The Joe Rogan controversy has forced me to have some sort of opinion of Joe Rogan. I saw Mr. Rogan doing stand-up comedy twice, I think, and I was pretty unimpressed both times. Then again, the first two times I saw Richard Pryor doing stand-up, he wasn't very good…so maybe two sets at The Comedy Store is not always a fair sampling.
Before he became the Reigning Podcast King, I think the only place I'd seen Joe Rogan was when I tried watching Fear Factor. I thought it was a pretty ugly, unwatchable program…but nothing I couldn't just ignore and go on with my life. People should probably do that more often with things they dislike but which do them no harm.
Perhaps I've mentioned this before but I know a guy who produces "Reality Shows" and he once asked me if I had any ideas for one. I told him that wasn't my kind of program and he told me, "Okay…but if you ever do come up with one, bring it to me and remember the core principle behind Reality Shows. There is nothing you can think of that someone won't do to be on television."
I suspect the guy was right. That is the core principle of Reality Shows…and also, pornography.
Yes, I've listened to The Joe Rogan Experience a few times, nearly always because he was chatting with comedians I liked. If he stuck to that, he'd have me listening more often. He'd also probably have a lot fewer listeners overall so he's not going to do that.
I'm one of those folks who think it's brain-dead stupid to take serious medical advice from someone who hasn't graduated medical school. There have been people I knew, including a few I've loved, who I'm convinced literally died from amateur/voodoo medical advice. This is not to say Real Doctors are all worthy of the title but I feel fairly sure the failure rate is far greater with those who got their diplomas, if any, at the 99 Cents Only Store.
Rogan does have qualified doctors on his podcasts and he's probably right that the parts of those shows that anger some are in brief clips that do not reflect the interviews as a whole. He's also right that he does present opposing views to what's in those brief clips The problem is…well, there are a couple of problems there, one being that even bad medical advice in a brief clip can do a lot of damage.
And another problem might be solved if those qualified experts were being interviewed by someone who knows a lot more about medicine than Joe Rogan. And that Joe's audience is listening more to him telling what he thinks he's learned from them.
A lot of people these days seem to have a real problem with experts. They don't like that experts sometimes tell them what they don't want to hear. It makes some people uncomfortable the way certain details of American History make them uncomfortable so they want to change those details.
Lately, I see people say, about topics like COVID, "I've done my own research." They make it sound like they went into a lab and with no knowledge whatsoever of the science involved, performed meaningful testing. What "my own research" usually means is that they did some searching of the Internet and found one site or one message somewhere from someone who told them what they wanted to hear.
I don't think the problem here is Joe Rogan. I think the problem here is people who don't put much value in someone actually knowing what they're talking about.