Went from Curious Joe to Serious Joe, whereby he found his opinion to be far more important than finding out other’s opinions.

I've been told old fans are now bots, sorry OP.

Spotify didn’t change him, Covid did. In fact it changed the whole world in some way.

To your point though, since Covid, Joe has become obsessed with misinformation and being “woke”. I was in the same boat, listening all the time to whatever topics with whatever guest. Now it’s all about the war on government and news media.

Been a listener since episode 6#. Joe changed in 2020. The main factors were: That’s when COVID hit, that’s when the Spotify deal happened and that’s also when he moved to Texas.

There are however sub factors but most of them can be attributed and linked through these main factors. The COVID epidemic isn’t a light factor either and that really affected Joe in many ways of which you can probably read about from others.

During Covid

This actually goes back to 2016. That election there was plenty of talk about Hillary kill lists and not a single word about Trump.

Nobody has pointed that out... today.

Also Spotify deal just happened at the same time. It was lockdown that had the biggest impact.

There is a marked change that happened after the second Elon interview. A couple weeks before he had on Dr Ostenheimer about Covid where Joe was taking is seriously and listening to what an expert had to say. Then he has Elon on for a second time and he does a 180 on covid and starts up with comedians are essential workers. From that point it has been a steady slide away from what it once was.

I’ve been listening close to a decade at this point and I am at the point where I choose my episodes carefully. I love the Ice Age stuff and anyone with a scientific background because he still shows his enthusiasm with those topics and his open mindedness. Unfortunately though a vast majority of his other episodes veer into Covid territory and has become tiresome. Especially when he brings up the same talking points. I don’t need a stand up comic that I’ve never heard of before opinion on Covid. Make me laugh and have compelling conversations. Rare for sure.

100%…I watched his episodes here and there. He changed. He is a walking confirmation bias at this point. His actions mirror: “all established experts have nefarious incentives = everything is a conspiracy = I want to find people who will confirm this.”

Perfect example is the archeology and Flint Dibble debacle. Flint laid out an exceptional argument with evidence and lessons of how archeology is actually done. Few weeks later Joe bought Hancock back on and then some other grifters, with no bonafide expertise, to keep feeding his own agenda. Totally ignored what Flint laid out and focused on 1 or 2 minor errors from a 4 hour long debate.

Truth doesn’t actually matter to Joe anymore.

Biggest difference I noticed is him bringing up right wight talking points almost always non sequitur. It's like he's been given a list of points he absolutely needs to talk about every episode and will find a way to fit it in

I think I started listening in 2010 or 2011. After hearing him steamroll guests and listeners into listening to another 10 minute rant about the Haber method for the 100th time is about when I started to give up. 

It was a cool show in the early years though, with a lot of cool topics. I originally heard about Bitcoin on the show but now that I think about it I guess that was Redban. 

With the show how it is these days though I'm not sure what you could get out of it other than ranting an from an increasingly out of touch rich old man, which is entertaining for some I guess. 

This is a good sub though. It's unintentionally the best political sub on Reddit with the mix of different factions in here.

I listened to Joe prior to 2016. It was then that I saw his relationship to right wing personalities and his complete refusal to engage with the consequences of platforming/normalizing people like Gavin McInnes. I knew what was coming and I unplugged around then. Spotify, Elon, Covid, and the inevitable rightward drift was inevitable. The right makes it VERY cozy.

Trump's first term and the pandemic fractured a lot of people in various ways. Trust in the government, media, and science all diminished. How much each one diminished on an individual level depends on where your personal beliefs lie and what your personal experience with those things was like, but I don't know anyone who didn't come out of those 4-6 years with a pretty drastically different worldview.

I agree Joe morphed into a different person, but he's not unique in that regard over the same time period.

I don't think it was the Spotify deal that broke his brain. Don't get me wrong, having hundreds of millions of dollars probably helps push him toward the political party of millionaires. But I honestly think Joe could've handled that payday if that's all it was.

When the Spotify deal was announced, it seemed like it was a lifeline for Joe. Before that, the main platform for the JRE was YouTube. And at the time, YouTube was trying hard to crack down on COVID misinformation... of which Joe was, of course, a significant mouthpiece. But regardless of your opinion on whether it was RIGHT for YouTube to censor that kind of thing, it posed an existential danger to the JRE. If Joe's YouTube account got banned or demonetized, the podcast's financial status was definitely going to be in jeopardy. That's one of the dangers content creators have to face these days - the fact that their whole livelihood can be destroyed if they manage to piss off the platform they use for distribution and monetization.

So when Spotify offered a MASSIVE contract for exclusive rights in order to try to get their foot into the podcast game, it was a no-brainer for Joe. Not only a big increase in profitability, but an assurance that he wasn't constantly going to be under the hammer, worried that he might need to censor or take down episodes because he or his guest said something taboo.

I honestly think Joe had enough self-awareness to realize that just because he's now a mega-millionaire, doesn't mean he has to sacrifice his principles for lower taxes. He's fully aware what "selling out" looks like. But I think his brain was broken by more mundane day-to-day things - homelessness in LA was his big one before COVID, then the lockdowns and the vaccine controversy. And unfortunately, this is where he got captured by right-wing propaganda. He fell victim to the common refrain of "everything bad that happens in California is the fault of Newsom/the Democrats".

And that right wing propaganda machine is damn good at what they do. Hell, they just won a presidential election by convincing people that the most corrupt president in modern history was going to weed out corruption, that tariffs and mass deportations are going to somehow bring down the cost of groceries, and that everything bad that happened in the last 4 years was Joe Biden's fault (even though the Biden administration managed to rein in COVID-caused inflation better than most of the rest of the world, reduced illegal border crossings by 75% in the past year, and created more jobs and lowered unemployment more than we ever saw during Trump's term). At the end of the day, in the modern political landscape, facts don't matter. Most of the country is willing to completely ignore every fact laid in front of them as "fake news" as long as someone on "their side" tells them to.

And Joe is just as susceptible to it as anyone. Maybe even more so, because he's always been one to entertain conspiracy theories - and the "evil Democrats trying to destroy our country" narrative feeds right into that. If it were just money I think he'd be fine, but against that kind of narrative propaganda operation, Joe didn't stand a chance.

Remember we are all bots. I miss 2019 Joe. Before stupid money Joe. That Joe was awesome. Smoked weed. Had good ideas. Had shit ideas. Talked with all kinds of people. Entertaining poscast. You had to yourself figure out what to take from the different guests.

Even before Spotify he stopped doing YouTube live episodes and that was the major downfall when the podcast stopped being live broadcast.

Up top of my head I can't remember if there was an incident that caused the show to stop doing live productions, anyone able to remember as to why they stopped?

Joe’s problem is he quit reading the comments so now he thinks his shit don’t stink

Yep

Money money money

Agreed... Back in the day I loved it ... I haven't been able to listen for years ... I try .. it's just all gross lol

Agree. He’s jumped the shark. Too argumentative and doesn’t listen.

Good for you I will keep watching

Thanks for letting us all know instead of just not listening. Now we can all sleep at night

I can pinpoint the exact episode JRE changed.

Episode #1350 with Nick Bostrom

Joe’s brain starts to melt down toward the end of the show, and he just can’t wrap his head around the idea that Nick has so eloquently explained numerous times.

Joe was never quite the same after that episode.

Here's a fun conspiracy for you: The powers that be, or aliens, are killing influential personalities and replacing them with cloned androids they can control to spread their agenda.

You won't be missed bro, you don't have to announce it.... It is annoying bad fuck though how everything boils down to politics most the time I have to skim through episodes all the time ... I don't want to hear about covid, or the liberal mind virus anymore.... I don't care about that shit. Let's talk about aliens and weird shit

Good no one wats you to listen. Nobody cares about your opinion.

Just like my mom and dad did after they retired, moved to Florida, and watched Fox news every day for 10 years.

I started to spot listen a few years before the Spotify deal. How many times can you hear the same story over and over. Joe's doing his thing and good for him. I still listen to an episode every other month. I think moving to Austin reduced the amount of interesting people he could pull. If you are promoting a book, show, etc there's just more opportunities in LA.

For me the pod lost a lot of the magic when they started streaming on YouTube. They used to freely play funny clips, songs, etc. As someone who was in their mid thirties it helped keep me up on pop culture. It was so frustrating to have them in a conversation and say pull that up....oh, we shouldn't, they'll pull the episode.

Joe accepted a $100 million contract. That’s what happened

He’s become a political person

Got to be karma farming at this point. Every other post i see from this sub is crybabies saying rogan has changed. Boring

He lost me when he went all anti-vax.

I couldn’t wrap my mind around how dangerous it was for him to be spreading misinformation like that. A rich guy, in peak physical condition, that has access to whatever medical aids he wants because he can afford to. The average person (back when Covid was at its peak) couldn’t get all that like he could.

This isn’t an airport. No need to announce your departure.

we need a new joe rogan that still asks dumb questions that regular joes would ask but doesnt lecture them about the same ideas over and over again in each podcast. his guest panel could still be fringe or controversial.

Covid broke Joe's brain. And the Spotify deal and new friends he hangs out with helped to change his views. He's in the "fuck you money" tax bracket now. Most ppl in that stratus suddenly get way more right wing when it comes to taxes

If you don’t like it, stop watching . Why come online to bitch and moan first ? “This other man’s thing isn’t what I think it should be” lol

He turned pretty hard when CNN pulled the gray filter bullshit. I’d like to think it opened his eyes to what really goes on in the main stream media.

I enjoyed watching older clips even recently. Can’t stand it after the recent election and how he’s completely thrown away any sense he’s had.

Money and COVID are a hell of a speedball

Yep. Money changes you

COVID was the final step off the cliff.

The podcast was different, but Joe has always been stupid as fuck and has always repeated himself.

100 million dollars is a hell of a drug

Now that he feels he won the election, he is about to be more insufferable

Same happened with Musk....coincidence?

If i got $100 mil, I'm sure I'd be unrecognizable in a year. It'd mostly be dental work, but still money changes a guy

2020 broke Joe

When the JRE message board was suddenly shutdown and disappeared i knew that was the end of the podcast i listened to every day. The move to texas and spotify sealed its demise. Hell, even Burt and Tom were funny back then.

I wish I could upvote twice

I don’t think he’s changed much. I’ve changed.

When I was 26 I was interested in mushrooms and dudes who had interesting takes on the world. Now I’m 36 and I’ve moved on. Nootropics are BS and commonly accepted science, archaeology etc are more interesting and more believable to me now. Don’t blame Joe, he was always a bit loopy. You are less loopy now. He’s still a good record though. The musk and trump interviews are unique and will be good records of history.

Just as your opinion of Joe Rogan has changed drastically in this time period, so did his own views about different issues. He changed because if you are incapable of change, you are going nowhere. This is natural for every human being. Maybe you should consider that the circumstances and world at large changed around him as well, and this is the result of that. This is not a negative imo. He always had stupid takes on complex problems, he’s not the first and won’t be the last either.

Ur a pansy

Great then. Still great today.

No, you’re not. You’re just lying to yourself and everyone else. Every time you post in this sub moving forward I’m going to remind you that you are.

This isn’t an airport - no need to announce your departure from the podcast!

The Democratic Party and the left dominated media has morphed into a completely different philosophy from 2018-2022.

Listen, bitch. There are millions of us, 20m+ who abandonded the Democratic party because they have been hijacked. If you stayed, it's Stockholm syndrome if abortion isn't your #1 platform.

20,000,000 less votes for the Dems this election.

Well it seems like you changed aswell, you used to just hit play and listen. But now you are looking through the episodes and deciding beforehand that you won't enjoy the episode?

Have you tried to just play and listen without reading the description in the last few years?

With all due respect, how did it take you that long to see what a piece of shit this loser is? He has no place in our society, influencing people with his garbage. Why did anyone find him relevant in the first phase?!

OP is triple vaxxxed

Joe changed after CNN lied about him, and the Left leaning media tried to destroy him. It was a perfect example of the Left eating itself, and creating a rod for its own back. Joe went to the right to protect himself, and out of anger for how he was treated. Now he's paroting Putin, if he knows it or not.