Joe Rogan, the podcast king who earns $250 million a year: How he swayed the US election with a three-hour conversation.

Original author: David, TechFlow

You may not listen to podcasts, but you've definitely seen this footage.

In 2018, an image of Musk holding a cigarette amidst billowing smoke went viral online, becoming one of the most iconic moments in his personal image.

However, few people know where this scene took place, and even fewer care who the person sitting opposite is.

Actually, this was the recording site of an American podcast.

The host handed Musk a cigarette mixed with marijuana and tobacco. Musk asked, "Is this legal?" and then took a puff.

The following day, Tesla's stock price fell by 9%.

This episode has been viewed over 69 million times on YouTube to date, making it the most-watched episode in the podcast's history.

What kind of program, what kind of host, could make the world's richest man do such a thing in front of the camera?

During the 2024 US presidential election, Trump also talked on this show for three hours, and specifically thanked the host in his victory speech; half a month ago, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang also sat in this recording studio and talked for two and a half hours about AI and the chip war, which was played more than 2.8 million times in two weeks.

His name is Joe Rogan. His show, "The Joe Rogan Experience," is currently the world's largest podcast.

From comedian to podcast king, his show is worth 250 million.

Joe Rogan's podcast influence is built on his unconventional personal resume.

Comedian, reality TV host, UFC commentator. Putting these three identities together, you don't seem like someone who could create the world's largest podcast.

He's not a traditional talk show host, nor is he the kind of formally trained media professional. His background is actually in the entertainment and martial arts industries, not the news industry.

But it is precisely this "unorthodox approach" that has allowed him to create something completely different from traditional media; his ability to connect with people and generate viewership far surpasses that of many professional media programs.

Joe Rogan started as a comedian, performing stand-up comedy in Boston clubs in the 1990s. He later moved to Los Angeles, where he acted in sitcoms for several years and hosted a reality show called "Fear Factor."

This show takes a sensationalist approach, making contestants eat insects and jump from tall buildings, relying on disgust and excitement to boost ratings. In today's short video environment, it would definitely be categorized as vulgar but high-traffic.

But what truly made him famous was another job.

Starting in 1997, he worked as a commentator for the UFC, sitting at the edge of the octagon to commentate on mixed martial arts matches, a job he held for over two decades. This job allowed him to establish himself in the fighting world and accumulate a large, loyal male audience.

In 2009, he started recording podcasts at home.

Like many podcasts, it started with rudimentary equipment, no sponsors, and no business plan. But each episode lasted two or three hours, featuring conversations with friends or guests about everything under the sun.

Looking back, all his previous messy experiences actually came in handy.

Having been a comedian, he knows how to make conversations interesting and rhythmic. Having worked as a reality TV host, he's also used to being relaxed in front of the camera. Having been a UFC commentator for twenty years, his audience is already accustomed to his voice.

Moreover, he is not an expert in any field, so he has the advantage of being an unorthodox individual:

You can ask some "silly questions" with a clear conscience.

When he's with a physicist, he asks about the most basic concepts; when he's with a politician, he doesn't pry into policy details, but instead talks about "what you're really thinking." This style is completely absent from traditional media.

Television interviews have strict time limits, and the host must quickly get to the point. News interviews are adversarial; reporters must uncover things the interviewee doesn't want to say.

Rogan's show does the opposite: he gives you three hours, no editing, no interruptions, and lets you talk about whatever you want.

The result is that many celebrities say things they wouldn't say elsewhere on his show. Musk smoking marijuana is just one example. Zuckerberg came here to talk about MMA training and looked more like a normal person than during any of his congressional hearings.

Gradually, Joe Rogan's podcast became the go-to place for celebrities to "show their true selves." Traditional media interviews were performances; here, they could be themselves.

With various celebrities appearing as guests, the show has become increasingly valuable.

In 2020, Spotify acquired the exclusive distribution rights to "The Joe Rogan Experience" for $200 million, marking the largest deal in the history of the podcast industry.

In 2022, Rogan was embroiled in a public relations crisis due to negative comments about certain COVID-19 vaccines on his podcast, prompting a number of musicians to pull their songs from Spotify in protest.

At this critical juncture, another video platform, Rumble, publicly offered $100 million to poach his podcast, but Rogan was unmoved.

In 2024, he renewed his streaming rights with Spotify, but the price rose to $250 million.

Moreover, this time he refused an exclusive deal, and the show returned to being streamed simultaneously on Spotify, YouTube, and Apple Podcasts. Spotify paid more money but received fewer rights.

In 2025, "The Joe Rogan Experience" topped the annual podcast charts on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube for the first time.

A chat show that started at home has been running for sixteen years and is valued at a higher level than many traditional media companies.

Podcast chat, targeted vote solicitation

On October 25, 2024, during the final stretch of the election, Trump sat down in Rogan's recording studio in Austin.

This episode lasted a full three hours. After the recording, Trump rushed to a campaign rally in Michigan, leaving thousands of supporters waiting for another three hours.

What did they talk about during those three hours?

UFO. Trump said he interviewed fighter pilots who told him they saw a spherical object traveling at four times the speed of an F-22 fighter jet.

The bed in the White House. He vividly described his first impression of Lincoln's bedroom in the White House, noting how large the bed was, given Lincoln's height of six feet six inches.

Tariffs. Trump also proposed replacing income tax entirely with tariffs. Rogan asked, "Are you serious?"

Trump said, "Of course, why not? Our country was at its richest in the 1880s because of tariffs."

These topics seem unrelated, but they have one thing in common:

These are all things that would never be discussed in a traditional political interview.

Television stations will ask about policy details, press for controversial statements, and keep track of time. No serious political journalist will allow a presidential candidate to spend ten minutes talking about UFOs and Lincoln's bed.

But that's precisely the nature of Rogan's show. Three hours, no interruptions, no set agenda, just talking about whatever comes to mind.

The audience saw not a candidate confined by media frameworks, but a complete Trump: curious, with outrageous ideas, and capable of small talk.

Rogan's own comment actually perfectly captures the essence of the show's appeal:

"You said a lot of crazy things, but the traditional media made a lot of news out of them, which actually made you more popular. People are tired of that rote, formulaic political rhetoric. Even if they disagree with you, at least they know this person is real. "

This sense of realism is especially effective for Rogan's audience.

Data from foreign research institutions shows that 80% of the program's audience is male, with more than half aged between 18 and 34. Politically, 35% identify as independents, 32% lean Republican, and 27% lean Democratic. This group shares a common characteristic:

They don't watch traditional television news much and generally distrust mainstream media, but they spend several hours each week listening to Rogan talk.

In other words, this is a group of people who are difficult to reach through traditional political communication. Trump spent three hours sitting across from a moderator they trusted, speaking in a relaxed and informal manner, and the effect far exceeded any campaign advertisement.

After the show was released, it quickly garnered over 50 million views on YouTube.

The entire video was cut into countless segments and spread across platforms like X, TikTok, and Instagram. Every memorable quote and every outrageous statement became independent content, reaching people who would never have clicked on the three-hour video.

Harris, Trump's presidential opponent at the time, did not appear on the show.

According to reports, the two sides had discussed the matter, and Rogan had publicly extended an invitation. However, Harris's team wanted to keep the show under an hour, which Rogan declined. He said on the show:

"It's not that I didn't want to invite her, it's that she didn't want to come."

In comparison, Trump's episode garnered over 50 million views, while another Harris podcast, "Call Her Daddy," had 600,000 views.

The election is over, and Trump has won. In his victory speech, UFC President Dana White specifically thanked Joe Rogan, listing him as one of the key figures in the victory.

A podcast has been included in the acknowledgments section of a president’s victory speech, a first in American political history.

The Chinese Mirror: The Attempts of Luo Yonghao and Others

Can Joe Rogan's model be replicated in China?

Someone is trying it.

In June 2025, Luo Yonghao revealed at an AI conference that Liang Wenfeng, founder of DeepSeek, suggested he leverage his "talking skills." A few months later, he launched a video podcast on Bilibili called "Luo Yonghao's Crossroads," which was modeled after Joe Rogan and Lex Fridman.

The format is similar to The Joe Rogan Experience: long conversations, minimal editing, and each episode lasts three to five hours.

The first guest was Li Xiang, founder of Li Auto. The two talked for four hours, discussing everything from childhood trauma to his relationship with Wang Xing, daring to ask and answer anything. The comments section reacted as follows:

In the era of short videos, this kind of "long and satisfying extra-large cup" is extremely rare.

Luo Yonghao isn't the only one. Lu Yu, Yu Qian, Li Dan, Yang Di, and other well-known figures have all joined Bilibili to create video podcasts. Bilibili has also invested heavily, allocating 1 billion units of traffic support during the summer, providing free recording venues in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Hangzhou, and planning to launch a dedicated AI creation tool for podcasts.

It seems that China's "Year Zero" of video podcasts is finally coming, but things are not that simple.

In a conversation with Tim from Filmstorm, Luo Yonghao mentioned that his videos had around 20-30 million views, while Tim believed that "it takes 100 million views to be considered a hit." This actually reveals a structural problem:

In China's internet traffic ecosystem, long-form content is inherently at a disadvantage.

Over the past few years, users have been trained by short videos to watch a movie in three minutes. The algorithms of Douyin and Kuaishou reward completion rates, and a three-hour video has almost no chance of surviving in the recommendation pool.

Ironically, many of the highlights of long-form podcasts are spread through short clips of a few dozen seconds on platforms like Douyin and Xiaohongshu.

At the same time, commercialization is also a challenge.

In 2024, the US podcast industry generated over $2 billion in advertising revenue, with top podcasters securing exclusive contracts worth hundreds of millions of dollars. In contrast, in China, a podcast brand with nearly 500,000 subscribers charges less than 40,000 yuan for a single spoken ad, resulting in a net annual income of only a few hundred thousand yuan.

YouTube has a mature AdSense revenue-sharing system; the longer the video, the more ad slots and the higher the revenue, which incentivizes longer content. Bilibili's monetization capabilities are far from reaching that level.

There is also a more fundamental question:

Rogan's influence largely stems from his ability to invite people like Trump, Musk, and Huang, who are willing to say things on his show that they wouldn't say elsewhere.

This status as the "originating source of information" requires a long period of accumulated trust and a unique public opinion environment.

Luo Yonghao managed to gather Li Xiang, He Xiaopeng, and Zhou Hongyi, which represents a top-tier lineup in China's tech industry. However, there are inherent limitations in the openness of the topics they discuss.

So, can Joe Rogan's model be replicated in China?

The form can be learned, but the soil is different.

Controversy and Boundaries

At this point, one issue cannot be avoided: Joe Rogan is a controversial figure.

In 2022, he sparked a storm by questioning the effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines on his show. Spotify did not abandon Rogan, but added a "content warning" label to all shows that touched on COVID-19 topics and removed more than 70 old episodes.

This isn't the first time he's gotten into trouble.

In 2024, he discussed the origin of AIDS with guests on a TV program, spreading some claims that had been refuted by the medical community, which drew public criticism from the American AIDS Research Foundation.

A Yale University study found that eight of the ten most popular podcasts in the United States spread false or misleading information about climate change, and Rogan's shows were all on the list.

His show is also a hub for various conspiracy theories in the United States.

From the assassination of Kennedy to UFOs, from large pharmaceutical companies to government surveillance, he has consistently maintained an "open attitude" towards these topics. Critics argue that this provides a platform for misinformation, while his supporters believe it challenges the mainstream narrative.

In July 2025, he posted a message on X:

"Kudos to those who still don't believe in conspiracy theories, your ability to stand firm is admirable." This post has garnered over 15 million views.

This is also part of the complexity of Joe Rogan.

He is not a one-dimensional person. For example, his support for same-sex marriage, marijuana legalization, and universal healthcare are typical liberal positions. But he also questions mainstream media and provides platforms for controversial figures, which makes him a darling of conservatives.

His show is influential precisely because he doesn't belong to any particular camp. Those who have lost faith in mainstream media have found a kind of "anti-establishment" alternative in him.

However, this same trait also makes him a node for the spread of misinformation. When someone with hundreds of millions of followers says, "I'm just asking questions," those questions themselves are already shaping public perception.

This is also the inherent tension of podcasts as a medium:

Its charm lies in its authenticity, relaxation, and lack of limits, but when its influence becomes too great, the "lack of limits" itself becomes a problem.

Joe Rogan is a product of this era, and also a mirror of this era.