The Ringer
- Thread starter Cellar-Door
- Start date
Yup, good point. Can't believe I've forgotten the hours spent in the video store before we selected Stripes. Again.
I don't understand the question. Why wouldn't young people listen to podcasts? Young people have headphones in all the time; what do you think they are listening to? Just music? Whatever a young person is interested in, they are probably listening to a podcast about it.
I know they can. But are podcasts POPULAR with young people.
I'm 41. I like Ringer podcasts. I like comedy podcasts produced by Earwolf/Headgum, but I feel like those are targeted at my age group, or that they have grown with me from my early thirties into my forties. These types of podcasts are popular and among my friends.
BUT I don't imagine they are popular with say someone who is 19 years old. So if they are interested in pop culture/TV/films what are they listening to? if they are interested in comedy what are they listening to?
Young people listen to Barstool pods, to Call Her Daddy, to Joe Rogan, to Pod Save America, to Chapo Trap House.
They like political podcasts, podcasts about sex, podcasts about therapy, and podcasts about bullshit.
They like political podcasts, podcasts about sex, podcasts about therapy, and podcasts about bullshit.
I really need to rewatch this immediately. Is it streaming anywhere?
John ... you're pretty tough on Bill and I have always wondered whether those who are really tired of his act followed him back in the DGB days. I definitely see his warts and turn him off when I am not feeling it but I just have a lot of respect for him sticking to his dream and his longevity so I think it colors my view of him. He played a huge role in making may awful days more enjoyable when I first started work in a law firm as an overworked associate who needed his daily links. I still smile when I think about a link to an article to "Yanni" in USA Today.
I just wonder how this breaks down on here. I know his history on SOSH also impacts the view of him and I honestly don't think I would be on here if not for him linking in back in the day. Again, just have respect for his success and ability to work from being a bartender and posting from his couch back in 90s to Jimmy Kimmell, ESPN and the Ringer. I also relate closely to his relationship with his dad and the role of the Celtics there. I think this is also why I enjoy Ryen as well. I rememeber his stint back on AM radio in Boston and respect his ability to stick to his dream.
No I am not related to Bill and have never met him but I've wondered this questions time and time again when reading this thread and figured I would ask it aloud. Feel free to ignore it if this is not discussion worthy.
I''ll take a little credit (or blame, if you want) too -- Can't Buy Me Love also played pretty goddamn often on three networks I programmed in the 1980s (Cinemax), 1990s (Comedy Central) and 2000s (VH1).
He's got some unusual blindspots. They've mostly avoided anything that's medium/hard sci-fi, aside from Edge of Tomorrow (which he wasn't on) and The Martian. IIRC, he also never got into the The Simpsons.
A similar thing happened to my sister and I once. She got super embarrassed at the counter because there was a late fee on our account for Star Wars and we had just got into a fight in the aisle where I insisted on renting it again.
Oddly enough, it doesn't seem to available for streaming anywhere (JustWatch is a good search directory for streaming stuff) or even for digital sale on Itunes or Prime Video. Must be some kind of rights issue somewhere, because CB II is available.
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I have been one of the biggest fan boys of Simmons over the years, up until very recently. But his podcast now is bad, it just is, to use a Simmons parlance. Everyone gets old. And Simmons not only got old, but he got very rich. Eventually people fall off and stop being interesting and curious. I also think him stopping all of his writing hurt him as a podcaster.
I have been reading Simmons since the DGB days. I am on this board because of him and I definitely don't care that he left this site or the way he left it. People love to big game hunt. But he got old and cannae hack it anymore.
Appreciate your response. I think we are both around the same age and likely a similar life cycle of observing his career.
Now who is streaming Cannonball Run? I need my Dom Deluise fix!
I'm turning 50 in September.
And Cannonball Run is not streaming anywhere, unfortunately.
This is an interesting theory. On the one hand, I think the reps he's gotten as a podcaster have helped him become better at the nuts and bolts of his craft as a speaker - confidence, delivery, etc. But it's certainly very easy to cast an unsupported, throwaway idea into the ether by voice relative to the process of shaping that same idea into an article. At the same time, though, it's probably very difficult to not find yourself repeating articles you've written in the podcasts you're hosting, which is something that hurts your street cred with your biggest fans who want original content all the time in both mediums.
On balance, I think I disagree with your theory - but only because he was becoming intellectually stagnant even before he stopped writing. If he'd have continued writing, isn't it just as likely that his writing would have just kept getting worse and worse, and that his podcasting wouldn't have gotten any better? (I say that as a Simmons fan, albeit not a Simmons fanboy.)
Writing takes a lot of thought, requires an outline, and forces you to think about what you're going to say.
One of the things that has caused Simmons to fall off a cliff is that he's not curious or interesting, he just relies on a bunch of verbal tics that he falls back on because he's not exercising his thought muscles in any way. So it's all, "Is Durant a top 3 all time guy who tore an Achilles after winning two straight championships," or "Is Unforgiving the invention of the anti hero?"
I agree with a lot of what you wrote about Simmons (I also go back to the BSG days), and I think this is a really good point. I listened to his Bill Russell tribute, which was essentially him reading the Russell section of his book or some old column (I guess) and was reminded of how good a writer he can be when he puts in the effort. But that desire is gone, and I respect his admission that he no longer has the drive to work hard enough to write a column, even sporadically. And while I think he's improved from his early days as a podcaster, he crested there a couple of years ago, and now it's almost impossible for me to listen to him without knowing exactly what's coming out of his mouth at any point, and whatever that is is rarely anything that interests me.
I chuckled when I saw that he's broken out his interviews, because he's one of the worst interviewers on his site, in large part because he's a terrible listener and is often more interested in his answer to the question he's posed than his subject's.
And him releasing all those interviews shows that Simmons used to get really good guests. Now, the last 2 months have been 2 hour deep dives into the 78th best point guard in the Summer League. I like the NBA but it's now the only thing Simmons can talk about and it's too much. At least Rusillo can cover college football and the NFL pretty well, on top of the NBA. Plus Rusillo gets some really interesting guests, as well as the sports people he has on.
Simmons can't even cover the NFL anymore. His entire podcast during the NFL season is either guess the lines(still good because of Sal) or Million Dollar Picks.(a truly awful segment that is also nonsensical and Schraeger has a truly thankless job there to be a yes man) Those podcast kind of produce themselves because the content is already there, they just have to go through it.
But Simmons analyzes the NFL by vibes and whether a team he bet won or lost. If the bet won, the team is spicy and/or frisky. If the bet loses, the team is awful.
Not the first time a thin-skinned narcissist who inserts his interests and opinions into everything and throws a tantrum when he’s called out attracted a large following.
It’s funny, because I always thought he was a great writer with a contrived, lame personality, but his personality and voice have gotten him to even greater heights, so I guess folks like that.
We probably need a separate Rewatchables thread at this point but your posts in this thread seem to be pretty aggressively anti-Simmons for someone who doesn‘t listen to him. I’m open to the fact that I should shut him off as well, I am also a BSG originalist like many others here, and have largely shut him off, but I truly enjoy the Rewatchables. But it seems like your critique is coming from a different place, like it isn’t the content of the podcast itself, but the mere fact that it exists that is problematic. Can you offer more?
Yeah, this is all fair. I was going more for dark sarcasm and lamenting the lowest common denominatorism of it all - opining that people would rather listen to people like themselves who have baseless, uneducated opinions they’re stridently wedded to than listen to people with actual insight.
As for Bill, yeah there’s some pettiness I’m not proud of. I usually root for every decent person’s success and don’t begrudge anyone who makes it to a certain level or beyond. But Bill is one of the people I resent. Like him and Joe Rogan. One or two others I can’t think of.
Part of it is definitely the inability to realize you’ve hit a helluva lucky streak. Bill was a talented writer, but he should be Bob Ryan or maybe CHB; not the face of a 9 figure (is that right, I’m too lazy to count) media empire. And that’s great. Normally I’d root for anyone to luck into the right place and right time. It’s happened to me recently in life and I’m so grateful and it’s fucking awesome.
But, dude thinks he really is that incredible. And it’s sad because he was the Everyman who know thinks he’s the Uberman.
That alone isn’t the reason though, if I’m being honest. I got into Simmons around the time I joined the site; when I left Boston to go to law school. It was really one of my first times away from home and I went from knowing everyone to knowing nobody and not even really knowing how to meet people because I worked at a bar and went to college in my hometown.
So, Simmons and SoSH were my touchstones for being back home and my Boston identity. And so yes there is an ugly dose of personal rancor mixed in with all of this, because there was some absurd sense of betrayal that the dude who was supposed to be acting like a slob with you at the bar in some egalitarian underclass mocking the elites is now set up at the big table doing all the things he cut down others for doing.
Like it’s not a new story. I’m sure we all have some version of it.
View: https://twitter.com/BillSimmons/status/1555936249927544834
So excited to finally be able to talk about Boston sports on a Ringer podcast. Will be a totally new experience for me. Welcome aboard @itsbrianbarrett !
Brian Barrett, who has done excellent work at WEEI, is leaving to host a Boston sports podcast for The Ringer.
So excited to finally be able to talk about Boston sports on a Ringer podcast. Will be a totally new experience for me. Welcome aboard @itsbrianbarrett !
Brian Barrett, who has done excellent work at WEEI, is leaving to host a Boston sports podcast for The Ringer.
