Pablo Torre Finds Out

We get it: As Timothée Chalamet said, "no one cares" about opera. But you should listen, instead, to former college linebacker Brandon Jovanovich — whose impossible rise from cater waiter to Captain Ahab proves that the artform that used to rule the world has way more in common with sports than you realize. (And that's even before you realize what he's been playing through, onstage.) Also: wh...

Whether it's A.I. companies pirating millions of books or NBA owners violating the salary cap, the most powerful entities in America are trying to circumvent laws created to restrain them. Bestselling author and investigative journalist David Epstein (no relation!) makes the case for why rules are not obstacles to progress, but the opposite: the very things that make a society — and a market — fre...

America's best documentary filmmaker spent nearly five years making a nine-hour masterpiece for Netflix. Which you'll never see. Edelman sits down with Pablo in search of catharsis — if not closure — in the battle for truth and control over the life story of one of the biggest control freaks ever. (This episode originally aired March 4, 2025.) • Previously on PTFO: When Docs Cry  https://www....

Civilization had a pretty good run. Will the astronauts be the last ones living? Will Jordon Hudson sue Pablo and/or beat him in a foot race? Could Sam Altman be bigger than Madoff and/or complete our curse on A.I.? And is your fiancé in the Epstein files? WHO KNOWS? But we f'd around and took your questions, live. So, come with us if you want to live. So mote it be. • Vote for PTFO at The Webby A...

Do we need robot umpires more than we thought? Is Netflix the Yankees of media? What's the best kind of catfishing? And have we finally evolved beyond pizza rat? Plus: Aaron Judge choking, Teanna Trump choking, an old man smoking with a crowd... and the price of free p*rn. • Vote for PTFO at The Webby Awards: Best Sports Podcast + Experimental & Innovation Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privac...

When the body of a Vegas power broker showed up in the back of a Rolls Royce in 1979, the new sports capital of America was born. Why the hell did superstar UNLV coach Jerry Tarkanian's guy really get whacked? Correspondent Sean Carey unearths police reports, a thrown fight against Sugar Ray Leonard... and a bag man on the skim who re-legitimized Sin City — and proves HBO's hit show wrong. (Additi...

What is a documentary now? Would you turn against your alma mater? Why did a fan throw a beer bottle at Dan Le Batard's head? And is America just Miami? Child star turned muckraker Billy Corben knows. Plus: Night Court, 2 Live Crew, Jughead Jr., corruption, cocaine... and pool boy cucking. Further content: • Watch "The U" and "The U Part 2" • Watch "30 for 30: Broke" on Netflix • Watch "Cocaine Co...

Domonique Foxworth ran and — Mamma Mia! — lost in last week's secretive election by the NFL Players' Association. As he explains to Pablo and David Samson, unions may be more corporate than ever — but the fight against billionaires has never been more consequential. And the implications may turn nuclear for an MLB lockout. • Subscribe to "The Domonique Foxworth Show" • Subscribe to "Nothing Person...

Kalshi and Polymarket have created a Wild West for sports, war and politics in a shamelessly unregulated era. But the U.S. Senator from Connecticut (and Huskies homer) tells Pablo that it's time to turn back the clock on insider trading, as leagues are "knowingly corrupting" the game. And that a return to the roots of rooting for our home teams (and families) requires Congress protecting against a...

Maximum scandal, maximum secrecy. Now that the NFLPA's game of thrones has sent football back to the future, and new executive director J.C. Tretter back to office, Pro Football Talk's Mike Florio says Roger Goodell and the bean-counters at the league office are ready to pounce on an 18-game regular season — and football every night of the week. • Subscribe to PFT Live with Mike Florio Previously...

How did a firing at ESPN birth this show? Can you be anti-establishment within the establishment? And will the principles of journalism survive, when billionaire principals keep contaminating the newsroom? Dan Le Batard and Human Battery Chris Cote join Pablo for another navel-spelunking edition of Share & Tell. Plus: making Jay Bilas play the race card, a Nazi poker hand with Joan Rivers, the...

From 9/11 and Ali to sharing a bed with Nicole Kidman and outing Kevin Spacey, he was already one of the greatest — and most confrontational — magazine writers of all time. Then Tom Junod decided to investigate his own father's "Mad Men"-Lib of a secret life. What could possibly go wrong? What would Mr. Rogers think? And what the hell was in that briefcase? • Read "In the Days of My Youth I Was To...

As the NFLPA plots to restore its scandal-plagued leader to power, the labor group's outgoing lead security officer sits down with Pablo. And Craig Jones — the conscience of a billion-dollar union — does not hold back. Previously on PTFO: • Part I: The NFL's Secret Collusion Case Revealed • Part II: We Sparked an NFL Union Crisis. Here's the Sequel. • Part III: We Followed the Money in the NFL Uni...

He's a hedge-fund exec by day... and a blacklisted sports-betting savant by night. On the eve of your March Madness pool, Galen Hall breaks down his Oceans 11-style strategy that dominated a ruthless, $18.7 million NFL pick-'em contest — including game-theory negotiations with a multi-national syndicate and speaking through the podcast void to "Juicy K." Turns out, optimizing for underdogs across...

Is an (alleged) MMA fighter-in-chief less bad than Evil Barbie on her love plane? Is Washington just performative sadism now? And are you still Stephen A.-curious? Plus: Chuck Lidell's workout room, a re-patriated blankie, Benihana, Huggie Bear, Bernie Sanders as a bouncer, Dean Cain as a football player... and Frank Ocean gossip. • Subscribe to The Bulwark Podcast with Tim Miller • Previously on...

In an era devoid of accountability for the Epstein class and sports owners (and in-between), Pablo finds a kindred spirit in the OG blogger turned ESPN insider turned fellow independent muckraker who's not afraid to call out the backroom dynamics of Adam Silver during wartime: If billionaires can't police themselves, does cheating matter? Do the people who run the sport... really love the sport? I...

How did millions travel from the Clippers to Aspiration to Kawhi Leonard? Amin Elhassan and David Samson join Pablo — live onstage at the MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference, right where Adam Silver was just sitting — to examine new and extremely credible evidence. Previously on PTFO: • Part I: The Silent Superstar and the Rotten Apple Tree • Part II: An Argument with Mark Cuban • Part III: The...

Is A.I. gonna boom, bust or just become Excel? And how screwed are we either way? Plus: Peyton Manning, Lamar Jackson, Geraldo Rivera's vault, a young Tim Pawlenty, vibe-coding NFL scouts... and Filipino Jell-O.  Further content: • "A.I. as Normal Technology" (Columbia University) https://knightcolumbia.org/content/ai-as-normal-technology • "The 2028 Global Intelligence Crisis" (Citrini Resea...

Sports and comedy are America's prisms for progress, allegedly. But this queer comedian from SEC football country can smell the lies. In the locker rooms of the NFL and the NBA. In the homoeroticism of Joe Rogan's world. And in the boxes of manliness we put up all around us, more than ever. Plus: Sen. Tommy Tuberville, Caleb Williams, Derek Jeter, Timothée Chalamet, RFK Jr., butt-scouting... and t...

America's podcast guest is a little burned-out. And yet the do-it-all comedian turned method unc is also a bard of modern content creation. So Roy Wood Jr. sits down with Pablo, on-stage at On Air Fest, to make sense of working under a hostile merger, while persevering the algorithm, learning from live-streamers and still focusing on himself enough to tell jokes as the chef intended — all without...

As Terry Rozier and Co. return to court, Pablo spans the globe — and the nether regions of the basketball internet — to reveal the unnamed player who turned a cup of coffee into the NBA's worst nightmare. Amin Elhassan helps connect government clues to red flags, obscure movie references to entourage Instagram posts... and one really dirty recruiting trip to a new guarantee in the economy of legal...

Did the Olympics just restore our faith in humanity? Even though America is still the bad guy? Even though penis injections? And even if we think A.I. might just be 60 Filipino guys? Plus: Greased Lightnin', flop sweat, deposition water bottles, the Waymo of cash registers, the ephemera of pickup basketball... and other dick-related news. Further content: • "I Hacked ChatGPT and Google's AI — and...

Is the MLBPA screwed because its (outgoing) leader allegedly had an affair with his sister-in-law? Is a salary cap a red herring? How much does winning a Super Bowl boost the valuation of the Seahawks? And can we ever stop tanking? John Skipper and David Samson return for our semi-regular panel on sports business — and taking down Big Pharma. • Subscribe to "Nothing Personal with David Samson" • P...

It was a pickup game for the ages. Finally, former Miami Heat center — and current DJ — Rony Seikaly opens up to correspondent Foster Kamer about his shocking decision to do what nobody in the NBA would, in the midst of HIV/AIDS paranoia. And how Seikaly was fated to become the person that Magic Johnson credits with changing his life. • Subscribe to Foster Kamer's Substack   • Listen to "Bask...

He used his instinctual superpower to sign an all-star roster of everyone from Stone Temple Pilots and Katy Perry to, yes, Kid Rock. Now, record executive Jason Flom (with a little help from the spirit of Muhammad Ali) is performing a different kind of miracle, with his obsession to get innocent people out of prison. This is why the unbroken, indomitable grace of Charles Flores is far from alone i...