The End of Sport Podcast

Episode 39: 'Everyone On Screen Has Tested Negative' by Hannah Ensor

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 listeners on the near future of the show.
Check out Hannah's wonderful poem in Michigan Quarterly Review Online where it was originally published here. Check out her book Love Dream With Television here.
For a transcription of this episode, please click here. (Credit @punkademic)
After listening to the episode, check out our most recent pieces on the college football:
"Canceling the College-Football Season Isn't Enough" published in The Chronicle of Higher Education.
“'We are being gaslit': College football and Covid-19 are imperiling athletes” in The Guardian
“Canceling the college football season is about union busting, not health” also in The Guardian
__________________________________________________________________________
As always, please like, share, and rate us on your favorite podcast app, and give follow us on Twitter or Instagram.
@Derekcrim
@JohannaMellis
@Nkalamb
@EndofSportPod
www.TheEndofSport.com

Episode 38: Fascism, Coloniality, and Sport with Zoé Samudzi

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 Resistance: Finding the Conditions of Liberation, and has written for The New Inquiry, The Daily Beast, Vice, Verso, and ROAR Magazine.
In the first half of the interview, the conversation focuses on how the Nazi project was linked to an earlier history of German colonialism, including its genocide against the Herero and Nama and San peoples in Namibia from 1904-1908 and the role of sport and the Olympics in the Nazi project. In the second half of the interview, we shift to the contemporary United States to discuss fascism, anti-fascism, colonialism, and sport in terms of fandom, athlete activism, college sport, and much more.
You can find Zoé's co-authored book As Black as Resistance: Finding the Conditions of Liberation here. You can find her thread on the IOC's recent celebration of the Nazi Olympic torch-lighting ceremony here. You can find  Zoé on Twitter @ztsamudz.
For a transcription of this episode, please click here. (Credit @punkademic)
After listening to the episode, check out our most recent pieces on the college football:
"Canceling the College-Football Season Isn't Enough" published in The Chronicle of Higher Education.
“'We are being gaslit': College football and Covid-19 are imperiling athletes” in The Guardian
“Canceling the college football season is about union busting, not health” also in The Guardian
__________________________________________________________________________
As always, please like, share, and rate us on your favorite podcast app, and give follow us on Twitter or Instagram.
@Derekcrim
@JohannaMellis
@Nkalamb
@EndofSportPod
www.TheEndofSport.com

Episode 37: Olympic Sport on the New Plantation with Tezira Abe

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 outside of universities and the myriad challenges confronting campus athletic workers, whether or not they produce significant revenue for universities. It concludes with a discussion of college sport during the pandemic, including Tezira's efforts to steer the University of Texas in a more ethical direction, the current #WeAreUnited and College Athlete Unity movements, and the failure of the mainstream media to acknowledge the centrality of Black leadership to both current and historical efforts to produce a more just model of college sport.
You can find a discussion of one of the racist incident's Tezira experienced at the University of Texas here. You can find the article she wrote for the Michigan Law Review on NCAA liability for concussion-related injury here. You can find Billy Hawkins' book The New Plantation here.
 
For a transcription of this episode, please click here. (Credit @punkademic)
After listening to the episode, check out our most recent pieces on the college football:
"Canceling the College-Football Season Isn't Enough" published in The Chronicle of Higher Education.
“'We are being gaslit': College football and Covid-19 are imperiling athletes” in The Guardian
“Canceling the college football season is about union busting, not health” also in The Guardian
__________________________________________________________________________
As always, please like, share, and rate us on your favorite podcast app, and give follow us on Twitter or Instagram.
@Derekcrim
@JohannaMellis
@Nkalamb
@EndofSportPod
www.TheEndofSport.com

Episode 36: Solidarity Forever with Kain Colter

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 Sachs to the NLRB. This history is required listening for all those involved in and following the current college football labor movement. Then, in the latter part of the conversation, the three delve into the current labor dynamics in college football, including a discussion of tactics and the shared admiration for and solidarity with current players trying to overturn a fundamentally exploitative system.
Check out this terrific story by Joe Nocera and Ben Strauss on the NW unionization saga here. Follow Kain Colter on Twitter @kaincolter.
For a transcription of this episode, please click here. (Credit @punkademic)
After listening to the episode, check out our most recent pieces on the college football:
"Canceling the College-Football Season Isn't Enough" published in The Chronicle of Higher Education.
“'We are being gaslit': College football and Covid-19 are imperiling athletes” in The Guardian
“Canceling the college football season is about union busting, not health” also in The Guardian
__________________________________________________________________________
As always, please like, share, and rate us on your favorite podcast app, and give follow us on Twitter or Instagram.
@Derekcrim
@JohannaMellis
@Nkalamb
@EndofSportPod
www.TheEndofSport.com

Episode 35: Reimagining College Sport with Ricky Volante

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.
The first half of the episode takes a deep-dive into the Professional Collegiate League (PCL), a league determined to transform the dynamics of college basketball by putting players first. Ricky provides an exceptionally clear and methodical breakdown of the league's origins, mandate, and precisely how it will address the myriad forms of exploitation that define college sport today. The second half of the show focuses in on the horror unfolding on campuses across the country right now as athletes are subjected to the pandemic with little recourse to protect their health and no say in their working conditions. We discuss what both Ricky and the hosts have learned of late in talking to athletes across the country, the amazing resistance that has emerged in the PAC-12 and Big 10, and concerns about the viability of and potential backlash against a labor action that has come together so quickly.
You can find out more about the PCL here. You can check out Ricky’s piece (with friend of the show Andy Schwarz) on the O’Bannon case in the Marquette Sports Law Review here. Check out the piece your End of Sport hosts wrote for the Guardian about what college athletes are experiencing right now here. You can find Ricky on Twitter @RickyVolante13.
For a transcription of this episode, please click here. (Credit @punkademic)
After listening to the episode, check out our recent piece "Canceling the College-Football Season Isn't Enough" published in The Chronicle of Higher Education.
__________________________________________________________________________
As always, please like, share, and rate us on your favorite podcast app, and give follow us on Twitter or Instagram.
@Derekcrim
@JohannaMellis
@Nkalamb
@EndofSportPod
www.TheEndofSport.com

Episode 34: Athlete A and Gymnastics Culture with Jennifer Sey

***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 some of the harms that have become synonymous with the sport as of late. Since retiring from gymnastics, Jennifer has become a w world-renowned author and producer, publishing the 2008 book Chalked Up: Inside Elite Gymnastics' Merciless Coaching, Overzealous Parents, Eating Disorders, and Elusive Olympic Dreams and producing of the recent Netflix documentary Athlete A. Jennifer has also worked at Levis for over 20 years and is currently the company’s Senior Vice-President and Chief Marketing Officer. 
In the first half of the episode, Jennifer walks us through her experiences as an elite gymnast and the cruelty she faced during her career, before illuminating some of the ways that gymnastics might be considered as a cult. In the second half, we turn our attention to the super-popular Netflix documentary Athlete A and we discuss its significance – both culturally and politically, and some of the ways the sport can move forward despite its problematic past.
Check out Jennifer’s op-ed in The New York Times titled “How Gymnastics Culture Breeds Abuse” and follow her on Twitter @Jennifersey.
For a transcription of this episode, please click here. (Credit @punkademic)
After listening to the episode, check out our recent piece "Canceling the College-Football Season Isn't Enough" published in The Chronicle of Higher Education.
__________________________________________________________________________ 
As always, please like, share, and rate us on your favorite podcast app, and give follow us on Twitter or Instagram.
@Derekcrim
@JohannaMellis
@Nkalamb
@EndofSportPod
www.TheEndofSport.com

Episode 33: The Sports Industrial Complex with Kevin Blackistone

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 panelist on ESPN’s “Around the Horn,” a contributor to National Public Radio and co-author of “A Gift for Ron,” a memoir by former NFL star Everson Walls. He is also Professor of the Practice in the Philip Merrill College of Journalism at the University of Maryland, where he teaches courses on sports reporting and on sports, protest and the media.
The episode begins with Kevin’s take on the place of sports media in considering wider cultural and social implications of sport and sporting culture. They talk about the complicity that sport media have in contributing to, reinforcing, and suppressing white supremacy and racism, which Kevin has written about in his piece “The Whitening of Sports Media and the Coloring of Black Athletes,” published in the Wake Forest Journal of Law and Policy. The two then shift the focus to the powerful role that athletes have in mobilizing social and political change and specifically address recent statements made throughout professional sports leagues, including the brilliant work done in the WNBA by athletes like Rebekkah Brunson, Maya Moore, and others. The episode concludes with a discussion of the exploitation of predominantly black athletic labourers in the NCAA, which Kevin has written about in The Washington Post, and some of the futures we can envision for both the NCAA and higher education more generally.
You can keep up with Kevin at The Washington Post or on Twitter @profblackistone. Please also check out the documentary Kevin is producing on Native American mascotry in sport called Imagining the Indian, and perhaps refresh with our own discussion with Jacqueline Keeler on the same topic.
After listening to the episode, check out our recent piece "Canceling the College-Football Season Isn't Enough" published in The Chronicle of Higher Education.
__________________________________________________________________________
 
As always, please like, share, and rate us on your favorite podcast app, and give follow us on Twitter or Instagram.
@Derekcrim
@JohannaMellis
@Nkalamb
@EndofSportPod
www.TheEndofSport.com

Episode 32: College Revenue Athlete Special with Hunter Reynolds and Benjamin St-Juste of College Athlete Unity and Miles Lester

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 Forest University basketball player Miles Lester.
The conversations with Hunter and Benjamin hit on the reasons for founding College Athlete Unity and what they hope to accomplish, as well as what it has been like to be on campus for 'voluntary' workouts over the summer and now the beginning of formal team activities. All three interviews also deep-dive in the life of a campus athletic worker, including the recruiting process, a typical day in the life of an athlete, the quality of education received, attitudes to compensation/exploitation, and the physical toll of high-performance sport. 
Learn more about College Athlete Unity here. Sign their petition here. Read the UCLA football letter here. More on Rudy Carpenter and the PAC-12 here. Find our article on canceling college football here. You can find College Athlete Unity @cau4justice, Hunter Reynolds @hunt_xxvii, Benjamin St-Juste @Benj_Juice, and Miles Lester @mileslester23.
Hunter Reynolds chats with us at 2:35
Benjamin St-Juste begins at 51:38
Miles Lester begins at 1:32:00
For a transcription of this episode, please click here.  (Credit @punkademic)
After listening to the episode, check out our recent piece "Canceling the College-Football Season Isn't Enough" published in The Chronicle of Higher Education 
__________________________________________________________________________
 
As always, please like, share, and rate us on your favorite podcast app, and give follow us on Twitter or Instagram.
@Derekcrim
@JohannaMellis
@Nkalamb
@EndofSportPod
www.TheEndofSport.com
 
**For a transcription of this episode please click here. Huge thanks to @Punkadmic for making this happen!**

Episode 31: Maya Moore, the Activist Athlete with Kurt Streeter

In this episode, Johanna and Nathan are joined by Kurt Streeter to discuss the remarkable work of WNBA superstar Maya Moore to free the wrongfully imprisoned Jonathan Irons. Kurt Streeter is a sports journalist at the New York Times, where he primarily writes stories related to race, gender and social justice. Prior to coming to the NYT in 2017, he wrote for ESPN, the Baltimore Sun, and the Los Angeles Times. He is also a former athlete, and in his younger days played college tennis at California Berkeley and was world ranked by the ATP Tour for three years.
The first half of the interview breaks down the Maya Moore and Jonathan Irons saga. Kurt succinctly explains details of the case and Maya Moore's involvement and grapples with questions related to racism, the carceral state, and the politics of racialized women athletes, as well as the challenges of reporting a story of this nature. In the second half of the episode, Kurt reflects further on his own experiences in the sport media complex, including his time at ESPN, as well as his long-time choice not to write on sport despite his own athletic history. Finally, at the end of the episode, Kurt, Johanna, and Nathan puzzle out the complex dynamics of non-revenue college sport and the way racism shapes higher education in the United States.
You can find Kurt's recent story on the freeing of Jonathan Irons here. You can find his story on the activism of women athletes outside of the limelight here. You can find his lengthy feature on why Maya Moore left basketball here. You can find his massive feature on Jim Thorpe here.
Check out some of Kurt’s other work below:
https://aidsoversixty.wordpress.com/2011/11/23/kurt-streeter-latimes-amid-ill-and-dying-inmates-a-search-for-redemption-care-atonement-first-of-two-parts/
https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2012-apr-23-la-me-riot-rodney-king-20120423-1-story.html
https://www.latimes.com/local/la-me-c1-cal-freshmen-20130816-dto-htmlstory.html
https://niemanstoryboard.org/stories/the-girl-a-surprise-in-the-ring/
 
Click Here for transcription of this episode (credit to friend of the show @punkademic). 
 
After listening to the episode, check out our recent piece "Canceling the College-Football Season Isn't Enough" published in The Chronicle of Higher Education 
__________________________________________________________________________
 
As always, please like, share, and rate us on your favorite podcast app, and give follow us on Twitter or Instagram.
@Derekcrim
@JohannaMellis
@Nkalamb
@EndofSportPod
www.TheEndofSport.com
 
**For a transcription of this episode please click here. Huge thanks to @Punkadmic for making this happen!**
 

Episode 30: Teaching Capitalism to Americans: The Karolyis Come Stateside with Geza Pozsar

 
***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 culture in communist Europe and the capitalist US. Geza powerfully makes the case that Bela Karolyi's abusive methods were a function of his deficiencies in technical knowledge, for which he overcompensated through overtraining and harsh discipline. Indeed, rather than viewing Bela as representative of Eastern methods, we should understand that he failed to thrive in the communist system. It was only in the US that he was fully embraced thanks to a capitalist preoccupation with winning at all costs. Geza also makes the case that although there has been the scapegoating of particular figures in the horrific scandals of violence and abuse that have rightly haunted US gymnastics in recent years, many other complicit figures have not been held accountable, including the mainstream media itself.
 
For more on Geza Pozsar, check out Dvora Meyers' terrific piece here. You can find Geza on Twitter @GezaPozsar.
 
After listening to the episode, check out our recent piece "Canceling the College-Football Season Isn't Enough" published in The Chronicle of Higher Education 
__________________________________________________________________________
 
As always, please like, share, and rate us on your favorite podcast app, and give follow us on Twitter or Instagram.
@Derekcrim
@JohannaMellis
@Nkalamb
@EndofSportPod
www.TheEndofSport.com
 
**For a transcription of this episode please click here. Huge thanks to @Punkadmic for making this happen!**