Those of you that know me personally know that I was a huge fan of his show. Note: This isn't a ringing endorsement of his guests, a multitude of which were fairly "out there". Some were obvious crackpots, some had clearly stepped over the edge -- but here's the deal, that's not what was amazing about his show.
Art had a way of talking to everyone that brought out real discussion. Deep topics like who we are as a species and what is the basis of our conscious conundrum -- stuff that everyone wants to know. Aliens? Sure, why not! UFOs? Bring it on. Y2K! Magic Mushrooms. Autonomous self driving cars. Faces on Mars. Predictions for the future (some of my favorites there -- almost all of them are hilariously wrong looking back over 30 years or so of insanity). Ghost stories.
At the bottom of it all Art explored our humanity in a way that few, if ever, have. He did it with a huge audience that he amassed over the course of a decade or so as he built an underground radio network called Coast to Coast AM. The listeners were waitresses and truck drivers I'm sure, but as his audience grew wider and more intellectual, it was hard to argue that what he was doing was unprecedented.
The biggest differentiator, In My Humble Opinion: It was a long form show
Art's shows typically lasted hours (often 3 hours). Art would bring people on, talk to them about these crazy subjects, and people listened. People that don't have 5 minutes to watch the news or possibly eat a meal would listen for hours. That's the part I think a lot of people missed: In an age when things were speeding up, attention spans were shortening, Art had a show that lasted hours and captivated a huge number of people.
Arguably, the content was nuts on most occasions. I've listed to a lot of it, and I'm here to tell you I'm 100% certain Art didn't believe in most of what his guests were bringing him (the occasional scientist or astrophysicist is the exception here). You listen to a lot of noise to get some signal here.
But, as I said, Art is no longer with us. His radio show still can be heard using a multitude of media. Android users can load the paranormal radio app for example and listen to hours of these shows. Halloween is coming -- any of his ghost shows are great entertainment. It's a legacy now, and still entertaining.
But Art's gone. Which brings me to Joe Rogan
Interestingly enough, Art is gone but the torch has been picked up by Joe. Joe has improved on what Art was trying to do in a host of ways. For starters, Joe asks a lot more skeptical questions. Where he and Art align is in being able to keep an interesting conversation going for hours at a time and to keep his audience glued to the topic. This isn't easy as I've said here -- but it's part of why his show is the spiritual successor to Art's.
If you haven't checked out his podcast you're probably dead or can't stand the most basic of new ideas being brought in front of you. I recommend the youtube version. You get to see more of the visuals that his assistant brings along (note: Art Bell had a webmaster that he relied upon -- he was an early adopter of internet technology as well). Joe also seems to read a lot more and seriously brings in some interesting people.
Joe tries to balance his podcast with conservative and liberal guests. He brings interesting people and I'm going to warn you that some are going to have different views from your own. But the conversation will still be good. If you dig around a bit, you will find that Art actually interviewed Joe on his show a few years ago about Joe's podcast. Art was a fan it appears. Says a lot. Check it out if you have the time. If you don't, hey I understand. Guessing you wouldn't have made it this far into my blog though to read this if that were the case anyway ;)
-=FeriCyde=-
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