Pablo Torre Finds Out

The biggest party in global sport is underway, and soccer's governing body stands to profit nearly $9 billion. How did FIFA squeeze U.S. taxpayers with so many hidden costs? The Athletic's Adam Crafton crunches the numbers on wasted public money, as Pablo dissects comically absurd demands upon host cities — from "clean" stadiums and super-V.I.P. treatment... to a pop-up jail. • Take the PTFO audie...

Madison Square Garden hasn't felt this alive since a little-known point guard from Harvard became the most popular person in New York City. On the occasion of his grand return, Jeremy Lin sits down with Pablo, who's been covering him since their dorm-room days, for a full-circle conversation about pressure, toughness, fleeting fame, the end of his run with the Knicks, squashing the beef with Carme...

As Adam Silver calls for the NBA's Kawhi Leonard probe to wrap up and Aspiration's co-founder gets 14 years behind bars, Pablo investigates how Steve Ballmer covered his tracks on a side deal of his own — and with the SEC on the case. Former DOJ prosecutor Lou Manzo returns to make sense of the relationship between a billionaire and a fraudster, while David Samson is finally convinced that the ric...

Julie K. Brown went from working in a bell factory to ringing the alarm on masters of the universe and (finally) winning a Pulitzer. The Miami Herald reporter visits Pablo to shed light on the culture of silence that protected Epstein for so long, the legal dream team that struck his secret deal, then how Epstein pulled out all the stops... to stop her investigation. Plus: the whistleblower who ga...

Pablo visits the mayor of New York in his backyard, on the eve of the NBA Finals — and the cusp of heartbreak for his Arsenal F.C. — to discuss Knicks joy, soccer pain, hair loss, Donald Trump, Charles Oakley, Victor Wembanyama's Eid fit and, yes, flopping. Plus: Fellow Arsenal die-hard Adam Friedland checks in, on the state of socialism... and optimism. • Take the PTFO audience survey! • Subscrib...

Can Trump ruin these Knicks vibes? Why are billionaires so sensitive? Just how much of the White House is for sale? And is the pope radical? Or can decency levitate? Plus: the joylessness of a luxury box and… Shai Gilgeous-Alexander as a war criminal. Further content: • The White House Intervened to Get a $620 Million Deal for a Company Tied to Donald Trump Jr. (ProPublica) • The Trader in the Ova...

Ten years ago today, one gorilla's death broke the internet, from sports and politics to million-dollar memes. But Harambe's life was a tragic battle over name, image and likeness — including files the Cincinnati Zoo worked to suppress... until now. Desus Nice and Katie Nolan help Pablo get to the bottom of what gorillas in our midst can teach us about ourselves. • Subscribe to PTFO on YouTube to...

How is preparing for a game show like playing in the NFL? What's the first rule of "Jeopardy!" Fight Club? And why would you bet zero dollars with a million on the line? Plus: Katie Nolan's secret pep talk, Daily Double brain glitch, Spygate... and a buzzer bibliography. Previously on PTFO: • "Celebrity Jeopardy!" Film Study with Mina Kimes and Timothy Simons • Behind the Scenes of Pablo's History...

He dug up Dianna Russini's playlist for Mike Vrabel. And Osama bin Laden's p*rn stash from the CIA. He even got a DM from Bill Belichick's girlfriend on the prowl. Now, David Covucci is shattering the illusion of coaches' power — and the unfathomable pastimes of the billionaire booster class — one embarrassing document bomb at a time. Pablo finds a kindred spirit... and Jessica Smetana makes histo...

Have billionaire owners left us in the twilight of American fandom? Are crying Liverpool fans actually the cure for male loneliness? And is the NFL offseason running out of juice? Would you get married during the Super Bowl on Valentine's Day? Plus: Jim Thome's farm adjacency, Regis Philbin analytics, Gerry and the Pacemakers, institutional investors, the worst pandemic crowd... and feeding a sand...

He's wowed presidents, pro athletes and podcasters. But magicians tell us Oz Pearlman's viral act has crossed an ethical line. Stevie Baskin, after obsessively studying Pearlman's tricks, explains to Pablo how influencers from Charles Barkley to the White House were in on the act — and why he thinks this brand of "mind-reading" amounts to fraud. • Much more from Stevie Baskin's YouTube video • Pre...

What do the tech titans of Silicon Valley and the old heads of traditional broadcast television have in common? Answer: they all need to kiss the ring of Roger Goodell. But will the NFL get too greedy in their continued pursuit of maximum return on their media rights? And why is Rupert Murdoch secretly meeting with Donald Trump? The Sporting Class — aka “Rich Guys OnlyFans” — returns… Read Vanity...

Why is the Bulls legend hawking "the Mona Lisa of sports" as a talking Web3 meme-coin NFT? And who are the secret weapons turning the 60-year-old Hall-of-Famer into a crypto bro, with a last-ditch effort to cash in on The Last Dance? Pablo breaks out the folders for Jordan family friend Wyatt Cenac and former Pippen colleague Amin Elhassan, featuring revelations on MJ's son, Benihana, Lil Hippo......

The president may have ended his favorite sport's civil war — by waging a war of his own. But what did we really learn from Saudi Arabia's multibillion-dollar golf experiment? Journalist Alan Shipnuck explains what insiders are texting about but won't say out loud: that golfers are the most overpaid athletes on Earth, that peacetime is suddenly more complicated for the PGA Tour... and that sportsw...

The Knicks are surging. But politicians are condemning owner James Dolan and his tax breaks, after our investigation with WIRED. So Pablo tests the limits of facial recognition with his playoff ticket plug Ben Wizner, who just happens to be the Deputy Legal Director at the ACLU — and one of America's foremost experts on modern privacy. Which makes him uniquely (if begrudgingly) qualified to break...

What does Mark Cuban think of Pablo's big Pulitzer Prize win? Did A.I. write that JPMorgan threesome lawsuit? And are the steroid Olympics in fact the Apollo mission of RFK Jr.'s America? Plus: third-tier "Mad Men" characters, self-canonization, the polymath of punch-ups, the lifespan of an inbred beagle... and Zoop. Further content: • Pablo Torre left the worldwide leader in sports to start a pod...

As the Clippers await punishment, their owner is big mad at Pablo — and appears worried about what Aspiration's founder might have told the NBA. So Pablo and David Samson (finally) sit down with a special guest: Lou Manzo, the former DOJ prosecutor who investigated this whole tree-planting fraud in the first place, to go inside the courtroom, comb through footnotes and focus on the end game. (Addi...

Epstein wasn't just funding women's sports or creeping around campus. Our new files — and Harvard's own audit — show how a billionaire pedophile used the biggest brand in academia to launder his reputation. Pablo and The Harvard Crimson's Dhruv Patel continue their investigation, with exclusive internal files, letters and interviews with athletes who say the university normalized a monster — and s...

How did an unforgettable donation from the most notorious pedophile in America get past the most prestigious university's self-investigation? And why did Harvard allegedly ask to keep it confidential? Pablo and The Harvard Crimson's Dhruv Patel unearth internal financials, the secret role of president Lawrence Summers, plus new Jeffrey Epstein correspondence — and speak to the team that "never ask...

Secret salary caps. Accidental email attachments. Truth-serum texts from owners. Slide decks for ESPN. If anyone knows how to dork-out on billionaires taking your money — and documenting their greed — it's the former NFL Players Association boss who negotiated $100 billion for athletes... and sued the sh*t out of The Shield. With his union now plagued by scandal — and America as unregulated as eve...

What are the business ethics of sh*tting where you eat? Can you be a journalist and an "insider" at the same time? And what happened after the Knicks' owner doxxed the man threatening his arena's beer? David Samson — the Marie Kondo of sports infidelity and the watchful eye of Florida baseball — helps Pablo decode the messy stories of Dianna Russini and Mike Vrabel... and James Dolan versus his en...

How does the game-show game clock move so fast? Why do you become 30% dumber when the cameras roll? And is Mina part of a sociopathic conspiracy with Ken Jennings? Plus: Andy Richter, button analytics, the dais height advantage, Daily Double anxiety, tanking board games for your kids... and a Stat Boy cameo. • Subscribe to "The Mina Kimes Show featuring Lenny" • Watch "Nobody Wants This" with Timo...

The notorious conspiracy theorist profited from his vile Sandy Hook conspiracy. Then America's finest (fake) news source decided to troll the world's greatest troll. Ben Collins — who transformed from reporting on the historic Infowars defamation trial to buying out his "ideological enemy" in a Storage Wars-style auction saga — tells Pablo why The Onion committed to the ultimate bit: doing the rig...

Tracking players. Monitoring kids. Allegedly watching a fan enter the bathroom. The panopticon of notorious owner James Dolan has been caught in glimpses. But a WIRED investigation — revealed in collaboration with PTFO — lifts the veil on the Orwellian scope (and occasional clown show) of MSG security, from The Garden and The Sphere to the streets of New York and out across America. Correspondent...

Donald Trump's comfort zone. Coercive deals. Saudi funding. In the era of American favor-trading, a company called TKO Group Holdings is dominating the fight game. (Welcome, Zuffa Boxing.) And as longtime MMA dean Luke Thomas dares to explain, UFC boss Dana White may be in denial — and it may not be good for fans or fighters — but it pays to be in bed with a transactional regime. • Subscribe to "M...