Pod Insights Pablo Torre Finds Out Exclusive: Inside Zohran Mamdani's NYC Sports Equinox (feat. Adam Friedland) About this episode Pablo visits the mayor of New York in his backyard, on the eve of the NBA Finals — and the cusp of heartbreak for his Arsenal F. C. — to discuss Knicks joy, soccer pain, hair loss, Donald Trump, Charles Oakley, Victor Wembanyama's Eid fit and, yes, flopping. Plus: Fellow Arsenal die-hard Adam Friedland checks in, on the state of socialism... and optimism.
• Take the PTFO audience survey! https://forms.gle/i2K6FecAbvBqDxRK9
• Subscribe to The Adam Friedland Show https://pod.link/1113585468
Previously on PTFO:
• Lina Khan (and Zohran Mamdani) on Why Billionaires Never Learn — and the Apolitical Absurdity of $6,000 World Cup Tickets https://pod.link/1685093486/episode/NjhjYzk5MTJjZDBhYzQyOWZlODAyNzEy
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy https://acast.com/privacy for more information.
Transcript Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.
0:00 Pablo Torre? Welcome to Pablo Torre Finds Out. I am Pablo Torre, and today, we're gonna find out what this sound is.
0:06 Speaker 01 I gotta call James Dolan and be like, "Hey, you gotta broker this piece. By the way, nice to meet you."
0:12 Pablo Torre? Right after this ad.
0:15 Pablo Torre? This episode is brought to you by apollo.io. A lot of the stories on this show start the same way. Something that looks pretty simple turns out to be a mess once you look under the hood. Well, it's no different in the sales world. Your team has a tool for finding prospects, a different tool for reaching out to them, and a third for keeping track of it all. On paper, that's a system. In practice, it's a salesperson spending the better part of the day copying names from one tab into another, and not much of it actually selling. Apollo.io is a platform that helps sales teams find the right buyers and reach out to them. It brings prospecting, outreach, and follow-up into one place instead of several separate tools. It's used by sales teams of all sizes,
0:58 Pablo Torre? from small businesses to larger organizations, and it's built for teams who want less manual busywork and more time with buyers. If your marketing and sales teams are trying to work from the same view of the customer, it's worth a look. Sign up for free at apollo.io. That's apollo.io.
1:27 Pablo Torre? So, one thing to remember about Pablo Torre Finds Out is that we are unapologetically based in my hometown of New York City. Which also means that I did not have a yard growing up, and that I love getting out of our studio to touch grass. Is this, is this the mansion? Yes, it is. But while previous adventures have taken us birdwatching in Central Park, not to mention our journey to Death Row in Texas,
1:58 Pablo Torre? this was different. Uh, seeing the mayor.
2:03 Pablo Torre? This here is me walking towards the highly secure backyard of a 227-year-old house on 88th Street in Manhattan with yellowish clapboard located right by the East River called Gracie Mansion, where the current resident just happens to be living a sports year while running a sports town that justified a rare sensation these days: optimism. CNN projects that democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic candidate, will be elected the next mayor of New York, New York.
2:41 Speaker 01 We have held our breath for longer than we know. We have held it in anticipation of defeat. Held it because the air has been knocked out of our lungs too many times to count. Held it because we cannot afford to exhale. Thanks to all of those who sacrificed so much, we are breathing in the air of a city that has been reborn.
3:03 Pablo Torre? Zohran Mamdani joined PTFO back before he won the election to become the new mayor of New York City last fall at age 34, which was before his favorite soccer club, Arsenal, lifted their first Premier League trophy in more than two decades, just last week. And before, his favorite basketball team, the New York Knicks, made the NBA Finals for the first time in almost three decades. The day after that...
3:42 Speaker 02 It's over. Believe it, Knick fans, for the first time in 27 years, the New York Knicks are going to the NBA Finals. The dream season continues.
3:52 Pablo Torre? But now it was a brisk Saturday in Manhattan, a bit of a sports equinox for the gooner, as Arsenal supporters are known, living at Gracie Mansion. Game seven between the Thunder and the Spurs, the Knicks' next opponent, was looming that evening, and the Champions League final against Europe's defending champs, Paris Saint-Germain, was less than an hour away.
4:17 Pablo Torre? Which may help explain why the mayor showed up for our quick but wide-ranging visit with an arsenal kit that was tucked underneath his suit jacket. What up?
4:27 Speaker 01 What up? Welcome to my home.
4:31 Pablo Torre? Thanks for having us in your yard.
4:35 Pablo Torre? Already, already, just gooning. Just straight gooning.
4:39 Speaker 01 That's not the term we use.
4:40 Pablo Torre? Is that not it?
4:41 Speaker 01 No, we're gooners.
4:42 Pablo Torre? Gooners, sorry, goonering.
4:44 Speaker 01 But it's not a verb. For us. I mean, I don't know. I agree. Not for me.
4:49 Pablo Torre? Him, absolutely, though. It's a real yes-and situation.
4:56 Speaker 01 Yeah, yeah, yeah. Your hair looks great.
5:01 Pablo Torre? I was gonna say.
5:01 Speaker 01 Look at this.
5:02 Pablo Torre? I need to, I need to mog the mayor.
5:07 Pablo Torre? I've been blow-drying my hair.
5:08 Speaker 01 Have you?
5:09 Pablo Torre? Yeah, I started.
5:10 Speaker 01 Actually?
5:10 Pablo Torre? Yeah.
5:11 Speaker 01 That's a lot of maintenance, right?
5:12 Pablo Torre? I know. This is, I'm 40 and I'm like...
5:16 Speaker 01 Hairline's looking great.
5:17 Pablo Torre? Philippines, man. Philippine DNA.
5:20 Speaker 01 I'm one of them in OxiDol.
5:21 Pablo Torre? Are you really?
5:22 Speaker 01 Yeah.
5:24 Pablo Torre? Is that a sponsored ad read?
5:25 Speaker 01 No, I'm just telling you the truth.
5:28 Pablo Torre? When? Since when?
5:30 Speaker 01 It's like six months ago.
5:31 Pablo Torre? Six months ago?
5:32 Speaker 01 I just started to see, I was like, this is not, this is not going my way.
5:35 Pablo Torre? That's, that's, that's the job. The job does that to you.
5:37 Speaker 01 It was like pre-job. But, uh...
5:39 Pablo Torre? Just mortality.
5:40 Speaker 01 I'm just like trying to push off Turkey. Like, out of the term.
5:43 Pablo Torre? How long will it be? Are you okay if I just clip to your back?
5:46 Speaker 01 Yeah, for sure.
5:47 Pablo Torre? Till you show up in an airport in Turkey with a disguise on.
5:53 Speaker 01 Damn it, how you doing otherwise?
5:54 Pablo Torre? I'm good. I'm good.
5:55 Speaker 01 You cold?
5:56 Pablo Torre? I'm freezing.
5:57 Speaker 01 I get you like a thermal.
5:59 Pablo Torre? That would be deeply emasculating.
6:01 Speaker 01 No one would see you wearing it. It would be under your t-shirt.
6:04 Pablo Torre? No, they're capturing all this.
6:05 Speaker 01 Okay.
6:24 Pablo Torre? This message is brought to you by Apple Card. With Apple Card, you earn unlimited daily cash back on everyday purchases, like groceries, or merch, or tickets to the game. Plus, it can be used anywhere MasterCard is accepted. No matter your team, no matter where you shop, Apple Card is here to help you tackle game day. Apply in the Wallet app on your iPhone today. Subject to credit approval. Apple Card is issued by Goldman Sachs Bank, USA, Salt Lake City Branch. Terms and more at applecard.com.
6:59 Pablo Torre? Are you in your yard very often?
7:01 Speaker 01 This is my favorite place.
7:03 Pablo Torre? When you're on the porch, what are you doing?
7:05 Speaker 01 Making calls, having meetings, praying to God about the Champions League final.
7:11 Speaker 01 A mix.
7:11 Pablo Torre? We are talking on the brink of something.
7:13 Speaker 01 Yes.
7:14 Pablo Torre? And I want to know, before we get into all of the Knicks-Arsenal stuff, just, you woke up today feeling how?
7:26 Speaker 01 Terrified, excited. And I just watched the official video from the Arsenal Twitter account.
7:34 Pablo Torre? The Tom Hiddleston.
7:35 Speaker 01 Oh, my God. We are the Arsenal.
7:42 Pablo Torre? And this is what we do. Weeping at a social media video
7:45 Speaker 01 Yeah, that's...
7:46 Pablo Torre? is where Arsenal supporters are.
7:48 Speaker 01 That's where we are. I just quote tweeted it, didn't even tell the team. They're gonna find out. All caps.
7:55 Pablo Torre? Just going rogue.
7:56 Speaker 01 Come on, it's been 20 years!
7:58 Pablo Torre? I need to clarify for people who don't know anything about soccer, football, the type of fan you are,
8:07 Pablo Torre? you're a football manager enthusiast.
8:10 Speaker 01 Yes.
8:10 Pablo Torre? Which is some, like, really sick [BLEEP].
8:12 Speaker 01 Sick, disgusting. I would spend hours watching. Dots play against dots in a virtual game.
8:21 Pablo Torre? For those who don't know, this is a game where you don't actually.
8:24 Speaker 01 You're not the player.
8:24 Pablo Torre? Player.
8:25 Speaker 01 You're the manager. And then you watch the players play. It's like playing Madden if you didn't control anything except for who played.
8:34 Pablo Torre? You were doing like balance sheets and infrastructure.
8:37 Speaker 01 Yes, yes. Scouting, settling scores that I had from the real world.
8:43 Pablo Torre? Wait, hold on. How do you exact vengeance on the real world?
8:45 Speaker 01 Just like the players that we would be rumored to sign every year. There's a guy named Sebastian Fry who's a goalkeeper. Every year it was like a rumor. And I was like, I'm doing it myself. I'm signing, I'm signing him.
8:57 Pablo Torre? Did Football Manager prepare you for the job of being mayor of New York City?
9:01 Speaker 01 Yes. You know, the combo of Football Manager, Sims and Roller Coaster Tycoon was exactly the kind of training I needed to go through.
9:13 Pablo Torre? I just want to imagine the responsible roller coasters you were designing.
9:16 Speaker 01 Yeah, they were incredible. They were like the Cyclone. Did you know the Cyclone was founded the year before sliced bread?
9:23 Pablo Torre? The Cyclone and then sliced bread.
9:25 Speaker 01 Yeah, this is Kumail Nanjiani put me onto this. Not me specifically, I watched the show.
9:30 Pablo Torre? But hold on, though, because the Cyclone in Coney Island.
9:34 Speaker 01 People are like, this is the oldest thing since sliced bread. And I think that's 1928. And the Cyclone is 1927.
9:40 Pablo Torre? I'm finding out so much already.
9:41 Speaker 01 Have you been?
9:42 Pablo Torre? Of course.
9:43 Speaker 01 Incredible.
9:43 Pablo Torre? Born and raised in, in New York City, in Manhattan. The wooden roller coaster, though, is a good metaphor for what it's like to be an Arsenal and a Knicks fan.
9:51 Speaker 01 Yes.
9:52 Pablo Torre? You're like, we may die.
9:53 Speaker 01 This may break.
9:54 Pablo Torre? We may fall off of this. And yet, currently, we're sort of like going towards this glorious conclusion. And I want to, gosh, we're outside right now.
10:06 Speaker 01 Yes.
10:07 Pablo Torre? You are as outside a mayor as I can remember in my lifetime. Do you keep track of stats, like your steps, like biking?
10:17 Speaker 01 I, I, well, I have the City Bike app, so that tells me where I am.
10:20 Pablo Torre? Can we, can we invade your phone? Do you have the data?
10:23 Speaker 01 I don't have my phone with me, but if we, if we grab it. Here you go, brother.
10:27 Pablo Torre? Oh my god.
10:28 Speaker 01 Read him and weep.
10:29 Pablo Torre? 2,440 rides is your city bike profile. 3,124 miles, 449 hours.
10:37 Speaker 01 Putting in work, very slowly, within the speed limit.
10:41 Pablo Torre? These are, these are football manager style statistics.
10:43 Speaker 01 Assed and baby. You have to live like a New Yorker to understand what New Yorkers actually need to see from City Hall. If you just live in your tinted window vehicle, you're gonna start to confuse your own needs for that of the city.
10:55 Pablo Torre? My favorite thing in the world remains just walking through New York.
10:59 Speaker 01 Yeah.
11:00 Pablo Torre? It's endless discovery, it's spontaneous, stuff happens. And this month, I, I think I've like been huffing the pheromones.
11:10 Speaker 01 It's a very interesting way of saying it.
11:12 Pablo Torre? You felt it?
11:13 Speaker 01 Yes.
11:13 Pablo Torre? This city is, is not just excited.
11:15 Speaker 01 I would say this city is alive, but you would say.
11:17 Pablo Torre? The city is horny. The city has been pent up, and in the New York Knicks specifically, there is this promise of, of, oh my god, this whole thing, like, it's, it feels like a small town.
11:28 Speaker 01 Yeah.
11:29 Pablo Torre? Which is amazing for a city like this. It also is like this situation where Goliath gets to be David. Like an actual, like, we're underdogs?
11:38 Speaker 01 We are.
11:38 Pablo Torre? We really are underdogs.
11:39 Speaker 01 We are.
11:40 Pablo Torre? So to walk around and to hear and feel what the city's like right now.
11:45 Speaker 01 Yeah.
11:46 Pablo Torre? Even me, I, I, I'm surprised by how good it's felt.
11:49 Speaker 01 It feels incredible. I mean, it, it feels, I think the way you described it is right in, specifically, let me say which part of his description was right, is, is the, the feeling of a small town. The feeling of when you see somebody, whether they're wearing a Knicks jersey or not, it's just, let's go Knicks. It feels like the undercurrent emotion is that of joy.
12:09 Pablo Torre? Yes.
12:09 Speaker 01 And excitement.
12:10 Pablo Torre? Yes.
12:10 Speaker 01 And you're willing to give somebody the benefit of the doubt because everybody's just praying. And it's just kept feeling like surely this is too good to be true. And we actually have Spurs and OKC going to a game seven.
12:24 Pablo Torre? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
12:25 Speaker 01 Shout out to Wemby's eat fit.
12:28 Pablo Torre? Where did you get your Eid fit? Because it is unprecedented, I think.
12:33 Speaker 01 I saw a photo of Ousmane Dembele from PSG. I don't know if it was real or AI.
12:38 Pablo Torre? PSG inspired this.
12:39 Speaker 01 Well, you know, I just was like, if these guys are doing this, he had like a full, a full faux bond. I was like, let's make an Arsenal kurta. And there's a guy, part of the Brooklyn Invincibles, who designs kind of custom-made jerseys. And we hit him up and we just said, is there any way you could make a kurta? And he hit up his tailor and now my uncle's hitting me on WhatsApp, asking how to order it. And I'm like, brother, this was a one of one.
13:05 Pablo Torre? I do like the idea that sometimes you're just sending your staffers like, I don't know if this is AI or not, but if it's real, I want one of these.
13:11 Speaker 01 We gotta make this.
13:13 Pablo Torre? One of the things that I have been promised, or rather, I've been reporting for years is via Mike Breen, who's the play-by-play voice, of course, of the Knicks.
13:22 Speaker 01 Hey!
13:23 Pablo Torre? I mean, what he has said is that he has never triple banged. But the Knicks making the finals, that is what would deserve that moment.
13:33 Speaker 01 Yeah.
13:33 Pablo Torre? And so, how many children will be born with Knicks players' names if Mike Breen triple bangs during the NBA final? A lot of Jalen's.
13:42 Speaker 01 You know, some cats.
13:43 Pablo Torre? Some cats.
13:45 Speaker 01 Some Josh's.
13:46 Pablo Torre? Depending on Mitchell Robinson's pinky also.
13:48 Speaker 01 Some Agugas.
13:49 Pablo Torre? Yes, yes.
13:50 Speaker 01 Shout-outs.
13:51 Pablo Torre? The noises that the city is making, it does bring me to the idea. I'm so good at segues, have you noticed?
13:56 Speaker 01 You have a real way with words.
13:58 Pablo Torre? The president, Donald Trump, has said now officially,
14:01 Speaker 03 I think I'll be going to one of the games. I was invited by numerous people and Jim.
14:07 Pablo Torre? And for Knicks fans who are contemplating booing the president, you're very good at politics. What counsel would you offer them upon hearing that they may be considering such a thing?
14:21 Speaker 01 I think one of the things I've learned is don't give advice to other Knicks fans. They will make their own decisions. I haven't given anybody advice of how to respond to me. And, you know, some people are happy when they see me. Some people, they're not feeling the vibe. That's what it's always gonna be. And so I think, I think the thing we're most excited about is just having the finals here, man.
14:40 Pablo Torre? So if you're both a fan and a mayor, I imagine that inside of you, there are two wolves.
14:48 Pablo Torre? And so you gotta be the guy who's like-
14:50 Speaker 01 X-ray coming back.
14:52 Pablo Torre? You can't wait for the party, but also you're kind of the dean on campus who's like, "I gotta make sure these kids aren't falling off of porches." So have you thought already about, I mean, you're the guy who managed New York City through a historic blizzard. Have you already begun to manage, to examine how to do this well? The parade, a celebration, if it, of course, comes to that.
15:18 Speaker 01 You know, we have to prepare for everything. And I think what we want to prepare for is a city where people can actually enjoy themselves. And even just like looking at the Radio City Music Hall watch party, then how people kind of pour out into the streets. People have been waiting to feel this. I mean, you look at all these Knicks fans' videos of the years that we have lived through.
15:36 Pablo Torre? Yeah.
15:37 Speaker 01 The starting fives over the years, and now where we are. So we're planning for all the logistics. I'm not going to say things out loud to curse anything. But I will say that we're excited for Knicks fans to have the summer of our lives.
15:50 Pablo Torre? Yeah. One of those faces that you see in those highlights, in those reels, those archive vault tapes, is Charles Oakley. And Charles Oakley is a protagonist who is not welcome at the Garden these days. Jim Dolan and him do not see eye to eye. We've reported with Wired Magazine about the surveillance state at the Garden. You've said that you're looking into this. And you've said this in addition to cosponsoring a bill about biometric surveillance. Would you do the impossible and broker a peace between Charles Oakley and James Dolan?
16:24 Speaker 01 You know, I will, I can't make a promise now that I'm not sure if I can keep, but I will try. Because I think that this moment is for the whole city. And it's a moment where people are willing to look forward after a long time for us just being looking in the rearview mirror. And I think that what we want to do is make sure that every New Yorker can enjoy themselves. And that includes everybody you mentioned.
16:49 Pablo Torre? I do have a specific political proposal for you to consider. We have some documents. This is executive order season.
16:56 Speaker 01 Does it say the word pheromones in there?
16:58 Pablo Torre? We might put that in post as well.
16:59 Speaker 01 Just leave that alone.
16:59 Pablo Torre? But if you wouldn't mind reading what we've proposed to you-
17:02 Speaker 01 Okay.
17:05 Speaker 01 Proclamation, whereas Oklahoma City Thunder guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is clearly the most egregious flopper this side of James Harden. No disagreement thus far. Whereas no New Yorker shall approve of nor engage in such thirsty behavior on the court of basketball, nor in the court of public opinion. Now therefore, I, Zohran Kwame Mamdani, Mayor of the City of New York, do hereby proclaim June 2026 in the City of New York as Shai Gilgeous-Alexander No Flopping Month. That's the first one. Whereas, New York Knicks forward McCall Bridges is a playoff hero. Whereas Ed Koch got the 59th Street Bridge named after him, so we might as well name every single one the McCall Bridge during the finals.
17:46 Speaker 01 Now therefore, I, Zohran Kwame Mamdani, Mayor of the City of New York, do hereby proclaim June 2026 in the City of New York as McCall Bridges Month.
17:55 Pablo Torre? I feel like we can get these signed.
17:59 Speaker 01 You know, we gotta send these to the legal team. But, I will tell you, worthy of consideration. Don't flop in this city.
18:10 Pablo Torre? Worthy of consideration.
18:11 Speaker 01 And to the refs who are watching, don't let the flops happen anywhere. Come on.
18:15 Pablo Torre? I have, uh, one more thing to show you on my phone, because our friend Adam Friedland, who is a psychopath.
18:23 Speaker 01 Shoutouts.
18:24 Pablo Torre? I said, "What should I ask the mayor?", and he said, "Ask him about the tweet", and I said, "What tweet?", because I am not of your culture. Uh, and he said, "This tweet." Would you please read the tweet that you had said?
18:37 Speaker 01 "Never thought I'd be more hopeful about socialism than Arsenal, and yet here we are."
18:42 Pablo Torre? That was November 22nd, 2020?
18:45 Speaker 01 Yes, it was. Yes, it was. We've been through tough times, man.
18:48 Pablo Torre? It's been a long six years, almost.
18:51 Speaker 01 It's been, it was 22 years waiting for a title. This is 20 years to even get to a Champions League final. It's, you know, we went from, from beauty to banter. That was what our team was. And now we're back. We both up now, baby.
19:07 Pablo Torre? And so, at the end here, I guess, as my producer Chris is wearing his own
19:13 Speaker 01 Come on.
19:14 Pablo Torre? garb, the question he told me to ask you was, uh, "What do we think of Tottenham?"
19:22 Pablo Torre? You said [BLEEP].
19:25 Speaker 01 Come on. Congratulations to them for staying in the league. Big achievement. Big achievement. You can't get beat by Arsenal if you're not playing Arsenal, so.
19:35 Pablo Torre? Spoken like a mayor about to watch his favorite team do something. Perhaps, perhaps, reach a final climactic release.
19:43 Speaker 01 Pray to God. That's, no. No.
19:47 Pablo Torre? Cut him saying no, ended on my great joke, and see.
19:53 Pablo Torre? And see.
19:55 Pablo Torre? Thank you, man.
19:58 Pablo Torre? That was awesome.
19:59 Speaker 01 It was a good time.
20:00 Pablo Torre? Dude.
20:00 Speaker 01 I gotta call James Dolan and be like, hey, we gotta broker this peace. By the way, nice to meet you.
20:16 Speaker 04 When your workday is constantly disrupted, your workflow isn't flowing. It's come to a grinding halt. You don't need an assistant, you need superpowers. Superhuman Go, from the makers of Grammarly, is built for how you actually work. No new tabs, no switching apps, no losing your place. Go handles busy work like finding documents or summarizing email threads, so you can focus on the work only you can do. Try Superhuman Go, from the makers of Grammarly. Find out more at superhuman.com.
20:58 Pablo Torre? There was a lot more, in case you were wondering, that I wanted to ask the first democratic socialist mayor of New York City. But, just like that, Zohran Mamdani was off to an Arsenal bar in Brooklyn with our PTFO Gooner producers following close behind and the club's first-ever Champions League trophy at stake. So they watched Arsenal score in the first six minutes to go up 1-0, only for a PSG penalty kick to tie it about an hour later, sending the game into extra time. And then, with the score still frozen at 1-1, one of the most unsatisfying rituals in sports began: the penalty shootout, which Arsenal lost, finally,
21:44 Pablo Torre? after sending their last kick clear over the bar, high and far enough, it would seem, to go from Budapest to Oklahoma City, where Victor Wembanyama's Spurs ensured a rematch later that night of the last NBA Finals the Knicks had made back in 1999. And on this topic, I am not saying that we influenced the legislation Mayor Mamdani just announced yesterday, but he did do this.
22:15 Speaker 01 Who's ready to watch the Knicks? Me! Who's ready to watch the Knicks win the championship? Me! Alright, here we go. Here is our mayor's order: repealing kids' bedtimes for the Knicks' finals run. Are we ready? Who here was alive in 1999?
22:39 Speaker 01 No, you were not. You were? Okay, we're gonna talk about that later.
22:44 Speaker 04 I don't know when I was born.
22:47 Speaker 01 Alright, here we go. We're signing it.
22:48 Speaker 04 I don't know.
22:51 Speaker 01 Okay, my friends. Executive order is signed. I don't know when I was.
22:58 Speaker 01 Bedtime is repealed.
23:01 Speaker 01 All of you can watch the finals. How do you feel?
23:04 Pablo Torre? Good!
23:09 Pablo Torre? And yet, all of that applause is not where I could end the show in good conscience. Because before we let you go here, there was one more call that I felt I needed to make to someone slightly older than those kids. They're like, yeah, there are guys that are like, Baltimore Ravens looking credible this year.
23:34 Pablo Torre? How pathetic is that? How lame does that sound?
23:37 Speaker 01 Is that what I sound like to them?
23:40 Pablo Torre? Oh, Sean McVay's offensive genius, a masterclass. That is the aforementioned gooner, socialist sympathizer, and guy who has a really good fake British accent, Adam Friedland. And I think he should probably be the last voice that you hear on this episode. Because in our ongoing study of optimism, it demands that we contemplate what it means when you lose.
24:14 Speaker 01 It's a shootout. It's the stupidest way to end a game. I don't know. This is arbitrary. Okay, listen, what we managed to do this year was extraordinary.
24:23 Speaker 01 We managed to win the league and nearly win a double with no attack. This is incredible. Arsenal has figured out how to be the best at set plays. You know what a set play is, Pablo?
24:35 Pablo Torre? Yes, yes, I do.
24:37 Speaker 01 A free kick or a corner kick. Arsenal are the best at getting a guy like a 6'4" guy to [bleep].
24:46 Speaker 01 We were always the team that was like, oh, sorry, they're too soft. They're too soft. We used to get pushed around by guys. And then in this last iteration, we got a bunch of guys that are 6'4". And we figured out pragmatism. And I'm not giving you anything useful right now, I'm sure for your podcast. But Arsene Wenger, in the period I watched, that was Vladimir Illich Lennon. That was the socialist ideal of the game.
25:13 Pablo Torre? This is exactly what people imagine a phone call with you about soccer would be like, by the way.
25:18 Speaker 01 And then Mikel Arteta is Joseph Stalin. It is the socialist ideal becoming fascistic. Yeah. And set plays are his lehengrad.
25:31 Speaker 01 Or Stalingrad, sorry, or whatever. Set plays are us throwing 2 million bodies at Hitler in the Russian winter to win the war. You know what I sound like? I sound like a guy that's like, you know, Belichick's favorite part of the game is special teams. You know? And if you're really, if you're watching this [BLEEP] match, I'm watching a chess match. You know, you know less than me.
25:56 Pablo Torre? One of the things that I talked to the mayor about.
25:59 Speaker 01 Oh, cool. Congrats. Congratulations.
26:01 Pablo Torre? Yeah.
26:03 Speaker 01 It was, it was just.
26:04 Pablo Torre? It was notion of like, wow, optimism is palpable. And so I want to imagine, Adam, that Arteta has invited you into the dressing room post-game to address the troops and you have one minute to give your summary of what this actually all meant and what we've learned here. And you would say to them, to those lads, what?
26:29 Speaker 01 Oh, my God, you guys are, we've come so far. We're like a real team. We were a joke, boys. We were an absolute joke. We were, people love to see us lose. No one can say [BLEEP] to you guys now. It's amazing. It's amazing. We're, we're strong now. We'll get, we'll get a couple of guys that know how to score goals and we're probably going to beat everyone 5-0 next year. But you guys managed to do this this year. It's, it's, it's ridiculous. It's insane. You guys are so good at sports. I just want to say to you guys, you're so good at sports and I love you.
27:13 Speaker 01 You did awesome for what we had. How did you do it? Gabrielle missed a penalty. Ew, should we have put a defender in as fifth penalty taker? I don't know. He's a senior member of the team. It's such a stupid way to end a game.
27:27 Pablo Torre? I agree.
27:28 Speaker 01 It's like playing rock, paper, scissors at the end of, like.
27:32 Pablo Torre? You know, Arsenal are a reminder you're going to die one day. That's what it is. It's, you know, it felt like nature returned to it. I'm half kidding. The big climax of your post-game speeches, "Lads, lads, just a reminder we're..." "We're all gonna die one day." Yeah. And if we were Manchester City, we would be guys that don't think about dying. And we would be, I think society calls them [BLEEP] holes. We would be guys that cheat on our wives. And I know that all of you guys have never cheated.
28:15 Pablo Torre? You guys are good people. No, it is, I just felt incredible at the end of that game. Because it's like, I've never seen us at this level. Was Zohran sad? This is the next question I have for you. Is that he's immediately moving on to the NBA Finals. And so, as an actual NBA nerd, do you have a parting thought for the mayor as he navigates Nick's Spurs for the NBA title? It is a very similar thing, kind of. Well, how did he do it? He balanced the budget and he got the Knicks to the Finals? How did he do it? And Arsenal won the league? What is with him?
28:59 Pablo Torre? He's kinda cooking. You read him the tweet, right? I sent you the tweet. Oh, we read the tweet. Those are the two lamest things to like. Arsenal and socialism, we suck.
29:20 Pablo Torre? This has been Pablo Torre Finds Out, a Meadowlark Media production. And I'll talk to you next time.
Previous Share & Eat the Rich & Tell with Tim Miller and Stephanie Ruhle Next Do Not Mess with the Reporter Who Took Down Jeffrey Epstein Page updated October 30, 2026 · transcript and summary are machine-generated