House of Strauss

Joe is really smart about the sports + business overlap, as evidenced by his viral story about Glen Taylor thwarting his own sale of the Timberwolves to the ARod + Lore duo. We got deep into that deeply reported article and hit other topics of interest, such as…

* The Pat McAfee + Bill Belichick combo

* Robert Kraft’s Dynasty hit job on Beli...

Jason Timpf of Hoops Tonight on the Volume Network seemingly appeared out of nowhere, thriving at the top of NBA media. Of course, like many an “overnight success story,” his rise was many years in the making. This was a great conversation wherein we discussed, among other things…

* How Jason used 2020 era Twitter Spaces as the battering ram to break into media

* Why Jason, as the counterpoint to Spike Eskin, loves JJ Redick

* How Ja...

Prominent foreign policy writer Eli Lake, currently posting at The Free Press, dropped by HoS to talk basketball. I, of course, wanted to discuss Lake’s views on politics, culture and the ever fraught topic of Israel. I’m not sure which of us won the battle for topic allocation, but I thoroughly enjoyed the conversation (and I’ve made the ...

We’ve got Andrew Bogut and Mike “Pro” Procopio of the Rogue Bogues podcast to discuss the eliminated and possibly dead Golden State Warriors dynasty. Obviously we talked about a lot of other subjects with these first grade ballbusters. Topics include but aren’t limited to…

* The Warriors. What should they do?

* Draymond Green as player-podc...

Top flight Audio Man Spike Eskin is here to discuss the newest NBA podcast hits. Spike’s gotten a lot of mileage out of humorously critiquing LeBron and JJ Redick’s “Mind the Game” pod, but perhaps he should be focusing more of his energy on Michael Porter Jr.’s “Curious Mike” product?

Topics discussed:

* Is Spike a hater for laughing at Le...

Boy do we have a loaded topic docket with America’s preeminent sports media critic and New York Post newsbreaker Ryan Glasspiegel. Honestly discussed fraught topics abound.

As Ryan would frame this rundown:

* All things Caitlin Clark (ratings, will it translate to WNBA, the backlash from women's basketball players and the backlash to the b...

Sports announcers and 49ers Youtuber Guy Haberman had vocal cord surgery and now sounds like Patty + Selma. I find his current predicament fascinating. He insists the subject of announcer voice issues isn’t interesting. We start talking 49ers around the 52 minute mark, for people who are into that sort of thing.

Topics include:

* What does a vocal cord surgery do for a broadcaster?

* Which sports announcers qualify for Top 5 “All Pip...

Our friend Amin Elhassan went negatively viral with his jump shot, but it’s only made him stronger.

Many a fraught topic discussed in this one, including whether it’s easier to say things now vs. the recent past. Subjects include but aren’t limited to…

* Amin’s crazy co-workers argued that Michael Jordan lacked charisma

* Amin’s moment as In...

In the Elon X era, no article ever goes viral. At least that’s what I used to think. But now, of late, articles in New York Magazine and The Cut have broken through as a sort of rage bait. To assess what’s going on, we’ve called in honest and trenchant culture writer Kat Rosenfield. Topics include but aren’t limited to…

* Pre mourning your ...

If you’re an NBA fan you know who Andre Iguodala and Evan Turner are, beyond being recent guests on House of Strauss. In this episode, I used my “stupid questions” approach to ask these current media members about their old jobs. The answers? Well, they were anything but stupid. Enjoy…

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Joe covers sports, business and often how the two intertwine. He’s been all over the sports + gambling topic, most recently with his viral observation on live sports betting integration getting added into NBA League Pass. Basically, Joe discusses all my favorite topics, so of course we had a great conversation. Topics include but aren’t limited to…

* How America and Europe are on opposite timelines with sports betting

* Is the sports...

Thrilled to have Chris Vernon on because I’ve long been curious about his career as an NBA + overall sports podcaster. The best way I can summarize Verno for those who do not know: Think if Sam Kinison was really into the Memphis Grizzlies.

Topics include but are not limited to…

* Vernon used to hilariously CRUSH Pau Gasol

* How Chris chose ...

Incidentally, Subscribe to my channel if you want the occasional video/Youtube experience for non paywalled articles…

Tom Haberstroh has written an explosive article in The Finder about just how improbable the NBA’s post All-Star break scoring drought is. I think it’s impossible to look at these numbers and reach any conclusion other than that the NBA directed referees to call games differently. But does Tom himself think this? Disc...

The preeminent sports media critic is here, right after breaking sports media news. We discuss, in notes cribbed from his X feed:

* Ryan’s Pat McAfee vs. Stephen A. Smith story

* Shannon Sharpe, digital juggernaut

* The media lets it slide that Mark Cuban rips Trump nonstop yet sold his baby to partner with statistically the world's largest...

I’m not sure how to describe this free flowing conversation with geneticist and writer Razib Khan, which was to be expected since Zeeb’s one of the most brilliant/idiosyncratic people I’ve ever met. Naturally, this talk is all over the place after beginning with, and I’m not sure there’s another way to describe this, social media reaction ...

Larry Krueger, proprietor of The Krueg Show, and former Bay Area radio mainstay, might know a thing or two about succeeding locally. A couple years ago he was pushed out of his role at KNBR, at which point he started building his 49ers-centric Youtube channel. It’s been a big success, currently at over 40,000 subscribers and rapidly gaining. As a fan of his channel, I wanted insight into the comeback story behind it and Larry’s ove...

What have I been doing with my life, waiting this long to have Frank Isola on? Frank’s a famously bold New York Knicks beat writer turned multi media star. You can find him on ESPN and Sirius radio, talking NBA and a range of other subjects. Frank comes from the era (and region) where media was confrontational. The overall modern lack of c...

Richard Hanania is, I believe, the most controversial person to appear on this podcast (though I’m curious if the subscribers can offer up some competitors for that title). Based on his public profile one might think his book, The Origins of Woke, would be a searing polemic. But it’s not. It’s really more of a law history with a focus on h...

Spike Eskin of Rights to Ricky Sanchez is here because a few of his favorite characters are in the news. Frankly, there’s no better person to cover Doc Rivers vs. JJ Redick as it plays out in the media. Who’s right? Who’s wrong? Does Spike hate JJ more than JJ hates basketball fans?

Topics...

* Spike on where Doc is lying

* ESPN’s hilariousl...