May 25, 2023 • 35 mins
Welcome to the Crown & Anchor, Greyhounds! In this episode Christian and Brett have a conversation about Ted Lasso, hockey, sports media, and karaoke with Julie Stewart-Binks.
Julie is a Canadian journalist who has predominantly covered soccer and hockey for Fubo Sports, ESPN, CBS and Fox Sports. She’s what one might call ubiquitous in the sports reporting world. And she’s also hilarious, as anyone who follows her on twitter knows well.
Of course, Julie's also a massive fan of Ted Lasso, too. So we invited her on the show to chat about her love of the show as well as her work covering major sporting events like the Women's World Cup and the Stanley Cup Finals. We also ask how survived a close encounter with the stars of our favorite show at a recent Sirius XM media event and speculate about a duet betwen some of our favorite characters.
Finally, let this serve as your official spoiler alert, as there is some light discussion of Ted Lasso plot points up through the third episode of season 3.
More extensive show notes can be found on our website: http://www.tedlassopod.com/julie-stewart-binks-ted-lasso
Richmond Til We Die is an episode-by-episode conversation about the Apple TV+ show Ted Lasso, where we explore the characters, their relationships to each other, and how they're able to make us laugh until we can hardly breathe one moment and then feel with the deepest parts of our hearts the next. When you're here, you're a greyhound.
Julie is a Canadian journalist who has predominantly covered soccer and hockey for Fubo Sports, ESPN, CBS and Fox Sports. She’s what one might call ubiquitous in the sports reporting world. And she’s also hilarious, as anyone who follows her on twitter knows well.
Of course, Julie's also a massive fan of Ted Lasso, too. So we invited her on the show to chat about her love of the show as well as her work covering major sporting events like the Women's World Cup and the Stanley Cup Finals. We also ask how survived a close encounter with the stars of our favorite show at a recent Sirius XM media event and speculate about a duet betwen some of our favorite characters.
Finally, let this serve as your official spoiler alert, as there is some light discussion of Ted Lasso plot points up through the third episode of season 3.
More extensive show notes can be found on our website: http://www.tedlassopod.com/julie-stewart-binks-ted-lasso
Richmond Til We Die is an episode-by-episode conversation about the Apple TV+ show Ted Lasso, where we explore the characters, their relationships to each other, and how they're able to make us laugh until we can hardly breathe one moment and then feel with the deepest parts of our hearts the next. When you're here, you're a greyhound.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:11):
Welcome to the Crown and Anchor Greyhounds. This is Richmond til we die a
conversation about the Apple TV Plus showted Lasso, while we explore the characters,
their relationships to each other, andhow they're able to make a laugh
until we can hardly breathe one moment, then deal with the deepest parts of
our hearts the next. I'm Christianand one of my most fervent hopes is
(00:36):
that the Stanley Cup in the WorldCup never get in a fight. After
all, we've found a lot ofpeople who love ted Lasso, love soccer,
and love hockey, like today's guestsports journalist Julie Stewart Binks. Julie
is a Canadian journalist who's predominantly coveredsoccer and hockey for Fubo Sports, ESPN,
(00:57):
CBS, and Fox Sports. She'swhat one might call ubiquitous. She's
also hilarious, as anyone who followsher on Twitter knows well. Of course,
Julie is also a fan of TedLasso, so we invited her on
the show to talk about her fandoms, her work, and the time where
she may or may not have,but definitely did, find herself in the
(01:21):
same room with some of our favoriteTed Lasso cast members. So Greyhounds please
join us in giving a warm welcometo Julie Stewart Banks. Thanks so much
for being with us. Julie,Hey, guys, thanks for having me
on. I'm honored to be apart of this podcast that has had so
many incredible guests and cast members ofthe show. So I don't know how
(01:44):
I found myself on this podcast,but I am a huge fan of Ted
Lasso, So thank you guys forhaving me here. So there are two
ways you found yourself on the show. Number one is that you're a huge
Ted Lasso fan. So when didyou start watching the show and what was
the point at which you felt totallyin and invested. I honestly, when
NBC did their little commercial with JasonZadekis and kind of just making it a
(02:08):
little bit, I was I wasdrawn into that. I thought that was
so smart and so incredible, justhaving the juxtaposition of a football American football
coach coaching in soccer, and itwas just it was perfect. It just
felt like such a great way tosort of tie in like an audience that
(02:30):
might not necessarily be into soccer inthe States and so and having big names
like Jason Zadekis, like in acommercial for this, I thought, oh,
this is just absolutely brilliant. Tothen seeing it become an actual show
was fascinating. And when you seein sort of the opening credits, like
the premise is based off of NBCSports, it's it really reminds you back
(02:52):
to that time when when people likeRebecca Low were interviewing Jason Zadekis and he's
part of just like a commercial,and then it became this huge, huge,
award winning show. And I thinklike it was the perfect timing for
that show to come about. AndI'm sure many people said that before on
this podcast, just during the pandemicwhen everything was really difficult and negative and
(03:17):
we were all dealing with a lotof different emotions and kind of figure out
our future to have something feel goodon TV, and I think people at
first were kind of confused as toa show that was really like centered around
like the human spirit and the goodin the human spirit, and everyone at
(03:39):
that point was just sort of likeat odds with one another. It was
a very tumultuous time, especially inthe United States, and I think that
it came at a point where it'slike, wow, we really needed this,
and so I was very much intoit from the beginning. But I'd
say I was talking about this withmy boyfriends. We're trying to figure out
like when we really were super dialedinto it, and it was, you
(04:00):
know, the great episode of theDarts in episode eight in season one,
right like where it's, uh,you know, people need to be more
curious rather than judgmental, which issuch a great line in life, and
also about dealing with a lot ofproblems. You know how the show has
so many great takeaway lessons where it'seven just watching that back this morning and
(04:24):
then thinking about some of the worklike mentally that I've done on my own
mental health, and just the ideaof looking at different situations rather than whether
it's judging yourself or judging others.It's like being curious about a situation,
like what can I learn from something? What can I learn from other people?
What can I learn from my quoteunquote competition when they're doing stuff that
(04:46):
maybe can help me that's not likea negative but helps you grow. And
so I think that there's so manyof those little nuggets throughout the show,
so that one really I think likefor a lot of people stuck home because
it was it made like had notso much a caricature, which he had
been like the whole time, andlike a real person. And I think
he'd the Brits had kind of beentaking the piss out of him the whole
(05:09):
time, and like it didn't necessarilyfeel real that he was this guy coming
from the States and a college footballcoach to being like a coach for a
huge club in England, and sothen at that point it kind of felt
like, Okay, no, thisis like an actual person. This isn't
just like a caricature of which wecan just oh make fun of all the
(05:29):
time and laugh at. Like hehas a lot of depth. You're an
accomplished journalist, which then allowed youto be part of a recent Serious XM
event where many of the series regularsand stars of ted Lasso were present.
Tell us what it was like tobe in that room with all those folks
talking some ted Lasso. Yeah,Well, I was just fortunate to be
(05:51):
sort of right place, right timewith Serious XMFC, which I had been
working for filling in every so often, and just saw a notice go out
saying that these guys are going tobe in town obviously on their press junket
tour at this point, and Iasked my now current boss, like can
I just use my pass to comein and watch it? And he's like,
(06:14):
I don't see why not? Andso I just you know, rolled
on up to Serious sixem and thatearlier that day, I wasn't feeling great
and I was like, yeah,this is like a lot to go to,
Like is it going to be millionsof people from Serious there and then
also contest winners and all this,like is it going to be worth it?
And I just thought, go,like it, It'll probably be worth
(06:36):
it. You know. You're likelike you're thinking your hand, I'm not
even gonna even bill Is see themor anything like that. So I wasn't
working. I just was taking itall in. And so I think what
was sort of the craziest part ofversts when you walk in a serious how
they have this step and repeat whereyou see everyone getting their photos taken and
just seeing like Jeremy Swift and ColeBikini and like all these guys like coming
(07:00):
through and you're just like, oh, well, they're like right there.
And it was during Arsenal's loss toSporting Lisbon in the Europa League, and
so friend and Hunt's a big Arsenalfan, and so he was coming out
to take a picture and they're allcheering inside they're a little green room,
and he's like, I know yourjoke. I know that's not real.
Because I also looked at my phone. I was like, oh, did
(07:21):
they score? And they hadn't.They're just mess They're just messing with him.
But it was really cool to seethese people. And then so they
go into this glass it's called likethe fish bowl at Series XM, and
we're just sort of sitting on theoutside and I just remember, like I
literally was just I had like mymouth like a jar, just like I
(07:42):
was just looking at them all likeoh my gosh, star struck pretty much
seeing the whole cast just like rightin front of you, like and of
course Hannah Wattingham was like right infront and center, and she had these
incredible Christian the Baton shoes, oneof which, like when I was watching
her, like sitting there at them, I was like, Oh my gosh,
I'm gonna go buy those shoes rightnow. They're like twelve hundred dollars
(08:03):
shoes, like I'm not gonna gobuy them. And I also get tell
they weren't. She didn't really likethem or not like them, but they're
definitely uncomfortable. So I was like, Okay, yes, remember that influencer
in real life, like Hannah rightthere, but what was really neat was
okay. So it's very difficult toconduct an interview with like eight different cast
members at that moment, but theydid a good job of just sort of
(08:26):
getting sort of like everyone's maybe itwas their favorite episode or something they learned
about, like when their character reallykind of clicked and different things like that,
and I put it on Instagram,but a lot of them talked about
how season one, episode four,like the Gala that they have, really
was one of their favorite episodes becauseit felt like all the different characters were
(08:48):
sort of figuring themselves out. AndHannah mentioned that when she's trying to figure
out, like what Rebecca's going todo in certain circumstances, she always goes
back to that episode to like getthe inspiration of like how she feels toward
Ted or different players on the teamor different things like that, and they
did reference that quite a bit,and then I found it interesting there's so
(09:11):
many little things going on, andwe weren't allowed to take photos. I
took, of course before they toldme not to videos and pictures. It's
like, I'm not sitting here withouttaking some pictures and they Jason Sadega said
something fascinating where he said, youknow, there's there's soup left in He's
(09:33):
like, you know, when you'retrying to get soup out of a bowl,
like there's always some left in it. Yeah, and he's like that's
kind of like what And he saidthat probably on many other places, but
like that was what Ted Lasso decidingto end it after this season was like,
they're still soup left in the bowl. And I was like, oh
my gosh, they're gonna be likespin off or something, you know,
or is it gonna come back likethere's still something left there. But I
(09:56):
mean that's as you kind of see, there's so many fascinating threads that are
woven through every episode that means somuch more. And Jason mentioned that where
he talked with Ben Folds five onceabout like a song that they had and
he's like, oh, I thinkit meant this is this and they were
like, if that's what I meantto you, that's great and never said
(10:18):
what it actually meant, and hesaid, we kind of do that with
what ted last. It was becauseit means something different to everyone without telling
them like this is the meaning,because of course then it takes away from
everyone's experience or it just it makesit unique when you leave it open ended
like that. So being there seeingall that was really cool and then seeing
(10:39):
Brendon Hunt, like I tweeted aboutit and like I was like, so
fan girl afterward and not cool atall. Was I was going to go
say hi to him because we havemutual friends and he knew Grant Wall very
well, just like I did,and so I was going to go up
and say hi to him. Andas I was like going up, he
(11:00):
was like thanks, like how's itgoing? And I was just like what,
how do you know my name?My name? I was so like
not cool at that moment. Iwas like hi, and then we just
started talking and he was just sucha He was then like a soccer a
soccer fan that I would have metat a bar instead of this incredible Emmy
(11:26):
Award winning actor, producer, brainbehind everything. And even when he talked
in at CERI s X, I'msaying, you know, we just we
created ted Lasso. But he's like, I just wanted to get kids into
soccer so that like the US men'snational team can like win something. I
(11:48):
know. So it was really coolgetting it is. Yeah that's what he
said. Yeah, he said thatexactly, And so I found that was
like it was great. You knowall of them come from different backgrounds,
right too, with just the showand when I talked with him afterward because
I had mentioned about a Grant theyshowed at Grant Memorial, like um little
(12:11):
video Brendan had done because he wasclearly shooting over in the UK, and
so we're just talking about that andturn but he's like, oh, we're
going to be doing something for Grantin this like in this season. And
I saw that it's going to bethis episode this week, episode four,
so which I know I'm going tobe like a complete mess over it.
(12:33):
So as soon as he told methat, I got just like shivers in
I think that's one of the itties into what you said before too,
like the different worlds coming together andthen like to the point about whatever this
thing means to you, Like that'sgood and like that's that's whatever you take
from it, Like the intention isimportant, but also like how you receive
it is important, and like that'sbeen one of the blessings and the amazing
(12:56):
things about this project that we've doneis getting to talk to folks not only
like the cast and crew who makethe thing, but then other people like
yourself who are fans but are inall sorts of different areas. We've talked
to theologians and pastors, and we'vetalked to sports journalists, and we've talked
to authors and comedians. You know, it's just it's amazing that it touches
all of those different areas and allthe people in those areas in different ways,
(13:18):
and they're all still able to makemeaning from it. Like I think
that's just really a testament to thebrilliance of the show. Definitely, the
writing on the show is incredible,and when you hear them talk about their
influences and how they plant stuff out, like they're just such brilliant minds behind
it. So it's there's you know, it's no surprise that it's done so
well across so many different platforms.You've mentioned that you're a big soccer fan
(13:41):
and you are Canadian, and oneof the things that Canadian soccer fans and
soccer fans in the US have incommon is we have very strong women's teams,
their rivals with each other, andthen we have men's teams that typically
don't do quite as well as hopeor wish they would do. As Canada
(14:03):
did make it to this last Men'sWorld Cup in December twenty twenty two,
didn't make it as far as theywere helping. But can you just speak
to the importance in the excitement ofseeing that squad get to the tournament for
the first time in your lifetime andthem really looking like the best team on
(14:24):
the continent for most of qualifying,right, Well, it was. It
was really exciting. I mean,it went from zero to one hundred mic
overnight in my mind because, asyou mentioned, I mean I grew up
my entire life, so I wasborn in eighty seven. I'd never seen
Canada as men's team in a WorldCup ever. There was kind of the
butt of every joke and they justwere, you know, not really anyone
(14:50):
to take seriously. And then ofcourse, with like the emergence of Alfonso
Davies and Kyle Laren and Jonathan Davidand so many others involved that that kind
of helped make up. They havealways kind of been in and around,
but then like as pieces together havecome together and seen John Hurdman go from
the women's team to the men's teamand having covered him with the women's World
(15:11):
Cup, they were such an excitingteam to watch and for Canadians like we
you know, we hadn't seen thembefore do this. So I remember watching
them against Belgium and I was atthis this bar I love in New York
City called the Canuck and of coursebecause it's a Canadian bar and we're all
(15:31):
there and it's like all Canadians andokay, so of course the women seems
done extremely well and they're defending Olympicgold medalists, right. It was Canada
is such a hockey centric country thatwhen after the anthem happened, like there
were people in the bar just cheeringlike all right, boys, let's get
books in deep, like you know, go hard to the net. And
(15:54):
I was just like, oh gosh, like it's the stereotypes and like not
take away anything from soccer. Thesewere all soccer fans, but it just
felt like as though, you know, so much of our pastime of cheering
on a Canadian team in an internationaltournament has been for hockey for the most
part, on in a big,big atmosphere. So it was exciting that
(16:15):
game. It was, oh gosh, so exciting, and there were so
many opportunities for Canada and it justfelt like you know, when you watch
a match or a game or anything, it's like, if you can't get
it done in those moments and thosechances go by, the momentum completely shifts
to the other team. And sothat was just such a missed opportunity.
And against Belgium where it was like, well everyone, Belgium is going to
(16:37):
be the best, blah blah blah. And I remember beforehand be like,
no, they're not, like they'reold, as Kevin de Brunt has said,
like we're old, We're not goingto do anything. But it was
one or I thought I thought theycould have made it out of the group,
but then of course they didn't,and then it just like went kind
of downhill from there. Pretty muchafterward. It was exciting to watch them,
it was disappointing in the result.Everyone felt they would have done better
(17:02):
at least gotten like a win andso that was a little disappointing, but
it was exciting to at least watchthem. And I think like the standards,
of course, are very different betweenCanada and the US. Like Canada
does have a very good I meanCanada just like the US, but more
so is made up of like immigrantscoming from all over the world where soccer
(17:23):
is massive. I can still feeland remember two thousand and six when Italy
won the World Cup and it waslike insane in Toronto. I would have
thought Canada won the World Cup justbecause it's like Toronto is the most multicultural
city in the world. I knowthat because I was a tour guide in
Toronto and so that was on thetour and and so that's what's been fascinating
(17:48):
about being Canadian. You have alreadycovered a World Cup in Canada. The
two fifteen Women's World Cup was hostedin Canada. What was it like to
get to cover that in your country? The twenty fifteen Women's World Cup was
like one of those events. AndI've covered so many events in my career
that will forever mean so much tome, and I think it was what
(18:11):
was really cool about what me andmy producer Jeff Hyman got to do was
like we were we were set togo across the country and cover everyone but
USA, so you know, whereasJenny Taft was embedded with the US and
covered all the main storylines with them, that was the number one thing right
for an American audiences, Like wekind of did everyone else. And so
(18:34):
we learned so much about so manyother different cultures and players and coaches and
just like the journalists that were coveringthem, and you have to learn how
to work together internationally to get stuffdone. And then on the flip side,
we were on so many games itwas actually insane. I don't know
(18:59):
if I could do that again now, Like at the time, it was
just like running on adrenaline. AndI was, I guess almost like eight
years younger or something, jeez.And we did like two games in a
day and then didn't like flew fromEdmonton like overnight. I slept on the
plane to Ottawa and did two gamesthat day. And then we had a
day off, but like like atravel day to Monkedin and did two games
(19:25):
that day. But because of allthese different squads and teams, like some
of them only talk like match dayminus two match day minus one whatever.
It's Luckily my producer Jeff was wonderful. He'd be like, Okay, we
had like a whole schedule of likewe're gonna be seeing these teams in like
three days. Like this one talksin one day, this one talks in
two days, this one doesn't talk, this one we missed, Like There'll
(19:45):
just be so many different things goingon. So all in all, it
was, like you know, itwas. It was a wonderful experience.
One of the hardest things I've everdone. Learned how to really think outside
of the box and really learn howto be like extremely extremely resourceful break the
rules a bit too, got introuble for breaking the rules. And I've
(20:10):
told the story before, but likethis, I remember my producer telling me.
He's like I can see you talkingto the Cambodia coach, like get
off camera, like move, you'reon camera right now. And so I
got off camera and then the FIFAcame down and was like what are you
doing. I was like okay,and they're like we're going to give you
a red card. I'm like ared Like am I out? And like
(20:34):
no, no, you're not out. You just can't do that again.
I'm like, so it's a yellowand that did not go well. Oh,
FIFA was like I was gonna getit. I was gonna get a
second yellow. In that moment,I was like, oh God. But
I think you have to be ableto, you know, push the boundaries
a little bit sometimes if you're gonnatry to get get something, especially if
(20:57):
you're not embedded with like a teamcountry. I would love to see a
scene in ted Lasso where kind ofsimilar to how he's always trying to figure
out the offside situation with the refs, like Trent Crim getting carded at the
(21:18):
match but not getting kicked out inthem trying to figure out what the actual
rule is. I would definitely takethat in a heartbeat. Yeah, there's
a I like that. There's alot of interesting media perspectives now kind of
being woven into the show because it'sit's it's good getting her due, but
also so people can see what it'slike on the other side. How do
you feel about the representation of themedia Trent Crim specifically, but then also
(21:41):
that press corps more generally. Ithink it's I think it's very accurate.
When I do my master's there,we're really fortunate in that like one of
our sports classes we would go towhite Hart Lane, we would go to
Stanford Bridge and I remember seeing likeCarlo Ancelotti with Chelle and him talking to
the media and it was like aday that was very h There was a
(22:07):
lot of like sealicious issues going onwith Ashley Cole and John Terry and all
this stuff, and it was wildthat we were there like on this day.
I was like, Wow, thisis pretty insane. And so you
know, media in the UK isrelentless, and it's like it's aggressive,
it's negative, it's like, um, it's it's very competitive. And then
(22:29):
they would have the writers were allowedto stay, like the cameras had to
leave, and they would let thewriters stay so they could like get something
extra because the cameras could just likeput the stuff on instantly, which I
found it interesting. I hadn't Ihad never seen that in the States or
in Canada before. And I thinkthat like when I see sort of like
the hounding of especially earlier on likeTed, is that it is like it's
(22:55):
it does not stop, like it'sit's so bad there, like it's not
not bad, and it's just likeit is if you mess up you are,
you are going to see it everywherein the sun, like in the
Daily Express, like the London Standard, everywhere, every single thing, and
just very tabloid esque too. Andso I think that what was really good
(23:18):
in this season was how Roy likeaddressed Trent Cram about how his words affected
him when he was younger and playingand why he felt the way he did.
And then like there was a veryhuman moment of like trentping like I
was like a seventeen year old writerjust like trying to you know, make
(23:40):
it and get my own spotlight,where that was like more of a human
moment where he could have just beenlike, well you played like, you
know, brutal that day and Ijust wrote what I saw, ha ha
ha ha. But it felt likea really interesting exchange between the two of
them, and then seeing Trent getlike you know, kicked out of meetings
(24:03):
or the guy's not talking around him, like you see both sides like the
players are like, we don't wantto talk around you because if we say
anything, it might be taken outof context or it might be written differently,
and like and I see that fromthe player's perspective, what I don't
like is like that distressed in themedia kind of vibe of like, well,
the video is just gonna make upwhatever they think Dad. It's like
(24:23):
okay, maybe in the UK,for especially football, like they might sensationalize
some certain things or take pictures ofguys going to different clubs or things like
that. But then I think therewas like a human element of like Trench
just writing a book and like henow can't like get any information on like
you need to be able to likesee and like be around it to get
(24:48):
information to write something accurate. Soit's like it's a two way street in
a way with this, like andthat's that's what it's like with so much
of the media, and especially whenwe're covering it. It's like if I
something like bad about a player andthey're not going to want to talk to
me, right like and same asthat, like you also don't want to
just pander to them too so thatthey like you, because then that's not
(25:11):
accurate. So I think it isinteresting seeing sort of maybe the relationship,
like having them interact, because wedon't see media interact media and players interact
how they feel about one another.So I like that right now, Yeah,
I really enjoy that interaction between Royand Trent just because of, like,
like you said, the humanizing elementof it. And I do think
(25:33):
even that brief scene really does alot to kind of show the accountability like
going both ways, Like you know, because it's so easy, whether you're
a journalist or just someone like writingsomething on social media, it's so easy
to write something negative and just kindof flippant about somebody at our glib that's
like can totally like mess with them, as we've seen with Nate in the
show. You know, it's easyto fire off those types of things without
(25:56):
thinking about it and not thinking aboutlike that's a person, especially like in
Roy's case, like he was seventeen, Like you know, this is a
it's a literal child, you knowwhat I mean. So it's it was
really interesting to kind of and theydid some of that was season two as
well, kind of with Roy beinga being an anchor, and I think
we've kind of seen that coming backaround why he has such strong feelings about
like why we shouldn't talk about theseeighteen year olds who are playing in this
(26:18):
type of way. You know,like he's gonna go home and have you
know e chips for dinner, youknow, like he's a teenager, you
know, like so yeah. Inour experience, there's this large middle section
in the Venn diagram of ted Lassofandom and hockey fandom, a huge overlap
there, which at first we foundsurprising. We've chatted with author Mike Camito
(26:41):
and author and former hockey coach Johnyou Bacon in previous interviews about this phenomenon.
What's your take on why hockey fanslove ted Lasso so much? I
think that the two sports, Imean, first of all, of like
all the sports are probably structurally themost similar, right, like the way
(27:03):
they are both laid out, whileone's on ice and one has a ball
and the other as a stick.Like, it's very different but also very
similar in terms of how they're played, but just also in the sense that
in the countries of where they arethe most popular, they are not the
most popular in the US, Andso hockey and soccer are kind of like
(27:26):
the quote unquote foreign sports, which, like people might be upside me for
saying that, but when I firstcame here from Canada, I covered both
of those sports, and people atmy network are like, you cover all
the sports no one else wants tocover, and I was like, wow,
okay, well I love them.And you know, I had people
(27:47):
tell me like, you should stopliking those things and like other sports instead,
and I was like, I like. And so I think they've always
been kind of that, like theyounger rather type of vibe in the States
book where they're big Canada for hockeyand then soccer. The rest of the
world they are number one, Andso I think that there's like maybe some
(28:11):
sort of cultural handshake between the twoin the United States where it's they're the
similarities in the game similarities and howthey're perceived. I have found a lot
of hockey soccer people, which iswhich is really nice to hear. Yeah,
if anybody wants to build their ownpersonal enthusiasm for hockey, following you
(28:32):
on Twitter during this hockey playoff seasonis a good way to do it because
you know a ton of stuff,but then you're also passionate and it just
kind of makes you think, like, oh, yeah, I should get
more into this. This looks likea lot of fun. You are a
Maple Leafs fan. They had agood season for Ted Lasso fans who may
kind of understand the Premier League now, but not hockey so much. Who
(28:55):
are the Maple Leafs bitter arrivals?And which EPL team you most closely equate
them too? Oh okay, wellI would say they are. Someone said
this to me, like when Iwent to school in England, like I
mentioned back in twenty ten, Ilived like right near Emirates. So I
(29:17):
became an Arsenal fan because of that, and I could hear the games from
my room and it was wonderful,like it was just incredible. But a
lot of people were like, yourLeafs fan, you should be a Spurs
fan. I was like, ohno, why would you say that?
And so they're like, well,because like your your club has never there,
your hockey teams never hasn't won anythinglike finally bad And I was like
(29:44):
okay, And so I would say, ironically enough, like Leafs would be
Spurs and then you would have ohgosh, maybe like your North London Derby
would be in history Montreal, butright now Ottawa because there's been more of
(30:06):
this like Battle of Ontario, theprovince of which those two hockey teams come
from, kind of like North LondonDerby where it's always like if I see
Saturday night, like this past Saturdaynight leaf sends. I'm like, I'm
locked and loaded, Like there's nothingelse that will take me away from watching
that at all. Same with likeLeafs Habs, like leisabit Montreal Canadians.
(30:29):
Sometimes I say habs and I forgetthat people like don't really know what that
means all the time. So thatin history is like it's ingrained in,
just like the original six and andlike how hockey has created so And there's
also that English speaking Canada versus Frenchspeaking Canada vibe too. That is part
of like the cultural makeup of Canadabecause Toronto is not French speaking, even
(30:55):
though Canada is a bilingual country quoteunquote Quebec and Montreal is like super French.
They wanted to separate. When Iwas in third grade. I remember
it well. There was like areferendum. Super weird. When you're a
kid, you're like what how Iwas like, how would how would that?
How could they separate? Switching gearsjust a bit. You have been
(31:15):
known to dabble in the Japanese artof karaoke, and like the characters of
ted Lasso did in season one,episode seven, which is one of my
favorite episodes, favorite scenes. Unfortunately, we only get to hear a few
numbers in that episode in the karaokebar in Liverpool. So if we were
to somehow magically get another karaoke seein season three, who are like the
(31:37):
top two or three characters you'd wantto see perform? And like what songs
or artists would you want to seethem perform? Such a great question because
there's like so many different ways youcan go with this, but I think
you're going to want a juxtaposition.You need to see Roy Kent sing karaoke,
like and I think him with JamieTart. I was thinking about this,
(31:57):
the two of them doing a duettogether other and I was thinking Oasis
Don't Look Back in Anger, whichwould be an excellent callback to their episode
They're like hug episode in season two, because that song plays and at the
end of that episode does it.Oh my god, I just like stole
that from there, Like I didn'teven mean to. Actually, it would
be so in the spirit of theshow for them to then like sing it
(32:19):
in some like meta way. Yeah, yeah, because then it would Yeah,
it would be a good callback thenin that way. Wow. I
mean if they don't do that bewild at this point at that rate,
But I mean I think it wouldbe like that. Yeah, I can
just see them and like singing ittogether. That was like my first initial
thought because I like the as weknow with the characters right and their relationships.
(32:39):
It's like, you know, whatare you gonna sing? Like?
Like a duet kind of song wouldbe really good versus one because all the
characters as we know, have beeninfluenced by one another in some way,
So it wouldn't make sense for justone of them to have kind of like
their moment. It has to belike all or all of them together singing
like not Bohemian Rhapsody. But I'mthinking Mac because I you know, I
(33:06):
had a memory of me and myfriends. Yeah, all of them doing
some kind of part of its boundlessenergy really working well on that song.
Actually, Yeah, I appreciate thethoughtfulness in which you answer that question so
that I would encompass the full tedLasso experience. Julie is being great to
visit with you, and we appreciatethe time today and definitely encourage everybody to
(33:30):
follow all of your work across platformsso they can love the sports you love
as much as you do. Thankyou. I appreciate it, and keep
going, guys with this podcast isawesome, and I hope that there's some
kind of like spinoff ted Lasso,you know, afterward type of thing that
you guys do after this season orwhatever they end up doing. But I
(33:52):
think it's great what you've created,and kudos you for getting to so many
incredible names and people on because thisis like when I look at doing shows
and podcasts and stuff like this isthis is great. So, you know,
congratulations, thanks so much. Well, thank you so much for the
kind words. Take care, Julie, and that's our show. We had
(34:16):
a blast chatting with Julie Stewart Banks. You can find links to her work
and everything else we mentioned in theshow notes. We'll be back soon with
more ted Lasso goodness, but youcan keep the conversation going with us on
Twitter and Instagram in the meantime.Our handle on both platforms is at ted
Lasso pod. This episode of RichmondTil We Die is brought to you by
(34:37):
Jenny Kerosene Productions, who was producedby me Christian and Brett. If you're
enjoying the podcast, please take thirtyseconds to subscribe to our feed, and
give the show a five star reviewon Apple Podcasts poor five star rating on
Spotify. Heck, if you're feelinggenerous, you can even do both.
As always, we appreciate the waysthat you show your love and support for
(34:58):
the pod. I'm Christian signing offfor Brett and Julie. Thanks for listening,
and until next time, cheers y'all, My court
Welcome to the Crown and Anchor Greyhounds. This is Richmond til we die a
conversation about the Apple TV Plus showted Lasso, while we explore the characters,
their relationships to each other, andhow they're able to make a laugh
until we can hardly breathe one moment, then deal with the deepest parts of
our hearts the next. I'm Christianand one of my most fervent hopes is
(00:36):
that the Stanley Cup in the WorldCup never get in a fight. After
all, we've found a lot ofpeople who love ted Lasso, love soccer,
and love hockey, like today's guestsports journalist Julie Stewart Binks. Julie
is a Canadian journalist who's predominantly coveredsoccer and hockey for Fubo Sports, ESPN,
(00:57):
CBS, and Fox Sports. She'swhat one might call ubiquitous. She's
also hilarious, as anyone who followsher on Twitter knows well. Of course,
Julie is also a fan of TedLasso, so we invited her on
the show to talk about her fandoms, her work, and the time where
she may or may not have,but definitely did, find herself in the
(01:21):
same room with some of our favoriteTed Lasso cast members. So Greyhounds please
join us in giving a warm welcometo Julie Stewart Banks. Thanks so much
for being with us. Julie,Hey, guys, thanks for having me
on. I'm honored to be apart of this podcast that has had so
many incredible guests and cast members ofthe show. So I don't know how
(01:44):
I found myself on this podcast,but I am a huge fan of Ted
Lasso, So thank you guys forhaving me here. So there are two
ways you found yourself on the show. Number one is that you're a huge
Ted Lasso fan. So when didyou start watching the show and what was
the point at which you felt totallyin and invested. I honestly, when
NBC did their little commercial with JasonZadekis and kind of just making it a
(02:08):
little bit, I was I wasdrawn into that. I thought that was
so smart and so incredible, justhaving the juxtaposition of a football American football
coach coaching in soccer, and itwas just it was perfect. It just
felt like such a great way tosort of tie in like an audience that
(02:30):
might not necessarily be into soccer inthe States and so and having big names
like Jason Zadekis, like in acommercial for this, I thought, oh,
this is just absolutely brilliant. Tothen seeing it become an actual show
was fascinating. And when you seein sort of the opening credits, like
the premise is based off of NBCSports, it's it really reminds you back
(02:52):
to that time when when people likeRebecca Low were interviewing Jason Zadekis and he's
part of just like a commercial,and then it became this huge, huge,
award winning show. And I thinklike it was the perfect timing for
that show to come about. AndI'm sure many people said that before on
this podcast, just during the pandemicwhen everything was really difficult and negative and
(03:17):
we were all dealing with a lotof different emotions and kind of figure out
our future to have something feel goodon TV, and I think people at
first were kind of confused as toa show that was really like centered around
like the human spirit and the goodin the human spirit, and everyone at
(03:39):
that point was just sort of likeat odds with one another. It was
a very tumultuous time, especially inthe United States, and I think that
it came at a point where it'slike, wow, we really needed this,
and so I was very much intoit from the beginning. But I'd
say I was talking about this withmy boyfriends. We're trying to figure out
like when we really were super dialedinto it, and it was, you
(04:00):
know, the great episode of theDarts in episode eight in season one,
right like where it's, uh,you know, people need to be more
curious rather than judgmental, which issuch a great line in life, and
also about dealing with a lot ofproblems. You know how the show has
so many great takeaway lessons where it'seven just watching that back this morning and
(04:24):
then thinking about some of the worklike mentally that I've done on my own
mental health, and just the ideaof looking at different situations rather than whether
it's judging yourself or judging others.It's like being curious about a situation,
like what can I learn from something? What can I learn from other people?
What can I learn from my quoteunquote competition when they're doing stuff that
(04:46):
maybe can help me that's not likea negative but helps you grow. And
so I think that there's so manyof those little nuggets throughout the show,
so that one really I think likefor a lot of people stuck home because
it was it made like had notso much a caricature, which he had
been like the whole time, andlike a real person. And I think
he'd the Brits had kind of beentaking the piss out of him the whole
(05:09):
time, and like it didn't necessarilyfeel real that he was this guy coming
from the States and a college footballcoach to being like a coach for a
huge club in England, and sothen at that point it kind of felt
like, Okay, no, thisis like an actual person. This isn't
just like a caricature of which wecan just oh make fun of all the
(05:29):
time and laugh at. Like hehas a lot of depth. You're an
accomplished journalist, which then allowed youto be part of a recent Serious XM
event where many of the series regularsand stars of ted Lasso were present.
Tell us what it was like tobe in that room with all those folks
talking some ted Lasso. Yeah,Well, I was just fortunate to be
(05:51):
sort of right place, right timewith Serious XMFC, which I had been
working for filling in every so often, and just saw a notice go out
saying that these guys are going tobe in town obviously on their press junket
tour at this point, and Iasked my now current boss, like can
I just use my pass to comein and watch it? And he's like,
(06:14):
I don't see why not? Andso I just you know, rolled
on up to Serious sixem and thatearlier that day, I wasn't feeling great
and I was like, yeah,this is like a lot to go to,
Like is it going to be millionsof people from Serious there and then
also contest winners and all this,like is it going to be worth it?
And I just thought, go,like it, It'll probably be worth
(06:36):
it. You know. You're likelike you're thinking your hand, I'm not
even gonna even bill Is see themor anything like that. So I wasn't
working. I just was taking itall in. And so I think what
was sort of the craziest part ofversts when you walk in a serious how
they have this step and repeat whereyou see everyone getting their photos taken and
just seeing like Jeremy Swift and ColeBikini and like all these guys like coming
(07:00):
through and you're just like, oh, well, they're like right there.
And it was during Arsenal's loss toSporting Lisbon in the Europa League, and
so friend and Hunt's a big Arsenalfan, and so he was coming out
to take a picture and they're allcheering inside they're a little green room,
and he's like, I know yourjoke. I know that's not real.
Because I also looked at my phone. I was like, oh, did
(07:21):
they score? And they hadn't.They're just mess They're just messing with him.
But it was really cool to seethese people. And then so they
go into this glass it's called likethe fish bowl at Series XM, and
we're just sort of sitting on theoutside and I just remember, like I
literally was just I had like mymouth like a jar, just like I
(07:42):
was just looking at them all likeoh my gosh, star struck pretty much
seeing the whole cast just like rightin front of you, like and of
course Hannah Wattingham was like right infront and center, and she had these
incredible Christian the Baton shoes, oneof which, like when I was watching
her, like sitting there at them, I was like, Oh my gosh,
I'm gonna go buy those shoes rightnow. They're like twelve hundred dollars
(08:03):
shoes, like I'm not gonna gobuy them. And I also get tell
they weren't. She didn't really likethem or not like them, but they're
definitely uncomfortable. So I was like, Okay, yes, remember that influencer
in real life, like Hannah rightthere, but what was really neat was
okay. So it's very difficult toconduct an interview with like eight different cast
members at that moment, but theydid a good job of just sort of
(08:26):
getting sort of like everyone's maybe itwas their favorite episode or something they learned
about, like when their character reallykind of clicked and different things like that,
and I put it on Instagram,but a lot of them talked about
how season one, episode four,like the Gala that they have, really
was one of their favorite episodes becauseit felt like all the different characters were
(08:48):
sort of figuring themselves out. AndHannah mentioned that when she's trying to figure
out, like what Rebecca's going todo in certain circumstances, she always goes
back to that episode to like getthe inspiration of like how she feels toward
Ted or different players on the teamor different things like that, and they
did reference that quite a bit,and then I found it interesting there's so
(09:11):
many little things going on, andwe weren't allowed to take photos. I
took, of course before they toldme not to videos and pictures. It's
like, I'm not sitting here withouttaking some pictures and they Jason Sadega said
something fascinating where he said, youknow, there's there's soup left in He's
(09:33):
like, you know, when you'retrying to get soup out of a bowl,
like there's always some left in it. Yeah, and he's like that's
kind of like what And he saidthat probably on many other places, but
like that was what Ted Lasso decidingto end it after this season was like,
they're still soup left in the bowl. And I was like, oh
my gosh, they're gonna be likespin off or something, you know,
or is it gonna come back likethere's still something left there. But I
(09:56):
mean that's as you kind of see, there's so many fascinating threads that are
woven through every episode that means somuch more. And Jason mentioned that where
he talked with Ben Folds five onceabout like a song that they had and
he's like, oh, I thinkit meant this is this and they were
like, if that's what I meantto you, that's great and never said
(10:18):
what it actually meant, and hesaid, we kind of do that with
what ted last. It was becauseit means something different to everyone without telling
them like this is the meaning,because of course then it takes away from
everyone's experience or it just it makesit unique when you leave it open ended
like that. So being there seeingall that was really cool and then seeing
(10:39):
Brendon Hunt, like I tweeted aboutit and like I was like, so
fan girl afterward and not cool atall. Was I was going to go
say hi to him because we havemutual friends and he knew Grant Wall very
well, just like I did,and so I was going to go up
and say hi to him. Andas I was like going up, he
(11:00):
was like thanks, like how's itgoing? And I was just like what,
how do you know my name?My name? I was so like
not cool at that moment. Iwas like hi, and then we just
started talking and he was just sucha He was then like a soccer a
soccer fan that I would have metat a bar instead of this incredible Emmy
(11:26):
Award winning actor, producer, brainbehind everything. And even when he talked
in at CERI s X, I'msaying, you know, we just we
created ted Lasso. But he's like, I just wanted to get kids into
soccer so that like the US men'snational team can like win something. I
(11:48):
know. So it was really coolgetting it is. Yeah that's what he
said. Yeah, he said thatexactly, And so I found that was
like it was great. You knowall of them come from different backgrounds,
right too, with just the showand when I talked with him afterward because
I had mentioned about a Grant theyshowed at Grant Memorial, like um little
(12:11):
video Brendan had done because he wasclearly shooting over in the UK, and
so we're just talking about that andturn but he's like, oh, we're
going to be doing something for Grantin this like in this season. And
I saw that it's going to bethis episode this week, episode four,
so which I know I'm going tobe like a complete mess over it.
(12:33):
So as soon as he told methat, I got just like shivers in
I think that's one of the itties into what you said before too,
like the different worlds coming together andthen like to the point about whatever this
thing means to you, Like that'sgood and like that's that's whatever you take
from it, Like the intention isimportant, but also like how you receive
it is important, and like that'sbeen one of the blessings and the amazing
(12:56):
things about this project that we've doneis getting to talk to folks not only
like the cast and crew who makethe thing, but then other people like
yourself who are fans but are inall sorts of different areas. We've talked
to theologians and pastors, and we'vetalked to sports journalists, and we've talked
to authors and comedians. You know, it's just it's amazing that it touches
all of those different areas and allthe people in those areas in different ways,
(13:18):
and they're all still able to makemeaning from it. Like I think
that's just really a testament to thebrilliance of the show. Definitely, the
writing on the show is incredible,and when you hear them talk about their
influences and how they plant stuff out, like they're just such brilliant minds behind
it. So it's there's you know, it's no surprise that it's done so
well across so many different platforms.You've mentioned that you're a big soccer fan
(13:41):
and you are Canadian, and oneof the things that Canadian soccer fans and
soccer fans in the US have incommon is we have very strong women's teams,
their rivals with each other, andthen we have men's teams that typically
don't do quite as well as hopeor wish they would do. As Canada
(14:03):
did make it to this last Men'sWorld Cup in December twenty twenty two,
didn't make it as far as theywere helping. But can you just speak
to the importance in the excitement ofseeing that squad get to the tournament for
the first time in your lifetime andthem really looking like the best team on
(14:24):
the continent for most of qualifying,right, Well, it was. It
was really exciting. I mean,it went from zero to one hundred mic
overnight in my mind because, asyou mentioned, I mean I grew up
my entire life, so I wasborn in eighty seven. I'd never seen
Canada as men's team in a WorldCup ever. There was kind of the
butt of every joke and they justwere, you know, not really anyone
(14:50):
to take seriously. And then ofcourse, with like the emergence of Alfonso
Davies and Kyle Laren and Jonathan Davidand so many others involved that that kind
of helped make up. They havealways kind of been in and around,
but then like as pieces together havecome together and seen John Hurdman go from
the women's team to the men's teamand having covered him with the women's World
(15:11):
Cup, they were such an excitingteam to watch and for Canadians like we
you know, we hadn't seen thembefore do this. So I remember watching
them against Belgium and I was atthis this bar I love in New York
City called the Canuck and of coursebecause it's a Canadian bar and we're all
(15:31):
there and it's like all Canadians andokay, so of course the women seems
done extremely well and they're defending Olympicgold medalists, right. It was Canada
is such a hockey centric country thatwhen after the anthem happened, like there
were people in the bar just cheeringlike all right, boys, let's get
books in deep, like you know, go hard to the net. And
(15:54):
I was just like, oh gosh, like it's the stereotypes and like not
take away anything from soccer. Thesewere all soccer fans, but it just
felt like as though, you know, so much of our pastime of cheering
on a Canadian team in an internationaltournament has been for hockey for the most
part, on in a big,big atmosphere. So it was exciting that
(16:15):
game. It was, oh gosh, so exciting, and there were so
many opportunities for Canada and it justfelt like you know, when you watch
a match or a game or anything, it's like, if you can't get
it done in those moments and thosechances go by, the momentum completely shifts
to the other team. And sothat was just such a missed opportunity.
And against Belgium where it was like, well everyone, Belgium is going to
(16:37):
be the best, blah blah blah. And I remember beforehand be like,
no, they're not, like they'reold, as Kevin de Brunt has said,
like we're old, We're not goingto do anything. But it was
one or I thought I thought theycould have made it out of the group,
but then of course they didn't,and then it just like went kind
of downhill from there. Pretty muchafterward. It was exciting to watch them,
it was disappointing in the result.Everyone felt they would have done better
(17:02):
at least gotten like a win andso that was a little disappointing, but
it was exciting to at least watchthem. And I think like the standards,
of course, are very different betweenCanada and the US. Like Canada
does have a very good I meanCanada just like the US, but more
so is made up of like immigrantscoming from all over the world where soccer
(17:23):
is massive. I can still feeland remember two thousand and six when Italy
won the World Cup and it waslike insane in Toronto. I would have
thought Canada won the World Cup justbecause it's like Toronto is the most multicultural
city in the world. I knowthat because I was a tour guide in
Toronto and so that was on thetour and and so that's what's been fascinating
(17:48):
about being Canadian. You have alreadycovered a World Cup in Canada. The
two fifteen Women's World Cup was hostedin Canada. What was it like to
get to cover that in your country? The twenty fifteen Women's World Cup was
like one of those events. AndI've covered so many events in my career
that will forever mean so much tome, and I think it was what
(18:11):
was really cool about what me andmy producer Jeff Hyman got to do was
like we were we were set togo across the country and cover everyone but
USA, so you know, whereasJenny Taft was embedded with the US and
covered all the main storylines with them, that was the number one thing right
for an American audiences, Like wekind of did everyone else. And so
(18:34):
we learned so much about so manyother different cultures and players and coaches and
just like the journalists that were coveringthem, and you have to learn how
to work together internationally to get stuffdone. And then on the flip side,
we were on so many games itwas actually insane. I don't know
(18:59):
if I could do that again now, Like at the time, it was
just like running on adrenaline. AndI was, I guess almost like eight
years younger or something, jeez.And we did like two games in a
day and then didn't like flew fromEdmonton like overnight. I slept on the
plane to Ottawa and did two gamesthat day. And then we had a
day off, but like like atravel day to Monkedin and did two games
(19:25):
that day. But because of allthese different squads and teams, like some
of them only talk like match dayminus two match day minus one whatever.
It's Luckily my producer Jeff was wonderful. He'd be like, Okay, we
had like a whole schedule of likewe're gonna be seeing these teams in like
three days. Like this one talksin one day, this one talks in
two days, this one doesn't talk, this one we missed, Like There'll
(19:45):
just be so many different things goingon. So all in all, it
was, like you know, itwas. It was a wonderful experience.
One of the hardest things I've everdone. Learned how to really think outside
of the box and really learn howto be like extremely extremely resourceful break the
rules a bit too, got introuble for breaking the rules. And I've
(20:10):
told the story before, but likethis, I remember my producer telling me.
He's like I can see you talkingto the Cambodia coach, like get
off camera, like move, you'reon camera right now. And so I
got off camera and then the FIFAcame down and was like what are you
doing. I was like okay,and they're like we're going to give you
a red card. I'm like ared Like am I out? And like
(20:34):
no, no, you're not out. You just can't do that again.
I'm like, so it's a yellowand that did not go well. Oh,
FIFA was like I was gonna getit. I was gonna get a
second yellow. In that moment,I was like, oh God. But
I think you have to be ableto, you know, push the boundaries
a little bit sometimes if you're gonnatry to get get something, especially if
(20:57):
you're not embedded with like a teamcountry. I would love to see a
scene in ted Lasso where kind ofsimilar to how he's always trying to figure
out the offside situation with the refs, like Trent Crim getting carded at the
(21:18):
match but not getting kicked out inthem trying to figure out what the actual
rule is. I would definitely takethat in a heartbeat. Yeah, there's
a I like that. There's alot of interesting media perspectives now kind of
being woven into the show because it'sit's it's good getting her due, but
also so people can see what it'slike on the other side. How do
you feel about the representation of themedia Trent Crim specifically, but then also
(21:41):
that press corps more generally. Ithink it's I think it's very accurate.
When I do my master's there,we're really fortunate in that like one of
our sports classes we would go towhite Hart Lane, we would go to
Stanford Bridge and I remember seeing likeCarlo Ancelotti with Chelle and him talking to
the media and it was like aday that was very h There was a
(22:07):
lot of like sealicious issues going onwith Ashley Cole and John Terry and all
this stuff, and it was wildthat we were there like on this day.
I was like, Wow, thisis pretty insane. And so you
know, media in the UK isrelentless, and it's like it's aggressive,
it's negative, it's like, um, it's it's very competitive. And then
(22:29):
they would have the writers were allowedto stay, like the cameras had to
leave, and they would let thewriters stay so they could like get something
extra because the cameras could just likeput the stuff on instantly, which I
found it interesting. I hadn't Ihad never seen that in the States or
in Canada before. And I thinkthat like when I see sort of like
the hounding of especially earlier on likeTed, is that it is like it's
(22:55):
it does not stop, like it'sit's so bad there, like it's not
not bad, and it's just likeit is if you mess up you are,
you are going to see it everywherein the sun, like in the
Daily Express, like the London Standard, everywhere, every single thing, and
just very tabloid esque too. Andso I think that what was really good
(23:18):
in this season was how Roy likeaddressed Trent Cram about how his words affected
him when he was younger and playingand why he felt the way he did.
And then like there was a veryhuman moment of like trentping like I
was like a seventeen year old writerjust like trying to you know, make
(23:40):
it and get my own spotlight,where that was like more of a human
moment where he could have just beenlike, well you played like, you
know, brutal that day and Ijust wrote what I saw, ha ha
ha ha. But it felt likea really interesting exchange between the two of
them, and then seeing Trent getlike you know, kicked out of meetings
(24:03):
or the guy's not talking around him, like you see both sides like the
players are like, we don't wantto talk around you because if we say
anything, it might be taken outof context or it might be written differently,
and like and I see that fromthe player's perspective, what I don't
like is like that distressed in themedia kind of vibe of like, well,
the video is just gonna make upwhatever they think Dad. It's like
(24:23):
okay, maybe in the UK,for especially football, like they might sensationalize
some certain things or take pictures ofguys going to different clubs or things like
that. But then I think therewas like a human element of like Trench
just writing a book and like henow can't like get any information on like
you need to be able to likesee and like be around it to get
(24:48):
information to write something accurate. Soit's like it's a two way street in
a way with this, like andthat's that's what it's like with so much
of the media, and especially whenwe're covering it. It's like if I
something like bad about a player andthey're not going to want to talk to
me, right like and same asthat, like you also don't want to
just pander to them too so thatthey like you, because then that's not
(25:11):
accurate. So I think it isinteresting seeing sort of maybe the relationship,
like having them interact, because wedon't see media interact media and players interact
how they feel about one another.So I like that right now, Yeah,
I really enjoy that interaction between Royand Trent just because of, like,
like you said, the humanizing elementof it. And I do think
(25:33):
even that brief scene really does alot to kind of show the accountability like
going both ways, Like you know, because it's so easy, whether you're
a journalist or just someone like writingsomething on social media, it's so easy
to write something negative and just kindof flippant about somebody at our glib that's
like can totally like mess with them, as we've seen with Nate in the
show. You know, it's easyto fire off those types of things without
(25:56):
thinking about it and not thinking aboutlike that's a person, especially like in
Roy's case, like he was seventeen, Like you know, this is a
it's a literal child, you knowwhat I mean. So it's it was
really interesting to kind of and theydid some of that was season two as
well, kind of with Roy beinga being an anchor, and I think
we've kind of seen that coming backaround why he has such strong feelings about
like why we shouldn't talk about theseeighteen year olds who are playing in this
(26:18):
type of way. You know,like he's gonna go home and have you
know e chips for dinner, youknow, like he's a teenager, you
know, like so yeah. Inour experience, there's this large middle section
in the Venn diagram of ted Lassofandom and hockey fandom, a huge overlap
there, which at first we foundsurprising. We've chatted with author Mike Camito
(26:41):
and author and former hockey coach Johnyou Bacon in previous interviews about this phenomenon.
What's your take on why hockey fanslove ted Lasso so much? I
think that the two sports, Imean, first of all, of like
all the sports are probably structurally themost similar, right, like the way
(27:03):
they are both laid out, whileone's on ice and one has a ball
and the other as a stick.Like, it's very different but also very
similar in terms of how they're played, but just also in the sense that
in the countries of where they arethe most popular, they are not the
most popular in the US, Andso hockey and soccer are kind of like
(27:26):
the quote unquote foreign sports, which, like people might be upside me for
saying that, but when I firstcame here from Canada, I covered both
of those sports, and people atmy network are like, you cover all
the sports no one else wants tocover, and I was like, wow,
okay, well I love them.And you know, I had people
(27:47):
tell me like, you should stopliking those things and like other sports instead,
and I was like, I like. And so I think they've always
been kind of that, like theyounger rather type of vibe in the States
book where they're big Canada for hockeyand then soccer. The rest of the
world they are number one, Andso I think that there's like maybe some
(28:11):
sort of cultural handshake between the twoin the United States where it's they're the
similarities in the game similarities and howthey're perceived. I have found a lot
of hockey soccer people, which iswhich is really nice to hear. Yeah,
if anybody wants to build their ownpersonal enthusiasm for hockey, following you
(28:32):
on Twitter during this hockey playoff seasonis a good way to do it because
you know a ton of stuff,but then you're also passionate and it just
kind of makes you think, like, oh, yeah, I should get
more into this. This looks likea lot of fun. You are a
Maple Leafs fan. They had agood season for Ted Lasso fans who may
kind of understand the Premier League now, but not hockey so much. Who
(28:55):
are the Maple Leafs bitter arrivals?And which EPL team you most closely equate
them too? Oh okay, wellI would say they are. Someone said
this to me, like when Iwent to school in England, like I
mentioned back in twenty ten, Ilived like right near Emirates. So I
(29:17):
became an Arsenal fan because of that, and I could hear the games from
my room and it was wonderful,like it was just incredible. But a
lot of people were like, yourLeafs fan, you should be a Spurs
fan. I was like, ohno, why would you say that?
And so they're like, well,because like your your club has never there,
your hockey teams never hasn't won anythinglike finally bad And I was like
(29:44):
okay, And so I would say, ironically enough, like Leafs would be
Spurs and then you would have ohgosh, maybe like your North London Derby
would be in history Montreal, butright now Ottawa because there's been more of
(30:06):
this like Battle of Ontario, theprovince of which those two hockey teams come
from, kind of like North LondonDerby where it's always like if I see
Saturday night, like this past Saturdaynight leaf sends. I'm like, I'm
locked and loaded, Like there's nothingelse that will take me away from watching
that at all. Same with likeLeafs Habs, like leisabit Montreal Canadians.
(30:29):
Sometimes I say habs and I forgetthat people like don't really know what that
means all the time. So thatin history is like it's ingrained in,
just like the original six and andlike how hockey has created so And there's
also that English speaking Canada versus Frenchspeaking Canada vibe too. That is part
of like the cultural makeup of Canadabecause Toronto is not French speaking, even
(30:55):
though Canada is a bilingual country quoteunquote Quebec and Montreal is like super French.
They wanted to separate. When Iwas in third grade. I remember
it well. There was like areferendum. Super weird. When you're a
kid, you're like what how Iwas like, how would how would that?
How could they separate? Switching gearsjust a bit. You have been
(31:15):
known to dabble in the Japanese artof karaoke, and like the characters of
ted Lasso did in season one,episode seven, which is one of my
favorite episodes, favorite scenes. Unfortunately, we only get to hear a few
numbers in that episode in the karaokebar in Liverpool. So if we were
to somehow magically get another karaoke seein season three, who are like the
(31:37):
top two or three characters you'd wantto see perform? And like what songs
or artists would you want to seethem perform? Such a great question because
there's like so many different ways youcan go with this, but I think
you're going to want a juxtaposition.You need to see Roy Kent sing karaoke,
like and I think him with JamieTart. I was thinking about this,
(31:57):
the two of them doing a duettogether other and I was thinking Oasis
Don't Look Back in Anger, whichwould be an excellent callback to their episode
They're like hug episode in season two, because that song plays and at the
end of that episode does it.Oh my god, I just like stole
that from there, Like I didn'teven mean to. Actually, it would
be so in the spirit of theshow for them to then like sing it
(32:19):
in some like meta way. Yeah, yeah, because then it would Yeah,
it would be a good callback thenin that way. Wow. I
mean if they don't do that bewild at this point at that rate,
But I mean I think it wouldbe like that. Yeah, I can
just see them and like singing ittogether. That was like my first initial
thought because I like the as weknow with the characters right and their relationships.
(32:39):
It's like, you know, whatare you gonna sing? Like?
Like a duet kind of song wouldbe really good versus one because all the
characters as we know, have beeninfluenced by one another in some way,
So it wouldn't make sense for justone of them to have kind of like
their moment. It has to belike all or all of them together singing
like not Bohemian Rhapsody. But I'mthinking Mac because I you know, I
(33:06):
had a memory of me and myfriends. Yeah, all of them doing
some kind of part of its boundlessenergy really working well on that song.
Actually, Yeah, I appreciate thethoughtfulness in which you answer that question so
that I would encompass the full tedLasso experience. Julie is being great to
visit with you, and we appreciatethe time today and definitely encourage everybody to
(33:30):
follow all of your work across platformsso they can love the sports you love
as much as you do. Thankyou. I appreciate it, and keep
going, guys with this podcast isawesome, and I hope that there's some
kind of like spinoff ted Lasso,you know, afterward type of thing that
you guys do after this season orwhatever they end up doing. But I
(33:52):
think it's great what you've created,and kudos you for getting to so many
incredible names and people on because thisis like when I look at doing shows
and podcasts and stuff like this isthis is great. So, you know,
congratulations, thanks so much. Well, thank you so much for the
kind words. Take care, Julie, and that's our show. We had
(34:16):
a blast chatting with Julie Stewart Banks. You can find links to her work
and everything else we mentioned in theshow notes. We'll be back soon with
more ted Lasso goodness, but youcan keep the conversation going with us on
Twitter and Instagram in the meantime.Our handle on both platforms is at ted
Lasso pod. This episode of RichmondTil We Die is brought to you by
(34:37):
Jenny Kerosene Productions, who was producedby me Christian and Brett. If you're
enjoying the podcast, please take thirtyseconds to subscribe to our feed, and
give the show a five star reviewon Apple Podcasts poor five star rating on
Spotify. Heck, if you're feelinggenerous, you can even do both.
As always, we appreciate the waysthat you show your love and support for
(34:58):
the pod. I'm Christian signing offfor Brett and Julie. Thanks for listening,
and until next time, cheers y'all, My court
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