S02E01 – Should Joe Rogan be censored?

In this episode of Finding Common Battle Grounds, we discuss whether Joe Rogan’s podcast, The Joe Rogan Experience, should be censored because of COVID-19 misinformation. We actually struggled to find common ground in this episode, which surprised us. To begin with, Josh argued that the attempts to censor Joe Rogan were rooted more in what was perceived to be vaccine hesitancy rather than misinformation, but this required clarification. We did agree that we should listen to experts, though skepticism is warranted when listening to everyone, including experts. Josh suggested that the individuals who questioned whether Joe Rogan should be censored lacked credibility, but that was complicated. We ultimately concluded that the media made errors on this point, not those raising concerns. We didn’t agree on whether minor efforts to censor Joe Rogan, like adding a flag or warning message to podcasts that contain misinformation that could be harmful, should take place. The big area of debate was in who gets to determine what qualifies as misinformation. We discuss this briefly in a short bonus section after the main podcast ends.