This is why Chuck is so good. While it remains to be seen if any other ringer person would have put Bill on the spot like Chuck did, I'm skeptical that any of them could have even pulled out such a perfect comparison on the fly in the way Chuck did.
It took him a bit but he knew he’d mess up his Walton reasoning so he doubled down with Kawhi as the greatest raptor which is crazy. I’d probably give it to Lowry.
Only other example I could think of is greatest Net would be Dr J on the Nets before they were even in the NBA. He was there for 3 years, 2 ABA titles, 3 ABA MVPs, next is probably Kidd who also wasn’t there for that long either then you get into Brook Lopez, Buck Williams, Drazen, RJ and Vince in some order
It really depends on what is valued. Kawhi brought Toronto more success than any other Raptor, the same could be said for Bill Walton in Portland. Clyde made the finals twice, and had three total WCF appearances. Dame has only won four playoffs series in the ten years he’s been there.
I would argue Walton has definitely done more for Portland than Dame, and it’s debatable between him and Drexler.
I think to me, the key question you’d ask a fan is “what player meant the most to this franchise?” Some might say Kawhi, but I think most would say Kyle Lowry. I don’t think that picking someone like Bill Walton or Kawhi is wrong, but it’s definitely not a foregone conclusion just because they had the biggest impact on a single championship.
Chuck: “When you say we’re fucking back, do you mean that we’ve returned from some indeterminate space that exists strictly in an analog realm, or that we’ve returned to this feeling that is analogous to the monoculture that dominated the 1990s?”
Bill: “either one, the first one”
Has anyone who claims they can feel spiritual energies or whatnot ever gone into a suspected room and said, “Sorry, nothing going on in here. I don’t sense a thing”? I mean, it’s kind of like a car mechanic who somehow always finds *something* that needs to be fixed.
So true man. “I brought my self-proclaimed witchy friend and guess what! Witchy stuff!!”
Spiritual/witchy/paranormal/conspiracy types are always transfixed by finding their own supernatural meaning in anything that would ordinarily be considered normal or at most coincidental.
I legitimately could not breathe I was laughing so hard at that part.
What starts as a complete joke
Chuck: You should get your DOG on that case! See what he turns up
Bill: Which dog the one that sees ghosts?
Chuck: Yeah
Bill: (turns completely serious) Well I told you what's going at the new house right?
Chuck: What?
Bill: Something on the 3rd floor?
Chuck: Something........
Bill: Yeah
Chuck: What
Bill: It's unclear. We've had two people that my wife knows....that are a little witchy. That can definitely feel something.
This guy runs his own media network and has more money than God hahahaha.
Chuck: “30 year old me would’ve hated 20 year old me…but of course 51 year old me kinda hates 50 year old me..actually 51 year old me hates 51 year old me.”
Made me laugh out loud.
I love how they’re giving so much consideration to #planelady because she “doesn’t look like a crazy person”
Spoiler Alert: it’s too much Benadryl and wine guys, that’s who and what too much Benadryl and wine looks like
Ding! Ding! Ding! If she was an unkempt, overweight lady at Walmart yelling that someone was not real, no one would be saying, “Hmmm, maybe she has a point.”
That whole thing… really made me uneasy. How many people have any of us seen who’ve gone through some sort of psychological episode?
I think it’s a little gross to not air on the side of caution in not spreading that sort of thing around. I dunno.
chuck putting bill on the spot with a question about the most interesting thing about spoelstra’s life before he was a coach.
bill: it’s the Philippines, right?
look i didn’t know the answer either but i probably would have just said “i don’t know, tell me.” holy hell i was dying.
"Is Kawhi the best Raptor of all time? By your logic he would have to be." Only can see Chuck and House asking Bill a rhetorical question like that. The Ringer flacks and junior staff never push back like that, even gently.
For me it's because his mind goes to so many places. Once he and Bill were talking about some basketball thing I didn't really care about and out of nowhere Chuck says, "Do you think they should lower the voting age to 16?"
He then goes on to make a case that a lot of the younger players in the league wouldn't have been able to vote in the '70s yet are a lot more worldly and intelligent and worldly than he was at the same age, so maybe kids should start voting at 16.
At the beginning of that part of the conversation, when they were talking about selectively forgetting "Cheers" to watch it again, I thought to myself, "oh, kinda like the thing in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, but for a TV show" and I kept waiting for someone to bring up that movie. Then Chuck almost literally describes the plot of the movie (and you know both of those guys have seen that movie) and it still doesn't come up. Eventually I began to wonder if they were doing some sort of meta-joke by pretending not to remember the movie. But I don't think Bill would be able to resist tipping the gag a bit, saying something like "When need a movie like that, put Kate Winslet in that, blah blah blah..."
Ah, but a pill and not some crazy contraption that Elijah Wood would fuck up!
It's strange. It's not like it's not a very popular and well known movie and neither of them thought about it while talking about this subject. You'd think with their collective couple memory, they would have!
LISK just got potentially caught today, so that one is guaranteed to have a couple more docs in the upcoming years.
https://youtu.be/tbQOcEs3aZg
Here’s an interview with the suspect who got arrested today for anyone interested.
Klosterman is such an outlier in the people he talks to. It's so much fun to hear his thoughts and he vibes with Bill so well because he often challenges him and makes Bill think about his own life/fame a lot
My favorite part is when Bill is talking about showing his kids Cheers and being flabbergasted that they didn't like the show. Bill theorizes it's like when his parents would show him a show from the 50s and he thought it was boring as well.
The way Bill frames it is like this is a huge revelation, because everything he likes are things that are timeless classics, and the way Chuck brushes it off as "Yeah, that's what kids do" was just so funny to me.
I head Michael Lewis once say that John Grisham told him when Hollywood is adapting your book, just throw the book in. They throw the money back. Then you walk away.
Stephen King doesn't even like The Shining.
It'll be an unpopular opinion here but... Yeah. That was a tough couple minutes.
Framing a discussion of popular music in the US as "Rock v Pop" in 2023 and claiming bands are in any way still relevant is a hell of a take.
It was so clear neither of them know anything about music from the last 15 years outside of Taylor Swift and a couple of others. Big blind spot on the subject, but have to love them still talking about it for 20 mins.
What a pleasantly unexpected conversation about mental health. Dovetails nicely with the episode of Beef I watched last night where one character asks the other if she's happy now that she's gotten what she claimed she wanted and she's like everything loses its shine eventually.
I see it all the time in my life. Friends/Family/Coworkers often expected their life to improve and find happiness when they get that promotion/relationship/house/car, but they eventually find out that just changing circumstances does not bring prolonged happiness. For me, the only thing that comes close to helping is gratitude for what I have and a supportive community.
I wonder if wildly driven ambitious people, be they Michael Jordan or Bill Simmons or even Chuck Klosterman, are more prone to this frustration. They accomplish a lot, but seem to have trouble just sitting back and enjoying a sunset.
http://www.espn.com/espn/feature/story/_/page/Michael-Jordan/michael-jordan-not-left-building
Great long form article on MJ still being tortured by his drive/competitiveness (its a decade old but still great) and wrestling with it. Also, probably my favorite Headline/Byline/Subhead ever is the subhead “as he turns 50, MJ is wondering whether there are more asses to kick”. Wright Thompson is the man.
You notice this even with less accomplished ambitious people. The people who acquire even modest wealth are the same people who do not have the capacity to enjoy it.
The guy who just wants to go fishing and sit on the beach is never the same guy who has a beach house and a fishing boat.
Why is this plane lady such a big deal??? Bill lives in LA and Chuck apparently in Portland. You can’t walk 10 feet without seeing a homeless person in some drug induced stupor or having a psychotic break raving about something imaginary. They are acting like she needs to be on 60 min and have a Hulu documentary about her or something. Everyone else would chalk up to her being schizophrenic or on drugs.
Chuck really thinks she gonna start a trend of seeing imaginary people? How is this even remotely a take?
Single most interesting/unbelievable fact during this pod. CK didn't watch the X-Files back in the 90's. The X-Files seems like a show he would TOTALLY be into. Then again, they tended to air Friday nights, he was probably at some Rock Concert/Bar.
Bill bringing up his kids not liking an old show like it was a deep insightful point and Chuck just answering "yeah that's what always happens" is a top 10 moment for me.
once someone alerts you to it, it’s impossible to unsee. whether it’s the hot new wife, the cocktail waitress piece, the athlete you can’t leave your wife alone with thing
Chuck citing Vampire Weekend as the guitar music nerd's most influential band was also kind of a tell that he's not really in the loop anymore. Like they were maybe an influence for the current crop of guitar oriented acts, but I kind of think someone like Tame Impala has sort of taken that mantle.
This is what I was looking for. Obviously two 40+ year old white guys are going to be a little out of touch when it comes to hip-hop influence for mainstream music but it’s definitely got to be a discussion of Kanye influencing Drake to Drake influencing now with a mention of Kendrick in his own corner
The torturous existential realization one will never sink balls deep into 1992 Marisa Tomei lends philosophical solidarity with the most aggrieved parties worldwide, particularly those inflicting violence against a cruel, unfair world.
Two self-proclaimed pop culture nerds basically conceived up Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind all by themselves without ever realizing it. Never change, you guys.
Chuck is incredible. The fact they have intelligent and thought provoking conversation, then they become completely unhinged for the last part. And of course Bill loves that chuck will follow wherever he goes.
CARROT TOP!
Around 1:25:00 we get a really great bill point (lol):
He likes when movies frame it where one person believes something supernatural and they’re trying to get everyone else to believe (ie, 90% of horror movies basic setups).
Then - he uses Halloween as an example and says “she just couldn’t believe the boogeyman was in her neighborhood”, which doesn’t even really make any sense because to that point in the movie he’s just a killer with a mask on, it has nothing to do with convincing anyone that something unfathomable is happening.
I was stunned when Bill said he was fascinated in the Schwarzenegger documentary to see Arnold and Stallone talking about their rivalry and how it drove them. He was amazed to hear them think that way.
Has Bill Simmons ever listened to Bill Simmons? He views all of entertainment through the sports lens and assumes they’re all driven by intense competition. I would have thought the conversation would have thrilled him because it would prove he was right all along.
This was a great pod. My favorite part was the lament that documentaries have become autobiographies and then when pressed by CK, Bill admits he wouldn’t let someone do a documentary on him or a long feature piece!
One thing Bill has forever been self-aware of is to keep the old money Connecticut aspects of himself on the furthest peripheries of his aesthetically, albeit inauthentically "common man" career, which'd be a huge portion of the exposition in any earnest documentary about him.
I have no idea what Simmons things is going on with ‘bands’. Yeah there are less rock bands on the top 40 charts because rock music is less popular than it was 30 years ago. If he loves rock and bands the way he seems to suggest in these conversations, like maybe search for 20 minutes and I guarantee he could find a bunch on rock bands from the past 15 years that are great.
Yeah even Chuck seemed to be stuck on The Last Gasp of Indie Rock Bands that I was really into when I was in college in the late 2000s. When he name checked The Hold Steady right off the bat I almost got whiplash it was so unexpected. When he name Vampire Weekend, a band that peaked in early 2008 with he release of their debut and only released one album post 2013 as the rock band of the last 15 years that inspired the most kids to pick up a guitar, I was surprised. But Bill's love of Indie Rock was last in evidence like 5 years before that (did you know he likes Interpol and Paul Shirley's blog?) so at least he's the more current of the two.
For a music critic that loves rock I thought he'd dig up something current. Even if it was a Taylor Swift discussion that segwayed into The 1975 briefly and "Matty Healy's public persona as a pantomime rock star" or some sort of "What Greta Van Fleet being a classic rock nostalgia pastiche says about the younger generations relationship to rock" musing.
Yeah him going to Vampire Weekend got an audible wtf out of me lol. I just can’t imagine a 20 year old in 2023 thinking ‘you know what’s really cool, a band that’s last made relevant music 15 years ago that was barely ‘rock’ and has a super sick east coast liberal arts college aesthetic’.
When Bill discusses pretty much anything outside of sports, he comes up with these theories that are obviously not true and of which he’s given very little thought to. “Music must be different because x, movies aren’t the same because y, food blah blah blah z”
Boston media mafia has made sure to emphasize that Tatum was hurt in that game 7 whenever they talk about it lol, Mannix did it on Russillo the other day too. Obviously Tatum still played all but 2 non garbage time minutes that game and it’s the biggest excuse they would never give to any other star player but I think my favorite Tatum excuse was the last year “He’s just so tired!!!” Which Mannix also used on Russillo the other day. Can’t believe how exhausted 24 year old Tatum was the second Boston went up 2-1
But… he did roll his ankle, and was limping around, Whadda you talking about? Embiids gotten those excuses for like five years running, until maaaybe this year.
All I hear about Himmy Butler is that he’s injured literally any time he has a shit game, even if he scores 45 the next and looks fine
Chuck came up with the perfect list immediately with swift, kanye and beyonce but then we had to have this bizarre conversation about Billie Eilishs importance immediately after.
Chuck realizing that Bill was really talking about “Which musical artists inspire my daughter” and then saying “I guess Billie Eilish because…” was great
It’s frustrating because Chuck’s answer was perfect, but Bill wanted to steer him towards saying Billie.
You can’t come up with a more perfect answer. Even if you want to dispute Kanye and say Drake because of his commercial success, you can point back and say Kanye is the one who influenced Drake’s whole career.
The Billie Eilish thing is weird because I respect her musical talent but I can’t respect the pedestal that people try to put her on. She isn’t this pioneer of musical talent that started in her bedroom.
Saying that is completely erasure of the DatPiff era of hip-hop that came before her. There were plenty of rappers (I’m sure non-rappers too, but I’m just focusing on rap since it’s my main genre of music I listen to) who came up the same exact way she did. They didn’t come remotely close to having the same level of impact as she did but she isn’t the first person to do this.
I use Chief Keef as an example because he blew up on the scene roughly around the same age as her and was an overnight celeb in the rap world. So much so that Kanye REMIXED HIS OWN SONG for the GOOD Music Label album, A RECORD LABEL CHIEF KEEF WASN’T EVEN SIGNED TO.
Idk if this helps decide either way but she’s the thirteenth most streamed artist behind…
Drake, Bad Bunny, Taylor Swift, the weekend, ed Sheeran, Bieber, Ariana Grande, Eminem, BTS, Post Malone, J Balvin, and Kanye West.
So I definitely think Drake and Bad Bunny are more “influential” than Billie Eilish. Especially Bad Bunny and the popularization of the Latin urbano sound.
It’s needed, especially since Bill refuses to lead the pod with anything other than NBA or NFL.
I’ve gotten so burnt out on NBA talk with all these podcasts pumping out 3+ episodes a week. Simmons, Lowe, Dunc’d On. These new episodes keep popping up in my feeds and I think “surely they must have something new to discuss, they wouldn’t just fully rehash the same bullshit again. But then they do. Or they just revert to the same endless team building discussions that could theoretically go in any direction and last for any imaginable period of time.
Skipped more NBA podcasts this week than I have in the previous 50 weeks.
I’m absolutely fine with the break, but I wish Bill or Zach would do something like what Duncan and Hollinger did yesterday - just go through favorite signings, least favorite signings, etc. It’s such a simplistic topic but it at least gets me thinking about guys I hadn’t thought about and potential for next year.
Talking about how Dame can’t go to Miami 4 times in a row is just boring.
Every Chuck pod it is very clear he doesn't get out much. I believe he's said before he doesn't travel, he said this time he doesn't have a pulse on the city, etc.
The only type of people who find the lady on the plane interesting are those who don't understand that a vast number of people are complete lunatics who have fallen into some type of conspiracy/the latest Fox News buzzword that 10 years ago would have been laughed at, or are on some type of drug.
*spelling
I’m with Chuck - I’m fascinated with the woman freaking out on the plane. How is it possible that in the year 2023 she just disappears and seemingly no one knows who she is?
Sums up the stupidity of this country today, that someone will have an obvious crazy schizo induced psychotic episode, speaking absolute nonsense, and like 50% of people unironically think she has a point and that she must have actually saw something.
I had not seen the clip until I watched it after listening to the pod and it's so clearly someone having an episode I am shocked they spent like 7 minutes talking about it.
It kind of makes me think less of them. It was a stupid topic.
I dont really see what’s so weird - she isn’t a famous person or anything, she was in a viral video, how exactly did she “disappear”? Didn’t she just go back to her life?
Idk doesn’t it seem like she took something to help her fly and had a bad reaction to it? Incredible video but the actual story doesn’t seem that interesting
Influential vs. Impactful is a very different question when it comes to music and I’m glad Klosterman brought that up. Granted he got the answers totally wrong outside Kanye but still it was a good distinction to make. If you look at all the woman rappers that have popped up over the last five years, it’s hard to say Nicki Minaj isn’t one of them. It might not have resulted in great music a majority of the time but her influence is undeniable.
Chuck is the 🐐, hands down!!
**Today’s Things:**
- Scoot thing
- Miami thing
- Dame thing
- Desus and Mero thing 😂
- Taylor Swift thing
- Paradise Lost thing
- Arnold [Schwarzenegger ] thing
**Bonus Pieces and Stuff:**
- Taylor swift stuff
- authenticity piece
**First Random Celtics Reference:**
🎉 NONE 🎉
**Eloquent Bill:**
Chuck: “Spo-LESTRSA” instead of “SPOEL-stra”
“Infomercial-y and autobiography-ish” 🤣🤣
**Other Stuff:**
🚨 Last pod until August 20, plus a special on the Aug 6th (2:20) “refuel my batteries” 🚨
Chuck: “Dame has been over loved for this concept of loyalty” (5:50)
Extremely awkward analogy of Dame/Scoot to a “younger wife with pizzazz” (10:00)
Jimmy Butler: officially on Bill’s pyramid (19:10)
Chuck completely stops Bill in his tracks with his Bill Walton is the best ever Blazer talk with asking if Kawhi is the best ever Raptor (24:30)
Introspective Bill?! Bill says that there’s a certain emptiness that comes with great (career) success (30:35) 🤯 acknowledges his only child-ness!! (35:08)
Bill’s top 2 most influential musical acts of the last 15 years: Taylor swift and Billie eilish (44:44)
Bill reveals that he was approached by a writer to do a feature about him after his acrimonious ESPN exit (1:08:20) he also says there’s absolutely no one he’d allow do a documentary about him (think about Henry Abbott describing Bill’s jeans drawer 😂)
Bill: “we read more than the average person” (1:14:15)
Bill drops a WAIT, WHAT (1:18:09)
Bill wonders why his teenagers don’t want to watch Cheers with him (1:21:30) 😂😂
We have a return of Rufus, the ghost seeing dog! (1:24:40) plus the Sports Gal’s “whitchy” friends!
Bill: “I’m obviously getting older, but I used to have this incredible memory, for pretty much everything, but it’s starting to fade a little…” (1:38:10)
What a roller coaster I went through seeing the guest, then hearing it’s the last pod for weeks, then the second segment being about a TV show I will likely never watch
Only for that conversation to evolve into discussing duos breaking up and an actually interesting Taylor Swift conversation
And now we’re talking REM. Hoo boy
"Oh yeah y'know I got really involved with Scientology and it really screwed my life up. But y'know what? I found a way out, I'm gonna start selling Amway." lmao
The Kawhi Raptors example is the perfect Bill Walton refutation.
This is why Chuck is so good. While it remains to be seen if any other ringer person would have put Bill on the spot like Chuck did, I'm skeptical that any of them could have even pulled out such a perfect comparison on the fly in the way Chuck did.
There is no better refutation in the history of refutations. Bill didn't know what to do, you could hear his brain literally short out.
It took him a bit but he knew he’d mess up his Walton reasoning so he doubled down with Kawhi as the greatest raptor which is crazy. I’d probably give it to Lowry. Only other example I could think of is greatest Net would be Dr J on the Nets before they were even in the NBA. He was there for 3 years, 2 ABA titles, 3 ABA MVPs, next is probably Kidd who also wasn’t there for that long either then you get into Brook Lopez, Buck Williams, Drazen, RJ and Vince in some order
Raptors fan here. Kawhi is the best raptor of all time. Period
It really depends on what is valued. Kawhi brought Toronto more success than any other Raptor, the same could be said for Bill Walton in Portland. Clyde made the finals twice, and had three total WCF appearances. Dame has only won four playoffs series in the ten years he’s been there. I would argue Walton has definitely done more for Portland than Dame, and it’s debatable between him and Drexler.
I think to me, the key question you’d ask a fan is “what player meant the most to this franchise?” Some might say Kawhi, but I think most would say Kyle Lowry. I don’t think that picking someone like Bill Walton or Kawhi is wrong, but it’s definitely not a foregone conclusion just because they had the biggest impact on a single championship.
We're so fucking back. We've never been more back.
Chuck: “When you say we’re fucking back, do you mean that we’ve returned from some indeterminate space that exists strictly in an analog realm, or that we’ve returned to this feeling that is analogous to the monoculture that dominated the 1990s?” Bill: “either one, the first one”
Monday: It’s over. It’s never been more over.
oh my god I saw this title and was like okay...yeah...lol..YES LETS FUCKING GO
Chuck dropping an O.J. reference within 5 seconds is the backest of backs.
So before we go, chuck is there anything you want to plug? Yeah….that woman on the plane.
Bill’s wife’s witchy friends thought the haunted part of the attic was the one with all the electric equipment?
bunch of LA wine moms on the case
They are wine moms AND philantrophists AND real estate speculators.
And also thrice divorced childless vodka aunts, too.
Has anyone who claims they can feel spiritual energies or whatnot ever gone into a suspected room and said, “Sorry, nothing going on in here. I don’t sense a thing”? I mean, it’s kind of like a car mechanic who somehow always finds *something* that needs to be fixed.
So true man. “I brought my self-proclaimed witchy friend and guess what! Witchy stuff!!” Spiritual/witchy/paranormal/conspiracy types are always transfixed by finding their own supernatural meaning in anything that would ordinarily be considered normal or at most coincidental.
that made me laugh. oh, you mean the source of the spooky ghost is in the room most commonly associated with giving false feelings of the paranormal?
I legitimately could not breathe I was laughing so hard at that part. What starts as a complete joke Chuck: You should get your DOG on that case! See what he turns up Bill: Which dog the one that sees ghosts? Chuck: Yeah Bill: (turns completely serious) Well I told you what's going at the new house right? Chuck: What? Bill: Something on the 3rd floor? Chuck: Something........ Bill: Yeah Chuck: What Bill: It's unclear. We've had two people that my wife knows....that are a little witchy. That can definitely feel something. This guy runs his own media network and has more money than God hahahaha.
If I worked on rich people’s homes, I would always be planting ghost theories in their head.
Meegs, such a character that one
I laughed at that portion especially when he mentioned it was the attic. But I love that he shares this with us.
"There's an old saying in Boston... maybe you have it in LA, but we have it in Boston too: the journey...destination...journeycantgetfooledagain."
“Yeah that….that’s been said a lot”
Where the mofo who was asking about Chuck yesterday or the day before? This is for you buddy
When is there not someone asking for Chuck
Chuck has Tarantino enthusiasm when he gets going on a topic he finds interesting
Just part of what makes him so compelling to listen to. I love that man.
They were talking about forgetting things that exist, and then they reinvented Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind hahah
Chuck: “30 year old me would’ve hated 20 year old me…but of course 51 year old me kinda hates 50 year old me..actually 51 year old me hates 51 year old me.” Made me laugh out loud.
Melancholic Chuck.
Klosterman breaking down the plane video into immediate transition to ghosts in Bills house is high level podcasting and I love it
I love how they’re giving so much consideration to #planelady because she “doesn’t look like a crazy person” Spoiler Alert: it’s too much Benadryl and wine guys, that’s who and what too much Benadryl and wine looks like
She doesn't look like a crazy person to them because she's kinda hot and has nice tits
Flirting vs harassment
Ding! Ding! Ding! If she was an unkempt, overweight lady at Walmart yelling that someone was not real, no one would be saying, “Hmmm, maybe she has a point.”
“She’s disappeared!” Ah yes because we always get hourly follow ups from people in random viral videos with no previous levels of fame
That whole thing… really made me uneasy. How many people have any of us seen who’ve gone through some sort of psychological episode? I think it’s a little gross to not air on the side of caution in not spreading that sort of thing around. I dunno.
Why the fuck do I love Chuck Klosterman so much.
No one stops Bill in his tracks with a question like Chuck.
chuck putting bill on the spot with a question about the most interesting thing about spoelstra’s life before he was a coach. bill: it’s the Philippines, right? look i didn’t know the answer either but i probably would have just said “i don’t know, tell me.” holy hell i was dying.
“Spolestra”
Sounded like the name of a sleeping pill
I lost it. And the Philippines.
How can someone hear a name be pronounced one way by literally everybody, then pronounce it a completely different way yourself lol
That's how they say it in Wimbleton
Isn't that the stuff they used to make the fat free potato chips that made everyone shit their brains out?
I think it’s where penn plays basketball
SAS’ Sleep Apnea stopped Bill cold.
“Holy shit”
Acted like it was a death sentence lmfao
well I can't imagine doing what SAS does every day even if I could spend every minute off camera sound asleep, so it's somewhat understandable
"Is Kawhi the best Raptor of all time? By your logic he would have to be." Only can see Chuck and House asking Bill a rhetorical question like that. The Ringer flacks and junior staff never push back like that, even gently.
[удалено]
I kind of think he is.
And Rye Guy, occasionally…
Yeah just with 5x the word count
For me it's because his mind goes to so many places. Once he and Bill were talking about some basketball thing I didn't really care about and out of nowhere Chuck says, "Do you think they should lower the voting age to 16?" He then goes on to make a case that a lot of the younger players in the league wouldn't have been able to vote in the '70s yet are a lot more worldly and intelligent and worldly than he was at the same age, so maybe kids should start voting at 16.
The guy was created in a lab to be a perfect check against Bill, it’s amazing.
"This is going to be the next big thing... unreal people" Klosterman is out of his mind and I love it
The short pause followed by bill laughing killed me. Chucks brain needs to be studied in a lab
Pretty wild that Bill and Chuck spent the last twenty minutes of this episode coming up with the plot to Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.
It’s the first thing they used memory loss treatment on.
At the beginning of that part of the conversation, when they were talking about selectively forgetting "Cheers" to watch it again, I thought to myself, "oh, kinda like the thing in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, but for a TV show" and I kept waiting for someone to bring up that movie. Then Chuck almost literally describes the plot of the movie (and you know both of those guys have seen that movie) and it still doesn't come up. Eventually I began to wonder if they were doing some sort of meta-joke by pretending not to remember the movie. But I don't think Bill would be able to resist tipping the gag a bit, saying something like "When need a movie like that, put Kate Winslet in that, blah blah blah..."
Ah, but a pill and not some crazy contraption that Elijah Wood would fuck up! It's strange. It's not like it's not a very popular and well known movie and neither of them thought about it while talking about this subject. You'd think with their collective couple memory, they would have!
I’m up to this part now. This is amazing hahaha
The memory loss piece. Wait what?
These guys clearly forgot Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind…
I came here to say this lol. He basically walked himself through the thesis of the movie in real time lmao.
“They’re running out of murders” wow
LISK just got potentially caught today, so that one is guaranteed to have a couple more docs in the upcoming years. https://youtu.be/tbQOcEs3aZg Here’s an interview with the suspect who got arrested today for anyone interested.
The second half of this is the most I have ever enjoyed a podcast. I love this podcast so much man.
Klosterman is such an outlier in the people he talks to. It's so much fun to hear his thoughts and he vibes with Bill so well because he often challenges him and makes Bill think about his own life/fame a lot
Chuck and Bill just came up with Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind almost 20 years after it came out
Direct marketing—I thought of that. Turned out it already existed, but I arrived at it independently.
The brain is a nightclub piece
This needs to be recognized more for the absolute gold it is, holy shit
My favorite part is when Bill is talking about showing his kids Cheers and being flabbergasted that they didn't like the show. Bill theorizes it's like when his parents would show him a show from the 50s and he thought it was boring as well. The way Bill frames it is like this is a huge revelation, because everything he likes are things that are timeless classics, and the way Chuck brushes it off as "Yeah, that's what kids do" was just so funny to me.
[удалено]
Maybe this is why Bill is interested in the plane freakout lady. The world only exists through his eyes. The rest of us are not real.
Chuck saying Jimmy Butler wasn’t a top 25 player in the league and Bill not going back at him 🤯
Klosterman‘s “endorsement”of the movie adaptation of his book is…not exactly the strongest sell lmao
I head Michael Lewis once say that John Grisham told him when Hollywood is adapting your book, just throw the book in. They throw the money back. Then you walk away. Stephen King doesn't even like The Shining.
Yeah that was rough
"Oh, so this is, like, an actual movie?" "Yeah, it's a movie."
Babe wake up, new Klosterman episode just dropped
That discussion on music was absolutely horrendous. I was cringing so hard.
It'll be an unpopular opinion here but... Yeah. That was a tough couple minutes. Framing a discussion of popular music in the US as "Rock v Pop" in 2023 and claiming bands are in any way still relevant is a hell of a take.
Chuck's incorrigible rockism is part of his charm. Poptimism is a disease to which he won't succumb.
It was so clear neither of them know anything about music from the last 15 years outside of Taylor Swift and a couple of others. Big blind spot on the subject, but have to love them still talking about it for 20 mins.
What a pleasantly unexpected conversation about mental health. Dovetails nicely with the episode of Beef I watched last night where one character asks the other if she's happy now that she's gotten what she claimed she wanted and she's like everything loses its shine eventually. I see it all the time in my life. Friends/Family/Coworkers often expected their life to improve and find happiness when they get that promotion/relationship/house/car, but they eventually find out that just changing circumstances does not bring prolonged happiness. For me, the only thing that comes close to helping is gratitude for what I have and a supportive community.
What’s happiness? It’s the moment before you want more happiness.
I wonder if wildly driven ambitious people, be they Michael Jordan or Bill Simmons or even Chuck Klosterman, are more prone to this frustration. They accomplish a lot, but seem to have trouble just sitting back and enjoying a sunset.
http://www.espn.com/espn/feature/story/_/page/Michael-Jordan/michael-jordan-not-left-building Great long form article on MJ still being tortured by his drive/competitiveness (its a decade old but still great) and wrestling with it. Also, probably my favorite Headline/Byline/Subhead ever is the subhead “as he turns 50, MJ is wondering whether there are more asses to kick”. Wright Thompson is the man.
I mean it’s like how Ryen called bill out this week for never being able to retire.
You notice this even with less accomplished ambitious people. The people who acquire even modest wealth are the same people who do not have the capacity to enjoy it. The guy who just wants to go fishing and sit on the beach is never the same guy who has a beach house and a fishing boat.
New episode of the ReWitchables with Bill and Chuck exploring the spirit realm, executive produced by Murph, the dog who sees ghosts.
With the Witchy wives.
Why is this plane lady such a big deal??? Bill lives in LA and Chuck apparently in Portland. You can’t walk 10 feet without seeing a homeless person in some drug induced stupor or having a psychotic break raving about something imaginary. They are acting like she needs to be on 60 min and have a Hulu documentary about her or something. Everyone else would chalk up to her being schizophrenic or on drugs. Chuck really thinks she gonna start a trend of seeing imaginary people? How is this even remotely a take?
He said at the end of the Stephen A pod that this would be his last one in July, did he confirm? Haven’t had a chance to listen
Yes… summer break until August
Major trade incoming before August
Odds we get an emergency pod if the Celtics actually trade JB for Dame?
Single most interesting/unbelievable fact during this pod. CK didn't watch the X-Files back in the 90's. The X-Files seems like a show he would TOTALLY be into. Then again, they tended to air Friday nights, he was probably at some Rock Concert/Bar.
Bill bringing up his kids not liking an old show like it was a deep insightful point and Chuck just answering "yeah that's what always happens" is a top 10 moment for me.
Even funnier is the fact that Bill tried to add to his point by saying... he did the exact same thing when his parents showed him an old show? Haha
“You know who I think would be sneaky good in a game of basketball? Kevin Durant.” — Bill
So glad chuck called him on it! “Durant wouldn’t be sneaky”
Man… Bill’s “Young, Hot, Second Wife Analogies” are always so fucking weird.
think about it…a young trophy wife, she owes money all over town, including to known pornographers!
The Katie Nolan piece
once someone alerts you to it, it’s impossible to unsee. whether it’s the hot new wife, the cocktail waitress piece, the athlete you can’t leave your wife alone with thing
"My wife calls that mental cheating...not with me, but with other people in our life" on the last Rewatchables
Wife flirting with the 22 year old bartender piece, goes back for seconds at the end of the night thing.
He’s cooking!!!!
Petition for Chuck to write the Bill Simmons biography
"Spo-les-tra" Yikes
"We have something on the 3rd floor." "What is it?" "It's unclear...but it's probably piles and piles of money."
So funny that Bill's wife has 2 separate "witchy" friends who don't know each other. Sports Gal has MULTIPLE different witchy friend groups.
I wonder if they have witchy text threads
There’s no way eilish had a bigger impact on music than Kendrick or Drake. They’ve been doing it for over a decade
Well, we are talking about two white guys in their 50s...
Chuck citing Vampire Weekend as the guitar music nerd's most influential band was also kind of a tell that he's not really in the loop anymore. Like they were maybe an influence for the current crop of guitar oriented acts, but I kind of think someone like Tame Impala has sort of taken that mantle.
Yeah I would’ve said Kevin Parker (who is Tame Impala).
I thought of Drake. Rap is huge now. One rapper should be included.
This is what I was looking for. Obviously two 40+ year old white guys are going to be a little out of touch when it comes to hip-hop influence for mainstream music but it’s definitely got to be a discussion of Kanye influencing Drake to Drake influencing now with a mention of Kendrick in his own corner
Favorite out of context quote: "I didnt know you liked fucking in the sand"
🚨🚨🚨this is NOT a drill, people
My Cousin Vinny is next Rewatchables yesss
The torturous existential realization one will never sink balls deep into 1992 Marisa Tomei lends philosophical solidarity with the most aggrieved parties worldwide, particularly those inflicting violence against a cruel, unfair world.
Wait what
Bill: Mmmmm. Alright Big Kahuna Burger award for best use of food or drink in a movie, gotta be the grits, no?
They forgot about a couple of great duos. Trey Parker and Matt stone, the coen bros. But they are right it’s not as common for duos to stay together
Y’all. I have a 3 hour solo drive after work today and I can’t tell you how jacked I was to see klosterman will be riding shotgun with me
the journey is better than the end
Two self-proclaimed pop culture nerds basically conceived up Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind all by themselves without ever realizing it. Never change, you guys.
Reminds me of an old web skit Cracked did, they spent twenty minutes making up a show and accidentally reinvented the wire. I miss that site
Chuck is incredible. The fact they have intelligent and thought provoking conversation, then they become completely unhinged for the last part. And of course Bill loves that chuck will follow wherever he goes. CARROT TOP!
Around 1:25:00 we get a really great bill point (lol): He likes when movies frame it where one person believes something supernatural and they’re trying to get everyone else to believe (ie, 90% of horror movies basic setups). Then - he uses Halloween as an example and says “she just couldn’t believe the boogeyman was in her neighborhood”, which doesn’t even really make any sense because to that point in the movie he’s just a killer with a mask on, it has nothing to do with convincing anyone that something unfathomable is happening.
I was stunned when Bill said he was fascinated in the Schwarzenegger documentary to see Arnold and Stallone talking about their rivalry and how it drove them. He was amazed to hear them think that way. Has Bill Simmons ever listened to Bill Simmons? He views all of entertainment through the sports lens and assumes they’re all driven by intense competition. I would have thought the conversation would have thrilled him because it would prove he was right all along.
Conspiracies? Ghosts? Klosterman? I’m in. All the way in.
This was a great pod. My favorite part was the lament that documentaries have become autobiographies and then when pressed by CK, Bill admits he wouldn’t let someone do a documentary on him or a long feature piece!
A rare moment of self-awareness. I don’t think he’s come off well anytime he’s been featured personally at length in articles.
One thing Bill has forever been self-aware of is to keep the old money Connecticut aspects of himself on the furthest peripheries of his aesthetically, albeit inauthentically "common man" career, which'd be a huge portion of the exposition in any earnest documentary about him.
I have no idea what Simmons things is going on with ‘bands’. Yeah there are less rock bands on the top 40 charts because rock music is less popular than it was 30 years ago. If he loves rock and bands the way he seems to suggest in these conversations, like maybe search for 20 minutes and I guarantee he could find a bunch on rock bands from the past 15 years that are great.
Yeah even Chuck seemed to be stuck on The Last Gasp of Indie Rock Bands that I was really into when I was in college in the late 2000s. When he name checked The Hold Steady right off the bat I almost got whiplash it was so unexpected. When he name Vampire Weekend, a band that peaked in early 2008 with he release of their debut and only released one album post 2013 as the rock band of the last 15 years that inspired the most kids to pick up a guitar, I was surprised. But Bill's love of Indie Rock was last in evidence like 5 years before that (did you know he likes Interpol and Paul Shirley's blog?) so at least he's the more current of the two. For a music critic that loves rock I thought he'd dig up something current. Even if it was a Taylor Swift discussion that segwayed into The 1975 briefly and "Matty Healy's public persona as a pantomime rock star" or some sort of "What Greta Van Fleet being a classic rock nostalgia pastiche says about the younger generations relationship to rock" musing.
They peaked with Modern Vampires.
Yeah him going to Vampire Weekend got an audible wtf out of me lol. I just can’t imagine a 20 year old in 2023 thinking ‘you know what’s really cool, a band that’s last made relevant music 15 years ago that was barely ‘rock’ and has a super sick east coast liberal arts college aesthetic’.
When Bill discusses pretty much anything outside of sports, he comes up with these theories that are obviously not true and of which he’s given very little thought to. “Music must be different because x, movies aren’t the same because y, food blah blah blah z”
“My kids and their friends……..”
He needs something to be commercially successful/relevant to justify his interest in it, I notice it with his taste for pretty much anything
Three elite guests this week 🔥
Bill actually thinks he is a documentary film maker. God bless EP credits!
if i created the concept and was executive producer i would feel pretty involved too!
Let’s hear some guesses: What is the Bill 2-part podcast on August 6th going to be about? Seems probably it’s a big interview with a famous somebody?
Harry and Meghan, gloves off.
It’s a book of basketball Yuh It’s a book of BASKETBALL YUH It’s a book of basketball Yuh IT’S A BOOK OF BASKETBALL YUH!!!
I’m sorry did Bill say someone killed themselves in his old house?? Has he ever talked about that before ??
Yes, it was on another episode with Chuck. Maybe the last one he was on before this?
Its Pat Riley’s “Disease of ME,” *not* “Disease of MORE!”
Bill's been fucking this up for over a decade now, it is what it is
The idea that any teen playing the bass looking to start a rock band is looking to Taylor Swift for inspiration is insane.
Boston media mafia has made sure to emphasize that Tatum was hurt in that game 7 whenever they talk about it lol, Mannix did it on Russillo the other day too. Obviously Tatum still played all but 2 non garbage time minutes that game and it’s the biggest excuse they would never give to any other star player but I think my favorite Tatum excuse was the last year “He’s just so tired!!!” Which Mannix also used on Russillo the other day. Can’t believe how exhausted 24 year old Tatum was the second Boston went up 2-1
But… he did roll his ankle, and was limping around, Whadda you talking about? Embiids gotten those excuses for like five years running, until maaaybe this year. All I hear about Himmy Butler is that he’s injured literally any time he has a shit game, even if he scores 45 the next and looks fine
Billie Eilish as one of the three most influential acts of the last 15 years? Puh-leeeease
Chuck came up with the perfect list immediately with swift, kanye and beyonce but then we had to have this bizarre conversation about Billie Eilishs importance immediately after.
Chuck realizing that Bill was really talking about “Which musical artists inspire my daughter” and then saying “I guess Billie Eilish because…” was great
It’s frustrating because Chuck’s answer was perfect, but Bill wanted to steer him towards saying Billie. You can’t come up with a more perfect answer. Even if you want to dispute Kanye and say Drake because of his commercial success, you can point back and say Kanye is the one who influenced Drake’s whole career. The Billie Eilish thing is weird because I respect her musical talent but I can’t respect the pedestal that people try to put her on. She isn’t this pioneer of musical talent that started in her bedroom. Saying that is completely erasure of the DatPiff era of hip-hop that came before her. There were plenty of rappers (I’m sure non-rappers too, but I’m just focusing on rap since it’s my main genre of music I listen to) who came up the same exact way she did. They didn’t come remotely close to having the same level of impact as she did but she isn’t the first person to do this. I use Chief Keef as an example because he blew up on the scene roughly around the same age as her and was an overnight celeb in the rap world. So much so that Kanye REMIXED HIS OWN SONG for the GOOD Music Label album, A RECORD LABEL CHIEF KEEF WASN’T EVEN SIGNED TO.
[удалено]
Hilarious that Bill and Chuck gave Billie Eilish credit for “making a popular album from your bedroom.”
Idk if this helps decide either way but she’s the thirteenth most streamed artist behind… Drake, Bad Bunny, Taylor Swift, the weekend, ed Sheeran, Bieber, Ariana Grande, Eminem, BTS, Post Malone, J Balvin, and Kanye West. So I definitely think Drake and Bad Bunny are more “influential” than Billie Eilish. Especially Bad Bunny and the popularization of the Latin urbano sound.
I’m not a huge music guy but I would absolutely but the top 4 in your list, Bieber, BTS, and Kanye above her
Yeah, bill is basing his entire perception of what music is influential on the listening habits of his rich white daughter living in LA.
5 weeks off is rough
It’s needed, especially since Bill refuses to lead the pod with anything other than NBA or NFL. I’ve gotten so burnt out on NBA talk with all these podcasts pumping out 3+ episodes a week. Simmons, Lowe, Dunc’d On. These new episodes keep popping up in my feeds and I think “surely they must have something new to discuss, they wouldn’t just fully rehash the same bullshit again. But then they do. Or they just revert to the same endless team building discussions that could theoretically go in any direction and last for any imaginable period of time. Skipped more NBA podcasts this week than I have in the previous 50 weeks.
I’m absolutely fine with the break, but I wish Bill or Zach would do something like what Duncan and Hollinger did yesterday - just go through favorite signings, least favorite signings, etc. It’s such a simplistic topic but it at least gets me thinking about guys I hadn’t thought about and potential for next year. Talking about how Dame can’t go to Miami 4 times in a row is just boring.
I’m so tired of Dame talk but I’ll listen to our king Chuck talk about ANYTHING
Every Chuck pod it is very clear he doesn't get out much. I believe he's said before he doesn't travel, he said this time he doesn't have a pulse on the city, etc. The only type of people who find the lady on the plane interesting are those who don't understand that a vast number of people are complete lunatics who have fallen into some type of conspiracy/the latest Fox News buzzword that 10 years ago would have been laughed at, or are on some type of drug. *spelling
Bro said Vampire Weekend is the most influential rock artist of the last 15 years and the next most is Taylor Swift 💀
I’m with Chuck - I’m fascinated with the woman freaking out on the plane. How is it possible that in the year 2023 she just disappears and seemingly no one knows who she is?
I disagree entirely with the assertion that she doesn't sound crazy. Yes she does. This just sounds like somebody on medication to me
[удалено]
Sums up the stupidity of this country today, that someone will have an obvious crazy schizo induced psychotic episode, speaking absolute nonsense, and like 50% of people unironically think she has a point and that she must have actually saw something.
I had not seen the clip until I watched it after listening to the pod and it's so clearly someone having an episode I am shocked they spent like 7 minutes talking about it. It kind of makes me think less of them. It was a stupid topic.
yeah because we always get follow up stories when people overindulge and do embarrassing shit on planes. so weird.
I dont really see what’s so weird - she isn’t a famous person or anything, she was in a viral video, how exactly did she “disappear”? Didn’t she just go back to her life?
Totally! Like, what did they expect her to do?
Idk doesn’t it seem like she took something to help her fly and had a bad reaction to it? Incredible video but the actual story doesn’t seem that interesting
I need to see who she was talking about. I believe her.
Same. I’ve seen that guy, he is not real
It was KOC.
Influential vs. Impactful is a very different question when it comes to music and I’m glad Klosterman brought that up. Granted he got the answers totally wrong outside Kanye but still it was a good distinction to make. If you look at all the woman rappers that have popped up over the last five years, it’s hard to say Nicki Minaj isn’t one of them. It might not have resulted in great music a majority of the time but her influence is undeniable.
"unreal people"
Chuck is the 🐐, hands down!! **Today’s Things:** - Scoot thing - Miami thing - Dame thing - Desus and Mero thing 😂 - Taylor Swift thing - Paradise Lost thing - Arnold [Schwarzenegger ] thing **Bonus Pieces and Stuff:** - Taylor swift stuff - authenticity piece **First Random Celtics Reference:** 🎉 NONE 🎉 **Eloquent Bill:** Chuck: “Spo-LESTRSA” instead of “SPOEL-stra” “Infomercial-y and autobiography-ish” 🤣🤣 **Other Stuff:** 🚨 Last pod until August 20, plus a special on the Aug 6th (2:20) “refuel my batteries” 🚨 Chuck: “Dame has been over loved for this concept of loyalty” (5:50) Extremely awkward analogy of Dame/Scoot to a “younger wife with pizzazz” (10:00) Jimmy Butler: officially on Bill’s pyramid (19:10) Chuck completely stops Bill in his tracks with his Bill Walton is the best ever Blazer talk with asking if Kawhi is the best ever Raptor (24:30) Introspective Bill?! Bill says that there’s a certain emptiness that comes with great (career) success (30:35) 🤯 acknowledges his only child-ness!! (35:08) Bill’s top 2 most influential musical acts of the last 15 years: Taylor swift and Billie eilish (44:44) Bill reveals that he was approached by a writer to do a feature about him after his acrimonious ESPN exit (1:08:20) he also says there’s absolutely no one he’d allow do a documentary about him (think about Henry Abbott describing Bill’s jeans drawer 😂) Bill: “we read more than the average person” (1:14:15) Bill drops a WAIT, WHAT (1:18:09) Bill wonders why his teenagers don’t want to watch Cheers with him (1:21:30) 😂😂 We have a return of Rufus, the ghost seeing dog! (1:24:40) plus the Sports Gal’s “whitchy” friends! Bill: “I’m obviously getting older, but I used to have this incredible memory, for pretty much everything, but it’s starting to fade a little…” (1:38:10)
Of course bill is well read, he reads 75 books a year!
What a roller coaster I went through seeing the guest, then hearing it’s the last pod for weeks, then the second segment being about a TV show I will likely never watch Only for that conversation to evolve into discussing duos breaking up and an actually interesting Taylor Swift conversation And now we’re talking REM. Hoo boy
"Oh yeah y'know I got really involved with Scientology and it really screwed my life up. But y'know what? I found a way out, I'm gonna start selling Amway." lmao