Joseph James Rogan (born August 11, 1967) is an American podcaster, Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) color commentator, comedian, actor, and former television presenter. He hosts The Joe Rogan Experience, a podcast that he launched in 2009 in which he discusses topics such as current events, comedy, politics, philosophy, science, and hobbies with a variety of guests. Rogan was born in Newark, New Jersey, and began his career in comedy in August 1988 in the Boston area. After relocating to Los Angeles in 1994, he signed an exclusive developmental deal with Disney and appeared as an actor on several television shows, including Hardball and NewsRadio. In 1997, he started working for the UFC as an interviewer and color commentator. He released his first comedy special, I'm Gonna Be Dead Someday ..., in 2000 and hosted the game show Fear Factor from 2001 to 2006. After leaving Fear Factor, Rogan focused on his stand-up career and hosted more comedy specials. He launched The Joe Rogan Experience in 2009; by 2015, it was one of the most popular podcasts in the world, regularly receiving millions of views per episode. Spotify obtained exclusive distribution rights to The Joe Rogan Experience in 2020 for US$100 million. In 2022, Rogan became the subject of controversy for hosting physicians on his podcast who provided misinformation regarding COVID-19. On May 19, 2020, Rogan announced that he had signed a multi-year licensing deal with Spotify worth an estimated $100 million, making it one of the largest licensing agreements in the podcast business. The deal made The Joe Rogan Experience available on Spotify starting September 1, 2020, and exclusive on the platform from January 2021. Clips from the video version will continue to be available on YouTube. In February 2022, Spotify removed 113 episodes of The Joe Rogan Experience over the course of a few days owing in part to some of the episodes having been perceived to have racist and insensitive language.