Splinter: Even Joe Rogan’s “Scientist” Guests Are Accused of Sexual Assault

America’s most listened-to podcast, The Joe Rogan Experience, has such a long history at this point of platforming problematic scumbags and sex pests that it’s become the basis of academic study and theses. It has never truly mattered which fields a Joe Rogan guest is hailing from: Survey the motley crew of comedians, athletes, actors and conspiracy crackpots who make up the typical annual composition and they all seem equally likely to end up with well-publicized accusations of misconduct. Some of the headlines aren’t immensely shocking: For instance, the “reformed” attempted murderer and Joe Rogan guest who was–surprise–arrested and accused of another murder only weeks after appearing on the show. Nor do we tend to be surprised when Rogan’s satellite posse of testosterone-maxxed mixed martial artist friends get caught up in accusations of sexual misconduct, abuse or domestic violence, as with the likes of B.J. Penn, Conor McGregor or Jon Jones. But when an (amateur) archaeologist ends up arrested and facing rape charges, weeks after his own Joe Rogan podcast debut? That’s something I don’t believe we’ve seen before.

The man in question is named Michael Raul Bilecky, often going by just “Raul Bilecky,” and he’s not exactly as prominent an entertainment world figure as some of the other Joe Rogan guests who have ended up in hot legal water. He appeared as the main guest on episode #2449 of The Joe Rogan Experience, posted to YouTube on Feb. 5, 2026, for a wide-ranging conversation about his adventure-exploration efforts involving ancient dig sites and uncatalogued ruins in Peru, as chronicled by his YouTube channel Pillars of the Past, which boasts about 77,000 subscribers, although Rogan naturally attempted to steer the conversation in the direction of “ancient aliens,” etc., in his personal preference for quackery. All of 22 days later, Bilecky would reportedly be arrested in Montgomery, County, Maryland, the same area that is listed as his home via social media accounts. According to the county’s daily arrest records document, Bilecky was arrested and charged with “rape 2nd degree without consent.” Maryland criminal law defines second degree rape as felony sexual assault committed against a victim that “is a substantially cognitively impaired individual, a mentally incapacitated individual, or a physically helpless individual,” for the record.

This is not a story that has yet received much in the way of media coverage, so details are scant, but there doesn’t seem to be any question of whether, for instance, this is the correct person who was a guest on Rogan’s podcast only a few weeks ago. For one thing, you can confirm that a “Michael Raul Bilecky” of the correct age remains in police custody via Maryland’s prisoner locator tool, with his next hearing scheduled for March 27, 2026. The last video of his YouTube channel was posted one day before the arrest the county noted on Feb. 27. And for another thing, Bilecky’s peers and former compatriots in the amateur archaeology/archaeological “research” world have been reacting to the news and confirming that this is the same guy they know, although naturally they’ve all seemingly said to date that they knew nothing about any malfeasance. But you can watch an entire podcast episode posted yesterday in which some of Bilecky’s fellow researchers express their shock and seemingly confirm that he may be facing not just one but many charges. Even Rogan’s reddit community, long since disgusted with his rightward pivot and embrace of Donald Trump in the run-up to the 2024 election, has taken notice of the charges.

Note that we’re not claiming the likes of Joe Rogan, or the people doing the booking of guests on his show, should be able to see the future or know in advance when a person coming on to talk about exploring Peruvian ruins will end up being hit with sexual assault charges. That’s probably going to be a pretty damn unlikely occurrence, although in Bilecky’s case it seems as it it may not have been his first time in a courtroom. I suppose this was years before he had dedicated himself to a YouTube channel that “aims to put you in the front seat of pure adventure.”

Regardless, it’s just one more for the ever-growing compendium of Joe Rogan podcast guests who have ultimately been accused of various forms of misconduct–often guests with much deeper personal connections to the host. Rogan’s longtime friend, comedian Bryan Callen, for instance, was accused of sexual assault and misconduct by multiple women in 2020, but Rogan stood steadfast by him, instead decrying “cancel culture” and public shaming. Callen would take a brief hiatus from his own podcasting and then returned as if nothing had happened. The same was effectively true of comedian Chris D’Elia, who was accused the same year with allegations of grooming and solicitation of minors by multiple young women. Once again, Rogan supported the accused over the minors making the allegations, later supporting D’Elia’s return to active performing. Ditto for the likes of Louis C.K., who had a highly publicized 2017 admission of his own sexual misconduct, and has likewise somehow ended up back in the good graces of the entertainment community anyway. All the while, Rogan has kept on raging about “cancel culture,” despite the fact that none of these “canceled” guys (his own friends) actually lost their ability to keep on making vast amounts of money in entertainment. Chris D’Elia has dozens of tour dates lined up, at home and abroad. Louis C.K. is touring too, and making multimillion dollar real estate deals.

Also I feel this is not talked about enough but Joe Rogans best friend, the intensely unfunny Joey Diaz has admitted to raping women on Rogan's podcast in the past. Rogan has never ever cared about what he pretends to care about. Rogan bought his way into comedy. There is a reason why his stand up

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— En djärv och fet björn som lever på en sten i tomma intet (@apebbleinthesky.bsky.social) May 4, 2025 at 8:49 PM

Rogan has just merrily kept on podcasting through all of it, occasionally joking about child sex abuse or laughing at stories told by guests about sexual predation. Whenever possible, he’s seemed to avoid making any kind of comment about problematic things said or done by guests of the show, even though particularly controversial episodes have occasionally and quietly disappeared from Spotify’s back catalog.

Which is all to say, we wouldn’t expect Joe Rogan to be commenting upon Michael Raul Bilecky’s reported legal situation anytime soon. That particular podcast episode may just be destined for infamy among the host’s weird but enduring retinue. To the rest of us, it’s just one more potential (scientist) scumbag for the pantheon.