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A study by Microsoft found that the average human attention span decreased by 25% from 12 seconds in 2000 to 8.25 seconds in 2015. In this environment, it’s remarkable that comedian Joe Rogan’s long-form podcast, “The Joe Rogan Experience,” is the cultural touchstone it has become. “Joe Rogan Experience” podcast stats (as of November 2025) 2,657 episodes recorded in 15 years Average episode duration of 2hrs 39min 06sec 1,230 people interviewed (89% male, 11% female) Most-viewed episode: first Elon Musk appearance While getting an audience to listen to an interview for three hours seemingly contradicts the trend of shorter attention spans, “The Joe Rogan Experience” is the most popular podcast in the space. Last week, Rogan had Tesla CEO Elon Musk on his show for the fifth time since 2018. Musk had his first viral moment during his debut on the show when he puffed a marijuana cigarette (but did not inhale). His latest interview on the show, which aired on October 31, has garnered more than 7.3 million views on YouTube alone in under a week. While Rogan has been criticized for not pushing back when his guests spout blatant falsehoods, his interview style undoubtedly gets his interviewees to open up and say things they might not on other platforms. Last week, Musk answered a question that has been on the minds of the general public: Why does the Tesla Cybertruck look the way it does? Musk may have learned lessons from Titan sub implosion when building Cybertruck Joe Rogan’s freewheeling interview style allows his guests to opine on the most remote topics, and his interview with Musk followed the same pattern. At the 30-minute mark, the conversation turns to the homemade Titan deepwater submersible that imploded in 2023, killing all five people on board. “That was not a good design, obviously, terrible design,” Musk said about the vessel. “They made that out of carbon fiber, which doesn’t make any sense because you need to be dense to go down. In any case, you just make it out of steel. If you make it out of sort of just a big steel casting… you’ll be safe and nothing will happen.” Herein lies the brilliance of the podcast, as that digression led into a conversation about designs for some of Tesla’s vehicles. Musk briefly discussed the futuristic Art Deco design concept of the autonomous bus that the company has teased through artwork in the past. “I think we want the future to look like the future,” Musk says of his robotic bus. Elon Musk explains to Joe Rogan why the Cybertruck looks the way it does Following discussion of Musk’s robotic bus, Rogan asks a pointed question about the Cybertruck. “I mean, that’s kind of the whole deal with Cybertruck, right? Like, it didn’t have to look like that,” Rogan says. “No, I just wanted to have something that looked really different,” Musk bluntly responds. What Musk says next suggests that when Tesla designed the Cybertruck, it was building a car for the road that addresses the durability issues the Titan sub faced at sea. “The form does follow function in the case of the Cybertruck, because, as you demonstrated with your armor-piercing arrow, if you shot that arrow at a regular truck… you would have found your arrow in the wall,” Musk said, referring to a viral clip of Rogan attempting to fire an arrow through the vehicle to test its durability. No matter how many arrows the Cybertruck can withstand, the vehicle’s angular aesthetic is not pleasing to the average consumer’s eye. Despite a ton of hype when it launched in late 2023, Cybertruck sales have steadily declined over the past two years. Tesla sold about 5,400 Cybertrucks in the third quarter, representing a 62.6% year-over-year drop, according to Cox Automotive data. Tesla typically doesn’t trail its ICE rival Ford in EV sales, but even Ford’s F-150 Lightning EV pickup sold 10,000 units in the same period. But Musk says the angular shape of the vehicle is necessary because of the rigid stainless steel panels that are strong enough to stop arrows. “So then because it’s made of ultra-hot stainless, you can’t just stamp the panels,” Musk added. “You can’t just put [it] in a stamping press because it breaks the press….That’s why…it’s so planar….because it’s bulletproof steel.” So, having a vehicle design with a function that could only be marketed to doomsday preppers preparing for the apocalypse trumped designing a more aesthetically pleasing vehicle for the masses. As Musk said earlier in the podcast, “form does follow function.” Will Elon Musk make any design changes to the Cybertruck? Joe Rogan clearly likes Elon Musk; the pair have good chemistry on the show, and Musk has been a guest at least five times. So Rogan used kid gloves to tell Musk how ugly the Cybertruck is to the average Joe (Rogan podcast listener). “Are you married to that shape now? Like, can you do anything to change it?” Rogan said. But Musk was having none of it. The Cybertruck’s distinct angular shape is here to stay. “I wanted to just do something that looked unique, and the Cybertruck looks unique and has unique functionality,” Musk said. “A Cybertruck is alien technology, okay. Because it shouldn’t be possible to be that big and that fast; it’s like an elephant that runs like a cheetah.” This is an apt reference, as the Cybertruck can weigh up to 7,000 pounds while boasting greater acceleration than a Porsche 911.
