#2512 - Joey Diaz

What It Covers

Joe Rogan and comedian Joey Diaz spend 168 minutes covering Diaz's knee surgery recovery, early steroid history in sports, UFC fight card analysis for upcoming bouts including Toporia vs. Gaethje and Pereira vs. Gane, the dangers of sports gambling expansion, and reflections on poverty, crime, and the unpredictable path from broke comedian to career success.

Key Questions Answered

• •Knee Recovery Protocol: Diaz describes using a prescription topical NSAID gel called Voltaren (diclofenac) applied twice daily to manage post-surgical joint pain and inflammation. Rogan adds DMSO as a veterinary-derived alternative with pain-relief applications. Both agree that overextending activity too soon — Diaz walked ten airport loops three days post-surgery — directly causes setbacks, making strict rest adherence in the first week critical to long-term recovery outcomes.
• •Weight Cutting in MMA: Eliminating weight cuts from combat sports could improve fighter performance by an estimated 20%. Fighters competing 24 hours after rehydration still have partially dehydrated brain tissue, increasing knockout vulnerability. Rogan argues that the brain requires more than one day to fully rehydrate, meaning many one-punch stoppages are partly attributable to dehydration rather than pure power differential between competitors.
• •Creatine for Cognitive Function: Rogan recommends taking 10 milligrams of creatine twice daily — dry-scooped directly into the mouth followed by water — specifically for memory support and cognitive performance, not just muscle building. He notes that consuming it dry ensures the full dose is ingested rather than leaving residue in a glass. Diaz confirms noticeable memory decline in his early 60s, making supplementation more relevant with age.
• •THC as a Creative Tool: Diaz uses a structured THC protocol for audition preparation: read the script, set it aside, consume cannabis, return to the material, identify new angles, leave again, then revisit after roughly one hour. This cycle produces a more organic, character-driven interpretation rather than line memorization. He credits this method with helping him book acting roles by accessing emotional authenticity rather than mechanical script delivery.
• •Sleep Requirements Increase With Age: At 60, Diaz now requires a minimum of eight hours of nightly sleep plus an optional 60-to-75-minute afternoon nap between 2:00 and 3:00 PM to maintain cognitive and physical performance. Six and a half hours produces noticeable degradation. He tracks sleep quality using a Whoop device. Rogan reinforces that sleep becomes progressively more critical with age, particularly for memory consolidation and physical recovery from training.
• •Sports Gambling Expansion Risk: DraftKings and FanDuel now actively recruit at college orientation events, targeting students already burdened with loan debt. Rogan and Diaz compare this to 1990s credit card companies that distributed cards to incoming freshmen with automatic $250 limits. Australia is cited as a parallel case study where gambling saturation has reached crisis levels. Both predict significant societal consequences within five years as compulsive gambling rates climb among younger demographics.
• •Comedy Career Longevity: The transition from joke-focused performance to conversational stage presence — treating the audience as peers rather than recipients of material — represents the single largest performance shift for working comedians. Diaz credits Paul Mooney's relaxed, topical style as the model. Rogan identifies the Internet and podcasting as the distribution mechanism that finally matched Diaz's natural storytelling voice to the right format, bypassing traditional gatekeepers who dismissed his style as too niche.