Show & Tell: World Cup Fever!
This is Show & Tell where I tell you some things I loved from the week and the one thing I hated, plus round up everything else going on around these parts. The first half of Show & Tell is free to all. The adoration and hateration are for paid subscribers only.
If you do not like sports, please change the channel, because the World Cup started and the basketball ended1, and I am living my best life. This entire Show & Tell is dedicated to sports. This is my newsletter, I do what I want. Books be damned.2
Quick PSA: If you’re not following Men in Blazer on IG for all things World Cup change that ASAP. Friend of the pod, Rog Bennet3, and the team at MIB is giving you all the WC content you could need—informational, funny, candid, fan stuff—it is very very good.
This Week in The Stacks
I went full theatre kid and live-Substacked my thoughts to the Tony Awards.
One of the most special episodes of The Stacks dropped this past week. I had my uncle Dusty Baker —yes that Dusty Baker, on to talk about his memoir Crossroads and his legendary career in baseball. If you have a father figure in your life who loves baseball allow me to suggest you get this book for them.
I brought back my nonfiction matrix and plotted out all 26 of the 2026 nonfiction books I’ve read so far this year.
Books I Read This Week
Born in Flames: The Business of Arson and the Remaking of the American City by Bench Ansfield
In the 1970s, the Bronx was rocked by arson fires set and/or commissioned by landlords in order to collect insurance money, this book explores that history. Ansfield researched the hell out of this book. It is detailed and takes readers from the uprisings of the 1960s into the political and economic climate that allowed arson-for-profit to run rampant. This isn’t a super narrative account, but Ansfield does a good job finding ways to incorporate personal stories to connect the bigger dots at the center of the book, which really broadens the scope and depth of the project. There were times I found the book to be a bit dry, but mostly I was engaged and came away with a whole new understanding of this recent bit of history.
Fave of the Week
Housekeeping
I’ll be a guest for the first ever Sam Sanders Show Live here in LA on Sunday June 28th. It’ll be me, Sam, and Eliot Glazer doing a 90s nostalgia bracket. You know you want to come. Get your tickets.
Things I Love…
Pop Culture
I want to just get this out of the way. Congrats to the New York Knicks and anyone who is actually a fan. I will not be offering congrats to those of you who watched your first Knicks game this postseason, no matter how much you take pictures in the streets. In fact, you Knicks “fans”, who just learned about basketball and the Knicks and still somehow have all the merch, are the reason this is in pop culture and not sports, because that is what this has become.
Congrats to Mamdani because I do feel like he manifested this by his existence and we love to see him win especially in direct contrast to Trumps failings.
Sports
The World Cup is here and I am in heaven.
I think we should start with who we are all rooting for. I come from the school of thought where you should have 2-3 teams you root for (in any order).
Your country of origin (if they are out the country from whence your people came).
A real and true contender4 sure to make it far into the Cup. If you are lucky and your country of origin is good, you don’t need this extra team.
A team that is a long shot to make it out of group play and just hoping to eek out one of those new spots in the knockout round.5
My teams look like this.
United States of America. I think of this like how I root for the USA in the Olympics. My nationalism pops out once every four years, but like it is still FDT all day every day. You know?
England. Mainly because when I first got into club soccer6, I was watching English Premier League and so many of the players on my team, Manchester City, were on England’s national team. Automat connection and investment. Plus I love a true underdog, and as far as front runners go, England always says its coming home, but its been 60 years since that was true.
Scotland. No Scotland No Party. I have written about my journey to becoming a member of the Tartan Army at the 2024 Euro Cup in Germany. Truly that match was a top tier sporting event of my life, and I will love Scotland forever. And now, my love of Scotland complicates my England support, because all good Scottish fans hate England with all their heart, so I may switch up my frontrunner squad. I don’t know just yet.
After those three teams, when it comes to any other matches I am rooting for everyone Black and taking all geo-political relations into account. It really is the only way to go for matches that don’t involve your personal three. Other factors worth thinking about: the hotness of the players, the hypédness of the fans, and the freshness of the kits.
The other thing you need is one (at least) enemy squad. The team you are rooting against no matter what for whatever reason. I do not mess with Argentina or Germany for what can be boiled down to WWII related reasons. I know y’all love Messi, but he’s not my guy.
If you need help picking your team, the folks at Black Arrow (who came on The Stacks podcast during the 2018 World Cup) made an online quiz to help you pick a team that matches your vibe. Its pretty genius.
Ok, now that we have that out of the way, let’s talk about my first team, the good ol’ US of A. They played their little hearts out in that opener against Paraguay. As batshit as it sounds, I sorta have hope. That is a truly insane thing to have when it comes to the USMNT. Haven’t I been burned numerous times? Haven’t I learned my lesson by now? No, no I have not. I just can’t bridle the joy I felt watching Flo Balogun score two goals, and knowing that his birthright citizenship is enraging MAGA losers across this great nation.
England hasn’t played yet, but they released their team photos, and this level of chaos is pitch perfect.7
And then there is my beloved Scotland. My Tartan Army. The keepers of my heart8.These lads won their first World Cup match since 1990. I hate that it had to come against Haiti9 but the Tartan Army has to play whatever challengers get laid at their feet. Onward!
Politics
I partook in two free public World Cup watch parties hosted by Los Angeles and West Hollywood this weekend. It was a fucking blast. Public dollars going to free family inclusive community events where people get to be together in the world is all I’ve ever want for myself and my tax dollars. And if you think this isn’t politics, think again. Especially in LA where Karen Bass is in a big time mayoral race. The kids got to play and I got to watch the match with strangers who wanted to chat soccer and vibe out. These events tapped into that thing that often feels missing from US sports in general and US soccer fandom more specifically. I can’t wait to check out more of the “Kick It in the Park” series as the tournament proceeds. If you’re not in LA I hope you can find a few watch parties in your community to attend. Well worth it, and watching soccer with strangers makes the sport exponentially better. Also, this is what our public funds should be going to, not drones and military strikes.
Music & Podcasts
