Morons

Jon and Nic are back to talk about the final essay in Nic's recent series. They look at Martin Scorsese's most recent film The Irishman and talk mafia, Hegel and haggis.

The episode sees Jon and Nic discussing Nic's most recent essay in his coronavirus response series, the Flowers of Anxiety. Enjoy!

Here's the discussion of the second essay in Nic's series. Jon and Nic discuss Jarhead, Jean Baudrillard, unreality, war movies and much more besides. Enjoy!

Jon and Nic are back to bring you a series of podcast episodes in tandem with Nic's five-essay series.  In this episode, they're talking Easy and Nic's essay on the unique Netflix series: Taking it Easy. Do check out the essay - half of the proceeds that Nic makes will be going to help people who have suffered at the hands of the pandemic. We'll be next week to talk Jarhead or Midsommer. See you then!

Jon and Nic are back to talk about films beloved by people around the world and then trash them. Here they talk about Alien and then its sequel Aliens. Enjoy!

Jon and Nic are back to chat shit and their topic of choice this week is Robert Eggers, director of The Witch and, more recently, The Lighthouse. Plenty to talk about with Eggers and it may even have been the case that Nic persuades Jon that the film is one of the most important films of recent years. But you know. 

Jon and Nic chat about the Safdie Brothers' recent offering, Uncut Gems

Jon is joined by Ahmed Yussuf (and jilted by Nic Morales) to talk about The Farewell - a 2019 American comedy-drama film written and directed by Lulu Wang.

Jon and Jamie have a discussion about some of the ideological and intellectual undertones behind debates about VAR. 

Jon and Nic sit down for an hour and discuss the recent Joker film. Enjoy.

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away....

In our penultimate episode, we’re in the midlands with one of the Premier League’s nouveau riches.  Leicester City came from the relative poverty of a Premier League relegation battle in 2015 to winning the whole damn thing a season later in what was, without doubt, one of the finest moments of English football’s storied history.  But this vertiginous rise to the lofty heights of the Premier League’s elite had a strange effect on the club. The following season, Claudio Ranieri was sacked, to be replaced by Craig Shakespeare.  Shakespeare, it turned out, was also ‘not to be’ and so followed a succession of managers joining then leaving the club until Brendan Rodgers arrived at the end of last season.  Will Rodgers be able to shake off the curse of the 2015-16 title-winning season? Or is he simply its most imminent victim?   

Today, we’re as far North as we’ll get in this series.  Newcastle has a famous footballing pedigree which is why the slow decline of the club in the last ten years has been all the more painful to watch. Owned by arch capitalist and almost universally despised Mike Ashley, the club has been run as a cash cow for a number of years with the owner doing just enough to milk it for profit.  Fans could hardly believe their luck when they managed to accrue the talents of Rafael Benitez and then keep him even after relegation into the Championship.  But even that silver lining was duly ripped out and sold for monies. Now, fans of the club face the prospect of a season under Steve Bruce, whose career win total is close to tipping beneath his career loss total. If things go as well as many pundits predict, then it could well happen this season.  So here we are. A beleaguered fan base. A manager who does not look up to the rigours of Premier League life. And a squad that leaves a lot to be desired. It could be a long season on Tyneside. Joining us on the show today is a well-known face in the world of Newcastle United fandom: Harry De Cosemo.  Harry covers Newcastle and North East football for the Morning Star newspaper and is also a freelance writer for Football365, Planet Football and Eurosport among others.

In today’s episode, we’re back in London - just down the road from Fulham Broadway Tube Station at Stamford Bridge.  Under Roman Abramovich, Chelsea have had an up-and-down few years. As far as the present season is concerned, it’s something of a down year.  Despite Europa League success with Maurizio Sarri last season, a two-window transfer ban from FIFA for malpractice signing foreign under-18 players as well as Sarri’s return to Italy has left fans and pundits alike unsure of how successful a campaign they will have this time around.  If there is a silver lining, it is somewhat tarnished: club legend Frank Lampard here to oversee an influx of youngsters off the back of a curious debut season at Derby County.  Will Lampard save the day as he has done so often in the past? Or is there a danger that Chelsea could drop out of the top six if things don’t go their way? Joining us on the podcast today is one of the biggest personalities in the football media: Amadí Thiam. Amadí is currently lead editor at Gilt Edge Soccer Marketing having previously been community manager for COPA90 US, social media manager for The Athletic Soccer, a feature writer for U.S. Soccer’s Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup and an editorial assistant for Howler Magazine, among others.  His career as a football journalist has led him to press boxes in stadiums around the country, but his true passions are digital content production and Chelsea FC. You’ve more than likely seen his gifs on Twitter and he also manages an account (@ClassicChels) which shares video highlights of Chelsea matches and milestones from years past.

Today, we’re back in the capital city - in London's North West and Stratford.  It’s hard to talk about West Ham without mentioning their geographic re-location. Moving away from their home in Upton Park three seasons ago, the Hammers took up residence in the Olympic Stadium bequeathed them in the wake of London 2012.  This sort of casual dismissal of localism in sports fandom has become par for the course in recent years but West Ham’s story seems to offer a parable about the difficulties of a football club uprooting and making a new home.  Only now, three years later, do West Ham look as though they’re about to turn a corner. A new manager last season bolstered by an impressive window, the club looks like they could cement themselves in the race for ‘best of the rest’ this time around.  Could this be their most impressive season in recent years? Or could the influx of new names fail to gel and leave the Irons off the pace?  Joining us today is a well-known name from the world of West Ham fandom: Danny Lewis. Danny is currently working with Snack Media and has contributed to No Place Like Home and These Football Times, as well as various West Ham related websites and fanzines. 

Today we’re heading to a part of the country that is under-represented in the Premier League: Norfolk.  Norwich aren’t exactly new to the Premier League but, when they dropped out of the top division of English football in 2016, no one expected them to be coming up again any time soon.  Two uninspiring seasons in the Championship followed and it looked as thought Norwich were more likely to head in the opposite direction.  But then everything changed when two men came into the club and turned it around: Stuart Webber was made Sporting Director and, early on in his tenure, he brought in Daniel Farke as manager. In two seasons, Norwich found their way to the top of the Championship table and barely looked back.  But will the sheen come off when they take their place in the Premier League next year? Or will they manage to overcome the odds and cement themselves firmly in the division? Joining us today is an individual who will be familiar to many of you. Adam Brandon is a writer for popular fan site Along Come Norwich as well as being South American editor for World Football Index.  For his day job, he works in a consultancy role for Football Radar as the League Analyst for Chile, the country where he is based.

Today we’re in Wolverhampton exploring a club whose fortunes have changed drastically in recent years.  When Wolves dropped out of the Premier League in 2012 and then out of the Championship in the following season, no one expected them to be back in the top division of English football any time soon. But when Chinese firm Fosun International bought out the team and began forging a special relationship with Jorge Mendes, things soon turned around.  Now with Nuno Espirito Santo at the helm, the West Midlands team have made the top half of the table their own, being crowned best of the rest last season.  But will it last? Can they keep their spot just beneath the so-called Top Six? Perhaps they could even venture upwards? Joining us today is a face that will be familiar to many in the Wolves-supporting community: Dave Azzopardi. Dave is the founder of Talking Wolves, a Wolverhampton Wanderers social media channel.

Today we’re nearly in London but not quite… which is how I would have described Watford in terms of the Premier League a couple of seasons ago.  Two years on and the Hornets have graduated into that coveted set of teams in the league’s middle class: the best of the rest.  An 11th place finish might not sound like much but, only two points off Sullivan and Gold’s vanity project, West Ham, and Watford are certainly in the mix. All of which is strange given that the writing seemed on the wall for Watford when their talismanic manager Marco Silva joined Everton before the season started. But here we are.  Can Watford consolidate and make themselves reliable midtable finishers? Or will they rest on their laurels and drop back into the chasing pack? Joining us on the show is one of the biggest names in Watford FC podcasting – Mike Parkin.  From the Rookery End is about to head into its tenth season and has charted Watford's fairly unorthodox recent history from the brink of despair and possible bankruptcy all the way to the Premier League.  Mike Parkin is one of the original members of the team and has been watching Watford since the eighties. His first game was a home FA Cup tie with Walsall that ended 4-4 and he's been a hopeless Hornets' addict ever since. 

Today, we’re back in the North West, if not in football’s birthplace then in the cauldron in which it was refined.  Burnley’s Turf Moor has, against the expectations of many pundits - professional and armchair alike, continued to enjoy Premier League football for the last three seasons. Each year, there are naysayers who predict the club to drop back into the Championship but it never happens.  Much of this is to do with their long-serving manager, Sean Dyche, who has dragged Burnley Football Club with him into the top division of English football and kept them there unrelentingly.  But will a fourth season be too much? Can they defy the odds once again? Or is modern football just too money-driven? Joining us on the show today is Natalie Bromley, who is, amongst other things, a poker player, a lawyer and a self-confessed ‘feisty Claret’.  She is also the editor of the Burnley podcast No Nay Never and weekly Clarets Columnist in the Lancashire Evening Telegraph.

Today we head to the South Coast for one last time. Our destination is Brighton: a famously open city which extends its broad-mindedness to its football club.  Over the summer, the Albion have displayed a willingness to be progressive, sacking their manager Chris Hughton in favour of another manager, Graeme Potter, who they expect to be able to take the club further in the Premier League than his predecessor.  Potter comes with impressive seasons at Ostersund and Swansea under his belt and the Brighton faithful will be hoping he can translate these successes into similar positivity at the AMEX stadium. But there is no saying that the success will come. Is this too much of a risk for a club who only narrowly avoided relegation last season? Is the problem with the squad rather than the manager? Or could this be just what Brighton need to cement their place in the Premier League?   Joining us today is a familiar face from the world of football media. Kieran Maguire is a lecturer in football finance from the University of Liverpool, where he teaches on the Football MBA course. He also pops up with irritating regularity on TV, radio and newspapers discussing club valuations, FFP and the lunacy of trying to make ends meet in the EFL.