MSNBC’s Rebrand, ESPN’s Solitaire Scandal, and James Talarico’s Friends. Plus: The Atlantic’s Charlie Warzel

The Press Box

The Ringer

Sports

4.4 • 3.1K Ratings

🗓️ 11 November 2025

⏱️ 69 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Hello, media consumers! Bryan and David discuss Texas Senate hopeful James Talarico’s social media scandal and how the public reaction to this type of news has changed over time. Next, Bryan and David dive into MSNBC’s rebrand as MSNOW and how effective the rebrand rollout has been (10:18). Then, Bryan and David talk about the ESPN Solitaire debacle (13:53) before discussing the layoffs at Conde Nast following a confrontation with the company’s head of human resources (20:04). Lastly, the show ends with the next installment of 25 for 25, as the Atlantic’s Charlie Warzel joins to talk about Elon Musk, public media trust, and his new podcast, Galaxy Brain (32:54). Plus, the Overworked Twitter Joke of the Week, and David Shoemaker Guesses the Strained-Pun Headline! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Damn it!
0:08.5	Yes.
0:09.9	We need to talk about this story about James Tala Rico.
0:15.1	Oh, yeah.
0:17.1	For the uninitiated, James Talariko is the latest nice young man who's running for U.S. Senate in Texas.
0:25.6	He's running an extremely uphill battle in a state where a Democrat hasn't won a U.S. Senate race in 36 years.
0:34.3	James Tala Rico is Beto 2.0.
0:37.8	Unless that was Colin Allred, in which case he is Beto 2.0. Yeah.
0:38.3	Unless that was Colin Allred, in which case he is Beto 3.0.
0:42.6	Very much doing the Graham Platner, I'll do every interview campaign strategy.
0:48.8	Well, over at Axios, Alexe Thompson reports that Talarico, who has put his faith at the forefront of his campaign,
0:56.1	follows several adult film
0:57.9	performers, escorts, and only fans
1:00.1	models on Instagram
1:01.2	according to an Axios
1:03.8	review. Yeah.
1:07.1	Tala Rico spokesman adds this.
1:09.0	The social media team, including James,
1:13.3	follows back and engages with supporters who have large followings and does not investigate their backgrounds.
1:17.9	He adds, James has never subscribed to only fans or an escort service, dot, dot, dot.
1:23.4	While James was unaware of how these women make money, he does not judge them for it and will not play into an effort to smear them for clickbait articles.
1:31.3	That's exactly what his Christian faith calls him to do.
	...

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