The Other 51

“Oh, I wrote a musical about me. I really did. This is just me.” Joe Iconis, one of the best writers on Broadway and one of Brian’s favorite people, joins us on The Other 51 to talk all about The Untitled Unauthorized Hunter S. Thompson Musical.  Yep, that’s the name of Joe’s most recent show, which debuted at La Jolla Playhouse in San Diego in 2023.  Joe tells the story of the name and...

“Do the work. Show Up. Show you care by listening.” Liz Robbins joins Brian to talk about her remarkable career as a journalist, covering everything from the NBA to U.S. immigration policy.  Liz tells stories about what it was like to cover sports in Cleveland in the late 1990s, including how she broke the news that the WNBA would be forming and traveled on a private jet with Tim Couch. This...

“I ended up throughout the midst of the pandemic feeling like I couldn’t write anything anymore.” Dave Karpf, author of the must-read “The Future, Now and Then” on Substack, joins Brian to talk about writing, the internet, and more.  Dave and Brian discuss this week’s news about Bluesky opening itself to the public, and why the years where there wasn't a lot of money in it was when the intern...

Wendell Barnhouse joins Brian to talk about his long and storied career as a sports journalist.  Wendell talks about what it was like to cover Duke-Kentucky in the 1992 NCAA men’s  Tournament (the Christian Laettner shot), how doing layout and editing stories for 13 years helped him be a better writer, and why he views himself as more of a craftsman than an artist.  Rabbit holes inc...

Joe Posnanski joins Brian this week to talk all about his new book, “Why We Love Baseball.”  In the introduction to this book, Joe writes that "This is the book I always hoped would be on the shelf” of his library when he was a kid. In this episode, he tells Brian why this would have been the perfect book for him when he was 10 years old.  Joe discusses how he had the title of the book b...

Sam Borden of ESPN joins Brian this week to talk about reporting, interviewing, and life as a foreign correspondent.  Sam has probably the best job title of anyone we’ve had as a guest on the podcast — Global Sports Correspondent for ESPN. Sam talks about how he got that job, how he built a successful career as a sports journalist despite not being a sports fan, and how he finds stories to wr...

Dr. Jenn Billinson from Nazareth University joins us to talk about the state of social media, and what the heck is going on with Twitter and Twitter replacements.  Short answer: It’s a mess Jenn and Brian talk about their reactions to Threads, why that seemed to fizzle out, and what’s next for space. Twitter/BlueSky/Threads. Jenn tells us how social media has changed in the decade she’s been...

How did a guy who started his career in radio become one of the most influential newspaper sports journalists in the history of Western New York? Chuck Pollock, Brian’s former boss and the longtime sports editor and columnist for The Times Herald in Olean, N.Y., joins Brian to talk about column writing, journalism, and his 50-year career.  Chuck traces his career from the Vietnam War, through...

Bob Crawford, podcaster, history buff, and the bass player for The Avett Brothers (Brian’s favorite band), joins Brian this week to talk his new podcast series, Founding Son: John Quincy’s America. Bob and Brian talk about what made John Quincy Adams stand out as a story worth telling, how Adams is the bridge between Washington and Lincoln, a vessel to tell the story of America between the revolut...

Scott Nover, a technology and media reporter for Quartz, joins Brian to talk about AI, media economics, and why it’s so interesting to write about media. Scott takes a break from watching the Senate Judiciary Committee’s hearing on artificial intelligence for this episode. For real, though … politicians can’t understand Facebook. Scott discusses his career path, why he became fascinated in writing...

Arielle Beth Klein, a playwright and actor, joins Brian to talk about her newly published play, "My Shiksa Boyfriend," and all things writing and creative. Arielle tells us what it's like seeing her play for sale in the Drama Book Shop, and what it's like signing copies of her play to sell in the famed NYC book store. We bond over the awesomeness of Grace Aki. Arielle describes how improv exercise...

Will Leitch returns to the show to talk all about the writing of his excellent new novel, "The Time Has Come." Will tells Brian how the writing of this book (“a feel-good book about a shooting!”) differed from his first novel, “How Lucky.” Will discusses how he structured the book, whether the plot or characters came first, and how he was able to make all of his main characters sound authentic to...

Dr. Jenn McClearen, an assistant professor at the University of Texas and author of the Substack newsletter Publish not Perish, joins Brian to talk about what makes academic writing so vexing, and some strategies to improve your writing and time management. They talk about the crazy coincidence of the both being at the same, relatively small conference in Barcelona and not meeting there, and they...

For the record seventh time, Alysa Auriemma joins Brian to talk about writing. This time, the main topics are social media, making space for creative work, her next novel, and (of course) so much more. Alysa talks about the reaction her first novel, All Daughter’s Rise, received and what the self-publishing process was like on the back end. She also discusses her plans for the second book in that...

Evan Drellich joins Brian to talk about his new book, Winning Fixes Everything, about the Houston Astros' cheating scandal. Evan — who worked with Brian at the Press & Sun-Bulletin in Binghamton, N.Y. another lifetime ago — discusses how he and Ken Rosenthal broke the story of the Astros cheating scandal for The Athletic, what it's like when your reporting becomes the biggest sports story in t...

Tyler Dunne of Go Long tells us all about Damar Hamlin, what it was like to be in Cincinnati on Monday night, and about watching and covering football going forward.  Why Damar Hamlins is exactly what the Buffalo Bills need The light in football’s most horrific hour Podcast: Damar Hamlin, life, and football The Chris Borland Effect The Chasing MS Foundation Community Toy Drive Axe ALS Subscri...

Jeremy Littau, a professor at Lehigh University, an expert in social media with some unfortunate opinions about candy, joins Brian to talk about the present and future of Twitter and new social platforms.  Jeremy talks about where things stood with Twitter as of Dec. 7, when we recorded this. He talks about the migration to Mastodon, why it’s Why its really complicated for people to decide wh...

Pablo Torre, host of ESPN Daily, joins Brian to talk about interviewing, curiosity in reporting, and how podcasting sits at the middle of his professional Venn Diagram.  After a brief delay in starting this episode, Pablo talks about the career path that brought him to ESPN. He tells Brian how he brings a magazine-writer’s sensibility to a daily sports podcast, and why he is so wary about bei...

In our first-ever live event, Tyler Dunne returns to talk about his new book, “The Blood and Guts: How Tight Ends Save Football.” Listen to this episode for your chance to WIN A SIGNED COPY OF TY’S BOOK. Tyler tells Brian why he decided to write a whole book about tight ends. Because, let’s face it, that’s an oddly specific topic. If, as Tyler said he learned, that the position of tight end choose...

Jeff Pearlman is back for either his 83rd or 905th appearance, depending on who’s counting. Jeff is back to chat about “The Last Folk Hero,” his outstanding new biography of Bo Jackson that is out this week.  Jeff describes what makes Bo Jackson so iconic and interesting, and why the first thing he did when he decided to write about Bo was to visit eBay.  Jeff did 720 interviews for this...

Denny Wilkins' story is that of a geology major from Massachusetts turned into a journalism professor at St. Bonaventure. It’s also the story of a professor who taught a generation of St. Boanventure journalism graduates — Brian included — to omit needless words. Denny and Brian, now colleagues at the Jandoli School of Communication, bring faculty meeting energy to this week’s episode. Denny...

Dr. Catherine Pearlman joins Brian to talk about her new book, “First Phone: A child’s guide to digital responsibility, safety and etiquette.” Catherine discusses her career as a social worker, parenting coach and writer, how she got a syndicated column, and the writing lessons she learned from writing two columns a week for several years. She talks about how and why she decided to write a book sp...

What’s it like to be at the Tony Awards? How do you juggle being both a fan and a reporter? How do you go from being a TV reporter in West Texas to creating your own site to cover Broadway? What’s it like to spend an entire day wearing a fushsia ballgown around New York City? Shoshana from BWaySho joins Brian to answer those questions and more. Shoshana and Brian talk about how TV taglines never l...

Grace Aki, a playwright and performer, joins Brian to talk about her one-woman show, To Free A Mockingbird. Here’s the secret. Grace didn’t actually “write” her one-woman show. Well she did. She talks about how she incrementally developed her show over a number of years, and how she used voice memos as her main tool to get material down. Grace and Brian talk about the lessons she learned from Rick...

Dr. Chris Mackwoski, an author and professor of communication at St. Bonaventure University, joins Brian to talk about writing, the Civil War, the secrets to productivity, and more.  Chris and Brian, who are colleagues at the Jandoli School of Communication, talk about Chris’ long and winding career path. Chris talks about how spending time as a radio reporter in Maine, working in public rela...