by Maximillian Alvarez, Dave Zirin, and Jules Boykoff | Jul 22, 2026 | edge of sports, Edge of Sports TV, Fascism, Opinion, Podcast, Politics and Movements: International, Politics and Movements: US, Sports, The Cultural Front
For many around the US and around the world, the World Cup was a welcome distraction from the dismal state of the world and the daily overwhelm of relentless war, corruption, fascism, and disaster. But the games were also an uncomfortable reminder that, no matter how much we love sports and want them to be an escape from politics and the pain of living in a broken society, there is no way to truly escape those things, and the manufactured illusion that sports are an escape from political reality is just that: an illusion.
At a live event hosted on July 16, 2026, at Chilo’s bar in New York City, TRNN Editor-in-Chief Maximillian Alvarez spoke with legendary sportswriters Dave Zirin and Jules Boykoff about what it means to love sports in an age of authoritarians.
Additional links/info:
Chilo’s bar website and Instagram
Jules Boykoff, OR Books, Red Card: The 2026 World Cup, Sportswashing, and the FIFA Greed Machine
Dave Zirin, Penguin Randomhouse, The People’s Historian: The Outsized Life of Howard Zinn
Credits:
Audio Post-Production: Alina Nehlich
Transcript
The following is a rushed transcript and may contain errors. It will be updated.
Maximillian Alvarez:
Welcome back to the Real News Network. I’m Maximillian Alvarez. The 2026 World Cup is now officially over after Spain defeated Argentina in the final match on Sunday. And for many of us around the US and around the world, the World Cup was a very welcome distraction from the ambient awfulness and doom and the daily delugion overwhelm of relentless war, corruption, fascism and disaster. But the games were also an uncomfortable reminder that no matter how much we love sports and the global spectacle of the
by Noella Williams | Jun 29, 2026 | Article, Florida, LGBTQ, Politics and Movements: US, Pride, Reprint, The Cultural Front
This story originally appeared in The Progressive Magazine on June 18, 2026. It is shared here with permission.
Florida has a magic that only Floridians truly understand. The mix of whimsy, bravery, and devotion you find here is unique, as is the land itself: lush acres of forest and marshy wetlands, puppy like creatures found in springs and slow-moving rivers, beaches of white sand, and off-the-beaten-path trails.
It’s tough to be from here—we’re plagued with hurricane season, mocked with GIFs like Bugs Bunny sawing from the rest of the country, and absurd “Florida man” jokes reflecting the tired 2010s-era cliché that our state is a den of drug-addled chaos and bizarre misadventure. If you mention Florida in conversation, you’re often met with a disgusted or concerning gaze.
The state has also long served as the country’s playground—or, as scholar Julio Capó Jr. describes it in his history of queer Miami culture, a “fairyland” that lures in tourists with the promise of a quick getaway surrounded by Disney animatronics and dreamy beaches. It may be unrecognizable to visitors from outside of the state, but Florida has always been a little queer, even beyond the periphery of the gay club scene in Miami.
In the past several years, however, Florida has become increasingly known for being hostile to queer people. Republican Governor Ron DeSantis—whose term began in 2019, less than three years after the June 2016 mass shooting at Orlando’s Pulse nightclub that killed forty-nine people—is fixated on decimating Florida’s queer population and crushing the morale of our indomitable spirit. In 2021, DeSantis signed into law a provision that redefined a public demonstration of more than three people who “commit a breach of
by Michael Fox and Marc Steiner | Jun 11, 2026 | First Amendment, free speech, history, Podcast, Politics and Movements: US, The Battle for Free Speech, The Cultural Front
Transcript
The following is a rushed transcript and may contain errors. It will be updated as soon as possible.
Michael Fox: Hi Mark.
Marc Steiner: Hey Mike, how you doing? Good to see you.
Michael Fox: Good to see you.
Marc Steiner: What do you got for us today?
Michael Fox: All right. So late last fall I visited this place that I think you’ll appreciate for this episode. Sprout Plaza at the University of California campus.
Marc Steiner: I know exactly where you were.
Michael Fox: So it’s a beautiful blue sky out. Leaves are changing colors. It’s a crisp autumn afternoon and in front of me is this big long stoic building marble, four big long Roman columns at the top of a row of stairs. This is the administration building here at the University of California Berkeley and this is called Sproul Hall. And that is important because this was literally ground zero for the free speech movement of 1964 here at the University of California Berkeley. Like the Plaza where I’m at right now, which is Sprout Plaza, was where you just had daily marches, protests, speeches just constantly happening.
I think it is really poignant that on the ground in front of Sprout Hall, someone has written in chalk, Trump must go now, refuse fascism. And it’s chalked up in two different locations here. People still staking out their territory, demanding their right to speak their voice. I was there to get a sense of the feeling being there and kind of the legacy today. And of course this was ground zero for the free speech movement. And Mark, that’s something you know
by Adam Johnson | Apr 30, 2026 | Article, Israel, Media Criticism, Opinion, Politics and Movements: US, The Cultural Front
The Atlantic, along with the New York Times, is the quintessence of elite liberal opinion. It is popular with Democrat-aligned readers who are high-income and high-status, and shapes the Acceptable Range of Discourse on the American left, such as it is. What it publishes matters, but—more importantly—it matters to people who matter. Thus, it’s useful to, on occasion, stop and highlight their editorial priorities.
In the past two weeks, the Atlantic has published five stories with substantive discussion of left-wing Twitch streamer Hasan Piker, adding to a broader media outrage over the streamer’s alleged taboo comments on Hamas and shoplifting:
Israel Moderates Are Losing the Democratic Party (April 16) by Jonathan Chait: “The Democrats’ establishment opposes terrorism and backs a two-state solution; Piker and his allies want to cast that position as de facto support for the status quo, which is a single state controlled by Israel.”
The Problem With Hasan Piker’s Einstein Story (April 18) by Yair Rosenberg: “Critics on the right and left highlighted his refusal to condemn Hamas.”
Something Is Happening to America’s Moral Code (April 24) by Graeme Wood: “Piker said he would steal cars, ‘if I could get away with it.’”
Theft Is Now Progressive Chic (April 24) by Thomas Chatterton Williams: “At a time of kleptocratic governance and corporate oligarchy, Tolentino and Piker resort to a game of jaded whataboutism.”
Calling Trump a Tyrant Is Not a Call to Violence (April 28) by Jonathan Chait: “The prominence of Hasan Piker, an apologist for terrorism and a proponent of authoritarian regimes, has revealed a much broader comfort on the left with illiberal ideas and violent methods.”
This broader media panic, it’s worth
by Taya Graham and Stephen Janis | Feb 18, 2026 | AI, big tech, Inequality Watch, The Cultural Front, video
ChatGPT4o parent company Anthropic AI already has multiple lawsuits filed against it due to multiple grieving families alleging their loved ones committed suicide or even murder due the chat bots affirmation of delusions, paranoia and even isolating them from friends families and outside help. But there is another problematic aspect to AI which is underreported and underestimated the impact of AI Sycophancy on the overall emotional and mental health and well being of human beings and their relationships– and perhaps the very future of humanity.
Credits:
Studio/Post-Production: David Hebden
Written by: Stephen Janis, Taya Graham, Amanda Scherker
Transcript
The following is a rushed transcript and may contain errors. A proofread version will be made available as soon as possible.Taya Graham:
If someone told a teenager whose parents were trying to limit his screen time, that he should consider murdering them. You’d probably think they weren’t a great source of relational advice. If someone told a man who had come to believe he lived inside a matrix to stop taking his prescribed medications and increase his ketamine use all while cutting off contact with family and friends, you probably consider them pretty manipulative. If someone started calling you a divine messenger from God after just one hour of conversation, you might wonder if they weren’t just a little bit sycophantic. What I mean is that AI acts like your best friend even when you’re trying to figure out how to harm yourself. And that’s a big problem that the AI industry is simply brushing off and for good reason. I’ll provide some links to videos below as well as a lawsuit by the families who lost their
by Adam Johnson | Dec 5, 2025 | Article, Media Criticism, Opinion, Politics and Movements: US, The Cultural Front
Consistent with the United States’ continued slide into an economy powered almost entirely by LLM slop, financialization, and ever-pervasive exploitative gambling, “prediction market app” Kalshi “entered into an official partnership” with CNN this week to bring their “data to CNN’s journalism across its television, digital and social channels.” Soon, CNN will run live odds on world events where its viewers can gamble on them in real time on their smart phones. The “data” (see: betting markets) will, according to Axios, “be featured on CNN’s air through a real-time data ticker and can be referenced across CNN’s platforms when journalists discuss news predictions. The partnership will include prediction market content related to politics, news, culture and weather. The integration will be championed by CNN chief data analyst Harry Enten, who will tap into real-time insights from Kalshi in his reporting on air, both via linear TV and CNN’s new streaming subscription service.”
The day after this story broke, Wall Street news network CNBC announced a similar “exclusive partnership” with Kalshi, marking a grim turn for TV news. “Starting in 2026, CNBC will incorporate exclusive Kalshi predictions market data [see: betting props] into its programs,” the press release read. What are these events that viewers will be able to bet on? Some are seemingly harmless enough: who will win an upcoming election, the weather in Chicago, the federal government’s jobs numbers, or what will be said on Kroger’s next earnings call. But many offerings are on life and death issues that will, as a matter of course, reduce these issues to just another chip on a roulette table for Western audiences increasingly isolated
