UPDATED June 2026: Joe Rogan Pushed RFK Jr. onto Trump (26 News Clips)
This is a curated file of 22, now 26 news clips from TracingCOVID/TracingVRL that mentioned 'Joe Rogan'
Thank you to paying subscribers for keeping this project going. The U.S. government is officially under antivaxx occupation, a topic I’m writing about in another upcoming newsletter. But for now …
We’re hearing chatter about Democrats searching for a “Joe Rogan of the left” to help their electoral chances at the ballot box. I composed this compilation of news clips that mentioned him to help refine what that might look like: a podcast host who launders disinformation about, and sometimes endorses: bird-flu-laden raw milk consumption, AIDS virus denialism, antivaxx presidential candidates, and U.S.A.I.D. conspiracy myths. If you find this useful please support this project with a paid subscription, thank you.
2026
🆕 Jun 03 Interest in a Potentially Toxic Measles Treatment Spiked After Joe Rogan Bump, Study Says | Comments by RFK Jr. and Joe Rogan appear to have encouraged a 38.7% increase in vitamin A poisoning cases early last year. (Gizmodo) - “A second series of spikes surrounded two late March podcast appearances by certified physician and noted vaccine skeptic Suzanne Humphries, who promoted the same two questionable remedies. Neither of Humphries’ interviews involved a government official, but one did occur on the chart-topping podcast of Joe Rogan.”
🆕 May 24 More cancer patients are using the alternative treatment ivermectin and Joe Rogan’s podcast may be the reason why | Researchers said the spike in prescriptions was a sign that Americans are turning towards unofficial sources for medical information in times of crisis (Independent UK) - “During the January 2025 episode, which has more than 13 million views on YouTube, Gibson spoke of three friends who had been battling stage-four cancer until they took ivermectin and fenbendazole, part of the class of drugs that includes benzimidazole.” … “The spike was especially pronounced in white patients, men, and patients in the South, groups that overlap strongly with Rogan’s listenership, the scientists found.”
🆕 May 12 2026 Ivermectin prescriptions spiked after Mel Gibson touted it for cancer on Joe Rogan’s podcast | There is no hard evidence that ivermectin can treat cancer, but that hasn’t stopped people from trying it (Scientific American) - “Prescriptions specifically for patients with cancer also rose precipitously—rates were 2.5 times higher last July than they were in January 2025, compared with the same period in 2024. Male patients and white patients, as well as patients living in the U.S. South, were also more likely to be prescribed the drug, according to the research.”
🆕 Apr 18 Joe Rogan's text message to Trump that spurred president to announce huge changes to psychedelic drug policy... before awkward Oval Office moment (Daily Mail UK) - “President Donald Trump signed a sweeping executive order to fast-track psychedelic drug research after a direct text message from podcast giant Joe Rogan.” … “The directive aims to accelerate federal review of substances like ibogaine and LSD, marking a significant shift in US drug policy. The move followed what Rogan described as a brief exchange with the president that quickly escalated into a full-scale policy push inside the administration.”
2025
Feb 06 How an ex-State Department official fueled Elon Musk’s attack on USAID (Anchorage Daily News) - "Musk's intense focus appears to have begun only late last year, when he began publicly criticizing the agency after conservative activist Mike Benz appeared on Joe Rogan's podcast to rail against it. According to a Washington Post analysis, Musk did not mention USAID on X until Dec. 10, when he began sharing commentary from Benz's appearance on Rogan's show the week before." Benz told Rogan that one's brain is "being tricked" when they see the phrase "USAID" and that it was purely a front for the CIA, “not an aid organization”.
2024
Nov 25 2024 Bird Flu Detected In Batch Of Raw Milk Sold In California (Forbes) - "Several prominent online influencers -- like Joe Rogan -- and right-wing figures have promoted the consumption of raw milk with dubious claims about its health benefits. Health and Human Services Secretary nominee, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has also emerged as a prominent supporter of unpasteurized dairy and has even said he only drinks raw milk. In a post on X last month, Kennedy threatened to fire FDA employees who he accused of waging a 'war on public health' by discouraging raw milk consumption, among other things."
Nov 25 2024 Trump's Cabinet picks look like revenge of the bros (Los Angeles Times) - “A Pew Research Center study this year found that nearly 40% of young adults ages 18 to 29 say they get their news from online influencers, who are overwhelmingly male and lean right. And 65% of those who get their news from influencers say it helps shape their understanding of news and politics. ... In fact, Bloomberg described Rogan’s interviews in general and specifically with Trump, who spent three hours on Rogan’s program in the waning days of the presidential campaign as chummy, digressive, conspiratorial, adulatory and rarely oppositional. “
Nov 05 2024 An Idaho health department is barred from offering COVID shots (Honolulu Star-Advertiser) - "An Idaho health department is no longer offering COVID-19 shots after its board voted last month to restrict the department from doing so, an unusual step driven largely by misinformation about the side effects and safety of the shots.... Vaccine hesitancy and misinformation have hampered the uptake of COVID shots since they were first rolled out, but doctors say that pushback against the vaccines appears to have gained even more momentum very recently. ... And last week, Sen. JD Vance, Trumps running mate, voiced concerns about COVID vaccine side effects on an episode of 'The Joe Rogan Experience.'"
Nov 04 2024 Joe Rogan endorses Trump on eve of the election (CNN) - “Popular podcast host Joe Rogan officially endorsed Donald Trump on the eve of the election, a move Trumps team swiftly touted as a major win in the final hours of their campaign. Rogan on Monday released his latest podcast featuring a two-and-a-half-hour interview with billionaire X owner and top Trump surrogate Elon Musk.”
Nov 03 2024 Trump doesn't rule out banning vaccines if he becomes president: I'll make a decision' (WVIT NBC 30 New Britain CT) - "Former President Donald Trump said Robert F. Kennedy Jr. would have a 'big role in the administration' if he wins Tuesday, telling NBC News in a phone interview that he is open to some of his more controversial ideas....On an episode of the 'The Joe Rogan Experience' last week, Sen. JD Vance of Ohio, Trumps running mate, also spoke about his experience with the Covid vaccine, expressing skepticism about it."
Oct 31 2024 Trump Allies Promote Vaccine Skepticism In Lead Up To Election (Forbes) - "Trump himself has not been vocal about vaccine skepticism recently though he previously suggested they are 'very dangerous' and can cause autism but some people in his orbit have been promoting anti-vaccine claims that have been widely debunked. Trump’s running mate, Vance, said on Joe Rogan’s podcast, which aired Thursday, he got 'redpilled' or had his belief changed on the COVID-19 vaccine after it caused him to be as sick as (he’d) ever been for two days, but when he had COVID it felt like a sinus infection. Vance also said he knows people who have been 'vaccine-injured,' including a Senate colleague 'who doesn’t want to talk about it but worries that its, like, permanently impacted his sort of sense of balance and dizziness.'“
Aug 09 2024 Trump Lashes Out At Joe Rogan For Backing RFK Jr. (Forbes) - "On Thursday's episode of 'The Joe Rogan Experience,' the podcaster said Kennedy is the only candidate who 'makes sense to me' and said he felt Kennedy was the only candidate who was not trying to 'gaslight' or 'manipulate' voters. On Friday, Rogan said his comments weren't 'an endorsement' but that he likes RFK Jr. as a person 'and I really appreciate the way he discusses things with civility and intelligence.' On Friday, Trump lashed out on Truth Social, the social media site he owns, asking 'It will be interesting to see how loudly Joe Rogan gets BOOED the next time he enters the UFC Ring??? MAGA2024'“
Aug 04 2024 Joe Rogan’s new Netflix special features anti-vax jokes and mocks trans people (Independent UK) - “After Covid, I’m like, I don’t think we went to the moon. I think Michelle Obamas got a d***. I think Pizzagate is real. I think there’s direct energy weapons in Antarctica." I’m just kidding I don’t think Michelle Obama’s got a d***, but I believe all of that other s***.”
May 30 2024 RFK's voters know they're not electing the next president. They're with him anyway (NPR Illinois) - "NASHVILLE — Robert F. Kennedy Jr.s presidential campaign is the political equivalent of a Rorschach test: it's open to interpretation, it aims to be a lot of different things to a lot of different people and its significance and meaning are squarely in the eyes of the beholder....'I do question everything I hear now,' she said. 'I feel like my eyes have been opened since learning about Kennedy and looking a little more in depth, not just mainstream and not just Joe Rogan's podcast, not the popular stuff, but going a little more in depth. And I'm actually quite upset that I was fooled like that.'"
May 22 2024 Four ways vaccine skeptics misled you on measles and more (WUSF 89.7-FM Florida Public Radio) - "Claims like 'they don’t want you to know' aren’t new among the anti-vaccine set, even though the movement has long had an outsize voice. The most listened-to podcast in the U.S., 'The Joe Rogan Experience,' regularly features guests who cast doubt on scientific consensus. Last year on the show, Kennedy repeated the debunked claim that vaccines cause autism."
May 20 2024 Joe Rogan-backed pharma company sued for peddling health supplements with false advertising (The Independent UK) - "Rogan has been advertising and promoting the Alpha BRAIN supplement line created by Onnit on his podcast for many years."
Feb 15 2024 Joe Rogan and Bret Weinstein Promote AIDS Denialism to an Audience of Millions (Vice) - “Bret Weinstein, the evolutionary biology professor turned podcaster and ivermectin guy, repeated a series of discredited pseudo-theories about AIDS in a recent appearance on Joe Rogan’s podcast. Weinstein, a frequent guest, told Rogan that he found the theory that party drugs like poppers cause AIDS to be ‘surprisingly compelling.’ (It is not.) Weinstein also told Rogan he came to these ideas by reading a recent book by anti-vaccine activist and presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy, creating a sort of unholy turducken of misinformation passed onto an audience of millions.”
Feb 03 2024 Controversial podcast host Joe Rogan inks new deal with Spotify (WEAR-TV ABC 3 Pensacola FL) - "The show is consistently Spotify's most popular podcast but also a frequent cause of controversy for the company. Most notably, Spotify came under huge pressure in 2022 to drop Rogan over his anti-coronavirus vaccine comments and use of racial slurs, with some musicians, including Neil Young, pulling their music from the platform in protest. ... Spotify's shares closed up $3.51, or nearly 2% to $222.47 per share on Friday."
2023
Jul 07 2023 Opinion: How Joe Rogan's vaccine-debate pitch undermines real science (Calgary Herald) - “Ten years ago, while still a relatively fresh academic, I was invited onto the Joe Rogan podcast to debate Peter Duesberg, a biologist who was infamously claiming that the HIV virus is not the cause of AIDS. I declined the invitation for several reasons, not least of which was that I was not comfortable granting credibility to a fringe and dangerous theory.”
Jun 20 2023 Vaccine expert says anti-vaxxers stalked him after Joe Rogan pressed him to debate RFK Jr. (The Hill) - “Businessman Mark Cuban said trying to bully Dr Hotez is ridiculous. Cuban said Rogan and Kennedy have producers and staff that would prepare them for any debate, and argued the podcast host would get to control the conversation. “
Jun 20 2023 Pro-vaccine doctor stalked at home, harassed online during feud with Joe Rogan (KBOI CBS 2 Boise ID) - Neil Young and Jonie Mitchell pulled their catalog from the music platform in protest. "... As a result of Spotify’s internal review, many of Rogans episodes that contain discussion of COVID vaccines are supplemented with vetted information about the shots. When asked by Vice why the RFK episode was not taken down in violation of its rules, a Spotify spokesperson said that the pair did not break the crucial rule of saying vaccines were explicitly designed to be ineffective, and or injure or kill large numbers of people... A published by Cornell University and the University of California, Berkeley found that Twitters algorithms are showing users posts that amplify animosity much more since Musk took over the network."
Jun 19 2023 Fact Check: Did RFK Jr. Claim That Ukraine Has Cost U.S. $8 Trillion? (Newsweek) - "A tweet by podcaster Liam McCollum, posted on June 18, 2023, viewed 4.7 million times, included a clip of Robert F Kennedy Jr. recorded for The Joe Rogan Experience podcast, in which Kennedy Jr. said: '$8 trillion on the Ukraine war. That's $24 trillion that they had to print to pay for nothing.' ... During the interview on the Joe Rogan Experience, Kennedy Jr. doubled down on claims that vaccines cause autism, which has been repeatedly disproven."
2022
Feb 08 2022 Fact-Checking Joe Rogan’s Interview With Robert Malone That Caused an Uproar (New York Times) - “For over three hours, Dr. Malone and Mr. Rogan discussed theories and claims about the coronavirus pandemic and vaccines. The conversation included a false equivalence between the vaccine and Nazi medical experiments, baseless conjecture that President Biden is not actually vaccinated and inaccurate interpretations of government data and guidelines.”
Jan 31 2022 Joe Rogan’s Covid claims: what does the science actually say? (The Guardian) - "Rogan has claimed he isn’t anti-vaccine, but during a 23 April 2021 episode of his podcast he said: If you’re like 21 years old, and you say to me, should I get vaccinated? Ill go, no.... In his 12 January 2022 episode, Rogan claimed the risk of myocarditis (heart muscle inflammation) among vaccinated 12- to 17-year-olds was higher than the risk associated with catching Covid.... In his 20 August 2021, podcast, Rogan claimed the Pfizer and Moderna Covid-19 vaccines were not really vaccines, but gene therapy."
Jan 24 2022 A vaccine scientist’s discredited claims have bolstered a movement of misinformation (Washington Post) - “Twitter barred him [Robert Malone] for violating the platform’s coronavirus misinformation policy, but he has found platforms elsewhere recently appearing on an episode of Joe Rogan’s wildly popular podcast, which averages 11 million listeners per episode.”
2021
Apr 30 2021 Podcast host Joe Rogan clarifies vaccination comments: 'I'm not anti-vax' (BBC) - "But Rogan did not walk back his suggestion that the young and healthy do not ‘need’ vaccines, which drew backlash from White House officials. ... In that episode, Rogan told listeners that he would not suggest the vaccine to a healthy 21-year-old. 'If you're a healthy person, and you're exercising all the time, and you're young, and you're eating well...like, I don't think you need to worry about this.'"
TracingVRL is changing the way the infodemic is tracked and reported.