Mo Bamba: The Global Earworm that Dunked on Diplomacy By Correspondent-at-Large, Dave’s Locker Somewhere between the collapse of the Doha trade talks and the slow-motion implosion of the COP climate accords, humanity found a higher calling: chanting “Mo Bamba” in falsetto at complete strangers. The 2017 SoundCloud single by Sheck Wes—named, incidentally, after a 6’11”…
The Curious Case of BC Football: How a Provincial Pastime Became a Global Rorschach Test By Our Correspondent, filed from an airport lounge where the Wi-Fi costs more than the beer Vancouver—On a continent currently debating whether democracy is an app or a bug, British Columbia’s football scene has improbably become a geopolitical mood ring….
The Accidental Geopolitics of a Thursday Night in Blacksburg By R. M. Delgado, International Affairs Desk Somewhere between the Blue Ridge and the broad Atlantic, two modest land-grant universities will collide Thursday night in what the American sports-industrial complex bills, with endearing provincial grandiosity, as “Virginia Tech vs. NC State.” The rest of the planet,…
Liberty vs. Old Dominion: A Cage Match Sponsored by Everyone Else By our man in the cheap seats, watching empires negotiate the fine print PARIS—If you squint at the headlines long enough, “liberty” and “old dominion” start to look like the same tired couple in a long-running sitcom: one swears this season they’ll finally break…
The Global Parable of Two Golfers, or How Justin Rose and Bryson DeChambeau Became a Geopolitical Rorschach Test By our man in the 19th-hole press tent, still nursing yesterday’s painkillers and tomorrow’s regrets PARIS — Somewhere between the Seine and the artificial intelligence expo that’s currently turning the City of Light into the City of…
Garrett Nussmeier and the Geopolitics of a Third-String Quarterback By Our Man in Exile, Dave’s Locker Global Desk Somewhere between the irradiated sushi counters of Tokyo and the smoke-choked cafés of Beirut, the name “Garrett Nussmeier” flickered across sports tickers last January like a misspelled ransom note. LSU’s erstwhile clipboard curator had just been handed…
Carlos Gu and the Glorious Farce of Global Tech Ambition By Dave’s Locker International Desk Somewhere between a WeWork in Shenzhen and a Palo Alto juice bar that charges extra for “hope,” the name Carlos Gu began circulating last month with the quiet inevitability of a tax hike. To most of the planet—i.e., anyone outside…
A Dispatch from the Heartland’s Coliseum: How Indiana University’s Football Calendar Has Become the Planet’s Morality Play By Dave’s Far-Flung Correspondent, filing from a press box that smells faintly of popcorn and existential dread. BLOOMINGTON, Indiana—Somewhere between the soy-fields and the vape shops, the 2024 Indiana University football schedule has been unfurled like a medieval…
Villarreal vs Athletic: A Mediterranean Punch-Up With Geopolitical Side-Effects By Our Correspondent, still recovering from tapas and existential dread La Liga’s most politely named derby—Villarreal versus Athletic Club—kicked off on Sunday in a half-empty Estadio de la Cerámica, the tiles outside glistening like the tears of crypto investors. To the uninitiated, it looked like 22…
Win-Win Game: The Diplomatic Fairy Tale We Tell Ourselves Between Wars By Quentin Black, Senior Cynic-at-Large GENEVA—In the marble corridors of the Palais des Nations, where the coffee tastes faintly of regret and moral compromise, diplomats still cling to the comforting bedtime story they call the “win-win game.” The phrase is uttered just before someone’s…
Ann Arbor, Michigan – Population: 118,000, optimism: 8.3 billion. While half the planet negotiates grain corridors and submarine cables, the other half has already circled six autumn Saturdays in maize-and-blue ink, convinced that cosmic balance depends on whether 19-year-olds from Florida can outrun 19-year-olds from Ohio. Welcome to the 2024 Michigan Wolverines football schedule, a…
The Utah State Aggies, a football program whose greatest victories usually involve convincing 18-year-olds that Logan in February is “quaint,” have improbably become a geopolitical weather vane. From the vantage point of a barstool in Sarajevo—where the local side has been relegated so often it should qualify for EU development funds—the Aggies’ 2023 season offers…
