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
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
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
I considered a Twitter controversy about plants, the notion of “comfort colleges,” and the impact of the First World War on Native American identity. Elsewhere: • “America is at an awkward age,” began Elizabeth Stice’s thoughtful essay on history and heritage. “We are old enough to be embarrassed by our parents, but not mature enough … More That Was The Week That Was
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 The 252 welcomes sports historian Paul Putz of Messiah College. We asked Paul about the history of “Sportianity” — Frank Deford’s term for the fusion of sports with evangelical piety, plus the role of faith in recent protests by African American NFL players, Paul’s experience teaching undergraduate courses like the one our podcast previews, and … More Wednesday’s Podcast: Sportianity
It’s March, and that means it’s time for The 252 to devote most of an episode to college basketball! With the help of guest philosopher/Indiana booster Sara Shady, we nominated eight players and coaches for a college hoops Mount Rushmore. You can vote for your four favorites in the poll below. Before we wrapped up that segment, … More Wednesday’s Podcast: College Basketball
So you’ve been in London teaching the history of World War I for a week and are getting ready to head to the former Western Front and have some down time while you catch up on laundry. What do you do? Record a podcast on a pair of iPhones, of course! Yes, Sam Mulberry and … More Live from London: Nothing Rhymes with Gehrz
It’s all Olympics, all the time this week at The Pietist Schoolman! In case you want to bone up before Rio 2016 gets going in earnest, I thought I’d update my 2012 response to this question: Which countries (and continents) are most dominant in each summer Olympic sport? (And yes, there’s a winter version.) I’ve … More Which Country (and Continent) Dominates Each Olympic Sport? (Updated)
Here… • Fortunately, blog readership plummets during Easter weekend, but in case you want to revisit them, I did post reflections on the vigil of Holy Saturday and the “resurrection sunset” of Easter evening. • Lesson learned: any supposed list of “indispensable Christian academic Twitter users” is itself quite dispensable. (Though you could do worse than to follow these seven.) … More That Was The Week That Was
