Defector's newest podcast arrives next week: Only If You Get Caught is our latest show, and it's all about breaking the rules. The first episode is out on Oct. 21.
Over the course of our first season, we will tell the stories of eight cheating scandals, both in and outside of sports. That is the first task of each episode anyway; the more interesting part of the show, the thing that makes it special and makes me feel especially proud of our work, is that each cheating scandal is also a window into something larger. The operating theory of OIYGC is that if you want to answer the questions that really matter about any given competitive framework—Who has power? Where are the lines of tension?—you have to understand why people break the rules, and how.
The show is hosted by me and produced by Alex Sujong Laughlin. I got interested in stories of chicanery and fraud while writing about all manner of cheating scandals for Defector. People are always going to be into stories about powerful people doing bad stuff, though I found myself mildly frustrated with the somewhat simplistic framing put around many cheating stories. The reasons why someone would break the rules are often simplified into the bottomless search for competitive advantage. In reality, these moments offer a rare glimpse behind the fiction being sold to the public by seemingly powerful institutions like the NBA, big-time chess, or The Bachelor.
So what are we doing in this show? We will not be taking listeners through the tick-tock of a given scandal and dusting our hands off like, That's that! Our show is more interested in making an argument: Every episode, we welcome in a guest to help peel back the layers of bullshit that often surround these scandals. Because there is always a larger story. What does the Varsity Blues admissions scandal tell us about higher education's larger structural inequities? How did the Lance Armstrong doping saga set the stage for the anti-trans panic? Can you explain the Steroid Era through the lens of the 1994 MLB strike? You will have to listen to find out.
The trailer is out today. Check it out, and please subscribe where you listen to all your favorite podcasts! Our season kicks off next week with a subject close to my heart: the infamous and allegedly fixed 2002 Western Conference Finals, and the first guest is Tommy Craggs, who may likely be familiar to new and longtime readers.
