Podcast appearances and mentions of Rob Long

Last week's Martini Shot prompted a lot of very kind notes that read like eulogies for what is essentially a back-end redirect of an audio feed. In that spirit, Rob Long reflects on the many ways Hollywood tells you it's over without ever quite saying so: the actor who fired his agent while the agent was firing him, the showrunner removed from the show about his own father — they were right, by the way — and the writer whose deal simply wasn't renewed, and who forgot to mention any of it to his assistant. Nobody was fired. Everybody felt fired. Next week, we set sail. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In today's edition of 32 Teams in 16 Days, Nick Wilson and Jonathan Peterlin are joined by Rob Long, Host of The Big Bad Morning Show on weekdays from 6am to 10am on 105.7 The Fan in Baltimore, and former Minnesota Vikings linebacker Ben Leber of the Sound The Horn YouTube channel to talk about the Baltimore Ravens and Minnesota Vikings.

Nick and Jonathan are joined by 92.3 The Fan's own Daryl Ruiter. Then, they're joined by Rob Long and Ben Leber in Wednesday's edition of 32 teams, 16 days.

Rob Long and Jeremy Conn react to Joe Thomas' comments on the Ravens signing of Ethan Pocic on The Ryan Ripken Show.

Host on BBMS Rob Long joined the show live from Boston. He previewed an important doubleheader for the Orioles and touched on what he'd like to see the team do ahead of the trade deadline.

BBMS host joined the show live from Boston and discussed a tough loss for the Orioles in Boston and if he expects them to bounce back.

BBMS host Rob Long joined the show from Boston to discuss the big sweep from the Orioles over the Astros this weekend.

Jerry Lewis once blessed a nightclub audience by wishing them a life full of show business friends. Rob Long isn't so sure that's a blessing — show business friendship is a strange, contingent thing, built on projects that assemble and dissolve, sofas shared for a month, congratulatory phone calls that get read as job applications. This week: an awkward call to a not-quite-friend about her pilot, a rich old acquaintance unsettled by seminary news and a British actor stuck in contract purgatory at a long-ago dinner party who turned out fine. A theory of friendship, tested against thirty years of overlapping crews. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Rob Long is in Tbilisi, a city he last saw 26 years ago when it was broke and hopeful and is now prosperous and — inconveniently — cozy with Vladimir Putin. Turns out streaming had the same trajectory: total freedom, total data and somehow the timidest programming decisions in television history. Rob has notes for Netflix executives: bring back the 22-episode season — nobody wants a six-year relationship with your drama. Then his godson Jackson shows him the real numbers — how many viewers abandon his Instagram Reels by the one-second mark — and Rob realizes he's become exactly the kind of storyteller he just finished lecturing. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Phoebe Liu, Nvidia Reporter, talks with TITV Host Akash Pasricha about Nvidia's financial backstops for GPU purchases. We also talk with Anita Ramaswamy about Microsoft's true market valuation and Andrew Dai, CEO and Co-Founder of Elorian, about why AI models fail basic visual reasoning tasks. We also chat with Rob Long of Eleos AI about the empirical evidence for machine consciousness, and Laura Bratton about how model routers are reining in enterprise software costs.Articles discussed on this episode: https://www.theinformation.com/articles/microsofts-real-value-close-3-8-trillion-500-sharehttps://www.theinformation.com/newsletters/ai-agenda/five-kinds-model-routers-cut-ai-costshttps://www.theinformation.com/articles/nvidia-says-will-take-cut-customers-cloud-revenuesSubscribe: YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@theinformation The Information: https://www.theinformation.com/subscribe_hSign up for the AI Agenda newsletter: https://www.theinformation.com/features/ai-agendaTITV airs weekdays on YouTube, X and LinkedIn at 10AM PT / 1PM ET. Or check us out wherever you get your podcasts.Follow us:X: https://x.com/theinformationIG: https://www.instagram.com/theinformation/TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@titv.theinformationLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/theinformation/Chapters:00:00 - Introduction01:13 - Nvidia Backstops Neo-Cloud GPU Purchases12:42 - Why Microsoft's Real Value is Closer to $3.8 Trillion22:34 - AI's Visual Reasoning Challenge34:35 - Can AI Be Conscious?45:30 - How Model Routers Are Lowering AI Costs

The summer box office is having its best season since before the pandemic — and the first real hits weren't the franchise machines, they were two cheap horror movies made by guys who started on YouTube. Naturally, the industry is busy reading the wrong signs: mine Reddit, buy a graphic novel, staff up a division. Rob Long has seen this con before — he knows a successful project that was a script disguised as a self-published graphic novel with a fan base of five. The right sign is simpler, and it comes by way of a high school basketball coach and a friend who survived a stroke: We didn't lose the ability to make a fun summer movie. We lost the feeling. And the feeling is the part worth getting back. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Rob Long was 24 years old when he met James Burrows, one of the creators and executive producers of Cheers, where he had just been hired as a staff writer on a 10 week contract. It didn't take 10 weeks for him to realize just how brilliant Burrows was. The Will & Grace and Friends director knew how to tell if material worked even if it didn't do much at the runthrough. He knew when a line was funnier when they threw it away, and he knew when a scene needed to be tossed and re-written. Rob still remembers the day he met Burrows — and the six words that stuck with him all these years later. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Rob Long's friend has a near-perfect system for staying in touch: a text every five weeks to the day, the wording on rotation, the calls auto-booked — friendship by tickler file, a little bit human and a lot robot. Naturally, Rob sets out to sabotage it. But AI in Hollywood is a much different, nuanced debate. From screenwriting manuals to the algorithmic clockwork of Law & Order, Rob believes that the one thing the machines can't do is make a really interesting, unexpected mess. So we should. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Blake Murphy is joined by Zach Worden of the Bird's Eye View podcast to talk about Chad Dallas' outing, Toronto's approach at the plate and some of the intriguing prospects in the farm system. Following that, MASN's Rob Long (30:31) discusses the Baltimore Orioles heading into their weekend series against the Blue Jays. Blue Jays Central's Kevin Pillar (49:39) breaks down how Toronto got to Chris Sale and what players returning from injury can do for team morale. Lastly, Brock McGillis (1:17:13), LGBTQ+ advocate and speaker, reflects on the importance of Pride Night as the Rogers Centre celebrates it on Friday night for the seventh year. The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rogers Sports & Media or any affiliate.

Here in Episode 9 of Season 5, I interview Mr. Rob Long. A longtime Hollywood professional, he was a writer and producer for the classic sitcom Cheers as well as for over a dozen other shows. A National Review contributor and columnist for both Commentary and Washington Examiner magazine, he has authored two books, Conversations With My Agent (1998) and Set-Up, Joke, Set-Up, Joke (2005), and edited one, Bigly: Donald Trump in […]

Here in Episode 9 of Season 5, I interview Mr. Rob Long. A longtime Hollywood professional, he was a writer and producer for the classic sitcom Cheers as well as for over a dozen other shows. A National Review contributor and columnist for both Commentary and Washington Examiner magazine, he has authored two books, Conversations With My Agent (1998) and Set-Up, Joke, Set-Up, Joke (2005), and edited one, Bigly: Donald Trump in Verse (2017). As the co-founder of Ricochet, a media network, he hosts “Martini Shot,” a long-running, bite-size showbiz podcast, as well as cohosts “GLoP Culture.” Drawing on his two comic memoirs—alongside his religious studies as a Master of Divinity student at Princeton Theological Seminary—we discuss his life in Hollywood, religious journey, and current training to become an Episcopal priest. Along the way we dig into the nature of humor, the rise and fall of the TV sitcom, the lost formation of the writer's room, what it is like to be a Hollywood conservative, how technology like streaming and AI has changed show business, the strategy for the perfect sermon, and the spiritual calling of the creative arts. Among the shows that are discussed include the Dick Van Dyke Show, Mary Tyler Moore Show, and Andy Griffith Show, plus films like Twentieth Century, A Night at the Opera, The In-Laws, and Midnight Run; along with guest appearances by Michaelangelo's Pieta, Aristotle's Poetics, Moliere, P.G. Wodehouse, P.J. O'Rourke, plus the wit of Jesus of Nazareth. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

Here in Episode 9 of Season 5, I interview Mr. Rob Long. A longtime Hollywood professional, he was a writer and producer for the classic sitcom Cheers as well as for over a dozen other shows. A National Review contributor and columnist for both Commentary and Washington Examiner magazine, he has authored two books, Conversations With My Agent (1998) and Set-Up, Joke, Set-Up, Joke (2005), and edited one, Bigly: Donald Trump in Verse (2017). As the co-founder of Ricochet, a media network, he hosts “Martini Shot,” a long-running, bite-size showbiz podcast, as well as cohosts “GLoP Culture.” Drawing on his two comic memoirs—alongside his religious studies as a Master of Divinity student at Princeton Theological Seminary—we discuss his life in Hollywood, religious journey, and current training to become an Episcopal priest. Along the way we dig into the nature of humor, the rise and fall of the TV sitcom, the lost formation of the writer's room, what it is like to be a Hollywood conservative, how technology like streaming and AI has changed show business, the strategy for the perfect sermon, and the spiritual calling of the creative arts. Among the shows that are discussed include the Dick Van Dyke Show, Mary Tyler Moore Show, and Andy Griffith Show, plus films like Twentieth Century, A Night at the Opera, The In-Laws, and Midnight Run; along with guest appearances by Michaelangelo's Pieta, Aristotle's Poetics, Moliere, P.G. Wodehouse, P.J. O'Rourke, plus the wit of Jesus of Nazareth. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/performing-arts

Here in Episode 9 of Season 5, I interview Mr. Rob Long. A longtime Hollywood professional, he was a writer and producer for the classic sitcom Cheers as well as for over a dozen other shows. A National Review contributor and columnist for both Commentary and Washington Examiner magazine, he has authored two books, Conversations With My Agent (1998) and Set-Up, Joke, Set-Up, Joke (2005), and edited one, Bigly: Donald Trump in Verse (2017). As the co-founder of Ricochet, a media network, he hosts “Martini Shot,” a long-running, bite-size showbiz podcast, as well as cohosts “GLoP Culture.” Drawing on his two comic memoirs—alongside his religious studies as a Master of Divinity student at Princeton Theological Seminary—we discuss his life in Hollywood, religious journey, and current training to become an Episcopal priest. Along the way we dig into the nature of humor, the rise and fall of the TV sitcom, the lost formation of the writer's room, what it is like to be a Hollywood conservative, how technology like streaming and AI has changed show business, the strategy for the perfect sermon, and the spiritual calling of the creative arts. Among the shows that are discussed include the Dick Van Dyke Show, Mary Tyler Moore Show, and Andy Griffith Show, plus films like Twentieth Century, A Night at the Opera, The In-Laws, and Midnight Run; along with guest appearances by Michaelangelo's Pieta, Aristotle's Poetics, Moliere, P.G. Wodehouse, P.J. O'Rourke, plus the wit of Jesus of Nazareth. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/biography

Here in Episode 9 of Season 5, I interview Mr. Rob Long. A longtime Hollywood professional, he was a writer and producer for the classic sitcom Cheers as well as for over a dozen other shows. A National Review contributor and columnist for both Commentary and Washington Examiner magazine, he has authored two books, Conversations With My Agent (1998) and Set-Up, Joke, Set-Up, Joke (2005), and edited one, Bigly: Donald Trump in Verse (2017). As the co-founder of Ricochet, a media network, he hosts “Martini Shot,” a long-running, bite-size showbiz podcast, as well as cohosts “GLoP Culture.” Drawing on his two comic memoirs—alongside his religious studies as a Master of Divinity student at Princeton Theological Seminary—we discuss his life in Hollywood, religious journey, and current training to become an Episcopal priest. Along the way we dig into the nature of humor, the rise and fall of the TV sitcom, the lost formation of the writer's room, what it is like to be a Hollywood conservative, how technology like streaming and AI has changed show business, the strategy for the perfect sermon, and the spiritual calling of the creative arts. Among the shows that are discussed include the Dick Van Dyke Show, Mary Tyler Moore Show, and Andy Griffith Show, plus films like Twentieth Century, A Night at the Opera, The In-Laws, and Midnight Run; along with guest appearances by Michaelangelo's Pieta, Aristotle's Poetics, Moliere, P.G. Wodehouse, P.J. O'Rourke, plus the wit of Jesus of Nazareth. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/religion

Rob Long is watching a Satyajit Ray film on Criterion while eating ice cream and staring at his phone — which means he is, essentially, just eating ice cream. Rob is a pro at keeping his head down. Writers do it at auditions, following along with their own words instead of watching what actors are doing to them. Which turns out to be expensive, because the two actors who read “You've heard of me” as completely opposite character choices taught the writers something their script didn't know yet. Heads down feels productive. Heads up is where the show actually lives. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

John Podhoretz, Jonah Goldberg, and Rob Long er, "ricochet" from Trump potentially skipping his son's wedding to the collapse of late-night television, the strange death of black-tie culture, the rise of “Technogerd” pharmaceutical ads, and whether the future belongs to GLP-1 drugs, Episcopalians, or Chinese vertical dramas. Along the way: Jane Fonda at the Chinese Theatre, yacht-rock pedophilia lyrics, the comedy gold of the JPMorgan sex-lawsuit texts, Netflix sitcoms, empty Manhattan churches, Johnny Carson's killer instinct, and the immortal phrase “Fiddla Please.” It's a classic free-association GLoP: equal parts cultural criticism, showbiz war stories, theological detour, and middle-aged panic attack — all powered by Dongfang energy and sustained by propofol-grade banter.

James, Steve and non-stipendiary host Rob Long shoot the breeze as they face revolutionary changes big and small. From the impending phenonena of Pratt Summer and unstoppable AI to the DNC's stateside Commie drama and the Euros giving nationalism another go, the trio draws some important lessons:Local elections matter. They can even be fun!Political messaging is especially effective when your opponent is the weird one.Climate apocalypse is dumb.You can be a people or a bureaucracy, not both. Artificial Intelligence is coming. Work on your human skills.

James, Steve and non-stipendiary host Rob Long shoot the breeze as they face revolutionary changes big and small. From the impending phenomena of Pratt Summer and unstoppable AI to the DNC's stateside Commie drama and the Euros giving nationalism another go, the trio draws some important lessons: Local elections matter. They can even be fun! […]

John Podhoretz, Jonah Goldberg, and Rob Long er, “ricochet” from Trump potentially skipping his son's wedding to the collapse of late-night television, the strange death of black-tie culture, the rise of “Technogerd” pharmaceutical ads, and whether the future belongs to GLP-1 drugs, Episcopalians, or Chinese vertical dramas. Along the way: Jane Fonda at the Chinese […]

Vance sits down with data engineer Rob Long — self-described as scoring near zero on the agreeableness scale — to dig into what professional AI use actually looks like. Rob walks through his work at Bayer building "Sales Companion," an iOS app that lets sales agronomists dump field notes, photos, and voice memos after customer visits, then uses an AI agronomy agent to surface product recommendations and flag crop disease issues the salesperson might have missed. It's a grounded, unglamorous look at how enterprise AI actually gets built and deployed.The conversation ranges widely, from the local optima problem (why hill-climbing strategies trap you on foothills instead of mountains) to how AI has turbocharged both of their understanding of history — Greek empires, Byzantine splits, the hard fork of the Protestant Reformation. Rob also makes a sharp case that English is simply the next layer of abstraction above high-level programming languages, the same way C replaced assembly — and that most "software engineers" are quietly becoming software engineering leads managing agents instead of writing code.As Bitcoin joins the conversation, Rob explains that his view is simple — figure out how to get paid in it, and stack what you can. He and Vance also trade takes on AI surveillance fears, driverless cars, the cost of keeping underperforming employees, and the surprisingly good lesson hiding inside every embarrassing work story.https://Articulate.Ventures/IBC/https://LegacyInterviews.com/

Rob Long has a favorite story about network upfronts: a television network, unable to decide which of three pilots to schedule, flew all three casts to New York on the same plane, collected focus group results mid-flight, and met them at the gate — whisking some into Manhattan and stardom, and sending the others home. It contains everything you need to know about Hollywood: extravagant spending, procrastination and cruelty masquerading as efficiency. But here's the thing — the focus group never actually went away. It just moved to TikTok. And it's been telling Hollywood exactly what audiences want since approximately 1994. They just won't look. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jeremy Conn and Rob Long took some time from Thursday's BBMS to break down some of the advanced analytics behind the struggles of some important Orioles, most notably, Colton Cowser and Coby Mayo.

In Amsterdam last month, in front of a Dutch painting of a plump, nearly bald, angelic figure of indistinct gender, an old friend turned to Rob Long and said three words: “Hear me out.” It's the great phrase that buys a few seconds of grace before you say something insane — along with its writers' room cousin, not this, but. Oftentimes the ideas that emerge out of hear me out aren't usable whatsoever. But Rob makes the case that its those risky Hear Me Out projects that the entertainment business runs on. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Cordell Woodland joins Rob Long and Jeremy Conn to share his observations from NFL rookie camp, focusing on Zion Young and Jesse Minter's coaching demeanor. They also analyze the Baltimore Orioles' five-game losing streak and discuss potential defensive improvements involving Coby Mayo and Kyle Stowers. 01:30 - NFL Rookie Camp Observations 05:35 - Baltimore Orioles Struggles 08:19 - Potential Orioles Roster Changes

Rob Long remembers Radford Studios — the working lot in Studio City where the parking sheet promised “premium” spots that never quite existed, the guard who couldn't understand why you'd skip the Leave It to Beaver street for the fifth floor of the garage, and a writer friend who stumbled, mid-meltdown, onto the abandoned set of Gilligan's Island. This week, news broke that Goldman Sachs — having seized the lot after Hackman Capital Partners defaulted on a $1.1 billion mortgage — is selling it to Netflix for a fraction of what Hackman paid in 2021. Turns out the premium parking wasn't premium after all. It never really was. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Rob Long is at a bar on a Monday night, pretending to pay attention to a conversation while secretly watching CBS' The Neighborhood on a TV across the room, sound off. He predicts every beat of the episode anyway. A friend in the business says that's exactly the problem with those shows. Rob disagrees — politely, and then less politely. Sitcoms are the same as they always are. That's the point. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Ed Norris, Rob Long, and Jeremy Conn review an Orioles victory before analyzing a potential Dexter Lawrence trade with guest Ken McKusick. They evaluate the Ravens' roster gaps at center and linebacker while discussing key draft prospects and the strength of the AFC North. The group also examines how coaching changes and high draft picks could reshape the division's competitive landscape. 01:48 - Sports Update 03:30 - Dexter Lawrence Trade Analysis 06:59 - Ravens Draft Strategy Analysis

A healthy Rob Long, Jeremy Conn, and Joe LaCroix get you prepped for a Monday edition of the BBMS!

Moving concentrates the mind on the old days (good or otherwise). And who better to reminisce with than a good ole pal? James Lileks and Rob Long are back together, and they brought family heirlooms... Breezing through current events (a blockaded blockade abroad, a goon running Gotham, a papal-sovereign scrap), the duo takes in another week's worth of madness with the calm of mind that comes from grateful reception of some inherited wisdom.

Moving concentrates the mind on the old days (good or otherwise). And who better to reminisce with than a good ole pal? James Lileks and Rob Long are back together, and they brought family heirlooms… Breezing through current events (a blockaded blockade abroad, a goon running Gotham, a papal-sovereign scrap), the duo takes in another […]

There's a lesson Rob Long learned early in his television career: When an actor has a problem with the script, the smartest thing you can do is nothing. Don't talk. Don't fix. Don't explain. Just listen — because sometimes that's all anyone really needs. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Ed Norris, Rob Long, and Jeremy Conn analyze the edge rusher class of the NFL Draft with guest Ken McKusick. They specifically look at prospects like Reuben Bain Jr. and Akheem Mesidor while discussing how these players could bolster the Baltimore Ravens' defense. 01:31 - Traffic Report 02:23 - Edge Rusher Draft Analysis 05:17 - Reuben Bain Off-Field Controversy 09:15 - Ravens Pass Rush Strategy 11:40 - News Segment Tease

Rob Long and Jeremy Conn discuss the Orioles' impressive comeback win over the Diamondbacks, fueled by a multi-home run game from Jeremiah Jackson. They evaluate the organization's roster depth and the challenge of managing prospects like Coby Mayo and Jackson Holliday. 01:00 - Traffic Report 01:18 - Orioles Sports Update 03:12 - Orioles Roster Discussion

The TV comedy writers' room has a reputation as a creative paradise — funny people, good lunches, great jokes. That reputation is not wrong. It just leaves out the part where everyone is being systematically destroyed. Rob Long makes the case that the destruction is the point — that the specific cruelty available only to people who have been in rooms together for decades is what produces the trust that produces the comedy. Without it, you're left with Zoom rooms and unfunny scripts. Transcript here Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Rob Long has spent 30-plus years in the television business telling other people what's wrong with their scripts. But the tables can — and often do — turn. Rob's seminary classmate doing his first open mic informed Rob that his joke suggestions are, and this is a direct quote, “too wordy.” And Rob remembers the time a day player on one of his shows submitted a spec script for the very same show — titled, with magnificent audacity, “Billy Moves In” — and then proceeded to give Rob detailed notes on everything that was wrong with his series and how all of it could be fixed by the addition of his part. The lesson, such as it is: In this business, the note always lands, regardless of who's delivering it. Even if it's Billy. Even if it's a seminary student. Even if they're completely wrong. Which they were. Probably. Transcript here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

If you came for structure, coherence, or basic human decency—wrong podcast. In this unhinged episode of GLoP Culture, Rob Long, Jonah Goldberg, and John Podhoretz wander from a cornhole champion murder story to Helen Keller trutherism, pausing only to take gratuitous swings at Gandhi, Princess Diana, and basically anyone history has been too polite to re-examine. Along the way: deeply suspect jokes, aggressively niche cultural references, unsolicited architecture criticism, and a surprising amount of time spent litigating the moral failures of long-dead public figures. There is no thesis. There is no arc. There is only digression.

If you came for structure, coherence, or basic human decency—wrong podcast. In this unhinged episode of GLoP Culture, Rob Long, Jonah Goldberg, and John Podhoretz wander from a cornhole champion murder story to Helen Keller trutherism, pausing only to take gratuitous swings at Gandhi, Princess Diana, and basically anyone history has been too polite to […]

Every writing project hits the same wall: the neurotic feedback loop of details that don't add up. Who's watching the baby? Who's watching the bar? Rob Long has been around long enough to remember the lost art of script research. You'd messenger your draft to a company, and they would send it back annotated with neutral and merciless notes. When Frasier Crane mentioned his deceased parents on Cheers, a margin note came back, Establishes for Frasier: parents deceased. Oh, how that same script research company must have reacted when they received the Frasier pilot. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We're finally through Oscar season, which means it's time to think about prestige, status and the difference between the awards you want and the awards you get. Rob Long has a People's Choice Award obtained through what can only be described as informed consent, a WGA Award for the Earth Day Television Special, an LA Press Club Award that doesn't read on camera and an Emmy certificate that looks terrific... on the wall. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A friend asked Rob Long for career advice at Zankou Chicken. Rob hates giving advice — especially career advice, which is mostly just autobiography dressed up as wisdom. But while his friend waited for an answer, Rob started thinking about a leather jacket he bought in the early 1990s with $400 he didn't have — and how Hollywood, despite devastating unemployment numbers, has always run on the assumption that something great is about to happen. For Rob, it did. For everyone else: the hope still remains. Transcript here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Whether it was Sally Field as The Flying Nun or Julie Andrews playing a novitiate in The Sound of Music, audiences used to watch priests and nuns and ministers — unremarkably — as part of American life on screen. But that all went away, and Rob Long is well aware why that is. Church attendance declined steadily for decades, and the stigma around religion has become unavoidable. Which made it all the more impressive how Rian Johnson brought faith to the screen in one particular scene of Wake Up Dead Man: an embodiment of what prayer does for people. Transcript here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Michael Lynton, the former CEO of Sony Pictures, has a new book that tells the story of greenlighting the Seth Rogen comedy that provoked North Korea into hacking his studio. He traces it back to an awkward childhood in Holland and a lifelong need to fit in with the cool kids. Rob Long also had an awkward childhood in Holland. He also ended up in show business. But he's not sure Lynton's story is really a cautionary tale. The entertainment business isn't suffering from too much risk. It's suffering from too little. Also: Puppets might have helped. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Rob Long tries — unsuccessfully — to convince his Hollywood friends that seminary isn't a branding exercise. His stint at Princeton, where he's working towards a Masters in Divinity and ordination, has all the hallmarks of a great pilot. But according to Rob, it's the opposite. Show business has prepared him well for studying the Bible — and led him to the unsettling realization that biblical scholarship and credits arbitration are basically the same thing. Transcript here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Lingering cold has many a podcast host needing a week off, but Rob Long and Steve Hayward reconvene to enjoy some juicy stories and just desserts: The "Democracy Dies in Darkness" crowd got cut up in broad daylight, Jeffrey Epstein's pals are paying their due for dealing with the devil, and a $2 million verdict was awarded to a minor in a suit against the medical professionals who deformed her. 

Lingering cold has many a podcast host needing a week off, but Rob Long and Steve Hayward reconvene to enjoy some juicy stories and just desserts: The “Democracy Dies in Darkness” crowd got cut up in broad daylight, Jeffrey Epstein's pals are paying for their dealings with the devil, and a $2 million verdict was […]