The Joe Rogan Experience

The podcast originates to around 2003 when Rogan hired Brian Redban, a self-taught video editor and an employee at a Gateway 2000 computer store in Ohio, to work for him full time to film, produce, and edit videos for his website.[3][4] Rogan had noticed video work that Redban did for comedian Doug Stanhope and invited him to film him and his group on stand-up comedy tours.[3] Redban accepted and relocated to California in the process, following Rogan with a camera and "recording everything".[3] After several years, Redban noticed that fans were demanding more content from Rogan and for it to be delivered faster. This prompted the two to seek new ways of quickening what was a lengthy editing process to make their website and content more interactive.[5] Coupled with his interest in popular live video streaming services of the time, Redban wanted "to do the same thing I was filming, but live", and set up live streams on Justin.tv from the green room at Rogan's comedy gigs.[4][5] Redban had no prior experience with audio engineering, so he taught himself how to operate the mixing board and microphone setups.[5]

Ari Shaffir was the podcast's first guest

After some time on Justin.tv, Rogan suggested the idea of hosting a live video stream with Redban from his home and interact with fans in a chatroom and on Twitter, with the audio portion released as a downloadable podcast.[4][5][6] Rogan was influenced by the open discussion style from appearing on Opie and Anthony and the live Ustream show that co-host Anthony Cumia did from his basement studio, Live from the Compound.[6] The first episode aired live on December 24, 2009,[7] which initially took the form of a weekly broadcast on Ustream,[8] with the pair "sitting in front of laptops bullshitting".[9] Much of the episode was dead air with the hosts figuring out the equipment.[10] Early episodes featured an animated snowflake effect that was reintroduced on episode No. 674 in 2015 and episode No. 1,000 in 2017.[11][12] The show developed with Rogan having friends as guests and having lengthy conversations; comedian Ari Shaffir was the first guest, who appeared on episode No. 3 on January 6, 2010.[6][13]

Rogan recalled that maintaining a consistent schedule early on was important in the podcast's growth, and it soon grew to two episodes a week.[6] In May 2010, the podcast acquired its first sponsor in a partnership with the sex-toy production company Fleshlight. The company withdrew in mid-2012, when it claimed it had saturated its market.[14][15] By August 2010, the podcast was formally named The Joe Rogan Experience, in an homage to The Jimi Hendrix Experience, and aired live several times a week.[16] In May 2011, Rogan secured a deal with SiriusXM, a subscription-based satellite radio service, to have the podcast air on its uncensored talk channel The Virus.[9] That year, Rogan said that the podcast was helping his stand-up comedy as he would take ideas that arose during conversations and develop them into routines.[17]

In January 2013, video episodes of the podcast started to be uploaded onto YouTube under the account PowerfulJRE and episodes were surpassing almost two million views.[18] Later in 2013, Redban started to reduce his time as the podcast's sole producer as Rogan had increased the number of podcasts each week, "and it got to the point where [Rogan] wanted to keep on going, six, seven hours" which became too much for him to handle alone. As a result, Jamie Vernon was hired as a second producer, initially to fill in as Redban's assistant, leaving Redban to produce roughly half of subsequent episodes.[19] Vernon soon took over full time and Redban subsequently appeared on the podcast as a guest.[11][20][21]

Originally, the podcast was recorded at Rogan's home in California.[7] From November 24, 2011, some episodes were recorded at the Ice House Comedy Club in Pasadena, California, also known as the Deathsquad Studios.[22] Since November 27, 2012, the majority of episodes have been recorded in a private studio that Rogan acquired in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles.[23] The 1,000th episode aired on August 18, 2017, and featured comedians Joey Diaz and Tom Segura as guests.[12]

In April 2020, Rogan began having guests take an antibody test for Coronavirus disease 2019 before recording the podcast during the COVID-19 pandemic, although these tests are presently not FDA approved. Rogan uses a personalized, on-demand service that offers each test for $299.[24]

On May 19, 2020, Rogan announced that from September 2020, The Joe Rogan Experience would be available on Spotify in an exclusive licensing deal worth an estimated $100 million.[25] Under the terms of the agreement, full episodes will continue to be uploaded to YouTube until December 2020, when the podcast becomes exclusive to Spotify. The shorter clips of highlights from the podcast will continue to be uploaded to YouTube after the transition. Rogan ensured that the podcast will remain the same format, with Spotify not having any creative control. On the day following Rogan's announcement, Spotify shares increased by seven percent.[26] The move to Spotify coincided with Rogan's relocation from Los Angeles to Austin, Texas, and the debut of a new studio there.[27] The first new episode released on Spotify was no. 1,530 with comedian Duncan Trussell, which lasted for over five hours.[28] On September 8, 2020, Rogan debuted his new studio on episode no. 1,533 with guest Adam Curry.[29]

After the podcast became available on Spotify on September 1, people reported on social media that episodes with more controversial or far-right guests, including Alex Jones, Milo Yiannopoulos, Gavin McInnes, and Chris D'Elia, among others, were missing. Episodes featuring comedian and activist Tommy Chong, comedian Joey Diaz, and Mikhaila Peterson, daughter of Jordan Peterson, were also unavailable.[28] VICE later reported that Spotify CEO Daniel Ek defended having episode no. 1,509 on the platform, which had Rogan and author and journalist Abigail Shrier discuss topics that some deemed transphobic, causing some Spotify employees to voice their concerns to management. A Spotify spokesperson said the episode was within its content guidelines.[30] Rogan later clarified that the company had said nothing to him about plans to censor or editorialize the podcast, as some employees had suggested. He also pointed to the abundance of song lyrics hosted on Spotify that some would consider offensive.[31]

In October 2020, the production of new episodes was put on hold for a week after Vernon tested positive for COVID-19. Rogan and the rest of the staff tested negative and resumed once they got the all-clear from a doctor.[32]

In episode 1554 Kanye West clarified his reasons for running for president of the United States in 2020 and how it began in 2015.[33] West was one of Rogan's most anticipated guests after the idea of Kanye coming on the podcast first surfaced in late 2018[34] and a premature confirmation by West in early 2019,[35] ultimately taking close to a year before Kanye finally appeared on the show.

In 2019, Rogan featured ufologist and filmmaker Jeremy Kenyon Lockyer Corbell and, Bob Lazar.[37] Lazar's episode inspired the Facebook event and internet meme known as "Storm Area 51". He also featured Navy pilot and commander David Fravor who witnessed the USS Nimitz UFO incident.[38] In January of 2021, for episode #1597, Rogan featured the world's most famous 'alien abductee', Travis Walton.[39]