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HBO and The Ringer's Bill Simmons hosts the most downloaded sports podcast of all time, with a rotating crew of celebrities, athletes, and media staples, as well as mainstays like Cousin Sal, Joe House, and a slew of other friends and family members who always happen to be suspiciously available.
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Rewind to 4 December 2005 to 10 December 2005
🧪 Two Aussies, one Nobel and a beaker of bacteria
On a snowy Stockholm night, Dr Robin Warren and Professor Barry Marshall rewrite medical history — and humiliate decades of gastro dogma — by winning the Nobel Prize for proving stomach ulcers are caused by bacteria, not stress or spicy food. Marshall seals the legend by drinking Helicobacter pylori like it’s a schooner at the pub, getting sick, then curing himself with antibiotics. It’s the most chaotic, iconic, unbelievably Australian science story ever told.
💻 Digg goes full Web 2.0 chaos
Before Reddit ruled the internet, Digg was the king of user-driven news and this week it launches Digg Spy 2.0, a real-time firehose of votes, comments and story submissions. Web nerds lose their minds, websites crash from sudden traffic spikes and everyone gets hooked on watching the crowd in action. It’s early Web 2.0 energy at its finest: fast, messy, addictive and very “tech bros in cargo shorts discovering the future.”
🍬 The Laffy Taffy ringtone reign begins
D4L unleashes “Laffy Taffy,” the snap-music anthem powered more by ringtones than radio. Teens pay $3.49 for 14 seconds of sugary chaos, Billboard starts counting digital downloads and suddenly the song is climbing the charts like an acrobat. Minimal beats, finger snaps and a hook comparing women to stretchy candy = peak 2005. It becomes one of the best-selling ringtones of the decade and a pre-TikTok blueprint for dance-driven hits.
🏆 50 Cent and Green Day dominate the Billboard Music Awards
Live from Las Vegas, LL Cool J hosts a night where 50 Cent collects six awards (and accepts over the phone like the king of 2005 he is) while Green Day match him with six wins of their own. Kanye declares himself the greatest, no one is surprised and the MGM Grand becomes a time capsule of mid-2000s swagger, eyeliner and ringtone-rich pop culture.
🎡 Wheel of Fortune spins again… briefly
Channel 7 revives Wheel of Fortune with Larry Emdur bringing dad-at-a-BBQ charisma and Laura Csortan adding glam energy and actual interaction (a revolution for the format). Viewers love them but the ratings don’t. By 2006 the wheel stops spinning and reality TV officially eats Australia’s early-evening game shows for lunch.
🔪 Hollywood gets stalked in the new Alex Cross thriller
James Patterson’s latest Alex Cross novel sends the FBI’s favourite detective into a Hollywood murder spree, complete with chilling emails from a killer named Mary Smith. Critics? Brutal. Readers? Also brutal. It’s the kind of mid-2000s airport thriller designed to be read on a long flight then instantly forgotten at the hotel.
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Chapters
1. intro (00:00:00)
2. show opener (00:00:21)
3. news (00:06:40)
4. technology and innovation (00:14:15)
5. music (00:19:54)
6. movies and tv (00:31:58)
7. books we didn't read (00:42:01)
8. hatches, matches and dispatches (00:47:20)
9. show closer (00:53:21)
225 episodes
