The Joe Rogan Experience podcast has opened my eyes to a ton of new perspectives during the last 7 months since I found it. I listened to a few podcasts before Rogan’s but didn’t really get into them.
I found Rogan’s podcast because I was interested in Ben Greenfield (fitness guru) and searched for some of his stuff on YouTube. One of the search results was an interview with Joe Rogan, a name I vaguely remembered from the past, as in – wasn’t he on TV or something when I was in college?
So I clicked on the video, which is Rogan’s YouTube version of the podcast, and was surprised he was doing 3 hour, unscripted conversations with interesting people. Then I looked up Rogan and realized I did remember that name from Fear Factor, and that he’s huge in the UFC world now, and is a popular stand up. And on top of all that his podcast is one of the most popular in the world. Ya ya, so I was late to Rogan’s popularity.
For the last seven months I’ve listened to a few of his podcasts every week. And they are shockingly good. Rogan’s podcasts are hilarious, vastly insightful, entertaining, ground breaking, and a breath of fresh air in the media realm because they are real conversations that are unedited, lengthy enough to get into excellent details about his guests’ subject matter, and are free of an agenda.
Compare that to anything available from traditional media. I can’t find anything that stacks up.
Take Charlie Rose for instance. I loved Charlie Rose’s interviews because they were more conversational and long enough to have substance. But even those were comparatively short (an hour) and were somewhat scripted.
Or how about longer format conversations on NPR like Fresh Air with Terry Gross. Her show is one of the best out there but again is limited by time, and editing.
Late night shows are somewhat silly in comparison. The guests get a few minutes, every conversation seems fully scripted, and the guest is there to promote something.
Rogan just let’s it be. You never know what you’ll get from his podcast – weird tangents, difficult unscripted questions with absolutely no editing, guests and Rogan working out opinions on the fly and admitting they don’t things, and everything else that can happen in a three hour conversation between two interesting people.
If you haven’t yet checked out the Joe Rogan Experience Podcast, I say do it! YouTube makes it easy to browse the guests. You can also listen through any podcast format.
Here’s my list of guests who have made the biggest impression:
- Graham Hancock (and Randall Carlson) – human origins, ancient cultures, pyschedelics
- David Goggins – retired Navy seal, ultra runner, and guy who gets it done
- Jordan Peterson – university professor who preaches how not to be a wimp in today’s wimpy society
- Steve Maxwell – 65 year old fitness expert (the guy is cut at 65) and digital nomad
- Joey Diaz – the one and only – hilarious Cuban-American comedian
YouTube Channel: Joe Rogan Experience
Andrew Guild 