Best David Gak Podcasts (2024)

1
Reformation Day Special: David Kilpatrick's 95 Theses (plus updates from Leeds on Red Bull, and from me on the former Chicago Red Stars) 1:27:33

1d ago1:27:33

1:27:33

NEW: send me a text message! (I'd love to hear your thoughts - texts get to me anonymously, without charge or signup) Martin Luther (not the King) nailed 95 protest theses against the Christian church of his day to a church door in Germany on October 31st 1517. And Protestants , properly understood, have been protesting ever since. As we near "Refo…

1
Rayo Vallecano and its Neighborhood: An Unusual Spanish Fall Break Destination 1:13:03

15d ago1:13:03

1:13:03

NEW: send me a text message! (I'd love to hear your thoughts - texts get to me anonymously, without charge or signup) Today, we are taking a Fall break trip to Vallecas, a working class neighborhood in the Spanish capital Madrid. La Liga - the Spanish first league - holds global appeal chiefly due to its two dominators and their massive global foll…

1
The Devil Came to Yorkshire: Leeds United and Red Bull 1:15:00

30d ago1:15:00

1:15:00

NEW: send me a text message! (I'd love to hear your thoughts - texts get to me anonymously, without charge or signup) The McDonald’s on Elland Road in Leeds, near the stadium of Leeds United, is, apparently, the only McDonald’s there is that has removed any element with the color red. Because Red, that is Manchester United, the rose of Lancaster in…

1
Emancipation and Migration: Hakoah Vienna, Austria's Jewish Champion 1925 1:17:32

2M ago1:17:32

1:17:32

NEW: send me a text message! (I'd love to hear your thoughts - texts get to me anonymously, without charge or signup) In a bit of a parallel episode to Episode 24 ("The Footballer who Defied the Nazis? The Myth of Matthias Sindelar"), this is the story of Hakoach Vienna. A child of central European Jewish emancipation movements and of the "muscular…

1
Football Utopias: An English-Language Exclusive on Creating Better Footballing Worlds with Alina Schwermer 1:12:40

2M ago1:12:40

1:12:40

NEW: send me a text message! (I'd love to hear your thoughts - texts get to me anonymously, without charge or signup) To critique the state of our world, our communities, to critique what is wrong with soccer in late stage capitalism is one thing. It actually isn’t a hard thing. But to dream, think and even plan for a better world, and a better foo…

1
Iceland to Moldova in 50 Minutes: The Joy, Madness and Method of the UEFA Club Tournaments' Qualifying Rounds 58:46

3M ago58:46

58:46

NEW: send me a text message! (I'd love to hear your thoughts - texts get to me anonymously, without charge or signup) Gent in Belgium. Rasgrad in Bulgaria. Mostar in Bosnia. Borås in Sweden. Tiraspol in, well, Moldova. Or Differdange in Luxemburg If you know where these places are, have some sense of what it looks like there, what the vibe is, perh…

1
"This Is Our Club!" The Summer Wind that Might Become a Fall Storm in England 1:15:45

3M ago1:15:45

1:15:45

NEW: send me a text message! (I'd love to hear your thoughts - texts get to me anonymously, without charge or signup) If you follow a club that plays in the English Premier League, you may have gotten wind of it: over the Summer, quite a few clubs increased their season ticket prices, and phased out - or partially phased out - discounted tickets fo…

1
Summer Round-Up: Sturm Graz, GAK, Degerfors, 1860, Bayern Munich, Olympique Marseille, FC St. Gallen, Bundesliga Investors, Football Tourism 1:16:01

4M ago1:16:01

1:16:01

NEW: send me a text message! (I'd love to hear your thoughts - texts get to me anonymously, without charge or signup) The end of Season 2 of The Assistant Professor of Football is nigh, and we check in with guests from the last year to hear how their club, cause or research have been doing. Here are, in order: Peter K Wagner on Sturm Graz’s sensati…

1
Support Your Local Club! Goshen City FC, and Semi-Professional Soccer in Small-Town America 1:09:24

5M ago1:09:24

1:09:24

NEW: send me a text message! (I'd love to hear your thoughts - texts get to me anonymously, without charge or signup) Goshen, Indiana is home to a private college without an American Football team - and, most recently, a semi-professional soccer club that serves as an - albeit unusual - case study for how grassroots soccer in the U.S. can thrive an…

1
The 777 Files: Investigating the Strange Multi-Club-Owner that Wants to Buy Everton 1:17:58

5M ago1:17:58

1:17:58

NEW: send me a text message! (I'd love to hear your thoughts - texts get to me anonymously, without charge or signup) Today's episode is a mix between soccer detective story and true crime podcasting. British investigative journalist Paul Brown is our Visiting Professor for the day. He and his colleague Philippe Auclair have piled up pathbreaking r…

1
(No) Mustard at Continental Europe's Oldest Soccer Club: FC St. Gallen in Switzerland 1:12:54

6M ago1:12:54

1:12:54

NEW: send me a text message! (I'd love to hear your thoughts - texts get to me anonymously, without charge or signup) We begin with the Eurovision Songcontest and end with Sturm Graz's cup win, but consider, most of all, FC St. Gallen. Saint who? True, if I would ask you who invented club football in Europe in continental Europe, would you guess th…

1
Soccer is for the Fans? England’s proposed “Football Regulator” and the Struggle for the Soul of the Game 1:00:45

6M ago1:00:45

1:00:45

NEW: send me a text message! (I'd love to hear your thoughts - texts get to me anonymously, without charge or signup) The excesses of global soccer capitalism are well documented on this podcast. Perhaps no footballing country is more affected than England, the birthplace of the modern game and home to arguably the wealthiest clubs and league. To t…

1
Hertha Berliner SC: In Memoriam Kay Bernstein 1:16:12

7M ago1:16:12

1:16:12

NEW: send me a text message! (I'd love to hear your thoughts - texts get to me anonymously, without charge or signup) Kay Bernstein was elected the president of Hertha BSC, then in the 1st Bundesliga, in June 2022. He died at his home near Berlin on January 16th of this year, with Hertha being in the 2nd Bundesliga. What sounds like a short and - o…

1
Time Travel to Europe's Wild East: Stalinist Albania and Soccer 1:28:14

8M ago1:28:14

1:28:14

NEW: send me a text message! (I'd love to hear your thoughts - texts get to me anonymously, without charge or signup) "The era is brought to life by the accounts of Albanians who lived through it, which capture the importance of football to a populace starved of any other source of communal enjoyment. The otherworldliness and innate cruelty of the …

1
Rush Episode! German Bundesliga Investor Deal Dies Live on Air with Raphael Molter... 1:07:36

8M ago1:07:36

1:07:36

NEW: send me a text message! (I'd love to hear your thoughts - texts get to me anonymously, without charge or signup) ... of all people! Raphael is a German political scientist, whose book "Peace to the Terraces, War to the Federations and Leagues" is a pathbreaking materialist critique of "modern soccer" - the game as purely an entertainment marke…

1
A Soccer Culture Playlist 2.0 - 12 Football-Related Songs from 8 Countries 38:00

9M ago38:00

38:00

NEW: send me a text message! (I'd love to hear your thoughts - texts get to me anonymously, without charge or signup) Indie, Hip Hop, Punk, Reggae, Ska and Choruses- from Leeds to Istanbul, from Vienna to Mexico City, from Darmstadt to Buenos Aires. Your second soccer playlist is here - with some background info, and plenty of quirky football lyric…

1
How (not) to be a Premier League Tourist - with Felipe Tobar 1:12:16

9M ago1:12:16

1:12:16

NEW: send me a text message! (I'd love to hear your thoughts - texts get to me anonymously, without charge or signup) If you are thinking of dreaming of going to England, seeing a Premier League game, dive into the atmosphere that you see on TV, or even have concrete travel plans already to finally see one game of the club you otherwise follow on T…

1
Trauma, Diversity and Fanaticism: Israel and Soccer after October 7th 1:22:01

9M ago1:22:01

1:22:01

NEW: send me a text message! (I'd love to hear your thoughts - texts get to me anonymously, without charge or signup) I thought today’s episode needed a long rationalization. But as I was writing it, I thought f*** it, I don’t need to be doing verbal gymnastics. I know human beings, there, and our guest does too. So we’ll just let these stories spe…

1
At a Soccer Crossroads: Polish Football Culture in the 21st Century 1:12:39

10M ago1:12:39

1:12:39

NEW: send me a text message! (I'd love to hear your thoughts - texts get to me anonymously, without charge or signup) Just a few weeks ago, Poland elected a new parliament. The result was a change in power, from the national conservative camp to the centrist, pro-European one. And the campaign, yet again, highlighted, to use an overused term, the c…

1
The War Game: a Holiday Read-Aloud 31:33

10M ago31:33

31:33

NEW: send me a text message! (I'd love to hear your thoughts - texts get to me anonymously, without charge or signup) A mini audiobook - for the time to think in the evenings after the presents have all been unwrapped, or for a listen with the children: As the story goes, on Christmas 1914, during world war 1, in the trenches of Belgium, German and…

1
Europe's Multicultural Bellwether and it's "Crazy Club:" The Wild Ride of Olympique Marseille 1:23:22

11M ago1:23:22

1:23:22

NEW: send me a text message! (I'd love to hear your thoughts - texts get to me anonymously, without charge or signup) An arranged marriage of a Greek and a Celt began the settlement of Massalia, today: Marseille. Europe’s bellwether of multiculturalism, 2nd city of France, one of Europe’s biggest ports, migrant destination for centuries, cauldron o…

1
FC St.Pauli: Rebellion and Commercialization, Punk and Social Work 1:13:15

12M ago1:13:15

1:13:15

NEW: send me a text message! (I'd love to hear your thoughts - texts get to me anonymously, without charge or signup) FC St. Pauli is a 2nd Bundesliga team from Hamburg. That’s one thing. It is also "Germany’s original cult club," an "antifascist pioneer," the "club of punk and techno, or a "swashbuckling left wing club." The history behind these l…

1
Cooler Little Sisters: The Graz Derby in Austria, Sturm vs. GAK 1:27:53

1y ago1:27:53

1:27:53

NEW: send me a text message! (I'd love to hear your thoughts - texts get to me anonymously, without charge or signup) On Thursday, November 2nd, the second largest city of Austria, Graz, will see its second soccer derby in the last 16 years, in the Austrian cup tournament. Sturm Graz, currently leaders of the Austrian Bundesliga and Europa League s…

1
The Footballer who Defied the Nazis? The Myth of Matthias Sindelar, and the Myth of Austrian Victimhood 1:21:36

1y ago1:21:36

1:21:36

NEW: send me a text message! (I'd love to hear your thoughts - texts get to me anonymously, without charge or signup) Matthias Sindelar was, and is, the most famous Austrian footballer between World Wars 1 and 2. Known for his elegant style of play during a period when Austrian soccer was admired as an innovative model, he defined Austria’s nationa…

1
The Shirt: A Material History of Soccer, from Rags to Fashion and Cotton to Polyester 1:02:13

1y ago1:02:13

1:02:13

NEW: send me a text message! (I'd love to hear your thoughts - texts get to me anonymously, without charge or signup) Soccer jerseys, kits, football shirts - whatever the name, there is no shortage of opinions about them. Pretty or ugly, traditional or not, brands, costs, sponsors; whether to own only those we have connections to, or buy them for s…

1
The Homeless World Cup: A Former Champions League Player and a Social Entrepreneur on Soccer's Transformative Power 59:37

1y ago59:37

59:37

NEW: send me a text message! (I'd love to hear your thoughts - texts get to me anonymously, without charge or signup) When I was High School, Sturm Graz, one of the two teams of my hometown in Austria and the club I was born into, had its most successful phase. We made it to the CL group phase twice - and eventually went bankrupt from it. One of th…

1
Mr. Präsident: FC Bayern, a Holocaust Survivor, and the Almost Forgotten History of one of Europe's Most Famous Clubs 1:07:16

1y ago1:07:16

1:07:16

NEW: send me a text message! (I'd love to hear your thoughts - texts get to me anonymously, without charge or signup) FC Bayern is the club of Franz Beckenbauer, Harry Kane, and countless fans across the world. However, Bayern is also the club of Kurt Landauer. A Jew from a businesspeople’s family, he served for Germany in World War I and got to kn…

1
Moldy Oranges in Karl-Marx-City: Berliner FC Dynamo, the Fall of the Berlin Wall, and the Forgotten Past of East German Soccer 1:03:35

1y ago1:03:35

1:03:35

NEW: send me a text message! (I'd love to hear your thoughts - texts get to me anonymously, without charge or signup) Between the late 1970s and the late 1980s, Dynamo Berlin, a club closely associated with the Communist East German Republic’s secret police, won the country’s title ten consecutive times. The hatred of the team across the country un…

1
How Are They Now? Season 1 Reunion with 7 Visiting Professors of Football (song links in the shownotes) 1:03:36

1+ y ago1:03:36

1:03:36

NEW: send me a text message! (I'd love to hear your thoughts - texts get to me anonymously, without charge or signup) Today's Season 1 wrap-up is a tour of Europe in 1 hour. Some listeners contacted me with the same great idea: check in with a lot of the visiting professors from season 1 again, and have them tell us briefly how they are now, and ho…

1
“Ordinary Morality is for Ordinary Football Clubs” - the Visions of Dulwich Hamlet F.C. 1:18:01

1+ y ago1:18:01

1:18:01

NEW: send me a text message! (I'd love to hear your thoughts - texts get to me anonymously, without charge or signup) Probably no other English club below the professional leagues has gathered more media attention than Dulwich Hamlet, located South of the river in London and around in that neighborhood since 1893. Any quick search on the club will …

1
The Flight of the Bumblebee: Live from Degerfors in Sweden's Rustbelt, a Football Family on Soccer's Big Stage 1:21:02

1+ y ago1:21:02

1:21:02

NEW: send me a text message! (I'd love to hear your thoughts - texts get to me anonymously, without charge or signup) Degerfors IF in Sweden's top tier surely must have one of the most unusual, lovely and countercultural stories that professional football in Europe has to tell at the moment. It's roots lie in a rich history of steeltown football th…

1
Live from East London: Clapton CFC - Left-Wing Soccer on the Pitch that Fans Mowed 1:14:51

1+ y ago1:14:51

1:14:51

NEW: send me a text message! (I'd love to hear your thoughts - texts get to me anonymously, without charge or signup) Clapton Community Football Club is a very special member-owned club in East London, just two Tube stops east of West Ham United. Its members saved its own ground, rebuilt it, host workshops on how to monitor police violence in the n…

1
Teaching Soccer: Three Actual Professors of Football on their College Classes, and Soccer Literacy in the U.S. 1:38:27

1+ y ago1:38:27

1:38:27

NEW: send me a text message! (I'd love to hear your thoughts - texts get to me anonymously, without charge or signup) It's the first episode with American guests - and the first one with three of them. For this episode of The Assistant Professor of Football, I am joined by three (real) professors who regularly teach, in American university classroo…

1
California Dreamin': Who is Wacker Innsbruck, the new Austrian Partner of Los Angeles FC? 56:47

1+ y ago56:47

56:47

NEW: send me a text message! (I'd love to hear your thoughts - texts get to me anonymously, without charge or signup) This April, an unlikely press release made headlines in Major League Soccer- as well as Austrian soccer-related media: Los Angeles FC, reigning MLS champion and barely 9 years old, noted that they had “officially received approval t…

1
An Englishman Among Italian Ultras: Stadium Culture, Passion, and the Vibe of Calcio, with Richard Hall 57:00

1+ y ago57:00

57:00

NEW: send me a text message! (I'd love to hear your thoughts - texts get to me anonymously, without charge or signup) A first, but certainly not the last, journey to Italy, the homeland of Ultras: with Richard Hall, founder of the Guardian Sports Network blog The Gentleman Ultra - a treasure trove of Italian soccer stories - and host of Inter Milan…

1
A Soccer Culture Playlist - Preliminary Punk, Ballads, Ska and Indie About Fans, Footballers and Clubs 48:16

1+ y ago48:16

48:16

NEW: send me a text message! (I'd love to hear your thoughts - texts get to me anonymously, without charge or signup) Back from Spring, or Easter, break, an unusual episode: a - very preliminary, but very varied - playlist of 12 soccer culture songs that you wont find in this constellation on any English-speaking website. From punk perspectives on …

1
Fan-Tastic Females: A Digital Exhibit on Women in Soccer Supporter Cultures 55:22

1+ y ago55:22

55:22

NEW: send me a text message! (I'd love to hear your thoughts - texts get to me anonymously, without charge or signup) Women have claimed their space in stadiums since the game’s beginnings. But the fact is, it’s hardly women whose stories of “how did you come to soccer” get told, hardly them who get asked about their experiences when travelling awa…

1
1860’s Lions, “Munich’s Great Love” in the 3rd Division (finally with a new microphone!) 1:08:15

1+ y ago1:08:15

1:08:15

NEW: send me a text message! (I'd love to hear your thoughts - texts get to me anonymously, without charge or signup) Munich is far more than FC Bayern and the Oktoberfest. In fact, it’s actually quite different than those two famous exports suggest. A city of neighborhoods in a region often at odds with wider German culture and politics, and a stu…

1
Extra: 30 seconds of Supergrass - and a new mic! 3:23

1+ y ago3:23

3:23

NEW: send me a text message! (I'd love to hear your thoughts - texts get to me anonymously, without charge or signup) I have a new mic, and I trust you can hear the difference and any future episode will be beasier on your ears. Thank you for all your support. I hope there’s not too many of you who have given up on this during the last episodes whe…

1
Hammers Unite! Lessons on Fan Involvement from East London 1:06:46

1+ y ago1:06:46

1:06:46

NEW: send me a text message! (I'd love to hear your thoughts - texts get to me anonymously, without charge or signup) Since moving from its century-long home to the former London Olympic Stadium just 3 miles away in 2016, West Ham United have undergone a severe identity crisis that can not be papered over even by success on the pitch. Though not ow…

1
The Match That Started a War? Dinamo Zagreb and the Conflicts of Croatian Nationalism 1:06:05

2y ago1:06:05

1:06:05

NEW: send me a text message! (I'd love to hear your thoughts - texts get to me anonymously, without charge or signup) In front of the Stadium Maksimir, home to the World Cup's 3rd place finisher, Croatia, and to its biggest club, Dinamo Zagreb, a large memorial put up by Dinamo's fan group Bad Blue Boys is dedicated "to Dinamo fans for whom the war…

1
Nordic Cool? Stockholm’s 3 Heated Soccer Rivalries 47:17

2y ago47:17

47:17

NEW: send me a text message! (I'd love to hear your thoughts - texts get to me anonymously, without charge or signup) A different kind of city sightseeing, through the lens of AIK, Djurgarden and Hammarby. Viktor Asp, Stockholm-based soccer journalist and cultural observer maps his city's landscape along the lines of a gameday: it's three big clubs…

1
Soccer vs. the State: Radical Politics and the Beautiful Game 1:12:12

2y ago1:12:12

1:12:12

NEW: send me a text message! (I'd love to hear your thoughts - texts get to me anonymously, without charge or signup) A world traveller, author, philosopher and former semi-professional soccer goalie in Austria, Gabriel Kuhn has written extensively on sports, politics, anarchism, socialism and punk. His book on soccer and radical politics merges tr…

1
Support your Local Team: Terraces, Towns & Tunes of Germany’s 2nd Bundesliga 1:09:13

2y ago1:09:13

1:09:13

NEW: send me a text message! (I'd love to hear your thoughts - texts get to me anonymously, without charge or signup) If you want to shake off all that syrupy World Cup coverage, join us for a free flowing conversation with Eva-Lotta Bohle, who follows quintessential 2nd league club Arminia Bielefeld - home and away - and has plenty of tales to pro…

1
Ukraine through the Lens of Soccer: Kateryna Chernii in Conversation 55:32

2y ago55:32

55:32

NEW: send me a text message! (I'd love to hear your thoughts - texts get to me anonymously, without charge or signup) A historian’s and fan’s view on how soccer is not just affected by politics, but has foreshadowed, accelerated and even influenced the political and cultural transformations in independent Ukraine since 1991. Kateryna, a PhD student…

1
Boycott Qatar? A View from Germany 49:43

2y ago49:43

49:43

NEW: send me a text message! (I'd love to hear your thoughts - texts get to me anonymously, without charge or signup) In this one - and only - World Cup-based episode, Stefan Schirmer, co-founder of the fan-run German initiative boycott-qatar and fan of Mainz 05 explains why the resistance to this year’s cup is so organized and so strong in Europe,…

1
The Manchester United Protests, and the Super League Crisis, One Year On - with Matt Ford 1:02:58

2y ago1:02:58

1:02:58

NEW: send me a text message! (I'd love to hear your thoughts - texts get to me anonymously, without charge or signup) For this first episode, I am talking to Matt Ford. Matt is from Manchester, an active United supporter, longtime critical fan journalist, and a professional football journalist by day as well, for the English speaking public broadca…

1
Soccer Against Fascism: A Guided Tour through Europe with Chris Lee 1:08:07

2y ago1:08:07

1:08:07

NEW: send me a text message! (I'd love to hear your thoughts - texts get to me anonymously, without charge or signup) Today, I am talking to Chris Lee about the role that football and particularly football fans have played, and are playing in the fight against fascism on and off the field. Chris is from England, and runs the football culture blog “…

1
May 14, 2018 4:15

6+ y ago4:15

4:15

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