Canadians, people from cold US states, Scandinavians, and Slavs are well-represented in the NHL. People from warm states (who don't have family connections to the NHL) are underrepresented. Part of this is culture, for example, a kid in Minnesota is more likely than one in Alabama to watch hockey and be interested in it.
There's also the matter of environment and facilities. If there's an ice rink in every neighborhood, an athletic kid is more likely to take up hockey than one where there's a football field or basketball court in every neighborhood. Where I grew up (hockey land), every community would set up an outdoor ice rink once it dipped below freezing. If it was too cold for the playground, you'd go skating instead. On top of that, there were many indoor arenas. The longer and colder your winters are, the less time you have for summer sports and the more time you have for winter sports.
People from flat countries are underrepresented in downhill skiing. People from cold, mountainous countries are overrepresented in the winter olympics. People from the Kenyan Rift Valley are overrepresented among elite marathon runners because of cultural factors (e.g. exposure to running at an early age, healthy diet) and geographical factors (e.g. high altitudes, mild weather year-round, and vast open space to run long distances). When it comes to sports, culture and geography often go hand-in-hand, and there's only so much you can do to fight it.
Yes! Ice skating is a very popular sport in Minneapolis. Lots of cheap pairs of hockey skates at every Play it Again sports store. Go to any free city and booster club run outdoor rink in the (twin) cities and kids are out with friends. When it gets to sports leagues, the equipment and travel time starts to be a lot for families unless they already have a strong hockey tradition in the family or the kid is extra motivated.
The pro league skaters will start foundations to help buy equipment and rink time for kids who couldn’t afford otherwise. Same for soccer, football, etc..
Can confirm I grew up across from an outdoor ice skating rink in MN, went multiple times a week just to skate around. I Was never more than competent but I imagine would not have been that without the rink
The fact that class or expense didn't come up in regards to any of those sports was kind of astounding. It doesn't take too long to think about the up front costs of playing basketball (a ball, and the availability of a hoop) versus golf or hockey (membership costs, equipment costs, etc.) before you realize an asymmetry in who is going to have ready access to those activities.
Has to be more than the state just being cold and full of Scandinavians. There's a line somewhere in southern Minnesota where hockey dramatically falls off in popularity, to such an extent that it's not really played in Iowa.
Maybe the density of lakes has something to do with it? One of those things I've wondered about for years...
Interesting, I would disagree slightly as I’ve spent a fair amount of winter time in Southern MN and the high school hockey program was decent. The college kids also had club level teams at least. The outdoor ice doesn’t last as long of course the further south one goes. And basketball is the predominant sport in the Dakotas.
The professional minor league team for the MN Wild moved from TX to Iowa a few years ago, and seems to have a decent fan base?
Possibly the line is somewhere near the counties that border Iowa? I grew up in northern Iowa, next to a lake, and we didn't do ice skating let alone hockey.
Not even done with this episode yet, but I just wanna say that this is one of my favorites in a while. I only have one criticism. I wish we would’ve heard more about the obvious things that you weren’t allowed to say in sports journalism, because I suspect that I’m like many Blocked and Reported listeners and have no clue what people talk about in sports journalism and so I would’ve kind of liked to hear a few more examples. That said, I love this guy‘s analysis, please have him back,
Ethan hit the mark on basically all his points. Though sports may be his focus, he seems to have a really good pulse on things overall. Definitely would like to see more of Ethan as a guest host.
Disagree he was so boring. He didn’t say anything that I found to be new or exciting just same old “woke wasn’t actually that popular!” “People privately felt otherwise”
My semi-educated guess on one topic is that criticism of Lamar Jackson seems to be taboo, with the critic quickly being accused of racism. (Freddie deBoer has talked about this on multiple occasions.)
The strange part is that while people rush to protect Jackson, it's open season on Jalen Hurts, Dak Prescott, Geno Smith, Kyler Murray, Caleb Williams, Russell Wilson, Justin Fields, CJ Stroud, Bryce Young, DeShaun Watson, Jameis Winston (all of whom are black quarterbacks). I intentionally excluded Mahomes because he is bi-racial so some perceptions differ.
Fair or not, Jackson will be maligned as long he seems to come up small in the playoffs. It happened to Peyton Manning for the first 6-7 years of his career. Dan Marino retired 25 years ago but he is still dogged by playoff failure.
Coaches are perhaps particularly white compared to players because the players are particularly black because blacks make better athletes. But in coaching your athletic prowess is less important and other skills are more important so the proportion trends back towards the general population proportions.
Or "Women aren't in coaching as much because coaching is often about authority and respect and female coaches have a harder time commanding that".
Or "most athletes are fairly politically conservative and religious compared to the general population, and think the leagues virtue signaling is dumb". Particularly around say gay pride.
Or "Women get paid less because they are much less good at sports and thus not as many people watch".
Some of these are simple/obvious points when discussing these hot buttons topics that in some venues are rarely/never made. I am sure you can imagine others.
And he may in fact be a bit more significant than BARpod mom & dad realize, and they might, in fact, be playing into his hands, by sweating the optics of what he's doing, rather than the substance.
It's easy to call him a moron, but the man has had a few successes...
Folks call Twitter a failure because it's not doing great financially, but it might be succeeding in other ways that is working for him.
I really find it surprising that Katie is primarily using the "For You" tab on Twitter. That's probably responsible for 90%+ of her frustration with the platform. Switch to the follower timeline view and it's a vastly better experience.
I discovered the other day that you can create a list of people, and then pin that list as a tab right next to the 'For You' / 'Following' tabs, and then see a timeline with just those people.
I've just started experimenting with it, but it's an easy way to focus on your highest priority accounts (in my case, it includes an account that posts subway alerts, so that's overwhelming it at the moment..)
I experimented a bit more. I removed the subway account and added that to a different list, but it's still appearing in the list, and about 1/3 of all posts are from that account, even though I added a bunch more accounts to this list.
I'm hoping it's just a delay, otherwise this feature is seriously broken.
If you try this, I suggest only adding accounts that you're sure you want to see!
It’s so wild to me that people assume that these athletes, many or most of whom are very successful with women, would have a different opinion on this.
Nice little story about a hate crime hoax, but I could've listened to them talk about sporting leagues doing stupid DEI missions and the ones that have been recently cancelled for the whole show.
Really liked the conversation about pressuring players to wear ribbons and rainbow jerseys. Most athletes lean conservative, since they're self-starters, highly motivated, can't rely on anyone but themselves, who run their own brand, in an industry that's quite literally based on meritocracy and strength. I think the only time a liberal sports fan's democratic-socialist politics would align with a black NBA player would be BLM. Beyond that, making a player, who thanks Jesus Christ after every game, wear an LGBT icon, is probably not gonna happen.
I follow a lot of female powerlifters/bodybuilders on instagram and around election time most of them were sharing videos of Trump saying "He's right etc." People get mad in the comments but it doesn't surprise me that people who's life is dedicated to improving their physiques are not going to buy into the idea that bio men can compete in women's sports or that fat people can be healthy at any size.
I am also reminded of MLB and NHL players' disgust at things like PRIDE night, where they would have to wear PRIDE insignia on their jerseys. Like, of course they are going to be against this, as, most are super Christian.
Yeah, I've been in Jiu Jitsu for over a decade, and there's a lot of crossover with boxing and some powerlifting / crossfit types. Trans activism has 100% flown too close to the Sun by trying to get into contact sports, and I think it led to its downfall.
I have only seen one story of it in BJJ. The woman who had to take on a man in a tournament was PISSED and went on a podcast to talk about it. She said the competitor was mostly passing, but as soon as they locked up, she just knew that this wasn't a woman.
I'm sure you know about the PL April Hutchinson who dealt with severe punishments for criticizing trans in Canada. That absolutely had a Streissand Effect and boosted her fame. God it's just sick hearing these stories of admin trying to ruin these women for speaking up. And it's always these old white dudes who are doing it.
I follow Riley and April on Twitter. Whenever the topic of saving women's sports gets mentioned, I always bring up these brave high school girls who were the first to raise alarm five years ago. I hope they're doing well since then.
Haha - the NHL has a significant percentage of Russians, Czechs and other Central Europeans. Clearly the marketing people pushing PRIDE promotions are clueless.
I love that the guest said NHL is the most sensitive about DEI. Yes one of the whitest things you can do is go to a hockey game. But stop fighting that. Accept that white people have culture.
Just as a random example I had a county commissioner in a hockey loving state in a majority white district tell me, a person who has played hockey all his life, is a white hockey coach who has kids in youth hockey, and who he was hoping to get donations from tell me "I don't give a fuck about hockey that is white people shit, I want to defund all that".
That is how tone deaf and self-assured the democratic politicians are in the big cities. Never seemed to even occur to him that someone in his district would have kids in hockey. Or that we have some Latino and Asian and black kids on our team. In fact the demographics probably almost exactly match the demographics of the middle and upper middle class in our city.
This is a Latino Democrat who is all about "representation and "providing population appropriate cultural options". But in his in the democrats eyes the white population and their shit doesn't count as culture and should just be pushed aside.
And then they wonder why people aren't big fans of immigration...
No assimilation, just "Why aren't there a Mexico City level of soccer interest in this Minnesota city? Don't they know the populations 15% Latino! Must be racism!"
The leagues are also very pro diverssity and internationalization, but then want everyone to have super elite US values.
So they are excited to highlight their various Latin American players, but try and hide the drunk driving and wife beating and general political outlook of those same players. A lot of double think and also claiming to love diversity when actually not at all being remotely comfortable with diversity if it isn't diversity in skin tone.
Holy shit yes, thank gawd that the NHL seems to have backed off forcing players to wear pride jerseys after the Russian players flat out refused. Some players taped their sticks with rainbow tape but who is going to even see that. The Pride jerseys were only for pregame warm up and then sell for a fundraiser because hockey fans are nuts and like worn sweaty jerseys.
I just spent like 10 minutes trying to find a video of a woman somewhere in Africa going to get her HIV medicine and being turned away, and I couldn't, and that does sound fake and/or staged. And of course I would update that based on new, verifiable information.
Which is maybe why Twitter is bad, it's a personalized feed of things designed to make you upset and feel as though you are required to do something when you should really be saying "wait is this real?"
I listened to an ep of Reflector about the apparent chaos at USAID, and I was moved by one woman in Kenya who now owes money for equipment she bought with a post dated check, right before funding got pulled. We have family in Kenya. We send them money all the time; MRI, medicine, land. The dollar goes pretty far there. But this can’t be the most compelling story. Matt and Andy can pay off that lady’s debt. I think the panic is totally overblown and the funds are being mismanaged. Global empathy isn’t going to solve these issues. Their goal is never to solve anything. And Katie knows this because as she very astutely points out in another episode; GLAAD doesn’t exist if they don’t hop on the TRANS train. They “solved” the gay issue. They need division, they need the problem to exist or their donations and funding dry up. USAID is the same thing.
I just listened to the Reflector episode. They talk towards the end about the economic and reputational fallout that's coming - and what I thought was interesting is in a detail towards the start. Did you notice how the Kenyan women kept saying she's a "person with a disability"? That's America. That's how these programs influence people towards US culture, towards US ideology (in this case, woke ideology), towards protecting the nation and developing loyalties. USAID is - was - an incredible soft power in terms of how it influences people's beliefs and choices. There's many debates as to whether it's morally right or wrong to do that, but it does work and that tool has now been dismantled.
The panic is not being overblown in terms the economic repercussions this will have and the hit on the reputation of the US. I would estimate 100s of 1000s of people just lost their jobs globally, myself included. So many small businesses globally depend on these funds flowing. Right or wrong, the US created this system and people trusted it. USAID had its flaws - I was as actually quite looking forward to the opportunity to review programs in line with new policy and take out all the DEI stuff the old admin pushed - but it needed a scapel, not a wrecking ball. A lot of programming created genuine goodwill and saw results. That's what has been lost, the investment in trust and building goodwill. USAID should have been something Americans were proud of, the agency genuinely led the way in so many situations.
No, they've definitely frozen funding to PEPFAR, but it's not clear that that would mean an immediate shutdown of any clinics or services - grants and government funding aren't disbursed biweekly like payroll for a company, recipients are usually granted six months or a year of funding at a time.
It was reported a few weeks ago a limited waiver was received for some activities under PEPFAR, but from what I've heard that's not been good enough. Because there's a few issues with a partial waiver. If you say x% of activities are ok,do you pay healthcare staff x% of their salary? Do you only owe x% of the clinic's rent? Then a lot of agencies with waivers are reporting no funds being disbursed anyway. Then the fact it's just totally disorganised and unclear what the long term plan is, means no implementing agencies can actually make any plans. They are in limbo.
A stop work order was issued, meaning implementers have to stop working unless they have a waiver. 95% of USAID staff were put on leave, which means waivers aren't getting processed. Prior to being put on leave, they were placed under a gag order, which meant they could not communicate about new processes to implementers. For those who do get waivers to operate, the payment system is not being operated, which means they don't get the funds anyway. You are correct that funds are disbursed in large tranches, but this is after work is done, leaving implementing organisations to carry the debt. The issue is the US is using the 'pause' to not pay its debts.
Great episode and great conversation. You guys touched on something I have been thinking about quite a lot recently as it pertains to my own industry and that is namely how to define and think about and operate within this vibe shift.
On the one hand things have changed Perceptibly, but on the other, it’s quite difficult to really articulate how exactly they have changed and in what ways.
I think Ethan said it best when he said that it is a very unsettled time and I think anybody who claims to really know where the dust has settled is just guessing at this point.
I think just as we needed a year or two after 2020 to really be able to define what was going on, I think we are a year or two away from really understanding if and how things have actually changed in the culture.
Katie needs to put a moratorium on talking about Musk until she can do it without sounding like she's on the verge of tears.
Yes, we get that he infuriates you - but your whole USP has been that you are above the hysteria, it's what makes your takes sound considered and interesting.
I really disagree with this. This seems like a reason to be very concerned and it’s more shocking to me that people are so complacent or in the Trump cult that they can’t see what’s happening is a huge problem (that and they aren’t the ones losing their jobs). If they treated this with too much brevity (some brevity is always nice), it wouldn’t be them. If you want 100% left critique and none for the right in power, you should stick to Free Press and many of the other heterodox pods. I’m really grateful for their measured takes…they are keeping me sane.
Yea I agree. I’m honestly pretty surprised how upset she seems about Musk and Trump on the recent podcasts. Not that I expected her to like them by any means. I remember a sort of consensus forming after the election that Trump would face less resistance this time around, but I don’t think that will be true. I’m seeing numerous people I know on IG and IRL that I didn’t see make a single political post or mention anything political to me in the last long while, nothing about the 10s of thousands of kids vaporized in Gaza, but they’re posting and mentioning to me all about USAID funding being cut and kids in Africa, etc. I know a few people that are starting to get spun out over this. Red team vs Blue team politicization really never ceases to puzzle and amaze me.
Lapchick's report cards are very funny because they somehow give the NBA - 70% black in his figures - an A+ for 'player diversity'. I wonder if he and Steve Sailer share stats.
It makes sense if he's using the anti-racist definition of diverse=non-white. By that standard, a 100% black NBA would be the most "diverse" league possible.
What I wonder about is the diversity issue in activities like bird-watching, hiking, etc. How does racism stop someone from buying a pair of binoculars, or boots? You do these things by yourself, or with a friend. I don't get it.
The height of absurdity was the idea that somehow the *outdoors* were not inclusive. From an REI page (unsurprisingly created in June 2020, but still up):
"...for many people and communities, being able to live safely and openly with equitable access to opportunities and a sense of belonging in the outdoors still isn’t a reality."
I spend a lot of time in botanical gardens and on nature trails. Yes, there are very few black people in these spaces. (Even in a 40 percent black Philly). So what? I don't know where we got the idea that al races must have the same level of interest in certain recreational activities.
Why are t there more Korean kids on basketball courts or more Jewish people in bowling leagues?
Are we the only developed country that acts like this?
I think a lot of communities simply don’t have access to green spaces or open spaces to say, safely learn to ride your bike. I think access to outdoor activities is more a question of neighborhood and culture, both of which are linked to race.
Weirdly enough, that controversy with Rush Limbaugh and black quarterbacks in the NFL ended up becoming the model of how affirmative action was “supposed” to work. Prior to the late 1990s, there were very few black quarterbacks. You had Doug Williams who had one Super Bowl year with the Redskins/Commanders in the late 1980s, Warren Moon quarterbacking the Houston Oilers to reasonable success after having to play in the CFL for a few years, Randall Cunningham on the Eagles setting the model black quarterback as a half running back/half quarterback type, and one or two journeymen like Rodney Peete.
Then the NFL starting focusing on recruiting black quarterbacks into the league, and you had one year (2000 maybe), where there were five or six black quarterbacks in the playoffs: Donovan McNabb (the focal point of the Limbaugh controversy, who ended up having a pretty good career and was one of the quarterbacks who lost to Tom Brady in a Super Bowl), Steve McNair of the Tennessee Titans (formerly Houston Oilers aka Warren Moon’s team, and also RIP), Daunte Culpepper of the Vikings, a couple of others whose names escape me at the moment.
Shortly thereafter you had players like Michael Vick (who ended up with the Eagles eventually), Teddy Bridgewater (another journeyman), and a few others whose blackness would be mentioned, but not the main focus of the coverage. By the mid 2010s, you had Russell Wilson winning a Super Bowl and it seemed like his marriage to Ciara was more resonant in the media than his blackness. Also, you started seeing fewer people assume that a black quarterback was essentially a hybrid running back/quarterback (Russell Wilson could run, but he wasn’t a McNabb, Cunningham, or Vick type).
Fast forward to 2020s, a couple of decades after the first conscious efforts to open up the black quarterback pipeline, and enough time for those first black youth players to make it to the NFL. Even if you exclude biracial players like Patrick Mahomes, you see that the efforts paid off and that for black quarterbacks in the league, their blackness is incidental to their coverage. Off the top of my head:
- Jalen Hurts: Super Bowl champion Eagles quarterback, held up as an example of grit and character after getting benched in the NCAA championship game, and his diversity cookies come more from having an all-female management team.
- Dak Prescott - Good but just can’t get it together and the Cowboys are a dysfunctional mess anyway.
- Lamar Jackson - like early/mid-career Peyton Manning - MVP numbers in the regular season, can’t quite get the Ravens to the next level in the postseason
- CJ Stroud - underrated promising QB and probably the best QB the relatively new Houston Texans ever had
- Geno Smith - after flaming out with the Giants and Jets, became comeback player of the year with the Seahawks
- Russell Wilson - aging QB who still thinks he has it even though he’s well past his Seattle glory days. Been jumping from team to team lately, may end up playing transition placeholder for a team like the New York Giants as they try to find their next franchise quarterback.
- Jordan Love - the exhale of relief in Green Bay after Aaron Rodgers
- Justin Fields - becoming a journeyman. Raw undisciplined talent last I saw
And I’m probably overlooking more. Point is that after a few years making a big deal about the lack of black quarterbacks and the possibility that they were being shut out of the position due to racist presumptions, the problem was fixed and now a quarterback being black is barely worth remarking on.
Teddy Bridgewater was briefly a brilliant player for the Vikings until he got his ankle broken in pieces. Glad to see him as backup QB yet in the league.
Agree - Bridgewater looked like he had an exciting future until his lower leg was obliterated.
Like you I was super happy to see him taking the field in a playoff game all these years later. Here's hoping it's the start of at least a partial career resurrection
We like to think that there's some kind of science to drafting.
In advance of the 2014 draft, one of the major red flags about Johnny Manziel was his ability to adapt to a structured offense. The perception was that his college offensive coordinator KLIFF KINGSBURY allowed him to freelance too much.
In advance of the 2017 draft, one of the major red flags about Patrick Mahomes was his ability to adapt to a structured offense. The perception was that his college head coach KLIFF KINGSBURY allowed him to freelance too much.
For a variety of reasons (some his fault - substance abuse; some not - the Browns front office sucks) Manziel washed out of the league after only two years.
After seven years as a full-time starter, Mahomes is in the conversation for being among the all-time greats. (going to the right organization at the right time helps)
I'd also suggest that Manziel looked so good because A&M was running a spread offense against SEC defenses that were simply not structured to counter it, at the time.
Mahomes was consistently playing against defenses, and putting up numbers, that were nominally structured to stop the offensive scheme Kingsbury ran.
Canadians, people from cold US states, Scandinavians, and Slavs are well-represented in the NHL. People from warm states (who don't have family connections to the NHL) are underrepresented. Part of this is culture, for example, a kid in Minnesota is more likely than one in Alabama to watch hockey and be interested in it.
There's also the matter of environment and facilities. If there's an ice rink in every neighborhood, an athletic kid is more likely to take up hockey than one where there's a football field or basketball court in every neighborhood. Where I grew up (hockey land), every community would set up an outdoor ice rink once it dipped below freezing. If it was too cold for the playground, you'd go skating instead. On top of that, there were many indoor arenas. The longer and colder your winters are, the less time you have for summer sports and the more time you have for winter sports.
People from flat countries are underrepresented in downhill skiing. People from cold, mountainous countries are overrepresented in the winter olympics. People from the Kenyan Rift Valley are overrepresented among elite marathon runners because of cultural factors (e.g. exposure to running at an early age, healthy diet) and geographical factors (e.g. high altitudes, mild weather year-round, and vast open space to run long distances). When it comes to sports, culture and geography often go hand-in-hand, and there's only so much you can do to fight it.
Yes! Ice skating is a very popular sport in Minneapolis. Lots of cheap pairs of hockey skates at every Play it Again sports store. Go to any free city and booster club run outdoor rink in the (twin) cities and kids are out with friends. When it gets to sports leagues, the equipment and travel time starts to be a lot for families unless they already have a strong hockey tradition in the family or the kid is extra motivated.
The pro league skaters will start foundations to help buy equipment and rink time for kids who couldn’t afford otherwise. Same for soccer, football, etc..
Can confirm I grew up across from an outdoor ice skating rink in MN, went multiple times a week just to skate around. I Was never more than competent but I imagine would not have been that without the rink
Anchorage, AK was the same. And yes, rinks were easy to find.
The fact that class or expense didn't come up in regards to any of those sports was kind of astounding. It doesn't take too long to think about the up front costs of playing basketball (a ball, and the availability of a hoop) versus golf or hockey (membership costs, equipment costs, etc.) before you realize an asymmetry in who is going to have ready access to those activities.
Has to be more than the state just being cold and full of Scandinavians. There's a line somewhere in southern Minnesota where hockey dramatically falls off in popularity, to such an extent that it's not really played in Iowa.
Maybe the density of lakes has something to do with it? One of those things I've wondered about for years...
Interesting, I would disagree slightly as I’ve spent a fair amount of winter time in Southern MN and the high school hockey program was decent. The college kids also had club level teams at least. The outdoor ice doesn’t last as long of course the further south one goes. And basketball is the predominant sport in the Dakotas.
The professional minor league team for the MN Wild moved from TX to Iowa a few years ago, and seems to have a decent fan base?
Possibly the line is somewhere near the counties that border Iowa? I grew up in northern Iowa, next to a lake, and we didn't do ice skating let alone hockey.
Not even done with this episode yet, but I just wanna say that this is one of my favorites in a while. I only have one criticism. I wish we would’ve heard more about the obvious things that you weren’t allowed to say in sports journalism, because I suspect that I’m like many Blocked and Reported listeners and have no clue what people talk about in sports journalism and so I would’ve kind of liked to hear a few more examples. That said, I love this guy‘s analysis, please have him back,
Jesse, and Katy, he’s right about Elon.
Ethan hit the mark on basically all his points. Though sports may be his focus, he seems to have a really good pulse on things overall. Definitely would like to see more of Ethan as a guest host.
He's great. I don't understand sports, but I listen to his podcast whenever he goes on weird cultural riffs with his guests.
Disagree he was so boring. He didn’t say anything that I found to be new or exciting just same old “woke wasn’t actually that popular!” “People privately felt otherwise”
Agreed. I was bored and thought he was a dud.
My semi-educated guess on one topic is that criticism of Lamar Jackson seems to be taboo, with the critic quickly being accused of racism. (Freddie deBoer has talked about this on multiple occasions.)
The strange part is that while people rush to protect Jackson, it's open season on Jalen Hurts, Dak Prescott, Geno Smith, Kyler Murray, Caleb Williams, Russell Wilson, Justin Fields, CJ Stroud, Bryce Young, DeShaun Watson, Jameis Winston (all of whom are black quarterbacks). I intentionally excluded Mahomes because he is bi-racial so some perceptions differ.
Thanks! Much of this is over my head. I had never heard of Lamar before (in a way that registered anyway)
I suspect that's because Jackson has been playing unbelievable the last two seasons....
. . . unbelievable the last two REGULAR seasons.
Fair or not, Jackson will be maligned as long he seems to come up small in the playoffs. It happened to Peyton Manning for the first 6-7 years of his career. Dan Marino retired 25 years ago but he is still dogged by playoff failure.
Would be stuff like:
Coaches are perhaps particularly white compared to players because the players are particularly black because blacks make better athletes. But in coaching your athletic prowess is less important and other skills are more important so the proportion trends back towards the general population proportions.
Or "Women aren't in coaching as much because coaching is often about authority and respect and female coaches have a harder time commanding that".
Or "most athletes are fairly politically conservative and religious compared to the general population, and think the leagues virtue signaling is dumb". Particularly around say gay pride.
Or "Women get paid less because they are much less good at sports and thus not as many people watch".
Some of these are simple/obvious points when discussing these hot buttons topics that in some venues are rarely/never made. I am sure you can imagine others.
Bill Burr on women’s leagues is one of the funniest bits ever: IT’S CUZ THEY DON’T SELL ANY TICKETS!!!
What did he say about Elon?
I just finished listening to the episode, but I started yesterday and I don't recall that.
I believe it was along the lines of "Jesse is going a little too insane about Elon's daily antics"
And he may in fact be a bit more significant than BARpod mom & dad realize, and they might, in fact, be playing into his hands, by sweating the optics of what he's doing, rather than the substance.
It's easy to call him a moron, but the man has had a few successes...
Folks call Twitter a failure because it's not doing great financially, but it might be succeeding in other ways that is working for him.
Second half delivered.
Dang.
Thanks to Ethan for pronouncing "niche" correctly, i.e. neesh and definitely not nitch
He's doing God's work here, that's for sure.
Unfortunately Katie pronounced Epoch as epic, so they’re net zero in pronunciation points.
“While Jesse is hiding from the Zizzians” 😆😅
I really find it surprising that Katie is primarily using the "For You" tab on Twitter. That's probably responsible for 90%+ of her frustration with the platform. Switch to the follower timeline view and it's a vastly better experience.
For You is awful. I constantly see people I hate. Following is much much MUCH better. This is probably why she keeps seeing Nazis.
I discovered the other day that you can create a list of people, and then pin that list as a tab right next to the 'For You' / 'Following' tabs, and then see a timeline with just those people.
I've just started experimenting with it, but it's an easy way to focus on your highest priority accounts (in my case, it includes an account that posts subway alerts, so that's overwhelming it at the moment..)
Yes my private list is nice a relevant to me. Carefully curated.
I experimented a bit more. I removed the subway account and added that to a different list, but it's still appearing in the list, and about 1/3 of all posts are from that account, even though I added a bunch more accounts to this list.
I'm hoping it's just a delay, otherwise this feature is seriously broken.
If you try this, I suggest only adding accounts that you're sure you want to see!
Yeah it's bizarre.
I'm glad Lapchik chose a five letter African country. Imagine carving "The Democratic Republic of the Congo" into your flesh. Nightmare.
Doctor Congo?
Literally just LOLed in LIDL at “they know what many women are”
It’s so wild to me that people assume that these athletes, many or most of whom are very successful with women, would have a different opinion on this.
great line
Katie and Ethan talking sports is the bestest.
Really a dream episode.
Nice little story about a hate crime hoax, but I could've listened to them talk about sporting leagues doing stupid DEI missions and the ones that have been recently cancelled for the whole show.
Really liked the conversation about pressuring players to wear ribbons and rainbow jerseys. Most athletes lean conservative, since they're self-starters, highly motivated, can't rely on anyone but themselves, who run their own brand, in an industry that's quite literally based on meritocracy and strength. I think the only time a liberal sports fan's democratic-socialist politics would align with a black NBA player would be BLM. Beyond that, making a player, who thanks Jesus Christ after every game, wear an LGBT icon, is probably not gonna happen.
I follow a lot of female powerlifters/bodybuilders on instagram and around election time most of them were sharing videos of Trump saying "He's right etc." People get mad in the comments but it doesn't surprise me that people who's life is dedicated to improving their physiques are not going to buy into the idea that bio men can compete in women's sports or that fat people can be healthy at any size.
I am also reminded of MLB and NHL players' disgust at things like PRIDE night, where they would have to wear PRIDE insignia on their jerseys. Like, of course they are going to be against this, as, most are super Christian.
Yeah, I've been in Jiu Jitsu for over a decade, and there's a lot of crossover with boxing and some powerlifting / crossfit types. Trans activism has 100% flown too close to the Sun by trying to get into contact sports, and I think it led to its downfall.
I have only seen one story of it in BJJ. The woman who had to take on a man in a tournament was PISSED and went on a podcast to talk about it. She said the competitor was mostly passing, but as soon as they locked up, she just knew that this wasn't a woman.
I'm sure you know about the PL April Hutchinson who dealt with severe punishments for criticizing trans in Canada. That absolutely had a Streissand Effect and boosted her fame. God it's just sick hearing these stories of admin trying to ruin these women for speaking up. And it's always these old white dudes who are doing it.
I follow Riley and April on Twitter. Whenever the topic of saving women's sports gets mentioned, I always bring up these brave high school girls who were the first to raise alarm five years ago. I hope they're doing well since then.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uM5LtL8ef-8
Haha - the NHL has a significant percentage of Russians, Czechs and other Central Europeans. Clearly the marketing people pushing PRIDE promotions are clueless.
I love that the guest said NHL is the most sensitive about DEI. Yes one of the whitest things you can do is go to a hockey game. But stop fighting that. Accept that white people have culture.
Just as a random example I had a county commissioner in a hockey loving state in a majority white district tell me, a person who has played hockey all his life, is a white hockey coach who has kids in youth hockey, and who he was hoping to get donations from tell me "I don't give a fuck about hockey that is white people shit, I want to defund all that".
That is how tone deaf and self-assured the democratic politicians are in the big cities. Never seemed to even occur to him that someone in his district would have kids in hockey. Or that we have some Latino and Asian and black kids on our team. In fact the demographics probably almost exactly match the demographics of the middle and upper middle class in our city.
This is a Latino Democrat who is all about "representation and "providing population appropriate cultural options". But in his in the democrats eyes the white population and their shit doesn't count as culture and should just be pushed aside.
And then they wonder why people aren't big fans of immigration...
No assimilation, just "Why aren't there a Mexico City level of soccer interest in this Minnesota city? Don't they know the populations 15% Latino! Must be racism!"
PS. I'm in Minneapolis! :)
"Why do we keep losing?"
The leagues are also very pro diverssity and internationalization, but then want everyone to have super elite US values.
So they are excited to highlight their various Latin American players, but try and hide the drunk driving and wife beating and general political outlook of those same players. A lot of double think and also claiming to love diversity when actually not at all being remotely comfortable with diversity if it isn't diversity in skin tone.
Only when an NBA player violently assaults his trans wife will we see progress
Holy shit yes, thank gawd that the NHL seems to have backed off forcing players to wear pride jerseys after the Russian players flat out refused. Some players taped their sticks with rainbow tape but who is going to even see that. The Pride jerseys were only for pregame warm up and then sell for a fundraiser because hockey fans are nuts and like worn sweaty jerseys.
I just spent like 10 minutes trying to find a video of a woman somewhere in Africa going to get her HIV medicine and being turned away, and I couldn't, and that does sound fake and/or staged. And of course I would update that based on new, verifiable information.
Which is maybe why Twitter is bad, it's a personalized feed of things designed to make you upset and feel as though you are required to do something when you should really be saying "wait is this real?"
I listened to an ep of Reflector about the apparent chaos at USAID, and I was moved by one woman in Kenya who now owes money for equipment she bought with a post dated check, right before funding got pulled. We have family in Kenya. We send them money all the time; MRI, medicine, land. The dollar goes pretty far there. But this can’t be the most compelling story. Matt and Andy can pay off that lady’s debt. I think the panic is totally overblown and the funds are being mismanaged. Global empathy isn’t going to solve these issues. Their goal is never to solve anything. And Katie knows this because as she very astutely points out in another episode; GLAAD doesn’t exist if they don’t hop on the TRANS train. They “solved” the gay issue. They need division, they need the problem to exist or their donations and funding dry up. USAID is the same thing.
I just listened to the Reflector episode. They talk towards the end about the economic and reputational fallout that's coming - and what I thought was interesting is in a detail towards the start. Did you notice how the Kenyan women kept saying she's a "person with a disability"? That's America. That's how these programs influence people towards US culture, towards US ideology (in this case, woke ideology), towards protecting the nation and developing loyalties. USAID is - was - an incredible soft power in terms of how it influences people's beliefs and choices. There's many debates as to whether it's morally right or wrong to do that, but it does work and that tool has now been dismantled.
The panic is not being overblown in terms the economic repercussions this will have and the hit on the reputation of the US. I would estimate 100s of 1000s of people just lost their jobs globally, myself included. So many small businesses globally depend on these funds flowing. Right or wrong, the US created this system and people trusted it. USAID had its flaws - I was as actually quite looking forward to the opportunity to review programs in line with new policy and take out all the DEI stuff the old admin pushed - but it needed a scapel, not a wrecking ball. A lot of programming created genuine goodwill and saw results. That's what has been lost, the investment in trust and building goodwill. USAID should have been something Americans were proud of, the agency genuinely led the way in so many situations.
Hasn’t the strictly medical stuff like that been exempted from the freeze anyway?
No, they've definitely frozen funding to PEPFAR, but it's not clear that that would mean an immediate shutdown of any clinics or services - grants and government funding aren't disbursed biweekly like payroll for a company, recipients are usually granted six months or a year of funding at a time.
It wouldn't require immediate shutdown
It does, stop work orders were issued.
I saw a video of someone I think in congress saying that Pepfar funding had been restored?
https://nypost.com/2025/02/13/us-news/clueless-protestors-interrupt-usaid-hearing/
It was reported a few weeks ago a limited waiver was received for some activities under PEPFAR, but from what I've heard that's not been good enough. Because there's a few issues with a partial waiver. If you say x% of activities are ok,do you pay healthcare staff x% of their salary? Do you only owe x% of the clinic's rent? Then a lot of agencies with waivers are reporting no funds being disbursed anyway. Then the fact it's just totally disorganised and unclear what the long term plan is, means no implementing agencies can actually make any plans. They are in limbo.
A stop work order was issued, meaning implementers have to stop working unless they have a waiver. 95% of USAID staff were put on leave, which means waivers aren't getting processed. Prior to being put on leave, they were placed under a gag order, which meant they could not communicate about new processes to implementers. For those who do get waivers to operate, the payment system is not being operated, which means they don't get the funds anyway. You are correct that funds are disbursed in large tranches, but this is after work is done, leaving implementing organisations to carry the debt. The issue is the US is using the 'pause' to not pay its debts.
The waiver system is widely reported not to be working effectively and payments are not being disbursed.
Great episode and great conversation. You guys touched on something I have been thinking about quite a lot recently as it pertains to my own industry and that is namely how to define and think about and operate within this vibe shift.
On the one hand things have changed Perceptibly, but on the other, it’s quite difficult to really articulate how exactly they have changed and in what ways.
I think Ethan said it best when he said that it is a very unsettled time and I think anybody who claims to really know where the dust has settled is just guessing at this point.
I think just as we needed a year or two after 2020 to really be able to define what was going on, I think we are a year or two away from really understanding if and how things have actually changed in the culture.
Katie needs to put a moratorium on talking about Musk until she can do it without sounding like she's on the verge of tears.
Yes, we get that he infuriates you - but your whole USP has been that you are above the hysteria, it's what makes your takes sound considered and interesting.
(See also any story involving dogs)
I really disagree with this. This seems like a reason to be very concerned and it’s more shocking to me that people are so complacent or in the Trump cult that they can’t see what’s happening is a huge problem (that and they aren’t the ones losing their jobs). If they treated this with too much brevity (some brevity is always nice), it wouldn’t be them. If you want 100% left critique and none for the right in power, you should stick to Free Press and many of the other heterodox pods. I’m really grateful for their measured takes…they are keeping me sane.
Yea I agree. I’m honestly pretty surprised how upset she seems about Musk and Trump on the recent podcasts. Not that I expected her to like them by any means. I remember a sort of consensus forming after the election that Trump would face less resistance this time around, but I don’t think that will be true. I’m seeing numerous people I know on IG and IRL that I didn’t see make a single political post or mention anything political to me in the last long while, nothing about the 10s of thousands of kids vaporized in Gaza, but they’re posting and mentioning to me all about USAID funding being cut and kids in Africa, etc. I know a few people that are starting to get spun out over this. Red team vs Blue team politicization really never ceases to puzzle and amaze me.
I don't know how anyone can accuse Katie of being that way just because she gets a little emotional for 5 seconds and then chokes it back.
Excellent episode . Have no knowledge of US sports whatsoever, but still managed to be utterly hooked….. great guest hosting ….
Lapchick's report cards are very funny because they somehow give the NBA - 70% black in his figures - an A+ for 'player diversity'. I wonder if he and Steve Sailer share stats.
It makes sense if he's using the anti-racist definition of diverse=non-white. By that standard, a 100% black NBA would be the most "diverse" league possible.
This shit is just super racist garbage. The whole concept of the industry is racist.
Lots of Jewish basketball players in the early days, 1900-1950, before the demographic moved to the burbs. https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/basketball-and-the-jews/
What I wonder about is the diversity issue in activities like bird-watching, hiking, etc. How does racism stop someone from buying a pair of binoculars, or boots? You do these things by yourself, or with a friend. I don't get it.
The height of absurdity was the idea that somehow the *outdoors* were not inclusive. From an REI page (unsurprisingly created in June 2020, but still up):
"...for many people and communities, being able to live safely and openly with equitable access to opportunities and a sense of belonging in the outdoors still isn’t a reality."
https://www.rei.com/blog/rei-news/how-to-support-organizations-working-toward-a-more-inclusive-outdoor-community
My eyes aren't capable of rolling enough...
I spend a lot of time in botanical gardens and on nature trails. Yes, there are very few black people in these spaces. (Even in a 40 percent black Philly). So what? I don't know where we got the idea that al races must have the same level of interest in certain recreational activities.
Why are t there more Korean kids on basketball courts or more Jewish people in bowling leagues?
Are we the only developed country that acts like this?
I think a lot of communities simply don’t have access to green spaces or open spaces to say, safely learn to ride your bike. I think access to outdoor activities is more a question of neighborhood and culture, both of which are linked to race.
Weirdly enough, that controversy with Rush Limbaugh and black quarterbacks in the NFL ended up becoming the model of how affirmative action was “supposed” to work. Prior to the late 1990s, there were very few black quarterbacks. You had Doug Williams who had one Super Bowl year with the Redskins/Commanders in the late 1980s, Warren Moon quarterbacking the Houston Oilers to reasonable success after having to play in the CFL for a few years, Randall Cunningham on the Eagles setting the model black quarterback as a half running back/half quarterback type, and one or two journeymen like Rodney Peete.
Then the NFL starting focusing on recruiting black quarterbacks into the league, and you had one year (2000 maybe), where there were five or six black quarterbacks in the playoffs: Donovan McNabb (the focal point of the Limbaugh controversy, who ended up having a pretty good career and was one of the quarterbacks who lost to Tom Brady in a Super Bowl), Steve McNair of the Tennessee Titans (formerly Houston Oilers aka Warren Moon’s team, and also RIP), Daunte Culpepper of the Vikings, a couple of others whose names escape me at the moment.
Shortly thereafter you had players like Michael Vick (who ended up with the Eagles eventually), Teddy Bridgewater (another journeyman), and a few others whose blackness would be mentioned, but not the main focus of the coverage. By the mid 2010s, you had Russell Wilson winning a Super Bowl and it seemed like his marriage to Ciara was more resonant in the media than his blackness. Also, you started seeing fewer people assume that a black quarterback was essentially a hybrid running back/quarterback (Russell Wilson could run, but he wasn’t a McNabb, Cunningham, or Vick type).
Fast forward to 2020s, a couple of decades after the first conscious efforts to open up the black quarterback pipeline, and enough time for those first black youth players to make it to the NFL. Even if you exclude biracial players like Patrick Mahomes, you see that the efforts paid off and that for black quarterbacks in the league, their blackness is incidental to their coverage. Off the top of my head:
- Jalen Hurts: Super Bowl champion Eagles quarterback, held up as an example of grit and character after getting benched in the NCAA championship game, and his diversity cookies come more from having an all-female management team.
- Dak Prescott - Good but just can’t get it together and the Cowboys are a dysfunctional mess anyway.
- Lamar Jackson - like early/mid-career Peyton Manning - MVP numbers in the regular season, can’t quite get the Ravens to the next level in the postseason
- CJ Stroud - underrated promising QB and probably the best QB the relatively new Houston Texans ever had
- Geno Smith - after flaming out with the Giants and Jets, became comeback player of the year with the Seahawks
- Russell Wilson - aging QB who still thinks he has it even though he’s well past his Seattle glory days. Been jumping from team to team lately, may end up playing transition placeholder for a team like the New York Giants as they try to find their next franchise quarterback.
- Jordan Love - the exhale of relief in Green Bay after Aaron Rodgers
- Justin Fields - becoming a journeyman. Raw undisciplined talent last I saw
And I’m probably overlooking more. Point is that after a few years making a big deal about the lack of black quarterbacks and the possibility that they were being shut out of the position due to racist presumptions, the problem was fixed and now a quarterback being black is barely worth remarking on.
Teddy Bridgewater was briefly a brilliant player for the Vikings until he got his ankle broken in pieces. Glad to see him as backup QB yet in the league.
Agree - Bridgewater looked like he had an exciting future until his lower leg was obliterated.
Like you I was super happy to see him taking the field in a playoff game all these years later. Here's hoping it's the start of at least a partial career resurrection
Same draft class as Johnny Manziel. Remember some Vikings fans being disappointed in having to `settle' for Bridgewater.
We like to think that there's some kind of science to drafting.
In advance of the 2014 draft, one of the major red flags about Johnny Manziel was his ability to adapt to a structured offense. The perception was that his college offensive coordinator KLIFF KINGSBURY allowed him to freelance too much.
In advance of the 2017 draft, one of the major red flags about Patrick Mahomes was his ability to adapt to a structured offense. The perception was that his college head coach KLIFF KINGSBURY allowed him to freelance too much.
For a variety of reasons (some his fault - substance abuse; some not - the Browns front office sucks) Manziel washed out of the league after only two years.
After seven years as a full-time starter, Mahomes is in the conversation for being among the all-time greats. (going to the right organization at the right time helps)
Go figure.
I'd also suggest that Manziel looked so good because A&M was running a spread offense against SEC defenses that were simply not structured to counter it, at the time.
Mahomes was consistently playing against defenses, and putting up numbers, that were nominally structured to stop the offensive scheme Kingsbury ran.
Excellent summary.
No mention of Jayden Daniels. For shame. You need to go watch seven Hail Marys.