[copperx]

Why do people of such intelligence subject themselves to being interviewed by dumb-as-a-rock Joe Rogan?

I must admit that I often watch his interviews because he invites interesting people, but I can't help but cringe when Rogan gives his opinions.

[dnh44]

His interviews are not adversarial and he is not judgemental towards his guests. He isn't there to put his guests on the spot. He isn't there to get a juicy soundbite taken out of context. He allows his guests to speak for as long as they want. And his guests appear to enjoy themselves.

These things are all true even if the guest or their ideas are extremely controversial. Maybe Joe Rogan is just smart in a way that's different to the way that you are smart.

[Strom]

Joe Rogan might not be the most knowledgeable, but he has a key characteristic that a lot of people lack. He is willing to admit that he is wrong when shown evidence and will adopt the more reasonable view as his own. While a lot of "smart" people will defend their views beyond reason just because admiting fault goes against their "being smart" persona.

[MetalGuru]

Seriously. That guy is a stoned idiot who massively overestimates the insight of his high ramblings.

[saagarjha]

I don't think people listen to the show to listen to him, and he probably knows that. He does, however, seem to be reasonably good at getting his guests to talk about interesting things.

[dkersten]

He also spreads misinformation.

EDIT: Ok, I suppose I should back my claim up.

Joe Rogan has pushed the “DMT is produced in our pineal gland” narrative, but there is no evidence to back this up. I’ll report a comment I made elsewhere and also link a separate reddit discussion which cites various sources. I will note that, in fairness to Joe, he said this a while ago, so perhaps he’s not so quick to jump the gun now, I don’t know, I don’t listen to his podcasts, but perhaps he’s better now.

“We all have it in our bodies” — This is an often repeated myth that has never been proven. The myth originates from Rick Strassman’s work, who himself has said that he only detected a precursor, not DMT itself and that everything else he wrote about it was hypothetical speculation. There have, apparently, been recent studies that found DMT synthesised in rat brains, but it has not yet been proven whether this translates to humans or not. Cognitive neuroscientist Dr. Indre Viskontas stated that while DMT shares a similar molecular structure to seritonin and melatonin, there is no evidence that it is made inside the brain. Similarly, Dr. Bryan Yamamoto of the neurosciencedepartment at the University of Toledo said: “I know of no evidence that DMT is produced anywhere in the body. It’s chemical structure us similar to serotonin and melatonin, but their endogenous actions are very different from DMT.”

This reddit discussion also links various sources, although I didn’t check them all myself: https://www.reddit.com/r/JoeRogan/comments/mwz2h/dmt_has_nev...

[ghostbrainalpha]

There is a difference between the current politicized phrase "spreading misinformation" and being wrong.

Anyone who speaks on the record about their hobbies for thousands of hours will say some things that are incorrect. He might not understand something, and he is usually pretty humble about his knowledge level.

But "spreading misinformation" is something that people do because they are intentionally misleading others, or have something to gain.

I don't think he is benefiting much from the pineal gland narrative. And it sounds like from the information you cited, it may even be correct, even if its premature to state it as fact.

[dkersten]

That’s fair, thanks for pointing it out. I’ll be more careful with how I express such things in future.

Regarding the pineal gland, it might be true, but it hasn’t been proven and multiple neuroscientists have stated that while DMT is similar to compounds found in the brain, it still functions quite differently and they have never seen any evidence to suggest that DMT exists in our bodies. There was a study finding it in mice brains, so it may still turn out that we have it in ours, but it’s definitely premature to make any such assumptions and definitely premature to repeat the trope.