Joe Rogan Interrupts Podcast to Call Out 'Distraction'—'Calm Down'

Joe Rogan interrupted his podcast to call out a distraction while filming—and the episode's guest thought he was talking about him.

During the November 27 episode of The Joe Rogan Experience, the podcast host had on television host and narrator Mike Rowe. Rowe is the creator and host of Dirty Jobs, Somebody's Gotta Do It, and Facebook's Returning the Favor.

At the beginning of the episode, Rogan announced that Carl, a dog belonging to his producer Jamie Vernon was "over there snoring." Eventually, he told Vernon that the French bulldog was "a little bit of a f****** distraction. Can he, uh, calm down? Tranq him."

When Vernon said: "I don't hear him at all," Rogan responded: "Oh we hear him. We don't have our headphones on, maybe we should put our headphones on."

Joe Rogan during UFC 274 at Footprint Center on May 7, 2022, in Phoenix, Arizona. He has called out a distraction while recording an episode of his podcast. Christian Petersen/Getty Images

Initially confused, Rowe said he thought Rogan was talking about him.

"I thought you were talking about me for an awful moment," Rowe said.

"No, Carl! Like, we wore him out. Jamie was throwing the toy for Carl," Rogan explained, before imitating Carl's snoring.

Once the two men cleared the air, Rowe said Carl was "such a great dog," before adding: "It's such a personality thing, for me with dogs and pets in general, you know. Like, you know right away if this thing has a personality."

"Oh he's got a lot of, Carl's got a lot of personality, there's no doubt about that," Rogan said.

Elsewhere in the episode, the two men spoke about the success of The Joe Rogan Experience, which is the most listened to podcast on Spotify. The UFC commentator said it was as "simple" as his interest in talking to people, to which Rowe said there was more to it than that.

Newsweek emailed a spokesperson for Rogan for comment on Wednesday outside of normal business hours.

"It's just having conversations with people, I like talking to people, it's fun. I enjoy it, I'm a curious person and I like talking to people, it's real simple," Rogan said, to which Rowe responded: "'Just because it's simple,' right? You make it sound like a parenthetical. 'Oh it's just a conversation,' that's only just the hardest thing there is to do."

However, Rogan doubled down on his point, adding: "It's not really [hard]. [More people don't do it] because they don't enjoy it... Some people genuinely don't like talking to people. You know why? Because they are interested in themselves. You have to be interested in other people... I am curious as to how someone with different biology, different life experiences, different geographical locations... how are they navigating the world."

Rogan has divided opinion over the years with his show. In his latest Netflix special, Bones and All, comedian Anthony Jeselnik said anyone who listens to Rogan's podcast is a "loser." He also suggested Rogan's fans were conspiracy theorists.

"Guys, do not get me wrong, I like Joe, Joe's my friend, Joe's a good guy," Jeselnik said on his Netflix standup show.

"But if you listen to his podcast, you're a f***** loser."

The comedian cited his "crazy conspiracy theorist" brother-in-law as an example of one of Rogan's "target demographic" and described him as someone who "doesn't think four hours is long enough" for a podcast episode.

In November, Seán Ono Lennon, who is the son of The Beatles legend John Lennon and artist and singer Yoko Ono, shared his thoughts on Rogan and his politics in a post on X, formerly Twitter.

"People saying the left needs their own @joerogan don't understand that they can go on his show too. He's not of the right or the left. He's a guy with a long format show with interesting guests," Lennon wrote.

Musk, the owner of X, then chimed in, writing in reply to Lennon, "True."

The podcast host has given mixed political endorsements and preferences in recent years. He endorsed President-elect Donald Trump against Vice President Kamala Harris the night before the November election.

Rogan had said he did not vote for either Trump or President Joe Biden in the 2020 election, but he did endorse Senator Bernie Sanders' campaign during the 2020 Democratic primary.

Two years ago, he said Republican Florida Governor Ron DeSantis was someone who would make a "good candidate" for president. In the 2016 presidential race, Rogan spoke highly of Libertarian Party candidate Gary Johnson.