Podcasts by Category
- 216 - Touch 'Em All with Larry Keith
“Frank Deford. Dan Jenkins. John Underwood. The list could go on. We thought we were in Valhalla.”
Larry Keith joins Brian to talk about his long career as a reporter, writer, and editor at Sports Illustrated.
Larry, who worked at SI from 1970 to 2004, traces his career path from covering high school football in North Carolina to hosting a radio show with Dean Smith at Chapel Hill to Sports Illustrated. He and Brian talk about why covering high school football is so formative for so many sports journalists.
Larry talks about what it was like to be at Sports Illustrated during the magazine’s legendary glory days. Larry discusses the aura that legendary editor Andre Laguerre had and one of his memorable interactions with him at the old HoHo Bar in New York. He also talks about the process of writing a Sports Illustrated cover story, what it was like to cover the 1979 NCAA finals between Magic Johnson and Larry Bird, and how he helped hire Rick Reilly at the magazine.
“We had the best writers. We had the best photographers. We had brilliant senior editorial leadership in Andre Laguerre. And it all came together.
Links
John Adams by David McCullough (The Best Thing Larry’s read lately)
America’s Founding Son by Bob Crawford (The Best Thing Brian’s read lately.)
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Tue, 04 Aug 2026 - 35min - 215 - The Long Game with Leander Schaerlaeckens
“This wasn't gonna be a soccer book. This was gonna be a book about a weird soccer team.”
Leander Schaerlaeckens returns to the show to talk about the writing and reporting of his excellent new book, “The Long Game: U.S. Men’s Soccer and its savage, four-decade journey to the top, or thereabouts.”
Leander talks about the idea for this book dates back to the US failing to qualify for the 2018 World Cup and how an article he wrote for The Ringer got him started on this process. He discusses how he landed on the book’s structure, how he picked which historical events to focus on and how he worked to make sure the six player profiles are not just standalone pieces but also speak to larger issues facing US Men’s Soccer. He also describes the leap from writing magazine-length pieces to a book and the biggest challenge.
Leander tells Brian about how this generation of US men’s players don’t view media obligations the same way as previous generations did, and how that created both a challenge and an opportunity. There’s also a quick digression about Christian Pulisic’s coffee table book.
“What I’d like people to take away from the book is just how weird and wacky the US National team’s history is and how kind of miraculous it is in a sporting sense where they are now."
Note: We recorded this episode in June 2026, early during group play of the 2026 World Cup.
Links
The Long Game at an independent book store near you.
The Nazi and the Psychiatrist by Jack El-Hi (The Best Thing Leander’s read lately.)
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Tue, 07 Jul 2026 - 29min - 214 - America’s Founding Son with Bob Crawford
“I had this moment, this great joy and excitement, followed by an equal sense of panic and fear because, I got the deal to write the book, and then I realized I had to write the book!”
Bob Crawford returns to The Other 51 for a deep dive into the research and writing of his excellent new book: “America’s Founding Son: John Quincy Adams, from President to Political Maverick.”
Bob talks about how he built on his 2022 podcast about Adams, Founding Son, and was able to expand the story in book form. He and Brian talk about how the book is as much a snapshot of America in the 1830s and 1840s as it is the story of any one person. Bob talks about how he decided to make Adams’ evolution into an abolitionist the center of the book and how he learned about Theodore Weld and Benjamin Lindy and how important they were to this story
Bob describes how life on tour with the Avett Brothers was actually very conducive to writing, how he had a tub of books on the tour bus and how digital media made his work much easier.
He also tells the story of his unboxing video gone wrong and describes what makes John Quincy Adams so fascinating to him.
“He’s America’s greatest public servant, hands down.”
Links
America’s Founding Son on Amazon
America’s Founding Son from an independent book store
The Living Declaration (The Best Thing Bob’s read lately.)
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Thu, 11 Jun 2026 - 29min - 213 - Big Fan with Joe Posnanski and Michael Schur
“Here’s what I felt through this entire process in writing this book: I felt complete trust.”
Joe Posnanski and Michael Schur join Brian to talk about their new book, Big Fan: Two Friends, 81,589 Miles, and the Wild, Wonderful Sports We Love.
(*I’m told it’s actually 82,490 miles. Thank you to Joe Posnanski, now the official ombudsman of The Other 51.)
Joe and Michael talk about how a clip of the World Darts Championship inspired this whole project and how they figured out what events they would attend. They talk about why avoided the big events, and how Joe’s career as a sports writer made that easier.
Joe discusses what it was like to write collaboratively, and Michael talked about how they worked to capture the vibe of their friendship on the page. They also say what they learned from writing about each other.
“If you have an ego about your writing, you will miss great ideas, you will not be receptive to criticism or rewriting or editing and you will stubbornly stick with whatever your first stupid idea was and your thing won’t be as good.”
Links
Big Fan from an independent bookstore
The Things We Never Say by Elizabeth Strout(the best thing Joe’s read lately.)
On the Calculation of Volume by Solvej Balle (the best thing Michael’s read lately)
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Mon, 18 May 2026 - 40min - 212 - Bosses of the Bronx with Mike Vaccaro
“I find it to be a pleasure. To be able to write a book is a privilege, but to do it, to me, is a pleasurable event. I just really enjoy writing. I still do.”
Mike Vaccaro, my good friend, career mentor, and fellow proud St. Bonaventure graduate, joins me for a deep dive into his delightfully fun new book, “Bosses of the Bronx: The Endless Drama of the Yankees under the house of Steinbrenner.”
We talk about why and how he came back to book writing after a long break and why this project was the one that stuck. Mike talks about how thinking of each chapter as one of his columns helped him so much through this process, and how important it was for him to tell these stories in his own voice. That leads to a larger discussion about how to develop your voice as a writer, and Mike also talks about what it was really like to cover George Steinbrenner.
“Everything that’s in that book is me.”
Links
Bosses of the Bronx from an independent bookstore
1929 by Andrew Ross Sorkin (The best thing Mike’s read lately.)
The Uncool by Cameron Crowe (The best thing Brian’s read lately.)
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Tue, 24 Mar 2026 - 38min - 211 - Moses and the Doctor with Luke Epplin
“I approach these things almost novelistically. I start with character.”
Luke Epplin joins the show for the first time for a deep dive into the writing and reporting of his new book, “Moses and the Doctor: Two Men, One Championship and the Birth of Modern Basketball.”
Luke talks about how his experience as a failed novelist — his exact words — trained him to write and research and report the way he does. He describes how learning about one moment from the 1982 NBA Finals propelled him into this story.
We talk about how he humanized the almost mythical figures of Julies Erving and Moses Malone, how he made Philadelphia a character in the book, and why pace is so important to him as a writer.
“The sort of trick with the book is to convey that larger than lifeness as it was experienced at the time.”
Links
Moses and the Doctor on Amazon.
Moses and the Doctor on Bookshop
Our Team (Luke’s first book) on Bookshop
What We Can Know by Ian McEwan (the best thing Luke’s read lately)
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Tue, 24 Feb 2026 - 31min - 210 - The Archives of Theara with Alysa Auriemma
Friend of the show Alysa Auriemma is back to talk about writing, motherhood, her new collection of short stories, her future books, and so much more.
That “so much more” is Heated Rivalry. Yes, the full bonus episode, and more Heated Rivalry content, is here.
But before that, Alysa talks about the two short stories in her new collection, “The Archives of Theara: Stories of the Kinborn.” She discusses how they fit into the All Daughter’s Rise extended literary universe, how it served as a way back into this world, and what it was like revisiting these characters years later. We talk about points-of-view as writers and readers, and Alysa also mentions her upcoming rom-com book coming out over the summer.
She also talks about being a writer as a new mom, and how writing can be one of the things that helped her find her way back to being herself.
Links
The Archives of Theara: Stories of the Kinborn
Ally Marcie Writes on Instagram
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Fri, 23 Jan 2026 - 55min - 209 - BONUS EPISODE: Heated Rivalry with Alysa Auriemma
Our regularly planned episode with Alysa Auriemma , where we talk about writing and her new collection of stories and motherhood and all of the things, will be out next week.
But we also talked a lot about Heated Rivalry. Well, Alysa had a lot to say about the show and the book series.
As a bonus, and a preview of the full episode, enjoy some Heated Rivalry talk.
Tue, 13 Jan 2026 - 23min - 208 - Only God Can Judge Me with Jeff Pearlman
Bestselling author Jeff Pearlman returns to talk all about the writing and reporting of his new book, “Only God Can Judge Me: The Many Lives of Tupac Shakur.”
Jeff talks about how and when he decided to write a biography of Tupac, what made the late rapper a compelling topic, and how he’s similar to Bo Jackson (the subject of Pearlman’s previous book).
Jeff talks about how he interviewed 652 people for this book, how he found them and how he structured the interviews. This leads to a discussion about the importance of sincerity and empathy in reporting, and Jeff describes how he got a Ph.D. in what it’s like to grow up black and poor in education.
Jeff also describes why Ebay is his secret reporting weapon, and how he wrote Brian’s favorite sentence of the year.
Links
Only God Can Judge Me: The Many Lives of Tupac Shakur
Who Knows You By Heart by CJ Farley (the best thing Jeff’s read lately)
Divided Soul: The Life of Marvin Gaye by David Ritz (the best thing Jeff’s read lately)
Revenge of the Sith by Matthew Stover (the dorkiest/best thing Brian’s read lately)
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Fri, 19 Dec 2025 - 32min - 207 - American Kings with Seth Wickersham
“I kept thinking, is there a single quarterback I can write about that I can tell this story through? And no matter who it was … everything felt too small. And so what I wanted to do was write about all of them, in a way, at every level.”
It’s our 200th episode, and we’re celebrating by talking to one of our favorite writers. Seth Wickersham joins Brian to talk about the writing and reporting of his new book, “American Kings: A Biography of The Quarterback.”
Seth discusses what that word “biography” means to him in this context, and talks about how came to write a book about the quarterback position. He talks about how the writing, reporting, and promotion of this book is different than his first book and the lessons he learned from writing about the New England Patriots that applied here.
Seth describes the different reporting methods he used in writing the book, how he landed on this particular structure and how he chose his anchor characters. He tells us how something being interesting to him was his north star, and the moment his repertorial antenna went up. He also talks about how conversations with his friend Wright Thompson and an ESPN editor helped him crack book’s structure.
“Having my friends be brilliant writers has just been like, what a blessing. Because it’s like, everyone’s supportive and a teeny bit competitive … You want to have a story that’s worthy of the text thread.”
Links
American Kings: A Biography of the Quarterback (Bookshop.org link)
American Kings (Amazon link)
Feds probing NFLPA actions that ‘may be criminal,’ doc says by Don Van Natta and Kalyn Kahler (the best thing Seth’s read lately)
Untold by Tom Junod and Paula Lavigne
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Thu, 14 Aug 2025 - 33min - 206 - Editing Anthologies with Danielle Sarver Coombs and Molly Yanity
“That’s why I do this. That’s why I’m involved in this. I was one of those young people who was endlessly inspired by female athletes and by women’s sport”
Danielle Sarver Coombs and Molly Yanity join Brian to talk about the two scholarly anthologies they co-edited about the 2023 Women’s World Cup.
We’ve interviewed writers of all sorts throughout our nine years hosting this show, but this is the first time we’ve ever talked to the editors of an anthology!
Danielle and Molly talk about that process, how they decided against writing a book of their own and instead landed on editing an anthology. They talk about how their anthology on the 2019 World Cup influenced these books, what about these events make them so ripe for scholarship, and how important it was for them to include voices from outside of the Global North.
The three of us also get deeply nerdy talking about the books we’ve read lately.
“We have a responsibility as senior scholars who are also women to help lift the voices of people who have a bigger challenge getting published.”
Links
Politics, Social Issues and the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup
Media, Communication and the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup
2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup: Media, Fandom, and Soccer’s Biggest Stage
The best books we’ve read lately
Great Big Beautiful Summer by Emily Henry
The Creativity Code by Marcus du Sautoy
Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid
Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon
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Thu, 31 Jul 2025 - 37min - 205 - The Best of The Other 51: Call Mr. Plow with Erik Malinowski
*This episode originally came out in February. Erik's book on the Golden State Warriors is out today. Erik Malinowski of Bleacher Report talks about writing a book about the Golden State Warriors, our favorite Simpsons episodes (including which one to best introduce Brian’s daughter to the show), and why you should never Tweet. We also get super nerdy talking about Scrivener.
Tue, 03 Oct 2017 - 32min - 204 - Episode 198: The Fast Track with Jane McManus
“It was the stories that I woke up the next day thinking about … I want complicated stories about complicated people making difficult choices and facing real things.”
Journalist, professor, and author Jane McManus joins us this week to talk about her career, The Year’s Best Sports Writing, her new book and more.
Jane was the editor of the 2024 edition of The Year’s Best Sports Writing. She and Brian do a deep dive into what that job actually looked like. Jane describes how she got the gig, how Richard Deitsch helped her, how she leaned on a group of fellow journalists as an advisory board, and what she was looking for in picking the best sports stories. We talk about the importance of scene setting at the start of a feature story, of showing the work that the reporter has done, and the deep reporting you see in a great piece of investigative journalism.
They also talk about her introductory essay, a form Brian has studied at great length.
Jane also talks about her book, The Fast Track, and why this was the book she wrote at this stage in her career. She describes the biggest differences between writing articles and a book, and why she doesn't want her students to outsource their thinking by letting AI do any writing.
“There's no Tik Tok, there’s no short form video on YouTube, hot-take sports talk show that is going to force you to think about something the way that at a well written long form piece of journalism is.”
Links
The Year’s Best Sports Writing 2024
The Fast Track by Jane McManus
The Three-Body Problem (The best thing Jane’s read lately.)
Middlemarch (The best thing Jane’s read lately
A Gentleman in Moscow (The best thing Brian’s read lately.)
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Fri, 06 Jun 2025 - 33min - 203 - Episode 197: Lloyd McNeil's Last Ride with Will Leitch
“The challenge is to make you love Lloyd and make you realize that Lloyd is extraordinary and that you realize that before Lloyd does.”
Will Leitch returns to the show to talk all about his new book, “Lloyd McNeil’s Last Ride.” which is out now and you should totally buy!
Will describes how a pre-pandemic visit to a family friend helped plant the seed for the book’s premise, and how that premise allows him to address the existential angst that parents are feeling about the world they’re leaving their kids. Will also reveals the biggest challenge in writing Lloyd as a character, why he wrote the book in the present tense, and how all of his novels have clocks in one way or another.
Will and Brian talk about the action sequences in the book, how they were influenced by Will’s love of movies and how listening to The Donnas was Will’s secret for those scenes. They also talk about how Will’s excellent weekly newsletter influenced parts of this book.
“I want you to feel the entire time like this is happening right now.”
Links
Lloyd McNeil’s Last Ride on Bookshop.org (to support independent bookstores.)
Lloyd McNeil’s Last Ride on Amazon
Run for the Hills by Kevin Wilson (The best thing Will’s read lately.)
Midnight in Chernobyl by Adam Higginbotham (The best thing Brian’s read lately.)
Support
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Thu, 22 May 2025 - 36min - 202 - Episode 196: Love, Abby with Sam Borden
“I never really thought about it as something I would ever do a story on. I didn’t even think of it in terms of a story … these were just our friends.”
Sam Borden from ESPN joins us for a deep dive into his moving feature story on the friendship between Abby Zittoun and the UConn women’s basketball team.
Sam discusses the intensely personal nature of this story for him, how he navigated being both a friend and reporter in telling Abby’s story, and why being transparent and intimate as a journalist is so vital to doing stories like this. He also talks about how he dealt with the personal pressure he felt writing this story.
Sam and Brian also discuss the writing and reporting of the story. The details make this story so memorable, but how does Sam know he has the right details, and how do you keep from overwhelming the reader with them? Sam also talks about how he avoided making an inherently sad story like this feel like a long march for the reader. This is not a story about grief, it’s the story about an amazing young girl, her family, and the connection she had with this team.
“I want Abby to be alive for as much of this story as possible.”
Links:
Love, Abby: Inside UConn basketball's eternal bond with a magical fan
Love, Abby (TV version of story)
Trump is selling Jews a dangerous lie by Michael S. Roth (The best thing Sam’s read lately)
Support:
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Fri, 11 Apr 2025 - 38min - 201 - Episode 195: Throwbacks with Michael Weinreb
Author, journalist and screenwriter Michael Weinreb joins Brian to talk about newsletters, carving out a writing career in the digital world, the intersection of sports, politics and culture and the value of works in progress.
We start out by talking about Michael’s time writing for Grantland and how that site was almost our generation’s version of The National Sports Daily. Michael talks about what it was like to write for Grantland and be a part of a site that let writers indulge in the topics they wanted to write about,
This evolves into a broader and frank discussion about a writer’s life and how Michael carves out writing and a career space in this current media environment.
The main topic is Throwbacks, Michael’s excellent newsletter on Substack. He describes how it began during the COVID pandemic, how and why he started writing though a historical lens, and how forcing himself to write every week has helped him in his other writing projects.
Links
Throwbacks: A Newsletter About Sports History and Culture
Move Fast and Break Things (2012)
The Greatest Paper that Ever Died
The Genius: How Bill Walsh Reinvented Football and Created an NFL Dynasty by David Harris (the best thing Michael’s read lately)
Philip Bump columns at The Washington Post (the best thing Michael’s read lately)
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Fri, 28 Feb 2025 - 34min - 200 - Episode 194: Magic in the Air with Mike Sielski
“I didn’t want this to be 300 pages of highlights. I wanted this book to surprise people in its depth and in the way it’s written and in the topics we cover.”
Mike Sielski returns to the show for a deep dive into the writing and reporting of his new book, “Magic in the Air.”
We start with the book’s subtitle: “The Myth, the Mystery and the Soul of the Slam Dunk.” Mike, a columnist for the Philadelphia Inquirer and friend of the show, talks about he was inspired by Tyler Kepner’s book K and how he wanted to do a book where each chapter was its own entity
Mike describes how his reporting had him dodging rattlesnakes in Amarillo Texas teetering on the rabbit hole of finding the first person to dunk. He talks about why he wrote some of the book in first person, what it’s like to stretch that writing muscle, and how he used it to dunk on the NCAA.
We also talk about his favorite dunk of all time and the surprising role N.C. State plays in the history of the dunk. And no, Olean is not the birthplace of the dunk.
“What I wanted to do is take the dunk and use it as a vehicle to understand how basketball has changed and how American culture and society have changed over time.”
Links
Pre-order Magic in the Air:
Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan (The best thing Mike’s read lately)
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Thu, 06 Feb 2025 - 34min - 199 - Episode 193: Who Are These Women? with Jennifer Ashley Tepper
“What’s the book that I would write if I had time?”
Jennifer Ashley Tepper joins us for a deep dive into her upcoming book, “Women Writing Musicals: The Legacy That the History Books Left Out.”
Jennifer, a Broadway historian, producer and 2022 Tony Honoree (!!!), talks about how she came to the idea of writing about 300-plus women writers, dating back to the 1700s, who have written musical theater. She talks about how she started to write the book during deep isolation in Covid - but really started writing it even earlier than that.
How do you do historical research during a worldwide shutdown, and how do you research people who have been left out of the history books? Jennifer talks about how online library resources and newspaper archives were so useful, and how restrictions can be helpful to a creative person.
Jennifer and Brian talk about what stories get left out of the history books, how work that addresses the experiences or perspectives of women (or other marginalized communities) during a past era might be seen as dated, and how cast recordings are a kind of unintentional gatekeeping. If something’s out of print, it’s like it didn’t exist.
Rabbit holes include Toni Tennille’s long-forgotten environmental musical, which was produced by Roger Ailes, and watching TikToks on Instagram like a grown up.
“To get to finally share these stories with people is thrilling to me, because so many of them are untold Broadway stories that deserve to be told.”
Links
Pre-order Women Writing Musicals: The Legacy That the History Books Left Out:
All of Jennifer Ashley Tepper’s books
Yellow Face (the best show Jennifer’s seen lately).
Men We Reaped by Jesmyn Ward (the best thing Jen’s read lately).
The 100 Best Books of the 21st Century from The New York Times.
(All links are Amazon affiliate links)
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The Other 51 is and will always be free, but if you like my work (and the stuff I do at Sports Media Guy) and want to kick me a few dollars, you can do so here. I really appreciate your support.
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Fri, 25 Oct 2024 - 30min - 198 - Episode 192: Let's Find Out Together with Stuart Turton
“I’ve got this crazy idea, it would be Agatha Christie meets Lost. They were like ‘how are you gonna pull that off?’ and I was like ‘I have absolutely no idea.”
Stuart Turton joins Brian to talk about the writing of his New York Times bestseller, “The Last Murder at the End of the World.”
Stuart talks about how this was the hardest book he’s ever written, why it was so hard, and how he had to throw a full 130,000-word draft away and start over. He talks about how he knew things weren’t working and the changes he made that changed everything. Turns out, he killed the wrong person.
Stuart and Brian talk about the unintentional symbolism of the fog, the beauty of the mourning lanterns, why Stuart hates red herrings, and how the constraints of writing a mystery novel are like a game of chess to him.
“That’s the thing that you started with, that was your premise, that was your holy grail, and that's the reason you started writing this book. But it's not working. So have courage and toss it.”
Links
The Last Murder at the End of the World
A Visit From the Goon Squadby Jennifer Eagen (the best thing Stuart’s read lately.)
Starve Acre by Andrew Michael Hurley (the other best thing Stuart’s read lately.)
Everyone on this Train is a Suspectby Benjamin Stevenson (the best thing Brian’s read lately.)
(all links are Amazon affiliate links)
Support
The Other 51 is and will always be free, but if you like my work (and the stuff I do at Sports Media Guy) and want to kick me a few dollars, you can do so here. I really appreciate your support.
Follow us on Instagram and Threads. We’re on the decaying corpse of Twitter, but only because for some reason sports media won’t abandon the site.
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Thu, 10 Oct 2024 - 33min - 197 - Episode 191: We Wrote a Book with Matt Zimmerman and Lauren Burch
“After 190 episodes talking about other’s people writing, I finally get to talk about something I wrote!”
Brian is joined by Matthew Zimmeran and Lauren Burch, and the three of them talk about their new textbook, Introduction to Sports Journalism.
We talk about how Matt started the project and how/why he asked us to be a part of it. We talk about our different writing styles and methods, how Brian’s writing habits give Lauren anxiety, and how our three voices turned into one cohesive book. We also talk about the challenges of balancing theory with the need for practicality, and how we to tried to balance writing something as permanent as a book about such a fast-changing industry.
Anyway, I’m super proud of the book and so proud that I got to do it with friends of mine.
Links
Introduction to Sports Journalism (our book!)
Want: Sexual Fantasies by Gillian Anderson (the best thing Lauren’s read lately.
The Storyteller by Dave Grohl (the other best thing Lauren’s read lately)
Tennessee coach Josh Heupel comes home to Oklahoma by Jake Trotter and Chris Low (the best thing Matt’s read recently.)Moneyball by Michael Lewis (the other best thing Matt’s read recently.)
Everyone On This Train is a Suspect by Benjamin Stevenson (the best thing Brian’s read lately)
Support
The Other 51 is and will always be free, but if you like my work (and the stuff I do at Sports Media Guy) and want to kick me a few dollars, you can do so here. I really appreciate your support.
Follow us on Instagram and Threads. We’re on the decaying corpse of Twitter, but only because for some reason sports media won’t abandon the site.
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Fri, 27 Sep 2024 - 41min - 196 - Episode 190: Solving That Puzzle with Joe Posnanski
“I feel like my place as a writer is sort of that place between what happened and the mythology of what’s happening.”
Joe Posnanski joins Brian for a deep dive into his new book, Why We Love Football: A History in 100 Moments.
Joe talks about how he started with a list of more than 300 football moments and the process of whittling those down. It’s an honest and super nerdy discussion about how early drafts of the book weren’t working, what Joe did to work through those struggles, and how writing about The Drive unlocked the book for himJoe also talks about how we was able to write a collection of essays while maintaining a central theme, how the Don Beebe-Leon Lett play is the perfect example of why we love football, and what kind of athlete “Brian Moritz” would be.
“For me as a writer, the moment where the book came alive for me was when I started to think of it as a football game … every play is its own little universe in football.”
Links
Why We Love Football: A History in 100 Moments
Destiny of the Republic: A Tale Of Madness, Medicine, and the Murder of a President by Candice Millard(the best thing Joe’s read lately.)
Support
The Other 51 is and will always be free, but if you like my work (and the stuff I do at Sports Media Guy) and want to kick me a few dollars, you can do so here. I really appreciate your support.
Follow us on Instagram and Threads. We’re on the decaying corpse of Twitter, but only because for some reason sports media won’t abandon the site.
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Fri, 13 Sep 2024 - 34min - 195 - Episode 189: Take it Deeper with Tyler dunne
“I think those fans deserve the truth. They don't need to be pandered to, they don't need to be misled.”
Tyler Dunne, the man behind Go Long and the best NFL feature writer working today, joins Brian to talk about Sean McDermott, Zay Jones and so much more.
Ty talks about the aftermath of his Sean McDermott series, how the coach and the team responded to that explosive series and reached out to him and how he’s now credentialed by the Bills. Tyler talks about the conversation he had with McDermott at the NFL Combine and what it felt like to walk into that meeting.
We then do a deep dive into his feature on Zay Jones that won him a first place award in the APSE National Writing Contest. Tyler talks about his tools for gently steering a conversation in an interview, how to handle the elephant in the room, and the value of doing extra reporting beyond the main interview. He also discusses how he protects his own mental health when writing and reporting heavy features, and how these stories make him want to be a better person.
“It's a people business, it's a human business, and you just want to have conversations and you just want to treat people like human beings.”
Links
I’m Still Alive: The Zay Jones story
Buffalo Bills Memory Lane with Chuck Pollock
The Infinite Game by Simon Sinek (The best thing Tyler’s read lately.)
County Highway (The other best thing Tyler’s read lately.)
Support
The Other 51 is and will always be free, but if you like my work (and the stuff I do at Sports Media Guy and want to kick me a few dollars, you can do so here. I really appreciate your support.
Follow us on Instagram. We’re on the decaying corpse of Twitter, but only because for some reason sports media won’t abandon the site.
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Thu, 22 Aug 2024 - 38min - 194 - Episode 188: A Book on Ya Ya with Jenn Billinson
“I think the role of the critic is to bring that nuanced understanding and historical context to explain the music.”
Dr. Jenn Billinson from Nazareth University joins Brian for a deep, deep dive into Cowboy Carter, The Tortured Poets Department, and the role of music writing in today’s media world.
Jenn talks about her recent research into gatekeeping in country music and specifically the reaction to Beyonce’s new album. What is it about country music that brings out such strong gatekeeping tendencies? Jenn talks about her role as a white woman writing about her reaction to Beyonce’s music.
Jenn and Brian discuss the role of a journalist or an academic in writing about music in 2024, especially in a world where fans are doing incredible analyses and album breakdowns on TikTok.
Rabbit holes include their favorite song on each album, the new Pearl Jam record, and staying up past midnight in your 40s.
LinksDaddy Lessons (Beyonce and The Chicks, 2016 performance.)
A Complete Review of Beyonce’s New Album on The Right Time
Raw Dog: The naked truth about hot dogs (The Best Thing Jenn’s read lately.)
He turned his garage into a nightclub. Now the city wants to shut it down and kick him out (the best thing Brian’s read lately.)
Support
The Other 51 is and will always be free, but if you like my work (and the stuff I do at Sports Media Guy and want to kick me a few dollars, you can do so here. I really appreciate your support.
Follow us on Instagram. We’re on the decaying corpse of Twitter, but only because for some reason sports media won’t abandon the site.
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Fri, 10 May 2024 - 44min - 193 - Episode 187: Caution is Kindness with Jen Moritz
“When in doubt, choose not to harm somebody.”
Jen Moritz, senior editor and inclusive language specialist (and Brian’s wife) joins us to talk about inclusive language.
What is inclusive language?
So glad you asked!
Jen defines the term for us, and also describes how she got interested and involved in this area of editing. She tells us how the pandemic influenced her interest in inclusive language, how editing for inclusive language is an extension of her “Grammar Tingle” and what she does when that is activated by word or phrase, and how inclusive editing can help connect us back to our humanity in an increasingly digital world.
We also go down a rabbit hole about the phrase “rule of thumb” and what to do when people think you’re wrong but you’re actually right.
Other rabbit holes include dragon smut, fairy smut, banned books and Maintenance Phase.
Also, as far as we can tell, “flying by the seat of your pants” is not problematic. As a phrase, at least.
“You will always be learning. You will never have perfect language and perfect representation. You’re just doing your best.”
Links
The Conscious Language Newsletter
Flamer (the best thing Jen’s read lately.)
Other Words For Home (the best thing Jen’s read lately.)
Rebecca YarrosEmpyrean Series (the best thing Jen has read lately.)
Sarah J. Massbooks (the best thing Brian has read lately.)
Support
The Other 51 is and will always be free, but if you like my work (and the stuff I do at Sports Media Guy and want to kick me a few dollars, you can do so here. I really appreciate your support.
Follow us on Instagram. We’re on the decaying corpse of Twitter, but only because for some reason sports media won’t abandon the site.
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Thu, 18 Apr 2024 - 33min - 192 - BONUS EPISODE: AP Style and obesity
Next week, our regularly scheduled episode with Jen Moritz will be out. We’ll be talking all about inclusive language.
However.
Early in April, the Associated Press announced updates to its style book. Including new guidance on writing about “obese, obesity and overweight”
We, um, we have some thoughts.
And so, a bonus episode.
Enjoy! And be sure to listen to our non-bonus episode with Jen next week.
This was largely inspired by the work of Maintenance Phase.
Support
The Other 51 is and will always be free, but if you like my work (and the stuff I do at Sports Media Guy and want to kick me a few dollars, you can do so here. I really appreciate your support.
Follow us on Instagram. We’re on the decaying corpse of Twitter, but only because for some reason sports media won’t abandon the site.
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Apple Podcasts
SpotifyThu, 11 Apr 2024 - 19min - 191 - Episode 186: Working Stuff Out with Jared Paventi
“We all experience loss differently, but there’s common ground for all of us to find in that.”
Jared Paventi joins Brian this week to talk all about his excellent Substack, Dirt Nap.
Jared discusses how he came to write a weekly blog/newsletter/Substack/whatever we’re calling it about death and grieving, how watching his oldest daughter grieve the loss of her grandpa inspired him, and how he uses writing to work through what he’s thinking and feeling.
Jared talks about how he’s looking to create a space for conversations about grief through his excellent Griever’s Digest series, how grieving can be about more than just the death of someone, and how the writing of A.J. Daulerio and The Small Bow inspired Dirt Nap, especially the tone.
We also talk about what happened to his food blog, Blog Al Dente, and what you do when a project starts to feel more like work than fun.
Rabbit holes include HJ Magazine, how a deadline without a consequence is meaningless, and Brian’s move out of the basement.
“This is some shit that’s going on in my head and my world. Maybe it’s happening to you too.”
Links
Dirt Nap by Jared Paventi
The Griever’s Digestseries at Dirt Nap
The Small Bow by A.J. Daulerio
The Other 51 Episode 13: Anti-Federalists with Jared Paventi
I’m Glad My Mom Died by Jeanette McCurdy (The best thing Jared’s read lately.)
Jean Hanff Korelitz books (The best thing Jared’s read lately.)
The Last Boyby Jane Leavy (The best thing Brian’s read lately.)
Support
The Other 51 is and will always be free, but if you like my work (and the stuff I do at Sports Media Guy and want to kick me a few dollars, you can do so here. I really appreciate your support.
Follow us on Instagram. We’re on the decaying corpse of Twitter, but only because for some reason sports media won’t abandon the site.
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Thu, 04 Apr 2024 - 44min - 190 - Episode 185: Slime Time with Alex Brightman
“Come in for the show, stay for the tears.”
Alex Brightman joins Brian to talk about Broadway and writing, including a deep dive into his play “The Life and Slimes of Marc Summers.”
A two-time Tony Nominee (for School of Rock and Beetlejuice), Alex tells Brian how a YouTube series, a production of Grease, and a shared affinity for Old Hollywood led to him writing a one-man show for Marc Summers based on the Double Dare host’s life. What exactly is a “part interactive game show, part memoir?”
Alex describes the process of writing the show, including the ah-ha moment that made him realize there was something special here.
Alex also tells the story of how he and Drew Gasparini met, became fast friends and writing partners, and how they work together. Alex also discusses how he fits writing into an already busy acting schedule and some of the projects he’s working on now.
Rabbit holes include our shared reverence for calendars, and how Simon’s mom reacted to his message (IYKYK).
Links
The Life and Slimes of Marc Summers (through June 2, 2024)
Spamalot (through April 7)
A Little Bit, sung by Alex Brightman, written by Drew Gasparini
Boom Town by Sam Anderson (the best thing Alex has read lately)
A Strange Loop AND Ain’t No Mo (the best shows Alex has seen lately)
Alex’s coming appearances:
LvlUp Expo in Las Vegas April 26th-28th
GalaxyCon in Oklahoma City May 24th-26th
Rhode Island Comic Con November 1st-3rd
Support
The Other 51 is and will always be free, but if you like my work (and the stuff I do at Sports Media Guy and want to kick me a few dollars, you can do so here. I really appreciate your support.
Follow us on Instagram. We’re on the decaying corpse of Twitter, but only because for some reason sports media won’t abandon the site.
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Fri, 22 Mar 2024 - 32min - 189 - Episode 184: Very Sparkly Writers with Joe Iconis
“Oh, I wrote a musical about me. I really did. This is just me.”
Joe Iconis, one of the best writers on Broadway and one of Brian’s favorite people, joins us on The Other 51 to talk all about The Untitled Unauthorized Hunter S. Thompson Musical.
Yep, that’s the name of Joe’s most recent show, which debuted at La Jolla Playhouse in San Diego in 2023.
Joe tells the story of the name and why it’s so appropriate for a show about Hunter S. Thompson. Joe also discusses why the show is unauthorized, what that meant for him trying to write a show without being able to use a famous writers’ words, and why it was scary but ultimately rewarding.
Joe and Brian also discuss the show’s multivolume coffee table book trip from an idea in 2007 to the stage 16 years later, what’s next for the show, and the difference for Joe between writing music and writing a script.
Rabbit holes include the coming Broadway Thinkpieces and Huey Lewis and the News. We also get a Diane Kitten update.
“Let there be things that are weird and strange. And good and true.”
Links
The Untitled Unauthorized Hunter S. Thompson Musical
Buy Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas from The Strand
Oh Mary (the best show Joe’s seen lately)
Days of Wine and Roses (the best show Joe’s seen lately)
The Untold Stories of Broadway Vol. 4 by Jennifer Ashley Tepper (the best thing Joe’s read lately)
Support
The Other 51 is and will always be free, but if you like my work (and the stuff I do at Sports Media Guy and want to kick me a few dollars, you can do so here. I really appreciate your support.
Follow us on Instagram. We’re on the decaying corpse of Twitter, but only because for some reason sports media won’t abandon the site.
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Fri, 08 Mar 2024 - 36min - 188 - Episode 183: Show Up with Liz Robbins
“Do the work. Show Up. Show you care by listening.”
Liz Robbins joins Brian to talk about her remarkable career as a journalist, covering everything from the NBA to U.S. immigration policy.
Liz tells stories about what it was like to cover sports in Cleveland in the late 1990s, including how she broke the news that the WNBA would be forming and traveled on a private jet with Tim Couch. This was the last golden age of traditional newspaper sports journalism, and Liz describes what that was like.
Liz also details how broke a story for The Times that led to the U.S. government literally changing one of its immigration policies. Writing topics include how Liz knows she’s done reporting and ready to write, how to build a network of sources, and how to protect your mental health while covering tough stories.
Rabbit holes include the only time in Liz’s career that she was star struck, Susan Sarandon in Rocky Horror Picture Show, Larry Brown yelling at her, and the St. Bonaventure-Kentucky NCAA Tournament game in 2000.
Links
Post Office Fails to Deliver on Time, and DACA Applications Get Rejected
A Record Breaking 2023 in Sports
St. Bonaventure-Kentucky 2000 NCAA First Round
All the Sinners Bleed by Y.A. Cosby (the best thing Liz has read lately)
Roman Stories (the other best thing Liz has read lately)
Criminal Record on Apple TV+ (the best thing Liz has watched lately)
Support
The Other 51 is and will always be free, but if you like my work (and the stuff I do at Sports Media Guy and want to kick me a few dollars, you can do so here. I really appreciate your support.
Follow us on Instagram. We’re on Facebook the decaying corpse of Twitter, but only because for some reason sports media won’t abandon the site.
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Fri, 23 Feb 2024 - 34min - 187 - Episode 182: Feel Like a Writer with Dave Karpf
“I ended up throughout the midst of the pandemic feeling like I couldn’t write anything anymore.”
Dave Karpf, author of the must-read “The Future, Now and Then” on Substack, joins Brian to talk about writing, the internet, and more.
Dave and Brian discuss this week’s news about Bluesky opening itself to the public, and why the years where there wasn't a lot of money in it was when the internet was the best.
Dave, a political science professor at George Washington University, talks about how he built a weekly writing practice on Substack, and how it helped him unstick as a writer. He talks about his writing about the intersection of technology and society, what we can learn about the present and the future by the stories tech evangelists told us in the past, and the most bonkers thing he’s read in the Wired Magazine archives.
“This is what happens when you give a guy like me tenure”
Links
The Future, Now and Then by Dave Karpf
Lost Tempo by Matt(Best thing Dave’s read lately)
Dumb Money by Gary Wolf and Joey Anuff (Best thing Dave’s read lately)
Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin (Best thing Brian’s read lately)
Support
The Other 51 is and will always be free, but if you like my work (and the stuff I do at Sports Media Guy and want to kick me a few dollars, you can do so here. I really appreciate your support.
Follow us on Instagram. We’re on the decaying corpse of Twitter, but only because for some reason sports media won’t abandon the site (looking at you, ESPN folks).
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Fri, 09 Feb 2024 - 32min - 186 - Episode 181: Working with Words with Wendell Barnhouse
Wendell Barnhouse joins Brian to talk about his long and storied career as a sports journalist.
Wendell talks about what it was like to cover Duke-Kentucky in the 1992 NCAA men’s Tournament (the Christian Laettner shot), how doing layout and editing stories for 13 years helped him be a better writer, and why he views himself as more of a craftsman than an artist.
Rabbit holes include the old SportsJournalists.com message boards, and the eternal question of how do you castrate an orange?
Dead Reckoning by Robert Kolker
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Fri, 22 Sep 2023 - 35min - 185 - Episode 180: Get It On the Page with Joe Posnanski
Joe Posnanski joins Brian this week to talk all about his new book, “Why We Love Baseball.”
In the introduction to this book, Joe writes that "This is the book I always hoped would be on the shelf” of his library when he was a kid. In this episode, he tells Brian why this would have been the perfect book for him when he was 10 years old.
Joe discusses how he had the title of the book before anything else, how he developed the book’s structure, and how he came up with the structures for all 108(ish) essays in the book.
Joe also talks about what he has learned about himself as a writer over the yearsl, and the importance of discipline in writing.
Rabbit holes include our current Taylor Swift eras, Ozzie Smith YouTube, and the dump ballparks of our youth.
Why We Love Baseball by Joe Posnanski
Walking with Sam by Andrew McCarthy
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Wed, 06 Sep 2023 - 33min - 184 - Episode 179: North Star with Sam Borden
Sam Borden of ESPN joins Brian this week to talk about reporting, interviewing, and life as a foreign correspondent.
Sam has probably the best job title of anyone we’ve had as a guest on the podcast — Global Sports Correspondent for ESPN. Sam talks about how he got that job, how he built a successful career as a sports journalist despite not being a sports fan, and how he finds stories to write.
Sam and Brian also talk about what life is really like as a foreign correspondent. It’s not all Hemingway and lunches on the Seine. Sam talks about finding fixers who can help you report in foreign languages, and how he tracked down Darko Milicic at an apple orchard in Serbia.
Sam also talks about the biggest difference between interviewing for broadcast and interviewing for a print piece, how the concept of the North Star can help any journalist.
More Myself: A Journey by Alicia Keys
Crook Manifesto by Colson Whitehead
Percy Jackson and the Olympians boxed set
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Thu, 31 Aug 2023 - 34min - 183 - Episode 178: Post-Threads World with Jenn Billinson
Dr. Jenn Billinson from Nazareth University joins us to talk about the state of social media, and what the heck is going on with Twitter and Twitter replacements.
Short answer: It’s a mess
Jenn and Brian talk about their reactions to Threads, why that seemed to fizzle out, and what’s next for space. Twitter/BlueSky/Threads. Jenn tells us how social media has changed in the decade she’s been teaching it, what research tells us about why people use Twitter (and twitter-like platforms), and how she teachers social media in a world like this.
In addition, we break down the potential fight between Elon and Zuckerberg. There is some Barbenheimer talk, of course.
Also, in what might become a new regular feature on the show, Jenn gives us the best TikTok Rabbit Hole she has gone down lately.
And on Bluesky because why not?
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Fri, 25 Aug 2023 - 35min - 182 - Episode 177: A Newsman's Newsman with Chuck Pollock
How did a guy who started his career in radio become one of the most influential newspaper sports journalists in the history of Western New York?
Chuck Pollock, Brian’s former boss and the longtime sports editor and columnist for The Times Herald in Olean, N.Y., joins Brian to talk about column writing, journalism, and his 50-year career.
Chuck traces his career from the Vietnam War, through radio in Pennsylvania, and to the newsroom on Norton Drive in Olean where he worked for 50 years. He talks about working for Mike Abdo and Bob Davies and why they were so influential on him. He talks about what it was like covering Buffalo sports in the 1970s writing for a family-owned newspaper, the changes in the industry, why he left the OTH and what’s next for him.
We talk about the single-best definition of news either one of us has ever heard, and why having a column every day is so vital for newspapers. And where did Chuck’s unique typing style come from?
A heartfelt goodbye to TH readers
The Best Newspaper Man I Ever Worked With
Chuck Pollock: Ending the Absence of Writing
The Boys in the Boat by Daniel James Brown
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Thu, 06 Jul 2023 - 47min - 181 - Epsiode 176: Adams Was a Baller with Bob Crawford
Bob Crawford, podcaster, history buff, and the bass player for The Avett Brothers (Brian’s favorite band), joins Brian this week to talk his new podcast series, Founding Son: John Quincy’s America.
Bob and Brian talk about what made John Quincy Adams stand out as a story worth telling, how Adams is the bridge between Washington and Lincoln, a vessel to tell the story of America between the revolution and the Civil War, and a good, good man. What stories about Adams did Bob most want to tell but had to cut?
Bob discusses how his story editor helped him focus not on the trees that were so fascinating but on the forest as a whole, how he developed his pitch for the show (and even forgot about it at one point), how he used Miro as an organizational tool, and the writing tip that he learned from Twitter.
Rabbit holes in this episode include Martin Van Buren, Abraham Lincoln, the Seward House in Auburn, N.Y., and spinning a stand-up bass.
Founding Son: John Quincy’s America
The Rise of American Democracy: Jefferson to Lincoln
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Fri, 02 Jun 2023 - 30min - 180 - Episode 175: Everything's About Us with Scott Nover
Scott Nover, a technology and media reporter for Quartz, joins Brian to talk about AI, media economics, and why it’s so interesting to write about media.
Scott takes a break from watching the Senate Judiciary Committee’s hearing on artificial intelligence for this episode. For real, though … politicians can’t understand Facebook.
Scott discusses his career path, why he became fascinated in writing and reporting on media, and what is most interesting to him in the AI space right now.
Brian and Scott also talk about why understanding business is fundamental to any career in journalism, and stratagies for making complex business concepts understandable to readers.
And man, we miss David Carr.
OpenAI’s Sam Altman got a warm welcome on Capitol Hill
The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller
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Fri, 26 May 2023 - 31min - 179 - Episode 174: Ride the Writing Wave with Arielle Beth Klein
Arielle Beth Klein, a playwright and actor, joins Brian to talk about her newly published play, "My Shiksa Boyfriend," and all things writing and creative.
Arielle tells us what it's like seeing her play for sale in the Drama Book Shop, and what it's like signing copies of her play to sell in the famed NYC book store. We bond over the awesomeness of Grace Aki.
Arielle describes how improv exercise in a college class set her on the road to being a playwright. She tells us the lasting lessons she's learned from Seth Barrish's storytelling workshops, why she works in 10-page spurts, and her favorite deleted scene from the show and why she cut it.
She also discusses How her experience and work as an actor informs her writing, and how her career as a writer informs her acting, and and her best advice for a young or new playwright.
Signing books at the Drama Book Shop
Awakening to the Fifth Dimension
Thu, 18 May 2023 - 31min - 178 - Episode 173: Low-Risk Person with Will Leitch
Will Leitch returns to the show to talk all about the writing of his excellent new novel, "The Time Has Come."
Will tells Brian how the writing of this book (“a feel-good book about a shooting!”) differed from his first novel, “How Lucky.” Will discusses how he structured the book, whether the plot or characters came first, and how he was able to make all of his main characters sound authentic to who they are. How do you write a Trump voter whom your readers will find likable - or at least able to empathize with?
Will and Brian talk about why making something specific actually makes it universal, how the novel’s setting of Athens, Georgia ties to the book’s larger theme, and how this book reflects his overall world view.
Pre-order The Time Has Come at IndieBound
Pre-order The Time Has Come at Amazon
Will’s Excellent Weekly Newsletter
The Rise and Fall of theThird Reich
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Thu, 11 May 2023 - 37min - 177 - Episode 172: Primed to Write with Jenn McClearen
Dr. Jenn McClearen, an assistant professor at the University of Texas and author of the Substack newsletter Publish not Perish, joins Brian to talk about what makes academic writing so vexing, and some strategies to improve your writing and time management.
They talk about the crazy coincidence of the both being at the same, relatively small conference in Barcelona and not meeting there, and they discuss the research projects they brought to IACS and their respective interests in Naomi Osaka. The joys of eating in Barcelona and Spanish table wine.
The main topic is Jenn’s excellent newsletter, Publish Not Perish. Jenn tells the newsletter’s origin story and why she wants to make the academy more transparent. She discusses how to deal with the inherent structural challenges of academia, and the importance of reflecting on and trying different strategies and figuring out what works for you.
Micro Media Industries by Lori Kido Lopez
The Boys on the Bus by Timothy Crouse
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Wed, 19 Apr 2023 - 35min - 176 - Episode 171: Now I Just Cry with Alysa Auriemma
For the record seventh time, Alysa Auriemma joins Brian to talk about writing. This time, the main topics are social media, making space for creative work, her next novel, and (of course) so much more.
Alysa talks about the reaction her first novel, All Daughter’s Rise, received and what the self-publishing process was like on the back end. She also discusses her plans for the second book in that series and why she’s shifting her writing focus to a new project. We break some news on this episode, as Alysa discusses her next book.
The main topic for Alysa and Brian is social media. Alysa’s off Twitter and has been for a while. Why’d she leave? What’s it like? How does she fill all that time?
Skeleton Crew: Stories by Stephen King (includes The Jaunt)
I Have Some Questions For You by Rebecca Makkai
Thu, 13 Apr 2023 - 51min - 175 - Episode 170: Under the Hood with Evan Drellich
Evan Drellich joins Brian to talk about his new book, Winning Fixes Everything, about the Houston Astros' cheating scandal.
Evan — who worked with Brian at the Press & Sun-Bulletin in Binghamton, N.Y. another lifetime ago — discusses how he and Ken Rosenthal broke the story of the Astros cheating scandal for The Athletic, what it's like when your reporting becomes the biggest sports story in the country, and how this is much more about players banging trash cans with bats.
Evan also talks about how this is much more than a sign-stealing scandal, how it's a book about corporate cut-throat culture that captures a lot of what was happening in industry in the 2010s, and how he developed those themes. He also talks about the writing lessons he drew from Bernard Malamud (and the late Charlie Jaworski) and his favorite Killers songs.
Winning Fixes Everything by Evan Drellich on Amazon
The original story on the Astros' scandal
The Complete Stories by Bernard Malamud
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Fri, 10 Feb 2023 - 39min - 174 - Episode 169: Damar Hamlin with Tyler Dunne
Tyler Dunne of Go Long tells us all about Damar Hamlin, what it was like to be in Cincinnati on Monday night, and about watching and covering football going forward.
Why Damar Hamlins is exactly what the Buffalo Bills need
The light in football’s most horrific hour
Podcast: Damar Hamlin, life, and football
The Chasing MS Foundation Community Toy Drive
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Thu, 05 Jan 2023 - 26min - 173 - Episode 168: Digital Media Suburb with Jeremy Littau
Jeremy Littau, a professor at Lehigh University, an expert in social media with some unfortunate opinions about candy, joins Brian to talk about the present and future of Twitter and new social platforms.
Jeremy talks about where things stood with Twitter as of Dec. 7, when we recorded this. He talks about the migration to Mastodon, why it’s Why its really complicated for people to decide whether or not to leave or join a social network, and why those options are not the same thing.
Jeremy also discusses his willingness to experiment with new digital media, and how he gets his students to think about the future with a bent toward curiosity
Op-Ed: Thinking of leaving Twitter? Its experience is hard to replicate
Andrew Luck Reveals Why He Walked Away from the NFL
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Fri, 16 Dec 2022 - 33min - 172 - Episode 167: Rabbit Holes with Pablo Torre
Pablo Torre, host of ESPN Daily, joins Brian to talk about interviewing, curiosity in reporting, and how podcasting sits at the middle of his professional Venn Diagram.
After a brief delay in starting this episode, Pablo talks about the career path that brought him to ESPN. He tells Brian how he brings a magazine-writer’s sensibility to a daily sports podcast, and why he is so wary about being a redundant voice. Pablo discusses the range of his interests and the show, whether it is taking time to discuss serious topics (mental health in sports, concussions) to approaching fun stories (was Jalen Rose reallythe first Jalen?) with the seriousness that Michael Caine brought to A Muppet Christmas Carol.
Pablo and Brian talk about the importance of curiosity and how to cultivate it, how he tries to bring out the best in his guests, and whether or not you can create chemistry between two people.
Alternate episode title: The science of butts
JJ Redick on Mental Health vs. Mental Toughness
Inside the NFL’s Concussion Protocol with Alex Smith
Is Jalen Rose the First Jalen? We Solve a Sports Mystery
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Wed, 23 Nov 2022 - 39min - 171 - Episode 166: Kendall Oilers with Tyler Dunne
In our first-ever live event, Tyler Dunne returns to talk about his new book, “The Blood and Guts: How Tight Ends Save Football.”
Listen to this episode for your chance to WIN A SIGNED COPY OF TY’S BOOK.
Tyler tells Brian why he decided to write a whole book about tight ends. Because, let’s face it, that’s an oddly specific topic. If, as Tyler said he learned, that the position of tight end chooses people, how did he choose to write about tight ends.
Tyler describes what he calls “a cross-country trip about the soul of the sport,” how he reported the book, and why it was so important to interview these tight ends in their own environments.
Tyler tells Brian how he approached writing the book like a series of long-form feature stories, how he balanced that and theme to turn those stories into a book, and how he balanced writing and reporting the book, running his own subscription newsletter AND raising a newborn and a toddler at the same time.
Tyler’s sixth-grade teacher drops also drops by (with Tyler’s football card from 2000)
The episode was recorded on October 27, 2022, at the Jandoli School of Communication at St. Bonaventure. Thanks to Aaron Chimbel, the staff of the Jandoli School, and the Endowment for Excellence in Business Journalism for their support of the event.
The Blood and the Guts by Tyler Dunne on Amazon
… and at your local indie bookstore.
The Last Folk Hero by Jeff Pearlman
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Thu, 03 Nov 2022 - 56min - 170 - Episode 165: Walking Through Your Fear with Jeff Pearlman
Jeff Pearlman is back for either his 83rd or 905th appearance, depending on who’s counting. Jeff is back to chat about “The Last Folk Hero,” his outstanding new biography of Bo Jackson that is out this week.
Jeff describes what makes Bo Jackson so iconic and interesting, and why the first thing he did when he decided to write about Bo was to visit eBay.
Jeff did 720 interviews for this book, and he tells Brian who he wishes had been 721. Jeff walks through how he organized all this information with printouts and folders — “It’s a frickin’ nightmare.”
Jeff talks about what makes Bo’s story so intriguing as a writer, how he separated fact from myth, and if it was a bummer to learn the truth behind those myths. He discusses how he developed his writing style, the importance of making the extra call, and how you never stop being afraid but you learn to do what you have to do.
Alternate episode title: Life’s a Crapper
The Last Folk Hero: The Life and Myth of Bo Jackson
Afeni Skaur: Evolution of a Revolutionary by Jasmine Guy
Barkley: A Biography by Timothy Bella
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Thu, 27 Oct 2022 - 28min - 169 - Episode 164: A 70-Word Sentence with Dr. Denny Wilkins
Denny Wilkins' story is that of a geology major from Massachusetts turned into a journalism professor at St. Bonaventure.
It’s also the story of a professor who taught a generation of St. Boanventure journalism graduates — Brian included — to omit needless words.
Denny and Brian, now colleagues at the Jandoli School of Communication, bring faculty meeting energy to this week’s episode. Denny discusses the challenges of teaching college students how to write, the importance of curiosity, and how he teaches it. Denny talks about his own journalism experiences, why he views himself as a coach, and what he learned from former St. Bonaventure women’s basketball coach (and current coach at Providence) Jim Crowley about teaching.
Can you make each sentence one word shorter? If so, you’re halfway to a better story.
Yep. He also talks about what Brian was like as a student. I immediately regret this decision.
St. Bonaventure University Writing Style Guide
Garbage Land: On the Secret Trail of Trash by Elizabeth Royte
The Grid: The Fraying Wires Between Americans and Our Energy Future by Gretchen Bakke
The Pencil: A History of Design and Circumstance by Hentry Petroski
The Road Taken: The History and Future of America’s Infrastructure by Henry Petroski
Rust: The Longest War by Jonathan Waldman
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Thu, 20 Oct 2022 - 30min - 168 - Episode 163: Finding Your Sweet Spot with Dr. Catherine Pearlman
Dr. Catherine Pearlman joins Brian to talk about her new book, “First Phone: A child’s guide to digital responsibility, safety and etiquette.”
Catherine discusses her career as a social worker, parenting coach and writer, how she got a syndicated column, and the writing lessons she learned from writing two columns a week for several years. She talks about how and why she decided to write a book specifically for kids, what it was like to write for kids, and what kids really think about smartphones. Digital education is a life-long process. Your kids will make mistakes in their digital life, but theyre part of life and what you can learn of life.
And sleep. Good lord, sleep is so important.
Catherine also talks about how she puts together a book proposal, why she likes to write at night, how she uses Notes to collect material and organize her work, and how she balanced writing a book about technology without it sounding dated.
First Phone: A child’s guide to digital responsibility, safety and etiquette
Empire of Pain: The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty by Patrick Radden Keffe
Hidden Valley Road by Robert Kolker
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Fri, 01 Jul 2022 - 29min - 167 - Episode 162: The Fan's Reporter with Shoshana of BWay Sho
What’s it like to be at the Tony Awards?
How do you juggle being both a fan and a reporter?
How do you go from being a TV reporter in West Texas to creating your own site to cover Broadway?
What’s it like to spend an entire day wearing a fushsia ballgown around New York City?
Shoshana from BWaySho joins Brian to answer those questions and more. Shoshana and Brian talk about how TV taglines never leave you, why she doesn’t see herself as a critic, and the importance of just showing up.
This episode also features our first CONTEST. Check @TheOther51Pod for details.
Fri, 17 Jun 2022 - 31min - 166 - Episode 161: Boom, Curtain with Grace Aki
Grace Aki, a playwright and performer, joins Brian to talk about her one-woman show, To Free A Mockingbird.
Here’s the secret. Grace didn’t actually “write” her one-woman show. Well she did. She talks about how she incrementally developed her show over a number of years, and how she used voice memos as her main tool to get material down.
Grace and Brian talk about the lessons she learned from Rick Crom and Seth Barrish, how important the ending and the climax of a show (or a story, or a beat) is, the through line in all of Grace’s work, and what the word storyteller means to her. Grace also gives fantastic advice on how to motivate yourself to do your own creative work.
They also talk ice cream. Let’s normalize meeting up for dessert the way people meet up for drinks!
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Fri, 10 Jun 2022 - 30min - 165 - Episode 160: It Gots to Get Out with Chris Mackowski
Dr. Chris Mackwoski, an author and professor of communication at St. Bonaventure University, joins Brian to talk about writing, the Civil War, the secrets to productivity, and more.
Chris and Brian, who are colleagues at the Jandoli School of Communication, talk about Chris’ long and winding career path. Chris talks about how spending time as a radio reporter in Maine, working in public relations, working as a playwright and a blogger helped shaped him as a writer.
Chris describes his work writing about the Civil War, why he finds that topic to be so endlessly fascinating, and why he views himself as a writer who happens to write about history, not a historian. He discusses the importance of his writing environment and why that is key to his productivity, what time of day he’s always liked writing, Remember to take the time to take the walk.
Chris Mackowski’s books on Amazon
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
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Thu, 21 Apr 2022 - 31min - 164 - Episode 159: Perfect Little Marriage with Donna Ditota
Donna Ditota, who was recently named the New York State Sportswriter of the Year, joins Brian to talk about her career covering sports in Syracuse and Central New York.
Being Bona Pride Day, Donna and Brian naturally start with some St. Bonaventure talk. Donna, a 1983 graduate, tells Brian what Russel J. Jandoli was really like, and talks about how her experience as a basketball player continues to inform her work to this day. It’s all about empathy, an underrated trait for journalists.
Donna traces her career path from St. Bonaventure to her current gig as an award-winning Syracuse men’s basketball beat writer for Syracuse.com. She tells Brian what makes Jim Boeheim so great to cover, why open locker rooms are so important to sports journalism (and why Zoom interviews suck), and walks through her process in writing a profile story.
Find out what life is like as a ACC men’s basketball beat writer and voter in the AP Top 25 really looks like, and also why transcribing is the worst, but also the best.
Journalism alumna, Syracuse sportswriter Donna Ditota named New York Sportswriter of the Year
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Thu, 03 Feb 2022 - 32min - 163 - Episode 158: Batman Begins for the Black Mamba with Mike Sielski
Mike Sielski of The Philadelphia Inquirer joins Brian for a deep dive into the writing and reporting of his new book, “The Rise: Kobe Bryant and the Pursuit of Immortality.”
Mike describes how and why a book about Kobe’s life growing up in Philadelphia was the book for him to write. Why are biographies that focus on a slice of a famous person’s life so meaningful? Mike talks about his reporting process, how time at the Lower Merion Historical Society proved to be invaluable, and how keeping Kobe as the metaphorical sun helped him balance all of the necessary contextual background information.
Mike and Brian talk a lot about Lower Merion and Philadelphia, how they are characters in the book, and why a sense of place is so vital to this story. Mike describes the types of questions he used to get at the Kobe story we didn’t know yet. It’s about being honest and upfront with the people you interview.
This podcast also serves as the backdoor pilot for the Godzilla Geek podcast Brian and Mike really should just launch already.
Buy The Rise
Episode 18: Saran Wrap Octopus with Mike Sielski
Episode 69: That’s Good Thinking There, Cool Breeze
Empire of Pain by Patrick Radden Keefe
The White Darkness by David Grann
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Tue, 11 Jan 2022 - 32min - 162 - Episode 157: People Are Gonna Read It with Alysa Auriemma
Author Alysa Auriemma is back to talk about her debut novel All Daughter’s Rise, which is out TODAY on Amazon Kindle.
Alysa tells Brian about her book’s long journey to publication, why she decided to self-publish through Amazon Kindle, and how writing this book was both fun and stressful. Alyssa discusses how she learned to lean into the fact that her characters are messy and awkward, how you can speak things into existence but still have to do the work, and how Wheel of Time helps her explain her book.
There is also a breakdown of Rogers the Musical. Trust me. We could do this all day.
In writing, self-publishing debut novel, Alysa Auriemma remains unapologetically true to herself
Episode 126: Use Your Words with Alysa Auriemma
Episode 105: Genre is Dead with Alysa Auriemma
Episode 52: Hating Kylo Ren with Alysa Auriemma
Episode 44: Generic Hot Actor Guy with Alysa Auriemma
Episode 27: Always Writing with Alysa Auriemma
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Tue, 04 Jan 2022 - 43min - 161 - Episode 156: Remembering Sondheim
To honor the life and legacy of Stephen Sondheim, Rob Rokicki, Joe Iconis and Brennan Saur join Brian to discuss his influence on their lives and their craft.
Stephen Sondheim, Titan of the American Musical, Is Dead at 91
Episode 143: Back to the Book with Rob Rokicki
Episode 121: You Have To See Point Break with Joe Iconis
Brennan Saur at New Play Exchange
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Thu, 02 Dec 2021 - 34min - 160 - Episode 155: Never Throw Away a Notebook with Seth Wickersham
Seth Wickersham of ESPN joins us for a deep dive into the writing and reporting of his book on Tom Brady, Bill Belichick and the New England Patriots, "It's Better to be Feared."
Seth talks about what it's like see your first book on The New York Times bestseller list and what the past month has been like since the book came out.
He and Brian go deep into the writing and the reporting process of the book. Seth talks about the notes he’s saved for 20 years, how reporting the book changed due to the pandemic and how he became a better phone interviewer, the interview techniques he learned from John Sawatsky, how he figured out the book’s essential structure, how he wrote early in the morning and how Richard Ben Cramer’s work inspired him.
John Sawatsky is highly questionable
I Keep Trying to Catch His Eye by Ivan Maisel
The Rise: Kobe Bryant and the Pursuit of Immortality by Mike Sielski
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Thu, 11 Nov 2021 - 33min - 159 - Episode 154: It Wasn't My Idea with Leah Stacy
Leah Stacy joins us to talk about life as an independent, freelance writer and journalist.
Leah first joined us back in 2016, when she was a professor at Nazareth College in Rochester, N.Y. This week, she and Brian talk about what she’s been up to since then. Topics include:
Leah’s professional and life strategy.
The scariest part about deciding to go independent, and how she overcame that.
How she accidentally got into writing about the food and beverage industry, and what she looks for in telling a restaurant’s story, and what 2020–2021 have been like for restaurants.
The upcoming launch of her new print literary magazine, Lilac.
How good a writer Taylor Swift is.
Writers and Lovers by Lily King
The Midnight Library by Matt Haig
Ritz And Escoffier by Luke Barr
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Fri, 22 Oct 2021 - 33min - 158 - Episode 153: A Snake Did It with Stuart Turton
Stuart Turton, the best-selling author of The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle and The Devil and the Dark Water, joins Brian to talk about writing, plot, Agatha Christie and more.
A former journalist (among many other jobs), Stuart wrote two of the Moritz family’s favorite books of the past three years. Among other topics, Stuart and Brian discuss:
How, exactly, did he plot out insanely intricate plot of The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle?
The amount of research he did for The Devin and the Dark Water. You’ll learn something you never would have guessed about a ship’s poop deck.
How he sees his young daughter in The Devil and the Dark Water.
Why he loves Agatha Christie, and why Brian is horribly wrong about his favorite work of hers.
How his characters take on lives of their own, and what that feels like as a writer.
Why being able to pack a backpack well is not exactly a translatable skill.
The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle
Three Blind Mice and other stories
An Instance of the Fingerposts
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Thu, 30 Sep 2021 - 38min - 157 - Episode 152: Bus Bubble with Tania Elizabeth
Grammy and Juno-award winning musician Tania Elizabeth joins Brian to talk about the writing and recording of her upcoming album and more.
Tania’s been a touring musician for nearly her entire life, and has spent the past seven years playing fiddle in the Avett Brothers. Before that, she was a founding member of The Duhks and toured extensively both on her own and as an accompanist. In 2021, she recorded her first solo record in nearly 10 years and hopes to release it in 2022.
Tania and Brian discuss:
- The difference between a song and a fiddle tune
- What the pandemic was like for someone who’s been a touring musician since she was 16.
- The value of editing, both in songwriting and recording
- Tania’s songwriting process, and the importance of vulnerability in her artListen to Tania’s music on Spotify
Many Lives, Many Masters by Brian Weiss
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Thu, 23 Sep 2021 - 31min - 156 - Episode 151: Sugartooth with Dr. Molly Yanity
Five years ago, Brian started a podcast about writing, and his first guest was his dear friend, Dr. Molly Yanity.
To celebrate our fifth anniversary, Molly returns to talk about sports journalism, Brandi Carlile, academic writing and more.
Molly talks about how her writing live has changed over the past five years, how she balances writing with teaching and administrative work. Here’s the secret — being a sports writer was way harder than being in academia. Molly also describes how teaching sports journalism for a number of years made her better at sports writing when she covered the WNBA for The Athletic.
Molly discusses her upcoming edited book about the 2019 Women’s World Cup, and she turns the tables on Brian and asks him questions for a change. She puts him on the spot really quickly. They also geek out about the best things they’ve read lately.
Thanks to all of you who’ve listened and shared over the past five years. To many more!
2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup: Media, Fandom, and Soccer’s Biggest Stage
Episode 89: Unintended Consequences Might Ensue with Bob Costas
Broken Horses: A Memoir by Brandi Carlile
Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens
The Overstory by Richard Powers
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Thu, 10 Jun 2021 - 45min - 155 - Episode 150: The Dare I see with John Branch
John Branch, the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist at The New York Times and author of the upcoming anthology, “Sidecountry,” joins Brian to talk about his career as a writer and reporter.
John talks about the process of putting together the anthology of his sports writing from The Times, and what it’s like to be a reporter who never re-reads his stories to go back over his past work. He talks about how he remembers the experience of writing and reporting his stories much more than the stories themselves. He also talks about what life as a reporter is like after winning a Pulitzer, what it’s like when one of stories becomes a verb, and the backstory of how Snowfall became a multimedia piece.
He and Brian also do a deep dive into his journalistic philosophy, “I try to write stories you didn’t know you wanted to read.”
Sidecountry: Tales of Death and Life from the Back Roads of Sports
Snowfall: The Avalanche at Tunnel Creek
The Bear’s Ears by David Roberts
Barbarian Days by William Finnegan
The Library Book by Susan Orlean
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Thu, 27 May 2021 - 32min - 154 - Episode 149: My Mom Was Right with Lyndsey D'Arcangelo
Lyndsey D’Arcangelo, a sports writer for The Athletic, joins Brian to talk about journalism, social media, and her upcoming book, “Hail Mary: The Rise and Fall of the National Women’s Football League.”
Lyndsey describes her twisty career path that took her from college to an office job in Boston to an office job at the Buffalo News and finally back to sports writing. She tell Brian how using Twitter turned her career around in a good way (for real — she’s the one) and how she advocates for women’s sports while maintaining journalistic distance.
Lyndsey tells Brian about how she and co-author Britni de le Cretaz came up with the idea for the book on the NWFL, how they divided the the writing and reporting, how they got sources to trust them with their stories, and why these untold stories are so important.
Courtside Column: The WNBA’s first game was a defining moment for me
Hail Mary: The Rise and Fall of the National Women’s Football League
Broken Horses: A Memoir by Brandi Carlile
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Fri, 07 May 2021 - 31min - 153 - Episode 148: This Ain't The Rosedale Library with Dave Bidini
Dave Bidini, an author, guitar player in the Rheostatics, and publisher of the West End Phoenix, joins Brian to talk all things writing and journalism.
Dave and Brian revisit “On A Cold Road,” the oral history/diary Dave wrote after his band toured with The Tragically Hip in 1996. Dave talks about what that book means to him all these years later.
Dave discusses the importance of his family’s typewriter, why books were magical to him as a kid and what books and writing were formative to him as a young man. Dave also defends sportswriting and discusses how the structure and the language of great sports journalism influences his own work.
Dave talks about his songwriting process (hint: there is no process), why he started the West End Phoenix, and why community journalism is so vital now.
On a Cold Road: Tales of Adventure in Canadian Rock
Shooting Midnight Cowboy: Art, Sex, Loneliness, Liberation, and the Making of a Dark Classic
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Thu, 29 Apr 2021 - 28min - 152 - Episode 147: Make Your Editor Happy with Will Leitch
Will Leitch joins Brian to talk about pandemic life, sports journalism and Will’s upcoming novel, How Lucky.
Will and Brian talk about their lives during the pandemic, how sports journalism survived its self-perceived existential crisis, and how sports’ return helped pave the the way for a return to normalcy.
Will then talks about his upcoming book, which he calls the purest distillation of what he feels abut the world. He talks about how he came up with the idea for How Lucky, why he wanted to write a story about someone with Spinal Muscular Atrophy and the history of the internet, and why he decided to write it as a novel. Will describes his Wonderboys moment with his agent and what it was like when he found out that Stephen King liked his book.
There’s also advice for young writers (and Brian) about how to be more disciplined as a writer. Yes, it’s hard. The trick is to trick yourself out of not doing something.
Episode 7: Creative Wigwams with Will Leitch
The Shakespeare Requirement by Julia Schumacher
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Fri, 23 Apr 2021 - 39min - 151 - Episode 146: Good's Not Enough with Jeff Passan
A warning: This episode includes discussion about suicide, depression and anxiety. If you or someone you know is having thoughts of suicide or is in emotional distress, contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1–800–273- TALK(8255) or at suicidepreventionlifeline.org.
Jeff Passan, an ESPN MLB Insider, joins Brian to do a deep dive into the remarkable story on San Francisco Giants’ outfielder Drew Robinson.
Jeff describes how he first learned about Robinson’s attempted suicide, how he connected with Robinson over FaceTime, and how his years breaking transactions as a baseball reporter made this story, Jeff walks through how he consulted with experts on suicide before even interviewing Robinson and why being a person before being a journalist mattered with this story. Jeff tells how his seven-hour interview with Drew was the hardest most emotionally taxing thing he’s ever done in journalism, describes what it was like to interview his family members, and the details that still stick with him. Jeff also talks about important figuring out the story’s structure was and what it was it like to sit down to write, knowing how important a story this was.
Jeff and Brian also talk about their experiences as Buffalo News sports interns, and why desk people are their favorite people.
Drew Robinson’s Remarkable Second Act
Alive: The Drew Robinson Story
Reporting on Suicide Recommendations
The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline
Inside the dual legacies of NFL players’ union boss DeMaurice Smith
Facebook is a Doomsday Machine
I Am Not A Solider, but I’ve Been Trained to Kill
New York Times Columnist David Brooks Blogged For Facebook’s Corporate Site
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Thu, 11 Mar 2021 - 44min - 150 - Episode 145: Cultural Cartography with Michael Mirer
Dr. Michael Mirer, a visiting assistant professor at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, joins Brian to talk about researching and teaching journalism.
Michael and Brian talk about the challenges of brining writing classes to the online environment. Michael also describes his career path from a kid in Detroit who wanted to write for a literary magazine, to being a sports journalists in the oil patch of New Mexico and California, to eventually graduate school in Wisconsin.
Michael, who is probably the leading scholar in boundary work in sports journalism, breaks down exactly what “boundary work” is, why it’s so important to understanding journalism in 2021, and the evolving relationship between sports journalists and team websites. He tells Brian why teaching professionalism is the most important thing to teach journalism students, and how journalists need to embrace change rather than fight it.
Arthur Ashe: A Life by Raymond Arsenault
Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow
The inheritance of Archie Manning by Wright Thompson
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Thu, 25 Feb 2021 - 39min - 149 - Episode 144: Obscure Musicals with Jennifer Ashley Tepper
Jennifer Ashley Tepper, a Broadway producer, historian and author joins Brian to talk about the fourth volume of her delightful series, The Untold Stories of Broadway.
Jennifer (who produced Be More Chill), talks about where her love of obscure and forgotten musicals comes from, and how that obsession turned into a book series. She talks about the decision to frame her books by each Broadway theater. Jennifer also talks about how her research and writing process has evolved in the past decade, and how her writing and editing process is like assembling a puzzle.
Jennifer also tells Brian about the Fallen Five theaters and gives him her best quick story for each of the three Broadway theaters he’s been to.
The Untold Stories of Broadway, Vol. 4
Two Kids and a Broadway Star Episode 6: Jennifer Ashley Tepper
Not Since Carrie by Ken Mendalbaum
Everything Was Possible: The Birth of the Musical Follies by Ted Chapin
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Thu, 18 Feb 2021 - 27min - 148 - Episode 143: Back to the Book with Rob Rokicki
Composer and lyricist Rob Rokicki joins Brian to do a deep dive into The Lightning Thief: The Percy Jackson Musical.
Rob and Brian talk about The Lightning Thief’s long journey from a one-hour free show made for kids to a full-on Broadway musical. Rob discusses how he got involved in the project, how he became familiar with the world of Percy Jackson and how he worked to make a show that rang true to the series’ devoted fans. Rob describes how he worked collaboratively with book writer Joe Tracz to stay true to the books, how early feedback from kids kept them on track, what scene from the book they learned they absolutely had to keep, and how Rob used different instruments to find the voices of each character.
Rob also talks about how he spent 2020, the importance of equity in theater, and what people can do to support theater during the COVID–19 shutdown.
Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS
The Golem and the Jinni by Helene Wecker
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Wed, 30 Dec 2020 - 33min - 147 - Episode 142: Bet On Yourself with Tyler Dunne
Tyler Dunne returns to the show to talk about his new NFL newsletter, Go Long.
Tyler discusses why he decided to start a newsletter with Substack and why he believes this is the future of sports journalism. He talks about the lessons he learned from watching his dad start his own company and what it means to bet on yourself.
Tyler and Brian also talk about the challenges of reporting via Zoom and how the early morning hours can be the best time of day to write.
There is also much praise for the Buffalo Bills and Jeff Pearlman. Also, Tyler’s dog Ed - the breakout Instagram Star of Quarantine — makes an appearance.
[Go Long with Tyler Dunne](https://www.golongtd.com/
Three-Ring Circus by Jeff Pearlman
Episode 132: Role Players with Jeff Pearlman
Episode 96: A Little Kelly Tripuka with Tyler Dunne
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Wed, 16 Dec 2020 - 34min - 146 - Episode 141: Magic and Kindness with Keith and Juliet Giglio
Screenwriters Keith and Juliet Giglio join Brian to talk about writing Christmas movies for Lifetime, including their most recent, Dear Christmas.
Keith, a professor at Syracuse University, and Juliet, a professor at SUNY-Oswego (where Brian teaches), talk about how their careers took them from being screenwriters in Los Angeles to academics in Central New York, and how an off-handed comment about the Christmas Prince led them to pitching and writing their first Christmas movie, “A Very Nutty Christmas.” Keith and Juliet describe how they pitch their movies to Paula and Melissa Joan Hart, how they use index cards and Trello to break stories, and how they collaborate on their scripts.
The couple also discuss their four favorite Christmas movies. There is much praise for Jack Black.
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Wed, 09 Dec 2020 - 29min - 145 - Episode 140: Teacher Voice and Lawyer Mode with Jason Zenor
Jason Zenor, an associate professor at SUNY Oswego, joins Brian to talk about media law issues and his new book, Emerging Media: Legal Principles, Virtual Issues.
Jason (whose office is two doors down from Brian’s) talks about how he wrote his new textbook and why he saw a market for a book like this. He discusses how he got interested in writing and thinking about virtual reality, artificial intelligence, avatars and how existing media law can apply to these new areas, what it was look turning his research into an accessible textbook, and the challenges of writing for legal and journalistic audiences.
In addition, there is talk of long-suffering Boston sports fans (really, this happens) and a discussion about when it’s appropriate for grown ups to wear jerseys.
Emerging Media: Legal Principles, Virtual Issues
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Thu, 03 Dec 2020 - 34min - 144 - Episode 139: Full Historian Mode with Amy Bass
Amy Bass, a professor of sports studies at Manhattanville College, joins Brian to do a deep dive into the writing and reporting of her book, “One Goal.”
Amy talks about how she first learned the story of the Lewiston High School soccer team and what drew her to it as a potential book. She talks about how she developed the trust of the coaching staff and of the Somali refugee community there. Amy describes her reporting style as “hanging out” and discusses what that logistically looks like. She also talks about how she took the results of all that hanging out and turned it into a book.
Amy also talks about how sticking to sports means talking about politics, race, gender, etc.
Episode Links
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Thu, 19 Nov 2020 - 33min - 143 - Episode 138: Fly on the Wall with Joe Posnanski
It’s Episode 138. A true milestone for every podcast. And to celebrate, there is only one guest we could have — Joe Posnanski from The Athletic returns.
And to celebrate, Joe breaks some news and announces what his next book will be!
In addition to the news, Joe and Brian talk about the different mindsets that different types of writing require. Joe gives advice on how young writers can learn to loosen up a bit in their work. You have to master the notes, then master the music, then forget all that and just play.
Joe and Brian also have a minute of meaninglessness, and come to terms with the fact that the Bills and Browns are actually good.Episode links:
The Life and Afterlife of Harry Houdini
Episode 100: The Amazing and the Impossibe with Joe Posnanski
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Thu, 12 Nov 2020 - 35min - 142 - Episode 137: On the Front Lines with the First Amendment
The panel discussion from the 16th Dr. Lewis B. O’Donnell Media Summit, hosted virtually by SUNY-Oswego on Oct. 28, 2020.
This discussion was produced in conjunction with the SUNY Oswego School of Communication, Media and the Arts and the SUNY Oswego CTS department.
Dr. Lewis B. O’Donnell Media Summit
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Thu, 29 Oct 2020 - 1h 27min - 141 - Episode 136: Bubble Adjacent with Tim Bontemps
Tim Bontemps, an NBA reporter for ESPN, returns to talk about reporting, working at ESPN and life in the NBA Bubble.
The main topic is Tim’s 76 days in the NBA’s bubble in Orlando. Tim tells Brian about the two different bubbles in Orlando and what life was like in the Yellow Bubble. Tim described his daily routine, how he reported when he had no direct access to players or coaches, and what it was like to be in arena with no fans.
Tim also talks about his move from the Washington Post to ESPN, what advice he’d give young reporters who want to join him at ESPN, and how being a good reporter is like making friends.
This is bad for America but great for us
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Thu, 22 Oct 2020 - 33min - 140 - Episode 135: I Spoke Up with Julie DiCaro
Sports writer, radio host, and author Julie DiCaro discusses her upcoming book, her career in sports media and more.
Julie talks about her career path from public defender to sports columnist. Julie and Brian discuss the surprising similarities between practicing law and being a sports columnist and how being a lawyer prepared Julie to write about sports. Julie also talks about representation in sports media and the notion of see it to be it.
The main topic is Julie’s book, “Sidelined,” which is scheduled for a March release. Julie tells Brian the story of the book, her writing process and what she learned about writing a book from this experience.
How the Breonna Taylor case went so wrong
The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle
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Thu, 15 Oct 2020 - 29min - 139 - Episode 134: Writing Authentically with Jeff Bens
Author Jeff Bens joins Brian this week to talk about his wonderful new novel, The Mighty Oak.
Jeff, a professor at Manhattanville College, discusses his writing and research process for the book, why place and work are so important to his writing, and why and how he teaches his students to write from the gut and the heart, not from their brain.
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Thu, 08 Oct 2020 - 32min - 138 - Episode 133: Live Long and Prosper with Mike Freeman
Mike Freeman, a veteran NFL writer and author, joins Brian to talk about his new book, “Football’s Fearless Activists” and how the movement led by Collin Kaepernick changed the NFL and sports in America.
Mike talks about how he knew he would write a book about this movement the moment he first saw Kaepernick’s protest in 2016, and how he knew he was done reporting and ready to write. Mike discusses how his 25 years of experience covering the NFL helped his reporting on this book, what it’s like to release a book during the resurgence of Black Lives Matter protests, and what it’s like to have Donald Trump read one of his articles during a rally.
Most importantly, Mike gives Brian some much-needed advice on getting into Star Trek.
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Thu, 01 Oct 2020 - 28min - 137 - Episode 132: Role Players with Jeff Pearlman
Jeff Pearlman, the New York Times bestselling author, is back to talk about his new book, “Three-Ring Circus” about Shaq, Kobe and the 2000 Los Angeles Lakers.
Jeff talks about where the idea for his latest book came from, what about these Lakers’ teams made them a natural subject for a book and, in the end, why the book was so challenging to write and report. Jeff details why this was the most challenging of all his nine books to write and how the culture of sports has changed over the past thirty years and made reporting more difficult.
Jeff also talks about his love of role players, spending a day in Montana with Phil Jackson, and where he was when he learned that Kobe Bryant had died. He also gives top-notch interview advice for young journalists.
Doug Christie-Rick Fox fight
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Wed, 23 Sep 2020 - 33min - 136 - BONUS EPISODE: A Girl and Her Dictionary
A special little bonus episode for you about a girl and her dictionary.
(Note: I refer to the Kory Stamper episode as Episode 47 when it was actually Episode 48. Whoops.)
EPISODE 48: INTRODUCTORY LEXICOGRAPHY WITH KORY STAMPER
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Mon, 21 Sep 2020 - 09min - 135 - Episode 131: No Soup Cans with Zach Roberts
Zach Roberts, an independent journalist who has been covering protests for more than 15 years, joins Brian this week to talk about covering the recent Black Lives Matter protests in Rochester, N.Y.
Zach, who was Brian’s student back in 2014, talks about how he got his start in freelance investigative journalism, how covering Occupy Wall Street changed the course of his career, and his experiences covering the protests of Daniel Prude’s death in Rochester. Zach discusses what he does when arrives in a city to cover a protest, his tips for staying safe while being on the ground, and what it’s like to have police officers shooting and targeting protests.
Support Zach’s work on Patreon
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Fri, 11 Sep 2020 - 55min - 134 - Episode 130: Why I Subscribed to The Athletic
A panel discussion from the AEJMC Conference, recorded virtually on Aug. 7, featuring Brian, Adam Hansmann (The Athletic), Dr. Molly Yanity (Quinnipiac), Ronen Shay (Fordham) and Anthony Palomba (University of Virginia).
Are digital subscriptions the way forward for online journalism? This panel examines the emergence and the growth of the subscription model in digital journalism, with a focus on The Athletic’s impact on sports journalism. The theoretical and pragmatic implications of this business model are discussed. The Athletic’s success requires us as researchers and educators to examine its business model, and similar business models in online journalism, to determine what that success means for journalism writ large. In addition, their editorial focus (less digital churn, more longer stories) is worthy of discussion from both a media sociological point of view and a pragmatic, practitioner one.
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Fri, 04 Sep 2020 - 1h 30min - 133 - Episode 129: That's Just Twitter with Julia Azari
Julia Azari, a professor at Marquette University and contributor to Five Thirty Eight, joins Brian to talk about public scholarship, politics and more.
Julia and Brian talk about the challenges in teaching politics and journalism over the past four years, whether or not professor and journalists should openly talk about their politics, and how things have changed since the 2016 election.
The main topic is public scholarship. Julia, who won the American Political Science Association’s inaugural Best Public-Facing Scholarship Award, defines what public scholarship is, why it’s so useful, and why it’s not traditionally valued within the academic world. She gives advice to anyone looking to get into this world, but also provides some real talk about the risks involved.
Delivering the People’s Message: The Changing Politics of the Presidential Mandate
The Great Migration and the Democratic Party
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Thu, 20 Aug 2020 - 43min - 132 - Episode 128: That's A Lot of Words with Galen Clavio
Dr. Galen Clavio, the director of the National Sports Journalism Center at Indiana University, joins Brian to talk about his new book, “Social Media and Sports.”
It’s The Flip Side reunion the world has been waiting for!
Galen and Brian - who’ve been podcasting together since the mid–2010s - discuss the challenges of writing a book on your own as opposed to being a co-author. Galen describes how he kept his target audience in mind throughout the writing process, the things he hated about textbooks that he tried to avoid, and how his focus on this project was specifically writing an eBook.
Galen talks about how social media use in the sports world has evolved over the past decade, and he says that his most exciting moment in the book-writing process was unique.
Social Media and Sports with web resources
Undaunted Courage by Stephen E. Ambrose
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Thu, 06 Aug 2020 - 44min - 131 - Episode 127: This Would Have Been a Good Tweet with Shea Serrano
Shea Serrano, three-time New York Times best-selling author and columnist for The Ringer, returns to The Other 51 to talk about movies, writing and his new short story.
Take a spoiler-free deep dive into Shea’s short story, Post: What’s the biggest difference between writing fiction and nonfiction? What scared him most about the process? Why is the big idea the most important thing in everything he writes? And how does a great editor make all the difference? There’s a great lesson to be found in knowing when to throw away an idea. And Shea drops some real talk about self-publishing.
Plus, we obviously talk about Calvin & Hobbes and Short Circuit.
Buy all of Shea Serrano’s books
Episode 60: That’s How Jobs Work with Shea Serrano
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Thu, 30 Jul 2020 - 33min - 130 - Episode 126: Use Your Words with Alysa Auriemma
Alysa Auriemma, a writer and teacher, makes her record-setting fifth appearance on The Other 51.
The conversation begins with a discussion of Alysa’s forthcoming book, All Daughter’s Rise, which has been accepted for publication. Alysa discusses the editing process and the joys of working with a good editor. Alysa also talks about her new podcast, Brides of Frankenstein.
Then, J.K. Rowling comes up and, well, things go from there.
Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik
Boyfriend Material by Alexis Hall
Red, White and Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston
The Souls of Black Folk by W.E.B. DuBois
How to Be Anti-Racist by Ibram X. Kendi
Inside WNBA legend Maya Moore’s extraordinary quest for justice by Katie Barnes
Episode 105: Genre is Dead with Alysa Auriemma
Episode 52: Hating Kylo Ren with Alysa Auriemma
Episode 44: Generic Hot Actor Guy with Alysa Auriemma
Episode 27: Always Writing with Alysa Auriemma
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Thu, 16 Jul 2020 - 55min - 129 - Episode 125: Approaching with Curiosity with Michelle Garcia
Michelle Garcia, the newly hired editor of NBCBLK and a veteran journalist, joins Brian to talk about professional reinvention, how journalists should be covering protest movements like Black Lives Matter, scrapbooking and more.
You read that last part right. There’s a whole racial reckoning happening in the scrapbooking world, and Michelle spills all the tea.
Michelle, who first joined Brian in 2016 (remember when that was the worst year ever?), talks about the challenges of starting a new job while still working from home, what it was like to get laid off from Vice in May, and how that happening during the pandemic may have been for the best. Michelle discusses the importance of building a wide professional network before you need it as well as the importance of writers approaching stories with curiosity.
And yeah. Scrapbooking.
Episode 11: You May Know Her From the Library with Michelle Garcia
Red, White and Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston
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Thu, 09 Jul 2020 - 39min - 128 - Episode 124: Talk a Story to Death with Katie Barnes
Katie Barnes, a feature writer for ESPN, joins Brian this week to talk about writing, reporting, Title IX, activism in journalism, transgender athletes, Maya Moore and more.
Katie talks about their career path to ESPN, and how their experience as an activist in the LGBTQ community helped their reporting. Katie and Brian do a deep dive into the three incredible stories Katie wrote for ESPN in June - about Maya Moore’s quest for justice; the rights of transgender athletes the future of women’s sports; and an interview with Sue Bird and Megan Rapinoe. How did Katie juggle reporting and writing all three stories at the same time? How did a proposed story about Maya Moore’s faith turn into something so much bigger?
Katie discusses their writing process, how being an external processor and talking through stories helps them figure out a story’s big theme and structure.
Also, Brian learns about the feud between St. Olaf and Carlton. It’s a thing.
Inside WNBA legend Maya Moore’s extraordinary quest for justice
The battle over Title IX and who gets to be a woman in sports: inside the raging national debate
ESPYS co-hosts Megan Rapinoe, Sue Bird plot their course as athlete activists, white allies
The Maddening Promise of Diamond DeShields
A Murder Foretold by David Grann
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Thu, 02 Jul 2020 - 30min - 127 - Episode 123: Grammar Tingle with Jen Moritz
Jen Moritz, Brian’s wife and the best editor he’s ever met, joins us this week to talk about the importance of editing, language, and word choice in the aftermath of the Black Lives Matter protests of 2020.
Jen talks about the conversations she is having with writers about the words they choose, what those words mean and how they can be interpreted. She discusses the Associated Press’ decision to start capitalizing Black when referring to people, common phrases that have racist, classist or hateful origin stories, and how writers and editors can do better now and going forward. It’s about reading the room, dude.
AP changes writing style to capitalize ″b″ in Black
Red, White and Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston
The Dreamers by Karen Thompson Walker
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Thu, 25 Jun 2020 - 30min - 126 - Episode 122: Canadian Rock Bands of the 1990s with Amber Healy
Amber Healy, a writer and journalist, joins Brian to talk about her writing career, her career path, and her love of Canadian Rock bands of the 1990s and early 2000s.
OK, let’s be real. Amber and Brian talk A LOT about their love of Canadian Rock bands of the 1990s.
Amber and Brian talk about their respective paths to their shared love of Canadian alternative rock, how Toronto radio stations were to Buffalo kids what Buffalo TV stations were to Toronto kids, and what was so special about those bands? Sure, there’s nostalgia. But what is it about The Tragically Hip, The Lowest of the Low, and the Odds that persists?
Amber also talks about her work with Alan Cross (the legendary Toronto DJ), writing for several podcasts and what it was like to work for NASA.
Note: This episode was recorded two weeks ago, before the start of protests against police brutality
The True North - A Spotify Playlist
How to be a Person in the World by Heather Havrilesky
Any Night of the Week by Jonny Dovercourt
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Thu, 11 Jun 2020 - 34min - 125 - Episode 121: You Have to See Point Break with Joe Iconis
Joe Iconis, the Tony-nominated writer and composer of Be More Chill, joins Brian this week to talk about creativity in the time of COVID–19, his songwriting process, Keanu Reeves and more.
Joe describes what it’s like living in New York City during quarantine, what it’s like to be in a dark theater district and a quiet Times Square, how he’s able to keep writing despite everything going on, and how he’s being inspired by art. But the real burning question: How would The Squip in Be More Chill have been different if Joe had seen Point Break before now?
Joe and Brian talk about the collaborative process of writing a musical, how Joe can’t write musical theater in a vacuum, what first drew him to the story of Be More Chill and his obsession with names.
Joe also describes his songwriting process, how he never starts with music. And he gives advice to aspiring writers and performers and answers an incredibly nerdy Be More Chill question.
Mr. Know-It-All by John Waters
The Colossus of New York by Colson Whitehead
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Thu, 28 May 2020 - 31min - 124 - Episode 120: Accidental Academic with Leander Schaerlaeckens
Leander Schaerlaeckens, a lecturer at Marist College and columnist at Yahoo Sports, joins Brian to talk about teaching, column writing, Donald Trump’s baseball career, and more.
Leander and Brian compare notes from this crazy spring 2020 semester, and talk about what worked and didn’t work in teaching sports media classes during the pandemic. Leander talks about how he used Discord in one of his classes.
Leander, who refers to himself as an “accidental academic,” traces his career path from a growing up as a sports fan in Europe to being the first full-time soccer writer ESPN hired to his current gigs. He discusses how being an active columnist makes him a better teacher and how being a teacher has made him a better columnist. He also discusses the piece he wrote for Slate about Donald Trump’s claims that he was a pro baseball prospect (spoiler alert, no), and how pursuing the truth no matter what and having the receipts can limit any potential backlash. There’s also discussion of The Last Dance and how Michael Jordan epitomizes toxic masculinity.
Was Donald Trump Good at Baseball?
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Thu, 21 May 2020 - 37min - 123 - Episode 119: Emotional Support Radish with Katie Cook
Comic artist Katie Cook rejoins the podcast to talk about her delightful webcomic, “Nothing Special.”
Katie and Brian (with help from Brian’s daughter) do a deep dive into the world of “Nothing Special,” which has just started its third book on Webtoon. Katie discusses where the idea for the comic came from, how it was inspired in part by a Neil Gaiman novel and how this is the most “her” project she’s ever done. Katie talks about how writing digital comics is different, and what it’s like to write for a world of your own.
Katie and Brian (and Brian’s wife) also bond over life in quarantine and trying to keep their kids from making complete disasters of their Animal Crossing islands.
Episode 33: Apple Jack Would Never Say This with Katie Cook
The Feather Thief by Kirk Wallach Johnson
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Thu, 14 May 2020 - 34min - 122 - Episode 118: No-Inch-Count Environment with Michael Sharp
A decade ago, Michael Sharp and Brian had desks right next to each other.
They were both sports writers at the Press & Sun-Bulletin in Binghamton (N.Y.). Michael covered minor-league hockey, Brian minor-league baseball and college sports.
Now, they’re both former sports writers. Michael works in marketing in Virginia, Brian’s a professor. Michael and Brian reminisce about their careers as sports journalists.
What happens when you realize the only job you’ve ever wanted isn’t for you anymore? What made the 2000s such a weird time to be a sports writer, and what was it like to be the last generation that dreamed of being a “newspaper guy”?
Thu, 07 May 2020 - 39min - 121 - Episode 117: Tell Your Story with Melissa Isaacson
Sports journalist, author and professor Melissa Isaacson joins Brian this week to talk about teaching, writing, reporting and the 1990s Chicago Bulls.
Melissa and Brian start out by talking about what it’s like to teach journalism — particularly sports journalism — during the cornavirus pandemic in 2020. Melissa talks about how being forced to teach online has made her a better professor, how to teach students to do better phone interviews and how this time can be an opportunity for students.
Melissa then discusses her excellent book State and what it was like, as a journalist, to write such an incredibly personal work and the advice that S.L. Price gave her that jumpstarted her work.
Then, of course, Brian and Melissa discuss The Last Dance. Melissa, who was the Bulls’ beat writer for the Chicago Tribune for their first three championships, describes what it was like to cover Michael Jordan and those great Bulls teams. She and Brian also discuss the biggest ways journalism has changed since the mid-1990s. Hint — it’s not all Twitter’s fault.
State: A Team, a Triumph, a Transformation
Fear: Trump in the White House
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Thu, 30 Apr 2020 - 47min - 120 - Episode 116: Where's Upstate NY with Jon Campbell
Jon Campbell, who covers New York State government and Andrew Cuomo for USA Today Network-New York, joins Brian this to talk about being a government writer both in the BeforeTimes and the post-coronavirus world.
The conversation starts with a lot of talk about where Upstate New York begins, why Jon loves trolling people about it, the differences between regions in New York State, and the trap that national writers fall into when writing about upstate. That moves into a deeper conversation about how Jon’s journalism is influenced by being a lifelong upstate resident (go Lockport Lions).
Jon discusses how he resisted being known as “The Fracking Guy” but also how owning that one specific beat involving state government helped him develop sources to cover the entire government.
Jon then talks about covering Covid-19. He recalls the moment he realized just how major a story it was going to be, what it’s like to cover Andrew Cuomo’s press conferences, what it’s like when Cuomo and President Trump start bickering with each other in real time, and the Covid-19 story he wants to tell.
Jon Campbell at USA Today Network-NY
Truth in our Times by David McGraw
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Thu, 23 Apr 2020 - 35min - 119 - Episode 115: Frankenstein's Monstering with Jared Diamond
Jared Diamond, a national baseball writer for the Wall Street Journal and the author of the new book “Swing Kings: The Inside Story of Baseball’s Home Run Revolution,” joins Brian this week.
Jared talks about how being a baseball writer during the Covid-19 Pandemic is a lot busier than you’d expect and where he was supposed to be this week before the world stopped.
Jared and Brian discuss the writing and reporting of Swing Kings in depth. Jared talks about the unlikely role that Marlon Byrd played in his career, turning a good news paper story into a bool, and what a book proposal looks like and why it was so critical to his process, and why you always take the meeting. Jared talked about how he thought of the book like a movie, the difference between thinking of his sources and characters, and his oddly inspirational dedication to the book.
Thu, 16 Apr 2020 - 41min - 118 - Episode 114: Deadline Junkies with Jesse Dougherty
Less than five months ago, the last time Jesse Dougherty was a guest on the podcast, he had just started writing a book about the Washington Nationals World Series Championship.
Now, the book is out, and Jesse makes the move from “guest star” to “regular cast member.”
Jesse and Brian talk about the writing and reporting of “Buzz Saw.” Jesse describes how he got started with the project, what it was like to write a 90,000-word book in just seven weeks, and why coffee shops are so important to getting his work done and overcoming his natural tendencies toward procrastination.
Jesse also talks about what makes the book’s cover so special, and what it’s like to release a book during the middle of a global pandemic.
Thu, 09 Apr 2020 - 33min - 117 - Episode 113: Intoxicated by the Language with Dr. Rick Simpson
Dr. Rick Simpson was … is … one of those teachers.
Simpson, who was an English professor at St. Bonaventure University for 46 years, and Brian reconnect this week. Brian, who took three classes with Doc Simpson, gets to say thank you for teaching him some of the most valuable writing lessons of his life.
Simpson talks about how the sportswriters he read as a kid in San Francisco in the 1950s influenced him as much as the English authors and poets he later taught. Simpson and Brian discuss how modern sports writing can be thought of as poetry, as well as the best lessons that Doc taught again and again. Always think about your audience. Grammar doesn’t matter but it does. Did he mention audience? And of course, there are jazz recommendations.
If you had Doc Simpson as a professor at St. Bonaventure, this is like going back in time to one of his classes.
Thu, 26 Mar 2020 - 35min
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