Tim Dillon, another Rogan-adjacent comic who fled to Austin during the height of COVID restrictions, torched the city in a brutal tirade on Whitney Cummings’ podcast in September 2024. He called it a “soulless city that should be burned to the ground,” and mocked its supposed thriving music scene as just “three heroin addicts busking with guitars.”

In 2020, podcaster Joe Rogan announced he was moving from Los Angeles to Austin with loud fanfare, according to Chron. His big appeal at a time of mandatory masks was Austin’s lax mask requirement, along with lower taxes.