From controversial statements to concerning behavior, these Joe Rogan podcast episodes have aged like milk. Join us as we examine the interviews that became more disturbing with time and context. Warning: This list contains discussions of sensitive topics and controversial figures from the podcast's history.
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00:00I'm just here to express why, um, uh, why God has called me to take this position.
00:11Welcome to WatchMojo. And today we're counting down our picks for the Joe Rogan guests whose
00:17appearances have become more controversial over time due to their disturbing actions.
00:22They're testing a bunch of stuff. They're, they're, they're manipulating things.
00:25Number 10, Elon Musk. At the time, the most controversial aspect of this interview was
00:32the fact that Musk at one point took a hit of Rogan's blunt. The company's chief accounting
00:37officer and head of HR both announced their departures hours after Musk's pot smoking
00:42appearance. More relevant is their discussion of how AI could be used against us. I try to convince
00:48people to slow down, slow down AI to regulate AI. This was futile today. Musk is a champion
00:59of AI. He's also acquired a significant amount of authority becoming Donald Trump's right hand
01:05man and the head of Doge. After Trump's inauguration, Musk gave two back to back fascist salutes at
01:12a rally. This was a dark sign of things to come as Musk's tenure has already been consequential for
01:20many from marginalized communities to working class federal employees. This is a new ultimatum
01:26from Elon Musk telling all federal employees they must respond to this email listing their
01:31accomplishments or resign. In hindsight, it's easy to be upset that Rogan gave him a platform
01:37that helped his rise to power. 9. Jamie Kilstein
01:49During his interview, comedian Jamie Kilstein defended jokes about sexual mistreatment,
01:55which escalated into a debate over whether murder was a more serious crime than sexual assaults.
02:01We don't f***ing know what they're going through. We don't. Later, Kilstein was dropped from the
02:06Citizen Radio podcast and his record label after being accused by multiple women of unwanted sexual
02:13advances. Throughout his career, Kilstein had painted himself as a progressive. I think one of the reasons
02:19that we got such a grassroots following was because we were super poor. Like when we started the show,
02:25we just stopped living out of our car. So his views and behavior were a surprise to his followers.
02:32He was accused of using his supposed position as a male feminist as an excuse to act inappropriately.
02:39What I said was it seemed like you were preaching to the choir in a way that you thought they wanted
02:45you to hear. No, I never thought there was anything. No. 8. Milo Yiannopoulos
02:49In the late 2010s, British journalist and conservative commentator Milo Yiannopoulos
02:56became infamous for his free speech advocacy and college campus tours.
03:00What is it that you want? What do you want the world to do?
03:04Well, I don't represent the alt-right in any way, shape or form, but the larger battle here,
03:09the thing that I fight for on American college campuses is the right to be, do and say whatever you want.
03:15Yiannopoulos was a controversial figure for many reasons,
03:19including his open homophobia, despite once openly identifying as gay,
03:24and his opposition to feminism. His level of right-wing extremism meant Joe Rogan faced
03:30criticism for platforming the divisive figure. During one of his appearances,
03:40Yiannopoulos even talked about boat parties he attended, held by major Hollywood figureheads,
03:46at which he admitted boys, who were very young, were abused. In the wake of his defense of such
03:52abuse, Yiannopoulos resigned from his position at conservative news outlet Breitbart. He was also
04:00banned from Twitter, which severely lessened his influence. 7. Gavin McInnes
04:10Disgraced alt-right commentator Gavin McInnes was once the co-founder of Vice. During the 2010s,
04:17however, he became known for his harmful rhetoric as founder of neo-fascist organization
04:22The Proud Boys, which has been taken to court for acts of violence. The former top leader of the
04:28far-right Proud Boys extremist group, along with four other members, charged yesterday with seditious
04:35conspiracy. When McInnes appeared on Rogan in 2017, he had formed the gang only eight months earlier,
04:42and few had heard of him, which raised questions about who Rogan was willing to platform.
04:48It's like the Elks Lodge. Okay. Like Masons or whatever. Celebrating manhood. Yeah,
04:52no woman allowed. Ah, wow. When the Joe Rogan experience moved to Spotify as part of a hundred
04:58million dollar deal, the McInnes episode was one of a handful that did not make it to the service.
05:04But the damage may have already been done. You wouldn't believe how much that one podcast
05:11changed my life, McInnes said in a resurfaced clip. All these far-right guys have made it clear
05:16they'd love to argue with anyone on the other side, and the other side knows that they will lose.
05:21Number six, Candace Owens. Candace Owens is a conservative commentator known for her
05:27alt-right positions and criticism of the Black Lives Matter movement. You know,
05:32and I just kept saying to people, it's, it's, I, I do not betray my race. I betray stupidity all the time.
05:38During her Rogan appearance, Owens advocated for Donald Trump and engaged in climate change denial,
05:45saying the climate was not impacted by the use of fossil fuels.
05:49You don't believe in climate change? Well, I think the climate always changes, I guess.
05:53As climate change continues to be an ever-growing threat to humanity,
05:57the spreading of misinformation on the topic has become an even greater issue. In 2023,
06:04only 54% of Americans viewed climate change as a major threat to the country. The climate is forever
06:10changing, like, that, that's the problem, is that people are making it seem like that's something
06:14weird. No, no, no, that's not, you're, you're misrepresenting the issue. Despite Rogan's pushback
06:18at the time, it's questionable for him to have guests with these stances on his show in the first
06:24place. Open, open to learning. Okay. Open to learning. I'm always open to learning. I've,
06:28I've been wrong before. I was a liberal two years ago, you know? Number five, Steven Crowder. Steven
06:34Crowder is another conservative commentator Rogan guest who has seen his fair share of controversy
06:40throughout the years. When leftist congregate, it's generally not a peaceful assembly, not in the same
06:47way as when people who are right-wing congregate. He has been demonetized on YouTube twice due to racist and
06:53homophobic slurs in addition to spreading misinformation about the 2020 election results.
06:59So again, this is another Rogan guest who was always questionable, and that's before we even
07:06mention his terrible stand-up. Crowder became even more difficult to like after allegations of
07:20spousal abuse surfaced in 2021 alongside a disturbing video in which he criticized his ex-spouse for
07:28failing to perform her, quote, wifely duties, unquote. Number four, Dr. Robert W. Malone.
07:41Dr. Robert Malone was an original contributor to the technology behind MRNA vaccines. Malone used his
07:49time on Rogan during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic to criticize vaccine mandates and
07:55distribution. The policy that's being implemented is one in which no discussion of the risks are allowed
08:04because by definition they will elicit vaccine hesitance. He called the public reaction of the
08:09pandemic mass formation psychosis. When you have a society that has become decoupled from each other
08:16and has free-floating anxiety in a sense that things don't make sense, we can't understand it,
08:23and then their attention gets focused by a leader or a series of events on one small point, just like
08:29hypnosis, they literally become hypnotized and can be led anywhere. Fact checkers were quick to point out
08:36the misinformation that was being peddled on Rogan's platform, which at this point was being mass
08:42distributed by Spotify. Today, over 7 million lives have been lost to the coronavirus, a staggering number
08:50and a stark reminder of what vaccine misinformation helps to contribute to. We're not connected socially
08:56anymore except through social media. And then this thing happened and everybody focused on it.
09:02That is how mass formation psychosis happens and that is what's happened here. Number three, Jordan
09:08Peterson. So-called free speech advocate, Jordan Peterson has made multiple appearances on Rogan's
09:15podcast over the years. You know, I think when you have like complex, fascinating brains,
09:21they go off in all kinds of different directions. Don't you think this is, this is one of the dangers
09:26of being creative, right? Most creative ideas are wrong and a good section of those wrong ones are fatal,
09:32but now and then you get one that's necessary. In his first, he voiced frustration with what he called
09:38enforcement of gendered pronouns in Canada. He claimed that someone could face jail time for
09:44not using an individual's pronouns. So now professionals are bound by law to offer gender
09:52affirming advice. They're bound by law. Another controversial topic he discussed on the platform
09:59is climate change with Peterson saying that our planet's climate is too difficult to accurately
10:05model. Oh, it's a religion. It's a religion. Yeah, it's actually, it's a, it's a pseudo,
10:11it's a partial pseudo religion. And, and I mean that technically. Peterson has been criticized by
10:18everyone from social justice advocates to climate scientists for the stances he's taken on the podcast,
10:24with many wary of the influence he has, especially on young white men. Thank you very much, my friend.
10:31Hey man, it's always a pleasure to see you, Joe. Number two, Alex Jones. Far right conspiracy
10:37theorist and radio host Alex Jones is known to be extremely vocal about his controversial opinions
10:43in a matter that is damaging to both others and his own reputation. The U S has a giant weather weapon
10:51hidden in front of everybody in every town and city in his out of control appearances on the Joe
10:55Rogan experience. Jones loudly criticizes world leaders with an almost infectious enthusiasm.
11:02At the end of the day, his misinformation and unfounded views should not have a platform.
11:08They want to corrupt the scientific elite to go along with their agenda on climate change,
11:13to go along with their agenda on viruses, to go along with their agenda because they know
11:17scientists are respected. Remember, this is a man who even stooped so low
11:22as to criticize the victims of the Sandy Hook shooting. Today, a major step towards the families
11:27of Sandy Hook victims finally getting at least some of the money legally owed to them by right-wing
11:32conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, a judge clearing the way for Jones to liquidate his assets.
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11:54Number one, Kanye West. Rapper and fashion designer Kanye West, who now goes by yay,
12:01appeared on Joe Rogan's show in 2020. What would be different about the way you would handle things?
12:07Like, if that's your plan, like, what is it about that that that is your calling?
12:12Like, why, why would you want to do that? Like, what do you want to do differently
12:16if you were the leader of the free world? Well, um, well, there was a couple questions in there.
12:23There have been many tumultuous periods throughout Ye's career. However, this was a particularly eventful
12:31time for the artist during his catastrophic run for president. His appearance on the show was
12:37characteristically erratic, with Ye expressing so many personal and political ideas that it was
12:43hard to keep track of what he was saying. At this point in his career, Ye has fallen even further
12:48into disgrace, with his praise of Hitler and spreading of anti-Semitic conspiracy theories.
13:00In hindsight, we really wish Ye would have gotten help during his past struggles,
13:04instead of his issues constantly being ignored for the sake of entertainment.
13:08You were coming from the heart. And that's, that's what we all need right now. We all need no
13:13bullshit. Absolutely. Is there another Rogan interview that's chilling to watch with the
13:19context of the context of today? Let us know in the comments.
13:25Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh.
13:49So,
14:07thank you.