Wow, why did you catch flack for mentioning the JRE?
I think it started when the guys who made Cowspiracy went to his show. After that he went on a mission to find every piece of pseudoscience or blog post that said the animal industry is actually good for the environment, or that plants have feelings, or that vegans were unhealthy, and then went on a Twitter rage against vegans.
It was pretty clear that his open-mindedness was quite limited. The sad thing is that a lot of people think he is a reliable source of information.
On a side note, I'm still waiting to hear some hard science on the affects veganism (which clearly doesn't include The China Study). If the right person were out there, I'd be curious to hear them on JRE.
imo Joe is very open minded, an avg Joe (had to) that is willing to hear people out and is fair handed in contrasting opinions. listening to the one with him, hannibal burris, and sam harris shows that he tries to take emotion out of argument and see where each person is coming from. but other times he'll just repeat things what he has heard other guests has said. for instance drugs that clogs up the blood for bicyclists when he had lance armstrong on.
i wouldn't say his show is scientifically dense though. that really depends on the guest. so when you have a person like rhonda on, yea her field is science and it's going to be dense in that subject matter.