Sports In America with David Greene

We're in Week Four of the college football season, so we’re sitting down tailgate-style with Jessica Smetana and Lucy Rohden, hosts of the College Football Happy Hour podcast. They’re filling us in on all the Lane Kiffin and Ole Miss drama, recapping that vicious hit in the USC-Oregon game, and breaking down what it means when we crave violence in a football game. And then we’ll hear from former N...

With an explosive offense and a star quarterback, the Chicago Bears have high hopes for a deep playoff run this year. But will Caleb Williams’ hamstring injury put a damper on the team’s promising season? We’re sitting down with Kevin Fishbain, a senior writer at The Athletic who covers the Bears, to check on one of the highest-ceiling teams in the league. Then, we’re going to talk about something...

The MLB season is almost ending, but a new investigation will keep us talking way into the offseason. We’ll hear from Gus Garcia-Roberts, a national reporter from ProPublica who’s been investigating the business surrounding baseball academies in the Dominican Republic. He’ll tell us how MLB teams circumvent recruiting rules, how money is taken from young players and families, and how some of our f...

The NFL is finally back, so we’re talking to friends of the pod Madeline Hill and Charlotte Wilder from “The Sports Gossip Show” about the storylines they’re watching as the new season gets underway, the teams and players they’re most curious about, and how we as fans should deal with off-field drama. Then, as we observe the 25th anniversary of the September 11 attacks, we’ll talk with Craig Wooda...

Elle Duncan is back on the show, and this week, we’re prepping for her upcoming trip to Melbourne, Australia, for Week 1 of the NFL season. Elle will be leading Netflix’s broadcast of the matchup between the LA Rams and San Francisco 49ers, which is the first regular-season NFL game ever to be played in Australia.  Then, we’re sitting down with Mary Cain. In her prime, she was one of the fastest g...

The US Open is in full swing, and injuries have knocked out some of the biggest athletes in the men’s tournament. But there’s no shortage of star power on the women’s side: Filipina tennis sensation Alex Eala is on fire, inspiring “Eala-mania” all over the world. To get us up to speed on the tournament, we chat with Giri Nathan, senior correspondent at the tennis outlet The Second Serve.  After th...

We are officially in the NFL preseason. Players are competing for spots while coaches are tasked with building their rosters — and trimming the fat. Today we’re joined by The Athletic’s senior football writer Nick Baumgardner to talk NFL roster cuts. Who’s on the chopping block, and what is the preseason is telling us so far? Then, have you ever screamed at the TV after your kicker missed a field...

This week, Elle Duncan joins us to talk about the culture wars engulfing the WNBA, and how political noise is obscuring amazing play on the court. We’ll also discuss the startup energy around Netflix’s live sports coverage, as well as the nostalgia of baseball’s Field of Dreams game. Then we’ll sit down with the man who’s making sports talk feel like equal parts newsroom, comedy club and family di...

Let’s talk about one of the most unexpected developments in sports right now: how did the Boston Red Sox turn their season around? Today we’ve got journalist Jamie McClellan on the show, who produces a podcast for the Ringer about Boston sports called Off The Pike. He’s going to help us understand how the team turned what looked like a lackluster season into one that just might be worthy of a cham...

As the 2026 World Cup comes to a close, we sit down with two key figures in bringing the beautiful game to the United States. First, we hear from former U.S Soccer President Alan Rothenberg, the architect of the 1994 World Cup, who was a key figure in the World Cup back to the United States this year. He walks us through what this year's competition could mean for the future of soccer in our count...

The 2026 All-Star Week is officially underway in Philadelphia, and we’re talking about it with John Stolnis. He’s the co-host of a podcast called Hittin’ Season, which is all about baseball and especially the Philadelphia Phillies. He’ll tell us what to expect from the exhibition game and what it means as we head into the rest of the baseball season. Then we’ll speak with an eight-time All-Star hi...

Long before he became the governor of Pennsylvania, Josh Shapiro was just a kid calling into radio stations to talk through the highs and lows of being a sports fan. In this special episode, recorded live at the World Cup, we spoke with Governor Shapiro to talk about what it means for the city of Philadelphia to host a global event. We’ll dive into his earliest sports memories, hear about the rise...

Some of the best athletes in the world are in the United States right now, competing in World Cup games all over the country. For American athletes, the pressure to perform on their home turf can be intense. But that’s nothing new.  Dominique Dawes has been there before. She was a part of the U.S. women’s gymnastics team in 1996, when the Olympic Games came to Atlanta. She competed on a squad that...

The 2026 FIFA Men’s World Cup is in full swing in North America — but unlike the U.S. women’s team, the men’s national team has never won the tournament. They’ve never even made it to the finals. This week, we sit down with ESPN soccer writer Ryan O’Hanlon to figure out why the men’s team always falls short. And with last week’s dominant win against Paraguay, could this year’s World Cup be any dif...

The 2026 FIFA Men’s World Cup officially kicks off this week and for the first time it will be hosted by three countries across North America. First, we preview the epic tournament with global soccer reporter Meg Swanick to learn what we can expect from this year's Cup, the key players to watch, and which country is likely to take home the title. Then, we’ll sit down with one of the most influenti...

There are just two teams left in the fight to become NBA champions this year, and they are two teams that no one expected to get this far: the New York Knicks and the San Antonio Spurs. What can we expect from this underdog matchup? We’ll talk it out with Marcus Thompson, a lead columnist who covers the NBA at The Athletic. Then we’ll hear from someone who’s no stranger to NBA championships: Micha...

For nearly two decades, Robert Parish built a reputation on the Boston Celtics as a steady force. He was durable and consistent, winning nine All-Stars and four NBA championships alongside greats like Larry Bird and Kevin McHale. But before Parish became the silent backbone of the Celtics dynasty, he was just a shy kid from Louisiana who barely knew how to dribble. In his recent memoir, “The Chief...

Some say sports and politics should be kept separate — that athletes should just “stick to sports.” But for others, politics and sports can’t be separated at all. This week, we sit down with Kevin Blackistone, an award-winning national sports columnist who focuses on the intersection of sports and politics. We’ll talk about why he believes it’s impossible to separate the two, how the Trump adminis...

This year, the Buffalo Sabres have made a complete 180, ending a 14-year playoff drought and now contending to be NHL champions. To celebrate their historic turnaround, we sit down with Sabres mega-fan Scott Lee, who went viral hoisting his 40-lb welded-steel Stanley Cup replica on social media with other fans.  Then we’ll talk to an NBA first-round draft pick turned Twitter star. These days, most...

The WNBA officially kicks off this weekend, with its first regular-season game between the New York Liberty and the Connecticut Sun. And the Sun will be appearing on the court with a brand new weapon: Brittney Griner, a 10-time WNBA all-star and three-time Olympic gold medalist. You might consider it a miracle that we get to watch Griner play at all. That’s because, in 2022, she found herself behi...

In the last few years, Major League Baseball has been tweaking the rules in specific ways, like adding a pitch clock and making the bases bigger, all in the name of making the game faster and bringing in more fans. This week, we talk with baseball writer Molly Knight to hear how these changes are actually working. Then, we learn about an exhibition team that’s fundamentally changing what it means...

It’s time for the 2026 NFL Draft — when all 32 teams get to pick new talent from the best college football programs across the country. Who will be the players to watch next season, and how will they help shape the future of the game? We’ll talk all of this out with Nick Baumgardner, a senior writer and NFL Draft analyst at The Athletic. Then, we’re going to sit down with DeMaurice Smith. For 14 y...

Shea Serrano always has perfect analogies; comparing a Ray Allen jumpshot to a violin made of butter or Sue Bird’s backpedal to a 20th-century poem. This week, with the NBA postseason tipping off, we sit down with Shea to learn how he developed his unique style of storytelling and why it feels so approachable. We’ll hear how he went from a middle school basketball coach to a five-time New York Tim...

At just 25 years old, Nah’Shon “Bones” Hyland is making a name for himself as a point guard for the Minnesota Timberwolves, going head-to-head with some of the best in the league like Steph Curry and LeBron James.  This week, we sit down with Bones to relive some of his most electric performances during his rookie season, and learn how he performs so well under pressure. We’ll hear about how his t...

Last year, Shayla Smith broke Philadelphia’s all-time scoring record for girls and boys basketball. That’s a huge deal, especially in Philly — a city known for basketball legends like WNBA guard Shawnetta Stewart, South Carolina coach Dawn Staley, and NBA Hall of Famer Wilt Chamberlain. None of them scored as many points in high school as Shayla did. We sat down with Shayla and her coach, Kevin Sl...