'How Long Gone' Launches Goneies Awards, Squashes Bowen Yang Beef — SkimNews
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- Chris Black and Jason Stewart, hosts of the "How Long Gone" podcast, are launching the inaugural Goneies awards show Tuesday at Manhattan's Racket NYC, with performances by Blondshell, Kevin Morby, J. Mascis and others, plus a house band led by Grammy-winning producer Brad Cook.
- The idea originated as a joke riffing on Bowen Yang and Matt Rogers' Las Culturistas Awards (now on Bravo), and Ian Wheeler, co-founder of Talkhouse, coined the misspelled name; categories include "Ally of the Year" and "Best Normal Restaurant," with a drinkable trophy called a Goneie modeled on the Stanley Cup.
- Black sent Yang a heartfelt apology via Instagram two days before the event, saying on the record: "We're biting his whole shit right now. I need to pay respects" and "We squashed the beef," marking a reversal of years of on-air criticism.
- Nominees include Rachel Sennott, Audrey Hobert, and Mary Beth Barone for It Girl of the Year, and Drake, Charli xcx, Kevin Morby, and Kurt Vile for Album of the Year; voting is limited to Black and Stewart, and nominees in attendance have an edge.
- Corporate sponsors include Meta's Threads and amp maker Marshall, reflecting an effort to extend the podcast's sardonic brand into an IRL live event, with roughly half the room composed of "friends of the show" and the other half ticketed fans.
Why it matters: The Goneies positions Black and Stewart as credible indie-media operators attracting real corporate sponsorship (Threads, Marshall) while publicly reconciling with Yang, the bigger-name competitor they'd spent years mocking — a truce that signals the Las Culturistas format is now mainstream enough to spawn straight-coded imitators.
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