Mark Rober is an engineer and inventor. Mark joins the Armchair Expert to discuss how he became one of the biggest YouTubers in the world, how he got a job with NASA, and how he has learned to reframe failures into successes. Mark and Dax talk about the experience of being recognized in public, what they love most about primates, and why science was a more appealing subject matter in school. Mark explains his glitter bomb video, what he thinks about ASMR, and why he resisted doing a television show for so long.
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This is an unofficial transcript meant for reference. Accuracy is not guaranteed.
Happy thanks.
Happy Thanksgiving, turkey! Welcome, welcome, welcome to this special Thanksgiving episode of Armchair Expert, Experts on Expert. Wow, I miss the turkey. Well, and spoiler, there's no turkey talk within the actual episode, so we had to give it to you hard up front.
In the intro. - That's right. - Yeah. - But we're thankful for you, regardless of whether we address that or not. - It's more than that. Like we owe the listeners like to wash their car or something, you know? - Okay, that can be your task. - Okay, yeah. Oh, you're providing a Christmas guide. I guess that's a gift back. - Sure, and also maybe I'll make them some cookies. - Okay, okay. TBD, how that's gonna-- - Shortbread chocolate chip. - Today we have someone who's become a personal friend of mine. He was a NASA engineer. - NASA, yeah. - Yeah, NASA is the island in the Bahamas. - In the Bahamas. - Yeah, he did not work for the bohemian government. Bahamian? - Oh, boy. - Bahamian, bohemian? Boy, sorry, Mark. Mark Rober, he was an engineer at NASA. And most importantly, he got even with people who steal Amazon packages. That's how I came to know Mark Rober. He's one of the biggest YouTubers to ever exist. His videos have hundreds of millions of views. And he put these amazing glitter bombs and fart bombs and drones inside of these Amazon packages. Like, you don't wanna piss off a NASA engineer. - Mm-mm. - He also has a new show called Revengineers coming out in 2023. He and Kimmel partner up. That'll be on the Discovery Channel. And he has a really cool--
full stem kit that kids can build called Crunch Labs Build Box. So cool. They're very cool. I was shot by a projectile one of my children made with the box. Oh my God. Yeah, really hit hard. And I'm not in this episode, so don't think I'm just napping. You're not napping, you were in transit from Atlanta after that. What's the 30,000? Leagues under the sea?
How high am I? You're 30,000 feet in the air. Feet in the air, okay, yeah, yeah. I got nervous that was the wrong number, but I was 30,000 feet in the air. Six miles up. Were you joining the Mile High Club while you were in transit? No. Oh, it's not that great. I don't wanna discourage people from trying it, but it's a tight, tight area that's very high traffic and very-- Stinky. And unhygienic. Yeah, I think I'm too old for it. Maybe when I was young and I cared less about germs. I was young. It was a night flight.
- That was uncomfortable. - I guess if Mark wants to. - Join the Mile High Club with you, offers on the table. - I'll think about it. - Okay, great.
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Will it still not work? I didn't turn the water back on. I need to tell Kristen too. Oh God, this is really embarrassing. That's another thing, is the pipe broke so we turned the water off. Oh my gosh. Can you turn the water on? Yeah. I love you. I love you, bye. I love that. Okay you...
There's a water for you here. Okay. But again, you don't want anything fun. No, yeah, yeah, I'm good I normally go eat breakfast or drink coffee, but the lovely James Kimmel just gave me both. You were just with Jimmy? Yeah, yeah, I stayed at his house. Oh, that's where you're staying. Yeah, yeah, the barn. Is there a right and a left? It doesn't.
- I'm not gonna tell it on you. - Okay. - You're an engineer, you should have been able to thought this through.
He's so well. Too well? You can never hear Dax Shepard too well. Well listen, what's nice is we can kind of whisper to each other and we hear each other really well. Let's do this ASMR. Oh my gosh. Have you experimented with ASMR? I love ASMR. Like I'm one of the people where it does...
I'm thinking for me. You are. Yeah, I'm so jealous. Yeah, I've listened to it. It's soothing no matter what Yeah, but it doesn't give me the euphoria It actually gives you it doesn't seem like up to the extent that it does it for other people but on the spectrum
the left side. I'm not fully on one side. You're a seven or something? Yeah, maybe six and a half, seven. Do you know anything about that? What's going on physiologically? From my understanding, no one really does. It's one of those great things about the internet where like a lot of people have the sensation and they didn't realize there was other people out there like them. And now there's a name for it and a community. I know so little about it.
There are people who are spending 10, 12 hours a day. To me, that sounds like a drug without seeming probably any consequence. But isn't it true with drugs, the dopamine goes asymptotic? Like it eventually wears off and you is that true?
dopamine deficits. Yeah. So I don't know. Possibly. Luckily, I'm not to that extent. I think you would be interested in it actually. And I'm going to be speaking outside of my depth. But as I understand it, so certain drugs are better and worse ROI, right? There are drugs that predictably kind of give you the outcome. And then there's others that you adapt to quite quickly. And it is diminished return really fast.
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