Do we like Joe Rogan?
Our score: 2 out of 10. A long run of his own words on trans people and vaccines, with a little real good: an apology, a defence of marriage equality, a break with Trump on ICE.
Rogan is the bloke who turned a comedy and TV career into the biggest podcast going, The Joe Rogan Experience. By 2022 Bloomberg was describing a show reaching around 11 million downloads a day. That reach is the whole story: when he says something sloppy, a lot of people hear it.
The 2026 trans episode is the big one. In March LGBTQ Nation reported that on air he said “there's also people that are f**king perverts” and asked whether people knew most high school shootings were by trans people. The outlet says only a few of this year's school shootings involved shooters who identified as trans. Writer Erin Reed called it his most overt display of transphobia yet. He had talked over guest Steve-O when Steve-O tried to show empathy.
Vaccines are the other soft spot. UNILAD reported in March that he linked autism to California's vaccine mandate and suggested tetanus shots aren't necessary. His guest Bryan Callen called the tetanus line “bullsh*t”. Rogan said he isn't anti-vaccine and that he had “researched this for years”. In 2022 Bloomberg also reported scientists criticising him for not challenging Jordan Peterson's climate claims on the show, while noting he has also hosted climate communicator David Wallace-Wells.
On race, a compilation of him using the N-word more than 20 times over 12 years surfaced in 2022. He apologised on Instagram and said he'd “never want to offend someone for entertainment with something as stupid as racism”. Spotify reportedly pulled more than 70 episodes. That is an apology, not a clean sheet, but it was a real apology.
It isn't one-note, though. In 2022 he defended same-sex marriage on air, saying “Gay marriage is not silly.” He also rejected the secret conservative label, calling himself a “bleeding heart liberal”. He backed Trump on the eve of the 2024 election, but Axios reported in January 2026 that he criticised the administration's ICE tactics. In February he told listeners he was named in the Epstein files because he declined to meet Epstein. The Daily Beast reported that.
Since then, the pattern is the problem. On the page's own question, he's not a bloke who campaigns for rights; he's a bloke with a huge mic who keeps picking on trans people and flirting with health claims, then says he's just asking questions. If you like his ICE criticism and his marriage equality stance, fine, but the March episode is the one that matters.