Shane Smith Has Questions

Johnny Knoxville sits down with Shane Smith to discuss the physical and emotional costs of his career. He reflects on the chaotic start of Jackass, the pressures of sudden fame, and serious injuries like concussions and an eye fracture that nearly ended his life. The conversation covers his collaborations with Spike Jonze and Jeff Tremaine, the shift from MTV to feature films, and the political ba...

Shane sits down with investigative filmmaker and UFO researcher Jeremy Corbell to explore the most controversial and captivating subject of our time: Are we alone in the universe? Corbell—known for his viral military UFO releases and his documentaries like Bob Lazar: Area 51 & Flying Saucers—walks Shane through some of the most compelling cases of unexplained aerial phenomena ever captured. From t...

Shane sits down with psychiatrist and bestselling author Phil Stutz to unpack the failures of modern psychiatry and why traditional methods often fall short. They explore how Stutz developed The Tools after realizing most therapy wasn’t helping patients, and why action—not endless analysis—is the real path to change. Stutz shares how experiences with anxiety, depression, and the fight against “Par...

Shane sits down with Liquid Death Founder/CEO Mike Cessario to talk branding, politics, and the power of provocation. They dive into how Liquid Death turned Internet hate into a billion-dollar water brand, why execution matters more than ideas, and how cultural tension fuels marketing breakthroughs. Cessario draws parallels between brand-building and political strategy, analyzing figures like Gavi...

Shane and nuclear-physics prodigy Taylor Wilson on the past, present, and future of atomic science, how Cold-War close calls, and today’s aging launch warning systems, make accidental nuclear war scarier than a deliberate attack, why Russia’s hypersonic torpedoes and cheap Ukrainian drones both reveal the same uneasy truth: deterrence math is being rewritten in real time. They dive into Wilson’s q...

Shane Smith sits down with Julian Kelly, Senior Director of Hardware at Google  Quantum AI and architect of the groundbreaking Willow chip, to map out the next frontier of computing. Kelly explains how Google’s 100 plus qubit processors now complete benchmark tasks in minutes that would outlive the universe on today’s fastest supercomputers, why error corrected “logical” qubits are the last hurdle...

Shane  Smith sits down with Channel 5 and All Gas No Brakes founder Andrew Callaghan. They discuss Andrew’s hitchhiking origins, his first full-length interview with Hunter Biden and they unpack the rise and fall of All Gas No Brakes, the birth of Channel 5’s “global newsroom,” and why a single bad real-estate deal turned a Louisiana lawyer into the Q-pilled protagonist of Callaghan’s documentary...

When wildfires, homelessness, and immigration collide, Los Angeles becomes a focal point for America’s biggest debates. In this candid, hourlong sitdown, Shane Smith presses L.A. Mayor  Karen  Bass on everything from her controversial trip to Ghana during the Palisades inferno to the missing billions earmarked for homelessness relief. Bass pulls back the curtain on firedepartment missteps, why she...

Rick Caruso breaks down the harsh realities behind LA’s wildfire devastation, exposing how political failures, broken systems, and poor leadership turned a preventable disaster into a full-blown crisis. From the incompetence that left reservoirs empty to the private firefighting efforts that saved his village while others burned, Rick explains why preparation and accountability matter more than em...

Rick Rubin dives deep into the essence of creativity, exploring its spiritual roots and the role of sensitivity in artistic expression. From his reflections on nature as the perfect balance to his thoughts on art as a universal language, Rick discusses how every piece of art — whether it’s music, painting, or writing — connects us to something greater. He also touches on how the power of creativit...

In this wide-ranging conversation, Shane Smith presses Dr. Jordan B. Peterson on everything from academia’s groupthink and campus protests to benzo withdrawal, love in the face of terminal illness, and the geopolitical shadow of China. Peterson fires back—sometimes reflective, sometimes raw—laying out why he believes voluntary self-sacrifice, not power or pleasure, is the only antidote to cultural...

John Sandweg, former acting director of ICE under President Obama, explains why both Republican and Democratic leaders have struggled to manage the border, why immigration reform keeps hitting roadblocks, and what real, workable solutions could actually look like. This conversation goes beyond politics — it reveals the human stories and the complex systems behind immigration. Download the DraftKin...

John Perkins was once an economic hitman — a chief economist helping powerful corporations and governments entrap resource-rich countries in massive debt. Loans disguised as development aid ended up enriching the elite, while ordinary people paid the price. He shares the moment that made him question everything, the “death economy” fueled by short-term greed, and how China is now leading this glob...

Shane Smith sits down with three of the brightest minds pushing humanity’s final frontier, space. Astrophysicist Jonathan McDowell, author and space reporter and documentarian Ashlee Vance, and in-orbit manufacturing pioneer Delian Asparouhov pull back the curtain on the new era of private spaceflight, from cutting-edge rocket tech to factories floating above Earth. It’s a riveting look at how com...

Shane sits down with Faiz Shakir, Bernie Sanders' former campaign manager and executive director of More Perfect Union—to ask the question on everyone’s mind: How can Democrats truly rebuild? From reclaiming a genuine grassroots base to tackling the big-money stranglehold on politics, they dig into what it’ll take to inspire working-class Americans again. Faiz and Shane provide sharp insights on m...

Shane dives deep into today’s economic turbulence with two of the most respected voices in the field: former U.S. Treasury Secretary Larry Summers and global affairs strategist Ian Bremmer. Together, they unpack how tariffs, shifting global alliances, and stock market jitters are reshaping our economic landscape. Summers offers an inside view of why tariffs have become such a flashpoint—shedding l...

Shane Smith and tech entrepreneur and biohacker Bryan Johnson—the mastermind behind the burgeoning “Don’t Die” movement and hit Netflix documentary— dissect one of humanity’s oldest obsessions: longevity and the possibility of extending life indefinitely. As Johnson lays out his plan to build a radical new ideology, part religion and part nation-state, he pushes beyond standard ideas about health...

Shane Smith sits down with key figures from Congress and the scientific community to dissect the new, two-year House investigation into COVID-19. Congressman Brad Wenstrup, who led the inquiry, lays out how missteps, censorship, and confusing mandates eroded public trust in institutions like the CDC and FDA. Dr. Robert Malone—an early pioneer of mRNA research—argues that known risks were concealed...

Shane and Internet pioneer Marc Andreessen unpack how a Chinese open-source AI breakthrough could mark a “Sputnik moment” for the West, why governments are bent on crushing emerging technologies, and what recent events mean for the future of startups, freedom of speech, and global innovation. From exposing how AI can be deliberately taught to lie, to dissecting the ongoing U.S.–China rivalry and t...

Shane does a deep dive on the bombshell Covid report with the man who chaired the committee, Congressman Brad Wenstrup. He gets alternate opinions from Dr. Alina Chan, a molecular biologist, who specializes in gene therapy and is a cell engineering scholar and lab leak theory supporter and Dr. Paul Offit, a pediatrician specializing in infectious diseases who shares his insights in a riveting conv...

Shot before the California disaster, Shane does a deep dive on weather modification and geo-engineering, the realities, the truths, and the Internet conspiracy theories that emerge and why, with Harvard-educated meteorologist Matthew Cappucci, entrepreneur and Rainmaker CEO Augustus Doricko, and former solar energy exec and proponent o government weather manipulation ideas, Dane Wigington. Subscri...

Shane and ex Big Pharma rep turned advocate Brigham Buhler dissect the varying reactions of the United Health Care CEO tragedy in NYC, why people are so upset at insurance companies, social media memes and reactions, systematic issues in insurance company care denial, egregious industry practices, price gouging, RFK Jr. and his possible impact on the system, government complicity, and much more on...

Entrepreneur and podcaster Tom Bilyeu of Impact Theory and Shane on our algorithm-induced national divorce, the erosion of public trust giving rise to new voices, how Tom data-tracks his sleep, A.I. induced massive change, the A.I. paperclip maximizer experiment, capitalism vs. Communism, banks’ Fractional Reserve System as a means of control, inflation as a hidden tax, Big Food’s big bad, the san...

Shane has questions for Brianne Dressen, a Utah mother and former preschool teacher turned advocate, to discuss her life-changing experience as an AstraZeneca vaccine trial participant. Dressen details the severe, long-term injuries she suffered, how medical and governmental systems silenced her, and her ongoing legal battle. They also get into RFK Jr.'s controversial appointment as HHS Secretary...

Shane sits down with Destiny, internet personality, live streamer, and political commentator. They discuss Destiny’s viral debates with public figures and his approach to political discussions, why people are susceptible to various theories, lack of trust in our systems, the validity of the Dead Internet Theory, polarization, state sponsored disinformation, statistical misinterpretation, and how p...