Each week, Jason and Shea will take one specific movie-related subject and organize all its parts and pieces into one of four tiers: Great, Good, Meh, or Bad.

They're quieter than other pods. They skip around mid sentence. They repeat segments. They just up and end early sometimes.

Is it the Podcast App or...like what's going on?

Between Fairway Rolling, Ringer Wise Guys and a lot of BS performances Joe House is more than just a friend. Has podcasting become his full time job? What do you think he is paid? Did he get any equity or bonus when Bill sold? This is more curious than bashing.

As a longtime listener to E.S.A. and a genuine fan of the contrasting insights that Nora & Nathan have traditionally brought to new music reviews, I am disappointed that this episode revealed some long-simmering issues that seem to have impacted other Ringer-produced podcasts.

First, Nora's decision to use real-life friends' questions as "proxies" for other listener submissions about popular topics like Ella Langley's single or Taylor Swift's Grammy interview is troublesome. While personal anecdotes and behind-the-scenes nuggets can be fun fodder for most podcast hosts to sprinkle in, a mailbag format is an easy layup to acknowledge individual listeners who have no connections to the hosts, just a simple "nod to the community" that reassures an audience that they are important. Not sure that comes through when your TS question comes from a guy who sat with your co-host at your wedding. In reading other Ringer show feedback, this has become a running theme among hosts that creates more distance between their lives and the audience's lived experiences.

Second, Nathan's professional conflicts of interest are never acknowledged in a transparent way. I enjoy listening to his perspectives precisely because of his background in the industry in the live event, ticketing, and now artist management/publishing segments. But if Nathan can't acknowledge his company Firebird Music's financial interest in artists who have either appeared on ESE (Marcus Mumford) or are regularly discussed (and arguably provided in-kind advertising/promotion) like Yungblud, Sabrina Carpenter, Haim, and Zach Top, how can listeners discern when his recommendations are based on taste or commerce? (https://www.hitsdailydouble.com/news/grammys/firebird-partner-grammy-nominations-2025-11-10)

In addition, Nathan's experience as Ticketmaster CEO put him in an excellent position to assert that Harry Styles' NYC residency at Madison Square Garden would be beneficial to fans' economically. When it was first announced, after Nathan had teased the 30 show run online and on the podcast, he stated that the residency model would allow Harry Styles to keep average ticket prices in line with his last headlining tour. After tickets were put on sale and lower bowl seats were in the $1000 range, we never heard a discussion about why Nathan's initial impressions were so far off the mark. Instead, Nora and Nathan had a brief discussion about how the market demand for Harry was just impressive. (https://www.forbes.com/sites/sofiachierchio/2026/01/27/harry-styles-ticket-prices-spark-outrage-among-fans/)

I am conflicted on whether to remain a listener. It is disappointing to have doubt in the back of one's mind while listening to what is supposed to be an informed, nuanced discussion show. Instead, I worry that everything we listen to in the Ringer universe is a not-so-thoughtfully obscured infomercial.

Which episodes did Jodi Walker give her recommendations on where to go in New Orleans when she was temporarily living there, sometime last year i think?

All startups give co-founders a bunch of equity but I'm wondering if The Ringer did the same. Obviously BS is the main founder but Sean, CR, Mal and Juliet were essentially co-founders. Do you think/know whether they got equity and therefore got rich post acquisition? Everybody jokes about Bill being rich and he's definitely the richest of them but if they received appropriate co-founder equity at the time of founding, I'd expect them to be sitting on a few mil each.

The Ringer's undoubtedly a commercial success ten years after its founding. And it's made podcast 'stars' of several of its main characters (CR even has his own subreddit!). It was pitched ten years ago as a sports, culture, politics, and tech hub for website, podcast, and video.

It's now essentially a podcast network that has carved out a niche in pop culture rewatching movies and deep analysis of TV. And sports gambling drives it's sports coverage. They essentially punted on any coverage of news or taking a stand on societal issues post Ringer Union and a Sad Day in 2020. With all that being said, do you view The Ringer as the fulfillment of an ambitious idea? Or more of a successful business project that leveraged sports gambling and a podcast bubble?

All the other ringer shows sound good, not always great but The Town is constantly clipping at half volume and makes it so hard to listen to

Made a fun little project to help my track what rewatchables episodes I’ve listened to and filter and sort them by RT score ebert rating decade etc

I added some fun stats and charts in there like hanks vs cruise

It’s all free and I just wanted to share it to see if anyone finds it helpful

Let me know what ya think - https://hanksvscruise.com/

Jason has been back at The Ringer for six months or so. I’m an old Binge Mode freak and was so thrilled when I heard he’d returned. I know Mal is probably worried about stepping on what she has with Joana but I desperately want a Binge Mode about Dunk and Egg, we never got a LOTR binge mode, I want it!

The Ringer has a ton of content related to Fantasy Football. Simmons talks about this fantasy league non-stop.

So why don't they build out their own app? I *never* go to the Ringer website but listen to a few of their podcasts. Their website has zero traction. So make it a destination website.

Plus it gives them ability to add functionality that they don't like from ESPN or Yahoo.

Thoughts? My league is on ESPN but it's not like we are married to it and the switching cost is minimal.

With the new blood of Tom Pelissero … any chance we might be nearing the end of “qb reviews” by Ruiz? … like are they renewing his contract?

Does anyone know if JJ John Jastremski will be back hosting the gambling show once the NFL regular season starts? Always felt he was a great host brought a lot of energy. If he did permanently leave the Ringer I must have missed that announcement.

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This is very insightful observation about what's happened in sports, but also in a lot of society. We're talking about people talking and fandom has changed. That said, yes, I recognize that I'm now pushing talking about people talking about people talking about what someone said about a sports thing.

If you never do it, just go watch some minor league baseball or a lower division college football game. It's so different to sit there and watch athletes play and not know any storylines.

Steven Ruiz is leaving the ringer. How would you describe his tenure? What do you think led to him no longer being a regular on the NFL podcast?

I know all of their energy is in Podcasts, Netflix, and YouTube at the moment, but the website that is the namesake of The Ringer seems like it should matter. However, it is a bit of a mess, particularly when you click on the TV tab in the top menu.

Click on TV from the home page and the first hit is the House of the Dragon Season 3 episode 2 written recap, which came out six weeks ago. Other things marked "the latest" include an X-Men 97 update from July 1 and a Love Island recap from June 18. There's also an Emmy review from March!

No feeds of The Watch or relevant episodes of other podcasts, lots of recaps and previews missing (I originally went looking for Lanterns content). The streaming guide (which was actually a great hub for content) was last updated in March.

Who is managing this page? Does CR need an intern?

Can The Ringer please ban the "of it all" idiom? It makes me think of pandemic-era Wosny Lambre and not in a good way.

Wow, it was bad enough when The Ringer was purchased by Spotify, but Bill reading back ChatGPT answers is really the final straw. It's been obvious for a long time that the key Ringer writers/podcasts are more than willing to cash in on the destruction of the things they built their reputations -- writing and music for starters -- and the creators of said culture work. But this is a creepy new low and the end of the line for me. The way people who should know better either completely ignore of jokingly wave away ethical issues is grotesque and not likely to wear well.

Story was “he’s not efficient, sucks as a teammate, turned the ball over a lot, isn’t a winner, but he was committed to being all these terrible things so I guess that’s why he gets respect”. Not saying a retirement article can’t have anything negative, but when it’s basically all negative about an MVP and 9 time All NBA player it seems like a desperate need to be liked by the smartest people in the room types.

I dunno but that was painful

Joanna Robinson and Rob Mahoney is a live show at Televerse, the Television Academy festival. It was fun to watch them do a live draft. Producer Kai Grady was there as well.