. That's very nice to hear, thank you for sharing that. You're welcome. I'm not gonna look at my cat the same way now. But I just wanna let you know, so don't be shocked that they wanna stop you from writing a book. Okay, okay. He wanted to eat me? You're saying? I'm just saying they're playing a long game.

Okay. You know what I'm saying? They want to ruin it all. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So yeah, they're just, yeah, you know, they're just saving face, you know, by trying to get you to think that the, but writing a book is the issue. But that's so, it's like, but that's such a, that's almost such a metaphor, like I'm gonna make a table that a cat can't get on. And that way I'll be able to write my book. We still have the table, it's really cool looking. She made it, she painted it, she made these like,

these like kind of backgammon signs on it. It was really cool. Oh, that's super cool, yeah. What a neat, that's a fascinating little piece of information. cool, yeah. What a neat, that's a fascinating little piece of information. Yeah, yeah. Did you feel more powerful after the book? Well, I couldn't have felt less powerful because I had no power really up until then.

But you don't know because like a lot of things fail in life, right? Oh, yeah. And the book could have been, could have flopped easily because it was so different and weird. And so I had no idea. But then suddenly it starts selling well and I'm getting, you know, the press was pretty good. And I remember in early 1999, I was invited to Italy for a book tour. And this was like the strangest moment of my life, probably. I don't know if you know at Disneyland, they have Mr. Toad's Wild Ride,

where it's like he goes on this really weird adventure, and it kind of blows your mind if you're like four years old. This was like my Mr. Toad's Wild Ride, because suddenly I was invited to this conference, where I was mingling with Italian politicians, where paparazzi were following me around and taking my photograph. I went, well, who am I?

But this was the land of Machiavelli. Mm. And the 48 laws of power seemed really great to them. Right? So suddenly I'm starting to realize, well, maybe this book has legs, maybe something will happen. Then a couple of years later in Playboy Mag, seemed really great to them, right? So suddenly I'm starting to realize, well, maybe this book has legs, maybe something will happen.

Then a couple of years later in Playboy magazine, there's an interview with Jay-Z, and Jay-Z quotes the 48 laws of power. Wow. I was like, wow. It's like infiltrating that far? That's pretty interesting. And slowly, slowly the hip hop world

more and more and more more you know meeting 50 cent people were coming to me for advice me that was always giving advice before I wrote the book but nobody would ever listen to me now they were coming to me for advice about their businesses etc etc I got put on the board of directors for the company American Apparel. It was like being on acid. It was so weird because I had had so little success before that.

If you have success when you're 23, it kind of spoils you and you think that this is what life should be like. I had so much loneliness. I had so much not being able to pay bills. I had so much frustration and depression that when it happened, it was like, man, this is like, I'm like on a drug. It's fantastic.

Yeah. Cause the odds, the odds of that are slim. They are very slim, very slim. Odds of that are slim. I'm very grateful. And did you feel like you had found mastery though, or do you just felt like you had found your calling? Did you feel like you just got fortunate?

Did you write it? Sorry. Yeah, that's the question. And that's, I think it's three questions. Well, um, you know, there's luck involved in anything. So meeting this man who produced the book, I think that's three questions. Well, you know, there's luck involved in anything. So meeting this man who produced the book, I was in Italy, I could have not happened very easily.

We could have not taken the walk that we'd taken and I would have never improvised the idea that came to me. So you met a man and took a walk. Yeah, in Venice, we were walking. It was a beautiful day, I was in a good mood, and I pitched this book idea. And I pitched other ideas which he didn't like, but he liked that idea.

Anyway, that's a slender, slender thread that the whole thing hangs upon. Me going to Italy, this man also being there, us taking this walk, me being in a good mood, me improvising it. Okay. But yeah, but it's just as unique as going back to like how people are created, how an idea, how something magnificent happens, how something unique happens that this had to happen.

Your grandparents had to meet each other on a ship or somebody had to be a slave or somebody had to work at a Chick-fil-A or whatever. It's like there's all these little things, you know? Twists of fate. Yeah, just twists of fate. Sorry, go on. So, you know, if that hadn't happened, there wouldn't be any book.

But on the other hand, I might've, there's some feeling that, I don't know if people out there can relate to, but some way I had a feeling like it was meant to happen. That something about me or him drew us together, and that all of those bad experiences in life, all of the really awful bosses that I had, and I had some really bad ones, right?

Roger too, I had this guy Roger. Roger, what was he? He was just, he was a damn deviant dude. He would make us work and he would sit in his car also and smoke weed a lot of the time. But whatever. Where's Roger now? That's a good question.

I know his wife left him, I'm not sure. But he also was, he did lead our company bowling team or whatever, so that was the one redeeming thing he did. Well, that's pretty impressive. It was nice of him to do. So he bought us all jerseys and everything. But anyway, go on. Sorry. I'm sorry. Well, that's a great story. Anyway, so... What other books did you pitch him that day? You shouldn't ask that question.

I remember... So, I really was into Louis XIV, for whatever reason. Yeah, I'm from Louisiana, so. Oh, okay. We, yeah. There you go. Yeah, Louisiana purchase. Yeah.

Roulez le bon temps. Hey. Bonzons, donzons, you know? Les bon temps roulant. Yeah. That's what they say, right? Exactly. So I pitched an idea about how weird,

how different people were in the court of Louis XIV. So I pitched an idea about how weird, how different people were in the court of Louis XIV, like what their psychology was. But it was kind of related to the 48 Laws of Power. But this other idea that I pitched was, I had read this book about nonsense, and it kind of, it was called The Philosophy of Nonsense. It's a very kind of, it was called the philosophy of nonsense. It's very kind of theoretical book, but it was all about how nonsense could be actually kind of revolutionary to take words and to kind of make you think that there's a meaning, but there's no meaning.

Kind of excited me, right? Yeah, because it activates a part of your brain that's not a common path. Yeah. Yeah. Sort of like some of the things in Lewis Carroll, like in Alice in Wonderland. Right, like you're falling through a hole in the ground and come up into a new universe, like world, yeah, like ridiculous, walking into mirrors, yeah.

Yeah, exactly. Change of perception. Exactly. So I was pitching him an idea about nonsense, but it would be kind of a popular book that would sort of show, you know, how nonsense can be kind of a powerful book that would sort of show how nonsense can be kind of a powerful force,

can be very poetic and exciting. That idea didn't fly. Those are the only ones I can remember. Yeah, but hey, that's what it takes, man. That's what it takes to get something that does fly. Yeah. You know? But I think it was,

so what I was saying is all the horrible bosses I had, all the bad experiences, I worked in a detective agency briefly here in Los Angeles, actually in Pasadena. For PI, private? Well, it was a firm. What is PI? That's private investigator.

I wasn't a dick, I wasn't a gumshoe. I was what's called a skip tracer. And it was one of the worst jobs I ever had. Where basically, you know, some guy in Wisconsin jumps bail or owes this company this amount of money. I'm sitting in an office on the telephone trying to find him. That's what the skip tracer, you're tracing where he skipped.

And they give you like these dialogues you're supposed to follow. You call his mother up and you pretend to be a high school buddy of his. You do some research, you went to Kenosha High School and you do little research things you can say to kind of bullshit your way. And I was very good at bullshitting.

And I would kind of do that. And she'd say, oh, he's, he's, you know, she'd give you a clue. Then you would find him. And then they would, you know, get the guy and they'd get him to pay. I felt so awful. I was like helping the law. Yeah. By these poor suckers.

You were kind of a, yeah, you weren't a snitch, but you was like. Kind of. Yeah, you was like a undercover kind um guy on the phone. Yeah. Not a cop, yeah. And I had the worst boss there. I hated that son of a bitch. Anyway all those people went into the 48 laws of power. I kind of got my little digs into them because they sort of inspired some of these awful laws that I ended up creating. Yeah, was some of the 48 laws of power written with like vengeance? Was it written like... yeah.

A little bit. I think you have to have something like that. You have to have a fire. I was angry. Yeah. Were you angry at the world? Were you angry at circumstance, do you think? Because I get angry a lot.

I try to think about what I'm angry at. It's hard for me to sometimes know what it is. It is hard to know what it is. What's like really underneath it. Because you have to be superficially angry, but there's something else underneath that's gnawing at you. I think I was angry at people's bullshit about people pretending to be something that they're not is what really angers me and what angered me about Hollywood.

I don't know your relationship to Hollywood. I hate Hollywood. Oh good, thank you. Well, people pretending to be these liberal, wonderful people in favor of all the best causes out there to create art, what bullshit. They wanted power. They loved having the power over people, right?

Producers and directors loved the power they had over actresses, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. And so I had a law in there about get other people to do the work but always take the credit, which is one of the nastier laws. That's what happened to me a lot of times in Hollywood. I would do the work, I would write all the dialogue It's that or in some screenplay. I wouldn't get any credit or all at all

So I was kind of like turning it around and telling people this is this is how the world works People will get you to do things and they'll put their name on it kind of thing So so is some of it not as much with 48 laws is not as much telling people to do these things But making people aware of things Some of it, not as much with 48 laws, is not as much telling people to do these things, but making people aware of things. It's almost like making people aware of different clocks that tick in time, but that aren't necessarily timekeeping clocks,

but just clocks of how things work. Does that make any sense? Almost, huh? Almost. There's something there. Thanks. Yeah, I started off. I didn't think about it.

I feel like it started off good. I'm gonna go to bed thinking about that. There's something there. Oh, it's different like, Yeah, yeah, yeah. So it's not all how to do things as much as it, some of it can be warnings or awareness. Well, there's a law in there about

play on people's need to believe to create a cult-like following. And the idea is that there are a lot of cults out there. Yeah, there's a lot of cults. Definitely 30 Seconds to Mars, I think, is one. What's that? It's a band, I guess. It's also like a GPS estimate, I guess,

if you drive a space shuttle or something. Excuse my ignorance. Yeah, no, it's, I'm just joking. It's Jared Leto's and his brother's band. I'm just joking. Oh, Jared, okay. I am joking, but people always say that it's a cult. Oh. But yeah, there's a lot of different cults out there. Yeah, so I'm not telling you to go out and create a cult.

Right. Although you could if you wanted to. I'm saying that you might be in a cult right now. And here's how to recognize when you're in a cult. These are the things that people do to kind of trap you into a cult. They create like an us versus them dynamic. While there's an enemy out there that's trying to destroy you, better stay inside here where it's us. And then they create, like they use numbers a lot. Like this is the fifth level of the sixth domain that you have reached. Then you know, brother, you're in a cult.

That's what you're hearing that. So it's not so much like, go out there and create this cult, but like, maybe you're in one, and here's how to recognize it. Yeah, dude, that's hilarious, man. Especially now with the media, it's like it's definitely become cult-like behavior, and with their force over society.

What do you think has more effect on us these days, our government or our media? Like who's a bigger power, Hollywood or the government? Well Hollywood, and you're also saying like tech, the tech world, like social media, I'd say they have more power. I mean, I don't know what the numbers would be. I'd have to say like 70% and 30% would be the government. I mean, at this point though, it's reaching a point where the government

and the media are kind of becoming one. Oh, well, I'll tell you a story. So I'm at the mall the other day in Century City in Los Angeles, right? West Los Angeles kind of. I'm in there, a construction guy walks through. He's like, Dio, what's up? So I start talking to him and he's like,

dude, guess what we're building? I'm like, I don't know, you know? I thought maybe it could have been like a Hardee's or something. He's like, we're building like a 20 story building and 10 floors of it are the CIA and the other 10 floors are a management company, Hollywood management company.

Oh, wow. That's pretty spot on, right? I was like, you gotta be kidding me. He goes, bro, I wish I was joking with you. He's like, that is exactly who's gonna be in the building. Yeah. I'm excited. Because I was like, who's gonna be in the building?

He's like, you're never gonna believe it. I'm like, wow. I used to be, I might still be, I don't think I am. I was with CAA and they were trying to make movies out of my books. And you go to that building and they call it like the Death Star. I forget, maybe that's what the name of it and there are like you know politicians who are being represented by CAA, athletes, tech bros,

influencers right so that's where all of that kind of yeah there's the Death Star yeah cool looking building their building is awesome looking. Yeah, it's pretty frightening though when you go inside. It's like all these people, everyone's like wearing a suit. Yeah. It's almost like, it's almost like Dianetics, what's it called again? Scientology? It's almost like Scientology.

Like Scientology? Hollywood's version of Scientology. Yeah. Anyway, thank you. Yeah, that's a pretty building though. Yeah, so it feels like there is a merging these days of the government and social media. To me, social media is definitely the power. Oh, for sure.

That's what it's like. That's all the influence. I mean, the government couldn't even keep the post office open. Yeah. You know? I mean, damn, dude. The post office is crazy, dude.

You can go in there and just ask for mail and they'll give you some mail, bro. Oh, really? Yeah, you don't even have to have any. They're just like, here's some mail for you. You know? I can try that. Yeah, it's gotten way, yeah, they're, they really lowered the bar on like rules or whatever.

Yeah, but the technology people, they've read all of the books on marketing, on psychology, you know, Mark Zuckerberg, they figured the whole thing out. They know how to move us around like little puppets on a string, you know Mark Zuckerberg they figured the whole thing out Yeah, they know how to move us around like little puppets on a string, you know, so Yeah, wonderful get to a point in I have to pee do you or not? I have to pee like you do you go pee and then I'll pee after you But I wanted to ask you all do you think like Hollywood has like an agenda? I want to ask you all, do you think like Hollywood has like an agenda? Like that it's an organized agenda that they try and create through their art?

Or do you think that's just like a conspiracy theory where people that are just imitates life and that's just the way things are? Are you talking about the movie industry? You're talking about tech? You talking about which aspect of it? That's a good question. Are you talking about video games? I mean. I guess I would probably talk more

about like the movie industry. Well, to me, for my being inside the belly of the beast, so to speak, is it's really all about money. I mean, there's so much money involved in at stake. That's really the motor that drives everything in Hollywood. People may pretend it's about creating art or supporting this cause or that cause, but when you bring it all down, it's about making money.

I'm sorry. Yeah, it's capitalism. Yeah, and that's what generates what they choose to make movies about. So for a while, it was all the franchise movies, you know, the Mission Impossibles. Then it was all the Marvel movies, because, you know, they need to sell their products abroad.

If it sells in China, they make a killing, you know? Right, if they can make one thing that sells to everybody, then it's like, that's a super home run. Whereas if they make one thing that sells just to people in a certain region of America, that's more of like a single or a bunch. Right. So that's what generates their, you know, their mojo. That's why they make the things they make.

So you don't want too much dialogue because if it's like in India or China, you know You have to do all the subtitles doesn't work just a lot of action a lot of people beating each other up a lot of explosions So it's it's money and then comes the art and there comes well, do we actually film? That's how they think I'm pretty damn sure of it. Yeah, so I don't think there's like a conspiracy To like I'm pretty damn sure of it. So I don't think there's like a conspiracy to like move a certain agenda, although there is a kind of certain woke quality, excuse me, that I won't deny that permeates it.

But it's more about, they would drop the woke stuff tomorrow if they could make more money doing something else. It's just about what's gonna bring the bucks and big bucks because that's what Hollywood's all about. And Hollywood needs proof. So Hollywood I feel like is always a little behind the times in a lot of ways unless they do something indie because they really need proof that something is going to bring in the money. Yeah. So, and still they start to see like a swing in like ticket sales or streams or views, then they are just riding whatever the previous few years were.

What used to be 30, 40 years ago when there was independent film that you could have somebody like a Jim Jarmusch, you know, Who was it? Huh? Jim Jarmusch. Who was it? Bring him up. Yeah, bring up Jim Jarmusch, you know? Who was it? Huh? Jim Jarmusch, who was it? Um, bring him up. Yeah, bring up Jim Jarmusch, please. He was a really interesting film director. He might have been from the South in like the 80s and 90s.

Let's bring him up. Yeah, Jimmy Jarmusch, baby. Yay. But, well, we're still with his movie. You'll take the Fonz, huh? He did that movie with Tom Waits that I really like. I haven't seen that. Down by Law? Huh? Down by Law? Down Tom Waits that I really like I haven't seen that down by law

Huh down by law down by law. Thank you. Yeah Thanks, Zach for saying that down by law put that on the list of things to watch too Yes, really interesting movie Tom Waits is the only time I ever seen him act. Yeah, are you Tom Waits fan? No, okay. Well, that's alright. I won't wait Cripple Creek was that him? No, that's somebody else That's the band yeah, oh the weight I'm thinking of That's the band. Oh Tom weights bring him up decent guy. Oh, he's fantastic

Do I know him? Oh wait, Tom weights,, dude? Dude, I know Tom Waits. Yeah. Yeah, I'm a fan of him, dude. I freaking know him. Show me another picture of him. Wow. He used to play, I think, with my buddy Josh Kelly. Tom Waits, dude. what's up Tom? He's one of my heroes from like I loved his music Is he dead? He'd know he's true. No, whoa. He lives in California now. No, I still alive. Oh, thank God I'll text him then Yeah, please say hello That's cool, dude. Yeah, I went and I think he performed on a show with

my buddy Josh with a musician friend of mine one time. He's amazing he's amazing. Yeah with Josh Kelly. That's cool man. So anyway so back in the day you'd have these like weird independent filmmakers like even Jonathan Demme or Jim Jarmusch and they would create something weird and different, and it would start a trend. People would start doing independent films like that, you know, kind of, you know, even films in black and white, et cetera, et cetera.

And, but now, you know, you can't make a movie for a million dollars or half a million dollars like you could back then. Now you need at least 10, 20 million dollars to even begin to think about making a movie. Well, to make a big movie. And to make any movie. You think so? Yeah.

Because the costs have just gone way, way up. Like, just to even think, because my wife, she's an independent filmmaker right and she used to make her own films that she would kind of raise the funds with. She could shoot a film for a million dollars. It's not possible now anymore. So yeah I mean I think you probably at least probably have to have maybe five million dollars. At least. Okay. At least. That I'll agree on. And they won't they won't fund it.

Right, they're not gonna fund, yeah. It's definitely hard. We've been trying to get a movie made for a while, and David Spade and I wrote a movie, and it's not a super expensive film. And it's been a nightmare. And so that's why sometimes it's like, I wonder, well, it's like, do they just not like us?

Is that why William Morris won't help us make this thing? Why wouldn't, you know, like, I don't know. I don't wanna get petty in it. I don't feel petty, but it's like, why wouldn't they invest in it? Well, what would happen is if you made your $5 million movie with David Spade, it could very well set a trend.

It could very well make $80 million and be huge, but they don't wanna take the risk. They're so scared, their balls are so scrunched up in a little, you know, they've got, and they're just so afraid and timid that they only want to do what they know is a slam dunk where they can make a lot of money because their lives are on the line. It's such a precarious world now, Hollywood.

It's not doing very well. They're in kind of a crisis stage right now because of streaming, because it's so competitive. It's really hard very well. They're in kind of a crisis stage right now because of streaming because it's so competitive Yeah, it's really hard to make money. So they're not willing to take risks, you know, yeah And this is a problem that's happening in America in all fields the the the amount of risk takers now is shrinking shrinking shrinking because People are so afraid. Ah See, that's it. And that in a way is also taking away our individuality

because if we don't take risks, if there's not enough space to take a risk or someone isn't brave enough or willing or is able to make it happen, it's not always bravery. A lot of people, they just, it's not feasible based on their life. And it's okay if they can't take a risk, but you need those people.

You do need those people. You need those people for things to change, to start a new curve. Yeah, that's really interesting, man. Thinking about what you just said a second ago, I had a friend of mine is a publicist and he was saying the other day, he's like, man, Hollywood's just, nobody's making a lot of things, you know?

Like last year, I think Sony Pictures only made like 12 movies last year. Really? You know, that's crazy. I think this year they're on slate to make like 20 or 25. A lot of that had to do with the strike. Right. Oh, that's a good point too. But to think that like probably 10 years ago, they probably made a hundred movies, you know

And if you can bring up any numbers on that, that'd be great. If you see anything, let me know but yeah, he was that well, one of the problems also I think with Hollywood is you have like Nepotism is alive and well in America overall. So I think you get, I don't know if this is true, but I feel like you get people that have just now it's the children of people. It's their sons, the creativity, the guy moving from, you know, Dubuque, Iowa with a great idea isn't coming here anymore brain because they're giving that job to somebody's

care. because they're giving that job to somebody's kid or it's all, and you start to lose creativity because the creativity isn't gonna come there after a while because it doesn't, it's not nurtured. Yeah, yeah. You know? I mean, there is a possibility, there is some hope that it's so cheap to make a movie with your iPhone, right? That the means of making a movie could be,

you could go out there if you're some 20 year old kid and you have a really interesting, weird idea and you just go ahead and make it. Oh, totally. You could create a trend, but the problem is, a lot of people are afraid to even make that step. They want to make the money first. Sometimes I tell people,

it's okay to do something for free. It's okay to take a job where you're getting paid very little. But if you learn a valuable skill, if you actually make something that gets a lot of attention, the money will come in. But a lot of people are so afraid of making that step, right?

So if you're like a young person, you have an idea for film, don't sit there and wait and try and get William Morris and get all the other crap online. It would never happen. Just go out and make it on your own for $10,000 and something could happen, right? But so you're saying right there, then you can make a movie for $10,000, but you can't

make like a, it's a different looking movie. Yeah, but you could get a lot of attention for it and you could maybe start a trend and you could create something so weird and stylistic that reflects you. 100% a proof of concept. Yeah. And other people will not want to imitate. There just needs to be more of that. And the same thing's happening to the music industry

as well right now. Yeah. You know? Yeah, well I think, in music it's an easier barrier to entry probably because it is cheaper maybe to create, you know, you need an instrument, you know, because then you have to pay editing, but maybe not really.

These days you can learn everything online. I just wonder if we're less creative or more creative than ever, or maybe we're the same as we've always been. Uh, well, being an old guy, I'd have to say less creative, but that's maybe just a misperception that comes with age, where you think everything was so much better back in the day. Right. I think that's, sometimes I think that's possible, but I also think the imagination isn't used as much because there's so much, why I can be like, okay, right now, could I think of something

to entertain myself or to keep me busy or to see where my thoughts take me, or can I open up TikTok and just see something that's definitely gonna be entertaining? Yeah, yeah. So I think our imagination has started to, and I don't even know how you would measure that, but I think our imagination has started to

become like the appendix or something in the body. You don't even know what it was for. Back in the day, George Carlin had a routine, you know George Carlin? Oh yeah. About when he was a kid, he would just pick up a stick and he would play with it and he would create all these amazing games with just a stick

that he found on the road. Yeah. He'd sit there and poke it and look at the animals and then he would invent this, that, and the other. And he was like bemoaning how nobody can take a stick anymore and imagine something with it, you know? He had a much funnier way than I'm saying it right now. Believe me, trust me.

But the idea was that when you were a kid, I remember we created something when I was a kid. I was about eight years old, nine years old, it was called Dirt Village. And what it is is we created a whole town in dirt on this hill that near where my friend lived. And we created houses, etc. And then we had wars. We took all our army men, and then we would like blast their city and destroy it. They had created like bridges, lakes and all this stuff. It was like wonderful, you know, so kind of thing, making your own world.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I think doing things like that was so interesting. Doing, like being creative. But one thing that always creates imagination in people is love, I feel like. That's something that like, you know, always like the risk of the siren in the distance, you know, always was the, that was a big factor for me, I think. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That always like sparked my imagination

from whether I was writing a girl a poetry or making a collage, doing something, you know, trying to create romance or something. Or figuring out how to seduce her and how to strategize and where to take her and what would impress her and all that other stuff. Yeah. Yeah. And I mean, I don't even think,

I guess I didn't think of it. It's weird because you think of it, I guess seduction isn't just sexual, is it? Oh. Okay. So yeah, cause I would think about like, yeah, what could I go do that's nice with my girl? What would be, what would make her care about me? What would make me show her that I care about her?

I loved that stuff when I was young. Yeah, me too. You know? Yeah, I mean, I think online porn has definitely degraded those skills. Oh, it's ruined so much. I'm amazed that we allow it. I mean, it used to be, like, if you wanted to meet up, you were feeling lonely, you'd go to a party or a bar or something.

You had to take some guts. You had to like get out out of your house. You had to take the risk of somebody saying no, you know, and you were kind of afraid and timid. Yeah. You were kind of trembling, and then maybe you had a few beers and things went a little bit better. But it took like a skill that you had to develop, a people skill.

But if everything is so quick and instant, you're afraid. So many young men are afraid of women. They get in their early 20s, they don't know how to approach them. Yeah. Because they've never had to approach them. They've never had to deal with the fact that somebody could reject them because it's just shh shh shh.

Right there. You don't have to deal with it. Never rejected. So then no interaction. So then this, yeah, this weird feeling of weird fear. I had a ton, I was definitely too much pornography. Oh really? Yeah. My twenties, dude. Bad news, dude. Jerking my, yeah. Just jerking my body off or just looking at porno. This is in the earlier days of porn.

This was, yeah. 15 years ago, 13 years ago or whatever. How much long ago was it? Yeah, it just was bad, man. I would, yeah, well, sometimes I would even set a date up and then instead of going on the date, I would end up looking at some pornography and then just cancel the date. All right. Yeah.

I was like, well, why am I gonna go on this? Because I think probably some of it was nerves. I didn't wanna have to go. But then also it was like, you just found a loophole to make yourself feel sexually gratified. But the long-term effects of that, miserable man. Cause then I started thinking anytime I was like

engaging in sexual activity, I would think of it almost like camera shots or something. You know what I'm saying? Like it was all like, and I didn't even realize it, but it wasn't like in a moment, it was just like, I'd almost be just watching. Yeah, like it wasn't, I wasn't in the moment. Even the way I saw it was,

I'd seen it so many times this way that I couldn't break the pattern. Wow, that's really scary. I had no idea. Yeah, it was tough, man. It ruined some relationships that I was in. I'm not trying to be self-pity. I'm just saying, yeah, I was certainly not even a victim of it. I did it, you know, and I wish that it hadn't have been there. Cause I do miss the days when I would just lay at home and just scream like, where are all the chicks? You know, and just jerk off that way.

You know, instead of at least like, looking at the screen or whatever. And then their bodies could never measure up to what you saw. Yeah, the lighting is never, it's all, it's never the same. It's never the same. So then next time a girl comes over your place, you have 700 watt bulbs in the ceiling.

She's like, what the hell's going on? But dude, there was nothing. That's what drew you out into the world as a man, the fantasy even going to Europe or whatever, what if I meet someone on the corner smoking a cigarette? I remember when I worked in this hotel in Paris, I was 21. It was the hotel where all of the models would stay. Wow, dude. Oh, my god.

I would hide under a bed in there. It was like paradise. I'd die in God heaven. And there was this guy who kept showing up at the hotel. His name was Eduardo. He was this tall Brazilian man. This is kind of where the art of seduction came from. I would watch this guy.

He was so smooth. He had every skill in the book. He was so relaxed that when women were around him, they just melted, right? And so I was thinking, what is this power that this guy has? Yeah, he was pretty good looking. He wasn't the most handsome person in the world, but he had some kind of skill that he had developed.

And he had crafted it, coming to this hotel partially, because he had seduced so many of the models staying there. But I was saying, what is it about him? And I was kind of fascinated by him. And I became friends with him briefly. And I realized it was his confidence, his calmness. There was nothing defensive about him. And the fact of him being so undefensive

made him incredibly charming to women. What does undefensive mean? He's not insecure. He's not thinking about himself. He's not in the moment with a woman going, what do I need to say to impress her? He's not insecure. He's not thinking about himself. He's not in the moment with a woman going, what do I need to say to impress her? He's not there at all. He's like so on them, on them, inside their mind,

so relaxed and not thinking about himself. That's what I mean. Eduardo. Eduardo, where is he now? God, probably with some chick, probably. Well, now's now he's going to be in his sixties or seventies. So that ain't stopping him, dude. I'll tell you that. Maybe not.

Maybe not. Gosh. Yeah. I think seeing somebody be like, Oh, I was always shocked when a guy was good with the girls, I was like, who is this wizard? Yeah. Who is this damn wizard? Yeah. And there were people like that. They had something about them.

And it wasn't just looks. No, dude. I mean, it was not, it's just a comfortability. Sometimes there are moments I would get into that state where I would be fearless with women, very rarely. But it's gotten better as I've gotten older. But yeah, when I was young it was so hard just to like even look at a girl and talk at the same time. I fucking, I don't even know. I feel like my legs were just gonna climb right into my butt. I just was so scared.

Well, we've all been there. Yeah. Is that what propelled you out into Europe? Were you a ladies man growing up? I had a period. My 20s were a bit like that. Yeah. And then I kind of grew out of it for whatever reason. What do you mean grew out of it?

It got tiring. Oh, just chasing women kind of. Yeah, and it felt like, it felt like something, you know, like it's okay when you're in your 20s, you're young, you look good, you've got energy, you've got spirit. You start getting into your 30s,

you start getting into your 40s, and it seems kind of pathetic. Yeah. It doesn't seem, that's how my, maybe if you're Mick Jagger, it's not pathetic. Yeah. But for me, it felt like it doesn't feel right anymore.

But when I was in my twenties, I'm not saying I was, I wasn't on the level of Eduardo, no way, man. But you know, the interest was there. I was aspiring to be in his league, let's put it that way. And were you brave with women? Like, were you brave enough to go talk to him and stuff? Because part of that is learning just the art, like learning, even being in the dance. Like I never even put myself in the dance so many times.

I'm like, dude, you got to at least get on the, get in the interaction moment, you know? Well, the key to me that I learned, and maybe it's just me, is that if you're really interested in her, if you're really excited by her, if it's not just about sex, but there's something about her that excites you,

it'll bring something out of you that you didn't think was in you, right? It'll bring energy out of you. It will make you They will feel that your excitement in your interest. They'll see that it's not mechanical That's not just about sex that you're genuinely interested in them that will relax them Which in turn will relax you back and forth back and forth So if you choose somebody that you genuinely are feel a to, and it's also sexual, it'll have this kind of

reverberating effect where you will bring out your, I remember sometimes I'd be funnier than I've ever been in my whole life, I'd be witty, I'd be an actor, I'd be saying all kinds of weird things, and they brought it out of me. But then other women, no know nothing at all like that. I'd be nervous, it didn't happen. But that kind of magic happens when it's like a real,

a real connection. And there's purpose there. Kind of like even what we were saying earlier about purpose showing up, that it shows up. That there's something there, if you can navigate it. That a moment, there's something, there's some energy there that shows up that connects you to your purpose.

It's very similar to the energy that shows up to connect you to a woman in a way, I would say. Or someone of the opposite sex. Did they outlaw, sorry, the art of seduction in prison? I hope so. Right, right, that's hilarious, dude. I wouldn't want that book in prison. I wouldn't feel very good about myself.

I meant to say, I heard they outlawed the 48 laws of power in prison. Is that true? They might have outlawed art of seduction, I don't know. 48 laws of power in prison is actually. They might have outlawed artist seduction, I don't know. Yes, they did outlaw the 48 laws of power in a lot of prisons. Well, they picked the wrong book. I'll say that now.

They just piggybacked on your joke earlier. Yeah. Why? Why they don't want people having power in there? Well, Robert Green's 48 Laws of Power's second most banned book in prisons. Damn, Robert.

You know what the most banned book is? Is it an obvious one or not? Oh, I know what it is. Hold on, I know exactly what it is, dude. I don't think you do. Yes, I do, brother. I know exactly what it is. It is

Shawshank Redemption. No. No way. It's a recipe book about how to cook ramen. I kid you not. Prison Ramen, the most commonly banned title in the west. There you go. What?

There you go, thank you. Why? The 48 Laws of Power is also one of the girl with the lower back tattoo, the art of war and Cuba Libre. Yeah. Prison ramen. Don't ask me why. What is we have? Why is prison ramen? Let's get the answer. Um, why is your book banned in there?

Well, uh, because ostensibly it's because it's about manipulation and they're worried that people are going to use it in prison to manipulate other prisoners. But really it's not really about that. Really. manipulate other prisoners, but really, it's not really about that. Really, it's about prison is, and I have a lot of feedback from prisoners. I don't have a record, I've never been in prisons, I can say that, but I have a lot of sympathy for people in prison. I understand that if not for the grace of God,

I could be in that situation. There's a side of me, there's a slight criminal side to my psyche, I have to admit. So I understand it. And prison is about power. It's about making you feel, it's about dividing the prisoners amongst themselves so they don't get together and see what's really going on.

It's about controlling what they read, controlling what they see, controlling what they see, controlling every aspect of their life, what they eat, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. And it's a book about gaining some of that control back. And they're very much afraid of it. And I've had prisoners tell me about that. Like, you know, the games that wardens play on prisoners

and guards play are really powerful and really manipulative, very psychological. And they said that the book kind of helped them see through that. I have a woman who's in prison in Texas, who she had gotten the book from her, I think husband or boyfriend. And I think she ended up committing a crime against him,

something like that. But she realized how he was using the book against her, and the book opened up her mind. And she's in prison in Texas. They will not let her see it. So she has a kind of memory. She remembered the chapters. But they're afraid of somebody getting a hold of that

and learning about how the system operates, how other people operate, what the guards are up to, etc., etc. Wow. I think it's about that more than anything else. Did that make you feel pretty cool? Yeah, I feel kind of bad about it. It's kind of cool.

Yeah, I guess so. I don't know why, but it's kind of cool because it's like, you're banned here, Robert. Yeah, yeah. Don't you come around here, but there's something about that, you know? But what if I ended up in prison, they'd have to ban me because it's all in here. I could tell everybody all the laws.

You know, that'd be a good movie. I love that, huh? Let's go to William Morrison's pitch that. Yeah, sure. In 10 years, we'll get it made. Let's go to William Morrison's pitch that. Yeah, sure. In 10 years we'll get it made. What were some books you read that helped shape your worldview or things you liked reading growing up?

I was a big John Irving guy, World of the Court of the Guard, Prayer for Omin Meney, Hotel New Hampshire, some of my favorite books, Confederacy of Dunces. That's a great book. Dude, that's a great book, isn of my favorite books. Confederacy of Dunces. That's a great book. Dude, that's a great book, isn't it? Yeah. That's a great book. It's a wicked book. Robert O'Toole, I think. Something O'Toole, yeah.

What did you like? Well, I was into some heavy stuff, but I also really like- Like Vonnegut kind of stuff? Well, like philosophy, like Nietzsche, like Machiavelli. But I was also very much into Carlos Castaneda. Don't know Carlos Castaneda? But write him down so we can get one of his books. Well, Carlos Castaneda was really big in the 60s and 70s,

kind of the hippie generation. Ooh. And he writes a lot about peyote, et cetera. His book Journey to Ixalan, that one on the second from the top, that had a big influence on me. Okay. He, Carlos Quezoneta was a professor of anthropology

at UCLA, and some people think he made it up, but he went to Mexico and he met a kind of a curandero, a kind of a witch doctor type person named Don Juan, who had magical powers, but who ate a lot of peyote and took all of these journeys. And he taught him about the world. And I swear to God, that book had so much impact on me that a lot of the things in the 48 Laws of Power

actually come from that book. Wow. There are ideas in there that are so amazing and practical and wonderful. For a 16 year old, it was one of the most wonderful books I have ever read. I really, really love that. And that's where, you know, like a separate reality,

they're all great. Yeah. Wow, that's cool. No, I want to order that. Will you make sure to order that too, Zach? And, you know, who else? Wow, that's cool. No, I want to order that we make sure to order that to Zach and You know Who else I also a writer named Herman Hess German writer who books like Siddhartha

Yeah, and Damien Which were really kind of quite radical. I like things that were a little subversive and radical and weird Like clockwork orange that kind of stuff. Yeah, Anthony Burgess. He was a great writer, sure. Yeah. That was always one of the crazier things that like when you were a kid, only like the weird kids knew about Clockwork Orange when I was growing up. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like the jocks and stuff didn't know about it. No. But like the weirdo kids who would sometimes take a little sip of gasoline knew about it. You just sip gasoline? Not a lot.

Wow. Think of the damage that did to you. Yeah, I can't even think about it. I think it killed off the cells I would have used to think about it. Well, when I was in college, there's this Englishman. This is when we were doing a lot of drugs. And he said he started telling us about something he did when he was a kid called lady Esquire shoe polish. And basically you take this shoe polish and you would put it in a rag, then you would sniff it and your brain would go crazy for like a minute.

Then you felt deathly sick. But for that minute you were like, whoa. And all he had to do was like a $1. polish and he said you know he got so excited that we went searching for it and we found a bottle of it in San Francisco and we did and we sniffed it and it was the most awful thing I've ever experienced in my life. It was like way too intense like It's like, wah, wah, wah, wah. Everything was like, it was just awful. It was this equivalent of gasoline.

Yeah, there you go. That's your gasoline. We used to do everything. Like we heard about like cooking banana peels. There were always rumors that would go through town of things you could do to get high. That Meg. And so we smoked everything in my buddy Jeff's kitchen.

We, I remember one time we had, oh, one time I took a bag of mushrooms to a party and people had never taken them there. And so gave them to everybody. And then I was like, we're gonna play hide and go seek. You guys go hide and I'm gonna count. I'm gonna count to like 700. And they all went and hid and I never went and found them? I'm an account to like 700, and they all went and hid,

and I never went and found them, and then I went home. Did you imagine that? Did they know you were giving them psychedelic mushrooms? Dude, fuck them. That's how I felt about it. That's a pretty good trick. Yeah, that's what it was.

They're basically like Chris Angle. They're probably still waiting for you. Oh, dude, somebody's. There's some guy in a closet still wondering where you are. Oh, there was things like that I loved. Like I remember we went camping one time with a boy scout or something. And I told everybody the day we left

that Jay Leno had died, right? So all weekend, everybody, this is for the internet, everybody's like, God, you hear people talking about it? So I would just lay in my tent and I would hear dads telling each other, you hear that Jay Leno passed away and I would be howling in there, like laughing at a, like it was coming out of the, like the core of the earth through. There was always,

I loved that element of, um, creating a scenario that nobody knows if it was real or not. You can't do that anymore though. Right, because the internet killed everything. It did. You can't lie. You should be able to tell a woman you were a lawyer and she's like, you're 11. And I'll be like, I object!

Don't be such a bitch, man. I'm trying to meet a cool chick. You're right. It didn't ruin everything. Can't lie anymore. Your new book, Siren, is that what it's called? I've heard you talk about it a couple times. Siren? Siren? What's that about? I don't know. I thought it was a new book that you were working on.

There was one. Like about police sirens? No, about the women in the distance. No, that's in the art of seduction. Okay, that's in the art of seduction. You're talking about sirens. What was that? There was some new book I heard you talking about. I'm writing a book on the sublime. The sublime sorry that was it. It's an S word. It's close enough. That's what happened to me. Yeah it's in the 50th law the book I did with 50 Cent, the last chapter is about confronting your mortality,

because 50, you know, he nearly died. He got shot nine times, close range. Gosh. And he had like a near death experience. So the last chapter is sort of about, I call it the sublime. And then in my last book, The Laws of Human Nature, the last book, the Laws of Human Nature,

the last book, the last chapter is about confronting your mortality. And when you do that, all the amazing little things that will happen to your brain and your mind and how it will make life seem that much more intense. That was also what I called the sublime. And then about three months after I wrote that chapter, I came this close to dying myself with a stroke, which you can see the results of.

Oh wow, so that's why you have some physical illness? Yeah, I had a stroke. Damn, dude. So I was driving here in LA and my wife is in the car and she basically saved my life. Could you feel it as it came on? Yeah, I didn't recognize it. I was like, something weird's going on.

And she noticed it right away. Like, the whole side of my face was like, elongated and weird and wrong. She knew right away. She forced me to pull over. I'm like, what, what, what? And then I started to get out of the car, and she came around, and I don't remember anything else.

So, you know, there were some sounds that were a little bit weird, and I was kind of acting like nothing was going on, like it was all just a joke. But deep down, I knew something was very, very wrong. Dang. Anyway, so- That was almost a wrong. Dang. Anyway, so. That was almost a near death experience thing kind of.

Very very close, you know, because if I'd been alone, which I often have, and it happened, it's just luck that she was with me. Even if I was driving, because most of the time I'd be alone, I'd be dead right now, or I'd have such bad brain damage, it wouldn't be worth living. So I'm very lucky.

But, you know, it was like I had written about it and now I lived it. And so the sublime is about experiences, a lot of them related to some of those drug experiences, that make you realize that there's another level, another almost dimension to life itself that you're not aware of. So your mind can either shrink

and it'll shrink with your phone to the confines of your stupid little phone and what people are eating for breakfast, where they're taking their vacations, et cetera. It gets smaller and smaller and smaller. Your circle of thinking gets narrower and narrower and narrower, or it can expand. And it can expand further and further.

Books can do it, drugs can do it. I'm trying to make this book something that will do that, will make you think about what it means to be in a universe where we're alive, what it means, a chapter about your childhood and how sublime your childhood was, about the human brain and how weird it is, about animals and our connection to animals,

about love and how love can be a sublime experience, about a relationship to the past and history. I'm doing a chapter now about what I call the daemon, which is a sense of like there's a second self inside of you that's kind of guiding you. It has to do with what we're talking about purpose. It's to get you out of your the small thinking and get you into thinking that there's something very weird about being alive in the world and being a human being who's conscious. So that's the book that I'm writing. Wow, that's fascinating. Do you think God put consciousness in us?

Do you think we're just an anomaly? Well, we now know that animals have consciousness, that animals think. So we're kind of knocked off our high horse. How long have we known? How long have we known that? Well, you can't know for sure because we can't get inside of them.

But people who study this very seriously, who study what is consciousness, who study neuroscience, who study animals very deeply, they're convinced that animals have consciousness and they have incredible proof for it. And even like bees and spiders, so I have a chapter about animals in the new book. Spiders actually think,

spiders are amazing, the powers that they have. And then, I knew it. Octopus, octopus is, Water spiders. Are the most amazing animal on the planet. So this guy wrote a book called Alien, no it's an anthology called Aliens.

It's all about alien life. And one of the chapters in there is by a neuroscientist, really good, amazing neuroscientist named Anil Seth, an Englishman. He wrote a chapter on octopuses and he said, if there's an alien consciousness that's different from ours in the universe, it could be like the octopuses.

Because octopuses have thinking, have brain neurons in their arms. They have like 12 different centers of consciousness. So they're thinking with their whole body. So animals are conscious. What's interesting, we only have five senses. That's not that many. Yeah, there are other senses out there that we don't have.

Like snakes can pick up the heat. They have a sense of heat. There's a name for it. Where they can pick up the heat from a mammal in the area to attack and eat it. Birds have a sense of electromagnetic waves in the environment to navigate by. You know, there are other senses like that.

Spiders have a sense where they can pick up rhythms, or elephants have senses in their feet that pick up the vibrations from the ground. So, I'm blowing your mind around. There's just a lot out there. Yeah, so. There's a lot that's. We're not so special as we might think.

Right. And it is amazing to marvel at ourselves in positive ways. In fact, we should do it more. I'm sometimes amazed how few times I look up at the sky or up at the gods, the universe that created me, and even just let it see my face. Like the universe created me and here I am all the time just down here.

You know? Like just to go out there and be like, thank you, you know, or here I am, you know? Or even ask the universe for information. Like it's like, here's the freaking universe and I'm down here trying to read a book, dude, but you got, you know, I don't know if that works or anything, but it's like, if I look up like this, I feel like something, I feel a little different.

Well, you can do that tonight. Yeah, I'll get out there tonight, Robert. So many thought provoking, I'm going to say that's who you are. Oh, thank you. And I think that's one of the most unique things that somebody can be. And thank you for charting so much of it for us. Oh, thank you.

So we can go back through your thoughts and explore our own. Thank you, I really enjoyed it. Yep, Robert Green, love to get to chat with you again sometime dude or sit or if I come across any peyote I'm not going to say it out loud. Oh yeah, please. But I will come watch you do it. Alright well, yeah you want to, I'll do the peyote myself, you can watch me.

Cool dude, I'll be right there with you man. Okay yeah, when my next book comes out definitely, definitely. Yeah I would love to, Sublime, I want to know about it. If I get any neat ideas or things that I think are sublime I'll send them your way that would be great I'd love it not the jazz it was kind of an insane thing to say to you Robert Green thank you so much thank you so much for having me I really enjoyed it yeah me too I'm falling like these leaves, I must be cornerstone Oh, but when I reach that ground, I'll share this piece of mind I found I can feel it in my bones, but it's gonna take a little