‘The Joe Rogan Experience’ has been the number one most popular podcast on Spotify for four years, but a controversial new audio show has just usurped it.
The new podcast, called ‘The Telepathy Tapes,’ is co-hosted by filmmaker Ky Dickens and psychiatrist Dr. Diane Hennacy Powell.
On the show, Dickens and Dr. Powell explore the ‘profound abilities of non-speakers with autism,’ according to The Telepathy Tapes’ website.
The hosts claim that those abilities include ‘telepathy and otherworldly perceptions,’ citing experiments involving nonverbal autistic children and others with similar disorders.
The podcast has become so popular that it pushed Joe Rogan‘s down to the number two spot on Spotify’s podcasts charts, but not everyone is loving it.
Its far-out claims have elicited skepticism from some listeners and experts who question the validity of the research Dickens and Dr. Powell reference, and the conclusions they draw from it.
That said, the show has to be doing something right to have dethroned Rogan, whose podcast has gripped Spotify listeners’ attention since he sold the exclusivity rights to the streaming service in 2020.
That $100 million deal reportedly brought 14 million new subscribers to Spotify.
‘The Joe Rogan Experience’ has been the number one most popular podcast on Spotify for four years. But a controversial new audio show has just usurped it
Since then, Rogan’s podcast has largely maintained its stronghold at the top of the charts, aside from a few brief exceptions.
For example, he briefly lost his number one spot to ‘Not Gonna Lie,’ a podcast hosted by Kylie Kelce, wife of former Kansas City Chiefs’ center Jason Kelce.
But Rogan quickly regained his standing. His podcast now boasts up to 190 million downloads per month.
Just how long The Telepathy Tapes will maintain its top spot remains to be seen.
But at least for now, it is taking Spotify by storm.
‘Has anyone else listened to THE TELEPATHY TAPES podcast yet? I binged it in one day last week and cannot stop thinking about it,’ one X user posted.
‘Okay, I relented and listened to The Telepathy Tapes. Absolutely 100 percent mind blowing,’ another wrote.
The podcast has earned a perfect five-star rating from more than 1,400 reviewers since debuting on September 3, 2024.
Despite the new competition, Rogan said he is actually a fan of the show too.
On a recent episode of The Joe Rogan Experience said he listens to the show, and believes ‘some telepathy is real.’
‘I’m only on episode two, but it’s really fascinating man,’ he told American actor and stand-up comedian Duncan Trussell, who appeared as a guest on the show.
Rogan is not one to shy away from controversial ideas.
He has been criticized for promoting conspiracy theories and hosting guests who spread misinformation and pseudoscience on his show.
In 2022, he publicly responded to criticisms that he claimed misinformation about the coronavirus pandemic on The Joe Rogan Experience, arguing that the claims were untrue, and that he was merely sharing ‘opinions.’
Despite wide-ranging opinions about Rogan and his podcast, he has amassed record-breaking fame and wealth through his show.
He is currently the highest-paid podcaster in the world, with an estimated annual earning of $30 million, according to Forbes.
So if history teaches us anything, it won’t be long until Rogan is back on top of the Spotify charts again.