Spotify Has Now Deleted 42 Episodes of ‘The Joe Rogan Experience’

Streaming giant recently purged another two episodes of Rogan’s popular podcast from its platform

Joe Rogan

Spotify has now deleted more than 40 episodes of “The Joe Rogan Experience” from its archives, after the audio streaming giant recently — and quietly — removed two more episodes from its service.

One of the latest episodes deleted, as first reported by Digital Music News on Tuesday, was episode No. 411 with Bulletproof Coffee founder Dave Asprey. The podcast episode initially aired in November 2013 but is now unavailable to Spotify listeners, bringing the total to three episodes featuring Asprey that have been deleted overall.

It’s unclear why the episodes have been purged, but as DMN pointed out, “One explanation for the removals is that Asprey frequently backs controversial anti-aging and scientific theories, including claims that Bulletproof Coffee is extremely healthy while other coffee brands are not.” The 47-year-old Asprey has also claimed he will live to the age of 180, at minimum, thanks to his unconventional diet and lifestyle approach.

Another now-missing episode of “Joe Rogan” spotted by DMN is episode No. 149, which featured several comedians, including Al Madrigal, Brian Redban and Felicia Michaels. That episode, which was recorded live at The Ice House in Pasadena, Calif., debuted in 2011. Again, it’s unclear why the episode has been pulled.

Reps for Spotify did not immediately respond to TheWrap’s request for comment on why the episodes were removed.

The two latest removals brings the total number of episodes pulled from Rogan’s archives to 42. For reference, he just released episode No. 1,631 on Thursday. Other installments that have been deleted include four episodes featuring comedian Chris D’Elia, who was recently accused of having sex with and soliciting more than 100 nude photos from a 17-year-old girl, as well as episodes with Gavin McInnes, Eddie Bravo, Alex Jones and Milo Yiannopoulos.

Spotify became the exclusive home to Rogan’s popular show last year, after signing the host to a deal worth $100 million. The Rogan-Spotify pact hasn’t gotten off to the smoothest of starts, however, with a number of Spotify employees last year threatening to strike if certain episodes they claimed were transphobic weren’t deleted from the platform. Others wanted Rogan removed from Spotify altogether.

Rogan, during an episode released in February, confirmed he understood some of his podcast episodes would be removed when he signed with Spotify.

“There were a few episodes they didn’t want on their platform,” Rogan said, per DMN. “And I was like, ‘OK, I don’t care.’”

Comments

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.