Culture Chat: What makes the Super Bowl so super?
Life and Art from FT Weekend
Forhecz Topher
4.6 • 601 Ratings
🗓️ 9 February 2024
⏱️ 24 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Let’s get ready to rumble! This week, we’re pregaming this Sunday’s Super Bowl, which could break records as the most-watched television event in US history. The FT’s sports business correspondent Sara Germano and Wall Street reporter / sports fanatic Sujeet Indap join Lilah to set the scene for the Super Bowl as a cultural event: the teams, the history, the drama, the head injuries, the halftime shows, the Taylor Swift conspiracies! Whether you watch football or not, you’ll be ready for Sunday’s game.
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We love hearing from you. Lilah is on Instagram @lilahrap and we’re on X @lifeandartpod. You can email us at lifeandart@ft.com. We are grateful for reviews, on Apple, Spotify, etc.
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Links (all FT links get you past the paywall):
– The Super Bowl goes live at 3.30PM PT / 6.30PM EST this Sunday, February 11. You can watch it in the UK at 10.45 PM on ITV.
– Sara is on X @germanotes. Sujeet is @sindap. Both excellent follows.
– You can follow Sara’s sports reporting here: https://www.ft.com/sara-germano. She will be in Vegas covering the Super Bowl over the weekend, so watch this space!
– Sara’s piece on the resurgence of the Detroit Lions is here, co-written with Mark Vandevelde: https://on.ft.com/3SAht2g
– Sujeet’s reporting on Wall Street is here: https://www.ft.com/sujeet-indap
More or less:
– Sara wants more house remixes of Creed. You can check out Book Club Radio here: https://www.youtube.com/@bookclubradio. The ‘One Last Breath’ remix is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6fdKfaq1YN8
– Sujeet wants more independent news and tough questions. You can read more about the Super Bowl commissioner Roger Goodell avoiding tough questions here: https://www.cbsnews.com/boston/news/roger-goodell-saying-nothing-super-bowl-press-conference-invite-only/
– Lilah wants more funny novels. She has been reading Come and Get It by Kiley Reid, who also wrote Such A Fun Age (2021)
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Special FT subscription offers for Life and Art podcast listeners, from 50% off a digital subscription to a $1/£1/€1 trial, are here: http://ft.com/lifeandart
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Original music by Metaphor Music. Mixing and sound design by Breen Turner, Sam Giovinco, and Katie McMurran. Clip courtesy of Pepsi, Sony Music, Weathered and Jojo Lorenzo.
Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to Life and Art from FT Weekend. I'm Lila Raptopoulos, and this is our Friday |
| 0:07.7 | chat show. Sunday is the Super Bowl. It is America's most watched thing on TV, period, by far. |
| 0:15.3 | It gets over 100 million American views and more than another 50 million from around the world. |
| 0:20.1 | And today we decided to take |
| 0:21.2 | it on as a cultural event to discuss. If you don't follow American football, then don't be alarmed. |
| 0:26.1 | I barely follow American football. But we've basically set this up so you can go into the Sunday's |
| 0:30.5 | game, ready to take it in. We'll tell you a little bit about football, but we'll also have you |
| 0:34.8 | ready for the team drama, the snacks, and the halftime show. This year, the big game is between the Kansas City Chiefs and the San Francisco 49ers, and the halftime performer is Usher. And let's get into it. I'm Lila Raptopoulos, and I'm a Hail Mary on the last play. I think you are, Lila. Thank you. Joining me in New York is Sarah Germano, the FTs U.S. sports business correspondent, and our number |
| 0:59.3 | one draft pick. |
| 1:00.6 | Thank you. |
| 1:01.8 | Thanks to have you here. |
| 1:03.5 | Amazing. |
| 1:04.2 | Also with us in the studio is Jenna Jackson's two-second delay. |
| 1:10.4 | Our Wall Street editor, Seajid in-depth. |
| 1:13.2 | Welcome, Sajit. |
| 1:14.1 | Great to be here. |
| 1:14.8 | Great to have you. |
| 1:16.1 | I'm so excited to you both are here. |
| 1:17.8 | And before we get into it, I wanted to ask both of you just to put forward a case for the |
| 1:23.1 | Super Bowl. |
| 1:24.2 | For listeners who don't care about sports or who are coming into this from Europe and don't |
| 1:28.3 | normally watch American football, what would they get out of watching this game, Sarah? |
... |
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