Rogan’s refusal to be vaccinated, his opposition to vaccine mandates, and his willingness to give airtime to guests who have been accused of “spreading medical misinformation” have resulted in numerous calls to get him deplatformed.
More recently, he became the target of 270 “experts” – not all of whom, it should be noted, are medical professionals – who objected to the podcast having featured Dr. Robert Malone, one of the co-creators of the mRNA vaccine, because of the views he had expressed in it about the pandemic. Dr. Malone has been banned from Twitter for violating the platform’s Covid-19 misinformation policies, and the signatories of the open letter to Spotify declared the episode a “mass-misinformation event” and used it as an example to bill Rogan as a menace to public health.
‘Godfather of Grunge’ Neil Young then issued the platform with an ultimatum: that he would remove his music unless it removed Rogan, and then following through with his warning. Several other musicians, including Joni Mitchell, then followed suit. In an apparent concession, Spotify’s CEO announced new policies on “combating misinformation ” about Covid-19, albeit without referencing Rogan by name. The streaming service will now make sure its creators “understand accountabilit y” for posting “dangerous” content that dismisses Covid-19 as “a hoax ” and “promotes or suggests ” that coronavirus vaccines “are designed to cause death,” and listeners will be directed to “trusted sources ” on these issues.
Rogan himself responded to the controversy, saying all he had wanted was to have “interesting conversations ” that represented different opinions. He defended his guests’ credentials and promised to ensure the podcast presented a better balance of views in the future.
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Ironically, all efforts to silence or otherwise marginalize Rogan have only persuaded the masses to check him out, gaining him ever more listeners who have been lured by the prospect of guests discussing topics the corporate media won’t touch.
An ‘Oprah for men’-level of influence Acting akin to an ‘Oprah for men,’ Rogan asks the questions of his guests that listeners themselves would like to ask, quizzing the likes of the aforementioned Jordan Peterson on psychology, and Elon Musk on sustainable energy, technology, and space travel; and Neil deGrasse Tyson on astrophysics. The insights one can glean from listening to speakers of this caliber are unsurpassable.
According to statistics compiled by fan website the JRE Library, Rogan’s most popular shows include that infamous interview with Elon Musk (which garnered 49.8 million views), and the episodes featuring Alex Jones (30 million), Edward Snowden (28 million), Mike Tyson (17.8), and Ben Shapiro (17.1 million).
A leaked set of Spotify data from Business Insider last year suggests ‘The Joe Rogan Experience’ – which the platform snapped up in May 2020 in a $100 million move to gain exclusivity – represented nearly 5% of total podcast listens when it was first made available in September 2020. After becoming a Spotify exclusive, it brought in nearly three million listeners and has remained the number-one show on the platform ever since.
Controversies aside, why is Joe Rogan so popular? On his show, Rogan earnestly discusses topics and listens to points of view without too much judgment. He isn’t afraid to give a platform to supposedly ‘bad ideas’ or to challenge the mainstream narrative – a concern around which other podcasts tailor their content. One need look no further than his latest episode with Petersоn and the headlines it triggered with the “brain-dissolving” things Peterson said about climate change, race, and poverty for an example of the kind of backlash he’s unfazed by.
READ MORE: Spotify unveils new approach to Covid-19 content
He’s always willing to hear out both sides of a story – such as when he invited on to the show pariah Democrat Tulsi Gabbard and then-New York Times columnist Bari Weiss, who called Gabbard a “toadie” for Syrian President Bashar Assad and a “motherlode of bad ideas. ” Both got to say their piece.
Joe Rogan is not an intellectual. He freely admits his lack of knowledge about the matters on which his guests want to educate him, and thus he acts as a conduit for the listener. Because he’s ‘one of the guys,’ every discussion on the show feels more like a chilled chat two friends would have over whiskey and cigars instead of a formal interview from which there might be merely an interesting five- or 10-minute soundbite. Rogan is a natural at bringing out the best in all his guests, creating an interesting conversation out of even sometimes dull topics. Thanks to the length of each episode (they can run to three hours), listeners can really get a grasp on the topic and where each person sits within the spectrum of opinion, and it’s all helped along by Rogan’s charisma.
In contrast to those hosts who promote their own political views, Rogan is very much a libertarian, so doesn’t partake in the left-wing/right-wing dichotomy, making him accessible to pretty much anyone, regardless of their politics. He wades into controversial topics without fear – and, at this point, he need never fear cancelation by the mob. Any guests he features are, by extension, guaranteed a platform of millions that they can speak to without being silenced by a hostile interviewer.
In a world of carefully curated soundbites and corporate narratives, ‘The Joe Rogan Experience’ is a place to which you can go if you want to hear someone sharing their views without someone else on the other side of the table shouting them down. And it’s that sincerity alone that makes the podcast worth listening to.
Ian Miles Cheong
is a political and cultural commentator. His work has been featured on The Rebel, Penthouse, Human Events, and The Post Millennial. Follow Ian on Twitter @stillgray and on Telegram @CultureWarRoom
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