The Dark Side of the World Cup

Heidi Blake on FIFA’s dirty business, and how Qatar came to host the games. Plus, Stephania Taladrid on Latino voters in the midterms; and Susan Orlean on the queen of the tiger mothers.
A stack of cash with a soccer field drawn on top is being transferred from one hand to another.
Illustration by Golden Cosmos

Listen and subscribe: Apple | Spotify | Google | Wherever You Listen

Sign up to receive our weekly newsletter of the best New Yorker podcasts.


“People are normally careful enough not to leave a paper trail,” the contributor Heidi Blake notes. But she says, of investigating FIFA, the international soccer organization, “I’ve never seen graft and corruption documented in this kind of detail.” Blake talks with David Remnick about “The Ugly Game,” which she co-authored, and how Qatar came to host the World Cup. Stephania Taladrid, who has covered Latino politics for years, speaks with the political consultants Chuck Rocha and Mike Madrid about what happened—or didn’t happen—among Latino voters in the midterm elections. And Susan Orlean reads from one of her Afterword columns about the long and fecund life of a tiger mother. “Unlike most tiger mothers,” she writes, “Collarwali was, in fact, a tiger.”

How Qatar Took the World Cup

Download a transcript.

Heidi Blake, a co-author of “The Ugly Game,” speaks about FIFA’s dirty business, and how Qatar came to host the games.


What Latino Voting Trends Tell Us About 2024

Download a transcript.

The contributing writer Stephania Taladrid, who has covered Latino politics for years, speaks with the political consultants Chuck Rocha and Mike Madrid.


Susan Orlean Remembers Collarwali, the Queen of Tigers

Download a transcript.

The writer reads from one of her Afterword columns, about the long and fecund life of a tiger mother. “Unlike most tiger mothers,” Orlean says, “Collarwali was, in fact, a tiger.”


The New Yorker Radio Hour is a co-production of WNYC Studios and The New Yorker.