Joe Rogan and the UFO race: what’s real and what’s hype

Joe Rogan has reignited the UFO debate with a rapid-fire take on UAP disclosure, blending whistleblower claims, Elon Musk name drops, and fears of a hidden tech race between the US and China.

“I’m a silly person… I’ll tell you I’m an idiot.” When Joe Rogan used this opening gambit to discuss UAP disclosure on the Jesse Michaels podcast, it’s quite normal to question whether the world's biggest podcaster would add any credibility to the UAP movement.

The gist of the 13-minute segment (in what’s a 3-hour-long podcast) is a nutshell summary of the content from Dan Farah's 2025 documentary The Age of Disclosure, which includes Brobdingnagian content like US-China relations, the stigma and ridicule that whistleblowers face, and tech's role in being the gateway to the cosmos.

With David Grusch effectively carrying a match through a powder keg by putting himself forward for disclosure, Rogan has a voice, whether you love him or hate him.

Rogan points out that The Age of Disclosure doesn't contain much UAP footage at all, but focuses on intelligence testimony. “The subject has always been very ridiculed… you could really fumble your career if you went out and said… you were a journalist or… a legitimate author.”

Governor Marco Rubio was also given credit as “his involvement was huge… you know, because it's the current administration, his involvement and his urgency.”

A disgruntled looking governor Marco Rubio — Win McNamee via Getty Images

Using Elon as a cosmic yardstick

Speaking of being caught between a rock and a hard place when it comes to turning informer, such as Grusch or Matthew Brown’s Immaculate Constellation, an 11-page shadow dossier about the Pentagon's secret UFO program, Rogan frames ridicule as a gatekeeper: “Most of these people at some point… have held very high clearances… you immediately get this like smell of kook that's on you.”

Then it gets a whole lot more predictable. Joe Rogan mentions Elon Musk. He says he's an intelligent guy. Mentions Musk must be privy insider to knowledge, without explicitly mentioning his short time in government.

As empathetic as Rogan can be to whistle-blowers, the Reddit UFO community didn’t appreciate the Elon plug. Validation by association doesn’t quite cut it with the UAP-acquainted or even the agnostics, with one commenter in particular observing:

That doesn’t make sense at all. If Musk had the knowledge, why would he be building primitive rockets and not use the technology to build craft to visit Mars or other planets?
Ehh_WhatNow on the r/UFOs Reddit group

Using Musk is intended to make Rogan sound more grounded. Rhetorically, Rogan uses Musk for scale to comprehend different levels of intelligence in both government hierarchy and reverse-engineering conspiracies.

Rogan reckons that advanced AI, with its rapid innovation, which Elon is involved in with SpaceX and Grok, is key to understanding how humans can replicate or make sense of recovered UFO technology (which could well be what is being concealed as per the claims of the whistleblowers).

Rogan’s casual “I’m not one of them” is paired with “I know Elon… there’s levels to this,” to suggest a spectrum where the topic is plausible at the top end.

A rainbow hand — Thomas Trutschel via Getty Images

Ridicule as a control mechanism

The arms race between the US and China clearly hinges heavily on AI. However, when you throw aliens into the mix, the discussion goes haywire.

Upon using Jay Stratton's (former first Director of the Pentagon's Unidentified Anomalous Phenomenon Task Force) “Manhattan Project on steroids” analogy, it smells a bit like these dots could be connected in some way.

The reaction on X was also cynical, with user IBHough speculating:

“I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say Joe Rogan probably doesn't know anything about UFOs, much like 99.999% of us.”

I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say Joe Rogan probably doesn't know anything about UFOs, much like 99.999% of us.
undefined IBHough (@IBHough) November 30, 2025

From UFO experiencers to podcasters who allude to quantum computing as a potential “digital God” (says Rogan), the cultural obsession with tech and materialism is evident on show here.

Being open to possibilities without being shut down is a refreshing trait in today’s social media climate. And Rogan certainly brings out the absurd.

“If you really want to get weird, that might be how God gets formed… that might be the whole reason why human beings have curiosity and this insatiable desire for technological innovation.”

Getting weird is fine. But from the reactions within the community, as disclosure has been ridiculed so often, it seems best to take this one leap at a time.