The World Cup has taken over America—filling stadiums, dominating news feeds, and flooding social media with footage of foreign visitors marveling at waffles, gravy, and beef ribs. It has also quickly become the most-watched World Cup that Fox has ever carried, and a validation of its decade-long bet on the sport. So I sat down with Eric Shanks, the C.E.O. of Fox Sports, for Wednesday’s episode of the Varsity podcast, which will be posted tomorrow. He shed light on the biggest surprises for him thus far, Fox’s always-on approach to coverage, Zlatan’s unlikely TV career, and much more. As always, I’m previewing the highlights for loyal Varsity readers tonight; the following conversation has been lightly edited for length and clarity.