The Joe Rogan Experience review: Spotify's $100m man owns the Libs for five long hours

Podcasting superstardom is such a recent phenomenon it’s still challenging to work out why some practitioners of the art of chat become globally successful while others languish. One such mystery, in the opinion of many, is the ascent of Joe Rogan, a former mixed martial arts commentator and comedian whose biggest accomplishment prior to becoming a titan of online banter was hosting a reality series called Fear Factor.

For a stand-up, he isn’t especially hilarious. Nor is the 53-year-old New Jersey native blessed with the smoothest pipes in the business; his speaking voice at moments bears an uncanny resemblance to a strangulated Kermit the Frog. And his show is essentially just him and a guest in a decrepit red-bricked studio speaking their minds at length.

Not that this has dissuaded streaming service Spotify from stumping $100 million for exclusive rights to the Joe Rogan Experience, with the first episode since the deal ranking as a genuine media event.

But then, at another level, his breakthrough makes absolute sense. Rogan is apparently of the opinion that we are living through an era of hyper-charged political correctness and it is clear that he sees himself as a speaker of truth to the perpetually “woke”. This has won him a huge, overwhelmingly male, following which shares his not-so-sneaking suspicion that the world has lurched too far towards an orthodoxy of unyielding progressivism.

Spotify isn’t thinking about that, however. It is reflecting on the average 10 million listeners who listened to Rogan on YouTube. The deal is part of the music streamer’s aggressive campaign to conquer podcasting. Spotify, which has over 120 million subscribers globally, last month launched an exclusive Michelle Obama podcast – paying the former First Lady an undisclosed, though presumably very hefty, sum – and has announced plans to invest up to $500 million in the medium.

Kim Kardashian is among its other high profile signings (Kardashian, who is studying to be a lawyer, will present a series about criminal justice). There are even rumours of an alliance with Meghan Markle and Prince Harry. Rogan is just one small piece of a much larger war by Spotify, which is worth $22 billion, to win the world’s eardrums and make itself the go-to destination for podcasts.

Rogan’s podcast, then, essentially functions like a stoned American updating of the bits on Top Gear where Clarkson and the gang used to restlessly take the mickey out of one another (as he is always reminding listeners Rogan is a huge fan of marijuana).

There’s a sense of joining two mates propping up the bar as, in his inaugural outing since the Spotify deal, he and occasional guest Duncan Trussell – a comedian and fellow podcaster – sit around shooting the breeze. It’s laid back and unforced, with a formula that is easy to spot. Here is a pair of regular guys taking stock of a crazy world and in the end just shaking their heads and shrugging.

Twitter won’t look kindly on where many of their musings go – which is probably the point. “I am progressive on just about every issue…gay rights, civil rights,” says Rogan near the top of this five-hour marathon. “[But] when the s___ hits the fan, you need law and order…There is something about liberals that doesn’t want to believe that.”

With Black Lives Matter protests continuing around America, he won’t receive too many “likes” for a statement such as that on certain corners of the internet. Celebrities, however, have lined up to appear on his podcast. He has welcomed the Silicon Valley billionaire Elon Musk (the interview received 24 million hits on YouTube) and Mike Tyson. But he has also given airtime to figures regarded as pariahs by the left – such as conspiracy theorist Alex Jones and right-wing pundit Ben Shapiro.

“Ben Shapiro is a nice man,” he says on the new episode. “I don’t hug him to be fake. He’s a nice guy.”

Rogan has been accused of transphobia and caused a furore when he once described entering a black neighbourhood as “like walking into Africa”. There was another outcry when he backed socialist Bernie Sanders against Joe Biden in the Democratic primaries. Many Sanders followers were appalled that their candidate did not disavow the endorsement.

The big issue for the newcomer to the Rogan-verse, however, may be the fact that host and guest just go and on. As the hours tick by in the new instalment so the conversation turns ever more bizarre and inane. At one point Rogan and Trussell fantasise about flying into space on the receiving end of a sexual favour from the “Mountain” from Game of Thrones.

This is the sort of surrealistic, slightly flagging banter you might find yourself sucked into after you’ve spent too long in the boozer and are quietly eyeing the exit. Rogan certainly has an appreciation of how some – though certainly not all – men talk to one another when they think nobody’s listening in. What he seems to miss is that, after a while, even the most sparkling conversationalist risks turning into a pub bore.