Today we are sharing an episode made by our colleagues at Science Vs. In the piece, they dive deep on the effects of COVID misinformation spread by the show The Joe Rogan Experience, specifically in one episode featuring Dr. Robert Malone. The Science Vs. team interrogates the question: just what kind of damage can a show do to a society in the midst of a pandemic? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Hi there folks, it's Emmanuel.
Many of you may have seen a lot of the recent news around Joe Rogan and his show the Joe Rogan experience, namely that he and guests on his show have been spreading Covid misinformation and also that Spotify, the company I work for and which exclusively distributes Joe Rogan's show, recently removed more than 70 episodes after a bunch of footage surfaced showing him using the n word and saying a lot of other, frankly racist shit.
There's been a ton written and said about that.
And to be honest, I'm not going to sit here and waste more of my breath on Joe Rogan than I have to, except to share something I heard recently that I actually found really helpful about one aspect of this whole thing.
Our colleagues over at science versus just put out an episode that dove deep on the effects of COVID misinformation spread by Joe Rogan's show.
It really interrogates the question, just what kind of damage can a show do to a society in the midst of a pandemic?
And it's excellent.
I hope you give it a listen.
Okay, here's the show.
Hi, I'm Wendy Zuckerman and you're listening to science versus from Gimlet.
Today on the show, we are diving into the world of misinformation.
We had been busily working on other episodes for our new season, but then quickly shifted gears because of Joe Rogan, host of the most listened to podcast on Spotify, being accused of being a public health menace for repeatedly promoting falsehoods about Covid-19 on his show.
Now if you missed this, perhaps too busy watching the Australian Open on your ash Barty destiny is fulfilled.
Anyway, if you're out of the loop, here's the hot tea.
Joe Rogan is an incredibly popular podcaster.
It's been reported by a bunch of news outlets that millions of people listen to his show.
And back in December, he aired this interview with a guy called Doctor Robert Malone.
Now Malone did some early fundamental research with mRNA, but since then he's become famous for getting kicked off Twitter after some say he spread misinformation about the vaccines.
Now in this interview with Joe Rogan, Malone did make the COVID vaccines look bad.
He talked about scary side effects, seemed to suggest that boosters could increase your risk of getting Covid, implied the vaccines are a risk to our fertility.