Deleted Joe Rogan episode featured guest claiming Black people had a genetic ‘proclivity to violence’

A deleted episode of The Joe Rogan Podcast is being criticised again for featuring a guest who claimed Black people had a genetic “proclivity to violence”.

A 2015 episode which has now been archived by Spotify featured an interview with far-right political activist Chuck C. Johnson – a notorious troll who was de-platformed by Twitter in the same year.

It comes after medical experts alleged Rogan’s podcast is spreading “societally harmful” Covid-19 disinformation, while past use of racial slurs in his show has also been criticised.

Spotify recently removed 110 episodes of the podcast following criticism, including the one featuring a discussion with the aforementioned Johnson.

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Johnson appeared on the programme and spoke about the “MAOA gene” and claimed that it impacts behaviour in Black people, saying: “It’s like a proclivity to violence that they have.”

An unearthed clip sees Johnson add: “I recommend people Google it and do their own research. It’s like a big debate… if you think about white, European, Asian ancestors as we moved out of Africa, aggression and violence was less necessary as they were all farmers and stuff.”

Dr. Paige Harden, who is a professor of psychology at the University of Texas-Austin, previously told NBC News that Johnson's understanding of the MAO-A gene is "wrong on basically every level that it's possible to be wrong."

"Work (on the MAO-A gene) has now been largely discredited because we now know that human behaviours are not influenced by single genes with large effects — they are influenced by lots and lots and lots — think thousands — of genetic variants, each of which has a tiny effect," Harded said. "Bottom line: MAO-A likely doesn't matter for aggression or antisocial behaviour."

Joe Rogan has come under fire over recent times The Joe Rogan Experience

It comes after the CEO of Spotify recently admitted he finds some of Joe Rogan’s content “very offensive”, with musicians pulling their music from the streaming platform over the controversy.

Daniel Ek recently appeared to agree with critics that he does find some of the content from the podcast questionable, according to transcripts shared by The Verge.

Addressing Spotify employees, Ek said: “There are many things that Joe Rogan says that I strongly disagree with and find very offensive.”

Ek was addressing the ongoing controversy around the content of Joe Rogan’s podcast, The Joe Rogan Experience, which is Spotify’s most-streamed podcast.

At another point, Ek added: “If you want even a shot at achieving our bold ambitions, it will mean having content on Spotify that many of us may not be proud to be associated with. Not anything goes, but there will be opinions, ideas, and beliefs that we disagree with strongly and even makes us angry or sad.”

He also added that Rogan has played a large part in the company’s success. In May 2020, Spotify signed Rogan to a $100 million exclusive deal.

Indy100 has reached out to Spotify for comment.

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