The End of Sport

The End of Sport

Become a Paid Subscriber for EARLY access to episodes and EXTRA content: https://creators.spotify.com/pod/show/endofsport/subscribe 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.

Episodes

October 9, 2025 75 mins

In this episode of The End of Sport, hosts Derek Silva, Johanna Mellis, and Nathan Kalman-Lamb speak with Dr. Sheree Bekker and Dr. Anna Posbergh about the pseudoscience that continues to shape much of the anti-trans movement in sport.

Drawing from sociology, feminist theory, and sport studies, they unpack how flawed scientific claims about biology and fairness have been used to justify exclusionary policies against trans athletes.

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This episode is a webinar called "Kick Israel Out of FIFA: No To Zionism in Football" recorded on September 29, 2025, moderated by sports journalist and friend of the show Leyla Hamed. Guests include our very own Nathan Kalman-Lamb, as well as Abubaker Abed, Nicola Hadwa ,Jill Thomson, Kat Vilarev, Shireen Ahmed, Ajamu Baraka, Roger Waters, Robert Wilson, and Bram Hanekom.

"The Israeli settler state’s assault on Pale...

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In this episode of The End of Sport, Nathan and Derek sit down with Dr. Tracie Canada, Andrew W. Mellon Assistant Professor of Cultural Anthropology and Director of The HEARTS Lab at Duke University, to discuss her new book Tackling the Everyday: Race and Nation in Big-Time College Football (University of California Press). A decade in the making, this Black feminist analysis confronts how college football exploits and harms the yo...

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In this episode, Nathan sits down with Aidan Simardone, an immigration lawyer and immigration advocate, to talk about Olympic hopeful Tamarri Lindo and his family who are on the verge being deported from Canada at the risk of extreme violence. However, it's possible for us to push the Canadian government to reverse course and not deport the Lindo family -- listen and act now.

Read more about this story here.

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September 11, 2025 49 mins

This episode features the full press conference responding to Tennis Canada’s decision to host Israel’s Davis Cup team in Halifax while barring fans from attending. The decision to host Team Israel in Halifax comes as Palestinians face mass death, displacement, and the destruction of homes, schools, hospitals, and infrastructure — with overwhelming evidence of war crimes and crimes against humanity documented daily. Organizers say ...

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September 2, 2025 68 mins

In this special episode, Nathan sits down with signatories of a letter demanding the reconsideration of hosting a Davis Cup match between Canada and Isreal scheduled to take place September 12-13 in Halifax, Nova Scotia, to discuss why they signed it and why this urgent call is necessary now more than ever. Featured in this episode are S. Michael Lynk, former United Nations Special Rapporteur for human rights in the occupied Palest...

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August 27, 2025 82 mins

In this episode, Nathan sits down with former college basketball coach, professor, and novelist Rus Bradburd to discuss his new novel Big Time and a career working in and around college athletics. The conversation delves into the myriad problems in higher education and college sport today as well as meta questions about how to deliver critique.

You can order Big Time from Etruscan Press here.

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On this special episode, Dr. El Jones, former poet laureate of Halifax and Assistant Professor at Mount St. Vincent University, explains exactly why it is imperative that Tennis Canada/Sport Canada cancel the pending Davis Cup match with Israel slated to be played in Halifax in early September.


Our piece on the Davis Cup.


Olympic runner Moh Ahmed joins call to cancel Canada's Davis Cup tie with Israel.


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August 19, 2025 50 mins

Nathan is joined by friend and eminent hockey scholar Kristi Allain to break down how to understand the Hockey Canada trial and its implications for the sport and Canadian culture.


Read: Olympic runner Moh Ahmed joins call to cancel Canada's Davis Cup tie with Israel

Events: Violence, Exploitation and Harm in Capitalist Sport with Nathan Kalman-Lamb, Daniel Sailofsky, and Derek Silva, September 18th, 2025 6-7PM EST at Hart H...

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August 12, 2025 70 mins

This episode examines the destruction of athletes, athletics and athletic infrastructure in Palestine by Israeli forces. We discuss how athletes and sports spaces have been targeted, the loss of facilities and opportunities for athletes, and the broader impact on community life and youth development. The conversation addresses the concept of athleticide as part of a wider pattern of cultural and social erasure through sport.

Leyla H...

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August 7, 2025 61 mins

We are finally back! After a very long hiatus, the podcast returns with a lengthy recap from Derek and Nathan of some of what has transpired since we last recorded in the United State and Canada, but with a particular emphasis on the ongoing genocidal atrocities in Gaza, with a focus on the so-called aid sites.

Then, Nathan has the pleasure of welcoming Irish Sport for Palestine leader and former Ireland basketball captain Rebecca O...

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In this episode, Nathan has the distinct pleasure of talking to Jesse Mez of the Boston University CTE Center about his team's recent study on the prevalence of CTE among hockey players, developments in the diagnosis of the disease, and the ethical and public health implications of both violent sport and research studying head trauma, among other things.

Jesse Mez is Co-Director of Clinical Research at the Boston University CTE Cen...

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In this episode, Nathan is joined by Max Jordan Nguemeni to discuss all the ways in which college athletes are denied the academic experience they are promised as a wage in exchange for their campus athletic work. We work through the themes explored in the chapter on this topic in Nathan and Derek's new book The End of College Football: On the Human Cost of an All-American Game, drawing on Max's experiences tutoring athletes at Geo...

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We present this recording of the talks that comprised a panel discussion on challenges to Imane Khelif and Lin Yu-ting's claims to womanhood hosted by the UNB Faculty of Kinesiology on Friday, November 29th.

The Olympic boxing match in the welterweight category between Italy’s Angela Carini and Algeria’s Imane Khelif lasted less than one minute. This match sparked a firestorm, leading to misinformation and erroneous commentary rega...

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In this episode, Nathan is joined by trans participation in sport scholar and authority Anna Posbergh to discuss the abusive treatment of an athlete on the San Jose State women's volleyball team, what it says about the current state of inclusion with respect to trans participation in sport, and also how it figures into broader trends of political transphobia. We also delve into some of the actual science and why it has no relation ...

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November 5, 2024 80 mins

In one of our most important episodes to date, we present a keynote panel called "Can there be sport at a time of Genocide? Solidarity, Community, and Palestinian liberation" held at the annual meeting of the North American Society for the Sociology of Sport (NASSS) on November 1st, 2024. The panel was organized by Chen Chen and co-moderated by Derek and Nathan. 

Panelists included Dr. Sophia Azeb (UC Santa Cruz), Charlotte Phillip...

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October 3, 2024 58 mins
Nathan is joined again by Frankie de la Cretaz, one of our favs, to dig into the impact of Caitlin Clark on the WNBA. We begin with a discussion of the economic and cultural landscape of the league pre-CC before delving into what it means to suggest that she has 'saved' the league and all of the many controversies that have accompanied her first season, principally the way in which it has literally endangered Black and queer player...
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Derek and Nathan are joined by former NFL player Chris Kluwe to delve into his heterodox perspectives on football, including his positions on gay rights and inclusion in the sport, athlete activism, and the inherent dangers of football as a sport, especially for young people. Chris Kluwe is a former NFL punter who played for the Seattle Seahawks, eight years with the Minnesota Vikings where he set numerous team records, and Oakland...
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September 19, 2024 66 mins
Derek and Nathan speak to Dr. Steven Thrasher about his activism against the genocide in Gaza and the McCarthyist repression he has been subjected to in response by both the state and his employer. We also delve into his work on Covid and his newest book project. Steven Thrasher is the inaugural Daniel H. Renberg Chair of social justice in reporting (with an emphasis on issues relevant to the LGBTQ community) and an assistant profe...
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In this episode, Nathan is joined by John 'Jabo' Burrow and Kathleen Bachynski to talk about the horrific run of football-related deaths at US schools. Nathan explains what has transpired before jumping in with Jabo to discuss his reactions and how they relate to his own experiences in and observations of football. Then Kathleen joins to help relate the current issue to her research in No Game For Boys To Play about the history of ...
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