Submitted by QTR's Fringe Finance
I like the Joe Rogan podcast. I’ve watched/listened to it since his very first episode with Graham Hancock back in the #100s series. Not only have I watched/listened to it religiously since then, it also inspired me to start my own podcast, which is going on six years running and has accumulated more than 7 million listens.
If there was one thing that brought me to Rogan’s podcast, it was his open-minded approach to all topics and his willingness to discuss and ask questions about anything. I always got the impression Rogan was honest, well-meaning, and genuinely curious during his interviews.
Over the last 5 to 10 years, a couple of things have happened. First, Rogan’s podcast has become one of the most listened-to and followed podcasts/media shows in human history. Second, half of the country is waging an all-out war on the First Amendment and on truthful points they don’t like or find convenient, labeling everything that makes them uncomfortable “misinformation”.
The timing of both events has been uncanny, and Rogan has used his platform to expand his discussion topics from talking about jiu jitsu, UFOs and alternative theories about ancient Egypt to welcoming guests like Bernie Sanders, Matt Taibbi, Michael Shellenberger, Tulsi Gabbard, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and many others who receive little to no coverage from the mainstream media machine.
Rogan has also shown over the years that he’s not afraid to be wrong about things. He has admitted being duped multiple times by bogus stories involving the paranormal, and he has hosted spirited debates — like when Graham Hancock and Randall Carlson took on Michael Shermer, or when he had James Wilks and Chris Kresser debate the merits of being vegan. He has also invited multiple guests on, like Dr. Robert Malone, Dr. Pierre Kory and Dr. Peter McCullough, to directly refute the mainstream narrative when it came to Covid. But even on that issue, he balanced his guests out by having Dr. Peter Hotez and Sanjay Gupta on to present the other side of the story.
As the calendar has turned from 2022 to 2023, and now to 2024 and soon to 2025, Rogan has increasingly expressed objections to the far-left political movement in the United States. He has lamented the idiocy of the far-left with guests like Elon Musk and Bret Weinstein. He even moved from California to Texas, partially motivated by the direction the state of California was taking. But as we approach one of the most consequential elections of our lifetimes, Rogan has held firm in his resolve to not interview former President Donald Trump.
For some reason, I don’t buy the angle that Rogan is harboring some personal objection to Trump and just “doesn’t want to help him”, as he told Lex Fridman last year. Rogan is cordial with him when he sees him at UFC events, and he’s constantly talking about him with other guests in a way that sounds at least as though he can stomach talking to him.
I think there’s a chance that Rogan’s motivation for not interviewing Trump years ago was that he didn’t want to deal with the blowback from the left, and potentially from advertisers and Spotify. That’s understandable.
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But those days are long gone. Trump has become as mainstream as ever, and the entire world knows his schtick by now, so there aren’t going to be any surprise outrageous moments by bringing Trump on the platform. Trump has recently gone on other podcasts, like Lex Fridman and Theo Von, and had nice, funny, cordial interviews and discussions. Rogan has to realize that the Presidential race is now just Harris and Trump. There’s no RFK Jr., there’s no Bernie Sanders — and there’s almost no more time to waste. It’s now or never.
If anything, an interview would give Rogan an opportunity to push Trump on the things that he disagrees with him on. Bring him on and give him hell if you want, Joe. Rogan could even extend an invitation to the Harris campaign and invite her on for a separate appearance if she wants.
Rogan spends so much time on his podcast talking about how the left-wing media machine has blindly thrown its support behind Kamala Harris, it baffles me that he doesn’t understand how important giving Trump a voice on his podcast now could be. Is it not bad enough that the media blindly threw all of its support behind Harris after she randomly stepped in to be a candidate without winning a primary or delegates? Is it not bad enough that she gets softball questions in every interview that she takes and has no discernible policy prescriptions? Is it not bad enough that just this week, *60 Minutes* was caught decisively editing their interview with her to make her look more favorable. It isn’t as though Rogan would be tipping the scales of fairness by having Trump on his podcast a month out from the election: the media fix is in, and every single person involved backing Kamala Harris.
I don’t want to pretend to understand what the problem is that Rogan has with Trump, but all I know is that it’s not bigger than the potential consequences of this election. After listening to Rogan’s podcast for nearly 2,000 episodes, I’m confident in my assessment that he’s a person of integrity and a man of character. The truth is, whether he likes it or not, putting his personal animus aside and getting Trump on the largest media platform in the world can only make an impact for the next month or so. After the November election, especially if Trump loses, there will be no point — and it’ll be impossible to listen to Rogan crow about the lunatics on the left any further, knowing he didn’t talk to Trump when he had the chance.
So let’s get real, Joe: what the hell are you waiting for?
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