It was initiated on December 24, 2009, on YouTube by Rogan and comedian Brian Redban, who was its sole co-host and producer until 2012 when Jamie Vernon, who would eventually take over production, was hired to co-produce.

From December 2020 to February 2024, the podcast was exclusively available on Spotify,[7] with highlights uploaded onto the main Joe Rogan Experience YouTube channel.

The podcast was originally recorded at Rogan's home in California, before moving to a private studio in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles.

[12][13] 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.

[14] After some time on Justin.tv, Rogan suggested the idea of hosting a live video stream with Redban from his home and interacting with fans in a chatroom and on Twitter, with the audio portion released as a downloadable podcast.

[15] The first episode aired live on December 24, 2009,[16] which initially took the form of a weekly broadcast on Ustream,[17] with the pair "sitting in front of laptops bullshitting".

[19][20] The show developed with Rogan inviting friends as guests and having lengthy conversations on various subjects; comedian Ari Shaffir was the first, who appeared on episode No.

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 from the platform.

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.

[46] The health care professionals especially took issue with an episode that featured Robert W. Malone which were criticized for a comment Rogan made where he stated that he believed that young, healthy people do not need a COVID-19 vaccine.

[49] On February 1, 2024, only a month before the murder of Collin Small, alleged perpetrator Sheldon Johnson was featured as a guest on The Joe Rogan Experience, wherein he talked about his criminal history and advocated for prison rehabilitation.

[61] Starting in 2017 Rogan and friends Bert Kreischer, Tom Segura, and Ari Shaffir participate in an annual "Sober October" tradition,[62] which has influenced some listeners to curb their addictions by partaking in the challenge.

[8][64] In 2023, Cornell University scholars Adam Szetela and Shiyu Ji published data in Newsweek showing how The Joe Rogan Experience has impacted the book sales of guests.

For example, Graham Hancock's Visionary: The Mysterious Origins of Human Consciousness (The Definitive Edition of Supernatural) experienced a 519% sales increase within one week of his appearance on the podcast.

[70] On September 8, 2020, then President Donald Trump tweeted a clip from Rogan's interview with Mike Tyson, in which the boxer says hurting people can be "orgasmic".

"[71] On September 13, UFC fighter Tim Kennedy tweeted that, in Rogan's podcast with him two days earlier, the host had "offered to moderate a debate between [Biden] and [Trump] ...

"[72] This prompted Sunny Hostin of The View to denounce Rogan as "misogynistic, racist [and] homophobic" for allegedly having made insensitive comments at selected times during his history as a podcast host.

[73][a] Various sources wrote that Rogan's interview with Trump helped the former president to win the 2024 election, particularly due to the show's largely male and young audience.

On June 20, 2019, conspiracy theorist Bob Lazar, along with producer Jeremy Corbell, made an appearance on the show where Rogan frequently discusses the possibility of aliens and extraterrestrial life.

This episode was cited as the inspiration for the planned Facebook event and Internet meme known as "Storm Area 51, They Can't Stop All of Us", created one week later.

[88][89] On October 13, 2021, in conversation with CNN's Sanjay Gupta, Rogan defended taking the medication ivermectin his physician prescribed him off-label for treating COVID-19.

Rogan accused the news network of lying for labeling the drug a "horse dewormer"; ivermectin, an antiparasitic medication, is used in both humans and animals.

Rogan reiterated his view that people should have the autonomy to choose to get vaccinated, and repeated the false claim that ivermectin is a legitimate treatment option for COVID-19.

[90] In a December 2021 episode, guest Robert W. Malone compared the U.S. reaction to the pandemic to the rise of Nazi Germany, claiming that a "mass formation psychosis" had developed among its residents.

[92][93] An open letter by 270 U.S. healthcare professionals, scientists and professors called for Spotify to drop the podcast, citing the interview and Rogan's "concerning history of broadcasting misinformation, particularly regarding the COVID-19 pandemic".

[50][94] On January 3, 2022, Congressman Troy Nehls entered a full transcript[95][96] of the interview with Malone into the Congressional Record in order to circumvent what he said was censorship by social media.

[100] On January 30, Spotify announced that it was working to add a content advisory to all episodes of all podcasts discussing COVID-19, pointing to its own information hub on the topic.

[108][109][110] A number of UFC fighters, including Israel Adesanya, Terrance McKinney, Michael Chandler, Aljamain Sterling, Frankie Edgar, Darren Till, Marlon Vera, Ben Askren, and Brendan Schaub, defended Rogan.

[9] The podcast has been described as "an important node of the intellectual dark web",[8][115] and has featured a diverse ideological mixture of political guests, including Democratic presidential candidates and conservative figures.

In a critical article for National Review, Theodore Kupfer wrote that the podcast, hosted by "A weed-smoking DMT-obsessive whose most cherished political cause is the quest to end male circumcision", has become "one of the last bastions for civil discussion in contemporary America".