Today’s Podcast Picks includes prediction market regulation analysis, a top college football GM’s experience in his role, one former SportsCenter host’s transition to Netflix and an interview with the LPGA Commissioner.
- Journalist Pablo Torre interviewed author James Surowiecki on “Pablo Torre Finds Out” about the rise and regulation of prediction markets, particularly their relationship with sports gambling. Torre noted that on Jan. 26, Kalshi had record-high trading volume, 93% of which was on sports predictions. “The way that you envisioned the prediction market had these sociopolitical functions,” Torre said. “But in reality, it’s a bunch of dudes doing the thing that they were doing on FanDuel and DraftKings and everything else, but in this way, they’re doing it because it’s less regulated, I guess.” Surowiecki responded, “What these prediction markets have done when it comes to sports betting is they have followed a strategy somewhat similar to Uber and Airbnb, which is kind of ‘we’re going to do it and then you can try to stop us.’”
- On “The Program with Woj” podcast, former ESPN reporter Adrian Wojnarowski interviewed Ohio State football GM Mark Pantoni on the life of a CFB GM post-House settlement. Pantoni lauded Big Ten rival and 2026 national champion Indiana as their roster construction has led others in the industry to rethink their approach. “The Indiana model in football has showed us that having older players, having an older team does mean something,” Pantoni said. “And so philosophically, we are trying to determine how much financials are we going to put in the high school world now? How big is the high school class going to look now? And then is it better in the long run or really in a one season model to go into the portal and take older, more proven guys rather than trying to pay a lot of money to get kids here out of high school, and they’re probably not going to play a lot in year one, maybe year two, and then you’re having a lot of dead money.”
- New Netflix broadcaster Elle Duncan discussed her ESPN exit with host Bomani Jones on “The Right Time with Bomani Jones.” Duncan said of her feelings towards ESPN, “I wouldn’t have had the opportunity to go to Netflix without all of the things that ESPN gave me. They took a risk on me. I had two years of experience doing sports when they hired me. They did not have to give me a shot and they did. And then they kept promoting me and giving me more s***. How can I be upset with them? You always wish that things could have gone a little bit differently or you wouldn’t have left the relationship, but ... it’s all good on this side.”
- LPGA Commissioner Craig Kessler saw one of his first major points of adversity on Sunday since taking the job in July 2025, and he spoke with Chris Solomon from “No Laying Up” about what went wrong at the LPGA’s Orlando event that was cut short after 54 holes due to weather issues. “As I started getting more information, I asked one fundamental question based on the information we were getting: Is there any risk to player safety? And the answer that I got back from some was yes,” Kessler recalled. “And in my mind, as a relatively new commissioner, seven months in, I take very, very seriously the job of protecting our players. ... And that for me was sort of the decision point where I said, ‘Look, we cannot put our players at risk.’”
