Months before the wildfires raging in Southern California, American podcaster Joe Rogan made ominous predictions about it. On a July 2024 episode of The Joe Rogan Experience, Rogan discussed the threat of wildfires with comedian Sam Morrill. On the podcast, he recalled his conversation with a firefighter who predicted a disastrous scenario for the area.
“One day, the right wind is going to blow and the fire is going to be in the right place and it’s going to burn through L.A. all the way to the ocean,” Rogan said, narrating the firefighter.
In the clip, Rogan, wearing a Los Angeles Fire Department T-shirt, explained how the firefighter highlighted the terrifying scale and speed with which wildfires can spread. “These fires are so big, you’re talking thousands of acres burning at once with 40 mph (64 kph) winds. Once that happens, it spreads so much that they can’t do anything,” Rogan said.
California fires were predicted with extreme accuracy by a firefighter who spoke to Joe Rogan pic.twitter.com/zuM8gmvJRX
-Ryan???? (@scuparyan_) 9 January 2025
According to The New York Post, Joe Rogan has frequently reiterated his concerns about Los Angeles being vulnerable to wildfires during various episodes of his podcast.
In 2018, when Rogan was still living in Bell Canyon, Ventura County, he hosted English mentalist Derren Brown on The Joe Rogan Experience. Wildfires were already raging in the area, and Brown mentioned at the beginning of the interview that he was lucky to make it through despite the frequent fires. Rogan responded by repeating the same warning from the firefighter, describing how “the right wind” could spread a fire from the city to the ocean.
A year later, in 2019, Rogan raised the topic again while speaking with journalist David Wallace-Wells. During his discussion on climate change, he predicted that California wildfires could become “64 times more severe by the end of the century”.
Rogan’s warning resurfaced as wildfires, particularly the Palisades Fire in the west and the Eaton Fire in the east, continued to rage, causing mass evacuations and destroying homes throughout Los Angeles County.
The wildfire has killed at least 10 people, CNN reports. But officials have warned that the true extent of casualties may not be known until investigators can safely enter affected areas. The fire has forced thousands of people from their homes and evacuation orders are in place for large parts of the area.
