In his sit-down interview with DJVlad, businessman Martin Shkreli did not hold back when the conversation turned to Joe Rogan, Terence Howard, and the growing influence of what he described as pseudoscience. His remarks came during a discussion about vaccine hesitancy, institutional trust, and the public’s understanding of modern medicine.
The topic arose when Vlad brought up mistrust in the medical system, pointing to the Tuskegee experiments as a historical reason many in the Black community remain skeptical of the COVID vaccine. Shkreli acknowledged the gravity of that history but quickly shifted the focus to what he sees as a wider cultural trend that has been building for years.
“The weird thing that’s happened in society,” he said, “is that we’ve lost trust in every institution. Media, science, government, you name it. We just don’t trust anything anymore.”
He then explained what he believes fills the void when that trust disappears, suggesting that public skepticism has created space for more unconventional voices to gain influence.
“What ends up happening is guys like Terence, you know, I’m not trying to hurt him too much here, but even Joe Rogan, right, who does a lot of pseudoscience stuff, Alex Jones, who I think is very entertaining, all these guys can kind of encroach on reality a little bit heavier and heavier and people will buy it,” he said. “Because they don’t trust the stuff they used to trust.”
Still, Shkreli was careful to draw a line between skepticism he considers reasonable and skepticism he believes has gone too far.
“Now maybe we shouldn’t trust the stuff we used to trust,” he said. “I don’t think we should trust government. But I don’t think stuff like science has changed all that much. And it’s disappointing to see all that.”
Vlad agreed, noting that modern science has dramatically extended human life expectancy. Shkreli immediately reinforced that point with a blunt example.
“Without modern science, life expectancy would be like 35 years,” he said. “We’d all be, you know, everyone in this room would essentially be d*ad by now.”
The discussion about Rogan followed a longer segment focused on Terence Howard’s appearance on the podcast, during which Howard presented theories about the periodic table that Shkreli said were fundamentally incorrect. He recalled responding publicly to those claims on social media.
“I heard you on Joe Rogan,” the host said he tweeted. “You’re very full of it and a disgrace to scientific thinking.”
Shkreli added that he would be willing to debate Howard directly and expressed confidence in his ability to challenge the claims in detail.
“I think I know enough about most science that I could probably talk some sense into the guy,” he said.
