House of Strauss

Your guy Big Wos is back, with candid takes on the state of NBA media. This was a great conversation wherein we discussed the following:

* A variety of ESPN NBA moves (Woj leaving, Lowe ousted, Shams hired)

* Shams on First Take shows why we didn’t really need Woj anymore

* Why does ESPN value news breaking so much!

* I can now freely say that Brian Windhorst is great

* The friendly fire of an ESPN article attacking ESPN host Kendrick Perkins over his NIL business

* Is Perkins’ business sleazier than SOP for college education loans?

* Will we see more Matthew Sluka situations where players simply quit over NIL issues?

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When Tim Kawakami and I get together, we’re going to talk sports media. Considering that Tim just recently left the Athletic, where used to be my boss, and joined the ambitious SF Standard, we’ve got much to discuss. Also, for those who like Niners talk, we’ve got a whole lot of it in the back half of this pod. My teaser is that Tim dispels a commonly believed false notion or two. Enjoy!

Nate Jones, NBA agent and footwear entrepreneur at Move Insoles, is here to discuss a shocking corporate ouster at Nike. We get into how Nike modernized at its own expense, lost core customers, and ultimately fired a CEO they were just recently so enamored with. What lessons can be learned from the shoe apparel giant’s issues? What parallels do we see to recent problems at Disney and overall entertainment? Is this what happens when a corporation sacrifices art in pursuit of efficiency?

Oh, and we also discuss why the hell Nike’s not making more of the Caitlin Clark moment. Enjoy..

House of Strauss is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.houseofstrauss.com/subscribe

Big content Friday at HoS! Today we’ve got YouTube superstar Saagar Enjeti on to discuss content trends. Saagar has been steadfast about not doing ads to support his business. What’s behind that philosophy? And why is he thrilled about the prospect of legacy media’s demise? Also, Saagar asks me some questions about what’s going on in the sports media space. Enjoy!

House of Strauss is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.houseofstrauss.com/subscribe

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Had a fantastic time catching up with our friend Moynihan, co-host of The Fifth Column and all around podcasting force at The Free Press.

This podcast is roughly two hours, one of which we’re making free. For whatever reason, we found the World War 2 revisionism controversy of Daryl Cooper on Tucker Carlson to be a fruitful subject. Why did the political horseshoe arrive at trashing Winston Churchill?

Topics include but aren’t limited to…

* Today’s protestors are physically weak compared to the high T 60’s protestors

* How television shook up America in the 1960s

* Jonestown

* The Martyr Made Hitler vs. Churchill imbroglio

* The “theyification” of Tucker Carlson

* Can a “founding myth” be mostly real?

* We’ve exited peak “wokeness.” Is that simply the result of Elon Musk buying Twitter?

* What are the free speech implications of American culture getting shifted by one guy’s impact on one social media platform?

* Can Michael draw a line between his old shop Vice collapsing and Republicans doing better with young males?

* Jesse Jackson

Sports Analytics King Neil Paine is on to address some of the questions on our mutual minds. Am I correct that people are less into politics this election? Is Kamala Harris a classic backup QB promotion? Is baseball back in American culture (Thanks to Judge and Ohtani)? Is Ohtani paradoxically more fun now that he’s not pitching? Is Aaron Rodgers too old to be good? Is a “system quarterback” even a real thing? What NFL players have “shadow value”? We discussed these subjects and much more in a talk that was, in my opinion, quite enjoyable.

House of Strauss is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.houseofstrauss.com/subscribe

Ryan Glasspiegel is back, and we’ve got many a media topic to discuss. Did politics influence the Samantha Ponder ouster at ESPN (I say ‘no’)? What do we make of the presidential betting odds? How do we feel about how politics is all “vibes” and no substance these days? Topics include but aren’t limited to…

* Sam Ponder: Was there any politics aspect to the ESPN firing?

* Defending Pat McAfee against Awful Announcing

* Trump/Kamala gambling odds

* What's more important in elections: vibes or policy?

* I am fascinated by the character that is Tim Walz

* FS1 shakeup

* Simmons/Klosterman and the gambling topic

* Ryan has another WBD/NBA lawsuit prediction

* Am I a Caleb Williams skeptic amid the hype?

This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.houseofstrauss.com/subscribe

Warning: This is a very football-heavy podcast.

The NFL is back, and so is Warren Sharp with his massive 2024 Football Preview. Given that Warren is so well versed on NFL data and trends, I wanted to pick his brain on what America’s most analyzed league is currently missing. Obviously NFL coaches are highly informed, but is there something they’re doing wrong? Is football in its early stages Moneyball era, like baseball in the early 2000s? And why the hell have teams stopped scoring in this supposedly pass friendly epoch? We discuss these topics plus so much more. Enjoy!

House of Strauss is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.houseofstrauss.com/subscribe

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Kat Rosenfield is an author and Free Press columnist who often boldly covers matters of cultural controversy. I was fascinated by her “What the Childless Among Us Leave Behind” essay, which anchors a lot of the pod. We also got into Nike’s new direction and a range of other subjects related to the modern gender wars. Topics include but aren’t limited to…

* Is there such a thing as objectively good style?

* Is the meme of “unhappy childless woman” true?

* The divide in perspective between parents and the childless

* Kids give you existential relief

* Why are cats symbolic of female loneliness?

* Hillary Clinton’s “deplorables” vs. JD Vance’s “cat ladies”

* Why are Gen Z men shifting Republican?

* Why are older women overrepresented at Kamala Harris rallies?

* Why did Obama resonate with young millennial males?

* What is the visual Social Justice Aesthetic?

* Nike shift and the current sanitized culture

* Men expressing what they find attractive as underground movement

Big Wos and I were interviewed for The Spoils documentary, which examines how the AAU business is changing as the money in the NBA and NCAA explode. Director Mike Nicoll sat down with us to discuss that plus so many related topics of mutual interest.

For instance, in recent years, American youth basketball has become something between a sport and exercise in social media brand building. Team USA just won gold in spectacular fashion, but is this the last truly dominant American basketball generation? Is that just natural as the sport gets more internationally popular, or has something gone wrong in how we cultivate future superstars?

House of Strauss is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.houseofstrauss.com/subscribe