House of Strauss

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.houseofstrauss.comAnd now for a man who needs no introduction, but we will be re-introducing on account of technical difficulties last time. It’s the great Bob Costas, legendary broadcaster of all things, and current baseball announcer for TBS and the MLB Network. In this episode, we’ve sent over friend of pod and big time WFAN muckety muck Spike Eskin to Bob’s place to deal with any tech issues. The result? A quality podcast wherein we discuss, among many topics, learn that HoS is a fine product!Pod outline written by the astute Sam Schuette: * Why are so many New Yorkers prominent broadcasters?* The lineage of Costas, Cosell, Breen, Albert, Tirico, and more* The law of averages and New York as the mecca* Talking Shohei Ohtani* How Ohtani resembles Michael Jordan (but LeBron does not)* The one thing he’s missing* Should Ohtani get surgery now or later?* The trajectory of the MLB* The association between a team and its stars* The imbalance between teams like the Rays and the Dodgers* Informed commentary vs. hot take commentary* Avoiding egregiously hot takes and personal blows* How exclusively positive commentary can make you seem less authentic* Why Costas regrets speaking to ESPN about leaving NBC* Clickbaity titles and the distortion machine made his Super Bowl removal a bigger deal than it was* How it created a false “Bob vs. NBC” storyline* “Your prerogative vs. their prerogative”* Trying to be honest vs. making trouble for your bosses* The bar for controversial commentary has gotten so low that anything can cause a fallout* Bob’s Pat Riley story* How a botched teleprompter let Bob save Pat during a broadcast* How David Stern and Roger Goodell differed as commissioners* Goodell ducked an interview with Bob* Stern enjoyed the fight and accepted contentious interviews* The gambling tsunami taking over pro sports* The moral issues behind it* Legalization and convenience enlarging the scope of its damage* Does it take away the authenticity of being a fan?* The Pete Rose Hall of Fame controversy* If steroid users are on the ballot, should Rose deserve a spot?* Does the influx of gambling in the MLB make the Rose lifetime ban unwarranted?* Bob appearing on Bill Maher* Not having to prepare for it* The difference between Real Time and Club Random* Aggregators mistranscribing podcast words* How the internet misrepresents everyone’s words* Bob’s defense of network TV* The edginess and intelligence it offered to the average viewer despite its timidness

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.houseofstrauss.comA House of Strauss favorite is here for our Second Substack Anniversary (Subscribe today!). Amin Elhassan of Meadowlark stops by to, among other things, give me a lot of shit. Podcast topics include by are not limited to…* Amin examines whether the Toronto Raptors really stole secrets from the New York Knicks?* Is cheating the final boss of analytics?* Amin loves how baseball is the cheatingest sport by far* Amin roasts my 2nd anniversary post* In the sports doc boom following The Last Dance , only Quarterback is an undeniable hit. Is Patrick Mahomes our era’s MJ? * Tom Brady: Tim Duncan if he had 7 rings?* I have a new, unwelcome neighbor* Amin felt validated by Lizzo’s fall from grace* Would a Woj vs. Shams movie actually be good?* Years later, I finally reveal the real reason my stoned interview with Don Nelson went south

Saagar Enjeti, co-host of Breaking Points, discusses the importance of creators not selling out, the clash between old and new media, and the potential collapse of Fox News. They explore the challenges faced by cable news networks, the rise of newer platforms, and the diminishing cultural power of celebrities.

Tom Haberstroh is the new proprietor of The Finder, a Substack wherein he, well, finds things. He’s always been great at that by the way, dating back to when he joined the (then infamous) Heat Index at ESPN. As long as I’ve known him, Tom’s used research to uncover aspects that others either couldn’t find or didn’t even know to look for. In this episode we take a trip down memory lane, back to when Tom was a hot shot 24-year-old reporter, commissioned to cover the most controversial team in the world. Was Tom the object of some hatred, by proxy of LeBron James? Upon reflection, was a little of it perhaps justified? Then we fast forward to today and have Tom make sense of modern situations like James Harden vs. Daryl Morey. We also get a sense of why he thinks that sports gambling is a bigger problem for the NBA itself than I do. Enjoy! This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.houseofstrauss.com/subscribe

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.houseofstrauss.comJay Caspian Kang of the New Yorker drops by and we revisit his tremendous Barstool Sports New York Times article from 2017. Jay was around the Barstool operation during the infamous blowup of what was to be a merger with ESPN/Disney. Now, there’s a new connection point between the companies as Barstool’s main gambling sponsor leaves to join ESPN. We look back on the article and ask the following: Did Barstool win in the end?But that’s merely a jumping off point. Many topics were covered in this pod, as outlined by the astute Sam Schuette. Those topics include but aren’t limited to…* Revisiting Kevin Durant’s exit from Golden State* Why Ethan has sympathy for Durant* The NBA Dark Web* The group of fans who love Monta Ellis and call Kevin Durant’s rings fraudulent* The race to be the most normie* The James Harden Daryl Morey Duel* Why Jay wanted Harden to be in the right* Harden’s Chinese wine selling* Barstool’s Big Move* Revisiting Jay’s Barstool article six years later* Why Barstool’s broad political reach worked in their favor* Why content doesn’t drive gambling as much as people think* Penn leveraging Barstool’s gambling-eager audience still couldn’t compete with the gambling titans* The importance of authenticity on betting apps* How BetMGM made bad PR because they didn’t want to pay a teacher $200k* The difficulty and ethicality of sports betting* Being good isn’t one big secret, it’s 1,000 little secrets* How many people actually win big?* Jay’s move to Berkeley* Why he enjoys it despite weird residents and stressed out students* Ethan thinks Berkeley is a “spiritually dark place.”* Self-segregation at UC Berkeley* The illusion of shared understandings* What drives people to choose who they hang out with?* The lack of interest surrounding Asian-Americans* Why do Asians get overlooked in cases like Affirmative Action which concern them?* The controversy surrounding Jay’s book* Understanding why people disliked it but not understanding why they didn’t * Getting less hostile on Twitter* Jay’s history of “bullying” on Twitter * How not being the underdog anymore makes him argue less* The “Redhead Beard Guy Song”* How the right uses music to own the libs* Why it’s effective because the left gives it attention

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.houseofstrauss.comRyan Glasspiegel of the New York Post is here and we start by discussing the big sports business story of the day: PENN Entertainment’s exit from Barstool and its entry into ESPN. From there, we can’t resist the USWNT flameout discourse, discourse, discourse….

Like so many people, I was shocked to see Disney separate Nate Silver from his famous website, 538. How could this happen? What’s next for Nate, post-538? We get into it. Our jumping off point is Nate’s new Substack, Silver Bulletin, which I thoroughly enjoy. That site covers topics ranging from poker to politics and, of course, pro sports. So we talk about that, plus discuss what the “Indigo Blob” is. This podcast outline, put together by the astute Sam Schuette, is of a conversation that includes but is not limited to the following:* Silver’s memorable Poker tournament experience* How he deduced people by observing their mannerisms* Famous YouTube video of winning a massive bluff* How sports parallel poker* Using stereotypes about yourself to your advantage* Why Ed Reed intercepting Peyton Manning is like a poker player predicting an opponent’s next move* Why shouldn’t there be an ideological purity test for pollsters?* Separate the art (polling) from the artist (political lean of pollster)* Activism as journalism and the PR-ification of everything* Writers using moral authority to tell audience what to think about Taylor Swift’s boyfriend* Has it been successful for the Democrats to make their journalism more progressive?* Advancing political arguments via buzzwords like “the science” and “misinformation”* The semantics and effects of wokeness* Has “woke” been overused? Is it time for a new name?* How wokeness created a conservative equilibrium (Bud Light boycotts)* Terrible Twitter before Elon vs terrible Twitter with Elon* The increased equilibrium of current Twitter* Which arguments are safe to make on Twitter when questioning institutional consensus gets framed as right wing?* The importance of political parties for normies* Why Nate hasn’t given up politics yet* Importance and uncertainty of the 2024 election* Aligning what he does with his interests* Reflecting on FiveThirtyEight* Its missed potential for a subscription opportunity* What ended his run there?* His issues and differences with the new guy running 538, G. Elliott Morris* Silver’s Sloan panel with Bill James* James’ talent for making crazy takes seem plausible* Why Bill James thinks the NBA has the worst athletes* The Pac-12’s dissolution to the Pac-4* Why sports are so much bigger in the Midwest and South This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.houseofstrauss.com/subscribe

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.houseofstrauss.comIn a way it’s been too long because we should have had Kevin O'Connor on sooner. The man delivers coverage that’s both comprehensive and prolific, plus he amiably powers through any backlash. I’m curious about how he does his thing and so I asked. Oh, and we discussed Elon Musk too. The following outline comes courtesy of our resident intern, the astute Sam Schuette:* What’s the best way to watch games as an analyst?* Watching one by one in the morning vs watching five different monitors all at once* Clips vs full games* Reacting to draft hits and misses* Killian “The French Cam Payne” Hayes* How to react to a miss on a prediction/ranking* Going from covering one team to becoming the NBA generalist* The added pressure of knowing everything about all 30 teams* Getting thick skin by growing up on the internet* How arguments on online forums and comment sections can teach mental resilience* Yes, the goddamn Lillard trade standoff we can’t avoid in any pod* Similar situation to Durant in Brooklyn* Waiting it out is more appealing to Portland than it seems* Changing team allegiances as a journalist* Rooting for the Lakers and Heat as a Celtics fan?* The temptation to root based on how the outcome validates a take* Controversy over KOC’s Elon tweet* When Musk responded to a troll tweet about Kawhi Leonard’s trade destination* Separating what a person does from what they say* Liking someone’s actions more than their words* Kevin Garnett as a basketball muse* The power of the individual player in changing a team’s culture* J. Kyle Mann, Caitlin Cooper, and underrated NBA writers* KOC’s on-air partners* Big Wos the “takesman”* Chris Vernon’s Dolan-Putin analogy

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.houseofstrauss.comI enjoy Freddie’s perspective, so when he reached out about appearing on this podcast to talk about, well, podcasting, I was delighted to take him up on it. The end result was a pod about podding, but also so much more regarding the modern content game. Turns out Freddie had some NBA culture angles too. The following outline comes courtesy of the astute Sam Schuette:* What makes an interesting podcast?* Why people with massive followings like Steph Curry and Obama aren’t popular podcasters*  The media’s role in creating storylines for players* What the NBA bubble lacked* The post LeBron “Decision”overcorrection of the media covering player mobility* How the media went from ridiculing a free agency decision to being content with mid-contract trade requests* What’s the NBA’s appeal to a fan of a small market team?* Smaller teams struggle to contend when their stars request trades* Bill Simmons* What’s his secret to podcast success? * What’s the Ringer’s method of creating successful podcasts* Variance and ephemerality in podcasting* The barrier to creating content is lower than ever* So many people have the resources to make content, regardless of their skill* Has it gone too far?* Creative jobs vs “boring” jobs* How long should you follow your dreams?* The 45-year old screenwriter who can’t sell a script vs the office drone* Max Read and Matt Ygelisias’s blogging success * Is success a product of being in the right place at the right time or sticking it out?* The disintegration of the ladder up the ranks* Can an aspiring sports writer still work their way up to ESPN or The Athletic?* DeBoer’s Pixar post* The convergence of adulthood and childhood

A third pod this week and a good one I might add.John Middlekauff, former NFL scout and recreational golf nut, podcasts on both football and golf. In this episode, we draw on that combined expertise to get into whether there’s an overlap between these two worlds. Additionally, we discuss Colin Cowherd’s take on Tony Romo’s golf addiction, get an informed opinion on whether Steph Curry could really go pro on the links, and talk about whether running backs are actually getting screwed salary-wise (John has a contrarian take here). This was a more sportsy podcast than usually happens on HoS, and there’s nothing wrong with that…House of Strauss is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.houseofstrauss.com/subscribe