For our latest podcast, we talked to Joshua Rothman, historian at the University of Alabama, about his recent book The Ledger and the Chain: How Domestic Slave Traders Shaped America. This is a tremendously powerful book about the horrors of the domestic slave trade and the people who operated the largest slave trading company in America. In this podcast, we explore the myths around the slave trade, the incredible cruelty of the practice and what this says about America then and now, the legacy of cruelty in America, the unwillingness of the nation to face up to its past, and what is like to teach these subjects in a blood red state. It’s a good one and you want to hear it, even though the subject matter is not always easy and fun.

The LGM podcast is now available from a variety of corporate overlords, so please perform freedom by making your consumer choice. We would very much appreciate reviews, whether of the thoughtful written variety or just by clicking on the appropriate star. The podcast is time-consuming and expensive, so also contemplate tossing a nickel in the jar.

* Apple Podcasts

* Android

* Google Podcasts

* Podchaser

* Podcast Index

* Subscribe by E-mail

* Audible

* Amazon Music

There used to be a time when you had to give Belichick the benefit of the doubt with pretty much anything. But hiring Matt Patricia to be the de facto OC and Joe Judge to be the QB coach — despite being spectacular failures as head coaches and having no experience coaching offense — was exactly as dumb as it appeared:

As Patricia came under outside fire as the face of the offense, Judge drew increasing criticism from within. Belichick would blast him in practice, and it wasn’t uncommon for Judge and Jones to trade profanity-laced outbursts. Jones’ trust in his position coach was effectively non-existent.

“Mac didn’t like him,” one source said. “At all.”

“(Judge) would speak extra loudly in meetings, trying to project like he was the guy,” another source said. “And I think that kind of rubbed people the wrong way.”

“A lot of people were frustrated with (Judge),” a third added.

After Jones returned from his high ankle sprain to play within a pre-planned rotation during a 33-14 primetime loss to the Bears, another Belichick decision that vexed players, the offense was exposed. The Patriots scored two offensive touchdowns over their next three games, close wins over the Jets and a 26-3 triumph over the rudderless Colts. The offensive line allowed 16 sacks, despite facing similar game plans in every game: zone coverage fronted by four-man rushes.

“Sometimes I would wonder, like, are we trying to screw this up on purpose?” one source asked.

That worked out about as well as making Donald Trump president — oh right, Belichick thought that was a good idea too. Anyway, you know things are bad when Bill O’Brien is a huge upgrade.

Today’s games look great, and I am in Vegas so my picks will be backed up by the full faith and credit of American currency. Rob and Erik have the Bengals (+1.5) and 49ers (-2.5). I’m with them on Cincy, but decided on the Eagles, based on 1)still not entirely sold as Purdy and 2)Shanahan bring an A+ gameplanner/playcaller but a C- in in-game tactics (where Siriani is one of the best.) But these are two of the most evenly matched championship games in a while, so I can’t blame anyone for taking the points on both.

For those who missed it, our podcast is here.

From Week 10 of the NFL Season featuring the Washington Commanders at the Philadelphia Eagles from Lincoln Financial Field, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, November 14, 2022. (All-Pro Reels / Joe Glorioso)

Here’s our latest football podcast, discussing the first two weeks of the playoffs and thinking about the AFC and NFC Championship games to come. Should be a couple of super intriguing matchups.

We apologize for the audio quality on Scott’s track for the second half of the podcast. Due to an unknown error, the original recording of the second half of Scott’s audio malfunctioned. We repaired the damage as best we could but be warned. We have included the transcript but as with the previous football podcast it’s an hilarious disaster.

The LGM podcast is now available from a variety of corporate overlords, so please perform freedom by making your consumer choice. We would very much appreciate reviews, whether of the thoughtful written variety or just by clicking on the appropriate star. The podcast is time-consuming and expensive, so also contemplate tossing a nickel in the jar.

* Apple Podcasts

* Android

* Google Podcasts

* Podchaser

* Podcast Index

* Subscribe by E-mail

* Audible

* Amazon Music

By TV BrasilGov, CC BY 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=127727476

Yesterday I had the opportunity to talk with Dr. Colin Snider (long term friend of the blog) about the recent attacks on Brazilian government institutions and the current state of Brazilian politics. We also talked issues of the transnational “populist” right and Brazilian foreign policy. Here’s the transcript, which is extremely limited in utility. The software seems to do a little bit better with two people than with three, and does a lot better when cross-talk is minimized, but please do not quote anything from the transcript without confirming on the audio version of the pod.

The LGM podcast is now available from a variety of corporate overlords, so please perform freedom by making your consumer choice. We would very much appreciate reviews, whether of the thoughtful written variety or just by clicking on the appropriate star. The podcast is time-consuming and expensive, so also contemplate tossing a nickel in the jar.

* Apple Podcasts

* Android

* Google Podcasts

* Podchaser

* Podcast Index

* Subscribe by E-mail

* Audible

* Amazon Music

Above: Doug Pederson

I’ll leave discussion of it from the Chargers angle until Monday to see what happens with Staley, but can I say that Doug Pederson is a beauty?

Doug said “are you sure you’re going to leave 26 on the field? Are you SUUUUUUURE?” https://t.co/1l9N02IHu9— Benjamin Solak (@BenjaminSolak) January 15, 2023

LONG LIVE THE T FORMATION!

Also worth noting that going for 2 after MAGA shithead Joey Bosa took another dumb penalty (LOL) is the analytically obvious move there but a lot of coaches wouldn’t have done it. I’m beginning to think that the guy who got MVP-caliber play out of Carson Wentz and won a Super Bowl with Nick Foles can coach a little.

Also, Al Michaels’s legendary status is fully deserved, but…I think we can see why he’s now doing the Thursday night Amazon game:

Great Jaguars comeback or amazing Chargers choke? Yes. pic.twitter.com/QuQYArRfjd— The Comeback (@thecomeback) January 15, 2023

From “Do you believe in miracles? YES!” to “there’s a penalty marker.”

Discussion of Sunday’s games starts at 43 minutes of the podcast. I don’t have access to the transcript so won’t try to reconstruct Erik and Rob’s picks (they can add them!) but I’ll try to keep my never-in-doubt winning streak alive with these:

* Bills -13 1/2

* Giants +3

* Bengals -8 1/2

… Smooth Bobby attempts to maintain his perfect record of first half prognostication (the second half of a football game being essentially meaningless to serious analysts):

* Bills -13.5

* Vikings -3

* Bengals -8.5

www.allproreels.com — Washington Football Team vs. Seattle Seahawks from FedEx Field, November 29th, 2021 (All-Pro Reels Photography)

Let this serve as an open thread for today’s Wild Card round games. I have republished our podcast below. Here are our picks from the audio version of the pod:

Seattle at San Francisco (-9):

* Lemieux: San Francisco

* Loomis: San Francisco

* Smooth Bobby: Seattle

From the transcript:

[Robert Farley] 20:43:15

Our smooth bodies upset of the week.

[scottlemieux] 20:43:19

It’s, you know. Here’s the scenario is, you know, pretty faces, and like, is it if the C.

[scottlemieux] 20:43:27

Also like this, gave them behind their clock, but you know the C ox, like they have a nice opening drive.

[scottlemieux] 20:43:33

They can run the ball, you know. Gino makes a nice throes, you know, so Purdy’s got a play from behind the bed, and the seahawks will give up yardage, but they do generate turnovers, and they will get sacks against an experience course so that’s

Los Angeles Charges at Jacksonville (+1.5):

* Lemieux: Jacksonville

* Loomis: Jacksonville

* Smooth Bobby: LAC

From the transcript:

[erikloomis] 20:53:07

Yeah, no, yeah, I mean, yeah, yeah, I mean, it’s it’s gonna be a hurricane.

[erikloomis] 20:53:12

Right, that’s all I have to say. Adding is, gonna be right.

[scottlemieux] 20:53:15

Yeah, yeah. I’m the biggest good. Oh, I was just gonna say that the strongest argument for Rob’s position is just that.

[erikloomis] 20:53:16

I I think I’m sorry, Scott. Go ahead

Our NFL playoff preview. Go Seahawks! I have no hope against the Niners, but hey, unexpected playoff run, can’t complain. I’d say Go Chargers too, but Brandon Staley is an idiot, played Mike Williams and of course he got hurt.

….[Farley] Attentive listeners will notice two things; first, ads, and second, no transcript. Let me explain both of these by posting this:

“[erikloomis] 20:11:05 Hello! Welcome to lawyers, kinds of money, podcasts this is Eric Lewis, with Rob Farley and Scotland, you and this is our Nfl.

[erikloomis] 20:11:15 Playoff, Preview. Gentlemen! Welcome.

[Robert Farley] 20:11:18 Howdy!

[scottlemieux] 20:11:18 How are you?

[erikloomis] 20:11:20 Happy New Year indeed! “

So as you can see the free transcript services just aren’t going to cut it.

The LGM podcast is now available from a variety of corporate overlords, so please perform freedom by making your consumer choice. We would very much appreciate reviews, whether of the thoughtful written variety or just by clicking on the appropriate star. The podcast is time-consuming and expensive, so also contemplate tossing a nickel in the jar.

* Apple Podcasts

* Android

* Google Podcasts

* Podchaser

* Podcast Index

* Subscribe by E-mail

* Audible

* Amazon Music

On Wednesday Cheryl, Dan, and myself sat down to talk through some of the major foreign policy events of 2022, following up with what those events might portend in 2023. Unsurprisingly we focused overwhelmingly on the Russia-Ukraine War, although we also saved some space for discussions of Iran and China. Sadly, we did not have time to delve into the fratricidal conflicts which continue to undermine the grip of House Windsor over the British Empire. Note also that we have generated an extremely bad transcript of the podcast (using the Zoom captioning tools) that captures much of the gist but also does considerable violence to the English language. If anyone quotes the transcript without confirming on the audio version of the podcast I will personally hunt you down and have a well-reasoned conversation about why you’re a terrible human being. We’re working through the economics of generating better transcripts, but will continue to use the bad ones for now as placeholders.

The LGM podcast is now available from a variety of corporate overlords, so please perform freedom by making your consumer choice. We would very much appreciate reviews, whether of the thoughtful written variety or just by clicking on the appropriate star. The podcast is time-consuming and expensive, so also contemplate tossing a nickel in the jar.

* Apple Podcasts

* Android

* Google Podcasts

* Podchaser

* Podcast Index

* Subscribe by E-mail

* Audible

* Amazon Music

For our latest podcast, we are happy to have spoken to Christina Heatherton of Trinity College about her brand new book Arise!: Global Radicalism in the Era of the Mexican Revolution. We had a wide-ranging conversation that demonstrates the centrality of the Mexican Revolution to early and even mid-twentieth century global radicalism with characters ranging from Ricardo Flores-Magón to Alexandra Kollontai to American radicals you probably haven’t heard of before. It was great and you will like this book and this podcast.

The LGM podcast is now available from a variety of corporate overlords, so please perform freedom by making your consumer choice. We would very much appreciate reviews, whether of the thoughtful written variety or just by clicking on the appropriate star. The podcast is time-consuming and expensive, so also contemplate tossing a nickel in the jar.

* Apple Podcasts

* Android

* Google Podcasts

* Podchaser

* Podcast Index

* Subscribe by E-mail

* Audible

* Amazon Music

It’s been a weird NFL season and we talk about it and many other random things! Why are the Packers so abjectly awful? How did the Raiders decide to hire Josh McDaniels? How are the Seahawks good????? How many fingers of bourbon did Farley consume? Only by listening to this finest of NFL podcasts can you find out!

The LGM podcast is now available from a variety of corporate overlords, so please perform freedom by making your consumer choice. We would very much appreciate reviews, whether of the thoughtful written variety or just by clicking on the appropriate star. The podcast is time-consuming and expensive, so also contemplate tossing a nickel in the jar.

* Apple Podcasts* Android* Google Podcasts* Podchaser* Podcast Index* Subscribe by E-mail* Audible* Amazon Music