Joe Rogan is expanding his Austin footprint again, and this project comes with a serious upgrade: a podcast studio built right into a race track. Rogan revealed the plan during a conversation with Travis Barker on The Joe Rogan Experience, describing a setup at Circuit of the Americas that would let him combine two of his passions, cars and podcasting, into one space.
“We are doing another studio. We’re going to do a studio at the Circuit of the Americas Racetrack,” Rogan said. “So, which is in Austin. And so, what we’re going to do is have it set up where you’re going to be able to go around the track. We’ll, you know, do some laps and then pull in and then have a podcast.”
Barker, a serious car collector himself with more than a dozen vehicles including vintage Impalas and a Cadillac, immediately backed the idea, pointing out the mental benefits of racing before sitting down to record.
“I feel like for your mind, your mind will be so jazzed up after you do a bunch of laps on a racetrack that you’ll come in, you’ll be like, ah,” Rogan said.
Barker agreed, adding he’d be “ready to go for sure.”
The new studio adds to Rogan’s already sprawling Austin operation, which includes his comedy club that has become a hub for stand-up talent since the pandemic. During the episode, Rogan explained how that club came together after Los Angeles shut down live comedy, pulling in comedians who felt their careers had stalled.
“We all came here because there was nowhere we could perform in LA,” he said. “It started off it was Ron White and then me and Tony Hinchcliffe and then it was like we lit the fire.” He noted that five more clubs have since opened on the same street, and that “Kill Tony,” the live comedy show recorded out of his club every Monday, has become the biggest live comedy show in the world.
Rogan also touched on his own car collection during the exchange, mentioning his Hennessey Raptor R and comparing notes with Barker on old-school builds versus factory performance trucks.
