The Other 51

Shea Serrano, the author of the NY Times bestsellers “The Rap Yearbook” and “Basketball and Other Things” and a columnist for The Ringer, joins Brian this week.  Shea talks about why writing books isn’t much fun, but why he does it anyway. Shea talks about how the way he writes is influenced by his time as a teacher, how researching books is a lot of fun but the actual writing of a book is a...

James Mirtle, the editor-in-chief and columnist for The Athletic, joins Brian this week to talk about business models in sports journalism.  James talks about The Athletic’s business model and its approach to sports journalism. He views the site as one of the feel-good stories in media these days and explains to the skeptics (like Brian) why their subscriber-funded approach can work. He also...

Fifteen years ago this week, Brian broke the biggest story of his career. As a reporter for The Times Herald in Olean, N.Y. covering St. Bonaventure basketball, Brian was one of the outlets breaking the ongoing news about a player-eligibility scandal with the Bonnies and an ensuing player boycott of two games. His main competition on that story? Mike Harrington of the Buffalo News. This week, 15 y...

The strange connection between a small town in North Carolina, a near nuclear disaster and the NBA. Pro basketball players’ love affair with peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Carmelo Anthony’s obsession with wine.  Baxter Holmes has a knack for finding the untold stories in pro basketball, the ones that are kind of hidden from plain view but emerge through his tireless reporting.  Baxt...

Cyd Zeigler, a writer, activist and founder of Outsports.com joins Brian this week. Their first order of business is, naturally, defining what makes a catch. It makes sense. Cyd is a high school and college football official and has written a lot about why the much-maligned NFL catch rule actually makes perfect sense. Cyd and Brian talk about the founding of Outsports.com, why no athletes in the m...

What’s it really like to cover the Super Bowl? Stephen Cohen go first hand experience in 2015 as a sports writer for the Seattle Post Intelligencer. At the time, he was the paper’s Seahawks beat writer and he covered the team’s loss to the New England Patriots in Super Bowl 49. With this year’s Super Bowl between the Patriots and Philadelphia Eagles just a few days a way, Cohen — now a general ass...

In the summer of 1998, Brian was a summer copy editing intern at the Buffalo News. During that summer, Lisa Wilson came on these copy desk for a tryout and eventually a job.  Since then, Lisa became the sports editor for The News and is now the senior editor, sports, at The Undefeated. Lisa joins Brian this week, and they Share memories of that summer. Lisa talks about working with Milt Joffee, Mi...

Jesse Dougherty was Brian’s student back in 2014, when he was a sophomore at Syracuse University and Brian was a doctoral student. The student has become the master. Now, Jesse’s a sports writer for the Washington Post, and he joins Brian for a fun and wide-ranging conversation. Jesse talks about how the first hockey game he ever saw in person was the first one he covered for the L.A. Times, and h...

In what may be the back-door pilot for an upcoming podcast about nerd and comic culture, University of Connecticut professor Alysa Auriemma returns to The Other 51. She and Brian do a deep dive into The Last Jedi (if you haven’t seen the movie, it will be spoiled for you) and what the Star Wars fanboys dislike about the movie. Alysa talks about how much she loved the story of Rey’s parentage, how...

Bob Crawford, bass player for The Avett Brothers, joins Brian to talk about his family’s connection to St. Jude, the work he's doing through the Press On Fund, and his quest to cure child cancer.  Bob talks about the day his then 22-month-old daughter, Hallie, was diagnosed with brain cancer and how St. Jude gave him and his family hope. He also discusses how his daughter’s diagnosis changed songw...

Best-selling author and noted ruckus maker Seth Godin joins Brian this week. They talk about the importance of not only writing every day but publishing every day, what school should teach students, and why work is always the answer. Seth explains to Brian why the recording of Kind of Blue can be compared to writing, why he benefits from writing every day, and why books are the perfect technology....

If you’ve been following Brian on Twitter the past few weeks, your timeline was flooded with his student posts to the #MoritzMemeWar.  The inspiration for that joins the podcast this week. Dr. Nick Koberstein, an assistant professor at Keuka College, created the original meme war (#kcmemewar). He joins Brian this week at Eddie O’Brien’s in Farmington, N.Y. to talk digital pedagogy in higher e...

ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski is the best reporter in sports journalism. You already know this. Everyone knows this. He’s also been a friend and mentor of Brian’s for nearly two decades.  Woj joins Brian this week and describes why he feels this is a golden age of sports journalism. Woj describes why he thinks the mobile phone did more to revolutionize reporting than almost anything else. He desc...

The last time Amy Moritz joined Brian on the podcast, she said that she was working on her first book. Good little brother that he is, Brian said he’d have her back when the book was out.  Hey, guess what? The book is out! And it’s outstanding! Amy joins us to talk about the writing of “I Though You’d Be Faster.” She talks about where the idea for the book came from, what her writing process...

Scott Pitoniak is one of the defining voices in sports writing in Upstate New York. He’s written about the Buffalo Bills, Syracuse University, and sports in and around Rochester for the better part of three decades. Scott joins Brian at Spot Coffee in Rochester (excuse the ambient noise and fun 80s music in the background), which is appropriate for a couple of writers. Scott talks about what it wa...

The Atlantic 10 Media Association reunion tour continues, as long-time listener, first-time caller Matt Vautour joins Brian to talk about the life of a college sports beat writer. Matt, who covers the University of Massachusetts for the Daily Hampshire Gazette, and Brian reminiscence about their days covering the A-10 in the late 1990s and early 2000s, with the requisite John Chaney stories (for e...

In the first return guest spot on The Other 51, author and professor Alysa Auriemma is back. Brian promised Alysa the chance to talk about her love of Chris Evans, and so there is a lot of talk about Chris Evans. A lot of Chris Evans talk. Then there’s a super-deep dive into the state of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Things get super nerdy, folks. But buried in all of this is an important questio...

Hamilton. Jason Isbell. Sports writing. Kevin Van Valkenburg is pretty much the perfect guest for The Other 51. Kevin, a feature writer for ESPN The Magazine, joins Brian to talk about seeing the original cast of Hamilton (apparently, it was worth it). He and Brian talk a lot about their admiration for Jason Isbell and what makes him such a gifted lyricist and songwriter. They also talk about how...

*This episode originally came out in February. Erik's book on the Golden State Warriors is out today. Erik Malinowski of Bleacher Report talks about writing a book about the Golden State Warriors, our favorite Simpsons episodes (including which one to best introduce Brian’s daughter to the show), and why you should never Tweet. We also get super nerdy talking about Scrivener.

Matt Cerrone was one of the pioneers of digital sports media. MetsBlog.com, the site he created in the 2000s, has been an indispensable resource for New York Mets fans. He joins Brian this week to talk about just what the heck happened to the Mets this season, and the challenges and opportunities that a bad year like this presents to writers and storytellers. Matt talks about how he created MetsBl...

You know those banal-sounding cliches you hear baseball players say in interviews with reporters every day? Stacey May Fowles finds a lot of truth in them. She’s built a newsletter and written a book about the life lessons she’s learned as a baseball fan. After breaking down exactly what’s up with the Toronto Blue Jays, Stacey May talks about her career writing about baseball from a fan’s perspect...

She’s a comic book writer and artist. She’s written My Little Pony comics, worked on books for Marvel, D.C. and IDW. She’s written her own comics, including the adorably awesome Gronk. She drew pictures of the cast of Hamilton for Broadway Cares and has been on stage at the Richard Rogers Theater twice. She’s basically living every nerd’s dream life. She and Brian talk about the comic book writing...

Patrick Hruby is probably best known as the sports journalist who writes about all the unpopular issues in sports. Whether it’s concussions in football, amateurism in the NCAA, or cities subsidizing sports stadiums, Hruby writes about the intersection of politics and sports for Vice (among other places). Patrick joins Brian to talk about how sports can serve as a gateway drug to talk about bigger...

In the first-ever bonus track, Ellie Moritz (episode 21) interviews Amy Moritz (episode 24)

It’s Press & Sun-Bulletin reunion day, as the former Binghamton University education beat writer and Binghamton University athletics writer reconnect. Rion Amilcar Scott left journalism 10 years ago and is now a fiction writer and professor at Bowie State. He and Brian talk about creating and chronicling the fictional town of Cross River, Maryland; the biggest sins young writers make and how they...