Pro wrestling is known for larger-than-life-figures, but the 7’7” Jorge “El Gigante” Gonzalez was a giant even among them. Colt and Rob Naylor tell the story of his brief and unusual career. To hear new episodes of this series log on to Howl.fm and use the promo code COLT for 1-month free.

Soccer is by far the most popular sport worldwide, but it has struggled to gain a foothold in the American media market for decades. Stephen has become a recent convert to soccer fandom, even co-hosting a soccer podcast with his son, but James has not been swayed. Today, our decidedly non-jock hosts will look into the reasons why soccer ranks so low in American favorability, despite the fact that game attendance figures in the United States are surprisingly high.

This episode is sponsored by Ruby Receptionist.

Join guests Dan Savage and Jane Marie as they help listeners navigate sex and parenthood. This episode covers a range of topics, from finding time to get it on when all you want to do is sleep, to getting in the mood after pregnancy loss, to real (NSFW) instructions on how to make sex pleasurable when you are recovering from a childbirth injury. You won’t hear a conversation like this anywhere else. To join the conversation about this episode, go to longestshortesttime.com!

This episode is sponsored by Third Love, Ibotta, Alarm.com, Icon Undies, and Fracture.

Leonard and his daughter Jessie are joined by British actress and singer Danielle Hope to talk about their favorite British actors (including Dani’s mentor, Michael Crawford) and films over the years, including the current release Genius with Colin Firth and Jude Law, the 2014 family comedy Paddington, and the works of the brilliant Mike Leigh.

This episode is sponsored by Blue Apron.

DC musical mainstays The Capitol Steps (“Baby Wants Candy”‘s Chris Grace, Ashley Ward, Amber Petty, John Hartman and Scott Passarella) perform some of their greatest hits on a Hard Nation musical extravaganza! Hear about their Vietnam-themed spinoff group and how Hamilton ripped them off between such classics as “ISIS Love” and “This Is The 90’s.”

This episode is sponsored by Blue Apron and Casper Mattresses.

One of America’s best and most versatile actresses Piper Laurie joins Matt to talk about initially approaching the role of Carrie’s mother in Brian De Palma’s Carrie as a comedy, her experience working alongside Paul Newman and George C. Scott in the 1961 film The Hustler, and many other gems from her fantastic autobiography ‘Learning to Live Out Loud: A Memoir.’ Plus, Amanda Lund joins Matt to share a special talent that will enhance your listening enjoyment of certain songs in the return of I Was There Tune.

This episode is sponsored by Mack Weldon, Blue Apron, and Casper Mattresses.

It’s the first ever taping of Beautiful/Anonymous from the Vulture Festival in NYC. The caller is a creative Canadian looking to sail her cardboard boat in the rough waters of daily life. Luckily the audience is on her side.

This episode is sponsored by Mack Weldon, Casper Mattresses, Ibotta, and AMEX.

Photos courtesy of The Vulture Festival.

Sarah Pappalardo of Reductress joins Jensen and Matty to talk about The Avalanches album “Wildflower”, The Nice Guys, Tickled, how we were late on The Oh, Hello Show, Paradox Interactive games, House of Cards, and many more things you should know about.

This episode is sponsored by Jack Erwin and Blue Apron.

Stephen’s success with the Freakonomics series of books made a great deal of money for his publisher, but how much of that ends up back in his bank account? On today’s show, James and Stephen discuss how royalty splits work in the publishing business from the top down and compare those numbers to successful self-publishing efforts. Do the benefits of signing a book deal with a major publisher outweigh the larger percentage of revenue an author could make self-publishing e-books on the internet?

This episode is sponsored by Allstate.

Amina Munir (Funny or Die) joins Deanna & Emily to unpack Kylie Jenner’s Instagram comments, what it means to “Hoe Hard For Your Money”, and how you can become “glo’d up.” Plus, everyone shares their secret celebrity crushes!

This episode is sponsored by Blue Apron.

Hilarious stand-up comedian Ramon Rivas II joins the County boys to talk about the emotional/historic NBA finals and feeling Cleveland pride now that the Cavaliers are NBA champions. Daniel Van Kirk brings County Stories which includes Meat-wielding ‘extremists’ starting a brawl at a Georgia vegan cafe. Plus, Mark Wahlberg shares some advice on winning to the Cleveland Cavaliers.

This episode is sponsored by Mack Weldon, Blue Apron, and Zappos.

Check out the Accidental Comedy Fest on August 26-28 in Cleveland OH. For more info go to www.Accidentalcomedy.com!

Hayes and Sean sit down with UCB founder and improv4humans host MATT BESSER for a forced crossover episode and compare emails with notes they’ve received from Earwolf brass.

Solomon Georgio (Viceland’s Flophouse, Conan) joins Andrew to discuss the aftermath of the Orlando tragedy. As always, leave us a message about anything you think is racist at (323) 389-RACE.

This episode is sponsored by Harry’s.

We continue to explore love through the magic of food for our next HDTGM movie selection! Paul reveals his Top 3 TV Theme Songs of All Time as he opens up the Explanation Hope Line. Send your own voicemail explanation hopes for Paul to answer by calling 619-PAUL ASK. Later, we hear an excerpt of Blake Harris’ interview with director Renny Harlin (Cliffhanger, Die Hard 2). For the rest of the interview go over to www.slashfilm.com. Plus, Corrections and Omissions for The Boy Next Door!

This episode is sponsored by Loot Crate and Zappos.

WATCH Filthy Preppy Teen$ on the FullScreen App today! Get yourself a BB-8 “What Is Its Mission?” T-shirt or Tote Bag over at http://howdidthisgetmade.bigcartel.com/ Set your DVRs for Party Over Here, a new FOX sketch comedy show from The Lonely Island and Paul starring Nicole Byer, Jessica McKenna, and Alison Rich. It airs Saturdays at 11 pm. People of the internet: Watch Paul in Fresh off the Boat on ABC. Awhile ago, Paul and Rob Huebel did a comedy special on a 60 foot glass bus that traveled around LA. Now you’ll be able to see it. Go to https://itun.es/us/3M4J9 now to buy it! You can also see Jason in Transparent on Amazon! Also, check out June in Grace and Frankie available on Netflix, and in all the episodes of NTSF:SD:SUV:: on HULU for free, and Jason in The Dictator (he’s still in it!).

We have a lot of phrases for describing large groups of humans, and none of them are good. We fear the mob mentality and use words like ‘herd’ or ‘sheep’ to describe how dumb we can get in big groups. But what if there were a way to harness our collective intelligence and use it to amplify our best qualities instead of our worst?

That’s what Louis Rosenberg did when he founded Unanimous AI, a company that looked at how swarms of bees make decisions, and developed a program to allow humans to make decisions and predictions in the same way. Instead of voting, decisions are made as a collective.

Okay, but what do you do with this, you ask? Using swarm intelligence, Unanimous AI was able to predict the Kentucky Derby, the Oscars and routinely beats Las Vegas oddsmakers when predicting sports like hockey and football.

Rightly amazed by this awesome new superpower, Jack O’Brien chats with Louis about how his technology works, how it was modeled off the behavior of honey bees, and the surprising things it found about human morality.

Footnotes:

Francis Galton, ‘Vox Populi’: http://goo.gl/4TMOAL 

The Wisdom of Crowds, by James Surowiecki: https://goo.gl/4ULXJQ 

Wisdom of the Crowd: Myths and Realities: http://goo.gl/nBVpZb

UNU Publications: http://goo.gl/op1MWX

This episode is sponsored by Blue Apron and Casper Mattresses.

I stepped on some ooze in the dungeon and then became friends with it…him…them?

Credits:

Arnie: Arnie Niekamp

Chunt: Adal Rifai

Usidore: Matt Young

Ooze: Paul Grondy

Blemish: Martin Wilson

Mysterious Man: Tim Sniffen

Craig: Ryan DiGiorgi

Producers: Arnie Niekamp, Evan Jacover, Ryan DiGiorgi

Editor: Ryan DiGiorgi

Theme Music: Andy Poland

Magic Tavern Logo: Allard Laban

Audio Assistance: Jason Knox

Production Assistant: Garrett Schultz

This episode is sponsored by Cards Against Humanity

Paul F. Tompkins welcomes everyone standing, sitting, or lying down listening to this week’s episode of Spontaneanation! This week, Paul’s special guest is Sam Richardson of HBO’s Veep! They chat about how Sam defines magic, when is the perfect time to do the splits, and buses full of girls. Paul is then joined by Hal Lublin, Annie Savage and Victor Yerrid to improvise a story set in a Televangelist’s Studio. And as always, Eban (only the best) Schletter scores it all on piano! 

The next live edition of Spontaneanation happens Saturday, August 6 at Largo at The Coronet! Join Paul & Eban as they welcome improvisors Dan Ahdoot, Tim Baltz and Tawny Newsome, and special interview guest Desmin Borges from You’re The Worst! Tickets are on sale now!

This episode is sponsored by Mack Weldon, Blue Apron, The Bouqs, and Black Tux.

Jason “Hey Nong” Mantzoukas and Thomas “Middle-earth” Middleditch are back on Comedy Bang! Bang! Jason, Thomas, and Scott talk Smash Mouth, a risqué story overheard at the gym, virtual reality gaming, and Montell Jordan. Plus, an amateur barrister by the name of Edmond Carlyle stops by in the middle of his hot case to reveal some of his other hobbies and a possible connection to Scott.

This episode is sponsored by Mack Weldon, Leesa Mattresses, Bonobos, Stamps.com, and Black Tux.

The one and only Jeff Goldblum joins Josh this week to discuss his admiration for numerous actors, returning to the Independence Day series with the new film Independence Day: Resurgence, and how fatherhood is treating him.

This episode is sponsored by Blue Apron and Casper Mattresses.

This week, Devin and Amy tackle the John Carpenter film “They Live.” They pick apart the theme of selling a vision to the masses and debate whether the film’s silliness is purposeful or the result of artistic compromise. Finally, Devin defends the cynical worldview that “They Live” presents and explains why people in power are invariably awful. Cast your vote in the Earwolf forums if “They Live” should make its way into the Canon.

Comedy powerhouse Tami Sagher (Don’t Think Twice, 30 Rock) chats with Ronna & Beverly about being born in Israel, leaving in a reminder line in a script she wrote for the TV show Psych, what it’s like to spend the day with Tina Fey on her time writing for 30 Rock, and starring as one of the members of the improv troupe in Mike Birbiglia’s film Don’t Think Twice. Plus, Ronna and Beverly extend their love to the LGBTQ community.

This episode is sponsored by Third Love and Harry’s.

If you’ve ever picked up the New York Times, you’ve probably seen David Brooks’ name: he’s been a political and cultural commentator there for over a decade. David offers commentary on countless political subjects, and his conversation with David Gregory is no different. Brooks offers insight into the recent tragic mass shooting in Orlando, FL, takes us into the current presidential race, and then talks about his recent spiritual journey.

This episode is sponsored by Stamps.com, The Great Courses, and Ibotta.

Welcome back to Can You Believe It? with your hosts Colleen and Margaret (Mike Castle and Joey Greer)! It’s the show where you will find all the gossip in the small town of Alpharetta, Georgia. This week they are joined by their number one guest and word traveler Jnny Crg. They get into how Jnny lost her job as a spokesperson for a weight loss company, the town’s gossip during the popular segment “Are You Sure?”, and nominate a town witch during “Who’s the Witch?”. Plus, Traci Reardon arrives to answer all Twitter questions about small town gossip in another edition of “Help Me, Rhonda.”

This episode is sponsored by Blue Apron.

Lauren Weedman (HBO’s Looking) is one hell of a storyteller and an indie film darling. Lauren joins Randy and Jason in the calming shores of Sklarbro Country to talk about meeting a guy on a dating app, her young son being a real dude’s dude, met her first Trump supporter, and her recent experience doing a cabaret show on a gay cruise. Plus, the Sklars call up Tiger Woods to catch up and find out when he’s coming back to the game.

This episode is sponsored by Jack Erwin, Loot Crate, and Legal Zoom.

Book Club regulars Erik Patterson, Robert Baker, and Dana Wickens joins Nate to talk about Katherine Dunn’s “Geek Love.” It’s an emotionally intense book that doesn’t pull any punches. Make sure to pick up a copy of next month’s book, “The Girls: A Novel” by Emma Cline Once you’re done reading, call us at (702) 751-READ and let us know what you thought!

This episode is sponsored by Loot Crate.

Fan fave and dear friend Deanna Cheng (OMFG! podcast) joins Casey and Danielle to dive deep into RHONY this week. Between Jules’ divorce, Yolanda’s premature exit and T-Rav’s dinner party explosion, they have to lot to process. Also, they discuss LuAnn’s unhinged behavior and Bethenny’s bleed out.

This episode is sponsored by Ibotta, Adam and Eve, and Home and Chef.

Have you ever been embarrassed at the onset of a relationship with someone new? James certainly has, and on today’s episode, it tops his list of things he wished he understood about adult life as a teenager. (Listen to yesterday’s episode for Stephen’s list on the same subject.) Other topics include money management, over-estimation of one’s self-valuation, and whether or not anyone actually enjoys eating salad.

Rhys Darby of The Flight of The Conchords enters the CBB 1st Timers Club! Rhys tests his movie trivia, plays a game of “Agree or Disagree?”, and acknowledges his immortality. Then, Margie Donk returns to tell us about her new venture to pursue her dream as a writer in Los Angeles. Later, personal trainer Reggie Tote arrives to talk about his specific Hollywood trainer expertise which began with the original Roots series.

This episode is sponsored by Ritani, Audible, Legal Zoom, and MVMT Watches.

Freaking out with Grace Parra and Jennifer Bartels.

This episode is sponsored by Bonobos, Harry’s, and Loot Crate.