Ari Emanuel is getting into the podcast game. And he’s doing so with the help of Pat McAfee.
McAfee revealed that he and his team are producing the Endeavor and TKO CEO’s new project. Titled Rushmore, the podcast is co-hosted by Emanuel and Mixed Management co-founder Ben Persky, who are joined by titans of industry to debate the Mount Rushmores of their particular fields.
The first episode was released on Tuesday and features Tom Brady and Peyton Manning debating the Mount Rushmore of NFL pass-catchers. While not every episode will focus on sports, plenty of them will, with future guests including Shaquille O’Neal, Reggie Miller, Bob Costas, Al Michaels and Stephen A. Smith, in addition to the likes of legendary music producers Rick Rubin and Jimmy Iovine.
“It’s the GOATs of their industries basically giving their Mount Rushmores,” McAfee said of the podcast. “… you’re talking about the greatest guest list ever assembled.”
This is a new show called @RUSHMOREonX
It’s the 🐐’s of their industry giving their Mount Rushmore..
It’s hosted by @AriEmanuel and Ben Persky..
Tomorrow the first episode will be released on @X with @TomBrady and Peyton Manning pic.twitter.com/nT9IRtQeZd
— Pat McAfee (@PatMcAfeeShow) September 29, 2025
New episodes of Rushmore will release exclusively on X each Tuesday. The social media platform’s owner, Elon Musk, is a personal friend of Emanuel’s and serves as a guest on a future episode of Rushmore focused on video games.
“We had a conversation with Elon, and he said, ‘let’s do it,’” Emanuel told The Hollywood Reporter. “Ben and I talked about it, and we decided that it’s the best place where the conversation would continue, where you could have a conversation on X, we could be commenting, and that can continue on and on. People could make their comments and make their list and talk about how bad our list was, or how good it was.”
As McAfee’s involvement, Emanuel said that he had initially sought advice on social media promotion from the former All-Pro punter, who offered to get involved in the project. Emanuel previously served as a guest on The Pat McAfee Show, while McAfee has had a reoccurring role with TKO via WWE over the years.
“We called him, he has a pretty good sense of social and I work with him, and I said, ‘What do you think?’” Emanuel told THR. “He really liked the show, Ben and I got on the phone with him and he said, ‘let me get involved in making edits.’ He did, we liked what he did, and we just said, ‘hey, do you want to get involved?’ and he goes, ‘I’d love to.’ It was that simple.”
While the podcasting space is certainly a saturated one, Rushmore has the financial backing and star power to standout. Currently, it has just 1600 followers on X and only follows two accounts – Emanuel and McAfee. And it won’t hurt getting some promotion of ESPN’s airwaves either, whether it’s via McAfee’s eponymous show or on First Take, which already spent a segment on Tuesday’s show debating Brady and Manning’s lists.
About Ben Axelrod
Ben Axelrod is a veteran of the sports media landscape, having most recently worked for NBC's Cleveland affiliate, WKYC. Prior to his time in Cleveland, he covered Ohio State football and the Big Ten for outlets including Cox Media Group, Bleacher Report, Scout and Rivals.