Chuck Klosterman on Why Football Owns TV (and Why It Won’t Forever)

Channels with Peter Kafka

Vox Media Podcast Network

Business News, News, Tv & Film, Technology

4.4 • 585 Ratings

🗓️ 21 January 2026

⏱️ 57 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Football isn’t just the biggest show on TV — at this point, it’s basically the only reason some TV networks exist. So it’s a very worthy subject for Chuck Klosterman, the provocative and prolific writer, to tackle in his new book, which is called… Football. The big Channels idea here is to talk about football’s dominance in American media and culture, and What That Means — and how that might end, one day. And we most definitely get into that. But when you have Chuck Klosterman in studio, you talk about as much as you can. So in this this one, we also get into: Why football is a “completely mediated,” made-for-tv-even-if-accidentally experience — and why “the only seat” is basically your couch How video games helped rewire the way fans understand (and even play) football How gambling created a “fake game” that sits on top of the real one Why the concussion panic faded even though the hits didn’t Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:48.2	but it's just as much about the exquisite pain of having a crush.
0:52.1	And I think yearning can provide this sort of like masochistic joy to.
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1:01.7	This week on Explain It to Me from Vox, love hurts.
1:05.6	And it hurts so good.
1:08.2	New episodes, Sundays, wherever you get your podcasts.
1:17.7	From the Vox Media Podcast Network, this is Channels with Peter Kafka. That is me. I'm also chief
1:24.3	correspondent at Business Insider. Today we are talking about sports and TV, which
1:30.3	means we are talking about football, which is also the name of the new book from Chuck
1:35.4	Kloosterman. And one of the great perks of hosting a podcast is you get to talk to Chuck Kloesterman
1:41.0	about his new book every few years. Chuck's book is about football, which
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