Ryan Baldi
Joe Rogan and his podcast have been credited with a serious influence over the results of the last US election.
The UFC commentator gave his official endorsement to Republican candidate Donald Trump via X on the eve of the poll, after Trump had featured as a guests on his show.
With around 11 million downloads per episode and a YouTube subscriber base of more than 19 million, the Joe Rogan Experience is one of the most popular podcasts of all time.
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In 2020, Rogan signed a deal reportedly worth $100 million that gave Spotify exclusive rights to the show. And last year, the stand-up comedian renewed his agreement with the streaming giant for $250 million.
Trump's appearance on the podcast – in an episode that lasted in excess of three hours and featured a wide-ranging conversation – was regarded as a masterstroke, while he opponent Kamala Harris' decision not to be a guest is now seen as a campaign misstep.
Trump's running mate, JD Vance, and Elon Musk, the Tesla boss and Trump supporter, also appeared on the JRE in the run-up to the election.
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And in a new book by journalists Jonathan Allen and Amie Parnes entitled "FIGHT: Inside the Wildest Battle for the Whitehouse", the demands Rogan's representatives make of guests has been revealed.
"On October 11, Harris deputy campaign manager Rob Flaherty, the aide in charge of digital strategy, made the first Zoom call to start negotiating with Rogan’s reps," reads an excerpt featured by NBC News.
"He did not know what to expect. These might be juiced-up, UFC-looking supplement people, he thought. He was surprised—perhaps a tad disappointed—to find out that Rogan’s associates were more like Hollywood agents. In that vein, they outlined the podcaster’s conditions for an interview: no staff in the studio, no topic restrictions, and Harris would have to sign a waiver.
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"There was one more item in the small print: Harris would have to come to Austin, Texas. Rogan’s reps said that might be negotiable, but he had only once done an interview with an out-of-studio guest. That was leaker Edward Snowden, who was wanted in the United States at the time."