The World Cup is underway. And if you’re looking for someone who saw all of this coming — the sovereign wealth funds buying clubs, the exorbitant costs of fandom, the collision of soccer and authoritarian soft power — Franklin Foer did. Twenty-two years ago.

Foer is a national correspondent at The Atlantic, a former editor of The New Republic, and the author of How Soccer Explains the World — a book that used the game as a lens to dissect the forces of globalization long before most American sports writers thought soccer was worth covering. He also is the author of World Without Mind, about Big Tech’s takeover of culture, and The Last Politician, about Joe Biden.

Today we talk about what the book got right, what it missed, what Trump and FIFA have in common, and why the World Cup — more than any other sporting event — is a Rorschach test for the world we actually live in.

Of course, there’s a cycling angle.

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With cycling’s World Championships underway in Kigali, Rwanda, this week, I spoke with my old friend, Mvemba Dizolele, a highly-regarded foreign policy analyst, about the role of sports in diplomacy and politics. (Take the time to read Mvemba’s full bio here.)

For background on the issues facing Rwanda, Minky Worden of Human Rights Watch, who is a friend of the RIDING WITH podcast, has a terrific dispatch about Rwanda’s human rights violations and the role it plays in the conflicts in Congo and Sudan.

John Prendergast, a leading human rights advocate who has worked for decades to cast light on genocide and conflict, has this piece in Foreign Policy about how Rwanda has used sports partnerships to enhance its reputation in global politics.

Dizolele offers listeners a quick history of Rwanda, how the country fits into today’s geopolitics, and how consumers and companies can alter the behavior and policies of countries seeking the benefits of hosting prestigious sporting events like cycling’s World Championships.

Today’s episode of the RIDING WITH podcast is a bit different. I’m trying a narrative with sound mixed in from the biggest, most prestigious cycling race in the United States, which took place in Baltimore on Sept. 6, 2025. You’ll get to hear from the winners, runners-up, and those finishing just off the pace. It’s an inside look at what it takes to produce a massive event in a major American city from race organizers to the mayor’s office, and how the riders themselves view Baltimore and the United States.