The Other 51

This episode was supposed to be an interview with a recent college graduate about what it’s like to be entering journalism in 2020. Instead, Cameron Hurst — a recent St. Bonaventure graduate and current part-time sports writer in his hometown of Jamestown, N.Y. - just regales Brian with story after story. Among them: - How members of his family were in cahoots both with Lucille Ball and gangsters...

In the first episode of 2020, Brian’s joined by Bruce Arthur, sports columnist for the Toronto Star. Being a good son of a border town, Brian asks Bruce what it was like to watch The Tragically Hip’s final concert with members of the Canadian Olympic Team on the final night of the Rio Olympics. Many Hip memories are shared. Bruce discusses his unconventional career path in journalism, what makes c...

Marnie Eisenstadt, a reporter for Syracuse.com and The Post-Standard who was named the 2018 Journalist of the Year by the New York State Associated Press Association, joins Brian this week. Marnie talks about what it has been like to report on stories in Syracuse lately, whether it was a shooting at the Destiny USA mall or the on-going instances of racism at Syracuse University. Marnie and Brian d...

(This episode originally aired July 3, 2019 and has been updated.) Anthony King, the Tony nominated co-writer of the book of Beetlejuice The Musical, joins Brian this week. Brian and Anthony do a deep dive into the creative process of a Broadway show, as Anthony describes what a book of a musical is and why it is so important. Anthony discusses the process he and Scott Brown had in writing the sho...

Fresh off covering the Washington Nationals’ World Series title for the Washington Post, Jesse Dougherty talks about what it’s really like to be a major-league beat writer. Jesse discusses what makes the baseball beat so unique, how it can totally warp your life, the advice he received from Barry Svrugla and Ben Shpigel and how transparency helps him to build relationships with his sources. He als...

For the fourth time, Alysa Auriemma joins Brian on The Other 51. But this time, there’s biggest stuff to talk about than Captain America, Chris Evans and Kylo Ren. (I mean, they do talk about Avengers: Endgame. They’re not monsters.) Alyssa joins Brian to talk about the writing and publication of her new book, “All Daughters Rise.” Alysa discusses the themes of her book and how she was inspired to...

Joe Buscaglia, who covers the Buffalo Bills for The Athletic, joins Brian this week. There is the requisite Harry Potter talk between two nerds, and the single hottest take in the history of The Other 51 is given. This yields to talk about another fantasy world, the Bills. This leads to a discussion about how Joe balances matching the fans’ mood with a more measured approach to covering the team....

Drew Gasparini, a composer/lyricist/all-around awesome guy, joined Brian in New York City this past weekend to talk about song writing, musical theater and the creative process. Drew discusses the recent re-release party for his 2009 album, “I Could Use a Drink,” and what it was like to revisit songs he had written 10–15 years ago. How, exactly, did Simon’s mom take that message in “I’m A Little B...

In another episode that recorded at the AEJMC conference in Toronto last month (thanks Apple), Dr. Jennifer Harker from West Virginia University joins Brian to talk about her award-winning paper. First off, she learns that Brian does not mess around when it comes to Canadian snack food. Then, Jennifer and Brian do a deep diver into her study on the Alliance of American Football and their use of ha...

This episode was supposed to be recorded at the AEJMC conference earlier this month in Toronto. But Dr. Mark Coddington was busy doing conference stuff, and Brian forgot his Mac dongle, so consider this a makeup in a way. Mark is an assistant professor at Washington and Lee University and the author of the new book, “Aggregating the News: Secondhand Knowledge and the Erosion of Journalistic Author...

Back when this podcast started, Joe Posnanski joined Brian for Episode 4 to talk about Hamilton, Buffalo sports, and writing. This week, for our 100th episode, Joe joins Brian again to talk about … Hamilton, Buffalo sports, and writing. After nerding out about their favorite moments in Hamilton, Brian and Joe get to the main topic — Joe’s upcoming book on Harry Houdini. Joe talks in depth about hi...

Brian is joined once again by his favorite local* author, Rion Amilcar Scott. Rion has a new collection of short stories due out on Aug,. 20, “The World Doesn’t Require You.” It’s a followup to his previous collection, Insurrections. Brian and Rion talk about how the new collection came together, and how both the world it’s set in and Rion’s writing have changed since President Trump’s election. R...

Anthony King, the Tony nominated co-writer of the book of Beetlejuice The Musical, joins Brian this week. Brian and Anthony do a deep dive into the creative process of a Broadway show, as Anthony describes what a book of a musical is and why it is so important. Anthony discusses the process he and Scott Brown had in writing the show, how Lydia became the main character, how they changed the concep...

Baxter Holmes had one of the best months for a sports features writer in a very long time earlier this year. He published two fantastic stories at ESPN - one on the fancy dinners that San Antonio Spurs coach Greg Popovich hosts, the other detailing the dysfunction of the Los Angeles Lakers. On the face of it, they are two very different stories. But in his return visit to The Other 51, Baxter tell...

One of our very first guests on The Other 51 (Episode 3), Tyler Dunne from Bleacher Report returns to kick off our summer season. Tyler and Brian spend the first several minutes reminiscing about early 1990s NBA basketball, including Brian’s home-economics class gamesmanship involving Chuck Person and Tyler’s origin story as a Charlotte Hornets fan. Then they get around to the business at hand. Wh...

Travis Clark was never actually Brian’s student at SUNY Oswego. But he was, in his own words, “student adjace.” Travis, a SUNY Oswego graduate and now a media and entertainment reporter for Business Insider, joins Brian this week. They start with the requisite Oswego talk, and Travis talks about how much working for the student paper helped prepare him for his career. Travis talks about his journe...

In the summer of 2018, Brian heard Dr. Kathy Roberts Forde from UMass speak on a panel at the annual AEJMC conference. The panel’s title: “So You Wanna Write A Book” This week, Kathy joins Brian to demystify the book-writing process. Kathy discusses her research into literary journalism and her first book. What is literary journalism, what’s interesting about that field, and how do we read older p...

Writer and podcast Quinn Rose joins Brian this week. First off .. .there is a TON of musical theater nerdery this week. Brian finally saw Hamilton, Quinn has seen it twice, so they talk A LOT about the show, about what it’s like to see it after listening to the cast recording so much. They also talk about the shows they’re going to see soon. Quinn’s got Be More Chill coming up. Brian’s talking his...

How did Arnold Palmer order an Arnold Palmer? Who dry cleans the green jackets for Augusta National members? What’s it like to play Augusta National when you are … not a very good golfer? Steve Politi, who was recently named the top sports columnist in the country by the Associated Press Sports Editors, joins Brian this week to talk about column writing. Steve traces his career path from the Nutle...

Of all the writers Brian has had on this podcast, you’ve probably read more words more often by John Wawrow than any other guest. You just didn’t realize it. John has spent nearly 20 years as the AP sports writer in Buffalo, covering primarily the Bills and the Sabres. He joins Brian this week in an episode recorded at the Village Bakery in Pittsford, N.Y. John talks about his long career path fro...

Bob Costas served as a perfect opening act for this week’s guest. Dr. Jeremy Littau. Jeremy, an associate professor at Lehigh University, joins Brian this week to talk about his experience earlier this year when he legitimately went viral on Twitter. How did it happen, what was it like, and when did Jeremy’s notifications finally become manageable again. That yields into a discussion about public...

When Brian was growing up, his dream was simple — move to New York City and be a broadcaster for NBC Sports. He wanted to be Bob Costas. That didn’t happen. But this week Brian gets to interview his boyhood idol, as Bob joins him to discuss writing, broadcasting and sports media. Bob and Brian talk about Bob’s memories of Syracuse University, and his mentor Stan Alten (1:35); the uneasy relationsh...

There is no website Brian relies on more during the winter than Finger Lakes Weather. It’s the best weather forecasting site in upstate New York. This week, Drew Montreuil — the brains and the voice of the site - joins Brian to talk all things weather (and SUNY Oswego). Drew talks about his lifelong obsession with weather and how and why he turned that into a site about the Finger Lakes. He and Br...

In our first episode of 2019, Michael Rosenberg of Sports Illustrated joins Brian for a deep dive into his excellent feature story on Todd Marinovich that appeared in the Jan. 14 edition of the magazine. Michael recounts how he first got interested in the story, how he reported the story and what it was like when the story turned out to be very different than the one he expected. He talks about wh...

Six months ago, Sam Fortier was a college student at Syracuse University. Now, he is the Los Angeles Chargers beat writer for The Athletic. Sam joins Brian this week, to rub it in about the nice weather and talk about being an NFL beat reporter in 2018. Sam talks about what it’s like to start your career on a pro beat, the challenges he’s faced starting a new beat in a new city. What’s it like to...