Welcome to the Making Sense podcast.

This is Sam Harris.

Okay, well my friend Joe Rogan has come under considerable public scrutiny and personal

attack in recent days.

And I want to say a few things in response to that controversy.

I've been critical of Joe's coverage of COVID and vaccines.

In particular, I was critical of his platforming Peter McCullough and Robert Maloney.

I reached out to Joe privately about that and I've said a few things publicly.

As you might expect, I restrained myself in public because Joe is a friend, but I didn't

leave any doubt about where I stood.

My primary concern was that given his vast audience, getting public health messaging wrong,

even a little wrong, could do a lot of harm.

Joe is generally considered to have the biggest podcast on earth.

And he has greater reach than almost any mainstream media outlet.

So this comes with great responsibility.

But it's a responsibility that Joe never sought and has been slow to appreciate.

And I understand why.

Joe is not a scientist or an academic or a journalist or he's a comedian.

And because he's a comedian, whatever the topic, he can always pull the rip cord by saying,

what the hell do I know, I'm just a comic, right?

This is something that I and many other podcasters can't do.

And he podcasts so much, he sometimes produces 20 hours of content a week.

...