Happy Thursday and happy New Year from the entire Puck family. In today’s special edition of The Daily Courant, we’re completing our countdown of some of our biggest, most buzzed-about podcast episodes of last year. Enjoy!

From The Grill Room, don’t miss Dylan Byers and Julia Alexander comparing OpenAI’s new video-gen app to Mark Zuckerberg’s A.I. social platform, Vibes. On The Town, rewind Matt Belloni’s rollicking interview with AMC C.E.O. Adam Aron about the future of moviegoing. On Impolitic, revisit John Heilemann and White House correspondent Maggie Haberman on the early innings of the Trump-Epstein imbroglio. And on Fashion People, we’ve got Lauren Sherman grilling Pete Nordstrom (yes, of those Nordstroms).

Plus: On The Varsity, John Ourand and veteran media analyst Michael Nathanson preview Paramount’s sports rights buying spree and the NFL’s looming $110 billion rights cycle. And take a minute to catch up on The Powers That Be from earlier this year, when Kim Masters examined megaproducer Brian Grazer’s MAGA pivot.

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Julia and Dylan dive into the launch of OpenAI’s new video-generation app, Sora 2, and Mark Zuckerberg’s A.I. social media platform, Vibes. They explain why these releases have sent Hollywood into a state of not-so-mild panic, and how these A.I. platforms might reshape the media industry writ large. Then, they turn to the YouTube TV–NBCU carriage dispute, and what it portends for similar industry battles going forward.

Live from the El Rey theater in Los Angeles, Matt is joined by Bloomberg’s Lucas Shaw and Adam Aron, the C.E.O. and chairman of AMC Theaters, to discuss the state of the moviegoing business, why there are so many trailers and ads before the movie starts, Adam's relationship with Netflix, and how the theatrical business can evolve.

John welcomes Maggie Haberman, New York Times White House correspondent and author of the bestselling Confidence Man: The Making of Donald Trump & The Breaking of America, to discuss the ongoing Jeffrey Epstein imbroglio and why Trump has thus far been entirely unsuccessful in his efforts to stanch the bleeding from what may prove to be the most damaging of his many self-inflicted political wounds. Plus: Maggie’s take on Stephen Colbert’s cancellation, Jon Stewart’s defense of his friend and profane broadside against their shared corporate parent, and Bruce Springsteen as the most eloquent and powerful voice of the Trump 2.0 resistance.

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Lauren sits down with Pete Nordstrom, co-C.E.O. of the Seattle-based department store group. They cover a ton of ground, from how he got into the family business, to how the company has remained family run for four generations (without that much trouble). They also discuss the recent take-private, the state of multibrand retail, Sir Phillip Green (pre-cancellation), Pete’s hiring philosophy, the hardworking Rickie De Sole, why he still loves being a merchant (really), and plenty, plenty more. Pete also has a great podcast that you should check out called The Nordy Pod.

Veteran media analyst Michael Nathanson returns to the pod for a romp through the sports media circus: David Ellison and Paramount’s sports rights binge, the NFL’s looming $100 billion rights bonanza, legacy media’s curious flirtation with niche sports, and much, much more.

The legendary Kim Masters joins Julia Alexander to examine the MAGA turn of megaproducer Brian Grazer, a longtime Democrat, and what his conversion portends for the industry. Plus, whether Trump is coming around on the Ellison-Paramount deal and the latest Disney succession chatter following the Dana Walden–Kamala Harris summit.

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