Lobbing Scorchers joins the team

Hello Sounder at Heart readers,

My name is Ari Liljenwall and I couldn’t be more excited to announce a new partnership between Sounder at Heart and Lobbing Scorchers, my Sounders- and MLS-focused podcast.

Some of you may be familiar with us, but for those who don’t, I’ll give the quick backstory. I’m a veteran of the Sounders media scene, starting as a beat writer for MLSsoccer.com way back in 2014. In 2019, I joined the MLS editorial staff, which is still my primary job. In that role I write, edit and produce content about the whole league daily and have become a bit of an MLS expert.

About a year ago, I started Lobbing Scorchers with my producer and co-host Noah Riffe as a side-project to try my hand at an audio platform. It was mostly for fun and I don’t think either of us really expected very many people would listen to it outside of a few die-hards.

But then something unexpected happened: We noticed that we actually were building a solid audience that seemed to be growing all the time. We now have a small but dedicated community of fellow Sounders and MLS fans that just love to geek out on our shared obsession.

Recently, my friend Jeremiah Oshan – who I’ve known for a long time and we’ve had as a guest on our show previously – approached us with an idea of collaborating and putting our show on Sounder at Heart. We mulled it over but honestly didn’t have to think too hard. For us, this move seems like a no-brainer as we try to keep growing and expanding.

I’m a longtime Sounder at Heart reader and have enjoyed following the site’s transition to independence. With the obvious crossover and similarities between those who consume our content, this collaboration seems only logical.

For those who have never listened to our show, we cover every Sounders game and whatever news is happening around the team. But we also like to branch out and give our takes on the rest of MLS since we both follow the whole league religiously, and will even dip our toes into the US men’s and women’s national teams.

Going forward you can find every episode of Lobbing Scorchers on our regular feed in addition to here on Sounder at Heart. We’re still working out the fine points but if you’re already a subscriber of our feed you don’t need to do anything. We’ll also start showing up on the Sounder at Heart subscriber-only feed (but not the public Nos Audietis one).

In addition to the podcast content, I’m also excited to announce that I’ll be churning out written work, which is something that I’ve wanted to do for a while. Stay tuned for more on what that will entail.

To our current listeners: We can’t thank you enough for supporting us and getting us to this point! We appreciate each and every one of you. Really nothing about our operation or how we do the show every week is set to change. If you’re not already a paid subscriber, Sounder at Heart is offering a one-month free trial at either the Backer ($25/year) and Supporter ($75/year) levels. (Full disclosure: we also get a cut of anyone who redeems these offers.)

To our new ones: We’re looking forward to expanding our little community and being a part of this one! Hopefully, you enjoy the stuff we put out. We try our best to provide good and in-depth analysis on the team and the games, but also have fun and not take ourselves too seriously. I’d like to think we strike a good balance with that.

If you’d like to sample the podcast, here’s our latest episode (you can also subscribe here):