I'm Not Entirely Sure Joe Rogan Deserves One Hundred Million Dollars For Podcasting

When I was a child, my father would regularly express wide-eyed disbelief at the salaries of superstar athletes. Like many sports fans, he had trouble wrapping his mind around the idea that All-Stars would get paid two million dollars a year just for playing basketball. 

I’m less amazed by the obscene amounts of money musicians, movie stars and athletes make. I’m not a fan of capitalism, to say the least, but I understand that the fortunes superstars receive for being the best in the world at what they do represent investments and not gifts.

Yet I will be the first to concede that when I learned yesterday that Joe Rogan had signed a deal for 100 MILLION DOLLARS with Spotify my response mirrored my dad’s disbelief that people were paid MILLIONS to dribble a basketball or hit home runs. 

100 MILLION DOLLARS JUST FOR DOING A PODCAST? It struck me as patently ridiculous. It was more than ridiculous: it was insulting. On an intellectual level, I understood the logic behind the decision. Rogan is one of the most popular podcasters around, if not THE most popular, with a vast army of bro, jock and dude fans who would be happy to sign up for Spotify if it’s the only way they can get their fix. 

Rogan is so popular, and consequently so powerful, that his endorsement of Bernie Sanders made headlines, in part because it contradicted the public perception of the former Man Show cohost as a “free thinker” happy to give the odious, deplorable likes of Milo Yiannopoulos, Candace Owens, and Alex Jones exposure by featuring them on his show. 

I’ve never listened to a minute of The Joe Rogan Experience. I have no interest in him whatsoever but I couldn’t help but feel like his 100 MILLION DOLLAR deal served two purposes: to establish what an enormous cultural, lucrative figure Rogan is to his fans and listeners and the country as a whole and to kill the spirit and destroy the will of every other podcaster alive. 

Thinking about Rogan and his 100 MILLION DOLLAR DEAL I realized that I was insulted as a human being but I was also insulted as a podcaster. 

That surprised me, because up until that point I did not really think of myself as a podcaster. 

When I was co-hosting my old podcast, Nathan Rabin’s Happy Cast, I did not think of myself as a podcaster, but rather as a writer and author who did a podcast. I thought of my co-host Clint Worthington as a podcaster because he has been hosting podcasts forever, and possesses the unique skillset necessary to be a good podcaster. He knows how to edit and produce and host and talk into microphone without embarrassing himself. 

I did not have a lot of confidence in myself as a podcaster the first few years. I tried my best to be interesting and entertaining and funny and insightful but I’ve always been self-conscious about my voice and the cruel things commenters would say about my appearances on the A.V Club podcasts back in the day made me feel like I had no business podcasting.

I’m more confident about Travolta/Cage because I feel like the idea behind the podcast is rock-solid, our guests are great and Clint is a delight yet 12 mostly terrific episodes in, our monthly Patreon haul is seemingly frozen at two hundred and forty three dollars, or roughly ninety-nine million, nine hundred ninety-nine thousand, seven hundred fifty-seven dollars less than the 100 MILLION DOLLARS Rogan will be making from Spotify.  

I can’t help but think that in a perfect world, Rogan would be paid substantially less than 100 MILLION DOLLARS and Clint and myself would make more than 243 dollars a month. 

To be honest, being jealous and a little bit angry about another podcaster’s staggering, literally unbelievable success makes me feel more like a podcaster than just about anything else has. You don’t need to have your own podcast to bitterly resent Rogan’s incredible fortune, but it certainly helps.

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