Joe Rogan has discovered Turnstile, while claiming that US rap has “fallen off the charts” because of the defunding of international aid.
The conversations took place on a recent ‘Protect Our Parks’ edition of The Joe Rogan Experience, which Rogan hosted alongside the comedians Shane Gillis, Mark Normand and Ari Shaffir.
While discussing PSY, Gillis noticed Shaffir – who was sporting a Last Dinner Party T-shirt – attempting to bring Turnstile into the conversation, and declared that he was a fan of their “old stuff”, especially ‘Generator’ from the 2018 album ‘Time & Space‘.
“Well, what is Turnstile at all?” Rogan asked. “Explain to me, please.”
Normand explained that they are a “young hardcore band”, to which Rogan responded: “Oh nice, is it cumcore?”
They then played the video for ‘Seein’ Stars / Birds’, from last year’s ‘Never Enough‘, prompting Rogan to ask: “What am I looking at? I don’t understand what I’m seeing.”
The studio guests then began to celebrate the fact that “kids are in bands again”, declaring that “the world is healing” and “rock is back”.
From there, they began to discuss the lack of rap music at the top of the US charts, with Rogan saying it was “because USAID got defunded”.
“USAID, the Agency for International Development, is well known to have been funding a bunch of radical anti-government rappers overseas,” he said. “Funding a ton of them. It was basically all about regime change. That was a big part of what USAID was about.”
He went on to say that he read about it “online”, including from Mike Benz, a former guest on the podcast who is also a speechwriter for the Trump administration.
There is no evidence that the defunding of USAID has impacted the commercial success of rap music in the US.
An Associated Press investigation found that a US government contractor attempted to recruit the Cuban rapper Aldo Rodriguez in 2009, with the aim of encouraging an anti-government movement, but there are no other reports of such interference.
USAID’s responsibilities were transferred to the State Department in July 2025 after the Elon Musk-fronted Department of Government Efficiency led a swathe of governmental department cuts.
Rogan clashed with Bono on his podcast over the humanitarian impact of the USAID cuts last year, with the U2 frontman citing that 300,000 people could die as a result of the withdrawal of aid.
Neil Young and Joni Mitchell were among the musicians who withdrew their work from Spotify in 2022 in protest at the COVID-19 misinformation spread on Rogan’s podcast.
As for Turnstile, they will play a headline show in Halifax on August 26, before supporting Tyler, The Creator at All Points East two days later. They have also been announced for Camp Flog Gnaw 2026, which takes place in Los Angeles in November.
