‘The Joe Rogan Experience’ has been the 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.
In the show, Dickens and Dr. Powell explore the “profound abilities of nonverbal people with autism,” according to The Telepathy Tapes website.
Presenters claim those abilities include “telepathy and otherworldly perceptions,” citing experiments with nonverbal autistic children and others with similar disorders.
The podcast has become so popular that it pushed Joe Rogan to the number two spot on Spotify’s podcast charts, but not everyone loves it.
Their wild claims have raised 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 dethrone Rogan, whose podcast has captured the attention of Spotify listeners since he sold exclusive 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 most popular podcast on Spotify for four years. But a controversial new audio program has just usurped it.
Since then, Rogan’s podcast has largely maintained its position at the top of the charts, with a few brief exceptions.
For example, it briefly lost its 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 position. His podcast now has up to 190 million downloads per month.
It remains to be seen how long The Telepathy Tapes will maintain their top spot.
But at least for now, it’s taking Spotify by storm.
Has anyone else listened to THE TELEPATHY TAPES podcast yet? I had too much of it one day last week and I can’t stop thinking about it,” one X user posted.
‘Okay, I gave in and listened to The Telepathy Tapes. Absolutely 100 percent mind-blowing,” wrote another.
The podcast has earned a perfect five-star rating from over 1,400 critics since its debut on September 3, 2024.
Despite the new competition, Rogan said he’s actually a fan of the show, too.
On a recent episode of The Joe Rogan Experience he said that he listens to the show and believes that “some telepathy is real.”
“I’m only on episode two, but it’s really fascinating,” he told American actor and 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 criticism that he claimed there was misinformation about the coronavirus pandemic on The Joe Rogan Experience, arguing that the claims were false and that he was simply sharing “opinions.”
Despite wide opinions about Rogan and his podcast, he has amassed unprecedented fame and wealth through his show.
He is currently the highest-paid podcaster in the world, with an estimated annual earnings of $30 million, according to Forbes.
So if history teaches us anything, it won’t be long until Rogan is back at the top of the Spotify charts.