Whether he’s podcasting with public figures such as Elon Musk or Ben Shapiro, or posting obscure content on social media, it is no question that Joe Rogan is one of the most influential media presences of our age. What kind of influence that is, is up to you. 

Recently Rogan has been slammed for his comments surrounding COVID-19. He has promoted ivermectin, a “treatment” for COVID-19 that has little evidence to it being an actual treatment. “This doctor was saying ivermectin is 99 percent effective in treating Covid, but you don’t hear about it because you can’t fund vaccines when it’s an effective treatment,” Rogan said in one of his podcast episodes. The medication is known to cause dizziness and uncontrollable vomiting when ingested according to the FDA. 

The podcaster has also been known to spread misinformation about the effects of the COVID-19 vaccination saying, “The myocarditis risk is higher from vaccines than from COVID.”  Myocarditis, heart muscle inflammation, has been known to occur in a few vaccine recipients but nothing compared to the cases caused by COVID-19. I think Rogan needs to take a step back and leave the medical advice to the professionals. 

When he’s not spreading false claims about COVID-19 Rogan is hopping on Instagram to “apologize” for his various use of the n-word.

“For a long time when I would bring that word up, like if it would come up in conversation, instead of saying ‘the N-word’ I would just say the word. I thought as long as it was in context, people would understand what I was doing,” Rogan said in his apology. 

But why would context matter if you’re a white man using a racial slur? I think he should have just never said the word in the first place. He can’t plead juvenile ignorance either. Rogan is 54 years old, he should know the difference between slang and racial slurs. 

Throughout his apology I went through different phases of believing he was sincere and then he would say another thing that would make me remember what got him here in the first place. No one likes an apology that goes,”I am sorry but…” and Rogan presented a lot of that in his Instagram post. 

While I have a negative impression of Rogan from news headlines about COVID misinformation or making a distorted public apology for saying racial slurs, I can also say his podcasts are just in general not very good. His video covers are full of extravagant click-bait and delusive titles such as, “The Biden Administration Has Delayed Release of JFK Document,” accompanied by another video titled, “Why Does Chris Pratt Get So Much Online Hate?” that draws in a demographic of viewers into his world of misogyny and bigotry that comes along with his podcasts. 

His show is simply him and his buddies (and occasionally guest stars) getting high, making fun of people, and saying uneducated opinions on real-world issues. The show is raunchy and ignorantly put together. As NPR describes it, “Bigotry Denial Syndrome” is what Rogan is suffering from and I think it is time “The Joe Rogan Experience ” becomes a thing of the past. 

The former television presenter is 54 years old, yet he reminds me of a young teenager who has yet to learn the difference between good and bad. Immaturely, Rogan constantly misuses his platform by spreading misinformation and hate, but Spotify still continues to give Rogan an audience. This has even led popular music artists such as Joni Mitchell and Neil Young to remove their music content from the site which has left fans angry with the streaming service. However, Spotify has made the steps to remove Rogan’s content that involves him saying n-word slurs which is a small, but positive step for reconciliation for the music platform. 

While I hope to think that Joe Rogan does what he does purely to bring entertainment to the masses, I can’t help but wonder if that is just his true innate ignorance showing. The man needs a reality check and a good lesson on “thinking before speaking.” I believe after 1,770 podcast episodes and 13 years of content creation, it is time that Rogan retires his online presence and learns how to have opinions without posting them online.