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?...

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

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...

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...

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

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...

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

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

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...

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...

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

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...

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

Is it better to remember or forget? Why do luxury car companies compete at Le Mans, a 24-hour race in a French town? And why do you watch streams of video games like Elden Ring (even if you’ll never play them)? Also: Michelin, Mongolia, core memories, downloadable chodes, and, as always, horse-punching. Further reading: I Have a Terrible Memory. Am I Better Off That Way? (Katy Schneider) 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...

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.” This episode...

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. This episode originally aired...

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...

On one level, standup comedian Gary Vider’s childhood was a dream come true. He and his father, Manny, had virtually unlimited access to some of the biggest games and athletes and celebrities in the world. The only problem is that the whole thing was built on a complete lie. 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 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...

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 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

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...