Ben Shapiro is not a good or rational dude.
This! People like Shapiro and Jordan Peterson are white dudes with opinions that people seem to view as intelectual because they "quote" philosophy and academia. They are super toxic people especially because of how prevalent they have become in various internet communities like YouTube.
Ugh Peterson. I don't have any exposure to him outside of JRE, and I listened with an open mind despite being aware of the controversy around him, but he basically dug himself a grave. He came off so petty. All he seemed to want to do was brag about times he put some intellectual's feet to the fire and they couldn't take it. At least that's his telling. He also cried a lot of people misrepresenting his arguments, which he countered by misrepresenting their arguments. He didn't seem honest. Basically came off as a troll.
Of course I'm a bit confused why we are considering Joe Rogan as someone worth listening to. My impression was he was an Adam Carolla meathead type.
He is, more or less... and says so himself often enough. He's not terribly savvy when it comes to politics, economics, science or many of the topics he covers. But if there's a reason I think the show works it's that he's honest and genuine with his guests. He rarely has any kind of angle, and his ego doesn't come into it. So it never becomes some battle of wits or ideas. He just lets his guests get their ideas out and asks questions that interest him. He'll sometimes play devils advocate but doesn't put up a real fight. So it's definitely not a Hard Ball type of interview. And in not being adversarial, and not hiding his low-level understanding of things, it really lets his guests dig their own graves (if they are so inclined) or do whatever the opposite of that is called.
The idea that Joe Rogan is "someone worth listening to" is the confusion. That's not the purpose of the show at all... he's definitely not an authority, nor is he ever presenting himself as such. So when someone like Yang is on, you're not really tuning in to hear Joe's side... he doesn't really have a side. JRE is like this opportunity for his guests to have as much time as they want to communicate their ideas, without interruptions or arbitrary stop times, etc. It's not a segment of some larger show, it's not a panel, it's not a six way split screen, and if something needs googling in the course of a conversation, they just go ahead and google it. If they go off on a 45 minute tangent about coyotes, that's just how it goes.
Rogan has very niche expertise: Float tanks, MMA, DMT, Elk meat, and Sam Kinnison bits. Heaven help a guest who inadvertently brings one of those things up.