Tag: the ringer-verse

Revisit 2024 With Some of Your Favorite Podcasts From The Ringer

December 20, 2024

As the year draws to a close, Spotify’s The Ringer is celebrating the best of 2024 with an exciting lineup of retrospective podcast episodes. This December, listeners can look back at the year’s standout moments across movies, TV, music, sports, and pop culture.

“2024 has been a landmark year for storytelling and analysis at The Ringer,” said Geoff Chow, Head of Podcast Studios and Managing Director for The Ringer. “Our podcasts have captured the highs, lows, and everything in between, across sports, culture, and entertainment. These episodes celebrate the moments that brought us all together and dive deeper into the conversations that defined the year.”

Here’s a roundup of the participating shows and episodes you can explore now, as well as a few you can anticipate later this month:

Available now

Podcast: The Big Picture

Episode: “The Top Five Movies of 2024”

Sean Fennessey is joined by Chris Ryan and Adam Nayman to share their top five movies of 2024: a mix of widely seen blockbusters, smaller art-house movies, big swings from emergent auteurs, and more.

Episode: “The Top 10 Underseen Movies of 2024. Plus: James Cameron and Gale Anne Hurd on ‘The Terminator’ at 40!”

Sean remarks on the release of the Oscars shortlists in below-the-line categories, international features, and documentary features, before discussing his five most underseen movies of 2024. Then, he’s joined by a rotating cast of Ringer colleagues to discuss each of their favorite underseen movies of the year.

Podcast: The Watch

Episode: “The Top 10 TV Shows of 2024” 

Chris Ryan and Andy Greenwald reflect on the state of television in 2024. Then, they rank their top 10 shows of the year, including favorites like 3 Body Problem, Black Doves, English Teacher, and more.

Episode: “The Best TV Episode of 2024”

Chris and Andy talk about some of their runners-up for best TV episode of the year, and why they ultimately chose Shogun Episode 9, “Crimson Sky,” as the winner. Then, they are joined by show creators Justin Marks and Rachel Kondo, writer Caillin Puente, and lead actress Anna Sawai to talk about how making this episode was less about planning and more about immersing themselves in the story as they made the season.

Podcast: The Ringer-Verse | The Midnight Boys

Episode: “2024 Naughty & Nice List: Ryan Reynolds, X-Men ’97, and Star Wars | The Midnight Boys”

Van Lathan, Charles Holmes, Jomi Adeniran, and Jonathan Kermah fill you in on all things 2024, giving you their naughty and nice list of the year.

Podcast: The Prestige TV Podcast

Episode: “The Top TV Moments of the Year and the Best Shows We Missed”

Joanna Robinson and Rob Mahoney take a look back at the year in (prestige) television! They start by reading through listener emails that make the case for shows they missed in 2024 and then debate which streamer won the year. Later, they present their top TV moments of the past 12 months.

Podcast: Trial by Content

Episode: “The Worst Thing We Watched in 2024”

Dave Gonzales, Neil Miller, and Joanna Robinson discuss the worst things they watched in 2024. They start by going over the results of the great movie bet. Then they go through their list of the 10 worst things they watched in 2024, all while Dave and Neil receive their punishment for losing the bet—Tubthumping! Later, they talk about some of the things they liked from the year.

Podcast: Dissect

Episode: “Best Bars of 2024. Plus: Drake vs Kendrick Retrospective”

Cole Cuchna is joined by Touré, King Green, and James Francis to reflect on the historic year in hip-hop. They begin by revisiting the Drake and Kendrick Lamar battle, nominating their favorite song, lyrics, and quotable that came from the beef. Then they award and dissect their favorite rap lyrics of the year before closing out the show with their favorite song and album of 2024.

Episode: “Our Favorite Music of 2024”

Cole and Camden Ostrander award their favorite music of the year across a number of categories, including Favorite Albums, Favorite Songs, Favorite Underground Album, Most Surprising Album, and more.

Podcast: Every Single Album

Episode: “The Best Five Albums of 2024”

Nora Princiotti and Nathan Hubbard count down their five favorite albums from this year in pop music.

Podcast: The Dave Chang Show

Episode: “Dave and Chris Reflect on 2024”

Dave Chang and Chris Ying have had a busy, wild year: Dinner Time Live, Thursday Night Football, and everything in between. They grade their predictions from 2023 about 2024: How did Davestradamus do? Dave and Chris also share their highlights of the year, from the best dishes they ate to the best cities they visited.

Podcast: Fairway Rollin’

Episode: “The 2024 Rollies!”

It wouldn’t be the end of golf season without The Rollies. Joe House and Nathan Hubbard are joined by The Fried Egg Golf Podcast’s Brendan Porath to hand out the most absurd awards in all of golf.

Coming soon

Head to Spotify to discover more shows from The Ringer.

Fans Get In on the Fun With Live Podcast Recordings During The Ringer Residency

August 22, 2024

Laughter, energy, camaraderie—these are just a few of the elements that come to life when a podcast is recorded in front of an audience, rather than in a sound-proof studio. To create more opportunities for hosts and fans to commune during these live recordings, Spotify’s The Ringer recently hosted their Summer Ringer Residency.

Taking place at the famed El Rey Theatre in Los Angeles, the residency featured live podcast events for six Ringer shows: The Ringer NBA Show, Talk the Thrones, The Big Picture, The Ringer-Verse, Wrighty’s House, and The Ringer Fantasy Football Show.

For the Record caught up with Geoff Chow, Head of Podcast Studios & Managing Director for The Ringer, to learn more about the residency and the appeal of live podcast recordings.

What have you learned from this first-ever Ringer Residency?

It was a great display of the power of Ringer fandom and a showcase of the broad range of Ringer content from sports—basketball and both kinds of football—to cultural tentpoles like movies, prestige television, and nerd culture. Operationally, the events team led by Elizabeth Fierman did an amazing job putting together an experience that both the hosts and their audiences loved. We observed ways we can continue to grow our events with different markets, sponsorship partners, and content that we’re excited to continue exploring.

How do live podcasts offer a unique experience for both podcast hosts and listeners? 

Podcast listening tends to be a fairly solitary experience—in your headphones, while you’re commuting, at the gym—but people build such a strong connection with their favorite hosts. To bring hundreds of people together to experience their favorite shows at a live event, laughing at the same inside jokes and feeling a common bond with others in the crowd, it feels like an instant community, tied together by their shared interest. Being part of that is a special experience. For hosts, who are used to recording in-studio or even at home, getting to hear laughter and real-time reactions is a rush and fosters an even deeper connection to their audience.

Why is it important for The Ringer and Spotify to put on IRL events like this?

At The Ringer, we have always focused on creating content for consumers in the way they want to engage with it. We’re thrilled that audiences choose to spend so many hours per week reading, listening, and watching our content. To be able to bring that to a live experience only strengthens the creator-audience relationship. Building community and creating meaningful experiences for fans develops a deeper affinity for our brand and content. As an audience engagement tool it takes fandom to a different level.

If you didn’t get a chance to attend one of the live recordings, you can still listen to each of the episodes on demand. Below we’ve rounded up the podcasts and the episodes recorded over the summer.

The Ringer NBA Show

Justin, Rob, and Wos start by discussing the Celtics’ NBA Finals victory and Joe Mazzulla’s status as a coach, and debate who’s going to be the Jrue Holiday of this offseason. Next, Chris Ryan joins for an offseason preview. With the upcoming NBA draft, the guys bring on J. Kyle Mann to discuss the perception of this year’s class, all the noise around Bronny James, and more. 

Talk the Thrones

Chris Ryan, Mallory Rubin, and Joanna Robinson convene to discuss the latest episodes of House of the Dragon as they entertain fan questions, have in-depth chats, and play fun games in this live show. 

The Big Picture

Sean Fennessey and Amanda Dobbins discuss movies you need to see, alongside special guest and Ringer colleague Chris Ryan. The topic for this special live recording is 2000s summer blockbusters.

The Ringer-Verse

The Ringer’s expert superfans converse about favorite shows and movies happening this summer. Check out the episode for all of the fun from The Midnight Boys, House of R, the Bad Babies, and the Midnight Mafia.

The Ringer Fantasy Football Show

The guys start with some of the biggest training camp storylines. Next, they play a game of “20s or 40s?” to determine which veteran fantasy stars are still attractive draft picks this season. Along the way, they determine how the D.I.C.A.P.R.I.O. system applies to their favorite aging RBs. They wrap with an Oreos taste test and a special (in person) edition of emails.

Wrighty’s House

Former Arsenal and England National Team striker Ian Wright discusses the latest football headlines, as well as his cultural passions. 

 

Want more live shows from The Ringer? Check out this hub on Spotify.