Podbit · Freakonomics Radio
The doubling cube isn't just a way to keep score — it's the most strategically complex element of backgammon and the only part of the game a player can unilaterally control. Owning the cube means owning the right to escalate and apply psychological pressure.
Where this was said
At 11:31 · chapter starts 9:20
At a backgammon meetup in Venice Beach, Los Angeles — where Dubner and grandmaster Bob Wachtel teamed up to beat Frank Frigo and Melissa Shin — Dubner sat down with Frigo to hear the case for backgammon as the greatest game on earth. Frigo is emphatic: the game has everything — complexity, pace, a beautiful aesthetic, a global tournament scene, and a tactile, sensory richness. He estimates around 300 million people play worldwide. He explains the basic structure (a race to bear off 15 checkers, with contact and blocking along the way) before diving into the doubling cube — the 1920s invention that transformed backgammon into a gambling and strategic tour de force. The cube isn't just a multiplier; it's the only component of the game that a player controls unilaterally, and owning it gives you both the right to play to the end and the right to escalate pressure on your opponent. Mark Olsson adds that failing to handle the cube correctly means you will never win a tournament.
Frank Frigo estimates approximately 300 million people play backgammon worldwide, making it one of the most widely played board games on the planet.
The doubling cube, which adds strategic gambling leverage to backgammon, was invented in the 1920s — a relatively recent addition to a game thousands of years old.
Thomas's wife deferred her CrossFit career — she's in the global top 1% of athletes — to put him through law school debt-free. He wants her to chase the dream now; she wants the emergency fund and house down payment first. On a $200K lawyer income with no debt, the opportunity cost is just a few months of slower saving.
Underground calisthenics battles are exactly like UFC meets a rap battle — 150 people crowded around a circle, fighters walking out with masks and chains, nicknames like 'Extra Money' vs 'Calisthenics the Prince,' and people throwing money and betting. The battle set: 100 burpees, 50 muscle-ups, 75 dips, 75 squats with a 65-pound dumbbell. This is the next big spectator sport.
Rico Verhoeven controlled the undisputed heavyweight boxing champion for approximately 10 rounds — and had his appeal upheld when officials admitted the fight was stopped after the bell. The result was never overturned. Rogan calls it either incompetence or corruption, and argues the money behind Usyk made an upset politically inconvenient.
Rogan lays out a blunt case: boxing's 3-judge system is structurally broken, and the judges know who the promoter wants to win. Glory's 5-judge format is the right model. Corruption doesn't have to be conscious — just knowing Usyk is the cash cow is enough to tilt the scales.
With the Usyk-Wilder fight stalling and Fury-Joshua coming too late, the real fight the world wants is the rematch. Rico is a free agent. Usyk vacated his belts. The story is unfinished and both Rogan and Rico know it. His Excellency Turki Alasheikh already called for it ringside — the question is money.
Rico texted Jason Statham during the Canelo-Crawford fight. Statham showed Rico's highlight videos to promoters. Two days later, Rico was on a call about fighting Anthony Joshua. When Joshua pulled out, Rico pitched Usyk himself — Undisputed vs. Undisputed. Usyk said yes in two weeks. The whole thing started with one text.
Every heavyweight who faced Usyk tried to move to the right — straight into his power hand. Rico and Peter Fury identified the obvious solution: move left, away from the left hand, and smother him with size. It sounds simple. Nobody had done it. That one adjustment was the foundation of 10 dominant rounds.
MMA fans boo when fights go to the ground. They love stand-up. Kickboxing is pure stand-up. Yet it barely exists in America while boxing and MMA are enormous. Rogan's diagnosis: no promotion machine. If the UFC got behind kickboxing the way they've built MMA, it would explode. The talent is there — the storytelling machine is not.
A nation of 17 million people gave the world Ramon Deckers, Peter Aerts, Badr Hari, Melvin Manhoef, Rob Kamen, Ernesto Hoost, and Rico Verhoeven. Rico's theory: the country is so small that every gym shares knowledge freely. In the US, you need a flight. In Holland, you drive 40 minutes and spar the national champion.
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