House of R The Ringer

This podcast makes me a better storyteller and writer. I just have to stop listening to the whole Ringerverse long enough to actually put pen to paper.

I nominate Robbon as the name for HOR fans. R + hobbit + dragon = Robbon. Because we love the show and email you accordingly. 💕👯‍♀️🫡

too much ringer sports junk and snark towards fans that don’t adore them without critique.

Bay Area smuggness w/zero clue (or compassion) towards a fellow mom in a lower station than her. Giggly mean girl energy.

This Marine and her flashlight are over it and will be unfollowing.

…in that it gives you something you didn’t know you needed, until it was there. Over the years — and dating back to “Talk the Thrones” with Chris Ryan & Jason Concepcion — The Ringer helped introduce me to podcasts, and has immeasurably enriched my understanding & appreciation of the movies & shows it covers. I love how Bill Simmons decided NOT to offer listeners a family of pods stemming from a single, cult of personality-like perspective on the culture (e.g., Joe Rogan, Call Her Daddy, Pat McAfee, Tucker Carlson). Instead, he bet on there being a ‘big enough tent’ to support a broad range of podcasts & podcasters…and gave a voice to variety of hosts whose experiences, perspectives, ages, and backgrounds differ greatly from his own. For example, the idea of a nerd culture podcast from an African-American perspective (“The Midnight Boys”) is pure genius. (Granted, that may not have been Bill’s idea — but he IS responsible for creating an environment where such a thing was possible. Whereas ESPN decided that Jemele Hill, Michael Smith, and even Bomani freaking Jones had to go.) And who was it, that helped ‘launch’ the Midnight Boys? (“Pew, pew!”) None other than Mal & Joanna, of course. There’s no one else on Spotify who could make go back & watch scenes from “The Winter Soldier” — when coincidentally we just saw it a week or so ago — because like the podcasters, I teared up as they discussed their favorite scenes. That’s like a magic trick. And the rapport between Joanna & Mallory (in addition to their deep well of fandom knowledge) is what brings us back, again and again. To return to the idea of The Ringer as a ‘trope free zone’ — how many other podcasts are hosted by two women, where nobody’s telling them to be “more” of something — whether it’s sexy, or girlie, hot take-y & TikTok-y, or stridently Feminist, or more serious & journalistic, et al.? Mal & Joanna ride for inclusion & diversity (see: their admirably steadfast refusal to ‘cave’ on “The Last Jedi”) — but at the end of the day, the ONLY thing this show truly insists on, is that movies & shows should be an animal cruelty-free zone. (“Protect Ghost!”) And finally, it feels to me like the podcast industry — like all industries — has settled into some conventions, and ‘unwritten rules’…the most prominent & seemingly inflexible of which, is: “Thou shalt make your episodes 60 minutes or less, in duration.” But I bet I’m not alone, when I say that when I see the latest “House of R” episode has a running time approaching 3 hours, it makes me happy — because even at that length, Joanna and Mallory are never boring, and have demonstrated that they’re incapable of breaking the old show business rule, that says: “Leave ‘em wanting more.”