Pablo only understands the true meaning of making this show, not the holiday season. So the ghosts of Christmas break pay him a visit, to pay it forward with recommendations for reality shows and Christmas songs, plus an important investigation into the truth about Santa Claus. May bonus content bless you, everyone.PTFO-approved xmas playlists:Charlotte Wilder's Christmas-Song Christmas SongsCortes's Holiday MixWatch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/DlGMJ4GO7Oo Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

"Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse" is the PTFO Movie of the Year™ but how does all this comic-book content feel so new, when constraint is supposed to be the mother of creativity? Also: Will Marvel explain away Jonathan Majors? Can you actually draft an all-white Pro Bowl roster, with so much "reverse racism" against cornerbacks? And how can we all be a little nicer next year?Further content:"I'm sick of average white guys commenting on football...." (@R_Mendenhall)The Spider-Man Problem (Planet Money)Marvel, Disney drop actor Jonathan Majors after he's convicted of assaulting his former girlfriend (AP)Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/4hiz7wbx6ws Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

You may remember Smush Parker from his very public, lopsided beef with the late Kobe Bryant, but there is so much more to the arc of Smush's life story — from being a toddler raised inside "The Cage," in New York City, to bringing up the ball right before "The Malice at the Palace" began. And now, it turns out, Smush Parker is committed to another shocking quest: become the fourth former NBA player, ever, to become an NBA referee.Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/ZWFEMq7prXc Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What if the afterlife sounded like a pro wrestler? Does Vivek Ramaswamy have the nuts for a pay-per-view debate with Pablo? And how the hell do you get out of a gym membership? Plus: enormous dildos, dong tennis, cock-adjacent merch, Harry Houdini's quads, and several special ringside appearances.Further reading:NJ Bill Would Allow Consumers to Cancel Gym Memberships Online and Easily (Asbury Park Press)Using A.I. to Talk to the Dead (The New York Times)Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/-SwgmSvrpwU Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

As a teenage prankster crashing the football transfer window, Kieran Morris juiced the Wikipedia page for an obscure player across the globe, and word spread from London to the MLS of a legend in the making: The Honduran Maradona. Ten years later, our correspondent finds out what really happened to Alexander Lopez.(Adapted from an episode of Sports Explains the World)Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/-QzVmd8TEjw Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hersh Goldberg-Polin was devoted to an Israeli football club fighting for peace. Supporters of its rival include far-right Israeli politicians like a national-security minister hellbent on war — and a racist mob. If you want help understanding the Israel-Hamas conflict, Hersh's abduction by terrorists is a window to the world. Correspondent Amos Barshad interviews his loved ones and finds a silver lining.(Read the companion article at The Lever)Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/R0IoouIfXNc Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Why are we allowing the most flagrant liar in American politics to shamelessly Cameo-wash himself with direct-to-consumer content? Is it so unreasonable that Shohei Ohtani isn't handling his free agency like the American sports media wants him to? And about that sports media: Are the olds — and words — about to get left behind? (Plus: farts in a jar and the ballad of the teacup Maltese.)PTFO-approved reading:Shohei Ohtani's Secretive Free Agency Is a Missed Opportunity for Him and MLB (Buster Olney)How Gen Z Is Killing Sports Media as We Know It (Alex Reimer)Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/puOmElQS7R8 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The comic, actor, and Daily Show correspondent/president shovels out content with the best of 'em. But he also believes in bombing onstage to learn the optimum level of failure. He believes in using anger to win over an audience — or to find a new favorite team, or to find love. Ronny Chieng believes. Also: watching thousands of hours of Patriots documentaries, torrenting "Around the Horn," dialing up NBA Live, getting Covid based on your fandom... and the best foul-mouthed Bill Belichick impersonation you've ever heard.Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/fX5AnWhP65s Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

A fierce debate — about no less than the meaning of intelligence itself — has broken out in the world of football scouting, as star quarterback C.J. Stroud puts together one of the best rookie QB seasons ever... after bombing the new Wonderlic test. But can this S2 Cognition exam actually predict how your brain impacts athletic performance? Pablo puts himself to the ultimate test of mental agility, with a little help from Alex Smith — and with a LOT of expletives.Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/inuwR73XKw0 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

No conference-championship weekend in the history of the College Football Playoff has higher stakes than the one upon us right now. And so we turn to John Urschel — newly liberated CFP selection committee member; ex-NFL lineman; and current MIT mathematician — to shed the cloak and drop the dagger. And we learn what actually happens, behind closed doors, as hordes of furious fans demand the favor of a cabal that might be more Office Space than Eyes Wide Shut.Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/EjkxEv7nIBY Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices