Jordan
Appearances
Long Winded with Gabby Windey
hootin around with Carolyn Wiger
Hi guys, it's Jordan from the Balanced Blonde Soul on Fire podcast. On my show, we go deep on all things astrology, awakening, motherhood, channeling, healing, and so much more. A few years ago, I was diagnosed with chronic Lyme disease and the healing journey I embarked on at that time set me on the path to radical awakening.
Long Winded with Gabby Windey
hootin around with Carolyn Wiger
Let's just say I had no choice but to change my energy and that opened me up to the most beautiful healing of my life. On my show, you can expect to feel like you're sitting in my living room chatting with old friends. Tune in every Wednesday to connect and hang on the Balanced Bond Soul on Fire.
Mick Unplugged
The Heart and Passion Behind Jordan Chariton's Investigative Journalism
writing on my own and I kind of was stuck and I kind of late 20s early 30s like was just like you know what I don't think I'm going to be able I don't think there is a platform that I could do what I want to do I didn't have the money to start it myself so um I was ready to check out and then I just stumbled into the right place at the right time I went to a talk that um Cenk Uygur was giving he was the head of the Young Turks which is a the first like online news outlet really
Mick Unplugged
The Heart and Passion Behind Jordan Chariton's Investigative Journalism
Um, I approached him after it was given a YouTube in New York and I kind of just told him everything I'm telling you. Like, I'm kind of like a F the echo chamber kind of person, but I'm stuck in the echo chamber. And, uh, here's what I want to cover. And here's what I think I could do.
Mick Unplugged
The Heart and Passion Behind Jordan Chariton's Investigative Journalism
And, um, you know, he told me like they, at some point wanted to try like having like a on the ground reporter, but the way he phrased it, that was like a far out objective, uh, And I must have said something right because a month later he called me and he's like, you want to cover the New Hampshire presidential debate tomorrow between Bernie and Hillary. This was in 2016.
Mick Unplugged
The Heart and Passion Behind Jordan Chariton's Investigative Journalism
I had a job at the time, but I just called in sick and went up to New Hampshire. I didn't really know like what cover it meant. But that's where it all started. I stayed outside while all the reporters are inside, like interviewing people. you know, campaign officials and this and that before the debate, I was outside in 10 degrees interviewing Bernie supporters and Hillary supporters.
Mick Unplugged
The Heart and Passion Behind Jordan Chariton's Investigative Journalism
And this one interview I did with a Vietnam vet, he started tearing up, talking about, you know, all the BS politicians he's, you know, been... flooded with his whole life. And Bernie was the first person that really was telling the truth. And it was kind of like, that's where it hit me. Like, this was not like a produced scripted interview on CNN.
Mick Unplugged
The Heart and Passion Behind Jordan Chariton's Investigative Journalism
This was like real man on the street, the kind of stuff that you don't really see often. And this guy was cussing, which it was fine. And that's what I realized, like, this is the kind of reporting I want to do, talking to people, whether it's politics, social justice, exploitation. And that's where it started, the opportunity I got
Mick Unplugged
The Heart and Passion Behind Jordan Chariton's Investigative Journalism
Yeah. And I think it also it just depends on who you are. You know, I don't. I think you're a bad person if your idea of fulfillment is winning a Pulitzer and getting invited to, you know, fancy book parties and, you know, being a D.C. journalist, you know, creature and getting invited on to the Sunday shows. I mean, it doesn't make you a bad person, but to me, that's. not the most fulfilling.
Mick Unplugged
The Heart and Passion Behind Jordan Chariton's Investigative Journalism
I think for me, it's seeing a whole swath of Americans that are kind of left behind. There's really no one that's out there protecting them. The government, the public servants that are supposed to be representing them aren't. You know, nonprofits could only do so much. So in my travels, just, I mean...
Mick Unplugged
The Heart and Passion Behind Jordan Chariton's Investigative Journalism
To me, I'd rather have not win the awards or not get that mainstream credibility, but have communities that actually depend on me, have communities that appreciate what I'm doing. And if I'm lucky, actually try to deliver whatever justice I can through the reporting I'm doing.
Mick Unplugged
The Heart and Passion Behind Jordan Chariton's Investigative Journalism
To me, that's more rewarding because there's no better feeling than if you're on the ground somewhere and people are just grateful just by the act of talking to them, by the act of getting their story out. To me, that's better than any public recognition you could get or...
Mick Unplugged
The Heart and Passion Behind Jordan Chariton's Investigative Journalism
You know, I would love to have the following of Joe Rogan, but what does it matter if it's not for something greater, if that makes sense? Totally agree.
Mick Unplugged
The Heart and Passion Behind Jordan Chariton's Investigative Journalism
Yeah, so I was at the Young Turks for two years. I don't think I'd be where I am now without that platform. So I definitely appreciate it. I was thinking about kind of going out on my own anyway.
Mick Unplugged
The Heart and Passion Behind Jordan Chariton's Investigative Journalism
you know, even though the young Turks gave me a lot of Liberty, the bottom line is if you really want to do it the way you want to do it and the way you, your vision, uh, only you can do it, only you can do it.
Mick Unplugged
The Heart and Passion Behind Jordan Chariton's Investigative Journalism
So, uh, for a variety of reasons, uh, I started status coup in 2018 and it was very difficult because although I had somewhat of a following from the young Turks, uh, YouTube had changed its algorithm. So basically a lot of these social platforms are, yeah, constantly tweaking their algorithms.
Mick Unplugged
The Heart and Passion Behind Jordan Chariton's Investigative Journalism
And the way that YouTube had changed its algorithms was essentially to elevate what they called authoritative news. They put CNN and Fox News in that category, which I disagree with. And de facto suppressing, hiding independent news or not authoritative news. So everything I was doing at the Young Kirk's, which was getting a lot of eyeballs, it was like halved.
Mick Unplugged
The Heart and Passion Behind Jordan Chariton's Investigative Journalism
Not because people stopped liking it, just because people weren't seeing it. So that was a real struggle because it kind of gets in your head like, oh, is public sentiment shifting? People don't want stories about Flint or other communities I was covering. So it was really an uphill climb. I was lucky. We got, at the beginning, a small investor, like 50 grand, which...
Mick Unplugged
The Heart and Passion Behind Jordan Chariton's Investigative Journalism
Really went out the door right away just to buy equipment and bring on a cameraman. And from there, I just did it bootstraps. We did a GoFundMe to just get the money to go on the ground. So we went to Flint many times. I remember going to Virginia, one of those first stories. There were...
Mick Unplugged
The Heart and Passion Behind Jordan Chariton's Investigative Journalism
Virginians literally protesting by climbing up trees on their properties and doing tree sit-ins to stop fossil fuel companies from cutting down their trees to put a pipeline through. And it was very scrappy. I mean, the mic we were using was terrible. The audio was terrible. The camera wasn't great. Didn't have any marketing or real budget for advertising.
Mick Unplugged
The Heart and Passion Behind Jordan Chariton's Investigative Journalism
But, you know, the more we went, we were starting to get paid signups for membership. And it's just been kind of like a roller coaster from there. There's been stories that really hit and you grow from those stories. You know, for example, like we were on the ground last year covering the United Auto Workers strike.
Mick Unplugged
The Heart and Passion Behind Jordan Chariton's Investigative Journalism
We were there for three weeks, which is not cheap to be on the ground for three weeks. We covered it in Michigan, Ohio, Illinois. We went to Iowa to cover the John Deere strikes. We covered the Amazon Union organizing campaign for a year in Staten Island before they won, when it did not look like they were going to win.
Mick Unplugged
The Heart and Passion Behind Jordan Chariton's Investigative Journalism
We did reporting trips for two weeks during the worst of COVID, interviewing people Facing eviction, interviewing homeless people. And some of those stories, although I felt it righteous, just didn't hit. And some of them did. And sometimes there's been periods where I'm like, I don't know how I'm going to keep the lights on because we're...
Mick Unplugged
The Heart and Passion Behind Jordan Chariton's Investigative Journalism
I would say, I hate to use the phrase, kind of that silent group of people, silent majority that's just kind of treading water. They don't have a microphone in the mainstream media. They don't have government officials going to the floor of Congress telling their stories or advocating for them. I've always kind of gravitated towards the underdog.
Mick Unplugged
The Heart and Passion Behind Jordan Chariton's Investigative Journalism
We're spending like four grand per trip because, you know, myself, a cameraman, flights, hotels, food, rent a car, but we're not growing. And then there's other stories where, for whatever reason, we get like 200 paid signups for that story and our YouTube subscribers. So... YouTube subscribers go up. So it's definitely been peaks and valleys, and it's a lot harder to do it this way.
Mick Unplugged
The Heart and Passion Behind Jordan Chariton's Investigative Journalism
I feel it's more righteous, but it is a lot harder to do it where you don't have the built-in funding, you don't have the built-in resources. I can't remember the last weekend I didn't work. I can't remember the last... I've truly, even on holidays, had complete time off because when you have your own thing, it's really you, yourself, and I. 24-7.
Mick Unplugged
The Heart and Passion Behind Jordan Chariton's Investigative Journalism
At the moment, we don't have the funding for another full-time reporter. We haven't had the funding for a full-time producer, a full-time business management or business growth, a full-time... an assistant would be nice because I'm way too much is on my plate. So you have to kind of do a lot of it yourself along with my producer.
Mick Unplugged
The Heart and Passion Behind Jordan Chariton's Investigative Journalism
So yeah, there's definitely been moments where it's like, wow, for my own health, I don't know how much longer I could do this. But I read a lot of the YouTube comments, not for my ego, just to kind of get that that will to keep going and seeing how many, how people appreciate that. It keeps me going.
Mick Unplugged
The Heart and Passion Behind Jordan Chariton's Investigative Journalism
And, you know, fortunately right now through the book I published last year and the stories we're working on right now, we've seen more rapid growth. So I'm hoping that continues.
Mick Unplugged
The Heart and Passion Behind Jordan Chariton's Investigative Journalism
Yeah, I think it goes back to just the daunting, overwhelming feeling in Flint. You know, I had broken several stories on the Flint water cover-up, which most Americans don't know the details about. And a lot of people think it's, oh, that's too bad. It's, you know, but they think it's about Flint. And really the details are much broader than just Flint. I mean, it involved a massive flood.
Mick Unplugged
The Heart and Passion Behind Jordan Chariton's Investigative Journalism
Fraud involving Wall Street banks and involved just to me, brazen racism, greed. One of the biggest public health disasters that's ongoing. Cancer is surging today, 11 years later in Flint because of the water and the damage. So a lot of the feedback I got from outlets, the few that responded, because a lot of them just didn't care and were just 24-7 Trump, was this is great, but, you know,
Mick Unplugged
The Heart and Passion Behind Jordan Chariton's Investigative Journalism
This is too much for one article. You might want to try a book. And after a certain point, I had broken a few stories in The Guardian and Vice and a couple other places. But I basically had just thousands of documents from the criminal investigation that had never been out there. And I basically had like shells of the story and splinters all over the place, but not all one piece together.
Mick Unplugged
The Heart and Passion Behind Jordan Chariton's Investigative Journalism
And for me, it's kind of giving that microphone to people who don't have a voice in popular media, popular society. That's kind of my because.
Mick Unplugged
The Heart and Passion Behind Jordan Chariton's Investigative Journalism
So the only time off I actually had, believe it or not, was when my daughter was born because I took paternity leave. So it's probably not the best fatherhood, but instead of sleeping when she was sleeping, I started writing it. And I wrote it.
Mick Unplugged
The Heart and Passion Behind Jordan Chariton's Investigative Journalism
It was challenging because with a book like this, it's just a mountain of actual facts and people and moving parts, but you don't want to bore people to death because it's very heavy. So I also wanted to weave in the human parts and the human stories.
Mick Unplugged
The Heart and Passion Behind Jordan Chariton's Investigative Journalism
So I wrote it relatively quick, but the actual rewriting editing took like six months to a year because I settled on why don't I start each chapter with a story of a resident and kind of set the scene with exchanges I had with them and then get into the timeline of the coverup. So overall, it took me about a year between writing, editing, and then trying to find a publisher. I can't tell you.
Mick Unplugged
The Heart and Passion Behind Jordan Chariton's Investigative Journalism
I had quite a few prominent ones say to me like, oh, we think this is really admirable. Your reporting is great, but we don't think this is, quote, commercially viable, i.e. enough people would care. And I said, well, Watergate seems to be a very prominent story that a lot of books have been written about.
Mick Unplugged
The Heart and Passion Behind Jordan Chariton's Investigative Journalism
What if I told you this was the real Watergate and people actually died as opposed to that Watergate? But I think at the end of the day, unfortunately, a lot, the mass media, so whether it's TV news, book publishing, they're all consolidated in New York, D.C., LA, it doesn't make them bad people, but the prominent stories aren't generally of flyover country with few exceptions.
Mick Unplugged
The Heart and Passion Behind Jordan Chariton's Investigative Journalism
And I think because Flint had happened so long ago and this was such a deep dive investigation, I think for lack of a better word, it was like out of sight, out of mind. I've gotten that for media outlets that I've pitched stories to. I mean, I had like the goods. I had thousands of confidential documents. smoking guns and media outlets would ask me, one in particular said, is there a Trump angle?
Mick Unplugged
The Heart and Passion Behind Jordan Chariton's Investigative Journalism
I said, no, there's not. Is destruction of evidence, political payoffs not enough for you? So yeah, it took me, I mean, for six months, I was just stupidly blind sending out the publishers because I didn't know any better. uh, to try and get a publisher. And fortunately I got lucky. I connected to a book agent who happened to be from Flint. So this was a passion project for him.
Mick Unplugged
The Heart and Passion Behind Jordan Chariton's Investigative Journalism
And, uh, he connected me with, uh, the right publisher. Um, and for me, you know, I said to myself, I very much doubt this will ever become a New York times bestseller. Uh, it was very hard because the way it came out, it was going to come out right before the election. Um, and, And it's hard to get attention right before a presidential election.
Mick Unplugged
The Heart and Passion Behind Jordan Chariton's Investigative Journalism
But for me, I just said, if nothing more, at least if I could say at the end of my career, I got the actual truth out about this, not just crime against humanity, but cover up, then I could sleep well. And for me, the most gratifying part Frustratingly, most Flint residents didn't know the truth because their media failed to dig.
Mick Unplugged
The Heart and Passion Behind Jordan Chariton's Investigative Journalism
That's why I had to keep going back because the Michigan media stopped covering it. So the fact that so many more Flint people now know the truth, to me, it was well worth it.
Mick Unplugged
The Heart and Passion Behind Jordan Chariton's Investigative Journalism
I think most people don't know that the former governor of Michigan, Rick Snyder, was actually warned a year before the Flint water switch that there would be health problems if they switched to the Flint River, that there'd be bacteria problems, there'd be carcinogens, cancer-causing chemicals. He was briefed on it and he allowed it. So that's one.
Mick Unplugged
The Heart and Passion Behind Jordan Chariton's Investigative Journalism
Two, I'm pretty sure most people are not aware that he received the briefing 16 months before he told the public about the deadly Legionnaires outbreak. That was the waterborne bacteria in Flint that resulted from the river switch, killed a lot of people. Um, he received a briefing about that in October, 2014. He didn't, he sat on it for 16 months.
Mick Unplugged
The Heart and Passion Behind Jordan Chariton's Investigative Journalism
So the crisis could have ended a lot earlier and a lot a lot more people could be alive today. And more importantly, a lot more people that are alive could have a lot less severe health problems, if not for that.
Mick Unplugged
The Heart and Passion Behind Jordan Chariton's Investigative Journalism
And bigger picture, I do not think most people know that the Flint water crisis was really just a for-profit privatization scheme that used poor, frankly, black residents of Flint as guinea pigs. Flint had gotten its water without an issue from Detroit for 50 years. The water was originally coming out of the Great Lakes, which is some of the cleanest water on Earth.
Mick Unplugged
The Heart and Passion Behind Jordan Chariton's Investigative Journalism
And because of a lot of people's greed and recklessness, they decided, let's try to build a completely new water system. And Flint, because Flint was going to be joining that new water system unnecessarily, by the way, during the construction of that new water system, they said, well, just use the Flint River, which had been polluted for 100 years by General Motors and Dow Chemical and DuPont.
Mick Unplugged
The Heart and Passion Behind Jordan Chariton's Investigative Journalism
And we'll use the water plant, which I compare to these Boeing planes that are in air falling apart. Well, basically, we'll add the parts mid-flight. That was the mentality. So most people don't know that, contrary to the media, this was not some tragic mistake to not add the right chemicals to try to save money. This was actually a scheme to make money. And the victims are from Flint.
Mick Unplugged
The Heart and Passion Behind Jordan Chariton's Investigative Journalism
And lastly, I think the way the media reports, not just these types of things, but so many environmental or situations like this, they put it in the past tense. I mean, if you look in Google, it's like the Flint water crisis was something that happened from 2014 to 2016. It's an ongoing crisis. In parts of the city, the water is still bad. I was just there for my book.
Mick Unplugged
The Heart and Passion Behind Jordan Chariton's Investigative Journalism
Residents were showing me their fresh rashes from the water. You have cancer surging. It's not coming from the weather, it's from the water. They don't have free healthcare as citizens in Flint, which they should. They don't have ongoing testing. All the criminal charges were dropped. So you're not getting criminal accountability for what happened here, which in my view,
Mick Unplugged
The Heart and Passion Behind Jordan Chariton's Investigative Journalism
gives other politicians elsewhere the green light to do whatever they want, because there's no accountability for what they did in Flint. So it's ongoing, and they have not even replaced all the pipes that were damaged from that toxic water now 11 years later. So that is not a crisis past tense. That's an ongoing disaster.
Mick Unplugged
The Heart and Passion Behind Jordan Chariton's Investigative Journalism
To me, this is also a media disaster because if you had diligent media that stayed on stories like this, you could actually solve the problems much, much earlier.
Mick Unplugged
The Heart and Passion Behind Jordan Chariton's Investigative Journalism
Yeah, I think that, unfortunately, a lot of people focus on politics almost like it's a sport, like it's the Democrats versus Republicans, blue team versus red team. But I don't think people realize that the only color really in this country that matters is green. And pretty much most of our public apparatus has been privatized.
Mick Unplugged
The Heart and Passion Behind Jordan Chariton's Investigative Journalism
I mean, I don't want to get too in the weeds, but people should look up Bill Clinton's Telecommunications Act of 1996. It deregulated the media. And that deregulation of the media consolidated hundreds of media outlets into six multi-billion dollar conglomerates owning everything. So when you have such corporate power of the media, there is incentive not to.
Mick Unplugged
The Heart and Passion Behind Jordan Chariton's Investigative Journalism
Yeah, I think two things come to mind. I actually worked for more mainstream corporate outlets. I worked at Fox News for a period which was eye-opening. And then I went to MSNBC. And I was behind the camera, booking guests, producing segments. But at MSNBC, it never sat well with me. It's in the middle of New York City, Rockefeller Center. And just walking into the studio, it was just...
Mick Unplugged
The Heart and Passion Behind Jordan Chariton's Investigative Journalism
do deep dive investigations into things that might not reflect well on Wall Street, might not reflect well on for-profit healthcare, might not reflect well on the military defense contractors. So that to me is why you don't have
Mick Unplugged
The Heart and Passion Behind Jordan Chariton's Investigative Journalism
You have kind of substance level coverage of Flint, you know, interviews with the families, you know, spotlight on a kid suffering with learning disabilities and all those things are important, but not the deeper dive into the who, who knew what, when, where, you know, and things that could actually do damage to. special interests that fund the government, donate to politicians.
Mick Unplugged
The Heart and Passion Behind Jordan Chariton's Investigative Journalism
In my book, I reveal a media outlet in Flint, a local ABC station. They killed a story six months after the water switch on that deadly Legionnaires outbreak. They had documentation that one of the local hospitals had a Legionnaires outbreak at the same time residents were complaining about the water. They killed the story. I later learned that the hospital was one of their top advertisers.
Mick Unplugged
The Heart and Passion Behind Jordan Chariton's Investigative Journalism
So unfortunately, these stories are kind of getting swept under the rug or covered at the beginning, kind of artificially. Official narratives are put out about what happened that aren't the actual truth. And then they kind of slowly go away for the next shiny object. And I think until there's reform where media... media outlets aren't controlled by for-profit entities.
Mick Unplugged
The Heart and Passion Behind Jordan Chariton's Investigative Journalism
Whatever people's view on healthcare, for example, there's now a broader discussion about should healthcare be really a commodity and for-profit? I think the same thing needs to be said about the public airwaves because it used to be news outlets were a quote, lost leader for the parent companies.
Mick Unplugged
The Heart and Passion Behind Jordan Chariton's Investigative Journalism
You didn't make money off your news outlet, but it was part of your brand that you're doing a public service. Not so much anymore. So I think if there was...
Mick Unplugged
The Heart and Passion Behind Jordan Chariton's Investigative Journalism
If the corporate entities had less power or billionaires didn't own Twitter and Facebook, et cetera, you might have more room for journalists to actually do journalism and less conflicts of interest between the parent companies of these media outlets.
Mick Unplugged
The Heart and Passion Behind Jordan Chariton's Investigative Journalism
Because there's no reason in the world that a guy from New York should be having to travel to Flint over 20 times to cover an ongoing water crisis and cover up when there's the Detroit Free Press, the Detroit News, the Flint Journal. People need to wonder, why did they stop?
Mick Unplugged
The Heart and Passion Behind Jordan Chariton's Investigative Journalism
Yeah, I'm actually working on, I guess, Flint 2.0. It doesn't end. So for those that remember in Ohio in 2023, Norfolk Southern crashed their trains and then unnecessarily detonated a million pounds of toxic chemicals over Ohio and Pennsylvania. And that, unfortunately, has also been kind of swept up by the EPA and the media. So I've been digging on that. I'm working on a story now because it's
Mick Unplugged
The Heart and Passion Behind Jordan Chariton's Investigative Journalism
Pretty clear the EPA misled the residents there about what they were and were not finding as far as toxic chemicals. So I'm working on that as we speak. I should have that investigative story out soon. Also working on health care stories. Whatever you think about what happened with the UnitedHealthcare CEO.
Mick Unplugged
The Heart and Passion Behind Jordan Chariton's Investigative Journalism
It's definitely opened up and opened up the floodgates in terms of the spotlight on the horror stories that are everywhere. Liberals, conservatives about dealing with health insurance companies and being denied or delayed care. So I've been doing interviews with folks about their health care stories, digging into some of the, let's just say,
Mick Unplugged
The Heart and Passion Behind Jordan Chariton's Investigative Journalism
Less than ethical practices of the health insurance companies. So people could check that out. And all of this is on our YouTube channel, Status Coup, as well as our Substack.
Mick Unplugged
The Heart and Passion Behind Jordan Chariton's Investigative Journalism
I mean, so many homeless people. And that was never covered on MSNBC. And I had pitched my producer, you know, hey, why don't I, it was around Christmas time, you know, season of giving. Why don't I go speak with homeless people? Not as like a gimmick, you know, get their stories. Maybe we could help. And a producer kind of patted me on the back like, oh, that's admirable, but that won't rate.
Mick Unplugged
The Heart and Passion Behind Jordan Chariton's Investigative Journalism
Thanks for giving this attention. I appreciate it.
Mick Unplugged
The Heart and Passion Behind Jordan Chariton's Investigative Journalism
And meaning we won't get ratings. And that's when it kind of hit me. I was always I was already a little like unfulfilled in the mainstream media grind. But that's when I realized, like, I'm never going to be able to actually do stories of substance, talk to people that don't rate. So that's kind of when I left mainstream media and.
Mick Unplugged
The Heart and Passion Behind Jordan Chariton's Investigative Journalism
For me, the second epiphany that's kind of sustained me to now in 2016, I was covering the campaigns. Obviously, it was very hectic with the Bernie Sanders kind of wave and then the Trump wave. So, you know, I was bouncing around different rallies, different candidates. But a resident from Flint had come up to me at a conference.
Mick Unplugged
The Heart and Passion Behind Jordan Chariton's Investigative Journalism
Basically, it was almost like we're deserted on an apocalyptic island and the rescue choppers have left without us, begging me to come. So to my boss at the Times credit, he sent me. And I just realized so many other stories in mainstream media, even independent media, is kind of like you parachute in. You cover it and then you're out.
Mick Unplugged
The Heart and Passion Behind Jordan Chariton's Investigative Journalism
And, you know, everyone has a very short attention span and we can't stay on stories, whether they're mass shootings or whatever have you. But to me, this was a crisis was an understatement. This was a absolute disaster. And I just realized from that first trip in Flint that I was going to have to dedicate more than one story to it.
Mick Unplugged
The Heart and Passion Behind Jordan Chariton's Investigative Journalism
And as I kept going back, it wasn't really to me anymore about journalism. It became this might be my defining thing in life. You know, not that I could bring justice for a community, but at least. making sure this wasn't forgotten. You know, I did not feel and I don't feel it should be normalized when Americans are poisoned by their government in this instance.
Mick Unplugged
The Heart and Passion Behind Jordan Chariton's Investigative Journalism
So for me, that was kind of the turning point where it's like you have two forks in the road. One is you stay, you keep going on the route of the news grind and doing different stories every day and going after what clicks and what's trending or staying on something that
Mick Unplugged
The Heart and Passion Behind Jordan Chariton's Investigative Journalism
is not only a news story, it's a crime against humanity, even if it won't necessarily, you know, you're not going to win awards, you're not going to grow your Twitter followers, you might lose money. But this right here is a deeper pursuit. So I chose to stay on the stories like Flint that were definitely abandoned by mainstream media, the government.
Mick Unplugged
The Heart and Passion Behind Jordan Chariton's Investigative Journalism
And, you know, I think I live happier and healthier as a result.
Mick Unplugged
The Heart and Passion Behind Jordan Chariton's Investigative Journalism
Yeah, I think my first trip there, it's kind of overwhelming in a way. You know, at first you go into these situations, kind of really wanted to cover the, you know, the human element. You know, kids with rashes all over their body from the toxic water or people losing their hair. Just driving around the neighborhood the first few days, you see porches everywhere.
Mick Unplugged
The Heart and Passion Behind Jordan Chariton's Investigative Journalism
I mean, cases of bottled water stacked to the top. So my goal was to show the human element. I had no idea there was this decades-long corruption scandal that led to this. But as much as the residents appreciated me interviewing them and trying to get the personal end, I mean, I couldn't they wouldn't stop talking in a good way. You need to you need to look into this politician.
Mick Unplugged
The Heart and Passion Behind Jordan Chariton's Investigative Journalism
You need to look into this bank. You need to look into, you know, it was just dumping stuff on my lap. And, you know, I had some investigative reporting experience, but I had never really. I never really looked into anything that involved privatization schemes, Wall Street banks involved, multiple levels of government from the federal government to the state level, to the city, to the county.
Mick Unplugged
The Heart and Passion Behind Jordan Chariton's Investigative Journalism
So that's when it kind of hit me like, whoa, this is not what Rachel Maddow reported. This is not what... The media was reporting, which is just like, oh, you know, the government to, quote, save money just chose not to add the right chemicals. This was much, much deeper than that. More systematic years in the making. It's not something that just happened with a decision to switch to a river.
Mick Unplugged
The Heart and Passion Behind Jordan Chariton's Investigative Journalism
But and that's when I kind of realized, like, wow, this is not something that I could just, you know, in YouTube videos.
Mick Unplugged
The Heart and Passion Behind Jordan Chariton's Investigative Journalism
journalism you kind of go places and you try to get bang for your buck right away you know do a live stream that goes viral or do an interview that goes viral or but with this I realized like this is this is going to take dedication I'm going to have to go back many times I'm going to have to try and get documents and dig through it on my own time I'm going to have to try and
Mick Unplugged
The Heart and Passion Behind Jordan Chariton's Investigative Journalism
Connect dots, meaning talk to one resident and get them to connect me to another one who maybe could connect me to a politician who maybe could connect me to a source, you know, that won't want to go on the record. So for me, it was just like all the residents. You know, I think in journalism too often reporters first, they don't go to residents or community members.
Mick Unplugged
The Heart and Passion Behind Jordan Chariton's Investigative Journalism
They go to politicians or experts. And to me, it's the reverse. If you want to know where the bodies are buried, you go to the people who don't have a voice, which is the community. Sure, there's some people that, you know, everyone has a motive or a motivation and you got to vet things. But that's what it hit me like, wow, I have...
Mick Unplugged
The Heart and Passion Behind Jordan Chariton's Investigative Journalism
all these residents all pointing me to ABC and D and I have heard nothing about any of these entities in the media. And that's why it took, you know, 21 reporting trips and counting and a lot of driving back and forth to Michigan. Um, because if you want to, if you want to truly break all the tentacles of a corrupt onion, you can't just parachute in and out. You can't just cover it here and there.
Mick Unplugged
The Heart and Passion Behind Jordan Chariton's Investigative Journalism
You have to really stick with it, which is not always the most fruitful in terms of, uh, revenue or building your profile. But in my experience, when the reporting on things like Flint actually breaks through and reaches people, the general response is, why are you the only one covering this? Why haven't I heard about this in mainstream media? So it's been rewarding that way.
Mick Unplugged
The Heart and Passion Behind Jordan Chariton's Investigative Journalism
It's about the nicest accolades I've received in a long time. Thank you.
Mick Unplugged
The Heart and Passion Behind Jordan Chariton's Investigative Journalism
Yeah, honestly, I didn't realize when I was younger. I kind of grew up normal. I was actually in special ed for a learning disability. So I kind of always felt a little different, I guess you could say. Even when I switched to like mainstream class, a normal size, they still pulled me out of class to go to like speech class or OT.
Mick Unplugged
The Heart and Passion Behind Jordan Chariton's Investigative Journalism
So that, you know, I didn't have a bad childhood, but sometimes that was a little stigmatizing. It was kind of hard to make friends. So I guess I always felt a bit like an outsider, had those challenges. And then, I don't know, this is cheesy, but I watched Shawshank Redemption for the first time.
Mick Unplugged
The Heart and Passion Behind Jordan Chariton's Investigative Journalism
And I don't know, I got glued just to that story and the injustice of it all and the different layers of corruption. And I ended up watching it many different times just to see if there was something I missed, I guess. Yeah. And then in college, I just was looking for an internship. I just stumbled into an internship at the local Fox station.
Mick Unplugged
The Heart and Passion Behind Jordan Chariton's Investigative Journalism
I worked on the assignment desk, which is kind of like the air traffic control. It's where all the police sirens are going off and all this. That's where you kind of at local station. That's where you kind of decide like what stories to send reporters out on. And, you know, it was exciting.
Mick Unplugged
The Heart and Passion Behind Jordan Chariton's Investigative Journalism
But at the other on the other end, I just kind of felt like it was like, yeah, we're just kind of covering like if it bleeds, it leads and like the murders and the worst of the worst. But we're not actually covering anything of deep substance. You know, we're not kind of covering economic issues. We're not covering local corruption.
Mick Unplugged
The Heart and Passion Behind Jordan Chariton's Investigative Journalism
And then, you know, talking to different people at the station, well, yeah, you know, you can only go so far because of advertisers and legal. So I think that's when it kind of hit me, like, I like the news industry, but I, again, in college, I went to school in Tampa, which had a big homelessness problem.
Mick Unplugged
The Heart and Passion Behind Jordan Chariton's Investigative Journalism
So I would talk to homeless people, but I realized like, wow, there's no news outlets that would actually run this. So I think that's where it kind of, dawned on me like I'm a square peg into a round hole or whatever that phrase is because the things that I wanted to cover not that murder and those things aren't important but
Mick Unplugged
The Heart and Passion Behind Jordan Chariton's Investigative Journalism
Most of the news coverage was just kind of like the shiny new stuff, not like the deeper systemic stuff. So that's where it kind of dawned on me. But unfortunately, there's very few outlets that exist where you could do that. Mainstream outlets. And I just worked for many of my early years, you know, kind of bopping around corporate media, then nonprofits, then online.
Mick Unplugged
Patrik & Pol | Fashion, Fame, and Fun: Exploring Patrik & Pol's World on Mick Unplugged
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Mick Unplugged
Patrik & Pol | Fashion, Fame, and Fun: Exploring Patrik & Pol's World on Mick Unplugged
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Mick Unplugged
Patrik & Pol | Fashion, Fame, and Fun: Exploring Patrik & Pol's World on Mick Unplugged
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Mick Unplugged
Patrik & Pol | Fashion, Fame, and Fun: Exploring Patrik & Pol's World on Mick Unplugged
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Mick Unplugged
The Evolution of Esports with Industry Leader Jordan Rambis
It's typically because they might be good at the game, but then their personality and how they engage and how they create their audience.
Mick Unplugged
The Evolution of Esports with Industry Leader Jordan Rambis
They know kind of all the right pieces at all the right times, but they had one just on his streaming deal alone was $80 million over two years. And there's a lot of people.
Mick Unplugged
The Evolution of Esports with Industry Leader Jordan Rambis
Yeah. And you get a direct connection to with your audience so you can.
Mick Unplugged
The Evolution of Esports with Industry Leader Jordan Rambis
sell your sponsorships on top of that you can build out products and really get this immediate response from your fans about you know who you are and what you're doing so you see all these guys that again like kai i think it's pronounced kai sanat right yeah and and all these other people that now they're just they're making more money than the celebrities that they bring on
Mick Unplugged
The Evolution of Esports with Industry Leader Jordan Rambis
Your little sister had no chance.
Mick Unplugged
The Evolution of Esports with Industry Leader Jordan Rambis
Yeah. And the 12-year-old will smack talk you better too. You'll just be like, oh, dang.
Mick Unplugged
The Evolution of Esports with Industry Leader Jordan Rambis
Right. No, it's cool. I mean, it is the great thing. It's actually, I'm too old. I'm aged out. I used to be decently competitive at a few titles where I'd be master ranking or diamond or whatever it may be across multiple titles from multiple different genres. But now I get in there and it's, yeah, like you said, I'll have my 10-year-old to 12-year-old nephew is now kicking my ass at Fortnite.
Mick Unplugged
The Evolution of Esports with Industry Leader Jordan Rambis
I'm just like... It used to be my thing. All right, we're playing zero build now. You don't get a build. We got to go and we'll just be shooters. But the thing that they were describing to you is, I think, one of the things that gets under- valued for gamers is most of these games, a lot of these games are about problem solving.
Mick Unplugged
The Evolution of Esports with Industry Leader Jordan Rambis
And I kind of look at them as almost like, you know, digital kind of more fun to play chess in that capacity. Because again, gaming is a massive genre. But for the most part, you're trying to understand the mechanics of a game and problem solve on how to have like the best outcome for it. Right.
Mick Unplugged
The Evolution of Esports with Industry Leader Jordan Rambis
And there's some that are just straight puzzle games, you know, like a like a Lara Croft Tomb Raider type game. And then there's other ones where, again, like they were saying, hey, if you run this play, you have a better chance of getting it because this is how the game works. And I think a lot of gamers actually should do that more than they probably do.
Mick Unplugged
The Evolution of Esports with Industry Leader Jordan Rambis
They probably just play the game and not trying to identify like where the mechanics of the game that I could like be better at. Because I do think it's one of those things where you can train your brain certain ways to like be more analytical and using that where you're like, okay, hey, I'm going to look at gaming as more problem solving than just entertainment.
Mick Unplugged
The Evolution of Esports with Industry Leader Jordan Rambis
Probably I've always been a stubborn person, to be honest. I was a stubborn little kid. I was on a, you know, just the kid that could never sit down in class. And if someone told them, no, you can't do something, I'd figure out a way to do it. And I think kind of growing up and utilizing that as an adult is I'll look towards an industry.
Mick Unplugged
The Evolution of Esports with Industry Leader Jordan Rambis
I mean, it kind of began when I was, I had left the restaurant industry. I worked my way up from like a bartender to a GM and then. kind of wanted to get out of the restaurant industry.
Mick Unplugged
The Evolution of Esports with Industry Leader Jordan Rambis
And I became an account executive for a software company that was kind of more explained to me that I was going to be like more like marketing, but it was like cold call marketing type thing, which wasn't, you know, my cup of tea.
Mick Unplugged
The Evolution of Esports with Industry Leader Jordan Rambis
So then I had an opportunity to be a production assistant on a TV show and just kind of fell in love with that process of a bunch of people just kind of sitting in the room, Being like, hey, wouldn't this be funny or wouldn't this be entertaining? It was with Craig Kilborn, who's a legend to say the least.
Mick Unplugged
The Evolution of Esports with Industry Leader Jordan Rambis
But he took me under his wing and there was actually one joke that I pitched him, which like normally production assistants wouldn't pitch a joke. And I was just like, hey, what do you think about this? And he's like, I like it. Let's do it. And put it on. That kind of gave me that bug. So I spent hundreds of hours trying to develop reality TV shows and putting together sizzles and, you know,
Mick Unplugged
The Evolution of Esports with Industry Leader Jordan Rambis
Trying to get a show sold, never could. Failed for three, four years as I was being a production assistant on other shows. And then connected with one of my friends, we want to do a horror film. And kind of sitting down thinking about what we could do is like, oh, well, what if we go after an existing like iconic horror property and use that to leverage to help get a film done?
Mick Unplugged
The Evolution of Esports with Industry Leader Jordan Rambis
So we went to the Winchester house in Santa Clara, San Jose. San Jose. And because there's a lot of lore around it and pitched them and had to actually put on their haunted house as a way to convince them to give us the rights to do the film.
Mick Unplugged
The Evolution of Esports with Industry Leader Jordan Rambis
So we actually managed and produced their haunted house during Halloween for a couple of years before they were willing to kind of give us the rights to go try to do the film for it, which we got Helen Mirren for. I didn't have too many hands on the two horror projects I produced. I kind of helped in certain ways, they kind of made it happen.
Mick Unplugged
The Evolution of Esports with Industry Leader Jordan Rambis
But the jump to the TV and the scripted doing the Lakers documentary and helping package that and be a part of that was was amazing. And then this, the what is now running point was something that I always joked around with my mom about how much fun it would be. And Jeannie Buss, my mom had been trying to do a
Mick Unplugged
The Evolution of Esports with Industry Leader Jordan Rambis
similar show for a long time it was pitched more as on a drama side and looked at everything from from more of a drama angle and just being around my mom and genie like the one power that they have to kind of keep going and deal with a lot of the the struggles that they have that the headaches that they have is they laugh. They laugh a lot. They crack jokes. They try to keep the spirits light.
Mick Unplugged
The Evolution of Esports with Industry Leader Jordan Rambis
And some of the stuff that they have to deal with is so ridiculous. You can't do anything but laugh at it. So repositioned it as a comedy. Finally convinced them to like, let me take it out and brought it to a longtime friend, Andrew Thomas. who we were first maybe going to talk to some other people.
Mick Unplugged
The Evolution of Esports with Industry Leader Jordan Rambis
But then he goes, no, like, you got to talk to Mindy Kaling and Howard Klein, who did The Office, because I was pitching it as like as The Office, but the Lakers. Yeah. So then Andrew made those intros and it was off to running from there. It was a lot of fun. The development process was really cool. Going back and talking about the old stories because we just had finished the documentary.
Mick Unplugged
The Evolution of Esports with Industry Leader Jordan Rambis
I'll see some sort of issue within the industry, some sort of problem to be fixed. But I also know my limitations. So what I'll do is I'll find I'll figure out like, OK, hey, here's the problem. Here's maybe a solution for it. Who's going to be the right people that I can put in place and empower and take a minority position and really let them do what they do best.
Mick Unplugged
The Evolution of Esports with Industry Leader Jordan Rambis
So it's like, oh, even here's what, you know, other things that happened that we didn't put in the documentary that could be funny to do because now we can do it. It's a fictitious comedy. So, you know, you can change things around and have more fun with it rather than when it's a documentary and you have to like kind of stay in your lane.
Mick Unplugged
The Evolution of Esports with Industry Leader Jordan Rambis
Exactly. Yeah. So it's been really fun and there was a lot of laughs during that process. And again, that's back to your question earlier of what drives you. It's like I love, love the humor, love making people laugh, love making people entertained. And also it's like if my mom and I are able to crack up for hours, you know, talking about all the stories and funny situations, that's, you know.
Mick Unplugged
The Evolution of Esports with Industry Leader Jordan Rambis
It's about what drives, you know, happiness in your life.
Mick Unplugged
The Evolution of Esports with Industry Leader Jordan Rambis
Yeah. Put it on every house, every TV, on repeat, whatever, whatever you need to do. I'd love to get a season two out of this. It was such a fun season one. Yeah.
Mick Unplugged
The Evolution of Esports with Industry Leader Jordan Rambis
Now, do I get to be a part of season two? Maybe we can get a little cameo in there somewhere.
Mick Unplugged
The Evolution of Esports with Industry Leader Jordan Rambis
That's very funny. No, there was actually, um, there was a couple of very big reality TV production groups that back in the day wanted to do like a, a Rambus and bus type thing. And, and, you know, some just a Rambus type thing, but I have no desire to be famous whatsoever. I want to, you know, as much as, as little as I can be to still do the things that I want to do.
Mick Unplugged
The Evolution of Esports with Industry Leader Jordan Rambis
Uh, fame is, you know, it's, it's not something I want to be a part of, but You know, it is cool to kind of picture what that story would be. That sounds like a fun idea. That show would be a fun show.
Mick Unplugged
The Evolution of Esports with Industry Leader Jordan Rambis
Well, I mean... I love my dad, so I'm going to have to say him. Mark Madsen was one of the nicest guys.
Mick Unplugged
The Evolution of Esports with Industry Leader Jordan Rambis
We both volunteered for the Red Cross back in the day, and he was just a character and one of the nicest guys. I don't always light up a room. But if you're saying everything, it has to be Kobe. I mean, that's –
Mick Unplugged
The Evolution of Esports with Industry Leader Jordan Rambis
knew him when he kind of first came to the team and I'd be over there back in the day you could like have your family over at the practices over in the corner so I'd be off just kind of like playing and he was always just just came over with just a nice big smile and you know it's a it's a terrible loss to say the least but he's inspired so many and I think it's
Mick Unplugged
The Evolution of Esports with Industry Leader Jordan Rambis
I don't think there's any one in the league that could say that he inspired this mentality of greatness in so many people that I know have changed their lives because of that. So I'd have to say, you know, after my dad, hands down, it would be Kobe. Truly, truly an inspiration.
Mick Unplugged
The Evolution of Esports with Industry Leader Jordan Rambis
So that's kind of what I've done because that is actually how I was brought into my first big project. I was brought in to Axiomatic Gaming, which is a investment fund. We received investment from Disney, Groupon, owners of Groupon, AOL, Michael Jordan, Tony Robbins, Dick Clark Productions, and Amazon.
Mick Unplugged
The Evolution of Esports with Industry Leader Jordan Rambis
Yeah. I mean, that makes at least the back in the day, the new the new ownership's a lot nicer. But Celtics is, I don't know, never understood that that mentality. of the eighties Celtics fans, but they're diehards. That's for sure. But it's fun. I mean, I mean, that's what, you know, you need that in sports.
Mick Unplugged
The Evolution of Esports with Industry Leader Jordan Rambis
That's the one thing I never got about the football and the penalties and stuff for like celebrating and all that. Cause that's like, to me, like, that's like, that's how you build stuff. You build rivalries, you build entertainment. You want to see them celebrate. You want to see the emotion and,
Mick Unplugged
The Evolution of Esports with Industry Leader Jordan Rambis
It'd be like producing a TV show or movie and being like, okay, just say the lines. Don't show emotion.
Mick Unplugged
The Evolution of Esports with Industry Leader Jordan Rambis
Yeah. So I love it. I love to see that kind of just that, that, you know, the heart come out of the game in whichever capacity.
Mick Unplugged
The Evolution of Esports with Industry Leader Jordan Rambis
I won't say his name because I don't like bashing people, but I think we all know it's Kevin McHale.
Mick Unplugged
The Evolution of Esports with Industry Leader Jordan Rambis
Yeah. Obviously, I don't know him from any experience. But if I had to say anyone.
Mick Unplugged
The Evolution of Esports with Industry Leader Jordan Rambis
I would have gone up and kicked him on the shin after when I saw the videos if I knew. No. But most liked would probably be Gordon Hayward. He actually was big in esports as well. And really one of those ambassadors of a traditional sports player who loves gaming. So, yeah. And a very nice guy as well.
Mick Unplugged
The Evolution of Esports with Industry Leader Jordan Rambis
Well, I'll stick up for him. I will say JJ is a nice guy and a very intelligent guy. Yeah. If you say so. Yeah. If you're going to if you're going to have one, he wouldn't be a bad one to have.
Mick Unplugged
The Evolution of Esports with Industry Leader Jordan Rambis
I mean, again, I try not to, but I guess I guess on Instagram, if anyone wants to reach out on Instagram, just, you know, Jordan Rambis at Jordan Rambis. But but I appreciate the time. Thank you so much. And looking forward to more conversations in the future.
Mick Unplugged
The Evolution of Esports with Industry Leader Jordan Rambis
I was paired up with this extremely intelligent gentleman, Bruce Stein, who was the former CEO or COO of Mattel and had worked in a lot of fun capacity before that. And I was just the gaming industry guy. I knew my lane. I'm just going to give him the information that I know best.
Mick Unplugged
The Evolution of Esports with Industry Leader Jordan Rambis
I'd probably say two things. I'm extremely grateful for all the hard work that my parents continue to do to make my life better. So definitely doing things to make my family proud and my parents proud is always a big motivator to me. And then the other aspect is...
Mick Unplugged
The Evolution of Esports with Industry Leader Jordan Rambis
And he was going to be kind of the puppet master kind of making, okay, well, this is how we should do this then because you told us. So I've been working to be in that position where I can be the person that brings everyone together. They feed the info too. And then I push out to everyone what we should do next. So for example, you know, if any of the listeners maybe want kind of advice on this,
Mick Unplugged
The Evolution of Esports with Industry Leader Jordan Rambis
on ways to go about with what I'm doing now. Almost everything I'm thinking now is very AI driven in terms of what's a need within the community. How can we identify people or how can that system be brought into an AI capacity to be more efficient? So one of them is actually just become a lot more relevant, fortunately for the company, but unfortunately for the fires that occurred.
Mick Unplugged
The Evolution of Esports with Industry Leader Jordan Rambis
But it's a AI system we built out called PlanCheckSolver. You can go, it's actually up right now, planchecksolver.com. And what it just does is it cross-references your building designs with local city ordinances.
Mick Unplugged
The Evolution of Esports with Industry Leader Jordan Rambis
So the hope is with all the fires that have occurred in LA, we're taking these lead times from six months to six years or five years, whatever it's going to be taking to get these business plans approved or building plans approved down to the hope would be just instantaneous feedback on, hey, everything's up to code. You can start on the next step.
Mick Unplugged
The Evolution of Esports with Industry Leader Jordan Rambis
I think I was just in the right place at the right time with the right knowledge and passion. I was, again, just a diehard gamer and...
Mick Unplugged
The Evolution of Esports with Industry Leader Jordan Rambis
No, definitely. I think there needs to be a complete rethinking of insurance for natural disasters, especially when it comes to one that some of the government's actions can increase or decrease the risk itself. So I think it would be nice to see a program similar to what CAL FIRE in theory is, but a way where...
Mick Unplugged
The Evolution of Esports with Industry Leader Jordan Rambis
when an insurance company is not offering fire protection or flood or something that there should be a little bit more government aid on that side, that there's offerings by the government that can help subsidize those costs in terms of reducing the risk.
Mick Unplugged
The Evolution of Esports with Industry Leader Jordan Rambis
So like, let's just say, for example, fire, you know, you have your home fire protection through your insurance company of something that, you know, you have a barbecue or something that happened that was more of your fault, quote unquote.
Mick Unplugged
The Evolution of Esports with Industry Leader Jordan Rambis
And then something that, again, if you look at the fires in LA, what's a fire protection service where we can analyze where the risk factors are and actually incentivize property and homeowners to to implement pieces that actually will reduce their premiums being paid to insurance. So example, here comes, we do an analysis using all these different factors of your home. Okay, well now...
Mick Unplugged
The Evolution of Esports with Industry Leader Jordan Rambis
We're going to monitor this home via satellite. You can do all the AI stuff for privacy. So it's never in a human interaction on it where they don't see, like you could blur out people and all that, but it could track, is there shrubbery growing within five feet of the home? Hey, do you have this? You have a pool.
Mick Unplugged
The Evolution of Esports with Industry Leader Jordan Rambis
If you buy this water pump system and the sprinkler guard will reduce your premiums by this much a month. And only through tech can that be something that's scalable, but you can then have the state
Mick Unplugged
The Evolution of Esports with Industry Leader Jordan Rambis
backing an insurance program that is using this tech and AI systems to be okay, hey, instead of trying to look at this problem, just on the grander scale, we can get down to the smaller nitty gritty details of is this house being doing what it needs to do to be protected? Is this house doing what it needs to do to be productive?
Mick Unplugged
The Evolution of Esports with Industry Leader Jordan Rambis
And I think, again, just looking at those issues and using tech and AI as a problem as a way to solve those problems, I think is just, you know, whatever one should be looking at.
Mick Unplugged
The Evolution of Esports with Industry Leader Jordan Rambis
Yeah. If you know any insurance people that want to get that done, it would be great to because I'm just hearing these horror stories. It's one after another. I feel so bad for these people.
Mick Unplugged
The Evolution of Esports with Industry Leader Jordan Rambis
I'd probably say two things. I'm extremely grateful for all the hard work that my parents continue to do to make my life better. So definitely doing things to make my family proud and my parents proud. is always a big motivator to me. And then the other aspect is probably like I have like this kind of like inner superhero wannabe child.
Mick Unplugged
The Evolution of Esports with Industry Leader Jordan Rambis
I grew up, I actually had a speech, a pretty bad speech impediment. I was deaf for two, three years. I had to get a couple surgeries when I was like three to five. And it gave me this kind of more awkward speech impediment. So I was kind of like that nerdy kid in class. I'd go home and play video games. And the other thing I would do is I had a...
Mick Unplugged
The Evolution of Esports with Industry Leader Jordan Rambis
a red wagon that I would call my wed wagon back then. And it was full of comic books. And I'd take that down the street and I would just read comic books all day long. So I got obsessed with this kind of superhero mentality. So it's one of these things where I just always strive to see if like, hey, what's this? What's something I can do that could help the world? And I think...
Mick Unplugged
The Evolution of Esports with Industry Leader Jordan Rambis
There's also ways to do that that can be cross-beneficial. So one of my friends from college, after college, got diagnosed with malignant melanoma. He's fine now, but we were trying to give out sunscreen and stuff and realized that wasn't scalable. So my first kind of tech slash hardware company I started was something called BrightGuard that I started with one of my college friends, Ryan Warren.
Mick Unplugged
The Evolution of Esports with Industry Leader Jordan Rambis
And it was automated sunscreen dispensers, just like you would have hand sanitizer dispensers at places. And we would sell the ad and you'd be able to sell the ad for more than what you would sell the sunscreen for. So it allowed us to give out free sunscreen while making a potentially profitable business, which we eventually get to.
Mick Unplugged
The Evolution of Esports with Industry Leader Jordan Rambis
So I think something like that, too, where, you know, again, with the plan check solver, something where you can innovate and actually help people make the world a better place, but at the same time have a successful business, it'll allow you to help more people, right? If we were just giving out sunscreen... We might be able to kind of save a few lives here and there or whatever.
Mick Unplugged
The Evolution of Esports with Industry Leader Jordan Rambis
But by what we did in getting hundreds of thousands of gallons of sunscreen out there to people who didn't have it on at the time, Bayer, who was our supplier, said we statistically saved hundreds or thousands of lives, which is kind of a cool thing that, again, allows it to scale more because it is a business for profit.
Mick Unplugged
The Evolution of Esports with Industry Leader Jordan Rambis
Well, I appreciate that. There's obviously a lot more people who had a lot more of an impact on it than me, but I think I was just in the right place at the right time with the right knowledge and passion. I was, again, just a diehard gamer and had been meeting with Riot Games,
Mick Unplugged
The Evolution of Esports with Industry Leader Jordan Rambis
And I've always wanted to get into video game development and just saw this path where I was lucky enough to have a sports background and knowledge about the sports industry while also being a diehard gamer and understanding a little bit of business. So...
Mick Unplugged
The Evolution of Esports with Industry Leader Jordan Rambis
I kind of saw that opportunity within esports and with the right network was able to get my friends within gaming and my investor friends and my sports friends and their connections. And just to get everyone together saying, hey, you know, esports is becoming a thing. We could be on the forefront of, you know, kind of trying to to make it go down the right path and be on that upswing.
Mick Unplugged
The Evolution of Esports with Industry Leader Jordan Rambis
And yeah, I mean, it was just right as I jumped into it, you know, I think we just had a very notable group around us crossing all these different industries that it was definitely some of those names made esports, you know, kind of go to the next level. Whereas, again, getting it taken seriously. Now, I still think there's a lot of innovation that needs to happen with esports. And I think...
Mick Unplugged
The Evolution of Esports with Industry Leader Jordan Rambis
There's also a lot of misconstruing of what esports is. But I think people viewing gaming content for a multitude of reasons, entertainment, education on the games. There's a lot of different aspects to what esport or watching someone play on Twitch can be. But it's always funny because you get these people that...
Mick Unplugged
The Evolution of Esports with Industry Leader Jordan Rambis
don't get that they're like why would they why would you want to watch someone play video games like that's that's not something the naysayers or it's like some of the game development stuff is like oh you're building a game that allows your users to build games why would gamers want to do that they're lazy they don't want someone else to build you know the game for them they just want someone to build the game for them and i think one thing other too going back to your question earlier it's just like you're always going to have a lot of people saying no
Mick Unplugged
The Evolution of Esports with Industry Leader Jordan Rambis
Even if you're in the right and it's very obvious and 99% of people saying yes, there will always be that one person saying no. So it just kind of depends on who you talk to at what time and get that no or whatever.
Mick Unplugged
The Evolution of Esports with Industry Leader Jordan Rambis
But just if that's something of a passion for you and you feel like this is a need that needs to get solved, there's not a single project or single investment I ever made or a single idea I ever had. that there were no's too, almost every time. Actually, every time.
Mick Unplugged
The Evolution of Esports with Industry Leader Jordan Rambis
Thank you so much. I'm doing great. Lovely to be here. And I might need to just go around and walk around with you because you are the perfect hype man. That was the best intro I've ever had. Thank you so much.
Mick Unplugged
The Evolution of Esports with Industry Leader Jordan Rambis
So there's two kind of aspects to talk about. Again, there's the esport athlete that's being paid as a competitive gamer, which a lot of them, they'll sometimes be the same person. The person making the most is that. But a lot of times what...
Mick Unplugged
The Evolution of Esports with Industry Leader Jordan Rambis
you know, being the best player, it's a you're a really good player, maybe if there's a team, you're good at being a team, but you're just really good at that game. And, you know, some of the salaries for esports depends on the game, some will be, you know, you'll be the top player of that game, and only making 10s of 1000s.
Mick Unplugged
The Evolution of Esports with Industry Leader Jordan Rambis
Or there's other games, you'll be the top player that game, and your salary as a from the competitive team could be in the millions. So it really just kind of depends. But then if you add the aspect where they're a good streamer, that's where you get the biggest checks. And there was whenever you kind of see in the news, oh, this esport guy or this streamer gamer was paid this.
The Bread Basket Podcast
The NBA Playoffs Are Here, Update On Our Fish, Burger Vs Hotdog, And Q's From The Sticks
Like walking or, but no, but you said something about podcasts.
The Bread Basket Podcast
The NBA Playoffs Are Here, Update On Our Fish, Burger Vs Hotdog, And Q's From The Sticks
That's it.
The Bread Basket Podcast
The NBA Playoffs Are Here, Update On Our Fish, Burger Vs Hotdog, And Q's From The Sticks
Exactly. You just abandon it.
The Bread Basket Podcast
The NBA Playoffs Are Here, Update On Our Fish, Burger Vs Hotdog, And Q's From The Sticks
Yeah. Maybe that's why. Is that what it is?
The Bread Basket Podcast
The NBA Playoffs Are Here, Update On Our Fish, Burger Vs Hotdog, And Q's From The Sticks
Let's grow up, man. Grow the fuck up.
The Bread Basket Podcast
The NBA Playoffs Are Here, Update On Our Fish, Burger Vs Hotdog, And Q's From The Sticks
Because it looks like a penis.
The Bread Basket Podcast
The NBA Playoffs Are Here, Update On Our Fish, Burger Vs Hotdog, And Q's From The Sticks
Let's be a little bit more mature here.
The Bread Basket Podcast
The NBA Playoffs Are Here, Update On Our Fish, Burger Vs Hotdog, And Q's From The Sticks
They were banging. They were banging.
The Bread Basket Podcast
The NBA Playoffs Are Here, Update On Our Fish, Burger Vs Hotdog, And Q's From The Sticks
I'm sorry, dude. Yeah, so I'm retiring a piece.
The Bread Basket Podcast
The NBA Playoffs Are Here, Update On Our Fish, Burger Vs Hotdog, And Q's From The Sticks
We want to go to outer space by the end of 2025. Please hold us to it. Hold us to it. We're going to do that.
The Bread Basket Podcast
The NBA Playoffs Are Here, Update On Our Fish, Burger Vs Hotdog, And Q's From The Sticks
You could see the path.
The Bread Basket Podcast
The NBA Playoffs Are Here, Update On Our Fish, Burger Vs Hotdog, And Q's From The Sticks
Yeah.
The Bread Basket Podcast
The NBA Playoffs Are Here, Update On Our Fish, Burger Vs Hotdog, And Q's From The Sticks
That's lofty. And like, that's one, like don't want to make it attainable.
The Bread Basket Podcast
The NBA Playoffs Are Here, Update On Our Fish, Burger Vs Hotdog, And Q's From The Sticks
We can short form it up. Exactly.
The Bread Basket Podcast
The NBA Playoffs Are Here, Update On Our Fish, Burger Vs Hotdog, And Q's From The Sticks
No, it's not.
The Bread Basket Podcast
The NBA Playoffs Are Here, Update On Our Fish, Burger Vs Hotdog, And Q's From The Sticks
Well, I didn't know we were going to talk about that. I thought we were going to keep that in-house.
The Bread Basket Podcast
The NBA Playoffs Are Here, Update On Our Fish, Burger Vs Hotdog, And Q's From The Sticks
Let's start there. Scott Flippen has an Instagram.
The Bread Basket Podcast
The NBA Playoffs Are Here, Update On Our Fish, Burger Vs Hotdog, And Q's From The Sticks
If you taste as good as you look. Yep. Oh, brother.
The Bread Basket Podcast
The NBA Playoffs Are Here, Update On Our Fish, Burger Vs Hotdog, And Q's From The Sticks
So he's kind of... He's in his Miley Cyrus rebellion.
The Bread Basket Podcast
The NBA Playoffs Are Here, Update On Our Fish, Burger Vs Hotdog, And Q's From The Sticks
Really f***ing good right there.
The Bread Basket Podcast
The NBA Playoffs Are Here, Update On Our Fish, Burger Vs Hotdog, And Q's From The Sticks
I just want to know the technology there. Who did he have to know to get an underwater phone? Where is he keeping it? Because we searched the tank. I don't know where it is. Because those DMs, Danny, I read them.
The Bread Basket Podcast
The NBA Playoffs Are Here, Update On Our Fish, Burger Vs Hotdog, And Q's From The Sticks
Okay. Well, I'm having a good time. I'm enjoying what's, I'm enjoying what's there.
The Bread Basket Podcast
The NBA Playoffs Are Here, Update On Our Fish, Burger Vs Hotdog, And Q's From The Sticks
When do I stop? We're going to stop, Pastel. You know what sucks, man? When does this end, man? Oh, you know what? Can you resist the chew? Oh, f*** you.
The Bread Basket Podcast
The NBA Playoffs Are Here, Update On Our Fish, Burger Vs Hotdog, And Q's From The Sticks
It's just cool to see what's going on.
The Bread Basket Podcast
The NBA Playoffs Are Here, Update On Our Fish, Burger Vs Hotdog, And Q's From The Sticks
Because one of these candies, the fucking pigtail.
The Bread Basket Podcast
The NBA Playoffs Are Here, Update On Our Fish, Burger Vs Hotdog, And Q's From The Sticks
If you love as good as you look... Yes.
The Bread Basket Podcast
The NBA Playoffs Are Here, Update On Our Fish, Burger Vs Hotdog, And Q's From The Sticks
I don't even know if it's... I fuck with that.
The Bread Basket Podcast
The NBA Playoffs Are Here, Update On Our Fish, Burger Vs Hotdog, And Q's From The Sticks
Whoa.
The Bread Basket Podcast
The NBA Playoffs Are Here, Update On Our Fish, Burger Vs Hotdog, And Q's From The Sticks
Oh, nice.
The Bread Basket Podcast
The NBA Playoffs Are Here, Update On Our Fish, Burger Vs Hotdog, And Q's From The Sticks
A galaxy of fish, that's awesome.
The Bread Basket Podcast
The NBA Playoffs Are Here, Update On Our Fish, Burger Vs Hotdog, And Q's From The Sticks
Because I know I know. But let's just let's just be clear on the good cop.
The Bread Basket Podcast
The NBA Playoffs Are Here, Update On Our Fish, Burger Vs Hotdog, And Q's From The Sticks
no we Danny but I get like how we do it like that is that crosses a line like there's a point where you don't just like joke about that like right like am I going crazy or is that like that no you're you know what you know what man what bothers you bothers you
The Bread Basket Podcast
The NBA Playoffs Are Here, Update On Our Fish, Burger Vs Hotdog, And Q's From The Sticks
I just don't see a scenario where that would work.
The Bread Basket Podcast
The NBA Playoffs Are Here, Update On Our Fish, Burger Vs Hotdog, And Q's From The Sticks
And then after that, I think he was just rhyming.
The Bread Basket Podcast
The NBA Playoffs Are Here, Update On Our Fish, Burger Vs Hotdog, And Q's From The Sticks
Okay.
The Bread Basket Podcast
The NBA Playoffs Are Here, Update On Our Fish, Burger Vs Hotdog, And Q's From The Sticks
Worried sick. I don't want to run it off.
The Bread Basket Podcast
The NBA Playoffs Are Here, Update On Our Fish, Burger Vs Hotdog, And Q's From The Sticks
I don't know.
The Bread Basket Podcast
The NBA Playoffs Are Here, Update On Our Fish, Burger Vs Hotdog, And Q's From The Sticks
Whoever created those words, you created them too close.
The Bread Basket Podcast
The NBA Playoffs Are Here, Update On Our Fish, Burger Vs Hotdog, And Q's From The Sticks
Yeah.
The Bread Basket Podcast
The NBA Playoffs Are Here, Update On Our Fish, Burger Vs Hotdog, And Q's From The Sticks
And didn't drink any beers.
The Bread Basket Podcast
The NBA Playoffs Are Here, Update On Our Fish, Burger Vs Hotdog, And Q's From The Sticks
10.
The Bread Basket Podcast
The NBA Playoffs Are Here, Update On Our Fish, Burger Vs Hotdog, And Q's From The Sticks
It's a butter on the popcorn world and I'm just not living in it.
Unfiltered Soccer with Landon Donovan and Tim Howard
The Unfiltie Awards, 2025 Soccer Predictions, & 2009 Confederations Cup Reflections
Have you sent it to me? Because. I'm certain.
Unfiltered Soccer with Landon Donovan and Tim Howard
The Unfiltie Awards, 2025 Soccer Predictions, & 2009 Confederations Cup Reflections
Yeah.
Unfiltered Soccer with Landon Donovan and Tim Howard
The Unfiltie Awards, 2025 Soccer Predictions, & 2009 Confederations Cup Reflections
So you guys recorded the show. You should probably.
Unfiltered Soccer with Landon Donovan and Tim Howard
The Unfiltie Awards, 2025 Soccer Predictions, & 2009 Confederations Cup Reflections
All right. Are you ready?
Unfiltered Soccer with Landon Donovan and Tim Howard
The Unfiltie Awards, 2025 Soccer Predictions, & 2009 Confederations Cup Reflections
I mean, you should just jump in with the answer. No?
Unfiltered Soccer with Landon Donovan and Tim Howard
The Unfiltie Awards, 2025 Soccer Predictions, & 2009 Confederations Cup Reflections
Okay. In our first ever episode, which two MLS coaches did you mention? I can give you a hint. Greg Berhalter and Bruce Serena. You're half right.
Unfiltered Soccer with Landon Donovan and Tim Howard
The Unfiltie Awards, 2025 Soccer Predictions, & 2009 Confederations Cup Reflections
It was a million years ago. It felt so long ago. I'm going to say... Definitely Greg Berhalter, by the way.
Unfiltered Soccer with Landon Donovan and Tim Howard
The Unfiltie Awards, 2025 Soccer Predictions, & 2009 Confederations Cup Reflections
Okay, so you're both half right. We talked about Bruce Arena and Jim Curtin. Oh, Jim Curtin. Landon was so mad. Right, because he got fired. He got fired. Yeah.
Unfiltered Soccer with Landon Donovan and Tim Howard
The Unfiltie Awards, 2025 Soccer Predictions, & 2009 Confederations Cup Reflections
Okay.
Unfiltered Soccer with Landon Donovan and Tim Howard
The Unfiltie Awards, 2025 Soccer Predictions, & 2009 Confederations Cup Reflections
So you guys have half a point apiece. All right. Here we go.
Unfiltered Soccer with Landon Donovan and Tim Howard
The Unfiltie Awards, 2025 Soccer Predictions, & 2009 Confederations Cup Reflections
On Monday, December 2nd, which is when we recorded an episode, who were the top three EPL teams in order and why?
Unfiltered Soccer with Landon Donovan and Tim Howard
The Unfiltie Awards, 2025 Soccer Predictions, & 2009 Confederations Cup Reflections
I know.
Unfiltered Soccer with Landon Donovan and Tim Howard
The Unfiltie Awards, 2025 Soccer Predictions, & 2009 Confederations Cup Reflections
Yep.
Unfiltered Soccer with Landon Donovan and Tim Howard
The Unfiltie Awards, 2025 Soccer Predictions, & 2009 Confederations Cup Reflections
That's right. My guy. That's my guy. That's my guy. Good job. Yeah. Proud of you.
Unfiltered Soccer with Landon Donovan and Tim Howard
The Unfiltie Awards, 2025 Soccer Predictions, & 2009 Confederations Cup Reflections
Okay. Next question. This one's really hard. I don't know if you're going to get this one, but maybe. Maybe. In what year did NL Jackson write that all players taking part in England in future international matches be presented with a white silk cap with red roses embroidered on the front and these will be termed international caps?
Unfiltered Soccer with Landon Donovan and Tim Howard
The Unfiltie Awards, 2025 Soccer Predictions, & 2009 Confederations Cup Reflections
It was 1886.
Unfiltered Soccer with Landon Donovan and Tim Howard
The Unfiltie Awards, 2025 Soccer Predictions, & 2009 Confederations Cup Reflections
What made Marta's experience in the NWSL championship game… Her mom coming to the game for the first time in America. Boom.
Unfiltered Soccer with Landon Donovan and Tim Howard
The Unfiltie Awards, 2025 Soccer Predictions, & 2009 Confederations Cup Reflections
Okay. How many English players pulled out of appearing for their national team in November igniting the ire of Captain Harry Kane?
Unfiltered Soccer with Landon Donovan and Tim Howard
The Unfiltie Awards, 2025 Soccer Predictions, & 2009 Confederations Cup Reflections
Wow, Tim. I'm on fire.
Unfiltered Soccer with Landon Donovan and Tim Howard
The Unfiltie Awards, 2025 Soccer Predictions, & 2009 Confederations Cup Reflections
I told you I'm good at trivia. Let's go. I was going to say it and I didn't say it. All right, Landon. Come on. This is the last one.
Unfiltered Soccer with Landon Donovan and Tim Howard
The Unfiltie Awards, 2025 Soccer Predictions, & 2009 Confederations Cup Reflections
The two and a half? Yeah. Okay.
Unfiltered Soccer with Landon Donovan and Tim Howard
The Unfiltie Awards, 2025 Soccer Predictions, & 2009 Confederations Cup Reflections
All right, Landon. I know you know the answer to this question.
Unfiltered Soccer with Landon Donovan and Tim Howard
The Unfiltie Awards, 2025 Soccer Predictions, & 2009 Confederations Cup Reflections
How many episodes of this show mention Ricky Pooj? Jesus.
Unfiltered Soccer with Landon Donovan and Tim Howard
The Unfiltie Awards, 2025 Soccer Predictions, & 2009 Confederations Cup Reflections
Three is my answer. Three is wrong. You don't like that answer. Come on, Landon.
Unfiltered Soccer with Landon Donovan and Tim Howard
The Unfiltie Awards, 2025 Soccer Predictions, & 2009 Confederations Cup Reflections
Five. Oh, my God.
Unfiltered Soccer with Landon Donovan and Tim Howard
The Unfiltie Awards, 2025 Soccer Predictions, & 2009 Confederations Cup Reflections
The only time you have not mentioned Ricky Pooj, because we just did now, was last week.
Unfiltered Soccer with Landon Donovan and Tim Howard
The Unfiltie Awards, 2025 Soccer Predictions, & 2009 Confederations Cup Reflections
I mean, I think we're going to have to do that since Tim technically did win two and a half to one and a half points in our trivia game.
Unfiltered Soccer with Landon Donovan and Tim Howard
The Unfiltie Awards, 2025 Soccer Predictions, & 2009 Confederations Cup Reflections
All right, let's do some mailbag questions. How about that?
Unfiltered Soccer with Landon Donovan and Tim Howard
The Unfiltie Awards, 2025 Soccer Predictions, & 2009 Confederations Cup Reflections
Five?
Unfiltered Soccer with Landon Donovan and Tim Howard
The Unfiltie Awards, 2025 Soccer Predictions, & 2009 Confederations Cup Reflections
Okay, here's a question from Xavier via email. As a professional athlete, how do you limit distractions from the media, rival opponents, as well as potentially harming relationships off the field?
Unfiltered Soccer with Landon Donovan and Tim Howard
The Unfiltie Awards, 2025 Soccer Predictions, & 2009 Confederations Cup Reflections
I think he means when you were playing. So as a professional athlete, how do you limit distractions from the media, rival opponents, and potentially letting it impact your relationships off the field?
Unfiltered Soccer with Landon Donovan and Tim Howard
The Unfiltie Awards, 2025 Soccer Predictions, & 2009 Confederations Cup Reflections
Very strong answers. This one's from Johnny via email. What are some of your favorite books about the game?
Unfiltered Soccer with Landon Donovan and Tim Howard
The Unfiltie Awards, 2025 Soccer Predictions, & 2009 Confederations Cup Reflections
Look at those glasses. Come on.
Unfiltered Soccer with Landon Donovan and Tim Howard
The Unfiltie Awards, 2025 Soccer Predictions, & 2009 Confederations Cup Reflections
Nobody asked me my opinion, but Johnny, if you want them, just email feedback at unfilteredsoccer.com. I want your opinion.
Unfiltered Soccer with Landon Donovan and Tim Howard
The Unfiltie Awards, 2025 Soccer Predictions, & 2009 Confederations Cup Reflections
My list.
Unfiltered Soccer with Landon Donovan and Tim Howard
The Unfiltie Awards, 2025 Soccer Predictions, & 2009 Confederations Cup Reflections
What are you reading? The Keeper? What? No. What are you reading? No, because nobody sent it to me yet. So I don't have it.
Unfiltered Soccer with Landon Donovan and Tim Howard
The Unfiltie Awards, 2025 Soccer Predictions, & 2009 Confederations Cup Reflections
I really like soccer books that are about like culture and society and how football like kind of impacts all of that. So stuff like How Soccer Explains the World. Yeah, that's Franklin. I think Franklin Four, right, is the guy. Or Football Against the Enemy by Simon Cooper. Like those kind of things. But also like the first soccer book I ever read was – Fever Pitch, right? Oh, yeah. Nick Hornby.
Unfiltered Soccer with Landon Donovan and Tim Howard
The Unfiltie Awards, 2025 Soccer Predictions, & 2009 Confederations Cup Reflections
It's just people have seen the movie and think it's like a fiction thing. It's like a bunch of essays about how much he loves Arsenal. And who doesn't like to just listen to stories about how much somebody loves their football club?
Unfiltered Soccer with Landon Donovan and Tim Howard
The Unfiltie Awards, 2025 Soccer Predictions, & 2009 Confederations Cup Reflections
No, not. Okay. So this is Evan on YouTube. What made you guys want to start a podcast together?
Unfiltered Soccer with Landon Donovan and Tim Howard
The Unfiltie Awards, 2025 Soccer Predictions, & 2009 Confederations Cup Reflections
I am really uncomfortable with how warm and fuzzy I'm feeling, so I'm going to move on to another question now. You're welcome. Again. I hate it. She's the Grinch. That's me. I'm the Grinch. I'm Ebenezer Scrooge. This one's from Danny Yall via email. The U.S. men's national team's second-place finish— in the 2009 Confederations Cup is one of the greatest achievements in the program's history.
Unfiltered Soccer with Landon Donovan and Tim Howard
The Unfiltie Awards, 2025 Soccer Predictions, & 2009 Confederations Cup Reflections
To beat that legendary Spain team in the semis and go toe-to-toe against Brazil in the final was something special. How do you look back on that tournament now, and what was the magic in that group, you guys were talking about teams just before, that allowed you guys to achieve what you did?
Unfiltered Soccer with Landon Donovan and Tim Howard
The Unfiltie Awards, 2025 Soccer Predictions, & 2009 Confederations Cup Reflections
Awesome. Okay. I only have one question left for you. It is from Jr via grumpy producer. Um, and she would like to know, what are you looking forward to doing with this podcast in 2025? Good question. Well, for me, um,
Unfiltered Soccer with Landon Donovan and Tim Howard
The Unfiltie Awards, 2025 Soccer Predictions, & 2009 Confederations Cup Reflections
Well, this has been a lot of fun. Just as a reminder to anybody who's listening, you can email me at feedback at unfiltered soccer. If you've got questions for future episodes or if you just want to talk about what what these guys just asked you, like, what do you want to hear about on the show? Let's definitely talk about it. Leave your comments on YouTube.
Unfiltered Soccer with Landon Donovan and Tim Howard
The Unfiltie Awards, 2025 Soccer Predictions, & 2009 Confederations Cup Reflections
And thanks to both of you for the seven episodes we put out so far. It's been a lot of fun. I haven't wanted to rage quit my job just yet. So it's going.
Unfiltered Soccer with Landon Donovan and Tim Howard
The Unfiltie Awards, 2025 Soccer Predictions, & 2009 Confederations Cup Reflections
um you've had some no comment no no comment i don't know listening to you talk about these live shows and thinking about running around oh yeah the microphone is definitely giving me some fear but um we've got the best through it we got we've got the best listeners and the best production team thanks jr enjoy the holidays jr thank you thank you guys well timmy uh i was just actually thinking how many episodes seven episodes it's been awesome man really enjoyed it um
Unfiltered Soccer with Landon Donovan and Tim Howard
Diego Luna Goes Hard, Zack Steffen's Clean Sheet, USMNT's Centerback Pairing & An Extended Mailbag
Yeah.
Unfiltered Soccer with Landon Donovan and Tim Howard
Diego Luna Goes Hard, Zack Steffen's Clean Sheet, USMNT's Centerback Pairing & An Extended Mailbag
What's happening? Well, last week you asked me for some spicy feedback. So I went into the YouTube comments to find some.
Unfiltered Soccer with Landon Donovan and Tim Howard
Diego Luna Goes Hard, Zack Steffen's Clean Sheet, USMNT's Centerback Pairing & An Extended Mailbag
Okay, so before we dive into our questions, because we've got a really long mailbag this week, here's some feedback from YouTube. Please don't shoot the messenger. Oh, geez. Usually tune out for the last segment, but the discussion on NIL was fantastic. Well done.
Unfiltered Soccer with Landon Donovan and Tim Howard
Diego Luna Goes Hard, Zack Steffen's Clean Sheet, USMNT's Centerback Pairing & An Extended Mailbag
Well, there's a little more. It says get rid of ABS and the constant mentioning of other sports to explain things. It's not needed. Other than that, the pot is great.
Unfiltered Soccer with Landon Donovan and Tim Howard
Diego Luna Goes Hard, Zack Steffen's Clean Sheet, USMNT's Centerback Pairing & An Extended Mailbag
Well, I have a little bit of feedback that I suspect is geared toward Landon. It says, it's good to see the LA Galaxy podcast seems to have moved on to other soccer teams. Still always glancing over my Chicago fire who beat the Galaxy this season.
Unfiltered Soccer with Landon Donovan and Tim Howard
Diego Luna Goes Hard, Zack Steffen's Clean Sheet, USMNT's Centerback Pairing & An Extended Mailbag
Not… No. Not everybody includes a name.
Unfiltered Soccer with Landon Donovan and Tim Howard
Diego Luna Goes Hard, Zack Steffen's Clean Sheet, USMNT's Centerback Pairing & An Extended Mailbag
Whoever wrote this question or comment in, you stand a fair chance to get mentioned more on the podcast, your team.
Unfiltered Soccer with Landon Donovan and Tim Howard
Diego Luna Goes Hard, Zack Steffen's Clean Sheet, USMNT's Centerback Pairing & An Extended Mailbag
Here's a piece of feedback that also includes some questions. Why do you guys have an EPL segment? I'm aware of your history at Everton, especially Tim, but given your U.S. men's national team history, both of your involvement with U.S.-based youth soccer and your desire to grow the game here, why not have a segment on U.S.-based players in the USL or even up-and-coming college players?
Unfiltered Soccer with Landon Donovan and Tim Howard
Diego Luna Goes Hard, Zack Steffen's Clean Sheet, USMNT's Centerback Pairing & An Extended Mailbag
Nobody cares. That's it? That's it. That's all it says. Nobody cares.
Unfiltered Soccer with Landon Donovan and Tim Howard
Diego Luna Goes Hard, Zack Steffen's Clean Sheet, USMNT's Centerback Pairing & An Extended Mailbag
They care enough to write this comment on YouTube.
Unfiltered Soccer with Landon Donovan and Tim Howard
Diego Luna Goes Hard, Zack Steffen's Clean Sheet, USMNT's Centerback Pairing & An Extended Mailbag
All right, let's start with what I think could be a tough question. This one's via Josh via email. Who do you guys think the Mount Rushmore of U.S. soccer would be?
Unfiltered Soccer with Landon Donovan and Tim Howard
Diego Luna Goes Hard, Zack Steffen's Clean Sheet, USMNT's Centerback Pairing & An Extended Mailbag
He didn't specify, so I say whatever you guys want to do. Put your own parameters on there.
Unfiltered Soccer with Landon Donovan and Tim Howard
Diego Luna Goes Hard, Zack Steffen's Clean Sheet, USMNT's Centerback Pairing & An Extended Mailbag
Mm-hmm.
Unfiltered Soccer with Landon Donovan and Tim Howard
Diego Luna Goes Hard, Zack Steffen's Clean Sheet, USMNT's Centerback Pairing & An Extended Mailbag
Do you think there's a world in which Christian Pulisic is one day on Russia?
Unfiltered Soccer with Landon Donovan and Tim Howard
Diego Luna Goes Hard, Zack Steffen's Clean Sheet, USMNT's Centerback Pairing & An Extended Mailbag
Here is a question that's for Landon, and it is from Brendan via email.
Unfiltered Soccer with Landon Donovan and Tim Howard
Diego Luna Goes Hard, Zack Steffen's Clean Sheet, USMNT's Centerback Pairing & An Extended Mailbag
No, it's not about Ricky Pudge. Brendan says, I read Grant Wall's book, The Beckham Experiment, and I saw Beckham's series. The relationship between the two of you was a major part of the book. but did not get much time in the documentary. Can you describe how your relationship changed over time and what it was like having him on the team? And I just want to include one thing.
Unfiltered Soccer with Landon Donovan and Tim Howard
Diego Luna Goes Hard, Zack Steffen's Clean Sheet, USMNT's Centerback Pairing & An Extended Mailbag
He gave us some feedback on the show too. He wants to hear more about youth soccer in the US and he wants to hear less about Manchester United. And he wrote in parentheses, sorry, Tim. So there you go, Brendan.
Unfiltered Soccer with Landon Donovan and Tim Howard
Diego Luna Goes Hard, Zack Steffen's Clean Sheet, USMNT's Centerback Pairing & An Extended Mailbag
Now I have one for you, Tim. This is from Luke via email. I try to keep it balanced, you know.
Unfiltered Soccer with Landon Donovan and Tim Howard
Diego Luna Goes Hard, Zack Steffen's Clean Sheet, USMNT's Centerback Pairing & An Extended Mailbag
Luke wants to know, is Brandon Austin still eligible for the U.S.? He looked pretty decent starting for Spurs in the Premier League earlier this month, a game you obviously watched. So given the drought at goal, it seems like we ought to be considering him if he's still U.S. eligible.
Unfiltered Soccer with Landon Donovan and Tim Howard
Diego Luna Goes Hard, Zack Steffen's Clean Sheet, USMNT's Centerback Pairing & An Extended Mailbag
So this one's from anonymous via email. I know we'd love to hear from anonymous when they write into the show.
Unfiltered Soccer with Landon Donovan and Tim Howard
Diego Luna Goes Hard, Zack Steffen's Clean Sheet, USMNT's Centerback Pairing & An Extended Mailbag
I would love to hear about the USA versus Mexico rivalry from both of your points of view. Having grown up on the border very closely in San Diego, I lived in both worlds and follow both national teams closely.
Unfiltered Soccer with Landon Donovan and Tim Howard
Diego Luna Goes Hard, Zack Steffen's Clean Sheet, USMNT's Centerback Pairing & An Extended Mailbag
OK, I have a question from Jack via email. He said, I am a mental health professional. He's a social worker. And I am interested in hearing about how mental health is perceived, talked about and considered by players, staff, agents, coaches, et cetera, on a regular basis. Like, do teams hire sports psychologists? Do players go to therapy? Do players talk about the fact that they're in therapy?
Unfiltered Soccer with Landon Donovan and Tim Howard
Diego Luna Goes Hard, Zack Steffen's Clean Sheet, USMNT's Centerback Pairing & An Extended Mailbag
Um, here's a more lighthearted question. Michael via email wants to know, did Tim and Landon ever swap jerseys with their opponent? And if so, who would be their favorite swap they ever did?
Unfiltered Soccer with Landon Donovan and Tim Howard
Diego Luna Goes Hard, Zack Steffen's Clean Sheet, USMNT's Centerback Pairing & An Extended Mailbag
Okay. One last question. This is from Mario via email. What kind of car was your first car? And do you have any funny memories of when you first started to drive? Amazing.
Unfiltered Soccer with Landon Donovan and Tim Howard
Diego Luna Goes Hard, Zack Steffen's Clean Sheet, USMNT's Centerback Pairing & An Extended Mailbag
All right. That's it.
Unfiltered Soccer with Landon Donovan and Tim Howard
CONCACAF Nations League Loss: USMNT Reactions & Concerns
Yeah.
Unfiltered Soccer with Landon Donovan and Tim Howard
CONCACAF Nations League Loss: USMNT Reactions & Concerns
Boy, did they have a lot to say.
Unfiltered Soccer with Landon Donovan and Tim Howard
CONCACAF Nations League Loss: USMNT Reactions & Concerns
100%.
Unfiltered Soccer with Landon Donovan and Tim Howard
CONCACAF Nations League Loss: USMNT Reactions & Concerns
I'm so mad, dude. Why do I care so much? I should just go golf. Why don't I just golf?
Unfiltered Soccer with Landon Donovan and Tim Howard
NCAA Soccer with guest Rob Dow, Head Coach at the University of Vermont
Hello.
Unfiltered Soccer with Landon Donovan and Tim Howard
NCAA Soccer with guest Rob Dow, Head Coach at the University of Vermont
We've got some NCAA questions. This first one's a little spicy, so I'm interested to see what you guys have to say. We like spice. This is... This is via email from Brad. It says, We see the result. Major universities dropping men's non-revenue sports like soccer, swimming, and cross-country. What are your thoughts about this?
Unfiltered Soccer with Landon Donovan and Tim Howard
NCAA Soccer with guest Rob Dow, Head Coach at the University of Vermont
Would it be right to take men's American football out of the Title IX equality calculation, maybe create women's American football programs or some other solution?
Unfiltered Soccer with Landon Donovan and Tim Howard
NCAA Soccer with guest Rob Dow, Head Coach at the University of Vermont
OK, I have one that's kind of more like a statement, but I want to get your take on this. So this is from someone whose name is also Jordan via email. And it says, I feel like in a country like the US, trying to utilize a European style of youth development is going to be impossible. If I'm trying to get kids access to soccer, I get American soccer on TV.
Unfiltered Soccer with Landon Donovan and Tim Howard
NCAA Soccer with guest Rob Dow, Head Coach at the University of Vermont
I encourage school soccer programs, get the coaches the licensing and training they need, and I make college soccer more intriguing. Try to convince a college soccer team to look more professional and turn big noon kickoff into a men's and women's college doubleheader on Saturday afternoon. Lean into the American system rather than trying to copy the Euros. What do you guys think about that?
Unfiltered Soccer with Landon Donovan and Tim Howard
NCAA Soccer with guest Rob Dow, Head Coach at the University of Vermont
So it's kind of like a catch 22 in a way. Cause like what this other Jordan is talking about is something that's more suited to a sport that's, slightly more popular than soccer is in the country in terms of like the amount of money that's coming in at the professional level. Because I mean, the NFL is just pouring. Sure. There's so much money in there compared to what's in MLS.
Unfiltered Soccer with Landon Donovan and Tim Howard
NCAA Soccer with guest Rob Dow, Head Coach at the University of Vermont
But then by the same token, what you're talking about is there's also a problem at the other end, right? For the youth and NCAA soccer. So it's kind of like, how do you solve both of those things at the same time?
Unfiltered Soccer with Landon Donovan and Tim Howard
NCAA Soccer with guest Rob Dow, Head Coach at the University of Vermont
Okay, one more question. This one came from X or Twitter, whatever we're calling it now. It's from Gavin. It says, Patrick Ajemang made it to the U.S. Men's National Team working his way up from Division III college ball. In your opinion, are college players overlooked or not getting enough attention from MLS? Are there any changes to the super draft that need to happen?
Unfiltered Soccer with Landon Donovan and Tim Howard
NCAA Soccer with guest Rob Dow, Head Coach at the University of Vermont
Thank you very much. All right.
Unfiltered Soccer with Landon Donovan and Tim Howard
Club & International Coaching with guest Bruce Arena
Thank you very much.
Unfiltered Soccer with Landon Donovan and Tim Howard
Club & International Coaching with guest Bruce Arena
Hello. We put out a graphic on Instagram asking people for their MLS questions, and we have a bunch of them. So shall we dive in? All right. Let's talk about the Revs. Chris via Instagram says, will the Revs right the ship? I don't think they're far off, despite the mood of the supporters towards the coach in the front office.
Unfiltered Soccer with Landon Donovan and Tim Howard
Club & International Coaching with guest Bruce Arena
What do I think the mood is there? Not great, Bob.
Unfiltered Soccer with Landon Donovan and Tim Howard
Club & International Coaching with guest Bruce Arena
Warming themselves.
Unfiltered Soccer with Landon Donovan and Tim Howard
Club & International Coaching with guest Bruce Arena
Let's move across to the other side of the country. Callan via Instagram said, is it time for people to start taking San Diego FC seriously?
Unfiltered Soccer with Landon Donovan and Tim Howard
Club & International Coaching with guest Bruce Arena
Yes.
Unfiltered Soccer with Landon Donovan and Tim Howard
Club & International Coaching with guest Bruce Arena
Uh, okay. This one is from Braden also via Instagram. If you could force one us national team player to be traded to a specific club, who would it be? And what club would it be? What a good question for, sorry.
Unfiltered Soccer with Landon Donovan and Tim Howard
Club & International Coaching with guest Bruce Arena
Yeah. But someone from the U S men's national team.
Unfiltered Soccer with Landon Donovan and Tim Howard
Club & International Coaching with guest Bruce Arena
Okay, last one from Tommy via Instagram. What is stopping MLS right now from becoming the best league in the world?
Unfiltered Soccer with Landon Donovan and Tim Howard
Club & International Coaching with guest Bruce Arena
Thanks, guys.
Unfiltered Soccer with Landon Donovan and Tim Howard
USMNT vs Venezuela Recap, Everton Shock Spurs, and the Worst Manchester United Team Ever?!
Yeah.
Unfiltered Soccer with Landon Donovan and Tim Howard
USMNT vs Venezuela Recap, Everton Shock Spurs, and the Worst Manchester United Team Ever?!
Oh, I see.
Unfiltered Soccer with Landon Donovan and Tim Howard
USMNT vs Venezuela Recap, Everton Shock Spurs, and the Worst Manchester United Team Ever?!
How about I make a deal with you? Because I think the two of you know at this point, I like to be very buttoned up and prepared. So next week, we're going to be doing a mailbag episode.
Unfiltered Soccer with Landon Donovan and Tim Howard
USMNT vs Venezuela Recap, Everton Shock Spurs, and the Worst Manchester United Team Ever?!
And so how about next week I bring a little extra fire?
Unfiltered Soccer with Landon Donovan and Tim Howard
USMNT vs Venezuela Recap, Everton Shock Spurs, and the Worst Manchester United Team Ever?!
I think the ones that I picked for this week are still pretty good.
Unfiltered Soccer with Landon Donovan and Tim Howard
USMNT vs Venezuela Recap, Everton Shock Spurs, and the Worst Manchester United Team Ever?!
All right. You guys ready?
Unfiltered Soccer with Landon Donovan and Tim Howard
USMNT vs Venezuela Recap, Everton Shock Spurs, and the Worst Manchester United Team Ever?!
Okay. So we're going to start with a question from Vince via email. I just wanted to get your take on if you think the LA Galaxy can repeat as MLS champions this next season. A lot of things went right in order for Galaxy to win the cup this year. And with not having Ricky Pooj for most of this next season, what do you think their odds of repeating are?
Unfiltered Soccer with Landon Donovan and Tim Howard
USMNT vs Venezuela Recap, Everton Shock Spurs, and the Worst Manchester United Team Ever?!
And Vince also wanted me to let you guys know that he's trying to boost the number of episodes in which we mentioned Ricky. And that's right.
Unfiltered Soccer with Landon Donovan and Tim Howard
USMNT vs Venezuela Recap, Everton Shock Spurs, and the Worst Manchester United Team Ever?!
OK, how about a question from YouTube? This one is from Ryan. What venue in the US as a US men's national team player has been your favorite to play in? And if you were still an active player, what new stadium do you wish you could play in as a US men's national team player?
Unfiltered Soccer with Landon Donovan and Tim Howard
USMNT vs Venezuela Recap, Everton Shock Spurs, and the Worst Manchester United Team Ever?!
Okay. Last one is from Matthew via email. You talked about the importance of the FA cup and the history of it on last week's episode. How do you feel about the U.S. Open Cup and MLS only sending a few clubs while prioritizing League's Cup?
Unfiltered Soccer with Landon Donovan and Tim Howard
USMNT vs Venezuela Recap, Everton Shock Spurs, and the Worst Manchester United Team Ever?!
All right. Thanks very much. Don't forget next week. We're doing lots of mailbag questions. So let the people know what you want to hear about.
Unfiltered Soccer with Landon Donovan and Tim Howard
USMNT vs Venezuela Recap, Everton Shock Spurs, and the Worst Manchester United Team Ever?!
Feedback at unfiltered soccer.com is how you get your questions on the mailbag. Anyway, you're such a producer. Yeah. That's my job.
Unfiltered Soccer with Landon Donovan and Tim Howard
USMNT vs Venezuela Recap, Everton Shock Spurs, and the Worst Manchester United Team Ever?!
I'm out of here.
Unfiltered Soccer with Landon Donovan and Tim Howard
USMNT Nations League Semifinal vs Panama Preview
Well, I'm waiting for my vintage Donovan and Howard U.S. Men's National Team jerseys to come in the mail.
Unfiltered Soccer with Landon Donovan and Tim Howard
USMNT Nations League Semifinal vs Panama Preview
Well, our listeners don't know that a couple weeks ago I wore that yellow Umbro New Order crossover shirt, and we were talking about the Everton shirt, and I found one on eBay. Did you? The yellow one? I've been sitting on it, yeah.
Unfiltered Soccer with Landon Donovan and Tim Howard
USMNT Nations League Semifinal vs Panama Preview
Well, I'll add it to my list of things I'm looking for. I really like all of the old, like, the long-sleeve, really baggy ones. That's my jam.
Unfiltered Soccer with Landon Donovan and Tim Howard
USMNT Nations League Semifinal vs Panama Preview
Oh, I don't know if I could pick...
Unfiltered Soccer with Landon Donovan and Tim Howard
USMNT Nations League Semifinal vs Panama Preview
I don't know if I could pick a favorite. I don't know. The US Men's National Team ones can be pretty good.
Unfiltered Soccer with Landon Donovan and Tim Howard
USMNT Nations League Semifinal vs Panama Preview
All right. Should we jump into some questions?
Unfiltered Soccer with Landon Donovan and Tim Howard
USMNT Nations League Semifinal vs Panama Preview
All right. So our first one is from an anonymous person via email. But it's a good question, so don't worry about them being anonymous. Is Nations League increasing the competitive level, or should the big teams of CONCACAF consider merging with CONMEBOL?
Unfiltered Soccer with Landon Donovan and Tim Howard
USMNT Nations League Semifinal vs Panama Preview
That's all I got in the email.
Unfiltered Soccer with Landon Donovan and Tim Howard
USMNT Nations League Semifinal vs Panama Preview
Would you have, they would have to expand though, right? Like how the – if you're adding more countries, then you have to expand how the tournament works.
Unfiltered Soccer with Landon Donovan and Tim Howard
USMNT Nations League Semifinal vs Panama Preview
In this person's defense, I'm just going to defend this person.
Unfiltered Soccer with Landon Donovan and Tim Howard
USMNT Nations League Semifinal vs Panama Preview
Their email did not indicate their name. Like their email address didn't indicate a name. Oh, so you said anonymous. And they didn't sign. Yeah, they didn't sign.
Unfiltered Soccer with Landon Donovan and Tim Howard
USMNT Nations League Semifinal vs Panama Preview
Okay, how about something from Ben via email? Is that good? There we go. What are your hypothetical score predictions if the current U.S. men's national team played against the best 11 from before 2018?
Unfiltered Soccer with Landon Donovan and Tim Howard
USMNT Nations League Semifinal vs Panama Preview
Yeah.
Unfiltered Soccer with Landon Donovan and Tim Howard
USMNT Nations League Semifinal vs Panama Preview
In Ben's defense, he did ask you for a score prediction.
Unfiltered Soccer with Landon Donovan and Tim Howard
USMNT Nations League Semifinal vs Panama Preview
All right. This next question is from Alex via email. Alex, this is your lucky day because this question starts off, I love hearing about your days with the national team. So here we go.
Unfiltered Soccer with Landon Donovan and Tim Howard
USMNT Nations League Semifinal vs Panama Preview
The early 2000s were an era that really opened my eyes to U.S. soccer, and I'm proud of where it is now thanks to the effort and sacrifices you guys have made throughout your careers. With that said, what's been your most intimidating away game with the national team?
Unfiltered Soccer with Landon Donovan and Tim Howard
USMNT Nations League Semifinal vs Panama Preview
This one's from Dave via email. Curious as players, what goes through your mind during the national anthem at the start of a match, especially with your national team games? Are you in the moment enough to even hear it? Do you like to sing along? Can you feel the camera panning down the line?
Unfiltered Soccer with Landon Donovan and Tim Howard
USMNT Nations League Semifinal vs Panama Preview
Just out of curiosity, since you've heard a lot of them besides the U.S. national anthem, which national anthem could you pick out no matter what? Which one's the most memorable?
Unfiltered Soccer with Landon Donovan and Tim Howard
USMNT Nations League Semifinal vs Panama Preview
Okay, last one. This one's from DJ via email. So these are the same question, but they're asking you both separately under different circumstances. So Landon, who was your underrated performer in the 2002 World Cup and why? And Tim, same question for you, but the 2014 World Cup and why?
Unfiltered Soccer with Landon Donovan and Tim Howard
USMNT Nations League Semifinal vs Panama Preview
Awesome. Those are great answers. This was really fun. I'm glad that we got to do this.
Unfiltered Soccer with Landon Donovan and Tim Howard
USMNT Nations League Semifinal vs Panama Preview
That's what's really important. As long as the producer's happy, you know what I mean?
Unfiltered Soccer with Landon Donovan and Tim Howard
MLS 2025 Season Preview, USMNT Injuries, The Merseyside Derby, and USL's New First Division
Yeah.
Unfiltered Soccer with Landon Donovan and Tim Howard
MLS 2025 Season Preview, USMNT Injuries, The Merseyside Derby, and USL's New First Division
Yep.
Unfiltered Soccer with Landon Donovan and Tim Howard
MLS 2025 Season Preview, USMNT Injuries, The Merseyside Derby, and USL's New First Division
I know.
Unfiltered Soccer with Landon Donovan and Tim Howard
MLS 2025 Season Preview, USMNT Injuries, The Merseyside Derby, and USL's New First Division
Hmm.
Unfiltered Soccer with Landon Donovan and Tim Howard
Club World Cup vs Gold Cup, Drama in the Manchester Derby, and Promotion/Relegation in MLS
I was so bundled with my hat and my scarf.
Unfiltered Soccer with Landon Donovan and Tim Howard
Club World Cup vs Gold Cup, Drama in the Manchester Derby, and Promotion/Relegation in MLS
And I was kneeling on the ground because I was trying to take pictures.
Unfiltered Soccer with Landon Donovan and Tim Howard
Club World Cup vs Gold Cup, Drama in the Manchester Derby, and Promotion/Relegation in MLS
I was like, guys, can I get a selfie? I'm a big fan.
Unfiltered Soccer with Landon Donovan and Tim Howard
Club World Cup vs Gold Cup, Drama in the Manchester Derby, and Promotion/Relegation in MLS
Roll in.
Unfiltered Soccer with Landon Donovan and Tim Howard
Club World Cup vs Gold Cup, Drama in the Manchester Derby, and Promotion/Relegation in MLS
Okay, so my first question comes from Tyler via email. He says, Do Tim or Landon have a similar story with an opposing player?
Unfiltered Soccer with Landon Donovan and Tim Howard
Club World Cup vs Gold Cup, Drama in the Manchester Derby, and Promotion/Relegation in MLS
Here's a question from James via email. Do you see the relegation system implemented in soccer in the US?
Unfiltered Soccer with Landon Donovan and Tim Howard
Club World Cup vs Gold Cup, Drama in the Manchester Derby, and Promotion/Relegation in MLS
OK, before I read the last question, I just would like to mention to people that we don't have an episode next week. We're taking a week off for the holiday, but we will be back with a special episode on New Year's Eve. And we would love to get lots of interesting questions from people. So don't forget to send them to us on social media or you can email me if you want to.
Unfiltered Soccer with Landon Donovan and Tim Howard
Club World Cup vs Gold Cup, Drama in the Manchester Derby, and Promotion/Relegation in MLS
Feedback at Unfiltered Soccer. I do read all the emails.
Unfiltered Soccer with Landon Donovan and Tim Howard
Club World Cup vs Gold Cup, Drama in the Manchester Derby, and Promotion/Relegation in MLS
Same with NBC. That's why we're taking a week off. Okay, so last email is from Parker, and he wants to know, what can I do? I also want to know this question, Parker. What can I do as a U.S. men's national team fan and a fan of soccer in general to help grow the game in the USA?
Unfiltered Soccer with Landon Donovan and Tim Howard
Club World Cup vs Gold Cup, Drama in the Manchester Derby, and Promotion/Relegation in MLS
Awesome. Thanks, guys.
Unfiltered Soccer with Landon Donovan and Tim Howard
Galaxy's 4th Straight Loss, Forest Upset City, Sergino Dest is Back, and the 2025 NWSL Preview
Dublin Bohemians, their partnership with the band Fontaine's D.C.
Unfiltered Soccer with Landon Donovan and Tim Howard
Galaxy's 4th Straight Loss, Forest Upset City, Sergino Dest is Back, and the 2025 NWSL Preview
There's a band, Landon, called Fontaines DC. Yes.
Unfiltered Soccer with Landon Donovan and Tim Howard
Galaxy's 4th Straight Loss, Forest Upset City, Sergino Dest is Back, and the 2025 NWSL Preview
Fontaines DC. Okay. And they did a crossover with Bohemians.
Unfiltered Soccer with Landon Donovan and Tim Howard
Galaxy's 4th Straight Loss, Forest Upset City, Sergino Dest is Back, and the 2025 NWSL Preview
I'm so confused.
Unfiltered Soccer with Landon Donovan and Tim Howard
Galaxy's 4th Straight Loss, Forest Upset City, Sergino Dest is Back, and the 2025 NWSL Preview
What are you doing?
Unfiltered Soccer with Landon Donovan and Tim Howard
Galaxy's 4th Straight Loss, Forest Upset City, Sergino Dest is Back, and the 2025 NWSL Preview
How are you doing this week? Good. Yeah, I'm great. Fantastic.
Unfiltered Soccer with Landon Donovan and Tim Howard
Galaxy's 4th Straight Loss, Forest Upset City, Sergino Dest is Back, and the 2025 NWSL Preview
Yeah, so you guys were spending a little bit of time last week talking about the empty stadium in New England, and some fans had some very hot takes back for you.
Unfiltered Soccer with Landon Donovan and Tim Howard
Galaxy's 4th Straight Loss, Forest Upset City, Sergino Dest is Back, and the 2025 NWSL Preview
Let's go.
Unfiltered Soccer with Landon Donovan and Tim Howard
Galaxy's 4th Straight Loss, Forest Upset City, Sergino Dest is Back, and the 2025 NWSL Preview
Chris via email said, just wanted to fact check you on Rev's opening night. There were a ton of fans there. It was 40 mile per hour winds with a low reaching 13 degrees. We spent the majority of the game in the warming areas. So 23,000 seems accurate to me. Stop hating, bros.
Unfiltered Soccer with Landon Donovan and Tim Howard
Galaxy's 4th Straight Loss, Forest Upset City, Sergino Dest is Back, and the 2025 NWSL Preview
This one's from David via YouTube. Pretty unfair slash lazy take on New England. Top five in attendance last year, averaging 30K, even with low early season attendance, which isn't new and is a factor league wide. They also spent 14 mil in the last two windows. Do your research.
Unfiltered Soccer with Landon Donovan and Tim Howard
Galaxy's 4th Straight Loss, Forest Upset City, Sergino Dest is Back, and the 2025 NWSL Preview
Here we go.
Unfiltered Soccer with Landon Donovan and Tim Howard
Galaxy's 4th Straight Loss, Forest Upset City, Sergino Dest is Back, and the 2025 NWSL Preview
How about some questions?
Unfiltered Soccer with Landon Donovan and Tim Howard
Galaxy's 4th Straight Loss, Forest Upset City, Sergino Dest is Back, and the 2025 NWSL Preview
This one came to us via email from Ryan, who is identifying himself as a West Ham fan who enjoys Moyes ball. Is that a thing?
Unfiltered Soccer with Landon Donovan and Tim Howard
Galaxy's 4th Straight Loss, Forest Upset City, Sergino Dest is Back, and the 2025 NWSL Preview
Do you feel that European fans have too much influence in club decisions, especially coaching changes? In U.S. sports, the first year for a new coach is usually a freebie with improvement expected in year two and things needing to click in year three. In European football, the leash is much shorter.
Unfiltered Soccer with Landon Donovan and Tim Howard
Galaxy's 4th Straight Loss, Forest Upset City, Sergino Dest is Back, and the 2025 NWSL Preview
I also think it's interesting because you guys are talking specifically about the Premier League, but in this question, he's talking about European fans in general. And in some cases, like in the Bundesliga, they actually have a say in how their club is run because of the 50 plus one rule.
Unfiltered Soccer with Landon Donovan and Tim Howard
Galaxy's 4th Straight Loss, Forest Upset City, Sergino Dest is Back, and the 2025 NWSL Preview
Here's another Everton-related question. This is from Steve via email. As a Toffee fan, believer in the tradition, and concerned follower— Is there a future for Goodison Park as a home to Everton women and other underage teams? Might recruits from Japan and elsewhere overseas for the women's game not justify a business plan to keep Goodison open?
Unfiltered Soccer with Landon Donovan and Tim Howard
Galaxy's 4th Straight Loss, Forest Upset City, Sergino Dest is Back, and the 2025 NWSL Preview
Do you want to see, I know something that's happened over the past couple of years is the women's super league teams who are playing like Darby's and stuff are playing them in the men's stadium. Would you like to see that tradition kind of carry over into the new stadium with like Liverpool women and Everton women playing each other in the new stadium?
Unfiltered Soccer with Landon Donovan and Tim Howard
Galaxy's 4th Straight Loss, Forest Upset City, Sergino Dest is Back, and the 2025 NWSL Preview
One more question. This one is from Mimi via email. It's common knowledge that professional soccer players are the hottest and coolest men in all, I'm so sorry, in all of men's sports. Probably smartest and funniest too, but I'm not sure I can scientifically prove that. So why isn't there an organized way for them to show off their fashionista side?
Unfiltered Soccer with Landon Donovan and Tim Howard
Galaxy's 4th Straight Loss, Forest Upset City, Sergino Dest is Back, and the 2025 NWSL Preview
Those random articles and Instagram posts don't count. I'd love to see a whole team walking down the catwalk and showing their fans their inner peacock. What's that? Who's that? Someone called Mimi via email.
Unfiltered Soccer with Landon Donovan and Tim Howard
Galaxy's 4th Straight Loss, Forest Upset City, Sergino Dest is Back, and the 2025 NWSL Preview
I think people take those photos really seriously of the way guys walk into the, and the women too, right? Like what they're wearing and stuff.
Unfiltered Soccer with Landon Donovan and Tim Howard
Galaxy's 4th Straight Loss, Forest Upset City, Sergino Dest is Back, and the 2025 NWSL Preview
That's amazing. They didn't self-identify to me, so I can't confirm or deny anything. All right. That's it.
Unfiltered Soccer with Landon Donovan and Tim Howard
Messi Skips Houston, San Jose Undefeated, FA Cup Red Cards, and USWNT First Loss Under Hayes
It is. And this is like Umbro did a thing with Factory Records. And I'm a big.
Unfiltered Soccer with Landon Donovan and Tim Howard
Messi Skips Houston, San Jose Undefeated, FA Cup Red Cards, and USWNT First Loss Under Hayes
Was it an Away shirt?
Unfiltered Soccer with Landon Donovan and Tim Howard
Messi Skips Houston, San Jose Undefeated, FA Cup Red Cards, and USWNT First Loss Under Hayes
Yeah.
Unfiltered Soccer with Landon Donovan and Tim Howard
Messi Skips Houston, San Jose Undefeated, FA Cup Red Cards, and USWNT First Loss Under Hayes
Send it to feedback in a filtered sucker.
Unfiltered Soccer with Landon Donovan and Tim Howard
Messi Skips Houston, San Jose Undefeated, FA Cup Red Cards, and USWNT First Loss Under Hayes
Well, I was just going to say, please let us know that you are Landon's relative in the subject matter, in the subject line, so that I can prioritize that.
Unfiltered Soccer with Landon Donovan and Tim Howard
Messi Skips Houston, San Jose Undefeated, FA Cup Red Cards, and USWNT First Loss Under Hayes
Please send baby pictures of Tim and Landon to feedback at unfilteredsoccerworld.com. Thank you. Tim, this first question is for you. What are your thoughts about the new goalkeeper rule about awarding? Oh, sorry. This is from Mel via email. What are your thoughts about the new goalkeeper rule about awarding a corner kick? If a goalkeeper is time wasting after eight seconds.
Unfiltered Soccer with Landon Donovan and Tim Howard
Messi Skips Houston, San Jose Undefeated, FA Cup Red Cards, and USWNT First Loss Under Hayes
Our next question is from Joe via email. He says, with MLS and the Premier League being aligned with Apple and NBC slash Peacock, what are your thoughts on pay-per-view and how streaming affects fans trying to follow these leagues and specific teams? Okay.
Unfiltered Soccer with Landon Donovan and Tim Howard
Messi Skips Houston, San Jose Undefeated, FA Cup Red Cards, and USWNT First Loss Under Hayes
I have a suggestion for Joe. Support a team at the bottom of the league so that you don't have to worry about Champions League and Europa League and all that stuff. And that's one less streaming platform that you have to sign up for.
Unfiltered Soccer with Landon Donovan and Tim Howard
Messi Skips Houston, San Jose Undefeated, FA Cup Red Cards, and USWNT First Loss Under Hayes
Um, this one's from Chris, from Chris via email. What causes players after they retire to become an analyst or to work in management or to step away from a sport completely? Why did you each pursue the path after you retired that you did?
Unfiltered Soccer with Landon Donovan and Tim Howard
Messi Skips Houston, San Jose Undefeated, FA Cup Red Cards, and USWNT First Loss Under Hayes
Before I go, I just thought I would mention something.
Unfiltered Soccer with Landon Donovan and Tim Howard
Messi Skips Houston, San Jose Undefeated, FA Cup Red Cards, and USWNT First Loss Under Hayes
As this episode is released, it will be the 4th of March. Okay. Which, if my calculations are correct, is Landon Donovan's birthday.
Unfiltered Soccer with Landon Donovan and Tim Howard
Messi Skips Houston, San Jose Undefeated, FA Cup Red Cards, and USWNT First Loss Under Hayes
And also, two days after that is the birthday of one.
Unfiltered Soccer with Landon Donovan and Tim Howard
Messi Skips Houston, San Jose Undefeated, FA Cup Red Cards, and USWNT First Loss Under Hayes
So we actually asked some people if they would like to wish you a happy birthday.
Unfiltered Soccer with Landon Donovan and Tim Howard
Messi Skips Houston, San Jose Undefeated, FA Cup Red Cards, and USWNT First Loss Under Hayes
So we've got some messages that we're going to play for you now. So buckle up, you two.
Unfiltered Soccer with Landon Donovan and Tim Howard
Messi Skips Houston, San Jose Undefeated, FA Cup Red Cards, and USWNT First Loss Under Hayes
I just need you to know that when he sent the video in, we were like, does he think it's somebody else? Like, who does he think he's talking to?
Unfiltered Soccer with Landon Donovan and Tim Howard
Messi Skips Houston, San Jose Undefeated, FA Cup Red Cards, and USWNT First Loss Under Hayes
One more?
Unfiltered Soccer with Landon Donovan and Tim Howard
Messi Skips Houston, San Jose Undefeated, FA Cup Red Cards, and USWNT First Loss Under Hayes
Come on.
Unfiltered Soccer with Landon Donovan and Tim Howard
Messi Skips Houston, San Jose Undefeated, FA Cup Red Cards, and USWNT First Loss Under Hayes
And big shout out to DeMarcus Beasley, Stu Holden and David Moyes and the team at Everton for sending us those videos. We really appreciate it. All right. Happy birthday and enjoy the ABS.