Podcast · History

Only If You Get Caught

by Defector Media · English · History

Only If You Get Caught is about how we can better understand sports and culture by appreciating the ways humans cheat in ways big and small. Hosted by Patrick Redford and produced by Alex Sujong Laughlin, each episode will dive into the history and methodologies behind cheating scandals to explor

New episodes: Every two weeks
Typical length: 31 min
Latest: 12 Oct 2026
Language: English

Latest episode

12 Oct 2026 · 30 min

How Pablo Torre scooped ESPN on the Kawhi Leonard story

Patrick Redford interviews Pablo Torre about how he broke the Kawhi Leonard salary cap story. Episode transcript here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/19MoFfJFGcFjA1spW6599r0HF0XH14ERuhSuO0__Sb3E/edit?usp=sharing 🏷️: Kawhi Leonard, Steve Ballmer, LA Clippers, NBA salary cap, Aspiration scandal, Pablo Torre, ESPN, Uncle Dennis Robertson, Joe Sandberg, greenwashing, sham contract, KL2 Aspire LLC, bankruptcy filing, cap circumvention, five first-round picks, $30 million fine, access journalism, sports media, Only If You Get Caught, Pablo Torre Finds Out Show Credits Only If You Get Caught is…

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Earlier episodes 12 most recent

S2 · E2 · 29 Sep 2026 · 36 min
The man who scammed the publishing world for love not money
Patrick Redford interviews Reeves Wiedeman about the bizarre case of Filippo Bernardini, the "Spine Collector" who stole thousands of unpublished books without ever leaking or selling them. With reporting from. Episode transcript HERE 🏷️: book theft, publishing industry, Filippo Bernardini, The Spine Collector, unpublished manuscripts, phishing emails, identity theft, FBI investigation, Simon & Schuster, literary world, prestige, wire fraud, rights coordinator, Millennium series, Margaret Atwood, literary scouts, New York Magazine, revenge, global publishing Show Credits Only If You Get…
S2 · E1 · 15 Sep 2026 · 32 min
The Rise and Fall of Sam Bankman-Fried and FTX
Patrick Redford interviews Jacob Silverman about the rise and fall of FTX and Sam Bankman-Fried. Episode transcript HERE 🏷️: Sam Bankman-Fried, SBF, FTX, FTX collapse, FTX scandal, FTX fraud, cryptocurrency, crypto scandal, crypto fraud, Sam Bankman-Fried documentary, Sam Bankman-Fried story, cryptocurrency fraud, crypto crash, crypto winter, Alameda Research, effective altruism, FTT token, Changpeng Zhao, Binance FTX, financial crime, Only If You Get Caught, cheating scandals, Patrick Redford, Defector Media Show Credits Only If You Get Caught is written and hosted, by Patrick Redford .…
9 Sep 2026 · 1 min
Only If You Get Caught Season 2
We are BACK with a new season!
S1 · E8 · 27 Jan 2026 · 27 min
The Varsity Blues Scandal Was Actually Class Warfare
The Operation Varsity Blues scandal made more visible the extent to which higher education has become a pay-to-play game. In this episode, we speak with Kirsten Hextrum, an associate professor at Oregon State University and the author of Special Admission: How College Sports Recruitment Favors White Suburban Athletes. Episode transcript: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1IjWMwEpZ_VEj76A8Tbl70BFgxFjS1L2aefOdIlvMP84/edit?usp=sharing Show Credits Only If You Get Caught is written and hosted, by Patrick Redford . It’s produced by Alex Sujong Laughlin , with production support from Jae Towle…
S1 · E7 · 13 Jan 2026 · 31 min
How Michigan’s Man on the Inside Got Caught
The Connor Stalions story is the perfect cheating scandal through which to understand college football, the most cheating-ass corrupt sport we have. Stalions is an insane character and the stuff he did was as blatant and obvious as it gets. The question of whether or not he cheated is unambiguous, but what he did was, A) something that all of Michigan’s rivals were doing, B) a violation on a technicality rather than anything as illegal as it sounds, and C) fundamentally more about NCAA control than anything else. The NCAA is basically a parasitic outgrowth on the flank of college sports, a…
S1 · E6 · 30 Dec 2025 · 36 min
Baseball’s Steroid Era Was Actually A Labor Story
The simple story of the early-aughts baseball steroids scandal is that Congress caught a bunch of star players juicing. That’s mostly true, but that reading fails to properly place the scandal in the most relevant context: labor relations. You don’t get the steroid “crisis” without the 1994 strike, nor can you fully explain the insane public spectacle of congress making a show of criminalizing these guys without framing it within the past, present, and future of labor exploitation. Episode transcript:…
S1 · E5 · 16 Dec 2025 · 36 min
Why WNBA Owners Cheated To Help Their Players
The Las Vegas Aces and the New York Liberty have both had scandals around their owners paying or otherwise providing benefits to players under the table in an attempt to circumvent salary cap rules, right as women’s sports exploded in popularity. Maitreyi Anantharaman joins us to look at the state of the fight for wage equality in sports, and what the WNBA players are fighting for. Episode transcript: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1uX8kNeLpp4hyLiGxk7zmlsk0bSS4N4dSLo3B3M1zTJE/edit?usp=sharing You can contribute to Radiotopia's fall fundraiser with a tax-deductible donation here ! Show…
2 Dec 2025 · 27 min
Is It Even Possible to Cheat on The Bachelor?
What does cheating look like on a reality show where the goal is to find love? In this episode, Emma Gray and Claire Fallon from Love to See It join us to talk through the fiction of "for the right reasons" on The Bachelor franchise. Episode transcript: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1GS4u1CpTtjs7hvdKroTnLZCLRNxd5etfg841_66Y1-8/edit?usp=sharing You can contribute to Radiotopia's fall fundraiser with a tax-deductible donation here ! Show Credits Only If You Get Caught is written and hosted, by Patrick Redford . It’s produced by Alex Sujong Laughlin , with production support from Jae Towle…
S1 · E4 · 18 Nov 2025 · 39 min
Lance Armstrong And The Myth Of The Natural Body
Lance Armstrong's rise and fall in the cycling world paved the way for a mythology about the "natural body" to proliferate in sports. Today, it's being used to argue for bans of trans athletes. Reo Eveleth of Tested joins us to talk about the unintended consequences of the natural body myth. Episode transcript: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1It-9UQv2oX1CP5nYFPOTs6sXsLCRdiUVaD2UcZlqHcM/edit?usp=sharing You can contribute to Radiotopia's fall fundraiser with a tax-deductible donation here ! Show Credits Only If You Get Caught is written and hosted, by Patrick Redford . It’s produced by…
S1 · E2 · 4 Nov 2025 · 32 min
A Cheating Scandal That Explains The Online Chess Revolution
When chess exploded in popularity during the pandemic, it changed — and those changes brought about a new kind of player, and a very new kind of scandal. Joshua Robinson from the Wall Street Journal joins us for this story about cheating, the internet, and uh...receiving vibrating signals through a connected device that is not intended for chess. Episode transcript h ere. You can contribute to Radiotopia's fall fundraiser with a tax-deductible donation here ! Show Credits Only If You Get Caught is written and hosted, by Patrick Redford . It’s produced by Alex Sujong Laughlin , with…
S1 · E1 · 21 Oct 2025 · 31 min
Did the NBA Really Fix a Playoff Game to Help the Lakers?
Sacramento Kings fans have long believed that the NBA fixed the 2002 Western Conference finals so the Lakers would win. Patrick is joined by Tommy Craggs to discuss whether they think it actually happened. Episode transcript here . Show Credits Only If You Get Caught is written and hosted, by Patrick Redford . It’s produced by Alex Sujong Laughlin , with production support from Jae Towle Vieira. Editorial support from Tom Ley and Audrey Mardavich. Justin Ellis is Defector’s projects editor. Mixing by Samantha Gattsek Show art by Jim Cooke. Jasper Wang and Sean Kuhn are Defector’s business…
14 Oct 2025 · 1 min
Only If You Get Caught Trailer
Only If You Get Caught launches Oct 21!

About Only If You Get Caught

Only If You Get Caught is a English history podcast from Defector Media. Melo plays each episode straight from the publisher's own feed — no ads added, no account needed — and remembers where you stopped, in this browser only.

Publisher: Defector Media
Language: English
Category: History
New episodes: Every two weeks
Typical length: 31 min
Latest episode: 12 Oct 2026
Feed: RSS — paste into any podcast app
Apple Podcasts: podcasts.apple.com/podcast/id1826568874
Rights: 2025

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