Joe Rogan shares thoughts on Fresno homelessness during podcast: ‘It’s depressing’

Joe Rogan talked a bit about Fresno in one of his recent podcasts.

And it wasn’t flattering.

But for many who’ve been to the rougher parts of Fresno, they likely can attest that Rogan wasn’t lying.

During a Feb. 28 podcast that discussed the homeless crisis in the United States, Fresno — among all the cities in the country — for some reason got mentioned.

It actually was Rogan’s guest, comedian Christopher Distefano, who brought up Fresno.

Rogan, however, shared his quick thoughts about homelessness pertaining to Fresno, too.

”I just had a show in Fresno a couple of days ago, and I said if I grew up here I’d been a little different,” Distefano says on the podcast. “Because Fresno is one of those places where I went, had a great time. But just being there, just being in that city for 24 hours.

“I was like, I don’t know. If this was my every single day, you might turn to drugs.”

To which Rogan responds: “It’s depressing.”

Distefano, who performed in Fresno on Feb. 24 at the Tower Theater, then continued about how he viewed the 559 compared to other parts of California.

“It’s depressing,” Distefano says while echoing Rogan’s comment. “I drove from Fresno to San Jose and we were passing through Stockton. And I thought I was in Switzerland. Because that’s what an upgrade it was from Fresno.”

Rogan laughs then shares his latest thoughts on Fresno.

“Bro, I was driving through a street in Fresno and people were walking out in the middle of the street — like what the f*** are you doing driving here?” Rogan says to Distefano on the podcast. “Like I went down a wrong area (where) it’s like mostly homeless people.”

Rogan didn’t mention Fresno for the remainder of the podcast.

Distefano continued on. Though, he did seem to get the cities of Fresno and San Jose mixed up during his talking point.

“The ‘Fresno skidrow’ that I saw, I think is the worst that I’ve ever seen,” Distefano said. “I’m sorry. No, it was San Jose, I should say. San Jose was really, really, really f***ing bad.

“Over there, I was just like Jesus Christ!”

On Saturday night, Fresno Mayor Jerry Dyer fired back at Rogan on social media.

“I would generally chalk up your podcast comments as being a misinformed critic,” Dyer tweeted. “However, as the Mayor of Fresno and former Police Chief of our great city, I feel the need to respond.

“I’m not sure when you visited Fresno last. But over the past two years, we have housed over 1,700 homeless. It’s made a significant reduction in our unsheltered population.

“What have you done to make our country better?”

According to a 2022 metric (Point In Time County) that tracked homelessness in the central San Joaquin Valley, Fresno and Madera counties combined to have approximately 4,216 people who were homeless, living in shelters and/or on the streets.

And of those 4,000-plus homeless people, roughly 80% of them lived in the city of Fresno.

“I will make you a deal,” Dyer wrote in his tweets to Rogan. “I won’t tell you how to announce MMA fights or what to say on your podcast — if you won’t tell us as a city how to deal with our homeless issues.”

Rogan, by the way, has spoken of Fresno in a more positive light in previous years.

Back in November 2019, the popular podcast host raved about the soul food he ate while in downtown Fresno at Chef Paul’s.

“It’s so good, man,” Rogan says about Chef Paul’s restaurant during a 2019 podcast. “That place is amazing.”