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427: "Baseball in the Roaring Twenties" - With Thomas Wolf

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Release Date: 01/05/2026

430: 430: "Everybody Loses" - With Danny Funt

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This week, we pull back the curtain on one of the most seismic shifts in American sports and culture: the explosive rise of legalized sports gambling. Once condemned as a corrosive menace to the integrity of competition, betting on games is now a pervasive part of how fans watch, interact with, and spend on sports. But at what cost?  Our guest, journalist Danny Funt, has spent years investigating the forces behind America’s betting boom. His new book, "," lays bare how fantasy sports startups, professional leagues, and tech platforms helped normalize wagering — transforming...

info_outline 429: The Negro Leagues' Memphis Red Sox - With Keith Wood show art 429: The Negro Leagues' Memphis Red Sox - With Keith Wood

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info_outline 428: 428: "Stadium City" - With Helen Morgan Parmett

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info_outline 427: 427: "Baseball in the Roaring Twenties" - With Thomas Wolf

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Baseball's 1926 World Series was more than just a championship showdown — it was emblematic of America in a decade defined by financial excess, social rebellion, and societal reinvention. We explore that dramatic showdown through "," a riveting new book by historian and author Thomas Wolf. Wolf takes us beyond the box scores of this unforgettable seven-game clash between Babe Ruth’s New York Yankees and Rogers Hornsby’s St. Louis Cardinals. He traces Ruth’s improbable resurgence from a disastrous 1925 season — a comeback that reignited the public imagination—and...

info_outline 426.5: The NASL Players’ Strike of 1979 – With Steve Holroyd [ARCHIVE RE-RELEASE] show art 426.5: The NASL Players’ Strike of 1979 – With Steve Holroyd [ARCHIVE RE-RELEASE]

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info_outline 426: The 6th Annual(-ish) Year-End Holiday Roundtable Spectacular! show art 426: The 6th Annual(-ish) Year-End Holiday Roundtable Spectacular!

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info_outline 425: Fox Sports Soccer Rules Analyst Dr. Joe Machnik show art 425: Fox Sports Soccer Rules Analyst Dr. Joe Machnik

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info_outline 424: Baseball's Most Outrageous Promotions - With Joseph Natalicchio show art 424: Baseball's Most Outrageous Promotions - With Joseph Natalicchio

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Baseball has long been America’s pastime — and the stage for some of the wildest, most outrageous marketing stunts in sports history. From the postwar era through the 1970s, team owners and promoters pushed the limits of spectacle to fill seats, generate buzz, and entertain fans, often blurring the line between creativity and chaos. This week, "" author Joe Natalicchio joins for a wild ride across some of the sport’s most infamous attempts to spice things up at the ol' ballpark - where good marketing intentions went mightily awry. Natalicchio takes us behind the...

info_outline 423: Philadelphia's 423: Philadelphia's "Broad Street Bullies" - With Sam Carchidi & Jeff Hare

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The Philadelphia Flyers didn’t just win hockey games in the 1970s — they changed the sport, the city, and the culture around them. In this episode, we dig into the rise, reign, and mythology of the "Broad Street Bullies," the decade-long era (1971–1981) when the Flyers transformed themselves from an NHL expansion afterthought into the toughest, most polarizing, and most beloved champions in league history. To unpack how a group of gritty, bruising, blue-collar players became civic folk heroes, we sit down with long-time Philadelphia Inquirer sportswriter Sam Carchidi and...

info_outline 422: The 422: The "Super Bowl Shuffle" - With Jeff Cameron

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Few sports moments have left as lasting a mark on pop culture as the 1985 Chicago Bears’ recording of the “.” This week, we go behind the music, the madness, and the myth with NFL Films Senior Producer Jeff Cameron  — director of HBO’s new documentary short "" — who takes us inside the making of the iconic rap video that transformed a championship football team into cultural icons. "The Shuffle" reveals never-before-seen, behind-the-scenes footage and fresh interviews with Bears legends Mike Singletary, Jim McMahon, Willie Gault, and Gary Fencik, who recount...

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Baseball's 1926 World Series was more than just a championship showdown — it was emblematic of America in a decade defined by financial excess, social rebellion, and societal reinvention. We explore that dramatic showdown through "Baseball in the Roaring Twenties: The Yankees, the Cardinals, and the Captivating 1926 Season," a riveting new book by historian and author Thomas Wolf.

Wolf takes us beyond the box scores of this unforgettable seven-game clash between Babe Ruth’s New York Yankees and Rogers Hornsby’s St. Louis Cardinals. He traces Ruth’s improbable resurgence from a disastrous 1925 season — a comeback that reignited the public imagination—and revisits the iconic moments that still echo through baseball history, from Grover Cleveland Alexander’s legendary Game 7 performance to Ruth’s controversial, series-ending stolen base attempt.

But the story extends well beyond the field. Wolf situates the Series within the broader cultural currents of the Jazz Age: Prohibition-era speakeasies, a rapidly modernizing society, and the parallel world of the Negro Leagues, where Rube Foster’s bold vision flourished even as hopes for integration faced overwhelming resistance.

The conversation also uncovers lesser-known (and darker) chapters, including the game-fixing scandal involving Ty Cobb and Tris Speaker that surfaced during the Series, and Commissioner Judge Landis’s unexpectedly lenient response.

A historian and lifelong baseball devotee, Wolf has long examined baseball’s cultural meaning. "Baseball in the Roaring Twenties" is his most ambitious work yet — using one remarkable season to probe the contradictions, triumphs, and tensions at the heart of 1920s America.

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