Thirty years ago, David Foster Wallace reported “The String Theory,” an essay about a pro tennis player named Michael Joyce. No, Joyce wasn’t as good as his fellow Americans (Andre Agassi, Pete Sampras, Michael Chang). But what Joyce taught Wallace — the best writer of his generation, and a former junior player himself — turned into the greatest tennis essay of all time. Today, in the middle of the U.S. Open, Pablo sits down with Michael Joyce — who’s since become a coach to players like Maria Sharapova — and they dissect the genius and the eccentricities of David Foster Wallace, who died in 2008. And we learn about the psychologies of two grotesque glories: writing and tennis.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

America generates an endless stream of opinions about Caitlin Clark, but there’s been almost no in-depth reporting about how her mind actually works. So before Clark’s Indiana Fever visit Angel Reese and the Chicago Sky tonight, Pablo sits down with Wright Thompson of ESPN: the only journalist who spent months getting to know Caitlin, her family, and her team at the University of Iowa, behind closed doors. And we find out what it’s like to live alongside a phenomenon who doesn’t process fear or emotion the way most human beings do… and how she’s been trying, privately, to change. 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

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

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

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

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 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

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

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

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

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

As the Denver Broncos crumble all around Russell Wilson, the superstar quarterback has never been more fascinating. Or more unknowable. But Nate Tice was Wilson’s backup, roommate, and occasional speechwriter at the University of Wisconsin. And to hear these college confessions — about a shirt-tucked, Timberlake-loving try-hard, who is possibly from outer space — is to finally understand the weirdest athlete on Planet Earth. 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

This year, Emmy-winning screenwriter Cord Jefferson (Watchmen, Succession, The Good Place, Master of None) has become a major Oscar contender for his directorial debut movie, American Fiction. So we wanted to ask Cord the truth about awards, competitiveness, race, external validation, and happiness. Also, the Men In Black soundtrack. Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/4O3jaJ1TN94 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

You may remember him as the paternity-test king of fever-pitch daytime television. But this renaissance man has seen it all — the JFK assassination, Waco, a woman who's afraid of aluminum foil — and he has emerged an optimist. Climb into your TV for wisdom on courage, vulnerability, and reassurance from the OG who held up Pro Bowlers at practice... and introduced the world to Cotton Ball Man. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Pablo only understands the true meaning of making this show, not the holiday season. So the ghosts of Christmas break pay him a visit, to pay it forward with recommendations for reality shows and Christmas songs, plus an important investigation into the truth about Santa Claus. May bonus content bless you, everyone. PTFO-approved xmas playlists: Charlotte Wilder's Christmas-Song Christmas Songs Cortes's Holiday Mix Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/DlGMJ4GO7Oo Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

"Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse" is the PTFO Movie of the Year™ but how does all this comic-book content feel so new, when constraint is supposed to be the mother of creativity? Also: Will Marvel explain away Jonathan Majors? Can you actually draft an all-white Pro Bowl roster, with so much "reverse racism" against cornerbacks? And how can we all be a little nicer next year? Further content: "I'm sick of average white guys commenting on football...." (@R_Mendenhall) The Spider-Man Problem (Planet Money) Marvel, Disney drop actor Jonathan Majors after he's convicted of assaulting his former girlfriend (AP) Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/4hiz7wbx6ws 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. Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/ZWFEMq7prXc Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What if the afterlife sounded like a pro wrestler? Does Vivek Ramaswamy have the nuts for a pay-per-view debate with Pablo? And how the hell do you get out of a gym membership? Plus: enormous dildos, dong tennis, cock-adjacent merch, Harry Houdini's quads, and several special ringside appearances. Further reading: NJ Bill Would Allow Consumers to Cancel Gym Memberships Online and Easily (Asbury Park Press) Using A.I. to Talk to the Dead (The New York Times) Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/-SwgmSvrpwU Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

As a teenage prankster crashing the football transfer window, Kieran Morris juiced the Wikipedia page for an obscure player across the globe, and word spread from London to the MLS of a legend in the making: The Honduran Maradona. Ten years later, our correspondent finds out what really happened to Alexander Lopez. (Adapted from an episode of Sports Explains the World) Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/-QzVmd8TEjw Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hersh Goldberg-Polin was devoted to an Israeli football club fighting for peace. Supporters of its rival include far-right Israeli politicians like a national-security minister hellbent on war — and a racist mob. If you want help understanding the Israel-Hamas conflict, Hersh's abduction by terrorists is a window to the world. Correspondent Amos Barshad interviews his loved ones and finds a silver lining. (Read the companion article at The Lever) Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/R0IoouIfXNc Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Why are we allowing the most flagrant liar in American politics to shamelessly Cameo-wash himself with direct-to-consumer content? Is it so unreasonable that Shohei Ohtani isn't handling his free agency like the American sports media wants him to? And about that sports media: Are the olds — and words — about to get left behind? (Plus: farts in a jar and the ballad of the teacup Maltese.) PTFO-approved reading: Shohei Ohtani's Secretive Free Agency Is a Missed Opportunity for Him and MLB (Buster Olney) How Gen Z Is Killing Sports Media as We Know It (Alex Reimer) Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/puOmElQS7R8 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The comic, actor, and Daily Show correspondent/president shovels out content with the best of 'em. But he also believes in bombing onstage to learn the optimum level of failure. He believes in using anger to win over an audience — or to find a new favorite team, or to find love. Ronny Chieng believes. Also: watching thousands of hours of Patriots documentaries, torrenting "Around the Horn," dialing up NBA Live, getting Covid based on your fandom... and the best foul-mouthed Bill Belichick impersonation you've ever heard. Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/fX5AnWhP65s 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

A fierce debate — about no less than the meaning of intelligence itself — has broken out in the world of football scouting, as star quarterback C.J. Stroud puts together one of the best rookie QB seasons ever... after bombing the new Wonderlic test. But can this S2 Cognition exam actually predict how your brain impacts athletic performance? Pablo puts himself to the ultimate test of mental agility, with a little help from Alex Smith — and with a LOT of expletives. Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/inuwR73XKw0 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

No conference-championship weekend in the history of the College Football Playoff has higher stakes than the one upon us right now. And so we turn to John Urschel — newly liberated CFP selection committee member; ex-NFL lineman; and current MIT mathematician — to shed the cloak and drop the dagger. And we learn what actually happens, behind closed doors, as hordes of furious fans demand the favor of a cabal that might be more Office Space than Eyes Wide Shut. Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/EjkxEv7nIBY Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Is the Sports Illustrated A.I. scandal dystopian, funny, or just plain sad? Depends whether you think art has a soul. Are champion athletes predisposed to addictive tendencies? Depends if you think you've gotta be a workaholic a$$hole to create great art. And what's with that commercial for a futuristic hostel on the NFL games? Depends if you're willing to live in a fake utopia. Plus: powdered wigs, Piña coladas, chum buckets, bone saws, flying cars, Faulkner, DiMaggio, the Michael Jordan of being present, and a parliament of owls. Further PTFO-approved content: Sports Illustrated Published Articles by Fake, AI-Generated Writers (Futurism) An Addictive Personality Can Facilitate Sporting Greatness — but What Are the Consequences? (The Athletic) This Is NEOM (YouTube) Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/8FFp_wqjs5o Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Who runs Magic's extraordinarily earnest Twitter account? Is Wu-Tang really that good at chess? Just how racist is the Oklahoma Sooner mascot? Is Victor Wembanyama the end of human evolution? Also: cotton balls, buttholes, and trolls. You asked, we investigated — with a little help from Rob Lowe, Method Man, Masta Killa, and Killers of the Flower Moon author David Grann. Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/zAJhIrX1vBs Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Politicians don't want transgender people dominating girls' sports. But Ember Zelch just wanted to play softball, and nobody else seemed to mind. She was, after all, the ONLY trans girl officially even PLAYING girls' varsity sports in her ENTIRE state. Pablo travels to Ohio to learn why Ember fought for her right to love sports anyway. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Pablo investigates a story including, but not limited to, a Duke basketball champion, a World War II treasure hunt, an alleged con man, Bob Marley, Dan Snyder, and an attempt to make history by purchasing the Washington Commanders. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The FTX founder was a "martian" to the sports world. Why did he spend so much on arena naming rights and superstar endorsements? And how the hell did SBF become friends with TB12? Authors Michael Lewis (Going Infinite) and Zeke Faux (Number Go Up) witnessed the rise and fall of a crypto king. Now we can do the postmortem: “Moneyball, on steroids, gone wrong.”  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Is Bill Belichick now the grandfather you need to take the car keys away from? Is OnlyFans just selling loneliness? Is OnlyDans a thing? And how close did Dan get to death's door on ketamine? Also: a rooting baby, the jist, and premature dismounts.  PTFO-approved reading: Inside an OnlyFans empire: Sex, influence and the new American Dream Bill Belichick Is About to Get Fired, and Nobody Cares What If Psychedelics’ Hallucinations Are Just a Side Effect? Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/xpwLxtAbVnU Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What happens when restaurants become gas stations and farts disappear? You don't take food or fragrance for granted, especially around Thanksgiving. David Samson — host of Nothing Personal, gourmand, notorious lover of candy — didn't back down when Covid robbed him of his senses. He adapted, with phantom taste buds and a hedonistic calculus change to make his brain start tasting for him. He even took a Michelin-star vacation to Italy. And he put hot sauce on pretty much everything. So, of course, Pablo challenged him to the ultimate tasteless taste test, courtesy of Hot Ones. Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/f3udcjwHpHU Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The former co-host of Desus & Mero is also a former strip-club manager, crackhouse re-builder, domain-name seller, dead-rat picker-upper, and, by his own admission, a bit of a sad clown. Now, after the end of a beloved duo, "Hollywood Desus" wants to do every job in entertainment as a soloist. Plus: joints in the stairwell, porn in the library, NYC mayor Eric Adams in the club, robots in the kitty litter, how to use therapy as an operating system, and how to export the misery of being a Knicks fan. Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/YhydpKJHrkE 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

Action Bronson raps, cooks, paints, hosts, and acts (for Martin Scorsese, at least). He also has philosophical explanations for why A) he never wears pants, B) his go-to move is the headbutt, and C) nothing is better than a VHS tape. But Action Bronson had still never heard of the Accidental Bronson tribute account. Until now. Plus: AOL screennames, robot vacuum murder, and saggy balls. Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/Y8o52aFn1Wc Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Can magic mushrooms help you see God? Are parents more of a danger to their kids than the world? Are we creating a garbage patch in space? Plus: Courtside seats with Jesus, CrossFit vs. witchcraft, bunnies vs. predators, Master Splinter, and mattresses. Lots and lots of mattresses. Also: When we flush, where does the poop go? Further reading: God, Magic Mushrooms, and Me (Esquire) Childhood Independence Is a Mental-Health Issue (The Cut) Befouling the Final Frontier (The New York Times Magazine) Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/QUDvY5Ls_Eo Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Johnny McEntee went viral before virality, as a trick-shot QB at UConn. He foresaw the rise of Donald Trump, while ordering him KFC on the campaign trail. He was straight out of central casting, but suddenly "Johnny Mac" the quarterback became enforcer-in-chief for the commander-in-chief, running a presidential "Gestapo" and hand-picking cabinet secretaries. Correspondent Devin Gordon meets a Trumpworld action figure and asks: How did this in-over-his-head loyalist get so powerful? And could it happen again? Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/JZGb3Z3Qk68 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Would you clone your dying dog? Why are burner accounts still a thing? And how much do you REALLY care about what other people think about you? Also: Stephen A. Smith mispronouncing Pablo's name (twice), Dan sobbing shirtless in a convertible, and Pablo defending the relative scale of his narcissistic, psychopathic Machiavellianism. Further reading: Are Pet Cloners Happy With Their Choice? The Atlantic HBO Bosses Used ‘Secret’ Fake Accounts to Troll TV Critics Rolling Stone The Sociopaths Among Us — and How to Avoid Them The Atlantic Dark Triad Personality Test (If You Dare) Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/xZvtRCuNdPs Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This fall, Emmy-winning screenwriter Cord Jefferson (Watchmen, Succession, The Good Place, Master of None) has become a major Oscar contender for his directorial debut movie, the forthcoming (and deeply funny) American Fiction. So we wanted to ask Cord the truth about awards, competitiveness, race, external validation, and happiness. Also, the Men In Black soundtrack. Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/4O3jaJ1TN94 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

It's Shakespearean. It's Freudian. It's a Greek myth with a Real Housewife. Yes, sports fans: Marcus Jordan and Larsa Pippen are getting married. But are they just a reality-TV couple engineered to goose the algorithm? Or is this true romance? Pablo, Cortes, and "Oddball" host Charlotte Wilder listen to their podcast so you don't have to... then confront the Romeo and Juliet of our time with the awkward and essential questions about Michael and Scottie. Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/VOaPwe6d0W8 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Is the NBA's TV bubble about to burst? Is how we consume sports about to change forever? Hear from the man who reshaped the business itself. Plus: Who’s to blame for our misinformation minefield? And what the hell happened to retirement? The jamokes from The Sporting Class explain. PTFO-approved reading:  House of Strauss: I'm Not Sure How the NBA Triples Its Rights Fees in a TV Recession https://www.houseofstrauss.com/p/im-not-sure-how-the-nba-triples-its Vanity Fair: Inside the New York Times Debate Over Its Gaza Hospital Bombing Coverage https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2023/10/new-york-times-gaza-hospital-story The Washington Post: Older Americans Are Dominating Like Never Before, but What Comes Next? https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2023/10/24/older-americans-working-longer-aging-impact/ Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/GsSzvwXkpLE Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Next week, the White House is releasing the first executive order on A.I. in U.S. history. So we asked David Epstein, bestselling author of Range and the best sports-science writer in America, to explain the state of our union. And what humans can do that the best computers still cannot. Even though A.I. still might, uh, wipe out 10 percent of the global population. Plus: Why robots need to be more like First Take — and why our future depends not on humans or computers... but a centaur playing chess. PTFO-approved reading David Epstein's Range: https://bookshop.org/p/books/range-why-generalists-triumph-in-a-specialized-world-david-epstein/12472879 Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/zbgKzE7SztI Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The most important Joker on the court isn't Nikola Jokic or Novak Djokovic. Indeed, the most popular tattoo among our sports heroes is a villain, and PTFO correspondent Wyatt Cenac is here to interview them about it... as Batman… with a mask on. Could Joker Mode become the new Mamba Mentality? Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/Sc3d9M3jLGI Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Why did Ariel Helwani, our planet’s leading combat sports reporter, use ring girls as human shields at a televised Logan Paul melee? What video game is Katie Nolan mostly living inside? Do you remember the time The Rock actually broke the news that Osama bin Laden had been assassinated? And more. PTFO-approved content: https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/shams-charania-nba-insider-the-athletic-new-york-times-profile.html https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2023/10/16/were-more-ghosts-than-people/ https://arielhelwani.substack.com/ 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

The author of the definitive new book on gender in sports, Katie Barnes, explores how The Right ran up the score on progressives in a political messaging war — then offers a modest proposal, from pronouns to hormones and statehouses to schools, that most sane people can agree upon. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Michael Schur is a legendary comedy writer who calls his TV reboot of the classic baseball film "the best thing I've ever written." (He's written for SNL, The Simpsons, The Office, Parks and Rec, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, The Good Place...) So why didn't his version of "Field of Dreams" ever get made? Also: what happened to the actual baseball field that he built, out there in the cornfields of Iowa? Sports-movie nostalgia has never felt quite so painful. Or surreal. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What does it feel like to kick a$$ on a game show? Like an athlete in the Albanian brain zone who can't do math. Why doesn't Bill Belichick have to defend his conditional genius? Because we owe him the benefit of sudden doubt. Are you convincing yourself that you don't need therapy? You gotta place your vulnerability somewhere, you know. Plus: Pablo's Process (again), Christopher Meloni's mad energy, Dan's digestive tract... and some tears. PTFO-approved content: Final Jeopardy!: Rallying Cries https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8YEqEYAxvo4 If You Think Robert Kraft Wouldn't Fire Bill Belichick, You're Wrong https://theathletic.com/4950228/2023/10/11/new-england-patriots-bill-belichick-robert-kraft/ What I've Learned: Patrick Stewart https://www.esquire.com/entertainment/books/a45328198/patrick-stewart-what-ive-learned/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices