78. Utility Players

Football Ruined My Life

#Sports #Soccer #American Football #Colin Shindler #Jon Holmes #Patrick Barclay

1:14:43

Artificial intelligence is evolving at an unprecedented pace—what does that mean for the future of technology, venture capital, business, and even our understanding of ourselves? Award-winning journalist and writer Anil Ananthaswamy joins us for our latest episode to discuss his latest book Why Machines Learn: The Elegant Math Behind Modern AI . Anil helps us explore the journey and many breakthroughs that have propelled machine learning from simple perceptrons to the sophisticated algorithms shaping today’s AI revolution, powering GPT and other models. The discussion aims to demystify some of the underlying math that powers modern machine learning to help everyone grasp this technology impacting our lives, even if your last math class was in high school. Anil walks us through the power of scaling laws, the shift from training to inference optimization, and the debate among AI’s pioneers about the road to AGI—should we be concerned, or are we still missing key pieces of the puzzle? The conversation also delves into AI’s philosophical implications—could understanding how machines learn help us better understand ourselves? And what challenges remain before AI systems can truly operate with agency? If you enjoy this episode, please subscribe and leave us a review on your favorite podcast platform. Sign up for our newsletter at techsurgepodcast.com for exclusive insights and updates on upcoming TechSurge Live Summits. Links: Read Why Machines Learn, Anil’s latest book on the math behind AI https://www.amazon.com/Why-Machines-Learn-Elegant-Behind/dp/0593185749 Learn more about Anil Ananthaswamy’s work and writing https://anilananthaswamy.com/ Watch Anil Ananthaswamy’s TED Talk on AI and intelligence https://www.ted.com/speakers/anil_ananthaswamy Discover the MIT Knight Science Journalism Fellowship that shaped Anil’s AI research https://ksj.mit.edu/ Understand the Perceptron, the foundation of neural networks https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perceptron Read about the Perceptron Convergence Theorem and its significance https://www.nature.com/articles/323533a0…

hace un año 42:33

MP3•Episodio en casa

Colin Shindler, Patrick Barclay and Jon Holmes examine the value of utility players – the player who could fill in anywhere on the pitch from right back to outside left. There is a marked tendency by current managers to favour specialisation over utility yet we all remember, usually with affection, those players who could “do a job” anywhere on the pitch – the perfect player to bring on in the days when there was only one substitute. The panel pays tribute to the Paul Madeleys of the game and explore the reasons for their gradual disappearance from the game.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

88 episodios

78. Utility Players

Football Ruined My Life

published hace un año

MP3•Episodio en casa

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

88 episodios

#Sports #Soccer #American Football #Colin Shindler #Jon Holmes #Patrick Barclay

Todos los episodios

1
Patrick Barclay 4:41

hace 18 días4:41

4:41

It is with deep sadness that Jon, Paul and I have to tell you all that our friend and fellow podcast host Patrick Barclay died suddenly on the morning of 12 February. All of us and no doubt many of our listeners who responded to Paddy's cheery Scottish burr over the course of 80 or so episodes will have cause to feel his loss. Out of respect we have removed this week's edition. We are obviously talking among ourselves as to if and how the podcast can continue. For the moment we feel that a brief pause is the right approach to this deeply depressing and tragic news. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices…

1
86. Home Internationals vs. Nations' League 43:23

hace 26 días43:23

43:23

This week the panel (and their producer) are bitterly divided on the contentious issue of the Nations League and its value compared to the old Home Internationals when England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland played with themselves. One side sees a desperation of the television companies and UEFA to ensure that no summer passes without an international tournament, leading to player burnout and spectator indifference. The other side sees a sensible arrangement that abolishes pointless friendlies, gives every match a purpose and ensures that the weaker sides play each other and are not just cannon fodder for the big boys. Fortunately, remote recording ensures that violence amongst members of the panel, though seemingly imminent, never requires police intervention. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices…

1
85. Penalties 43:14

hace un año43:14

43:14

Twelve yards away, the keeper can’t move off his line until the ball is struck. How does anyone ever miss a penalty? Well, as we all know they do miss and frequently it’s crucial in a match. So it can be too for the award in the first place of a penalty for handball with no intent to handle by the defender and for fouls when the forward has cleverly tripped himself up but made it look like it’s a deliberate foul. Plenty for Colin Shindler, Jon Holmes and Patrick Barclay to get their collective teeth into here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices…

1
84. Those We Have Lost In 2024 (and also remembering Denis Law) 49:40

hace un año49:40

49:40

A change of pace for Football Ruined My Life this week. In this podcast we’re looking back at football players and managers who died during 2024. Clearly we can only deal with a handful of the many who left us last year but what follows is the choice of Jon Holmes, Paddy Barclay and Colin Shindler as they discuss the lives and careers of the football men who meant something to them and whom they wish to honour in this brief tribute. Not so much a eulogy but a celebration… so still pretty upbeat. That said, the episode ends with additional memories - of Denis Law, who died after the original episode was recorded and for whom we could not wait for an Obituary programme looking back at 2025. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices…

1
83. The One With Ian Storey-Moore 42:26

hace un año42:26

42:26

The prolific goal-scoring winger Ian Storey-Moore turns 80 on the day this episode was published... and Football Ruined My Life has chosen to mark the occasion by giving him the greatest present a footballer of the 1960s and 1970s could possibly want - a guest appearance on the podcast with Paddy Barclay, Jon Holmes and Colin Shindler. A star forward in the nearly great Nottingham Forest team of the late 1960s but forced into early retirement by a bad injury shortly after his controversial transfer to Manchester United, Ian stayed in the game as a scout, particularly with Martin O'Neill during his time as manager of Aston Villa. His views on football then and now are fascinating and will entertain you as if you were actually at his birthday party. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices…

1
82. Centre forwards vs False 9s 52:51

hace un año52:51

52:51

Real centre forwards were old fashioned battering rams like Nat Lofthouse, Ted Drake of the great Arsenal side of the 1930s and Bobby Smith the rampaging leader of the Spurs double winning attack. As football has become more skilful, they have largely been replaced by False 9s as they are now called or deep-lying centre forwards as they were in the days of Don Revie and the Hungarian Hidegkuti. Jon Holmes, Patrick Barclay and Jon Holmes panel discuss the impact on the game of the change and surprisingly all three of them retain a nostalgic love of the centre forwards of their youth. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices…

1
81. The One With Michael Rosen 54:30

hace un año54:30

54:30

He’s a well-known and much liked voice on Radio 4’s Word of Mouth programme as well as Professor of Children’s Literature at Goldsmiths, University of London. But Michael Rosen is this week’s guest on Football Ruined My Life because he is a genuine Gooner - as visitors to the Emirates Stadium can see when they observe him depicted on the famous mural next to his late son Eddie and Gunnersaurus. First introduced to the game by his father, a fan from the Herbert Chapman glory days, Michael has been a fixture at Highbury and the Emirates since the 1950s and his reminiscences are conveyed in the podcast with his trademark humour and insight. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices…

1
80. Our Third Postbag 38:10

hace un año38:10

38:10

As a New Year’s gift, the panel come bearing the bulging postbag containing our listeners’ emails. Once again we can report a high standard of literacy and a comfortingly accurate recall of matches and teams from the dim recesses of all our childhoods. One correspondent, the self-styled King Arthur, a Liverpudlian now living in Malibu California, has written enough emails to fill three editions but he is joined as ever by the reminiscences of our widely diverse (though principally over the age of fifty) regular listeners and correspondents to whet the appetite for what is to come in 2025. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices…

1
79. Yuletide Matches 45:40

hace un año45:40

45:40

Colin Shindler, Jon Holmes and Paddy Barclay wish all our listeners a very merry Christmas and we do so by recalling Christmas time matches from long ago. With far less choice on offer, both on television and on the dining room table, football at Christmas provided a fabulous feast of entertainment, the climax to which came on Boxing Day in 1963 when to everyone’s astonishment a record number of 66 goals were scored in the 10 First Division fixtures alone. Has the mass globalisation of the modern game in recent years had any impact on the distinctive Englishness of Yuletide matches? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices…

1
78. Utility Players 42:33

hace un año42:33

42:33

1
77. Brits Abroad 40:56

hace un año40:56

40:56

Colin Shindler, Paddy Barclay and Jon Holmes discuss the phenomenon of Brits Abroad, those British footballers who made the transition to the sun, sangria and shenanigans of playing for foreign teams. Jon of course became a one-man Lunn PolyTravel Agency for his clients in the 1980s but the phenomenon of British footballers travelling to foreign climes began early in the postwar years with the Bogata bandits. With the exception of John Charles and Gerry Hitchens, English exports to European clubs in the 1950s and 1960s were generally not a great success. But after Kevin Keegan went to SV Hamburg in 1977 it all began to change until the arrival of the Premier League’s wealth reversed the direction of the flow of traffic across the Channel. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices…

1
76. Screamers… 43:45

hace un año43:45

43:45

… is the word frequently given to goals scored, usually from outside the penalty box, like drawings in a Roy of the Rovers cartoon that bring the crowd to a fever pitch of excitement. Unless of course the goal has been scored by the opposition. In which case the spectacular goal will be suffered in a mute and somewhat resentful silence, one in which the unfairness of Life in general and the existence of God in particular is contemplated. Jon Holmes, Paddy Barclay and Colin Shindler discuss whether there are fewer screamers about these days than in the days of their youth and if so why that should be the case. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices…

1
75. 1992 43:11

hace un año43:11

43:11

It was the year of the Sky revolution in football but for Jon Holmes it was also the end of Gary Lineker’s career in England as he prepared to move to Japan and ultimately into the television studio. Leeds United won the last First Division and their manager Howard Wilkinson was the last English manager to win the championship. It was the year that saw an unfancied Denmark team win the Euros and John Major return to Downing Street by beating Neil Kinnock. It was a year that provided Paddy Barclay, Colin Shindler and Jon Holmes with much to discuss. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices…

1
74. Favourite Games 42:43

hace un año42:43

42:43

Paddy Barclay, Jon Holmes and Colin Shindler talk about their favourite match and, to help them to do so, each of them invites as a guest on the podcast a player who took part in that match. If we could all take 8 matches to a desert island populated only by Roy Plomley and at some point you would be asked: “If seven of your matches were washed away which one match would you save from the waves?” Today the panel attempts to answer that question. Although, inevitably each of the games are won respectively by Dundee, Leicester City and Manchester City, the choice of games might surprise. The welcome appearance of Gary Lineker on this episode probably doesn’t. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices…

1
73. Wingers 46:32

hace un año46:32