Welcome to the Edge of Sports Podcast. I'm Dave Ziren. We are brought to you, as always, by the Nation magazine.

We have a very special show this week. We are talking to the great journalist Kareem

Zidon from SportsPolitica, who will be telling us about his new podcast series, PowerPlays,

which is about the deep entanglement historically and in the present between FIFA, the World

Cup, and authoritarian fascist governments. This interview

is a wow. Also, we are thrilled to have on Ben Gouchardy, the founder of Soccer Without Borders,

a nonprofit organization that creates belonging for immigrant and refugee youth through soccer,

education, and community.

And this is their 20th anniversary.

So we're going to get some historical perspective about soccer without borders and the way

it has had to change in this dyspeptic world.

You are going to want to hear what Ben Guchardi has to say.

But first, let's go to him now,

Karim Zadhan. So glad to have you here on the podcast.

Dave, it's so good to be back from the show. Thank you so much.

Absolutely. I mean, on this topic in 2026, absolutely we have you here on the podcast, no doubt about it.

So, but let's start there.

I mean, beyond the fact, of course, that, you know, this is the year of the World Cup,

what led you with your interests, with your both sporting and political proclivities,

what led you to this topic?

And how much did you know about this history of fascism, dictatorship,

military violence in the World Cup, the intersection of those worlds? How much of that did you know

...