At this point Joe Rogan has built an almost cult-like following based on his hot takes and advise for listeners to his wildly popular podcast – The Joe Rogan Experience.

It is precisely for his influence that medical experts penned an open letter to Spotify, which hosts his podcast, to create a misinformation policy following a recently problematic episode.

A group of 270 doctors, nurses and medical researchers added their names to the open letter, with the episode in question being published on 31st December 2021, where the guest was a virologist by the name of Dr. Robert Malone.

In the episode, Dr. Malone made several baseless claims and even advised that young people to not get vaccinated, as well as advising the use of ivermectin as a preventative treatment for COVID-19, none of which is backed by evidence and has widely been debunked by the medical fraternity.

“Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, Joe Rogan has repeatedly spread misleading and false claims on his podcast, provoking distrust in science and medicine. He has discouraged vaccination in young people and children, incorrectly claimed that mRNA vaccines are ‘gene therapy,’ promoted off-label use of ivermectin to treat COVID-19 (contrary to FDA warnings), and spread a number of unsubstantiated conspiracy theories,” the letter explains.

“In episode #1757, Rogan hosted Dr. Robert Malone, who was suspended from Twitter for spreading misinformation about COVID-19. Dr. Malone used the JRE platform to further promote numerous baseless claims, including several falsehoods about COVID-19 vaccines and an unfounded theory that societal leaders have ‘hypnotized’ the public,” it added.

At the time of writing, Spotify has note issued an official reply or statement regarding the letter, but it is not the first time that Joe Rogan’s podcast has stirred controversy. Given the popularity of his podcast, however, which is said to be the most listened to in the world, the likelihood of Spotify taking action against Rogan looks slim.

In an interview with Axios last year, Spotify CEO Daniel Ek was asked about explicit content on the streaming platform, but it seems like the company is quite happy to take a hands off approach.

“We have a lot of really well-paid rappers on Spotify too, that make tens of millions of dollars, if not more, each year from Spotify. And we don’t dictate what they’re putting in their songs, either,” he noted.