Joe Rogan: First Influencer

THERE IS A MOMENT in that three-hour-long interview that Donald Trump, the Republican Party’s presidential candidate, did with Joe Rogan when he is about to go off on an tangent as is his wont when he veers back and says—“I don’t want to go into a long story because it’s too long for the show. This show is too valuable…” Normally, when it comes to Trump, flattery is the other way round, but the tenor of the podcast, called Joe Rogan Experience, was as if Trump thought Rogan was doing him a favour by having him there. Making it even more striking is that his opponent, the Democratic nominee Kamala Harris, was also in talks to be on the podcast. All this is because of the unique popularity that Rogan commands among the hundreds of millions who listen to him.

Five years ago, Spotify put a value to that. It paid him $200 million to host the podcast exclusively on their platform. Early this year, the deal was renewed at $250 million but a clause had been removed—the podcast would not be exclusive to them. These are mindboggling numbers but consider also this: unlike podcasters who have large teams of hundreds of people, Rogan more or less does it with just him and one more person, a fact-checker who is invisible in the background, Googling in real time as he speaks with the guest.

There are a few things that mark out a Rogan podcast. First, they are extraordinarily long of around three hours, which goes against the very grain of what social media must be, considering attention spans of followers. He will also usually have many guests who most of his followers would not have heard about, and then pepper the lineup with someone like Elon Musk, the founder of Tesla. Rogan is not catering to a market and that is his core USP—authenticity and an unwillingness to be politically correct. And this, even at the cost of being pilloried by mainstream media as a purveyor of disinformation. When the pandemic was ongoing, Rogan questioned both lockdowns and the forcing of people to take vaccines. He believes in UFOs, something he got Trump to talk about. He invites guests who talk about ancient civilisations that ran on alternative forms of energy when humans were believed to be living in caves.

He had the Indian spiritual leader Jaggi Vasudev on it. But he also has mathematicians, scientists and atheists like Richard Dawkins. It is a free mix that makes him compelling. Coming on a Rogan podcast is every public figure’s aspiration, giving them a reach they never could have got otherwise.

Rogan started off as a stand-up comedian and he is even now one. As a comedian, he has an irreverence to people and subjects. He is also a US national taekwondo champion. Both these interests fuelled the first part of his career. He became a television personality, hosting the US edition of the Fear Factor. He is a commentator at Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), which is the biggest mixed martial arts promotion company in the world.

Personalities associated with stand-up comedy and combat sports are frequent guests in his show. His podcast started off in 2009 as just him getting

together with friends and talking about things that interested them. This was even before the social media revolution took place. It started off as one episode per week but now there are two to three uploads and remarkably, despite the long format and all his many other interests and vocations, Rogan manages to unfailingly keep up with the pace of delivering the content.

Initially, he was not even overtly political, but now is a port of call for presidential candidates. As the New York Times wrote on Trump going there: “The interview may be the apex of Mr. Trump’s recent media strategy, which has included appearances on a number of podcasts that cater to young men. Polls show the demographic favors Mr. Trump, but they are generally low-propensity voters. Mr. Rogan’s podcast, ‘The Joe Rogan Experience’, will provide significant access to that audience: The comedian and sports commentator has a following in the tens of millions that leans young and male.” When the Harris campaign made conditions that she could only be with him for one hour and he would have to travel to meet her, he rejected them.

He wanted to do it only in his studio. It would make no difference to him if she did not come.

About The Author

Madhavankutty Pillai

Madhavankutty Pillai has no specialisations whatsoever. He is among the last of the generalists. And also Open chief of bureau, Mumbai  

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