The End of Sport

In this wide-ranging interview, Johanna, Nathan, and Derek talk to Adia Benton about how we can understand the bizarre and disturbing US experience of pandemic from an anthropological perspective and what we can learn from pandemic sport in the United States. Adia Benton is Associate Professor of Anthropology and African Studies at Northwestern University and the author of the 2017 Rachel Carson A...

In the second of our two episodes breaking down the US election with some of our favorites guests, Johanna and Nathan have the pleasure of again being joined by The Atlantic writer Amanda Mull. A long-time Georgian, Amanda provides a thorough breakdown of what happened in her home state and what to expect in the coming Senate run-off elections. The conversation then pivots to a discussion of how s...

In this somewhat off-brand episode, Johanna and Nathan are joined by friends Dr. Maximillian Alvarez (our first repeat guest!) and Dr. Sina Rahmani to wade through the all-consuming political moment in the United States. Maximillian Alvarez is host of Working People and editor-in-chief of The Real News. Sina Rahmani is host of The East is a Podcast and producer of The Red Nation. After our electio...

In this episode, all three hosts have the great pleasure of speaking with organizational and critical race theorist Victor Ray about his crucial work on racialized organizations, and how his intervention helps us think through both the world of sport and the current political moment in the United States. Victor Ray is Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of Iowa. His incredibly influ...

In this episode, all three hosts are joined by TSN's Rick Westhead to discuss pain and injury in the NHL and the league's failure to protect players. Rick Westhead is Senior Correspondent and investigative journalist at Canadian sports broadcaster TSN and contributor to CTV News and W5. Prior to his work at TSN, he was a contributor to the New York Times and a world affairs writer for The Toronto...

In this special episode of the show, all three hosts sit down with two public health experts to investigate the very premise of the podcast itself: how a global pandemic is impacting the world of sport. Gavin Yamey is Associate Director for Policy at the Duke Global Health Institute, Professor of the Practice of Global Health and Public Policy, and Director of the Center for Policy Impact in Globa...

This week, Derek and Nathan have the honor of being joined by Otito Ogbonnia to talk about the life of a college football player and a summer of gridiron labor organizing and resistance. Otito is a Junior defensive lineman at UCLA, U20 USTF national champion in shot put, and bronze medal winner in the discus. He is also one of the organizers of the PAC-12's #WeAreUnited movement. In the first half...

In this week’s episode, Johanna, Derek, and Nathan are joined by Jessica O’Beirne, host of the *must* listen Gymcastic podcast, to talk about harm and abuse in gymnastics, the racial and racist dimensions of the sport, and Jessica’s wonderful work in the public sphere. In the first half of the episode, we talk about Jessica’s efforts to uncover abuse within the sport and how she approaches sensiti...

“Anti-Blackness is woven into the fabric of our society” - Jamal Hill In what might be one of our most self-reflective episodes yet, for the last installment of Swimming Week Johanna and Derek are joined by Jamal Hill, a Black Paralympic swimmer who is currently training for the 2021 Tokyo Olympic Games. We talk to Jamal about what it was like growing up not only as a Black person in the US—where...

In the third instalment of swimming week here on the pod, Johanna and Derek are joined by Matt Hodler, Assistant Professor of Sports Media & Communications at the University of Rhode Island and former D1 swimmer at the University of Miami (Ohio), to discuss racialized nationalism in swimming, representations of hegemonic masculinity in cultural images and discourses surrounding Michael Phelps, and...

***Content warning: In this episode, we discuss sexual assault and abuse endured by athletes and the impact that has on their lives.***   In the second episode of swimming week, Johanna sits down with 2-time British Olympic swimmer Katherine Starr to discuss her experiences of harm within the sport, the structural conditions that make sexual abuse so rampant in swimming, and the work she is doing...

In this episode, Johanna and Nathan speak with historian Kevin Dawson about how his book, Undercurrents of Power: Aquatic Culture in the African Diaspora completely debunks the historical and contemporary white supremacist myth about Black people’s innate inability to swim. Dawson explains how from about the 1400s-1800s African peoples were some of the biggest swimming, canoeing, diving, and surfi...

To begin the episode, Nathan and Johanna acknowledge the current actions of two groups: 1) the very brave University of Michigan graduate students @geo3550 who are currently striking for a safe and just Covid response from the university and for the school to defund campus police, and 2) the Scholar Strike of college and university educators (Nov. 8-9 in the US and Nov. 9-10 in Canada), inspired b...

In this week’s episode, Johanna and Nathan are joined by co-authors of the hot-off-the-press Loving Sports When They Don’t Love You Back: Dilemmas of the Modern Sports Fan, Jessica Luther and Kavitha A. Davidson, to chat about what it means to be a fan as moral and ethical dilemmas complicate the sports that we seem to love so dearly. In the first part of the episode, Jessica and Kavitha walk us t...

In this unexpected episode, Johanna, Nathan, and Derek do a deep dive into the powerful player strikes this week in the WNBA, NBA, WTA, MLS, and MLB. In the first half of the episode, the hosts give their take on everything that has gone down and what this means for sport moving forward. The discussion then shifts to some of the connections between this powerful athletic labor mobilization and oth...

In this very special episode, Hannah Ensor reads her remarkable poem "Everyone On Screen Has Tested Negative: On Enjoying Basketball in 2020." Hannah Ensor is a poet, essayist, and Lecturer in Creative Writing and Literature at the University of Michigan. She is the author of Love Dream With Television (Noemi Press, 2018). Also, Nathan begins the episode by ranting about universities and updating...

In this episode, Johanna and Nathan are joined by Zoé Samudzi to discuss how colonialism is inextricably linked to the rise of fascism and where sport fits in those dynamics. Zoé Samudzi is a writer, activist, photographer, and sociology doctoral candidate at the University of California, San Francisco, and research fellow at Political Research Associates. She also the co-author of As Black as Res...

In this episode, Johanna and Nathan are joined by Tezira Abe to discuss non-revenue/Olympic sport in US higher education and the racist dynamics that shape American college athletics. Tezira was the first Black athlete on the University of Texas Austin women’s golf team and a recent graduate of the University of Michigan law school. The episode explores the racist culture of golf inside and outsid...

In this episode, Derek and Nathan are beyond thrilled to be joined by Kain Colter, former quarterback at Northwestern University, organizer and co-founder of the College Athletes Players Association, and organizer and face of the union drive of the Northwestern football team. Kain provides a vital oral history of how the union drive at Northwestern went down, from his time reading Marx at Goldman...

In this episode, we are joined by Ricky Volante. Ricky Volante is co-founder (with friend of the show Andy Schwarz) and CEO of the Professional Collegiate League, attorney at The Volante Law Firm, LLC, and an Adjunct Professor at the Harvard Extension School and Case Western Reserve University School of Law. He also co-hosts the Forward, Thinking podcast with PCL Chief Operating Officer David West...

***Content warning: In this episode, we discuss the ways that individuals used harmful and abusive methods in their coaching tactics and their impact on athletes.*** In this episode, Johanna and Derek are joined by Jennifer Sey, a seven-time member of the United States National Gymnastics team and a 1986 national champion, to discuss her career in gymnastics as well as her work to shed light on so...

In this episode, Derek is joined by national sports columnist Kevin Blackistone to talk about the sports industrial complex, social and political upheavals and rebellion in the sports world, and how sports media upholds, contributes to, and silences racial violence, racism, and white supremacy. Kevin Blackistone is a long-time national sports columnist now at The Washington Post, a regular panelis...

In this very special episode, Derek and Nathan are privileged to be joined by three men's revenue sport athletes to discuss a range of issues in college sport. First, they talk to University of Michigan football player Hunter Reynolds and then University of Minnesota football player Benjamin St-Juste, co-founders of the new activist organization College Athlete Unity. Then, they speak with Wake Fo...

***Content warning: In this episode, we discuss the ways that individuals used harmful and abusive methods in their coaching tactics and their impact on athletes.***   In the explosive second part of this interview with former US national gymnastics team choreographer and long-time Karolyi collaborator Geza Pozsar, all three hosts and guest delve into what the Karolyis reveal about gymnastics cult...

***Content warning: In this episode, we discuss the ways that individuals used harmful and abusive methods in their coaching tactics and their impact on athletes.*** In the first part of our interview with former choreographer for Béla and Martha Karolyi, the Romanian Communist State, and US national gymnastics team, Geza Pozsar takes us through his experiences living in Romania and working for th...