The World Cup is healing us

Today, Explained

The 2026 Men's World Cup in the U.S. is fostering global unity despite political tensions, showcasing America’s soft power through cultural exchange and hospitality. The tournament highlights both joyous fan experiences

Key takeaways

• World Cup boosts American soft power amid political isolation

Transcript preview

No one could blame you if you thought this men's world cup was going to be a disaster. The president of the United States isn't exactly a welcome mat for the world and there have been plenty of embarrassing stories for the country. There was the mom of Cape Bird's goalkeeper who wasn't let into the United States to watch her son play until the team started doing well and people clamored for her entry. The team from Dr. Congo had him made a men's world cup in 52 years and hardly made this one because the United States was supposedly worried about Ebola even though on the team had Ebola. If you were watching Senegal, Norway last week and we're wondering where all the Senegalese fans were, they weren't let into the country, but you probably noticed we let in like a million Vikings? I wonder what's different about their fan bases? Oh and who could forget we're literally bombing one of the countries that up until Friday it was playing here. missiles aren't the problem. But somehow the vibes at this World Cup are mostly positive. The World Cup might just be healing us on today explained from Vox. Megan Rapino here. This week on a touchmore, the beautiful game, I am sitting down with fashion designer, DJ, and the Washington Spirit's first ever creative director, Domo Wells, in her LA studio. We talk about Domo's unusual path towards sports fandom and how her work as a DJ makes her a better designer. And what designing for women's athletes and their fans should actually look like. Check out the latest episode of a touch more, wherever you get your podcast and on YouTube. Support for today explained comes from fetch. Fetch is pet insurance if you hadn't figured it out. Do you have a pet? According to a study from A pet insurance company from a few years ago every six seconds a pet owner in the US gets hit with a vet bill over a thousand dollars and it almost never comes at a convenient time. So check out fetch you get paid up to 90% of vet bills you can use fetch for any any vet in the US and Canada. Every vet is in network go to fetch pet.com slash save right now for your free quote. That's fetch pet.com slash save. Are you a big fan of the footy? Oh man, I would not say I am a sports knower per se. I would say I am an appreciator of like things that make people all get together and be like really happy and excited and bond in a big group. But this is why you ended up writing a piece for Vox titled The World Cup is showing what Trump can't destroy. about America. I think that the World Cup has been such an unmissible story in the culture for the past few weeks, even for non-sports knowers like me, and trying to figure out why and how is really, really exciting and interesting to me. And what are you seeing that has peaked your interest? Because from what I'm getting it isn't like messy's hat trick. Or messy breaking the all-time World Cup scoring goal. Missy, messy, or messy, you know, like staking his claim for a second consecutive World Cup for Argentina. really taken over my social media feeds for the past little while has been all these videos of World Cup tourists from overseas coming to America and just like loving it. Like they're so excited about like the red fire trucks. I've just gone to Walgreens but there's a fire station right outside. I'm gonna go ask if I can go have a look at the fire engines. endless soda refills at restaurants and really big grocery stores. Okay I'm here in Florida, this is West Palm I think and that is Publix. I love buggies. It's so cute. I love this cookie. And it's just it's so charming and delightful to watch and I kind of wanted to feel like, well, why am I so delighted by these things? are really exciting because they show how deeply embedded the idea of America is across the world. People around the globe grow up watching American TV and movies, like they look at a yellow school bus and they say, well I've seen that on the Simpsons. Like this is like walking into a fictional universe. Hey dad, how come you never taking us to see a soccer game? I don't know. And I think that's a real reminder of something that America has kind of struggled with under this presidential administration, which is people from other countries liking us. That's something that we used to actually be really good at. What a lot of people see and like about this World Cup right now, not just in the United States, but Canada, Mexico, is the cultural exchange. It's like Mexicans dancing with Koreans. It's a Japanese guy giving an interview to like an American brought in Dallas. Okay. USA. USA. Japan and USA. I love it. Okay. But you write about soft power specifically and and how it relates to the president and how this World Cup is offsetting that relationship. Tell us about that I guess starting with El President. And how it relates to the president and how this world cup is offsetting that relationship. Tell us about that I guess starting with El President. one of the ways a country can get other countries to do what it wants to do is not just through economic force, it's not just through the military, but it's through powers of persuasion and attraction. And that's something that the US has historically been really good at. We're kind of the case study for soft power in political science. That's because of a few different assets we have, most of which Trump has been attacking pretty aggressively, especially over the course of his second- administration. We have the most powerful technology on earth. We have the greatest culture on earth. And above all, we have the greatest people on earth. We have this university system that people come to from all over the world. They're some of the most prestigious colleges around the world here. And that has been something that Trump has really pushed against with lawsuits. There's some of the most prestigious colleges around the world here. And that