We start this week talking about the London Marathon and our disappointment in the NBA Finals. It is indeed still a strange sports world! We dig into this more with our main topic: What positive things has Covid revealed to us about the sports world? We touch on the way we consume sports, how important they feel and the hypocrisy that is being shown (amongst other things). Music: Trad Godsey

Sports In Society

Positive Sports Takeaways From Covid Times

As usual, we start off by talking about what we are paying attention to. The sports world just keeps getting more crazy! Then we move into a conversation about whether ignorance is ever an adequate defense. How do we understand people who don't have the reasoning capacity? What about people without access to information? Is education a viable option? How ignorant are we? Should we sympathize?

What to do with ignorance?

This week we start off intending to have a normal show, but we wound up just talking about Pogacar's transcendent performance at the Tour de France. It was a truly stupendous experience! Music: Trad Godsey

Cycling Steals the Show (Literally!)

This week we dive right into all that has been going on recently. First, of course, we talk about the NBA strike and the complicated nature of everything involved. We spend a while looking at the complexity of it all and how we learn to live in the grey. Then we discuss a few other odds and ends, including the Messi saga, the Tour de France and a pervasive sense of uncertainty. Music: Trad Godsey

Catching Up On An Eventful Summer

This week, we start off with a discussion of the disaster of college football and the interesting ways smaller clubs are staying relevant. Then we move into a conversation about adventure racing and why it might be compelling. Finally, we come to our main topic this week, disc golf. How is it packaged and presented? What about the money of it? What do we like or dislike? What could the future hold if growth is upcoming? How do you grow a sport without losing its soul? Music: Trad Godsey

Exploring The World Of Disc Golf

This week we start off talking about golf, the NBA and how we watch sports. Why do we prefer a slightly less polished production? Then we move into a discussion of our main topic of decoding how we talk about youth and age in sports. What euphemisms do we see all the time and gloss over? What does how we talk about it mean for how players and fans interact with the game? What might be better? Should we be looking at how we make sense of this in our context? Music: Trad Godsey

Youthful Energy and Experienced Professionalism: Decoding How We Talk About Sports

This week we start off talking about the proliferation of violence on the ESPN homepage and the absurdity of MLB trying to make things work. Then we dig into our main topic, the new look of the NBA. We spent some time watching this weekend's games and reflect on the experience. How do we feel about the look and feel? What about the quality of play? How are they handling social justice issues? Are we likely to watch more? Music: Trad Godsey

How Does It Feel To Watch The New NBA?

This week we start off trying to be a bit positive with some spotlights for good stuff. We mention that the NBA, unsurprisingly, seems to be coming back in a good way and what we might get re-engaged with sports for. Then we move into our main conversation about corruption in sports. What does it even mean to be corrupt in sports? Why is there so much of it? Why do we put up with it? Is any of it justifiable? Music: Trad Godsey

Corruption in Sports: Is it inevitable?

This week we start out talking a bit about soccer and the rise of Pulisic. Then we move into a conversation about golf and divergent visions of how it should look moving forward. This is followed by a discussion of how we should probably be more naturally curious about things that are interesting to others. For our main topic, we share some thoughts about the state of corporate social responsibility and how it intersects with sports. When can it be a tool for good? When does it fall short? Should we ever appreciate the good a corporation's pressure can produce? How do we balance the complexities of the current world versus where we think the world should be heading?  Music: Trad Godsey

For Good or Ill: Corporate Social Responsibility & Sports

This week we start off with a discussion of Woj going off and how much we should be talking about sports right now. It's a strange time and we see both positive and negative things coming to the front. Then for our main topic, we discuss what would we do if we were to take over the MLS (not that anyone asked...). Would we start from scratch? What about relegation? Would we maintain a single entity? How would we approach growth? Music: Trad Godsey

What Would You Do To The MLS?

This week we starting off talking UCLA and Under Armour and the coming disastrous restarts. We spend a bit of time on controversy in the disc golf world and then move into some talk about our appreciation for Adam Silver. Our main topic this week is the Netflix show Sunderland Til I Die. How does it glorify and perpetuate problematic narratives of sports teams as saviors? What happens when an owner stops investing? Why should we humanize leadership? How much does leadership matter? Why do we love English soccer? Music: Trad Godsey

Sunderland: A Sad Story Makes An Interesting Show

This week we start off talking about the complete absurdity of college sports, the ways we expect the NBA to fail in its bid to restart and Djokovic being a fool. It remains a strange time for sports and it only seems to be getting more complex! Our main topic this week is how sports impacts our thinking about aging. Does it feed into how we dismiss the elderly? How does it limit the impact of both the young and the old? What does it tell us about peaking? Is there almost a class distinction? How are some sports different from others? Are there better models? Music: Trad Godsey

How Do Sports Impact Our Thinking About Aging?

We missed you all last week! We're back this week with a discussion of how Covid is changing the sports landscape with each passing day. Every week seems to complicate plans and make sports seem farther away. And maybe that's ok... Our main topic this week is how we understand player's unions and labor disputes during this time. We start off with Kyrie asking if the league should even play during a time of momentum for Black Lives Matter and Covid. Even without the social justice sense of things, the MLBPA and MLB can't come to an agreement. How do we these arguments look in the context of mass unemployment? How about in the face of increased risk to players? How do they fall into the bigger conversation of unions? Music: Trad Godsey

Player's Unions in an Unprecedented Time

This week we start off declaring that Black Lives Matter and that we endeavoring to educate ourselves and act in the ways most appropriate. Then we move onto the NBA restarting and MLB potentially not. It's a weird time in the sports world as we look to what the future might be. Then we move into a conversation about Drew Brees being stupid and how his teammates have responded. How do teams cope with this friction? How do individuals deal with this racism everyday in the locker room? Why is it tolerated by ownership? How is it shifting at this time? Then we get off track talking about all kinds of stuff related to protests and creating change. We are clearly trying to figure out how to make sense of everything that is happening at the moment. It's clearly positive, but we see complexity everywhere we look. Music: Trad Godsey

Team Dynamics: What happens to a team when politics come up?

This week we start out with a discussion of the golf match featuring Tiger, Phil, Brady and Manning. It was a strange event and we have a lot of feelings! Then we move into a discussion of the current high profile police brutality incidents and athlete responses. We are not sure how to respond to this ongoing unacceptable situation, but we really appreciate those taking stands and speaking out. Finally, we move into our main discussion of anger in sports. Why do both Jordan and Lance seem so angry? Is it productive? How do we teach a more healthy way to respond to emotions? Can sports be a tool for understanding and tempering our emotions? But, seriously, why is everyone in professional sports so angry? Music: Trad Godsey

Why Are Athletes So Angry?

The world of sports is a great window into our broader society. For better or worse, all our contributors are lifelong sports fans. Being such fans and caring deeply about the world we live in, we use sports as a way to better understand society and use society as a way to better understand sports.

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Sports In Society

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