Join Emmy Award-winning journalist Peter Hamby, along with the team of expert journalists at Puck, as they let you in on the real conversations insiders are having across the four corners of power in America: Wall Street, Washington, Silicon Valley and Hollywood. Puck's contributors will bring you smart conversation around the inside stories happening in these worlds. Presented in partnership with Audacy, new episodes publish daily, Monday-Friday.
Latest episodes
Showing 20 · updated from the feed
The Wild Saga of Shohei Ohtani’s 50-50 Ball
#23 trending · Business News
Eriq Gardner joins Peter to break down the bizarre legal fight behind a Shohei Ohtani home run ball that sold for over $4 million after three men scrambled to claim it in
Oct 16 15 min
Is Trump Abandoning Ukraine?
Julia Ioffe joins Peter to examine how Donald Trump brokered an oil export deal with Russia to ease energy costs, despite the uncomfortable reality that it could help fun
Oct 15 21 min
Anthropic’s Rogue Trip & Superintelligence Fever!
Ian Krietzberg joins Peter to break down how rogue Anthropic agents accessed a State Department website and filed a fake homicide tip with the Philadelphia P.D.—and how t
Oct 14 19 min
Hakeem Jeffries’s D.S.A. Tsuris
Marianna Sotomayor joins Peter to answer an overlooked question about the midterms: if Democrats take back the House, the Senate, or both, what do they actually plan to d
Oct 13 19 min
Media Monday: Zaz’s Parachute & Skydance Looming Questions
Jon Kelly and Peter reunite to make sense of the Paramount-WBD aftermath, beginning with David Zaslav’s $606 million payday and the looming Netflix layoffs rattling the i
Oct 12 24 min
Can MAHA Keep Iowa Red?
Iowa G.O.P. chairman Jeff Kaufmann joins Peter for a candid conversation about what it takes to win Iowa, where Trump still has a chokehold on Republican voters even as h
Oct 10 37 min
Has Speaker Johnson Given Up On The House?
Leigh Ann Caldwell joins Peter with a fresh midterm update as Democratic optimism swells toward a possible Election Day tsunami—and even Republican House Speaker Mike Joh
Oct 9 21 min
Gucci and Louis Vuitton’s Haute Mess
Lauren Sherman joins Peter fresh off four consecutive fashion weeks to deliver a runway postmortem on which brands and designers impressed on the runway. Lauren also gets
Oct 8 14 min
What’s Next for Tony Romo and CBS?
John Ourand joins Peter to chew over Tony Romo’s departure from the CBS NFL booth in the wake of his D.U.I. earlier this summer, and what comes next for a broadcaster wit
Oct 7 18 min
Skydance’s Brain Trust & Condé After Roger
Jon Kelly rejoins Peter to size up Skydance’s new leadership team, including co-C.E.O. Ynon Kreiz, who arrives from Mattel with a mandate that likely includes cuts across
Oct 6 15 min
Media Monday: Skydance’s Sizzle Reel & Thompson’s Upper Hand
The besties Jon Kelly and Peter Hamby convene to size up the newly minted Skydance, and the splashy trailer that introduced it. They also dig into what the reported exits
Oct 5 17 min
How to Win New Mexico in ’28, with Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham
With New Mexico joining the early Democratic presidential primary calendar, Peter sits down with Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham for a dissertation on everything candidates n
Oct 4 44 min
Sen. Alsobrooks on Crypto and Clarity
In this special episode, Leigh Ann Caldwell sits down with Maryland Sen. Angela Alsobrooks to discuss why the Clarity Act couldn’t get across the finish line, whether a d
Oct 3 30 min
The New A.I. Helpers & Disney’s Big Bet
Julia Alexander joins Peter to dig into a new wave of A.I. agents, from Meta’s Muse to OpenAI’s Dots, and whether these tools can actually reach mass adoption or are simp
Oct 2 21 min
The Condé-WarnerMount C.E.O. Shuffle
Dylan Byers joins Peter to untangle the game of executive musical chairs at Condé Nast and Paramount–WBD as David Ellison taps outgoing Mattel chief Ynon Kreiz as his co-
Oct 1 14 min
Blue Wave Watch
Marianna Sotomayor joins Peter for a midterm vibe check as Democratic optimism runs high and some in the party are lobbying for eleventh-hour investments in Senate races
Sep 30 24 min
Can the Art World Win Over the Next Generation?
Marion Maneker joins Peter to debrief on Puck’s second annual Art of Influence conference, where he gathered the art world’s esteemed players for a wide-ranging set of co
Sep 29 16 min
Media Monday: Bonta’s Backtrack & The New Sports Doc Playbook
Jon Kelly and Peter break down why California Attorney General Rob Bonta’s antitrust effort against the WarnerMount deal collapsed into a series of meager concessions, an
Sep 28 22 min
Can We Actually Trust the Midterm Polls?
Lakshya Jain, elections analyst and co-founder of Split Ticket, joins Peter to dig into polling reliability, election models, and how voters are responding to economic co
Sep 26 44 min
Panic! At the G.O.P. Disco
Leigh Ann Caldwell joins Peter for a close look at the rising Republican panic over the midterms, as a spate of polls points to a possible blue wave election with voters
Sep 25 19 min
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Where The Powers That Be: Daily ranks today in each Apple Podcasts chart (US, Oct 17, 2026).
A curated, balanced selection of Apple Podcasts reviews.
A bit of “gentle criticism” for Peter Hamby.
Hamby devoted plenty of airtime to wondering whether there was really “anything here” in Pablo Torre’s Clippers reporting, invoking “clouts and clicks,” a “conspiratorial tone,” and Torre’s allegedly self-congratulating style.
Then the reporting held up.
It took one podcast to concede, “Pablo Torre was right”, a second podcast to admit Torre earned “a much deserved victory lap”. Curiously, the three words “I was wrong” remain just out of reach.
His chief justification for skepticism was that other major outlets failed to independently confirm Torre’s work. An interesting defense. If an entire sports-media ecosystem failed for a year to confirm an important story, perhaps the more obvious question is what that says about their own reporting - and Puck’s own investigative resources.
Will those institutions receive the same searching critique Torre did? Should their failure not “‘make us uncomfortable”?
Hamby thought Torre was a little self-congratulatory. Hamby’s inability to apologize now reads as something slightly less charming: self-righteousness.
Perhaps there really is “something here” after all - a useful case study in how enthusiastically media people scrutinize competitors, and how gently they scrutinize themselves.
Another view - Rothko · Sep 2026
Definitely a good way to start my day with some insightful topics/conversations. One of my daily must listens.
Dbsdf1 · May 2025
Bill Ackman may be outspoken and often hyperbolic but the issues surrounding Dr. Gay are serious and matter a great deal to the university’s standing and academia reputation.
The conversation made much less of concerns over her tenure, qualifications and performance than it did criticizing Mr. Ackman’s for speaking out about it.
If the Harvard Board is continuing to support Dr. Gay, even in part, because of what a hedge fund manager says, that is clearly not acceptable. It also gives the impression he has more influence than he actually has ‘in real life’.
The Board needs to make it abundantly clear, that for better or for worse, their support is not beholding to high-profile constituents, donors, or DEI criteria. Hopefully, integrity still matters.
Time will tell if Harvard maintains its stature and prominence - a glib analysis doesn’t adequately assess the possibility of real damage.
@Deanie · Dec 2023
Really love the in-depth analysis on key topics with insider scoops. Real reporting as it should be. Thank you and keep it up.
NickKol1975 · Jul 2023
The guests that are brought on are interesting to listen to- but the stories that are covered tend to be dated by 4-5 days. It’s a podcast, keep up with current events. No one wants to hear a news podcast about stuff that happened last week. Additionally, Peter Hamby has a somewhat shallow understanding of politics on the left. He did a story on Katy Porter’s senate bid and completely neglected the mention how much outrage there has been over Dianne Feinstein’s behavior, obvious cognitive decline, possible signs of dementia, etc. A shallow reading of the story
pachreik · Jan 2023
I’ve listened to most episodes of this podcast and find the guests very informative, but the host has become increasingly smug and grating. I find myself skipping it more and more.
102ACE · May 2024
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