What does the spread of the coronavirus mean for sports? We started to talk through that big question on this week’s extended spring break episode of The 252. In our first segment, we briefly discussed the postponement of the Olympics, how the absence of sports changes our perception of the passage of time, and Paul … More Wednesday’s Podcast: Sports in the Age of COVID-19
Yesterday I started thinking out loud about my plans for converting my courses at Bethel University into online offerings. Part one summarized some basic principles I’m trying to follow, then explained my plans for a 100-level gen ed survey. Today: my two 200-level History courses… HIS/POS252L History and Politics of Sports Course description and students: … More How I’m Planning to Teach Online (part 2)
As longtime readers of this blog may recall, I’m not a huge fan of online education. While I’ve taught an online course every summer since 2013, plus a couple of hybrid courses a few years back, I’m still skeptical that that mode of education can bring about the kind of whole-person transformation that I would … More How I’m Planning to Teach Online (part 1)
As usual, this week’s episode of The 252 touches several bases, including the impact of COVID-19 on college and professional sports and the historic rise and fall of boxing’s popularity. But this week we were most excited to talk to our special guest, Jason Jennings of Mortenson Construction. In our History and Politics of Sports class, students are starting … More Wednesday’s Podcast: Building Sports Stadiums
Congratulations to the Bethel University Royals, winners of the 2019-2020 women’s basketball championship in the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference. We were there this afternoon at a packed Robertson Center, where Bethel eked out the victory over the Augsburg University Auggies, 72-70. Bethel gets the MIAC’s automatic bid to the NCAA Division III tournament. Since Chris … More Saturday’s Podcast: Live from a Basketball Championship Game!
On this month’s episode of The 252, our two main segments found Chris, Sam, and me discussing two vastly different topics from the world of sports: 1. Watching the NHL and NBA play around with the format of their all-star games got us thinking about the significance of rules changes in sports — and how they … More Wednesday’s Podcast: Rules Changes and Sports Entertainment
On this week’s special episode of The 252 (“Sports talk radio as done by academics”), Chris, Sam, and I talked about baseball’s cheating scandal and the Mennonite college graduate who’s making history at the Super Bowl. But mostly, this episode exists for the sake of a long interview we recorded with Greg Jennings, a two-time Pro Bowl … More Wednesday’s Podcast: Inside the Life of an NFL Player
I can’t seem to go more than a month without recording a podcast, but I can go a bit more than a year without recording my least consistent podcast series, Nothing Rhymes with Gehrz, in which Sam Mulberry and I jokingly continue our futile quest for words (in English) that rhyme with my last name. In … More Nothing Rhymes with Gehrz (Episode 5)
Today’s episode marks the end of our second season at The 252, “talk radio as done by academics.” So Chris, Sam, and I started by looking back at what we thought were the most memorable and most significant sports moments of 2019. Remarkably, we talked a lot about horse racing, golf, soccer, and basketball, but … More Wednesday’s Podcast: The Best Sports Moments of 2019
On Monday we officially announced our Summer 2020 Pietist Schoolman Travel tour: “Sports in American History” (June 28 – July 5). You can find more details (plus the application form) in the trip brochure. But since the three guides for that tour happen to be the three hosts of our sports history podcast, The 252, we thought it’d … More Wednesday’s Podcast: A Sports Fan’s Dream Trip
