He was a good interviewer then because he’d ask good questions, shut up, and let them talk.

And there was no time pressure on his podcast. The episodes took as long as they took, so no need for people who aren't good at sound bites to figure out how to explain something complicated in a fast and simple way.

But, even back pre-COVID, pre-Spotify, he was a dangerous idiot. Like, he'd have Alex Jones on, and the guy would spew vast quantities of dangerous misinformation, and Rogan would fact check him on one little thing and that moment would go viral. Meanwhile, Alex Jones gets platformed and most of his BS goes unchallenged.

He had maybe 3-4 good years when his podcast changed from having the same MMA fighters / comedians on again and again every year, to having new people every week, to when it went full-on right wing. In 2012/13 it was still an MMA / comedy podcast featuring mostly the same people every week. Then he had Neil Degrasse Tyson, Dana White, Dan Carlin, David Lee Roth, Douglas Rushkoff. In 2017 he had Alex Jones for the first time. But, by then he was already platforming woowoo people pushing "supplements", and right-wing assholes like Stephen Crowder and Gavin McInnes.