Ep 270: FIFA's Tomfoolery at the 2026 Men's World Cup Draw

they also didn't know how to end like there was no clear end to the village people it was just like they just kind of kept going. I just love that we have a village people critique. I just don't know what's happening. Welcome to Burn It All Down, the Feminist Sports Podcast that you need. I'm sharing Ahmed Sports Journalist based in Toronto and I am joined by Dr. Jessica Luther. Hi, I'm author, podcaster, living in Austin. I also bake some cookies. Dr. Miro's Davis. Hi, I am also author Esk, historian, professor, living in Austin and I do not bake cookies. It's cookies. Yeah, I love just oh my god. Lindsay Gibbs. Hi, I'm the resident non-academic and I am a living Greensboro North Carolina and I have the power plays newsletter which stay tuned, big news on that front this week and also in the women's sports lead at CBS Sports and the co-host of Slates Hang Up and Listen Sports Podcast. But nothing is like Burn It All Down. Dr. Brenda Elsie, historian, Hudson Valley, New York. I don't like cookies and I don't bake cookies. I don't even understand that sentence, Brenda, but okay. She works with fair. That's important. Work with fair on anesthesia. She's a professor at Hofstra, also feels like maybe you shouldn't know that. And are you just a professor and not you? Oh, I didn't say where. So I was trying. Yeah, so I was just trying. I was terrible at this. I was trying to follow your lead. You know cookies, historians. Nobody is doing a good job introducing themselves. Today on the show, after we get our names, right? Wait, wait, wait, wait. Today on the show, we will be talking about the men's World Cup 2026 as co-hosted by Canada, the United States of Mexico with Maple the Moose, Zayou the Jaguar and Clutch the Eagle. As the mascots, we'll be getting into the Tom Fuluri, the political, the good, the bad, and what needs to be burned. Before we dive into this dumpster fire, let's get an update about Burn It All Down and where we are. We are guessing that you missed us as much as we missed you and we wanted to bring it back. But this time around, we have to be really honest about how much labor goes into creating a very high quality show and how much money it costs to pay everyone to be involved. So to that end, our goal is to actually be back regularly starting June 2026 with the beginning of the men's World Cup. And then for at least a year, we'll be coming to you at least once a month. And that's a minimum of 12 episodes. But, and this is a big bite, we want to fundraise ahead of time to ensure that we'll have the funding for a full year. We can pay people what they need to be paid before we start making the episodes. And to that end, in February, we will be launching our kickstarter. And if successful, we'll move to Patreon model that we once had when before the show relaunches in June. And more details to come of that, we will need your help, we'll need your solidarity, we'll need your support to spread the news, to encourage people to invest in this project, to listen to our content, to let people know that we're actually back. So stay tuned for information about the kickstarter. And in the meantime, if you want to know what you can do to help right now, because you are very, very excited, and we understand and respect that, you'll use the link in the show notes to sign up for our new newsletter. And that's where I'll provide more information about our upcoming fundraising. You'll fill out this number two, fill out the survey that is linked to the show notes as well. And three, go subscribe to our YouTube channel because Bayad is going to be available in video form. So those are three things that you can do. And just wanted to say, to start off, I love you, I'm not going to cry right now. But I do want to ask all of you, why, why are we coming back now? Why for you is this important that we come back now, Brenda? I'm just tired of screaming into a void alone. And I feel I really need to hear from some smart people really struggling on this timeline. Can I just say, like, am I not humble opinion? No one has filled the hole since we went on hiatus. Like, there's so much stuff that deserves the smart kind of critique that Bernadol down does. And no one else is doing it. And so I'm ready to hear you all be brilliant again in my ears. Yeah, to loosely quote from H to the Izzo, we can't leave this alone. The game needs us. Yeah, I would say I dying to hear what you all think about everything going on. And let me be selfish. And for all of us, like, there's a big boom happening in women's sports right now. And in media, in women's sports media about women's sports, we've never been solely about women's sports. But obviously that's a big part of what we do. And it feels a little bit like we we stopped right before the boom happened. And I think that the boom needs us. And we need the boom. A lot of creators are getting a lot of money and I don't understand why someone had asked me recently, what was my greatest professional accomplishment? And I've done some really cool shit like all of y'all do really cool shit. But this one is the one that's closest to my heart. So I'm really, really grateful to be back at Bernadol down. I think we're unmatched and amazing. But what's not unmatched and amazing is the men's world cup and the absolute ridiculous circus that surrounds it, which is why we've gathered here today to speak of this highest order of Tom Fulori. Now, Brenda, can you get us started off? But not just why because we have perpetually on this show, we started almost eight years ago. It's not wild like 2017 is when we launch this show. But in that, we've spoken a lot about FIFA. But why is this such a pivotal time for us to reengage and talk about this? And why is it such a mess? I think this is what we're going to get into, right? This FIFA 2026 World Cup has taken mega event to a whole new level of hyper capitalist spectacle and political buffoonery. The World Cup draw, which occurred December 5th, that's Yashere from when we're recording, was a cringe worthy carnival at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. with the heads of state of the three host countries, Canada, Mexico, and the U.S. present. And the groups then were drawn for countries that have qualified. So just at a basic level, this tournament is bigger than it's ever been by a lot. It's expanded from 32 to 48 teams, just as a reminder for people who are obsessed with it. It's going to take place from June 11th to July 19th, 16 host cities, 11 in the U.S., two in Canada and three in Mexico. What this means is there's going to be 104 matches. So yeah, it's just, it's sort of like the mega event, mega, mega. And the build up has really engendered one of the most nauseating bromances in sport history as Johnny Infant Tino has lavished praise and gifts and prizes on the U.S. President Donald Trump, despite Trump's incendiary statements about foreign countries, including Mexico, and attacks on U.S. cities terrorizing immigrant groups who have been at the heart of the soccer community in this country, at least in the U.S. for over a century. So I'm excited to talk about this and parse it out with you all. I think we'll be taking stock of this shit show as we're six months out from kickoff. I have a question about the bromance with Trump and Infant Tino. There's so much news in the U.S., so I feel like I miss a lot of stuff. Is this only happening with Trump or is Infant Tino doing any of this kind of sucking up with Mexico and Canada? Have I just missed it? No, it's, he's absolutely not. A Prime Minister Mark Carney is not on this particular bandwagon, although he was glowing at the draw and just sort of happy to be, almost like, he was happy to be invited to the party. If I can use that as an analogy, he absolutely doesn't. The United States and Canada are in a very tight and very tense turn of in trade war. Not war, but during negotiations or immense tensions happening right now. So the fact that Trump actually played nice during the circus yesterday was really interesting to watch because when he's in the limelight, he says and acts and behaves sort up for the cameras and panders to the audience. And that's what I felt he did because behind closed doors, he speaks ill of Canada. One of us to be the 51st state, which was incredibly ingering and has ties to the Four Nations Cup about a year ago, which was something I was really missing all at that time because it was such an important point that I was like, who do I talk to about this? There's content about it, but not in the way that we do it. So anyways, it goes back. There's a history there and absolutely not doing it with Mark Carney. This particular Brawmans and this relationship is very much about Trump and Infantino. Yeah, I hadn't realized that at the World Cup draw, that was actually the first time that Mexican President Claudia Shambam and Donald Trump had met in person. That is the first time, yes, and you know, she's been very critical of this administration and since the whole Gulf of America, which was the, you know, his attempt to rename the Gulf of Mexico, which was from Trump, a neat thing he thought he would do, there's been a lot of tensions between them. So I was really surprised to see at the draw how friendly he sort of positioned himself. But then again, we'll get into it, but he was in his, in his element with a tacky event like that. Gross. Is it, you know, big Infantino fan here, so me praising him is going to be, you know, not, you know, look, obviously this bromance is nauseating, but it's also one of the smarter things I think Infantino is doing because it's going to ensure like he knows as long as he keeps keeping this praise on Trump and putting him front and center, it's giving him, you know, the world's best boss mug, right? It's just like, it's all, I do think Infantino knows how silly this all is. And I do think it's strategic and I don't think it's dumb. I hate that it's happening. It makes me sick, but he needs Trump's cooperation and he doesn't have to work with the egos of these other world leaders in the same way because they're not toddlers. They're not, you know, they don't need their constant supply of candy and distractions in order to not throw a tantrum, but Trump does. So look, I, I get it, I guess is what I'm saying. And a little bit more about that one of the things that I think is so grotesque is that saying that football unites the world, but pandering to a specific person who's managed to alienate so many communities from around the world is deeply ironic. I'm lens, I know that you wanted to talk a little bit about this new award, this great award. Could you talk to us about the sport, please? Yeah, there, you know, there's one thing which is like keeping Trump nice and then there's what Infantino is doing, which is going, well, so far above and beyond what would be kind of required of appeasing an ego and he is literally pumping hot air into the ego like in real time and a continuous basis. And the biggest example of this peace prize, the thief of peace prize, football unites the world, which happened to be announced right after the Nobel Peace Prize winner was announced and Trump had openly campaigned for that and he was not granted that. And so Infantino decided to, he saw a way to gain favor. The New York Times says this award was so hastily arranged, says like a month ago that this was put together, that it was so hastily arranged that it surprised several of FIFA's most senior officials, including board members, vice presidents, which is absolutely ridiculous. And so during the draw ceremony, which took place on Friday, December 5th at the Kennedy Center, which apparently they were granted access to for free by the Trump Cinco fans who now run the Kennedy Center, they did this whole dog and pony show awarding Trump a peace prize and talking, spreading lies about how he is the peacetime president. I think I've been trying to figure out how to describe how absurd this is and I'm just going to quote friend of the show Nancy Armors, column in USA today because I think she did it for me. Infantino said, this is in recognition of Trump's exceptional and extraordinary actions to promote peace and unity around the world. Now back to Nancy's voice, which actions are those specifically the poor fisherman killings that are likely illegal and maybe even war crimes, the racist slurs directed at small people, the harassment and abuse of brown skin people in a bid to enforce this racially pure vision of America while promoting reverse migration, the elimination of life saving aid to people in need. Shall I continue? Trump is the most divisive person on the planet, let alone the country. He was elected to lead and his actions and rhetoric have made the entire planet a colder, cooler and unsafe replace. He's a champion for peace in his own mind, only a no reputable group would he ever honor him as such, enter infantinos FIFA. You know, it's just as ridiculous. Can I also say that the trophy is really, really ugly and it made me think that it was done by the same person who did the Ronaldo statue in Portugal. Like it's that level of ugly and that's like all I could think what I saw it. I was like, it's got to be the same artist mirror when they were listing off all the things during the, the actual show of what he's done and naming everything from him saving quote unquote millions of lives. What are your thoughts? I think I texted Bren when it was announced and I literally, I don't think I like managed words because Linz is right, it's so absurd, like I can't, like this is, I hate this timeline. Like everything that has been said from the Kennedy Center hosting this to like everything makes me like so nauseated. Like I struggle even to talk about it because what the fuck is even happening? It's sad because it's so predictable. But it also like is inescapable in a way that I really hate. I think I got four push notifications yesterday announcing this award decontextualized as if it wasn't the fucking biggest, ugliest participation trophy for, you know, people who've been moaned participation trophies and only really traffic in them apparently because like everybody knows it's absurd and I think about what it means to have the world watching something that no sane person, like believe, like it's not rational. And I think I'm having a hard time adjusting to world, I mean, like we've been doing this now for like too many years. But I feel like it's still so important to try to grasp rationality when we can, even if it means calling out the obvious, which is like obviously this is a sham. This is disgusting. This is like why are we the pomp and circumstance? And yet when I get push notifications that are like he's earned it. I'm like, and it just reminds me that those newsrooms have been hollowed out as well of journalists and are replaced with people who are happy to carry water for the business people who have bought out all of the news. And so everywhere I look in even this story reminds me that our institutions have failed us. They were never really designed to withstand the rise of fascism. And they're just like failing in real time over and over and over again. I know we're going to talk a lot about other disturbing aspects of this. So I just want to wrap up real quick. And once again, I'm going to quote someone else because I don't really have the words. But Evan would fill the chair of the Human Rights Soccer Alliance in the USA Day column. You know, it showed his statement and it was Trump says that he has brought about peace and countries around the world, but at home and in our region, first of all, he has not brought about peace and countries around the world. Take that out of context and say at home in our region, he is waging war verbally and quite literally on sections of our people, including by unleashing a militarized force on immigrants. And Trump has threatened to bomb Mexico, a co-host of the World Cup, and to unjustifiably invade Venezuela, our near neighbors, and as Cherine mentioned at the top, to subsume Canada, another World Cup co-host, in other words, to invade them. So it's just like, even if you just look at his actions towards the co-host of this World Cup, you couldn't justifiably get him a peace prize. Yes, that's all true. Can I just add though, I mean, part of this seemed very clear that he was, that Trump was upset he didn't win the Nobel Peace Prize, which people might think of as the real peace prize. And I've seen a lot of people say, oh, you know, the Nobel Committee would never do this. But let's remember they gave it to Henry Kissinger, okay? And they gave it to Henry. So caring water has been something that these institutions globally and nationally have done for fashes for a very long time, but I share everything that you just said. I'm just adding to root myself in the fact that this timeline's bad as part of this long timeline. And yeah, sometimes that makes me actually feel better. Well, and Bren, who is the head of the FIFA Peace Prize Commission? What a shady, shady guy. The head was the Federation, the Football Association, Federation President of Myanmar, Zao-Zao, who was a businessman. He's worked for years, decades, very closely with the brutal military dictatorship there, and is on your investigation for crimes against humanity and financial impropriety and crimes. He's crimes, yeah. And it's so ridiculous because I think one of the most annoying things of this timeline is it has pushed us into defending things that we have always had critiques about. I mean, this is happening in higher education, we're defending shit, like, we're just trying to keep something. And that's how I think I feel about the FIFA pre-sprise. It's like, it's pushed us into defending the Nobel pre-sprise as well as you do it, but to run this point, these prizes have always been a great understanding of who's valued and who's not. Like, I mean, I'm not gonna talk about Obama-drowning people, but like, people have always made a valued judgment with these prizes that have legitimized ideas of peace or neutrality or whatever that have always turned, like, rendered others disposable. There are some people who's suffering and whose, you know, pain does not matter, is not legible, right, in terms of the world vision of what it means to bring peace. So absolutely, they're all a sham, and I just hate that something that is like, like, even, like, shami pro, like, shami plus, like, the FIFA pre-sprise looks so absurd that we're all like, "Hey, like, the Nobel pre-sprise is the alternative." They're all terrible, but like, they're finding new levels of terribleness astounding. - Brought, I missed y'all, like, seriously. My favorite comment, and just to wrap up this particular part of the discussion, someone on Twitter was like, now we should get FIFA to announce the Nobel Prize for physics, because if that's what's happening, a FIFA's according to peace prize, like, we should really, it was just, there's the commentary, it was quite funny. I just wanna, speaking about the actual draw, and on this theater, one of the world's funny theaters, being of funny, I wanted to ask if there's any other particular moments that you wanted to touch on, and Brendan, I did record a highly chaotic fun, 20-minute show, small show, quick show. Yesterday, that you'll be able to find in our feeds of our commentary, but I wanted to add on top of that. - Yeah, I mean, if it wasn't real life, what an entertaining time. - Because what is happening? - There's so many things like that in America. - Wait, was there real life? I'd be laughing. - I don't know, my favorite thing, of course, was Lauren Hill, mostly because the draw was so delayed that she was on time, and I greatly enjoyed everybody pointing out, this is the one time she's late because fucking fee was even less on time than she is. But also, how awkward was that? Lauren Hill came out with her sons, YG and Zion, and performed a medley of her heads to an audience that I can only describe as like, remember in COVID, where they put those cardboard fans up at the games, there were plenty of stuff fans. That's how it felt, and it was more awkward as they're like, put your hands up if you're having a good time. Nobody's having time. What is happening? It was a delight in a twisted sort of way. - Well, that energy was so desperate from Infantino that it felt like a high school pep rally, like an anti-drug rally, if you were a high schooler in the '80s, like saying no to drugs. And he kept saying like, I wanna hear from the US fans, US fans only, the hackneyed conversations about soccer versus football, you couldn't write it as a parody, as that could, like that well. - Remind me what, so many remind me what Shaq said, 'cause I got a push notification that said he's still this show, and you guys told me yesterday, I was laughing about it, and I literally can't remember. - You said I'm David Blackham. (laughing) - And I was sitting there, and I'm sitting with my husband, and we're like, what the fuck? Like, but it was UM, it wasn't even UM. It wasn't even Blackham, like Blackham's, not like Blackham, Black-am. - And that is dividing back. It wasn't there yesterday, which I thought was a conspicuous, that's not a word conspicuous, was a noted absence. - It's a low conspicuous and auspicious. - Yeah, that is the funniest thing. - Because you just know he's like, so proud of that. (laughing) - I just had, like, first of all, it was the audience, like you'd say these are these cardboard cutouts, which is perfect, but, and I know it's all men, but this was 98, 99% men in this audience, and they were all wearing, I think, the exact same suit. - Say about that. - And it literally looked like that meme of the guys at the baseball game, the white guys, they're just popping, they're like, banging out behind one another. Like, that's what it looked like. Like, it looked like AI had just, like, put, you know, all these men in seats, and, you know, they interviewed Michelle Kang, and I was like, oh my God, we found a woman, you know, in this audience. Like, you could probably count them on one hand. - Yeah. - Yeah, Carly Lloyd. - Yeah, just. I honestly didn't watch a second of this, and I haven't enjoyed just hearing Y'all's reactions to it. That has been good enough for me. - Yeah, well, also we have to say, the village people missed all their cues, somehow. Like, they had one job. - Have you said, did you say it's like, what? (laughing) - You never know what's coming next. - I know, I literally said that. - I like, I went back into what I was surprised. - To the village people that they were supposed to be performing the music. - We did not think that's why you were just going in. Like, it played an acc-- Like, it played an acoustic version of the YMCA for like three minutes before the game on stage. (laughing) - Literally, I went back into what-- - I was thinking, "Oh, they're just making this stuff." - It's like, mad live, right? - Believe it, you. - That's the thing that I was watching you guys text about it in the group chat in real time, and I went back and watched some bits of it. But it felt like so much like mad lives that 100% was prepared for you to be like, "The Care Bears are now appearing "with Katy Perry's left shark next to Rommel Manuel, "and I would have been like, yes, yes, of course." - It was so much. They also didn't know how to end. Like, there was no clear end to the village people. It was just like, they just kind of kept going. (laughing) - I just love it. - We have a village people critique. (laughing) - Honestly, we stand gay eye cause. And like, we love that. The costumes did not age well. - Get that paycheck, get that paycheck boys. Like, get the paycheck, whatever. - Like, there was a cop in someone co-opting indigenous culture. What is happening? - Are they still the real village people? - No, no. - Only one thing. - I think one is just one. - You can just talk that whole time. - I'll pass about that. - Can I just say, I recorded it, and if you listen to the beginning, there's a random person that you can hear in the whole stage just saying, Nicole. - Nicole. (laughing) - I just, it's like second. - I knew it's our need. - It's like second. - The producer needed to do it. - Was there a director? - Nicole. - I think someone needs a car. - Did they be Nicole? - Yeah, they didn't show up. - I didn't buy Nicole. - Nicole, I'm like, honestly. I do have to say one thing. I'm watching with my husband. The first scene when Heidi Klum and the only legitimate sales giver is that she talked about back in power, Bren. And that was nice because one thing we did not see, which we historically see in the draw, is nods to actual historical footballers who have accomplished so much and given to the game. And the only thing was Pele, Pele who Trump talked about, but there was so many, it was replaced with American sport legends, which was gross, but the lighting director for this show. You could not see Kevin Hart's face because he was wearing a black sweatshirt against a really dark backdrop. Like, that was not Kevin Blacken. This is the lead to a New York Times article about the FIFA draw. Today, I feel cowboy. Today, I feel construction worker. Today, I feel leather-bound-biker. (laughing) That's good. Which, of course, is a shout out to Inventinos, years ago, Qatar. Today, I feel gay. Today, I feel woman, like Bizarro. And so it's just so shout out to James McNicholas for that. - So, yeah, part of my favorite part of this was of the group chat that we had, while it was happening, anyways, so fabulous. Now, to move on something far less fabulous, there's no great segue for this. A little bit about one of the heated things and we talk about this a little bit in our live show. We had two live shows over the past year, which was pretty iconic when at Bowling Green State and then one in Get Now, at the. - What was it, something about history? - North American Society for this, but it was study of what's history. - Yes, thank you. - That, Nash, yes, thank you. Dr. Davis, so we see amongst all of this, one of the reasons we're so connected on this is the absolute violation of any possible rights, the changing based on special orders issued from Trump's office, seeing the harm. That's going to be cause, and we know it will be caused. Not only happening now, the illegal deportations that the despiteors has stayed that are issued by judges, ISIS is picking up people without any. And we see, in a way, it's heartening to have different communities on watch and stuff like this, but it's almost like there's this huge force field that needs to be fought against. And I want to sort of tap into that a little bit. the pushback? Is there any pushback? Brenda, do we see any pushback against this from other like either of those countries or anyone in the football community against this particular issue that is not being addressed. There's this showy, billowy, sparkly show, but no one's really talking about this. I think MLS fans are NWSL fans, USL fans, supporters groups are talking and preparing resources for what to do with ice raids, how to respond to ice, what are no your rights. I think those have been very heartening to see some of the T-fos. Now that's gotten them into some wrangling with MLS over what they can bring in and what they cannot bring in. So that's a really serious issue. And you mentioned Evan Whitfield before. And we Jeremy DeRue, who's a lawyer who's also been working with ACLU from the Human Rights Soccer Alliance to try to build some of these kits for coaches that are being confronted with ice officers in their soccer clubs on the fields and how they can respond. They also have a network of lawyers and there's a lot of resources on their website, also Dignity 26 and some of the other groups that are around. So I feel like there have been movements of solidarity, but it's a terrifying time and really no one's safe. Yeah, and I wanted to sort of mention too that not that it would ever look to FIFA to be any kind of bastion of anything. But Canadian vice president of FIFA, Victor Montelliani, actually refuted Trump and there was a bit of push back there when Trump was threatening to say, well this was a dangerous city. I'm going to take the host city away from like the Bay area or this or that like threatening arbitrarily to pull away when we know there's profit to be made from that particular host city and there's economic dependency on it in a way. So he pushed back into this isn't Trump's tournament. This is FIFA's which impressed me like I have things to say about Montelliani absolutely no doubt. But former head of ConquerCalf, but that being said in this it was really important for someone from that office because we know it wasn't going to be in Fintino who said anything disparaging or in an opposition to Trump. So in addition to that, there's some new things like a couple of weeks ago we had heard that not even weeks ago. Iran's team wouldn't be attending the draw because what the straw does is all the qualifying teams, the presidents of their federations go and their head coaches usually go plus maybe one or two staff. So if you didn't see a lot of current act of footballers is because this is not usually where they come. This is where the the federations come and it on would not get. It was our Iran's the president of the federation. Iranian football federation didn't get a visa and it wasn't until the announced it would be boycotting this event if they didn't that it was issued a couple days ago and Iran did show up. Haiti was not there. They're represented by Waiklochon. But I think for me this whole idea of using football unites the world and then you're not admitting huge factions of people. Part of the world cup's joy is to allow each federation gets a certain amount of of tickets to give supporters of that nation. And when you don't allow those nations to come, it is antithetical to the entire concept. You cannot use for your commodification the very thing that espouses the spirit of football for your own good and that's what's happening. Mira? Yeah and I just want to talk about one country's ban particularly and that is Haiti that really gets under my skin for two reasons. One, Haiti has qualified for the world cup for the first time since 1974, right? There is so much joy and excitement around this team around this qualification about what this means for the country. And also the continued ban of Haitian fans and supporters and Haitians in general by this administration is a long continuation of US policy towards Haiti that has been rooted in racism and destabilization occupation since the 1800s, right? Like Haiti has been perpetually punished for being a nation that overthrew slavery and became independent had to pay 21 billion dollars in reparations for France. And I know that people think oh history is you know that what does that have to do with this ban and the world cup and everything, but you're talking about a country that has been under siege, right? Since they rose up and seized their independence. You're talking about a United States that has occupied destabilize a country that has used it for their own economic, political and militaristic aims and then has punished perpetually Haitian, Haitian Americans, immigrants from Haiti in particular that is only intensifying. And then when you compound that with the joy that people are trying to rest from something like football, something like a global game where they are, you know, Derek Etienne who, one of the stars of this team, talked about how proud he was, his sister qualified for the world cup on the women's side and talked about how his dad gets to see both his kids playing in the world cup. It's beautiful, right? Etienne says, I think for us to be able to take the pain of our country, put it on our backs and use our heart to help the nation is something all the players take pride in. So the fact that we're able to bring that back to the world cup is something that everyone's family is taking great pride in. It's huge, especially with the things going on in the country. It's a break from that in a little dream. It's not only a dream for us but for the entire country. And the thing about it is he talked about how exciting it was because Haitians travel so well. They're going to be, you see them for Naomi Osaka and the far stands of any, you know, Grand Slam tournament. They travel well with their flags, with their cheers. And he had to amend, you know, his quote of saying, I know that Haitian Americans will show up, right? I know that folks already there will show up because the truth of the matter is with this ban, you're restricting people from taking part in a joy that they so deserve. And it's, I don't know what it is about Haiti particularly, but it's like really under my skin, the fucking nerve. You know, and Haiti is in such a position that that team qualified not playing in Haiti. So, you know, that was a really hard road for them. And it's incredible. You know, you know, so just think about that. Like they had no home field advantage there. Home so destroyed by natural disaster, gang violence. And as you said, like, you know, 200 years of antagonism from the world because they were, they were a slave revolt. They were established as a slave revolt. And it's, you know, global racism. It's insane. So yeah, I mean, I think about their qualifying road too. And I think, Bren, you mentioned, though, everybody should go look at the joy. Yes. That the game, you know, the diasporas absolutely watching this and then even back on the island. What are the scenes that you've seen? I keep getting WhatsApp's from people just to involve, like, people that have worked from grassroots about the women's case in Haiti that I've been connected to. And so they'll be like, take a look at this area of Port-au-Prance, which is usually like totally dead and scary this time of night. And you could just see people playing instruments and kind of marching along through the streets. And it's very, it's, it's very wholesome. Yes. Yeah. So I mean, obviously the case of Haiti and other countries that the U.S. is targeting. And whether or not their fans will even be able to participate is like a particular issue. But we could also zoom out and talk about like how just going to these games in general is difficult because of what a fee fee what FIFA is doing. So I will just straight up say, like, I have found everything around these tickets to the World Cup confusing. And I do feel better that there's like multiple articles that exist that are like massive explainers. They're very long trying to explain the ticket thing to people like to the point where the athletic actually has an individual piece for every single city that's titled something like how to get tickets to World Cup 2026 matches in Vancouver in Miami and New Jersey. Like you can go. So if you're going to go to a specific venue, I suggest finding the athletic article about how to get tickets to that one because it's that difficult. So there's already been a couple of lotteries for tickets. And I think something like two million have already been sold. There's going to be a final one. So PSA from December 11th to January 13th. Good luck to everyone entering this lottery. If you aren't chosen in the lottery sometime in the spring, FIFA is going to release whatever tickets are left, but they are not telling people how many which games which venues. So again, good luck. Shreen mentioned that you can get tickets through your national federation. That's one way. There's hospitality packages. Resale, but I can't even imagine resale because on top of all of this, FIFA for the first time ever has decided to do dynamic pricing, which basically means the more popular the event, the more the tickets cost. And so to go to the World Cup final, it would cost you literally thousands of dollars. The athletic reports at the upper deck. So like the cheapest ones at this point in November when they reported this, it was $3,500 a piece. It's nearly a thousand dollars for the cheapest ticket to go to a semi final at this point. If you want to go to the US home opener at this, like it's nearly $600. And that's that was in November when they were reporting it. So with the dynamic pricing, who knows? So on top of that, let's say you shell out all that money for your ticket, for your accommodations. If you are going to drive to park at one of these things you need to be saving your silver dollars. If you want to go to a group stage match in Kansas City, it's $75 to park your car. If you get that $1000 ticket to the semi-final in Dallas, you're gonna pay $175 to park your car. You are. Which is like $300 Canadian dollars. So we might all be in it for the love of the game. But like FIFA, very clearly on the surface in for the money, all of your money. I feel very poor right now. I know I was like, I'm not going to the World Cup is what I felt when I was reading about this. We're sitting on the Sophie, yesterday in jahab goes, "We want to go to a match." I'm like, "Oh, yeah, you got FIFA ticket money, girl." Yeah, you got FIFA ticket money is a real thing. Yeah, do you have it? Yeah. No, you don't. It's really ridiculous. I was happy to see that Zaron Mamdani launched a petition right after his victory in November called Game Over Greed, which is calling out the dynamic pricing. And it's also calling for FIFA to place a cap on resale prices. And then also asking that 15% of tickets set aside are set aside for local residents at a discount. New York, of course, is hosting. We'll have a few games in New York. So part of the petition is saying, look, a vast majority of working class New Yorkers won't be able to see it. So he's tying it in with his highly successful campaign that brought democratic socialism to the forefront and talked a lot about financial disparity that's happening in New York. But I think many people resonated with all over because literally the where we're at right now. And so that petition is still live, you still can sign it. And it was just really great to see ways that we can still say, oh, we can push back at least some way and saying, like, this is ridiculous in terms of dynamic pricing. I know if you've ever tried to get like a Beyonce ticket, you're like, well, familiar with this fucking dynamic pricing, conundrum. But beyond that, the idea that local resident tickets haven't been set aside, which has always been like the supposed trade off, right? Like we're coming in and prices are going to be raised across the city on regular facilities, like try to catch a taxi if you're getting a ride share. A lot of people put up charges in like eatery places during this time. All of this stuff is going to happen. And one of the things that happens is you're supposed to have some things for local people who are mining their fucking business and going to have their lives impeded on this mega event that's rolling into town. That's doing what mega events do, which also, by the way, say like as much as this is new, the old turbulence of mega event is still happening. So homeless encantements are still being cleaned out. People are being displaced. They're still going to have a rise in sex trafficking. You're going to have a rise in domestic violence patterns across the city. Like these are what militarized police at a time when who don't hear any of that back, right? Like so we already have a like police forces that have way too much militarized equipment. And you have whatever the fuck ice is. And when you put those things together and use the potential of mega event support, even more resources and equipment into these communities, they don't have to give those back after they leave. And so all of these things are happening. So I don't know. For me, at least it was good to see somebody say, hey, put the, put the game over greed. And I think Mamdani quoted the Pope saying football is the most important and unimportant things. But I think it's also just like a way to talk through disparities and paying financial pain that people are seeing across the board for everything. Just to jump off of what Amira said about local establishments. There was an article in the Globe and Mail. And it was talking about how local establishments who close to Bimo and Toronto the field that's under construction to host the matches here within a certain kilometer range of it. You are not allowed to use logos for FIFA or even the words world cup, which have been trademarked. So a small pub that is hosting a watch party. Oh my goodness. They can't even say we're hosting a world cup watch party. They can only say football is being shown here because they could and there will be this article said. And it's wild that there will be officers. I don't know what kind of officers monitoring. So FIFA got the money to go police local establishments. Can you, they cannot use the, and they can't use any imagery. That's patented by. That's what the dynamic pricing is going to. Paying the officers to stop people from using the words world cup. Like a small pub that hosts and one of the things Brenda was talking about Toronto was such a vibrant city. And they're good almighty. We don't have ice in Canada. Not to say there's not absolute like violence, racial violence here. But it's a city that's so vibrant that small communities and there's replications of this historically through the United States. Communities during the World Cup come alive. Colombian, Ecuadorian, like South American, African countries, Middle Eastern countries come alive. They're not going to do that because ice will show up. So this is all in a way that it's so awful that this is happening one from the like political side, the legal side policy side within. But then coming on top from FIFA that is supposed to be guarding like guarding the game. It's horrific. Well, and they'll do it with volunteer labor. So take a look at all of the calls and every college student at Syracuse that unom across from these three countries that are desperate to get involved in this industry and love football sign up to be those people that are going to tattle on the local pub that has that imagery because that is that's what they do. So they don't need money to pay them because what they traffic in is your love of the sport. Absolutely. And that that's their that's their thing. And I think what both of you are pointing to are legacy issues. The fact that once these things are established practices on police force resources going to these places, price gouging, moving, you know, a tenant housing, all of this doesn't go away. So the legacy piece has to be talked about right away and will probably have like follow up issue like like episodes on that. But just quickly dimension, you know, for sure, look for the women's World Cup 2027 not to be advertised at all. So look for that to be like totally absent as it's already been. During this, this would be an opportunity, same game, same governance. What will it do for the women's game? Unclear to me, every city has to have a human rights plan. No city has produced an accountability report of how they've done that. We're six months out. There's been absolutely no real response to that. Totally ignoring those strategic plans, communities of color, how are you going? I mean, it's just a total silence on how they're going to support those communities in the face of ice. But even besides that, just going forward, how is this supposed to benefit grassroots clubs that serve those communities every day? And thus far, it's been total silence. Then on top of it, I think you've been investing in this a little more. Jess. Oh, they're going to pollute a lot. So because there's 48 teams, because there's so many games, because they're spread out among three countries that are big. In order for teams and fans and everyone to move in between these, they're the amount of carbon dioxide that they're going to be releasing into the air is like wild. The scientists for global responsibility released a report in July and they estimate that this world cup will generate more than 9 million tons of carbon dioxide equivalent. For comparison, the Qatar world cup was 5.2 million tons. So like just the increase in like the physical environment is going to be really rough. And this comes on the heels in 2024 of FIFA announcing that they were going to that Aramco, the Saudi oil company was going to be one of the major sponsors of both this world cup and next or the 2027 women's world cup, which led to more than a hundred professional women signing a letter asking FIFA to back down, which of course they will not. They have no shame. They will be doing this. But yeah, it's not there's so much that's going to be bad about this this particular mega event. I'm trying to do something where it's like also we talked about like where we find morsels of joy or silver lining. And it's hard because I don't really feel like a lot, but this is what I came up with. You know those mock busters, like the fake movies that come out with a real movie, like on a streaming service to like make you think. So like when Princess of the frog came out, some small studio came out with the frog princess and it like looks the same, but it's not. I know that there's so many creative people. So I'm really interested in how these local bars and pubs come up with like not world cup world cup mock posters like because I was sitting here thinking about like how would you advertise it? And the best I came up with was like swapping the words. So it'd be like club world like that was dumb. But then I thought people are really creative and I'm sure that we'll find some entertainment in the way that people circumvent the awfulness. The curled whoop. There you go. I literally could not get my mind to figure out how you said a world with a sea. World way up K. The global plate. Love that. Would you know it? Would you know if I was watching a world cup party if I called it the global plate? The global bowl - Okay, I like that better, both better. - Global, we should have a contest and ask our listeners to come up with the best non-world cup name. And then we can name our episode that. - I like it. - We should do that. Maybe we're doing that now. - Everybody, listeners, flame throwers out there. You have a witty, witty name that you can come up with. - That won't get you sued. - And we won't get you sued. That would be fantastic. - I wish this was smart, I love our idea. - Now this entire episode has largely been something that could be considered an entire burn pile. Like this could literally be one whole dumpster fire 'cause the world seems like a big fucking dumpster fire. Amidst all of this. And I'm here, I really love the way you say. If it wasn't real life, it would be really funny. You're still ongoing genocide in Gaza. You're still Congo, you're still Suzanne Sudan. A humanitarian crisis we literally are not hearing of. Who had teams actively participating to try to get to the World Cup as well. So they're not disconnected from this story either. We actually have a legitimate burn pile and we're happy to have it back. Brenda, can you start us off? - Sure, my burn pile actually has to do with Canada. Who commissioned a report on public health from this company called Deloitte, which you've probably heard of, right? They do business-y, consulting-y types of things. Yeah? And this government commission report on healthcare and public health cost about just under $2 million. And it was released under the CEO of that company, Dan Helfrich. And Dan Helfrich's report contained evidently a gross number of AI generated errors, which led the Canadian government to all kinds of sort of steps, I'm getting to soccer, all kinds of steps that would eliminate different kinds of programs that in hallucinated AI determined were not useful to the Canadian people. And under Helfrich, this report was released. It was, they admitted that AI had been substantially employed in this report, but denied that it would change any findings so scientists going through it and other academics felt that that was in true. So Helfrich leaves, you know, he gets, you know, this is pretty embarrassing. It's a government contract. It's not a big contract for Deloitte, because they're very big. So $2 million was, you know, just AI change. And so Helfrich leaves and immediately becomes the chief operating officer for US soccer. So that's what he is right now. And he just took that job. He just started that job this month, this past month, in November. And so this is who's actually right now going to be in charge of all those legacy issues that we're facing that we've just talked about. And I really want to burn hiring someone who's done criminal work for governments to try to provide for vulnerable populations to benefit from this tournament. I feel like it's super shady hire. So I want to burn it. Burn. Burn. Lens. Yeah, I want to burn the leaders of women's sports. I'm just so frustrated with everyone. No, look, WNBA is in the middle of a big labor fight. As I'm sure all of our listeners know, the CBA deadline has been extended twice, most recently, until January 9th. There's a lot to still figure out. What we found out this week is that the WNBA is offering. Latest offer has salaries that a max salary could be a million dollars with included revenue sharing. It could be up to $1.2 million, a salary cap, which is up from $1.5 million this year to about $2.5 million. So look, we're seeing more money, which is great. But when you look beyond these splashy headlines, what you're seeing is still just a nature of disrespect and trying to humble these women and keep them in their place. And I'm just fucking sick of it. So just put it mildly, with this proposal, taking away housing, which yes, if you're getting a million dollars, you can afford your own housing, I get that. But what housing subsidies do for these WNBA players is they're not always in market for 12 years. They're looking for six month leases at times. A lot of players who are on the margins are looking for housing for weeks, even months at a time, if they're on and off rosters. Trying to find housing takes a lot of time, trying to prove your income enough to get rentals that are in secure enough places in these big cities that is a huge undertaking. And especially when you could be traded at any moment, you have a job that is volatile. I'm not saying that the housing market is great for everyone, but I'm saying for these elite athletes, you need to take that off their plate at the minimum. And it just seems to me that taking housing subsidies away is just such a take attack thing. It's, we're talking like a couple million dollars altogether for these billionaire owners. And it's just to me, it just shows that they're still looking to, for these WNBA players, to just be grateful for what they're being offered. And if you look at the proposals altogether, it's still only resulting in about 10 to 15% of revenue, of all-league revenue. It's embarrassing. And I'd like to put it on the burn pile and look, NWSL owners who can't figure out how to pay Tranny Rodman market value, add you to burn. - Yeah, so last month, Sky Sports launched a new TikTok channel called Halo, which was supposed to be with the tagline. We're all, we're about all sports and championing female athletes. We're here for the culture, community and connection. We don't just watch sports, we live it. But pretty quickly off the bat, it was off to a very rocky start. It literally launched with the description of it being the quote-unquote "lossess" of Sky Sports. And if you went over to the TikTok channel, what you would find was posts with pink hearts, posts with glittery pink and purple writing on the videos. For instance, there was a video of Man City scoring a goal and Holland was like dribbling through players and the caption they put on the video is how the matcha and hop girl walk combos hit. - No. - And there was hearts, there was hearts flying around too. Just in case you didn't get it, you know, feeling. Also, half of their first posts, didn't feature women athletes at all. The blowback was very quick. The comments were actually really funny. People were like, oh no, how will my mind ever process sports if it's not written in pink? But also, I was really frustrated by their response to the initial people being like, what is this? Why are you calling it "lossess" of Sky Sports? What made you think that women cannot understand the regular coverage from Sky Sports? Like, what is happening here? And somebody responded like, I can't believe you thought women wanted this and that official account responded back and said, I can't believe you would bring that energy. So it was like throwback sexism, like 1990s air sexism. Like I was almost in disbelief that it was real. I was pretty sure that it was parody for like 24 hours because it looked like every aesthetic lookbook must have come off of those like J5 magazines that were like sold when I was growing up in the 90s that would just have like in synced faces on the covers and posters inside. That must have been their aesthetic because everything was so like oppressively pink. Nothing's wrong with the color pink, but it was like pink hearts and seat like it was a mess. Luckily, after three days, they realized that this was probably not a good project and they completely shut it down. But the fact that it even passed so many levels of approval to do the official launch and stayed up for that long with them defending it for that long pissed me off. And I literally said to Jessica when it first launched, oh my gosh, I wish we had burned it all down 'cause I would burn this so fast. And now I can so burn. - Burn. - I'm gonna go next and initially I had said that I wanted to burn the suspension of Cristiana Ronaldo's red card. He was issued a red card against Republic of Ireland and FIFA decided to suspend his suspension. So he can participate in the World Cup. Now the thing that I'm actually-- - I did not know that. - Yeah, oh my gosh. - And for a while, I'm at a point all and I'm getting into my like digital geriatric phase. I don't know what the fuck is AI anymore. So I'll show cat videos is really cute and I fall for them and Salus like mama, this is AI clearly. And I'm like, no, the dog chose its owner, I know it did. This video is real. But I wasn't sure if Ronaldo had visited Trump the White House for like, and I'm a journalist. I was trying to get it corroborated, right? So at the same time, time. Renaldo, who we know is not a bastion of anything political horrible. We've talked about this many times on the show. But in essence, what I'm completely burning is this idea of political neutrality, which FIFA seeks to hold and still thinks is an actual thing. And what we've seen from the draw and leading up to, this is anything but neutral. This is worshiping at the altar of capitalism, a power of control, of oppression. And, you know, the example of Renaldo being able to play when he really shouldn't. If it was any other player in the world, that red card would be adhered to some exceptions. Obviously, if it was a player from Haiti, if it was a player from Curacao, that Wynne Gretzky likes to call Caraco or because I talked about shopping. Yes, let's just have to believe you fucking Wynne Gretzky, like, oh my god, it's not embarrassing enough for it to be Canadian at the moment. Like he's coming out here. Don't even ask me what he called Macedonia. Macedonia. I have the record. Yes, I'll send it to you. It's so bad. It sounds like a good nut, you know? Yeah, Macedonia nuts. That's what the joke is on Twitter. And no, the best is Jordan. The man can't say Jordan. He said, Jordan. Okay. That's Bill Belcheck's girlfriend's name. No, that's a great friend episode. That's a different. He can say Bosnia hurts a gov. He's like, what the fuck? I don't know. Anyway, I'm sorry, I just had to say that again. The point is, we know political neutrality does not exist. If I see those terms together, I lose it. It is absolutely a falsehood and I want to burn political neutrality. Burn, burn, oh my god, Dr. Jessica Luther. Thank you. So I had a hard time deciding what exactly to burn because there's simply too much. I think we probably all have this trouble. So I decided to go with the thing that actually made me cry when I heard the news. In November, LSU hired Virge Osberry to be their new athletic director. He's a long time athletic staffer at LSU and I knew his name immediately. In the fall of 2020, I worked on a team at USA Today with Nancy Armour and Kenny Jacobi. We broke a major story about the many ways that LSU was failing victims of gendered violence, including in athletics. That was the first time that I learned about Osberry. According to a police report that I have read so many times in April of 2018, a star football player texted Osberry that he had punched his girlfriend. Another LSU athlete in the stomach and he was concerned that she was going to report him. In response, Osberry called the player and talked to him for six minutes and then he did nothing. Two weeks later, the woman went to an athletic trainer because her ribs were so swollen she couldn't sleep. After an outside law firm did a detailed report about all of this following our reporting, LSU suspended Osberry for one month unpaid. A man whom LSU punished for failing to help a female athlete despite knowing she was the victim of domestic violence at the hand of another athlete is now the athletic director at LSU overseeing all athletes. I assume that the women athletes of LSU were never considered when the president of the school promoted Osberry to athletic director. In fact, my gut tells me that Osberry was hired precisely because he will put the good of the football team over everything else including the safety and health of other athletes at LSU. This is of course a chronic problem in college football. This is why Art Briles who has yet to truly make amends for everything that happened around gendered violence in the Baylor football team under his watch has a new gig as a division two head football coach. This is why DJ Durkin who was head coach at Maryland when Jordan McNair died a preventable death from heatstroke following a practice is still a defensive coordinator at Auburn. So today, I want to burn the toxic toxic nature of college football and the men it continues to protect burn. Dr. Luther, if I'm not mistaken, you won an award with that team at USA today for that reporting. We did. Yes, from the AP. Thank you for continuing to be committed to that kind of work because it's not easy. Now to flip to happiness. Let's get into happiness. Does that work? Some torchbearers. I don't know. Every time I'm sad now, I'm going to just think of you being now to flip to happiness. Flip. I mean, there's no such thing as smooth transitions in this world, right? Like it all just exists together at the same time. And if you want to if you want to have joy, you have to just go to it straight from the terror. Like you can't I actively I actively seek joy. So that's what I'm doing. I'm seeking joy as a form of resistance. Yeah, you can't just be like though, but there's no like good appropriate time for joy, right? Because there's always bad. So we'll just see that's all we're here, right? Blunt transitions between it all. Brennie, Brennie, Bren, Bren. Monique Andre, current interim head of Haiti's football federation, which has led to this qualification. And for me, is a torchbearer in part because she has pulled this federation out of the abusive history of Jeanine Eves Bart. Incredible. Amazing. I'll go next just because I forgot to say who's going next. So I'll go next. Please do. Blunt transitions. Blunt transitions. I didn't want to and all this terrible dumpster fire world that we talk of so much to burn. There's these moments and these actual points of light, whether it's mobilizations from independent soccer supporters groups. It's sports and rights alliance, whether it's human rights groups, what ACLU, I was on a media call earlier this week, where there's so many different groups that come together to work. They don't always get it right. We know this. We can be critical continuously, which we will do. However, there's points at which that mobilization is heartening me. Maybe my bars very low, but the reality is when communities come together. And maybe I'm just, you know, happy because around mom Donnie want in New York. So maybe I'm just still on that bandwagon. Look, there's points of joy in principle and integrity and goodness that can persevere and that can thrive in situations. It's not all going to be good. It's not going to be 100% good or 100% well, it can be 1000% bad. Yes. But I would like to shout out those people who are continuously on the ground, the grassroots groups, the parents who take their kids to the park, the women who play in community sport, the trans women who continue to go out to show up to play even though there's wars waged against them and really want to say that those communities of people that are keeping the inherent spirit of football, the beautiful game, which is ours alive. I want to shout those people out. Sometimes you don't get a platform. We see you. I see you. And I thank you. And I want to lift you up. I love that lens. Yeah, I just wanted to talk about the female athlete that's making me happy. And that's Audi Crooks, the Iowa State Center, six foot three junior. If you have not watched Audi Crooks play, you need to change that immediately. It is a joy. It is just, it is pure ferociousness on the court, pure joy off the court. And she is so, so good. She's averaging 27.3 points, 5.9 rebounds and 2.1 assists so far this season, shooting 73.8% from the field. 73.8% from the field is absurd. Earlier in November, at the beginning of November or actually on November 12th, she scored an Iowa State record 43 points in just 20 minutes in a game that she had the flu. And then she actually broke that record on November 30th when she scored 47 points this time and 33 minutes. Sure, Davis. Absolutely. I want to lift up Salah Mar Rivera Cosme and Julian Artees who are going to be doing the sign interpretation at the Super Bowl. So Salah Mar is Puerto Rican and she most recently did Bad Bunny's residency in Puerto Rico. And he asked her to do his half-time show as well as Artees who will be doing the National Anthem and Fred Beam will be doing lift every voice and sing and then Julian will do the National Anthem and American the beautiful but he will be doing it in L.S.P.R which is Puerto Rican Sign Language. And so I'm just really thrilled that A. Look at all the boys on the stage but B. I just really like that Puerto Rican Sign Language in particular will be getting its own moment much like B. A. S.L. Black American Sign Language. Reminders that A. S.L. is not the only sign language that's American Sign Language and much like American dialects marginalized communities have their own forms of language keeping. And especially on the island since around the 1990s Puerto Rican Sign Language has been continuing to rise as something that's preserved and taught and so to have this stage with those interpreters at the show feels really good. So watch for them on Super Wilson Day if you're watching the show. It's amazing Dr. Luther. Yeah so in similar vein to Lindsay I wanted to shout out athletes that have just been giving me so much joy in the fall and I'm going to go with college volleyball. So while I'm still right or die for the University of Texas we've got to give some love to the overall number one seed in the NCAA volleyball tournament the University of Nebraska. They went undefeated. And the regular season winning all 30 of their matches across those 30 matches, they only lost seven sets and only one in big 10 play. I mean, it'll be really fun to see if someone can actually beat them in the post season. Obviously, I'm going to hope it's the hook 'em long horns, but shout-outs in Nebraska for what has just been an absolute incredible dominant season. And can we particularly shout out, I don't know if I can fully shout out in Nebraska because I just don't think I'm built like that in terms of competition, but I do want to particularly shout out Harper Murray, who, if you know anything about her story, has had a journey. She was pegged as like the bad girl of volleyball. She's like one of the only women of color on that team. And she also was politically outspoken, which is not ever easy to do, but particularly not in Nebraska, had a lot of their own fans turn against her over the last two years. And for her to be a leader of this team that's doing so well and write this chapter of her story has been great to see. And also, I want to beat them. I love that. I just want to thank you all for being here and listening with us. I was talking to the flame thores, but also thanking everybody here because I love them. And being with them brings me a lot of joy. So in addition to all the cool people we've named, I also want to thank out my co-hosts and Martin Kessler, producer, because this has been, I dream about this. I really do and I've missed it terribly and we really really want to come back. No, I'm okay. I'm okay. I'm like internally biting my cheek. We really want to come back. And you all can help our community has missed us and we've missed our community. We will be launching a Kickstarter and a Patreon as mentioned, but in the meantime, you can sign up for a newsletter via the link in the show notes. Fill out the survey as mentioned, also linked in the show notes and then subscribe, like and subscribe and share, burn it all down, YouTube channel. Links will be in the show notes and share with your friends, share with people who may not know us. You can remind people who were part. I put some stuff and been sharing some pictures on Instagram and you know, we have had community members reach out to us at different points in the last couple years of variety, I didn't say, man, I missed you Courtney of diaspora of United pod reached out at one point on Blue Sky and was like, I really missed your voices. So we hear you, we've heard you and you can help us come back. Just want to say on behalf of doctors, Luther, LC, Davis, the esteemed Lindsey Gibbs and myself Shrine Ahmed. Thank you for being with us and we'll see you again soon, burn on and nod out. ♪ Scream out, shout out, oh yeah ♪ ♪ Oh yeah, oh yeah ♪