Emily Hill
The indomitable popularity of Joe Rogan
‘Nobody has stronger opinions about Joe Rogan than people who have never listened to Joe Rogan,’ is Edward Snowden’s view but I am the exception that proves the rule because the more I listen to him the more I profess my love for him. At points in the past year, the Joe Rogan podcast has been all that’s prevented me hurling myself out of the window with Elizabeth Day’s latest book. If you feel isolated and lonely in the post-lockdown world you might find yourself – among the legions of truck drivers stuck in cabs and Amazon workers waiting for robots to replace them – falling for him too.
The Joe Rogan Experience, as the podcast the comedian started with friends in 2009 is now called, begins with a cry of ‘hello freak bitches’ before launching into hour long conversations in which Quentin Tarantino talks about his film career, Bret Weinstein explores the political climate that led to him getting kicked out of Evergreen, Alex Jones performs his conspiracy theory greatest hits, Annie Jacobsen explains Operation Paperclip, Leah Rimini details her escape from Scientology or Tim Dillon – controversially for a comedian – makes jokes.
So big was the phenomenon pre-Covid that The Atlantic wrote an explainer: 'Few men in America are as popular among American men as Joe Rogan. It’s a massive group congregating in plain sight, and it’s made up of people you know from high school, guys who work three cubicles down, who are still paying off student loans, who forward jealous-girlfriend memes, who spot you at the gym. Single guys. Married guys. White guys, black guys, Dominican guys. Two South Asian friends of mine swear by him. My college roommate. My little brother. Normal guys. American guys.' And, of course, me: single, white female fixated on my small bald New Jersey love.
Since catching Covid-19 and taking Ivermectin, however, Joe is no longer the man who introduced us to the concept of DMT elves but a dangerous spreader of ‘misinformation’ to those who don’t want to get their Covid-19 jab because they had to go out to work for the entire pandemic, probably had it already, certainly lived to tell the tale, and now don’t understand why they need one.
This week there has been a concerted campaign to cancel Joe and so stop us listening to him which makes me think that Otto von Bismarck’s advice – never believe anything until it has been officially denied – needs to be updated to ‘never trust information until "dis" or "mis" is tacked onto the front of it by a tech platform.’ Just lately, his guests on the subject of Covid – such as Dr. Robert Malone and Dr. Peter McCullough – are causing increasing numbers of people to question whether they are deranged (as people they meet in real life do tend to insist) or whether ‘the science’ as embodied by Dr. Fauci is deranged and we’re saner than we’ve been in years thank you very much. On Wednesday, there were calls from White House press secretary Jen Psaki, no less, for Spotify to censor Rogan.
The Swedish streaming platform is so far standing strong against the ‘growing faction’ of has beens who threatened to remove their content in protest – most notably musician Neil Young, whose music has now been expunged. Here in the UK, Stewart Lee has given us the biggest laugh of his career by announcing he’s quitting a platform on which he has 6,947 monthly listens due to the continued presence of Joe (who generates 11 million per episode). Meghan and Harry have expressed upset at the situation but not yet deprived us of Archewell Audio which is very brave of them.
The trouble with Joe – as far as the establishment media is concerned – is he’s more popular than they are because he’s doing a better job. His podcast is addictive not only due to the range and quality of his guests but because Joe is a competent interviewer. He asks questions, listens to the answers and never tries to score points by prefacing a gross misinterpretation of what he’s just been told with a ‘so what you’re saying is…’ or editing the results afterwards. The last time Jordan Peterson turned up on the JRE he did so in a bow tie which shows the respect he pays to the whole endeavour.
Right now, the sort of characters who like to tell other people what they are saying without listening to them are telling everyone what Joe is saying without listening to him and if that doesn't suggest he's worth a listen because you might hear something you weren't expecting I have nothing else to say either.
