Rogan grew up working class
Very good at martial arts – 19, wins national tae kwon do championship
Moves to LA to pursue standup comedy
Big break – becomes host on Fear Factor
Then becomes commentator for MMA
MMA was growing quickly, and Joe becomes public face of MMA commentary
In 2003, starts recording chats with his friends
Built-in audience: Fear Factor, UFC, comedy nerds
Audience steadily grows
In 2009, moves to Ustream platform – and renames it The Joe Rogan Experience (play on Jimi Hendrix Experience)
In 2013, he starts recording and publishing clips to YouTube
This led to massive growth
Audience is largely men – “patron saint of certain kind of American masculinity”
Like hearing smart people talk about interesting stuff
NYT podcast is highly produced, fact checking, lots of prep
JRE is polar opposite, very long (up to 4 hours), very unedited
“Medium is the message” – wysiwyg
Dabbles in wide variety of topics: fitness, fighting, health, thinkers like DeGrasse Tyson, DMT and psychedelics
His manifesto: always keep learning, keep expanding horizons
Has proclivity for conspiracy theories, pseudoscience, hearing out more radical thinkers, like UFOs, Alex Jones
He may disagree, but he will let them talk – even if they can’t get mainstream media
His biggest view – proudly anti political correctness (anti cancel culture, anti liberal pieties) – really resonates with audience
“It’s ok to be a white man who watches people beat each other in UFC”
Singular figure – pro gay marriage, pro weed, believes in climate change
Not Republican or Democratic – just Joe Rogan view of world
By 2015 – 11M per episode
Viral clips that start to influence culture
Elon Musk episode – smokes joint on air, gets really personal, becomes instant meme – causes Tesla stock to drop
May 2020 – Spotify acquires it for $100M for exclusive distribution rights
People who listen to podcasts listen to more music too
Spotify wants to build exclusive library of podcast content
Deal does well – share price rises, subscriber numbers grow
Spotify surpasses Apple to become #1 podcast platform
Then comes the covid pandemic
Invites fringe guests that counter mainstream health authorities – lockdowns, masks
Joe got covid, treated with ivermectin, skeptical about covid vaccines
Interviews Dr. Robert Malone – medical pariah, darling of Republican Right, who believes hospitals are incentivized to get more covid patients, anti-vax
Interview got huge public blowback
Musician Neil Young was very offended – tells Spotify either me or Rogan –
Joni Mitchell too
Initially Spotify says it’s neutral platform, eg, has rappers with offensive lyrics
CEO Daniel Ek says it won’t de-platform, but will add warning labels, publish moderation guidelines
Rogan releases IG video – half apologizes, acknowledges his approach may need to change
Talks about more preparation, more fact checking, more mainstream guests
Then controversy escalates
India Arie takes music off Spotify, because old clip of Rogan saying N-word
Rogan releases another video – apologizes for using the N-word
Takes down ~70 old episodes
Spotify’s own employees also confront CEO
But Spotify doesn’t back down
Promise to allocate $100M to under repped minority content
Spotify is taking their own stand, but also Rogan matters financially to them (more than he matters to a platform like YouTube)
Rogan so far is cancel proof – saying un-woke things, isn’t afraid to offend people
How can Rogan, who has more podcast listeners than NYT, not be “mainstream media”?
Massively popular, extremely wealthy, yet positions himself as outsider punching up at establishment
Represents a new emerging mainstream – popular, contrarian voices like Rogan’s
Can Spotify give platform to this new contrarian mainstream, while still adhering to old mainstream?