Buzz
Joe Rogan is one of the most well-known podcasters, with The Joe Rogan Experience consistently ranking among the top podcasts worldwide. His charm lies in his honest, often blunt manner of speaking, which many find endearing. His candidness on a wide variety of subjects is undoubtedly his greatest strength, though it does come with a noticeable flaw.
Rogan's career—spanning comedy, reality TV hosting, and UFC commentary—sometimes leaves him lacking expertise on the topics he discusses. This has resulted in some rather unorthodox opinions, with a few crossing into the realm of conspiracy theories. Thankfully, Rogan has shown humility in reconsidering and apologizing for some of his more outlandish claims when challenged by experts.
Nevertheless, here are ten of the most interesting Joe Rogan conspiracies, ideas that might either make you squirm or inspire you to grab some Rogan-approved lizard-person repellent.
10. Radical Liberal Wildfires
For years, the West Coast has been ravaged by dangerous, widespread wildfires, a crisis caused by several factors such as drought, climate change, and irresponsible human actions. However, one factor that didn’t contribute to the fires was the idea that 'left-wing people' were suffering from 'madness' and supposedly 'want your head and they want blood, and they don’t seem to be willing to settle for anything less.'
Rogan made this statement during a September 2020 episode of his podcast, after reading an article from an unverified source. The FBI quickly refuted the claim, emphasizing, 'Conspiracy theories and misinformation take valuable resources away from local fire and police agencies working tirelessly to control these fires. Please help our entire community by sharing only validated information from official sources.' Rogan later apologized fully, admitting he had 'gotten duped' and expressed regret for potentially misleading his listeners.
9. The Outrageous Claim that 'Crazy B Words' Turn You Into a Woman
Rogan has faced criticism in the past for his lack of understanding about transgender individuals, and one particularly controversial comment stands out. In September 2020, he questioned Caitlyn Jenner’s gender dysphoria, suggesting that living with the Kardashians might have caused Caitlyn’s transformation. He stated, 'maybe if you live with crazy b— long enough, they f— turn you into one. Maybe you go crazy.' While the Kardashians and Caitlyn Jenner have their fair share of critics, this wasn’t the right angle of attack.
8. The Ever-Persistent Classic: The Moon Landing Was Faked
Ah, a classic. Pure, unfiltered conspiracy. The good stuff. For a long period, Rogan believed the moon landing was staged. He frequently referenced documentaries that convinced him—having seen two of them myself, I can understand his perspective. It’s such an enjoyable conspiracy theory because it’s relatively harmless and has a shred of plausibility. The U.S. desperately wanted to win the space race, and while we did indeed land on the moon for real, it’s not entirely far-fetched to think we might have faked it to ensure victory. Rogan has since revised his stance, explaining that he once viewed the evidence without objectivity, but after trying to be as impartial as possible, he realized his error and changed his view. If more conspiracy theorists were as humble and wise as Rogan in this instance, the world would be a much better place.
7. Your Dog’s Anti-Worm Meds Are the Cure
The title almost says it all. In April 2021, Rogan conversed with comedian Dave Smith, mentioning that he had been listening to podcasters Bret Weinstein and Heather Heying. On their podcast, they advocated for the use of ivermectin as a potential treatment for COVID. Ivermectin is only approved for treating parasitic gut worms in animals, particularly pets, and there is no substantial evidence supporting its effectiveness against COVID. Regardless, Rogan hosted Weinstein and Heying on his show, publicly supporting their unproven cure. Every major health organization agrees that treatments like ivermectin must undergo proper testing before public use, and frankly, their opinions carry a bit more authority than Rogan's.
6. The Baby Blood Cure
Let’s cut Rogan some slack for a moment. Instead of being a proponent of this theory, it’s actually about him. QAnon, the widely discredited conspiracy group based on 8chan (which should be a red flag), discovered an old clip from Rogan’s podcast in which he and comedian Whitney Cummings joked about using baby blood as a beauty treatment to stay youthful. The conversation was clearly in jest, but QAnon—known for lacking humor and subtlety—took the exchange literally. The video went viral, and QAnon followers began spreading baseless accusations that Rogan is involved in killing babies and using their skin to maintain his youthful appearance. As harsh as we can be on Rogan, he’s nowhere near the extremity of Q.
5. Angelina Jolie Caused Her Own Bell’s Palsy
Rogan has often remarked on his show that he believes Angelina Jolie is ‘crazy.’ He rarely provides any clear reasoning for this, other than her large family of adopted children (which is, well, odd?). However, on one occasion, while joking about this, he took it too far. Jolie has been diagnosed with Bell’s Palsy, a condition affecting the facial nerves that leads to weakness or paralysis on one side of the face. The condition can cause sudden, intense episodes that may result in permanent facial disfigurement. Wrestling fans, for example, are familiar with it as the reason behind Jim Ross's long-term speech struggles. Rogan, however, remarked, 'She’s got Bell’s palsy?... That’s the problem with crazy, is crazy comes with all sorts of neurotic shit.' His suggestion that nerve disorders can be fixed by simply 'acting normal' is, to put it mildly, bizarre.
4. Mental Disorders Don’t Exist
This isn’t the only time Rogan has made questionable statements about mental disorders. He has repeatedly claimed that ADHD isn't a legitimate condition, even once saying, 'Didn’t someone just say that they invented that? And that it’s not real?' Of course, this is just another instance of misinformation coming from Rogan.
Rogan is also skeptical about the autism spectrum. He once commented on autism by saying, 'I don’t like all these wacky labels when it comes to mental illnesses because I’m not sure I trust them all. 'He’s on the spectrum.' Oh, is he really? Can you weigh that? Can you put that spectrum on a scale? Can you make that guy jump in a pool of water, and it reads how autistic he is?' Uh, okay, Joe.
3. Alex Jones Has 'Gotten So Many Things Right'
This moment marked one of Rogan’s most controversial episodes, drawing substantial backlash from both him and Spotify from various media outlets. In October 2020, Rogan invited conspiracy theorist Alex Jones—widely regarded as an unstable individual—onto his podcast. Jones is most infamous for claiming that the government is 'putting chemicals in the water that turn the friggin' frogs gay.' He also gained notoriety for harassing the families of Sandy Hook victims, pushing the false narrative that they were 'crisis actors,' a claim that resulted in a $126,000 defamation lawsuit and led to his banishment from major social media platforms.
During the interview, Rogan gave Jones a platform that was, in many ways, denied to him by courts, businesses, and public opinion. However, Rogan didn’t let Jones’ wild claims slide unchecked, continuously fact-checking many of his more outlandish statements. While at times, Rogan appeared to entertain some of Jones's more bizarre theories, he remained largely cautious and refrained from following Jones too deep into the realm of 'chemically homosexualized' conspiracies.
2. No Vaccines Necessary
One of Rogan’s most controversial statements came in April 2021 when he suggested that healthy individuals don’t need to get vaccinated against diseases. At one point, Rogan explicitly advised his younger listeners to skip vaccinations, saying, 'If you’re like 21 years old, and you say to me, should I get vaccinated? I’ll go no.' His reasoning? 'If you’re a healthy person, and you’re exercising all the time, and you’re young, and you’re eating well: like, I don’t think you need to worry about this.'
The suggestion that only sick people require vaccines reflects a fundamental misunderstanding of how vaccines function and their purpose, not to mention a disregard for asymptomatic carriers and the crucial importance of herd immunity. After receiving criticism from health professionals, Rogan quickly (and somewhat) walked back his remarks, stating, 'I’m not a doctor, I’m a f— moron, and I’m a cage fighting commentator… I’m not a respected source of information.'
1. South African White Genocide
One of the more extreme conspiracy theories that Rogan has spread is the thoroughly debunked far-right claim of a white genocide in South Africa. The theory suggested that white South Africans were being systematically targeted and murdered by black South Africans as retribution for apartheid. The issue with this conspiracy is that it was first promoted by the problematic white nationalist group AfriForum, and it stemmed from a deliberate misreading of the nation’s crime statistics.
In reality, South Africa faces a widespread issue with violent crime in general, and isolating data that pertains specifically to white citizens while ignoring the overall violence makes it appear as though a white genocide is happening. Rogan, however, quickly corrected himself after experts explained the data to him. He tweeted, 'The more I’ve looked at it objectively, the more I think that violence is just a HUGE problem in general in South Africa and that many people have isolated the statistics on farmers and it makes it seem like they’re being targeted.' Another conspiracy for Rogan, but also another case of a humble revision and sincere apology.
