Jul. 25—IT'S TIME for another visit to Lasso land.

A college football coach from Kansas knows nothing about soccer, but what he has learned over the years about people helps him transform a mediocre British team into a contender.

OK, they still keep losing. It's not that kind of show. It's more about what it means to be a good leader.

"Ted Lasso," Apple TV's surprise hit, returned for a second season Friday. We expect the coach with the goofy mustache, small town sensibility and penchant for corny jokes to deliver common sense wisdom and heartfelt humanity along with laughs.

"Saturday Night Live" alumnus Jason Sudeikis originally created the character for an NBC sports commercial in 2012. In the show that debuted on Apple's new streaming service last year, Lasso has been hired by the ex-wife of a British millionaire playboy on a false premise.

All club owner Rebecca Welton wants her new coach to do is fail. She won AFC Richmond — once her cheating ex-husband's prize possession — in the divorce and she wants to destroy it.

She picked the wrong guy.

We watch Lasso deploy the kind of leadership smarts people pay good money to study even though what he does shows no special skills. He just listens well, pays attention and asks good questions.

Among his challenges: tempering the ego of AFC Richmond's best player, motivating a new recruit who has lost his confidence and helping the team captain accept how aging is slowing him down.

In Season One's best episode, Lasso quotes from American poet Walt Whitman before he beats Welton's ex-husband in a high-stakes game of darts. The ultra-cocky Rupert Mannion has sized up Lasso as a dumb hick. What he doesn't know: Lasso used to play darts every Sunday with his dad at a sports bar.

"You know, Rupert, guys have underestimated me my entire life. And for years I never understood why. It used to really bother me," Lasso says as he prepares to take aim. "Then one day I was driving my little boy to school and I saw this quote by Walt Whitman. It was painted on the wall there. It said, 'Be curious, not judgmental.' I like that."

All those guys who used to belittle Lasso, not a single one was curious.

"If they were curious they would have asked a lot of questions, like 'Have you played a lot of darts, Ted?'"

Asking questions

I'm still regularly reminded about how easy it is to have preconceived notions about people. And how much it pays to be curious.

Ten years ago, I wrote a story for a business magazine about a Colorado oil and gas executive whose holdings also included a private jet company. I had met Alex Cranberg briefly before I arrived at his Denver headquarters, but I didn't know him. I had him pegged as a self-important multi-millionaire.

We talked about the things I expected we would talk about, such as fossil fuels versus renewable energy, government subsidies, the environment, the Middle East. What I remember most: He played the cello, and as a teenager he starred in a TV commercial for Kellogg's Rice Krispies. He would run to his mailbox every day, looking for another royalty check.

I no longer saw him as a stereotype but as a person. How I found out: Cranberg had a framed copy of a Rice Krispies box on his wall featuring a kid in a boat playing a cello. I asked him what it was.

'Talking Timbuktu'

A few weeks ago, I visited Intown Manchester's Farm Stand and Artisans Market at Victory Park. Cousins Nasteho Mohamed and Ling Ling Hassan and their friend Minata Touré were selling beets, garlic and lettuce they grow on a cooperative farm in Dunbarton.

When Touré said she was from Mali, I mentioned she had the same surname as Ali Farke Touré, the late singer and guitarist from Mali whose fame grew when he collaborated on "Talking Timbuktu," an album with American roots guitarist Ry Cooder.

"That's my uncle," Minata Touré said, joking. "I claim him. He's my uncle."

"She's the long-lost niece he didn't know about," said Mohammed, who is from Kenya. The three women started giggling. Then Mohammed asked Touré if she was Fulani, one of the ethnic tribes in Mali.

She was curious.

Mike Cote is senior editor for news and business. Contact him at mcote@unionleader.com or (603) 206-7724.