It’s been a while since I’ve (a) posted here as opposed to Substack or (b) recorded a new podcast. So today I’m happy to announce the premiere of a three-episode run of The 252, the podcast about the history and politics of sports that I co-host with my Bethel colleagues Chris Moore and Sam Mulberry. … More Tuesday’s Podcast: The Political History of the World Cup
This first week of 2022 I previewed some upcoming Lindbergh events and reflected on whether Christians ought to treat biography as hagiography, hamartiography, or something else. Elsewhere: • Yesterday my university decided to shift most classes online for the remainder of our J-term. I’m fine with that in our situation, but there are good reasons to … More That Was The Week That Was
This week I published a book (thanks to a lot of work by a lot of other people), battled the impostor syndrome, and explained what I think the “applied humanities” are. Elsewhere: • I don’t know what to say about the stunning scenes in Afghanistan… The collapse of the Afghan army had deep roots, and, … More That Was The Week That Was
This week I shared the acknowledgments from my biography of Charles Lindbergh, answered five questions from my publisher, and reflected on the cooperative nature of Olympic competition. Elsewhere: • “We are being punished for our sins against the environment, against one another, and against God,” wrote Mark Schwehn, thinking of COVID in light of older ways of interpreting … More That Was The Week That Was
Next spring I’ll be teaching History and Politics of Sports for the second time. It’s hard to know how much change to make, given that the inaugural class was forced online halfway through semester by a global pandemic. But one difference is already evident: I’ll be leading the course by myself, since my friend and … More Thursday’s Podcast: The Politics of the Olympics
This week I surveyed the history of evangelical responses to capital punishment and reflected on joining historians, philosophers, and political scientists in a single department. Elsewhere: • With Independence Day approaching, Christianity Today ran several thoughtful essays suggesting how American Christians can think about this holiday, including John Wilsey reviewing a new book on patriotism and … More That Was The Week That Was
It’s been a few months since the last time we shared an episode of our sports podcast, The 252. So I was glad when Chris Moore stuck his head in my office earlier this week and asked if we could record a “micropod” about the latest iterations in the debate over sports, protest, and the … More Wednesday’s Podcast: The National Anthem
On the 2019-20 season finale of The 252, Chris Moore and I reflected on what we learned from our first time teaching History and Politics of Sports at Bethel. Then Sam Mulberry joined us to talk about how different professional and college sports are planning to resume play — or already have done so. We talked about everything … More Thursday’s Podcast: The Return of Sports (?)
Perhaps because we’re taking next week off, this week’s episode of The 252 is bursting at the seams with interesting conversation. • Chris Moore and I started by reporting on the results of a public policy simulation we just finished in our History and Politics of Sports class at Bethel: students played different roles in a fictional … More Thursday’s Podcast: Stadium Funding, the NCAA, and More
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
The Pietist Schoolman 