Putting aside for a moment all the ****ed up **** that attracts people to Rogan. And I honestly think this should be the most important conversation. **** dude is peddling is dangerous
My take on this success...
Joe Rogan is talented. He had a successful media career before the podcast, was a successful stand-up, his work with the UFC. I when it comes to the skill of interviewing for the format he does, he is good at that. You don't get a lot of good long-form interviews, and the length Joe does them, that can stay entertaining throughout from other podcasters.
However, I think that luck, even when acknowledged, is underestimated.
-His built-in fame from MTV, NBC, the UFC, and stand-up specials. Being a celebrity launching a podcast is not the same as an average Joe
-Joe was putting a lot of media out there before his podcast, from like the early 2000s. He had a blog he used to post things to. He used to live stream on places like U-Stream too. I remember seeing some of that stuff, it was most definitely rough. Mans had years of practice for the podcast before it launched, even then the podcast was rough at the beginning.
-Joe started his official podcast in like what? 2008-2009? When the podcast market was much smaller and years of experience doing similar stuff for him to draw on.
-Joe is a celebrity and stand-up, he has celebrity friends and comedians. Them coming on the show talking wild, and providing entertaining content helped the podcast a ton. Joe didn't launch a long-form interview podcast from the jump
-The rise of the UFC helped a lot because he then became one of the few media places you would see MMA discussions. He was knowledgeable about the sport, how dudes trained, the grappling scene, behinds-the-scenes info on fighters from working in the UFC, etc. If you were an MMA fan during that time, his MMA content was a great listen
-Him having a live stream of his podcast helped him because the video would end up on YouTube. In a time when Youtube was not overflowing with creators. Then he started to officially put clips on there. Making the show more suitable for a video audience clearly affected the pod too.
All this helped him build an audience before he solidly committed to the long-form interview stuff with "interesting" guesses.