What makes a marriage? When should an UFC fighter finally tap out for good? And what shape is the Earth... really? These were just a few probing questions that made Joe Rogan's guests uncomfortable.
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00:00What makes a marriage? When should a UFC fighter finally tap out for good?
00:05And what shape is the Earth? Really?
00:07These were just a few probing questions that made Joe Rogan's guess uncomfortable.
00:13Former mixed martial arts athlete Eddie Bravo's talents extend to being a fight instructor,
00:18a comedian, and a podcast host. But astronomy was one skill he didn't manage to master.
00:23During his 2017 appearance on an episode of The Joe Rogan Experience,
00:28alongside fellow guest Brendan Schaub, the conversation drifted towards science
00:32when Bravo delivered a few arcane notions of his own.
00:36Rogan and Schaub's jaws dropped when he declared that the moon landings were bogus.
00:40And so was the shape of the Earth, saying,
00:43"'There's no photo of the flat Earth from space. There's no photo of the round Earth from space.
00:48It's all fake.'"
00:49What followed was a verbal tetherball match that ricocheted into ridiculous territory for an hour.
00:55Feeling cornered by Rogan, Bravo doubled down and spewed one conspiracy theory after another,
01:01adding,
01:01"'I think all governments, most of them, the globalists,
01:05started working together to control their people. You're on a ball. You're nowhere.
01:09Don't try to go anywhere. Just stay there and work.'"
01:12Still, Rogan continued trying to reason with him, telling Bravo,
01:16"'You're very influential. You're saying these things to millions of people,
01:20but I don't think you're thinking correctly.'"
01:23Like Joe Rogan, Nick DiPaolo honed his stand-up chops in Boston's nightclubs,
01:28crafting a punchline execution that was rough around the edges and dismissive of political
01:33correctness. His perspective fit the in-your-face format of Comedy Central's Tough Crowd,
01:39where he guested with fellow comedians and started snaring some national attention.
01:43As his star grew, so did the reckless notoriety that saw Sirius XM fire him
01:48for poking fun at school shootings. He later had to apologize for a YouTube thumbnail image
01:54that featured him flipping the bird at a murdered Black activist. With all that,
01:59fans expected DiPaolo's appearance on JRE in January 2019 to be a lively affair.
02:05While the episode certainly lived up to that billing, the laughs were scarce.
02:10Much of the conversation concerned accusations that Donald Trump had lied during his presidency.
02:15When Rogan showed his guest hard evidence of the former president's frequent fibbing,
02:20DiPaolo became enraged. Their subsequent exchanges devolved into a verbal war with
02:25no clear resolution.
02:26"'Jesus Christ, you're so defensive. It's like, do you work for the organization?'
02:29"'No, I don't.'"
02:30DiPaolo claimed that the mainstream media simply hated Trump,
02:34and had lied about his lies. But the two made up before the episode ended.
02:39Robert Downey Jr. doesn't shy away from his darker days of drug addiction and incarceration.
02:45So Downey was likely prepared to share that experience during his JRE interview in 2020.
02:50However, he was seemingly caught off guard when asked about whether Tropic Thunder,
02:54a 2008 Hollywood satire featuring the star as a deluded method actor in blackface,
03:00could still be made today.
03:02"'Do you think that you could do Tropic Thunder today? Would that be possible?'
03:06"'Oh, you could do it.'"
03:08Downey initially thought the flick was a terrible idea, but later reframed that notion.
03:15"'I get to hold up to nature the insane, self-involved hypocrisy of artists.'"
03:23He added that the blackface depiction in Tropic Thunder
03:26was intended to highlight how wrong the practice is within entertainment, not celebrate it.
03:31Regardless, the conversation spurred more backlash against the movie, 12 years after its release.
03:38In October 2021, CNN's chief medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, wasn't
03:44sure whether he'd be walking into a trap when he accepted a request to appear on JRE.
03:49When Joe Rogan contracted COVID-19 the previous month,
03:53CNN had reported that the podcast star was following a care regimen that included ivermectin,
03:58an antiparasitic remedy. But what upset Rogan was when other CNN commentators
04:04emphasized the drug's use as a horse dewormer, one that the government discouraged for human use.
04:10Rogan claimed he'd been prescribed the divisive drug by his doctor,
04:14and considered suing CNN for spreading misinformation about him.
04:18Gupta responded to the controversy.
04:20"'Glad you're better. I'm glad it only lasted a day.'"
04:22"'You're probably the only one at CNN that's glad.'"
04:24"'No, no, no, no, no. The rest of them are all lying about me taking horse medication.'"
04:29After showing his guest a package containing a prescription of ivermectin for humans,
04:34Rogan then asked Gupta whether he was concerned that his employer had said he
04:38was taking the veterinary form of the treatment.
04:40"'They shouldn't have said that. Why did they do that? I don't know.'"
04:44Thankfully, Rogan didn't seem to be personally out for his blood.
04:49Conservative activist Candace Owens, a chief mover and shaker of the political organization
04:54Turning Point USA, has turned a few heads in recent years. The author and talk show host
05:00faced the ire of the Black Lives Matter movement late in 2022,
05:04after appearing with rapper Kanye West in a White Lives Matter t-shirt. Before that,
05:10Owens took part in a movement encouraging African-American people to join the Republican
05:14Party, and was accused of co-opting a pre-existing campaign intended to encourage African-Americans
05:20to seek independence from exploitative financial institutions. Joe Rogan put her on the spot in
05:262018 after discovering she was a climate change denier. She responded,
05:31"'I think that that was just a way to extract dollars from Americans.'"
05:34After getting her to admit that she'd seldom looked at environmental literature,
05:38Rogan suggested maybe it was worth trusting the overwhelming number of scientists
05:42who believed in it. After pulling up an article from the well-respected journal
05:47Scientific American to prove his point, Owens responded,
05:50Elon Musk is among Joe Rogan's favorite repeat guests, and during each appearance,
06:03the podcast host would listen in fascination over the entrepreneur's ventures,
06:08from Tesla's electric cars to SpaceX. But Musk's first appearance on JRE in 2018
06:15turned out to be the most interesting of the lot, although it had more to do with what he did
06:20rather than what he said. The two chatted about scientist Neil deGrasse Tyson before
06:25Rogan led a joint containing tobacco and marijuana before offering it to Musk.
06:30"'You probably can't because stockholders, right?'
06:33After confirming that the substance was indeed legal in that particular location,
06:37Musk gave in to the host's offer. The next day wasn't quite as rosy when Tesla shares
06:42reportedly dropped by as much as 9 percent following his appearance, while two company
06:47executives quickly resigned. Musk later claimed on the Full Send podcast that the federal government
06:52drug-tested him for a year afterward. Psychology professor Jordan Peterson
06:58first gained attention in 2016 when he protested a Canadian government bill protecting gender
07:04identity, claiming it violated free speech, according to Vox. He's since written multiple
07:10self-help books, including 12 Rules for Life and Beyond Order, which turned him into a high-demand
07:16talk show guest where he's presented his conservative views on controversial topics
07:20surrounding gender. This made Peterson an ideal guest for Joe Rogan, who's hosted the abrasive
07:26personality several times. One appearance in January 2022, Peterson shared a story about
07:32his son being dressed as a fairy princess by his older daughter and her friends, something that
07:37didn't sit well with him. After Rogan shared a similar experience to being dressed in a
07:42feminine outfit by his daughters, he probed Peterson as to what had irked him about that
07:46instance with his son. Mixed martial arts fighter Brendan Schaub holds the record for most JRE show
07:53appearances at over 85. The Octagon competitor usually offered his two cents on what was
07:59happening in the fight world, a topic Joe Rogan seemed comfortable continuing with. That is,
08:04until a 2014 episode of the UFC podcast,
08:08The Fighter and the Kid, when Rogan decided to stage an intervention on the stunned fighter's
08:13career. At the time, Schaub's UFC achievements were in a tailspin, having lost his last two
08:19fights and succumbed to three knockouts in competitions over the three previous years.
08:24Rogan told him,
08:25"...you're a very good fighter. That's not what the issue is. The issue is, can you become a
08:29champion? If you can't become a champion, are you comfortable with getting knocked out three or
08:34four more times over the next five or six years? That's a possibility."
08:38Schaub initially dismissed the assessment,
08:40but was dumbfounded when coming up with an answer to his dwindling performance.
08:45Rogan, meanwhile, reiterated that he was simply concerned for his friend,
08:49since brain trauma from repeated concussions is nothing to toy with. Podcast co-host Brian Callen
08:55suggested that Schaub weigh his options, saying,
08:58What I care about is the fact that you have a future in other things that you are really good
09:02at." A year later, Schaub quit the fight trade to pursue a career in comedy and podcasting.
09:09For years, right-wing podcaster Matt Walsh has made disparaging comments against transgendered
09:15people, from claims of pedophilia to allegations of grooming. In 2022, such statements compelled
09:22The New Republic to name him Transphobe of the Year. In November 2022, Rogan was presumably
09:28curious about his mindset and invited him along to an episode of JRE, where he challenged him on the
09:34idea of gay marriage. Rogan countered with exceptions, ranging from infertility to couples
09:46who choose not to have children, which he believed would put gay marriage in the same category.
09:51Walsh replied,
10:07Rogan indicated,
10:14Walsh, seemingly a little rattled, swung back against the idea that heterosexual couples
10:19may marry without procreating.
10:21I think you're still rejecting one of the purposes of marriage,
10:24and in the scenario that you outlined, you're deciding to live a really self-centered life.
10:30Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook and its umbrella company Meta,
10:34rarely gives interviews, but agreeing to chat with Rogan made sense,
10:38especially since the podcaster wasn't known for being particularly tech-savvy,
10:42yet offered a chill atmosphere. In August 2022, his appearance on JRE saw the social
10:48media entrepreneur in front of a mic for once. He was especially keen to talk about a Meta gadget,
10:54a set of smart eyeglasses called Stories, with branding by Ray-Bans.
10:58The product had been released months before Zuckerberg's appearance,
11:01but hadn't exactly been a big seller. Meta's HypeSite claims the glasses,
11:06armed with a tiny camera, have since doubled their video recording time to 60 seconds.
11:11What concerned Rogan was that the glasses made it easier to record subjects who might
11:15feel their privacy was being compromised. Zuckerberg countered that the special light
11:20on the frame would alert folks nearby that a camera is operating.