The first presidential debate of 2020 was lauded by some as “the worst debate in American history.”

Although many on the left blamed it on President Trump, and just as many on the right blamed it on Vice-President Biden, it may be the debate format that’s to blame.

As America evolves, why can’t the debate format evolve as well?

I believe a podcast would be a much better format for the presidential debates moving forward. Specifically, Joe Rogan’s podcast, the Joe Rogan Experience.

This would be a great idea for many reasons. First, it would reach a large number of young people.

Statistics show that 32% of Americans listen to podcasts, and over 50% of all Americans over the age of 12 have listened to a podcast before. More specifically, Rogan’s past 10 podcasts have averaged 2.96 million views on YouTube, and his past 25 have averaged 3.57 million views. This number does not count Spotify listeners or people who watch on other platforms (AKA losers).

Rogan is also no stranger to having politicians on his podcast. His interview with Bernie Sanders brought in a whopping 13 million views. Andrew Yang has also appeared on the podcast, raking in a respectable 5.6 million views. Even no-name candidate Tulsi Gabbard averaged 3.07 million viewers across her three appearances.

Although the debate, which aired on many channels like ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX, CNN, PBS, and CSPAN, garnered over 73 million viewers, many of these viewers are older people. I think it is safe to assume the only people watching CSPAN are people who, like both presidential candidates, have been voting since at least the ’70s.

However, the Joe Rogan Experience has a target demographic of millennials and members of Gen-Z, who coincidentally are being heavily encouraged to vote in this year’s election.

Another reason Rogan’s platform would be a great place to hold a debate is the lack of studio mandates.

Rogan is the sole owner of his podcast and is not a target of studio interference. He has stated in the past that he is against censorship, especially censorship of his podcast, and he intends for his podcast to be a place where people are represented genuinely and fairly. Networks such as FOX and CNN do not share this particular sentiment and are noted for their incredible partisanship.

If they were to appear on the Joe Rogan Experience, both Mr. Trump and Mr. Biden would be able to give genuine answers instead of being typecast by the politically motivated “news” networks.

Finally, the long form conversation would allow for the candidates to fully express themselves much more than the current debate format does. Currently, the debate format only allows for candidates to make two-minute responses to each question. It is impossible to describe a complex political strategy in just two minutes.

Anybody who watches debates, can tell you that the most memorable parts are the sound bytes. The candidates don’t have enough time to make real points, so they instead resort to insulting each other.

The Joe Rogan Experience, however, does not include any time limits, letting the candidates express their opinions at whatever speed they choose.

Rogan’s podcast is also much more lax than your average news network, which would lead to a much more laid back and civil debate than we have seen in the past.

In sum, the Joe Rogan Experience is the perfect platform to house a Trump-Biden debate: it can bring in many young viewers and listeners, it will be free from studio interference, and it will allow the candidates the time to voice their opinions in a laid back environment.

Also, how cool would it be to see Donald Trump get high with Joe Rogan? And if they got Ben Shapiro and Alex Jones in on that…