Pablo Torre Finds Out (Pablo Torre, Le Batard & Friends)

They were raised to chug whipping cream and turn every meal into an all-you-can-eat buffet. But somehow, America’s most popular New Year’s resolution is most embodied by the extreme transformation of none other than offensive linemen. In retirement, these pioneers of gluttony have reverse-engineered themselves physically but also evolved mentally. And as former 315-pounder Mike Golic Jr. peels away the layers beyond the six-pack, with reflections from former colleagues Joe Thomas and Nick Hardwick, he reveals that sustainable personal change goes way beyond the weight. (If you are having thoughts of suicide, you can call or text 988 to reach the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline.) Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/hl8b1iYP5c8 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

A battle over academic freedom is boiling over, beyond Harvard, and Florida governor Ron DeSantis and his cronies have already taken over one college in their effort to win the culture war. But the wildest part is how they're weaponizing an absolutely enormous baseball team to do it. Correspondent Jeb Lund reports on accusations of unconstitutionality — and mascot duplicity — at his alma mater, with a warning about how right-wing activists might use their sports blueprint next. Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/IqNPY0pnQ2E Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

From LeBron to Deion and Wall Street to Washington, one pervasive term has come to encapsulate a human desire for domination. Correspondent Bradley Campbell heads into the wild — with aerial wolf-hunting, bespoke bear-drugging, and more — to discover that the science behind the "alpha" … is based on a mistake. The new truth, however, may teach even and especially the most gentle among us how to become better leaders. Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/Cx8spsfoUjo (If you are having thoughts of suicide, you can call or text 988 to reach the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline.) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Quarterbacks yell it. Gamers revel in it. Bros text memes and hashtags of it. And as displayed on live TV in the NFL regular season AND playoffs, even Travis Kelce's girlfriend loves it. How did a simple phrase transform from a Jumbotron clap-along into such a ubiquitous exclamation? With apologies to Tom Brady and Lil Jon, correspondent Jeremy Taché searches for the real GOAT of "Let's Go!" Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

At a time when so many are struggling with the regulation of expression, from Elon Musk's X to college campuses to the workplace, why did mixed-martial arts, of all things, rebrand itself as America’s leading bastion of free speech? Ariel Helwani, the sport's preeminent journalist and host of The MMA Hour, traces an evolving policy — from getting censored himself to a homophobic rant going viral — and explains how UFC boss Dana White has made a fortune in the name of “freedom.” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Underground in a Bond-esque bunker. Inside a private club with a league commissioner. Across the table from an executive with a parrot on his shoulder. And, finally, at the courthouse for a global legal drama centered around "a corrupt organization" operating "outside the law": This is how Pablo's boss at Meadowlark Media — and the former president of ESPN — went from a high-stakes, handshake deal... to a knock on the door from the feds... to becoming a government witness. Also: the future of the World Cup, and yachts. Lots and lots of yachts. Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/Gwo4X8XTAVw Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

He could be drawing up plays for superstars, after interviewing with the Boston Celtics, Toronto Raptors, and more. But the ESPN commentator and "Old Man & the Three" podcaster has been leading a group of middle-schoolers in Brooklyn, with the same passion and perfectionism that he brought to Duke and then 15 seasons in the pros. If you thought you hated JJ Redick, just wait 'til you get inside the greatest mind in the history of fourth-grade basketball. Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/5m4OQBOhfOM Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Who was the human inside the viral bowl-game mascot, and is said mascot still alive? We investigate VERY seriously. Plus: Why are so many women drinking out of the Stanley cup? And what does your depth chart of friends look like? Also: aggressive familiarity, the most arousing mascot alive, raccoon hands, Gronk's beach party, and Pablo's Pogs. Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/g9h-AbjQaXQ Related (non-beastiality-adjacent) content: Thirsty after you catch on fire? (TikTok) What your water bottle says about you (The Los Angeles Times) How much time does it take to be a close friend? (The Wall Street Journal) The buddy boost: how 'accountability partners' make you healthy, happy and more successful (The Guardian) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

For all of the Aaron Rodgers-ization of psychedelics, they remain revolutionary, and the co-creator of Chapelle's Show turned standup comic has the ultimate endorsement: Sure, Amazonian plant tea might make you cry for two hours after drinking it with Chris Rock. But ayahuasca is a mental-health medicine that will also help you fall in love and, you know, feel the presence of God. So relax about the throwing up. Fear not the toad venom, and embrace the white void before the Big Bang. Ignore the football players yammering about "ego death," and consider the possibilities of a road-to-Damascus experience. Or not. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Why is Travis Kelce the most famous player in the NFL? How much should you miss booze during Dry January? Where can you get away from everything? Should you trust anyone with really nice teeth? Plus: dorky cussing, human fists, Big Masseuse, 16-beers-deep Chris Cote, and a casual aside about allegedly murdering your roommate. Further reading: Kicking the Habit (Slate) The People Who Brought You Travis Kelce (The New York Times) They Sold Everything to Go on a 3-Year Cruise. How It All Unraveled. (The New York Times) Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/17UhD1blqNE Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

How does Katie keep dominating at trivia on national television? Is it vase or vahhze? And what in the Nick Saban was that young man doing stuck in an urn? Plus: animal idiom brainteasers, the road warriors of handsome, Kristi Yamaguccimane, going Fahrenheit 451 on "Wings," and climbing the Mortal Kombat totem pole that inevitably leads to Ice-T. Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/7uRc7SbVbkw Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

He is one of the most talented stand-ups in America. But Roy Wood Jr. is also of the most deliberate thinkers about his craft. Roasting Joe Biden? Nerve-wracking as hell. Hosting an awards show? Like performing for LeBron in the locker room before Game Seven. The former Daily Show correspondent explains the affirmation of not succeeding Trevor Noah, the Taylor Swift-proof takeaway from Jo Koy's Golden Globes monologue, the point of getting booed, the power of free jokes... and how he almost ended up as a baseball umpire. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The third installment in the historic trilogy that is Katie Nolan vs. Celebrity Jeopardy! is a real journey. A journey through word games, organic chemistry, and love itself. Also: video game injuries, Woke Rodney Dangerfield, and not that Lisa Ann. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Jet packs! Double kickoffs! Protest! The helmet-less, hungover superstar with a dynasty at stake! A killer game clock! Unconsciousness! The first Super Bowl was a sh*tshow. So why hasn't anyone seen it? Because the footage vanished for a half-century, only to resurface — with a million-dollar bounty — from an attic in Shamokin, Pennsylvania, and get thrown in a vault under lock and key. Until correspondent Devin Gordon entered the time machine to witness the progenitor of Travis Kelce, feel the primordial ooze from which Taylor Swift may have been formed… and, yes, to open a Playgirl centerfold featuring a man called The Hammer. Special thanks to Richard Sandomir for his reporting. For more, visit: https://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/03/sports/football/super-bowl-i-recording-broadcast-nfl-troy-haupt.html Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

America's stratospheric sports power couple joins our Valentine's Day episode — part unnecessary couples therapy, part post-retirement exit interview — with down-to-Earth perspective on marriage, kids, the evolution of acceptance, the limitations of love language, and how to get some in a long-distance relationship. Plus: Trump, kneeling, the tragic humor of a career-ending injury, the metronome ringing in an athlete's brain, and the joy of not working out. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

It's easy to shot-shame a player at the free-throw line and athletes who throw funny. From the depths of that bullying and loneliness, though, a revolution is brewing, with adaptations so innovative that they may shame sports themselves. Pablo goes bowling with Jason Belmonte — the two-handed Tiger Woods of the lanes — and learns how to succeed in life while looking kinda stupid. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Do you trust the sanctity of data and proof of objectivity? What if we told you that a guru at the forefront of the analytics revolution... had cooked the books of the NBA, to boost stars of the Jordan era? Correspondent Tom Haberstroh confronts a statistician with an invisible hand — and reveals that the pumping-up of our historical record is more widespread today than even nerds like Pablo had accounted for. The human element, after all, can always grease the wheels. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Float like a butterfly, sting like... a standup comic? Sixty years ago, long before the current golden age of smack talk, a 21-year-old Cassius Clay was nominated for a Grammy, for what should be considered the first diss album — a poetic, heavyweight takedown of Sonny Liston in the lead-up to their epic 1964 title bout. Andscape's Justin Tinsley tracks how this forgotten record led to the name Muhammad Ali, to national conversations around Black Muslims, to Ali protesting the Vietnam War, even to the birth of hip-hop... and the prevention of tooth decay. Further reading: The Grammy-nominated Cassius Clay (Andscape) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

We're all desperately seeking self-improvement, so Pablo puts aside the spiritual mumbo-jumbo, puts his friends to the test, and emerges with something like service journalism: how to breathe correctly, exercise better, appreciate your career choices, accept failure, thank your feet, and learn to love your own superpower. (Even if that superpower is using a Jedi mind trick to singe your own thumb down to ash.) Further reading: The World's Happiest People All Share These 15 Things in Common (CNBC) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Why did Jennifer Lopez self-fund an allegorical $20 million “movie” about her life? (And why did all three of us watch it?) How good are we at the Dutch art of doing nothing? (And should we reimagine the concept of “something”?) And, finally, who’s on our personal Enemies Lists? (And why is it FS1’s Nick Wright?) Further reading: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Osu2N9gysYk https://variety.com/2024/film/features/jennifer-lopez-this-is-me-now-musical-film-ben-affleck-love-story-1235908364/ https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2024/feb/07/the-art-of-doing-nothing-have-the-dutch-found-the-answer-to-burnout-culture https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/17/well/bed-rotting-hurkle-durkle.html Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

It was either everything that's right or wrong with America, but the very public relationship between Scottie Pippen's ex-wife and Michael Jordan's son is very much over — deleted Instagram posts, passive-aggressive polls, and all. Miserable Pablo and cowardly Cortes take a victory lap, revisiting how they may have triggered the biggest celebrity breakup of the year. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Is sex a performance-enhancing drug? Pablo and Domonique insert themselves into the debate over "post-nut clarity" with exhaustive research, from a pre-game onesome in the locker room and abstinence as a coaching philosophy, to the stamp of approval from Drake, Megan Rapinoe and actual doctors — Pablo's dad included. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Is the right wing ganging up on two huge things — Taylor Swift and sports itself — precisely because they're huge? Can you go with the flow and still be productive? Why is Elmo — and the internet — making us so sad? Plus: Dan Le Batard's screaming female orgasm. Further reading: Why Is the Right So Weird About Taylor Swift? (New York) How to Have a More Productive Year (The New Yorker) Elmo Asked an Innocuous Question (The New York Times) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Pablo's detective agency is back, just in time for Super Bowl Sunday, with the face-melting concert that puts Usher to shame, the flag-football fantasy draft, the most shameless celebrity endorser of all time, and yet more shameless content for the Swifties. Plus: That @ArtButMakeItSports guy has gotta be using A.I., right? What does Pablo's laugh sound like? And is the Miami Heat mascot on drugs? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Is Tom Brady just going to be a cranky bastard in the broadcast booth? Is Jon Stewart just SUPPOSED to be a cranky bastard on The Daily Show? Will Joe Biden just inevitably be the cranky bastard we need for democracy to survive? And have group chats replaced hanging out? Further reading: Why Americans Suddenly Stopped Hanging Out (Derek Thompson) Return to Bullsh*t Mountain (Sam Adams) For Voters, When Does Old Become Too Old? (Nate Cohn) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

We’ve found a dose of optimism amid America’s exhausting gun debate. And it’s located in the incredible life story of Jason Kander: a former Army intelligence officer and political prodigy, knighted by Barack Obama himself, who had to drop out of politics, entirely. But now, one week after the mass shooting at the Kansas City Chiefs’ Super Bowl parade, Kander — a fifth-generation Kansas Citian — tells us how the gun industry’s biggest scam is also its greatest legal strength. And why one relatively unknown piece of legislation, the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act, is the key to changing everything. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The legendary basketball coach has made a comeback at St. John's, which paints him as a role model. But Pitino's past has only become more and more mysterious, beyond the Adidas bribery scandal, a love triangle and so-called Strippergate. Correspondent Tim Rohan speaks to the private investigator who gave Pitino a lie-detector test... then gets a bizarre letter, a late-night phone call and a trip down a rabbit hole that leads all the way toward dirt on the Clintons and the federal investigation into Donald Trump. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

A PTFO listener sends Pablo on a mission to figure out which athlete-branded booze is best. Is it James Harden’s wine? Steph Curry’s bourbon? Can we finally end the LeBron v. MJ debate with a tequila tasting? Pseudo-expert Katie Nolan and real expert Jason Wilson help Pablo get drunk very quickly, and also get to the bottom of whether athlete alcohol is delectable or douchey. Also: spitting, dumping, loam, and a champagne HR violation. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What can we learn from the power-grab by NFL prodigy Caleb Williams and his stage dad? Why does Pablo always feel so bad about saying "no"? And how does one begin to argue better? Plus: Uncle Dennis, giant babies and literally sticking to sports. Further reading: Caleb Williams and Team Intend on Owning the Process (Kalyn Kahler) https://theathletic.com/5301341/2024/02/28/caleb-williams-quarterback-nfl-draft-ownership/ The Mind-Boggling Simplicity of Learning to Say 'No' (Leslie Jamison) https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/28/well/mind/saying-no.html Overwhelmed? Just Say 'No.' (Arthur C. Brooks) https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2024/02/saying-no-science-happiness/677579/ How Happy Couples Argue (Derek Thompson) https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2024/02/how-to-fight-conversation-advice/677594/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

How did the only person who’s ever won multiple Pulitzer Prizes for Criticism develop his sense of taste? Who needs a movie review when we’ve got Rotten Tomatoes and streaming algorithms? And do we even have real movie stars anymore? Wesley Morris, New York Times critic at large, makes the case for professional criticism over customer service. (And why Stephen A. Smith belongs to the proud tradition of camp.) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Prepare yourself for the warm glow of late-'90s nostalgia: In the era of boy-band supremacy (and a little Korn), the 'TRL' countdown was America's high-school cafeteria — a daily election of cool for youth culture. Until one fateful day in music history, twenty five years ago this week, when a chain letter set off a movement to hack the vote. Correspondent Yourgo Artsitas examines whether MTV's shadow government was protecting the the sanctity of our culture... with a lie. Learn more: https://trolldoc.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The death blow to the NCAA won't be dealt by college athletes unionizing, as historic as that movement is. It will come from a seemingly anonymous man named Jeffrey Kessler: an attorney who also happens to be the greatest sports lawyer of all time. Kessler has fought for everyone from Tom Brady to the U.S. women's national soccer team — and now, after winning in front of the Supreme Court, he's busy changing the very nature of college sports. Pablo invites Kessler into the PTFO studio and pressure-tests whether college athletes could finally wrest what's allegedly owed to them: billions, plural, in past damages from the NCAA. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Pablo convinced Katie Nolan and Amin Elhassan to do something he’s wanted to do ever since PTFO launched: play Spider-Man 2 using the giant LCD screen that normally sits right behind him. And have an entire conversation — about punching through Ikea furniture; Rocket League; AOL screen names; multitasking; the Spider-Man canon; and our personal journeys through video games — while doing it. Which is all to say that this episode is a bit of an experiment. And you can watch it all on our YouTube channel, please: https://www.youtube.com/@pablotorrefindsout Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The story of the NBA cannot be told without Oscar Schmidt, the most prolific scorer in the history of the world. But that hasn't stopped our fellow Americans from trying to do exactly that. So today, with LeBron James on pace to break Oscar's record of 49,737 career points, Pablo travels to glorious Orlando, Florida and sits down with the legend who refused to play in the league, despite getting drafted. And we find out why Oscar's impact on basketball — like his laugh — still echoes through the game today.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

It’s been years since these three friends saw each other, in person. Or even virtually. And so it is our distinct pleasure to relive Pablo’s second-favorite thing that happened during the pandemic. As well as Amin’s most recent global viral humiliation, which now comes with important religious context. And also the digital foundation of Katie’s eternal love for Dan Soder. ALSO: being left on read by celebrities; Crazy Puffs; hand abstinence; the Chinese government; and vaguely racist voice filters. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Do athletes, coaches, and GMs give a s*** about what sports gasbags like Mina, Dan, and Pablo say about them? Early returns say: yes. Does Google suck now? Mina’s Reddit usage indicates: also yes. And most importantly, could you rawdog a 7-hour flight? Or, do we just like saying the word “rawdog”? Also: enshittification, Mina gaslights her husband, and the grief-eating truffle pig returns. Is Google S.E.O. Gaslighting the Internet? (Kyle Chayka) Why Men Are ‘Rawdogging’ Flights (Kate Lindsay) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What do pickup artists get totally wrong about successfully attracting women? Should you get a QR code on your gravestone? And did the three of us make a horrible, horrible mistake by talking about our old blogs in public? Sarah Spain, Charlotte Wilder, and Pablo discuss. ALSO: Mystery's sun necklace; scouting HB9's; crossfit; why your twenties are overrated; Pablog; gender dynamics in media; and the Dan Orlovsky of incels. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What is the line beyond which we need to say Aaron Rodgers shouldn't be taken seriously? And why won't crows pick up trash? Plus: Bone Tomahawk, Inspectah Charles Johnson, the QAnon of architecture, and Project Acoustic Kitty. Further reading: RFK Jr.'s VP prospect Aaron Rodgers has shared false Sandy Hook conspiracy theories in private conversations (Pamela Brown and Jake Tapper) Here's all the dumb sh*t Aaron Rodgers recently said on a conspiracy theory podcast (Sean Keeley) The Magic of Bird Brains (Ben Crair) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Rex Chapman, former Great White Hope and author of the new memoir "It's Hard for Me to Live with Me," traces the fading of an endangered sports species, from his personal history as a basketball prodigy in the American South to the rise of the international game. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

One of the greatest writers in America has a new book, "There's Always This Year," that is ostensibly about LeBron James. But this bona fide MacArthur Genius contains multitudes — and big feelings. About sneakers; sunsets; his probation officer; the revelations of pick-up basketball; Game Sevens; the meaning of "making it"; and why it's totally fine to jump in the air without a plan. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Mat Ishbia is a housing tycoon, and he was supposed to insulate the NBA's house from disgrace. But eye-opening new reporting from investigative startup Hunterbrook Media alleges that Ishbia's company became the country's largest mortgage lender with "a lie." Hunterbrook's Sam Koppelman examines how the owner's competitive management style parallels his approach to basketball and why Ishbia could even be forced to sell the Suns, while Pablo explores how Ishbia's childhood hero — Isiah Thomas — fits into how both the Suns and United Wholesale Mortgage have been operating, behind closed doors. Further reading: "The Lie That Made UWM America's Largest Mortgage Lender" (Hunterbrook Media) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Sports video games pride themselves on their simulation of reality. But the most popular ones that Americans know and love — Madden, FIFA, NBA 2K, MLB: The Show — cannot compete with an intensely specific and uniquely important game called Football Manager. Which got so good at simulating soccer that it converted a worldwide army of real-life players, coaches, and executives into genuine obsessives — changing the multi-billion dollar soccer industry itself. PTFO’s London correspondent, Kieran Morris, embarks on a global quest to explain the Football Manager revolution… and jeopardizes his impending marriage in the process. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Pablo has unearthed a long-rumored, previously unpublished, for-your-eyes-only video from the summer of 2010, featuring a committee of A-list New Yorkers recruiting free agent LeBron James to the Garden. It may feature one of the biggest revelations in TV history, but let's just say — between a couple former politicians and another convicted rapist — that this tape has aged very, very poorly. Knicks superfans Jason Concepcion (@netw3rk) and Rob Perez (@WorldWideWob) gaze into the ark of the covenant... and cringe. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

A viral video of a weeping Caleb Williams, the top prodigy in this week’s draft, “scares the sh*t out of a lot of NFL teams.” So correspondent Dave Fleming breaks out the tissues — and a stack of research — to discover what the science of crying disproves about the pseudo-science of scouting; why a Super Bowl locker room was like a scene out of “The Notebook”; and how even the Darth Vader of football (allegedly) choked up. Plus: Domonique Foxworth names names — and changes our basic understanding of the most masculine of sports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In the early 1970s, two pitchers for the New York Yankees agreed to the wildest trade in sports history: They switched wives. And children. And furniture. And pets. But this sex scandal cut way deeper than the tabloid headlines. David Mandel — veteran writer for Seinfeld, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Veep and The Simpsons — laments his big-screen adaptation that never was... even though the ultimate passion project could have starred Matt Damon and Ben Affleck. And we go deep inside a story that's equal parts swinging and missing. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Pablo's detective agency is back, with serious #journalism for the internet's most burning sports questions: Can halftime acrobat Red Panda get into the Hall of Fame? (Yes! But only with your help.) Why are athletes so good at spitting? (Yuck.) Where did "juicing" start? (Double yuck.) And will "One Shining Moment" ever be replaced? (Wait for it….) Sign the Red Panda petition NOW: https://www.change.org/RedPandaHOF Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Should you believe astrologers who only say what you want to hear? Is there a better way to enjoy life with Gmail, if you're not at Inbox Seven? And what happens when you stop "living nowhere"? Plus: The Strip-Mall Chain Institution Draft, deodorant, Brozempic, tree-knocking, and Other Pablo. Further reading: Sports Astrology (Andrea Mallis) Happy 20th Anniversary, Gmail. I'm Sorry I'm Leaving You. (Ezra Klein) What the Suburb Haters Don't Understand (Julie Beck) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

If you want to trace the normalization of weed in sports and America, there is no better ambassador than NBA champion and "All The Smoke" host Matt Barnes. Taking gravity-bong rips to go full "Teen Wolf" in high school? Check. Beating drug tests in college and, uh, having a narc watch him pee — and poop! — during a test in the NBA? Yeah. Smoking with Woody Harrelson on his head coach's balcony, during the playoffs? Really. But the NBA came late to the cannabis party, as "more than half the league… from the superstars to the rookies" got caught in pro basketball's race-baiting, steroid-fearing war on drugs. In a new era of acceptance, marijuana might just help hoopers stop the next Kobe. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

We find ourselves at a rare moment in human history, facing an undefinable industry worth trillions, which happens to be concentrated in the hands of a few billionaire stewards like the doomsayer Elon Musk, the evangelist Sam Altman and MMA enthusiast Mark Zuckerberg. Are they just super-villains plotting our own destruction? Washington Post columnist Josh Tyrangiel’s entire beat is artificial intelligence. So we ask him to contemplate the odds of extinction — and why A.I. might just cure James Harden's addiction to strip clubs. Further reading: How A.I. Could Transform Baseball Forever Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

How should we react to sex scenes now? Has MrBeast mastered the modern algorithm? And what is the secret formula to ultimate beauty? Plus: Dan's secret iPad game addiction, Papi's hairy belly and dirty fantasies of Quin Snyder. Further content: The Death of the Sex Scene (Sophie Gilbert) The 'Beastification of YouTube' May Be Coming to an End (Taylor Lorenz) $INCEL Technology Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Comedian Dan Soder has come a long way since the seeds-and-stems days of kitty-litter gravity bongs. After quitting drinking and cigarettes and tethering many super-high people back to Earth, he has — at least temporarily — taken a weed sabbatical, ahead of the amateur holiday for dorks. His fiancée and Pablo... not so much. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

It's one of the greatest TV shows in America right now: The Caitlin Clark effect of being David and Goliath at the same time. Angel Reese's ability to provoke and emote. The wisdom and 4D chess of Dawn Staley. And yet, for a TV writer and stand-up comic who's been evangelizing the women's game for decades, this season has been like showing a friend The Sopranos for the first time. Having witnessed March Madness and in anticipation of next week's WNBA Draft, Morgan Murphy and Pablo determine that the ensuing hot takes from sports media's "empire of garbage" may signal that normalization is here to stay. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

How are so many people still falling in love with fake people online? What happened to all the sh*thead kids? And is cable TV somehow making a comeback? Plus: poopy, boobies, Billy Koch and flipping the puck to the fat kid. Further reading: The TV Show That Predicted America's Lonely, Disorienting Digital Future (Maya Salam) The Undertaker: A Seven-Year-Old Named Bjorn Threatened to Shoot Me in the Face and Called Me a Democrat (Jeremy Lambert) Americans' New TV Habit: Subscribe. Watch. Cancel. Repeat. (John Koblin/Goblin) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The MVP is obsessed with the ancient sport of harness racing — because it may be hiding in plain sight as more exciting than the NBA playoffs. Acclaimed documentarian Mickey Duzyj talks to a GOAT and plays stable boy, then heads to the track to root on the official stallion of the show. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

You might think that calling a game is easy. That Tom Brady can do this in his sleep. Jon "Boog" Sciambi, announcer for the Chicago Cubs and "MLB: The Show," teaches Pablo why the human voice is an instrument that requires restraint and distinction to record the first draft of sports history, then pass it down like an heirloom. Come for the PTFO dictionary's debut in the broadcast booth; stay for Nic Cage murdering Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg with a Toyota Outback at Wrigley Field. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This episode is what happens when three X-Men superfans wait roughly three decades to devour a cake made of nostalgia. Unapologetic, horny nostalgia — with important lessons for the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe therein. Also: Casual Gambit, Magneto being right, adamantium strategy, thruples, and Metal Jason Whitlock. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Why can't America stop arguing about Caitlin Clark? (And who's actually right?) How much harder is raising a son these days? When should kids get cellphones? (AND DO YOU THINK YOU'RE BETTER THAN US?) Also: pinky shelves, and if we could have avoided all of this. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The four NBA coaches who made the Conference Finals this season all have something in common: a pullover. Because unlike Pat Riley in Armani, or even Larry Brown in overalls (yes, overalls), modern basketball authority rejects individual style in favor of sideline uniformity. So we summon New York Times critic-at-large Wesley Morris (and his two Pulitzer Prizes) to help us explain how we got here. What we’ve really lost, amid this pandemic of athleisure. And why women’s college basketball has the heroes we desperately need. Also: mutating into a muppet; Don Zimmer vs. Pedro Martinez; Hubie Brown as Philippe Petit; and the most delicious glass bowl of chocolate pudding you could ever hope to taste.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Jon Bois, the internet's most creative documentarian, somehow uses Google Earth to take you on a journey from Viking longships, to Bob Gibson, to Ross Perot. His new docu-series, REFORM!, is the forgotten story of political quacks, wonks and clown cars. Its lessons are just as relevant today as they were in the '90s — in large part because some of those same cranks are still around, daring us to remember how we got here... and why we can't escape. Watch REFORM! https://www.patreon.com/SecretBase Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On the court, the Minnesota Timberwolves are making an astounding NBA Finals run, as Anthony Edwards becomes the next Michael Jordan before our very eyes. Behind closed doors, though, the sale of this skyrocketing franchise has devolved into civil war, as would-be owners Alex Rodriguez and Marc Lore get betrayed by a "bumbling" and "diabolical" 83-year-old incumbent. Pablo's month-long investigation gives a rare glimpse at a soap opera within the most exclusive club of American life — one that is equal parts Game of Thrones, Succession and Fargo... and straight-up torture for Wolves super-fan Zach Harper. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Millions of us hide in a ubiquitous sorrow. And pretty much all of us are horrible at talking about it. But Michael Cruz Kayne, Peabody-award winning writer for "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert," has a theory about why death feels unspeakable. And how we can all get better at dealing with the most universal fact of life. In a behind-the-scenes look at his one-man show, "Sorry for Your Loss," Michael teaches Pablo about normalizing a taboo — and doing some seriously mind-blowing math in the process. Related links: "Sorry For Your Loss" (via Audible) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

No, Travis Kelce and Taylor Swift are not a government psy-op. But Shaun Raviv from "Sports Explains the World" joins us to tell the story of a sports figure who actually was: The CIA sent Jay Mullen to Uganda, undercover, in the 1970s. His job was to spy on the Soviet Union. But when one of the most notorious dictators in world history made Mullen the head coach of the Ugandan national basketball team, a different mission presented itself. So did The Russian Hulk. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

LEGO is, in many ways, the biggest education company on the planet — an influential form of learning about the world around us, whether you're a kid, or an NBA star like Victor Wembanyama, or the Emmy-winning comedian Wyatt Cenac, who spent months researching how the famously yellow faces on millions of mini-figures… became so racially confounding. Pablo and Wyatt unbox a gigantic foosball table and explore a plastic world where the Civil War and January 6 never end. More on race and LEGOs from Wyatt Cenac and Pineapple Street Media: https://www.wyattcenac.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Is Jerry Seinfeld complaining about the culture wars, or just the fallout of mid TV? What's the deal with books? And what happens if Charles Barkley becomes a free agent? Plus: machetés, memoir titles and the return of Dan's favorite tile-matching castle video game. Further reading: The Scholar of Comedy (David Remnick) No One Buys Books (Elle Griffin) Charles Barkley: The Richest Free Agent in Sports TV History? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

It appears that, as a (crumbling) society, we have arrived at Peak Roast. With Tom Brady, Kendrick Lamar, Drake, and Taylor Swift all recording their own versions of diss tracks. And the viral messages are both conspicuous and — even better — concealed. So, are Swifties and Rap Geniuses the same? Is it impossible to be a pop star if you’re old? Are fish just a gateway pet? Also: compliment competitions, beta or betta, Charlotte’s Mario impression, and why octopuses are ideal sex partners. Further reading: Justin Timberlake’s Air of Desperation (Esther Zuckerman) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Who's your oldest friend — and why isn't it one of your parents? What makes the ideal best man — and is it because you're actually proud of your friends? Do boring podcasts help you fall asleep — or just incept your dreams? En route to the White House in an allegedly badass cardigan, sockless Pablo visits the co-hosts of The Domonique Foxworth Show to discuss sports parenting, the Papi writers' room, situational wedding-speech awareness, the Laremy Tunsil Standard… and sh*t-inducing sit-ups. Further reading: Are You in an Age-Gap Friendship? (Deborah Netburn) Is This the Most Boring Man in the World? (Spencer Jakab) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Who was disrupting Luka Doncic’s postgame playoff presser with sex noises? (We present our findings to Elle Duncan and Katie Nolan.) What’s it like encountering Kim Kardashian in the wild? (Elle reports.) And have you heard that thing about Ginuwine and Justin Timberlake from Britney Spears’ audiobook? (Katie has.) Also: an array of sounds that will be used against Pablo and Cortes for eternity. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Why do human beings seek vengeance? (And is it really a dish best served cold?) Can you really be friends with the opposite sex while married? (And is single-sex education a good idea?) Does intermittent fasting actually work? (And what does it mean to be hangry?) Also: ruining a real estate guy; canoodling at The Bear; threatening four-year-olds; fiber jealousy; Pout-Pout Fish; and Mina's many impersonations. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

A magician — or mentalist — never reveals their secrets. But there’s a lot more to the illusion industry than meets the eye. Magician and New York Times puzzle constructor David Kwong joins Pablo to explain how the magic business polices itself like Major League Baseball; whether anyone legally owns a trick; and why he doesn’t claim to actually have superpowers. Also: yellowface, Harry Houdini, spiritualists, burying 52 playing cards in a backyard, professional liars, and the art of trying really, really hard. Pre-order David Kwong’s How to Fool Your Parents here: https://www.harpercollins.com/products/how-to-fool-your-parents-david-kwong?variant=41399439491106  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The superstar once condemned as the most notorious anti-Semite in American sports is playing nice, even though he now works for the most influential pro-Israel donor in American politics, who happens to have Donald Trump in her pocket. Which is exactly why the NBA doesn't want you to know more about Miriam Adelson. New York magazine's Elizabeth Weil introduces the sports world to the king-making, history-altering extremist queen of courtside. Further reading: Miriam Adelson's Unfinished Business (Elizabeth Weil) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

You may remember Smush Parker from his very public, lopsided beef with the late Kobe Bryant, but there is so much more to the arc of Smush's life story — from being a toddler raised inside "The Cage," in New York City, to bringing up the ball right before "The Malice at the Palace" began. And now, it turns out, Smush Parker is committed to another shocking quest: become the fourth former NBA player, ever, to become an NBA referee. This episode originally aired December 19, 2023. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Forty years ago this week, the Chicago Bulls drafted Michael Jordan — giving rise to the holiest of basketball grails. Twenty-three autographed Jordan rookie cards would be scattered across the globe, in the form of Wonka-esque golden tickets. But at last check, nine of these cards had vanished. Correspondent Bradley Campbell gets to the bottom of a seven-figure mystery — spanning four decades, three continents, black-market conspiracies and an armored-car robber — that presaged the modern era of sports collectibles as an asset class. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The Oakland A's are leaving Oakland, but not before a rebel force of die-hards can remind billionaire nepo-baby John Fisher — the Kendall Roy of Major League Baseball — what it really means to be a fan. Slate's Joel Anderson embeds with the boycott movement and stops at nothing to unravel the conspiracy known as WristbandGate… even when it takes him to the depths of a notoriously sewage-infested stadium. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What’s the best way to pay tribute to a Hall of Famer whose spirit transcends both time and space? By calling up his tipi-crafting spiritual advisor — and, additionally, Oregon’s own Ian Karmel. Who himself poses an important question: why is Hollywood so bad at creating overweight characters? Also: the Bill of Bill, Katie’s Bible study, and Shlomo Puddingtits. Buy Ian's new book, T-Shirt Swim Club, here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The greatest trick the Buffalo Sabres ever pulled was convincing the world that Taro Tsujimoto really existed. Correspondent Michael J. Mooney takes us from a mysterious call in western New York to a hockey rink in the Himalayas — and explains why this completely made-up human has never felt more alive. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

We tumble down the rabbithole of the global match-fixing scandal that’s quietly tearing apart the U.S. Olympic fencing team, ahead of their trip to Paris this month. And we investigate how it all connects to a spiraling refereeing crisis that takes us from Harvard and Princeton to the very top of the International Olympic Committee — and Vladimir Putin’s Russia. Where one of the world’s 100 richest people, Alisher Usmanov, has allegedly exported a culture of bribery and corruption that’s scared pretty much everybody in sabre fencing away from talking, on the record. Until now. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What do Mike Tyson, Lawrence Taylor, Darryl Strawberry and Herschel Walker have in common? They were Donald Trump's New York superstar allies in the 1980s — and they remain his time-warped avatars for Black American voters in 2024. Semafor political reporter Kadia Goba transports us from selling handbags at Trump Tower to receiving calls from these aging MAGA all-stars on a nostalgic, notorious and downright criminal journey toward interviewing Trump himself at Mar-a-Lago. Further reading: 'They see strength': The Black sports icons shaping Donald Trump's take on race, politics, and masculinity (Semafor) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

From a college dorm room to an 18-car garage, there is no "psychological mindf**k" quite like becoming a millionaire overnight. But a supermajority of athletes continue to squander their compressed window of lottery-like earnings. On the 15th anniversary of his seminal story for Sports Illustrated, "How (and Why) Athletes Go Broke," Pablo gets an honest re-appraisal from wealth-management advisor Todd Burach — and brave testimony from Justin Pugh and Antoine Walker — on where stars really are just like us when it comes to financial literacy, haves and have-nots... and pre-nups. Plus: Magic Johnson's one simple rule for staying rich, a heat-check on the entourage bullsh*t meter and the French Bulldog Cold War brewing in NFL locker rooms. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

J.D. Scholten is a state representative from Iowa who went viral for the ultimate call to the bullpen: He left a music festival, a beer-and-a-half deep, to suddenly sign a minor-league contract and pitch into the seventh inning — at 44 years old. But that's just the beginning, because this J.D. might be the opposite of J.D. Vance. In fact, he's unlike most elected officials from either party: He fights punch-down politics. He is selling a real form of populism. Hell, he's running for re-election and says he doesn't even like politics. And, yes, he's still starting for the Sioux City Explorers. Further reading: "You're Probably Getting Screwed" Substack Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Rex Chapman, former Great White Hope and author of the new memoir "It's Hard for Me to Live with Me," traces the fading of an endangered sports species, from his personal history as a basketball prodigy in the American South to the rise of the international game. This episode originally aired March 22, 2024. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Before his best friend got him mixed up in the biggest story in baseball, Shohei Ohtani was a kind of child star caught in a state of arrested development. Enter the Japanese interpreter: part live-in nanny, part spouse in a trans-Pacific shotgun marriage. Correspondent Tim Rohan takes us inside an intimate profession that's closing ranks, post-scandal. Turns out, actual translating isn't the half of it. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Is joining a club the key to healing our fractured nation? Would a robot be better than Katie Nolan at bartending? Would you cover your face in fish sperm for dermatological reasons? PLUS: the worst drink to order from a bartender, Dr. Dupixent, frankincense, myrrh, and late-breaking country music news. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Michelle Wie was hyped as nothing short of the next Tiger Woods. As a kid, she was a global sensation: competing against not just adult women but the men, at PGA Tour events — signing seven-figure sponsorship deals in the process. But now, two decades later, Michelle tells Pablo what child stardom was really like, behind the scenes. And she appraises a career unlike any other. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Pablo has unearthed a long-rumored, previously unpublished, for-your-eyes-only video from the summer of 2010, featuring a committee of A-list New Yorkers recruiting free agent LeBron James to the Garden. It may feature one of the biggest revelations in TV history, but let's just say — between a couple former politicians and another convicted rapist — that this tape has aged very, very poorly. Knicks superfans Jason Concepcion (@netw3rk) and Rob Perez (@WorldWideWob) gaze into the ark of the covenant... and cringe. This episode originally aired April 16, 2024. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Are the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders actually what they say they are? (And are they underpaid?) Also, how does a retired NFL player coach his own children without turning into Earl Woods? Plus: a fire alarm, a milking, a moonlighting meteorologist, a hard-to-get kung-fu master and the Hug-a-Bros. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to The Sporting Class! Meadowlark Media CEO John Skipper and Nothing Personal’s David Samson are back with another episode with host of Pablo Torre Finds Out ... Pablo Torre! It’s time for more NBA TV rights talk! It looks like NBC, ESPN, and Amazon have won the battle, even though Warner Bros. Discovery is trying to fight. What does the big money mean? Let’s take a look at the valuations of media rights deals and what comes next for sports leagues. Why is Knicks owner James Dolan so mad about it? He sent a letter to the league and is furious with the new NBA media rights deal. Why was he the only owner to vote against this new deal? We finally have seen some numbers on what’s happening with the WNBA. It’s a major increase. Welcome to the billion club! How will this new money impact the league? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Is Kamala Harris’s “memeability” the key to her winning the presidential election in November? Or are Zoomers just having a laugh? How does one develop their “rizz”? Or are we sociopaths for even asking? And would you fight your parents if they named you Arthur (sorry to any Arthurs out there)? Also: Mina goes goth, Pablo has a secret nickname, and Dan wears pants. Further Reading: Could Kamala Harris’s “Brat summer” win her the presidency? (Vox) Is ‘Rizz’ the Secret to Getting Ahead at Work? (WSJ) AITA for fighting with my mom over my nickname? (Reddit) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

At the 1936 Berlin Olympics, Adolf Hitler gave the legendary runner a mysterious gift: four potted oak tree saplings — one for each of the four gold medals that Owens won, while surrounded by Nazis, in one of the greatest performances in the history of sports. Almost a century later, correspondent David Fleming examines what Owens decided to do with his so-called Hitler Oaks... and why that decision remains an enduring act of American defiance. Plus: tree people, myth-busting, redlining and witch-doctor science. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

When the Paralympics begin in Paris on Aug. 28, there will be no shortage of feel-good storylines. But two whistleblowers tell Pablo Torre Finds Out a very different story: about how widespread cheating has destroyed the integrity of the Games themselves. Paralympians are allegedly manipulating the system by exaggerating their impairments, lying to classifiers, and tanking tests — a fraud known as “classification doping.” But one athlete has decided, at long last, to fight this problem in court. American handcyclist David Berling sits down with PTFO correspondent Tim Rohan for an exclusive interview about the lawsuit that might change everything. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The MVP is obsessed with the ancient sport of harness racing — because it may be hiding in plain sight as more exciting than the NBA playoffs. Acclaimed documentarian Mickey Duzyj talks to a GOAT and plays stable boy, then heads to the track to root on the official stallion of the show. This episode originally aired May 7, 2024. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

When the Supreme Court ruled, in 2021, that college athletes can monetize their Name, Image, and Likeness, football recruiting changed forever. Organizations known as NIL collectives emerged to pay players de facto salaries, in coordination with universities. But soon, thanks to yet another legal development, those universities may be able to pay players, directly — raising many, many questions about what the hell is going on. So Meadowlark’s own University of Miami booster, Mike Ryan, takes us inside their NIL collective. And On3's Andy Staples — a former national champion o-lineman at the University of Florida — helps us understand the future of a not-quite-open market. Also: Jaden Rashada, LifeWallet, and stone crabs. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What got left on the cutting-room floor of The Last Dance? That shrugging security guard, Scottie Pippen's cattle prod, almost Obama — and so much more. Plus: the iPad trick, pulling a Stat Boy, what it feels like to be parodied/cancelled on SNL… and a pickup-line surprise featuring butterflies, a bulldog puppy and a newborn. Further reading: Watching the National Championship at a Georgia bar is what heartbreak looks like (Charlotte Wilder) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

An existential paranoia has been lurking beneath the surface at the Olympic Village, where the most pressing story doesn’t get talked about on TV. We field an urgent video call from Team USA diving coach Drew Johansen about the "unintended consequences" of the system quietly responsible for more than 1,000 Olympians who competed in Paris. And how the most recent update in the NCAA’s legal fight could sink your favorite Olympic sports back home on campus... and at the 2028 Games, in Los Angeles. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

So, Pablo Torre has a new podcast. It's all about f**king around — but also finding out, by exploring sports rabbit holes and journalistic curiosities with his friends... and occasional enemies. Here's how a surprising celebrity helped inspire the name for Pablo Torre Finds Out, coming soon wherever you get your podcasts. To find out even more, sign up for Pablo's free (!!!) newsletter at WWW.PABLO.SHOW Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

From the beaches of Los Angeles to the botanical gardens of New York City, we traveled the country looking for the best cannabis with an athlete’s name on it. And who better to smoke it with than Katie Nolan and Dan Soder? Pablo joins Dan and Katie in their NYC apartment to burn it down with special guests Magic Johnstoned, Gary Payton, Melo, and more. Come for the marijuana, stay for the cake. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

You might think that calling a game is easy. That Tom Brady can do this in his sleep. Jon "Boog" Sciambi, announcer for the Chicago Cubs and "MLB: The Show," teaches Pablo why the human voice is an instrument that requires restraint and distinction to record the first draft of sports history, then pass it down like an heirloom. Come for the PTFO dictionary's debut in the broadcast booth; stay for Nic Cage murdering Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg with a Toyota Outback at Wrigley Field. This episode originally aired May 14, 2024. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to The Sporting Class! Meadowlark Media CEO John Skipper and Nothing Personal’s David Samson are back with another episode with host of Pablo Torre Finds Out ...Pablo Torre! We start in the NFL where private equity has come to play. Private equity is the king of buzz words in sports right now and every sport wants more of it. NFL valuations are sky high and teams need money. Enter PE. What is going on with the NWSL? The women’s soccer league has signed a new CBA. No more trades. No more draft. Guaranteed contract. Why now? Is Venu Sports done? That’s what it looks like. The partnership between ESPN, WBD, and Fox was shut down by the courts because of a lawsuit brought on by Fubo. Now what happens? We end today where we began…the NFL and Private Equity. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to The Sporting Class! Meadowlark Media CEO John Skipper and Nothing Personal's David Samson are back with another episode with host of Pablo Torre Finds Out ... Pablo Torre! The NBA media rights deal saga is not over just yet. Warner Bros. Discovery is not going away quietly as they have now sued the NBA. What exactly does David Zaslav want from this? NBA games? Money? Both? What’s the deal with Charles Barkley? Is he going to stay with TNT? He said he was going to retire after the 2025 season, but now it doesn’t look likely. Let’s take a look at the judge in this case of WBD v. NBA. The judge hearing the case was a part of the Spirits of St. Louis and its lawsuit against the NBA. Should this knowledge from the judge matter? Comcast is one of the largest distributors in the country. What is TNT worth to Comcast if it loses the NBA? Let’s explain what these carriage fees are and the leverage Comcast has over the new fees. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Is Tim Walz’s coaching career the key to beating Donald Trump’s Republican Party? What does the NFL still get wrong about paying star quarterbacks? Is walking a mile in a fast food worker’s shoes better rehabilitation than jail time? Plus: Ozark Mina, non-tearful Dan, Judge Beast, Bill Barnwell, David Foster Wallace, and throwing burrito bowls at people’s faces. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In the early 1970s, two pitchers for the New York Yankees agreed to the wildest trade in sports history: They switched wives. And children. And furniture. And pets. But this sex scandal cut way deeper than the tabloid headlines. David Mandel — veteran writer for Seinfeld, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Veep and The Simpsons — laments his big-screen adaptation that never was... even though the ultimate passion project could have starred Matt Damon and Ben Affleck. And we go deep inside a story that's equal parts swinging and missing. This episode previously aired April 30, 2024. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices