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Ryan thinks you can guess the two major discussion points here. Topics include…

* Why is a Gregg Popovich Trump rant going viral in conservative media over a month after it happened?

* Why is NBA ratings discourse so overwhelming all of a sudden?

* Did Adam Silver not use soft power like David Stern used it?

* Are we more pessimistic about the NBA’s cultural future than Bill Simmons is?

* The NBA’s America problem

* Why is the NBA a WOKE piñata in conservative media?

* How do we feel about Caitlin Clark clearly lying (Ryan seems fine with it)?

* Does Clark’s TIME feature influence how fans relate to her?

* Why is Hannah Hildago a potential future WNBA controversy generator?

One of our favorite cultural commentators returns to discuss men, women, politics and so much else. Great pod, in my unbiased opinion.

Topics include but aren’t limited to…

* Why there was a “Sydney Sweeney is mid” discourse on social media

* Is modern dating terrible?

* Why the dating app market is bad, even for its big winners

* Single men should buy dogs

* Does becoming Republican shrink male dating options?

* Are nearly all marriages “politically mixed” marriages?

* Is the political gender divide hurting society?

* Is the Wifejak good?

* Is “toxic femininity” a real thing?

* Is the WNBA the only institution still on Earth 2? Or are there others?

* What’s with people who voted for Kamala enjoying the outcome of Trump winning?

* The meaning of Luigi Mangione support

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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

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.houseofstrauss.com

Non sports media edition, because a) I’m morbidly captivated by the Healthcare CEO assassination fallout and b) Any excuse to host Sarah Haider is a good one.

Beyond being intelligent and brave, Sarah has some personally informed thoughts about ayahuasca, a topic of the moment given certain rumors about the CEO killer. Conversation includes but is not limited to…

* High status people celebrating the murder of CEO Brian Thompson?

* It’s underrated how frequently high functioning people lose their minds

* Did ayahuasca compel Sarah to quit her own podcast?

* If ayahuasca kills motivation, then why did Sarah do it?

* Does living under threat of assassination, as Sarah might, inform perspective?

* Are we completely honest in our public transmissions?

* Are we more honest in real life or as writers/podcasters?

* Why don’t professors, whose system saddles young people in debt, see themselves as oppressors?

* What do we think of the politically minded tech libertarian types?

Depending on schedule, this is a potential Part 1 due to a surprise area Internet outage that cut us a bit short. Would love to discuss more topics with Tom, who’s just so easy to talk to. Like so many others, I was shocked to hear KNBR cut ties with the region’s most beloved sports radio host. Hopefully, the silver lining here is that we’ll get to hear more of Tolbert in other contexts. Dude’s a gem, and I thoroughly enjoyed getting to chat about old basketball NBA with him.

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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

NBA/Tech/China podcaster Andrew Sharp is here to “see where the takes take us,” and I love where it goes.

* Is Andrew buying or selling the future of BlueSky?

* The Mike Tyson vs. Jake Paul fight

* What is Netflix’s sleazy strategy with this sort of live event?

* Andrew explains how the NBA made way more TV money while in viewership decline

* What’s driving the NBA viewership drop? Andrew wrote a list

* Are we excited about Inside the NBA coming to ESPN? Are there downsides?

* Has the vibe shifted such that Charles Barkley can talk about San Antonio women?

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Great podcast, if we do say so ourselves…

* Did Ryan lose his life savings betting Kamala Harris on Kalshi?

* The French polymarket whale who bet on Trump using the “neighbor method”

* Has the election inspired a vibe shift in sports media?

* The Ben Strauss argument that FS1 is more woke than ESPN

* The “Democrats need a Joe Rogan” trope

* Is the “Dem-friendly Rogan Bill Simmons”?

* Is Shannon Sharpe the Dem-friendly Rogan?

* The sports journo exodus to BlueSky and why it won’t work

* I don’t think the shift to the right among Zoomers has much to do with “incels”

* Inflation or culture war: What settled the election?

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

Nick is back, and candid as ever. This was a wide ranging conversation, as it always is, covering sports, media and political subjects. I wonder which aspects might get aggregated…

Topics include but aren’t limited to:

* Nick says our guy Freddie deBoer is mad at him.

* I just bow down to the Kansas City Chiefs now. It’s easier.

* Has the analytics movement devalued winning?

* How does Nick feel about having a different politics than a lot of Kansas City Chiefs fans?

* Would Nick have traded another Chiefs Super Bowl for his Bears pick working out?

* How does Nick feel about having a different politics than Chiefs players?

* Is politics any kind of proxy for how good a person is?

* The NBA is flush with TV money, but is it struggling as a product? Do they need Nick’s reforms?

* The MLB has some juice right now. Can baseball be made into a national sports talk show topic?

* Can you hate your co-host and do a great sports show in the modern age?

And much more…

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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

Not exactly sports, but sort of. I and New York politics expert Ross Barkan reflect on Trump’s landslide victory, the multiethnic factors propelling it, and where the Democrats go from here. Enjoy!

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Eric (@HLinsight) is a real life pro sports gambler. He also has profound reservations about sports gambling’s introduction to the mainstream. I can confidently say that the conversation you’re about to listen to isn’t happening at any of the other mainstream sports media sites. This is a candid look at why betting sports, as fun as it is, is mostly a sucker’s bet.

Topics include…

* Parlays and other tricks apps use to keep you hooked

* How the limiting of winners makes sustained success nearly impossible

* Tout scams, busty pick advice, and other ways to get rich off worthless tips

* Sports bet advertising that targets youth

* Betting on games vs. events that are determined by inside info (Draft picks)

* Can games be rigged in this era due to gambling?

* Pro social gambling vs. anti social gambling

* How do we feel about betting on the 2024 election? Good opportunities there?

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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

In addition to being co-host of the Light Years podcast, Saam is tasked with running Creator Growth at Playback, an interactive sports streamer app. This means that a lot of this millennial’s waking hours are spent on trying to figure out the sports viewership habits of Zoomers.

This is the foundation of our conversation in this pod: What’s up with young people? What programs are they gravitating to and why? And are their habits upending traditional notions of what “mainstream” media even is? But first, true to Bay Area form, we start with expressing our annoyance at the conventional takes of Purdy-hating, “NFL Film Watchers.”

Topics include…

* “Film Watchers” don’t have an edge on the data

* Is NFL Twitter worse for the fake smart takes than NBA Twitter

* How the beat writer has to pretend to not care if the team loses

* Ya, I cared when the Warriors lost

* My regret over my ESPN the Magazine Draymond “hit piece”

* How ESPN cut the Nike loses Steph Curry article from the Magazine

* Will Compton farting at the Washington Post over his Bussin’ with the Boys Trump interview

* Legacy media trying to recap these Trump and Harris Youtube show interviews

* The filming over everything makes athletes more paranoid in the locker room now.

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