Joe Rogan: The Podcast Guy
How an "average Joe" became the world's biggest podcaster.
Joe Rogan is America’s most popular podcaster. In 2019 alone, his show was worth $30 to $50 million! When he switched from YouTube to Spotify in September 2020, the deal was worth a staggering $100 million!
But how did Rogan go from an “average Joe” construction worker into the world’s greatest podcast guru?
Martial arts
Joe’s story begins in Boston, in the early 1980s. The 16-year-old high schooler got a construction job through his stepfather. But he hated the job, and he felt a “normal” job just wasn’t for him.
Joe was already training in martial arts, which he considered for a career. A couple years before, at age 14, Rogan started learning karate as a result of a physical fight with a bully at school.
After training for five years, he won the US Open Championship Taekwondo Tournament. Then, he successfully held the Massachusetts Full Contact State Championship for four consecutive years. Given his skill level, he also served as a taekwondo trainer.
But Joe didn’t know whether marital arts was his life’s path. He lost faith in taekwondo, so he dipped his hand in kickboxing. Fearful of injury, he quickly gave up the hobby. Rogan now found himself stuck in limbo, unsure of his career.
Comedy
While competing in martial arts tournaments, Joe would crack jokes to break the awkward silence with his opponents before a fight.
So in 1988, the 21-year-old Joe decided to try himself out at stand-up comedy. His jokes were so bad, no one even laughed in the whole first set! But the initial embarrassment didn’t stop our working class hero. Joe fell in love with his new hobby. He became a full-time comedian in 1990.
Joe perfected a “blue comedy” style, which relished in low-brow sex jokes. This earned him many gigs at bachelor’s parties and strip clubs.
Now a seasoned comedian, Joe Rogan relocated to Los Angeles in 1994. There, he picked up a televised spot on MTV’s Half Hour Comedy. Through TV, Joe earned himself his first major role in the show Hardball. Then, he landed a role in a bigger show called News Radio. His comedy career continued to grow, and he forged ties with LA’s Comedy Store in 1997.
UFC
But Joe’s comedy was drying up. Opportunities were fading. He needed something new to pay the bills.
Enter UFC. Already a fan of martial arts, it was an easy transition for Joe into the world of Ultimate Fighting. He found it exciting and dynamic. Rogan became a fan of Brazilian jiu jitsu, an innovative fighting style popularized by the UFC.
Joe found his new passion: being a commentator for the UFC. It was a role that would define our man into the early 2000s.
Fear Factor
In 2001, Rogan took up his weirdest job yet. He became the host of Fear Factor, where contestants would engage in an outlandish game of truth-or-dare in exchange for cash prizes.
It wasn’t exactly Joe’s “dream job.” He didn’t take the stupid show seriously. For him, it was nothing more than a way to get material for his comedy routines.
Fear Factor featured all kinds of dumb stuff, such as eating insects and dangerous car stunts. One of these juvenile “challenges” was to fight against Joe Rogan himself.
After about five seasons, Joe was sick of this job! Finally, the show pushed the boundaries too far, and got canceled in 2006.
Although he hated Fear Factor, Joe nevertheless benefited from the show’s hefty paychecks. The aspiring celebrity-to-be no longer had to worry about finances.
For the next several years, Joe abandoned his acting career to hone in on his comedy and UFC commentary. Using his money from Fear Factor, Rogan hired two full-time cameramen to help produce his comedy specials. But in 2009, Joe would make a fatal decision, which would seal his name in the pantheon of pop culture.
The Joe Rogan Experience
It was Christmas Eve of 2009. Joe Rogan live-streamed his very first podcast. He was feeling homesick, because his wife forced him to move out of LA to Colorado.
Joe’s podcast was designed as an “Internet” version of a traditional comedy show. This would allow live viewers to engage with the comedians.
Rogan started the show with a comedy friend. But when he quickly ran out of things to talk about, Joe hosted his first-ever guest: Ari Shaffir, on episode 3. For Joe, the podcast was a way to simply enjoy conversations with people. It helped that most of his friends were already actors, comedians, and other creative types.
In August of 2010, Joe officially christened his new podcast: The Joe Rogan Experience. Its name was a tribute to legendary rock guitarist Jimi Hendrix, whose mugshot can be seen behind Joe in many episodes.
As the podcast grew, it allowed Joe to host increasingly popular guests. Some early examples were Tim Ferriss and Sam Harris. Over time, the audience grew far beyond just comedians and actors.
Around the 300th episode, in January of 2013, Joe took his podcast to YouTube. His goal was to reach a wider audience. Remember, at this time, YouTube didn’t have too many long-form podcasters. Such lengthy videos were almost unheard of at the time!
Suddenly, Rogan’s podcast broke into the mainstream of YouTube. He won over 100,000 subscribers in the first year, and reached 150,000 subscribers by the second year. By early 2015, Rogan boasted of a quarter-million followers!
Rogan’s guests became more and more famous, such as Neil DeGrasse Tyson and V-Sauce. With his booming audience, Joe could now deliver requests for certain interviewees. In just a few short years, Rogan was interviewing everybody: scientists, billionaires, Hollywood movie stars, you name it!
The Joe Rogan Experience was a breakthrough in the mediascape. For the first time ever, ordinary people could enjoy an authentic glimpse into the private lives of their favorite celebrities—without the artificial pressures of legacy media or the paparazzi. Now, celebrities were no longer untouchable gods; they were just regular flesh-and-blood people.
By 2017, Rogan could boast of 1.5 million subscribers—around the 1000th episode. Some of his famous guests included Elon Musk, Jordan Peterson, and Dr. Phil. In September 2020, Rogan signed a multi-million dollar deal with Spotify, moving his ultra-popular podcast away from YouTube.
Today, Rogan continues to shape America’s culture and politics through his multi-million dollar podcast.