Bob Iger Seems On ‘The Relaxation Is Historical past’ Particular On Walt Disney

EXCLUSIVE: In the event you ever needed to know what’s on Bob Iger‘s podcast playlist, right here’s your reply.

The Disney CEO has made an look on The Relaxation is Historical past, which claims to be the preferred historical past podcast with new knowledge placing it at round 20 million month-to-month downloads and greater than 80,000 paying members. He revealed he’s a fan of the podcast, which is a part of the Goalhanger-produced The Relaxation is… franchise.

Iger is showing in a two-part video particular about Walt Disney’s legacy this week. Scroll to the underside for unique pictures of Iger taking The Relaxation is Historical past hosts Tom Holland and Dominic Sandbrook on a tour round Disneyland, as they focus on Disney’s legacy as an animator and movie producer and the cultural significance of the theme park.

In addition to the Disney chatter, Iger instructed Holland and Sandbrook about his love of their work, saying: “There’s mutual respect right here. I’ve liked the teachings that each of you’ve got taught me, and also you’ve completed so with such an amazing diploma of humour and leisure. And I thank each of you for the whole lot you’ve taught me and the experiences you’ve given me.”

Iger will even supply up reflections on his personal time at Disney forward of his deliberate exit in 2026. Iger had, after all, famously given up the Disney scorching seat and retired in December 2021, solely to return eleven months later after the dismissal of his successor, Bob Chapek.

The Relaxation is Historical past‘s deep dive into Home of Mouse’s previous begins in the present day with an episode titled ‘Walt Disney: The Nice American Storyteller’ adopted by one other on Thursday, at the moment untitled, which is able to go chart to creation and enduring recognition of Disneyland.

The double video launch will drop on Friday that includes the unique interview with Iger, which was performed on the lot in Burbank. It would additionally embody a mini-documentary by which Iger offers Sandbrook and Holland a non-public historic tour of the Walt Disney Studios and Disneyland Park, exploring the latter’s 1955 origins, its related cultural milestones and the story behind its legacy.

The journey down reminiscence lane could have been a welcome one for Iger. Disney is at the moment locked in a carriage dispute with YouTube TV and coping with the fallout of its transfer to exit its big-budget co-production settlement with the BBC for Physician Who.

Iger, whose affect on modern-day Disney can’t be understated due to him main on acquisitions such because the deal for Marvel in 2009, is ready to step down for a second time subsequent yr, with the likes of Disney Leisure co-chair Dana Walden and Disney Experiences boss Josh D’Amaro among the many names within the working to exchange him. Whoever lands the position is getting into arguably the highest-profile job in world leisure.

As for The Relaxation is Historical past, the information comes after Deadline revealed in January that it’s being developed as TV present. Wheelhouse is connected to develop unscripted titles primarily based on the podcast and its library of lots of of episodes. The podcast, from Gary Lineker’s manufacturing home Goalhanger, has an enormous fanbase within the U.S., and has lined American matters corresponding to Hollywood myths concerning the Titanic and inspecting the lives and deaths of legendary figures together with John F. Kennedy. Disney would be the newest within the pantheon.

“Everyone is aware of the identify Disney,” stated Sandbrook. “It’s an organisation with an virtually unparalleled grip on the world’s creativeness – notably of youngsters, when your creativeness is most formative. Walt Disney himself is without doubt one of the most necessary cultural figures of the 20 th century, and anybody who says ‘Disney is only for youngsters’ utterly misses its impression in shaping the imaginations and subsequently the cultural and political selections – of lots of of hundreds of thousands.”

“Every time we examine a topic, we at all times wish to do extra – we’re pissed off we will’t stick with it,” added Holland. “With Walt Disney, we thought it solely proper to come back to Disney – to Disneyland itself. Walt Disney, greater than every other determine, embodies twentieth-century American tradition, and Disneyland is a outstanding creation – some of the influential architectural works of the mid-Twentieth century.”