The Joe Rogan Experience

Joe has many amazing & engrossing episodes that make you think 3 hours is nothing. Jordan Peterson's appearances are at the very top. However Joe puts out a lot of boring stuff, and has his buddies on way too much for it to get more then a 7.

Legendary status. Will go down in history as a Legend

I've been listening to the JRE since the very first episodes with the snowflakes.

The reason for listening to podcasts (instead of, say, your whenever o'clock news, or mockumentaries, or ad-riddled TV content, or sound-byte yelling matches that last less than 5 minutes by design) for me is threefold (and here I'm using JRE as an excellent example, but there are other podcasts I can recommend for the same reasons)

1) Variety of content. For the stated goal of personal interest, the host has had an incredible range of guests, from mountain climbers to rocket scientists to hulking mma beasts to brainiacs, all with multiply contradicting points of view from which the listener learns a great deal as they get untangled during the podcast, from a variety of angles

2) Clear intellect. Jordan Peterson crystallized this for me in a recent JRE podcast of his, but essentially clear intellect can be described as truthful intent, transparency in communicated thought, or just a certain "vibe" that you get from someone. Clear intellect from the host allows for the guests to open up and talk freely, rather than clam up and try to defend something, and it allows for limitlessly deeper discussion

3) Uncensored for content and unedited for time. Pretty self explanatory. The lack of censorship should go without saying, but in today's world its kinda crazy that there's still rampant censorship "out there". But even more important for me is the lack of editing for time. Some podcasts have gone on for 3+ hours, and 2 hours seems the sweet spot. If you can enjoy a feature length film, why not a discussion between a professional conversationalist and a professional something-else about a variety of topics no less interesting than a film plot?

Bonus: portability. The audio-only nature (although many podcasts including JRE have a video portion that is sometimes useful) allows you to listen at ease during your commute, heads down coding sessions, whatever.

Joe talks with subject matter experts the way you and I would. Casual questioning to understand the issue rather than trying to support at a preconceived conclusion.

The vast majority of these types of shows succumb to the mainstream media intent to create conflict simply for entertainment, and to perpetuate the opinion tribalism that gets them ratings and gets us nowhere.

Joe's show doesn't. Of course he offers his own opinions and will combat opposing ones. As we all should--have an opinion, but examine counter-arguments with genuine intent to understand. Not to reject out of hand.

The end game should be to acquire non-propagandist information, induce self-reflection and practice empathy. Those happen here most times.

So why a 9 and not a 10? Because none of us are infallible.

Joe Rogan is a fantastic interviewer. He always allows the guest to speak, feel comfortable, and often gets really interesting conversations out of people you wouldn't expect are that interesting. This however is also a negative. Due to his enthusiasm for interesting people and conversations, he sacrifices some morality to achieve it. Having conspiracy theorists and far right political figures (I'd criticize far left too, but he doesn't have them on his show) on the podcast only harm. Joe also loves to talk about how unsafe the vaccine is, then proceeds to intake untested medical methods when he contracted covid. Not to mention calling mask wearers names.

Would I give it a 1/10? Nah. I just rated it that to stand out to be able to show people why some don't love the show. In all honesty, when Joe isn't talking politics or current events, it's pretty entertaining. But when he is, avoid.