Hi, this is Josh Levine, the host of Slate's sports podcast Hang Up and Listen. Every Friday during the World Cup, we're going to bring you a podcast from our friends at the soccer magazine Howler. They'll have analysis of the games, news from outside the stadiums in Brazil, and reports from a writer embedded with the U.S. national team. We hope you enjoy the special podcast extra,

and I'll now pass the mic to George Qureshi,

the founder and editor of Howler.

Take it away, George.

This is a podcast

A phone Hello, what a Howler!

Hello and welcome to Dummy a twice weekly conversation among editors and friends of Howler Magazine.

My name is George Creasy. I am the editor of Howler Magazine and joining me in the studio.

Our little tiny cramp studio here in Miami is Danny Carbassion, who, to date, to date, is the only member of this podcast who has scored a goal for Arsenal. Hi, Danny.

Hey, George. Thanks for having me. In Bristol, England, not Connecticut, David Goldblatt is the author

of The Ball Is Round and Fucci Ball Nation, both of which are incredibly smart books. David,

hello. Hi. I've totally set you up for failure now with that introduction. We are recording

this minutes

after Brazil beat Croatia. I guess I should give you a spoiler alert, but let's be honest,

if you're listening to this podcast, you know what happened in the World Cup. And we will be

doing this twice a week through the World Cup, publishing it on Tuesdays and Fridays. So let's get into

it. As I said, we're recording this pretty soon after Brazil beat Croatia.

And I think we have a lot to talk about in terms of that game, but also a lot of stuff that's going on in Brazil outside of the stadiums.

I want to start maybe by talking about the game, though.

We all watched together. Danny came and watched the game with me.

I think we were all surprised that Croatia jumped out ahead.

But you said something interesting.

...