The End of Sport Podcast

Episode 111: How Women’s Swimming Got So Transphobic

In this episode, Johanna talks with repeat guest and one of our favorite sports journalists, Frankie de la Cretaz, about their incisive piece for The Nation, "How Women's Swimming got so Transphobic." Per Frankie's research, "Almost no other sport is as hostile to trans athletes - and that's because its culture created the perfect conditions for transphobia to take root." Frankie first discusses the confluence of 3 main factors upon which the sport's dangerous transphobia has emerged: the sport's whiteness and related anti-Blackness, its history of rampant mainly cisgender heterosexual white men's sexual abuse of mainly cishet white girls and women, and the East German state doping program against its female swimmers during the Cold War. The sport's whiteness is not just a dangerous condition that impacts many people today (check out our 2020 episodes with Kevin Dawson and Matt Hodler if you haven't already); people also use it as a shield to claim that swimming "doesn't have a race problem" in a way that gives foundation to denying cishet Black female swimmers as well as trans women their gender. The invocation of the GDR's doping scandal for transphobia is a misappropriation of East German women's suffering that inaccurately denigrates their experiences and silences trans girls' and women's experiences today too. We also talk about USA Swimming's use of white women on its staff as a possible cover for its sexual abuse history, and how cishet white women are always the main beneficiaries of "diversity" schemes due to their proximity to the white patriarchy. Frankie moreover details the challenges they encountered in finding an outlet that would accept their pitch, and contextualizes the sport's transphobia compared to how other sports are responding to anti-trans activity. Johanna ends with a call to action to fellow cishet white women to directly challenge transphobic rhetoric and policies as they support the resurgence of violent fascism and its attempted genocide of transgender people today. 
Read the Sports Illustrated piece that Frankie mentioned about Lia Thomas here. 

Episode 110: Floridian and national athletic anti-fascist resistance with Joel Anderson

In this episode, Johanna and Nathan are joined by one of our all-time favorite journalists and a repeat guest: Joel Anderson from Slate. Joel came on to expand on his argument for what prospective Black athletes might do regarding Florida from his February 13th episode of Hang Up and Listen in the "Afterball" segment. We begin by laying the landscape of the FL state's discriminatory policies, including the proposed HB 999 legislation that aims to ban Gender Studies, gives faculty hiring decisions to schools' Board of Trustees, banning many "diversity" programs, and more. This is all on top of banning the AP African American history course as well as requesting that schools submit information about trans students receiving gender affirming care to the state. We talk through how these dynamics could impact the college sport landscape and what prospective athletes could think about doing moving forward: take their labor outside of the state or attend HBCUs in Florida. We discuss the complicated structures coercing athletes to stay silent and compliant, and how athletes simultaneously always have more power than they think they do. The state propaganda photo op over Florida's new NIL legislation of governor Ron DeSantis with UF's athletic director and head football coach alongside counterparts at FSU and athletes has been used to link DeSantis's white supremacy with racial capitalism sport. Black coaches outside of Florida also have a role to play in the resistance, as do other athletes and athletic administrators whose salaries are paid by the exploitation of college athletic workers. While not an uplifting episode, we hope to urge listeners who are athletes, academics, sports journalists, and yes even coaches to stand up and openly resist Florida's fascism and attempt to create "silent and compliant" racialized workers across all industries and walks of life. 
 
For a transcription of this episode, please click here. (Updated semi-regularly Credit @punkademic)
Research Assistance for The End of Sport provided by Abigail Bomba.
__________________________________________________________________________
If you are interested, you can support the show via our Patreon!
As always, please like, share, and rate us on your favorite podcast app, and give follow us on Twitter or Instagram.
www.TheEndofSport.com

Episode 109: On The End of Sport, College Sports, Labor, and Exploitation

Today we have a special episode which is actually a recording of a symposium panel session Johanna, Nathan and I participated in. The symposium panel was part of William & Mary’s Journal of Race, Gender, and Social Justice spring symposium series called “Level the Playing Field: How Sports Both Advance and Hinder Social Justice Goals,” and was hosted by William & Mary JD Candidate Eric Beinhart, who you will hear as host of the session. In this panel we covered a lot of topics that may be of interest for listeners including a bit more detail on how the show got started, what we hope to accomplish through the show, and, of course, we go off again on college athletics and the cartel that is the NCAA.
 
For a transcription of this episode, please click here. (Updated semi-regularly Credit @punkademic)
Research Assistance for The End of Sport provided by Abigail Bomba.
__________________________________________________________________________
If you are interested, you can support the show via our Patreon!
As always, please like, share, and rate us on your favorite podcast app, and give follow us on Twitter or Instagram.
www.TheEndofSport.com

Episode 108: On Racism in Canadian Sport with Ian Kennedy

On today’s episode, Derek is joined by Ian Kennedy, critical sports journalist and writer for The Hockey News and Yahoo Sports, and author of On Account of Darkness: Shining Light on Race and Sport (Tidewater Press). This wide-ranging discussion covers On Account of Darkness and what it can tell us about racism in sport through the lens of athlete’s experiences, Ian’s work as a critical sports journalist (and the corresponding pushback), and we’ll get his thoughts on abuse in Canadian sport and the growing calls for a judicial inquiry. 
 
Check out Ian’s work here:
Substack: https://iankennedyck.substack.com/
Book: https://www.tidewaterpress.ca/on-account-of-darkness/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/IanKennedyCK?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor
Piece on Jordan Peterson “show” at Canadian Tire Centre (owned by the Ottawa Senators ownership group): https://ca.sports.yahoo.com/news/jordan-petersons-ottawa-event-directly-opposes-nh-ls-diversity-and-inclusion-efforts-experts-say-191156733.html
For a transcription of this episode, please click here. (Updated semi-regularly Credit @punkademic)
Research Assistance for The End of Sport provided by Abigail Bomba.
__________________________________________________________________________
If you are interested, you can support the show via our Patreon!
As always, please like, share, and rate us on your favorite podcast app, and give follow us on Twitter or Instagram.
www.TheEndofSport.com
 

Episode 107: Abuse and Harm in Canadian Sport with Jennifer Fraser and MacIntosh Ross

In today's episode we are joined by Jennifer Fraser and MacIntosh Ross to discuss the pervasive abuse and harm in the world of Canadian sport and the efforts of athletes and academics to push the federal government to initiate an independent judicial review despite resistance from within. 
Jennifer Fraser is an educator, consultant, and author of The Bullied Brain: Heal your Scars and Restore your Health.
MacIntosh Ross is Assistant Professor of Kinesiology at Western University and organizing member of Scholars Against Abuse in Canadian Sport.
 
 
 
For a transcription of this episode, please click here. (Updated semi-regularly Credit @punkademic)
Research Assistance for The End of Sport provided by Abigail Bomba.
__________________________________________________________________________
If you are interested, you can support the show via our Patreon!
As always, please like, share, and rate us on your favorite podcast app, and give follow us on Twitter or Instagram.
www.TheEndofSport.com
 

Episode 106: Historicizing and Theorizing Harm in Youth Sport w/ Dionne Koller

Johanna and Nathan are joined by Dionne Koller, Professor of Law and Director of the Center for Sport and the Law at the University of Baltimore, to discuss her fascinating new paper "Identifying Youth Sport." The conversation explores the historical development and particularities of the US youth sport system, and the ways in which US youth sport can be theorized through a Marxian framework as a site of harm. Tune in for this fascinating discussion. 
 
For a transcription of this episode, please click here. (Updated semi-regularly Credit @punkademic)
Research Assistance for The End of Sport provided by Abigail Bomba.
__________________________________________________________________________
If you are interested, you can support the show via our Patreon!
As always, please like, share, and rate us on your favorite podcast app, and give follow us on Twitter or Instagram.
www.TheEndofSport.com
 

Episode 105: Racial Capitalism and Football with Joshua Myers

Nathan is joined by Joshua Myers, Associate Professor of Africana Studies at Howard University and author of Cedric Robinson: The Time of the Black Radical Tradition and  We Are Worth Fighting For: A History of the Howard University Student Protest of 1989, to talk about Cedric Robinson, racial capitalism, and how we cannot understand football without grappling with intertwined histories of racialization and capitalism. 
 
The conversation explores Josh's brilliant essay in Catapult on his experiences in high school football as a prism for understanding how racial capitalism shapes and constrains those who participate in US football at the high school, college, and professional levels.
 
You can find Josh's essay in Catapult here.
 
For a transcription of this episode, please click here. (Updated semi-regularly Credit @punkademic)
Research Assistance for The End of Sport provided by Abigail Bomba.
__________________________________________________________________________
If you are interested, you can support the show via our Patreon!
As always, please like, share, and rate us on your favorite podcast app, and give follow us on Twitter or Instagram.
www.TheEndofSport.com
 
 

Episode 104: We’re back!

In this catch up episode, Nathan, Johanna, and Derek talk about what they have been up to for the past six months before diving into some of the latest issues in sport and society, including the downfall of Twitter, the NLRB regional office in Los Angeles’ ruling that USC, the PAC-12, and NCAA are joint employers of revenue-generating football and basketball players (and it’s direction to pursue unfair labor practice charges), mass harm and violence in Canadian sport, and the seemingly increasing ties between right-wing and anti-trans movements and groups.
 
For a transcription of this episode, please click here. (Updated semi-regularly Credit @punkademic)
Research Assistance for The End of Sport provided by Abigail Bomba.
__________________________________________________________________________
If you are interested, you can support the show via our Patreon!
As always, please like, share, and rate us on your favorite podcast app, and give follow us on Twitter or Instagram.
www.TheEndofSport.com
 
 

Episode 103: Sport and Empire

In the newest episode of our EOS Panels series, Johanna and Nathan talk to Tyler Shipley and Nikhil Pal Singh about what imperialism is, why it is a crucial concept for our understanding of the world system today, and how imperialism advances and is advanced through capitalist sport. 
Tyler A. Shipley is a Professor of Society, Culture and Commerce in the Department of Liberal Studies at Humber College Institute of Technology and Advanced Learning and author of the books Canada in the World: Settler Capitalism and the Colonial Imagination (Fernwood) and Ottawa and Empire: Canada and the Military Coup in Honduras (AK Press).
Nikhil Pal Singh is Professor of Social and Cultural Analysis and History at NYU and Faculty Director of NYU Prison Education Program. He is also author of the books Race and America’s Long War (UC Press) and Black Is a Country: Race and the Unfinished Struggle for Democracy (Harvard University Press).
 
For a transcription of this episode, please click here. (Updated semi-regularly Credit @punkademic)
Research Assistance for The End of Sport provided by Abigail Bomba.
__________________________________________________________________________
If you are interested, you can support the show via our Patreon!
As always, please like, share, and rate us on your favorite podcast app, and give follow us on Twitter or Instagram.
www.TheEndofSport.com
 

Episode 102: On Critical Sports Fandom

In this third episode of our End of Sport Panels series, Johanna and Derek sit down with Amanda Mull, Steven Salaita, and Kevin Gannon to explore how some of our favorite anti-racist/anti-capitalist critics, folks whose focus in their work is not on sport, come to engage with sport and experience fandom. The conversation explores what the panelists get out of their engagements with racial capitalist sport and how their experiences with and through sport inform their politics.
Amanda Mull is a three-time guest on the show and staff writer at The Atlantic.
Steven Salaita is a former Associate Professor at Virginia Tech and should-have-been professor at the University of Illinois, before having his position revoked in an actual instance of ‘cancel culture,’ for principled comments about Israeli apartheid. He is the author of eight books, including 2015’s Uncivil Rites: Palestine and the Limits of Academic Freedom.
Kevin Gannon is Professor of History at Grandview University and author of the recent book Radical Hope: A Teaching Manifesto.
For a transcription of this episode, please click here. (Updated semi-regularly Credit @punkademic)
Research Assistance for The End of Sport provided by Abigail Bomba.
__________________________________________________________________________
If you are interested, you can support the show via our Patreon!
As always, please like, share, and rate us on your favorite podcast app, and give follow us on Twitter or Instagram.
www.TheEndofSport.com