logo
episode-header-image
May 2023
32m 23s

The 5 Biggest Narratives After Week 1 of...

The Ringer
About this episode

Matt is joined by Bloomberg’s Lucas Shaw to discuss the most popular narratives that emerged after week 1 of the writers strike, including who is winning the social media war and if it matters, huge paydays for media CEOs despite layoffs and and cost cutting across the industry, the stalemate over AI, the messy situation for writer-producers, and more. Matt finishes the show with a prediction on Kevin Costner’s fate on the final season of ‘Yellowstone’.


For a 20 percent discount on Matt’s Hollywood insider newsletter, ‘What I’m Hearing ...,’ click here

Email us your thoughts! thetown@spotify.com


Host: Matt Belloni

Guest: Lucas Shaw


Producer: Craig Horlbeck and Jessie Lopez

Theme Song: Devon Renaldo

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Up next
Yesterday
Part 1 With Ari Emanuel and Mark Shapiro: AI, Live Events, and the Four-Day Work Week
Matt is joined by WME and TKOs Ari Emanuel and Mark Shapiro to discuss their new company, Mari. They talk about why they are betting on live experiences, the possibility of the four-day work week changing the way we live, the state of the talent business, and how we should be thi ... Show More
31m 14s
Oct 7
David Ellison’s $150M Bet on Bari Weiss and a New-Look CBS News
Matt is joined by Semafor cofounder Ben Smith to discuss what to expect from CBS News in the David Ellison and Bari Weiss era. Ellison, the new owner of Paramount, has tasked 41-year-old Weiss to run its news division and also acquired her company The Free Press for $150 million. ... Show More
32m 19s
Oct 6
The 'Smashing Machine’ Bomb and A24’s Big-Budget Burden
Matt and Bloomberg’s Lucas Shaw use the disappointing box office performance for A24’s sports drama ‘The Smashing Machine’ with Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson to examine the current state of A24, the difficulty of living up to its sky-high valuation, and the natural life cycle of a gr ... Show More
32m 25s
Recommended Episodes
Dec 2022
The end of social media
Sean Illing talks with technology writer and philosopher Ian Bogost about the state of social media — especially in the wake of Elon Musk's recent acquisition of Twitter. They discuss the recent but surprising history of the platforms that have come to dominate the lives of so ma ... Show More
50m 47s
Jun 2023
Will there be a Hollywood ending? why the writers are on strike
Hello! This week’s topic has all the ingredients of a great blockbuster: a tale of the underdog standing up to powerful big business, people fighting for their livelihoods, and ensuring the robots don’t take over the world…but this isn’t fiction, it’s real life. The Hollywood wri ... Show More
51m 53s
Jun 2023
Peak social media: Trouble at Twitter
Elon Musk took over Twitter with the promise of promoting free speech and making the loss-making platform profitable again. But his critics say he’s destroying Twitter’s culture and driving it to bankruptcy. How much danger is the company really in? In the first episode in a new ... Show More
29m 28s
Sep 2022
Breaking Down the ‘Don’t Worry Darling’ Drama With Matt Belloni | Ringer Dish Bonus
Juliet Litman is joined by Matt Belloni, founder of Puck News and host of The Ringer’s Hollywood happenings podcast ‘The Town,’ to discuss the drama swirling around the press tour of ‘Don’t Worry Darling.’ They get into the conflict between Olivia Wilde and Shia LaBeouf over how ... Show More
39m 53s
Dec 2016
BBC Academy Podcast: Highlights of 2016
2016 is nearly at an end, so you know what that means - it's highlights time!Kris Bramwell, Roxy Ebrahim-Khan, Zayna Shaikh and Charles Miller, aka the BBC Academy Podcast team (left to right above), share their favourite clips from the past year to mark the end of the current se ... Show More
19m 10s
Jul 2023
Hollywood Strikes Back
Culture editor Katie Razzall joins Adam to explain why, for the first time since the 1960s, both the Screen Actors Guild and Writers Guild of America are on strike. They also speak to the actor Brian Cox.There’s more movie news as ‘Barbenheimer’ fever takes over the red carpet. B ... Show More
33m 59s