Two or three weeks ago Joe Rogan moved lock, stock and barrel to Austin. This morning I watched my first JRE podcast from his new abode (allegedly somewhere in north Austin), and I have to say that the design of the new studio looks…kind of awful?

I first got into Rogan’s podcast at the start of the pandemic. I liked it because, as a friend said this morning, he “talks about stuff people think but never say.” He does guy talk in a plugged-in, plain-spoken, outside-the-effete-liberal-bubble way. But I totally shut down when Rogan said he’d be voting for Orange Destroyer because of Joe Biden‘s alleged cognitive issues, which were absolutely nowhere in sight during that town hall he did with Anderson Cooper a couple of nights ago.

Against this brand and Rogan’s right-of-center identity a studio that radiates a little non-affiliated moderation might help…maybe a little touch of a soothing mystical Zen vibe. But no — Rogan’s quonset-hut-shaped studio goes all in on RED DISCO-LOUNGE EYESORE. It doesn’t say “confident, blunt-spoken guy in a relaxed man-cave environment” but “partisan, super-wealthy Trump guy with too much money and no taste in decor”…an atmosphere that says “members-only South Beach nightclub lounge by way of a tanning bed mixed with HAL’s intelligence storage vault in 2001: A Space Odyssey.”

Consider the YouTube comments about this 9.17 discussion with Douglas Murray, author of “The Madness of Crowds“: (a) “Missing the man cave feeling”, (b) “They should just start from scratch and make it more inviting and less…supervillain tomb“, (c) “Yeah, it sucks…way too much red, nothing to look at”, (d) “It looks like they’re sitting inside a toaster set to high”, (e) “I think he should do an actual cave vibe…boulders, waterfalls, plants, etc.”, (f) “The red is a big no-no…it’s not a nightclub…the old studio had perfect lighting and backgrounds. This studio feels cramped and claustrophobic…you even have to duck to get to your seat if you’re a taller guest.”