Cognitive Dissonance

60 Hours In, My Thoughts on The Joe Rogan Experience

I’m probably not “supposed” to, but I kind of like it

Cropped from a photo by Paolo Nicolello on Unsplash

This is gonna be a weird one.

A while back, I started getting wind of a gigantic online storm about a podcaster I’d never heard of, this guy named Joe Rogan. He’s an American stand-up comedian and cage fight commentator. In contrast, I’m a Swiss global communications expert with a human rights degree living in Japan. No wonder our paths hadn’t crossed.

Based on what I saw in the media, my first impression of him wasn’t great. I essentially thought:

Lovely, another one of those mindless anti-vax, hyper-masculine, alt-right obnoxious loudmouths which the US seems proficient at pumping out by the truckload.

I didn’t listen to his show at first because it didn’t impact my life in any way. Let the alt-right have their spokesperson, I have better things to do.

Then, daddy Google got involved. Probably because I had read about the controversy, the almighty YouTube algorithm sensed an opening and suggested a few episodes. The guests were people like Brian Cox, Bernie Sanders, Neil DeGrasse Tyson, Brian Greene — brilliant and respectable individuals in their respective fields.