Joe Rogan says a former guest on his podcast was accused of killing and decapitating a man just weeks after appearing on the show.
The claim came up during a recent episode of The Joe Rogan Experience as Rogan spoke with physician Zach Bush about sociopaths, leading him to reference his February 1, 2024 interview with Sheldon Johnson and civil rights attorney Josh Dubin.
“We had a guy in the studio that cut a guy’s head off after the podcast. He killed a guy and cut his head off,” Rogan said.
According to Rogan, Johnson had joined him on the podcast alongside civil rights attorney Josh Dubin, the executive director of the Perlmutter Center for Legal Justice, not long before the alleged attack.
“He does the podcast and then afterwards goes and visits this guy that apparently he had a beef with, kills him, cuts his head off, puts him in a [suitcase], like puts a wig on, and tries to escape in the hallway through the cameras,” Rogan added.
Johnson, who was then working as a criminal justice activist with Dubin, was arrested in March 2024 after officers discovered a human torso in a bin and a head in a freezer inside an apartment in the Bronx, according to the NYPD.
Authorities were first sent to the building for a welfare check after neighbours reported hearing gunfire and a stranger was allegedly seen going in and out of the apartment carrying cleaning products, the building superintendent said.
Investigators later alleged that surveillance footage captured Johnson getting off an elevator on the sixth floor, looking down the hallway, and then entering the apartment.
Police said he was later seen leaving at about 2 a.m. with a blue bin, and that he allegedly came back wearing different clothes and a blond wig.
Reporting by CNN stated that a search of Johnson’s apartment in Harlem led investigators to find a human arm, legs, and a head with a gunshot wound inside the freezer.
He was subsequently charged with murder, manslaughter, criminal possession of a weapon, and concealment of a human corpse.
Johnson pleaded not guilty to all charges related to the fatal shooting and dismemberment of 44-year-old Colin Small.
At the time of the episode, Johnson had been released from prison in 2019 after serving roughly 25 years for earlier armed robbery convictions, and he had been presenting himself publicly as a rehabilitation and criminal justice reform advocate.
Rogan’s comment also underscored how quickly Johnson’s public image changed: his appearance on the podcast focused on his prison experience, his GED, and his efforts to rebuild his life after incarceration.
When he appeared on The Joe Rogan Experience, Johnson was employed as a client advocate in a public defender’s office in Queens. He had been released from prison in 2019 after serving 25 years for a string of armed robberies carried out in 1999.
Johnson said he had once been affiliated with the Bloods and explained that he received a sentence of up to 50 years for using a gun to rob several men over unpaid drug debts.
He also told Rogan that prison was where he decided to change the direction of his life, and that he earned his General Equivalency Diploma (GED) while incarcerated.
“I made the decision that I was going to walk away and I didn’t care about what the consequences was,” Johnson said.
“And I said to myself, ‘I’ve been doing bad for so long. I’m going to try to do something good.’
During that interview, Johnson spoke at length about his rehabilitation and the criminal justice reform work he pursued after leaving prison.
After his arrest, Johnson’s case remained active in New York courts, with pretrial proceedings continuing into 2025 and 2026.
The episode has since become one of the more chilling examples of how a podcast conversation about redemption and second chances can collide with a violent criminal case just weeks later.