Matt McCusker on Diet Fads, Fiber, and Outrage Addiction

TL;DR

Creatine dosing works best split up rather than taken all at once: Joe Rogan takes 10 grams in the morning and 10 at night instead of 20 grams in a single dose, which upset his stomach. The conversation also covers vegan and carnivore diet trade-offs, fiber and gut health, and how news algorithms feed people outrage.

Transcript

Joe Rogan podcast. Check it out. The Joe Rogan Experience. Train by day. Joe Rogan podcast by night. All day. A lot of people have lights on their tables now to light up their face to make them look more pretty. Really? Yeah. They have like a slight like a like a opening in the table and then a light that gets on you so you don't see like the shado... Read More

Key Insights

• Creatine is often recommended at 20 grams a day, but starting with 5 grams and working up helps the body adjust. Joe Rogan splits his into 10 grams morning and 10 grams night because 20 grams in one dose caused stomach issues.
• Fiber is credited with pushing waste out of the digestive tract and feeding the microbiome, but carnivore-diet advocates argue fiber is unnecessary because meat is fully absorbed and leaves little residue to eliminate.
• A vegan diet produced very large, frequent bowel movements for Matt McCusker, and he says the strain gave him hemorrhoids after about a month, illustrating a downside of high-fiber eating he did not anticipate.
• The carnivore diet made McCusker feel good for the first five days, but by day 17 he had nearly stopped defecating, which convinced him that adding some vegetables would have made him healthier.
• Fermented foods like kimchi and sauerkraut are used as a middle-ground gut-health strategy, eaten regularly to balance out debates over whether fiber or meat-heavy eating is better.
• The claim that every man dies with a pound of undigested meat in his stomach is apparently not true, along with the related myth that John Wayne's gut held decades of beef jerky.
• The 1956 film 'The Conqueror' starring John Wayne was shot near a Nevada nuclear testing area, and a large portion of the cast and crew later developed cancer from the radiation exposure.
• Talc-based baby powder carries a small but real cancer risk mainly tied to genital use and possible asbestos contamination, because talc is mined near asbestos, a known cause of mesothelioma and other cancers.

Questions & Answers

Q: How should you take creatine to avoid stomach problems?

Although creatine is often recommended at 20 grams a day, taking that full amount in one dose can upset your stomach. Joe Rogan says 20 grams at once got his guts going, so he now takes 10 grams in the morning and 10 grams at night instead. He also suggests starting with about 5 grams and working your way up gradually to see how your body handles it before increasing the amount.

Q: Why did going vegan give Matt McCusker hemorrhoids?

Matt McCusker says he was vegan for about a month and had the biggest, most frequent bowel movements of his life, roughly twice a day. He attributes this to all the fiber that the body does not process, which pushed everything out. The size and strain of these movements, he says, gave him hemorrhoids, showing that even a diet praised for keeping you regular can have uncomfortable physical downsides.

Q: What happened when Matt McCusker tried the carnivore diet?

McCusker felt good for the first five days on the carnivore diet, but the longer he went the worse he felt. He made it to about 17 days before quitting. His main issue was that he nearly stopped defecating because there was no fiber, which convinced him it could not be healthy. He concluded that if he had just eaten some vegetables alongside the meat, he would have felt far better.

Q: Is fiber actually necessary for health?

The video presents this as an unresolved debate. Fiber is credited with pushing everything out of the digestive tract to keep you clean and with feeding the microbiome, which is linked to gut and brain health. However, carnivore-diet advocates argue fiber is unnecessary because meat is fully absorbed and leaves little residue. Rogan and McCusker admit they find the conflicting evidence confusing and settle on eating fermented foods as a balance.

Q: Is it true that men die with a pound of undigested meat in their stomach?

According to the conversation, this is apparently not true. Both hosts recall hearing that every man who dies has a pound of undigested meat in his stomach, and a related legend that John Wayne had large amounts of beef jerky in his gut. They conclude the claim is a myth, and suggest John Wayne's belly more likely came from beer, pasta, bread, and normal American food.

Q: How did the movie 'The Conqueror' cause cancer in its cast and crew?

Rogan explains that John Wayne's Genghis Khan film, 'The Conqueror,' was made in 1956 and filmed in the same Nevada-area location where nuclear tests were being conducted. As a result, a giant number of the cast and crew, essentially the whole production, later developed cancer from the radiation exposure. It is cited as an example of an era when people did not take such health dangers seriously.

Q: Why is talc-based baby powder linked to cancer?

The discussion cites a small but real cancer risk with some talc-based baby powders, mainly connected to genital use and possible asbestos contamination. Talc as a mineral is often mined near asbestos, so contamination is the main worry. Asbestos is a known cause of mesothelioma and other cancers. The hosts note the data are mixed and the absolute risk for any one person is low, but lawsuits, largely from women, followed.

Q: How do news algorithms keep people addicted to outrage?

The hosts describe reading an article about people being genuinely addicted to outrage, meaning addicted to being upset about things. They say the news is mostly negative, repeatedly framing someone as a terrible person, which becomes addictive. Because you search for and engage with that content, the algorithm keeps feeding it to you. They add that platforms are rumored to track eyeball movement and facial expressions to serve more of whatever holds your attention.

Summary & Key Takeaways

• Joe Rogan and Matt McCusker open by mocking cosmetic tricks like face-lighting tables, filters used by male comedians, and Netflix running promotional photos through filters. Rogan, 58, and McCusker, who just turned 40, joke about looking old, with McCusker blaming the aging on the sleep loss that came with having kids.

• The pair debate supplements and diets. Rogan recommends creatine, splitting 20 grams into two 10-gram doses to avoid stomach trouble. They weigh fiber against carnivore eating: McCusker got hemorrhoids going vegan and nearly stopped pooping on carnivore, while both eat kimchi and sauerkraut as a fermented-food compromise.

• They move through cancer-risk history, debunking the undigested-meat myth, recounting how John Wayne's film 'The Conqueror' was shot near Nevada nuclear tests, and discussing asbestos and talc-based baby powder lawsuits. They close on modern anxieties: LED lights, news overload, and algorithms feeding people outrage by tracking attention.