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
One of my favorite things about recording The 252 is that it gives me one more excuse to hang out for an hour with two of my closest friends on the Bethel University faculty: Chris Moore and Sam Mulberry. It’s all the better when another of our friends, philosopher Sara Shady, can join us as a special … More Thursday’s Podcast: Gender and Sports
This morning we recorded our first live episode of The 252: an interview with Steve Johnson, for 31 years the head football coach at his alma mater, Bethel University. Steve took time out of preparing for Saturday’s game at Concordia College in order to tell us about his childhood as a Cubs fan and pastor’s kid … More Thursday’s Podcast: The Ministry of a Football Coach
On today’s new episode of The 252, Chris Moore and I talked through some of the books and articles we’ll be assigning next spring in our History and Politics of Sports course at Bethel University. Our basic text will be Richard Davies’ Sports in American Life, but Chris also suggested adopting Victor Cha’s analysis of the politics of … More Wednesday’s Podcast: A Sports Reading List
I don’t normally record podcasts in back-to-back days. But this is no normal week. So we recorded an emergency podcast this afternoon. No, not about impeachment. (Here’s that emergency pod from my Political Science colleagues.) One about the Minnesota Twins clinching the American League’s Central Division! Here’s the thing… I’ve been alive for all but three of … More Thursday’s Podcast: What It Means to Be a Fan
Our second season of The 252 — “sports talk radio as done by academics” — is going to alternate every other week between two formats: our usual three-segment mix of sports news, history, and commentary; and long-form interviews with athletes, coaches, writers, and others who can help us understand the history and politics of sports. Today’s … More Wednesday’s Podcast: Red State Christians
Classes are up and running, so it felt like a good time to start podcasting again. This morning Chris Moore, Sam Mulberry, and I recorded the season 2 premiere for The 252, our podcast previewing themes from Chris and my new course on the history and politics of sports. Last spring we put out weekly podcasts. … More Wednesday’s Podcast: The Best Sports Years Ever
This week marks the end of the first season of The 252, the podcast on the history and politics of sports that I’ve been hosting with my Bethel colleagues Chris Moore and Sam Mulberry. In our opening segment, we talked about the etymology of badminton, the history of the NFL draft, and the results of our … More Wednesday’s Podcast: What Have We Learned?
Last week it was horse racing and Indy Car. This week we again invited two guests to The 252 to help us understand a sport that isn’t quite in our wheelhouse: ice hockey. Thanks to Bethel seniors Logan Olson (History/Political Science) and Andrew Zwart (History/Biokinetics) for talking about their years playing hockey and what appeals to … More Wednesday’s Podcast: The State of Hockey
To varying degrees, I’m a fan of the most prominent team sports in America: baseball, basketball, football, hockey, and soccer. But I’m less familiar with two other kinds of athletic competition that have deep histories, distinctive cultures, and significant fanbases: horse racing and auto racing. So this week on The 252, we asked Sam to tell … More Wednesday’s Podcast: Making the Case for Indy Car and Horse Racing
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