Dummy: Interviews with smart people about soccer

By Howler Magazine

What's Dummy: Interviews with smart people about soccer about?

A soccer podcast about pretty much everything EXCEPT what happened on the field last weekend. Hosted by Howler’s editor, George Quraishi, with David Goldblatt, author of The Ball is Round, and America’s own Bobby Warshaw.

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LAST EPISODE

The Editors converse

09.20.2018

New editor Dennie Wendt and founding editor George Quraishi discuss the contents, creative process and—incredibly, and at long last—the completion of Howler 15. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Dummy: Interviews with smart people about soccer episodes:

09.20.2018 The Editors converse New editor Dennie Wendt and founding editor George Quraishi discuss the contents, creative process and—incredibly, and at long last—the completion of Howler 15. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
03.09.2018 How Iceland Does It Iceland has been one of the best stories in world soccer over the last few years—a tiny nation that is riding a golden generation to its first ever European Championship and then World Cup in the span of just two ...
03.02.2018 What to make of the Players' Tribune Amos Barshad last came on Dummy to discuss his story about a spate of soccer murders in Argentina. Now he's back to talk about his story in last week's New York Times Magazine about the Players' Tribune and where it ...
02.22.2018 Why do friends let friends become referees? We published a big ol’ package on referees in the latest issue of Howler, and in this episode of Dummy, George speaks with one of the writers about his survey of the academic literature and what it tells us about ...
02.15.2018 Doctor Socrates Andrew Downie’s new book Doctor Socrates tells the story of one of the most interesting players in soccer history. Socrates trained as a physician but chose to become a professional footballer, and he was captain of the wonderful Brazil side ...
02.08.2018 Eden Hazard, Tobin Heath, and Ryan Bailey George and Ryan (host of the Dirty Tackle podcast and an occasional writer for the mag) are in London at a big Nike marketing event, and of the many players present—including Alexis Sanchez, Neymar, Christian Pulisic, and Marcus Rashford—they got ...
02.01.2018 David Beckham enters Cuban exile politics This week, George chats with Robert Andrew Powell, who has been writing about Beckham and Miami for Howler for several years. (Read his profile of Beckham’s business partner, the Bolivian billionaire Marcelo Claure, here.) They discuss the announcement, on Monday, ...
01.22.2018 Dummy/TSS Live in Philadelphia! On Thursday, we hosted a live show with the gentlemen from the Total Soccer Show. Tab Ramos and Alexi Lalas were our special guests, and Brooks Peck of Dirty Tackle made a cameo at the end during the Wikipedia Game. ...
01.17.2018 USSF candidate Kathy Carter As president of Soccer United Marketing, Kathy Carter has helped US Soccer earn megaprofits in recent years. Now she is running to be president of the federation. Among the topics she discusses in this episode: potential conflicts of interest (MLS ...
01.11.2018 The Fight for Dual Nationals As chief scout for the USMNT under Bruce Arena, Thomas Rongen was responsible for keeping tabs on potential US internationals, including 18-year-old midfielder Jonathan Gonzalez, who chose this week to represent Mexico instead of the US. In this episode of ...
01.05.2018 Some perspective on our current “crisis” My scheduled interview fell through, so when my dad stopped by, I made him sit down and answer my questions about how American soccer has changed since he arrived from England in the early 1970s to play college soccer and ...
12.21.2017 Possible outcomes for the the USSF election Jason Davis spends 10 hours a week talking in public about American soccer on his Sirius radio show. Now that the field has been narrowed to eight candidates, he and George discuss what could happen, what’s likely to happen, and ...
12.14.2017 Doping, Russia, and the FIFA World Cup Earlier this month, the International Olympic Committee decided to ban Russian athletes from participating under their national flag at the 2018 Olympic Games and it banned for life Vitaly Mutko, the Russian deputy prime minister who oversaw the country’s massive, ...
12.07.2017 Boys to Men Last week, George went down to the Nike Friendlies outside of Bradenton to watch the U-17 U.S. boys lose to the Netherlands by a score of five to one. More successful was the trio of interviews he conducted with people ...
12.01.2017 Is there gambling in the FIFA video game? Last week, an uproar by gamers over the new Star Wars video game may have reduced EA Sports’s stock value by $3 billion. The crux of the issue was that in order to unlock certain aspects of the game—characters like ...
11.21.2017 A death threat, a murder, and a suicide: Week one at the FIFA trial Ken Bensinger of Buzzfeed spent last week in a Brooklyn courtroom observing an absolutely BANANAS case against three senior South American soccer executives who are at the center of the huge FIFA trial. There were tears on the stand. Not ...
11.17.2017 Wes McKennie and the USMNT’s other new faces The US men’s national team drew 1–1 with Portugal on Tuesday in the first of many meaningless friendlies in the team’s near future. George and Travis Clark of Top Drawer Soccer discuss some of the young players who are getting ...
11.09.2017 Three Candidates for USSF Prez George speaks with three candidates for U.S. Soccer president—Paul Lapointe, Steve Gans, and Kyle Martino—and dives deep on the answers they supplied to a 13-item questionnaire that we asked all candidates to complete. (We recommend you check that out before ...
11.02.2017 Breaking news analysis: NASL vs. USSF Hearing UCLA law professor Steven Bank is back to discuss today’s hearing in a Brooklyn courtroom as the NASL seeks an injunction against the U.S. Soccer Federation’s decision to re-classify the league as division three. We learned some new things, including ...
10.27.2017 Good news about the Qatar World Cup Qatar recently announced that it will begin to reform the Kafala labor system that keeps migrant workers essentially powerless in the face of abuse. James Dorsey joins the pod to discuss what this means, why it came about, and the ...
10.20.2017 Thou Shalt Not Covet Thy Neighbor’s Soccer Team Today, two very emotional interviews about the prospect (possibility? probability?) that Anthony Precourt, owner of the Columbus Crew since 2013, will move the team to Austin, Texas. First, George speaks with lifelong Crew supporter Morgan Hughes. Then he discusses the ...
10.12.2017 USA EPIC FAIL WTF Howler editor George Quraishi is joined by Bobby Warshaw and Cole Grossman (former player for Real Salt Lake and Stabaek) to work through the USMNT’s loss to Trinidad and failure to make the World Cup. They discuss the short- and ...
10.06.2017 Clarence Goodson on qualifying for the World Cup Clarence Goodson was a center back for the U.S. men’s national team during two World Cup qualifying cycles. He joins to discuss his compatriots trying to make it to Russia, his career, his work with the MLS players union, and ...
09.28.2017 A UCLA law prof on NASL vs. USSF The U.S. Soccer Federation recently demoted the North American Soccer League from division two to division three status, and now the NASL is suing the USSF not only over this designation but over the governing body’s right to designate pro ...
09.22.2017 The most powerful American, and the most hateful fan group, in world soccer How did a Columbia econ professor become the most powerful American in world soccer? Noah Davis discusses his profile of Sunil Gulati from the new issue of Howler. Then, La Familia is possibly the most hateful and violent ultras group ...
09.14.2017 Is Coach Jake the best high school soccer coach of the last 20 years? When Martin Jacobson became the coach of soccer team at Martin Luther King Jr. High in Manhattan just over 20 years ago, the program was a disaster. So how has he won 15 city-wide championships in that time? Actually, that's ...
09.01.2017 Soccer as #brandedcontent First up, Mapate Diop discusses his article on Red Bull, PSG, MLS and the phenomenon of soccer as branded content, a simultaneously simple and profound way of viewing modern soccer. Then, Michael Krumholtz on Costa Rica and Vancouver Whitecaps winger ...
08.25.2017 The Blackballed Striker and other tales from the week in soccer On today’s episode, four 10-minute interviews on four stories from whatahowler.com this week: 1. How Target’s switch from NASCAR to soccer sponsorships could help transform the American game (with Amadi Thiam) 2. Why ultras from Bayern Munich and many other ...
08.18.2017 The pay is terrible, but at least it’s glamorous On Tuesday, Top Drawer Soccer staff writer and Howler contributor announced that he’s leaving the industry altogether. So George called him up to talk about why he got into sportswriting, the forces that are shaping the industry, and why the ...
08.11.2017 Why you shouldn't worry about $$ in the Prem George thought that Kevin McCauley’s season preview for SB Nation, titled “How to Enjoy the Premier League without Worrying About the Money,” was the most provocative and enjoyable piece he’s read ahead of the new English season. So he called ...
07.27.2017 A look back at the Gold Cup with Brad Friedel After the U.S. beat Jamaica to win the Gold Cup trophy, Bobby and George revisit their discussion on fringe USMNT players and who seems likely to make the 2018 World Cup roster. (Hint: Jordan Morris helped his case, Matt Hedges ...
07.20.2017 George Best’s life and legacy George Best was one of the game’s greatest players and also one of its most confounding. He had the dribbling skills to rival Leo Messi, a public image that paved the for David Beckham, and an addiction to alcohol that ...
07.06.2017 If we had to pick the U.S. World Cup squad today With the U.S. and Mexico taking B teams into the Gold Cup, we’re thinking that the most interesting way to watch the tournament might be as a way to project next summer’s World Cup fringe roster spots. So today, Bobby, ...
06.28.2017 Goldblatt on the Garcia Report George and David discuss the Garcia Report. Even though it contained no revelations that will stop the World Cup from taking place in Russia and Qatar, it still revealed plenty of bad behavior by soccer officials, and it provides quite ...
06.16.2017 Speaking with the director of “The Soccer Ball Phone” This week, we released a short parody called “The Soccer Ball Phone” starring Sarah Silverman, Jack Black, Will Arnett, Alexi Lalas, and a few other very funny people. (We’re been promoting it pretty hard, but if you haven’t seen it, ...
06.09.2017 Bobby and George on USA vs Trinidad and Tobago George and Bobby discuss last night’s game between the U.S. national team and Trinidad and try to answer a few questions: -Which players are emerging as Bruce Arena’s automatic picks? -Who should be playing between Altidore, Dempsey, and Wood? -Michael ...
06.01.2017 They Hanged a Monkey (AUDIO FIXED) *If you have Dummy set to autodownload, listen to this version and delete the previous one—we had a few audio issues that have now been corrected. This week, Hartlepool United unveiled a new crest, and the designer of that crest, ...
05.25.2017 Too excited about the US U-20s with Brian Dunseth After a pair of matches, the US U-20s currently lead Group E at the world championship in South Korea, and they've already played their two toughest opponents. Today I speak with Brian Dunseth, who called the match for Fox Sports ...
05.18.2017 How FIFA became Assad’s collaborator Steve Fainaru’s new feature for ESPN on the Syrian national team reveals how the Syrian government has targeted athletes for murder (38 soccer players and counting) and turned Team Syria into a mouthpiece in support of Bashar al-Assad. Steve joins ...
05.11.2017 The Dirty Tackle podcast goes studs up into your eardrums Last year, Dirty Tackle joined up with whatahowler.com, and now the dudes have their own hilarious podcast. In this episode of Dummy, George and Dirty Tackle impresario Brooks Peck talk about why players in Europe are funnier than those in ...
05.04.2017 How Cristiano’s game has changed Is it just me (George), or has Cristiano Ronaldo subtly changed the way he plays? The data, provided by our friend Oliver at OPTA, backs him up: Cristiano’s goals in the Champions League have been coming from closer and closer ...
04.27.2017 The 2017 MLS Salary Release Party On Tuesday, the MLS Players Union made its annual release of league-wide player salary information, which revealed that 28 players make more than a million dollars per year… and none of them play for the league’s best team, FC Dallas. ...
04.20.2017 Mountain of Fire and Miracles FC w/ Goldblatt David Goldblatt just got back from Nigeria, where he watched A LOT of soccer, including Lagos’s entry in the Nigerian top flight, Mountain of Fire and Miracles FC. He and George also talk about the Madrid vs. Munich Champions League ...
04.13.2017 CANUSAMEX ’26 and the future of the World Cup Jamil Chade is a sports business journalist for O Estado de Saõ Paulo who is based in Switzerland, where he covers FIFA and the IOC. On this episode he chats with George about the internal politics that make the joint ...
04.06.2017 Do soccer stats pit quantity vs. quality? After Minnesota United’s Jeb Brovsky wrote about the shortcomings of statistical analysis for whatahowler.com two weeks ago, our friend Oliver Miller-Farrell emailed George and Bobby to say that while Jeb wasn't wrong, he might have been “stats-abused.” (Oliver works for ...
03.30.2017 Arena averts Hexit George and Bobby discuss the U.S.’s 6–0 win over Honduras and 1–1 tie with Panama. George gives his ideal starting back four; Bobby disagrees. Is there any way to avoid a dreary game when Bradley and Jones are paired together ...
03.23.2017 Meet Cyril the Swan, outlaw mascot Jeff Maysh wrote one of Howler’s best-loved stories, about the West Ham fan who heckled his way onto the field for his favorite team in a pre-season friendly back in 1994. Now he’s back to discuss his latest story for ...
03.16.2017 Ryu Voelkel’s astonishing soccer photos Like the best players in the world, Ryu Voelkel sees soccer differently than most people. But unlike those players, who often struggle to describe how they do what they do, the genius of Ryu’s vision is evident in his photographs, ...
03.09.2017 OMG Barcelona This week George chats with his friend Karl Taro Greenfeld, a journalist, novelist, and now TV writer (for the show Ray Donovan). They talk about yesterday’s ridiculous Barcelona-PSG match, why Karl loves LigaMX, the ascendancy of Russian hooligans, and the ...
03.02.2017 Dax McCarty and Clint Irwin Dax McCarty on his career thus far, playing with the US national team, and how he thinks the Chicago Fire can improve. Clint Irwin on almost winning MLS Cup, politics in the locker room, and prepping for the new season. ...

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