What You Need to Know Before Touching This Thing
Pardon My Take is a sports podcast hosted by Kenny Mayne and Greg Wyshynski. It launched in 2015 and became one of the more talked-about shows in the genre because it deliberately doesn't sound like most sports radio. There's no rule against swearing, no pressure to be "professional" about hot takes, and the hosts will go off on tangents that have nothing to do with the game they're supposed to be covering. Some people love that. Some people find it exhausting. My take after listening for about three years straight: it's worth it if you understand what you're getting into. The podcast is available on most major platforms — Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, YouTube. The free version has ads. The premium version on Amazon Music or YouTube Premium removes them. There's no official paywall on Spotify or Apple, so you can get the full episodes without paying extra. I usually download episodes through the Spotify desktop app for offline listening, which works fine unless you're on a constrained mobile plan. Here's something nobody tells you about consuming this podcast in bulk: the episodes vary wildly in length. A typical episode runs between 90 minutes and 2.5 hours. Some are just two guys talking about the NFL draft for 45 minutes. Others spiral into three-hour rants about Michael Jordan's business decisions. If you try to binge-listen like a Netflix series, you will burn out. I learned this the hard way during the 2022 NBA Finals when I somehow listened to eleven consecutive episodes in one week. My attention span was wrecked for days.
The show records from a studio in Los Angeles, which matters more than you might think. The audio quality is consistently clean — both hosts use decent microphones and the engineering team does a pass before publishing. I once tried comparing early Pardon My Take episodes to newer ones, and the difference in sound quality is noticeable. The early stuff sounds like it was recorded on a laptop mic in someone's garage. The current episodes sound like actual produced content. That shift happened around 2018, I think.
How to Actually Get the Most Out of It
Start with the "Hot Topic" segments. These are usually 20 to 40 minutes where the hosts break down whatever massive sports story just happened. They tend to be the most rewatchable content because the context expires faster than the entertainment value. The rest of the episode is often filler — jokes, side conversations, and ad reads. The ads are frequent but usually under two minutes each, which is standard for sports podcasts. If you're looking for episode recommendations without spending hours searching, I suggest starting with these specific ones:
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- The LeBron James interview (2020) — unexpectedly honest conversation
- The Adam Silver episode about the NBA's social justice stance — this one is important context for understanding modern sports
- The Travis Kelce and Taylor Swift episode — it's everything you'd expect and then some
- Any episode with Pat McAfee — usually the best material they produce
I have a theory about what makes certain Pardon My Take episodes click: it's usually when one of the hosts brings genuine expertise to the table. Kenny Mayne has covered sports journalism for decades. When he gets into actual analysis instead of just opinions, the episode lifts. Greg Wyshynski brings a different angle — he's more of a culture-and-sports crossover person. The best episodes blend both approaches. The podcast has a real problem with repetition. Topics resurface constantly. The Michael Jordan documentary debate happened in one form or another at least four separate times across different episodes. The same jokes about the Houston Texans get recycled. After a while, you notice the patterns and it becomes less entertaining. I stopped listening for about six months in 2023 because of this exact issue. The show didn't change much by the time I came back, honestly. There's also the question of whether "unfiltered" means anything anymore. The podcast has sponsors now — DraftKings, FanDuel, various betting-related companies. There's a financial incentive to keep things generally positive about the sports industry. I don't think that's intentional manipulation, but it does shape what gets discussed and how. You'll rarely hear the kind of genuinely controversial takes that made the early episodes feel dangerous. The fire burned down to coals at some point.
Another practical issue: the podcast doesn't do transcripts. If you want to reference something a guest said, you're out of luck unless you yourself or use a third-party transcription service. I tried using Otter.ai on a few episodes and it got most of it right, but sports names and slang throw the AI off regularly. It misheard "Mayweather" as "Mayweather Jr." and "Wyshynski" as "Wishinski," which is fair but annoying.
Where to Find It and What to Expect Cost-wise
The podcast is free on all major platforms. There's no subscription required. If you use Spotify Premium or YouTube Premium, you'll avoid the ad interruptions, which saves roughly 15 to 20 minutes per episode. Over a year, that adds up if you're a heavy listener. I pay for Spotify Premium mostly for this reason, though honestly the ads aren't terrible — they're mostly for betting apps, which creates an awkward circularity if you listen while gambling. The show also releases a companion video version on YouTube called "Pardon My Take: The Video Version" or similar titles. It's the same content with video footage added. I prefer the audio-only version because the video occasionally includes distracting elements — phones going off, crew members walking through the frame, the occasional awkward silence that makes you wish you could skip ahead. Audio lets you focus on what's actually being said. If you want deeper cuts, there's a Patreon community where the hosts post bonus episodes and extended conversations. I tried it for a month and found the content was good but not essential. The free episodes are already quite long, and the Patreon extras tend to run even longer with less editing. For most people, the standard release schedule is plenty.
One edge case that tripped me up: the podcast schedule isn't fixed. Episodes drop on various days, sometimes weekly, sometimes twice a week, sometimes there's a gap of three weeks with no explanation. I set up a notification in my podcast app but still missed a few releases because I forgot to check. The hosts don't communicate much about delays or scheduling changes beyond occasional social media posts. If you want reliable scheduling, check their Twitter — @PardonMyTake — where they usually post when episodes are coming. The show has been running for nearly a decade now, which means there's a massive backlog of episodes. Going back and finding old ones is straightforward if you know what you're looking for. Search by guest name on your podcast app, and you'll usually find the episode within the top results. The archive is complete — nothing has been taken down or deleted that I'm aware of. My overall assessment after years of listening: Pardon My Take is better than most sports podcasts and worse than it used to be. The unfiltered energy of the early days has mellowed into something more polished and commercially safe. It's still entertaining, still worth your time, but don't expect the raw chaos that made it famous. If you go in expecting that, you'll be disappointed. If you go in expecting two guys who know sports having fun conversations, you'll probably enjoy it. That's basically what it is now, and that's fine.
