John Ourand joins Peter Hamby to break down a consequential stretch in sports media, with Paramount cutting a $7.7 billion check for UFC rights and ESPN expanding its sports empire ahead of football season with its forthcoming super app. As John explains, these moves are part of a concerted push by legacy media to fight back against the rise of tech platforms and streamers. And despite the industry upheaval, the old guard still holds one powerful advantage: bigger audiences.
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26:41
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26:41
Altman’s Beltway Bargain
Ian Krietzberg joins guest host Julia Ioffe to discuss Sam Altman’s latest gambit: offering ChatGPT Enterprise to U.S. government agencies for next to nothing, in hopes of building muscle memory inside the government and promoting the widespread adoption of A.I. in day-to-day operations. Yet, as adoption grows, so do the questions and concerns—about security, reliability, and the costs of running energy-hungry systems prone to unpredictable errors.
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23:11
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23:11
Congress’s Recess Reckoning
Abby Livingston joins guest host Julia Ioffe to break down the August recess town halls, where some members of Congress are dodging the spotlight while others face heat over the Big Beautiful Bill and the Epstein scandal. They also discuss the latest Texas redistricting battle—and what it all means for the road to the 2026 midterms.
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22:29
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22:29
Media Monday: Ellison's Tech Talk & The McAfee Plan
Jon Kelly and Peter Hamby reunite to discuss some of the overlooked complexifiers in David Ellison's conquest of Paramount. They also assess the challenging points of leverage between ESPN and Fox and their respective college football media heroes, Pat McAfee and Dave Portnoy
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27:33
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27:33
Katie Drummond’s New 'Wired' Order
Katie Drummond, global editorial director of Wired, joins the pod to reflect on her overhaul of the tech magazine—transforming it into a sharp-edged outlet covering the dystopian intersection of technology, politics, and culture. She discusses the significance of original reporting, Wired’s notable growth and ambitions growth strategy, A.I.’s threat to journalism, and much, much more.
The Grill Room Podcast is presented by bp. See all the ways we’re investing in America: https://www.bp.com/InvestingInAmerica
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To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy
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Join Emmy Award-winning journalist Peter Hamby, along with the team of expert journalists at Puck, as they let you in on the real conversations insiders are having across the four corners of power in America: Wall Street, Washington, Silicon Valley and Hollywood. Puck's contributors will bring you smart conversation around the inside stories happening in these worlds. Presented in partnership with Audacy, new episodes publish daily, Monday-Friday.
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