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The Covid-19 global pandemic saw a lot of changes in the world, and that involved the comedian and UFC commentator, Joe Rogan. The Joe Rogan Experience podcast host moved from the liberal metropolis of Los Angeles to Austin, Texas. Considered the representative of the everyman, the UFC commentator joined a reported 86,000 Californians who moved from swanky, upscale California cities to the Lone Star State during the pandemic.

Their reasons, however, were very different. While most other Americans who moved to the hinterlands did so because remote work provided them with the opportunity to move to cities with much lower rents than in Los Angeles or New York City, Rogan had a very different reason. Let us first discuss where Rogan’s new podcast studio is and what forced the New Jersey native to completely overhaul it.

Where does Joe Rogan record his podcasts?

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Joe Rogan records his JRE podcast in a personal studio in his $14.4 million mansion in Austin, Texas. With the podcast being Rogan’s main source of income, he has built a state-of-the-art studio that has hosted some of the biggest names from a variety of fields. Rogan is currently under contract with streaming platform Spotify for a $200 million three-year deal in 2020 which is coming to an end in 2023.

The original Austin studio was finished in 2020 and featured a futuristic, red spaceship motif in a cylindrical design with dedicated wooden wall panels. “I mixed it up. A little bit of the old, a little new. A little bit of alien sh*t,” Rogan told Tom Segura. While fans were enthusiastic about the preview pictures Rogan shared, they found the red lighting very distracting once episodes in the new studio started to air.

The comedian addressed the fan criticism and pointed out that the studio was put together in under a month. “Folks, relax, we had to bang this together in a month. If you think it sucks, that’s okay. I like it. It’s definitely weird. It’s just a big shock. Some people are bad with change,” he said on episode 1540 of JRE.

 

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Rogan revamped the studio design soon after. The new design has shiplap walls done in wood and features a large, prominent neon Joe Rogan Experience sign with a UFO on top. But, why did Rogan spend all this money and time to abandon his iconic California studio that had the fans’ approval?

Why did Joe Rogan move to Austin, Texas?

In a conversation with Joe De Sena in 2020, Rogan spoke about why he made the decision to bid adieu to LA and move to Texas. The psychedelics enthusiast said that he“just wants to go somewhere with a little more freedom. I’m outta here. I want to go somewhere in the center of the country, somewhere it’s easier to travel to both places, and somewhere where you have a little bit more freedom.”

A stringent critic of what he felt were California’s restrictive mask mandate and lockdown policies, Rogan moved to Texas during the pandemic in 2020. The former Fear Factor host also told Schulz that he did not leave California to avoid paying its hefty taxes for a more pocket-friendly Texas which levies no personal income taxes. Rogan was also fed up with the overcrowding, and congestion of the city and was worried about the rise of homelessness there.

“I think that where we live right here in Los Angeles is overcrowded and I think most of the time that’s not a problem. But I think it’s exposing the fact that it’s a real issue when you look at the number of people that are catching COVID because of this overpopulation issue. When you look at the traffic, when you look at the economic despair, when you look at the homelessness problem that’s accelerated radically over the last six, seven, ten years, I think there are too many people here,” he said.

And so the time of the iconic studio that most fans associate with the largest podcast in the English-speaking world came to an end as Rogan moved to ‘The Lone Star’ State for good. And he is not looking to return! But, where was his old studio located?

Where were the first JRE episodes recorded?

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When he started his podcast, the JRE episodes were shot in Rogan’s California home. He soon moved the podcast to the studio most fans are familiar with in Woodland Hills. For most episodes, Rogan used to live in a picturesque home in the gated community of Bell Canyon in Southern California. An active member of the Los Angeles comedy scene, Rogan’s home was an hour’s drive from the city.

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And the UFC commentator, who had started and largely pioneered podcasting from his home back in 2009, a tradition he has continued in Texas by building a home studio. A few episodes were recorded at the Ice House Comedy Club also known as Deathsquad Studios in Pasadena, California.

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What do you think about Rogan’s new studio? Let us know in the comments section below.

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