Joe Rogan is rarely short of words. Whether interviewing scientists, celebrities, or UFC icons, the podcast host is known for his outspoken commentary and tendency to infamously interrupt mid-sentence. However, on episode #2353 of The Joe Rogan Experience, he sat in rare silence as guest Shaka Senghor described the brutal reality of solitary confinement in the American prison system.

For about ten minutes, the JRE host said little to nothing, his face tense and his body language still. Senghor, a former inmate turned author and reform campaigner, did not mince words as he discussed his 19-year prison sentence, seven of which were spent in solitary confinement. “When I tell people, it is the most barbaric thing that we do to people in this country,” Senghor said. “It’s a 23-hour lockdown, five days a week, 24-hour lockdown the other two days. And it is the most chaotic environment you can imagine.”

He remembered the terrible routine of inmates beating on metal lockers for hours on end, some only to mentally break the guy in the adjacent cell. “These guys had the endurance to do that for hours,” he revealed on the podcast.

Unfortunately, the truth is more than anecdotal. At any given moment, around 81,000 individuals in U.S. prisons are held in solitary confinement, which involves being locked in small rooms for 22 to 24 hours a day. That’s more than 6% of the total prison population. And as one can easily guess, the psychological effects are devastating.

According to studies, former inmates who were held in solitary confinement are 78% more likely to commit s——, 127% more likely to die from an overdose, and have a 24% higher all-cause death rate during the first year after release. Despite these statistics, the practice persists, not only in federal prisons but also in local jails and immigrant detention centers, where oversight is a lot weaker.

Senghor’s perspective is even more disturbing because he endured it all while watching others unravel. “A lot of people in solitary have pre-existing mental health challenges,” he told Joe Rogan. “If they didn’t, they eventually succumbed to the madness of the environment.” He described how many inmates were illiterate, traumatized, and untreated for mental illnesses.

As Senghor’s words filled the studio, the UFC commentator couldn’t speak a word. However, not every hard-hitting situation has the JRE host keeping his mouth closed.

Joe Rogan shows concern about innocents being sent to the infamous El Salvadoran prison

Long before being left speechless by Shaka Senghor’s story on JRE #2353, Joe Rogan had his eyes on another unsettling topic: innocent people being deported to one of the world’s harshest prisons. In a conversation with Konstantin Kisin, the JRE host addressed allegations of Venezuelan migrants being detained during a crackdown, expressing concern that not all of them were criminals.

Joe Rogan pointed out the worrying signs: people were apparently deported for having crown or rainbow tattoos or for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. He cited the case of Andry Jose Hernandez Romero, a Venezuelan asylum claimant who was allegedly deported without notice. Despite having no g— affiliations, he was put in a prison that the podcaster claimed no one should wind up in without evidence of serious wrongdoing.

“You’ve gotta get scared,” Rogan said, visibly concerned. He did not characterize it as politics but as something that felt wrong. Even as someone who frequently supports strong policy, he accepted that this wasn’t it. “Bad for the cause,” he added, referring to the harm such missteps can do to public trust. In an environment where outrage is common, this was one of the few times Rogan appeared more worried than loud.