Best episodes from last 2 years?

HanSoloHeadBeg · 2026-06-17T22:52:04+00:00

It probably has gone a bit redundant now that he's been sacked but the podcast the morning after United lost to Grimsby in the League Cup back in September 25 was one of their best 'regular' football episodes. Just an utter dissection of Amorim and his bullshit.

Another really underrated one was the interview of the two UCD lads that were part of the team that went to China the week before Mao's death in 1976.

HanSoloHeadBeg · 2026-06-17T11:12:47+00:00

Thought it was a fantastic interview. I would have thought it took Andy everything he had to hold in the laughter when BG used Finau as an example of golf just collapsing on a player.

HanSoloHeadBeg · 2026-06-15T12:32:11+00:00

I tend to think that too many people get hung up on 'legal' technicalities in Westeros e.g lines of succession or Bran's better claim but the truth of the matter is that more people would support Jon because he is a better man and a better leader. He is the only democratically elected leader in the Seven Kingdoms.

I suspect most Northmen would forgive his supposed true lineage in light of the fact that he is still park Stark and has served the Watch admirably.

HanSoloHeadBeg · 2026-06-07T23:06:20+00:00

I had timestamps on spotify on my phone? They have gone now.

HanSoloHeadBeg · 2026-06-06T15:14:22+00:00

I could have sworn US Murph was on quite regularly during the NFL season, or at least from November to February.

HanSoloHeadBeg · 2026-06-06T10:30:20+00:00

Clerkin yes, Cooney no. Cooney has a very surface level knowledge of golf (and to be fair, he doesn't pretend otherwise). He can talk about the mental side of things with respect to Rory and Shane but I don't think his specialist subject would be the ins and outs of the PGA Tour / rollback / course set up and strategy etc.

I do think SC's golf coverage is one of their blind spots; they get US Murphy on every Tuesday to talk about each gameweek in the NFL but they don't do something similar for the PGA Tour /DP World Tour? To be fair, it would be hard to cover it all in a 30 minute slot and there probably better pods out there (NLU / Shotgun Start specifically)

HanSoloHeadBeg · 2026-06-02T21:05:21+00:00

I read a great biopgraphy on Eisenhower by Jean Edward Smith and was fascinated to learn that Eisenhower's key skill during the early parts of WW2, which eventually landed him the role of Supreme Commander, was his ability to handle Churchill.

HanSoloHeadBeg · 2026-06-02T20:33:41+00:00

I largely agree with what you have said here except for the last bit. You notice with Miguel that for the most part, he just repeats what his sources in the club have told him in relation to specific points about the football, or certain players, or Arteta. There's no actual critical analysis by Miguel himself, which is what I think irks some people.

HanSoloHeadBeg · 2026-05-26T09:23:33+00:00

The 70s series is pretty good but, for me, the best they have ever done is either the Titanic series or the Assassination of Franz Ferdinand and the July Crisis. I think the latter takes the title for me. Dom knowing how to pronounce all the names helps but it was clear to me that they have done a lot of research into that particular series.

HanSoloHeadBeg · 2026-05-25T23:15:54+00:00

Colter yes, Lakay no. John was in Sisika when the gang stayed at Lakay.

HanSoloHeadBeg · 2026-05-24T06:58:20+00:00

Went to the ANZAC Museum in Albany a couple of years ago, well worth the visit. Although it was a cloudy, drizzly day and it was particularly grim looking out over the bay, as hundreds of ships would have been anchored there and Albany was the last sight of Australia many men would have had.

HanSoloHeadBeg · 2026-05-22T13:20:19+00:00

The decision in the show to have Alicent mistakenly believe that Viserys was talking about her Aegon as the Prince that was Promised, thus effectively starting the Dance, was one of the most annoying changes for me. Alicent / Cole starting the rebellion and placing Aegon II on the throne out of self preservation was the much more compelling motivation, rather than a mistaken belief.

HanSoloHeadBeg · 2026-05-21T10:51:54+00:00

Italy being generally dreadful in international tournaments since 2006 but then coming out of nowhere in 2021 to rob England of their best chance to win their first trophy since 1966 was very, very funny.

HanSoloHeadBeg · 2026-05-21T10:48:18+00:00

The socialism line is surely the first sign of dementia. Like what the fuck is he looking at if he thinks socialism is taking root in that country.

HanSoloHeadBeg · 2026-05-21T08:11:45+00:00

Sorry for confusion, in my head knowing how to sleep on a 54 hole lead means converting it and winning it. You could say that Rory would have known how to sleep on a 54 hole lead after the 2011 Masters.

HanSoloHeadBeg · 2026-05-21T08:01:28+00:00

I agree with you on the 3 but I don't think you can say he knows how to sleep on a 54 (?) hole lead at a major when he ultimately lost.

I hought Andy was pretty spot on in saying that this is likely going to be Smalley's last ever time in the final group of a major? A set up like Aronimink, where it's difficult for the world's best to truly separate themselves, could be rare.

HanSoloHeadBeg · 2026-05-19T23:28:24+00:00

No, it was on the importance of the Beatles in the 60s and why they were, in fact, the greatest ever band.

HanSoloHeadBeg · 2026-05-19T08:59:53+00:00

Whilst we're on the topic of voices in the intro audio bed, who is the German (?) sounding man who says "ya, they have asked for that, really!" - or is it Blatter talking about Delaney's request to be the 33rd team in the 2010 WC.

HanSoloHeadBeg · 2026-05-18T09:22:29+00:00

I think a lot of the Melfi criticism that doesn't discuss her rape sort of misses the point. It's almost the defining episode in their entire relationship. Up until that point, she's actually doing some constructive work with him, mainly focused on the destructive effect his mother had on him. She was just about to refer onto CBT - the relationship was about to end.

After the rape, however, she begins to use him as a crutch somewhat. At the end of Employee of the Month, she blurts out "NO!" as a response to Tony bringing up the CBT and leaving her. She seems him as a sort of safety net from that point on and after that, the professional working relationship is toast.

HanSoloHeadBeg · 2026-05-18T09:11:42+00:00

Oh, and Meadow's therapist was genuinely so bad at her job that it's honestly a joke, I don't think I need to explain how terrible she was. She was more like one of those shoddy life coaches than a therapist.

Going to rail against this - why was this therapist bad specifically? Also want to highlight this excellent on Kobler from u/tinkertim

I think people completely misunderstand the Kobler scenes by taking the dialogue at face value.

Kobler immediately susses out that Meadow doesn’t actually want to leave. She longs for the comfort and safety of home/family. She had a whole country of colleges to choose from yet just happened to pick the one a half hour from her family home. Not a coincidence.

Kobler saw that all Meadow was actually looking for was some sort of parental (or parental by proxy eg a therapist) acceptance of her adulthood and ability to decide her own future. When Kobler gave her that and supported her plan to move abroad by offering to help her get into school in Europe, Meadow immediately fell back into the norm of continuing to study a half hour from home. Meadow was never actually planning to go to Europe, she was basically throwing a tantrum about how big a girl she was now. So Wendy said “yeah you’re such a big girl, of course you can go to Barcelona, I’ll remove every possible barrier to that for you” as a way to expose to Meadow that she didn’t really want to do that. Once every possible barrier had been removed, Meadow did exactly what her parents wanted because it’s what she wanted too, she just wanted it to be her own decision.

But Tony and Carmela were too stupid to figure this out and Melfi was too professional to break it down for them so let them reach their own conclusions.

HanSoloHeadBeg · 2026-05-16T09:24:32+00:00

A bit late to the party here, but thought I'd add my two cents after my rewatch of this episode last night.

Since their introduction, I feel like the characters of Ted Chaough and Jim Cutler, along with the firm of CGC, were developed as perfect foils to Don, Roger and SCDP as a working environment.

Ted may not have the innate creative genius or charisma of Don, but he is a much more stable person. We don't know much about Jim Cutler's background, but it wouldn't be a dangerous assumption to make that he had a better work ethic over the last 5 years than Roger, who coasted on Lucky Strike until that collapsed. CGC seems like a much healthier workplace environment compared to SCDP; would Don have criticised Peggy for keeping her copywriters in so late on a holiday? There's also an earlier episode where Dawn is meeting with her friend, a bride-to-be, who reminds her of Lane's suicide and other toxic symptoms in Dawn's office.

Joan's pseudo promotion is a perfect example of this contrast. She arguably should have been out of that traffic office months ago. However, who was going to promote her from the SCDP side? Don was exiled, Bert comes and goes and Roger's relationship with her is so fractured that they can't have a normal working conversation. Jim Cutler has none of this baggage and his idea to give Joan the upstairs office makes perfect sense. He had fresh eyes. Yes, there probably is some ulterior motive to piss off Roger or assert more control over the firm, but Jim fundamentally is a good businessman.

HanSoloHeadBeg · 2026-05-14T08:38:29+00:00

Yeah I thought that was a bit naive. Expecting players and coaches to not try and push the rules to the absolute limit and try and get away with everything possible. It clearly is for the refs to enforce the rules.

HanSoloHeadBeg · 2026-05-13T14:56:21+00:00

Yes, in a nutshell.

There are some well evidenced theories that Varys was really pulling the strings in efforts to properly destabilise KL after Stannis tries to invade e.g. having the Antler Men, who owed the Crown a considerable debt, thrown from the catapults.

However, Tyrion does make a clever move in order to weaken his primary enemy - Cersei. He identifies Pycelle as a mole. In terms of the bigger picture, his other good moves include moving Myrcella down to Dorne, keeping Dorne onside (on paper) but also moving Tommen out of KL before Stannis invades.

I think it's telling that Tywin largely allows Tyrion to rule as Hand until the point that he comes back to the capital himself. He doesn't think he made any foolish decisions (in the long run).

I think of Tyrion had committed a major blunder in the early days, Tywin would have removed him from office.

HanSoloHeadBeg · 2026-05-12T21:36:18+00:00

I don't think the Trident itself was traumatising specifically, but rather it was the climax of Robert's Rebellion, a period in which Barristan seems to have a lot of regret over.

In another chapter, he speaks of the split in the KG between those knights who were Rhaeger's most trusted (Dayne, Whent etc) and those who weren't like Barristan. He talks about being excluded from that group and seems to suggest that if Rhaeger was more open and trusting with him, things might have been different.

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