6 Times Things Got Heated On The Joe Rogan Experience
1. Brian Dunning
The majority of the incidents discussed in this list have come out of the blue as part of the conversation going awry or a contentious topic for debate being brought up. However, when author and producer Brian Dunning featured on the JRE back in 2014 the tone of the podcast was set from the moment Joe concluded the pre-show advertisements.
The source of the heated atmosphere that is evident from the outset of this episode can be traced back to an article Dunning wrote in 2008 in which he included Rogan in a list titled Ten Most Wanted: Celebrities Who Promote Harmful Pseudoscience.
The episode starts with the pair discussing Dunning's inclusion of Rogan in his writing while reading his list out loud before stating "God this makes me sound like an !*$%". Despite the provocation, Rogan remains remarkably calm throughout the discussion in which Dunning repeatedly gets caught out for the hypocrisy of criticising Rogan for discussing ideas that he doesn't completely understand while doing the same thing.
A particular high point of this conversation comes when Dunning asserts that there is no need for exogenous supplements because "The reason you poop and pee is that you make more [nutrients] than you need". Rogan is quick to completely debunk this objectively unscientific statement.
Not bad for a pseudoscientist...
Unlike the other guests on this list, it appears that the pair have not reconciled since their conversation. In a follow-up blog post, Dunning claimed that while he harboured no hard feelings towards Rogan the feeling wasn't mutual.
Before proceeding, I want to be clear that there is (for my part at least) not the slightest bit of bad blood between us. [UPDATE: Unfortunately that didn't last long. Joe's last emails to me after the appearance, and after I wrote this, consisted only of obscenities. -BD]
Joe was quick to respond to Dunning's update on Twitter:
Hey, @BrianDunning are you dishonest or just delusional? http://abload.de/img/screenshotvbsi9.jpg… either way I hope you get well soon.