← Channels with Peter Kafka
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- [00:01]
Teffy
When you think of someone with adhd, who comes to mind? Is it a woman in her 30s?
- [00:06]
Unknown Female Speaker
Just this constant feeling of being too much, you know, too kinetic, too loud, all of the too anything and just really feeling like people got some kind of social rulebook that I never got.
- [00:19]
Teffy
The Changing Face of adhd. That's this week on Explain It To Me New episodes Sundays Wherever you get your podcasts.
- [00:31]
Henry Blodgett
AI can Fix Healthcare I'm Henry Blodgett and this week on my show Solutions, I had a fascinating conversation with Dr. Bob Wachter, author of A Giant How AI is Transforming Healthcare and what It Means for our future. Dr. Wachter was not expecting to be an AI optimist. What convinced him? Follow Solutions with Henry Blodgett wherever you get your podcasts to hear more
- [00:57]
Roger Bennett
when
- [00:58]
Henry Blodgett
is the AI bubble going to burst? How do you AI proof your job? How should colleges handle AI and prepare students for a shifting job market? I'm Henry Blodgett and on my show Solutions I've been exploring all of those questions and more with experts who have actual answers. We hear enough about our problems. Let's solve them. Follow Solutions with Henry Blodgett foreign.
- [01:28]
Peter Kafka
From the Vox Media Podcast Network. This is Channels with Peter Kafka. That's me. I'm also chief correspondent at Business Insider. We have had a very newsy couple of weeks over here in POD media land. Today we're going to move away from the most current events and focus just a bit down the road. About four months from now when soccer's World cup comes to the US And Canada and Mexico, they're hosting it together. The last time the US hosted the World cup was 1994. The American team wore jerseys that looked like acid washed jeans and basically anyone who wanted to, even me, could get a World cup ticket. This year it's going to be very different for a bunch of reasons. Soccer has been getting more popular in the US For a long time and there's a lot more money in the game now. So good luck getting cheap seats. If you find any, let me know. Also, Donald Trump is President of the United States right now and the United States has a difficult relationship with many countries in the world right now, which means hosting a World cup in 2026 is going to be interesting. I have been thinking about a lot of this stuff for quite some time. I've been dying to talk about it. So here comes Roger Bennett, one of my all time faves. He runs the Men in Blazers podcast Empire. He has been on a mission to expand soccer in the US for decades. Now he is getting to see a return on that investment. We talk about what the World cup means, how you might experience it even if you never go to a game, and what it means to be the dominant sports media outfit for a game that's still kind of niche in the US Even though Roger doesn't like hearing me say that. Oh, and Roger has a new book out, too. It's called We Are the World Cup. It's great. Ro is great. Did I mention that? Here is me talking to Roger Bennett. Roger Bennett is a man I may spend more time with than any other human.
- [03:23]
Roger Bennett
Good Lord.
- [03:24]
Peter Kafka
I think that's. It's very embarrassing, but let's just say it out loud in public. He. He hosts and is the co founder of the Men in Blazers Podcast Network, which means, I don't know what, probably three hours a week I'm spending time with you.
- [03:37]
Roger Bennett
You know, if I'm in your ears that long, I'm sure the surgeon general will soon be pointing out a warning. Peter, It's.
- [03:43]
Peter Kafka
It's definitely not healthy. In addition to that, sometimes I podcast with you. Thank you for coming back on the show. We are here to talk about the World cup, which is happening not right away, but later this spring in June. You have written a book about it. It's a history of your memories at the World cup called we are the World Cup. It's a great book. If you want to know that Roger and I could have crossed paths in Chicago in 1994, but didn't, this is the book for you. This is a history of your memories of the World Cup. I think a lot of Americans don't have World cup memories because it just has not been that big a deal, except for weirdos like you and me. But the World cup is coming here in June.
- [04:23]
Roger Bennett
What.
- [04:23]
Peter Kafka
What should tell us what people should expect from a. From hosting a World Cup? You've been to a bunch of.
- [04:28]
Roger Bennett
Yeah, look, I. I think the book is many things, and part of the reason I wrote it as a personal history of past World Cups, is the World cup has become important here. Americans love a circus. They love an excuse to daytime drink. Peter. Which the World cup is a tour de force in. It's also a telling of just the power of sports. In all of our biographies, we measure time. We measure our own biography through these sporting events. And for me and millions around the world, it is a World Cup. So on one level, to answer the question, you should just read the book and it will enhance your viewing pleasure. Of this World cup, which is coming for 39 days this summer. But the World cup is enormous. What is it, 200 million? Ish? Watch the Super Bowl. 1.5 billion human beings watch the World cup and it's a global eclipse that sweeps the planet for the entirety that it's on. And I will say part of the narrative of the book is how when I came to America originally in the 90s, no one cared. In fact, they actually spoke aggressively about how much they didn't care. It was almost pathological. But around 2006-2010, this drumbeat began where Americans did fall in love with its thrall, but it's geopolitics, the depth of the storytelling. And I believe this World Cup 2026 is going to do what 1994, when the men's World cup was last here, didn't and make America a true football loving nation.
- [05:58]
Peter Kafka
I mean, I think at this point everyone in this country is familiar, at least in passing, with soccer because they played it as a kid or their kids play it. Right? And that is a big difference between now and 1990. But in terms of being exposed to this, carnival will be a, will be a new experience for people because again, I was, I remember the World cup in 1994. Unless you went to one of the stadiums, you kind of weren't aware it was happening. And plus there were things like the O.J. chase and other news events that were happening. What should people expect in this country? What should they feel a World cup is here? Should they, or do you think they'll go about their day and not know it? Unless they're watching.
- [06:39]
Roger Bennett
Oh, you look at it and I, you are going to know. It's going to be impossible to avoid. Just shut your eyes and think for a moment about Kansas City, for instance, where Argentina are going to play games, where the Netherlands are going to play games. Kansas City, that jewel box of a town, number one, is going to be announcing itself to the world, which I'll get back to in a moment in the same way as Atlanta did when it, when it hosted the Olympics and really put Atlanta on the map as a global epicenter. But Kansas City is going to have Lionel Messi, please God, in Argentina there, they're going to have the Dutch there. You're going to see, you know, before Games 20, 30,000 Dutch fans clad in, in their orange, marching down the major boulevard of Kansas City. They do a dance to the links, to the wrecks and they bounce down the street, down the game, thousands and thousands of them. It is cacophonous, it is a bullion. It is utterly joyous. Argentina, they normally bring, you know, a couple of thousands of pounds worth of asado to barbecue during the tournament in which they intend to go deep. Argentina meeting the Kansas City tradition of barbecue. I do believe, or I like to believe, Peter, that in like four generations time, millions of Argentinians will be like, when did burnt ends become the national dish of Argentina? And they'll all say we can't remember where they came from, but my God, they are good. They come from Oklahoma Joe's. That's where they came from. And so you're going to have the world meeting America, America interfacing the world. And right now, you know, it's a time of chaos, a time of fear. For 39 days there's going to be global connectivity, global ebullience. The world will stop. Everybody will be looking at la, Atlanta, Philadelphia, New York and more. Houston, Dallas, Mexico, Canada.
- [08:31]
Peter Kafka
And yeah, we should note this gets being hosted by the US and Mexico and Canada. We could talk about the complexity of that in a minute.
- [08:38]
Roger Bennett
Indeed. But the whole eyes will be on it. And that sense of connectivity, spirit, spiritually, globally, happily, for 39 days in its own right will be, will be just such a a joy.
- [08:48]
Peter Kafka
In 1994, when I barely had email and again soccer was really pretty niche, my friends and I were able to secure Tickets to Greece vs Bulgaria in Chicago and. And we got in my friend Subaru and drove from Minneapolis and learned what a fan belt was. When our fan belt broke and we went and the point is, I assumed I'd be able to get tickets this year for the World cup without much problem. So far it looks like they are impossible to get and if you can get them, they cost a mortgage payment or two. Do you expect that, that to hold all the way through the games or do you think those ticket prices maybe are not real and they'll come down and more people will actually be able to attend the games than the peers right now.
- [09:30]
Roger Bennett
This is that you can get a ticket expert, ticket market expert who can give you a more accurate read. This is a moment where global football culture meets American sporting culture. It's always fascinated me. And by the way, 1994 World Cup I lived in Chicago and I went to the very first game of the World Cup. I didn't have tickets, couldn't afford a ticket. To be candid, back then it was Germany against Bolivia at Soldier Field. I went just to create a crowd scene. I wanted to be an extra in the world cup movie in case, as everyone feared no one would go to the World cup, there was a poll that came out three weeks before the World cup that happily trumpeted that 0% of Americans cared about the tournament. No one was going to go. It was going to be a disaster. Of course, it's still to this day the best attended World cup ever. But such a relief, by the way, to turn up and just see everyday Americans, everybody pouring into Soldier Field to watch this thing. And look, American sports culture is very different than football culture, which is traditionally working class. And the fans of the team travel everywhere with that team and the game is accessible. You speak to American owners of some of the Premier League teams and they'll be like, you know, we raised ticket prices by seven pounds, that's all. And the fans walked out. It was terrible. And they all know that in America, they charge 10 times what they charge for the Premier League. And they're getting to understand football culture here in America. If you want to go to MSG and watch the Knicks, you know exactly what you're going to be paying. And the ticket prices for the World cup, let's just say, are in line with American appetite far more than they are within the European appetite. And that's really the culture clash that we're seeing right now. It is fascinating, but one of the storylines of the book, and I'm saying this neutrally, I'm American, I may sound English to your listeners, but I love this nation more than Kenny Powers loves this nation, is the Americanization of football, the Premier League, which when I came here again early 90s, I would go and watch games in a bar with 10 expats. No Americans in there at all. No one cared. Now, the majority of Premier League teams are owned by American investors, which is in a remarkable moment. And so that transformation, almost the Americanization of football, soccer is what we're kind of living and seeing in these ticket prices.
- [11:48]
Peter Kafka
So what you're telling me is, yes, if you want to see a soccer, if you want to see World cup game this summer, it's going to be multiple mortgage payments. If you don't want to pay that in person, but you want to get the World cup experience, this country this summer, what's the best way to do that? Do you watch it on tv? Because it's a great experience. Do you go somewhere to watch it on TV? Do you go do, do what Roger did in 1994 and hang around the stadium and see what happens?
- [12:13]
Roger Bennett
All of the above is the honest teeth look, but one of the Greatest World cup memories in the modern period was when Germany hosted a World cup in 2006. And in doing so, so joyfully, so efficiently in such an organized manner, they invented the fan zone where up to a million fans could come in Berlin and watch together on giant televisions. You know, they essentially, the Germans invented the act of throwing beers in the air en masse for every single goal try. It makes life so much more bearable. And so the joy of a World cup, but it's really, culturally, the moments on the field are utterly transcendent. Lionel Messi winning the World cup finally in 2022. I don't like to be hyperbolic, but it was, it was like watching the end of the Odyssey, an epic Greek poem live out in real time by a little man with a super cut haircut and wearing cleats. But, you know, the joy of a World Cup, a real World cup happens off the field.
- [13:14]
Peter Kafka
Pick a city I should go to if I don't have a ticket, but want to get the vibe. Seattle, Seattle, who's going to play us,
- [13:20]
Roger Bennett
are going to play their second game there. And there will be a beautiful, beautiful vibe at the fish market before that game. It's going to be a march to the match for both the home team and the away team. Thousands of American fans will walk down to the stadium behind some Seattle notable. I put my money, if I was a betting man, I'm sure polymarket have a market for. I'm sure it'd be Ken Griffey Jr. And it's going to be, it's going to be utterly a bullion. It's going to be liberating. It's going to be. There's going to be a total feeling of freedom and abandon and, and the kind of patriotism which we've seen glimmers of in the World cup, which is just utterly positive, constructive and sizzlingly wonderful.
- [14:05]
Peter Kafka
So let's talk about patriotism and other variants of national feelings. We've talked about this before. World Cups are inherently political. When England plays Germany or England plays Argentina or England plays a lot of history, a lot of history. Or the US plays Iran now the US is hosting the World Cup. The White House is occupied by people who believe in a policy of America first, are outright belligerent towards countries that used to be our allies, are belligerent towards the countries we're bordering and co hosting the World cup with Canada and Mexico are telling people that yes, the Department of Homeland Security will have agents outside the stadiums. How do you think all that is Going to play with world audiences, with visitors who come to the U.S. i mean. And do you think that this is going to dissuade anyone from coming to the US to watch the World Cup?
- [14:55]
Roger Bennett
Look, I can answer that. In many ways, the beauty of the game of football, that I've dedicated my life to it, I will say the rise of the audience in the United States. Earlier you kind of hinted the audience was minimal. Here it's enormous. It's young. The audience is, you know, a Premier League audience, a Champions League audience, an enormous Hispanic audience. We have a whole platform. Vamos. At the men in blazing media network speaking to this young, passionate, enormous Hispanic audience, the women's football audience. One of the joys of my lifetime is seeing the Women's League and the women's audience grow at a really transcendent pace. So the audience here is massive. And one of the things I think that has attracted Americans to it is that when the nations take the field, their nation's histories, politics, cultures take the field alongside them. That's the depth of this World Cup. It's what Walt Whitman said, you know, it contains multitudes. Walt Whitman would have been proper football, Peter. And so that's the joy of the thing. The other joy is always, or I thought it was a joy that football is a mirror to our society, the society that surrounds it. It reflects us back to ourselves. And that's what the World cup does in this mom shows us who we are by 2030. We just released a study of the American football fan base in the United States. One of the things that most energizes me is that football by 2030 will be the perfect reflection of the American demography, the ethnicity, the diversity, the wonder. But it is a mirror to the society that surrounds it, and it always is. And the one thing that I draw strength from, Peter, is that every single World cup running into it in the modern period, there's a pattern of darkness in the run up to it, you know, we can go back to South Africa 2010, which was again, one of the most remarkable feats. First time Africa had ever hosted a World cup, it was, you know, Mandela, South Africa announcing itself to the world. In the run up to that, there were constant calls that it should be taken away from South Africa. The electricity grid wasn't sustainable for this many people. Everyone. The violence in that nation, you know, carjackings alone, were going to make this a fearful, hysterical, dreadful disaster right until the very football. The same with Russia, 2018. Ultimately, football was, by the way, correct
- [17:21]
Peter Kafka
to be Concerned about the World cup in Russia in 2018.
- [17:25]
Roger Bennett
Yeah, 2004, that was, by the way, that was like going into Gilead when you went in there, they polished that place up. It was one of the great propaganda coups of all time. 2014, Brazil, the social unrest the year before. I mean, there were riots around the stadia when they were preparing for the tournament. As soon as football kicks off in places, good, South Africa, Brazil, God, that was one of the greatest sporting achievements I've ever witnessed with my own eyes. Places dark Russia doesn't matter where it is. The moment the ball is kicked off, all of that fear evaporates. South Africa was one of the most joyous World Cups I've ever been to. Brazil, one of the most magical and magnetic. Russia industries darker ways for reasons I've already explained. Once that ball kicks off all the fear, all the darkness, none of the, the doom saying comes through. Ultimately, it's the power of sports. So I've seen this many, many times this, the predictions of doom, everyone will come.
- [18:26]
Peter Kafka
The predictions of doom. There's also just uneasiness. I mean, you did, you did a whole series about Qatar, which hosted the last World cup, and how deeply corrupt and it was that that was assigned there and, and all of the, the gross and probably illegal happenings that happened. I remember you would say this is a real sort of tension as a, as a consumer and fan of this. Like, do you even celebrate something that's happening in a, in a country like Qatar where you have limited rights? And I'm wondering if people are going to feel the same way about the US when they say, I, I, I know I love the sport, but I don't know if I can support something that's happening in a country that's actively belligerent towards the rest of the world. Sounds like you're saying, yeah, though everyone's going to go for it once the game starts.
- [19:10]
Roger Bennett
Sport is always the same. It ends with cognitive dissonance. One geopolitical rationality, nil. I will say it's a challenge for the American team and we've seen that. There was a tournament last year where the United States played Panama and then Canada, and we played Panama right after. There was a lot of saber rattling about the Panama Canal. They beat us. I mean, yeah, and they talked about the desire to beat us in that moment. We played in the next game. Obviously, in the Aftermath of the 51st state conjecture, Canada also talked about how much they wanted to beat us. They did beat us, the American team, which in 2014 in Brazil was one of the darlings of the world. I mean, their position globally. That's going to be one of the most fascinating storylines of the whole tournament.
- [20:04]
Peter Kafka
We'll be right back with Roger Bennett. But first, a word from a sponsor.
- [20:12]
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- [20:40]
Kara Swisher
Experian hey, Kara Swisher here. I want to let you know that Vox Media is returning to south by Southwest in Austin for live tapings of your favorite podcast. Join us from March 13th through the 15th for live tapings of Today, Explained Teffy Talks, Prof. G Markets and of course, your two favorite podcasts, Pivot and On with Kara Swisher. The stage will also feature sessions from Brene Brown and Adam Grant, Marking, Kez Brownlee, Keith Lee, Vivian Tu and Robin Arzon. It's all part of the Vox Media Podcast stage at south by Southwest, presented by Odoo. Visit voxmedia.comsxsw to pre register and get your special discount on your innovation badge. That's voxmedia.comsxsw to register. Really, you should register. We sell out and we hope, hope to see you there.
- [21:42]
Ro Khanna
So everyone knows our politics are divided. There's left versus right and dividing lines on age, gender or race. But maybe our biggest divide in our politics isn't about identity at all. It's insiders versus outsiders. At least that's what Congressman Ro Khanna would say.
- [21:59]
Peter Kafka
The real issue is two tiers of justice in America. The real issue is people with power and wealth using it to be above the law and escape even investigation or prosecution.
- [22:10]
Ro Khanna
And it's only gotten more noticeable in recent months as issues like the Epstein files and artificial intelligence have seemed to pit the elites against everybody else. California Congressman Ro Khanna takes on the Epstein class today. Explain in your feed every weekday and now on Saturdays, too.
- [22:35]
Peter Kafka
Americans are not used to watching world sports where we're not the best at it. We just went through the Olympics and won all the things we're supposed to win. America is not going to win the World cup this summer Most likely. But tell us, tell us for people who are not like me and are not following the quest to figure out who's going to be the striker for the US team, how this team actually is going to do this year. What's a reasonable expectation for the.
- [23:03]
Roger Bennett
Let's all dream. Let's dream. I mean, we'd love winners in America. Oh, by the way, our women are winners. They win consistently.
- [23:12]
Peter Kafka
Our men until last time when they got spanked because it turns out the world had caught up.
- [23:16]
Roger Bennett
God bless that, which is fascinating. Title nine had given us this incredible head start. We are all better off for the world catching up. The level of competition only sharpens everything. And the US responded by winning a gold medal at the Olympics. And I cannot wait for the Women's World cup in 2020. But the men's World cup, look, we love a winning team. We love a dream team. The US Men forever have been a dream on team. We've put a man on the moon. We've invented the cronut. The fact that we have won a grand total of one knockout game in the tournament history with our U.S. men's team is painful. It's fairly unfathomable. We see teams like Morocco play collective fearsome football and go all the way to the semi final. We see Iceland go deep in tournaments. We see Wales go deep in tournaments. Why never us? Which is a question which is deeply complicated. What I can say is this collective as individuals have achieved more person for person than any team that have come before them. We routinely now have US men who play for some of the best teams in the world in Champions League games, the best tournament in the world, and thrillers as individuals. How will they play as collective, we do not know. Because part of the gift of hosting is that you automatically qualify for the tournament. And so in doing that, you're deprived of the gauntlet of steel, sharpening steel of having to qualify. So they're not playing competitive games, they're playing friendlies, you know, practice games against anybody they can tempt over here. Those teams are getting better and better as more teams want to experience the United States where they're going to be playing, but playing under. It's like preseason games in the NFL. What the preseason games. Teacher, teacher, coach. They'll all say, you know something, but not everything. And so we really will not know until that first game in Los Angeles.
- [25:13]
Peter Kafka
I got a sense even those friendlies, right? If we could, we could beat a mediocre team. If we played a country that was really good, we would get whipped. Right. So. And we don't know what that really means because it's still practice games. But. But you know what would make you ecstatic at the end of the World Cup? If the. What round would the US who have need to get. I mean, wow, they really over.
- [25:34]
Roger Bennett
I'm American now. But the little bit of Englishness that lies within me, Peter, is the pessimism that I can never quite shake. So I'm fearful like the team have to and they should do. It would be a national disaster for them not to get out of the group stage. They do not win once we get out to the clear open waters of the knockout round. But there is. And because this is a huge tournament, there's an extra knockout round, so the quality of teams is actually diluted slightly. We should win one knockout game. We should be able to do that once you're in that wide open water. You know, you're very rational, Peter. You're very cut and dry. We're a middle of the pack. But the honest truth is this tournament creates its own rhythm, its own storylines. You know, I write about it in my book. 1990, Cameroon played Argentina and everyone thought African teams at that point were just like third cousins at a wedding, happy to be invited. They shouldn't expect to be in the the actual final photographs. Cameroon beat Argentina and went on the delirious dance deep into the tournament. Tournaments give us hero that we do not expect. Teams find themselves along the way. This team has to win one knockout game. They should win two knockout games. And if they can do that, I've got to say anything is possible.
- [26:51]
Peter Kafka
Okay, fortune in a corner. Two knockout games is Roger's prediction slash requirement. Tell us about some of the non US Teams in those storylines you talked about. Polymarket says Spain is favored to win. That makes sense to me. So now we're all smart. We all know Spain is going to win, but. But, but who's going to be interesting to watch? What's an interesting country? What's an interesting player that you can. You can latch on to as well as rooting for the.
- [27:16]
Roger Bennett
And by the way, you will root for other teams other than the US this is the glory of this tournament. It's why I'm really excited for it to be back in the United States. The 1994 tournament, which I've spent a lot of time thinking about as a bookend to this tournament. I write about it deeply in my book. It did not take off, Peter. We now know it was, we say, one of the greatest successes. But when the game kicked off, it coincided with the O.J. simpson Chase. America was not interested in the footballs, barely interested in the NBA playoffs, which were happening compared to what was going on in Los Angeles. The tournament actually only really caught fire when Italy played Ireland at the Meadowlands and all of New Jersey was there. It was like the Sopranos. Half Sopranos, half Angela's Ashes in there that day. Ireland won. And that was really the match that was struck, that lit the fire of World cup passion, because Americans were given almost the green light to lean into their hybrid identities and find teams in their own background that they could absolutely fall in love with openly, passionately, joyously. And so that will happen again in the most remarkable fashion. Obviously Spain, I mean, just they're like, it's like Indiana to high school basketball, just a deliriously skill soaked squad. France, also led by Kylian Mbappe, looking to win his second World Cup. He got clipped in the final last time around. He wants to be the face of a World cup in the United States. To be, not just to win a World cup which makes you immortal in your home nation. Got to remember, there's a deep commercial opportunity for any player who becomes the darling of this World Cup. They will be what Pele was to the 70s, synonymous with a sport in America when it caps its rise. And so financially, commercially, there's a player's incentive to be the star of this tournament is utterly massive. England are always fascinating. They're like a footballing Charlie constantly kicking a football with Lucy holding. We always, because we invented the game, we believe by divine right we should win it. We are skill soaked. We're always there now in the modern period, it's a dramatic history of self sabotage and ultimate trauma. It will be fantastic to see a new chapter etched out. This team is so nearly there. Norway in their first World cup in forever, propelled by a man called Erling Haaland who's like AI generated a footballer, jammed him into cleats, is going to be an ecstatic revel on and off the field.
- [29:56]
Peter Kafka
Do you have an underdog you're interested? A Morocco of this year's tournament. You're like, oh, this is the first time in the tournament. They're going to be amazing or it's great that they even got here.
- [30:05]
Roger Bennett
Yeah, I mean, it's less the minor. The team that never makes noise in a World cup, but I think is going to have an absolutely ecstatic experience is Japan. I mean, they play football so tactically, so technically, I mean, they will be a fearsome collective with true wonder and just I believe this is a World cup when a team from Asia is going to make a lot of noise and the fan base that is going to be woken up by it in a kind of Shohei, oh, Tanner kind of style is going to be just a dream to see. I will say, by the way, if Messi plays after that final in which he and Mbappe traded moments like they were playing Plato's Cave football, you know, where everything else was just shadows, to watch him again on American turf will be to watch something very beautiful, very profound. It will probably not end in victory. This is what the book reminds us of. He lost four World Cups before he finally won the fifth. To see Lionel Messi leave a World cup field for the last time, probably in tears, will be to understand what Prince really meant when he sang this is what it sounds like when doves cry. It'll be humanly magnificent.
- [31:15]
Peter Kafka
We'll be right back with Roger Bennett after a word from a sponsor.
- [31:24]
Kara Swisher
Hi, this is Kara Swisher, and this week on my podcast on with Kara Swisher, I talked to California Governor Gavin Newsom. While he hasn't officially announced a run for president yet, he's telegraphing it all the time. It's exhausting. He's also got a new book out, which is what you do when you're running for president. It's called Young man in a Hurry. I recently interviewed him live in San Francisco. Have a listen.
- [31:44]
Henry Blodgett
The problem with the Democratic Party so often is we appear weak and we've got to be stronger and we've got to be more assertive. And so that's, you know, it's the spirit, I think, that is required of this moment.
- [31:55]
Kara Swisher
I've known Gavin Newsom since he was mayor of San Francisco a million years ago, a million hair gels ago, and he's a really interesting and compelling politician. He's done a lot of things in his career and this one, this run for presidency which is going to happen, is among the most interesting. You can find a full conversation wherever you get your podcast and on YouTube, obviously. Be sure to follow and subscribe to on with Kara Swisher for more.
- [32:21]
John Finer
What are the main takeaways of the foreign policy section from Donald Trump's State of the Union address?
- [32:26]
Jake Sullivan
I do think they've made a decision in to elevate domestic issues as we head towards the midterms. We'll see if that sticks because he keeps getting drawn back to the foreign policy issues.
- [32:36]
John Finer
I'm John Finer.
- [32:38]
Jake Sullivan
And I'm Jake Sullivan. And we're the hosts of the Long Game, a weekly national security podcast.
- [32:43]
John Finer
This week we'll react to President Trump's State of the Union, address the situation with Iran, and the eruption of violence involving cartels in Mexico.
- [32:51]
Jake Sullivan
The episode's out now. Search for and follow the Long wherever you get your podcasts.
- [32:57]
Teffy
Hey, guys, it's me, Teffy, the host of Teffy Talks. On this week's episode, we're doing a State of the Union but more state of pop culture 2026 from Ozempic to Tradwives Spooky. And why the center of pop culture is in Utah. Now we do a deep dive on Chloe and Lamar. We talk Hilary Duff.
- [33:19]
Roger Bennett
You know what?
- [33:20]
Teffy
Find us everywhere at Tuffy Talks. Subscribe on YouTube and all the podcast platforms and Instagram and TikTok so you can share with your other work bestie and hopefully everyone you've ever met.
- [33:42]
Peter Kafka
And we're back. Roger. This is a podcast where we talk people who run media businesses. You run a media business. It started off as you writing blog posts for ESPN and now is a full media business. You guys raised $15 million last year. How is it going? How many folks do you employ?
- [34:02]
Roger Bennett
We've. We're up to 90 at this point.
- [34:05]
Peter Kafka
90. And, and I still think if you primarily, as the person in my ears, deliver me multiple podcasts a week. Where, where is the growth going to come for you in the next couple years? Obviously, the World cup is enormously important for you. What is it going to be getting? Getting more Americans to consume soccer? Is it getting a bigger percentage of the Americans who consume soccer to consume what you're consuming? Is it YouTube vs tick tock vs you make television shows. Where, where's the growth look?
- [34:34]
Roger Bennett
I mean, the growth is everywhere. I write in the book part, the narrative is about the rise of football in the United States from 1994, when right before the tournament, Jack Kemp, the former LA Rams quarterback turned congressman, felt compelled to run to the floor of Congress and say, we need to teach young Americans. The football is where you run with it and throw it and catch it and not where you kick it. He said, one is American capitalism and the other is European socialism. I imagine him spitting those two words out. We've come a long way since then, but it was 2006, that Wolf cup where, you know, I had the idea for what became the Men in Blazers Media Network. There was a broadcaster on ESPN who said, the world's most famous footballer, Charlie Beckham, takes the field. And I screamed at the television. I was like to my wife, I was like, why don't they just have someone who knows what they're talking about and this sport would take off. She goes, why don't you do it, love? And so I do. I talked about calling up ESPN and being like, guys, you've got to get people. And they were like, we don't have anybody. And that moment, moment Peter was like being shown beachfront property that was completely undeveloped. And so, you know, the growth comes from the just World cup to World cup and then the Premier League 2013. NBC started to do such an incredible job of giving Americans a storyline week to week, which they, you said earlier, Americans love the best. The Premier League is the best. And they hung onto it as if it was like, you know, a chapter of almost Sacred text and spooling live week to week and started to follow along mornings to morning.
- [36:15]
Peter Kafka
And it's now incredibly easy to consume that between Peacock and things like your podcast and TikTok, which shows me updates constantly.
- [36:23]
Roger Bennett
So you have that. Not just cable, but then streamers realized that they could, with the tip of the arrowhead, who'd pay $10 a month to watch things? Oh, football fans. Niche, passionate audiences. That niche is growing. You know, the EA Sports FIFA franchise kind of sensitized Americans to the. The leagues, the teams, dorm room by dorm room across the United States. It's the cacophony of these things. So now you have these enormous audiences, the Premier League, Champions League audience, the women's audience, for which we created a platform with Sam Ewis, former World cup champion, and a slew of players and pundits talking purely about the rise of the women's game globally. We have Vamos, this Hispanic second and third generation property which we've just launched, building for the first time, you know, Abraham Lincoln, we always joke, Abraham Lincoln didn't build a football platform that united all of these football communities in the United States. You know, Neil Armstrong didn't do it all the, you know, first time in American history to build a media platform which can deliver for leagues, for players, for partners. You know, the ability to speak to this massive, vibrant American football communities, because they are, they are. It's a Venn diagram, these different audiences that's really building. That's an enormous thing. And it would be. It's not like building a baseball platform or an NBA platform where there's, you know, a huge pyramid of offerings with Peter Gammons at the tip.
- [37:53]
Peter Kafka
Peter Gammons, what a callback.
- [37:56]
Roger Bennett
Or who's the guy with the enormous Bladder Kuiper, you know, so ultimately, at the beginning, when we started, there was nothing. We've grown from one podcast to do over a thousand a year. And that's really the growth that's propelling this. We're a surfboard on an enormous wave. And it is the narrative of the book, Peter, which is watching America between 94, when we used to joke on our show Saka, America's sport of the future, as it has been since 1972, perpetually the next big thing. 2026, this men's world cup, going into the Women's World cup next year. This is the moment when sport of the future, no more, sport of the present. The NFL, obviously, massive. The NBA, enormous. But right after that, for this young audience in the United States, it's soccer of the different kinds. And they are different, but the men in blazers Media network covers them all. 24, 7, 365.
- [38:53]
Peter Kafka
What's your, what's your fantasy show product thing that you, if you had all the money and resources of the world you'd make, you haven't been able to put it together yet.
- [39:03]
Roger Bennett
I mean, ultimately for us, the, the, the mantra has always been to try and do good things with great people. Like, part we do and part of the growth and part of why, I mean, the rise has been such a joy is we are trying to put good vibe out into the world. I do. I see football, I see this World Cup. I see this book ultimately about savoring these moments, savoring the memories. We think sports is, is, is infinite. We think, you know, I'm a Chicago Bears fan. We think there'll always be another season, there'll always be another game, there'll always be another World Cup. Oh, you know, when you're a kid, you do you think that goes on fore. As I get older, I realize how finite time is. Watching it is incredibly time finite. The ability to make memories is. You know, we only have a number of World Cups in our lifetime and we should savor each and every one of them. That's the ethos we're trying to put out into the world for whatever sport, whatever game, whatever team you're rooting for. And so in that mandate, just someone who's humanly good, who can talk on incredible levels. I mean, there's a manager. And one of the joys of my lifetime at MIB has been that the biggest footballers in the world want to talk to America through our network. So we do have all the Premier League stars and the managers talk through our show and the joy of that has probably been Jurgen Klopp, the Liverpool manager until a season and a half ago. This German, he was like a care bear in human form, Teutonic care bear, if you will, which is a bit of a frightening image. But he's a religious man. He's a deeply empathetic man. He's a really deeply thoughtful man. And I used to love. He came on every year when he was a Liverpool manager. He resigned. Just the job did him in in the end. Resigned as a winner and a man of wonder. Having him, having a manager who stood astroid the game, who his every word when I was with him was like a golden crumb. He could talk about tactics one minute. He could talk about theology. He could talk about reward and punishment. He could talk about human motivation and pull the one of the greatest leaders I can think of. And to speak to him about leadership in a profound way and in the deepest way, I think that would ultimately be number one on my bucket list.
- [41:25]
Peter Kafka
Okay, I will listen watch whatever you do. Roger Bennett, thank you so much. Thank you for coming in my ear all the time. Thank you for coming on this podcast. Good luck this spring.
- [41:35]
Roger Bennett
You're a beautiful human being and just all our sakes, let's plug your book.
- [41:39]
Peter Kafka
Go buy we are the ones World Cup.
- [41:42]
Roger Bennett
It will enhance your World cup viewing pleasure. And I'll just say, Peter, may the American men win a World cup in our lifetime. We don't ask for much, do we?
- [41:49]
Peter Kafka
God bless. Thank you, Roger. Thanks again to Roger Bennett. Always talk to Roger Bennett whenever you can. Thanks to Charlotte Silver who edits and produces the show. Thanks to our advertisers who bring it to you for free. Thanks to you guys for listening. See you soon.