A story without any interruptions, how refreshing. Joe is a great listener and is genuinely interested in what his guests have to say.

Joe is a great interviewer because he knows how to shut up when a guest is telling an engaging story. A lesser interviewer would have continually interrupted and ruined the flow of the story.

Charlie is definitely one of the best storytellers. He once spoke at my school in Singapore and the whole school was mesmerized by his adventures. So much so that they cancelled the last few periods so he could tell us more!

This guy is the most suspicious non spy ever

It always amazes me how westerners go to these countries looking for adventure and are shocked when they find it.

For a guy who wasn't a spy he really was doing some spy shit

Someone should probably tell this guy that he is indeed a journalist

This is why Rogan is number one. I have never understood why other podcasters insist on talking over their guests, interrupting them. Seems like most other podcasters want to interview themselves lol. Great guest, great story.

I'm not on Spotify so I appreciate it when these clips are uploaded to KZfaq

Hiking in Russia, talking about Ukraine in the middle of a war, and chatting with locals and recording your comments , taking photos - then hiding the SD cards 🤔. What could possibly go wrong? Odd , you seem to be intelligent and well traveled. I’m amazed you aren’t breaking rocks in Siberia..

It always amazes me when people travel to these countries like China, Iran, Iraq, Russia etc., find themselves in the situation as this guy described, act so surprised.

Believe it or not, something like this happened to me in China. I was lucky enough to get out of it after 24 hours. Left the country immediately.

i'm from Russia and i say this guy is very lucky. Super lucky, actually

There is a real hero held in a British prison, because he told the truth! 48 months and counting, Julian Assange!

Charlie seems like a nice enough guy but I laughed at his incredulity of being detained in a country that is at proxy war with his country.

Tiksi is a military base. My uncle served there back in the day. When you go up there, with a dictaphone, you are kind of asking for it. He is lucky he made it out alive and without injuries.

My friend knew a guy that went to prison for 3 months in Egypt for climbing on the pyramids. He sat in a corner in a giant dark concrete room with hundreds of other prisoners. They hardly fed him and every few days the guards would come in a chop a random dudes hand off. The only reason he was eventually let go was because he was American

It's horrible what he went through but I have to say this guy is a complete and utter fool. Shouldn't have been speaking out about Ukraine or keeping track of his political views in a diary or voice recorder and shouldn't have been talking to locals about sensitive news topics regarding Russia. You can't just go to another country and assume they have the same freedom of speech laws like we do in the West. You need to be aware of what not to say in countries with dictatorships or shambolic justice systems or else you're asking for trouble.

For a tourist he was behaving almost like a spy…tiny SD cards hidden, political interviews, speaking into a secret dictaphone…how would American law enforcement react to a Russian doing that same thing??

One of the best speakers on Joe Rogans podcast. I could even tell Joe was thoroughly gripped listening to this story. Terrific, scary and fascinating podcast. Excellent 👍

0:54 dude clearly never seen a Liam Neeson movie… 🤦‍♂️ Son, if someone starts a conversation with «hey the kgb wants to talk to you» it’s the exact moment where you jump in a rolling taxi by the window and to the nearest airport to take any flight anywhere. there is no stopping at the hotel no checking out no bathroom stop.

My friend Hopper was in one even longer, some crazy shit

Just came here to say I just finished the entire podcast and this was an incredible interview! Charlie has led an interesting life full of adventures and is a great story teller. Would love to see him back after some future expeditions.

What a brilliant podcast. Some of my favourites of Joe's are the ones where an explorer is interviewed, this one is up there. Very intriguing

I’ve been to Russia a few times. I’m American and I work for a Russian company teaching English. I always make it a point to not talk politics with Russians. Better safe than sorry.

Judge: You have to leave rus….. Me: bye 🏃🏼

Somewhere in Russia, a detention worker is pissed he missed the sd cards while watching this.

Guys, as someone who grew up in Kazakhstan (used to be a part of Soviet Union) please pay attention to what is going on in the USA now. If we are not careful this is what can happen to us (being monitored by the government ) looking at where things are now.

3:38 you can see the disappointment on Charlie Walker's face when Joe didn't get the Kafka The Trial reference and he had to throw in a quick explanation lol 😂

Recording conversations with police and KGB, keeping a diary, takes suspicious photographs. I dunno man, you seem guilty to me lol

I would do ALL of my future exploring in my back yard if I were this guy.

If you're still on the anti Spotify train, you're missing out on a gem in the JRE interviews. The whole 3 hours were as engaging as this clip, Really hope this guy comes back again.

Wtf is this guy doing in Russia in middle of a war is beyond me. He was asking for trouble lol

I used to be an adventurer like Charlie, but then I took an arrow to the knee.

10 bucks says he's working for MI6 or the CIA😅👌🏼

I think this is a perfect example of why you never speak to the police. Usually they already have the answer they’re looking for.

The best part of JRE was the KZfaq comments, man I miss all the hilarious comments It actually made the whole experience WAYYYY funnier

Kudos to him for making it through that. A few years back I did a trans-mongolian trip that had me go from beijing to ulaanbaatar and then all the way to Moscow. Getting a visa for Russia is crazy enough, they ask you all these personal questions about family members histories and military service, but going in through train meant that I had to go through some random border check point in the middle of nowhere. A stark realization came to me as the three stout and very unhappy border agents in long grey trenchcoats and uniforms, like something out of an 80s movie, rifled through our bags, backpacks and even the compartment above our closet. They pulled out chewing gum and sternly demanded explanations. It was 2 am, I was in the middle of siberia, and I could be arrested for literally anything and NO ONE would know where I was. I didn't have cell service, no internet, no phone, save for the sporadic few moments I managed service passing through larger cities. It was a tense moment, but still an exciting trip. Russia is Russia. It's not the West. It's a unique place with a unique set of rules and many in the west can't comprehend the experience.

'Cool story bro', Julian Assange.

The dude was openly supporting the Ukrainian and western side of military conflict, and also delivering the info directly to the west via electronic devices. He tried to capitalize on his access to the info.

Fun fact as a US inmate of the Pasco county Florida jail in Land O Lakes fl. You never go out side . Its just a big concrete ceiling room with a little 2 foot wire mesh opening around it about 12 feet off the ground. As a person who is just charged with a crime you are held like this Charlie so just so you know America does this to its people every day. You never see grass , or the sky .

I feel like this guy believes Western media always tells the truth.

As a British person, I can say that this guy has no street smarts. Damn, at the very least when they arrested him, charged him with a crime he didn't commit and then let him go with a fine, he should have gone straight to the airport. Instead goes back to the place where they arrested him. Russia is clearly not a place for tourists anymore or polite explorers with honesty and right on their side.

Great podcast one of the best of the year so far 🤗 Great story teller!

Imagine falling asleep reading 'the trial' and waking up to this 'Kafkaesque' experience...

Hiding SD cards in plug sockets they probably thought you were a spy posing as a journalist lol

He forgot to mention 2 things 1 - he had a tourist visa, while for journalism you need to get a different kind of visa 2 - he's talking about April, news report that it was a second trial, and that there was one on March 20. So, apparently, he was warned and then continued to do things that are not exactly legal with his kind of visa.

14:32 lost respect for him right here. She brought drugs into the country, and the rest of the world isnt as lenient on that as we are. If she would've done it in Singapore or Malaysia she could've even been publicly flogged.

If this guy tried to pull that off in PRC, he'd be speaking Mandarin by the time he got out.

The Jan 6 detainees are being treatedworse by their own government

Clearly lying about "accidentally" recording your FSB interview calls into question your credibility as a whole...

Went to school with a boy who ended up in Thai prison and heard some mad stories. Nothing like my uncle in prison here in Scotland

"Did u do any DMT while in Jail"

Yup sounds like a spy alright 😁

Thanks Joe Rogan for showing truth to the world and doing it professionally!

The trial is by far my favorite Kafka piece

SAVE yourself 15 minutes .. nothing happened

this guy could be Mi5. he's extremely well spoken and the Russian FSB aren't stupid.

The problem with him "talking" about the attrocity is Bucha.....it was proven to have been committed by Ukraine!

3:40 That bit about Kafka, my goodness, what an amazing coincidence. Absolutely unbelievable!

He didn’t described an actual prison but one of those famous British “quarantine hotels”

Dude has a lot of weird little coincidences… I think he’s lying about a lot..

That what you get for name dropping knowing you could hurt someone you asked questions

Joe was such a good guest I hope Charlie can have him back some time soon.

This guy was not in a real Russian prison just in detention.Had he been in a real Russian jail he would not be looking this good.

Great story teller. Even though he was sat there i was thinking.... Oh shit are they gonna find the SD cards!?

As a Russian I can confirm that everything sounds pretty accurate.

He’s a fool for the journal and SD cards. He knows about the situation and the Russian laws before hand.

There have been so many of these stories over the years that I am at the point of blaming the journalist. He knew the risk, he still strolled around asking people about Ukraine. Doing dumb sh*t

Imagine just being thrown into a prison in a foreign country... No idea how long you'll be there... Nightmare fuel.

This seems like one of those "Play stupid games win stupid prizes" things...

The prison story before this one was the best!

This dude a fed 😂 Charlie walker

That's what you get for spying.

If you want a masterclass and what a spook sounds like. Here's homeroom, this dude is glowing

Enthralling story, very well recounted .

A good friend of mine was detained in Russian prison for 3 years. He just got back a couple months ago. His name is Trevor Reed. He is a great person. Served with him in the marine corps. He was falsely detained and now is working very hard to bring home others. Hostages & wrongful detainees. I could only imagine what he went through for those 3 years. his family fought hard to get him back all 3 years. He came back very malnourished.

A big tip here, keep moving and avoid these people, don't stay in dicey places long and get out as soon as you can. If they haven't charged you with anything and haven't had a chance to speak to you they can't set you up. Also, why didn't he upload these recordings instead of keeping them on sd cards?

Nothing to hide but hides everything 😂😂 I smell BS

Don’t go anywhere thinking you are free.

This bloke was one of the best Joe has interviewed in ages.

So he was in a Russian prison in 2022 and the Russians found a picture on his phone of him in Afghanistan, a photo they found suspicious. However Afghanistan was part of the 43,000 mile bike trip in 2010-2014 and he said earlier in the conversation he didn’t have a phone with him on that trip, he said iPhones weren’t on the market when he left, and the cell phone he had on that trip he chucked in a river. So how did a 10 year old Afghanistan photo from his 43,000 mile bike trip end up on his cell phone in 2022? Something is not adding up.

In Canada unvaccinated travellers had to stay in a hotel with security that you were not allowed to leave i.e. a detention centre

He could have saved himself a lot of stress if he just uploaded his recordings to the cloud.

What a joke, imagine what Julian Assange is going through a real journalist

this dude is so lucky he doesnt even realize it

Now that he’s admitted to this he probably shouldn’t go back to Russia after that 5 years is up.

I love these crazy Englishmen who don't seem to have any concept of danger.

Not gonna lie, he comes across slightly dishonest..

So he was spying in Russia & upset that he was punished for spying. Got it

How freaking stupid do you have to be to make recordings about that stuff while travelling in such hostile lands given especially the war going on? To be honest it came out really cheap for this lad.

Listening to the guy talk about it, it sounds like the Russians had a point...

This man is a remarkable storyteller. Kudos to him for capturing such an incredible story and safely getting out.

Not sure what you expected. Sounds like what I would've assumed would happen.

2:35 playing with fire there, worst thing you can do if authorities are suspicious of you being a spy during a time of war.

I watched the whole show. For someone who traveld for months and then spend more time in a prison and just recently came back he had an extremly specific opinion on the russia ukraine conflict. In my opinion that was quite suspicious. If i open a random main stream news site i would read exactly what he told about the conflict, about putin, about the the Asov battalion are somehow not real nazis and so on. I am not taking sides in this conflict. But i have never heard something that sounded so much like a cyops operation to get the propaganda into the ears of people that usually not listening to main stream media.

I'm glad he finally got to write his "7 things you can't do in Russia" article.

Yea, don’t be a nosey reporter in another country.

Wow, sounds like how one would be treat under the anti terrorist laws in US or UK…

This is some real old school JRE right here