New Books Network

New Books in Sports

Sports EN ↓ 501 episodes

This podcast is a channel on the New Books Network. The New Books Network is an academic audio library dedicated to public education. In each episode you will hear scholars discuss their recently published research with another expert in their field. Discover our 150+ channels and browse our 28,000+ episodes on our website: ⁠ newbooksnetwork.com ⁠ Subscribe to our free weekly Substack newsletter to get informative, engaging content straight to your inbox: ⁠ https://newbooksnetwork.substack.com/ ⁠ Follow us on Instagram and Bluesky to learn about more our latest interviews: @newbooksnetwork Sup...

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James A. Holstein, Richard S. Jones, George Koonce, Jr., “Is There Life After Football? Surviving the NFL” (New York UP, 2014) 17.03.2015 55:13

The health of former NFL players has received plenty of attention in recent years. The suicides of Junior Seau and Dave Duerson, along with stories of retired players in only their 40s and 50s affected by dementia and ALS, have revealed the toll that a professional football career can take... Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium memb...

Jules Boykoff, “Activism and the Olympics: Dissent at the Games in Vancouver and London” (Rutgers University Press, 2014) 22.12.2014 46:01

A new chapter in the history of the Olympic Games appears to be opening. As one city after another has dropped out of the bidding for the 2022 Winter Games, the International Olympic Committee has been faced with the prospect that no one might be willing to host its wonderful,... Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://n...

Bruce Babington, “The Sports Film: Games People Play” (Wallflower Press, 2014) 11.12.2014 1:00:10

One of the most enduring film genres is the sports movie. From the earliest attempts at narrative motion pictures to the present day, movies devoted to athletic competition are both popular and lasting. In The Sports Film: Games People Play (Wallflower Press, 2014), Bruce Babington presents an historical overview of... Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show...

Eric Allen Hall, “Arthur Ashe: Tennis and Justice in the Civil Rights Era” (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2014) 04.11.2014 48:27

When he died from AIDS in 1993, Arthur Ashe was universally hailed as a man of principle, grace, and wisdom–a world-class athlete who had transcended his game. But a closer look at Ashe’s life reveals a more complex picture. Certainly, Ashe was an admirable figure. When tennis tournament organizers barred... Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becomin...

Matthew Algeo, “Pedestrianism: When Watching People Walk Was America’s Favorite Spectator Sport” (Chicago Review Press, 2014) 04.09.2014 50:10

Once upon a time, before baseball drew crowds to America’s ballparks and English workers spent their Saturdays at the football grounds, one of the most popular spectator events in both countries was watching people walk. Pedestrianism had its start outdoors, as walkers set off on long-distance treks for the simple... Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show b...

Stefan Rinke and Kay Schiller (editors), “The FIFA World Cup 1930-2010: Politics, Commerce, Spectacle and Identities” (Wallstein, 2014) 01.08.2014 57:55

The history of globalization is found in more than international political organizations and multinational corporations, free-trade agreements and foreign direct investments, satellite communications and special export zones. When looking at the forces that have driven globalization over the last decades, we must also look to football and especially the World... Learn more about your ad choices. V...

J.C. Herz, “Learning to Breath Fire: The Rise of CrossFit and the Primal Future of Fitness” (Crown Archetype, 2014) 18.07.2014 56:49

In industrial parks, converted warehouses, and pole barns across the country, a fitness revolution is taking place. It’s a revolution, according to J.C. Herz, that’s leading us not so much forward as back, into what she calls “the primal future of fitness.” This future is one in which fitness connects... Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a...

Roger Kittleson, “The Country of Football: Soccer and the Making of Modern Brazil” (University of California Press, 2014) and Joshua Nadel, “FÃºtbol! Why Soccer Matters in Latin America” (University Press of Florida, 2014) 24.06.2014 54:06

Passion. Flair. Instinct. Improvisation. As the World Cup advances to the knockout stage, you’ll hear these terms associated with the football styles of Brazil, Argentina, and Mexico rather than those of Belgium and Germany. As historians Roger Kittleson and Joshua Nadel explain, the soccer cultures of Brazil and other countries... Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Sup...

Travis Vogan, “Keepers of the Flame: NFL Films and the Rise of Sports Media” (University of Illinois Press, 2014) 16.05.2014 51:00

Last weekend was the NFL Draft, the annual event when teams select college players who have shown the talent to advance to the professional ranks. Staged at New York’s Radio City Music Hall, broadcast live on two cable networks, and surrounded by ceaseless media attention and analysis, the Draft is... Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a pre...

Lucia Trimbur, “Come Out Swinging: The Changing World of Boxing in Gleason’s Gym” (Princeton University Press, 2013)) 25.04.2014 50:45

Imagine a boxing gym. What probably comes to mind is a large, run-down room on the upper floor of an old brick building, somewhere in a trash-strewn, depressed neighborhood. The room echoes with the thud of the heavy bag, the rat-tat-tat of the speed bag, the quick whisks of the... Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https:/...

Lincoln Harvey, “A Brief Theology of Sport” (SCM Press, 2014) 04.04.2014 50:07

Does God care who wins the game? According to a recent survey, plenty of American fans think so. The Public Religion Research Institute found that a quarter of fans said that they had prayed to God for a favorable outcome to a game. Add in those who practice some personal... Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newboo...

Brett Hutchins and David Rowe, “Sport Beyond Television: The Internet, Digital Media and the Rise of Networked Media Sport” (Routledge, 2013) 20.03.2014 54:27

Twenty years ago, when I was studying abroad in Europe, the only way to keep track of my teams back in the US was to sneak looks in The International Herald Tribune at the newspaper kiosk (the price of the paper was beyond my meager budget). Twelve years after that,... Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetw...

N. Jeremi Duru, “Advancing the Ball: Race, Reformation, and the Quest for Equal Coaching Opportunity in the NFL” (Oxford University Press, 2011) 06.03.2014 51:00

Each year, following the end of the NFL season, there is a blizzard of activity as teams with disappointing records fire their head coaches and look for the new leader who will turn things around. This year, seven teams fired their coaches and spent the next weeks searching for a... Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https:...

Jules Boykoff, “Celebration Capitalism and the Olympic Games” (Routledge, 2013) 07.02.2014 52:46

The 22nd Winter Olympics are underway. It’s safe to say that the lead-up has not gone smoothly. Of course, there have been the obligatory cost overruns, crony contracts, displacement of locals, and environmental despoliation–all the problems we’ve seen with past Olympics. But this year’s games have come with new wrinkles.... Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support ou...

Sam Miller and Jason Wojciechowski, “Baseball Prospectus 2014” (Wiley, 2014) 05.02.2014 45:33

This week’s episode features Sam Miller and Jason Wojciechowski, editors of the Baseball Prospectus’ 2014 (Wiley, 2014), a yearbook that both previews the upcoming baseball season and provides readers a look into the state of the art in baseball analysis, both in terms of advanced statistical metrics and, increasingly, subjective... Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Su...

John Matthew Smith, “The Sons of Westwood: John Wooden, UCLA, and the Dynasty That Changed College Basketball” (University of Illinois Press, 2013) 29.01.2014 49:47

One of the great dynasties of American sports are the UCLA men’s basketball teams of the 1960s-70s. In a twelve-year span, the Bruins won ten national collegiate championships. They had four undefeated seasons, and in one stretch, from 1971-1974, the teams won 88 straight games. UCLA’s teams featured some of... Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by b...

Susan Ware, “Game, Set, Match: Billie Jean King and the Revolution in Women’s Sports” (UNC Press, 2011) 17.01.2014 53:27

If you’re younger than 45 or so, you probably don’t remember the “Battle of the Sexes.” This tennis match, between Bobby Riggs and Billie Jean King, is one of the iconic moments in American history of the 1970s. It represented a breakthrough moment for women in sports, a symbol of... Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https...

The 2013 Year-End Episode 22.12.2013 2:02:48

It’s that time of year when the panels of experts on sports call-in shows shout opinions on the best and worst of the past twelve months. To finish the year, New Books in Sports offers its own panels of experts. But rather than arguing over the biggest matches and plays... Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooks...

Kevin Kerrane, “Dollar Sign on the Muscle: The World of Baseball Scouting” (CreateSpace, 2013) 13.12.2013 59:12

Kevin Kerrane‘s Dollar Sign on the Muscle: The World of Baseball Scouting (CreateSpace, 2013) represents the first major study of the history and practice of professional baseball scouting. Based on Kerrane’s ethnographic research with the Philadelphia Phillies during the 1981 season, the book provides an inside look at one of sports’ least understood... Learn more about your ad choices. Visit me...

Peter Westwick and Peter Neushul, “The World in the Curl: An Unconventional History of Surfing” (Crown, 2013) 02.12.2013 51:03

The Atlantic magazine recently asked its readers to name the greatest athlete of all time. The usual suspects were present among the nominees: Jesse Owens, Pele, Wayne Gretzky, Don Bradman. Given that these were readers of The Atlantic, there were some more thoughtful answers as well: Canadian athlete and cancer-research... Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our...

Lindsay Krasnoff, “The Making of Les Bleus: Sport in France, 1958-2010” (Lexington Books, 2012) 14.11.2013 45:30

In 1967, an official of the French basketball federation lamented the team’s poor finish at that year’s European Championships in Finland. The French team finished sixth in their group of eight, and then lost in the first game of the knockout stage. The official noted that Europe’s top teams, such... Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a prem...

The NBS Fall Seminar: Sports Memoirs 07.10.2013 2:00:34

One of the most crowded sections of the sports library is the one devoted to autobiographies and memoirs. The shelves here are constantly adding new titles, by both legends and bit players. For instance, the past week has brought the release of new memoirs by Manchester United midfielder Paul Scholes... Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a p...

David Little, “The Sports Show: Athletics as Image and Spectacle” (University of Minnesota Press, 2012) 24.09.2013 50:53

Many fans store a vast collection of sports images in their brains. With just a moment’s glance at a picture, even a slice of the picture, they can recognize the athletes, the season, the game, the particular play that the photographer captured. I experienced this recently when one of my... Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member...

Peter Alegi and Chris Bolsmann (editors), “Africa’s World Cup: Critical Reflections on Play, Patriotism, Spectatorship, and Space” (University of Michigan Press, 2013) 05.09.2013 48:15

In 2010, for the first time, an African nation hosted the FIFA World Cup. The advertisements surrounding the tournament used graphics and sounds intended to conjure the image of a vibrant, exotic land. In fact, though, the African-ness of the South African World Cup was pretty thin, when not wholly... Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a pre...

Tony Collins, “Sport in Capitalist Society: A Short History” (Routledge, 2013) 13.08.2013 46:04

Throughout the centuries, in cultures around the world, people have played games. But it has only been in the modern age, in the last 250 years or so, that people have competed in and watched sports. Modern sports are distinct in practice and purpose from the ball games of Mayan... Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https:/...