Joe Rogan is officially the world's biggest podcaster - and people are concerned

The Joe Rogan Experienceis officially the world's biggest podcast, topping the UK and global podcast charts in Spotify Wrapped 2024 - for the second year in a row.

Starting way back in 2009 on YouTube and 2,230 episodes later, the controversial host (who moonlights as a comedian) now has 14.5 million listeners on the podcast, which talks about current affairs and leads interviews with some of the world's leading figures.

Previous guests on the podcast include Elon Musk, Bernie Sanders, astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, and Donald Trump.

That means that his reach is now the equivalent to almost double the population of London. But, the internet is starting to get concerned about his huge impact.

The Joe Rogan Experience

Previously shrugged off as just another questionable internet yapper, Rogan now has the power to influence ordinary people and their decision-making - but the question is, should we be listening to him?

Rogan has had his fair share of controversies. While he describes himself as "socially liberal" and generally critiques both sides of the political spectrum, he has been involved in a number of scandals that challenge his legitimacy as a trusted source of news.

While he claims to support same-sex marriage, the 57-year-old was previously accused of spreading misinformation about AIDs - more specifically falsely claiming that poppers (a popular party drug among the LGBT+ community) spreads it.

He's also openly mocked transgender athletes during his 2024 Netflix comedy special, Burn the Boats.

Netflix

There's also been eyebrows raised at his stance on guns and he's been endorsed by Donald Trump, but most notably, he was caught up in a bigger scandal that saw him accused of spreading misinformation about Covid and the use of vaccines.

In the 2021 episode, he told listeners that he wouldn't recommend the vaccine to a healthy, young person, and said they didn't "need to worry" about Covid.

"I'm not an anti-vax person," Rogan later clarified. "I believe they're safe and encourage many people to take them." But the damage was already done, with many professionals calling on Spotify to stop platforming him.

"Rogan used to represent the every man. He was just a bro who spoke to interesting people and used his personality and humor to get them to open up and have great conversations", one user wrote of why they started listening to him, but subsequently changed their minds. "At some point he became that annoying stoner that is an expert in everything."

Someone else chimed in: "The Joe Rogan Experience should be renamed the Joe Rogan Confirmation Bias Experience. He doesn’t bring on anyone who doesn’t fit the right wing fear, anger and ignorance driven anti-American drivel of his mostly white male guests."

That being said, something is clearly working for him to have found such success in a crowded podcast space. The public appreciate his no-nonsense approach to tackling trending topics, and asking the questions everyone wants the answers to, to those in power.

In the Spotify Wrapped podcast rankings alongside him were other thought leaders, including Steven Bartlett, Louis Theroux, and Theo Von.

"The Joe Rogan Experience podcast is not just an interview format, it's about exploration. It's about pushing the boundaries of human knowledge and asking the big questions", a fan says.

"The Joe Rogan Experience will be studied in future history books as a media platform that truly altered the direction of the United States in a severely positive way, possibly saving it altogether", another wrote.

One thing's for certain - Rogan's impact is far bigger than anyone could have predicted, and people are listening.

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