Joe Rogan used a recent episode of his podcast to take aim at Neil deGrasse Tyson’s handling of the UFO topic, accusing the astrophysicist of dismissing the subject for years before suddenly softening his stance once public pressure built. Rogan made the comments while speaking with Jesse Michels, host of the YouTube channel American Alchemy, during a conversation about UFOs, consciousness and government secrecy.
The two were discussing how attitudes toward UFOs have shifted in mainstream science when Michels brought up Tyson directly.
“I think even some of those people, and I’m not saying that all of the attributes I just mentioned apply to Neil deGrasse Tyson, but that some of those people are now updating on UFOs,” Michels said.
He pointed to the documentary “The Age of Disclosure,” in which former intelligence officials state on camera that UFOs are real.
He noted, “It’s wild because like you have a documentary, you know, the age of disclosure where all these high ranking intel people are saying UFOs are real repeatedly in front of a chalkboard saying they are real. Take my word for it. And it’s bludgeoning you basically to a point where you’re like, ‘Okay, they’re probably not lying to me.'”
“And so then you end up with Neil deGrasse Tyson being like, look, okay, it’s there’s an overwhelming amount of accounts now. Now I do think there’s probably something here and we should look into it. And it’s like, dude, you weren’t doing science before,” Michaels said. “But is all it took a documentary? That doesn’t make any sense.”
Rogan agreed sharply, framing Tyson’s apparent shift as a response to backlash rather than a genuine change of scientific opinion.
“He’s responding to overwhelming criticism of his intellectual capacity for reason,” Rogan said.
Rogan then recalled his own frustration during a past appearance with Tyson, when the scientist questioned why advanced beings would bother taking an interest in humanity.
“Because I think like when he was on the podcast with me, I got very upset with him when he was like, ‘Why would they be interested in us?’ And I told him, I go, ‘That one drives me crazy.’ And I tried to explain why it drives me crazy,” he stated.
Rogan said, “He kept interjecting and I’m like, ‘Okay, just stop. Just stop with that idea that we’re not interesting. We’re territorial apes with nuclear weapons who send FaceTime videos to people on the other side of the planet.'”
He added, “That’s real weird.” When Michels said that “we’re apes with nukes,” Rogan responded, Yeah, we’re real weird.”
Michels agreed that human beings, still caught between primitive instinct and advanced technology, would be a natural point of fascination for any outside observer.
