Noble Blood - The Princess Who Wrestled for Her Future

Episode Date: November 21, 2023

Khutulun was a 13th century Mongolian princess born in the war-torn years after Genghis Khan's massive empire began falling apart at the seams. She fought valiantly at her father's side to defend his Khanate, but when it came to marriage she made a demand: she would only marry a man who could beat her in a wrestling match. Support Noble Blood: — Bonus episodes, stickers, and scripts on Patreon — Merch! — Order Dana's book, 'Anatomy: A Love Story' and its sequel 'Immortality: A Love Story'See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-heart podcast. Guaranteed Human. Will Ferrell's Big Money Players and IHart Podcast presents soccer moms. So I'm Leanne. Yeah. This is my best friend, Janet. Hey. And we have been joined at the hips since high school.

Absolutely. A redacted amount of years later, we're still joined at the hip. Just a little bit bigger hips. This is a podcast. We're recording it as we tailgate our youth soccer games in the back of my Honda Odyssey. With all the snacks and drinks. Why did you get hard seltzer instead of beer? They hit a bogo. Well, then you got them. Listen to soccer moms on the IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Welcome to Noble Blood, a production of IHeart Radio and grim and mild from Aaron Manky. Listener discretion advised. In 1271, the Italian explorer Marco Polo set off for China from his home in Venice at the age of 17. You've probably heard of Marco Polo. On his adventures, he encountered all manner of marvels, islands replete with rare spices, sumptuous courts, even testimony about strange, huge, and exotic serpents with long, jagged mouths, or, as we might know them, crocodiles. After Marco Polo had spent nearly 20 years in the court of the Chinese emperor,

he finally decided to return home. But there was no chance he could go back the way he came. An unexpected war had flared up in the very center of Asia, where trade caravans passed between the eastern and western parts of the continent. Marco Polo had no choice but to sail around Asia to reach Persia in order to ultimately get back to Venice. He commanded 14 ships that allowed him to avoid the perils of trekking through the mountains, and after a few years, Markopolo finally docked at the Persian port city of Hormuz.

As with every location he found himself in, he began listening for news that might prove helpful for the rest of his journey. It turned out that the wars still raged in Central Asia, But there was more. Marco Polo was a collector of legends and stories, and there was one story from the war that captivated him. One of the armies was being led by a woman. No, not just a woman, a giantess whose face was allegedly as alluring as the moon, and whose arms were apparently strong enough to move mountains.

Of course, Marco Polo had heard of rare cases of women leading armies in Europe, but none as seemingly strong as this mysterious Kutaloon. Marco Polo recorded the scattered rumors he heard and moved along toward home. How much of what Marco Polo heard about this so-called giantess is true, Even if Marco Polo's book that he wrote about his journey was based on a real journey to China, which is actually debatable, historians today recognize that Marco Polo's account is at the least highly embellished. It was made to entertain readers, not simply, quote, transmit information about the East. If we can't be certain that Marco Polo didn't at best embellish the hearing, the hearing,

say he jotted down, how can we be certain that Kutaloon, this mythical giantess, even existed? As a matter of fact, we have good reason to believe that she did exist, though between you and me, she probably wasn't a giantess. Writing in 1307, the Persian historian Rashid al-Din compiled an expansive history of Mongolian royalty around the same time that Marco Polo's travels were being published. In his account, Rashid al-Din also mentions Kutalun and also refers to her unusual capabilities on the battlefield. We don't have any exceptional sources on Kutalun besides Markopolo and Rashid al-Din, and even they wrap this obscure figure in layers of of myth-making. The task of excavating the historical Kutaloon is made extra difficult by the fact

that so much of her persona became the basis for Italian plays in the 18th century, and in German theater in the 19th, and in romantic opera in the 20th. Much of our modern interpretation of Kutaloon is colored by these works of high art? Can we cut through the mist of hearsay, dramatization, and mythology, to parse apart any certain truths about the royal giantess? The name Kutaloon is often translated from Mongolian as Moonlight or Face of the Moon. That's an apt descriptor for our heroine

because the face she presents changes depending on who is telling her story and when her story is being told, whether by a Venetian merchant in the 13th century, a Persian historian in the 14th, or an Italian composer in the 20th. For now, let's assume Marco Polo's perspective. When he docked in the port of Hormuz off the Persian Gulf, he didn't just hear rumblings of yet another conflict

between the Mongolian successor states. At the very center of that geopolitical drama was another smaller drama, a wrestling competition of all things, and a princess who offered her hand in marriage to any man who could best her. As the legend goes, none could. It's a great story. No wonder Marco Polo wanted to write it down. I'm Dana Schwartz, and this is Noble Blood. When Kutaloon was born in 1260, nothing marked her as particularly special compared to the rest of the royal family.

She was the daughter of Kaidu, the Khan or ruler, of much of Central Asia, and great-grandson of Genghis Khan. But we don't even know the name of Kutaloon's mother. Kutalun was probably born in what is now Kazakhstan, in or around the busy trading town of Kaelic, situated on a step in between a massive freshwater lake to the north and snow-capped mountains to the south. This city, like so many others in the emerging Chagatai Khanat, bustled with trade. Think of a connet like a smaller, less formal kingdom,

but with its own system of government and leader. Mongol soldiers and settlers technically dominated the land, but local farmers carried on with their crops. Turkish nomads, proselytized Islam, Persian statesmen offered their political expertise, and even the occasional European, took lodging as they hunted for lucrative spices. The world that Kutaloon was born into,

one that connected goods, gold, and good ideas from all four corners of the globe was only possible because of the rapid and ruthless, expansion of the Mongols over much of the Asian continent, starting in 1206. In his lifetime, Genghis Khan and his legions forged an empire that spanned all the way from Russia to the Korean peninsula. But just as soon as Genghis Khan and his descendants subjugated these lands, their unified empire began to fall apart at the seams. It was already an enormous challenge to govern new lands, let alone half a continent. In the decades leading up to Kutaloon's birth in

1260, the unified Mongol empire effectively dissolved into four smaller empires. But of course, the next generations of royalty dreamed of stitching the once great empire back together. Kutaloon's great uncle Kubla Khan, the emperor of China that Marco Polo ventured off to meet, tried to force Kaidu Kutalan's father into accepting his right to rule all of Central Asia. It was naturally quite difficult for Kubla Khan to do that from China thousands of miles away, so he began with an invitation. Kaidu would set off for Kubla Khan's court, recognize his cousin as overlord in a customary oath-swearing, and then march back to his home in the child.

Agatai Khanate. That sounds okay, but Kaidu wasn't buying it. For every invitation that Kubla Khan sent, Kaidu came up with a very convenient excuse of why he couldn't go. In one case, Kaidu's herds were apparently too lean to travel the vast distance between their cities, so Kaidu suggested they try again next year. Next year didn't happen either. Kydu understood that any show a fealty to Kubla Khan would undermine his own freedom in Central Asia,

including his freedom to tax the rivers of spice, gold, and silk, parading in and out of his cities. There were other cultural tensions that underwrote Kai Du's strategic refusal to submit to his cousin. Kubla Khan and his clan members had adapted their empire to the Uplokane. the Chinese systems that had preceded them, building a state that was agricultural, centralized, and more or less sedentary. That was a far cry from what Kaidu considered a more traditional Mongolian ethic, pastoral, decentralized nomadic. Kaidu believed it was important that he provide his children a more traditional Mongolian upbringing. Where most princesses of the medieval world lived restricted lives, destined for political marriages, Kutaloon was exposed to a

rougher life right from the beginning. In her pastoral community, children learned to use the bow and arrow from a young age. Boys were expected to guard larger animals like camels and the cows that roamed across the plains, while girls were tasked with protecting the sheep and goats that grazed closer to home. Young Kutaloon thrived in this environment. She quickly developed expertise in the traditional Mongol arts of horse riding, archery, and wrestling, to the awe and discontent of her 14 brothers. Rashid al-Din writes somewhat derisively that Kutaloon, quote, went around like a boy.

Kutelun's prodigious fighting skills were also likely inspired by the chaos that ensued from her father's earlier conflicts with Kubla Khan, her great uncle. According to a tradition solidified during the reign of Genghis Khan, all major representatives of the royal families needed to recognize an overlord for his rule to stand as legitimate. Kyud's refusal of an overlord, therefore, gave Kubla Khan no choice but to demand obedience by force. He dispatched a general named Barak to capture the lands under Kaidu's control. Barack first ambushed Kaidu in a crushing defeat, but Kutalun's father was not one to back down so easily. What information we have about him suggests that he was forgiving and generous at court and cold and rational on the battlefield. Rushad al-Din writes that he never took wine, salt, or kumis, traditional fermented milk alcohol,

a characterization that, whether true or not, corresponds with the attitude Khaidu had when he pursued his military and political ambitions. suffering from temporary losses, Kaidu called upon the support of his cousins to the north and surprised Barack with a force of over 60,000, overwhelming him and effectively securing control over the Chagatai lands. As Kaidu pressed his advantage over Kubla Khan in the following decades and repressed descent from lesser lords,

he increasingly called upon the support. port of his daughter. Markopolo, dedicating a whole chapter to the warrior princess, had this choice description of her military prowess. Quote, Kutaloon's father never went on a campaign without her, and gladly he took her, for not a knight in all his train played such feats of arms as she did. Sometimes she would quit her father's side and make a dash at the host of the enemy, and seize some man thereout, as deftly as a hawk pounces on a bird, and carry him to her father." And quote.

Politically prominent Mongolian women were not something new. Queens took over as regents in between the death of a Khan and the election of a successor. Sometimes they ruled for several years. Some royal women became heroines of the Connets founding mythology. like Altani, the wife of one of Genghis Khan's generals who saved his heir from kidnappers. Even before Genghis Khan, Mongolian folklore passed down stories of warrior queens who took up arms and led hosts in dire times. But Kutaloon wasn't fighting out of dire need. This wasn't a desperate rescue mission, and her renown didn't come from a connection to any man,

let alone a husband. That's exactly what troubled her father's court. If Rashid al-Din's dismissive comments on Kutaloon's military ambitions are any indication, many onlookers saw her dismissal of typical feminine duties as condemnable, certainly a line of rhetoric that her brothers utilized as they tried in vain to bring their father's attention back to them, the supposedly true heirs to the royal estates. The traditional spirituality espoused during Genghis Khan's reign supported harmony between the masculine sky and the feminine earth.

Did Kutaloon's peers see her military leadership as a benefit or a disruption to that harmony? Whether for optics or from personal conviction, Kaidu decreed that his daughter Kutaloon would marry. But there was no chance he could ever compel her to marry any particular suitor. Kutaloon would be allowed to choose her own bridegroom. In this case, the courting would take place within the confines of a wrestling pit. For a con like Kaidu, the marriages of his children represented opportunities

for useful political alliances. To his daughters, those marriages would prove troublesome. Kutaloon's younger sister Kutuchin married young, but during her first pregnancy, her husband unexpectedly, fell in love with an enslaved girl. Affairs weren't uncommon, but affairs laid out in public by the very parties involved were, well, not quite strategic.

In one account of the story, Kutuchin's husband approached his father-in-law, Kaidu, with the enslaved girl he loved in hand, naively pleading with him to recognize their relationship as a marriage and scrap the former one, you know, his marriage to Kaidu's daughter. Kaidu had the man executed on the spot. A different account tells us that actually Kutuchin confronted her husband. after discovering the affair, at which point her husband supposedly bit and killed her. Not the most conventional way of murdering your royal wife? Kutcheon's brothers protested that Khaidu should execute their murderous brother-in-law,

but the Khan, in this story, resists by arguing that this wouldn't save their already bitten-to-death sister. In this story, Kaidu instead issues 100 lashes, set his son-in-law free, and even goes so far in his magnanimity as to give a different one of his daughters to the man as a bride, since his sons, quote, could not allow a stranger to take their sister's place. If this probably apocryphal set of stories tells us anything, it's that whatever safety or autonomy royal women achieved in familial politics, could easily be violated through an unfit marriage. Women became expendable when it was politically convenient for the surrounding ruling men of the connet. In one case, Kutaloon's great-a-a-a-a-a-a-lact elicited public humiliation for simply disagreeing with a minister of her husband's court.

That minister went on to execute the great-a-daughter-in-law for adultery without a legal proceeding, violating Angus Khan's prior mandate that no member of the royal family could be killed without some collective agreement. As historian Jack Weatherford argues, the era in which Kutaloon lived and fought in marked the beginning of Mongol women's erasure from political life. Regardless of the rich tradition of powerful historical Mongol women, In her lifetime, Kutaloon was the exception, not the rule.

If Kutaloon had to marry, she would only marry a man who could beat her in a wrestling match. The chances of her finding such a man quickly was probably pretty slim. After all, she had dominated the very best of her father's enemies on the battlefield for years. Markopolo writes that Kutaloon sent challenges to worthy opponents. across several kingdoms on the following terms. The first winner receives her hand in marriage, but every man must wager 100 horses to enter the competition. According to the traditional rules of Mongolian wrestling or Bach,

the first competitor to touch the ground with something other than their feet loses the match. Many a cocky nobleman entered the gauntlet only to be thrown down and utterly humiliated. Kutaloon allegedly won 10,000 horses, vanquishing suitors until an exceptionally renowned nobleman entered the picture, with a new wager, won thousand horses for a chance to win her hand. Naturally, her father, and depending on the source, also possibly Kutaloon's mother, begged Kutaloon to throw the match. his account, Marco Polo does not identify the prince for us, but he claims he was the son of a great king, which really isn't that helpful. But the point is that Kutaloon's parents saw this

nobleman as the chance for their wild daughter to secure a prosperous future for herself and their lineage. In one account, Kutaloon staunchly resists her parents' pleas. In another, she agrees, but then something snaps upon entering the ring, hearing the roar of the crowd, seeing across from her an opponent worthy of equal status. The two wrestlers locked arms for minutes on end, neither able to get the better of the other, until finally Kutaloon threw the prince down, collected his multiplied wager, and mortified, both him and her family. Marco Polo's version of the story ends on this high note, almost like a fairy tale,

Kutaloon defeating the man that people wanted her to throw the match to. But the pot-stirring Rashid al-Din carries the tale a little further. After several years without a planned marriage, insidious rumors spread, claiming that Kutaloon and her father, Khaidu, had an incestuous relationship. Out of shame, Kutaloon finally relented and chose a man to marry. But even in this story, I think it's important to remember, she chooses the man. She was never bested by a suitor in the wrestling pit one-on-one.

In this version of the story, the man she chose, Abtacul, is said to have been, quote, vigorous, tall, and handsome. Like so many of the other figures in Kutaloon's life, we know little about him except he was of noble ancestry and that the couple raised two sons. But there was no chance Kutaloon would settle down for an unexciting, sedentary, domestic life. She campaigned with her father until the very end.

Her leadership in her father's army was indispensable in the face of a massive geopolitical shift brewing to the east. Kubla Khan died in 1294 after decades of directing most of his political and military attention to invasions of Korea and Japan. Kubla Khan's successor, Timur, quickly relinquished those commitments and turned his attention to the West, where he made attempts to force the unruly Central Asian warlords to recognize Chinese rule once and for all.

The ensuing campaign was disruptive enough to deter Marco Polo from traveling on the overland route back to Venice. The 70-year-old Kaidu did his best to deflect the impending invasion, and with the help of his daughter, they kept Temur in check. After one hard-fought battle on September 3rd, 1301, Kaidu ultimately took an arrow wound that would prove fatal a month later. Rashid al-Din mentions that Kutaloon's father was buried in the mountains, where in one version of the story, Kutaloon and her husband lived modestly and guarded her father's burial place

until her death four years later. In another version of the story, more reflective of the relationship between Kidu and Kutaloon, It said that the Khan agitated for his daughter to be the one to succeed him before he died. Each of her 14 brothers nearly revolted in response. In yet another compromise, Kutaloon remained the general of her father's elite military, while her brother, Orris, took the mantle of government. Their rule collapsed within four years, and the wrestler princess died under unclear circumstances. But the world that she and her father had made out of the dramatic collapse of the Mongol Empire

had lasting consequences. Never again would a unified Mongol power tame the autonomous step of Central Asia. Parsing through the different versions of Kuchelun's narrative yields an image of an amicable relationship between a father who struggled to keep his fledgling empire intact, and a daughter whose skills lent themselves to that task. For all we know, Khadu and Kutulun were on great terms, but reading between the lines yields a slightly different, more complex picture.

The Khan may have offered Kutalun the chance to choose her own husband, but both Marco Polo and Rashid al-Din indicate that this was a privilege that she had to fight for. And fight she did. The warrior princess, as luminous as the moon and stable as the Altae Mountains, carved a space for herself within the confines of a world that didn't want her to take that space. Every compromise was just as much a sign of her subjugation as it was of her power. Nearly four centuries after Kutaloon's death, the French diplomat, Francois Petit Delacroix, was sent by the court of Louis XIV to Persia in 1674, where he stumbled upon the strange and strangely familiar story of a Mongol princess-turned wrestler. For a hundred years, the English and French sponsored diplomatic missions to the Ottoman and Sefavid empires to advance their mercantile interests abroad.

It was always useful to have someone who could speak the language of your competitor. Laquois was part of that political tradition, but like so many of his contemporaries, the so-called Orient also stoked his intellectual curiosity. His father wrote the definitive biography of Genghis Khan, so the young man had rather big shoes to fill. His interests ranged from mystical poetry to biblical artifacts, But upon returning to France, Laquois turned his attention on translating a compendium of stories he had acquired on his travels. You've probably heard of 1001 Nights, a frame narrative featuring nested stories, stories including Aladdin's lamp and Alibaba and the 40 Thieves.

Laquois was the first European to translate the companion set of stories, known as 1,000. For centuries, the last contact European readers had with Kutaloon was Marco Polo's vague descriptions. At last, Lecois breathed new life into her character, though not without major changes to the story. Orientalists like Lecois often misconstrued dates, names, even whole narratives, as they translated from one language to another. The so-called Orient became one big mesh of homogeneous ideas and pictures. Think Agriba in Disney's Aladdin. Where in the world exactly is Agrippa supposed to be? Laquod didn't exactly translate a new version of Kutaloon's stories.

Rather, he conflated elements of her story with another narrative, taken from the 12th century Persian poet Nizami, specifically the narrative of Turnedot, literally the daughter of Turin. Turnedot had also tested suitors for her hand in marriage, except, unlike Kucheloon's test, Turnedot's test was a series of riddles, and the price of failure was the suitor's head, not 100 horses. And if you're more familiar with the opera, and you're wondering why I'm pronouncing Turnaudot with a tea, It's because the word is Persian and Puccini, like me, wasn't great at pronunciation. But in this case, the Persian word is Ternod.

To 18th century European audiences, Ternadat and Coutaloon were more or less the same person, despite the fact that one was a fictional poetic character and the other was a historical princess. In 1762, the Italian playwright Carlo Gazi picked up the story. of Turnedot as the basis for a new comedy full of playful, irreverent characters. Turnedot was a hit in 18th century Venice, but it wasn't until 1802 when Kuteloon's European legacy would reach astronomical heights. The German poet Friedrich Schiller translated Gozi's

playful screenplay into a sincere and heavily symbolic love story, and he produced the the play with a man who was none other than Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. They treated their aristocratic audiences to an abstracted fairy tale version of Kutaloon. In this version of the play, the audacious nobleman, Kalaif, agrees to compete in Ternadot's test of riddles for her hand in marriage. Turnedot, meanwhile, is motivated to put up as many barriers between her, and her suitors as possible, because for some unexplained reason, she just hates the male sex. Kalloff guesses the answers to her riddles in a matter of minutes.

Spoiler alert, the answers are all Christian virtues like faith, hope, and finally, love. But seeing that Ternadot is unhappy with the outcome, Kallif agrees to his own execution, if she can guess his name, in the course. course of a day. So there's a little bit of rumble stilt skin in here too. Unable to do so, Tarnadot is won over by Kallaf's selflessness. He melts her ice-cold heart through the power of love. Ternadat cries out in the final lines, could I then, after all this, look down in scorn on men? No, and may heaven forgive me all I did that made me seem a monster in men's sight. Kutaloon embodied strength that exceeded even her fiercest male competitors.

Ternadot, in fiction, was given a frail frame and an intelligent mind, though not so intelligent as to outwit the hero Kulov. In history, Kutaloon crushed every suitor in acts of glorious defiance. Turnedot's ice-cold heart was land to conquer. Kutaloon in the end got to choose her husband. Turnedat really makes no such choice. Far from an agent in her own life, Turnedat is essentially a prize for the hero,

a heavily distorted reflection of the Mongol princess who once decimated armies like a hawk. Giacomo Puccini created the most famous reproduction of Turnedot in his 1924 opera of the same. name. One solo from Puccini's work may be the single most famous moment in opera history. Coincidentally, that solo has Cullough proclaiming Ternadat as his wife. The real Kutaloon and her victories have all but disappeared from view. Lying underneath every depiction of the fictional Ternadot, behind every closed curtain at her opera, is a real,

princess whose life was incomprehensible to the framework of gender that modern Europe had developed and then projected onto the world. Perhaps opera goers in Vienna and Milan would have reacted to Kutaloon just as Rashid al-Din did, dismissive of her for going around like a boy. That's not the type of heroine anyone wants to see in an opera. But for all we know, the real Kutaloon would have warn that criticism like a badge of honor. That's the story of the real historical Kutaloon, but keep listening after a brief sponsor break to hear a little bit more about how her legacy continues in the present day. You can have opinions, you can have like a strong stance, and then there's your body having its own program. I'm Dr. Maya Shunker, a cognitive scientist,

and hosts of the podcast a slight change of plans, a show about who we are and who we become when life makes other plans. We share stories and scientific insights to help us all better navigate these periods of turbulence and transformation. There is one finding that is consistent, and that is that our resilience rests on our relationships.

I wish that I hadn't resisted for so long the need to change. We have to be willing to live with a, kind of uncertainty that none of us likes. Listen to a slight change of plans on the I-HeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. You can have opinions. You can have like a strong stance. And then there's your body having its own program.

I'm Dr. Maya Shunker, a cognitive scientist and hosts of the podcast, a slight change of plans, a show about who we are and who we become when life makes other plans. We share stories and scientific insights to help us all better navigate these periods of turbulence and transformation. There is one finding that is consistent, and that is that our resilience rests on our relationships. I wish that I hadn't resisted for so long the need to change. We have to be willing to live with a kind of uncertainty that none of us likes. Listen to a slight change of plans on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcast. or wherever you get your podcasts.

Every year in the midst of summer, Mongolia gears up for NADAM, literally games. A traditional festival featuring acrobatic performances and athletic competitions. Youth face off in horse riding and archery. But the most beloved sport is to this day wrestling. There have probably been major aesthetic and policy changes in wrestling since the 13th century. namely no more wagering horses for your opponent's hand in marriage, but otherwise the main premise is pretty much the same. The first to touch the ground with a part of their body besides their feet loses.

Before and after the match, competitors perform an eagle dance that represents the mythical Garuda bird, symbolizing bravery and grace, though each region has its own style of pre, and post-match rituals. Thousands of men compete yearly, and depending on your ranking in an overall tournament, they're bestowed with different titles like elephant, lion, or giant.

The general perception is that these traditions also symbolize an uninterrupted inheritance from the mythologized founding of Mongolia under Genghis Khan, who himself used wrestling as a method of keeping his troops in shape. One particularly unusual element in contemporary Mongolian wrestling is the costume that the athletes wear, a two-piece suit that covers one's shoulders, arms, and back, but opens to reveal the chest. Theories have circulated on the origins of the uniform, but one of the most prominent explanations credits Kutaloon. As Mongolian military,

and athletic institutions over the centuries gradually began marginalizing women, it was considered far too inappropriate for a woman to compete in a sport seen as the domain of men. Some suggest that the wrestling uniforms open torso emerged as a way for the audience to confirm that all participants were indeed male. The winner of the competition would raise their arms, at the end of a match, not only to celebrate, but also to clarify their sex to the audience. To this day, while women are allowed to compete in horse riding and archery, they are barred from traditional wrestling matches. This genealogy is all very speculative, but there is something rather poetic about male wrestlers still motivated by the fear of suffering a humiliation.

humiliating defeat at the hands of a woman. Kuta Lern's reputation continues after her. Noble Blood is a production of I-Heart Radio and Grim and Mild from Aaron Manky. Noble Blood is created and hosted by me, Dana Schwartz, with additional writing and researching by Hannah Johnston, Hannah Zwick, Mira Hayward, Courtney Sender, and Lori Goodman. The show is edited and produced by Noemi Griffin and Rima Il K. Ali with supervising producer Josh Thane and executive producers Aaron Manke, Alex Williams, and Matt Frederick. For more podcasts from IHeartRadio, visit the IHartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.

Will Ferrell's Big Money Players and IHart Podcasts presents Soccer Boms. So I'm Leanne. Yeah. This is my best friend, Janet. Hey. And we have been joined at the hips since high school. Absolutely. A redacted amount of years later, we're still joined at the hip.

Just a little bit bigger hips. This is a podcast. We're recording it as we tailgate our youth soccer games in the back of my Honda Odyssey. With all the snacks and drinks. Why did you get hard seltzer instead of beer? Oh, they had a bogo. Well, then you got it. Listen to soccer moms on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

This is an IHeart podcast. Guaranteed human