This is an excellent examination and probing critique from Malcolm Gladwell of Rogan’s inability to effectively interview people (and why he spreads so much misinformation):
“Joe, dude, what is wrong with you??”
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Ails my feelings on Rogan. Be better Joe.
I’ll offer a similar defense that I have in the past before I get on to the critique:
There is nothing wrong with having podcasts that are not hard hitting interviews. The JRE podcast for near a decade wasn’t much different than a bookstore. There was a lot of variety and content, and it was up to the listener to decide which content they wanted to listen to, and Joe bore no responsibility to tell you which was bad and which was good, much like a book store owner doesn’t bear that responsibility.
The problem began when his “bookstore” became full of mostly lunatic right wing “books,” and he’s telling the customers which books they should read, and which ones are the woke left.
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This is a good and reasoned response. And I think that I sort of agree.
But I also think that Gladwell makes some extraordinarily good points in his short podcast. If you have a moment to listen to this episode, I would be very interested to hear what you think of his critique. (And, by the way, Gladwell was himself once a guest on JRE.)
I’ll be listening to Malcolm tomorrow on my run, but I agree with the post about how Joe used to be. I really enjoyed his podcast pre-COVID. If you listen to his recent episode with Scott Payne—an undercover FBI agent who also happens to be in the band at my church—you’ll get a glimpse of how Joe got so big. Scott’s story is incredible, and his ability to tell it is mesmerizing.
What made that episode great was that Joe just let the story unfold. He didn’t try to interject or explain—he simply listened with genuine interest. That’s what drew me in years ago. He was an expert when it came to certain topics like jiu-jitsu, comedy, and MMA, but he was also a curious student when it came to everything else.
I don’t think it’s just about who he books anymore. For example, I recently tried to listen to his episode with Tim Dillon, and within five minutes it was garbage—I shut it off. I don’t tune in to hear two half-witted comedians riffing on conspiracy theories.
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This is what this podcast clarified for me. His style of, “just having conversations” becomes a problem when his guest aren’t, " just having conversations". When his guests are pushing an agenda, he lacks the skills or desire to identify it.
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Some things that you touched on:
Covid - he got really obsessed in anti-vax stuff, and he worked it into every single podcast. “Hey, so I know you are the first 400lb man to climb Mt. Everest, but what do you think about the Codid vaccine?”
I honestly think that he, and a bunch of his comedian friends, in the run up to the election felt like they needed to join a side. It’s an unfortunate part of human nature. But ultimately they looked the two sides and went, “Well, we’re a bunch of rich old straight white comedians, and these days it doesn’t look like that makes of team Democrat.”
It’s really unfortunate.
I’d guess also the criticisms, restrictions, etc. from the far left on comedy didn’t help.
Yes.
I mean, ultimately, it’s their own fault for not realizing just how horrible Trump is.