Joe Rogan has explained why he questioned Vice President JD Vance about demons and aliens, saying he wanted to understand whether Vance was signaling to a particular group of religious voters rather than simply exploring unusual beliefs.
The discussion came up during an episode of The Joe Rogan Experience featuring Bill Thompson. Thompson suggested that Rogan and Vance might have been describing similar concepts but using different language to make sense of them.
“You guys could be talking about the same thing, but you’re using a regionally accepted formal lexicon to describe it,” Thompson said.
However, Rogan clarified that his questions had a more specific purpose. He was interested in whether Vance’s comments about demons and aliens were intended to resonate with a particular religious audience.
“Perhaps, but I had a purpose to why I was questioning him on that,” Rogan said. “My purpose is that my perception was that he was signaling to a certain group of very religious voters.”
Rather than treating the exchange as a debate over whether demons or aliens exist, Rogan explained that he was interested in what Vance’s remarks might reveal about his political messaging.
Thompson understood the reasoning, pointing to the value of long-form interviews in getting public figures to speak beyond their usual talking points. Unlike brief television appearances, where politicians often stick to carefully prepared answers, a lengthy conversation gives listeners more opportunities to evaluate how they explain their beliefs and decisions.
“You can’t sit for three hours and talk and not reveal yourself,” Thompson said. “Just get the person talking.”
The conversation then shifted to what Rogan and Thompson believe political interviews should accomplish. For them, the point is not simply to hear a candidate repeat familiar positions but to understand how that person thinks and approaches the world.
Thompson argued that politicians seeking high office should be able to explain their principles and reasoning in an unscripted setting.
“If you can’t sit there and talk about your principles and your organizing criteria of how you metabolize the world and why you think you’re the one who’s fit to change it, if you can’t talk extemporaneously about that, I don’t want you in high office because you’re not revealing yourself,” Thompson said.
Rogan agreed with the broader point, suggesting that an inability or unwillingness to speak openly could indicate that a public figure is focused on maintaining a carefully constructed image.
“You’re probably a construct,” he said. “You probably have this thing that you’re promoting, this image that you’re pursuing and that you’re trying to get the general public to accept. That’s not totally real.”
