We won't just stick to sports because we don't have the privilege of doing so.
The Old Boys Club
Why would the Chicago White Sox organization make the exact wrong hire at the exact wrong time? The Old Boys Club, of course. What’s that, you ask? Take a listen and learn about all the benefits this club bestows on its members. And remember, you’ll never get to be a part of it, and neither will I.
Living the Dream
Because of the courageous and heroic work of her employees, the mostly Black women who play for the WNBA’s Atlanta Dream, a team named after Martin Luther King Jr.’s most famous speech, Dream co-owner and former Georgia Senator Kelly Loeffler lost her re-election bid to Raphael Warnock, the pastor of the Atlanta church King once led. Loeffler’s re-election campaign and subsequent defeat has left her own life’s dreams in tatters.
It's OK to Say You're Depressed
Dallas Cowboys QB Dak Prescott showed true leadership when he admitted to having suffered from depression and sought treatment. His story and those like his are a meaningful strike against what’s called “toxic masculinity,” the outdated notion that men should hide or otherwise cover up their vulnerabilities.
A brief warning to listeners: This episode contains discussion of depression and suicide.
College football is broken
It's time to stop pretending that the "student" in the NCAA's student-athlete model is anywhere near as important as the 'athlete" part to those in charge. This structural imbalance in college sports has been exposed and magnified by the desire of those in charge to do everything they can to play a full college football season in the midst of a pandemic, regardless of what it might do to their players' health. This is how the system was designed to work, to take advantage of the players, most of whom are minorities, and their free labor. It shouldn't be that way.
Sports to the Rescue
It's on! Major League Baseball is back, but is bringing sports back in the midst of a global pandemic a good idea?
Are we ready? Is professional sports ready? Or could it be that sports are the Covid cure we've been searching for all this time?
Content Warning: There is a graphic interview in which someone details his own personal battle dealing with Covid-19
Exploring an Empty Stadium
Professional team sports are coming back in bubbles, to be played in completely empty arenas and stadiums. Until the coronavirus pandemic ends, it's probably we won't get any further than partial crowds in the stands.
But there is a second, and larger cloud casting a pall over these fan-less sporting events... To understand the full symbolism of an empty stadium, we went back five years, to the April 29, 2015 game between the Chicago White Sox and Baltimore Orioles played at a locked down Camden Yards. Outside the stadium, Baltimore was teeming with demonstrators protesting the death of Freddie Gray, a 25-year-old Black man who'd recently died in a hospital a week after sustaining what would turn out to be a fatal injury while in police custody.
CONTENT WARNING: This podcast contains graphic audio clips and descriptions of people being killed by police.