Sustaining Sport

Send us Fan Mail Holly Morgan has recently reached the end of her career as a professional footballer. In her 17 years in the game, she struggled against racial abuse and fought hard to keep playing despite the lack of support that woman’s football has received. These experiences have given her meaningful insights into where the problems are and how things can improve. In this episode, we discuss...

Send us Fan Mail This is an exceptionally complex question to try and answer. It is imperative that such a question is given the respect that it deserves. Therefore, I chose to not rush into this discussion but rather seek out the best possible person to share their insights. And I think I found that person. Lara Rebecca is the host of 'The Keep Smiling Podcast'. She actively shares ment...

Send us Fan Mail It might seem unlikely to have a strong bond between autism, or autism spectrum disorder (ASD), and sport. Yet, this episode shows that there can be a mutually beneficial relationship between the two. Today I am in conversation with Adam Millichip, sports teacher at Tettenhall Wood School in Wolverhampton in the UK.  We discuss how important both watching sport and playing sport,...

Send us Fan Mail An Olympic athlete with a passion for sustainability. It would be difficult to find a better guest for the Sustaining Sport podcast and that’s exactly who I spoke to today. Rhydian Cowley is a 2-time Olympic race walker who is dedicating a lot of his time to raising the alarm about climate change. In this episode, we discuss his athletic career followed by his tips and insights in...

Send us Fan Mail This episode examines how gambling and sports betting companies keep us betting, despite the odds being against us. One of their primary weapons is that they have a better scientific understanding of our brains and senses than we do. They barrage our senses with sights, sounds, and smells, all of which almost imperceptibly encourage us to stay. Of course, the longer we stay, the m...

Send us Fan Mail This episode explains how bookmakers are guaranteed to make a profit. Many sports betters are under the impression that they are playing ‘against’ the bookmaker. Either they win or you win. This is simply not true. Firstly, there are so many people betting on all the possible outcomes. Secondly, the odds that bookmakers offer are “priced up” so that regardless of the outcome, they...

Send us Fan Mail This episode explains a core understanding of gambling: the House Edge. Using consistent mathematical principles, casinos and bookmakers convert the small edges embedded in their games into a massive and guaranteed profit margin. The key ingredient is scale. The House Edge on a single hand of a single game is a bet only slightly in their favour. But, at the scale of millions of ha...

Send us Fan Mail This is the beginning of a series of episodes that seek to give the listener a much clearer understanding of sports betting. Gambling as an industry is often reviled yet continues to grow. This growth guarantees more people will fall foul of its most negative aspects such as debt and addiction. From the outside, it is easy to say that only fools gamble, but such stigmatization of...

Send us Fan Mail Adie Delaney has long understood that sport is not just for exercise, competition, or spectating. Sport can also be an art form and a medium with which to teach. With this foundation, Adie is enjoying a rather unique career. She has a passion for heights and entertaining. She is an athlete and a teacher. And she is combining all of this to educate young people about consent and bo...

Send us Fan Mail Sportswashing refers to an organisation or state investing in sport to improve its public image. China’s hosting of the upcoming winter games appears to be exactly this, as they attempt to display themselves to the world as a strong and prosperous nation. This is while China stands accused of crimes against humanity amounting to genocide of the Uighur Muslim population. In Episode...

Send us Fan Mail David Karasek is a former Olympic swimmer whose passion for sports and competition has not diminished since he stepped out of the pool. Instead, he has been on a journey of self-discovery, learning how valuable and empowering it is to have a positive mindset before you are successful. He argues that believing you are capable of being successful is the essential first step to take...

Send us Fan Mail The Olympic Games have real value. It is pure sporting competition at the highest level and we as fans love to experience the ups and downs along with athletes. It is also thought to bring prosperity to each new host city via the ‘Olympic Legacy’ which claims to leave behind better infrastructure and long-lasting tourism as well as inspire strong values. But is this legacy truly s...

Send us Fan Mail Formula 1 is one of the most entertaining and popular sports on the planet. It naturally is the focus of criticism with regards to sustainability as it is a sport about cars and, relative to its size, it emits a huge amount of carbon dioxide. But the source of most of those emissions is not as obvious as you might think. This episode starts by seeing why F1 emissions are so high a...

Send us Fan Mail Women’s football is on the rise but it still has to operate in the shadow of the men’s game due to continued stigmatisation of female athletes and a lack of funding and support from grass roots all the way to the professional game. This episode makes a compelling case for why it benefits us all for women’s football to have its share in the spotlight.  It also looks at the extent o...