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.   Check out the Instagram Live hosted by Uriel on the subject here.   The End of Sport Podcast is a...

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. Robin D.G. Kelley is Distinguished Professor and Gary B. Nash Endowed Chair in U.S. History at...

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 writes about political economy and punishment. He was also an active participant in the Columbia...

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 new book (coauthored with Nefertiti Walker who sadly was...

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. Dr. Orr's most recent book, Warming Up: How Climate Change is Changing Sport just published with Bloomsbury Press...

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 sport. She is author of, among other things, the extremely influential article “Toward sport...

**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 their episode with us about it, and Johanna’s Guardian piece last summer. She discusses the...

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 headquarters from Lausanne, Switzerland to Budapest.  Johanna begins with a more current...

**Our apologies for the audio quality of this episode; we had some technical difficulties**   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 academy at large; and much more. Raewyn Connell is Professor...

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 Gunpower: The Structure of American Violence, and a host of incredibly insightful articles in venues such as n + 1, The New...

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 America” in Sociology of Sport Journal and, more broadly,...

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 goes for a deeper dive into all these issues with former NLRB...

Guy Harrison joins Nathan for a discussion of the Netflix sports doc as genre and its increasing influence in shaping how we understand sports. Then the two delve into the all-time definitive ranking of the best and worst Netflix sports docs/docuseries.   Guy Harrison is Assistant Professor and Director of Access and Engagement for the University of Tennessee’s School of Journalism and Media where he studies diversity, inclusion, and representation in sports and new media. He is the author of...

Asheesh Kapur Siddique is Assistant Professor of History at UMASS Amherst where he studies the British Empire between the 17th and Early 19th centuries. He is the author of the manuscript The Experience of the Archive: Knowledge and the Making of the Early Modern British Empire (currently under contract with Yale University Press). His public-facing work has appeared in outlets such as The Daily Beast, Inside Higher Ed,and Teen Vogue. Joe Darda is Associate Professor of English at Michigan...

Liz Knox returns to the show to discuss four years of developments in the world of women's hockey and the rise of the PWHL from her perspective as an insider in the process and fierce advocate for just working conditions in the sport. Liz Knox is a retired professional hockey goaltender, CWHL Clarkson Cup champion, CIS Brodrick Trophy winner, CWHL all-star captain, former co-chair of the CWHLPA, former member of the board of the PWHPA, and, crucially, member of the current executive committee...

Johanna is joined by journalist, short story writer, and translator Karim Zidan to discuss how Israel's war in Gaza and genocide of Palestinian people has impacted, and been shaped by, people's sporting politics. We urge listeners to subscribe to Karim's substack Sports Politika if you don't already. He begins by contextualizing a scary, recent incident: when he was targeted by Israeli far-right MMA fighter Haim Gozali, who responded to Karim's accurate reporting of his horrific statements by...

In the aftermath of the Super Bowl, Nathan and esteemed football scholar Tom Oates have a ranging conjunctural discussion about the state of American football, masculinity, and their place in the broader political economic and cultural landscape of US society. Tom Oates is Associate Professor at the University of Iowa, where he holds a joint appointment with the School of Journalism and Mass Communication. He is the author of the 2017 book Football and Manliness: An Unauthorized Feminist...

Johanna is joined by Jules and Dave to discuss the moral imperative against allowing Israel and Russia to participate in the 2024 Paris Olympic Games based on their recent article in Jacobin that so persuasively makes this case. They discuss how the Russian and Israeli states' absolute violence in Ukraine and Gaza respectively demand our immediate attention to add to the growing protests against both leading up to the Paris Olympics. Included in the growing protests and activism were the...

Frankie de la Cretaz is a writer focused on sports, gender, and queerness. They are the co-author of Hail Mary: The Rise and Fall of the NFL from Boldtype Books. Frankie's work appears everywhere, including The Nation, Sports Illustrated, The Daily Beast, Teen Vogue, and on and on.    Frankie joins Nathan to deconstruct the epic popular culture collision between Taylor Swift, perhaps the most famous person in the world, and the NFL at the Super Bowl.   Check out some of Frankie's recent work...

In this episode, our return from an extended absence, we have the great privilege of sharing a conversation hosted by the University of Connecticut entitled "Complicity and Solidarity: Sport, Higher Education, and Palestine/Israel" moderated by Dr. Chen Chen (UConn) andDr. Roc Rochon (UConn) and featuring speakers Dr. Anima Adjepong (University of Cincinnati), Dr. Munene Mwaniki (Western Carolina University), Dr. Aarti Ratna (Northumbria University), Dr. Daniel Sailofsky (University of...

It's September 24th, 1988 -- a warm, sunny and dry day in the Olympic Stadium in Seoul, South Korea. It also happened to be the final of the men’s 100 metre sprint to decide the Olympic champion and world’s fastest man. The top contenders, Carl Lewis from the United States, and a Canadian sprinter named Ben Johnson, lined up in lanes 3 and 6 respectively in one of the most highly anticipated races of the year. The gun goes off -- and almost immediately Johnson had a step on every other...

In this episode, all three hosts sit down to discuss how transphobic attempts to prohibit trans women from sports participation fit into a larger fascist project unfolding in North America today. We delve into Johanna's recent article for The Guardian on the question of 'allyship' (and, indeed, the politics of how we speak about allyship), why Trump and others made a spectacle out of the early loss of the USWNT, and why a seemingly comparatively insignificant issue (sports) has become so...

All three hosts get together to discuss an apocalyptic summer in college sport. Our conversation begins with an in-depth analysis of Northwestern and the hazing/abuse culture that permeates college football and then ranges to a discussion of conference realignment and gambling. This is a conversation both for those who have been following closely and anyone who has not been paying close attention and wants to be brought back up to speed. You can learn more about Northwestern hazing via the...

In this short episode, Nathan shares his Canadian Sociological Association conference presentation on the book manuscript for The End of College Football: Exploitation and Harm in the Academy and on the Gridiron, co-authored with Derek. The manuscript has just been submitted (yay!) to the University of North Carolina Press for peer review (and only 100% longer than promised!). This seventeen-minute presentation distils the core arguments of the book and shares some of the player testimony...