The End of Sport Podcast

In this episode, Derek is joined by Leyla Hamed, a sports journalist and Editor in Chief at the The Athletic FC. As one of the very few pro-Palestinian advocates in sports media, I can’t think of many folks better than Leyla to talk about media complicity in this ongoing genocide and the role that sports media should be taking in putting pressure on sporting organizations like the IOC and FIFA to enact its policies when considering...

Former Vanderbilt offensive lineman John "Jabo" Burrow joins Nathan to candidly discuss how his experiences in college football connect to the themes of Nathan and Derek's forthcoming book The End of College Football: On the Human Cost of an All-American Game. This one's a banger.

You can preorder The End of College Football from UNC Press here...

Former Vanderbilt offensive lineman John "Jabo" Burrow joins Nathan to candidly discuss how his experiences in college football connect to the themes of Nathan and Derek's forthcoming book The End of College Football: On the Human Cost of an All-American Game. This one's a banger.

You can preorder The End of College Football from UNC Press here...

Slate columnist and award-winning Slow Burn host Joel Anderson joins to discuss the massive explosion of sports gambling, recent scandals involving Shohei Ohtani and Jontay Porter, and all the attendant harms.

Check out his prescient recent column here: https://slate.com/business/2024/02/sports-betting-huge-rise-whats-coming.html.

The End of Spor...

In this episode, Nathan and Derek sit down with Palestinian National Soccer Team member Charlotte Phillips to talk about what it is like to represent Palestine during the ongoing genocide of Palestinians in Gaza, the student protest movement, and the role that athletes can (and must) take in the fight for Palestinian liberation.

Charlotte Phillips is a goalkeeper for the Yor...

Michael McCann joins Derek and Nathan to examine how the law is shaping the landscape of college sports today. We discuss the recent settlement agreement that will reshape questions around compensation, NLRB developments with respect to employee status, and the role of Congress and the Supreme Court in it all. Michael McCann is a Legal Analyst and Senior Sports Legal Reporter at Sportico. He is also a ...

In this episode, Derek and Nathan are joined by University of Michigan soccer player Uriel Zeitz to discuss the role of campus athletic workers in the anti-genocide encampment movement. Uriel breaks down the encampment politics at Michigan, conversations he's had with other athletes at the university and beyond, and how he is organizing for athletes to contribute to the movement moving forward.

In this episode, Derek and Nathan are immensely privileged to be joined by UCLA historian Robin D. G. Kelley for a discussion of the remarkable and obscene events that took place at the UCLA anti-genocide encampment and an assessment of the encampment movement in the context of the neoliberal university and racial capitalism more broadly. We also talk about the role of sport in protest politics.

In this special non-sports episode, Nathan speaks to Columbia University graduate student Jon Ben-Menachem about the Columbia University student anti-genocide encampment. The conversation offers a primer for those less familiar with the encampment movement and an insider perspective for those who already are. Jon Ben-Menachem is a PhD candidate in Sociology at Columbia University who researches and wri...

David Berri joins all three hosts to unpack a subject that is perhaps as or more relevant than any other in the world of sport right now and also one we have not yet adequately explored on the show: the political economy of women’s sport. We discuss how value is produced and distributed in women’s sport, including the issue of fandom (the market of consumers) as well as questions of labor and exploitation. We also discuss his brand...

In this episode, Derek and Nathan chat with Dr. Madeleine Orr about why any conversation about justice, harm, and sport needs to account for the unfolding climate catastrophe.

Dr. Madeleine Orr is an assistant professor of sport ecology in the Faculty of Kinesiology & Physical Education at the University of Toronto focused on the intersection of sport and climate change....

Nathan is joined by Colleen English and Daniel Sailofsky to dig deep into the concepts of hegemonic and inclusive masculinities and unpack which of these concepts offers a more persuasive and accurate theoretical frame for grappling with gender in critical sports studies. Colleen English is Associate Professor and Chair of Kinesiology at Penn State Berks, where she studies the philosophy and history of...

**This episode contains discussions of sexual violence**

In this episode, Johanna offers an initial analysis of how cisgender, white, and heterosexual sexual assault and predators and sport contribute to the anti-trans movement. Where do we see this happening most clearly? Swimming, which you may have guessed if you’re familiar with the work of Frankie de la Cretaz in this article for the Nation and t...

This episode is an interview that friend and repeat guest of the podcast, Karleigh Chardonnay Webb, did with Johanna in August 2023. Karleigh is an Outsports contributor and co-host of the Transition Defense podcast. She interviewed Johanna to analyze Hungary's sportswashing in light of Budapest hosting the World Athletics Championship last August and the announcement that World Aquatics is moving its h...

Nathan sits down with the incomparable Raewyn Connell to discuss a career shaping the academic study of masculinities. They explore the concept of hegemonic masculinity, its role in sport studies, and how it has changed over time; developments in the world of women's sport; trans exclusion policies; threats facing gender studies and the ac...

Nathan is joined by the incomparable Patrick Blanchfield for a complex structural assessment of US gun violence and how his theoretical framework of gunpower can be used to unpack instances of gun violence in the world of sport.

Patrick Blanchfield is Associate Faculty at the Brooklyn Institute, co-host of the Ordinary Unhappiness podcast, author of the forthcoming book Gunp...

Matthew Hodler is Assistant Professor of Sports Media and Communication at the Harrington School of Communication and Media at the University of Rhode Island. Kyle Kusz is Professor of English and Gender and Women’s Studies at the University of Rhode Island. We sit down with Matt and Kyle to discuss their 2023 publication “‘Saturdays Are For The Boys’: Barstool Sports and the Cultural Politics of White Fratriarchy in Contemporary A...

In this special episode, Nathan first has the chance to talk again to NLRB GC Jennifer Abruzzo, this time about the college athlete organizing developments prompted by her September 2021 memo. Abruzzo talks about Dartmouth men's basketball's recent unionization and the ongoing case at USC before explaining why she finds the term 'student-athlete' so objectionable--even as universities continue to double down on it.

Then, Nathan goe...