Texas State Rep. James Talarico, D-Round Rock, speaks to reports in San Antonio earlier this month. Credit: Stephanie Koithan

Podcaster Joe Rogan, who endorsed Donald Trump in 2024, over the weekend told Texas State Rep. James Talarico of Round Rock that he should seek the nation’s top elected office.

“You need to run for president,” Rogan told Talarico, a Democratic rising star who’s reportedly considering a run for U.S. Senate. “We need someone who’s actually a good person.”

Rogan’s headline-grabbing call to action came toward the end of a nearly three-hour-long episode of The Joe Rogan Experience, during which Talarico — a former schoolteacher and devout Christian — discussed an array of topics, including the separation of church and state, former President Joe Biden’s ego and the experiences of young people.

With roughly 15 million listeners, Rogan is considered the nation’s top podcaster and something of a media kingmaker. His apparent endorsement of Talarico, who’s among the fastest rising stars in the Texas Capitol, may come as a surprise to some considering host’s stanch right wing views in the past.

However, Rogan has joined other right-wing influencers in recent weeks in criticizing Trump administration policies on immigration, and more recently, its refusal to release the Epstein files.

Indeed, Talarico and Rogan found common ground on issues including abortion, freedom of religion and the mainstream media. Here’s everything you need to know about Rogan’s interview with Talarico.

Separation of church and state

Despite his strong Christian faith, Talarcio reiterated throughout the interview that the separation of church and state is among the most vital pillars of U.S. democracy.

The state rep also fought back at the notion that the U.S. is a “Christian nation,” explaining that the founding fathers were largely deists, or people who believed that a higher power created the universe, then stepped away. That made them a far cry from modern evangelicals, he added.

“For Christian Nationalists today to say that our Founders were these evangelical protestant Christians is just not quite historically accurate,” Talarico said. “These were Enlightenment thinkers; they had their own suspicions of religion. I mean, Thomas Jefferson created his own Bible where he took out all the miracles.”

What’s more, Talarico said that the passing of Texas’s school voucher program during the last legislative session is an exercise in Christian nationalism since public funds now go towards subsidizing religious schools.

Talarico added that a recent Texas bill mandating that public school teachers hang the Ten Commandments in classrooms will have the opposite effect of what Republican lawmakers likely intended.

“I think [the Ten Commandments] bill will create a whole new generation of atheists who think that my religion, my faith, my tradition, that means everything to me, is more about power than it is about love,” Talarico said. “And they already kind of think that.”

Young people and the job market

Another running theme during Rogan’s conversation with Talalrico was young people – more specifically, why they’re frustrated and disillusioned with the nation’s current political system. Talarico and Rogan agreed that one of the major issues facing young people is a sense of purposelessness.Young folks crave meaning in life, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that organized religion, especially in its current form, is the answer, the state rep added.

“We aren’t creating enough jobs where people can find meaning,” Talarico told Rogan. “There’s a difference between a career and a job. I think everyone that I’ve met and everyone I’ve grown up with wants a career.”

Rogan and Talarico both agreed that AI is taking entry-level jobs, exacerbating the problem. The two discussed the possibility that a universal basic income could be a solution.

Biden’s ego

Among the issues that might put Talarico at odds with peers in his own party was his stance during the program that former President Joe Biden should never have sought a second term.

“We focus so much on President Biden’s age, which I agree was a problem,” Talarico said. “But, I don’t think we’ve really discussed that the biggest problem was ego.”

Talarico also pointed out that when Biden first ran, he initially declared that he was nothing more than a “transitional figure” and would only serve one term.

Top versus bottom

Among the clips of the interview circulating on social media Monday is one during which Rogan agreed with Talarico that the divide in the nation is not so much between right and left but rich and poor. Talarcio blamed social media tycoons, including Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk, for profiting from people’s anger and fears of one another instead of trying to facilitate civil discourse.

“If we recognize that we have far more in common than the stuff that divides us, then that’s a threat to their power,” the lawmaker said. “It’s a threat to their wealth.”

Later in the interview, Talarico noted that bipartisanship is still possible when we view each other as human beings. He referenced his personal and working relationship with State Rep. James Frank, a staunch conservative from Wichita Falls, as an example.

Conspiracy theories

Of course, no episode of the Joe Rogan Experience would be complete without some conspiracy theory.

In the last minutes of the podcast, Talarico told Rogan the Texas state government is run by two far-right Christian Nationalist billionaires, Tim Dunn and Farris Wilks. An apparently astonished Rogan listened as the lawmaker explained that Dunn and Wilks are responsible for bills including Texas’ school chaplain laws and school vouchers. He added that “every single Republican state senator in Texas has taken their money.”

“This is a problem with the media,” Talarico said. “The mainstream media, for some reason, will not name these two guys. I think it’s like this gentlemen’s agreement, or like, you have to talk about the elected officials. It doesn’t matter who the elected officials are if these billionaires buy whoever is elected.”

Subscribe to SA Current newsletters.

Best of San Antonio Nominations are Now Live

Podcaster Joe Rogan urges Democrat State Rep. James Talarico to run for president

Michael Karlis

24 San Antonio-area parks and greenways with amazing hiking and biking

The price tag to buy San Antonio Spur Tony Parker’s mansion has dropped by nearly half

This San Antonio century home for sale was once lifted on jacks to add a new first floor

San Antonio women-owned restaurants and bars everyone should try

Related Stories