I genuinely never understood it. He makes me feel more stupid.

Undoubtedly. Ten years ago it was easier to ignore when he had an interesting guest. He's been riding that momentum.

a long time ago, a new coworker told me he listened to it. I checked out a few episodes. they were shit and made me question the coworker. I searched for episodes with guests I'd be interested in. those episodes were also shit.

my opinion of that coworker was definitely strongly affected by how they regularly listened to Joe Rogan. that, and the fact that their work kind of sucked

If only he didn't wield all of that power