Episodes
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The Mets & Bucks s(t)ink while Ali Simpson rises
What do FDR and the current alleged president have in common? What gubernatorial candidate promised voters to make their "wet dreams" come true? It all comes to light in my interview with writer/comedienne/farmer/TN State House candidate Ali Simpson (44:28) on why she's running for office for the...
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The Shwinerview: Talking Man United w/Shwinnypooh
We open with the significance -- light & dark -- of Pablo Torre breaking the Kawhi/Ballmer scandal, juxtapose Angel Reese's recent comments with another star who said virtually the same thing with no controversy and find more evidence Jim Ratcliffe just straight-up hates the Manchester United...
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The KD trade, the Club World Cup grotesquerie & why drug-testing is harder than you think
Who will win Game 7 of the NBA Finals? Who won the KD trade? On a scale of Three Mile Island to Chernobyl, how much of a disaster is the Club World Cup? Why are tennis players who aren't doping still getting marks against them? Find the answers in this episode!
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The NBA Finals & all things NY sports with The Ringer's Katie Baker
In which we welcome our favorite sportswriter and ask her: how historically shocking would a Pacers' title rank? After some Finals talk, it's NY, NY the rest of the way -- why we weren't sure the Knicks would fire Tom Thibodeau & why it's encouraging they did. Is Ranger goalie Igor Shesterkin...
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NBA playoff talk with Howard Beck
The Ringer's Howard Beck talks whether Cleveland should make a move or stay the course, if KD or Giannis are more likely to be traded, whether teams can still plan for 3-5 year runs under the current CBA, if Tyrese Haliburton a bully or a killer & more
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How does time shape us as fans and sports media?
Seth Rosenthal (The Secret Base) and Matthew talk about the ways working in sports media has changed over the years, how it hasn't, some of the behind-the-scenes truths of that world and what it's like caring about sports as all the world crashes and burns. We also talk about the greatness of…
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An unfairly maligned coach, a scapegoated player & chess + jeans + anal beads
In this episode, how Sacramento's firing of Mike Brown pretty much bounces off him while reflecting poorly on owner Vivek Ranadive; how Minnesota put Julius Randle in position not only to fail, but to be scapegoated; why James McAllister was right to slur Spurs fans; why Aaron Rodgers isn't…
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Medicare taxes, loser taxes, Paige Bueckers & the legacy of Béla Károlyi
Women's college gymnastics coach Diana Gallagher joins the show to talk about the marvel and the madness that was infamous Olympic coach Béla Károlyi. Plus when is your favorite team signing an icon still problematic , how are college football coaches pissing away millions of dollars in salary…
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Howard Beck talks NBA, plus what Bach/Mozart/Beethoven teach us about MJ/Kobe/LeBron
The Ringer's Howard Beck on the KAT/Julius Randle trade, is the new CBA is more restrictive for players than its priors, whether the Bulls or Pistons are sadder, more NBA questions & what instrument he used to play. And in part 1 of a new series, we explore some of the similarities between…
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WNBA Players Speak Up, Yankees Talk & The Disappearing Black MLBer
The WNBA owners & players are at a critical point in the league's evolution; how can the workers make sure their demands for dignity are enshrined and ensured? Plus: a 34-year playing career nears its end, Yankees talk with Joe Flynn & Dominick Duthel on growing up a Black baseball player during...
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Trans-Pacific union actions, Caitlin Clark balling & Chelsea bursting
Japanese baseballers push for more rights. The National Women's Soccer League implements the most humane CBA in all of sports. Caitlin Clark is the most impactful rookie since?? And Chelsea, Chelsea, Chelsea . . .
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Olympic highlights & lowlights, Dearica Hamby sues the WNBA & when gay hatred meets gay history
From Imane Khelif's joyful light to Simone Biles' endless exceptionality to Manizha Talash's selfless sacrifice, there are Olympic stories worth celebrating . . . and castigating. Also, Dearica Hamby's calls out the WNBA as unjust -- will its media do the same? Finally, a few days after a gay...
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Transitioning from the on-season to the offseason: Sacramento hoops with Jrue
This episode features all things Kings hoops with Sacramento icon Jrue. How do fans there feel after two turnaround regular seasons without playoff success? What key offseason issues does the team face? How is it that the "small-town" Kings and the big-city Knicks are such perfect spiritual...
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A weekend of sports + WNBA w/Alford Corriette
Man City's four-peat and the Knicks in a Game 7 lead to questions about the WNBA's direction. Then Alford Corriette (HerHoopStats) breaks down half the league plus questions about charter flights, the in-season tournament and if the W would welcome a young star pushing for early draft eligibility.
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Corporate vs. subscriber-based sportswriting & Knicks vs. Pacers with Caitlin Cooper
One of sportswriting's brightest minds & clearest communicators, Caitlin Cooper talks transitioning from covering sports for a corporation to starting her own supporter-based site & the challenges and rewards that brings. Then we talk Knicks/Pacers playoffs -- what happens when a team that...
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The Suns are Jonestown, "You can die in any sport" & the end of two eras
How are the Mat Ishbia Suns like the Jonestown cult? Why doesn't Reggie Bush's retro-Heisman matter? Also: NBA playoff talk, Candace Parker leaves the WNBA, Jurgen Klopp nears the end at Liverpool and somber numbers regarding death and boxing.
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The NBA's 3-Body Problem, plus basketball & new media with Kris Pursiainen
Matthew on when losing is like fish sauce, the NBA's 3-body problem and how the Atlanta Hawks are Swedenborg's Hell. Kris Pursiainen talks today's sports media landscape as well as NBA play-in/playoff topics.
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100th Episode Bonanza
In this very special episode, part 1 discusses LSU/Iowa's Elite 8 blockbuster, the Minnesota T'Wolves fussin' billionaires, the EPL's 3-horse home stretch and the tsunami of sports gambling red flags. In part 2 Matthew interviews a very special guest and announces the show's new name.
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The Wayne Gretzky Appreciation Half-Hour
The 99th episode centers on the impacts #99 has had on Matthew over the years.
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Chris Herring talks Usher, a little NBA & Jim Harbaugh at Michigan
Chris Herring talks Usher, a little NBA and Jim Harbaugh at Michigan. Sometimes titles are throwaways, but this episode's really did cover it all.
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Money Isn't Everything
In this episode we visit four stories that highlight the age-old truth that $$$ isn't everything: why Malcolm Brogdon may rightfully refuse to be traded to a better team; how the NBAPA appears to have failed Joel Embiid and the rest of its members; Tony Snell gaining sympathies before losing…
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Crina Mustafa on tennis & all its WTFery, plus the public & private spheres collide in the NBA
The Oakland A's are pure evil. Trevor Bauer thinks casual sex was the problem. Reminders that sometimes Draymond and Kyrie are a story's objects and not its subjects. Crina Mustafa touches on the impact of Canada's RJ Barrett returning home before diving into the structural WTFery of professional...
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Golden State lets us down, Ohtani's underpaid & talking Celtics with Noa Dalzell
Quis ipsos custodes Draymond? How does Shohei Ohtani's record-setting contract reveal MLB stars are being short-changed financially? How could a QB as accurate as Patrick Mahomes be so off the mark with a failed apology? Then Noa Dalzell joins to talk Jayson Tatum, Kristaps Porzingis, Joe…
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The Ghosts of Sports Past, Future & Present
Today's show centers on reminders of the sports world of the past (Florida State victimized by college football's corruption), the present (the NBA's In-Season Tournament & load-management hypocrisy shows the league couldn't care less about harming bodies) and the future (Juan Soto to the Yankees…
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The Thanksgiving Episode: Traditions, good and bad
In which big news about the potential futures of the podcast arrives, and then it's on to stories from the world of sports (and one that isn't) that remind us some traditions are worth keeping in our lives, while others should be discarded as soon as possible with extreme prejudice.
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The WNBA Finals with The Athletic's Lyndsey D'Arcangelo
A shout-out to a new marathon record-holder, who came out ahead in the Dame Lillard/Jrue Holiday arms race and an extended talk with Lyndsey D'Arcangelo about the WNBA. What to make of the Aces & Liberty, after Game 1 and moving forward? What's the status of the league's newly announced expansion...
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The Titanic episode: tips & icebergs
From James Harden to Luis Rubiales to Mason Greenwood to Kylian Mbappé to Leo Messi, a series of stories whose headlines sometimes obscure something far greater in the dark depths below
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Transitioning from the season to the off-season
We often define "seasons" in sports pretty neatly & tidily: they start in the preseason & generally end after the last game. But just like land is never as precise as the maps that seek to capture it, the end of seasons can be blurry. We hear from 3 different POVs regarding this transition…
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Should we abolish pro sports?
Consider the carbon output tens of millions of fans produce driving to games to watch teams who take dozens of flights per season on jets that are environmentally a nightmare. The fans whose love & passion allow pro sports to thrive through all kinds of economic downturns repeatedly pay higher...
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A Midsummer Pod's Dream
Like an episodic dream, today's topics flow in and out of one another: * The NY Times using The Athletic as an end-run about its sportswriters' union * Victor Wembanyama + Britney Spears = ? * When too much NBA is too much NBA * The WNBA lets down its players re: travel -- again * WNBA players…
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Hello, summer. Goodbye, MLB
With MLB ripping the As out of Oakland, Rob Manfred's chronic dickishness, the scapegoating of Pride Night and overhauling the rules of the game to solve a problem that doesn't exist, Matthew says goodbye to first sporting industry he loved
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The dangerous noise & deadly silence around Black women's bodies
This pod has it all: Elizabeth Adetiba (Salon) on the oppression of & discussions around Caster Semenya & other intersex athletes from the Global South, plus the tragedy of the death of Tori Bowie; Man City's triumph & the anxiety it produces for some; hooray for the Denver Nuggets; the WNBA…
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Bonus episode -- like Douglas MacCarthur, Jonah Birch returns!
Jonah Birch returns to the pod for a special reunion episode, recorded right after the Celtics won on the road to force a Game 7 back in Boston -- during the Philadelphia series, not Miami. We wanted to give you Jonah at his most optimistic, during his golden hour. M & J talk basketball and a bit...
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Transphobia, Title IX & tackling women's tackle football w/Frankie de la Cretaz
Acclaimed writer Frankie de la Cretaz joins the show to talk about intersections of gender, sexuality and sports. Why is Lia Thomas posed by some as a threat to women's swimming while Katie Ledecky isn't? What elements specific to swimming make it such fertile ground for transphobia? How is the...
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Hoops, humans & how we feel about them with Katie Heindl
Katie Heindl hops on to talk hoops, namely: James Harden & whether he has anything to prove; the FedExForum back door hitting Dillon Brooks' ass on the way out; why even Knicks fans can love Jimmy Butler; how the Big 3 Nets were the Fyre Festival; why sports fans may hold different standards…
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The life & times of an elite athlete w/Christina Sarokon
Former D1 goalkeeper & current D1 coach Christina Sarokon joins the pod to talk about what it's like growing up as an elite athlete: how soccer came into her life, when she first knew she had a special talent, the challenges with transitioning from sports-as-fun to sports-as-your-whole-life, the...
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The Law & Sports w/Daniel Wallach
Gaming law & sports betting attorney Daniel Wallach joins the pod as we discuss how: * Dominion could've/should've held out for a bigger settlement with Fox * the corrupt stankness of Daniel Snyder has infested the process of selling the Washington Commanders * a gambling scandal halfway around…
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The ABCs of the NBA's CBA w/Mike Vorkunov
Mike Vorkunov of The Athletic joins to discuss details of the new NBA/NBAPA CBA, including but not limited to: players being eligible to invest in NBA & WNBA teams -- but not directly; the new medical requirement of prospective employees (potential draftees) at the combine; and the new In-Season...
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"Gamblers & venture capitalists & regular capitalists, oh my!"
In this episode: how a fan cursing out Bradley Beal after losing a bet is the canary in the coal mine for the dark side of sports gambling; why this may be the Golden Age of women's sports, and not in a good way; how Mets owner Steve Cohen is like the new vampires in Blade 2; a good deed by a...
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The WBC: Baseball at its best w/Brian Menéndez
On a cold and cloudy winter's day, Brian Menéndez (Baseball Prospectus) stops by to talk baseball, the game that foreshadows summer and warmth. Which World Baseball Classic players have caught his eye? Do our personal politics influence how we root in international competition? Who's the best…
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Foaming Tories, Fandom & Former Glories w/Mike Idland
Soccer coach and essayist Mike Idland joins the show as our focus turns to winter sports: Gary Lineker telling the truth, what a Man City fan is to make of the Premier League threatening to nullify a history, thoughts on the Stanley Cup favorite in general and the New York Rangers in particular &...
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The I Don't Know Episode
In which we struggle with several unanswered/unanswerable questions: what does the future hold for sports fans, digital streaming and cord cutting in light of MSG+'s new flawed model? What the hell are Alabama's Nate Oats and Brandon Miller doing in the wake of a young woman's murder? What makes...
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A Trip Around the NBA with Ian Levy
When LeBron James passed Kareem Abdul-Jabbar this winter as the NBA's all-time leading scorer, will James also become the league's final all-time leading scorer? Are the Denver Nuggets & Philadelphia 76ers good enough outside their MVP-level centers to win a title? What theological truths can one...
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The NFL divisional playoffs & WNBA free agency with Lyndsey D'Arcangelo
The last time Lyndsey appeared on our pod, she obliterated the record books as far as listeners. This time we talk WNBA teams and free agency. How does the New York Liberty trading for Jonquel Jones increase the chances of Breanna Stewart leaving Seattle for NY? Is there something funky going on…
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Welcome, 2023. Welcome to this fresh sports hell.
How does Carlos Correa signing in Minnesota bring schadenfreude to Atlanta fans toward the New York Mets? Is the Damar Hamlin story the biggest drop ever from a this-changes-things event to . . . nothing's changed? Plus Dana White reminds us some animals are more equal than others, does Trevor...
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World Cup rooting rationales & the strange case of LeBron James, the pseudo Elon Musk
We look at every remaining World Cup matchup to determine who we should root for from an ethical perspective (Jonah's knowledge of history really shines through here). Then we shift to LeBron James' odd formality in wondering why reporters didn't construct a platform for him to speak on the…
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The Rich Getting Worser & Reasons for Hope
Matthew does a solo dive into how FIFA's defense of the Qatar World Cup resembles 1930s Argentinian defenses of Hitler & Mussolini, why the biggest threat to MLB's cabal of owners is the richester one of them all, the reason rooting for the Knicks is like supporting socialism, the NHL's sadly...
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A Birch Grows in Brooklyn
Are socialists less selfish playing basketball than others? Which early NBA surprise teams are most likely to continue surprising? Why are Matthew & Jonah rooting for different sides in the World Series? Plus sympathy for Tom & Gisele and a challenge to Ye.
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Of Sporting Kings & Knights with Louisa Thomas
The wonderful New Yorker writer Louisa Thomas joins the show as we consider the significance of the interest & lack of more in Aaron Judge's home run chase, bask in the sunny decency of the majestic Roger Federer, consider the legacy of Venus Williams in light of Serena's career, and sympathy for...
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Howard Beck talks Boston Celtics, Robert Sarver and more NBA
Howard Beck (Sports Illustrated; The Crossover pod) joins us as we consider the evolving Ime Udoka story, how Robert Sarver's conclusion in Phoenix could have impacted Boston's with Udoka, why would the Cs issue such a strict punishment but not fire him, morality clauses for owners, how the...
About this show
Matthew Miranda discusses the most meaningful stories from the world of sports, both on and off the field. Find the show on Twitter @JacobinSports!
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