Does Christopher Nolan make going to the movies feel like homework?

Friend of PTFO (and New York Times critic at large) Wesley Morris returns for a — relatively spoiler-free — cinematic sparring session:

What goes wrong when an auteur plays with too many Hollywood toys?

What goes right when Homeric text aligns with archetypal Damon?

Is the casting really “woke,” after all?

And why were those Greek islands so... neutered?

YOUTUBE SPOILER ALERT:

Don’t Believe His Lies,

Pablo

P.S. You can now watch us over on Apple Podcasts (!)

I don’t want to spoil this episode — a genuine Mickey Duzyj classic — too much.

But I should remind our new subscribers here that one of the missions of PTFO’s sports coverage is to take stupid things seriously. And vice versa.

So it is a joy to see comments, on YouTube, like this:

I hope you enjoy watching this as much as we enjoyed making it.

YOUTUBE SPOILER ALERT:

Stimulaxed,

Pablo

P.S. You can now watch us over on Apple Podcasts (!)

For many content creators, the whole point of success is to sell out.

For a kid who dropped out of college to stream himself playing college football video games online, developing a business partnership with the makers of your favorite franchise — College Football 27 — would be the dream.

And for James Bordeaux, it was.

But then it wasn’t.

So we called up one of the key figures in the #CFBPlayDontPay movement — which we just broached, last week, with Friend of PTFO and “Old Stoner” Dan Soder — about why a college football content creator fomented a consumer revolt.

And how to fight the enshittification of everything.

YOUTUBE SPOILER ALERT:

Sincerely,

Pablo

P.S. You can now watch us over on Apple Podcasts (!)

Welcome to Part III (!) of our investigation into Harvard’s undisclosed financial history with Jeffrey Epstein.

A whole lot has been exclusively reported, already, in collaboration with Harvard undergrad Dhruv Patel and The Crimson, my old student newspaper.

In case you missed Part I:

And in case you missed Part II:

Part III, however, focuses on the billionaire who funded Epstein — and seems to have connected him to Harvard, in the first place:

Leslie H. Wexner.

YOUTUBE SPOILER ALERT:

Veritas,

Pablo

P.S. You can now watch us over on Apple Podcasts (!)

A superstar held up by the salary cap.

A billionaire under the microscope.

A league inquiry hidden from public view.

Returning PTFO guest DeMaurice Smith has seen this playbook for punishment before. The former NFL union boss — and white-shoe law-firm investigator (and federal prosecutor) — returns to answer questions the NBA apparently cannot:

Who is “independent” when the league (and Steve Ballmer, in particular) pays the legal bill?

Why do salary cap rules actually matter?

How do unions play the long game?

And what obligation does a league have to its fans, if cheating can be the baseline?

YOUTUBE SPOILER ALERT:

Groot,

Pablo

P.S. You can now watch us over on Apple Podcasts (!)

This is an episode for people who know a ton about video games — and people who know absolutely nothing.

Because if you, like me, went through puberty sometime in the 1990s or 2000s, you may think you have a general sense of that enormous industry.

But you would be wrong.

For those who haven’t been paying attention, a sprawling controversy — an online revolt, really — is underway, right now, around the newest edition of the best-selling video game in American history: College Football, made by EA Sports.

It is a story about private equity, sovereign wealth funds, competition, “microtransactions,” “virtual currency,” cheat codes (RIP), islands, and the question of whether we even own the products we buy, at this point.

And whether the companies that sell them do, either.

So we asked one of my favorite comics and Friends of PTFO, Dan Soder — who’s been playing video games with a future NFL coach since childhood — to explain how we got here. And where we’re headed. And why this is the story of our time.

YOUTUBE SPOILER ALERT:

GameShark Forever,

Pablo

P.S. You can now watch us over on Apple Podcasts (!)

We fell in love with Jerry Saltz — the Pulitzer Prize-winning art critic for New York Magazine — when he visited our studio in December 2024.

What we wanted to do then was train Jerry’s eye upon modern statues of athletes:

The subject matter this time, as Earth obsesses over the World Cup?

A curated collection of some of the most lusted-after hardware in sports.

Jerry, as always, had no idea what he’d see beneath our black capes and curtains.

Neither, of course, did we.

YOUTUBE SPOILER ALERT:

Classically,

Pablo

P.S. You can now watch us over on Apple Podcasts (!)

On this edition of Share & Tell, with our friends Katie Nolan and Jay Jurden…

Why were Taylor Swift’s wedding guests and celebrity Knicks fans assigned “risk” scores inside Madison Square Garden’s secret VIP database? (Previously.)

Who was the karaoke MVP at the Swift/Kelce wedding afterparty?

Would you test-drive the “most potent weed beverage known to man”?

Or Bill Simmons’ colonoscopy?

PLUS: Guy Fieri, Shaboozey, The Mike Vrabel Sliding Scale of Chivalry, The Blandino Tier and fogging the glass of exclusivity.

YOUTUBE SPOILER ALERT:

Safely,

Pablo

P.S. You can now watch us over on Apple Podcasts (!)

Something extremely strange has been happening with Phil Mickelson, amid a lot of other strange things happening with Phil Mickelson.

Such as the impending collapse of the Saudi-backed LIV Golf Tour, which we’ve previously covered with our guest today, Alan Shipnuck.

Or Sable Offshore, the oil company we’ll get back to later.

Or the time Phil tweeted me, back in November:

But we here at PTFO continue to wait.

Because Phil Mickelson — the second-greatest golfer of his generation, next to Tiger Woods, and a wildly popular folk hero/family man — basically disappeared.

He has stopped playing golf tournaments.

And even more conspicuously: @PhilMickelson went dark on Twitter. Where he’d transformed into one of the most prolific posters in all of sports.

Which leads us back to my old colleague Alan Shipnuck, who literally wrote the book on Phil, and has now cracked this story wide open for Skratch Golf. Starting with a rumor we had both heard in the spring.

YOUTUBE SPOILER ALERT:

Thanks,

Pablo

P.S. You can now watch us over on Apple Podcasts (!)

Perhaps you’ve noticed that America has fallen in love with this World Cup.

Perhaps you’ve noticed that this is happening in spite of FIFA.

Perhaps you’ve noticed that this tournament is getting massive ratings for FOX.

For these reasons, it felt appropriate to sit down with the man that used to be, by some measure, the most important soccer fan in the United States: former ESPN president (and current Sporting Class regular) John Skipper.

Who believed that his home country would one day fall in love with soccer.

And who also testified in a FIFA federal corruption trial.

And who also lost the World Cup to — you guessed it — FOX.

YOUTUBE SPOILER ALERT:

U-S-A,

Pablo

P.S. You can now watch us over on Apple Podcasts (!)

This is an episode about my trip to Miami last weekend.

But before you click, I need you to understand that back on Oct. 3, 2025, we published an episode titled “What You Can’t Control.”

We didn’t share specifics, obviously, out of respect for David Samson’s family.

But weeks earlier, David had received horrific news about his younger daughter.

And late last month, at age 28, Kyra Samson passed away.

It is an unthinkable tragedy: Kyra had been diagnosed with a type of glioblastoma multiforme. One of the most aggressive forms of brain cancer.

And what you need to know now is that her family has started something called The Kyra Fund, in her honor.

The Kyra Fund, as you can see, is already within distance of a staggering goal.

My hope is that you can join us in continuing her fight.

YOUTUBE SPOILER ALERT:

Sincerely,

Pablo

P.S. You can now watch us over on Apple Podcasts (!)

Maybe you know the story of Grant Wahl.

Maybe you don’t.

He covered soccer (long) before it was cool, promised to go WikiLeaks on FIFA, and got detained — and mysteriously collapsed — in Qatar.

If there was ever someone we needed to hear from now, as a global conduit during this corrupt World Cup on American soil, it’s Grant.

So we asked his former co-host, Chris Wittyngham — along with Dr. Celine Gounder and one of the many stars he inspired — to help us listen back to Wahl’s lost tapes; re-live his fearless run for office; and the rainbow target on his chest.

Then we put the conspiracies to rest.

YOUTUBE SPOILER ALERT:

Sincerely,

Pablo

P.S. You can now watch us over on Apple Podcasts (!)

I’d been wondering how to bring Friend of PTFO John Green — the bestselling author, prolific YouTuber, and AFC Wimbledon sponsor — back into our studio.

And then I discovered that John’s friendship with Daniel Alarcón — the MacArthur Genius, New Yorker writer, and Radio Ambulante co-founder — dates back to their days together in high school in Birmingham, Alabama.

And… soccer.

Together, we dissect the untapped power of fans; uncomfortable compliments; banned books; scenes without adjectives; teenage photos; Germany 7, Brazil 1; (not) profiling Leo Messi; Alexi Lalas; and how to give a motivational speech.

YOUTUBE SPOILER ALERT:

Gracias,

Pablo

P.S. You can now watch us over on Apple Podcasts (!)

One of my goals with PTFO is for you to be surprised by what any given show is gonna be about.

Some days we’ll be investigating an endless NBA scandal. Other days we’ll be marking the 10-year anniversary of the assassination of a gorilla by showing you an exclusive, never-before-seen video of that gorilla eating [REDACTED].

But here we’re bringing you a person of interest — a patron saint, of sorts — whose entry into our cinematic universe is a surprise to me.

Sarah Jessica Parker’s collection of Emmys and Golden Globes does not begin to describe what is now a five-decade career in public performance, ever since she was a child actor in Hollywood and on Broadway and other such Manhattan sidewalks. You of course know her from her role as a relentlessly fashionable newspaper columnist named Carrie Bradshaw in Sex and the City — and if you don’t, it is extremely funny that this is how you’re finding out about that.

But Sarah Jessica’s voiceovers, her narrations, as seen and heard on HBO, in the late 90s and into the 2000s, became a template unto themselves.

It got to the point where receiving a voice note from that same woman felt exhilarating. And also, honestly, confusing.

YOUTUBE SPOILER ALERT:

Natively,

Pablo

P.S. You can now watch us over on Apple Podcasts (!)

When we first asked Tim Weah if he’d spend a little time with us during the World Cup, I did not know that the interview would happen after the U.S. beat Paraguay, 4-1, in Los Angeles, and before beating Australia, 2-0, in Seattle.

The biggest reason we’d reached out to Tim is because of a remarkable biographical detail about the 26-year-old forward. A detail without any real comparison in sports.

Tim Weah was born in New York City but his father, in case you didn’t know, is George Weah — who, until just two years ago, was the president of Liberia.

Before that, by the way, George Weah happened to be one of the greatest soccer players of his generation, in the 1990s: playing at Monaco and Paris Saint-Germain and AC Milan and Chelsea. And so we will get to some of that.

But in that opener against Paraguay — and then again, against Australia — the U.S. watched Tim and his teammates do something special, on their home turf.

The U.S. men’s national team has never won the World Cup before. (Of course they haven’t.) But that win over Paraguay wound up being the most-watched telecast in the history of the team, averaging 18 million viewers.

So I wanted to understand this moment through the eyes of Tim Weah. And why he decided to represent America, in the first place.

YOUTUBE SPOILER ALERT:

Wu-Tang,

Pablo

P.S. You can now watch us over on Apple Podcasts (!)

On the new Summer School edition of The Sporting Class, with former NFLPA president (and NBPA chief operating officer) Domonique Foxworth and former Marlins president (and host of Nothing Personal) David Samson…

• Did James Dolan’s pump-up speech help the Knicks win it all?

• Did their players stop fornicating because of it?

• How much do billionaires matter to championships?

• Should superstars sacrifice millions for the greater good?

(Previously.)

YOUTUBE SPOILER ALERT:

Thanks,

Pablo

P.S. You can now watch us over on Apple Podcasts (!)

Please let Desus drive the U.S.S. Intrepid.

YOUTUBE SPOILER ALERT:

Thanks,

Pablo

P.S. You can now watch us over on Apple Podcasts (!)

Perhaps you have noticed the giant metal claw that has been planted on the south lawn of the White House, ahead of this Sunday’s 80th birthday party for President Donald Trump.

And perhaps you have heard the tale of Trump’s multi-decade friendship with UFC boss Dana White.

But the real story behind “UFC Freedom 250,” it turns out, has been overlooked by most — as our friendly neighborhood MMA expert, , explains.

YOUTUBE SPOILER ALERT:

Happy Birthday,

Pablo

P.S. You can now watch us over on Apple Podcasts (!)

You may think you understand the love affair between FIFA and the United States.

But the story goes a lot deeper than the White House.

And now that the biggest party in global sport is underway, you should know that soccer’s governing body stands to profit nearly $9 billion.

How did FIFA squeeze U.S. taxpayers with so many hidden costs?

The Athletic’s Adam Crafton helps us crunch the numbers on wasted public money, as we dissect comically absurd demands upon host cities — from “clean” stadiums and super-V.I.P. treatment... to a pop-up jail.

YOUTUBE SPOILER ALERT:

U-S-A,

Pablo

P.S. You can now watch us over on Apple Podcasts (!)

I first typed Jeremy Lin’s name in 2007, back when he was a Harvard freshman.

I first interviewed him when he was a senior, after pitching a Sports Illustrated feature that ultimately got published in 2010.

Then, two years later, this happened:

Linsanity, obviously, did not end the way Knicks fans wanted it to.

But this week… after 14 long years… Jeremy Lin returned to Madison Square Garden, as a spectator, for the very first time.

And he found a connection with this team, during this miracle run, that has provided something missing: closure that he — and the Garden — deserved.

YOUTUBE SPOILER ALERT:

BANG,

Pablo

P.S. You can now watch us over on Apple Podcasts (!)