Sportly

World Cup 2026 fan culture takes center stage as Kavitha Davidson explores the viral moments defining this tournament - from Scottish fans turning Boston into "New Scotland" to Dutch, Norwegian, and Japanese supporters going viral worldwide. But beneath the wholesome clips lies a deeper story of visa denials, price barriers, and fandom's darker history, from Andrés Escobar's 1994 murder to Iceland...

Sportly was recently featured in Forbes, where Kavitha spoke about what makes this show's approach to sports storytelling different. Read it here: https://www.forbes.com/sites/frankracioppi/2026/06/15/sports-podcasts-are-looking-to-score-that-golden-goooaalll/ What do you get when two friends, a wiffle ball, and a summer day collide? The answer is Pickleball. Pickleball is a sport born from a mome...

Why does Wimbledon still require all-white outfits? Why do fans queue overnight just for a chance to buy tickets? And what do strawberries and cream have to do with elite tennis? In this episode of Sportly, host Kavitha Davidson serves up the fascinating traditions that make Wimbledon unlike any other Grand Slam. From Roger Federer’s orange soles to Serena Williams’ red shorts, this episode dives...

The Knicks won the NBA championship for the first time since 1973, and so Kavitha Davidson threw out our production schedule. In this special episode, she recaps her chaotic week: attending games, doing live broadcast commentary for New York Post Sports, flying to LA on no sleep, and surviving two straight months of playoff emotions. But beyond the exhaustion and euphoria, she makes a bigger point...

The FIFA World Cup 2026 is here, and with it comes the familiar promise: billions in economic activity, a tourism boom, and a windfall for host cities across the United States, Canada, and Mexico. But according to Jules Boykoff, professor of politics at Pacific University, former U.S. U-23 national team player, and one of the leading scholars on the politics of mega events, those promises have alm...

This week on Sportly, Kavitha Davidson sits down with acclaimed political sports writer Dave Zirin for a no-holds-barred conversation about the intersection of sports, politics, and society. They discuss the idea of “dual realities” in media and how race, gender, and representation are often portrayed in sports narratives. The episode takes a closer look at the controversial trend of “sportswashin...

What happens when national pride meets global identity? Morocco’s epic World Cup run in 2022 wasn’t just a Cinderella story; it was a masterclass in building a team from abroad. In this episode of Sportly, host Kavitha Davidson unpacks how foreign-born players are transforming international soccer. From FIFA’s game-changing rule tweaks to Qatar and the UAE’s controversial recruiting strategies, we...

Jason Belmonte or "Belmo" is widely considered one of the greatest bowlers in the history of the sport. However, if you ask him, he's not done yet. With 15 major championships and records that may never be broken, he is methodically chasing a legacy that would put the debate to rest once and for all. In this conversation, Kavitha talks to Belmo about the invisible playing field that makes professi...

What happens when a Black icon refuses to make white audiences comfortable? Today, we’re sharing a preview of a new podcast, Big Lives, and a special episode about Muhammad Ali. Every week, hosts Kai Wright and Emmanuel Dzotsi dig into the BBC archive to explore the story behind the icons who shape our culture—trailblazers like David Bowie, Amy Winehouse, and Tina Turner—and better understand how...

The creator of "Art But Make It Sports", LJ Rader, is a lifelong sports professional who has worked for NBC Sports, won an Emmy, and spent nearly a decade at Sportradar, all while quietly teaching himself art history through museum visits, auction houses, and gallery trips. What started as a personal joke on his Instagram - pairing sports photos with fine art - became Art But Make It Sports, an ac...

This is a re-run of Sportly's April 2025 episode: "Pilates Wasn't Always White - Here's What Changed " Pilates may be marketed as a path to wellness and elegance, but who is it really for? In this episode of Sportly, host Kavitha Davidson explores the complicated racial and cultural history of Pilates, from its roots in an internment camp to its modern-day status as the go-to fitness trend for aff...

What does faith have to do with baseball? More than you might think. "Baseball Beyond Belief" is a new documentary that explores the deep and often surprising connections between spirituality and America's favorite pastime. In this episode, Kavitha Davidson sits down with two of the people behind the film: director John Scheinfeld and Father Tom Gibbons. Together, they talk about what inspired the...

WrestleMania 42 promises all the spectacle fans have come to expect, with headline matches like Cody Rhodes vs. Randy Orton and CM Punk vs. Roman Reigns carrying deep personal stakes and years of history. On the surface, the event has all the ingredients of a classic. Larger-than-life personalities, emotional storytelling, and career-defining moments. But as anticipation builds, so does a growing...

This week Kavitha interviews journalist and author A.M. Gittlitz about his new book Metropolitans: New York Baseball, Class Struggle, and the People’s Team. Kavitha and Gittlitz unpack the long history behind the New York Mets, from their 19th-century roots tied to political machines like Tammany Hall to their modern identity as an underdog franchise in a city dominated by the New York Yankees. Th...

Sportly brings you an episode from Hysteria: A Basketball Podcast, which explores why Indiana sits at the heart of the sport, and how the women’s game has finally reached a long-awaited breakthrough. Women’s basketball is having a moment, but the rise of the game has been decades in the making. In this episode of Hysteria, host Julie Roe Lach (Executive Vice President External Relations and Commun...

StreamEast is gone. Or at least, it was. In 2025, one of the largest illegal sports streaming networks in the world was taken down in a coordinated international operation involving law enforcement across multiple countries. Domains were seized. Arrests were made. For a moment, it looked like the system worked. But then, almost immediately, the streams came back. In this episode, Kavitha tells the...

The World Baseball Classic has been electric - packed stadiums, global stars, and teams playing with a level of joy that Major League Baseball doesn’t always capture. So why does Team USA feel like the only team not having any fun? In this episode, Kavitha Davidson breaks down what the WBC is revealing about baseball right now: from questions around leadership and “vibes” on the U.S. roster to the...

In 2018, when the United States, Mexico, and Canada were selected to co-host this year’s World Cup, it sounded like fun: three friendly democracies throwing the world's biggest soccer party. LOL. LMAO, even.  To kick off Season 2 of An American Game, Tom and Kirk take a look at our (longer than you think) soccer history with our northern and southern neighbors and put some color back on what’s bec...

This is a re-run of Sportly's June 2025 episode: "Let Them Race? McLaren Vs. Red Bull’s F1 Strategy War " What happens when McLaren lets its star drivers race without limits and Red Bull doesn’t? The 2026 Formula One season is officially a "hard reset" for the sport. With a total regulation overhaul, cars are becoming smaller, lighter, and more complex. Drivers will now juggle 50/50 hybrid power u...

In this feed drop episode, Tamerra and Jillian, hosts of the Full Time podcast, set the stage for the 2027 FIFA Women’s World Cup in Brazil. They break down how qualifiers work and examine disparity in resources and opportunities across countries. While the U.S. women’s national team has been playing friendly after friendly, plenty of the rest of the world has already started their qualification p...

This week on Sportly, Sarah Spain joins host Kavitha Davidson from the Winter Olympics to break down the biggest sports controversies of the past week, from viral outrage cycles to political optics, and what they reveal about media literacy in the age of social media. We unpack how misinformation spreads during global sporting events, why certain Olympic moments get amplified (and others distorted...

In this episode of Sportly, host Kavitha Davidson sits down with figure skating expert Jackie Wong to break down the unprecedented comeback story that has the skating world buzzing. For the first time in 24 years, Team USA is sending three legitimate Olympic medal contenders to compete in women's figure skating at the Milano Cortina Olympics. Meet the Triple Threat: Amber Glenn (26) - Three-time c...

Eleven years after one of the most defining moments in Super Bowl history, the New England Patriots and Seattle Seahawks face each other again in Super Bowl 60, with the media framing the matchup as a story of redemption and revenge. On this episode of Sportly, host Kavitha Davidson is joined by NFL reporter and Hall of Fame voter Lindsay Jones to examine why that narrative still resonates and whe...

Today's feed drop is from Good Game with Sarah Spain. Olympic hockey legend Angela Ruggiero joins Sarah to discuss what hockey has given her on and off the ice, how she thinks the PWHL will impact U.S./Canada dynamics in Milan, and how she’s seen media coverage change since she helped Team USA win the first-ever Olympic hockey gold in 1998. Find out more about Good Game with Sarah Spain here. * Fo...

What happens when elite athletes are allowed and encouraged to use performance-enhancing drugs? In this episode of Sportly, host Kavitha Davidson is joined by sports journalist Jacob Whitehead to examine the launch of the Enhanced Games, a proposed international sporting competition that openly permits the use of FDA-approved performance enhancers. The conversation explores how decades of doping s...