Sports In America with David Greene

The 2026 All-Star Week is officially underway in Philadelphia, and we’re talking about it with John Stolnis. He’s the co-host of a podcast called Hittin’ Season, which is all about baseball and especially the Philadelphia Phillies. He’ll tell us what to expect from the exhibition game and what it means as we head into the rest of the baseball season. Then we’ll speak with an eight-time All-Star hi...

Long before he became the governor of Pennsylvania, Josh Shapiro was just a kid calling into radio stations to talk through the highs and lows of being a sports fan. In this special episode, recorded live at the World Cup, we spoke with Governor Shapiro to talk about what it means for the city of Philadelphia to host a global event. We’ll dive into his earliest sports memories, hear about the rise...

Some of the best athletes in the world are in the United States right now, competing in World Cup games all over the country. For American athletes, the pressure to perform on their home turf can be intense. But that’s nothing new.  Dominique Dawes has been there before. She was a part of the U.S. women’s gymnastics team in 1996, when the Olympic Games came to Atlanta. She competed on a squad that...

The 2026 FIFA Men’s World Cup is in full swing in North America — but unlike the U.S. women’s team, the men’s national team has never won the tournament. They’ve never even made it to the finals. This week, we sit down with ESPN soccer writer Ryan O’Hanlon to figure out why the men’s team always falls short. And with last week’s dominant win against Paraguay, could this year’s World Cup be any dif...

The 2026 FIFA Men’s World Cup officially kicks off this week and for the first time it will be hosted by three countries across North America. First, we preview the epic tournament with global soccer reporter Meg Swanick to learn what we can expect from this year's Cup, the key players to watch, and which country is likely to take home the title. Then, we’ll sit down with one of the most influenti...

There are just two teams left in the fight to become NBA champions this year, and they are two teams that no one expected to get this far: the New York Knicks and the San Antonio Spurs. What can we expect from this underdog matchup? We’ll talk it out with Marcus Thompson, a lead columnist who covers the NBA at The Athletic. Then we’ll hear from someone who’s no stranger to NBA championships: Micha...

For nearly two decades, Robert Parish built a reputation on the Boston Celtics as a steady force. He was durable and consistent, winning nine All-Stars and four NBA championships alongside greats like Larry Bird and Kevin McHale. But before Parish became the silent backbone of the Celtics dynasty, he was just a shy kid from Louisiana who barely knew how to dribble. In his recent memoir, “The Chief...

Some say sports and politics should be kept separate — that athletes should just “stick to sports.” But for others, politics and sports can’t be separated at all. This week, we sit down with Kevin Blackistone, an award-winning national sports columnist who focuses on the intersection of sports and politics. We’ll talk about why he believes it’s impossible to separate the two, how the Trump adminis...

This year, the Buffalo Sabres have made a complete 180, ending a 14-year playoff drought and now contending to be NHL champions. To celebrate their historic turnaround, we sit down with Sabres mega-fan Scott Lee, who went viral hoisting his 40-lb welded-steel Stanley Cup replica on social media with other fans.  Then we’ll talk to an NBA first-round draft pick turned Twitter star. These days, most...

The WNBA officially kicks off this weekend, with its first regular-season game between the New York Liberty and the Connecticut Sun. And the Sun will be appearing on the court with a brand new weapon: Brittney Griner, a 10-time WNBA all-star and three-time Olympic gold medalist. You might consider it a miracle that we get to watch Griner play at all. That’s because, in 2022, she found herself behi...

In the last few years, Major League Baseball has been tweaking the rules in specific ways, like adding a pitch clock and making the bases bigger, all in the name of making the game faster and bringing in more fans. This week, we talk with baseball writer Molly Knight to hear how these changes are actually working. Then, we learn about an exhibition team that’s fundamentally changing what it means...

It’s time for the 2026 NFL Draft — when all 32 teams get to pick new talent from the best college football programs across the country. Who will be the players to watch next season, and how will they help shape the future of the game? We’ll talk all of this out with Nick Baumgardner, a senior writer and NFL Draft analyst at The Athletic. Then, we’re going to sit down with DeMaurice Smith. For 14 y...

Shea Serrano always has perfect analogies; comparing a Ray Allen jumpshot to a violin made of butter or Sue Bird’s backpedal to a 20th-century poem. This week, with the NBA postseason tipping off, we sit down with Shea to learn how he developed his unique style of storytelling and why it feels so approachable. We’ll hear how he went from a middle school basketball coach to a five-time New York Tim...

At just 25 years old, Nah’Shon “Bones” Hyland is making a name for himself as a point guard for the Minnesota Timberwolves, going head-to-head with some of the best in the league like Steph Curry and LeBron James.  This week, we sit down with Bones to relive some of his most electric performances during his rookie season, and learn how he performs so well under pressure. We’ll hear about how his t...

Last year, Shayla Smith broke Philadelphia’s all-time scoring record for girls and boys basketball. That’s a huge deal, especially in Philly — a city known for basketball legends like WNBA guard Shawnetta Stewart, South Carolina coach Dawn Staley, and NBA Hall of Famer Wilt Chamberlain. None of them scored as many points in high school as Shayla did. We sat down with Shayla and her coach, Kevin Sl...

Baseball season is officially in full swing, and with every home run robbery, oppo taco, and walk-off eruption, it feels like, even for a few hours, baseball restores our faith in humanity. But outside of the stadium, life is anything but calm. A country gripped by fear, a heightened sense of political suspicion, and athletes pulled into the discourse. Any of this sound familiar? This week, we tal...

Just after the closing ceremonies of the Olympics in Milan, we sat down with Emmy award-winning commentator Bomani Jones for a special live recording.  We get into FBI director Kash Patel’s locker room antics after the US men’s team won gold, why Bomani calls them the “whiter Olympics,” and we ask who gets to define America as the US gets ready to host the World Cup this summer.  We also sit down...

The National Women’s Soccer League kicks off its regular season with games all over the country. So this week, we sit down with one of the biggest stars to ever play, Carli Lloyd. Carli is a two-time World Cup Champion, two-time Olympic gold medalist, and Hall of Famer. Her talent on the field is undeniable, but the media has long misunderstood her. We’re going to unpack her 17 years as a professi...

Claressa Shields is one of the most decorated female boxers ever. She’s a two-time Olympic gold medalist and is the only boxer — male or female — to hold undisputed titles in three separate divisions. She’s also currently undefeated.  But for Claressa to climb to the top, she had to face her toughest opponent yet: her past. This week, we relive Claressa’s historic journey to her first Olympics, le...

The fictional TV show Heated Rivalry was an overnight sensation — raking in more than 10 million streams for each of its six episodes. It follows two rival professional hockey players, Shane Hollander and Ilya Rosanov, whose public feud hides their secret, years-long romantic relationship. The show is fun, and it also raises a larger question: How welcoming is the NHL to LGBTQ athletes and fans? T...

This year's Winter Games are wrapping up, and while many athletes are still buzzing from the thrill of performing on the world's largest stage, what actually happens to an Olympian’s mental health when the limelight moves on? For freeskier Nick Goepper, after the US Men’s Team swept the slopestyle podium at the 2014 Sochi Olympics, it seemed like he’d ride that high forever. But when the televisio...

Alysa Liu has been considered a figure skating prodigy ever since she was a kid. When she was just 12 years old, she was the youngest U.S. woman to land a triple axel in a competition. Then at 13, she became the country’s youngest World Champion ever. But in 2022, right as Alysa was at the height of her career, she quit the sport altogether and retired at 16. She didn’t set foot in a rink for near...

As we get ready for Super Bowl LX, we sit down with one of the greatest football players to never win a Super Bowl. Larry Fitzgerald is an 11-time Pro Bowler who spent his 17-year career with the Arizona Cardinals. His first and only shot at a title was in 2009 when his team lost a squeaker to the Pittsburgh Steelers. In this episode, we relive all the key moments of that fateful game with the sta...

Tom Coughlin’s first Super Bowl was one of the most famous games in NFL history. It pitted the New York Giants, considered massive underdogs at the time, against the New England Patriots, who hadn’t lost a game all season. To many people, the Giants seemed doomed from the start. But Coughlin and his team showed that with discipline and determination, anything was possible. Tom Coughlin is a three-...

Andrew Whitworth is an NFL legend. A four-time Pro Bowler, he played for 16 seasons into his 40s, then retired as the oldest tackle in NFL history. He was known not just for his skill on the field and his longevity — but also widely recognized for his character, and his charity work in his personal life.  In this week’s episode, we sit down with Andrew to hear everything he learned from his 16 sea...