A travel writers' Super Bowl special: Pico Iyer and Rolf discuss NFL football from the global perspective

Episode 250 January 31, 2025 00:38:55
A travel writers' Super Bowl special: Pico Iyer and Rolf discuss NFL football from the global perspective
Deviate
A travel writers' Super Bowl special: Pico Iyer and Rolf discuss NFL football from the global perspective

Jan 31 2025 | 00:38:55

/

Hosted By

Rolf Potts

Show Notes

“My life has often forced me to watch the Super Bowl in unusual circumstances. The first Super Bowl found me in boarding school in England, huddled under my bedclothes with an illegal transistor radio.” –Pico Iyer

In this episode of Deviate, Rolf and Pico talk about the novelty of two travel writers talking about the Super Bowl, and Pico’s NFL fandom (4:00); how sports can be a therapeutic diversion from the more serious aspects of life, and which players are Rolf and Pico’s all-time favorites (13:00); Pico and Rolf’s old articles for Sports Illustrated, and how narratives attach themselves to sporting contests (21:00); and what Pico’s plan and predication is for the 2025 Super Bowl (32:30).

Pico Iyer (@PicoIyer) is a novelist, essayist, and author. His newest book is Aflame: Learning from Silence.

Notable Links:

NFL football links:

The Deviate theme music comes from the title track of Cedar Van Tassel’s 2017 album Lumber.

Note: We don’t host a “comments” section, but we’re happy to hear your questions and insights via email, at [email protected].

Other Episodes

Episode 0

March 19, 2020 00:50:51
Episode Cover

How to make sense of health data in a time of pandemic (and beyond)

"Travel is in our nature. We'll have to counterbalance our new 'normal' when borders reopen to weigh in an extra element of risk." --Dr....

Listen

Episode 179

January 11, 2022 01:07:40
Episode Cover

Lost in the Valley of Death: The life and disappearance of Justin Alexander

“I realized that Justin Alexander was the latest person to disappear in a long history of travelers disappearing in India’s Parvati Valley. It’s a...

Listen

Episode

April 03, 2018 01:05:30
Episode Cover

How romance novels reveal the secret history of life in America

“Essentially, a romance is a courtship story. And if you think about it, courtship stories are part of the foundation of human storytelling” –Sarah...

Listen