Best Stpauli Podcasts (2024)

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

3d ago1:16:12

1:16:12

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 - on the pitch - unsuccessful presidency is in fact the most significant shift and opening up of possibilities in club le…

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

1M ago1:28:14

1:28:14

"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 Stalinist regime provide a terrifying backdrop to their tales," reads the blurb for Phil Harrison's book The Hermit Ki…

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

2M ago1:07:36

1:07:36

... 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 market commodity. The book is only published in German so far, and we were in the process of rolling out his thoughts with …

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

2M ago38:00

38:00

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 lyrics. PLAYLIST FOR THIS EPISODE - links to videos: Puma Hardchorus - England, France, Germany and Italy Alberto Colucci -…

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

2M ago1:12:16

1:12:16

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 TV, then this episode is for you. If you are listening from England, and have followed your club for years and decades,…

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

3M ago1:22:01

1:22:01

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 speak. About soccer, about trauma, about peace and coexistence, and about youth cultures both left and right of center in…

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

3M ago1:12:39

1:12:39

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 culture wars over defining the future of one of the European Union’s largest but also newest member states. Historicall…

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

4M ago31:33

31:33

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 English soldiers laid down their weapons, shook hands, and played a game of football in the no man’s land between the…

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

4M ago1:23:22

1:23:22

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 of socioeconomic conflict, cradle of French rap music - and home of Olympique, still France’s only Champions League win…

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

5M ago1:13:15

1:13:15

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 labels begin in the late 1980s, when punks occupied houses around St. Pauli’s stadium and antiracists found out that fo…

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

6M ago1:27:53

1:27:53

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 starters, face GAK (Graz Athletic Sports Club), the city's oldest club, its first one to win a national title, and curr…

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

6M ago1:21:36

1:21:36

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 national team, known as the "miracle team," and his club, Austria Vienna. Austria joined Nazi Germany between 1938 and 1945. …

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

7M ago1:02:13

1:02:13

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 style, or collect them... We’ll cut through all that today, with the help of Alex Ireland, author of the very recently …

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

7M ago59:37

59:37

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 the protagonists was a young, serious-looking player from our own youth system who was known to be not your stereotypica…

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

8M ago1:07:16

1:07:16

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 know football from English and Swiss students. As a club president, he led his FC Bayern to its first championship 1932,…

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

8M ago1:03:35

1:03:35

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 united its fans, but also provided the perhaps most prominent kind of complaint and grumbling that the GDR’s citizens ha…

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

9M ago1:03:36

1:03:36

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 how things went. So I called all those with whom I talked a while ago about a club, a country, an ongoing situation, to …

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

9M ago1:18:01

1:18:01

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 turn up grand phrases like “a different vision for football” or “the small club with the big vision.” And that vision …

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

10M ago1:21:02

1:21:02

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 that led the club to national fame in the mid 20th century, and its present is headed by a chairman who is a sociologist…

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

10M ago1:14:51

1:14:51

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 neighborhood, will host St Pauli’s women’s team from Germany in a few weeks - and have very good reasons for why they d…

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

11M ago1:38:27

1:38:27

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 classrooms, about football - its culture, its meaning, its history. We talked about how that teaching is going, what would it …

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

12M ago56:47

56:47

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 to invest with the Austrian club FC Wacker Innsbruck,” the “living legend” that the song we just heard, Wacker Innsbruc…

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

12M ago57:00

57:00

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’s English-speaking club podcast, we travel first to the 1990s, when Ultra fanculture first became visible across Euro…

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

1y ago48:16

48:16

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 the game and the fate of Hooligan culture, to ballads about football, God and sexual orientation, from the Antifa ska-…

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

1y ago55:22

55:22

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 away, in confrontations with the police, about participating in their own club and clashes with other clubs. An extremely…

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

1y ago1:08:15

1:08:15

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 stubborn drama queen of a soccer club deeply rooted in these neighborhoods are the focus of this episode. With Claus Melc…

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

1y ago3:23

3:23

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 when I was not able to produce decent sound quality from a fairly pricy mic plus mastering software. The new one should d…

1
Hammers Unite! Lessons on Fan Involvement from East London's Working Class Club 1:06:46

1y ago1:06:46

1:06:46

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 owned by global billionaires, the former Ironworkers’ club has seen large scale fan protests over the stadium move, the …

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

1y ago1:06:05

1:06:05

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 started on May 13 1990, and ended by laying their lives on the altar of the Croatian homeland.” That war is the Croat…

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

1+ y ago47:17

47:17

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, their distinctives, the origins and present of their rivalries, and the growth of Ultra fanculture. And he entertain…

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

1+ y ago1:12:12

1:12:12

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 travel narrative, anarchist football handbook and vignettes for a different future of the game. We sat down for a conver…

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

1+ y ago1:09:13

1:09:13

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 prove it. She also takes an active role in shaping a better, louder and more inclusive fan culture at her local love. We …

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

1+ y ago55:32

55:32

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 at the Leibniz Centre for Contemporary History in Potsdam, Germany takes us from the glory days of Dynamo Kyiv, the c…

1
Boycott Qatar? A View from Germany 49:43

1+ y ago49:43

49:43

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, particularly in Germany. How have fans organized? How do they view the engagement of the World Cup by the rest of the…

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

1+ y ago1:02:58

1:02:58

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 broadcasting service of Germany. He now lives in Germany too. Matt gives us the inside scoop about the protests among Manches…

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

1+ y ago1:08:07

1:08:07

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 “Outside Write.” He is an active groundhopper and has visited many historic stadiums across Europe. He does really good…

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