American media figure and former zookeeper best known as the central figure of Netflix’s true-crime docuseries Tiger King—now occasionally joining the conversation by phone from federal prison.

Joe Exotic became a global pop-culture lightning rod with the release of Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem and Madness and its follow-up, a saga that turned a small Oklahoma zoo into international headline material. Beyond the memes, his story spans years of big-cat showmanship, internet notoriety, and a feud that defined an era of streaming-era true crime. Today, he remains incarcerated after a federal conviction and 21-year resentencing in 2022, while maintaining an active presence through official channels. On Opposites Distract, he joined via live prison call—unfiltered—offering his side of the story as Bo & Jared pressed into the culture and controversy that followed.