Why Sports Matter Even When the Game Doesn’t with Roger Bennett
episodePreviously titled “Why Sports Matter Even When the Game Doesn’t ft. Roger Bennett” — renamed by the publisher on Aug 5, 2026
The Curiosity Shop with Brené Brown and Adam Grant
1h 11m
3 speakers
6 chapters
transcribed 1 month ago
Transcript
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Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Welcome to The Curiosity Shop.
A show from the Fox Media Podcast Network.
Hello, Adam Grant.
Hey, Brene Brown. Welcome back.
I missed you during hiatus.
I missed you too. And I know that that's a weird sentence for me to say, but I miss you.
I'm receiving it in all of its weirdness. I'm excited to be back from hiatus and I'm so freaking excited. about our guest. I want you to meet my friend Roger Bennett, who is the founder and CEO of the Men in Blazers Media Network, the largest dedicated soccer platform in the United States. He is a soccer maniac, a poet. He is all about big emotion and And big feelers, so you'll love that. He's all about collective effervescence and Freud and Freuda. We'll talk about all the good things. So I have been really looking forward to the two of y'all meeting, I have to say.
I can't wait. Can we dive in?
Let's do it. Roger, welcome to the Curiosity Shop. I'm so excited you're here. Please meet my co-host, Adam Grant.
It's a joy to meet you, Adam. Renee, one of my favorite people in the world. Definitely top three.
Right back at you. Top three.
Who are the other two? Well, probably Tracy Chapman and my wife.
I mean, I've never been in such good company.
Who is Roger Bennett and why is he on The Curiosity Shop?
You need to get a fast car, Renee.
I got a fast car, baby.
Love it. Roger, it's so great to meet you. I have an important question to kick us off. Have you ever done a podcast with Brene where she wasn't wearing a Liverpool shirt?
It's very annoying. I'm not going to bore your listeners, but I am from Liverpool. And like the Mets and the Yankees, she supports the equivalent of the Yankees of where I'm from. They're a winning team. I support essentially a deeply losing team, a deeply traumatic team. which is very much part of my personality. It really fits beautifully. But every single time she's been on, she's dug out a different piece of Liverpool ephemera. And I occasionally, I've not told her this, but I turn camera off because I just can't mentally handle it.
Are you trolling, Roger?
As often as possible, you should have seen the really shitty story that I put up. They did an article. Who did the profile on what you eat?
Oh, God, I've done so much over the World Cup. I can't remember. But it was a very funny profile. Go on.
Yeah, they said, you know, what is what is Roger Bennett eating a day? And I was like, he eats Liverpool football with an SEC Longhorn Chaser. That's what he and I put it up in stories and I got so many great comments like you trolling the best guy in soccer is I'm here for all of it.
Yeah, I should have come on Adam in my Aggies outfit.
Oh my God, you would never do that because you don't love them.
I wouldn't because Adam, the one thing, I've learned a lot off Brene to be candid, but I'm a fairly dark human being and Brene Brown forbid me from experiencing schadenfreude. I'm American now, so I'm full of optimism. But the little bit of Englishness in me still loves the pleasure of other people's misery. Because if you give the average English person the choice of their success or your failure, they'll choose your failure every time. And Rene's forced me to do Freud and Freuda, I think it's called. Like taking pleasure in other people's success and joy. It's really been very... I mean, it's been, it's given me so much adrenaline in life, but that's why I'm not here in the Aggies outfit. It's just not who I, it's who Brene is, but it's just not who I am.
Wow.
Converting an Englishman to empathetic joy. That's a win, Brene.
I know it is a win. It's like a Liverpool level win, but I'm telling you why I'm wearing this right now. There is some very dodgy stuff going on on social media right now where people are trying to recruit American fans to different Premier League teams because everyone's going through soccer withdrawal. And... And it just seems so suspect to me that you would want us to follow anyone but Liverpool FC. And so every time I have a reminder to not be grifted by these other teams recruiting, I just have to just make sure that the Reds are front and center.
You are trying to bring joy and I'm just here in my Chicago white socks top, just, you know, reveling in the darkness with fleeting moments of happiness, which is how I approach life.
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Chapters
6 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:00–1:36
2
Who is Roger Bennett and why is he on The Curiosity Shop?
1:36–22:04
3
What explains hero players versus hero teams in the World Cup?
22:04–22:59
4
How did Roger describe his World Cup 'ultramarathon' experience and withdrawal?
22:59–39:54
5
How did underdog stories like Cape Verde’s goalkeeper reshape fan narratives?
39:54–55:58
6
What practical leadership and business lessons did Roger learn from the tournament?
55:58–1:11:26
Speakers
3 identifiedMore from The Curiosity Shop with Brené Brown and Adam Grant
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Can We Build an “Us” Without a “Them”? with John Green
Leading Under Pressure with Rebecca Lowe