Barack Obama and Aliens, How to Cover Stephen A’s Quasi-Campaign, and the AI That Ate Cleveland

The Press Box

The Ringer

Sports

4.4 • 3.2K Ratings

🗓️ 18 February 2026

⏱️ 62 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Bryan and David are here and they start with a story out of Cleveland about a student turning down a job because of their use of AI. They discuss whether there are acceptable ways to use AI in journalism. After that they talk about Barack Obama's podcast interview where he mentions that aliens exist (14:35). Then they discuss some news from CBS. Anderson Cooper leaving CBS News’ ‘60 minutes’ and Stephen Colbert’s late-night show not being able to air an interview with James Talarico (22:32). They also talk about how to cover Stephen A. Smith’s potential presidential campaign (27:07). Lastly they discuss a creative nonfiction story in The Atlantic (40:43) about measles and the death of Robert Duvall (54:27). Also David Shoemaker guesses the Strained Pun Headline of the Week. Hosts: Bryan Curtis and David ShoemakerProducers: Bruce Baldwin and Isaiah Blakely Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	The Premier League is exciting.
0:04.0	It's exhilarating.
0:08.0	And sometimes it's...
0:11.0	So when you need something to help you ride the highest and loads of all that action,
0:17.0	grab a Coke to keep you in the game.
0:20.0	Time to refresh. time for a coke
0:23.2	Coca-Cola official partner of the Premier League
0:28.8	David yes from the department of what pissed off journalists this week David? Yes.
0:41.8	From the department of what pissed off journalists this week.
0:43.4	God.
0:45.0	It's a big department.
0:46.4	It is.
0:51.7	We got to get Elon Musk down on reducing the size of that department.
0:52.2	Go ahead.
0:57.1	There was a column from the editor of the Cleveland Plain Dealer.
0:58.7	Oh, no.
1:07.3	Now also Cleveland.com, and this gentleman, Chris Quinn became the main character on journalism Twitter, at least for a few hours.
1:10.8	He was writing about a hire he was trying to make in his newsroom.
1:17.1	And Chris Quinn writes, a college student withdrew from consideration for a reporting role in our newsroom this week because of how we use artificial intelligence.
1:29.8	That's right. Artificial Intelligence, one of the gallery of journalistic villains we mentioned alongside names such as Barry Weiss and Will Lewis.
1:38.9	Now, how is AI affecting journalism in Cleveland? Well, the plane dealer and its website have expanded local coverage into counties around
1:48.3	Cleveland.
	...

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