Thoughts on Joe Rogan's New Texas Studio

00:00:00.000 | A couple of days ago, I got a chance to do the Joe Rogan experience for the fifth time,

00:00:04.920 | but first time in the new Texas studio.

00:00:07.080 | I also got a chance to interview him afterwards for the podcast that I host and ask him all

00:00:13.000 | the usual philosophical, over-romanticized Russian questions that I usually do on the

00:00:19.240 | podcast.

00:00:20.240 | A bunch of people messaged me asking, "So how's the new studio?"

00:00:24.200 | So instead of responding to everybody individually, I thought I'd make this video to give my thoughts

00:00:29.400 | on the new Joe Rogan Austin, Texas studio.

00:00:33.840 | There's a few quick points I want to make, but overall, TL;DR is I love it.

00:00:41.720 | So first let me say from the perspective of a guest and what the studio actually looks

00:00:46.160 | like in real life, I think it looks great in real life.

00:00:49.960 | And I believe it's an improvement over the previous studio in several ways.

00:00:53.760 | So one, the previous studio actually has a lot of extra space that feels useless.

00:01:00.600 | And there's something about removing that space that makes the studio feel more intimate.

00:01:04.800 | I definitely felt like I was pulled into the conversation more.

00:01:07.680 | Like if we take somebody like Larry King from CNN, check him out, look into it, is he has

00:01:15.840 | this like creepy closeness to the guests.

00:01:18.280 | I think this new studio actually extracts a really nice balance.

00:01:21.620 | To me, that's interesting as a podcaster.

00:01:23.760 | And that's something I talked to Joe with is how do you create an atmosphere where you

00:01:28.780 | just forget that the rest of the world exists and you lose yourself in the conversation

00:01:33.160 | where you're really focused in on listening and thinking about what the other person is

00:01:37.600 | saying.

00:01:39.240 | Another small thing that I think is actually really cool from a guest perspective is there's

00:01:43.880 | only now one big TV versus two TVs.

00:01:48.100 | So when you're looking at something in the previous studio, the one chimp was looking

00:01:53.880 | at one TV and the other chimp was looking at the other TV.

00:01:56.920 | And if you know anything about chimps or dogs or humans, there's a powerful signaling thing

00:02:01.940 | with our eyes when we're both looking at the same thing.

00:02:04.440 | There's like a more of a bond to it when we're looking at the same thing, same object or

00:02:09.140 | like same image on the TV.

00:02:11.460 | So there is just nicer experience to be able to look at the same thing together and then

00:02:15.720 | look back and also from a camera perspective, you can see what everyone is looking at, whether

00:02:22.160 | it's two people or three people or four people.

00:02:24.440 | So I personally love it.

00:02:26.440 | Now from the perspective of what the video actually looks like, that goes into lighting,

00:02:31.360 | camera positions, also the texture of the background.

00:02:34.320 | So when the camera is doing the autofocusing or adjusting the lights, it does a good job,

00:02:38.920 | all of that.

00:02:39.920 | Now to comment on that part, I want to say how amazing Jamie is.

00:02:44.200 | For people who don't know, Jamie Varner is the, I guess, producer of the Joe Rogan Experience,

00:02:50.040 | but he also does a million other things.

00:02:51.760 | He's just the creative mind of his own, a photographer, just a creator of all kinds.

00:02:57.840 | Now me again as a podcaster, I do many of the things that Jamie does, but I do it much

00:03:02.080 | worse.

00:03:03.080 | So I get to really appreciate the quality of his work.

00:03:06.720 | So much of the setup, the wires, the configuration of the audio and the video and the management

00:03:11.080 | of that, the switching of the cameras, the ability to Google, all of that comes together

00:03:16.680 | as a vision and implementation by Jamie.

00:03:21.360 | And so this new studio from a video and audio engineering perspective is very much a creation

00:03:26.880 | of Jamie.

00:03:28.200 | And I'm telling you now, he's done a masterful job and is quickly improving.

00:03:33.100 | So just like he did with a previous studio to be constantly quickly improving until it

00:03:37.480 | got to that level there everybody got used to.

00:03:39.980 | He's doing the same thing here.

00:03:41.480 | I guarantee you'll be at a stellar level very quickly.

00:03:44.240 | The previous times on the show, I knew how good he was, but this time I actually got

00:03:48.080 | a chance to chat with him offline about some of the details of all the stuff he's doing.

00:03:53.080 | And it just took my respect for him to another level.

00:03:56.760 | And hopefully I'll convince him, he kind of said yes, to come on the podcast so we can

00:04:02.960 | talk about some of the genius behind young Jamie.

00:04:07.280 | And also I want to say that to me as a podcaster and an aspiring young Jamie myself, it was

00:04:16.320 | really nice to see how humble and self-critical he is, given all the success of the show,

00:04:25.400 | given everything that's been done, given so few screw ups, so few imperfections, given

00:04:29.920 | the level at which he's able to with one hand be a solo producer of an entire video podcast

00:04:36.840 | where he's switching the cameras, and with another hand be able to Google at a moment's

00:04:41.640 | notice.

00:04:42.720 | Given all that, he's extremely self-critical, extremely humble.

00:04:45.920 | That's just inspiring to me because it echoes to the way I see the world as well.

00:04:51.860 | So it gives me hope that if I continue seeing the world that way, I'll be able to eventually

00:04:56.780 | figure out how to do this podcasting and engineering thing the right way.

00:05:01.640 | So for whatever it's worth, I love it.

00:05:05.100 | The video will keep improving.

00:05:07.080 | And I think just like the Cybertruck, which will likely be manufactured in the same city

00:05:12.360 | of Austin, Texas, I think people will eventually see it not as ugly as they did at first, but

00:05:18.600 | as badass.

00:05:20.360 | And also, as I mentioned to him on the show, Spotify is better than YouTube in terms of

00:05:24.200 | music.

00:05:26.160 | I hope that next time I take a ride in that spaceship, I'd love to do a cover of Voodoo

00:05:31.360 | Child by Jimi Hendrix.

00:05:33.080 | All right, check out the conversation with Joe.

00:05:35.760 | It should come out next week.

00:05:36.960 | Hopefully I didn't say anything ridiculous, but I probably did.

00:05:42.920 | Love you all.

00:05:43.920 | I'll see you next time.

00:05:44.440 | Bye.

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Thoughts on Joe Rogan's New Texas Studio | Lex Fridman

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