Pablo Torre Finds Out

For 27 years, filmmaker Mickey Duzyj carried a prideful secret history: He'd been the Dracula version of Ben Shelton in late-'90s Detroit, with his very own bleacher crows, a very special coach… and a deal with the devil.(This episode originally aired October 24, 2024.)• Subscribe to Pablo's newsletter for new episodes, exclusive documents and subscriber-only eventshttps://pablo.show/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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.youtube.com/watch?v=3Qi6x3QF-v8• Subscribe to Pablo's Substack for exclusive access, documents and inviteshttps://pablo.show/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

His callers are a portal to the college-football universe — and the American South today. As Finebaum himself says, "We found this audience before Donald Trump did." We're talking poisoned trees, an on-air heart attack... and one Alabama super-fan with a truly haunting past.(This episode originally aired December 19, 2024.)• Subscribe to Pablo's Substack for exclusive access, documents and inviteshttps://pablo.show/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

No job in America is more scrutinized, except for (maybe) the presidency. And yet no job is more misunderstood — even by the stars who mastered it. On the eve of a new football season, Pablo joins journalism's foremost QB scholar for a case study in royalty: How do the Mannings keep producing under-center superstars? What connects the Golden Age of Hollywood to John Elway? Is Tom Brady’s newsletter right about fatherhood? And why do Nick Saban’s assistants call him “Daddy”?• Buy Seth Wickersham’s new book, "American Kings: A Biography of the Quarterback"https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/789617/american-kings-by-seth-wickersham/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

He was the Bill James of basketball. A cocky forefather of sports analytics who saw numbers as colors. Whose book, "Basketball Heaven," helped usher in the three-point era. And who failed. But Martin Manley also left behind a map, ranging from X-Files to his mother-in-law to the path toward the most efficient life... and death. Reporters Nick Altschuller and Rich Levine adapt their new "30 for 30" podcast — produced by our parent company Meadowlark Media and Adam McKay's Hyperobject Industries, in partnership with ESPN.(If you are in crisis, please call, text or chat with the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline at 988, or contact the Crisis Text Line by texting TALK to 741741.)• Listen to all six episodes of "Chasing Basketball Heaven":https://30for30podcasts.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

He is one of the most disturbing and unapologetic filmmakers in Hollywood, from creating "Requiem for a Dream" to choosing conquistador sci-fi over Batman. But director Darren Aronofsky's new movie — "Caught Stealing," starring Austin Butler as a former MLB prospect — is a departure. Toward optimism; nostalgia; and Cheez. (Because, as any real New Yorker knows, you get everything you want when you no longer want it that much.) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The host of “The Adam Friedland Show” is here to come out of the closet as the secret inspiration for one of PTFO’s most controversial episodes. Also: Pablo and Adam’s (real) LSAT scores; loving Kobe; telling Kobe how your ass tastes; @perfectbooties; if LeBron is the Millennial Michael Jordan; the secrets of good interviewing; calling Tony Kornheiser; photo shoots; campus protests; dunking on Chris Cuomo; Jonathan Livingston Seagull; cucking Richard Nixon; and value premises. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

If you’ve been asking Pablo to discuss Jeffrey Epstein… this episode is for you. The NFLPA’s election of a new executive director, David White, has brought a new level of spin, and denial, about a major scandal — and cover-up — during his tenure atop SAG-AFTRA. So PTFO summons Pro Football Talk’s Mike Florio back for a fourth (!) installment of their endless NFL investigation. And with the help of a brave new character, we attempt to do what this union only says they did: tell the truth about the leadership they chose. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In another edition of Share & Tell, Pablo, Katie Nolan, and Michael Cruz Kayne dissect an evening they spent together; the secrets of taping comedy specials; vasectomies; peak Britney Spears; and the legend of Alonzo “Hamburger” Jones. Plus: mewing, boofing, rooves, Wendy Wetface, Japanese Student No. 9 and Lancelot Link, Secret Chimp.• Previously: “How Science Ruined Grief,” with Michael Cruz Kayne https://www.pablo.show/p/how-science-ruined-grief• Subscribe to "Casuals with Katie Nolan"https://www.youtube.com/katienolan Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Not since the Greco-Roman period has sculpture mattered this much in sports. And Jerry Saltz — the Pulitzer Prize-winning senior art critic for New York magazine — has zero idea who Dwyane Wade is. Which is precisely why we asked the erstwhile Jewish Cowboy (we'll explain) to evaluate our athletic Bronze Age, from Michael Jordan to Cristiano Ronaldo. And that's before we get to "I Can't Believe It's Not Pablo (Butter on Gasbag, 2024)." Plus: the conscious uncoupling of art and money, sex workers in Jacksonville, how to make an enemy of envy, and why you can't be a vampire alone.(This episode originally aired December 3, 2024.)• Subscribe to Pablo's Substack for exclusive access, documents and inviteshttps://pablo.show/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The story of basketball cannot be told without Oscar Schmidt, the greatest scorer to never play in the NBA. Pablo travels to Florida for a sit-down with a legend whose impact on the game — like his laugh — still echoes today.(This episode originally aired March 14, 2024.)• Subscribe to Pablo's Substack for exclusive access, documents and inviteshttps://pablo.show/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

At the 1936 Berlin Olympics, Adolf Hitler gave the legendary runner a gift: four potted oak-tree saplings — one for each gold medal that Owens won, while surrounded by Nazis, in one of the greatest sports performances ever. Correspondent David Fleming examines what Owens did with The Hitler Oaks... and why his decision remains an enduring act of American defiance.(This episode originally aired June 8, 2024.)• Subscribe to Pablo's Substack for exclusive access, documents and inviteshttps://pablo.show/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Our semi-regular roundtable on sports business reconvenes for expertise from the boardroom: David Samson takes Pablo behind the scenes of Ichiro's viral joke about him at the Baseball Hall of Fame, then John Skipper translates the math from the ESPN negotiating table to the Unrivaled cap table the looming strike over WNBA salaries — and team valuations at large. Plus: foreskin, poppycock, psychedelic pastel paisley, pandering to the people, talking with your eyes... and a haberdashery version of pre-determinism.• Subscribe to Nothing Personal with David Samsonhttps://www.youtube.com/@NPDS• From Pablo's Substack: We're One of the 100 Best Podcasts of All Time (Allegedly)https://www.pablo.show/p/were-one-of-the-100-best-podcasts Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

As the NFL returns, Pablo and Pro Football Talk's Mike Florio are back with more secret documents, a federal investigation, new government names, billions of union dollars, an O.J. Simpson parking space, the world’s largest strip club... and one big "clusterf*ck." Does the OneTeam Partners saga connect to a Game of Thrones-style power play by the NFLPA's shadow boss? Or could the feds be on the trail of an even bigger scandal?• Part One: The NFL's Secret Collusion Case, Revealedhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P42Wq3fmTYg• Part Two: We Got Another Secret Union Document — and Smoked Out Another Cover-Uphttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P42Wq3fmTYg• Read our latest NFL document on Pablo's subscribers-only newsletter:https://www.pablo.show/subscribe• Pre-order "Big Shield" by Mike Floriohttps://www.amazon.com/Big-Shield-Mike-Florio-ebook/dp/B0FGH43V6D• Ex-NFLPA boss Howell's strip club expenses sent to investigator (Don Van Natta Jr. and Kalyn Kahler)https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/45703132/nflpa-nfl-agreed-keep-collusion-findings-secret• "If he failed, their process failed": Inside the NFLPA meltdown (Don Van Natta Jr. and Kalyn Kahler)https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/45800610/inside-nflpa-executive-director-lloyd-howell-tenure Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We are living in the era of Peak Cremation, and fans have turned to our true American cathedral as a final resting place: the sports arena. PTFO death correspondent David Fleming reports on a cottage industry for die-hards in the afterlife — from team-branded urns and exploding golf balls to franchises that want the on-field ceremonies gone (and forgotten). And then, of course, we help a woman named Edna spread her husband's ashes... while riding a convertible, on a racetrack, flooring it into eternity.(This episode originally aired January 23, 2025.)• Subscribe to Pablo's Substack for exclusive access, documents and invites⁠https://pablo.show/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Long before the viral Coldplay concert, there was another — and even wilder — affair caught on camera. Two pitchers for the Yankees agreed to the wildest trade in sports history: They switched wives. And children. And furniture. And pets. David Mandel laments his big-screen adaptation that never was... even though the ultimate passion project could have starred Matt Damon and Ben Affleck.(This episode originally aired April 30, 2024.)• Subscribe to Pablo's Substack for exclusive access, documents and inviteshttps://pablo.show/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Sprinter TyNia Gaither was disqualified for a false start... after the gun went off... for running faster than humanly possible. Was that even true? Do sporting officials really understand how the body works? Or do we simply not understand how to define — and record — a race?(This episode originally aired September 21, 2022.)• Subscribe to Vox's "Unexplainable" podcast for more episodes like this, every weekhttps://www.vox.com/unexplainable Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The viral commercial has a mysteriously simple message: sportsmanship. The child actor has gotten dunked on by NBA Twitter for more than a decade. Correspondent Zach Schwartz untangles a web from Madison Avenue to the Supreme Court to Damian Lillard, in search of a boy named Alex — and the meaning of perseverance.(This episode originally aired January 7, 2025.)• Subscribe to Pablo's Substack for exclusive access, documents and inviteshttps://pablo.show/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Can rockstar sportswriters be friends with superstar athletes? How do you measure a good episode of sports TV? And what's so great about being an old dad? Plus: playing the human jukebox, brokering the Jordan-Barkley peace, writing about Holyfield's ear on deadline... and the word "podcast" as a racial slur.Further content:• "Ear Today, Gone Tomorrow" (1997)https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/sports/1997/06/29/ear-today-gone-tomorrow/3f93d30d-2606-4adc-aeb4-1bf26c9b9bb9/• "Mission Impossible: African-Americans & Analytics" (2016)https://andscape.com/features/mission-impossible-african-americans-analytics/• South Beach Sessions: Michael Wilbon (2023)https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TdUV2FxatwQ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

If you thought Pablo and Pro Football Talk's Mike Florio set the NFL world on fire last month, wait until you get a load of the "diabolical genius" behind the cover-up... to the cover-up... to the cover-up: Fake injuries, encouraged by one union boss, only to be litigated by the league. Private-equity side hustles, cashed in on by another, only to be selectively edited on social media. And smoke. Lots of smoke.• Read our newly obtained NFL document on Pablo's subscribers-only newsletter:https://www.pablo.show/subscribe• Pre-order "Big Shield" by Mike Floriohttps://www.amazon.com/Big-Shield-Mike-Florio-ebook/dp/B0FGH43V6D• Previously on PTFO: The NFL's Secret Collusion Case, Revealedhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P42Wq3fmTYg• Sources: NFLPA, NFL agreed to keep collusion findings secret (Don Van Natta Jr. and Kalyn Kahler)https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/45703132/nflpa-nfl-agreed-keep-collusion-findings-secret• NFLPA head also works for firm approved to invest in NFL (Van Natta and Kahler)https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/45705432/nflpa-head-works-firm-approved-invest-nfl Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.