A very special relationship episode

Zack, Jenn, and Alex discuss the saga of Kim Darroch, the recently-resigned UK Ambassador to the US. Some of Darroch’s private cables back home, where he referred to President Trump as “inept” (among other things), were leaked and published in a British tabloid — leading to a sequence of events that led to Darroch’s resignation and reveals quite a lot about Britain’s post-Brexit standing in the world and the US-UK relationship. For elsewhere, they discuss the Women’s World Cup — why some countries are much better than others at women’s soccer and the surprisingly deep socio-political reasons that the US is particularly dominant.

References!

Here’s the Daily Mail’s piece on the leaked cables.

The Atlantic has a good piece on how Boris Johnson effectively sank Kim Darroch’s chances of keeping his job.

This is the “Love Actually” scene Alex talked about.

Yes, a British parliamentarian called Johnson Trump’s poodle in a tweet

WikiLeaks has already released thousands of diplomatic cables

Political science shows more equality for women leads to better soccer teams

The University of Rochester explains Title IX

The US has the best infrastructure to nurture women’s soccer than anywhere in the world

Here’s the Buzzfeed piece Jenn noted about young girls inspired by the US women’s national team

Our sister podcast -- Today, Explained -- did an entire episode on the equal pay issue

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