Does soccer still “Explain the World” or at least globalization's shortcomings?

In 2004, an American author wrote a best-selling book, "How Soccer Explains the World." Like DavidG with this topic, the author was using a World Cup year to make some broader points. Franklin Foer's were about how globalization changed the world. He emphasized that the benefits of economic integration and the political and cultural interdependence it brought about had many benefits to many people all over the world. But he also used modern, globalized soccer to illustrate some of globalization's failures and some of the old problems it had not done much to solve or even made worse (like tribal loyalties and toxic nationalisms). The problems he wrote about about were economic, political, and cultural. Now, a quarter of a century has passed. Where has globalization taken us? Join CivCon on July 13th, the day before the Cup semifinals begin, to discuss today's challenges of globalization and integration. We also can focus on the many, huge benefits globalization has brought us, and on emerging challenges like AI and new forms of fragility in the system. Oh BTW, what sport or form of entertainment best "explains" the United States? Baseball? NASCAR? Gaming? Shopping? It was on the White House lawn, but please don't say ultimate fighting! BTW, II: This makes two economic-related topics in a row. The last one in July won't be. Background Readings - * TBA, and they won't be very hard reads that require a lot of economic background.