Nathan is joined by Colleen English and Daniel Sailofsky to dig deep into the concepts of hegemonic and inclusive masculinities and unpack which of these concepts offers a more persuasive and accurate theoretical frame for grappling with gender in critical sports studies. Colleen English is Associate Professor and Chair of Kinesiology at Penn State Berks, where she studies the philosophy and history of sport. She is author of, among other things, the extremely influential article “Toward sport reform: Hegemonic masculinity and reconceptualizing competition.” in Journal of the Philosophy of Sp ..read more

**This episode contains discussions of sexual violence**   In this episode, Johanna offers an initial analysis of how cisgender, white, and heterosexual sexual assault and predators and sport contribute to the anti-trans movement. Where do we see this happening most clearly? Swimming, which you may have guessed if you’re familiar with the work of Frankie de la Cretaz in this article for the Nation and their episode with us about it, and Johanna’s Guardian piece last summer. She discusses the revelations from Katie Strang’s first article for The Athletic about University of Kentucky’s swim ..read more

This episode is an interview that friend and repeat guest of the podcast, Karleigh Chardonnay Webb, did with Johanna in August 2023. Karleigh is an Outsports contributor and co-host of the Transition Defense podcast. She interviewed Johanna to analyze Hungary's sportswashing in light of Budapest hosting the World Athletics Championship last August and the announcement that World Aquatics is moving its headquarters from Lausanne, Switzerland to Budapest.  Johanna begins with a more current intro that articulates why Hungary and its sportswashing matter in 2024 as global fasc ..read more

**Our apologies for the audio quality of this episode; we had some technical difficulties**   Nathan sits down with the incomparable Raewyn Connell to discuss a career shaping the academic study of masculinities. They explore the concept of hegemonic masculinity, its role in sport studies, and how it has changed over time; developments in the world of women's sport; trans exclusion policies; threats facing gender studies and the academy at large; and much more. Raewyn Connell is Professor Emerita at the University of Sydney and author of the selected and incredibly abridged list of books ..read more

Nathan is joined by the incomparable Patrick Blanchfield for a complex structural assessment of US gun violence and how his theoretical framework of gunpower can be used to unpack instances of gun violence in the world of sport. Patrick Blanchfield is Associate Faculty at the Brooklyn Institute, co-host of the Ordinary Unhappiness podcast, author of the forthcoming book Gunpower: The Structure of American Violence, and a host of incredibly insightful articles in venues such as n + 1, The New York Times, The New Republic, and The Nation, including an exceptional in ..read more

In this special episode, Nathan first has the chance to talk again to NLRB GC Jennifer Abruzzo, this time about the college athlete organizing developments prompted by her September 2021 memo. Abruzzo talks about Dartmouth men's basketball's recent unionization and the ongoing case at USC before explaining why she finds the term 'student-athlete' so objectionable--even as universities continue to double down on it. Then, Nathan goes for a deeper dive into all these issues with former NLRB chair Mark Gaston Pearce in order to analyze why these cases have played out the way they have, what's rea ..read more

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

Asheesh Kapur Siddique is Assistant Professor of History at UMASS Amherst where he studies the British Empire between the 17th and Early 19th centuries. He is the author of the manuscript The Experience of the Archive: Knowledge and the Making of the Early Modern British Empire (currently under contract with Yale University Press). His public-facing work has appeared in outlets such as The Daily Beast, Inside Higher Ed,and Teen Vogue. Joe Darda is Associate Professor of English at Michigan State University where he studies post-1945 American literature, culture and politics. He is the author o ..read more

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

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