Joe Rogan Experience #2560 - David Grusch · Aired Sep 30, 2026
Claim summary · not a verbatim quotation
A tribe in Africa has a common inherited trait, called ostrich feet, in which members have long appendages that look like four or five toes smashed together instead of five separate toes.
The finding
What the evidence shows
There is a real group in Zimbabwe, the Vadoma, where an inherited condition called ectrodactyly is unusually common, and they are known as the ostrich-footed people. But the trait was described backwards on the show. It is not toes fused together into long appendages. The middle three toes are missing and the two outer toes turn inward, leaving a two-toed foot.
Read the supporting source · en.wikipedia.org ↗Quick answer & review status
Quick answer
Is it true that a tribe in Africa has a common inherited trait, called ostrich feet, in which members have long appendages that look like four or five toes smashed together instead of five separate toes?
Partly. The claim stretches what the evidence shows. There is a real group in Zimbabwe, the Vadoma, where an inherited condition called ectrodactyly is unusually common, and they are known as the ostrich-footed people. But the trait was described backwards on the show. Joe Rogan said it (matched by voice) on Joe Rogan Experience #2560 - David Grusch, aired Sep 30, 2026, at 1:51:03. The supporting source is en.wikipedia.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.
- Attribution
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- Editorial context review
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- One selected claim from the episode
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