Joe Rogan just poured gasoline on an already white-hot debate, claiming a “dirty secret” is fueling America’s school shooting crisis. On a recent episode of his podcast, Rogan and comedian Dave Landau talked through the Minneapolis church massacre, and Rogan argued there’s a connection between mass shooters and psychiatric meds like SSRIs, without offering evidence.
“Everyone knows [they’re connected], and it’s just this dirty secret that no one talks about because all the media is paid off by the pharmaceutical drug companies,” Rogan said, while also speculating about isolation, identity struggles, and antidepressant use among killers.
Joe Rogan says the connection between mass shootings and SSRIs is undeniable.
And he’s glad RFK Jr. is looking into it.
“It is real and everyone knows it.”
“It’s just this dirty secret that no one talks about because all the media is paid off by the pharmaceutical drug… pic.twitter.com/g3b6o1w6Dw
— End Tribalism in Politics (@EndTribalism) September 2, 2025
The conversation came after the horrifying attack at Annunciation Catholic Church and School in Minneapolis on August 27. Police say 23-year-old Robin Westman fired into the building during a school Mass, killing two children and injuring more than a dozen others before dying by suicide. Authorities have since raised the count of those hurt to 21 as more injuries were confirmed.
Rogan’s guest, Landau, spoke about his own experiences with Zoloft, saying he’s trying to taper off under difficult circumstances, a personal detour that Rogan used to underscore his broader suspicion of SSRIs. But beyond Rogan’s soundbites, there’s now a political spotlight on the meds, too.
The day after the Minneapolis shooting, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said his agency is “launching studies” on whether antidepressants or other psychiatric drugs could be tied to violence, a move that immediately drew fire from medical experts who say the science doesn’t back the claim.
🚨BREAKING: SHOOTER on UMass Lowell under shelter in place after person with gun reported on campus!
UMass Lowell public safety officials sent a text blast to school community members alerting them to a “weapons incident” reported at Riverside Suites on South Campus.
Police… pic.twitter.com/rCKe8uROzn
— SANTINO (@MichaelSCollura) September 3, 2025
So, what does the research say? According to a Washington Post analysis citing emerging work from Columbia University’s Mass Murder Database, the lifetime prevalence of antidepressant use among mass-shooting perpetrators over the last 30 years appears lower than in the general U.S. adult population.
Experts quoted in that report say there’s no evidence SSRIs drive violence and caution that conflating known warnings about suicidal ideation, especially during medication changes, with homicidal behavior is misleading. In short, the data do not support a simple “pills cause shootings” narrative.
Meanwhile, Minneapolis is still reeling. Vice President JD Vance traveled to the church on September 3 to meet with families and lay flowers, as parishioners mourn the two students and pray for the injured. Officials say Westman fired more than a hundred rounds, and investigators are still piecing together motive while the school community figures out how to move forward.
Rogan’s take, that Big Pharma money is muzzling the media and that SSRIs are the unspoken culprit, is classic JRE. But even as the episode ricochets around social media, leading health voices are urging caution. Correlation is not causation, and in cases like Minneapolis, authorities have not publicly linked antidepressants to the attack. For all the online theorizing, the evidence still points elsewhere: easy access to guns, fame-seeking, and deep nihilism are the more consistent themes researchers have documented among mass shooters.
Rogan’s “dirty secret” claim lands with tabloid punch, but right now it’s a theory in search of proof, and grieving families in Minneapolis deserve facts, not shortcuts.
