The Bill Simmons Podcast
Why Giannis Won’t Be a Knick, UFC’s Latest Boom, the Movie Theater Renaissance, Six Stages of Sean Penn, and ‘One Battle After Another’ With Ariel Helwani and Wesley Morris
08 Oct 2025
The Ringer’s Bill Simmons is joined by Ariel Helwani to discuss whether the Knicks could ever land Giannis Antetokounmpo, Alex Pereira’s dominant win at UFC 320, the future of the UFC, and more! (5:22). Then, Wesley Morris joins to talk about people returning to the movie theaters, Sean Penn’s career, and Paul Thomas Anderson’s ‘One Battle After Another’ (01:06:15). Host: Bill Simmons Guests: Ariel Helwani and Wesley Morris Producers: Chia Hao Tat and Eduardo Ocampo This episode is sponsored by State Farm®. Don’t settle for just any insurance when there’s State Farm. The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please visit www.rg-help.com to learn more about the resources and helplines available. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Full Episode
The Bill Simmons podcast is presented by FanDuel Sportsbook. We're also presented by the Ringer Podcast Network. I put up new rewatchables on Monday. It's still Robert Redford month. We did Jeremiah Johnson. So that is our second. We have two left. Yeah. Redford. And then, uh, Then I think we have another theme month in November. So stay tuned for that. Stay tuned on the Prestige TV podcast.
Two more episodes of Task on HBO. And episode five was a real, real, real classic banger. Joanne Robinson, Rob Mahoney, and I will be breaking down on Sunday nights, episode six, episode seven. Also, our buddies Chris Ryan and Andy Greenwald on The Watch also breaking it down if you want double breakdowns. So there you go. Check out TheRinger.com. Check out all of our sports culture.
Basketball season starting. Not sure if you heard. What's today's date? Yeah. It's starting in two weeks. Holy mackerel. I just started doing research and it just feels too soon. I need like another five weeks. But unfortunately, I'm going to have to cram everything into one week. I watched the entire Monster Ed Gein serial killer Netflix show. because I always watch those. I don't know.
He was one of the last serial killers I didn't really know anything about. Really, really grisly show. And there was one night when I watched like two episodes and then fell asleep and I didn't sleep well. So I wouldn't recommend that. But I liked the first six. I thought it tailed off at the end. Might have tightened it up. But Netflix just doing their thing with serial killers.
Just when you think they've run out, there's another person who's murdered 50 people who gets a show. I don't know why I like these shows. This one was interesting because they... kind of, they, they use pop culture and, and movie villains like the Texas Chainsaw Guy and, um, Buffalo Bill and Silence of the Lambs and, um, Anthony Perkins and Psycho.
And they kind of use culture to say how Ed Gein was kind of like patient zero. It's kind of like the Bill James and the sabermetric movement of, of serial killers. So interesting angle. Um, but, uh, But it was, I don't know, it kept my interest. I had it on. I don't think I ever fully, I was, Joanna Robinson and I always talk about this with the looking up and down iPad test.
If you're doing something like I'm doing emails or I'm doing research for a podcast or whatever, and then looking up, watching the show and doing this, it's probably like a six out of 10. But for me, looking up versus down, whereas like task is like, a 10 out of 10, where I'm actually, I put my phone and my iPad down. I'm actually just watching, maybe taking notes.
But anyway, Netflix, Zero Course. They might have to run back Bundy again. It's been like five years since our last Bundy anything. They said Lizzie Borden might be the next one for Monster. Don't know a lot about her, so I'll be anxiously awaiting the next serial killer on Netflix. Kudos to Netflix, just cashing in on those murders. trying to think what else I'm watching. Yeah, that's it.
That's it for now. Other than a little bit later, we'll be talking about one battle after another with Wesley Morris, but want to talk big picture about movies and Sean Penn and just something seems to be shifting right now in the movie industry. So Wesley and I talked about that much later. Coming up next, Ira Hawane and I are going to talk about this Giannis Nick stuff and just
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