On This Day in History: December 24

Joe Rogan begins podcasting

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Born in 1967 in New Jersey, Joe Rogan has led an interesting life. Then in 2009 he began a podcast that grew into a vehicle for spewing pseudoscience, conspiracies, and bigotry to a massive and often toxic fanbase.

--On This Day in History, Shit Went Down: December 24, 2009--

Rogan got into Taekwondo and won the US Open Championship when he was 19. My daughter won the US Open Karate Championship as a teen, but she plans to be a science teacher, not someone who gives the totally bugshit conspiracy nutter Alex Jones airtime. Anyway, Rogan began as a comedian, then an actor, then a UFC commentator and a reality TV host. Then, this fucking podcast.

The first episode of The Joe Rogan Experience ran on December 24, 2009, with fellow comedian Brian Redban as co-host and producer. The first episode was the pair “sitting in front of laptops bullshitting,” Rogan said. Their first guest was comedian Ari Shaffir in Episode 3. Later, it would be Rogan’s choice of guests that would come to define the show as problematic at best. Continues below …

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Redban left in 2013 and by 2015 it was one of the most popular podcasts in the world. In 2020 Rogan signed a $100 million deal to stream the show on Spotify. Fans are quick to point out that Rogan has a diverse array of guests, including respected scientists, business leaders, athletes, academics, entertainers, and politicians. He’s also used his platform to spread completely bonkers and harmful nonsense by conspiracists and bigots alike. Rogan rarely challenges such guests on their dumbfuck opinions, instead letting them spew their shit to his audience. Spotify doesn’t say how big the audience is, but before going exclusive it had 190 million downloads a month. If you criticize Rogan on social media, they will come for you, using every bigoted slur imaginable.

In addition to the reprehensible Alex Jones, a sample of people Rogan has amplified include white supremacist Stefan Molyneux, who discharges the gamut of racism, misogyny, antisemitism, and transphobia; alt-right “comedian” Owen Benjamin, who said Hitler didn’t hate Jews but wanted to “clean Germany … of the parasites, of the fleas”; Islamophobe and pedophilia advocate Milo Yiannopoulos; founder of the neo-fascist hate group Proud Boys Gavin McInnes; plus more than a couple of rapists. In 2019 The Atlantic said Rogan’s “fatal flaw” was “his insistence on seeing value in people even when he shouldn’t, even when they’ve forfeited any right to it.” He will let almost any piece of shit on his show if he thinks people will listen.

Rogan also has a history of making racist, homophobic, transphobic, and misogynistic comments; he laughed when a friend talked on his show about forcing women into performing oral sex. There’s also his anti-vaccine bullshit, saying young and healthy people don’t need to be vaccinated against Covid, which Dr. Anthony Fauci chastised him for. Joe then said of himself: “I’m a fucking moron … I’m not a respected source of information.” Yup. Evan DeSimone nailed it when he tweeted about Rogan: “Nothing that only men like is cool.”

To anyone I’ve angered with this post: It’s Christmas Eve; I’m taking the rest of the day off, so please consider this a blanket “go fuck yourself” in reply to whatever hate you feel compelled to send my way.

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