Joe Rogan Experience #1837 - Gina Carano

The Joe Rogan ExperienceJun 27, 20242h 49m

Narrator, Narrator, Joe Rogan (host), Gina Carano (guest), Narrator, Narrator

Gina Carano’s early MMA career and trailblazing role in women’s fightingCultural resistance to women in combat sports and changing attitudesSocial media mobs, cancel culture, and the mechanics of online pile‑onsCarano’s Disney/Lucasfilm firing, agency/industry fallout, and safety issuesCOVID policies, mandates, censorship, and institutional trustMedia corruption, Big Pharma influence, and narrative controlCarano’s post‑cancellation film work with The Daily Wire and future ambitions

In this episode of The Joe Rogan Experience, featuring Narrator and Narrator, Joe Rogan Experience #1837 - Gina Carano explores gina Carano on cancellations, COVID, freedom, and rebuilding in film Joe Rogan and Gina Carano trace her path from pioneering women’s MMA fighter to Hollywood star and ultimately high‑profile cancellation from The Mandalorian. They unpack early resistance to women’s fighting, online mob dynamics, and how social media, bots, and legacy media fuel dogpiles and distorted narratives. A large portion covers COVID policy, vaccine mandates, censorship, institutional corruption, and how those issues reshaped Carano’s politics, trust in government, and career choices. The conversation closes with her new work with The Daily Wire, thoughts on future political leadership, and her desire to focus on making art while still defending open debate and individual freedoms.

Gina Carano on cancellations, COVID, freedom, and rebuilding in film

Joe Rogan and Gina Carano trace her path from pioneering women’s MMA fighter to Hollywood star and ultimately high‑profile cancellation from The Mandalorian. They unpack early resistance to women’s fighting, online mob dynamics, and how social media, bots, and legacy media fuel dogpiles and distorted narratives. A large portion covers COVID policy, vaccine mandates, censorship, institutional corruption, and how those issues reshaped Carano’s politics, trust in government, and career choices. The conversation closes with her new work with The Daily Wire, thoughts on future political leadership, and her desire to focus on making art while still defending open debate and individual freedoms.

Key Takeaways

Being early in a niche means pioneering without support—and with extra resistance.

Carano describes entering MMA when women fighters were dismissed by promoters, coaches, and male fighters, yet that period built the skills and resilience that later made her marketable in both fighting and film.

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Online outrage is often structurally amplified, not organically unanimous.

They outline how bots, coordinated campaigns, and click‑driven media coverage can turn a relatively small but loud group into a perceived consensus, pressuring studios, unions, and brands to overreact.

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Corporate and institutional responses to controversy can be harsher than the offense itself.

After her Holocaust‑comparison post, Carano lost her Disney job, toys, agency, and long‑time lawyers almost instantly—showing how companies pre‑emptively sever ties to protect image rather than foster context or dialogue.

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COVID policy debates exposed deep weaknesses in trust, transparency, and nuance.

Rogan and Carano argue that early panic, lack of long‑term data, profit‑driven pharmaceutical incentives, and suppression of dissenting experts created a climate where questioning mandates was framed as extremism instead of legitimate scrutiny.

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Health and body‑image discourse has conflated beauty, identity, and risk in unhelpful ways.

They differentiate between accepting diverse bodies as beautiful and denying clear health risks of obesity or extreme thinness, criticizing cultures that label basic health advice as ‘shaming’ or ‘phobic.’

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Decentralized platforms and media are shifting who controls narratives.

Podcasting, independent outlets, and new studios like The Daily Wire give de‑platformed or heterodox figures ways to reach audiences directly, challenging legacy media’s gatekeeping power.

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Carano’s future focus is on ownership and intentional work, not re‑entry at any cost.

Rather than chasing every role, she’s prioritizing projects she believes in, producing and potentially directing, and building alternatives that allow expression without ideological litmus tests.

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Notable Quotes

““I feel like I'm in the detention room, and I have no idea why I'm there.””
— Gina Carano

““What you said was not incorrect. The only problem was the comparison to the Holocaust.””
— Joe Rogan

““When you feel like your country is going through a really dark phase of cancel culture… I feel like it's okay to say something.””
— Gina Carano

““There's a fucking real problem when someone can't express an opinion in a clumsy way.””
— Joe Rogan

““I'm proud of myself for the last two and a half years… I can't wait to get back into art and really just sink into all of that and disappear into it.””
— Gina Carano

Questions Answered in This Episode

How much responsibility should studios and employers have to protect employees from online mobs, versus protecting their own brand image?

Joe Rogan and Gina Carano trace her path from pioneering women’s MMA fighter to Hollywood star and ultimately high‑profile cancellation from The Mandalorian. ...

Get the full analysis with uListen AI

Where should the line be drawn between harmful misinformation and legitimate dissent or skepticism, especially during crises like a pandemic?

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Can Hollywood realistically become more politically diverse again, or will parallel ecosystems (like The Daily Wire) become the long‑term norm?

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How can we design social media systems that discourage bot‑driven pile‑ons and incentivize context and nuance instead of outrage?

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What would a fair, transparent process for handling controversial speech by public figures look like—one that applies equally across the political spectrum?

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Transcript Preview

Narrator

(drumbeats) Joe Rogan podcast, check it out.

Narrator

The Joe Rogan Experience.

Joe Rogan

Train by day, Joe Rogan podcast by night, all day. (instrumental music plays) And we're up for your first ever podcast, Gina Clough.

Gina Carano

Oh my goodness.

Joe Rogan

(laughs)

Gina Carano

(laughs) What if I don't have anything to say?

Joe Rogan

You do. I guarantee you do. D- how did you avoid doing podcasts for this long?

Gina Carano

Just saying no. I-

Joe Rogan

Really?

Gina Carano

... I just tell people, well, I'm, I'm kind of just don't know what's ever gonna come out of my mouth, so it's gonna get... I have, uh, no idea what we're gonna talk about today.

Joe Rogan

Well, that's good. It's always better that way. I mean, we could talk about anything. We can talk about... Well, there was a moment, um, where you were gonna come back. You're the OG.

Gina Carano

Oh, (laughs) well, I mean, gosh, there was a-

Joe Rogan

No, you're the OG.

Gina Carano

Thank you.

Joe Rogan

Is, uh, d- in terms of women's MMA, who the fuck is more OG than you?

Gina Carano

I mean-

Joe Rogan

You're the original star.

Gina Carano

... well, like, not MMA, but like Lucia, Riker...

Joe Rogan

Yeah. For sure. Yeah.

Gina Carano

Um...

Joe Rogan

And Muay Thai, yeah, and in boxing, yeah, and then there's Christy Martin and-

Gina Carano

Yeah.

Joe Rogan

... you know, a lot of other folks that, yeah.

Gina Carano

And then there was like the Debbie Purcells and Erin, um-

Joe Rogan

Anne Wolf.

Gina Carano

Yeah.

Joe Rogan

There's, there's been a lot of, like, women combat sports athletes, but in terms of MMA, you're, you're the OG.

Gina Carano

Well, I, I appreciate that coming from you. That means a lot. I always-

Joe Rogan

What was it like back then?

Gina Carano

Um... (laughs)

Joe Rogan

Because, like, you were the OG when it was weird to be fighting, and it was weird to be fighting as a woman.

Gina Carano

Yeah. The, uh, it was just, um, you would go into the gym and it was just, uh, well, we started at Master Totty's, so there was a, a couple girls there that really liked to fight, but they liked to more look good and the attention that, that fighting came from.

Joe Rogan

Oh, yeah.

Gina Carano

Um, it wasn't all about, like, the fights, so...

Joe Rogan

There's a lot of that now, right?

Gina Carano

Now, it's like, like that, but, um, it was like that then, too. Um, I don't know, a lot of, like, the, what's her name? Erin... God. Is Debbie Purcell and Erin something...

Joe Rogan

Erin Tohill.

Gina Carano

Tohill.

Joe Rogan

Yes.

Gina Carano

So, they were actually the people I would say that started way bef-

Joe Rogan

Yeah, Erin was-

Gina Carano

... before us.