The Joe Rogan Experience

The Joe Rogan Experienceis apodcasthosted by American comedian, presenter, andUFCcolor commentatorJoe Rogan. It was initiated on December 24, 2009, onYouTubeby Rogan and comedianBrian Redban, who was its sole co-host and producer until 2012 when Jamie Vernon, who would eventually take over production, was hired to co-produce.By 2015, it was one of the world's most popular podcasts, regularly receiving millions of views per episode,also including a wide array of guests, including business magnateElon Musk, whistleblowerEdward Snowden, SenatorBernie Sanders, astrophysicistNeil deGrasse Tysonand PresidentDonald Trump. From December 2020 to February 2024, the podcast was exclusively available onSpotify,with highlights uploaded onto the mainJoe Rogan ExperienceYouTube channel. The podcast was originally recorded at Rogan's home in California, before moving to a private studio inWoodland Hills, Los Angeles. Production was relocated toAustin, Texasafter the podcast was licensed exclusively on Spotify in 2020.
Although most episodes feature entertainers, academics, comics, UFC fighters, and other non-political figures,The New York Timesdescribed the podcast as an "unlikely political influencer" in the2020 U.S. presidential electionafter presidential candidatesAndrew YangandTulsi Gabbardboth had measurable surges in popularity and fundraising after making guest appearances on the program. Bernie Sanders received Rogan's endorsement after appearing on his show, and the Sanders campaign promoted it through its online channels. Four years later, Rogan endorsed then–former president Donald Trump. The podcast has been described as a "boundary-free arena" and a platform for theintellectual dark weband has featured a diverse ideological mixture of political guests. Rogan has been criticized for hosting far-right guests and has been accused of using racially insensitive language.He has also been criticized for his opinions concerning theCOVID-19 pandemicandvaccines, and for hosting a number of guests who expressed opinions that contradicted the present medical orthodoxy. Advocates of the podcast have praised Rogan for his advocacy offree speech.
During the early 2000s, Rogan hired Brian Redban, a self-taught video editor and an employee at aGateway 2000computer store inOhio, to work for him full-time to film, produce, and edit videos for his website.Rogan had noticed video work that Redban did for comedianDoug Stanhopeand invited him to film him and his group on stand-up comedy tours.Redban accepted and relocated toCaliforniain the process, following Rogan with a camera and "recording everything".After several years, Redban noticed that fans were demanding an increasing amount of content from Rogan and for it to be delivered faster. This prompted the two to seek new ways of quickening what was a lengthy editing process to make their website and content more interactive.Coupled with his interest in popular live video streaming services of the time, Redban wanted "to do the same thing I was filming, but live," and set up live streams onJustin.tvfrom thegreen roomat Rogan's various comedy gigs.Redban had no prior experience with audio engineering, so he taught himself how to operate the mixing board and microphone setups through his subsequent podcasts.After some time on Justin.tv, Rogan suggested the idea of hosting a live video stream with Redban from his home and interacting with fans in a chatroom and on Twitter, with the audio portion released as a downloadable podcast.Rogan was influenced by the open discussion style form appearing onOpie and Anthonyand the liveUstreamshow that co-hostAnthony Cumiadid from his basement studio,Live from the Compound.
The first episode aired live on December 24, 2009,which initially took the form of a weekly broadcast on Ustream,with the pair "sitting in front of laptops bullshitting".Much of the first episode wasdead airwith the hosts figuring out the equipment,and the early episodes featured an animated snowflake effect that was reintroduced on episode Nos. 674 in 2015 and No. 1,000 in 2017.The show developed with Rogan inviting friends as guests and having lengthy conversations on various subjects; comedianAri Shaffirwas the first, who appeared on episode No. 3 on January 6, 2010.
Rogan said that maintaining a consistent schedule was important in jumpstarting the podcast's growth, and it soon grew to two episodes a week.In May 2010, the podcast acquired its first sponsor in a partnership with the sex-toy production companyFleshlight. The company withdrew in mid-2012 when it claimed it had saturated its market.By August 2010, the podcast was formally namedThe Joe Rogan Experienceas an homage toThe Jimi Hendrix Experience, and aired live several times a week.In May 2011, Rogan secured a deal with thesatellite radioserviceSiriusXMto have the podcast air on its uncensored talk channelThe Virus.That year, Rogan said that the podcast was helping his stand-up comedy as he would take ideas that arose during conversations and develop them into routines.
In January 2013, video episodes of the podcast started to be uploaded ontoYouTubeunder the account PowerfulJRE; its episodes regularly achieved viewership in the hundred-thousands to millions.Later in 2013, Redban started to reduce his time as the podcast's sole producer as Rogan had increased the number of podcasts each week, "and it got to the point where [Rogan] wanted to keep on going, six, seven hours" which became too much for him to handle alone. As a result, Jamie Vernon was hired as a second producer, initially to fill in as Redban's assistant, leaving Redban to produce roughly half of subsequent episodes.Vernon soon took over full time and Redban subsequently appeared on the podcast as a guest.
Originally, the podcast was recorded at Rogan's home in California.From November 24, 2011, some episodes were recorded at the Ice House Comedy Club inPasadena, California, also known as the Deathsquad Studios.Beginning on November 27, 2012, the majority of episodes were recorded in a private studio that Rogan acquired inWoodland Hills, Los Angeles.The 1,000th episode aired on August 18, 2017, and featured comediansJoey DiazandTom Seguraas guests.
In April 2020, Rogan began having guests take an antibody test forCOVID-19before recording the podcast during theCOVID-19 pandemic. Rogan used a personalized, on-demand service that offers each test for $299.
In May 2020, Rogan announced that starting September 2020,The Joe Rogan Experiencewould be available onSpotifyin an exclusive licensing deal worth an estimated $200million.Under the terms of the agreement, uploads of full episodes to YouTube continued until December 2020, after which the podcast became exclusive to Spotify. Highlight clips are still uploaded to YouTube. Rogan ensured that the podcast will remain the same format, with Spotify not having any creative control. On the day following Rogan's announcement, Spotify shares increased by seven percent.The move to Spotify coincided with Rogan's relocation from Los Angeles toAustin, Texas, and the debut of a new, temporary studio there.The first new episode released on Spotify was no. 1,530 with comedianDuncan Trussell, which lasted for over five hours.On September 8, 2020, Rogan debuted the studio on episode no. 1,533 with guestAdam Curry.(He has subsequently moved to another, more permanent studio in Austin.)
After the podcast became available on Spotify on September 1, people reported on social media that episodes with more controversial or far-right guests, includingAlex Jones,Milo Yiannopoulos,Gavin McInnes, andChris D'Elia, among others, were missing from the platform. Episodes featuring comedian and activistTommy Chong, comedian Joey Diaz, and Mikhaila Peterson, daughter ofJordan Peterson, were also unavailable.VICElater reported that Spotify CEODaniel Ekdefended having episode No. 1,509 on the platform, which had Rogan and author and journalist Abigail Shrier discuss topics that some deemed transphobic, causing some Spotify employees to voice their concerns to management. A Spotify spokesperson said the episode was within its content guidelines.Rogan later clarified that the company had said nothing to him about plans tocensororeditorializethe podcast, as some employees had suggested. He also pointed to the abundance of song lyrics hosted on Spotify that some would consider offensive.
In October 2020, the production of new episodes was put on hold for a week after Vernon tested positive for COVID-19. Rogan and the rest of the staff tested negative and resumed once they got the all-clear from a doctor.
In episode No. 1,554,Kanye Westclarified his reasons for running for president of the United States in 2020 and how it began in 2015.West was one of Rogan's most anticipated guests after the idea of Kanye coming on the podcast first surfaced in late 2018and a premature confirmation by West in early 2019,ultimately taking close to a year before Kanye finally appeared on the show.
In January 2022, an open letter signed by 270 health care professionals called on Spotify to develop a counter-misinformation content policy.An epidemiologist who signed the letter stated that she viewed Rogan as "a menace to public health", and that his ideas are "fringe", and "not backed in science".The health care professionals especially took issue with an episode that featuredRobert W. Malonewhich were criticized for a comment Rogan made where he stated that he believed that young, healthy people do not need a COVID-19 vaccine.It was later reported that the letter gained an additional thousand signatures.
On February 1, 2024, only a month before themurder of Collin Small, alleged perpetrator Sheldon Johnson was featured as a guest onThe Joe Rogan Experience, wherein he talked about his criminal history and advocated for prison rehabilitation.
In February 2024, Spotify signed Rogan to a new $250million contract but announced his show would not be exclusive to its service and instead be available to other platforms.Shortly thereafter, the podcast returned toApple Podcasts.On February 29, 2024, for the first time in more than three years, a full episode of the podcast, an interview withKatt Williams, was released on YouTube.Episode No. 2,219 featured former US PresidentDonald Trumpduring his2024 presidential campaign. The three-hour episode went viral and acquired over 26 million views in its first 24 hours on YouTube.YouTube noted in a statement that the full episode “didn't appear prominently” in searches on the site, which was later fixed.On October 29, Rogan uploaded the episode on his personal X account after he claimed YouTube hid the video from search results on purpose. The video gained 18.4million views on X in two days. On October 31, the YouTube video had amassed 41million views, becoming the podcast's second most viewed episode.
There are at least four types of episodes, as labeled on YouTube and Spotify. These are the "main" general category (of which there are over 2000 episodes), "JREMMAShow", "Protect our Parks" and the "Fight Companion" episodes, which are streamed live.
In January 2015, the podcast was listened to by more than 11million people.By October 2015, it had grown to acquire 16million downloads a month.In April 2019, Rogan said that the podcast had 190million downloads each month.
Starting in 2017 Rogan and friendsBert Kreischer,Tom Segura, andAri Shaffirparticipate in an annual "Sober October" tradition,which has influenced some listeners to curb their addictions by partaking in the challenge.In addition to sobriety from drugs and alcohol, the tradition has also encouraged skill learning and daily workout competitions.
Elon Musk's appearance on episode No. 1,169 on September 6, 2018, saw Musk smokecannabis, which attracted worldwide press attention and was followed by a 9% fall inTeslastock.
In 2023,Cornell Universityscholars Adam Szetela and Shiyu Ji published data inNewsweekshowing howThe Joe Rogan Experiencehas impacted the book sales of guests. For example,Graham Hancock'sVisionary: The Mysterious Origins of Human Consciousness (The Definitive Edition of Supernatural)experienced a 519% sales increase within one week of his appearance on the podcast.Phil McGraw,Neil deGrasse Tyson, and other authors experienced even bigger sales increases.
According toThe New York Times, Rogan andThe Joe Rogan Experiencebecame an "unlikely political influencer" in the2020 U.S. presidential electionafter presidential candidates Andrew Yang and Tulsi Gabbard both saw measurable surges in popularity and fundraising after making guest appearances on the program in 2019, and in 2020, when presidential candidate Bernie Sanders saw a surge of press coverage in national news and global media outlets as a result of his campaign using a clip fromThe Joe Rogan Experienceshowing Rogan speaking favorably about the candidate and saying on air, "I think I'll probably vote for Bernie."
The podcast was integral toYang's campaign. In the 30 days before the interview, Yang averaged 62 donations per day; in the 30 days after, they amounted approximately 2,150.Research has credited Yang's appearance on theJoe Rogan Experience, in particular Yang's discussions with Rogan about theUniversal Basic Income(UBI), as having had a considerable impact on the prominence of UBI in public debates, with a potential impact on the COVID-19 relief bills (which includedone-time paymentssimilar to UBI).
A study conducted by Coleman Insights in 2019 with 1,000 monthly podcast listeners aged 18 to 64 revealed thatThe Joe Rogan Experienceranked the highest in the "unaided awareness" category, double that of any other podcast.
On September 8, 2020, then PresidentDonald Trumptweeted a clip from Rogan's interview with Mike Tyson, in which the boxer says hurting people can be "orgasmic". Later in the day, Trump tweeted a clip in which Rogan jokes, "Biden, to me, is like having a flashlight with a dying battery and going for a long hike in the woods. It is not going to work out. It's not gonna make it."On September 13, UFC fighterTim Kennedytweeted that, in Rogan's podcast with him two days earlier, the host had "offered to moderate a debate between [Biden] and [Trump] ... It would be four hours with no live audience. Just the two candidates, cameras, and their vision of how to move this country forward. Who wants this?" The next day, President Trump tweeted in reply, "I do!"This promptedSunny HostinofThe Viewto denounce Rogan as "misogynistic, racist [and] homophobic" for allegedly having made insensitive comments at selected times during his history as a podcast host.
Various sources wrote that Rogan's interview with Trump helped the former president to win the 2024 election, particularly due to the show's largely male and young audience.Rogan also negotiated for Democratic candidateKamala Harristo appear on the show, but it did not happen; an adviser to Harris's husbandDoug Emhoffsaid that "There was a backlash with some of our progressive staff that didn't want her to be on it".
The show has engaged with a wide variety of controversial topics.
On June 20, 2019,conspiracy theoristBob Lazar, along with producerJeremy Corbell, made an appearance on the show where Rogan frequently discusses the possibility of aliens andextraterrestrial life. This episode was cited as the inspiration for the plannedFacebookevent andInternet memeknown as "Storm Area 51, They Can't Stop All of Us", created one week later.The episode with Lazar and Corbell remains the most watched episode on YouTube, with over 61 million views.
In February 2022, journalistAmy Westerveltcriticized Rogan's appearances on his podcast forclimate change denial, and alleged Rogan was involved in starting false rumors thatenvironmentalists deliberately set wildfires in 2020 in the Western United States.
On April 27, 2021, Rogan made remarks aboutCOVID-19 vaccines,in particular suggesting that young, healthy people have no need to be vaccinated against the virus.Rogan's view was criticized byAnthony Fauciand White House communication directorKate Bedingfield, as well as by several media outlets.Part of the objection was that there have been notable cases affecting young, healthy people.Rogan acknowledged there was "some legitimate science" behind Fauci's view and emphasized that he himself is not a doctor or "a respected source of information".
On October 13, 2021, in conversation with CNN'sSanjay Gupta, Rogan defended taking the medicationivermectinhis physician prescribed himoff-labelfor treating COVID-19.CNN had previously said Rogan was "taking a livestock drug despite warnings" when the podcast host caught the disease in late August. Rogan accused the news network of lying for labeling the drug a "horse dewormer"; ivermectin, anantiparasiticmedication, is used in both humans and animals.On that same episode, Gupta admitted that, as it was prescribed by a physician, it should not have been referred to as a "horse dewormer". Rogan reiterated his view that people should have the autonomy to choose to get vaccinated, and repeated the false claim that ivermectin is a legitimate treatment option for COVID-19.
In a December 2021 episode, guestRobert W. Malonecompared the U.S. reaction to the pandemic to the rise ofNazi Germany, claiming that a "mass formation psychosis" had developed among its residents. Clips from the interview were taken down by YouTube as violations of its COVID-19 misinformation rules.Anopen letterby 270 U.S. healthcare professionals, scientists and professors called for Spotify to drop the podcast, citing the interview and Rogan's "concerning history of broadcasting misinformation, particularly regarding the COVID-19 pandemic".On January 3, 2022, CongressmanTroy Nehlsentered a full transcriptof the interview with Malone into theCongressional Recordin order to circumvent what he said was censorship by social media.
Later that month, musicianNeil Youngthreatened to pull his music from Spotify if the company did not drop Rogan, saying Rogan was disseminating COVID-19 vaccine misinformation. After the company declined his request, Young's music was removed from Spotify on January 26.Joni Mitchellalso removed her music from Spotify in solidarity with Young, as didBruce Springsteen's guitaristNils Lofgren.SingerDavid Draiman, on the other hand, "applauded" Spotify's decision, saying that "I may not agree with everything Joe Rogan or his guests say, but they're entitled to have the forum to say it".Separately, popular podcasterBrené Brownsaid on Twitter that she would "not be releasing any podcasts until further notice".
On January 30, Spotify announced that it was working to add a content advisory to all episodes of all podcasts discussing COVID-19, pointing to its own information hub on the topic.
In February 2022, singerIndia Arieshared a compilation of Rogan saying the racial slurniggeronThe Joe Rogan ExperienceonInstagram.Rogan apologized, calling his past language "regretful and shameful" while also saying that the clips were taken out of context and he only quoted the slur to discuss its use by others.The footage in question was first published by thepolitical action committee(PAC) PatriotTakes, an affiliate of the liberal PACMeidasTouch. This resulted in allegations of adefamationattempt by MeidasTouch, which the founders denied in an interview withBarstool SportsfounderDavid Portnoy, instead attributing the source of the footage toAlex Joneswho was a recurring guest on Rogan's show.Rogan described the video compilation as a "political hit job".A number of UFC fighters, includingIsrael Adesanya,Terrance McKinney,Michael Chandler,Aljamain Sterling,Frankie Edgar,Darren Till,Marlon Vera,Ben Askren, andBrendan Schaub, defended Rogan.
Spotify refused to carry 42 episodes of the podcast when it acquired the exclusive rights.Spotify says it spoke to Rogan about his "history of using some racially insensitive language", and says (in an internal memo) that Rogan selected 70 episodeswhich were removed on February 4, 2022,all of which pre-date the COVID-19 pandemic.
Arie complained about the "Fraction of a penny" royalties Spotify was paying to musicians in comparison with the $100 million Rogan had received for his exclusivity agreement with Spotify.Spotify later said in an internal memo it would be committing $100 million to create and promote audio from creators from historically marginalized groups.
The podcast has been described as "an important node of theintellectual dark web",and has featured a diverse ideological mixture of political guests, including Democratic presidential candidates and conservative figures. In a critical article forNational Review,Theodore Kupfer wrote that the podcast, hosted by "A weed-smokingDMT-obsessive whose most cherished political cause is the quest to end malecircumcision", has become "one of the last bastions for civil discussion in contemporary America".
In August 2010, nine months after its launch,The Joe Rogan Experienceentered the list of Top 100 podcasts oniTunes.In February 2014, the podcast won aStitcher Awardfor Best Overall Show of 2013.In 2017 and 2018, the podcast was Apple's second-most-downloaded podcast.In January 2019, the podcast won Best Comedy Podcast at theiHeartRadioPodcast Awards.