The End of Sport Podcast
In The End of Sport, academics Derek Silva, Johanna Mellis, and Nathan Kalman-Lamb provide critical commentary, analysis, and interviews on sport and society. The End of Sport Podcast raises questions about the role of sport in our daily lives and whether or not we can reimagine sport and sporting cultures in the future.
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Episodes
Monday Jun 22, 2020
Monday Jun 22, 2020
**HUGE ANNOUNCEMENT: Tune into this week's episode for a BIG announcement about the future of The End of Sport!**
In this episode, Derek and Nathan speak with Dr. Johanna Mellis, Assistant Professor of History at Ursinus College, to discuss her brilliant recent scholarly articles “From Defectors to Cooperators: The Impact of 1956 on Athletes, Sport Leaders, and Sport Policy in Socialist Hungary” and“Cold War Politics and the California Running Scene.”
Johanna takes Derek and Nathan through a fascinating period of history in order to explain why traditional assumptions about sport in the Soviet Bloc need to be revised, particularly in the context of a more critical understanding of amateurism and US capitalist sport.
In the latter part of the conversation, Johanna shares painful personal experiences with sexual harassment and the toxicity of sport culture from her career as an elite swimmer and the impact they have had on her identity and development as both academic and coach.
**We discuss sensitive and disturbing issues related to sexual harassment and abuse in sport during this episode from 1:20 - 1:30, please consider this before listening**
You can find Dr. Johanna Mellis on Twitter @JohannaMellis.
For a transcription of this episode click here.
__________________________________________________________________________
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!**
Thursday Jun 18, 2020
Thursday Jun 18, 2020
In this episode, Nathan speaks with Jay M. Smith and Ted Tatos about the various academic/athletic scandals that have beset the University of North Carolina and what they reveal about the NCAA system more broadly. Jay M. Smith is Professor of History at the University of North Carolina. He is the author of four books, including most recently, with Mary Willingham, Cheated: The UNC Scandal, the Education of Athletes, and the Future of Big-Time College Sports. Ted Tatos is a testifying expert and consultant with EconONE Research specializing in quantitative economic analysis and antitrust and former Director of Empirical Analytics in the Department of Economics at the University of Utah, where he continues to teach as an adjunct professor. He is also Associate Economics Editor of The Antitrust Bulletin.
You can find Ted's co-authored scholarly study on ADHD/LD diagnoses of UNC athletes here and The Athletic's reporting on the subject here. A recent column of Ted's on harm to college athletes at The American Prospect is here. The letter Jay, Nathan, and Derek signed calling for further disclosure by NCAA institutions of ADHD/LD data in response to Ted's work is here.
__________________________________________________________________________
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!**
Monday Jun 15, 2020
Monday Jun 15, 2020
In this episode, Nathan is joined by Dave Zirin to examine recent events at the intersection of the pandemic, uprisings against white supremacy, and the world of sport in light of the recent history of Black athlete activism. Dave Zirin is sports editor at The Nation, host of The Edge of Sports podcast, and author of a mind boggling ten books on the politics of sport, including, with recent guest Michael Bennett, Things That Make White People Uncomfortable; What’s My Name, Fool? Sports and Resistance in the United States; Welcome to the Terrordome: The Pain, Politics, and Promise of Sports; Brazil’s Dance with the Devil: The World Cup, The Olympics, and the Fight for Democracy; and, most recently, Jim Brown: Last Man Standing.
The conversation reflects on what we can glean from developments in a range of sporting contexts and then turns to Dave's personal relationship to sport and his career and place in the sport media complex as a rare and uncompromising critical voice.
You can follow Dave's work on Twitter @EdgeOfSports.
__________________________________________________________________________
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!**
Friday Jun 12, 2020
Friday Jun 12, 2020
In this episode, Derek and Nathan are joined by Shireen Ahmed for a lengthy and ranging discussion of both the complex politics of how sport is interwoven with the current uprisings against white supremacy and the challenges more broadly of reconciling a love for sport with relentless critique.
Shireen Ahmed is a writer, public speaker and an award-winning Sports Activist focusing on Muslim women in sports, and the intersections of racism and misogyny in sport. She is an Inclusion and Diversity consultant. She is also an athlete, advocate, community organizer, and works with Youth of Colour on empowerment projects and is an avid sports coach and mentor. Shireen attended the University of Toronto. She is a regular contributor to Muslimah Media Watch and a former Global Sports Correspondent for Safe World For Women and Muslim Women in Sports website. Shireen is also co-host of the absolutely essential Burn it All Down podcast, which is the first feminist sports podcast that analyzes sports culture from an intersectional feminist lens.. Seriously...that podcast is incredible and needs to be checked out!
Shireen's work has appeared in venues such as The Guardian, The Nation, The Globe and Mail, Time, Vice, SB Nation, Buzzfeed and countless others, including a superb TED Talk from February of this year. You can follow Shireen on Twitter @_shireenahmed_ or at www.shireenahmed.com!
__________________________________________________________________________
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!**
Monday Jun 08, 2020
Monday Jun 08, 2020
In this episode, Derek and Nathan speak with Hemal Jhaveri, editor and columnist at USA Today's For The Win, about how the uprising against police violence and white supremacy is affecting the world of sport. The three discuss the myriad statements of solidarity on offer from athletes and sports organizations alike and break down the difference between a meaningful gesture and worthless pablum. The latter half of the conversation then shifts to a discussion of sport media, appraising how it has covered the uprising and pandemic and the way that structural racism and patriarchy affect the industry.
You can find Hemal's article on white NHL player responses to the uprising here, her piece on the silence of white hockey players prior to the uprising here, her discussion of the NY Islanders' less than worthless statement here, and her piece on the treatment of athletes during the pandemic here. You can find Sut Jhally's classic scholarly article on the sport media complex here.
Some particularly valuable resources include the books below:
Angela Davis:
Are Prisons Obsolete?
Abolition Democracy: Beyond Empire, Prisons, and Torture
Freedom is a Constant Struggle: Ferguson, Palestine, and the Foundations of a Movement
The Meaning of Freedom: And Other Difficult Dialogues
Arbitrary Justice: The Power of the American Prosecutor
Desmond Cole, The Skin We’re In: A Year of Black Resistance and Power
Robyn Maynard, Policing Black Lives: State Violence in Canada from Slavery to the Present
Michelle Alexander, The New Jim Crow
James Baldwin, The Fire Next Time
Jesmyn Ward, Sing, Unburied, Sing
Frantz Fanon, Black Skin, White Mask
Alex S. Vitale, The End of Policing
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Americanah
__________________________________________________________________________
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!**
Thursday Jun 04, 2020
Thursday Jun 04, 2020
On this special episode to address the unfolding resistance against racist police violence and white supremacy, Derek speaks with Michael Bennett, a Super Bowl champion and three-time pro-bowl defensive lineman in the National Football League. Michael is the author, with Dave Zirin, of the wonderful book Things That Make White People Uncomfortable with Haymarket Books and co-host of the podcast Mouthpeace with Michael Bennett and Pele Bennett (@Lemonadamedia).
Derek and Michael grapple with why the rebellions are occurring right now and what they say about racial injustice and white supremacy in US society. They also engage the question of whiteness and the role and responsibilities of white people in this moment. In the latter half of the episode, they connect structural racism in US society to elite sport and the ways in which athletes are relentlessly dehumanized by fans, team owners, and fantasy sports. Finally, Michael responds to recent comments by Drew Brees that have drawn the ire of players across the NFL.
As Michael explains on the show, it is the responsibility of white people to educate themselves about the history of racism in North America and how it structures our societies today.
Check out the latest episode of Mouthpeace with Michael and Pele Bennett. In this very special episode, Michael and Pele share their solidarity with George Floyd and others around the world protesting police violence. The episode is exactly 8 minutes and 46 seconds long...as we know, this is the exact amount of time that George Floyd was pinned to the ground by Minneapolis police on May 25, 2020.
Some particularly valuable resources include the books below:
Angela Davis:
Are Prisons Obsolete?
Abolition Democracy: Beyond Empire, Prisons, and Torture
Freedom is a Constant Struggle: Ferguson, Palestine, and the Foundations of a Movement
The Meaning of Freedom: And Other Difficult Dialogues
Arbitrary Justice: The Power of the American Prosecutor
Desmond Cole, The Skin We’re In: A Year of Black Resistance and Power
Robyn Maynard, Policing Black Lives: State Violence in Canada from Slavery to the Present
Michelle Alexander, The New Jim Crow
James Baldwin, The Fire Next Time
Jesmyn Ward, Sing, Unburied, Sing
Frantz Fanon, Black Skin, White Mask
Alex S. Vitale, The End of Policing
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Americanah
For more on Michael's book Things That Make White People Uncomfortable and its brilliant treatment of the themes at the core of this podcast, check out Nathan's review in CounterPunch here.
__________________________________________________________________________
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!**
Monday Jun 01, 2020
Monday Jun 01, 2020
In this episode, which begins with a brief statement of solidarity with the uprising across the United States against white supremacy and racist state violence, Derek and Nathan break down the recent ESPN Michael Jordan documentary series The Last Dance with Louis Moore. Louis Moore is Associate Professor of History at Grand Valley State University and author of I Fight for a Living: Boxing and the Battle for Black Manhood, 1880-1915 and We Will Win the Day: The Civil Rights Movement, the Black Athlete, and the Quest for Equality. and co-host, with Derrick White, of The Black Athlete Podcast.
The conversation examines the absences and presences in the series and what they say about the contemporary landscape of the NBA and athlete activism, with a particular focus on Craig Hodges, Harvey Gantt, Jordan's bullying, Scottie Pippen, Nike, and the unfolding rebellions against the murder of Black Americans by police.
You can find Joel Anderson's fine piece in Slate on the series here. You can find Nike's most recent "woke" ad here. You can find Louis Moore on Twitter, where you absolutely need to follow him @loumoore12.
__________________________________________________________________________
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!**
Thursday May 28, 2020
Thursday May 28, 2020
In this episode, Derek and Nathan are joined by Kathleen Bachynski, Assistant Professor of Public Health at Muhlenberg College and author of the essential 2019 book No Game for Boys to Play: The History of Youth Football and The Origins of a Public Health Crisis with UNC Press.
This is a crucial conversation that ranges from the health risks and ethics of US football itself to the conflicts of interest and questions of informed consent that haunt the bio-medical establishment's approach to grappling with this public health crisis. Kathleen also explains the risks of increased concussion awareness in the form of pseudoscientific products claiming to ameliorate the damage of head injury that have flooded the market. Finally, she offers the show an epidemiological analysis of whether a safe and humane return to elite sport is possible in the near future.
You can find Kathleen's brilliant article in The Atlantic here. Her co-authored piece in Lancet Neurology on pseudoscientific concussion products can be found here. Her co-authored piece on conflict of interest in concussion research is here. Give Dr. Bachynski a follow on Twitter @bachyns
__________________________________________________________________________
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!**
Monday May 25, 2020
Monday May 25, 2020
In this episode, Derek and Nathan speak with Courtney Szto about the ways in which race, multiculturalism, and gender in Canada shape the country's most prized sport. Courtney Szto is Assistant Professor of Kinesiology and Health Studies at Queen’s University. She is the senior editor of Hockey in Society, associate editor for Engaging Sports, and author of the forthcoming book with Rutgers University Press Changing on the Fly: Hockey Through the Voices of South Asian Canadians.
The three examine how a liberal discourse of multiculturalism disguises the persistent and varied forms of racial inequality that structure Canadian society in general and Canadian hockey in particular and talk about potential interventions, including the Policy Paper for Anti-Racism in Canadian Hockey co-authored by Courtney. They also delve into Courtney's personal connection to the game as player and fan and then get her takes on the landscape and future of women's hockey in the country.
You can find Courtney on Twitter @courtneyszto.
__________________________________________________________________________
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!**
Friday May 22, 2020
Friday May 22, 2020
In this episode, we get a rare glimpse into the inner workings of the world of US professional baseball. Nathan speaks with Dirk Hayhurst, a former Major League Baseball pitcher with the Toronto Blue Jays and San Diego Padres, as well as a long-time Minor Leaguer. He is a former Sportsnet and TBS broadcaster and the author of four books: The Bullpen Gospels, Out of My League, Wild Pitches, and Bigger than the Game. Nathan and Dirk discuss the preposterously poor working conditions in Minor League Baseball, why players endure those conditions, and how the world of US baseball reproduces the logic of the American Dream. Dirk also explains how he lied his way into getting drafted and reveals a never-before-told story about how the rampant sexual harassment and misogyny of the locker room extends into broadcasting. For more of Dirk's thoughts on the working conditions of Minor League Baseball, check out this Bleacher Report piece. For more of Dirk and Nathan in conversation, check out this piece they co-authored last year in Jacobin.
__________________________________________________________________________
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!**