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437: World Cup History & What's Ahead - With Clemente Lisi

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Release Date: 03/15/2026

443: The Tri-Cities Blackhawks - With Don Doxsie show art 443: The Tri-Cities Blackhawks - With Don Doxsie

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In the early years of professional basketball, before the bright lights and global reach of today’s NBA, the game was held together by grit, geography, and a patchwork of teams fighting to survive. Few franchises capture that fragile, formative moment better than the Tri-Cities Blackhawks — a team that didn’t just represent one city, but an entire region straddling the Mississippi River. In this episode, we’re joined by author Don Doxsie, whose book "" serves as both our guide and our lens into this overlooked chapter of basketball history. Based in Moline, Rock Island, and...

info_outline 442: 442: "Baseball's Outcast: The Story of Ron LeFlore" - With Adam Henig

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Ron LeFlore’s trajectory from a maximum-security prison cell to starting in Major League Baseball's All-Star Game is a narrative of improbable survival and self-inflicted exile.  In this episode, we sit down with Adam Henig, author of "", to unpack the gritty, unvarnished reality of a man who was as much a product of Detroit’s turbulent East Side as he was a victim of his own choices. We explore LeFlore’s early years in a one-bedroom apartment plagued by poverty , the formative trauma of losing his brother Harry — an Olympic boxer — to a ring injury, and the heroin...

info_outline 441: The NASL's Detroit Express (& More!) - With Roger Faulkner show art 441: The NASL's Detroit Express (& More!) - With Roger Faulkner

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From wartime England to the rise — and fall — of pro soccer’s first big American boom, Roger Faulkner has seen it all — and now, he’s telling that story in his new memoir, "." In this episode, we sit down with the Detroit Express co-founder to trace an unlikely journey: from growing up in Derby to helping bring top-flight international soccer to the Midwest at the height of the original North American Soccer League. Alongside high-profile partner/soccer  impresario Jimmy Hill, Faulkner helped build a franchise that aimed to blend global star power with big-event American...

info_outline 440: 440: "Sports Heaven: The Birth of ESPN" - With Greg DeHart & Mike Soltys

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ESPN didn’t begin as a media giant — it started as a gamble.    In 1979, a cash-strapped startup bet on an unproven proposition: a 24-hour sports cable TV network delivered by satellite, built largely on programming no one else wanted and live coverage that barely existed. By any conventional measure, it was an absurd idea. It also changed sports media forever. This week, we revisit that origin story through a new lens: "," premiering April 6th on (where else?) ESPN. The documentary traces how founders Bill Rasmussen, his son Scott, and an unlikely group of partners pushed...

info_outline 439: 439: "Moses and the Doctor" - With Luke Epplin

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Nonfiction author extraordinaire Luke Epplin joins the pod this week to unpack the intertwined legacies of basketball legends Julius Erving and Moses Malone, as chronicled in his acclaimed new book, "." What unfolds is more than a dual biography — it's a portrait of a transformational era when professional basketball’s future hung in the balance. Epplin traces both players back to their early professional years, including their formative time in the upstart American Basketball Association. There, Erving’s aerial artistry helped legitimize a bold, improvisational style of play, while...

info_outline 438: From Bleacher Seats to Luxury Suites - With Seth Tannenbaum show art 438: From Bleacher Seats to Luxury Suites - With Seth Tannenbaum

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Manhattanville University sports studies professor Seth Tannenbaum joins the show to unpack the provocative ideas behind his new book, "" — a sweeping reexamination of the American ballpark and the myth of baseball as a truly democratic space. Tannenbaum walks us through how stadiums have long been designed not just for watching games, but for organizing fans — by class, access, and experience. From the crowded urban intimacy of early 20th-century parks to the rise of suburban, car-centric stadiums and today’s amenity-driven retro designs, he argues that ballparks have...

info_outline 437: World Cup History & What's Ahead - With Clemente Lisi show art 437: World Cup History & What's Ahead - With Clemente Lisi

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This week, we dive into the remarkable history — and uncertain future — of soccer’s greatest spectacle: the FIFA World Cup. Our guest is veteran journalist and soccer author Clemente Lisi, whose newly updated (and eminently essential!) book, "," chronicles the tournament’s extraordinary evolution from its modest beginnings in 1930 to the globe-spanning mega-event it is today.  Drawing on decades of reporting and interviews, Lisi revisits some of the competition’s most iconic matches, legendary players, and defining moments — from Pelé and Diego Maradona to the modern...

info_outline 436: 436: "Court Queens" - With Emma Baccellieri & Jordan Robinson

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Women’s basketball is enjoying a remarkable surge in popularity — but it also stands at a pivotal moment. As the Women's National Basketball Association and the WNBA Players Association remain locked in difficult negotiations over a new collective bargaining agreement, the sport faces a paradox: unprecedented visibility and momentum, yet uncertainty just weeks before the next season. In many ways, the tension reflects the league’s maturation—and serves as a reminder of the decades-long struggle that built the modern women’s game. This week, we explore that history with and ,...

info_outline 435: Death in the Strike Zone: Baseball’s First Superstar - With Tom Gilbert show art 435: Death in the Strike Zone: Baseball’s First Superstar - With Tom Gilbert

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Before Cy Young, before Babe Ruth, before baseball even had a strike zone, there was Jim Creighton — a 21-year-old phenom whose brilliance and tragic death helped create the modern game. This week, we explore the extraordinary life, myth, and enduring legacy of baseball’s first true superstar through a revealing conversation with historian Tom Gilbert, author of the new biography "." In the late 1850s and early 1860s, baseball was still a recreational pastime dominated by offense. Pitchers merely delivered the ball gently, and games could spiral into chaotic, high-scoring affairs....

info_outline 434: US Soccer World Cups, National Teams & Pro Leagues - With Alan Rothenberg show art 434: US Soccer World Cups, National Teams & Pro Leagues - With Alan Rothenberg

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Few figures have shaped modern American soccer more profoundly than Alan Rothenberg ("") — and in this revelatory conversation, he tells the story in his own words. Best known as the founding architect of Major League Soccer and the driving force behind the record-breaking 1994 FIFA World Cup, Rothenberg’s influence on the game in the United States stretches back decades earlier than most fans realize. Long before MLS kicked off in 1996, he was immersed in the sport’s early, fragile professional era. In the late 1960s, Rothenberg worked alongside Jack Kent Cooke in the United...

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This week, we dive into the remarkable history — and uncertain future — of soccer’s greatest spectacle: the FIFA World Cup.

Our guest is veteran journalist and soccer author Clemente Lisi, whose newly updated (and eminently essential!) book, "The World Cup: A History of the Planet's Biggest Sporting Event, 2026 Edition," chronicles the tournament’s extraordinary evolution from its modest beginnings in 1930 to the globe-spanning mega-event it is today. 

Drawing on decades of reporting and interviews, Lisi revisits some of the competition’s most iconic matches, legendary players, and defining moments — from Pelé and Diego Maradona to the modern era of global superstars — that helped transform the World Cup into the most widely watched sporting event on the planet.

But the conversation doesn’t stop with history.

With the 2026 edition — expanded to 48 teams for the first time — set to be hosted across the United States, Canada, and Mexico, we also explore whether the tournament could face unexpected headwinds. Sky-high ticket prices have already sparked backlash from fans and even US lawmakers -- while debates over immigration policy, visa access for international supporters, and rising infrastructure costs for host cities could complicate what should be a global celebration.

Will the largest World Cup ever staged ignite a new era for soccer in North America — or expose the growing tensions between the sport’s worldwide popularity and the economics of modern mega-events?

We explore the past, present, and future scenarios of the World Cup in a wide-ranging conversation with one of the sport’s most thoughtful chroniclers.

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