off the record

Fred Mitchell is an award-winning sports journalist who formerly worked for the Chicago Tribune from 1974 to 2015 – where he became the beat writer covering the Chicago Bulls, Cubs and Bears. He was hired as the Chicago Tribune’s first African-American sportswriter. He’s the author of 12 books, that he's authored with NFL Hall of Famers Gale Sayers and MLB Hall of Famer Ryne Sandberg, as well...

Jay Cohen is a sports writer and editor for the Associated Press. He spends half his time covering sports in Chicago and the other half on the AP’s national desk, editing stories from all over the world. He’s done the last four summer olympics for the AP, and he teaches a sports business journalism class at DePaul. Enjoy this episode!

Reza Diako is an English-Persian actor from Austria. You may know him as “Phillip” from The Chosen, he’s also been in movies like “The Covenant” – “The Diplomat” and Emmy-award winning Apple TV drama “Tehran." You’ll also be seeing him in an upcoming film “The Astronaut," which releases on September 18th. Reza is multilingual, has a passion for psychology and mental health – hoping to op...

Laurence Holmes is an iconic on-air radio host for Chicago’s 670 the score, he was previously a sports anchor at NBC Chicago and NBC Sports Chicago. Laurence is an adjunct professor -- or "scholar practitioner" as he likes to call it -- at DePaul University. He also writes comic books. We discuss his journey into the sports media world and how he pays it forward to young budding journalists. Laure...

Zachary James is a grammy-award-winning music artist and actor. He took home a grammy in 2022 for best opera recording in the production Akhnaten. Now, Zachary is spending his days rehearsing for “Jesus Christ Superstar” at the Hollywood Bowl. He’ll be playing Caiaphas. He also just announced he'll be playing Claude Frollo in Disney's "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" in London. I ha...

Adam Rittenberg is a national college football reporter for ESPN. He joined ESPN in 2008 and also worked as a sports writer for the Daily Herald prior to that. Adam is one of my closest mentors, he was my professor at DePaul University. In this episode, we discuss his journey into the sports journalism world, some of the toughest stories he's covered, how NIL has changed the college football l...

Alaa Safi is a French actor, director and producer. You may know him as Simon Z from The Chosen, or from his recent roles in Indiana Jones and Doctor Strange. He was also a world champion in Tae Kwon Do at 18 years old. He also partnered with Jackie Chan in Chinese Zodiac. We discuss many behind the scenes moments in his career, as well as insecurities, embarrassing moments, and more. Alaa is such...

Ben Golliver is the National NBA Writer for the Washington Post and author of "Bubble Ball," a book about his 93-day stay inside the NBA's Disney World Bubble during the 2019-2020 pandemic season. Ben is one of my dear friends, we covered NBA All-Star together, we dive into the fun stories and moments we've had together through the years. Ben also reveals some of his most difficu...

I sit down with my fellow Assyrian brother, Beneil, after his unanimous win over Renato Moicano in the UFC 317 main card. We discuss how it felt being back in the octagon for the first time since 2023, his faith and how he's a coffee connoisseur. We also talk about his youngest-born daughter and how he plans to have like 10 kids.

Inaugural episode with my fiancé Giavani Cairo. We talk about how he feels about returning to film season 6 of The Chosen, what his insecurities and struggles have been and we also have some fun banter regarding our division rival sports teams.