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Only If You Get Caught

Defector Media

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 explore what bending or breaking the rules tells us about ourselves. 

Created by Patrick Redford, Alex Sujong Laughlin, and Defector Media.  

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  • 11 episodes
  • fortnightly
  • Avg 26 min
  • English

Episodes 11

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  • S2 · E1
    September 15 · 31 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. It’s produced by Alex Sujong Laughlin, with production support from Harry Krinsky. Justin Ellis is Defector’s projects editor. Mixing by Samantha Gattsek Show art by Jim Cooke. Jasper Wang and Tim Faust are Defector’s business guys. Thank you to the Defector staff. Defector Media is a collectively owned, subscriber based media company. Only If You Get Caught is a proud member of Radiotopia.

  • S1 · E8
    January 27 · 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 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 guys. Thank you to the Defector staff. Defector Media is a collectively owned, subscriber based media company. Only If You Get Caught is a proud member of Radiotopia. If you like the show, the best way to help us is a five-star rating and review wherever you are listening right now.

  • S1 · E7
    January 13 · 30 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 guarantor of exploitation. This episode looks at the Stalions scandal, places it in the correct context, and looks at the evolution of the NCAA through its legal challenges. Episode transcript: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1g9Z0ZEQa1elN_0BgB0sD6K11z0sq7fQAcn1SSFMm-7Y/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 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 guys. Thank you to the Defector staff. Defector Media is a collectively owned, subscriber based media company. Only If You Get Caught is a proud member of Radiotopia. If you like the show, the best way to help us is a five-star rating and review wherever you are listening right now.

  • S1 · E6
    Dec 30, 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: https://docs.google.com/document/d/10JmE5S9OfKupVjPAh_rOLCCywussI5wDr1mNqWZQq5o/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 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 guys. Thank you to the Defector staff. Defector Media is a collectively owned, subscriber based media company. Only If You Get Caught is a proud member of Radiotopia. If you like the show, the best way to help us is a five-star rating and review wherever you are listening right now.

  • S1 · E5
    Dec 16, 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 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 guys. Thank you to the Defector staff. Defector Media is a collectively owned, subscriber based media company. Only If You Get Caught is a proud member of Radiotopia. If you like the show, the best way to help us is a five-star rating and review wherever you are listening right now.

  • Dec 2, 2025 · 26 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 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 guys. Thank you to the Defector staff. Defector Media is a collectively owned, subscriber based media company. Only If You Get Caught is a proud member of Radiotopia. If you like the show, the best way to help us is a five-star rating and review wherever you are listening right now.

  • S1 · E4
    Nov 18, 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 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 guys. Thank you to the Defector staff. Defector Media is a collectively owned, subscriber based media company. Only If You Get Caught is a proud member of Radiotopia. If you like the show, the best way to help us is a five-star rating and review wherever you are listening right now.

  • S1 · E2
    Nov 4, 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 here. 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 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 guys. Thank you to the Defector staff. Defector Media is a collectively owned, subscriber based media company. Only If You Get Caught is a proud member of Radiotopia. If you like the show, the best way to help us is a five-star rating and review wherever you are listening right now.

  • S1 · E1
    Oct 21, 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 guys. Thank you to the Defector staff. Defector Media is a collectively owned, subscriber based media company. Only If You Get Caught is a proud member of Radiotopia. If you like the show, the best way to help us is a five-star rating and review wherever you are listening right now.

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