Joe Rogan on Why he changed his stance on the Moon landing conspiracy
Why Hacker News recommends it
Cited as an example of someone publicly changing their mind on the Moon landing hoax and of why skeptics had rational-seeming doubts.
What it is
A clip from Joe Rogan Experience #928 in which Rogan, with Arian Foster, explains why he abandoned his belief in Moon landing conspiracy theories. He describes how doctored training photos fueled doubt before he learned more of the physics.
Recommended by 1 HN commenters across 1 different months, 2018 to 2025.
What Hacker News said
Recommends amorphid · 2018-07 · on “Why do people believe the moon landing hoax or other conspiracy theories?”
I really liked Joe Rogan's video on this topic, titled "Joe Rogan on Why he changed his stance on the Moon landing conspiracy". [1] The short, short version is that some training images got doctored and passed off as real space images, which gave people reason to doubt more substantial claims of having traveled to the moon. It was the first time a skeptics disbelief in our having visited the moon seemed like a rational stance to me. [1] [this video]
Cites viridian · 2018-01 · on “James Damore has filed a class action lawsuit against Google”
He denied it 11 years ago you mean, by that blog post. He has changed his stance, as seen here: [this video] You should listen to his episode with Neil DeGrasse Tyson, they talk about the mindset of denialism quite a bit.
Cites zby · 2019-03 · on “The rise and fall of scientific authority, and how to bring it back”
There is now a general crisis of authority. Just recently I have learned one peculiar theory (from [this video] ). Some moon landing photos (and maybe films) are really fake. There are people who believe that this is a proof that the whole moon landing was just staged - it is kind of natural to think like that, but a more probable theory is that it just proofs that a press officer did not have good material and just used what was available. Traditional media are kind of not very strict with this - I even have some personal experience about that, but people have much more romantic view on it and treat each photo or other material as fact and true. With the internet we have more to reconcile. I don
Cites EpicEng · 2019-10 · on “Edward Snowden on The Joe Rogan Experience [video]”
>He is also into things like moon landing conspiracies and all that good stuff that generate a lot of internet traffic, but I think in a bit of a hypocritical way as I'm pretty sure he doesn't really believe in any of that stuff and just talks about it for the clicks. [this video] He used to believe that, and now he doesn't.
Cites Mountain_Skies · 2025-03 · on “Firefly ‘Blue Ghost’ lunar lander touches down on the moon”
Rogan hasn't believed that for nearly a decade because he learned more about the physics of the Moon and the engineering of the time. Since you have an interest in truth and honesty, I'm sure now that you've been informed you won't spread this misinformation anymore and will do some reflection on how you ended up holding this view for so long past when it no longer was true. [this video]