Joe Rogan Experience Review podcast - JRE 489 Week review

Episode Date: January 12, 2026

Welcome to the quick week-in review for the Joe Rogan Experience. We have episode 2434, Kurt Metzer, episode 2435 Bradley Cooper, episode 2436, Whitney Cummings. Start with Kurt, January 26. Good to see Kirk back on, silly hat, as always. The classic Joe and the comedian, you know, it's one of those. association episode. Less one clean story, more kind of wandering,

conspiratorial, cultural, comedy rifting. You know, we're used to curb by now. Bless him. Funny guy, loves his conspiracies.

I mean, he will go deep down any rabbit hole. And at this point, it's hard to know what he really believes in or takes serious and what he doesn't.

I mean, um, and then maybe he's, just cornered himself now as the conspiracy guy and maybe that makes him believe all these things or maybe you always did but yeah he gets he gets there um they go into the weird history the hidden history territory which is reflected by the books that came up the book of enoch again that's definitely been on joe's mind recently the bible and joseph P. Farrell title about the Philadelphia experiments. Nazi bell, time travel, stuff, unified field,

equation, you name it. They also mentioned Twilight language, Hoffman and Farrell, the demon of the occur, more esoteric symbolism, interpretational vibe. You know, it's one of those ways. If you've seen Kurt before, then you know what to expect. It's a lot of the same there. Documentaries mentioned, Wild Wild Country, always a good springboard for cult, you know, cult type stuff. I really did like Wild Wild Country, actually. It was, it was very fascinating. And yeah, I might, I might go back and watch that again, actually, I think so. online feedback in general the reddit thread reads like if you take it as entertainment it's fun and that always is the case with kurt i would say but if you take it literally it'll annoy you

and i would say that's true that's a good summary for this episode um energy people are arguing about rambling as usual with kind of like the jerry drift and of course there's the same old Jerry versus New Jerry conversation that's just coming up constantly at the moment. I really don't know why that is just like the ongoing thread, but it is. It's popping up. Run through the algorithm for fan feedback online rating was 6.7 out of 10. So that gives you an idea of what that episode came in at. And it was tons of fodder for jokes and side conversations, but it is scattered.

And, you know, seen as is not necessarily a must listen, unless you are really into kind of like the conspiracy and conspiracy world and kind of culture wanderings. Anyway, moving on. Episode 2435, Bradley Cooper. Really cool to see Bradley on there. Big fan of him. You kind of forget how many good movies he's in.

You know? Often when I think of him, I just think of the hangover movies, honestly. And as legendary as they were, you know, they're obviously just silly movies. And you forget about the depth and range of really good movies that he has been in. in. And it was cool to kind of get, you know, we know him a little bit on the pod. It seemed like he and Joe got on quite well. Surprisingly structured craft plus psychology of performance episode. Easy to recap because the conversation stays on the rails and it builds, you know, it really does. attention spans, social media, memory, a lot of kind of focus there.

They went on to Cooper's films and stand-up authenticity. This becomes kind of a recurring theme, what feels real verse performed. His cinematic approach to stand up and how specials have changed, editing, polishing, industry shifts, playing real people versus fictional characters, including preparing physically or vocally for Chris Kyle, an American sniper. That was cool to hear about. Man, that movie was good. Later in the episode, it gets very modern, Jerry, you know. It hits like the AI companionship, sex robots, porn, intimacy.

escapism verse, authentic art, that kind of thing. But, you know, there was some real depth to a lot of the conversation. And, you know, a little bit of philosophy kind of thrown in. There was, yeah, some really interesting parts of this. And as actors go, it's one of the more compelling conversations that has been on Rogan in some time. online feedback two parallel tracks really on Reddit you know for the main part people saying the episode was awesome and kind of unexpectedly good and also a ton of side chatter about Cooper looking kind of unrecognizable you know rumors of plastic surgery something phony I didn't

really pick up on any of that but yeah I'm just giving you the online feedback. Just reporting what I see. Ran it through the algorithm for the online review. High review for this one. I mean, generally, the feedback from most viewers, the rating, 8.4 out of 10. So for the week, this was the must listen to episode for any Rogan fan. If you are on a time crunch and just looking for the one episode of the week, this one on consensus wins.

Most recap friendly episode of the week with plenty of therapy lens, material, identity, performance, authenticity, purpose, intimacy. And then, of course, some AI to follow it up with. Lastly, we got Whitney Cummings, episode 2436.

Whitney, of course, a good friend of Rogan. And, you know, she's had her controversies recently online if you pop on to YouTube there's plenty of videos on there stirring up some some goss with her but um i think rogan's stuck by her and um you know here she is she's back on so she's a big comedian personality and a mix of comedy cultural commentary and um a little bit of like going down the rabbit holes. So the show's description frames her as touring in 26 and was promoting her special Mouthi, which is streaming on YouTube. So yeah, I guess she couldn't sell her special, which is kind of surprising because she's been quite a big comic,

but yeah, maybe couldn't get that sold. I did watch her last special, and I don't think it stood out for me, honestly. I don't remember anything really standing out on that, but yeah, maybe this one is better. Two prominent clip topics circulating from the episode. The Minnesota Somali Daycare fraud scandal. that was a big clip on there

and Maduro's capture and its global implications. So getting into some hot topics on the episode. I always find that interesting when they do that with the comedians. You know, I guess when they've,

once a comedian gets a big platform, I guess they think that they become the news. Maybe that's just a natural progression. But if you want a quotable vibe check from the thread, one commentator highlights a line about being overstimulated, anonymous and powerless, a recipe for rage. I guess they were not too much of a fan of this episode.

Looking at the online feedback, you know, Reddit reaction is pretty brutal, pretty brutally negative, honestly. one comment was shitty weak to be a JRE fan that one uh was quite funny another one insufferable um made it nine minutes in so cringe and then uh the last one I pulled up God she sucks now these all sound really bad but I I wasn't just picking the worst ones like these were literally like some of the top four ones that I came across.

So I'm just kind of picking them. I wasn't cherry picking those to make her sound bad. Like there were a lot of pretty annoyed people on this episode. So yeah. Not really super happy. That was the dominant sentiment on this threat, I would say. And yeah, ran it through the system. Overall rating, 5.8 out of 10.

Honestly, I thought that rating was not. not all that bad for how bad the sentiment was online. But, you know, I would say for the week, this was the must not listen to, I guess, I guess I would say. And, you know, there were a couple usable segments in there, some geopolitical clips, and the Minnesota fraud bit was kind of interesting. But otherwise, a lot of people bounced early is what it seems like. But, you know, if you're a fan of hers, that's up to you. Overall, the week had people split, and it was kind of a craft of meaning episode.

Bradley Cooper was the clear winner, most structured lesson, easiest to convert and kind of a strong review segment. The comedians were more chaos. Kurt and Whitney are more vibe-based and polarizing. Kurt was kind of scattered but playful. Whitney drew heavy backlash and really got hammered in the subreddit. Overall, the week scored 7 out of 10.

7 out of 10. If you listen to them all, let me know what you think. And that's it for the weekend review. And stand, hang tight for probably this week. We're going to only review the Cooper one. Really? It's what it sounds like. Bradley Cooper.

Doesn't seem like it's worth reviewing anything else. So I won't put you guys through it. But yeah, wait for that. Check it out. Later.