The Golden Globes are getting into podcasts and it’s time to get out.
On Monday, the poor man’s Oscars unveiled its slate of 2026 nominees. In addition to about 364 categories for TV and film, there is a new one for best podcast. And the six nominees are: “SmartLess,” “Armchair Expert With Dax Shepard,” “Call Her Daddy,” “Good Hang With Amy Poehler,” “The Mel Robbins Podcast” and “Up First From NPR.”
Imagine if there was a best condiment award and nominees excluded ketchup.
That’s what the Golden Globes achieved by snubbing Joe Rogan, the Shohei Ohtani of podcasting. Love him or hate him, there is no denying Mr. Rogan’s blunt force domination in the medium. As the charts reveal, he will end 2025 as No. 1 on Apple, YouTube and Spotify.
“The Joe Rogan Experience” has reached 190 countries. His three-hour gabfests are heard by curious ears from Tokyo to Jerusalem, Berlin to Cape Town.
Rogan often refers to himself as a “dummy” or “just a comedian.” This is a lie. A dummy can’t have an insightful conversation about evolutionary biology with Bret Weinstein. Few comedians can explore the cosmos with Avi Loeb.
When it comes to deftly pivoting between subjects – and being well-versed in each – Rogan is a Renaissance Man. So why did the Globes chicken out and pretend he is a fringe character instead of the indisputable king?
The organization, no stranger to controversy, was taken aback this fall by the reaction when the short list of 25 eligible podcasts included conservative firebrands such as Megyn Kelly, Candace Owens, Ben Shapiro and Tucker Carlson.
The short list was compiled by Luminate, an analytics firm. It was asked to measure “audience reach and engagement,” “financial metrics” and “platform visibility and market presence.” Then the eligible podcasts were invited to officially submit their work for consideration. Not everyone did. Comedian Theo Von’s team said they wanted nothing to do with the Globes or the submission fee.
By contrast, Shapiro was chuffed to potentially join the cultural elites he usually rails against. He bought billboard space in Times Square and put up massive movie-poster style ads – “Best Podcast” – in which he is photographed in moody black-and-white while wearing aviators like a character from “Top Gun” most likely to fly a fighter jet into the side of a mountain.
What an idiotic mess the Golden Globes just created.
First, they took stick from the left for including so many conservative podcasts. Now they will take stick from the right for overlooking those popular podcasts.
If the Globes were a crime family, they’d accidentally shoot one another in a diner.
You can understand why voters were not inclined to toast Megyn Kelly. Her recent remarks about Jeffrey Epstein’s taste in young girls were beyond repulsive. Really, Megyn? You’d describe a 15-year-old as “barely legal” for sexual exploitation?
Should a 12-year-old boy with early scruff be allowed to order a beer?
And I can’t wait to hear the conspiracy Candace comes up with to explain why she was shunned: “Brigitte Macron bribed Globe voters to blacklist me because I would’ve used my acceptance speech to tell the world she is secretly trans and how the ghost of Charlie Kirk knows the Mossad is running a psyop on Sesame Street as the Illuminati make plans to convert all Christians into gay Moonies.”
But snubbing Joe Rogan? The Golden Globes just made a grave mistake.
How do you launch an inaugural best podcast category and leave out the guy who is responsible for turning the medium into a cultural force? Again, you may disagree or actively dislike some of his views. I often do. But there is no denying his reach and impact, the criteria the Globes spells out in its “Eligibility and Consideration Rules.”
It’s not uncommon for Rogan to have more monthly downloads than Canada has citizens. No offence to the nominees – I enjoy both “SmartLess” and “Armchair Expert” – but those shows are following in the yapping model Rogan pioneered.
Rogan is podcasting. He is the reason the format exists as it does.
Ignoring him is like opening a bakery that does not sell bread.
My guess? Voters never really listened to his show. Their judgment was tainted by a deformed mainstream caricature of a man who is often falsely accused of being a far-right musclehead or ringleader of the so-called “manosphere.”
But Rogan checks every classical liberal box. He was in favour of same-sex marriage before Barack Obama was. He says he’d happily pay way more in taxes if that money went to improving lives instead of vanishing into a bureaucratic blackhole. His endorsements of psychedelics are so persuasive, I’m almost tempted to try psilocybin or DMT.
Rogan is a podcasting hallucinogen: He expands your mind.
He doesn’t need a goofy award to validate his podcast.
By chickening out, the Globes put their own credibility in a chokehold.
