The conversation clearly left an impact on Saad, who brought it up when he was invited back onto The Rogan Experience a few months later.

“I recently appeared on a British psychiatrist’s [sic] show; he wanted to talk about applying evolution in psychology,” Saad told Rogan.

“Towards the end of the show, he asked me ‘in your 30 years career as a behavioural scientist, what is the single human phenomenon that has surprised you the most?’.”

“I thought it was an amazing question that I had never been asked before so I paused for a moment and said I think it’s the inability of people to change their opinions once they are anchored in their position.”

Although Saad mentioned a “British psychiatrist”, he was actually referring to Curmi, a Maltese psychiatrist who has been living in the UK for around 11 years.

“It feels surreal but positive,” Curmi told Lovin Malta about his shoutout on The Joe Rogan Experience.

“I had first discovered the guest through Rogan’s podcast and it was already surreal that he was open to communicating to me and coming on my podcast. It goes to show what value the internet has in allowing you to communicate across vast geographical landscapes.”

“He liked that I was interested in evolutionary psychology. Many psychiatrists are a bit myopic and don’t pay attention to similar fields which is a shame.”

“When Dr Saad was re-invited on Joe Rogan’s show, I had no idea he would mention me. It was a huge surprise, but I’m happy about it and I’m proud of the content I make.”

“In an environment with lots of noise, gossip and fear-mongering on the internet, I’m happy to put something out there that, according to the feedback I received, can factually help improve people’s lives.”

Cover photo: From left: Gad Saad, Alex Curmi, Joe Rogan

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