Bullfighting, Seen Up Close

Why has Bullfighting survived the modernization of Madrid? It is usually encountered at a distance through stereotypes, political arguments, or half-remembered images. In this episode, Rasheed and Diego talk through the experience at ground level, using Rasheed’s first visit to a bullfight in Madrid as a way to slow the subject down and look at it carefully, step by step.

The conversation doesn’t aim to persuade or provoke. Instead, it reconstructs what actually happens inside the bullring: how the event is structured, how the crowd behaves, why certain moments carry more weight than others, and what becomes visible once attention shifts from moral conclusions to observation. Diego supplies context and continuity; Rasheed brings the perspective of someone encountering the ritual for the first time and trying to make sense of it in real time. 

The most revealing moment was not the kill, but the collective silence before it.

Things Mentioned
Art, Film, & Media

• Afternoons of Solitude (documentary by Albert Serra)
• La Suerte (series on Disney+)
• OneToro TV (the "Netflix of bullfighting")
• Paintings by Goya, Velázquez, and Picasso depicting the corrida

People & Matadors

• Morante de la Puebla (retired, "the Pope of bullfighting")
• Andrés Roca Rey (current Peruvian star)
• Olga Casado (rising female bullfighter)
• Cayetano Rivera Ordóñez (and the Rivera dynasty)
• Esperanza Aguirre (Former President of the Community of Madrid)
• Cayetana Álvarez de Toledo (politician and historian)
• Julian Pitt-Rivers (anthropologist on the symbolism of the bullfight)

Places & Events

• Las Ventas (Madrid bullring)
• The Feria de Abril (Seville)
• Pamplona (Running of the Bulls)
• Nîmes and Arles (Bullfighting in French Roman amphitheaters)

Key Segments
The Economics of Ticket Pricing. Diego explains his role in advocating for the liberalization of ticket prices in Madrid. How removing price caps—originally intended to keep culture "accessible"—actually increased revenue, allowed operators to hire top talent, and led to record attendance figures. A case study in how price signals preserve cultural heritage.

The Production Function of the Bull The supply chain of the toro bravo. Why cloning is technically possible but artistically undesirable, and how breeders use data to select for "nobility" and aggression.

The "Silence" and the Kill The game theory of the crowd: how 24,000 people coordinate near-perfect silence during the tercio de muerte. The distinction between a "flashy" performance and a "technical" one, and the brutal binary outcome of the sword.

The Matador as Counter-Culture Why the tradition is surviving socialism in Venezuela and thriving in France and Peru. The shift of the matador from a folk hero to a modern pop-culture icon among Spanish Gen Z.