‘You need to run for president’
Democratic Texas state Rep. James Talarico — who once asserted that “there are six” sexes — left Joe Rogan so impressed Friday that the popular podcast host urged the young lawmaker to “run for president.”
Talarico, 36, earned the comedian’s seal of approval near the end of a lengthy “Joe Rogan Experience” interview where the teacher-turned-politician discussed his Christian faith, Democratic roots and several state and national policy issues.
“You need to run for president,” Rogan told Talarico, who represents the Lone Star State’s 50th District. “We need someone who is actually a good person.”
Talarico, a devout Christian who is currently in seminary school, suggested that Rogan should pump the brakes.
“Can I actually push back on that?” the state rep responded.
“We were talking about how politics has become a religion. This is one of the ways it does. People put all their faith in a politician,” Talarico argued.
“I’ve seen it with Bernie,” he continued, referring to far-left Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.). “I like Bernie a whole lot, but some people treat him as if he’s a messianic figure. And Trump on the right, people treat him as a messiah in some ways.
“This is a problem.”
Talarico raised eyebrows in the Texas statehouse in 2021 when he claimed sex is measured on a “spectrum,” rather than a binary, in arguing against a measure seeking to ban transgender athletes from competing in girls’ K-12 scholastic sports.
“[M]odern science obviously recognizes that there are many more than two biological sexes,” the state rep said during a Public Education Committee hearing on the bill.
He added: “In fact, there are six, which honestly … surprised me, too.”
Talarico went on to explain that there are “six really common biological sexes” based on X and Y chromosomes — not just XX (female) and XY (male), but also single X, XXY, XYY and XXXY.
“The point is that biologically speaking, scientifically speaking, sex is a spectrum, and oftentimes can be very ambiguous,” he said.
Rogan is an outspoken critic of radical gender ideology and transgender athletes who play in women’s sports.
“When you say there’s 78 words for gender, I can safely say you’re f–king crazy,” Rogan once said on his podcast.