Joe Rogan Experience #2549 - Jared Diamond · Aired Sep 3, 2026
Claim summary · not a verbatim quotation
The 'Secret History of the Mongols' was rediscovered in the early 1960s by Joe Fletcher.
The finding
What the evidence shows
The Secret History of the Mongols was not rediscovered in the early 1960s by Joe Fletcher. A Russian monk, Archimandrite Palladius, found an abridged copy and translated it in 1866, and later scholars including Paul Pelliot, Erich Haenisch, Francis Cleaves, and Igor de Rachewiltz did the major reconstruction and translation work over the following century. No historical account ties the text's rediscovery to Joe Fletcher or to the 1960s specifically.
Read the supporting source · worldliteraturetoday.org ↗Quick answer & review status
Quick answer
Is it true that the 'Secret History of the Mongols' was rediscovered in the early 1960s by Joe Fletcher?
No, not as stated. The Secret History of the Mongols was not rediscovered in the early 1960s by Joe Fletcher. Jared Diamond said it (matched by voice) on Joe Rogan Experience #2549 - Jared Diamond, aired Sep 3, 2026, at 1:15:37. The supporting source is worldliteraturetoday.org, linked below.
The context belongs here.
No separately verified on-air correction is recorded for this check. That is not a claim that nobody corrected it.
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- One selected claim from the episode
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