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Home » Transcript: Comedian Dave Landau on Joe Rogan Experience Podcast #2373

Transcript: Comedian Dave Landau on Joe Rogan Experience Podcast #2373

Read the full transcript of comedian Dave Landau’s interview on The Joe Rogan Experience Podcast #2373, September 2, 2025.

The Joe Rogan Experience with Dave Landau

JOE ROGAN: There we go. How you doing? Good to see you, brother.

DAVE LANDAU: Good to see you, sir.

JOE ROGAN: Let’s crack a lock on.

DAVE LANDAU: Not much, just rocking the shinola.

Detroit’s Rise and Fall

JOE ROGAN: We’re talking about your shinola watch. I’m glad Detroit’s coming back, you know, and I like how shinola represents.

DAVE LANDAU: Shinola is definitely one of the things that’s great about Detroit.

JOE ROGAN: Yeah, they say it like “made in Detroit.” They’re proud.

DAVE LANDAU: Yes. Which we didn’t have for a long time.

JOE ROGAN: Dude, Detroit is the craziest story. If you know the story about Detroit, like in the 1950s and 60s, it was the third richest city in the world.

DAVE LANDAU: Well, yeah, it was called the Paris of the Midwest. And it’s a city that’s still built for 7 million people with supposedly 700,000 living in it. I mean, so you do see a lot of like, how is there like a million dollar condo in the same place that has like eight abandoned other apartments? When you go downtown, it makes no sense logistically.

JOE ROGAN: Do you have a lot of show Top Gear?

DAVE LANDAU: Oh, yeah.

JOE ROGAN: Jeremy Clarkson. I think it was either Top Gear or was maybe the one they did after that that they did for Amazon, but they went to Detroit and they bought a house for $500.

DAVE LANDAU: Yeah, you can. And there’s also the people that buy them and open the door and get mauled by pit bulls. Or you see the ones that, like, they’ll put like a pumpkin patch. Like, they’ll do an urban farm, which is hysterical. And you’ll see like these hippies on the news, like, “they cut my face and stole my plums and I’m scared.” Yeah, but you’re in a crack neighborhood. Nobody wants your farm.

JOE ROGAN: No, we’re gentrifying.

DAVE LANDAU: Yeah. Isn’t that what you guys want? It’s like they don’t want that at all.

Corporate Decisions and American Manufacturing

JOE ROGAN: There’s some delusional fucking people out there, dude. And what they did to Detroit, like, anybody that thinks that you should allow corporations to just take all the jobs and move them overseas, well, it’s just like corporate decision making. And it’s a prudent financial decision making. And look at Detroit. Look what they did.

DAVE LANDAU: It’s a prime example of like, that was the American dream. And we’ll assemble them in Mexico, but we’ll write “Made in America” on your door so you’re going to feel good about it.

JOE ROGAN: Did they even write “Made in America” on the door?

DAVE LANDAU: Sometimes they do. I prefer like the 80s and 90s where if bought a car and it was made on a Friday, you knew a drunk guy did it, so you’re like, “give me one from a Wednesday.” Like, those were the days of American automaking.

JOE ROGAN: See, that’s part of the problem too. A friend of mine who was in the union told me that the automakers union just got out of control. They were making so much money and they were constantly in negotiations. There’s strikes impending and.

DAVE LANDAU: Oh yeah.

JOE ROGAN: And then they were like, “hey, fuck you, we’ll just go to Mexico.”

DAVE LANDAU: Yeah, they offer, right? That’s right. Yeah. That’s just part of it. But no, later on, like you said in the 80s and 90s, like you’re grandfathered in and it really doesn’t matter what you do wrong. Like that’s part of the deal.

JOE ROGAN: Yeah. You can’t get fired.

DAVE LANDAU: No, it’s great. I mean, worker.

JOE ROGAN: But yeah, there seems to be like a middle balance that could be reached.

DAVE LANDAU: Like don’t be fully hammered when you’re trying to put a door on an F150.

JOE ROGAN: I mean, they should make good money because the corporation makes good money. I mean, you know, they were doing well. It was a very profitable business. The workers should share in those profits.

Electric Vehicles and Tesla Technology

DAVE LANDAU: Well, like the electric ones, they just didn’t work for them either. They pushed it out too soon too. Because I know people that work on the line. You have like the electric F150 and it’s like F150s. Everybody wants one. They love it as a work truck. But as an electric truck, you put the thing down in South America where it’s hot all the time, it’s just going to catch fire. So it’s like it’s not really working out.

JOE ROGAN: Or if you’re in the cold, the battery sucks.

DAVE LANDAU: Yeah. And I just don’t like electric cars personally. Maybe it’s just because I’m from Detroit, but I grew up and I just want to feel an engine.

JOE ROGAN: I get it. But I have a Tesla that will knock your dick into the dirt. Oh, I know they’re fast. It’s not just fast, it’s fucking car’s incredible. It’s a piece of machinery from the future.

DAVE LANDAU: What is it?

JOE ROGAN: It’s a Model S. But it’s a plaid that was sent to a company called Unplugged Performance. And Unplugged Performance takes the fenders off, put carbon fiber, wider fenders, changes the suspension to like a race based suspension, puts wide tires on it and wider wheels, upgrades the brakes to these huge carbon fiber discs. Because it’s a very heavy car.

DAVE LANDAU: I was going to say. So it’s heavier as opposed to lighter, like a race car?

JOE ROGAN: Well, it’s heavier because Teslas are very heavy because of batteries. But because the batteries are on the bottom, the center of gravity in the car is phenomenal. It’s like one of the best balanced cars you could ever drive. And the self driving is bananas.

DAVE LANDAU: Oh, you have it on there.

JOE ROGAN: I had my. But yeah, you get it with the car I had.