The Joe Rogan Experience is a podcast hosted by American comedian, presenter, and UFC color commentator Joe Rogan. It was initiated on December 24, 2009, on YouTube by Rogan and comedian Brian 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, and including a wide array of guests, including business magnate Elon Musk, rapper Kanye West, conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, whistleblower Edward Snowden, Senator Bernie Sanders, astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson and President Donald Trump. From December 2020 to February 2024, the podcast was exclusively available on Spotify, with highlights uploaded onto the main Joe Rogan Experience YouTube channel. The podcast was originally recorded at Rogan's home in California, before moving to a private studio in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles. Production was relocated to Austin, Texas, after 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 Times described the podcast as an "unlikely political influencer" in the 2020 U.S. presidential election after presidential candidates Andrew Yang and Tulsi Gabbard both 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 the intellectual dark web. It features an ideologically diverse mix 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 the COVID-19 pandemic and vaccines, and for hosting a number of guests who expressed opinions that contradicted the present medical orthodoxy. Supporters of the podcast have praised Rogan for his advocacy of free speech.
History
2009–2012 During the early 2000s, Rogan hired Brian Redban, a self-taught video editor and an employee at a Gateway 2000 computer store in Ohio, to work for him full-time to film, produce, and edit videos for his website. Rogan had noticed video work that Redban did for comedian Doug Stanhope and invited him to film him and his group on stand-up comedy tours. Redban accepted and relocated to California in 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 on Justin.tv from the green room at 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 format appearing on Opie and Anthony and the live Ustream show that co-host Anthony Cumia did 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 was dead air with 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; comedian Ari Shaffir was 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 company Fleshlight. The company withdrew in mid-2012 when it claimed it had saturated its market. By August 2010, the podcast was formally named The Joe Rogan Experience as an homage to The Jimi Hendrix Experience, and aired live several times a week. In May 2011, Rogan secured a deal with the satellite radio service SiriusXM to have the podcast air on its uncensored talk channel The 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.
2013–2020: First YouTube era In January 2013, video episodes of the podcast started to be uploaded onto YouTube under 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 in Pasadena, 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 in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles. The 1,000th episode aired on August 18, 2017, and featured comedians Joey Diaz and Tom Segura as guests.
In April 2020, Rogan began having guests take an antibody test for COVID-19 before recording the podcast during the COVID-19 pandemic. Rogan used a personalized, on-demand service that offers each test for $299.
2020–2024: Spotify-exclusive era In May 2020, Rogan announced that starting September 2020, The Joe Rogan Experience would be available on Spotify in an exclusive licensing deal worth an estimated $200 million. 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 emphasized that the podcast would retain the same format, and that Spotify would not have any creative control. On the day following Rogan's announcement, Spotify's share price increased by seven percent. The move to Spotify coincided with Rogan's relocation from Los Angeles to Austin, Texas, and the debut of a new, temporary studio there. The first new episode released on Spotify was no. 1,530 with comedian Duncan Trussell, which lasted for over five hours. On September 8, 2020, Rogan debuted the studio on episode no. 1,533 with guest Adam Curry. (He has subsequently moved to another, more permanent studio in Austin.)
After the podcast became available on Spotify on September 1, 2020, people reported on social media that past episodes with more controversial or far-right guests, including Alex Jones, Milo Yiannopoulos, Gavin McInnes, and Chris D'Elia, among others, were missing from the platform. Episodes featuring comedian and activist Tommy Chong, comedian Joey Diaz, and Mikhaila Peterson, daughter of Jordan Peterson, were also unavailable. VICE later reported that Spotify CEO Daniel Ek defended having episode No. 1,509 on the platform, during which Rogan and author and journalist Abigail Shrier discussed 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 to censor or editorialize the 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 West clarified 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 2018 and 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 featured Robert W. Malone which was 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 the murder of Collin Small, alleged perpetrator Sheldon Johnson was featured as a guest on The Joe Rogan Experience, wherein he talked about his criminal history and advocated for prison rehabilitation.
2024–present: Return to YouTube and other platforms In February 2024, Spotify signed Rogan to a new $250 million contract but announced his show would not be exclusive to its service and instead be available to other platforms. Shortly thereafter, the podcast returned to Apple Podcasts. On February 29, 2024, for the first time in more than three years, a full episode of the podcast, an interview with Katt Williams, was released on YouTube. Episode No. 2,219 featured former US President Donald Trump during his 2024 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 had uploaded the episode on his personal X account after he claimed YouTube hid the video from search results on purpose. The video gained 18.4 million views on X in two days. On October 31, the YouTube video had amassed 41 million views, becoming the podcast's second-most-viewed episode on the platform.
Format 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), "JRE MMA Show", "Protect our Parks", and the "Fight Companion" episodes, which are streamed live.
Guests
Comedians Judd Apatow Owen Benjamin Doug Benson Bill Burr Louis C.K. Andrew Dice Clay Dane Cook Jeff Dye Andy Dick Nick DiPaolo Nikki Glaser Bobcat Goldthwait Tom Green Kevin Hart Kevin James Anthony Jeselnik Bobby Lee Artie Lange Howie Mandel Sebastian Maniscalco Marc Maron Ralphie May Randall Park Greg Proops Rafinha Bastos Matt Rife Jeff Ross Bob Saget Adam Sandler Amy Schumer Pauly Shore Dave Smith Doug Stanhope